Communio – Page 201 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Father Franҫois Mourad, Syrian monk, killed

Father Franҫois Mourad, 49, a Syrian monk, was killed on June 23, during a raid on the Franciscan monastery of Saint Anthony of Padua in Ghassanieh, a predominantly Christian village in the district of Jisr al-Shughur in the province of Idlib, near the border with Turkey.

Father Mourad was trained by the Franciscan Friars of the Holy Land Custody before joining the Trappists for a period of time. His formation as monk with the Trappists eventually led him to be ordained a priest in the Syrian Catholic Church of Al-Hasakah. Following the teaching of Saint Simon, Father Mourad founded a monastic community in Hwar, in the Aleppo Province.

Vatican Radio has a story here and there is another news report here.

May Father Franҫois Mourad’s memory be eternal.

Back to the cross

The Church gives us on this 12th Sunday of through the Year the gospel of Luke (9:18-24) focusses our personal reflection on the cross, redemptive suffering, self-abnegation. We can’t get away from answering the question: “But who do you say that I am?” AND we have to respond to the Lord’s declaration: “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Francis the Pope tells us: “those who serve the truth serve Christ.” In his TheoDrama (Vol. 1), Han Urs von Balthsar tells us to do the truth. Does anyone really believe that you do the truth? Now, what does this look like? Preach with your life the Paschal Mystery, that is, Jesus Christ Present: here and now.

Perhaps a reflection from Saint Cyril of Alexandria might help us understand: “When the disciple Peter had professed his faith, Jesus charged them, it says, and commanded them to tell it to no one. ‘For the Son of Man’, he says, ‘is about to suffer many things, and be rejected, and killed, and on the third day he shall rise again.’ Wasn’t it the duty of disciples to proclaim him everywhere? This was the very business of those appointed by him to the apostleship. But, as the Scripture says, ‘There is a time for everything.’ There were things yet unfulfilled which must also be included in their preaching about him. They must also proclaim the cross, the passion, and the death in the flesh. They must preach the resurrection of the dead, that great and truly glorious sign by which testimony is borne him that the Emmanuel is truly God and by nature the Son of God the Father…He commanded them, therefore, to guard the mystery by a reasonable silence until the whole plan of the dispensation should arrive at a suitable conclusion.”

In the face of life’s perils, can we really trust in the Lord?

We all have to face the contours of our existence. Not to do so seems to side-step the gift of freedom and to minimize our desires for happiness. Not knowing where we are going is OK. It is not the how, but the what of our lives that matters. For the Christian, the only reasonable way to engage one’s desires, one’s moral life, freedom, faith, other people is to trust in someone who is greater; the One who comes before all else that IS. The famed Thomas Merton begins to expand what our existence consists in. Give some thought to Merton’s guidance.

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton

Thoughts In Solitude

Windows into Heaven –Knights of Columbus Museum exhibits Russian icons

I am always looking for the way heaven touches earth. Perhaps you are, too. The image that comes to mind is the finger of God touching that of Adam in a painting done by Michelangelo. I also recall that the Incarnation is a manifestation of the beauty of heaven touching the ordinariness of earth and making our existence forever beautiful. These are some thoughts on an experience of “Windows into Heaven: Russian Icons and Treasures” at the Knights of Columbus Museum (New Haven, CT). Though the icons aren’t in their original liturgical context, they nonetheless open the heart and mind onto something and someone beautiful. The icons, for me, are more than nice pieces of Christian art; they truly are positions of grace that allow my desires to be opened anew by an experience with the Divine Majesty. There is an emphasis here on the personal relationship we have with the Trinity. To say otherwise is to neglect a piece of your humanity because the beauty of the icon does invite us to a different way of living the faith.

I was just reading an address of Cardinal Ratzinger on beauty. An amazing act of the Spirit to allow me to see the icons and then reflect with Ratzinger on the experience. He had addressed the annual meeting organized by members of Communion and Liberation in August 2002. A paragraph sticks out:

To admire the icons and the great masterpieces of Christian art in general, leads us on an inner way, a way of overcoming ourselves; thus in this purification of vision that is a purification of the heart, it reveals the beautiful to us, or at least a ray of it. In this way we are brought into contact with the power of the truth. I have often affirmed my conviction that the true apology of Christian faith, the most convincing demonstration of its truth against every denial, are the saints, and the beauty that the faith has generated. Today, for faith to grow, we must lead ourselves and the persons we meet to encounter the saints and to enter into contact with the Beautiful.

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

“The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty”

Rimini Meeting 2002

Take the time this summer to visit the KofC Museum and be inspired! Allow yourself to be wounded by beauty, as Ratzinger said.

Saint Lazarus

But make me like Lazarus, who was poor in sin,

lest I receive no answer when I pray,

no finger dipped in water to relieve my burning tongue;

and make me dwell in Abraham’s bosom in Your love for mankind.

Hymn at Presanctified Liturgy , Lent

May Saint Lazarus always remind us Christ’s love for us.

Pope Paul VI elected 50 years ago

5o years ago today 80 cardinals of the Roman Church elected Giovanni Battista Montini, the cardinal archbishop of Milan, as the Roman Pontiff to succeed Pope John XXIII.

Pope Pius XII gave to Milan his personal gift in the person of Monitni. He succeeded the Benedictine Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster who is now a blessed of the Church in 1954.

