February 7, 2022
- New vistas open for Old St. Mary’s Associates
- Rite of Recommitment of Paulist Associate
- Lost book leads finder to new fulfillment
- Test Tube World
- Hecker enters another stage of his journey
- Tell us about your life as an Associate
- Proposed Program for February
- Contacts
- Paulist Associates Promise
- Prayer for the Intercession of Fr. Isaac T. Hecker
By Levita Anderson, Chicago Associate
Old St. Mary’s Church celebrated many milestones this year.
The first was that the Church no longer had parishioners making appointments to attend Mass. We took precautions by wearing our masks and following protocols, and we got a chance to see each other and have real conversations.
We were able to pass the collection basket around. The choir returned to sing at Mass. And the Paulist Associates were no longer on Zoom (YEAH!!).
We welcomed Paulist student Chris Lawton for his pastoral year to OSM. Chris attends our Paulist Associates meetings, and his insights are very inspiring. His words and ideas provide different perspectives to the conversations we have regarding the proposed Paulist programs.
Chris also did a presentation in November on vocations based on the book, Party of One by Beth M. Knobbe. This tied in perfectly with our discussion on the December program on male and female attributes in “Complementary in Incarnation.” That discussion was varied as we tried to understand the article in relation to the questions.
At first, it was confusing until I read it a couple of weeks later. Then I understood what the writer was trying to convey, and the discussions we had on married couples who are married for 40 plus years reflected on how couples view male and female attributes.
The themes included the creation story on how the woman came to be, by coming from the rib of Adam. Each of us has male and female traits of kindness, compassion (female), strength, and endurance (male). How we utilize these traits together brings us closer to following Jesus, who exemplifies compassion, kindness, strength, and endurance.
This helped us end 2021 with a better understanding of our relationship with each other, our spouses/significant others, and Christ.
October was a whirlwind of celebrations and acknowledgments.
The associates celebrated Dorothy O’Malley and her husband Mike’s 65th wedding anniversary. We sent a door prize gift of Frango Mints for the Father Hecker Awards that were held in October.
The church celebrated as well.
Dennis Davis, our church’s maintenance coordinator, and Jack of all Trades was nominated for the Father Hecker Award.
Father Brad introduced Dennis during the program, highlighted his many accomplishments, and presented the award during the Mass at 11 AM.
We also honored our long-time parishioners, Thelma and Ricardo Codina, who received the Archdiocesan Christi Fidelis Award.
In December, our church was front and center for the Paulist Fathers Family Christmas Card, a program held on December 22. Father Stuart (Stu) performed a musical piece that he wrote for the guitar and sang, called Incarnation. We knew he was a musician, but now we know he is a gifted composer as well.
It was wonderful to see our former OSM priests on their Christmas postcards: Fathers Steven Bell, Steven Petroff, Mike Kallock, Richard Sparks, and Paul Huesing.
The tribute by Marty Casella on his Christmas memories of Father Tom (TJ) Jones was moving and inspirational. Father Eric and St. Nicholas had fun mixing and baking Turkish cookies. Unfortunately, it made me want to eat some cookies while watching the segment.
The various stamps on the postcards were beautiful, especially the postcard with the Star Trek Voyager stamp.
Kate and Scott Williams (OSM choir director and pianist) with Father Eric, and the choir’s closing hymn ended the program on a positive, joyous note.
So even though 2021 continued with COVID-19, vaccination hesitancy, complaints about mask-wearing, and depression related to ongoing COVID, we had some joyous highlights throughout the year that included but were not limited to the following: Meeting safely with friends and family, enjoying each other at mass, and the inspiring programs that the Paulist Fathers and OSM held for the church and school.
I am going to close this review with a prayer and wish from Chicago’s Paulist Associates,“May 2022 bring everyone peace, joy, good health, and the ability to listen to the Christmas message throughout 2022. May God bring you prosperity and peace of mind as we continue with year three of Covid. Amen.”
(Editor’s Note: Levita Anderson is a very welcome “old hand” at bringing news of the Chicago group to Associates World. We would love to have more of you doing the same from your venues. In addition to the book reviews some of you have sent, we welcome the kind of “inside stories” Levita writes. Follow her lead. Don’t worry if you aren’t a pro. You send us the words and we’ll put the commas in the right places. And send pictures, pictures, pictures! Thank you all in advance.)
As Associates across the country renew their Promises this January, we offer this reminder of our annual renewal.
Presentation of the Associate Group:
is called to come forward
Questioning of the Paulist Associates:
For spiritual and apostolic reasons you have shown a desire to continue to associate with the Paulist Community in our spirituality and mission, are you now ready to do so?
