Today is the second day of the Novena to the Holy Spirit. Veni Creator Spiritus!Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Today is the second day of the Novena to the Holy Spirit. Veni Creator Spiritus!Image Source: Believed to be in the Public Domain
Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI journey to Jasna Gora and the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa where he celebrated Mass. The Shrine is home to the Black Madonna believed to have been brought to Poland in 1382.
Here is part of his message to the men, women, religious, consecration, and priests present:
Photos:
(REUTERS/Max Rossi)
(AP Photo/Diether Endlicher)
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Here is part of his message to the men, women, religious, consecration, and priests present:
Faith is the gift, given to us in baptism, which makes our encounter with God possible. God is hidden in mystery; to claim to understand him would mean to want to confine him within our thinking and knowing and consequently to lose him irremediably. With faith, however, we can open up a way through concepts, even theological concepts, and can "touch" the living God. And God, once touched, immediately gives us his power. When we abandon ourselves to the living God, when in humility of mind we have recourse to him, a kind of hidden stream of divine life pervades us. How important it is to believe in the power of faith, in its capacity to establish a close bond with the living God!
We must give great attention to the development of our faith, so that it truly pervades all our attitudes, thoughts, actions and intentions. Faith has a place, not only in our state of soul and religious experiences, but above all in thought and action, in everyday work, in the struggle against ourselves, in community life and in the apostolate, because it ensures that our life is pervaded by the power of God himself. Faith can always bring us back to God even when our sin leads us astray.
In the Upper Room the apostles did not know what awaited them. They were afraid and worried about their own future. They continued to marvel at the death and resurrection of Jesus and were in anguish at being left on their own after his ascension into Heaven. Mary, "she who believed in the fulfillment of the Lord's words" (cf. Luke 1:45), assiduous in prayer alongside the apostles, taught perseverance in the faith. By her own attitude she convinced them that the Holy Spirit, in his wisdom, knew well the path on which he was leading them, and that consequently they could place their confidence in God, giving themselves to him unreservedly, with their talents, their limitations and their future.
...
These were the words that I placed at the beginning of the first encyclical of my pontificate: "Deus caritas est!" This is the most important, most central truth about God. To all for whom it is difficult to believe in God, I say again today: "God is love." Dear friends, be witnesses to this truth. You will surely be so if you place yourselves in the school of Mary. Beside her you will experience for yourselves that God is love, and you will transmit this message to the world with the richness and the variety that the Holy Spirit will know how to enkindle.
Praised be Jesus Christ.
© Copyright 2006 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana [translation by Holy See; adapted]
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Photos:
(REUTERS/Max Rossi)
(REUTERS/Max Rossi)
(Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)
Double (1955 Calendar): May 28
Today is the Feastday of St. Augustine of Canterbury, who is not to be confused with St. Augustine of Hippo.
St. Augustine of Canterbury was born in Rome and died in England of natural causes on May 26, 605. St. Augustine of Canterbury was a monk and an abbot. Along with forty brother monks, including Saint Lawrence of Canterbury, St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory the Great to bring the Gospel message to the British Isles in 597.
He established and spread the faith throughout England; one of his earliest converts was King Aethelberht. When the king converted, 10,000 of his people also entered the Church. St. Augustine became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, and he helped establish contacts between the Celtic and Latin churches.
Traditional Matins Reading:
Augustine was a Monk of the Monastery of Saint Andrew, in Rome, where also he discharged the office of Prior with much piety and prudence. He was taken from that Monastery by St Gregory the Great; and sent by him, with about forty Monks of the same monastery, into Britain. Thus would Gregory carry out, by his disciples, the conversion of that country to Christ—a project which he at first resolved to effect himself. They had not advanced far on their journey, when they became frightened at the difficulty of such an enterprise; but Gregory encouraged them by letters which he sent to Augustine, whom he appointed as their Abbot, and gave him letters of introduction to the kings of the Franks, and to the Bishops of Gaul. Whereupon Augustine and his Monks pursued their journey with haste. He visited the tomb of St Martin, at Tours. Having reached the town of Pont-de-Cé, not far from Angers, he was badly treated by its inhabitants, and was compelled to spend the night in the openair. Having struck the ground with his staff, a fountain miraculously sprang up; and on that spot a Church was afterwards built, and called after his name.
