The Blessing of Lambs

Because of the similarity of her name to the Latin for "lamb" (Agnus), the lamb has been St. Agnes' symbol since the 6th century. On the feast day of St. Agnes on January 21st, the Trappist fathers of the Monastery of Tre Fontane (near Saint Paul's Basilica) provide two lambs from their sheepfold to the Benedictine nuns of Saint Cecilia. They arrive at Saint Agnes' Basilica wearing crowns, lying in "baskets decorated with red and white flowers and red and white ribbons—red for martyrdom, white for purity."

For the festal Mass, the church, titular cardinal, the deacon, and subdeacon are decorated with red, white and gold. At the conclusion of the Holy Mass, there is a procession of little girls veiled and dressed in white lace with pale blue ribbons, followed by four resplendent carabinieri carrying the baby lambs. The lambs are blessed and incensed before being taken to the Vatican for the Holy Father’s blessing. Then they are delivered to the Convent of Saint Cecilia to become the pets of the sisters until Holy Thursday (when they are shorn) before being sacrificed on Good Friday.

The wool from these lambs is woven into 12 archbishops' palliums. The pallium is an older symbol of the papacy than that of the famed triregnum. The elect becomes "Shepherd of Christ's Flock" when the pallium touches his shoulder and symbolizes that the new bishop is being 'yoked' with the bishop of Rome, who is the visible head of the Church. About 204 AD, Saint Felician of Foligno is the first recorded recipient of a pallium from Pope Saint Victor I.

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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

[Please prepare to say this prayer daily during the Week of Christian Unity which is January 18-25]

English:

May they all be on as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so that the world may come to believe that you have sent me.

R. You are Peter

V. And it is upon this rock that I will build my Church.

Let us pray: Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your apostles: I leave peace with you; it is my own peace that I give you; look not upon our sins but upon your Church's faith, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will. You who live and reign forever and ever.

R. Amen.

Latin:

Ut omnes unum sint, sicut tu Pater in me et ego in te; ut mundus credat quia tu me misita.

R. Tu es Petrus.

V. Et super hanc petram dificabo ecclesiam meam.

Oremus: Domine Iesu Christe, qui dixisti Apostolis tuis: pacem relinquo vobis, pacem mean do vobis ne rspicias peccata nostra, sed fidem Ecclesie tuae, eamque secundum voluntatem tuam pacificate et coadunare digneris. Qui vivis et regnas in saecula saeculorum.

R. Amen
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There is so much about the Catholic faith that many people cannot understand. For the the benefit of non-Catholics, the following are the reasons why more that 1.1 Billion people choose to be Roman Catholic- We can only be united when we understand one another:

We believe in the God of All Creation, that is to say, I believe in the One, Triune God, One God in Three Divine Persons, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. The same God Today, Yesterday and Forever, whose nature is always to have mercy.

We believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church as she exists in Communion with the Bishop of Rome, who is the Successor of St. Peter the Apostle and first Pope.

We believe all that is stated in the Nicene Creed.

We believe that the Catholic Church, in Communion with the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) is the Church that was founded directly by Jesus Christ nearly 2000 years ago, and is the Church that compiled and Canonized the Bible and that members of this Church were the authors of the New Testament, inspired by God the Holy Spirit.

We believe that I may unite my emotional and physical afflictions, sorrows and sufferings to the sufferings of Christ Crucified for the sake of the Whole Church, and I believe that our personal sufferings are great means of personal Sanctification.

We believe in the Queenship, Divine Motherhood, Perpetual Virginity and Intercession of the Theotokos also known as the Blessed Virgin Mary and I believe that she can and does hear our prayers and can pray for us to her Divine Son, Jesus Christ who is God. The Bible teaches us that we must intercede for each other based on the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:1-5), the Bible teaches us that the Prayers of the Righteous are powerful (James 5:16) and the Bible teaches us that the Saints and Angels in Heaven offer our prayers to God in the form of incense (Rev. 5:8, Rev. 8:1-4), and the Bible has examples of prayer to the Angels and Hosts of Heaven (Psalm 103:20-21, Psalm 148:1-2). I believe that the Most Holy Ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God is an excellent person to go to for intercessory prayer.

Jesus teaches us that through Him, we may have Eternal Life. Based on this, We believe that the Saints in Heaven are very much alive, can hear our prayers and do intercede for us. Some claim that praying to Mary and the Saints and Angels means that we are worshipping them. This is not so. Prayer in itself is not an act of worship. The word "Prayer" means "Request." So when we pray, we are making a request, and in the case of prayer to Saints, we are requesting THEIR intercession (1 Timothy 2:1-5) to God on our behalves based on the Mediatorship of Jesus Christ.

