A few weeks after his elevation to the College of Cardinals by the Holy Father, His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke is coming home to St. Louis.Source.
St. Francis de Sales Oratory will have the great honor of receiving His Eminence on Saturday, January 8, 2011 at 5:00 PM. Cardinal Burke will celebrate a Solemn Te Deum of thanksgiving with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. After the ceremony all the faithful are invited to the church hall for a reception in the Cardinal’s honor. Please join us on this glorious occasion when we will have the opportunity to congratulate His Eminence personally and to thank him for all that he has done for St. Francis de Sales Oratory.
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church. Show all posts
Saturday, January 01, 2011
Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke at Oratory of St. Francis de Sales
Thursday, April 08, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.More here.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".
He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia." ...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Shake Down the Thunder on Notre Dame
from Fr Thomas J. Euteneuer, President of Human Life International:
...Fr. Jenkins has just shaken down a sort of spiritual thunder on what used to be the country's premier Catholic university, and woe to him and the rest of the ND leadership for their decision to put Notre Dame definitively outside the scope of Catholic orthodoxy....Jenkins and his rebellious friends are a scandal, not only to Catholics worldwide, but to all virtuous people everywhere. Will any disciplinary action be taken? Let us pray!
Let's be honest: all the hand wringing and justification for Fr. Jenkins' decision is just fluff....No person in his right mind buys it.
And that's the point - Notre Dame leadership is not "in its right mind" any more. The ones who made or endorsed this decision are not thinking with the mind of the Church let alone the Mind of Christ...
As far as I am concerned, a thunder of judgment has just been shaken down on Notre Dame, its Board of Directors and any faculty, students or alumni who endorse the decision to bring Barack Obama to Notre Dame's campus to sully Our Lady's good name and our deepest loyalties.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Dr Edward Peters: A canonical look at Saint Louis' new archbishop
Dr Peters writes:
Mixed feelings, of course: Bp. Robert Carlson will be sorely missed here in Michigan, but he's a terrific choice for the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. While others can better describe his work with, say, the Institute for Priestly Formation, Cursillo, or Charismatic Renewal, it's Carlson the canonist who interests me.Read his thoughts on the matter here.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Dr Edward Peters: Are "family annihilators" owed a Church funeral?
Dr Peters writes:
Pretty obviously, the term "family annihilator" is one that Catholic pastoral ministers are going to have to add to their lexicon.His thoughts on this mater are here.
This horror will doubtless continue to show up in Catholic circles, and it seems time to decide what approach should be taken in regard to granting, or withholding, ecclesiastical funeral rites for murders and their victims.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Pope has chosen Archbishop Timothy Dolan for New York
Rome, Italy, Feb 13, 2009 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- The eagerly anticipated appointment of the new Archbishop of New York appears to be just around the corner. The well-connected Italian journalist Paolo Rodari, who writes for Il Reformista, is reporting that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee will soon be announced as the new head of the most important U.S. diocese....
Thursday, December 11, 2008
December 12-Our Lady of Guadalupe
"Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun?" Canticles, 6:9.
It was early morning, Saturday, December 9, 1531. An old Indian was picking his way along a rocky path through the hills that led to Mexico City. He was one of the many converted by the zealous missionaries of the time. He was on his way to Mass and instruction. His name was Juan Diego.
Suddenly he heard sweet music, so sweet that it seemed of another world. As he looked and listened he beheld a beautiful woman. In the center of a dazzling light in the nearby rocks stood the Blessed Virgin. She smiled sweetly and kindly upon him as the Indian stood there speechless.
"Juan, my son," she directed, "go to Bishop Zumarraga, a Franciscan. Tell him that the Virgin Mary desires a church erected on this spot. Hasten now."
The vision vanished as quickly as it had come. Juan stumbled on his way still stunned by the sight of the beauteou~ Lady. A few hours later he related his story to Bishop Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico City, a spiritual leader who loved his people. Patiently the prelate heard the story. But his mind was doubtful, and when Diego had finished his tale, the bishop placed a kindly hand on his shoulder and said:
"Yes, yes, Juan. It is interesting, this story of yours. We shall think it over."
But the next day, Sunday, the bishop again found Juan waiting to tell him of a second appearance. The bishop asked him many questions, trying to find mistakes in his story. He sat back and told Diego:
"Juan, I would like to believe you, but I do not know. I must have some sign, some token from the Blessed Virgin that you are telling the truth."
Juan promised to ask the Blessed Mother for some sign. On his way home Mary appeared again and assured him of a sign. However, Juan stopped to visit a seriously sick uncle, for whom he went to seek a priest.
As he came to the hill where Mary had appeared to him he remembered that he was supposed to come back on Monday. Since he was afraid of her reproaches, he took a different route. But our Blessed Mother appeared to him nevertheless with the question:
"What road is this thou hast taken, my son?"
"My child," Juan answered using this endearing name, "a servant of yours, my uncle, is dangerously sick of a grave and mortal malady."
He then told her that he was on his way to get a priest, that he would come tomorrow without fail. Mary assured him that his uncle's illness hod passed and that he would not die of it. Then Mary told him to go over to the spot on the mountain where she had first appeared to him and gathor some roses. It was not the time for flowers of any kind. It was winter, Besides, roses never grew in that region. Nevertheless Juan obeyed and he did find beautiful roses. He gathered them ino his cloak and hurried to the bishop who was waiting with a group of officials of church and government.
