The Communion of Saints: Do you know your faith!?

“I believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints and the forgiveness of sins”.

It’s a line we recite every week – perhaps more than once a week, and yet, how often do we stop to question if we really understand what we mean by professing a belief in the communion of saints? I’ll be the first to admit that I have managed to rush past this line more times than I can count without stopping to question my own professed belief in the Church’s teaching on saints. Growing up in a Catholic family and attending Catholic school, I’ve been taught the importance of the “s” vs “S” saint, but how do saints become Saints? How many saints are there? Isn’t there something about miracles involved with this?

With the celebration of All Saints Day coming up this Friday (reminder: Holy Day of Obligation) I’ve decided to look more into these questions in an effort to learn more about my faith.

The communion of saints referred to in the Apostle’s Creed every Sunday refers to a communion of “holy things”, most importantly, the Eucharist. It also refers to a communion of all believers, both living and deceased, it is the unified body of Christ. The reference refers to all saints, all believers in Christ, saints with a lowercase “s”. The reference refers to us, to you and me. But what about the Saints that we so often hear about? The ones whose heads were chopped off for their beliefs? The ones who were crucified upside down or were thrown into a lion’s den? Where do they fit into the Church’s teaching?

The history of Saints in the Church is long and profound but let’s start with a process we have all heard of yet may not have a deep understanding of, the process of being canonized a saint. A recent saint canonized in 2004 by Pope John Paul II is St. Gianna Beretta Molla, I will use her story to help illuminate this complex process.

Canonization is a process that starts generally 5 years after the individual’s death and follows these steps:

(1)  “Servant of God”. A bishop gives permission to open an investigation into a candidate for sainthood in response to a petition by members of the Church. This investigation, run by a council of laypeople –generally started by friends or family members– is quite exhaustive, it includes detailed accounts of speeches, writings and eye witness accounts of the individual’s work and life recorded in a detailed biography. The conclusion of the individual ends in presenting the detailed account of this individual, now called a “Servant of God”, to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints (part of the Roman Curia). The Servant of God is designated to a particular individual, called a postulator. The postulator gathers more evidence and eventually receives permission to exhume the body for examination.

-St. Gianna’s cause was opened up by the Cardinal of Milan after hearing stories of her holiness and dedication to a virtuous life. St. Gianna’s family had been presented with an award by the administration of Milan honoring her memory ten years prior. This award specifically honored her commitment to life – pregnant with her fourth child, St. Gianna refused an abortion and hysterectomy even after realizing that continuing the pregnancy could result in death. St. Gianna delivered her last child on April 21, 1962 and died as a result of complications with the pregnancy seven days later.

(2)  “Heroic in Virtue”. If the postulator is able to gather enough evidence that the “Servant of God” has demonstrated the cardinal and theological virtues to a heroic degree, he is recommended to the Pope. At this point, the Pope can declare the “Servant of God” as “Venerable”. At this point, the Catholic Church encourages its members to pray for a miracle through the intercession of this Hero in Virtue.

-Evidence was gathered by the newly formed Gianna Physician’s Guild in conjunction with the Cardinal Carlo Martini, Archbishop of Milan. Her case was presented to Pope John Paul II and received official approval to continue the process.

(3)  “Blessed”. Beatification is the last step before being declared a Saint. For an individual to be beatified, they must be declared either a martyr or a confessor. In order to be considered a confessor, a miracle must have taken place through his or her intercession. The miracle is determined through an official Vatican commission through a process similar to the scientific methodology.

-Because St. Gianna was not a martyr, a miracle had to be attributed to her in order for her to become “blessed”. St. Gianna’s first miracle story takes place in Brazil in a hospital founded by her brother. A young woman was brought in one night having delivered her fourth child a couple days earlier. The young woman had a serious rectal-vaginal fistula that was only able to be operated on in a hospital over 600 kilometers away. Transporting the patient carried serious risks. Three of the nurses at the hospital started praying for the intercession of Gianna and according to the patient, the pain immediately subsided. Upon examination, it was found that the fistula had completely disappeared.