We believe that Christ is truly present in the Eucharist; the source and summit of our Catholic faith. Protestants reading this may say that the Passover isn't finished until Calvary, I would suggest that Calvary is really begun in the Upper Room with the Eucharist. When does Jesus' sacrifice really begin? Well, He insists on the fact that His life is not being taken away from Him. He is laying it down. Now in the trial, in the passion, it's being taken away; but in the Upper Room, prior to all of that, Jesus lays it down. He says, "This is my body. This cup is the blood of the New Covenant." Christ could not have used clearer, more explicit words than "This is My body." He did not say, "This is a sign of My body," or "This represents My body," but, "This is My body." I together with 1 billion Catholics take Christ at His word because He is the omnipotent God. On His word we know that the Holy Eucharist is the the body and blood of Christ.

To reiterate, We believe in the Catholic Church and ALL that she teaches. This is the Faith handed on to us once and for all by Jesus Christ and His Apostles.

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Pray for those in RCIA

Please remember to pray for all those people in the world today in RCIA seeking to convert to Catholicism. I was reminded of this need by Argent by the Tiber's post:

It's Thursday again and that means this evening will be spent in RCIA. At the beginning of the year, when people poke their heads through the door and ask, "Is this RCIA?", you have no idea what compelled them to come. Then gradually through the year, their stories come out. Some during class and others outside of class. Most come not out of any earth-shattering theological conviction, but out of a nascent desire to follow Christ. Others come in spite of tremendous opposition, and occasionally, that opposition might even be dangerous. Please consider praying for the RCIA program at your church, for those that coordinate it and, though they may be unknown to you, for each person in the process. On Monday, a gentleman approached me after morning Mass and said that he had been praying for our parish's RCIA everyday. It meant a great deal to me.

Read the whole post

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Church of the Holy Innocents

This is a beautiful church, so I had to share this photo of the Church of the Holy Innocents from New York, USA.

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Italian Priests Are Working to Stop Satanists

I found this story posted on A Catholic Mom in Hawaii, and I was very pleased to read about it. With 600,000 Satanists predicted to be in Italy, it is great news that Italian priests are going out into the streets to protect the Lord's flock. For a priest is called to lay down his life for the Flock, and that is what these priests are doing.

The devil is real. He is not a metaphor but a real fallen angel seeking to destroy the Lord's flock. We must resist Him always in this life. For Jesus came to destroy the words of the devil (1 John 3:8). And while it remains a mystery while he is allowed to remain (CCC 395), we must fight the good fight and continue living for God. Let us frequently say the Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel.

Priests are to work alongside Italian police officers to tackle a rising tide of crimes linked to devil worship.

The clerics have been seconded to the Squadra Anti Sette (SAS) anti-sect squad by the Vatican after Church officials became concerned about the number of churches being desecrated by Satanists. In recent months there have also been a string of murders that have been linked to devil worship.

One of the Vatican's leading experts on Satanism and the occult, Don Oreste Benzi, has been brought in to liaise with police. He told The Sunday Telegraph that the natural curiosity of young people meant they were particularly attracted to the occult, and drugs were also used to influence and manipulate them.

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St. Michael the Archangel, ora pro nobis!

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Words of Inspiration: January 18

I have two very difficult classes this semester, which are taking up more time than I originally thought. However, everything is going very well so far. So, please forgive the delay in the Saint for the Year Devotion as well as the lack of posts.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

"In other ages, though men lost virtue, they still admired it; though they ran from the battlefield at the first need of courage, they still admired the hero who fought and suffered; though they threw away the map of the roadway of life, they never denied the need of a map. But, in our generation, men look for shadow in the radiance of every virtue.”

Blessed Mother Teresa:

"We have to give until it hurts. We need to give from the resources we would like to keep for ourselves. We need to give to the point of sacrificing. We must give something that we find hard to give up."

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Sacrosanctum Concilium

Fr. Gonzales has a good list of parts of the Vatican II document, Sacrosanctum Concilium, that modernists and liberals need to read:

2. In virtue of power conceded by the law, the regulation of the liturgy within certain defined limits belongs also to various kinds of competent territorial bodies of bishops legitimately established....3. Therefore, no other person, even if he be a priest, may add, remove, or change anything in the liturgy on his own authority.

