American Melkite Appointed New Secretary at Vatican

VATICAN – Holy Father Francis has appointed Bishop George Demetrio Gallaro as the new Secretary of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches. Published on Tuesday February 25, 2020, at noon Italian time in the Sala Stampa, the former Bishop of the Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi di Sicilia was appointed to the rank of titular Archbishop as well.

George Demetrio Gallaro was born on January 16, 1948 in Sizilien Pozzallo, Italy. After his seminarian studies at the seminary of Noto, he moved to the United States and was ordained a priest in 1972 in Los Angeles. He worked as a parish priest in various parishes of the Eastern Rite in the United States, and in 1987 he was incardinated in the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Newton.

Archbishop Gallaro taught Canon Law at the Melkite Seminary in Massachusetts and he also served as a professor of Canon Law at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of SS. Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, PA. On March 31, 2015 he was named by Pope Francis as a bishop of the Italo-Albanian Eparchy of Piana degli Albanesi. He was consecrated a bishop on June 28 by the bishop of Lungro Donato Oliverio as principal consecrator, and the bishops Dimitrios Salachas and Nicholas James Samra as co-consecrators.

Axios!

St Scholastica

Our venerable mother, Scholastica, the twin sister of the holy Benedict.

Scholastica guided a community of nuns near Monte Cassino, where her brother, Benedict, organized his community of monks. When she died, sometime around the year 543, the nuns and monks carried her body to Monte Cassino, and Benedict laid her in the tomb which had been prepared for himself. Benedict’s remains were placed in the same tomb, so that, as the saying went, “death would not part the bodies of this brother and sister, who had been of one mind in the Lord.” Her icon rests on the inside of the south arm of the icon screen. (NS)

Prayers for the nuns, and those named for our venerable mother.

Pope and Patriarchs

The Pope of Rome received on February 7th, the six Patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic churches: the Maronite, the Chaldean, the Copt, the Syriac, the Melkite and the Armenian. The conversation situated around circumstances of these particular churches in the Middle East.

A CNA article on the event.

Cultivate silence

Weekends, especially Saturday morning, is a good day to recuperate from the work week: physically, intellectually and spiritually. Of course we ought not to run ourselves down so much so as forget the Lord, His Gospel and the tradition of the Church; we all have to learn a proper balance to keep us on the “right path” without distractions. One of the sources of wisdom is the venerable Holy Rule of St. Benedict (it is not only for monks and nuns but also for the laity).
In his Rule St. Benedict directs us to cultivate silence at all times. It is in silence that the Holy Trinity, in particular, God the Father, speaks to us. Silence builds the habit that builds the wellness of the soul. Silence builds a sense of wonder and awe. Be consistent in the practice of silence even if it is 5 minutes per day.
The Benedictine monk of St. Benedict’s Abbey (Atchison, KS) Father Jay offers us these thoughts as we seek grow in silence.
  1. Silence prepares the heart to listen to God in the midst of a noisy world. Silence also prepares us to enter into His heart, for He loves in silence.
  2. Silence can be loud, magnifying the activity of the Lord’s presence within us and magnifying everything in our hearts, helping us to sift the wheat and the weeds.
  3. Silence is not quietism; it is rather resting in Him. For what effect could the storm around us have, if we rest beside Him asleep in the boat?
  4. There is a mortal silence, the silence of the tomb, in which the earth quakes and Christ descends to the dark depths of the human heart, to love us and to raise us up with Him. Love always resurrects.
  5. St. Joseph gives us the example of heroic silence, bowing before the Majesty and doing His will without complaint.

Benedictines seek God, and so should you

The vocation of a Benedictine is to seek God. We seek God in the ordinary circumstances of life. Turning the idea around some say God searches, too.

What does it mean when we say that God searches the innermost depths of the heart? Nothing is hidden from God. Before any of us ever settles into reflective silence, God knows each of us through and through. In this sense, God doesn’t search out anything for God is already fully aware of the complexity of our inner lives, our conflicting motives and our spontaneous emotions. But what God sees fully we are often blind to — in denial over, actually — with the result that we can act in ways that confuse us and make no sense. It is only when we face our inner reality honestly and humbly with the light of grace that we can see clearly enough to move forward. This is the work of inner prayer which is simultaneously God’s searching the innermost depths of our hearts. (NS)

Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ,
and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.
Rule of Benedict 72:11-12

At the end of the year

“When you see the year ending, thank the Lord, because He had led you into this cycle of years. Stab the heart [‘prick the heart’] reckon up the time of your life, say to oneself: ‘The days run and pass by, the years fill-up, we have progressed much of the way; What good is there for us to do? Will we not depart from here, empty and deserted of all righteousness, the judgment at the doors, the rest of life leads us to our old age.’” — St. John Chrysostom

The Twofold Coming of Christ

At this seventh day of Christmas, I am thinking of who it is we preach these days. A piece from Saint Cyril of Jerusalem is helpful to contextualize the question especially we are day before the Octave Day of Christmas: the giving of the Holy Name, the only one that truly saves us. The saint preached:

We do not preach only one coming of Christ, but a second as well, much more glorious than the first. The first coming was marked by patience; the second will bring the crown of a divine kingdom.

In general, whatever relates to our Lord Jesus Christ has two aspects. There is a birth from God before the ages, and a birth from a virgin at the fullness of time. There is a hidden coming, like that of rain on fleece, and coming before all eyes, still in the future.

At the first coming He was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger. At His second coming He will be clothed in light as in a garment. In the first coming He endured the cross, despising the shame; in the second coming He will be in glory, escorted by an army of angels.

We look then beyond the first first coming and await the second. At the first coming we said: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. At the second we shall it again; we shall go out with the angels to meet the Lord and cry out in adoration: Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Prospero Cardinal Grech OSA RIP

Of your charity please pray for Prospero Cardinal Grech OSA, founder and first president of the Augustinianum in Rome, who died today.

Born Stanley Grech in Malta on 24 December 1925

Joined the Augustinian Order in 1943 and ordained in 1950

Served the Roman Pontiffs John XXIII and Paul VI in various capacities

Created Cardinal of the Roman Church by Benedict XVI in 2012

Requiescat in pace.

The heart is key in prayer

Life in the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation forms us to know and appreciate the role of the heart in all things. Looking at the spiritual life, “The heart is the key to all true prayer. When prayer arises out of our deepest center it is pure and totally free. It seeks nothing but to reveal to God how we truly are at that moment, with all our desires and concerns, our hopes and expressions of wonder and praise at God’s goodness. Beneath whatever external “form” we use to come before God is the silent pulse that carries our “Yes” to God in a rhythm of faith.” (NS)

Merry Christmas

Sweet Jesus, you chose to be born in humility of a humble handmaiden, who humbly wrapped you in the swaddling clothes of humility and laid you in a manger. Most merciful Lord, grant that the holiness of new life may be reborn in me through the ineffable mystery of your nativity. Thus may I be wrapped in the swaddling clothes of the religious habit and strive to live within the constraints of Christian discipline – placed as it were in the manger – to lead me to the summit of true humility. And as you deigned to share in our humanity and mortality, grant that I may share in your divinity and eternity. Amen.

A prayer of Ludolph of Saxony