350 years since the deaths of Sts Vincent de Paul & Louise de Marillac

In the Pope’s Weekly Sunday Angelus Address (September 26, 2010) he spoke of Saint Vincent de Paul. Sunday’s gospel of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus gave Benedict XVI a perfect context by which to teach that us that “God loves the poor and raise them from their abjection; secondly, that our eternal destiny is dependent upon our behavior, it is up to us to follow the path God has shown us in order to achieve live, and this path is love, understood not as emotion but as service to others in the charity of Christ,” and further the Pope said:

“By a happy coincidence, tomorrow (9/26/2010) we will celebrate the liturgical memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, patron of Catholic Charities, which marks the 350th anniversary of his death. In France of 1600, he touched with his hand the sharp contrast between the richest and poorest. In fact, as a priest he was able to attend both the aristocratic circles, campaigns, as well as the slums of Paris. Driven by the love of Christ, Vincent de Paul was able to organize stable forms of service to the marginalized people, giving rise to so-called “Charitees,” the “Charity,” i.e., groups of women who put their time and property available to more marginalized. Among these volunteers, some chose to devote themselves completely to God and the poor, and thus, along with St. Louis de Marillac, St. Vincent founded the “Daughters of Charity,” the first female congregation to live their consecration “in the world,” among all the people, the sick and needy.”

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Strive to live content in the midst of those things that
cause your discontent. Free your mind from all that troubles you, God will take
care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this [choice] without, so
to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently
with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of
what your heart desires (St. Vincent de Paul, Letters).

Sant’Anselmo: home to Benedictine monks, Rome

Thumbnail image for IMGP1279.JPGFor a number of years now, when I am in Rome, I stay at the Benedictine Abbey of Sant’Anselmo on the Aventine Hill. The Benedictine monks have been on the Aventine since property was purchased from Pope Leo XIII in the late 19th century. Technically, Sant’Anselmo is not a functioning abbey as other abbeys with a stable monastic community but it’s a house of studies for monks and others.  There is an order for the day of prayer, Mass, study, and work but one does not become a monk of Sant’Anselmo as you would become a monk of Saint Vincent’s. At the Anselmo you’ll find a “permanent” faculty and staff, and a group of monks who work in the Abbot Primate’s offices and some monks who work at other universities or at the Vatican, but no monk vows stability to Sant’Anselmo.

Sant’Anselmo serves as the home of several entities: the Abbot Primate (Abbot Notker Wolf), the Pontifical Liturgical Institute, the Mabillion Institute, and the College of the Theology and Philosophy.
On Ash Wednesday the pope begins the season of Lent by starting with prayer at Sant’Anselmo before making a procession with the Benedictines and Dominicans to the nearby Santa Sabina for the Sacrifice of the Mass.

Two videos will give you sense of the Anslemo: video 1 and video 2. Sorry, the first one is in Italian but the images are good and it gives a good walking tour of the house, while the second gives a sense of other places on the Aventine but video footage includes the Anselmo.

Saint Vincent de Paul

St Vincent de Paul framed.jpgIn honoring Saint Vincent de Paul today let’s call to mind the myriad of ways he and his spiritual sons and daughters have served, and continue to serve, the Gospel by serving the poor and uneducated. Have you got your copy of the video “Charity’s Saint: St Vincent de Paul“? I pray in thanksgiving for the Vincentian priests in New Haven who were my spiritual guides as a child.

With glowing light sent from above,     

O Vincent, how you guide our way!     

Your virtues and example pure     

Show us the path to heaven’s day.

 

With self-effacing modesty,     

You made yourself of little state;     

Your gentleness and simple life     

Made you revered by small and great.

 

Amidst the graces of your life     

Your charity sheds brightest fire:     

How many of the poor it fed,     

Filled many hearts with Christ’s desire.

 

Urged on by zeal and charity,     

You preached in town and countryside,     

Proclaiming all God’s mysteries     

To poor and rich, both far and wide.

 

Beneath your wings you gathered those     

Who longed to share both work and strife.     

By word and deed you taught them well;     

You formed and taught them by your life.

