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Uneasy and unsettled?

Posted on by Sharon Trani

Our world can feel very unsettling. We are bombarded with negative messages of war, disease, impending natural catastrophes, broken families, and volatile political division. Our own personal lives may feel overwhelming. Our friends and even our Church can be disappointing. And more and more people are feeling isolated, alone. We can easily feel anxious and disturbed and lose any sense of peace.

Where is your “peace rating/level” these days? For some of you, this may have been an illusive or non-existing entity for most of your life. For others who have known peace, it comes and goes and perhaps feels mostly absent nowadays. I would like to suggest that peace is something we can all work toward. Most importantly, Jesus wants to give us peace “that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).  He came to calm our troubled hearts. He shows us how to be at rest.

First, we need to recognize that if we are basing our peace on circumstances and situations, we are most likely not going to find it. Peace is not the absence of conflict and trouble; it exists despite those. We can develop tranquility amid stress and chaos. Peace is a quiet stillness of our heart and mind, based on having a right relationship with God, one another (as much as possible), and oneself.

Several years ago, I met a married woman who presented with a high level of anxiety. We spent several visits developing tools to manage her anxiety, eventually prescribed a medication, but her anxiety continued to stay high. I again explored with her whether something in her life might be contributing to her angst; this time she shared that she was having an affair. She was struggling with an internal conflict and was making a choice in direct contradiction to what she knew to be honest and just and was shattering her relationship with herself as well as with God. Peace is difficult and even impossible while we choose to be dis-integrated. But when we make healthy choices for our emotional and spiritual self, then peace can flow in, even though life may continue to be challenging. When we work toward peace with God and ourselves, and in our families and communities, the unrest around us is much less likely to rock our boat.

How can we grow our peace? First, we need to take charge of what we are feeding our hearts and minds. Are we choosing to sit with God and know His love and care for us? Are we choosing to spend as much time listening to inspiring podcasts as we are to the news (which is 95 percent negative)? Research is increasingly and consistently showing a disturbing association between screen time and mental health. Screen time increases angst and anxiety, hyperarousal, and stress, because of the effect of blue light as well as the distorted material, loss of reality, negative spin, and just the overwhelming amount of information. There is very little material on Facebook etc. that makes us stronger, better people. If we insist on dumping stupid stuff into our heads, we can be sure to reap an uncomfortable unease.

Instead, keep a gratitude journal, list the good things in your life, reach out to others, have positive conversations. Build an awareness that God is in control, that He is working with us to combat evil. Work at healing and building relationships. Recognize what we can do for our broken world and families and what we must leave to God.

Cultivating peace in our lives yields immeasurable good, for our own physical, mental, and spiritual health and powerfully impacts our homes, children, and communities. May we become peaceable people, living and spreading peace.

To quote St. Teresa of Calcutta: “Peace begins with a smile.”

—Sharon Trani, a nurse practitioner, is a marriage and family therapist with Vermont Catholic Charities Inc.

—Originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

 

Pax Christi

Posted on by Kathleen Messier

Pax Christi (Latin for Peace of Christ), an internationally esteemed Catholic peace organization, originated with a small group of French Catholics who congregated in supplication for reconciliation following World War II. Horrified at the enormity of Christians killing fellow Christians by the millions during the war, these devout followers of Christ commenced convening regularly in 1945 under the leadership of Marthe Dortel Claudot. Bishop Pierre Marie Théas, bishop of Montauban and bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, France, soon partnered as the inaugural bishop president of the nascent movement that became Pax Christi.

In the aftermath of the war, Pax Christi centers materialized in France and Germany; the movement proliferated across Western Europe during the 1950s. Pax Christi expanded globally in the 1970s with new national divisions such as Pax Christi USA, instituted in 1972. According to historian Patricia McNeal, Pax Christi USA emerged from Catholic opposition to the Vietnam War, pioneered by luminaries like Eileen Egan and Gordon Zahn. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit from 1968 to 2006, served as the fledgling organization’s first bishop-moderator.

McNeal explains that Pax Christi USA’s early priorities included educating Catholics on issues of war, peace, and social justice through conferences, publications, and local chapters with a focus on nuclear disarmament, conscientious objection, and the United Nations. The organization played an influential role in the U.S. bishops’ 1983 peace pastoral condemning nuclear war and affirming nonviolence.

In the 1980s, Pax Christi increasingly protested U.S. intervention in Central America. The organization long emphasized nuclear disarmament but expanded its efforts over time to encompass economic justice, anti-racism, and other causes.

One example of Pax Christi’s decentralization was the 1981 founding of a Burlington chapter by Catholic activist Marguerite “Marmete” Corliss Hayes (1924-2012) — a parishioner of St. Mark Church in Burlington — and others including Vermont Sister of Mercy Miriam Ward (1926-2014). Inspired by Dorothy Day and the Berrigan brothers, Hayes helped establish this local chapter to address violence, nuclear weapons, and injustice in Central America and Iraq.

