Sacred Heart and Pope’s prayer intention for June 2018

Today, as we begin the month of June, a month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we think of, we relish in, we abide in the great love Our Lord has for us. Having just finished the Paschal Cycle of our Faith, here is another opportunity to move more deeply into a familiarity with Jesus Christ.

“In biblical language, “heart” indicates the centre of the person where his sentiments and intentions dwell. In the Heart of the Redeemer we adore God’s love for humanity, his will for universal salvation, his infinite mercy. Practising devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ therefore means adoring that Heart which, after having loved us to the end, was pierced by a spear and from high on the Cross poured out blood and water, an inexhaustible source of new life” (Benedict XVI, Angelus 5 June 2005).

Also in June, we have this prayer intention of Pope Francis: “That social networks may work towards that inclusiveness which respects other for their differences.”

The Visitation, God’s in-breaking

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the in-breaking of God’s joy in history.

The theological explanation of the Vistiation reminds us that at the annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel informs Mary that her cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant. A startling divine gift.

Then we see Mary hurrying to visit Elizabeth. An interior in-breaking extroverting itself.

I think the key here is Mary’s selflessness and her sharing in the joy of God. Containing the joy she feels is impossible. In her visitation Mary brings the joy of God to both Elizabeth and to John the Baptist who moves in Elizabeth’s womb. 

As we know, this second of the joyful mysteries of the Rosary is about Joy who desires to expand into our heart and abide there. Let’s pray for the movement of joy in our life today.

Trinity Sunday

In the Western Church, the Sunday following Pentecost is Trinity Sunday. As point of comparison the Byzantine Church today is the Sunday of All Saints.

There are plenty of things to say about the Holy Trinity but I think this hymn attributed to St. Jacob of Sarug found today in the Syriac Maronite at the Third Hour of Sunday, says all of what we believe.

Glory be to the Father Who chose the prophets and they foreshadowed His Only-Begotten Son. Worship be to the Son Whose Gospel the apostles proclaimed in the world. Thanks be to the Spirit Who strengthened the martyrs and they died in His hope, and may mercy be upon us sinners through their prayers.

Today, I am also reminded of the life and writings of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity and Blessed Itala Mela (Maria of the Trinity). The first a Discalced Carmelite and the second a Benedictine Oblate. Both devoted their lives to make this piece of dogma, this beautiful mystery, known and lived.

Blessed Itala said, “The will of Christ, which I feel in the depths of my soul, is to drag me, to immerse myself with Himself in the abysses of the Holy Trinity … It is useless to look for other ways: this is what He has chosen for my sanctification.”

First priest ordained in the USA

Fr. Stephen Theodore Badin, was the first priest to be ordained in the United States on this day in 1793. He fled his home in France to escape the persecutions of the French Revolution, ordained by Bishop John Carroll.

Father Badin was known as the “Apostle of Kentucky”.

These weeks we see many of the seminarians ordained priest. Let us pray for them and beg God to send more good men to serve the Church.

Peter Maurin’s anniversary of death

Today is the anniversary of Peter Maurin’s death. Dorothy credited Peter with being the real founder of the Catholic Worker, in fact, she insisted, that he was the real founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933.

Peter Maurin (May 9, 1877 – May 15, 1949) was a theologian, former DeLaSalle Christian Brother and social activist. He had a devotion to St Francis of Assisi while Dorothy Day was devoted to  St Benedict.

Dorothy Day said, “He has shown us the way, with his poverty and his works of mercy, and that way is Christ.” “Without him I never would have been able to find a way of working that would have satisfied my conscience.”

The photo was taken by Mary Humphrey, Peter Maurin, St. Isidore’s Farm, Aitkin, MN, 1941.

May Magnificat

MAY MAGNIFICAT
Gerard Manley Hopkins

MAY is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.

St Richard Pampuri

Don Gius’ first recorded mention of St. Riccardo Pampuri: «But excuse me», he says, «devotion to the saints has a special meaning because they are contemporary: they remind us that the mystery of Christ is present to us. And the life of Saint Pampuri is impressive in its absolute simplicity, like that of a farmer, of a country doctor whom nobody knew, [or would know] but for the goodness with which he treated his patients. And then he went into the monastery, where he was not recognized for what he was, and died like that after three years. But this is the greatest miracle of these decades that I know of, because the miracle is the demonstrating of the power with which God “leads everybody by the nose”, doing great things without anyone’s involvement! So watch out about making fun of the names of the saints and be devoted to them instead. The first devotion must be to the saints contemporary with us. If the Church makes Riccardo Pampuri a saint now or makes Giuseppe Moscati a saint now it’s because, through them, it wants to teach what is important for the Church today»
A-Game Paolicelli – here’s the reference: http://www.30giorni.it/articoli_id_14250_l3.htm