Communio – Page 562 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Pope Is “Decisive” for Communion and Liberation

Father Carrón Notes Commitment to Faith-Culture Dialogue

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The current pontificate is decisive for the life and history of the Catholic lay Communion and Liberation movement, says its president.

Father Julián Carrón said this today after he was received in audience by Benedict XVI.

“We are always very attentive to what the Pope tells us to orient us along our way,” Father Carrón said. The priest is the successor of Monsignor Luigi Giussani, the founder of Communion and Liberation.

Father Carrón told Vatican Radio that he wanted to meet with the Holy Father to “tell him all that has happened and to share the fruits of the encounter” the group had with him a year ago.

“For our history, the relationship of Monsignor Giussani with then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has been very significant,” Father Carrón added. “We, above all now, consider his magisterium to be decisive for our life as a movement, for our history.

“We are attentive to everything that the Pope says about the cultural presence of the faith.”

The president emphasized that the movement “very much appreciated” the “great discourse at Regensburg [and] the recent address that the [Holy Father] gave in Paris to the men of culture,” which was distributed to all movement members.

The fraternity, Father Carrón said, has committed itself to “spreading this perfection of culture that is born from belonging to the Christian experience, which is capable of engendering a humanity with a totally open rationality, as the Pope continually gives us witness.”

Advent Presence

As we are at the midway point in the liturgical season of Advent (in the roman rite) it is helpful to remember what we doing and why we are doing it. Pope Benedict is helpful in recalling the essence of the season.

“Advent” does not mean “expectation,” as some may think. It is a translation of the Greek word parousia which means “presence” or, more accurately, “arrival,” i. e., the beginning of a presence. In antiquity the word was a technical term for the presence of a king or ruler and also for the God being worshiped, who bestows his parousia on his devotees for a time.

“Advent,” then, means a presence begun, the presence being that of God. Advent reminds us, therefore, of two things: first, that God’s presence in the world has already begun, that he is present though in a hidden manner; second, that his presence has only begun and is not yet full and complete, that it is in a state of development, of becoming and progressing toward its full form.

His presence has already begun, and we, the faithful, are the ones through whom he wishes to be present in the world. Through our faith, hope, and love he wants his light to shine over and over again in the night of the world.

That night is “today” whenever the “Word” becomes “flesh” or genuine human reality. The Christ child comes in a real sense whenever human beings act out of authentic love for the Lord.

Benedictus
Pope Benedict XVI

Gaudete Sunday: the 3rd Sunday of Advent

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice; let your forbearance be known to all, for the Lord is near at hand; have no anxiety about anything, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

Gaudete Sunday is called such because of the first word in Latin of the antiphon that begins, Gaudete…Rejoice…. The full antiphon is noted above. It orients our prayer and Mass today! The presence of the Lord is acknowledged to be here, right now, in our midst. Catholics are a people full of joy today and everyday of our existence. The Presence of the Lord is always in our midst: in the Eucharist, sacred Scripture, in our hearts and in our community. Pope Benedict offers us a perspective on an aspect of this joy:

The root of man’s joy is the harmony he enjoys with himself. He lives in this affirmation. And only one who can accept himself can also accept the you, can accept the world. The reason why an individual cannot accept the you, cannot come to terms with him, is that he does not like his own I [the I is the whole self, one’s entire body, soul and mind] and, for that reason, cannot accept a you. Something strange happens here. We have seen that the inability to accept one’s I leads to the inability to accept a you. But how does one go about affirming, assenting to, one’s I?

The answer may perhaps be unexpected: We cannot do so by our own efforts alone.

Of ourselves, we cannot come to terms with ourselves. Our I becomes acceptable to us only if it has first become accept to another I. We can love ourselves only if we first been loved by someone else. The life a mother gives to her child is not just physical life; she gives total life when takes the child’s tears and turns them into smiles. It is only when life has been accepted and is perceived as accepted that it becomes also acceptable. Man is that strange creature that needs not just physical birth but also appreciation if he is to subsist… If an individual is to accept himself, someone must say to him: “It is good that you exist” -must say it, not with words, but with that act of the entire being that we call love.

For it is the way of love to will the other’s existence and, at the same time, to bring that existence forth again. The key to the I lies with the you; the way to the you leads through the I.

