J.M.J.T. + Pax Christi

DISCALCED CARMELITE FRIARS -

Monastery of the Espousals

166 Foster Street, Brighton, MA 02135-3902 (617) 787-5056

Christmas 1997

Dear Friends,

Before I began to write this, I checked out the letter I wrote last Christmas, which was still on file in the computer, and discovered that I had spoken at some length of my move on December 10, 1996, from Peterborough, NH to Brighton, MA, and of matters related thereto. Speaking about that move even provided the starting point for a reflection on the move from Heaven to Earth that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity made after He and the other Persons of the Trinity concurred that He should become Incarnate. So let me begin to say something about my being here for nearly a full year (I am starting this on November 30), and perhaps something I say will provide a starting point for another reflection pertaining to the mystery of God the Son’s birth among us as our true brother, like us in every way, sin excepted.

The permanent community of Brighton at the time of my move consisted of 8 Friars, all priests. Some of them you know, or have heard of:

Fr. Anthony Haglof, our Father Prior.

Fr. Salvatore Sciurba, the Postulant Director and First Councilor (2^nd in command of the Community.

Fr. Michael Dodd, First Provincial Councilor and Vocation Director.

Fr Giles Dzuban, my predecessor as Mission Procurator.

Fr. Emmanuel Sullivan, Ph.D., then in his final year (before retirement) as Professor of Theology and Chairman of the Department at St. Joseph’s College, Windham, Maine.

Fr. Paul Trementozzi, retreat master, floral arranger and raconteur par excellence.

Fr. Larry Sullivan, former professor in the International College of the Order in Rome, Italy, now attending chiefly to his aged and infirm mother in Dorchester, MA

Fr. Stephen-Joseph Ross, Doctoral candidate in Spanish Literature and our House Procurator (or Treasurer).

Then there were the non-permanent members of the community:

Fr. Dennis Geng, former Provincial Councilor and former House Procurator, then in the last stages of preparation for departure (which took place in February, 1997) to Nairobi, Kenya, to be part of the Mission Community there.

Brother Mark Marozza, our then Postulant. Mark was later joined in the postulancy program in February 1997 by

Brother Frank Salamone, a transfer from the province of the Order in Argentina, were living temporarily in the United States at the time of Frank’s birth in Easton, PA. he is an American citizen.

My arrival in December of last year, and the arrival, shortly thereafter, of Fr. Terrance Daugherty, Professor of Rehabilitation Counseling at Assumption College, Worchester, MA, increased the number of members of the permanent community to ten priests.

Since Mark and Frank went on to our Novitiate at Holy Hill, and in mid-September just past, we welcomed into the community a total of nine new Postulants.

And within the past few months, another professed Friar became part of the permanent community: Bro. Joachim Nickerson, who lives and works at a Parish in Barrington, R.I. as Pastoral Assistant.

About my being here, I must say that all my expectations concerning the benefits thereof were amply fulfilled. It is so nice to eat, sleep, work, pray and worship under one and the same roof. It is so nice being able to divide the responsibility of the priestly ministries of the community with several other priest Friars. (From July to my departure in December, I was the only Priest Friar at Peterborough available for priestly ministry within or outside the monastery). It is particularly nice NOT to have to be involved in EVERYTHING that comes up in regard to the day to day running of the monastery.

However, I do remain quite busy. At Peterborough, Fr. George Mangiaracina and I were able to be Spiritual Assistants to six Secular Order Communities combined. After Fr. George left, in early July, to begin to prepare for further studies in Rome, I felt obliged to continue to be assistant to all six.

Of course, I do continue as Mission Procurator, which means that I have to suspend my Secular Order work in order to do mission appeals on weekends from late Spring to early Fall. Nevertheless, I find that now it is much easier to keep abreast of personal correspondence, and, in addition, I have time for more and wider spiritual reading. Looking back upon the entire year, I have to admit in all honesty, God has been so, so good to me! I can’t thank Him enough! Be He forever loved and praised! May it please Him to grant that each of you is able to say the same from the depths of your own heart.

* * * * * * *

The theme that comes to mind and seems best suited for reflection upon the mystery of Christmas is suggested by the remark I made above concerning how nice it is to be able to divide the responsibility of ministry. If we characterize the purpose of Jesus’ Incarnation in terms of the Entire Ministry of Salvation, then we see that He, though our unique Saviour and Redeemer, to whom alone can we attribute the Reconciliation of the Human Race to the Father, really and truly needed then, and still needs now, others to share that Ministry with Him.

The first human being He needed as His collaborator is the Most Blessed Ever-Virgin Mary. Jesus, the Divine Person sent by God to cancel the infinite offense inflicted upon the Heart and Majesty of God by the sin of Adam and Eve, needed a Humanity as the instrument of the deeds of Reconciliation and Salvation. Had Mary not greed to become His Mother, He would not have been able to become Incarnate, and the gates of Heaven would never have been reopened to us poor, sinful children of Adam and Eve.

Given the times into which Jesus was born and in which He grew up and fulfilled His father’s redemptive Will, and in order not to create scandal, it was necessary that Jesus be born into and raised in a family. Therefore, St. Joseph, true, though virginal, Spouse of the Ever-Blessed Virgin Mary, was called to be another indispensable collaborator in the complete Ministry of Salvation as putative father of Jesus.

Finally, since the Ministry of Salvation necessarily had to be extended throughout the centuries to offer redemption and a share in eternal life to each and every person born into the human race since the return of Jesus to Heaven in glory, the Church came into existence as the indispensable collaborator in the ongoing Ministry of Salvation. And, because there are such things as foreseen merits (since it was these foreseen merits of Christ that earned for His Mother the graces of the Immaculate Conception and Fullness of Grace), the Church now, in past ages, and unto the end of the world, is still capable of being collaborators in the Salvation of folks born into the world prior to the Incarnation and Jesus’ fulfillment of His Father’s Will to save us all.

Perhaps these thoughts will enable us to look at Jesus in the manger with new eyes. He began His part in the Ministry of salvation in utter, complete and total dependence upon Mary and Joseph, His own human creatures. Jesus, from the crèche seems to be saying to us; I do so desperately need you. I need your fidelity to your vocation in the Church. Without that help from you I cannot be the Redeemer of the World. First of all, unless you admit you are sinners and in need of Salvation, everything I did and suffered while on earth is of no value to you, or to Me.

Secondly, I live, or at least have a right to live, in the soul of each and every person with whom you come in contact. In so, so many of you, especially children, I (my Life) is at risk. Won’t you please protect that Life? Won’t you help it to develop and grow and come to perfection in eternity? Surely you remember what My Spirit, in the Psalms of Holy Scripture, says on behalf of all human beings who are born into this world: Lord, let us see your face and we shall be saved? You who say you believe in Me and Love Me are the very ones who can show my face to those souls at risk who remain so precious to Me. You do this by that same fidelity to the vocation you have embraced under the influence of the Holy Spirit. This Christmas, and during the entire year that follows, please try to make of your Heart a Bethlehem, a Nazareth, a Bethany and a Cenacle. Then, each time that I renew, through my priests at the Altar, the mystery of My Redemptive death and Resurrection, the Ministry of Salvation may continue unabated, and My Father and I will renew the outpouring of Our Holy Spirit into your souls, and into the souls of all whom you love and for whom you pray.

As I’ve been saying at this time for the past few years: may this be your best Christmas ever!

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