Communio – Page 580 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Do you give to the poor??? Be honest! It is still a work of mercy.

Poor box at SS. Peter and Paul hits million milestone

By Christie L. Chicoine

East Goshen, Sep 28, 2008 (CNA).- Week in and week out, parishioners of all ages at SS. Peter and Paul Parish thoughtfully slip cash — and occasionally checks — into the
church’s five poor boxes.

Last month, their charitable acts of kindness topped more than $1 million for the 18 years the poor box ministry has been in place there.

“I’ve been looking forward to that,” said Msgr. James J. Foley, pastor of SS. Peter and Paul. “My hope, in the beginning, was that we could raise $6,000 a year. We raised $10,000. Now, we’re raising almost $10,000 every two months,” and sometimes much more.

An observation made by a nun who was visiting the parish sums up the program’s success. “She said, ‘It’s the only church I’ve ever been in where people line up to put money in the poor box,'” Msgr. Foley recounted.

Read the rest of the story.

in the sight of the angels, the psalmist says and Saint Benedict reminds

To keep the place of the angels in the front of our mind, some words from the Pope…

… the Feast of the three Archangels who are mentioned by name in Scripture: Michael,
Gabriel and Raphael. This reminds us that in the ancient Church – already in the Book of Revelation – Bishops were described as “angels” of their Church, thereby expressing a close connection between the Bishop’s ministry and the Angel’s mission. From the Angel’s task it is possible to understand the Bishop’s service. But what is an Angel? Sacred Scripture and the Church’s tradition enable us to discern two aspects. On the one hand, the Angel is a creature who stands before God, oriented to God with his whole being. All three names of the Archangels end with the word “El”, which means “God”. God is inscribed in their names, in their nature. Their true nature is existing in his sight and for him. In this very way the second aspect that characterizes Angels is also explained: they are God’s messengers. They bring God to men, they open heaven and thus open earth. Precisely because they are with God, they can also be very close to man. Indeed, God is closer to each one of us than we ourselves are. The Angels speak to man of what constitutes his true being, of what in his life is so often concealed and buried. They bring him back to himself, touching him on God’s behalf. In this sense, we human beings must also always return to being angels to one another – angels who turn people away from erroneous ways and direct them always, ever anew, to God. If the ancient Church called Bishops “Angels” of their Church, she meant precisely this: Bishops themselves must be men of God, they must live oriented to God. “Multum orat pro populo.” (Pope Benedict XVI, Ordination of Bishops, 29 September 2007)

The Feast of the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel, patrons of those who work in radio: pray for us.

Archangels

The Catholic Information Service at the Knights of Columbus publishes a number of booklets on matters pertaining to the Catholic faith. Each of the 60+ booklets gives a very good introduction to what we believe but the booklets are neither the first word nor the last on the subjects they treat. One such booklet is All About Angels, and the following is an excerpt:

More often, however, angels appear in a multitude (cf. Daniel 7:10). When they do, the Old Testament writers employ military metaphors to describe their collective presence. Metaphors such as “host” or “army of the Lord” and “encampment of God” all suggest that angels could be found in large numbers, arranged in an orderly fashion. In rare displays of cordial greetings between men and angels, we are told the proper names of three angels: Michael (Daniel 10:13), which means “Who is Like God?”; Gabriel (Daniel 8:16), which means “Power of God”; and Raphael (Tobit 7:8), which means “God has healed.” These named beings were later identified by Catholic tradition as “archangels.” Although these personal names tell us something about the nature of God, they should not be considered solely as metaphors for God’s attributes. An archangel’s name, like our own, reveals the identity of a unique, personal being.

The Archangels are charged with protecting an individual or a multitude of individuals or with delivering solemn messages from God to man, such as when the Archangel Gabriel greeted the Blessed Virgin Mary with the news of the Incarnation.

Finally, the Prayer after Communion on the Feast of the Archangels serves as a reminder that divine providence has placed us “under the watchful care of the angels” so that “we
may advance along the way of salvation.” Through the liturgy of the Mass we are encouraged, then, to love, respect, and invoke the angels. Invoking the angels may seem like an odd practice, but when we recall that those angels who did not reject God are saints, we quickly realize that there is little difference between this practice and the ancient practice of invoking human saints. We pray to the angels as we do to the saints, for the same reasons, namely, so that they will guide and protect us, as well as intercede with God on our behalf. At the end of the funeral liturgy, in the Prayer of Commendation we invoke the angels and saints to aid and accompany us as we leave this world:

Saints of God, come to his/her aid!