Having procured interpreters from the Franks, he proceeded to England and landed at the Isle of Thanet. He entered the country, carrying, as a standard, a silver Cross, and a painting representing our Saviour. Thus did he present himself before Ethelbert, the king of Kent, who readily provided the heralds of the Gospel with a dwelling in the city of Canterbury, and gave them leave to preach in his kingdom. There was close at hand an Oratory which had been built in honour of St Martin, when the Romans had possession of Britain. It was in this Oratory that his queen Bertha (who was a Christian, as being of the nation of the Franks) was wont to pray. Augustine, therefore, entered into Canterbury with solemn religious ceremony, amidst the chanting of psalms and litanies. He took up his abode for some time near to the said Oratory; and there, together with his Monks, led an apostolic life. Such manner of living, conjointly with the heavenly doctrine that was preached, and confirmed by many miracles, so reconciled the islanders, that many of them were induced to embrace the Christian Faith. The king himself was also converted, and Augustine baptized him and a very great number of his people. On one Christmas Day he baptized upwards of ten thousand English, in a river at York; and it is related that those among them who were suffering any malady, received bodily health, as well as their spiritual regeneration.
Meanwhile, the man of God Augustine received a command from Gregory to go and receive Episcopal ordination in Gaul, at the hands of Virgilius, the Bishop of Arles. On his return he established his See at Canterbury, in the Church of our Saviour, which he had built, and he kept there some of the Monks to be his fellow-labourers. He also built in the suburbs the Monastery of Saint Peter, which was afterwards called ‘Saint Augustine’s.’ When Gregory heard of the conversion of the Angli, which was told to him by the two Monks Laurence and Peter, whom Augustine had sent to Rome, he wrote letters of congratulation to Augustine. He gave him power to arrange all that concerned the Church in England, and to wear the Pallium. In the same letters he admonished him to be on his guard against priding himself on the miracles which God enabled him to work for the salvation of souls, lest pride should turn them to the injury of him that worked them.
Having thus put in order the affairs of the Church in England, Augustine held a Council with the Bishops and Doctors of the ancient Britons, who had long been at variance with the Roman Church in the keeping of Easter and other rites. And in order to refute, by miracles, these men, whom the Apostolic See had often authoritatively admonished, but to no purpose, Augustine, in proof of the truth of his assertions, restored sight to a blind man in their presence. But on their refusing to yield even after witnessing the miracle, Augustine, with prophetic warning, told them of the punishment that awaited them. At length, after having laboured so long for Christ, and appointed Laurence as his successor, he took his departure for heaven on the seventh of the Calends of June (May 26) and was buried in the Monastery of Saint Peter, which became the burying-place of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and of several kings. The Churches of England honoured him with great devotion. They decreed that each year his feast should be kept as a holyday, and that his name should be inserted in the Litany, immediately after that of St Gregory, together with whom Augustine has ever been honoured by the English as their Apostle, and as the propagator of the Benedictine Order in their country.
Prayer:
O God, Who by the preaching and miracles of blessed Augustine, Thy Confessor and Bishop, didst vouchsafe to shed upon the English people the light of the true faith: grant that, through his intercession, the hearts of the straying may return to the unity of Thy truth, and that we may do Thy will with one accord. Through our Lord.
Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal
Friday, May 26, 2006
The Holy Father celebrated Mass to approximately 270,000 people in the rain in Warsaw. Pilsudski Square was the location where John Paul II inspired Poland's Solidarity movement against communist rule in his 1979 visit.
In his homily, Benedict XVI again attacked relativism, which teaches that nothing can be an absolute truth. This view by many "cafeteria Catholics" must be stopped. Everything the Holy Church teaches as a defined dogma must be believed including its view on birth control, abortion, stem cells, gay marriage, and euthanasia.
Even though the rain poured down, many people came out.
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
(AFP/Janek Skarzynski)
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In his homily, Benedict XVI again attacked relativism, which teaches that nothing can be an absolute truth. This view by many "cafeteria Catholics" must be stopped. Everything the Holy Church teaches as a defined dogma must be believed including its view on birth control, abortion, stem cells, gay marriage, and euthanasia.
Even though the rain poured down, many people came out.
