Category: Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem

Our Lady of Palestine

Today, as Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, we honor Mary, the Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of Palestine. It’s a daily prayer Our Lady for the people of the Holy Land and for members of the Order.

With Church we pray:

Heavenly Father, we humbly ask you, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Palestine, to help us overcome all the difficulties which face us in this Holy Land, the land which your Son has made Holy for it is in this land where our Savior took flesh and brought the entire world to Redemption. We beseech you Father, strengthen us in faith, service, and perseverance so that we may be witnesses to that unending act of love, you who live and reign forever and ever.

Read about the importance of the Shrine of Our Lady as a spiritual home for the Patriarchate.

http://www.oessh.va/content/ordineequestresantosepolcro/en/dalla-terra-santa/luoghi-e-comunita/luoghi/il-santuario-di-deir-rafat.html

Saint Helen, Empress, Mother, Pilgrim

In Rome and Jerusalem especially, and especially for me in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, we celebrate today Saint Helen (d. 327 A.D.), empress, mother, pilgrim of the Holy Land, who made worship places and relics of the history, the mystery of salvation.

Several years ago I was privileged to live at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Rome where the relics of the Lord’s passion reside. It was a beautiful thing to have some daily prayer in this holy place.

Let us pray for the Church and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

Image of St Helena at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Rome.

What the emblem of Order stands for?

The badge of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, formed by a large Greek cross surrounded by four small crosses, symbolically represents the five wounds of Christ which are like the “Gates of Heaven”. This emblem is not a decoration but a mission whose spiritual meaning is illuminated in the light of the teaching of Pope Francis.

Indeed, since his election, the Holy Father urges us to touch the wounds of Christ, like the Apostle Thomas did after the resurrection, to welcome the mercy that radiates from Him as a source of peace. “If we put our hands together into these wounds and confess that Jesus has risen, and if we proclaim Him as our Lord and our God, if recognizing our shortcomings, we dive into His wounds of love, we can find the truth.” Joy of forgiveness and getting a foretaste of the day when, with God’s help, we will be able to celebrate on the same altar the Passover mystery,” he emphasized, especially from an ecumenical perspective, during a pontifical trip.

“A saint was saying that the body of Jesus crucified is like a bag of mercy, reaching us all through his wounds,” he also explained on the occasion of Mercy Sunday.”

“We all need mercy, we know it.” Let us draw closer to Jesus and touch his wounds in our suffering brothers. Jesus’ wounds are a treasure: that’s where mercy flows. Let us be brave and touch the wounds of Jesus. With these wounds, he stands before the Father, he shows them to the Father, as if he were saying, “Father, this is the price, these wounds are what I paid for my brothers.” Through his wounds, Jesus intercedes before the Father. He gives us mercy if we draw near, and intercede for us. Do not forget the wounds of Jesus” (Regina Cæli, April 28, 2019).

Each member of the Order is therefore called to first carry in his heart the symbols of the badge sewn on his mantle and to spread the veneration of the Holy Wounds of Christ, sources of forgiveness and mercy. They cleanse and heal. If we embrace them, they can truly change our lives. (EOHSJ)

Fortunato Frezza becomes cardinal

On Sunday, May 29, Pope Francis announced his intention to create 21 new Cardinals at a Consistory on Saturday, 27 August. One of the 21 is Reverend Monsignor Fortunato Frezza, canon of Saint Peter’s Basilica and Master of Ceremonies and Spiritual Assistant of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, will be created Cardinal by the Pope. Frezza work for several years at the Secretariat General for the Synod of the Bishops.

The Order of the Holy Sepulchre has provided us with a brief tribute to the Cardinal-designate here by Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, Governor General of the Order.

Photo of cardinals with Pope on May 3, 2021. (Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Lift high the Cross

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, formerly celebrated on May 3, for the finding of the True Cross of Christ by Emperor Constantine and his mother Saint Helen. The Cross is exalted and honored as a trophy for its Easter victory and a sign that will appear in heaven announcing to everyone the second coming of the Lord.

Prayers for the good work of the Knights and Dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Here is a miniature taken from the magnificent Breviary of Jerusalem (XIV sec.), from the “Ludovic II De Torres” located at the Library of the Archbishop’s Seminary of Montreal.

Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac generates spiritual fruitfulness

This post on the Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, was written for another social media outlet for other members of the EOHSJ.

Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, am oil painting used at the Mass for the 57 anniversary of his death.
(public domain image)

Today is the liturgical memorial of Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac (8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960), served as the Cardinal-Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his death. Among the many things he did was to join the Third Order Franciscans which gave him a framework to be an effective minister of the Gospel. Though he was sentenced to 16 years in prison, Stepinac only served five at Lepoglava Prison before being transferred to house arrest with his movements confined to his home parish of Krašić. He died as the result of poisoning by his Communist captors. Pope John Paul II beatified Stepinac and named him a martyr.

When Pope John Paul beatified our brother Knight of the Holy Sepulchre, Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, he quoted a well known Scripture line saying that it’s the heart of the Mystery of the life, ministry and death of Croatia’s famous bishop:

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). 

