SERRA CLUB

OF

ORANGE COUNTY

November 2016 REGION 11 DISTRICT 127 Charter 438 NEWSLETTER

OUR MISSION IS TO FOSTER, AFFIRM AND PROMOTE VOCATION TO MINISTRY IN THE

FUTURE EVENTS PRAYER AT THANKSGIVING

November 3–Club Meeting, Speaker: Sr. Kit Gray

November 6-12 – National Vocations Awareness

Week November 17 – Club Meeting, Speaker: Fr. Al Baca

December 1 – Christmas Luncheon, St John Maron

PRESIDENT ”S MESSAGE Thank you, Father, for creating us and giving us to Dear Fellow Serrans, each other in the human family. Thank you for being We all know and love . with us in all our joys and sorrows, for your comfort On September 4, 2016, when she was in our sadness, your companionship in our canonized a in the Catholic loneliness. Thank you for yesterday, today, Church, perhaps we thought, that if tomorrow, and the whole of our lives. Thank you for anyone should be canonized, it friends, for health, and for grace. May we live this should certainly be Mother Teresa. For the past six and every day conscious of all that has been given to us weeks for the St. Cecilia Woman’s Ministry group, I had the privilege of leading the ladies using a Silence gives us a new outlook on life. In it we are filled delightful book, “Conversations with Mother with the energy of God Himself that makes us do all Teresa.” (There are four extra books available should things with joy.” you be interested in purchasing one, give me a call). As we prepare for Thanksgiving, let us take a few The book is filled with examples of how deeply she minutes to ponder the words of Mother Teresa, and in lived her love of Jesus. silence, to be alone with God giving thanks for all of our One example of this is on occasion the sisters were bountiful blessings that we enjoy each day. Happy treated to fresh fruit. Mother Teresa always chose an Thanksgiving Serrans! orange. One of the sisters suggested that she should In God’s Love, eat a banana because it had more nutritional value in Virginia Mort, President it. She stated that it was true but she answered “When I eat an orange it allows me to demonstrate VOCATIONS REPORT my love better to Jesus. Eating each section, she would repeat, “Jesus, I love you.” Our Seminarian who received the gift Another saying of Mother Teresa is, “We need card card for November, donated by Sue silence to be alone with God, to speak to him, to Silvestri, is mark Chae Jung. Mark’s listen to Him, to ponder his words deep in our home parish is St. Thomas Korean hearts. We need to be alone with God in silence to be Center. He is studying at Mt. Angel Seminary. renewed and transformed. Seminarian Ian Gaston, studying at Mt. Angel, nize when we see and feel the Holy Spirit. The Holy thanked our club for our prayers and support. He Spirit is a gift to the Church. Francis has said feels they are essential to his that he is not staying Pope until he dies. Only until formation and growth as a all his energy to fulfil his position has drained. The man of God. He especially young have the energy we admire. appreciated receiving the Prior to his trip to , he announced to them “I’m gift card. It arrived just before coming.” Once there he he would be going on a field exited the car quite early, trip. Seminarian Hernan causing a fair walk to his Wences, also at Mt. Angel, destination. He walked prays for the Serrans especially Mark Chae Jung alone into a neighborhood during his rosaries. He shared that the beginning of and knocked on a door to the semester was very busy, see how people are dealing now it has settled into a steady with trauma. He visited pace. Hernan sent a picture towns, privately, alone, as postcard of the chapel at Mt. a priest, a bishop and Pope, “Jesus is risen” for the Angel, a very prayful place. first time in decades, he has The seminary is connected awakened us. There are Sr. Nadine McGuiness to a Benedictine Monastery. packets that perhaps the Pope gave out in Italy, that Please continue to pray for show the worldwide challenges and how some all our seminarians and young countries are handling Christianity with these men discerning the priest- Ian Gaston challenges, how to keep and improve. hood. The next discernment is Jesus’ presence to us is the gift of the Holy Spirit. scheduled for 9th at 6:00PM, Nowadays we can know about so many countries Pastoral Center, First Floor, issues. How can we best help them? By practicing Room 1D, Christ Cathedral our faith and letting it be shown. For example, bone Campus. Any questions marrow donations can and has helped twins to live. regarding discernment, please We need to trust God! As families we need to trust contact Father John God to raise our children in God as they were Moneypenny, Director Christianly raised by parents, grandparents and of Vocations at Church. Let’s be ourselves and learn from our elders [email protected]. Hernan Wences and the wisdom of the Church. or 714-282-3036. Remember your day in the 31 Club and try to attend your parish Our speaker on October 20 was Fr. Augustin monthly day of Perpetual Adoration. Puchner VOCATION PRAYER : Fr. Puchner comes from a faith-filled family. Dear God, we ask you to inspire men and women to Encouraged early in life, he had a good foundation. respond generously to your call and embrace the gift His oldest cousin, Susan, became Sr. Miriam. He of their vocation. Bless them with the joy that comes first considered becoming a priest while serving as a through loving service. We pray in union with the altar server in 5th grade. In college, he was a pre-med communion of in the name of Jesus, your Son. biology major as he comes from a medical family. Amen His second love was theatre. It was at that point he Mary Brockschmidt, Vocations Trustee prayed for his calling. While that was happening he continued school and waited tables. That’s familiar to many of us. So, he prayed again, “show me what SPEAKERS you wish me to do to serve you.” To discern he asked himself “what do I do now.” Knock on the . On October 6, 2016 our speaker was bishop’s door and say I want to be a priest? So, he our Spiritual Director, Sr. Nadine. visited various communities. He ultimately chose the In her words, today’s first reading Norbertines and entered St. ’s Abbey in reflects Paul’s vision that everyone 1990, staying three years. Then it was on to Rome to ha had firsthand experience of God. study for four years. He was ordained in 1997. In Wrong! Stupid! We need to recog-