Photos:
(AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
(AFP/Janek Skarzynski)
I strongly encourage my readers to take part in Lectio Divina and reading the Daily readings from Mass. Note: Unlike Lectio Divina, Catholics should never take part in centering prayer.
The General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) describes the following honors toward the Book of the Gospels:
"172. [At the entrance procession] Carrying the Book of the Gospels slightly elevated, the deacon precedes the priest as he approaches the altar or else walks at the priest's side.
"173. When he reaches the altar, if he is carrying the Book of the Gospels, he omits the sign of reverence and goes up to the altar. It is particularly appropriate that he should place the Book of the Gospels on the altar, after which, together with the priest, he venerates the altar with a kiss.
"175. [At the Liturgy of the Word] If incense is used, the deacon assists the priest when he puts incense in the thurible during the singing of the Alleluia or other chant. … Having bowed to the altar, he then takes up the Book of the Gospels which was placed upon it. He proceeds to the ambo, carrying the book slightly elevated. He is preceded by a thurifer, carrying a thurible with smoking incense, and by servers with lighted candles. There the deacon, with hands joined, greets the people, saying, 'Dominus vobiscum' (The Lord be with you). Then, at the words 'Lectio sancti Evangelii' (A reading from the holy gospel), he signs the book with his thumb and, afterwards, himself on his forehead, mouth, and breast. He incenses the book and proclaims the Gospel reading. When the reading is concluded, he says the acclamation 'Verbum Domini' (The gospel of the Lord), and all respond, 'Laus tibi, Christe' (Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ). He then venerates the book with a kiss, saying privately, 'Per evangelica dicta' (May the words of the gospel), and returns to the priest's side.
"When the deacon is assisting the Bishop, he carries the book to him to be kissed, or else kisses it himself, saying quietly, 'Per evangelica dicta' (May the words of the gospel). In more solemn celebrations, as the occasion suggests, a Bishop may impart a blessing to the people with the Book of the Gospels.
"Lastly, the deacon may carry the Book of the Gospels to the credence table or to another appropriate and dignified place."
"273. According to traditional practice, the altar and the Book of the Gospels are venerated by means of a kiss. Where, however, a sign of this kind is not in harmony with the traditions or the culture of some region, it is for the Conference of Bishops to establish some other sign in its place, with the consent of the Apostolic See."
The following is taken from EWTN:
O Lord Jesus Christ, Who, before ascending into heaven, did promise to send the Holy Spirit to finish Your work in the souls of Your Apostles and Disciples, deign to grant the same Holy Spirit to me that He may perfect in my soul, the work of Your grace and Your love. Grant me the Spirit of Wisdom that I may despise the perishable things of this world and aspire only after the things that are eternal, the Spirit of Understanding to enlighten my mind with the light of Your divine truth, the Spirit of Counsel that I may ever choose the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven, the Spirit of Fortitude that I may bear my cross with You and that I may overcome with courage all the obstacles that oppose my salvation, the Spirit of Knowledge that I may know God and know myself and grow perfect in the science of the Saints, the Spirit of Piety that I may find the service of God sweet and amiable, and the Spirit of Fear that I may be filled with a loving reverence towards God and may dread in any way to displease Him. Mark me, dear Lord, with the sign of Your true disciples and animate me in all things with Your Spirit. Amen.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Poland and will begin his visit lasting from May 25 to May 28, 2006. During his assembly Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI has said, "I will visit the places of [John Paul ll's] life and of his priestly and episcopal ministry." During this trip, the Holy Father will visit Warsaw, Czestochowa, Krakow, Wadowice, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Auschwitz.
According to a recent survey, 1 in every 10 Poles is expected to attend at least one event with Pope Benedict XVI. Poland is home to 34,850,000, which account for 95% of the population. 80% of those polled said they would follow the events on television. And concerning television, Poland's TVP public broadcaster has promised to ban all TV ads that contain any erotic or violent scences during the Pope's visit.
EWTN will show an encore presentation of Pope Benedict XVI's arrival tonight, and early tomorrow morning, they will show the Mass in Pilsudski Square in Warsaw live. Pope Benedict XVI also visited the Warsaw Cathedral (photo to the right). Read his four-day itinerary.
