Communio – Page 357 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Severed from dependence & completion in God we forget about our eternal destiny in communion with God, Pope reminds Filipino bishops

The Philippines is the most populous Catholic nation in Asia. We ought to be aware that the Catholic faith has been in the Philippines for 5 centuries now!!!!

These days, among the many things Benedict XVI is doing, he’s meeting with the Filipino bishops who are praying at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, all in an effort to strengthen the bond of unity between the universal Church and the Church in the Philippines. This is the second group of bishops from the Philippines led by Archbishop Palma of Cebu, is in Rome for the ad Limina. A third group will begin their visit on the 21st. Benedict addresses the body the bishops and also meets individually with each bishop. Every 5 years a bishop who heads a diocese is to make a pilgrimage to Rome to pray, to visit with the pope to report on the state of evangelization of the local church and to visit with the various departments at the Holy See. A quinquennial report is sent ahead of a bishop’s visit to the Eternal City so that the pope can study the good and areas of need of a particular diocese. It is the expectation that the ad Limina Apostolorum, to the threshold of the Apostles, helps in the transparency in bishop’s concern for the salvation of souls. What Benedict told the Filipino bishops today is appropriate for us here in the USA. A portion of the text is given below with my notations for emphasis.

Filipino culture is also confronted with the more
subtle questions inherent to the secularism, materialism, and consumerism of
our times. When self-sufficiency and freedom are severed from their dependence
upon and completion in God, the human person creates for himself a false
destiny and loses sight of the eternal joy for which he has been made. The path
to rediscovering humanity’s true destiny can only be found in the
re-establishment of the priority of God in the heart and mind of every person.

Continue reading Severed from dependence & completion in God we forget about our eternal destiny in communion with God, Pope reminds Filipino bishops

The 7 Holy Servite Founders

The collect prayed by the priest at Mass for today’s
optional memorial of the 7 holy founders of the Servite Order asks the Lord for
same “love which inspired the seven holy brothers to honor the Mother of God
with special devotion and to lead your people to you.” Servites, a 13th century mendicant order inspired by the first Dominican martyr, Saint Peter of Verona, are devoted to
the Our Lady of Sorrows and are to live a life of penance. Theirs, like what all Christians live, is a life
discipleship with Christ Crucified. The is the key to our salvation. And the
Servite founders remind us that following Christ necessarily means bearing the
cross.

The Thought of Henri Bremond

In the current
issue of La Civiltà Cattolica, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro wrote an
interesting essay, “The Thought of Henri Bremond.” Matters pertaining to faith
and reason, faith and culture interest me perhaps you. At least that’s what I
hope if you are a frequent reader of the Communio blog. Henri Bremond
(1865-1933) is a former a Jesuit priest, literary scholar and was in the middle
of the Modernist crisis. His literary output was terrific. Bremond was a member
of the illustrious Académie Française succeedingm(elected in 1923 holding seat
number 36). France also awarded the Lé d’honneur. The summary:

An attempt to
overcome the gap between faith and culture – In the years that saw the rise of
surrealism, of Freudian thought and of the modernist crisis, Henri Bremond
captured the separation that was growing between theology and culture
sanctioned by the Enlightenment. Bremond suffered in trying to find a
compromise in terms of language, seeking to show to a cultured audience the
best results of a religious sensibility and sought to show to his Catholic
readers the religious value of «profane» literature. Seeing the similarities
between a mystical and a poetic inspiration, he concluded that “it is up to the
mystic to explain the poet,” reversing a common axiom. The article, on the
occasion of the reissue of his Prayer and poetry, absent from Italian
bookstores for three decades, presents the main insights of the priest,
academician of France.

Equipped for Ministry? Each person called by the Lord has work to do

Working in a great parish where it is difficult to get some of the simplest things done due to a labor shortage –that is, people giving their time for service– and getting other ministerial things accomplished for the good of the Church and the salvation of souls, thinking about the ministry of the laity has given me pause to revisit some personal thinking. Baltimore’s Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien wrote about lay ministry in the current edition of The Catholic Review where he acknowledges the great number of people who Christ and the Church in generous ways by living the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The Archbishop puts his finger on a process, formation. Pay attention to what Pope Benedict has said about parish work.

Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien

One of the great joys I have experienced in my visits to parishes and schools in our Archdiocese over the past three-plus years has been the witness of so many dedicated lay Catholics who serve the Church in many and diverse ways.

