THE HOLY FATHER

Received October 16, 2003 from NAFRA via our Regional Minister

Dear Franciscan Family,

One of the readings for the Transitus we recently celebrated has Father Francis saying, "I have done what is mine, may Christ teach you what is yours."

Today, October 16, we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Holy Father's Pontificate. Even a quick glance at his "official" Vatican biography included below should be sufficient to persuade one that Karol Wojtyla has done what was his to do.

May all of us, equally called to be holy and to do what is ours to do, give thanks and praise on this Anniversary Day.

May we participate at least in spirit at the Mass he will preside over today, Thursday, at 6 p.m. in St. Peter's Square "to praise the Lord and give him thanks on this happy occasion."

Peace and love,

Tom Bello
St. Margaret of Cortona

Besides offering the biography below, the Vatican has also provided an e-mail address to which congratulatory messages can be sent to John Paul II. E-mail messages in English should be sent to: john_paul_ii@vatican.va


Karol Józef Wojtyla , known as John Paul II since his October 1978 election to the papacy, was born in Wadowice, a small city 50 kilometres from Cracow, on May 18, 1920. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. His mother died in 1929. His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died in 1932 and his father, a non-commissioned army officer died in 1941. He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Upon graduation from Marcin Wadowita high school in Wadowice, he enrolled in Cracow's Jagiellonian University in 1938 and in a school for drama.

The Nazi occupation forces closed the university in 1939 and young Karol had to work in a quarry (1940-1944) and then in the Solvay chemical factory to earn his living and to avoid being deported to Germany.

In 1942, aware of his call to the priesthood, he began courses in the clandestine seminary of Cracow, run by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, archbishop of Cracow. At the same time, Karol Wojtyla was one of the pioneers of the "Rhapsodic Theatre," also clandestine.

After the Second World War, he continued his studies in the major seminary of Cracow, once it had re-opened, and in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University, until his priestly ordination in Cracow on November 1, 1946.

Soon after, Cardinal Sapieha sent him to Rome where he worked under the guidance of the French Dominican, Garrigou-Lagrange. He finished his doctorate in theology in 1948 with a thesis on the topic of faith in the works of St. John of the Cross. At that time, during his vacations, he exercised his pastoral ministry among the Polish immigrants of France, Belgium and Holland.

In 1948 he returned to Poland and was vicar of various parishes in Cracow as well as chaplain for the university students until 1951, when he took up again his studies on philosophy and theology. In 1953 he defended a thesis on "evaluation of the possibility of founding a Catholic ethic on the ethical system of Max Scheler" at Lublin Catholic University. Later he became professor of moral theology and social ethics in the major seminary of Cracow and in the Faculty of Theology of Lublin.

On July 4, 1958, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Cracow by Pope Pius XII, and was consecrated September 28, 1958, in Wawel Cathedral, Cracow, by Archbishop Baziak.

On January 13, 1964, he was nominated Archbishop of Cracow by Pope Paul VI, who made him a cardinal June 26, 1967.

Besides taking part in Vatican Council II with an important contribution to the elaboration of the Constitution Gaudium et spes, Cardinal Wojtyla participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops.

Since the start of his Pontificate on October 16, 1978, Pope John Paul II has completed 95 pastoral visits outside of Italy and 142 within Italy . As Bishop of Rome he has visited 301 of the 334 parishes .

His principal documents include 14 encyclicals , 13 apostolic exhortations , 11 apostolic constitutions and 42 apostolic letters. The Pope has also published three books : "Crossing the Threshold of Hope" (October 1994); "Gift and Mystery: On the 50th Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination" (November 1996) and "Roman Tryptych - Meditations", a book of poems (March 2003)..

John Paul II has presided at 138 beatification ceremonies ( 1,310 Blesseds proclaimed ) and 48 canonization ceremonies ( 469 Saints ) during his pontificate. He has held 8 consistories in which he created 201 cardinals . He has also convened six plenary meetings of the College of Cardinals .

>From 1978 to today the Holy Father has presided at 15 Synods of Bishops : six ordinary (1980, 1983, 1987, 1990, 1994, 2001), one extraordinary (1985) and eight special (1980, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998[2] and 1999).

No other Pope has encountered so many individuals like John Paul II: to date, more than 16,700,000 pilgrims have participated in the General Audiences held on Wednesdays (more than 1,000). Such figure is without counting all other special audiences and religious ceremonies held [more than 8 million pilgrims during the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 alone] and the millions of faithful met during pastoral visits made in Italy and throughout the world. It must also be remembered the numerous government personalities encountered during 38 official visits and in the 690 audiences and meetings held with Heads of State , and even the 226 audiences and meetings with Prime Ministers .

