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Blessing of Water in Honor of Saint Willibrord

on November 7, 2009 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A tradition on the day which the liturgical memorial of Saint Willibrord is celebrated is the blessing of water. As we know, Catholics use the natural world to "hook" on to the supernatural world. That is, the Incarnation of the Word came into human history to hallow creation and for the redemption of the world. The Church sensing this, has organically developed blessings of things and people to lead us into the deeper reality of our faith looking toward salvation. The opening prayer for the Mass of Saint Willibrord may be found here, and ritual for the blessing of water follows.

Saint Willibrord (d. 738) freed a home haunted by an evil spirit through the use of water blessed by him.

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.

R. Who made heaven and earth.

Thou creature water, I purge thee of evil by the living + God, by the holy + God, that thou mayest become a saving remedy for body and soul, through Him Who shall come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen.

Let us pray.

Bless, + O Lord, this water as a remedy for repulsing the foe of mankind, and send down on it they Holy Spirit, so empowered by heaven it may drive out both sickness and the worst enemy of all, and be a source of health to all who drink thereof. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray.

O Lord Almighty! Bless + this water which thou has granted for mankind's use in washing away all guilt of sin, so that, through invoking upon it thy holy name, it may prove an unfailing and divine remedy whatever it is sprinkled or used for drink. Let this water serve to wash away every impurity, and to bestow by thy beneficence health of body and soul upon all who use it, through Him Who shall come to judge the living and the dead and world of fire. Amen.

Let us pray.

O Lord, the Father Almighty! Bless + this creature of water that it become a saving means for humankind in removing all evil of body and soul and in expelling all harmful influence of the enemy. And grant that, through invoking thy holy name, we may possess in it a safeguard for our corporal and spiritual well-being. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Let us pray.

O God, Who has appointed illustrious promoters of the true faith for the various nations; grant, we beseech thee, that all who come seeking the intercession of our holy teacher, Saint Willibrord, may experience the joy of good health here on earth and prosperity and the glory of beatitude in the life to come. Through our Lord, Jesus Christ, thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forevermore. Amen.

May the blessing of almighty God, Father, Son + and Holy Spirit come upon this water and remain for all time. Amen.

Father John Oetgen, OSB, RIP

Paul Zalonski

on October 17, 2009 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On 10 October 2009, Father John Oetgen, OSB, PhD, 85, died in the monastery of his monastic profession, Belmont Abbey (Mary, Help of Christians), Belmont, North Carolina. He was 65 years professed of monastic vows and 58 years a priest. Abbot Placid Solari celebrated the Mass of Christian Burial for Father John on Tuesday, 13 October in the Basilica of Mary, Help of Christians; he was buried in the abbey cemetery.

O God, Who did raise Your Servant Father John to the dignity of priest in the apostolic priesthood, grant, we beseech You, that he may be joined in the fellowship with Your Apostles forevermore.

I was speaking with one of the monks of Belmont Abbey two weeks ago, shortly before Father John's death, and I realized intuitively that the end was near for a dear priest, monk and acquaintance. I got to know Father John on my visits to Belmont and when I had the privilege to being there for two months this past spring I had the opportunity to get to know him better. Though diminished in body he was not frail in mind or spirit. His presence, though strained because of his physical weakness was a significant example to me of placing trust in the Lord. One good connection I had with Father John was caring for his Saint Francis garden: I was elated when he came to visit me there on his way back from the doctor's.

An appreciative interview with Father John published in the Spring of 2008 in Crossroads, the Belmont Abbey College magazine which gives a sense of who Father John was and why.

In February 2009, Abbot Placid gave him the Sacrament of Anointing, which I know he did several times later, in the company of the monastic community. My thoughts were posted here.

The Oblates of Belmont Abbey posted this obit for Father John.

The Gaston Gazette posted this obit for Father John.

May Father John Oetgen's memory be eternal.

Saint Wilfrid

Paul Zalonski

on October 12, 2009 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

O God, by Whose grace blessed Wilfrid Thy Bishop did shine with such evident signs of holiness: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may ever be defended by his protection as by his teaching we have been taught to desire heavenly things.