(Benedictus, 2006)

Saint John of the Cross

Father, You endowed John of the Cross with a spirit of self-denial and a love of the cross. By following his example, may we come to the eternal vision of Your glory.

THE best exposition on the spiritual life –that is, in my estimation there is no other work that captures the essence of the various gifts of the Holy Spirit with regard to the spiritual life– is the book Christian Spirituality by Dominican Father Jordan Aumann (1916-2007). Regrettably, I think the book is out of print and old copies tend to be expensive but you may search for an online copy of it. If you get a copy, don’t let it out of your sight! Nevertheless, Father Jordan’s thoughts on Saint John of the Cross easily expose the greatness of today’s saint.

Continue reading Saint John of the Cross

Pope Benedict’s message at the death of Avery Cardinal Dulles

TO MY VENERABLE BROTHER

CARDINAL EDWARD EGAN

ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK

HAVING LEARNED WITH SADNESS OF THE DEATH OF CARDINAL AVERY DULLES, I OFFER YOU MY HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES, WHICH I ASK YOU KINDLY TO CONVEY TO HIS FAMILY, HIS CONFRERES IN THE SOCIETY OF JESUS AND THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY OF FORDHAM UNIVERSITY. I JOIN YOU IN COMMENDING THE LATE CARDINAL’S NOBLE SOUL TO GOD, THE FATHER OF MERCIES, WITH IMMENSE GRATITUDE FOR THE DEEP LEARNING, SERENE JUDGMENT AND UNFAILING LOVE OF THE LORD AND HIS CHURCH WHICH MARKED HIS ENTIRE PRIESTLY MINISTRY AND HIS LONG YEARS OF TEACHING AND THEOLOGICAL RESEARCH. AT THE SAME TIME I PRAY THAT HIS CONVINCING PERSONAL TESTIMONY TO THE HARMONY OF FAITH AND REASON WILL CONTINUE TO BEAR FRUIT FOR THE CONVERSION OF MINDS AND HEARTS AND THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL FOR MANY YEARS TO COME. TO ALL WHO MOURN HIM IN THE HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION I CORDIALLY IMPART MY APOSTOLIC BLESSING AS A PLEDGE OF CONSOLATION AND PEACE IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

Saint Lucy

A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy’s Day

by John Donne

‘Tis the year’s midnight, and it is the day’s,

Lucy’s, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks;

The sun is spent, and now his flasks

Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;

The world’s whole sap is sunk;

The general balm th’ hydroptic earth hath drunk,

Whither, as to the bed’s feet, life is shrunk,

Dead and interr’d; yet all these seem to laugh,

Compar’d with me, who am their epitaph.

Study me then, you who shall lovers be

At the next world, that is, at the next spring;

For I am every dead thing,

In whom Love wrought new alchemy.

For his art did express

A quintessence even from nothingness,

From dull privations, and lean emptiness;

He ruin’d me, and I am re-begot

Of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.

All others, from all things, draw all that’s good,

Life, soul, form, spirit, whence they being have;

I, by Love’s limbec, am the grave

Of all that’s nothing. Oft a flood

Have we two wept, and so

Drown’d the whole world, us two; oft did we grow

To be two chaoses, when we did show

Care to aught else; and often absences

Withdrew our souls, and made us carcasses.

But I am by her death (which word wrongs her)

Of the first nothing the elixir grown;

Were I a man, that I were one

I needs must know; I should prefer,

If I were any beast,

Some ends, some means; yea plants, yea stones detest,

And love; all, all some properties invest;

If I an ordinary nothing were,

As shadow, a light and body must be here.

But I am none; nor will my sun renew.

You lovers, for whose sake the lesser sun

At this time to the Goat is run

To fetch new lust, and give it you,

Enjoy your summer all;

Since she enjoys her long night’s festival,

Let me prepare towards her, and let me call

This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this

Both the year’s, and the day’s deep midnight is.

John Donne. Poems of John Donne. Vol. I. E. K. Chambers, ed. London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 45-46.

Avery Robert Dulles, SJ: Jesuit, priest, theologian, cardinal & a wonderful person

Avery Robert Cardinal Dulles, S.J.

(1918-2008)

Requiescat in pace

Cardinal Deacon of the Church of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary on via Lata

In his own words, a small portion of Cardinal Dulles’ legacy is found here.

