Paul Zalonski: September 2010 Archives

Eleuterio Fortino.jpgOn 22 September 2010, a giant in the world of ecumenism and Eastern Christianity died after living with illness. No one can doubt the sentiment expressed by the Pope saying that Monsignor Fortino had a "generous commitment with intelligence and passion at the service of unity." The Pope last saw Monsignor Fortino on June 28 with the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. A telegram was sent through his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, honoring the life of the undersecretary (third in charge) of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who focused particularly on relations with the Orthodox Churches.

Saint Jerome

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St Jerome and lion.jpgAt Mass today the preacher told us of a vision Saint Jerome had of Christ who asked him: Are you going to follow Cicero or me? (Jerome was educated in Latin literature and was a "student" of Cicero.) We know the end of the story for Jerome, but what of each of us?

Whom do you follow? Are you in love with Christ or merely giving lip service in being in relationship to Him?

Saint Jerome, pray for us!

Because Christ exists

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"Because this Christ exists," Father Luigi Giussani writes in his book on Charity, "there is no longer any man who doesn't interest me."

Archangels.jpgOur Catholic faith teaches us that angels have a general and yet an important part to play in our salvation history, especially personally guiding us. Moreover, the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael are given to us by God for very specific purposes and they are the only angels named in sacred Scripture.

And so today, the Church honors the archangels, invokes their intercession and relies on their assistance in the spiritual warfare we daily face.

In Hebrew, "Michael" means "Who is like God?" Saint Michael is mentioned four times in Scripture: Daniel 10 and 12, in Jude and in Revelation. Scripture reveals to us that Saint Michael is known as the "Prince of the Heavenly Host," hence, the leader of all angels. It is to the Prince of the Heavenly that we owe a debt of gratitude for casting down to Hell Lucifer and the evil spirits; he is invoked for protection against Satan and all evil.

Sacred Tradition teaches that there are four offices connected to Saint Michael:

  • to fight against Satan, his minions and the power of evil
  • to rescue and protect the faithful from evil, especially at the hour of death
  • to lead the people of God to full communion with God Himself
  • to call our souls to judgment before God.

We know the archangel from his announcement of the dawn of salvation to Mary: "I am Gabriel, who stand before God" (Luke 1:19). What is crucial to remember about Gabriel are his two announcements in the New Testament: the birth of John the Baptist to his father Zachary and of the Incarnation, the Word made flesh in Mary. Saint Gabriel, whose name means "God's strength," is also mentioned four times in Scripture. 

Again, sacred Tradition tells us that it is Saint Gabriel who appeared to Saint Joseph and to the shepherds. At the beginning of the Passion it was Gabriel who "strengthens" Jesus in the his agony of the garden.

"I am the angel Raphael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tobit 12:15)

Saint Raphael, whose name means "God has healed" because of his healing of Tobias' blindness in the Book of Tobit. This book in the Old Testament is the only book in which Raphael is mentioned. He is the archangel of healing and acts of mercy. Tradition tells us that Saint Raphael is the angel in John 5:1-4 who descended upon the pond and bestowed healing powers upon it so that the first to enter it after it moved would be healed of whatever infirmity he was suffering.

As point of trivia, the Catholic hospital in New Haven, CT is named for Saint Raphael, likely the only one in the USA.

Those familiar with what is called the "old Mass" will remember praying the Prayer to Saint Michael at the conclusion of Mass. In 1899, after a vision of evil, Pope Leo XIII wanted to protect the Church and instructed that his prayer be prayed by all, especially the priest. I can't recommend the prayer enough to you when making your thanksgiving following Mass or the Divine Office. Plus, I would recommend that you pray the Prayer to Saint Michael prior to going to bed.

Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, pray for us.

We are all pilgrims; we are all called to seek the face of God; we are all called to follow the Divine Other; we are called to dine richly on the divine gift of the Eucharist, the Food for the journey (viaticum) and to rest on the heart of Christ. I remember my religious superiors telling me that in making a pilgrimage Saint Ignatius of Loyola laid more emphasis on what happened to one's heart during the pilgrimage than merely getting to the destination. While getting to a holy place is important it ranks second to the conversion of heart that is hoped for during the pilgrimage experiment. How true. It wouldn't matter if you got to Santiago de Compostella or not if your heart wasn't radically changed according to the mind of Christ. My dream is to make the pilgrimage to the great shrine of Saint James, the place of the Lord's friend; I pray for the grace that my heart be turned inside-out. In the meanwhile, I'll make the road to the confessional my walk in the Way of Christ. The pope sets the stage for a pilgrimage spot is and how we Catholics are to be as welcoming as Christ is to the pilgrim. Read a portion of the Pope letter to the bishop and people of Compostella:

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With great pleasure I would like to express my spiritual closeness to the congress participants to encourage and accompany them in carrying out a pastoral task of such great importance in ecclesial life. I will personally make a pilgrimage soon to the tomb of the Apostle Saint James, the "Lord's friend", in the same way that I have made my way to other places in the world which many of the faithful visit with fervent devotion. In this regard, from the beginning of my pontificate, I have wanted to live my ministry as the Successor of Peter with the sentiments of a pilgrim who travels over the roads of the world with hope and simplicity bringing on his lips and in his heart the saving message of the Risen Christ, and strengthening his brothers in faith (cf. Lk 22:32). As an explicit sign of this mission, my coat-of-arms includes the pilgrim's shell, among other elements.

In these historic moments in which we are called, with greater force if possible, to evangelize our world, the riches offered to us by the pilgrimage to shrines should be highlighted. First of all, for its great ability to summon and bring together a growing number of pilgrims and religious tourists, some of whom are in complicated human and spiritual situations, somewhat distant from living the faith and with a weak ecclesial affiliation. Christ speaks to all of them with love and hope. The desire for happiness that is imbedded in the soul finds its answer in Him, and human suffering together with Him has a meaning. With his grace, the noblest causes also find their complete fulfillment. As Simeon met with Christ in the temple (cf. Lk 2:25-35), so too a pilgrim should have the opportunity to discover the Lord in the shrine.

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For this purpose, efforts should be made so that visitors may not forget that shrines are sacred places in order to be in them with devotion, respect and propriety. In this way, the Word of Christ, the Son of the living God, can ring out clearly, and the event of his death and resurrection, the foundation of our faith, can be proclaimed completely. Very careful attention should also be given to welcoming the pilgrims, by highlighting, among other elements, the dignity and beauty of the shrine, the image of "God's dwelling... with the human race" (Rev 21:3), the moments and spaces for both personal and community prayer, and attention to devotional practices. In the same way, it can never be stressed enough that shrines should be lighthouses of charity, with unceasing dedication to the neediest through concrete works of solidarity and mercy, and constant readiness to listen, favoring in particular the faithful's reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and taking part worthily in the Eucharistic celebration, making this the center and apex of all the pastoral activity of the shrines. In this way it will be made manifest that the Eucharist is indeed the pilgrim's nourishment, the "Sacrament of the God who does not leave us alone on the journey but stays at our side and shows us the way" (Homily on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, May 22, 2008).

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In fact, different from a wanderer whose steps have no established final destination, a pilgrim always has a destination, even if at times he is not explicitly aware of it. And this destination is none other than the encounter with God through Christ in whom all our aspirations find their response. For this reason, the celebration of the Eucharist can really be considered the culmination of the pilgrimage.

As "God's co-workers" (1 Co 3:9), I exhort all of you to be dedicated to this beautiful mission so that through your pastoral care, you will favor in pilgrims the knowledge and imitation of Christ who continues to walk with us, enlighten our lives with his Word, and share with us the Bread of Life in the Eucharist. In this way, the pilgrimage to the shrine will be a favorable occasion to strengthen the desire in those who visit it to share the wonderful experience with others of knowing they are loved by God and sent to the world to give witness to that love.

The Vatican, September 8, 2010

Benedictus PP. XVI

In the Pope's Weekly Sunday Angelus Address (September 26, 2010) he spoke of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sunday's gospel of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus gave Benedict XVI a perfect context by which to teach that us that "God loves the poor and raise them from their abjection; secondly, that our eternal destiny is dependent upon our behavior, it is up to us to follow the path God has shown us in order to achieve live, and this path is love, understood not as emotion but as service to others in the charity of Christ," and further the Pope said:

"By a happy coincidence, tomorrow (9/26/2010) we will celebrate the liturgical memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, patron of Catholic Charities, which marks the 350th anniversary of his death. In France of 1600, he touched with his hand the sharp contrast between the richest and poorest. In fact, as a priest he was able to attend both the aristocratic circles, campaigns, as well as the slums of Paris. Driven by the love of Christ, Vincent de Paul was able to organize stable forms of service to the marginalized people, giving rise to so-called "Charitees," the "Charity," i.e., groups of women who put their time and property available to more marginalized. Among these volunteers, some chose to devote themselves completely to God and the poor, and thus, along with St. Louis de Marillac, St. Vincent founded the "Daughters of Charity," the first female congregation to live their consecration "in the world," among all the people, the sick and needy."


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Strive to live content in the midst of those things that cause your discontent. Free your mind from all that troubles you, God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this [choice] without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires (St. Vincent de Paul, Letters).

Thumbnail image for IMGP1279.JPGFor a number of years now, when I am in Rome, I stay at the Benedictine Abbey of Sant'Anselmo on the Aventine Hill. The Benedictine monks have been on the Aventine since property was purchased from Pope Leo XIII in the late 19th century. Technically, Sant'Anselmo is not a functioning abbey as other abbeys with a stable monastic community but it's a house of studies for monks and others.  There is an order for the day of prayer, Mass, study, and work but one does not become a monk of Sant'Anselmo as you would become a monk of Saint Vincent's. At the Anselmo you'll find a "permanent" faculty and staff, and a group of monks who work in the Abbot Primate's offices and some monks who work at other universities or at the Vatican, but no monk vows stability to Sant'Anselmo.

Sant'Anselmo serves as the home of several entities: the Abbot Primate (Abbot Notker Wolf), the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, the Mabillion Institute, and the College of the Theology and Philosophy.

On Ash Wednesday the pope begins the season of Lent by starting with prayer at Sant'Anselmo before making a procession with the Benedictines and Dominicans to the nearby Santa Sabina for the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Two videos will give you sense of the Anslemo: video 1 and video 2. Sorry, the first one is in Italian but the images are good and it gives a good walking tour of the house, while the second gives a sense of other places on the Aventine but video footage includes the Anselmo.

Thomas Dubay, SM, priest, RIP

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Fr Thomas Dubay.jpgI recommend to your prayers the peaceful repose of the soul of Father Thomas Dubay, SM, who died yesterday morning in Washington, DC. Father Dubay has been ill for some time.

An announcement may be read here.

Saint Vincent de Paul

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St Vincent de Paul framed.jpgIn honoring Saint Vincent de Paul today let's call to mind the myriad of ways he and his spiritual sons and daughters have served, and continue to serve, the Gospel by serving the poor and uneducated. Have you got your copy of the video "Charity's Saint: St Vincent de Paul"? I pray in thanksgiving for the Vincentian priests in New Haven who were my spiritual guides as a child.


With glowing light sent from above,     

O Vincent, how you guide our way!     

Your virtues and example pure     

Show us the path to heaven's day.

 

With self-effacing modesty,     

You made yourself of little state;     

Your gentleness and simple life     

Made you revered by small and great.

 

Amidst the graces of your life     

Your charity sheds brightest fire:     

How many of the poor it fed,     

Filled many hearts with Christ's desire.

 

Urged on by zeal and charity,     

You preached in town and countryside,     

Proclaiming all God's mysteries     

To poor and rich, both far and wide.

 

Beneath your wings you gathered those     

Who longed to share both work and strife.     

By word and deed you taught them well;     

You formed and taught them by your life.

 

To God, the holy Three-in-One,     

All praise and glory be addressed,     

Whose life divine is best reward,     

And light eternal for the blessed.

 

J. Michael Thompson

Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications

 

LM; WINCHESTER NEW, HAMBURG, ST. VINCENT 

Recent pics

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Some recent pics of or with friends.

