Special Encore: The Canonization of St. Teresa of Calcutta – Building a Kingdom of Love with Msgr. John Esseff – Discerning Hearts Podcast

0:00DescerningHearts.com presents building a kingdom of love, reflections with Munsenior John S.F. Munsenior S.F. is a priest of the diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He has served as a retreat direct rank confessor to St. Teresa of Calcutta. He continues to offer direction and retreats for the sisters of the missionaries of charity. Munsenior S.F. encountered St. Padre Pio who would become a spiritual father to him. He has lived in areas around the world serving in the pontifical missions, a Catholic organization established by Pope St. John Paul II to bring the good news to the world, especially to the poor. He continues to serve as a retreat leader and director to bishops, priests and sisters, seminarians and other religious leaders. Building a kingdom of love, reflections with Munsenior John S.F. I'm your host, Chris McGregor.

1:01What was this glorious pilgrimage like? I would say what brought us there, there were 16 of us who left to go there and the ones who you would meet along the way, they each of them were loved by Mother Teresa. That's the way I would describe each one of them had a personal experience of the enduring love that touched them. I certainly had to be there. It was like something that has a pilgrim. I felt called to be at this celebration and I felt God wanted me to be there. Therefore, he would provide and he provided for me to get there to the vehicle of these 16 people that I went with. It was just a very caring young priest who Father Mike was our leader of the group. I was kind of the senior citizen. I was the oldest member

2:03of the group. The streets of Rome, as you know, are really architectural hazards. Someone who doesn't see, I could easily fall any place and break a hip or whatever, but I was really cared for. And there was a young girl, a woman that I met and she was in a wheelchair and she kind of summed it up for me when she said, Mother Teresa touched me when I was 16. And she said, she just came in the crowd and touched me. And she touched me on my head. And it was like an unforgettable touch from this woman who was such an instrument, just a reminder of Jesus going through the world and everyone that he touched remembered that touch. And so it was with me. I experienced the love and being loved by her so that she was this instrument of love in the

3:10world. There were millions and millions who saw that by television or heard it by radio in so many parts of the world. So really, wouldn't you say that maybe a billion people were touched through this instrument of God's love because she followed what God asked her to do. And in some way, experience being loved by God as the poorest of the poor, because that's what she considered herself that he loved her and touched her with that love. And then she began to touch one by one by one. That was her way of looking at it. We arrived, we arrived together as a group on September 1st. And we went by van to Newark, New Jersey, where we all got on a plane. And we got to know each other's names because not everybody, there were married people, there were priests, there were

4:14single people who were on that, just getting to know each other on. And then we all had different parts on the plane going over, arrived and gathered together in a group. And there was a van to meet us to take us to our hotel. We stayed in a little hotel called Hotel Depetris, which was about a 20 minute subway ride from the Vatican. That evening, I went by subway to Saint John Lateran, where I heard confessions. And it was so beautiful. I heard because of my languages, I heard confessions in English, Spanish, Italian, all, and who comes along, but walking right in front of me is Marty McDermott, that I had met in Beirut. And he and I just kind of

5:14hooked together. He was there. And again, the love, it was there in Beirut that I met the sisters, it was there that I met Mother Teresa. So we just kind of laughed as two old men. He was a an aging Jesuit that they kind of wanted to get out of Beirut to bring him home to their northeastern province in New York. But he stayed there. He remained there. I think he's from Hartford, Connecticut. And we just chatted while all of the sisters that we had known through the years come pouring out at the end of the celebration there. And I just saw Sister Joy and all the sisters that I had known through the years, missionaries of charity. And then we hopped on a subway and came home. And I got home, maybe around midnight. That was our first day. And so it was a beautiful time

6:18on the third day, we were there September the third. And more confessions and St. Mary Major, was again, the beautiful church and confessions. And then the fourth day was a canonization. And Mother is always just loved our lady. On the cover of the Concelebrated Mass was our Bliss of Mother. And if you notice her hand, always pointing, Mary is such a direct link to Jesus, her whole life pointing, you say Mary, she says Jesus. And Mother then is on September the 5th. She was beatified by John Paul II, 2002. And I was there. And when her picture went up as Bliss of Tree Civ Calcutta and John Paul, that's the day I consecrated myself to our lady.

7:23All her life Mother Tree said, you should consecrate yourself to Mary. Oh, Mother, I have the sacred that's where she was pointing. She wanted me to be with the sacred or no, but the best way to do it is through her. Oh, no, thank you very much. But the Pope, he totes to us. No, no. So I resisted, but when I saw those two up there, the aging elder John Paul II, such a powerful, powerful instrument of God, and this little less than five-foot woman, such a powerful instrument. I thought, what do you need to follow that? So that's the day I consecrated myself to Mary. And here she is. They really captured her look. And it was on the secondness let that we had on the following day on September the 5th, which is her feast day. So on the 4th, we had the canonization mass.

