Our Lady's Little Scribe

It Is Love That Makes A Prayer Well Done

2012-02-01T07:48:00.000-06:00

"Prayer is the effusion of our heart into God's. . . . When it is well done, it moves the Divine Heart and makes Him always more inclined to grant our requests. Let us pour out our whole soul to God in prayers. He is captivated by our prayers and comes to our aid." - Padre Pio

I Place My Trust In You

2012-01-12T19:14:00.000-06:00

Oh Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you,knowing that you love me, care for me and will never abandon me. Help me to know that my suffering and paintoo will pass, as you guide me along the right path and that only goodness andkindness will follow me all the days of my life.

May the Lord Bless You in the New Year

2012-01-01T18:57:00.000-06:00

World War I: The Christmas Truce of 1914

2011-12-28T08:00:00.002-06:00

By Kennedy Hickman

Christmas Truce - Conflict:The 1914 Christmas Truce occurred during the first year of World War I (1914-1918).

Christmas Truce - Date:Occurring on December 24-25, 1914, Christmas Eve and Day, the Christmas Truce saw a temporary halt to the fighting on parts of the Western Front. In some areas, the truce lasted until New Year's Day.

The Christmas Truce - Peace on the Front:One of the mythic events of World War I, the 1914 Christmas Truce began on Christmas Eve along the British and German lines around Ypres, Belgium. While it took hold in some areas manned by the French and Belgians, it was not as widespread as these nations viewed the Germans as invaders. Along the 27 miles of front manned by the British Expeditionary Force, Christmas Eve 1914 began as a normal day with firing on both sides. While in some areas firing began to slacken through the afternoon, in others it continued at its regular pace.

This impulse to celebrate the holiday season amid the landscape of war has been traced to several theories. Among these was the fact that the war was only four months old and the level of animosity between the ranks was not as high as it would be later in the war. This was complimented by sense of shared discomfort as the early trenches lacked amenities and were prone to flooding. Also, the landscape, aside from the newly dug trenches, still appeared relatively normal, with fields and intact villages all of which contributed to introducing a degree of civilization to the proceedings.

Private Mullard of the London Rifle Brigade wrote home, "we heard a band in the German trenches, but our artillery spoilt the effect by dropping a couple of shells right in the centre of them." Despite this, Mullard was surprised at sunset to see, "trees stuck on top of the [German] trenches, lit up with candles, and all of the men sitting on top of the trenches. So of course we got out of ours and passed a few remarks, inviting each other to come over and have a drink and a smoke, but we did not like to trust each other at first (Weintraub, 76)."

The initial force behind the Christmas Truce came from the Germans. In most cases, this began with the singing of carols and the appearance of Christmas trees along the trenches. Curious, Allied troops, who had been inundated with propaganda depicting the Germans as barbarians, began to join in the singing which led to both sides reaching out to communicate. From these first hesitant contacts informal ceasefires were arranged between units. As the lines in many places were only 30-70 yards apart, some fraternization between individuals had taken place prior to Christmas, but never on a large scale.

For the most part, both sides returned to their trenches later on Christmas Eve. The following morning, Christmas was celebrated in full, with men visiting across the lines and gifts of food and tobacco being exchanged. In several places, games of soccer were organized, though these tended to be mass "kick abouts" rather than formal matches. Private Ernie Williams of the 6th Cheshires reported, "I should think there were about a couple of hundred taking part...There was no sort of ill-will between us (Weintraub, 81)." Amid the music and sports, both sides frequently joined together for large Christmas dinners.

While the lower ranks were celebrating in the trenches, the high commands were both livid and concerned. General Sir John French, commanding the BEF, issued stern orders against fraternizing with the enemy. For the Germans, whose army possessed a long history of intense discipline, the outbreak of popular will among their soldiery was cause for worry and most stories of the truce were suppressed back in Germany. Though a hard line was taken officially, many generals took a relaxed approach seeing the truce as an opportunity to improve and re-supply their trenches, as well as scout out the enemy's position.

The Christmas Truce - Back to Fighting:For the most part, the Christmas Truce only lasted for Christmas Eve and Day, though in some areas it was extended through Boxing Day and New Year's. As it ended, both sides decided on signals for the recommencement of hostilities. Reluctantly returning to war, the bonds forged at Christmas slowly eroded as units rotated out and the fighting became more ferocious. The truce had largely worked due to a mutual feeling that the war would be decided at another place and time, mostly likely by someone else. As the war went on, the events of Christmas 1914 became increasing surreal to those who had not been there.

SOURCE: The Christmas Truce

SEE ALSO: Snopes

Called to Be a Blessing

2011-12-23T20:24:00.001-06:00

“As Christians and Jews, following the example of the faith of Abraham, we are called to be a blessing to the world. This is the common task awaiting us. It is therefore necessary for us, Christians and Jews, to first be a blessing to one another.”
- John Paul II on the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising

See A Blessing to One Another - Pope John Paul II & the Jewish People

Passage from Blessed John Henry Newman's Apologia

2011-12-12T13:25:00.000-06:00

As a convert to the Catholic faith, I understand the perfect peace and contentment and the coming into port after a rough sea which Newman describes here. I am so grateful and, like Blessed Newman, I have never had one doubt.

"FROM the time that I became a Catholic, of course I have no further history of my religious opinions to narrate. In saying this, I do not mean to say that my mind has been idle, or that I have given up thinking on theological subjects; but that I have had no variations to record, and have had no anxiety of heart whatever. I have been in perfect peace and contentment; I never have had one doubt. I was not conscious to myself, on my conversion, of any change, intellectual or moral, wrought in my mind. I was not conscious of firmer faith in the fundamental truths of Revelation, or of more self-command; I had not more fervour; but it was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on that score remains to this day without interruption."

-Source: Blessed John Henry Newman's Apologia, chapter 5

O God, who bestowed on the Priest Blessed John Henry Newman the grace to follow your kindly light and find peace in your Church; graciously grant that, through his intercession and example, we may be led out of shadows and images into the fullness of your truth. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, for ever and ever.

– Collect for the Feast of Bl. John Henry Newman

Amazing Grace - How Sweet The Sound

2011-12-03T08:11:00.001-06:00

Franciscan All Saints Day - November 29

2011-11-29T10:55:00.001-06:00

In addition to All Saints Day on November 1, the entire Franciscan Order celebrates a Franciscan All Saints Day. All the saints and blessed, in fact, all the members of the three orders of St. Francis who have attained their goal in heaven, whether known or unknown, are honored in a special manner on this day.

November 29 was selected for this feast day because on that day in 1223 Pope Honorius III gave his approval to the final rule which St. Francis gave to the Friars Minor, a rule which pointed out a new way to sanctity. By observing it faithfully, many have become saints; and by celebrating the feast of all Franciscan saints, we are inspired and encouraged to follow in their footsteps.

On The Cross of Tribulation

2011-11-28T22:41:00.001-06:00

If you suffer with Him, you shall reign with Him,
if you weep with Him, you shall rejoice with Him;
if you die with Him on the cross of tribulation,
you shall possess heavenly mansions in the splendour of the saints
and, in the Book of Life, your name shall be called glorious among humankind.
Because of this you shall share always and forever
the glory of the kingdom of heaven in place of earthly and passing things,
and everlasting treasures instead of those that perish, and you shall live forever.

(St Clare second letter to Agnes)

Singing Amazing Grace

2011-11-28T22:08:00.001-06:00

December 18, 1923 - May 18, 2011

One did not forget singing Amazing Grace with Tom at Mass.
He always cried, and when we finished singing,
I loved both God and Tom much more
"than when we've first begun."

Ouida Tomlinson, SFO

--
Posted By Little Scribe to Our Lady's Little Scribe at 11/28/2011 10:01:00 PM

I'm In Love With Jesus

2011-11-22T12:09:00.002-06:00

http://www.franciscanfriars.com/

Catholicism

2011-11-09T21:33:00.000-06:00

Cano, My Foster is Ready for Adoption

2011-11-02T08:39:00.000-05:00

Cano, My Foster is Ready for Adoption

To those who are grieving & have hearts full of sorrow

2011-09-26T08:26:00.000-05:00

So many of my friends are grieving the loss of a loved one, and since Tom (my husband) passed away, I have looked for something I could read which might help explain some of my feelings. I highly recommend this book, Awakening from Grief, Finding Our Way Back to Joy, by John E. Welshons.

I could not help but include the first section on page 153 from this book. I include it for all the “non-believers.” We “believers” already know about pets. Some of us are grieving for human loved ones, but there are also some of us who are grieving for the loss of our dogs or perhaps are grieving for both the human and dog loved ones.

Purchase at amazon.com.

Excerpt from Awakening from Grief, Finding Our Way Back to Joy, by John E. Welshons. Pages 153 – 155.

CONSIDER GETTING A PET

If you don't already have a pet, consider bringing one into your life and your home. Dogs, cats, and other animals can be wonderful companions. They can help you to feel needed and loved. They can give you a sense of responsibility and a connection to another living being. The care, nurturing, and love they require can help you to focus on something outside your own sadness and confusion. And the love, companionship, and protection they provide in return can be extraordinarily rewarding. Tuning to the rhythms of another species, learning their needs and habits, and seeing their instincts manifest can add a wonderful depth and new dimension to your life. They cannot replace a loved one, but they can bring a very refreshing new quality to your daily experience.

RELAX AND TAKE YOUR TIME

Don't feel that there is any rush. Our society always wants us to "feel better fast.” If you want to work with grief in a way that will be truly enlightening, that will have a lasting effect, that will integrate into your experience in a meaningful way, it will take time.

In a very real sense, grief never ends. We merely learn how to incorporate it into the totality of our beings rather than push it away. When we can embrace all of the aspects of human life - the joys and the sorrows - we no longer fear that we will drown in sadness. But we must be willing to feel it. It's part of the curriculum we're taking. The unwillingness to feel is what drowns us.

So it may take weeks, months, or years. And fifty years from now we may still cry because the human side of us misses having a loved one physically present. But we are not our bodies, and our relationships don't exist in our bodies - they exist in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls. When we become aware of that reality, we begin to loosen the grip of grief.

The cruelest thing we can do to someone in grief is to suggest that they should be “getting over it" within some predetermined time span. A mother who has lost a child never gets over it. She will, hopefully, go on with life, love more deeply, feel grateful for the time she did have with that child, and become more consciously attuned to her other children, if she has others. But she will never “get over it.” The pain is the child's legacy to the parent. Hopefully; the parent can use the pain as a lever to pry open whatever doors in the heart have been closed.

Grief is a part of human life. We don't get over it. We can, however, use it as a tool to grow, to improve our relationships, to remind us to stay present in this moment, to experience the expansiveness and radiance of our beings - who and what we really are - and the truth that grief is only a portion of who we are. We can fully and consciously confront our grief and at the same time laugh, love, rejoice, and live our lives with energy, conviction, and enthusiasm. Grief is a problem in our society only because we are so afraid of it.

PRACTICE THE BREATH THAT HEALS

One of the most healing methods of working through grief is the practice of breathing into the heart space in the center of the chest. Take some time each and every day to do the following: Close your eyes and bring your awareness to the place in your chest where your heart resides. Breathe deeply in and out of that center, imagining that you have a large opening where your sternum (the solid bone in the center of the ribcage that protects the heart) is located. Take several deep, long, slow, relaxed breaths and imagine that you can feel the air gently moving through that opening like a warm reassuring breeze.

Then gently imagine a warm, light-filled, candlelit room in the center of your chest. All of your loved ones reside within that room. Imagine each of them in the form that is most dear to your heart, the one that makes you feel the most love. Take time to visualize each one, working primarily with the ones you miss the most. See and feel their presence there. Know that they are always with you. Know that you can always talk to them, ask their advice, laugh with them. This is not living in the past - it is the recognition that our love is always alive. It is most alive in this present moment.

Ask your loved ones for their guidance. Ask them to help you overcome your loneliness. And remember, your loved ones are always with you, eternally alive in the warm, soft womb of your heart. You are not alone.

* * *

Excerpt from Pages 196 - 200

Hurricanes, the most dangerous and destructive forces in nature, have at their cores a circle, perhaps twenty to thirty miles in diameter, of calm, sunlight, and serenity. This circle is known as the "eye" of the storm, a vast, tranquil, open space around which the cyclonic storm swirls.

In the “eye" there is no wind. No rain. No clouds. No destruction. The sun shines. There is peace. It's a fascinating phenomenon. In the center of the most violent, raging, destructive force in nature, there is quiet ... calmness ... serenity.