Much of the work of these lay ministers is visible to us. They share their gifts and talents as music ministers at Mass, making “a joyful noise to the Lord,” and as lectors, ushers and Eucharistic ministers who, Sunday after Sunday, show great care for the liturgy. Catechists minister in our parishes, passing on the faith to Catholics of all ages – from converts to “cradle Catholics” – who are hungry for spiritual nourishment. And the youth ministers of our Archdiocese share their enthusiasm for being Catholic and the Gospel message of God’s love with young people “on fire” for their faith.

Continue reading Equipped for Ministry? Each person called by the Lord has work to do

Wisdom and knowledge stimulates virtue

God’s promise to us is to remain with use for ever.

“Wisdom has built herself a house, and she has set up
seven pillars.” To man, who was made in the image of God when the rest of
creation was created, Wisdom gave the seven gifts of the Spirit to enable man
to believe in Christ and to keep His commandments. By means of these gifts, the
spiritual man grows and develops until, through firm faith and the supernatural
graces he receives, he finally reaches maturity. Knowledge stimulates virtue,
and virtue reflections knowledge. The fear of the Lord, understanding, and
knowledge give true orientation to his natural wisdom. Fortitude makes him
eager to seek understanding of the will of God, as revealed in the laws by
which the entire creation is governed. Counsel distinguishes these most sacred
and eternal laws of God from anything opposed to them, for these laws are meant
for man to ponder, to proclaim, and to fulfill. Insight disposes man to embrace
these expressions of God’s will and to reject whatever contravenes them.

Office of Readings

a
commentary on the Book of Proverbs by Procopius of Gaza, bishop

Following the Redeemer: Redemptorist Spirituality & St John Neumann

This year is an opportune time for the worldwide Redemptorist order, but especially the order in the USA, to get back to basics outlined by their sainted founder Saint Alphonsus Liguori and beautiful example of Saint John Neumann. Why this year? Because the Church in the USA is honoring the 200th anniversary of birth of Saint John Neumann. So, it is a Year of Saint John Neumann.

A recent essay on the Redemptorist spirituality by Michael Terheyden is a very fine primer on the subject.

We are all called to follow the in the way of the Redeemer.

New tools… [for] new forms of consciousness: Vatican Radio at 80

February 12, 1931, Vatican Radio began its social networking capabilities for Pope Pius XI who had a particular interest in evangelization, especially in the foreign lands. Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937), the physics Nobel Prize laureate became the father of wireless communication. Quoting Marconi, the Vatican Press Director Jesuit Father Frederico Lombardi recalled, “My inventions are to save humanity, not to destroy it.”

Read a few ideas on the founding of Vatican Radio.

Pope Pius XI exhorted his first listeners said, “Listen and hear, O Peoples of distant lands.”

Continue reading New tools… [for] new forms of consciousness: Vatican Radio at 80

Pope speaks to the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo

Fraternity of
St. Charles Borromeo is celebrating their 25^th anniversary as a
congregation of priests. The Fraternity is a new community of priests in the Church, founded by Monsignor Massimo Camisasca in 1985. It was signed into Church law in 1999 by Pope John Paul II as a Society of Apostolic Life. On Saturday, February 13, His Holiness Pope Benedict
XVI met with the Fraternity’s
founder, leadership and seminarians. Here’s the text of the Pope’s address
to members of the Fraternity.

It is with real joy that I meet with you, priests
and seminarians of the Fraternity of St. Charles, who have gathered here on the
occasion of the 25th anniversary of its birth. I greet and thank the founder
and superior general, Monsignor Massimo Camisasca, his council and all of you,
relatives and friends who are part of the community’s circle. I greet in
particular the Archbishop of the Mother of God of Moscow, Monsignor Paolo
Pezzi, and Don Julián Carrón, president of the Fraternity of Communion and
Liberation, which symbolically expresses the fruits and the roots of the work
of the Fraternity of St. Charles. This moment brings back to my mind my long
friendship with Monsignor Luigi Giussani and bears witness to his charisma.

Continue reading Pope speaks to the Fraternity of St. Charles Borromeo

Witches face jail time if spells fail

Romanian witches are soon to be licensed. Why, you
ask. So when their spells fail to provide the desired results, the government
can jail them. There’s a bill on parliament’s desk. On January 1, Romania
changed its laws witchcraft requiring receipts and prohibiting them from
exercising their craft near churches and schools.