Christmas Greetings From Fr. John Corapi

An email from Fr. Corapi:

In the course of a life's journey there are often stretches of bad road. It seems that some people have an easier time than others, but it is a rare individual that never encounters a rough stretch. In recent years, perhaps that's why I have found an increasing number of people that liken themselves to old cars. One poor woman said she felt very old. When I reminded her that she was only 39, she responded that she's like a three year old car--not that old, but with over 500,000 miles--most of it over bad roads. It is a rather well known fact that the Christmas holidays are the most difficult period many people face all year. Many of my pastor friends tell me that more people die during the week before Christmas than any other time.

With the erosion of family unity has come sadness, all at a time that should be joyful. Sometimes we can only be happy by willing it, often not merely by feeling it. Reality demands that at Christmas we will to be happy, after all “A Child has been born to us!”

As I look out my window the snow is falling and the pine trees are clothed in Christmas white. It is very silent, perhaps a prelude to a silent night not far off. At a time when the forces of evil are relentless in their attempts to not only take Christ out of Christmas, but to suppress Christmas altogether, we must be just as relentless in our efforts to give glory to God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

This year approach Christmas as you would approach the Christ Child himself--with reverence and with thanksgiving. Allow nothing to rob your joy at this precious time. Sadness has no place in reality, true reality, for the Word has become flesh and dwelt among us. Humanity and divinity have been joined in Jesus, now come to us as an infant. In the cold winter of human hearts there is often no room at the Inn for the Holy Family. Make room in the warmth of your heart for the infant King--the Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Often the greatest joy is experienced by giving something to others: a smile, forgiveness, perhaps the gift of faith itself.

Have a most blessed and merry Christmas, and may God give you the Gift who contains all gifts: the Holy Spirit.

God bless you,
Fr. John Corapi

The Distortions Continue to Spew Forth from St Stanislaus

Knowing that only those who are incapable of discerning fact from fiction might actually believe the fanciful tales coming from the mouths of those who have placed themselves above legitmate Church authority, one or more from St. Stanislaus has issued another stunning "Press Release".

Of course, little is new except that they have formally announced that they have placed themselves, along with their new priest (who has been stripped of his faculties), in a state of schism and open defiance and rebellion. But then, as I said, this is not new. Let us not forget that the Catechism tells us that schism is "...the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him." (CCC 2089)

The Catechism also states:
In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame." The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do not occur without human sin... (CCC 817, emphasis added)

Now to the enlightening and profound Press Release:
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PRESS RELEASE
St. Stanislaus Kostka Polish Roman Catholic Church
1413 North 20th Street
St. Louis, Mo. 63106

December 3, 2005


Beginning in 2002, the conflict over property and complete control of our buildings and finances began with the archdiocese demands

In June 2004 against all religious law, and against all justice, the priests of our parish were removed.

St. Stanislaus has been without Roman Catholic religious leader ship since then.

During this time we, the Board of Directors and our parishioners have made numerous attempts to resolve this dispute through liberal proposals. People have come to our aid to assist in resolving this conflict; all were rebuffed by the Archbishop

All proposals, or recommendations made by any lay individual or team have been rejected by the archbishop.

Regardless of what was written in the archdiocese controlled media and stated from the St. Louis pulpits their words did not match the legal written documentation offered us.

In August of this year 2005, we, the Board of Directors requested direction from our parishioners as to the course to take.

They provided us by an overwhelming majority to seek another Roman Catholic Priest that neither may nor may not report to the Archdiocese.

Approximately 2 weeks ago in a final attempt to come to an acceptable mutual conclusion, our Board of Director Chairman and the Archbishop met.

The end result of this final meeting resulted again in a negative response from the archbishop. There would be no acceptance of any of our proposals.

This conflict is over.

St. Stanislaus Kostka has obtained a priest who is presently Roman Catholic, unmarried, and bi-lingual to permanently serve our religious needs.

Commencing on 20 December, Reverend Mark B. Bozek will become our pastor. He is from the Springfield Mo. Diocese.

His first mass as the Pastor at St. Stanislaus will be on Christmas Eve at 10:00 PM. He will celebrate mass on every Sunday and religious holiday thereafter.

We welcome this brave, religious and non political individual into our parish family.

To ST. Louis, the surrounding region, to those across this great land and to those in Poland and in Rome that have attempted to assist, thank you for your continued support and please come join us, we welcome you with open hearts.
______________ End of Press Release ____________

Saturday in the First Week of Advent

SATURDAY IN THE FIRST WEEK OF ADVENT

A virgin will conceive

1. Scripture Reading. Today's reading (a portion of which serves as the second Lesson in the Rorate Mass) contains the prophecy of the Messiah's birth of a Virgin. Isaias had been sent to the godless Achaz (ca. 735 B.C.) with the message that the king should demand a miracle from heaven in assurance of divine help against Judah's enemies. Insolently Achaz rejected the prophet's proposal. The king's arrogance called for punish­ment; now the sign would spell judgment upon Jerusalem and the dynasty of Achaz, evils that would befall the land before the Virgin would give birth to Emmanuel:

Again Isaias spoke to Achaz: 'Ask for yourself a sign from Yahweh, your God, either from the depths of Sheol below or in the heights of heaven above.' But Achaz replied: 'I ask for nothing; I will not tempt Yahweh.'

Then he said: 'Listen now, you of the house of David. Aren't you satisfied by being noisome to men that you become noisome to my God also? The Lord himself will give you a sign indeed! See, the virgin conceives and bears a Son; she names him Emmanuel and he lives on curd and wild honey{1} when (old enough) to refuse the bad and take the good. For before the boy can re­fuse the bad and take the good that land will be a deso­late waste which now trembles because of those two kings. For the Lord will bring upon you and your peo­ple and your father's house days the like of which have not been seen. . . .

It is a most appropriate passage for Advent. For the first time in prophecy do we meet the lovely picture of Virgin and Child.

The Child's name merits our special attention, Emmanuel, i.e., God with us. In the light of fulfillment we see how this name reveals most sublime truths about our Savior-that He not only assumed our nature through the incarnation but that He raises men to a divine dignity through grace, making them sharers of God's own Nature by living in their souls.

2. The Responsories speak enthusiastically of Emmanuel.

Hear the word of the Lord, ye nations,
and declare it to the ends of the earth.
Say to the isles far off: our Savior is coming!
Declare it, make it known, lift your voice and shout aloud.
Say to the isles far off,: our Savior is coming!

Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch.
He will rule as King, He will be wise;
He will execute judgment and justice upon the earth.
And this is the Name that people will call Him:
the Lord our Just One.
In those days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell peacefully.

Early in the morning the Church reflects consolingly: "Fear not, Sion, your God is coming, alleluia" (Ben. Ant.).

3. The Messianic Prophecies. Today's reading offers occasion for considering in order the great messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. This will give us a glimpse at the pedagogy by which God sought to reveal the Messiah ever more clearly to men. We start with the protoevangel (Gen. 3:15): "I will put enmities between you and the woman, between your seed and her It'cd. He will crush your head, while you will only wound his heel." The future Conqueror of Satan will be a descendant of Eve.

Next the prophecy of Noe (Gen. 9:18-29). Sem will be the bearer of the messianic promise, while Japhet will share in its blessings. Christ will be of Jewish origin; the Gentiles will not be excluded from His kingdom. The third prophecy was that given to Abraham (Gen. 22:1-19): "In your seed all the peoples of the earth will be blessed."

From a later date we may note the prophetical blessing given by Jacob on his deathbed (Gen. 49:10). It stated that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah, and He will save the Gentiles too.

In Moses we have one of the great Old Testament personages prefiguring the Messiah. As deliverer, leader, provider, and teacher of his people he typified Christ, who fulfills these func­tions par excellence for us Christians. Next in line is David - an­cestor, prophet, and type of Christ. More lines in the messianic picture.

It would be a wonderful project to extract the various mes­sianic passages from the psalms and arrange them topically. Ac­cording to the express words of Jesus, the psalms abound with prophecies and references to the Messiah (Lk. 24:44). Of particular importance are Psalms 2, 15, 18, 21, 39, 44, 68, 71, 88, 109, 131.

The various prophetical books, of course, hold a unique posi­tion. Here Isaias ranks highest, the evangelist among the proph­ets. However, Jeremias, Daniel, Joel, Jonas, Micheas, Zacharias, and others have contributed substantially to the development of Old Testament messianism.
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{1} The fare of the poor; for the Messiah, though of the royal line of David, will not eat from the royal table because the dynasty had perished due to Achaz' sin and insolence.

From The Church's Year of Grace by Dr. Pius Parsch (1957)

Abp Burke on the Instruction for Vocations & Homosexuality

Discernment of a priestly vocation and the homosexual condition

by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke
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Introduction

In the Oct. 14 issue of the St. Louis Review, I wrote about Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, our archdiocesan seminary. Toward the end of the article, I addressed the concern regarding the admission to the seminary of men who suffer from same-sex attraction, that is, the homosexual condition. The subject has been discussed in the public media in the context of the apostolic visitation to all the seminaries in the United States. The apostolic visitation, carried out at the direction of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, in a particular way, given the grave scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by priests, seeks to assure that seminarians are educated to make right judgments regarding sexual morality and, specifically, homosexual acts. In other words, the apostolic visitation wants to make sure that seminarians are leading a serenely pure and chaste life in preparation for making the promise of celibacy and receiving ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood.

On Nov. 29, the Congregation for Catholic Education issued a most important and helpful document to assist diocesan bishops and seminary officials in responding to candidates applying for the seminary or presenting themselves for ordination, who suffer with homosexual tendencies. The document is titled: Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with Regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies, in View of Their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, approved the instruction and ordered its publication on Aug. 31. The instruction was signed by Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, and Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, the secretary or second-in-command at the congregation, on Nov. 4, the memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of seminaries.

Because of the importance of the instruction and to help dispel the confusion which has surrounded its predicted promulgation, I want to communicate to all the faithful of the archdiocese the substance of the instruction and the norms which it contains.

Context

The instruction is set within the context of the teaching of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council on priestly formation, which is principally found in the decree Optatam totius, "On the Training of Priests," promulgated on Oct. 28, 1965. Since the promulgation of the conciliar decree, the Congre-gation for Catholic Education has published a whole series of documents to promote the fitting and complete formation of future priests. These documents contain "guidelines and precise norms" to be followed and observed in all seminaries. The first and most important document was the basic plan of priestly formation, issued, first, in 1970 and, in a revised edition, in 1985. Other documents have been directed to various aspects of seminary education and formation, for example, philosophical studies (1972), formation in priestly celibacy (1974), the teaching of canon law (1975), theological formation of seminarians (1976), the formation of older or late vocations (1976), liturgical formation (1979), spiritual formation (1980), and many more aspects. A complete list of the documents in question is provided in the second footnote of the instruction (Introduction).

The Synod of Bishops in 1990 devoted itself exclusively to the study of priestly formation in the present time, with a view to completing the teaching in the conciliar decree and to applying it more explicitly and accurately to the present times. After the conclusion of the 1990 Synod of Bishops, our late and most beloved Pope John Paul II published the fruit of the synodal discussions in the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Pastores dabo vobis, "On the Formation of Priests in the Circumstances of the Present Day," on March 25, 1992. The post-synodal apostolic exhortation is the magna charta for seminaries today.

The instruction makes it clear that, given all of the teaching contained in other Church documents, it "does not intend to dwell on all questions in the area of affectivity and sexuality that require an attentive discernment during the entire period of formation" (Introduction). It treats, rather, the specific question of "whether to admit to the seminary and to Holy Orders candidates who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies." The question, as is clear, is most urgent at the present time, given the scandal of the sexual abuse of minors by priests, which has chiefly involved homosexual acts with adolescent boys, and given the ever greater confusion regarding the homosexual condition in society, in general. The instruction provides fitting norms to be followed in the matter (Introduction).

Affective maturity and spiritual fatherhood

The instruction, first, reminds us that, according to the constant tradition of the Church, "only a baptized person of the male sex validly receives sacred ordination." Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, the Holy Spirit configures the ordained to Jesus Christ by a new and specific title. The ordained priest, in fact, "sacramentally represents Christ, the Head, Shepherd and Bridegroom of the Church." Because of the ontological change in the ordained priest, that is, his sacramental configuration to Christ the High Priest, his life, in every aspect, "must be animated by the gift of his whole person to the Church and by authentic pastoral charity" (n. 1). In other words, there cannot be any part of the life of the ordained priest which is incoherent with or contradicts his sacramental identity with Christ the High Priest.