In the months and years following a loss, we feel as though we're caught in an emotional storm. We are consumed with a sense of swirling, unpredictable danger, a profoundly unbalanced agitation, an unrelenting anxiety. But we have forgotten that we also have a calm center. In this case, the “I” of the storm.

We have forgotten that at the core of our beings is a detached, dispassionate awareness that watches it all with equanimity. It is the part of us that never changes. It is the part of us that transcends death. It is the part of us we call the "soul.”

But, like many other things our modern, technological society has ignored, our spirits - our souls - have been neglected for centuries. We hardly even know we have them. We read about them in holy books, but we don t really know them. Our popular religious traditions have left us with few methods for consciously recognizing their presence within us. But there are little glimmers throughout our lives.

In chapter 17, we made reference to those moments in the middle of a terrible argument with a loved one when we hear a little voice inside saying, "Isn't this ridiculous?!" At those times we sometimes fight against our inclination to dissolve into laughter, though we may be suddenly impelled to hug, kiss, and forgive the offender. There's a part of us watching it all from another vantage point.

At times of extreme danger, we may also notice that there is a dispassionate awareness watching our fear, watching our minds freak out, giggling with recognition that our terror is almost laughable. Virtually all the people I've ever spoken to who have experienced a sudden, unforeseen "accident" or frightening turn of events have reported that they noticed a calm awareness from which they were watching it all without fear. It's as if at moments of sudden shock or great stress our minds burn out momentarily and allow our conscious¬ness to dissolve, however briefly, into the pure, undifferentiated, peaceful awareness of our souls.

Similarly people who have had "near death" experiences talk about witnessing their consciousness rising up out of their bodies and hov¬ering overhead as they watch and listen to events unfolding in the room below-the doctors and nurses scurrying to resuscitate them, the panic, the hopelessness, the resignation, sometimes even jokes that are told in the room. And then they return and report, to the doctors' and nurses' astonishment, that they were aware of everything that was said, and everything that happened while they were “dead.”

As these events unfold, we notice that if fear does arise, it often arises after the fact. At the height of danger, our consciousness stays clear and calm. We calmly watch our cars spinning out of control on ice. Only after they stop do we dissolve into terror as our minds "re¬play" the danger we just avoided. At a moment of danger, we may see our lives flash before our eyes in a millisecond. But while it is happening our minds are calm.

We touch this state of serenity during moments of profound joy or at moments of unaccustomed tranquility, like the moments we spoke about in chapter 12 when we are sitting by a river, or the ocean, or on a mountaintop. One friend of mine feels it when he is trout fishing, standing waist-deep in the center of the stream, aware only of the water moving against his legs, the breeze, the gentle swaying of the leaves in the trees, and the singing of the birds. Another feels it in his boat, out at sea, with no land in sight, no other boats in sight, just the swelling of the waves and the interplay of wind and sail. Another feels it when she is scuba diving, entering another world - a world of vast silence and radiant, pulsating, shimmering beauty.

Throughout our lives, that inner place has always been present, but it's been ignored. So when we touch it, it comes as a surprise. We don't recognize it. We think of it as an aberration.

That state of calm, dispassionate awareness is always available to us. And, with a little practice, at any moment, it is possible for us to tune to that inner place, to recognize it, to hear its wisdom.

It is the place meditation can take us. It is the place contempla¬tive prayer aligns us with. It is the place tai chi attunes us to. Each of these methods and many others seek to familiarize us with that which lies at the core of our beings, that which is eternal, unchanging, ever present; that which, in the end, is the only thing that can truly satisfy us, sustain us, nurture us, and fulfill us. It is the place we are really seeking when we "fall in love.” And it is the place we need to connect with to integrate all of life's inevitable losses into our beings.

Our society, in its zeal to" protect" us from suffering, has actually created a kind of emotional and spiritual paralysis. And that paralysis has inhibited our ability to see and perceive things as they are, because things as they are have seemed too frightening. Things, as they are, are only frightening when we have no awareness of a "higher" power, when we have no awareness of a transcendent reality that is timeless and cannot die, and no awareness of our connection to it.

Once we begin to gain that awareness, we can look directly at our lives without fear. We can look at the reality that everything in form is impermanent. Everything changes. Everything decays and dies.

The curse of being human is that our rational minds always seek to "understand,” to make rational sense of something that is, by its nature, completely beyond the mind's ability to grasp. But we keep trying. We keep attempting to understand how God or the Universe can, at times, seem so cold, so heartless, so cruel ... how life in form can seem so chaotic.

The blessing of loss is that it offers us situations in which the pain is so devastating, the sequence of events so confusing, we are "thrown" out of our minds. The hope is that we will come to understand that our minds cannot "think" us back to peace and contentment.

We can begin to "feel" our way through, to instinctively sense the other levels of awareness and existence within ourselves. And in that instinctive feeling, we can find the part of us that transcends death. When we find it, we recognize its oneness with the part of our loved ones that transcends death. It's the same thing.

What is found in our loved ones is found in ourselves. It's our connection to our hearts. It's our connection to each other. It's our connection to our Creator.

A sailor unexpectedly caught in a hurricane knows his only hope is to find the eye of the storm, sail to it, and remain inside it, moving within the storm, at its center, until it subsides. It may take days - ¬even weeks - of vigilant effort. But within the "eye,” while the raging storm swirls all around him, both he and his craft will be safe.

Like the "eye" of the hurricane, the “I” within each of us, within the often chaotic storm of human life, sits quietly and serenely at our core. And, confronted with the terrible devastation of loss, what choice have we but to sail into our “I”? To find our own soul? To connect with the highest and deepest spiritual awareness we possess?

We need only find ways to approach our "I,” to recognize it, and to learn how to connect with it. To "reside" in it at will. It is the transition from thinking to intuition. It is the journey from the mind to the heart. It is the unveiling of our soul. It is the rebirth that death and loss offer us.

May we all recognize the silver lining in each dark cloud ... the “I” of the storm.

(End of quotations from the book.)

* * *

In the Eye of the Storm

In the eye of the storm
where it’s safe and warm
I will fly to you
I'll find you
in the eye of the storm. . . .

My heart may be broken
My life may be stolen
but you can't take my Jesus from me.

In the eye of the storm
where it's safe and warm
I will fly to you
I'll find you
in the eye of the storm. . . .

You are my hiding place
You are my Savior
You are all that I need. . . .

(“Eye of the Storm,” Kitty Cleveland, from her album, “Be Not Afraid”)

Find more artists like Kitty Cleveland at Myspace Music

Eye of the Storm

2011-09-25T09:56:00.002-05:00

Find more artists like Kitty Cleveland at Myspace Music

EWTN Journey Home - Flannery O'Connor & Walker Percy

2011-09-12T18:28:00.000-05:00

There was a great program on EWTN Journey Home this last week. Click here for the link to the video. Dr. Benjamin Alexander, a former Episcopalian, is the guest. I enjoyed his take on things (which are similar to mine – he just says it better) as he journeyed into the Church. He is an English professor, teaching at Franciscan University, and most of the discussion here is about Flannery O’Connor and her writings as well as Walker Percy.

This topic of Flannery O'Connor brings to me the memory of my husband Tom and me going to a weekly discussion group at Trinity Episcopal Church in New Orleans on Flannery O’Connor. This was before our conversion to the Catholic faith. I was out of town one week, and Tom went by himself. This was back when he was in early stages of sleep apnea. They had an important guest speaker that night. He sat in very comfortable chair and commenced to fall asleep and to snore very loudly. He said he woke up with all these people standing around him and hollering at him. I was mortified and very embarrassed when we went back the next week.

My favorite story about O’Connor concerns her famouse defense of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist made during a dinner conversation with other writers and friends in the late 1940s or early 1950s. O'Connor reported the incident later to her friend Elizabeth Hester, in a letter dated December 16, 1955.

This is what O’Connor said:

“I was once, five or six years ago, taken by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband, Mr. Broadwater. . . . She departed the Church at the age of 15 and is a Big Intellectual. We went at eight and at one, I hadn't opened my mouth once, there being nothing for me in such company to say. The people who took me were Robert Lowell and his now wife, Elizabeth Hardwick. Having me there was like having a dog present who had been trained to say a few words but overcome with inadequacy had forgotten them. Well, toward morning the conversation turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend. Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the "most portable" person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one. I then said, in a very shaky voice, 'Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it.' That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable."

Prayer of St.Gertrude the Great

2011-06-07T11:55:00.001-05:00

Prayer of St.Gertrude the Great

Our Lord dictated the following prayer to St. Gertrude the Great to release 1,000 Souls from Purgatory each time it is said.

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Most Precious Blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, those in my own home and within my family. Amen."

Pastoral Care of Couples Who are Cohabitating

2011-05-16T08:55:00.000-05:00

(The following is an excellent teaching on this subject by Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan, Archbishop of Santa Fe)

April 3, 2011

Pastoral Care of Couples Who are Cohabitating

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We are all painfully aware that there are many Catholics today who are living in cohabitation. The Church must make it clear to the faithful that these unions are not in accord with the Gospel, and to help Catholics who find themselves in these situations to do whatever they must do to make their lives pleasing to God.

First of all, we ourselves must be firmly rooted in the Gospel teaching that, when it comes to sexual union, there are only two lifestyles acceptable to Jesus Christ for His disciples: a single life of chastity, or the union of man and woman in the Sacrament of Matrimony. There is no “third way” possible for a Christian. The Bible and the Church teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman and opposes same sex unions.

We have three groups of people who are living contrary to the Gospel teaching on marriage: those who cohabit; those who have a merely civil union with no previous marriage; and those who have a civil union who were married before. These people are objectively living in a state of mortal sin and may not receive Holy Communion. They are in great spiritual danger. At the best - and this is, sadly, often the case - they are ignorant of God’s plan for man and woman. At the worst, they are contemptuous of God’s commandments and His sacraments.

Of these three groups, the first two have no real excuse. They should marry in the Church or separate. Often their plea is that they “cannot afford a church wedding” i.e. the external trappings, or that “what difference does a piece of paper make?” - as if a sacramental covenant is nothing more than a piece of paper! Such statements show religious ignorance, or a lack of faith and awareness of the evil of sin.

The third group, those who were married before and married again outside the Church, can seek a marriage annulment and have their marriage blest in the Church. Please remember that divorce still is no reason to refrain from Holy Communion as long as they have not entered into another marriage or sinful relationship. Many Catholics are confused on this point.

Christ our Lord loves all these people and wishes to save them - not by ignoring their sin, or calling evil good, but by repentance and helping them to change their lives in accordance with His teaching. We, as His Church, must do the same. In accord with this, I would remind you of the following:

1. People in the above three situations cannot receive the Sacraments, with the important exception of those who agree to live chastely (“as brother and sister”) until their situation is regularized. Of course, those in danger of death are presumed to be repentant.

2. These people may not be commissioned as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, not only because of scandal, but even more because one commits the sin of sacrilege by administering a Sacrament in the state of mortal sin.

3. Nor are such people to be admitted to the role of sponsor for Baptism or Confirmation, as is clearly stated on the Archdiocesan Affidavit for a Sponsor. It is critical for the sponsor to be a practicing Catholic - and can anyone be seriously called a practicing Catholic who is not able to receive the sacraments because they are living in sin?

4. When it comes to other parish ministries and organizations, I feel it best to leave these situations to the judgment of the pastor. Prudence is needed, avoiding all occasions of scandal. We must see their involvement in the parish as an opportunity to work urgently to bring such people to repentance and the regularization of their lifestyle.

5. Many of these sins are committed out of ignorance. I ask that our pastors preach on the gravity of sin and its evil consequences, the 6th and 9th Commandments of God, and the sacramental nature and meaning of Christian marriage. Our catechetical programs in our parishes - children, youth, and adult – must clearly and repeatedly teach these truths.

A Church wedding does not require some lavish spectacle and entertainment costing vast sums of money (Indeed, how often we have seen the most costly weddings end in divorce in but a few months or years!). While beauty and joy should surround a Christian wedding, we must remind everyone that it is a sacrament, not a show.

6. Those who are married outside the Church because of a previous union are urged to seek an annulment through our Marriage Tribunal. If it can be found that the first marriage lacked some essential quality for a valid marriage, the Tribunal can grant an annulment. Your pastor can help someone start a marriage case for this purpose. It is important for such couples to continue to pray and get to Mass even though they may not receive Communion, until their marriage can be blest in the Church.

