MAY THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST, BE ALWAYS IN OUR HEART TO KEEP US HUMBLE, GRATEFUL, MERCIFUL, FORGIVING --- O GOD, BLESS ALL THAT IS COMING FROM YOU AND BREAK ALL THAT IS NOT COMING FROM YOU, AMEN --- This site is just a drop from the immeasurable ocean in JESUS, THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, HOLY TRINITY ONE GOD - HE IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE - TEACHER, HEALER, REDEEMER --- The main purpose of this site is to make an easier access to Catholic Religion-related links.
Saint
Teresa of Calcutta knew what she was talking
about when she said:
People are often
unreasonable and self-centred.
Forgive them
anyway.
If we are kind, people may
accuse us of ulterior motives.
Be kind
anyway.
If we are honest, people
may cheat us.
Be honest
anyway.
If we find happiness,
people may be jealous.
Be happy
anyway.
The good we do today may
be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good
anyway.
Give the world the best we
have, and it may never be enough.
Give our best
anyway.
Because in the end, it is
always between us and God.
It was never between us
and them anyway.
Even the rich are hungry for love, for being cared for, for being wanted, for having someone to call their own. Every time we smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing. God doesn't require us to succeed ... He only requires us try, even and especially in difficult trials ...
A Christian who hides behind the notion that “this is how it’s always been done...” is committing a sin, becomes idolatrous and disobedient, and lives a “patched up, half and half life”, because his heart is closed to the “newness of the Holy Spirit”. The invitation to free oneself from “customs” in order to make room for “God’s surprises” was offered by Pope Francis during Mass at Santa Marta on Monday morning, 18 January.
In the First Reading, taken from the First Book of Samuel (15:16-23), the Pope began, “we heard that Saul the king was rejected by God for not obeying: the Lord told him that he would win in battle, in war, but that everything had to be utterly destroyed”. But Saul “did not obey”.
Thus, “when the prophet rebukes him for this and then in the name of God rejects him from being king of Israel, he — the passage continues — gives an explanation: ‘I have heard the voice of the people who took the best of this livestock to sacrifice to the Lord’”.
“It is a good thing to sacrifice”, Francis explained, “but the Lord had ordered, he had given a mandate to do something else”. Thus Samuel says to Saul: “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?”. Therefore, the Pope affirmed, “obedience goes further” and surpasses even Saul’s words of justification: “I listened to the people and the people told me: this is how it’s always been done! The most valuable things go to the service of the Lord, either in the temple or as sacrifices. This is how it’s always been done!”.
Thus, “the king, who had to change this ‘this is how it’s always been done...’ says to Samuel: ‘I feared the people’”. Saul “was afraid” and this is why “he allowed life to continue contrary to the Lord’s will”.
It is the same attitude — the Pope continued, referring to the day’s passage from Mark (2:18-22) — that “Jesus teaches in the Gospel, when the doctors of the law rebuke him because his disciples do not fast: ‘This is how it’s always been done. Why don’t your [disciples] fast?’. And Jesus responds with this principle of life: ‘No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; if he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost, and so are the skins; but new wine is for fresh skins’”.
In essence, Francis asked, “what does this mean, that the law has changed? No!”. It means, rather, “that the law is at the service of man, that it is at the service of God, and for this reason man must have an open heart”. The attitude of those who say “this is how it’s always been done...”, in reality, is born from “a closed heart”. Instead, however, “Jesus told us: ‘I will send the Holy Spirit and he will lead you to the full truth”. Thus, “if your heart is closed to the newness of the Holy Spirit, you will never reach the full truth”. Additionally, “your Christian life will be a half and half life, a patched up life, mended with new things but on a structure that is not open to the Lord’s voice: a closed heart, because you are not capable of changing the wineskins”.
This was precisely, the Pontiff explained, “the sin of Saul the king, for which he was rejected”. And it is also “the sin of many Christians who hold onto what has always been done and do not allow the wineskins to be changed”. Thus they end up living “a halfway, patched up, mended, senseless life”.
So, the Pope asked, “why does this happen? Why is it so serious, why does the Lord reject Saul and then choose another king?”. The answer is given by Samuel, when “he explains what a closed heart is, a heart that does not listen to the Lord’s voice, that is not open to the newness of the Lord, to the Spirit who always surprises us”. One who has such a heart, Samuel affirms, “is a sinner”. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry”. Thus, Francis said, “Christians who are obstinate, saying ‘this is how it’s always been done, this is the way, this is the path’, are sinning: the sin of divination”. It is “as if they were to go to a palm reader”. In the end, “what has been said and what doesn’t change — by me and my closed heart” becomes “more important” than “the Word of the Lord”. This “is also the sin of idolatry: stubbornness. The Christian who insists, sins. The sin of idolatry”.
