Monthly Update

Yesterday I was on the Second Avenue Bus in Manhattan. My fellow passengers all seemed deeply immersed in their various electronic gadgets. Their ears were usually plugged or there was a one-way conversation much too audible for the rest of us.

I was having a far better time watching the parade of fascinating real live drama all down the street. There were people with very funny dogs and some with very funny hairstyles… There were the loveliest of children and parents from every racial sector of the world. There were aged people on walkers or in electric wheel chairs and children’s strollers pushed by Nannies… The array of businesses that passed before my eyes were a mini movie of the heartbeat of this great city. The restaurants bore names from all the corners of the world, the most intrigueing to me were those called “bistro” or “cafe”. These reminded me of the cafe on the Via Condotte in Rome where much of the 19th century escapades in Europe were planned. Each of these vignettes could be turned into a charming short story as we wonder what is behind all of the characters I saw that day.

I had the same thought as I scrolled through an e-mail attachment showing the beautiful wonders of our world… I cannot travel to those places so I appreciated the mailing but I also went out doors and saw the thousand colored leaves ready to fall from the trees and the squirrels in their frantic preparations for winter… There was even the first time sighting of a rabbit on our property… but he was so fast maybe it was just an unfortunate squirrel that had lost its tail.

I am all for electronic devices and would be lost without the contents of my Kindle Fire, but I don’t want to miss the excitement that is outside my window and door… in everything balance!!!!!

It would seem that the temptation of our time is to fall into cynicism and despair.   There is the overwhelming technological ability to send both propaganda and bad news into devices that follow us wherever we go.   What would Mother Franziska say to us?   I think she would smile and say “give joy”… Just recently I heard that an American Bishop, talking to the students at the North American College reminded them that it is very important to smile as they walk around Rome.   In fairness, many of the religious you see in the Eternal City are there on business and have to hurry before the noon rest closes all the shops, or a strike disrupts their commute home.   Tourists who see these representatives of the Church do not know of think of this.  They only take away the impression that the Catholic Church and its “official” people are cheerless and tense.   The new evangelization calls us to have a deep faith grounded in a personal relationship with Christ.   Through this daily contact we are given a radiance that shines into the darkness like light through a window.  Mother Franziska would tell us that the joy of the Lord is available to all but only requires time and exposure, according to possibilities, to Sacred Scripture, the Sacraments and good reading and media.   We almost think that only bad news surrounds us but if we take the time we see everywhere goodness, truth, beauty and love.  These are the things we must concentrate on … Our world is thirsting for light and truth and our Church challenges us to be the apostles of good in our own time and environment.  Mother Franziska would be our biggest cheerleader in this project and will always counter our tendencies to feeling helpless with her own strength and enthusiasm.  She would remind us that it is November, the month of all Saints and all Souls, those who have gone before and still care about us.  She had a favorite Saint for every occasion, adapting her request to the experience and life story of the saint.  We are not alone.  There is loving help everywhere.

 

 The Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Charity

Loved by the Father

Sent by the Son

to live in the Spirit

 

In 1833 a little girl was born in a small Bavarian village near the market town of Wasserburg/Inn. The day after she was taken across the street and Baptised with the name Franziska in the village church. She was strongly influenced by the piety of her culture and recognized that God was her loving heavenly Father. When she was old enough to attend Mass she absorbed every word of the hymns and the homilies. A born leader, she chose to “play church” and had a circle of willing companions whom she taught and questioned from the pulpit of a tree branch. She also played at religious life because she was familiar with Monks who came to beg among the farmers. Scraps of cloth became habits and odd bricks built little monasteries.

From the time she was introduced to the Eucharistic Christ, she felt a call to fashion her life according to God’s will. She made a pilgrimage to a famous Marian shrine at Altoetting where the call became more precise. She asked her parents to give her an education. The only thing available to a woman of her state was to become an instructor of needlework. She joined two religious communities but still felt that her life was for a different road. She joined a priest who wanted to provide education for poor country women and this became a hospital and school in Switzerland. Again there was disappointment and doubt along with physical weakness. After a directed retreat she found herself alone in a small apartment in Vienna. In desolation she turned once again to the Lord to lead her. Soon she received approval for the outline of a Congregation to offer help, education, security and spiritual guidance to the thousands of country girls all over Europe who were coming to the big cities to serve as maids in the houses of the wealthy. These girls were often lost for lack of advocacy and education in the ways of independent and dignified living. Through many struggles she attracted followers and soon her Congregation was known even to the Emperor who asked her to work in the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Famous St. Mary’s Homes were founded in the great cities and even schools in the newly acquired lands of the Balkans.

