Come and See

What, Exactly, is the Mass?

2012-02-10T10:57:00.000-08:00

The Mass is believed by Catholics to be an unbloody sacrifice in which by the power of God, the institution of Christ, and the ministry 'of the priest, the body and blood of our blessed Saviour are produced upon the altar, under the appearances of bread and wine; and are there offered to the Almighty, not only as a propitiation for the sins of mankind, but also in testimony of the adoration or homage which is his due; in thanksgiving; for benefits received, in which view it is eucharistic; and to beseech future favors, whereby it is impetratory.

A Catholic church is a Christian temple, erected for the purpose of having the holy sacrifice of the Mass offered therein. This sacrifice is made upon an altar, which is a table sufficiently large to sustain the offerings, the book and other necessaries. Formerly the holy sacrifice was offered in the catacombs, upon the tombs of the martyrs. And frequently since that period, when splendid temples were erected, their bodies or remains have been removed from those obscure resting places, and enshrined in rich sarcophagi, over which the table of the altar was placed. The relics of other saints have been also, in several instances, thus entombed.

The rapt Evangelist beheld under" the heavenly altar, where stood the immolated Lamb, the souls of those slain for the word of God. Glorious in their blood, they reposed in celestial bliss until their expected companions should arrive; whilst under the altars upon the earth, their bodies rested honorably enshrined in those places where the Lamb was produced as slain, and offered in the midst of the holy choirs below.

The crucifix or image of the Saviour in his state of bloody immolation, is very appropriately placed upon the centre of the altar where that commemorative immolation is to be made. On each side candles are lighted, not only as a token of joy, but also as by their blaze they mystically exhibit the descent of the Holy Ghost in the form of tongues of fire, for the purpose of endowing the Apostles, the first ministers of the Catholic Church, with power from on high, to perform the stupendous works for which they were commissioned by an incarnate God.

The altar is a consecrated stone. This has been the case during upwards of fifteen hundred years, previously to which period, no law prescribed any particular material. The Church also by the very color of the front of the altar, and of the vestments, leaches her children the nature of the solemnity which she celebrates. Thus, for instance, white is used upon the great festivals of the Trinity, of the Saviour, of his blessed mother, of angels, of saints, who without shedding their blood gave their testimony by the practice of exalted virtues; and on some other occasions. Red is used on the feast of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost descended in the form of tongues of fire; on the festivals of martyrs, and the like. In limes of penance, violet is used, green on days when there is no special solemnity, and black on Good Friday, and on occasion of offices for the deceased.

Ceremonial:
for the use of the Catholic Churches of the United States of America.
Published by Order of the First Council of Baltimore,
with the approbation of the Holy See

The Heroic Minute

2012-02-04T22:11:00.001-08:00

(Taken from http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2012/02/heroic-minute-immediately-upon-waking.html )

The heroic minute, immediately upon waking - the first battle of the day

A Carthusian monk, from the film "Into Great Silence"

5^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 1:29-39
Rising very early before dawn, [Jesus] left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
After exorcising a demoniac, healing St. Peter’s mother-in-law, and curing many others, Jesus teaches us the absolute primacy of the interior life by rising early the next morning, before it was day, so as to go to a deserted place and pray.
Fr. Conrelius a’ Lapide tells us: “Learn here from Christ to give the early morning to prayer, and to rise up with the dawn, so as to have leisure for meditation, and to give the first-fruits of the day to God. For the dawn of day is a friend of the Muses, but a greater friend of God and the angels.”
It is better to pray in the morning
Together with all the spiritual doctors before and after, St. Francis de Sales recommends that mental prayer (including the Rosary) be done in the early morning [Introduction to the Devout Life II,1]:
“Give an hour every day to meditation before dinner [i.e. the noon meal];—if you can, let it be early in the morning, when your mind will be less cumbered, and fresh after the night’s rest. Do not spend more than an hour thus, unless specially advised to do so by your spiritual father.”
Further, the Doctor of the Catholic Press writes:
“If it should happen that your morning goes by without the usual meditation, either owing to a pressure of business, or from any other cause, (which interruptions you should try to prevent as far as possible,) try to repair the loss in the afternoon, but not immediately after a meal, or you will perhaps be drowsy, which is bad both for your meditation and your health. But if you are unable all day to make up for the omission, you must remedy it as far as may be by ejaculatory prayer [e.g. “My Jesus, I love you.”], and by reading some spiritual book, together with an act of penitence for the neglect, together with a stedfast resolution to do better the next day.”
The morning offering of St. Alphonsus
St. Alphonsus offers the following prayer as an example of how every Christian should pray immediately upon rising:
My God! I adore You, I love You with my whole heart.
I thank You for all Your benefits, especially for having preserved me during the past night.
I offer You all my actions and sufferings of this day, in union with the actions of Jesus and Mary; and I make the intention of gaining all the indulgences that I can gain.
I purpose, O Lord! to avoid offending You this day.

[It is good to make a resolution, particularly about the fault into which we fall the most often.]

I beg You, for the love of Jesus, to grant me the grace of perseverance.
I resolve to conform myself to Your holy will, and particularly in those things that are contrary to my inclination, saying always, O Lord I Your will be done. My Jesus, keep Your hand over me this day. Most Holy Virgin Mary, take me beneath your mantle. And do You, O Eternal Father, help me for the love of Jesus and Mary! O my angel guardian and my holy patron saints, assist me.

[Say: Our Father, Hail Mary, Creed; three Hail Marys: in honor of the purity of Mary.]
Notice that St. Alphonsus is speaking in holy aspirations or ejaculatory prayers – quick and sweet acts of love, of faith, of thanksgiving, of petition. Some (perhaps not all) will find that these are much easier in the morning than a long memorized prayer, they are also more effective in exciting the will to the love of God.
Further, the resolution to avoid some particular vice: Every day we must either grow or decrease in virtue. The soul is a living being and, like all things living, it cannot in this life maintain perfect neutrality – every organism, including the supernatural organism which is the soul, is either growing or dying. Thus, first thing in the morning, we ready ourselves for the spiritual warfare of the coming day, and we resolve to mortify (to put to death) that fault which is most dangerous to our spiritual growth.
Finally, with distrust of self but great confidence in God, St. Alphonsus tells us to be resigned to the divine will. This is the key to holiness: Conformity, and even abandonment, to divine providence. Whatever comes this day is given or at least permitted by God for my spiritual benefit, if only I make good use of the occasions he provides me! Most especially, any sufferings or humiliations which are assigned by God for me in the coming day are the greatest means of my growth in holiness – I must not seek to avoid them.
We pray to Mary, to the saints, and to our guardian angel for protection and assistance. The Hail Mary, said three times in the morning and at night, is the great means of overcoming lust and persevering in chastity – every Christian should employ this powerful tool.
A mortification in the morning
St. Josemaría Escrivá, the Father and Founder of Opus Dei, tells us:
“The heroic minute. It is the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a supernatural reflection and ... up! The heroic minute: here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body. If, with God’s help, you conquer yourself, you will be well ahead for the rest of the day. It’s so discouraging to find oneself beaten at the first skirmish.” (cf. The Way 206)
As the season of Lent is soon approaching, perhaps we may consider incorporating this early mortification into our discipline.

Planned Parenthood

2012-02-04T22:07:00.000-08:00

(Taken from http://gkupsidedown.blogspot.com/2012/02/money-and-sex.html)

Money and Sex

That headline got your attention didn't it?

This week we have witnessed jubilation in pro life ranks about Komen's decision to withdraw funding from Planned Parenthood. Then jubilation turned to lamentation when Komen seemed to reverse their decision. Now there is recrimination, bitter and angry words being dished out towards Planned Parenthood and the liberals in the media and politics who seem to have pressured Komen to reverse their decision.

Planned Parenthood and their supporters are being blamed for a 'mafia like shakedown' of Komen. The politicians behind Planned Parenthood are being blamed for pressuring Komen. The pro aborts are accused of lying and scheming and planning to close Komen down for good.

Much talk on both sides has been blathered about "saving women's lives", "women's health", "serving women and curing breast cancer."

Fuhgeddaboudit. It's about money and sex. Lots of money and lots of sex.

If it was about saving women's lives, then we would all listen to the increasing voices reminding us that birth control pills cause breast cancer and we'd stop prescribing birth control pills. But if we stopped prescribing birth control pills we would not be able to have "free love" any more. Furthermore, the hugely profitable business of supplying birth control pills would take a hit.

So much talk about saving women's lives, but if we wanted to save women's lives and improve women's health we would stop abortion because abortion hurts women physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. But if we stopped abortion we would not have the solution to our "free love" when the contraception doesn't work. Furthermore, abortion is big business. There are lots of people employed in the abortion industry. They'd lose their jobs and their incomes.

Has anyone also noticed how much money is involved in the "women's health charities"? Millions of dollars flow in and around and through both Komen and Planned Parenthood. Charity is big business, and it's hard work getting all those donations, all that government funding, and keeping the money flowing. Politicians have to be lobbied. Fat cats have to be schmoozed. Expensive publicity campaigns have to be undertaken. Expensive fund raising events have to be organized. There are plenty of jobs in the charitable industry, and plenty of people who want to build a safe barn for their cash cow.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm all in favor of saving women's lives and improving women's health. But that is not the real priority for the worldlings. The first priority is to get as much sex and money as possible as soon as possible and to keep both as long as possible. Every technology and propaganda tool will be used to 'correct' any problems (like a pregnancy, an unwanted marriage or a sexually transmitted disease) that come from the indulgence in sex and hoarding of money. Every power, position and force will be used to preserve the flow of money and sex, and any person or movement that threatens either the money or the sex will be met with all the snarling fury of a cornered beast.

The "women's health" racket is just that--a racket. I reckon the best way to improve women's lives is to encourage the family. The woman's life I want to improve the most is the life of my wife, my mother, my sister, my daughter and their friends. Not only do I want to improve their life materially, and look after their health and welfare with them, but I want them to improve their lives and health and welfare. The first way to encourage the family is to encourage men to take responsibility for their actions, and to work with the woman they love to build a solid family unit which gives the woman and her children the health, welfare, security and happiness they need.

The other way to improve women's lives and women's health is to encourage chastity--and by this I don't mean to blame women for promiscuity. It takes two to tango. If men and women were committed to life long faithfulness in marriage and no sex outside marriage, then the health, welfare, self esteem and happiness of women would take a quantum leap forward.

But all of this would mean that we would all have to put up with having less money and less sex. We'd have to be monogamous and faithful and self disciplined. Men would have to respect and honor women for more than just sex. Women would have to learn to please men in other ways than just flopping down to give them sex. Both men and women would have to learn how to behave with self control, dignity and self respect. Marriage takes hard work. We would have to learn more about love and less about sex. We'd have to learn how to make sacrifices and live for someone other than ourselves.

Planned Parenthood

2012-02-01T22:53:00.000-08:00

Here is an interview with Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. Just watching the first 3 minutes is very telling. This has some obvious interest for the current HHS issue.

Do You Have a Vocation to the Religious Life?

2012-01-10T11:16:00.001-08:00

BENEDICTINE MONKS

BENEDICTINE NUNS

DOMINICAN NUNS

CARMELITE MONKS

POOR CLARES

LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T10:55:00.000-08:00

When Mary gave birth, the heavens were glad and the earth rejoiced and hell was shaken and trembled. The heavens gave him a bright and beaming star and a glorious host of angels gathered in praise and singing: 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.' The exultant earth offered him shepherds giving glory to God, and magi worshipping and presenting their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh. Hell's contribution from out of its turmoils was an impious king and the rage of soldiers wreaking violence on the innocent, slaughtering without pity the unweaned infants snatched from the breast. So it was that the good of the one who would reward the good rejoiced and the wicked were dismayed when Mary was delivered of the one who would reward the good and mete out due requital to the wicked. She labored and gave birth: imagine the happy smile on the face of all creation as the whole earth praised its Lord! Imagine the night sky in its beauty, all clouds swept aside and the stars saying 'Here we are!' and shining merrily. Imagine the night flooding the darkness with light and supplying brilliance in the place of murk. Before the rising of the sun, that night had shed abroad a light that eclipsed the sun's splendor, for that was the night of which the Psalmist said: 'The night will shine bright as the noonday.'(Psalm 138:12) And if all created things rejoiced and were glad, what must his mother's joy and happiness have been? The tongue stumbles, the heart shrinks back and the mind gapes before such an overwhelming joy as this.

Mary understands that in her are fulfilled the promises made to the patriarchs, the words of the prophets who foretold that Christ would be born of a virgin, and the hopes of our forefathers who yearned for his coming. She sees the Son of God committed to her care and rejoices that the world's salvation is entrusted to her. She hears the Lord God speaking to her and in her: 'Behold, I have chosen you from all flesh and have blessed you among women. I have committed my Son to your care, I have entrusted to you my only Son. Do not be afraid to suckle the one you bore, to rear the child you have brought forth. See in him not only your God but also your son. My son and yours. My son through His Godhead, yours through the manhood he has assumed.'No human being knows with what fondness and zeal, humility and reverence, love and devotion she fulfilled this charge; it is known to God who tries the minds and hearts, to God who weighs the spirits. Often - we may imagine - forgetting food and drink, ignoring the body's needs, she would spend sleepless nights, her mind and eyes alike intent on Christ who was her whole desire, the object of her adoration.

When she yielded her limbs to sleep, she would rest peacefully in the same flow of thought that had filled her waking mind. There where her treasure was, there too was her heart, and where her glory was, there was her awareness focused. She loved her God, who was her son, with all her heart and all her mind and all her strength: with all her heart, because she loved him with the full depth of her feeling; with all her mind, because her understanding was entire; with all her strength, because she carried out her charge with wholehearted intent. She saw with her eyes and dandled in her hands the Word of life. Happy she to whom it was given to cherish the one who fosters and nourishes all creation, to carry the ground and stay of all that is, to suckle the child who fills the very breasts he sucks, to feed the all-provider who gives even the birds their food! Round her neck clung the Father's Wisdom and in her arms nestled the power that moves the universe. The little Jesus leaned on his mother's breast, and in her virgin lap reposed the eternal rest of the saints in heaven. Jesus, babbling gently, called that mother whom every spirit calls upon in need. She meanwhile, filled with the Holy Spirit, held her son breast to breast and pressed his face to hers. Sometimes she kissed his hands and arms and with a mother's freedom stole sweet kisses from his sacred lips. She never tired of feasting her eyes with looking and her ears with listening, for was he not the one whom many prophets and kings desired to see, and never saw, to hear, and never heard?

The Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

2011-12-12T05:29:00.000-08:00

SCIENCE STUNNED BY VIRGIN OF GUADALUPE'S EYES

Engineer Sees a Reflection, Literally, From a Scene in 1531

ROME, JAN. 14, 2001 (ZENIT.org) .- Digital technology is giving new leads in understanding a phenomenon that continues to puzzle science: the mysterious eyes of the image of Virgin of Guadalupe.

The image, imprinted on the tilma of a 16th-century peasant, led millions of indigenous Indians in Mexico to convert to the Catholic faith. Last week in Rome, results of research into the famed image were discussed by engineer José Aste Tonsmann of the Mexican Center of Guadalupan Studies during a conference at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum.

For over 20 years, this graduate of environmental systems engineering of Cornell University has studied the image of the Virgin left on the rough maguey fiber fabric of Juan Diego’s tilma. What intrigued Tonsmann the most were the eyes of the Virgin.

Though the dimensions are microscopic, the iris and the pupils of the image’s eyes have imprinted on them a highly detailed picture of at least 13 people, Tonsmann said. The same people are present in both the left and right eyes, in different proportions, as would happen when human eyes reflect the objects before them.

Tonsmann says he believes the reflection transmitted by the eyes of the Virgin of Guadalupe is the scene on Dec. 9, 1531, during which Juan Diego showed his tilma, with the image, to Bishop Juan de Zumárraga and others present in the room.

In his research, Tonsmann used a digital process used by satellites and space probes in transmitting visual information.

He insists that the image "that has not been painted by human hand." As early as the 18th century, scientists showed that it was impossible to paint such an image in a fabric of that texture. The "ayate" fibers used by the Indians, in fact, deteriorated after 20 years. Yet, the image and the fabric it is imprinted on have lasted almost 470 years ago.

Tonsmann pointed out that Richard Kuhn, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, has found that the image did not have natural, animal or mineral colorings. Given that there were no synthetic colorings in 1531, the image is inexplicable.

In 1979, Americans Philip Callahan and Jody B. Smith studied the image with infrared rays and discovered to their surprise that there was no trace of paint and that the fabric had not been treated with any kind of technique.

"[How] it is possible to explain this image and its consistency in time without colors, on a fabric that has not been treated?" Tonsmann asked. "[How] is it possible that, despite the fact there is no paint, the colors maintain their luminosity and brilliance?"

Tonsmann, a Peruvian engineer, added, "Callahan and Smith showed how the image changes in color slightly according to the angle of viewing, a phenomenon that is known by the word iridescence, a technique that cannot be reproduced with human hands."

The scientist began his study in 1979. He magnified the iris of the Virgin’s eyes 2,500 times and, through mathematical and optical procedures, was able to identify all the people imprinted in the eyes.

The eyes reflect the witnesses of the Guadalupan miracle, the moment Juan Diego unfurled his tilma before the bishop, according to Tonsmann. In other words, the Virgin’s eyes have the reflection that would have been imprinted in the eyes of any person in her position.

In the eyes, Tonsmann believes, it is possible to discern a seated Indian, who is looking up to the heavens; the profile of a balding, elderly man with a white beard, much like the portrait of Bishop Zumárraga, painted by Miguel Cabrera, to depict the miracle; and a younger man, in all probability interpreter Juan González.

Also present, Tonsmann believes, is an Indian, likely Juan Diego, of striking features, with a beard and mustache, who unfolds his own tilma before the bishop; a woman of dark complexion, possibly a Negro slave who was in the bishop’s service; and a man with Spanish features who looks on pensively, stroking his beard with his hand.

In a word, the Virgin’s eyes bear a kind of instant picture of what occurred at the moment the image was unveiled in front of the bishop, Tonsmann says.

Moreover, in the center of the pupils, on a much more reduced scale, another scene can be perceived, independent of the first, the scientist contends. It is that of an Indian family made up of a woman, a man and several children. In the right eye, other people who are standing appear behind the woman.