The question to ask with regard to this truth is: “What is the path?”. Francis suggested that we “open our heart to the Holy Spirit, discern what is the will of God”. It’s true, “always, after battles, the people took everything for sacrifices to the Lord, also for their own benefit, also gems for the temple”. And “it was customary, at the time of Jesus, for good Israelites to fast”. However, the Pope explained, “there is another reality: there is the Holy Spirit who leads us to the full truth”. And “this is why he needs open hearts, hearts that are not obstinate in the sin of idolatry of themselves”, believing that what’s “most important” is “what I think” and not “the surprise of the Holy Spirit”.
The Pope then remarked that this “is the message that the Church gives us today: that which Jesus says so firmly: ‘New wine in new wineskins!’”. Because, Francis reiterated, “even customs must be renewed in the newness of the Holy Spirit, in the surprises of God”. Before continuing with the celebration, Francis expressed the hope that “the Lord give us the grace of an open heart, of a heart open to the voice of the Holy Spirit, which can discern what must not change, because it is fundamental, from what has change in order to be able to receive the newness of the Holy Spirit”.
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says God looks beyond appearances and into the heart. He was speaking on Tuesday morning during Mass at Casa Santa Marta. Drawing inspiration from the First Reading of the day that tells of the choice of the young David as king of Israel, the Pope pointed out that even in the lives of the saints there are temptations and sins, as demonstrated by the life of David. The Lord – he said - rejected Saul "because his heart was closed", he had not obeyed Him, and He decided to choose another king. The Pope pointed out that the choice He made was far from human standards since David was the youngest son of Jesse, he was only a boy. But – he continued – the Lord made it clear to the prophet Samuel that he looks beyond appearances: “the Lord looks into the heart”: "We are often the slaves of appearances and allow ourselves to pursue appearances: ‘But God knows the truth’. And that is so in this story... Jesse’s seven sons are presented and the Lord does not choose any of them, he lets them pass by. Samuel is in a bit of difficulty and says to Jesse: ‘The Lord has not chosen any of them, are these all the sons you have? And Jesse replied that there was still the youngest, who is tending the sheep’. To the eyes of man this boy did not count”. He did not matter to men, but the Lord chose him and ordered Samuel to anoint him and “the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David” and from that day on “the whole of David's life was the life of a man anointed by the Lord, chosen by the Lord” the Pope said. So – Pope Francis asked – “Did the Lord make him a saint?” No, is the answer – he said: “King David is saint King David, this is true, but he became a saint after living a long life” a life during which he sinned: "A saint and a sinner. A man who managed to unite the Kingdom, he was able to lead the people of Israel. But he fell into temptation ... he committed sins: he was also a murderer. To cover up his lust, the sin of adultery… he commissioned a murder. He did! Did saint King David commit murder? When God sent the prophet Nathan to point this reality out to him, because he was not aware of the barbarity he had ordered, he acknowledged his sin and asked for forgiveness.” Thus – Pope Francis continued – “his life went on. He suffered personally following the betrayal of his son, but he never he never used God for his own purpose”. And he recalled that when David was forced to flee from Jerusalem he sent back the ark and declared that he would not use the Lord in his defense. And when he was insulted – the Pope said – David would say to himself: “It’s what I deserve”. And then, Francis noted, “he was magnanimous”: he could have killed Saul “but he did not do so.” Saint King David, a great sinner, but a repentant one. “The life of this man moves me” – the Pope said - it makes us think of our own lives. “We have all been chosen by the Lord to be Baptized, to be part of His people, to be saints; we have been consecrated by the Lord on the path towards sainthood. Reading about this life, the life of a child – no… not a child, he was a boy – from boyhood to old age, during which he did many good things and others that were not so good. It makes me think that during the Christian journey, the journey the Lord has invited us to undertake, there is no saint without a past and no sinner without a future”.
When Joaquina de Vedruna Vidal de Mas was born on April 16, 1783, in Barcelona in the Kingdom of Spain, her parents probably never imagined the adventure that lay ahead of her as a future wife, mother, religious, foundress, and servant to the sick and poor children. Yet, St. Joachina listened to the voice of Christ and followed, not only into a deep relationship with Him, but also as a religious committed to help the least.
Joaquina was born into a noble family, one of eight children. In 1795, when she was twelve years old, she expressed to her parents a desire to become a cloistered Discalced Carmelite nun. But they felt she was too young and immature to enter such a strict life. While that door was temporarily closed to her, Joaquina began to develop a strong prayer life with a special devotion to the Infant Christ.
On March 24, 1799, at the age of sixteen, she married Teodoro de Mas, who also came from a noble background. Like his wife, he had a desire to become a religious and enter the Franciscan Order. He also led a life of prayer and showed concern for those in need. After their marriage, both Joaquina and Teodoro became Third Order Franciscans. They raised nine children. Four daughters would enter religious life, two sons married and three children died at a young age.