As Juan came into the room the bishop greeted him with these fatherly words:
"Well, my son, what news have you?"
"My father, I have the sign you asked," answered Juan.
"A sign," repeated the bishop, leaning forward, "where is it?"
"Here in my cloak," said Juan and then he told how Mary had directed him to gather roses. He faltered and went on:
"With her own hands Our Lady arranged the flowers; then she told me to cover them with my cloak and bring them to you untouched and unseen. Here, my father, is the sign you asked - the roses of Guadalupe."
Juan opened his cloak. The glorious, fragrant roses fell at the feet of the bishop. No sooner did the prelate and the people with him notice the roses than they noticed something else on the Indian's cloak. There on the coarse cloth was painted a picture, a life-size picture of the Blessed Virgin just as Juan had seen her and described her. That was sign sufficient for the bishop.
A small chapel was built on the spot where Mary had appeared to this poor, simple Indian, a chapel that was repeatedly replaced with a larger and larger building until finally today there is a huge basilica, the center, the heart of a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe that has not only swept Mexico but has influenced the entire world.
The picture was closely guarded, but immediately pilgrimages, processions and groups from all over the countryside began to make their way to this shrine. Countless miracles were obtained. Countless conversions were effected.
Pope Benedict XIV decreed that Our Lady of Guadalupe should be Mexico's national patron, and today she is recognized as the Queen of the America's. Pope Pius XII, as Cardinal Pacelli in 1933 crowned the picture painted by Cabrera which had been given to Pope Benedict XIV.
We Americans who have this shrine of Our Mother in our midst, as it were, here upon the American continent, might well repeat the prayer of the Most Rev. John J. Cantwell composed for the coronation of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Los Angeles:
__________________
Adapted from Feasts of Our Lady
by Msgr. Arthur Tonne
It was early morning, Saturday, December 9, 1531. An old Indian was picking his way along a rocky path through the hills that led to Mexico City. He was one of the many converted by the zealous missionaries of the time. He was on his way to Mass and instruction. His name was Juan Diego.
Suddenly he heard sweet music, so sweet that it seemed of another world. As he looked and listened he beheld a beautiful woman. In the center of a dazzling light in the nearby rocks stood the Blessed Virgin. She smiled sweetly and kindly upon him as the Indian stood there speechless.
"Juan, my son," she directed, "go to Bishop Zumarraga, a Franciscan. Tell him that the Virgin Mary desires a church erected on this spot. Hasten now."
The vision vanished as quickly as it had come. Juan stumbled on his way still stunned by the sight of the beauteou~ Lady. A few hours later he related his story to Bishop Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico City, a spiritual leader who loved his people. Patiently the prelate heard the story. But his mind was doubtful, and when Diego had finished his tale, the bishop placed a kindly hand on his shoulder and said:
"Yes, yes, Juan. It is interesting, this story of yours. We shall think it over."
But the next day, Sunday, the bishop again found Juan waiting to tell him of a second appearance. The bishop asked him many questions, trying to find mistakes in his story. He sat back and told Diego:
"Juan, I would like to believe you, but I do not know. I must have some sign, some token from the Blessed Virgin that you are telling the truth."
Juan promised to ask the Blessed Mother for some sign. On his way home Mary appeared again and assured him of a sign. However, Juan stopped to visit a seriously sick uncle, for whom he went to seek a priest.
As he came to the hill where Mary had appeared to him he remembered that he was supposed to come back on Monday. Since he was afraid of her reproaches, he took a different route. But our Blessed Mother appeared to him nevertheless with the question:
"What road is this thou hast taken, my son?"
"My child," Juan answered using this endearing name, "a servant of yours, my uncle, is dangerously sick of a grave and mortal malady."
He then told her that he was on his way to get a priest, that he would come tomorrow without fail. Mary assured him that his uncle's illness hod passed and that he would not die of it. Then Mary told him to go over to the spot on the mountain where she had first appeared to him and gathor some roses. It was not the time for flowers of any kind. It was winter, Besides, roses never grew in that region. Nevertheless Juan obeyed and he did find beautiful roses. He gathered them ino his cloak and hurried to the bishop who was waiting with a group of officials of church and government.
As Juan came into the room the bishop greeted him with these fatherly words:
"Well, my son, what news have you?"
"My father, I have the sign you asked," answered Juan.
"A sign," repeated the bishop, leaning forward, "where is it?"
"Here in my cloak," said Juan and then he told how Mary had directed him to gather roses. He faltered and went on:
"With her own hands Our Lady arranged the flowers; then she told me to cover them with my cloak and bring them to you untouched and unseen. Here, my father, is the sign you asked - the roses of Guadalupe."
Juan opened his cloak. The glorious, fragrant roses fell at the feet of the bishop. No sooner did the prelate and the people with him notice the roses than they noticed something else on the Indian's cloak. There on the coarse cloth was painted a picture, a life-size picture of the Blessed Virgin just as Juan had seen her and described her. That was sign sufficient for the bishop.
A small chapel was built on the spot where Mary had appeared to this poor, simple Indian, a chapel that was repeatedly replaced with a larger and larger building until finally today there is a huge basilica, the center, the heart of a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe that has not only swept Mexico but has influenced the entire world.