Tonsmann ventured to express why he believes the Virgin’s eyes have a "hidden" message for modern times, when technology is able to discover it. "This could be the case of the picture of the family in the center of the Virgin’s eye," he says, "at a time when the family is under serious attack in our modern world."

Who is Jesus Christ?

2011-12-03T00:17:00.000-08:00

Jesus Christ is true God and true man. The Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity who existed from all eternity according to His Divinity, and was born in time and history of the Blessed Virgin Mary according to His humanity.

Jesus Christ took on our human nature and is a true and perfect man. We can truly say that God has become man, and that this man Jesus is God.

Jesus Christ, from the moment of His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit, enjoyed in His human soul the Beatific Vision - that is, the vision of the Divine Essence which those who go to heaven will enjoy for all eternity and which constitutes our complete and perfect happiness.

Jesus Christ had three kinds of knowledge, all of which were perfect: beatific knowledge, which is the knowledge had by all the saints in heaven by means of the vision of God's Essence; Infused knowledge, which is the knowedge had by the angels and which includes all truths, natural and divinely revealed; Aquired knowledge, which is the knowledge we have as human beings, by which we come to know things through our senses. Christ knew all things knowable by this knowledge. In no sense was Christ ignorant.

Jesus was never taught by anyone. Being God and perfect in His knowledge, He knew all things. As Head of the Church and our supreme Teacher, ignorance could have no place in He who was to bring us out of ignorance. However, this does not mean that He did not acquire his habit of walking, talking and other such qualities from His Blesssed Mother Mary. It just means that no one instructed Christ in something He did not know.

Jesus Christ not only did not sin, but was incapable of sin, by reason of His intimate ("hypostatic") union with God, being God Himself. Christ's human will was perfectly one with the will of God, while we can sin because we go against the will of God.

Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the desert, but never was in danger of giving into it. He did not experience temptation in the same way, as He was incapable of sin. He was tempted or tried in the same way gold is tried by fire - simply to manifest its purity, not to remove imperfection or on account of impurity or weakness.

Jesus Christ is Head of the Church, and all graces come to us through Him as true God and true man.

Jesus Christ instituted all seven sacraments of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church which is the one true Church, the only one founded by Him for the salvation of the entire human race.

No one is saved except through Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body, the Church. Though those who are ignorant of Christ and the Church through no fault of their own can, in ways known only to God, be saved, nevertheless Christ instituted His Church and her sacraments as the only known means of obtaining His grace and being saved.

Advent is indeed a joyous time if this is the Saviour we await, if He who is infinite God from all eternity chose, out of His mercy and for our salvation, to become man like us.

Getting Out of Hand

2011-10-27T01:54:00.000-07:00

For the Children's Sake, These Stereotypes About Priests Must Stop
by Jennifer Fulwiler Wednesday, October 26, 2011 - National Catholic Register

“I heard that one of those Catholic popes was molesting children again!” said my mother-in-law’s friend the other day, presumably referring to the news in Kansas City. One isn’t sure where to begin addressing a statement like that. As it turned out, I didn’t have to. She was so busy making comments about how awful “those Catholic popes” are that she didn’t hear any of my attempts to respond.

The conversation was an unfortunate reminder of just how powerful the unbalanced media coverage of scandals involving Catholic clergy has been. I have no objection to even-handed, fact-based news stories about abuse within the Church; the problem is that these stories are reported far more than stories of abuse within other institutions. For example:

When the Hare Krishnas in California settled the largest sex-abuse lawsuit in history, resulting from sexual abuse of children, it generated 44 stories in California over a six-month period. During the same period, Californians were treated to 17,310 stories about sex abuse in California Catholic institutions. That’s 39,341 percent more coverage than was generated by the most serious sex-abuse case in history.

Other men who work with kids are just as likely to be sex offenders as Catholic priests*, but you’d never know that from the emphasis the media places on crimes by Catholic clergy.

As a Catholic who knows many wonderful, kind priests, I find this situation upsetting. As a mother, I find it deplorable.

Last year, we sent our son to a local public school. Within the first few days of classes, my husband and I noticed some serious red flags in terms of children’s safety. The kids shared a bathroom with adults, including adults that had no affiliation with the school (I once saw a package delivery guy waiting in line with the second graders). The rules for who could enter and exit the campus were not enforced; random adults without badges were constantly wandering around the premises. Older boys, sometimes as old as 17, would escort Kindergarden- and 1st Grade-aged girls to the bathrooms, which were were single-stall rooms that locked from the inside. And these were just a few of the problems.

When we listed these concerns to the principal, we were told not to worry about it. We offered to share some information about abuse prevention procedures from our Catholic parish, which is extremely vigilant about keeping kids safe, but were told, again, not to worry about it. We even volunteered to organize a group of parents who could raise awareness about best practices for a safe environment, and were blown off once again. We then escalated the issue to a government agency, which was similarly disinterested. All through the system, there was a distinct feeling that there was nothing to worry about, because “it couldn’t happen here.”

We basically said to the principle, the government, parents of fellow students, and anyone else who would listen:

We are concerned about the kids’ safety at a local public school. There are no prohibitions against male teachers being alone with young children (not that are enforced, anyway). I saw a UPS delivery man go into the bathroom area behind some children, with the door then closed to that narrow hallway, with no other adults around. Seventeen-year-old boys who are teacher’s aides escort even the youngest children to the restrooms, which are single-stall units that lock from the inside.

The response? Crickets chirping. Now, let’s imagine that I had raised the same concerns about a Catholic institution:

We are concerned about the kids’ safety at a local Catholic church. There are no prohibitions against Catholic priests being alone with young children (not that are enforced, anyway). I saw a priest go into the bathroom area behind some children, with the door then closed to that narrow hallway, with no other adults around. Seventeen-year-old seminarians escort even the youngest children to the restrooms, which are single-stall units that lock from the inside.

There is no doubt that my latter statement would have gotten more people’s attention than the former did. And that fact should be of grave concern to anyone who cares about preventing child abuse.

I don’t know that I would necessarily advocate for less coverage of this kind of wrongdoing within the Church. The sexual assault of a child, or any similar offense, is a grave crime against humanity that we cannot take seriously enough. But there should be much, much more discussion of these kinds of cases when they come up within other institutions. Even someone who doesn’t care about the Catholic Church (or all the good priests whose reputations have been damaged) should be concerned about the wildly unbalanced media coverage of this issue, and the impact it’s had on the mentality of the general public. Because, as any Catholic who’s lived through the scandals of recent years can tell you: There are few things more dangerous to children’s welfare than the phrase “it couldn’t happen here.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/jennifer-fulwiler/for-the-childrens-sake-these-stereotypes-about-priests-must-stop?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register&utm_content=Google+Reader#When:2011-10-26#ixzz1byEWjo9e

"If The World Hates You, Know That It Has Hated Me Before You."

2011-10-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

Satan Hates World Youth Day

2011-08-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Some images of protesters mocking and trying to disturb young people and religious at World Youth Day in Madrid.

The Real Presence

2011-08-14T13:32:00.001-07:00

Why Do Churches Look Like That?

2011-07-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

Children and Sacred Music

2011-07-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

This video is great - had to post it.

Catholic Monasticism

2011-06-27T19:49:00.001-07:00

Hymn to the Trinity - Trinity Sunday

2011-06-19T06:38:00.000-07:00

Here is a hymn of Gregorian chant to the Most Blessed Trinity (one of the most beautiful and ancient chants in the Church's treasury of sacred music). Tradition holds that this hymn of alternating verses was composed spontaneously by Sts. Ambrose and Augustine when Augustine was baptized.

"And the Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail Against It..."

2011-06-18T08:23:00.000-07:00

For the first time since the anti-clerical Revolution of the 1920s-30s, a Mass - of Corpus Christi - and a procession will be celebrated in the very center of the capital of Mexico.

The Catholic Church will regain the streets of Mexico City next Thursday ... . Coinciding with the festivity of Corpus [Christi], the Cardinal-Primate Norberto Rivera will celebrate a mass in Tlaxcoaque Square and head a procession to the capital Zócalo, the main public space of the country. ( http://www.abc.es/20110617/internacional/abcm-iglesia-mexicana-vuelve-calles-201106171620.html)

Do You Understand Papal Infallibility?

2011-06-12T07:59:00.001-07:00

Catholic Education

2011-06-09T00:47:00.000-07:00

Christian Persecution

2011-06-03T23:57:00.000-07:00

Sociologist: Every 5 Minutes a Christian Is Martyred

Speaks of Emergency in Religious Discrimination

ROME, JUNE 3, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A sociologist representing a European security organization says that the number of Christians killed each year for their faith is so high that it calculates to one martyr's life being taken every five minutes.

Massimo Introvigne of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported this data at a conference on Christian-Jewish-Muslim interfaith dialogue, which concluded today in Hungary. The conference was sponsored by the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union, and included a variety of high-level representatives from the three monotheistic religions, as well as political and social leaders.

Introvigne reported that Christians killed every year for their faith number 105,000, and that number includes only those put to death simply because they are Christians. It does not count the victims of civil or international wars.

"If these numbers are not cried out to the world, if this slaughter is not stopped, if it is not acknowledged that the persecution of Christians is the first worldwide emergency in the matter of violence and religious discrimination, the dialogue between religions will only produce beautiful conferences but no concrete results," he stated.

Egyptian diplomat Aly Mahmoud said that in his country laws have been passed that will protect Christian minorities, for example, prosecuting those who give speeches that incite hatred and banning hostile crowds outside churches.

"However, the danger is that many Christian communities in the Middle East will die from emigration, because all Christians, feeling threatened, will flee," he said.

The diplomat suggested Europe prepare for "a new wave of emigration, this time from Christians fleeing the persecutions."

For his part, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, chairman for the Russian Orthodox patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations, reminded that "at least 1 million" Christian victims of persecutions are children.

Solemn High Mass Narrated and Explained by Fulton Sheen

2011-05-18T23:26:00.001-07:00

New Swiss Guards Sworn In

2011-05-18T01:46:00.001-07:00

Catholic Argument from History

2011-05-16T23:24:00.001-07:00

A historical apologetical argument for the truth of the Catholic Church (taken from here):

Step One: At One Point, The Global Church Held Catholic Beliefs

To see what I mean above, take four common Protestant doctrines:

Baptism is just symbolic (that is, it's not regenerative, and the Holy Spirit doesn't actually cleanse us through it);
The Eucharist is just symbolic (it's not actually the Body and Blood of Christ);
Justification is just forensic (we're declared righteous by God, but we're not actually made righteous through the Holy Spirit); and
The Bible is composed of the 66-Book Protestant canon.

To my knowledge, every Protestant denomination holds to at least one of these four doctrines, and many denominations hold to all four. Now contrast these views with history.

Forget whatever you happen to think about Baptism, the Eucharist, justification, and the canon of Scripture. At this point, we're just determining what the whole of Christianity used to teach, rather than whether these teachings were right or wrong (we'll turn to that, next). To my knowledge, even Protestants will concede that the visible Church was Catholic during a long period prior to the Reformation. And although it's true that there were eventually Coptics and Orthodox as well, on all four of the above doctrines, none of them take the Protestant view, either.

So at a bare minimum, we can say that the historic visible Church universally denied all four of the Protestant doctrines above. In fact, the evidence suggests much more than that -- it suggests that there are centuries of Christianity in which a Protestant would be hard-pressed to find to find a single orthodox Christian who held to any or all four of the above doctrines. Let's look at each, very briefly:

On Baptism, the Protestant history Philip Schaff, in his History of the Christian Church, Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325, writes in the section on "The Doctrine of Baptism" that "This ordinance was regarded in the ancient church as the sacrament of the new birth or regeneration," and that its "effect consists in the forgiveness of sins and the communication of the Holy Spirit." Again, this is A.D. 100 - 325. The situation remains the same for centuries more, until after the Reformation in the 1500s.
On the Eucharist, the Protestant historian J.N.D. Kelly concedes that during the early Church period, “Eucharistic teaching, it should be understood at the outset, was in general unquestioningly realist, i.e., the consecrated bread and wine were taken to be, and were treated and designated as, the Savior’s body and blood.” (Early Christian Doctrines, 440). Again, this didn't change for centuries afterward.
On forensic justification, the Calvinist scholar Alister McGrath concedes that the "Reformation understanding of the nature of justification - as opposed to its mode - must therefore be regarded as a genuine theological novum." Francis Beckwith, in Return to Rome, does a good job of handling the early Church Fathers who are sometimes used to defend forensic justification - he shows quotes from each proving that their views weren't the Protestant one at all.
On the canon of Scripture, I've addressed it here in greater depth. So far, no one's been able to find a single early Christian who owned or used a 66-book Protestant Bible.

You'll be hard-pressed to find any early orthodox Christian who doubted or denied that (1) Baptism actually regenerated you and made you a Christian, (2) the Eucharist was truly the Body and Blood of Christ, and (3) in justification, God declares us "holy" by actually making us holy, just as you'll be hard-pressed to find an early Christian who (4) ever owned or used a 66-book Bible.

Step Two: This Leaves Only Four Possibilities

Given the above, what should we make of it? Well, it's theoretically possible:

That the issues of Baptism, the Eucharist, justification, and the canon of Scripture aren't "essential" doctrines;
That the above are essential doctrines, so for long periods of time, no Christian got any of these issues right;
That the above are essential doctrines, so the only true Christians were the dissenters;
That the Catholic Church was, and is, right on these four issues.

The first three of these are very problematic:

The issues of Baptism and justification go to the very heart of how we're saved, and how we become Christians. For Protestants, the canon of Scripture determines where all other doctrines come from, so it's the single most important doctrine. And on the Eucharist, it's either truly God or an idol Catholics worship. These seem to be some of the most central questions of Christianity. If these aren't "essentials," it's hard to see what is. So this produces a theological relativism. Furthermore, if these aren't essentials, the Reformation was over non-essential issues, and is a wound that should be healed by a return to the Church.
If all of Christianity could get these core doctrines wrong, we're faced with two problems. First, Christ appears to promise in Scripture that He and the Holy Spirit will perpetually guide and guard the Church (see the lists of Scripture references here and here). It's hard to rectify the notion that the Holy Spirit will guard the Church, and the notion that the Holy Spirit would allow the entire Church to fall into apostasy. But the second problem is just as ominous: if a Protestant claims that the entire global Church fell into heresy without knowing it, how can we say that's not the case today? So this produces theological agnosticism, where no one can even say if the Christianity Christ founded exists on Earth.
This is essentially the argument that the only good Catholic is a bad Catholic. There are a number of problems. Of those who denied the claims of Catholic Christianity but stayed in the Church, we're dealing with people who lived a lie. That's not just being a bad Catholic, but a bad Christian. As Christ says in Matthew 5:37, let your "yes" be a "yes," and your "no" be a "no." Those who declare "yes," while believing "no" are lying. Of those who denied the claims of Catholic Christianity and left the Church, we know who these people were, historically speaking. Most importantly, they didn't affirm the four doctrines above. (The third approach, that there was an unknown group of true Christians living in the mountains somewhere, is handled here). So this produces theologically self-refutation, because you would have to claim that the only true Christians were either those people Protestants denounce as heretics or those people who lived their lives denying their religion.

The remaining choice is that the Catholic Church is right.

Conclusion

To state it positively:

Christ promised that He and the Holy Spirit would preserve the Church;
Historically, the Church has been incredibly clear (1) that Baptism is regenerative, (2) that the Eucharist is the true Body and Blood of Christ, (3) that the Holy Spirit makes us truly justified, and (4) that there are more than 66 Books of the Bible;
Even if we don't understand how these things are true from Scripture, we can know that they're true, because the Church said so, and God protects the Church, and we believe in God.

Pontifical High Mass in the Usus Antiquior - St. Peter's Basilica

2011-05-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Mount Athos

2011-04-25T13:33:00.000-07:00

Holy Saturday Homily from the 2nd Century

2011-04-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

"What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.

Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep; he wishes to visit those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son.

The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross. When Adam, the first created man, sees him, he strikes his breast in terror and calls out to all: 'My Lord be with you all.' And Christ in reply says to Adam: ‘And with your spirit.’ And grasping his hand he raises him up, saying: ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.

‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.

‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.

‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.

'See the scourging of my back, which I accepted in order to disperse the load of your sins which was laid upon your back. See my hands nailed to the tree for a good purpose, for you, who stretched out your hand to the tree for an evil one.

`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

‘But arise, let us go hence. The enemy brought you out of the land of paradise; I will reinstate you, no longer in paradise, but on the throne of heaven. I denied you the tree of life, which was a figure, but now I myself am united to you, I who am life. I posted the cherubim to guard you as they would slaves; now I make the cherubim worship you as they would God.

"The cherubim throne has been prepared, the bearers are ready and waiting, the bridal chamber is in order, the food is provided, the everlasting houses and rooms are in readiness; the treasures of good things have been opened; the kingdom of heaven has been prepared before the ages."

Holy Thursday

2011-04-21T09:28:00.001-07:00

Was There a Passover Lamb at the Last Supper?
(from http://www.thesacredpage.com/2011/04/was-there-passover-lamb-at-last-supper.html)

By Brant Pitre

Today, Catholics everywhere will celebrate Holy Thursday by attending the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. At this Mass, we will read the institution of the Passover (Exod 12, OT reading), sing one of the most famous of the Hallel Psalms (Psalm 118, Responsorial Psalm), and then read the institution of the Eucharist (1 Cor 11, Epistle) and Jesus' act of washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper (John 13, Gospel). This particular Eucharist is a momentous liturgical moment, where we both recall the institution of the very first Eucharist and enter into the beginning of the calendrical Holy of Holies--the sacred Triduum, climaxing in the feast of Easter (in Latin, Pascha).

Was the Last Supper a Passover Meal?

But how did Jesus and his disciples celebrate the first Holy Thursday? Specifically, was the Last Supper a Jewish Passover meal?

As anyone who has read Pope Benedict's new book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week will know, the Pope devotes a substantial portion of his chapter on the Last Supper to the question of the date of the meal--specifically, whether or not the Last Supper coincided with the ordinary Jewish Passover meal (see pp. 106-115). And as anyone familiar with this extremely complex and age-old question knows, there is simply no way I can address it here adequately.