(4)  “Saint”. The canonization process is complete at the declaration of Sainthood. In order to be recognized as a Saint, another miracle must be attributed to the individual. Once an individual becomes a Saint, they are assigned a feast day in the Catholic Church.

-The second miracle attributed to St. Gianna concerns a baby born without amniotic fluid. Due to a large blood clot, a physician informed his patient that her pregnancy would most likely result in a spontaneous abortion. Deciding to continue with the pregnancy, she returned to the doctor at 16 weeks knowing something had gone wrong. An ultrasound showed that the membranes had broken and there was no amniotic fluid, meaning that the child and mother were in serious danger. When treatment failed, doctors predicted that the baby would die. The local Bishop was alerted to their predicament and urged them to pray through the intercession of Blessed Gianna. After many precarious months and a complicated C-section that resulted with in more complications, a healthy baby was born and the mother regained her health. St. Gianna was canonized on May 16, 2004. Her feast day is celebrated on April 28^th.

Besides canonization, here are some more fun facts about Saints:

-In the Roman Catholic Church, there are over 10,000 saints.

-We do not pray to Saints, we pray with them. Remember there is a difference between asking for a Saint to pray on your behalf and praying to God.

-At Baptism, we are assigned a Patron saint and given their name, generally your first or middle name.

A Profound Silence

In the middle of last year I found myself tied up in the craziness of being busy. Applying to internships, involvement in various clubs on campus, taking some of my hardest classes and all the while trying to make sure that I take the time to enjoy my junior year. At some point I realized that I needed a break from the constant going and embarked on a journey of silence. I had decided to sign up for a Silent Retreat held at Moreau Seminary, run by Campus Ministry. I knew this retreat was going to be different than others I had attended in the past. As I walked with a friend past the lakes toward Moreau, we seriously debated turning back; being silent for 48 hrs seemed like a monstrous feat that I wasn’t sure I felt up to trying.

Moreau Seminary

Upon our arrival we shared a meal with other retreat participants before entering into silence. Getting to know others and forming a community has always been my favorite aspect of retreats; I’ve always enjoyed hearing other people’s stories and being able to relate to them on a personal level. However, after dinner we were not allowed to talk to one another from Friday night until Sunday afternoon and so it seemed that any fellowship would end then and there.

The retreat included three sessions of meeting with a spiritual adviser to discuss where you were in your prayer life and suggestions of where to focus your prayer. Participants are paired up with spiritual advisors upon arrival and continue with the same spiritual adviser the entire time. While extremely hesitant to discuss my prayer life with someone else, I greatly looked forward to these sessions because it meant I could talk! I was fortunate to be paired up with Sister Mary Lynch, who instantly made me feel at ease. The first session that I went into I really tried to focus on prayer and not the difficulty of being silent. I was utterly surprised when I was told that I should try not to read but just learn to be in God’s presence. Here I was thinking that I had fooled the system because I loved to read and a weekend of just reading sounded very enjoyable to me.

While talking was a huge benefit of these sessions, I also found Sister Mary’s guidance really allowed me to focus my prayer life. Being silent and focusing on myself rather than building connections within a community, allowed me to discover where in my life I found God’s presence. At one point Sister Mary asked me what came to mind when reading a certain passage in the Bible and I responded with a saying my grandma always reminds me of, “you are a beautiful daughter of God”. Sister asked me to reflect on that, to think through what it meant to be a daughter of God, to be a beautiful daughter of God. It was an exercise I was in some ways uncomfortable with in the beginning – we are constantly surrounded by this pressure to be better, to compare ourselves to photo-shopped models, to save the world. What I discovered is that sometimes we need to focus on ourselves and remember that not only are we created and loved by God but we are created in the image of the most perfect Being. We are more than good enough, we are beautiful.

