Mission Sunday

"Pere Marquete and the Indians" by Willhelm Lamprecht. Raynor Library, Marquette University. Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Last Sunday, the second to last Sunday of October, was World Mission Sunday. Mission Sunday was created in 1926 by Pope Pius XI as a day of prayer for missions and for the Propagation of the Faith. An additional collect for the propagation of the faith was in the Tridentine Mass required to be said on World Mission Sunday. 

We should not underestimate the impact we can have on the missions and the conversions of pagan souls to the True Faith instituted by our Divine Lord.

One year after naming World Mission Sunday, Pope Pius XI in 1927 named both St. Francis Xavier and St. Therese of Lisieux as the patron saints of missions. St. Francis Xavier was a prolific missionary. Despite language problems, lack of funds, and resistance from the Europeans as well as the natives, he persevered. St. Francis converted more people in his life than anyone since the Apostle St. Paul. He baptized over 50,000 in 10 years, converted the entire town of Goa in India, and he labored long in Japan.

But why St. Therese of Lisieux, along with St. Francis Xavier? She died at the young age of 24, after spending several years in a cloistered monastery. She did not teach catechism, she did not baptize anyone, and she did not go on any foreign missionary trips. So why is she a co-patron of missions? Pope Pius XI recognized that prayer and the contemplative life were essential to support those who were active in the mission fields. St. Therese, in her own autobiography, wrote:

“Our vocation is not go to reap in the fields of the mature crops; Jesus doesn’t tell us: ‘Lower your eyes, look at the fields and go and reap’. Our mission is more sublime still. Here are Jesus’ words: ‘Lift your eyes and see. See how in heaven there are empty places, he asks you to fill them. You are my praying Moses on the mountain; request workers of me, and I will send them. I only wait for a prayer, a sigh of your heart! The apostolate of prayer, is it not so to say, higher than that of preaching? Our mission, as Carmelite, is one of forming evangelical workers that will save millions of souls whose mothers we will be”

We can join the work of St. Therese by praying on Mission Sunday and even daily for the conversion of non-Catholics, for the reversion of lapsed Catholics, and for the success of foreign missionaries. Missionaries are needed in both foreign lands and in many of our own cities and streets. We pray for all of them to be successful. We pray for the Lord to send more missionaries into the harvest.

Collect Prayer for the Propagation of the Faith:

O God, Who willest that all men should be saved and should come to the knowledge of the truth: we beseech Thee, send forth laborers into Thy harvest, and grant them grace to speak Thy word with all boldness, so that Thy word may spread swiftly and be glorified, and all nations may know Thee, the only God and Him Whom Thous hast sent: even Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord: Who with Thee liveth and reigneth.

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World Day of Prayer for Priests

Today is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and as such, it is also recognized as the World Day of Prayer for Priests. Remember to pray for priestly and religious vocations today in a most earnest manner, and pray for the sanctification of our clergy. Worthy of special notice, today marks the beginning of the Year for Priests (June 19, 2009 - June 19, 2010), which has been chosen by Pope Benedict XVI himself, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney. A special indulgence for priests and one for the faithful is also available this year:

For the faithful, a plenary indulgence can be obtained on the opening and closing days of the Year for Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.

To obtain the indulgence the faithful must attend Mass in an oratory or Church and offer prayers to "Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to his heart."
The conditions for the faithful for earning a plenary indulgence are to have gone to confession and prayed for the intentions of the Pope.

Source: Zenit

In honor of today being the World Day of Prayer for Priests, please see the following past posts related to today.

