Sr. Anne's
Message ...
Dearest Sisters and Friends,
This publication of Canorita gives me the opportunity to greet each one of you HAPPY FEASTDAY for the Feast of our Province dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua, celebrated generally on 13 June. Over time the significance of the Patron Saint of the Province tends to be forgotten so it seems worthwhile bringing to mind the story.
St. Anthony is reputed to be the wise Dominican friar who had to face great odds in preaching the Word of God. In 1946, Pope Pius XII officially declared Anthony, a Doctor of the Universal Church, with the designation "Doctor of the Gospel". Clearly, Anthony had taught Scripture with great power and effectiveness. Through h is Scripture-based preaching, Anthony communicated to the world the Incarnate Word of God. The image of Anthony holding the Divine Infant is a symbol and model for each of us. The image inspires us to go through life clinging to the wonderful mystery of the humble, self-emptying Christ, who accompanies us as a servant of our humanity and of the world's healing.
This is the image of Christ that St. Paul sketches for us in his letter to the Philippians. Paul urges that we take on the attitude of "Christ Jesus" (2:6-8). Just as Jesus' death on a cross reveals God's total self-giving love for us, so also does his Incarnation. The eminent Scripture scholar, the late Fr. Raymond Brown, has affirmed that "the divine self-giving" revealed in Jesus' Incarnation is comparable to "God's supreme act of love... embodied in Jesus' self-giving on the cross." This is the kind of love that radiates from the Christ, as our Mother Foundress put it so well... "The Greatest Love".
