ACTA SANCTORVM

A Prayer of Saint Thomas Aquinas

2012-01-28T22:02:00.000-05:00

28 JANUARY 2012. Today the Church and our Order celebrates the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Grant me, O Lord my God,
a mind to know you,
a heart to seek you,
wisdom to find you,
conduct pleasing to you,
faithful perseverance in waiting for you,
and a hope of finally embracing you.

Amen.

IMAGE: St. Thomas Aquinas in Prayer, Sassetta (1430-1432).

Devotion is Suitable to Every Vocation and Profession

2012-01-25T22:15:00.000-05:00

25 JANUARY 2012. Yesterday the Church celebrated the feast day of Saint Francis de Sales. In his famous work, Introduction to the Devout Life, perhaps the greatest spiritual self-help book ever put to print, Saint Francis reminds us that devotion to God is not reserved for the holy, or the ordained, or those separate from the world. It is properly the calling of each of us which is consistent with every vocation and work of humanity. Consider the Saint's words:

When God created the world He commanded each tree to bear fruit after its kind;and even so He bids Christians,--the living trees of His Church,--to bring forth fruits of devotion, each one according to his kind and vocation. A different exercise of devotion is required of each--the noble, the artisan, the servant, the prince, the maiden and the wife; and furthermore such practice must be modified according to the strength, the calling, and the duties of each individual. I ask you, my child, would it be fitting that a Bishop should seek to lead the solitary life of a Carthusian? And if the father of a family were as regardless in making provision for the future as a Capucin, if the artisan spent the day in church like a Religious, if the Religious involved himself in all manner of business on his neighbor's behalf as a Bishop is called upon to do, would not such a devotion be ridiculous, ill-regulated, and intolerable? Nevertheless such a mistake is often made, and the world, which cannot or will not discriminate between real devotion and the indiscretion of those who fancy themselves devout, grumbles and finds fault with devotion, which is really nowise concerned in these errors. No indeed, my child, the devotion which is true hinders nothing, but on the contrary it perfects everything; and that which runs counter to the rightful vocation of any one is, you may be sure, a spurious devotion.

False: Why I hate religion, but love Jesus!

2012-01-21T23:45:00.002-05:00

21 JANUARY 2012. Today religion and religious freedom are continually under attack. I say "today" as if this is a new development, but it is not. The term "today," instead, focuses the attention to the real and present problem that confronts all the faithful. While not new, nor novel, the attack on the Church, the faithful, and the credo are here--today--in our midst.

Recently, a video has swept the web, with more than 15 million views. It is titled: Why I hate religion, but love Jesus. The lyrical presentation and choreography are produced with a high enough quality, blended with background music to create at atmosphere of something prophetic, to give the video an overall persuasive feel. But the truth, is not present in what you see.

The premise of the video is that Jesus came to destroy religion, a merely human contraption of rules, hypocrisy, and, ultimately, contradiction to true faith. By his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead, Jesus has set all the world free from sin and death, making the human convention of religion unnecessary: all that is necessary, so the video unwinds, is faith in Christ.

Our Dominican brethren at Godzdogz have posted the video and several responsive videos that rightly point out the several flaws in the Jesus-is-opposed-to-religion argument (including a particularly good video from Fr. Pontifex, of phatmass.com).

However, what strikes me is the tenor of the position laid out by the video, now viral, is that each of us is sovereign of our faith, with nothing else necessary--so gently goes the closing lines of the video: "Jesus said, 'It is finished.' And, I believe Him."

Holiness--a call given to each of us by Christ Himself--is hard. Hardest thing I have every striven to achieve. And I, not unlike the great mass of faithful, both achieve holiness and fail miserably in that pursuit each day. Failing more often and frequently than the conversion. But, that does not mean that the rules that define holiness are somehow inapplicable if I love Christ and believe in Him.

Spirituality without religion is nothing more than self-affirmation wrapped up in a search, genuine or merely imagined, for something greater than ourselves. There is no spirituality without religion. Jesus did not leave the world after His resurrection with a message to passively await His return. Nor did he say, "each of you decide for yourselves the best way to find Me."

He said, "do this in memory of me." Lk 22:19. He said, "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." Mt 28:19-20. He said, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Mk 12:31.These are the commands that Christ gave to His faithful, the Church; commands that we still are called to carry out today.

Religion is not contrary to Jesus, and Jesus is not contrary to religion. More than human invention, religion is ordained by God for humanity. God knows the failures of men, religious and otherwise, and the many evils that have been carried out in the name of religion. But, these faults--brought about by sin--are not what define religion. God's love defines religion. And it is necessary for true Christian faith.

Is religion perfect? No. Is the Catholic Church perfect? No. Do we strive for holiness? Yes. Do we strive to carry out Jesus' commands? Yes. Could the Church do better? We pray each day for the continued assistance of the Holy Spirit to do just that.

In a recent address to seminary professors and seminarians, the Holy Father pointed out the root of the priest's mission as shepherd of the faithful: "Priestly life requires an ever-increasing thirst for sanctity..." This call to holiness, to true devotion to God, and true sacrifice of self in the image of Christ is the heart and spirit of religious effort.

Jesus has given humanity religion; religion is absolutely dependent on Jesus. We need Christ. We need religion.

Loving Jesus, but hating religion splits the commands of Christ from the person and divinity of Christ and puts the individual in charge of faith. Worship of self, especially in the guise of Christianity, is no faith at all. We are called, rightly, to empty ourselves for Christ: to love Him as he loved us, with our all. To hate religion: the community of believers, the Church, the fellowship of the faithful in the name of loving Jesus, is a reach to the absurd.

Pray for all to return and be nurtured in the one and true faith as commanded by Christ Jesus and carried out by His bride the Church.

NOVUS: In all things there must be charity. Christ came to save the sinner and during His life he surrounded himself with the lowly and the outcast and the broken. If this post spurs your thoughts or touches you, put it into action in your life, but always exercise charity.

Saint Margaret of Hungary

2012-01-18T02:00:00.019-05:00

18 JANUARY 2012. Today the Dominican Order celebrates the memorial of Saint Margaret of Hungary (celebrated as a feast by the nuns of the Order). A short hagiography of Saint Margaret is found here.

The written legend of Saint Margaret's life tells that she practiced severe austerities and penance from a very early age, including self-scourging and wearing shoes spiked with nails. She always sought to perform the most menial work in the convent and neglected the cares of the world. Her severe chastisements certainly contributed to her death at the very young age of twenty-eight.

Aside from the severity of penance, however, Saint Margaret is also depicted with many warmly human touches. For instance, the convent sacristan told of how the young Saint would stroke her hand and coax her to leave the door of the choir open after compline so that she may spend the night in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.

Saint Margaret's complete devotion to Christ is an inspiration and model for all Dominicans and faithful everywhere.

Prayer

O God of truth,
through the power of Holy Spirit
you willed that Saint Margaret
should shine forth with the grace of self-denial.
In yielding always to your will
may we fulfill what is pleasing in your sight.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

IMAGE: The Death of Saint Margaret, Jozsef Molinar (1821-1899)

Pope Saint Marcellus I

2012-01-16T14:40:00.000-05:00

16 JANUARY 2012. Today the Church celebrates the memory of Pope Saint Marcellus I, who was Bishop of Rome following the Diocletian persecution of the Church which gave the faithful many, many sainted martyrs.

From the Catholic Encylcopedia:

His date of birth unknown; elected pope in May or June, 308; died in 309. For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304 the Diocletian persecution continued with unabated severity. After the abdication of Diocletian in 305, and the accession in Rome of Maxentius to the throne of the Caesars in October of the following year, the Christians of the capital again enjoyed comparative peace. Nevertheless, nearly two years passed before a new Bishop of Rome was elected. Then in 308, according to the "Catalogus Liberianus", Pope Marcellus first entered on his office: "Fuit temporibus Maxenti a cons. X et Maximiano usque post consulatum X et septimum" ("Liber Pontificalis", ed. Duchesne, I, 6-7). This abbreviated notice is to be read: "A cons. Maximiano Herculio X et Maximiano Galerio VII [308] usque post cons. Maxim. Herc. X et Maxim. Galer. VII [309]" (cf. de Rossi, "Inscriptiones christ. urbis Romæ", I, 30). At Rome, Marcellus found the Church in the greatest confusion. The meeting-places and some of the burial-places of the faithful had been confiscated, and the ordinary life and activity of the Church was interrupted. Added to this were the dissensions within the Church itself, caused by the large number of weaker members who had fallen away during the long period of active persecution and later, under the leadership of an apostate, violently demanded that they should be readmitted to communion without doing penance. According to the "Liber Pontificalis" Marcellus divided the territorial administration of the Church into twenty-five districts (tituli), appointing over each a presbyter, who saw to the preparation of the catechumens for baptism and directed the performance of public penances. The presbyter was also made responsible for the burial of the dead and for the celebrations commemorating the deaths of the martyrs. The pope also had a new burial-place, the Cœmeterium Novellœ on the Via Salaria (opposite the Catacomb of St. Priscilla), laid out. The "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 164) says: "Hic fecit cymiterium Novellae via Salaria et XXV titulos in urbe Roma constituit quasi diœcesis propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum qui convertebantur ex paganis et propter sepulturas martyrum". At the beginning of the seventh century there were probably twenty-five titular churches in Rome; even granting that, perhaps, the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" referred this number to the time of Marcellus, there is still a clear historical tradition in support of his declaration that the ecclesiastical administration in Rome was reorganized by this pope after the great persecution.

The work of the pope was, however, quickly interrupted by the controversies to which the question of the readmittance of the lapsi into the Church gave rise. As to this, we gather some light from the poetic tribute composed by Damasus in memory of his predecessor and placed over his grave (De Rossi, "Inscr. christ. urbis Romæ", II, 62, 103, 138; cf. Idem, "Roma sotterranea", II, 204-5). Damasus relates that the truth-loving leader of the Roman Church was looked upon as a wicked enemy by all the lapsed, because he insisted that they should perform the prescribed penance for their guilt. As a result serious conflicts arose, some of which ended in bloodshed, and every bond of peace was broken. At the head of this band of the unfaithful and rebellious stood an apostate who had denied the Faith even before the outbreak of persecution. The tyrannical Maxentius had the pope seized and sent into exile. This took place at the end of 308 or the beginning of 309 according to the passages cited above from the "Catalogus Liberianus", which gives the length of the pontificate as no more than one year, six (or seven) months, and twenty days. Marcellus died shortly after leaving Rome, and was venerated as a saint. His feast-day was 16 January, according to the "Depositio episcoporum" of the "Chronography" of 354 and every other Roman authority. Nevertheless, it is not known whether this is the date of his death or that of the burial of his remains, after these had been brought back from the unknown quarter to which he had been exiled. He was buried in the catacomb of St. Priscilla where his grave is mentioned by the itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs as existing in the basilica of St. Silvester (De Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", I, 176)

For O'Brien, Another Honor

2012-01-07T10:31:00.001-05:00

7 JANUARY 2012. THE VATICAN. The announcement of a slate of 22 new cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI yesterday, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan, also includes another name familiar to those of us in the United States.

A tip of the red hat has also been given to Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, who served as the Archbishop of Baltimore until his appointment as pro-grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem on 29 August 2011. Since that appointment to the Roman station, Archbishop O'Brien has also been serving--and splitting time between the Eternal City and the U.S.--as the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Congratulations to Archbishop O'Brien! Our prayers go with you in all your service to the Church.

For Dolan, a Princely Announcement

2012-01-07T10:05:00.004-05:00

7 JANUARY 2011. THE VATICAN. It has been announced that the Holy Father has named 22 new cardinals who will be installed in a consistory to be held on 18 February. Among the names of these new princes of the Church, one stands out to we Americans: Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York.

Congratulations Archbishop Dolan! Our prayers of support will go with you.

Of the 22 new cardinals, 4 are over the age of 80 and, thus, cannot act as electors in any upccoming conclave. This consistory will increase the total number of cardinal electors, then, to 126, 18 more than today's 108 living cardinal electors. (In total, there are today 192 living cardinals.)

A complete copy of the Vatican release on the upcoming consistory can be found here.

NOVUS: It has been correctly pointed out to me that Cardinal Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong, turns 80 on 13 January. So, there will be 125 cardinal electors after the upcoming consistory, not 126 as I incorrectly reported earlier.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T19:51:00.000-05:00

31 DECEMBER 2011. May the peace of Christ, the Prince of Peace, through the Holy and Divine Will reigning in each of us, be with each of us now and throughout 2012, relying always on the love and intercession of our Lady, most chaste spouse of the Holy Spirit and the vessel of our Salvation, Jesus Christ.

"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus," our hope in the new year.

Prayer for Peace at Christmas

2011-12-25T16:46:00.003-05:00

25 DECEMBER 2011. In the news today are stories of bomb attacks at churches and Christians living in fear in Iraq and throughout the Middle East, even in the Holy Land--Bethlehem, Jersulaem, Nazareth. These are places where every believer--no matter their creed--has a patrimonial right to live and be in peace. Those who would deny peace to anyone in these places or anywhere--on the basis of some faith system, indeed misuse the very notion of faith and religion. Religion is not hatred. Religion is not destruction. Religion is not violence. Religion is not enmity. These are human things, brought about by sin: our sin; our selfishness; our desire to make the world what we want it to be, driven by false pride and conceit.

So, please pray for Christians and all those who struggle for peace throughout the world, especially in Iraq, the Middle East, Sudan, Afganistan, Pakistan, any everywhere that conflict finds a home. Pray that by the power of God, all conflict may be rooted out and destroyed by the power of God's love, joy, peace, and grace, which overcomes all that opposes it.

Everywhere that Muslims and Christians live, there can be peace. Pray that it may be so!

Let us pray:
God of heavenly light, Father of your Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin
to bring Good News to the World,
our world is so greatly in need of Your peace.
Fill the hearts of all men and women with Your love,
poured out on us so abundantly,
place within us all, through the gracious gift
of sanctifying grace, your joy, love, and peace,
so that each of us may receive You
willingly and lovingly into our hearts.
May your Holy and Divine Will reign here, as in heaven;
And, may our world be peace-filled this Christmas season,
and always.

Amen.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T02:09:00.000-05:00

For to us a Child is born, to our race a Son is given;
His shoulders will bear the scepter of his reign, and
his name shall be called:
Counselor of marvelous deeds, Mighty Warrior of
God, everlasting Father of
nations, and royal Prince of Peace.

Christmas Season antiphon from the LOTH, Vol. I, p. 385.

GO NAVY

2011-12-10T13:54:00.001-05:00

BEAT ARMY!

Bishop Kenny High School NJROTC, C/LTJG, class of '91

et alia

2011-12-10T13:35:00.001-05:00

10 DECEMBER 2011. There is a bustle in the air, but I don't feel compulsion to move with the crowds. There is a buzz of excitement, but the feeling eludes me. There is an anxious and noisy anticipation, but all I seek is quiet.

The season of Advent is upon us again. As the world around us focuses on an X-mas celebration that is, at its commercial heart, based upon a perceived joy--so go the advertisements--of giving and receiving material things. However, we are called, apart from the worldly sirens, to prepare ourselves quietly for the joy of the Nativity of the Lord--a holy and quiet Christmas.

I pray that this Advent season is a good one for all readers.

I am overjoyed by the use of new translation of the Roman Missal. It brings a richness and beauty to the language of the mass that I have often times over the years felt was missing. Thank you to all whose efforts made the new translation possible.

Please pray that the Holy See will soon provide the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee with a holy man to serve as our new bishop. Please also pray for the health and safe keeping of Bishop Ricard, our bishop emeritus.

As always, I will pray for you, please pray for me and my family.

Pax Christi!

Anniversary of All Decased Dominican Brothers and Sisters

2011-11-08T02:00:00.004-05:00

8 NOVEMBER 2011. On this date the Dominican Order commemorates all of the deceased brothers and sisters of the Order who, having completed the task of this life, have been born into eternity as children of our Holy Father Dominic, marked with the sign of faith. From today's Office of Readings in the Dominican Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours, we read the following:

From the writings of our brother, Pierre Andre Liege.

"To die together with Christ."

Our faith in the sacrifice and death of Christ proclaims this event as the fountain and gate of all things which, in our life, take the form of sacrifice and renunciation. For does not the Living God, through the cross of Jesus, reveal a God who turns death, as well as the other evils and calamities in our life, into a living hope? Did not Jesus in his own sacrifice fully restore the relationships of humanity to God by accepting the ultimate spiritual agony?

To die together with Christ is to be bound over to the following of him, eagerly persisting in this very hope and in spiritual combat. Indeed, through spiritual combat we are freed together with Christ when for the love of God and of one another we expend ourselves, no matter what the cost, in opposing whatever falsehood or injustice, danger or violence, hatred or the plotting of the powerful, or fear that may stand in the way. In hope, however, we are bound over to Christ when from the depths of our death, or of our own hopelessness of weaknesses, or of the unbelief or hopelessness of others — all those things utterly blameworthy in our life — we entrust ourselves completely to the care of the Living God.

The paschal mystery shines forth in all renunciations whatsoever to which we give our consent, or in the frustrations we endure, or in the control we exercise over ourselves or in the discipline to which we subject ourselves. We are not speaking here of a certain kind of stoic wisdom or of a certain moral asceticism. Indeed, that life already renewed with Christ flows into the "dying with Christ." That life transforms our combat and our poverty; that life calls forth our sacrifice and our decision. If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.

To die in Christ is to conquer the apathy of existence, to put aside greed, to abstain from fickleness, to dismiss levity of mind, to reject what is useless and what is done for appearances' sake, and to choose the gospel with sincerity and faithfully cling to it.

To die with Christ is to free oneself from riches and human glory, and to moderate one's life for the kingdom of God.

To die with Christ is to accept the risk of human love which demands the denial of self, or to accept the danger of witnessing to truth and justice before others, or to experience the difficulty of holding steadfastly to the faith one has received.

To die with Christ concerns those things which in our daily lives are austerities, or to sustain difficulties and accept change which brings about the renewal of fidelity.

To die with Christ is to accept one's own death as a sacrifice and a trusting burying of self in God, and also to accept in hope the deaths of our brothers, sisters and friends.

To die with Christ is to bear with a serene spirit the process of aging, the rejections, the losses - even in apostolic labors.

To die with Christ is to be freed from egoism and self absorption through the various incentives to love, to share, to sympathize with and to be reconciled with others.

To die with Christ is to experience at times the darkness of faith and courageously to endure it.

So in every Christian life pursed with earnestness there are many occasions for self-denial and sacrifice even of what is necessary. Yet we must beware lest these occasions become merely routine actions. To everyone according to their own circumstances, or the time in which they live, or the vocation they have received, the Holy Spirit at the appropriate time makes a fitting appeal that each may hear. This happens more certainly in peace and joy than in external disturbances or in the excitement of the soul.

Truly the celebration of the Eucharist is by no means present where Christ, who shares his paschal sacrifice with believers who are joined together, does not assume to himself everything that in their life of sacrifice and evangelical self-denial gives that life its character. Indeed, everything must be changed into the fruit of life by the power of his resurrection. Is not this our way of celebrating the Eucharist?

IMAGE: Friars praying at the Dominican cemetery in Washington, D,C., November 8, 2007.

Feast of All Saints of the Dominican Order

2011-11-07T02:00:00.003-05:00

7 NOVEMBER 2011. Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints of the Order of Preachers.

Saint Dominic has left us a legacy of teaching and preaching by word and by the example of our lives. It is, then, joyous and encouraging that so many of our Dominican brothers and sisters have been beatified and canonized by our Mother Church.

In A.D. 1670 the Master General of the Order, Juan Tomas Rocaberti, sought and obtained permission from the Holy See for the Order of Preachers to observe a feast in honor of all the saints of the order: friars, brothers, sisters, nuns, and laity, including many, many blesseds.

Relying necessarily on the favor of their intercessions and the prayers of the Blessed Virgin, let us pray:

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the heavenly Father
have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer of the world
have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit
have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God
have mercy on us.

Holy Mary
pray for us.
Holy Mother of God
pray for us.
Holy Virgin of Virgins
pray for us.
All you holy angels and archangels
pray for us.
All you holy Patriarchs and Prophets
pray for us.
All you holy Apostles and Evangelists
pray for us.
All you holy martyrs
pray for us.
All you holy virgins and widows
pray for us.
All you holy men and women
pray for us.

Saint Michael
pray for us.
Saint Gabriel
pray for us.
Saint Raphael
pray for us.
Saint Joseph
pray for us.
Saint John the Baptist
pray for us.
Saint Mary Magdalen
pray for us.
Holy Father Augustine
pray for us.
Holy Father Francis
pray for us.
Blessed Jane of Aza
pray for us.
Blessed Reginald
pray for us.

Holy Father Dominic
pray for us.
Holy Father Dominic
pray for us.