Related Posts:

• World Day of Prayer for Priests (2007)
• 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations (2007)

Prayer for Priestly Vocations:

O Lord, God of power and majesty, you said that the harvest is great but the laborers are few. Send forth, we beseech thee, laborers into your vineyard to forgive sins, celebrate the Eucharist, baptize, and above all make us a people worthy of thee. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Image Source 1: Unknown
Image Source 2: Believed to be in the Public Domain, Priests from 1932

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World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests

Vatican Congregation for the Clergy

Theme for World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests
May 30, 2008

by Cardinal Claudio Hummes

Reverend and dear Brothers in the Priesthood,

On the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus let us fix the eyes of our minds and hearts with a constant loving gaze on Christ, the one Savior of our lives and of the world. Focusing on Christ means focusing on that Face which every human being, consciously or not, seeks as a satisfying response to his own insuppressible thirst for happiness.

We have encountered this Face and on that day, at that moment, his Love so deeply wounded our hearts that we could no longer refrain from asking ceaselessly to be in his Presence. “In the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch” (Psalm 5).

The Sacred Liturgy leads us once again to contemplate the Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, the origin and intimate reality of this company which is the Church: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob revealed himself in Jesus Christ. “No one could see his Glory unless first healed by the humility of his flesh.... By dust you were blinded, and by dust you are healed: flesh, then, had wounded you, flesh heals you” (St. Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel according to John, Homily, 2, 16).

Only by looking again at the perfect and fascinating humanity of Jesus Christ -- alive and active now -- who revealed himself to us and still today bends down to each one of us with his special love of total predilection, can we can let him illumine and fill the abyss of need which is our humanity, certain of Hope encountered and sure of Mercy that embraces our limitations and teaches us to forgive what we ourselves do not even manage to discern. “Deep calls to deep at the thunder of your cataracts” (Psalm 42[41]).

On the occasion of the traditional World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests that is celebrated on the Feast of the Sacred Heart, I would like to recall the priority of prayer over action since it is on prayer that the effectiveness of action depends. The Church's mission largely depends on each person's personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and must therefore be nourished by prayer: “It is time to reaffirm the importance of prayer in the face of the activism and the growing secularism” (Benedict XVI, "Deus Caritas Est," No. 37). Let us not tire of drawing on his Mercy, of letting him look at and medicate the painful wounds of our sin, in order to marvel at the ever new miracle of our redeemed humanity.

Dear confreres, we are experts of God's Mercy within us and only by so being, his instruments in embracing wounded humanity in a way that is ever new. “Christ does not save us from our humanity, but through it; he does not save us from the world but came into the world so that through him the world might be saved (cf. John 3:17)” (Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi Message, Dec. 25, 2006). Finally, we are priests through the Sacrament of Orders, the highest Act of God's Mercy and, at the same time, of his special preference.

In the second place, with an unquenchable thirst and longing for Christ, the most authentic dimension of our Priesthood is mendicancy, simple and continuous prayer that is learned in silent orison. It has always characterized the life of Saints and should be asked for insistently. This awareness of our relationship with him is subjected to the purification of daily testing. Every day we realize again and again that not even we Ministers who act "in Persona Christi Capitis" are spared this drama. We cannot live a single moment in his Presence without a gentle longing to know him and to continue to adhere to him. Let us not give in to the temptation to see being priests as a burden, inevitable and impossible to delegate, henceforth assumed, which can perhaps be carried out “mechanically” with a structured and coherent pastoral program. Priesthood is the vocation, the path and the manner through which Christ saves us, has called us and is calling us now to! abide with him.

The one adequate measure, with regard to our Holy Vocation, is radicalism. This total dedication with awareness of our infidelity can only be brought into being as a renewed and prayerful decision which Christ subsequently implements, day after day. The actual gift of priestly celibacy must be accepted and lived in this dimension of radicalism and full configuration to Christ. Any other approach to the reality of the relationship with him risks becoming ideological.

Even the great mass of work that the contemporary conditions of the ministry sometimes impose on us, far from discouraging us must spur us to care with even greater attention for our priestly identity which has an incontrovertibly divine root. In this regard the particular conditions of the ministry themselves must impel us, with a logic opposed to that of the world, to “raise the tone” of our spiritual life, witnessing with greater conviction and effectiveness to our exclusive belonging to the Lord.

