Tag: Saints

6 min read

Saints

Venerable Mother Henriette Delille: A patron for perseverance

Michael R. Heinlein

October 8, 2020 4:30 pm October 8, 2020

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6 min read

For nearly 15 years, Henriette Delille (1812-62) remained committed to a call from God made difficult to answer on account of man’s sins. The reality was that no religious communities…

For nearly 15 years, Henriette Delille (1812-62) remained committed to a call from God made difficult to answer on account of man’s sins. The reality was that no religious communities in New Orleans would accept her into their community, either racist themselves or unwilling to confront the systemic racism of the time. But on Oct. 15, 1851, Delille at last was able to profess poverty, chastity and obedience and give her life to Christ as a professed religious.

A few details of Delille’s profession are significant and shed light on the enormity of what she undertook that fall day in the chapel of the Ursuline convent in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Taking the religious name Marie Terese, Delille took upon herself a task of reforming religious life, much like her inspiration St. Teresa of Ávila. While Ávila, Spain, worked to overcome the lax and lavish lives of the Carmelites in her day, Delille had to overcome the prevalent racist mindset that plagued the Church of her time.

Delille’s entrance to religious life arrived outside of the customary norms of the day. Aspirants to religious life were young, came from relative affluence and were white. Delille was not of those. Delille was the fourth generation of freedpersons, her family having gone from slavery to owning slaves. She was expected to follow the course of her family’s matriarchs and form a liaison relationship with a white man, which afforded them a better life than marriage to a man of color like themselves. In fact, without the ties brought by marriage, the women who adhered to this plaçage system remained solely in charge of everything from finances to their children’s upbringing.

Delille’s mother groomed her to take up this way of life. Records indicate Delille entered into such a relationship early in her life, but it did not last long. It produced two children who both died in infancy. And not long after, a court declared her mother mentally insane. Just past 20 years of age, Delille found herself surrounded by grief and hardship.

In 1836, Delille experienced a conversion, and her faith was intensified and reinvigorated. After receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation, which was received in those days by only the most devout in practice of the Faith, Delille became a woman wholly committed to the Lord. Her guiding motto, written in a prayer book, captures what defined her heart and spurred her vocation: “I believe in God. I hope in God. I love. I want to live and die for God.”

Her desire to live the Faith more fully brought her closer to like-minded friends, Juliette and Josephine. Together they engaged in ministry to enslaved and free girls and women of color. Laying the foundation for her order, which at the time was known as the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, she wrote their rule of life in 1836. Through her motivation and vision, this new congregation would bring Christ to the peripheries of their city and beyond.

Delille’s new congregation chose “one heart and one soul” as its motto, reminiscent of the apostolic way of life in Christianity’s earliest days. Their desire was threefold. First, they sought to “bring back Glory to God and the salvation of the neighbor by a charitable and edifying behavior.” They were committed to be Christian women of utmost authenticity and integrity. Second, the women resolved to help each other in this task and in the work they set out to accomplish. Third, they pledged to serve those in need throughout the wider community. Their mission was to care for the poor, sick and elderly, “the first and dearest objects of the solicitude of the congregation.” And the new sisters were intent on teaching “the principal mysteries of religions and the most important points of Christian morality” to both slave and free children.

The congregation would not have existed, too, without the support and patronage of New Orleans’ archbishop Anotine Blanc and his vicar general Father Etienne Rousselon. The latter was a source of generosity and support to the fledgling community and a spiritual mentor to Delille. Both clerics assisted the women in the formalization of their community and their recognition within the Church. By 1842, the congregation became known officially and for good as the Sisters of the Holy Family.

As the congregation grew, Delille contributed inheritance she received after her mother’s death to begin growing an institutional presence. By the 1850s, Delille’s community had a convent with classrooms, operated an orphanage and educated young girls in literacy and catechism while teaching them skills such as sewing. The education they provided to enslaved children was outlawed at the time. Their service to the sick included the victims of a yellow fever epidemic, and they also brought into their home elderly infirm women, a first in America.

Delille’s generosity and love was known to everyone who knew her. She responded to the Lord’s call with great love, requisite perseverance and heroic virtue. The last decade of Delille’s life was dedicated to attracting new members to the congregation. At the time of her death, 12 sisters of mixed racial descent resided at the convent.

