Abbey-Roads2

The patron saint of San Diego, California.

St. Didacus, A simple lay brother of the Alcantarine Franciscans.  He, like so many other saints, refused the sacrament of Holy Orders, claiming he was unworthy, just as our holy Father St. Francis refused ordination to the priesthood.  Yet men and women, who rebel against Church discipline and teaching, demand ordination for themselves, no matter if they are married men, gay (SSA) men, or women.  Suggests a lack of humility, don’t you think?

November 13 is the feast of St. Didacus.

On vocation.

“As Catholics, just because someone feels they have a vocation, doesn’t mean they have. It is the Church who does the calling, her voice alone we can trust.” - Source

And so if the Church says homosexuals may not be ordained… what does that mean exactly?

Humility.

Years ago, when I was working downtown, I attended daily Mass at a downtown church, as did a handicapped, mentally ill woman, and she would often shout out during Mass.  Sometimes, when a nun was present, she would shout, “I want to be a nun in Rochester.”  Mass would continue after her outburst, and I often thought how sad it was that she desired to be a nun so badly, yet she could never be accepted because of her extreme disabilities.  Once I asked her about her desire - she yelled at me and said, “I’m not worthy to be a nun - I just want to be one!”

She reminded me of St. Francis of Assisi who remained a deacon because he felt himself unworthy to be ordained a priest. 

And monks…

 ”In a community there may be four classes of religious: some perfect; others wicked, haughty, full of vanity, sensual, enemies of regularity; others tepid, cowardly, indifferent; and finally, the virtuous who tend to perfection, although they may perhaps never reach it.

Religious belonging to these four classes may be found in the holiest religious orders, as well as those communities which have fallen into a relaxed condition; with this difference, however, that in an order which has fallen from its first fervor, the larger number belong to the tepid group, and the remainder is composed of a few wicked souls, of a small number who work at their perfection, and of a very limited number of perfect souls.  But in an order in which regular observance is still in its vigor, the bulk of the community is composed of those who tend to perfection, and the remainder comprises a few perfect souls, a small number of tepid religious, and very few wicked souls.

We may make a very important observation here: that is, that a religious order leans toward decadence when the number of the tepid begins to equal that of the fervent…”- Three Ages of the Interior Life: Volume 1, Chapter XXXVII; Retarded Souls - excerpt from Fr. Lallement: The Spiritual Doctrine, appendix, chap. 8

Where are they now?

DaveStoneInc

About Our Founder

Dave Stone, MBA, MA, has spent the last 18 years as a brother and priest stationed at EWTN Inc. in Birmingham, Alabama. In that time he was best known as the host of EWTN’s then popular LIVE Show, Life on the Rock.

Prior to that, Dave was steeped in the proverbial “cult of the body” cultural mileue of the 1980’s and 1990’s. With an Accounting Degree from Michigan State University, an MBA from California State University, an MA in Systematic Theology, and life experiences that would rock the common man, Dave has experienced much of what the culture has had to offer – the good, the bad, and the ugly.

With his broadbased lived-experiences, Dave is uniquely positioned to provide the expertise, experience, and leadership necessary to found and Chair the dynamic and bold works of Dave Stone Inc., helping others Living Life On The Rock! - Dave Stone website.

“Nations that at one time were rich in faith and vocations are now losing their identity…” - Pope Benedict XVI

“In the last forty years, the Church has undergone one of her greatest crises of all times. We all know that the dramatic situation of consecrated life has not been marginal in this state of affairs. In practically all Western countries, observers note that most religious communities are entering the end-game of a prolonged crisis whose outcome, they say, is already determined by the statistics.” - Franc Cardinal Rodé, CM

Links:

Hawthorne Dominicans leave St. Paul Cancer Home

The Hawthorne Dominicans… leaving St. Paul, Minnesota…

What a group!  The most generous women I have ever met.  They live what once was referred to as a semi-cloistered life, devoted to the Eucharist, living the Dominican charism of prayer, study, and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the most Holy Rosary, with unequaled dedication to caring for the terminally ill cancer patient. 

Beyond hospice.