We are taught total dedication by the One who loved us first. “I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here am I, here am I' to a nation that did not call on my name”. The place of totality par excellence is the Eucharist since, “in the Eucharist Jesus does not give us a ‘thing' but himself; he offers his own body and pours out his own blood” ("Sacramentum Caritatis," No. 7).

Let us be faithful, dear confreres, to the daily Celebration of the Most Holy Eucharist, not solely in order to fulfill a pastoral commitment or a requirement of the community entrusted to us but because of the absolute personal need we have of it, as of breathing, as of light for our life, as the one satisfactory reason for a complete priestly existence.

In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation "Sacramentum Caritatis," the Holy Father reproposes to us forcefully St Augustine's affirmation: “no one eats that flesh without first adoring it; we should sin were we not to adore it” (St. Augustine, "Enarrationes in Psalmos," 98,9). We cannot live, we cannot look at the truth about ourselves without letting ourselves be looked at and generated by Christ in daily Eucharistic Adoration, and the “Stabat” of Mary, “Woman of the Eucharist”, beneath her Son's Cross, is the most significant example of contemplation and adoration of the divine Sacrifice that has been given to us.

Since the missionary spirit is intrinsic in the very nature of the Church, our mission is likewise innate in the priestly identity, which is why missionary urgency is a matter of self-awareness. Our priestly identity is edified and renewed day after day in “conversation” with Our Lord. An immediate consequence of our relationship with him, ever nourished in constant prayer, is the need to share it with all those around us. The holiness we ask for daily, in fact, cannot be conceived according to a sterile and abstract individual acceptance but is necessarily Christ's holiness, which is contagious for everyone: “Being in communion with Jesus Christ draws us into his ‘being for all'; it makes it our own way of being” (Benedict XVI, "Spe Salvi," No. 28).

Christ's “being for all” is realized for us in the Tria Munera by which we are clothed in the very nature of the Priesthood. These Munera which constitute the entirety of our Ministry, are not the place for alienation or, even worse, a mere functionalist reductionism of ourselves but rather are the truest expression of our belonging to Christ; they are the place of our relationship with him. The People which has been entrusted to us to be educated, sanctified and governed is not a reality that distracts us from “our life” but the Face of Christ that we contemplate daily, as the face of his beloved for the bridegroom and the Church his Bride for Christ. The People entrusted to us is the indispensable path for our holiness, in other words the path on which Christ manifests through us the Glory of the Father.

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea... those on the other hand who send to perdition an entire people... what should they suffer and what punishment should they receive?” (St. John Chrysostom, "De Sacerdotio," VI, 1.498). In the face of the awareness of such a serious task and such a great responsibility for our life and our salvation, in which faithfulness to Christ coincides with “obedience” to the needs dictated by the redemption of those souls, there is not even room to doubt the grace received. We can only ask to surrender as much as possible to his Love so that he will act through us, for either we let Christ save the world, acting in us, or we risk betraying the very nature of our vocation. The measure of dedication, dear confreres, is totality, again and anew. Yes, “five loaves an! d two fishes” are not many but they are all! God's Grace makes of all our littleness the Communion that satisfies the People. Elderly and sick priests who exercise the divine ministry daily, uniting themselves with Christ's Passion and offering their own priestly existence for the true good of the Church and the salvation of souls, share especially in this “total dedication”.

Lastly, the Holy Mother of God remains an indispensable foundation of the whole of priestly life. The relationship with her cannot be resolved in pious devotional practice but is nourished by ceaseless entrustment to the arms of the ever Virgin of the whole of our life, of our ministry in its entirety. Mary Most Holy also leads us, like John, to beneath the Cross of her Son and Our Lord in order to contemplate, with her, God's infinite Love: “He who for us is Life itself descended here and endured our death and slew it by the abundance of his Life” (St. Augustine, "Confessiones," IV, 12).

