A true Thanksgiving

The worship of the Catholic Church offers a reminder that every celebration of the Eucharist is, by definition, Thanksgiving. Our proper orientation is that of gratitude for being given life, freedom, love, virtue and friendship.

It is proper and right to hymn You,
to bless You,
to praise You,
to give thanks to You,
and to worship You
in every place of Your dominion.
For You, O God, are ineffable,
inconceivable, invisible, incomprehensible,
existing forever, forever the same,
You and Your only-begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit.
You brought us out of nothing into being,
and when we had fallen away,
You raised us up again.
You left nothing undone
until You had led us up to heaven
and granted us Your Kingdom, which is to come.
For all these things,
we thank You and Your only-begotten Son and Your Holy Spirit:
for all things we know and do not know,
for blessings manifest and hidden
that have been bestowed on us.
We thank You also for this Liturgy,
which You have deigned to receive from our hands,
even though thousands of archangels
and tens of thousands of angels stand around You,
the Cherubim and Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed,
soaring aloft upon their wings,
singing the triumphal hymn,
exclaiming, proclaiming, and saying,
Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth,
heaven and earth are filled with Your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest

-from the anaphora (offertory prayer) of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
Image: The Hospitality of Abraham (mid-6th century mosaic, detail), Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

Olivier-Marie Sarr awarded doctorate honoris causa

A doctorate of honoris causa bestowed on Abbot Olivier-Marie, O.S.B.

On November 16, 2023 in celebration of the Founders’ Day Convocation, Saint Vincent College (Latrobe, PA) awarded Dr. Olivier-Marie Sarr, O.S.B., Abbot of the Abbey of Keur Moussa (Senegal) the degree of Honorary Doctor in Humane Letters.

Read all about it here.

Having known about Father Olivier-Marie for a while, I recently met him at the abbatial blessing of the newly elected abbess of the Westfield Abbey (Vermont). He is a terrific person. Pray for his ministry in Senegal and Rome, and his Benedictine community.

All Saints of the Order of Malta

We gathered earlier this evening at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick (NYC) for Solemn Vespers for the feast of All Saints of the Order of Malta. The feast day is actually on November 19 but since the 19th was a Sunday this year, the observance was transferred to Monday. We also had the privilege of venerating the relic of the founder of the Order of Malta, Blessed Gerard.

May the saints and blesseds of the Order of Malta intercede for us before the Throne of Grace.

Order of Malta Eastern CT observe November devotions

The month of November brings us to devote time in prayer and community praying for the faithful departed, visiting the cemetery, offering Holy Mass, and remembering. In short, November is devoted to the souls in purgatory.

This prayer from the Byzantine Church speaks in complement to psalms 50 and 130 orients our hearts and minds:

By Thy resurrection from the dead, O Christ, death no longer hath dominion over those who die in holiness. So, we beseech Thee, give rest to Thy servants in Thy sanctuary and in Abraham’s bosom. Grant it to those, who from Adam until now have adored Thee with purity, to our fathers and brothers, to our kinsmen and friends, to all men who have lived by faith and passed on their road to Thee, by a thousand ways, and in all conditions, and make them worthy of the heavenly kingdom.

Today, the Order of Malta-Eastern CT Area gathered for Mass.

May the souls of the faith departed rest in peace.

Order of Holy Sepulchre meets in Waterbury

Today, members of Connecticut’s Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem met at the historic Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (Waterbury, CT) for Sunday Mass and then for a festive dinner given by Msgr. John Bevins. It was a beautiful time to gather and share friendship. (more were able to make to dinner than to Mass due to other commitments.)

Our Lady of Palestine: Queen of the Land and of our hearts

Today is a solemn feast for those of us who are members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, and for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Today is a perfect day to pray for peace in the Holy Land through Mary’s intercession. Prayers for the ministry of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre throughout the world.

Because we follow the Lex Orandi tradition, the following prayer is the opening collect for the Mass.

Let us 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.

A cardinal’s oblation

The red that a cardinal wears is supposed to point to a willingness to shed their blood. The ritual used to create new cardinals of the Roman Church refers to the wearing of the color red as a sign of the blood of the martyrs.

Pope Saint John Paul II taught; “Red is a sign of the dignity of the office of a cardinal, signifying that you are ready to act with fortitude, even to the point of spilling your blood for the increase of the Christian faith” (1998).

Cardinal Pizzaballa’s words of availability are impactful. Read the article.

St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.

This deeply moves me.

Prayer for peace in the Holy Land

Queen of peace, Chosen daughter of a land still devastated by wars, hatred and violence.

We confidently address our plea to you: Do not allow Jesus to cry at the sight of the Holy City which did not understand the gift of peace may, once again, fall into indifference and political calculation. Look at the afflictions of so many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, victims of destructive energies that are blind and without a future. Inspire ways of dialogue, a vigorous will in solving problems and a collaboration of certain hope. Don’t let us ever to get used to oppression, to consider the struggles as inevitable and the victims they produce as collateral.

Make sure that the logic of aggression does not prevail over good will and that the solution of many problems is not considered impossible. Just like with Your prayer in the midst of the Disciples on Pentecost, obtain from the Almighty that situations, even if apparently insurmountable in the Holy Land, find ways of happy solution.
AMEN.

Fernando Cardinal Filoni
Grand Master of the Holv Sepulchre of Jerusalem

Our Lady of Champion

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Champion, the first and only approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the United States.

In October 1859, Mary appeared to a Belgian immigrant, Adele Brise three times. In the first, Mary stayed silent, leaving Adele’s family to believe it was a holy soul in need of payers. On October 9th, Adele saw the Lady again and told her priest who instructed her to ask the mysterious lady, should she appear to her again, “In God’s Name, who are you and what do you want of me?” On her journey home from Mass, Adele saw the Lady and repeated the words she had been instructed to by her priest.

The Lady then said, ” I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them. Blessed are they that believe without seeing. What are you doing here while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son? Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross, and how to approach the Sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you”.

With everything going on today in our country with the loss of innocence in the young, we must truly heed Our Lady’s message to us, to pray for the conversion of sinners, offer Holy Communion, and to teach and catechize the children and youth the faith they need for salvation and in the Sacraments, and know that Mary will help us.

The vision, originally titled Our Lady of Good Help, was formally approved in 2010 by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops raised the pilgramige site of the apparition to a National Shrine. In 2023, Bishop Ricken announced that the devotional name had been changed to Our Lady of Champion, both in conjunction with other approved Marian apparitions and to avoid confusion about the name, with the liturgical Solemnity being granted by the Dicastery for Divine Worship to be celebrated on October 9th.

Let us pray:
Lord our God, you chose the Mother of your beloved Son to be the Mother and help of Christians; grant that we may live under her protection and that your Church may enjoy unbroken peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

text curated by Josh Mansfield