Delille truly was a mother, not just to the congregation of sisters she established, but to all she encountered. Parish sacramental records show she even served as godmother and marriage witness in many circumstances. Delille died on Nov. 16, 1862, at the age of 50. An obituary summed up her calling “for the love of Jesus Christ she had become the humble and devout servant of the slaves.” Delille’s cause for canonization opened in 1988, and she was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

Prayer for the Beatification of Venerable Mother Henriette Delille
O good and gracious God, you called Henriette Delille to give herself in service and in love to the slaves and the sick, to the orphan and the aged, to the forgotten and the despised. Grant that inspired by her life, we might be renewed in heart and in mind. If it be your will may she one day be raised to the honor of sainthood. By her prayers, may we live in harmony and peace, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen. Nihil obstat: Rev. Msgr. Franz Graef, S.T.D. Imprimatur: Most Reverend Francis B. Schulte Archbishop of New Orleans Louisiana Aug. 23, 1997 Favors received: https://www.henriettedelille.com/

Prayer for the Beatification of Venerable Mother Henriette Delille

O good and gracious God, you called Henriette Delille to give herself in service and in love to the slaves and the sick, to the orphan and the aged, to the forgotten and the despised.

Grant that inspired by her life, we might be renewed in heart and in mind. If it be your will may she one day be raised to the honor of sainthood. By her prayers, may we live in harmony and peace, through Jesus Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Nihil obstat: Rev. Msgr. Franz Graef, S.T.D.
Imprimatur: Most Reverend Francis B. Schulte
Archbishop of New Orleans Louisiana
Aug. 23, 1997
Favors received: https://www.henriettedelille.com/

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7 min read

Saints

Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman: A patron for joyful Gospel witness

Michael R. Heinlein

October 7, 2020 11:00 am October 7, 2020

7 min read

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7 min read

Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, on Dec. 29, 1937, Bertha Bowman was the granddaughter of a slave and the only child of a doctor and a teacher. Her father abandoned…

Born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, on Dec. 29, 1937, Bertha Bowman was the granddaughter of a slave and the only child of a doctor and a teacher. Her father abandoned a career in New York after an aunt convinced him African Americans in the south had difficulties getting quality medical care. Bowman saw up close the prejudice and racism produced. Bowman was taught that “we must return love, no matter what.”

Both parents instilled in their daughter a deep love for their heritage and a profound respect for family and community elders. “I’m what they used to call an ‘old folks’ child,” Bowman often said. Her experiences provided the foundation for her robust faith and equipped her to cope with the difficulties faced amid a segregated south. As she learned, and would know by living, “God makes a way out of no way.”

From the older generation she came to know the Scripture, learn the songs, dances and customs of their people. And that is where Bowman learned to have a big heart that loved and helped everyone. “When you help somebody, that’s how you become big, that’s how you become proud, not by getting things, but by helping somebody and leaving the world better than you found it.”

The course of Bowman’s life would change when a school was opened up in her Canton, Mississippi, hometown by the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration from La Crosse, Wisconsin. Holy Child Jesus mission church and school had been established and served by missionary priests and sisters to provide a better education for Black children, whose education suffered from the effects of segregation, but it was open to all. The Gospel joyfulness of those missionaries attracted young Bowman to the Catholic faith, and she converted at age 9. This same joyfulness became a hallmark trait of hers as well. Bowman was so attracted to their way of life at 15, she went on a hunger strike to get her parents’ permission to enter as an aspirant with her teachers’ order.

As an aspirant for the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, Bowman moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where she began high school at St. Rose Convent School. This was at a time when many convents of white sisters often did not have an African American in their midst. Bowman’s arrival was a bit of a news sensation. One local story that covered her arrival in La Crosse came under the headline “Negro Aspirant.”

As if moving away from home and beginning a new life at such a young age was not enough, life in the convent did not protect her from open racial prejudice. But Bowman worked very hard to win over the other sisters and persevere in entering the community. She did so with her cheerful, outgoing demeanor and tenacious love for Christ and the Church. Another setback came in the form of tuberculosis, which necessitated a year of treatments at a sanitarium east of La Crosse.

Sister Thea, her name given upon taking religious vows, was intellectually gifted. Her first assignments were teaching grade school in La Crosse and then at home in Canton, Mississippi, and her beloved Holy Child Jesus School. Bowman left Mississippi for Washington, D.C., in 1965. There, she obtained a master’s and doctoral degrees in English at The Catholic University of America. In 1972, Bowman returned to La Crosse to take up a professorship at her alma mater Viterbo College.

Bowman came of age in the midst of America’s struggle for civil rights, and the racial and social tumult of the 1960s was immensely formative for her. She recognized the need not only to speak up on behalf of her African American brothers and sisters but to help heal a society, culture and Church deeply wounded by racism and its effects. She wanted to bring great awareness of her beloved culture and promote greater harmony and mutual respect among people who looked different from one another.