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Br Kieran of St Mary's Abbey (NJ), friar Gabriel Mary and Z

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Friends in New Jersey, September 26, 2010
In May, the announcement of a new rector was made that the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, a Jesuit work for the universal Church, Jesuit Father James McCann. The new rector is a member of the Chicago Province of Jesuits, is 61 years old and was ordained a priest in 1979.

The PIO was founded in 1917 and entrusted to the Society of Jesus in 1922.

Check the website noted above for the new norms governing studies.

Watch a brief interview with Father McCann.
  
A relic of Saint John Bosco, patron of youth, is visiting New York City on Friday, October 1. The relic's pilgrimage is in preparation for the saint's 200th anniversary of birth. Being in the USA is only one of 130 nations that the relic is visiting.

Don Bosco's relic will be at Saint Patrick's Cathedral, NYC. Veneration of the relic will be 10 am until 11 pm. Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Dolan at 7 pm.

More info can be found here (this is an excellent website!)

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Saint John Bosco

born 1815
died 1888
canonized a saint 1934

the Salesians of Don Bosco, the religious order founded by the saint can be seen here.
Donald Wuerl.jpgThe Archbishop of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl, STD, 70, has been delegated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be the principal guide for those Anglican/Episcopalian clergyman seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, and ordination as a priest.

The USCCB announcement is posted here.

The committee headed by Archbishop Wuerl will include their Excellencies, The Most Reverends Kevin Vann, JCD (Fort Worth, TX) and Robert McManus, STD (Worcester, MA). They will be assisted by Father Scott Hurd, himself a convert to Catholicism. The committee will facilitate the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus in the USA and assess the need for an ordinariate in the USA.

The Pope's Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus can be read here.


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An email friend, Patty in CT, just told me that Saint Pio's relics will be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette, Attleboro, MA.

St Padre Pio Pilgrimage Day

Saturday, September 25

the day begins at 10:00 am, there are 2 talks, lunch, confessions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The day concludes with a 4:30 pm Mass & veneration of Saint Pio's relics.

register by calling 508-222-5410


Thanks Patty!

Conception of Saint the Baptist

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Rejoice, O barren one, who had not given birth; for the behold you have conceived clearly the one who is the dawn of eh Sun Who was about illuminate the whole universe, blighted with sightlessness. Shout in joy, O Zachary, crying in favor, truly, the one to be born is a Prophet of the High. (Troparion, 4th tone)


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On the Byzantine liturgical calendar, today is the feast of the Conception of Saint John the Baptist. The Eastern Church, at least the Churches with a Greek origin, keeps three conception feasts:  Our Lord (March 25), Our Lady (December 9) and the Baptist (September 23). The Latin Church only keeps two. 

Calendar study will tell you that only the Savior has a perfect 9-month gestation period; Our Lady is a day under (September 8) and the Baptist, a day under (June 24). The liturgical calendar of the Latin Church places the conception of Mary on December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The theology for today's feast is rooted in the biblical narrative of Zachary and Elizabeth, a couple who had no children and therefore in the eyes of the world plagued by divine disfavor. All of their lives Zachary and Elizabeth begged God to send them a son.  Providence heard their prayer and in His plan and mercy for all, ordained that the dawn of salvation would be effected by the birth of John through the agency of the barren Elizabeth. The Church calls John the Prophet and Forerunner of Jesus, the Savior of the world.

Other significant divinely merciful births to barren women who are a significant part of the Divine Plan of Salvation are  Isaac son of Sarah and Samson born to the wife of Manoah (Samson's mother is not named in Scripture).

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

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The Church honors the life and ministry of Saint "Padre" Pio today. Immediate memories of the saint bring me back to my youth when Clara and Joe Tomaso, the backbone of the morning Mass community at Our Lady of Pompeii Church (East Haven, CT), would passionately speak of Pio and gifts. These many years later a devotion to Saint Pio has grown in my heart, and perhaps you can relate. He's been a true spiritual father.

Earlier this spring I was taken by the recent film on Padre Pio because of the spiritual battle against evil, personally and for the Church. Plus, I've always been wonderfully (and sometime fearfully) surprised by his ability to read souls. Imagine going to confession to Padre Pio thinking you've made a good examination of conscience and being told that there are even more sins on your soul than you are aware of or even you've dismissed as inconsequential. Padre Pio as a servant of the Lord as a priest is keenly aware of how hard our hearts are hardened by sin. NOTHING beats a good and holy confession of sins. Confession of sin is a matter of true humanity and the healthy heart. The mere thought of Padre Pio makes me want to run to confession.

All saints have spiritual fathers who form the heart and mind. Padre Pio was no exception. His spiritual father Father Benedict said this to Pio on the desire for sanctity:

"It is one thing to say 'I am a saint' and another to say 'I want to become a saint.' You can tell everyone that you want to become a saint without fear of pride because, after all, holiness is nothing else but divine love and the love of God is a sacred, absolute and essential duty ordered to everyone and required from all. Where is pride when protesting to observe a principal and elementary duty? Humility consists in being persuaded that one does not have this love to an eminent degree or even sufficiently, but humility does not prevent one from aspiring to it."

How much do you think Pio took these words to heart? Probably he lived them with all his strength. What you and me?

Last year's post --with the Mass prayer-- on Saint Pio is still helpful, see it here.

Visit the Padre Pio Foundation of America and the official site for Saint Pio here.
40 Days for Life.jpgThe pro-life campaign 40 Days for Life begins today, Get involved to save an unborn life.

Being a part of the 40 day campaign is about prayer and fasting, keeping vigil at an abortion clinic and education in the community.

The use of the number 40 is a biblical metaphor: think of Noah, Moses, Jesus, who either spent 40 year days or years doing something for God the Father.

The 40 Days campaign runs until October 31.

I couldn't follow the Pope's UK trip after very early Friday morning so I find myself reviewing the magnificent papal event. If you've not read Benedict's UK addresses, I highly recommend that you do so. What follows are some of the stunning thoughts of the Holy Father from an education gathering at St Mary's University College. I have to say, when I was in the Catholic school system as a student and as a teacher, the idea of becoming a saint, or at least using the word 'saint'  never crossed my mind. Sad to say. Sure we spoke about virtue, grace, sin, sacrament, love, God but we may have talked around the idea of becoming a saint which is not a good thing. BUT becoming a saint has a new currency in my life. The tenderness and clarity of the Pope's address to the youth is nothing but beautiful. The are resonances in the talk of Sts Benedict, Francis, Dominic and Ignatius of Loyola, and Fr Giussani. Here are some excerpts, emphasis mine.

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It is not often that a Pope, or indeed anyone else has the opportunity to speak to the students of all the Catholic schools of England, Wales and Scotland at the same time. And since I have the chance now, there is something I very much want to say to you. I hope that among those of you listening to me today there are some of the future saints of the twenty-first century. What God wants most of all for each one of you is that you should become holy. He loves you much more than you could ever begin to imagine, and he wants the very best for you. And by far the best thing for you is to grow in holiness.

Perhaps some of you have never thought about this before. Perhaps some of you think being a saint is not for you. Let me explain what I mean. When we are young, we can usually think of people that we look up to, people we admire, people we want to be like. It could be someone we meet in our daily lives that we hold in great esteem. Or it could be someone famous. We live in a celebrity culture, and young people are often encouraged to model themselves on figures from the world of sport or entertainment. My question for you is this: what are the qualities you see in others that you would most like to have yourselves? What kind of person would you really like to be?

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When I invite you to become saints, I am asking you not to be content with second best. I am asking you not to pursue one limited goal and ignore all the others. Having money makes it possible to be generous and to do good in the world, but on its own, it is not enough to make us happy. Being highly skilled in some activity or profession is good, but it will not satisfy us unless we aim for something greater still. It might make us famous, but it will not make us happy.

Happiness is something we all want but one of the great tragedies in this world is that so many people never find it, because they look for it in the wrong places. The key to it is very simple - true happiness is to be found in God. We need to have the courage to place our deepest hopes in God alone, not in money, in a career, in worldly success, or in our relationships with others, but in God. Only he can satisfy the deepest needs of our hearts.

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Not only does God love us with a depth and an intensity that we can scarcely begin to comprehend, but he invites us to respond to that love. You all know what it is like when you meet someone interesting and attractive, and you want to be that person's friend. You always hope they will find you interesting and attractive, and want to be your friend. God wants your friendship. And once you enter into friendship with God, everything in your life begins to change. As you come to know him better, you find you want to reflect something of his infinite goodness in your own life. You are attracted to the practice of virtue. You begin to see greed and selfishness and all the other sins for what they really are, destructive and dangerous tendencies that cause deep suffering and do great damage, and you want to avoid falling into that trap yourselves. You begin to feel compassion for people in difficulties and you are eager to do something to help them. You want to come to the aid of the poor and the hungry, you want to comfort the sorrowful, you want to be kind and generous. And once these things begin to matter to you, you are well on the way to becoming saints.

In your Catholic schools, there is always a bigger picture over and above the individual subjects you study, the different skills you learn. All the work you do is placed in the context of growing in friendship with God, and all that flows from that friendship. So you learn not just to be good students, but good citizens, good people. ... Always remember that every subject you study is part of a bigger picture. Never allow yourselves to become narrow. The world needs good scientists, but a scientific outlook becomes dangerously narrow if it ignores the religious or ethical dimension of life, just as religion becomes narrow if it rejects the legitimate contribution of science to our understanding of the world. We need good historians and philosophers and economists, but if the account they give of human life within their particular field is too narrowly focused, they can lead us seriously astray.

A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person. And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints. I know that there are many non-Catholics studying in the Catholic schools in Great Britain, and I wish to include all of you in my words today. I pray that you too will feel encouraged to practise virtue and to grow in knowledge and friendship with God alongside your Catholic classmates. You are a reminder to them of the bigger picture that exists outside the school, and indeed, it is only right that respect and friendship for members of other religious traditions should be among the virtues learned in a Catholic school. I hope too that you will want to share with everyone you meet the values and insights you have learned through the Christian education you have received.

Saint Jonah, prophet

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Jonah Michelangelo.jpgYou did pass three days and night within the sea-monster's entrails, showing forth the Lord's descent into the belly of Hades. For when He had freely suffered His saving Passion, He arose out of the sepulcher on the the third day. Hence, we honor you, O Prophet, who wads deemed worthy to be a figure of Christ. (Kontakion, 3rd tone)

The Roman Martyrology notes today, in addition to the evangelist Saint Matthew, as the feast day of the Old Testament prophet Jonah, as a saint. Jonah lived in the eighth century BC and succeeded the Prophet Elisha. His prophecies included judgments on the people of Israel and the downfall of Jerusalem, the suffering of the Savior, and the final destruction of the world; his prophetic utterances therefore focused on penance and repentance of all believers which is a central theme in the preaching of Jesus, which He the disciples to. The Fathers of the Church have taught that Prophet Jonah is a type of Christ:

An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights. The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented when Jonah preached to them - and now, something greater than Jonah is here! (Matthew 12:39-41)
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of attending a friend's profession of first vows as a Conventual Franciscan friar. Friar Gabriel Mary Scasino is a member of the Immaculate Conception Province of Conventuals. The vow ceremony was held at the National Shrine of St Anthony of Padua, Ellicott City, MD, on the Solemnity of St Joseph of Cupertino (the day was a solemnity because the friary is dedicated to the honor of Cupertino).

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Friar Gabriel is one of two men who Franciscan Conventuals from New Haven, CT. There is 1 Capuchin also from New Haven.

You may ask what is a "Conventual Franciscan"? Some may hear the terms "black Franciscans" or "Grey Friars" or even "community of Franciscans". All are synonyms. The friars are called "black" or "grey" Franciscans due to the color of the habit worn.

The friars themselves define themselves in their Constitutions as "... a community founded by St. Francis of Assisi under the name of Friars Minor. From its earliest times the word conventual was added to this name. The members of the Order are called Friars minor Conventual. From its found our community by the will of our Father St. Francis, is a true fraternity. Its members, therefore, as brothers of a single family, share in the life and work of the community ...."

