New York City, N.Y., Oct 31, 2018 / 10:31 am (CNA).- A New York auxiliary bishop has been credibly accused of sexual abuse, the Archdiocese of New York has reported. The bishop maintains his innocence.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced in an Oct. 29 le… […]
Santa Fe, N.M., Oct 31, 2018 / 04:00 am (CNA).- A political group was wrong to use a letter from the New Mexico bishops for a newspaper ad backing a gubernatorial candidate in the upcoming election, the state’s Catholic bishops have said.
… […]
Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 31, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Aid agencies for the homeless often face what they call the NIMBY- “not in my backyard”- problem; the challenge that even those who support the homeless don’t want shelters in their… […]
Washington D.C., Oct 30, 2018 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, has had an interesting Twitter project for the last year and a half: she has kept a small (ceramic) skull on her desk, and has been tweeting daily meditations on death with the hashtag #MementoMori.
The project has now grown to include two forthcoming books: a journal titled “Remember Your Death: Memento Mori Journal,” as well as a Lenten devotional titled “Remember Your Death: Memento Mori Lenten Devotional.”
What makes a relatively young religious sister, certainly not one expecting to die soon, so eager to focus on death?
Noble told CNA that she was first inspired by the example of the founder of her order, even before she entered the religious life.
Bl. James Alberione kept a skull on his desk to remind him of his eventual death.
“Before I entered the Daughters of Saint Paul I read this and I thought, ‘That is so metal. Definitely going to do that at some point,” she said.
While she later forgot about the intention, it came back to her during a spiritual retreat last year. One of the priests at the retreat had a small skull with him. Noble took this as a sign to take up the meditation and borrowed a ceramic skull from one of her sister’s Halloween decorations. She created the hashtag campaign shortly thereafter.
The practice of meditating upon one’s death has been common in the Church for centuries, and daily prayers for the dead are part of the routine for many religious orders. In Catholic art, many saints are depicted holding a skull as a reminder of their death and the importance of preparing for a final encounter with God.
While death can certainly be an uncomfortable topic to think about, it is far from a morbid subject in the mind of the Church. Noble said that she believes that as Christians, “we are not just meditating on the reality of death but on Christ’s victory over death.”
With this in mind, Noble said that meditating about death is actually a “hope-filled practice.”
“Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote that ‘Christ died so that by dying he might deliver us from the fear of death,’” she said. The practice of memento mori, she said, “helps us to make that journey from fear to hope.”
Since starting her tweets, Noble told CNA that “hundreds” of people have sent her pictures of their own memento mori skulls, and that many people have seen the spiritual fruits that come along with meditating on their own death.
“One man told me that he had been suffering from insomnia and serious anxiety and had stopped going to church,” she said.
“But one Sunday he decided to go after seeing one of my tweets. As he walked into the church, the priest was saying an exact phrase from a Bible passage that I had tweeted earlier. The man felt God speaking to him in that moment through that ‘coincidence.’ He started going to Mass and meditating on his death, and his insomnia disappeared. God can work powerfully in people’s lives through memento mori.”
With the journal and devotional she is now writing, Noble says she wants to help people with the spiritual practice of meditating on one’s death “with something more substantive than my tweets.”
The journal contains an introduction to the practice of memento mori, as well as prayers and quotes from the church fathers, saints, and scripture. The journal, she said, is meant to be a companion to the Lenten devotional, which contains journaling prompts. It can, however, be used on its own.
Noble told CNA that “it would not be an exaggeration” to say that the practice of memento mori has changed her life and how she thinks about the world. In addition to thinking about death in a more Christian sense, she says she is less afraid of dying and more motivated to ask God for graces to change immediately rather than putting it off for the future.
“We all think we will live until old age, but death could come at any time,” she said.
“Holiness becomes more urgent in view of the fact that death is both inevitable and unpredictable.”
Washington D.C., Oct 30, 2018 / 03:19 pm (CNA).- Four states, including Texas and Florida, are in the crosshairs of an anti-religious freedom funders’ network that coordinated the successful effort to recognize gay marriage in law.
The Proteus F… […]
Denver, Colo., Oct 30, 2018 / 12:00 am (CNA).- As a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America continues its trek north to the United States, the U.S. bishops’ conference and leaders of Catholic aid agencies have urged government offic… […]
Washington D.C., Oct 29, 2018 / 07:00 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Washington celebrated the ninth-annual White Mass on Sunday at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle.
