Saturday, August 24, 2013

ST. ROSE OF LIMA - PATRONESS OF LATIN AMERICA AND THE PHILIPPINES

Posted by Hgwyneth on 9:02 PM with No comments

The people in the Philippines are presently in wrath because of Janet Napoles stealing of taxes. While she and her family extravagantly spend the wealth came from the taxes of the people, there are families who can hardly eat three times a day. While she's busy fooling the Catholic Church by her so called charity works through giving allowances to Bishops, priests, and communities, she's also busy stealing the portion of people's hard earned money.

I asked, can she really sleep in her comfortable houses? can she really enjoy the ride on her luxurious cars? can she really escape God's wrath hiding on her camouflage? I really don't know how a person like her can survive a day with a rotten conscience. I pity her daughter who, without hesitation, boast of her elegant way of living...Since August 23 is St. Rose of Lima's feast day and since she's honored as Patroness of the Philippines, I would like to share how a beautiful lady, despised admiration and chose to be a humble servant of Christ. A story which Jeane Napoles, and other young woman, should imitate in loving Jesus. 


THE STORY OF ST. ROSE OF LIMA
Feast Day August 23

St. Rose of Lima is the patroness of Latin America and the Philippines. This South American Saint's real name was Isabel, but she was such a beautiful baby that she was called Rose, and that name remained. As she grew older, she became more and more beautiful, and one day, her mother put a wreath of flowers on her head to show off her loveliness to friends. But Rose had no desire to be admired, for her heart had been given to Jesus. So she put a long pin into that wreath and it pierced her so deeply, that she had a hard time getting the wreath off afterward. Another time she became afraid that her beauty might be a temptation to someone, since people could not take their eyes off her. Therefore, she rubbed her face with pepper until it was all red and blistered.
St. Rose worked hard to support her poor parents and she humbly obeyed them, except when they tried to get her to marry. That she would not do. Her love of Jesus was so great that when she talked about Him, her face glowed and her eyes sparkled.
Rose had many temptations from the devil, and there were also many times when she had to suffer a feeling of terrible loneliness and sadness, for God seemed far away. Yet she cheerfully offered all these troubles to Him. In fact, in her last long, painful sickness, this heroic young woman use to pray: "Lord, increase my sufferings, and with them increase Your love in my heart."

Many miracles followed her death. She was beatified by Clement IX, in 1667, and canonized in 1671 by Clement X, the first American to be so honoured. Her feast is celebrated 23 of August. She is represented wearing a crown of roses.
from Wikipedia
Rose of Lima, T.O.S.D. (April 20, 1586 – August 24, 1617), a Spanish colonist in Lima, Peru, who became known for both her life of severe asceticism and her care of the needy of the city through her own private efforts. A lay member of the Dominican Order, she was the first person born in the Americas to be canonized by the Catholic Church.

Contents

  • 1 Biography
  • 2 Veneration
    • 2.1 Patronage
  • 3 Legacy
  • 4 See also
  • 5 Further reading
  • 6 References

Biography[edit source | edit]

She was born Isabel Flores y de Oliva in the city of Lima, then in the Vice royalty of Peru, part of New Spain, on April 20 1586. She was one of the many children of  Gaspar Flores, a harquebusier in the Imperial Spanish army, born in San Germán on the island of San Juan Bautista (now Puerto Rico), and his wife, María de Oliva, a native of Lima. Her later nickname "Rose" comes from an incident in her babyhood: a servant claimed to have seen her face transform into a rose. In 1597 she was confirmed by the Archbishop of Lima, Turibius de Mongrovejo, who was also to be declared a saint. She formally took the name of Rose at that time.[1]
As a young girl—in emulation of the noted Dominican tertiary, St. Catherine of  Siena—she began to fast three times a week and performed severe penances in secret. When she was admired for her beauty, Rose cut off her hair and smeared pepper on her face, upset that suitors were beginning to take notice of her.[2] She rejected all suitors against the objections of her friends and her family. Despite the censure of her parents, she spent many hours contemplating the Blessed Sacrament, which she received daily, an extremely rare practice in that period. She was determined to take a vow of virginity, which was opposed by her parents, who wished her to marry.[1] Finally, out of frustration, her father gave her a room to herself in the family home.