The end of the retreat came with a sigh of relief of being able to talk again and excessive amounts of speaking for the rest of that Sunday. Although I struggled with the silence and not being able to interact with others, my weekend on a silent retreat taught me so much more about myself than any other retreat I had attended in the past. 

What it Means to be Pro-Life: An Advocate for Love

As the current ND March for Life Trip Coordinator and former President and Treasurer of ND Right to Life, these past years have been an eye-opening experience of the inner workings of the pro-life movement. From standing in the cold rain at a life chain with St.Joseph County Right to Life to leading the National March for Life inWashington D.C. to volunteering at the Women’s Care Center to lighting candle after candle at the Grotto for the end to abortion, being pro-life has come to permeate every aspect of my life. I did not set out to let being pro-life define me but as I learned more about what being pro-life truly means, I realized that I could not truthfully call myself pro-life and limit this ideal to one aspect of my life. Along my journey in the pro-life movement, I have discovered some important truths about being pro-life that I hope to share with you.

                I have often found that there is a huge misperception of what being pro-life means in society today.  I have sat in classroom debates, had conversations and often been accused of being a bad person for being pro-life. It is through these encounters where I have realized that the pro-life movement is much more than a legal battle, it is a battle for hearts. Most commonly the thought goes, “you’re pro-life, so you’re against abortion, right?” or “don’t women deserve the freedom to decide what should happen to their body?” While being pro-life means not supporting abortion, it means so much more than that. By its very definition, being “pro-life” means being “for life”. When I say I am pro-life I mean that I am constantly striving to love life, to love my life and to love and cherish the lives of those around me. It is as simple as saying, “I want to love”. Not in this romantic, Disney-esque fairy-tale way, but in a love that allows Christ to shine through in everyone. As pro-lifers we are called not to judge but to love. We do not seek to simply end abortion or euthanasia but to love our neighbors enough that they do not have to face these difficult decisions. It is not our place to look down on those who have chosen a decision we disagree with, it is our place to call them our brother or sister and regard them as a person whose dignity is irrevocable.

                As a pro-lifer, I believe in the inherent dignity in all human life. I believe that this dignity deserves to be cherished and celebrated. As a member of the pro-life movement I cannot just oppose abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty. To only oppose abortion and not seek to understand the position of a woman in a crisis pregnancy or a family member hoping to ease the suffering of their elderly grandparent, would be a hypocritical stance. In order to truly promote a culture of life, the pro-life movement seeks to support women in crisis pregnancies, to assist those with mental or physical handicaps and to treat the elderly as beloved members of the human community. Service is just as much a pro-life act as protesting the Roe v. Wade court decision in Washington D.C. The goal of the pro-life movement is not to create legislative change but to create cultural change. To change a culture of death into a culture of life.    

           

                This week (Oct. 6^th- 12^th), the Notre Dame Right to Life Club celebrates Respect Life Week. This week includes a series of events to advocate and promote what it means to be pro-life. We, as a club, seek to challenge the Notre Dame student body. This week we challenge those who consider themselves to be pro-life to consider what that truly means in their lives. We challenge those who consider themselves pro-choice to consider why they hold these beliefs, and most importantly, for those on both ends of the spectrum to enter into discussion with those of opposing beliefs.     

  

                I'd like to invite all those in South Bend to attend the various events surrounding Respect Life Week. On Tuesday, Oct. 8th, join the ND Community in a Rosary for Life with Fr. Jenkins at 6:30 pm in the Basilica. Tuesday night at 8pm we will be setting up a pro-life display on South Quad, all are welcome to come out and help! On Wednesday, Oct. 9th, the National Director of the March for Life, Jeanne Monahan, will give a lecture on "What Does it Mean to be Pro-Life?" at 8pm in Mendoza Auditorium. On Thursday, all are invited to share the gift of life through donating blood on Bond Quad from 10am - 3pm and join us for a candlelight vigil at 11pm on South Quad. We will conclude the week on Friday with a LifeFest on South Quad from 5pm-7pm, come celebrate the gift of life with us!

