Paul Zalonski – Page 505

Father Henry Tim Vakoc, US Army Major, RIP

The Lord called Father H. Tim Vakoc, US Army Major, to himself on June 20th.

Father Tim was a priest of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and some have said that he was the first US priest killed as a part of the war. He was 17 years ordained a priest, living the last 5 years of his priestly witness recovering from injuries sustained in Iraq. Those injuries were suffered on his 12th anniversary of ordination. Among Father’s awards he was a recipient of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.

Father Tim was a member of the Knights of Columbus for 31 years.

Let us pray in thanksgiving for Father Vokac, for the his family, friends, caregivers and the US Army.

Well done good and faithful servant.

Remembered in Rome by Archbishop Dolan

Archbishop Timothy Dolan is serious: he’s praying for ALL the people of the Archdiocese of New York (and others) when he’s in the Eternal City next week to receive the pallium from the Pope. He’s the link between us and our Roman sainted forefathers and mothers; likewise, he’s the link between the archdiocese and the Holy Father. Spiritual closeness is a cool thing in the Catholic Church.

Thank God for his remembrance of us at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul especially! I, for one, need his prayers.

FuturePriests.com: Praying & Tweeting for priestly vocations

A fascinating initiative was launched the other day for the Year of the Priest on Twitter by Utrecht’s Archbishop Willem Jacobus Eijk. Follow the Archbishop at FuturePriests.com.

The Archbishop’s global campaign of prayer for priests is a terrific project that draws together the power of prayer and the power of Twitter.

Tweet with the Archbishop and keep informed by following the blog! Pray for vocations! Don’t forget to retweet with your intentions and prayers!

Eucharistic identity: Christ present

As a sacrament, the Eucharist has a double aspect: it is
both a sign and the reality signified by it, both a remembering of the past and
a making-really-present: “When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she
commemorates Christ’s Passover, and it is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the Cross remains ever present” (Catechism
of the Catholic Church,1364).

Here the three meanings of “present” come together: Christ
in the Eucharist is 1) present, not absent, but really here; 2) present, not
past, but happening now; and 3) presented as a gift (a “present”), really
given; offered, not withheld. Christ is “present in many ways to his
Church” (CCC, 1373) but “[t]he mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species [forms, appearances] is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as ‘the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend’ [St. Thomas Aquinas]. In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained.’ ‘…[I]t is presence in the fullest sense…Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present'” (CCC 1374). (from Peter J. Kreeft, Catholic Christianity, 2001)

Keep your relationship with God alive, even on vacation, pope said

Pope Benedict’s vacation advice from a recent general
audience: “We must set aside time in life for God, to open our life to God with
a thought, a meditation, a small prayer and not to forget Sunday is the day of
the Lord.” And in another place he said: “He who neglects contemplation is
deprived of the vision of the light of God; he who is carried away with worry
and allows his thoughts to be crushed by the tumult of the things of the world
is condemned to the absolute impossibility of penetrating the secrets of the
invisible God …While at work, with its frenetic rhythms, and during vacation,
we have to reserve moments for God. [We have to] open our lives up to him,
directing a thought to him, a reflection, a brief prayer. And above all, we
mustn’t forget that Sunday is the day of Our Lord, the day of the liturgy, [the
day] to perceive in the beauty of our churches, in the sacred music and in the
Word of God, the same beauty of our God, allowing him to enter into our being.
Only in this way is our life made great; it is truly made a life.”

Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

The holy martyrs shed their blood upon the ground for the sake of Christ and have obtained an eternal recompense.

Lord God, You brought the faith of Your saints to perfection in martyrdom. Mercifully grant that by our communion with Saints John and Thomas we may bear witness in our lives to the faith we profess.

A prayer of St Thomas More to remember:

Give me the grace to long for Your holy sacraments, and
especially to rejoice in the presence of Your body, sweet Savior Christ, in the
holy sacrament of the altar. Amen.

Father’s Day 2009

Mom, Dad, Lauren and Aunt Gloria attended Mass today at Saint Rose of Lima Church and then we had a festive dinner a local Italian eatery: Father’s Day 2009. Happy to have them visit me where I am living and working for the summer and to celebrate Dad. Peace!

Seized by Christ, Saint Padre Pio leads the way for renewal, Pope said

As part of the inaugural observances for the Year of the
Priest, Pope Benedict made a pilgrimage to and celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Graces at San Giovanni Rotondo, resting place of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. In the days following the feast of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and with devotion to Our Lady in mind, the Pope recalled that the fruit of Padre Pio’s close bond with the Sacred Heart of Christ and His mother, Mary, inspired him to found the House for the Relief of Suffering: “All his life and his apostolate took place under the maternal gaze of the Blessed Virgin and by the power of her intercession. Even the House for the Relief of Suffering he considered to be the work of Mary, ‘Health of the sick.'”

