The Associates World: February 2020

February 3, 2020

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Table of Contents

A Look Back at 2019

By Levita Anderson, Old St. Mary’s Paulist Associate

 

As our church community celebrated Father Isaac Hecker’s centennial birthday, we had some changes at Old St. Mary’s in Chicago. We said goodbye to Father Steven Petroff, who became Vice Rector at our Paulist parish St. Patrick’s in Rome. We welcomed Father Stuart Wilson-Smith in July, and met our new Paulist in Residence, Father Daniel McCotter. Father Brad Schoeberle celebrated his 18-month anniversary as pastor of Old St. Mary’s on November 4. As a church we celebrated Dorothy O’Malley, Paulist Associate, who received the Christifidelis Award from the Chicago Archdiocese in October as well as celebrating 63 years of marriage. We concluded our celebrations with two church events; December 18th, the children’s mass and a potluck celebration (picture below) on December 22nd.

Our students were able to participate in the bicentennial birthday celebration of Father Hecker by learning more about him and his mission. On December 22, we had a potluck celebration for Father Hecker where parishioners bought dishes of German flair, and other delicious platters to share with each other.

As Paulist Associates, we celebrated Father Hecker with our discussions of his writings during our monthly Paulist meetings. Our dialogues were lively and thought provoking regarding how Father Hecker would minister to today’s faithful and those looking for a spiritual home.

On October 8th, we saw the film, “Father Hecker and the Journey of Catholic America”. For me, the movie gave a better insight into Father Hecker and his mission. It demonstrated how he was on a journey to feed his spirit as one would feed the body. His journey brought him to men who were also looking for spiritual enlightenment – Thoreau, Emerson, and Brownson. His journey reminds me of my journey to find spiritual comfort and ways to uplift my spirit.

I am extremely thankful that Father Hecker’s journey lead him to follow St. Paul and his mission to spread the teachings of Christ to the Gentiles by his entering the Redemptorists’ which lead to his founding the Paulist Fathers. Father Hecker wanted the Paulist to follow in St. Paul’s steps of bringing the Catholic faith to people based on where their journey was taking them. His travels to Muslim countries and his observations of their prayer practices reaffirmed for him that daily prayer can uplift and feed the spirit.

As we finish celebrating Father Hecker’s bicentennial birthday anniversary, may we continue in our discussion and practice how we can extend Father Hecker’s mission to today’s society and our own parish.

 


University of Texas Transition Statements

Message from Fr. Larry & Fr. Jimmy

To our beloved community at the University Catholic Center,

One of the few downsides to life as a missionary is that eventually, you are prompted to move on.  The Paulist Fathers have had an extraordinarily long run as missionary priests serving at the University of Texas at Austin — 118 years!

After much prayer and discernment, Bishop Joe Vásquez has made the decision that the University Catholic Center will be led by priests of the Diocese of Austin beginning in July of this year. 

Our departure from this community will be emotional and challenging.  But we trust in the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide us as He guides the whole Church.  More than anything we are grateful for the love and support of so many people: students, faculty, staff, alumni, parents and benefactors.  Meeting and working with all of you has brought us so much joy!  I’m confident that your love and support for us, and for the University Catholic Center, will continue. 

We would like to share with you statements from Bishop Joe S. Vasquez and Paulist President Fr. Eric Andrews.  

These will be read at this weekend’s Masses at the Catholic Center. 

May the good work God has begun in us be joyfully brought to completion through his Providence.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Larry Rice, CSP
Director

Fr. Jimmy Hsu, CSP
Associate Director

 


History of the University of Texas Catholic Center in Austin

 

The Paulist Fathers have been serving The University of Texas community since 1908.
At the time the Paulist Fathers were invited to serve, central Texas was a part of the Diocese of Galveston. Bishop Nicholas Gallagher invited the Paulist Fathers to found St. Austin Catholic Church, Austin’s third parish, and to minister to the Roman Catholic community at The University of Texas.