Paulist Associates: We are.
In your personal life will you continue to look for opportunities to reflect the fundamental Paulist apostolic commitments to evangelization, ecumenism, and reconciliation?
Paulist Associates: We will.
We Paulists promise to spiritually continue to support you. Do promise to continue to spiritually support the Paulists and our Paulist Associates?
Paulist Associates: We do.
Commitment Promise
We, , believe that we are drawn by the Holy Spirit to the spirituality and qualities of the Paulist Community.
We have discerned both by prayer and study that God calls us to continue to be associated with the Paulists.
We promise that we will continue to pray for the works of the Paulist Society; meet with others, who are also members of the Paulist Associates for spiritual sharing and formation; and we seek to embody the apostolic qualities of the Paulists in our daily lives and calling.
Attentive to the Holy Spirit and faithful to the example of St. Paul and the charism of Father Isaac Hecker, we commit ourselves for one more year to membership in the Paulist Associates.
The recommitted Associates sign the Paulist Associates enrollment book.
By Charlotte M. de Vera, Los Angeles Associate
I am a member of our Paulist Parish, St. Paul the Apostle in Los Angeles. Although I did not know it at the time, my journey — and later on, quest — began one Sunday, when I found a Paulist Prayerbook on my regular seat/pew. After the Mass, since no one came back for the Prayerbook, I asked our pastor, Fr. Gil Martinez, CSP, if I could keep it. At first, he said no, but relented later, when he saw the actual book and said that there are probably more of these Prayerbooks in the Office.
At the Mass one Saturday, a few months later, a group called the Paulist Associates renewed their Promises, and one who made her First Promise. As they were making/renewing their Promises, I, as I normally would, took out my cellphone and began taking pictures. At the end of the Mass, I took their group photo.
I became curious and wanted to learn more about the Paulist Associates and what it entailed to become one. By then, I had already fostered a devotion to St. Paul.
I tried to get more information from Fr. Gil, then Fr. Jerry Tully, CSP, who is on the parish staff and oversees the LA Paulist Associates, referred me to Lou Ceppi the coordinator of the group. I asked around to find Lou, and it took quite a bit of time — but through the help of Lisa Wellik, who is also a member of the LA Associates, I was finally able to connect with Lou.
I asked for more information about becoming a Paulist Associate and Lou asked me to preliminarily read the articles on the Paulist.org website, and then get back to him if I decided to talk more about the group.
After reading the Articles, I called Lou and spoke to him about my decision to pursue becoming an Associate; I wanted to begin my discernment as soon as possible.
It was in late November of last year and as it turned out, there would be the annual renewal of Promises in mid-January. There was a very short amount of time to finish my discernment if I was going to make my First Promise in January, but I was determined to accomplish it. I asked Lou if he would be my Mentor, and with his invaluable help, I was able to study all the Articles and complete all the Requirements. In fact, our first Discussion and ‘Orientation’ that usually takes around 30 to 45 minutes, lasted for more than 2 hours — without either of us noticing the time.
After completing my application and receiving the required recommendations, I called and introduced myself to Fr. Mike Kallock, CSP, the National Director of the Paulist Associates and informed him of my desire to make my First Promise. Fr. Mike was very enthusiastic and proceeded to help expedite submission of my application.
Thus, I was able to make my First Promise as a Paulist Associate at the Virtual Paulist Associates Gathering last January 24 along with several other new members from across the country. And shortly afterward, I really felt that my spiritual life ‘rocketed’ to a new dimension. Opportunities to serve abounded and took a deeper meaning. And whenever I Proclaimed the Word, I always said a short prayer to St. Paul to ‘preach’ through me. I have a chronic post-nasal drip cough that oftentimes gets in the way, but with St. Paul’s help — it does not come up when I Proclaim the Word.
I look forward to many more opportunities to serve our Lord in the footsteps of St. Paul and Servant of God, Isaac Hecker.
—Charlotte M. de Vera, St. Paul the Apostle Church Los Angeles, California
By Denise Feltham
The world has stopped but I still go on
through a valley of darkness and death,
of loneliness and isolation, of fear and dread,
while panic and paranoia swirl around me,
reflected in masked faces, muted voices and social distancing,
a lifeless life of shutdowns and lockdowns,
of drop-offs and virtual hellos,
a perfect storm of dystopia precipitated by Coronavirus 19,
a reality of unreality in a test tube of isolation,
deprived of human contact and left to our own devises,
while resources are systematically removed,
the elderly and frail given up as a sacrifice
to the insatiable coronavirus as they face death alone,
while loved ones watch in horror from a distance,
deprived of burial farewells,
global terrorism in the name of an all-to-real pandemic,
God’s sheep scattered throughout the earth under a reign of darkness
through which no Paschal candle can penetrate,
spiritual chaos, social chaos, economic chaos, political chaos,
a living death of losses emitted from the fires of hell.