It is clear, therefore, that the candidate for the ordained ministry must attain a certain affective maturity. "Such maturity will allow him to relate correctly to both men and women, developing in him a true sense of spiritual fatherhood toward the Church community that will be entrusted to him" (n. 1). If the candidate for Holy Orders is troubled or confused regarding his own sexual identity and its correct expression, then he will not be able to carry out the priestly ministry which is a daily expression of spiritual fatherhood.

Homosexuality and the ordained minister

The instruction then calls to mind the consistent confirmation of the Church’s perennial teaching on the homosexual condition since the time of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in nn. 2357-2358, which distinguishes between homosexual acts and homosexual tendencies, expresses the Church’s teaching in the matter (n. 2).

With respect to homosexual acts, the catechism teaches us that, in the Sacred Scriptures, such acts are held to be serious sins. Sacred Tradition has always considered them to be "intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law." The instruction, therefore, rightly concludes that "under no circumstance can they be approved" (n. 2).

Deep-seated homosexual tendencies, which are found in a certain number of men and women, are "also objectively disordered and, for those same people, often constitute a trial." The instruction states that these persons are to be received "with respect and sensitivity."

Any trace of unjust discrimination is to be avoided. Those who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, for their part, "are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter" (n. 2).

In the light of the Church’s teaching, the instruction then provides two concrete norms to be followed in seminaries. The first norm is: "In the light of such teaching, this congregation, in agreement with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, finds it necessary to affirm clearly that the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to Holy Orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called gay culture" (n. 2).

The instruction continues by providing the reason for the norm and giving an admonition to take to heart the results of admitting to the seminary or to sacred ordination a person with deep-seated homosexual tendencies:

"Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can derive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies" (n. 2).

Here, one must keep in mind the required affective maturity in the ordained priest who, after the Heart of Christ, is to be a spiritual father to the flock.

The second norm is:

"Different, however, would be the case in which one were dealing with homosexual tendencies that were only the expression of a transitory problem — for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded. Nevertheless, such tendencies must be clearly overcome at least three years before ordination to the diaconate" (n. 2).

In today’s society, our young people are bombarded by the media with every form of sexual activity, both heterosexual and homosexual. Also, sadly, some young men grow up without a strong fatherly presence in their lives. The highly sexualized society and the natural need to identify personally with a father figure can cause a temporary confusion regarding sexual identity, which, with proper spiritual and psychological assistance, can be overcome. In such a case, the candidate remains in an adolescent state regarding affective maturity and must receive help to come to a properly ordered adult affectivity.

The Church’s discernment of the fittingness of candidates

The instruction recalls for us that there are "two inseparable elements in every priestly vocation: the free gift of God and the responsible freedom of the man." God gives the grace of a priestly vocation to a man "through the Church, in the Church and for the service of the Church." The candidate rightly responds to God’s call by offering himself freely to God in love. Given the two inseparable elements, the instruction reminds us that the desire to become a priest is not sufficient in itself and that "there does not exist a right to receive sacred ordination." The instruction declares:

"It belongs to the Church — in her responsibility to define the necessary requirements for the reception of the sacraments instituted by Christ — to discern the suitability of the one who wants to enter the seminary, to accompany him during the years of formation, and to call him to Holy Orders, if he is judged to possess the requisite qualities" (n. 2).

In the Church, we understand that a man has a vocation to the priesthood, if he offers himself and the Church calls him.

Regarding the formation of seminarians, attention must be paid to four dimensions: the human, the spiritual, the intellectual and the pastoral dimensions. In the matter under consideration, particular attention must be given to the human formation of the candidate "as the necessary foundation of all formation." Once again, the instruction turns to the question of the required affective maturity in the candidate for Holy Orders, declaring:

"In order to admit a candidate to ordination to the diaconate, the Church must verify, among other things, that the candidate has reached affective maturity" (n. 3).

The grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders builds upon the human nature of the candidate. Attention to the human formation of the candidate and, in particular, his affective maturity, is, therefore, essential and fundamental.

Those responsible for the discernment

It is the most serious responsibility of the diocesan bishop or major superior of the institute of consecrated life or society of apostolic life to call a man to Holy Orders. Clearly, in order to give the call, the diocesan bishop or major superior "must arrive at a morally certain judgment on his qualities." The instruction, then, recalls a third norm, contained in can. 1052, para. 3, of the Code of Canon Law, pertaining to the decision to call a man to ordination:

"In the case of a serious doubt in this regard, he must not admit him to ordination" (n. 3).

The diocesan bishop or major superior must have moral certitude, that is, no reasonable doubt to the contrary, in order to give the call to Holy Orders.

As is clear, the rector of the seminary and those who assist him in the work of priestly formation also have a most serious responsibility in the matter, for the diocesan bishop and major superior rely upon their qualified judgment regarding the suitability of the candidate. The instruction recalls a fourth norm, contained in canon 1051 of the Code of Canon Law:

"Before every ordination, the rector must express his own judgment on whether the qualities required by the Church are present in the candidate" (n. 3).

We are blessed in the Archdiocese of St. Louis to have our own seminary. The rector and myself as archbishop work closely together throughout the whole period of formation in order to attain the moral certitude regarding the suitability of each candidate for sacred ordination.

The spiritual director of the candidate also bears a heavy responsibility in the matter. Spiritual direction is completely confidential. The spiritual director may not reveal to third parties what a seminarian has confided to him, unless, of course, the seminarian explicitly asks him to do so. In his conversations with the seminarian, the spiritual director will necessarily give consistent attention to the purity and chastity required in a candidate for ordination. He will help the seminarian to discover whether he has attained the requisite affective maturity, along with all of the other qualities required in a priest. The instruction then provides a fifth norm:

"The spiritual director has the obligation to evaluate all the qualities of the candidate’s personality and to make sure that he does not present disturbances of a sexual nature, which are incompatible with the priesthood. If a candidate practices homosexuality or presents deep-seated homosexual tendencies, his spiritual director, as well as his confessor, have the duty to dissuade him in conscience from proceeding towards ordination" (n. 3).

While the spiritual director and confessor cannot reveal what they know through spiritual direction or the Sacrament of Penance, they have the obligation to urge strenuously the seminarian to do what a rightly formed conscience demands of him.

Finally, the instruction reminds us of "the primary responsibility" of the candidate for his own formation. It is essential that the seminarian "offer himself trustingly to the discernment of the Church, of the bishop who calls him to Orders, of the rector of the seminary, of his spiritual director and of the other seminary educators to whom the bishop or major superior has entrusted the task of forming future priests." An essential part of the trusting offer of self to the Church is honesty regarding anything which may make the candidate unsuitable for priestly ordination and ministry. Hiding deep-seated homosexual tendencies, the practice of homosexuality or the support of the gay culture, on the part of the candidate, is "gravely dishonest." The instruction declares:

"Such a deceitful attitude does not correspond to the spirit of truth, loyalty and openness that must characterize the personality of him who believes he is called to serve Christ and His Church in the ministerial priesthood" (n. 3).

I have customarily said to seminarians that what we both know in these matters we can deal with in a manner which best serves the good of the Church and of the seminarian, and what we both do not know will inevitably be the cause of great harm to the Church and the seminarian.

Conclusion

The instruction concludes by reaffirming "the need for bishops, major superiors and all relevant authorities to carry out an attentive discernment concerning the suitability of candidates for Holy Orders, from the time of admission to the seminary until ordination." It exhorts diocesan bishops, conferences of bishops and major superiors "to see that the constant norms of this instruction be faithfully observed for the good of the candidates themselves, and to guarantee that the Church always has suitable priests who are true shepherds according to the Heart of Christ" (Conclusion).

It pleases me to say that the direction given in the instruction is followed at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. Now that the instruction has been published, it will be necessary to examine all of the policies and procedures of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary to be certain that they are fully in accord with the norms given in the instruction.

Let us be thankful for this latest authoritative direction in the preparation of our future priests. Let us take the occasion of the promulgation of the instruction to renew our daily prayers for our seminarians and for all who are entrusted with their priestly formation and the discernment of their suitability for ordination.

Source - St Louis Review

Gospel for Dec 3, Memorial: St. Francis Xavier, Priest

From: Matthew 9:35-10:1, 5a, 6-8

The Need for Good Shepherds

[35] And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and every infirmity. [36] When He saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [37] Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; [38] pray therefore the Lord of harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

The Calling and First Mission of the Apostles

[1] And He called to Him His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity.

[5a] These twelve Jesus sent out charging them, [6] "But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [7] And preach as you go, saying, `The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.' [8] Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without pay, give without pay."

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Commentary:

35. The Second Vatican Council uses this passage when teaching about the message of Christian charity which the Church should always be spreading: "Christian charity is extended to all without distinction of race, social condition or religion, and seeks neither gain nor gratitude. Just as God loves us with a gratuitous love, so too the faithful, in their charity, should be concerned for mankind, loving it with that same love with which God sought man. As Christ went about all the towns and villages healing every sickness and infirmity, as a sign that the Kingdom of God had come, so the Church, through its children, joins itself with men of every condition, but especially with the poor and afflicted, and willingly spends herself for them" ("Ad Gentes", 12).

36. "He had compassion for them": the Greek verb is very expressive; it means "He was deeply moved". Jesus was moved when He saw the people, because their pastors, instead of guiding them and tending them, led them astray, behaving more like wolves than genuine shepherds of their flock. Jesus sees the prophecy of Ezekiel 34 as now being fulfilled; in that passage God, through the prophet, upbraids the false shepherds of Israel and promises to send them the Messiah to be their new leader.

"If we were consistent with our faith when we looked around us and contemplated the world and its history, we would be unable to avoid feeling in our own hearts the same sentiments that filled the heart of our Lord" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 133). Reflection on the spiritual needs of the world should lead us to be tirelessly apostolic.

37-38. After contemplating the crowds neglected by their shepherds, Jesus uses the image of the harvest to show us that that same crowd is ready to receive the effects of Redemption: "I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see now the fields are already white for harvest" (John 4:35). The field of the Jewish people cultivated by the prophets--most recently by John the Baptist--is full of ripe wheat. In farmwork, the harvest is lost if the farmer does not reap at the right time; down the centuries the Church feels a similar need to be out harvesting because there is a big harvest ready to be won.

However, as in the time of Jesus, there is a shortage of laborers. Our Lord tells us how to deal with this: we should pray to God, the Lord of harvest, to send the necessary laborers. If a Christian prays hard, it is difficult to imagine his not feeling urged to play his part in this apostolate. In obeying this commandment to pray for laborers, we should pray especially for there to be no lack of shepherds, who will be able to equip others with the necessary means of sanctification needed to back up the apostolate.

In this connection Paul VI reminds us: "the responsibility for spreading the Gospel that saves belongs to everyone--to all who have received it! The missionary duty concerns the whole body of the Church; in different ways and to different degrees, it is true, but we must all of us be united in carrying out this duty. Now let the conscience of every believer ask himself: Have I carried out my missionary duty? Prayer for the Missions is the first way of fulfilling this duty" ("Angelus Address", 23 October 1977).

1-4. Jesus calls His twelve Apostles after recommending to them to pray to the Lord to send laborers into His harvest (cf. Matthew 9:38). Christians' apostolic action should always, then, be preceded and accompanied by a life of constant prayer: apostolate is a divine affair, not a merely human one. Our Lord starts His Church by calling twelve men to be, as it were, twelve patriarchs of the new people of God, the Church. This new people is established not by physical but by spiritual generation. The names of those Apostles are specifically mentioned here. They were not scholarly, powerful or important people: they were average, ordinary people who responded faithfully to the grace of their calling--all of them, that is, except Judas Iscariot. Even before His death and resurrection Jesus confers on them the power to cast out unclean spirits and cure illnesses--as an earnest of and as training for the saving mission which He will entrust to them.

The Church reveres these first Christians in a very special way and is proud to carry on their supernatural mission, and to be faithful to the witness they bore to the teaching of Christ. The true Church is absent unless there is uninterrupted apostolic succession and identification with the spirit which the Apostles made their own.

