This was friar Bob's sermon for the Feast of the Assumption:

A confrère – a Franciscan friar who spent some years as a missionary in the Central American country of Honduras – was visiting his parish in the mountains of Comayagüela. He would ride his donkey from village to village and visit parishioners in their homes. Arriving at the home of a very poor family, he complimented the mother on the beauty of the house altar – like in most Spanish speaking households, this family had an altar set up against one wall as a focus of devotion. The woman had on display three beautiful pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary: Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Fatima.
 
With joy in her voice, she pointed to each picture and said, “This is the virgin I pray to when someone in the family is sick, this is the virgin I pray to for strength in our daily work at home and in the fields, this is the virgin I pray to for the happiness and success of my children.” In his wishful thinking, the priest asked her, “You are aware, are you not, that there is only one Blessed Virgin Mary and all these pictures are of the same woman.” “Oh no, Father”, the woman replied, “there are many Blessed Virgin Mary’s and they’re all cousins!”
 
The priest knew better than to argue with a woman whose faith was stronger and more lively than his or that of any priest. It does remind me, however, that since the early days of the Church, our theological tradition has spoken of two Mary’s.

One the one hand, we have the earthly Mary, the Mary of the Gospel (cf. today’s Gospel, Luke 1:39-56), the historical Mary – the young woman who said YES to the Holy Spirit, who became the mother of our Savior, who loved him, nurtured him, raised him, taught him, until she let him go to do the work of his heavenly Father. And yet she followed him still, through his life and teachings, through his miracles, through his crucifixion, through his resurrection, until she became the woman around whom the Apostles gathered – causing St. Francis of Assisi to call her “the woman who became the Church.” (Salutation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, vs. 1)
 
Most of the big Marian Feasts of the Catholic calendar commemorate the earthly, historical Mary of the Gospels: the Immaculate Conception, the Nativity of Mary, the Annunciation, the Visitation.
 
On the other hand, there is the cosmic Mary, the heavenly Mary, the Mary of the Book of Revelation (cf. today’s first reading, Rev. 11:19a; 12:1-6a,10ab). This is the Mary who is Queen of Heaven, Queen of the Angels, the Mary who intercedes for us – now and at the hour of our death. Today’s feast – the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Body and Soul into Heaven – celebrates her passage from the earthly Mary to the Cosmic Mary.

This puzzle of two Mary’s is important because it mirrors the broader puzzle of our two-fold Christian calling: we are called to be IN the world but not OF the world. (John 17:14-16) How do we do that? What does that mean?
 
On the one hand, we are called by God truly to be in this world, to be part of it, to take it seriously. In the beginning, God placed humanity in the earthly garden and made us its stewards, to nurture and protect it in His name. (Gen. 2:8) We are called to build up a human society in this world that is just and good and holy, reflecting the goodness of our maker. “Be fruitful and multiply,” God said. (Gen. 1:28) We are called upon to raise families, to love our spouses and children and ancestors, to let our families be the foundation of civilization and of the domestic Church. (Cf. Vat II, Decree on the Apostolate of Lay People, chap. 3, par. 11: The Family)
 
But at the same time, we are called upon to remember that all of this passes away, none of it is as important as Heaven. “Our true citizenship is only in Heaven.” (Phil. 3:20) We must remember that only when we see God face to face will we know who we really are. Only in heaven will you become the human being you were always meant to be.
 
How do we do both at the same time?

God gave us Mary as a prism shining light and color on the conundrum. We see it partly in Mary’s words to the archangel Gabriel: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done unto me according to God’s will”. (Luke 1:38) The first step of our enlightenment – the first step of our passing from our own earthly selves to our cosmic selves – is to discern, accept, do and rejoice in the will of God. When Mary visited Elizabeth, she said, “My soul rejoices in God my savior.” (Luke 1:46-47) Being happy, finding true joy in the Lord, is another important step along the way. Mary said, “the Lord has looked upon me in my lowliness.” (Luke 1:48) Recognizing our own limitations, weaknesses and sinfulness with honest humility is another important step. “From this day every generation will call me blessed – the Lord has done great things for me!” (Luke 1:48-49) Even in our humility, we are called upon to recognize the great gifts God has given us and to rejoice in them, and to use them for others.
 