 

 

The story begins a significant new chapter when a little girl is born in Venice, Italy of a German father and Italian mother. The girl who became Mother Kostka Bauer was born in 1870 and baptized in the cathedral at Venice. Her father wanted her to be shaped by the German-Austrian culture and so sent her as a boarder to a school in St. Andre where she met the sisters of the young Congregation. The Foundress passed away in 1894, so little Olympia as she was called, had a real connection to the roots. She felt a call, but wanted to enter only if she could become the superior general. What seemed unrealistic childhood ambition was really a symptom of someone who would not live by half measures. She entered the congregation and as Sister M. Kostka, was assigned to a school in Hungary and then as directress of novices. Gradually she shared her own spirit with those she was forming and a missionary dream evolved. They would go to America. Immigrants from countries with a dominantly Catholic culture would be thrust into a diverse society and all the problems associated with poverty in the big city ghettos. They needed care for body and soul. In time this proved to be God’s will as the superiors gave their approval and a small group came to New York City in 1913, They started with the hospitality of a good Hungarian woman and gradually found a house of their own which took in servant girls and continued the original work of the sisters. As the American foundation grew pastors began to ask for sisters to come as catechists and eventually as struggles she attracted followers and soon her Congregation was known even to the Emperor who asked her to work in the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Famous St. Mary’s Homes were founded in the great cities and even schools in the newly acquired lands of the Balkans.

Mother Kostka was elected General Superior but became trapped by World War II. She suffered greatly because the unity of the Congregation was so important to her and she could not contact the sisters who were now in many places in Europe and even South America. In God’s plan suffering is never an obstacle to but rather a seed for good. She was here to nurture the growth and spread of the congregation to many parishes and finally to give her life and to rest here on Staten Island in St. Mary’s cemetery.

The missionary spirit continues today as new foundations are made in Africa, Bolivia, Argentina, and in the countries recently freed from Communism. The Congregation is today divided into ten provinces with convents and ministries in 15 countries.where over a thousand sisters are living to “…do good, give joy, make happy and lead to Heaven…”

 

 

Mother Franziska would have loved to live in our day. As I was driving to a new destination and using a gps aide for the first time I imagined her startled question in German what the voice was. I explained that I had just passed a designated exit and the gps was taking time to recalculate. As I explained the meaning of the word she noted how important a concept that was for our spiritual lives. Mother Franziska, at the very beginning of her foundation had a great disappointment with a key factor of her team. She lost the priest who had been the spiritual director of her young community. He gave talks, helped write the beginning rules, heard confessions and celebrated the Eucharist. Then a separation became urgent and she could tell no one for the reason. She confided to a close friend that she was in tears whenever she was alone. It was here that her faith taught her to “recalculate”. Accept the situation which could not be changed and continue along the road to the destination which, she was sure, was the will of God. Trust in God was the hallmark of her life and gave her the strength to go on. When we meet an obstacle, a sin, a scandal, it is not a call to give up but to find a new path. The path may be in a mist, but Jesus is there and in prayer we will find the strong hand that is reaching out to lead us on. This makes it possible to use our most important tool for the New Evangelisation: Our joyful smile grounded in boundless faith in God. Our sad world needs joy and each one of us, inspired by Mother Franziska’s goals: to do good, give joy, make happy and lead to heaven… will be bringing to our brothers and sisters the good news which will be the challenge of the current World Synod of Bishops.

As the sacred is driven more and more from public life it becomes all the more urgent for all believers to be authentic in their faith.  We know how quickly we must update our electronic appliances and what was new a few months ago is obsolete. Why would we think that our religious education from childhood or youth does not need to be polished and adapted to our fast changing culture and life circumstances.   We have at our disposal opportunities that would make even our dear Mother Foundress envious.   Information is all around us for the taking.  We have diocesan publications, free libraries, the internet which has websites and posts by dioceses, religious congregations, Catholic publishing companies and many private individuals.  The coming year of faith is a challenge to dioceses and parishes to provide programs to help people.   The upcoming Synod of Bishops will be responding to our Holy Father and his predecessor’s requests for a New Evangelization.  In the past this meant foreign missions, now, though they are not excluded, it is the previously Catholic cultures that must be re-evangelized.  We are invited to become closer to Jesus, to have an faith that is internalized in a loving relationship with the Blessed Trinity.  How excited would Mother Franziska be with this and how she would strive to motivate her sisters to be examples of persons in love with God, radiating a charity and loving care for every person they meet.   No one is so alone that they do not come into contact with other persons.  Perhaps God lets us meet a mailman or shopkeeper because we are to be the presence of God’s love for them.  No one is exempt from this great world mission.  We are called Daughters of Divine Charity which is translated in most of our languages as (Divine Love).  Our very title is our program and the opportunities to deepen this love in our own hearts and to radiate it in our sad and lonely, lost world are endless and everywhere.  We have a glorious task and a joyous and fulfilling future.