O God, Who was pleased to raise They servant Avery Robert Dulles to the dignity of the cardinalate, we beseech Thee, vouchsafe to admit him to the fellowship of Thine Apostles forevermore. Amen.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose, make intercession
for the holy Church, protect the Sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke thee in their necessities, and
since thou art the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from thy most holy Son the
grace of keeping our faith, sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life, burning
charity and the precious gift of
final perseverance. Amen.
Almost two weeks ago Pope Benedict sent a message to the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco, who is chairing a meeting where the agenda is talking about God, of all things. Well, it beats talking about bishops, nuns and the environment all the time. This topic interests me not in the sense of mere curiosity but because it is taking seriously my seeking the face of God (this topic ought to concern all people who consider themselves Catholic, spiritual and/or religious). To say God interests me sounds like an academic exercise; it is and it is not entirely that. God is interesting to me because seeking God is like no other search I know of, for it concerns my entire self and it intersects all that I do in the world. Is God totally unknowable, the Mystery and desirous of a personal relationship with me (and you)? The Pope makes some great points in these few paragraphs. The curious points are emphasized below.
On the occasion of the Congress “God Today: With or
Without Him Everything Changes,” which is taking place in Rome from
December 10-12, I wish to express to you, venerated Brother, to the Italian
Episcopal Conference and, in particular, to the Committee for the Cultural
Project, my profound appreciation for this important initiative, which
addresses one of the great topics that has always fascinated and questioned the
human spirit.
The question of God is also central in our time, in which man is
often reduced to one dimension, the “horizontal,” considering
openness to the Transcendent as irrelevant for his life. The relationship with
God, instead, is essential for humanity’s journey and, as I have had the
occasion to affirm many times, the Church and every Christian, in fact, have
the task to make God present in this world, to attempt to open to men access to
God.
Planned from this perspective is the international event of these days.
The breadth of the approach to the important topic that characterizes the
meeting, will make possible the sketching of a rich and articulated picture of
the question of God, but above all it will be a stimulation for a profound
reflection on God’s place in the culture and life of our time.
On one hand, in
fact, an attempt is being made to show the different ways that lead to
affirming the truth about the existence of God, that God which humanity has
always known in some way, even in the chiaroscuro of his history, and who
revealed himself with the splendor of his face in the covenant with the people
of Israel and, beyond that, in every measure and hope, in a full and definitive
way, in Jesus Christ.
He is the Son of God, the Living who enters into the life
and history of man to illumine him with his grace, with his presence. On the
other hand, the desire is precisely to bring to light the essential importance
that God has for us, for our personal and social life, for understanding
ourselves and the world, for the hope that illumines our way, for the salvation
that awaits us beyond death.
Directed to these objectives are the numerous
interventions, according to the many points of view which will be the object of
study and exchange: from philosophical and theological reflection on the
witness of the great religions; from the impulse to God, which finds its
expression in music, literature, the figurative arts, the cinema and
television; to the development of the sciences, which attempt to read in depth
the mechanisms of nature, fruit of the intelligent work of God the Creator; from
the analysis of the personal experience of God to the consideration of the
social and political dynamics of an already globalized world.
In a cultural and
spiritual situation such as the one we are living in, where the tendency grows
to relegate God to the private sphere, to consider him irrelevant and
superfluous, or to reject him explicitly, it is my heartfelt hope that this
event might at least contribute to disperse that semi-darkness that makes
openness to God precarious and fearful for the men of our time, though he never
ceases to knock on our door.
The experiences of the past, although not remote
to us, teach us that when God disappears from man’s horizon, humanity loses its
direction and runs the risk of taking steps to its own destruction. Faith in
God opens man to the horizon of certain hope, which does not disappoint; it
indicates a solid foundation on which to base life without fear; it calls for
abandoning oneself with confidence in the hands of the Love which sustains the
world.
To you, cardinal, to all those who have contributed to prepare this
congress, to the speakers and to all the participants I express my cordial
greeting with the desire for the full success of the initiative. I support the
works with prayer and with my apostolic blessing, propitiator of that light
from on High, which makes us capable of finding God, our treasure and our hope.
A Civilization of Love – What Every Catholic Can Do to
Transform the World (2008) by Carl Anderson, the head of the Knights of Columbus has a
new edition, Una Civilta dell’Amore.
Watch the book launch (video
clip) in Rome and read a CNA news brief and a review
of the book.
I also recommend the book.
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, Archbishop of New York
celebrated an evening Solemn Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral on December 4th to
commemorate of the 5th anniversary of entrance into eternal life of Dr.
Fernando Rielo, the founder of the Idente Missionaries. His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan,
archbishop emeritus of NY, Bishop Gerald T. Walsh, Rector/President of St. Joseph’s
Seminary, the Rev. Msgr. Robert Ritchie, Rector of St. Patrick’s Cathedral and
Rev. Msgr. James P. Cassidy, Assistant Principal Chaplain of the American
Association of the Order of Malta and parish vicar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral
were also present. Members of the
Idente Missionary Women’s and Men’s branches and members of the Idente Family
from New Jersey, Long Island and the five New York City boroughs also
participated in the Eucharistic Celebration.
During his homily, Archbishop
Dolan affectionately referred to Fernando Rielo as “our Founder,” stated that
Rielo knew what holiness was and proposed him as an “example for our Advent
preparation.” The Archbishop praised Jesus for the “for the gift of Fernando
Rielo and for the gift of the Idente Missionary Family.”
