Pardon of Assisi or Portiuncula Indulgence

PortiunculaOn August 2, the Franciscan family celebrates the Dedication of the Chapel of St. Mary of the Angels. It is known as the Portiuncula or “Little Portion,” restored by Saint Francis and the place where he and the early Friars made their home. Likewise, the Chapel is the place where Francis received Clare into the “movement” on March 28, 1211 and where he died in 1226.

Long connected with the Mother of God, it is a good idea that today we pray with the Poor Man of Assisi in these words: “Hail, O Lady, holy Queen, Mary, holy Mother of God, you are the virgin made Church, and the one chosen by the most Holy Father in heaven…in whom there was and is all the fullness of grace and every good.”

Based on mystical vision St. Francis experienced of Jesus and Mary in the Portiuncula chapel on August 1, 1216. The Little Portion Chapel, thereafter, has been the site of a venerable tradition of being a place of forgiveness, indulgence, justice and mercy. One of the traditions of today’s feast day is for pilgrims to the Portiuncula for the Feast of Saint Mary of the Angels may pray for the “Pardon of Assisi” or Portiuncula Indulgence, granted to all those who come to this chapel seeking reconciliation and are repentant of sin. This plenary indulgence may ordinarily be gained between August 2 and 15. However, the Indulgence is granted today to anyone with the intention of honoring Our Lady of the Angels reciting the Creed, praying the Our Father, Hail Mary, praying for the pope’s intentions, along with fulfilling other conditions (of receiving forgiveness of sin).

On Thursday (August 4th), Pope Francis will make a private pilgrimage to the Little Portion Chapel to mark the Jubilee Year of Mercy. In 2015, Pope Francis said on the feast of Our Lady of the Angels of Porziuncola that the Assisi Pardon “is a powerful reminder to bring ourselves closer to the Lord in the Sacrament of Mercy and to receive Communion.”

2016 is the 800th anniversary of the granting of this Indulgence.

St. John Paul II once said the message of the Portiuncula Indulgence is one of “pardon and reconciliation, that is, of grace, which divine goodness pours out on us if we are well disposed because God is truly rich in mercy.”

Blessed Mary Stella and Companions, Martyrs of Nowogrodek

Eleven Nuns of NowogrodekToday is also a  day on which I recall the witness of the eleven courageous and holy Nazareth Sisters, who in 1943 sacrificed their lives for family members during World War II in Belarus.

As a boy in a New Haven school staffed by the Nazareth Sisters, St. Stanislaus School, I distinctly remember the Adam Styka image  (1948) painted of the nuns being murdered by the Nazi regime.  The original painting was moved to the Rome headquarters of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth in 1965.

Each falling into a common grave. Though their mortal identity was robbed by a common grace, but their dignity as woman of grace and Divine Love not. Keeping their memory alive means remembering the names of those killed. The sisters’ names were: M. Stella, M. Imelda, M. Rajmunda, M. Daniela, M. Kanuta, M. Sergia, M. Gwidona, M. Felicyta, M. Heliodora, M. Kanizja and M. Boromea.

In the days before the great feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration on August 6th, it is interesting to note that these sisters had received a tremendous outpouring of affection from their fellow townspeople. The sisters were known as “The Kneelers” because they frequented the local parish Church of The Transfiguration to kneel in prayer at the left side of the altar in prayer.

Sister Mary Stella prayed: “O God, if sacrifice of life is needed, accept it from us who are free from family obligations.  Spare those who have wives and children.”

Saint John Paul II said of Sister Mary Stella, “By the power of His grace, these seemingly weak women witnessed to the strength of true love to the point of martyrdom” (March 5, 2000).

The 12th sister of the group, Sister Malgorzata Banas, who survived the war and the sisters’ chaplain Father Aleksander Sienkiewicz are also candidates for sainthood.

Through the intercession of Blessed Mary Stella and her Ten Companions, Martyrs of Nowogrodek, let us pray for the grace of perseverance in faith and courage.

The liturgical memorial falls on September 4.

St Alphonsus de Ligouri

St AlphonseSaint Alphonsus de Ligouri, founder of the Redemptorists, great writer and Doctor of the Church (declared by Pius IX); patron of moral theologians.

Saint Alphonsus also was instrumental in founding the Redemptoristine nuns and several other congregations including the one founded by Pio Bruno Lantern who took the constitutions of the Redemptorists for the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. Saint Alphonsus spoke eloquently of priesthood and the dignity and beauty of properly exercising this particular grace.

The Psalm for today says much about Saint Alphonsus’ charism: “teach me your statutes, O Lord.”  What can be truly said about the man than to teach the law of the Lord? Indeed, today’s saint did much to assist the faithful in being close to God in prayer, seeking the virtuous life, being penitential and to have a good zeal for the salvation of others. One common thing we ought to recall is that Alphonsus gave us what some now call the traditional prayers for the Stations of the Cross. The Mass prayer praises and petitions God, to give us the grace he gave to Saint Alphonsus in being an example of virtue for the sake of heaven.

