"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."[John 6:68]
Friday within the Octave of Easter
Saints of the day:
Saint Magdalena of Canossa
Virgin, foundress of the Canossian Family of Daughters and Sons of Charity
(1774-1835)
Virgin, foundress of the Canossian Family of Daughters and Sons of Charity
(1774-1835)
Magdalena of Canossa, was a woman who believed in the love of the Lord Jesus and, sent by the Holy Spirit among those most in need, she served them with a Mother's heart and an Apostle's zeal.
Born in Verona on 1st March 1774, of a noble and wealthy family, she was the third of six children.
By way of painful events such as her father's death, her mother's second marriage, illness, misunderstanding, the Lord guided her towards unforeseen paths on which Magdalene tentatively set out.
A CALL
Drawn by the love of God, at the age of seventeen she planned to consecrate her life to God and twice tried her vocation at a Carmel.
However, the Holy Spirit urged her to follow a new path: to allow herself to be loved by Jesus Crucified, to belong to Him alone, in order to dedicate herself exclusively to those in greatest need.
She returned to her family and, being compelled by sad events and the tragic political circumstances at the end of the 18th century, she nurtured her true vocation in the depth of her heart and went on with life at Canossa Palace, shouldering the burden of running her family'slarge estate .
She returned to her family and, being compelled by sad events and the tragic political circumstances at the end of the 18th century, she nurtured her true vocation in the depth of her heart and went on with life at Canossa Palace, shouldering the burden of running her family's
A GIFT
With complete dedication Magdalene carried out her daily tasks and widened her circle of friends while at the same time remaining open to the mysterious action of the Holy Spirit who gradually moulded her heart and enabled her to share in the love of the Father for mankind revealed by Jesus' complete and supreme offering of Himself on the Cross, and by the example of Mary, the Sorrowful Virgin Mother.
Moved by that love, Magdalene responded to the cry of the poor, hungry for food , instruction, understanding and the Word of God. She discovered them in the suburbs of Verona, where the echoes of the French Revolution, the occupation by various foreign powers and the Verona uprising had left evident signs of devastation and human suffering.
A PROJECT
Magdalene sought and found her first companions called to follow Christ, poor, chaste, obedient and who were to be sent out as witnesses of His unconditional Love towards all people.
In 1808, Magdalene overcame her family's opposition and left Canossa Palace once and for all to begin in the poorest district of Verona what she knew in her heart to be the Will of God: to serve the neediest persons with the heart of Christ.
In 1808, Magdalene overcame her family's opposition and left Canossa Palace once and for all to begin in the poorest district of Verona what she knew in her heart to be the Will of God: to serve the neediest persons with the heart of Christ.
A PROPHECY
Charity is like a blazing fire! Magdalene opened her heart to the Holy Spirit who guided her to the poor in other cities: Venice, Milan, Bergamo, Trent ... In only a few decades the number of her houses increased, her religious family grew in the service of the Kingdom of God .
The Love of the Crucified and Risen Lord burnt in Magdalene's heart who, together with her companions, became a witness of that same love in five specific areas:
Charity schools, providing an all-round formation geared to pupils status in life. Catechesis, given to all classes of people, withspecial attention to those most ignorant of the Faith. Support given to women patients in hospital.
Charity schools, providing an all-round formation geared to pupils status in life. Catechesis, given to all classes of people, with
Residential seminars, to train young teachers for rural areas and valuable helpers for parish priests in their pastoral activities.
Yearly courses of Spiritual Exercises for Ladies of the nobility, with the aim of deepening their spiritual life and involving them in various charitable works.
Later on, this last activity was offered to all those who had a desire for it.
Contemporary to Magdalene and her apostolic work, flourished other witnesses of Charity: Leopoldina Naudet, Antonio Rosmini, Antonio Provolo, Carlo Steeb, Gaspare Bertoni, Teodora Campostrini, T. Eustochio Verzeri, Elisabetta Renzi, Cavanis brothers, Pietro Leonardi, all of whom founded Religious Institutes.
A FAMILY
A FAMILY
The Institute of the Daughters of Charity, between 1819 and 1820, received its ecclesiastical approval in the various dioceses where the communities were present.
His Holiness Pope Leo XII approved the Rule of the Institute with the Brief Si Nobis, of 23rd December 1828.
