Heavenly Father, you have given us the model of life in the Holy Family of Nazareth. Help us, O Loving Father, to make our family another Nazareth where love, peace and joy reign. May it be deeply contemplative, intensely eucharistic, revived with joy. Help us to stay together in joy and sorrow in family prayer. Teach us to see Jesus in the members of our families, especially in their distressing disguise. May the eucharistic heart of Jesus make our hearts humble ...

From September 8th to 15th, Quito, Ecuador will host the International Eucharistic Congress, bringing together the faithful from around the globe. With the theme "Fraternity to Heal the World," this year's event is a profound opportunity for spiritual renewal and reflection, drawing delegations from 53 countries to participate.

There are many things about Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta that could be called heroic - her tireless service to the world's most rejected and her courageous witness to millions of what it is to live the Gospel, just to name a couple.

Houston, Texas, Sep 5, 2024 / 18:04 pm (CNA).

The Catholic bishops of Arizona have come out against a ballot initiative that would criminalize illegal immigration at the state level and strengthen state border enforcement. 

Arizona citizens will be voting on the measure, which is titled the Arizona Immigration and Border Law Enforcement Measure, or simply Proposition 314, as part of this November’s election.

Though they expressed “frustration about the current situation at the U.S.-Mexico border,” the state’s four Catholic bishops said in a statement that the proposition would have “harmful consequences.”

The bishops asserted that border enforcement is a federal not state issue and that if passed the result of the measure would be that “dangerous criminals will not be apprehended, and public safety will be threatened.”

What would the proposition do?

If passed, the proposition would make it a state crime for migrants to enter Arizona from any location other than an official port of entry. The measure would also authorize state and local police to arrest illegal migrants and allow state judges to order deportations.

Additionally, the measure would require officials to determine the immigration status of individuals before being enrolled in financial aid or public welfare programs. Individuals who violate the measure by submitting false information to evade detection of employment eligibility or to apply for public benefits would face Class 6 felony charges.

Lastly, the measure would make it a Class 2 felony for a person to knowingly sell fentanyl that results in the death of another person.

What are the bishops saying?

The Arizona bishops said that “the reality is that its passage will create real fear within Arizona communities that will have harmful consequences.”

The bishops claimed that by “having state and local law enforcement responsible for enforcing what should be the role of federal immigration authorities, many crime victims and witnesses will be afraid to go to law enforcement and report crimes.”

“Immigration by its nature is a national issue and the regulation of immigration extends beyond the purview of individual states,” the bishops said. “Rather than holding the federal government accountable, Proposition 314 will only create further disorder and confusion, placing unworkable and unrealistic expectations on state judicial officers and law enforcement personnel.”

Despite their opposition to the state measure, the Arizona bishops hold that “comprehensive immigration reform” is sorely needed from the federal government.

Bishop Edward Weisenburger of Tucson said in a video released by the bishops that “the federal government needs to do a much better job at managing our border and providing comprehensive immigration reform.”

“The lack of a federal solution to challenges faced by both vulnerable asylum seekers and American communities is sorely needed and long overdue,” Weisenburger said.

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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 5, 2024 / 16:26 pm (CNA).

Nicaraguan authorities released 135 political and religious prisoners following international pressure, but many critics of the government still remain behind bars amid the ongoing crackdown against political dissidents and religious organizations.

“No one should be put in jail for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights of free expression, association, and practicing their religion,” U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a Thursday statement. 

The U.S. Department of State (DOS), which has been working to secure the release of political prisoners in Nicaragua, announced that the freed people included Catholic laypeople, 13 individuals associated with the Texas-based evangelical group Mountain Gateway, and human rights activists.

According to the DOS, many of the former prisoners temporarily resettled “safely and voluntarily” in Guatemala. The Guatemalan government worked with the United States government to help secure the prisoners’ release. 

“These freed Nicaraguan citizens will now have the opportunity to apply for lawful pathways to resettle to the United States or elsewhere and begin the process of rebuilding their lives,” a DOS statement read.

