Pamela Q. Fernandes's Blog, page 18

Happy Holy Week 2019

It’s Holy Week 2019 and I can’t believe Lent has gone by so quickly. This has been a difficult Lent but here we are at the end.

Yesterday Neph sent me a beautiful Lenten reflection. With all the rush for Easter; choir practice, planning Easter day, the masses, confession, writing, volunteering, emailing, book launching and my never ending to-do list it was great to read this reflection asking us to slow down and reflect as Holy Week begins.

Holy Week 2019

I’m sharing this reflection with you by Fr. Jerry M. Orbos SVD – The story is told about a 5-year-old boy who stayed home and did not go to church because of a sore throat. When the family came back from Palm Sunday Mass, carrying palm branches, and told him that people waved them as Jesus passed by, the boy reacted: “The one Sunday I don’t go, He shows up!” It’s Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week.

Making Holy Week ‘Holy’

It’s that time of the year when the Lord “shows up” in a very special and real way. Let us not miss the chance to be there when He passes by, and really follow Him and be with Him in His last night on earth, on His way of the Cross leading to His crucifixion and death, all the way to His resurrection.

We all have our devotions, practices and traditions to make the Holy Week holy. Fine. But let us do all these from the heart in gratitude to Him who suffered so much and died for us. And may these be not just devotional, bordering on the emotional, but may they overflow to real love of God and neighbor. And, may our “conversion” not just be seasonal.

The three Rs for the Holy Week:

The three Rs for the Holy Week: Rest, Reflect, Renew. Find time to be free from work to give REST to your body. Find time to free your mind from stress and worldly cares and concerns, so that you can REFLECT on the life you are living. Take time to be still, and to be silent, so that you can really listen to God speaking. May our rest and reflection lead us to RENEW our relationship with, and commitment to our God, to our loved ones and to the world around us.

The Holy Week is a good time for us to check the life we are living. “Live well, love much, laugh often.” May we not live vain and empty lives. May we love and keep on loving and be more forgiving . And may we live joyful and peaceful lives, and become instruments of peace and joy. Take the road of peace and reconciliation, especially this Holy Week. May God give us the grace to be reconciled with Him, to be at peace with people whom we have hurt or who have hurt us, and finally to forgive ourselves for all the mistakes we have done.

How do we make this happen?

It all happens when we take the road of honesty and humility. The Holy Week is the time for remembering. Yes, we gratefully remember how He loved us through His passion and death. It is also a time to celebrate for He is with us still especially in the Eucharist. Finally, it is the time for us to truly affirm our belief that we will see Him again when He comes in His glory. Yes, we remember, we celebrate and we believe. Think about this: “Learn to rest and relax. God is already at work. He will turn around every negative situation in your life, and heal you in every place you are hurting, if you let Him.”

Wishing us all a Holy Week that is restful, reflective and renewing. Wishing us all a Holy Week that brings us closer to God and to one another, and that makes us better.

I wish you all a happy holy week 2019. Above are few pictures from St John the Baptist Church where I was at confession.

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Review: Eleonora Micali at Fordham University

I’ve written about Eleonora Micali before when she talked about character expressions. She’s been in theater for over fifteen years. And let me say, she’s as much as actress off stage as she’s on it. Eleonora performed her second show, UNA DONNA FANTASIUSA at Fordham university, on Saturday, 13th of April. The last time she did this show I was in Morristown, so I didn’t want to miss this one. And this was my last event before Holy Week!

The president of the Arba Sicula, Professor Gaetano Cipolla was kind enough to invite me to this event even though they had a full house. I’ve never been to this part of the city, but with Lincoln Center nearby, you can tell that it’s the high stage for people in music, drama and theater.

Review: Eleonora Micali’s monologue



Eleonora Micali

So let me just say, I don’t speak Sicilian or Italian.

Writer’s NYC Conference

Two weeks ago, I was at the Writer’s Conference in NYC. I can’t believe two weeks have already passed.

