Franciscus PP. - The Holy Father's choice of his name and Poverty in the Church

16 MARCH 2013. In the Holy Father's own words, why he chose the name Francis, following in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assisi:

Some people didn't know why the Bishop of Rome wanted to call himself "Francis." Some though of Francis Xavier, Francis de Sales, even Francis of Assisi. I will tell you the story. At the election I had the archbishop emeritus of Sao Paulo next to me. He is also prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes [O.F.M.]: a dear, dear friend. When things were getting a little "dangerous," he comforted me. And then, when the votes reached the two-thirds, there was the usual applause because the Pope had been elected. He hugged me and said: "Do not forget the poor." And that word stuck here [tapping his forehead as shown above]; the poor, the poor. Then, immediately in relation to the poor I thought of Francis of Assisi. Then I thought of war, while the voting continued, until all the votes [were counted]. And so the name came to my heart:: Francis of Assisi. For me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who love and safeguards Creation. In this moment when our relationship with Creation is not so good—right?—He is the man who gives us this spirit of peace, the poor man … Oh, how I wish for a Church that is poor and for the poor!

Prayer of Thanksgiving for Pope Francis

Dear Lord, gracious God.
In Your love and benevolence, 
You have delivered a humble and trusted servant,
to serve Your bride on earth, as the servant of servants.
Thank you for the gift of Pope Francis 
for the people of God.
May the Holy Spirit always guide and protect him, and
may the Mother of Christ, our Lady, always watch over him
and give him the blessing of her prayers to Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Novena Prayer for the Conclave

1 MARCH 2013. From this date until the election of a new Pope, I would ask that all readers pray this novena prayer for the faithful election of the new Pope in a spirit of docility to the Divine Will of God:

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, send down your Spirit over the conclave. Let the Holy Spirit inspire the hearts of the Cardinals, that they may choose the man most pleasing to You, as Successor of Peter and Your Vicar on earth. May Mary, Your Mother and Mother of the Church, be our advocate.

Amen.

AUTHOR: Mr Mark Miraville, Professor of Theology and Mariology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville.
IMAGE: Photo of 2005 Conclave.

Blessed Alvarez of Cordoba

19 FEBRUARY 2013. Being the season of Lent, the regular observance of memorials is more limited, so we say that today the Order commemorates Blessed Alvarez of Cordoba.

Blessed Alavarez was born at Zamora, Spain in about A.D. 1350. He entered the Order of Preachers in 1368, where he preached throughout Spain and Italy. He established the Priory of Scala Caeli at Cordoba, where he promoted regular religious life. He is credited with spreading the practice of the Way of the Cross throughout Western Europe by his preaching and contemplation of the Lord's passion. He died at Cordoba on 19 February 1430.

Prayer for Pope Benedict XVI (on the occassion of his renunciation of the Petrine ministry)

The world of faith stands quieted,

can it truly be that Our Holy Father has,

given the flock over to the uncertainty?

To a successor to be chosen by princes?

We stop, partly saddened. Wonderment in full.

What will happen next, O God?

We trust in You!

We offer our Holy Father to Your loving care!

Thank you for the gift of the pontificate

of Joseph Ratzinger, for all the world and for all time,

Benedict XVI!

Our sadness now parts;

we trust in You as our Holy Father has

shown us so great a model of trust.

The world, O Lord, cannot overcome You.

The world can never get too big for God.

In this moment, and in all our moments,

You are lovingly with us.

So, we trust in Your care and protection, Lord Jesus.

O Holy Spirit, help the Church in this time of transition.

Be Her guide in all that is done and that transpires

over the coming weeks and months.

The faithful abandon ourselves to You, Loving Lord.

And, assist in a most special way, keeping him always near you,

our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

As he has served the Church and You, Lord, faithfully,

so may we, the people of God, be faithful to him in this hour.

Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for us all, and bring to your Son,

these prayers and petitions.

Amen.

The Eternity of God

31 JANUARY 2013. I will do this from time to time. Some may know, that I have enrolled and am taking classes (by distance learning) at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Cromwell, Connecticut, in pursuit of a Master of Arts in Theology. For those who have not taken a look at the college's online course offerings, I would encourage you to do so. Tuition is more reasonable than others and the school offers a solidly  Catholic education in accordance with Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and has even won the recommendation of the Cardinal Newman Society.

This week's assignment in One and Triune God (the basic master's level course on the Trinity) was to summarize portions of the Summa Theologica, including portions on the eternity of God. This work of St. Thomas Aquinas is striking is many ways, but the concept of God's eternity, as explained by the great Saint, is an awesome portrait of God.