By 1913 the Newman Apostolate had a clubhouse adjacent to the church. In 1946 the corner of 21st and University Avenue was purchased to meet the growing needs of the Paulist Fathers’ ministry at the university. The existing building was later demolished to build the Catholic Student Center, which was dedicated in 1965 when the bishops of Texas met in Austin. Nearly forty years later, the Catholic Student Center was renovated and reopened in 2002 as the University Catholic Center.

Over the last century, the Paulist Fathers’ pastoral ministry has cultivated the spiritual, intellectual, and social lives of the Roman Catholic community at the university. Today the University Catholic Center continues to manifest the fruits of this cultivation. In addition to daily Mass and Eucharistic adoration, students have many more opportunities to learn about the richness of the Catholic faith and grow as leaders.

A key component of the continued success of the Paulist Fathers’ ministry is the commitment to partnerships in ministry. From programs like the semiannual Longhorn Awakening retreat and annual alternative spring break trips to the over 20 student groups focused on spirituality, service, and fellowship, the University Catholic Center continues to be the spiritual “home away from home” for students because students are invited by the Paulist Fathers’ ministry to make it their home. Since the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) joined the Paulist Fathers’ ministry in 2011, the University Catholic Center has been able to further the evangelization of the thousands of Catholic students who are not currently engaged in their faith.

 


 

Christian Unity: Why It’s Important

By Father Tom Ryan C.S.P. Director of the Paulist Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations

For starters, the Church is the community of those who, because of Christ, are no longer separated. It is a contradiction in terms to speak of “separated Christians”. Reconciliation, unity, are of the very nature of the Church of Christ. To be “in communion of life” with one another as Christians is our vocation.
Our communion with each other is linked with an infinitely deeper one from which it is inseparable: our communion with the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. What this means is common participation in the same benefits, shared possession of the same treasure. Many times, however, though our churches stand in proximity to one another, we remain largely strangers to each other.

In the New Testament, the word “reconciliation” is used to describe the changed relations between God and humanity which are the result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The source of reconciliation is the God of love, and the sphere in which reconciliation is an experienced reality is the new divine community—the Church—being built up by the activity of the Spirit of God.

Jesus’ Priority for his Followers

Imagine that you had the opportunity to spend the last hours with someone who has had a powerful influence on your life, someone whose teaching and mentoring has shaped your sense of yourself and defined your attitudes to others and to the world at-large.

Such is the situation of the apostles with Jesus at the last supper. He only has a few hours left with them and he knows it. It is a special time, and the particular message he wants to leave with them has the character of a last will and testament.

What does he say? You’ll find it in John’s gospel: “Father, I pray for those who will believe in me through their (the Apostles’) word, that all may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I in you; I pray that they may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me” (17:20-21).

Given the timing, the framework, in which that message comes to us, there is no dodging its centrality in Jesus’ priorities and values for his followers. Thus does Pope John Paul II write in his Encyclical Letter On Commitment to Ecumenism (1995):

It is absolutely clear that the movement promoting Christian unity is not just some sort of appendix which is added to the Church’s traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does (par. 20). The quest for Christian unity is not a matter of choice or expedience, but a duty which springs from the very nature of the Christian community (49). Concern for restoring unity pertains to the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike. It extends to everyone, according to the ability of each (69). Christ calls everyone to renew their commitment to work for full and visible communion (100).

Time for Action

It’s time for us to get involved in our parishes, our families, with our neighbors and co-workers to deepen and make visible this unity. Working for Christian unity is not just a policy of the Church. It’s a consequence of being a Church of Christians. The Church must be an instrumental sign of the human community that God wishes to bring into being. We are made for communion.