8:29The incident that was most, I sat with a couple of sisters on the way home in the airport. And one of them said, it was such a powerful experience, but I have to say, I couldn't get by the heat. I just couldn't get by the heat. It was 98 degrees. It was hot and a beating, beating heat down on the whole place. All I could recall during the mass with that intense heat was the time when I was at the chapter meeting in Calcutta, where it was a hundred degrees heat and a hundred percent humidity. And it was so stifling and mother would not allow a fan. They were begging her,

9:32let us get a fan. No, we have to live like the poor. What is the authenticity of our sacrifice if we could have a fan? No. And we need a microphone. We can hear no, but get one for for month senior so that when he is so I had a microphone for the presentations. And I had a fan when I was giving my presentations. She turned it off for the whole community. And I'll never forget this none was at that celebration. With this intense heat every time there was the slightest breeze, she just thanked God for the breeze. And I stood, she was an American none and she was communicating to me how we are not used to that Indian heat nor the humidity. And I noticed that at the mass,

10:41her massive canonization. But everyone had to wait for that slight breeze. And that I was so aware of that every once in a while when you thought you were going to pass out there was a breeze. Everyone was reminded though of just how poor we are and how lacking in control of the events of life. And that total dependence. So she gave us all a marvelous lesson and anyone who had been there, if they were there, including the Pope, that intense heat was down on a million people who were there. And everyone came through that and endured it. So Mother Teresa was very active during that canonization. It streamlined it so it made it very simple, which is really what I

11:42think she wanted. Don't have the focus on me. But as the mass itself, the focus was all on God. It was the glory and the praise and the honor of God. Thank you Lord for the slightest breeze. Thank you Lord for just being here. And I found myself thanking God. And I was there the other thing I noticed in her gathering us, there was a multi-racial. The whites were far outnumbered at this mass. Not only because of the Indian priests, the African priests, the Asian priests, the Koreans, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, South Africa. And all of the world was really, she was such a

12:44a mother as Mary. And God was just touching the whole world through her and bringing us all to see that we are just one family. And the main, I think, lesson that I learned is dependence on God. And that we are all very, very poor and the poorest of the poor. The opening day, the day before we got there, the missionaries of charity had in the Olympic stadium, which they were able to get a thousand of the poorest of the poor from their houses in Rome that they served the poor. They invited them all to come and have a feast. And they actually had this huge feast and banquet for the poorest of the poor because this was what it was all about. If mother was going to have this celebration, the first ones to have the feast, it was the poorest of the poor and she invited

13:47them to the table. And all of them were invited to come to the celebration. So they all had tickets to the event. You could see different ones as they were coming, were obviously the poorest of the poor, meeting all of us, the poorest of the poor who were coming. So the universality and multi-racial was what I felt was very outstanding for me on the day. Sounds a lot like Pentecost. Yeah. And the language that didn't seem to, it was like both hearing confessions and the celebration itself. And of course we had the Latin and all of us joined in, we were able to participate with the Latin and the singing. And again, that language, that unity of our worshiping and glorifying God in that mass. Some lady was wielding us onto the plane

14:50when we were at the Newark airport and she was a young girl, young black girl. And I said we were going to go to Mother Teresa's canonization. Well, she had never heard of Mother Teresa. She was 20 years old. Oh, she said, what are you going to have a party? I said, yeah. And what is the mass, but a party that God wanted? So he gets this heavenly banquet together. And that's why I was so happy when you see all these priests going out and bringing the Eucharist to every single one that was there. That was the day celebration. And I think there was a big difference then with the celebration on the fifth. And again, we can't celebrate it, but it was much more intimate. Maybe there must have been maybe 300,000 there. How do you get just into it?

15:51So there was this smaller crowd, but in the priests and the participation was still so joyous and so beautiful. The day there was a cloud coverage so that the heat wasn't as intense. So it was cooler. It was more refreshing. It was more relaxed. And at the end, one of the priests stood up. The sisters came in. The greatest gift I always felt that Mother has given us is her community. And these sisters coming in from all over the world, where certainly well represented there, and lines and lines of missionaries of charity coming in. There were also the brothers. And there were also the missionary fathers, the missionaries of charity fathers. And one of the fathers got up at the end and he said, today is the day of Thanksgiving.

16:54And we are just so filled with thankfulness that God has recognized our founders as a saint. And that we are able to participate in this canonization. And we rejoice. And you could just see St. Trace of Calcutta in heaven with all the poorest of the poor and us poorest of the poor, having experienced being touched by her. And we are now celebrating because she has touched our lives. And she always said, unless you have experienced the thirst God has for you as the poorest of the poor, you'll never be able to know the thirst he has for the poorest of the poor. So that having had that experience of that love that God has for me through her, that tasting of that is an enduring bond that you experience. And it's just indoors in it.