Two tributes on the day that Mother Teresa becomes Blessed Mother Teresa: the first, a glowing tribute from Father Joseph Langford, a co-founder of the priestly branch of the Missionaries of Charity, courtesy of Zenit; the second, a surprisingly interior if "official" biography from the Vatican, courtesy of CIOFS. Have a blessed Sunday yourselves!
Sunday October 19, 2003

BLESSED MOTHER TERESA OF CALCUTTA (1910-1997)
From the Vatican

"By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."

Small of stature, rocklike in faith, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming God's thirsting love for humanity, especially for the poorest of the poor. "God still loves the world and He sends you and me to be His love and His compassion to the poor." She was a soul filled with the light of Christ, on fire with love for Him and burning with one desire: "to quench His thirst for love and
for souls."

This luminous messenger of God's love was born on 26 August 1910 in Skopje, a city situated at the crossroads of Balkan history. The youngest of the children born to Nikola and Drane Bojaxhiu, she was baptised Gonxha Agnes, received her First Communion at the age of five and a half and was confirmed in November 1916. From the day of her First Holy Communion, a love for souls was within her. Her father's sudden death when Gonxha was about eight years old left in the family in financial straits. Drane raised her children firmly and lovingly, greatly influencing her daughter's character and vocation. Gonxha's religious formation was further assisted by the vibrant Jesuit parish of the Sacred Heart in which she was much involved.

At the age of eighteen, moved by a desire to become a missionary, Gonxha left her home in September 1928 to join the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Sisters of Loreto, in Ireland. There she
received the name Sister Mary Teresa after St. The're`se of Lisieux. In December, she departed for India, arriving in Calcutta on 6 January 1929. After making her First Profession of Vows in May 1931, Sister Teresa was assigned to the Loreto Entally community in Calcutta and taught at St. Mary's School for girls. On 24 May 1937, Sister Teresa made her Final Profession of Vows, becoming, as she said, the "spouse of Jesus" for "all eternity." From that time on she was called Mother Teresa. She continued teaching at St. Mary's and in 1944 became the school's principal. A person of profound prayer and deep love for her religious sisters and her students, Mother Teresa's twenty years in Loreto were filled with profound happiness. Noted for her charity, unselfishness and courage, her capacity for hard work and a natural talent for organization, she lived out her consecration to Jesus, in the midst of her companions, with fidelity and joy.

On 10 September 1946 during the train ride from Calcutta to Darjeeling for her annual retreat, Mother Teresa received her "inspiration," her "call within a call." On that day, in a way she would never explain, Jesus' thirst for love and for souls took hold of her heart and the desire to satiate His thirst became the driving force of her life. Over the course of the next weeks and months, by means of interior locutions and visions, Jesus revealed to her the desire of His heart for "victims of love" who would "radiate His love on souls." "Come be My light," He begged her. "I cannot go alone." He revealed His pain at the neglect of
the poor, His sorrow at their ignorance of Him and His longing for their love. He asked Mother Teresa to establish a religious community, Missionaries of Charity, dedicated to the service of the poorest of the poor. Nearly two years of testing and discernment passed before Mother Teresa received permission to begin. On August 17, 1948, she dressed for the first time in a white, blue-bordered sari and passed through the gates of her beloved Loreto convent to enter the world of the poor.

After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, Mother Teresa returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. On 21 December she went for the first time to the slums. She visited families, washed the sores of some children, cared for an old man lying sick on the road and nursed a woman dying of hunger and TB. She started each day in communion with Jesus in the Eucharist and then went out, rosary in her hand, to find and serve Him in "the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for." After some months, she was joined, one by one, by her former students.

On 7 October 1950 the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established in the Archdiocese of Calcutta. By the early 1960s, Mother Teresa began to send her Sisters to other parts of India.

The Decree of Praise granted to the Congregation by Pope Paul VI in February 1965 encouraged her to open a house in Venezuela. It was soon followed by foundations in Rome and Tanzania and, eventually, on every continent. Starting in 1980 and continuing through the 1990s, Mother Teresa opened houses in almost all of the communist countries, including the former Soviet Union, Albania and Cuba.

In order to respond better to both the physical and spiritual needs of the poor, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity Brothers in 1963, in 1976 the contemplative branch of the Sisters, in 1979 the Contemplative Brothers, and in 1984 the Missionaries of Charity Fathers. Yet her inspiration was not limited to those with religious vocations. She formed the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa and the Sick and Suffering Co-Workers, people of many faiths and nationalities with whom she shared her spirit of prayer, simplicity, sacrifice and her apostolate of humble works of love. This spirit later inspired the Lay Missionaries of Charity. In answer to the requests of many priests, in 1981 Mother Teresa also began the Corpus Christi Movement for Priests as a "little way of holiness" for those who desire to share in her charism and spirit.

