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June 2005
June 1,
as many Edmund devotees know, is the Birthday of Blessed Edmund. At this time of
year let us bombard Heaven for his canonisation. Say one of the Edmund Rice
prayers daily. Keep the following intentions in mind:
1. That Blessed Edmund may soon be declared a Saint.
2. The
international intentions we have prayed for during the two International
Novenas, 2004 and 2005: Little Quincy from Chicago and the Mayberry
Family (Bridget, Doug and Cody) from Indianapolis (Both families are
eternally grateful to all who have surrounded them in novenas of love)
3. The other local intentions that we have prayed for
during the past twelve months (Don’t give up just because the Novena is over)
4. The Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers,
Blessed Edmund’s two vowed life congregations, as they discern the way ahead
5. The
Edmund Rice Family Network, with all its ministries and spiritual
activities undertaken under the patronage of Blessed Edmund
6. The
young people who are at the centre of our ministries
7. The
old and not so young among us who have borne the heat of the day
8. The
reconciliation of the young and not so young among us, of present
members and former members
9. The healing of any hurts caused by shortcomings in our
ministries
10. The intentions of our new Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
Update:
I have been
heartened by positive news about how the International ER Novena was
celebrated in various parts of the world. It is wonderful to realise that so
many people are praying for the same intentions in so many parts of our
world. Please continue to make Blessed Edmund better known. In January-February,
I made a short visit to England and Ireland, where I met some but not all
of the local promoters of the Edmund Rice Cause. In May I delivered the
centenary lecture at the celebrations at St Mary’s College, Marino, Dublin,
still a dynamic Teacher College and, until 1967, the International Generalate of
the Congregation of Christian Brothers (this is now located in Rome). In July I
attend the Presentation Brothers’ General Chapter at Gracedieu,
Waterford, where I make an input on recent developments in the Blessed Edmund
Cause. At the end of September and during October I intend visiting North
America to get to meet of the Edmund Rice Promoters in the US and Canada.
Br Tim Smyth CFC, the National Edmund Rice Promoter in the US, has kindly
agreed to help me plan an itinerary. If any of you readers have any particular
ideas, please let me know. My e-mail address is
blake.d@tiscalinet.it . In November I hope to attend the book launch of my
forthcoming book, Marino – Generalate and Teacher College, at a ceremony
in Dublin.
Feast Day
Reflection:
Here in Rome, the
three communities – Marcantonio Colonna, Maglianella, Santovetti – made the
International Novena in preparation for the feast of Blessed Edmund on 5 May.
On the big day, all three groups assembled in our Generalate at Via Marcantonio
Colonna, N.9, to celebrate the feast in an appropriate way. This involved a
special prayer service and a festive meal. I led the prayer service, and
addressed the assembled Brothers as follows. There may be some food for thought
for you here. God bless you and Blessed Edmund guide you and yours:
A few Thoughts on Edmund, Feast of
Blessed Edmund, 5 May 2005, Rome
Donal S. Blake, Postulator
"I would like to share a few thoughts
with you on this, the feast of Blessed Edmund. I will make it subjective. Being
Postulator for the Cause can be a lonely experience, especially if one feels
that there is not a shared experience of what one is about. There are different
schools of theology out there, and canonisation does not feature on all of them.
So be it! It may be that some have a simplistic view of why we should canonise
anybody. Simply trying to find one more miracle is a caricature of what I do.
I would claim that like the writers of the Gospels, I am involved in the
Ministry of MEMORY OF OUR STORY. Every movement, every organisation, needs its
story, its history, if it is to continue in an inspirational way. Remember the
dictum: “Tomorrow began yesterday”. Jesus said, “Be my WITNESSES… Do this in
memory of me.. Go and teach this to all nations.” The Evangelists set out to
preserve for future generations what the Christian story was/is, what was it
that Jesus began to DO and to TEACH. … “This is JESUS’ STORY, make it YOUR STORY
- Do you in like manner”.
Similarly, the WITNESS of the Edmund Rice story needs to be passed on. Some
would claim that one of the main tasks of Philip, the Congregation Leader, is to
keep OUR STORY, EDMUND’S STORY, alive, to be passed on from our generation to
the next. If so, the main task of the Postulator is to facilitate him in
doing just that.
We forget that the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has a very short
history, reaching back only as far as 1969. Prior to that, it was merely a
back-office of the Congregation for Rites, which used most of its energy in the
reform of the liturgy concerning the Mass and the Sacraments, with only an
occasional sortie into the realm of Canonisations.
During the Second Vatican Council, there was a new energy found around the
presentation of the message of Christianity to the modern world, with its many
nations, with its many cultures, in this Age of the Information Explosion. There
was a general agreement that we need our heroes. This resulted in renewed energy
in how best to pass on the CHRISTIAN STORY and the STORY OF WITNESSES. In
particular, the Vatican II document, “The Church in the Modern World, deals with
the legacy of Jesus of Nazareth, how the men and women of our times can best
share in the Jesus Story. Hence the new impetus in the Church on Bible Studies,
the publication of the Jerome Biblical Commentary, The New Catholic Commentary,
and on the Cult of the Saints, with a new emphasis on contemporary witnesses.
The Congregation of Rites, renamed The Congregation for Divine Worship, started
coming to grips with many liturgical reforms, especially the introduction of the
use of the vernacular in Church worship, and a completely separate Congregation,
the Congregation for the Causes of Saints , was established by Pope Paul VI,
with its own offices and personnel, in 1969. This gave a whole new lease of life
to the number and variety of Causes being considered. This also coincided with a
call to Religious to go back to their roots, to their founding spirit. In 1983,
the procedures for Beatifications and Canonisations were reformed, and this
reformation is on-going. It was during this wave of reforms, enthusiastically
supported by the late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, that Edmund Rice was
beatified in 1996.
So, what are my main tasks as Postulator today vis-à-vis Edmund?
Theologians would claim today that Christianity, if
it is to attract followers, should portray the following three characteristics:
(1) People should feel that the Christian message is relevant;
(2) The message should nourish a living faith, a living devotion, that is,
support a prayer life, a contact of the human with the divine;
(3) The message should be life-giving: “I have come that they may have
life, and have it to the full”.
Paralleling these three points for the Cause of Blessed Edmund, my three
areas of activity should be to give support to the Edmund Story in the following
three areas:
(1) Relevance: That people of different age-groups in different walks of life
and in different cultures should find that aspects of the EDMUND STORY are
relevant to today’s world and that they give energy;
(2) Prayer: That a prayer life grows up around Edmund, and that this CULT leads
all the way back to Jesus and the Father, whom Edmund mirrored in his living of
the Christian life;
(3) Favours: That Edmund’s story is life-giving for his followers and, as in the
life of Jesus, sometimes this may involve the extraordinary, like a cure from
some illness. For me, this is the icing on the cake. So, if you have any spare
miracles, please pass them on! Seriously, let us pray through the intercession
of Edmund for all who place their trust in him.
Pray for me as I discern how best to operate in this, for me, privileged but
unusual setting. Thank you for listening."
Donal S. Blake
CFC,
Postulator/Cong.
Historian
blake.d@tiscalinet.it
1 June 2005
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