Sister Josephine Leong, rest in peace.

Once, during a talk about human virtues, Joel from Opus Dei, explaining the importance of being a good friend, and the importance of friendship for the apostolate, said that we should hope that many people come to our funeral - it would be a sign that we were a good friend. If that's true, the number of people at Josephine Leong's wake this evening is a wonderful testament to her apostolic zeal and her character.

What a sight it was. So many Legionaries gathered around the coffin, praying the Rosary and the other Legion prayers; the huge bouquets of flowers from those whom Sister Josephine had touched - from her colleagues (she was a nurse, and a highly respected one too, judging from the people who had sent bouquets), from Senatus, and from the Legionaries in Malaysia.

The standard of the Legion of Mary, our vexilium, was placed near the head of the coffin - a reminder that here lay a Catholic who had dedicated her life to the advancing if God's Kingdom on earth, a soldier of Mary, obviously an apostle of Christ at her workplace, among her friends and to those whom she did not know.Sr. Jocelyn, our spiritual director, who had worked with Sister Josephine when she Josephine was President of Senatus, is right: we are lucky to have witnessed such a role model in the Legionary service right here among us, in Singapore.

I didn't know Sister Josephine well. I've seen her only about a dozen times. I've spoken to her only once, when she visited Tertiary Curia some years ago. But older Legionaries, like Paul Chen know her better, and always talk about her with great respect.

Last year we were asked to pray for her - she was fighting cancer of the spine, which had metastasised. She recovered and resumed her duties as President of North Curia, VP of her praesidium and correspondent for Senatus with the Legionaries in Malaysia. I've observed her at Senatus - she was very thorough, very sharp, and obviously very dedicated. She was at her Legionary post, on duty, to the end. I missed last month's Senatus meeting, but she was present for the meeting the month before, reporting the activities of the Legionaries in East Malaysia. She was also heavily involved in the preparations for the Legion Seminar and jubilee celebrations coming up next month.

Last weekend, the current President of Senatus, Brother Anthony Gabriel, asked for prayers for Sister Josephine once again, and said that she was at Assisi Hospice. Obviously things had taken a turn for the worse.Yesterday Paul asked Anthony how she was, and we learnt that she had died that afternoon.

"There goes another great Legionary" Paul remarked. It's a huge loss to the Legion in Singapore and  cruel blow to her family. But she deserves the peace and her reward. She suffered the agony of cancer and its treatment with cheerfulness, just like Edel Quinn, whom she admired very much. I pray that she is now with Edel, in the God's Kingdom of love and glory.

Eternal rest grant unto Josephine Leong, O Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. And may her soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

I heard someone from heaven say, "Write this: Happy from now on are the dead who have died in the Lord. The Spirit says: Let them rest from their labours; their good deeds go with them." (Revelation 14:13)

The True Face of Heroism

"It must always be remembered that the work of the Lord will bear the Lord's own mark, the mark of the Cross."

“My real crime? I joined the Legion of Mary.”

***

Outlaw: One Priest in the Underground Chinese Church

By Theresa Marie Moreau

First Published in Crisis Magazine



“Chu lai! Chu lai!”
Guang-Zhong Gu awoke in the pre-dawn hours, bathed in the sweat of a balmy Shanghai September.

Unfamiliar voices barked, “Come out! Come out!”

Lights overhead flashed on. The cold steel snap of ammo clicked into machine guns. Fists pounded at the doors lining the long corridors of the Xujiahui Seminary, normally bustling with the quiet sweep of long, black robes.

Gu, a 23-year-old third-year seminary student, leapt out of bed. Already dressed in shorts and a shirt, he stuffed his feet into a pair of shoes. No time for socks. He stumbled through the door without looking back. He’d never see the room again.

http://tmmoreau.com/gu1.html

DREAM WITH MARY

by Canon F. J. Ripley

Frank Duff had less than two weeks to live when he issued a simple challenge to every legionary. It was this: "Can we induce ever legionary in the world to indulge in dreaming with Mary about souls, praying with her for a minute a day over a map of the world?" If we could do that it would afford an opening for the motherly operations of Mary. It is part of her office as mother to seize on any such opportunity. Nothing is more certain than that something would happen. Dreaming with Mary is the most solid of actions, for she adds in the substance. The one mistake which we can make is to dream on too low a level where faith is low and thin and poor and feeble.

So, the last challenge from Frank Duff to every member of the Legion he founded was that they should think in terms of the apparently impossible, the conquest of the world for souls. He fervently believed that Mary would make the dream come true.

After all, had he not every right to believe that? He thought of that day in 1921 when some simple people came together to discuss Mary's place in God's plan for the salvation of the world. It never occurred to them to doubt. They asked questions, seeking for information and at the end of the meeting they were satisfied: They were glad to know that Our Lady was so great; so much more than they had thought. They wanted to establish a new relationship with her. Seventeen days later those same people came together in another room in the same building. They asked, how does One put into an apostolic society the suppliant omnipotence of Mary? There was no talk of constituting Mary the patron of what they wanted to do. They knew she was too big for that. In their previous meeting they had discussed her as the Arbiter of the salvation of the world, the Mother of God and of men, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, Mediatrix of graces. So they said to her ever so simply, "Lead us". She did. The Legion of Mary was born. Frank Duff had seen its amazing growth: It was evangelization at its best, the Church at work on that for which Christ founded it.