President Daniel Ortega’s administration has jailed hundreds of political opponents over the past six years after the 2018 protests against his leadership. The socialist president has also expelled religious sisters and shut down Catholic schools and media outlets. He has imprisoned dozens of Catholic clergy, including Bishop Rolando Álvarez — who was released and sent to the Vatican along with priests and seminarians in January of this year.

Just last week, the regime shut down 169 additional nonprofit organizations, which included Catholic organizations and evangelical churches. Last week, the government also confiscated a retirement fund for Catholic priests. Last month, the dictatorship eliminated tax exemptions for Catholic and evangelical churches. 

“Daniel Ortega, [Vice President] Rosario Murillo, and their associates continue to violate human rights, stifle legitimate dissent, jail opponents, seize their property, and prevent citizens from reentering their home country,” the DOS statement read. “We urge the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Nicaragua.”

Kristina Hjelkrem, who serves as legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom International (ADF) in Latin America, told CNA that “many families will be reunited” because of the most recent prisoner release in Nicaragua. ADF advocated on behalf of the individuals affiliated with Mountain Gateway.

Hjelkrem said the regime frequently fabricates charges against its opponents by prosecuting them for financial crimes, such as money laundering, or for recently created crimes such as the “propagation of false news” or the “undermining of national integrity.” Effectively, she said this is a way to arrest people for “talking against the human rights violations [of] of the government.” 

“One of their biggest strategies is to initiate criminal proceedings against churches and church-related institutions on sham charges,” Hjelkrem said. 

Hjelkrem said the regime targets anyone “who is calling out the government’s wrongdoing or even just preaching the Gospel … [because] the Gospel stands for human dignity and justice.”

According to Hjelkrem, international pressure from human rights groups and sovereign states “has proven to be effective” in securing the release of Nicaraguan political and religious prisoners. She encouraged people to continue to “speak up against the censorship that religious leaders in Nicaragua are experiencing.”

Sullivan, in his statement, called for the Nicaraguan government “to immediately cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms.”

In April, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report on religious persecution around the world. According to its findings, Nicaragua was one of the worst offenders of religious persecution.

A man was adept at beating his personal traffic tickets by lying. When he appeared before various judges in court, he would tell the same tale: “I broke up with my girlfriend and she took my car without my knowledge.” In addition, he had been repeatedly reprimanded for misconduct while on the job. Prosecutors finally charged him with four counts of perjury and five counts of forgery for allegedly lying to judges under oath and providing fictitious police reports. For this man, lying had become a life-long habit.

In contrast, the apostle Paul said that telling the truth is a vital habit for believers in Jesus to live out. He reminded the Ephesians that they’d put away their old way of living through surrendering their lives to Christ (Ephesians 2:1-5). Now, they needed to live like the new people they’d become, incorporating specific actions into their lives. One such action was something to cease—“put off falsehood”—and the other action something to practice—“speak truthfully to your neighbor” (4:25). Because it protected the unity of the church, the Ephesians were to always have their words and actions be about “building others up” (v. 29).

As the Holy Spirit helps us (vv. 3-4), believers in Jesus can strive for truth in their words and actions. Then the church will be unified, and God will be honored.

CNA Staff, Sep 5, 2024 / 15:56 pm (CNA).

Father Roger Landry was announced Thursday as the new national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies USA (TPMS-USA), the pope’s ministry that supports Catholic missionary activity through moral support, prayer, and financial contributions. 

Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, who currently serves as chaplain at Columbia University in New York, is well known as a Catholic preacher, writer, retreat leader, and pilgrimage guide. He also served a seven-year stint working with the Holy See at the United Nations and was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016 as a permanent Missionary of Mercy. 

“From the time I was a little child, I have loved the mission of the Church. I would go to bed reading about the great missionaries who gave their lives to spread the faith, so today I am overjoyed at the possibility of helping all those on the front lines through The Pontifical Mission Societies USA,” Landry said in a statement accompanying the announcement. 