The 7th century Benedictine saint, Wilfrid, who was abbot of his community, elected of bishop of York and who was a wildly talented man and influential is commemorated today. While relatively unknown in this part of the world, he is well-known in England because his tireless zeal for God's Kingdom. He is credited for acquiring land, building monasteries and churches, patronage of secular and sacred art, and for moving the Church in England from an independent Church to one more obedient to the authority of Rome. The veneration of Wilfrid ought not to be forgotten. Today, let us pray for the Church in England, including the bishops and Benedictines there. Regarding the Benedictines, I am particularly thinking of the monks of Ampleforth, Douai, and Downside Abbeys and the nuns at Stanbrook and Tyburn.

Blessed Columba Marmion

Paul Zalonski

on October 3, 2009 5:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

God, our Father, you called your servant, Columba, to the monastic life. You bestowed on him the grace to understand the mysteries of your Son and to make him known as the ideal for all who have been baptized. Grant that we may learn from his example to live in Christ by opening our hearts in joy to the Spirit of your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Church observes the feast of Blessed Columba Marmion today. He was an Irishman who became a monk in Belgium, a diocesan priest who fell in love with the Benedictine way life, its emphasis on seeking God and who served as abbot. Dom Columba died on January 30, 1923. Marmion's liturgical memorial, however, is observed not on his anniversary of death but on the anniversary of receiving the abbatial blessing, October 3, 1909. At that time the first Sunday of October was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary; in this era the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is observed on October 7th.

Two pieces to reflect up on...

The whole of the Christian life consists in carrying Christ to birth within us and in having Him live there'. This, of course is nothing more than a paraphrase of St. Paul's injunction in Gal. 4:19: 'until Christ is formed in you'. For Marmion this is not just our final goal, it is our daily, essential task: to form Christ within us, through the Graces of the sacraments and our daily encounter with God in prayer. (Mark Tierney O.S.B, "The Life and Times of Columba Marmion")

And

... Revelation teaches us that there is an ineffable paternity in God. God is a Father: that is the fundamental dogma which all the others suppose, a magnificent dogma which leaves the reason confounded, but ravishes faith with delight and transports holy souls. God is a Father. Eternally, long before the created light rose upon the world, God begets a Son to whom He communicates His nature, His perfections, His beatitude His life, to beget is to communicate [By the gift of a similar nature ] being and life. You are My Son this day have I begotten You [Ps 2:7; Heb 1:5; 5:5], from the womb before the day - star, I begot you [Ps 110:3]. In God, then, is life, life communicated by the Father ... Creatures can only lisp when they speak of such mysteries... the Father, and the Son, with one same and indivisible Divine Nature, and both, although distinct from one another [on account of their personal properties, 'of being Father' and 'of being Son'] are united in a powerful, substantial embrace of love, whence proceeds that Third Person, Whom Revelation calls by a mysterious name: the Holy Ghost.

Such is as far as faith can know it, the secret of the inmost life of God; the fullness and the fruitfulness of this life are the source of the incommensurable bliss that the ineffable Society of the three Divine Persons possesses.

And now God - not in order to add to His plenitude, but by it to enrich other beings - exceeds, as it were, His Paternity. God decrees to call creatures to share this Divine life, so transcendent that God alone has the right to live it, this eternal life communicated by the Father to the Only Son, and by them, to the Holy Spirit ... To these mere creatures God will give the condition and sweet name of children. By nature, God has only one Son; by love, He wills to have an innumerable multitude: that is the grace of supernatural Adoption. (Dom Columba Marmion, OSB, Spiritual Writings. Ed. P. Lethiellex. Maredesous Abbey, 1998.)

A very brief note on the canonization process of Dom Columba can be read here.

The response to God's word is telling

Paul Zalonski

on September 27, 2009 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First comes the word of God that addresses me, touches me, calls me into question, wounds and judges me, but also heals and frees me. Both prayer and silence can only be an answer to God's word and may not precede it.

Thus Benedict requires that prayer should be frequent, but short. In it the monastic is to respond to the word of God and express his or her readiness to follow God's demands with deeds. Thus we find in Benedict's Rule no teaching on mystical prayer, but very sober instruction to open one's daily life to God again and again in every situation.

What is crucial is not our doing, but living before God, in God's presence, listening to God's word that addresses us and shows us the way. In prayer the monastic responds that she or he has heard God's word and is now ready to follow it.

Benedict of Nursia His Message for Today

Anselm Grun OSB

Seeing the Invisible will allow you to do the impossible

Paul Zalonski

on September 25, 2009 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The monks of Cistercian Abbey, Spring Bank, WI, are featured in a PBS video.

These monks are proprietors of LaserMonks.com, a non-profit work providing a discount prices items for your printers and other products (some of which made by monks & nuns of other monasteries).