Fifty years or so after those momentous beginnings, Pope Paul declared that that which had been born on September 7th, 1921 was the most important development in, the Church since the uprise of the great Religious Orders. He added that what he liked best about it was that it knew how to utilize the little people of the world ..

Just before that, Pope John said something which was one of the most precious of all Frank Duffs memories; namely that the Legion of Mary presents the true face of the Catholic Church. Frank said that that phrase touches final heights and no more need be said, except to insist that Mary is the reason for all that has been achieved.

"Conquest comes through Mary", says the present Holy Father. Every Legionary should try to dream every day of the conquest for souls. As the whole Legion looks out over the whole world, wondering how it is going to set the mother influence of Mary flowing over every continent, so, each individual Legionary looks over his or her field of apostolate and wonders the same thing: How is it to be brought beneath the mother influence of Mary?

In that last talk of his, Frank Duff asked those present to imagine a meeting of Our Lady, St. Peter and the Apostles, as they planned the conversion of the world Their task was to give Christ to every Soul. Their vision of the world was far more limited than ours. The places they knew something about would have to come first. But as the world opened up, the new would be attended to.

The Legion today must do what Our lady and the Apostles did in the first days of the life of the infant Church; Now we are faced with immense questions. Frank Duff stated them in that last address of his. How is the Catholic faith to be given to five thousand million people who have not got it; while at the same time stirring up the nine hundred million who have it but should have it better? A sceptic would think it madness even to think about such a problem. What can anybody do about it? Frank said the scoffer would be wrong," Much can be done about it: because the divine infinitude can be arrayed against that apparently unsolvable problem. Ideas germinate, are discussed, referred to Jesus and Mary, and then put into operation. Souls are touched and begin to expand. The evangelization of more places begins; Catholic life is on its way in. Those places would be playing valuable parts in future days in giving the faith to others; Here are Frank Duff's own words,

"If we make our fervent act of faith in Jesus and Mary and then, consign the problem to the Legion system, it is almost like putting it on a conveyor belt. It is on its way. On its way to where? Inevitably to an, immensity not to be measured by our poor contribution but by the might and love Of heaven; The perspectives are unending if we are hand-in hand with Mary. There will be no notice standing in our path: 'Thus far and no farther shall you go:'"

So that, is, why his last wish was that every Legionary should dream dreams, dreams about the conquest of souls for Christ through Mary. Should we not have another dream too? It would be of the whole Church with priests in every parish in every diocese in every country becoming enthused by the ideals of Frank Duff and trying to put them into action in all their undiluted fullness. Surely, if that were to happen, it would be the best possible response to the appeal of the Vicar of Christ for a decade of true evangelization.

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To Whom Much is Given: Surviving the Massacre in Mumbai

Last Wednesday evening around 10pm, following a relaxing supper, my friend Eugene and I arrived at the check-out desk at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, as we have done together hundreds of times in our travels as New York investment bankers currently living in Hong Kong.

As I placed my bag on the table I heard a loud gunshot, which I recognized from my years living in South Africa to be the distinctive snap of an AK-47 assault rifle. Hearing another shot a second later, I looked at Eugene and said, “Run, that’s AK!”

We streaked away from the gunfire toward the nearest exit as the terrorists were entering the hotel lobby from various points. I smashed through the doors toward the pool area and ducked into some bushes as the gunfire grew in intensity. I realized Eugene did not make it out of the lobby.

Five or six people had arrived in the bushes before me, all now paralyzed in fear. From the sound of things I realized that a Columbine-like shooting spree was taking place inside, with gunmen walking around methodically executing people. Mind racing, I concluded that being bunched up in the bushes in the corner of the pool area was not safe.

Surveying the scene brought the dispiriting conclusion that we were trapped, surrounded by dozen foot-high walls on all sides. I scanned the walls and then scrambled for a finger or toehold, but found none. I did, however, spy an air conditioning duct about nine feet above me. I leaped and was able to knock a cover away. I jumped again and grabbed onto the unit, but as I tried to pull myself up, I fell, causing the folks in the bushes to hush me to be quiet.

A quick aspiration to the Holy Spirit — “Come, O Holy Spirit, fill the heart of thy faithful!” — and then another leap upward. This time I was able to grab on and pull myself up over the wall where I flipped onto a lean-to roof of the pool shed. I laid low and quiet, partially concealing myself with tree branches.

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Sometimes life surprises us

What a wonderful story. Thank God he was given the chance to live and spread his wonderful message.



I wonder if Barack Obama could look him in the eye and say that him mother had the right to murder before he was born. In Obama's eyes Nick Vujicic would have been a punishment not a blessing to his mother ("I've got two daughters. 9 years old and 6 years old. I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby.")