St Andrei Rublev, monk and iconographer

Today Byzantine Church recalls the memory of the monk and iconographer St. Andrei Rublev, monk and iconographer. His birth and death dates are not known precisely, but he is known to have lived in the 14th century. His iconography is well-appreciated world—wide; much of his sacred art resides in Russia. Rublev is buried at the Andronikov Monastery.

The troparion for St. Andrei reads:

Shining with the rays of divine light, O venerable Andrew, You knew Christ the wisdom and power of God. By means of the image of the Holy Trinity You preached to all the world the Holy Trinity in unity. And we, with amazement and joy, cry out to you: As you have boldness before the Most Holy Trinity. Pray that the Uncreated Light may illumine our souls!

New bishop for the Malabar Eparchy in the USA

Second Eparch for the Syro-Malabar Eparchy of St. Thomas in Chicago

Pope Francis has appointed Mar Joy Alappat, 66, as the second Bishop of the St. Thomas Eparchy of Chicago, succeeding Mar Jacob Angadiath (who reached retirement age of 75 according to canon law).

You can read today’s announcement of the Holy See here: https://press.vatican.va/…/2022/07/03/0514/01049.html

As the first Syro Malabar Eparchy to be established outside of India in 2001, the St. Thomas Eparchy serves more than 49 thousand Syro Malabar Catholics in the United States, which includes 80+ parishes and missions. There are two Malabar parishes in Connecticut.

Gratitude for the good work of Mar Jacob Angadiath for his service. And may God bless Bishop-designate Mar Joy!

Some twenty years ago I worked with Father Joy at Georgetown University Hospital. I rejoice in this appointment!

Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

O God, who in martyrdom have brought true faith to its highest expression, graciously grant, that, strengthened through the intercession of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, we may confirm by the witness of our life, the faith we profess with our lips. 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.

Fisher and More are key models of holiness for our time of weirdness of politics and civil and ecclesial life. As we all know we are pressured to compromise our faith and virtue even in Church life. All the more that we need these two saints because of their clear witness to Jesus Christ when others pressure us to reject the sovereignty of the Lord in all things. Belief in one’s mind and heart needs to coordinated with one’s lips. Can’t believe one thing and say another, and vice versa.

Corpus Christi

From an 1864 homily by Cardinal Manning:

Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster

“Corpus Christi is a second Feast of the Nativity; a Christmas festival in the summer-tide, when the snows are gone, and flowers cover the earth. And whence comes all this joy but from the divine fact which St. John declares: “The Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory”? Morning by morning, in the holy Mass, the Church recites this great charter of its incorporation and of its existence. Morning by morning it bears witness to the divine, permanent, and immutable presence of Jesus in the fulness of grace and truth. The Blessed Sacrament is the Incarnation perpetually present, manifested to faith, and I may say, under a veil, to sense, and applied to us by the same divine power by which it was accomplished.”

Feast of Christ the High Priest

Today, the Thursday between Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, June 9th, is the Feast of Christ the High Priest. It’s a feast reminding us of the priestly work (office) of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that every ordained priest in the Catholic Church acts in persona Christi capitis. Read Hebrews 2 and 7.

While approved in several places, sadly the US bishops have not asked for the feast here in the USA.

Let us pray that all priest be faithful servants of Christ and of the Church, the People of God.

I also pray for my friends in the clergy, high and low, and in particular those recently ordained priest.

St Ephrem

That today on the Latin liturgical calendar St Ephrem is commemorated. Many don’t have a clue about St Ephrem and his theological force of influence. Here is selection from a sermon of St Ephrem for our edification. Happy feast.

The divine ordering of the world is an image of the spiritual world

O Lord, drive away the darkness from our minds with the light of your wisdom, so that enlightened in this way we may serve you with renewed purity.

The beginning of the sun’s passage through the sky marks the beginning of the working day for us mortals: we ask you, Lord, to prepare in our minds a place where the day that knows no end may give its light. Grant that we may have within us this light, the life of the resurrection, and that nothing may take away our delight in you. Mark us with the sign of that day that does not begin with the movement and the course of the sun, by keeping our minds fixed on you.In your sacraments we welcome you every day and receive you in our bodies.

