Communio – Page 422 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Memorial Day

Let us pray for the women and men who gave their lives for freedom in the United States of America

We pray.

Almighty and ever-living God, on this day we remember the sacrifices made for us by those who were willing to give their lives to ensure that our own would be spent in freedom. Let us never forget to pray, not only for the dead, but also for those still living and working in the cause of freedom around the world.

As we celebrate and enjoy this time, give comfort and grace to those men and women who have sacrificed so much for our sake. Saint Martin, Saint George and Saint Joan of Arc: pray for the protection of our soldiers in their efforts, and bring them home safely at the end of their duties wherever home may be. Amen.

Blessed James Salomone, patron of cancer patients

God of endless ages, in your providence you gave your
people Blessed James to attain the mystery of salvation. By his
life and prayers may we come to know your Son and so
experience his presence more fully in our lives.

Dominican Blessed James Salomone is known for his insightful spiritual direction and as a patron saint of people living with cancer and by his intercession he is invoked against cancer.

Prayer to the Trinity by Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

O my God, Trinity whom I adore; help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my Unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your mystery. Give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place. May I never leave You there alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative Action.

O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I wish to be a bride for Your Heart; I wish to cover You with glory; I wish to love You…even unto death! But I feel my weakness, and I ask You to “clothe me with Yourself,” to identify my soul with all the movements of Your Soul, to overwhelm me, to possess me, to substitute yourself for me that my life may be but a radiance of Your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Restorer, as Savior.

O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life in listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You. Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light. O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may not withdraw from Your radiance.

O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, “come upon me,” and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole Mystery. And You, O Father, bend lovingly over Your poor little crature; “cover her with Your shadow,” seeing in her only the “Beloved in whom You are well pleased.”

O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to You as Your prey. Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You until I depart to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your greatness.

(Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, 21 November 1904)

Trinity Sunday

Almighty everlasting God, who granted to Your servants, in the profession of the true Faith, to recognize the glory of the eternal Trinity and to adore Its Unity in the might of majesty: we beseech You; that, in the steadfastness of that same Faith, we may always be defended from all adversities.

What do we, as Catholics, the Church, believe about the Holy Trinity? Much, in fact. Here are three paragraphs from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the ‘hierarchy of the truths of faith’. [GCD 43.] The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men ‘and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin’. [GCD 47.]” (CCC 234)

“The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of the ‘mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are revealed by God’. [Dei Filius 4: DS 3015.] To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel’s faith before the Incarnation of God’s Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC 237)

“The whole divine economy is the common work of the three divine persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same natures so too does it have only one and the same operation: ‘The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are not three principles of creation but one principle.’ [Council of Florence (1442): DS 1331; cf. Council of Constantinople II (553): DS 421.] However, each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the Church confesses, following the New Testament, ‘one God and Father from whom all things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy Spirit in whom all things are’. [Council of Constantinople II: DS 421.] It is above all the divine missions of the Son’s Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of the divine persons.” (CCC 258)

Saint Camilla Baptista Varani

May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through it the world has been crucified to me and I to the world, alleluia.

Almighty God, You made the virgin Saint Camilla Baptista excel in meditating on the passion of Your Son Jesus Christ. Grant us through her intercession to bear in our hearts the mortification of the cross and thus merit to obtain eternal life.

Scripture is the audible sacrament

Just returning from Rome where I spent 8 days making a personal retreat of sorts that included time in prayer with the monks at Sant’Anselmo, I could not divorce the experience of hearing the Word of God proclaimed frequently throughout the day. Truly, it was a renewing experience of keeping God in front of me. And how else does one live as a follower of Christ but to keep His word and sacrament in front of the self?

The reality of Scripture and the Liturgy is a Benedictine experience, that is, a Catholic view of reality that does not separate faith from reason, Scripture from experience, worship from study and leisure. Scripture is so very much a part of our lives as Catholics that we often overlook its importance in our worship and formation as adopted sons and daughters of God through Jesus Christ. The Church from the very beginning proclaims and lives the sacred Scriptures because they document the covenantal relationship with God the Father. We know this fact through our sacred Liturgy: Lauds, Vespers, the Sacrifice of the Mass and our personal prayer offered each and every day. While some may not be able to pray Lauds, Vespers and Mass daily, prayers such as the Rosary, the Angelus and lectio divina provide ample grist for the heart’s mill helping us to seek God’s face. In Hebrews 4 we are reminded of the Word that created the cosmos and daily recreates us and this latter point is what we believe the sacraments to do: recreate us in God’s own image and likeness.

Augustine of Hippo spoke of the sacraments being a “visible word” we also know the sacred Scripture to be the audible sacrament. “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Do Catholics worship Mary?

To be sure, we do not invoke Mary’s name in order to
worship her but rather to venerate her as a sinless reflection of God’s glory.
Many Christian writers applied to Mary what was saint in the Old Testament Book
of Judith: “[God] has so exalted your name that human lips will never
cease to praise you.” What was said of Judith came to complete fulfillment
in Mary.

Blessed Mary Bartholomew Bagnesi

With the Church, we pray:

O God, in Blessed Mary Bartholomew you brought together steadfastness in suffering and innocence of life as we endure many trials may we be helped by your grace.

Blessed Mary Bartholomew Bagnesi (1514- 1577), a Florentine, received the habit of a Sister of Penance, that is, a lay Dominican sister, in 1547. She suffered many physical illnesses for forty-five years which confined to her bed. Despite the consultation with doctors of all stripes, she bore her sickly life filled the pains with courage. She died on this date but for some reason, was buried at the Carmelite monastery in Florence.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury

Father, by the preaching of Saint Augustine of Canterbury, You led the people of England to the gospel. May the fruits of his work continue in Your Church.

One of the benefits of being in Rome these days is to be where things began. In this case, seeing where we believe Pope Saint Gregory the Great sent Augustine from to Canterbury, England as a monk, bishop and missionary. Augustine died in 604.

It was also fitting that the Mass I attended today was celebrated by the English monk and professor of Liturgy at Sant’Anselmo, Father Paul Gunter. The Mass prayers came alive with the English accent!

See last year’s post here.

Saint Mary Ann of Jesus of Paredes

Come, bride of Christ, and receive the crown, which the Lord has prepared for you for ever, alleluia.

Heavenly Father, through virginal chastity and penance You were pleased to have Saint Mary Ann grow like a lily amid the thorns of the world’s allurements. Through her intercession may we be kept from vice and strive after perfection.

Read something on Saint Mary Ann, the 17th century saint of Quito, Ecuador here.