Lights From the East, Pray For Us!

James Michael Thompson has a new book, Lights From the East, Pray For Us!  This is his second.

Published by Liguori Publications, so pre-order now.

The book provides a brief biography, a scripture reading, a reflection, a prayer, and a hymn for fifteen saints from the Eastern Churches. Lights From the East presents the Church’s incredible riches of some of the saints to English speakers, by giving the reader icons, biographies, Scripture, reflections, translated quotations from the service that honors the saint, prayers, and original hymns set to Rusyn or Galician melodies.

Thompson covers saints of the Old and New Testaments, Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths, the First-Martyr and Equal-to-the-Apostles Thecla, Martyr Barbara, Macrina the Younger, Sabbas, Xenophon & Mary, and their sons, Arcadius & John, Cyril & Methodius, Theodosius of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, David of Thessalonica, Maximus the Confessor John Chrysostom, John of Damascus, Martyrs of the Twentieth Century.

The forward is by the Rev. Dr. Peter Galadza of the Sheptytsky Institue for Eastern Christian Studies.

J. Michael Thompson of Pittsburgh is a well-known choral director, liturgical scholar and practioner. One of his major works has been the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter the Apostle of which he is the founder and artistic director. Thompson has served as professor of ecclesiastical chant at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh and was the cantor/ director of music at the Byzantine Catholic Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Munhall, Pennsylvania.

Pope and Council of Cardinals work on substantial Curial change

Word from the Holy See regarding the meeting this week of Pope Francis and the Council of Cardinals is that substantial change is expected in the Roman Curia. The change at hand is not going to be a mere redaction of Pastor bonus, the 1988 ecclesiastical constitution promulgated by Blessed John Paul II.

The accent is going to be subsidiarity providing room for greater collaboration between and among bishops and national Conferences of Bishops.

Nothing has been firmly decided and it will be the Pope who who will take these days of consultation to prayer and make decisions. It is speculated that significant revisions will happen in the current Secretary of State –perhaps being reformed to be an office of Secretary of the Pope. Also, there could be a Moderator of the Curia, and the revision of various Departments.

The Council meets twice a day with the Pope.

The Council of Cardinals, sometimes called the C8 is made up of the following churchmen:

  • Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras (coordinator of the Council), 70;
  • Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano, Italy, (Council’s secretary), 65;
  • Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, the president of the Vatican city-state governorate, 71;
  • Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz Ossa, the retired Archbishop of Santiago, Chile, 80;
  • Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, India, 68;
  • Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, Germany, 60;
  • Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, USA, 69;
  • Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya of Kinshasa, Dem. Congo, 74;
  • Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, Australia, 72.

Missing from the Council at the moment is a bishop/Cardinal from one of the the Eastern Catholic Churches.

Here’s a CNS report.

The Press Office directed by Jesuit Father Frederico Lombardi has this to say about parts of the meeting that are of interest. A previous review is here.

Saint Mother Theodore Guerin

Catholics in USA have a special reason to be happy today: one of our own is venerated at the altar. We liturgically remember Saint Mother Theodore Guerin (1798-1856).

Saint Mother Theodore is the 8th saint from the USA to be raised to the altar.

She is the patroness of the Diocese of Layfayette in Indiana.

John Paul beatified Guerin and Benedict canonized her in 2006.

Here are some quick facts.

Lots more info is noted here.

Blessed Columba Marmion

Today –at least in the Benedictine world– is the liturgical memorial of Blessed Columba Marmion (1858-1923). Dublin born and educated, Joseph Marmion first found his vocation as a secular priest before giving himself as a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Maredsous in Belgium. In 1909, Dom Columba Marmion was elected of Abbot of Maredsous.

The cause for possible sainthood was opened on 7 February 1957. The Church authorities certified miracle at Marmion’s intercession of a Minnesota woman in 1966. When Blessed John Paul beatified Marmion in 2000, he determined this date, that of his abbatial blessing, rather than on the day of his death, as the day the Church would honor the holy abbot.