Thankfully, I am currently working on finishing a full-length scholarly book on the Last Supper (to be published by Eerdmans), in which I will offer a detailed solution to the date of the Last Supper. In that study, I will draw on the massive amount of contemporary research done in this area and add to it some important Jewish evidence that been neglected. (For some suggested readings on the question of the date, see pp. 214-215 in my book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist).

For now, all I would like to do in this post is one brief point about the first Holy Thursday: contrary to what is often claimed by some exegetes, the Synoptic Gospels clearly identify the Last Supper as a Jewish Passover meal--one that included the presence of a passover lamb. Allow me to explain.

A Lambless 'Passover Meal'?

Anyone familiar with scholarly books on Jesus will be aware that one of the primary arguments against the Last Supper being a Passover meal is that "there is not a word about the lamb" in the Gospel accounts of the institution of the eucharist. In fact, for years, I myself agreed with this view and even have some recordings where I make just that point!

Alas, upon closer study of the entire context in the Gospels in their original Greek, I discovered that the idea that there was no lamb at the Last Supper is just not exegetically sustainable. Although the word "lamb" (Gk arnion) admittedly does not appear in any account of the words of institution, both Mark and Luke in particular explicitly testify that there was a Passover lamb (Gk pascha) at the Last Supper.

This is quite clear in the Gospel accounts--not first in foremost in the the words of institution--but in the accounts of Jesus sending the disciples (Peter and John) into Jerusalem to prepare the Passover (Mark 14:12-16 parr.)

"When they Sacrificed the Passover Lamb (Pascha)"

So, for example, in the Gospel of Mark, we read:

"And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the pascha, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the pascha”? And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you..." (Mark 14:12-13)

Though English Bibles translate these with two different words, there is no way for the first use of pascha to refer to the Passover lamb that was sacrificed to be eaten and for the second use of pascha to refer to the now-popular idea of a "lambless Passover meal." The only way to make this work would be to wrench the second occurrence completely out of context.

"Go and Prepare the Pascha, that We May Eat it"

The presence of the Passover lamb at the Last Supper is even more explicit in the Gospel of Luke. According to his account of Holy Thursday afternoon, the following took place:

"Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the pascha had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the pascha for us, that we may eat it.” They said to him, “Where will you have us prepare it?” (Luke 22:7-8)

Same problem: there is no way I can see in which the first use of pascha in v. 7 refers to the Passover lamb, while in v. 8 pascha refers to a lamb-less Passover meal (if such a thing were even possible in the 1st century A.D.). The meal which they are preparing for Jesus and the disciples to eat in the upper room that evening clearly consists of the passover lamb which had been sacrificed that day.

"I Have Greatly Desired to Eat this Pascha with You"

To top it all off, in Luke's account, Jesus even uses the same word in the context of the words of institution on two more occasions. Just a couple of verses later, we read:

The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room, where I am to eat the pascha with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished; there make ready.” And they went, and found it as he had told them; and they prepared the pascha.... And when the hour came, he sat at table, and said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this pascha with you before I suffer... (Luke 22:11-13, 15)

It seems to me that far from the lamb never being mentioned, Luke's Gospel refers to the Passover lamb in the context of the Last Supper some three or four times, both in the account of the preparation and in the account of the meal itself!

Now, you can of course always fall back on the claim that all this testimony is historically inauthentic, the creative imagination of the Evangelists and the early church. And of course what I have said in this brief post is no way deals with the question of how to reconcile the Synoptic description of the presence of the Passover lamb with the apparent chronological contradiction with the date of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John. (In order to get my answer to that sticky problem, you will have to read the longer Eerdmans book on the Last Supper :).

But all that is a completely different issue from whether or not the canonical Gospels ever claim there was a Passover lamb at the Last Supper. And the fact is Mark and Luke are crystal clear on the matter. Again, the only way I can see to maintain that there is "no mention" of a lamb at the Last Supper is to (a) only read the Gospels in translation; (b) isolate the words of institution from their surrounding context; (c) completely ignore the accounts of the preparation on Thursday afternoon; and/or (d) reject these accounts as unhistorical. Some combination of these is, of course, exactly what many treatments of the Last Supper that claim there was no lamb present do.

So, in closing, perhaps there is some wisdom in the selection of readings that the Liturgy of the Church will lay before us tonight. When you are listening to the accounts of the Passover in Exodus, singing the Passover psalm during the Responsorial, and hearing Paul's account of the words of institution, do not forget to recall how the Gospels say Jesus himself prepared for that momentous night, by sending Peter and John into Jerusalem to "prepare the pascha." May our desire to partake of the new Passover grow to be more like his own, as we journey toward the great feast of the eternal Pascha, the feast of Easter.

Lenten Station Churches

2011-04-15T07:57:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember that for the past couple years I have posted a few things on the Lenten Station Churches Pilgrimage that we do here at the North American College. Here is an interesting news story on it: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Rome-s-station-churches-revive-ancient-tradition-1336902.php

Pray for the People of Japan

2011-03-16T04:03:00.000-07:00

Bishop Bradley's Lenten Reflection

2011-03-16T03:54:00.000-07:00

Bishop Bradley will be offering Lenten reflections based on the Sunday readings each week, and I thought I would post his first one here in case anyone missed it on the Diocesan website.

BISHOP BRADLEY'S SUNDAY READING REFLECTIONS
First Sunday of Lent

On this First Sunday of Lent, we come together for our weekly celebration of the
Eucharist, all of us deprived just a bit of one hour of sleep. Sometime between when we went to
bed on Saturday and woke up on Sunday, we "sprang forward,” moving our clocks ahead one
hour so that we can now be on Daylight Savings Time. In the process, we usually say that we
"lost an hour of sleep.” Even though that's a hopeful sign of the coming of Spring which is only
10 days away, we still think of it in terms of something that we've lost, or been deprived of. I
used to refer to this night as my least favorite night of the year for that reason.

However, as we come together as God's People this day we can't help but be aware of
the catastrophe affecting millions and millions of our fellow human beings in Japan and in the
entire Western Pacific area. The pictures that we see on the TV news and the internet defy
comprehension; how can such devastation take place within minutes?! The death toll is
mounting; thousands of people are lost and feared dead; entire towns/cities are gone; and
masses of people are without the basic necessities of life. And on top of that the entire country
is now facing a nuclear crisis. Let us continue to hold all those people in our prayers.

There's a temptation that most of us experience at times to believe, or at least think, that
our own immediate circumstances are much more difficult, or that the challenges we're facing
are greater than anything else, perhaps even something as minor as "losing an hour of sleep.”
Our Scripture Readings for the First Sunday of Lent confront us with the realities of our
human nature, and in particular with the reality of temptation to sin. As we heard in the First
Reading today from the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, the very first Book in the
Bible, right after God created the first man and woman, the Devil appears on the scene bringing
the original temptation, resulting in the original sin. What was the Devil’s tactics? Nothing as
enormous or grandiose as earthquakes, tsunamis or nuclear threats; no, the Devil confronts us
with our own, particular circumstances, uses a bit of Truth, but distorts it just enough to make
that “untruth” appear to make sense.

In the original temptation, the Devil takes God’s original words of providing everything for Adam and Eve that their hearts could ever desire, along with the only prohibition for them not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and distorts
and twists those words into somehow making Adam and Eve believe that God was against
them. And, tragically, they believed that “untruth,” committed the original sin, and found
themselves banished from the Garden and separated from God.
All temptation attempts to make us think that God somehow is against us, when God’s
constant message to us is that He loves us unconditionally and eternally. When we believe the
Devil’s “untruths,” when we accept that distortion that somehow God’s ways or God’s Word is
NOT what is good for us, and make our own choices that are inconsistent with God’s ways, we
too sin, and separate ourselves from God.

NO ONE is exempt from the Devil’s evil and distorted temptations. We saw that in
Sunday’s Gospel, when the Devil even tempted the Son of God, Jesus our Lord. It doesn’t
matter who it is---the Devil’s tactics are the same. He tries to tempt us with those parts of our
lives that he knows are most important to us, and then he distorts the Truth and tries to get us to
believe his version of the Truth. And if/when we do, we too sin, and cause ourselves nothing
but pain and suffering.

But the Devil is vulnerable; we can defeat him. Jesus gives us the “answer” ---- the
method that will always work against the Devil’s vulnerability. It’s similar to the Nike
commercial’s ad: “Just say ‘NO’!” That’s exactly what Jesus did as the Devil tempted Him
three times. Jesus just said “No!”. And finally, the Devil went away, but only to plan on coming
back again later in Jesus’ ministry.” The Devil will never give up trying to get us to separate
ourselves from God; the Devil will tempt us regularly. But all we need to do is say: “No!” And
what’s even more effective, is to say: “In the Name of Jesus, my Lord and Savior, I say ‘No’!
And we can use the very words of Jesus as our own: “Get away, Satan!”

Lent is a time for us to re-call who we are and where we are headed. We are God’s
precious sons and daughters. God loves us unconditionally and eternally. He has given us His
Word because He loves us; He has given us His commandments because He knows what is for
our good; He has sent us His Word made Flesh, Jesus, to show us how to live----and how to
defeat the Devil. Don’t ever fall for the Devil’s tricks; for the bad/evil advice he tries to feed us.
He wants us to think that if we disobey God, we’ll find happiness. In reality, if we choose to
listen to the Devil’s “untruths”, we will find only pain and suffering. Our primary Lenten
resolution, and in fact our daily resolution should be, to follow Jesus’ example, and “Just say
‘NO’!”

Fatima

2011-02-22T05:27:00.000-08:00

I returned on Sunday from a pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal, which was the site of the famous Marian apparition. Our Lady appeared to three young shepherd children (Lucia Dos Santos, Francisco and Jacinta Marto) 6 times in the Cova da Iria near Fatima, from May 1917 to October 1917, on the 13th of each month. The children were the object of ridicule on the part of almost everyone, but they insisted on returning each month. Almost all those who joined them, whether to ridicule them or from curiosity, saw a small ball of light come from the east and descend on the small oak tree which the children had claimed was where Our Lady appeared. The children, while they saw her in full, were unable to describle how beautiful she was - they said there was nothing beautiful enough with which to compare her. She asked them to pray the rosary, make reparation for sin, and revealed to them 3 secrets, which have since been made known.

The children continued to ask who she was, but she told them she would reveal herself on October 13th, and perform a miracle so that all may believe. When that day came around, rain poured down relentlessly. An estimated 70,000 -100,000 were present in the field of the Cova da Iria. In this great number there were believers, skeptics, atheists, and many of the anti-clerical, anti-religion state officials and journalists who were in power in Portugal at the time.

Our Lady revealed herself as "the Lady of the Rosary", that is, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and then performed a miracle which lasted, some say, ten minutes.

The crowd of 70,000

Little Jacinta being carried away after the miracle of the sun

The sky cleared all of a sudden (though it had been raining all day), and the sun, which everyone was able to stare at directly, appeared as a silver spinning disc. It then gave off colored rays successively, turning everything and everyone green, blue, yellow, orange, etc. Finally, it seemed to detach from the sky, and started to zig-zag toward the earth. The feeling among those present was, as many say, that of terror, as they thought the world was going to end. When the miracle ceased, everything and everyone - which had been soaked thoroughly by the hours of rain - was completely dry.

The children after one of the visions
The crowd during the miracle of the sun

While this may seem unbelievable, we admire God's Providence which made it such that, in addition to many believers, many scientists, doctors, professors, atheists, and anti-religion fanatics were all present, and all, without exception attest to the miracle just described. No one has been able to explain scientifically this phenomenon which was visible even to people miles and miles away, yet did not register on any astronomical records. It could not be mass hallucination as there were many non-believers present, it was visible to those miles away not present with the large crowd, and their clothes and the ground became completely dry, in confirmation that it was an actual objective event. What is more, the children had foretold the day and hour of the event some 5 months before.

The secular newspaper in Fatima

Our Lady's message to the young children was primarily that of penance and conversion. God wanted to bring about the conversion of the world and peace through devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She asked that the children (and everyone) offer up many sacrifices and penances for the conversion of sinners, in reparation for our sins, and to cease to offend our Lord, who, as she said many times "is already so much offended."

After the apparitions, the children lived lives of heroic penance, offering up everything in reparation for sin and the conversion of sinners. The two youngest children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, to whom Our Lady said that she would take them to heaven soon, died at the ages of 10 and 11, respectively, after suffering painful illnesses, which they bore with great patience and love.

If you are interested in learning more about the apparitions and the children, please read The Immaculate Heart by Fr. John De Marchi who lived in Fatima from 1943-1950 interviewing all of those involved with these great events.

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love you; I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love you.

O My Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell; lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy mercy. (Prayers taught to the children by an angel)

Francisco's bedroom, in which he died at age 11

Francisco Marto

Jacinta Marto

The siblings were victims of the great 1918 influenza epidemic which swept through Europe in 1918. Both lingered for many months, insisting on walking to church to make Eucharistic devotions and prostrating themselves to pray for hours, kneeling with their heads on the ground as instructed by the angel who had first appeared to them.

Francisco declined hospital treatment and died peacefully at home, while Jacinta was dragged from one hospital to another in an attempt to save her life which she insisted was futile. She developed purulent pleurisy and endured an operation in which two of her ribs were removed. Because of the condition of her heart, she could not be anesthetized and suffered terrible pain, which she said would help to convert many sinners. On February 20, 1920, Jacinta asked the hospital chaplain who heard her confession to bring her Holy Communion and give her the Anointing of the Sick because she was going to die "this very night". He told her that her condition was not that serious, and that he would return the next day. A few hours later Jacinta was dead. She had died, as she had often said she would, alone: not even a nurse was with her.

Walk For Life

2011-01-26T06:34:00.000-08:00

Practically no one covered the Walk for Life which involved a peaceful protest of over 250,000 people. In any case, here are some photos to give you an idea of the magnitude of this annual witness to the dignity of human life.

Walk For Life

2011-01-24T10:56:00.001-08:00

Catholicism

2011-01-23T03:52:00.001-08:00

The Mystery of Time

2010-12-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

We all have learned or heard that God is "outside of time" and is "present everywhere"; or that He sees everything - past, present and future - as in one present moment. Here's an interesting little talk on how we can began to grasp in some small way what this means. This also gives us an idea of what the Psalmist meant when he said of God "To you, a thousand years are as a passing day" (Psalm 90:4).

Check THIS Out

2010-12-30T06:29:00.001-08:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12088560

Christmas in Norcia

2010-12-29T14:26:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! I just returned from spending a week in prayer in Norcia, Italy, the birthplace of Sts. Benedict and Scholastica. I stayed at the monastery of St. Benedict, which is a young community of Benedictines (many of whom are American). It was a wonderful way to prayerfully celebrate our Lord's Nativity.

The life at the monastery is centered, above all, on prayer. The monks chant the monastic office 7 times a day, and they have a conventual (community) Mass every day. They have a special apostolate from the Holy See, and focus on the worthy celebration of the liturgy in the usus antiquior ("more ancient use"), also known as the extraordinary form of our Roman rite. You will see in the video below that their liturgy is very mysterious and beautiful - all for the glory of God.

The Monastic horarium or schedule is as follows:
4:00am - Matins (Vigils)
6:00am - Lauds (Morning Prayer)
6:35 - Private Masses celebrated by the community's priests
7:45 - Prime
9:40 - Terce
10:00 - Conventual Mass
12:45 - Sext
2:30 - None (in the winter, followed by the one meal of the day)
5:30 - Vespers (Evening Prayer)
7:45 - Compline (Night Prayer)

If you want to know more (or hear their chant which is put on the website everyday), visit www.osbnorcia.org

They are also trying to raise money to rebuild an old ruined 15th century monastery in the mountains so that they can move out of the city center. I'm sure they would appreciate your prayers and support!

Dominican Sisters

2010-12-22T23:54:00.001-08:00

NPR put out a great story on the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee.

For the most part, these are grim days for Catholic nuns. Convents are closing, nuns are aging and there are relatively few new recruits. But something startling is happening in Nashville, Tenn. The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia are seeing a boom in new young sisters: Twenty-seven joined this year and 90 entered over the past five years.

The average of new entrants here is 23. And overall, the average age of the Nashville Dominicans is 36 — four decades younger than the average nun nationwide.

Unlike many older sisters in previous generations, who wear street clothes and live alone, the Nashville Dominicans wear traditional habits and adhere to a strict life of prayer, teaching and silence.

They enter the chapel without saying a word, the swish of their long white habits the only sound. It is 5:30 in the morning, pitch black outside — but inside, the chapel is candescent as more than 150 women kneel and pray and fill the soaring sanctuary with their ghostly songs of praise.

A few elderly sisters sit in wheelchairs, but most of these sisters have unlined faces and are bursting with energy. Watching them, you wonder what would coax these young women to a strict life of prayer, teaching, study and silence.

And did they always want to be nuns?

"No," says Sister Beatrice Clark, laughing. "I didn't know they still existed."

Clark, who is 27, says she became aware of the religious life when she was a student at Catholic University in Washington. In her junior year, she began feeling that God was drawing her to enter a convent. Over Thanksgiving vacation in 2004, she broke the news to her family.

"My parents just sat there and looked at me," she says. "And they cried. And I said, 'I think I'm supposed to enter soon.' And my father said, 'This is the time of life to take leaps.' "

She joined the Nashville Dominicans on her 22nd birthday.

Silence — Sometimes

The sisters eat breakfast in silence, sitting side by side at long tables, served by the novices in white habits and veils. Sister Joan of Arc, who's 27, stoops to pour coffee. At 6 feet, 2 inches, the former basketball player for the University of Notre Dame is hard to miss. Sister Joan of Arc, who was born Kelsey Wicks, like the others here adopted a new name when she entered.

She says she worked on refugee issues after college, then received a scholarship to Notre Dame Law School. But her plans shifted when she went on a medical mission trip: In Africa she saw abject physical poverty, but it was nothing compared with the impoverishment she saw when she came home.

EnlargeSister Mary Justin Malton
Sister Joan of Arc says the minute she met the Nashville Dominicans, she felt as if she had come home.
"When I came back to the U.S., I saw our true poverty of the heart and of the mind. And I saw the loneliness," she says. "It really made me give my life to the church, so I was more open to the advances of God when he asked, 'Lay down your life!' "

Her parents did not share her certainty.