The Mass is held in honor of the dignity of those living with disabili… […]
Saginaw, Mich., Oct 29, 2018 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- Bishop Joseph Cistone of the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan planned one final diocesan event before succumbing to lung cancer in October: forty hours of continuous Eucharistic adoration to pray for the suffering of the Church, against a backdrop of country-wide revelations of sexual abuse.
After Cistone’s death, members of the diocese are participating in the forty hours of adoration, and are praying not only for the Church, but also for the late bishop’s soul.
Bishop Cistone died Oct. 16 after announcing in February that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He said at that time that he would undergo a treatment plan involving both chemotherapy and radiation. On Oct. 1 the diocese announced that the cancer had spread to other parts of Cistone’s body, and that he had begun an aggressive course of chemotherapy.
His funeral was held Oct. 23 at Saginaw’s Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption.
The forty hours of adoration began Oct. 28 with Mass at that same cathedral at 10 a.m, followed by a procession through the Cathedral to begin adoration. The adoration is scheduled to end after 7 p.m. vespers prayer on Tuesday Oct. 30.
Sister Esther Mary Nickel of the Religious Sisters of Mercy told CNA that the prayer intentions for the forty hours of adoration are for the diocese of Saginaw, the suffering of the Church, and for the repose of the Bishop Cistone’s soul.
Sister Nickel said on the first night of adoration, men from the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus volunteered to stand guard at the door all night.
“I was so surprised that people came through the night,” Sister Nickel said.”I must say we’re having a wonderful turnout. I’m grateful.”
Sister Nickel said that Catholics in the Saginaw diocese had been experiencing various hardships lately, in addition to the bishop’s death. Police raided the bishop’s home in March, as well as the diocesan chancery and its cathedral rectory, as part of an ongoing investigation into sex abuse allegations against several diocesan priests. Two priests have been placed on leave from their duties after a recent wave of accusations of sexual abuse against priests in the diocese.
The practice of forty hours of adoration draws its roots back to Rome over 500 years ago, begun by St. Philip Neri. Sister Nickel said the forty hours devotion was “near and dear” to Cistone’s heart, and this event was the last one he approved for the liturgy office before his death. She said Bishop Cistone had a great devotion to St. John Neumann, a great proponent of the practice in the United States, who started the practice at his parish in Philadelphia in 1840.
Sister Nickel said Cistone brought this tradition back from Philadelphia to Saginaw with him, as well as his desire that his priests in particular would cultivate a devotion to the blessed sacrament.
Martha Arvizu, a lifelong Saginaw resident and a parishioner of the diocese since the ninth grade, told CNA it can sometimes be difficult for her to quiet her mind from the noise of daily life. She and her 91-year-old mother, who Arvizu said always wants to be there with her daughter despite being hard of hearing, attended the adoration service Sunday night.
“It’s wonderful to come and be in the silence and get in the presence of our Lord,” Arvizu said. “He’s very forgiving and He walks with us.”
Arvizu said despite the difficult circumstances present in the Saginaw diocese and elsewhere in the Church, she plans to continue to practice her faith.
“I think if you lose your faith, you’re nowhere,” she reflected. “If you have your faith, and you believe in your faith, nothing can deter you. [God’s] there to help us along, and what our destiny is, he’s the only one that knows…I think our faith will get us through anything.”
She said although there is at least one parish in the diocese that offers perpetual adoration, it was nice to be able to stay in adoration as long as they wanted under the protection of the Knights.
“We probably should do it more often, as long as we have preparation,” “This was very well planned, they let everyone know that they were going to do this. I think it’s a positive thing, and even those who have been going that don’t come all the time find it enriching…[Adoration’s] something we all need, especially at this time, with the loss of our bishop.”
Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct 29, 2018 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Catholic bishops promised prayers for victims and their families while condemning anti-Semitism, after a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday killed 11 people.
“To our brothers an… […]
Issele-Uku, Nigeria, Oct 29, 2018 / 04:55 pm (CNA).- Five nuns were abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s Delta state on Thursday, according to local media.
The nuns are members of the Order of the Missionary of Martha and Mary.
They were kidnapped O… […]
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