You can get a quick visit to Saint Meinrad’s Archabbey in 2 minutes via YouTube. David Yonke put together a very nice video with good images and music. Brother Francis de Sales Wagner posted the video on his delightful blog, The Path of Life.
If you want to read a beautiful letter from the Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow, Kyril I, to Pope Benedict XVI, read the following.
On 1 March 2013, His Holiness, Patriarch Kyril I of Moscow sent a message to His Holiness, Benedict XVI, pope-emeritus.
Your Holiness!In these exceptional days for you, I would like to express the feelings of brotherly love in Christ and respect.
The decision to leave the position of Bishop of Rome, which you, with humility and simplicity, announced on February 11 this year, has found a ready response in the hearts of millions of Catholics.
We have always been close to your consistent ministry, marked by uncompromisingness in matters of faith and unswerving adherence to the living Tradition of the Church. At a time when the ideology of permissiveness and moral relativism tries to dislodge the moral values of life, you boldly raised your voice in defence of the ideals of the Gospel, the high dignity of man and his vocation to freedom from sin.
Continue reading Patriarch Kyril writes to Pope Benedict XVI on his resignation
God of love, you called Saint Katharine Drexel to teach the message of the Gospel and to bring the life of the Eucharist to the Native American and African American peoples; by her prayers and example, enable us to work for justice among the poor and the oppressed, and keep us undivided in love in the eucharistic community of your Church.
His Eminence, Francis Cardinal George, OMI, said in his book, The Difference God Makes, “It is is precisely as a disciple of Christ that Katharine taught Americans how to be true to themselves as Americans.” Look at pages 55-58.
George is right, she is one of the greatest women of the Church in the United States, Saint Katharine Drexel. May God raise up more like her! May Saint Katharine beg the Holy Spirit for His grace.
Moses encountered the living God. What was once hidden is now made known. Light and Love is experienced. Biblical revelation teaches that he flame Moses saw was in fact God’s uncreated energies/glory. This glory of God was manifested as light, thus a reasonable theological explanation as to why the bush was not consumed. The Church doesn’t typically speak of the burning bush as a miracle inasmuch as it speaks of it as an event, a theophany, an epiphany, which lasts but a short time. What is taught by the Church Fathers is that Moses was permitted to see God’s uncreated energies/glory. That is, he had encountered the Infinite, a promise of eternal things to come. Moses is for us the note that we are made for the Infinite, that our heart is made for love, that we are to be in communion with the Divine Majesty.
This same light is linked to the experience of the children at Fatima.
Catholic theology speaks of the burning bush as an Old Testament type for Mary, the Theotokos. She, as the Spouse of the Holy Spirit “is the burning bush of the definitive theophany” (CCC 724). The burning bush which Moses experienced is spoken of by the Church Fathers as the type of Jesus, an experience that is “pre-incarnation.” That is to say, the bush is the encounter with the presence of the Son in the form of an Angel. Mary, therefore, is the Theotokos, the bearer of the Incarnate Son by the action of the Holy Spirit.
We welcome this Light into our lives through the sacraments of initiation, the frequent reception of the sacraments of Confession and Communion; we welcome this Light in our begging the Holy Spirit to guide our way to God the Father as a new Pentecost in our Christian experience. Our response is nothing other than adoration of God.
As a way to know more about the Holy Spirit and the Divine action in history I would recommend studying the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 717-730.
On Tuesday, 26 February 2013, João Cardinal Bráz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, received in audience the Abbots of Subiaco, Montecassino, Noci, and Cava dei Tirreni, along with the Procurator General of the Subiaco Congregation and gave them the Decree of the Incorporation of the Cassinese Congregation into the Subiaco Congregation.
The decree is dated 7 February 2013, the Memorial of Blessed Pius IX, proponent of the Subiaco Congregation. The new official name of the Congregation is the Subiaco Cassinese Benedictine Congregation.
This is a re-integrtion of a group of monasteries that were once in the same fold and broke away. Necessity has reunited them.
O Lord, with suppliant humility, we entreat You, that in Your boundless mercy You would grant the most Holy Roman Church a pontiff, who by his zeal for us, may be pleasing to You, and by his good government may be ever honored by Your people for the glory of Your name. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son who with You lives and reigns world without end. Amen.
R. Pray for us who have recourse to you!
Saint Peter, pray for us.
Saint Linus, pray for us.
Saint Anacletus, pray for us.
Saint Clement, pray for us.
Saint Evaristus, pray for us.
Saint Celestine V, pray for us.
Saint Pius V, pray for us.
Saint Pius X, pray for us.
Blessed Pius IX, pray for us.
Blessed John XXIII, pray for us.
Blessed John Paul II, pray for us.
Collect for the Election of the Supreme Pontiff (Votive Mass Pro Eligendo Summo Pontifice)
On Monday, 18 March, Christopher Candela will be a speaker at Saint Thomas More Church (NYC) at 7pm on “Teaching Beauty: A Reflection on the Legacy of Benedict XVI’s Pontificate.” This lecture is part of the MORE Hot Topics series.