Stained glass window by Harry Clarke, depicting St. Rose burning her hands in an act of penance, in St. Michael's Church, Ballinasloe, Ireland
After daily fasting, she took to permanently abstain from eating meat. She helped the sick and hungry around her community, bringing them to her room and taking care of them. Rose sold her fine needlework, and took flowers that she grew to market, to help her family. She made and sold lace and embroidery to care for the poor, and she prayed and did penance in a little grotto which she had built. Otherwise, she became a recluse, leaving her room only for her visits to church.[2]
She attracted the attention of the friars of the Dominican Order. She wanted to become a nun, but her father forbade it, so she instead entered the Third Order of St. Dominic while living in her parents' home. In her twentieth year she donned the habit of a tertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity. She donned a heavy crown made of silver, with small spikes on the inside, in emulation of the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ.[2]
For eleven years she lived this way, with intervals of ecstasy, and died on August 24, 1617, at the age of 31. It is said that she prophesied the date of her death. Her funeral was held in the cathedral, attended by all the public authorities of Lima, and with a eulogy by the archbishop.

Veneration[edit source | edit]


Monastery of Saint Rose in 17th-century Lima
Rose was beatified by Pope Clement IX on April 15, 1667, and canonized on April 12, 1671, byPope Clement X, the first Catholic in the Americas to be declared a saint. Her shrine, alongside those of her friends, St. Martin de Porres and Saint John Macías, is located inside the convent of St. Dominic in Lima. The Roman Catholic Church says that many miracles followed her death; there were stories that she had cured a leper. Many places in the New World are named Santa Rosa after her.Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is especially devoted to her[citation needed].
Her liturgical feast was inserted into the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1729 for celebration initially on August 30, because August 24, the date of her death, is the feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and August 30 was the closest date not already allocated to a well-known saint.[3] Pope Paul VI's 1969 reform of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, made August 23 available, the day on which her feast day is now celebrated throughout the world, including Spain, but excluding Peru and some other Latin American countries, where August 30 is a public holiday in her honor.
She is honored together with Martin de Porres and Turibius of Mogrovejo with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on August 23.
Early lives of Santa Rosa were written by the Dominican Father Hansen, "Vita Sanctae Rosae" (2 vols., Rome, 1664–1668), and Vicente Orsini, afterward. Pope Benedict XIII wrote "Concentus Dominicano, Bononiensis ecclesia, in album Sanctorum Ludovici Bertrandi et Rosae de Sancta Maria, ordinero praedicatorum" (Venice, 1674).
There is a park named for her in downtown Sacramento, California.[4] A plot of land at 7th and K streets was given to the Roman Catholic Church by Peter Burnett, first Governor of the State of California. Father Peter Anderson built one of the first of two churches in the diocese to be consecrated under the patronage of St Rose.[5]
In the Caribbean twin-island state of Trinidad and Tobago, the Santa Rosa Carib Community, located in Arima, is the largest organization of indigenous peoples on the island.[6] The second oldest parish in the Diocese of Port-of-Spain is also named after this saint. The Santa Rosa Church, which is located in the town of Arima, was established on April 20, 1786, as the Indian Mission of Santa Rosa de Arima on the foundations of a Capuchin Mission previously established in 1749.[7]
Rose's skull is on public display in the basilica in Lima, Peru. It was customary to keep the torso in the basilica and pass the cranium around the country. She has a crown of roses on her cranium. The skull is displayed with that of St. Martin de Porres, whose skull is also separate from his torso.

Patronage[edit source | edit]

Saint Rose is the patroness of Americas,[1] indigenous people of the Americas especially of Lima, Peru; the secondary patroness of the Philippines along with Saint Pudentiana; of gardeners; of florists; of Sittard, the Netherlands; of India.

