One of the most difficult things for a Catholic publisher to do (in terms of pleasing everyone) is to explain how to pray the Rosary!

You would think this would be easy, however, there are so many variations in the ways people pray the Rosary that it can make your head spin!

I was reminded of this last night when we took the kids to church to pray the Rosary. Two weeks earlier, I taught my class how to pray the Rosary as I was taught, which, if compared to cable TV packages, would be the “basic” package: Sign of the Cross, Apostles’ Creed (not all the time, however), Our Father, 3 Hail Marys, Glory Be, and then 5 decades beginning with announcing the Mystery, an Our Father, 10 Hail Marys, and a Glory Be. Amen.

Our experience in church last night was very different and, to go back to the cable TV comparison, would be the “premium” package: all of the above plus the Fatima prayer at the end of each decade, the Hail, Holy Queen at the end as well as The Rosary Prayer (“O God, whose only begotten Son…”) and the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel (all nicely provided on a much-needed and much-appreciated prayer card).

Some people don’t stop there, however, and use what we might call the “Platinum package!” which includes everything in the Premium package as well as some or all of the following:

Beginning with the “Come Holy Spirit” prayer
Beginning with “O God, come to my assistance, O Lord make haste to help me.”
Beginning with the Divine Praises
ending with the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary
ending with the Memorare
An additional Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be for the intentions of the Holy Father
inserting the Miraculous Medal Prayer
A Prayer for the Unborn after each Fatima Prayer

Suffice it to say, there is no “official” way to pray the Rosary: it is a devotion, not a Rite of the Church. Even Pope John Paul II was criticized by some for not including mention of the Fatima prayer in his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary. In the end, the most important thing about the Rosary is the meditation on the Mysteries, for that is precisely how we pray “to Jesus, through Mary.” My own feeling is that, the Rosary is already a “wordy” prayer so I prefer not to add more words than “required” for each bead (I find it challenging enough to teach kids to learn how to pray the Rosary with the “basic package”). That’s only a personal preference and not a value judgment on the variations practiced by many Catholics, all of which are true expressions of devotion to Mary and faith in Jesus Christ.

I’ll end by providing a link to the USCCB Website on how to pray the Rosary: if you would like to argue that there is an official or “right” way to pray the Rosary, I suggest you take it up with our bishops! 🙂 In the meantime, feel free to share your approach to the Rosary.

by ANDY OTTO

What does it mean to trust in God? Christians who call themselves faithful may say they place their uncertainties or difficult decisions in the “hands of God.” But trusting in God does not mean stepping out of the picture.

St. Ignatius tells a story in his autobiography that gives an example of an immature understanding of trust in God. On the road to Montserrat, at the beginning of his new life as a follower (or soldier, as he might say) of Christ, Ignatius encountered a Moor who disagreed with some of his beliefs. According to Ignatius, the man was disrespectful of the Virgin Mary. Ignatius, in a reactive moment, felt that he should kill the Moor to defend Mary’s honor. As the Moor went off, Ignatius decided at a fork in the road that if his donkey went down the path the Moor had taken, he would kill the man, but if the donkey went the other way then he would not. Thankfully the donkey chose the path that did not lead to murder!

While St. Ignatius might have thought that this was a form of discernment that trusted in God’s decision, it was not! (He matured a lot after that experience.) Real trust in God does not shift responsibility away from us. I recently was asked to draw out a “map” of my faith story, where I came from, and what important moments led me to where I am now. I considered my upbringing in the faith, receiving the sacraments of initiation, my time in college and then in the Jesuits, and the relationships I’ve had, finally ending where I am now: engaged and studying theology in graduate school. Looking at my faith map I could see the hand of God. But each step was never outside of the choices I made. There was always some discernment that led me to choose the next path, and then the next.

A mature trust of God is trust in the fruits of discernment and reflection leading us to make one decision or another. We should never carelessly leave it up to chance. Trust in God is not about chance or luck; it’s about collaborating with God on the choices for my life. God guides me, prompts me, and may even push me, but ultimately every choice is up to me.

by Paul Brian Campbell,SJ

A story from Blessed Teresa of Calcutta:

Some of my sisters work in Australia. On a reservation, among the Aborigines, there was an elderly man. I can assure you that you have never seen a situation as difficult as that poor old man’s. He was completely ignored by everyone. His home was disordered and dirty. I told him, “Please, let me clean your house, wash your clothes, and make your bed.” He answered, “I’m okay like this. Let it be.” I said again, “You will be still better if you allow me to do it.”