Mary’s greatest example, however – and I say this with trepidation because I know that I shall never experience this first hand – is the example she gave as a mother. The job of every parent is to pour your heart and soul and strength, your life’s blood, your joy, your tears, your hopes, your fears, your dreams, your being, into your children – just to let them go in the end, to say goodbye as they move out into the world. Mary did that with Jesus.
 
And Mary did that with her own life. The passage from the earthly Mary to the cosmic Mary was made possible by Mary’s willingness to let go. “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1:45)
 
Fulfillment of our calling means to be like the Virgin Mary. St. Francis of Assisi said, “We become the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ when we carry Him in our heart and body through a divine love and a pure and sincere conscience, we give birth to Jesus through a holy activity which must shine as an example before others.” (Earlier Exhortation to the Brothers and Sisters of Penance, chap. 1)
 
You move from your earthly you to your cosmic you – that is, you fulfill the commandment of Jesus to be in the world but not of it – by accepting the will of God, living in true humility and true greatness, filled with the joy of the Gospel, and then by letting this go in the power of the Holy Spirit. You become the Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. You become the Church. Be the Church!

On the 5th Sunday of Lent - March 18, 2018 - the Parish of St. Anthony of Padua held a "Whole Parish / Whole Family Workshop & Retreat Day in Preparation for Easter". The inspiration was taken from the challenge given by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for the parishes to celebrate multi-generational catechism days "that make Easter and Christmas come alive".

Professor Kate Mahon from the University of Notre Dame's Liturgical Theology Department came and helped us along the way. Prof. Mahon provided theological guidance as well as holding a talk for the whole parish and workshops for small groups.

The theme of the day was the liturgies of Holy Week and Easter. The different groups of liturgical ministers - from extraordinary communion ministers to ushers and greeters - held different workshops to prepare themselves to help at the many liturgies of Holy Week and Easter. Other workshops dealt with different aspects of Catholic life in the contemporary world.

A special part of the day was the children's program, organized by Cathy Bryan and our catechists. There were also workshops in Spanish, and different workshops for youth and young adults.

After the workshops, we watched the animated movie "Prince of Egypt." The day ended with a celebration of the Solemn Vespers of the Fifth Sunday of Advent.

Fr. Bob and the parish staff thank everyone who made the day a wonderful experience, "making Easter come alive for the whole family".

Lent has begun - the time of enlightenment and purification for those preparing to enter the Church.

On the First Sunday in Lent, February 18, 2018, our three RCIA candidates travelled to the Cathedral of Fort Wayne to be received by the bishop, Kevin Rhoades. Our candidates for the sacraments of confirmation and Eucharist are Brenda Lehman, John Lehman and Christopher Harrington. They are seen here with their sponsors Frank Swenson, Rose Nelson and Laura Harrington, as well as our RCIA coordinator Jan Swenson.

The ritual is called the Rite of Election, because through this ceremony the bishop expresses his approval of the sacraments we will celebrate in the local parish. It is also called the Rite of Enrollment, because the candidates' names are entered into a record book. The ritual is part of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) by which adults are received into the Roman Catholic Church.

Over 125 candidates for reception from more than 20 parishes gathered at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for the ceremony, which was also attended by many sponsors, catechists, clergy and other faithful. The same ceremony is repeated in South Bend, because the cathedral cannot accomodate all at once the many hundreds of adults who become Catholic each year in our diocese. (Here is the article in Today's Catholic)

Chris, John and Brenda will be received into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil on the night between March 31 and April 1, 2018. The Easter Vigil is the most important Mass of the year. The candidates (who are already baptized) are received through the reception of the holy sacraments of confirmation and the Eucharist. Please keep them in your prayers.