 

To God, the holy Three-in-One,     

All praise and glory be addressed,     

Whose life divine is best reward,     

And light eternal for the blessed.

 

J. Michael Thompson

Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications

 

LM; WINCHESTER NEW, HAMBURG, ST. VINCENT 

Meeting the new rector at the Pontifical Oriental Institute

In May, the announcement of a new rector was made that the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome, a Jesuit work for the universal Church, Jesuit Father James McCann. The new rector is a member of the Chicago Province of Jesuits, is 61 years old and was ordained a priest in 1979.

The PIO was founded in 1917 and entrusted to the Society of Jesus in 1922.
Check the website noted above for the new norms governing studies.

Watch a brief interview with Father McCann.
  

Don Bosco’s relic comes to New York City

A relic of Saint John Bosco, patron of youth, is visiting New York City on Friday, October 1. The relic’s pilgrimage is in preparation for the saint’s 200th anniversary of birth. Being in the USA is only one of 130 nations that the relic is visiting.

Don Bosco’s relic will be at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, NYC. Veneration of the relic will be 10 am until 11 pm. Mass will be celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Dolan at 7 pm.

More info can be found here (this is an excellent website!)

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Saint John Bosco
born 1815
died 1888
canonized a saint 1934
the Salesians of Don Bosco, the religious order founded by the saint can be seen here.

Wuerl named delegate for Anglicans entering full communion with the Catholic Church by CDF

Donald Wuerl.jpgThe Archbishop of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl, STD, 70, has been delegated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be the principal guide for those Anglican/Episcopalian clergyman seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, and ordination as a priest.

The USCCB announcement is posted here.

The committee headed by Archbishop Wuerl will include their Excellencies, The Most Reverends Kevin Vann, JCD (Fort Worth, TX) and Robert McManus, STD (Worcester, MA). They will be assisted by Father Scott Hurd, himself a convert to Catholicism. The committee will facilitate the implementation of Anglicanorum coetibus in the USA and assess the need for an ordinariate in the USA.

The Pope’s Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus can be read here.

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina’s relics to be at the Attleboro Shrine

St Padre Pio Pietrelcina.jpg

An email friend, Patty in CT, just told me that Saint Pio’s relics will be at the National Shrine of Our Lady of LaSalette, Attleboro, MA.

St Padre Pio Pilgrimage Day
Saturday, September 25
the day begins at 10:00 am, there are 2 talks, lunch, confessions, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. The day concludes with a 4:30 pm Mass & veneration of Saint Pio’s relics.
register by calling 508-222-5410
Thanks Patty!

Conception of Saint the Baptist

Rejoice, O
barren one, who had not given birth; for the behold you have conceived clearly
the one who is the dawn of eh Sun Who was about illuminate the whole universe,
blighted with sightlessness. Shout in joy, O Zachary, crying in favor, truly,
the one to be born is a Prophet of the High. (Troparion, 4th tone)


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On the
Byzantine liturgical calendar, today is the feast of the Conception of Saint
John the Baptist. The Eastern Church, at least the Churches with a Greek
origin, keeps three conception feasts:  Our Lord (March 25), Our Lady
(December 9) and the Baptist (September 23). The Latin Church only keeps two. 

Calendar study will tell you that
only the Savior has a perfect 9-month gestation period; Our Lady is a day under
(September 8) and the Baptist, a day under (June 24). The liturgical calendar of
the Latin Church places the conception of Mary on December 8, the feast of the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The theology for today’s feast is rooted in the biblical
narrative of Zachary and Elizabeth, a couple who had no children and therefore
in the eyes of the world plagued by divine disfavor. All of their lives Zachary
and Elizabeth begged God to send them a son.  Providence heard their prayer and in His plan and mercy for
all, ordained that the dawn of salvation would be effected by the birth of John
through the agency of the barren Elizabeth. The Church calls John the Prophet
and Forerunner of Jesus, the Savior of the world.

Other significant divinely merciful
births to barren women who are a significant part of the Divine Plan of Salvation are  Isaac son of Sarah and Samson born to the wife
of Manoah (Samson’s mother is not named in Scripture).