Towards the end of her life, after unsuccessful attempts with A. Rosmini and A. Provolo, Magdalene was able to start the male branch of the Institute which she had planned to set up from the very beginning.
On 23th May 1831 in Venice, she began the first Oratory of the Sons of Charity for the Christian formation of boys and men. She entrusted it to the Venetian priest Don Francesco Luzzo, helped by two laymen from Bergamo: Giuseppe Carsana and Benedetto Belloni.
Magdalene's active and fruitful life ended when she was 61 years of age. She died in Verona surrounded by her Daughters on 10th April 1835. It was the Friday of Passion Week.
A MISSION
Above all make Jesus Christ known! This heartfelt concern of Magdalene's was the great inheritance that the Daughters and Sons of Charity are called to live, a life of complete availability to God and service towards others, willing to go to the most distant countries for the sake of this holy work. (MAGDALENE, Ep. II/I, p. 266).
The Daughters of Charity traveled for the Far East in 1860. Today there are about 4000 sisters throughout the world, grouped into 24 provinces.
The Sons of Charity number about 200. They work in various cities in Italy, Latin America and the Philippines.
Canossian Religious, called to a missionary vocation, "ad gentes", make themselves receptive to those basic Christian values, "the seeds of the Word", present in every culture while giving witness to and proclaiming what the "have seen, heard, contemplated...": the Love of the Father who, in Christ, reaches out to every person so that they may have life. Through this giving and receiving, the charism is enriched and bears fruit for God's Kingdom.
The charism which the Holy Spirit brought to life in Magdalene did not exhaust itself in the vitality of the two Institutes.
Consequently, various groups of lay people have found in Magdalene and in her ideals, their special way of living the faith, of witnessing charity, in all walks of Christian life.
She was beatified by Pius XII on December 7, 1941 and canonized by John Paul II on October 2, 1988 at Rome.
A SONG OF THANKSGIVING
The Church draws our attention, especially that of her Sons and Daughters, to Magdalene, a Witness of the constant and freely given love of God.
We give thanks to Him for the gift of this Mother and Sister of ours and through her intercession we ask that we may love Him, as she did, above all other things, and make Him known to our fellow men by living our specific vocation.[Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana]
Saint Fulbert
Friday within the Octave of Easter
Acts of the Apostles 4:1 Kefa and Yochanan were still speaking to the people when the cohanim, the captain in charge of the Temple police, and the Tz’dukim came upon them, 2 very annoyed that they were teaching the people the doctrine of resurrection from the dead and offering Yeshua as proof. 3 The Temple police arrested them; and since it was already evening, they put them in custody overnight. 4 However, many of those who heard the message trusted; the number of men alone was about five thousand.
Bishop of Chartres, France, and a poet and scholar who aided the Cluniac Reform. Born in Italy circa 952 or 960, Fulbert studied at Rheims, France, under future Pope Sylvester II. In 1003 he returned to France, becoming the bishop of Chartres in 1007. Fulbert rebuilt the cathedral there when it burned down and defended monasticism and orthodoxy. His hymns, treatises, and letter have survived.
Acts of the Apostles 4:1 Kefa and Yochanan were still speaking to the people when the cohanim, the captain in charge of the Temple police, and the Tz’dukim came upon them, 2 very annoyed that they were teaching the people the doctrine of resurrection from the dead and offering Yeshua as proof. 3 The Temple police arrested them; and since it was already evening, they put them in custody overnight. 4 However, many of those who heard the message trusted; the number of men alone was about five thousand.
5 The next day, the people’s rulers, elders and Torah-teachers assembled in Yerushalayim, 6 along with ‘Anan the cohen hagadol, Kayafa, Yochanan, Alexander and the other men from the family of the cohen hagadol. 7 They had the emissaries stand before them and asked, “By what power or in what name did you do this?”
8 Then Kefa, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being examined today about a good deed done for a disabled person, if you want to know how he was restored to health, 10 then let it be known to you and to all the people of Isra’el that it is in the name of the Messiah, Yeshua from Natzeret, whom you had executed on a stake as a criminal but whom God has raised from the dead, that this man stands before you perfectly healed.
11 “This Yeshua is the stone rejected by you builders which has become the cornerstone.[a] 12 There is salvation in no one else! For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by whom we must be saved!”[Footnotes:
Acts 4:11 Psalm 118:22]
Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to Adonai; for he is good,
for his grace continues forever.