2009 he was moved to St. in Costa twenty-two years, she was sent to serve as a Mesa as Parochial Vicar. missionary to Trinidad. At first thinking she was So, what should we as parishioners do? Trust in God being sent to the Caribbean, but soon learned that her and trust in your faith. Think about church and trust, assignment was in , where the sisters of committing a life to the Church to help others. Charity recently opened a mission. She was later To end, there is very good news. Vocations are on transferred to Santa Fe, where she co-founded public the rise, so let’s continue our prayers and support. and Catholic schools throughout the United States. Prayers from family and friends really do help. During her time in , she worked with Sharon Birchler the poor, the sick and immigrants. She also advocated on behalf of and Native Americans who were losing their land to swindlers. SERRAN BIRTHDAYS IN NOVEMBER Sr. travelled alone on dusty trails and Laura Alfieri railroads, through the unexplored lands of the far Southwest, finally reaching Trinidad, a frontier mining town, on December 9, 1872. After opening a school with her bare hands, her first action was to THE FASTEST NUN IN THE WEST fight against the common practice of lynching. She came to learn from one of her students that a Blandina Segale, S.C., more commonly known as member of the gang led by famed outlaw Billy the Sister Blandina (23 May 1850 – 23 February 1941) Kid had been seriously wounded and had been left to was an Italian-born American Religious sister and die in a shack. She immediately went to him and, as missionary, who became widely known through her she examined the wound, spoke harshly to his service on the in the late 19th persecutors saying, “I see that with a hard head that century. During her missionary work, she met, you find yourself unable to kill him with one shot to among others, and the leaders of the head.” Without another word, she treated the Native American tribes of the and bandit and saved the man’s life. . She served as a educator and social In December 1873, Sr. Blandina received a letter worker who worked in , Colorado and New from her Mother Superior directing her to move to Mexico, assisting Native Americans, Santa Fe, New Mexico to help the religious settlers and European immigrants. settlement. Despite the scarcity of funding and The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe has resources, she built several schools and orphanages, opened a process to canonize Sister Blandina, for continued to visit the mines in the area and railway which it has received the permission of the . construction sites to minister to the people there. She For this, she is honored by the Church with the title managed to collect funds for the construction of St. of . She is the first individual in New Vincent Hospital and for the care of indigent. She Mexico’s 400-year history with the Church to have a visited and took care of Billy the Kid and other cause opened for their and prisoners confined in the main prison in New . Mexico. She was born Rosa Maria Segale in 1850 in Cicagna, In 1882, Sr. Blandina was charge with the , then part of the . She reconstruction of the dilapidated convent in emigrated at age four with her family to the United Albuquerque, New Mexico. She also attempted at States, where they settled in , Ohio. She building a hospital there but was recalled in 1889 to had felt called from an early age to join the Sisters of Trinidad, where she defended the right of the Sisters Charity of Cincinnati. She did so at the age of of Charity to teach in the local school while wearing sixteen, when she was clothe in the habit of the their , However, anti-Catholic sisters and given the religious name of Sister prejudice prevailed and she was forced to return to Blandina, in memory of St. Blandina, martyred in Albuquerque where, in 1901, she completed the 177 during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. On construction of St. Hospital. December 8, 1868, she completed the novitiate and Sr. Blandina returned to Cincinnati where she professed for the first time. worked with her sister for the Italian immigrant Sister Blandina went to teach in the schools of community until her death at the age of 90, on Steubenville and Dayton. It was there that she February 23, 1941. received notice on 27 November 1872, at the age of To be continued