Blessed Bertrand
pray for us.
Blessed Mannes
pray for us.
Blessed Diana
pray for us.
Blessed Jordan of Saxony
pray for us.
Blessed John of Salerno
pray for us.
Blessed William and Companions
pray for us.
Blessed Ceslaus
pray for us.
Blessed Isnard
pray for us.
Blessed Guala
pray for us.
Blessed Peter Gonzalez
pray for us.
Saint Zdislava
pray for us.
Saint Peter of Verona
pray for us.
Blessed Nicholas
pray for us.
Saint Hyacinth
pray for us.
Blessed Gonsalvo
pray for us.
Blessed Sadoc and Companions
pray for us.
Blessed Giles
pray for us.
Saint Margaret of Hungary
pray for us.
Blessed Batholomew of Vincenza
pray for us.
Saint Thomas Aquinas
pray for us.
Saint Raymond of Penyafort
pray for us.
Blessed Innocent V
pray for us.
Blessed Albert of Bergamo
pray for us.
Saint Albert the Great
pray for us.
Blessed John of Vercelli
pray for us.
Blessed Ambrose
pray for us.
Blessed Cecilia
pray for us.
Blessed Benvenuta
pray for us.
Blessed James of Varazze
pray for us.
Blessed James of Bevagna
pray for us.
Blessed Benedict XI
pray for us.
Blessed Jane of Orvieto
pray for us.
Blessed Jordan of Pisa
pray for us.
Saint Emily
pray for us.
Blessed James Salomonio
pray for us.
Saint Agnes of Montepulciano
pray for us.
Blessed Simon
pray for us.
Blessed Margaret of Castello
pray for us.
Blessed Augustine Kazotic
pray for us.
Blessed James Benefatti
pray for us.
Blessed Imelda
pray for us.
Blessed Dalmatius
pray for us.
Blessed Margaret Ebner
pray for us.
Blessed Villana
pray for us.
Blessed Peter Ruffia
pray for us.
Blessed Henry
pray for us.
Blessed Sibyllina
pray for us.
Blessed Anthony of Pavonio
pray for us.
Saint Catherine of Siena
pray for us.
Blessed Marcolino
pray for us.
Blessed Raymond of Capua
pray for us.
Blessed Andrew Franchi
pray for us.
Saint Vincent Ferrer
pray for us.
Blessed Clara
pray for us.
Blessed John Dominic
pray for us.
Blessed Alvarez
pray for us.
Blessed Maria
pray for us.
Blessed Peter of Castello
pray for us.
Blessed Andrew Abellon
pray for us.
Blessed Stephen
pray for us.
Blessed Peter Geremia
pray for us.
Blessed John of Fiesole
pray for us.
Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta
pray for us.
Blessed Anthony della Chiesa
pray for us.
Saint Antoninus
pray for us.
Blessed Anthony Neyrot
pray for us.
Blessed Margaret of Savoy
pray for us.
Blessed Bartholomew of Cerverio
pray for us.
Blessed Matthew
pray for us.
Blessed Constantius
pray for us.
Blessed Christopher
pray for us.
Blessed Damian
pray for us.
Blessed Andrew of Peschiera
pray for us.
Blessed Bernard
pray for us.
Blessed Jane of Portugal
pray for us.
Blessed James of Ulm
pray for us.
Blessed Augustine of Biella
pray for us.
Blessed Aimo
pray for us.
Blessed Sebastian
pray for us.
Blessed Mark
pray for us.
Blessed Columba
pray for us.
Blessed Magdalen
pray for us.
Blessed Osanna of Mantua
pray for us.
Blessed John Liccio
pray for us.
Blessed Dominic Spadafora
pray for us.
Blessed Stephana
pray for us.
Saint Adrian
pray for us.
Blessed Lucy
pray for us.
Blessed Catherine Racconigi
pray for us.
Blessed Osanna of Kotor
pray for us.
Saint Pius V
pray for us.
Saint John of Cologne
pray for us.
Blessed Maria Bartholomew
pray for us.
Saint Louis Bertrand
pray for us.
Saint Catherine de Ricci
pray for us.
Blessed Robert
pray for us.
Blessed Alphonsus and Companions
pray for us.
Saint Rose
pray for us.
Saint Dominic Ibanez and Companions
pray for us.
Blessed Agnes of Jesus
pray for us.
Saint Lawrence Ruiz and Companions
pray for us.
Saint Martin de Porres
pray for us.
Blessed Peter Higgins
pray for us.
Blessed Francis de Capillas
pray for us.
Saint Juan Macias
pray for us.
Blessed Terence
pray for us.
Blessed Ann of the Angels
pray for us.
Blessed Francis de Posadas
pray for us.
Saint Louis de Montfort
pray for us.
Blessed Francis Gil
pray for us.
Saint Matteo
pray for us.
Blessed Peter Sanz and Companions
pray for us.
Saint Vincent Liem
pray for us.
Saint Hyacinth Castaneda
pray for us.
Blessed Marie
pray for us.
Blessed George
pray for us.
Blessed Catherine Jarrige
pray for us.
Saint Ignatius and Companions
pray for us.
Saint Dominic An-Kham and Companions
pray for us.
Saint Joseph Khang and Companions
pray for us.
Saint Francis Coll
pray for us.
Blessed Hyacinthe Cormier
pray for us.
Blessed Pier Giorgio
pray for us.
Blessed Bartolo
pray for us.
Blessed Michael Czartoryski
pray for us.
Blessed Julia Rodzinska
pray for us.
All holy Dominican brothers and sisters
pray for us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,
have mercy on us.

Let us pray.--
God, source of all holiness, you have enriched your Church
with many gifts in the saints of the Order of Preachers.
By following the example of our brothers and sisters,
may we come to enjoy their company
for ever in the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Your Son, who lives and reigns with You
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Blessed Simon Ballacchi

2011-11-05T18:24:00.000-04:00

5 NOVEMBER 2011. Today the Order of Preachers celebrates Blessed Simon Ballacchi, an Italian co-operator brother. His earlier profile by A.S. is here.

Blessed Simon Ballacchi, pray for us!

Saint Elizabeth

2011-11-05T17:56:00.002-04:00

5 NOVEMBER 2011. Today is the feast day of Saint Elizabeth, the mother of Saint John the Baptist, and famously recorded to sing praise to Mary, our Queen. Elizabeth, a name taken by many saints, in Hebrew means "worshiper of God."

All that we know of Saint Elizabeth comes from Saint Luke. The Gospel of Saint Luke tells us that Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron the high priest (Lk 1, 5-1), and that she and her husband, Zachariah, were "righteous in the eyes of God, observing all commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly," (Lk 1, 6) but were also childless and advanced in age. However, while serving as a priest in the sanctuary of the temple, Zachariah was visited by Saint Gabriel the archangel, who said to him:

Do not be afraid Zachariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of [the] Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.

(Lk 1, 13-16) Zachariah, however, questioned Saint Gabriel, asking how any of this could be possible since both he and his wife were advanced in years. The angel of the Lord then identified himself as Saint Gabriel and reproved Zachariah for his doubt:

I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time.

(Lk 1, 19-20) When Zachariah emerged from the sanctuary he was unable to speak and those in the temple knew that he had seen a vision. After Zachariah's days of service in the temple were completed he returned home and Elizabeth conceived a child.

After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months saying, "So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others."

Saint Luke's account continues as Saint Gabriel the Archangel is next sent to the Virgin Mary, the cousin of Elizabeth, who was betrothed to a man named Joesph of the house of David. Saint Gabriel brings the joy and presence of the Annunciation to Mary, revealing to her that the power of the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and that she would conceive son, who would be called Jesus, the son of God. (Lk 1, 28-35). Saint Gabriel also delivers the good news of Elizabeth: that she was in her sixth month, having conceived a son in her old age, "for nothing will be impossible for God." (Lk 1, 37)

After the Annunciation, Mary travels to the hill county to a town in Judah to greet Elizabeth:

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled."

(Lk 1, 41-45) There is nothing in Saint Luke's account that reveals for us that Saint Elizabeth has been told that Mary's child is the Christ, the saviour of the world. So, Saint Elizabeth, "filled with the Holy Spirit," receives the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ's presence, which is manifested for us by the leap of joy by Saint John the Baptist while still in Saint Elizabeth's womb.

Mary's response to the greeting of Elizabeth is recorded as the Magnificat. In Saint Luke's account, Mary reacts to Elizabeth's greeting as a servant would with a psalm of praise. Scholars believe that Saint Luke may have decided to include the Magnificat, an Jewish Christian hymn (with the exception of verse 48), at this point in the story of Mary as appropriately reflecting the themses of the Gospel, shown in Mary and Saint Elizabeth: joy and exultation in the Lord, ; the lowly being singled out for God's favor; the reversal of human fortunes; and the fulfillment of Old Testament promises.

Saint Luke tells us that Mary remained with Saint Elizabeth about three months, then returned home.

Next in Saint Luke's account is the nativity of Saint John the Baptist:

When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son. her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord has shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her. When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zachariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, "No. He will be called John." But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name." So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called. He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name," and all were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing to God. Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

(Lk 1, 57-66) This is the last mention of Saint Elizabeth in the Gospels. She is not mentioned in any other chapter of the Bible. Saint Luke's account continues with the Canticle of Zachariah (Lk 1, 68-79) and ends with the statement that Saint John "grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel." (Lk 1, 80)

We have no other knowledge of Saint Elizabeth's life. Her life before the Gospel account; her age at death; when, where, and how she died are all historical details that have been lost the grains of time that pass away, as every living thing passes away. What we do possess, however, is Saint Luke's account of Saint Elizabeth's humble acknowledgment of Mary as the Mother of the Lord, and her depiction as the faith-filled and dutiful servant of the Lord, herself, as the mother of Saint John the Baptist: "the voice of one crying out in the desert." (Jn 1, 23)

Saint Elizabeth, mother of Saint John the Baptist, pray for us!

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for Courage

2011-11-04T02:57:00.000-04:00

Holy Spirit of God,
life sustaining force in our world,
please be with me now, in this hour of need,
united with me in my suffering,
as once You were so closely united to Christ on the cross.
Provide for me the gift of courage,
to face the imminent trials and difficulties that lay ahead,
and to to be steadfast in faith in our Lord.
As You are one with the Father and the Son,
I humbly beg this favor.

Amen.

Saint Martin de Porres

2011-11-03T02:00:00.000-04:00

3 NOVEMBER 2011. Today the Order of Preachers celebrates the Feast of Saint Martin de Porres.

From the Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours for the Order of Preachers we find this about Saint Martin:

Martin de Pores was born in Lima, Peru, in 1579 of John, a Spanish nobleman, and Anna Velasquez, a freed slave. As a boy he studied medicine which later, as a member of the Order, he put to good use in helping the poor. Martin was received as a servant at the priory of the Holy Rosary in Lima where he was finally admitted to profession as a co-operator brother in 1603. In his life of prayer [ ] Martin was especially devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and to the passion of our Lord. He was noted for his care of the poor and the sick. He died at Lima on November 3, 1639.

During the homily given by Blessed Pope John XXIII on the occasion of Brother Martin's canonization, the Holy Father proclaimed the following:

The example of Martin's life is ample evidence that we can strive for holiness and salvation as Christ Jesus has shown us: first, by loving God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind; and second, by loving your neighbor as yourself.

When Martin had come to realize that Christ Jesus suffered for us and that he carried our sins on his body to the cross, he would meditate with remarkable ardor and affection about Christ on the cross. Whenever he would contemplate Christ's terrible torture he would be reduced to tears. He had an exceptional love for the great sacrament of the Eucharist and often spent long hours in prayer before the blessed sacrament. His desire was to receive the sacrament in communion as often as he could.

Saint Martin, always obedient and inspired by his divine teacher, dealt with his brothers with that profound love which comes from pure faith and humility of spirit. He loved men because he honestly looked on them as God's children and as his own brothers and sisters. Such was his humility that he loved them even more than himself and considered them to be better and more righteous than he was.

He excused the faults of others. He forgave the bitterest injuries, convinced that he deserved much severer punishments on account of his own sins. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly he comforted the sick; he provided food, clothing and medicine for the poor; he helped, as best he could, farm laborers and Negroes, as well as mulattoes, who were looked upon at that time as akin to slaves: thus he deserved to be called by the name the people gave him: 'Martin the Charitable.'"

The virtuous example and even the conversation of this saintly man exerted a powerful influence in drawing men to religion. It is remarkable how even today his influence can still come us toward the things of heaven. Sad to say, not all of us understand these spiritual values as well as we should, nor do we give them a proper place in our lives. Many of us, in fact, strongly attracted by sin, may look upon these values as of little moment, even something of a nuisance, or we ignore them altogether. It is deeply rewarding for men striving for salvation to follow in Christ's footsteps and to obey God's commandments. If only everyone could learn this lesson from the example that Martin gave us.

Saint Martin de Porres is one of the saints that we Dominicans in the Southeast call upon daily; the Southern Province is officially named the Province of Saint Martin de Porres and takes Saint Martin as its patron saint.

Saint Martin de Porres, pray for us!

IMAGE: Image from the Province of Saint Martin de Porres website. Saint Martin is often shown with a broom and is sometimes affectionately referred to as a the Saint of the Broom because he believed all work to be sacred--offering honor and devotion to the Lord--no matter how menial.

Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed

2011-11-02T12:29:00.000-04:00

2 NOVEMBER 2011. Today is the day set aside by the Church to commemorate the memory of all the faithful departed and pray for the souls in purgatory--the cleansing flame by which the Love of God rids the soul of its earthly attachments in preparation for sharing eternity with the Lord; praising Him with all the company of angels and saints.

Prayer

O gentle Heart of Jesus,
ever present in the Blessed Sacrament,
ever consumed with burning love for the poor
captive souls in Purgatory,
have mercy on them.

Be not severe in Your judgments,
but let some drops of Your precious Blood
fall upon the devouring flames.

And, Merciful Saviour,
send your angels to conduct them
to a place of refreshment, light and peace.

Amen.

IMAGE: All Souls Day, Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1882.

O.P.!

2011-09-12T23:24:00.001-04:00

12 SEPTEMBER 2011. With great joy and thanksgiving for the mercy and bountiful love of our Saviour, I am humbled to announce that the Order of Preachers has taken in this poor servant as a lay member through temporary profession made on the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, 8 September 2011. Thanks be to God for His goodness!

Solemnity of the Assumption

2011-08-15T19:21:00.000-04:00

15 AUGUST 2011. O God, how we wish to follow the exemplar of our Blessed Mother!

St. Dominic

2011-08-08T18:23:00.001-04:00

8 AUGUST 2011. Today the Dominican family celebrates the solemnity of our holy father Saint Dominic. Having prayed the Office of Readings and Morning Prayer early this a.m. during my weekly opportunity for adoration, this quote (paraphrased here) keeps ringing in my mind:

He spoke only to God, or about God; and entreated others to do the same.

How often could it be said of us that we only speak to God or about God? How often does each of us entreat or encourage others to be so singularly focused in our discourse? How many distractions would each of us need to rid from our daily lives to focus on Christ?

Saint Dominic answered these questions with his very being: his life. It was said that he was cheerful and social during the day with his breathern, but spent the night in tears and in prayer in the chapel. So much so that it was scarcely known when he slept. Consider the intensity of effort that Saint Dominic put into his side of the relationship with Christ. Christ certainly has given us Himself, totally and completely. Saint Dominic responds with no less of himself.

I pray that each of us can muster this same response.

God is not calling us to reject the demands of our daily lives in favor of Him where those demands are legitimate calls for our time and attention. For example, no parent should abandon his or her child's welfare for prayer, but give care to children as an offering to Christ: as parents, we are called to love Christ by loving our children. Do think, however, about how much distraction we invite into our lives.

How much could we intensify our focus on Christ instead?

Saint Dominic pray for us!

Servant of God Father Augustine Tolton

2011-07-31T14:56:00.003-04:00

31 JULY 2011. Today is the last day of July and the Eighteenth Sunday in ordinary time. However, before we leave July let's reflect on one of the Church's courageous ministers from here in the United States.

Augustine Tolton was born into a slave family in Missouri on 1 April 1854. His father was Peter Paul Tolton and his mother was Martha Jane Chisley. The child's mother had been raised in the Catholic faith, so she named her newborn son after Saint Augustine of Hippo. The child was baptized in St. Peter's Catholic Church in Brush Creek, Missouri (about 12 miles outside of Hannibal, Missouri). The owner of the slave family (as repugnant as it is today to describe one as the owner of another, the description is, sadly, historically accurate) was Stephen Elliot. His wife, Susan Elliot, stood as Augustine's godmother for his baptism.

There are conflicting stories about whether Augustine's family ran away or were freed by the Elliots. In either event, however, history does tell that Peter Paul Totlton went to fight in the Union Army after the outbreak of the Civil War. Martha Jane took Augustine and his siblings, with the aid of sympathetic Union Soldiers and police, to Quincy Illinois.

After arriving in Quincy, Augustine with his mother and brother, took jobs working in a cigar factory. After his brother died at a young age, Augustine met Father Peter McGirr, an Irish-American priest who saw that Augustine attend St. Peter's parochial school during the winter months when the cigar factory was closed. Father McGirr's actions were controversial, however, as a number of parishoners objected to a black child attending school with white children. Despite the controversy Father McGirr was steadfast in seeing to Augustine's Catholic education.

Despite Father McGirr's support, Augustine was rejected by every American seminary to which he applied. So, instead, he attended St. Francis Solanus College in Quincy (now Quincy University) and, with Father McGirr's help, later attended The Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, where he became fluent in Italian and learned Latin and Greek. After graduation, Augustine Tolton was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 31 on Easter Sunday, 24 April 1886, at the Basilica of St. John Lateran. Having been trained as a missionary priest, Father Augustine expected to be sent to Africa, but he was instead sent back to the United States to serve the African American Catholic community in this country.

Returning to the United States, Father Augustine celebrated his first public mass at St. Boniface Church in Quincy. He attempted to start an African American parish in Quincy, but he faced strong opposition from white Catholics, who were primarily of German descent, and African American protestants who did not want the new parish to attract people from their ranks. Despite opposition, Father Augustine organized St. Joseph Catholic Church and School in Quincy, although opposition continued from inside the Church as the priest in charge of the deanery in which St. Joseph was located wanted Father Augustine to turn away white people from mass and other services.

History records that many of Father Augustine's masses at St. Joseph were standing-room only. Father Augustine's tremendous character and well delivered homilies drew widespread attention to him and his parish. During this time Father Augustine also came to be known as Good Father Gus.

In A.D. 1887, Good Father Gus was reassigned to Chicago and a few of his Quincy parishioners followed him. In Chicago, Father Augustine led a a missionary society, St. Augustine's, which met in the basement of St. Mary's Church. And, with financial assistance from Saint Catherine Drexel he founded St. Monica's Catholic Church, the national parish for African American Catholics at the time, on the corner of 36th and Dearborn Streets on the South Side of Chicago.

The success and faithful fervor of St. Monica's earned Father Augustine the national attention and gratitude of the United States' catholic bishops. At its peak, St. Monica's has more than 600 active parishioners.

In A.D. 1893, at a young age, Father Augustine began to be plagued by "spells of illness" and collapsed and died during a heat wave on 9 July 1897 at the age of 43. Pursuant to his wishes, Father Augustine was buried in the priests' lot in St. Peter's cemetery in Quincy.

On 2 March 2010, Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago, announced that he was beginning the diocesan investigation into the life of Father Augustine Tolton to begin the long process that could ultimately lead to Father Augustine's canonization. On 24 February 2011, the cause for Father Augsutine's canonization was officially opened. Thus, he now has the title of "Servant of God." A guild has been erected to promote Father Augustine's cause.

It is no doubt that Father Augustine Tolton must have faced much adversity and mistreatment because of the racial inequalities and prejudices that were prevalent in his time. Despite that, Father Tolton was not negative, but shone the joyous Light of Christ to the world as a missionary here in the United States, his own country. Please pray for Father Augustine's cause, and lift up your needs in confronting whatever adversity you face today to the power of Father Augustine's intercession.

Prayer

O God, we give you thanks for your servant and priest, Father Augustus Tolton, who labored among us in times of contradiction, times that were both beautiful and paradoxical. His ministry helped lay the foundation for a truly Catholic gathering in faith in our time. We stand in the shadow of his ministry. May his life continue to inspire us and imbue us with that confidence and hope that will forge a new evangelization for the Church we love.

Father in Heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering service sheds light upon our sorrows; we see them through the prism of your Son’s passion and death. If it be your Will, O God, glorify your servant, Father Tolton, by granting the favor I now request through his intercession (mention your request) so that all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large in the Church he loved.

Complete what you have begun in us that we might work for the fulfillment of your kingdom. Not to us the glory, but glory to you O God, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are our God, living and reigning forever and ever.

Amen.

Saint Benedict

2011-07-11T01:35:00.000-04:00

11JULY 2011. Today is the memorial of Saint Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Western monasticism and famously the author of the Rule of Saint Benedict. From today's Office of Readings, we read a selection from St. Benedict's rule:

     Whenever you begin any good work you should first of all make a most pressing appeal to Christ our Lord to bring it to perfection; that he, who has honored us by counting us among his children, may never be grieved by our evil deeds. For we must always serve him with the good things he has given us in such a way that he may never--as an angry father disinherits his sons or even like a master who inspires fear--grow impatient with our sins and consign us to everlasting punishment, like wicked servants who would not follow him to glory.

     So we should at long last rouse ourselves, prompted by the words of Scripture: Now is the time for us to rise from sleep. Our eyes should be open to the God-given light, and we should listen in wonderment to the message of the divine voice as it daily calls out: Today, if you shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts; and again: If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And what does the Spirit say? Come my sons, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Hurry, while you have the light of life, so that death's darkness may not overtake you.

