Denver Catholic

2 APRIL 9-22, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Archbishop's Page Vatican Archbishop's Column Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila Denver Catholic (USPS 557-020) is published bi-weekly. Denver Catholic is printed by Prairie Mountain Publishing, LLC in Boulder. Periodical postage paid in Denver, CO. SUBSCRIPTIONS: $35 a year in Colorado; $42 per year out of state. Foreign countries: $42 surface, all countries, 6-8 weeks for delivery; $135 air, all other countries (average). Mexico, $48 air; Canada, $55 air. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Denver Catholic, Circulation Dept., 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 or email circulation@archden.org. EDITORIAL: 303-715-3230 or denvercatholic@archden.org | ADVERTISING: 303-715-3253 or denvercatholicads@archden.org CIRCULATION CUSTOMER SERVICE: 303-715-3230 or circulation@archden.org General Manager KARNA SWANSON Director ANDREW WRIGHT Business Manager MICHAEL O'NEILL Published by the Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver, CO 80210 @ArchbishopDen Mar. 27 Jesus Christ is Risen! Alleluia! In this #YearofMercy may every person encounter Jesus and come to know Him and love Him. Amen! PHOTO OF THE WEEK Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila blesses the altar with incense at the beginning of the Chrism Mass on March 23 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. PHOTO BY DANIEL PETTY/A&D PHOTOGRAPHY The boldness of Easter " Holiness is not for wimps, and the Cross isn't negotiable, sweetheart. It's a requirement," the late Mother Angelica once told a caller to her TV show. Sometimes we need a reminder that we are called to greatness, and during this Easter season the Scriptures remind us that the Father calls each of us to boldly trust and follow him. Catholic media outlets these past two weeks have been fi lled with testimonies about Mother Angelica, following her death on Easter Sunday. What Mother Angelica accomplished in founding EWTN is truly a story of radical trust in God. But there is a side of Mother's story that is often not heard – the story of how God used her trust to transform a life of su€ ering into a path of sanctity. Mother Angelica was born Rita Rizzo in Canton, Ohio in 1923. When she was only six years old, her parents divorced and she and her mother moved from place to place in search of food and shel- ter. "That's when hell began," Mother Angelica said in a 2001 interview with the National Catholic Register. Despite being shamed at her Catholic school for coming from a divorced family, she didn't turn away from the faith. At one point, young Rita and her mother left the Catholic Church for nearly a decade after a cruel experience in the confessional. When she was a teenager, her faith grew immensely because of an encoun- ter with a local woman known for holiness. Mother Angelica left that meeting with the charge to pray a novena to St. Thérèse, and when it was fi nished, the severe stomach pains she had been battling for much of her life were gone. Jesus took her trust, and turned her su€ ering into joy. Years later, during her time as a young sister in the Poor Clares community, Mother was tasked with cleaning the fl oors of her convent with an electric scrubbing machine. No sooner had she started, then the machine went haywire, causing her to slip in the soapy mess and slam her back into a wall. Over the next two years her back injury worsened until she couldn't walk and had to have surgery. As she waited to undergo a surgery that had a 50/50 chance of allowing her to walk again, Mother Angelica prom- ised God that if she walked again, then she would build a monastery in the South. The surgery was a success and Mother Angelica founded Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in 1961, in a part of Alabama where Catholics made up only two percent of the population. Mother Angelica's story follows a similar pattern that we see in the Gospel readings for these fi rst Sundays in April. It is the pattern of the Resurrection, in which Jesus takes on our su€ ering, calls us to trust him, and transforms it into goodness. In last Sunday's Gospel, we hear about Jesus appearing to the disciples shortly after his Resurrection. They had locked themselves in a room out of fear of the Jews, but Jesus appeared to them and said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Then he breathed the Holy Spirit on them and gave them the power to forgive sins. One week later, he returned and invited Thomas to believe, telling him to put his hand in his nail marks. Thomas responded, "My Lord and my God!" On those two occasions, Jesus gave the disciples peace, the power to for- give sins, and belief. Much like Mother Angelica's story, he entered into their wounds of shame, betrayal and disbelief and called them to boldly trust in him. There is no place we can go that our Lord and God has not gone before us, and there is no su€ ering so great that he cannot overcome it by the power of his love and presence. What is our job? To show up. To bring him our meager o€ erings and wait, expectantly, as he transforms them into far more than we could have believed possible. "We are all called to be great saints," Mother Angelica said, "don't miss the opportunity." In this Year of Mercy, may we all grow in our trust and love of Christ, so that we can boldly follow him in building up the Kingdom of God. Let us put our complete trust in Jesus and pray, "Jesus, I trust in you." Jesus inviting St. Thomas to believe, just as he invites all of us. PICTURE BY CARAVAGGIO/WIKICOMMONS Holiness is not for wimps, and the Cross isn't negotiable, sweetheart. It's a requirement." MOTHER ANGELICA "

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