Blessed Columba is the author of Christ, the Life of the Soul (1917), Christ in His Mysteries (1919), Christ, the Ideal of the Monk (1922) –all which is a revealing Christology. Blessed Marmion has helped us focus on the Lord and to keep before our eyes our redemption through His merciful love.

Let’s pray for the Benedictine monks, nuns, sisters and oblates, but let’s particularly pray for Abbot John and the monks of Marmion Abbey (Aurora, IL) on their patronal feast.

Guardian Angels

The Holy Guardian Angels exist. Scripture reveals the existence of the angels; Jesus speaks of the angels, the Liturgy has the assistance of the angels in prayers, and the Church distinguishes, based on Scripture and tradition the various ranks of angels.

When it come to the Guardians, the doctrine of the Church says teaches that every personal soul has a guardian angel is not defined by the Magisterium as dogma but as a doctrine based on Scripture. That is, the Guardian angels is not an article of the Creed. We do, as a matter of liturgical theology, our Church’s first theology, rely on the angels to help us worship the Triune God.

The Church’s devotion to the angels matured under the monastic tradition, beginning with Saint Benedict and later from the 12th-century monastic reformer Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. By the 16th century the feast in honor of guardian angels was well established.

What does this feast indicate for us? Why are the Guardian Angels important? One of the benefits of this feast is that it reminds us that God cares for us each person, in a specific way. Nothing is left to chance. It is our belief that the Guardian Angels remain in the Divine Presence even as they fulfill their mission on earth. Today, is a day to be grateful that we do not walk alone in the spiritual life. Come, let us adore the Lord, whom the angels serve.

John Paul’s catechesis on the Guardian Angels.

Becoming Human: Meditations on Christian Anthropology in Word and Image

Orthodox theologian John Behr recently published Becoming Human: Meditations on Christian Anthropology in Word and Image (St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2013).

Being human is what we are created to be. Those of us with flesh and blood, body and soul, are not angels. Christians come at the question of anthropology differently. And it is a true statement that as many ecclesial communities in the world there a way of understanding the nature and beauty of what it means to be a human being.

What this book provides is a good complement to a greater theological perspective of humanity. You can read Behr together with Benedict XVI and John Paul II. Behr helps to identify a path and not a destination; the author’s method is one which looks at our ecclesial experience. We are always in process, never a finished project. Hence, Becoming Human is a healthy theological meditation, that is, he’s not giving a stale presentation of human nature is dynamic, we are in the process of becoming, and not finished when at a given point in our personal history. That is, until we die. Becoming Human is accessible and is graced by 41 color plates.

Father John Behr, a priest of the Orthodox Church in America, a patristics scholar and dean of St Vladimir’s Seminary (Yonkers, NY). Behr authored The Way to Nicaea, The Nicene Faith and The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death, all available from SVS Press.

Stimpson’s not leaving the Catholic Church: a follow up to Dreher

Yesterday, I posted Rod Dreher’s essay, “I’m Still Not Coming Back to the Catholic Church.”

Emily StimpsonHere is Emily Stimpson’s essay, “Why I’m Never Leaving the Catholic Church” where she tries to respond to Rod Dreher. She felt the need to counter the experience of someone she respects. Fine. There are important things in her essay to be mindful of, too: a weak catechetical formation in doctrine and Scripture, and the struggle against a relentless secularism. She also sacrificed much to be educated in the Catholic faith. But I don’t believe she took gave an honest read to Dreher’s experience.