Come to meet him/her, angels of the Lord!

Receive his/her soul and present him/her to God the Most High.

May Christ, who called you, take you to himself;

may angels lead you to Abraham’s side.

The Roman calendar sets aside two feast days to honor God’s invisible servants. In the wake of the Second Vatican Council’s reform of the sacred liturgy, we continue to celebrate (as we have for centuries) the feasts of the Archangels and of the holy Guardian Angels. The feast day of Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, and Saint Raphael, which the Church now celebrates on September 29, was first approved by the Lateran Council in 745. The feast day of the Guardian Angels, celebrated on October 2, originated in 1411 at Valencia, Spain. The liturgical celebration of these two feast days makes us mindful of our communion with the angels and of the immense expanse of the Church, which encompasses heaven and earth. The Opening Prayer for the feast of the archangels emphasizes the universal scope of God’s providence: “God our Father, in a wonderful way you guide the work of angels and men. May those who serve you constantly in heaven keep our lives safe from all harm on earth.”

The Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel

Pope Leo XIII speaks of a vision he had at Mass that terrified him. In fact, there seems to be a variety of versions of the narrative. As it goes, either the Pope saw devils congregating around the Holy See or he heard that it was granted to Satan to try to undermine the Church for the next one hundred years. Who is to doubt the either interpretation of the vision? As a result of the vision, Pope Leo composed this prayer to Saint Michael and ordered in 1886 that it be recited after every Low Mass. This custom was suppressed in 1964 as part of the official liturgical acts of the priest at Mass but the tradition of saying the prayer persists. The prayer evokes a strong sense of protection and confidence in the holy work of the Archangel and therefore I strongly recommend that you say it following Mass and daily if you don’t make it to Mass.

Personally, in the past year I started saying this prayer I learned as a child.

Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray:
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God,
cast into hell Satan and all evil spirits
who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

The Latin text of the prayer is as follows:

Sancte Michael Archangele,
defende nos in proelio.
contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium.
Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur:
tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis,
Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos,
qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo,
divina virtute, in infernum detrude. Amen.

Pope John Paul I: the 30th anniversary of his death

The Servant of God Pope John Paul I

One that showed “the merciful face of the Church”

17 October 1912 – 28 September 1978

God, Who, in Thine ineffable providence,
didst will that Thy servant John Paul I
should be numbered among the high priests,
grant, we beseech Thee, that he,
who on earth held the place of Thine only-begotten Son,
may be joined forevermore to the fellowship of Thy holy pontiffs.

In 2003, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger said, “personally, I am totally convinced that he was a saint because of his great goodness, simplicity, humanity and courage.”

Watch Rome Reports on the Pope.

Saint Vincent de Paul: confessor, apostle to the poor & lover of the priesthood

O God,

Who did endow blessed Vincent

with apostolic power for preaching the Gospel to the poor

and for promoting the honor of the priesthood;

we beseech Thee, grant that we who venerate his holy life

may be inspired by the example of his virtues.

Three thoughts from Saint Vincent:

Give me persons of prayer and they will be capable of anything.

What! To be a Christian and see a Brother afflicted without weeping with him, without being sick with him, would be to be without charity, to be a mere picture of a Christian, to be without humanity, to be worse than brute beasts!

The Church teaches us that mercy belongs to God. Let us implore Him to bestow on us the spirit of mercy and compassion, so that we are filled with it and may never lose it. Only consider how much we ourselves are in need of mercy.

Opening Day for NY Communion & Liberation

The Communion & Liberation Opening Day for the New York community will be on
Saturday, October 25 at 2 PM at Holy Family Church, East 47th Street in Manhattan.

More details to follow. Everybody is invited; this is a public event open to anybody who has an interest in finding out more about the movement.