Below is my summary of Summa Theologica 1, Question 10, Articles 1-4. The Eternity of God.

1. What is eternity? Eternity is that which has no beginning or end and which is perfect in all ways simultaneously because it has no succession. There is no before or after in eternity because eternity is outside of movement, and thus outside of potentiality. As such, eternity is absolute infinity and perfection, being simultaneously whole because it is wanting in nothing.

2. Is God eternal? God is eternal. As God is immutable—not subject to change—He is not subject to movement and time, which is continuous change. As God is infinite, which we have learned, He has no beginning and no end; He is unlimited and boundless. Thus, God must be eternal. As the great Saint says: “Nor is He eternal only; but He is His own eternity; whereas, no other being is its own duration, as no other is its own being. Now God is His own uniform [perfect] being; and hence He is His own essence, so He is His own eternity.” And, “[e]ternity is nothing else but God Himself.”

3. Does it belong to God alone to be eternal? Only God is eternal. Because God is immutable and infinite, being without beginning or end, and only God is without beginning, it is proper only to God to be eternal. Some items of creation are called eternal, e.g., the hills are eternal (Psalm 75:5), because of the length of their duration and still other creation, e.g., angels share in the nature of eternity as they possess unchangeableness in being or operation. However, only God is eternal as being without beginning. All creation comes from God. The great Saint answers the three objections to this in this way. First, although there are said to many eternities, creation shares in eternity in its contemplation of God. Second, hell is not eternal, but exists in time. Third, the true and necessary are eternal, but only because they exist in the eternal mind—the divine intellect of God. Eternity is identified, then, with the essence of God.

4. Does eternity differ from time? Eternity is not the same as time. Eternity is a simultaneous whole, while time always has a “before” and “after.” While time has a beginning and eternity does not, this does not fully explain the difference between the two. The great Saint describes the difference this way “eternity is the measure of a permanent being; while time is a measure of movement.” Time, too, has potentiality because the beginning and the end are potentialities. Eternity is an immutable, infinite now; eternity is pure actuality. While time is not so. The “now” of time, for example, refers to what is moveable, but the “now” of eternity is perfect, unchangeable, and infinite. Eternity is the measure of a perfect being, while time is the measure of movement. We can know the meaning of eternity, but cannot really picture it because we and all that we know in creation are subject to time—not just that which changes, but that which is changeable. Thus, time and eternity are necessarily different and even opposed to one another.

Happy AD 2013!

1 JANUARY 2013. A time for new resolutions (go to confession, more frequent daily mass, work harder to make time for Morning Prayer) and new beginnings. I pray that 2013 will be a blessed year for all readers. Persevere in your faith, for the Lord is always faithful!

IMAGE: From the December 31, 2012, New Year's Eve fireworks display in Tallahassee, Florida (Kleman Plaza).

Merry Christmas

25 DECEMBER 2012. Today, the celebration of the Solemnity of the Nativity of our Lord, greetings and peace to all! Our Saviour has come. Alleluia!

Clement I

23 NOVEMBER 2012. Today the Church celebrates as an optional memorial the feast of Pope Saint Clement I, the first Apostolic Father of the Church.

Not much is known of Clement's life. According to Tertullian, writing in A.D. 199, the Roman Church claimed that Clement was ordained by St. Peter. Although there is some discrepancy in the ancient literature, the Church generally acknowledges Saint Clement as the third ruler of the Roman Church after Saint Peter.

Starting in the 3rd and 4th century, tradition has identified him as the Clement that Paul mentions in Philippians 4:3 as a fellow laborer in Christ.

The Liber Pontificalis, which documents the reigns of popes, states that Clement had known Saint Peter. It also states that he wrote two letters (though the second letter, 2 Clement, is no longer ascribed to him) and that he died in Greece in the third year of Emperor Trajan's reign, or 101 AD.

According to apocryphal acta, dating to the 4th century at earliest, Clement was banished from Rome to the Chersonesus (Crimea) during the reign of the Emperor Trajan and was set to work in a stone quarry. Finding on his arrival that the prisoners were suffering from lack of water, he knelt down in prayer. Looking up, he saw a lamb on a hill, went to where the lamb had stood and struck the ground with his pickaxe, releasing a gushing stream of clear water. This miracle resulted in the conversion of large numbers of the local pagans and his fellow prisoners to Christianity. As punishment, Saint Clement was martyred by being tied to an anchor and thrown from a boat into the Black Sea. The legend recounts that every year a miraculous ebbing of the sea revealed a divinely built shrine containing his bones. However, the oldest sources on Clement's life, Eusebius and Jerome, note nothing of his martyrdom.

