How beautiful is Christ in his Body
Father Shields
By FR. MICHAEL SHIELDS
As a priest for the Archdiocese of Anchorage, I am assigned as a missionary priest in Eastern Siberia for the Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Russia.
One of the great gifts I experience when traveling to raise support for the Mission to Magadan is that I meet so many amazing Catholics.
This past summer I spoke before a group of Catholic families in Anchorage for an event organized by Catholics United for the Faith. The topic that night was holiness and I saw an intense hunger for this gift. At this meeting I also met Father Patrick Brosamer our newly ordained priest for the Anchorage Archdiocese and received a blessing from him. I found great consolation in the next generation of priests.
During my time in Alaska, I joined a picnic with my “old parishioners” from St. Michael Church in Palmer. Many of these parishioners grew me up as a priest. Their lives are a witness to the everyday family life that keeps God clear and love flowing to children and grandchildren. Later I preached at Holy Family Cathedral in Anchorage and was privileged to share a few days with the priests stationed there. They are part of a long line of Dominican clergy who have faithfully served at the cathedral.
Father Tom Lilly then invited me to preach at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in South Anchorage and there I witnessed one parishioner — a young woman — who was leaving Alaska to join a religious order with the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia in Nashville. Father Tom teared up like the good shepherd he is.
Departing Alaska, I went on a three-day pilgrimage for the healing and the holiness of priests in Ireland. Climbing to the top of a small mountain where Saint Patrick prayed for Ireland for 40 days, I prayed before the Blessed Sacrament for Ireland. All along the pilgrimage and up the mountain, people asked for blessings and prayer.
A few days later I preached and participated in the consecration of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary when more than 7,000 faithful filled the Basilica of Knock. I saw people — young and old — on their knees in deep devotion praying the rosary.
At a youth gathering in Ireland I witnessed huge lines of young people going to confession. I myself heard confessions for hours, up into the early hours of the morning. These young people worshiped with such faith and beauty, often hundreds laying prostate before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament as they adored the Lord and received his love and blessings.
Later I gave a retreat in Scotland for the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Blessed Mother Teresa. I preached on the Psalms and how we can pray our doubts, fears, tears, anger, loneliness and all other feelings using the prayer book of the church — the Psalms. I heard confessions in many airports. And I had conversations on many flights about God, Christ and the church.
I don’t mean for this to be a travelogue marking my travels but just a small witness to the beauty of the Body of Christ. In our daily struggles it is easy to forget how beautiful Jesus is in his body, in his church, in each other.
The writer is pastor of the Church of the Nativity in Magadan, Russia.
This is the website for the parish: http://www.magadancatholic.com/
Another great Missionary was Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
On June 28, the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has approved the heroic virtues of U.S. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen clearing the way for the advancement of his sainthood cause. Father Andrew Small, OMI, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies noted, “As head of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1950 to 1966, the Venerable Fulton Sheen was heroic in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ far and wide – from Peoria to Pretoria; New York to New Delhi. He teaches us still that the Church is missionary by her very nature.
Following is a short clip from Archbishop's Sheen - Philosophy of Life
World Mission Rosary
In February of 1951, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen (national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1950 to 1966), in a radio address (The Catholic Hour), inaugurated a World Mission Rosary. "We must pray, and not for ourselves, but for the world. To this end, I have designed the World Mission Rosary." Praying this Rosary, Archbishop Sheen said, would "aid the Holy Father and his Society for the Propagation of the Faith by supplying him with practical support, as well as prayers, for the poor mission territories of the world."
Other links to Missions website:
