Polish Nun's Cookbook a Hit

From the AP:

KRAKOW, Poland — Emerging from the quiet of her convent, Sister Anastazja Pustelnik was confronted by a jarring image — her smiling face on posters plastered around town to hawk the cookbooks that have made the 59-year-old nun one of Poland's best-selling authors.

It's fame Sister Anastazja never bargained for when she left the material world as a young woman, expecting to toil in obscurity for God. But her ability to create easy-to-follow recipes for delectable cakes and traditional home cooking has resulted in five cookbooks since 2001 that have sold a combined 1.1 million copies in this country of 38 million.

Today, her cookbooks are found in shops and online, their glossy covers showing Pustelnik with an apron over her black nun's habit and a mixing bowl or serving platter in hand, generating the unwelcome fame thrust upon her.

"Once when I was walking through town and there were advertisements for one of my books, I felt like tearing them down," she confessed. "But I was afraid of paying a fine."

The rest is here.

Saint Jerome Emiliani (IVF, Frigidaire, Etc.)

On July 20, Holy Mother Church commemorates a saint whose patronage has grown unhappily.

Saint Jerome Emiliani, was a priest, a founder of an order (Order of Somascha), and is the patron of orphans and abandoned children. He died in 1537. You can read about him here at the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia (a website that really should have been added to your favorites by now).

On July 20, Holy Mother Church also commemorates the feasts of Saint Margaret of Antioch and Saint Apollinaris of Ravena. What caught my eye about Saint Jerome Emiliani--and why I focus on him here--was his patronage of abandoned children. This priest was beatified by Pope Benedict XIV in 1747 and canonized by Pope Clement XIII in 1767, long before the introduction of the in vitro fertilization (IVF) methodologies of our modern age.

If you know anything about IVF, you know that couples and doctors availing themselves of this mechanical procreation often create a purposeful surplus of fertilized eggs (conceived persons) from whom they choose very few to implant in the uterus and then bring into the world. The rest are abandoned to the frigid confines of modern science--in suspended animation and callous disregard. Holy Mother Church stands against IVF, in part, because it leaves so many children abandoned from the very beginning of their existence.

When Pope Clement XIII canonized this saint in 1767, he had no idea that the sciences and ethics of the future would create abandoned children on purpose. Still, Holy Mother Church provides, despite the unknowing of her members.

And so the millions imprisoned in the deep freeze and subject to the machinations of the embryonic stem cell profiteers have a protector in this saint.



Saint Jerome Emiliani, ora pro nobis.

Pope Benedict XVI Falls, Breaks Right Wrist

News here. Sounds like he is all right. But let us keep him in our prayers.

Prayer Request for Midwestern Seminarian

A reader emails late tonight that he met earlier this evening with a seminarian in the midwest who is in need of prayer, given a challenging recent diagnosis.

The emailer suggests the prayer to Father Kapaun:

Lord Jesus, in the midst of the folly of war, your servant, Chaplain Emil Kapaun spent himself in total service to you on the battlefields and in the prison camps of Korea, until his death at the hands of his captors.

We now ask you, Lord Jesus, if it be your will, to make known to all the world the holiness of Chaplain Kapaun and the glory of his complete sacrifice for you by signs of miracles and peace.

In your name, Lord, we ask, for you are the source of peace, the strength of our service to others, and our final hope.

Amen.

Chaplain Kapaun, pray for us.

Skins to Market--The Feast of the Blessed Martyrs of Compiegne

Earlier this year, the famous American author John Updike died of lung cancer at age 76. He was not Catholic and I was no great fan of his (never finished a novel of his, although I liked some of his short stories). In any event, after his death, I heard an interview with him on NPR that still rings in my ears.

He said that as he grew up in New England there was a saying around his house that kept him in line. That saying was: "We all take our skins to market." If this is not self-explanatory to you, let me help a bit. Hunters take the skins of their prey to market for remuneration--to exchange them for money. One takes his own skin to market, the metaphorical market being one's judgment before his maker, to see what it is still worth. If anything. The reward for your hide? Heaven or Hell.

The moral of the aphorism is to live accordingly--since your skin will show what you have made of your time in the wilderness of your life. (The saying is also a good argument for the sacrament of confession--and its regenerative powers for one's hide--but let us move on.)

