At the Altar

At the altar comes the focus we ought to have: Jesus Christ as the center. Holy Mass centers our attention on what it means to be in relationship with all that is by grace. I am convinced that the sacred Liturgy is the vehicle of faith, the lex orandi [the law of prayer], is theologia prima serves powerfully to teach, to form, and to unite us.

One should read Benedict XVI’s Sacramentum Caritatis which speaks to the centrality of the Eucharist as the identity of the Church. We know from experience that the Eucharist is irreducible to another religious practice. That is, the Eucharist is not one ritual among others. It is, however, the privileged way that the Church encounters the mystery of love in Jesus Christ.

Order of Malta CT observes Baptist feast

In advance of the solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Order of Malta—CT North East Area met for a meeting, Mass, and lunch. Part of the day was at the Clelian Center at Mount Sacred Heart in Hamden, CT. Sister Susan Francis Graham gave a presentation on the spirituality of the Sacred Heart.

Bishop Peter Rosazza blessed the neck cross once worn by our Magistral Chaplain, Father Thomas Kelly who died 2 months ago today.

St. John the Baptist is a principal feast of the Order of Malta.

Mary, Mother of Christ, helper

“Mother of Christ,
help me to be willing
to accept the suffering
that is the condition of love.
Help me accept
the grief
of seeing those whom I love suffer,
and when they die
let me share in their death
by compassion.
Give me the faith
that knows Christ
in them,
and knows that His love
is the key
to the mystery of suffering.
Help me,
Blessed Mother,
to see with your eyes,
to think with your mind,
to accept with your will.
Help me to believe
that it is Christ
who suffers in innocent children,
in those who die in the flower of life,
in those whose death is an act
of reparation,
in those who are sacrificed
for others.
Remind me
that their suffering
is Christ’s love
healing the world,
and when I suffer for them
and with them,
I too am given the power
of His redeeming love.”

Caryll Houselander

Our goal is for true worship

Today, the Roman Church recalls the memory of the first century philosopher and Christian apologist, St. Justin Martyr. The question before every Christian is the one based on what Justin taught, “No one who is right thinking stoops from true worship to false worship.” Are we right thinking? How do we objectively measure this notion of right thinking and true worship? What does it matter? Is there a societal and personal impact of false worship? And, what is right and true worship versus false worship, anyways, since much has been changed since the 16th century?

Some will explain these ideas away to justify almost anything. While to interrogate the truth of the experience we have before the Triune God and Tradition ought to speak for itself.

Happy feast of Saint Justin, martyr!

Meeting to worship the Lord in friendship

On Thursday, May 30, the traditional day for the feast of Corpus Domini, in some quarters, Corpus Christi, four members of the Eastern Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem met at the Georgetown Oratory in Redding, CT, for a solemn Mass and procession for Corpus Domini. It was a beautiful Mass: sacred music, preaching, ars celebrandi, servers and the faithful.

The Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem assembled as possible to give witness to the reality of the Eucharistic Lord, his friendship with us and our friendship with each other. The witness to our salvation is Eucharistic and crucial to our living faith today as it demonstrates what we hold to be true and what we hold to be real.

The principal celebrant and homilist Father Michael Clark preached using one of Flannery O’Connor‘s reflections on the Eucharist, where she responds to a friend claiming to be a Catholic and that the Eucharist was a “pretty good symbol.” O’Connor said, “If it’s just a symbol, to hell with it.”

This sentiment remains today among many Catholics: the Eucharist is a pretty good symbol. Well, I should say O’Connor’s response remains clear and correct. Reduction of the Eucharist to an aesthetic or worse, to ethics, makes the Eucharist a mere subjective experience renouncing the objectivity of what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, and what the churches have taught based on experience and the reality of revelation and Tradition. Symbolic presence alone is weak and irritating.

We were also reminded that O’Connor was a communicant of this Georgetown Oratory for a brief period in her life.

The picture has Charles, Ruth and PAZ. Missing was Oratorian Brother Paul. A few more members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre were slated to be there but circumstances of life changed their plans.

Blessed Vilmos Apor

Vilmos (William) Apor, born 1892, was a Hungarian bishop who earned a special reputation for his service to the poor, especially during the months of hardship that came toward and at the end of World War II. Named Bishop of Gÿor in 1941, he chose as his motto: “The Cross strengthens the weak and makes the strong gentle.” During the many air raids he opened his home to those whose houses had been destroyed. When Russian troops entered the city in 1945, many women including religious took refuge in his episcopal residence. On Good Friday 1945 three Russian soldiers came to the residence and demanded that the women be taken to their barracks. Bishop Apor refused and placed himself in front of the women. One of the Russians shot and wounded him. Out of fear they then fled, leaving the women unmolested. Bishop Apor lived in great agony for three days and died on 2 April, Easter Monday.

Blessed William Apor, Bishop and Martyr, was a Conventual Chaplain ad honorem of the Order of Malta.

Collect: Almighty and Eternal God, through your grace, Bishop William, by courageously shedding his blood for his flock, earned a martyr’s crown. Grant that we, despite the difficulties of our daily lives, may do your will and offer our good works for the salvation of our brothers and sisters. We ask this through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Blessed Vilmos Apor, PRAY FOR US!

*from the biography

National Eucharistic Pilgrimage begins in New Haven

Members of the CT – North East Area represented the Order of Malta in New Haven CT with members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem at the launch of the Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton Procession for the National Eucharistic Revival Pilgrimage. Archbishop Christopher J. Coyne, Archbishop of Hartford, celebrated the sacred Liturgy. Following Mass the congregation formed a procession in the Church’s neighborhood.

The group photo was taken in the basement of St. Mary’s Church, the founding location of the Knights of Columbus, with Father Peter J. Langevin, KHS, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich, and Father Joseph MacNeil, Parochial Vicar at Blessed McGivney Parish (New Haven, CT).

This fourth route will journey through the major cities of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Mid-Atlantic states to the Indianapolis Convention on July 17. One of the traveling Pilgrimage vans, which was parked at the Blessed MIchael McGivney Pilgrimage Center, contains the Tabernacle to securely transport the Blessed Sacrament for travelling Adoration .

Br. Benedict Maria ordained deacon at Portsmouth Abbey

Today my friend, Brother Benedict Maria, a Benedictine monk of Portsmouth Abbey, was ordained to the Order of Deacon by the Bishop of Providence, Richard G, Henning, STD.

He’s doing his seminary studies at the major seminary in Florida.

The Portsmouth Abbey family is blessed to have him among us.

Deacon Benedict Maria’s family came from India and countless friends from around the USA came to the ordination including the many members of the impressive ecclesial movement, Jesus Youth.

May God grant Benedict Maria many years of fruitful ministry.