During the years of rapid growth the world began to turn its eyes towards Mother Teresa and the work she had started. Numerous awards, beginning with the Indian Padmashri Award in 1962 and notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, honoured her work, while an increasingly interested media began to follow her activities. She received both prizes and attention "for the glory of God and in the name of the poor."

The whole of Mother Teresa's life and labour bore witness to the joy of loving, the greatness and dignity of every human person, the value of little things done faithfully and with love, and the surpassing worth of friendship with God. But there was another heroic side of this great woman that was revealed only after her death. Hidden from all eyes, hidden even from those closest to her, was her interior life marked by an experience of a deep, painful and abiding feeling of being separated from God, even rejected by Him, along with an ever-increasing longing for His love. She called her inner experience, "the darkness." The "painful night" of her soul, which began around the time she started her work for the poor and continued to the end of her life, led Mother Teresa to an ever more profound union with God. Through the darkness she mystically participated in the thirst of Jesus, in His painful and burning longing for love, and she shared in the interior desolation of the poor.

During the last years of her life, despite increasingly severe health problems, Mother Teresa continued to govern her Society and respond to the needs of the poor and the Church. By 1997, Mother Teresa's Sisters numbered nearly 4,000 members and were established in 610 foundations in 123 countries of the world. In March 1997 she blessed her newly-elected successor as Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity and then made one more trip abroad. After meeting Pope John Paul II for the last time, she returned to Calcutta and spent her final weeks receiving visitors and instructing her Sisters. On 5 September Mother Teresa's earthly life came to an end. She was given the honour of a state funeral by the Government of India and her body was buried in the Mother House of the Missionaries of Charity. Her tomb quickly became a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people of all faiths, rich and poor alike.

Mother Teresa left a testament of unshakable faith, invincible hope and extraordinary charity. Her response to Jesus' plea, "Come be My light," made her a Missionary of Charity, a "mother to the poor," a symbol of compassion to the world, and a living witness to the thirsting love of God.

Less than two years after her death, in view of Mother Teresa's widespread reputation of holiness and the favours being reported, Pope John Paul II permitted the opening of her Cause of Canonization. On 20
December 2002 he approved the decrees of her heroic virtues and miracles.

••••

Mother Teresa of Calcutta: The Light of Love

By Missionary of Charity Father Joseph Langford

ROME, OCT. 15, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Ahead of Mother Teresa of Calcutta's beatification this Sunday, Missionary of Charity Father Joseph Langford shared with ZENIT his thoughts about her mission and the impact of her life. Together with Mother Teresa, Father Langford is a co-founder of the priestly branch of the Missionaries of Charity.   Text courtesy of CIOFS


In the midst of this world's poverty and pain, Mother Teresa of Calcutta has shone the warm light of God's love and compassion on us all. This is what the Church affirms in raising her to the rank of blessed -- that it was his light we beheld in her. "You are the light of the world," Jesus told his disciples, in words that echo down to this day. "Come, be my light," Jesus similarly urged Mother Teresa at the outset of her mission. "Bring me into the dark holes of the poor. Come, carry me, I cannot go alone."

Throughout her life on earth, and now even more fully in the Kingdom, she stands as a beacon of light reflecting the heart of God to those who seek him, who seek signs of his nearness and care in the darkness of human suffering and sin.

Through her message, proclaimed not as much with words as deeds, rich and poor alike have felt inexplicably drawn into the mercy and solace of God's tender embrace. Her life has truly become "something beautiful for God" -- and what is more, something beautiful from God. She is indeed a "sign for this generation" -- an incontrovertible sign that "God still loves the world today."

Her work, though touching every social ill, was not only or even primarily social work. In Mother Teresa's vision, feeding the hungry and caring for the dying are not ends in themselves, but a share in Jesus' own redemptive "work of love" for the least and the lost.

In the face of the overwhelming needs of the poor, abandoned in Calcutta's streets and slums, where all would seem to mock the existence of God and his love, Jesus himself led Mother Teresa in a new approach to bringing his Gospel and his love to the poor.

At the beginning of Mother Teresa's mission, Jesus revealed to her a light that would illumine and animate all her work -- the conviction that God not only accepts us in our misery and sin, but longs for us, thirsts for us with all the infinite intensity of his heart. She herself experienced how God longs to love us and to be loved by us, both now and in the kingdom. In fact, the more we are in need, the greater our poverty and misery in body or spirit, the greater is this divine thirst. Mother Teresa understood, and wanted her followers to understand, that the words Jesus first spoke to express this longing on Calvary, "I thirst," echo now through every time and place, within every human heart, and most urgently for those furthest away and most in need:

"The strong grace of divine Light and Love [ I ] received on the train journey to Darjeeling on 10th September 1946 is where MC begins -- in the depths of God's infinite longing to love and to be loved" (Mother's Letters, 1996).

