Tuesday, December 31, 2013

A Few Brief Thoughts for Christmastime


The Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity reminds us in its suggested homily about the connection between the vocation of virginity and the wonder of the Incarnation:

“…When the fullness of time had come, the almighty Father showed, in the mystery of the incarnation, his love for this great virtue [of virginity]. In the chaste womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word was made flesh, in a marriage covenant uniting two natures, human and divine.”

With each passing year, I’m coming to understand more and more how we consecrated virgins should savor the Christmas season as an especially spiritually nourishing time for us. The brief but beautiful Christmas season, from the Octave of Christmas through the feast of the Epiphany, gives us the time and liturgical “space” to envelope ourselves in the great truth of God’s spousal love for His people.

During this time, I think it’s good for us to reflect on how consecrated virginity, although it may seem fruitless in the eyes of the world (or even to our own eyes in some of our more difficult moments), is truly meant to be a state wherein we are specially blessed to encounter God in a privileged way, so that in us He can show forth His love and presence to the world that longs for Him. The coming New Year gives us a chance to resolve to embrace and live out the indescribable mystery of this love ever more fully.


My warmest Christmas greetings to all my sisters in Christ around the world!

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Feast of the Dedication of St. John Lateran

St. John Lateran…pray for us?
Today, November 9, is the feast of the dedication of the basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome. According to the breviary, the Church building was originally established by the emperor Constantine (though naturally there have been many additions and changes to the original structure over the course of the ages), and the memorial of its dedication has been celebrated on this date since the twelfth century.

St. Peter’s is the only major basilica which is within the boundaries of the Vatican City State, and so is naturally the one most closely associated with the Holy Father in the popular Catholic imagination. However, it is the basilica of St. John Lateran which is actually home to the Pope’s cathedra, or seat of Office. Since St. John Lateran is home to the cathedra of the bishop of Rome, it is therefore the cathedral Church of the diocese of Rome, and thus the Pope’s true cathedral.

But as we all know, while the Pope is indeed the bishop of Rome, he is not merely the diocesan bishop of a local Church, but also the head of the Church throughout the whole world. Likewise, St. John Lateran is not simply an ordinary diocesan cathedral on the same level as, say, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York—it is rather the “mother Church of Christendom.”

This is why the feast of the dedication of St. John Lateran is a feast for the Universal Church, and not just for one diocese (as would be the case for the anniversary of a normal diocesan cathedral’s dedication) or for one parish (as would be the case for an ordinary Church).

Back when I first became “liturgically aware” in a more serious adult way, I was often puzzled why the dedication of Churches would be commemorated with as much celebration as the feast days of saints. It seemed odd to me that an inanimate object like a building (let alone a chair, as in the Chair of Peter…) should have its own place on our calendar. How could mere bricks and mortar possibly compare with the glorious living witness of the saints and martyrs?

Yet as I got older I realized that in our sacramental, incarnational faith, a Church building isn’t just about the architecture. As is evident in the prayers we use to dedicate it, and in the liturgy and scripture we use to commemorate the anniversary of its dedication, a Church structure is meant to point beyond itself towards the greater mystery of the Church. A physical Church building is “a house of prayer for all peoples” (Isaiah 56:7) which foreshadows the holy city of the new and heavenly Jerusalem.

The feasts of the dedication of Churches also became especially meaningful to me once I began to approach my own consecration as a virgin.  I started to notice the ways in which the rite for the dedication of Churches shared striking liturgical and theological parallels with the Rite of Consecrationto a Life of Virginity.

In both these sacred rituals, the bishop as Christ’s representative sets apart and consecrates something (that is, either a building or a person) exclusively for God’s purposes. In being consecrated, both Churches and virgins become “sacred spaces,” and signs of God’s presence to the whole world.

Like Church buildings, we consecrated virgins are called to be houses of prayer, a praise of the Lord, places of sacrifice though out continual and total gift of self, a “home” for God’s people, and a dwelling place for Christ.