Life was good for the family until Napoleon invaded Spain. Joaquina and her children fled their home while her husband remained to fight as a volunteer against the invasion. He returned home but suffered ill health from the war. He died on March 6, 1816. Joaquina moved her children to a family estate in Vic.
Joaquina began to wear the habit of the Third Order Franciscans and began to offer care for the sick and women. By 1826, with her children grown, she realized a dream she had as a child of entering religious life. Her spiritual director, a Capuchin friar named Esteban de Olot, suggested that she begin an apostolic community that would continue the work she had started in Vic.
She met with the Bishop of Vic, Pablo Jesus Corcuero, to share the goal of forming a new religious community. He offered his support but encouraged her to look to the Carmelite Order for inspiration and a basis of spirituality for the new community. He wrote the rule for the new foundation, the Carmelite Sisters of Charity. On February 26, 1826, she along with eight other women professed their vows to the Bishop. In the future, she would refine the rule with the help of St. Anthony Claret.
War forced the community to move to Roussillon, France, where they remained from 1836 to 1842. Despite this setback, the community grew rapidly and won a papal decree of praise from Pope Pius IX on August 5, 1857. Houses were built to shelter the homeless along with schools in poor areas for the education of children. Her community was affiliated to the Carmelite Order on September 14, 1860. The Carmelite Sisters of Charity was established throughout Spain, Hispanic America, and later in Japan and Eritrea among other areas. Besides the tremendous service she offered, St. Joaquina was also committed to a life of prayer, especially the contemplation of the Holy Trinity.
The last years of St. Joaquina’s life was filled with illness. She suffered her first attack of apoplexy in September 1849. A growing paralysis began to affect her in 1850. She died during a cholera epidemic in Barcelona on August 28, 1854. She was beatified by Pope Pius XII on May 19, 1940 and canonized by St. Pope John XXIII on April 12, 1959. She is the patron saint of abuse victims, exiles, mothers and protector of children against death. Her body is incorrupt.
The incorrupt body of St. Joaquina de Vedruna de Mas.
“If we were only on fire with love of God! If we were, we would preach love, proclaim love, and yet more love, until we set the whole world on fire. We must have great desire: then God will give us whatever is best for us. We must be careful to free our hearts from everything that might get in the way of the pure love of our beloved Jesus. He is love itself, and wants to give himself to us through love. Jesus is calling us all the time – how long are we going to remain deaf to his voice?”(From a letter of St. Joaquina De Vedruna de Mas)
============================= ============================= POPE FRANCIS
As I am a mother myself, I thought it will be a wonderful idea to share with the world this beautiful email I received --- intertwining Pope Francis's general audience of 7th January 2015 with the life of --- Saint Joaquima de Vedruna
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Abbaye Saint-Joseph de
Clairval21150 Flavigny sur OzerainFrance
Letter of 17 January 2016, Feast of Saint
Anthony, Abbot
Dear Friends,
“Mothers often pass on the deepest sense of
religious practice,” Pope Francis said on January 7, 2015. “[I]n a human being’s
life, the value of faith is inscribed in the first prayers, the first acts of
devotion that a child learns. It is a message that believing mothers are able to
pass on without much explanation: these come later, but the seed of faith is
those early precious moments.” Saint Joaquima de Vedruna was one of those
mothers who pass on the faith. Her life knew the joys of motherhood, the sorrow
of widowhood, and then the total consecration of religious life. Joaquima de
Vedruna was born in Barcelona, Spain, on April 16, 1783, and was baptized that
same day. Her parents, Llorenc de Vedruna, a notary in the city’s royal
chancery, and Teresa Vidal would have eight children, including two sons. One of
them, Ramon, would become a member of the Academy of Belles Lettres. At the
time, Catalonia, for good or ill, was under the central authority of the
Bourbons, and the “French Enlightenment” (the skeptical and rationalist spirit
introduced by philosophers such as Voltaire), was beginning to influence
thought. The Vedruna family, for its part, would remain profoundly
Catholic.