Legacy[edit source | edit]

Parishes dedicated to St. Rose of Lima are located in Buena Vista, Colorado;[8] Newtown, Connecticut;[9] Montrose, Illinois;[10] Gaithersburg, Maryland;[11] Chelsea, Massachusetts; Roseville, Minnesota;[12] Rockaway Beach, New York, Massapequa, New York;[13] Murfreesboro, Tennessee;[14] Andice, Texas; [15] Houston, Texas; [16] and Chicopee, Massachusetts. [17]
On the last weekend in August the Fiesta de Santa Rosa is celebrated in Dixon, New Mexico.

See also[edit source | edit]

  • List of Catholic saints

Further reading[edit source | edit]

  • Teodoro Hampe Martínez. "Santa Rosa de Lima y la identidad criolla en el Perú colonial" (essay of interpretation), Revista de Historia de América, No. 121 (January – December, 1996), pp. 7–26

References[edit source | edit]

  1. ^ a b c Aymé, Edward. "St. Rose of Lima." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 21 Jun. 2013
  2. ^ a b c AmericanCatholic.org "St. Rose of Lima"
  3. ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 101
  4. ^ Downtown Sacramento Partnership site: St Rose of Lima Park
  5. ^ The History of the Sacramento Diocese, second paragraph
  6. ^ Santa Rosa Carib Community
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ St. Rose of Lima Parish, Buena Vista, Colorado
  9. ^ St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church, Newtown, Connecticut
  10. ^ http://www.dio.org/parishes/st-rose-of-lima-montrose.html
  11. ^ St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Gaithersburg, Maryland
  12. ^ St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, Roseville, Minnesota
  13. ^ St. Rose of Lima Parish, Massapequa, New York
  14. ^ St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Parish Murfreesboro, Tennessee
  15. ^ Santa Rosa de Lima Church, Andice, Texas
  16. ^ St. Rose of Lima Catholic Community, Houston, Texas
  17. ^ St. Rose de Lima, Chicopee, Massachusetts
from Wikipedia


Wednesday, August 14, 2013

LIFE OF FR. ALOYSIUS SCHWARTZ, A Father & a Saint to Me

Posted by Hgwyneth on 6:33 AM with No comments

I paused for a month due to busy schedules. Today, I have some spare time and think about whose life of saint I will tackle. All of a sudden, I think about  Fr. Al, my spiritual Tatay, my hero, my inspiration. His journey to sainthood has started. I mean the process for his canonization has just started. It's a long way to go before the Catholic Church declare him a saint, but for me and for my other brothers and sisters, and to those whose lives he touched, he's already a SAINT.


Who is Father Al?

He is unknown to many. Only few has learned of his life and I take this duty, as his child, to make him known even not to all but to many people.

Father Al was born on September 18, 1930 in Washington, D.C from his parents Louis F. Schwartz and Cedelia A. Bourassa. He had his elementary education in Holy Name Elementary School, Washington, D.C. in the year 1936-1944. He entered St. Charles Minor Seminary in Catonsville, Maryland on 1944-1948 and has his B.A. Degree in Maryknoll College in Lakewood, New Jersey and Glen Ellen, Illinois from 1948-1952. In 1953, he took Theology in Louvain University, Belgium and finished the degree in 1957. June 29, 1957 was his dreamt ordination to priesthood in St. Martin's Church Washington, D.C. during that time Bishop McNamara was the Auxiliary Bishop of Washington.

His journey to a life dedicated to service of God through the service of men started on December 8, 1957. This was the day he arrived in Korea where he was assigned in the Diocese of Busan, Korea. It was during the time when Korea was at its lowest state due to Korean War. There were many orphans, widows, beggars, street children and unemployed. However, Fr. Aloysius was forced to go back to US after a month of stay due to affliction of Hepatitis. He didn't immediately return to Korea. While working for his recovery, in 1959-1961, he toured U.S. and Europe with a Korean Bishop to raise money for the missions. On March 1961, he established Korean Relief, Inc., fundraising Operation in Washington, D.C.