Communion & Liberation (CL) describes its purpose as “the education to Christian maturity of its adherents and collaboration in the mission of the Church in all the spheres of contemporary life.” It aims to communicate the awareness that Christ is the one true response to the deepest needs of people in every moment of history. CL says that it requires only that Christ be recognized as immediately present. The person who encounters and welcomes the presence of Christ undergoes a conversion that affects not only the individual but also the surrounding environment.

Communion and Liberation

800 years of the Franciscans

Edward Pentin explores some interesting matters with the Custos of the Holy Land

Next year marks the 800th anniversary since the Franciscan Order received papal
approval. To find out more about the importance of this anniversary, we spoke with the Custos of the Custody of the Holy Land, Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa OFM. The Custos also discussed the reasons behind the historical presence of the Franciscans in the Middle East, his hopes for the Order and the wider Church in the region, and the chances of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

How significant is next year’s 800th anniversary to the Franciscan Order and what celebrations are you planning in the Holy Land next year?

The celebration of the 800th anniversary of the foundation of the Order of the Friars Minor has, in the first place, a charismatic and spiritual significance. We are all summoned to rediscover the evangelical and ecclesiastical roots of our vocation. The inspiration of St. Francis was truly to live the Gospel in full, in a passionate imitation of Jesus Christ, in poverty and simplicity. At the same time, he strongly felt he was part of the Church and shared in its mission for the salvation of the world. Friars Minor all over the world have to renew their vocation in reference to the problems of their environment in different social and cultural situations. In the Holy Land, we will be engaged above all in the permanent training of friars, with a series of initiatives that will begin with the renewal of the religious profession, done as a community, in the Basilica of Gethsemane and, at the end of a series of formative meetings, will culminate in the celebration of two regional Chapters, in Galilee and in Judea. We will try to involve the whole of the large Franciscan family, i.e. the Franciscan nuns and the lay members of the Third Order, as well as the young people in our parishes.

How important is it in terms of working towards peace that there be a Franciscan presence in the region?

The commitment to peace belongs to the original nucleus of the Franciscan vocation, but it is not a question of a political nature. In St. Francis’s will, it says: “The Lord revealed to me that we should give this greeting: ‘May the Lord grant you peace!'” This means that peace is not only a balance of political and economic interests, but more deeply, it is the result of an encounter with God, which overcomes the force of sin and violence within us. A man who is reconciled with God naturally desires to establish relations of justice and peace with other men. The Franciscan presence in this region is important because it aims to represent the search for peace according to a spiritual vision, which respects the deepest nature of the person, summoned to live the love for God and his brothers.

Franciscans have traditionally been well represented in the Holy Land and the Middle East in general. Why do Franciscans have a special charism to minister in
the region?

The Friars Minor, at the start of their evangelical mission, were present in all the countries of the known world. St. Francis himself came to the Orient and visited Egypt and the Holy Land. It was the time of the Crusades and therefore the confrontation between Christianity and the Arab-Muslim world was marked by rejection and head-on opposition. History tells us, however, that Francis wanted to meet the Sultan of Egypt peacefully, to be a brother to him and announce the joyful beauty of the Gospel to him as well. The Franciscans have never abandoned these lands because, despite all the difficulties, they want to offer all men, believers and non-believers, their peaceful testimony of faith. Over the centuries, the Franciscan charism has entered into deep communion with many different cultures, offering the gift of an evangelical life lived in joy and above all putting itself at the service of the neediest.

Some have speculated that the anniversary of the founding of the Franciscan Order could coincide with peace in the Holy Land. How hopeful and optimistic are you that that could happen? What are the major obstacles to it not happening?

It would certainly be marvellous if the efforts to build up peace were achieve their result soon, even this year. It is the desire of all men of good will and we pray each day that this will happen. It would be a providential coincidence if this were to occur in the year of the anniversary of our Order, almost a divine blessing for so many centuries of missionary service. But I believe in the optimism of the faith, which places its trust entirely in the omnipotence of God, without forgetting, however, the freedom that He himself granted to men. There are still many obstacles that slow down the peace process and their solution is often not easy. The greatest obstacle, all things considered, is not wanting to believe in peace, in not desiring it as an absolute good, which can be obtained only at the price of substantial sacrifices. The parties must consider each other with sincere esteem, no longer as enemies, but as brothers in the common humanity.

What currently are the main challenges you face in your work as Custos?