A naive
request
The child often appeared very recollected,
and when her mother asked her the secret of this recollection, she replied:
“Anyone can use my method. When I pull up a weed in the garden, I ask the Good
Lord to pull up a fault from my heart. When I use needles to make lace, I see
the thorns that, because of my sins, pierced the head of Jesus…” At the age of
twelve, she felt a call from God to religious life. The Vedrunas regularly
attended Mass at the Carmelite convent. The girl naively asked the Prioress to
be admitted to Carmel. The Prioress answered gently that her age did not yet
allow such a step. A young lawyer named Theodore de Mas, originally from Vic,
a town 70 kilometers away, worked alongside Mr. Vedruna at the chancery in
Barcelona. At the time such a distance made it impossible to return home every
day. So Llorenc de Vedruna opened his home to the young man. It wasn’t long
before Theodore felt an attraction to the charming Joaquima, barely sixteen
years old. The father rejoiced at the thought of having such a son-in-law, and
he soon spoke of it to his daughter. Although still drawn to religious life,
Joaquima saw in her father’s desire God’s will for her. The wedding was set for
Easter Sunday, March 24, 1799. Theodore brought his wife to the family home, but
the young Barcelonian did not have the good fortune of pleasing her
parents-in-law, which led to great misunderstandings and tension that would
diminish only with the birth of their first daughter, Anna. Other births then
followed: a total of nine children, two boys and seven girls, of whom three (a
boy and two girls) would die in childhood. Four daughters would embrace
religious life. “The joy of children causes the parents’ hearts to beat and
reopens the future,” declared Pope Francis, on February 11, 2015. “Children are
the joy of the family and of society. They are not a question of reproductive
biology, nor one of the many ways to fulfill oneself, much less a possession of
their parents … Children are a gift, they are a gift … Each one is unique and
irreplaceable; and at the same time unmistakably linked to his/her roots … a
society with a paucity of generations, which does not love being surrounded by
children, which considers them above all a worry, a weight, a risk, is a
depressed society … If a family with many children is looked upon as a weight,
something is wrong! The having of children must be responsible, as the
Encyclical Humanae Vitae of Blessed Pope Paul VI also teaches, but having
many children cannot automatically be an irresponsible choice. Not to have
children is a selfish choice. Life is rejuvenated and acquires energy by
multiplying: it is enriched, not impoverished! Children learn to assume
responsibility for their family. They mature in sharing its hardship. They grow
in the appreciation of its gifts. The happy experience of brotherhood inspires
respect and care for parents, to whom our recognition is due.” The
nineteenth century in Spain was particularly troubled. The country was
continually disrupted by wars, attempted revolutions, and fierce struggles for
power. Taking advantage of conflicts within the ruling family, Napoleon seized
the peninsula. In 1808, Barcelona was occupied by the French army, and the
Vedruna family fled to the countryside. Theodore enlisted as an officer in the
Spanish army, against Napoleon. When peace returned, the family moved to
Barcelona where Theodore opened a management office. His health suffered as a
result of the war, but he worked bravely to provide for his family. On
January 26, 1816, he wrote to his wife, who was at the family farm: “Dear
Joaquima, thank you for your kind letter… I am happy that you and the little one
are well… I wish that you return as soon as possible, for the boys are driving
me crazy. One wants to go to the theater, the other to the little shepherds, and
it is I who must take them … The clients do not pay their bills and I am ashamed
to ask for what I am owed… May we live many more years to enjoy one another.
Your husband, Theodore, who loves you awake, asleep, dreaming, and in repose.”
“
I choose you!”
Two months later, tuberculosis struck
Theodore and within a week, on March 6, 1816, put him in his grave. Joaquima was
overcome with grief, but in contemplating Jesus crucified, she drew an
unshakable confidence in God the Father. The very night of her husband’s death,
she received these words from Jesus: “Now I choose you for My wife.” She moved
to the family farm of Mas Escorial in Vic, a property she inherited from her
husband, and immediately began to devote herself to the tasks of managing a
farm—working with the farmers, caring for the livestock, farming the land,
paying the taxes, defending against lawsuits… In the midst of all this activity,
she spent long periods in prayer, which strengthened her in knowing what to do
and in her gentle attentiveness to her children, and which soothed her heart,
wounded by the death of her husband. She extended her loving care to her
servants, looking after their corporal and spiritual needs, and joining them in
sweeping the house and washing the dishes. So passed ten years of her widowhood
(1816-1826). “Mothers,” said Pope Francis, on January 7, 2015, “are the
strongest antidote to the spread of self-centered individualism. ‘Individual’
means ‘what cannot be divided’. Mothers, instead, ‘divide’ themselves, from the
moment they bear a child to give him to the world and help him grow… How a
mother suffers! It is they who testify to the beauty of life. Archbishop Oscar
Arnulfo Romero said that mothers experience a ‘martyrdom of motherhood’ … Yes,
being a mother doesn’t only mean bringing a child to the world, but it is also a
life choice. The life choice of a mother is the choice to give life. And this is
great, this is beautiful. A society without mothers would be a dehumanized
society, for mothers are always, even in the worst moments, witnesses of
tenderness, dedication and moral strength… Without mothers, not only would there
be no new faithful, but the faith would lose a good part of its simple and
profound warmth. And the Church is mother, with all of this, she is our mother!
We are not orphans, we have a mother! … We are not orphans, we are children of
the Church, we are children of Our Lady, and we are children of our
mothers.”