With cement steps I struggle, in a daze,
through this valley of despair, dreading life, dreading death,
trembling in fear at the benchmark that God has aimed too high for me.
Yet grasp it I must, relying on the stepstools strategically placed along the way,
like the faces and voices of Christ who reach out to me
with empathy and unconditional positive regard,
with friendship and interpersonal connectedness,
like the Living Word and Holy Spirit which surpasses the confines of earthly restraints
through virtual masses and devotions,
through my own blessing of homemade bread in memory of the Holy Eucharist.
Invisible God, where are you?
I can’t see your footsteps in the sand.
— Denise Feltham is a Toronto Associate
The following selection is from the preliminary lengthy presentation of the case for Isaac Hecker’s sainthood. Further segments of the document will be published in future issues of Associates World. Meanwhile, those interested can read the statement in its entirety by connecting to this link:
Find the complete document at paulist.org/hecker21
A Vocation in the Church
On June 13, 1844, Hecker wrote in his diary:
“I feel very cheerful & at ease and in perfect peace since I have consented to join the Catholic Church. Never have I felt the quietness, the immovableness and the permanent rest that I now feel. It is inexpressible. I feel that essential and interior permanence which nothing exterior can disturb and that no act that it calls upon me to perform will in the least cause me to be moved by it. … No exterior events relations or objects can disturb this unreachable quietness nor no event can break this deep repose I am in. I feel centered deeper than any kind of action can penetrate feel or reach.”
By the end of July, however, just days before his reception into the Church, this contemplative tone was being balanced by a new emphasis: “I have commenced acting. My union with the Catholic Church is my first real, true act. And it is no doubt the forerunner of many more — of an active life.”
If Hecker’s first quarter century had been characterized predominantly by his “Ernest the Seeker” spiritual search, the second significant stage of his life — from his reception into the Roman Catholic Church in 1844 through his separation from the Redemptorists in 1858 — was characterized above all by his enthusiastic embrace of the Church to which his search had so earnestly led him, transforming the contemplative mystic into an active missionary.
After his conversion, the pace of Hecker’s religious journey suddenly quickened — almost as if he were making up for lost time.
On his 25th birthday, he wrote in his Diary:
“Here let me offer myself to Thee for Thy service oh Lord. Is it not what I should? Am I not Thine? Thou didst create me and ever hast sustained me. Thine I am. Accept me oh my God as Thine, a child who needs most Thy love and protection. O let me offer myself in a greater degree than I have ever done for the Good of the Kind of which I am a part.
Hecker’s immediate practical task as a new Catholic was to discern his vocation within the Church, how to live this new experience not just for himself but for others. For him, this quickly became a question of whether to become a diocesan priest or to join what he believed to be the more challenging vocation of religious life. Already in 1843, more than a year before his becoming a Catholic, he had committed himself to a celibate vocation. He had done so, as his first biographer, Paulist Father Walter Elliott, observed, “even before entering the Church or arriving at any clear understanding of his duty to do so.”
In 1845, however, Hecker met two other new Catholics, James McMaster and Clarence Walworth, both former Episcopalians, who were planning to travel to Europe to enter the Redemptorist novitiate in Belgium.
Hecker decided to join them. He took an overnight train to Baltimore, showed up at the Redemptorist house at 4:00 a.m., and met with the Provincial after morning Mass. Having demonstrated to the Provincial that he knew enough Latin, he was accepted. Taking the morning train back to New York, he said a quick goodbye to his family, and set sail for his new life in Europe.
In the words of one recent biographer, “at the most crucial moments of his life, leaving home, entering the church, joining a religious order, Hecker acted suddenly and decisively and never turned back.”
In a letter to Brownson a week earlier, Hecker had expressed “the need of being under stronger Catholic influences than are so far as my experience goes, in this country.” It has been suggested that the Redemptorists had multiple attractions for Hecker. In addition to providing the needed immersion experience in European Catholicism, the Redemptorists seemed to provide him the right balance between contemplative prayer and active ministry, and their Germanness seemed at the time a naturally good fit for a German-American convert.
Thanks to his Redemptorist formation, his spirituality “underwent a thorough catholicizing process.” Despite difficulties with his studies, what he himself described as a “helpless inactivity of mind in matters of study” that made him “a puzzle” both to himself and to superiors, Hecker found in Redemptorist religious routine and ascetical practices and in his reading of Catholic spiritual writers “a conceptual structure to make sense of his own experience.”
