The Cultural Importance of the Cloistered

The cloistered men and women are doing more for our country than all its politicians and labor leaders; they are atoning for sins of us all. They are averting the just wrath of God, repairing the broken fences of those who sin and pray not, rebel and atone not. As ten just men would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, so ten just saints can save a nation now.

— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

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April 2018 Catholic Family News Conference

Catholic Family News' annual conference will be held from April 6-8, 2018 in Deerfield (Chicago), Illinois. Register now at www.catholicfamilynews.org, or call 1 (800) 474-8522.

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Monastery of Ligugé

This video was made for the tens of thousands of believers who come to hear the uplifting Gregorian chants from in the oldest monastery in the West, that of Ligugé.  This is the beauty of having Mass said in a universal language - even if we do not speak Latin, we can understand the Mass when it is said in a universal, timeless, and global language.  And for Catholics that language is Latin.

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First Mass of Jesús Cano Moreno & RP Guiscafré.

Some beautiful images from Facebook showing the first Mass of both of these priests.  Let us pray for them and for their work on behalf of the salvation of souls.

 

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The Journey of a Priest: Sacred Heart of Jesus Seminary

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Public vs. Private Litanies

For those new to Catholicism - and even those of us who have been Catholic for a long time - we may be unfamiliar with what is a public versus a private litany. 

A good summary is given by the Catholic Encyclopedia of litanies and the distinction of public versus private:

A litany is a well-known and much appreciated form of responsive petition, used in public liturgical services, and in private devotions, for common necessities of the Church, or in calamities — to implore God's aid or to appease His just wrath. This form of prayer finds its model in Psalm cxxxv: 'Praise the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Praise ye the God of gods . . . the Lord of lords . . . Who alone doth great wonders . . . Who made the heavens', etc., with the concluding words in each verse, "for his mercy endureth for ever."...

...Litanies appeared in honour of God the Father, of God the Son, of God the Holy Ghost, of the Precious Blood, of the Blessed Virgin, of the Immaculate Conception, of each of the saints honoured in different countries, for the souls in Purgatory, etc.

In 1601 Baronius wrote that about eighty forms were in circulation. To prevent abuse, Pope Clement VIII, by decree of the Inquisition of 6 Sept., 1601, forbade the publication of any litany, except that of the saints as found in the liturgical books and that of Loreto. To-day the litanies approved for public recitation are: of All Saints, of Loreto, of the Holy Name, of the Sacred Heart, of St. Joseph [Ed. and, approved in 1960, of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ].

Many more litanies exist but only the following six may be publicly prayed in liturgical settings.  So if you are planning to lead a group at a chapel, church, oratory, etc in a litany, make sure it is one of the following:

1. Litany of All Saints
2. Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary (i.e. Litany of Loreto)
3. Litany of the Holy Name of Jesus
4. Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
5. Litany of St. Joseph
6. Litany of the Precious Blood of Jesus

Many, many other litanies exist, and all of them may be prayed privately (assuming of course they don't contain heresy). I've posted several litanies over the years that are private litanies.

Fish Eaters provides the following overview of the The Litany of the Saints, the oldest of the six:

The Litany of the Saints -- the oldest of the litanies, dating to A.D. 595 -- is prayed liturgically at the Easter Vigil, during ordinations, on Rogation days, and also during solemn exorcisms, etc.. Privately, it is prayed any time one wishes, as with the other litanies, but is especially prayed after sundown on All Saints' Day in preparation for All Souls' Day, and on All Souls' Day itself.

This litany first invokes God in all Three Persons, then follow, in this order: Mary; the blessed spirits; St. Joseph and the Patriarchs and Prophets; the Apostles and Evangelists; all the disciples of the Lord; the Holy Innocents and the glorious martyrs; the holy Bishops and Confessors (those who suffer for the faith); the holy priests and Levites; the virgins and widows; and all holy men and women.

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Duty of the Diaconate: Uphold and Defend the Church of God

During the ordination of Deacons, the Archbishop instructs the candidates: "It is your duty to uphold and defend this Church of God, even as the Tabernacle, with the armor of holiness, by divine preaching and perfect example."

July 3, 2013, at the church of Sts. Michele e Gaetano in Florence.  Ordinations for the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest

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Monks Offering Simultaneous Private Masses

They rose at midnight for the night-office that the sleeping world might not be wholly dumb to God; went to rest again; rose once more with the world, and set about a yet sublimer worship. A stream of sacrifice poured up to the Throne through the mellow summer morning, or the cold winter darkness and gloom, from altar after altar in the great church. Christopher remembered pleasantly a morning soon after the beginning of his novitiate when he had been in the church as a set of priests came in and began mass simultaneously; the mystical fancy suggested itself as the hum of voices began that he was in a garden, warm and bright with grace, and that bees were about him making honey – that fragrant sweetness of which it had been said long ago that God should eat - and as the tinkle of the Elevation sounded out here and there, it seemed to him as a signal that the mysterious confection was done, and that every altar sprang into perfume from those silver vessels set with jewel and crystal.

Robert Hugh Benson, The King’s Achievement.

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Beauty & Chant Bring Life to the Monastery

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13 Fridays in Honor of St. Francis of Paola

Tomorrow is the 13th Friday before the Feast of St. Francis of Paola this year and thus the first day of the Thirteen Fridays in Honor of St. Francis of Paola.  This is an indulged devotion with the following excerpted from the Raccolta:

Pope Clement XII., in the Brief Coelestium munerum dispensatio of Dec. 2, 1738, granted -

i. A plenary indulgence to all the faithful who, upon thirteen Fridays continuously preceding the Feast of St. Francis of Paola (April 2), or at any other time of the year, shall, in honour of this Saint, being truly penitent, visit, after Confession and Communion, a church of the Minims, commonly called the Paolotti, either already erected or hereafter to be erected, and pray there for our Holy Mother Church; this Indulgence may be gained on any one of the said Fridays; and

ii. An indulgence of seven years and seven quarantines on all other Fridays.

Moreover, wherever there are not churches of the above named order, or where they are distant at least a mile from a person’s own dwelling, the same Clement XII. granted in these two cases, by a Brief Nuper editae of March 20, 1739, the same indulgences to the faithful as are mentioned above, conditional of course upon their previous Confession and Communion. In this Brief permission is given to visit any other church whatsoever dedicated to God in honour of St. Francis of Paola, or any altar existing in any church where there is a picture of this glorious Saint; and if none of these conditions can be complied with, the visit may be made to their own parish church.

This devotion originated with St. Francis himself, who practised it in honour of our Lord Jesus Christ and His twelve Apostles with this intent, on each of the thirteen Fridays he used to recite thirteen Pater noster’s and as many Ave Maria’s, and this devotion he promulgated by word of mouth and by letter to his own devout followers, as an efficacious means of obtaining from God the graces they desired, provided they were for the greater good of their souls.

Since the death of the Saint, which took place April 2, 1507, the day on which Good Friday fell in that year, this devotion has always been practised by the faithful throughout the whole Catholic world in honour of the holy Founder; and so it came at last to be approved by the said Clement XII., who granted the Indulgences above named, in order to animate good Christians to adopt it.

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