Along my journey toward understanding what it means to be pro-life, I have heard many outstanding speeches, witnessed martyrs to the cause and come to know some of the most loving people. One of the most powerful questions I’ve been asked is this: as U.S. citizens we’ve grown up in the era following the end of slavery and racial discrimination. It is easy, in hindsight, to question our grandparents and great-grandparents, where were you when these atrocities were committed? What did you do to end this terrible evil? It is clear that we are not all called to dedicate our lives to the pro-life cause, but we are all called to witness to the dignity in each and every life.  And so I challenge you to ask yourself this, when your children or grandchildren realize that we lived in a time when it was legal to kill a person based off of their stage of development or their health, what will your response be to the question of what did you do to help change our culture into a beloved culture of life?

If you or someone you know has personally been affected by an abortion and would like to talk to someone about it, please contact Project Rachel at: (888) 456-HOPE

If you or someone you know finds themselves in a crisis pregnancy, please contact: 1(800) 848- LOVE and remember that Notre Dame’s policy is that it is committed to life and to providing resources that support the choice of life. 

Notre Dame Fellowship

Fellowship is at the heart of nearly every activity in the Notre Dame community. The University of Notre Dame is unique from many other elite universities because we foster a supportive community. Not only do we want to achieve success but we want others to achieve success with us; we are constantly encouraged to do our best and also to encourage our peers to do their best.

As part of a community rooted in fellowship, we rejoice in each other’s successes and help each other when we falter. The beginning of this academic year may be off to a rocky start as the Notre Dame community received three email alerts in quick succession regarding sexual assaults on our campus. We failed as a community, not once but three times. A quick response to these emails came in the form of a prayer service at the Grotto. How fitting that at a time when mistakes are made we turn to Our Lady for assistance and guidance.

Last Sunday night, Notre Dame’s Student Government’s called us together as a community to reflect on our failings and to encourage us to seek a better future. Notre Dame students came together as a community in prayer to reflect on the importance of standing together, acknowledging our weaknesses and preparing to move forward in support of one another. We know we are not perfect, we know our brothers and sisters are not perfect, regardless, we seek to always be there for each other.

Through Jesus’ own example, we realize the need for fellowship within our community. One of Jesus’ first acts in his ministry was to gather together twelve apostles. These faithful disciples gathered together in support of one another. They raised their doubts as individuals to seek the support of the community. Jesus knew that following His teachings was going to be hard; as a fallen people, we no longer live in the safety of Eden. However, coming together in fellowship allows us to participate in the renewing community of a redeemed people.

Just as in the time of Jesus, being a Catholic is not always easy. We are often called to stand up for beliefs that go against the cultural or societal norms. The teachings of the Catholic Church do not change as society’s view changes; they remain grounded in the firm reality of truth as revealed through Christ to the Church on earth. This truth is oftentimes counter-cultural, making living out the values of a Catholic life very difficult. It is in striving to live our lives in a Christ-centered manner that we must form a community around us that we know will support us, even in our failings.

The Notre Dame community faltered in its recognition of the human dignity of others. We failed because we let our brothers and sisters fail. However, we must surround each other with the hope and support of the fellowship of Catholics. As much as our achievements define us, we must ensure that our failures do not define us.

Any time that we, as a student body, receive an email about a sexual assault, Student Government is committed to holding a prayer service immediately following. Through our turn to prayer as a community, we are reminded that we must rely on the Redeemer and find our hope in Him. Notre Dame is a unique university because we place our trust in God and encourage others to follow us on our journeys.  We are a community, rooted in the truth of God’s teaching, attempting to live in a world that may not always support us, and so we must make sure that fellowship remains alive in our community.

