Communio

Meeting Fr Z in NYC

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on November 6, 2009 10:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Meeting "blog personalities" is always fun, especially meeting a popular blogging priest. Father John Zuhlsdorf writes the blog, What Does The Really Say? He's an affable priest with a good sense of humor and a good thinker. He celebrated a Solemn Requiem Mass in the Extraordinary Form for First Friday at the beautiful Church of the Guardian Angels (NYC). The particular intention for the Mass was for deceased priests.

The priesthood is the love of the heart of Jesus

In his homily, Father Zuhlsdorf spoke about the priesthood as the result of the outpouring of love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Mindful of the human condition and the Incarnation, we have Perfect Love choosing imperfect men to be priests to preach the Gospel and to celebrate the sacraments. And because the priest is a normal human being with the normal failings as other men, we know the imperfect minister needs conversion. Our job is to beg for God's mercy upon our priests, living and deceased, as an act of love for the priests. Priests are fallible, sinful human beings like everyone else and yet they are called by God to serve Him as priests for the good of His people. It is an awesome thing to consider that our souls are fed by priests, some of whom are worthy ministers of the Lord and some not. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of a priest's ministry does not depend on the state of his soul (something part of our doctrine since the time of Saint Augustine).

We believe that two sacraments give permanent character to our souls that lasts into eternity: Baptism and Holy Orders. So, when a priest dies his soul is recognized as a priestly soul in heaven by God and whole heavenly court. The priesthood, therefore, does not end on the day when the priest's body dies.

In this Year for Priests, indeed even outside of this special year, we ought to care for the priests who serve our parishes and other ministries in concrete ways. We ought to pray for the souls of the priests who have died, too. I am particularly thinking of the priests and bishops who gave us new Life in Christ through the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist and Penance, and the other sacraments as applicable.

I have an immense sense of gratitude for the faith I received from the priest who baptized me, the bishop who confirmed me, the priests who heard my confessions and gave me the Body of Christ.

Could we offer a prayer once a day during November for the deceased priests we knew? After November, could we offer a prayer for the priests at least once a month in the years to come?

It would be good to read (or re-read) the Pope's letter to the Church announcing the Year for Priests. There you will find some startlingly beautiful points to reflect upon and live out of. In my opinion, the Pope's letter has so much to consider that it would take a lifetime to understand.

Being deeply transformed by the Word of God: more on Lectio Divina

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Paul Zalonski

on November 6, 2009 4:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Renewed interest in lectio divina has given many people the opportunity to know Christ better. Our attention to this timeless prayer of the heart has been captured in a variety of publications such as by Trappist Father Michael Casey, Trappist Father Charles Dumont, Benedictine Archbishop Mariano Magrassi, Catholic biblical scholars Stephen Binz and Scott Hahn, to name just a few. In the last 2 years the archbishop of Toronto, Thomas Collins, has done the yeoman's work in getting his flock to dig deeply in the Word.

Vatican 2's document, Dei Verbum, iterated: "All...should immerse themselves in the scriptures by constant spiritual reading and diligent study ... in order to learn 'the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ' by frequent reading of the divine scriptures. 'Ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ'" (25).

Last year's Synod of Bishops on the Word of God spoke to the value of practicing lectio divina and the Pope has named this practice in many of talks on prayer and the spiritual life many occasions in an effort lead us closer to Christ through Revelation.

Follow Archbishop Collins' Lectio Divina.pdf. It's brief.

Dare to try!!!!

Jesus alone

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Paul Zalonski

on November 6, 2009 2:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jesus alone is "honey in th mouth, song to the ear, jubliation in heart," said Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. All knowledge of Jesus, if it is to be considered true, consists in a personal and profound experience of Jesus and of His love for us. The experience of His closeness to us, His friendship with us, and His love for us is that intimate encounter with Him.

Blessed Ignatius Delgado, Francis de Capillas & Alphonsus Navarrete, & companions

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Paul Zalonski

on November 6, 2009 5:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Almighty and merciful God, you filled the hearts of the peoples of the Orient with the knowledge of your only-begotten Son through the preaching of your holy martyrs, Ignatius, Francis, Alphonsus and their companions. Through their prayers may you now confirm those same peoples in the faith.

2 bishops reviewed: Cardinal O'Malley & Archbishop Burke get the once-over in Time Magazine

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Paul Zalonski

on November 5, 2009 5:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Not sure there is much of a story here, but Amy Sullivan of Time magazine tries to make some kind of evaluation of style of two churchmen, Cardinal Sean O'Malley (of Boston) and Archbishop Raymond Burke (of the Holy See & formerly of St Louis). Judge for yourself...

Blessed Simon Ballachi

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Paul Zalonski

on November 5, 2009 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

O God, you called Blessed Simon from a concern for worldly things and gave him the gifts of prayer and humility. By following his example may we learn to seek you alone here on earth and obtain the rewards promised to the humble.

Celibacy necessary for the Church

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Paul Zalonski

on November 5, 2009 10:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's impossible for me to summarize the brilliant lecture on "Celibacy in the Early Church," delivered by Father Joseph Leinhard, a Jesuit priest and Fordham University professor of patristic theology. Father Leinhard has spent the last 35 years working with the theological texts of the early church Fathers, teaching, researching and publishing. He is also an adjunct professor at St Joseph Seminary (Dunwoodie). Let me say that after reviewing what the literature had say about celibacy in Scripture, theology, ascetics and with some legal texts thrown in for good measure (making necessary distinctions and clarifications), Leinhard drew the audience's attention to the required interpretative keys for celibacy: the needed aspects of the eschatological, ecclesiological and the Christological to make any sense for the requirement of priestly celibacy. Without these three marks, celibacy would remain on the pragmatic and rationalistic levels which are clearly unconvincing. That is, if one argues that celibacy allows a man to do more work because he has no wife and family, then the entire point of celibacy is missed.

There are some Catholics who have forgotten that the Church is not merely a sociology, an institution understood in secular terms. There is a supernatural element of the Church, namely God's revelation that all believers are called too share in and conform their lives to. Likewise we profess in the Creed of a "life of the world to come" and we state what we believe about the Church, that is, the 4 marks of the Church (one, holy, catholic and apostolic), all of which contributes to our fruitful living in the Kingdom of God now which is

preparing us to live with the Blessed Trinity in the Kingdom to come. The Church is oriented to this world so as to be in communion with God in the next. How this is accomplished is often a mystery of the Divine Plan. The connection, however, is with the Christian reality we have in the one high priest, Jesus Christ, and his offering of the perfect sacrifice that is known to us in the efficaciousness of the Mass. Since Paschal Mystery, the Church relies on the necessary work of the priest who, in persona Christi capitis, offers Mass as Christ did, though not in the same ritual form but in substance, the effects salvation. Hence, the priesthood, particularly the celibate priesthood, imitates Christ. How does this happen? The man at ordination to the priesthood is conformed to Christ himself (ipse Christus) by the laying on hands and the prayer of consecration by the bishop.

Saint Gregory of Nyssa (d. 385), in his letter "On Virginity," concludes: Wherefore we would that you too should become crucified with Christ, a holy priest standing before God, a pure offering in all chastity, preparing yourself by your own holiness for God's coming; that you also may have a pure heart in which to see God, according to the promise of God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Father Leinhard's lecture will be published in the next Dunwoodie Review.