Communio – Page 425 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Consecration of a Paten and a Chalice at St Joseph’s Seminary

Today, following the last conference of our annual spiritual exercises, the Most Reverend Gerald T. Walsh, Rector of Saint Joseph’s Seminary, consecrated seven patens and chalices of those to be ordained priests tomorrow. That today is also the feast of Saint Matthias, an apostle, what a great day to consecrate chalices and patens.

It is important to note that while a priest can be delegated to consecrate these sacred items used for divine worship, the bishop, standing in the place of Christ with the fullness of priesthood, is the visible sign of unity with the Roman Pontiff. Moreover, the bishop is the chief liturgist and administrator of the sacraments in the diocese with all ministry, whether presbyteral or diaconal, oriented toward him for the salvation of God’s people. Hence, it is not merely a “nice” thing for the bishop to consecrate a priest’s paten and chalice, it is essential that he do it (if not impeded by some serious event) because of the nature of what is being done: living the sacramentality given to us by Christ himself. Catholics do not presume to do things on their own but they live in communion with the bishop, in harmony and order.

According to preparatory note, this consecration is typically done by a bishop but may be delegated to a priest. The consecration may take place on any day. The following are prepared: holy chrism and whatever materials necessary for cleansing and wiping the chalice and paten as well as the bishop’s hands. The chalice and paten should be placed on a table covered with a white-linen cloth or on the altar. It several chalices and patens are to be consecrated the bishop performs the anointings successively on each of them, but he says the orations only once and in the plural form. The bishop, standing and wearing the rochet, white stole, and gold-embroidered mitre, says:

Celebrant: Our help is in the name of the Lord.

All: Who made heaven and earth.

C: Let us pray, my dear brethren, that by the help of God’s grace this paten may be consecrated and hallowed for the purpose of breaking over the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered death on the cross for the salvation of us all.

Removing his mitre, says:

C: The Lord be with you.

All: May He also be with you.

C: Let us pray.

Almighty everlasting God, who instituted the laws of sacrifice, and ordered among other things that the sprinkled wheaten flour should be carried to the altar on plates of gold and silver; be pleased to bless, hallow, + and consecrate this paten, destined for the administration of the Eucharist of Jesus Christ, your Son, who for our salvation and that of all mankind chose to immolate Himself on the gibbet of the cross to you, God the Father, with whom He lives and reigns, forever and ever.

All: Amen.

Having put the mitre on, the bishop dips the thumb of his right hand into the holy chrism, anoints the paten from rim to rim in the form of a cross, then rubs the holy chrism all over the upper side of the paten saying:

Lord God, may you deign to consecrate and to hallow this paten by this anointing and our blessing, + in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.

All: Amen.

Then he proceeds to the blessing of the chalice saying:

Let us pray, my dear brethren, that our Lord and God, by His heavenly grace and inspiration, may hallow this chalice, about to be consecrated for use in His ministry, and that He may add the fullness of His divine favor to the consecration performed by us; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

Removing his mitre, says:

C: The Lord be with you.

All: May He also be with you.

C: Let us pray.

O Lord our God, be pleased to bless + this chalice, made by your devout people for your holy service. Bestow that same blessing which you bestowed on the hallowed chalice of your servant, Melchisedech. And what we cannot make worthy of your altars by our craft and metals, do you nonetheless make worthy by your blessing; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

With the mitre on, the bishop dips the thumb of his right hand into the holy chrism and anoints each chalice on the inside from rim to rim in the form of a cross saying:

Lord God, may it please you to consecrate and to hallow this chalice by this anointing and our blessing, + in Christ Jesus our Lord, who lives and reigns with you forever and ever.

All: Amen.

Removing his mitre, says:

C: The Lord be with you.

All: May He also be with you.

C: Let us pray.

Almighty everlasting God, we beg you to impart to our hands the virtue of your blessing, so that by our blessing + this vessel and paten may be hallowed and become, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, a new sepulchre for the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; through Christ our Lord.

All: Amen.

The hands are now cleansed.

