Outcome: Essential Classics of Catholic Spirituality Collection

The outcome is very positive! For those that didn't read my original post, please read it now.

Thank you to everyone that especially registered through my site because I did make a little bit of commission as a result. I personally made $19.50. All together, the Essential Classics generated $6,057 so far in charitable donations to pro-life organizations.

As an affiliate partner, I was ranked fourth in having the most people sign up due to me. So, thank you to everyone that entered through my site!

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Pope Benedict XVI Speaks on Cloistered Monasteries

The Holy Father spoke on Cloistered monasteries in his recent Angelus Address:

“Some wonder about the meaning and value of their presence in our time, in which many urgent situations of poverty and need must be addressed. Why "shut oneself" forever behind the walls of a monastery and deprive others of the contribution of one's talents and experiences? What efficacy can prayer have to resolve the numerous concrete problems that continue to afflict humanity?

“In fact, also today numerous persons often surprise friends and acquaintances when they abandon professional careers, often promising careers, to embrace the austere rule of a cloistered monastery.

“What leads them to take such a committed step if not their having understood, as the Gospel teaches, that the Kingdom of heaven is "a treasure" for which it is worth abandoning everything (cf. Matthew 13:44)?

"These brothers and sisters silently witness that in the midst of daily vicissitudes, at times extremely convulsive, God is the only support that never falters, the unbreakable rock of fidelity and love. 'Todo se pasa, Dios no se muda' [Everything passes, God is unchanging], wrote the great spiritual teacher Teresa of Avila in her famous text. And, given the widespread need that many experience to leave the daily routine of the great urban agglomerations in search of appropriate spaces for silence and meditation, monasteries of contemplative life appear as "oases" in which man, a pilgrim on earth, can go to the sources of the Spirit and slake his thirst along the way.

“These places, apparently useless, are, on the contrary, indispensable, like the green "lungs" of a city: They are beneficial for all, including for those who do not visit them or perhaps do not know that they exist."

Photo Source: (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)

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Blessed Mother Teresa on the Eucharist

"If we truly understand the Eucharist; if we make the Eucharist the central focus of our lives; if we feed our lives with the Eucharist, we will not find it difficult to discover Christ, to love him, and to serve him in the poor"

(Bl. Teresa of Calcutta)

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Visiting a Seminary Starting Tomorrow

I'll be traveling across the country this week as I leave to visit another Catholic seminary for a few days. I plan to return this Saturday night and hope to post many pictures from my trip. Your prayers would be appreciated!

I wish everyone the best.

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St. Albert the Great

Double (1955 Calendar): November 15
Optional Memorial (1969 Calendar): November 15

St. Albert the Great (1206 - 1280) was born and died in what is now the country of Germany. He was the son of a nobleman and became a Dominican priest. He was an extremely influential speaker, preacher, and teacher, who even taught St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians in the history of the Church.

Furthermore, St. Albert contributed to the sciences including botany and biology, keeping detailed observations of his findings. He also became Bishop of Regensburg and introduced Greek and Arab science to medieval Europe.  Some of his influential writings, such as his book On Union with God, are still available today.

Pope Innocent VIII in 1484 raised St. Albert the Great "to the honors of the altar" and "permitted the houses of Cologe and Ratisbon to dedicated altars to his honor and to observe his feast with Mass and Office. In 1670 Clement X granted the celebration of the feast to the whole order 'with solemn Rite'" (Liturgies of Religious Orders by Archdale King).

While long invoked by the Dominican Order, he was not canonized until December 15, 1931, by Pope Pius XI. He was immediately declared a Doctor of the Church by the same pontiff who fixed his feastday on November 15th, moving the feast of St. Gertrude to November 16th. On December 16, 1941, Pope Pius XII declared St. Albert the Great as the patron saint of the natural sciences.

Quotations:

"It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for 'God is Charity' (1 John 4:8)"

"My soul, if you wish to be intimate with Mary, let yourself be carried between her arms and nourished with her blood . . . . Let this ineffable, chaste thought accompany you to the Banquet of God and you will find in the Blood of the Son the nourishment of the Mother."

