Communio – Page 361 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Saint Maron

In honor of the 1600th anniverssary of the death of Saint Maron, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI blessed and unveiled a new statue of the saint at the Vatican basilica of Saint Peter’s.

For the past year, Maronites and others around the world have been observing a jubliee year called by His Beatitude, Patriarch Nasralla Peter Sfeir. In a letter to the Maronite Church around the world he said, in part,

Our Church was not built after a name of a See or Apostle, but rather took its identity from the radiance of a man and a monastery: the Maronite Church, a Church of asceticism and adoration attached from the beginning to a solitary man, not a man of rank or a Church leader.

The faith lived out by the hermit Maron became the inner strength of a people’s history. As for the successive migrations from Syria (in the 5-10th centuries), the Maronites gave them one meaning, that is, giving up land, wealth and comfort in Syria moving toward a poor land where anxiety and austerity prevail, so they could preserve their faith and remain attached to their freedom … This event is not a simple historical fact among others … it is the very beginning of a new history, the history of the Maronites.

The Jubilee Prayer

Lord, Jesus, You called Your chosen one, Saint Maron, to the monastic life, perfected him in divine virtues, and guided him along the difficult road to the heavenly kingdom.

During this jubilee year, commemorating 1600 years since the death of Your chosen one, Saint Maron, when he was called to the house of Your heavenly Father, we ask You, through his intercession, to immerse us in Your love that we may walk in Your path, heed Your commandments, and follow in his footsteps.

May his holy example resonate throughout our lives. With Your love, may we achieve that final distination reached by our father, Saint Maron, and carry Your Gospel throughout the world.

Through his intercession, may we attain the glory of the resurrection and everlasting life in You.

Glory and thanks are due to You, to Your blessed Father, and to Your living Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita

Jesus left his throne in heaven,

Humbly coming as a slave,

Here his love and his obedience

Were the ransom that still saves:

Strong the song the Church now raises

For this humble virgin’s day,

Praising God that, through all struggles,

She was led to Christ, the Way.

As a child torn from her fam’ly,

Made a slave, great suff’ring bore,

And by those who took her childhood,

Named “Bakhita” everymore.

Brought to Italy and rescued

By Cannosian sisters there,

She found Christ and then was baptized,

Lived in service and in prayer.

As the virgins in the Gospel,

Josephine was filled with light,

Daily serving at her convent,

Greetings all with heaven’s sight;

Loving all with Jesus’ mercy,

Treating each as she would him–

Persevered through pain and sorrow,

Making life her off’ring-hymn.

Glory to the loving Father

Who has made us for his own;

Glory to the Son, who saves

And who lifts us to his throne;

Glory to the Holy Spirit,

Never-ending font of love!

With our saint, the “one most blessèd,”

We raise songs to God above!

J. Michael Thompson

8787D; BEACH SPRING

A previous post on Saint Josephine

Saint Colette

Saint Colette is the famous 15th century reformer of the Poor Clare nuns. You see her reform noted as the Colettine Poor Clares. She follows to a “T” the rigorous life set down by Saint Clare herself in hearing the words “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” She did; so did others.

King Henry VIII would compare Saint Colette to “a diligent bee that gathers exquisite honey from the precious flowers of the most rare virtues.”

The Prayer Over the Gifts for Saint Colette’s Mass reads:

Lord, may the gifts we bring You help us to follow the example of Saint Colette. Cleanse us from our earthly way of life, and teach us to live the new life of Your kingdom.

Here the Church wants us to receive the gift of singular focus on the new we’ve received already through Baptism, Confirmation and the Holy Eucharist. The new life preached by Christ and the Church today.

According to the Roman-Franciscan Sacramentary of 1974, February 7 is the liturgical memorial of Saint Colette, not March 6 as noted in other places. A previous blog post on Saint Colette can be read here.

Saint Paul Miki and his companions, martyrs

The Church observes the liturgical memorial of Saint Paul Miki and his companions, martyrs for believing in Jesus. The only thing a person of true faith in Christ can say is what the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Galatians: “I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me.”

A beautiful for the feast

O Christ, the source of endless life,

We bring you thanks and praise today

That martyrs bold your name confessed

And, through their pain, held to your Way.

The gospel preached within Japan

Converted both adult and child,

And flourished there by your rich grace

Despite oppression fierce and wild.

When hatred for this infant church

Broke out in persecution’s might,

Your martyrs knew you as their Lord

Who shined in darkness as their light.

O Father, Son, and Spirit blest,

To you all glory now is due.

As were the Martyrs of Japan,

May we to Christ be ever true!

J. Michael Thompson

LM; TALLIS’ CANON, BRESLAU”

Real change in history not administrative but of the heart, Discalced Carmelite superior says

Personal and corporate renewal is always a timely topic. Recently, the Superior General of the Discalced
Carmelites, Father Saverio Cannistrà, speaking about the hope of renewing his
order answered a question in what he saw as essential to renewal. I think the renewal is not only for the Carmelites but for all us. Don’t you think?