As a condition for our redemption, for the fulfillment of our humanity, for the Advent of the Incarnation of the Son, God the Father chose to await a Virgin's “Fiat” to an angel's announcement. Christ decided to entrust, so to speak, his own Life to the loving freedom of the Mother: “She conceived, brought forth, and nourished Christ, she presented him to the Father in the temple, shared her Son's sufferings as he died on the Cross. Thus, in a wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace” ("Lumen Gentium," No. 61).

Pope St Pius X said: “Every priestly vocation comes from the heart of God but passes through the heart of a mother”. This is true with regard to obvious biological motherhood but it is also true of the “birth” of every form of fidelity to the Vocation of Christ. We cannot do without a spiritual motherhood for our priestly life: let us entrust ourselves confidently to the prayer of the whole of Holy Mother Church, to the motherhood of the People, whose pastors we are but to whom are entrusted our custody and holiness; let us ask for this fundamental support.

Dear confreres, the urgent need for “a movement of prayer, placing 24-hour continuous Eucharistic adoration at the centre so that a prayer of adoration, thanksgiving, praise, petition and reparation will be raised to God, incessantly and from every corner of the earth, with the primary intention of awakening a sufficient number of holy vocations to the priestly state and, at the same time, spiritually uniting with a certain spiritual maternity -- at the level of the Mystical Body -- all those who have already been called to the ministerial priesthood and are ontologically conformed to the one High and Eternal Priest. This movement will offer better service to Christ and his brothers -- those who are at once ‘inside’ the Church and also ‘at the forefront’ of the Church, standing in Christ's stead (cf. "Pastores Dabo Vobis," No. 16), and representing him as head, shepherd and spouse of the Church” (Letter of the Congregation of the! Clergy, 8 December 2007).

A further form of spiritual motherhood has recently been outlined. It has always silently accompanied the chosen ranks of priests in the course of the Church's history. It is the concrete entrustment of our ministry to a specific face, to a consecrated soul who has been called by Christ and therefore chooses to offer herself, with the necessary suffering and the inevitable struggles of life, to intercede for our priestly existence, thereby dwelling in Christ's sweet presence. This motherhood, which embodies Mary's loving face, should be prayed for because God alone can bring it into being and sustain it. In this regard there are plenty of wonderful examples; only think of St Monica's beneficial tears for her son Augustine, for whom she wept “more than mothers weep when lamenting their dead children” (St. Augustine, "Confessions," III, 11).

Another fascinating example is that of Eliza Vaughan, who gave birth to 13 children and entrusted them to the Lord; six of her eight sons became priests and four of her five daughters became women religious. Since it is impossible to be true mendicants before Christ, marvelously concealed in the Eucharistic Mystery, without being able in practice to ask for the effective help and prayers of those whom he sets beside us, let us not be afraid to entrust ourselves to the motherhoods that the Spirit will certainly bring into being for us.

St Thérèse of the Child Jesus, aware of the extreme need of prayer for all priests, especially those who were lukewarm, wrote in a letter to her sister Céline, “Let us live for souls, let us be apostles, let us save above all the souls of priests.... Let us pray and suffer for them and on the last day Jesus will be grateful” (St. Thérèse of Lisieux, Letter 94).

Let us entrust ourselves to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Queen of Apostles, our sweetest Mother, let us look to Christ with her, ceaselessly striving to be totally, radically his; this is our identity!

Let us remember the words of the Holy Curé d’Ars, Patron of Parish Priests: “If I already had one foot in Heaven and I was told to return to the earth to work to convert sinners, I would gladly return. And if, to do this, it were necessary that I remain on earth until the end of the world, always rising at midnight and suffering as I suffer, I would consent with all my heart” (Brother Athanase, "Procès de l’Ordinaire," p. 883).

May the Lord guide and protect each and every one, especially the sick and those who are suffering the most, in the constant offering of our life for love.