After the only child returned home to take care of her parents in 1978, Sister Thea served as director for intercultural affairs in the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi. In her work there, Bowman dedicated herself to overcoming the divisions in the Church and society and also served as a founding faculty member and later director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans.

As a writer, teacher, musician and evangelist, Sister Thea preached the Gospel to clergy and laity alike, promoting ecclesial and cultural harmony and reconciliation. With her prophetic voice, Bowman was a tireless spokeswoman for the Black Catholic experience.

In 1984, Bowman’s life drastically took on the form of the cross. Not only did she bury both of her parents, but Bowman was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Regular chemotherapy treatments weakened Bowman physically, limiting much of her movement to a wheelchair, but her mind and heart remained strong. Pledging to “live until I die,” Sister Thea remained wholeheartedly committed to her ministry, which included travels around the world, during her battle with cancer. About a year before she died, Bowman gave a rousing speech before the bishops of the United States, articulating for them the Black Catholic experience in this country and the need for their fuller participation in the life of the Church.

She died on March 30, 1990, and her cause for canonization was opened in 2018. She wanted her grave marker to read, “She tried,” explaining, “I want people to remember that I tried to love the Lord and that I tried to love them, and how that computes is immaterial.”

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael.

Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman
Ever loving God, who by your infinite goodness inflamed the heart of your servant and religious, Sister Thea Bowman with an ardent love for you and the People of God; a love expressed through her indomitable spirit, deep and abiding faith, dedicated teaching, exuberant singing, and unwavering witnessing of the joy of the Gospel. Her prophetic witness continues to inspire us to share the Good News with those whom we encounter; most especially the poor, oppressed and marginalized. May Sister Thea’s life and legacy compel us to walk together, to pray together, and to remain together as missionary disciples ushering in the new evangelization for the Church we love. Gracious God, imbue us with the grace and perseverance that you gave your servant, Sister Thea. For in turbulent times of racial injustice, she sought equity, peace and reconciliation. In times of intolerance and ignorance, she brought wisdom, awareness, unity and charity. In times of pain, sickness and suffering, she taught us how to live fully until called home to the land of promise. If it be your will, O God, glorify our beloved Sister Thea, by granting the favor I now request through her intercession (mention your request), so that all may know of her goodness and holiness and may imitate her love for you and your Church. We ask this through your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. 2018 Catholic Diocese of Jackson Imprimatur: Most Rev. Joseph R. Kopacz, Bishop of Jackson, Mississippi Favors received: sistertheabowman.com

Prayer for the Beatification of the Servant of God Sister Thea Bowman

Ever loving God, who by your infinite goodness inflamed the heart of your servant and religious, Sister Thea Bowman with an ardent love for you and the People of God; a love expressed through her indomitable spirit, deep and abiding faith, dedicated teaching, exuberant singing, and unwavering witnessing of the joy of the Gospel.

Her prophetic witness continues to inspire us to share the Good News with those whom we encounter; most especially the poor, oppressed and marginalized. May Sister Thea’s life and legacy compel us to walk together, to pray together, and to remain together as missionary disciples ushering in the new evangelization for the Church we love.

Gracious God, imbue us with the grace and perseverance that you gave your servant, Sister Thea. For in turbulent times of racial injustice, she sought equity, peace and reconciliation. In times of intolerance and ignorance, she brought wisdom, awareness, unity and charity. In times of pain, sickness and suffering, she taught us how to live fully until called home to the land of promise. If it be your will, O God, glorify our beloved Sister Thea, by granting the favor I now request through her intercession (mention your request), so that all may know of her goodness and holiness and may imitate her love for you and your Church. We ask this through your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

2018 Catholic Diocese of Jackson
Imprimatur: Most Rev. Joseph R. Kopacz, Bishop of Jackson, Mississippi
Favors received: sistertheabowman.com

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4 min read

Saints

Why Do Catholics Venerate Relics?

Michael R. Heinlein

October 1, 2020 7:24 am October 1, 2020

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4 min read

Although more than a common part of Catholic culture and practice, the veneration of relics has been practiced less during the last 50 years or so. But that seems to…

Although more than a common part of Catholic culture and practice, the veneration of relics has been practiced less during the last 50 years or so. But that seems to be changing in recent years, as a number of saintly relics have been traversing the United States, attracting large numbers of the faithful. Relics seem to be making a comeback, and in a big way.