He finally agreed. So I was able to clean his house and wash his clothes. I discovered a beautiful lamp, covered with dust. Only God knows how many years had passed since he last lit it. I said to him, “Don’t you light your lamp? Don’t you ever use it?” He answered, “No. No one comes to see me. I have no need to light it. Who would I light it for?” I asked, “Would you light it every night if the sisters came?” He replied, “Of course.”

From that day on the sisters committed themselves to visiting him every evening. We cleaned the lamp, and the sisters would light it every evening. Two years passed. I had completely forgotten that man. He sent this message: “Tell my friend that the light she lit in my life continues to shine still.”

I thought it was a very small thing. We often neglect small things.
– See more at: http://peopleforothers.loyolapress.com/2011/09/wisdom-story-72/#sthash.l1HuX5CJ.dpuf

by Paul Brian Campbell,SJ

On the question of his own Enlightenment, the Master always remained reticent, even though the disciples tried every means to get him to talk.

All the information they had on this subject was what the Master once said to his youngest son who wanted to know what his father felt when he became Enlightened.

The answer was: “A fool.”

When the boy asked why, the Master had replied, “Well, son, it was like going to great pains to break into a house by climbing a ladder and smashing a window and then realizing later that the door of the house was open.”

Anthony de Mello, S.J.

Feast Day July 29

One of the most precious things in life is to have a home where you can go at any time and find people who accept, love, and understand you. Jesus found such a home in Bethany, at the house of a woman named Martha. She welcomed him and served him, and they developed a special bond of friendship.

Martha lived with her sister Mary. Like many other pairs of sisters, these two women were different in personality. Martha was energetic and outspoken, while Mary was quiet and reflective. Jesus loved both of them and appreciated the gifts that each one had.

The Gospel of Luke records that once, when Jesus was visiting, Martha prepared the meal while Mary sat talking to their visitor. Martha complained that Jesus should tell Mary to help her. Jesus said that because Martha was worrying so much about the work, she did not have time to enjoy being with him and listening to his words.

Another time recorded in John’s Gospel, the sisters sent a message to Jesus that their brother, Lazarus, was ill. They knew Jesus would come and cure him; they trusted in his loving care for them. When Jesus finally came, Lazarus had already been dead for four days. As soon as she heard that Jesus was nearby, Martha, a woman of action, went out to meet him, while Mary stayed in the house. In her grief, Martha told Jesus honestly what she had expected from him. Jesus asked her to believe that he was the resurrection and that he had power to give eternal life to all who believe in him. Without really understanding this mystery, Martha trusted Jesus totally and said, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world” (John 11:27). That day Jesus raised her brother Lazarus from the dead, showing that he has power over life and death and power to give eternal life.

The home Jesus found in Bethany was not only in the house but in the faithful heart of a woman named Martha.

Faith-based programs create a culture of service amid economic crisis.
America Magazine | JULY 5, 2010

Before Stephanie Gullotti started working at MercyFirst human services agency in Brooklyn, N.Y., she thought the job would be a temporary stop on her way to a career in health care. But since last August, when she began her work there with children in foster care, she has gained experience organizing workshops about education, employment and health for teens; she has built relationships, planned trips and encouraged high-schoolers to apply for college. “I came into this thinking I’d learn something and maybe take that to whatever else I do in the future, but I enjoy so much of what I’m doing now, I’m torn,” she said. Ms. Gullotti loves her job for many reasons, but a big paycheck isn’t among them.

As a full-time volunteer for the agency through the Mercy Volunteer Corps, Ms. Gullotti, 23, receives a stipend of $210 a month, $110 of which is for groceries for her volunteer community, which consists of herself and one other volunteer. The two women receive housing and health insurance from M.V.C., which is based in Gwynedd Valley, Pa., and live together while trying to put into practice in their daily lives the tenets of simple living, community, social justice and spirituality.

While this lifestyle might seem radical to some, it makes sense to more and more young adults who are seeking faith-based volunteer programs that match applicants with full-time job placements lasting anywhere from one week to two or more years. The volunteers often choose this path as a way to “give back,” to build on a short-term service experience or to explore career options. Most live on a small stipend and in a community with other like-minded volunteers.

Over 13,000 individuals volunteered through faith-based programs between 2008 and 2009, according to a survey by Catholic Network Volunteer Services. Of these volunteers, nearly one quarter served for nine months or more. The increasing popularity of these faith-based volunteer programs among adults under 25 reflects a general increase in the number of young adults in the United States who choose to volunteer for any significant length of time, which rose from 7.8 million to 8.2 million from 2007 to 2008, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service. But despite the abundance of individuals looking for full-time volunteer positions after college, the total number of faith-based programs is declining, and many programs are seeking new sources of funding in the wake of the U.S. economic downturn.