Further it is stated that "St. Francis wanted his brothers to be known as Friars Minor 'so that...from the very name itself his disciples might realize that they had come to the school of the humble Christ to learn humility." Plus it is said that the "friars are united in a conventual fraternity, in the proper sense of that term, so as to foster greater dedication, a more regular life, a more fervent divine office, a better formation of candidates, the study of theology, and the other works of the apostolate in the service of the Church of God so that, especially under the guidance of Mary Immaculate, the Kingdom of Christ may be extended throughout the world."
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So, Gabriel become a member of the venerable order founded by the saint himself. But what does "profession of vows" mean? According to the Constitutions, one's profession of vows means that friars:

  • "dedicate themselves directly and entirely to God in a special manner;
  • are conformed more exactly to the type of life Christ the Lord chose for Himself and are united in a special way to the Church and her saving mission;
  • stimulate the fervor of their charity through a fuller expression of their baptismal consecration, progress in the life of pilgrims and penitents, and voluntarily deny themselves goods and otherwise highly esteemed."
Also, it is taught that "By their very nature the three vows bind under pain of serious sin." Everything we do has some type of implication.

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Folding his hands between those of the Father Minister Provincial Justin Biase, and resting them on the Evangeliary, Friar Gabriel said:

To the praise and glory of the Most Holy Trinity! I, friar Gabriel Mary Scasino inspired by divine grace to follow the Gospel more closely in the footsteps of our Lord, Jesus Christ, with firm faith and will, in the presence of my brothers, into your hands friar Justin, vow to God, the holy and omnipotent Father, to live for three years of my life in obedience, without anything of my own, and in chastity, and I also promise to observe faithfully the life and Rule of the Friars Minor confirmed by Pope Honorius, according to the Constitutions of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual. Therefore, I commit myself to this fraternity with my whole heart, so that, by the working of the Holy Spirit, the example of Mary Immaculate, the intercession of our Father Francis and all the saints, with the help of brothers in the service of God, the Church and humanity, I may attain perfect charity. (Vow formula, OFM Conventual)

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One striking promise made to Gabriel by the Provincial upon receiving the vows is that "if you [Gabriel Mary] observe them [the vows], I promise you life everlasting." The certainty is what impressed me; the certainty that the Franciscan way of life, if observed, leads one to the personal encounter with God. Very few instances in the Christian life, in addition to Baptism and the holy Eucharist, can make this assertion with faithfulness and Truth.

The video of the vow ceremony can be seen here and other pics here.
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Matthew collected tolls and customs,
Shunned for his work and his dishonesty, Till one day Jesus stood before him, Looked in his face, and told him, "Follow Me!" All that he'd spent his life acquiring, All that he'd scraped and saved and stopred away, Now was no longer worth desiring, Compared with Jesus, Truth and Life and way.


Some of the righteous were offended
That grace should come to such a sinful man. In hopes their hearts might be amended, Jesus explained so they could understand: "Just as the doctor treats the ailing, And passes by the healthy and the whole, So to the stumbling and the failing
I come to offer healing to the soul."

Lord God, who chooses the unworthy,
Who once called out to Matthew, "Follow Me!"
Transform our weakness into glory
And our conceit into humility.
Teach us to know--and to believe it--
That Your unchanging love cannot be earned,
But as Your children we receive it
As did the prodigal when he returned.

Come, all in need of hope or healing,
Come, sick and weak, despondent or ashamed,
Come, bitter, faithless and unfeeling,
Turn your steps home again and be reclaimed!
And you, self-righteous and unbending,
Cast off your pride and your hypocrisy.
Come, leave your life for life unending,
As Matthew did when he heard, "Follow Me!"

 

(Text by Gail Gillispie)

Many Catholics and Christians of good will are genuinely interested in the formula the Church uses to beatify someone, thus identifying a person a "blessed." Notice who does/says what in the formula. The following is the rite (with a brief biography) used today by Pope Benedict XVI:

The Archbishop of Birmingham, the Most Reverend Bernard Longley requests that the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman be beatified

The Vice-Postulator of the Cause for the Canonisation of Cardinal Newman reads a biography of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman

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John Henry Newman was born in London in 1801. He was for over twenty years an Anglican clergyman and Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. As a preacher, theologian and leader of the Oxford Movement, he was a prominent figure in the Church of England. His studies of the early Church drew him progressively towards full communion with the Catholic Church. With his companions he withdrew to a life of study and prayer at Littlemore outside Oxford where in 1845 Blessed Dominic Barberi, a Passionist priest, received him into the Catholic Church.

In1847 he was himself ordained priest in Rome and, encouraged by Blessed Pope Pius IX, went on to found the Oratory of St Philip Neri in England. He was a prolific and influential writer on a variety of subjects, including the development of Christian doctrine, faith and reason, the true nature of conscience, and university education. In 1879 he was created Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. Praised for his humility, his life of prayer, his unstinting care of souls and contributions to the intellectual life of the Church, he died in the Birmingham Oratory which he had founded on 11 August 1890.

Declaration of Beatification

Pope Benedict XVI: 

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Acceding to the request of our Brother Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, with the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, by our apostolic authority we declare that the venerable Servant of God John Henry, Cardinal, Newman, priest of the Congregation of the Oratory, shall henceforth be invoked as Blessed and that his feast shall be celebrated every year of the ninth of October, in the places and according to the norms established by Church law.

In the name oft he Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.



Acclamation at the Beatification

Praise to the Holiest in the height, and in the depth be praised: in all his words most wonderful, most sure in all his ways. (Cardinal John Henry Newman)

The Archbishop of Birmingham thanks the Holy Father: 

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Most Holy Father, I, the Ordinary of Birmingham, give heartfelt thanks to your Holiness for having today proclaimed Blessed Henry Newman.+The Archbishop and the Postulator of the cause of Blessed John Henry Newman receive the kiss of peace from the Holy Father.Procession of reliquary including members of the Newman family and the Oratorians, to greet the Holy Father

Saint Juan Macias

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Come, you whom my Father has blessed, says the Lord; I was ill and you comforted me. I tell you, anything you did for one of these you did for me.

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Just and merciful God, Your love prompted our brother Juan Macias to become the servant of all. By his example and prayers draw us into the mystery of Your goodness so that we, too, may serve our sisters and brothers.

For more info on Saint Juan Macias see this site...
While the rest of the Church honors the memory of the great Jesuit theologian, bishop and cardinal, Saint Robert Bellarmine, the Franciscans remember Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the gift of the holy stigmata, the 5 visible wounds of Our Lord. The following text is a piece of chant done by the Monks of New Skete (Cambridge, NY):

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What gift could you possible offer the Trinity, O holy Father, when you possessed but a tunic, breech and cord? What else could you offer the Lord but the triune gift of yourself: the gold of evangelical poverty, the incense of perfect of obedience, and the sweet-smelling myrrh of chastity. In return, out of love for all mankind, the Lord Christ granted you the grace to know His saving Passion in your own flesh. Beg Him to save our souls!

What a terrific piece of liturgical theology to meditate on today. The sentiment is not left to those who live the Franciscan charism but for all of us baptized Christians who take faith in the Word made flesh as salvific.

I am leaving today for Washington and Baltimore to attend the first vow profession of a friend of mine, Gabriel Scasino, as a Conventual Franciscan. Gabriel is from New Haven, went to Notre Dame High School (West Haven, CT) and is now following the Franciscan charism for his salvation in Christ. He will, as the hymn-writer said above, offer himself to God by giving his whole life to the Lord in "the gold of evangelical poverty, the incense of perfect obedience, and the sweet-smelling myrrh of chastity." Pray for Gabriel and the Conventual Franciscans to follow Christ more closely today and in the years to come.

The Mass prayer for today's liturgical memorial may be found here.

On the plane to Scotland this morning the Pope held the typical Q&A session with reporters. THE more important of the Q&A, in my opinion, is noted below. The questions are vetted prior to the asking.

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Question:

The UK, like many other Western countries - there is an issue that you have already touched on in the first answer -it is considered a secular country. There is a strong atheist movement, even for cultural reasons. However, there are also signs that religious faith, particularly in Jesus Christ, is still alive on a personal level. What can this mean for Catholics and Anglicans? Can anything be done to make the Church as an institution, more credible and attractive to everyone?

Answer: 

I would say that a Church that seeks to be particularly attractive is already on the wrong path, because the Church does not work for her own ends, she does not work to increase numbers and thus power. The Church is at the service of another: she serves, not for herself, not to be a strong body, rather she serves to make the proclamation of Jesus Christ accessible, the great truths and great forces of love, reconciling love that appeared in this figure and that always comes from the presence of Jesus Christ. In this regard, the Church does not seek to be attractive in and of herself, but must be transparent for Jesus Christ and to the extent that she is not out for herself, as a strong and powerful body in the world, that wants power, but is simply the voice of another, she becomes truly transparent for the great figure of Christ and the great truth that he has brought to humanity. The power of love, in this moment one listens, one accepts. The Church should not consider herself, but help to consider the other and she herself must see and speak of the other. In this sense, I think, both Anglicans and Catholics have the same simple task, the same direction to take. If both Anglicans and Catholics see that the other is not out for themselves but are tools of Christ, children of the Bridegroom, as Saint John says, if both carry out the priorities of Christ and not their own, they will come together, because at that time the priority of Christ unites them and they are no longer competitors seeking the greatest numbers, but are united in our commitment to the truth of Christ who comes into this world and so they find each other in a genuine and fruitful ecumenism.

At one point in the Pope's homily in Glasgow, Scotland, today he said:

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The evangelization of culture is all the more important in our times, when a "dictatorship of relativism" threatens to obscure the unchanging truth about man's nature, his destiny and his ultimate good.  There are some who now seek to exclude religious belief from public discourse, to privatize it or even to paint it as a threat to equality and liberty. Yet religion is in fact a guarantee of authentic liberty and respect, leading us to look upon every person as a brother or sister. For this reason I appeal in particular to you, the lay faithful, in accordance with your baptismal calling and mission, not only to be examples of faith in public, but also to put the case for the promotion of faith's wisdom and vision in the public forum. Society today needs clear voices which propose our right to live, not in a jungle of self-destructive and arbitrary freedoms, but in a society which works for the true welfare of its citizens and offers them guidance and protection in the face of their weakness and fragility. Do not be afraid to take up this service to your brothers and sisters, and to the future of your beloved nation.

A few ideas to consider based on what said above:

  • notice: the pope speaks about the evangelization of culture, not only evangelization;
  • understand: relativism has become dictatorial in all ways, particularly in its approach truth, how it understands true happiness and man's eternal destiny is questioned, abused and rejected as unimportant for the 21st century person;
  • question: why and in what ways have some people relegate God, honest intercourse between faith and reason and human dignity to the sidelines, what are the avoiding?, and why do voices of dissent get more credence than eternal truth;
  • question: has religion lost its ability to guarantee authentic human liberty?, how can we propose otherwise?;
  • question: why do Catholics shy away -perhaps even intimated from making their voice heard in the public square--from talking about their faith in Christ as the supreme savior of all of humanity?;
  • how any true notion of what true welfare of people is be neglectful of the unborn, the elderly, prisoners, children, the poor and homeless, etc?
Now are the times that I wish God kept Father Richard John Neuhaus and Cardinal Dulles among us! In case you haven't noticed, what the Pope is talking about here is exactly what groups like Communion and Liberation and Opus Dei are doing what the Holy Father asks to happen in the Church and society.

Saint Ninian

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Lord our God, you brought the Picts and Britons to acknowledge of the faith through the teaching of Saint Ninian, the bishop: in your goodness, listen to our prayers: grant that we who have received from him the light of your truth may remain strong in faith and active in works of charity.

"Saint Ninian, whose feast we celebrate today, was himself unafraid to be a lone voice. In the footsteps of the disciples whom our Lord sent forth before him, Ninian was one of the very first Catholic missionaries to bring his fellow Britons the good news of Jesus Christ. His mission church in Galloway became a centre for the first evangelization of this country." (Pope Benedict XVI, September 16, 2010, Glasgow, Scotland)

Let us remember the Holy Father and the people of Scotland today. May the saints of Scotland intercede for them before the Throne of Grace.

