On this date in 2011, the former Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem made his transitus to the Lord of Life.
In charity, let us pray for the peaceful repose of the soul of Cardinal Foley.
May the memory of Cardinal Foley be eternal.
Our Lady of Palestine, pray for him.
Blessed Bartolo Longo, pray for him.
We are “…missionaries of the Gospel of Christ in today’s society…”.
Periodically I ask myself what is this order to whom I belong? What’s the point? Why is it important to the Church, too society, to me? Having to ask the question is not entertaining frivolous doubt or wasting time and words. Knowing one’s mission, living one’s vocation and working one’s conversion –all graces that are God-given– is a daily personal work and a daily prayer generated by the Holy Spirit. After all, we do pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with His seven gifts, do we not?
This last point was reinforced with me by attending the Mass with the Rite of Confirmation for the Latin Arab community at the Good Shepherd Community in Yonkers, NY. Hearing the questions and the prelate’s prayer invoking the Holy Spirit. Hence the image of the EOHSJ-NY gathering with His Beatitude Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM (20 Nov 2022).
The question this post resources is an essential a question for those discerning membership but also for those who have been in the Order for any length of time. It is a question posed by a member of the Mexican Lieutenancy to the Cardinal Filoni who serves as the Grand Master. The answer Cardinal Filoni gives is brief and worthy of serious reflection.
I would hope that all of us who claim membership a noble ideal in the EOHSJ would not only ask for understanding (i.e., what is the meaning of this question of what type of group to which we belong) but also ask the question of our particular Lieutenancies. Are we missionaries of the Gospel? Are we bearing witness to the Word of God and sacramentality of God’s presence in the world? Are we faithful members of the Mystical Body of Christ in concrete ways (cf. Matthew 25)?
Blessed Bartolo Longo, pray for us.
Earlier today I was with members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Eohsj Eastern Lieutenancy) as we joined with Good Shepherd Parish (Yonkers, NY) and His Beatitude, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM. It the occasion for a pastoral visit to the Arab Latin Catholic Community at which time a group of the children of the parish received the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion.
Nice to have met Father Davide Meli and Abouna Fares Hattar.
Today, as Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, we honor Mary, the Mother of God under the title of Our Lady of Palestine. It’s a daily prayer Our Lady for the people of the Holy Land and for members of the Order.
With Church we pray:
Heavenly Father, we humbly ask you, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Palestine, to help us overcome all the difficulties which face us in this Holy Land, the land which your Son has made Holy for it is in this land where our Savior took flesh and brought the entire world to Redemption. We beseech you Father, strengthen us in faith, service, and perseverance so that we may be witnesses to that unending act of love, you who live and reign forever and ever.
Read about the importance of the Shrine of Our Lady as a spiritual home for the Patriarchate.
http://www.oessh.va/content/ordineequestresantosepolcro/en/dalla-terra-santa/luoghi-e-comunita/luoghi/il-santuario-di-deir-rafat.html
In Rome and Jerusalem especially, and especially for me in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, we celebrate today Saint Helen (d. 327 A.D.), empress, mother, pilgrim of the Holy Land, who made worship places and relics of the history, the mystery of salvation.
Several years ago I was privileged to live at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Rome where the relics of the Lord’s passion reside. It was a beautiful thing to have some daily prayer in this holy place.
Let us pray for the Church and the Order of the Holy Sepulchre.
Image of St Helena at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Rome.
The badge of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, formed by a large Greek cross surrounded by four small crosses, symbolically represents the five wounds of Christ which are like the “Gates of Heaven”. This emblem is not a decoration but a mission whose spiritual meaning is illuminated in the light of the teaching of Pope Francis.
Indeed, since his election, the Holy Father urges us to touch the wounds of Christ, like the Apostle Thomas did after the resurrection, to welcome the mercy that radiates from Him as a source of peace. “If we put our hands together into these wounds and confess that Jesus has risen, and if we proclaim Him as our Lord and our God, if recognizing our shortcomings, we dive into His wounds of love, we can find the truth.” Joy of forgiveness and getting a foretaste of the day when, with God’s help, we will be able to celebrate on the same altar the Passover mystery,” he emphasized, especially from an ecumenical perspective, during a pontifical trip.
“A saint was saying that the body of Jesus crucified is like a bag of mercy, reaching us all through his wounds,” he also explained on the occasion of Mercy Sunday.”