Make us worthy to experience within us the resurrection for which we hope. By the grace of baptism we conceal within our bodies the treasure of your divine life. This treasure increases as we eat at the table of your sacraments. Let us rejoice in your grace. We have within us, Lord, a memorial of you, which we receive at your spiritual table; may we possess the full reality in the life to come.

Let us appreciate the great beauty that is ours through the spiritual beauty that your immortal will arouses in our mortal nature.Your crucifixion, Lord, was the end of your bodily life: help us to crucify our will to give birth to the spiritual life. May your resurrection, Jesus, fill our spirits with greatness: may we see in your sacraments a mirror in which we may be able to recognise the resurrection.

Your divine ordering of the world, O Saviour, is the image of the spiritual world: let us live in it as truly spiritual men. Do not take away from our minds, Lord, the signs of your spiritual presence and do not withdraw from our bodies the warmth and delight of your presence. The mortal nature of our bodies is a source of corruption within us: let the outpouring of the spirit of your love wipe away the effect of mortality from our hearts.

Grant, Lord, that we may hasten to our true home, and, like Moses on the mountain-top, let us have a glimpse of it.

Fr Ragheed Ganni

Iraqi priest Fr Ragheed Ganni, and 3 subdeacons, were killed by terrorists on this day in 2007 in Mosul. He was martyred for refusing to close his church. His cause for canonization was introduced in 2018.

Servant of God Fr Ragheed Ganni, pray for us.

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)

St Philip Neri: an apostle for the universal call to holiness

The Church’s liturgical calendar has us celebrating the 40th day following the Resurrection of Jesus. Ascension Thursday is a point in our Catholic faith and one that is re-affirmed in the Creed.

Also on today’s liturgical calendar of the Latin Church is the feast day of our father among the saints, Philip Neri. The USA has several Oratories.

St. Philip, also known affectionately as “Pippo buono,” or “good little Phil,” wanted to be a missionary, but found that his mission territory was the City of Rome in the early 1500s during the Counter Reformation. He was a contemporary of several saints and founders of religious order. Philip founded the Congregation of the Priests of the Oratory and died in 1595.

Neri was known for his good cheer and extraordinary sense of humor. He was ordained priest in 1551 and exercised his priesthood notably in the confessional and preaching. And this became the hallmark of the Congregation of the Oratory.

Moreover, Neri placed significant emphasis the role of the laity in the Church thus believing that holiness was attainable for the laity –not just for the professional Catholics –monks, nuns, priests. While other religious order had third order laity groups, e.g., the Franciscans, Dominicans, oblates, and the like, the laity connected to the Oratorians were not treated as a third order, but as a first order. The Oratory existed to serve the needs of the laity. In some ways, Neri’s missionary impulse for the city of Rome became the seeds of what we call today the Universal Call to Holiness (Cf. V2 and the Opus Dei).

St. Philip Neri held: “Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and helps us to persevere. A servant of God ought always to be in good spirits. Charity and cheerfulness, or charity and humility, should be our motto.” From the perspective of St. Philip, joy and humility were indispensible from one another and essential for a healthy Christian life.

St Isaiah, the Prophet

One of the things I try to do with this blog is educate myself (and others) on the liturgical traditions of the Holy Church –East and West– and one of those traditions is the saints. Many people of the Eastern and Western Churches don’t know that some Old Testament figures are honored as saints with their own feast days. In part, a Catholic of the Latin Church may not realize this because they don’t celebrate the the OT people at the altar; sometimes the logic is: not celebrated at the altar there’s no feast day. That’s faulty logic. The Eastern Christians know that the OT prophets are saints because they are celebrated at the altar.

Today, we have as our saint, Isaiah the Prophet. He from the the 8th c. BC.

History reveals to us that the Holy Prophet Isaiah lived 700 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, who was of royal lineage. Isaiah’s father Amos raised him in the fear of God and in the law of the Lord. Having attained the age of maturity, the Prophet married a pious prophetess (Is 8:3) and had a son Jashub (Is 8:18).

The Martyrologium Romanum has this entry for him.

1. Commemoratio sancti Isaiae, prophetae, qui, in diebus Oziae, Iotham, Achaz et Ezechiae, regum Iudae, missus est ut populo infideli et peccatori Dominum fidelem et salvatorem revelaret, ad implementum promissionis David a Deo iuratae. Apud Iudaeos sub Manasse rege martyr occubuisse traditur.