MOTHER
CABRINI
Luke, Chapter 18, Verse 1-8
1
Then he told them a parable about the necessity for
them to pray always without becoming weary. He said, 2
“There
was a judge in a certain town who neither FEARED
God nor respected any human being. 3 And a widow in that town used to
come to him and say, ‘Render a just decision for me against my adversary.’ 4 For a long time the judge was
unwilling, but eventually he thought, ‘While it is true that I neither fear God nor respect any human being, 5 because
this widow keeps bothering me I shall deliver a just decision for her lest she
finally come and strike me.’” 6 The Lord said, “Pay attention to
what the dishonest judge says. 7 Will not God then secure the rights
of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer
them? 8 I tell you, he will see to it that
justice is done for them speedily. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find
faith on earth?”
Will
the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes? We must remain faithful to
the gospel of Christ and stand with the Holy Catholic Church. We must continue
to ask Him to come to our assistance against the Philistines of our age. We
must not fail to call out to Him night and day to save us from the wicked and
to pray for their conversion and for the souls of the Martyrs of freedom that
they have made. Our enemy is not men but the devil and those are in his
control. We must never become to weary or afraid to take the gospel to those
places that are most devoid of faith, hope and love.
“Only those that see the invisible
can do the impossible.” Tyrese
Mother
Cabrini, the Saint of Italians in America[1]
Frances
Xavier Cabrini, born in the province of Lodi in Lombardy, eventually came to
the United States toward the end of the nineteenth century. It was due to total
serendipity that she became the saint for Italian immigrants in this country.
It is also a sweet paradox that she, from the north, arrived during the great
wave of southern Italian emigration to the United States. Having taken her vows
in 1877, three years later she and six other nuns founded the religious institute
Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. As we read earlier, wanting to
provide help to immigrants beginning in the U.S., Pope Leo XIII suggested
instead that she go west, where, according to him, the already thousands of
Italian immigrants in the U.S. were in great need of assistance. Mother Cabrini
and six others arrived in the United States in 1889 and hit the ground running,
so to speak. As they did in Italy, here, too, Mother Cabrini and her team
founded the requisite housing, a series of schools and orphanages, and the
necessary hospitals that chiefly served the Italian immigrant communities.
Actions supported by the Church, for sure, but actions also emblematic of what
Italians can do in order to help other Italians in need.
In
all, they founded close to 70 institutions of all types in numerous cities
throughout the United States — Chicago and New York the two principal cities
associated with Mother Cabrini today, as well as Cabrini College in
Pennsylvania. Undoubtedly, Mother Cabrini was an exemplar of all things
possible and thus a symbol of hope for all. She herself had crossed the ocean
in 1889 and, in so doing, had followed the same route that thousands of other
immigrants had and were taking. Privileged as she was in her role as nun — and
let us underscore at this juncture her gender — she was a woman of great
acumen, having succeeded in overcoming great obstacles of the time and
demonstrating how all things were possible. In this sense, then, she was also
an example of how one can get things done and, more important, how we can still
today — and let us say should — open doors for all people who are in need of
such assistance.
Her
legacy clearly lives on both within and beyond the Italian/ American community.
Italian Americans continue to serve and donate to many Catholic and social
institutions today, at times even beyond. If there is one thing to bemoan, it
is that her medical institutions of New York — Columbus Hospital and the
Italian Hospital, which eventually became the Cabrini Medical Center — could
not be sustained and consequently closed in 2008. Nonetheless, Mother Cabrini
remains that shining light not only for all those whom she helped, but to be
sure, that exemplar par excellence that we, today, should emulate for the dedication
so necessary to get things done for the better good.
Things
to Do:[2]
·
If you live in or pass through Colorado, visit the
western Mother
Cabrini Shrine.
·
Read more about St.
Francis Cabrini.
·
Prepare an Italian dinner in honor of St. Francis
Cabrini. For dessert make a ship cake (symbolizing her missionary work), a
heart cake (she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart) or a Book
Cake (symbolizing her founding a religious order).
·
Say the Little Rosary of St. Francis Xavier Cabrini.
·
Read the Encyclical, On Consecrated Virginity, by Pius XII and if you are single consider the
possibility of a vocation to this life.
·
Read the Pope Benedict XVI's Address for World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 2007.
·
If you know someone who has immigrated to this
country, try to help them feel welcome, perhaps by inviting them over for the
Italian dinner.
Purgatory is Temporary[3]
Purgatory is not eternal. Its duration varies according to
the sentence pronounced at each particular judgment. It may be prolonged for
centuries in the case of the guiltier souls, or of those who, being excluded
from the Catholic communion, are deprived of the suffrages of the Church,
although by the divine mercy they have escaped hell. But the end of the world,
which will be also the end of time, will close forever the place of temporary
expiation. God will know how to reconcile His justice and His goodness in the
purification of the last members of the human race, and to supply by the
intensity of the expiatory suffering what may be wanting in duration. But,
whereas a favorable sentence at the particular judgment admits of eternal
beatitude being suspended and postponed and leaves the bodies of the elect to
the same fate as those of the reprobate; at the universal judgment, every
sentence, whether for heaven or for hell, will be absolute, and will be
executed immediately and completely.
Let us, then, live in expectation of the solemn hour, when
"the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God." He that is to come
will come, and will not delay, as the Doctor of the Gentiles reminds us; His
arrival will be sudden, as that of a thief, we are told, not only by St. Paul,
but also by the prince of the apostles and the beloved disciple; and these in
turn are but echoing the words of our Lord Himself: "As lightning cometh out
of the east and appears even unto the west: so shall also the coming of the Son
of Man be."
Things to Do
·
Say a prayer for the Poor Souls; for instance,
recite the Little Litany of the Holy Souls.
·
Offer up some small sacrifice for the relief of
the most abandoned soul. "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to
pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins" (Mc. 12:46).
Daily Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Today's Fast: Victims
of clergy sexual abuse
· Saturday Litany of the Hours
Invoking the Aid of Mother Mary
·
Offering to the
sacred heart of Jesus
·
Rosary
Comments
Post a Comment