"I remember my mother sent me Notre Dame Law School bumper stickers when I was deciding, because she did not want me to pass up that opportunity," she says with a laugh.

Sister Joan of Arc forsook law — but not basketball, entirely. Now in her second year, she regularly drills her sisters on the court behind the convent. They dribble and shoot in their long habits — the first-year postulates in black, the second-year novices in white. And when they break into the three teams — Our Lady of Victory, Cecilia and the Martyrs — they scream and chant with a fierce competitiveness that is not all that, well, sisterly.

Lady of Victory wins, followed by Cecilia ... trailed by the Martyrs.

"Sadly, the Martyrs always have a rough go of things," observes Sister Joan of Arc, as the Martyrs shout, "Our victory is in heaven!"

Friendships Beyond Facebook

"You can't even imagine how much fun we have," says Sister Victoria Marie Liederbach, who is 23. "We really do become sisters; we're each others' best friends, and we just have a blast."

I'm sitting with a half-dozen novices, who range in age from 23 to 27. They all have college degrees. There's a nurse, a would-be archivist, but like Sister Paula Marie Koffi, they all felt torn by their ambitions.

"Yeah, I was working as an accountant, and I remember telling one of the managers one day, 'I'll either be a partner in this firm, or a nun,' " she recalls, laughing.

It's a mysterious call to what they describe as a love relationship with Jesus. And for them it is literal: They consider the white habit a wedding gown.

"It's beautiful, and it's a reminder that you are a spouse of Christ," says Sister Mara Rose McDonnell. But it's more than that.

"It tells others that there's a reality beyond this world. There's heaven. We're all orienting ourselves towards heaven," she says.

To the world, the habit is the most visible symbol of their commitment — one they all acknowledge exacts a price.

Sister Mary Justin Malton
Sister Beatrice Clark trained as a litigator before entering the convent five years ago.
"Yeah, like motherhood and children, that's the desire of a woman's heart," says Liederbach. "And being desired, and pursued by a man, that's something for sure that's a real sacrifice."

But Sister Anna Joseph Van Acker says she's weary of shallow relationships rooted in texting and Twitter — and finds the depth she's looking for in God. "He has the love you don't find by someone leaving a message on your Facebook wall," she says. "It's way better than someone saying, 'I'm eating pizza for dinner right now,' or whatever your Facebook status says right now. You don't get fulfilled by that. Ultimately, all you want is more. And here, we're thirsting for more, but we're constantly receiving more as well."

Van Acker, who's 23, says her generation is hungry for absolute truth and tradition — ideals they found in the messages of Pope John Paul II.

"Our generation is thirsting for orthodoxy," she says. "And I know it because I've seen it in university settings. I've seen how young people ... love JP2 not only because he was a nice-looking old man and he gave great hugs or something — but because what he spoke and wrote was the truth and it spoke to their hearts."

Inspiring Others

This is the Pope John Paul generation, coming of age. Of course, that may explain why they chose to enter a convent — but why this convent? Most visited several orders, and the novices nod as Sister Joan of Arc says the minute she met the Nashville Dominicans, she felt as if she had come home.

"I was blown away — seeing them in their habits, seeing their joyful witness, listening to them sing. Oh! It was captivating, it was so captivating," she says.

Of course, not everyone is cut out for this life, and a few drop out in the first two years.

"The day-to-day is hard," says Clark, who is in her fifth year. "The day-to-day can be mundane in little stuff. But in the large choices, this is the most freeing thing I could have chosen, because everything else would have been trying to find this — this defining relationship that would give value to everything."

Including her work teaching sophomores at St. Cecilia Academy, where Clark is, on this fall day, grilling her students on The Scarlet Letter. Clark, who had planned to become a litigator, handles discussion like a cross examination, peppering the girls with questions and the girls firing their answers right back.

Catholic bishops beg the Nashville Dominicans to send their young sisters to their parochial schools, and more than 100 of them now teach in 34 schools in 13 states. The sisters are a big hit with the students as well because they don't fit the stereotype.

"You hear stories from your parents about getting spanked with rulers and stuff, and that's not true at all," says Breanne Lampert, one of Clark's sophomores. "But seeing the sisters here compared to other schools — they're so much younger. I don't know, they understand you really well."

I met the person for me. I've been known by him forever. And I've known him more or less throughout my life. And now I know that this is where I'm called to.
- Sister Beatrice Clark
"The young sisters are really inspiring," says Brady Diaz-Barriga, "because you're like, 'Oh, I could never do that. I just love Facebook and my cell phone and my computer too much to give that up!' But you see how much joy your life can be with less and not having all of that."

Isabelle Aparicio says the young sisters' lives have a surprising appeal. "Seeing these young women make these really hard decisions and then seeing so many of them make it, it's kind of inspiring," she says. "And it's actually made me think about it, possibly."

But what about doubt? I ask Clark, "Do you think you'll have any regrets?" She pauses, then shakes her head slowly.

"I met the person for me," she says. "I've been known by him forever. And I've known him more or less throughout my life. And now I know that this is where I'm called to."

Clark, like the nearly 300 other Nashville Dominicans, is called to the unbending rhythms of prayer and silence and worship. With their long habits and disciplined regime, these conservative sisters are, it seems, the new radical.

Tragedy

2010-12-16T23:47:00.000-08:00

Abortion giant Planned Parenthood released its 2008-2009 Annual Report. And the news is horrific.

Red State reports:

Behind the colorful graphics and happy faces is a stark number: Planned Parenthood received $363 million in government grants and contracts from 2008 to 2009 alone, all at the expense of the U.S. Taxpayer and the lives of unborn babies.

How many lives are we talking? 324,008 unborn human lives destroyed in one year. How many adoption referrals? 9,433.That means over 97% of the time they aborted babies rather than referred to an adoption center. Over 97%.

Yet somehow we’re supposed to be convinced that with the billions of dollars they’ve received in taxpayer funding, none of it went to abortion when they’re aborting over 97% of the unborn they come in contact with.

Planned Parenthood must be defunded because that horrendous and alarming statistic makes plain that the more funding they receive the more abortions there will be. Red State has a graphic that shows it in great clarity.

St. Maria Goretti - Nettuno, Italy

2010-12-04T05:57:00.000-08:00

All the seminarians from Michigan here at the NAC (and one priest) made a pilgrimage today to Nettuno, Italy, to visit the tomb of St. Maria Goretti. Below are some pictures and the well-known story of her martyrdom at a young age (taken from http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=78).

Born in Corinaldo, Ancona, Italy, on October 16 1890; her farmworker father moved his family to Ferrier di Conca, near Anzio. Her father died of malaria and her mother had to struggle to feed her children.In 1902 an eighteen-year-old neighbor, Alexander, grabbed her from her steps and tried to rape her. When Maria said that she would rather died than submit, Alexander began stabbing her with a knife. As she lay in the hospital, she forgave Alexander before she died.

Her death didn't end her forgivness, however.Alexander was captured and sentenced to thirty years. He was unrepentant until he had a dream that he was in a garden. Maria was there and gave him flowers. When he woke, he was a changed man, repenting of his crime and living a reformed life. When he was released after 27 years he went directly to Maria's mother to beg her forgiveness, which she gave. "If my daughter can forgive him, who am I to withold forgiveness," she said.

When Maria was declared a saint in 1950, Alexander was there in the St. Peter's crowd to celebrate her canonization. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1950 for her purity as model for youth.She is called a martyr because she fought against Alexander's attempts at sexual assault. However, the most important aspect of her story is her forgiveness of her attacker -- her concern for her enemy extending even beyond death. Her feast day is July 6. St. Maria Gorettiis the patroness of youth and for the victims of rape.

Saint Maria Goretti, strengthened by God's grace, you did not hesitate, even at the age of twelve, to sacrifice life itself to defend your virginal purity. Look graciously on the unhappy human race that has strayed far from the path of eternal salvation. Teach us all, and especially our youth, the courage and promptness that will help us avoid anything that could offend Jesus. Obtain for me a great horror of sin, so that I may live a holy life on earth and win eternal glory in heaven. Amen.

Pope Benedict Did Not Change Church Teaching

2010-11-21T23:49:00.000-08:00

Many of you may have seen the many headlines in all of the major news outlets to the effect of "Pope Changes Hard-Line Vatican Stance on Contraception" or "Church Headed in New Direction with Regard to Condoms." I thought I would offer some clarification on what this is all about, as someone who has read what he actually said, and is very close to the center of this controversy.

First of all, these headlines show a fundamental misunderstanding of Church teaching on this issue in general. The Church's opposition to contraception, teaching that it is an intrinsic moral evil, is not a "stance" of the Vatican, and is not subject to the whims of legislators. In fact, even if the Pope had wanted to change this teaching, he would be unable to. Rather, this teaching is based on the natural moral law, which is unchanging. To thwart the natural end of the sexual union between man and woman - isolating and intending only the pleasure, while removing the fruitfulness - is a grave evil. This teaching has been present ever since the early Church (and here are some examples).

Second of all, the Holy Father did not even say anything close to what the media is presenting. The example he uses, in his own words, is as follows:

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

The first thing it is important to notice is that he is using homosexual sexual acts (already intrinsically evil acts) as the example, which makes the discussion different from contraception. As there is no possibility of genuine fruitfulness in such acts, it cannot therefore be thwarted (which therefore removes the condition which makes the condom a contraceptive). Secondly, he says that this basic concern not to spread disease could indicate a first step in recovering an awareness of a morality. The Holy Father goes on to say that the Church "of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution." Rather, he is simply saying that in this specific context, it may be an indication that one is beginning to gain a moral awareness that not everything is allowed with regard to sexuality.

Janet Smith gives this helpful analogy:

An analogy: If someone was going to rob a bank and was determined to use a gun, it would better for that person to use a gun that had no bullets in it. It would reduce the likelihood of fatal injuries. But it is not the task of the Church to instruct potential bank robbers how to rob banks more safely and certainly not the task of the Church to support programs of providing potential bank robbers with guns that could not use bullets. Nonetheless, the intent of a bank robber to rob a bank in a way that is safer for the employees and customers of the bank may indicate an element of moral responsibility that could be a step towards eventual understanding of the immorality of bank robbing.

Those Who Suffer Persecution by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

2010-11-18T23:22:00.000-08:00

Those Who Suffer Persecution by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

"Blessed are you when all men speak well of you, when you are popular and in the limelight," is a beatitude of the world.Let the Lord come into a world that believes that our whole life should be geared to flattering and influencing people for the sake of what they can do for us, and say to them: "Blessed are you when men hate you, persecute you, revile you," and He will find Himself without a friend in the world, and an outcast on a hill with a mob shouting His death and His flesh hanging from Him like purple rags.

This Beatitude is really the Beatitude of the blessedness of being persecuted, or the happiness of being a martyr. In its full statement it runs: "Blessed are those who suffer persecution in the cause of right; the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Blessed are you, when men revile you, and persecute you, and speak all manner of evil against you falsely, because of Me. Be glad and lighthearted, for a rich reward awaits you in Heaven."When Our Lord spoke of the world, He did not mean the physical world or the cosmos, He meant the spirit of the world which was arrayed against Him and His followers; a world which would one day kill his servants and think it was rendering a service to God, a world that is composed of human nature organizing itself against Divinity.

The Christian is bidden to be happy as Peter and the Apostles were when they were permitted to incorporate themselves to the Cross of Christ in order to share in the glory of His Resurrection. To be tolerated sometimes is a sign of weakness; to be persecuted is a compliment. The mediocre survive.The persecuted person shows that his belief is taken seriously and the cause for which he stands must be eliminated if evil is to conquer. True it is that evil men are persecuted, but they do not come within this Beatitude, for as Saint Paul said: "If I should deliver my body up to be burned and have not the love of God and my neighbor in my heart, then it profits me nothing." A martyr must die for the faith, not for his property, nor his good name, nor for the sake of the Party.

Self-made martyrs are numerous, but they have no place in the ranks of those who are promised the Kingdom of Heaven for taking the Cross of Christ on their shoulders.One would expect that a person who is humble and unselfish, merciful and loving of mankind, should expect a peaceful end, but the Lord who made human hearts knew better. He, therefore, closed His Beatitudes by showing the treatment He would have us expect from the world. Martyrs, witnesses to the Divine Love in the world, are promised the Kingdom of Heaven. They do not possess it merely because they suffer and endure; they rather suffer and endure because they already possess the Kingdom in their own hearts.

One great and mysterious fact that is not generally known to the world is that wherever there is persecution on account of the Faith, it always results in a vast catch of souls for the Kingdom of God. Tertullian was right when he said: "Blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church."The triumph of truth in Heaven is not enough; it must also have its glorious revenge in the very theater of its humiliations and conflicts. The world must see how mistaken it was in rejecting Divine Love, and must be forced to exclaim again with Julian the apostate: "Oh Galilean! Thou hast conquered!"

2010-11-13T14:29:00.000-08:00

Priest and Faithful Killed During Mass

2010-11-01T01:06:00.001-07:00

Please keep these souls in your prayers on this feast of All Saints!

http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2010/10/at-evening-mass-bloodbath-in-baghdad.html

Sts. Stanislaw, Andre, Candida, Mary, Giulia, and Camilla

2010-10-17T07:24:00.000-07:00

Today's canonization included the first Australian saint (St. Mary MacKillop), and the first Canadian saint (St. Andre Bessette). Below is some information on all of the new saints.

Six New Saints

2010-10-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, Sunday October 17, will see the formal elevation of six Catholic men and women to sainthood. Some of the names you may recognize, others you may not. You may have seen my past posts on canonizations here in Rome (this one and this one), which are among my favorite things about being here so close to the Holy Father and the heart of the Church. What is also beautiful about these canonizations is seeing the vast number of people from the respective countries of each of the saints come to celebrate the fact that one of their own is assuredly in heaven. I will hopefully get some pictures to post after the Mass tomorrow.

St. Mary Mackillop, Australia

St. Andre' Bessette, Canada

St. Stanislaw Soltys, Poland

St. Giulia Salzano, Italy

St. Camilla da Varano, Spain

St. Candida Maria di Gesu Cipitria y Barriola, Spain

The Rosary and the Battle of Lepanto

2010-10-08T01:40:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was the 439th anniversary of the victory of Christian forces against the attacking Turkish forces at the battle of Lepanto. This victory is commemorated by the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (formerly, Our Lady of Victory), and shows us the power of the rosary. In this month of October dedicated to the Rosary, please take time to say this very powerful prayer. Also, take some time to read the beautiful poem by G.K. Chesterton on the Battle of Lepanto.

Taken from EWTN.com:

Battle of Lepanto

On October 7, 1571, a great victory over the mighty Turkish fleet was won by Catholic naval forces primarily from Spain, Venice, and Genoa under the command of Don Juan of Austria. It was the last battle at sea between "oared" ships, which featured the most powerful navy in the world, a Moslem force with between 12,000 to 15,000 Christian slaves as rowers. The patchwork team of Catholic ships was powered by the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Knowing that the Christian forces were at a distinct material disadvantage, the holy pontiff, St. Pope Pius V called for all of Europe to pray the Rosary for victory. We know today that the victory was decisive, prevented the Islamic invasion of Europe, and evidenced the Hand of God working through Our Lady. At the hour of victory, St. Pope Pius V, who was hundreds of miles away at the Vatican, is said to have gotten up from a meeting, went over to a window, and exclaimed with supernatural radiance: "The Christian fleet is victorious!" and shed tears of thanksgiving to God.

The Rosary

At Lepanto, the Victory over the Moslems was won by the faithful praying the Rosary. Even though they had superior numbers, the Turks really were overmatched. Blessed Padre Pio, the Spiritual Father of the Blue Army, said: "The Rosary is the weapon," and how right he was!
The Battle of Lepanto was at first celebrated liturgically as "Our Lady of Victory." Later, the feast of October 7th was renamed "Our Lady of the Rosary" and extended throughout the Universal Church by Pope Clement XI in 1716 (who canonized Pope Pius V in 1712).

And with that we are back to Fatima, Portugal where Our Lady, when asked her name, said: "I am the Lady of the Rosary." At Fatima, Our Lady taught us to pray the Rosary every day. Heaven presented its peace plan at Fatima and truly gave us hope for the world...Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!

The St. Michael Prayer

2010-10-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

Taken from the blog Canterbury Tales:

According to legend, Pope Leo XIII (reigned from 1878-1903) composed the now famous "Prayer to Saint Michael" after celebrating the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass with a group of cardinals. During the Mass, the Holy Father fell to the floor at the foot of the altar. It seemed that the Holy Father had died or suffered from a stroke. Suddenly, the Pope revived and said, "What a horrible vision I was allowed to see."

Apparently the pontiff saw a future influx of demonic forces into the Catholic Church. He subsequently authored the following prayer to Saint Michael, seeking to gain further protection for the Church. Pope Leo XIII also ordered this prayer it be prayed by the priest and faithful at the end of every low Mass.

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

English:
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle, be our safeguard and 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, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

There is also the lesser-known long version of this prayer penned by Pope Leo XIII:

O Glorious Archangel St. Michael, Prince of theheavenly host, be our defense in the terrible warfarewhich we carry on against principalities and powers,against the rulers of this world of darkness, andspirits of evil. Come to the aid of man, whom Godcreated immortal, made in His own image and likeness,and redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of thedevil.

Fight this day the battle of the Lord, togetherwith the holy angels, as already thou hast fought theleader of the proud angels, Lucifer, and his apostatehost, who were powerless to resist Thee, nor was thereplace for them any longer in heaven. That cruel, thatancient serpent, who is called the devil or Satan, whoseduces the whole world, was cast into the abyss withhis angels.Behold, this primeval enemy and slayer of men has taken courage.

Transformed into an angel of light, hewanders about with all the multitude of wickedspirits, invading the earth in order to blot out thename of God and of His Christ, to seize upon, slay andcast into eternal perdition souls destined for thecrown of eternal glory. This wicked dragon pours out,as a most impure flood, the venom of his malice onmen; his depraved mind, corrupt heart, his spirit oflying, impiety, blasphemy, his pestilential breath ofimpurity and of every vice and iniquity.

