Father Stanley Rother How Passionately He Chose to Live Mercy in His Life
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THE MISSIONARY Our Sunday Visitor engages, catechizes, and AN AMERICAN MARTYR inspires millions of Catholics with relevant and If you read Father Stanley’s life story alongside the easy-to-read pamphlets like this one. e wide corporal and spiritual works of mercy, it is unmistakable range of topics available includes: Father Stanley Rother how passionately he chose to live mercy in his life. He fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, visited the sick, • Church teachings comforted the affl icted, bore wrongs patiently, and, even • Th e sacraments • Current events as the danger grew, he comforted, forgave, and buried the “For myself I am a dead. Once Guatemala’s violent civil war found its way to • Seasonal themes the villages surround- • Stewardship Christian. For the • Papal teachings In his fi nal Christmas ing beautiful Lake sake of others, I Atitlán, many people, letter from the mission To view our current off erings and see sample am a priest.” like Father Rother’s PDFs online, visit osv.com/pamphlets. written to Oklahoma own catechists, began THE SHEPHERD — Father Stanley Rother Catholics in 1980, he to disappear. During In his fi rst apostolic exhortation, “Th e Joy of the Gospel,” those tragic years, ultimately concluded: Pope Francis describes what he calls “evangelizing he regularly walked gestures.” O en little and always powerful, these are the “ e shepherd cannot the roads looking for acts and attitudes that mark a Christian as a missionary. run at the fi rst sign of bodies of the dead to Because he saw the Gospel values not as a set of ideas danger. Pray for us that bring them home. but as an aff air of the heart, Father Stanley took care of the most menial duties with his whole being. Whether “It is really something we may be a sign of listening to someone’s pain, fi xing a car, changing a dia- to be living in the the love of Christ for per, driving someone to the doctor, or shopping for sup- midst of all this,” Fa- plies for the mission, he recognized the reality of God’s our people, that our ther Stanley described presence in each act — and by doing so he proclaimed in a letter dated a presence among them the Gospel of love, joy, and hope. will fortify them to year before his death. “ ere was another endure these suff erings Father Stanley came to understand with clarity the priest killed to the importance of “presence.” By constantly striving to be in preparation for North of us in Qui’che present to the people in front of him, to the needs in To order additional quantities of this or any other pamphlet contact: For Review Only. the coming of the while I was gone. at front of him, he proclaimed a God who lives and suff ers 1-800-348-2440 • Fax: 1-800-498-6709 • www.osv.com Kingdom.” makes three since the with his people. For Father Stanley, the choice to die for fi rst of May. One was his Tz’utujil was a natural extension of the daily choice By María Ruiz Scaperlanda kidnapped, presumed he made to live for them, and in communion with them. dead. And what do we do about all this? What can we do His death was nothing less than a proclamation of God’s Copyright © by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. No part of this pamphlet may be reprinted or reproduced in any form. but do our work, keep our heads down, and preach the love for the poor of Santiago Atitlán. Gospel of love and nonviolence.” Inventory No. P1896 Copyright Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. To paraphrase what G. K. Chesterton wrote of St. om- Nihil Obstat: Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D. Father Stanley Rother lived what St. Francis of Assisi as More: if there had not been that particular man at Censor Librorum commended to the members of his community: “Let that particular moment, our Church and history would Imprimatur: ✠ Kevin C. Rhoades all the brothers preach by their deeds” (Rule of 1221). have been diff erent. Not only because of Father Stanley’s Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend With humility and love, he became one with his Tz’utujil martyrdom, but even more signifi cantly because his life e Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are offi cial declarations that a book parishioners to show them — not just tell them — how and his priestly service remain a testament to the diff er- or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is much God loved them. He was, as the Year of Mercy ence that one person can, and does, make. contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat or challenged us to be, “merciful like the Father.” Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed. Refl ection: What would my faith look like — how Refl ection: How can I live out the corporal and would my life be diff erent — if I lived fully confi dent spiritual works of mercy in my life? in God? A A O A C A / For Review Only. Copyright Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. 12738_P1896_Rother.indd 1 4/26/17 10:14 AM he learned to be a man of prayer and a hands-on servant THE PRIEST with a resolute desire to become a priest. It is here where he learned perseverance needed years later to trust God Aer enrolling in seminary, Stanley discovered that when academics proved to be a painful challenge in learning Latin would prove to be a huge obstacle to his When he arrived at Santiago Atitlán in 1968, Father the seminary. And, it is here where he learned the love priestly vocation. Twenty-three-year-old Stanley flunked Stanley instantly fell in love with the volatile and stun- and compassion that led him to lay down his life for the eology I and was sent home. Back in Oklahoma City, ning land of volcanoes and earthquakes, but above all Gospel and for his sheep. when asked by his bishop, Stanley reiterated his un- with its people. wavering desire to follow the call to the priesthood. His His sister, Sister Marita, explained: supportive bishop agreed to find him a new seminary, In time, Father Stanley Francis Rother, also known sending Stanley to Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Em- as Apla’s (“Francis” in their native Tz’utujil), helped is extended family, along with the experiences n December 2016, Pope Francis officially recognized mitsburg, Maryland, where he successfully completed establish there the first farmers’ coop, a school, the first of the church and school communities, was inter- Father Stanley Rother’s martyrdom, making him the his studies. hospital clinic, and the first Catholic radio station, used I linked with our immediate family in developing first American martyr and first male born in the United for catechesis. While he did not institute the project, a deep faith life and lifelong values indispensable States approved for beatification, which will take place Stanley never gave up pursuing the truth of his call. he was a critical driving force in establishing Tz’utujil for providing a solid Christian life…. Religion on September 23, 2017. Years later, that young man who flunked because he as a written language, which led to the publication of a classes, daily Mass, sacramental preparation, couldn’t master Latin volunteered to go to a foreign mis- New Testament in Tz’utujil. This priest and farmer who How a 46-year-old diocesan priest from a small German daily Rosary in the home, and Sunday evening sion — where he not only became competent in Span- loved the land and recognized God in all of creation was farming community in Oklahoma came to live and die holy hour and benediction, along with other ish, but by the grace of God also was able to master the never afraid to dig in and get his own hands dirty fixing in the remote, ancient village of Santiago Atitlán, Gua- seasonal religious practices, were integrated into challenging Tz’utujil dialect of his Mayan parishioners. tractors or plowing the land — a trait deeply loved by temala, is a story full of wonder and God’s providence, our daily lives. Our Christian values were indeed his Tz’utujil people. beginning when the farm boy from Okarche decided to formed by the people with whom we associated, plant a different kind of harvest, becoming a priest for and we certainly had some of the best! In one of his final media interviews, Father Stanley the then-Oklahoma City and Tulsa diocese on May 23, explained: “Despite all this [hardship], you see happiness It is no coincidence that the same values Stanley learned 1963, at age twenty-eight. Five years later, Father Rother in the people. Their zest for life — to live and enjoy what growing up in an Oklahoma farming community — volunteered for Oklahoma’s mission in Guatemala, they have — their friendliness, their spirit of coopera- putting family first, hard work, kindness, generosity, per- ultimately finding his heart’s vocation as a priest to the tion…. ey are remarkable. I want to stay as long as I severance — are precisely the values that enabled him to Tz’utujil Mayan people — until his violent death on July c a n .” become a missionary shepherd. Even his knowledge of 28, 1981. farming and love for the land connected him in a special And, his prayer was answered. His body was returned way to his impoverished and close-knit Mayan parish- for burial to his hometown of Okarche in western THE FARMER ioners.