It was on December 1961, 3 years after, he was able to return. His come back was with a firm purpose of helping people in Korea. He was assigned as a pastor of St. Joseph parish. He lived a life of poverty, serving his parishioners especially the needy. He then organized the Legion of Mary Ladies to assist him in helping the poor.

In 1963-1969 he initiated Operation Hanky Self-help Embroidery Program in Busan, Korea which employed 3,000 slum dwellers.

On August 15, 1964, he founded the Sisters of Mary in Amnamdong Busan, Korea, (originally called the Mariahwe Sisters, a religious group now numbering 300 sisters working in Korea, Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras & Brazil).  This was also the day when he began family-unit orphan program in Busan, Korea. They accepted first group of orphans. On September 1966, opened first dispensary in slums in Busan and in the following year 1967, he opened another two more slum dispensaries in Amnamdong and Bosudong in Busan, Korea. That same year he resigned as pastor and worked full time with the Orphan Program.

His work continued to flourish. His mission was successful which paved way to the establishment of the following charitable institutions: Amni-Dong Free Middle School for Children in Busan, Korea on December 1968; Operation of Kuhoso Sanatorium in Busan, on July 1969;  Amnandong School in Busan, a middle school for boys and became first Boystown Program on October 1969; Sisters of Mary Mercy Hospital, October 25, 1970; Elementary School, Middle School, Technical School, 1972-1976 (All future Boystown/Girlstown Programs would include a fully accredited school program). On January 6, 1981, he began program for 400 severely retarded children and took over care of 1,800 destitute and homeless men in Seoul, Korea who were taking care of by the Society of the Brothers of Christ Religious Order founded by Fr. Al himself on May 10, the same year. On June 29, 1982, the silver year of his priesthood, he built the second Sisters of Mary Doty Memorial Hospital in Seoul, Korea which cater 120 bed full-service hospital which is totally free for the poor.

Fr. Al did not stop where he started. He responded to a more challenging job of spreading his mission to the world. He gave in to the request of Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin to start his noble work in the Philippines. Moved with pity, he founded "heaven on earth" in the Philippines located in Bacood Sta. Mesa Manila which was inaugurated on August 15, 1986. The facility can accommodate 3500 poor deserving children (where I myself is a beneficiary, 10th batch). Other than that, for almost 7 years (1985-1992), The Sisters of Mary operated the Charity Pavilion at Quezon Institute serving 2,000 tuberculosis patients for free until the government closed the facility.

Fr. Al is a hero not only for the children whom he gave shelter, food, education but for all the families he was able to help because of his wonderful deeds.

However, our hero is also human. He was afflicted with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and was diagnosed on October 1989.  Despite his health situation, he did not stop with his charity. He continue working and serving even it's hard for him to move because the sickness tied him up in the wheelchair. He accepted the pain with joy. He treated his sickness as gift so he lived with it fully.He devotedly delivered mass, spending hours in the blessed sacrament, praying the rosary, hearing confessions from the children, inculcating virtues of truth , justice, chastity, charity and humility through his words and example. Despite his physical weakness, the work continued.

On August 23, 1990 another Girlstown Program was inaugurated in Talisay Cebu at full capacity serves 3000 girls. On September 12, 1990, the program went overseas again and was established in Chalco Mexico.  On July 31, 1991, Boystown Program in Silang Cavite was also inaugurated which also serves 3000 youngsters (now Girlstown; Manila campus was moved here; boys were transferred to new facility near it, the Boystown ADLAS Silang Cavite.

SMS FACILITIES IN THE PHILIPPINES:

The work must continue but our sick founder has to rest. He breathed his last on March 16, 1992 in Girlstown Manila and laid his body in Boystown Cavite. Our benevolent founder died but his service continue to grow. 

Here are the new villages after his death:







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