This week in Rome the Communio Internationalis Benedictinarum (CIB) for a congress, their 6th, on "Hope in Benedictine Spirituality."

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Benedictine nuns and sisters from Europe, Africa and America are attending the meeting. The CIB is meeting on the Aventine Hill at the Primatial Abbey of Saint Anselm (known in Italian as Sant'Anselmo), home to the Abbot Primate , Notker Wolf (pictured left) who heads the confederation of Benedictine monks and nuns, the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, the Mabillion Institute and the college for theological studies for those preparing for ordination, earning degrees in theology and monastic studies (the general link for all these institutes for higher learning is here).

Zenit ran an interview today with Sister Maricarmen Bracamontes de Torreon, a Benedictine sister from Mexico who talked to aspects of hope and how understanding this virtue is key in Benedictine spirituality, and thus for all Christians. Sacred Scripture instructs us to look at how God works with us, that is, He gazes on us with faithfulness, compassion and mercifully. Looking to the holy Rule, Saint Benedict tells us "not to despair of God's mercy" (4.74). Sister Maricarmen said the participants are keenly aware that there is "only one Benedictine heart beats at the bottom of our universal diversity, and on the other, there is no doubt that we are going through a historical moment of darkness and we need a light, precisely like St. Benedict, which shines on high and gives us clarity in the midst of darkness." 

Two questions of the interview are worth thinking about here on the Communio blog:

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ZENIT: Can we then speak of a reflection from a holistic-rational perspective?

Sister Bracamontes: The Benedictine way leads to a process of integration that embraces the different dimensions of the human conscience: cognitive (the mind), affective (the heart), ethics and morals (the will and all its capacities), religious (the soul).

This integration enables us to love in a unified way and it is the condition to advance on the path of conversion. "However, the workshop where we must practice all these things diligently is the enclosure of the monastery and stability in the community" (Rule of Benedict, 4.78). The monastic dynamic animates the processes of integration in those who live in the "monastery," which is the place where we ask God with the most insistent prayers to bring to completion the divine work of our lives: that they all may be one.

If we persevere, trying to live in the "conversatio," the experience of God's unconditional love gradually integrates all the dimensions of our being, and thus we become unified in ourselves and in the diversity and plurality that characterizes us. The result of all this is that we live with transparency and consistency, that we do not separate our judgments from our feelings, or our conduct from our belief. In this way, our integrity and social and personal responsibility will not allow us "to say one thing and do another," or to establish ourselves in a life of contradictions and inconsistencies.

ZENIT: At present the Church is facing difficult moments. Does it call for hope?

Sister Bracamontes: Obviously. I think that some sectors of the Church have slipped up in the dialogue with the signs of the times that was so encouraged by the Second Vatican Council.

Those signs have revealed that for centuries, both in the society as well as the Church, efforts were dedicated to contain diversity and plurality, so characteristic of humanity. There are many human groups, with different views of reality; they are arriving on the first plane and ask that they be recognized, respected and integrated. The new methods of understanding and of discovery of humanity leave antiquated the old systems of relationship based on dominion, submission and marginalization. These systems of the past considered some human beings superior to others, based on race, gender, social class, ideology, religion, etc.

In face of a clearer awareness of the common dignity of all human beings, the absence of dialogue between those who are open to the signs of the times and those who continue to adhere to visions of the past and close their mind and heart to the historic change that we are experiencing, calls for hope.

From a perspective of faith, we are conscious and are convinced that the whole of humanity, with its differences, has been created with equal dignity in the divine image and likeness. We are children of God and sisters and brothers among ourselves in Christ, who is our peace (Ephesians 2:14), and in him all discrimination and marginalization is overcome (Galatians 3:26-28). From this awareness we hear the call and we open ourselves with wisdom and maturity to our world with its urgent need to recognize diversity, to promote integration and to encourage dialogue and participation. Hence, many challenges arise.

Pope Benedict XVI began his State and Pastoral visit to the UK today. Addressing Queen Elizabeth and all Britons in Scotland,  His Holiness said:

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The name of Holyroodhouse recalls the 'Holy Cross' and points to the deep Christian roots that are still present in every layer of British life. The monarchs of England and Scotland have been Christians from very early times and include outstanding saints like Edward the Confessor and Margaret of Scotland. ... Many of them consciously exercised their sovereign duty in the light of the Gospel, and in this way shaped the nation for good at the deepest level. As a result, the Christian message has been an integral part of the language, thought and culture of the peoples of these islands for more than a thousand years. Your forefathers' respect for truth and justice, for mercy and charity come to you from a faith that remains a mighty force for good in your kingdom, to the great benefit of Christians and non-Christians alike.

Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society. In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms; and may that patrimony, which has always served the nation well, constantly inform the example your government and people set before the two billion members of the Commonwealth and the great family of English-speaking nations throughout the world.
Archbishop Zayek & Bishop Shaheen.jpgWith great sadness word was received today of the passing to the Lord of His Excellency, Archbishop Francis Mansour Zayek, 90, emeritus archbishop of the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn, on the 14 September 2010, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.

Archbishop Zayek is pictured on the left with Bishop Robert Shaheen.

Archbishop Zayek was a dear friend for many years and I recommend him to your Masses and Prayers. He was really a beautiful person always attuned with the Lord and His Church.

Bishop Gregory Mansour's letter regarding the death of Archbishop Zayek gives testimony to this great man. Read: Letter on + Francis Zayek RIP.pdf

UPDATED: The October 2010 issue of the Maronite Voice is dedicated to the Archbishop.
As mentioned a number of days ago I posted a list of religious congregations attracting new recruits in 2010, now the Associate Press has picked up on the trend. I am glad they did.

The AP story can be read here.

Unremarkable, perhaps quite cliched, is the remark of Dr Catherine Mooney linking the vocations to Pope John Paul II. As much as it goes, the life and work of John Paul led many to to become a member of a thriving religious order. But do you think a theology professor would mention the work of the Blessed Trinity as a source of the call? Relying merely on a pope's influence doesn't go to far. Does it?

Thanks be to God for those who freely say 'yes' to the call of Christ to live the consecrated life. Saints Dominic and Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

Our Lady of Sorrows

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NS de Dolores.jpgThere is certain richness these days in the liturgical memorials given to us by the Church (remember on St John Chrysostom on the 13th, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on the 14th and Sts Cornelius and Cyprian on the 16th), all pointing to the meaning real Christian witness: that radical, honest, hopeful Christian discipleship means following Christ to the cross, adoring His sacred Passion and living as redeemed persons.

The bookend saints with the Blessed Mother provide us not only good example of what and who the Christian is called to be, but the truth of the Incarnation and the self-giving sacrifice of Jesus: to stand in very close proximity to Christ crucified. By baptism we share in the suffering of Christ's Passion which gives way to sharing in His resurrection.

The Blessed Mother, today, under the title of Sorrows, reminds us the limitless love of God for us. With Mary, we know how to live the desire of our hearts for compassion, mercy and love. It is only through her that we know how to live in the intimacy of a spousal relationship with Christ and the Church.

For info on the 7 Sorrows of the Blessed Mother read the posts here and here.
Beatitudes and Beads Powell.jpgBeatitudes and Beads is a 32 page booklet guides the user through the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount, often called Lord's Commandments which have the same force as the Decalogue. Beatitudes and Beads gives the user the original rosary with meditations on the Eight Beatitudes.

As the author states so clearly, "Our happiness in Christ is not assured because we're right or powerful or feared. Jesus said we inherit the kingdom when we face insult, persecution, and lies with gladness, charity and mercy." So very true but so hard to live, but we ought not shy away from trying to live the Beatitudes.

The author, Dominican Father Philip Neri Powell is a member of the Order of Preachers of the Southern Province, pursuing studies at the Angelicum, Rome. 

Liguori Publications sells the booklet for $2.50 (click on the link above).

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

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The Son of Man must be lifted up...

"The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, which, the day after the dedication of the Basilica of the Resurrection raised over the tomb of Christ, is exalted and honored, in the manner of a memorial of His paschal victory and the sign which is to appear in the sky, already announcing in advance His second coming" (Roman Martyrology)

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Today is a most glorious feast, one in which no Christian can ignore and claim to be a faithful follower of the Word made Flesh, the Savior of the world. It is only by and through the cross is life given and death killed. Nevertheless, this way of following was difficult for the Twelve, the Apostles, the disciples, indeed, all peoples who were attracted to Jesus and his call Life: the cross is a non-negotiable in following the path Christ has set for us. In time Christians would accept the cross as the Tree of Life, a triumph over death.

Sometime between AD 148-155 Saint Justin Martyr speaks of the cross as the standard symbol of Christians (First Apology 55-60) and by AD 211 we know that Tertullian told his students that Christians rarely do anything of substance without making the sign of the cross (De Corona 3:2) thus making the sign of the cross is a ancient symbol of blessing and one which grasps our hearts and minds and clearly identifies to Whom we belong.


We adore you O Christ, and praise you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.


Let us lift up our voices high;
With radiant faces let us cry:
Christ, through your cross you made death die!
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Joy to you, Cross of Christ the Lord,
Throne of our God be all adored:
Endless the songs your saints afford.
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

O holy Cross, life-giving Tree
Through which the Church has victory:
By you, our Lord has set us free.
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Praise to the Father, Christ the Son,
And Holy Spirit, Three-in-One
From ransomed souls Christ's blood has won.
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

J. Michael Thompson
Copyright © 2009, WLP
888 with Alleluias; GELOBT SEI GOTT
I love photography. There is something attractive in looking at old and new, color and black-and-white photographs. And every photograph tells a story because each picture is the result of a friendship with reality. In photography I see a quality of the beautiful that is drawn out the subject: there is an innate sense of the sensual that leads me to an act of contemplation; it also leads me to a deeper sense of my own humanity and to God; the same can be said of music and taking in an art show of the renaissance period (as I did last week at the Yale Art Gallery). I think back to my friend Kevin Locke who had a wonderful eye for the beautiful as well as my friend Brother Mark Kammerer, a Benedictine monk of St Louis Abbey in St Louis, MO, who himself is an excellent photographer who discerns the beautiful in images. Kevin and Brother Mark see life with a keen eye for grace's activity.

You'll get a better sense of what I am talking about if you watch the Religion and Ethics NewsWeekly article called the "Photographer Monk," which highlights the good work of Abbot Barnabas Senecal. For him, the photographer engages in a practice of monastic mindfulness that finds him being aware of God's presence today, with me and with the world as Saint Benedict tells us to do. He's spiritually, fraternally and intellectually nourished by taking and gazing upon pictures because they are tools to communicate, but gifts for seeing the daily activity of God and man and woman. For him, and certainly for me, photography helps us to see something God wants us to see anew. What does Christ want me to see in thus-and-such image?

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There's also an extended interview with Father Abbot Barnabas here.

The great thing about this story is that it reminds us of the need for beauty in our lives. Something Father Michael Morris at Dunwoodie Seminary always reminded me of. Plus, Abbot Barnabas keeps a live the tradition of monks doing art and advancing cultural sensibility. Where would we be without our monastic artists?

This story about the abbot made me think of the last talk the Pope gave to artists in 2009. At that time Benedict reminded us that an artist has a vocation (ministry?) to know and to engage infinity: the true, the beautiful, and the good; the artist's vocation is about an engagement with reality that scientists don't have because art shows us humanity's desire for its ultimate destiny. The artist, unlike any other vocation save for the priesthood, shows the life of the soul and its that reaches out, grasps and desires to understand. My experience and perhaps yours too, is that an artist lives in friendship with his or her artwork. It is not mere blood-sweat-and-toil but a genuine flourishing of communion. Likewise, the artist is contemplative in his or her search for God and happiness and shows us the horizons --if there are any limits of the search--  in their medium. For the Pope, and I hope for us, there is a belief that an artist lives a vocation given by God. Hence, the making of art is not a career opportunity for money, power and fame, it is not about a person's escape into an irrational, deceitful, superficial realm but art "fills us with new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life."