Our Catholic faith reveals to us that the “mystery of death and life also comes about in the earthly existence of Christ’s followers: for them too, being cast into the earth to die remains the condition for all authentic spiritual fruitfulness.”

While Stepinac did not shed his blood as martyrs typically do, his martyrdom was one of bearing witness to the Good News and the virtue of the Church under considerable personal suffering. We are told to seek the saints; we are to follow the saints; our faithfulness to the Church means abiding in the mystery of Communion of Saints. Concretely, what does that mean to us in light of Blessed Aloysius Stepinac? What does he give us Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre to follow?

Just as this brother Knight of the Holy Sepulchre Blessed Aloysius was a compass pointing to the realities of faith, charity and virtue, we current Knights and Dames are to be a compass for the same. 

Knight and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre are to have “…faith in God, respect for man, love towards all even to the offer of forgiveness, and unity with the Church guided by the Successor of Peter.” The objectivity of truth was a non-negotiable for Blessed Aloysius: his personal suffering generated a life of virtue that refused to betray his conscience and love for Jesus.

Blessed Aloysius Viktor Stepinac, pray for us.

Blessed Pius IX

Published in another place, this brief reflection on Pius IX is meant to bring to light the importance of Pius’ papacy and his role in re-founding the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.

Today, the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem together with the Church liturgically recall the memory of Blessed Pius IX, the Roman Pontiff who re-founded and showed great concern for our Order.

John Maria Mastai Ferretti was born at Senigallia (Italy) on 13 May 1792. After he was ordained priest in 1819, he spent two years as a missionary in Chile. By 35 years of age he was appointed Archbishop of Spoleto, and then moved in 1832 to Imola. In 1840 he was created Cardinal (but was really created cardinal In Pectore in 1839) and on 16 June 1846 was elected Supreme Pontiff at only 54 years of age! He took the name Pius to honor a previous pope who inspired his vocation.

Pius served the Church as Pope for 32 years.The papacy of Pius IX was decisively marked by a history that gave us very notable events which continue to impact us today:

On 8 December 1854, he defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception;

In 1847, re-established the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and re-founded and modernized the EOHSJ;

In 1864, published the Syllabus of Errors which condemn liberalism, modernism, moral relativism, secularization, separation of church and state, and other Enlightenment ideas.

In 1869, he called the First Vatican Council, which precisely defined the Infallibility;

On 8 December 1870, he declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church;

On 16 June 1875, he consecrated the Church to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In more subtle ways, Pope Pius’ friendship with St John Bosco helped to develop the Salesian Society. He’s recalled for giving the Marian title of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to the Redemptorist Congregation, and showed concern for the souls purgatory by giving us a prayer to pray for them on Good Friday, and was the last sovereign of the Papal States when the territory was incorporated differently as the Italian Republic.

Of all the things Blessed Pius IX did for the Church, and the one that stands out for us as members of the EOHSJ, is the 1847 restoration of the Latin Patriarchate and his re-founding and modernizing of the Order. Pius was instrumental in issuing a new Constitution and placing the Order under the direct protection of the Holy See and assigning its government to the Latin Patriarch. Pius, moreover, added to the Order’s fundamental role: to uphold the works of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, while preserving the spiritual duty of defending and propagating Catholic Faith.

After 32 years of an intense period of leadership he made his transitus to the Lord of Life on 7 February 1878. John Paul II proclaimed him Blessed on 3 September 2000.

With the Church we pray:

O God, who gave your servant, Blessed Pius IX, Pope, the spirit of fortitude in adversity, and enabled him to enter more deeply into the pure faith of the Church, grant through his intercession, that we may be filled with the same spirit and live with the same devotion.

Blessed Pius IX, pray for us.

St. John the Apostle model for Knights and Dames of Holy Sepulchre today

This reflection was written to explore, to renew, and to re-commit my life as a member of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in light of the liturgical memorial of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist (whose feast is celebrated by the Latin Church today. It’s also published on one of the Facebook groups of the Order.

St. John the Evangelist giving Holy Communion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the Baroque Spanish painter Alonzo Cano.


The opening collect for the liturgical memorial of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist reads:


O God, who through the blessed Apostle John have unlocked for us the secrets of your Word: Grant, we pray, that we may grasp with proper understanding what he has so marvelously brought to our ears.


The Church’s prayer elicits for me two things: 1.) am I a protagonist in sharing Divine Revelation and Tradition with those in the Church and with those who have fallen away from the practice of Catholic faith, and 2.) has my understanding of the Good News taken firm root in myself so as to be a witness to the noble ideal that the Grand Master spoke of in the Jerusalem Cross (October 2021)?


The Apostle who is called the Beloved Disciple knew so well, Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation; as God-Man Jesus is love par excellence. The image of John resting on the breast of Jesus comes to mind. But how does that image impact me? Benedict XVI told us St. John’s work was to demonstrate that “the essential constituent of God is love and hence, that all God’s activity is born from love and impressed with love: all that God does, he does out of love and with love, even if we are not always immediately able to understand that this is love, true love” (Audience, 9 August 2006).