     And the Lord as he seeks the one who will do his work among the throng of people to whom he makes that appeal, says again: Which of you wants to live to the full; who loves long life and the enjoyment of prosperity? And, if when you hear this you say, I do, God says to you: If you desire true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from deceit; turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. And when you have done these things my eyes will be upon you and my ears will be attentive to your prayers; and before you call upon my name I shall say to you: Behold, I am here. What could be more delightful, dearest brothers, than the voice of our Lord's invitation to us? In his loving kindness he reveals to us the way of life.

     And so, girded with faith and the performance of good works, let us follow in his paths by the guidance of the Gospel; then we shall deserve to see him who has called us into his kingdom. I we wish to attain a dwelling-place in his kingdom we shall not reach it unless we hasten there by our good deeds.

     Just as there exists an evil fervor, a bitter spirit, which divides us from God and leads us to hell, so there is a good fervor which sets us apart from evil inclinations and leads us toward God and eternal life. Monks should put this fervor into practice with an overflowing love; that is, they should surpass each other in mutual esteem, accept their weaknesses, either in body or of behavior, with the utmost patience; and vie with each other in acceding to requests. No one should follow what he considers to be good for himself, but rather what seems good for another. They should display brotherly love in a chaste manner; fear God in a spirit of love; revere their abbot with a genuine and submissive affection. Let them put on Christ before all else; and may he lead us all to everlasting life.

IMAGE: fresco by Fra Angelico (1395-1455).

et alia

2011-07-08T21:53:00.001-04:00

8 JULY 2011. The long absence of a functioning computer is over and A.S. is back on the air, so to speak. Word to the wise for parents out there, if your home computer suddenly stops working, and you have young children, make sure your young ones have not broken the on/off switch in the off position. I am just saying; it happens.

Running on at the keyboard:

My wife and I went to New Orleans for our tenth wedding anniversary. The crescent city is a hot place in June. I mean that literally: over a few days I do not think the mercury dropped below 89° F, even in th dead of night. The Archdiocese, however, believes in keeping the Basilica Cathedral like an ice box. We went to mass on Sunday morning at the Cathedral and then across Jackson Square to Café du Monde for coffee and beignets. A real treat!

The celebrant for the mass we attended was Auxiliary Bishop Fabre on Trinity Sunday. Bishop Fabre gave a tremendous homily that very eloquently described the interior life of God in the Holy Spirit and the relational nature of God - one to himself - and one to humanity.

Please pray for Father (once) John Corapi. Whatever peril his soul may be in is, indeed, a peril that could visit any of us.

The dog days of summer are certainly upon us, and it is this time of year in the Church calendar that I probably treasure the most. In a way, we are in the desert of the calendar, with a long many weeks of Ordinary Time ahead of us until the eventual coming of Advent. In this desert we have the opportunity to seek ever greater spiritual nourishment from the Church by perseverance.

I continue to pray for the health of our bishop emeritus, John Ricard, and ask that you pray for him as well. I understand he has settled in at the St. Joseph's Seminary in Washington D.C.

I am a lawyer and I live in Florida, so the recent question du jour has been "What do you think of the Casey Anthony verdict?" My prayers go out to all the victims of the case. Certainly first and foremost to the poor child who obviously suffered and died at the hands of another. I pray for her soul and that she is at rest with our Lord. I pray too for all the other victims of the entire ordeal. Certainly that family has been traumatized and injured in a way that time will not heal. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give them the grace to preserve and ultimately be healed. I pray too for Casey Anthony, may our Lord have mercy on her for her sins, no matter how heinous they may be. We are all sinners and in need of Christ's salvation, and the mercy of our God.

My prayers also go out to our Holy Father as he begins his summer period of rest at Castel Gandolfo. I pray that his time away from the Vatican will be restful and spiritually renewing. I also wish him well in his efforts on the third installment of his work on Jesus Christ. The Church is truly blessed and privileged by his pontificate.

Speaking of the Holy Father, did you see the pictures of him tweeting? How cool is that!

(I bet no one will break his on/off button!)

Today is the feast day of Blessed Adrian Fortescue. Blessed Adrian pray for us!

Please pray for me; I will pray for you.

Technical Difficulties

2011-06-04T16:29:00.001-04:00

4 JUNE 2011. Due to the death of my computer at home and a recent work schedule that has required 60+ hours each week for the last several weeks and likely several weeks yet to come, I will not be posting new material or updates until further notice.

As always, I will pray for readers. I ask that you please pray for me.

A Christian never takes pleasure from the fact of a man's death

2011-05-02T15:18:00.001-04:00

2 MAY 2011. This morning the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., released the following statement on the death of Osama Bin Laden:

Osama Bin Laden, as is known, claimed responsibility for grave acts that spread division and hate among the peoples, manipulating religion to that end. A Christian never takes pleasure from the fact of a man's death, but sees it as an opportunity to reflect on each person's responsibility, before God and humanity, and to hope and commit oneself to seeing that no event become another occasion to disseminate hate but rather to foster peace.

For Christians, the death of Osama Bin Laden is not an opportunity for rejoicing, but a reason to seriously consider the impact that we have on the world by the way in which we exercise our free will. That is why the call to unite ourselves in a new and divine holiness--often called for by Blessed John Paul II--is so desperately needed in our world. We truly need the Divine Will to crush our willfulness, to conform us perfectly to the will of God and to the will of Mary, whose own will was, through grace, perfectly conformed to the Divine Will.

Our Lady, Queen of the Divine Will, pray for us.

John Paul II is blessed!

2011-05-01T13:28:00.009-04:00

PAPAL MASS
ON THE OCCASION OF THE
BEATIFICATION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD JOHN PAUL II

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 1 May 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Six years ago we gathered in this Square to celebrate the funeral of Pope John Paul II. Our grief at his loss was deep, but even greater was our sense of an immense grace which embraced Rome and the whole world: a grace which was in some way the fruit of my beloved predecessor’s entire life, and especially of his witness in suffering. Even then we perceived the fragrance of his sanctity, and in any number of ways God’s People showed their veneration for him. For this reason, with all due respect for the Church’s canonical norms, I wanted his cause of beatification to move forward with reasonable haste. And now the longed-for day has come; it came quickly because this is what was pleasing to the Lord: John Paul II is blessed!

I would like to offer a cordial greeting to all of you who on this happy occasion have come in such great numbers to Rome from all over the world – cardinals, patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches, brother bishops and priests, official delegations, ambassadors and civil authorities, consecrated men and women and lay faithful, and I extend that greeting to all those who join us by radio and television.

Today is the Second Sunday of Easter, which Blessed John Paul II entitled Divine Mercy Sunday. The date was chosen for today’s celebration because, in God’s providence, my predecessor died on the vigil of this feast. Today is also the first day of May, Mary’s month, and the liturgical memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker. All these elements serve to enrich our prayer, they help us in our pilgrimage through time and space; but in heaven a very different celebration is taking place among the angels and saints! Even so, God is but one, and one too is Christ the Lord, who like a bridge joins earth to heaven. At this moment we feel closer than ever, sharing as it were in the liturgy of heaven.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn 20:29). In today’s Gospel Jesus proclaims this beatitude: the beatitude of faith. For us, it is particularly striking because we are gathered to celebrate a beatification, but even more so because today the one proclaimed blessed is a Pope, a Successor of Peter, one who was called to confirm his brethren in the faith. John Paul II is blessed because of his faith, a strong, generous and apostolic faith. We think at once of another beatitude: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven” (Mt 16:17). What did our heavenly Father reveal to Simon? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of this faith, Simon becomes Peter, the rock on which Jesus can build his Church. The eternal beatitude of John Paul II, which today the Church rejoices to proclaim, is wholly contained in these sayings of Jesus: “Blessed are you, Simon” and “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe!” It is the beatitude of faith, which John Paul II also received as a gift from God the Father for the building up of Christ’s Church.

Our thoughts turn to yet another beatitude, one which appears in the Gospel before all others. It is the beatitude of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Redeemer. Mary, who had just conceived Jesus, was told by Saint Elizabeth: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Lk 1:45). The beatitude of faith has its model in Mary, and all of us rejoice that the beatification of John Paul II takes place on this first day of the month of Mary, beneath the maternal gaze of the one who by her faith sustained the faith of the Apostles and constantly sustains the faith of their successors, especially those called to occupy the Chair of Peter. Mary does not appear in the accounts of Christ’s resurrection, yet hers is, as it were, a continual, hidden presence: she is the Mother to whom Jesus entrusted each of his disciples and the entire community. In particular we can see how Saint John and Saint Luke record the powerful, maternal presence of Mary in the passages preceding those read in today’s Gospel and first reading. In the account of Jesus’ death, Mary appears at the foot of the cross (Jn 19:25), and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles she is seen in the midst of the disciples gathered in prayer in the Upper Room (Acts 1:14).

Today’s second reading also speaks to us of faith. Saint Peter himself, filled with spiritual enthusiasm, points out to the newly-baptized the reason for their hope and their joy. I like to think how in this passage, at the beginning of his First Letter, Peter does not use language of exhortation; instead, he states a fact. He writes: “you rejoice”, and he adds: “you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:6, 8-9). All these verbs are in the indicative, because a new reality has come about in Christ’s resurrection, a reality to which faith opens the door. “This is the Lord’s doing”, says the Psalm (118:23), and “it is marvelous in our eyes”, the eyes of faith.

Dear brothers and sisters, today our eyes behold, in the full spiritual light of the risen Christ, the beloved and revered figure of John Paul II. Today his name is added to the host of those whom he proclaimed saints and blesseds during the almost twenty-seven years of his pontificate, thereby forcefully emphasizing the universal vocation to the heights of the Christian life, to holiness, taught by the conciliar Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium. All of us, as members of the people of God – bishops, priests, deacons, laity, men and women religious – are making our pilgrim way to the heavenly homeland where the Virgin Mary has preceded us, associated as she was in a unique and perfect way to the mystery of Christ and the Church. Karol Wojtyła took part in the Second Vatican Council, first as an auxiliary Bishop and then as Archbishop of Kraków. He was fully aware that the Council’s decision to devote the last chapter of its Constitution on the Church to Mary meant that the Mother of the Redeemer is held up as an image and model of holiness for every Christian and for the entire Church. This was the theological vision which Blessed John Paul II discovered as a young man and subsequently maintained and deepened throughout his life. A vision which is expressed in the scriptural image of the crucified Christ with Mary, his Mother, at his side. This icon from the Gospel of John (19:25-27) was taken up in the episcopal and later the papal coat-of-arms of Karol Wojtyła: a golden cross with the letter “M” on the lower right and the motto “Totus tuus”, drawn from the well-known words of Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort in which Karol Wojtyła found a guiding light for his life: “Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia. Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria – I belong entirely to you, and all that I have is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart” (Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 266).

In his Testament, the new Blessed wrote: “When, on 16 October 1978, the Conclave of Cardinals chose John Paul II, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, said to me: ‘The task of the new Pope will be to lead the Church into the Third Millennium’”. And the Pope added: “I would like once again to express my gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of the Second Vatican Council, to which, together with the whole Church – and especially with the whole episcopate – I feel indebted. I am convinced that it will long be granted to the new generations to draw from the treasures that this Council of the twentieth century has lavished upon us. As a Bishop who took part in the Council from the first to the last day, I desire to entrust this great patrimony to all who are and will be called in the future to put it into practice. For my part, I thank the Eternal Shepherd, who has enabled me to serve this very great cause in the course of all the years of my Pontificate”. And what is this “cause”? It is the same one that John Paul II presented during his first solemn Mass in Saint Peter’s Square in the unforgettable words: “Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to Christ!” What the newly-elected Pope asked of everyone, he was himself the first to do: society, culture, political and economic systems he opened up to Christ, turning back with the strength of a titan – a strength which came to him from God – a tide which appeared irreversible. By his witness of faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma, this exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the world not to be afraid to be called Christian, to belong to the Church, to speak of the Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to fear the truth, because truth is the guarantee of liberty. To put it even more succinctly: he gave us the strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is Redemptor hominis, the Redeemer of man. This was the theme of his first encyclical, and the thread which runs though all the others.

When Karol Wojtyła ascended to the throne of Peter, he brought with him a deep understanding of the difference between Marxism and Christianity, based on their respective visions of man. This was his message: man is the way of the Church, and Christ is the way of man. With this message, which is the great legacy of the Second Vatican Council and of its “helmsman”, the Servant of God Pope Paul VI, John Paul II led the People of God across the threshold of the Third Millennium, which thanks to Christ he was able to call “the threshold of hope”. Throughout the long journey of preparation for the great Jubilee he directed Christianity once again to the future, the future of God, which transcends history while nonetheless directly affecting it. He rightly reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress. He restored to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope, to be lived in history in an “Advent” spirit, in a personal and communitarian existence directed to Christ, the fullness of humanity and the fulfillment of all our longings for justice and peace.

Finally, on a more personal note, I would like to thank God for the gift of having worked for many years with Blessed Pope John Paul II. I had known him earlier and had esteemed him, but for twenty-three years, beginning in 1982 after he called me to Rome to be Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, I was at his side and came to revere him all the more. My own service was sustained by his spiritual depth and by the richness of his insights. His example of prayer continually impressed and edified me: he remained deeply united to God even amid the many demands of his ministry. Then too, there was his witness in suffering: the Lord gradually stripped him of everything, yet he remained ever a “rock”, as Christ desired. His profound humility, grounded in close union with Christ, enabled him to continue to lead the Church and to give to the world a message which became all the more eloquent as his physical strength declined. In this way he lived out in an extraordinary way the vocation of every priest and bishop to become completely one with Jesus, whom he daily receives and offers in the Church.

Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed! Continue, we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God’s people. You often blessed us in this Square from the Apostolic Palace: Bless us, Holy Father! Amen.

IMAGES: Associated Press/Reuters.

Blessed John Paul II

2011-05-01T12:37:00.001-04:00

(Biography of Blessed John Paul II read today at his beatification by Cardinal Agostino Vallini)

Karol Józef Wojtyla was born in the Polish town of Wadowice on 18 May 1920 to Karol and Emilia Kaczorowska. He was baptized on 20 June of that year in Wadowice's parish church.

The second of two children, the joy and serenity of his childhood was shaken by the premature death of his mother when Karol was nine (1929). Three years later, in 1932, his older brother Edmund also died and then in 1941, when he was 21, he also lost his father.

Brought up in a solid patriotic and religious tradition, he learned from his father, a deeply Christian man, piety and love for one's neighbor, which he nourished with constant prayer and participation in the sacraments.

The characteristics of his spirituality, to which he remained faithful until his death, were a sincere devotion to the Holy Spirit and love for the Madonna. His relationship with the Mother of God was particularly deep and vibrant, lived with the tenderness of a child who abandons himself to his mother's embrace and with the vigor of a gallant, always ready for his lady's command: "Do what my Son asks!" His complete trust in Mary, which as a bishop he expressed with the motto Totus tuus, also reveals his secret of looking at the world with the eyes of the Mother of God.

Young Karol's rich personality matured with the interweaving of his intellectual, moral, and spiritual gifts with the events of his day, which marked the history of his country and of Europe.

During the years of his secondary education, a passion for theater and poetry grew in him, which he cultivated in the theatrical group of the Faculty of Philology at Krakow's Jagiellonian University where he was enrolled during the 1938 academic year.

During the period of Nazi occupation of Poland, together with his studies that he carried on in secret, he spent four years (October 1940 to August 1944) working in the Solvay chemical factory, directly encountering the social problems of the working world and gathering the precious wealth of experience that he was able to draw upon in his future social teachings, first as Archbishop of Krakow and subsequently as Supreme Pontiff.

Throughout these years his inclination towards the priesthood developed, a path he furthered by attending clandestine courses in theology at the Seminary of Krakow from October of 1942. He was assisted greatly in recognizing his priestly vocation by a lay man, Jan Tyranowski, a true apostle of youth. From then on the young Karol had a clear understanding of the universal call to holiness of all Christians, and the fundamental role of the laity in the mission of the Church.

He received priestly ordination on 1 November 1946 and the day after, in the evocative atmosphere of the crypt of St. Leonard in the cathedral of Wawel, he celebrated his first Mass.

He was sent to Rome to complete his theological formation at the Faculty of Theology of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), where he was immersed in the source of sound doctrine, having his first encounter with the vibrancy and richness of the Universal Church from the privileged position of life on the other side of the 'Iron Curtain'. At around this time he met with Padre Pio of Pietrelcina.

After graduating with highest honors in June of 1948, he returned to Krakow to begin his pastoral duties as a parish vicar. He undertook his ministry with enthusiasm and generosity. After obtaining his university teaching qualification, he began teaching in the Faculty of Theology at the Jagiellonian University then, when that faculty was closed, in the diocesan Seminary of Krakow and the Catholic University of Lublin.

The years he spent in the company of young students enabled him to gain a profound understanding of the restlessness of their hearts and he young priest was a not only a teacher for them, but also a spiritual guide and friend.

At the age of 38 he was appointed as auxiliary bishop of Krakow. On 28 September 1958, he was ordained a bishop by Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak, whom he succeeded as archbishop of Krakow in 1964. He was created a cardinal by Pope Paul VI on 26 June 1967.

As bishop of the Diocese of Krakow, he was immediately appreciated as a man of robust and courageous faith, close to the people and aware of the real problems they faced.

He was an interlocutor capable of listening and of dialog without ever conceding to compromise. He affirmed to all the primacy of God and of Christ as the foundation for a true humanism and the source of inalienable human rights. Beloved by his priests and esteemed by his brother bishops, he was also feared by those who regarded him as an adversary.

On 16 October 1978 he was elected Bishop and Pontiff of Rome and took the name of John Paul II. His shepherd's heart, entirely given over to the cause of the Kingdom of God, was opened to the entire world. "Christ's love" led him to visit the parishes of Rome and to announce the Gospel in all places. It was the driving force for his innumerable apostolic visits to various continents, undertaken to confirm his Christian brothers and sisters in the faith, to comfort the afflicted and the discouraged, to bring the message of reconciliation between Christian faiths, and to build bridges of friendship between believers in the one God and all of good will.

His illustrious teachings focused on nothing other than proclaiming Christ,the sole Savior of humanity, always and everywhere.

In his extraordinary missionary zeal, he had a particular love for the young. He envisioned the World Youth Day gatherings with the objective of announcing Jesus Christ and his Gospel to the new generations in order to enable them to actively shape their future and to co-operate in building a better world.

His solicitude as universal Shepherd was demonstrated in the convocation of numerous assemblies of the Synods of Bishops, the erection of dioceses and ecclesiastical circumscriptions, in the promulgation of the Codes of Canon Law for the Latin and Eastern Churches and the catechism of the Catholic Church, and in the publication of encyclical letters and apostolic exhortations. In order to promote occasions for a more intense spiritual life for the People of God, he proclaimed the extraordinary Jubilee of Redemption, the Marian Year, the Year of the Eucharist,and the Great Jubilee of 2000.

John Paul II had lived through the tragic experience of two dictatorships, survived an assassination attempt on 13 May 1981 and, in his later years, suffered grave physical hardship due to the progression of his illness. However, his overwhelming optimism, based on his trust in divine Providence, drove him to constantly look to horizons of hope, inviting people to break down the walls between them, to brush aside passivity in order to attain the goals of spiritual, moral and material renewal.

He concluded his long and fruitful earthly existence in the Vatican Apostolic Palace on Saturday, 2 April 2005, the vigil of the Second Sunday of Easter (Dominica in Albis), which he entitled the Sunday of Divine Mercy. The funeral was held in St. Peter's Square on 8 April 2005.

A touching testimony of the good he brought about during his life was seen by the participation of delegations from all over the world and of millions of men and women, believers and non-believers alike, who recognized in him a clear sign of God's love for humanity.

Image: REUTERS/Max Rossi

Alleluia! He is Risen

2011-04-24T09:36:00.000-04:00

O Christ, our risen Lord,
have mercy on us Your Children.
Alleluia.

Holy Saturday

2011-04-23T18:07:00.001-04:00

23 APRIL 2011. Consider where we commemorate that Christ is today. He has descended to the dead. Today He is dwelling with the dead to lovingly search them out and call them forth to resurrection with Him in the glory of the heavenly host.

These lost sheep who had gone into the grave before Christ are the first for whom He searches. But, today He is searching for us also, lost by our own sin.Yet, still He calls us forth:

Something strange is happening—there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden.

See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

(the second reading from today's Office of Readings--"From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday")

Image: Hans Holbein, The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb (1521).

A Prayer to be Nothingness

2011-04-19T22:12:00.000-04:00

O Lord, ever loving and faithful God,
help me to be little in your eyes,
and in the eyes of men.
May I shrink until there is nothing left of my will.
Take my willfulness and admonish it,
reduce it to nothingness, so that I may reside,
with Mary, the most chaste spouse of the Holy Spirit,
and Saint Joseph, her earthly husband, alone in the light
of Your Divine Will.

Our Father, may your Will reign in me as it does in heaven.
By grace may I be buried in the ocean of Your Will,
so that it is not my life, but Yours.
Not my living, but You living in me.
Not my my prayer, but Your prayer to the Holy Trinity in me.
Not my love, but Your love returned to You.
Not the glory You have given me,
as a creature created in your image and likeness,
but Your Glory returned to You in full.

May I be so little as to no longer count, but
to live only in You, dear Savior,
only-begotten Son of the Father Almighty.