Abbot Barnabas' brief interview doesn't talk about transcendent power of beauty in art, but I think he would agree that nothing replaces beauty's search for the infinite in our lives and the transformative power it has for heart and mind, faith and reason of humanity. My intuition is that the abbot's sensibility tends toward the harmony between being truly human and the reality of the beautiful is made concrete in snapping a photo for the sake of whole person and not just for the sake of being creative.

Let me draw this reflection to a close by appealing to the Pope's closing closing remarks to the artists when he said something important that I think bears repeating about art because the abbot also intimated it, and it is useful for our lectio:

... it opens up and broadens the horizons of human awareness, pointing us beyond ourselves, bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity, can become a path towards the transcendent, towards the ultimate Mystery, towards God. Art, in all its forms, at the point where it encounters the great questions of our existence, the fundamental themes that give life its meaning, can take on a religious quality, thereby turning into a path of profound inner reflection and spirituality. This close proximity, this harmony between the journey of faith and the artist's path is attested by countless artworks that are based upon the personalities, the stories, the symbols of that immense deposit of "figures" --in the broad sense-- namely the Bible, the Sacred Scriptures. The great biblical narratives, themes, images and parables have inspired innumerable masterpieces in every sector of the arts, just as they have spoken to the hearts of believers in every generation through the works of craftsmanship and folk art, that are no less eloquent and evocative.


The Abbey of Saint Benedict (Atchison,KS) founded in 1857 is home to 50+ Benedictine monks who, among many things, run the well-regarded Benedictine College.

The College is getting the more and more recognized as a place to live the Rule of Saint Benedict in the formation of the whole person. Recently, Benedictine College dedicated its new nursing center in honor of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and they've broken ground for a new academic building. May Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica intercede for the monks and laity at BC!
A remarkable event in the Church will happen in less than a week's time: the beatification of the Venerable Servant of God Cardinal John Henry Newman, easily the best known cardinal and thinker we have.

Father Thomas Rosica, CSB, head of Canada's Salt and Light Television invests us with an excellent sense of who John Henry Cardinal Newman was as a person and as a priest in a video presentation. Watch Father Rosica's fine introduction to Newman or read the transcript here.

In the days before the Cardinal's beatification on September 19th, perhaps we can get to know the value of friendship with Christ and with others through the life and work.

Is following Christ worth it?

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That's an odd question for Christian, no? Well, no, it is not. The other day my friend Henry and I were talking about this question and why so many Catholics, or at least those who claim to be Catholic, and therefore, Christian, don't adhere more closely to Christ, the Scripture, Tradition and the Church. Our conclusion is that the poor nature of catechesis, preaching, sacramental preparation, faith formation and pastoral guidance has done a dis-service to the Church for a VERY long time. I am not willing to say "since Vatican II" because while I think that Christian life since V2 has disintegrated a lot and Catholics have become somewhat Protestant, we can't blame everything on Pope John's Council.

Stories surface --and you may have heard them too-- that some priests, nuns and other lay pastoral associates in the parishes have acted irresponsibly and incredibly when a Protestant comes to them saying, "Father, I'm a baptized Lutheran and I want to be Catholic." And Father says, "Why bother 'converting to Catholicism,' Lutherans and Catholics are the same, our churches just nuance things differently. I wouldn't bother, you already have a good church. Besides, Lutherans do a lot of things better than we Catholics." Really? I thought following Christ closely meant living in and with the Church He gave us. Is Christ worth following, or not? Upon this rock....

Is it just about a nuance? Since when can a Catholic say (i.e., hold to be true) that faith in the Triune God, salvation [heaven, hell, or purgatory], sacraments, the Sacrifice of the Mass, ecclesiology, Christology, etc. is just about nuancing "theological opinions" differently from those who live as Protestants? Do these things not truly, substantially matter? Is there no consequence in believing the wrong datum of Christ's teaching? What about the teaching of the Scriptures on Christ as the Way, the Truth, and Life, that upon Peter, the rock, Christ built the Church, what about the Emmaus and Pentecost experiences, what about the Eucharist, what about the forgiveness of sins, what about the priesthood, etc? What about the clear teachings of the Church Fathers down through the ages on the necessity of the Church as Christ's foundation for salvation? Do these things not matter? Are there no differences but only nuances? Are we insane in allowing those who seek the face of God according to the sacrament of the Church as Christ established to find their own way, in their own time and according to their own method? Is there no objectivity of faith & reason in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, the one founded by Christ in 33 AD? Is there any value in following Christ authentically? It is my hope that Catholics will begin again to seriously take the Catholic way seeing/knowing reality as coherent and life-affirming.

I was surprised just this morning in reading one of the Q&As in 
Rabbi Marc A. Gellman's
 "God Squad" column (New Haven Register, September 11, 2010) where a 62 year old Catholic says she believes in reincarnation. What???!!!??? Rabbi Gellman's answer to this person is insufficient on many levels but since space is limited in the Register, and deep theological intercourse is impossible, he reduced the issue to the idea that the Bible is not trying teach us anything about reincarnation or the 4 last things, etc, but "is lovingly scolding us to retain an appropriate  level of spiritual humility when we pretend to know the will and workings of God." Well, OK, but this answer is not enough and is leaning toward spiritual malpractice from both the Jewish and the Catholic point of view. No practicing Jew or Catholic I know of would be so squishy on this topic but reducing the Scriptures to mere spiritual practice. I have a feeling there's more in that 72 book volume than mere spiritual humility.

Reflecting on recent experience, I remembered that in my Christian Anthropology class this past year Sister Sarah said that belief in reincarnation is on the rise among mainline Christians, including "practicing" Catholics. I said to myself that can't be true. Evidently, it is true that many Catholics have some sort of belief in reincarnation and see no problem in doing so. Shirley MacLlain's teachings seem persuasive for some than the 2000 years of orthodox teachings on life after death, heaven, hell, Messiah, etc.  A little research shows that the question of coherence of Catholicism and reincarnation is a very old question. Many of the Church Fathers addressed the incoherence of saying you believe in Christ and hence the Church as Christ's visible manifestation on earth, and the possibility of holding reincarnation as a certain path to the destiny God has in mind for us. You can do a search on the web, read the Catechism or read the International Theological Commission's work on the subject if you are interested.

This brings me back to my conversation with Henry. He's doing a parish program in adult faith formation at his Brooklyn parish this year and he's opening the first session with this question about following Christ. I believe it is a useful question for all church-going Catholics, especially since we read in Scripture that we need to given reasons for our hope and testimony that the Risen One is in fact real.

So, how would you answer the following question?

Is it worth it to follow Christ?
  Think about that for a minute - Is it worth it to follow Christ?  Imagine I was sincere "seeker" asking you that question, how would you respond in concrete ways?  (If your answer is yes, why?  If your answer is no, why?)

By the way, Henry is hosting a blog. He's not as neurotic in updating as I am when it comes to this blog, but I think he's contributing to a deepening and furthering of friendship with Christ and, therefore, I'd recommend visiting Henry over at Bumping Elbows with Christ.

The following flyer is being distributed by the lay ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation this weekend as a humble attempt to understand, in a serious way, what the Ground Zero-Mosque building proposal means in light of our saying we believe that Jesus Christ makes a difference in the way we live and see reality around us, and how He is truly present among us. If we really believe that Christ abides with us, then how do you (we) evaluate value of the current Christian-Muslim-unbeliever tensions? Do we, as believers, assess reality according to the way everyone else does, or do we Christians assess reality in a new way, in the way Christ sees reality?


The proposed construction of an Islamic center and mosque at Ground Zero has resulted in the outrage of many Americans and the recent public discussion about "Islamophobia" in America. These events provoke us to affirm the following:

1. We notice a growing tendency to manipulate circumstances to serve as a pretext to create a public furor that demands people make a choice between one of two pre -packaged, ideological positions. We refuse to engage in a debate about whether or not to build a mosque at Ground Zero. The reality of Islam in America brings up questions that go much deeper than that of the construction of one mosque.  Indeed, one critical and open question is how contemporary American culture comes to grips with the human person's religious sense.

2. Many of those among the cultural elite, as well as many who hold the levers of power in our nation, have abandoned the religious tradition that informed the lives of the vast majority of their ancestors: Christianity. They have reduced it to a moral code or a vague myth, linked to a man dead for more than 2,000 years. Instead, they have embraced a "scientific" outlook on human life. But science provides no answer to those questions that continuously gnaw at the human heart, such as the problem of justice, the meaning of human life, or the problems of suffering and evil. In fact, science tends to stifle them.  Hence, contemporary American culture finds itself weak and tremendously uncertain about any response to universal human inquiries and longings.

3. Just over two weeks ago, we marked the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa of Calcutta's birth. One who looks at her sees a resplendent human person, overflowing with love for everyone, especially strangers of different religions. Her humanity touched all: religious and atheist; Muslim and Hindu; rich and poor. Mother Teresa's life invites anyone who seeks truth to open his or her heart and mind and take a fresh look at Christianity.

4. For serious Christians, the challenge of Islam, the large-scale abandonment of Christianity, the emptiness of the dominant culture, and the witness of Mother Teresa signal the urgent need for conversion. Pope Benedict XVI recently said that "conversion...is not a mere moral decision that rectifies our conduct in life, but rather a choice of faith that wholly involves us in close communion with Jesus as a real and living Person."  The Pope brings us face to face with the defining difference between Christianity and Islam: one religion bases its response to the human person's religious sense upon a message delivered 1,400 years ago, while the other offers the experience of a Man who died but is alive and present with us today.  As Fr. Juliàn Carròn, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, recently affirmed: Jesus' message and even all the miracles He performed were not enough to overcome the sadness of His disciples on the road to Emmaus --only His risen presence could ignite their hearts once again.

5. We are not Islamophobic, nor do we fear our post-modern world.  On the contrary, we invite all to look at Mother Teresa and at the Man to whom she gave her life.  In His Person, present with us today, all can find the Truth that alone will deliver the freedom America promises.

Communion and Liberation

September 11, 2010

Notes

Benedict XVI,  General Audience, Paul VI Audience Hall, Wednesday, February 17, 2010 (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100217_en.html)

cfr. Luke 24: 13-35

Here's the text for easy printing: CL Sept 11, 2010 Flyer.pdf

QA Chapel.jpgZacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for today I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully into his house. This day is salvation come to this house from the Lord, alleluia.

These words echo throughout the Church in Connecticut, indeed throughout the nation, as the state's major seminary chapel is acknowledged as a place where God abides and salvation manifested.

The Bishop of Norwich, CT, Michael R. Cote, dedicated the Queen of the Apostles Chapel at the Holy Apostles Seminary (Cromwell, CT) Wednesday, the feast of the Nativity of Mary by solemn rites and prayers, the placing of relics, and praying the Mass. The 10,000 square foot Dominicum was fittingly dedicated on beautiful day giving glory to God.

And God abides with us. Based on the belief that God appointed places to be set aside for His worship, the Church through two millennia constructed places of worship taking inspiration from the Old Testament Temple so that the Sacrifice --that is, the Eucharist-- could be offered, new members washed of sin and given the grace of salvation, sinners forgiven, the sick anointed, and the gospel heard and preached. Through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ the New Covenant is made real and known to all. The church is where Christians are born and reborn in the Holy Trinity.

The abiding presence of God. As the Church Fathers have taught, and we have believed, God is everywhere with His glory particularly in heaven, the Trinity does not leave us orphan but "honors the church with His special presence, being there in a particular manner ready to receive our public homages, listen to our petitions, and bestow on us his choicest graces." Catholics know that the church building is a sacramental, a special sign of Christ's pilgrim church on earth journeying together to see God face to face.

What a happy day for Holy Apostles Seminary! They got a beautiful chapel establishing themselves as a serious place of prayer, study and ministry in order that God may be glorified. The Queen of Apostles chapel is designated solely for sacred purposes; it is permanent, dignified and is an image of the heavenly Liturgy. Their old chapel, a former tool shed, was meant to be temporary but lasted a long space of time that ultimately showed signs of tiredness for a growing seminary population.