The picture was closely guarded, but immediately pilgrimages, processions and groups from all over the countryside began to make their way to this shrine. Countless miracles were obtained. Countless conversions were effected.
Pope Benedict XIV decreed that Our Lady of Guadalupe should be Mexico's national patron, and today she is recognized as the Queen of the America's. Pope Pius XII, as Cardinal Pacelli in 1933 crowned the picture painted by Cabrera which had been given to Pope Benedict XIV.
We Americans who have this shrine of Our Mother in our midst, as it were, here upon the American continent, might well repeat the prayer of the Most Rev. John J. Cantwell composed for the coronation of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Los Angeles:
"Immaculate Virgin of Guadalupe, heavenly missionary of the New World, thy sweet charm holds the hearts of thy people. Blessed Mother of God, from thy sanctuary of Tepeyac, monument of the love of all America for you, that hast been for centuries the mother and teacher of our people; be also our refuge, our defense, and unto us a pillar of strength. O Most Immaculate Mary, protect and save our republic, our superiors and rulers and all the people of our continent."Many Americans, non-Catholic as well as Catholic, have visited her shrine. The Mexicans in the United States have brought with them from Old Mexico this flaming love for Our Lady of Guadalupe. But she belongs to all of us, especially to all Americans. On her feast tell Mary that you want to belong to her. Amen.
__________________
Adapted from Feasts of Our Lady
by Msgr. Arthur Tonne
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Dr Edward Peters: "Same-sex marriage" in medieval canon law
Dr Peters writes:
For those interested in how historical texts might be plumbed for insights into contemporary debates, I provide here an interesting passage from a famous medieval canonical treatise which rejects “same sex marriage” centuries before it was even contemplated.For more, click here.
Friday, October 17, 2008
St. Ignatius of Antioch and the Early Church
Sometime around the year 107 A.D., a short, sharp persecution of the Church of Christ resulted in the arrest of the bishop of Antioch in Syria. His name was Ignatius. According to one of the harsh penal practices of the Roman Empire of the day, the good bishop was condemned to be delivered up to wild beasts in the arena in the capital city. The insatiable public appetite for bloody spectacles meant a chronically short supply of victims; prisoners were thus sent off to Rome to help fill the need.Continued at Insight Scoop here
So the second bishop of Antioch was sent to Rome as a condemned prisoner. According to Church historian Eusebius (ca. 260-ca. 340), Ignatius had been bishop in Antioch for nearly forty years at the time of his arrest. This means that he had been bishop there while some of the original apostles were almost certainly still alive and preaching....
Monday, September 29, 2008
Prayer for the Church and for the Civil Authorities
(Composed by Archbishop Carroll)
WE PRAY Thee, O almighty and eternal God, Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy name.
We pray Thee, Who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Benedict XVI, the vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of His Church; our own bishop, N.N., (or, if he be not consecrated, our bishop-elect); all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise among us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.
We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom, and justice, through Whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy holy spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of the United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.
Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
We pray for his Excellency, the Governor of this State, for the members of the Assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy all our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world can not give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith, and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.
_________________________
From Manna of the Soul, A Book of Prayer for Men and Women
by Fr. F. X. Lasance (© 1917 Benziger Bros.)
WE PRAY Thee, O almighty and eternal God, Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy name.
We pray Thee, Who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Benedict XVI, the vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of His Church; our own bishop, N.N., (or, if he be not consecrated, our bishop-elect); all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise among us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.
We pray Thee, O God of might, wisdom, and justice, through Whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy holy spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of the United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality.
Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.
We pray for his Excellency, the Governor of this State, for the members of the Assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.
We recommend likewise to Thy unbounded mercy all our brethren and fellow-citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world can not give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.
Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith, and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance. To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.
Amen.
_________________________
From Manna of the Soul, A Book of Prayer for Men and Women
by Fr. F. X. Lasance (© 1917 Benziger Bros.)
Friday, August 15, 2008
Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Living Up to Our Religion
By The Rev. H. G. Hughes
___________________
"I say then, walk in the spirit." -Epistle of the day.
Men of the world, my dear brethren, take more care about their worldly interests and affairs, and spend more time over them, than do Christians, in many cases, in regard to the things of eternal salvation. The only remedy for this is a firm and constant determination on our part to live up to the teachings of our holy religion, to be, in other words, thoroughly good Catholics; and I shall speak to you therefore to-day on this important subject.
Let us go back to the beginning of the Church's history, and imagine one of the friends and followers of our Divine Saviour standing at the entrance to the empty tomb of Jesus on the morning of His glorious resurrection. Imagine that he has lived, with the rest of Christ's friends, through the sad and terrible hours from the night when Jesus was betrayed to the desolate moment when the sacred lifeless Body was laid in the sepulchre.
Imagine that now, standing before that tenantless grave, he realizes with unutterable joy the truth of the angels' words: "He is risen; He is not here." And suppose that a flash of supernatural light floods his soul, and reveals to him the whole meaning of the life, death, and Resurrection of the Saviour of mankind. Then, if he had wished to sum up that meaning in one short sentence, he could not have done it better or more truly than in the inspired words of the Apostle St. Paul: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification."
