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Please see here for a Memorial Day Prayer.
Pope Gelasius in his ninth letter (chap. 26) to the bishops of Lucania condemned the evil practice which had been introduced of women serving the priest at the celebration of Mass. Since this abuse had spread to the Greeks, Innocent IV strictly forbade it in his letter to the bishop of Tusculum: "Women should not dare to serve at the altar; they should be altogether refused this ministry." We too have forbidden this practice in the same words in Our oft-repeated constitution Etsi Pastoralis, sect. 6, no. 21."In 1970 the Vatican condemned female altar serving in Liturgicae instaurationes as well as in 1980's Inaestimabile donum. Not until a circular letter from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to presidents of episcopal conferences on March 15, 1994, did the Vatican officially allow female altar serving.
Dear young person ages 19-30,
The time is drawing nearer for the Summer Session with the Brothers of St. John. We know that many of you are interested in coming! Great! Please spread the word by forwarding this e-mail, and please let me know BEFORE MAY 28TH if you can come, or are thinking about coming, even if you are not sure!
The Summer Session will begin with having the participants arrive at 2 p.m. on June 6th. It is comprised of four elements: the hiking/camping trip; the Philosophy Session; the Theology Session; and the Silent Retreat. Participants may participate in any of the above activities, or two of them, or three of them. We simply need to know in advance in order to organize our guesthouse.
The hiking trip will be fun but also a good work out! I have not yet scouted out the course, but it should pulse through the beautfiul hills of Wisconsin. We will be sleeping in tents and sleeping bags in parks along the way. (We can supply them for those who cannot bring them by plane. If you can bring them with you, though, all the better!) Please bring boots, rain gear, sunscreen, hats, water bottles (large), a Rosary, and any other camping gear you think of. Please let me know if you can bring anything which we all can use -- I am thinking especially of things for cooking. We will leave Wednesday afternoon to drive to our destination and set up camp. From there, we will start our hike on Thursday morning, and hike all day Thursday and Friday and most of the day Saturday. The hike will be a good work out! Be ready for it! We will have Mass, Adoration, and the Offices every day. The rest of the day will be spent in "God's Cathedral" of nature! Sounds like Heaven!
After we return to Princeville Saturday night, we will have the chance to rest all day Sunday, celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi with the Brothers and Sisters in Princveille.
Sunday night begins the Philosophy Session, taught by Brother Nathan. We hope to have three Philosophy Classes per day on the theme of art and contemplation, with a conference a little more spiritual in nature in the evenings after dinner. The rest of the day will be structured by the prayer of the Offices and Mass with the Brothers, and a variety of things in the afternoons, varying from free-time to fun activities (like sports, walks, art and culture, etc) to work projects with the Brothers and Sisters. At night, we will have campfires, music, and time to relax together. We also hope to invite local artists and musicians to come for a few evenings per week to share their art with us. These evenings will be open to the young adults in the area to come and join us. The session will run through Friday night.
Saturday, the 16th, we will have a hike together in the woods nearby, and spend a day of recreation.
Sunday, the 17th will be celebrated with the Community of the Brothers and Sisters, in the calm repose of the Day of the Lord. On the evening of the 17th, will begin the Theology Session.
This Theology session, taught by Father Joseph Mary, will mirror the Philosophy Session in schedule, and will be based a lot on the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas. (If you have a copy, please bring it, along with your Bible.) There will also be certain evenings for an "evening program" just as there will be during the week of Philosophy.
After another exhilarating weekend of hiking and rest, on the evening of Sunday, June 24th, a retreat will begin: a silent retreat on the Gospel of St. John. The retreat will be preached by Father Antoine Thomas (and perhaps another Brother), and will include three meditations per day on the Christian life flowing from the Gospel of St. John. Free time for personal prayer and study, time for solitary Eucharistic adoration every afternoon, spiritual direction and confession, and the liturgical prayer of the Brothers and Sisters will provide the perfect opportunity to go "into the deep waters" of John's contemplation of Christ Crucified and Glorified. The retreat will close on Sunday, July 1st, after lunch. The retreat will be entirely in silence, to afford each of the participants the opportunity to discover the unique choice and bond of love between their hearts and the hearts of Jesus and Mary.
The cost for the whole session is only $350! If you would like to come to any one of the parts, the price is $150 for each of the three main parts: the hike, one or both of the two-week sessions, and the retreat. Obviously, we are offering our services to you freely, out of love for Christ. If you can offer a larger donation, it would be appreciated, since we live on gifts. However, if this price is already too much for you, please just let me know and we can work something out!
All in all, this summer is going to be great! Please spread the word about this session, and bring your friends! We are happy to serve you, and I stand ready to answer any questions you may have.
May Mary draw the young people here who will most benefit from it.
"Let the one who thirsts come forward, and the one who wants it receive the gift of life-giving water!" (Revelation 21).
I'm emailing a number of prominent Catholic bloggers, and have included your address in the BCC of this email, to inform you of a project that took place at Oregon State University. This university has a strong liberal presence. You might remember that The Insurgent student newspaper at the U of O (in Eugene, 40 minutes away) printed pornographic drawing of Jesus Christ about a year ago. This was lauded by some here at OSU. The university has a very strong gay presence (with pride week, featuring "lube olympics" and other vile events). Despite the secularism and liberalism, the Catholic students here are pretty cool.
Well, some friends of mine got the idea to "Saint bomb" campus. Using chalk, hundreds of Catholic Saint names were written all over campus last week. This was done during perhaps the busiest week of spring term. Many events took place this week on the Quad. The Genocide Awareness Project came to the quad, drawing a large number of people. The "Snow in the Quad" (put on by the Protestant apparel designer CIVIL) came to set up the next day. The Relay for Life event happened at night on the quad, which meant hundreds of students were walking by Saint names nonstop all night long. We also used chalk to advertise Mass times. Lots of exposure for the Church!
Here are two videos documenting this event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yaAM5IpLqU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amsW6p13ofE
The Newman Center had a booth set up inside the Memorial Union building with a "Find your Saint" computer set up. Some non-Catholics came by to find their Saints. Other Catholics who haven't been to Church for a while saw their confirmation Saint name on the ground. Other Catholics got a lot of joy to see the names and to see Christ's presence in a tangible form on campus. And some others were annoyed at the audacity of these students.
We are trying to get more exposure to this project, so if you'd like to link to this video, please do! We'd like to see others get this idea, and maybe do it at their campus, to remind wayward Catholics of their roots and to show a strong presence of Faith! The response we've gotten from people around the community has been amazing, and the priests loved it!
One more thing to note... we got permission from the Memorial Union (the student union on campus) as well as the Church before doing this.