“We all need mercy, we know it.” Let us draw closer to Jesus and touch his wounds in our suffering brothers. Jesus’ wounds are a treasure: that’s where mercy flows. Let us be brave and touch the wounds of Jesus. With these wounds, he stands before the Father, he shows them to the Father, as if he were saying, “Father, this is the price, these wounds are what I paid for my brothers.” Through his wounds, Jesus intercedes before the Father. He gives us mercy if we draw near, and intercede for us. Do not forget the wounds of Jesus” (Regina Cæli, April 28, 2019).
Each member of the Order is therefore called to first carry in his heart the symbols of the badge sewn on his mantle and to spread the veneration of the Holy Wounds of Christ, sources of forgiveness and mercy. They cleanse and heal. If we embrace them, they can truly change our lives. (EOHSJ)
On Sunday, May 29, Pope Francis announced his intention to create 21 new Cardinals at a Consistory on Saturday, 27 August. One of the 21 is Reverend Monsignor Fortunato Frezza, canon of Saint Peter’s Basilica and Master of Ceremonies and Spiritual Assistant of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, will be created Cardinal by the Pope. Frezza work for several years at the Secretariat General for the Synod of the Bishops.
The Order of the Holy Sepulchre has provided us with a brief tribute to the Cardinal-designate here by Leonardo Visconti di Modrone, Governor General of the Order.
Photo of cardinals with Pope on May 3, 2021. (Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media)
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, formerly celebrated on May 3, for the finding of the True Cross of Christ by Emperor Constantine and his mother Saint Helen. The Cross is exalted and honored as a trophy for its Easter victory and a sign that will appear in heaven announcing to everyone the second coming of the Lord.
Prayers for the good work of the Knights and Dames of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.
Here is a miniature taken from the magnificent Breviary of Jerusalem (XIV sec.), from the “Ludovic II De Torres” located at the Library of the Archbishop’s Seminary of Montreal.
Today in the Byzantine Catholic Church it is the Sunday of the Holy Cross. It is a day on which we recall that wood heals wood, the wood of the cross heals the wood that tree in paradise we were told not to eat from. Today we venerate the Holy Cross and it signals mid-Lent. As members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem we are keenly aware that the cross is intimately connected with the Lord’s victory over death, and thus our salvation.
St John Chrysostom teaches us:
“Therefore, no one should be ashamed of the venerable symbols of our salvation: of the cross, which is the summit of our goods, for which we live and are what we are. Instead, let’s carry the cross of Christ like a trophy everywhere! All things, among us, reach their fulfillment by means of the cross. When we have to be reborn, the cross becomes present; when we feed on the mystical food; when we are consecrated ministers of the altar; when other mysteries are fulfilled, this symbol of victory is always present there.”
Homily on Matthew 54, 551B-552A.
This post was written for members of the Order the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem and posted on FB.
Today the Church gives us the feast of a great Father and Doctor of the Church of the West: St Hilary of Poitiers (315-368), one of the important figures of the fourth century. He was a convert to the faith. At the time of his election as bishop of Poitiers by the lay faithful and clergy, he was married with one daughter (who became a nun known for her charity and later a saint). Our saint was known as the “Hammer of the Arians” (Malleus Arianorum) and the “Athanasius of the West.”
In the controversy with the Arians, Hilary devoted his energy defending and teaching orthodox Christian faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ, Son of God and God as the Father who begot him from eternity; by comparison the Arians considered Jesus the Son of God to be an excellent human creature but only human. You might remember that Arian “theology” spread through music. Opposing the Arian hymns, Hilary wrote hymns to foster Catholic faith. St Hilary’s method for his theological reflection began in baptismal faith. The starting point of Christian life is and has always been the sacrament of Baptism, and it is a point that members of the EOHSJ take as critical in living our vocation.
In his famous work, De Trinitate, Hilary writes: Jesus “has commanded us to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that is, in the confession of the Author, of the Only-Begotten One and of the Gift.
The Author of all things is one alone, for one alone is God the Father, from whom all things proceed. And one alone is Our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things exist, and one alone is the Spirit, a gift in all…. In nothing can be found to be lacking so great a fullness, in which the immensity in the Eternal One, the revelation in the Image, joy in the Gift, converge in the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit.”
God the Father, being wholly love, is able to communicate his divinity to his Son in its fullness. Particularly beautiful and insightful is the formula of St Hilary composed to understand the Mystery: “God knows not how to be anything other than love, he knows not how to be anyone other than the Father. Those who love are not envious and the one who is the Father is so in his totality. This name admits no compromise, as if God were father in some aspects and not in others.”
St Hilary of Poitiers is the patron saint fighting against snake bites. As his name suggests, Knights and Ladies of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem ought to be people of good cheer as we give good witness to the truth of Jesus Christ.
St Hilary, pray for us.