Abps Mansell & Cronin.jpg
The diocesan ordinaries of the Connecticut dioceses were present (Archbishop had a special place of honor given that he's the metropolitan archbishop) as was Hartford's auxiliary bishop, Christie A. Macaluso and the emeritus archbishop, Daniel A. Cronin. Nearly a hundred priests attended, including a delegation of Friars of the Renewal (Fathers Benedict, Andrew, Mariusz, Bernard, Isaac Mary).

Pictures of the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Rite of Dedication of a Church and an Altar can be seen at the above link.

The Middletown Press story can be read here.

The house of God is well established on a firm rock!
Good Shepherd2.jpg
Spring and summer great times in abbeys and great orders because of the ordinations, profession of vows, entrances to the novitiate and the anticipation of such things. God, indeed, provides...God hears our prayers for humble workers in the vineyards. We seek the face of God together, in faith, hope and charity.

For last two years I've been compiling a selective list of orders that have received new members and noting which ones had professions of vows because I was awe struck by the fact that some people are still being called to do such. That is to say, I am not struck by the fact that God still calls men and women to accept the gift of religious life but that they actually say 'yes' to the Divine Invitation to follow Him.

I was also curious to know which groups, randomly surveyed, got new members. Leading others to Christ is serious business, so I wanted to know how the Church in America might fare in the future with fewer vocations. For example, the tri-provinces of the Eastern Jesuits (the Provinces of Maryland, New England & New York) admitted only 8 for themselves for 2010. To compare numbers, in the New England Province in 1990, 6 men entered the Jesuit society (only 1 remains today) and in 2010 they admitted only 2 men. Dismal numbers given the beauty of the vocation. What would Saint Ignatius of Loyola say?????

Let us note well: Some religious orders or monasteries don't want anyone to know the facts of professions, entrants or ordinations too readily. This is frustrating because the info should be readily available if a group has a website. There is good reason to believe that many religious are embarrassed by the fact that no one is entering or that with all the money being spent on vocation promotion no one is interested in their way of life as it is lived in that group's context. Moreover, some orders are not aware of the value of internet technology in today's era, or are just incapable of find the "right way" to use technology to assist in getting the word out there that life exists in their order or that the charism they're living is worth living and may be attractive to others.

We should acknowledge the fact that some orders are dying (or are already dead and the membership is refusing to admit that their group is dead) but if God has given the grace to come into existence, to abort the charism/vocation too readily and without taking stock in the factors that have contributed to diminishment and the factors of correctives, is perplexing. 

Nothing beats being faithful to some simple facts which encourages a faithful living of the vowed life and makes it attractive to others:

  • a common prayer life and personal prayer which includes Mass, the Divine Office, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Lectio Divina, the rosary; a daily hour could be optional but there ought to be a good reason why a religious is not making a holy hour more often than not;
  • a common vision for living and serving the gospel in the Catholic Church as it is today, not as the Church "was in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s" or what the Church "should be"; the work done together, whether serving the poor, teaching school, being chaplains needs to cohere to the founding charism, be done together, and with joy in the Risen Lord; serving the gospel and the Church means being faithful to the Church's teaching authority, which means pastoral authority of the Pope and the bishops;
  • a caring fraternal life
  • the wearing of a religious habit not only in the house but in public; if you won't wear the habit in a restaurant or movie theater or any other place, including the airport, then you shouldn't be there; the wearing of the roman collar for religious orders should be done by exception if there is a legitimate habit available and the lapel pin just doesn't cut it.

In sum, I'd say that a religious ought to live the virtues we observe in God's Trinitarian life: be familial/communal with to regard to living, faithfully accepting of another's differences (the gifts the other brings), maintaining a personal dependence on another realizing that we humans didn't make ourselves and we really only know ourselves in light the other person, having an attitude for the sharing of resources and the practice of hospitality remembering that we receive guests as though it was Christ Himself knocking on our door.

The fruit of prayer and witness to Christ is seen in the admission of candidates to religious life as postulants, novices, simply and solemnly professed members as well as ordinations. Let me give you a sampling of what I am talking about --this is not a comprehensive list:

The Monastic Life:

Monastero di Bose (Italy) solemnly professed three, 1 monk and 2 nuns.

Sr Maria Johanna.jpg
Saint Walburga Abbey (Virginia Dale, CO) have 3 novices, 1 sister professed simple vows and there are 5 sisters in temporary vows. The abbey has a blog.

Saint Emma Monastery (Greensburg, PA) has 1 novice.
 
Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles (Kansas City-St Joseph, MO) have regular vocations but as to numbers, that is unknown. You would have to wait for their newsletter or call them. 

Abbey of St Paul outside the Walls (Rome) simply professed 1 and there are 2 novices.

St Louis Abbey solemnly professed 2 monks, will simply profess 1 and admitted 1 to the postulancy and ordained another to the priesthood in June. Father Bede reports that in the past 13 months there have been a total of 5 solemn professions and D.V. there will be 1 simple profession in November and a solemn profession in January 2011.

St Anselm's Abbey (Washington, DC) simply professed 1 monk.

Marmion Abbey solemnly professed 1 monk and admitted 2 to the novitiate.

scrolls.jpg
St John's Abbey 2 monks made solemn vows and 4 simply professed vows; their stories are here; 2 were admitted to the community.

St Mary's Abbey (Morristown, NJ) simply professed 2 monks on May 1. Four entered the novitiate.

St Vincent's Archabbey ordained 1 to the priesthood, 5 became novices and 4 professed simple vows. The juniorate has 13 monks.

St Meinrad solemn vows.jpg
St Meinrad Archabbey ordained 1 priest and 2 professed solemn vows.

St Benedict's Abbey (in Kansas) ordained 2 monks, 1 to the order of deacon and another to the priesthood.

St Benedict's Abbey (in Wisconsin) simply professed 1.

Conception Abbey simply professed 1, solemnly professed 1 and 4 entered the novitiate.
 
The Monastery of San Benedetto (Norcia, Italy) had 2 monks profess simple vows and 1 profess solemn vows this summer. The community was founded in 1998 in Rome and in 2000 moved Norcia, Italy. The community grows.

Benedictine monasteries worth knowing about, who live the life but don't publish the numbers of their monasteries with accuracy:


The Dominican nuns of Summit, NJ, the Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary, will simple profess 1 and 1 entered the postulancy. Watch their slide show.

The Carmelite Monks (Cody, WY) had 4 postulants enter, 2 enter the novitiate and a perpetual profession. 2 were ordained to the diaconate.

The Norbertine Canons of the  Abbey of Saint Norbert (DePere, WI) admitted 3 the novitiate (2 for St Norbert's & 1 for the daughter house Santa Maria de la Vid in New Mexico); there is 1 novice in the 2nd year novitiate.

The Norbertine Canons of Daylesford Abbey (Paoli, PA) admitted 1 to the novitiate, there is 1 2nd year novice, 2 others in formation for priesthood.

The Norbertine Canons of the Abbey of Saint Michael (Silverado, CA) 2 professed solemn vows; new postulants were accepted; 1 was ordained a priest and 1 a deacon.

Apostolic Orders:

The Missionary Fraternity of St Charles Borromeo educates 40 seminarians in Rome and who ordained 3 as priests on June 26; plus there are houses of formation in Mexico and Chile.

The Conventual Franciscans of the Immaculate Conception Province simply professed 1 friar; 1 made solemn vows.

The Conventual Franciscans of the Province of Our Lady of Consolation received 2 postulants and 1 novice; there was 1 simple profession of vows.
Caps.jpg
The Capuchin Friars of Saint Mary's Province simply professed 2 friars, and ordained 1; seven student friars renewed vows; 1 friar ordained deacon; 2 novices received the habit.

The Capuchin Friars of the Province of Our Lady of the Angels admitted 5 to the postulancy.

The Capuchin Friars of the Province of Saint Conrad simply professed 1 friar, 1 novice, 3 postulants and 1 friar ordained deacon.

The Capuchin Province of Saint Joseph 2 novices received the habit.

The Capuchin Friars of the Saint Augustine Province simply professed 1 friar; 7 novices received the habit

The Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal had 3 sisters profess final vows and 5 take the habit.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal had 6 friars profess final vows and 10 remain in the novitiate; 4 friars were ordained deacons.

The Franciscan friars of the Holy Name Province finally professed 4 friars and admitted 4 men as postulants; 2 friars ordained deacons.

The Dominicans of the Western Province ordained 5 men to the priesthood, 3 novices took simple vows.

The Dominican friars in Canada had 5 men enter the novitiate.

ASCJ.jpg
The Dominican Province of St Joseph ordained 3 to the priesthood, simply professed 8 with 21 men who entered the novitiate.

The Dominican Province of Saint Albert the Great had 10 men enter the novitiate, 3 make simple vows and 2 make solemn vows; 2 friars ordained priests and 1 friar ordained deacon.

The Dominican Missionaries for the Deaf Apostolate perpetually professed 1; 2 are in theological studies preparing for priesthood; the community has 12 members in 2 priories.

The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus had 4 sisters renew vows; 1 professed perpetual vows and 3 entered the novitiate and 1 entered the second year of novitiate. There are also 4 new pre-postulants.

The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma had 7 sisters finish the first year novitiate.

FSE sister.jpg
The Sisters of St Francis of the Martyr St George (Alton, IL) 21 junior sisters renewed their vows; 4 professed simple vows, 5 entered the postulant program, 3 entered the 1st year novitiate and 2 moved to the 2nd year novitiate.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist simply professed 1 and received 1 into the novitiate joining 4 other sisters; the FSE also received 1 into the postulancy.

The Congregation of St Cecilia, Dominican Sisters of Nashville perpetually professed 5 and simply professed 9; 20 were invested as novices and 26 new postulants entered.

The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist (Ann Arbor, MI) had 8 make their simple profession of vows & 5 made perpetual vows. 11 enter the novitiate and 22 enter the aspirancy. Founded in 1997 the congregation has more than 100 sisters.

The Sisters of Life simply professed 10 and finally professed 1; 7 sisters began the novitiate.

Today, the Director of the Liturgical Institute at Mundelein Seminary, Father Douglas Martis, gave the following address today. Father Martis is a priest of the Diocese of Joliet and on the faculty of Mundelein Seminary. Some very useful lessons to keep in mind.


I.  Sons.

 

My Dear Sons,

 

This was the term used by Fr. Fuller on Monday morning, "sons." It is a beautiful expression. You are sons to us. Our relationship, despite the distance or proximity of age, is one of father and son,  or in certain cases, as with our Director of Music, one of motherly concern. No disrespect to your age or your experience is intended.

 

We have a common project here,  to prepare you for ministry to the Church as priests.

 

And for those of us concerned directly with your liturgical formation, our project is to prepare you in such a way  as to manifest an authentic and profound  intelligence of and respect for the Church's public prayer, so as to demonstrate a true love for God's people.

 

This responsibility belongs jointly to you and to us. While it is true that in some ways you are brothers,  on another day you will be brothers in a deeper sense. For now, you sons, we love you, and care for you, and want genuinely go give to you what parents give to beloved sons.

 

What we do, that to which we have committed these years of our lives, is for your good for the good of the Church.

 

My colleagues and I have strong personalities.  We do not have an innate need to challenge you or correct you in order to caress on own self-importance.  The program we have of liturgical preparation and celebration, of respecting ritual and integrating prayer, of insisting on music and chant is not the imposition of our own puny personal preferences.

 

Our teaching is derived from the desire of the Church herself: rooted inSacrosanctum concilium, the ritual books that are the fruit of the Council, and the Church's liturgical theology. 

 

It is neither our interest nor our agenda to promote our opinions as if they carried the authority of the Church.   Our desire is to present you with the Church's teaching, for love of you and love of her. 

 

We want you to follow our example.

 

 II. Change.

 

Things change. That's okay.