Prayer:

O God, Who didst make blessed Albert, Thy Bishop and Doctor, great by his bringing human wisdom into captivity to divine faith: grant us, we beseech Thee, so to follow the guidance of his teaching that we may enjoy perfect light in heaven. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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The Monastery: Episode 4

Last night I watched Episode 4 of The Monastery, the TLC program that airs each Sunday night at 9 PM Central Time. Now, I was truly hoping things would improve with the departure of the rebellious participant named Alex. And I will admit that Episode 4 revealed several very positive things about living in a monastery. First and foremost was the experience of a desert day. It truly sounded like a wonderful way in which to quite the soul to God. Remember, silence is indeed the language of God. The hermit also revealed something truly important although it is a paradox. Namely, he said that his goal is to die. Now people in our world don't want to hear such comments; most would classify it as suicidal. But the hermit has a true point - we all die. Dying is inevitable. And where we shall be for the rest of eternity depends upon our actions prior to death. A lot of people get caught up on what is the meaning of life, but the meaning is life is rather simple: To know and love God in this life and to be with Him for all eternity. The hermit said probably the first truly Catholic idea in this Episode. I also liked the self-poverty of the monks; it is an example we all can follow to live humbly.

Apart from those two points, there was a lot of things I disagreed with in the episode. I stayed with Benedictine monks in Missouri for a little while this past summer and love it. However, many Benedictine monasteries have been falling into New Age/neo-pagan practices over the past generation and focusing on "energy" and straying from the original Truth of the Benedictines. It seems like the Monastery of Christ in the Desert could be one of them. All the Abbot will talk about is psychology and a lot of babble about energy. Why won't he talk with these men about God! And Br. Gabriel even said that God needs us. Preposterous! We are nothing compared to God! God doesn't need anyone of us but rather allows us to serve Him because of his mercy. Br. Gabriel is wrong is saying God needs us. These are severe theological errors. The participants need God; they don't need poor Theology.

The one contestant named Tom was asked by Br. Gabriel to have his marriage blessed, and Tom went on a tirade. How immature. It's clear that his marriage does indeed have something theologically missing and he needs to fix that. It's great that he went to Confession for the first time in 28 years during Episode 3, but he needs to start living completely in accord with the Church's teachings now.

This episode had some positive points but also a lot of downsides. I think I'll be just glad when the series is over. I liked the A&E series "God or the Girl" a lot better.

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The Monastery: Episode 3

I haven't had a chance yet to post my review of Episode 3 of The Monastery," the TLC program that airs each Sunday night at 9 PM Central Time. Overall, I have enjoyed watching the monks in the monastery pray as it brings back memories of my time visiting a monastery. However, I have been increasingly annoyed at the rude and disrespectful manners shown by several of the men that take part in this reality series. Thankfully the most disrespectful of them all, a man that even stole a truck from the monks to go several miles away to drink on the Eve of Ash Wednesday, has left the monastery. I'm hoping that the series finally improves now.

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Poll of French on Traditional Latin Mass

The pollsters at the CSA Institute, one of the most prestigious in France, were hired by the association Paix Liturgique to ask some questions regarding the Traditional rites of the Roman Church (CSA interviewed 1,007 people throughout the nation, 55% of which identified themselves as Catholics, on November 8, 2006; the results reflect the opinion of those who identified themselves as Catholics).

1) Do you believe it is desirable that Catholics may have the choice to, according to their sensibility, go to either the Traditional Mass in Latin with Gregorian chant or to the Modern Mass in French?

Yes: 65%
No: 13%
Do not care: 22%

2) If you had the occasion to occasionally go to a Mass in Latin with Gregorian [chant], what would you say?

I would go: 60%
I would not go: 39%
No answer: 1%

3) In your opinion, the fact that various kinds of celebrations of the Mass, one Traditional, in Latin and with Gregorian [chant], and the other modern in French, may be recognised by the Church would be...?

A good thing, because it allows for some diversity within the Church: 65%
A bad thing, because it risks provoking divisions within the Church: 31%
No answer: 4%

4) If a Mass in its Traditional form were celebrated, in Latin and with the permission of the Pope, close to your home, you would say...

I would go there frequently: 6%
I would go there occasionally: 31%
I do not know if I would got there or not: 12%
I would rarely go there: 29%
I would never go there: 22%

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Video on the Sarum Rite

This is a video of a Sarum Rite High Mass celebrated at Merton College, Oxford. It is a Mass celebrated on the Feast of Candlemas in 1997.

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Pray for Pope Benedict XVI

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