2 Now let Isra’el say,
“His grace continues forever.”
“His grace continues forever.”
22 The very rock that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone!
23 This has come from Adonai,
and in our eyes it is amazing.
24 This is the day Adonai has made,
a day for us to rejoice and be glad.
25 Please, Adonai! Save us!
Please, Adonai! Rescue us!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai.
We bless you from the house of Adonai.
27 Adonai is God, and he gives us light.
Join in the pilgrim festival with branches
all the way to the horns of the altar.
Hou Gospel According to Saint John 21:1 After this, Yeshua appeared again to the talmidim at Lake Tiberias. Here is how it happened: 2 Shim‘on Kefa and T’oma (his name means “twin”) were together with Natan’el from Kanah in the Galil, the sons of Zavdai, and two other talmidim. 3 Shim‘on Kefa said, “I’m going fishing.” They said to him, “We’re coming with you.” They went and got into the boat, but that night they didn’t catch anything. 4 However, just as day was breaking, Yeshua stood on shore, but the talmidim didn’t know it was he. 5 He said to them, “You don’t have any fish, do you?” “No,” they answered him. 6 He said to them, “Throw in your net to starboard and you will catch some.” So they threw in their net, and there were so many fish in it that they couldn’t haul it aboard. 7 The talmid Yeshua loved said to Kefa, “It’s the Lord!” On hearing it was the Lord, Shim‘on Kefa threw on his coat, because he was stripped for work, and plunged into the lake; 8 but the other talmidim followed in the boat, dragging the net full of fish; for they weren’t far from shore, only about a hundred yards. 9 When they stepped ashore, they saw a fire of burning coals with a fish on it, and some bread. 10 Yeshua said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 Shim‘on Kefa went up and dragged the net ashore. It was full of fish, 153 of them; but even with so many, the net wasn’t torn. 12 Yeshua said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the talmidim dared to ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Yeshua came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Yeshua had appeared to the talmidim after being raised from the dead.
Commentary of the Day:
Jean-Pierre de Caussade (1675-1751), Jesuit
Abandonment to divine Providence (ed. J. Ramière, SJ)
« It is the Lord! »
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Abandonment to divine Providence (ed. J. Ramière, SJ)
All creatures that exist are in the hands of God. The action of the creature can only be perceived by the senses, but faith sees in all things the action of the Creator. It believes that in Jesus Christ all things live, and that his divine operation continues to the end of time, embracing the passing moment and the smallest created atom in its hidden life and mysterious action. The action of the creature is a veil which covers the profound mysteries of the divine operation.
After the Resurrection Jesus Christ took his disciples by surprise in his various apparitions. He showed himself to them under various disguises and, in the act of making himself known to them, disappeared. This same Jesus, ever living, ever working, still takes by surprise those souls whose faith is weak and wavering. There is not a moment in which God does not present himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals his divine action. It is really and truly there present, but invisibly present, so that we are always surprised and do not recognise his operation until it has ceased.
If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful, God would continually reveal himself to us, and we should see his divine action in everything that happened to us, and rejoice in it. At each successive occurrence we should exclaim: “It is the Lord," and we should accept every fresh circumstance as a gift of God. We should look upon creatures as feeble tools in the hands of an able workman, and should discover easily that nothing was wanting to us, and that the constant providence of God disposed him to bestow upon us at every moment whatever we required.
After the Resurrection Jesus Christ took his disciples by surprise in his various apparitions. He showed himself to them under various disguises and, in the act of making himself known to them, disappeared. This same Jesus, ever living, ever working, still takes by surprise those souls whose faith is weak and wavering. There is not a moment in which God does not present himself under the cover of some pain to be endured, of some consolation to be enjoyed, or of some duty to be performed. All that takes place within us, around us, or through us, contains and conceals his divine action. It is really and truly there present, but invisibly present, so that we are always surprised and do not recognise his operation until it has ceased.
If we could lift the veil, and if we were attentive and watchful, God would continually reveal himself to us, and we should see his divine action in everything that happened to us, and rejoice in it. At each successive occurrence we should exclaim: “It is the Lord," and we should accept every fresh circumstance as a gift of God. We should look upon creatures as feeble tools in the hands of an able workman, and should discover easily that nothing was wanting to us, and that the constant providence of God disposed him to bestow upon us at every moment whatever we required.
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