In these last days of Lent, during this Holy Week,
as the Church struggles with anxieties of hope
for the coming celebration of Your Resurrection,
may this prayer be pleasing to You,
so that I may be nothing,
and, in my nothingness gain true servitude to You,
one, holy and true God.

Amen.

Blessed Margaret of Castello

2011-04-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

13 APRIL 2011. Today we commemorate Blessed Margaret of Castello, patron of the poor, crippled, and unwanted.

Prayer

Blessed Margaret,
unwanted by your parents and abandoned to the world,
you entrusted everything to God,
and prayerfully lived in loving service to others.
Help us by your prayers,
to also be so trusting of our Lord.
May we, by your holy intercession,
gain the freedom to truly open ourselves
to the workings of the Divine Will,
to the supernal incarnation of our Eucharistic Lord in each of us.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

New Feast Day and Prayer for Blessed John Paul II

2011-04-12T23:44:00.000-04:00

12 APRIL 2011. To coincide with today's announcement from the Vatican that Blessed John Paul II's feast day will be celebrated on 22 October, the date that Cardinal Wojtyla became pope, Rome has also released a new collect to be said during the feast day and thanksgiving masses for Blessed John Paul II:

Prayer

O God, who are rich in mercy
and who willed that Blessed John Paul II
should preside as Pope over your universal Church,
grant, we pray, that instructed by his teaching,
we may open our hearts to the saving grace of Christ,
the sole Redeemer of mankind,
Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.

Amen

Prayer in Time of Need

2011-03-21T01:21:00.000-04:00

O God help me!
Free me from this burden.
That, with your love alone supporting me,
I may ever seek and be united to your Divine Will.
But, not my request be answered--not my will be done,
but Yours. Yours alone.
Holy, living, and triune God.

Amen.

Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2011-03-19T06:00:00.002-04:00

19 MARCH 2011. While the commemoration of saints during the season of lent is more limited than at other times of the liturgical year, today we celebrate the Solemnity of Saint Joseph, husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Those attending mass today will notice that the Lenten staple of violet (purple) vestments of the priest and deacon have been replaced by white.

Historically this date has long been reserved for Saint Joseph. By the tenth century several Western calendars noted the date of March 19 as dedicated to the commemoration of the patron of families. By A.D. 1479 the commemoration of Saint Joseph's day was observed in Rome, and Pope Saint Pius V extended the feast to the entire Roman Rite on 14 July 1570.

Mention of Saint Joseph first appears in the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke, who trace Saint Joseph's Davidic lineage. However, the historical Joseph is a difficult figurer to pin down. Some traditions hold that he was an old widower who took Mary in as his wife to look after the young girl with child. Other traditions tell that Saint Joseph was probably about 18 or 19 years old when he was betrothed to Mary (She being about 15 or 16 years old). History, too, disputes Joseph's trade. While he is usually referred to today as a carpenter, the Gospel of Saint Matthew refers to Jesus as the son of a tekton--a general word that could be used to describe any maker of things. Some modern scholars thus cast Saint Joseph in the historical context of an itinerant worker-a more marginalized class of society--and other scholars believe that Saint Joseph may have been a skilled artisan and learned man. What does appear clear, however, is that Saint Joseph did not witness Jesus' public ministry. The last mention of the presence of Saint Joseph in the Gospels is Saint Luke's account of Joseph and Mary finding Jesus in the temple when he was about 12 years old. (Lk 2:41-51)

So, it appears that Saint Joseph died before the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. This is also historically supported by the fact that Joseph of Arimathea took charge of Jesus' body after His death on the cross--under Jewish custom this would have been Saint Joseph's charge--and the fact that Jesus, from the cross, entrusted Mary's care to Saint John, which would not have occurred if Saint Joseph had been alive. And, indeed, Catholic tradition tells that Saint Joseph died in the arms of Mary and Jesus.

However, what is most clear, regardless of Saint Joseph's age or trade, was that he was an essential element in the history of salvation--the necessary protector of Our Lady and the child Jesus at the moment of the Incarnation of the Word and afterwards. And, according to the writings of the great Pope Blessed John Paul II, it was Joseph's dedication to Christ, in the silent shroud of history, that truly shows the measure of the man:

The same aura of silence that envelops everything else about Joseph also shrouds his work as a carpenter in the house of Nazareth. It is, however, a silence that reveals in a special way the inner portrait of the man. The Gospels speak exclusively of what Joseph "did." Still, they allow us to discover in his "actions" - shrouded in silence as they are - an aura of deep contemplation. Joseph was in daily contact with the mystery "hidden from ages past," and which "dwelt" under his roof. This explains, for example, why St. Teresa of Jesus, the great reformer of the Carmelites, promoted the renewal of veneration to St. Joseph in Western Christianity.

The total sacrifice, whereby Joseph surrendered his whole existence to the demands of the Messiah's coming into his home, becomes understandable only in the light of his profound interior life. It was from this interior life that "very singular commands and consolations came, bringing him also the logic and strength that belong to simple and clear souls, and giving him the power of making great decisions-such as the decision to put his liberty immediately at the disposition of the divine designs, to make over to them also his legitimate human calling, his conjugal happiness, to accept the conditions, the responsibility and the burden of a family, but, through an incomparable virginal love, to renounce that natural conjugal love that is the foundation and nourishment of the family.

This submission to God, this readiness of will to dedicate oneself to all that serves him, is really nothing less than that exercise of devotion which constitutes one expression of the virtue of religion.

The communion of life between Joseph and Jesus leads us to consider once again the mystery of the Incarnation, precisely in reference to the humanity of Jesus as the efficacious instrument of his divinity for the purpose of sanctifying man: "By virtue of his divinity, Christ's human actions were salvific for us, causing grace within us, either by merit or by a certain efficacy."

Among those actions, the gospel writers highlight those which have to do with the Paschal Mystery, but they also underscore the importance of physical contact with Jesus for healing (cf. for example, Mk 1:41), and the influence Jesus exercised upon John the Baptist when they were both in their mothers' wombs (cf. Lk 1:41-44).

As we have seen, the apostolic witness did not neglect the story of Jesus' birth, his circumcision, his presentation in the Temple, his flight into Egypt and his hidden life in Nazareth. It recognized the "mystery" of grace present in each of these saving "acts," inasmuch as they all share the same source of love: the divinity of Christ. If through Christ's humanity this love shone on all mankind, the first beneficiaries were undoubtedly those whom the divine will had most intimately associated with itself: Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and Joseph, his presumed father.

Why should the "fatherly" love of Joseph not have had an influence upon the "filial" love of Jesus? And vice versa why should the "filial" love of Jesus not have had an influence upon the "fatherly" love of Joseph, thus leading to a further deepening of their unique relationship? Those souls most sensitive to the impulses of divine love have rightly seen in Joseph a brilliant example of the interior life.

(Pope Blessed John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Redemptoris Custos, delivered 15 August 1989).

Prayer

Grant, we pray, almighty God,
that by Saint Joseph’s intercession
your Church may constantly watch over
the unfolding of the mysteries of human salvation,
whose beginnings you entrusted to his faithful care.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

With Deepest Thanks: We Bid Farewell to Bishop Ricard

2011-03-12T00:15:00.000-05:00

11 MARCH 2011. Here in the northwest corner of Florida, otherwise known as L.A. (Lower Alabama) or Red Hills Country, we have known and loved a shepherd of our local church for many years. However, it was announced today that the Holy Father has accepted Bishop John Ricard's request to retire for health reasons. Archbishop Thomas Wenski will serve as diocesan administrator until a new bishop is appointed by the Holy Father.

While Bishop Ricard came to us by way of the Archdiocese of the Baltimore in the Northeast, he is, indeed, one of us. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, he is a native of the Sunbelt and no stranger to our ways of culture and the peculiar, some would say, manners that we exhibit. "Yes Ma'm."

However, Bishop Ricard is indeed not just one of us. He has served us as an exemplar of Christian living that we aspire to--to truly place ourselves in service to our Lord through love for our neighbor. Bishop Ricard's love for his flock and his ministry and individuals that he addresses as a bishop--and as a fellow man--is evident. My first grade daughter loves Bishop Ricard--he probably does not know her name. She has only seen him at the hand full of school masses that he has celebrated at her school over the last two school years; but, she has gotten hugs from him and she tells me how much he loves her and all the school children.

The eyes and ears of babes are most attuned to love. The world has not yet impressed the callus of experience on their hearts.

God bless Bishop John Ricard now and in his future endeavors. He has notified the people of the diocese that he will return to St. Joseph Seminary in Washington, D.C. to serve as spiritual director there--"which will provide [him] a less rigorous ministry within the Church." Yet his service to the Church and the people of God will continue.

This Sunday, 13 March, there will be two farewell receptions at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More following the 10:00 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. masses. All are welcome. I would encourage anyone who can attend to do so: please extend a warm hand--or hug--to our faithful pastor that has served the Church in this corner of the world so well.

From The Holy Father's 2011 Lenten Message

2011-03-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

During the entire Lenten period, the Church offers us God's Word with particular abundance. By meditating and internalizing the Word in order to live it every day, we learn a precious and irreplaceable form of prayer; by attentively listening to God, who continues to speak to our hearts, we nourish the itinerary of faith initiated on the day of our Baptism.

A Prayer at the Beginning of Lent

2011-03-09T10:40:00.000-05:00

God bless us in this holy season:
to know thy Holy Will for us and seek true wisdom;
To have true fear of the Lord; and to seek holiness
in our actions.
For this we pray, that we your people, may offer ourselves:
our very lives, purposes, and beings to You,
the one Holy and Triune God.
In this season, we pray, that you may grant us
true contrition for our sins and,
unified with graces of the Sacrament of Reconciliation,
may we find You, O Lord, again
in the great Sacrament of the Mass,
through which we may truly offer You all praise
and thanksgiving,
for the passion, death, and resurrection
of dearly beloved Lord, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Saint Euphrosyne

2011-03-06T14:17:00.000-05:00

6 MARCH 2011. Today, the ninth Sunday in ordinary time, I spent some time reading from a work on the life of Saint Catherine of Siena. In that reading I came across mention of Saint Euphrosyne. The reading provided that Saint Catherine was called little Euphrosyne as a a child, a Greek name meaning joy or satisfaction. And, Saint Catherine, at one point in her youth, had set out from Siena to live in emulation of Saint Euphrosyne.

Legend tells us that Saint Euphrosyne was born in Alexandria, the only daughter of a rich man named Paphnutius, who desired to marry his daughter to a wealthy young man. Euphrosyne, however, had consecrated her life to God. Seeing no other way to thwart her father's intentions to marry her away, and keep her consecration to the Lord, Euphrosyne clothed herself as a man, taking the name of Smaragdus, and was admitted to the monastery near Alexandria. For 38 years Euphrosyne lived as a monk in the monastery.

Not long after entering the monastery, Euphrosyne--living as Smaragdus-- gained the attention of the abbot because of her rapid strides in living a perfect ascetic life. Afterwards, when Paphnutius approached the abbot for consolation over the loss of his daughter, the abbot chose Smaragdus to care for his spiritual needs. Although the father failed to recognize his daughter, he received from her helpful advice and comforting exhortation. However, not until near her moment of death did Smaragdus reveal herself to him as his lost daughter Euphrosyne.

Encouraged by the example of his daughter in bearing her life for Christ, Paphnutius himself entered the monastery after the death of Euphrosyne in about A.D. 470.

The feast day of Saint Euphrosyne is celebrated by the Latin Rite on 16 January (but, by the Carmelites on 11 February) and celebrated in the east on 25 September.

Modern scholarship indicates that the story of Saint Euphrosyne may be pious fiction that has been mistaken for history--calling into question the historical existence of Saint Euphrosyne and her father Paphnutius.

A Penitent's Prayer before the Crucifix

2011-02-19T08:42:00.000-05:00

O Lord Jesus Christ crucified,
each of the wounds and injustices You suffered
during Your passion are the result of my sin.
I have caused Your suffering,
yet You suffer for me
with complete docility to the Will of the Father.
As You have given over Your human life for my soul,
granting to me a love that has abundance beyond all compare,
so, too, may I love You not with my human love,
but by offering Your love for me in return to You.
Therefore, previous Saviour, will You be loved
as is fitting for You, by Your own holy, divine, and abundant love.
As Your poured Yourself out for me and all sinners on the cross,
assist me Holy Spirit, by your grace, in pouring out myself to God:
so that myself is destroyed;
so that my human will in made totally subject to the Divine Will;
so that I may not live, but You, Holy Trinity, live in me.

Amen

Please Pray for Bishop Ricard

2011-02-15T22:34:00.001-05:00

15 FEBRUARY 2011. It was reported today locally that the bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, John H. Ricard, SSJ, has asked Rome for leave to retire early for health reasons. Bishop Ricard suffered a stroke and additional complications many months ago.

Please join us in this mission diocese in praying for Bishop Ricard, our good and faithful pastor since 1997.

Merciful Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
one Holy and United Trinity,
we praise you and thank you for the pastoral leadership
of Bishop John Ricard.
In this time of need, dear Lord, provide
him with every grace and blessing to be
sustained and comforted in his trials.
Bless his difficulty and suffering dear Father;
sanctify and unite it with the suffering of Christ Jesus
in His Holy Passion.
We pray, O Lord, that your Divine Will
reign on earth, as it does in heaven,
and that Bishop Ricard, especially, be the blessed
benefactor of Your loving Will.
Bless him, O Lord, and keep him.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ,
only begotten Son of the Father, who is one in union
with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Today's Saints: Exemplars for All

2011-02-05T13:07:00.000-05:00

5 FEBRUARY 2011. From the Roman Martryology for today:

At Catana in Sicily, in the time of Emperor Decius and the judge Quinctian, the birthday of St. Agatha, virgin and martyr. After being buffeted, imprisoned, tortured, racked, dragged over pieces of earthenware and burning coals, and having her breasts cut away, she completed her sacrifice in prison while engaged in prayer.

At Nagasaki in Japan, the passion of twenty-six martyrs. Three priests, one cleric, and two lay brothers were members of the Order of Friars Minor; one cleric was of the Society of Jesus, and seventeen belonged to the Third Order of St. Francis. All of them, placed upon crosses for the Catholic faith, and pierced with lances, gloriously died in praising God and preaching that same faith. Their names were added to the roll of saints by Pope Pius IX.

In Pontus, during the persecution of Maximian, the commemoration of many holy martyrs, some of whom had molten lead poured on them, others had sharp reeds thrust under their nails, and were often horribly tormented in many other ways. Thus, by their glorious suffering, they deserved to receive at the hands of God palms of victory and their crowns.

At Alexandria, during the persecution of Decius, St. Isidore, martyr, who was beheaded for the faith of Christ by Numerian, general of the army.

At Vienne, blessed Avitus, bishop and confessor, whose faith, labors, and admirable learning protected France against the ravages of the Arian heresy.

At Sabion in the Tyrol, St. Genuinus, bishop, whose illustrious life abounded in miracles. His revered body was afterwards taken to Brixen where a shrine was erected in his honor.

At Brixen, St. Albinus, bishop, who moved the Episcopal See from Sabion to that city, and there, eminent by virtue of his miracles, passed to the Lord.

Saint Paul the First Hermit

2011-01-15T18:33:00.000-05:00

15 JANUARY 2011. Although not found on the General Roman Calendar, today is the feast day of Saint Paul of Thebes, also known as Saint Paul the First Hermit.

According to Saint Jerome's description of Saint Paul (written in the Syrian Desert in A.D. 374 or 375) Saint Paul was born in the area of Thebes, Egypt in about A.D. 227. He was the son of wealthy family, but his parents died while he was still a teenager. Saint Jerome describes Saint Paul as a young man "gifted with a gentle disposition and a deep love for God."

During the persecution of Decius and Valerianus (about A.D. 250) Saint Paul fled to the Theban Desert where he took refuge in a cave near a clear spring and a palm tree. For the rest of his life, Saint Paul would remain in that cave, taking his only food from the nearby spring and palm tree until, at about the age of 43, a raven began daily bringing Saint Paul about a half a loaf of bread. Saint Paul lived in the cave for nearly 100 years. He died in A.D. 341 at an age of about 114.

Saint Paul of Thebes is regarded as the first Christian hermit. He certainly existed, as history has kept these few scant details of his life, but much of what is know of Saint Paul now is legend. Apparently Saint Anthony the Great met Saint Paul very late in his life. The story is that they two spoke at length for one day and one night. When Saint Anthony the Great later returned to visit Saint Paul he found that he had died in the position of prayer. Clothing Saint Paul's body in a tunic that was a gift of Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Saint Anthony buried the body with the assistance of two lions, who helped dig the grave.

The fame of Saint Paul spread quickly in the ancient Christian world and the hermetic life became popular, especially in the Balkan countries of Hungary and Croatia. The Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit (the Pauline Fathers) was founded in Hungary in honor of Saint Paul in the thirteenth century.

Prayer

Gracious God,
you led Saint Paul of Thebes into the desert
that he might put aside all worldly cares
and focus on a life of holiness.
Through the example of his life
of solitude, prayer and penance,
grant that we, who are striving to develop in ourselves
the spirit of prayer and service,
may come ever closer to you in love.
We make our prayer through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Little Rosary of the Divine Will

2011-01-15T17:28:00.001-05:00

The Little Rosary of the Divine Will was composed by Saint Hannibal di Francia, a confessor of Servant of God Louisa Piccarretta, a lay Dominican. Louisa's cause for beatification is currently being examined by the Vatican.

This prayer was written by Saint Hannibal late in his life and he prayed it several times a day during his final illness.

Begin with the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be (on the first large bead above the crucifix). Continue praying the rosary as follows:

On each of the smaller Hail Mary beads pray: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

On each of the larger Our Father beads pray the Glory Be.

Conclude the Little Rosary of the Divine Will with this prayer:

"Lord Jesus, we praise you, we love you, we bless you, and we thank you who are God with the Father and the Holy Spirit in your Holy and Eternal Divine Will. Amen."

Renewal of Baptismal Promises

2011-01-09T02:16:00.001-05:00

Lord Jesus Christ,
I acknowledge you as King of the universe.
All creation was made for you.
Exercise all your sovereign rights over me.
I renew my baptismal promises,
renouncing Satan and all his works and empty promises,
and I promise to lead a good Christian life.
I will try to bring about the recognition of the truth of God
and your Church.

Divine Heart of Jesus,
I offer all my actions
that every human heart may accept your kingship.
May the kingdom of your peace be established
across the world.

Amen.

THE FEAST OF THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

2011-01-09T02:12:00.000-05:00

9 JANUARY 2011. Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, ending the Christmas season in the encounter with Saint John the Baptist at the River Jordan. Today's readings can be found here.

Liturgically, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord stands between Christmastide and ordinary time and, indeed, functions as the first Sunday of ordinary time. At the same time, however, the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan is one of the three manifestations that are central to the feast of the Epiphany: (1) the showing forth of the presence of God to the three magi; (2) the beginning of the Lord's miraculous ministry at the wedding feast in Cana; and (3) the revelation and descent of the Holy Spirit at the Lord's baptism in the River Jordan.

Today we are each called to recognize the personal benefit that each of us has gained from our own baptism: that is, the becoming the adopted children, brothers and sisters of Christ, of God the Father, through the gift of His only begotten Son.

The baptism of the Lord reveals Christ in two manners. First, Christ is revealed as the eternal Son of the Father, upon whom the favor of God continually rests. " And a voice came from the heavens, saying, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'" The Church teaches that this is the first revelation of the interior life of God, worshiped from of old by all of Israel, as the Holy Trinity--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Second, the Christ, who is called "Son" by God the Father, is of truly human estate and is also the son of Adam. Christ, being fully human, has possession of a soul and body. And Christ, at the same, is also fully God, incarnate in the world. The vision of the Holy Spirit descending on our Lord as a dove, then, represents a union of the Spirit with humanity in a way that is different from all of the Old Testament's prophets. The Spirit is Christ's own possession, to be given freely by His Will to humanity. As we hear in today's reading from Acts, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the holy Spirit and power." (Acts 10:38)

The Old Testament reading today from Isaiah is the first song of the mysterious suffering servant of the Lord. This servant has a kingly quality, being the "chosen one with whom [God is] pleased" (Is 42:1), but he also teaches the law of God by establishing justice on the earth. This servant-teacher does not impose God's will by force, but moves humanity through an inner conversion. "A bruised reed he shall not break . . . ." (Is 42:3) This reference to Christ's mercy for humanity is clear. We are all bruised reeds. But, the suffering servant is not sent to break us, but to redeem our broken humanity. That is why verses six and seven emphasize that the Messiah will lead His people gently into a spiritual vision, out of the darkness that has imprisoned them:

I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.

We hear that Isaiah's servant will himself be a covenant for the people of God. In that covenant it is the Precious Blood of Jesus that efficaciously seals God's promise with His beloved people: to be called for "the victory of justice" (Is 42:6) As Christ says in today's reading from the Gospel of Saint Matthew, responding to Saint John's objection that he should be baptized by Christ:

“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

The Grace of Prayer

2011-01-07T22:53:00.000-05:00

Prayer or contemplation is not something that can be achieved by mere human effort, however well-intentioned or however strenuous. Prayer is a grace. It is a gift that lifts us beyond anything we ourselves could ever attain by ascetic practice or meditative technique. Accordingly, communion with God, actual friendship with God in prayer, although impossible even for the strong, is something God Himself can achieve for us.

Recovering the Contemplative Dimension
Fr. Paul Murray, O.P.