Photographer: Ani Romero

This year, as he does every year, Pope Francis presided at a Solemn Mass at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Thousands of Latin American faithful participated.

In his homily, the Pontiff asked Latin America to defend "our peoples from an ideological colonization that cancels out their richness, be they indigenous peoples, African-Americans, mestizos, peasants, or slum dwellers."

The Pope said:

Today's Gospel is the preface to two great Biblical canticles: the Canticle of Mary, called the "Magnificat", and the Canticle of Zechariah, the "Benedictus", which I like to call "the Canticle of Elizabeth" or "the Song of Fertility".

Elizabeth is the sterile woman, with all that this implied for the religious mentality of her time, which considered sterility as a divine punishment due to one's own sin or that of the husband - a sign of shame in her own flesh, making her feel guilty of a sin she did not commit, making her feel worthless because he did not live up to what was expected of her. And in this context the song of Elizabeth breaks forth in the form of a question: "Who am I, that the mother of my Lord comes to visit me?."

Here we can glimpse the parallel with the poor Indian Juan Diego when he tells Mary: "I really am not worth anything, I'm just a Mecapal, I'm a Cacaxtle, beaten and broken, who must bow down before the foreign conquerors. It is not my place nor my right to go to the high places you would send me."

Here, too, we see the parallels in our own society:

• In the indigenous peoples and the African-Americans who very often are not treated with dignity or granted equality.
  
• In many women, who are excluded because of their gender, race or socio-economic position.
• In those youth who receive an education of inferior quality and are denied the opportunity to progress in their studies or to enter the workplace so they can develop and start a family.
• In the many poor, the unemployed, the migrants, immigrants, refugees, peasants without land, struggling to survive in an "alternate economy".
  
• In boys and girls, beaten and broken, forced into child prostitution or exploited by sex tourism.

And yet, alongside this "Elizabeth the sterile one", we contemplate "Elizabeth overshadowed by fertility". She was the first to recognize and bless Mary. It is she who in her old age experienced in her own life, in her very flesh, the fulfillment of the promise made by God.

In Elizabeth, we realize that the dream of God is not - and never will be - to sterilize or stigmatize or fill with shame His children, but rather to nurture in them and let break forth from them a song of blessing.

In the same way we realize it in Juan Diego. It was precisely he, and no other, who carries in his tilma the image of the Virgin: the Virgin with brown skin and mestizo face, supported by an angel with the wings of the eagle, the pelican and the macaw - the sacred birds of the Aztec; the mother able to take upon herself the traits of her children to make them feel part of her blessing.

Dear sisters brothers, in the midst of this dialectic of fertility and sterility, let us behold the richness and cultural diversity of our peoples in Latin America. This cultural diversity is a great treasure that we are called upon not only to cultivate but courageously to defend against any and every attempt at homogenization that ends up imposing - under catchy slogans - one single way of thinking, one single of being, of feeling, of living - a globalization that ends up crippling and sterilizing everything we inherited from our elders; that ends up making us - especially our young people - feel small and worhless because we belong to this or that minority culture.

In short, our fertility requires us to defend our peoples from an ideological colonization that cancels out their richness, be they indigenous peoples, African-Americans, mestizos, peasants, or slum dwellers.

Como cada año, el Papa Francisco presidió hoy una solemne Misa en la Basílica de San Pedro en Roma con motivo de la festividad de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, en la que participaron miles de fieles latinoamericanos.

En su homilía, el Pontífice pidió a América Latina defender “a nuestros pueblos de una colonización ideológica que cancela lo más rico de ellos, sean indígenas, afroamericanos, mestizos, campesinos, o suburbanos”.