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes
Prefect

Mauro Piacenza
Titular Archbishop of Victoriana
Secretary

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World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Greetings from the Catholic Converts blog,

April 13 is World Day of Prayer for Vocations. In his message for World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Benedict XVI said:

"The Church prays everyday to the Holy Spirit for the gift of vocations. Gathered around the Virgin Mary, Queen of the Apostles, as in the beginning, the ecclesial community learns from her how to implore the Lord for a flowering of new apostles, alive with the faith and love that are necessary for the mission."

The Catholic Converts blog has been working on putting together a 24 Hour Rosary for Vocations. Based on the time in Vatican City it will begin at 6:00 PM tonight on the East Coast in the United States.

We are asking people to sign up for as little as 30 minutes of praying the rosary with an intention for vocations. I encourage you to consider participating in this event and also ask that you consider helping spread the word by forwarding this message to others who you think might be interested.

For complete information click this link: 24 Rosary World Day of Prayer

God Bless,

Chris

Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain

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World Day of Prayer for Priests

Today is not only the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, but also the World Day of Prayer for Priests. The priest is more than just a social worker or a therapist. Above all, the priest is a doctor of souls, whose sole purpose is to work for the salvation of the people of God.

The Roman Catholic Church has the sole privilege of possessing the four marks of the Church of God: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Because of the connection to the apostles, the Roman Catholic Church still has a valid priesthood along with the Eastern Orthodox Church. No protestant church has a valid priesthood.

Jesus came to destroy sin, satan, and death. He gathered twelve disciples to replace the twelve tribes of Israel - forming a new covenant with His people. These twelve disciples were the only ones allowed to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass, instituted at the Last Supper. These twelve were the only ones given the power to forgive sins and celebrate the Eucharist, which is passed down only through the ordained priesthood (CCC 1411). The apostles - meaning those sent by Christ - were given the full power of authority by Christ: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The sacred power of the priesthood is passed down at the ordination ceremony by the laying on of hands.

And at the Last Supper, Our Savior's words, "Take and eat, this is my body... take and drink this is my blood" (Matthew 26:26-28) truly transformed the bread and wine into His Body and Blood. In yet another act of humility, Christ gave Himself to us through this Sacrament - the Holy Eucharist. The apostles alone were given this power passed down through apostolic succession.

Our priests today have this same power to stand at the altar on account of their ordination. Our same priests have the power to forgive sins (John 20:21-23) and baptize (Matthew 28:19). Only the hands of the priest are consecrated to touch the Most Holy Eucharist; lay people should never touch the Eucharist. Only deacons and priests are truly allowed to touch the sacred vessels including the chalice and paten. Even though few parishes teach thus: servers, subdeacons, and even acolytes should only touch the sacred vessels using a chalice veil or a purificator.

Jesus Christ is the invisible head of the Church (CCC 792), but He chose to build His Church on St. Peter (CCC 552). And through the Church's history, priests have received the heavenly gift of ordination, mystically turning them into an "alter Christi". The priest stands in the person of Jesus Christ at the Mass and in ministering the Sacraments. In the "Catechism on the Priesthood" by St. John Vianney, St. John Vianney writes, "If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. Saint Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed." I highly recommend reading the Catechism on the Priesthood.

Of all the accounts of the Last Supper and the Institution of the Priesthood, which took place there, I am most fond of the account in The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. From pages 76-88, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich recounts a vision of the Institution of the Eucharist. In pages 89-93, she recounts the Institution of the Priesthood using holy oils. It is a wonderful section of the book to read - especially today.

The Theme for the World Day Of Prayer for the Santification of Priests (2007) (.pdf) is available on the Internet. To conclude, I ask my readers to pray for priests not only today but at least once a week, preferably on Thursday, the day that the priesthood began. Please also pray for more priests - more holy, traditional priests. Several prayers and a reflection are available at my post on the 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

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44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Today is the 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, and Pope Benedict XVI's message for today is available on the Vatican's website. For me, this is day especially important since I am now an official Roman Catholic Seminarian. Over the past year, I have heard the call of the Lord to leave the offerings of the world and follow after the things of eternity. It is no secret that Holy Catholic Church needs vocations. According to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, the number of religious sisters at the end of 2006 was 55,500 and the average age was 70 with 73% being 65 and older. But, as in most areas, quality is better than quantity even in vocations.

