“O God, tell me what you want me to do and give me the grace to do it!”
- Anne Mueller
On Friday, January 6, I journeyed to Our Lady of the Angels Parish on 37th Street in Lawrenceville, the home of the Capuchins, to attend the funeral liturgy of Nina DeNinno, age 82. She was the mother of Fr. Dale DeNinno, pastor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Pleasant Hills. I was Fr. Dale’s successor at Mercy Hospital, where he graciously showed me the ropes of hospital ministry for which I am eternally grateful. Ginny Ambrose served as organist, accompanied by Terry McGuire, a cantor from our parish. I noticed on the cornerstone that the church was founded in 1899. I thought as I looked up, entering the church, “Now this is Pittsburgh.”
I traveled down one-way roads to get there, across cobblestone streets, passing row houses that shared flower pots on porches, to be greeted by the warm hospitality of Franciscan brotherhood, offering me coffee and breakfast rolls when I arrived. It was a prayerful setting as we waited for the caravan of mourners accompanying the hearse that carried her body.
Retired Auxiliary Bishop William J. Winter attended along with sixteen Capuchin Franciscans and seven diocesan brother priests. Atop the door of the church was "20+C+M+B+12," fitting for the Feast of the Epiphany, the traditional day for the blessing of homes when chalk is marked over doorways consecrating the new year. These initials remind us of the legendary names of the Magi: Caspar, Melchior, Balthazar, and the Latin motto Christus Mansionem Benedicat, (“May Christ bless this house.”)
Nina had just attended Christmas Eve Mass and had everything ready for Christmas. All the gifts were wrapped, her house was decorated and her meal prepared, only to suffer a heart attack at 1:00 AM on Christmas Day. None of the family members had opened gifts yet as they kept vigil at the hospital in hope, prayer, and love. In my remembrance card to Fr. Dale, I mentioned that his mom gave him three great gifts: life, faith and love, for which he can be eternally grateful and for which her spirit will live on in sacred memory.
As I worshipped in that cathedral-like church adorned with beautiful stained glass windows, the Crèche and all the lights, I was touched when Fr. Dale mentioned in his closing comments that his mother received the ultimate gift on Christmas — being called home to God in heaven to join his father and brother who preceded her in death. He thanked those in attendance for giving the DeNinno family the gift of their presence and prayer through this dark time in their family history. With confidence the mourners sang “Blessed Are They” as her body was brought to Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Penn Hills.
From January 9 through 14, we celebrate a time of National Vocation Awareness, answering God’s call to follow Him is the work of a lifetime. A vocation is not partial or temporary; rather it demands a lifelong commitment which encompasses one’s very identity and meaning of one’s entire life. The call of God demands mind, heart, feelings, ambitions, body, soul and spirit to the mission and the ministry of Jesus Christ. To discern a vocation, we must remember that God cannot drive a “parked car.” It is rather through the interior freedom which He gives us that we encounter His grace, desire, love, and pursue His friendship more than anything else.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls two sets of brothers, Andrew and his brother Simon, James and his brother John, and asks the $64 million question, “What are you looking for?” We, too must answer that same question. Are we looking for financial success, social position, a great wardrobe, the perfect person, a chance to clinch the best paying job or to discover the ideal place to live? Are we looking to do just the minimal to get by? Or, are we looking to learn from past mistakes, grow in a life of virtue, seek a deeper intimacy in prayer with the Lord, or help to get closer to family in the work of reconciliation?
While I was greeting people after Mass last week, a 34 year-old radiologist at Children’s Hospital told me that the previous week he was in India with his parents for Mass. He mentioned that my long-time friend Victor Rocha, who inspired me to be a priest, sent his regards and blessings for the new year. At a very young age, at Sts. Simon and Jude in Greentree, I was invited by Fr. Victor to serve more at God’s altar and to consider more seriously the call to a vocation and prayer, to seek God’s will in my life.
God gives us radical freedom. He doesn’t force us to follow Him. Jesus invited His first followers to “come and see”, not just where He resides, but where he abides, dwells and remains. As we journey through life, we can be half asleep, inattententive, unaware and blind to God. As young Samuel was roused from the dead of night and Andrew and Simon Peter were called in the middle of the afternoon to answer the call of God, one must answer that call daily for a faith-response to be activated.
I was delighted to receive a phone call this week from Bishop Zubik’s secretary telling me that Bishop Zubik would like to join our parish for the Stations of the Cross on Friday, Feb. 24 at 7:00 pm, and for a fish fry that same evening. Immediately I thought that with the closing of the school I’d better call people in order for the fish fry to happen!
Did you ever wonder how many calls come into the rectory on a given day? Morning, noon and night we answer calls for a myriad of needs: to register for Pre-Cana, have a child baptized, anoint someone in the hospital, register to join the parish, have a Mass offered, and so on. We try to respond to the call to serve God’s people with compassion and grace each day.
God’s call is mysterious;
It comes in the darkness of faith.
It is so fine, so subtle,
that it is only with the deepest silence within us
that we can hear it.
And yet nothing is surer or stronger,
nothing is so decisive or over-powering as that call.
This call is uninterrupted; God is always calling us.
— Carlo Carretto
