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June
the Month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Dear
Children of the Atonement:
Since
this is the Month of the Sacred Heart, will you permit
me to write you about a matter which I feel sure concerns
the Sacred Heart very deeply and that is the salvation
of souls through the agency of the Society of the Atonement.
Ours, you know, is a Missionary Institute and to save
souls for the Sacred Heart is its main business and one
of the mottoes of the Society is, Omnia pro Christo et
salute hominum, i.e., All things for Christ and the salvation
of men. The young men who enter the First Congregation
of the S. A., as well as the Sisters of the Atonement,
are taught to offer themselves to the Sacred Heart to
be used by the Holy Spirit to save the greatest number
of souls made possible by Divine Providence.
It must be obvious to all that the greater number of consecrated
subjects the Society shall embrace within its three Congregations,
the greater work it will be able to accomplish in the
salvation of souls, hence we need more Friars and more
Sisters. Will you not then make the interests of the Sacred
Heart your own in looking out for vocations for Graymoor,
either Friars or Sisters?
A mother in Chicago, who has recently sent one of her
sons to study for the priesthood in St. John's House of
Studies, says it is her ambition to give also a daughter
to God in Holy Religion. Suppose that every mother who
belongs to the Rosary League of our Lady of the Atonement,
should have a similar ambition, what a multitude of young
men and women would be flocking to Graymoor in a very
short time to test their vocation for our holy Institute,
and as a consequence under the blessing of the Almighty
and the fostering hand of the Holy Spirit in a few years
the Friars and Sisters of the Atonement would be planting
their mission houses in many parts of our own great country
and in non-Christian lands beyond the sea, and this is
just what we confidently expect to come to pass through
your co-operation with us in the growing Family of the
Atonement.
Only give us thousands of fathers and mothers whose highest
ambition is to raise up sons and daughters to labor for
God as Catholic missionaries under the banner of the Atonement
and before the present generation has passed away the
Graymoor Friars and Sisters will have proven themselves
a very fruitful branch of the Franciscan vine.
If you have no children of your own to give to Graymoor
you can watch out for vocations among your neighbors and
seasoning your efforts to that end with prayer, they will
be blessed of God and made fruitful.
We are grateful to you, when by your alms you help to
build up the material fabric of our Institute, but we
will be more grateful still when you send to us good vocations.
There are a great many young people attached to the League,
both young men and young women. Who among you will volunteer
to give yourselves to the Religious Life and when the
Holy Spirit calls you, make haste to apply for admission
to the Friary or the Convent?
I have placed this letter at the feet of the beautiful
statue of the Sacred Heart in St. Francis's Church before
sending it to the printer, and wherever it is read over
the whole face of the English speaking world may it plant
the seed of vocation in the good ground of devout souls
and bring forth a glorious harvest in due season. (The
Lamp June 1915 p.281)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
St.
Anthony of Padua (Friday, June 13)
I was once quite ignorant of Saint Anthony of Padua. I
am a Marylander by birth and it was in Baltimore, many
years ago, that I first heard of him, being at that time
an Episcopalian clergymen, but not a low Churchman. I
had too much reverence even then for the great Saints
of the Catholic Church to treat the subject of invoking
them as a matter of ribald joke or ridicule but I was
a long way from invoking St. Anthony and not a few years
were yet to pass before, as a result of painstaking study,
I grasped the Catholic truth of "the Communion of
the Saints" and came to know by personal experience
the power the Wonder-worker of Padua has with God and
how ready he is to place that power at the service of
humble souls on the earth who invoke him. (The Lamp Mar.
1916 p.133)
We think our Readers, for the most part, are well aware
that our Elder Brother, St. Anthony, the Wonder-Worker
of Padua, is the principal BREAD WINNER for Graymoor.
Whenever we get in financial straits we go to him, tell
him about the bills from "the butcher, the baker,"
the grocer, and "the candlestick maker" for
which we have not the money to pay, and with his powerful
assistance we are rescued from the abyss of debt into
which, for the time being, we were in imminent peril of
falling.
The principal agency which St. Anthony employs in paying
our Friary bills is his Perpetual Novena conducted in
what we call "St. Anthony's Corner'" in St.
Francis' Church on the Mount of the Atonement. (The
Lamp Feb. 1923 p.58)
Today we go abroad in the world and we find marvelous
popularity wherever we go of Saint Anthony of Padua. I
do not think that I was ever in a Catholic Church that
I did not find a statue of Saint Anthony there, though
there may be such, and that of itself speaks the popularity
among the people because if the people did not love Saint
Anthony and demand some outward expression of his presence
in their midst, there would not be these statues, and
certainly Saint Anthony has shown a marked predilection
or favor towards our holy Institute, [the Society of the
Atonement]. Surely we all, and in particular the Friars,
have to thank him for his wondrous help which is always
given to us in all our financial difficulties. It is,
indeed, something to be proud of that perhaps the most
popular shrine of Saint Anthony in the whole of North
America is on the Mount of the Atonement, judging by the
multitudinous number of petitions that constantly pour
in to that shrine. And then that Saint Anthony answers
them is indicated by the enormous number of letters that
we are receiving constantly with offerings in appreciation
of favors granted. (Retreat Conference Sep. 25, 1926)
Catholics are not ignorant fools and they would not go
on conducting Novenas to St. Anthony or any other Saint,
unless they got results. "The test of the pudding
is in the eating of it," and the test of the value
of a Novena are the favors granted to those who employ
it as a means of obtaining from the Almighty the things
which they desire. (The Lamp Mar. 1916 pp.133-134)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
St.
John the Baptist (Tuesday, June 24)
St.
John the Baptist is the patron of this church [St. John
the Baptist Church, Graymoor], a magnificent character.
There has not been in the course of history anyone that
received a loftier tribute than John the Baptist, for
of him Our Lord said, "There has not appeared a greater
prophet among those that are born of woman." [Matt.
11:11] His character was blameless, faultless. We believe
that when he was still in the womb of his mother, the
Blessed Virgin, moved by the Holy Spirit, came to visit
Elizabeth, and the babe within Elizabeth's womb, the future
John the Baptist, leaped to greet his Lord, that he was
sanctified entirely from that moment.
His life was lived away from men in the highest asceticism,
surrounded by the beasts of the desert, his clothing camel's
hair, with a leathern girdle about his loins, his daily
food locusts and wild honey, his name "that was of
Nazareth," no scissors ever came upon his head, and
as far as we know he never ate flesh meat nor drank any
wine - a man of perfect life. He had been the one raised
up by God to preach as the forerunner of Christ. He had
discharged his duty faithfully; he had borne witness of
it. To his own disciples he said, "Behold the Lamb
of God," and willingly he saw all of them take their
departure, detach themselves from him and go over and
become disciples of Christ.
So, my dear brothers and sisters, let us strengthen our
faith in the Lord, and as John the Baptist lived his life
of witness to Christ and prepared the way for a manifestation
to Israel, so let us find the great inspiration of our
life in preparing the way for the second coming of Christ,
for the extension of His kingdom, for the triumph of justice
in the world, the increase and sanctification of the elect,
those that pass through this vale of misery and of woe,
and of sorrow and of disappointment, who are not deceived
by the glitter of gold, not deceived by the electric light
that substitutes for the sunlight in those places where
people are thrown together to deceive themselves in the
midst of a world of corruption by the glamour of the artificial
and by the lure of that which offers its victims only
on the altar of corruption and of sin. In the midst of
a world perishing through disobedience, and through the
corruption of the flesh, God is making up the number of
His elect, the ones that are to occupy the heavenly Jerusalem.
To the poor in this world, to those that are trained in
the discipline of self-denial and of self-sacrifice and
of purity amidst corruption, to them shall be given the
kingdom beyond the skies.
As St. John the Baptist, so faithful, so true, so disciplined
in his life, bore the witness and prepared the way for
the coming of Christ, let us prepare the way for that
Christ in our own hearts, and then filled with an inexpressible
love for Him, with inexpressible desire to see Him triumph
over his own, and to hasten the day when He shall come
in His glory, let us do all we can as the loyal, faithful
servants of Christ to extend His kingdom and to hasten
the time when the kingdoms of this world shall become
the kingdom of the Lord's Anointed, and Jesus Christ shall
reign from pole to pole, and from sea to sea. (Sermon
of Dec. 7, 1925)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
Atonement
Week (beginning Sunday, June 29)
This
is Atonement Sunday at Graymoor because it was on the
seventh Sunday after Pentecost in the year 1893 that the
Father Founder of the Society of the Atonement received,
after a long period of prayer, the name of the Institute,
and every year the week which begins on this Sunday is
celebrated at Graymoor as Atonement Week.
Beginning, therefore, today, on Atonement Sunday we propose
to tell you the story of the Society of the Atonement
in a series of dramatizations from Sunday to Sunday until
the story has been completely told. It is often said that
"truth is stranger than fiction" and I believe
as the story of Graymoor unfolds you will agree with me
that as a true story it is indeed stranger than were it
a fictitious creation of your imagination.
I direct your thought and attention [to] the central Text
of our Institute, the one that contains the Name. It is
found in the fifth Chapter of St. Paul's epistle to the
Romans, the 11th verse:
We joy in God through Our Lord Jesus Christ by Whom we
have now received the ATONEMENT.
When Our Lord chose and ordained his first apostles He
gave them the commission: "Go ye into all the world,
preach the gospel to every creature and make disciples
of all nations." My purpose in preaching the Atonement
to you is to make Atonement disciples of you, to make
as many of you as God Himself shall choose, members of
our holy Institute, the Society of the Atonement. That
is our purpose in telling you the story of the Society's
origin, formation and development up to the present time.