“As Pope Francis has regularly reminded us, the Church doesn’t just have a mission; the Church is a mission, and each of us, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we too don’t just have a mission; we are a mission on this Earth.”

The Pontifical Mission Societies USA, which is funded in large part by a special collection at Catholic parishes each October, include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Missionary Childhood Association (MCA), and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. 

The societies support missionary activity by building churches, helping to form present and future priests and religious, sustaining fledgling missionary dioceses, and erecting schools and catechetical centers. 

Landry’s appointment as director will be effective in January 2025, TPMS-USA says. 

In a Thursday op-ed for the National Catholic Register, Landry said he was approached to serve as the new national director while helping to lead the recent National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, an unprecedented effort to process Christ in the Eucharist thousands of miles as a witness to the Catholic faith. Landry was the only priest who walked the entirety of one of the four cross-country pilgrimage routes, traversing the roughly 1,500-mile eastern Seton Route with the Eucharistic Lord and a cadre of young pilgrims. 

Landry said Thursday that Cardinal Luis Tagle, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, verbally confirmed his new appointment at the beginning of the National Eucharistic Congress, which took place in July in Indianapolis. Landry said it was fitting that Tagle preached at the final Mass of the Congress on the connection between the Eucharist and mission.

“To live a Catholic life, he emphasized, is to live a Eucharistic life, and a Eucharistic life is a missionary life. We’re called to imitate Jesus’ Eucharistic self-giving and make our life, in communion with his, a gift for others,” Landry wrote. 

“There’s a connection between the ‘Amen’ we give to Jesus when we receive him in holy Communion and the ‘Amen’ we say to God’s blessing at the end of Mass, as we are sent out to announce the Gospel of the Lord.”

Landry noted that he is taking the helm of the TPMS-USA at a time in which, 2,000 years after Christ’s ascension, only three out of 10 people in the world are Christian and just three out of 20 are Catholic.

“The whole world has become again what it was in the first days of the Church: a vast missionary territory. There’s a need for diligent laborers to take in that harvest — for everyone to take seriously and act on Jesus’ command, ‘Go, make disciples,’” Landry wrote. 

“I’m honored to have been called to do that work full time. I hope to count on you as a willing collaborator, as, following the example and with the intercession of St. Teresa of Calcutta, we seek from our encounter with Jesus’ infinite love in the holy Eucharist to become, like her and her sisters, his love in the world.”

Landry succeeds Monsignor Kieran Harrington, who resigned as national director in February amid allegations of inappropriate behavior with an adult, to which he later admitted. Father Anthony Andreassi, CO, has been serving as interim director. 

“The Board of Directors is thrilled to welcome Father Roger J. Landry as the new national director of The Pontifical Mission Societies,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the TPMS-USA Board of Directors.

“His commitment to the mission of the Church and his extensive experience make him the ideal leader to guide TPMS-USA in its efforts to support the global mission of evangelization, particularly where the message of the Gospel has only recently been introduced, where the Church is materially poor and cannot sustain itself, and also where our brothers in the faith are persecuted.”

National Catholic Register, Sep 5, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

When you are in need of an answer to prayer but time doesn’t permit a multi-day petition, you may want to follow the example of St. Teresa of Calcutta — whose feast day is today, Sept. 5 — who turned to the Virgin Mary and prayed her “Flying Novena.”

Monsignor Leo Maasburg, her friend and spiritual adviser, explains in his book “Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait” that it was “Mother Teresa’s spiritual rapid-fire weapon. It consisted of 10 Memorares — not nine, as you might expect from the word ‘novena.’ Novenas lasting nine days were quite common among the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. But given the host of problems that were brought to Mother Teresa’s attention, not to mention the pace at which she traveled, it was often just not possible to allow nine days for an answer from Celestial Management. And so she invented the ‘Quick Novena.’” 

Maasburg calls it by this name rather than the “Flying Novena,” which her Missionaries of Charity continue to use and pray.

Here are the words of the centuries-old Memorare:

“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen.”