The Lord wants something
else
As a young thirty-three-year-old widow,
Joaquima made an impression on the fashionable society of Vic, but her sole
attraction was to follow the Lord’s call, which had become a fire that set her
heart ablaze, all the more so as several of her children were already on their
own. She increased her work with the poor, so numerous at the time. Sometimes,
accompanied by her daughters, she went to the hospital to care for the sick or
to help them to have a good death. One day in 1819, the horse she was riding
refused to obey her and stopped before the Capuchin church. A religious
approached and told her, “I have been waiting for you.” It was Brother Stephen,
who had recently been assigned to preach in Vic and the surrounding area. This
Capuchin, who led a very austere life, became her spiritual director. When he
traveled through the villages of rural Catalonia, this missionary religious
noted the poverty, state of neglect, and suffering of the locals, and hence the
urgent need for a permanent organization to help them. When these two apostles
met, the plan to found a new type of apostolic religious congregation to respond
to these needs was born. Setting aside her hopes for a cloistered life, Joaquima
embarked on founding a new women’s order of nurses and schoolteachers dedicated
to serving the poor. She explained, “My intent was to enter the convent, but it
seemed that the Lord wanted something entirely different of me—the formation of
Sisters who embrace all the needs of the people, in caring for the sick or
teaching girls.” In instituting the jubilee year of Mercy, Pope Francis
exhorted Christians to perform works of mercy: “It is my burning desire that,
during this Jubilee, the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and
spiritual works of mercy… Jesus introduces us to these works of mercy in His
preaching so that we can know whether or not we are living as His disciples. Let
us rediscover these corporal works of mercy: to feed the hungry, give drink to
the thirsty, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, heal the sick, visit the
imprisoned, and bury the dead. And let us not forget the spiritual works of
mercy: to counsel the doubtful, instruct the ignorant, admonish sinners, comfort
the afflicted, forgive offenses, bear patiently those who do us ill, and pray
for the living and the dead… May the words of the Apostle accompany us: he
who does acts of mercy, let him do them with cheerfulness (cf. Rom. 12:8)”
(Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, April 11,
2015). In preparing for her mission as foundress, Joaquima practiced long
hours of mental prayer, however without depriving her children of her tenderness
as a mother, and devoted herself to both works of charity and harsh penances.
She showed a pronounced appetite for liturgical prayers, whose richness and
savor she penetrated. Her spirituality likewise rested on the profound
experience of God the Father’s love, a love that Jesus’ humanity made visible
and that the Spirit inspires to enable one to follow in the footsteps of Christ.
Joaquima’s soul was transformed, and the Lord rewarded her with extraordinary
spiritual gifts: ecstasies, raptures, levitations… These phenomena punctuated
the rest of her life, and, in spite of the care she took to hide them, were
witnessed by many.
Misunderstandings and
criticisms
In April 1825, a new bishop, Bishop
Corcuera, arrived in Vic to replace his predecessor, who had been assassinated.
The prelate took an interest in Joaquima’s project, as unusual and novel as it
was. On January 6, 1826, during a Mass, at the age of forty-two, Joaquima took
the three vows of religion at the hands of the bishop. The youngest of her
daughters was only eleven years old, a fact that would bring misunderstandings
and criticisms against her. In reality, even as a religious, the foundress
remained very close to her children. Soon a group of young women moved by the
same ideal joined her. These young women of humble origins perceived God’s call
to religious life, but they could not provide a dowry. As a result, according to
the provisions of canon law at the time, they had no possibility of entering
religious life. In her official petition to the bishop, to establish the
community, the foundress wrote: “Joaquima de Mas y de Vedruna aspires to work
for the glory of God and the good of her neighbor, in union with a few other
poor souls, on fire with the love of God. These souls, desirous of becoming
nuns, but not having been admitted to convents, could not otherwise quench their
love for Jesus. This is why I beg Your Excellency…” Joaquima did not build
any convent; the manor she had inherited from her husband would be the cradle of
the new congregation. On February 26, 1826, during a Mass at the Capuchin house
in the town, the institute was officially founded and nine young women committed
themselves to it. At the bishop’s request, it was placed under the patronage of
Our Lady of Mount Carmel. In 1850, it would be definitively approved under the
name of “Congregation of Carmelite Sisters of Charity”. At the manor, which had
become their novitiate, these apostolic Carmelites opened a school for girls;
they also offered to watch over the sick at night. Joaquima was a true mother to
her companions who, for the most part, were younger than her own children.
Brother Stephen, who had written them a Rule very much marked by Franciscan
spirituality, died in 1828, and Joaquima had to take over the growing
congregation without the support of this precious spiritual guide. Very
appreciative of the friendship of priests she knew, she suffered when they
seemed to forget her. In a letter to the prioress of a convent, she wrote,
“Please tell Father Francesc that I do not know if he is living or dead. As for
me, I cannot forget him, but as for him, I think that he has forgotten me, for I
have not received a single word from him. At least remember me to him.”
“
Reassure her!”
At this time, the country’s population was
largely illiterate, and it was primarily males who received education. Joaquima
approached town halls to obtain legal protection and permission to open
facilities for the education of girls. Her followers were the first women
religious in Spain dedicated to teaching. The Mother did not want corporal
punishment in her schools, and she transformed the saying “Learning enters with
blood” into “Learning does not enter with blood but with affection”. She
recommended to her religious: “Do not allow a student to leave the school
annoyed and irritated. If it is necessary to be angry with one during class,
reassure her before she leaves and make her feel that you love her very much.”