Expanded Need, Diminished Resources

Since 2004, the number of programs registered as members of C.N.V.S. has fallen from 236 to 182. Of those remaining, 175 offer service opportunities lasting nine months or more in both domestic and international placements. The largest lay, Catholic, long-term volunteer program, and one of the oldest, is the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, headquartered in Baltimore. This year applications for J.V.C. have risen dramatically, up 36 percent since last year. The main office stopped accepting them altogether after receiving 650 applications for 370 placements. The organization expanded both its international and domestic placements by 12 percent in an effort to meet the demand. But this, in turn, has presented a new set of challenges.

“The need is expanding, and the number of people who want to volunteer is expanding,” said Kevin O’Brien, the president of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. “What’s not expanding is the resources.” Even with an alumni base of over 12,000 and several full-time staff members, J.V.C. has not yet met its fund-raising goals for this year. “We are trying to do new things and go back to our alumni for support,” he said. “We’re writing more grants. It’s not dire, but the rate at which we can expand is constrained by the economic realities.” Mr. O’Brien says he has directed many qualified applicants to other programs with similar values.

The economic downturn also has affected programs that receive the bulk of their funding from a single religious congregation. Shrinking orders must rethink their budgets as many of their members reach retirement age. Meanwhile the growth of secular nonprofit-based programs creates more options for potential volunteers. Today half of all faith-based post-graduate volunteer programs are run by religious congregations, down about 20 percent from 14 years ago, according to Jim Lindsay, executive director of C.N.V.S.

This July will mark the end of the Providence Volunteer Ministry, a program run for 22 years by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, in Indiana. As the ministry’s first lay director, Julie Szolek-Van Valkenburg worked for several years to build the program; she instituted spiritual direction and retreats for the volunteers. But the community leadership decided to close the program because of its cost, difficulties in housing the volunteers, the declining number of religious sisters and losses from the religious community’s investments. “The volunteers had a better attitude than I did,” said Ms. Szolek-Van Valkenburg, describing her reaction to the decision. “They said that this ministry as it’s known is closing, but there will be something else that will come.”

In spite of economic and logistical difficulties, new volunteer programs continue to be launched, and 17 people attended the most recent C.N.V.S. yearly formation workshops for potential new program leaders. Among last year’s crowd was Ellen Mommarts, the first executive director for the Norbertine Volunteer Community, sponsored by the Norbertines of St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere, Wis. She spent the past year recruiting, securing housing, developing a budget and setting up relationships with agencies in a culturally diverse neighborhood of Green Bay. There the organization’s six volunteers commit themselves to 30-hour work weeks with various agencies and 10 hours of community development within their neighborhood.

While agencies in Green Bay are familiar with government programs like AmeriCorps, the Norbertine volunteers are the first in the area sponsored by a religious community. Currently, the Norbertines do not ask participating agencies to pay any part of the cost of a volunteer, which surprises many agencies, who welcomed the help. “When they realized we were serious, they were all over it,” Mommarts said. “We know adjustments will need to be made based upon the needs of the neighborhood. That’s…the example St. Norbert gave to the order: meet the needs of the people where they’re at.”

A Culture of Service

Word of mouth and the Internet remain the top ways by which college students learn about a particular program, but it takes more than good public relations and recruiting tactics to inspire individuals to join.

“We’ve talked a lot about what we can do to create more of a culture of service, where [long-term volunteering] is not seen as unusual, but something that we would like everyone to at least consider,” said Jim Lindsay of C.N.V.S. “People are very concerned…about finances, student loans; many have to convince their parents that this is something worth doing. But I think we’re finally getting to the point where a year of service isn’t a year off, a gap year. It’s a year of real-world experience, and its an excellent way to start off a career [or]…to live out one’s faith in service to the poor.”

According to C.N.V.S. statistics, 44 percent of volunteers enter the workforce immediately after completing their service; of those, 53 percent choose fields in education or social work. Another 12.2 percent enter graduate schools, where 61 percent study medicine, social work or education. Yet volunteering is not just for those interested in being a teacher or a caseworker. “For some, volunteering allows a person to really pursue a career; for others, they learn transferrable skills, life skills because of it,” said Mike Goggin, executive director of the St. Vincent Pallotti Center in Washington, D.C., which offers prayer resources, networking opportunities and newsletters to prospective, current and former volunteers. “I think a lot of people who choose to do long-term volunteer service have financial means to be able to spend a year not working for pay…. Living simply and in a very rural community or a foreign country or a very urban setting can sometimes be quite a different experience for them.”