"Apostle": this word means "sent"; Jesus sent them out to preach His Kingdom and pass on His teaching.

The Second Vatican Council, in line with Vatican I, "confesses" and "declares" that the Church has a hierarchical structure: "The Lord Jesus, having prayed at length to the Father, called to Himself those whom He willed and appointed twelve to be with Him, whom He might send to preach the Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 3:13-19: Matthew 10:1-10).

These Apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) He constituted in the form of a college or permanent assembly, at the head of which He placed Peter, chosen from among them (cf. John 21:15-17). He sent them first of all to the children of Israel and then to all peoples (cf. Romans 1:16), so that, sharing in His power, they might make all peoples His disciples and sanctify and govern them (cf. Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:45-48; John 20:21-23) and thus spread the Church and, administering it under the guidance of the Lord, shepherd it all days until the end of the world (cf. Matthew 28:28)" ("Lumen Gentium", 19).

1. In this chapter St. Matthew describes how Jesus, with a view to the spreading of the Kingdom of God which He inaugurates, decides to establish a Church, which He does by giving special powers and training to these twelve men who are its seed.

5-6. In His plan of salvation God gave certain promises (to Abraham and the Patriarchs), a Covenant and a Law (the Law of Moses), and sent the prophets. The Messiah would be born into this chosen people, which explains why the Messiah and the Kingdom of God were to be preached to the house of Israel first before being preached to the Gentiles. Therefore, in their early apprenticeship, Jesus restricts the Apostles' area of activity to the Jews, without this taking from the world-wide scope of the Church's mission. As we will see, much later on He charges them to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19; "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation" (Mark 16:16). The Apostles also, in the early days of the spread of the Church, usually sought out the Jewish community in any new city they entered, and preached first to them (cf. Acts 13:46).

7-8. Previously, the prophets, when speaking of the messianic times, had used imagery suited to the people's spiritual immaturity. Now, Jesus, in sending His Apostles to proclaim that the promised Kingdom of God is imminent, lays stress on its spiritual dimension. The power mentioned in verse 8 are the very sign of the Kingdom of God or the reign of the Messiah proclaimed by the prophets. At first (Chapters 8 and 9) it is Jesus who exercises these messianic powers; now He gives them to His disciples as proof that His mission is divine (Isaiah 35:5-6; 40:9; 52:7; 61:1).

*********************
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Only “Know-Nothing Religious Fundamentalists” Will Value Human Life by 2040

So states Peter Singer, a Princeton bio"ethicist" and advocate of infanticide.

From LifeSiteNews:

Singer, a strict utilitarian and the man the New York Times called the “greatest living philosopher,” says, “By 2040, it may be that only a rump of hard-core, know-nothing religious fundamentalists will defend the view that every human life, from conception to death, is sacrosanct.”
. . .
He predicts bluntly, “During the next 35 years, the traditional view of the sanctity of human life will collapse under pressure from scientific, technological, and demographic developments.”

Science has recently demonstrated conclusively that "Dr." Singer is a waste of protoplasm, a genetically mutated life form which can no longer even be considered a member of the animal family. As I understand the research data, his genetic life form is barely above that of a plant and just below that of an insect...The poor creature! May he live long enough to see whether his predictions ring true!

And may God have mercy on us, particularly if his predictions come to pass and humanity, in general, degenerates into irrational animals!

LifeSiteNews article here

Does This Complete the Schism for St. Stanislaus?

This is from a Post Dispatch article by Tim Townsend, who, coincidently, was on his way to Springfield this morning, when he called Jamie Allman at 97.1 radio. Now we know why he went there...

St. Stanislaus hires new priest

In a defiant challenge to Archbishop Raymond Burke's authority as the leader of the St. Louis archdiocese, the board of directors of St. Stanislaus Kostka church have hired a Roman Catholic priest from the neighboring diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau to be its parish pastor.

The Rev. Marek B. Bozek, associate pastor of St. Agnes Cathedral in Springfield and Polish native, will take over at St. Stanislaus without Burke's consent. Bozek, 30, will celebrate his first Mass at the church on Christmas Eve.
. . .
In an interview Friday, Bozek said Bishop John J. Leibrecht, leader of the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, asked Burke if the priest could take a two-year leave of absence to shepherd St. Stanislaus while the dispute between the parish and the archbishop is resolved. Burke refused and Bozek resigned from St. Agnes this morning.

In a statement, Leibrecht said he had "suspended Father Bozek from priestly ministry...his priestly faculties have been withdrawn and he no longer has the status of a priest in good standing."

The St Stanislaus group has decided to complete its schismatic act and they are employing a defiant priest who has reneged on his promise of obedience. How apropos! I suppose they probably deserve each other - a priest who embraces disobedience and flees from his responsibilities and the truth and a group too rebellious and arrogant to repent of its disobedience.

Bozek said he made his decision because he felt he had to take a stand for what he believes is right.

Notice the subjectivism in this man's statement? What he believes is right??? This behavior is misguided and destructive - it will be a source of grave scandal and sin...Pride rears its deadly head again, and people are too blinded by their arrogance to see it. I suppose when face-to-face with God, each one of them can freely and PROUDLY proclaim, "I did it MY way, rather than YOUR way, God"! (My apologies to Fr Corapi and Frank Sinatra)

Pity their poor souls! They choose to follow Satan rather than God...they choose death rather than life. Pray for their conversion and pray for Archbishop Burke as he must now deal with this disease in his flock.

Article here

Narnia Hits Theaters in 7 Days

Supreme Court of Hawaii: Unborn Children Are Not "Human Beings"

I suppose we can also say that these judges are not "human beings", either, but that does not make it so.

The Supreme Court of Hawaii has ruled that unborn children are not "human beings," and therefore women cannot be prosecuted for causing the death of babies by harmful behavior during their pregancies.

The unanimous decision overturns the manslaughter conviction of 32-year-old Tayshea Aiwohi, who was found guilty in connection with the death of her newborn son by smoking crystal methamphetamine shortly before his birth.
. . .
In their ruling, the justices cited statutes noting a crime needed to be committed against "a human being." They declared since Treyson [the two day old baby boy who died] was not a "person" when Tayshea was smoking the drugs, she could not be prosecuted for harming the infant in her womb.

What a bunch of idiotic buffoons! The devil's accomplices dressed in robes deciding for themselves and for humanity what is good and evil, right and wrong. Facts and science cannot enter into the equation - for then, the truth would be known - light might shine upon their evil deceptions and murderous tyranny...May God have mercy on them and on all those who will continue to die at the hands of the devil's murderers and his minions.

Story here.

Great News! Walgreens Says "Next Year Will Be Different"

An email from AFA:

Send A Polite Letter To Kmart/Sears Asking Them To Do The Same

Because of your efforts, Walgreens has released the following response: "Next year, you can be assured our advertising will better incorporate 'Christmas,' and our holiday trees will be called Christmas trees. Unfortunately, all of this year’s December ads are already printed, so it's too late to make changes for this season."

In addition, Lowe's has released a statement saying they now refer to all trees as "Christmas Trees" and have removed all signs that previously calling them "Holiday Trees."

Your actions are bringing good results! We are hearing that many retailers are re-thinking their banning Christmas. Keep up the good work!

Would you please send the enclosed polite letter to Kmart/Sears asking them to make Christmas an integral part of their promotions and advertising next year? We feel there is good reason to believe Kmart/Sears might honor your request. We will keep you informed as to their response.

Additionally, and this is very important, please forward this to your family and friends. We need as much support as we can get in this effort.

Click Here To Send Your Letter Now!

Thanks for caring enough to get involved.

Sincerely,
Don
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

Gospel for Friday, 1st Week of Advent

From: Matthew 9:27-31

The Curing of Two Blind Men. The Dumb Devil

[27] And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." [28] When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." [29] Then he touched their eyes, saying, " According to your faith be it done to you." [30] And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly charged them, "See that no one knows it." [31] But they went away and spread his fame through all that district.

*****************
Commentary:

27-34. The evangelist shows people's different reactions to miracles. Everyone admits that God is at work in these events--everyone, that is, except the Pharisees who attribute them to the power of the devil. A pharisaical attitude so hardens a person's heart that he becomes closed to any possibility of salvation. The fact that the blind men recognize Jesus as the Messiah (they call him "Son of David": v. 27) may have exasperated the Pharisees. Despite Jesus' sublime teaching, despite his miracles, they remain entrenched in their opposition.

In the light of this episode it is easy enough to see that the paradox is true: there are blind people who in fact see God and seers who see no trace of him.

30. Why did our Lord not want them to publicize the miracle? Because his plan was to gradually manifest himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. He did not want to anticipate events which would occur in their own good time; nor did he want the crowd to start hailing him as Messiah King, because their notion of messiah was a nationalistic, not a spiritual one. However, the crowd did in fact proclaim him when he worked the miracles of the loaves and the fish (Jn 6:14-15): "When the people saw the sign which he had done, they said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world!' Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew, again to the hills by himself."

31. St Jerome (cf. "Comm. on Matth.", 9, 31) says that the blind men spread the news of their cure, not out of disobedience to Jesus, but because it was the only way they could find to express their gratitude.
************************
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Realizing the Truths of Faith - 1st Sunday in Advent

by Fr. H.G. Hughes
___________________

"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Luke xxi, 23.

SYNOPSIS - Advent a call to face the realities of existence, i.e., the truths of faith, of which Christ says "Heaven and earth shall pass away," etc.

Of these realities we will think now. We have faith, which makes, them real TO US, as well as real in themselves.

Advent speaks of two visible comings of God. First His Coming in lowliness. This we are preparing to celebrate in the Festival of Christmas. The first coming. The manner of it. How can man be proud, when God has done this?

The second coming, and the manner of it-the just and sinners at that coming.

There are men to-day who look upon these things as a natural evolution of human thought: they say the time will come when such ideas will have done their work and religion will be good behavior without dogmas. To them Christ says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away," etc.

But are there no Catholics who PRACTICALLY behave as if the truths of religion were a fable? What is to be said of such?

How many of us have a practical grasp of the things of eternity? Are there not many who put the serious consideration of these great truths into the background?

Human weakness, it is true, makes the realization of the things of faith difficult. Hence we greatly fail in the spirit of faith as "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The Saints have the true spirit of faith: but we, too, are called to be partakers of the lot of the Saints. We must imitate them in this spirit of realizing faith.

The means to be taken - Not enough to have learned once the truths of Religion: we must make them at set times the subject of earnest consideration.

Difference this would make to souls. Exhortation to prayerful, REGULAR reading and consideration of the great truths.


The Advent season, dear Brethren in Jesus Christ, recurring every year in the Church's round of fast and festival, is a calI to us to face the realities of existence. I do not mean what are often spoken of as "the stern realities of life," those hard and painful experiences which human life brings to us all: I mean the incomparably greater and more important realities that are known to us by Faith: incomparably greater, because they have to do with God and our souls, and our relations to our Maker; incomparably more important, because not only during our short life here, or while this world endures, will they last and be realities, but because they will last forever, and will become for us one day not only truths of faith, but facts of personal individual experience for weal or woe throughout eternity.

These are the things taught by Jesus Christ, truths of which He says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away": the end of the world, that is, shall come, and the heavens shall be rolled up as a scroll, and the stars shall fall, and all this universe be changed into the new heavens and the new earth, but these truths, these realities shall remain forever.

It is of the unseen realities, then, that I speak: the things of God, the things of the soul, the things of eternity. To us these ought to be the most real of all, for we have faith, by which we grasp them; faith, which convinces us of their truth; faith, of which the office is to make actual for us the invisible supernatural realm, to bring that realm as a practical matter, as the chief object of our consideration into the conduct of our daily lives. For faith, as St. Paul writes, is "the substance, that is the actualization of things hoped for, the evidence (or conviction) of things that appear not" (Heb. xi, I).

It is a supernatural power of grasping God's teachings, a power by which we are convinced, with the utmost certitude, of the reality of those things which God has revealed to us.

Today, then, rousing up in ourselves by God's help the spirit of Catholic faith that He has mercifully given us, we will consider, and endeavor honestly to face some of those great truths which by that faith we know.

Advent speaks to us of two great interventions of God in human affairs; of two visible comings of God to men; one that is past, one that is yet to be.

