In your 40-day Lenten retreat, here are ten things to remember as you go on your Lenten Journey to the Foot of the Cross:
Jerome Lejeune, who discovered trisomy 21, is on the path to canonization.
For many centuries people with Down syndrome were misunderstood. Some even thought it was a disease caused by syphilis in the mother from prostitution. However, that all changed when Jerome Lejeune and Marthe Gautier, studying in Professor Raymond Turpin’s laboratory, discovered the link between Down syndrome and trisomy 21 in 1958.
This helped families come out of the shadows with the scientific proof that it was a chromosome abnormality and not a result of sinful behavior.
Furthermore, Lejeune’s research was motivated by his deep Catholic faith and concern for others. The motto of his life was, “Just one sentence, spoken by Jesus himself, will suffice to determine our behavior: ‘Whatever you do for the least of my brethren, you do it for me.'”
He also had a special friendship with St. John Paul II, who appointed him the first president of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
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"A martyr, an excellent educator and evangelical defender of the poor and oppressed, who became one of us and for us gave his life": this is how Cardinal José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, Bishop of David (Panama), representing Pope Francis, described Brother James Alfred Miller, of the Lasallian Christian Brothers school, during the beatification celebrations that he presided over Saturday, December 7, 2019, in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, in the place of his martyrdom.
Blessed James Miller was born on September 21, 1944 in Ellis, a small town in Wisconsin, in the north of the United States. Outgoing, simple and enthusiastic, full of energy, tireless, in the Pacelli High School of Stevens Point, headed by the Lasallian Christian Brothers, his vocation matured.
He joined the Lasallians in 1959, professed his religious vows in 1969, and wanted to go on a mission. Destined for Nicaragua, he remained there until 1980, giving proof to his abilities, also appreciated by the civil authorities. When President Somoza was dismissed, they called him back to the United States.
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For the first time since 1983, all ten of Raphael’s grand tapestries depicting the lives of Saints Peter and Paul will be exhibited together in the Sistine Chapel, hanging at eye level beneath Michelangelo’s frescoed ceiling as was the original intention.
Scheduled to be on display Feb. 17-23, 2020, this will be the Vatican’s way of honoring the famous Renaissance master as the world marks the 500th anniversary of his death. The last time they were presented was for the 500th anniversary of his birth.
The artist, who died in 1520 at the age of 37, never saw all ten together. The pieces were woven over a four-year period in Brussels, in the notable and highly successful Brussels tapestry workshop of Pieter van Aelst, using silk, wool and gilded silver thread.
Raphael painted the “cartoons” used to create the tapestries while he was decorating the “Stanze” in the Vatican, also called the Raphael rooms, and he remained in Rome while the tapestries were created. (Only seven of these “cartoons” survive, and are on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.)
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