St Patrick’s Cathedral Catholic NYC

On Wednesday, 3rd April, 2019, Cardinal Timothy Dolan hosted Catholic young adults at St Patrick’s Cathedral. It was so moving.

47 Why we do The Stations of the Cross?

For me in the stations of the cross when Jesus meets His mother. Just watching her baby go up to execution, as a parent there’s nothing worse and that’s the sword that pierces Mary’s heart. I can’t even imagine that nor do I ever want to. Charles Johnston

Charles Johnston is a father and husband in Phoenix, Arizona. His conversion journey has taken years, as he felt God pulling him toward His Church but he resisted until he couldn’t take it anymore. He gave in and fell in love with His Church.  He blogs for ‘Now that I’m catholic.wordpress.com’

In this episode, Charles tells us about The Stations of the Cross.
He explains:
-What they are?
-Why do them and the significance of meditating on the Lord’s Passion?
-How to pray them?
-What are indulgences and why the stations of the cross are so powerful?

The Stations of the Cross

Alternatively, they’re also called the Via Dolorosa. The stations of the cross are now a major Lenten meditation. Every Friday, churches all across the world conduct them to meditate on the Passion of Jesus.

We’ve all watched the movie the Passion of Christ. As painful as it is to watch, Charles makes a good point when he says the current view we have of crucifixion is very sanitized. The actual crucifixion was horrific.

Charles also shares his own experience from traveling to the Holy Land all about the actual walk up Calvary, the grade and the difficulty in making the journey. However, his advice about the stations of the cross is to live it, be there with Jesus and be a companion to Him as He makes His journey. It can all come alive for you if you truly meditate on it. Don’t just do them because the priest asks you to go around the church. No, be a witness and if nothing else put yourself in Mary’s shoes.

Stations of the Cross this Lent

I’m not a big fan of the Stations. I’ve always done just one during Lent and then forgotten about them the rest of the year. I remember the Lent after my own dad passed away I wasn’t keen on Lent. My dad was big on Lent! I remember making the stations of the Cross. Redemptorist priests conducted them at our parish. When they focused on Mary watching a battered Jesus and holding her innocent son, I wept bitterly.

Through the rest of the stations of the cross, they made us focus on many of our own life’s situations in Jesus’s journey. How we fall in life, how we are condemned or we condemn other people, how we strip people of their respect and how we also lose loved ones and so forth. Now, I see the stations differently. It showed me how to focus on where I’m in that journey of sainthood and yet, always failing.

Stations Enumerated

1 – Jesus is condemned to death

2 – Jesus carries his cross

3 – Jesus falls for the first time

4 – Jesus meets his afflicted mother

5 – Simon helps Jesus carry his cross

6 – Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

7 – Jesus falls the second time

8 – Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

9 – Jesus falls a third time

10 – Jesus is stripped of his clothes

11 – Jesus is nailed to the cross

12 – Jesus dies on the cross

13 – Jesus is taken down from the cross

14 – Jesus is laid in the tomb

Tell me how you do the stations of the cross and what it means to you. I’d love to hear from you. Here’s one version of the Stations of the Cross with meditation.

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Pictures from MoMA: Catholic art

Catholic Art for my Lenten meditation. After a long weekend of conference time, I decided to visit MoMA (The Metropolitan Museum of Arts) or The Met and here are my pictures as promised.

So after a grueling weekend and the amazing four day conference, I was quite wiped out. Most of you saw my Facebook photos where I spent much of the afternoon on Sunday searching for a church with an evening mass near W 36th Street until I found St. Francis of Assisi.

On Monday, I woke up early and after morning mass, headed out to visit MoMA. I booked my tickets online and strongly suggest it. The lines for tickets are long. The ticket is valid for three days where you can use it to see the cloisters and another site.

Taking the 4 train and getting off 86th street, I got to the Museum Mile. It’s a beautiful walk and if it’s not too crowded, quite pleasant.

