Tuesday of 3rd Week in Easter 2019
Rosa Venerini
Over the years I have been in ministry, first as a layman and now as a deacon, I have known many Christians, Catholics of course, but men and women and teens with various denominations. One thing I am convinced of is that most people loathe controversy. They despise the kind of name-calling and ire that is a species of violence, of course, but they even avoid any type of argumentation. Religious argument, we know, is not a bad thing. It can actually lead us forward and help us truly understand how to advance the Gospel. But most folks just want to be left alone, and sometimes alone and ignorant is even ok with them.
Jesus, however, did not become human, live, teach, suffer, die and rise again so that we could be stuck in a changeless life. He came to challenge us to change, to accept faith in Him and be active members of the Church and become like Himself. The Church continues that mission, which is why She faces so much opposition so often. Here in the wonderful sixth chapter of John’s Gospel we see Christ expanding His doctrine of the Eucharist. There is an urgency to our taking the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation, because it brings us the grace of change. We literally can become what we eat and drink, images of Jesus Christ, by reception and internalization of His awesome Gift.
But that requires us to be open to change. Deacon Stephen understood that. Luke’s Acts of the Apostles tells us that he was ordained to service and immediately began to preach to the Jews of the Synagogue of Diaspora. But he did so in a confrontational way. It was not a message that they wanted to hear, and I think it isn’t at all the way we should share the faith. Read the entire chapter. It’s the longest speech other than those of Jesus in the New Testament. And it is basically a point-by-point indictment of the Jews for their disobedience to God over a couple of thousand years. I don’t know if Stephen was expecting some conversions that day, but if he was, he was mistaken. At the end of the day he woke up in heaven, the first martyr of the faith. But the torch he laid down, he laid down at the feet of Saul, a young rabbi-in-training, and that was the first moment of Saul’s conversion and calling to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.
I don’t suppose that Rosa Venerini grew up hoping to do things that would cause controversy, but according to her Jesuit biographer, she made a vow to consecrate her life to God at the age of seven. Later, her physician father engaged her to a young man, but he died before they could be married. After that, her dad advised her to join the Dominican nuns, and then he died. She left the convent to care for her mother, but then both her brother and her mother died. It was the seventeenth century, and disease and poor nutrition led many to short lifespans.
During Rosa’s life, she followed a Jesuit spirituality, and under her Jesuit spiritual director she “saw the need to dedicate herself to the instruction and Christian formation of young women with formal education.” In August of 1685 she “left her father’s home to begin her first school. The first objective of this foundress was to give poor girls a complete Christian formation and to prepare them for life in society. Without great pretense, Rose opened the first public school for girls in Italy.”
There was great need, but there was great resistance to meeting that need. Local priests considered the catechism to be their private preserve, and others of the upper class wondered why she would bother with the underprivileged. But Rosa knew she was following God’s will, and she kept on with her work. “Cardinal Marcantonio Barbarigo. . .had the insight to understand the Viterbo project and he invited Venerini to come to his diocese. From 1692 to 1694, she opened ten schools in Montefiascone and the villages surrounding Lake Bolsena. The cardinal provided the material means and Rosa made the families aware of the value of education for their daughters, trained the teachers, and organized the schools.” She ultimately opened one of her schools in Rome.
“On October 24, 1716, the Sisters received a visit by Pope Clement XI, accompanied by eight cardinals, who wanted to observe the lessons. At the end of the morning he addressed these words to Rose: ‘Signora Rosa, you are doing that which we cannot do. We thank you very much, because with these schools you will sanctify Rome’.” We all must be grateful for those who finance and educate the children of the poor. So we pray, “Saint Rosa Venerini, pray for us.”
