Keep
your eyes open!...
June 30, 2017
(Gen 17:1-2) And
after he began to be ninety and nine years old, the Lord appeared to
him: and said unto him: I am the Almighty God: walk before me, and be
perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee: and I will
multiply thee exceedingly.
ORTHODOX WEBSITE: FOR IF WE DO NOT HAVE THIS, ALL ELSE IS NOTHING”: A LETTER BY ST. THEOPHAN THE RECLUSE DISCOVERED
Here is the text of this spiritual-instructional letter, translated into English:
22 Feb. 88. May God’s mercy be with you, worthily respected M. Martha!
You ask me to write to you, but you did not write what it is you
request to know. The only thing left for me to do is to wish you
salvation of soul: which I now do.
You of course know how to work for salvation… Just the same, I will remind you of what should be done before all else…
The main thing is the fear of God. When it comes, then like a good
householder, it will arrange everything in the soul as it pleases. Do
you have it? If you do, thank God, and preserve it; but if you do
not—awaken it: for it is present in our soul, and if it does not
manifest itself it is only due to our inattention.
The first child of the fear of God is a contrite spirit, a heart that
is broken and humbled. May the feeling of contrition never leave the
heart!
In order to uphold the fear of God, we must always hold on to the remembrance of death and judgment.
As soon as you wake up, call this remembrance to mind, and you will
live the whole day with it in your heart as your first advisor.
Join to this the awareness of the Lord’s presence near you and in you,
so that He sees everything, including what is most hidden. This
awareness and the remembrance of death have the fear of God inseparably
with them. When this trinity settles in your heart, then your prayer
will come from the heart, with constant crying out to the Lord Savior.
That is all!
If you have this in you, no matter to what degree, then your work of
salvation is afoot; but if not then you need to raise it all up in the
heart. For if we do not have this, all else is nothing…
Save yourself!
You have done well not to try to come to our monastery, for due to my
ill health I never receive visitors. All the best. Bishop Theophan.
MEDITATION: Thoughts
by St Theophan (1815-1894)
[Rom. 11:25-36; Matt. 12:1-8]
If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not
sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. Thus, in order to
be saved from the sin of condemnation, we must obtain a merciful heart.
A merciful heart not only does not condemn a seeming infringement of
the law, but neither will it condemn an obvious one. Instead of
judgment it feels pity, and would sooner weep than reproach.
Truly the sin of condemnation is the fruit of an unmerciful, malicious
heart that takes delight in debasing its neighbor, in blackening its
neighbor's name, in trampling his honor underfoot. This is a murderous
affair, and is done in the spirit of the one who is a murderer from the
beginning [John 8:44]. Here there occurs much slander as well, which
comes from the same source — for that is what the devil is, a
slanderer, spreading slanderousness everywhere.
Hurry to arouse pity in yourself every time the evil urge to condemn
comes over you. Then turn in prayer to the Lord with a compassionate
heart, that He might have mercy upon all of us, not only upon the one
whom we wanted to condemn, but upon us as well — perhaps even more so
upon us — and the evil urge will die.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the
stomach"
16. The heart of gluttons dreams only of food and
eatables, but the heart of those who weep dreams of judgment and castigation.
June 29, 2017
(Gen 38:8-10) Juda,
therefore, said to Onan his son: Go in to thy brother's wife and marry
her, that thou mayst raise seed to thy brother. He knowing that the
children should not be his, when he went in to his brother's wife, he
spilled his seed upon the ground, lest children should be born in his
brother's name. And therefore the Lord slew him, because he did a
detestable thing.
LIFESITENEWS.COM: Catholics should take the time to understand Church teaching on contraception
NEWSLETTER: Broken Branches Issue 117
LACROIX INTERNATIONAL: A grave historical crisis of Church authority examined
ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: The Importance of Humanae Vitae
A bishop attends a lot of worthy public events and fundraisers. It’s
part of the job. And supporting good people doing good things is always
a source of satisfaction and hope. But once in a while, an event comes
along with an unexpected pleasure. The June 17 luncheon on behalf of
our Philadelphia Redemptoris Mater Archdiocesan Missionary Seminary was
just that kind of event. It drew an enthusiastic crowd — honoring
Bishop John McIntyre’s 25th anniversary as a priest was part of the
focus — and among the many attendees were two long-time friends: Martha
and Bill Beckman.