There are many challenges and they are serious but, thanks to God, I am surrounded by many brothers who love their mission and put all their efforts into their vocation. This allows me to look at my work with peace of mind. As well as our commitment to peace which we have discussed, the real challenge for a man of religion is always a life of faith, to which we have been called to give our lives to God. The spiritual dimension of our vocation must be cultivated with humility and passion. My office requires me to be a credible witness of faith, for my brothers and for Christians, so that we do not forget the presence of the Lord amongst us. As the Custos, we are called to a great pastoral effort at the service of the local Church and at the same time a strong social and cultural involvement in support of the populations subject to harsh tensions. We are witnesses of hope and this pushes us to seek dialogue at an ecumenical and inter-religious level, to create an environment of communication and collaboration between different traditions. This constant commitment to seeking unity and agreement between men, in this lacerated and divided world, is a truly epochal challenge.

Has there been any recent progress on fulfilling the remaining issues surrounding the Fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel?

The negotiations have now been continuing for many years in a seesaw fashion. Recently much progress has been made, although there are still a number of points to be clarified on legal and fiscal matters. The present crisis in the Israeli government will certainly delay the meetings again. However, sooner or later, we know that an agreement will be reached.

What plans and hopes do you have for the future for the Franciscans and the Church in general in the Holy Land?

The Franciscans in the Holy Land are constantly becoming more international, welcoming friars from many different countries all over the world. This will make us increasingly witnesses of the universal fraternity to which all men are summoned, breaking down separations and overcoming the disagreements produced by selfishness. Over the centuries, Franciscanism continues to show it is topical, because it is based on the immediate adherence to the Gospel, without undergoing the conditioning of a particular culture or social system. Contemporary man, suffocated by material needs, feels the call of the values of the Spirit increasingly strongly and has a deep nostalgia for the absolute; he needs to be accompanied in this search. The Franciscan Order will be increasingly present on this path to authentic humanization.

The Church in the Holy Land has recently been very concerned by the exodus of Christians, in flight towards quieter countries. I think that in the future it will be increasingly committed to the work of evangelization, to form mature and responsible Christians, capable of being an evangelical yeast in a society in which they are a minority. The quality of our Christian life will still allow us to be, as the Lord wishes, “the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”

This is article was first published in The Holy Land Review

The Palace could get a Catholic

The English Crown may be up for a change by parliament in the near future. One of the
items being considered for reform is allowing a papist to be a monarch of England. At the moment there is a 300 law preventing such a thing to happen. “The 1688 Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement in 1701 and Act of Union in 1707 – reinforced by the provisions of the Coronation Oath Act 1688 – effectively excluded Catholics or their spouses from the succession and provided for the Protestant succession. Neither Catholics nor those who marry them nor those born to them out of wedlock may be in the line of succession.”

Imagine, a Roman Catholic as head of England. I wonder if he or she would remain as head of the CofE? Of course not…..

There are other things being studied. Read the article.

Notker Wolf, Benedictine Abbot Primate re-elected

On Thursday afternoon, 25 September 2008, the assembled delegates of the Congress of Abbots re-elected the Most Rev. Dr. Notker Wolf, OSB, to a term of four years as the ninth Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation.

Abbot Notker was born 21 June 1940 and professed first vows on 17 September 1962 as a monk of the St. Ottilien Congregation. He was ordained a priest, 1 September 1968, and elected Archabbot of St. Ottilien, 1 October 1977.

The Benedictine Congress of Abbots elected him Abbot Primate and Abbot of Sant’Anselmo, 7 September 2000, for a term of eight years. His first official act after his re-election today was to re-appoint all officials both at Sant’Anselmo and elsewhere.

Wolf is a musician who performs traditional Benedictine chant and Christian rock. He
plays an electric guitar for Christian rock group Feedback.

The Primate is an author in his spare time. In 2008, Wolf published Out of the Blue (Munich: Rowohlt) and Rules for Life: The Ten Commandments – provocation and guidance for today (Freiburg: Herder). In 2009 his book, God bless you! New ideas for living here (Munich: Rowohlt) will be released.

May God grant him many blessings!

Catholic sports: can we reclaim sport?