Prayer for the New Year

2011-01-01T14:15:00.001-05:00

1 JANUARY 2011.

O God of mercy and light, so much in need in our world,
grant us your blessing in this new year
as we strive to live in greater unity with your Holy Will,
not by our own works,
but by the grace of your assistance.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Holy Trinity,
infuse our thoughts, our works, our actions, and our hearts,
so that every thought, work, act, and our very being be not
a thought, work, act, or self of human estate,
but come, Dear Father, to live and reign in us through grace.
In a special way at the beginning of this year,
when our hearts and spirits focus on its possibilities,
O Lord, lift us to You, by your gracious love,
so that we may be assisted in giving all that we have to You.

We entrust our prayers
to the intercessory assistance of all the angels and saints,
and most especially to our Mother, the Queen of the Divine Will,
that the Lord's will be done in each of our lives
and that our petitions will be heard.

Amen.

Saint Thomas Becket

2010-12-29T15:23:00.000-05:00

29 DECEMBER. Today on the fifth day in the Octave of Christmas, the Church remembers Saint Thomas Becket, a twelfth century martyr and Archbishop of Canterbury.

Prayer

O God,
for the sake of Whose Church the glorious Bishop Thomas
fell by the sword of ungodly men:
grant, we beseech Thee, that all who implore his aid
may obtain the good fruit of his petition.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, forever and ever.

Amen.

Feast of the Holy Family

2010-12-26T10:48:00.000-05:00

26 DECEMBER 2010. Today, the second in the Octave of Christmas, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family--where the divine will first truly dwelt on earth. There in the little backwater of Bethlehem, crowed with travelers who have come for the census, huddled in a cave - a mere niche in the rock for the protection of livestock - is Christ our saviour, our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her most chaste and faithful spouse Saint Joseph. He who created the world and is beyond all space and time was contained within the immaculate womb of the Virgin. Together they are the family living in accord with the Divine Will, the will of God the Father who has bestowed on the world his only Son as a gift for all humanity.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T14:37:00.000-05:00

25 DECEMBER 2010.

Rejoice, the Christ child is born!
Not of lofty or rich estate, by human standards
but, God's only Son sent to us.

We praise God the Father and rejoice in Christ the Son,
Holy Emmanuel, come among us to save us from our sin.

Saint John of Kanty

2010-12-23T13:03:00.000-05:00

23 DECEMBER 2010. Today, just two days before the Church celebrates the blessed nativity of our Lord, the Church commemorates Saint John of Kanty, a renowned Polish priest, scholastic, and theologian.

Among the many traits of Saint John that speak of his sainthood, one was the love he showed as a priest. When rivals at the university were jealous of Saint John's popularity among his students, and set false charges against him. As a result of these falsehoods, Saint John for a time was assigned as pastor of a country church in Olkusz in Bohemia. The people of Olkusz were skeptical of their new pastor, thinking that their country church was being used as a dumping ground for a disgraced academic. But, Saint John worked diligently to show his love for his new flock, though nervous about his responsibility, in all that he did. When Saint John was finally exonerated of all the false charges against him, and invited back to the university, the people of Olkusz are reported to have followed for several miles down the road in an effort to persuade him to stay.

After returning to the university, Saint John was given the position of Professor of Sacred Scriptures, a position he then held until his death. Saint John was so well liked that he was very often invited to dinner by nobility.Once, he was turned away at the door by a servant who thought his cassock was too frayed. Not arguing, Saint John went home and changed into a new cassock. However, during the meal a servant spilled a dish on Saint John's new cassock, to which he replied: "No matter. My clothes deserve some dinner, too. If it hadn't been for them I wouldn't be here at all."

Saint John was constantly mindful of the needs of others too. Once, Saint John saw a beggar walk by outside his window as he ate dinner. He immediately jumped up from his dinner and filled the beggar's bowl with food. He asked no questions of the beggar, he made no demands. He simply saw someone in need and reacted with love.

Saint John repeated taught his students this: "Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause."

Prayer

Almighty Father,
through the example of John of Kanty
may we grow in the wisdom of the saints.
As we show understanding and kindness to others,
may we receive your forgiveness.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2010-12-08T23:30:00.001-05:00

8 DECEMBER 2010. Today the Church celebrates the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Macula is Latin for "stain." This day the Church celebrates the conception of our Blessed Mother without the stain of sin.

First recognized in Church teaching (in the Eastern Churches) as early as the fifth century, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was not formally promulgated by the Church until 8 December 1854 by Blessed Pope Pius IX. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, one of the four Marian dogmas of the Church, holds that Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother, Saint Ann, and kept free for her entire life, from its very first moment, without the stain of sin.

Christ, the Word, who is beyond all time and space and physical limitation, was contained in the womb of Mary, our Immaculate Mother. As the angel greeted her "full of grace," we believe that she was indeed preserved by God our savior, her Son, from the stain of sin to fulfill her unique and indispensable role in salvation history--to carry Christ in her womb, the initiate His public ministry at a wedding in Cana, to follow Him to the point of the foot of the cross, and to join our Lord bodily though her assumption into heaven.

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee;
blessed art thou amongst women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Holy Mary, the Immaculate Conception, is the exemplar for all Christian faithful in living a true life of Christian love, dedicated to Christ and truly open to the love and works of God. Pray to our Lady for her assistance in each of our life journeys to Christ.

Dominican Saints and Blessed for December

2010-12-08T22:08:00.000-05:00

December 1:
Blessed John of Vercelli

December 8:
The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Solemnity)

December 16:
Blessed Sebastian Maggi

December 25:
The Nativity of the Lord (Solemnity)

December 27:
Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph

Saint Albert the Great

2010-11-16T00:10:00.000-05:00

It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for “God is Charity” (1 John 4:8)

Saint Albert the Great

Prayer

Dear Saint Albert,
professed as most learned and noble,
yet still humble in your relationship with both God and man.
Help us to find the grace of charity in our hearts,
given so generously by the Holy Spirit.
With the assistance of your intercession
may we join in your learned nature
to incline ourselves truly to learn the love and charity of
Our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Dominican Saints and Blesseds for November

2010-11-10T23:52:00.000-05:00

3 November:
Saint Martin de Porres (Feast)

5 November:
Blessed Simon Ballachi

6 November:
Blessed Francis de Capillas and Alfonsus Navarette and companions

7 November:
All Saints of the Order of Preachers (Feast)

8 November:
Anniversary of Deceased Brothers and Sisters of the Order

14 November:
Blessed John Liccco
Blessed Lucy of Narni

15 November:
Saint Albert the Great (Feast)

19 November:
Blessed James Benefatti

24 November:
Saint Ignatious Delgado, Saint Vincent Liem,
Saint Dominic An-Kham, and companions

25 November:
Blessed Margaret of Savoy

The Death of Life

2010-11-10T23:31:00.000-05:00

Why death in a church in Iraq?
Why death in the womb of an unwanted?
Why death alone on a street, tethered to sin?
Why death to come daily from our impurities within?

Death is no more an ending, that we are a begin.
Death is no more a victor, than we can rule on our own over sin.
Death is no more a curtain, than a veil for what lies within.

Death is a beginning.
Born into eternal life.
Death is a beginning.
Our hopes in Christ Jesus risen for us, His sons and daughters.
Death is a beginning.
The purpose for which we have been born.
Not to die, but to live with Him for eternity.

So, pray for the dead - that they may see the Christ.
Pray for the faithful who have gone before us.
And pray for those less sure of their path in the hereafter.
Pray for all souls, for one day we will join them.
May each of us reach Christ in the end.

Amen.

et alia

2010-10-20T21:52:00.002-04:00

20 OCTOBER 2010. Today the Church receives with joy 24 new cardinals. A few day's ago, the communion of saints grew by six. These days are interesting and exciting indeed. But your author is tired.

For any reader who is (or was) a regular visitor to these pages, I apologize for the lack of prose production over the last many weeks. The third child in our household (8 weeks old today) is putting quite a dent in restful sleep, which is to say:--we are getting none. Aside from that, work is very busy and my time seems to be entirely overloaded between the office and home. I am still trying to be diligent with the daily office, which is a true blessing of peace and holy joy in daily life, but even that has suffered as other duties have burgeoned.

I continue to pray for those who find these pages and ask that you pray for us.

The Good - Christ

2010-10-02T18:01:00.001-04:00

2 OCTOBER 2010. Today I spent the morning with other families at my daughter's weekly soccer (football for those outside the U.S.) scrimmage. The other parents were carrying on conversations about how many video games each household had and how many video game systems. One father bragged that his family had every game system currently available and more than a 100 games. I didn't participate in the conversation, just listened. Our household does not have a game system. And, we have one television. But the conversation got me to thinking about what people of my generation (35-45 years old) personally thought was the good they should strive for in today's world.

So, here is my reflection:

The good is not technology.
Technology and technological devices are merely a means.
The good is not our possessions.
Possessions can enslave us.
A life lived in service of our possessions and acquiring more
is not a life lived in search of the good.
The good is Christ.
A means to Christ is prayer.
A means to Christ is love of family
and community and those we find difficult.
A means to Christ is care for those in need.
A means to Christ is quiet contemplation of God
and the unlimited love He has poured into us.
A means to Christ is to empty myself to be filled by the Holy Spirit.
Happiness is not the end of life, but true joy is found in Christ.

Am I in step with my generation, or out?

Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist

2010-09-21T21:54:00.000-04:00

21 SEPTEMBER 2010. Today is the feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. Christ said to Saint Matthew: "Follow me." And, so he did, abandoning everything to follow Christ.

I pray that we too, wretched sinners all of us, may also answer the call of Christ - indelibly written onto our hearts by our baptism in Christ.

So, on this feast day we turn to the words of the fourteenth century Dominican mystic and theologian, Johannes Tauler:

When Jesus departed from Capernaum, He saw a man sitting in the custom house named Matthew; and He said to him: Follow Me. And he arose and followed Him’ (Saint Matthew 9:9).

The Apostle and Evangelist, so holy, which we celebrate today, has become an example for all men. As the Scripture tells us, he became one of the most distinguished friends of God, having been first a great sinner. As soon as the Lord speaks to the heart of Matthew, he immediately abandons everything to follow the Lord. What is condensed here we must do if we want to follow Christ: implement genuine and radical abandonment of everything that is not of God, which has taken possession of man’s heart. For God is a lover of hearts, and does not commune with anything that is external.

The path of the friends of God is totally dark and unknown. Appropriate are the words which speak of Job: ‘A man whose way is hidden, and God has surrounded him with darkness’ (Job 3:23). Man must bear all the reproaches heaped upon him on this rough road, in a self-denying way. Our Lord says everywhere: Follow Me, go through all things. I am He; do not go further; follow Me. If a man were to say: Lord, who are You, that I must follow You through such deep, gloomy, miserable paths? The Lord would reply, I am God and Man, and far more God.

If man is to be thus clothed with this Being, all the forms must of necessity be done away with, those that were ever received by him in all his powers of perception, knowledge, will, work, subjection, sensibility and self-seeking. When Saint Paul saw nothing, he saw God. When Elijah wrapped his face in his mantle, God came. All strong rocks are broken here; all on which the mind can rest disappear. Then, when all forms have ceased to exist, in the twinkling of an eye, the man is transformed. The Lord teaches us through Jeremiah: ‘You shall call Me Father and shall not cease to walk after Me’ (Jeremiah 3:19). This means, entering ever further in, ever nearer, so as to sink deeper in an unknown and unnamed abyss; and, above all ways, images and forms, and above all powers, to lose yourself, deny yourself and even un-form yourself.

In this lost condition, nothing is to be seen but a ground which rests upon itself, every one being, one life. It is thus, man may say, that he becomes, unknowing, unloving and senseless. This is not the result of natural qualities, but of the transformation, wrought by the Spirit of God in the created spirit, in the fathomless lost condition of the created spirit, and in his unconditional surrendering. We may say of this, that God knows, loves and gives Himself thus; for man is nothing but a life, a being and action. Those who see in this way, with undue liberty and with false light, are in the most perilous state possible in this life. The way by which we must arrive at the goal, is through the precious life and sufferings of our dear Lord; for He is the Way by which we must go, and He is the Truth which lightens all in this way.

Blessed Bertrand of Garrigue

2010-09-06T13:35:00.003-04:00

6 SEPTEMBER 2010. Today the Dominican Order recalls Blessed Bertrand of Garrigue, one of the original companions of Saint Dominic, who established the Order throughout France.

Blessed Bertrand was born in A.D. 1195 at Garrigue, France. Blessed Bertran's parents were the friends of the Cistercian Sisters of the Convent of Notre Dame of the Woods at Bouchet. This association of his family must have made a strong impression on the young Bertrand, as we was known to be a pious youth, and from an early age expressed a desire to serve as a member of the clergy and fight the heresy of the Albigenses.

As a young priest, Blessed Bertrand was assigned to a band of missionaries, under the direction of Cistercian fathers, who were charged by the Holy See to bring the Albigenses back to a civilized life and to the Church. I was during this mission work that Blessed Bertrand met Saint Dominic. The two at once became close friends and spiritual brothers.

Cast in the same mold and filled with the same spirit, they labored, prayed, and fasted together-all for the glory of God, the benefit of the Church, the good of religion, and the salvation of souls. Doubtless they effected more by their saintly lives and supplications before the throne of mercy than by their sermons, however eloquent and earnest these were.

The early writers speak of none of Saint Dominic's first disciples more frequently, or in terms of higher praise, than of Blessed Bertrand of Garrigue. They represent him as pious, candid, humble, zealous, much given to prayer, extremely mortified. If we may judge by their representation of him, he was a true Israelite in whom there was no guile, greatly beloved by Saint Dominic, one of his most frequently chosen companions in labor and travel. For this reason, as well as because they had toiled together for years, one can but believe that Bertrand was one of the first to whom Dominic made known his design of establishing an apostolic order, whose primary object should be the salvation of souls through an active ministry, and whose field of operation should embrace the world. In spite of his modesty and retiring manners, Bertrand was the kind of a man who would espouse such a cause with his whole heart, for the grace of God ever impelled him to do all in his power to increase the harvest of heaven.

(The First Disciples of Saint Dominic, The Very Reverand Victor F. O'Daniel, O.P., S.T.M., Litt.D., 1928)

In A.D. 1215 Blessed Bertrand received the habit of the Order from Saint Dominic. It was apparent that in the very early days of the Order, Blessed Bertrand was considered second in rank only to Saint Dominic himself. This may be evidenced by the fact that Saint Dominic left Blessed Bertrand in charge of the community when he went to Rome in the fall of A.D. 1215 to seek papal confirmation of the Order. In A.D. 1216 Saint Dominic named Blessed Bertrand as the third prior of the Order, in the Church of St. Romanus, when St. Dominic traveled to the Vatican to receive final approbation of the order.

Blessed Bertrand was known for his austere life and his obedience. In fact, Bertrand was often known to wail aloud over his own sins, until Saint Dominic forbade him from wailing for his own sins, but instructed him to bemoan the grave sins of the wicked. In obedience, he immediately took on a life of prayer for the wicked of the world.

The last journey of Saint Dominic and Blessed Bertrand was in A.D. 1219 when the pair traveled to Paris where, upon arrival, the two spent the entire night in prayer at the Notre Dame Church, at Roe-Amadour. Tradition tells us that during this journey the Holy Spirit gave Saint Dominic and Blessed Bertrand the gift of tongues and they were thus able to converse with German pilgrims in their native language.

In obedience to Saint Dominic, it appears that Blessed Bertrand did not speak of any of the miracles of Saint Dominic until after his death, and then only to Blessed Jordan of Saxony, the first Master General of the Order after our Father Saint Dominic.

The last apostolic work of Blessed Bertrand was for the Cistercian Sisters of Notre Dame of the Woods at Bouchet, in the Diocese of Valence, where he was giving to these austere sisters a course of sermons on the spiritual life. At only and age of about 35, Blessed Bertrand grew sick and died while with the Cistercian Sisters in A.D. 1230. His body was buried in the conventual cemetery of the Cistercian Nuns near the apse of the abbatial church.

However, shortly after hid death marvellous cures began to come forth through his intercession. As a consequence, the Cistercian Nuns had an altar erected in his honor in their church and placed a statute of Blessed Bertrand upon the altar. Blessed Bertrand's remains, found wholly intact, were afterwards exhumed and placed beneath the altar. However, the remains of Blessed Bertrand were destroyed by fire in A.D. 1561 during the religious wars that followed the Protestant Reformation.

Years later the cemetery of Notre Dame of the Woods became known as "Saint Bertrand's Cemetery," a name that endures to this day. Blessed Bertrand was beatified when his cultus was confirmed on 14 July 1881 by Pope Leo XIII.

Prayer

O God,
you joined to the holy patriarch Dominic
a companion and wonderful imitator in Blessed Bertrand.
With the help of his prayers
may we follow in life the faith which he preached
and so obtain the promised rewards in heaven.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Prayer of Thanksgiving for Children

2010-09-01T23:04:00.001-04:00

Loving Father,
as you have shared the great bounty of Your love with us,
your children
and given to us the body and blood
of your dearly beloved Son for our salvation,
by your grace, help us to cherish the gifts
you have blessed us with,
especially our children.

Holy Spirit, gives us parents the grace to battle weariness, impatience, and annoyance.
Help us to recognize in every child, Your precious gift.
As the Father so loved us as His children,
may we as parents so love our children unconditionally.
As Christ was perfectly obedient to the Father
in offering Himself for all humanity,
may we be truly Christian in our living,
and be perfectly obedient to Christ in offering ourselves
for our children, for the love of Him.

Blessed Mary, ever virgin, we praise you
as the exemplar of Christian love
clothed only in humanity.
As you so lovingly cared for Jesus your Son,
we ask for you to generously
provide us your children with the gift of your intercession.
By your assistance, Queen of Heaven,
may we be strengthened in our role as parents
and lead our children, as the first fruits of our labor
for the love of your Son,
to the greatest love of Christ that they can offer
and that we can instill.

Amen.

Trason Gabriel Lamar Finklea

2010-08-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

25 August 2010. Today our third child, Trason Gabriel Lamar, was born at 10:34 a.m.

Trason is a big tike, weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 ounces.

Many thanks for the prayers. I pray that all who find these pages have had as blessed an August as our family has.

A Breather

2010-08-01T12:51:00.002-04:00

1 AUGUST 2010. For all those who find these pages,your faithful author is going to take a breather for the month of August, as the Vatican does each year during this month. However, unlike the away-from-the-spotlight rest that some in the Vatican may enjoy this month, August will be a very busy month for me in pursuits away from these pages. Work will be quite busy, seeing me out of town each week but one this month. And, the week that I am scheduled to remain in town, our third child is also due. I will probably only punctuate the quiet of this month with a picture or two of the newest edition to our family. So, for now, pray for us and I will pray for you.

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2010-08-01T12:36:00.002-04:00

1 AUGUST 2010. Today the Church celebrates the eighteenth Sunday in ordinary time. Today's readings can be found here.

Today's Gospel reading from Saint Luke gives us Jesus' parable about the rich man who has such abundance that he decides to tear down his barns and build larger ones to store all of his excess. Pleased with tis plan, he says to himself: "[I] have so many good things stored up for many years,rest, eat, drink, be merry!" (Lk 12:19) But, God rebukes him saying, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?" (Lk 12:20) And so it is, Christ tells us, for all of those who store up their treasure on earth, but do not build up a richness in their faith - all we have will belong to someone else and ultimately will return to dust. Even our bodies are subject to this ultimate physical demise. However, our treasure in heaven is the spiritual destination to which we are all called and which is made available to us only by the merits of our savior, Christ the Lord.

In the same vein as today's Gospel message, the first reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes, begins with the description of everything on earth as vanity: "Here is one who has labored with wisdom and knowledge and skill, and yet to another who has not labored over it, he must leave property." (Eccl 2:21) This ancient author of the Book of Ecclesiastes describes for us the belief that there is a divine plan for humanity, but it is hidden from us, and those who search for happiness only here on earth will never find it. Of course, we Christians know that what was hidden under the law before Christ, is revealed to the faithful by Christ. Our destiny and purpose of life is to serve our Lord as we love one another, and to ultimately reside in the fullness of God's love in heaven for eternity.

The futility of searching for true happiness on earth is why Saint Paul exhorts the Colossians in today's second reading to "[t]hink of what is above, not of what is on earth." (Col 3:2) Saint Paul's exhortation is just as relevant today as it was at the time it was written, and properly puts our focus on the Kingdom of God, not our worldly kingdoms on earth:

Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly:
immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire,
and the greed that is idolatry.
Stop lying to one another,
since you have taken off the old self with its practices
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed, for knowledge,
in the image of its creator.
Here there is not Greek and Jew,
circumcision and uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, free;
but Christ is all and in all.

(Col 3:5, 9-11)

Praise our Lord and and trust in the motherly protection and intercession of our Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven.

Blessed Jane of Orvieto

2010-07-24T21:43:00.000-04:00

24 JULY 2010. Today the Dominican Order remembers Blessed Jane of Orvieto, born at Carnaiola, Italy in the later half of the thirteenth century. Blessed Jane is a lay Dominican, visionary and prophet, known for her life of deep prayer.

