Christ, hope for Africans: That the risen Christ may be a sign of certain hope for the men and women of the African continent.   

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Pope Benedict XVI in his "Motu Proprio: Porta Fidei " has declared the Year of Faith beginning October 11, 2012. In it he describes what his vision is for this Year of Faith. He has in mind a time to pay special attention to the meaning of faith. Every Sunday we proclaim the Creed which contains the foundational truth of the faith of Christians: belief in God the Father and all that he has revealed to us in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit; concluding with belief in the Holy Catholic Church and all that Jesus has given to us through the Church.

I need hardly tell you how much our faith is being challenged and even denied in this present age.   Even in the developed nations, men and women, communities and governments are acting as if God did not exist and as though He had never revealed Himself to mankind. We construe for ourselves systems of belief and behaviour which satisfy our own desires. We have only to consider modern attitudes toward sanctity of human life and human sexuality to realize how far removed we have become from faith in what God has revealed to us. All of this and many other issues are undoubtedly having the effect of eroding divine faith, even in people of the Church. We wonder why young people are losing their faith so rapidly and so completely, but no one dares to question their lifestyle and in particular, their attitude toward their own sexuality and the sexuality of others, and the devastating effects of pornography which has become so acceptable. Everybody knows and many acknowledge what is going on, but there are few willing to speak out for fear of being politically incorrect. Enter Pope Benedict to remind us that we are the salt of the earth and light of Christ in this world.

We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt 5:13-16). The people of today can still experience the need to go to the well, like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in Him and to draw upon the source of living water welling up within Him (cf. Jn 4:14). We must rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God, faithfully handed down by the Church, and on the bread of life, offered as sustenance for His disciples (cf. Jn 6:51). Indeed, the teaching of Jesus still resounds in our day with the same power: "Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life" (Jn 6:27). The question posed by His listeners is the same that we ask today: "What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" (Jn 6:28). We know Jesus' reply: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (Jn 6:29). Belief in Jesus Christ, then, is the way to arrive definitively at salvation. (Porta Fidei: para.3)

The Holy Father in everything he writes is emphatic about the uniqueness of Jesus as the Son of God and Saviour of mankind. Even this central doctrine of our faith is questioned by many who should know better. We have all heard people saying things like "Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed; they are all the same. What's the difference? They are all leading in the same direction." There is an enormous difference. Jesus is the only begotten Son of God the Father. He took our humanity in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He died on the cross to save us from sin and death. This is the faith of the Church and it is our faith. And the Church must always be true to the task that Jesus has imposed upon Her; namely to go out to all nations and proclaim the truth of the Gospel to people everywhere baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Faith is a divine virtue which we receive when

we are baptized, but which can lie dormant in a soul, sometimes for an entire lifetime. This divine gift has to be nourished by contemplating God's Word, by heeding the call to repentance, by being nourished at the Table of the Eucharist, and by being enlightened and strengthened by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Without these sources of divine grace, God can recede into a distant place within our lives and be forgotten. Pope Benedict has often expressed this fear. St. Paul tells us that faith comes through hearing. The Holy Father is asking us to listen again to the truth of Christ proclaimed every day in the Church, and particularly at the Sunday Eucharist; to listen in prayer to the inspiration that comes to us each day from the Holy Spirit. We must also approach Mary, the Mother of the Church and first disciple of Jesus. She can teach us how to respond in faith and how to witness to this faith everyday.

The week of January 16-20th, brought the CST, the Advisory Team, and the Regional Representatives together under one roof at the beautiful Cenacle Retreat House in Metairie, LA. We meet during the off-year of our International Conference.

We enjoyed the company and gifts of new CST Members, Diane Bates, Kathleen Beckman, and Donna Ross, and also new Regional Reps, Lois Mader-Southeastern Region, Angela Rizzo- Northeastern and Canada Region, and Barbara Serba-South Central Region. Kathy MacInnis, Asst. Coordinator of the CST, conducted the meeting because our beloved Foundress, Marilyn Quirk, was home recuperating. Thanks be to God for Webex, a teleconferencing service, which allowed us to "see" Marilyn for just a few minutes during the meetings. Marilyn did, however, give us a Scripture to meditate on: Phillippians 2: 1-17 which speaks of a "plea for unity and humility and obedience and service in the world." Our Spiritual Advisor Fr. Kevin Scallon, C.M. was able to join us for Mass, praise and worship, meetings, and prayer meetings.

l-r Olga Meyers, Carol Dazzio, Marilyn Heap, Judy Zelden

We also honored with roses past CST Members who had retired, Olga Meyers and Judy Zelden, and present CST Members who announced their retirement, Carol Dazzio and Marilyn Heap, retiring from the Treasurer position to her new role as  Associate Member of the CST. We commissioned the new CST Members and the new Advisory Team Members. We prayed over the retiring members. We laughed and cried together and we also celebrated the birthdays of Paulette Renaudin and Carol Dazzio during our week. It was great being able to hug one another instead of just "seeing" our sisters on Webex.

When Pope Benedict gave us the command to "set sail fearlessly on the digital seas" Magnificat took him seriously and put up full sails! The Holy Spirit has blessed the ministry immensely through Webex. We, the CST, the CST Ministries, and the Regional Reps and Advisory team have met for some 595 hours just in October and November!  

We thoroughly enjoyed the holy encounter with Susan Potvin, the leader of Living Praise Music Ministry from Steubenville, Ohio. She led us into "Revelation Worship" during the Prayer Meetings and before each meeting session. Prophecies and new ideas sprang forth! During one session, Susan walked up to the white board and wrote three topics on the board that the CST would be trusting the Lord to provide for this year. After that, different members took turns writing what they were asking the Lord for in the ministry this year. We ended up having 30 topics that the CST would be trusting the Lord for this year. Praise God! The Holy Spirit was so present to all of us. Our meetings were so Spirit filled because of the praise and worship.

Chapter Service Teams are probably familiar by now with our "toolbox" memos for Office Depot, the Pilgrimage, the Website, etc.  After much discussion about Magnificat members laboring in Mary's garden, it was decided to change from the toolbox concept to garden tools.  The new graphic and terminology (soon to debut!) is more in keeping with the image of Magnificat as Mary's garden. Pope John XXIII said, "We are here to cultivate a garden of life!" Yes, that is exactly what we are doing, cultivating a garden of life in every way. Growing something, anything, is a lesson in patience and love. Mary's gardens or chapters fill us with gratitude. So much life happens in a garden. Look for the new "garden tool graphic" we are working on now. Meeting by Webex with our new sisters, affords us an extended time of prayer and praise and the garden image has been coming up frequently. Jesus often used garden imagery to teach His disciples. We viewed enriching presentations made by Kathleen Beckman of the Leadership Ministry, Diane Bates of the Finance Ministry and Donna Ross of the Communications Ministry. In the future, we will share more about these thought-provoking presentations.

Our Lord and Our Lady continue to go before us opening many doors that we could never have imagined! They are also inviting women to walk through these new doors to help Mary's garden bloom and grow.

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                                 Mary, Model of Faith

Carol Dazzio, Founding member  Baton Rouge Chapter

It is with a heavy heart that we give thanks to the Lord with all our hearts for the years the Magnificat Ministry has been blessed by the service and leadership of Carol Dazzio. After much prayerful discernment, Carol is retiring from the Central Service Team to spend more time with her ever expanding loving family. Last year her elderly parents moved to Baton Rouge so they could be close to her and the family. Carol is an only child and her five children have given Carol and her husband, Pete, seventeen grandchildren to date ... Deo Gracias!

Carol came to the CST by way of Coordinator of the Baton Rouge, LA Magnificat Chapter. She was on the founding team and served with a grateful heart before joining the Advisory Team and then the CST. Carol's CST duties included coordinating and working with the Regional Representatives for Magnificat. As in Ephesians 1:30, Carol has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens and has generously shared them with the ministry.  We will all miss the "LSU Fight Song" that would erupt when her cell phone would accidently go off. Nancy Skok and I will miss our post-meeting lunches shared before we got back on the road to commute home.

We will miss Carol's presence at the meetings, and her wisdom in the decisions yet to be made. We ask God's abundant blessings on her and her extended family. We look forward to seeing her at the Advisory Team Meetings. She has blessed this ministry immensely, and we are most grateful.    

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by Kathleen Beckman

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), sharply criticized the decision of the Obama administration in which it "ordered almost every employer and insurer in the country to provide sterilization and contraceptives, including some abortion-inducing drugs, in their health plans." He made the statement in a web video posted on the  USCCB website.

"Never before has the federal government forced individuals and organizations to go out into the marketplace and buy a product that violates their conscience. This shouldn't happen in a land where free exercise of religion ranks first in the Bill of Rights," Cardinal Dolan said.

"He urges Catholics and the public at large to speak out in protest. Let your elected leaders know that you want religious liberty and rights of conscience restored and that you want the administration's contraceptive mandate rescinded." 

What would Mary do if she were living in the USA today in response to the new government mandate referenced above? In fact, Mary and Saint Joseph had to protect their Son's life in the womb against the mandate of Herod to slaughter the innocents. The flight into Egypt, in obedience to the message of an angel, would have been a time of intense intercessory prayer and sacrifice. The holy couple must have prayed continuously for those children who were being killed by Herod. The cries of the mothers and fathers whose children where slaughtered would have resonated loudly in the attuned hearts and minds of Mary and Joseph. God placed His Son, the Incarnate Word, in the custody of Joseph and Mary who provided refuge against Herod's mandate. In our day, I believe God is placing custody of life in the hands of present day Marys and Josephs whose hearts are in a posture of prayer and whose faith compels them to enter the public square in defense of the moral teachings of the Church.

Human authorities have frequently clashed with Christians precisely because they adhere to an authority higher than that of any civil government, especially in matters of conscience. St. Paul reminds us that we need to obey legitimate governing authority. But from the earliest days of Christianity down to our present age, Christians have often been forced to make a decision. The Romans told the early Christians to offer sacrifice to the gods in order to be law-abiding citizens. King Henry VIII told Thomas More and the whole of England that they had to be obedient first to the king, and then to the Pope. In modern-day China, Catholics are told that they must worship at state-run churches with state-appointed bishops. There are countless other instances in history of Christians being challenged by the civil authorities about their faith, realizing that in matters of conscience, they had to echo the refrain of St. Thomas More: I am the king's good servant, but God's first.

Please use the link to access the USCCB full article and respond. Patroness of America, Mary, the Immaculate Conception, pray for us. Amen.

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