In a word, we want to make you at-one-mentists, to unite
you with us in the following of the Atonement just as
St. Francis went out and preached and young men by the
thousands united themselves with him as Friars Minor;
and other thousands of the gentler sex united themselves
with St. Clare in the second Order; and tens of thousands
of the people joined the Seraphic Family as members of
the Third Order, the Brothers and Sisters of Penance.
We have in the Society of the Atonement, three congregations,
the first Congregation comprised of young men who assume
the vows of poverty, obedience and chastity, to serve
God either as Atonement priests or brothers. The second
Congregation is made up of young virgins who leave the
world to follow Christ in holy religion as Franciscan
Sisters of the Atonement. The third Congregation is made
up of people living in the world, following their secular
occupations, but living under a religious rule, which
is none other than that of the Third Order of St. Francis
and as the Seraphic Family of the great Patriarch of Assisi
grew and increased and multiplied, so we hope it will
be with this latest branch of the Franciscan Order, the
Society of the Atonement. To increase and multiply the
Children of the Atonement is therefore the purpose of
our preaching and telling you over the air the story of
the Society of the Atonement.
May our preaching of "Joy in God through [Our Lord
Jesus] Christ by whom we have now received the Atonement"
prove as prolific in the making of at-one-mentists as
did the preaching of St. Francis seven hundred years ago
in the creation of the three Franciscan Orders commonly
called the Seraphic Family. (Radio Talk of July 4, 1937)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
Sts.
Peter and Paul, Year of St. Paul (Sunday, June 29)
My
friends:
We are celebrating this morning, in anticipation, the
feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, which actually occurs
tomorrow. It is being kept with unusual solemnity at Rome
and throughout the Catholic World because it is the 1900th
anniversary of the conversion of the great Apostle to
the Gentiles.
I embrace this occasion to appeal to my young listeners
who are still unmarried and are still free to dedicate
their lives to the service of God, to come to Graymoor
and enter the ranks of the Friars or Sisters of the Atonement,
themselves leaving all - as did the Apostles and did St.
Paul - to follow Christ the King and enlist under the
banner of His saving cross, to become missionaries and
labor to extend the kingdom of Jesus Christ, thus following
in the footsteps of St. Paul, until it has embraced all
the continents and countries of the whole world and all
the peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Islands of the Sea,
that they may be made members with us of Christ's Holy
Church.
You know how our Lord said to Ananias when he sent him
to receive Paul of Tarsus into the Church by holy Baptism,"This
man is to me a vessel of election, to carry my name before
the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel."[Acts
9:15] I trust, therefore, that my voice will carry to
those of my listeners whom Our Lord has chosen to be "vessels
of election" and to bear His name to the Gentiles,
the summons of the Holy Spirit, that you will recognize
it as such and will know that you too are called, and
then, like St. Paul, you will gladly and without delay,
leave all to follow Jesus Christ, being wide awake to
accept with joy His gracious promise:
Whosoever leaves house or brethren, or sisters, or father,
or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's
sake, shall receive a hundred fold and shall possess life
everlasting. (Mk. 10:28-31)
(Radio Talk of Jan. 24, 1937)
Do we desire to be adorned in our body with some marks
of Christ's Passion, some trace of His stigmatization?
We do not presume to aspire to the wounds of our Father,
St. Francis, but there are many, many ways in which the
marks of our Lord Jesus Christ may be impressed upon our
body and also upon our soul. They, too, shall be preserved
by God as ornaments, beautiful ornaments for us to wear
through eternity. Saint Paul may not have received the
stigmata as did the Seraphic Patriarch, but he could have
stripped off his tunic and shown the deep gashes made
by the rods of [those] by whom he was beaten and the stripes
of the five times flogging. He could have shown the scars
made on his body by the stones at Listra where he was
left a quivering mass prone upon the ground, with the
stones piled upon him so that the [persecutors] thought
they had completed their work of death. Very probably
he bore some marks of the shipwreck, when a night and
a day he was in the deep. Certainly these marks of Jesus
Christ in the body and soul of the Great Apostle of the
Gentiles are now his glory in eternity.
So now for us when some blow causes our interior to quiver
with its impact, it may be ingratitude or unkindness where
we might have expected gratitude, or only the steady wearing
away of the body in toil done under the inspiration of
divine love, in whatever the wounds consist they will
leave either upon your soul or upon your body which is
to rise after death glorified, some marks that will shine
with brightness and beauty as precious jewels, when you
come to take your place with the hundred and forty four
thousand who follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes. [Apoc.14:1]
(Retreat Talk of Oct. 17, 1924)
For
a printable version of this article click
here.
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