Other saints and blesseds of Saint Alphonsus’ religious congregation: St. Clement Hofbauer, St. John Neumann, St. Gerard Magella, Blessed Peter Donders, Blessed Kaspar Stanggassinger, Blessed Gennaro Sarnelli, and Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos and at least 5 other beati. Plus, there a few on the way to sainthood such as Venerable Father Alfred Pampalon, and the 4 martyrs of Ukraine, and the 6 martyrs of Cuenca, Spain as well as Antonio Maria Losito declared Venerable in 2015, and 8 other Venerables. The spirituality of Saint Alphonsus has produced many holy men raised to, or on the way to being raised, the holy altar.

 

 

Solanum Casey’s 59th anniversary of death

Solanus Casey tombToday is the anniversary of death for Venerable Servant of God Father Solanus Casey.

The Sacrifice of the Mass was offered at the Capuchin Shrine in Detroit where his tomb exists. The Archbishop of Detroit, Allen H. Vigneron, offered Mass.

Father Solanus Casey, was born November 25, 1870, on a Wisconsin farm, joined the Capuchin friars in 1896 and ordained priest on July 24, 1904.

Prayers for the beatification of Father Solanus Casey.

St Ignatius of Loyola

Ignatius LoyolaFrom the life of Saint Ignatius from his own words by Luis Gonzalez

Ignatius was passionately fond of reading worldly books of fiction and tales of knight-errantry. When he felt he was getting better, he asked for some of these books to pass the time. But no book of that sort could be found in the house; instead they gave him a life of Christ and a collection of the lives of saints written in Spanish.

By constantly reading these books he began to be attracted to what he found narrated there. Sometimes in the midst of his reading he would reflect on what he had read. Yet at other times he would dwell on many of the things which he had been accustomed to dwell on previously. But at this point our Lord came to his assistance, insuring that these thoughts were followed by others which arose from his current reading.

While reading the life of Christ our Lord or the lives of the saints, he would reflect and reason with himself: “What if I should do what Saint Francis or Saint Dominic did?” In this way he let his mind dwell on many thoughts; they lasted a while until other things took their place. Then those vain and worldly images would come into his mind and remain a long time. This sequence of thoughts persisted with him for a long time.

But there was a difference. When Ignatius reflected on worldly thoughts, he felt intense pleasure; but when he gave them up out of weariness, he felt dry and depressed. Yet when he thought of living the rigorous sort of life he knew the saints had lived, he not only experienced pleasure when he actually thought about it, but even after he dismissed these thoughts, he still experienced great joy. Yet he did not pay attention to this, nor did he appreciate it until one day, in a moment of insight, he began to marvel at the difference. Then he understood his experience: thoughts of one kind left him sad, the others full of joy. And this was the first time he applied a process of reasoning to his religious experience. Later on, when he began to formulate his spiritual exercises, he used this experience as an illustration to explain the doctrine he taught his disciples on the discernment of spirits.

Choice: vanity of owning and being in eternity?

On the 18th Sunday Through the Church year we have been given this gospel: Luke 12:13-21. In part we come to the part of the passage where parable Jesus tells he mentions the demand for the inheritance. As a friend said in his homily, “It is interesting to observe how many times I find myself “give orders” to Jesus! Should it not be the opposite? But even for Jesus, rather than giving an order or even that of judgments or condemnation, He invites me to reflect….”

St. Ambrose offers us this reflection:

“He uselessly accumulates wealth when he does not know how he will use it. He is like him who, when his full barns were bursting from the new harvest, built storehouses for his abundant crops, not knowing for whom he gathered them. The things that are of the world remain in the world, and whatever riches we gather are left to our heirs. The things that we cannot take with us aren’t ours either. Only virtue is the companion of the dead. Compassion alone follows us.”

Electing new government

The Democratic National Convention just finished and Republicans had their jamboree the week before last. I am finding it difficult to settle on the right candidate for governance of these American States. Neither of them, in my opinion, are right for high office. While I am not going to outline right now why I think so, I am merely offering my reservation for both political candidates.

What do I have to do to able to vote with an informed conscience? Is there a primacy of conscience? At this time, a good sense of one’s moral compass, the desire for the good of all, one can say that making a decision for a political candidate (party) today is not easily made or clearly or satisfying. Political elections is not supposed to be rooted in ideology but in solid principles based on Christian ethics (here I am speaking as a Catholic but there same would be said of people faith and good will applicable to all people) and Catholic Social Teaching. Using what the US bishops said, I have “the responsibility to make choices in political life [that] rests with each individual in light of a properly formed conscience” (FCFC, 37). Herein lies the hard and necessary work. In his 1993 document, Veritatis Splendor, John Paul taught that a human being “must act in accordance with [the judgement of conscience]. If man acts against this judgment or, in a case where he lacks certainty about the rightness and goodness of a determined act, still performs that act, he stands condemned by his own conscience, the proximate norm of personal morality” (60). This idea comes from the Thomistic tradition that says if one ignores the conscience one ignores God (even if the conscience is in error).

