Communio – Page 506 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Saints John Fisher and Thomas More

The holy martyrs shed their blood upon the ground for the sake of Christ and have obtained an eternal recompense.

Lord God, You brought the faith of Your saints to perfection in martyrdom. Mercifully grant that by our communion with Saints John and Thomas we may bear witness in our lives to the faith we profess.

A prayer of St Thomas More to remember:

Give me the grace to long for Your holy sacraments, and
especially to rejoice in the presence of Your body, sweet Savior Christ, in the
holy sacrament of the altar. Amen.

Father’s Day 2009

Mom, Dad, Lauren and Aunt Gloria attended Mass today at Saint Rose of Lima Church and then we had a festive dinner a local Italian eatery: Father’s Day 2009. Happy to have them visit me where I am living and working for the summer and to celebrate Dad. Peace!

Seized by Christ, Saint Padre Pio leads the way for renewal, Pope said

As part of the inaugural observances for the Year of the
Priest, Pope Benedict made a pilgrimage to and celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Graces at San Giovanni Rotondo, resting place of Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. In the days following the feast of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and with devotion to Our Lady in mind, the Pope recalled that the fruit of Padre Pio’s close bond with the Sacred Heart of Christ and His mother, Mary, inspired him to found the House for the Relief of Suffering: “All his life and his apostolate took place under the maternal gaze of the Blessed Virgin and by the power of her intercession. Even the House for the Relief of Suffering he considered to be the work of Mary, ‘Health of the sick.'”

Born Francisco Forgione, at the age 23 the obscure Capuchin Franciscan friar was said to have received the gift of the sacred stigmata. On Saint Pio‘s hands and side the wounds were similar to the stigmata, or the wounds of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, according to Christian belief. The Pope proposed to us another model for priests by giving the example of this friar from Pietrelcina: “A simple man of humble origins, ‘seized by Christ‘ (Phil 3:12) … to make of him an elected instrument of the perennial power of his Cross: the power of love for souls, forgiveness and reconciliation, spiritual fatherhood, effective solidarity with the suffering. The stigmata, that marked his body, closely united him to the Crucified and Risen Christ.”

Relating today’s gospel with the life of Saint Pio, His
Holiness also said to the gathered faithful:

The solemn gesture of calming the stormy sea is clearly a
sign of the lordship of Christ over the negative powers and it induces us to think of His divinity: “Who is He – ask the disciples in wonder -that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk 4:41). Their faith is not yet steadfast, it is taking shape, is a mixture of fear and trust; rather Jesus trusting abandonment to the Father is full and pure. This is why He sleeps during the storm, completely safe in the arms of God – but there will come a time when Jesus will feel anxiety and fear: When His time comes, He shall feel upon himself the whole weight of the sins of humanity, as a massive swell that is about to fall upon Him. Oh yes, that shall be a terrible storm, not a cosmic one, but a spiritual one. It will be Evil’s last, extreme assault against the Son of God…. In that hour, Jesus was on the one hand entirely One with the Father, fully given over to him – on the other, as in solidarity with sinners, He was
separated and He felt abandoned.

Remaining united to Jesus, [Padre Pio] always had his sights on the depths of the human drama, and this was why he offered his many sufferings, why he was able to spend himself in the care for and relief of the
sick – a privileged sign of God’s mercy, of his kingdom which is coming, indeed, which is already in the world, a sign of the victory of love and life over sin and death. Guide souls and relieving suffering: thus we can sum up the mission of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina: as the servant of God, Pope Paul VI said of him.”

At one point in his address the Benedict spoke to the
Franciscan friars and those connected with the spiritual groups linked to Saint Pio and anyone else, the Pope affirmed: “The risks of activism and secularization are always present, so my visit was also meant to confirm fidelity to the mission inherited from your beloved Father. Many of you, religious and laity, are so taken by the full duties required by the service to pilgrims, or the sick in the hospital, you run the risk of neglecting the real need: to listen to Christ to do the will of God. When you see that you are close to running this risk, look to Padre Pio: In his example, his sufferings, and invoke his intercession, because it obtains from the Lord the light and strength that you need to continue his mission soaked by love for God and fraternal charity.”

Following Mass, the Holy Father led the faithful in the Angelus prayer (the great prayer recalling the Incarnation) calling to mind Padre Pio’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Benedict remarked, “To the intercession of Our Lady and St Pio of Pietrelcina I would like to entrust the Special Year for Priests, which I opened last Friday on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May it be a privileged opportunity to highlight the value of the mission and holiness of priests to serve the Church and humanity in the third millennium!”

Watch the video clip

Another video explaining more of Padre Pio’s life

Read the papal homily

Read the papal address to priests and youth

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Always keep your focus on Jesus!

O blessed Aloysius, adorned with angelic graces, I, your most unworthy suppliant, recommend specially to you the chastity of my soul and body, praying you by your angelic purity to plead for me with Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Lamb, and his most holy Mother, Virgin of virgins, that they would keep me from all grievous sin.

O never let me be defiled with any stain of impurity; but when you see me in temptation, or in danger of falling, then remove far from my heart all bad thoughts and unclean desires, and awaken in me the memory of eternity to come and of Jesus crucified; impress deeply in my heart a sense of the holy fear of God; and thus, kindling in me the fire of divine love, enable me so to follow your footsteps here on earth that, in heaven with you, I may be made worthy to enjoy the vision of our God forever. Amen.

