Saint Gabriel

Today in the Passionist Calendar (and formerly in the universal Calendar) is the Feast of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, the patronal feast of this parish. Patron Saint of (Italian) Youth, Seminarians and people from the Abruzzi region of Italy, Francis Possenti was born on 1 March 1838 and died on this day in 1862, just two days before his twenty-fourth birthday. Here is one of his resolutions, written during his last illness:
To accept everything in every circumstance as sent by God for my greater good and profit, whether it be great or small, no matter how it happens. I shall accept all as if I heard Jesus himself say to me: ‘I want you to do this!’ and I shall answer: ‘Fiat voluntas tua.’ (Edmund Burke C.P., Happy was my Youth, A Study of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Dublin, 1961, p.221)

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New Bishop of Gaborone

Today Pope Benedict appointed as the new Bishop of Gaborone (Botswana) Father Valentine Tsamma Seane, parish priest of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Gaborone. The new Bishop was born in Lobatse, Botswana, on 2 November 1966. Ordained in the Stigmatine Congregation, he was later incardinated into the Diocese of Gaborone. He succeeds Bishop Boniface Setlalekgosi who, at eighty-one years of age, has been Bishop of Gaborone since the death of Bishop Urban Murphy C.P. in 1981.
Congratulations, Bishop Seane. Pula!

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