Communio – Page 209 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

The Holy Spirit makes us sons and daughters of God

This weekend we are celebrating the Pentecost. The gift of the Holy Spirit was promised by Jesus; the Spirit is what creates and sustains us. In 2006 Pope Benedict met with members of the ecclesial movements. What follows the points he made on the Holy Spirit that I thought would be good to meditate on today. Our study and prayer to and in the Spirit is not well known in the Church so I think this material appropriate for formation and evangelization. As part of the Year of Faith observances the ecclesial movements are meeting with Pope Francis today and tomorrow. Come, Holy Spirit!

The Holy Spirit, in giving life and freedom, also gives unity. These are three gifts that are inseparable from one another. I have already gone on too long; but let me say a brief word about unity.

To understand it, we might find a sentence useful which at first seems rather to distance us from it. Jesus said to Nicodemus, who came to him with his questions by night: “The wind blows where it wills” (Jn 3: 8). But the Spirit’s will is not arbitrary. It is the will of truth and goodness.

Therefore, he does not blow from anywhere, now from one place and then from another; his breath is not wasted but brings us together because the truth unites and love unites.

Continue reading The Holy Spirit makes us sons and daughters of God

Pope Francis helped US Pontifical Mission Societies broaden reach

The Pontifical Mission Societies in the USA are expanding their work of proposing the Good News of Jesus Christ with the help of technology.

This new initiative of the new evangelization come with the help of the boss himself, Pope Francis. He unlocked the new App. Oblate Father Andrew Small assisted. The MISSIO App may be downloaded free wherever Apps are available.

Missionary work need not only be in foreign countries. Missionary work in the United States of America is a real need even today. There are people in the USA, in Connecticut, that have yet to hear and live “Good News” of Jesus Christ and experience the Lord’s great love through the work and witness of the Catholic Church. Can each of us be motivated by the command of Jesus to “go, make disciples of all nations”?

While the Catholic Church in the USA is no longer considered as ‘mission territory’ by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, that is, we no longer depend on financial support and manpower from other nations, the fact is that we need to continue to propose to one and all that Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life. A possible resource for us in Connecticut is the Propagation of the Faith, “One Family in Mission” (a new web site).

The Church in the USA has four groups help the “least among us” that are known as The Pontifical Mission Societies:

The Society for the Propagation of the Faith
The Society of St Peter Apostle
Missionary Childhood Association
Missionary Union of Priests and Religious

2013 is the 151st anniversary of the death of the founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Pauline Marie Jaricot. With the Venerable Servant of God Pauline Jaricot let us contribute to the work of the New Evangelization, be that match that lit the fire of love and service of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Saint Simon Stock

Saint Simon was the English Carmelite Superior General of the Carmelite Order (†1265) who is most remembered for receiving from the Blessed Virgin the brown scapular with a promise that one is not lost at death if wearing the scapular. Stock was a hymn writer, a good leader and a man of sanctity, whom the Church recognized soon after his death. The liturgical offices were approved by the Church in the 15th century.

It is said that Simon heard the Mother of God say,

Hoc erit tibi et cunctis Carmelitis privilegium, in hoc habitu moriens salvabitur.

(This shall be the privilege for you and for all the Carmelites, that anyone dying in this habit shall be saved.)

The bestowal of the scapular was given to the Carmelite friars alone but now any priest can bless and enroll someone in the scapular. The brown scapular is associated with the Carmelite friars with the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The brown scapular is one 18 approved scapulars worn in devotion.

There is a lot of pious legend about today’s saint, but there are some things that we are reasonably sure about. The Bollandists write the following of Saint Simon Stock:

Saint Simon Stock was born of one of the most illustrious Christian families of England, at the castle of Harford in 1164. Certain prodigies marked him, while an infant in the cradle, as a soul chosen by the Mother of God for Her own. Not yet one year old, he was heard to say the Angelic Salutation distinctly, before he had reached the age to learn it. As soon as he could read he began to recite the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, and he would never cease to do so daily. He read Holy Scripture on his knees at the age of six. He became the object of the jealous persecution of one of his brothers, and at the age of twelve determined to leave and go to live in a forest.

Continue reading Saint Simon Stock

The Church by the numbers 2013

On 13 May 2013, Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone, SDB, the Secretary of State and Archbishop Angelo Becciu, the assistant in the same office, presented the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (the Church’s Statistical Yearbook) to Pope Francis and the rest of the Church.

This annual publication is official document outlining ever imaginable stat one would want to know, and more.

The statistical information in the Church Yearbook refers to the year 2011 which details the Catholic Church in the 2,979 ecclesiastical circumscriptions. That is, the dioceses and other administrations of the Church around the planet.

As already known, the Church is diminishing in Europe and growing in Asia and Africa.

General statistics:

From 2010 to 2011, the number of bishops increased from 5,104 to 5,132;
The steady increase in the number of priests which began in the year 2000 has continued. From 412,236 priests in 2010 to 413,418 in 2011;
The number of permanent deacons registered a strong increase: from 29,000 in 2001 to 41,000 in 2011;
Candidates for the priesthood, diocesan and religious, have increased since 2001 (112,244) by 7.5%. In 2011, there were 120,616 registered;
The number of Catholics in the world increased from 1.196 billion in 2010 to 1.214 billion in 2011, an increase of 18 million faithful.

Saint Pachomius

We honor a great Church father, Saint Pachomius, with the liturgical memorial today.

Saint Pachomius is a founding figure in Christian monasticism. History recalls for us that it Pachomius who is attributed with being the first to write a rule for cenobitic (communal monk, as opposed to being a hermit) monastic life. The text survives only in Coptic.

