Monthly Archives: May 2010

Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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Zep 3:14-18a or Rom 12:9-16
Luke 1:39-56

Today’s Feast is the joining of the stories of two women, Elizabeth and Mary. Their stories stand at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke and unfold in counterpoint to one another. The central theme of both stories is the salvation and liberation of all people, through the deliberate intervention of God.

What did Elizabeth and Mary, an old woman and a young one make of their experience? Interestingly, an ancient tradition originally ascribes the Magnificat, the opening lines of which derive from the Song of Hannah, (1 Samuel 2:1), to Elizabeth. Hannah, like Elizabeth was old and barren. It wouldn’t surprise me if Elizabeth understood what Mary was called to, better than Mary did.

Many years ago, sitting alone in our chapel the night before I made my final vows, I began to get frightened and started thinking that I was about to make a big mistake. “I can’t do this,” I thought. “I’m not good enough, I’m not holy enough. Who am I kidding? I haven’t got what it takes.”

It was summer, but I was cold and terrified. Then I felt someone next to me. One of the old sisters, Sister Albeus, wrapped her shawl around me and started rocking me. “It will be alright child,” she whispered. “You’ll be alright.”

I think something like that might have happened between Elizabeth and Mary, and that like me, Mary was comforted and strengthened for what lay ahead.

The Visitation Journey

The second bead: scene of the lovely journey
of Lady Mary, on whom artists confer
a blue silk gown, a day pouring out Springtime,
and birds singing and flowers bowing to her.

Rather, I see a girl upon a donkey
and her too held by what was said to mind
how the sky was or if the grass was growing.
I doubt the flowers; I doubt the road was kind.

“Love hurried forth to serve.” I read approving.
But also see, with thoughts blown past her youth,
a girl riding upon a jolting donkey
and riding further and further into the truth.

Jessica Powers

Sister Mary Ann Strain, CP lives in Union City, NJ and helps represent the Passionists at the United Nations.



Feast of the Holy Trinity

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Proverbs 8:22-31
Romans 5:1-5
John 16:12-15

In today’s feast of the Holy Trinity we celebrate a truth that separates us from people of the Jewish and Muslim faiths. They, like us, believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We also believe that this same God of our fathers so loved the world that He sent His Son to the world and the Son so loved us He gave His life for us. Last week we celebrated the wonder of Father and Son sending their Spirit to the church. That Spirit of truth guides us into all truth.

I hope you’re not expecting me to explain the Trinity to you. That’s not going to happen. Even when we see God face to face and know God as God is, we will be mystified by the wonder of God. God is beyond the limited capabilities of our human minds.

This feast of the Holy Trinity teaches us that the inner life of God is a life of relationships – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray in the Mass – all life, all holiness comes from you Father, thru your son Jesus Christ our Lord, by the workings of the Holy Spirit. Through God’s goodness, shown to us in the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ, we are invited into those relationships. When we are baptized God’s Holy Spirit is poured into our very being and gives us the boldness to call God, Father/Mother. God’s Holy Spirit permeates our very being, molding and fashioning us into the image of God’s Son Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is given to us so that we may live no longer for ourselves but for him, to complete His work on earth and bring us to the fullness of grace.

The creative, life giving, love giving relationship of the Trinity is to be the model of all our relationships. Our very existence springs from the creative love relationship of our mother and father. Our whole lives are lived in relationships, the life and death of each of us has its influence on others. We do not go through life untouched or untouching.

Instead of trying to sort out the mystery of the Trinity we can use this feast as the occasion of our personal examination as to how creative, how life giving, how healing we are in our relationships, whatever those relationships may be. On this feast of the Trinity we can ask the question, in my relationships am I a source of life, love, growth, healing and forgiving? Do I enrich the lives of others by my friendship? Are people better people through their friendship with me? Do I encourage and foster the gifts and abilities of others? Do I give my spouse, my sons or daughters, my friends, the freedom to be themselves, to find their own way? Is my friendship strong enough that I am willing to confront or face up to issues that are not healthy, that can weaken my relationship?

Forming and maintaining good healthy relationships is not easy. Friends fall out, husbands and wives split, parents and children are alienated. That’s why its important to question ourselves, am I a control freak, am I a demanding person, a needy person, do I try to manipulate, dominate family or friends? Does everything have to center of me?  Living in healthy, life giving relationships is a life time task. When all is said and done our whole lives will be judged on how we lived our many relationships; with family, friends or strangers. These are the facts by which our lives will be judged. I was hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, imprisoned and you were there for me. Welcome into the eternal life giving relationship of Father, Son and Spirit, for as often as you did these things to one of these, the least of mine, you did it to me.

As we continue to celebrate this feast and Mass, we can pray for ourselves and for each other that God’s Holy Spirit be with us to help live in holy, life giving, life sustaining, life enriching relationships. When life is over may we all be blessed to hear those welcoming words, “come blessed of my Father take as your own the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, you were always there for me, now I am here for you.

Father Paul Cusack, C.P. is the pastor of St. Gabriel Passionist Parish in Toronto, Canada.

The Saints are Marching

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Jude 17, 20b-25
Mk 11:27-33

Three twelve foot statues used to look down from the facade of St. Michael’s church, the old Passionist church here in Union City. When the Korean Presbyterian’s took over the church in the 1980’s, the statues were taken down and put in the courtyard of a new low income housing development next to the church.

The statues are of St. Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists, St. Gabriel, a popular young Passionist saint, and St. Michael the Archangel, the patron of the old church. Yesterday, they were moved to a new mausoleum in Holy Name Cemetery in Jersey City and they’ll be blessed on Memorial Day, May 31st at the 11 o’clock Mass.

A woman watching the removal of the statues was quite distressed at seeing them go. “We need them here. Why are they taking them away?” she said.

Saints don’t go away, however. They usually turn up again. Now they’re in a place where people go in grief.

St. Paul of the Cross, pointing to cross Jesus in his hands, reminds us that the Son of God died and rose again. The mystery of his passion and death is a sign that death does not have the final word. “Life is changed, not ended.” He blesses us with his mercy and hope.

“Keep yourselves in the love of God
and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
that leads to eternal life.”

St. Gabriel was young when he died, only 24 years old. Even those whose death seems   tragically premature are in God’s hands, the young saint reminds us.

And St. Michael will stand there too. He’s the great archangel who battles the power of evil and wins a place for us poor children of Eve.

The saints keep marching on.

Fr. Victor Hoagland, CP is the Director of Passionist Press and a member of the Passionist Community in Union City, NJ.