Through all this season of preparation, the Church directs our attention to that never-to-be-forgotten day when the Word Eternal, the Only-Begotten Son of the Father, true God of true God, fulfilling the Divine Decrees and the longing expectation of nations, came in visible human form to be the Saviour of mankind.

We are preparing to commemorate, in the joyous Christmas past, the greatest work that ever God did in His dealings with men - the union of the Divine Nature with our human nature in the Person of the Word; the bridging over of the gulf which separated the finite from the Infinite, that divine miracle of miracles by which the Almighty God is man, in order that men may become like to God, so god-like, so wondrously lifted up by grace to the similitude of the living God, that St. Peter calls this likeness a participation of the Divine Nature Itself.

That first coming of our God was in meekness and humility, in gentleness and lowly guise: It was, in outward seeming, only the birth of a little Hebrew Child in poverty and obscurity, ushered in by the Angels' song of peace heard not by the great world, but only by a few poor peasants as they kept their flocks by night.

Oh how can men be proud, when the God of Heaven has thus come among them, hiding His glory in the poverty of that Birth, shutting up His Almightiness within an infant's trembling frame, bringing His Mighty Word, by which heaven and the world were made, within the compass of a feeble infant's cry?

But there will be another Advent, another visible coming of our God-how soon none can tell, that Second Advent of which the Gospel tells us today, when "the powers of heaven shall be moved," and "they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty": when the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn, looking upon Him Whom they have pierced; when "there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves, men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world," when the just, indeed, shall look up, knowing that their redemption is at hand, but the wicked, in an agony of hopeless terror, shall call upon the mountains and rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the awful wrath of God.

Brethren, there are men in the world today, who look upon these things as an interesting invention of the human spirit, a natural evolution of certain moral and emotional instincts inherent in the human race; as the productions of a stage in that gradual process by which, of his own power, say they, man has struggled upward from the condition of a brute beast to what he is now - a stage of evolution which is passing away, to be succeeded by another to which we are supposed to be quickly coming, in which religion will consist simply in behaving well, or at least with outward decency, for the sake of the common good and convenience.

These men admire the romance and the beauty and the poetry which they find in the idea of a God Incarnate, but it is to them a charming legend only. They profess to understand how a natural, moral instinct in man has created also the notion of a Judgment, and of rewards and punishments to come; but, apart from a terrible and tragic kind of magnificence in it which has its own style of beauty, they look upon the Christian doctrine of Judgment as rather a hindrance than a help to human development.

What a sight for the Angels of God, to see men, otherwise sane, intelligent, and able, contemplating the Incarnation of God and the Judgment to come as if they were looking at a theatrical performance, or studying, with critical eye, some work of poetic imagination! The maniac Emperor Nero, enjoying the spectacle of Rome in flames as an after-dinner enjoyment, was reasonable compared with those who take up such an attitude toward truths so awful, so well-attested and so divine.

To them, and to all like them, Christ, in whose Word we believe, seeing the works that He has wrought, says, with solemn warning - these things are true, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall never pass away."

But my brethren, fellow-Christians, men and women of faith, believers to whom I speak, is there never to be found in any of us an attitude of mind not unlike that which I have just described? Do we never as it were stand outside the great truths of Religion, the great realities of Faith, and gaze upon them as if they were, indeed, no personal concern of ours?

What is to be said of a Catholic who knows that God the Son became Man to save Him from sin and hell; who knows that one day, without the shadow of a doubt, he must be arraigned before the great white Throne; who knows that there, in the blinding light of God's holiness, he must turn out his inmost soul and show forth the minutest willful actions of every day of his life-what is to be said, I ask you, of a Catholic, a believer, who knows this and, I will not say treats it all as a legend - but what shall be said of him if he be not penetrated to his inmost soul with the thought and remembrance of these things, with the conviction of these things, with an earnest, careful, constant solicitude to live as these things require that he should live?

Yet how many of us can say that we have such a practical grasp of the doctrines of our holy faith as to make them the ruling influence of our daily lives? And if we have not, the reason is that we do not set our minds to meditate upon them, to consider and think over them, but deserve rather the reproach of the Prophet, "With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart" (Jer. xii, II).

Upon which man, think you, do the Angels of God more sadly look, upon the unbelieving scientist - thank God, there are not so many unbelieving scientists as people think - do the Angels look more sadly upon those who think that they have got rid of God and Eternity by their investigations into one or other small department of this vast universe, or upon the Catholic, heaven-taught, with all the evidences of truth that the living Church of God gives to him, who yet in its practical conduct behaves as if the Birth of God-made-Man were no more than a pleasing tale of old, and Judgment a thing so remote that he need not trouble himself about it; or who, at the most, gives but a passing consideration to the things of Eternity; think of them only when business and pleasure, eating and drinking and sleeping have had their full share of attention, and his jaded mind just to make things safe, as he imagines, turns to a perfunctory Confession and a half-hearted Communion as a soporific, a soothing draught, for his easily satisfied conscience?

Brethren, I am not leaving out of account our human weakness. Who, of mortal men, speaking to his fellow-men, can afford to do that? There are many, thanks be to God for it, whose attitude toward the great realities of existence is not so miserably inadequate to their pressing importance as the attitude of which I have spoken. Yet human weakness, the difficulties of faith, natural inconsiderateness, the nearness of the visible, palpable things of earth which so imperiously command attention, so insistently impress themselves upon us, so successfully shut out from view the things of the WorId to come-all these causes bring about that many of us fail greatly in that spirit of living, active, realizing faith which makes faith truly what St. Paul says it should be, the substance, the reality of things hoped for, the very evidence and conviction of the things not seen; which would make our faith bring home to our minds and hearts the things of God and the soul, and cause them to enter more intimately and practically into our lives than they do?

The saints have this spirit of faith in perfection, so that their conversation truly is in Heaven, and they live in the ever-present thought of eternity and its tremendous facts. But even we are called to be "partakers of the lot of the saints in light," and according to the measure of grace that God gives us, we are bound to strive after such an increase of faith as shall bring us closer to the saints in their constant grasp of the great truths upon which our Salvation depends.

Brethren, if we are thus to take the truth to heart, and to realize our own individual, personal, intimate concern with the doctrines of the Catholic Religion, it is not enough for us to have learned them and known them once; it is necessary for us to revolve them constantly in our minds, to make them at set times and regularly the subject of our earnest consideration. There are many to whom a habit of serious consideration upon one or other of the great truths of Religion, with the help of some good book written for the purpose, would make to them all 'the difference between salvation and damnation. Such devout consideration would mean conversion to God and ultimate Salvation, while the neglect of it means continued carelessness, continued sin, and the greatest risk of final impenitence.

Brethren, with all the earnestness of my heart I entreat you, as you love your soul's Salvation, to take up, as a regular thing, a part of the work of the day or week, the saving practice of prayerful reading and consideration of the great truths of faith - Death, Judgment, Hell, Heaven, Sin and its terrible consequences, the Goodness of God, the Sufferings and Death of Jesus for you, His great love and care for you shown in His Church, in the Sacraments, in the example of His Saints, in giving to us His Mother to be our Mother and Advocate. Death is certain; Judgment is at hand, at our very doors, the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night. These are the realities of faith, of Eternity; and because of them does the Church warn us in the Gospel today, in Christ's own Words, of the truth and certainty of these things; "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Words shall not pass away.”.
_______________________________
Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers (1916)

Land's End Neuters Christmas and more

From the Catholic League:

When the Catholic League got a tip from one of its members that Lands’ End refuses to use the word “Christmas” in its catalog—even though it sells Christmas items—we verified its authenticity. Printed below is part of the reply we received from Merlin W. Gorsline in the Customer Relations Department to an inquiry we made regarding the refusal of Lands’ End to mention the word “Christmas”:

“We find ourselves in a difficult position with this issue. As a result, we have adopted the ‘holiday’ terminology as a way to comply with one of the basic freedoms granted to all Americans: freedom of religion. We recognize that Christmas is a Christian holiday, and one of the foremost teachings of the Christian faith is a love for one’s fellowman—no matter what his race, religion or creed.

“If we knew which customers feel as you do, we would be delighted to send them catalogs with ‘Merry Christmas’ splashed throughout the pages. However, we don’t.”

William Donohue rezsponds, in part:

“Lands’ End says that if it knew who to send a ‘Merry Christmas’ catalog to, it would. So do it: contact landsend@landsend.com right away.”

Catholic League Report here

I sent my Email...short and sweet:

Please add me to your list of "CHRISTMAS" (not holiday) catalogue recipients.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!!!
(signed)

Everyone should email them...maybe they'll 'get it'?

Hope I get my "Christmas" catalogue BEFORE Christmas...

And while you're emailing Land's End, why not email e-mail Doug Herzog, the president of Comedy Central, requesting that he nix the Dec. 17th showing of a vile special by Denis Leary, “Merry F#%$in’ Christmas”, and any future showings that might be planned. You can read about it the Catholic League here.

Druggists suspended in debate over pill

Pharmacist John Menges became accustomed to filling as many as 40 birth-control prescriptions while working the night shift at the Walgreens in Collinsville, he said Tuesday.

But Menges, an anti-abortion Catholic who lives in Edwardsville, said he drew the line at dispensing emergency contraception commonly known as the morning-after pill because he views it as a form of abortion.

It is EXACTLY a form of abortion - is it not prescribed to effect a chemical abortion if the woman has conceived? A Catholic, pharmacist or otherwise, would incur excommunication for facilitating an abortion. As a Catholic, Mr. Menges could not morally do what God has forbidden - nor should any Christian. He and the others certainly need our support and prayers.

Article here.

Are Priests Guilty Until Proven Innocent?

In today's criminal justice system the answer seems to be "yes"...

This is a cogent letter regarding the recent fiasco of the conviction of Fr. Thomas Graham based on flimsy, if not non-existent, 'evidence'. I fear, though, that the conclusion of establishing a professional jury system may not be in the best interests of the people.

I am including the letter here since the Post purges many items after a period of time:

No surprise in jury decision
Oakville-Mehlville Journal
11/30/2005

Are Roman Catholic priests really assumed to be guilty until proven innocent? When it comes to the charge of child molestation, it seems that jurists think just that. But should this come as a surprise to us?

Kevin Madden (Journal Nov. 16, 2005, "Is a priest guilty until proven innocent?") reports that "Observers of the four-day trial (of Father Thomas J. Graham on the charge of sodomizing a minor)…walked away shaking their heads in disbelief that the 30-year-old case had been brought to trial," and that a jury had actually convicted the priest based on the testimony of a dubious accuser. Well, welcome to the wild and whacky world of criminal justice in America!

Juries found O.J. Simpson innocent in spite of credible facts to the contrary; Scott Peterson guilty based on innuendo and conjecture; the rampaging thugs who tried to kill Reginald Denny innocent despite video evidence of the attempted murder; and the state of Illinois had to suspend the execution of sentence in death penalty cases because DNA evidence reviews were showing--without a doubt--that many of the people convicted by jury were in fact innocent of the crime for which they had been tried.

I'm not familiar with Father Graham or the case against him, so I won't comment on it specifically. However, in light of the multitude of revelations of sexual misconduct by priests of the Catholic church, the conviction of Father Graham comes as no surprise. Equally unremarkable is Mr. Madden's revelation of jury idiocy in the case; only one of many throughout America. America's jury system is broken. It's in dire need of replacement, not repair.

America's judicial system was founded on the belief that it is better to have nine of the guilty go free than to convict one innocent person. Yet we are a country with many innocent people incarcerated. While we say we hold truth and justice in high regard, we often do not bring that value to the courtroom.

The attainment and maintenance of a responsible jury system is tantamount to a society that respects law and order. The complexities of the contemporary criminal justice system dictate the implementation of a professional jurist system. Today's jurors need to be highly educated and possess a comprehensive understanding of the criminal justice system. We shouldn't accept less, for the next defendant may be one of us.

Michael K. Broughton
Green Park

Link.

Theology only has true meaning in communion with the Church, says Pope

Vatican City, Dec. 01, 2005 (CNA) - In a meeting today with members of the International Theological Commission, Pope Benedict stressed the need for theologians to perform their work in union with, and under the authority of the Church Magesterium and sacred tradition.

The commission is being headed for the first time by an American--Archbishop William Levada, who replaced former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.