The Church does not need thousands of women entering religious life, who refuse to practice celibacy or who refuse to wear the traditional habit as an expression of faith. As I stated in my post Nuns Should Wear the Habit, traditional orders are growing, liberal and modernistic ones are thankfully dying away. So, let us pray to Our Lord and God for a greater amount of holy, reverent women to enter religious life and become brides of Christ. In my post Nuns Should Wear the Habit, I listed several religious orders that are faithful and holy, which have not fallen into the grasp of modernism. These holy order are following the requirement set forth in the current Code of Canon Law: "Religious are to wear the habit of the institute determined according to the norm of proper law as a sign of their consecration and as a testimony of poverty" (Canon 669, 1).

Similarly, the Church needs vocations of holy, reverent men to the priesthood as well as the religious life as monks. Speaking as a Roman Catholic Seminarian, men who promote heresy or heterodox ideas - including the need to ordain women, the need to allow homosexuals to be ordained, and the need to abandon priestly celibacy - are not the answer to the Church's prayers. The Church needs holy men who feel called to rise up in the midst of the world in order to defend the Real Presence, defend Marian doctrine, encourage weekly Confession, and promote Traditional practices including women's veils, altar rails, and the Tridentine Mass. As Fr. Pat Stratford stated in his article "Why the Church must continue to uphold priestly celibacy", priestly celibacy must be retained in the Catholic Church, and the Church does not need another modern priest attack this Church doctrine. People who promote the ordination of women remain oppose to the firm teachings of the Church in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, and they only perform great dishonor to Christ and His Church.

If you have not previously read it, I strongly suggest reading my article The Priestly Vocation today where I share a beautiful metaphor pertaining to the vocation to the priesthood.  In this past year, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) finally published a 98-page Program of Priestly Formation document (.pdf), the fifth of its kind, which thankfully states, "A candidate must be prepared to accept wholeheartedly the Church's teaching on sexuality in its entirety."

Let us remember to fast, prayer, and give alms not just in Lent but year round. By practicing such virtues and living in the state of grace, we can hear the words of Christ: “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men!” (Mk 1: 17; cf. Mt 4: 19). I heard the calling of Christ to serve the people of God and offer the Mass and the Sacraments.  Just a few days ago, a friend of DilexitPrior, the blogger at Letters from a Young Catholic, entered the Poor Clares.

The Church is very much alive and vocations are sprouting! Let us continue to pray for holy, reverent men and women to answer the call of Christ. Let us also pray for the conversion of those who promote heresy, heterodox ideas, or have not remained faithful to their vows. And let us pray for the growth of traditional religious orders.

Prayer for Vocations:

O Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of the Church, To You We Commend our Young People, In Particular Those Called to Closely Follow Your Son. You Know the difficulties, the Struggles, the Obstacles They Must Face. Assist Them to Answer "YES!" to the Divine Call, As You Did at the Invitation of the Angel. Draw them near to your heart So that They Can Understand the Beauty and the Joy that Awaits Them When the Lord Jesus Calls Them Into His Intimacy, To Be Witness of His Love in the World.