What’s more, in some places, even the actual words of the two rituals can be seen to mirror each other quite closely. For example, in the central consecratory prayer for Churches, the bishop prays:

The Church is fruitful,
made holy by the blood of Christ:
a bride made radiant with his glory,
a virgin splendid in the wholeness of her faith,
a mother blessed through the power of the Spirit.

After Mass in the basilica for today’s feast!
This strongly calls to mind the exhortation given to the candidates in the bishop’s suggested homily in the Rite of Consecration to a Life of Virginity, wherein the virgins-to-be-consecrated are shown that they, like the Church herself, are called by Christ to be: 

“… a virgin, a bride, and a mother: a virgin, to keep the faith whole and entire; a bride, to be one with him forever; and a mother, to raise up the family of the Church.”

These prayers, which point to the mystery of the Church—first of all as the bride of Christ, as well as the holy city and the people of God—remind me of the way that we as consecrated virgins are also called to be incarnations this same mystery. 

Sunday, September 8, 2013

For Our Lady’s Birthday…

Our Lady of Brezje (or Mary, Help of Christians)
Sorry, everyone, for the long silence! The past several months have been very full and busy. Besides my schoolwork—which takes up more time and energy than I would have expected—I’ve had lots of other demands in my personal life.

I’m afraid that blogging in general is still going to have to be fairly light for at least the next year or so. I did consider taking the blog offline for a while, but in the meantime I received several emails from different people who found it helpful. So even if there won’t be much regular new content here, I will be keeping this blog accessible to the public for the time being.

Although I’m not able to write about it as much as I would like, along with all the challenges, my life in Rome has been filled with a number of beautiful experiences—not only in once-in-a-lifetime historical events like Papal transitions, but also in a number of smaller, more personal “adventures.”

Once such adventure that I will share, in honor of today’s feast of Our Lady’s Nativity (or the feast today would have been if it wasn’t a Sunday…) is the quick little pilgrimage I made during Easter week to the shrine of Our Lady of Brezje, in Slovenia. The shrine is a national basilica which houses an image of Our Lady, Help of Christians.

According to a Slovene friend of mine, the image was painted by an artist who was sentenced to death for forgery during the Napoleonic period. Desperate, he promised Our Lady that, if she found a way to rescue him from his fate, he would paint an image in her honor. Of course, the artist survived, and painted the image! Later, many people would report miracles and favors granted through Our Lady’s intercession after praying at the shrine in Brezje.

This is me in front of the basilica.
 If you go to the shrine, the image itself is housed in a sort of side chapel, in a magnificent (and huge!) gilded frame. In a small alcove behind the image, the walls are completely covered in testimonies to prayers answered through the intercession of Our Lady of Brezje. There are countless letters, some photographs, but also some more interesting, concrete offerings, such as hand-made pieces of lace or other traditional crafts. For me, one  of the most touching votive offerings was a full braid of human hair from a young girl, offered in thanksgiving for her father’s safe return from a war—presumably, being poor, this girl offered Our Lady the most beautiful thing she owned.  

To my great joy, after praying about a very special, sensitive personal intention at this shrine, I had my own petition answered in a quite remarkable way. As my own sort of “votive offering,” I decided to do something here to promote devote to Our Lady under this specific title.


And so, on this lovely feast…

Our Lady of Brezje, Help of Christians, pray for us!


Monday, January 21, 2013

Feast of St. Agnes, 2013


In honor of the feast of St. Agnes, here is a section from a speech the Holy Father gave to the seminarians of Rome last year. Especially in this Year of Faith, I like how the Pope connects St. Agnes’ double vocation to virginity and martyrdom with the proclamation of the Gospel.

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St. Agnes is one of the famous Roman maidens, who illustrated the genuine beauty of faith in Christ and friendship with Him. Her dual status as Virgin and Martyr reflect the fullness of holiness’ dimensions. This is a fullness of holiness that is requested also of you by your Christian faith and the special priestly vocation with which the Lord has called you and binds you to Him.