These most crafty enemies have filled and inebriated with galland bitterness the Church, the Spouse of theImmaculate Lamb, and have laid impious hands on hermost sacred possessions. In the Holy Place itself,where has been set up the See of the most holy Peterand the Chair of Truth for the light of the world,they have raised the throne of their abominableimpiety, with the iniquitous design that when thePastor has been struck, the sheep may be scattered.

Arise then, O invincible Prince, bring help againstthe attacks of the lost spirits to the people of God,and give them the victory. They venerate Thee as theirprotector and patron; in Thee Holy Church glories asher defense against the malicious power of hell; toThee has God entrusted the souls of men to beestablished in heavenly beatitude. Oh, pray to the Godof peace that He may put Satan under our feet, so farconquered that he may no longer be able to hold men incaptivity and harm the Church.

Offer our prayers inthe sight of the Most High, so that they may quicklyconciliate the mercies of the Lord; and beating downthe dragon, the ancient serpent who is the devil andSatan, do Thou again make him captive in the abyss,that he may no longer seduce the nations. Amen.

V. Behold the Cross of the Lord; be scattered, hostilepowers.R. The Lion of the tribe of Judah has conquered, theroot of David.V. Let Thy mercies be upon us, O Lord R. As we have hoped in Thee.V. O Lord, hear my prayer.R. And let my cry come unto Thee

LET US PRAYGod, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we call uponThy holy name, and we humbly implore Thy clemency,that by the intercession of Mary, ever VirginImmaculate and our Mother, and of the gloriousArchangel St. Michael, Thou wouldst deign to help usagainst Satan and all other unclean spirits, whowander about the world for the injury of the humanrace and the ruin of souls. Amen.

Back to Rome

2010-09-08T11:38:00.000-07:00

My summer at home has, unfortunately, come to an end, and that much too quickly. I return to Rome this Friday to begin my third year of studies. Please keep me, my family, and my brother seminarians in your prayers as I prepare for my diaconate ordination next year. Be assured of my prayers as well.

Catholicism Project Update

2010-09-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have already heard about Fr. Robert Barron's 10-part documentary, coming to TV and DVD this fall, called The Catholicism Project.

Below is a preview from one of the episodes. Enjoy!

France, Germany & Spain Trailer from Word on Fire on Vimeo.

Stephen Hawking and Basic Philosophy: A Brief Dialogue

2010-09-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hawking: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going”

Anyone Who Has Ever Taken A Philosophy Class or Regularly Engages In Rational Discourse: For something to create itself, it must both exist and not exist at the same time. This is what we call a violation of the law of non-contradiction. You have committed perhaps the most basic philosophical error...ever.

Stephen Hawking: Oh.

"But What About the Crusades??"

2010-08-31T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a little history lesson.

Eucharistic Miracle

2010-08-31T08:05:00.000-07:00

Feast of St. Augustine

2010-08-28T17:13:00.000-07:00

As today is the feast of the great Church Father St. Augustine (who is also the patron of the Diocese of Kalamazoo), I am posting below some pictures from my pilgrimage to the city of Pavvia, Italy, where he is buried. Enjoy!

The body of St. Augustine

Apse mosaic

"Domine, fecisti nos ad Te, et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in Te."
"Lord, you made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it rests in Thee."

Former tomb of St. Augustine

Harvard Valedictorian Heads to Convent

2010-08-26T16:24:00.000-07:00

Read the story here

"Be Ye Perfect, As Your Heavenly Father Is Perfect"

2010-08-25T08:59:00.001-07:00

This video details the history, influence, and purpose of the Benedictine Monastic Order by outlining the life of the monks of Clear Creek Abbey in Okalahoma.

Until very recently, the Benedicine order, founded by St. Benedict in the 5th century, was universally recognized as the main influence responsible for the preservation, rebuilding, and flowering of Western civilization at a time when the West began to crumble because of paganism and decadence. Today this truth, not surprisingly, is denied or ignored by our secular culture.

The Benedictine order played such a huge role because of St. Benedict's Rule, or his order of monastic life, based on Ora et Labora (prayer and work). On account of this concentration on the liturgy and on prayer both during liturgy and work, the great monasteries became the biggest centers of religious piety, academic learning, and economic and agricultural growth. Cities grew around these monasteries, and the whole Western world benefitted from the prayer, learning, and work of the monks.

Monasteries of this type are starting to spring up again, perhaps due to the similarity of our situation to the 5th century when the world was falling apart. Many young people are flocking to these religious houses to leave the world behind, and seek perfection by dedicating their lives to God. For example: The Carmelite monks of Wyoming, the American Benedictines in Norcia, Italy, and the Benedictine monks of Clear Creek, featured in the video below.

Big Bang Theory a Catholic Contribution?

2010-08-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

This article was written by a fellow seminarian, Joseph Laracy, who is a former physicist/research assistant at MIT. He has been published numerous times, and below is one very interesting article of his.

The Big Bang hypothesis is widely known in popular thought as the best explanation for how the universe came to be. However, very few people know that a Catholic priest formulated this theory in the late 1920s. Reverend Monsignor Georges Lemaître, a Belgian scientist, challenged the conventional thinking of his colleagues, including Albert Einstein, and rejected the static universe hypothesis for a dynamic model. In the course of carrying out his research, he confronted illogical thinking that pitted faith against reason, and science against the Church. His legacy extends beyond cosmology, to the nature of truth itself. Read the rest of the article here

Faces of Mary Throughout the Ages

2010-08-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

2010-08-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

Taken from http://blog.adw.org/2010/08/satan-has-many-disguises/

It would be easy if Satan came as he is often portrayed, with horns and a pitchfork. We would naturally flee this ugliness.

Alas, he often comes cloaked in beauty, in sheep’s clothing. He claims to offer us freedom and autonomy from an unreasonable God and Church, liberation from rules and being “told what to do.” He cloaks himself in the false righteousness of being “tolerant” and “not judging others.” He exalts us by telling us we have finally come of age and can disregard the “hang-ups” and “repression” our ancestors had of sex and pleasure. He flatters us by extolling our scientific knowledge and inflates us by equating it with wisdom and moral superiority over our “primitive” fore-bearers. He reassures us by insisting we are merely the victims here, victims of biological urges, bad parenting, economic injustice, that we are not depraved, just deprived. He humors us by making us laugh at sin, making light of it in comedian’s routines, sitcoms, music and otherwise turning sin into a form of entertainment. He anesthetizes the pain of guilt and sin by sending us teachers who tickle our ears and assure us that what we know deep down to be wrong is actually fine, even virtuous. He affirms us by insisting that whenever shortcomings in us have been called to our attention it is simply unfair since other people are surely worse, that self esteem is something owed to us and others who lessen it are unkind. He sings us the lullaby of presumption assuring us that consequences and judgment will not be our lot and with this lullaby we drift off into a moral sleep of indifference and false confidence.

But in the end, there is a wolf under the sheepskin. Satan is ugly. He enslaves, condemns, ridicules and ensnares. His “reassurances” bring pain and grief as the awful effects of sin unwind: hatred, fear, resentments, revenge, suffering, disease, addiction, bondage, strife, divorce, estrangement, war, insurrection, disloyalty, scorn, bitterness, depression, anxiety, depletion, poverty, loss and deep, deep sorrow.

Beware, Satan has many disguises and he seldom presents as he really is. The movie The Passion of the Christ brilliantly presented Satan in the Garden. At first there was almost a strange beauty. But a closer look revealed increasingly hideous details: cold, fixed eyes, sharp and discolored nails, sickly pale skin, suddenly androgynous qualities, and a disgusting maggot crawling in and out of the nose. An audible moan came from the audience in the theatre where I first saw it. Would that, beyond the movie, we could sense this revulsion and clarity as to the evil of Satan and his truest reality.

2010-08-01T18:44:00.001-07:00

"The Blood of Martyrs is the Seed of Christians"

2010-07-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

Actress to Nun

2010-07-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Story at America Needs Fatima

Swiss Guard

2010-07-28T15:29:00.000-07:00

Sacred Music of the Catholic Church

2010-07-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

The importance of the role of music in the liturgy is often underestimated. On account of this, the vast body of sacred music which has been part of our Catholic liturgical tradition for the past two millenia has been, practically speaking, discarded.

I have copied below excerpts from two of the most important recent documents with regard to sacred music in the liturgy. The first, written by Pope Pius X, is called Tra le Sollecitudini, and lays down liturgical norms and laws which are still in effect.

The second document, perhaps more well known, is the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.

The videos I have posted below are chants which make up what is called the Ordinary of the Mass (i.e., prayers that are said in every Mass, without change). Sacrosanctum Concilium refers to the ordinary of the Mass in paragraph 54 saying that the Catholic faithful should be able to chant or say in Latin those parts of the ordinary that pertain to them.

The first video is Kyrie Eleison ('Lord have Mercy' in Greek), the second is the Gloria ('Glory to God in the Highest' in Latin), the third is the Credo (The Nicene Creed in Latin), the fourth is the Sanctus ('Holy, Holy, Holy' in Latin), the fifth is the Agnus Dei ('Lamb of God' in Latin).

TRA LE SOLLECITUDINI

1. Sacred music, being a complementary part of the solemn liturgy, participates in the general scope of the liturgy, which is the glory of God and the sanctification and edification of the faithful. It contributes to the decorum and the splendor of the ecclesiastical ceremonies, and since its principal office is to clothe with suitable melody the liturgical text proposed for the understanding of the faithful, its proper aim is to add greater efficacy to the text, in order that through it the faithful may be the more easily moved to devotion and better disposed for the reception of the fruits of grace belonging to the celebration of the most holy mysteries.

2. Sacred music should consequently possess, in the highest degree, the qualities proper to the liturgy, and in particular sanctity and goodness of form, which will spontaneously produce the final quality of universality.

It must be holy, and must, therefore, exclude all profanity not only in itself, but in the manner in which it is presented by those who execute it.

It must be true art, for otherwise it will be impossible for it to exercise on the minds of those who listen to it that efficacy which the Church aims at obtaining in admitting into her liturgy the art of musical sounds.

But it must, at the same time, be universal in the sense that while every nation is permitted to admit into its ecclesiastical compositions those special forms which may be said to constitute its native music, still these forms must be subordinated in such a manner to the general characteristics of sacred music that nobody of any nation may receive an impression other than good on hearing them.

3. These qualities are to be found, in the highest degree, in Gregorian Chant, which is, consequently the Chant proper to the Roman Church, the only chant she has inherited from the ancient fathers, which she has jealously guarded for centuries in her liturgical codices, which she directly proposes to the faithful as her own, which she prescribes exclusively for some parts of the liturgy, and which the most recent studies have so happily restored to their integrity and purity.

On these grounds Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the supreme model for sacred music, so that it is fully legitimate to lay down thefollowing rule: the more closely a composition for church approaches in its movement, inspiration and savor the Gregorian form, the more sacred and liturgical it becomes; and the more out of harmony it is with that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple.

The ancient traditional Gregorian Chant must, therefore, in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship, and the fact must be accepted by all that an ecclesiastical function loses none of its solemnity when accompanied by this music alone.

SACROSANCTUM CONCILIUM

112. The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.

36. 1. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.

54. Nevertheless steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.

114. The treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with great care. Choirs must be diligently promoted, especially in cathedral churches[...]

116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.

But other kinds of sacred music, especially polyphony, are by no means excluded from liturgical celebrations, so long as they accord with the spirit of the liturgical action, as laid down in Art. 30.

117. The typical edition of the books of Gregorian chant is to be completed; and a more critical edition is to be prepared of those books already published since the restoration by St. Pius X.

120. In the Latin Church the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church's ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man's mind to God and to higher things.

The texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity with Catholic doctrine; indeed they should be drawn chiefly from holy scripture and from liturgical sources.

The Eloquence of Martyrs

2010-07-08T17:41:00.001-07:00

This is taken from http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/, and might be familiar to some of you already. It is the transcript from the trial of Sir Thomas More before British Parliament in which he was unjustly condemned to death for refusing to accept the authority of King Henry VIII as head of the Church in England.

All which notwithstanding the jury found him guilty, and incontinent upon the verdict the Lord Chancellor [for that matter chief commissioner] beginning in judgment against him, Sir Thomas More said to him,

"My Lord, when I was towards the law, the manner in such case was to ask the prisoner before judgment, why judgment should not be given against

him."

Whereupon the Lord Chancellor staying his judgment, wherein he had partly proceeded, demanded of him what he was able to say to the contrary. Who then in this sort mildly made answer:

"Forasmuch as, my Lord, this indictment is grounded upon an Act of Parliament, directly oppugnant to the laws of God and his holy Church, the supreme government of which, or of any part thereof, may no temporal prince presume by any law to take upon him as rightfully belonging to the See of Rome, a spiritual preeminence by the mouth of our Saviour himself, personally present upon the earth, to St. Peter and his successors, bishops of the same see, by special prerogative, granted, it is therefore in law amongst Christian men insufficient to charge any Christian."...

Then was it thereunto by the Lord Chancellor answered, that seeing all the bishops, universities, and best learned men of the Realm had to this Act agreed, it was much marvelled that he alone against them all would so stiffly stick and vehemently argue there against. To that Sir Thomas More replied saying,

"If the number of bishops and universities be so material, as your Lordships seemeth to take it, then see I little cause [my Lords] why that thing in my conscience should make any change. For I nothing doubt, but that though not in this Realm, yet in Christendom about they be not the least part, that be of my mind therein. But if I should speak of those that be already dead, of whom many be now saints in heaven, I am very sure it is the far greater part of them, that all the while they lived, thought in this case that way that I think now. And therefore am I not bound [my Lords] to conform my conscience to the council of one realm against the General Council of Christendom."...

After which ended, the commissioners yet courteously offered him, if he had anything else to allege for his defence to grant him favourable audience, who answered,

"More have I not to say [my Lords] but like as the blessed Apostle St. Paul, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was present, and consented to the death of St. Stephen, and kept their clothes that stoned him to death, and yet be they now both twain holy saints in heaven, and shall continue there friends for ever, so I verily trust and shall therefore right heartily pray, that though your Lordships have now in earth been judges to my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to our everlasting salvation."

Home for the Summer

2010-07-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Hello all! I am home for the summer after two years in Rome, and it is great to be back. I will be in a parish from now until August 10 or so, and I will return to Rome on September 12. Thank you all again for your prayers and thoughts and I hope to see a lot of you while I'm home!

Judge Judy, Simon Cowell, and the Lord God

2010-07-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

The Catholicism Project

2010-06-25T08:38:00.001-07:00

Fr. Robert Barron on Blasphemy

2010-06-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

Check out this video by Fr. Robert Barron on blasphemy.

Correcting the Sinner

2010-06-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

Msgr. Charles Pope has a helpful reflection on what Christ meant when He said "Do not judge, lest ye be judged" as we heard in yesterday's Gospel. His main point is that correcting a sinner is not "being judgmental" but rather one of the spiritual works of mercy.

Open Letter from a Presbyterian

2010-06-20T12:40:00.000-07:00

I found this blog post through a link on http://www.newadvent.org/. It is an open letter from a presbyterian man explaining why he is leaving his Presbyterian community to enter the Catholic Church. It is a very well-explained a humble testimony of his conversion.

To our brothers and sisters at Good Shepherd Presbyterian:
This letter is to explain why we will be leaving Good Shepherd. We want to make sure our reasons are understood as much as possible, so you will not wonder why we left, and will not think it was for a trite reason. I do not expect you to agree with our decision, but my hope is that this decision will not be misunderstood.

Over the years at Good Shepherd, I have grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of unity in the Reformed community. After a family recently left our church for Eastern Orthodoxy, I felt a deep sense that something was very wrong with the state of unity among Christians. And at first, I thought they left for similar reasons as the dozens of other families have done over the past 9 years.

Since my family has been at Good Shepherd, our church has not been able to have children fast enough to replace all the people that have left for this or that picky reason! People left in a mass exodus during Pastor Hewitson's time with us because of Federal Vision fever. Since then more have left us to form a new congregation of a 11 year old denomination called the CREC for reasons that I would say are anything but central to the Reformed faith. Others have left with the particular desire to not be under any church authority at all! No pretense even. In my opinion, these people have not submitted to the authority of the church, which we Reformed believe is the arbiter of Scriptural Truth and interpretation,but rather they have become their own authority. They are rogues who have arrogated the authority of the Holy Spirit to themselves, placing their conscience and private judgment over the authority of sessions that they have sworn to be faithful to. This got me thinking...

What makes me submit to the session at Good Shepherd? I have always seen it as a Divinely instituted body put there to guide my family on the Christian path, but what if I disagree with them on some matter of doctrine? EVERY Reformed person I have ever talked to about this situation has said there is nothing wrong with leaving a church and placing my family under another session that agrees with my convictions. When I have mentioned points of disagreement with the PCA everyone has said I could and should leave if it is a big deal to me. What this means is that the authority of Scripture, which is supposed to be exercised through the church, is instead exercised through my personal interpretations by ME!According to Sola Scriptura, as defined by Keith Mathison,
Scripture is 'the sole source of revelation; [the] the final authoritative norm of doctrine and practice; to be interpreted in and by the church, and that it [is] to be interpreted according to the regula fidei.'.

The problem with this doctrine is that when a believer disagrees with the leaders he is supposed to submit to, he then finds other leaders that agree with his interpretation to submit to. This is not submitting to church authority, it is submitting to self. Submitting to yourself is just another way of saying you don't submit at all! There is a helpful way to remember this concept:
“If I only submit when I agree, the one to whom I submit is me.”

Anyone who has raised children can recognize the obvious truth of this. Or any wife that has tried to submit to a husband. Or submitting to an employer, etc... True submission is shown in conforming our mind to that mind to which we submit. If we are submitting to someone based on a shared set of beliefs, or because we agree with them, that is not true submission! It is actually a dangerous opposite of submission, because it can appear to be submission. If a disagreement never comes between a husband and wife in the entire time of their life together (bear with me I know it is far fetched) we could look at the relationship and see submission. But if inside her heart she is ready to split at the first sign of disagreement, she in no way is submitting to him. Apply this wife/husband scenario to church/Christ, and you can see where my mind is on this issue.