Virtue is in the middle. So is the truth. But so is one’s experience. Perhaps he does a better job at articulating the matters of importance.I have to say, though, Stimpson’s essay sounds a lot like George Weigel’s response to Jesuit Father Tom Reese’s assertions in “It’s Fun to be Catholic Again.” Naming all the good things happening in the Catholic Church in the USA is not going to lead many to the truth and to be in full communion with Peter. Our Catholic witness has to be more than that. Weigel’s responding to a petulant Jesuit priest. Stimpson has to up her game because I take her essay as merely reducing all those good things to programing when the real issue where is Jesus Christ met. The culture of encounter, as Pope Francis identifies so well for us (and before him JP & B16).

True that Ms Stimpson has full communion in the Church of Rome; good for her that she’s recognized the call of Jesus to be so united. She has the essentials: a valid priesthood, valid sacraments, a coherent moral and social teaching, she has a true sentire cum ecclesia, etc. Mr Dreher has everything that Stimpson has but the unity of the Church under Peter. And I would say that Dreher also lives in spirit of sentire cum ecclesia, though not with the fullest of feeling. Does one conclude that Dreher is not saved by Christ? Of course, not. The Orthodox Church has a valid priesthood, valid sacraments, a moral and social body of teaching, and synodality (and much more).

I want to be clear. One up-manship is a ugly game. Just look at the self-righteous comments left on FB and their sites where these essays were originally posted. Sad to say, charity and honest are left at the door in some cases. What happened to Benedict XVI’s famous line, “we only propose, never impose the faith”? Do we even know that that means? Do we really care? The new evangelization has to be more sophisticated and working with real experience.

Protection of the Theotokos

Protection of the TheotokosWe have a busy liturgical day. The feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (the Little Flower) and the Slavic Byzantine Church honors Mary under the title the “Protection of the Theotokos.” AND we need her protection!!!

This medieval prose (i.e.,  a devotional poem for use in the liturgy) uses the sentiment of the “Ave Maria.”

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with you, serene Virgin.
For lowly and great,
lion and lamb,
our savior Christ:
you have been his temple,
while still a virgin.

For the flower and rose,
the bread and the shepherd:
you queen of virgins,
a rose without a thorn,
you became their mother.

You are the royal seat of justice,
you are the mother of mercy,
from out of the depths of dregs and misery
hast seen Theophilus to grace.

The heavenly court praises you,
you the king’s mother and daughter;
O sweetest Mary,
through you the accused is forgiven.

O most pious Mary,
through you the accused is forgiven.
O most gentle Mary,
through you favor comes to the just.
For us always entreat Christ. Amen.

Saint Thérèse, the Little Flower

The little Thérèse, that of the Child Jesus (1873-1897), a daughter of the Great Teresa, of Jesus, is honored today by the Church. In the right perspective, both women of the Carmelite order, Thérèse and Teresa, are magnificent witnesses to another way of living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Church. Liturgically, we have Avila’s feast on October 15. If we understand nothing more today, know that it was the Lord who was Thérèse’s certainty, He alone her guide (cf. the entrance antiphon).

The Mass Collect identifies the central focus of Saint Thérèse: a little way. What is the little way? The little way taught by Saint Thérèse is see one’s life from a perspective of humility, that of a child (cf. Mt 18:3), that the force of love becomes a reality; the language and method of the little way is that of love, of mercy.

The Catholic Information Service (Knights of Columbus) publishes a handy booklet that you can order, or you read it as a .pdf, “The First Steps on the Little Way of Saint Thérèse Lisieux.” I can’t recommend this text enough!

Saint Thérèse, a child of the Martin family which was quite devoted: several sisters entered religious life, her parents are on the road to sainthood. She was educated by the Benedictines before entering the Carmelite.

Saint Thérèse’s autobiography, The Story of a Soul, I find a compelling narrative of going deeper but that’s only after dealing with my prejudice of seeing the autobiography as saccharine; the depth contained therein is remarkable.

Saint Thérèse Lisieux is one of the the patron saints (with Saint Francis of Xavier) of the missions. John Paul declared her a Doctor of the Church.

Let’s pray for missionaries and for a deeper understanding of Thérèse’s little way.