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Sr. M. Ceceliatook her perpetual vows on July 9th, 2011 at Most Holy Trinity Parish Church in San Jose, California. View the gallery. |
A Pauline Centenary Pastoral Tool
PAULINE SPIRITUALITY AND MISSION ***
BLESSED JAMES ALBERIONE’S LIFE: A SERVICE OF WORSHIP
INTRODUCTION
The new temple is the Risen Body of Christ and we are “living stones” built into that temple. Our Founder Blessed James Alberione is a beautiful piece of “living stone” in the Church-temple that is meant for the service of worship. He is a marvel. He is what he is because he experienced the abundant riches of divine grace (abundantes divitiae gratiae suae). He achieved the highest level of holiness and derived tremendous apostolic energy from the Eucharist. The Pauline Family was born from his prayer before the Eucharist as a sixteen-year old seminarian at the cathedral of Alba at the turn of the twentieth century.
Blessed Alberione lived a life of Eucharistic sacrifice and praise. The prayer “Act of Submission to the Divine Will” that is found in The Prayers of the Pauline Family captures the sacrificial aspect of a life centered on the Eucharist: “My God, I do not know what will happen to me today. I only know that nothing will happen to me that has not been foreseen by you and directed to my greater good from all eternity. This is enough for me. I adore your eternal and unfathomable designs. I submit to them with all my heart for love of you. I offer the sacrifice of my whole being to you. I join my sacrifice to that of Jesus, my divine Savior. In his name and by his infinite merits, I ask you for patience in my sufferings and perfect submission so that everything you want or permit to happen will result in your greater glory and my sanctification.” Our Founder lived the spirit of this prayer of submission. One of the perpetually professed members of the Holy Family Institute whom I met in San Jose (CA-U.S.A.) – whose name is Roseann Ryan – shared with me that she finds great strength in this prayer, especially in moments of trial. Like Blessed Alberione, in faith she praises and adores God for his “unfathomable” but benevolent plan. Like our beloved Founder, Roseann tries to unite the sacrifice of her being with Jesus in the Eucharistic sacrifice.
With a spirituality centered on the Eucharist, Blessed James Alberione is also an apostle of the liturgy. He was deeply formed by the Liturgical Movement of the Church and was one of its greatest promoters. The Liturgical Movement is the endeavor to bring people back to the liturgy as the principle of life transformation.
I. ALBERIONE PROMOTED THE TRUTH-WAY-LIFE APPROACH TO THE LITURGY
Blessed Alberione observed that many people were reducing liturgy to mere technical or aesthetic aspects. He believed that the liturgy of the Church should not be limited to this, but should be lived in its threefold reality: dogma, morals and worship. He asserts that the liturgy is the “book of truth, morals and prayer”.
“Book of Truth”: In the liturgy, the Church lays out, in the course of the year, the basic truths of faith. Our Christmas celebration, for example, helps us to imbibe the truth about the incarnation of the Son of God, the Savior of the world. During the Christmas season, the priest proclaims the following preface at Mass: “Father, all-powerful and living God … today you fill our hearts with joy as we recognize in Christ the revelation of your love. No eye can see his glory as our God, yet now he is seen as one like us. Christ is your Son before all ages, yet now he is born in time. He has come to lift up all things to himself, to restore unity to creation, and to lead mankind from exile into your heavenly kingdom.”
“Book of Morals”: The liturgy is a “book of morals” because it is a pasture of the holy commands, virtues and means of salvation. The foot-washing ceremony, for example, at the celebration of the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday makes present to the liturgical assembly the service of Christ the Servant-Messiah who washed the feet of his disciples. This foot-washing anticipates the greatest act of service that Christ would accomplish by his life-offering on the cross.
“Book of Prayer”: The liturgy is a “book of prayer”. It is the most powerful prayer because it is the prayer of Christ and the Church. It is the prayer of everyone. Christ’s utmost prayer of sacrificial praise on the Church is rendered in the “here and now” in the Eucharist.
Hence, according to our beloved Founder Blessed Alberione, in the liturgy we have the total Christ, the Way, Truth and Life. Moreover, the liturgy of the Church wants to bring the entire person to God: mind, heart and will. One of the kitchen staff in our convent in the Philippines shared with me that the man courting her was in jail. I asked why. She answered that the guy was accused of sexually abusing his daughter. She continued: “And to think that he is a choir member, that’s awful!” In that wretched guy is an example of a false and fragmented worship. In contrast, I am reminded of one of my students in the seminary. His name is Fr. Rhoel Gallardo, a young Claretian priest. He was assigned in a Muslim territory in southern Philippines. He and his catechists were captured by Muslim rebels for ransom. Prayer was his source of strength. His captors mocked him when he prayed the rosary. It was rumored that he was ordered to do something heinous – to rape his own catechists. He refused. They tortured him – they pulled out the nails from his toes. And when the government forces attacked, the rebels shot him to death. At his funeral Mass, the beautiful song, “Unang Alay” (“First Offering”) was sung. The martyrdom of this young priest was an offering of “first harvest”. Fr. Rhoel Gallardo offered his very best to God in his life-sacrifice. His is an example of true liturgy!
