How blessed and wonderful, beloved, are the gifts of God. Life in immortality! Brightness in righteousness! Truth in full assurance! Faith in confidence! Temperance in holiness! And all this God has subjected to our understandings: What therefore will those things be which he has prepared for them that wait for him? Only the Creator and Father of spirits, the Most Holy, knows both the greatness and beauty of them. Let us therefore strive with all earnestness, that we may be found in the number of those that wait for him, and that we may receive the reward which he has promised. But how, beloved, shall we do this? We must fix our minds by faith towards God, and seek those things that are pleasing and acceptable to him. We must perform those things that are agreeable to his holy will and follow the way of truth, casting off from us all unrighteousness and iniquity, together with all covetousness, strife, evil manners, deceit, whispering, detractions, all hatred of God, pride and boasting, or vain-glory and ambition; For they that do these things are odious to God, and not only they that do them, but also all such as approve of
those that do them. (St Clement I to the Corinthians 17)
Author: Paul Zalonski
Christian martyrs of Iraq?
There is a movement afoot to investigate the sanctity of those Christians killed in Iraq just for being Christian, perhaps leading to having these Christians being canonized saints. Interesting question…
“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” Tertullian said. Are these women and men true seeds of Christianity in the 21st century?
Obama’s new rules for Faith-Based Initiatives
President Obama revised 2001 faith based initiatives established by President George W. Bush with “Fundamental Principles and Policymaking Criteria for Partnerships with Faith-Based and Other Neighborhood Organizations” on November 17, 2010.
Catholic organizations like Catholic Charities, hospitals, clinics, assisted living organizations, adoption agencies would do well to review their policies and practices to see if the present policies cohere with what the President has set down in the executive order since there are some serious potential conflicts. Serious points of contention will likely be around the providing of religious services, counseling rooted in faith and to what degree you can apply pastoral practice to the workings of the agency. The secularists are already jumping for joy with the new amendments because they want more restrictive policies and stringent policies of accountability for the use of monies and practices by faith-based organizations. Having said all this, though, clarity of what can and cannot be done are helpful since they establish rules of engagement. Clear to all reasonable minded people, religious freedom needs to be respected. And we Catholics will hear more about religious freedom in 2011 with Pope Benedict addressing the issue of religious freedom at significant events like world youth day. The Pope is very clear that we propose and not impose our faith in Christ, even with those who claim to be Christians.
Continue reading Obama’s new rules for Faith-Based Initiatives
Bishop Richard Williamson given ultimatum by SSPX
The controversial –and widely perceived to be satified with his own ignorance of reality– bishop of the Society of Saint Pius X, Bishop Richard Williamson, who one time lived in Ridgefield, CT, is under pressure to accept the indications of the Society or face expulsion. Rumor has it that he’s set himself to separate from the SSPX.
The directives of the SSPX:
The Superior General, Bishop Bernard Fellay, has
learnt by the press of Bishop Richard Williamson’s decision, just ten days
before his trial, to dismiss the lawyer charged with his defense, in favor of a
lawyer who is openly affiliated to the so-called neo-Nazi movement in Germany,
and to other such groups.
Bishop Fellay has given Bishop Williamson a formal
order to go back on this decision and to not allow himself to become an
instrument of political theses that are completely foreign to his mission as a
Catholic bishop serving the Society of Saint Pius X.
order to go back on this decision and to not allow himself to become an
instrument of political theses that are completely foreign to his mission as a
Catholic bishop serving the Society of Saint Pius X.
Disobedience to this order
would result in Bishop Williamson being expelled from the Society of Saint Pius
X.
would result in Bishop Williamson being expelled from the Society of Saint Pius
X.
November 20 of 2010
Fr. Christian Thouvenot, general Secretary
UK Bishops speak on new Anglican Ordinariate
The events in Rome these past days have distracted some from mentioning the Bishops of England and Wales’ statement on the apostolic constitution of November 4, 2009, “Anglicanorum coetibus.” To date, this is the clearest statement of the UK Bishops’ intention to positively respond to the Pope’s generous gesture of working with Anglicans who themselves desire to respond more generously to Christ’s call to discipleship and mission.