Ground Floor of MoMA

The ground floor of the MoMA has Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Indian and all sorts of art. I started with Egypt after I saw the Sphinx and all the archaeological finds. Needless to say, I got quite excited.

My Interview on The Emit Blackwell Show

I was interviewed on Wednesday by Emit Blackwell on his podcast, The Emit Blackwell Show. Credit has to be given to Emit because I’d had a particularly difficult day.

Confession and Why We Need It

“We’re missing out on God’s grace by not going to confession.” Tom Peterson

Tom Peterson

Following 25 years as an award-winning corporate advertising executive, Tom Peterson’s life would radically change forever, after receiving a transforming Spiritual conversion while on a Catholic men’s retreat.  Soon afterward, he founded VirtueMedia (pro-life) and CatholicsComeHome.org. In 2011 Catholics Come Home evangomercialsTM were the first to air nationally on top TV networks like CBS and NBC, reaching 125 million viewers in every city across the U S.

In January 2014, Catholics Come Home aired an evangomercial in all the major College Football bowl games, featuring legendary coach Lou Holtz, promoting the goal of heaven, and inviting viewers to come home to the Catholic faith.

Recently, Tom began to host a new television series, prime time on EWTN on Thursday and Sunday nights called Catholics Come Home.

Peterson’s second apostolate, VirtueMedia.orgh, creates and airs sanctity of life commercials helping as many as 22,000 abortion vulnerable women in a given month, and were the first to air their ads nationally on MTV and BET.

Tom served as Vice Chairman of the Legatus International Board of Governors and is active in his local Atlanta Chapter. He encourages others to seek God’s plan for their lives, to help change our world for the better. His new book entitled “Catholics, Come Home” was recently published by Random House.

Why we need Confession?

In this episode, Tom Peterson, author of Catholics Coming Home talks about Confession and the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
He explains:
-Why we need confession?
-What are the main reasons we don’t confess?
-How to handle the obstacles to confession?
-What is the fruit of this practice?

I was frantic until two weeks ago since I couldn’t find a speaker for this episode of our podcast. I’d written to so many Catholic authors and writers and no one would talk about confession. As always I was anxious and second-guessed if this topic that we decided for Lent was wrong.

Bioethics: Not all stem cell research is the same!

Last Sunday at the NY chapter meeting of the CMA, we were given a lecture by Dr. Alan Moy, MD. He’s a pulmonologist and also the Director of John Paul II Stem Cell Research Institute.

So quick question, which of the following stem cell therapies are made from illicit/ aborted fetal stem cell lines/ chimeras? For those who don’t know, (Human-animal) chimeras are when human cells and tissues are grafted into embryos, fetuses or adult animals. Human-animal chimeras are also created by inserting human stem cells into animals embryonic, fetal or postnatal stage.

MMR vaccineCAR- T therapy (which stands for Chimeric antigen receptor )AAV-HEK 293 cell lineBiologics therapy

The answer: All of them.

Distinction between Embryonic and Adult Stem cells

Why such a hullabaloo over stem cell research and why is the CMA opposed to ESC? The CMA is opposed to embryonic stem cell research when adult stem cells have proven to be exactly the same. Their stance is that there is no need to destroy embryos from IVF cycles or source ESC’s from aborted fetuses.

Adult stem cells found among the tissues and organs of the human body. Stem cells can also be obtained from amniotic fluid, the placenta and umbilical cord blood. The Catholic Church supports the use of these stem cells in research and therapy.

Dr Moy says that Hemtopoetic stem cells (HSC) can be obtained from umbilical cord blood. HSC have already been a source of treatment for bone marrow transplantation to restore bone marrow cells after chemotherapy. 70% of bone marrow candidates cannot identify suitable immunological-matched donors. HSC represents a potential stem cell source for these bone marrow transplant candidates. Research using HSC is also being directed to treat chronic cardiovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, multiple sclerosis, stroke, pulmonary hyper-tension and chronic lung disease.
Umbilical cord blood is also a source of human mesenchymal stem cells (HMSC). Under laboratory conditions, HMSC have been shown to differentiate into a variety of different tissue types, including cartilage, bone, blood, cardiac, muscle and neural tissues. Why not use these instead?