Our popular American culture is often in conflict with the teachings of Jesus and His Church. I urge especially young people to not cohabitate which is sinful, but to marry in the Church and prepare well for it.

I congratulate and thank those thousands of Catholic married couples who role model the Sacrament of Marriage according to the teachings of Jesus and his Church.

Sincerely yours in the Risen Lord,

Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan
Archbishop of Santa Fe

Source: Archdiocese of Santa Fe

GEORGE WEIGEL: Catholic social thought and the 2012 election

2011-05-14T21:32:00.000-05:00

GEORGE WEIGEL: Catholic social thought and the 2012 election

The Easter Praise of Christ

2011-04-25T09:28:00.002-05:00

From an Easter homily by Melito of Sardis, bishop
The Easter praise of Christ

We should understand, beloved, that the paschal mystery is at once old and new, transitory and eternal, corruptible and incorruptible, mortal and immortal. In terms of the Law it is old, in terms of the Word it is new. In its figure it is passing, in its grace it is eternal. It is corruptible in the sacrifice of the lamb, incorruptible in the eternal life of the Lord. It is mortal in his burial in the earth, immortal in his resurrection from the dead.

The Law indeed is old, but the Word is new. The type is transitory, but grace is eternal. The lamb was corruptible, but the Lord is incorruptible. He was slain as a lamb; he rose again as God. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, yet he was not a sheep. He was silent as a lamb, yet he was not a lamb. The type has passed away; the reality has come. The lamb gives place to God, the sheep gives place to a man, and the man is Christ, who fills the whole of creation. The sacrifice of the lamb, the celebration of the Passover, and the prescriptions of the Law have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Under the old Law, and still more under the new dispensation, everything pointed toward him.

Both the Law and the Word came forth from Zion and Jerusalem, but now the Law has given place to the Word, the old to the new. The commandment has become grace, the type a reality. The lamb has become a Son, the sheep a man, and man, God.

The Lord, though he was God, became man. He suffered for the sake of those who suffer, he was bound for those in bonds, condemned for the guilty, buried for those who lie in the grave; but he rose from the dead, and cried aloud: Who will contend with me? Let him confront me. I have freed the condemned, brought the dead back to life, raised men from their graves. Who has anything to say against me? I, he said, am the Christ; I have destroyed death, triumphed over the enemy, trampled hell underfoot, bound the strong one, and taken men up to the heights of heaven: I am the Christ.

Come, then, all you nations of men, receive forgiveness for the sins that defile you. I am your forgiveness. I am the Passover that brings salvation. I am the lamb who was immolated for you. I am your ransom, your life, your resurrection, your light, I am your salvation and your king. I will bring you to the heights of heaven. With my own right hand I will raise you up, and I will show you the eternal Father.

Source: Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Reading, Monday in the Octave of Easter.
This writing comes from a Resurrection homily from one of the greatest 2nd century Church Fathers, Saint Melito of Sardis. Though Melito's writings were extremely popular, this wonderful Paschal homily was lost until the 20th century.

Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!

2011-04-24T08:17:00.002-05:00

Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing, choirs of angels!
Exult, all creation around God's throne!
Jesus Christ, our King, is risen!
Sound the trumpet of salvation!

Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor,
radiant in the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes for ever!

Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory!
The risen Savior shines upon you!
Let this place resound with joy,
echoing the mighty song of all God's people!

(from Easter Vigil Mass)

Holy Saturday

2011-04-23T13:04:00.004-05:00

Dear Little Hearts,

The Battle is over! The Victory is won, our Beloved lies sleeping, soon to rise !

Holy Saturday is a day that we traditionally refer to as "the day preparing the spices'... that means that now we spend this day preparing for the great celebration of the Easter Vigil and the Resurrection tomorrow. It is a day of hope.. a unique day of expectation.

Please take some time to reflect on this beautiful lesson from the Divine Office, it is the second lesson at Matins for Holy Saturday... it is a real gem. Have a blessed day.
_______________________________

The Lord descends into hell - From an ancient homily on Holy Saturday

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

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

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

‘I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise. ‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

‘For you, I your God became your son; for you, I the Master took on your form; that of slave; for you, I who am above the heavens came on earth and under the earth; for you, man, I became as a man without help, free among the dead; for you, who left a garden, I was handed over to Jews from a garden and crucified in a garden.
‘Look at the spittle on my face, which I received because of you, in order to restore you to that first divine inbreathing at creation. See the blows on my cheeks, which I accepted in order to refashion your distorted form to my own image.

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

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

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

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

Prayer
Almighty, ever-living God, whose Only-begotten Son descended to the realm of the dead, and rose from there to glory, grant that your faithful people, who were buried with him in baptism, may, by his resurrection, obtain eternal life.
(We make our prayer) through our Lord. (Through Christ our Lord.)

_____________________________

Source: Poor Clare Collentines TMD

See also: Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Reading, Holy Saturday. This writing comes from a homily from one of the greatest 2nd century Church Fathers, Saint Melito of Sardis.

Journey Home - Convert from Judaism - Marcus Grodi with Brian Robbins - 04-11-2011

2011-04-16T23:27:00.000-05:00

Laura Lynne Tomlinson

2011-02-27T23:11:00.002-06:00

Please remember in your prayers Laura Lynne Tomlinson, wife of Stuart and mother of two young children, Brooke and Owen. I went to her funeral today. She was only 41 years old, too young, as the chaplain pointed out. Too young, Sweet Jesus, but we know we will see her again.

One of the songs played was "Sissy's Song." See video in post below.

Obituary & Tributes

Sissy's Song

2011-02-27T22:39:00.005-06:00

To Be Salt and Light

2011-02-11T22:07:00.002-06:00

It is a certain truth that if God in his providence exterminated every evil deed at once, killed every evil-doer, the final sum of goodness would be less. We have our Lord's own words for it; there would be diminution. Goodness itself, sanctity itself, is fostered by the proximity of evil. As St Augustine puts it so well: it pleased God to make good come out of evil rather than to abolish all evil. God could have abolished all evil in his omnipotence; he did not; he did the better thing; he made good come out of evil, he makes sanctity come out of it; makes martyrs through the cruelty of man, and gives his Church the most glorious traditions of fortitude and courage through the very presence of enemies in her midst and around her walls. When the great day of harvest comes, sanctity will be found to be so great and so high by very season of the wickedness that encompassed it.

Our lives are constantly bound up with those of other people in some way or another. Perhaps those people fail in many things, but they are in some way a portion of our own lives; they partake of the graces we possess. "The faithless husband," says St Paul, "will be sanctified through the believing wife." The children of believers are sanctified through the very fact of their paternity. One person in a family may be the salvation of the whole family, though it may not be given to him to see the final issues and the ultimate results. But there is the fact -- and absolute certainty, goodness inevitably produces goodness; it is unconquerable, it cannot be stifled, it has greater ramifications than evil can ever have....One saint outweighs a hundred, a thousand, perhaps a million sinners. The sanctity of one saint prevails over the sinfulness of a thousand sinners. Sin is negative; sanctity, positive. Sanctity is more powerful than sin; sanctity is, in fact, the only real power.

Dom Anscar Vonier, OSB

Dom Vonier (+1906) was the Abbot of Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England

From Magnificat, "Day by Day," February 6, 2011.

The Secular Franciscan Order: A pope's recommendation to join

2011-02-07T11:20:00.001-06:00

The Secular Franciscan Order: A pope's recommendation to join

Music from the Sarum Rite - Trinity Choir

2011-02-06T09:33:00.002-06:00

Music from the Sarum Rite 02.03.11

The Trinity Choir, along with Guest Conductor George Steel, General Manager and Artistic Director of New York City Opera, perform Music from the Sarum Rite. These gorgeous compositions – taken from the elaborate and theatrical liturgy of pre-Reformation England – feature soaring soprano lines and rich choral textures by masters such as Robert Wylkinson, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, and John Sheppard. Although rarely performed today, the Sarum Rite includes some of the most exquisite music of any age.

Trinity Choir - Sarum Rite

Calling An Army of Praying Mothers

2011-01-31T23:02:00.004-06:00

PRINT AND DISTRIBUTE
E-MAIL TO GOD'S PEOPLE
ASK OTHERS TO FAST AND PRAY

Mother of Millions

2011-01-31T21:44:00.009-06:00

Mother of Millions

This song is dedicated to the Catholic Bishop of Zhengding, China, Julius Jia Zhiguo, who, twenty years ago found an abandoned handicapped baby on his door step. In between prison and re-education camp, and usually under house arrest with 24 hour surveillance, he has cared for the hundred or so handicapped orphans that followed the first with the aid of a community of religious sisters. The Chinese authorities now demand that the Bishop should sign over the children or spend the rest of his life - he is 75 - in re-education camp.

The Mother of Millions of the refrain is St Colette, the Poor Clare patron saint of children. Haizi is mandarin for child. The words and music were created by the little sisters of the Poor Clare Colettine Community of Ty Mam Duw Wales, who also sing it on this track.

If you want to know more about Bishop Jia and his children please visit
http://www.cardinalkungfoundation.org/

Haizi, Haizi
In the dawn, upon the doorstep,
lies a naked new born child
with a torn and twisted shoulder
and an unsuspecting smile.

Haizi, Haizi
Child conceived without permission,
with no license to arrive,
with no Yuan to buy exemption,
with no leave to be alive.

Haizi, Haizi
You tell no one where you came from,
laid before the Bishop’s door
in your silent pain you whimper
like the hundred other more.

Mother of millions,
who carried no child of her own,
pray for the orphan, the wounded, the unborn;
take the child rejected
neglected and alone.

Haizi, Haizi
From the poor and humble Bishop
who spent twenty years in jail,
from the thirty little sisters.
from the shelter of the veil -

Haizi, Haizi
- they will take you. And your Bishop,
‘neath interrogation lamps,
still cant read the lies writ backwards
in Re-education Camps.

Mother of millions,
who carried no child of her own,
pray for the orphan, the wounded, the unborn;
take the child rejected
neglected and alone.

Ty Mam Duw Poor Clare Colettine Community
Upper Aston Hall Lane
Hawarden
North Wales
CH5 3EN
GB

Can You Not Watch One Hour with Me?

2011-01-09T10:29:00.006-06:00

Painting by Mary Patricia O'Neill Palmer
April 11, 1940 - January 8, 2011

(My Dearest and Best Friend)

Mary Patricia (Patty) O'Neill Palmer, SFO

2011-01-09T09:36:00.005-06:00

My best friend passed away Friday night after a long illness. Patty, may you rest in peace in the arms of God for all eternity. You were a wonderful gift and blessing to me. I will miss you always until we meet again in paradise.

O God our Father,

Creator of all the living, we entrust to Your gentle care all those we love who have gone before us; and have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

The Christian Journey

2010-12-19T10:17:00.003-06:00

It is a great delusion if we think the spiritual life will provide us with total peace accompanied by feelings of self satisfaction and that because we count ourselves amongst those who have faith, our life will know nothing but blessings and apparent tangible good.

No! The spiritual life, the Christian journey, is one of a constant battle. It is a battle between light and darkness, good and evil, and we are all called in some way to be Soldiers or Warrior Maidens for Christ and his kingdom.

God needs us. He needs us to reveal him to others. He needs us to give the witness of the choice for good and the choice for life.

God’s needful heart needs us to speak his words and to be warriors for himself and for Mary that others may gaze in the mirror and glimpse the Divine. What a responsibility!

Precisely because we are praying and struggling for souls to come to faith and light and precisely because we see communion and union of persons as a good, the evil one will try and divide and create chaos. He cannot abide any kind of harmony in music, deeds, or word.

So be prepared. Be vigilant. We all have a task to do. We all have a unique place in his plan of things, but it will involve challenge, battle and pain.

Oh! Little hearts HE IS WORTH IT ALL. Everything we suffer and endure, He is worth it all, this great God of ours, in whose arms, please God by his mercy, we shall all be soon.

Poor Clare Colettines, TMD

Ty Mam Duw Monastery of the
Poor Clare Colettine Community
Hawarden CH5 3EN Wales UK

Ty Mam Duw’s Crib

2010-12-19T09:41:00.003-06:00

Ty Mam Duw’s Crib

Prayers for Patty

2010-12-01T12:21:00.003-06:00

My friend and Franciscan sister, Patty, has taken a turn for the worse this morning, and her husband said that he does not think she is going to make it. Please pray for her. John Paul II, please intercede, you and all the Saints in heaven. St. Francis and St. Clare, please pray for Patty. Blessed Mother, be with Patty and hold her in your arms, we pray. Bring comfort to the family. Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, fountain of every blessing, we pray for your healing touch on the frail little body of our friend.