In those few words, indeed, is summed up the whole spiritual history of the human race, the whole merciful purpose of God in our redemption. And the mental vision of that disciple whom we have imagined thus enlightened would have to travel backwards and forwards, would have to cover the past and the future, in order to see in its fullness the meaning of the life and death of Jesus summed up in those words: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." "Sin" and "justification," those are the two reasons for the death and resurrection of God-made Man; the reasons why He became man and died, and rose again the third day. But those two words carry us back to the beginning of man's history upon earth, and on to the end of the world, when the work of God's redeeming Love shall be finished, and the number of the elect made up, and Satan and his followers chained at last and for ever in hell, never to work their mischief again.
Let us now, my brethren, as far as time will allow, imitate what we have imagined that disciple doing at the empty tomb. Let us cast our mental vision back to the beginning of man's history--to his creation by God. As for the future, some of what was future to the disciples of Jesus is present to us; we live in it, and I shall not ask you to go beyond it except by remembering that what Jesus is doing for us now is to have its final and complete effect only after the last great enemy, death, has been destroyed, and the new heavens and the new earth are come.
When God created man He endowed him with wonderful natural powers and faculties, with a wonderful beauty that in themselves made him an image and likeness of his Creator. He gave him an understanding capable of knowing God, a will capable of loving God, many powers of body and soul capable of being ranged in an orderly harmony of subjection to man's reason and will and brought into play in that which would have been in any case man's highest end0--the loving service of his Creator.
If God had left man in this natural condition, with simply his natural powers, and if man had served God with these natural powers, knowing God in the mirror of creation, loving God with a natural love proportioned to that knowledge, then man's reward would have been for eternity a very perfect, yet merely natural, knowledge of God through the study and contemplation of the works of His Hands, and a very great, but merely natural love of God corresponding to that study and contemplation.
There was no necessity for God to do more than this; no necessity for Him to call His creature to any higher destiny.
But God did not leave man with only his natural powers; He did call him to a higher destiny. When we open the New Testament, especially the Epistles of St. Paul and other Apostles, we find that we are called by God to a destiny so high and wonderful that even with our Christian faith to help us we can form a faint idea only of its nobility.
It is nothing less than the face to face sight of God in heaven, with all that this includes. And this means a direct knowledge of God--seeing Him, not in the mirror of created things, but "as He is." It means being adopted into the Divine Family of the Blessed Trinity; having God for our close, intimate Friend and Companion forever, sharing in God's own blessedness and happiness, sharing, by knowledge and love, the Divine Life itself.
But God would not bring man to this glorious end without some cooperation on man's own part; or, to put it another way, God willed to put it into man's power to earn this heavenly reward by loving service. Yet no service of man, not the best actions of man have any power in themselves to deserve a reward so high; and besides this, man has no natural power or faculty in his soul by which He could see God face to face, or know Him as He is.
That man himself should be raised to the capability and power of seeing God face to face, knowing Him as He is, loving Him with a love so intimate that the affection of lovers is but a faint image of it, and that man's actions during his earthly life should be raised to the capability of leading to this heavenly consummation, a supernatural gift was necessary, raising man's soul to a higher state, putting his actions upon a higher, supernatural plane.
That supernatural gift God gave to man at his creation; He gave it to Adam and Eve, our first parents. By that gift a heavenly gift poured out in their souls by the Holy Spirit Himself; they were made holy with holiness from God; they were made Godlike, their actions supernaturalized and made worthy of the eternal recompense of the Beatific Vision; they themselves made not merely servants, but loved children of their heavenly Father; and Divine charity, supreme love of God filled their hearts. It was the gift of GRACE.
Brethren, you know the sad history of how all that was lost, for them and for us. It was lost by sin. Because of that sin we are born into the world deprived of sanctifying grace with its right to heaven, with its sonship of God. That sad lack of grace, with the deformity of soul which is the consequence, is what we mean by original sin. I need not dwell on the other consequences of the sin of Adam, on the perversity of will, the inclination to evil, the personal sins which these things lead us into, the physical evil and woe, and death itself that came into the world through sin; its worst consequence is the one I wish to dwell on now, the loss of sanctifying grace, and with that the loss of heaven and of God.
Brethren, St. Paul tells us how sin brought death into this world. Had it brought only bodily death, that would have been a small thing. But it brought the death of souls, spiritual death; the death of supernatural goodness and holiness in men's hearts; the death of supernatural knowledge of God; the impossibility of reaching that high and noble destiny for which we were made by God: it closed the gates of the heavenly life to men, and opened the gates of death and hell; it tore man from God, his Father, and made him the slave of sin and Satan.
But "He was delivered up for our sins." By His death Christ Jesus our Lord made atonement for all our sins, won back for us the lost gift of grace; gave us, too, in giving us grace, the gift of Divine charity, pardon of our sins, and the power of casting off sin and of winning heaven, made possible and more than possible for us the attainment of our sublime destiny--the blessed sight and possession of our God when this poor life is over.
And all this, dear brethren, is what we mean by justification. When these effects are found in a man's soul, brought into that soul by the outpouring within it by the Holy Ghost, of the Divine gift and influence of sanctifying grace, we say that that man is justified. And this justification was won for all of us by the passion and death of our Redeemer.