The Beckmans have three children. A daughter will marry this fall, and
twin sons are both studying for the priesthood. As members of the
Neo-Catechumenal Way, they’ve devoted much of their lives to Church
service. That’s included direct missionary work as a couple and as a
family. Bill served on my staff during my ministry as archbishop in
Denver. He helped me with a number of key projects, including a
pastoral letter I released in 1998 on the 30th anniversary of the
encyclical Humanae Vitae (“On Human Life.”).
Which brings me to the point of this column. Next month, July, marks
another anniversary of Humanae Vitae. Few recent Catholic documents
have been as reviled, but also as perceptive, important and accurate in
its warnings, as Paul VI’s great encyclical. John Paul II and Benedict
XVI both firmly reiterated Humanae Vitae in their teaching.
It remains a powerful counter-witness to the widespread sexual
dysfunction of our age. As other Christian communities, and even many
Catholics, have collapsed in their defense of sexual integrity, Humanae
Vitae has remained a testimony to the truth.
Bill recently sent me his thoughts on Humanae Vitae as a husband,
father and man of faith. First published last year in the Archdiocese
of Omaha’s The Catholic Voice, they warrant sharing (slightly adjusted
for 2017) here.
He writes:
July 25, 2017,
will mark forty-nine years since the publication of the encyclical
Humanae Vitae (HV), subtitled “On the Regulation of Birth.” The eighth
and last encyclical letter of Blessed Pope Paul VI was easily the most
controversial Church document since the Reformation and its core
teaching the most rejected. It remains so today.
Pope Paul reiterated what had always been the teaching of the Church,
namely, that married couples must be open to life in every act of
marital intercourse and that any act or omission intended to prevent
conception is morally wrong. This is because the marital act bears
within it by nature the capacity for the couple’s intimate union and
the procreation of new human life. These twin aspects ought never to be
willfully separated if the gift of marital love is to be respected and
lived responsibly.
The pope presented this teaching in a tone which was at once
compassionate and realistic toward couples facing difficulties, and
pessimistic about the long-term consequences of deliberately separating
the unitive and procreative truths of marriage. His predictions that
moral standards would decline, infidelity and illegitimacy would
increase, women would be reduced to objects for pleasure and that
governments would grow more coercive in the goals of population control
all have proven true. Other damaging consequences can be shown as well.
But it mattered little. HV was countered by a perfect storm. The
Anglican Church had permitted contraception more than thirty years
earlier, and the decade of the 1960s was marked by selfish
individualism crowned by the invention of the birth control pill, the
“free love” movement and liberalized divorce laws. Maybe most damaging
was the fact that the papal commission studying the issue had voted to
permit birth control. The commission report was leaked and became a
rallying point for those opposed to the pope’s clear teaching.
Those opponents included not a small number of influential clergy and
academics who publicly dissented by signing protest ads in major
newspapers, and the dissenters soon included a substantial majority of
ordinary Catholics. The Church was divided and seriously wounded over a
matter of utmost importance – the truth and meaning of marriage and the
sanctity of life.
Today the rift and wounds remain, and only the Holy Spirit can bring
healing and wholeness. In the face of almost 50 years of selfishness
and disobedience, I pray that the Church will zealously teach the truth
and beauty of this encyclical, urge repentance for the manifest sins
against the sanctity of marriage and life, and call the faithful to
complete openness to the innumerable blessings which flow from the Lord
and Giver of Life.
The best response I can make, or anyone can make, is: Amen.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
15. The perfect find their time of gladness and
consolation in freedom from care in all things; the warrior-ascetic delights
in the heat of the battle; but the slave of the passions revels in feasts.
June 27, 2017
(Mat 10:29-33) Are
not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on
the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all
numbered. Fear not therefore: better are you than many sparrows. Every
one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him
before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before
men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
POPE FRANCIS:
"Even today persecution against Christians is present. Let us pray for
our brothers and sisters who are persecuted and praise God because,
despite this, they continue to testify to their faith with their
courage and fidelity. Their example helps us not to hesitate to take
position in favor of Christ, witnessing to it courageously in everyday
situations, even in seemingly peaceful contexts".