Born Francisco Forgione, at the age 23 the obscure Capuchin Franciscan friar was said to have received the gift of the sacred stigmata. On Saint Pio‘s hands and side the wounds were similar to the stigmata, or the wounds of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, according to Christian belief. The Pope proposed to us another model for priests by giving the example of this friar from Pietrelcina: “A simple man of humble origins, ‘seized by Christ‘ (Phil 3:12) … to make of him an elected instrument of the perennial power of his Cross: the power of love for souls, forgiveness and reconciliation, spiritual fatherhood, effective solidarity with the suffering. The stigmata, that marked his body, closely united him to the Crucified and Risen Christ.”

Relating today’s gospel with the life of Saint Pio, His
Holiness also said to the gathered faithful:

The solemn gesture of calming the stormy sea is clearly a
sign of the lordship of Christ over the negative powers and it induces us to think of His divinity: “Who is He – ask the disciples in wonder -that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk 4:41). Their faith is not yet steadfast, it is taking shape, is a mixture of fear and trust; rather Jesus trusting abandonment to the Father is full and pure. This is why He sleeps during the storm, completely safe in the arms of God – but there will come a time when Jesus will feel anxiety and fear: When His time comes, He shall feel upon himself the whole weight of the sins of humanity, as a massive swell that is about to fall upon Him. Oh yes, that shall be a terrible storm, not a cosmic one, but a spiritual one. It will be Evil’s last, extreme assault against the Son of God…. In that hour, Jesus was on the one hand entirely One with the Father, fully given over to him – on the other, as in solidarity with sinners, He was
separated and He felt abandoned.

Remaining united to Jesus, [Padre Pio] always had his sights on the depths of the human drama, and this was why he offered his many sufferings, why he was able to spend himself in the care for and relief of the
sick – a privileged sign of God’s mercy, of his kingdom which is coming, indeed, which is already in the world, a sign of the victory of love and life over sin and death. Guide souls and relieving suffering: thus we can sum up the mission of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: as the servant of God, Pope Paul VI said of him.”

At one point in his address the Benedict spoke to the
Franciscan friars and those connected with the spiritual groups linked to Saint Pio and anyone else, the Pope affirmed: “The risks of activism and secularization are always present, so my visit was also meant to confirm fidelity to the mission inherited from your beloved Father. Many of you, religious and laity, are so taken by the full duties required by the service to pilgrims, or the sick in the hospital, you run the risk of neglecting the real need: to listen to Christ to do the will of God. When you see that you are close to running this risk, look to Padre Pio: In his example, his sufferings, and invoke his intercession, because it obtains from the Lord the light and strength that you need to continue his mission soaked by love for God and fraternal charity.”

Following Mass, the Holy Father led the faithful in the Angelus prayer (the great prayer recalling the Incarnation) calling to mind Padre Pio’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Benedict remarked, “To the intercession of Our Lady and St Pio of Pietrelcina I would like to entrust the Special Year for Priests, which I opened last Friday on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May it be a privileged opportunity to highlight the value of the mission and holiness of priests to serve the Church and humanity in the third millennium!”

Watch the video clip

Another video explaining more of Padre Pio’s life

Read the papal homily

Read the papal address to priests and youth

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Always keep your focus on Jesus!

O blessed Aloysius, adorned with angelic graces, I, your most unworthy suppliant, recommend specially to you the chastity of my soul and body, praying you by your angelic purity to plead for me with Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Lamb, and his most holy Mother, Virgin of virgins, that they would keep me from all grievous sin.

O never let me be defiled with any stain of impurity; but when you see me in temptation, or in danger of falling, then remove far from my heart all bad thoughts and unclean desires, and awaken in me the memory of eternity to come and of Jesus crucified; impress deeply in my heart a sense of the holy fear of God; and thus, kindling in me the fire of divine love, enable me so to follow your footsteps here on earth that, in heaven with you, I may be made worthy to enjoy the vision of our God forever. Amen.

A brief biography on Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Cardinal Newman miracle approved by cardinals

The commission of cardinals approved of the miracle presented to them for the dossier proposing John Henry Cardinal Newman as a “beatus” (blessed).

The next step is for the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, to prepare a document for the Holy Father to study the case. Read the Times Online story of the recent events.

A video clip to watch