Subj : January 15th - St. Arnold Janssen, SVD To : All From : rich Date : Tue Jan 14 2020 08:51:16 From: rich January 15th - St. Arnold Janssen, SVD (1837 =E2=80=93 1909) Pope Paul VI beatified Fr. Arnold Janssen on World Mission Sunday, October = 19, 1975. Many wondered why the Church had not honored him sooner. The miss= ionary religious order that he founded had by then 5,200 members scattered = around the globe, well-known for their devotion and expertise. That the Society of the Divine Word bore a Germanic imprint is not surprisi= ng. Arnold Janssen was born in the German Rhineland, the son of a hard-work= ing, devout farming couple. He was a bright student who might have had a su= ccessful university career had he not preferred the priesthood. Graduating = from the college seminary, but still too young to enter theology, he transf= erred to the University of Bonn. Although he passed the examinations there = and was offered a teaching position in Berlin, he went back to the seminary= and was ordained a diocesan priest in 1861. For the next 12 years Fr. Janssen was back in the classroom, now as a teach= er of mathematics and science. From 1867 on, however, he became more and mo= re interested in the foreign missions. Resigning his teaching position, he = accepted a chaplaincy and in 1874 began to issue a mission-oriented publica= tion, The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart. In its columns he reported = news on the home and foreign missions, and gave expression to his own devel= oping ideas about missionary needs and methods. At that time, Germany had no missionary seminary. Janssen thought it needed= one, and since nobody else volunteered to found such a school, he decided = that he should do so himself. Unfortunately, in the 1870s, anti-Catholic la= ws in Germany forbade such religious schools. He therefore crossed the bord= er, found an old inn at Steyl in the Netherlands, and there set up his firs= t seminary in 1875. For the Society of the Divine Word, which came into existence in this humbl= e setting, Father Janssen assigned a double aim: to train missionaries and = to cultivate the Christian sciences. These objectives reflected both the ze= al and the scholarship of the founder. While his project was novel, the num= ber of candidates rose rapidly. Janssen's practical trust in divine= providence also proved very effective: funds were available for the asking= , he argued, and he proved his point. His own generosity inspired generosit= y in others. Finally realizing the importance of publicity, he expanded his= Little Messenger and launched also the popular magazine Stadt Gottes (City= of God), which still remains the largest illustrated Catholic family magaz= ine in Germany. He likewise enlarged the scope of the order to include lay = brothers, who soon outnumbered the priest members. In 1892, he established = a women's order, the Holy Spirit Missionary sisters, and in 1896 fo= rmed a contemplative branch of the same community. The mission objective of the SVD, as stated in 1886, was to work particular= ly among the non-Christians in the Far East. Fr. Janssen sent his first two= missionaries to Hong King in 1879. Others were soon missioned to China, To= go, Papua New Guinea, and Japan; then to Ecuador, Brazil and Chile. In Euro= pe he eventually inaugurated missionary seminaries in Germany, Poland and A= ustria. Just before his death he set up an American SVD seminary at Techny,= Illinois. In 1920 the American SVD opened a seminary at Bay St. Louis, Mis= sissippi, to train black candidates for the priesthood. Most of our black A= merican priests have been trained in this school, including, by 1995, six b= ishops. As a result of the founder's insistence that his seminarians cultiv= ate the natural sciences, the Society has become noted particularly for ant= hropological studies of populations it has served. This is enlightened miss= iology. It pays proper respect to the cultures of even the most =E2=80=9Cpr= imitive=E2=80=9D human societies. Pope John Paul II raised Blessed Arnold to the rank of saint on October 5, = 2003. =E2=80=93Father Robert Bible Quote: 18 But the path of the just is like shining light, that grows in brilliance till perfect day.* 19The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know on what they stumble. =C2 (Proverbs 4:18-19) Saint Quote: Prudence must precede every action which we undertake; for, if prudence be wanting, there is nothing, however good it may seem, which is not turned into evil. -- St. Basil <><><><> St. Theresa's Prayer to the Holy face O Jesus, Who in Thy bitter Passion didst become "the most abject of men, a man of sorrows," I venerate Thy Sacred Face whereon there once did shine the beauty and sweetness of the Godhead ... but now it has become for me as if it were the Face of a leper! Nevertheless, under those disfigured features, I recognize Thy Infinite Love and I am consumed with the desire to love Thee and make Thee loved by all men. The tears which well up abundantly in Thy Sacred Eyes appear to me as so many precious pearls that I love to gather up, in order to purchase the souls of poor sinners by means of their infinite value. O Jesus, Whose adorable Face ravished my heart, I implore Thee to fix deep within me Thy Divine Image and to set me on fire with Thy Love, that I may be found worthy to come to the contemplation of Thy glorious Face in Heaven. Amen. --- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2 * Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4) .