We Protestants submit to our elders based on our agreement with them, and this is a faux submission. This is no longer an option for my family. I do not trust myself to interpret the Scripture when generations of brilliant Protestants (like Dr. Joshua Moon!) can not agree on what it says. If I listen to Josh, then I must ignore Mike Horton. If I listen to Mike Horton, I must ignore Doug Wilson, If I listen to Doug Wilson, I should ignore RC Sproul, and on and on it goes. If I come up with a synthesis of all these mens interpretations, then I have Professor David Meyer's interpretation, and he is an electronics technician, not a theologian. I am not inclined, (and nor should you be) to trust his interpretation.

So after coming to the above conclusions, what then? Should I just continue to form opinions and interpretations with lots of prayer and reflection? Should I just do my best to be part of the group I feel conforms most closely with Scripture? No, I can't because any options within this paradigm of Sola Scriptura lead to the same fateful conclusion that I am my own authority. The only options left for me are:

A. Remain with Reformed Christianity and continue the cycle of “self submission”, knowing in my heart it is wrong.

B. Some form of non-theism,

C.“Choose-your-own-adventure” Christianity that I self consciously make up for myself and do not worry about submitting to church authority.

D. Submit to a form of Christianity that does not subscribe to Sola Scriptura and which has a interpretive authority which can plausibly claim to be led by the Holy Spirit, so as to remove myself as the authority.

Option A: I cannot in good conscience stay with option A I because within Sola Scriptura, I have no way of knowing if I am in schism from Christ's church. Whether I am in schism or not, the situation will look exactly the same from my perspective. I will consider myself to be following the Scripture whether I was in schism or not! If I was in grave error, my circumstances would look no different from being in the fullness of truth. Either way I would be surrounded by a session of my own choosing that would be quick to reassure me I was on the right path.
Option B: For the regenerate Christian that has tasted the beuty of Christ, this is not a real option.
Option C: This is a tempting option. Perhaps Christ is OK with us just making this stuff up as we go? Perhaps that is part of the plan? Pray, read the Scripture, come up with an interpretation, stick with it, and look around at the rest of Christianity totally disagreeing with you. Then pray everyone comes to see the “truth” of what you believe. Unfortunately the church in scripture was not like this. There was authority given and maintained by the Holy Spirit to lead the Church into all truth. (Jn. 16:13) So even though this is perhaps a more consistent position than Sola Scriptura, it is not an option for someone who desires to be “lead” into all truth by the Spirit.
Option D: This makes the most sense. Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiology takes into account the fact that people will disagree about the content of Divine revelation. Not that disagreement implies errancy or falibility, but without a magisterium that is supernaturally protected from error, there is no way for me to be sure I am getting the interpretation that is the right one. If I am able to toss out the 7th ecumenical council (as nearly all Protestants do) because it doesn't match my interpretation, where will the tossing out stop? If church councils themselves are to be judged by a 21st century layman, theologically untrained, and unordained Christian like me, what is the point then of church councils other than to provide some really good advise from some really great men from the history of our faith? If they were not being guided into all truth by the Holy Spirit in these councils, with the expectation that all believers should submit to their decisions, then what use are they other than to help me form my own interpretation to submit to? The ecclesiologies that claim to have living, breathing successors of the apostles which are Divinely gifted with the ability to define doctrine in certain situations are the only ecclesiologies that make sense.
That leaves two possibilities. Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Orthodoxy has stopped having church councils, would not be able to convene one if they wanted, and it can not claim the universality needed in the fourfold definition of the creed. (One, holy, catholic, Apostolic) because it is still largely a regional church and not world wide. Also there is no unifying head to resolve differences.
The Catholic Church is the only option left. In many ways it is a bitter pill to swallow for me. I have been very critical of Catholic doctrine as a Protestant. Much that they believe I am not inclined to believe. But I will have to submit to the mind of what I must believe is the church Christ founded.
To all of you I say that we have loved being at Good Shepherd. If left to my own opinions and interpretations, I would be right there with you guys. Josh Moon is going to turn that church into a shining gem in the PCA, I know it. The little changes he has made here and there are definitely heading Good Shepherd in a great direction. I wish we could speak to each member personally but that is just not possible. We have many friends that we will miss, but please know that we harbor no ill will, and on the contrary, see Reformed Christianity, and Good Shepherd in particular as bright spots in the Protestant world. We all wish for a unified church. And while I don't expect you to agree with my decision, I hope you will see it as something I am doing out of a great love for Christ's Church and its unity. Peace to all of you, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
David Meyer and Family.

"Take Up Your Cross"

2010-06-18T16:36:00.000-07:00

From this Sunday's Gospel:

Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23)

I have copied below the commentary of the Church Fathers on this passage, so that you might meditate more fruitfully at Mass on the meaning of these important words of Christ Our Lord:

ST. CYRIL; Great and noble leaders provoke the mighty in arms to deeds of velour, not only by promising them the honors of victory, but by declaring that suffering is in itself glorious. Such we see is the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. For He had foretold to His disciples, that He must needs suffer the accusations of the Jews, be slain, and rise again on the third day. Lest then they should think that Christ indeed was to suffer persecution for the life of the world, but that they might lead a soft life, He shows them that they must needs pass through similar struggles, if they desired to obtain His glory. Hence it is said, And he said to all.

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. Now the Savior of His great mercy and loving kindness will have no one serve Him unwillingly and from constraint, but those only who come of their own accord, and are grateful for being allowed to serve Him. And so not by compelling men and putting a yoke upon them, but by persuasion and kindness, He draws to Him every where those who are willing, saying, If any man will, &c.

ORIGEN; A man also denies himself when by a sufficient alteration of manners or a good conversation he changes a life of habitual wickedness. He who has long lived in lasciviousness, abandons his lustful self when he becomes chaste, and in like manner a forsaking of any crimes is a denial of one's self.

ST. BASIL; Now a desire of suffering death for Christ and a mortification of one's members which are upon the earth, end a manful resolution to undergo any danger for Christ, and an indifference towards the present life, this it is to take up one's cross. Hence it is added, And let him take up his cross daily.

THEOPHYLACT. By the cross, He speaks of an ignominious death, meaning, that if any one will follow Christ, he must not for his own sake flee from even an ignominious death.

ST. GREGORY. In two ways also is the cross taken up, either when the body is afflicted through abstinence, or the mind touched by sympathy.

GREEK EX. He rightly joins these two, Let him deny himself, and let him take up his cross, for as he who is prepared to ascend the cross conceives in his mind the intention of death, and so goes on thinking to have no more part in this life, so he who is willing to follow our Lord, ought first to deny himself, and so take up his cross, that his will may be ready to endure every calamity.

Ouija Boards

2010-06-10T00:07:00.000-07:00

I thought you might find this post from Aggie Catholics helpful:

Are Ouija Boards Satanic?

Q - Is using a Ouija Board ok, if just for fun? I can't believe that Hasbro makes this and Toys 'R Us sells them!

A - Thanks for the questions. I think my answers might just surprise some of our readers.The origin of these boards is not from a game. Rather, they come from a practice of "channeling" or "divination". Channeling is asking the dead to give us answers to questions or power and is an ancient - and dangerous - practice. Thus, the word "occult" = "hidden". The Bible speaks directly to this practice:

Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out of your way. - Deuteronomy 18: 10-12

He practiced soothsaying and divination, and reintroduced the consulting of ghosts and spirits. He did much evil in the LORD'S sight and provoked him to anger. - 2 Kings 21:6

And when they say to you, "Inquire of mediums and fortune-tellers (who chirp and mutter!); should not a people inquire of their gods, apply to the dead on behalf of the living?" - Is 8:19

So, the history of divination and channeling is ancient, but it has some more modern forms, which have become popular again from various sources, including - New Age practices, the Occult, fortune-telling, Wicca, astrology, and "games" such as the Ouija Board. All of these have Pagan spiritual origins and should never be practiced by Christians.

Ultimately, this is a dangerous practice because it is an attempt to seek spiritual power from somewhere other than God. If this is the case, then demons or evil spirits are most likely the ones supplying it. We open ourselves up to demonic influence if we do so - to the point of having possession being possible down the line.

Some might think this is an overreaction and that it is just fun. I have heard some say - at most, it is a spooky time for kids to pretend they can talk to the dead. But, demons can work through this kind of attitude to quietly induce someone to their way of thinking and acting.A personal disbelief in the power of Satan, does not make his power go away. Just ask an exorcist who has had to fight with such demons. They will not beat around the bush in regards to such practices.The danger is very real.

Thus, the Catechism states:

2116 All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future.48 Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.2117 All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

So, in answer to your question - I believe the Ouija Board and other kinds of New Age practices to be very dangerous. I also think it is scandalous that they are marketing it as a "game" and so many people accept such things uncritically.

Relevant Words from Pope St. Pius X

2010-05-19T11:09:00.000-07:00

With all the turmoil the Church has been going through, these words which were written 100 years ago may provide us comfort and consolation:

"...God's goodness bears witness to the divinity of the Church. He makes her victorious in that painful battle against the errors and sins that creep into her ranks. Through this victory He verifies the words of Christ: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." In her day-to-day living He fulfills the promise, "Behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world." Finally, He is the witness of that mysterious power of the other Paraclete (Who Christ promised would come immediately after His ascension into heaven), who continually lavishes His gifts upon her and serves as her defender and consoler in all her sorrows.

This is the Spirit Who will "dwell with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him...he will dwell with you and be in you." The life and strength of the Church flows forth from this font. As the ecumenical Vatican Council teaches, this divine power sets the Church above every other society by those obvious notes which mark her "as a banner raised up among the nations."

In fact, only a miracle of that divine power could preserve the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, from blemish in the holiness of Her doctrine, law, and end in the midst of the flood of corruption and lapses of her members. Her doctrine, law and end have produced an abundant harvest. The faith and holiness of her children have brought forth the most salutary fruits. Here is another proof of her divine life: in spite of a great number of pernicious opinions and great variety of errors (as well as the vast army of rebels) the Church remains immutable and constant, "as the pillar and foundation of truth," in professing one identical doctrine, in receiving the same Sacraments, in her divine constitution, government, and morality.

This is all the more marvelous when one considers that the Church not only resists evil but even "conquers evil by doing good." She is constantly blessing friends and enemies alike. She is continually striving and ardently desiring to bring about the social and individual Christian restoration which is her particular mission in the world. Moreover, even her enemies benefit from it.

St. Pius X
Editae Saepe

May 26, 1910

PRAYER FOR POPE BENEDICT XVI

2010-05-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

As I said in the last post, it is very important to pray for our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI as he suffers insults and persecution. Please try to pray this prayer daily, if possible! As the Pope himself asked us upon being raised to the Chair of Peter: "Pray for me, that I not flee for fear of the wolves."

Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to your shepherd Benedict a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love. By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care, may he, as successor to the Apostle Peter and Vicar of Christ, build your Church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace for all the world. Amen.

V: Let us pray for Benedict the Pope.

R: May the Lord preserve him, give him a long life, make him blessed upon the earth, and not hand him over to the power of his enemies.

V: May your hand be upon your holy servant.

R: And upon your son, whom you have anointed.

Our Father...Hail Mary...Glory Be...

Pray for the Holy Father!

2010-05-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

It has become more and more evident in recent months the great many people that hate the Church and, specifically, our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI. He has been targeted by the media, and just a few days ago an assassination plot was, by the grace of God and the protection of Our Lady, foiled. We must all remember to keep Pope Benedict in our prayers more than ever as he continues to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and inspire the faithful to keep their eyes looking to heaven in joyful hope. Now some recent words from Pope Benedict:

"As you see, the Pope needs to open himself ever more fully to the mystery of the Cross, embracing it as the one hope and the supreme way to gain and to gather in the Crucified One all his brothers and sisters in humanity.

Obeying the word of God, he is called to live not for himself but for the presence of God in the world. I am comforted by the determination with which you too follow me closely, fearing nothing except the loss of eternal salvation for your people...From my heart I thank you. I thank you as well for all the attention that you have given to organizing my Visit. May God reward you, and pour out the Holy Spirit in abundance upon you and your Dioceses so that, with one heart and with one soul, you may bring to completion the pastoral work which you have begun, that is, offering each member of the faithful an exacting and attractive Christian initiation, one which communicates the integrity of the faith and genuine spirituality, rooted in the Gospel, and capable of forming free and generous labourers in the midst of public life."

...

"Adding such a great number of martyrs to the list of beatified persons shows that the supreme witness of giving blood is not an exception reserved only to some individuals, but a realistic possibility for all Christian people. It includes men and women of different ages, vocations and social conditions, who pay with their lives in fidelity to Christ and his Church."

"Their example gives witness to the fact that baptism commits Christians to participate boldly in the spread of the Kingdom of God, cooperating if necessary with the sacrifice of one's own life," he said. "Certainly not everyone is called to a bloody martyrdom. There is also an unbloody 'martyrdom,' which is no less significant, such as that of Celina Chludzinska Borzecka, wife, mother, widow and religious, beatified yesterday in Rome: It is the silent and heroic testimony of many Christians who live the Gospel without compromises, fulfilling their duty and dedicating themselves generously in service to the poor. "This martyrdom of ordinary life is a particularly important witness in the secularized societies of our time. It is the peaceful battle of love that all Christians, like Paul, have to fight tirelessly; the race to spread the Gospel that commits us until death. May Mary, Queen of Martyrs and Star of Evangelization, help us and assist us in our daily witness."

Beauty for God

2010-05-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

The Holy See has put a series of catechetical explanations with regard to the liturgy on their website. Here is one of them, with regard to how we ought to strive for beauty in every aspect of the liturgy.

BEAUTY IN EVERY ASPECT OF THE LITURGY

The Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI writes, in n. 35 of the Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis:

This relationship between creed and worship is evidenced in a particular way by the rich theological and liturgical category of beauty. Like the rest of Christian Revelation, the liturgy is inherently linked to beauty: it is veritatis splendor. The liturgy is a radiant expression of the paschal mystery, in which Christ draws us to himself and calls us to communion…The beauty of the liturgy is part of this mystery; it is a sublime expression of God's glory and, in a certain sense, a glimpse of heaven on earth. The memorial of Jesus' redemptive sacrifice contains something of that beauty which Peter, James and John beheld when the Master, making his way to Jerusalem, was transfigured before their eyes (cf. Mk 9:2). Beauty, then, is not mere decoration, but rather an essential element of the liturgical action, since it is an attribute of God himself and his revelation. These considerations should make us realize the care which is needed, if the liturgical action is to reflect its innate splendour.

The beauty of Christ is reflected above all in the saints and in the Christian faithful of every epoch, but the spiritual value of the works of art which the Christian faith has produced to place at the service of divine worship must not on this account be forgotten or undervalued. The beauty of the liturgy is manifested concretely through material objects and corporal gestures, which man – a unity of soul and body – needs to elevate himself to the invisible realities and be strengthened in faith. The Council of Trent taught:

“Human nature is such that it cannot be easily elevated to the meditation of divine things without external aids: on account of this the Church, as a loving Mother, has established certain rites…to render more evident the majesty of such a great sacrifice and to introduce the minds of the faithful, with these visible signs of religion and piety, to the contemplation of the sublime realities hidden in this sacrifice.” (DS1746)

Sacred art, sacred vestments and furnishings, sacred architecture: everything must come together to strengthen the sense of majesty and beauty, to make more apparent the “noble simplicity” (SC 34) of the Christian liturgy, which is the liturgy of the true Beauty. The Servant of God John Paul II recounted the Gospel episode of the anointing at Bethany to respond to the possible objection concerning the beauty of churches and objects destined for worship, which could be out of place if put before the great mass of the poor in the world. He wrote:

“A woman…pours a vase of precious perfume on the head of Jesus, provoking in the disciples – in particular Judas (cf. Mt 26:8; Mk 14:4; Jn 12:4) – a reaction of protest, as if such a gesture, in consideration of the demands of the poor, had constituted an intolerable “waste”. But the evaluation of Jesus is quite different. Without taking anything away from the obligation of charity towards the needy, to whom the disciples will always need to dedicate themselves… He looks to the imminent event of His death and burial, and sees the anointing as the anticipation of that honor of which His Body will continue to be worthy even after death, inseparably linked as it is to the mystery of His Person” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia n. 47).

And he concludes:

“As the woman of the anointing at Bethany, the Church has not feared to “waste”, investing the best of her resources to express her adoring wonder before the immeasurable gift of the Eucharist. On the wave of this elevated sense of mystery, one comprehends how the faith of the Church in the Eucharistic Mystery is expressed in history not only by means of the interior devotion, but also through a series of external expressions, meant to evoke and underline the greatness of the celebrated event…On this basis a rich patrimony of art has also developed. Architecture, sculpture, painting, music, allowing themselves to be oriented by the Christian mystery, found in the Eucharist, directly or indirectly, a motive of great inspiration” (Ibid. nn. 48-49).

It is necessary, therefore, to have every possible attention and care in order that the dignity of the liturgy may shine forth even in the smallest details in the form of true beauty. It is necessary to remember that even those saints that have lived lives of poverty with particular asceticism always have desired that the most beautiful and precious objects be dedicated to divine worship. We mention only one example, that of the holy Cure d’Ars:

“Don Vianney had immediately loved that old church as a paternal house. He began to make it more beautiful starting with the altar, the center and reason for the existence of the whole sanctuary. With respect to the Eucharist, he wanted the sanctuary as beautiful as possible…therefore he augmented the “wardrobe of the good God” as he used to say, in his colorful and imaginative language. He visited the stores of embroidery and jewelry in Lyons and acquired those things he found which were the most precious. “In the surrounding villages his sellers would speak of a small Cure, thin, poorly dressed, who has the air of having nothing in his pocket and, for his church, always wants that which is the best!” (F. Trochu, Il Curato d’Ars, Marietti, Torino 1964, p. 173).

Lenten Station Church: Sant'Apollinare

2010-03-25T04:19:00.000-07:00

Sant'Apollinare alle Terme is a church dedicated to St Apollinaris, Bishop of Ravenna and martyr. The full name of the church is Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Allessandrine; this refers to the Baths of Nero which were in the area (http://romanchurches.wikia.com/wiki/Sant)

When Saint Peter, setting out for Rome, left Antioch after seven years as its spiritual Head, he took with him several of the faithful of that city, among them Apollinaris, a disciple of Jesus Christ. He consecrated him bishop a few years later and sent him to Ravenna as its first bishop.

