May Is the Month of Mary

Eucharistic Kik Account Lake County Miracle in Poland Blackmail Passion Play in Confirmed Danger 35th Year Page 3 Page 9 Page 23 NORTH COAST CATHOLIC The Newspaper of the Diocese of Santa Rosa • www.srdiocese.org • MAY 2016 Noticias en español, pgs. 18-20 May is the Month of Mary May is known as the month of Mary. Many people join in with their families and friends to pray the Rosary. WHY THE DAILY Pope Francis greets newly married couples during his general audience in St Peter’s Square. ROSARY? • Our Lady has 117 titles. She selected this title at Fatima: “I am the Amoris Laetitia Don’t A great sign appeared in the Lady of the Rosary.” sky, a woman clothed with the • St. Francis de Sales said sun, with the moon under her the greatest method of Believe All the Headlines feet, and on her head a crown of praying is to Pray the by Mark Brumley twelve stars (Rev. 12:1) Rosary. As one who has perpetrated acts of journalism on the a.k.a., The Joy of Love, got a lot wrong. They provoked, • St. Thomas Aquinas preached 40 straight days in unsuspecting public, I admit that headlines can’t tell all right, but at the expense of informing. Rome Italy on just the Hail Mary. the whole story. If they could, there’d be no reason Consider USA Today’s headline: “Pope has good • St. John Vianney, patron of priests, was seldom seen for articles. Still, headlines can get things more or less news for divorced, but not for gays”. Actually, Pope without a rosary in his hand. right. They can inform as well as provoke, without Francis has “good news” for everybody—divorced, • “The rosary is the scourge of the devil” —Pope misleading. non-divorced, married, unmarried, homosexual, and Adrian VI Unfortunately, many headlines regarding Pope heterosexual people. It’s the good news of God’s pur- • “The rosary is a treasure of graces” —Pope Paul V Francis’ recent apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, (see Amoris Laetitia, p. 4) • Padre Pio the stigmatic priest said: “The Rosary is THE WEAPON.” • Pope Leo XIII wrote 9 encyclicals on the rosary. • Pope John XXIII spoke 38 times about our Lady and NET Ministries, cultivating the Rosary. He prayed 15 decades daily. • St. Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote: “The rosary is the most powerful weapon to touch the Heart our young disciples of Jesus, Our Redeemer, who so loves His Mother.” A large white van with a trailer For May, often called Mary’s month in popular devotion, of fun in tow, spent the month we offer you some articles for contemplation; Mary’s of April up and down our dio- month, ways to celebrate, and a practical suggestion for cese sharing the Good News. a Marian coronation. Perhaps you were fortunate enough to see this van and its Liturgical Celebrations for Mary in May motley group of college aged Two Marian liturgical celebrations are commemorated evangelists poor out of it and in May. When Ascension falls in May, the Saturday after into your parish parking lot, the Ascension of Our Lord is traditionally celebrated as NET team 6 visits the Chancery school, or church hall. If so, the Feast of Our Lady, Queen of the Apostles. The liturgy you undoubtedly heard a great commotion of young people singing, praying, and commemorates the period of time after the Ascension performing. when the apostles were gathered in prayer with Mary (see NET Ministries, p. 17) (see Month of Mary, p. 8) The Joy of Love Recalling The recently published long awaited Apostolic Exhor- his or her mind and feelings, learning how to listen, tation by Pope Francis, titled The Joy of Love is a very to speak and, at certain times, to keep quiet”. It is not important document and needs to be read. I say it something that a Christian may accept or reject. As an needs to be read, not because of the variety of relatively essential requirement of love, “every human being is a Hero controversial things some might hope to find there but bound to live agreeably with those around him”. Every by Dr. Alice von Hildebrand rather because it is a very beautiful statement about day, “entering into the life of another, even when that marriage. person already has a part to play in our life, demands How easily do we forget! How easily do heroes who The section of the Exhortation which I believe can the sensitivity and restraint which can renew trust and should be our role model for today are classified in have the greatest impact on marriage respect. Indeed, the deeper love is, the historical documents which we file and then fail to begins with paragraph 90. There more