Denver Catholic

LOCAL NEWS I 5 DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER I FEBRUARY 12, 2014 ARCHBISHOP AQUILA'S SCHEDULE CORRECTION For news that touches Catholics everywhere, every day, we invite you to spend some time with us at WWW.DENVERCATHOLICREGISTER.ORG Archbishop's golden rule of dating BY KARNA SWANSON As Valentine's Day approaches, peo- ple young and old turn their attention to matters of the heart, eager to share their advice on the "do's" and "don'ts" of dating. This year, Archbishop Samuel J. Aq- uila entered into the fray, encourag- ing young people to communicate face-to-face or over the phone when asking someone out on a date, and to not announce break-ups publicly on Facebook. "At times I am astounded when I talk to parents today and they share with me how their children—when they are courting each other—at times are invit- ed to dates simply by a text message," he said in a homily given Jan. 26 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. He then gave some specific instruc- tions to young people. He told the boys to "have enough respect for girls to call them, not text them, to ask them out." And to the girls, the archbishop told them that they "have the right for someone to call you and speak to you." "Too often communication removes the encounter with the other person and separates that encounter," the archbishop lamented. When it comes time to break-up, the archbishop added, do it private- ly: "It's important that boyfriends and girlfriends not simply be dropped by a text message or on Facebook, let- ting everyone else know that they are dropped." PHOTO BY ROBERT LINN/DCR ARCHBISHOP Aquila speaks to students attending the Fifth Grade Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Immacu- late Concep- tion in down- town Denver Feb. 5. The archbishop will celebrate another Fifth Grade Liturgy on Feb. 26. can only thrive when we live by the truth, the truth that God has for us." Lilles goes on poustinia a couple of times a year. The first 24 hours he simply "crashes" from exhaustion and the over- stimulation of modern life. "The second day that you've been fast- ing you get used to the silence and you be- gin to feel more alert," he said. "The Lord begins to speak to you through the Scrip- tures in more acute and forceful ways. "There is a monotony (to poustinia), which is part of the solitude and silence," he admitted, "but hidden in the monotony are moments of grace where God reveals truths about yourself, things that need to be changed, and God reveals things about himself and his great love for us." Lilles said the experience has helped him confront sin in his life and has deep- ened his relationships with others, partic- ularly with his wife and children. "When you step back you see some of the broken ways you relate to each other and you realize that's not really what you want for life. And as you submit that to God, he begins to disclose new ways of relating and a deeper way of being with each other," Lilles said. "That's one of the greatest blessings for me." Dupuis and Catherine Doherty The founding of the poustinia and Du- puis' ministry here was the last chapter in a faith-filled life that ended being offered in intercessory prayer for the archdiocese, her friends said. Born Aug. 6, 1934, in New Haven, Conn., to French Canadian immigrants Herv'e and Marie (Arsenault) Dupuis, she attended St. Joseph's College in West Hart- ford where she met Catherine De Hueck Doherty, founder of Madonna House Apostolate in Ontario, Canada, and pro- ponent of poustinia. "I went to Madonna House for four days in 1954 and it changed my life," Du- puis told the Register in 2002. She became a 20-year member of the apostolate, which is a house of hospital- ity where celibate laypeople and priests live in community. She was present when Doherty, a native of Russia, introduced poustinia to the members as a way for them to deepen their prayer life and rela- tionship with God. "(Poustinia) means, geographically, a place like Sahara, but it also means more," Doherty told them. "It means the lonely place that souls sometimes have to enter, to find the God who dwells within them. Or it means a wild and lonely place to which a hermit would go to seek God in solitude and silence." Doherty, whose cause for canonization is being considered, later wrote a book, "Poustinia: Christian Spirituality of the East for Western Man," which is now a spiritual classic. When Dupuis left Madonna House, she was uncertain about what God was call- ing her to, Lilles said. "She was alone at a lake and cried out 'O Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!' It was a kind of prayer of the heart which expressed both love and trust, but also sorrow and heartbreak," Lilles said. "Then she said she heard an echo across the lake—not an echo of her own voice, but another voice that called to her 'O Lucille, O Lucille, O Lucille.' She had already entered into what many of us seek, a deep love affair with God. It is this profound love of God that opened her up to come to Colorado and live a life of soli- tude and prayer." Dupuis' legacy Popular among contemplatives, those who frequented Our Lady of Tenderness and received spiritual counsel from Du- puis included laity, clergy, seminarians and non-Catholics. Many of them attend- ed her vigil and rosary at Our Lady of the Mountains Church Feb. 3, and her funeral Mass in the poustinia chapel and burial on the mountain the next day. "Now the Lord has lured Lucille to an- other place," professor Joel Barstad of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary said in a eulogy for her Feb. 3. "For most of us, death still looks like a journey into a bleak wilderness, but Lucille looked forward to it as a voyage to the hidden garden that her Beloved began cultivating for her long ago, which was reserved for her at her baptism and for which she longed all her life." The Our Lady of Tenderness Poustinia board and those who benefited from the apostolate hope Dupuis' death is not the end of poustinia here, but the seed to even greater life for the ministry they said en- riches the faith-life of many and provides essential prayer support for the multitude of good works in the archdiocese. "The islands of Christian contempla- tion are disappearing from the landscape of our technocratic world," observed Fa- ther Nepil. "May Lucille Dupuis be the grain of wheat that 'if it dies, bears much fruit' for only this fruit of renewed con- templation can restore the soul of our ap- ostolic endeavors." For more information, contact Lilles at Anthony.lilles@archden.org or 303-715- 3218. Memorial contributions may be made to: Our Lady of Tenderness, P.O. Box 4311, Estes Park, CO 80517. Dupuis From Page 1

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