Franziska Notes January 2013

We begin a New Year by saying, “Happy Birthday” to the woman who is the inspiration for these reflections. 1833 brought great promise to the Lechner family as they welcomed the little girl who would become the Foundress of a world wide congregation. How different was the time in which she lived! It was a time of royalty, of Catholic rulers who were just beginning to experiment with legislating bodies voted into office by their citizens. Great social change was in the making. We are the inheritors of that change. Everywhere there is either a democratic style government or a great desire for something similar.

We have become familiar with the need to be critical of the members of the legislative bodies and the individuals we elect to office. We watch their actions and affirm or protest them. Laws must be evaluated. There are unjust laws which harm especially the poor and those who are otherwise powerless and voiceless. How do democracy and faith interact. I wonder if it does not require a careful balancing act. The laws of God are not a result of a ballot victory. Even if the vast majority of people agree to a practice, it does not mean that it has become morally right. It almost seems today that the obligation to be critical of authority has become a knee-jerk reaction to everything we hear. We seem to criticize so easily. We don’t “like” this or that. Then we go on to another topic. I wonder if Mother Franziska would ask us some penetrating questions about some of our criticisms. Have we studied the topic in depth from various viewpoints and facts? Have we reflected on the common good? Have we looked at the teachings of the Church into which we were baptized? Is this a place where we have an obligation and/or the expertise to comment? Let us not become a part of the destructive wind that is sweeping our sad world, the easy, uniformed criticism of just about everything.Mother Franziska would advice us with a smile to be on the lookout for the good and change the world with loving affirmation.

FRANZISKA NOTES December 2012

Mother Franziska will forgive me surely for being jealous of her time and its celebration of Christmas. She was heir to a thousand years of beautiful traditions that had come to surround the feast. Everyone knew them and awaited the customs involving music, prayer and foods of the season. Gifts were actually a very small part of it all and focused mainly on children. The important thing was the commemoration of the coming of the Son of God to His people.

How sad that Christmas has become a season of controversy. All the beautiful things about the feast that have accumulated over the centuries have become sources of argument and protest. I think Mother Franziska would have smiled and answered with the line from a beautiful carol, “Rejoice, the Christ Child is coming soon”. Jesus has come, what is important today is not that we fight for recognition of His presence but to witness it by a joyful, calm dedication to the truth that we know. It is joy and peace that mark the season and these must also be our attitudes. We must smile often and easily to those we meet in our neighborhoods, shops and workplaces. Only by a true devotion and daily reflection on the religious aspects of the season will we have the confidence to smile at the harried, frightened, overworked whom we will meet. We know the truth. Emmanual, God is with us. How can we be anything except calm and joyful. If we have joy, the simplest arrangements will make a great celebration. Christmas must begin with Christ Mass… at midnight or during the day, perhaps prepared for by a sincere confession. When all is right in our hearts Christmas will be right also. We will be connected to the simple, beautiful, sincere celebrations of a long line of centuries past and especially, Edling in Bavaria and Vienna in Austria, where candles still shine in the night.

A THANKSGIVING SERMON

How many sermons or homilies are remembered for more than a week or even a day or hour.   There was one that I have remembered for over twenty years and I would like to share it here from memory.

It was an ecumenical Thanksgiving Service in a Catholic Church in La Costa, California.  Thanksgiving is the one holiday that Americans of all Creeds can come together to worship in unity.  On this particular day a Rabbi was chosen to give the sermon.  What follows is how I remember it.

Today we thank God for the goodness and blessings he has given us all our lives and especially during the last year.   Then we will go to our homes and enjoy a great feast of traditional foods with additions from our own cultures.  We will thank and congratulate the cook and she deserves all our praise.  Tomorrow will be the real test for the cook, however.   A new turkey from the store comes with instructions or is suited to the printed recipes.  Tomorrow, however the cook will look at  a picked over skeleton with pieces of meat and skin hanging here and there.   It is the cook who can produce a tasty and appetizing meal from these remnants who will deserve the prize.

So it is in life.  We can raise our eyes and smile as we thank God in the good days.  It is the times when we are hit with unexpected pain, fear, sadness or loss that our faith comes to a bitter test.  Can we then look at God in trust, yes, even gratitude?  These are His faithful children filled with the strength that comes only from His grace.  Happy Thanksgiving... in fair weather and foul.

WEB IMMUNIZATION

Yesterday I was on the Second Avenue Bus in Manhattan.  My fellow passengers all seemed deeply immersed in their various electronic gadgets.   Their ears were usually plugged or there was a one-way conversation much too audible for the rest of us.

I was having a far better time watching the parade of fascinating real live drama all down the street.  There were people with very funny dogs and some with very funny hairstyles... There were the loveliest of children and parents from every racial sector of the world.  There were aged people on walkers or in electric wheel chairs and children's strollers pushed by Nannies...  The array of businesses that passed before my eyes were a mini movie of the heartbeat of this great city.  The restaurants bore names from all the corners of the world, the most intrigueing to me were those called "bistro"  or "cafe".  These reminded me of the cafe on the Via Condotte in Rome where much of the 19th century escapades in Europe were planned.   Each of these vignettes could be turned into a charming short story as we wonder what is behind all of the characters I saw that day.

I had the same thought as I scrolled through an e-mail attachment showing the beautiful wonders of our world... I cannot travel to those places so I appreciated the mailing but I also went out doors and saw the thousand colored leaves ready to fall from the trees and the squirrels in their frantic preparations for winter... There was even the first time sighting of a rabbit on our property... but he was so fast maybe it was just an unfortunate squirrel that had lost its tail.

I am all for electronic devices and would be lost without the contents of my Kindle Fire, but I don't want to miss the excitement that is outside my window and door... in everything balance!!!!!

FRANZISKA NOTES November 2012

It would seem that the temptation of our time is to fall into cynicism and despair.   There is the overwhelming technological ability to send both propaganda and bad news into devices that follow us wherever we go.   What would Mother Franziska say to us?   I think she would smile and say “give joy”… Just recently I heard that an American Bishop, talking to the students at the North American College reminded them that it is very important to smile as they walk around Rome.   In fairness, many of the religious you see in the Eternal City are there on business and have to hurry before the noon rest closes all the shops, or a strike disrupts their commute home.   Tourists who see these representatives of the Church do not know of think of this.  They only take away the impression that the Catholic Church and its “official” people are cheerless and tense.   The new evangelization calls us to have a deep faith grounded in a personal relationship with Christ.   Through this daily contact we are given a radiance that shines into the darkness like light through a window.  Mother Franziska would tell us that the joy of the Lord is available to all but only requires time and exposure, according to possibilities, to Sacred Scripture, the Sacraments and good reading and media.   We almost think that only bad news surrounds us but if we take the time we see everywhere goodness, truth, beauty and love.  These are the things we must concentrate on … Our world is thirsting for light and truth and our Church challenges us to be the apostles of good in our own time and environment.  Mother Franziska would be our biggest cheerleader in this project and will always counter our tendencies to feeling helpless with her own strength and enthusiasm.  She would remind us that it is November, the month of all Saints and all Souls, those who have gone before and still care about us.  She had a favorite Saint for every occasion, adapting her request to the experience and life story of the saint.  We are not alone.  There is loving help everywhere.

100 YEARS FDC IN THE UNITED STATES

The Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Charity

Loved by the Father

Sent by the Son

to live in the Spirit

In 1833 a little girl was born in a small Bavarian village near the market town of Wasserburg/Inn. The day after she was taken across the street and Baptised with the name Franziska in the village church. She was strongly influenced by the piety of her culture and recognized that God was her loving heavenly Father. When she was old enough to attend Mass she absorbed every word of the hymns and the homilies. A born leader, she chose to “play church” and had a circle of willing companions whom she taught and questioned from the pulpit of a tree branch. She also played at religious life because she was familiar with Monks who came to beg among the farmers. Scraps of cloth became habits and odd bricks built little monasteries.


From the time she was introduced to the Eucharistic Christ, she felt a call to fashion her life according to God’s will. She made a pilgrimage to a famous Marian shrine at Altoetting where the call became more precise. She asked her parents to give her an education. The only thing available to a woman of her state was to become an instructor of needlework. She joined two religious communities but still felt that her life was for a different road. She joined a priest who wanted to provide education for poor country women and this became a hospital and school in Switzerland. Again there was disappointment and doubt along with physical weakness. After a directed retreat she found herself alone in a small apartment in Vienna. In desolation she turned once again to the Lord to lead her. Soon she received approval for the outline of a Congregation to offer help, education, security and spiritual guidance to the thousands of country girls all over Europe who were coming to the big cities to serve as maids in the houses of the wealthy. These girls were often lost for lack of advocacy and education in the ways of independent and dignified living. Through many struggles she attracted followers and soon her Congregation was known even to the Emperor who asked her to work in the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Famous St. Mary’s Homes were founded in the great cities and even schools in the newly acquired lands of the Balkans.

The story begins a significant new chapter when a little girl is born in Venice, Italy of a German father and Italian mother. The girl who became Mother Kostka Bauer was born in 1870 and baptized in the cathedral at Venice. Her father wanted her to be shaped by the German-Austrian culture and so sent her as a boarder to a school in St. Andre where she met the sisters of the young Congregation. The Foundress passed away in 1894, so little Olympia as she was called, had a real connection to the roots. She felt a call, but wanted to enter only if she could become the superior general. What seemed unrealistic childhood ambition was really a symptom of someone who would not live by half measures. She entered the congregation and as Sister M. Kostka, was assigned to a school in Hungary and then as directress of novices. Gradually she shared her own spirit with those she was forming and a missionary dream evolved. They would go to America. Immigrants from countries with a dominantly Catholic culture would be thrust into a diverse society and all the problems associated with poverty in the big city ghettos. They needed care for body and soul. In time this proved to be God’s will as the superiors gave their approval and a small group came to New York City in 1913, They started with the hospitality of a good Hungarian woman and gradually found a house of their own which took in servant girls and continued the original work of the sisters. As the American foundation grew pastors began to ask for sisters to come as catechists and eventually as struggles she attracted followers and soon her Congregation was known even to the Emperor who asked her to work in the cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Famous St. Mary’s Homes were founded in the great cities and even schools in the newly acquired lands of the Balkans.

Mother Kostka was elected General Superior but became trapped by World War II. She suffered greatly because the unity of the Congregation was so important to her and she could not contact the sisters who were now in many places in Europe and even South America. In God’s plan suffering is never an obstacle to but rather a seed for good. She was here to nurture the growth and spread of the congregation to many parishes and finally to give her life and to rest here on Staten Island in St. Mary’s cemetery.

The missionary spirit continues today as new foundations are made in Africa, Bolivia, Argentina, and in the countries recently freed from Communism. The Congregation is today divided into ten provinces with convents and ministries in 15 countries.where over a thousand sisters are living to “…do good, give joy, make happy and lead to Heaven…”

The Emblem symbolizes the inner life of the Blessed Trinity, the source and model of love in community and service of the Daughters of Divine Charity.

FRANZISKA NOTES October 2012

Mother Franziska would have loved to live in our day. As I was driving to a new destination and using a gps aide for the first time I imagined her startled question in German what the voice was. I explained that I had just passed a designated exit and the gps was taking time to recalculate. As I explained the meaning of the word she noted how important a concept that was for our spiritual lives. Mother Franziska, at the very beginning of her foundation had a great disappointment with a key factor of her team. She lost the priest who had been the spiritual director of her young community. He gave talks, helped write the beginning rules, heard confessions and celebrated the Eucharist. Then a separation became urgent and she could tell no one for the reason. She confided to a close friend that she was in tears whenever she was alone. It was here that her faith taught her to “recalculate”. Accept the situation which could not be changed and continue along the road to the destination which, she was sure, was the will of God. Trust in God was the hallmark of her life and gave her the strength to go on. When we meet an obstacle, a sin, a scandal, it is not a call to give up but to find a new path. The path may be in a mist, but Jesus is there and in prayer we will find the strong hand that is reaching out to lead us on. This makes it possible to use our most important tool for the New Evangelisation: Our joyful smile grounded in boundless faith in God. Our sad world needs joy and each one of us, inspired by Mother Franziska’s goals: to do good, give joy, make happy and lead to heaven… will be bringing to our brothers and sisters the good news which will be the challenge of the current World Synod of Bishops.