Communio – Page 407 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Church of Canada priestess gives communion to a dog

AND you wonder why fewer and fewer people take the Anglican Church (or the Episcopal Church if you are American) with a degree of seriousness. Recently a Church of Canada priestess gave communion to a German Shepherd as a “simple church act of reaching out.” What a gesture of welcome! This act is not only contravening “church policy” as much as it is an acknowledgement that the real Presence of Christ is not a Reality for these people. Policy is has nothing to do with it, does it? But if the Anglicans of the Church of Canada simply believe Communion is a symbol or that it represents something else…. Sounds like Joseph Campbell, Derida and many Protestant theologians (e.g. Borg, Tillich and Bultmann) are patron saints of mere symbol and not of Jesus Christ, body and blood, soul and divinity.

What comes to mind is Flannery O’Connor’s famous insight when she said to hell with a symbol. O’Connor said:

“I was once, five or six years ago, taken by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband, Mr. Broadwater…. She departed the Church at the age of 15 and is a Big Intellectual…. Toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the most portable person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, “Well if it’s a symbol, to hell with it.” That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.”

Nuns land record deal

The Benedictine nuns of the French abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Le Barroux (near the famed Avignon) landed a music contract with Universal Music. This is the same label as Lady Gaga and Elton John.

I doubt Lady Abbess will be consulting with Lady Gaga on the record details. BUT do you think they might take a clue from the Erie Benedictines performing “kum bay ya” on the Ed Sullivan Show?

Congrats to the nuns!!!

Father Lawrence Boadt, CSP, RIP

Paulist Father Larry Boadt, 67, died Saturday after a long illness.

No theology student is able to escape Father Boadt’s work on the Old Testament with his substantial book, Reading the Old Testament. He’s also credited with publishing several works on the diaconate, ecumenism and matters pertaining to inter-faith relations.

Here is the Paulist Fathers obit for Father Boadt.

Well done, good and faithful servant. May your memory be eternal.

Saint James the Greater (Santiago)

Almighty Father, by the martyrdom of Saint James You blessed the work of the early Church. May his profession of faith give us courage and his prayers bring us strength.

This year is being dedicated to Saint James the Greater (known as the Jacobean Holy Year or Año Santo Jacobeo). The holy year dedicated to Saint James is observed when his feast falls on a Sunday, as it does today. The ceremonial opening of the Holy Year begins as it does in Rome with the opening of the Holy Door; if you read Spanish you’ll find the January ceremonial described here.

Read King Juan Carlos’ 2010 message –the Offering– during his visit to the Shrine of Saint James (Santiago de Compostella).

Follow the companionship Christ has given

“There are many companionships. I don’t say, “Choose
one,” but follow the one that Christ has put you in, that Christ has had you
meet, the one that first struck you convincingly.”

Monsignor Luigi
Giussani, Founder of Communion and Liberation

Thomas à Kempis

In the Episcopal Church USA today is the liturgical memorial of Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471). He’s not venerated as a saint in the Catholic but his liturgical prayer is worth noting, not least because of his famous spiritual work the Imitation of Christ. Read the encyclopedia article on Kempis.

Holy Father, you have nourished and strengthened your Church by the inspired writings of your servant Thomas a Kempis: Grant that we may learn from him to know what is necessary to be known, to love what is to be loved, to praise what highly pleases you, and always to seek to know and follow your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Saint Sharbel Makhlouf

The mountain heights of Lebanon
Resound with songs of joy;
The cedars of that ancient land
Stand tall as we employ
Our hymns of praise and thankfulness
For Sharbel’s saintly ways,
Lived out in strict humility
That guided all his days.

True monk and hermit of the hills,
Saint Maron’s modest son
Scorned wealth and comfort in his life
That heaven’s crown be won.
Of Mary, heaven’s Queen and Gate,
Devoted son was he,
Who cherished all the ancient rites
With great humility.

Fierce lover of the lowly life,
True father of the poor,
As you have done, so help us all
To struggle and endure,
That Christ be praised in ev’ry life,
That riches not ensnare
Or rule us in our daily walk;
That strong may be our prayer!

O Father, Son, and Spirit blest,
One God in persons three,
Receive this hymn we offer now,
And keep your Church e’er free
To follow, as Saint Sharbel did,
Enflamed with love so bright
That we, with eyes fixed firm on Christ,
May vanquish sin’s dark night.

J. Michael Thompson
Copyright © 2009, World Library Publications
CMD; FOREST GREEN, RESIGNATION

No applause at the sacred Liturgy

Hat tip to Fr Guy Selvester at Shouts in the Piazza for posting this image. Indeed, the sacred Liturgy is worship of the Blessed Trinity not a time for introducing secular measures of approval and disapproval. I was at a priest friend’s funeral today and after the homily was finished a member of the laity started the congregation in an applause. Not only was it out of place it bore no relation to the reality of the meaning of the Sacrifice of the Mass being celebrated by the Archbishop of Hartford (himself seemingly surprised yet he drew more attention to the fact that it happened). Not that my friend Father Brian didn’t deserved some thoughtful acknowledgement for his extraordinary human and priestly qualities but at his Mass of Christian Burial applause was out of place. Paying attention to human sentiment and emotion is very important but there are appropriate times for external awareness. Something similar happened after a music piece was perforned earlier this week at a Mass which I attended for a friend’s nephew who took his life. No doubt we were all feeling the rawness of emotion of a young man’s suicide but is the Liturgy the place for secular displays of feeling. My friend Father Ambrose has fought for keeping applause out of the school Mass at St Louis Abbey’s conventual Mass celebrated with the student body in attendance…

Saint Bridget of Sweden

In Christ’s death, I have died now;
In Christ I live anew.
With faith in God’s Son, Jesus,
That keeps me ever true,
I know the love he’s shown me,
That washed my sin away.
His cross, which daily leads me
And guides me as I pray.

Thus Bridget, monarch, mother,
Good spouse and Christian wise,
Lived Jesus’ sacred Passion
Each day before his eyes.
She loved the poor and lowly,
Gave all her store away,
Called men and women to her
To live the gospel way.

Give glory to the Father,
Whose loving plan ordained
That we should each be purchased
From sin and sorrow’s shame!
Give glory to Christ Jesus,
Whose death has set us free!
Give glory to the Spirit;
To God, the One-in-Three.

St Emma Monastery becomes independent

Not long ago St Emma Monastery became an independent monastery after years of being dependent on their motherhouse, Abtei St Walburga, Eichstatt, Germany. Mother Franziska Kloos set the nuns of St Emma’s out on their own now as a canonically established conventual priory! The formal installation with a blessing of Mother Mary Anne by the Bishop of Greensburg, the Most Reverend Lawrence E. Brandt happened on April 18.

The 12 nuns, including 1 novice, live the monastic life.

Be sure to read the recent newsletter (at link above) which tells the story.

Let’s pray for the first Conventual Prioress, Mother Mary Anne Noll.

May God be glorified!