#prayforpeace

The authority of the Pope in the Catholic Church is often one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Church. The lineage of the Pope starts with St. Peter and can be traced all the way through Pope Francis, quite a remarkable feat for a 2,000 year old institution! Yet the role of the Pope is often very misconstrued by both Christians and non-Christians. The Pope’s main role is as the visible head and symbol of unity for the Catholic Church. The Pope’s role as “Supreme Pontiff” entitles him to make the selection of bishops and cardinals and to be the final decision in any disputes within the Catholic Church. While the Pope has always been a public figure, the public became fixated on the role of the Pope this past spring.

Campus Ministry Facebook Page

On February 11^th, 2013, the Catholic Church became the focus of media worldwide. In what seemed like an unprecedented event, Pope Benedict XVI announced his retirement—from pope-dom! All of the sudden, the Catholic Church was receiving positive press coverage from a bewildered media. The appointment of pope is a lifelong appointment so how could this happen, and why!? I’m sure all of you watched the coverage as main stream media attempted to explain the inner workings of the Roman Curia and the election of the pope, perhaps some of you even placed bets on who the next pope may be.

In a very momentous moment in the Catholic Church, the first South American pope was elected: Pope Francis. Of course, the crowd immediately fell in love with him, he was a cute old man, visibly humble and dedicated to social justice. There were immediate speculations on how Pope Francis was going to change the Church and how his history and personality were going to impact his role as Pope. 

Within his first few months as Pope, Pope Francis has shown that he is not going to fulfill the ‘typical’ role as Pope. From showing up to pay his hotel bill after his selection as Pope to insisting on living in simple quarters, Pope Francis has stayed true to his Jesuit roots to his devout humility in Christ. In a recent interview when asked about who he was, Pope Francis responds with “I am a sinner”. 

In many ways, Pope Francis has taken the world by surprise. From the surprise announcement by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI of his retirement to Pope Francis’ ‘selfie’ that has taken over Buzzfeed, Pope Francis has proven that he is not going to going to stick to the traditional role of the Pope.

We witnessed his humility once again in his response to Syria.  Rather than issue an official promulgation on the stance of the Church, Pope Francis called for a worldwide day of prayer and fasting, along with the message “pray for peace”. In his actions, Pope Francis appealed to the universality of the Church. Prayer and fasting are both simple actions that Catholics and non-Catholics alike can partake in, and peace is a message everyone can agree on. The Notre Dame community joined in this international effort with an entire day of prayer and fasting for Syria.  Pope Francis spread his message to a worldwide audience with his a series of tweets from @Pontifex that included the message #prayforpeace. This trend took off as thousands of follows joined in prayers and fasting (and tweets!) for peace.

Pope Francis has transitioned into a tremendously important role with the grace and humility only a man in a deep relationship with God may attain. He calls us all to “replace dogma with love”, not to forget our faith but to ensure that we also remember Christ’s call to love. His faithful service to the Catholic Church has been a true witness to Catholics across the globe and through his actions we are reminded of our own call to a profound love for Christ. 

The Call to Holiness

In my previous post, I described how being made in the image of a Trinitarian God, we are called to live in communion. This week I will approach the notion of being created Imago Dei from a different angle, one of differences.

We see in the Trinity how a call to unity is not a call to oneness. We are not called to be the same person, we are called to be unified in one Christ. The differences between unity and sameness are the differences between persons. We are all uniquely made in the image of God. There are no replicates. You are solely yourself and no one can change that or re-create that. Just as in the Trinity there are three persons in one, in the body of Christ (the Church), there are many parts. The Holy Spirit and God the Father are unique Beings, they are wholly separate from another and yet wholly united with each other and the Son. While we strive to imitate their unity in our communities, we must also strive to imitate their individualism in our differences. 

In Genesis Chapter 11, we see a completely unified people. Men have come together and declared, “let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven”. It would seem at first glance that these men are unified in their love for Christ, for their goal is to reach heaven. Reading further on, however, we see that sin controls their actions, “let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad the face of the whole earth”. The unity of these men is rooted in the sin of pride. They seek to reach God in order to make a name for themselves, not for the sake of attaining unity with God in heaven.  God then confuses their language and spreads them throughout the whole earth. It is here where we see the first instance of diversity.