BLESSED JANE, popularly called Vanna, belonged to July 23 the peasant class, and was born at Carnajola, near Orvieto, in Italy, A.D. 1264. She was left an orphan at the age of five, and some of her playfellows told her that, now she had neither father nor mother, there was no one to care for her. Little Jane immediately led them to the church, and pointing to a picture of the Guardian Angel, said, " Behold him who will hold the place of father and mother to me. I have a better parent than you." Divine Providence came to the assistance of the little orphan, and she was adopted by some members of her family who lived at Orvieto. These people were anxious that she should enter the married state as soon as her age would permit, but Jane's heart had been consecrated from childhood to a Heavenly Spouse. To escape their importunity she fled to the house of a friend who lived in the country, and entered the Third Order of Saint Dominic.

In the school of the Divine Master she was taught the virtues of the religious life, detachment from earthly things, patience, obedience, humility, a tender charity for the poor and the sick ; above all, an ardent love of God. So brightly did this heavenly flame burn within her, that, during her long devotions, which occupied great part of the day, she could bear only the lightest clothing, and the bare mention of the love of Jesus, of the maternal goodness of Mary, or of the sufferings of a martyr, sufficed to throw her into an ecstasy. Every Good Friday but one, during the last nine years of her life, she was favoured with an extraordinary rapture, lasting from mid-day until evening, during which her body lay stiff and motionless in the attitude of the crucifix, and her bones were distinctly heard to crack, as though being violently dislocated.

One Christmas night, as she was grieving that sickness prevented her from assisting at Midnight Mass and receiving the Divine Infant in Holy Communion, her little chamber was miraculously flooded with light, in the midst of which appeared a white Host, which descended into her breast. On another occasion, when she was again confined to her bed by illness, our Blessed Lady appeared to her, bearing the Divine Infant in her arms. " Jane," said the Holy Child, " thou canst not to-day receive Me in Holy Communion, but I am ever thine by grace."

Blessed Jane strove to conceal from the knowledge of all the Divine favours which were lavished upon her; she sincerely regarded herself as the worst of sinners, and nothing caused her so much pain as to see herself treated with respect and veneration. On the other hand, she looked upon those who ill-treated her as her benefactors. One day, when a woman had grossly insulted her, she said, " I am sorry that I am so weak as to be unable to do a severe penance for this poor woman's sins; at any rate, I shall have the pleasure of saying two hundred Paters and Aves for her." Hence it passed into a proverb at Orvieto, that, in order to obtain an abundant share in Sister Jane's prayers, one must do her some injury.

She was endowed with the gift of prophecy, and amongst other things predicted some of the miracles which she was to work after her death. She had to endure cruel persecution from the devils, who were sometimes suffered to beat and otherwise ill-treat her; but she bore all with the utmost courage and patience.

Towards the close of her life, Blessed Jane had the happiness of having for her spiritual director Blessed James of Bevagna, who was at that time exercising the office of Lector and Preacher in the Convent at Orvieto. At the beginning of the August of 1301, this holy man had occasion to visit the Convent he had founded at Bevagna, and there he was attacked by his last illness and happily departed to our Lord. On the morning of his death, Blessed Jane, who did not even know that he was ill, was praying in the Church of the Friars at Orvieto, when she saw her holy confessor coming towards her. She was greatly rejoiced at the sight, and begged him to hear her confession, which he accordingly did. He then gave her his belt and his knife, to keep in remembrance of him. In the course of the afternoon, Blessed Jane sent a small present to the Convent by a servant, who brought back word that Father James was dying at Bevagna. " Impossible !" said the servant of God, " I saw him in church this morning; " and she produced the things which he had given her and which the Fathers perfectly recognised as having been those used by her saintly director. They then despatched messengers to Bevagna, who found that Blessed James had indeed died that morning, and that his body was lying exposed in the church.

Blessed Jane prepared for her own last passage with the greatest fervour, and, fortified by the holy Sacraments of the Church, departed to her Spouse on the 23rd of July, A.D. 1306. Many visions and miracles bore witness to the glory which she had attained in heaven. Fifteen months after her death, when her body was removed to a more fitting resting-place, it was found perfectly flexible and incorrupt. She was beatified by Benedict XIV.

(Short Lives of Dominican Saints, 205-208 (1901)).

Prayer

O God,
who didst reward by an increase of heavenly gifts
the singular purity and fervent love of Blessed Jane, Thy Virgin,
grant that we may so imitate her virtues
as to be ever pleasing to Thee,
by the chastity of our lives
and the purity of all our affections.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2010-07-18T15:53:00.000-04:00

18 JULY 2010. Today the Church celebrates the sixteenth Sunday of ordinary time, and the long dog days of Summer are upon us. Today's reading can be found here.

In the first reading from the Book of Genesis, the Lord appears to Abraham as three strangers, whom Abraham is quick to serve. In response to Abraham's hospitality, the Lord promises to return to Abraham again in a year, at which time Sarah, thought to be barren, would be with child. So, Abraham's service and hospitality for the Lord is repaid.

However, in the Gospel reading from Saint Luke we hear of Martha's complaints that she is left to wait on the Lord while her sister, Mary, did nothing but sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him speak. When Martha asks the Lord to make Mary give her assistance, Christ responds:

"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.There is need of only one thing.Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her."

However, Christ does not ignore or reproach Martha for her hospitality who, like Abraham, has the great honor of personally serving the Lord. Instead, Christ responds to Martha's complaints and says: do not be anxious about your perception of others or your own slights. Be focused, instead, on the one thing that is important: the Word of God.

Indeed, to serve the Lord is an honor. We see from the first reading and the Gospel that there can be two paths to that service: an active service that is focused on the physical needs of others, and a contemplative or interior service that is focused on the Word of the Lord.

And, in the second reading too, we hear Saint Paul's words of acknowledgment of his service for the Lord:

I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister . . . .

Although Saint Paul has suffered for Christ, that suffering is a cause for his rejoicing exactly because it has been endured in service to Christ. Suffering too can be offered and endured in service to our Lord. We need look no farther than the great and Venerable Pope John Paul II and Blessed Mother Theresa to see contemporary examples of this truth.

In a profound sense suffering unifies both the active service to the Lord and the contemplative because often physical suffering produces interior anguish. To stay firm to Christ, then, in that interior difficulty, and to offer physical and other suffering to God, is a manner of service that all of us, at one time or another, can give to the Lord in the image of Abraham and Martha.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

2010-07-16T23:45:00.003-04:00

16 JULY 2010. Today the Church celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patronesss of the Carmelite Order who celebrate today as a feast.

Historically, Mount Carmel is an important location in Judeo-Christian history, associated in the Old Testament with the great prophet Elijah. It was at Mount Carmel that Elijah defended the purity of Israel's faith in the living God. According to the story told in the First Book of Kings, Elijah challenged the450 prophets of Baal, which the people of Israel had been persuaded to worship, as to who of the two of them, Elijah or the 450 prophets of Baal, could call upon his diety to consume a sacrifice with fire. The prophets of Baal were unable to call upon Baal to consume their sacrifice, but Elijah, after having drenched the sacrifice in water, prostrated himself in prayer, and following his prayer:

The LORD'S fire came down and consumed the holocaust, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench. Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, "The LORD is God! The LORD is God!"

(1 Kgs 18: 38-39). Immediately upon the people's acclamation that the Lord is God, a hard rain began to fall, ending a serious and prolonged drought that had plagued the area.

In the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries a group of hermits began to settle on Mount Carmel. They built a chapel in the midst of their hermitages, which they dedicated to Our Lady. By the fifteenth century popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel had centered on the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, or the brown scapular.

According to the traditions of the Carmelite order, on 16 July 1251, the Blessed Virgin appeared to St. Simon Stock, a Carmelite. During his vision, she revealed to him the Brown Scapular. About a 125 years later, the Carmelite order began to celebrate on this date as the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

The Carmelites had long claimed that the order extended back to ancient times. In fact, they assert that their order was founded on Mount Carmel by Elijah and Elisha, his assistant. In A.D. 1226, Pope Honorius III approved the Carmelite Order and, in doing so, seemed to have accepted its antiquity. In A.D. 1609 the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was declared to be the patronal feast of the Carmelite order.

From there, celebration of the feast began to spread Pope Benedict XIII placed the feast on the General Roman Calendar in A.D. 1726, and it has since been adopted by some Eastern Rite Catholics as well.

Today's memorial celebrates the devotion that the Blessed Virgin Mary has to those who are devoted to her, and who outwardly demonstrate that devotion by wearing the Brown Scapular. According to tradition, those who wear the scapular faithfully and remain devoted to the Blessed Virgin until death will be granted the grace of final perseverance and will be delivered from Purgatory early.

Prayer

O most beautiful Flower of Mt. Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendour of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother. O holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart, to succour me in this necessity; there are none that can withstand your power.
Amen.

Saint Bonaventure

2010-07-15T23:40:00.001-04:00

15 JULY 2010. Today the Church celebrates the memorial of Saint Bonaventure, a Franciscan theologian, bishop and Doctor of the Church.

Born in about the year A.D. 1218 in Tuscany, Bonaventure studied philosophy and theology in Paris and, having earned the title of master, taught his fellow friars with tremendous success. In A.D. 1257 Saint Bonaventure was elected as the Minister General of the Franciscan Order and is credited with bringing peace and unity to the Order and the Church.

After being made Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, Saint Bonaventure died at the Council of Lyons on 16 July 1274. His writings are an important source of illumination for both philosophy and theology.

Prayer

All-powerful Father,
may we who celebrate the feast of Saint Bonaventure
always benefit from his wisdom
and follow the example of his love.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2010-07-11T09:20:00.003-04:00

11 JULY 2010. Today the Church celebrates the fifteenth Sunday in ordinary time. Readings for today's mass can be found here.

Today's Gospel reading from the Gospel of Saint Luke gives us the story of the legal scholar who questioned Jesus as to what he must do to attain eternal life. Jesus answers by having him recite the law, to which he says:

You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus, then, tells him that he has correctly recited the law, and that by faithfully following these commands he "will live." But, the man wishes to justify himself (his own knowledge of the law or his own life), so he further questions Jesus, asking "And who is my neighbor?"

In reply, Jesus gives us this parable of the good Samaritan:

"A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
'Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.'

Jesus then poses this question to his scholarly interlocutor:

Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"

When the man acknowledges that the good Samaritan, who helped the injured man, was the neighbor because he treated the injured man with mercy, Christ tells him: "Go and do likewise."

That is, indeed, the command of Christ to all of us, to go and do likewise. As our Lord has poured out his mercy on us with such generosity, we are to live in imitation of that mercy, to live in imitation of Christ who gave Himself entirely for our salvation.

Notice too that Christ rephrased the scholar's question: the scholar asked: "Who is my neighbor?" But, in response to the scholar, at the end of the parable, Christ asks the scholar which of the three--priest, Levite, or Samaritan--was neighbor to the wounded man? While the scholar's question was self-centered--whom must I love--Christ's question in return is selfless--what is a neighbor called to do? The scholar's question, love as Christ did.

If I say that I am a Christian, then I am laying claim to a life that is being lived in imitation of Christ. I cannot say that; I have no right to lay claim to the statement that my life truly is lived in imitation of Christ, wretched sinner than I am. But, I do lay claim to this: I try to live in imitation of Christ and, though often tripped up by my own failings, I continue to try to imitate Christ. For I am not a Christian, in the truest sense, I am attempting to achieve Christianity out of love for our Lord.

In is recent encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict XVI describes the parable of the good Samaritan these terms:

The parable of the Good Samaritan offers two particularly important clarifications. Until that time, the concept of “neighbor” was understood as referring essentially to one’s countrymen and to foreigners who had settled in the land of Israel; in other words, to the closely-knit community of a single country or people. This limit is now abolished. Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbor. The concept of “neighbor” is now universalized, yet it remains concrete. Despite being extended to all mankind, it is not reduced to a generic, abstract and undemanding expression of love, but calls for my own practical commitment here and now.

The Church has the duty to interpret ever anew this relationship between near and far with regard to the actual daily life of her members. Lastly, we should especially mention the great parable of the Last Judgment (cf. Matthew 25:31-46), in which love becomes the criterion for the definitive decision about a human life's worth or lack thereof. Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" (Matthew 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbor have become one: In the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.

Blessed Adrian Fortescue

2010-07-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

8 JULY 2010. Today the Dominican Order remembers Blessed Adrian Fortescue, a fifteenth and sixteenth century lay Dominican, husband, father, and martyr.

Prayer

O God,
since all things are within your power,
grant through the prayers of blessed Adrian, your martyr,
that we who keep his feast today
may become stronger in the love of your name
and hold to your holy Church even at the cost of our lives.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Blessed Benedict XI

2010-07-07T22:12:00.000-04:00

7 JULY 2010. Today the Dominican Order remembers Blessed Pope Benedict XI, the second Dominican Pope and ninth Master General of the Order.

Prayer

Eternal Shepherd,
you made Blessed Benedict known
for his great love of the brethren
and his service to your flock.
By the help of his prayers
may we ever be ardent in our fellowship
and with one heart be steadfast
in the household of the Church.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Saint Maria Goretti

2010-07-06T23:26:00.002-04:00

6 JULY 2010. O Blessed Innocent! Today the Church remembers Saint Maria Goretti, a young girl that was martyred for her faith and is one of the youngest of all canonized saints.

Born on 16 October 1890, Maria Goretti at Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy, Maria was born the third of six children to Luigi Goretti and Assunta Carlini. In A.D. 1896 Maria's family moved to Ferriere di Conca, and not long afterward Saint Maria's father died of malaria. She was only nine at the time of her father's death.

After the death of her father, the family was forced to move onto the Serenelli farm to survive. On the farm there was a young man that, though many years older than Maria, attempted to make sexual advances toward the young girl on several occasions. Always rebuffing him, Maria sought to remain chaste.

While Saint Maria's mother and siblings worked in the fields, Maria ofter stayed at home with her infant sister, taking care of the house. It was tedious and difficult work, but tradition tells that Saint Maria undetook this work without complaint.

On 5 July 1902, Maria was at home sewing and tending to her infant sister. Alessandro Sereneli, age 20, came into Saint Maria's home and threatened to kill her is she did not do as he said. He intended to rape her. However, Saint Maria protested, screaming: "No! It is a sin! God does not want this, you'll go to hell." Sereneli first choked Saint Maria, but as she continued to struggle he stabbed her eleven times. Then, mortally wounded, as she attempted to flee, Sereneli stabbed her three more times before himself running away.

Awaking to the noise, Saint Maria's infant sister began crying. Not long after, Sereneli's parents came to check on the crying child and found Saint Maria bleeding to death. Immediately, she was taken to the local hospital, where surgery was attempted on her without anesthesia. However, half-way through the surgery she awoke and insisted remaining awake. The surgery could not sustain Saint Maria's life. And, about 20 hours after her attack, and after having forgiven her attacker and saying that she wanted him with her in heaven, Saint Maria died from her injuries, clutching a crucifix and looking upon a vision of the Virgin Mary.

Saint Maria died on 6 July 1902 at the age of 12.

Shortly after the attack on Saint Maria, Alessandro Sereneli was captured. He was later tried and sentence to life in prison for his brutal crime, but because of he was a minor at the time, his sentence was commuted to 30 years. For many years Sereneli was silent and unrepentant. However, after a visit from a local bishop, Sereneli's heart began to soften. After being released from prison, Sereneli visited Saint Maria's mother, begging her forgiveness for his crime. She responded that since Saint Maria had forgiven him, she could do no less. Reportedly, they attended mass together the next day and received Holy Communion next to one another.

Sereneli said that while he was in prison, he had a vision of Saint Maria. He saw her in a garden, where she was dressed in white and was gathering lillies. She saw him and smiled. Then, approaching him she handed him an armful of lillies and as he accepted them they were transformed into a still white flame. Sereneli credited this vision of Saint Maria to his conversion and even testified in favor of her beatification.

Afterward, Sereneli said that he prayed to Saint Maria every day, and referred to her as his "little saint." He later became a lay brother in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, and served as his friary's receptionist and gardener until he died in 1970.

Each of Saint Maria's three brothers credited Saint Maria's assistance, after her death, to having saved their lives.

Saint Maria was beatified by Pope Pius XII on 25 March 1945. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII on 24 June 1950. Both her mother, reportedly a first in the history of the Church, and Sereneli attended her canonization.

Prayer

Oh Saint Maria Goretti who,
strengthened by God's grace,
did not hesitate even at the age of twelve
to shed your blood and sacrifice life itself
to defend your virginal purity,
look graciously on the unhappy human race
which has strayed far from the path of eternal salvation.
Teach us all, and especially youth,w
ith what courage and promptitude
we should flee for the love of Jesus
anything that could offend Him or stain our souls with sin.
Obtain for us from our Lord victory in temptation,
comfort in the sorrows of life,
and the grace which we earnestly beg of thee (for N.),
and may we one day enjoy with thee
the imperishable glory of Heaven.

Amen.

Happy Independence Day!

2010-07-05T13:33:00.000-04:00

5 JULY 2010. Although yesterday was Independence Day here in the United States, today it is observed as a federal holiday. I hope that one and all that find these pages from our shores had a safe and happy Fourth of July.

Here is a thought that was shared with us during the homily from yesterday's mass celebrating the fourteenth Sunday of ordinary time:

Freedom is not an end in itself, but only a means to an end. The end is loving and serving our Lord. If we use our freedom to concern ourselves with the ways of the world to the exclusion of following Christ (in the words of Saint Paul, "the desire[s] of the flesh" (Gal 5:16)), then we are not free. But we place ourselves in bondage to the world and sin and, ultimately, death. Exercising our freedom to serve God truly sets us free.

Saint Thomas the Apostle

2010-07-03T23:39:00.000-04:00

Lord Jesus, Saint Thomas doubted Your resurrection until he touched Your wounds. After Pentecost, You called him to become a missionary in India, but he doubted again and said no. He changed his mind only after being taken into slavery by a merchant who happened to be going to India. Once he was cured of his doubt, You freed him and he began the work You had called him to do. As the patron saint against doubt, I ask him to pray for me when I question the direction in which You are leading me. Forgive me for mistrusting You, Lord, and help me to grow from the experience. Saint Thomas, pray for me. Amen.Your resurrection until he touched Your wounds. After Pentecost, You called him to become a missionary in India, but he doubted again and said no. He changed his mind only after being taken into slavery by a merchant who happened to be going to India. Once he was cured of his doubt, You freed him and he began the work You had called him to do. As the patron saint against doubt, I ask him to pray for me when I question the direction in which You are leading me. Forgive me for mistrusting You, Lord, and help me to grow from the experience. Saint Thomas, pray for me. Amen.

IMAGE: the Incredulity of Saint Thomas, Caravaggio.

First Holy Martyrs of the Church of Rome

2010-06-30T22:32:00.002-04:00

30 JUNE 2010. At the end of June, the Church celebrates the first holy martyrs of Rome, that received the crown of martyrdom under the persecution of the Church by Emporer Nero after the burning of Rome in A.D. 64. We hear of these holy martyrs from two principle sources: from the pagan writer Tacitus, in his Annales (15, 44), and from Pope Clement in his letter to the Corinthians (chapters 5 and 6).

Below are the legacies of these first holy martyrs:

The Torches of Nero, Henryk Siemiradzki

Nero fastened the guilt [for the great fire of Rome] and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.

Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion; for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's cruelty, that they were being destroyed.

(Tacitus, Annales, 15, 44)

Let us leave behind the examples from times of old, and come to those who struggled closest to us; let us consider the noble models of our own generation. It was through jealousy and envy that the greatest and most upright pillars of the Church were persecuted and struggled unto death. Let us set before our eyes the good apostles. First of all, Peter, who because of unreasonable jealousy, suffered not merely once or twice but many times, and , having thus given his witness, went to the place of glory that he deserved. It was through jealousy and conflict that Paul showed the way to the prize for perseverance. He was put in chains seven times, sent into exile, and stoned; a herald both in the east and the west, he achieved a noble fame by his faith. He taught justice to all the world and, he gave his witness before those in authority; then he left this world and was taken up into the holy place, a superb example of endurance.

Around these men with their holy lives there gathered a great thong of the elect, who, though victims of jealousy, gave us the finest example of endurance in the midst of many indignities and tortures. Through jealousy women were tormented like Dirce or the daughters of Danaus, suffering terrible and unholy acts of violence. But they courageously finished the course of faith and despite their bodily weakness won a noble prize. It was jealousy that separated wives from husbands, and violated the words of our father Adam: This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Jealousy and strife have overthrown cities and uprooted mighty nations.

We are writing this, beloved, not only for your admonition but also as a reminder to ourselves; for we are placed in the same arena, and the same contest lies before us. Hence we ought to put aside vain and useless concerns and go straight to the glorious and venerable norm which is our tradition, and we should consider what is good, pleasing and acceptable in the sight of him who made us. Let us fix our gaze on the blood of Christ, realizing how precious it is to his Father, since it was shed for our salvation and brought the grace of repentance to all the world.

(Pope Clement I, Letter to the Corinthians, Liturgy of the Hours)

Prayer

Father,
you sanctified the Church of Rome
with the blood of its first martyrs.
May we find strength from their courage
and rejoice in their triumph.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul

2010-06-28T23:36:00.028-04:00

29 JUNE 2010. Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the rock of the Church and preachers to the gentiles and, in fact, all the world.

Today is also the annual presentation of the pallium (image below) - given to each new metropolitan archbishop as a sign of his authority and his communion with his fellow bishops, and most importantly, the bishop of Rome.