But, my brethren, you may ask, and not unnaturally, "If the death of Jesus won our justification, how are the words of St. Paul true: 'He rose again for our justification'"?
Brethren, I reply that, while the death of Christ merited of itse1f all the blessings that we have as Christians, yet those fruits of the Passion have to be applied to each individual soul throughout the ages. They might have been applied to us, brought into our souls-pardon, grace, charity, holiness might have been acquired had God so willed it, by a simple act of faith in the past.
But God has not chosen that they should be acquired regularly in that way. He has chosen a more wonderful way. He has chosen that the risen Christ should dwell and work among men now and always; that there should be on earth, and all over the earth, sacred places to which men can point and say: "Here dwells our risen Lord; there He works; there He may be found; there I can come to Him and there find His pardon, His grace and justification."
More than this, God has chosen that we should be brought into close and intimate touch and connection with our risen Lord, so that from the ocean of grace that is in Him, which flows from the Godhead into His sacred humanity, streams of grace should flow from Him into us.
Brethren, this is a reality. Christ said of Himself and us: "I am the Vine, you are the branches"; and as the sap flows from the main trunk into the furthest tendrils that are putting forth their young life, so the grace of Christ flows from Him to the least of His members. Members, I say, for so again we are, members of Him who is our Head. Again and again St. Paul uses this comparison of the human body to teach us this doctrine of the close union of redeemed souls with our Incarnate Lord. We are members, he says, of Christ; Christ is the Head. But members and a Head make up a Body--and, says the Apostle, "so also is Christ." Christ has a Body, and we are members of that Body; and St. Paul tells us again what that Body is. "Christ," he says, "is the Head of the Body, the Church.
The living, risen Christ, has a body, then, on earth, animated by His spirit; and from Him grace and charity and all spiritual gifts flow throughout the body to each member; that body is the Catholic Church--the Church of which the Apostle says that Christ purchased her to Himself upon the Cross.
Thus, then, is it true that Christ rose again for our justification. He rose, indeed, because the gate of death could not confine the Lord of Life; He rose that the humanity in which He suffered might receive the reward of glory; He rose to prove that His message was true; He rose that it might be known that when He claimed to be God He did not deceive us; He rose to give us the pledge of a future resurrection; but He rose also to live on in His holy Church, to gather unto Himself living members till the end of time.
And so that disciple whom we imagined at the beginning, looking forward would have seen what we see now--the glorious Church of God, with her holy Sacraments instituted by Jesus when He was on earth, as the means of conveying grace and pardon to us. Her Holy Sacrifice wherein day by day Christ is offered up and His merits put into our hands to plead for us here below; the Church, Christ's Body, His means of carrying on still the life of the Incarnation among us, of working His work of salvation and preaching the truths of life through His consecrated ministers. He was delivered up for our sins; but He rose again for our justification, and in His Church on earth for our justification He lives His risen Life.
Brethren, I beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called. Children of light, children of the Catholic Church, members of Christ's Body, cast not away your glorious privileges by sin, by carelessness, by indifference. Be not less wise in your generation, that is, in heavenly things, than the children of the world in theirs. Oh, if all Catholics realized what it is to be a Catholic there would be no necessity to go and beg people to come to Mass, to receive the Sacraments, to listen to God's truth which only in the Catholic Church is fully known and taught. A Catholic can miss the blessings of Catholic life; by sin, by mortal sin, we can stop the channels by which Divine grace should flow into our souls.
Let it not be so with any of us, but rather let us drink in those blessings to the full, and cherish as our dearest possession that Divine grace that flows to us in the Church from Jesus, and will bring us to the sight and love of God in heaven.
__________________
Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
___________________
"I say then, walk in the spirit." -Epistle of the day.
Men of the world, my dear brethren, take more care about their worldly interests and affairs, and spend more time over them, than do Christians, in many cases, in regard to the things of eternal salvation. The only remedy for this is a firm and constant determination on our part to live up to the teachings of our holy religion, to be, in other words, thoroughly good Catholics; and I shall speak to you therefore to-day on this important subject.
Let us go back to the beginning of the Church's history, and imagine one of the friends and followers of our Divine Saviour standing at the entrance to the empty tomb of Jesus on the morning of His glorious resurrection. Imagine that he has lived, with the rest of Christ's friends, through the sad and terrible hours from the night when Jesus was betrayed to the desolate moment when the sacred lifeless Body was laid in the sepulchre.
Imagine that now, standing before that tenantless grave, he realizes with unutterable joy the truth of the angels' words: "He is risen; He is not here." And suppose that a flash of supernatural light floods his soul, and reveals to him the whole meaning of the life, death, and Resurrection of the Saviour of mankind. Then, if he had wished to sum up that meaning in one short sentence, he could not have done it better or more truly than in the inspired words of the Apostle St. Paul: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification."
In those few words, indeed, is summed up the whole spiritual history of the human race, the whole merciful purpose of God in our redemption. And the mental vision of that disciple whom we have imagined thus enlightened would have to travel backwards and forwards, would have to cover the past and the future, in order to see in its fullness the meaning of the life and death of Jesus summed up in those words: "He was delivered up for our sins, and rose again for our justification." "Sin" and "justification," those are the two reasons for the death and resurrection of God-made Man; the reasons why He became man and died, and rose again the third day. But those two words carry us back to the beginning of man's history upon earth, and on to the end of the world, when the work of God's redeeming Love shall be finished, and the number of the elect made up, and Satan and his followers chained at last and for ever in hell, never to work their mischief again.