In order for her religious to be able to devote themselves to the most demanding
tasks, they needed to be in robust health and the foundress declared to them: “I
wish to see you all happy, eating heartily and resting well at night. Yes, be
joyful, Jesus is pleased to live in the heart of a religious who accepts
everything with a holy joy.” In a letter to a mistress of novices, Joaquima
wrote, “Since among the novices there are some who are fearful, these fears must
cease. May they strive to always do what God wishes them to do!” Thanks to
new laws that protected charitable activities, Joaquima and her daughters were
able to offer their services in municipal hospitals. As both a daughter and wife
of men of the law, she knew how to take advantage of the laws in force to assist
the poor, her charges. The impact of her congregation on local authorities and
on communities grew to the point that vocations poured in, and the services of
the Carmelites of Charity were requested from towns far and wide. However, when
the congregation had been in existence only seven years, the first Carlist War
(1833-1839) brought about the closing of almost all the houses, as well as
Joaquima’s imprisonment. Indeed, she was called an enemy of the victorious
State, because one of her sons had enlisted in the Carlist militias (legitimist
royalists, supporters of Don Carlos, opposed to the liberal monarchy in Madrid).
After a harsh persecution and a brief prison stay, she finally was forced into
self-imposed exile in France, where the city of Perpignan welcomed her for three
years (1840-1843). From there, she could still maintain an exchange of letters
with her communities that had been spared by the government. Life in the capital
of Roussillon was not easy. Living in a too small apartment and surviving by
doing a few odd jobs, the fifteen Sisters and the Superior saw the death of
three of them. The foundress wrote to her deputy for the Spanish communities:
“In spite of all that I am currently living, that I have already lived through,
and all that I am seeing, God always sustains me by giving me courage so that I
do not completely succumb. This is why, my daughter, I can affirm that on the
way of the cross, it is Jesus Who carries it. Amen! Forward!” The varied,
unforeseen and unsettling circumstances of her life had taught Joaquima that it
is abandoning oneself totally into God’s hands that makes it possible to endure
all things. Her apostolic dynamism remained steeped in contemplative life. In
her numerous occupations, she remained closely united with God. Her motto could
have been: “Action through contemplation.”
An inestimable
comfort
When she returned to Vic in 1843, Joaquima
experienced the bishop’s hostility towards her because of her son’s Carlist
sympathies, for which she was in any case not responsible. She accepted this
injustice in silence. Fortunately, meeting Saint Anthony Mary Claret was an
inestimable comfort. This apostle took charge of defending the Sisters, like a
father or brother. He supported the foundress with all his power, particularly
in the formation of novices, and proposed to her a revision of the original
rule, which would prove extremely beneficial. A new novitiate was opened (it had
been closed in 1840). After Father Claret’s death, the Claretian Missionaries,
his spiritual sons, would continue to provide fraternal assistance to the nuns.
In spite of the numerous problems posed by the civil war, the congregation grew,
first in Catalonia, then throughout Spain, and as far as South America. Between
1843 and 1853, Mother Joaquima established nineteen communities to run public
schools and municipal hospitals. Exhausted by such dedication, the foundress’
strength weakened. In 1849, she had already suffered a stroke. Seated in a
wheelchair, she witnessed the continuing flourishing of her congregation in the
hands of her successor. The morning of August 28, 1854, in Barcelona where she
had moved at the end of 1852, she suffered a stroke. The cholera epidemic
carried her off on this same day, around three o’clock in the afternoon, at the
age of seventy-one. This disease would claim four hundred victims in the House
of Charity that she herself had founded. Joaquima de Vedruna, a widow, left
behind six living children, eleven grandchildren and an institute that numbered
150 sisters spread out among thirty communities. Beatified by Pius XII on
May 19, 1940, she was canonized on April 12, 1959 by Saint John XXIII. Under the
mantle of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the tertiary Carmelites of Charity-Vedruna
continue today their unceasing devotion to serving others. They currently number
more than 2,500 religious, carrying out their mission in twenty-three countries
on four continents. Saint Joaquima reminds us that we can sanctify ourselves
whatever our state in life and be faithful to the Lord “Who calls”. She shows
that the life of sacrifice, illumined by humility and prayer, is a short path to
Heaven. Let us put her teaching to good use in our own lives.
MUDELLI TA’ QDUSIJA S. Ġwakkina de Vedruna de Mas Fundatriċi tas-Sorijiet Karmelitani tal-Karità minn P. Hermann Duncan, O.Carm.