Today, July 17, Holy Mother Church commemorates the martyrdom of some women who were forced to take their skins to market. Theirs is a compelling story.

From the New Advent Catholic Encylcopedia:

Guillotined at the Place du Trône Renversé (now called Place de la Nation), Paris, 17 July, 1794. They are the first sufferers under the French Revolution on whom the Holy See has passed judgment, and were solemnly beatified 27 May, 1906. Before their execution they knelt and chanted the "Veni Creator", as at a profession, after which they all renewed aloud their baptismal and religious vows. The novice was executed first and the prioress last. Absolute silence prevailed the whole time that the executions were proceeding. The heads and bodies of the martyrs were interred in a deep sand-pit about thirty feet square in a cemetery at Picpus. As this sand-pit was the receptacle of the bodies of 1298 victims of the Revolution, there seems to be no hope of their relics being recovered.

The following is from an unknown source on the web:

On July 17, 1794, the sixteen Carmelites nuns of Compiègne were guillotined in Paris, convicted of crimes against the state by the tribunal of the French Revolution. On this day they were born to eternal life.

Mother Henriette de Jesus, renowned for her great beauty and strong personality, stood up to represent the other Carmelite sisters before the revolutionary tribunal and was remarkable for her heroic resolution. Since the prosecutor accused the Carmelites of being fanatics and counter-revolutionaries, she asked him to explain the meaning of those words. The irritated judge vomited a torrent of offenses against her, and then said: “It is your attachment to your Religion and the King.”

Hearing these words, she replied, “I thank you for the explanation.” Then, addressing her companion Carmelites, she said: “My dear Mother and my Sisters, we must rejoice and give thanks to God for we die for our Religion, our Faith, and for being members of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.”

She was the last one before the Prioress to mount the scaffold to die. To the end, she encouraged her Sisters to persevere. When a charitable person offered a glass of water to one of the Sisters, Mother Henriette told her: “In Heaven, my Sister, in Heaven we will soon have water aplenty to drink.”

Well, there you have it. From Kansas to France and a stop in New England in between. Where else do you get all that?

Blessed Martyrs of Compiegne, ora pro nobis.

P.S. Notice that these Carmelites were martyred the day after the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, their patroness. The symmetry of Holy Mother Church always amazes.

AMEN !

Below is a letter from the Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN.
_____________

To Priests, Deacons, Religious, and to All the Faithful, The presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is at the center of our faith and of the devotional life of our Catholic people.

In recent years, the place of the tabernacle in our churches has become a source of controversy. This should not be. The Eucharist, whether we are referring to its celebration or to the place of reservation, should always be a means of unity and communion, and never of division.

The place of the tabernacle in our church should reflect our faith in the real presence of Christ, and should always be guided by church documents.

My experience is that our people, with their instinct of faith, have always desired that the tabernacle be central and visible. They find it confusing when the tabernacle in their churches is not visible, and if possible, central.

Because of my responsibility to foster the devotional life of our people, and to keep it sound, I have asked our Office of Worship to prepare norms for the placement and design of the tabernacle in this diocese. These norms were brought before the Presbyteral Council, the Liturgical Commission and the Environment and Arts Committee. Suitable refinements and improvements were prepared.

These norms are promulgated to the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend on June 14, 2009, the feast of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of the Lord. They will be effective on Aug. 4, 2009, the feast of St. John Mary Vianney, the patron saint of priests, in whose honor the present Year for Priests has been dedicated by the Holy Father Benedict XVI.

I urge all priests to follow these norms carefully and completely, and most importantly — to foster devotion to the Blessed Sacrament.

Sincerely yours in our Lord,

Most Reverend John M. D’Arcy
_________________

Source.

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and the Brown Scapular

July 16 is the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. It is from her that we have the Brown Scapular. (Info here, here, and here.) The brief story below explains why I always wear this sacramental and how it increases my devotion to Our Lady.
___________________________

Our Lady of Mount Carmel told Saint Simon Stock in 1247 that those who enrolled in the Brown Scapular and observed its obligations would not see eternal fire, as long as they were wearing the scapular as they died. In one instance, I observed the truth of this promise.