Their Cancer Homes are free - totally free - no charge to patients or their families, pride of place is given to those guests who cannot afford care in any other nursing situation.  The nuns do not accept State or Federal funding, nothing from the United Way, and have operated their homes completely dependent upon Divine Providence and the generosity of donors.  They will not even accept gifts of gratitude from patients or their families.  The Sisters homes are all state of the art medical facilities and comfortable homelike living environments for those whose lives are ending.

Total life care.

The nuns literally serve their patient-guests, treating them with dignity and love, without concern for religious affiliation, race or lifestyle.  They were doing the work of the Missionaries of Charity before Mother Teresa established her order.  They work seven days a week, sometimes working double shifts, to personally care for their patient-guests.  It is a generous life, founded by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, the daughter of Nathaniel Hawthorne, in NYC.  Rose took the religious name of Mother Alphonsus, and her cause for canonization is currently underway.

Our Lady of Good Counsel Free Cancer Home, St. Paul, Minnesota.

I heard from a social worker a few weeks ago that the Cancer Home in St. Paul is closing.  The Home was founded by Mother Alphonsus’ protege, Mother Rose Huber in 1941 on Pearl harbor day, December 7.  Today a lady from my parish confirmed  for me the Home may not be closing entirely, although the Dominican Sisters will indeed be leaving.  Supposedly the Archdiocese is working on a plan to keep it open, although it may not remain a nursing facility exclusively for cancer patients.  Nothing is decided as to its future, and they continue to accept patients.

Leaving St. Paul.

What is certain is that the Sisters will be leaving.  Such sad news.  It is the third Home the Order has closed in the last decade.  Five more Homes remain open.  (I do not know the dates for closing OLGC Home.)  Obviously there are not enough vocations to replace  the Sisters who are aging, incapacitated, or dying.  Please pray.  Pray for vocations, and pray especially for the good Sisters of the Hawthorne Dominicans.  Young women - drop out of college, quit your career, stop serving in a 9-5 job at your parish and really minister to the poor - forget dating and travel, even leave your boyfriends - for Christ.  If you are widowed and your children are grown, enter the Hawthorne Dominicans.  The sick and the poor need you.

The Church needs you… we need you.

With the loss of Catholic hospitals founded and operated by religious congregations, along with the closing of health care facilities such as the Cancer Home in St. Paul, we are experiencing first hand the terrible effects the decline in religious vocations has upon the Church, often resulting in the subsequent elimination of spiritual solace and Christian charity millions of Catholics once took for granted - many even considering it a right.  Pray for vocations.

Links:

Rosary Hill Home and Motherhouse.

Rose Hawthorne

Our Lady of Good Councel Home

It can happen.

New or experimental religious orders, even dwindling established orders have been, and can be suppressed by the diocesan Bishop or the Vatican.  A religious congregation has to be viable and have an apostolate, along with enough members to qualify for any canonical status, of which there are several degrees or designations; such as “pious association” to a “public association” and onto a full-fledged religious order.

That is not to say a group of faithful cannot become a private non-profit organization, nevertheless they would not have canonical status, nor would they be permitted to wear a habit in public, or claim to be a Roman Catholic religious community.

The Worcester diocese has recently rescinded recognition of a Carmelite group in existence since 1971.  “Chancery officials said the group was too small to spiritually sustain itself and there was little possibility of growth. One official said the community’s membership was down to three individuals.”  - Source  The group had diocesan status and permission from the Discalced Carmelites to wear the Carmelite habit.  I knew of the group when I lived in Boston, at a time when several “new” orders were being “founded” - some without permissions, others with.

Likewise, in the Midwest there are numerous religious foundations of hermits and contemplatives scattered throughout the region, many with very few members.  I wouldn’t be surprised if some of these are not eventually reigned in as well - either by inclusion into established orders, thus losing their autonomy, or disbanded as the Carmelites in Massachusetts have been.  Oddly enough, there is a local woman working very hard to have one group suppressed here.

Normally, it seems to me the most stable of the new communities are those founded at the Bishop’s request with a specific need in mind; for example, the Sisters of Life, or groups begun by an experienced religious or priest; as is the case with the CFR’s begun by Fr. Benedict Groeschl, or the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa. 

Become a lay-brother.

My all time favorite saints are Capuchin lay-brother saints.  There is nothing like them, or any of the other lay-brother saints - be they Dominican, Jesuit, Cistercian, what have you.  Having said that, there really is something special about those Capuchin Franciscans.

However.