“Sport, properly directed, develops character, makes a man courageous, a generous

loser, and a gracious victor; it refines the senses, gives intellectual penetration, and steels the will to endurance. It is not merely a physical development then. Sport, rightly understood, is an occupation of the whole man, and while perfecting the body as an instrument of the mind, it also makes the mind itself a more refined instrument for the search and communication of truth and helps man to achieve that end to which all others must be subservient, the service and praise of his Creator.” (Pope Pius XII, “Sport at the Service of the Spirit,” July 29, 1945)

I am not a sportsman and I barely watch sports on TV. I will make it a point to follow, at some point during the season, college football scores. I am particularly interested in how my alma mater, the University of Notre Dame is doing in football. (The short answer is badly in recent years!) And believe it or not I was an undefeated freshman soccer coach when I taught high school. The amazing –or foolish– thing is that I never played the game.

As a younger man I did go deer hunting with my grandfather and father, tried swimming, and tried baseball. I even tried endurance motorcycling but ended that brief career when I broke my ankle. The point I want to make is that I attempted but did not succeed because I didn’t have the necessary genes. It seems that my mother doesn’t do sports either but she’ll make it a point to attend my sister’s softball game and watch NASCAR with my father. My father and sister are quite intense with sports. Thank God some gives a good face to this aspect of family life. I stick with garden. No competition there.

One of the grand turn-offs to me in the world of sport is the perceived lack of good moral behavior. The use of drugs, betting, ruthless competition, the misuse of money, the extravagant salaries and compensation packages, the high price of tickets, and the flagrant behavior of the players, coaches and staff is unbecoming. In short, the commercialization of the sports world is wrong and it lacks principle. As Christians there is got to be another way to engage in the virtue, honor and dignity of sport.

Writing for The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, Jay Schalin’s February article “A Call to Arms against College Sports’ Dark Side” calls our attention to a corrective for the ugliness of sport by pointing to an initiative of a former sportsman,
business and now college president. He writes: “William Thierfelder wants to reverse this trend toward athletic competition without honor or restraint. He is the president of Belmont Abbey College, a tiny Catholic school in North Carolina that is best known for its affiliation with a Benedictine monastery. It might seem to be an obscure starting point for a personal crusade intended to alter what seems to now be an ingrained feature of the American character.”

Schalin further points to “Thierfelder’s vision of sports is far different from one where 10-year-olds try to crush and humiliate their opponents at the urging of adults. He wants to reintroduce the concept of virtue into athletic competition, and he wants athletic training to be considered an integral part of educating a complete individual. He calls his infant
movement ‘Sports Properly Directed.’ The name comes from an address given by Pope Pius XII called Sport at the Service of the Spirit, which begins, ‘Sport, properly directed, develops character, makes a man courageous, a generous loser, and a gracious victor. It refines the senses, gives intellectual penetration and steels the will to endurance.'”

I want to see more work done in the area of athletics which pays critical attention to the intellectual cultural and spiritual lives we lead. Saint Benedict’s famous Rule for monks is a 6^th century document and therefore does not address the issue of good sportsmanship. Nor does it deal with the contemporary vices we encounter in sport. It does however give a way of proceeding that is balanced as it considers mutuality, authority, balance, respect, fidelity, honor, fraternity, etc. But who is doing this type of heavy lifting of the intellect and faith? My hope is that Dr. Thierfelder and his friends will build a Catholic sportsmanship program at Belmont Abbey College. He’s started but has a long way to go before a total change in attitude about playing a game is effected.

Groups of note are the Sports Faith International, Catholic Athletes for Christ, The National Center for Catholic Youth Sports (NCCYS) and Play Like a Champion off to a good start.

Dr. Thierfelder’s own work with Reclaim the Game needs to be talked up. It is impressive to know that there’s even the “Pope Pius XII Sport at the Service of the Spirit Award” sponsored by Belmont Abbey College which gives $24,000 over 4 years.

Thinking of the work of the Holy See one does not think of church and sport in one sentence. Well, there is a section of the Pontifical Council for the Laity (PCL)dedicated to faith and athleticism. Pope Benedict initiated the “Church and Sport” section the (PCL). Read the press release.

If you read Spanish, this article by Father Kevin Lixey “El Deporte y el Magisterio de la Iglesia” is good.