Among the many things he did was to confront communism, sexual “freedoms”, published Humane Vitae, closed the Second Vatican Council, set the stage for a new work of evangelization and he worked for unity among Christians, notably with the Orthodox and the Anglicans. Moreover, he set to work to reform the Roman Curia and he renovated the Roman Liturgy. The latter still a contentious point among some people.

Paul’s cause for sainthood is being studied. Pope Benedict XVI certified that the Servant of God Pope Paul VI did indeed live a life of heroic virtue bestowing the title of Venerable.

Pope Paul VI died on the feast of the Transfiguration in 1978.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Let us pray with the Church.

O God, giver of heavenly gifts, who in Saint Aloysius Gonzaga joined penitence to a wonderful innocence of life, grant through his merits and intercession, that, though we have failed to follow him in innocence, we may imitate him in penitence.

From the Office of Readings:

The divine goodness, most honored lady [Gonzaga’s Mother], is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and feeble labors, God is calling me to eternal rest; his voice from heaven invites me to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for the tears I have so seldom shed.

His biographers note: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga (March 9, 1568 – June 21, 1591) an Italian aristocrat, who entered the Society of Jesus. As a student at the Roman College, Gonzaga died as a result of caring for the victims of an epidemic. He was beatified in 1605, and canonized in 1726. Gonzaga is the patron saint for those living with chronic illnesses, particularly those living with HIV-AIDS.

Grayson, Daddy loves you.

Imagine hearing for the first time. Ever. Life without sound, without music, without the voice of your parents is seemingly unbearable.

The grace of God through the practice of medicine has now allowed for Grayson Clamp, 3, to hear for the first time. Little Grayson has had to face several medical issues in his short life but the auditory brain stem implant will surely change his life. This is a beautiful story of the renewal of life. The news tonight had the recurring phrase by Grayson’s Dad this is striking in its simplicity: “Daddy loves you.” Watch the story. What a beautiful story of what Benedict XVI means by human ecology.

May Saint Cornelius, patron saint for hearing ailments, intercede before God on behalf of Grayson, and all those who have hearing problems. May God bless the medical professionals at UNC Medical Center (Chapel Hill).

Saint Romuald, monk

Today is the feast of Saint Romuald, monk, abbot, and founder of the Camaldolese Benedictines. Romuald was a mid-10th century man of an aristocratic family who after living a life of craziness and witnessing immorality of friends and family, he move to follow the Lord caused him to radically live differently than the norm.

Camaldolese Benedictines are not well known in the USA. There are only four foundations of the Camaldolese monks and nuns in the USA: 3 in California (monks) and one in New York State (nuns).

The Camaldolese monks in Rome, for example, have as their main church, Saint Gregory the Great. From there, Gregory sent the Benedictines to England. Today, the Camaldolese monks have somewhat an ecumenical outreach to non-Catholics, and they have had an on-going relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In 2007, Pope Benedict wrote to the Camaldolese Order on the feast of Saint Peter Damian. Read the letter. It speaks of the charism of the Camadolese vocation as one of solitude and communion. This is not an esoteric vocation: it is a manner of living that grounds a person in the essential.

In 2012, the Camadolese Benedictines observed a 1000 years of being a faithful community in the Church, known as the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli. At this time, Pope Benedict said,

“Saint Romuald, the father of the Camaldolese monks, striving for an eremitic life and discipline, wandered through Italy for many years, building monasteries and tirelessly promoting the evangelical life among monks.”

And so, what does this say to us? The life of Romuald and what Benedict has highlighted, we can form our lives around the principles of silence, prayer, communion with God and others, living according to Good News. This is a serious proposition. This is what Jesus asks of us.

With the Church, we pray:

O God, who through Saint Romuald renewed the manner of life of hermits in your Church, grant that, denying ourselves and following Christ, we may merit to reach the heavenly realms on high.

Adding the name of St Joseph to the Eucharistic Prayer

The Prefect and Secretary of Congregation for Divine Worship have prepared a decree, Paternas vices (Prot. N. 215/11/L), indicating that in praying Eucharistic prayers II-IV, the priest is to insert the name of Saint Joseph. The decree states: “henceforth” and “… by virtue of the faculties granted by the Supreme Pontiff FRANCIS, is pleased to decree that the name of Saint Joseph, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary is henceforth to be added to Eucharistic Prayers II, III, IV….”

Blessed John XXIII added the name of Saint Joseph to the Roman Canon in 1962.

At this point, no effective date has been determined for usage (See CIC 8). However, the cover letter from the USCCB General Secretary mentions that it is to be done “as soon as possible.” There is, however, a significant question as to when the priest can legitimately make the change in the Eucharistic Prayer.

The Latin:

II: “ut cum beáta Dei Genetríce Vírgine María, beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, beátis Apóstolis”
III: “cum beatissíma Vírgine, Dei Genetríce, María, cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, cum beátis Apóstolis”
IV: “cum beáta Vírgine, Dei Genetríce, María, cum beáto Ioseph, eius Sponso, cum Apóstolis”

The English:

II: that with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with Blessed Joseph, her Spouse, with the blessed Apostles

III: with the most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with blessed Joseph, her Spouse, with your blessed Apostles and glorious Martyrs

IV: with the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God with blessed Joseph, her Spouse, and with your Apostles

The Spanish:

II: con María, la Virgen Madre de Dios, su esposo san José, los apóstoles y…

III: con María, la Virgen Madre de Dios, su esposo san José, los apóstoles y los mártires…

IV: con María, la Vigen Madre de Dios, con su esposo san José, con los apóstoles y los santos…

Ite ad Ioseph