And yet the veneration of relics in the Catholic tradition can be misunderstood easily. At first glance it can appear to be displaced praise. Critics would falsely claim that praise or worship is accorded to the relic or saint rather than God himself, who, of course, is rightly the only subject of all worship.

A proper understanding of relic veneration, however, is best achieved with an appropriate approach. It would simply be incoherent to think that a Catholic or Christian would offer praise and worship to anyone other than God. And yet, honoring the saints — and their relics — is also an important part of what we do.

In order to develop a proper understanding of the place of relics in the Christian tradition, it might be helpful to consider them within a different context — that of family. It’s not uncommon for many people to honor the memory of their loved ones by keeping pictures of family around the house. Nor is it uncommon to keep cherished belongings of our deceased loved ones, like grandma’s jewelry or grandpa’s Bible. These belongings likely are treasured, and treated with honor and reverence. They’re kept in safe and honorable places. They’re well-packaged when we move. They’re often handed on from one generation to the next. These secular “relics” assist us in recalling the person and his or her life, and the memories that remind us of who they were and what they were about.

It is not rare to honor remnants of relatives’ bodies, or those of notable people. Often parents will keep first teeth that are lost or save clippings of their child’s first haircut. We build monuments to great men and women, and set up grave markers to memorialize them. And so it seems almost second nature for us to honor members of our family and those dear to us as well as the objects that belonged to them.

And so why wouldn’t a similar reverence translate into our family of the Church? The saints are those men and women from our family who are deserving of our honor for their life of spiritual greatness. Moreover, they have put on Christ in baptism and beocme members of his body.

Catholics see the members of the Church as members of a family. Of course, as human beings — composites of body and soul — the Church honors their bodies after death. We, of course, do this as well in our families when we visit and decorate graves on birthdays, death dates or holidays. Made in God’s image and likeness, we recognize the dignity of the human person by honoring their earthly remains — that is why the Church demands of proper disposal of a person’s remains (burial of body or cremains).

Within this context, then, we should understand that relics are meant to be honored and venerated, not worshipped. In fact, the saints lead us to fuller worship of God in spirit and truth. By honoring their memories, bodies and belongings, we give thanks to God for the saint’s holy witness. Relics are physical, tangible, concrete reminders that heaven is obtainable for us — so long as we recognize what made the saints holy and work to apply those qualities to our lives. When venerating relics we express gratitude to God for those members of our spiritual family. In the presence of the relics we recall their holy lives and we pray for the grace to achieve what they’ve achieved — eternity with God in Heaven.

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter @HeinleinMichael.

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12 min read

Saints

Novena in preparation for the Beatification of Fr. Michael J. McGivney

Michael R. Heinlein

August 17, 2020 9:29 am August 17, 2020

12 min read

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12 min read

Beginning Oct. 23, join in praying this novena with Catholics around the country in preparation for the Oct. 31 beatification of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of…

Beginning Oct. 23, join in praying this novena with Catholics around the country in preparation for the Oct. 31 beatification of Father Michael J. McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus.

Day 1: Father McGivney, help us grow in faith!

Father Michael McGivney was motivated to help his people know the Catholic faith but also to live by it increasingly each day. He was an effective and clear preacher, applying the principles of faith to his sermons and making the Faith relevant to the lives of his flock. Father McGivney also was dedicated to teaching the Faith to young people in his parishes. His motivation was his great faith in Jesus Christ and His Gospel.

Pray the Prayer for the Canonization of Father Michael J. McGivney

God, our Father, protector of the poor and defender of the widow and orphan, you called your priest, Father Michael J. McGivney, to be an apostle of Christian family life and to lead the young to the generous service of their neighbor. Through the example of his life and virtue may we follow your Son, Jesus Christ, more closely, fulfilling his commandment of charity and building up his Body which is the Church. Let the inspiration of your servant prompt us to greater confidence in your love so that we may continue his work of caring for the needy and the outcast. We humbly ask that you glorify your venerable servant Father Michael J. McGivney on earth according to the design of your holy will. Through his intercession, grant the favor I now present (here make your request). Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be

Day 2: Father McGivney, motivate us to hope!

Father Michael McGivney’s desire for his parishioners was for them to become the saints God created them to be. The priest helped awaken a desire for holiness in the hearts of his people. Through his ministry, he nourished them with the sacraments and fortified them by preaching the Gospel. He was also motivated by the hope that he would one day share in God’s heavenly banquet. In word and deed, Father McGivney was a man who longed for deeper union with Christ.