A Meeting with Mother Angelica

This actually happened about three weeks ago, not sure how I missed it. Father Benedict Groeschel was in Alabama filming some episodes and spent one day in Hanceville where he met with Mother Angelica. Here is his account:

This past week I had the great blessing of visiting with Mother Angelica at
the shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama. After visiting
the marvelously beautiful shrine, we met Mother at the room with the grill
dividing the cloistered sisters from the visitors.

Mother was in
great form; she laughed a great deal and was able to communicate, even at times
in complete sentences. She has done the miraculous work of establishing the
largest religious television network in the world. She has also established a
cloistered convent, which now numbers over thirty sisters—most of them young.
The convent also has two other foundations. She also established the Franciscan
Missionaries of the Eternal Word with over twenty-five friars. You may have had
the opportunity to read Raymond Arroyo’s book on Mother Angelica. You would
really enjoy this book.

I offered Mass at the shrine in the
morning and left for a busy day of television at EWTN in Irondale, Alabama. I
was accompanied on this journey by a volunteer, Timothy Pida, who has worked for
years for the Missionaries of Charity and has very generously helped me for the
better part of this year. We both came away with a profound sense of gratitude
for all that EWTN does for souls and for the church, and also grateful that we
had spent this precious time with this great woman.

From the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal

In other Father Groeschel news, please check my post below about a new book and how you can contribute to it by asking your questions about the spiritual life.

Mother Angelica's Monastery.

Mother Angelica's Monastery.

If you have been to Medjugordje, you know the story about the church and the painting. The church it seems was built to accomodate a huge crowd that didn't exist in the tiny village. The painting of Our Lady appearing over the village was painted years before anyone ever claimed to have seen the virgin.

A visit to the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament reminds me of both. The complex nestled well off the beaten path (or in this case cow patch), likely one day will reflect Mother Angelica's visionary foresight. This is a place that was built to hold a liturgy of papal proportions--will that happen one day here.

On this cold January day there were six cars in the parking lot that could easily accommodate 1,000's. The piazza that could rival St. Peter's was empty. The large Church included three novices, a professed, three young men, a Franciscan and me.

I was here to attend Vespers, but had left my copy of the Office in the car thinking that there would be books available in the Church similar to what you would find if you visited a Benedictine monastery. There were none though, and despite the reminders of Our Lord's Passion visible--I poor sinner that I am, did not feel like walking that 3/4 of a mile back to my car in the cold to get it.

Enter Deacon Bill Steltemeier who graciously got out of his wheel chair (a sight right out of the Gospels or at least a Holy Ghost revival) and walked over and offered me his extra. Then stood beside me to help me negotiate the specific feast for the Franciscan martyrs (something I would not have known otherwise since it was a feast pecular to Franciscans). Deacon Bill also helped me to see where the nuns were since, I confess for the first ten minutes I could not understand what they were saying--their chant was indecipherable to me, until I finally tuned my ears to the high pitched tone--then I could follow, although still with great difficulty.

At the conclusion of Vespers, we immediately did Compline. I was a little surprised at this--I wonder if it is a Franciscan practice? That was followed by the Divine Mercy Chaplet.

The magnificence of the Shrine itself is something to behold. The central focus is the Eucharistic Lord and it is a real blessing to all who visit. And if you are there for Vespers--you might even have a Deacon to help you!

Mother Angelica's Nuns in the Desert

In the diocese of Phoenix....desertnuns

Four New Offerings from Doubleday

Not the Pope book yet....one more week until that is out!

So far, I've only had a chance to browse these four books...but all are very interesting and different in there own way....

1. Mother Angelica's short pithy sayings (compiled by Raymond Arroyo) is an excellent little book that can be read in chunks--or whenever you feel you need a boost in relation to a particular area of your life. By now everyone knows about the little nun from Canton, OH who built an international Catholic network (where many more powerful entitities have failed)...and how she did it with a great deal of Faith in God. So there has to be a lot we can learn from her and there is...for example:

"If you are following God, He never shows you the end. It’s always a walk of faith.”

If you know Mother's story you can see the wisdom in that saying...



2. Anthony DeStefano's Ten Prayers God Always Says Yes To: Divine Answers to Life's Most Difficult Problems is an excellent little book that could serve as a primer on what is really important to pray about--namely how God wants me to live my life with all the reality that it brings. Too often prayer is addressed to God in a way that is asking God to make me something else, rather than make me what I am and give me the tools to do it with joy. DeStefano gives a good foundation here and then neatly ties it all together with a prayer at the end of the book that incorporates the "ten" prayers all into one.

3. The Physics of Christianity by Frank J. Tipler would not be a book that I normally would even pick up, but I when I did--I found a wealth of very accessible answers to the big questions that people's faith often hinges upon...like the problem of evil and free will (something that Einstein rejected). I have to think that this book is a must read for anyone involved in apologetics--explaining the faith to a modern world. Great insights here and the possibility of seeing the world in a different light.

4. Scott Hahn's latest offering is an apologetic book, but as he told me a few monthis ago when I asked him about it, not your typical apologetics book. This is a book that helps you through Scott's own story to learn to look for answers as to why do we believe as we do (you might want to also check out Father Benedict Groeschel's little book Why Do We Believe?). Written in the very accessible way that all Hahn books are this will please both longtime fans and those who haven't been exposed to him yet. Faith is not unreasonable, and here Scott gives you a reason to believe!