 

Get used to it.  New classmates, new teachers, new schedules. New prayers, new responsibilities, new living situations. New circumstances, new trends, new conflicts. New joys, new insights, new challenges.

 

This is the life of a priest in the 21st century.

Learning to navigate change is an essential skill you will need for the rest of your lives.

 

Let us be clear. God remains the same. Our upset, generally has more to do with what we want,than with the objective reality of the change. This is not about you.

 

The church of the 1960s saw excitement and enthusiasm, and resistance, too.

 

In your situation today, learn to appreciate your elders' excitement, enthusiasm, and resistance. In 2011 you will know the same. Excitement, enthusiasm, and resistance.

 

Change leads some to heresy or schism.

 

Avoid the temptation of being captured by the caricatures of the media, whether your news source is FOX or CNN, whether you are a fan of NCReporter or NCRegister whether you get your information from the blogs or from television. Do not allow yourself to get sucked in by the politics of resistance. When change leads to dissemblance, only the devil is served.

 

As priests, ministers, official representatives of the Church, you have a greater responsibility than settling for, or promoting polemics. Not only that, as a man of prayer, you have--even now!--the responsibility of learning to embrace the beauty, the rich theology, the deep spirituality of the Church's liturgical prayer.

 

You can stand aloof as a member of an elite that knows the rich treasure of prayer or having integrated it yourself you can teach, inform, model, and so help others to do the same.

 

What is needed here is not a so called "pastoral decision" of diluting prayer but a conviction of genuine care, catechesis and formation that raises up the faithful.

 

This may be the greatest ecclesial moment in your lifetime. Yours is not the only generation to have ever known liturgical change.

 

"We are not in the same situation as ... 1963. One cannot therefore continue to speak of a change as it was spoken of at the time of the Constitution'spublication; rather one has to speak of an ever deeper grasp of the Liturgy of the Church, celebrated according to the current books and lived above all as a reality in the spiritual order."[i]

 

...now the time has come ... to publish liturgical books in a form that both testifies to the stability achieved and is worthy of the mysteries celebrated.[ii]"

 

If the intuition of Pope John Paul II is correct, if the Third Edition of the Roman Missal signals the maturity of liturgical reform, its dignity and stability, then the post-Counciliar church has survived adolescence and provides the opportunity now for a more adult expression of faith. You and I stand on the threshold of this moment!

 

 III. Texts.

 

The challenge with public prayer has always been to make the words our own. Let us understand then, that the great opportunity afforded us in this moment is not one of changing words.  This is about opening a more direct path to the meaning of Catholic worship--a meaning that has always been there and is there even now in the texts we use today.

 

What, then, are we to do?

Here is the simple prescription:

Take the words,

learn to understand them,

make the connections.

 

Follow the example of ancient readers:

 

take the text, do not read it through as if you already understand [this  "mystery ever ancient, ever new!"] take the text, dwell there. Abide between the lines.[iii]

 

"This quality of reading, which enables a reader to acquire a text not simply by perusing the words but by actually making them part of the reader's self..."[iv] Here is found true blessing.

 

Know what you are doing. Listen for the biblical narrative. The texts of the Mass were not put there by some malicious committee looking to trip you up.  These texts resound with the voice of God's own Word. Find the origin, search the reference.

 

I know this is not easy. We live in a culture that does not foster this kind of connection. Contemporary culture thrives on sound bites; idolizes short cuts and Cliffnotes, Sparknotes and books for dummies.

 

For your part, claim your place in Catholic culture, with its own language and grammar,  its own symbols and meaning.

 

Plunge yourself in a baptism of the Church's signs.  Let the insight of your patristic reading anoint your understanding and illumine your prayer.  Open your eyes to what is around, even here on this campus, with its natural beauty, its architectural wonders,  its volumes of wisdom, and its varied residents.

 

A steady diet of this, an habitual practice of attention to everything is an essential preparation for prayer. Collect these insights, engage these people, absorb this environment.

 

Your responsibility as seminarian, is to learn this, to integrate it; then you must model it for others and teach it to those in your care.

 

You become a mystagogue.

 

 IV.  Now.

 

This begins now.  You do not have to wait. You walk out of this auditorium and cross a threshold.

 

Let that crossing be the crossing of every threshold.

 

Let every word of the Mass bring you to a biblical narrative, a theological insight, a pastoral encounter.

 

Let every sign of the Cross bring you to the mount of the Ascension.[v] Let it be, every time, a wrapping yourself in the Trinity, a conforming yourself to the cross of Christ. May it bring you back to your baptism and forward to your funeral. May it inspire the crosses you may trace some day on the breast of future neophytes, on the foreheads of the anointed, on the palms of priests.

 

Let every greeting of the Mass resound with the words of the great missionary Paul,[vi] or the salutation of Boaz to harvesters,[vii] or the words of the Risen Christ.[viii]

 

Let every response, whether it be "And also with you"  now or "And with your spirit" at another time, let this reply make us marvel at God's wisdom in Ordering the Church and in the Spirit's work of assembling members with different gifts into one holy body.

 

Let every procession remind us of life's pilgrimage to heaven; every standing be in implicit imitation of the Great High Priest: "Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will."[ix]  Let every genuflection, every bow be the humble acknowledgement of what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.

 

Let our stance at the Alleluia be so completely devoted to the praise of Christ present in the Word, that rather than tracking the deacon and registering ritual glitches, our minds, bodies and voices melt into the Eternal.

 

Let prayers in the preparation of bread and wine, bring us to Daniel's fiery furnace, so that the words of Azariah become our own: we have nothing else to offer, but with contrite hearts and humble spirits let us be received.[x]  And may the dew-laden breeze[xi] that soothed the heat of that inferno, come like dew in the desert,[xii] to provide us with our daily bread."Priests of the Lord, bless the Lord." [xiii]

 

Let every dismissal, GO! bring us back again to Ascension,[xiv] and to every sending of Christ: "You, too, go to the vineyard!"[xv]

 

Do you see? At every moment, at every turn, around every corner, the bible is there. A prayer, a doctrine, an insight. And it has been there all along.

 

All we have, are, do, everything we love... is here.


Learning this. Integrating this. Modeling this. Teaching it is our project. 

 

Will you make it your project too?

 

Notes

[i] Vicesimus quintus annus, 1988, 14.

[ii] VQA, 20.

[iii] Alberto Manguel: A History of Reading. "You did not read books through; you dwelt, abided between their lines and, reopening them after an interval, surprised yourself at the spot where you had halted.", 12.

[iv] Manguel,  58.

[v] Mt 28:19.

[vi] 2 Cor 13:13 et al.

[vii] Ruth 2:4.

[viii] Jn 20:19.

[ix] Heb 10:9.

[x] Dan 3:39-40.

[xi] Dan 3:50.

[xii] Ex 16:13-17.

[xiii] Dan 3:84.

[xiv] Mt 28:19.

[xv] Mt 20.D

The hard work of collaborating and witnessing to Jesus Christ for 14 million Eastern Christians is indeed a difficult task, but one that is only sustained by prayer, mutuality and study.

During his trip to Cyprus Pope Benedict released what he things is a reasonable agenda for the forthcoming Synod of Bishops for Christians in the Middle East. But don't be fooled in thinking that this Synod is merely for those in funny hats doing the Liturgy in a different manner. On the contrary, this Synod, as all Synods, have a direct impact on our Christian lives here in the USA for those living outside of the Middle East. What happens to our brothers and sisters in the East impacts the life of the Church across the world whether we realize it or not. So often, we neglect our Christian brothers and sisters in other parts of the world because there seems to be little identifiable connections between what and how they live there, and what and how we live here. Remember, Christ our Lord and Savior lived, died and resurrected in the Middle East. Why wouldn't we be concerned with the Christians in the Holy Land and neighboring countries? You and I don't have to be Melkite, Maronite, Coptic, Syriac or Hebrew Catholics to care for the other. Let's not wait to later to do this caring, let's do it now.

The Lineamenta (the agenda for the Synod of Bishops) is built under the title of "The Catholic Church in the Middle East: Communion and Witness." Acts 4:32 sets the framework: "Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul."

The heads (and assistants) of Eastern Churches in the Middle East have been preparing for the Synod of Bishops to be held in Rome 10-24 October 2010.

An H2O News interview explores some themes.

The Holy Father in consultation with the bishops and many experts speaks of the point of the Synod in this manner, which sets the bar pretty high in my opinion:

1. to confirm and strengthen Christians in their identity through the Word of God and the sacraments;

2. to deepen ecclesial communion among the particular Churches, so that they can bear witness to the Christian life in an authentic, joyful and winsome manner.

In the Pope's mind these 2 goals are only possible through an ecumenical approach "if Christian witness is to be genuine and credible." For Pope Benedict, and I pray for all the bishops and religious orders and secular institutes in the Middle East, and for this blog dedicated to communion theology, that communion among Christians will lead to a unified Christian mind and heart which will in turn revitalize Christian life together. That is, that one day full, visible communion among the Churches and ecclesial communities will be a fact.

I urge you to read the working document (the lineamenta) noted above. Beg the Holy Spirit to guide your reading. Take the questions posed in the document with a degree of seriousness to see what can be done from your context to build a deeper bond of communion with Christians in the Middle East and with those who have immigrated to the West.

Let us all be united in prayer to the Holy Spirit and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, to assist the bishops and the experts in dealin with the critical issues being faced by Eastern Christians at this time.

On this our liturgical remembrance of Our Lady's birthday, it is apt to recall what Saint Andrew of Crete, preached: 

This is the highest, all-embracing benefit that Christ has bestowed upon us. This is the revelation of the mystery, this is the emptying-out of the divine nature, the union of God and man, and the deification of the manhood that was assumed. This radiant and manifest coming of God to men most certainly needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us. The present festival --the nativity of the Theotokos-- is that prelude, while the final act is the foreordained union of the Word with flesh. Today the Virgin is born, tended and formed, and prepared for her role as Mother of God, that God who is the universal King of all the ages!

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With the choirs of saints and angels,
Let the Church be joined as one,
Binding earth to highest heaven,
Praising Jesus, Mary's Son
Son of God-the Father's glory
Who took flesh that we might be
Reconciled, reborn, forgiven,

From the pow'r of sin set free!

On this solemn, joyful feast day
Let us sing a song of praise,
Thanking God for Mary's witness
Faithfully kept all her days.
From her birth to blessed Anna,
Mary listened to God's word,
And, when summoned by the angel,

Lived in faith what she had heard.

Glory now to God the Father,
Who has made us for his own;
Glory now to Christ our Savior,
Who has raised us to his throne;
Glory now to God the Spirit,    
Who renews us in his grace: 
Laud and honor, never ceasing,  

Be to God from all our race!


J. Michael Thompson
Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications 

87 87 D; PLEADING SAVIOR, or IN BABILONE

Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

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Prayer for the Canonization of Blessed Frederic Ozanam

God, our Father, You alone have the power to bestow those precious gifts of yours which we rightly call miracles. If it be Your will, be pleased to grant such a gift on behalf of [mention a person's name here]. We humbly ask that You grant this favor so that Blessed Frederic Ozanam may be canonized by our Holy Mother the Church. We make this prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

The name "Frederic Ozanam" may not be well-known to many in the USA, but those who know of or work with the Saint Vincent de Paul Society know well their father in the faith and their founder. Ozanam followed in the foot steps of Saint Vincent de Paul and is a terrific model for all people, particularly the laity because he puts the gospel and the Liturgy into action.

The Saint Vincent de Paul Society has a membership of more than three-quarters of a million people in 47, 000 conferences in 131 countries on 5 continents.

Frederic Ozanam was a married man, a father, well educated, a person who travelled in high society, a man of faith and action. Many people today consider Blessed Frederic to be a precursor to the Second Vatican Council's vision of the laity in the Church.