ASIANEWS.IT REVIEW: The last 10 years of the Church in China: from the Letter of Benedict XVI to the silence on the arrest of Msgr. Shao Zhumin
CHIESA: China. Why the Agreement With Rome Is Slow In Coming
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE: Vatican calls on China to let bishop exercise his ministry
The Vatican expressed "grave concern" over the situation of a bishop in
mainland China who has been in government custody for almost 10 months
and moved repeatedly in an apparent attempt to prevent him from
assuming leadership of his diocese.
Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin had been coadjutor bishop of Wenzhou and
should have taken over leadership of the diocese in September when his
predecessor died. Instead, officials took him to northern China "on a
trip."
"The Holy See is following with grave concern the personal situation of
Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin of Wenzhou, forcibly removed from his
episcopal see some time ago," said Greg Burke, director of the Vatican
press office, in a statement June 26.
"The diocesan Catholic community and his relatives have no news or
reasons for his removal, nor do they know where he is being held,"
Burke said.
The treatment of Bishop Zhumin "and other similar episodes," Burke
said, do not foster the kind of understanding that the Vatican wants to
reach with the Chinese government.
While Bishop Zhumin was approved by the Vatican as bishop of Wenzhou, his election was not recognized by the government.
The Vatican hopes that the bishop "may return as soon as possible to
the diocese and that he can be assured the possibility of serenely
exercising his episcopal ministry," Burke said.
Michael Clauss, Germany's ambassador to China, posted a statement on
his embassy's website June 20 saying the bishop appears to have been
forced by authorities to move to unknown locations four times over the
past year, the Associated Press reported. The ambassador called on
China to allow the bishop full freedom of movement.
AsiaNews, a Rome-based Catholic news agency, said June 21 that Chinese
authorities appeared to be trying to get Bishop Zhumin to join the
Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association. The bishop was seen arriving at
Wenzhou airport June 16, "accompanied by government officials, who took
him to an unknown location," AsiaNews said.
MORE: Holy See has expressed “grave concern” over the fate of Mgr Shao Zhumin, held by police for more than a month
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
9. Often vanity proves an enemy of gluttony, and
between themselves they quarrel over the wretched monk as for a purchased
slave. The one urges him to relax, while the other proposes that he should
make his virtue triumph. The wise monk will shun both, at the right time
shaking off each passion by the other.
June 23, 2017
(Joh 19:33-35) But
after they were come to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead,
they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers with a spear
opened his side: and immediately there came out blood and water. And he
that saw it hath given testimony: and his testimony is true. And he
knoweth that he saith true: that you also may believe.
POPE FRANCIS:
"I offer a special thought for young people, the sick, and newlyweds.
Next Friday, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, is the
day when the Church supports all priests with prayers and affection.
Dear young people, draw from the Heart of Jesus the nourishment for
your spiritual life and the source of your hope; dear people who are
sick, offer your sufferings to the Lord, so that He may pour His love
into the hearts of men; and you, dear newlyweds, partake of the
Eucharist, so that, nourished by Christ, you may be Christian families
touched by the love of that divine Heart".
FATHER BROOM BLOG: Sacred Heart of Jesus, Burning Furnace of Charity
LINK: History & Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary
FISH EATERS: Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
DOWNLOAD
UNIVERSALIS: St Bonaventure: With you is the source of life
You who have been redeemed, consider
who it is who hangs on the cross for you, whose death gives life to the
dead, whose passing is mourned by heaven and earth, while even the hard
stones are split. Consider how great he is; consider what he is.
In order that the Church might
be formed from the side of Christ as he slept on the cross, in order
that the word of scripture might be fulfilled – ‘They shall look
on him whom they have pierced’ – God’s providence decreed that one
of the soldiers should open his sacred side with a spear, so that blood
with water might flow out to pay the price of our salvation. This
blood, which flowed from its source in the secret recesses of his
heart, gave the sacraments of the Church power to confer the life of
grace, and for those who already live in Christ was a draught of living
water welling up to eternal life.
Arise, then, bride of Christ,
be like the dove that nests in the rock-face at the mouth of a cavern,
and there, like a sparrow which finds its home, do not cease to keep
vigil; there, like a turtle-dove, hide the fledglings of your chaste
love; place your lips there to draw water from the wells of your
Saviour. For this is the spring flowing from the middle of paradise; it
divides and becomes four rivers, then spreads through all devout
hearts, and waters the whole world and makes it fruitful.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
6. He who fondles a lion often tames it, but he
who coddles the body makes it still wilder.