An extensive archive of Dulles’ thinking can be read at First Things, his journal of choice.

An appreciative essay by George Weigel.

The Fordham University tribute.

Fr. James Martin of America magazine has an essay about his friendship with the Cardinal.

The NY Times obit.

The Wiki article on the Cardinal.

Funeral plans:

In accordance with the traditions of the Church, the Cardinal’s death will be marked by the celebration of three Masses:

Tuesday evening 16 December at 7:30 p.m. in the University Church
Wednesday evening 17 December at 7:30 p.m. in the University Church
Thursday afternoon 18 December at 2 p.m. at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

The members of the University family are invited to join the Jesuit Community at each of these Masses.

In addition, the Cardinal’s family will receive visitors in the University Church on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 2 to 5 p.m.

Dignitas Personae (The Dignity of a Person): Educating us to live differently

The Church offers a teaching on bioethics in a document released today, Dignitas Personae (the dignity of a person), addressing how we ought to orient our thinking and acting viz. the dignity of the human person. That is, how do we think about and act when it comes to life issues like IVF, stem cell research, euthanasia, etc. In an era that has a tendency to cheapen the inherent value of the person, or in fact, does cheapen human life, this is a welcomed teaching to clarify how we follow Jesus Christ especially in matters of conscience formation, respect for human dignity and science. The Church names to fundamental principles:

· “The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception; and therefore from that same moment his rights as a person must be recognized, among which in the first place is the inviolable right of every innocent human being to life” (n. 4).

· “The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation which is truly responsible vis-à-vis the child to be born must be the fruit of marriage” (n. 6).

The documentation is found here.

The Catholic Information Service a booklet dealing with the topic of Stem Cell Research will also help clarify questions on what is possible and what is a violation of Christian ethics.

Likewise, there is a booklet on the Church’s teaching on In Vitro Fertilization .

Our Lady of Guadalupe/Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

God of power and mercy, You blessed the Americas at Tepeyac with the presence of the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe. May her prayers help all men and women to accept each other as brothers and sisters. Through your justice present in our hearts may Your peace reign in the world.

Santa María, que bajo la advocación
de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
eres invocada como Madre
por los hombres y mujeres
del pueblo mexicano y de América Latina,
alentados por el amor que nos inspiras,
ponemos nuevamente
en tus manos maternales nuestras vidas.

Tú que estás presente
en estos jardines vaticanos,
reina en el corazón
de todas la madres del mundo
y en nuestros corazones.
Con gran esperanza,
a ti acudimos y en ti confiamos.

Dios te Salve, María,
llena eres de gracia, el Señor está contigo.
Bendita tú eres entre todas las mujeres
y bendito es el fruto
de tu vientre, Jesús.

Santa María, Madre de Dios,
ruega por nosotros pecadores,
ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. Amén.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe
Ruega por nosotros

(Benedictus P.P. XVI, 2005)

The Wisconsin Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a put testament of hope and love the Blessed Mother for us today.

Saint Damasus I

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

Eternal Shepherd, graciously guard Thy flock, and through blessed Damasus, Thy Supreme Pontiff, whom Thou did appoint pastor of the universal Church, keep it under Thy continual protection.

Answering the question: who is Jesus Christ, we would say…

Pope Damasus I (366-384) in a letter to the bishops of the East dated around 374, pointed out and at the same time rejected the errors of both Arius and of Apollinaris, “These (i.e., the Arians) posit in the Son of God an imperfect divinity, while the others (i.e., the Apollinarists) falsely affirm that the humanity of the Son of Man is incomplete. If the Son of God did not become fully man, then God’s work is imperfect and our salvation is imperfect, because the whole man has not been saved! We, who know that we have been saved in the fullness of the human being, profess according to the faith of the Catholic Church that God in the fullness of his being has assumed human nature in its fullness.”

This letter of Damasus, written fifty years after Nicaea, was directed principally against the Apollinarists (cf. DS 146). A few years later the First Council of Constantinople (381) condemned all the heresies of the time, including Arianism and Apollinarism. It thereby confirmed what Pope Damasus I had declared about Christ’s humanity, which has by nature a real human soul (and therefore a real human intellect and free will) (cf. DS 146, 149, 151). (from the Conciliar Definitions of Christ, 9 March 1988)

Two biographical sketches of Pope Saint Damasus I here and here.