Maasburg writes that Mother Teresa said this novena all the time — “for petitions for the cure of a sick child, before important discussions, or when passports went missing to request heavenly aid when the fuel supply was running short on a nighttime mission and the destination was still far away in the darkness. The Quick Novena had one thing in common with nine-day and even nine-month novenas: confident pleading for heavenly assistance, as the apostles did for nine days in the upper room ‘with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the women’ (Acts 1:14) while waiting for the promised help from the Holy Spirit.”

Maasburg goes on to explain why Mother Teresa always prayed 10 Memorares. “She took the collaboration of heaven so much for granted that she always added a 10th Memorare immediately, in thanksgiving for the favor received.”

Typical quick answer

Father Brian Kolodiejchuk of the Missionaries of Charity, who served as the postulator of the cause for Mother Teresa’s canonization, shared an example of what happened when Mother Teresa prayed this 10-day novena as the need arose or a difficulty presented itself. 

He quotes Mother herself describing one of many instances: “In Rome during the Holy Year (1984), the Holy Father was going to celebrate Mass in the open, and crowds of people were gathered. It was pouring rain, so I told the sisters, ‘Let us say a flying novena of nine Memorares to Our Lady in thanksgiving for beautiful weather.’ As we said two Memorares, it started to pour more rain. We said the third … sixth … seventh … and at the eighth one, all the umbrellas were closing, and when we finished the ninth one, we found all the umbrellas were closed.”

Novena opens Vatican locks

Maasburg also recounts in his book the time he drove Mother Teresa and one of her sisters to the Vatican for Pope John Paul II’s private morning Mass. Arriving very early while all was still locked up, Maasburg describes how together they prayed the entire rosary and novena of Memorares while waiting in the car.

“No sooner had we finished the Quick Novena than the Swiss guardsman knocked on the steamed-up windshield and said, ‘Mother Teresa, it’s time.’ Mother Teresa and the sister got out.”

Maasburg said he’d wait in the car for her, but she turned around and called, “Quick, Father, you come with us!”

Mother Teresa was already on her way to the elevator; she swept aside the timid protest of the Swiss guardsman with a charming “Father is with us!” and a grateful twinkle of her eyes.

“The rules were unequivocal: Only those who were on the list of announced guests could enter. And only the names of Mother Teresa and one other sister were on that list. … Even in the company of a saint I would not get past the elevator attendant — much less the civil police in front of the entrance to the Holy Father’s apartment,” Maasburg recalled.

“Mother assured the hesitant elevator attendant … ‘We can start now. Father is with us’ … I had already tried again and again to explain to Mother Teresa in the elevator that it is not only unusual but absolutely impossible to make your way into the pope’s quarters unannounced. But even my resistance was useless…”

Two tall policemen in civilian clothes stood at the door to the papal apartments.

“The older of the two policemen greeted the foundress of a religious order courteously: ‘Mother Teresa, good morning! Please come this way. The padre is not announced. He cannot come in.’ He stepped aside for Mother Teresa, whereas I had stopped walking,” Maasburg continued. “She gestured to me, however, that I should keep going, and explained to the policeman, ‘Father is with us.’”

“‘… Mother, your padre has no permission; therefore he cannot come with you.’”

“… She stood there calmly and asked the policeman in a patient tone of voice, ‘And who can give the priest permission?’” Maasburg recounted.

“The good man was obviously not prepared for this question. With a helpless shrug of his shoulder he said, ‘Well, maybe the pope himself. Or Monsignor [Stanisław] Dziwisz….’”

“’Good, then wait here!’ was the prompt reply. And Mother Teresa was already … heading for the papal chambers. ’I will go and ask the Holy Father!’”

“A short pause, then Italian-Vatican common sense prevailed and Mother Teresa had won. ‘Then the padre had better just go with you!’”

“Turning to me, he said, ‘Go. Go now!’” Maasburg said.

Not only did Maasburg get to the Mass, but Mother Teresa told Dziwisz, the pope’s private secretary, later the  archbishop of Krakow and a cardinal, that the priest with her would celebrate the Mass with the Holy Father. And Maasburg did. (Read all the details here.)