Pope Benedict XVI, who finished his pontificate yesterday (28 February 2013), is
considered to be one of the most brilliant minds in a century.
From its humble beginning to its historic conclusion, Benedict’s pontificate will be remembered
for its prolific teaching. Benedict reminds us that logos precedes ethos, and that discerning
beauty is essential in the pursuit of truth. Through the Holy Father’s teachings, Mr. Candela will
explore the practical reforms that gave voice to Catholic musicians and artists who in previous
decades had been relegated to “the rearguard of culture.”
Support my friend in this very worthy endeavor.
The flyer: Teaching Beauty.pdf
Benedict’s abdication has opened the door for lots of interesting thinking these days. Some are taking the opportunity to complain about how bad they think the Church is, some taking the time to pause, evaluate, and to pray for the Pilgrim People of God. The Catholic Church is the Church of Christ, warts and all, it is beautiful, but it can be ugly at times due to the immature Christian faith of some people. Paul Elie’s article in the Times causes to me think many things; I neither disagree with him completely, nor do I agree. He raises interesting things to consider but there are parts of the article that annoy me. But that’s not to be discussed here. But I have to ask: To whom do we belong, Jesus Christ or an ideology? Is the Church leading you to salvation in Christ? Do we assess the needs, pray and work for change where needed and where possible with prudence? Or, do we whine and walk away like teenagers? How mature is our Christian following?
The Provost of the Brooklyn Oratory, The Very Reverend Father Dennis Corrado, CO, writes in response to Elie’s article in the Times. The Oratorians are good shepherds to their people.
I read Paul Elie’s NY Times piece “Give up your Pew for Lent” in Friday’s Op. Ed. page early this morning. To say it is thought provoking is an understatement .
I am hopeful most people reading his words can appreciate how we priests serving this wounded Church feel while reading it.
I am grateful that the Brooklyn Oratory [Church of Saint Boniface] is described so positively.
This weekend, I will begin to preach a parish retreat in what Fr. Anthony of the Brooklyn Oratory tells me is one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of New York.
I’ll preach at 5 Masses and then have sessions each day for three days. The theme is forgiveness…forgiving each other and forgiving ourselves…asking God to forgive us for the stupid, sinful things we do.. as the path to wellness and joy.
During that time I will quote Carlo Carretto’s now famous reflection which begins :How much I must criticize you, my Church.
My favorite line being: Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face, (my Church) and yet each night I pray I might die in your sure, safe arms
Carretto’s list of anger and regret and pain about the Church members’ duplicity and hypocrisy ends with the conviction that those failures are all our failures and that we are one with them as we are one with the holiness we practice.
I will remind myself and my retreat attendees that our faith is in the Person of the Church who is Jesus Christ and not in the personnel who are not…pews and pulpit alike.
And I will once again remind myself and them that my experience of four decades of public ministry has taught me that nobody changes the Church from without… only from within.
Not a single one of my priest friends who have left the Church have helped change the institution they so wanted to be better and truthful and modern and humane.
Perhaps that is why we feel the Oratory makes a difference . And it is certainly why I can never separate myself from the Eucharistic Body of Christ as some kind of protest against our Church’s failures… no matter how often they occur.
Did Theresa of Avila or Francis of Assisi or Catherine of Siena or Philip Neri vacate the corrupted Church of their ages?
As a son of Vatican II I have never stopped preaching that the Church is the People of God,: flawed, foolish, sinful, brilliant, graced. holy and even saintly that is, all of us …. not just the Chanceries nor the Curias.
We do make a difference and I am reminded of Woody Allen’s remark that 80 percent of success is showing up.
I know wherever each of us will find ourselves this weekend, in whatever equally flawed and holy place as ours, we will still be one with each other, baptized as we are into the eternal Body of Christ.
And while I feel the painful reality of each of our diasporas, I pray any kind of suggested Lenten “abstinence” brings us back to our sede vacante.
As they say in Rome: con affetto,
F. Dennis, c.o.
Provost
The Brooklyn Oratory
One head of Church leaves his ministry, another picks up a new call to serve God’s people on the same day. Abune Mathias, 71, was elected to lead Ethiopia’s 50 million Orthodox Christians, majority of the population. He is the sixth patriarch having received 500 of the 806 possible votes. His predecessor, Abune Paulos, was the head of the church since 1992 and died six months ago.
The Ethiopian Orthodox Church has had its own patriarch since 1959 when Pope Cyril VI allowed for the Ethiopian Church to move from the Coptic Orthodox Church and be self-ruling. The Ethiopian Church has apostolic origins.
The new patriarch was ordained to the Order of Deacon in 1948, and a priest-monk in 1955. Since 1971 a bishop. Abune Mathias has been serving as archbishop of the Church in Jerusalem and has lived outside of Ethiopia for more than 30 years.
Abune Mathias will be enthroned in Holy Trinity Cathedral, Addis Ababa, on Sunday, 3 March.
Ethiopia has some of the word’s oldest churches, sometimes called “cave churches,” rock-hewn, which are a World Heritage Site, in Lalibella in northern Ethiopia. They’d remind of Raiders of the Lost Ark.