it calls for respect for the other’s turn to for help. Pope Francis begins a discussion of freedom and the ability to wait until the The dramatic situation in which Catholics find Saint Paul’s beautiful definition of other opens the door to his or her heart”. themselves today, particularly in the Middle East, love. As the Holy Father writes: “In In paragraph 100 the Holy Father should be a clarion call for us to remember a hero who a lyrical passage of Saint Paul, we continues in his own beautiful style: seems to be widely forgotten today: Joseph Cardinal see some of the features of true love: To be open to a genuine encounter with Mindszenty. It is high time that we recall his heroism, “Love is patient, love is kind; love others, “a kind look” is essential. This animated by his ardent faith, and that his life—he was is not jealous or boastful; it is not is incompatible with a negative attitude a “dry martyr”—gives strength and courage to those arrogant or rude. Love does not insist that readily points out other people’s facing similar trials today. May the Church soon give on its own way, it is not irritable or From the Bishop shortcomings while overlooking one’s him the honor of the altars, for indeed, he was a saint. resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, own. A kind look helps us to see beyond When Nazism was defeated in 1945 many were those but rejoices in the right. Love bears our own limitations, to be patient and who acclaimed peace, while closing their eyes to the Bishop Robert F. Vasa is all things, believes all things, hopes the sixth bishop of the to cooperate with others, despite our fact that monsters often have two heads, and† that all things, endures all things” (1 Cor Diocese of Santa Rosa. differences. Loving kindness builds rejoicing the fact that the one of Nazism had been cut 13:4-7). Love is experienced and nur- bonds, cultivates relationships, creates off, did not allow us to forget that there was another tured in the daily life of couples and new networks of integration and knits one—still more dangerous because injecting its poison their children. It is helpful to think more deeply about a firm social fabric. In this way, it grows ever stronger, more cleverly. the meaning of this Pauline text and its relevance for for without a sense of belonging we cannot sustain a Few were those like Dietrich von Hildebrand the concrete situation of every family.” commitment to others; we end up seeking our conve- who, having receiving the gift of clear sightedness, The Holy Father then offers two paragraphs on each nience alone and life in common becomes impossible. went public and declared the non-aggression pact† of the stated characteristics of true love. The first para- Antisocial persons think that others exist only for the between Stalin and Hitler in 1939 to be the “hour of graph is largely exegetical and instructional, the second satisfaction of their own needs. Consequently, there is truth,” hoping thereby—to open the public’s eyes to pastoral. I offer here a portion of the two paragraphs no room for the gentleness of love and its expression. the fact that these two vicious dictators were partners in which the Holy Father draws out the meaning and Those who love are capable of speaking words of com- in crime. In 1945, Hitler’s death was acclaimed as a practical application of the passage which points out fort, strength, consolation, and encouragement. These promise of universal peace, totally over looking† that that love “is not arrogant or rude”. I do this to whet were the words that Jesus himself spoke: “Take heart, the two headed monster of Nazism and communism your appetite so that you will be enticed to take up the my son!” (Mt 9:2); “Great is your faith!” (Mt 15:28); there still had one left—and the more dangerous one. document and read it in its entirety. “Arise!” (Mk 5:41); “Go in peace” (Lk 7:50); “Be not For the philosophy of racism based on the glorifica- In paragraph 99 we read: To love is also to be gentle afraid” (Mt 14:27). These are not words that demean, tion of the “blond beast” was so incredibly stupid and thoughtful, and this is conveyed by the next word, sadden, anger or show scorn. In our families, we must that one was tempted to question the intellectual aschemonéi. It indicates that love is not rude or impo- learn to imitate Jesus’ own gentleness in our way of sanity of those endorsing it. Moreover, it was bound lite; it is not harsh. Its actions, words and gestures are speaking to one another.

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