18:00It lasts. The love of God is enduring. The love that Mother Trace gave that touch, that tapped that girl on the head when she was 16. That love lasts. It's an ever lasting love. It's tasting the divine love. And it's the thirst that God has for us as people so that when we pass that on. And if we were a million there and the millions and millions that saw it on television are able to receive it and to pass it on. It was a great joy in heaven and a great celebration on earth. And it was time for a party. The possibility of someone coming up and into a crowd like that and throwing some bombs or you know, it was like the furthest thought I believe the peace

19:05and the love is contagious. It has a power that's overcoming hatred and violence. And the way to to bring this about is through that divine love. This is the force and the power that I believe is really necessary in the world today. So it was a great experience. You know, it's really striking, my senior, that the endurance of those who came, those who had to endure suffering during the celebration because I mean, I watched it all cozy on my couch at three in the morning back here in Omaha with my puppy and my coffee and and that was really nice. But you could see how hot it was. You could just see how people were just baking under the sun. And yet that enduring that suffering is essentially a message of her life. I mean,

20:10every I mean, for all weekend, the buildup was not just on on EWTN and other Catholic outlets. But it was on secular news broadcast CNN, Fox, all of these different news outlets were covering this great gathering. And so as you're watching these people, it literally suffering with joy through the mass. It was almost like a major witness. And there's something really unique when that happens. Isn't there a month's senior that if you can endure it, if you can enter into it, like she did, there's grace somehow, even for the participants. I know you're just a couple days out of this. But for you, I mean, can you describe that now? It's it intensifies your interior self. You become very aware that I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able. And that's the word endure this, whatever that be, this stress, this heat, this cross, however you want to call it.

21:20Each one has to go in there because that's where you're drawn to. And that is the center of the inner self. And that's where your dependency comes. And that's where you experience the God on whom you have to depend. What so what gives you the endurance is the dependence. It stays and it remains and it burns and it whatever it is, you cannot last through it. And it just keeps coming on in a way. Just when you think, it's going to let up no. And then it comes just at the right time, a kind of a breeze where it comes from and the refreshment. And then you're drawing something in from this power. And I would call it the spirit. The spirit is now bringing you into the inner

22:26rest that's going on is only had by those who are willing to endure. I don't know how others would describe that. But that's how I was experiencing it. As you were speaking about that, that endurance. I think that's the suffering of love, isn't it? I mean, at its very, very heart. And I know that's one of the, you had spoken so poignantly that for many who heard your reflection prior to leaving. And you're seeking a particular grace that entering in through the immaculate heart of Mary even more deeply into the sacred heart. And you're an owner. And I don't want to put more words on it than what you were hoping for. Because sometimes even the grace we think we're going for is smaller than the one that God wants to give us. So how would you describe your experience

23:27for those who have been eagerly waiting? Well, did it happen for them? Did you receive what you were hoping for? More, more than I ever had anticipated that which I wanted I received. But much more abundantly, there was more. It's so difficult to describe because you have to use the same words. But the words don't carry the meaning that the inner self has that one that you want to convey, that life in the inner self, that enduring bond of love. Like, excuse me, you're supposed to look ragged, tired, and beleaker for an 88 year old man who, you know, it's traveled around the world. And I have have not seen you look so buoyant and glowing and energized. I mean, this is just it's a joy to behold you. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel that way.

24:36I feel my cup runeth over. That's the, you know, they use that expression, but it says like brimming over full and I, I just don't know how else to express it. So if you see it, that's wonderful. And if you hear it, that's wonderful. But I'm experiencing it. And so whatever I wanted out of this, I received with a hundred full. You're like a beautiful monstrance right now that's sitting on top of an altar with a whole bunch of light shining. And I know you're just a vessel. You're just a monstrance. But what root what's making everybody is just breathtaking is how Christ is radiating out of you right now. What I was experiencing was that inner heart of Mary. And what's the inner heart of Mary completely empty, completely empty so that every single moment you can receive whatever

25:40that is that's coming. I think that's that's really what I'm experiencing the emptiness of Mary's heart so that she has none of her own cares, but those of everyone around her. You know, everyone was caring. I felt being cared for. And but I was like the kind of being cared for so that I too could experience how to care for others. Well, now you got me crying. Oh my gosh, now I'm big weepy mess. Well, Munseen, you're and you know, I usually ask if you have a final thought, but I just can't even believe that there could be a finality to this experience. What are you feeling right now in this moment? The thing that I'm really kind of filled with

26:40is Mary's spirit. It's always crying out. Magnificat. Magnificat. I have a beautiful, beautiful day. You've been listening to Building a Kingdom of Love, Reflections with Munseen your John S.F. To hear and or to download this conversation, along with hundreds of other spiritual formation programs, visit discerninghards.com or you can find it within the free discerning hearts app. This has been a production of Desirning Hearts. I'm your host, Chris McRigger. We hope that if this has been helpful for you, that you will first pray for our mission, which is to offer rock solid and authentic spiritual formation freely to souls around the world. And if you feel us worthy, consider a charitable donation, which is fully tax deductible to help support our efforts. But most of all, we hope that you will tell a friend about DesirningHearts.com. Enjoy this next time

27:46for Building a Kingdom of Love, Reflections with Munseen your John S.F.