Ozanam's vision of the Church can be seen in an address he gave on the 4 marks of the Church (one, holy, catholic and apostolic). Here is an excerpt of a talk he gave:

One

One only means of salvation remains to us, that is, that Christians, in the name of love, interpose between the two camps (of rich and poor) passing like beneficent deserters from one to the other ... communicating mutual charity to all, until this charity, paralyzing and stifling the egotism of both parties, and every day lessening their antipathies, shall bid the two camps arise and break down the barriers of prejudice, and cast aside their weapons of anger and march forth to meet each other, not to fight but to mingle together in one embrace, so that they may form but one fold under one pastor. 

Holy

Will we be satisfied to lament the barrenness of the present time, when each bears in his heart a germ of holiness, which a simple desire would be sufficient to develop? It we do not know how to love God as the saints did, it is because we see God with the eyes of faith alone, and faith is so weak. But the poor we see with the eyes of flesh. They are present. We can put our fingers and our hands into their wounds, the marks of the crown of thorns are plainly visible on their heads. There is no place for unbelief here ... You poor are the visible image of the God whom we do not see, but whom we love in loving you.

Catholic

A Catholic university (Louvain) should be a cause of rejoicing to the Church, to see raised within her yet another monument to the immortal alliance of Science and Faith.

Apostolic

You have felt the emptiness of material pleasures, you have felt the hunger for truth crying out within you; you have gone for light and comfort to the barren philosophy of modern apostles. You have not found food for your souls there. The religion of your forefathers appears before you today with full hands; do not turn away, for it is generous. It also, like you, is young. It does not grow old with the world. Ever renewing itself, it keeps pace with progress, and it alone leads to perfection.


More about Blessed Frederic Ozanam can be read here, his chronology, and a brief biography.

Generalabt Maurus Lepori von Hauterive .jpgThe General Chapter of the Order of Cistercians elected Dom Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori, 52, as their new Abbot General, succeeding Abbot Mauro Estevez. It is reported that Lepori received 109 of 134 votes. His work as abbot general will last for the next 10 years with about 1700 monks and nuns of the Order of Cistercians throughout the world.

Abbot Mauro-Giuseppi, until now has been a monk and the abbot of the Abbey of Hauterive. He entered the abbey in 1984 and was elected abbot on May 16, 1994 when he was 35 years old. The Cistercian of Hauterive is outside of Fribourg, Switzerland. Abbot Mauro earned a licentiate in philosophy and theology from the Catholic University of Fribourg. The new abbot general is a Swiss-Italian born (from Lugano) monk who, before his entrance into the cloister was an active follower of Communion and Liberation (but entrance into the monastery only meant that he didn't attend all the meetings of CL but he kept up with work of the Movement!).



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http://www.abbaye-hauterive.ch/Abbot Mauro-Giuseppi is the author of Simon, Called Peter: In the Company of a Man in Search of God. The Forward to the book was written by Angelo Cardinal Scola, Patriarch of Venice, a close friend of the late Monsignor Luigi Giussani and who continues to be active in following Communion and Liberation.

A 2003 interview with Abbot Mauro at the CL Rimini Meeting can be read here and a brief article in Traces by the abbot can be read here.


Saints Robert, Alberic, & Stephen, pray for us.
Saint Bernard, pray for us.
Saint Aelred, pray for us.
Saint Alice, pray for us.
Saint Jeanne de Lestonnac, pray for us.
The English Cistercian Martyrs, pray for us.
Fr Bruno Cadore at Vespers.jpgThe 2010 Dominican General Chapter opened on August 31st (and will close on September 21st) and the 130 capitulars elected Father Bruno Cadoré, 55, as the 86th successor of Saint Dominic; he immediately succeeds Father Carlos Aspiroz Costa who has served for the last 9 years. Father Bruno, until now, has been the Prior Provincial of the French Province and trained as a pediatrics physician with an interest in child hematology and in bio-ethics. He's also lived and worked in Haiti.

Father Bruno will live at the Convent of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill in Rome.

The Dominican General Chapter meets every three years and elects a new Master of the Order every nine. This is the 290th General Chapter.

UPDATE: Father Master Bruno Cadore gave an insightful interview on H2O News and says some important things about the Word of God and how it shapes our lives, about the necessity and joy of the fraternal life and the unity we are called to live as brothers and sisters. Watch the video here.

 
Saint Dominic, pray for us.
Blessed Jordan of Saxony, pray for us.
Saint Raymond of Penyafort, pray for us.
Saint Bruno, pray for us.
Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us.
Blessed Margaret of Castello, pray for us.
Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us.

Blessed Catherine Racconigi

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Blessed Catherine Racconigi.jpgO Lord, our hope, You enriched Blessed Catherine with an abundance of heavenly gifts and filled her heart with You alone. With the help of her prayers may Christ be fastened to our hearts as He was fastened to the cross for our salvation.

As early as 5 years old Catherine had a relationship with God to the point of having profound mystical experiences. Catherine knew she was being drawn to the Lord as his spouse and who gave her His heart. The Blessed Mother gave Catherine a wedding ring which could only seen by Catherine herself as was similar to that of Saint Catherine of Siena. The Lord gave Catherine the grace (and burden) of the stigmata which was invisible and unknown to others except by her confessor.

Family opposition to Catherine's desire to enter a monastery, she instead became a tertiary (a third order Dominican); The mystical experiences were well-known to the others which the devil used to strike division among the faithful, even to the point of the Dominican friars sending her away. But sanctity won out in the end.

Born in Piedmont, Italy in 1487 and died in 1574. Catherine was beatified by Pope Pius VII in 1810.

What can we learn from Blessed Catherine? For me, Catherine demonstrates that we need to take seriously the religious experience and desires of the heart. God speaks to children as clearly and profoundly as He does to adults. This is the same insight Sofia Caveletti and Maria Montesorri had when they began the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

Saint Gregory the Great

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When I think of Saint Gregory I think that without him we'd know little of the person of Saint Benedict, Saint Augustine of Canterbury (& others) and without Gregory we'd know little of what the worship of God was like and how faith was developed. Others will latch on to the fact that Gregory increased the ministry of the papal office but his lasting legacy for us is his efforts in showing us the reality of holiness, the desire in understanding the other person and how Christ sees him or her. This is fact true, the papacy under his guidance was expansive for the sake of the Gospel: the salvation of souls was most important to Gregory, as it ought to be for us.

His skill in preaching, teaching, governing and listening was stunning; his plan for missionary work stellar, his trust in Providence  beyond compare. Gregory worked hard to lead the Church to Christ in the unity of the Church especially with  Christians in the East, and those who needed to know Christ in Britain. He was true to himself: servus sevorum Dei.

We hold in prayer today Pope Benedict, abbots and abbesses, bishops and pastors of souls, musicians, the people of Britain, diplomats, and those engaged in the work of evangelization.

Servant of the Lord's own servants,
Faith-filled shepherd of the sheep,
Gregory, as bishop, nurtured
All the Church, Christ's ways to keep.

Writing, preaching, leading, loving,
Saint Peter's steps he trod,
Raising singers up and training
Them to praise and worship God.

In his writings still he shows us
How to love and serve the Lord,
Counting not the cost and leaving
Al, so God might be adored.

To the Father, Son, and Spirit,
God the holy Three-in-One,
With Saint Gregory in glory
Let our work of praise be done!

J. Michael Thompson
Copyright © 2009, WLP
87 87 Stuttgart, Merton or
87 87 D Hyfrydol, Abbot's Leigh

You received divine grace from heaven, O blessed Gregory, and strength from His divine power. You sought to follow the way of the Gospel, and your journey's end brought you Christ's reward. O blessed saint, beg Him to save us! (Troparion)

You became very much like shepherds of Christ. You led the flocks of monks into the heavenly sheepfold. There you taught your flock the law of Christ, O blessed father and now you sing in the heavenly abode, and you rejoice, happy in their company. (Kontakion)

Some pictures today

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I went to Mass this morning at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT and then spent the morning meeting with Mother Lucia. We had a wonderful conversation about life, God, Church, monastic life. My father brought home the finished replica of the 1910 Flying Merkel. Some pictures follow (more of the abbey on the flikr page)

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Dad & Mom with Merkel Sept 2 2010.JPG
more Merkel-f.JPG

September Martyrs.jpgThe Benedictines and Carmelites in some places in the USA, and of course in England and France, liturgically remember the September Martyrs, also called the Paris Martyrs; you will also see the memorial listed as "Blessed John du Lau and companions" after the Archbishop of Arles, the highest ranking prelate among the 191 martyrs. The Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey are connected with the Carmelite nuns and retain some of the relics. Historians tells us that about 1500 clergy and religious were killed in 1792. And this act of martyrdom inspired the writing of Georeges Bernanos's "Dialogues of the Carmelites" and the famous opera of Francis Poulenc, by the same name.

The French "virtue" of liberty was not applied to the Church. In fact, quite the opposite. Just a few years after the French Revolution there was a purge of high and low clergy, religious and laity. The killing of the clerics happened because the republican government seized control of the Church, a matter that was (and, remains so today) unacceptable to Catholic ecclesiology. As the state has its duty and responsibility for civic order and leadership, the Church's mandate is found in sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium and not in positive law; in short all things pertaining to the salvation of souls. Matters of state are not the same for the Church and vice versa unless these matters concern the moral law. This, however, was not the reigning ideology. The Republicans passed legislation that rejected the authority of the Church and it wanted the bishops and priests to uphold the new laws giving the state control over the Church. Something similar had with the Oath of Supremacy in England. Clergyman and religious weren't the only one to offer their lives as a gift to the Lord. the laity lost their lives too, aristocrats and peasant alike. Refusing to take the oath got you the label: "non-jurors."

Some of the 191 were killed in cold blood, others were asked a question and depending on how they answered determined if they lived or died. No mental reservation was kept when it came to following the wisdom of the Church or the wisdom of man.

One observer noted that common among those put to death was that all faced death in a happy manner as one who would've gone to a wedding. Indeed, the wedding feast the martyrs were going to was the Wedding Feast of the Lamb (see the Book of Revelation).

The names beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926 are listed here.
Happy New Liturgical Year for the Byzantine Church! Have a blessed 7519!!! The Byzantine Church understands this date to be the years since the creation of the world. A new liturgical year, a new beginning to give God glory, honor and praise!!!!

We bless God's holy name with the singing of the Great Doxology

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Glory to God in the highest, and to people on earth peace and good will.
We praise you, we bless you, we worship you, we glorify you, we thank you for your great glory.
Lord God, heavenly King, Father almighty; Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit!

Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father: you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us. You take away the sin of the world, hear our prayer. You are seated at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

For you alone are holy; you alone are the Lord, Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

I will bless you day after day, and praise your name forever. Make us worthy, O Lord, to be kept sinless this morning. Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our Fathers, and praiseworthy and glorious is your name forever. Amen.

May your mercy, O Lord, be upon us who have placed our hope in you.
Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your commandments.
Blessed are you, O Master; make me understand your commandments.
Blessed are you, O Holy One; enlighten me with your commandments.
O Lord, you have been our refuge for one generation to the next.
I said: Lord have mercy on me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against you.
O Lord, I have fled to you for refuge.
Teach me to do your will, for you, O Lord, are my God.
In you is the source of life and in your light we see light.
Extend your mercy to those who know you!
Joseph Muzquiz2.jpgThe Archdiocese of Boston and Opus Dei have begun in earnest the study of the cause of saint of Father Joseph Muzquiz. Muzquiz labored in the Boston area for many years and died there in 1981. These first steps are being taken to do a proper investigation in possibility of presenting a cause for sainthood to the Church.

Here's the story in The Pilot.

Prayer is realizing that we are in relationship with the Trinity: Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Prayer before the Blessed Trinity is what defines us. For the month of September, let us keep in mind and heart the following prayer intentions proposed by the Holy Father:

The general intention

That the proclamation of the Word of God may renew people's hearts, encouraging them to work toward authentic social progress.

The missionary intention

That by opening our hearts to love we may put an end to the wars and conflicts which continue to bloody our world.

About the author

Paul A. Zalonski is from New Haven, CT. He is a member of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a Catholic ecclesial movement and an Oblate of Saint Benedict. Contact Paul at paulzalonski[at]yahoo.com.

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This page is a archive of recent entries written by Paul Zalonski in September 2010.

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