June 22, 2017
(Luk
12:43-48) Blessed is that servant whom, when his lord shall come, he
shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that
he possesseth. But if that servant shall say in his heart: My Lord is
long a coming; and shall begin to strike the men-servants and
maid-servants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk: The lord of that
servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that
he knoweth not: and shall separate him and shall appoint him his
portion with unbelievers. And that servant, who knew the will of his
lord and prepared not himself and did not according to his will, shall
be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did things worthy
of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much
is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have
committed much, of him they will demand the more.
SIGN.ORG: Cardinals Opposing Cardinals, Bishops Against Bishops… by Ted Flynn
CRISIS MAGAZINE: Amoris Laetitia and the Four Last Things
MEDITATION: Thoughts
by St Theophan (1815-1894)
[Rom. 7:14-8:2; Matt. 10:9-15]
The Lord also said to the apostles
that if a city does not receive them, and will not hear their words,
then It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in
the day of judgment, than for that city. And what will happen to us for
our not hearing the words of Divine Revelation? It will be immeasurably
intolerable be for us. To disbelieve the truth of God after so many
tangible proofs is the same as reviling the Holy Spirit, and
blaspheming. And yet we have no fear. The spiritists [and Hindus] say,
“What judgment! We just have to be born a few more times.” The
scientists say, “Whom is there to judge? Everything is made of atoms;
they will fly apart and that will be the end.” But, my friends, the
hour of death will come; these dreams will fly away like phantoms, and
we will all be faced with inevitability reality. What then?...
What wretched times we live in! The
enemy has contrived to destroy our souls. He knows that fear of death
and judgment is the strongest means for sobering up a soul — and so he
makes every attempt to drive this away; and he succeeds. But extinguish
the fear of death and fear of God will disappear; and without the fear
of God the conscience becomes mute. The soul becomes empty, it becomes
a waterless cloud, carried by any wind of teachings and various fits of
passions.
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA St. Michael New York: From the Pastor by Fr. George W. Rutler
Our Lord's admonition that much will be required of those to whom much
has been given, applies most vividly to us. We have been given so much
in the way of inventions and medicine and comparative wealth, but above
all in knowledge of the world around us. No king in his silken bed at
Versailles knew the luxury of instant information that we have.
"YouTube" gives us access to great music for which the Bourbon monarchs
had to summon their court musicians, while we need only press a button
on the computer.
I have been listening on YouTube to the choir of Saint Paul's Cathedral in London singing the Victorian John Stainer's setting of John 3:16:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that
everyone who believes in him might not perish but have everlasting
life." They are the most wondrous and mysterious words ever spoken and
have to be sung, for they are a love song. A young man shyly told me
that he knelt to propose marriage to the girl he loved, even though he
thought she might laugh at him. But in the humility of true love, he
meant what he said, and they are now married.
God so loved the world. That means all he has created in the world. I
confess that I do not yet share my Creator's affection for all things.
For instance, I do not like, let alone love, mosquitoes. Perhaps our
Lord sees, through his aesthetic lens, a mathematical symmetry and
power of endurance that I will only appreciate during my first years of
assimilation in Purgatory. For that matter, I find it hard to like, let
alone love, some of the people rambling along 34th Street at a snail's
pace, oblivious to those behind them, and speaking loudly and rudely on
their cell phones. I am not God, who loves them as I try only feebly to
do. He even died for them. And for me.
Jesus became human, but from the perspective of heavenly glory, he
might just as easily have become a mosquito. In the divine eye, humans
are no more or less attractive than bugs, but God took upon himself the
form of a slave (Philippians 2:7) because humans have the unique gift
of reciprocating the love that made them. By reflecting that love,
through worship and service, we are God's agents in making the world
into what he wants it to be.
I am not a mosquito, but that makes no difference to my Creator. In the
seventeenth-century words of Samuel Crossman, now accessible on YouTube:
My song is love unknown,
My Saviour's love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I,
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh and die?
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
5. Satiety in food is the father of fornication;
but affliction of the stomach is an agent of purity.
June 20, 2017
(Php 3:18-20) For
many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct
themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction.
Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. Their minds
are occupied with earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and
from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
USCCB: Fortnight For Freedom
COMMENTARY ARCHBISHOP CHAPUT: Piety and Patriotism
June 21 marks the start of the U.S. bishops’ annual “Fortnight for
Freedom” running through Independence Day on July 4. The fortnight
seeks to highlight America’s “first freedom” — religious liberty. It
also seeks to encourage Catholics to work for religious freedom both
here and abroad.
This year’s theme is “freedom for mission.” The reason should be
obvious. Activist groups and public officials today increasingly try to
force Church-related hospitals and social ministries to violate their
Catholic identity. Catholic beliefs on marriage, family and the
sanctity of life are targets in an on-going culture war against the
biblical truths of human sexuality, nature and purpose.
The Church did not want this war and did not choose it. But she cannot
in good conscience avoid it. The Obama administration’s bullying of the
Little Sisters of the Poor (“Little Sisters of the Government” in a
famously sardonic Wall Street Journal editorial) was only one of many
recent examples.
It’s a time in our nation’s history when ideas like “the Benedict
Option,” i.e., withdrawing from a hostile secular culture to protect
our families and faith, can seem attractive. And separating ourselves —
in our thoughts, choices and behaviors — from the emptiness and noise
of modern consumer life does, in fact, make a lot of sense.
The question arises: Can the piety of an authentic Christian life and
patriotism for a secular state coexist in such a conflicted time?
Scripture tells us to respect and pray for our civic leaders, even when
we dislike them; even when they persecute us. Jesus himself said that
Caesar has a realm of legitimate authority. That realm is limited in
scope, but we have a duty to obey civil authority so long as it does
not demand a kind of practical idolatry. Christians were martyred not
because they hated Roman power, but because they wouldn’t burn incense
to the emperor’s “genius” or sacred spirit – in other words, they
wouldn’t treat him as divine.
It’s true that in the first three centuries after Jesus, Early Church
scholars like Tertullian, Hippolytus and Tatian all rejected military
and even civil service for believers. But that changed as the empire
gradually became Christian, and changed radically after the Emperor
Constantine converted from paganism. From the late Fourth Century on,
St. Augustine’s “just war” teaching on the legitimate use of force in
situations related to self-defense came to dominate Christian thought.
Augustine also taught that Christian political engagement and public
service can be morally worthy, so long as our expectations of remaking
reality are modest. All human structures are flawed by sin. The City of
Man can never be the City of God.
And that’s a wisdom we need to remember. Christianity is not finally
about our place in this world. It’s about our place in the next. We
have duty to make the material world, and especially the people around
us, better for our passing. We can’t and shouldn’t try to escape from
the challenges and responsibilities of the place where God plants us.
We need to be a leaven for goodness, here and now. But our real
citizenship, our real goal, is heaven. We belong to heaven first.
So it’s worth unpacking those two words, patriotism and piety.
The word “patriotism” comes from the Latin pater (father) and patria
(homeland, native soil). As with any human father, the nation-state is
not a little godling. It can never require our worship. It can never
demand that we violate our religious identity and beliefs. But properly
understood, patriotism is a virtue and a form of filial love. We’re
sons and daughters of the land of our birth. It’s natural and deeply
human to love our home and be faithful to the best qualities in our
native land.
The word “piety” comes from the Latin pietas, meaning humility and a
devotion to the gods. Pietas was the highest Roman virtue and a
powerful force in shaping early Roman life. It’s no accident that
Rome’s ancient poet Virgil, in his epic work The Aeneid, described
Aeneas, the legendary founder of Rome, as pious Aeneas repeatedly.
Aeneas and his piety are pertinent for this reason. One of the great
scholars of the last century, the British Catholic historian
Christopher Dawson, demonstrated that all great human civilizations
have started from some form of a religious founding. And as the essence
of that founding is lost, illness of the soul sets in.
Humans are addicts for meaning. We’re also inescapably mortal, which
means we instinctively look for purpose outside and higher than
ourselves. The “God question” matters because God made us. Thus in our
own country, from the very start, biblical language, belief and thought
have provided our moral meaning. The more we discard these precious
things, the more alien we become to ourselves and to the nation we were
meant to be.