Let us now, my brethren, as far as time will allow, imitate what we have imagined that disciple doing at the empty tomb. Let us cast our mental vision back to the beginning of man's history--to his creation by God. As for the future, some of what was future to the disciples of Jesus is present to us; we live in it, and I shall not ask you to go beyond it except by remembering that what Jesus is doing for us now is to have its final and complete effect only after the last great enemy, death, has been destroyed, and the new heavens and the new earth are come.
When God created man He endowed him with wonderful natural powers and faculties, with a wonderful beauty that in themselves made him an image and likeness of his Creator. He gave him an understanding capable of knowing God, a will capable of loving God, many powers of body and soul capable of being ranged in an orderly harmony of subjection to man's reason and will and brought into play in that which would have been in any case man's highest end0--the loving service of his Creator.
If God had left man in this natural condition, with simply his natural powers, and if man had served God with these natural powers, knowing God in the mirror of creation, loving God with a natural love proportioned to that knowledge, then man's reward would have been for eternity a very perfect, yet merely natural, knowledge of God through the study and contemplation of the works of His Hands, and a very great, but merely natural love of God corresponding to that study and contemplation.
There was no necessity for God to do more than this; no necessity for Him to call His creature to any higher destiny.
But God did not leave man with only his natural powers; He did call him to a higher destiny. When we open the New Testament, especially the Epistles of St. Paul and other Apostles, we find that we are called by God to a destiny so high and wonderful that even with our Christian faith to help us we can form a faint idea only of its nobility.
It is nothing less than the face to face sight of God in heaven, with all that this includes. And this means a direct knowledge of God--seeing Him, not in the mirror of created things, but "as He is." It means being adopted into the Divine Family of the Blessed Trinity; having God for our close, intimate Friend and Companion forever, sharing in God's own blessedness and happiness, sharing, by knowledge and love, the Divine Life itself.
But God would not bring man to this glorious end without some cooperation on man's own part; or, to put it another way, God willed to put it into man's power to earn this heavenly reward by loving service. Yet no service of man, not the best actions of man have any power in themselves to deserve a reward so high; and besides this, man has no natural power or faculty in his soul by which He could see God face to face, or know Him as He is.
That man himself should be raised to the capability and power of seeing God face to face, knowing Him as He is, loving Him with a love so intimate that the affection of lovers is but a faint image of it, and that man's actions during his earthly life should be raised to the capability of leading to this heavenly consummation, a supernatural gift was necessary, raising man's soul to a higher state, putting his actions upon a higher, supernatural plane.
That supernatural gift God gave to man at his creation; He gave it to Adam and Eve, our first parents. By that gift a heavenly gift poured out in their souls by the Holy Spirit Himself; they were made holy with holiness from God; they were made Godlike, their actions supernaturalized and made worthy of the eternal recompense of the Beatific Vision; they themselves made not merely servants, but loved children of their heavenly Father; and Divine charity, supreme love of God filled their hearts. It was the gift of GRACE.
Brethren, you know the sad history of how all that was lost, for them and for us. It was lost by sin. Because of that sin we are born into the world deprived of sanctifying grace with its right to heaven, with its sonship of God. That sad lack of grace, with the deformity of soul which is the consequence, is what we mean by original sin. I need not dwell on the other consequences of the sin of Adam, on the perversity of will, the inclination to evil, the personal sins which these things lead us into, the physical evil and woe, and death itself that came into the world through sin; its worst consequence is the one I wish to dwell on now, the loss of sanctifying grace, and with that the loss of heaven and of God.
Brethren, St. Paul tells us how sin brought death into this world. Had it brought only bodily death, that would have been a small thing. But it brought the death of souls, spiritual death; the death of supernatural goodness and holiness in men's hearts; the death of supernatural knowledge of God; the impossibility of reaching that high and noble destiny for which we were made by God: it closed the gates of the heavenly life to men, and opened the gates of death and hell; it tore man from God, his Father, and made him the slave of sin and Satan.
But "He was delivered up for our sins." By His death Christ Jesus our Lord made atonement for all our sins, won back for us the lost gift of grace; gave us, too, in giving us grace, the gift of Divine charity, pardon of our sins, and the power of casting off sin and of winning heaven, made possible and more than possible for us the attainment of our sublime destiny--the blessed sight and possession of our God when this poor life is over.
And all this, dear brethren, is what we mean by justification. When these effects are found in a man's soul, brought into that soul by the outpouring within it by the Holy Ghost, of the Divine gift and influence of sanctifying grace, we say that that man is justified. And this justification was won for all of us by the passion and death of our Redeemer.
But, my brethren, you may ask, and not unnaturally, "If the death of Jesus won our justification, how are the words of St. Paul true: 'He rose again for our justification'"?
Brethren, I reply that, while the death of Christ merited of itse1f all the blessings that we have as Christians, yet those fruits of the Passion have to be applied to each individual soul throughout the ages. They might have been applied to us, brought into our souls-pardon, grace, charity, holiness might have been acquired had God so willed it, by a simple act of faith in the past.