A few years ago, a very elderly woman--a daily Communicant at my parish in Kansas City--died. Unbeknownst to her, she taught me how and why to wear the scapular, even though I never met her or spoke with her. Here's how.

She sat in the front pew of the church. I usually sat in the back. When I was in line for Holy Communion, she was already kneeling, in prayer. While in line for Holy Communion, a year or two before she died, I noticed the mysterious and ever-present imprint pointing out from her back, from beneath her blouse. However it was that this caught my eye, I wondered what it could be. One way or another, I researched what it could be online. One day, to my surprise, she died as that noon's Holy Mass was beginning. Hearing the details of the moments before her death has mad me wear my scapular ever since.

I mention this because when the woman died her death was an exercise in the proper way to die. Something to be passed on, now that she has passed on. And what she taught me, I pass on now.

She attended Holy Mass at noon Mass each day. On the day she died, I was told she went to confession prior to Holy Mass. After confession, she went to her usual place in the front pew, sitting nearest the aisle. There, she made her penance before the exposed Blessed Sacrament. (At this parish, the Blessed Sacrament is exposed for a Holy Hour prior to each day's Holy Mass.)

Kneeling there after her penance was completed, she quietly breathed her last breath.

Leaving the confessional in the back of the church as he proceeded to prepare for Holy Mass, the elderly priest that had heard her confession moments before noticed her state. Seeing her dead there as he passed by, he administered Last Rites. This priest was a priest that the deceased had hoped that she would precede in death--so that he could say her funeral Mass. A few days later he did.

So often our deaths explain the lives they end. This woman's death was a happy one, one that reflected her faith and hope, one that was an example of the promises Our Lady attached to the scapular.

What a way to go. Right after confession, right before the Blessed Sacrament, right as you favorite priest is walking by and can give you Last Rites, and can later say your funeral Mass.

And why not? She had on her scapular as she died. She had no idea what she taught me and that others may read this now, she would be all the more surprised.

Sacraments and sacramentals, don't leave this earth without them.

So why not take the effort to wear a scapular already?

Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Saint Simon Stock, to whom Our Lady first gave the Brown Scapular, ora pro nobis.

For Sale in Kansas City ?

A reader sends an email that he noticed an interesting for sale sign in midtown Kansas City. It was in front of the building that houses the editorial offices of the National Catholic Reporter.

Seems to be true. Interested in buying it? Go here.

Subjects for Daily Meditation

Remember, O Christian soul,
that thou hast this day and
everyday of thy life:
God to glorify
Jesus to imitate
the angels and saints to imitate
A soul to save
A body to mortify
Sins to expiate
Virtues to acquire
Hell to avoid
Heaven to gain
Eternity to prepare for
Time to profit by
Neighbors to edify
The world to despise
Devils to combat
Passions to subdue
Death perhaps to suffer
Judgment to undergo.

Taken from the Latin-English Booklet Missals put out by Ecclesiadei.org.

Another KC Star Story on Alleged Fr. Kapaun Miracle

Last Sunday, the Kansas City Star had a front-page feature story on the alleged miraculous healing of a Kansas pole vaulter. The Vatican is investigating his healing as part of its inquiry of the possible canonization of Father Emil Kapaun, a Kansan native.

Now, just a few days later, the Star has another long article on the healing, this time focusing more on the extent of the injury suffered by the pole vaulter.

Quick excerpt:

"It was miraculous," Chase's neurosurgeon, Raymond Grundmeyer, later would write.

Following such stories that newspapers put online, a great many skeptics denounce the very idea of miracles in general and the Catholic faith in particular. Good for them. Any of them neurosurgeons? If they are, then I hope they let the rest of us know as they leave their otherwise ill-informed comments.

Feast of Saint Henry II--July 13

Today is the feast of Saint Henry II. He was a German king and Holy Roman Emperor, born in 972 and dying on this date in 1024. More about his life here.