Speaking on the importance of academic study, the Pope told the group that "the theologian's work must be carried out in communion with, and under the authority of, the living Magisterium of the Church.”

It's about truth...Link

Ex-Gay Group Rejoices that Vatican Says Former Homosexuals Can Become Priests

From LifeSiteNews"

WASHINGTON, December 1, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vatican's recent document on homosexuality and the priesthood, is being lauded by ex-gay groups since it requires that seminarian candidates be free from homosexual tendencies for at least three years.

"The ex-gay community is grateful to the Holy Father for recognizing that men who have overcome same sex attractions are capable of serving as priests," said Regina Griggs, executive director of Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX). "All mainstream mental health organizations agree that individuals with unwanted same sex attractions have the right to seek therapy to explore developing heterosexual feelings as part of every client's right to self-determination. No one is born with same sex attractions."

Link

Vatican letter says norms on priesthood must be 'faithfully observed'

This is something else!

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A cover letter accompanying the Vatican's instruction on homosexuality and the priesthood said the new norms must be "faithfully observed" and taken into account in the drafting or updating of each country's seminary guidelines.

The letter also made clear that, while the text does not apply to those already ordained, priests with homosexual tendencies should not have educational roles in seminaries. . .Such priests should continue in their ministry, it said, but added: "Because of the particular responsibility of those charged with the formation of future priests, they are not to be appointed as rectors or educators in seminaries."

Full article here

The Institute of Christ the King in Oakland

They're Nosebleed High Church, But Much More

Where Christ is King and Priest in Oakland

BY CHRISTOPHER ZEHNDER

"The numbers of the faithful are constantly growing, and the Mass is rather packed." Would that all Catholics could say this of their parishes. That an Oakland priest, Father Michael Wiener, can say it of his parish suggests that something rather right is going on there. That he can say it, given that he celebrates Mass in Latin and teaches the perennial Catholic doctrine, might be a surprise to many.

But in a conversation I had with him in late summer, Father Wiener (pronounced VEE-nayr) added, "we are convinced -- we are very much in the middle of the Church; we are not on the peripheries." Perhaps not at first thought, but at second, or (for some folks) even third, it may seem strange that Father Wiener need make this disclaimer. By all accounts he and his congregation, the Institute of Christ the King, Sovereign Priest, are attentive to their duties and vocation, teach orthodox Catholic doctrine, and are (as someone expressed it to me) "nosebleed high church" -- devoted to smells and bells and chant. It is for none of these, however, that Father Wiener and the institute may be suspect in some circles, but for the fact that they celebrate, exclusively, the pre-conciliar (Vatican II, that is) Latin Mass.

More here.

In Peoria, Nine Lawsuits Allege Sexual Abuse

The suits name the Diocese, five priests and a nun and involve allegations of sexual abuse dating back as far as fifty years.

Reflections for the First Week of Advent

"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." St. Luke, 21:33.

An eminent lawyer once asked a Catholic friend to suggest some reli­gious book that would appeal to his legal mind. The Catholic urged him to read the Bible. The inquirer thought that his request had been misun­derstood. He again tried to make it clear that what he wanted was an ex­planation of what was in the sacred book. But the Catholic insisted that he start with the inspired text itself. The lawyer asked him:
"Where shall I begin?"

"Begin at the beginning, and read it through," urged his friend.

Now and then the Catholic called upon his legal friend to find that he was faithfully reading part of the .Bible every day. But one evening he found the lawyer walking up and down in his office, deep in thought.

"What's on your mind, Bill?" questioned the Catholic.

"I've been reading the Book of Exodus, especially that twentieth chap­ter, which tells about God giving the Ten Commandments to Moses."

"Well, what about it?" asked his visitor.

"What about it?" echoed the lawyer.

"Why, I have been trying to see whether I could add anything to it, but I can't; it takes in everything. Then I've tried to see whether there is any thing that could be left out, to improve it. Nothing can be added or left out."

Then, with earnestness, he exclaimed: "It's perfect."

Truly, the Ten Commandments are a perfect set of laws, whether we look at them from the standpoint of God or from the viewpoint of man. They are often called the "Decalogue," which means ten words, the ten laws which sum up the wish and will of God.

From the very moment when God created man the Almighty imprinted upon the human soul the natural or unwritten law. Man always could tell the difference between right and wrong, good and evil. Man always knew, for instance, that theft and adultery and lying and murder were wrong.

But the mind of man became darkened and his heart hardened. No longer did he see or want to see what was right and what was wrong. God found it necessary to declare His law again and in unmistakable words. How God gave His Ten Commandments to His chosen people we read in the Book of Exodus, Chapter Twenty.

God had given the Jews one favor after another, one blessing, one gift after another. But they were faithless to their Divine Benefactor. They preferred their blind passions and sinful appetites to the law God had planted in their hearts. Then it was that God decided to give them His Commandments in a way that would strike terror in their hearts.

Three months after the chosen people had left Egypt the Almighty assembled them at the foot of Mt. Sinai. He bade them keep three solemn days of preparation, praying, fasting, and purifying themselves from all uncleanness.

The third day dawned bright and clear. The rising sun lit up the summit of Mt. Sinai. Suddenly the scene changed. A black cloud covered the mountain, terrifying peals of thunder rolled along the mountainside, and blinding flashes of lightning skipped through the gathering darkness.

Surrounded by fire, the Lord descended upon the steep summit and called the prophet Moses. The whole mountain seemed wrapped in thick smoke. A trumpet sounded. The people trembled and took to their tents. But God called them forth to hear as He declared to them in tones of thun­der His Ten Commandments:
1. I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
3. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day.
4. Honor thy father and thy mother.
5. Thou shalt not kill.
6. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
7. Thou shalt not steal.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods.

Here is the most complete and perfect set of laws in the world, given by God Himself, given in a way that was solemn and awful, given to show us the way to heaven, given that we might know what He wants, and, that, doing what He wants, we might someday be with Him.

But isn't it impossible to keep these laws? Without God's help, yes. With God's help, no. Some, like Pelagius, an early heretic, taught that man could keep God's law by his natural powers alone. Others, like Calvin, in the 16th century, claimed that with or without grace it was impossible to keep the Commandments.

God's Church, the Catholic Church, teaches that with the help of God everyone can keep the law of God. Countless souls, of every age, sex and condition, have observed the Commandments. Countless others are keeping them today. It can be done. It must be done. God will punish those who deliberately refuse to keep His law. God rewards, even here, those who keep His Commandments.

Heaven and earth and everything in them will pass away, but the word of God, given on Mt. Sinai, and carved into the fleshly tablets of the human heart - God's Ten Commandments - the perfect law - will never pass away. Amen.
____________________________
Adapted from Talks on the Commandments by Fr. Arthur Tonne

Gospel for Thursday, 1st Week of Advent

From: Matthew 7:21, 24-27

Doing the Will of God

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [21] "Not every one who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven.

Building on Rock

[24] "Every one then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; [25] and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. [26]And every one who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; [27] and the rain fell, and the floods came, and winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."

**********************
Commentary:

21-23. To be genuine, prayer must be accompanied by a persevering effort to do God's will. Similarly, in order to do His will it is not enough to speak about the things of God: there must be consistency between what one preaches--what one says--and what one does: "The Kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power" (1 Corinthians 4:20); "Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22).

Christians, "holding loyally to the Gospel, enriched by its resources, and joining forces with all who love and practise justice, have shouldered a weighty task on earth and they must render an account of it to Him who will judge all men on the last day. Not every one who says `Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but those who do the will of the Father, and who manfully put their hands to the work" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 93).

To enter the Kingdom of Heaven, to be holy, it is not enough, then, to speak eloquently about holiness. One has to practise what one preaches, to produce fruit which accords with one's words. Fray Luis de Leon puts it very graphically: "Notice that to be a good Christian it is not enough just to pray and fast and hear Mass; God must find you faithful, like another Job or Abraham, in times of tribulation" ("Guide for Sinners", Book 1, Part 2, Chapter 21).

Even if a person exercises an ecclesiastical ministry that does not assure his holiness; he needs to practice the virtues he preaches. Besides, we know from experience that any Christian (clerical, religious or lay) who does not strive to act in accordance with the demands of the faith he professes, begins to weaken in his faith and eventually parts company also with the teaching of the Church. Anyone who does not live in accordance with what he says, ends up saying things which are contrary to faith.

The authority with which Jesus speaks in these verses reveals Him as sovereign Judge of the living and the dead. No Old Testament prophet ever spoke with this authority.

22. "That day": a technical formula in biblical language meaning the day of the Judgment of the Lord or the Last Judgment.

23. This passage refers to the Judgment where Jesus will be the Judge. The sacred text uses a verb which means the public proclamation of a truth. Since in this case Jesus Christ is the Judge who makes the declaration, it takes the form of a judicial sentence.

24-27. These verses constitute the positive side of the previous passage. A person who tries to put Christ's teaching into practice, even if he experiences personal difficulties or lives during times of upheaval in the life of the Church or is surrounded by error, will stay firm in the faith, like the wise man who builds his house on rock.

Also, if we are to stay strong in times of difficulty, we need, when things are calm and peaceful, to accept little contradictions with a good grace, to be very refined in our relationship with God and with others, and to perform the duties of our state in life in a spirit of loyalty and abnegation. By acting in this way we are laying down a good foundation, maintaining the edifice of our spiritual life and repairing any cracks which make their appearance.

*************************
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Providence Brings Bishop Rifan to Una Voce Conference

From The Wanderer | 12/1/2005 edition | Brian Mershon

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Amidst buzz in Catholic circles about the possibility of an imminent freeing of the classical Roman rite of Mass, Bishop Fernando Rifan offered a Solemn Pontifical Mass from the throne and delivered the keynote address, highlighting the tenth anniversary conference of Una Voce America in Providence, R.I., November 18-20.
. . .
Bishop Rifan is currently the sole bishop in the world with the permission from the Holy See for his diocesan priests to offer the Holy Mass and sacraments exclusively according to the Missal of 1962. He said that the cause of tradition was very hopeful in the new pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI and is currently much brighter in the U.S. than perhaps many realize.

“You have four bishops who allow all their diocesan priests to offer the Traditional Mass [privately] at any time,” Bishop Rifan said. He specifically cited Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Neb.; Bishop Thomas Doran of Rockford, Ill.; and Bishop Alvaro Corrada, SJ, of Tyler, Texas, who have been generous in the Ecclesia Dei indult application, as requested and emphasized repeatedly by the late Pope John Paul II.

More later.

Showdown Over Nativity Display: Homeowner Refuses to Take Down Display Despite Threat of Fines

An email from the Thomas More Law Center regarding the "Away With the Manger" story:

ANN ARBOR, MI. – Since moving into their new home three years ago, the Samona family of Novi, Michigan, has displayed a Nativity scene on their front lawn during each Christmas season. This year however, the management company of their subdivision sent them a letter demanding that they remove the Nativity scene. If they did not remove the display, the Samonas could be fined up to $100 a week until the display was removed.

Batoul Samona, the homeowner stated, “I have been displaying my nativity outside this house and my previous house for about 25 years without any problem until this year. My family will not remove the nativity from our front lawn under any circumstances.”

Batoul’s 16 year-old son Joseph was equally defiant, “This Nativity display is a family tradition which will not be abolished. My family strongly believes in celebrating the birth of Christ in this way.”

The Samona family contacted the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which agreed to represent the family at no charge. The Law Center has already contacted the management company notifying them that the Center represents the Samonas in this matter.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented, “The action of the management company in demanding only that the nativity scene be removed when several other objects remained on the lawn is clear evidence that this was an attack on Christmas. We will vigorously defend the constitutional rights of the Samonas to express their religious message on their own property.”

Scores of citizens have come to the Samona home to view the display and express their support as news of the showdown became public. One individual even called and offered to pay any fine imposed.

Edward White, trial counsel for the Thomas More Law Center, who was at the Samona home today commented, “We trust the management company will reconsider its decision and allow this family to continue to celebrate Christmas as they see fit on their private property. Their nativity display is beautiful and only adds to the beauty of the neighborhood.”