But God has not chosen that they should be acquired regularly in that way. He has chosen a more wonderful way. He has chosen that the risen Christ should dwell and work among men now and always; that there should be on earth, and all over the earth, sacred places to which men can point and say: "Here dwells our risen Lord; there He works; there He may be found; there I can come to Him and there find His pardon, His grace and justification."
More than this, God has chosen that we should be brought into close and intimate touch and connection with our risen Lord, so that from the ocean of grace that is in Him, which flows from the Godhead into His sacred humanity, streams of grace should flow from Him into us.
Brethren, this is a reality. Christ said of Himself and us: "I am the Vine, you are the branches"; and as the sap flows from the main trunk into the furthest tendrils that are putting forth their young life, so the grace of Christ flows from Him to the least of His members. Members, I say, for so again we are, members of Him who is our Head. Again and again St. Paul uses this comparison of the human body to teach us this doctrine of the close union of redeemed souls with our Incarnate Lord. We are members, he says, of Christ; Christ is the Head. But members and a Head make up a Body--and, says the Apostle, "so also is Christ." Christ has a Body, and we are members of that Body; and St. Paul tells us again what that Body is. "Christ," he says, "is the Head of the Body, the Church.
The living, risen Christ, has a body, then, on earth, animated by His spirit; and from Him grace and charity and all spiritual gifts flow throughout the body to each member; that body is the Catholic Church--the Church of which the Apostle says that Christ purchased her to Himself upon the Cross.
Thus, then, is it true that Christ rose again for our justification. He rose, indeed, because the gate of death could not confine the Lord of Life; He rose that the humanity in which He suffered might receive the reward of glory; He rose to prove that His message was true; He rose that it might be known that when He claimed to be God He did not deceive us; He rose to give us the pledge of a future resurrection; but He rose also to live on in His holy Church, to gather unto Himself living members till the end of time.
And so that disciple whom we imagined at the beginning, looking forward would have seen what we see now--the glorious Church of God, with her holy Sacraments instituted by Jesus when He was on earth, as the means of conveying grace and pardon to us. Her Holy Sacrifice wherein day by day Christ is offered up and His merits put into our hands to plead for us here below; the Church, Christ's Body, His means of carrying on still the life of the Incarnation among us, of working His work of salvation and preaching the truths of life through His consecrated ministers. He was delivered up for our sins; but He rose again for our justification, and in His Church on earth for our justification He lives His risen Life.
Brethren, I beseech you to walk worthy of the vocation with which you are called. Children of light, children of the Catholic Church, members of Christ's Body, cast not away your glorious privileges by sin, by carelessness, by indifference. Be not less wise in your generation, that is, in heavenly things, than the children of the world in theirs. Oh, if all Catholics realized what it is to be a Catholic there would be no necessity to go and beg people to come to Mass, to receive the Sacraments, to listen to God's truth which only in the Catholic Church is fully known and taught. A Catholic can miss the blessings of Catholic life; by sin, by mortal sin, we can stop the channels by which Divine grace should flow into our souls.
Let it not be so with any of us, but rather let us drink in those blessings to the full, and cherish as our dearest possession that Divine grace that flows to us in the Church from Jesus, and will bring us to the sight and love of God in heaven.
__________________
Adapted from Plain Sermons by Practical Preachers, Vol. II(©1916)
Nihil Obstat: Remegius Lafort, S.T.D
Imprimatur: John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Friday, August 01, 2008
More on the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe
From the La Crosse Tribune:Archbishop Raymond Burke, former bishop of the diocese of La Crosse, prays during the deposition of the relics portion of Thursday’s Mass of Dedication for the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
PETER THOMSON photo
Nine years after Archbishop Raymond Burke, former bishop of the La Crosse Diocese, first announced plans for the shrine, he dedicated the church at a Mass on Thursday that lasted more than three hours...
At 12:35 p.m., altar boys dressed in blue, knights and ladies of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem — the women in black, the men in white — about 100 priests and 20 bishops and archbishops led the 20-minute procession to the church plaza....
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To see photo galleries, videos, a timeline and an interactive tour of the shrine, click here.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
18 New Orleans Parishes Closed, More to Follow
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) -- Confirming decisions he had announced in April in a post-Katrina realignment plan for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes signed letters July 3 closing 18 parishes and either merging them with others or changing their status to mission churches....It's sad to see this occur, and it must be disheartening, not only for the faithful of the closed parishes, but also for any bishop who has to make such difficult decisions. Many of us have gone through similar trials in recent years and offer our prayers of support.
Archbishop Hughes signed the letters of suppression following a facilitation process in which parishioners were invited to town hall meetings to express their feelings and concerns about the closures and mergers. Each parish selected a leadership team that made recommendations to Archbishop Hughes.
The decisions, announced at parishes July 11-12, involve 11 clusters of parishes. Archbishop Hughes also said four pairs of parishes would each share a pastor....
I’ll do something that shows this cracker has no power
Another psychotic wailing of University of Minnesota professor.
Catholic League president Bill Donohue commented on the latest developments to surface regarding the pledge made by Paul Z. Myers, a professor at the University of Minnesota, to desecrate the Eucharist:This man doesn't appears to be "normal." Only a fool mocks the Almighty as this.