"Right now, today and every day, Jesus is thirsting for my love. He is longing for me. This [thirst] is His longing for love, for my love."

Mother Teresa would satiate this "thirst of Jesus for love and for souls" by following him into the "dark holes" where Calcutta's poor huddled, living among them and like them, loving them in his name, and serving his hidden presence in them -- who bear the burden, and the sacredness, of his cross.

By serving the poor through "small things done with great love," she wanted to imitate him who came to serve rather than to be served. These humble works of love aimed not so much at medical expertise or the righting of social ills, nor even at producing verifiable results, but rather at the "salvation and sanctification" of the poorest of the poor.

Jesus had promised Mother Teresa that he himself would be the one to touch the poor through her. In imitation of Mary, she was called to a life of such union with her Lord as to "be his radiance" on souls. For this, holiness and oneness with Christ would become her all-consuming goal -- so to allow Jesus to live his own life in her among the poor.

This required a deep interior life, the diligent practice of prayer, and the total surrender and sacrifice of self -- precisely that it might be "he and not she" doing the work. This union was constantly nourished by Jesus' special presence in the Eucharist, received in Communion and adored in silent prayer. From there she went out, carrying him and caring for him at the Calvary of his mystical body. In this way, whether in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, or following Our Lady's example by "going in haste" before the urgency of Jesus' thirst for love in the poor, she would be with him, united to him, "touching him 24 hours a day."

The reality of directly touching Christ in the poor, so precious to Mother Teresa, was the source of her most characteristic expression. Referring to the work for the poor she would always cite Jesus' words "You did it to me," counting them off on her five fingers as the teacher she once was. The great secret of her holiness was the absolute conviction that, no matter how small or humble, every act of charity toward those in need is truly and eternally done to Jesus himself.

Mother Teresa's mission and message have touched not only the poorest of the poor, but those well beyond the slums of Calcutta, as the Church proclaims on this joyful day of her beatification. Today, her words are a message of comfort for countless many across the globe, across all social strata. And for all, her witness remains a moving invitation to serve those more needy than ourselves.

Over the years, and still today, many have felt drawn to do exactly as Mother Teresa did, giving their lives as male and female religious in mission lands. Others have become her "co-Workers," or "lay missionaries," serving alongside her communities in Calcutta and throughout the developing world, or assisting at the often less-visible calvaries hidden beneath the spiritual poverty of the West. While diocesan priests from every continent have found inspiration and fraternity in the "Corpus Christi Movement," which she herself founded and so deeply loved, out of her great love for Jesus' priesthood.

There are still others who, in the midst of their ordinary lives, feel an extraordinary attraction toward Mother Teresa's example. Even if not called to mission lands or formal ministry, they nonetheless make up an unseen cohort of simple people, all around the world, who are called to be as leaven in the dough. These are the hidden 'little ones' of the kingdom -- insignificant before the world, yet precious to the heart of the Father. These are the little ones -- like any and all of us -- who try to live something of Mother Teresa's example of love in the midst of their burdened lives. They are hidden carriers of the same light Mother Teresa bore, each reflecting Love's radiance in their own small way, as the sun sparkling in a sliver of glass.

All around the world they weave small miracles of love with their daily lives, which from Mother Teresa's one charism, unfold and multiply in all directions, like ripples in a pond. These are the simple ones from every walk of life, God's unknown heroes unknown even to themselves, who are spreading far and near Mother Teresa's vision, her message, her example.

Among these little ones Mother Teresa still gladly counts herself, even from above. She too, like her patroness of Lisieux, promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth, bending over the same "dark holes," of brick and of spirit, that she lit with love while on earth (e.g., her miracle for beatification).

Each of us marking her beatification this day are called to be one with them, and one with her, in this great work of Love -- which is his, not hers. In a very real sense, "Something Beautiful for God," the first book written about Mother Teresa, is still not complete -- for each of us are still in time to write its concluding chapter with our lives.

We may not be called to go to Calcutta; we may not be called to do what Mother Teresa did. But all of us, no matter who or where or what we are, are indeed called to do as Mother Teresa, to love as she loved. As she used to say, "What I can do you cannot; and what you can do I cannot."

Each of us, with our own unique gifts, with our own relationships, with our own place in history, can touch people and do good in a way that neither Mother Teresa, nor anyone else on earth, can do. We are each called, in our special way, to do as Mother Teresa -- to make our own lives, as hers, "something beautiful for God."

Around the world, in all these small though important ways, the thirst of God for man and of man for God is being sated -- and Mother Teresa's mission to "Come, be my light," continues to be fulfilled.

And so we rejoice for and with Mother Teresa, as we rejoice with the poor and weak of every type and place to whom she showed the immense love of God, as we rejoice with the great and the small everywhere who have been, and will be, blessed by her whom the Church this day in turn has blessed.