Advantage of Cord Blood Stem Cells

He says, in general, cord blood stem cells have advantages over embryonic stem cells (ESC). Tissues grown from ESC can trigger immune rejection. An advantage of cord blood stem cells is that they are immunologically immature. This minimizes the risk of tissue rejection so that patients do not have to take anti-rejection medications and risk infections. Further, ESC can form tumors which is not true of cord blood stem cells.

Implications in Healthcare

With the large number of biologics (monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic proteins, and vaccines) now coming from ESC, one has to wonder about the ethical line here. For secular people it may not matter and many are probably ignorant about the subject. But for pro-life healthcare workers, it may be a problem. Dr Moy says, “Biologics and gene therapies are already utilizing human cell lines obtained in ways that conflict with Catholic teaching. ESC are already utilized in the drug discovery process, which can result in FDA-approved drugs. They could potentially result in life-saving regenerative medicines someday. If these products become more prevalent, the situation could pose serious ethical challenges for Catholic hospitals that will have to decide whether they will or will not allow these products to be administered in their facilities.”

Let’s set aside pro-life doctors and nurses, if I were a patient and I needed one of these life saving drugs, would I refuse it because it’s been sourced from a morally illicit line? You can read more about this dilemma in the Healthcare Ethics USA Quarterly.

The Alternative to embryonic stem cell?

Dr Moy explains that in 2005, the Pontifical Academy of Life issued ethical guidelines on the use of vaccines derived from aborted fetal tissue. This was done by concluding degrees of cooperation of evil exist that allowed patients and doctors to use such treatments if a morally-acceptable alternative vaccine did not exist such as in the case of the MMR vaccine. However, Dr Moy states that the document also suggested “doctors and patients should take recourse, if necessary, to the use of conscientious objection” in refusing to use the abortion-derived vaccine.”
There are multiple challenges here and it will require us to adapt and
take a greater active role in the future of biotechnology to preserve the viability of the pro-life healthcare.

Solutions



“Catholics need to exercise greater due diligence in investigating which private medical research organizations support research that support embryonic stem cells and aborted fetal tissue. Health networks and foundations need to be educated in biotechnology. They must become more actively involved in advancing pro-life biotechnology. Media organizations need to use their media platforms to communicate and educate Catholic audiences on the biotechnology issues that confront them. Catholic universities need to increase their emphasis in biomedical research. They must participate in research consortiums to advance pro-life biotechnology. Catholic financial institutions need to invest and financially capitalize a biopharmaceutical industry consistent with Catholic teaching.The US Conference of Catholic Bishops needs to update the next edition of the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. They must provide guidelines on biotechnology and its implication on Catholic health care.”

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Happy Lent 2019

March 6 marks the beginning of Lent 2019. Firstly, I attended the 12 pm mass at the Shrine of Mother Cabrini for my ashes this year!

Frances Xavier Cabrini MSC, also called Mother Cabrini, was an Italian-American religious sister, who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She died in 1933 and was canonized in 1946. Her remains were transferred to a glass coffin in 1938 on her beatification. Her body is beautifully preserved and displayed under the altar at this church on 190th St. I’ve seen the remains of St. Francis Xavier and in comparison, she looks remarkably fresh. The shrine itself is beautiful with very helpful staff. The mural at the back depicts the entire story of her life. They’re open everyday except Monday and have Adoration everyday between 12-3 pm.

Remains of Mother Cabrini



Lent 2019

One of our choir members, Dianne sent us this and I’ll share it with you as you begin your journey this Lent 2019. Of this list, there’s probably only two disciplines that I have down! The rest would take me many, many, many Lents to master!