Paul Zalonski – Page 287

Portsmouth Abbey monks dedicate Lourdes Grotto

Magnificat, anima mea Dominum!

Earlier today my friend Peter and I journeyed to Portsmouth Abbey and School for the blessing of the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto. An outdoor shrine to dedicated to the Virgin Mary who appeared in Lourdes France in the 19th century. Abbot Caedmon led the blessing and School choir sang the traditional hymns to Our Lady.

Abbot Caedmon drew our attention to the humility of Mary appearing to Saint Bernadette asking her to tell the world of the need for prayer and penance. A message clearly consistent with the Gospel of Christ. It is Mary, the Mother of God, Mother of the Church who calls us to greater fidelity to her Son and Our Savior, Jesus. And so the Gospel and Our Lady of Lourdes, so with us today.

The Grotto dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes on the west side of the Portsmouth Abbey campus is the generous gift of an anonymous former student and benefactor of Portsmouth. The generosity of this man is borne of his desire to make the Virgin Mary of Lourdes known and to inspire among those connected with Portsmouth the enduring commitment of faith, reason and service for one’s salvation and the salvation of the world. A significant example of this witness is that the Abbey School, for the last 34 years, has joined with the Ampleforth Abbey Pilgrimage (England) for a service to trip to assist the sick on pilgrimage seeking a divine healing and cure at the great Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southern France in July.

The stone for the Grotto was harvested from the Abbey property (as was the stone used for the Abbey Church) and a local landscaping crew did the labor. Benedictine Brother Joseph contributed his expertise to the project.

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Dominican Tertiaries professed, new members admitted

Many of the religious orders have what is called a Third Order Laity, or some such name for the laity who are closely connected spiritually and morally to an Order and continue to live their lives according to the vocation they’ve been given: the single life, married life or secular priesthood.

As a point of comparison, the Benedictine monasteries have Oblates –I am one–, the Franciscans have the Secular Franciscan Order, the Jesuits have nothing (by design of Saint Ignatius) and the Dominicans have what’s called today, The Fraternity of Saint Dominic.

On Good Shepherd Sunday, April 29, the New Haven, CT Dominican laity at Saint Mary’s Church professed by vow several people and admitted 6 to the novitiate, a period of time of testing one’s vocation to the Fraternity and learning the Four Pillars of Dominican life (prayer, study, community and service).

May Saint Dominic richly bless these new sons and daughters.

Recognizing Christ’s Presence in healthcare in New York City

As I mentioned on Monday, we celebrated the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena at the New York City parish under her patronage with a solemn Mass offered by His Eminence, Donald Cardinal Wuerl, STD, archbishop of Washington. The Saint Catherine of Siena Award was bestowed on the Cardinal honoring him for his lifetime work for Catholic health care as was Sister Elaine Goodell, PBVM, for her 27 years as a Catholic chaplain at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. It is noteworthy that Sister Elaine began her ministry as a hospital chaplain at the age of 60 following a sabbatical from teaching music. This liturgical and professional observance was the Sixth Annual ceremony established by the Dominican Friars Healthcare Ministry of New York.

With a million dollar gift to the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception (Dominican House of Studies) of Washington, DC, the Dominican Friars of Saint Catherine of Siena Priory (NYC) established the “Saint Catherine of Siena Chair of Catholic Health Care Ethics” with a bold plan for formation, education, and outreach for pastoral ministers, clergy and laity alike. The first holder of the Chair is Brother Ignatius Perkins, OP.

Two media outlets have the story: Ron Lajoie writing for Catholic New York and NET TV.

God so desires her (our) salvation

In these days following the feast of Saint Catherine of Siena, I thought I would post this rather beautiful extract from one of the saint’s Dialogues. It shows the depth of love that Catherine knew she had with her Savior, her lover.

“O eternal, infinite Good! O mad lover! And you have need of your creature? It seems so to me, for you act as if you could not live without her, in spite of the fact that you are Life itself, and everything has life from you and nothing can have life without you. Why then are you so mad? Because you have fallen in love with what you have made! You are pleased and delighted over her within yourself, as if you were drunk with desire for her salvation. She runs away from you and you go looking for her. She strays and you draw closer to her. You clothed yourself in our humanity, and nearer than that you could not have come.”

Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, tr. Suzanne Noffke (New York: Paulist Press 1980) 325.

Pope Benedict XVI’s prayer intentions for May 2012

We join with the Pope, Benedict XVI, in prayer before the Divine Majesty for the following intentions:

The general intention

That initiatives which defend and uphold the role of the family may be promoted within society.

The missionary intention

That Mary, Queen of the World and Star of Evangelization, may accompany all missionaries in proclaiming her Son Jesus.

Saint Joseph the Work: the model of holiness through working

Work is often treated as a four letter word; something to be avoided. Understanding what the value of work is today is rather complex due to the ideology we’ve been subjected to since at least the 19th century as a result of industrialism, Communism and Socialism.

One of the many beautiful things John Paul II wrote about is the human person and how the person is meant to thrive, not just exist. His ideas about what and who the person is understood in what he taught about subjectivity, meaning that there is “the ground on which the dynamic relation, or rather inter-relation, between the person and the action is actualized. The failure to recognize man´s subjectivity would deprive us of the level on which can be grasped all the aspects of this interrelation.”

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1 Year Anniversary of Beatification of Pope John Paul II

Today marks the first anniversary of the historic beatification of the iconic pope, John Paul II.

For many around the world, and for a long time, it is very true to say that the newly Blessed John Paul “has accompanied me through these years.” Indeed he has.

The Church prays this prayer at Mass on the feast day of Blessed John Paul II, October 22:

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

Rome Reports has a recap.

Blessed Pope John Paul II, pray for us.

Adé Béthune

Among the many things we can recall today, one of them for me is Adé Béthune who died on this date in 2002. As I mentioned in a Communio blog post a few years ago, Adé was an Oblate of Saint Benedict of Portsmouth Abbey (Portsmouth, RI) and a liturgical artist, thinker and musician.

I find it sobering to pray for those who gone marked with the sign of faith, not only because it is a noble and holy Catholic tradition, but the practice affords me the opportunity to truly remember the person. Adé Béthune allows me this possibility today because of her Benedictine and liturgical connections but most of all she was a grand person.

A past post on Adé can be read here and her obit is posted here.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Benedictine Saints and Blesseds watch over Adé Béthune.

Father Julián Carrón to receive honorary doctorate from CUA

Father Julián Carrón will be receiving an honorary degree from the Catholic University of America on Saturday, May 12, 2012. It is the 123rd commencement for CUA. This is a wonderful sign of esteem both for Fr. Carrón and for lay ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation here in the US. It ought to be noted that a number of US bishops would have had to have voted to grant him such an honor.

For those who would like and are within close enough range, there will be an open assembly with Father Carrón on the School of Community text, At the Origin of the Christian Claim, and on the “Page One” of the recent issue Traces, “Self-Awareness: the Reawakening Point.” It will take place that same day, Saturday, May 12th, 2012 at 3:00pm in a place to be announced in Washington, DC.

His Eminence, Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan, PhD will receive the President’s Medal and address the graduates.

Also among those receiving honorary degrees from CUA are Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University’s Sterling Professor of Humanities for Italian literature, the philanthropist Carmen Ana Casal de Unanue and her husband and former head of Goya Foods Joseph A. Unanue.

Saint Catherine of Siena

Today is the transferred feast of the great Dominican saint, Catherine of Siena.

Since her feast day is April 29th, and this year the 29th was Good Shepherd Sunday, and the Sunday celebration is rarely trumped by a saint, the feast moved to the next available day.

Being that I work at a Dominican church, we celebrated Catherine’s gift to the Church with great solemnity. Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Sister Elaine Goodell, PBVM were honored with the “Saint Catherine of Siena Award” and Brother Ignatius Perkins, OP was inaugurated with the new chair of Catholic Ethics at the Dominican House of Studies. Brother Ignatius is currently a professor of Nursing at Aquinas College, Nashville.

Here for the celebration were the Dominican Friars, a secular priest, a Jesuit priest, with several congregation of sisters including the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist, the Hawthorne Dominicans, the Dominicans of Nashville, the Sparkhill Dominicans, the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Sisters of Life.

“Set the world ablaze”