The Inkerman Cave Monastery marks the supposed place of Clement's burial in the Crimea. A year or two before his own death in A.D. 869, Saint Cyril brought to Rome what he believed to be the relics of Saint Clement, bones he found in the Crimea buried with an anchor on dry land. They are now enshrined in the Basilica di San Clemente. Other relics of Saint Clement, including his head, are claimed by the Kiev Monastery of the Caves in Ukraine.

Saint Clement is also the only Pope to have a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to him.

Saint Clement Church, Pyatnitskaya Street, Moscow

The First Epistle of Clement is a letter of Saint Clement to the faithful in Corinth, where certain of the clergy there had been deposed, apparently without moral cause. Saint Clement calls for repentance the reinstatement of the clergy in his letter to the faithful, which was read, along with the Scriptures, to the faithful in Corinth beginning in A.D. 170. Although not a part of the Bible properly, the reading of the First Epistle of Clement by the fourth century had  also spread to other churches.

Prayer

All-powerful and ever-living God,

we praise your power and glory

revealed to us in he lives of all your saints.

Give us joy on this feast of Saint Clement,

the priest and martyr

who bore witness with his blood o the love he proclaimed

and the gospel he preached.

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. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

22 NOVEMBER 2012. In this land of plenty, where our society often seeks--perhaps even idolizes--not only freedom from want, as epitomized in the famous Norman Rockwell painting, but also accumulation to excess of things, we take this time to give thanks. And, we of faith especially give thanks this day, as we do all days, for the gifts of God and His providential care. Our Lord Jesus Christ is with us this day and every day in the Holy Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit provides us continually with the care and assistance of the Lord. Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin, provides for all of us, her children, with the constant protection and aid of her prayer. And, we can rely on the prayers of all the angels and saints in heaven who sing of God's glory without end.

And, so, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

IMAGE: Freedom from Want, Norman Rockwell, 1943.

-30P-

Blessed James Benefatti

19 NOVEMBER 2012. Today the Order of Preachers celebrates the optional memorial of Blessed James Benefatti, friar and bishop.

From the Supplement to the Liturgy of the Hours for the Order of Preachers we read:

Blessed James was born at Mantua, Italy in the latter half of the thirteenth century. He entered the Order there and came to the notice of Nicholas Boccassini, Master of the Order, who made him his socius. Blessed James continued as his advisor when Nicholas was created cardinal in 1298 and when Nicholas became Pope as Benedict XI he was named bishop of Mantua in 1304. There he fought against the hatred and division which plagued the city. Because of his devotion to the poor during a time of pestilence and famine he was called "Father of the Poor." He died on November 19, 1332.

Prayer

Eternal God,
you established Blessed James as a model for your flock
and made him renowned for his zeal for peace
and for his mercy towards your people.
By his prayers and example
may we be united in the truth of your word
and ever ardent in your divine love.
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 for Those Impacted by Natural Disaster

O Lord, our cries rise to you.
Why have these disasters befallen us?
Why have You hidden your face from your beloved?
I trust, I trust in the Lord, my God.
I stay stalwart in my faith and recline in trust
of my God.
Why have You allowed disaster to strike us, O Lord?
Is it because in this moment we can truly be Christ to our neighbor?
Is it because in this moment we can truly comfort the injured?
Give shelter to the homeless?
Clothe the naked?
Feed the hungry?
Give rest to the weary?
Yes. Dear God we have faith in You.
Your yoke is gentle and your burden light.
We sing of your mercy and kindness and love.
And, so, Lord, with your grace,
we persevere.
May we be instruments of your Divine Will.
Destroy our willfulness, O God,
so that in every thought and work of ours,
we may be truly Yours.
Breathe in our breathing.
Work in our working.
Give in our giving.
Console in our consolation of others.
Pray in our prayer.
Circulate in our Blood,
O Holy and Divine Will of God.
May we serve the Lord all our days,
especially in these days of difficulty.
May we remain faithful to Our God, who
will always remain faithful to us, his people.
Thank you Lord for hardship, to show Your love.
Thank you Lord for difficulty, to show Your mercy.
Thank you Lord for this day.
May it be for those for whom I pray,
and in some small measure for myself,
profitable in heaven and at the end of time.

Amen.