Please say this prayer for Pope Benedict XVI's visit:
Read more >>
According to a recent survey, 1 in every 10 Poles is expected to attend at least one event with Pope Benedict XVI. Poland is home to 34,850,000, which account for 95% of the population. 80% of those polled said they would follow the events on television. And concerning television, Poland's TVP public broadcaster has promised to ban all TV ads that contain any erotic or violent scences during the Pope's visit.
EWTN will show an encore presentation of Pope Benedict XVI's arrival tonight, and early tomorrow morning, they will show the Mass in Pilsudski Square in Warsaw live. Pope Benedict XVI also visited the Warsaw Cathedral (photo to the right). Read his four-day itinerary.
Please say this prayer for Pope Benedict XVI's visit:
Lord, source of eternal life and truth, give to Your shepherd, the Pope, a spirit of courage and right judgment, a spirit of knowledge and love.
By governing with fidelity those entrusted to his care may he, as successor to the apostle Peter and vicar of Christ, build Your church into a sacrament of unity, love, and peace for all the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.
According to St. Augustine, the Feast of the Ascension is of Apostolic origin. As early as the fifth century, documentation of this feast is preserved. Since the ninth century during the Pontificate of Pope Leo III (r. 795-816) and up until the 1950s, the Ascension had an associated Octave attached to it. Predating this Octave is the long-established practice of having a Vigil for the Ascension.
While the Feast of the Ascension – despite its high rank as one of the most important holy days in the year – has fallen into obscurity and lack of observance in many areas (often transferred to the following Sunday), it is still a public holiday in many countries (e.g. Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Haiti, Iceland, Indonesia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Namibia, The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Vanuatu). As such, Catholic culture underscores the importance of the Ascension through its customs that precede and follow Ascension Thursday.
How Did Jesus Ascend?
After establishing the importance of reflecting on the Ascension, the Roman Catechism immediately follows with an explanation as to how our Blessed Lord, Who was physically resurrected and likewise physically ascended into Heaven:
“The pastor is also to teach that He ascended by His own power, not being taken up by the power of another, as was Elias, who was carried to heaven in a fiery chariot; or, as the Prophet Habacuc, or Philip, the deacon, who were borne through the air by the divine power, and traversed great distances.Neither did He ascend into heaven solely by the exercise of His supreme power as God, but also by virtue of the power which He possessed as man. Although human power alone was insufficient to accomplish this, yet the virtue with which the blessed soul of Christ was endowed was capable of moving the body as it pleased, and His body, now glorified, readily obeyed the behest of the soul that moved it. Hence, we believe that Christ ascended into heaven as God and man by His own power.”
Fr. Leonard Goffine in The Church's Year succinctly affirms that the Ascension was performed by Christ’s own power when he writes, “Christ ascended into heaven by His own power, because He is God, and now in His glorified humanity He sits at the right hand of His Father, as our continual Mediator.”
Unlike Elias, who was taken up into Heaven, or the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was assumed by the power of God body and soul into Heaven at the end of her earthly life, the Lord Jesus ascended by His own power. No mere man has the power to fly, much less to ascend out of the earth’s atmosphere and into the furthest reaches of space to Heaven. But Jesus, Who is fully God and fully man, possessed the power to do so, thus performing another miracle to the approximately 125 people who saw Him ascend.
Where Did Jesus Ascend?
Our Blessed Lord ascended from the Mount of Olives into Heaven. As Fr. Goffine concisely teaches, “Where and how did Christ ascend into heaven? From Mount Olivet where His sufferings began, by which we learn that where our crosses and afflictions begin, which we endure with patience and resignation, there begins our reward.” The Baltimore Catechism concurs when it states, “Christ ascended into heaven from Mount Olivet, the place made sacred by His agony on the night before His death.” Thus, by meditating on the place of the Ascension we have before us a source of great spiritual consolation, yet so few Catholics seem to have meditated on the connection between the Agony and the Ascension.