El Papa dijo:

El Evangelio que acaba de ser proclamado es el prefacio de dos grandes cánticos: el cántico de María conocido como el «Magníficat» y el cántico de Zacarías, el «Benedictus», y me gusta llamarlo «el cántico de Isabel» o «el cántico de la fecundidad».

Isabel la mujer estéril, con todo lo que esto implicaba para la mentalidad religiosa de su época, que consideraba la esterilidad como un castigo divino fruto del propio pecado o el del esposo. Un signo de vergüenza llevado en la propia carne o por considerarse culpable de un pecado que no cometió o por sentirse poca cosa al no estar a la altura de lo que se esperaba de ella. Y en este contexto brota el canto de Isabel en forma de pregunta: «¿Quién soy yo para que la madre de mi Señor venga a visitarme?».

Así podemos vislumbrarlo en el indiecito Juan Diego cuando le dice a María, «yo en verdad no valgo nada, soy mecapal, soy cacaxtle, soy cola, soy ala, sometido a hombros y a cargo ajeno, no es mi paradero ni mi paso allá donde te dignas enviarme».

Así también este sentimiento puede estar en nuestras comunidades:

• indígenas y afroamericanas, que, en muchas ocasiones, no son tratadas con dignidad e igualdad de condiciones;
• en muchas mujeres, que son excluidas en razón de su sexo, raza o situación socioeconómica;
• jóvenes, que reciben una educación de baja calidad y no tienen oportunidades de progresar en sus estudios ni de entrar en el mercado del trabajo para desarrollarse y constituir una familia;
• muchos pobres, desempleados, migrantes, desplazados, campesinos sin tierra, quienes buscan sobrevivir en la economía informal;
• niños y niñas sometidos a la prostitución infantil, ligada muchas veces al turismo sexual.
  

Y junto a Isabel, la mujer estéril, contemplamos a Isabel la mujer fecunda-asombrada.

Es ella la primera en reconocer y bendecir a María. Es ella la que en la vejez experimentó en su propia vida, en su carne, el cumplimiento de la promesa hecha por Dios.

En ella, entendemos que el sueño de Dios no es ni será la esterilidad ni estigmatizar o llenar de vergüenza a sus hijos, sino hacer brotar en ellos y de ellos un canto de bendición.

De igual manera lo vemos en Juan Diego. Fue precisamente él, y no otro, quien lleva en su tilma la imagen de la Virgen: la Virgen de piel morena y rostro mestizo, sostenida por un ángel con alas de quetzal, pelícano y guacamayo; la madre capaz de tomar los rasgos de sus hijos para hacerlos sentir parte de su bendición.

Queridos hermanos, en medio de esta dialéctica de fecundidad–esterilidad miremos la riqueza y la diversidad cultural de nuestros pueblos de América Latina. Ella es signo de la gran riqueza que somos invitados no sólo a cultivar sino a defender valientemente de todo intento homogeneizador que termina imponiendo — bajo slogans atrayentes — una única manera de pensar, de ser, de sentir, de vivir, que termina haciendo inválido o estéril todo lo heredado de nuestros mayores; que termina haciendo sentir, especialmente a nuestros jóvenes, poca cosa por pertenecer a tal o cual cultura. En definitiva, nuestra fecundidad nos exige defender a nuestros pueblos de una colonización ideológica que cancela lo más rico de ellos, sean indígenas, afroamericanos, mestizos, campesinos, o suburbanos.

La Madre de Dios es figura de la Iglesia y de ella queremos aprender a ser Iglesia con rostro mestizo, con rostro indígena, rostro afroamericano, rostro campesino, rostro cola, ala, cacaxtle. Rostro pobre, de desempleado, de niño y niña, anciano y joven para que nadie se sienta estéril ni infecundo, para que nadie se sienta avergonzado o poca cosa. Sino, al contrario, para que cada uno al igual que Isabel y Juan Diego pueda sentirse portador de una promesa, de una esperanza y pueda decir desde sus entrañas: «¡Abba!, ¡Padre!» desde el misterio de esa filiación que, sin cancelar los rasgos de cada uno, nos universaliza constituyéndonos pueblo.