Watch the video...it's fascinating to see their vocation lived.

The hard work of being a person of peace

Paul Zalonski

on September 21, 2009 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Benedictine ideal of the human being is not that of one who achieves and accomplishes things, not a person with an unusual religious gift, not a great ascetic, but the wise and mature person who knows how to bring people together, who creates around herself or himself an atmosphere of peace and mutual understanding.

Behind this ideal image stands a high demand. No one can simply resolve to become a peacemaker. Only those who have created peace within themselves can make peace, only those who have become reconciled with themselves, their own weaknesses and faults, their needs and desires, their contradictory tendencies and ambitions.

Making peace is not a program of action that one could write on one's banners; rather, it must arise from inner peace. And inner peace is achieved only through a hard and unremitting struggle for inner purity and through prayer, in which one seeks to accept everything God presents, whether one's own weaknesses or those of others.

Benedict of Nursia: His Message for Today

Anselm Grun, OSB

PS: what Fr Anselm doesn't say is that creating an atmosphere of peace is harder than it looks, but don't stop striving.... The realization that we are person's with great inner need, as in we need a mother or we need friendship, like we need God, is born out in our abandonment to the Divine Plan of seeking a deeper communion with God, as John rested his head on the breast of Jesus.

Visiting Bethlehem: the Abbey of Regina Laudis

Paul Zalonski

on August 17, 2009 6:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

One of the blessings in Connecticut is the presence of Abbey of Regina Laudis, a monastery of nearly 40 Benedictine nuns in the hills of Litchfield, County (in the Archdiocese of Hartford). Looking out in the choir there were 5 white veil novices and 1 postulant among the other professed nuns.

I went to the abbey with Father Ignacio today so that he could celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass for the nuns since they are without a resident chaplain. Father Ignacio is a newly ordained priest of the Bridgeport Diocese currently serving at Saint Rose of Lima Church (Newtown, CT). Mass at the abbey follows the Mass of Pope Paul VI, also called the Novus Ordo (the new Order [Mass]). Often Mass is celebrated using the Latin language except for the Scripture readings and homily. However, the Mass is often in English with the Latin chants.

Like a number of monasteries and convents the sisters are without a resident priest these days. And you can guess the reasons for this. The abbey's past chaplain, a Benedictine monk, transfered his vow of stability from his abbey of profession to another. Thus, he had to move to his new abbey.

I was happy to be at Regina Laudis again after being away for 2 years. This time was especially happy because I was able to meet Mother Placid again after 9 years (I don't usually call on the nuns for a visit when I stop in for a visit to the bookstore and chapel). Mother Placid is the first American vocation to stay at the Abbey with the foundress, Lady Abbess Benedict. As Providence would have it, I greeted the mother of a former student. And from a distance I saw a former classmate from the seminary. Amazing who one meets at a bucolic Benedictine monastery.

As a side note, the nuns are land based. Meaning, they farm the land by raising vegetables, tending the forest, raising a beef herd for local consumption and dairy cattle for the abbey's use. Many of the nuns are professionally trained in the various sciences to assist in the proper use of the land. The good and proper use of the land is a particularly Benedictine characteristic. The nuns tend to the beauty of creation as a theological statement of belief in the Incarnation.

Additionally, the abbey has through the years attracted women from all walks of life and pedigree: some have been lawyers, physicians, artists, poets, actresses, theologians, minor nobility and the like. Mother Foundress' leadership and vision was the result of the integration of faith and reason. She knew deeply the Catholic tradition of the religious, artistic and intellectual life. Hers was a monastic life that is virtually unknown in the United States. Regina Laudis is likely one of 4 or 5 similar monasteries of women. Historically, Mother Benedict knew personally Popes Pius XII, John XXIII and Paul VI and all of them encouraged the Foundress to keep alive Benedictine culture, ecumenism, the Latin chants and the intellect (that is, if a woman came to the abbey is a professional credential, or later earned one, she was keep current in that field).

A good read is Antonette Bosco's biography, Mother Benedict: Foundress of Regina Laudis

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Recently in Benedictines Category

Blessing of Water in Honor of Saint Willibrord

Father John Oetgen, OSB, RIP

Saint Wilfrid

Blessed Columba Marmion

The response to God's word is telling

Seeing the Invisible will allow you to do the impossible

The hard work of being a person of peace

Visiting Bethlehem: the Abbey of Regina Laudis

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