This rite is taken from the Roman Pontifical of 1962. It was published in Philip T. Weller’s 1964 The Roman Ritual: Complete Edition (the one volume). Thanks continuously goes to God for the fine work that Father Weller did for the Church is pulling together Roman Ritual in English.

Priest’s Prayer of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Today, the Holy Father who is making a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima (Portugal) made this consecration of for himself and all priests to the Blessed Mother, Mother of God, Mother of Priests, Mother of the Blessed Sacrament. The Pope’s prayer is presented here for all priests to pray at the Mary Altar.

Immaculate Mother, in this place of grace, called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we, sons in the Son and his priests, consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart, in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus, we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5) and that only through him,with him and in him, will we be instruments of salvation for the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit, obtain for us the inestimable gift of transformation in Christ. Through the same power of the Spirit that overshadowed you, making you the Mother of the Savior, help us to bring Christ your Son to birth in ourselves too. May the Church be thus renewed by priests who are holy, priests transfigured by the grace of him who makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy, it was your Son Jesus who called us to become like him: light of the world and salt of the earth (cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us, through your powerful intercession, never to fall short of this sublime vocation, nor to give way to our selfishness, to the allurements of the world and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity, guard us with your humility and enfold us with your maternal love that is reflected in so many souls consecrated to you, who have become for us true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church, we priests want to be pastors who do not feed themselves but rather give themselves to God for their brethren, finding their happiness in this. Not only with words, but with our lives, we want to repeat humbly, day after day, our “here I am.”

Guided by you, we want to be Apostles of Divine Mercy, glad to celebrate every day the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and to offer to those who request it the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace, you who are fully immersed in the one universal mediation of Christ, invoke upon us, from God, a heart completely renewed that loves God with all its strength and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord your efficacious word: “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3), so that the Father and the Son will send upon us a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Full of wonder and gratitude at your continuing presence in our midst, in the name of all priests I too want to cry out: “Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time, do not tire of “visiting us”, consoling us, sustaining us. Come to our aid and deliver us from every danger that threatens us. With this act of entrustment and consecration, we wish to welcome you more deeply, more radically, for ever and totally into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth in the desert of our loneliness, let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness, let it restore calm after the tempest, so that all mankind shall see the salvation of the Lord, who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts, for ever united to yours!

Amen.

Special offer on L’Osservatore Romano English weekly

My Mother Saint Gianna: an evening of conversation & prayer with a saint’s son

This coming Monday,
May 17, the Church of St Catherine of Siena in Manhattan will host a lecture by
Pierluigi Molla, the son of St Gianna Berretta Molla, as part of an evening of prayer
for couples struggling with infertility.

Please
join the physicians and staff of The Gianna Center
for Women this Monday, May 17 at 6:30 pm for a special Mass,
offered for the intentions of couples struggling with infertility and
pregnancy-related miscarriages.

The Mass will be
followed by a talk by Pierluigi Molla, the living son of St. Gianna Beretta Molla and
an opportunity to view and venerate her relics.

Location: St.
Catherine of Siena Church, 411 East 68th Street, NY (between 1st Ave and York)

Schedule of
Events

6:30 pm Mass,
offered for the intentions of couples suffering from infertility, recurrent
miscarriage and difficult pregnancies

7:30 pm Talk by
Pierluigi Molla, son of St. Gianna

8:15 pm Blessing
with St. Gianna’s relics

8:30 pm Light
reception and book signing

Physicians from
The Gianna Center in midtown Manhattan, which offers a highly effective,
ethically-sound approach to treating infertility, will also be present to
answer questions and offer support.

Ascension Thursday: What is the Church’s teaching?

What is the consistent, clear teaching of the Church, that
is, what has been taught down through the ages, about the Ascension of the Lord? What does it
mean for the Lord to “ascend” to the right hand of God the Father? Does he actually go up into the heavens?