In part Father Cannistrà said:
“it is rather like the way of prayer Saint Teresa [of Avila] talks about: a growth that
happens day by day, passing through moments of consolation and desolation, but
with the determination to forge ahead, without giving up. The real changes
which have had an effect on history, are not mere administrative reorganizations:
they are changes of heart, as Scripture tells us. If we do not expose our heart
to the beneficial tempest of the Spirit, then generous and prophetic
initiatives cannot be born from it. Formation, both initial and ongoing, would
probably be the sole help that we could offer, as an institution, to tread this
path.”

Cybertheology

Cybertheology is not one of the sub-sections of systematic theology. At least not yet. But it is a promising idea that will likely have a positive influence in the lives of those who surf the web religiously and for those searching for God and who are not ready (willing?) to be personally involved in the Sunday celebration of the Mass or any other organized religious program that requires one to be physically present.

The originator of the Cybertheology project, Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, one of the editors at La Civiltà Cattolica, started a blog to investigate the new, dynamic and complex influence of the Net and the challenages it poses to our relationships with others, language, thinking and the Divinity. I take Father Spadaro’s interest and work in this subject on the impact of the digital world to be wholly consistent with what Pope Benedict talked about in his January 2011 letter on social communications where he said “new technologies must be placed at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity. If used wisely, they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being.” And, “This dynamic [the digital world] has contributed to a new appreciation of communication itself, which is seen first of all as dialogue, exchange, solidarity and creation of positive relations.”

Continue reading Cybertheology

Reno new editor of First Things

The Chairman of the Board of First Things, Robert Louis Wilken, announced that Russell R. Reno is the new editor of First Things.

RR Reno is the sometime professor of theological ethics at Creighton University. He earned a doctorate from Yale University.

Reno recently published Fighting the Noonday Devil and Other Essays Personal and Theological (Eerdmans, 2011).

The appointment is effective April 1.

RR Reno’s the second successor to Father Richard John Neuhaus. Jody Bottum left the editorship a few months ago.

Pope ordains 5 new bishops

The Holy Father ordained 5 priests to the episcopacy today on the liturgical memorial of Saint
Agatha at the Vatican Basilica. The priests are:

Father Savio Hon Tai-Fai, 61,
a Salesian of Saint John Bosco, elected titular archbishop of Sila and
nominated Secretary of the Congregation of the Evangelization of Peoples.

Father
Marcello Bartolucci, 67, a priest of the Diocese of Assisi-Nocera Umbria-Gualdo
Tadino, elected titular archbishop of Bevagna and nominated Secretary of the
Congregation of the Causes of Saints.

Father Celso Morga Iruzubieta, 63, a priest of the Diocese of Calahorra y
La Calzada-Logroño, elected titular archbishop of Alba Marittima and nominated
Secretary of the Congregation of the Clergy.

Father Antonio Guido Filipazzi,
48, a priest of the Diocese of Ventimiglia-San Remo, elected titular archbishop
of Sutri and nominated Apostolic Nuncio.

Father Edgar Peña Parra, 51, a priest
of the Archdiocese of Maracaibo, elected titular archbishop of Telepte and
nominated Apostolic Nuncio in Pakistan.

May the saints intercede for these men.

Pope no longer organ donor

Word’s been received that Pope Benedict’s organ donor card is void. It’s been so since his election to the papacy in 2005. Since the 1970’s it is said that he’s been an organ donor.

He fully supports organ donation but now that he’s the Pope, his thinking has not changed –he still believes in the virtue of donating one’s organs to another– but now as it was said, his body belongs to the whole Church. In fact, the Pope has criticized the selling of human organs versus the free gift of self in making a donation of an organ. The Pope said on November 7, 2008 at the international congress, “A Gift for Life: Considerations on Organ Donation”:

The act of love, which is expressed with the gift of one’s own vital organs, is a genuine testament of charity that knows how to look beyond death so that life always wins. The recipient should be aware of the value of this gesture that one receives, of a gift that goes beyond the therapeutic benefit. What they receive is a testament of love, and it should give rise to a response equally generous, and in this way grows the culture of gift and gratitude.

Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, head of the healthcare office at the Holy See, said the Pope’s body will remain intact at the time of his death.

Read what Pope Benedict XVI thinks about beauty of organ donation: Pope Benedict on organ donation.pdf

If you understand German, you can listen to Pope Benedict’s personal secretary Monsignor Georg Gänswein brief on the matter.

The AP article

First Dulles Chair at Fordham inaugurated

Terrence W. Tilley, Ph.D., chair of the Department of
Theology at Fordham University, was formally installed as the first occupant of
the Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Chair of Catholic Theology. The benefactors of
the Dulles Chair are Vincent and Teresa Viola.

Typical in academic settings
like this one the Chair delivers an address of his choosing. Tilley gave
audience his opinion on Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s famous Rule 13 in Rules for Thinking with the Church as
found in the Spiritual Exercises. His address: “Sentire cum Ecclesia:
Thinking With and for the Church.” Tilley’s claim was based on his reading
the of Rule 13 in light of Cardinal Dulles’ 1974 and later republished in 2002 with a
new introduction and an essay on Pope John Paul II’s ecclesiology, Models of the Church. Models is Dulles’ exposition of the 5 ways of knowing the Church.

Continue reading First Dulles Chair at Fordham inaugurated