Prayer for Priestly Vocations:

O Lord, God of power and majesty, you said that the harvest is great but the laborers are few. Send forth, we beseech thee, laborers into your vineyard to forgive sins, celebrate the Eucharist, baptize, and above all make us a people worthy of thee. We ask this through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Parent's Prayer for Vocations:

Dear Heavenly Father, You Have Blessed Us With Children. We Sometimes Forget that They are Not Ours, But Yours, And that You Have Asked Us to Bring Them Up in Your Ways. 0 Gracious and Loving God, We Pray that Our Children Will Discover And Respond Enthusiastically To Your Desire for Them Whether It Be to the Vocation of Consecrated Religious or Single, Sacramental Marriage, or Ordained Life. Please Help Our Children To Have Open Hearts and Minds to Your Call. Help Us to Support and Encourage Our Children To Seek Your will in Choosing a Vocation. We Offer this Prayer in the Name of Jesus through the Power and Grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Photo #1 Source: Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation

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Pope Benedict XVI on World Day of the Sick

This past Sunday, February 11, was the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes as well as World Day of the Sick. Here are some photos from the Mass celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of the Sick:



Photo Sources: AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca

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Indulgence: World Day for the Sick

Today is the World Day for the Sick.

Pope Benedict XVI has decreed a plenary indulgence to the faithful who, under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharist, prayer for the Holy Father's intentions and detachment from sin) on February 11th in Seoul, Korea and to those who participate in a similar ceremony that day at any other place decided by the ecclesiastical authorities.

Via Argent by the Tiber

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Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Greater Double (1955 Calendar): November 21
Memorial (1969 Calendar): November 21

Today is the celebration of Mary's presentation in Jerusalem, which has been celebrated since the sixth century in some places. At the age of three, shortly after she could walk, the Blessed Virgin ascended the 15 steps up to the Temple to consecrate Herself to God. It is reasonable to assume that Our Lady entered the Temple at that young age with the words of Psalm 83 in her heart: "How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord" (Ps 83:1,2).

One reads about Mary's presentation in the temple only in apocryphal literature. The Protoevangelium of James states that Mary was offered by Anna and Joachim to God in the Temple when she was three years old. This action was to carry out Anna's promise to God that she had made when she was childless.

Today's feast emphasizes the holiness conferred on Mary from the beginning of her life on earth through her final Assumption into Heaven. Unlike the Assumption and Immaculate Conception Feast, today is not a Holy Day of Obligation. 

This is also the on which the Church celebrates the World Day of Cloistered Life, established by Pope Pius XII in 1953. 

Dom Guerangers writes the following history of today's Feast in his Liturgical Year:

The East had been celebrating for seven centuries at least the entrance of the Mother of God into the temple of Jerusalem when in 1372 Gregory XI permitted it to be kept for the first time by the Roman court at Avignon. Mary in return broke the chains of captivity, that had bound the Papacy for seventy years; and soon the successor of St. Peter returned to Rome. The feast of the Visitation, as we saw on July 2nd, was in like manner inserted in the Western Calendar, to commemorate the re-establishment of unity after the schism which followed the exile.

In 1373, following the example of the Sovereign Pontiff, Charles V of France introduced the feast of the Presentation into the chapel of his palace. By letters dated 10th November 1374, to the masters and students of the college of Navarre, he expressed his desire that it should be celebrated throughout the kingdom: “Charles, by the grace of God king of the Franks, to our dearly beloved: health in him who ceases not to honor his Mother on earth. Among other objects of our solicitude, of our daily care and diligent meditation, that which rightly occupies our first thoughts is, that the blessed Virgin and most holy Empress be honored by us with very great love, and praised as becomes the veneration due to her. For it is our duty to glorify her; and we, who raise the eyes of our soul to her on high, know what an incomparable protectress she is to all, how powerful a mediatrix with her blessed Son, for those who honor her with a pure heart... Wherefore, wishing to excite our faithful people to solemnize the said feast, as we ourselves propose to do by God's assistance every year of our life, we send this Office to your devotion, in order to increase your joy.”

Such was the language of princes in those days. Now just at that very time, the wise and pious king, following up the work begun at Brétigny by our Lady of Chartres, rescued France from its fallen and dismembered condition. In the State then, as well as in the Church, at this moment so critical for both, our Lady in her Presentation commanded the storm, and the smile of the infant Mary dispersed the clouds.