Qabel it-taqlib li seħħ mir-Rivoluzzjoni Franċiża, il-familja nobbli Vedruna kienet laħqet il-quċċata tal-poter u l-prestiġju tagħha fil-Grigal ta’ Spanja. Huma kienu rrispettati ħafna għall-integrità u s-saħħa tagħhom, kif ukoll għall-influwenza tagħhom fost il-familji għonja f’Barċellona u l-kampanja tal-Katalonja. Lorenzo de Vedruna u martu Teresa Vidal rabbew it-tmien ulied li kellhom biex ikunu aristokratiċi tajbin u perfetti, u qatt ma ħolmu li l-ħames wild tagħhom, Ġwakkina, kienet se tkun differenti. Imma kienet.
Ġwakkina twieldet fis-16 ta’ April 1783, u ġiet mgħammda fl-istess jum fil-parroċċa tal-Madonna del Pino. Hija kienet tifla ferriħija u kellha entużjażmu tipiku li wieħed isib fit-tfal. Kellha wkoll attrazzjoni pjuttost normali għad-devozzjonijiet reliġjużi u tradizzjonali ta’ dak iż-żmien. Fl-età żgħira ta’ tnax-il sena, hija xtaqet li tidħol fil-monasteru tal-Karmelitani tal-klawsura, u baqgħet mistagħġba li ġiet miċħuda. Il-ġenituri tagħha kienu ċerti li din il-ħaġa kienet xi fantasija tagħha u kienet sejra tgħaddi. Iżda għaddiet għal ftit ta’ żmien.
Il-ħajja ta’ Ġwakkina kienet mimlija b’talb qawwi u kellha għarfien kbir tal-preżenza ta’ Alla. Anke l-ħin li għaddiet tħit jew fil-ġnien, saru għaliha għarfien spiritwali, jew mumenti biex tiddedika lil Alla sal-iċken azzjonijiet ta’ ħajjitha. Jekk hi ma setgħetx tgħix ħajjitha bħala soru fis-skiet tal-monasteru, mela Alla kien qed isejħilha għal xi vokazzjoni oħra.
Fl-1799, wieħed avukat żagħżugħ jismu Teodoro de Mas, talab lil Ġwakkina biex tiżżewġu, u l-ġenituri tagħha qablu. Għalkemm kien kemxejn ikbar mill-għarusa tiegħu, Teodoro kien gustuż u ġej minn familja tajba. Il-ġenituri ta’ Ġwakkina ħassew li kien tajjeb għat-tifla tagħhom. Għall-ewwel, Ġwakkina ħasset li kienet ċaħdet is-sejħa veru tagħha. Imma ladarba saret taf ir-raġel tagħha, skopriet li kellhom ħafna affarijiet komuni. Pereżempju, huwa kien ikkunsidra bis-serjetà li jingħaqad mal-Franġiskani, u kien iħobb it-talb u jagħmel il-karitajiet. Għalhekk il-koppja ddeċidew li jrabbu lit-tfal tagħhom biex isiru Nsara tajbin, u jekk Ġwakkina kienet tixtieq, setgħet iktar tard tidħol ġo monasteru.
Ġara li huma rabbew disat itfal f’atmosfera tajba u qaddisa f’darhom. Iżda ma kinux imbierka bl-istess stabbiltà taż-żminijiet ta’ qabel. Spanja ġiet imdaħħla fil-gwerra u fir-rivoluzzjoni meta Napuljun mexxa t-truppi Franċiżi tiegħu lejn Spanja biex jieħu f’idejh il-pajjiż Spanjol. Biex ikunu iktar ħielsa mill-periklu, Teodoro ħa l-familja tiegħu minn Barċellona għal post twelidu jismu Vic, u mbagħad ingħaqad mal-forzi Spanjoli li kienu qed jiġġieldu biex jiddefendu arthom. Ġwakkina u t-tfal tagħha rnexxielhom jaħarbu minn ġemgħa ta’ suldati qawwija, u hi emmnet li dan il-ħelsien seħħ permess tal-għajnuna ta’ Alla. Iżda l-vjolenza u t-tixrid tad-demm ħarbtu lil kulħadd, u ħadd fi Spanja ma baqa’ l-istess.
Matul it-taqlib tal-gwerra, Ġwakkina kompliet tkun omm iddedikata u tħobb lil uliedha. Teodoro rriżenja mill-armata fl-1813, hekk kif il-gwerra kienet waslet fi tmiemha. Huwa reġa’ lura lejn daru bit-tama li jerġa’ jgħix ħajja normali. Iżda s-snin tal-gwerra kienu ta’ ħsara serja għall-saħħtu. Ġwakkina kienet diġà ndunat li dalwaqt tisfa’ waħedha. Ġara li Teodoro miet f'daqqa fl-1816, meta hija kien għad għandha 33 sena. Minkejja dan, hija ddeċidiet li twettaq ir-responsabbiltajiet kollha tagħha, u bl-għajnuna ta’ Alla, ħadet ħsieb li trabbi lil uliedha. Għal għaxar snin iddedikat ruħha għat-tfal tagħha, u użat il-wirt sostanzjali tagħha biex tassigura l-futur tagħhom. Imma għexet ukoll ta’ mara sempliċi, kompliet titlob u tgħin lill-morda ta’ Vic.