36.1. Particular law remaining in force, the use of the Latin language is to be preserved in the Latin rites.

54....steps should be taken so that the faithful may also be able to say or to sing together in Latin those parts of the Ordinary of the Mass which pertain to them.

115....Composers and singers, especially boys, must also be given a genuine liturgical training.

116. The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as specially suited to the Roman liturgy: therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services.

120. In the Latin Church the pipe organ is to be held in high esteem, for it is the traditional musical instrument which adds a wonderful splendor to the Church's ceremonies and powerfully lifts up man's mind to God and to higher things.

121. The texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity with Catholic doctrine; indeed they should be drawn chiefly from Holy Scripture and from liturgical sources.

124....Let bishops carefully remove from the house of God and from other sacred places those works of artists which are repugnant to faith, morals, and Christian piety, and which offend true religious sense either by depraved forms or by lack of artistic worth, mediocrity and pretense.

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Words of Inspiration: January 17

"Terrible is the justice of God. But let us not forget also that His mercy is infinite" (St. Padre Pio)

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Penance for the Immodest

From Castle of the Immaculatae by St. Teresa of Avila:

"Then Sr. Mary Joseph, leaning back in the office chair, lifted the brown scapular of her brown woolen habit and explained to me that the summer habit weighed 20 pounds and the winter habit weighed 30 pounds. Then the front doorbell buzzed, when she stood up to answer the door, I noticed that she was very stooped over, I noticed the weight of the habit, and that the tunic with its long sleeves, the long black veil and brown scapular rustled as she answered the bell. This bride of Christ, a special daughter of the Blessed Virgin, returned to me and said: 'And I wear this 20 pounds of wool in the summer as penance for those in the world who dress immodestly.' It was amoment of grace for me. I remember this scene often."

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Saint John Chrysostom: Stop Swearing

I beseech you, my brothers, to be ever on your guard against the habit of swearing and blaspheming.

If a slave dare to pronounce the name of his master, he does it but seldom, and then only with respect; therefore is it not a shocking impiety to speak with contempt and irreverence of the name of the Master of angels and seraphim? People handle the book of the Gospel with a religious fear, and then only with clean hands, and yet your rash tongue would inconsiderately profane the name of the Divine Author of the Gospel.

Would you wish to know with what respect, fear, and wonder the choirs of the angels pronounce the adorable name? Listen to the prophet Isaiah: " I saw," says Isaiah, "the Lord sitting upon a throne high and elevated; upon it stood the seraphim, who cried one to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of His glory."

See with what terror they are seized, even while they praise and glorify Him. As for you, my brethren, you know how cold and indifferent are the prayers you say, and you know how frequently you blaspheme a name so majestic, so sacred, and how you try to make excuses for the bad habit you have contracted. It is easy, yes, I say, it is easy, with a little care, attention, and reflection, to leave off this vicious habit.

Since we have fallen, my brethren, into this sin of blasphemy, I conjure you, in the name of our Lord, to rebuke openly these blasphemers. When you meet with such who publicly sin in this respect, correct them by word of mouth, and, if necessary, by your strong arm. Let these shameless swearers be covered with confusion. You could not employ your hand to a holier work. And if you are given into custody, go boldly before the magistrate, and say in your defense that you have avenged a blasphemy.

For if a person is punished for speaking contemptuously of a prince, is it not reasonable to suppose that a person who speaks irreverently of God should be sentenced to a severer punishment? It is a public crime, a common injury which all the world ought to condemn.

Let the Jews and infidels see that our magistrates are Christians, and that they will not allow those to go unpunished who insult and outrage their Master.

Do you remember that it was a false oath that overturned the houses, temples, and walls of Jerusalem, and from a superb city it became a mass of ruins? Neither the sacred vessels nor the sanctuary could stay the vengeance of a God justly angered against a violater of His word.

Sedecias did not receive a more favored treatment than Jerusalem. Flight did not save him from his enemies. This prince, escaping secretly, was pursued and taken by the Assyrians, who led him to their king. The king, after asking him the reason of his perfidy, not only caused his children to be killed, but deprived him of his sight, and sent him back to Babylon, loaded with iron chains.

Would you know the reason why? It was that the barbarians and Jews who inhabited the country adjoining Persia should know, by this terrible example, that the breach of an oath is punishable.

Saint John Chrysostom, from the Seventh Homily

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