Likewise, the “Golden Legend” by Blessed Jacobus de Varagine, published in the late Middle Ages, further aids our meditation on the Mount of Olives in its account of the Ascension:
“The first point, note that He rose to heaven from the Mount of Olives, out toward Bethany. This mountain, following another translation, was also called the Mount of Three Lights, because from the west the light from the Temple fell upon it by night, for a fire burned continually on the altar; in the morning it caught the sun’s rays from the east before they reached the city; and the hill’s olive trees produced a plentiful supply of oil, which feeds light.”Today, a chapel sits on the Mount of Olives at the exact place of Our Lord’s Ascension. According to Sulpicius Severus, bishop of Jerusalem, when a church was built on the Mount of Olives the spot where Christ had stood could never be covered with pavement; and more than that, the marble slabs placed there burst upwards into the faces of those who were laying them. He also says that the footmarks in the dust there prove that the Lord had stood on that spot. Those footprints are still discernible, and the ground still retains the depressions His sacred feet left as a remarkable display of Our Lord’s last footstep on this earth.
Why Did Jesus Ascend into Heaven?
The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Preface for the Ascension, a Preface found in the Traditional Roman Rite, but unfortunately lost in the Novus Ordo:
“It is truly meet and just, right and availing unto salvation that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father almighty and everlasting God; through Christ our Lord. Who after His Resurrection appeared and showed Himself to all His disciples; and while they beheld Him, was lifted up into heaven, so that He might make us partakers of His Godhead…”The Lord ascended “so that He might make us partakers of His Godhead.” As the Roman Catechism likewise expounds on the reasons for the Lord’s Ascension:
“Ascending on high, he led captivity captive: He gave gifts to men. …
He also ascended into heaven, according to the Apostle, that he may appear in the presence of God for us, and discharge for us the office of advocate with the Father. …
Finally, by His Ascension He has prepared for us a place, as He had promised, and has entered, as our head, in the name of us all, into the possession of the glory of heaven.”Our Lord ascended for us. He ascended so that we might have a share in His divinity in Heaven. Up until our Lord’s Ascension, the doors of Heaven were closed as a result of Adam’s sin. While the debt for this sin was paid through the death and Resurrection of Christ, the doors remained closed until He, the Victor over death, should open them and be the first to walk through them. Ascension Thursday recalls this sublime mystery: the opening of Heaven to the souls who had waited in the Limbo of the Fathers. It was on the day of the Lord’s Ascension that humanity, in the Person of Christ, first entered Heaven.
The renowned Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B. describes this sublime reason for Our Lord's Ascension thusly:
“Jesus ascended into heaven. His Divinity had never been absent; but, by Ascension, His Humanity was also enthroned there, and crowned with the brightest diadem of glory. This is another phase of the mystery we are now solemnizing. Besides a triumph, the Ascension gave to the sacred Humanity a place on the very throne of the eternal Word, to whom it was united in unity of Person. From this throne, it is to receive the adoration of men and of angels.”Likewise, the Roman Catechism succinctly affirms the reality that Jesus Christ, true man and true God, physically entered into Heaven on Ascension Day: “This, then, the faithful must believe without hesitation, that Jesus Christ, having fully accomplished the work of Redemption, ascended as man, body and soul, into heaven; for as God He never forsook heaven, filling as He does all places with His Divinity.”
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen likewise develops this reality by commenting on Our Lord’s Ascension in His human nature:
“In the Ascension the Savior did not lay aside the garment of flesh with which He had been clothed; for His human nature would be the pattern of the future glory of other human natures, which would become incorporated to Him through a sharing of His life. Intrinsic and deep was the relation between His Incarnation and His Ascension. The Incarnation or the assuming of a human nature made it possible for Him to suffer and redeem. The Ascension exalted into glory that same human nature that was humbled to the death.”
Collect:
O Almighty God, we firmly believe that Your only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, ascended this day into heaven. May our minds dwell always on this heavenly home. Through Our Lord . . .
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God: that we, who believe Thine only-begotten Son, our Redeemer, to have ascended on this day into heaven, may also ourselves dwell in mind amid heavenly things. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost . . .
Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal; Collect for Ascension Thursday
Today is Ascension Thursday, the day we remember Our Lord's glorious Ascension into Heaven. While this day is not a holy day of obligation because the celebration is moved to this Sunday, today is still an important day for prayer.
Today is also the day that Pope Benedict XVI journeys to Poland and begins his visit that will last until May 28, 2006. I'll post about both of these later when I have more time.
Read more >>
Today is also the day that Pope Benedict XVI journeys to Poland and begins his visit that will last until May 28, 2006. I'll post about both of these later when I have more time.
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