Wieħed wara l-ieħor, it-tfal tagħha bdew jitilqu mid-dar. Erba’ minn uliedha daħlu fil-kongregazzjoni mwaqqfa min ommhom, tnejn iżżewġu, u tlieta minnhom mietu. Hawnhekk Ġwakkina bdiet taħseb dwar il-futur tagħha. Għalkemm hija qatt ma tilfet ir-relazzjoni ta’ mħabba tagħha lejn uliedha, hija ddeċidiet li tuża l-ħiliet tagħha biex tagħmel opri ta’ ħniena. Id-direttur spiritwali tagħha, Patri Esteban de Olot, Franġiskan Kapuċċin, kien reliġjuż ta’ karità u tagħlim kbir. Huwa taha parir biex ma tidħolx f’xi komunità reliġjuża li teżisti, imma taħseb biex twaqqaf komunità hi stess. Huwa kien ġibdilha l-attenzjoni li hija diġà kienet tajba f'żewġ forom ta’ ministeru: it-tagħlim taż-żgħażagħ u l-kura tal-morda. U għalhekk il-kongregazzjoni tagħha kellha tiffoka fuq dawn iż-żewġ xogħlijiet. Bil-barka tal-Isqof Corcuera ta’ Vic, hija waqqfet il-Karmelitani tal-Karità. Fl-1826 għamlet il-voti tagħha f’idejn dan l-istess Isqof. L-ewwel komunità kienet tikkonsisti biss minn disa’ sorijiet, imma ħadu l-wegħdiet tagħhom mimlija tama u entużjażmu.
Fis-snin bikrija huma għexu f’faqar kbir. Id-donaturi għonja evitaw kwalunkwe kuntatt ma’ dan il-grupp li kellu dehra li kien iddestinat għall-falliment. Madanakollu fi żmien qasir, is-sorijiet kienu waqqfu sptar f’Tarrega, u qdew lin-nies bl-aħjar mod li setgħu. Għal darb’oħra, Ġwakkina u s-sorijiet tagħha sofrew mit-tbatijiet tal-gwerra. Il-Gwerer Karlisti kissru lil Spanja. Kien hemm ġlieda morra bejn il-frazzjonijiet politiċi, iżda s-sorijiet għenu u kkuraw il-midruba taż-żewġ naħat, u ħolqu żona newtrali mibnija fuq l-imħabba u l-ħniena. Ġwakkina għal darb’oħra kellha taħrab lejn Franza, lejn Rousillon, għal perjodu qasir biex tevita l-perikli tal-vjolenza.
Meta fl-1843 reġgħet lura, is-sorijiet tagħha għaddew minn żmien fejn bdew jikbru u jiżviluppaw. Ġwakkina u s-sorijiet tagħha pprofessaw l-aħħar wegħdiet tagħhom f’idejn Sant Anton Marija Claret, ir-rappreżentant tal-Knisja. Fl-1850, bl-approvazzjoni finali ta’ Ruma, bdew jinxterdu madwar Spanja u wkoll f’pajjiżi oħra. Imma fl-istess sena, Ġwakkina sofriet il-bidu ta’ paraliżi li ġegħlitha tnaqqas l-attività qawwija tagħha. Għalkemm il-qawwa mentali tagħha kienet timpressjonak, hija ċediet it-tmexxija tagħha lil ħaddieħor, u marret lura biex tgħix ħajja sempliċi ta’ soru. Saħħitha bdiet sejra lura bil-mod il-mod sakemm mietet fit-28 ta’ Awwissu 1854, fl-età ta’ 71 sena. Ġiet midfuna fid-dar prinċipali tagħhom ġewwa Vic.
Il-kongregazzjoni tagħha ġiet approvata b’digriet Papali tliet snin wara mewtha mill-Papa Piju IX fil-5 ta’ Awwissu 1857, waqt li l-Kongregazzjoni ġiet affiljata mal-Ordni Karmelitan fl-14 ta’ Settembru 1860. L-approvazzjoni uffiċjali saret fl-20 ta’ Lulju 1880 mill-Papa Ljun XIII. Illum, il-Kongregazzjoni tinsab ġewwa l-Ewropa, l-Amerka, l-Ażja u l-Afrika. Sas-sena 2008 kien hemm madwar 2012-il reliġjuża f’280 dar.
Ġwakkina ġiet ibbeatifikata fid-19 ta’ Mejju 1940 mill-Papa Piju XII fil-Bażilika ta’ San Pietru f’Ruma. Aktar tard ġiet ddikjarata qaddisa mill-Papa Ġwanni XXIII fit-12 ta’ April 1959 fl-istess Bażilika. It-tifkira tagħha ssir fl-Ordni Karmelitan fit-22 ta’ Mejju.