A brief biography on Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

Cardinal Newman miracle approved by cardinals

The commission of cardinals approved of the miracle presented to them for the dossier proposing John Henry Cardinal Newman as a “beatus” (blessed).

The next step is for the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, to prepare a document for the Holy Father to study the case. Read the Times Online story of the recent events.

A video clip to watch

Mass as joy and comfort…Christ’s Presence is what we need to be mindful of

In his 1986 Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, Pope John Paul II wrote:

The Mass was for John Mary Vianney the great joy and comfort of his priestly life. He took great care, despite the crowds of penitents, to spend more than a quarter of an hour in silent preparation. He celebrated with recollection, clearly expressing his adoration at the consecration and communion. He accurately remarked: “The cause of priestly laxity is not paying attention to the Mass!”

The Curé of Ars was particularly mindful of the permanence of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. It was generally before the tabernacle that he spent long hours in adoration, before daybreak or in the evening; it was towards the tabernacle that he often turned during his homilies, saying with emotion: “He is there!”

It was also for this reason that he, so poor in his presbytery, did not hesitate to spend large sums on embellishing his church. The appreciable result was that his parishioners quickly took up the habit of coming to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, discovering, through the attitude of their pastor, the grandeur of the mystery of faith.

Dear brother priests, the example of the Curé of Ars invites us to a serious examination of conscience: what place do we give to the Mass in our daily lives? Is it, as on the day of our Ordination — it was our first act as priests! — the principle of our apostolic work and personal sanctification? What care do we take in preparing for it? And in celebrating it? In prayng before the Blessed Sacrament? In encouraging our faithful people to do the same? In making our churches the House of God to which the divine presence attracts the people of our time who too often have the impression of a a world empty of God.

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Pope John Paul II, in his Angelus Address of July 2, 1989
said:

“The Spirit molded the Heart of Jesus in the womb of Mary, who
collaborated actively with him as mother and educator. As mother, she adhered
knowingly and freely to the salvific plan of God the Father…. As educator, she
had molded the Heart of her son; with Saint Joseph she introduced him to the
traditions of the Chosen People, inspired in him a love for the Law of the
Lord, communicated to him the spirituality of the ‘poor of the Lord.’ She had
helped him to develop his intellect and exercised a sure influence in the
formation of his character. …Therefore we can truly say: in the Heart of Christ
there shines forth the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit; in it there is also
reflected the heart of his Mother. May every Christian heart be like the Heart
of Christ: obedient to the Spirit’s action and to the Mother’s voice.”

Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

My God, my Saviour, I adore Thy Sacred Heart, for that heart is the seat and source of all Thy tenderest human affections for us sinners.

It is the instrument and organ of Thy love.

It did beat for us. It yearned over us.

It ached for us, and for our salvation.

It was on fire through zeal, that the glory of God might be manifested in and by us.

It is the channel through which has come to us all Thy overflowing human affection, all Thy Divine Charity towards us.

All Thy incomprehensible compassion for us, as God and Man, as our Creator and our Redeemer and Judge, has come to us,
and comes, in one inseparably mingled stream, through that Sacred
Heart.

O most Sacred symbol and Sacrament of Love, divine and
human, in its fullness, Thou didst save me by Thy divine strength, and Thy human affection, and then at length by that wonder-working blood, wherewith
Thou didst overflow.

O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest
for us still.

Now as then Thou savest, Desiderio desideravi -“With desire I have desired.”

I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most
resolved will.

O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receive
Thee, to eat and drink Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy
abode within me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart.

Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and
sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all
disorder, of all deadness.

So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle
it, but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.

The Venerable Servant of God John Henry Newman

Follow the pattern Christ set before us: see in the Heart of Jesus an inexhaustible mercy

Consider, as people redeemed, who it is that hung on the Cross for you; how great and extraordinary he is whose death enlivens the dead and whose passing made heaven and earth groan and the hard stones split.

The Church was to be formed from the side of Christ as he slept on the Cross, and in this way the Scripture was to be fulfilled which reads: “They shall look on him whom they pierced.” To this end, God ordained that a soldier’s lance should open Christ’s sacred side and that blood and water should flow forth. Then, as from a fountain–Christ’s inner-most heart–the price of our salvation would pour down out, giving to the Church’s sacraments the power of conferring grace and of being for those who live in Christ a drink of the living water “that gushes up for eternal life.”

Rise, then, friends of Christ. Be like the dove “that builds her nest in the crevice.” “Like the sparrow that finds a home” there, be watchful; set your mouth to it and “draw water from the fountain of the Savior.” For this is “the spring that emerged from the center of paradise”; dividing into four streams, it enters devout hearts, and waters and fructifies the whole earth.

Run to this fountain of life and light.Be filled with desire, and in your heart’s depths cry to him: “Beauty of the most high God! Pure radiance eternal light! Life shedding your radiance before your throne ever since the light before first began! Eternal and inaccessible, clear, sweet stream from a fountain hidden from mortal eyes! Bottomless depth, topless height, endless breadth, imperturbable purity!”

From this source flows the stream “that gladdens the city of God.” “With exultant praise” let us sing songs to you, for we know from experience that “in you is the fountain of life, and in your light we shall see light.”

From the reflections on The Tree of Life by Saint Bonaventure

Saint Romuald

The Lord led the just in right paths. And showed him the kingdom of God.

We beseech Thee, O Lord, may the intercession of the blessed Abbot Romuald obtain for us Thy favor; grant us to receive through his patronage that which we are unable to acquire by our own merits.

The brief bio of the founder of the Camaldolese monks.