Ban on Homosexual Men From Priesthood Was Always in Place - Decision from 810 A.D. Cited

The term "homophobia" is "a slogan of intimidation", says Vatican consultant

ROME, November 30, 2005 (CWNews.com/LifeSiteNews.com) - A Vatican consultant, in an interview with the I Media news service, has observed that the Church has always taught that homosexuals should not become priests, since they suffer from a "structural incoherence" in their approach to human sexuality. The question of whether homosexual men should become priests has been raised repeatedly by Church leaders, and always answered negatively said Msgr. Tony Anatrella, a French Jesuit who is a consultant to the Pontifical Council on the Family. The French priest-psychologist cited decisions by the Council of Paris in 819, and the 3rd and 4th Lateran Councils in 1169 and 1215.

LifeSiteNews Link

In the spirit of the season, it's now "Away with the Manger"

Novi subdivision tells family to get baby Jesus off lawn; homeowners say Christ belongs in Christmas.

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy Endorses, Supports and Applauds the Recent Vatican Instruction

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy endorses, supports and applauds the recent letter from the Congregation for Catholic Education “Concerning the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to Seminaries and Holy Orders” We invite all our ordained brethren (deacons, priests and bishops) to read it thoroughly and to obediently embrace the Magisterial teaching it contains and we urge vocation directors and seminary rectors to fully implement the directives given in that same document.

Specifically, that document states that the Church “cannot admit to Seminary or Holy Orders those who are actively homosexual, have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called gay culture.” The only exception being “homosexual tendencies that might only be a manifestation of a transitory problem, as, for example, delayed adolescence, these must be clearly overcome at least three years before diaconal Ordination.” Note that it does not say someone who has been actively engaged in a homosexual lifestyle merely needs to be chaste and celibate for three years to enter the seminary, as some have erroneously reported.

We do not consider this a matter of discrimination since as the document itself affirms in “the mere desire to become a priest is not sufficient and there is no right to receive sacred Ordination.” It continues to say that “the call to Orders is the personal responsibility of the Bishop or the Superior General” since they act on behalf of the Church who alone has the authority and responsibility to confirm a vocation to holy orders.

Link here

Some Links to Bishops' Reactions to the Instruction

Tucson Bishop, Gerald F. Kicanas, Speaks about "Gay" Priest Policy

Diocese of Charleston, Bishop Robert Baker's statement

Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese, Bishop Johb D'Arcy believes gays shouldn’t be ordained

Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput praises document as "common sense"

Vermont Catholic Bishop Salvatore Matano will stand by gay priests as long as they stay celibate and teach that "homosexual activity is immoral."

Cardinal Francis George said the document was "entirely consistent with the present policies of the Chicago archdiocesan seminaries, which have been in place for more than 10 years. The criteria of the instruction are also entirely consistent with the teaching of the church for the past 2,000 years."

Gospel for Nov 30, Feast: St. Andrew, Apostle

From: Matthew 4:18-22

The First Disciples Called

[18] As He (Jesus) walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. [19] And He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." [20] Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. [21] And going on from there He saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and He called them. [22] Immediately, they left the boat and their father, and followed Him.

******************
Commentary:

18-22. These four disciples had already met our Lord (John 1:35-42), and their brief meeting with Him seems to have had a powerful effect on their souls. In this way Christ prepared their vocation, a fully effective vocation which moved them to leave everything behind so as to follow Him and be His disciples. Standing out above their human defects (which the Gospels never conceal), we can see the exemplary generosity and promptness of the Apostles in answering God's call.

The thoughtful reader cannot fail to be struck by the delightful simplicity with which the evangelists describe the calling of these men in the midst of their daily work.

"God draws us from the shadows of our ignorance, our groping through history, and, no matter what our occupation in the world, He calls us in a loud voice, as He once called Peter and Andrew" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By," 45).

"This divine and human dialogue completely changed the lives of John and Andrew, and Peter and James and so many others. It prepared their hearts to listen to the authoritative teaching which Jesus gave them beside the Sea of Galilee" ("ibid"., 108).

We should notice the words of Sacred Scripture used to describe the alacrity with which the Apostles follow our Lord. Peter and Andrew "immediately" left their nets and followed Him. Similarly, James and John "immediately" left the boats and their father and followed Him. God passes by and calls us. If we do not answer Him "immediately", He may continue on His way and we could lose sight of Him. When God passes by, He may do so rapidly; it would be sad if we were to fall behind because we wanted to follow Him while still carrying many things that are only a dead weight and a nuisance.
******************

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Missouri Law Banning Infanticide Ruled Unconstitutional

KANSAS CITY, November 29, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Missouri law that bans partial-birth infanticide has been struck down as unconstitutional.

A federal appeals panel ruled Monday that the 1999 Infants Protection Act, which limits late-term partial-birth abortions, has decided that the law is unconstitutional because it does not have a provision for the so-called health of the mother.
. . .

More...

Homosexuality destabilizes society: Vatican paper

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican newspaper said on Tuesday that homosexuality risked "destabilizing people and society", had no social or moral value and could never match the importance of the relationship between a man and a woman.

The remarks were contained in a long commentary published to accompany the official release of a long-awaited document that restricted the access of homosexual men to the Roman Catholic priesthood.

The article by Monsignor Tony Anatrella, a French Jesuit and psychologist, said homosexuality could not be considered an acceptable moral alternative to heterosexuality.

Reuters Article here.

Catholic Culture: Hope and Serenity Among the Thorns

An email from Catholic Culture:

These are difficult times for the Church, and many (including myself) feel at times like the Catholic faithful are going to war without their generals.

In news articles, in Internet discussion groups, and in my email inbox, I get the same question: "Why are you still a Catholic?"

I'm pleased the answer the question, and this Advent Season is the perfect time to put the essence of our Faith into perspective. At the end of the day, are bishops and priests the basis of our Faith, or is it Christ Jesus?

The birth of Christ is inexorably linked to His death and resurrection. Our hopes, sufferings and joys are bound to this mystery.

Read this article to find Hope and Serenity Among the Thorns.

God bless,
Peter Mirus
Vice President, Trinity Communications

Timely and well worth the time to read!

Phoenix Priest Resigns Over Vatican Instruction

A Catholic priest in Mesa has resigned as a pastor because of "aggressive anti-gay positions" coming from the pope in Rome and bishop in Phoenix.

The Rev. Leonard Walker, 58, who as pastor was chief executive of Queen of Peace church, is the first priest in the Phoenix Diocese to resign over church treatment of gay men, specifically a new Vatican document aimed at keeping gay men out of the priesthood.

Say what!!! Chief Executive of Queen of Peace church? Can we conclude that he was not much of a pastor, then?

Walker declined to disclose his sexual orientation, but he said he was no longer comfortable "wearing the uniform" of the priesthood.

No longer "wearing the uniform"???? Then let us put on the armor of Christ, Padre!

It's like a Jew wearing a Nazi uniform," Walker said. "I could no longer stay in that institution with any amount of integrity."

Choice words, eh? Integrity? As Chief Executive, I wonder how reverently he celebrated Holy Mass? Did he teach the faithful the Truth?

He said that [Bishop] Olmsted has been "aggressively anti-gay," unlike previous bishops, and that the Vatican also has taken anti-gay positions.

Oh, please....me thinks it might be a guilty conscience...Fidelity to Christ requires that one uphold His teachings and those of His Church, regardless of how difficult those may be. One must have Faith!

It's sad to see the demise of those who have been ordained to the priesthood, yet the Church must remain faithful to Christ despite the outrages and calumnities hurled against her, even if this comes from those who were supposed to be shepherds for Christ, guarding and nourishing His flock...This man (and doubtless, many others) need God's graces and our hopes that our prayers might have some benefit for their souls and for ours.

Article here.

Bishop Skylstad "Nuances" Latest Vatican Document on the Priesthood and Homosexuality

Of course, it's not the least bit surprising that the Bishop of Spokane has difficulty reading and understanding this document. Perhaps he was 'educated' by Cardinal McCarrick in reading comprehension?...

Anyway, let's see what he says and compare it with what Rome says...

...This realism also makes it clear that it is certainly not acceptable if a candidate practices homosexuality or, whether active or not, if he identifies himself principally by a homosexual inclination or orientation...

I've searched high and low and can find no reference to the use of the adverb "principally" in the Vatican document. What effect does the use of this qualifier have? Are we to understand that a candidate who identifies himself "principally" as a Catholic then as one with homosexual inclinations is an acceptable candidate for the priesthood? What if his homosexual tendencies are deeply-rooted but he "principally" identifies himself as "Catholic"...?

The Vatican document states, in part:

...this Dicastery, together with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, deems it necessary to clearly affirm that the Church,...cannot admit to Seminary or Holy Orders those who...have deep-seated homosexual tendencies...

I may be wrong but it sounds like equivocation to me.

Then we read this:

...It is also not acceptable for a candidate to support the “gay culture” and to be so concerned with homosexual issues that he cannot sincerely represent the Church’s teaching on sexuality.

Always the spinmeisters, the use of the conjunctive "AND" is nowhere to be found in the Vatican document. One cannot wonder if this is another attempt to water down or negate the impact of the clear instruction approved by the Holy Father. Again I defer to the Instruction:

In the light of such teaching, this Dicastery, together with the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, deems it necessary to clearly affirm that the Church, even while deeply respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to Seminary or Holy Orders those who are actively homosexual, have deep-seated homosexual tendencies, or support the so-called gay culture.

The Holy See clearly states that one who supports the "gay culture" cannot be admitted. This must be viewed as one who would support it in word or action. PERIOD! No ANDS, IFS, or BUTS! In Bishop Skystad's statemet, both conditions are necessary to deny a candidate entrance to a seminary. Let's read it again:

It is also not acceptable for a candidate to support the “gay culture” [FIRST CONDITION] and to be so concerned with homosexual issues that he cannot sincerely represent the Church’s teaching on sexuality [SECOND CONDITION].

I would hope that perhaps my views are somewhat jaundiced in this respect but we have all witnessed too many instances of episcopal mangling of Vatican directives and instructions.

Lastly, there is another statement from Bishop Skylstad:

It expresses the valid concern that all candidates must display an “affective maturity” which enables them to relate properly to others as chaste, celibate priests who can faithfully represent the teaching of the Church about sexuality, including the immorality of homosexual genital activity.

Does the good bishop and President of the USCCB wish to say that other homosexual activity (kissing, for example) is OK, provided one's private parts remain untouched or unused?

Can Bishop Skylstad be any less ambiguous? Hopefully, no. It does appear, though, that the special "task force" charged with nuancing the Instruction did not have enough time to properly review it and render it meaningless. Perhaps, the Holy Father will clarify the meaning of the document for the US Bishops who are still confused about it? We can only hope and pray!

And, one final "Lastly"...if Dignity USA is happy with Bishop Skystad's statement...what else is wrong with it?

Debbie Weill, executive director of DignityUSA, which includes gay and lesbian Catholics, said she was encouraged by the bishop's statements.

"Bishop Skylstad is going as far as he can, understanding his position as president, because he clearly cannot come out in opposition to a Vatican document," Weill said.

Lovely!

Admission to the Priesthood and Homosexuality

VATICAN CITY, NOV 29, 2005 (VIS) - Made public today was the document: "Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders." The document is dated November 4, memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, patron of seminaries, and bears the signatures of Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski and of Archbishop Michael J. Miller C.S.B., respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education. On August 31, 2005, Benedict XVI approved the Instruction and ordered its publication.

Bigots, Slavery and Ignorant Citizens

Today's Post Dispatch has a couple of Letters to the Editor regarding the Missouri Embryonic Stem Cell Issue and the Bishops' desire to educate the faithful regarding things intrinsically evil such as cloning and embryonic stell cell experiments.

In order to demonstrate the complete absurdity of one letter and the apparent lack of functioning brain cells of the author, I have modified the letter ever so slightly:
======================

Open discussion

The Catholic Bishops of Missouri are putting the cart before the horse by ordering priests to deliver a homily condemning parishioners who may sign a petition that would allow a ballot initiative on embryonic stem cell research[...SLAVERY].

Telling Catholic politicians how they should vote on issues that affect the entire population, not just Catholics, is a disservice to this great state. If a politician can't vote for legislation beneficial to the majority of the population without fear of retribution from the church, then Catholics shouldn't run for public office. If bishops want to inform parishioners about stem cell research[...SLAVERY], they should invite professionals who know of the tremendous benefits that may be derived from this research [endeavor] to join in open discussions, not force feed parishioners the bishops' version, which seems to have little basis in fact.

