St Benedict’s feast today

Today, July 11, is the blessed feast of St. Benedict of Norcia, patriarch of western monasticism, and one of the patrons of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.

St. Benedict gives inspiration to us not to build a frozen model of Christian or one that forgets the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Tradition of the Church.

Saint Benedict educates us by demonstrating for us not to prefer anything to the love of Christ. In the Gospel we here St. Peter say: “here is that we have left everything to follow you.” Can you say the same?

Let us hold each other in prayer through the intercession of St. Benedict praying for Fr. Carron and the Movement. Additionally, let recall before the Throne of Grace all the monks, nuns, sisters and oblates who live by the Rule of St. Benedict.

Happy Fourth of July 2019

Happy Fourth of July –US Independence Day

The Mass Collect for Independence Day is given below to help orient our prayer today. Pray for our country and her leaders.

We have much to be grateful for, much to ask for forgiveness and much hope for the future.

“Father of all nations and ages, we recall the day when our country claimed its place among the family of nations; for what has been achieved we give you thanks, for the work that still remains we ask your help.”

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.
All Saints and Blesseds of the USA, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul

The present reading from the holy gospel (John 21:15-19) commends to us the virtue of perfect love. Perfect love is that by which we are ordered to love the Lord with our whole heart, our whole soul and our whole strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. Neither of these two kinds of love is capable of being perfect without the other, because God cannot be loved apart from our neighbor, nor our neighbor apart from God.

Hence as many times as Peter was asked by our Lord if he loved him, and he answered that he was a witness that he loved him, the Lord added at the end of each inquiry feed my sheep or feed my lambs, as if he were clearly saying ‘there is only one true proof of wholehearted love of God-if you strive to exercise care by laboring solicitously on behalf of your brothers.’

Now whoever neglects to commit himself to practicing the work of piety toward his brother to the extent of his ability shows that he loves his Maker less than he should, for he is scorning Christ’s commandment concerning support of his neighbor in his time of need.

Bede the Venerable

Homily for Sts. Peter and Paul

Sacred Heart 2019

Today is the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

“The word Christian implies a relationship of complete dependence on Christ. If you take away that relationship, Christian loses meaning. The perfection of a Christian is the perfection of a relationship which is the perfection of charity – complete dependence and abandonment to Christ.

“The way to make this relationship with Christ all that it should be is through a personal devotion to the person of our Lord. It is a particular devotion to him under the form that he himself has asked for, namely, to his Sacred Heart.

Dom Eugene Boylan, OCSO
Partnership With Christ

Irving Houle’s cause for sainthood inches ahead

At the June 11-13, 2019 meeting, the US bishops unanimously voted to proceed with the sainthood cause for Irving Houle, a man who is reported to have lived with the Lord’s sacred stigmata. Houle had the stigmata for 16 years; he lived in Escanaba on the Upper Peninsula with his wife of 60 years, Gail; together they had five children. Irving died on January 3, 2009.

Irving Houle was an active fourth-degree Knight of Columbus.

Houle’s reception of the stigmata on Good Friday, April 8, 1993.

The Diocese of Marquette (MI) is pursuing the sainthood cause.

Crux published the story here. And a in-depth article on Irving Houle was written by Joseph Pronechen for the National Catholic Register found here. But you may also be interested in the biography, A Man Called Francis.

If canonized, Irving Houle would be the first US saint who bore the precious wounds of the Savior and would be in the company of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Pio Pietrelcina, St. Rita of Cascia, St. Catherine Ricci, St Veronica Giuliani, St. Mariam Baouardy, St. Catherine of Siena, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich, among others. Interesting, 80% of the confirmed people with the stigmata are women. Rhoda Wise is the other American but she not being considered for sainthood.

Moved from theologia to technologia

I recently found this admonition by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware on certain connections:

“Once theology forgets the unavoidable limitations of the human understanding; once it overlooks the apophatic dimension of theology; once it replaces the ineffable Word of God with human logic, then, as the Cappadocians assert, it ceases to be theo-logia and sinks to the level of techno-logia.”

It seems that theologians, public thinkers, and the clergy, have already arrived a technologia. The poor state of preaching, writing/speak, and catechesis demonstrates this fact. The disconnect between faith and reason is key in this regard.

Father Augustus Tolten named “Venerable Servant of God”

On June 11, 2019, Pope Francis received in an audience Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and promulgated several decrees and among them:

–heroic virtue of the Servant of God Augustus Tolten, diocesan priest; born in Brush Creek, Missouri on 1 April 1854 and died in Chicago on 9 July 1897.

He will be known as the Venerable Servant of God Augustus Tolten.

Father Tolten studied theology in Rome and was ordained in the Basilica of St. John Lateran on 24 April 1886 and celebrated his First Mass at the Vatican Basilica the next day.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is handling the sainthood cause. See the website here.

Let us pray for this sainthood cause for the renewal of the priesthood, especially here in the USA.

Holy Spirit at the 50th day?

We are at the Pentecost –50 days since Easter. Are you ready (“made fit for the gift”) for the Holy Spirit to pour His gifts upon you? Have you asked for this outpouring?

“But why did the Holy Spirit not come to them while Christ was present, rather than immediately after his departure? Instead, although Christ ascended on the fortieth day, the Spirit came to them when the day of Pentecost had come. …It was necessary for them to have a longing for the event, and so receive the grace. For this reason Christ himself departed, and then the Spirit came. For if he had been present, they would not have expected the Spirit so earnestly as they did. For this reason he did not come immediately after Christ’s ascension, but after eight or nine days. Our desire toward God is most awakened when we stand in need.

For this reason, John sent his disciples to Christ at the time when they were to be most in need of Jesus, during his own imprisonment. Besides, it was necessary that our nature should be seen in heaven and that the reconciliation should be perfected, and then the Spirit should come and the joy be unalloyed. For, if Christ had then departed, when the Spirit had already come, and the Spirit remained, the consolation would not have been so great as it was. For indeed they clung to him and could not bear to part with him. To comfort them he said, “It is to your advantage that I go away.” For this reason he delayed also for the intervening days, that they, for a while disheartened and standing, as I said, in need of him, might then reap a full and unalloyed joy.…For it cannot, it cannot be, that a person should enjoy the benefit of grace unless he is wary. Do you not see what Elijah says to his disciple? “If you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you,” that is, you will have what you ask for.

Christ also said everywhere to those who came to him, “Do you believe?” For unless we are made fit for the gift, we do not feel its benefit very much. So it was also in the case of Paul: grace did not come to him immediately, but three days intervened, during which he was blind, being purified and prepared by fear. For just as the dyers first prepare the cloth that is to receive the dye with other ingredients to prevent the color from fading, likewise in this instance God first prepared the soul so that it was anxiously awaiting and then poured forth his grace. For this reason he did not immediately send the Spirit, but on the fiftieth day.

St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 1.