This year and every year, the most fertile witness we can offer as
citizens is to speak, and to act on, and to organize our lives around,
the words Jesus Christ is Lord. Defending our liberty to do that is why
the “fortnight for freedom” matters.
PODCAST: Crushing Modernism & Regaining a Catholic Worldview
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
4. Gluttony deludes the eyes of others; while appearing
to receive in moderation, it intends to devour everything at once.
June 2, 2017
THE TRIB TIMES WILL RETURN IN TWO WEEKS, GOD WILLING (James 4:15).
(Joh 14:16-18) And
I will ask the Father: and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he
may abide with you for ever: The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth him not, nor knoweth him. But you shall know
him; because he shall abide with you and shall be in you. I will not
leave you orphans: I will come to you.
POPE FRANCIS:
“Ask the Holy Spirit to guide you on the path of life and of everyday
life. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the grace to distinguish good
from less good, because it is easy to distinguish good from evil.”
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE: One in the Spirit: Catholics, Pentecostals celebrate Pentecost with pope
EXCERPT MEDITATION RON ROLHEISER, OMI: Praying for Pentecost
In life today do we most need the Holy Spirit to transform us? What are our peculiar spiritual disabilities?
Our unique weaknesses, like our strengths, are legion. However, for our
generation, a number of things might be singled out as particularly
debilitating to the soul: Our propensity for distraction, our tendency
to see individual fulfilment as salvation, our proclivity for ideology
and fundamentalism, and our obsession with sexuality.
We could use a particular infusion from the Holy Spirit to help us with these.
For example: Distraction is perhaps the most powerful narcotic on the
planet. Simply put, what this means is that our daily communion, the
manna that sustains us, is distraction – television, game shows,
sporting events, sitcoms, talk shows, entertainment news, scandals
reported in the daily papers, pop music, movies, theatre, and the like.
Not that these are bad. What’s bad is that they eventually anesthetize
us: We watch the late-night comedians on TV, scotch in hand, laugh as
they spoof the day’s events, let the tensions of the day subside, and
sleep pretty well. Not bad, not bad at all, except we do it again the
next night and the night after and onwards ever after, slowly numbing
ourselves to the deeper issues of meaning, pain, justice,
self-sacrifice, love, death.
For our own Pentecost, we need then to pray for the spirit of wisdom,
the spirit of depth, the spirit of courage, and (given the
over-sophistication of so much of today’s entertainment) the spirit of
chastity.
UNIVERSALIS: A treatise "Against the Heresies" by St Irenaeus The sending of the Holy Spirit
When the Lord told his disciples to go and teach all nations and
baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, he conferred on them the power of giving men new life in God.
He had promised through the prophets that in these last
days he would pour out his Spirit on his servants and handmaids, and
that they would prophesy. So when the Son of God became the Son of Man,
the Spirit also descended upon him, becoming accustomed in this way to
dwelling with the human race, to living in men and to inhabiting God’s
creation. The Spirit accomplished the Father’s will in men who had
grown old in sin, and gave them new life in Christ.
Luke says that the Spirit came down on the disciples at
Pentecost, after the Lord’s ascension, with power to open the gates of
life to all nations and to make known to them the new covenant. So it
was that men of every language joined in singing one song of praise to
God, and scattered tribes, restored to unity by the Spirit, were
offered to the Father as the first-fruits of all the nations.
This was why the Lord had promised to send the Advocate: he
was to prepare us as an offering to God. Like dry flour, which cannot
become one lump of dough, one loaf of bread, without moisture, we who
are many could not become one in Christ Jesus without the water that
comes down from heaven. And like parched ground, which yields no
harvest unless it receives moisture, we who were once like a waterless
tree could never have lived and borne fruit without this abundant
rainfall from above. Through the baptism that liberates us from change
and decay we have become one in body; through the Spirit we have become
one in soul.
The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of
counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of God came
down upon the Lord, and the Lord in turn gave this Spirit to his
Church, sending the Advocate from heaven into all the world into which,
according to his own words, the devil too had been cast down like
lightning.
If we are not to be scorched and made unfruitful, we need
the dew of God. Since we have our accuser, we need an advocate as well.
And so the Lord in his pity for man, who had fallen into the hands of
brigands, having himself bound up his wounds and left for his care two
coins bearing the royal image, entrusted him to the Holy Spirit. Now,
through the Spirit, the image and inscription of the Father and the Son
have been given to us, and it is our duty to use the coin committed to
our charge and make it yield a rich profit for the Lord.
ST. BASIL:
“Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the
kingdom of heaven and adopted as children, given confidence to call God
father and to share in Christ’s grace, called children of light and
given a share in eternal glory.”
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
3. Gluttony is a deviser of seasoning, a source
of sweet dishes. You stop one spout, and it spurts up elsewhere;
you plug this too, and you open another.
June 1, 2017
(Luk 1:46-48) And
Mary said: My soul doth magnify the Lord. And my spirit hath rejoiced
in God my Saviour. Because he hath regarded the humility of his
handmaid: for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me
blessed.
POPE FRANCIS: The motherly presence of Mary reminds us that God never tires of lowering himself in mercy over humanity.
HOMILY: Great Kingdoms, Great Queen Mothers
FR BROOM BLOG: MARY—THE BEST OF ALL MOTHERS IN THE WORLD!
INSIDE THE VATICAN: Letter #28: The last battle
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA A Moment with Mary: This apparition to Sister Lucia is less well-known and yet it is significant
The date of May 29, 1930, is not well known in the history of Fatima,
Portugal. Yet this is an important date, almost as important as that of
May 13, or October 13, 1917. Indeed, a few days before May 29, the
Blessed Virgin appeared to Lucia, who was then a novice at the Sisters
of St. Dorothy in Tui, Spain, indicating that the time had come to ask
the Holy Father for the approval of the reparatory communion of the
first Saturdays of the month.
This request was the culmination of various celestial interventions
since 1917, including that of December 10, 1925, in Pontevedra, where
Our Lady, as she had promised, appeared to Lucia, then a postulant at
the Sisters of St. Dorothy’s convent, to give her the details of the
devotion of the First Saturdays of the month and ask her to begin to
spread it.
Immediately, Lucia confided everything to her confessor, Don Lino
Garcia. On February 15, 1926, the Infant Jesus appeared to Lucia in
Pontevedra. At her request, he relaxed the conditions set by the
Blessed Virgin two months earlier and confirmed the will of Heaven to
see this devotion spread.
Source: www.fatima100.fr/en/the-newsletters/288-28-our-lady-asks-for-the-consecration-of-russia-to-her-immaculate-heart
UNIVERSALIS: A sermon by St Bede the Venerable: Mary proclaims the greatness of the Lord working in her soul
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in
God my saviour. With these words Mary first acknowledges the
special gifts she has been given. Then she recalls God’s universal
favours, bestowed unceasingly on the human race.
When a man devotes all his thoughts to the praise and
service of the Lord, he proclaims God’s greatness. His observance of
God’s commands, moreover, shows that he has God’s power and greatness
always at heart. His spirit rejoices in God his saviour and delights in
the mere recollection of his creator who gives him hope for eternal
salvation.
These words are often for all God’s creations, but
especially for the Mother of God. She alone was chosen, and she burned
with spiritual love for the son she so joyously conceived. Above all
other saints, she alone could truly rejoice in Jesus, her saviour, for
she knew that he who was the source of eternal salvation would be born
in time in her body, in one person both her own son and her Lord.
For the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is
his name. Mary attributes nothing to her own merits. She refers all her
greatness to the gift of the one whose essence is power and whose
nature is greatness, for he fills with greatness and strength the small
and the weak who believe in him.
She did well to add: and holy is his name, to warn those
who heard, and indeed all who would receive his words, that they must
believe and call upon his name. For they too could share in everlasting
holiness and true salvation according to the words of the prophet: and
it will come to pass, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord
will be saved. This is the name she spoke of earlier: and my spirit
rejoices in God my saviour.
Therefore it is an excellent and fruitful custom of holy
Church that we should sing Mary’s hymn at the time of evening prayer.
By meditating upon the incarnation, our devotion is kindled, and by
remembering the example of God’s Mother, we are encouraged to lead a
life of virtue. Such virtues are best achieved in the evening. We are
weary after the day’s work and worn out by our distractions. The time
for rest is near, and our minds are ready for contemplation.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 14- "On that clamorous mistress, the stomach"
2. Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when
it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting;
it cries out that it is hungry.
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