While we do not know why God decided to confuse the language of the men building the tower of Babel, the focus is how do we deal with these differences as Catholics? A brief look at the history of the Church demonstrates that these differences should not be squandered. We should not strive to be the same, rather we should all strive to be holy. We are each individually called to holiness and this is manifested in different ways for different people. At Notre Dame we are all challenged to live out this call to holiness in our everyday lives. Whether through adoration, daily mass in the dorms or Basilica or theological debates among friends, we are constantly encouraged to find God in our everyday lives.

Rather than look at cultural or vocational differences in others as pulling us apart from one another, these differences allow us to follow an individual path towards God. The Church encourages us to seek God in our own way and to develop a personal relationship with Him. It is through these differences that we are able to see our own humanity. Though we are all different, we are all able to experience the presence of God and it is in this realization that we are able to able to reason that there is some greater presence than ourselves.

It is this greater presence of the all-encompassing God that must unify us, both personally and socially.  In each person's uniqueness, there is also a unique call from God that cannot be accomplished by anyone else.  Each person is special not in spite of their differences, but because their differences add so much to ourselves and society.  We are all created different and in the image of God, and in this way our differences are a light by which we can discover more of Him and His purpose for humanity.

A Perfect Community

Growing up I’ve always been a member of a community. Whether it be my family, my school or the Catholic community of my parish. As a student at Notre Dame, this understanding of the community has deepened with the friends I’ve made, the professors who have challenged me and the people who have pushed me to do my best, encouraging me all along. Notre Dame is more than just a place of higher learning, it’s a community, a family.

But what is it about the Notre Dame community that makes this university so special? To attempt to answer this question, we must first understand ourselves, the individual puzzle pieces, and then figure out how we fit together.

A fundamental theological truth that we believe as Catholics is that we are made Imago Dei, in the image of God. While this holds many implications relating to our human nature, one such implication is that we are made in the image of the Trinity, three persons who are fully one God. While the Trinity is a complex mystery that transcends our human knowledge, we can still study the Trinity as a model of the perfect community, one which we should strive to imitate. The Catechism states that “there is a certain resemblance between the unity of the divine persons and the fraternity that men ought to establish among themselves.” (Catechism 1890). We will never attain the perfect unity of the Trinity because of our fallen nature, however, we are called to strive to imitate the harmony and solidarity of the Trinity within our communities.

What does it mean that we are made in the image of a God who is a Trinitarian God? When we begin to study the Trinity, we quickly learn that we cannot come to know and understand one person of the Trinity without understanding the two other persons. Each person of the Trinity is defined individually and in relation to each other; we come to understand each person of the Trinity through their relationships. Similarly, we as human beings define ourselves in relation to others and understand others through our relationships. We call ourselves sisters, students, classmates, doctors, and friends, roles that imply a human connection with other persons.

A second implication is the natural tendency for human beings to form themselves into a society or community. “The human person needs to live in society. Through the exchange with others, [...] man develops his potential” (Catechism 1880). Not only do we naturally form community, but we need to live among a community or society to realize our full potential. If we attempt to disregard society as defined by our relationships with others, we will not be able to fulfill our human vocation.

A song from my childhood stands out regarding this topic: “Don’t build your house on a sandy land, don’t build it too near the shore, well it might be kind of nice but you’ll have to build it twice, so you’ll have to build your house once more”. As a child, it was a catchy song with fun hand motions, but the meaning remains same: we need a strong foundation for our faith. This foundation is found in our communities and our relationships with others. The Notre Dame community is so special because it has taught us the value of living in relation to one another, to discover ourselves through learning about other people. It has called us to imitate God in our communities through exemplifying our nature. 

Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. 2nd ed. Vatican: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011

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