The Idente
Missionaries, recently approved as an institute of consecrated life of
pontifical right, were founded by Fernando Rielo on June 29, 1959 and are
currently present in four continents and in over twenty countries. Dr. Rielo who was a mystical poet and a
metaphysician and also founded several cultural and humanitarian institutions
including the World Prize for Mystical Poetry that bears his name, Idente Youth
and the Fernando Rielo Foundation.
Idente Missionaries strive to live holiness
in common, take a vow to defend the Chair of Saint Peter and to make Christ known
in the universities. They
particularly work in the academic field and with youth who have lost their
faith or are seeking to renew their faith and live a life of holiness. Dr. Rielo’s metaphysics is a new model
that, consisting in the genetic conception of the principle of relation,
rejects the principle of identity and establishes a perfect symmetry between
metaphysics and theology for both study the same axiom -the Absolute Subject in
metaphysics and the Most Holy Trinity in theology.
His work with youth led him
to found the Idente Youth’s World Youth Parliament (WYP) where young people can
not only manifest their concerns and expose new values but also commit
themselves to become the change they want to see in others, in their
communities and in the world. The
WYP is to hold a Plenary Session in New York in August 2010 entitled: Towards a
Magna Carta of Values for a New Civilization.
The Idente Missionaries are
currently ministering in two parishes in the Bronx, are professors in two
universities and are chaplains in universities in both the Archdiocese of New
York and in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Here is Zenit article on the Idente Missionaries.
Continue reading Fernando Rielo, founder of the Idente Missionaries remembered at Mass
It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should give thanks to thee, O Lord God, almighty: and that we
should, whilst invoking Thy power, celebrate the feasts of the blessed Virgin Mary; from whose womb grew the Fruit, which has filled with the Bread of angels. That Fruit which Eve took from us when she sinned, Mary has restored to us, and it has saved us. Not as the work of the serpent is the work of Mary. From the one, came the poison of our destruction; from the other, the mysteries of salvation. In the one, we see the malice of the tempter; in the other, the help of the divine Majesty. Be the one, came death to the creature; by the other the resurrection of the Creator, by whom human nature, now not captive but free, is restored; and what it lost by its parent Adam, it regained by its Maker Christ.
Lord God, through Saint Juan Diego You made known the love of Our Lady of Guadalupe toward Your people. Grant by his intercession that we who follow the counsel of Mary, our Mother, may strive continually to do Your will.
The Vatican biography on Saint Juan Diego and Pope John Paul’s 2002 canonization homily. Also, there is a part of the beatification homily here.
The Pope said in part at the canonization:
Happy Juan Diego, true and faithful man! We entrust to you our lay brothers and sisters so that, feeling the call to holiness, they may imbue every area of social life with the spirit of the Gospel. Bless families, strengthen spouses in their marriage, sustain the efforts of parents to give their children a Christian upbringing. Look with favor upon the pain of those who are suffering in body or in spirit, on those afflicted by poverty, loneliness, marginalization or ignorance. May all people, civic leaders and ordinary citizens, always act in accordance with the demands of justice and with respect for the dignity of each person, so that in this way peace may be reinforced.
Beloved Juan Diego, “the talking eagle”! Show us the way that leads to the “Dark Virgin” of Tepeyac, that she may receive us in the depths of her heart, for she is the loving, compassionate Mother who guides us to the true God. Amen.
The privilege of Mary Immaculate does not consist solely in the absence of original sin, but much more in being “full of grace.” The Mother of Jesus gave to the world that very life which renews all things … and was enriched by God with gifts befitting such a role … She was adorned from the first instant of her conception with the splendors of an entirely unique holiness (Lumen Gentium 56).
Gabriel’s greeting, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” is the strongest testimony of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, who would not be “full of grace” in the complete sense of the word if she had been stained by sin for a single moment.
Thus the Blessed Virgin began life with a richness of grace which far surpasses that which the greatest saints acquire at the end of their lives. When we also consider her absolute fidelity and her total availability to God, we can faintly imagine to what heights of love and communion with God she attained far beyond all other creatures in heaven and on earth (Lumen Gentium 53).
Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.
Divine Intimacy
You wouldn’t believe it, but young people discerning a
vocation to the consecrated life and/or priesthood in the USA, today, face the
problem of debt.
Personal debt is one thing and we all have to watch our
spending. And we are the ones who to repay the credit card companies, not someone else. It is a very true experience to say that consumerism often replaces Christ as the focus of our lives.
BUT the
significant problem at hand is the amount of education debts young people have to pay
off before following the vocation given to them. Many young people went to the university, received a good education and now felt called to serve the Lord and the Church as a priest or sister and can’t because they have repay their college loans. It is the responsible thing to do. It is also the thing that will prevent someone from actually fulfilling their calling. Large college debts make a
person ineligible from entering a religious order or a diocesan formation
program. Some religious orders will make some arrangement if the debt is “reasonable”
especially if the candidate is “worthy.” Many will not because their own income is not capable to lend that kind of assistance. Again, personal debts are the responsibility
of the person. The video on the Mater Ecclesiae website (see below) speaks of grants and the tough call made in discerning who gets help, who doesn’t. These grants assist in paying off
those college debts.
Perhaps as an act of charity we could make a charitable offering
to one of the agencies helping these young men and women deal with their
educational debts. Christmas is a time for giving with love.
This article, “Debt, the Vocation Killer” gives some perspective on the matter. Plus, there are worthy organizations that help in dealing with the educational debt like the Laboure Society and Mater Ecclesiae Fund for Vocations.