Impossible becomes possible

Mother Teresa “definitely inspired the same devotion in her sisters, but also in others,” Kolodiejchuk affirmed.

Father Louis Merosne, the pastor at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Anse-à-Veau, Haiti, shared his own amazing experience with the Flying Novena. 

Once he had planned to join the Missionaries of Charity priests, had been accepted, and spent two years with them in Mexico before he said God made it clear he was to serve in Haiti instead. Active with youth and young adult conferences, in 2008 he was going to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. On his return he was to have a one-day stop in Boston, then catch a flight to the Netherlands, where he was to speak at a conference.

“I went to the consulate in Boston to apply for their visa,” he said. “They told me I would have to leave my passport in order to put the visa on it. I couldn’t because I had to leave for Sydney.” Boston insisted the central office could not process anything until they had his passport. “I told them I’m going to the Netherlands and I had one day in between my two travels. They said, ‘Sorry.’”

Calling from Sydney about the visa, he got a surprise. “They told me, by the way, they don’t do urgent, express applications. They need at least two weeks once they get the passport.” He told them the conference would be over by then. 

Returning to Boston, he took an early train to New York City to the main consulate office. He continued: “I went to the office to explain the situation again, but they said, ‘You can leave your passport and pick it up in two weeks. We’re very sorry.’”

This was the day he was to travel to the Netherlands, and he had to get back to Boston and board his booked flight that evening, which would then fly back to New York on the first of two legs to the Netherlands.

“Maybe if I call the airline, they would allow me to get on at New York for the Netherlands flight,” he thought. The airline’s answer? “No, we don’t do that. If you don’t get on your flight in Boston, your entire flight will be cancelled. You cannot get on in New York.”

Still in the consulate, he called the airlines a second time hoping to find a sympathetic listener. But again he was told the airline could not cancel one leg of the flight.

At that point Merosne knew it was time to say a Flying Novena. He said: “‘Only you, Blessed Mother, can help me do this if it is God’s will.’ I said the novena.”

Shortly after he finished, “the representative from the consulate called me over and said, ‘Give me your passport.’ And within minutes I had my visa! And I called the airlines a third time, and this time the lady said, ‘We don’t do this, but we’ll do this once for you. Get on the plane in New York.’”

“Once I said that [Flying] Novena, it was all over for them,” Merosne said with much joy. “That which was impossible for man was quite possible for our Blessed Mother.”

“I am a believer,” he said of the Flying Novena.

About the Flying Novena

Kolodiejchuk noted that Mother Teresa taught: “Get into that habit of calling on her [Mary]. She interceded — at the wedding feast, there was no wine. … She was so sure that he will do what she asks him. … She is mediatrix of all graces. … She is always there with us.”

One of the Missionaries of Charity sisters explained that the Flying Novena wasn’t hard and fast in some ways. For instance, the nine Memorares might be for our Blessed Mother’s help in getting a house, or nine Memorares in thanksgiving for that (rather than one 10th Memorare) because the house was already attained.

The spiritual situation and the time come into account.

She said the sisters use the Flying Novena from the simplest things such as getting out of traffic when they are stuck in it to serious life-and-death things.

The Memorare is so powerful, she said. We are to pray the Memorares with confidence and in thanksgiving knowing Our Lady will grant this.

“The Memorare is a prayer that effectively expressed Mother Teresa’s trust in the power of Mary’s intercession as the mediatrix of all graces,” Kolodiejchuk explained. “It flowed from the love and confidence she had in Mary and was a simple way to present her petitions to her. The speedy response she received inspired her with ever-greater confidence to have recourse to Mary with the words of the Memorare.”

Mother Teresa wanted everybody to learn and use this prayer. “Mother said [to] teach the poor to pray the Memorare. Write it down for them and teach them,” the sister said. Praying it, Our Lady will be gloried and Jesus will be glorified.

There’s always a reason for the Flying Novena.

This article was first published Aug. 30, 2016, by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.