Since the Council - that disruption of Catholic tradition in the 1960’s - the vocation of lay-brother has virtually disappeared, although the CFR’s seemed to have revived it, along with the Carmelites in Wyoming.  Otherwise, orders with lay-brothers pretty much sent them all to school to get degrees and “make something out of themselves”.  (Like massage therapists or clown ministry - kidding!)  Although, in the U.S. most people always looked down upon lay-brothers as men who couldn’t make it to be priests, even before the Council.  So the vocation was never really well understood in this country - outside of the cloister that is - and maybe not there either.

Above it all. 

I knew a Carmelite brother who once told me he wasn’t about to do the cooking and laundry any more - he had been liberated from all of that.  (How un-Brother Lawrence can you get?)  I also heard of a couple of Carthusians moving into hermitages to be like the fathers, rather than have to live like  lay-brothers any longer.  I don’t know if they are missing the saint boat or what…

St Felix.

Anyway - go here to read about the wonderful Capuchin Franciscan lay-brothers.  The following life of St. Felix of Nicosia (shown at top) is taken from the site:

Born on November 5th 1715, Giacomo Amoroso followed the trade of his father, a shoemaker. As a lad he held the greatest horror of any sin at all. At his work he distinguished himself by great modesty, docility, industry and patience. When his parents died he applied at the Capuchin convent for admission. He was refused. He persevered and he prayed and waited and at opportune times renewed his plea again and again. Finally after eight years, at the age of twenty seven, he gained admission. On October 19th 1743 at Mistretta he was invested with the habit and the name Felix after the first saint of the Order

Upon his profession, a year later, he was recalled to Nicosia to assist the questing brother in his mendicant rounds. Like his Seraphic Father, Saint Francis, Felix was very austere on himself in private but publicly his love of God was expressed itself in charity towards his neighbour. Like Francis, also he had a great love and devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

He was endowed with the gift of healing temporal and spiritual diseases and he delighted in tending the sick. He could also bi-locate in the same way as Padre Pio. Called to aid the sick when a malignant epidemic was decimating Cerami in March 1777, he responded eagerly. Airlessly and indefatigably he went about ministering the sick, and his labours were crowned with abundant success. “So be it for the Love of God”, were the words with which he accompanied his miracles of healing, and for the love of God he may be said to have lived his whole life. Second only to love came obedience. He never did anything without permission, and when he was overtaken by his last illness he asked the guardian to give him leave to die. He passed away on May 31st, 1787, at the age of seventy two.

For thirty three years he lived under a superior who considered it his role to sanctify Felix by subjecting him to relentless severity and fantastic humiliations, all of which he heroically endured.

Many religious today often like to remind people, “The vow of obedience doesn’t mean we become door mats.”  That’s right - you tell ‘em bro.

Links:

Australian Capuchins - check them out at WYD.

More Aussie OFM Cap.

Capuchins Midwest USA

Carmelite Monks

Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

Do most Catholics think homosexuality is okay?

“The majority of Catholics (55 percent) do not believe homosexual behavior is a sin. Only 39 percent of Catholics called it a sin.” - Source
 

But pedophilia is still a sin? 

I read a revealing blog post yesterday about a religious - from a good family (order) - who was arrested, tried and convicted of a crime he admitted to.  Yes, sexual contact, abuse, molestation, whatever.  The oldest boy/victim was fourteen.  Someone made an off the cuff observation that it is really mostly girls who get sexually molested, and I commented that is not true:  Men/boys who have been molested usually don’t tell because it is unmanly and too shameful for them to admit.  Someone else called the crime pedophilia… because the kids were young - the term amongst homosexuals used to be “chicken” for under age boys.  I suggested it would be more accurate to label the offender as a “gay-pedophile” - after all, it really was a gay thing - just like the Church abuse scandal was more a gay thing than classic pedophilia.  (Crime of opportunity, male on male action, arrested-development/sexual-immaturity of the perpetrator, and so on.)  Obviously, it is simply not PC to link the two.  (AND NO!  I am not suggesting all homosexuals are pedophiles, just as I would never suggest all heterosexual men are pedophiles.)

Aside from that, I asked these questions:

Who admitted the man to the order in the first place?

And did they ask him to live chastely for x-amount of time before admitting him to vows?

Can anyone else connect the dots here?