In the same audience the emeritus Pontiff said the “precept to which John refers, Jesus presents his own Person as the reason for and norm of our love: ‘as I have loved you.’ It is in this way that love becomes truly Christian: both in the sense that it must be directed to all without distinction, and above all since it must be carried through to its extreme consequences, having no other bounds than being boundless.”


The feast of St. John the Apostle ought to be one of the points of our reflection today to renew our commitment to know and to live more abundantly a life of conversion, vocation, and mission as knights and dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. The Apostle teaches us to be in love, to act in love, and to be missionary of Love.


Cardinal Filoni wrote in the spirit of “as I have loved you.”: “As an Order that has a constitutive commitment to the Holy Land, we must ceaselessly re-evoke the two aspects of our commitment: the ecclesiological dimension of our work, which delineates the horizon of the commitment itself, and the personal spiritual and charitable dimension, which renders us the protagonists of our work which is never mediocre or mechanical.”


In Thomas à Kempis’ famous late Middle Ages book, The Imitation of Christ, wrote:


“The love of Jesus is noble and generous: it spurs us on to do great things, and excites us to desire always that which is most perfect. Love will tend upwards and is not to be detained by things beneath. Love will be at liberty and free from all worldly affections… for love proceeds from God and cannot rest but in God above all things created. The lover flies, runs and rejoices, he is free and not held. He gives all for all and has all in all, because he rests in one sovereign good above all, from whom all good flows and proceeds” (Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book III, Chapter V, 3-4).


A fun fact for today’s feast: we bless wine on the feast of St. John the Apostle. The blessing of wine is sign of God’s love for us.


Happy Christmas and Happy Feast.

Living on the edge of eternity

The following reflection was written for members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and published on one of the Facebook groups of the Order.

In a week’s time we will be celebrating the Nativity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. A fact. An experience of Faith. The Fathers of the Church teach us that the Incarnation means that God Who is incomprehensible and inexpressible lowered Himself in His mercy taking human nature to not only restore what Adam lost, but to offer us the possibility of our participation in His divine nature. This participation is what we call theosis.

Here is something for us to think about as we prepare for the Nativity of the Lord. There’s a Divine promise contained in the event of the Incarnation. The following homily for Advent delieverd by St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) notes for us the contours of the promise.

“We know that there are three comings of the Lord. The third lies between the other two. It is invisible, while the other two are visible.“In the first coming he was seen on earth, dwelling among men; he himself testifies that they saw him and hated him. In the final coming all flesh will see the salvation of our God, and they will look on him whom they pierced. The intermediate coming is a hidden one; in it only the elect see the Lord within their own selves, and they are saved. In his first coming our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and in power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty.

“In case someone should think that what we say about this middle coming is sheer invention, listen to what our Lord himself says: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him [Jn. 14:23].

“There is another passage of Scripture which reads: He who fears God will do good, but something further has been said about the one who loves, that is, that he will keep God’s word. Where is God’s word to be kept? Obviously in the heart, as the prophet says: I have hidden your words in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.

“Keep God’s word in this way. Let it enter into your very being, let it take possession of your desires and your whole way of life. Feed on goodness, and your soul will delight in its richness. Remember to eat your bread, or your heart will wither away. Fill your soul with richness and strength.

“Because this coming lies between the other two, it is like a road on which we travel from the first coming to the last. In the first, Christ was our redemption; in the last, he will appear as our life; in this middle coming, he is our rest and consolation.

“If you keep the word of God in this way, it will also keep you. The Son with the Father will come to you. The great Prophet who will build the new Jerusalem will come, the one who makes all things new. This coming will fulfill what is written: As we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly man. Just as Adam’s sin spread through all mankind and took hold of all, so Christ, who created and redeemed all, will glorify all, once he takes possession of all” (Office of Readings, Wednesday, First week of Advent).

St. Bernard’s theological reflection can be said as follows:

~First Coming – Jesus’ birth at Bethlehem;

~Second Coming – Spiritual coming of the Lord to each believer, sacramentally;

~Third Coming – Jesus coming again at the end of the world.

In what ways does what St. Bernard impact our our lives as members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre? Hopefully, it re-orients how we live the reality of our sacramental life, and to give good witness to the Good News. As Knights and Dames of Holy Sepulchre we may want to consider what we are looking forward to on December 25th and in the Octave that follows.

Advent is a time of waiting for the Messiah: we wait for God to come into our lives, in reality. Christmas teaches us that sentimentality isn’t the goal, but the Infinite God is. The Word made flesh, the Incarnation, is the center of time and energy today.

However busy or distracted you might be in the coming days before Christmas, take note of what St. Bernard says about the coming of the Messiah, and the think about promise it contains for us. It is not merely a theological reflection, it is an experience.

Take courage, live in peace.

Artwork: The Nativity by Marco Foppoli, a heraldic artist and illustrator living and working in Brescia, Italy.