In the Ignatian spirituality of, for example, Louis Lallemant (1578-1635), he found confirmed his sense of the presence of God in his daily life. “I was one day looking over the books in the library and I came across Lallemant’s Spiritual Doctrine. Getting leave to read it, I was overjoyed to find it a full statement of the principles by which I had been interiorly guided.”
His Novice Master “appeared to recognize the hand of God in my direction in a special manner, conceived a great esteem, and placed an unusual confidence in me, and allowed me, without asking it, though greatly desired, daily communion.”
His academic difficulties continued to present a problem: “All ability to pursue my studies had altogether departed.”
Convinced, nonetheless, that he had a vocation to labor for the conversion of his non-Catholic fellow countrymen, he successfully persuaded his superiors that, if left to study at his own pace, he could yet “acquire sufficient knowledge to be ordained a priest.” (Years later, Hecker associated his experience with that of Saint John Vianney, whose incapacity for study he ascribed to “the supernatural action of the Holy Spirit.” He interpreted his own academic troubles in terms of “the relation between infused knowledge and acquired knowledge; how much one’s education should be by prayer and how much by study; the relation between the Holy Ghost and professors.”)
Thus, after Novitiate in Belgium and the Redemptorist House of Studies in the Netherlands, he went to England to finish his formation and was ordained a priest on October 23, 1849.
Three years earlier, on October 16, 1846, the day he and Walworth took their Redemptorist vows, Hecker had written to Bishop McCloskey:
“I have passed my novitiate without any doubt or temptations against my vocation as a religious, and during this time our Lord has blessed me with much and many graces. … Perhaps it is not simply for the salvation and sanctification of my soul that our Blessed Lord has bestowed upon me so many favors over my friends and fellow countrymen, and should it be His will, it would be my greatest delight to be with His grace and in His time, an aid to you, Rt. Rev. Father, in converting our country to the Holy Church of our Lord and the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
After a brief ministry as a priest in London, Hecker was sent back to the United States as part of a new English-speaking, Redemptorist mission band, which included Clarence Walworth and two other American ex-Protestants, Augustine Hewit and Francis Baker.
On March 19, 1851, the 31-year old Father Hecker was back home in New York — in his old neighborhood, at the Redemptorist house on East 3rd Street.
(Continued in a future issue)
From the Paulist Associates Handbook:
“Paulist Associates find opportunities in their daily lives, through their various vocations, to exemplify the mission commitments of the Paulists in the charism of Fr. Isaac Hecker. His charism specified that, in modern American/Canadian culture, the Holy Spirit was at work, making it conducive to invite people to faith, and helping the Church understand its role in modern, democratic societies. His charism was marked by openness to others and a particular welcome to outsiders.”
In the months ahead, we’d like to ask you to share ways in which you live that model in your daily lives, in your families, in your parishes or schools…any way that you bring the Paulist charism to the wider world.
Submissions of any length are welcome. And pictures are a great addition.
Email them to Denis Hurley at [email protected].
Thank you.
— Denis Hurley, Editor
Submitted by Vero Beach Paulist Associates
I abandon myself into your hands;
Do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me,
And in all your creatures—
I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
For I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
To surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
And with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.
THE PAULIST VOCATION, Chapter 5: The View from Rome Letter
(From a letter to George V. Hecker, dated Rome, February 13, 1858)
“They give me to understand that others, and my friends, have some idea of what I myself am impressed with; that is, my work here may be of great importance to the future of religion, to our country and also to the present. That this conviction is shared by others consoles and strengthens me. The incident of my expulsion has been the germ of things of much higher and more general character, and almost daily it opens up to me views which regard the present and future of the Church and our country. If God blesses our personal affairs with success, then the opportunity may be given to me to express these views, and perhaps to the Pope. On leaving our shores I had the presentiment that God’s Providence was about to employ me in just such a work as now seems before me. Of course, how, I did not know, but the moment my expulsion was being read, this thought flashed again across my mind, and led me to say interiorly to God, fiat voluntas tua. Not only the expulsion, but the delays and difficulties, the misrepresentations and calumnies which I have had to bear, all are regarded by me as providential means of placing me finally in the position here to further the work of God.”