In the words of Paul: “God has reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor.5:18). A common life, in which those who were divided are reconciled in the body of Christ, is an essential goal of the mission that God has appointed for us. If we accept division among ourselves as Christians as normal and inevitable, we turn away from the mission God has given us. Friendly division is still division

Many who have grown up in our divided churches unconsciously assume that this is the normal situation. Ecumenism—the work for unity among the followers of Jesus—then becomes abnormal. However, let’s not confuse familiar with normal. The unfortunate fact is that many in our churches are reasonably comfortable with the way things are and feel very virtuous if a few tentative steps towards infrequent collaboration with other Christians are taken. The abnormality of the followers of Jesus living out of communion with one another is largely lost upon us. 

In the stretch of sea ahead, we need a missional approach that holistically integrates unity and mission. Unity is not about doing extra “ecumenical things,” but about doing what we’re already doing ecumenically.

The church has a mission in the world—to both bring the message and to be a test case for it. To live in such a way among ourselves as Christians that the message of reconciliation we bring can be read by anyone who cares to look at our own relationships among ourselves.

Let’s walk our talk. Let’s live our message.

In Fr. Ryan’s book Christian Unity: How You Can Make a Difference, the chapters are aimed at what congregations can do; what interchurch couples can do; what monastics, religious communities, and lay movements can do; what social action groups can do; what those in the field of education can do; and what people in the business community can do. Each chapter provides questions for reflection and discussion as to what you might do.

Program Proposal for Paulist Associate Groups: Read the book, discuss it, and decide on some  grass roots activities in promotion of  unity among Christians in their area.


Paulist Associate News

by Mike Kallock, CSP

The Paulist Associates at St. Luke University Parish in Allendale, MI which serves Grand Valley State University, has joined the Grand Rapid’s Paulist Associates based at the Cathedral of St. Andrew. The Cathedral is staffed by the Paulist Fathers.

The two groups will now call themselves the West Michigan Paulist Associates.
We are delighted of the merger and the new name. It reminds us that membership is not necessarily tied to a specific Paulist parish or center. It is open to any baptized Christian who is attracted to the Spirituality and Mission of Paulists Fathers and their founder, Servant Isaac Hecker.


We are pleased to announce that the application of John T. Domino for membership was approved. Congratulations John!

Our Thanks to Peter Kelly, the coordinator of the formation process for the Boston Paulist Associates, and all the other associates and Paulists at the Paulist Center in Boston who helped in John’s formation. We look forward to hearing when John makes his first commitment.


Paulist Associates and Paulist priests renew their promises at a January 25th Mass that the Paulist Center Boston.

 


Our Monthly Proposed Programs

At the request of several our groups who were having trouble coming up with a monthly meeting topic to discuss, the Board started putting in the Associates World a suggested “Proposed Program” for the month.
The Board also recommended using the monthly program as a means of keeping us “on the same page,” so that our group meetings would not stray from our purpose. Page one of Handbook for the Paulist Associatesstates that our meetings our intended “to support each other as they live out the ideals and work of the Paulists in their daily lives.”

In the past year, our monthly themes were based on Paulist Ron Franco’s monthly themes in Isaac Hecker for Every Day. This year we are suggesting you use or adapt for your monthly meeting the fifteen patron saints of the Paulists.

Why do you think the Paulists choose these saints to be their patrons? How do these saints’ model and help the Paulists, Paulist Associates, and Paulist Deacon Affiliates live Hecker’s vision and the Paulist mission?
We are asking our individual groups to do at least one of our patrons for the monthly program.  Some of you have already made them a basis for some of your meetings. Incidentally, The Paulist Prayer Book has a section: Calendar of Paulist Patrons, and a section: Monthly Patrons and Points of Reflection. They include most of our patrons.

Katherine Murphy our Board member from Columbus has committed her group to do John Henry Newman. Carol Wagner Williams, Board member from Tucson will have their associates do monthly programs on Teresa of Avila and Isaac Jogues.

In the March Newsletter, we will have some guidelines and instructions on composing a monthly program on one of our patron saints. We will also come up with a schedule. We have 15 patron saints (listed below). Enough for 15 months of programs. If you would like to get on the schedule right now, first come first serve, email Fr Mike at [email protected].