PRAYER FOR ASKING GRACES THROUGH THE
INTERCESSION OF THE SERVANT OF GOD
THE POPE JOHN PAUL II

O Blessed Trinity
We thank You for having graced the Church
with Pope John Paul II
and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care,
the glory of the cross of Christ,
and the splendor of the Holy Spirit,
to shine through him.
Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary,
he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd,
and has shown us that holiness
is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life
and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will,
the graces we implore,
hoping that he will soon be numbered
among your saints.
Amen.

With ecclesiastical approval
CARDINAL CAMILLO RUINI
the Holy Father's vicar General
for the Diocese of Rome

Prayer Request

2010-11-15T10:01:00.006-06:00

Please say the Chaplet for Divine Mercy for my friend and Franciscan sister, Patty, who has had a stroke and is in Ochsner's Hospital, New Orleans, in intensive care. She is in critical condition. Some of her biggest needs are nourishment, weight gain and strength. She weighs less than 84 pounds. Please pray for her, her husband Bob and children. Guardian angels, please pray for her.

Sistine Chapel on Vatican Website

2010-11-07T13:34:00.002-06:00

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

Lean on Me

2010-10-21T08:17:00.000-05:00

You Raise Me Up

2010-09-28T08:47:00.000-05:00

When I am down, and oh my soul, so weary.
When troubles come, and my heart burdened be.
Then I am still and wait here in the silence.
Until You come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.

There is no life no life without its hunger.
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly.
But when you come and I am filled with wonder.
Sometimes I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains.
You raise me up to walk on stormy seas.
I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
You raise me up to more than I can be.

Source

You Raise Me Up

2010-09-27T12:16:00.002-05:00

Source: Rob 'n Nancy Pollett

Fable of the porcupine

2010-09-26T13:47:00.003-05:00

It was the coldest winter ever - many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together. This way they covered and protected themselves; but the quills of each one wounded their closest companions even though they gave off heat to each other.

After awhile they decided to distance themselves one from the other and they began to die, alone and frozen.

So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. This way they learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by the close relationship with their companion, but the most important part of it, was the heat that came from the others.

This way they were able to survive.

Moral of the story: The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the best is when each individual learns to live with the imperfections of others and can admire the other person's good qualities.

Dictatorship of Relativism from Homily of Benedict XVI Prior to His Election

2010-09-20T08:57:00.003-05:00

This is a quotation from the homily of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Dean of the College of Cardinals, Mass for the Election of the Supreme Pontiff, St. Peter's Basilica, 18 April 2005. Consider together this quotation and that of Blesssed John Henry Cardinal Newman in the earlier post.

"How many winds of doctrine have we known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking. The small boat of the thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - flung from one extreme to another: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism and so forth. Every day new sects spring up, and what St Paul says about human deception and the trickery that strives to entice people into error (cf. Eph 4: 14) comes true.

"Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be "tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine", seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires."

Source and Full Text

Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's Definition of Liberalism in Religion

2010-09-20T08:36:00.005-05:00

The following is quoted from the text of Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman's famous "Biglietto Speech", given by Newman on the occasion of his appointment as Cardinal, on May 12, 1879. Does this liberalism sound familiar for our times?

"Liberalism in religion is the doctrine that there is no positive truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another, and this is the teaching which is gaining substance and force daily. It is inconsistent with any recognition of any religion, as true. It teaches that all are to be tolerated, for all are matters of opinion. Revealed religion is not a truth, but a sentiment and a taste; not an objective fact, not miraculous; and it is the right of each individual to make it say just what strikes his fancy. Devotion is not necessarily founded on faith. Men may go to Protestant Churches and to Catholic, may get good from both and belong to neither. They may fraternise together in spiritual thoughts and feelings, without having any views at all of doctrine in common, or seeing the need of them. Since, then, religion is so personal a peculiarity and so private a possession, we must of necessity ignore it in the intercourse of man with man. If a man puts on a new religion every morning, what is that to you? It is as impertinent to think about a man's religion as about his sources of income or his management of his family. Religion is in no sense the bond of society."

Source: Biglietto Speech

Pope Benedict's UK Visit: The News Everybody Missed

2010-09-20T08:10:00.001-05:00

"The Pope saved the most important news of his visit to the United Kingdom for the end. Most people didn't even hear or see it."

EWTN: Raymond Arroyo - Seen and Unseen

Pope: Prayer is a Reflection of the Divine Image

2010-09-19T13:04:00.000-05:00

EWTN.com - Tony Blair Highlights Intellectual Courage Of Cardinal Newman And Benedict XVI

2010-09-19T09:58:00.000-05:00

EWTN.com - Tony Blair Highlights Intellectual Courage Of Cardinal Newman And Benedict XVI

World Over - P Benedict XVI in the UK - Raymond Arroyo w Fr Sirico + Jos...

2010-09-18T22:56:00.001-05:00

Senator Rick Santorum: Charge to Revive the Role of Faith in the Public Square - Politics & Policy - Catholic Online

2010-09-13T12:01:00.000-05:00

Senator Rick Santorum: Charge to Revive the Role of Faith in the Public Square - Politics & Policy - Catholic Online

Can you tell the difference?? Sacred music vs. secular music at Mass.

2010-09-12T11:40:00.002-05:00

The Dream 2010

2010-09-09T20:34:00.000-05:00

The Greatest Commandment

2010-08-29T11:46:00.002-05:00

This is not to advocate Mormonism but it is to advocate loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. I have watched this video, and it appears what drew Glen Beck into the Mormon faith was the love he found there. This is a great lesson for all of us.

Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mark 12

My life changed,” says Glenn. “I may look the same. I may sound the same. But I am not the same man. . . the healing power of Jesus Christ transformed me.”

Monks Persecuted for Burying the Dead. Works of Mercy, Religious Freedom and Economic Liberty - U.s. - Catholic Online

2010-08-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Monks Persecuted for Burying the Dead. Works of Mercy, Religious Freedom and Economic Liberty - U.s. - Catholic Online

Franciscan Action Network: Transforming the world in the spirit of Saint Francis and St. Clare of Assisi

2010-08-11T11:12:00.000-05:00

Franciscan Action Network: Transforming the world in the spirit of Saint Francis and St. Clare of Assisi

Evangelization 2010 - Natchez, Mississippi

2010-08-10T14:17:00.001-05:00

ANNOUNCEMENT

Evangelization 2010

August 27-28, 2010

Natchez, MS Convention Center

Testimonies of Conversions, Love and Mercy

REGISTRATION FORM AND OTHER INFORMATION
(click)

Official Trailer - Nine Days That Changed The World

2010-07-26T11:16:00.000-05:00

Catholics Come Home

2010-07-25T08:48:00.000-05:00

Catholics Come Home: "Coming home has never been easier. We are family. Welcome home."

Padre Pio - Part 1

2010-07-21T12:49:00.000-05:00

Prayer of Saint Pio After Communion

2010-07-21T11:31:00.002-05:00

Stay with me, Lord, for it is necessary to have
You present so that I do not forget You.
You know how easily I abandon You.

Stay with me, Lord, because I am weak
and I need Your strength,
that I may not fall so often.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my life,
and without You, I am without fervor.

Stay with me, Lord, for You are my light,
and without You, I am in darkness.

Stay with me, Lord, to show me Your will.

Stay with me, Lord, so that I hear Your voice
and follow You.

Stay with me, Lord, for I desire to love You
very much, and always be in Your company.

Stay with me, Lord, if You wish me to be faithful to You.

Stay with me, Lord, for as poor as my soul is,
I want it to be a place of consolation for You, a nest of love.

Stay with me, Jesus, for it is getting late and the day is coming to a close, and life passes; death, judgment, eternity approaches. It is necessary to renew my strength, so that I will not stop along the way and for that, I need You. It is getting late and death approaches, I fear the darkness, the temptations, the dryness, the cross, the sorrows. O how I need You, my Jesus, in this night of exile!

Stay with me tonight, Jesus, in life with all it’s dangers. I need You.

Let me recognize You as Your disciples did at the breaking of the bread,
so that the Eucharistic Communion be the Light which disperses the darkness,
the force which sustains me, the unique joy of my heart.

Stay with me, Lord, because at the hour of my death, I want to remain united to You, if not by communion, at least by grace and love.

Stay with me, Jesus, I do not ask for divine consolation, because I do not merit it, but the gift of Your Presence, oh yes, I ask this of You!

Stay with me, Lord, for it is You alone I look for, Your Love, Your Grace, Your Will, Your Heart, Your Spirit, because I love You and ask no other reward but to love You more and more.

With a firm love, I will love You with all my heart while on earth
and continue to love You perfectly during all eternity. Amen

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2010-06-23T08:16:00.002-05:00

C.S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader contains one of the most powerful and unique depictions of fallenness and grace in modern literature. It’s also a rousing adventure tale that leads its voyagers to the edge of the world and Aslan’s country. 20th Century Fox and Walden Media have released the first trailer for their third installment of the Narnia film series. The Chronicles of Narnia: TheVoyage of the Dawn Treader opens in theaters December 10.

2010-06-21T10:36:00.004-05:00

A new miniseries/film is in the works, Sotto il Cielo di Roma, Under the Roman Sky. It will star James Cromwell as Ven. Pius XII and deal with his efforts to save the Jews of Rome.

_____________________________________________

New film can shed light on Pius XII's wartime efforts, says pope

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- A new film on Pope Pius XII can help people, especially younger generations, understand a period of time that is often forgotten, said Pope Benedict XVI. The made-for-television, two-part miniseries, titled "Under the Roman Sky," stars U.S. actor James Cromwell as Pope Pius, and covers events from July 19,1943, when Allied planes heavily bombed parts of Rome, to June 4, 1944, when Allied forces liberated Rome from German control. It also reconstructs Hitler's plan to kidnap the pope. Pope Benedict saw a shortened version of the film during a screening April 9 at the papal residence in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. The film, by Canadian director Christian Duguay, "presents the fundamental role Venerable Pius XII played in saving Rome and many persecuted people," the pope said after the screening.

Source: Catholic News Service

This Blessing Is For You

2010-06-21T09:44:00.002-05:00

This blessing is for you. (click)

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2010-06-17T07:39:00.002-05:00

Oil Spill Petitions

2010-06-15T00:19:00.005-05:00

(Click for more pictures.)

Nature reveals God’s power, and history reveals God’s providence; in this historical crisis of the Gulf oil spill may God provide us the power to halt destruction and reform the way we live.

May those whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the oil spill find dignified ways to provide for their families.

For those with power in business and government: may they humbly place their power at the service of the common good.

That all who feel powerless may experience through the compassion of others that the Lord hears the cry of the poor and is close to the broken-hearted.

For the health and safety of those directly involved in oil spill recovery efforts: may God grant them success.

May those aware of negligence or injustice in the management of natural resources have the courage to proclaim the truth, and may we all accept responsible for our use of petroleum.

For those who struggle with addiction, including our nation’s addiction to lifestyles dependent on oil; in discovering new ways of living that care for creation, may we know the freedom of the children of God.

Source: Franciscan Action Network

Send Forth Your Spirit to Renew the Face of the Earth

2010-05-23T10:12:00.003-05:00

Father of light, from whom every gift comes,
send your Spirit into our lives
with the power of a mighty wind,
and by the flame of your wisdom
open the horizons of our minds.
Loosen our tongues to sing your praise
in words beyond the power of speech,
for without your Spirit
we could never raise our voices
in words of peace
or announce the truth that Jesus is Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Alternative option for closing prayer of Pentecost Morning Prayer

From the Heart of A Priest

2010-05-21T21:25:00.002-05:00

Thoughts of Brother Pio
(Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina)

The field of battle between God and Satan is the human soul. This is where it takes place every moment of our lives. The soul must give free access to our Lord and be completely fortified by Him with every kind of weapon; His light must illuminate it to fight the darkness of error; it must put on Jesus Christ, His truth and justice, the shield of faith, the word of God to overcome such powerful enemies. To put on Jesus Christ we must die to ourselves.

Blessing

May Jesus
always be in your mind,
in your heart,
and before your eyes.
May he ever be
at your beginning
in your continuing,
and your ending.
And may he draw your entire life into himself.

May the Mother of Jesus
and our Mother
obtain from her Son for us,
the grace to lead a life
totally in harmony with the will of God,
and hidden in him.
Amen

Mary, Mother of God, Queen of the Apostles

2010-05-09T11:12:00.001-05:00

Isn’t it strange that those seeking equality with men and in the process, seeking the priesthood for women, miss the glorious elevation of all women as found in the Catholic Church through Mary, the Mother of the Church? God does not leave woman in the Garden where she is blamed for the downfall of the human race into sin and suffering but brings forth Mary, full of grace, the Mother of God. She is not hidden behind her Son in false humility but comes forth, proclaiming at Lourdes, "I am the Immaculate Conception.” Mary is "Queen of the Apostles" but does not claim apostolic powers for herself. She possesses something else and something more. Mary’s Magnificat is our song and our prayer, if we women would but realize it.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. . . .

Italian Boy Survives Abortion

2010-04-28T23:12:00.000-05:00

Italian Boy Survives Abortion

The Lord's Prayer

2010-04-13T10:59:00.001-05:00

Anthony Joseph (Stony) Gendusa III

2010-04-10T12:25:00.004-05:00

GENDUSA Anthony Joseph (Stony) Gendusa III passed away on Friday, April 9, 2010. Age 43 years. Beloved husband of Shelley High Gendusa. Son of Patti O'Neill Palmer and Anthony Joseph Gendusa, Jr. Stepson of Robert L. Palmer and Lisette Copping Gendusa. Brother of Anne Gendusa Smith, Robert L. Palmer Jr., Andrew G. Palmer and Lee P. Palmer. Also survived by 10 nieces and nephews. Stony was a full partner in the architectural firm of Anthony J. Gendusa Jr., AIA, serving as an Architectural Designer.

Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend a visitation at St. Joseph Catholic Church, #12 Bilbo Hill Dr., Poplarville, MS, on Sunday, April 11, 2010 from 4:30 PM until 6:30 PM and Monday morning from 10:00 AM until 11:00 AM at LAKE LAWN METAIRIE FUNERAL HOME CHAPEL, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. (in Metairie Cemetery). A Funeral Mass will immediately follow at 11:00 AM. Interment will follow in Metairie Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations to the Leonard C. Thomas Foundation, 1340 Poydras St., Suite 1850 New Orleans, LA 70112 Attn: Judy Ogle or the Touro Infirmary Foundation, 1401 Foucher St., New Orleans, LA 70115 preferred.

(Stony is the son of Patti Palmer, SFO, and stepson of Robert Palmer,SFO, both members of Our Lady of the Pearl Franciscan community in Pearlington, MS. Our Lady of the Pearl extends to Stony, his wife Shelley, and the family, all our love and prayers during this time of your great sorrow.)

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon him.
May the souls of the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

Letter to Shelley

2010-04-10T10:45:00.006-05:00

Shelley & Stony Gendusa

Friday, April 9,2010

Dear Shelley, Stony's mom and my dearest friend Patty called early this morning to give us the sad news. My heart hurts for you and the family. I have looked at Stony’s FaceBook page several times today, wanting to know him better, read his own words and the words of his friends. I have read the posts, looked at the pictures many times and cried a little. On his FB page, one can see how much you loved each other and what a zest and joy that Stony had for living. You celebrated life together.

In my mind’s eye, I see the picture of you two (“Climbing in the RZR”), Stony at the wheel, speeding across the farm, you hanging on for dear life and both of you laughing.

One of today’s posts on Stony’s FB page seemed to sum up all the many tributes made. This writer said: “This beautiful man, a gentle giant, a hero, touched the hearts of everyone who was blessed to know him. We will miss his sweet smile and easy chuckle. We will think of him often. We will love him forever.” To this, I say AMEN.

Dear Shelley, Stony’s precious and loving wife, “Did you ever know that you're my hero, and ev'rything I would like to be?”

May the God of All Comfort and Love be with you tonight and always.

Love & Prayers,
Ouida

From the Heart of A Priest

2010-04-07T08:57:00.002-05:00

My supreme God,
where are you?
I no longer seem to know you,
I cannot find you.
But I am compelled to seek you.
You are the spark in my dying soul.
O God, My God-
There is nothing else I can say
- Why have you forsaken me?
I know nothing else,
not even my own life
which I have become unaware of living.
Obedience is my one support
in this relentless storm,
my only fate
amidst the shipwreck.
My God, My Life, my all.

(Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina)

A Prayer by Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

2010-04-04T12:51:00.001-05:00

May Jesus comfort you
in all your afflictions.
May He sustain you in dangers,
watch over you always with His grace,
and indicate the safe path
that leads to eternal salvation.
And may He render you always
dearer to His Divine Heart
and always more worthy of Paradise.
Amen

Easter Vigil April 3, 2010

2010-04-03T21:24:00.000-05:00

EASTER VIGIL

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Saint Peter's Basilica
Holy Saturday, 3 April 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

An ancient Jewish legend from the apocryphal book “The life of Adam and Eve” recounts that, in his final illness, Adam sent his son Seth together with Eve into the region of Paradise to fetch the oil of mercy, so that he could be anointed with it and healed. The two of them went in search of the tree of life, and after much praying and weeping on their part, the Archangel Michael appeared to them, and told them they would not obtain the oil of the tree of mercy and that Adam would have to die. Subsequently, Christian readers added a word of consolation to the Archangel’s message, to the effect that after 5,500 years the loving King, Christ, would come, the Son of God who would anoint all those who believe in him with the oil of his mercy. “The oil of mercy from eternity to eternity will be given to those who are reborn of water and the Holy Spirit. Then the Son of God, Christ, abounding in love, will descend into the depths of the earth and will lead your father into Paradise, to the tree of mercy.” This legend lays bare the whole of humanity’s anguish at the destiny of illness, pain and death that has been imposed upon us. Man’s resistance to death becomes evident: somewhere – people have constantly thought – there must be some cure for death. Sooner or later it should be possible to find the remedy not only for this or that illness, but for our ultimate destiny – for death itself. Surely the medicine of immortality must exist. Today too, the search for a source of healing continues. Modern medical science strives, if not exactly to exclude death, at least to eliminate as many as possible of its causes, to postpone it further and further, to prolong life more and more. But let us reflect for a moment: what would it really be like if we were to succeed, perhaps not in excluding death totally, but in postponing it indefinitely, in reaching an age of several hundred years? Would that be a good thing? Humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation. The true cure for death must be different. It cannot lead simply to an indefinite prolongation of this current life. It would have to transform our lives from within. It would need to create a new life within us, truly fit for eternity: it would need to transform us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness. What is new and exciting in the Christian message, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was and is that we are told: yes indeed, this cure for death, this true medicine of immortality, does exist. It has been found. It is within our reach. In baptism, this medicine is given to us. A new life begins in us, a life that matures in faith and is not extinguished by the death of the old life, but is only then fully revealed.

To this some, perhaps many, will respond: I certainly hear the message, but I lack faith. And even those who want to believe will ask: but is it really so? How are we to picture it to ourselves? How does this transformation of the old life come about, so as to give birth to the new life that knows no death? Once again, an ancient Jewish text can help us form an idea of the mysterious process that begins in us at baptism. There it is recounted how the patriarch Enoch was taken up to the throne of God. But he was filled with fear in the presence of the glorious angelic powers, and in his human weakness he could not contemplate the face of God. “Then God said to Michael,” to quote from the book of Enoch, “‘Take Enoch and remove his earthly clothing. Anoint him with sweet oil and vest him in the robes of glory!’ And Michael took off my garments, anointed me with sweet oil, and this oil was more than a radiant light … its splendour was like the rays of the sun. When I looked at myself, I saw that I was like one of the glorious beings” (Ph. Rech, Inbild des Kosmos, II 524).

Precisely this – being reclothed in the new garment of God – is what happens in baptism, so the Christian faith tells us. To be sure, this changing of garments is something that continues for the whole of life. What happens in baptism is the beginning of a process that embraces the whole of our life – it makes us fit for eternity, in such a way that, robed in the garment of light of Jesus Christ, we can appear before the face of God and live with him for ever.

In the rite of baptism there are two elements in which this event is expressed and made visible in a way that demands commitment for the rest of our lives. There is first of all the rite of renunciation and the promises. In the early Church, the one to be baptized turned towards the west, the symbol of darkness, sunset, death and hence the dominion of sin. The one to be baptized turned in that direction and pronounced a threefold “no”: to the devil, to his pomp and to sin. The strange word “pomp”, that is to say the devil’s glamour, referred to the splendour of the ancient cult of the gods and of the ancient theatre, in which it was considered entertaining to watch people being torn limb from limb by wild beasts. What was being renounced was a type of culture that ensnared man in the adoration of power, in the world of greed, in lies, in cruelty. It was an act of liberation from the imposition of a form of life that was presented as pleasure and yet hastened the destruction of all that was best in man. This renunciation – albeit in less dramatic form – remains an essential part of baptism today. We remove the “old garments”, which we cannot wear in God’s presence. Or better put: we begin to remove them. This renunciation is actually a promise in which we hold out our hand to Christ, so that he may guide us and reclothe us. What these “garments” are that we take off, what the promise is that we make, becomes clear when we see in the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Galatians what Paul calls “works of the flesh” – a term that refers precisely to the old garments that we remove. Paul designates them thus: “fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like” (Gal 5:19ff.). These are the garments that we remove: the garments of death.

Then, in the practice of the early Church, the one to be baptized turned towards the east – the symbol of light, the symbol of the newly rising sun of history, the symbol of Christ. The candidate for baptism determines the new direction of his life: faith in the Trinitarian God to whom he entrusts himself. Thus it is God who clothes us in the garment of light, the garment of life. Paul calls these new “garments” “fruits of the spirit”, and he describes them as follows: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22).

In the early Church, the candidate for baptism was then truly stripped of his garments. He descended into the baptismal font and was immersed three times – a symbol of death that expresses all the radicality of this removal and change of garments. His former death-bound life the candidate consigns to death with Christ, and he lets himself be drawn up by and with Christ into the new life that transforms him for eternity. Then, emerging from the waters of baptism the neophytes were clothed in the white garment, the garment of God’s light, and they received the lighted candle as a sign of the new life in the light that God himself had lit within them. They knew that they had received the medicine of immortality, which was fully realized at the moment of receiving holy communion. In this sacrament we receive the body of the risen Lord and we ourselves are drawn into this body, firmly held by the One who has conquered death and who carries us through death.

In the course of the centuries, the symbols were simplified, but the essential content of baptism has remained the same. It is no mere cleansing, still less is it a somewhat complicated initiation into a new association. It is death and resurrection, rebirth to new life.

Indeed, the cure for death does exist. Christ is the tree of life, once more within our reach. If we remain close to him, then we have life. Hence, during this night of resurrection, with all our hearts we shall sing the alleluia, the song of joy that has no need of words. Hence, Paul can say to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice!” (Phil 4:4). Joy cannot be commanded. It can only be given. The risen Lord gives us joy: true life. We are already held for ever in the love of the One to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given (cf. Mt 28:18). In this way, confident of being heard, we make our own the Church’s Prayer over the Gifts from the liturgy of this night: Accept the prayers and offerings of your people. With your help may this Easter mystery of our redemption bring to perfection the saving work you have begun in us. Amen.

© Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Source

Happy Easter

2010-04-03T20:21:00.000-05:00

"The Exsultet is a poem, elements of which go back to St. Ambrose (+397). It is to be sung by a deacon (or priest or cantor) during the Easter Vigil as a hymn of praise to God for the light of the Paschal Candle. The text became part of the Roman liturgy around the 9th century. The text is theologically packed. It contains a summary of Easter’s mystery. Christ is risen: we too can rise in Him. This was prepared for from the fall of man, directed by a loving Father, and awaits only the end of the world, although our baptismal character allows us to live the reality now: Already, but not yet! "

Exsultet_2005.MP3 (15 MB)http://wdtprs.com/blog/podpress_trac/feed/6419/0/Exsultet_2005.MP3

Source: What Does The Prayer Say?

High Holy Days of Christianity and Easter Triduum

2010-04-03T20:20:00.000-05:00

This last Sunday was Palm Sunday. It marked the beginning of Holy Week, the time when Christians all over the world celebrate those events that constitute the central doctrines of our faith. On Palm Sunday, the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the back of a lowly donkey. Jesus comes as a king whose rule is not about being served but serving.

The Easter Triduum occurs within Holy Week and is the culmination of the entire liturgical year, full of symbolism and sacred mysteries, mystery because the meaning is so profound as to be beyond any single explanation. It is a three-day period and celebration of the death and resurrection of Christ. The three days are counted as the Hebrews counted their days, from dusk to dusk. Therefore, the three days of the Easter Triduum are from dusk on Holy Thursday to dusk on Good Friday (day one), dusk on Good Friday to dusk on Holy Saturday (day two), and dusk on Holy Saturday to dusk on Easter Sunday (day three). Each of those days "tells" a different part of the story. We come to church at various times during those days, and when we are not in church, we try to live a quieter, simpler life, focusing more of our attention on Christ and less on the secular world.

Holy Thursday marks the end of Lent and the beginning of the Triduum. [click here for liturgical year] There is a service in the Church, centered around the story of the observance of Passover by Jesus and his followers before his crucifixion on Friday. There is a wonderful account of this Passover in the Gospel of John. Read and consider here the description of this extraordinary God. This God of humble love who dwells in inaccessible light and who came to dwell among us – this God who washes feet, pouring himself out for loving service, like water in a basin. On this night, he institutes the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood. He becomes the Lamb of God, broken bread and poured out wine, no longer bread but His Body, no longer wine, but His Blood.We remember his prayers and suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane. Was this not where the battle was fought and the humanity of Christ cried out, "Father, if thou art willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." What cup, we wonder. The Fourth Cup not consumed during the Passover but on the cross of Good Friday when Jesus is executed in the manner of the common criminal of his day.

Good Friday is a day of fasting and abstinence. We recall the suffering of Jesus in the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the carrying of his cross down the Via Dolorosa. We remember his crucifixion and that something monumental has happened. God has died that we might live. We memorialize this in a Church service again. The service is a continuation of what began on Holy Thursday.

The Easter Triduum reaches its high point in the Easter Vigil, celebrated on Saturday night. We recite the words: “Night truly blest when heaven is wedded to earth and man is reconciled with God!” This celebration is a long one. We proclaim with fire and song that Christ is risen. We listen to the Scripture stories of God's interaction with humankind from creation through to the resurrection. The joy continues on with Easter services on Sunday morning and songs of praise, “Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!”

Sources or other interesting links:
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=33089 http://www.nativity.org/Triduum.html http://www.priestsforlife.org/columns/columns2003/03-03-24triduum.htm http://www.zenit.org/article-25544?l=english

Catholic San Francisco

2010-04-01T11:57:00.001-05:00

Catholic San Francisco

Posted using ShareThis

Archbishop's Column

2010-03-19T21:42:00.000-05:00

Archbishop's Column

I Am A Convert

2010-03-12T07:07:00.004-06:00

by Ouida Tomlinson, SFO

(Written April 1998)

I am a convert to the Roman Catholic Church. When I think about it, thanksgiving for my conversion fills my heart. I take a deep breath and whisper, “Thank you, Lord, thank you, thank you.” I want to play two sticks like Francis. I want to sing of “la joie parfaite” and dance. I want to tell everyone how good the Lord is and how he has blessed me by bringing me home. The gratitude never ceases. The joy never stops. I am overwhelmed with it. Come! Celebrate with me the joy of our faith!

I converted at the Easter Vigil Mass in April, 1994. It was not easy to leave my Protestant church, husband, family and friends. I was the only one in my RCIA class who cried while sharing my story. For most of them, it was an occasion of spouses and families uniting, but for me, I was experiencing the broken body of Christ in leaving others behind. The Lord opened the door, and I knew without a doubt that he was telling me to no longer delay making the decision. (I was a 1991 RCIA dropout.)

Initially, I felt like a child in a room with many doors and cabinets. The Church was the room, and every time I opened a new door, there were blessings and gifts and surprises. How rich we are! What spiritual wealth! Beginning with the Easter Vigil Mass, grace upon grace upon grace poured down from heaven and has never stopped.

I am no longer frustrated or searching for a home. Before, there was always a hunger and desire for more than was being offered and a desire to surrender and commit more than was being asked. I have a certain peace for the first time since I was eleven years old. I was baptized that year but never felt content in any church I joined (Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopal). Although each has blessed and taught me and helped me along my journey, it was never enough. There was always an emptiness. I felt that I was walking through the valley of the dry bones of Ezekiel. My heart cried out, “I thirst.” The Reformation threw away too much. Protestant churches have been stripped to the bone.

During the months prior to my conversion, the local Protestant church I belonged to was experiencing one of its periods of great division and vicious anger among its people. I wrote that church’s bishop, a friend of many years, and referred to a book that I had read on desert spirituality, Soul Making, by Alan Jones. I quoted my favorite passages from the introduction to Soul Making to the bishop. Some of the passages were: “I find it increasingly difficult to feel at home with my fellow believers. . . . I want a kind of Christianity that can be embraced with both passion and intelligence. . . . I want a gutsy, old-fashioned, demanding religion with no compromise and no nonsense. I want a great deal. Often, I feel that as yet, I have nowhere to lay my head.” Well, as a Roman Catholic and Secular Franciscan, I have what I wanted, and although the road is hard at times, I am at home. Now I have a place to lay my head.

My soul is at rest. I experience a sense of great serenity knowing that as a Roman Catholic, I am in the splendor of truth. I have the fullness of the faith. I have the seven sacraments. I have the Eucharist and the Real Presence. I can stand on the authority of the Church and willingly submit to its authority. It is not built on shifting sand but on solid rock, on Sacred Tradition and Scripture. It needs no defense but stands on its on. If it falls into error, the Holy Spirit corrects, and someone like Saint Francis is sent to lead us back and to rebuild.

Then there is the comfort. In all my trials and suffering, in deaths and losses, I experience comfort at a more profound level now within the Church. There is also a great sense of safety in all things, both physical and spiritual. Our mother, the Church, carries us in her womb, ultimately to be surrendered to the Father.

Catholics, never cease giving thanks for the Church and do not compromise your faith. Stand firm with your head high. Never cease praising God for the gift. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Recall the words of St. Francis as he was dying of the necessity of holding to the faith of the holy Roman Church.

Today, as I walk with Jesus, living my Christian life as a Roman Catholic and Secular Franciscan, life is flooded through and through with joy and gladness. My husband converted a couple of years after I did. We owe much to our Catholic friends. They helped us on our way by patiently loving us and accepting us where we were and by showing us, through their example, that they had something we wanted and that something was their Catholic faith. I owe much to my friend, Mary . . ., then Episcopalian, now a parishioner of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, who said to me in 1987, “Come with me to the Catholic Charismatic Conference. They have nice music.” When she saw the look of terror on my face, she added reassuringly, “We can sit in the back.”

My cup overflows. “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.” (Psalm 23:6.)

The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life

2010-03-10T11:19:00.000-06:00

Archbishop Chaput delivered this address, titled "The Vocation of Christians in American Public Life," on Monday, March 1, 2010 at Houston Baptist University.

The text of this address may be found here

Blog post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, Archbp. Chaput’s HOMERUN in Houston!

Another blog post by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf, The 1964 Hyannisport Conclave: Catholic leaders teaching Catholic pols how to ignore evil

Archbishop Chaput: John F. Kennedy's View of the Role of Catholic Faith in Public Service was Wrong - Catholic Online

Karol: The Pope, The Man

2010-03-05T22:09:00.001-06:00

This Saturday, EWTN presents a Lenten doubleheader! First, if you loved Pope John Paul II, don’t miss EWTN’s movie presentation: “Karol: The Pope, The Man,” which airs at 8 p.m. ET, March 6 (Part 1) and 8 p.m. ET March 13 (Part 2). The drama follows the late Pope’s life from the time of his election as Pope through his final days and reveals his amazing courage and commitment to Christ, the Church and his fellow man against the backdrop of a world in crisis. Then, stay tuned for “A Lenten Retreat” with Fr. John Corapi, SOLT, at 10 p.m. ET, Sat. (Encores at 1 a.m. ET, Sun. and 1 p.m. ET, Mon.). This is one of the most moving presentations ever given by a preacher known for his powerful presentations. Episodes include: 1. Father’s personal testimony and conversion story; 2. Repent & Believe in the Gospel; 3. For the Least of My Brethren; and 4. If God is Good, Why is There Evil, Pain, and Suffering.

Tour the Vatican

2010-03-01T11:50:00.005-06:00

Click Image Above To Tour St. John Lateran, Rome

(Also, there is a link in right column, at the top.)

INSTRUCTIONS: After you link on the site and select an image and it appears, then HOLD DOWN THE LEFT MOUSE BUTTON AND SLOWLY MOVE THE CURSOR AROUND THE ROOM. Scroll the mouse button to zoom. You can move more slowly by keeping the pointer close to centerline. Move the pointer up or down to look up or down. AMAZING! Many other tours are available, for exampe the Vatican Museums. Click here to see these.

Silent and Poor

2010-02-27T10:05:00.002-06:00

“Silent and poor, our hearts are overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, filled with an unconditional love. Silence is a humble yet secure path to loving.”

The Value of Silence

The Work of God Precedes and Exceeds Us

2010-02-27T09:30:00.001-06:00

"Instead, action that stems from charity
introduces us in the work of God,
who precedes and exceeds us."
Father Massimo Camisasca

In these times, too many of us are too busy doing what WE PERCEIVE as God's work. We are too busy doing to sit and spend time with Him, to pray and to listen. The active life must be balanced with the contemplative life or else we burn out and fail to follow the desires of our Lord because we have not taken the time to hear him speaking to our hearts. It is in the silence that Elijah heard the still small voice of the Lord, not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire.

As Secular Franciscans, we also remember that we go from gospel to life and life to the gospel, embracing both the active and contemplative life and following the example of Saint Francis, who followed the footsteps of Jesus. From the gospel writings, we know that Jesus often withdrew to spend time alone, in silence and in prayer.

Below is a quote from a writing by Father Massimo Camisasca. These are words that all of us, not just priests, should consider. Father Camisasca writes:

"Today many priests lose themselves in action, in the infinite number of activities and preoccupations that entrap them. For the action of each one of us to always be a source of nourishment, it must be constantly redirected to our relationship with Christ. And the place of our relationship with Christ is prayer, inseparable from silence.

"Silence, prayer, reflection and study are the answer to one of the evils that afflict the figure of the priest: activism, which remains on the surface of things and absorbs the time of our energies and our feelings.

"Instead, action that stems from charity introduces us in the work of God, who precedes and exceeds us."

The Value of Silence.

Give Silence a Chance

In Memory of Francis Wicks, SFO

2010-02-20T19:42:00.007-06:00

With great sorrow, Secular Franciscans learned yesterday that Francis Wicks, SFO, has left our midst with her passing into the eternal light and mercy of God. Francis was the long-time editor of Tau - USA, publication of the National Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order in the United States. We offer prayers for Francis and for her husband, Bill, Former National Minister.

(Bill has requested that we pray the Rosary for Francis at 6:30 p.m., PST, on Monday, February 22nd.)

2010-02-19T20:49:00.001-06:00

"This is the meaning of Lent, the liturgical time that, each year, invites us to renew our decision to follow Christ on the path of humility in order to participate in his victory over sin and death."

Pope Benedict XVI, Lent 2010

Living Water - Helping Haiti

2010-02-12T08:05:00.001-06:00

http://www.water.cc/haiti

Thank You, CBS

2010-02-08T10:49:00.002-06:00

Priests for Life and the pro-life movement thank CBS for it decision to air, during the Super Bowl, the pro-life commercial starring Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. The ad generated controversy in its beautiful story of Pam Tebow who chose life over abortion for her son, Tim, this year's Heisman Trophy winner. We appreciate CBS's firm stance and support them against any and all opposition from a shrinking pro-abortion minority.Priests for Life and the pro-life movement also pledge to intensify all efforts to persuade the other major television networks to show the same understanding of life that CBS did. We commit to building a pro-life mainstream media.

Source: http://www.facebook.com/thankyoucbs?ref=nf

Dear Friends, Please don't forget to thank CBS for airing the pro-life ad starring Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. Become a fan of "Thank you, CBS" at www.facebook.com/thankyoucbs. Thank you, Fr. Frank Pavone

Source: e-mail

Franciscan University Youth Conference 2010

2010-01-30T19:10:00.002-06:00

Prayer of Pope Benedict XVI for Haiti

2010-01-16T23:19:00.008-06:00

Prayer

God of all creation, as we weep with our family in Haiti, console us. In this time of crisis, open our eyes to look beyond the disaster to see Christ in our brothers and sisters in Haiti, as Christ sees us. Be with us as we stand in solidarity with those living and working in Haiti. Be with us in our mourning and guide our efforts to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, comfort the grieving and stand for justice. With your mercy, sustain us at this time as we continue to work for peace and justice. Amen.

For the Haitian people, that help comes to them quickly and comfort comes to those who hurt. Lord, hear our prayer.

For the lost or buried, that they are found and reunited with their loved ones. Lord, hear our prayer.

For the relief workers, that they have the tools they need, the courage and the strength to respond fully. Lord, hear our prayer.

For the families in Haiti and in the United States who are waiting to hear from loved one, that good news comes to them. Lord, hear our prayer.

For those who have perished, may their souls rest with you, oh Lord, where they will find eternal love. Amen.

Source

We Adore You O Christ

2010-01-11T14:18:00.001-06:00

“The moment when the Lord comes down and transforms bread and wine to become his Body and Blood cannot fail to stun, to the very core of their being, those who participate in the Eucharist by faith and prayer. When this happens, we cannot do other than fall to our knees and greet him. The Consecration is the moment of God’s great action in the world for us. It draws our eyes and hearts on high. For a moment the world is silent, everything is silent, and in that silence we touch the eternal – for one beat of the heart we step out of time into God’s being-with-us.” (Source: Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy)

“Do I realize that by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the reiteration of Christ’s words, the greatest miracle in the world is taking place? I may not realize that at this moment the very posture of bending the knee is a special prayer of adoration. Yet this gesture helps make me small not just in the gesture but within. The liturgical sign of kneeling can prompt my consciousness, inspiring ever deepening Faith.” (Source: The Mystery of Faith by Father Tadeusz Dajczer)

“Fatima means much more than Marian apparitions. The extraordinary message included in Eucharistic visions is paramount, namely the big Host from which drops of blood are flowing down into the cup. The mighty Angel bows deeply before the Host, touches the ground with his forehead in deepest worship. His whole attitude expresses the most profound adoration. The children of Fatima, shaken by the force of God’s presence, so intense that it almost consumes and annihilates them, receive God – the Body of Christ. The majestic might of God present in the Eucharist lasts for so long that their senses become as if suspended.” (Source: Fatima in Lucia’s Own Words – Sister Lucia’s Memoirs, Vol. 1, Fatima 2002, 4th Memoir.)

“As I realise all this, I’m speechless seeing the inadequacy of my adoration before God’s grandeur coming down onto the altar. He who governs this world is actually present. He who is Alpha and Omega of human history wants to unite Himself with me in a measure that’s beyond my normal capacity. This God adored by multitudes of angels comes to me as Love, the Redeeming One, the Eucharistic One to give me everything, to fulfill me abundantly. Infinity embracing finitude so that I, the very worldly I, become utterly fulfilled in and through this Eucharistic Love.” (Source: The Mystery of Faith by Father Tadeusz Dajczer)

Charity

2010-01-11T11:35:00.002-06:00

We Awaken In Christ's Body

2010-01-06T18:43:00.000-06:00

By Symeon the New Theologian (949 – 1032)

We awaken in Christ's body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ, He enters
my foot, and is infinitely me.

I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in His Godhood).

I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? -- Then
open your heart to Him

and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ's body

where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,

and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed

and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.

The Public Scandal of Catholic Politicians

2010-01-01T14:56:00.006-06:00

"O Lord, please send us Bishops like this one! A Bishop who will stand strong for your faith and love of your Church. A Bishop who is not afraid to speak your truths and dispense your Justice in Holiness. O Lord, send us Bishops like St. Thomas Becket."

How much more scandal do House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other pro-abortion/pro-choice Catholic politicians have to give before their bishops take concrete action? Perhaps the Bishops might take lessons from St. Thomas Becket who died for the Church and his faith.

St. Thomas Becket, pray for us.

Prayer for St. Thomas a Becket
Taken from the Roman Missal

O God, for the sake of whose Church the glorious Bishop Thomas fell by the sword of ungodly men: grant, we beseech Thee, that all who implore his aid, may obtain the good fruit of his petition. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who livest and reignest with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

________________________

The Door of Humility

2009-12-21T12:48:00.003-06:00

To enter the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, you have to stoop. The door is too low to enter without bending over. It is called the Door of Humility. Likewise, to see the Savior with your heart, you have to get on your knees. It is a humbling experience, while in prayer, to kiss the feet of the baby in Bethlehem, to kiss the feet of Jesus dying on the cross and then to remember that he was God and did this all for us because God is love.

The Miracle of the Incarnation

2009-12-20T19:42:00.005-06:00

The God of humble love who came to be among us.

St. Bonaventure on the Mystery of Christmas
(quoted from Bonaventure by Ewert Cousins)

At the beginning of the creation of nature, our first parents were placed in paradise; but they were driven out by the severity of God's decree because they ate of the forbidden tree. From that time his heavenly mercy has not ceased calling straying man back to the way of penance by giving hope of forgiveness and by promising that a Savior would come. Lest such condescension on God's part should fail to effect our salvation because of ignorance and ingratitude, he never ceased announcing, promising and prefiguring the coming of his Son in the five ages of history, through the patriarchs, judges, priests, kings and prophets, from Abel the Just to John the Baptist. Through many thousands of years, by many marvelous prophecies, he stirred men's minds to faith and inflamed their hearts with living desires.

Finally, the fullness of time (Galatians 4:4) had come. Just as man was formed from the earth on the sixth day by the power and wisdom of the divine hand, so at the beginning of the sixth age, the Archangel Gabriel was sent to the virgin. When she gave her consent to him, the Holy Spirit came upon her like a divine fire inflaming her soul and sanctifying her flesh in perfect purity. But the power of the most High overshadowed her (Luke 1:35) so that she could endure such fire. By the action of that power, instantly his body was formed, his soul created, and at once both were united to the divinity in the Person of the Son, so that the same Person was God and man, with the properties of each nature maintained.

Oh, if you could feel in some way
the quality and intensity of that fire sent from heaven,
the refreshing coolness that accompanied it,
the consolation it imparted;
if you could realize the great exaltation of the Virgin Mother,
the ennobling of the human race,
the condescension of the divine majesty;
if you could hear the virgin singing with joy;
if you could go with your Lady
into the mountainous region;
if you could see the sweet embrace
of the Virgin and the woman who had been sterile
and hear the greeting
in which the tiny servant recognized his Lord,
the herald his Judge and the voice his Word,
then I am sure you would sing in sweet tones
with the Blessed Virgin
that sacred hymn:
my soul magnifies the Lord,
and with the tiny prophet
you would exalt, rejoice and adore
the marvelous virginal conception!

Under the guidance of divine providence, it happened that Joseph, the Virgin's husband, took to the town of Bethlehem the young girl of royal descent who was pregnant. When nine months had passed since his conception, the King of Peace like a bridegroom from his bridal chamber (Psalm 19:5), came forth from the virginal womb. He was brought forth into the light without any corruption just as he was conceived without any stain or lust. Although he was great and rich, he became small and poor for us. He chose to be born away from a home in a stable, to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, to be nourished by virginal milk and to lie in a manger between an ox and an ass. Then "there shone upon us a day of new redemption, restoration of the past and eternal happiness. Then throughout the whole world the heavens became honey-sweet."

Now, then, my soul,
embrace that divine manger;
press your lips upon and kiss the boy's feet.
Then in your mind
keep the shepherd's watch,
marvel at the assembling host of angels,
join in the heavenly melody,
singing with your voice and heart:
Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men of good will.

Prayer of St. Bonaventure

2009-12-15T14:20:00.000-06:00

Pierce, O most sweet Lord Jesus, my inmost soul with the
most joyous and healthful wound of Thy love, and with true,
calm and most holy apostolic charity, that my soul may ever
languish and melt with entire love and longing for Thee,
may yearn for Thee and for thy courts, may long to be
dissolved and to be with Thee. Grant that my soul may
hunger after Thee, the Bread of Angels, the refreshment of
holy souls, our daily and supersubstantial bread, having
all sweetness and savor and every delightful taste. May my
heart ever hunger after and feed upon Thee, Whom the angels
desire to look upon, and may my inmost soul be filled with
the sweetness of Thy savor; may it ever thirst for Thee,
the fountain of life, the fountain of wisdom and knowledge,
the fountain of eternal light, the torrent of pleasure, the
fulness of the house of God; may it ever compass Thee, seek
Thee, find Thee, run to Thee, come up to Thee, meditate on
Thee, speak of Thee, and do all for the praise and glory of
Thy name, with humility and discretion, with love and
delight, with ease and affection, with perseverence to the
end; and be Thou alone ever my hope, my entire confidence,
my riches, my delight, my pleasure, my joy, my rest and
tranquility, my peace, my sweetness, my food, my
refreshment, my refuge, my help, my wisdom, my portion, my
possession, my treasure; in Whom may my mind and my heart
be ever fixed and firm and rooted immovably. Amen.

A Writing About "The Soul's Journey Into God" by St. Bonaventure

2009-12-14T08:25:00.008-06:00

by Ouida L. Tomlinson, SFO

We are all called to holiness (Lumen Gentium) and are called to make this journey into God.

Bonaventure’s inspiration for this writing is Francis’ vision of the six-winged Seraph on Mount La Verna where Francis received the stigmata. This vision of Francis symbolized for Bonaventure both the journey and the goal. Bonaventure uses symbolism and metaphorical language. He describes the journey by using various symbols such as a ladder, a spiral staircase, and a step-by-step ascent.

The Journey consists of three steps. Bonaventure uses symbols of the temple in Jerusalem for the three steps: (1) temple court; (2) temple sanctuary; and (3) into the holy of holies where Christ is symbolized by the Mercy Seat. He also describes the three steps as evening/dusk, morning/dawn and noon. He further divides the three steps into six steps or levels of ascent, written in six chapters, with the seventh chapter being union with God. The six wings of the Seraph symbolize the six levels over which the soul passes, the six steps of illumination which lead to God.

On days 1 and 2, we begin by looking without ourselves to creation. The world outside us comes to us through our senses, and our journey begins with the world through our senses of sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. In creation we see the vestiges or footsteps of God. We “behold God in vestiges, like the two wings covering the Seraph’s feet . . . .”

"Whoever, therefore, is not enlightened
by such splendor of created things is blind;
whoever is not awakened by such outcries is deaf;
whoever does not praise God because of all these effects is dumb;
whoever does not discover the First Principle from such clear signs is a fool.
Therefore, open your eyes alert the ears of your spirit open your lips
and apply your heart so that in all creatures you may
see, hear, praise, love and worship, glorify and honor your God . . . . "

On days 3 and 4 we go within to consider the image of God through the three-fold powers of our memory, intellect and will. “These two middle stages . . . are like the middle wings of the Seraph spread out for flight.” We enter into ourselves, into our mind, where the divine image shines forth. On day 4 our inner world is expanded to include our willingness to be enlightened by grace. Sin blunts our ability to choose well, and grace helps us to make better choices.

"Therefore, no matter how enlightened one may be
by the light of natural and acquired knowledge,
he cannot enter into himself to delight within himself in the Lord
unless Christ be his mediator, who says:
I am the door. If anyone enters through me,
he will be saved; and he will go in and out and will find pastures.
But we do not draw near to this door
unless we believe in him, hope in him and love him."

On days 5 and 6 we look above ourselves, trying to see God as God is and gazing into more light (darkness). Day 5 sees God as one and day 6 see God as Trinity.

"We can contemplate God not only outside us and within us but above us;
outside through his vestiges, within through his image
and above through the light of Eternal Truth . . . . "

On day 7 we die to self, we surrender our will to enter into the dance of the Trinity, and we pass over to the Father. The intellect yields to feeling – to the heart. The soul rests from intellectual activity.

"In this passing over, if it is to be perfect,
all intellectual activities must be left behind
and the height of our affection
must be totally transferred and transformed into God."

Bonaventure says that no one enters except through the burning love of the Crucified. One enters the heavenly Jerusalem through the blood of the lamb, and one is not disposed to make this journey unless they are a person of desires, burning with spiritual passion. Desire is the heart of prayer, and prayer transports us on this journey.

“Blessed is the man whose help is from you;
in his heart he has prepared to ascend by steps
in the valley of tears,
in the place where he has set.” Psalm 83:6-7.

Bonaventure says that no person can be happy unless they arise above themselves and that this is possible only with the help of Divine aid which is available to those who seek it from their hearts in fervent prayer. “Prayer, then, is the mother and source of the ascent.”

Francis’ vision of the Six-Winged Seraph

------------------------------

Source for quotations are from The Soul's Journey Into God by St. Bonaventure.

I'm only an ordinary Secular Franciscan, without any courses in theology or Bonaventure so do not accept anything I have said here as coming from one who speaks with authority. Comments, suggestions, and sources to further my understanding of this marvelous work will be appreciated. Thank you.

For nuns who call St. Clare's Monastery home, it's inspired living

2009-12-07T19:04:00.004-06:00

By Susan Larson, The Times-Picayune
December 05, 2009, 5:00AM

On a sunny Sunday morning, a diverse gathering of 30-plus people meet for Mass at the small chapel Uptown at the corner of Henry Clay and Magazine streets.

Some light candles for special requests, others offer up concerns in their morning prayers. A baby cries, is taken outside in her mother’s arms, then returns, soothed. It is a ritual as old as time, this sound of murmuring human voices, sometimes lifted in prayer, sometimes in song.

All marvel at the nuns whose voices lead the service, particularly Sister Helen-Carroll Petty’s strong soprano. After greetings are exchanged, the members of the congregation drift off to their daily routines, but the nuns stay right where they are. This chapel, after all, is part of their home, the St. Clare Monastery.

When a Poor Clare takes her vows, she pledges chastity, poverty, obedience and enclosure. She enters a monastery to pray, to undertake a contemplative life. The monastery becomes home, house of worship, place of work and recreation, the setting for most of her life.

This monastery, built in 1912, is a lovely place to live — starting with its gorgeous chapel. Its extensive grounds fill a city block, part sanctuary (in every sense of the word), part park, part beloved Uptown landmark.

When a visitor arrives, seeking anything from spiritual counsel to Sister Mary Blosl’s famous pralines, she rings the doorbell for the monastery or its gift shop, and is greeted through a grate, also a signature feature of monasteries. At one time, the nuns kept their faces hidden. Nowadays, the cheerful countenance of whichever nun has door duty greets guests.

Behind the walls

Entering the main hall, the sparkling linoleum floors, wood paneling and stairways that bear the soft, glowing patina of age, and comfortable though not ostentatious furnishings catch the eye. The walls, in soft neutral tones, bear religious art or crucifixes.

The first floor holds a dining room, kitchen, office, break room, library and rooms for visiting retreatants, as well as the chapel and the gift shop, an important source of income for the sisters.

The space seems open and comfortable. "Everyone always says it seems like such a large building for eight women," Sister Mary said. "But sometimes it’s hard to find a spot to be alone."

The monastery may be a grand building, but the nuns' rooms are spare, containing only essentials. 'The point, after all, is to leave the world - all that stuff - behind,' says Sister Charlene Toups.

Since the work of the Poor Clares is prayer and contemplation, everything in the monastery is selected for that end. So its wide hallways are clean and gleaming, with light flowing in through the windows. Orderly, utilitarian, serene. When life is cleared of the non-essential, it seems, there is room for contemplation.

Sister Charlene Toups, recently elected to a three-year term as abbess, gives a tour, weaving history and philosophy and spiritual wisdom into a seamless and witty narrative.

A New Orleans native, she entered the order in 1966. "I like to say I dropped out of college and into the monastery," she said. "I was driven by a real sense that the need for prayer would never change."

"This is built on the same plan as medieval monasteries," she continued. "The nave is the public chapel. Behind a wall is the choir, where the nuns gather for daily prayers, morning, afternoon and night."

There, the pews face each other, for the call and response of readings. Off to the right of the nave is a nuns’ chapel, where the women would worship in the days before Vatican II, when they were not to be seen by the congregation and so worshipped behind a screen. Now, they gather there for reflection and sharing.

Their real jobs

The Clares take prayer requests from all over the city, the country and the world. One local football coach used to ask the sisters to pray for the safety of his team, and, of course, for their victory. On a recent Sunday morning, the congregation prays for Coach Sean Payton’s Saints, as well as their own. Still others ask for prayers for the sick, the faraway, the lonely.

Mass at the chapel is open to the public each day, at 8 a.m. on Sundays and at 7:30 other days. "There’s a difference between solitude and isolation," Sister Charlene said. "True solitude puts you more in touch. Part of the contemplative life is to be for goodness, in whatever form it takes. Every religion has a contemplative tradition — Islam, Sufism. If we ever meet on the contemplative level, if we can pray together, there’s a chance for peace."

Rather than being withdrawn from society, the Clares are traditionally an urban order, with monasteries in the midst of or on the edges of cities.

"We need to be there, we need to pray for the needs of the city," Sister Charlene said. "People often say, ‘Oh, it’s so noisy here, with the sounds of the trucks turning the corners.’ But those sounds of the city are God’s sounds, too. The city makes our life possible. … We are not a democracy, but we are communal."

The library, where the sisters read, research and write, holds books on every dimension of spirituality and religion.

Sister Rita Hickey, the author of a brief biography of St. Clare, used these books in preparing a recent article for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, a commission conducted for the First Order of Franciscans. Her title was taken from the writings of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: "We have not here a lasting city."

Her topic? The need for social justice, concern for the environment and fragility of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

The sturdy brick monastery withstood the storm, but the lack of power and medical services led the sisters to evacuate to a monastery in Brenham, Texas.

Photographer David Spielman cared for the building in their absence, and many of his photographs and experiences from that period appear in his book, "Katrinaville Chronicles," published by LSU Press in 2007.

Spielman has known the sisters for more than 30 years. "The minute I walk into that building, my blood pressure drops and a calm comes over me," he said. "If you walk through the building, you really sense their presence.

"It’s one of the most spectacular places I’ve ever had the privilege to live in. Some nuns are healers, some are educators, but the Poor Clares are all about praying, and you really feel that in the building. They’re a real treasure, the kind of people who make New Orleans so very special."

Communal lifestyle

In the airy, well-equipped kitchen, it is Sister Rita’s week to cook, and the daily menu is posted to allay diners’ curiosity. For this day’s lunch, Sister Rita is serving up red beans and rice (delicious!), greens, coleslaw and perfect golden cornbread, with fruit and leftover cheesecake for dessert.

The dining room is where the sisters relax, sharing their thoughts and their days.

After lunch, the sisters tidy up with speed of organization and custom. A visitor takes a turn drying the dishes; it’s obvious where things go. In the blink of an eye, order is restored and the kitchen and dining room are ready for the next meal.

The second floor holds bedrooms and offices and the "fun" library, which holds a collection of murder mysteries and New Orleans books.

Sister Olivia Wassmer welcomes a visitor into her second-floor studio. where she creates miniatures, paintings and Christmas ornaments — New Orleans landmarks in bright colors painted on balsa wood. Her sketches become stationery and bookmarks as well.

Mardi Gras beads adorn the entrance to her studio. "I caught those at the Thoth parade," she said, which is the sisters’ favorite. "You know, if you wear a veil, you get some really great stuff."

In addition to her work as an artisan, Sister Olivia is the monastery bursar and archivist, keeping its long history and studying the best ways to preserve it. She also plans the liturgy and plays the organ for services.

On the first Sunday in Advent, she celebrated her 57th anniversary as a Poor Clare. She came to New Orleans from a monastery in Evansville, Ind.

"Who wouldn’t want to come to New Orleans?" she asked. "And once you get here, you don’t want to leave."

What sorts of things does she pray for? Sister Olivia takes a deep breath.

"A sister called from Alexandria asking for prayers for a boy who’s 5 years old at Children’s Hospital. I put a poster on the bulletin board. And after prayers for the faithful, we talk about it at the table. But the individual I was praying for was that little boy. Every prayer request gets written in the book on the desk."

Like any artist’s studio, Sister Olivia’s is filled with the creative chaos of works in progress; she always introduces a new ornament the Saturday before Thanksgiving (this year’s is a replica of the Preservation Resource Center building), so this is a busy time of year for her.

She copies her original sketches onto balsa wood, paints in the colors, then applies five coats of varnish.

The greatest compliment she’s ever received, she said, is from a woman who evacuated with her complete set of ornaments.

Sister Rita, who came here in 1963, is taking a break from kitchen duty.

"Want to see where I work?" she asks, and heads down to her studio in the basement. A former civil rights worker, she too was drawn to a life of prayer. A Barack Obama poster hangs on the wall across from her worktable.

"I wanted to put it on my bedroom door," she said, "but some thought it wasn’t appropriate."

She does ceramics, and her trusty kiln Casimir is ready to be filled with a new batch. Like Sister Olivia’s space, hers is filled with works in progress, manger scenes and Christmas ornaments, renditions of her signature "Christmas critters" and angels.

She listens to the audiobook of Dennis Lehane’s bestseller, "Shutter Island," as she paints.

Sister Charlene makes candles at a nearby workstation, so even the spacious basement is a busy place. Her work originally began, as so many of the projects at the monastery do, "as total serendipity. Someone gave the monastery a quantity of wax."

She began experimenting with wax and beeswax, using leftover wax from chapel candles, and different perfumes and colors.

Around the grounds

The monastery grounds are extensive, including two live oaks named St. Anthony and St. Roch. There is a grotto, a grassy labyrinth and benches for contemplation. The backyard is entered from Magazine Street through an electric gate.

Sister Charlene Toups shows off the extensive grounds, which include a grotto, a grassy labyrinth, benches for contemplation and a vegetable garden."Best thing we ever did!" Sister Charlene said.

There is a vegetable garden, where the sisters grow lettuce, okra, green beans and squash, an herb garden ("the basil’s going to seed," Sister Charlene says), and a Meyer lemon tree loaded with fruit. Neighborhood children often refer to the area as "the secret garden," a tantalizing mystery behind that brick wall.

There is also a small brick building that is the monastery’s cemetery.

"We take you from cradle to grave," said Sister Charlene.

The small mausoleum is an island of peace, light streaming in through the partly open windows.

The sisters have Mass there in November, and it is easy to feel the pull of the sacred in this lovely gray space, with headstones marking those who have gone on. One grave is the resting place of Sister Marie Pius Patterson, the first African-American Poor Clare, who died in 1959.

Private locations

While a visitor may see sacred buildings, the nun also sees home. Bedrooms are simply furnished with a bed, desk, lamp and wardrobe. A pair of running shoes hang over a chair, prescription bottles are atop a dresser. Most rooms have crucifixes; some have family portraits.

Postulants who enter the monastery only bring what is necessary — their clothes, Sister Charlene says, and family pictures. "The point, after all, is to leave the world — all that stuff — behind."

There is a stubborn sweetness and strength about these women, so devoted to the welfare of others. Their lives are rigorous, fairly circumscribed by prayer, work, dining hours, contemplation and fellowship.

Yet they all have that mysterious twinkle, that sense of humor and mischief that makes them approachable, lovable. Their brown corduroy jumpers, T-shirts and denim skirts, seem the very apparel of grace.

They radiate love and goodness, a sincere concern for the world outside their gate. The eight of them — Sister Mary Blosl, Sister Eileen-Clare Duffy, Sister Fidelis Hart, Sister Rita Hickey, Sister Elizabeth Mortell, Sister Helen-Carroll Petty, Sister Charlene Toups and Sister Olivia Wassmer — are a family, and they do their best to make their visitors feel welcome in their home.

So what is the most difficult thing about living in a monastery?

Sister Charlene reflects for a moment. "Trying to stay focused," she said. "The world is so full of distractions. And of course you miss that edification of success. Community is always a challenge — but you learn to live and let live, give and receive, bear and forebear."

And of course, by their example of community, the Clares offer a model of how to live, if not exactly in the world, then beside it, wishing it well, offering up prayers for its welfare.

In this time of spiritual renewal, when the world seems so fractious and fragile, the sisters’ serenity is especially attractive.

"If we live the life God intended for us," Sister Charlene says confidently, "God will provide."

But will they be watching the upcoming Saints game? Sister Charlene says firmly, but with her trademark humor, "Some more religiously than others."

Photos by Kathy Anderson / The Times-Picayune

Source: The Times-Picayune

St. Nicholas - Saint of the Day - December 6th

2009-12-06T12:37:00.003-06:00

American Catholic.org

Homily Advent 1

2009-11-29T11:53:00.001-06:00

Homily Advent 1

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