John Mullman, 49, fully acknowledges that he was pushed outside his comfort zone when he joined J.V.C. in 1982 after graduating from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., with a degree in economics. At the time, he had rarely traveled far from his hometown on Long Island, so his placement as a teacher and after-school program coordinator in Washington, D.C., seemed like a true adventure.

“There’s an element of it that was appropriately uncomfortable, and that’s part of the value of the experience,” he said. “It’s one thing for you to live on $60 a month for a year, when at the end of the year you can choose to not do that,” he said. “The people you’re working with do not get that choice. And that affects you.” Today, Mr. Mullman, who is married to another former Jesuit volunteer, is in the money management business and on the J.V.C. board of directors. “The lessons you learn from that stick with you. The idea of giving back to those less fortunate than you is something we’ve given to all our children, I hope.”

For some, the transition from the life of a volunteer to whatever comes next can be difficult. “The volunteers have been profoundly changed, then [they] go home and try to talk about it, and it’s, ‘Yeah, great. O.K.; we’re going to get pizza for dinner.’ Or, ‘Oh, the do-gooder is home,'” said Marian Uba, executive director of the Mercy Volunteer Corps. “We try to help the volunteers communicate their experience in a constructive way.” She said teaching them to “ritualize their goodbyes” is part of the ministry, too. Many former volunteers feel at home in jobs or communities that uphold the values of their volunteer program.

Cinnamon Sarver’s volunteer experience inspired her to “delve more deeply into issues of voluntary poverty.” After serving as a therapist and case manager at a mental hospital through Channels, a now-defunct program associated with the Diocese of Seattle, Ms. Sarver, 39, joined a Catholic Worker community. “It was really hard for me to imagine finding full-time work where I wasn’t going to compromise some key values by paying taxes to a government that would support war, capital punishment and abortion,” she said. She has since spent six years at various Catholic Worker houses, seven years teaching full time, and recently she completed a master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame, which is named by many volunteer programs as the top school for volunteer recruitment. Despite her qualms, Sarver found that joining the labor force has its upside. “I have been able to explore the side of myself that is an educator, and I have a lot of talents in that area that I wasn’t able to fully explore in my volunteer experiences,” she said.

For Ellen Derby, 26, the value of community stayed with her after two years as a teacher in Micronesia through J.V.C. She stayed for an additional year serving as the school’s principal. In the fall, Derby will become a religion teacher and campus minister at a California high school. She still enjoys discussing her volunteer experience, but is sometimes frustrated by those who try to label her experience as time off.

“People say, ‘It’s so great that you’re taking time out to do this,’ and I want to say, ‘I worked the hardest I ever had in my entire life,'” she said. “I went to bed with the sun and got up with the sun every day. It was by no means a vacation…. [I]n going there I didn’t realize how much it would become a part of my life. It’s not a sidestep off my path. This volunteer experience was part of the road.”

James Martin, S.J., reflects on a unusual artistic rendering of the Annunciation.

Daniel Hendrickson, S.J., reports on Contemplative Leaders in Action, an initiative of the Jesuit Collaborative. CLIA “is designed to nurture faith-centered leaders so they can impact society and culture.” The program comprises retreats, lecture, study, and service work, and brings together young people from a variety of professions. Fr. Hendrickson is chaplain to the CLIA program in New York. He is pictured bottom row, left, next to New York program director Alison Donohue.

Today in the dioceses of the United States the Church celebrates the optional memorial of Sts. Issac Jogues and John de Brébeuf (priests and martyrs) and their companions (martyrs). They were Jesuit missionaries who died martyrs in North America, where they preached the Gospel.

According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Peter of Alcantara, priest. He was one of St. Teresa’s spiritual directors and encouraged her in her reformation of the Carmelite Order.

St. Isaac Jogues, St. John de Brébeuf and Companions
French Jesuits were the first missionaries to go to Canada and North America after J. Cartier discovered Canada in 1534. Their mission region extended from Nova Scotia to Maryland. Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, Gabriel Lalemant, Noel Chabanel, Charles Garnier, Anthony Daniel, Rene Goupil and John de Lalande (the first six Jesuits, the last two laymen) preached the gospel to the Iroquois and Huron Indians, and after being tortured, they were martyred in the area of what is now Auriesville, New York. The martyrdoms took place between 1642 and 1649. Ten years after the martyrdom of St. Isaac Jogues, Kateri Tekakwitha was born in the same village in which he died. These martyrs are co-patrons of Canada.