Martyrdom, for St Agnes, meant the generous and free acceptance of giving her own young life, in its entirety and without reservation, that the Gospel might be preached as truth and beauty that illuminate life. In the martyrdom of Agnes, received courageously in the stadium of Domitian, there shines forever the beauty of belonging to Christ without hesitation, relying on Him. Even today, for anyone who steps into Piazza Navona, the effigy of the saint from atop the gable of the church of St. Agnes in Agony, reminds him that our city is based also on the friendship with Christ and witness to his Gospel, of many of its sons and daughters. Their generous surrender to Him and to the good of their brothers is a primary component of the spiritual physiognomy of Rome.

In martyrdom, Agnes also seals the other crucial element of her life, virginity for Christ and for the Church. The total gift of martyrdom is prepared, in fact, by the conscious, free and mature choice of virginity, a witness to the will to belong totally to Christ. If martyrdom is a final heroic act, virginity is the result of a long friendship with Jesus that has matured in the constant hearing of His Word, in the dialogue of prayer, in the Eucharistic encounter. Agnes, still young, learned that being a disciple of the Lord means loving Him by putting all her life at His disposal. This dual qualification—Virgin and Martyr—calls to mind in our reflection that a credible witness of the faith must be a person who lives for Christ, with Christ and in Christ, transforming their lives according to the higher needs of Grace.

***

Bonus: a video of the Pope blessing the traditional St. Anges Day lambs this year!

…Because who doesn’t love seeing the Holy Father bless and pet the adorable, flower-decked baby lambs!

Yes, the video is all in Italian (welcome to my world!), but it’s still fun to watch even if you can’t quite catch everything that’s said.



Traditionally, the Pope blesses two lambs at the basilica of St. Agnes Outside the Walls. Later, these lambs will be shorn, and their wool will be used to make the pallia that new metropolitan archbishops receive from the Holy Father on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

I personally love this custom because I think it’s symbolic of the way consecrated virgins are called to support spiritually the ministry of bishops, through our life of prayer and total dedication to Christ.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

“On the Third Day, There Was a Wedding…”


For the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, here is one of my favorite passages in the Office of Readings. (Emphases, in bold, are mine)

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Office of Readings, second reading, Saturday before the Baptism of the Lord

The marriage of Christ and the Church - A sermon by Faustus of Riez

On the third day there was a wedding. What wedding can this be but the joyful marriage of man’s salvation, a marriage celebrated by confessing the Trinity or by faith in the resurrection? That is why the marriage took place “on the third day,” a reference to the sacred mysteries which this number symbolizes.

Hence, too, we read elsewhere in the Gospel that the return of the younger son, that is, the conversion of the pagans, is marked by song, and music and wedding garments.

Like a bridegroom coming from his marriage chamber our God descended to earth in his Incarnation, in order to be united to his Church which was to be formed of the pagan nations. To her he gave a pledge and a dowry: a pledge when God was united to man; a dowry when he was sacrificed for man’s salvation. The pledge is our present redemption; the dowry, eternal life.

To those who see only with the outward eye, all these events at Cana are strange and wonderful; to those who understand, they are also signs. For, if we look closely, the very water tells us of our rebirth in baptism. One thing is turned into another from within, and in a hidden way a lesser creature is changed into a greater. All this points to the hidden reality of our second birth. There water was suddenly changed; later it will cause a change in man.

By Christ’s action in Galilee, then, wine is made, that is, the law withdraws and grace takes its place; the shadows fade and truth becomes present; fleshly realities are coupled with spiritual, and the old covenant with its outward discipline is transformed into the new. For, as the Apostle says: The old order has passed away; now all is new! The water in the jars is not less than it was before, but now begins to be what it had not been; so too the law is not destroyed by Christ’s coming, but is made better than it was.

When the wine fails, new wine is served: the wine of the old covenant was good but the wine of the new is better. The old covenant, which Jews follow, is exhausted by its letter; the new covenant, which belongs to us, has the savor of life and is filled with grace.

The good wine, that is, good precepts, refers to the law; thus we read: You shall love your neighbor but hate your enemy. But the Gospel is a better and a stronger wine: My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors.