{"id":1581,"date":"2007-06-03T08:40:53","date_gmt":"2007-06-03T08:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/06\/saints-in-the-rain.html"},"modified":"2007-06-03T08:40:53","modified_gmt":"2007-06-03T08:40:53","slug":"saints-in-the-rain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/06\/saints-in-the-rain.html","title":{"rendered":"Saints in the rain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s canonization was marked by heavy rain:<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"Rain\"<\/a> The rain was the most obvious protagonist of this morning\u2019s canonization of 4 new saints, <\/a>as it poured down relentlessly on the ocean of coloured umbrellas, on the sick, on the ministrants and bishops gathered in St Peter\u2019s square. Every step of the ceremony, the readings, processions \u2013 with the exception of the rites preformed around the papal altar \u2013 were hindered by the opening and closing of the multi coloured umbrellas as they were passed from hand to hand, covering heads but drenching the shoulders and robes of the cardinals and 40 thousand faithful.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"Rain2_2\"<\/a>  But the principal protagonist \u2013said the pope \u2013 was \u201cthe Glory of God reflected in the lives of the saints\u201d. Benedict XVI, thus united the solemn feast of the Holy Trinity \u2013 in which we \u201clift our gaze to the \u201copen skies\u201c \u2026to the profound depths of God\u2019s mystery, who is one being in three persons \u2013 to the ceremony of the canonization of 4 blessed from Malta, Polond, Holland, France.  They are George Preca (1880-1962), priest and founder of Societas Doctrin\u00e6 Christian\u00e6 <\/em>Malta\u2019s first saint, <\/span>Szymon z Lipnicy (1435 ca.-1482), priest of the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor, and great preacher who died after caring for the sick during the plague in Poland; Karel van Sint Andries Houben (1821-1893), passionate priest, born in Holland but missionary in Ireland, the so called \u201chealer\u201d of Dublin; Marie-Eug\u00e9nie de J\u00e9sus Milleret (1817-1898), founder of the Institute of the Sisters of the Assumption. All of these lived through times of great social tumult and de-Christianisation; all of these worked as missionaries, so much so that their work spread not only throughout their individual nations, but also abroad. The Pope defined them as \u201cexemplary witnesses of the Gospel\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cardinals from across the world participated in the ceremony as well as the Presidents of Ireland, Malta, Poland and the Philippines : where the miracle which guaranteed sainthood for Sr. Marie Eugenie took place.<\/p>\n

In his homily Benedict XVI, underlined that \u201cGod\u2019s wisdom manifests itself in the cosmos, in its variety and the beauty of its elements, but his greatest masterpiece are the saints<\/em>\u201d. More precisely \u2013 explained the pontiff, inspired by the mass readings – \u201cEvery single saint participates in the richness of Christ, given to him from the father, through the Holy Spirit. It is always the Holiness of Christ that the Spirit  plasmates in \u201csaintly souls\u201d, creating in them friends of Christ and witnesses of his Holiness\u201d.<\/p>\n

The pope then went on to reflect on the character and work opf the 4 new saints.<\/p>\n

snip<\/em><\/p>\n

At the end of the celebration Benedict XVI greeted those present in different languages, thanking them for their \u201cpatience\u201d for having put up with the ceaseless rain.  \u201cBut water \u2013 said the Pope with a smile \u2013 is a precious gift and so we must also give praise for the water\u201d. The faithful loudly applauded, waving flags, hats and rain-drenched umbrellas.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Teresa Benedetta has the entire text translated<\/a><\/p>\n

An older homily from the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity from Cardinal Ratzinger.<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

More photos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s canonization was marked by heavy rain: The rain was the most obvious protagonist of this morning\u2019s canonization of 4 new saints, as it poured down relentlessly on the ocean of coloured umbrellas, on the sick, on the ministrants and bishops gathered in St Peter\u2019s square. Every step of the ceremony, the readings, processions \u2013…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSaints in the rain - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/06\/saints-in-the-rain.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saints in the rain - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today’s canonization was marked by heavy rain: The rain was the most obvious protagonist of this morning\u2019s canonization of 4 new saints, as it poured down relentlessly on the ocean of coloured umbrellas, on the sick, on the ministrants and bishops gathered in St Peter\u2019s square. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1581\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}