 

The official list (15) of the Paulist’s heavenly protectors and patrons in order of the Church calendar. The Church year begins the First Sunday of Advent.

December 8

The Blessed Immaculate Virgin Mary

May 26

Philip Neri

December 14

John of the Cross

July 22

Mary Magdalene

January 4

Elizabeth Seton

August 1

Alphonsus Liguori

January 24

Francis de Sales

October 9

John Henry Newman

January 25

Conversion of St Paul

October 11

John XXIII

January 28

Thomas Aquinas

October 15

Teresa of Avila

March 17

Patrick

October 19

Isaac Jogues

March 19

Joseph, husband of Mary

 

 

 


Proposed Program For February 2020

Submitted by Mike Kallock, CSP

(The Paulist National Board recommends all groups our monthly programs that will highlight some of our patron saints throughout 2020.)

OPENING PRAYER

God of all consolation, you inspired St. John of the Cross to follow you by way of self-denial. Help us to imitate his love of the crucified Christ and teach us to hope in the resurrection. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen (Opening Prayer for Memorial of John of the Cross, December 14)

John of the Cross is one of the greatest “Mystical Doctors” of the Church.  Born in Spain in 1591, he would live only 49 years. He became a Carmelite priest at 25 and would partner with Teresa of Avila (another great mystic) in reforming the Carmelites. Their reforming efforts met with much resistance, and John of the Cross would suffer months of cruel imprisonment by an order of Carmelites.

John of the Cross is best known for his The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul, The Spiritual Canticle, and O Flame of Living Love. He brilliantly expresses in his writings his experience of the Gospel’s paradoxical spiritual journey: you gain your life by giving it away, the Cross leads to Resurrection, it is in the darkness that we find the light, self-denial is move us toward union with God and all Creation, out of agony comes ecstasy.  

Hecker and John of the Cross

Hecker was introduced to the great mystics of the Church by the Transcendentalists and immediately felt they spoke to his spiritual journey. Throughout Hecker’s life he would reference how important the mystics were to making sense of his own spiritual journey. Hecker often cited John of the Cross as especially relevant to speaking to his spiritual condition.  

Soon after taking temporary vows with the Redemptorists, in a letter to Orestes Brownson (November 1, 1846) trying to bring Brownson up to his present spiritual state he writes, “ But not to detain you any longer on this matter I would refer you my dear friend to the works of St. John of the Cross which are contained in three duodecimo volumes and are complete on this subject, and most estimated.”

In a lengthy account of his “interior states” to his Redemptorist Formation Director two years later (Oct 24, 1848), Hecker displays his knowledge of the mystics of the Church. He even laments our lack of knowledge of the mystics writing, “I have found very few – scarcely one – directors who even read these authors…This almost universal ignorance in this matter was deplored by St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross in their time, and certainly it is no less now than then.”

In Hecker’s later years, failing health, and in a particularly dark period of his life, seeking a renewal of his mission zeal in Europe and the Nile, he would write Augustine Hewit, who was leading the Community in Hecker’s absence. Hewit would write back (May 7, 1874), “You interior and spiritual state, as you describe it, looks very much like the obscure night of the spirit, so clearly and distinctly delineated by St. John of the Cross.”

Hewit then reminds Hecker how John of the Cross and others “performed all their great works” while in the same spiritual state Hecker was going through. Soon after Hecker would emerge from his period of “darkness” and write most optimistically:

“The Holy Spirit fills the whole earth, acts everywhere & in all things, more directly on the minds & hearts of rational creatures, dwells substantially in the souls of the faithful, and is the light, life, soul of the Church.  This all-wise, all-powerful action now guides, as He ever has & ever will, all men & events to His complete manifestation and glory.  Pentecostal days! Were the promise of His universal triumph.

Hecker read, understood, and experienced the spirituality of John of the Cross, and especially John’s “dark night of the soul.” No one has written better than John of the Cross on how “the dark nights,” the crosses, the difficulties of our life when entered into with trust and faith in God will lead us out of the darkness into the light of a deeper, more loving relationship with God.

SHARE WITHIN YOUR GROUP

Below are seven short selections from the spirituality of John of the Cross. Pick the one that is most meaningful to you and briefly explain why. As time permits keep going around the group with your second choice, etc.

BRIEF EXCERPTS FROM THE WRITINGS OF JOHN OF THE CROSS

  • If you wish to be sure of the road you tread on, you must close your eyes and walk in the dark.
  • The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light.
  • Never give up prayer, and should you find dryness and difficulty, persevere in it for this very reason. God often desires to see what love your soul has, and love is not tried by ease and satisfaction.
  • In tribulation immediately draw near to God with confidence, and you will receive strength, enlightenment, and instruction.
  • Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.
  • Our greatest need is to be silent before this great God with the appetite and with the tongue, for the only language he hears is the silent language of love.
  • In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.

CLOSING PRAYER

O Blessed Jesus, give me stillness of soul in You. Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.
Rule me, O King of Gentleness, King of Peace. (John of the Cross)

 


Renewing Promises and Updating Lists of Associates

We are always happy to hear about new Associates taking promises as well as current Paulists renewing theirs. Please post notices and photos on Facebook and let us know so we can add the information in this newsletter.

When these renewals take place, it would be helpful to all if the local coordinator would send an updated list of Associates to Kathleen Lossau so she can keep our contact list current. Please email contact information for those taking first promises and those renewing promises as well as a list of those who have opted not to renewing promises to Kathleen Lossau <[email protected]>.


Consider submitting an article for inclusion in an upcoming issue of The Associates World

The Newsletter is published monthly, except January and July. Material for Associates World is always welcome

The Associates World welcomes submissions of articles or information about upcoming events or things going on with your local organization.

These should be sent as Microsoft Word documents and attached to an email to [email protected].  Except for reporting on late-month events, we would appreciate receiving submissions by the 20th of the month before the publication date. Please contact editors Kathleen Lossau ([email protected]) or Denis Hurley ([email protected]) with questions or article proposals.

 


 Prayer for the Intercession of Father Isaac T. Hecker

Heavenly Father, you called your servant Isaac Thomas Hecker to preach the Gospel to the people of North America and through his teaching, to know the peace and the power of your indwelling Spirit. He walked in the footsteps of Saint Paul the Apostle, and like Paul spoke your Word with a zeal for souls and a burning love for all who came to him in need.

Look upon us this day, with compassion and hope. Hear our prayer. We ask that through the intercession of Father Hecker your servant, you might grant us (state the request).

We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit. One God, forever and ever. Amen.

When you pray this prayer, and if you believe that you have received any favors through Hecker’s intercession, please contact the Office of the Cause for Canonization of Servant of God, Isaac Hecker at [email protected]. Visit the web site: isaachecker.org to learn more about his life and the cause for his canonization.


Contacts

Paulist Associates Web Site

Find us on Facebook

Paulist Associates National Director

Mike Kallock, CSP
Paulist General Office
New York, NY 10023

Board Members

Carol Wagner Williams
Tuscon, AZ

Frank Desiderio, C.S.P.

Katherine Murphy Mertzlufft
Columbus, OH

Joe Scott, CSP

David Rooney
Chicago, IL

Mary Sullivan
Boston, MA


Paulist Associates Promise:

I believe that I am drawn by the Holy Spirit to the spirituality and qualities of the Paulist Community. I have discerned both by prayer and study that God calls me to become associated with the Paulists. I promise that I will pray for the works of the Paulist Society, meet with others, who are also members of the Paulist Associates, for spiritual sharing and formation; and I seek to embody the apostolic qualities of the Paulists in my daily life.

Attentive to the Holy Spirit and faithful to the example of St. Paul and the charism of Father Isaac Hecker, I commit myself for one year of membership in the Paulist Associates.