His first miracle was on behalf of the blind son of a soldier who gave him hospitality when he first arrived in the city of Ravenna. When the apostle told him of the God he had come to preach and invited him to abandon the cult of idols, the soldier replied: “Stranger, if the God you preach is as powerful as you say, beg Him to give sight to my son, and I will believe in Him.” The Saint had the child brought and made the sign of the cross on his eyes as he prayed. The miracle was instantaneous, to the great amazement of all, and news of it spread rapidly. A day or so later, a military tribune sent for him to cure his wife from a long illness, which again he did. The house of the tribune became a center of apostolic action, and several persons sent their children to the Saint to instruct them there. Little by little a flourishing Christian assembly was formed, and priests and deacons were ordained. The Saint lived in community with the two priests and two deacons.

The idolatrous priests aroused the people against him, as we see the enemies of Saint Paul do in the Acts of the Apostles. He was left half-dead on the seashore, after being severely beaten, but was cared for by the Christians and recovered rapidly. A young girl whom he cured after having her father promise to allow her full liberty to follow Christ, consecrated her virginity to God. It was after this that, in the time of Vespasian, he was arrested and interrogated and again flogged, stretched on the rack and plunged into boiling oil. Alive still, he was exiled to Illyria, east of the Adriatic Sea.

He remained three years in that country, having survived a shipwreck with only a few persons whom he converted. Then he evangelized the various districts, with the aid of his converts. When an idol ceased to speak during his sojourn in one of these regions, the pagans again beat him and threw him and his companions on a ship which took them back to Italy. Soon imprisoned, he escaped but was seized again and for the last time subjected to a flogging. He died on July 23rd of the year 79. His body lay first at Classis, four miles from Ravenna, and a church was built over his tomb; later the relics were returned to Ravenna. Pope Honorius had a church built to honor the name of Apollinaris in Rome, about the year 630. From the beginning the Church has held his memory in high veneration. (http://www.magnificat.ca/cal/engl/07-23.htm)

Lenten Station Church: San Paolo Fuori le Mura

2010-03-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” -Hebrews 4:12

Today's station church is one of the major (papal) basilicas of Rome: St. Paul's Outside the Walls. It is quite a hike from the NAC to St. Paul's (since it is, after all, outside the walls of the city) but it has a fascinating and long history which makes it one of the favorite pilgrimage sites of the seminarians here at the North American College.

At the beginning of the 4th century, with the end of the persecutions and the promulgation of the Edicts of Tolerance in favour of Christianity, Emperor Constantine ordered the excavation of the cella memoriae, the place where Christians venerated the memory of Saint Paul the Apostle, beheaded under Nero around 65-67 A.D. Above his grave, located along the Ostiense Way, about two kilometers outside the Aurelian Walls surrounding Rome, Constantine built a Basilica which was consecrated by Pope Sylvester in 324.

The Tomb of the Apostle Paul, discovered only in the last century. This has been the site of his remains since the early Christians buried him and the Emperor Constantine erected the first Basilica in his honor.

Between 384 and 395 the Basilica, under the emperors Theodosius, Valentinian II and Arcadius, was restored and enlarged according to an extensive project consisting of five naves opening out into an atrium (quadriportico), or courtyard with four rows of columns. Throughout the centuries the Basilica would not cease to be embellished and enhanced by the Popes. For example, the massive defensive wall was built to protect against invasions at the end of the ninth century, while the bell tower and the magnificent Byzantine door were constructed in the eleventh century. This historical period represents the golden age of what had been the biggest Basilica of Rome, until the consecration of the new Basilica of St. Peter in 1626. This sacred place of Christian pilgrimage was well-known for its artistic works.

The triumphal arch over the main altar depicting Christ as victor over death (hence why it is called a "triumphal arch").

In addition to the Papal Basilica, the entire complex includes a very ancient Benedictine Abbey, restored by Odon of Cluny in 936. This Abbey remains active even today under the direction of its Abbot who retains his ordinary jurisdiction intra septa monasterii. The Benedictine Monks of the ancient Abbey, founded near the tomb of the Apostle by Pope Gregory II (715-731), attend to the ministry of Reconciliation (or Penance) and the promotion of special ecumenical events.

Innocent III (1198-1216) ordered the creation of the large mosaic in the apse (24 meters wide and 12 meters long), which at present looks much the same as it did when it was completed centuries ago. At that time the Basilica was universally known, not only as an important destination for pilgrimages but also as a chest of Paleo-Christian, Byzantine and Gothic artistic treasures.

On the night of July 15, 1823, a fire destroyed this unique testimony to the Paleo-Christian, Byzantine, Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Basilica was reconstructed identically to what it had been before, utilizing all the elements which had survived the fire. In 1840 Pope Gregory XVI consecrated the Altar of the Confession and the Transept.

Other embellishments followed the reconstruction. In 1928 the portico with 146 columns was added. Contemporary work in the Basilica has uncovered the tomb of the Apostle, while other important and beneficial works are carried out, as in the past, thanks to the generosity of Christians from all over the world.

In the fifth century under the Pontificate of Leo the Great, the Basilica became the home of a long series of medallions which would to this day depict all the popes throughout history. This testifies, in an extraordinary way, to “the very great, the very ancient and universally known Church founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul” (Saint Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses 3, 3,2). (http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_paolo/en/basilica/oro_basilica.htm)

Reading I Is 49:8-15

Responsorial Psalm 145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18

Gospel Jn 5:17-30

Lenten Station Church: San Sisto Vecchio

2010-03-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Today's station church is the Basilica of San Sisto. Though there has been a basilica on this location since the 4th or 5th century, very little of the original structure remains. Nevertheless, this small basilica gives us the chance to talk about the saint himself, Pope St. Sixtus, who was a martyr in the early centuries of the Church.

Pope St. Sixtus entrusting St. Lawrence with the alms to give to the poor.

The chapel can still be visited in the catacombs of St. Callistus where Pope St. Sixtus II and four deacons were celebrating the liturgy when the Roman soldiers burst in and arrested them. On the way to their execution, another deacon came forward to the pope and begged to be allowed to accompany him. "Where are you going, my dear father, without your son? Where are you hurrying off to, holy priest, without your deacon? Before you never mounted the altar of sacrifice without your servant, and now you wish to do it without me?" The pope replied that, while not now, in a few days time the deacon would join him in suffering for the faith. And so did St. Lawrence go and prepare for his own death. Now the memory of the martyred pope is kept by this modest basilica, which has quietly stood on this location for over sixteen centuries.

The foundation of the basilica here is dated to the reign of Pope Anastasius, who reigned from 399 to 401. At that time it was known primarily as the Titulus Crescentianae, with the name of St. Sixtus being more frequently used beginning in the sixth century. In these early centuries the scrutinies of the catechumens were held at this church, before receiving Baptism at the Lateran Baptistery.

A representation of the ancient basilica of San Sisto on the Via Appia

Shortly before the pontificate of Sixtus II the Emperor Valerian issued his first edict of persecution, which made it binding upon the Christians to participate in the national cult of the pagan gods and forbade them to assemble in the cemeteries, threatening with exile or death whomsoever was found to disobey the order.

In some way or other, Sixtus II managed to perform his functions as chief pastor of the Christians without being molested by those who were charged with the execution of the imperial edict. But during the first days of August, 258, the emperor issued a new and far more cruel edict against the Christians, the import of which has been preserved in a letter of St. Cyprian to Successus, the Bishop of Abbir Germaniciana. It ordered bishops, priests, and deacons to be summarily put to death.

Sixtus II was one of the first to fall a victim to this imperial enactment. In order to escape the vigilance of the imperial officers he assembled his flock on 6 August at one of the less-known cemeteries, that of Prætextatus, on the left side of the Appian Way, nearly opposite the cemetery of St. Callistus. While seated on his chair in the act of addressing his flock he was suddenly apprehended by a band of soldiers. There is some doubt whether he was beheaded forthwith, or was first brought before a tribunal to receive his sentence and then led back to the cemetery for execution. The latter opinion seems to be the more probable.

Four deacons, Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, and Stephanus, were apprehended with Sixtus and beheaded with him at the same cemetery (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14031c.htm)

The room in the Catacombs of San Callisto where Pope St. Sixtus and his four deacons were martyred by the soldiers of the emperor Valerian

The following inscription honoring was placed on his tomb in the catacomb of Callixtus by Pope Damasus I:

At the time when the sword pierced the bowels of the Mother, I, buried here, taught as Pastor the Word of God; when suddenly the soldiers rushed in and dragged me from the chair. The faithful offered their necks to the sword, but as soon as the Pastor saw the ones who wished to rob him of the palm (of martyrdom) he was the first to offer himself and his own head, not tolerating that the (pagan) frenzy should harm the others. Christ, who gives recompense, made manifest the Pastor's merit, preserving unharmed the flock. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sixtus_II)

The inside of the basilica. Most of the structure is very recent.

First Reading: Dt 4:1, 5-9 Responsorial Psalm 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20
Gospel: Mt 5:17-19

Lenten Station Church: Santa Cecilia in Trastevere

2010-03-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

"Behold the body of the most holy virgin Cecilia, whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in the tomb. I have in this marble expressed for you the same saint in the very same posture"

This inscription, by Stephano Moderno, is on a marble slab in front of this statue of St. Cecilia, which he sculpted

Today's station church was the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. St. Cecilia is a virgin and martyr who has long been venerated in the Church. But, if you don't know much about her, here is a bit of information about the church, her life and her martyrdom:

The church and convent of Santa Cecilia in Trastavere in Rome was built over the home of St. Cecilia, an upper-class woman who owned a house on this site and was martyred in the 3rd century. Her body was found incorrupt in 1599, complete with deep axe cuts in her neck; a statue under the altar depicts the way it was found. Excavations of Cecilia's Roman house can be toured underneath the church.

Cecilia is one of the most popular of Roman saints. She lived in the 3rd century and the first legend of her life was written in the 6th century. A noblewoman from a senatorial family, Cecilia took a personal vow of virginity and pledged her life to God. Unfortunately for her, Cecilia's parents still married her off.

On her wedding night, Cecilia told her new husband (Valerian of Trastevere) about her pledge of virginity and persuaded him to be baptized. Valerian's brother Tibertius and another man named Maximus were converted and baptized as well, and the three men began a Christian ministry of giving alms to the poor and arranging for proper burial of martyrs. Eventually they became martyrs themselves for refusing to worship Roman gods.

After burying her husband and his brother, Cecilia was persecuted as well. According to her legend, she was first locked in the caldarium of her own bathhouse for several days. This failed to suffocate her as planned; in fact, she sang throughout the ordeal (Cecilia is the patron saint of music). Next a soldier was sent to behead her, but after three hacks with an axe she was still alive. However, she died of her wounds three days later. (http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-santa-cecilia)

--See my post on the Catacombs of St. Callistus to see where St. Cecilia's body was found

The apse above the choir is decorated with a fine 9th-century mosaic on the theme of the Second Coming. It consists of seven standing figures - Christ in the center flanked by three saints on each side - against a background of a meadow with flowers, palm trees and sunset-lit clouds. Pope Paschal Iappears on the left of the mosaic, with a square nimbus indicating he was alive at the time it was made. Above his head is a small phoenix, symbol of resurrection, and next to him are St. Paul and St. Agatha. Christ is in the center, his left hand holding a scroll and his right hand raised in blessing. Above him is the Hand of God. On the right stand St. Peter, St. Valerian (Cecilia's husband) and St. Cecilia. Peter holds his keys and the latter two hold martyrs' crowns.

The exterior of the church

Interior nave of the church

This spacious house glitters built of varied enamels;This hall, which once in ancient time had been demolished,the generous prelate Paschal built to a better state,shaping it on a famous foundation;these golden mysteries resound with jewelled precincts;serene in the love of Godhe joined the bodies of Saint Cecilia and her companions;youth glows red in its bloom, limbs that rested before in crypts:Rome is jubilant, triumphant always, adorned forever. - Inscription below the apse mosaic

Lenten Station Church: Santa Maria Maggiore

2010-02-24T03:10:00.000-08:00

The station church for today is one of the four major (papal) basilicas in Rome, Santa Maria Maggiore (or Mary Major, or Our Lady of the Snows). Though we had to endure a bit of rain towards the end of our rather long walk this morning, it is always worth the effort. This basilica has quite a history, a number of fascinating things to see, and a beautiful Byzantine style. Cardinal Law was the main celebrant and our rector, Msgr. Checchio concelebrated.

Among the many gems in the basilica, Mary Major boasts a relic of the presepe, or Holy Crib in which held Jesus Christ after His Birth. There is also a famous image of Our Lady called Salus Populi Romani because it was said to have saved the city from the plague. This image is also said to have been painted by St. Luke due to its antiquity and the fact that Luke is said to have had close familiarity with Our Lady. Along the main nave, there are mosaics beautifully preserved from the 5th century, as are the mosaics on the triumphal arch. The gold that adorns the coffered ceiling is said to have been a gift from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain - the first gold brought back from the Americas. More importantly, this basilica contains the remains of St. Jerome and the Apostle St. Matthias, whose feast day is today on the old liturgical calendar. The apse mosaic, depicting the Coronation of the Virgin, is from the late 13th century.

Below I have posted more detailed information on the history and description of the basilica, taken from http://www.sacred-destinations.com/.

Founded in the 4th century, the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore is one of the five great ancient basilicas of Rome. It stands on the site of a temple to the goddess Cybele. According to a 13th-century legend, the first church was built here by Pope Liberius (352-66), on the site of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The legend has it that the Virgin appeared to Pope Liberius and the patrician Giovanni Patrizio on August 4, 352 (or 358), instructing them to build a church on the Esquiline Hill. That night, the floor plan was outlined by a miraculous snowfall [Hence its other title "Our Lady of the Snows"].

Archaeological evidence, on the other hand, indicates that the church was probably first built in the early 400s and completed under Pope Sixtus III (432-440). This was a time when churches dedicated to Mary were beginning to spring up all over the empire, prompted by devotion to the Virgin and the official acceptance of her title "Theotokos" (Mother of God) at the Council of Ephesus in 431.

The exterior facade of the Basilica. The belltower you see here is the tallest in Rome.

This is the icon Salus Populi Romani (Health of the Roman People) which is said to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, and which saved the city of Rome from the plague.

This is one of the 5th century icons along the main nave. You can see how wonderfully it has been preserved. The scene represented here is Jacob receiving Isaac's blessing.

A part of the magnificent apse mosaic depicting the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The reliquary containing the relic of the Holy Crib of Jesus from Bethlehem.

A shot of the main nave. The columns you see are the oldest remaining part of the basilica. They either come from the original basilica or an ancient Roman building.

A shot of the triumphal arch with 5th century mosaics depicting scenes from the lives of Jesus and Mary. Go here for a more detailed description and a better look.

Reading I- Jon 3:1-10
Responsorial Psalm - 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19
Gospel - Lk 11:29-32

Station Church Series

2010-02-19T01:37:00.000-08:00

A number of my brother seminarians have come up with the idea of blogging on each of the Lenten Station Churches here in Rome. During Lent, it is an ancient tradition to go to a different church in the city for Mass during each of the 40 days. Some of these churches are rarely opened or seen, so this provides a great opportunity for all of you to become familiar with some of the gems here in Rome.

Each day, one of us will blog about the station church for that day in order that, as a group, we will have all of the station churches covered. I hope that you all check the blogs frequently to learn about these ancient churches which have an amazing history.

The blogging team consists of Doug Marcotte from the Diocese of Indianapolis, David Nerbun from the Diocese of Charleston, Colin Wen from the Diocese of Sacramento, Father Adam Rust from the Diocese of Memphis, Andrew Hart from the Diocese of Little Rock, and Victor Ingalls from the Diocese of Mobile.

I just joined the group today, so be sure to check the other blogs to catch up on the 3 station churches you have missed: Santa Sabina, San Giorgio in Velabro, and Santi Giovanni e Paolo

Have a Blessed Lent!

Snow in Rome

2010-02-12T02:24:00.000-08:00

Apparently for the first time in over 20 years...

Word on Fire

2010-02-06T02:23:00.000-08:00

If you haven't already heard of Fr. Robert Barron, I highly recommend you look at his website www.wordonfire.org . Fr. Barron's homilies, videos, and writings are a great aid for the modern-day Catholic in making a public defense and public argument for our Faith, specifically with regard to current issues. Also take the time to look at his project, The Catholicism Project, which will be an invaluable resource for the Church in her mission to evangelize the world.

NAC 150th Anniversary - Papal Audience

2010-01-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

We were blessed to be invited to meet our Holy Father Benedict XVI for a private audience on the occasion of our 150th anniversary. He was very gracious and kind, had a happy demeanor the whole time, and took the time to greet almost everyone personally (there were around 400 of us). I have copied the text of his address below:

Your Eminences,Dear Brother Bishops and Priests, I am pleased to welcome the alumni of the Pontifical North American College, together with the Rector, faculty and students of the seminary on the Janiculum hill, and the student priests of the Casa Santa Maria dell’Umiltà. Our meeting comes at the conclusion of the celebrations marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the College's establishment by my predecessor, Blessed Pius IX. On this happy occasion I willingly join you in thanking the Lord for the many ways in which the College has remained faithful to its founding vision by training generations of worthy preachers of the Gospel and ministers of the sacraments, devoted to the Successor of Peter and committed to the building up of the Church in the United States of America.

It is appropriate, in this Year for Priests, that you have returned to the College and this Eternal City in order to give thanks for the academic and spiritual formation which has nourished your priestly ministry over the years. The present Reunion is an opportunity not only to remember with gratitude the time of your studies, but also to reaffirm your filial affection for the Church of Rome, to recall the apostolic labors of the countless alumni who have gone before you, and to recommit yourselves to the high ideals of holiness, fidelity and pastoral zeal which you embraced on the day of your ordination. It is likewise an occasion to renew your love for the College and your appreciation of its distinctive mission to the Church in your country.During my Pastoral Visit to the United States, I expressed my conviction that the Church in America is called to cultivate "an intellectual 'culture' which is genuinely Catholic, confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason, and prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision to bear on the pressing issues which affect the future of American society" (Homily at Nationals Stadium, Washington, 17 April 2008).