The Pax Christi Burlington chapter, founded at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, aimed to promote peace and justice by addressing issues like violence, nuclear weapons, oppression in Central America, and the Iraq War. Hayes stood for years in silent vigil against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her work created a lasting community for peacemaking in Vermont, fueled in part by encyclicals like Pope John Paul II’s “Centesimus Annus” (1991) which called for an end to war, commemorating the 100th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s “Rerum Novarum,” the basis for modern Catholic social teaching.  Her pivotal role in launching this chapter provided an outlet for Hayes and other local Catholics to live out their faith through peace work.

Today, Pax Christi International encompasses more than 120 constituent groups in more than 60 countries laboring for “peace for all humanity.” Having marked its 50th year in 2022, Pax Christi USA maintains activism on disarmament, demilitarization, racial justice, migration, and care for creation. Younger members are increasingly engaged, though the organization commenced diminutively. United with Pax Christi globally, the movement persists, devoted to Gospel nonviolence and reconciliation.

Sources:

Coode, J. (2022). Pax Christi USA, 1972–2022: The Evolving Catholic Peace Movement in the United States. American Catholic Studies 133(4), 95-13. https://doi.org/10.1353/acs.2022.0068.‌Jennings, John (Oct. 13, 1991). Local Pax Christi Members Celebrate Ten Years of Working for A World of Peace. The Vermont Catholic Tribune.

paxchristiusa.org

socialjusticeresourcecenter.org/biographies/theas-pierre-marie/

legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/marguerite-hayes-obituary?id=25420502

—Kathleen Messier is the assistant archivist for the Diocese of Burlington.  For more information, email Archives@vermontcatholic.org.

—Editor’s note: Pax Christi Burlington is no longer meeting.

—Originally published in the Spring 2024 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

 

Causes for sainthood advanced

Posted on by Catholic News Service

Pope Francis has advanced the sainthood cause of U.S. Sister Rose Hawthorne, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, and he recognized the martyrdom of a German priest executed by the Nazis and a German nun and her 14 companions who were raped and murdered by Russian soldiers during World War II.

After Pope Francis met March 14 with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican published the list of decrees the pope approved in 12 sainthood causes.

The pope recognized the heroic virtues of Sister Hawthorne, who, born in 1851 in Lenox, Massachusetts, was the third and last child of novelist and short-story writer, Nathaniel Hawthorne. She and her husband, George Lathrop, converted to Catholicism, but they eventually separated after his alcoholism led to extremely violent behavior.

After her husband died, she professed religious vows and became known as Mother Mary Alphonsa as she founded the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Congregation of Saint Rose of Lima. She established two homes where the sisters cared for the poor without charge, St. Rose’s in Manhattan and Rosary Hill in Hawthorne, the motherhouse, where she died in 1926.

Pope Francis also signed decrees recognizing the miracle needed to clear the way for the beatification of two 19th-century priests and of Lebanese Patriarch Estephan Douaihy of the Maronite Catholic Church, who was credited with protecting the Maronite Church from Latinization in the 17th century.

He recognized the martyrdom of Father Max Josef Metzger, an ecumenist born in 1887 who became a peace activist after serving as a chaplain in World War I. During World War II, he was arrested several times by the Gestapo. He was sentenced to death and executed in 1944 after the interception of his memorandum to a Swedish bishop outlining how a defeated Germany could become part of a peace plan.

The pope also recognized the martyrdom of German Sister Mary Christophora Klomfass and 14 of her fellow sisters of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Catherine, Virgin and Martyr, who were killed out of hatred for the faith between Jan. 22, 1945, and Nov. 25, 1945, during Russia’s invasion of Poland.

They were assaulted and raped by the soldiers; some of the sisters were killed immediately, some died after the severe violence they suffered, and some died of typhus in Russian concentration camps.

Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession for beatification. However, a miracle must be recognized by the Vatican for them to become saints.

Other decrees signed by the pope attested to the heroic virtues lived by six servants of God, including Archbishop Ivanios Givergis Thomas Panikervitis. Born in 1882 in India, he was the first major archbishop of the Syro-Malankara Catholic Church and a pioneer of ecumenism in India before he died in 1953.

Among the others were three Italians — two laywomen and one religious — a 20th century Brazilian priest and Ante Tomicic, a Capuchin brother from Croatia. Born in 1901, he was devoted to eucharistic adoration, and after the communists took over his country, he continued to wear signs of his faith in public, provoking hostile and derisive remarks. He died in 1981.

—Catholic News Service

Easter Monday

Posted on by Catholic News Agency

On Easter Monday, the Catholic Church celebrates what’s called “Monday of the Angel.” In many countries in Europe and South America, this day, also known as “Little Easter,” is a national holiday.

In a Vatican Radio recording in 1994, Pope John Paul II gave an explanation for Monday of the Angel:

“Why is it called that?” the pope asked, highlighting the need for an angel to call out from the depths of the grave: “He is risen.”

These words “were very difficult to proclaim, to express, for a person,” John Paul II said. “Also, the women that were at the tomb encountered it empty but couldn’t tell ‘He had risen’; they only affirmed that the tomb was empty. The angel said more: ‘He is not here, He has risen.’”