Interior Photograph of Nativity Catholic Church, Leawood, KS

(click to enlarge)

The Wedding at Cana

He told her that it was too soon,
that this was not his hour.
But, as some mothers do, she persisted,
saying that the couple were family friends,
poor ones at that. She said it would be
a nice gift as the evening was so young
and so soon out of wine.
She told the waiters to do as he said.
The waiters milled around,
trying to finish off the last of their keep,
having done their job too well already.
She told them again
but they did not seem to hear her.
Working the crowd, the bride moved
near the mother and son.
Seeing her, the mother lowered her voice,
asking again. The son, smiling down at his mother,
said that magic and miracles were different things,
that many would take it for magic and not a miracle.
The bride heard too much
and was fast between the mother and son.
“Oh, some magic would be fun
as we are so soon out of wine.
Jesus, do you know magic? Do you?”
"No," he told the bride, who shrugged and moved on.
The son looked at his mother
and figured how little she had asked.
He turned toward the waiters,
who protected their cache,
circling like jackals the jars
as he came toward them.
The wine is all gone, one said.

A Few Blog-Related Things

The sidebar has some new features.

First, there is a real-time world map of where readers are. I know, big deal.

Second, I added a Twitter account with the "tweets" (as they are called) appearing in the side bar. Twitter, as you may know, allows only 140 or so characters per post. So what appears there will be extremely brief. But, if you blog, you know that sometimes an idea comes to mind that you want to put out there even if you don't want to devote a whole blog post to it. We'll see how useful it is. One of the reasons I set up the account was to reserve the name (Kansas Catholic) on Twitter, rather than have someone else grab it. At the Twitter portal, you can sign up for tweets from Kansas Catholic after you have set up an account, or you can just find them here when you visit this humble, backwater blog.

Third, there is a handy tool in the sidebar to locate the nearest Catholic church that celebrates the Extraordinary Form of the Holy Mass. It might be helpful if you are traveling and want to plan ahead.

KC Star Story on Alleged Fr. Kapaun Miracle

The Kansas City Star has a new feature story on the alleged miracle that brought a Vatican investigator to Wichita recently.

The story is here. An accompanying photo gallery is here.

Here is a recent KSN (Wichita NBC affiliate) news story (print and video) that centers on the alleged miracle.

Sacred Heart Catholic Church--Paxico, Kansas

This blog post contains photographs of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Paxico, Kansas (pop. 211)--just west of Topeka and three or so miles north of I-70. Click on any photograph to greatly enlarge it. You will be surprised how much more you can see when the photo is enlarged.



































Above and below are the parish school, still in use if the minutes of a recent parish council meeting are any evidence. These minutes were inserted in a recent parish bulletin and also made note of a recent Chicken Dinner that raised $10,000.00. That's some eatin'.



Immediately below is a Knights of Columbus hall.

The Town and Parish of Father Emil Kapaun--Pilsen, Kansas and St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church

In the distance in the photograph above, is Saint John Nepomucene Catholic Church in Pilsen, Kansas.

On Holy Thursday (April 20) 1916, a boy was born in a home in Pilsen. He was baptized at Saint John's, received his other sacraments there, and then served there as a priest after he was ordained in Wichita on June 9, 1940. Thereafter, at this new priest's first Holy Mass, 1,200 persons filled the small hamlet of about 100 souls. The festivities of that first Mass included a long procession with many clergy and two marching bands. The festivities also included noon and evening banquets.

Now, Catholics in Kansas await news of the ongoing investigation by the Vatican if this priest from Pilsen will be the third Catholic saint born in the United States. Recent news of the Vatican's investigation has been very positive. The final disposition of that cause will have to wait for now.

Until then, here are photographs of scenes in Pilsen that this priest, Father Emil Kapaun, would recognize. Also included are pictures of his parish, Saint John Nepomucene, as well as photographs of that parish's efforts to pay tribute to their most famous native son. (Click on any photograph here to enlarge it greatly).





Above is the country road that takes one into Pilsen from the north. Look closely and see the steeple of Saint John's above the treeline on the left.





Above is the church, much as it looked to Father Emil Kapaun when he last saw it as a priest in service there from 1940 to 1944.



Pilsen is in Marion County, Kansas. Most of Marion County was settled in the 1870-90's by German Mennonites who had emigrated through Russia. However, Pilsen was settled by Catholics from Bohemia who spoke Czech. (Many tombstones in the adjoining cemetery are in Czech.) On the facade of the church, shown above and below, are Saints Cyril and Methodius, brothers whom the Bohemians credit with evangelizing their ancestors.