The new feast, enriched with Indulgences by Paul II, had gradually become general, when St. Pius V, wishing to diminish the number of Offices on the universal Calendar, included this one among his suppressions. But Sixtus V restored it to the Roman Breviary in 1585, and shortly afterward Clement VIII raised it to the rank of Double Major. Soon the Clergy and Regulars adopted the custom of renewing their holy vows on this day, whereon their Queen had opened before them the way that leads by sacrifice to the special love of our Lord.

Reflection from St. Germanus:

"Hail, holy throne of God, divine sanctuary, house of glory, jewel most fair, chosen treasure house, and mercy seat for the whole world, heaven showing forth the glory of God. Purest Virgin, worthy of all praise, sanctuary dedicated to God and raised above all human condition, virgin soil, unplowed field, flourishing vine, fountain pouring out waters, virgin bearing a child, mother without knowing man, hidden treasure of innocence, ornament of sanctity, by your most acceptable prayers, strong with the authority of motherhood, to our Lord and God, Creator of all, your Son who was born of you without a father, steer the ship of the Church and bring it to a quiet harbor"

(Adapted from a homily by St. Germanus on the Presentation of the Mother of God)

Collect:

O God, Who didst will that this day the ever blessed Virgin Mary, dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost, should be presented in the temple: grant, we beseech Thee, that through her intercession, we may be worthy to be presented in the temple of Thy glory. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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World Day of Prayer for the Sick

February 11th is the annual World Day for the Sick. After our nine-day novena to Novena to Our Lady of Lourdes, we arrive at the Feast of Our Lady under the title "Our Lady of Lourdes" today. Our Lady of Lourdes, patron of the sick, pray for us sinners.

Today please pray for the sick, visit them in a hospital, or visit them in a nursing home. Please continue to pray for the healing for our physical and spiritual illnesses, and may Our Lady of Lourdes, Mary Most Holy, join us in prayer to her Divine Son.

Prayer to St. Camillus de Lellis for the Sick Poor 

O glorious Saint Camillus, special patron of the sick poor, thou who for forty years, with truly heroic charity, didst devote thyself to the relief of their temporal and spiritual necessities, be pleased to assist them now even more generously, since thou art blessed in heaven and they have been committed by Holy Church to thy powerful protection. Obtain for them from Almighty God the healing of all their maladies, or, at least, the spirit of Christian patience and resignation that they may sanctify them and comfort them in the hour of their passing to eternity; at the same time obtain for us the precious grace of living and dying after thine example in the practice of divine love. Amen.

Indulgences for World Day of Prayer for the Sick:

Please read up on the many ways to gain a plenary indulgence today which EWTN has made available from the Vatican. Part of that document states the following on today's indulgences:

"[A] Plenary Indulgence will be granted "to the faithful who, under the usual conditions (sacramental Confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Holy Father), and with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin, participate on February 11 at the cathedral of Adelaide, or at any other place decided by the ecclesiastical authorities, in a sacred ceremony held to beseech God to grant the goals of the World Day of the Sick."

The decree continues: "The faithful who, in public hospitals or in private houses, like 'Good Samaritans' charitably assist the sick -especially those with mental problems who require greater patience, care and attention -and who, because of the service they provide, cannot participate in the aforementioned ceremony, will obtain the same gift of Plenary Indulgence if on that day they generously provide, at least for a few hours, their charitable assistance to the sick as if they were tending to Christ the Lord Himself,with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin, and with the intention of observing, as soon as they can, the conditions required for obtaining the Plenary Indulgence."

The faithful who, "through sickness, old age or similar reason, are prevented from participating in the aforementioned ceremony, may obtain the Plenary Indulgence if, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of observing, as soon as they can, the conditions required, they spiritually participate together with the Holy Father in the aforesaid ceremony, pray devotedly for the sick, and offer - through the Virgin Mary 'Health of the Sick' - their physical and spiritual sufferings to God."

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