What is conscience? Among many things that can be said about conscience the teaching of the Church is that conscience is not a mechanism for one’s rationalization of one’s subjectivity, allowing for a person to do what he or she wants at will without the guidance of objective norms of the moral life. Conscience is relational to the objectivity of truth; the notion that there is my t truth and your truth is to retreat for truth because truth is not reduced to this type of certainty. One ought to consider what the Council Fathers taught about conscience they described it as “the voice of God resounding in the human heart, revealing the truth to us and calling us to do what is good while shining what is evil.” Moreover, “conscience is a judgment of reason  whereby the human person recognizes the moral  quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed.” Hence, we say conscience is basic to the person who seeks to know and do what is good and true based on a process of discernment and moral reasoning. The primacy of conscience is rooted in a sense of the truth first and foremost. This notion of primacy led Blessed John Henry Newman to say in this regard that “Certainly, if I am obliged to bring religion into after-dinner toasts… I shall drink  –to the Pope, if you please, — still to Conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.” The Authority of the pope and primacy of conscience are not in opposition to each other because both seek to know the truth: no conscience without the truth.

A conscience can err in its “[i]gnorance of Christ and his gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one’s passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the church’s authority and her teaching, [and] a lack of conversion and charity.” (FCFC 400).

But back to what is crucial: to keep in mind what promotes the dignity of the human person based on a well formed conscience as the guide for making a decision on a political candidate. The faithful, then, in the formation of conscience “ought carefully to attend to” church teaching with an openness of mind and heart regarding the reasons of thus-and-such moral point with the work of seeking and adhering to the truth; Thus, we ultimately are called upon submitting one’s reason and will with sincerity. Here we acknowledge the Church is a most reliable in the formation of conscience.

Areas of concern for the flourishing of human dignity:

  • concerns for the family as “the first and fundamental unit of society”;
  • principles for sacredness of life in the face of evils like abortion, euthanasia, IVF;
  • just war teaching in both its jus ad bellum (when nations may go to war) and jus in bello (how war must be conducted) –even with the complexities of modern warfare;
  • principles of subsidiarity and solidarity –the social security and welfare programs;
  • a moral mandate of a just wage; the rights—and obligations—of workers generally;
  • just immigration policies;
  • rights of economic freedom/initiative and private property;
  • support for good agricultural;
  • support for good environmental stewardship;
  • rights to health care and education; fighting unjust discrimination;
  • a preferential option for the poor, elderly and chronically ill;
  • and, a reasonable consideration for international debt relief of poor nations.

One help is the concept that the US bishops place on the table: “When all candidates hold a position that promotes an intrinsically evil act, the conscientious voter faces a dilemma. The voter may decide to take the extraordinary step of not voting for any candidate or, after careful deliberation, may decide to vote for the candidate deemed less likely to advance such a morally flawed position and more likely to pursue other authentic human goods” (FCFC, 36)

Some essays and resources to read:

Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship (2007; updated by the US bishops)

“Can a Catholic in good conscience vote for Trump?”

“Why I Must Oppose Donald Trump: One Priest’s Perspective”

a bibliography stitched by the UND

and consult with Joseph Ratzinger’s Conscience and Truth

Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus

Johannes Vermeer Christ_in_the_House of Martha and MaryToday, on the Novus Ordo liturgical calendar the Church recalls St Martha. For Benedictines, today we seek the help of Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus, Hosts of the Lord. All three are not only disciples of the Lord but are true friends. In the Benedictine tradition Saints Martha, Mary and Lazarus are venerated as living Saint Benedict’s mandate of hospitality: “Let all guests be received as Christ, for He will one day say, I came as a guest and you welcomed me.” (RSB 53:1). For this reason, one Benedictine Lectionary proposes the story of Abraham and Sarah extending hospitality.

In a time when hospitality is not a value, the Benedictine tradition gives us this feast of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus to keep our hearts focussed on the practice hospitality. “Behold,” says the Lord, “I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me” (Rev. 3:20).

What we see in these saints we see first in the Eucharistic hospitality of God at the altar. Just as Martha, Mary and Lazarus opened the door to Jesus and made room for him, there is room for all of us at the temple of God where we are invited in to hear the Word and receive his gifts of Life.

May we learn what it means to be hospitable. Can we sit at the foot of the Master like Mary at the Eucharistic banquet and receive his mystical body and blood, or be a penitent like Lazarus or to set aside the anxieties of this world? Can we leave the anxieties of life to bring our entire humanity to the Lord through the transparency of prayer?