A few points from the statement:
1. “Anglicanorum coetibus” is a response of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict, to the repeated and insistent requests of Anglicans requesting to be in full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining some of the Anglican patrimony;
2. In conjunction with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the UK Conference of Bishops, an ecclesial circumscription called an Ordinariate in early January 2011 will be established in Great Britain;
3. In resigning their office in the Anglican Communion on December 31, 2010, the 5 bishops will be received into the Church, and prior to Lent will be ordained to the Order of Deacon and then to the Holy Priesthood so as to assist in the services of Holy Week when other Anglicans will be received into the Church after a period of preparation;
4. At Pentecost those Anglican ministers who petitioned to be ordained Catholic priests will be ordained.
The full statement is noted here: UK Bishops statement on Anglican Ordinariate.pdf
Urbano Cardinal Navarrete Cortés, SJ, RIP
Urbano Cardinal Navarrete Cortés, SJ, 90, died today. The Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for November 24; the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Cardinal Sodano will celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass and His Holiness will preside over the Final Commendation and give a valediction.
His Eminence was a professor of Canon Law, a former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, a prolific author and a consultor of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Disciple of the Sacraments.
In 2007, Pope Benedict created Father Navarrete a cardinal of the Roman Church. He was dispensed of the episcopal dignity. The Pope assigned him the Church of San Ponziano as his titular Church.
Cardinal Navarrete was a Spanish Jesuit (entering in 1937), ordained priest in 1952. And since 1958 was a professor of Canon Law at the Gregorian, specializing in marriage law, where he also served as dean of the Canon Law faculty.
Saint Cecelia, Virgin & Martyr
On this feast of an early woman martyr, Saint Cecelia, it is good to reflect on music and its impact on the heart. As she lay dying for three days, Cecelia sang of the Lord’s glory and extolled the singular devotion of one dedicated to the Lord as a virgin. Saint Cecelia is the patron saint of musicians. Benedict XVI writes about beauty and contemplative nature of music:
The encounter with the beautiful can become the wound
of the arrow that strikes the heart and in this way opens our eyes, so that
later, from this experience, we take the criteria for judgment and can
correctly evaluate the arguments. For me an unforgettable experience was the
Bach concert that Leonard Bernstein conducted in Munich after the sudden death
of Karl Richter. I was sitting next to the Lutheran Bishop Hanselmann. When the
last note of one of the great Thomas-Kantor-Cantatas triumphantly faded away,
we looked at each other spontaneously and right then we said: “Anyone who
has heard this, knows that the faith is true.” The music had such an
extraordinary force of reality that we realized, no longer by deduction, but by
the impact on our hearts, that it could not have originated from nothingness,
but could only have come to be through the power of the Truth that became real in
the composer’s inspiration. (Message to Communion and Liberation, August 2002,
Rimini, Italy; text available May 2, 2005, Zenit.org)
Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd (Frances Siedliska)
The great foundress of the Congregation of Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth is liturgically remembered today. As she lay dying Mother Mary of Jesus spoke the word charity in five languages. One of the many reasons why I like Mother Foundress is her strong sense that “An interior life is essential for the active life.”
On July 4, 1885 the Nazareth Sisters arrived in the New York Harbor and eventually landed in Chicago where they made their first foundation in the USA. For 125 years they have served the Church in a variety of ministries, namely education, pastoral ministry in parishes, hospitals and and orphanages.
Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd’s liturgical prayers are here.
Prayer to Christ the King
O Jesus Christ, I acknowledge Thee as universal King.
All that has been made, has been created for Thee. Exercise all Thy rights over
me. I renew my baptismal vows, renouncing Satan, his pomp and his works; and I
promise to live as a good Christian. In particular do I pledge myself to labor,
to the best of my ability, for the triumph of the rights of God and Thy Church.
Divine
Heart of Jesus, to Thee do I proffer my poor services, laboring that all hearts
may acknowledge Thy Sacred Kingship, and that thus the reign of Thy peace be
established throughout the whole universe. Amen.
Heart of Jesus, to Thee do I proffer my poor services, laboring that all hearts
may acknowledge Thy Sacred Kingship, and that thus the reign of Thy peace be
established throughout the whole universe. Amen.
Cardinals get a new sign of the fidelity to Mother Church –the ring
To go with a cassock and a new biretta (the 3 gore squarish hat) there’s a new ring, simple and symbolic of one’s fidelity to Jesus Christ and the Church.
Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi, Pontifical Council of Culture
His Beatitude, Antonios Cardinal Naguib, Patriarch of the Copts, Egypt