As Blessed Pius IX rightly foresaw, the Pontifical North American College in Rome is uniquely prepared to help meet this perennial challenge. In the century and a half since its foundation, the College has offered its students an exceptional experience of the universality of the Church, the breadth of her intellectual and spiritual tradition, and the urgency of her mandate to bring Christ's saving truth to the men and women of every time and place. I am confident that, by emphasizing these hallmarks of a Roman education in every aspect of its program of formation, the College will continue to produce wise and generous pastors capable of transmitting the Catholic faith in its integrity, bringing Christ's infinite mercy to the weak and the lost, and enabling America’s Catholics to be a leaven of the Gospel in the social, political and cultural life of their nation.

Dear brothers, I pray that in these days you will be renewed in the gift of the Holy Spirit which you received on the day of your ordination. In the College chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady is portrayed in the company of four outstanding models and patrons of priestly life and ministry: Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Pius X, Saint John Mary Vianney and Saint Vincent de Paul. During this Year for Priests, may these great saints continue to watch over the students who daily pray in their midst; may they guide and sustain your own ministry, and intercede for the priests of the United States. With cordial good wishes for the spiritual fruitfulness of the coming days, and with great affection in the Lord, I impart to you my Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to all the alumni and friends of the Pontifical North American College.

(some video of the audience: http://www.romereports.com/palio/modules.php?t=Pope-receives-Pontifical-North-American-College-for-its-150th-anniversary&name=News&file=article&newlang=english&sid=1460)

Myself, Ted Martin, Fr. Grondz and Fr. Richardson('s head)

The Heavenly Liturgy

2010-01-07T03:47:00.000-08:00

The Mass in Slow Motion: The (Remarkable) Preface DialogueBy: Msgr. Charles Pope

A short dialogue happens in the Mass just after the prayer over the gifts and the before the singing of the Sanctus. It is called the “preface dialogue” and it is really quite remarkable in its sweeping vision and heavenly call. Part of the reason we miss it’s significance is that the translation of the Latin is difficult to accomplish in English. Allow me to give the current translation so you’ll recognize it and then render a more literal version of the Latin.

The Lord Be with you
And Also with you

Lift up your hearts
We lift them up to the Lord

Let us give thanks to Lord our God
It is right to give him thanks and praise

A fairly familiar dialogue to be sure. But to some extent it fails to take wing because of the rather earthbound notion most moderns have of the Mass. Very few attending mass today think much of the heavenly liturgy. Rather they are focused on their parish Church, the priest in front of them and the people around them. But this is NOT an adequate vision for the Mass. In the end there is only one liturgy, the one in heaven. There is only one altar, the one in heaven. There is only one High Priest, Jesus in heaven. In the Mass we are swept up into the heavenly liturgy. There with myriads of angels and saints beyond number we worship the Father through Jesus, with Jesus and in Jesus. In the Mass we are swept into heaven!
With this in mind consider a more literal rendering of the preface dialogue. Pay attention especially to the middle dialogue:

Dominus Vobiscum (The Lord be with you)
et cum spiritu tuo (And with your Spirit)

Sursum corda (Hearts aloft!)
habemus ad Dominum (We have, to the Lord!)

Gratias agamus, Dominio Deo nostro (Let us give thanks to the Lord our God)
Dignum et justum est (It is right and just).

What is the celebrant really inviting us to do? After greeting us in the Lord he invites us to go to heaven! But remember the priest is in persona Christi. Hence when he speaks it is really the Lord Jesus who speaks making use of the voice of the priest. And what does the Lord really say to us in the magnificent dialogue and preface that follows? Allow me to elaborate on the fuller meaning of this text:

“Let your hearts be taken up! Come and go with me to the altar that is in heaven where I, Jesus the great High Priest, with all the members of my body render perfect thanks to God the Father! You are no longer on earth, your hearts have been swept aloft into the great liturgy of heaven! Come up higher. By the power of my words you are able to come up higher! Since you have been raised to new life in Christ, seek the things that are above where I am at my Father’s right hand. Come up now and enter the heavenly liturgy. Hearts aloft!”

The congregation’s response is meant to be a joyful acknowledgment and acceptance of the Lord’s action in summoning us to the heavenly liturgy. Here too allow me to elaborate:

“We have our hearts lifted to the Lord. We have entered the Heavenly Liturgy by the power of your grace, for you our head have taken us, the members of your body there. We are in the heavenly realms with you, worshipping the Father and giving him perfect thanks and praise. It is right and just that we should do this through you, with you and in you!"

Then the celebrant sings or says the preface wherein some specific things for which we are thankful are enumerated. The text of the preface changes based on the season or the saint or feast of the day. But it always ends in this or a similar manner: and so with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven we sing the unending hymn of your praise: Holy, Holy, Holy…. And thus we are reminded that our worship is caught up into the heavenly liturgy where our voices join innumerable angels and saints in the glorious act of praise. We are in heaven! Our hearts (our very selves) are aloft!

Hence the Mass is never just the “10:00 am Mass at St. Joe’s” It is the heavenly liturgy. Churches used to be designed to remind us that we were entering heaven. As we walk into older churches we are surrounded by windows and paintings that depict the angels and saints. Christ is at the center in the tabernacle. And all the elements that scripture speaks of as in the heavenly liturgy are on display not only in the building but in the celebration of the liturgy: Candles, incense, an altar, the hymns that are sung, the Holy Holy Holy, the scroll is brought forward in the Book of Gospels, the lamb on the throne-like altar, the prostrations and kneelings of the saints before the Lord. All these things are described in the Book of Revelation descriptions of the heavenly liturgy. We are in the heavenly realms and the heavenly liturgy and so we see and experience heavenly things. Hearts aloft!

The Benedictines of Norcia

2010-01-02T07:31:00.000-08:00

Our trip to Fontgombault in France fell through so we instead went to the Benedictine Monastery in Norcia. The Monastery itself is built in the very place where St. Benedict was born. In fact the crypt, where the monks pray Matins, Lauds, Vespers and Compline, and celebrate their daily conventual Mass, is the very room where the great saint was born.
All but two of monks are young American men (there is also an Englishman and a Scot) that have left home and family for good to follow the Lord through a life of Ora et Labora (Prayer and Work). These monks have a great love for the Lord which shines through clearly in their beautiful and reverent celebration of the liturgy -both the Office and Mass - and in their simple, solemn, hard-working, and prayerful way of life.

The community started in a small apartment in Rome in 1998 with 3 men, and now has 13 young monks and continues to grow. We will only understand at the end of time how much the constant prayer of the religious orders throughout the world has aided the Church as a whole and each of us individually. Please consider making a donation, and/or keeping this intention in your prayers so that this great group of men can help build up the Church through their continual prayer for the entire Body of Christ.

The monastery is in the middle of the town of Norcia, right on the main piazza. It is difficult for the monks to lead a life of contemplation and quiet prayer and work according to the Rule of St. Benedict in such a busy setting. They are trying right now to raise funds to build up a fallen monastery in the mountains surrounding Norcia.

You can learn more about the monastery here: http://osbnorcia.org/ and you can send a donation here: http://osbnorcia.org/?page_id=843

Away for Christmas

2009-12-20T00:01:00.000-08:00

For Christmas I will be in France at the Benedictine Abbey of Fontgombault for two and a half weeks. I will certainly be keeping all of you in my prayers as we celebrate our Lord's coming among us! Please keep me in your prayers as well. Here is a bit of information on the abbey:

Fontgombault Abbey (Abbaye Notre-Dame de Fontgombault) is a Benedictine monastery of the Solesmes Congregation located in Fontgombault in the département of Indre, in the province of Berry, France.

In 1091 Pierre de l'Étoile founded a Benedictine monastery on the banks of the Creuse River, near the spring or fount of Gombaud. In the 12th and 13th centuries the abbey experienced vigorous growth and established twenty or so priories. In the 15th century the abbots of Fontgombault had numerous ponds excavated, as was also done at the abbeys of Saint-Cyran and Méobecq, thus contributing to fish husbandry in the Brenne region. The abbey was sacked and laid waste by the Calvinists in 1569, and was not restored until the end of the 17th century, when Dom Andrieu accomplished the task. In 1741 however the Benedictine community, reduced to five members, was replaced by a community of Lazarists, who established a seminary here and used it as a center for missions in the region.

The buildings were partly destroyed during the French Revolution, when the monastery was nationalised and sold off. It was eventually bought back for religious uses by the Trappists in 1849, who succeeded in re-establishing it as a viable community by redeveloping its agriculture and setting up a kirsch distillery.

But in 1905 the Trappists were expelled from France under the Association Laws and the monastery was secularised and sold off for a second time. The purchaser was Louis Bonjean, who set up a button factory in the premises. At his death in 1914 the buildings were put to use as a military hospital for wounded soldiers of the Belgian army, which it remained until 1918.
The Trappists who were expelled in 1905 went on to form the Monastery of Our Lady of Jordan Oregon in the United States. From 1919 to 1948 the premises accommodated a diocesan seminary, which closed for want of vocations.

In 1948 the empty buildings were restored to the site's original purpose when 22 monks from Solesmes Abbey settled it afresh as a Benedictine community. It is now the most populous of Solesmes' foundations, comprising over a hundred monks, and has in its turn founded another three religious houses in France — Randol Abbey, (1971), Triors Abbey (1984) and Gaussan Priory (1994) — as well as Clear Creek Priory in the United States in 1999. The monks celebrate Mass using the 'vetus ordo' (Tridentine rite, or Missal of St Pius V). As part of the Solesmes Congregation within the Benedictine Confederation, the abbey focusses on the use of Gregorian chant. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontgombault_Abbey)

To see the place and hear their beautiful chant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ohomxp8X-1w&feature=related

Congratulations Father Stanley!

2009-12-14T22:40:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Father Brian Stanley graduated from the United States Military chaplaincy training program. Not only that, but he received the Coin of Excellence. This tradition (Coin of Excellence) was started when Commanders of military units wanted a way to immediately recognize personnel who performed to excellence far beyond what is normally expected.

This blog would like to thank Father in a special way for all of the helpful* comments he has made on previous posts. We can only hope that he pass on such comments to the soldiers in his care.
(*read: verbally abusive)

We will miss having such an outstanding priest in our diocese, but we also know he will serve our military with great courage, honor and holiness. Please keep Fr. Stanley in your prayers as he goes on to tend to the grave need for the sacraments of the Church in the military.

Father Stanley, having just received the Coin of Excellence

Father with my parents, who went to his graduation in South Carolina

May the Lord bless your ministry and keep you safe

Reflection by John Henry Cardinal Newman for Gaudete Sunday

2009-12-13T22:43:00.000-08:00

Heaven then is not like this world; I will say what it is much more like,—a church. For in a place of public worship no language of this world is heard; there are no schemes brought forward for temporal objects, great or small; no information how to strengthen our worldly interests, extend our influence, or establish our credit. These things indeed may be right in their way, so that we do not set our hearts upon them; still (I repeat), it is certain that we hear nothing of them in a church. Here we hear solely and entirely of God. We praise Him, worship Him, sing to Him, thank Him, confess to Him, give ourselves up to Him, and ask His blessing. And therefore, a church is like heaven; viz. because both in the one and the other, there is one single sovereign subject—religion—brought before us.

[...][If] we were told that no irreligious man could worship, or spiritually see Him in church; should we not at once perceive the meaning of the doctrine? viz. that, were a man to come hither, who had suffered his mind to grow up in its own way, as nature or chance determined, without any deliberate habitual effort after truth and purity, he would find no real pleasure here, but would soon get weary of the place; because, in this house of God, he would hear only of that one subject which he cared little or nothing about, and nothing at all of those things which excited his hopes and fears, his sympathies and energies.

If then a man without religion (supposing it possible) were admitted into heaven, doubtless he would sustain a great disappointment. Before, indeed, he fancied that he could be happy there; but when he arrived there, he would find no discourse but that which he had shunned on earth, no pursuits but those he had disliked or despised, nothing which bound him to aught else in the universe, and made him feel at home, nothing which he could enter into and rest upon. He would perceive himself to be an isolated being, cut away by Supreme Power from those objects which were still entwined around his heart. Nay, he would be in the presence of that Supreme Power, whom he never on earth could bring himself steadily to think upon, and whom now he regarded only as the destroyer of all that was precious and dear to him.

Ah! he could not bear the face of the Living God; the Holy God would be no object of joy to him. “Let us alone! What have we to do with thee?” [Luke 4:34] is the sole thought and desire of unclean souls, even while they acknowledge His majesty. None but the holy can look upon the Holy One; without holiness no man can endure to see the Lord.

Gaudete!

2009-12-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Gaudete Sunday makes a breaker like Laetare Sunday, about midway through a season which is otherwise of a penitential character, and signifies the nearness of the Lord's coming. Of the "stations" kept in Rome the four Sundays of Advent, that at the Vatican basilica is assigned to Gaudete, as being the most important and imposing of the four. In both Office and Mass throughout Advent continual reference is made to our Lord's second coming, and this is emphasized on the third Sunday by the additional signs of gladness permitted on that day. Gaudete Sunday is further marked by a new Invitatory, the Church no longer inviting the faithful to adore merely "The Lord who is to come", but calling upon them to worship and hail with joy "The Lord who is now nigh and close at hand". The Nocturn lessons from the Prophecy of Isaias describe the Lord's coming and the blessings that will result from it, and the antiphons at Vespers re-echo the prophetic promises. The joy of expectation is emphasized by the constant Alleluias, which occur in both Office and Mass throughout the entire season. In the Mass, the Introit "Gaudete in Domino semper" strikes the same note, and gives its name to the day. The Epistle again incites us to rejoicing, and bids us prepare to meet the coming Saviour with prayers and supplication and thanksgiving, whilst the Gospel, the words of St. John Baptist, warns us that the Lamb of God is even now in our midst, though we appear to know Him not. The spirit of the Office and Liturgy all through Advent is one of expectation and preparation for the Christmas feast as well as for the second coming of Christ, and the penitential exercises suitable to that spirit are thus on Gaudete Sunday suspended, as were, for a while in order to symbolize that joy and gladness in the Promised Redemption which should never be absent from the heart of the faithful. (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06394b.htm)

Lucca, Magenta, Milano, Bologna

2009-11-03T11:53:00.000-08:00

A few weekends ago, I made a pilgrimage to northern Italy with 4 friends to visit the tombs of various saints. We went to Lucca, where St. Gemma Galgani is buried; we went to Magenta which was where St. Gianna Beretta Molla lived (her tomb is in a nearby town, which we also visited); we prayed at St. Ambrose's tomb in Milan (bonus points: Sts. Gervase and Protase are buried right beside him); we saw St. Augustine in Pavvia; finally, on the way back, we stopped at the tomb of St. Dominic in Bologna.

I encourage you to look up some information on each of these saints, especially Sts. Gemma and Gianna, since they are more recent yet relatively unknown. St. Gianna is especially relevant today given the war being waged by our culture against the value and dignity of human life.

Roaming through the streets of Lucca

Very beautiful facade mosaic - I forget the name of the church

Church in Lucca - again I forget the name...

On the way to the top of the Duomo in Milan

On the top of the Duomo

St. Ambrose, Milan

Bodies of Sts. Ambrose, Protase, and Gervase (not too bad after 1600 years)

St. Gianna Beretta Molla

An emotional Pietro Molla, St. Gianna's husband, meeting the Holy Father at his wife's canonization. The woman to his right is the daughter that St. Gianna chose to give birth to at risk of her own death, rather than aborting her as was suggested by her doctors.

At the tomb of St. Gianna

Statue of St. Gianna and her child at the church dedicated to her near Magenta

Man we met whose wife was good friends with Gianna

St. Gianna's sister-in-law

Wedding photos - Pietro and Gianna Molla

San Martino Vescovo, Gianna's parish where she was baptized and married

St. Gemma Galgani

Body of St. Gemma Galgani

Body of St. Augustine, in the church of San Pietro in Ciel D'Oro - Pavvia

Apse mosaic in San Pietro in Ciel D'Oro

St. Augustine (also patron of the Diocese of Kalamazoo)

Five New Saints: Father Damien De Veuster of Molokai, Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski, Francisco Coll y Guitart, Rafael Arnaiz Baron, Marie de la Croix

2009-10-21T05:27:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Sorry about that. I've been very busy with the beginning of my second year here in Rome. A lot has happened, and I'll try to post more on what has been going on.

One highlight was just last week at the canonization of five new saints (one of whom was the well-known Damian of Molokai) in St. Peter's Basilica. Some of you may remember my post on the canonization in St. Peter's Square last year, and what a wonderful experience it is to be present when Holy Mother Church officially elevates some of our brothers and sisters in Christ to the level of sainthood. What rejoicing there should be among all of us to see the ranks of the saints, who are men and women like us, grow with each passing year. One is reminded more than ever of the need for witnesses like these saints in our post-Christian (or even anti-Christian) culture.

Imagine how much our Faith, Hope, and Love would grow with more Damians who take care of the sick and dying, or more examples of the love of Jean Jugan (Marie de la croix) who took care of the poor and elderly. It is the love of the compassionate and self-sacrificing Christian and the blood of the martyrs which build up the Body of Christ on earth. There is plenty of opportunity today to become, with God's grace, such a saint.

Through the generosity of my diocesan brother, Ted, I was able to serve the Mass. I have not yet purchased the pictures of the liturgy, but one of my brother seminarians here at the NAC took a few pictures, so I've posted them below. I was a candle-bearer.

I'm the quasi-skinhead

Yep, the whole procession was NAC seminarians...

...except for these two guys in front that had to ruin our perfect NAC procession by being Polish.

St. Damian of Molokai

Parco Nazionale Gran Sasso, Abruzzo

2009-08-22T05:24:00.001-07:00

Orientation for the incoming seminarians is about begin, and we are eagerly awaiting their arrival (especially my diocesan brother, Tom McNally, who will be arriving next week - bringing our Kalamazoo presence to 4 here in Rome). This coming week all of us on the orientation team will begin preparing, so as one last trip before things start getting busy, a few of us went to Gran Sasso National Park in Abruzzo. We hiked quite a distance and the scenery is amazing, so enjoy the pictures.

During the winter this is a big skiing area, so there is a ski lift running through it. Also, Mussolini was imprisoned up here for a short time.

Patrick Arensburg, Diocese of Mobile, AL who spent his summer in China, and Joseph Bergida, Diocese of Arlington, VA who spent his summer in the Holy Land.

Me and Bergida resting and just generally trying not to die.