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THE CATHOLIC POST
thecatholicpost.com
SUNDAY, JULY 4, 2021 VATICAN CITY (CNS) - While the suffering brought on by the corona- virus pandemic continues to make headlines, there is another serious illness plaguing the world today that deserves attention, Pope Francis said. What is the biggest disease in life? Cancer? Tuberculosis? The current pandemic? No. The greatest disease in life is the lack of love - not being able to love, the pope said June 27 during his Sunday Angelus address. We think that success and money make us happy, but love cannot be bought; it is free. We take refuge in the virtual world, but love is concrete. We do not accept ourselves as we are and we hide behind the exterior 'make up,' but love is not an appearance, he said. Jesus, said the pope, waits for us to encounter him, to open our hearts to him and looks beyond the ugly matters of our history in order to heal.
On cross and today, Jesus prays for all
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - Jesus is always praying for each and every person, desiring that his word would help people in their lives and that they never would feel alone, Pope Francis said. Jesus prays for me - each one of us can keep this
Life's greatest disease? Lack of love
in our heart. Do not forget it, even during those terrible moments, the pope said June 16 during his weekly general audience. With the grace of being able to pray to God and knowing we have been prayed for, the pope said, we have only to have courage and hope to be able to journey on in life and give glory to God. In his main audience talk, the pope concluded his series on prayer, which he began May 6, 2020, offering a total of 38 reflections on the theme. Prayer is one of the most evident features of the life of Jesus, the pope said. He prayed and prayed a lot, immersing himself in it because dialogue with the Father was the incandescent core of all his existence. At the Last Supper, Jesus intercedes for his disci- ples and for all those who will believe in him through their word and, even during the darkest hours of suf- fering on the cross, Jesus continues to pray, showing he is the absolute intercessor: he prays for others, for everyone, even for those who have condemned him, he said. Jesus prayed for everyone, he also prayed for me, for each one of you. Each one of us can say that Jesus, on the cross, prayed for me, and still prays for every- one each day, he said.
F
rom June 9-13, I attended the GIVEN Forum 2021 in Washington D.C. GIVEN exists to [activate] the gifts of young adult women [ages 21-30] for the Catholic Church and the world. In applying for this conference, each participant submitted an action plan that will be carried out within a year of attending the Forum. Action plans cover a multitude of activities: creating a podcast to teach people more about beauty, leading a retreat for Catholic pro- fessionals, or starting a program to help people pray with art. The Forum is meant to equip women to discover their gifts and to carry out this work. The retreat took place at the Catholic University of America. The opening Mass was at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, and it was amazing to see just how many women were there (130 young women, 30 lay women mentors, and 55 Sisters from 21 different religious orders). After Mass, we were divided into small mentoring groups. We were grouped by the track we chose in the application process - entrepreneurial, Catholic professional, secular profes- sional, post-service, care of the human person, or artistic. As I was in the artistic track, I was placed in a group with four other women in the same track, and both our mentor leaders are artistic them- selves (one is a Sister of St. Benedict and an icon writer; the other is a dean at the Catholic University of America and was an opera singer). The mentoring groups pro- vided a touchpoint for conversation about the talks and trainings we received throughout the Forum.
Discovering the gift only you can give' at the GIVEN Forum
Below are a few pearls I gathered from the Forum: All women are called to be mothers. While some of us will be physical mothers, we are all called to be spiritual mothers. I was particularly struck by how the Sisters, consecrated virgins, lay women, and GIVEN alumni exhibited this spiritual motherhood. It was simply their presence - conversations at meals, discussions in our mentor- ship groups, the small ways in which women looked out for and connected with each other - that showed me spiritual motherhood in action. Seeing so many women together in one place reminded me that our Church is incredibly rich. And we need each other to carry out the work God calls us to do. Each person is gifted with charisms . Though we often hear the word charism associated with how a religious order lives out its spirituality, I didn't realize that each of us has particular charisms, gifts given to us by God that are meant to be used in the service of others. Jona Winkelman, who led a workshop titled Charisms: Clues to Your Mission shared with us some of the 24 most common charisms like teaching, hospitality, intercessory prayer, discernment of spirits, craftsmanship, and writing. It was interesting to learn that one might be good at doing something, but might not have a charism for it. Charisms, Jona shared, are accompanied by joy, energy, and feeling like you fit. When we are living in our charisms, we also produce fruit. This fruit touches the lives of others. Women are "richly diverse in our expres- sions of the feminine genius." Sister Mary Madeleine Todd, a Dominican Sister of St. Cecilia, gave a keynote talk called Entrusted with the Feminine Genius. A message I heard multiple times throughout the conference is that by nature of being a woman, we express femininity. There's no one way to live out the feminine genius: there are as many ways as there are women. Sister Mary Madeleine shared that it can be tempting to fall into stereotypes about what being male and female entails (e.g., men are less emotional; women are more emotional), but masculinity and femininity are actually broader concepts: They are archetypes, which means they are inescapable because we are part of a cos- mos and this cosmos has an order, a beauty. Men and women, then, are called to a communion of love which is expressed most brilliantly in the Eucharist. What women particularly bring to the world is invalu- able. When we are living out the feminine genius, Sister Mary Madeleine said, the world will be more person- centered. I came away from the Forum with an abiding gratitude for the women of the Church. I highly recommend this Forum to any young woman in your life who is looking to share her gifts with the Church. I ask, too, for your prayers, as I work to carry out my action plan - a retreat for artists - within this next year.
LINDSEY WEISHAR is a poet, freelance writer, and member of St. Matthew Parish in Champaign. An assistant editor at The Young Catholic Woman, she has a master of fine arts in creative writ- ing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Write to her at lweisharwriting@gmail.com.
My Vocation is Love
Lindsey Weishar
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Seeing so many women together in one place reminded me that our Church is incredibly rich. And we need each other to carry out the work God calls us to do.
I
t's the Fourth of July and summer has come in hot. So let's think about ice for a minute. Specifically, imagine an iceberg. What is seen above the surface, we're told, is only about 10 percent of an iceberg's actual size. Ninety percent is unseen below. It's good to think of an iceberg when someone accom- plishes a goal. On page two of this issue, for example, are four examples of athletes who achieved big dreams - high school state championships or, in the case of Jenna Fesemy- er, making Team USA for this summer's Paralympic Games. But their public competitions were like the visible part of the iceberg. What is unseen, and must be celebrated and appre- ciated, are the countless hours of training and practice away from the crowds that formed the foundation of their success. The iceberg metaphor works in almost every aspect of faith as well. The Springfield Dominicans (see page 3) were a vis- ible fixture in Rantoul for decades, doing wonderful work in both St. Malachy Parish and School. But how much unseen private prayer and study did these remarkable women do that fueled their teaching, leadership, and service? The same is true of our priests marking milestone years who were cel- ebrated at the recent Jubilarian Mass (see page 16). We may see our priests for an hour a week. But how much of their 60, or 50, or 25 years of service were spent drawing nearer to Christ privately so they can stand in persona Christi for us? How about us? Are we spending all our time on the surface or are we committed to doing the unseen training, prayer, and service necessary to deepen our faith's foun- dation and reach the goal of sainthood? Learn from the iceberg. - Thomas J. Dermody
An iceberg metaphor
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