“Myers was quoted yesterday saying, ‘I have to do something. I’m not going to just let this disappear.’ [Last Friday it was reported that he had acquired a Host.] He continued, ‘Something will be done. It won’t be gross. It won’t be totally tasteless, but yeah, I’ll do something that shows this cracker has no power....’
“The biology professor made it clear that he would never disrespect Islam the way he does Catholicism. When asked about those who abuse the Koran, for example, he said such an act was analogous to desecrating a graveyard. ‘That’s completely different,’ he said. ‘I don’t favor [that idea].’ But when it comes to the Body of Christ, he opines, ‘The cracker is completely different...’He may deny it, but the consecrated Host, is completely different...From the above and previous comments attributed to this man, we can only pray that his family and friends obtain for him the pschological help it seems he so desparately needs. He appears consumed with hatred and hostility toward the truth...There's something wrong with this man. Some make think he could even benefit from an exorcism. I would tend to agree.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
WYD08: What has happened and will happen?
More on World Youth Day 2008 from Inside the Vatican
by Andrew Rabel
(This is the second in a series of regular, exclusive reports on World Youth Day preparations by Australian Inside the Vatican correspondent, Andrew Rabel who will be reporting on WYD events from Sydney).
In an unprecedented move, Pope Benedict will holiday for three days in Australia before participating in World Youth Day events in Sydney, culminating in a final Mass to be celebrated by him at Randwick Racecourse.
According to Bishop Anthony Fisher OP, coordinator of WYD08, "We were asked to nominate a suitable location for his stay and have recommended somewhere serene, beautiful and suitable for the leader of the world’s Catholics. He will have the opportunity to see some of Australia’s beautiful flora and fauna."
In reply to speculation about the identity of the place Fisher replied, "We cannot, of course, disclose the location; he is a Head of State seeking private time and has asked that his privacy be respected...."
Thursday, May 15, 2008
SD Catholic college cancels pro-abort speaker for commencement
Aberdeen, SD, May 14, 2008 / 01:08 am (CNA).- Presentation College in Aberdeen, South Dakota has withdrawn an invitation to a commencement speaker because of her views on legalized abortion.One wonders why she would have been chosen in the first place...?
State Senator Nancy Turbak-Berry was scheduled to deliver the commencement address at the college on Saturday. According to the Associated Press, she said she was told on Friday that she could not speak there because of her views on abortion....
How's this for spin:
“I was told I was not welcome to speak because I do not share the Catholic Church’s position on the proper role of government in decisions about reproduction,” Turbak-Berry said.The statement indicates a remarkable cluelessness, or willful ignorance, or it's an outright lie about the role of government. Was the government 'wrong' all of those years when abortion was illegal? Why was it wrong then but right now? Could it be that today's legislators and judges have become so much more knowledgable than their predessors?
Patrick J. Reilly, President of the Cardinal Newman Society, praised the decision, saying in a press release, “Presentation College has honored its Catholic identity and has demonstrated respect for the dignity of human life by reversing its selection of a vocal abortion advocate for public honor....."Indeed, it is a sign of hope to see these things happen!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Reflections on the Ascension
The Ascension, from Explanation of the Epistles and Gospels by Fr. Leonard Goffine (c)1880
The Ascension - A Lesson on the Poor in Spirit
The Ascension - The Dignity of the Human Body
The Ascension - His Heavenly Throne
The Ascension-Confession is a Key to Heaven
6th Week of Easter - Lessons of the Ascension
Homily on The Ascension - Heaven
The Ascension - A Lesson on the Poor in Spirit
The Ascension - The Dignity of the Human Body
The Ascension - His Heavenly Throne
The Ascension-Confession is a Key to Heaven
6th Week of Easter - Lessons of the Ascension
Homily on The Ascension - Heaven
Thursday, April 24, 2008
My Granddaughter's Baptism
Praised be Our Lord!
Layla Ann was received into Christ's Church and cleansed of Original Sin this past Sunday. Blessed be God! What a little bundle of joy she is!
Here she is after Holy Mass before receiving the Sacrament of Baptism - she knows something special is going on....
After going home and being coddled by family and friends, she was a bit tired...
We just love her! and we thank God for his wonderful blessings!
Layla Ann was received into Christ's Church and cleansed of Original Sin this past Sunday. Blessed be God! What a little bundle of joy she is!
Here she is after Holy Mass before receiving the Sacrament of Baptism - she knows something special is going on....
After going home and being coddled by family and friends, she was a bit tired...
We just love her! and we thank God for his wonderful blessings!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Hamas Cleric Predicts 'Rome Will Be Conquered by Islam'
A sermon last Friday by a prominent Muslim cleric and Hamas member of the Palestinian parliament openly declared that "the capital of the Catholics, or the Crusader capital," would soon be conquered by Islam.
The fiery sermon, delivered by Yunis al-Astal and aired on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, predicted that Rome would become "an advanced post for the Islamic conquests, which will spread though Europe in its entirety, and then will turn to the two Americas, even Eastern Europe."
"Allah has chosen you for Himself and for His religion," al-Astal preached, "so that you will serve as the engine pulling this nation to the phase of succession, security and consolidation of power, and even to conquests through da'wa and military conquests of the capitals of the entire world...."
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