Background
Isaac Hecker journeyed to Massachusetts in 1843, at the direction of mentor, friend and confidant Orestes Brownson, an influential figure in New York. Hecker went to live at separate experimental communities which had overlapping intellectual and spiritual concepts, Brook Farm and Fruitlands. At these utopian communes Isaac Hecker would be exposed to the ideas of Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalists. On returning back to New York, June 6th, 1844 Hecker writes “The only consistency that I can promise is submission to the Spirit which is guiding me… Of no other consistency am I aware but unconditional surrender and reliance on the guidance of God. The entire co-operation of our will with His will. Our truthfulness consists not in following our own path but the path He marks out for us, be it a path of rocks and thorns or one of flowers and pleasantness.” On August 1, 1844 Isaac Hecker was baptized at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral into the Catholic Church.
Thirteen years later Father Hecker embarks on a mission. He is departing for Rome to appeal to the Holy See in establishing an English speaking Congregation for Americans by clergy who are purely from America. Father Hecker, on the eve of his departure to Rome August 4, 1857 receives a letter from L. Silliman, converted Episcopal bishop confirming, “It is enforced by the prayers and importunity of all; it is the manifest plan of Almighty God for the Conversion of the United States.” Father Hecker himself states just prior to leaving New York for Rome — “If it be the will of Divine Providence that something be done for the conversion of fellow citizens in America then we can hope for a positive outcome.”
Father Hecker, facing expulsion from the Redemptorists, writes on February 13, 1858 “fiat voluntas tua” placing himself totally in God’s hands. This was less than one month prior to Pope Pius IX approval of the decree of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars written on March 6th dispensing Fathers Hecker, Walworth, Hewit, Deshon and Baker from their vows as Redemptorists to begin a new Catholic Congregation in America, the first men’s religious community founded in the United States, the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle — The Paulist Fathers.
(Isaac Thomas Hecker Spiritual Pilgrim, John J. Behnke, CSP and Isaac Hecker, An American Catholic, David J. O’ Brien)
1. Picture in your mind a time when you found yourself in a situation of complete desperation. How did you react? Did you give it totally over to God’s will, whatever the outcome?
2. How do you think you can strengthen your belief that God’s Providence is the best way for you in all situations, because he loves you as his beloved child?
3. If you had to advise someone who has come to you for advice with a challenging situation in their life, do you think you could counsel them using Father Hecker’s faith of “fiat voluntas tua”.
(Paulist Prayer Book, Prayer to the Holy Spirit, St. Augustine, p. 380)
Breathe into me, Holy Spirit,
that my thoughts may be all holy.
Move in me, Holy Spirit,
that my work, too, may be holy.
Attract my heart, Holy Spirit,
that I may love only what is holy.
Strengthen me, Holy Spirit,
that I may defend all that is holy.
Protect me, Holy Spirit,
that I always may be holy.
Amen
PAULIST ASSOCIATES NATIONAL DIRECTOR
- Mike Kallock, C.S.P.
Paulist General Office, P.O. Box 20606, New York, NY 10023, [email protected]
BOARD MEMBERS
- David Rooney, Diaspora Group, [email protected]
- Mary Sullivan, Boston, MA, [email protected]
- Richard Allegra, Diaspora Group, [email protected]
- Heather McClory, Toronto, Canada, [email protected]
- Fr. Frank Desiderio, C.S.P., [email protected]
- Fr. Joe Scott, C.S.P., [email protected]
ASSOCIATES WORLD STAFF
- Publisher: Fr. Mike Kallock, C.S.P.
- Editor: Denis M. Hurley
- Design Coordinator: Ellie Murphy
- Staff Writer: Richard Allegra
Heavenly Father, you called your servant Isaac Thomas Hecker to preach the Gospel to the people of North America and through his teaching, to know the peace and the power of your indwelling Spirit. He walked in the footsteps of Saint Paul the Apostle, and like Paul spoke your Word with a zeal for souls and a burning love for all who came to him in need.
Look upon us this day, with compassion and hope. Hear our prayer. We ask that through the intercession of Father Hecker your servant, you might grant us (state the request).
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit. One God, forever and ever. Amen.
When you pray this prayer, and if you believe that you have received any favors through Hecker’s intercession, please contact the Office of the Cause for Canonization of Servant of God, Isaac Hecker at [email protected]. Visit paulist.org/hecker to learn more about his life and the cause for his canonization.
I believe that I am drawn by the Holy Spirit to the spirituality and qualities of the Paulist Community.
I have discerned both by prayer and study that God calls me to become associated with the Paulists.
I promise that I will pray for the works of the Paulist Society, meet with others, who are also members of the Paulist Associates, for spiritual sharing and formation; and I seek to embody the apostolic qualities of the Paulists in my daily life.
Attentive to the Holy Spirit and faithful to the example of St. Paul and the charism of Father Isaac Hecker, I commit myself for one year of membership in the Paulist Associates.