In full, then, the Holy Father's homily from this morning.

Dear brothers and sisters!

The biblical texts of this Eucharistic Liturgy of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, in their great wealth, highlight a theme that could be summarized thus: God is close to his faithful servants and frees them from all evil, and frees the Church from negative powers. It is the theme of the freedom of the Church, which has a historical aspect and another more deeply spiritual one.

This theme runs through today's Liturgy of the Word. The first and second readings speak, respectively, of St Peter and St Paul, emphasizing precisely the liberating action of God in them. Especially the text from the Acts of the Apostles describes in abundant detail the intervention of the Angel of the Lord, who releases Peter from the chains and leads him outside the prison in Jerusalem, where he had been locked up, under close supervision, by King Herod (cf. at 12.1 to 11). Paul, however, writing to Timothy when he feels close to the end of his earthly life, takes stock which shows that the Lord was always near him and freed him from many dangers and frees him still by introducing him into His eternal Kingdom ( see 2 Tim 4, 6-8.17-18). The theme is reinforced by the Responsorial Psalm (Ps 33), and also finds a particular development in the Gospel of Peter's confession, where Christ promises that the powers of hell shall not prevail against his Church (cf. Mt 16:18).

Observing closely we note a certain progression regarding this issue. In the first reading a specific episode is narrated that shows the Lord's intervention to free Peter from prison. In the second Paul, on the basis of his extraordinary apostolic experience, is convinced that the Lord, who already freed him "from the mouth of the lion "delivers him" from all evil", by opening the doors of Heaven to him. In the Gospel we no longer speak of the individual Apostles, but the Church as a whole and its safekeeping from the forces of evil, in the widest and most profound sense. Thus we see that the promise of Jesus - "the powers of hell shall not prevail" on the Church – yes, includes the historical experience of persecution suffered by Peter and Paul and other witnesses of the Gospel, but it goes further, wanting to protect especially against threats of a spiritual order, as Paul himself writes in his Letter to the Ephesians: " For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens"(Eph 6:12).

Indeed, if we think of the two millennia of Church history, we can see that - as the Lord Jesus had announced (cf. Mt 10.16-33) – Christians have never been lacking in trials, which in some periods and places have assumed the character of real persecution. These, however, despite the suffering they cause, are not the greatest danger for the Church. In fact it suffers greatest damage from what pollutes the Christian faith and life of its members and its communities, eroding the integrity of the Mystical Body, weakening its ability to prophesy and witness, tarnishing the beauty of its face. This reality is already attested in the Pauline Epistle. The First Epistle to the Corinthians, for example, responds to some problems of divisions, inconsistencies, of infidelity to the Gospel which seriously threaten the Church. But the Second Letter to Timothy – of which we heard an excerpt - speaks about the dangers of the "last days", identifying them with negative attitudes that belong to the world and can infect the Christian community: selfishness, vanity, pride, love of money, etc. (cf. 3.1 to 5). The Apostle’s conclusion is reassuring: men who do wrong - he writes - "will not make further progress, for their foolishness will be plain to all" (3.9). There is therefore a guarantee of freedom promised by God to the Church, it is freedom from the material bonds that seek to prevent or coerce mission, both through spiritual and moral evils, which may affect its authenticity and credibility.

The theme of the freedom of the Church, guaranteed by Christ to Peter, also has a specific relevance to the rite of the imposition of the pallium, which we renew today for thirty-eight metropolitan archbishops, to whom I address my most cordial greeting, extending with it affection to all who have wanted to accompany them on this pilgrimage. Communion with Peter and his successors, in fact, is the guarantee of freedom for the Church's Pastors and the Communities entrusted to them. It is highlighted on both levels in the aforementioned reflections. Historically, union with the Apostolic See, ensures the particular Churches and Episcopal Conferences freedom with respect to local, national or supranational powers, that can sometimes hinder the mission of the ecclesial Church. Furthermore, and most essentially, the Petrine ministry is a guarantee of freedom in the sense of full adherence to truth and authentic tradition, so that the People of God may be preserved from mistakes concerning faith and morals. Hence the fact that each year the new Metropolitans come to Rome to receive the pallium from the hands of the Pope, must be understood in its proper meaning, as a gesture of communion, and the issue of freedom of the Church gives us a particularly important key for interpretation. This is evident in the case of churches marked by persecution, or subject to political interference or other hardships. But this is no less relevant in the case of communities that suffer the influence of misleading doctrines or ideological tendencies and practices contrary to the Gospel. Thus the pallium becomes, in this sense, a pledge of freedom, similar to the "yoke" of Jesus, that He invites us to take up, each on their shoulders (Mt 11:29-30). While demanding, the commandment of Christ is "sweet and light" and instead of weighing down on the bearer, it lifts him up, thus the bond with the Apostolic See – while challenging – sustains the Pastor and the portion of the Church entrusted to his care, making them freer and stronger.

I would like to draw a final point from the Word of God, in particular from Christ's promise that the powers of hell shall not prevail against his Church. These words may also have a significant ecumenical value, since, as I mentioned earlier, one of the typical effects of the Devil is division within the Church community. The divisions are in fact symptoms of the power of sin, which continues to act in members of the Church even after redemption. But the word of Christ is clear: " Non praevalebunt – it will not prevail" (Matt. 16:18). The unity of the Church is rooted in its union with Christ, and the cause of full Christian unity - always to be sought and renewed from generation to generation - is well supported by his prayer and his promise. In the fight against the spirit of evil, God has given us in Jesus the 'Advocate', defender, and after his Easter, "another Paraclete" (Jn 14:16), the Holy Spirit, which remains with us always and leads the Church into the fullness of truth (cf. Jn 14:16; 16:13), which is also the fullness of charity and unity. With these feelings of confident hope, I am pleased to greet the delegation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which, in the beautiful custom of reciprocal visits, participates in the celebrations of the patron saints of Rome. Together we thank God for progress in ecumenical relations between Catholics and Orthodox, and we renew our commitment to generously reciprocate to God's grace, which leads us to full communion.

Dear friends, I cordially greet all of you: Cardinals, Brother Bishops, Ambassadors and civil authorities, in particular the Mayor of Rome, priests, religious and lay faithful. Thank you for your presence. May the Saints Peter and Paul help you to grow in love for the holy Church, the Mystical Body of Christ the Lord and messenger of unity and peace for all men. May they also help you to offer the hardships and sufferings endured for fidelity to the Gospel with joy for her holiness and her mission. May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles and Mother of the Church, always watch over you and especially over the Ministry of metropolitan archbishops. With her heavenly help may you always live and act in that freedom that Christ has won for us. Amen.

(Archbishop Wenski of Miami, Florida receives the pallium)

Saint Irenaeus

2010-06-28T23:07:00.000-04:00

28 JUNE 2010. Today the Church celebrates the memorial of a Saint Irenaeus, a bishop and martyr of the early Church that dedicated himself to finding peace in the Church.

Saint Irenaeus was born around A.D. 130. He was educated in Symrna and became a disciple of Saint Polycarp, the bishop in that city (and, tradition tells, a disciple of Saint John the Apostle). During the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, in A.D. 177 Irenaeus was ordained a priest at Lyons and shortly after was ordained bishop of Lyons. He composed many works that defended the Catholic faith against the Gnostic heresy and other untruths, and it is believed that he received the martyr's crown in about A.D. 202.

Generally accepted as the most important of Saint Irenaeus' writings, Adversus Haereses ("Against Heresies") is a five volume refutation of the Gnostic heresy, that seeks to persuade, through reason and reliance on Holy Scripture, the error of Gnosticisim. Battling against heresy, Saint Irenaeus' writings also disclose that the true path to Scripture interpretation--to the oral teaching tradition of the Chruch--is only through the bishops of the Church.

Saint Irenaeus' theology centered on his teaching of the unity of Christ with the God the Father and the Holy Spirit, in contrast to the Gnostic beliefes that divided the nature of God. And, Saint Irenaeus was among the first of the Church fathers to develop a full mariology to explain and teach Mary's role in salvation history.

Prayer

Father,
you called Saint Irenaeus to uphold your truth
and bring peace to your Church.
By his prayers renew us in faith and love
that we may always be intent
on fostering unity and peace.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.

THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2010-06-27T11:50:00.044-04:00

27 JUNE 2010. Today the Church celebrates the thirteenth Sunday in ordinary time. Thus begins the summer vacation season, both here in the United States, and in the Vatican where the curia will take its yearly break and our Holy Father will retreat to Castel Gandolfo until September.

Today's readings can be found here.

A reflection will be posted later. Check back!

NOVUS:
The focus of our lives must be loving our Lord, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and serving the Holy Trinity with the devotion of our lives poured out for God. Today's readings provide for us the focus that our Christian lives should have.

The first reading from the First Book of Kings details Elijah's call to Elisha, his attendant. When Elisha puts off Elijah, to handle the matters that he thinks must be done before following Elijah, he endangers his fulfillment of his vocation. (1 Kgs 19:20) In the same vein, from the Gospel from Saint Luke, we hear the colloquy between Jesus and an unnamed interlocutor:

And to another [Jesus] said, “Follow me.”But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”

Jesus cautions the man to whom He is speaking to not let the affairs of the world get in the way of God's work ("Let the dead bury their dead . . ."), but exhorts him to follow Him by going out to "proclaim the kingdom of God."

So in both the Old Testament and the Gospel readings we see the tension between serving God and fulfilling our worldly obligations. And, we hear from Christ's mouth that serving Him is to be our focus. But, that does not mean that we should neglect our worldly obligations either.

A mother that neglects to feed her infant because she is consumed in prayer, is not truly serving the Lord. Each of us has a vocation that the Lord brings to light in our lives. Some of us are parents, and some are not, some of us are married and some are not. In each of our vocations, though, and in whatever call to further vocations we receive in our lives, we must remain open to serving the Lord, and to focus our lives in that respect.

For parents, we must love and care for our children and teach them our Catholic faith, by our words and our actions. Daily prayer with our children, weekly (or more frequent) mass attendance, discussion of the saints and the teachings of our faith--these are all examples of service given to the Lord to fulfill a vocation of Christian parenthood.

Do all that you do out of love and in adoration of the Lord.

Lift up your daily life for the Lord, in whatever vocation that you have. Bless the Lord by serving Him! Focus on that.

This focus is needed because our free will leaves us open to sin. We have been given the great gift of free will, but in that we are capable of closing ourselves off from God. Our will can be exercised even to deny God's existence or simply to live as though God does not exist. That is why, in today's second reading, we hear these words of Saint Paul:

For freedom Christ set us free . . . [b]ut do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh . . . live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want.

So, we see that the "flesh"--the world--is not in-line with the Spirit, and, indeed, has not been since the time of Christ and His Apostles. Today's struggles of the faith against a faithless world is not new. That is why we must focus on serving the Lord. Only in serving God and following His commands do we live the freedom of our lives as we are destined to do by the Father and have been redeemed by the Son. Faithlessness, denial of God, living as though God does not exist, putting the Lord off to another day--all of these things keep us enslaved to the sin of selfishness. We are to focus on serving the Lord; serving ourselves entraps us in sin and death and rejects the freedom that Christ has won for us.

So, I pray that all of us will live in the Spirit--live in the freedom of Christ--serving our Lord and one another as Christ Jesus taught us; and those who are enslaved to sin and world will, by the grace of God the Holy Spirit, experience a true conversion of life. And, I pray that each of us will experience that same conversion to Christ each and every day--continually turning ourselves to Christ and recommitting to live in the freedom of the Spirit that has been so generously poured out upon us.

Five Fold Scapular Dressing Prayer

2010-06-27T11:34:00.007-04:00

(To be said as you place the scapular across your shoulders, before dressing, at the beginning of each day.)

Holy Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,
save us.
Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary,
protect us.
Holy Trinity,
we adore Thee.
Holy Mary, ever virgin Mother of God,
we venerate Thee and throw ourselves
under the mercy of the protection
of Your intercession.

Amen.

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

2010-06-24T22:39:00.000-04:00

24 JUNE 2010. On today's Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist, a prayer:

O God,
You raised up St. John the Baptist
to prepare a perfect people for Christ.
Fill Your people with the joy of possessing His grace,
and direct the minds of all the faithful
in the way of peace and salvation.

Grant that as St. John was martyred for truth and justice,
so we may energetically profess our Faith in You,
and lead others to the Way, the Truth, and Eternal Life.

Amen.

The Holy Father's Catecheses Continued: Saint Thomas Aquinas

2010-06-23T09:42:00.000-04:00

23 JUNE 2010. Today the Holy Father concluded the third of his catecheses on Saint Thomas Aquinas. Highlights of his second catechesis in the series can be found here, and the first can be found here. From the Vatican Information Service, we receive this report:

The Holy Father explained how St. Thomas' masterpiece, the "Summa Theologica", contains 512 questions and 2,669 articles in which the saint "precisely, clearly and pertinently" outlines the truths of faith as they emerge from "the teachings of Holy Scripture and of the Fathers of the Church, especially St. Augustine". This exertion "of the human mind was always illuminated - as St. Thomas' own life shows - by prayer, by the light that comes from on high.

"In his 'Summa'", the Pope added, "St. Thomas starts from the fact that God exists in three different ways: God exists in Himself, He is the principle and end of all things, so all creatures come from and depend upon Him. Secondly, God is present through His Grace in the life and activity of Christians, of the saints. Finally, God is present in a very special way in the person of Christ, and in the Sacraments which derive from His work of redemption".

"St. Thomas dedicates special attention to the mystery of the Eucharist, to which he was particularly devoted", said Benedict XVI, encouraging people "to follow the example of the saints and love this Sacrament. Let us participate devotedly in Mass in order to obtain its spiritual fruits; let us feed from the Body and Blood of the Lord that we may be incessantly nourished by divine Grace; let us pause willingly and often in the company of the Blessed Sacrament".

The Holy Father went on: "What St. Thomas explained with academic rigour in his main theological works such as the ' Summa Theologica' was also expressed in his preaching", the content of which "corresponds almost in its entirety to the structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Indeed, in a time such as our own of renewed commitment to evangelisation, catechism and preaching must never lack the following fundamental themes: what we believe, i.e., the Creed; what we pray, i.e., the Our Father and the Ave Maria; and what we live as biblical revelation teaches us, i.e., the law of the love of God and neighbour and the Ten Commandments".

"In his brief 'Devotissima expositio super symbolum apostolorum', St. Thomas explains the importance of faith. Through it, he says, the soul is united to God, ... life is given a clear direction and we can easily overcome temptations. To those who object that faith is foolish because it makes us believe something that does not enter into the experience of the senses, St. Thomas offers a very detailed response, claiming that this is an inconsistent objection because human intelligence is limited and cannot know everything.

"Only if we were able to have perfect knowledge of all things visible and invisible would it be foolish to accept truth out of pure faith", said the Pope. "Moreover, as St. Thomas observes, it is impossible to live without entrusting ourselves to the experience of others, when our personal knowledge does not extend far enough. Thus it is reasonable to have faith in God Who reveals Himself, and in the witness of the Apostles".

Commenting on the article of the Creed concerning the incarnation of the Divine Word, St. Thomas says that "the Christian faith is reinforced in the light of the mystery of the Incarnation; hope emerges more trustingly at the thought that the Son of God came among us as one of us, to communicate His divinity to mankind; charity is revived because there is no more evident sign of God's love for us than to see the Creator of the universe Himself become a creature", said the Holy Father.

"St. Thomas, like all saints, was greatly devoted to the Blessed Virgin", Pope Benedict concluded. "He gave her a stupendous title: 'Triclinium totius Trinitatis'; in other words, the place where the Trinity finds repose because, thanks to the Incarnation, the three divine persons dwell in her as in no other creature, and experience the delight and joy of living in her soul full of Grace. Through her intercession we can obtain any kind of help".
AG/ VIS 20100623 (720)

Blessed Innocent V

2010-06-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

23 JUNE 2010. Today the Dominican Order remembers the feast day of Blessed Innocent V, friar and pope.

Pope Blessed Innocent V (Petrus A. Tarentasia) was the first of the Dominican Order to ascend to the papal throne. Born in about A.D. 1225 at, what is today, southeastern France, Blessed Innocent V joined the Dominican Order at a young age and gained fame as a preacher.

Joining the Dominican Order at the age of 16, Blessed Innocent V, graduated from the University of Paris as a Master of Sacred Theology in A.D. 1259. At the University of Paris he won great distinction and was sometimes referred to at the institution as the most famous doctor (Doctor famosissimus). He collaborated with Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Albert the Great to develop a rule of study for the Dominican Order.

After a period as the Dominican Provincial in France, Tarentasia became Archbishop of Lyons in A.D. 1272 and Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia in A.D. 1273. He played a prominent role in the Second Ecumenical Council of Lyons, at which he delivered two discourses to the assembled council fathers and delivered the funeral oration for Saint Bonaventure.

After the death of Gregory X, Tarentasia was elected Pope on 21 January 1276, and took the name Innocent V. His papal motto was "My eyes are ever toward the Lord." But, Blessed Innocent V had a very short pontificate, dying just more than six months later on 22 June 1276. In his short pontificate, he worked to restore union with the Eastern Church. He is the author of a number of scholarly works in philosophy, theology, and canon law, including a series of commentaries on the Letters of Saint Paul and his principle work, the "Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard."

Blessed Innocent V was beatified in A.D. 1898.

Prayer

God of truth,
you bestowed on Blessed Innocent
the gifts of knowledge and prudence
and made him a promoter of peace and unity.
By the help of his prayers
may we cherish what is of heaven
and in perfect unity follow what is right.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

This from the College World Series . . .

2010-06-21T23:29:00.002-04:00

FSU defeats UF 8-5. GO NOLES!

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

2010-06-21T22:25:00.099-04:00

21 JUNE 2010. Today the Church remembers the feast day of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, a sixteenth century Jesuit who is venerated for his poverty of spirit, despite a noble heritage, and his purity of heart in serving the Lord.

Saint Aloysius was born to noble parents on 9 March 1568 at his family's castle in Castiglione delle Stiviere in the northern Italian Papal States. His father wanted him to be a soldier, and his training for warfare began at an early age, but Saint Aloysius was also schooled in other subjects, such as languages. At the age of 8 he was sent with his brother to Florence to serve in the court of Grand Duke Francesco I de'Medici. While he was there, Saint Aloysius suffered from a kidney ailment that would aggravate him for the rest of his life. During his illnes, Saint Aloysius spent a great deal of time in prayer, and it is said that he took a secret vow of chastity at the age of 9. In November 1579, Saint Aloysius and his brother were sent to the Duke of Mantua, where he was shocked by the violent and frivolous lifestyle he encountered.

Returning home to Castiglione in A.D. 1580, Saint Aloysius met Cardinal Charles Borromeo who gave him first communion on 22 July 1580. After reading a book about Jesuit missionaries, Saint Aloysius became determined to become a missionary and began practicing by studying the Catechism and teaching it to other boys during the summers. He then set his heart on becoming a priest, but his life was in constant motion as Saint Aloysius and his family moved to Spain and then back to Italy. However, determined to become a priest, Aloysius' mother finally relented to his joining the Jesuits, but his father was furious. Even his family tried to dissuade him from the priesthood, and especially from a religious order, because he would have to give up all rights to his inheritance and noble status.

However, in November 1585 Saint Aloysius did renounce his noble birthright and inheritance and went to Rome to join the Society of Jesus. On 25 November 1585, he was accepted into the Jesuit Roman novitiate after an audience with Pope Sixtus V (which Aloysius gained due to his noble status). Once in the novitiate, the Jesuits asked Aloysius to moderate his ascetic practices to better be a part of the community with the other novitiates.

During this novitiate period Saint Aloysius' ill health still dogged him. He continued to suffer from the kidney malady, but also from a skin disease, insomnia, and chronic headaches.He was sent to Milan for a time for his studies, but had to return to Rome because of poor health. On 25 November 1587 Saint Aloysius took three vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. In February and March of A.D. 1588 he received minor orders and soon thereafter began his theology studies for the priesthood.

In A.D. 1589 he was called to Mantua to mediate a dispute between his brother Ridolfo and the Duke of Mantua. He returned to Rome in May 1590, and later in the year received a vision from the Archangel Gabriel that he would die within a year.

In A.D. 1591 the plague hit Rome, and the Jesuits opened a hospital to treat its victims. Saint Aloysius volunteered to serve in the hospital, but afraid of losing him, the Jesuits confined Aloysius' work to a ward that was supposed to serve those who did not suffer from the plague. However, it turned out that one of the patients in Aloysius' care did suffer from plague and on 3 March 1951 (just shy of his 23rd birthday) Saint Aloysius began to show symptoms of plague. To everyone's surprise, Aloysius did not succumb immediately, but his ill health continued to deteriorate. After another vision from the Archangel Gabriel he learned that he would die on the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi. On that day he seemed very well in the morning, but insisted that he would die before the day's end. He received the last sacraments from his confessor, Cardinal Bellarmine, and recited the prayers of the dying. Just before midnight on 21 June 1591, Saint Aloysius was born to eternal life in Christ. Tradition tells that the last word he spoke was the Holy Name of Jesus.

His most notable virtue was purity, and it was said that he did not even look at his queen, but recognized her by the sound of her voice. So great was the community's belief in his holiness that he was venerated as a saint soon after his death. Just 14 years after his death Saint Aloysius was beatified by Pope Paul V on 19 October 1605. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII on 31 December 1726.