I am with former U.S. Sen. John Danforth on this.
James Hood
Hillsboro

===============================

Now I ask: Mr Hood, will you sign your name to this letter?

By the way, check out the first letter written by L.J. Welch ofgh Ridge. It is a wonderfully coherent and reasoned letter. He calls to task Mr. Danforth for his accusatory remarks and lack of reason. A great letter!

No probe is planned of 'weeping' statue

Surely many have seen the stories about a weeping Virgin Mary statue in the Diocese of Sacramento...?

Well,

The source of Mary's tears will remain a mystery - at least for now.

The Catholic Diocese of Sacramento has no plans to investigate why red streaks appeared earlier this month on a Virgin Mary statue at a Jackson Road church, said the Rev. James Murphy of downtown's Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

Source.

Walgreens Tells Illinois Pharmacists: Find Jobs Elsewhere

On a local Fox news broadcast last night, several Illinois pharmacists were either terminated or given leave (I'm not certain which) because they refused to dispense the "morning after" drug mixture since, for them, it is a violation of conscience.

But in the Peoples Republik of Illinois, headed by dictator "Iron" Rod Blagojevich, pharmacists are not afforded the freedom to think and act on a rightly formed conscience. They MUST close their eyes and follow the lead of the blind. If the state demands that one be complicit in murder of the unborn, one must obey or be deprived of his livelihood. How sweet!

Walgreens, as I understand it from bits of the report I saw, wishes to abide by the law which forces all Illinois pharmacies to dispense the child-killing (and sometimes mother-killing) drug concoction to whomever has the required paperwork. I wonder if Blagojevich ever thanks his mother that he was not the unfortunate victim of such a fate? I wonder if she has any regrets?

Hopefully, the pharmacists will be able to obtain work elsewhere, in the hope that they can be instrumental in helping to SAVE lives rather than destroy them. This might mean fighting the tyrannical laws of Illinois or moving to a free state.

Sorry, no link yet...

Bishop OKs Sunday Celebrations in emergency cases in Belleville Diocese

Acknowledging a growing priest shortage in the Belleville Diocese, Bishop Edward K. Braxton has released a letter that says parishes may begin having "Sunday Celebrations" led by a deacon or layperson instead of a Mass celebrated by a priest.

The 'Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest' rite can be used in emergency situations.
. . .
Ann Harter, a member of St. Luke's parish in Belleville and a member of the Fellowship of Southern Illinois Laity, believes the restrictions on who can be a priest has created the priest shortage and the need to implement Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Priest.

"The fact is, there aren't enough priests and the ones we have are stretched to the limit, but the church won't open its eyes to the wealth of highly qualified men and women eligible for ordination," Harter said. "The problem is, they will not consider the possibility of priests other than celibate males."

"In my view, the people who are gathered there, ordained or not, are the ones who give the Eucharist its meaning," Harter said. "In my opinion, what makes the Eucharist the Eucharist is that the people gather and share."

Heretical comments from a professed Catholic. How is it that reporters always find and quote these clowns? Being a member of the group 'FOSIL' has probably had something to do with her warped understanding of Catholicism and of her 'faith'. Not only is she wrong on the subject of the priesthood, she is wrong on the Holy Eucharist as well. The Holy Eucharist does not 'get its meaning' from those who have chosen to 'gather'. The reality of the Holy Eucharist exists whether anyone 'gathers' or not. The essence, the substance of the Holy Eucharist is not changed when others assemble for Mass or for prayer.

I've heard statements concerning the Holy Eucharist by local priests which were very similar to Harter's. Unfortunately, these opinions are still being spread by those who should know better.

Article here.

And - you can answer a Poll Question, "Would you feel comfortable attending a Sunday Celebration instead of Mass?", here.

Gospel for Tuesday, 1st Week of Advent

From: Luke 10:21-24

Jesus Gives Thanks

[21] In that same hour He (Jesus) rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I thank Thee, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes; yea, Father, for such was Thy gracious will. [22] All things have been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."

[23] Then turning to the disciples He said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see what you see! [24] For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."

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Commentary:

21. This passage of the Gospel is usually called our Lord's "hymn of joy" and is also found in St. Matthew (11:25-27). It is one of those moments when Jesus rejoices to see humble people understanding and accepting the word of God.

Our Lord also reveals one of the effects of humility--spiritual childhood. For example, in another passage He says: "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matthew 18:3). But spiritual childhood does not involve weakness, softness or ignorance: "I have often meditated on this life of spiritual childhood, which is not incompatible with fortitude, because it demands a strong will, proven maturity, an open and firm character [...]. To become children we must renounce our pride and self-sufficiency, recognizing that we can do nothing by ourselves. We must realize that we need grace, and the help of God our Father to find our way and keep it. To be little, you have to abandon yourself as children do, believe as children, beg as children beg" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 10 and 143).

22. "This statement is a wonderful help to our faith," St. Ambrose comments, "because when you read 'all' you realize that Christ is all-powerful, that He is not inferior to the Father, or less perfect than He; when you read 'have been delivered to me', you confess that Christ is the Son, to whom everything belongs by right of being one in substance [with the Father] and not by grace of gift" ("Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam, in loc.").

Here we see Christ as almighty Lord and God, consubstantial with the Father, and the only one capable of revealing who the Father is. At the same time, we can recognize the divine nature of Jesus only if the Father gives us the grace of faith--as He did to St. Peter (cf. Matthew 16:17).

23-24. Obviously, seeing Jesus with one's own eyes was a wonderful thing for people who believed in him. However, our Lord will say to Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" (John 20:29). St. Peter, for his part, tells us: "Without having seen Him you love Him; though you do not see Him you believe in Him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls" (1 Peter 1:8-9).

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Survey Proves Retailers Banning Christmas

From an email...This confirms what I have noticed as well.

I thought you would be interested in a survey we did. We gathered advertising inserts from 11 different companies placed in two papers on Nov. 27 (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal and Memphis Commercial Appeal.) Combined, the inserts totaled 280 pages.

Of the 11 companies, only one—McRae's/Belks—had a reference to "Christmas." They mentioned "Christmas" only two times. The other 10 companies did not mention "Christmas" a single time! While refusing to use "Christmas," they used the term "holiday" a total of 59 times in their 10 inserts.

The companies which refused to mention Christmas a single time in their 260 pages of insert promotions were Target, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe's, J.C. Penney, Dell and Best Buy.

Ask these companies why they banned "Christmas" in their in-store promotions and retail advertising and they will tell you they didn't want to offend anyone. They mean, of course, anyone except Christians.

These retailers are willing to use Christmas to secure about 20% of their yearly sales, but they absolutely refuse to mention the Reason for the season.

To see what we can achieve by working together, read the statement from Federated Stores. We boycotted them last year. Click here to see how they have changed.

Please sign our petition below. We are writing every national retailer which bans "Christmas" asking them to change their policy and letting them know how many have signed the petition. Thus far we have nearly 350,000. Our goal is 1,000,000. It is urgent that you sign the petition and forward it to your friends and family. We need numbers so that the national retailers will take notice!

If we will stick together and take action, next year we will see scores of retailers recognizing "Christmas" as a Christian holy day instead of a secular "holiday".

Please click here to sign our petition now!

Sincerely,

Don
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

The Elusive "Gay" Saints Identified

The "Catholic" Action Network has posted a video which purports to answer the burning question "Who are the 'gay' saints?" The video requires Quicktime for those who are interested in viewing it...

I can only guess that the people shown and named in the video have been canonized by CAN as their 'saints' though many are still alive...The first group of 'saints' include a number of people overjoyed at the fact that they have received what appear to be "marriage" licenses.

Others on the list include Harvey Milk and those who support "gay" marriage. Also named are former nun Mary Moylan of the Catonsville Nine,

Catholic priest Henri Nouwen,

radical feminist theologian Mary Daly,

American Catholic humanitarian Tom Dooley,

Catholic radical lesbian feminist theologian Mary Hunt,

openly gay HIV-positive AIDS activist Pedro Zamora (deceased 1994),

the organization Soulforce (St. Soulforce?),

the Rev. Troy Perry (openly gay founder of the Metropolitan Community Church),

PFLAG pioneer & founder Jeanne Manford,

and of course, two actual Catholic martyrs (although not mentioned in the film by name) Sts. Sergius and Bacchus.

It must be remembered that the Church alone through the Pope, guided by the Holy Spirit, has been given the authority to identify and name saints. It would seem that if those at "Catholic" Action Network see these people as saints, they would be striving to have the Church recognize them as such.

By the way, the music was moving and was provided by Windam Hill Records.

Pope Encourages Teaching of Latin

Videoconference to Touch on Liturgy

From Zenit:

ROME, NOV. 28, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A worldwide videoconference of theologians this Wednesday will focus on the theme "Architecture, Art and Music at the Service of the Liturgy."

The videoconference, a monthly event organized by the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, uses Internet to link top theologians from around the world.

The upcoming conference can be followed live beginning at noon, Rome time, at www.clerus.org.

The original texts of the addresses will be posted on the same page later.

To follow the event, Real Player must be installed in a computer. The Web page gives the link to download it.

Among the specialists who will participate in the conference are Cardinal Georges Cottier, theologian of the Pontifical Household, who will speak from Rome on "The Anointing of Bethany and the Theological Foundation in the Necessary Decorum of the Eucharistic Celebration."

Other speakers and their topics will include:

-- Father Michael Hull, New York, on "Buildings of Worship: Not Every Artistic _Expression is in Keeping with the Truth of the Christian Faith and the Authentic Beauty of Sacred Art."

-- Father Gary Devery, Sydney, Australia, on "The Postconciliar Liturgical Reform and the Misunderstood Meaning of Creativity and Adaptation."
ZE05112802

Boston Archbishop to Homosexuals: "Because we love you, we cannot accept your behavior."

BOSTON, November 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley wrote a pastoral letter last week calling on Catholics to show true love to persons with homosexual tendencies. This is done he said by telling them that homosexual acts are sinful, he said. Otherwise, the bishop continued, we are dangerously "deceiving people."

Letter from Archbishop O'Malley on Homosexuality

Lawsuit seeks to stop Missouri ballot initiative

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Opponents of embryonic stem cell research are suing Missouri's secretary of state to try to block an initiative protecting stem cell research from appearing on the 2006 ballot.

The lawsuit alleges the title of the proposed constitutional amendment is "unfair and deceptive" by claiming to "ban human cloning or attempted human cloning" when actually allowing a contentious cloning procedure.
. . .
"Established science holds that the initial product of the cloning procedure known as somatic cell nuclear transfer is a living human being at the embryonic stage of life, a cloned human embryo," the lawsuit alleges, while seeking an injunction against placing the measure on the ballot.

More here.

Good news, indeed...Please , pray for a successful outcome of this lawsuit.

Pope Begins Liturgical Year With Call to Holiness

Gives Spontaneous Homily on First Sunday of Advent

VATICAN CITY, NOV. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Presiding over vespers of the First Sunday of Advent, Benedict XVI began the new liturgical year with an appeal to holiness.

In a spontaneous homily in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday, the Pope commented on 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.

More

Gospel for Monday, 1st Week of Advent

From: Matthew 8:5-11

The Centurion's Faith

[5] As He (Jesus) entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to Him, beseeching Him [6] and saying, "Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress." [7] And He said to him, "I will come and heal him." [8] But the centurion answered Him, "Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. [9] For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,' and he does it." [10] When Jesus heard him, He marvelled, and said to those who followed Him, "Truly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. [11] I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven."

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Commentary:

5-11. "Centurion": an officer of the Roman army in control of one hundred men. This man's faith is still an example to us. At the solemn moment when a Christian is about to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, the Church's liturgy places on his lips and in his heart these words of the centurion, to enliven his faith: Lord, I am not worthy...".