The missionaries arrived in Canada less than a century after its discovery by Cartier in 1534, in the hope of converting the Indians and setting up “New France.” Their opponents were often the English and Dutch colonists. When Isaac Jogues returned to Paris after his first capture and torture, he said to his superior: “Yes, Father, I want whatever our Lord wants, even if it costs a thousand lives.” He had written in his mission report: “These tortures are very great, but God is still greater, and immense.”

In the Office of Readings we have an excerpt from the mission journal of St. John de Brébeuf, who had been a student of the great Jesuit spiritual writer, Louis Lallemant. He wrote:

For two days now I have experienced a great desire to be a martyr and to endure all the torments the martyrs suffered…. I vow to you, Jesus my Savior, that as far as I have the strength I will never fail to accept the grace of martyrdom, if some day you in your infinite mercy should offer it to me, your most unworthy servant…. On receiving the blow of death, I shall accept it from your hands with the fullest delight and joy of spirit…. My God, it grieves me greatly that you are not known, that in this savage wilderness all have not been converted to you, that sin has not been driven from it.

In the new book, Pope Francis: Why He Leads the Way He Leads, author Chris Lowney delves into what made Pope Francis who he is today and the impact of his Jesuit formation. Enjoy this excerpt.

The pope has already been articulating a vision that challenges his Church to reimagine itself in the twenty-first century:

 – He challenged “lukewarm Christians” and “couch potato” Christians to engage much more energetically in spreading the Church’s message, not to “take refuge . . . in a cozy life,” but to get beyond our “comfort zones” and live with greater “apostolic fervor.”
 – He challenged his Church to be more forthrightly “poor, and for the poor.”
 – He warned Vatican diplomats-in-training that “careerism is leprosy.”
He challenged a global culture in which “money . . . for the mighty of this earth, is more important than people.”
 – He challenged his own fellow bishops to be “Men who love . . . poverty, simplicity and austerity of life.”

He asked Brazilian bishops bluntly, “Are we still a Church capable of warming hearts?” . . .[H]e is fundamentally challenging our lifestyles and priorities, yet we are not dismissing him as a curmudgeonly old scold. Rather, we seem to appreciate that a plain speaker is telling us uncomfortable truths that we’ve long needed to hear.

But Pope Francis has done more than challenge his own Church; he is challenging our wider culture’s whole approach to leadership by embodying a refreshing, deeply countercultural vision of how leaders live and what they value. He seems deeply self-aware and authentic, for example, while so many prominent public figures nowadays seem superficial and fake, constantly trying to spin us. The pope seems driven by a passion to serve, not by a craving for status, money, or power. Our culture is becoming increasingly self-absorbed and fascinated with superficial pursuits; he is striving to focus us beyond ourselves, on the struggles of our neediest brothers and sisters around the world. As I watched him, I started to wonder whether this unlikely choice for pope, even while igniting change in his Church, could be an equally unlikely catalyst for a long-overdue global conversation about leadership.

Perhaps he can inspire us to take on what might be called the new leader’s habits. Cardinal Bergoglio literally donned a new habit, of papal white. And to lead well in this new century, the rest of us need new habits too, not literally, but figuratively—new ways of preparing ourselves to exercise leadership in our work and family lives. His call to lead his Church might invite profound reflection on the leadership call (yes, leadership is a call) that comes to each of us (yes, each of us), whether we live that call as chief executives, parents, or, who knows, as someday a pope.

And thus, this book about Pope Francis and how his Jesuit background has informed his leadership values and principles. It’s not a biography. Plenty of those have already been written; yet, oddly, they have largely glossed over the Jesuit spirituality that prepared him to lead and still drives his thinking. Don’t take my word for its critical importance; take his: “I feel like I’m still a Jesuit in terms of my spirituality, what I have in my heart. . . . Also, I think like a Jesuit.” Clearly, we can only understand this pope by first understanding what the following chapters explore: what it means to “think like a Jesuit.”

But, in another respect, this book is as much about the rest of us as it is about the global leader of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is our case study, a prism, the catalyst for us to ponder why we are so disappointed with the leadership status quo, to imagine an approach to leadership that would better inspire us, and to articulate the commitments we can make to become better leaders in our own lives.

Learn more about the book here.