II. ALBERIONE FOSTERED THE PASTORAL PROGRAM BIBLE-LITURGY
Blessed Alberione believed that the continuous “de-christianization” of life, art, thinking, etc. depends on the lack of liturgical-biblical oxygen. Blessed Alberione insisted on the necessity of the Bible for the people. The people of today hunger for the Word of God. Here is an example. One afternoon I needed to go to the Chancery Office in San Jose to attend a meeting of the Diocesan Council for the Religious. I took a bus which brought me to downtown San Jose and from there I started a 45-minute hike to the Chancery. It was chilly and windy and I was holding on to my veil lest I became a “flying nun”. Then I heard a voice. “To what Church do you belong?” I could not figure out where it was coming from. I looked around and soon a young lady with a jacket and a hood was in front of me repeating the question. I answered I belong to the Catholic Church. She removed her hood and I saw that she had several small rings piercing various parts of her face. At first I was intimidated, but I relaxed when I realized that she would not harm me. She said when she was a girl she wanted to become a nun. She also named two churches that she used to attend. Then in a moment her face became dark and somber, and she blurted out, “I am Magdalene!” I factually remarked, “Jesus Christ appeared to Magdalene on Easter morn and made her an apostle to the apostles.” “What?” she asked, a bit confused. I answered enthusiastically, “When Jesus rose from the dead she appeared to Magdalene and entrusted to her the Good News to proclaim to the apostles!” A gentle glow filled her face and she remarked, “You are very nice! You are very nice! You are very nice!” We continued our friendly chat. I introduced myself and she gave me her name. Then I bid her goodbye. As I resumed my long walk to the chancery, it dawned on me that I had just proclaimed the Gospel to a prostitute! I had shared the bread of the Word with a hungry soul.
Blessed Alberione asserted that without the Bible, the liturgy would mean nothing to the people; much less could they give glory or make a conscious prayer. In July 1997 my dad was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. The first time he was diagnosed was in December 1966, but God healed him and he fully recovered. My dad wanted to die in his homeland. On August 1, I went to the States to bring my dad and my mom back to the Philippines. Before the return trip, we agreed that my dad should receive the anointing of the sick. I asked dad which Gospel passage he would like to use for the celebration. He said the one that says “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you …” (cf. Lk 7:7). The associate pastor of St. Edward Parish in Newark came to anoint my dad. I also prepared some songs to enliven the celebration. Since my dad was personally involved in the preparation of the Word, the sacramental rite became very meaningful to him personally. My mom and dad remarked that they felt a sense of peace. Three weeks later my dad died in his homeland, surrounded by loving family members. When he was terminally ill, I used to hear him pray to God for healing, but he would always add, “Let your will be done!” The Gospel text “Ask and you will receive …” became a reality for him. God gave him the inner strength and the grace to submit to the saving will of God who wanted him to participate in the glory of eternal life.
Blessed Alberione’s pastoral program BIBLE-LITURGY generated tremendous apostolic initiatives in the Pauline Family, e.g. the various publications of the Society of St. Paul (I receive a subscription of the Famiglia Cristiana. Its various articles/commentaries on the Sunday Liturgy readings are excellent), the various biblical-liturgical books of the Daughters of Saint Paul (the one volume CHRISTIAN PRAYER; The Liturgy of the Hours published in 1976 is a masterpiece), the PDDM magazine La Vita in Cristo e nella Chiesa and the Lectio Divina on the Internet, cf. www.pddm.us (they are great pastoral tools), the HFI CONCORD magazine and CDs prepared by Fr. Tom Fogarty (they are very formative … I use Fr. Tom’s CDs for my monthly recollection), etc. Indeed, the Paulines have produced precious materials to help the faithful drink from the life-giving fonts of eternal life. The Pauline pastoral tools are limpid expressions of our Christian life that is nourished by the Word and the Eucharist.
CONCLUSION
As members of the Pauline Family called to be living the Word of God and living divine worship, we delight in the following words of our Primo Maestro – the venerable Blessed James Alberione (cf. James Alberione, To the Pious Disciples: 1946-1947, Rome: Opera Omnia, 1986, p. 32).
The devotion to Jesus Master leads us to act rightly in making the Visit, receiving Communion, assisting at Mass. It spurs us on, moreover, to live a life of union with Jesus, a real Eucharistic life.
The Most Holy Virgin bore Jesus in her heart: you received him many times in the Most Holy Eucharist.
When we receive Holy Communion, Jesus’ real presence lasts only for a short time, while his spiritual presence can always last. Every person who worthily receives communion becomes God’s abode: our heart, our bosom becomes a living tabernacle of the Most Holy Trinity …
If a person leaves the church after receiving Communion and takes up the proper duties – in the garden, in the kitchen, doing the cleaning, also walking down the streets – she/he is always a “Christ-bearer”, a God-bearer. She/he is like a walking tabernacle that goes from place to place.
Prepared by Sr. Mary Margaret Tapang, PDDM
3700 North Cornelia Avenue
Fresno, CA-U.S.A.
Tel. (559) 275-9978