Pachomius lived in the first half of the 4th century, he is a former soldier in the Roman army.

Saint Pachomius, pray for us!

Where are the 12 Apostles buried?

Have you ever wondered about the details of the Apostles’ death and burial? It is a curious question for biblical studies and archeology, liturgical studies and piety in general. I caught this clever illustration the other day and it answers my question. I hope it is accurate. When in Rome I’ve been to some of the tombs; I guess I’ll have to wait to get to India, Spain and Germany.

A working cardinal: O’Malley really does work

Boston’s Cardinal does outdoor work.

From being a candidate in some people’s eyes for the Petrine ministry to doing menial tasks, Sean Cardinal O’Malley gives good example.

One can only guess what the papacy would be like today had O’Malley been elected. It makes no sense to speculate, and yet one wonders.

I doubt one can say that the estimation he enjoys is due to this kind gesture, but I do think it helps. Cardinal O’Malley knows that hard work means getting his hands dirty and collaborating with others.

Work gives dignity to man’s life; it gives to joy to the heart seeing a task completed as well as can be.

On this feast of Saint Matthias, may his intercession before God give us more bishops like this one.

Saints Matthias and Francis, pray for us.

Saint Matthias: listened to the community, and followed Jesus

Getting closer and closer to Pentecost Sunday that Church’s selections from the Acts of the Apostles gives a clearer sense of how grace works in the life of the Christian community. Today’s feast of Saint Matthias, one of the elected apostles (Acts 1:15-26) replacing Judas shows how discernment of spirit works to provide apostolic continuity in pastoral authority and power. Discernment is never one-sided; it is always a two-way street on the part of the man and on the part of the Church to choose who serves as an ordained minister of the Gospel. Matthias’ vocation to replace Judas as one of the bishops was given to him; neither he nor single one person had the power to make the selection; it was done with in the midst of the community because the community is a place to encounter the living, resurrected Christ. Moreover, one can’t say that Saint Matthias gained much: he preached the Truth of the Gospel, confirmed the faith and he lost his life: nothing greater than the love he had for Christ Jesus propelled him to serve with all his heart.

Note what the Collect of the Mass prays: God assigned Saint Matthias a place of service and pastoral responsibility and it is our hope to numbered among the elect, that is, among the saved. Key here is God’s action in each of our lives; it is not our own desires alone that makes salvation possible. We are meant to share the lot of the saints, but our freedom and God’s grace need to be operative for this gift to be realized.

Matthias met his Savior by crucifixion in Judea and his mortal remains are located at Saint Matthew’s Abbey, Trier, Germany.

As the Church prays,

O God, who assigned Saint Matthias a place in the college of Apostles, grant us, through his intercession, that, rejoicing at how your love has been allotted to us, we may merit to be numbered among the elect.

The following selection from a sermon of Saint John Chrysostom on Saint Matthias may be instructive on the early practice of ecclesiological need.

Continue reading Saint Matthias: listened to the community, and followed Jesus

Our Lady of Fatima

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Cardinal Polycarpo and the bishops of Portugal join together at the famous shrine to the Blessed Mother to dedicate the papacy of Pope Francis to her. This gesture of devotion has been done for the last several popes entrusting all things of the papal office to the Maternal guidance and protection of the Mother of God. Today is also the anniversary of the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981. Let’s add the intention of peace and charity to those of the Pope, the bishop, the pastor of our parish and family. Here is an Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (do it today).

O Mary, Virgin most powerful and Mother of mercy, Queen of Heaven and Refuge of sinners, we consecrate ourselves to thine Immaculate Heart.

We consecrate to thee our very being and our whole life; all that we have, all that we love, all that we are.

To thee we give our bodies, our hearts and our souls; to thee we give our homes, our families, our country.

We desire that all that is in us and around us may belong to thee, and may share in the benefits of thy motherly benediction.

And that this act of consecration may be truly efficacious and lasting, we renew this day at thy feet the promises of our Baptism and our first Holy Communion.

We pledge ourselves to profess courageously and at all times the truths of our holy Faith, and to live as befits Catholics who are duly submissive to all the directions of the Pope and the Bishops in communion with him.

We pledge ourselves to keep the commandments of God and His Church, in particular to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

We likewise pledge ourselves to make the consoling practices of the Christian religion, and above all, Holy Communion, an integral part of our lives, in so far as we shall be able so to do.

Finally, we promise thee, O glorious Mother of God and loving Mother of men, to devote ourselves whole-heartedly to the service of thy blessed cult, in order to hasten and assure, through the sovereignty of thine Immaculate Heart, the coming of the kingdom of the Sacred Heart of thine adorable Son, in our own hearts and in those of all men, in our country and in all the world, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen.

Father Taft: we need a new ecclesiology –a startling revolution– Catholics are the no longer the only kids on the block

It is said that “The Eastern Churches have a special vocation in the contemporary world, which is both distinct from, and complementary to, that of the Western Church. Pope John Paul saw it thus, but he was not the only one. The language of the ‘two lungs’ of the Church suggests that the Church’s activity in the world is much diminished when one of the lungs is operating at a reduced capacity – which it certainly is if it is not fully being what it is meant to be.”

A vocation to serve the Churches, East and West, has been radically lived by a New England Province Jesuit priest, Robert F. Taft, for nearly a half-century. Christopher B. Warner published a terrific interview in the Catholic World Report, “Building Bridges Between Orthodox and Catholic Christians” is required reading to get a sense of the Church’s teaching and life.

Father Taft was a professor of mine, and he remains an inspiration and mentor.