¡María, María! Bendita eres entre todas las mujeres y bendito es el fruto de tu vientre, Jesús.

p. Roberto María Showers Arreazola OFM Conv.
12 de dec. 2017

Me perdonas: Haz ofendido a alguien con tu actitud o con tus acciones? Le has pedido perdón? Quisieras pedirle perdón nuevamente o por primera vez a él o ella? Te comprometes a cambiar esa actitud o manera de ser que no te deja crecer como persona?

Te perdono: Te han pedido perdón? Cuál fue tu reacción? Perdonaste de verdad? Quieres perdonarlo de verdad? Estas dispuesto a decirle a él o ella que los perdonaste de corazón?
Padres, éstas tres maneras de trabajar el perdón, pueden ayudarnos a crear fuertes lazos de amistad en la comunidad y amor en la familia. Recuerden que el perdón no solamente se enseña sino que también se practica, y que mejor que desde el hogar.

Lo interesante del perdón es que es setenta veces siete, es decir: SIEMPRE; no siete veces como supuso Pedro o tres como creían los judíos. Todavía estamos a tiempo, comencemos ya!

William y Andrea

Texto original:
http://portumatrimonio.blogspot.com/2016/07/me-perdono-me-perdonas-y-te-perdono.html
Para mas informacio, visite: Iglesias Domesticas  
Publicado por @williamyandrea

On the weekend of August 26-27, St. Paul’s Chapel and St. Anthony’s parish will receive a visit by Sister Barbara Kelley O.P. and Sister Maureen McGrath O.P., two Adrian Dominicans. This leads me to two questions: Who was St. Dominic, and who are the Adrian Dominicans?

St. Dominic

Dominic Guzmán was a Castilian (Spanish) priest of the 13th century. In Spanish, he is called Santo Domingo. In 1203, he was sent by the king of Castile on a diplomatic mission to Denmark, where he was to help find a Danish Princess for the Castilian Prince.

On the way, Dominic passed through France and Germany, and he realized that in all of Europe – from north to south, east to west – Catholics were ignorant of the real teachings of the Church. He dedicated his life to this new mission, to teach Catholics about Catholicism. Simply going out and scolding the people did not help. Dominic understood that this mission would take preparation as well as inspiration.

He became convinced that a new religious order was needed, one that would combine simplicity and poverty with systematic education and quality preaching, an order that was more mobile than the monks in a monastery, but more monastic than diocesan priests. On 1216, Pope Honorius III approved the new Order of Preachers (O.P.), commonly called the Dominicans. The Order of Preachers includes a branch of women, the Dominican Sisters (also called the Sisterhood of Preachers).

Honorius III was the same pope who approved the order of St. Francis of Assisi, the Order of Friars Minor, popularly called the Franciscans. Francis and Dominic inpired each other, and their friars learned from one another. Four new orders - the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the Augustinians and the Carmelites - together formed a new movement in the Catholic Church called the mendicant orders or the orders of friars.

All the way to Michigan

In 1859, a group of Dominican sisters came from Regensburg in Germany to New York. The sisters continued to follow the Catholic people westward, and in 1896, they established a new province of the Dominican Order in Adrian, Michigan. The sisters of this province are often called “the Adrian Dominicans”.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters build their life on the four pillars of the Dominican Order:

• prayer
• study
• community and
• ministry.

From Florida to Nevada and all over the Midwest, they have established schools, universities and many other ministries, continuing an 800 year old tradition of building up the Church by communicating its true teaching and proclaiming the joy of the Gospel. We can look forward to meeting the sisters!

You can learn more about the Adrian Dominican Sisters, their life, mission and call, at their website adriandominicans.org

-friar Bob Showers OFM Conv.