The Gospel of St. Matthew puts it this way: “Then the angel said to the women in reply, ‘Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see Him.’ Behold, I have told you” (Matthew 28:5-7).

Angels are servants and messengers of God. As purely spiritual beings, they have intellects and wills. They are personal and immortal. They surpass all visible beings in their perfection.

Christ himself gives testimony to the angels when He said: “The angels in heaven always see the face of my father who is in heaven!” (Matthew 18:10).

Christ is the center of the universe and angels belong to Him. Even more so, because he made them messengers of his plan of salvation: an angel announced His conception to the Blessed Mother at the Annunciation and an angel proclaimed his Resurrection to Mary Magdalene.

From Easter Monday until the end of Easter at Pentecost, the Church prays the Regina Caeli instead of the Angelus at the noon hour.

On Monday of the Angel in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI said the text of the Regina Caeli “is like a new ‘Annunciation’ to Mary, this time not made by an angel but by us Christians who invite the Mother to rejoice because her Son, whom she carried in her womb, is risen as He promised.”

He continued: “Indeed, ‘rejoice’ was the first word that the heavenly messenger addressed to the Virgin in Nazareth. And this is what it meant: Rejoice, Mary, because the Son of God is about to become man within you. Now, after the drama of the Passion, a new invitation to rejoice rings out: ‘Gaude et laetare, Virgo Maria, alleluia, quia surrexit Dominus vere, alleluia’ — Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia. Rejoice because the Lord is truly risen, alleluia!”

Regina Caeli (English)

  1. Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
  2. For he whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.
  3. Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
  4. Pray for us to God, alleluia.
  5. Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
  6. For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.
  7. Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ Our Lord.
  8. Amen.

This article was originally published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, then translated and adapted by the National Catholic Register on March 4, 2021, and updated for CNA on March 28, 2024.

 

 

St. Monica Food Pantry

Posted on by Cori Urban

Rosemary, a client at the St. Monica Food Pantry in Barre, came in for a bag of groceries for herself and one for her sister on a chilly fall morning. “It helps my budget” to get the free food, she said. “And I think they are nice people [here] that help others.”

Two volunteers staff the food pantry on Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to noon, and two staff it the same hours on Friday. One of the volunteers is Marie Tomberg, the coordinator.

“We don’t turn people away,” she said, even though clients from throughout the local area are encouraged to limit what they take from the shelves unless they have a more severe need.

The food pantry began years ago with “very minimal food” to distribute, she said, but it has grown over the years thanks to the generosity of parishioners, local organizations and vendors.

The food pantry recently received a $3,000 grant from the Vermont Catholic Community Foundation. “That means we can feed more people, especially people with young children,” said Tomberg, who volunteers because she “wanted to do something” for her church.

It makes her feel good to help others, and she knows some people come to the pantry to get a bag a food and to have an opportunity to socialize.

In 2021 — the latest year for which statistics were available — the St. Monica Food Pantry had 390 visits from clients and served 1,337 individuals.

St. Monica parishioner Frank Bellear, regularly brings non-perishables to the food pantry in a section of the church sacristy that has its own door to the outside. “It makes me feel good” to give, he said.

During the growing season some parishioners donate fresh foods from their farms or gardens.

Other parishioners contribute money Tomberg uses to buy needed staples.

“We have very giving parishioners,” she said.

—Originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

 

 

 

 

Monthly Shut-In Meal

Posted on by Cori Urban

The St. Peter Parish Hall in Vergennes was filled with the aroma of a turkey dinner as students in the youth ministry program and adult volunteers prepared the November “Monthly Shut-In Meal.”

They prepare the Sunday meal once a month during the school year and deliver an average of 25 meals each time.

Some of the recipients are on the parish communion-call list while others have recently had surgery or are recovering from an illness.

“If somebody needs a meal, we’re there to fill that need,” said Lisa Grover, director of youth ministry and family faith formation.

The meals began as a confirmation program service project about 10 years ago but evolved into a youth ministry effort. Students and their families and the Ladies of St. Anne used to donate the food, but thanks to a $1,500 grant from the Vermont Catholic Community Foundation, food and some miscellaneous supplies are now covered.

This was the first year the meal program received the grant, and Grover said “we were very, very excited” to get it.

This year the youth group includes more than a dozen middle and high school students from St. Peter Church as well as from St. Ambrose Church in Bristol.

“Engaging students in service is the core of our youth ministry program,” Grover said. “It’s what most defines our faith — to treat everybody as our brothers and sisters by serving them, doing what our faith calls us to do.”

For MaryBeth Cosgrove, a high school junior from St. Peter’s, “it’s rewarding to give.”

She sees some of the meal recipients at Mass and said their faith is inspiring. “They make me want to be better myself and be like them” in their devotion to their faith, she said.

When the students deliver the meals, they include handmade cards “to give them a little cheer and let them know we are thinking about them,” Grover said.

—Originally published in the Winter 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.