Prayer

O blessed Aloysius,
adorned with angelic virtues,
I thy most unworthy suppliant recommend specially to thee
the chastity of my soul and body,
praying thee by thy angelic purity to plead for me
with Jesus Christ the Immaculate Lamb,
and His most Holy Mother,
Virgin of virgins, that they would vouchsafe
to keep me from all grievous sin.
Never suffer me to be defiled with any stain of impurity;
but when thou dost see me in temptation,
or in danger of falling,
then remove far from my mind all evil thoughts
and unclean desires,
and awaken in me the memory of eternity to come,
and of Jesus crucified;
impress deeply in my heart a sense of the holy fear of God;
and kindling in me the fire of Divine love,
enable me so to follow thy footsteps here on earth,
that in heaven I may be made worthy to enjoy with thee
the vision of our God for ever.

Amen.

TWELFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

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20 JUNE 2010. Today the Church celebrates the twelfth Sunday in ordinary time, giving focus to the universality of the Christ's salvation and the responsibility that each of us bears for that great gift. Today's readings can be found here.

For this Sunday reflection, let's take a close look at several selections from today's readings.

First, review this selection from the first reading from the Book of the Prophet Zechariah: I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and petition . . . . (Zech 12:10) Next, consider the words of the second reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians: For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ . . . And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant,heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:27, 29) Finally, examine the words of Christ from today's Gospel reading from the Gospel according to Saint Luke: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Lk 9:23-24)

Rest. Now, think about these selections. Pause a minute to quietly reflect on them.

Then, re-read these selections altogether:

I will pour out on the house of David
and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem
a spirit of grace and petition . . . .
For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ . . .
And if you belong to Christ,
then you are Abraham’s descendant,
heirs according to the promise.
“[But,] [i]f anyone wishes to come after me,
he must deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Rest again. Focus on the images or concepts in your mind portrayed by the words. Consider these words and the questions they bring to mind in yourself. Do not cut-off any of your thought. If your mind is focused on these words and your soul is intent on its focus on God, allow your mind to go where it is led by the Holy Spirit. Peruse again the entire selection of texts as you consider quietly the thoughts that the Holy Spirit brings to light in these words.

When you have concluded your own thoughtful examination of the words of Christ and the other selections of Holy Scripture, thank the Lord for the opportunity to do so, the intellect to understand, and the grace and gifts of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us.

From this lectio divina, then, comes my short reflection:

Through all of history, God, the unbegotten Father and creator of the universe, has had the Word, which has been present from the beginning of what humanity describes as time. "In the beginning was the word . . . ." From this beginning, all of us, Israelites today because of our baptism in Christ Jesus, have been predestined to share in the everlasting inheritance of Christ. Mary, the Blessed Virgin, was the first of the human family to taste this everlasting joy in her bodily assumption into heaven. Yet, all of us, regardless of human distinction (origin, race, language, ethnicity, etc.,), have open the possibility to share in this same joy. The joy of Christ overshadows and destroys all human pain, suffering, and even death. However, this joy also puts a great responsibility on our shoulders. To share in this joy, we must live for Christ. Not just in a way that we think is good or worthwhile in the terms of contemporary culture, but we must live a life that has at its core and is focused entirely on following Christ. As Christ was meek and humble. So must we be meek and humble. As Christ denied Himself for the greater sacrifice that He made for all humanity, we too must deny ourselves when our own wants are in conflict with Him, in a sacrifice for Him.

But, we will fail! All of us will fail to live perfectly in union with and in the image of Christ. We are only of human estate. So, when we fail, we must put all our reliance on God. Through the graces of the Holy Spirit poured out abundantly on us in our daily lives, we must cling to Christ and His bride, the Church. Cherish Her teachings and follow them. Despite sin, which is present in every human life and in every human institution, cling to the truth of Christ. We must live meekly and humbly not of our own accord, but in total spiritual poverty, relying only on the Holy Trinity, whose gifts are poured out in the sacraments, to provide for us.

A Prayer for Fathers

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St. Joseph, guardian of Jesus and chaste husband of Mary, you passed your life in loving fulfillment of duty. You supported the holy family of Nazareth with the work of your hands. Kindly protect all fathers and those who trustingly come to you. You know their aspirations, their hardships, their hopes. They look to you because they know you will understand and protect them. You too knew trial, labor and weariness. But amid the worries of material life your soul was full of deep peace and sang out in true joy through intimacy with God's Son entrusted to you and with Mary, his tender Mother. Assure all fathers under your protection that they do not labor alone. Teach them to find Jesus near them and to continually look to Him faithfully as you have done.

Amen.

Psalm 107: From Today's Office of Readings

2010-06-19T19:17:00.000-04:00

Psalm 107

Thanksgiving for deliverance

This is God's message to the sons of Israel; the good news of peace proclaimed through Jesus Christ (Acts 10:36).

"O give thanks to the Lord for he is good;

for his love endures for ever."

Let them say this, the Lord's redeemed,

whom he redeemed from the hand of the foe

and gathered from far-off lands,

from east and west, north and south.

Some wandered in the desert, in the wilderness,

finding now way to a city they could dwell in.

Hungry they were and thirsty;

their soul was fainting within them.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need

and he rescued them from their distress

and he led them along the right way,

to reach a city they could dwell in.

Let them thank the Lord for his love,

for the wonders he does for men.

For he satisfies the thirsty soul;

he fills the hungry with good things.

Some lay in darkness and in gloom,

prisoners in misery and chains,

having defied the words of God

and spurned the counsels of the Most High.

he crushed their spirit with toil;

they stumbled; there was no one to help.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need

and he rescued them from their distress.

He led them forth from darkness and gloom

and broke their chains to pieces.

Let them thank the Lord for his goodness,

for the wonders he does for men;

for he bursts the gates of bronze

and shatters the iron bars.

Some were sick on account of their sins

and afflicted on account of their guilt.

They had a loathing for every food;

they came close to the gates of death.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need

and he rescued them from their distress.

he sent forth his word to heal them

and saved their life from the grave.

Let them thank the Lord for his love,

for the wonders he does for men.

Let them offer a sacrifice of thanks

and tell of his deeds with rejoicing.

Some sailed to the sea in ships

to trade on the mighty waters.

These men have seen the Lord's deeds,

the wonders he does in the deep.

For he spoke; he summoned a gail,

raising up the waves of the sea.

Tossed up to heaven, then into the deep;

their soul melted away in their distress.

They staggered, reeled like druken men,

for all their skill was gone.

Then they cried to the Lord in their need

and he rescued them from their distress.

He stilled the storm to a whisper;

all the waves of the sea were hushed.

They rejoiced because of the calm

and he led them to the heaven they desired.

Let them thank the Lord for his love,

the wonders he does for men.

Let them exalt him in the gathering of the people

and praise him in the meeting of the elders.

III

He changes streams into desert,

springs of water into thirsty ground,

fruitful land into a salty waste,

for the wickedness of those who live there.

But he changes desert into streams,

thirsty ground into springs of water.

There he settles the hungry

and they build a city to dwell in.

They sow fields and plant their vines;

these yield crops for the harvest.

He blessed them; they grow in numbers.

He does no let their herds decrease.

He pours contempt upon princes,

makes them wander in trackless wastes.

They diminish, are reduced to nothing

by oppression, evil and sorrow.

But he raises the needy from distress;

makes families numerous as a flock.

The upright see it and rejoice

but all who do wrong are silenced.

Whoever is wise, let him heed these things

and consider the love of the Lord.

Psalm-Prayer

You fill the hungry with good things, Lord God, and break the sinner's chains. Hear your people who call to you in their need and lead your Church from the shadows of death. Gather us from sunrise to sunset, that we may grow together in faith and love and give lasting thanks for your kindness.

Holy Father Extols the Generosity of Faith of Two New Blesseds

2010-06-15T13:21:00.001-04:00

15 JUNE 2010. From the Holy Father's comments before and after praying the Angelus on Sunday with pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter's Square, we get a glimpse of the tremendous example of Christian living that the Church now has in two new Blesseds: Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko (beatified on 6 June 2010 in Warsaw, Poland) and Blessed Manuel “Lolo” Lozano Garrido (beatified on 12 June 2010 in Linares, Spain).

Of Blessed Father Jerzy, the Holy Father said:

He exercised his generous and courageous ministry alongside those who worked for freedom, for the defense of life and its dignity. His work in the service of goodness and truth was a sign of contradiction for the regime that governed Poland at that time. The love of the Heart of Christ led him to give his life, and his witness was the seed of a new springtime in the Church and society. If we look at history we can observe that so many pages of authentic spiritual and social renewal have been written by the contribution of Catholic priests, animated only by the passion for the Gospel and for man, for his true religious and civil liberty. How many initiatives of integral human promotion have begun in the intuition of a priestly heart!

After the Angelus, in comments made in Spanish, the Holy Father went on to witness to the example of Blessed Lolo:

[He] was a faithful layman who knew how to irradiate the love of God with his example and his writings, even among the sufferings that confined him to a wheelchair for nearly 28 years. At the end of his life, he also lost his sight, but he continued to win hearts for Christ with his serene joy and his unwavering faith.

Journalists can find in him an eloquent testimony of the good that can be done when one's pen reflects the greatness of the soul and is put at the service of truth and noble causes.

Prayer for the Forgiveness of Daily Neglects

2010-06-13T15:09:00.000-04:00

Eternal Father,
I offer the Sacred Heart of Jesus with all its love,
all its sufferings and all of its merits:

First,
To expiate all the sins I have committed this day
and during all my life.

Glory Be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Second,
To purify the good I have done badly
this day and during all my life.

Glory Be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

Third,
To supply for the good I ought to have done
and I have neglected this day and during all my life.

Glory Be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now,
and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2010-06-13T11:05:00.000-04:00

13 JUNE 2010. Today the Church celebrates the eleventh Sunday in ordinary time. With the newness of our Easter celebration now worn and the solemnities that follow our Easter season now completed, we can look forward to this long period of ordinary time, through the hot summer, that will eventually lead to a new Advent in the Fall.

Be sure, this is not a season of monotony, nor a season of drudgery. Instead, this long period of ordinary time is a period where we, the faithful, have the opportunity to quietly endure in our faith with Christ who has so lovingly endured the whole history of human failure in sin. So, at the outset of the summer, I pray that we may each set ourselves about quietly repairing our relationships with Christ. Where sin has chipped away at that relationship, or built a barrier between our hearts and the Sacred Heart, I pray that distance will erased through contrition and reception of the sacraments.

Today's readings can be found here.

The Gospel reading today relays a story from the Gospel of Saint Luke that is familiar to many: Jesus dines with a Pharasee, where a sinful woman washes His feet with her tears, wipes them with her hair, and annoints them with perfumed oil. When questioned by the Pharasee as to why Christ would allow such a sinner to perform these acts for Him, Jesus gives us the parable of the two debtors that have been forgiven their debts. Here is the passage from Saint Luke in full:

A Pharisee invited Jesus to dine with him,
and he entered the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table.
Now there was a sinful woman in the city
who learned that he was at table in the house of the Pharisee.
Bringing an alabaster flask of ointment,
she stood behind him at his feet weeping
and began to bathe his feet with her tears.
Then she wiped them with her hair,
kissed them, and anointed them with the ointment.
When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this he said to himself,
“If this man were a prophet,
he would know who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him,
that she is a sinner.”
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Simon, I have something to say to you.”
“Tell me, teacher, ” he said.
“Two people were in debt to a certain creditor;
one owed five hundred days’ wages and the other owed fifty.
Since they were unable to repay the debt, he forgave it for both.
Which of them will love him more?”
Simon said in reply,
“The one, I suppose, whose larger debt was forgiven.”
He said to him, “You have judged rightly.”

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon,
“Do you see this woman?
When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet,
but she has bathed them with her tears
and wiped them with her hair.
You did not give me a kiss,
but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered.
You did not anoint my head with oil,
but she anointed my feet with ointment.
So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven
because she has shown great love.
But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”
He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The others at table said to themselves,
“Who is this who even forgives sins?”
But he said to the woman,
“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Afterward he journeyed from one town and village to another,
preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.
Accompanying him were the Twelve
and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities,
Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza,
Susanna, and many others who provided for them
out of their resources.

(Lk 7, 36 - 8, 3 NAB)

There are many messages that can be unpacked from this passage from Saint Luke's Gospel, but I want to reflect on the nature of the woman and how that nature might reflect the Church today. First, the woman is a sinner, and we can surmise that her sins are notorious because of the place in salvation history that she has attained as the "sinful woman." Second, we know that the woman sought out Christ and expressed by her emotion and her actions her deep contrition for her sins. She did not ask Jesus' forgiveness in her heart and then go about her day. Instead, she took the extraordinary step of coming to Christ, washing His feet with her tears, poured out with a sincere emotion of contrition, and then annointing Christ's feet. It could be said that the sinful woman is lavishing on Christ her love and her spirit of contrition.

We Church, the body of Christ on earth, are sinful too. Though we try to attain holiness for the glory of God, we are all sinners that in some way fail. Some have failings that are notorious, most of us do not reach notoriety with our sin, but we still at some point or another commit sins that build a wall between ourselves and our Savior. But, how do we respond? Do we merely ask for Christ's forgiveness in our hearts and, then, go about our lives? Or, do we stop and seek out Christ to express our contrition?

And, when we do confess our sins do we lavish on our Lord our emotion of sorrow and the gifts of ourselves given in thanksgiving for His love? That is what the woman really did in the passage from Saint Luke's Gospel, she poured out her very self for Christ. Reserving nothing, she comes pitiful to Christ and can only express herself by her tears. But, Christ knows her heart and He forgives her of her sin.

I once heard a Carthusian priest being interviewed, and the question posed to him was essentially this: "Why do you waste your life praying to God in solitude? Isn't there so much more good you could be doing outside of the cloister?" The answer moved me in a profound way. The Carthusian responded with this story from Saint Luke and said: just as the sinful woman pours herself out to Christ, we pour out our lives for Christ. Critics might well have said of the woman: "why waste your money on ointment for the feet of Jesus when you could have given that money to the poor?" But, the woman gave all she had in her contrite spirit to our Lord. And, we give all we have, our very lives, in our contrite spirit to the Lord.

Praise the Lord! Give thanks for all the blessings that we are given and even in our hardships, thank the Lord for the opportunity to persevere for His glory. I pray that all the faithful will have a spirit of complete love for our Lord so that we will each be drawn to pour ourselves out for the Lord in a spirit of true contrition.

The Greatest of All is Charity

2010-06-10T08:00:00.000-04:00

Faith and hope are at work only in the human person, but charity is at work in God. Faith can move mountains; charity creates the mountains, the heavens and the earth. Faith urges a creature, as one who is capable of loving, to make every effort to attain paradise. Charity entreats God, who is aflame with love, to descend to earth to enable humankind to reach heaven by means of God’s own charity. Faith says to humanity: Serve God as is fitting. Charity says: O God, take on human flesh and serve humanity, which is in your debt beyond what it possesses. Faith says to humanity: Strike the heavens and open them for yourself. Charity says: O God, break the heavens so that humanity may find them open. Faith teaches us to die for love of God; charity invites God to die for us and invites us to die for our God. Faith reveals God from a distance; charity brings humanity to God, for charity made God take on human flesh and makes humanity take so divinity.

Faith may be compared to a noble lady who only reigns here where we have no abiding city, but who looks for one in the future; charity is empress of heaven and earth. Faith is an inhabitant of the country; charity is a city dweller. Faith rules over a multitude of lowly creatures; charity commands angels. Faith is above its servants; charity is above its beloved children and the saints.

Give this some thought. If a world such as ours were located in the sun, how would this world be lighted, warmed, gladdened and governed? It certainly would not be by the sun’s rays, but only by its essence, since the sun would dude the entire world in its essence. But the sun does not light, warm, gladden or govern our world by itself, since it cannot come to us of itself, but by means of its rays which it sends us. The reason why the sun produces such effects by its rays is that it cannot come to us directly. Consider how much more this is true of God. The Father, like the sun, produces his ray. This is the Word, eternal and essential. The Father and the Word like the sun and its ray, produce the essential warmth, who is the Holy Spirit. Hence this divine sun is power, light and fire; Father, Son and Holy Spirit; power, truth and charity; one God and three persons. And this divine sun is all-powerful, all-enlightening and all-burning - not three powers, but one power; not three lights, but one light; not three fires, but one fire.

Nevertheless, a doubt may arise here. Since we said that we are all in God and that God is charity, from this it would appear that we are all in charity, so are all in truth and in that true power. This is false because few are in charity, while many are in error and falsehood and a rather large number are weak and frail. Let me respond first of all by giving some examples. There are many fish in the sunlight, but, since they are covered by water, they receive no warmth. There are many blind persons who walk in light, but do not see. There many vessels which contain food, but they do not eat. Hence it is not enough simply to be in a place to share in the inherent power of that place; a proper receptivity is necessary. A sick person may eat without deriving benefit from the food; a dead person may be placed in a fire, but does not feel its warmth. A person standing in the sunlight who is continually showered with could water will not get warm and will always be shivering.

And so, although we may be in the divine fire, which does not warm the body but the soul, we do not benefit from this divine fire, if we continue to pour the hail of the flesh, the ice of the world, and the wind of temptation on our souls. From what has been said it is necessary to keep the soul apart from these things, lest anyone remain hidden from its warmth, as the psalmist says.

From On the Love of Charity, treatise, by Blessed John Dominic.

Blessed John Dominic

2010-06-10T06:00:00.091-04:00

10 JUNE 2010. Today the Dominican Order celebrates the feast day (optional memorial) of Blessed John Dominic, a fourteenth century friar and bishop.

Although John had little education and suffered from a speech impediment that caused him to stammer and stutter, he possessed a tremendous drive to improve himself, overcome his obstacles, and serve our Lord. He also had a great memory, and later in life became a great theologian and preacher.

Born in A.D. 1365 at Florence, Italy, Blessed John spent a great deal of his youth in or around the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella. He joined the Order at the age of 17 despite his lack of education and hi speech impediment, even while the Dominicans are scholars and preachers.

After entering the Order, Blessed John studied in Pisa and Florence and received a degree from the University of Paris. As a priest, Blessed John once believed that his speech impediment would threaten his vocation, but it was cured through the intervention of Saint Catherine of Siena. Blessed John spent 12 years in Venice as a preacher.

In A.D. 1392, Blessed John found himself to be the Vicar provincial serving in Rome. At the time, Blessed Raymond of Capua was the Master General of the Order, and he helped rebuild the Order after the ravages of the Plague and helped return regular discipline to the Order's members.

Blessed John founded Dominican convents in Venice (A.D. 1388 and A.D. 1394), Fiesole (A.D. 1406), Chioggia, Citta de Castello, Cortona, Lucca, and Fabriano, and was a correspondent of Blessed Clara Gambacorta, advising her of how to restore discipline to Dominican nuns of the day. For a time Blessed John lost papal support because of support for the Dominican White Penitents in Venice, but was later welcomed back and resumed his work in the Order.

Most importantly, Blessed John worked to provide a Christian education to young people. He opposed pagan ideas that were taking hold in the humanism of his day and was a confessor and advisor to Pope Gregory XII.

Blessed John was made Cardinal of San Sisto in A.D. 1407 and Archbishop of Ragusa in A.D. 1408. In these roles, he helped to heal the Western Schism and convinced Pope Gregory XII to call the Council of Constance, and to abdicate the papacy causing the anti-popes to also drop their claims to the papal throne.

Papal legate to Hungary and Bohemia for Pope Martin V, Blessed John worked to settle the disputes caused by the death of Jon Hus and to heal the Hussite Schism. However, while Blessed John was able to convert some, he was unable to to resolve the Hussite Schism.

Blessed John is known today for his scripture commentaries and hymns. His portrait was painted by Fra Angelico, who joined the Order under him, and a memoir of him was written by Saint Antonius of Florence, who joined the Order after hearing Blessed John preach.

Blessed John died on 10 June 1419 at Buda, India. His cultus was confirmed in A.D. 1832 and he was beatified by Pope Gregory XVI in A.D. 1837.

Prayer

O God,
the bestower of divine love,
who didst strengthen Blessed John, Thy confessor and bishop,
for the work of preserving the Unity of the Church
and establishing regular discipline;
grant, through his intercession,
that we may all be of one mind
and do all our actions in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Who liveth and reigneth with Thee
world without end.

Amen.

Prayer of Self-Dedication to Christ

2010-06-09T00:55:00.000-04:00

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me; to You, O Lord, now I return it; all is Yours, dispose of me wholly according to Your Will. Give me only Your love and Your grace, for this is enough for me.

Amen.

Blessed Diana and Blessed Cecilia

2010-06-08T23:20:00.000-04:00

Merciful Lord, thank you for the goodness and blessing of cloistered nuns who bear the weight of the world, in prayer for all.

8 JUNE 2010. Today we celebrate the feast day (optional memorial) of Blessed Diana Andalo and Blessed Cecilia, nuns and virgins.

Blessed Diana and Blessed Cecilia were among the very first women to follow Saint Dominic and were among the first members of the Dominican convent in Bologna. Asa they followed Saint Dominic to a life of holiness, today many Dominican and other nuns around the world follow spiritual leaders in examples of holiness, and by their witness teach us holiness.

Pray for cloistered nuns, who are continually praying for the world: pouring themselves out for the world following the model of Christ who emptied Himself for us.