The Gospel
of Luke tells us that Jesus blessed his disciples and then “parted from them and
was taken up to heaven.” And the Acts of the Apostles tells us that the
disciples witnessed the Lord’s ascension. So, the Scripture relate to us that
Jesus’ ascension was a public act which we too, follow according the Father’s
will.

Let me be crystal clear about the teaching: the ascension of the Lord is
not only concerned with Christ’s humanity; the ascension of the Lord is also
about our humanity ascension to God’s right hand in glory.

You will want to read–NO, you must read and re-read Credo for Today by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) pp 90-94. It is the best of the Church’s contemporary theological reflections on this point of our faith.

Pope Saint Leo the Great (+461)
taught, “Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when, in
the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over
the dignity of all heavenly creatures, to pass the angelic orders and to be
raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension it did not stop at
any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal
Father, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature
it was joined in the Son” (from a homily on 1 June 444).

And just a year later Saint Leo says, “This Faith, reinforced by the Ascension of the Lord and
strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, has not been terrified by chains,
by prison, by exile, by hunger, by fire, by the mangling of wild beasts, nor by
sharp suffering from the cruelty of persecutors. Throughout the world, not
only men but also women, not just immature boys but also tender virgins, have
struggled on behalf of this Faith even to the shedding of their blood. This
Faith has cast out demons, driven away sicknesses, and raised the dead” (from a homily on 17 May
445).

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read, “This final stage stays
closely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the
Incarnation. Only the one who ‘came from the Father’ can return to the Father:
Christ Jesus. ‘No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from
heaven, the Son of man.’ Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have
access to the ‘Father’s house’, to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can
open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too
shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us” (661).

Blessed Imelda Lambertini

Lord Jesus Christ, you received into heaven Blessed Imelda who loved you in the eucharistic banquet. By her prayers may we learn to approach your holy table with that same fervent love and so fulfill our longing to be with you, who live and reign with the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Blessed Imelda (1322-1333) is the patroness of young people receiving their First Holy Communion. An apt saint to ask for intercession from during this time of the year when so many young people are receiving the eucharistic Lord. Imelda entered the convent at age 9 but couldn’t receive Holy Communion until see was 14, on the vigil of the Ascension; she died immediately thereafter in perfect communion with the Lord.

Empire State Building stiffs Catholic League

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments as
follows:

On August 26, the U.S. Postal Service is honoring the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa. On February 2, I submitted an
application to the Empire State Building Lighting Partners requesting that the
tower lights feature blue and white, the colors of Mother Teresa’s
congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, on August 26. On May 5, the request
was denied without explanation.

Mother Teresa received 124 awards, including
the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional
Medal of Freedom. She built hundreds of orphanages, hospitals, hospices, health
clinics, homeless shelters, youth shelters and soup kitchens all over the
world, and is revered in India for her work. She created the first hospice in
Greenwich Village for AIDS patients. Not surprisingly, she was voted the most
admired woman in the world three years in a row in the mid-1990s. But she is
not good enough to be honored by the Empire State Building.

Last year the
Empire State Building shone in red and yellow lights to honor the 60th
anniversary of the Chinese Communist Revolution. Yet under its founder, Mao
Zedong, the Communists killed 77 million people. In other words, the greatest
mass murderer in history merited the same tribute being denied to Mother
Teresa.

We are launching a nationwide petition drive protesting this
indefensible decision (TO SIGN THE PETITION, Click here). We are petitioning
Anthony Malkin, the owner of the Empire State Building, to reverse this
decision.

To protest this decision, contact: lightingpartner@esbnyc.com

May is Mary’s month

May is a month that is loved and its arrival is welcome for
several reasons. In our hemisphere spring advances with so many and colorful
blossoms; the climate is favorable for walks and excursions. For the liturgy,
May always belongs to the Easter Season, the season of the
“alleluia,” of the revelation of the mystery of Christ in the light
of the Resurrection and of the Easter faith; and it is the time of expectation
of the Holy Spirit, who descends with power on the nascent Church at Pentecost.
With both these contexts, the “natural” and the liturgical, the
tradition of the Church is well in tune in dedicating the month of May to the
Virgin Mary. She is, in fact, the most beautiful flower to blossom in creation,
the “rose” that appeared in the fullness of time, when God, sending
his Son, gave the world a new spring. And she is at the same time humble and
discreet protagonist of the first steps of the Christian community: Mary is its
spiritual heart, because her very presence in the midst of the disciples is a
living memory of the Lord Jesus and pledge of the gift of his Spirit.

Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli Address, 9 May 2010

Supreme Court, Faith and Culture

Every time we get a new Supreme Court Justice nominee, I cringe because of the craziness that goes on at the confirmation hearings: it’s not only about philosophical attachments but political mud-raking gets too personal at times. Nonetheless, I’m interested to see how the various ideologies of left and right are daily worked out and the interplay of the culture wars, which haven’t changed all that much over the years: same ideas, different clothing. As always religion plays a role in our life: some commentators are too worried about the religious configuration of the US Supreme Court, and some seem not worried enough. Is there a middle ground? With the US President’s choice of Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court candidate we realize that there’s no Protestant on the bench but there are 6 Catholics of some type and 3 Jews, who also seem not to be too interested in practicing their faith. Exactly, what role does religion play today and are we approaching religion (the practice of faith) on its own terms, or are we reducing it to fit our image and likeness, our own warped standards? Have no fear, Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete helps to define our terms in this week’s Il Sussidiario.

President Obama’s nomination of Elena Kagan to be the next
Supreme Court Justice has opened up a new front in the cultural battle that
characterizes politics in the United States at the present time. Any observer
can write the script of what the response to her nomination will be like. In
fact, on this first day since the nomination the media has already defined the
different ideological positions involved in the struggle, and unless something
entirely unforeseen takes place, nothing new will be said between now and
sometime in July when the Senate votes for or against the nomination.

If the
nomination is approved, it will be the first time that there are no Protestants
in the Supreme Court. There will be six Catholic Judges and three Jewish,
including Kagan. It is difficult to imagine that many of the Catholic Senators
will be influenced in their vote by their Catholic faith, and the Jewish
Senators will almost be sure to insist that their judgment on the nomination
has nothing to do with faith.

But what exactly is the Catholic view on how
faith influences culture? The Christian claim is that faith is a way of knowing
reality. Faith and knowledge of what is real cannot be separated.

This view of
the relation between faith and knowledge has important consequences for our
understanding of the relation between faith and culture, because the culture in
which we live is built precisely on the separation between faith and knowledge
of reality.

In his magnificent book Beyond Consolation, John Waters puts it
this way:

“Our cultures, therefore, no longer affords us a way, in the
conventional public arena in which we spend so much of our time, of seeing
ourselves as we really are. Religion, the means by which we once achieved a
semantic accommodation with total reality, has been discredited by a pincer
movement between the reductions and abuses perpetuated in the name of religion,
and the opposing reaction from outside. One side claims the franchise for
redemption, the other victory over unreason… Stripped of their language of
absolute reality, our cultures begin to squeeze and oppress us in ways we are
incapable even of perceiving. What we have lost has been a loss to ourselves,
to our essential humanity, and yet we have been persuaded to read it as
liberation. We respond to invitations to celebrate our victory over traditions,
as though oblivious that we have half-sawn through the branch we are sitting
on…we have created for ourselves a culture that in many ways denies our
humanity.”

Blessed Jane of Portugal

O God, in the midst of the royal court you
strengthened Blessed Jane with purity of heart. By her
prayers may your faithful turn from the things of earth and seek after
the things of heaven.

Blessed Jane (1452-1490) was the daughter of King
Alphonse of Portugal who entered a Dominican convent who lived with openness to
God’s invitation to a life of purity of heart. She was a capable rule of her
father’s kingdom; because the continuation of her family’s rule of Portugal was
questionable because of her brother’s poor health, Jane didn’t take vows as a
Dominican nun until a prudent decision could be made to secure the dynasty.
Until her profession of vows she lived at a convent of nuns according to their
rule and doing works of charity with her money.