Above is the interior of Saint John Nepomucene. The church is largely as it was when Father Kapaun served as a priest here. However, there would have been no free-standing altar then. And, given the appearance of older photographs, the high altars were not white previously. They appeared dark in photographs of earlier periods. The church, in its present state, is very well maintained by its faithful. Built in 1914-15, it is said to seat 650.



Above is the altar that Father Kapaun would have celebrated Holy Mass.



Above and below are the tabernacle, situated beautifully in the original altar.







Above is the parish's sacristy cabinet. In the long narrow drawers of the cabinet's middle, a priest retrieves the appropriate vestments for the day's Holy Mass. This cabinet appeared in very good shape, but also appeared original to the church. It is likely that Father Kapaun used this cabinet during his tenure at Saint John's, but this blog has not verified that. Should it have been used by him and should he be canonized, this would be a rather large second-class relic.



Above are some items in the church that commemorate Father Kapaun. Below are photographs of items that commemorate him in the basement of the church.















Below is the back of the rectory in which Father Kapaun lived. (The front was too sylvan to photograph.)





Above is the door to the sacristy, across the walk from the back of the rectory.

Below are photographs of a memorial to Father Kapaun's service as a chaplain in the United States Army during the Korean Conflict.









Above is a grotto devoted to Our Lady of Fatima next to the memorial of Father Kapaun's service in the U.S. Army. It is unlikely that this grotto was on the grounds of Saint John's during his time there.



Above is the entrance to the parish cemetery, named after Fr. Kapaun. Shown below is another memorial to his service. He is not buried here, of course. He was buried in a mass grave in North Korea, where he died as a prisoner of war.









Below is a photograph of the one cross street in Pilsen, the one that runs by the church. With a population of below 100, it is a quiet town.



Below is a photograph of the home in which Father Kapaun was born in April 1916. In May, a woman from Pilsen had her funeral. She was born in September 1916.



Across the street from the Kapaun home is the barn shown below. It is shown here just to indicate something with which Father Kapaun would have been familiar.



Marion County is largely agricultural, of course. Crops include wheat (a wheat field after a recent harvest is shown below--just south of Pilsen), corn, and soybeans. Much of the land is used for raising cattle too.



Leaving Pilsen by going south, one finds this limestone marker, This area of Kansas is full of limestone with which to build.



The next few years will bring news of the progress of Father Kapaun's cause for canonization. This simple blog post has not tried to detail the heroic virtue of the man, only to show the town and the church that were so much a part of his life.

P.S. Curious about who Saint John Nepomucene was? Go here. He was Bohemian, of course. He is a patron saint of confessors and was martyred for refusing to tell King Wenceslaus IV the contents of his wife's confession.

Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle

Saint Thomas the Apostle performed a very important role after the Resurrection. He refused to believe until he saw our Risen Lord in the flesh. Given his obstinacy, our Lord had the opportunity to tell the rest of history that those that believed without seeing had a special grace.

From the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia entry on this apostle:

Little is recorded of St. Thomas the Apostle, nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but in St. John he plays a distinctive part. First, when Jesus announced His intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, "Thomas" who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples: "Let us also go, that we may die with him" (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection: "Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ's Resurrection to him: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will notbelieve" ( John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: "Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed" (John 20:29).

The rest is here.

Saint Thomas, ora pro nobis.

July 2--Traditional Feast of the Visitation

July 2 is the traditional feast of the Visitation of Mary, though the new calendar celebrates it on May 31. Why July 2 was originally the date of this feast is described here.

Pray for This Woman

Like I said, pray for this woman.

Why? Go and read about it in The New York Times.

God has given her a difficult, but important, task.

And anytime The New York Times describes you as "apple-cheeked," they are saying that you are a hick. So, it is clear she is being undermined on an international scale, however subtly. (We hicks have to stick together, don't you know.)

Be that as it may be, she does have an important task. So pray for her.

Pray for the nun pictured below, but for different reasons. She is trying to make difficult the work of the nun shown above. This one was not described as "apple-cheeked."