The Jews of this time regarded any Jew who entered a Gentile's house as contracting legal impurity (cf. John 19:28; Acts 11:2-3). This centurion has the deference not to place Jesus in an embarrassing position in the eyes of His fellow Israelites. He shows that he is convinced that Jesus has the power over disease and illness; he suggests that if Jesus just says the word, He will do what is needed without having actually to visit the house; he is reasoning, in a simple, logical way, on the basis of his own professional experience. Jesus avails of this meeting with a Gentile believer to make a solemn prophecy to the effect that His Gospel is addressed to the world at large; all men, of every nation and race, of every age and condition, are called to follow Christ.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Catholic clergy will oppose embryonic cell research from pulpit

From the Post Dispatch we read this:

Every Roman Catholic in Missouri who goes to Mass this Sunday will hear a variation on the same homily. Reduced to its most basic message, it will go something like this:

Embryonic stem cell research is evil. Don't sign the petition.

[The Catholic Church] is using the first Sunday of Advent to kick off a campaign to keep Catholics from signing the petition and to teach them the Catholic view of the issue.

I wonder what other parishes besides Immaculate Conception-Dardenne decided to either ignore this subject or take it up at some other time? Apparently, the Post Dispatch didn't consider that some some parishes in the Archdiocese follow their own agendas despite the will of the lawful bishop.

One parish which did follow the request of Archbishop Burke was St Joesph's of Josephville where the message was loud and clear. Hopefully, most parishes demostrated their fidelity and obedience to their respective bishops in carrying out this campaign.

Anyway, to understand the infantile and irrational thinking of those who wish to "experiment" and kill innocent human life, we only need to read further:

Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who is the honorary co-chair of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures and an ordained Episcopal priest, said people who oppose the initiative should ask themselves two questions. "First, do you believe the cells in the Petri dish are the equivalent to a 10-year-old child with a disease that may be preventable with this research?" he said. "And second, if you do believe that, do you believe the government should pass legislation to enact that religious proposition?"

This man is deluded! Anyone with any knowledge of the facts knows what he and others propose. He plays the devil's fool, attempting to play on peoples' emotions and on his record and status as an "ordained priest" to confuse and trick the people. His technique for propaganda would have been welcomed in Nazi Germany.

As difficult as it can be at times, we must pray for Danforth's immortal soul and the souls of others who wish to continue the cycle of killing our most innocent brothers and sisters...whether they be in the form of human embryos in a petri dish or the elderly and sick confined to hospitals or hospices and for all those in between. May these innocent souls be spared the experimentation and certain death by those who wish to reap untold profits by their evil endeavors.

Article here.

Gospel for the 1st Sunday of Advent

From: Mark 13:33-37

The Time of the Destruction of Jerusalem (Continuation)

(Jesus said to His disciples,) [33] "Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time will come. [34] It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. [35] Watch therefore--for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning--[36] lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. [37] And what I say to you I say to all: Watch."

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Commentary:

33-37. "Watch": since we do not know when the Lord will come, we must be prepared. Vigilance is, above all, love. A person who loves keeps the commandments and looks forward to Christ's return; for life is a period of hope and waiting. It is the way towards our encounter with Christ the Lord. the first Christians often tenderly repeated the aspiration: "Come, Lord Jesus" (1 Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20). By expressing their faith and charity in this way, those Christians found the interior strength and optimism necessary for fulfilling their family and social duties, and interiorly detached themselves from earthly goods, with the self-mastery that came from hope of eternal life.

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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Second Reading - 1st Sunday of Advent

From: 1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Greeting (Continuation)

[3] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving

[4] I give thanks to God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, [5] that in every way you were enriched in him with all speech and all knowledge [6] even as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you--[7] so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ; [8] who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. [9] God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Commentary:

1-9. With slight variations almost all St Paul's letters begin in the same kind of way: there is a greeting (vv. 1-3), which carries the name of the writer, information on the addressee(s), and the conventional phrase; and an act of thanksgiving to God (vv. 4-9), in which the Apostle refers to the main qualities and endowments of the Christians to whom he is writing. By comparing his letters with other letters that have come down to us from the same period, it is quite apparent that St Paul usually begins his letters in the style of the time. yet he does not entirely follow this rigid pattern: he changes the usual opening--"Greeting!" (cf. Acts 15:23; 23:26)--to this more personal one, which has a pronounced Christian stamp: "Grace to you and peace." Also, the way in which he introduces himself and describes those he is addressing tells much more than a simple "Paul to the Corinthians: greeting!" Even his words of thanksgiving convey tenderness and warmth--and their tone is not merely human, for he attributes to God the virtues he praises in the faithful.

The Fathers of the Church have drawn attention to this characteristic of Paul's letters--the way he manages to convey a deep doctrinal message in a familiar style, nicely suited to whomever he happens to be addressing: "A doctor", St John Chrysostom explains, "does not treat the patient in the same way at the start of his illness as when he is recovering; nor does a teacher use the same method with children as with those who need more advanced tuition. That is how the Apostle acts: he writes as suits the needs and the times" ("Hom. On Rom", Prologue).

3. Peace of soul, that "serenity of mind, tranquillity of soul, simplicity of heart, bond of love, union of charity" of which St Augustine spoke ("De Verb. Dom. Serm.", 58), originates in the friendship with God which grace brings with it; it is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:22-23). This is the only true kind of peace: "There is no true peace, just as there is no true grace, other than the grace and peace which come from God," St John Chrysostom teaches, "Possess this divine peace and you will have nothing to fear, even if you be threatened by the direct danger, whether from men or even from the demons themselves; whereas see how everything is a cause of fear for the man who is at war with God through sin" ("Hom. on 1 Cor", 1, "ad loc".).

4-9. After the greeting, words of thanksgiving conclude the introduction to the letter, before St Paul begins the doctrinal part. He reminds the Corinthians that they owe their privileged position to God. They, like all Christians, received God's grace in Christ, and that grace has enriched them in every way, for it causes man to share in God's very nature (cf. 2 Pet 1:4), raising him to an entirely new level of existence. This transfiguration enables a person, even here, to know the perfections of God's inner life and to partake of that life--albeit in a limited, imperfect way--through the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, which grace brings and which elevate the mind and will to know and love God, One and Three.

St Paul teaches the need to give thanks to God and he sets us an example in this regard. Obdurate sinners fail to acknowledge the benefits God gives them (cf. Rom 1:21), but Christians should always base their prayer on gratitude to God (cf. Phil 4:6). "Nothing charms God more than a heart that is grateful either on its own account or on account of others" (Chrysostom, "Hom. on 1 Cor", 2, "ad loc".).

5-6. The grace of God, mentioned in the previous verse, embraces gifts, including those to do with eloquence and knowledge. So richly does God endow the Christian that St Alphonsus exclaims: "Our wretchedness should not make us uneasy, for in Jesus crucified we shall find all richness and all grace (cf. 1 Cor 1:5, 7). The merits of Jesus Christ have enriched us with all the wealth of God and there is no grace we might desire that we cannot obtain by asking for it" ("The Love of God Reduced to Practice", chap. 3). The Fathers interpret these gifts as meaning that the Corinthians had such a good grasp of Christian teaching that they were able to express it clearly: "There are those who have the gift of knowledge but not that of speech; and there are others who have the gift of speech but not knowledge. The faithful in general, who are uneducated, know these truths, but they cannot clearly explain what they have in their soul. You on the other hand, St Paul says, are different; you know these truths and you can speak about them; you are rich in the gift of speech and in that of knowledge" (Chrysostom, "Hom. on 1 Cor", 2, "ad loc".).

8-9. "The day of our Lord': in St Paul's writings and in the New Testament generally, this refers to the day of the General Judgment when Christ will appear as Judge, clothed in glory (cf. 2 Cor 1:14; 1 Thess 5:2).

Christians actively hope that that Day will find them "blameless" (cf. Phil 1:10; 1 Thess 3:13; 5:23); the basis for this hope is God's faithfulness--an attitude frequently applied to him in the Old Testament (cf. Deut 7:9; Is 49:7) and in St Paul's letters (cf. 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Cor 1:18; 1 Thess 5:24; 2 Thess 3:3; Heb 10:23): the Covenant which God made with the chosen people was primarily a gift and a grace, but it also was a legal commitment. The Covenant was grounded on God's fidelity, which was not merely a matter of legal obligation: it involved faithful, constant love. The God's fidelity will finds its fullest __expression in the Redemption brought about by Jesus Christ: "If, in fact, the reality of the Redemption," Pope John Paul II says, "in its human dimension, reveals the unheard-of greatness of man, "qui talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem", at the same time "the divine dimension of the Redemption" enables us [...] to uncover the depth of that love which does not recoil before the extraordinary sacrifice of the Son, in order to satisfy the fidelity of the Creator and Father towards human beings, created in his image" ("Dives In Misericordia", 7).

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First Reading - 1st Sunday of Advent

From: Isaiah 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7

Victory at the End (Continuation)

[16b] Thou, 0 Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer from of old is thy name. [17] 0 Lord, why dost thou make us err from thy ways and harden our heart, so that we fear thee not? Return for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy heritage.

[1] 0 that thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence [2b] to make thy name known to thy adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at thy presence! [3] When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down the mountains quaked at thy presence. [4] From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him. [5] Thou meetest him that joyfully works righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Behold, thou wast angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? [6] We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities,like the wind, take us away. [7] There is no one that calls upon thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast delivered us into the hand of our iniquities.

([8] Yet, 0 Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.)

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Commentary:

63:1-64:12. The previous oracle sang of the glory of the new Jerusalem and the prospect of its savior’s imminent arrival (cf. 62:11). Now at last the Lord comes as a conqueror and a Judge to dispense rewards and punishments. There are a number of oracles here to do with this theme, and they combine to create a long and beautiful apocalyptic poem. There are three stanzas in it: the first (63:1-6) describes the Lord’s victory over the Edomites, the epitome of a nation hostile to Israel; the second (63:7-14) celebrates the mercy of God and all he has done for his people; the third (63:15-64:12) is an entreaty full of confidence in the Lord, our Father.

God is twice invoked in urgent tones as the Father of Israel (63:16; 64:8). This is one of the most eloquent Old Testament passages about God’s tender fatherly feelings towards his people. The author of the poem is fully confident that the Lord’s fatherly heart will be sensitive towards everything his people suffer, even though they brought it on themselves (64:3-6). He beseeches God for help (63:17-19), even asking for a spectacular miracle (64:1).

The listing of the calamities that beset Israel continues in 64:1-12 in the same tone as 63:15-19: the prophet spells out why God should help his people.

63:1-6. The poem uses surprisingly strong, apocalyptic, language. It refers to a victory that appears to have two very different effects. On the one hand, victory is obtained after a very real and bloody struggle, symbolized by the treading of the wine-press, and it ends with the blood-stained clothes (v. 3). The conqueror works on his own, unaided (v. 5). On the other hand, his victory over the enemy means redemption for his people: the conqueror is first and foremost, the redeemer ("goel": v. 4; cf. 41: 14).

Christian tradition has interpreted this passage as a prophecy about the Messiah. The Revelation to John combines it with Psalm 2 to describe Christ’s battle with the beast and his eventual victory (Rev 19:11-21). The "Divine Office", which offers the poem as an optional reading in Eastertide, suggests that these words of Isaiah apply to Jesus Christ, Judge of the living and the dead, who shed his blood during his passion. And just as the vine harvester does his heavy work on his own, with none to help him (v. 5), so too Jesus Christ was abandoned by his disciples and left alone on Calvary when he was redeeming the world.

64:1. The prophet’s cry sums up very well the long years when Israel waited patiently for God to bring salvation; set in a messianic context, it expresses the hope in a Savior that the chosen people maintained over the centuries. And in some way it is a cry that everyone utters to God when be or she begs to see their noble aspirations bear fruit. This centuries-long Advent, which in some way is being relived in our own days, finds its answer once again in the purpose of God the Father, who sent his Son, made Man, to bring about our Redemption, and who sent the Holy Spirit to enable human beings to share in his Love.

64:4. St Paul quotes from this verse when writing about the wisdom of God, and his love for those who love him, and the gifts he has in store for man: “As it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him'” (1 Cor 2:9). Because these gifts will not be fully bestowed until the next life, the verse is often quoted in Christian spirituality to describe the happiness enjoyed in heaven. For example, St Robert Bellarmine says: “You promise to those who obey your commandments a reward more precious than gold and sweeter than honey from the comb. It is a great reward, as St James says: 'The crown of life which the Lord has prepared for those who love him.' And what is the crown of life? It is a gift greater than any we can imagine or desire. St Paul says, quoting the prophet Isaiah: 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him'" ("De Ascensione Mentis In Deum", first step).

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