Fr. Frank Pavone's Homily from January 18, 2007

I'd like to share an excerpt of Fr. Frank Pavone's Homily from Thursday, Week II, in Ordinary Time.

Here is the excerpt that I liked:

There’s one way to peace in the world. Jesus Christ our High Priest is our peace. Peace is not simply when bombs stop being dropped or guns cease their fire. Or troops are withdrawn. Neither is peace identical with troops being deployed. It is beyond all that. Peace comes when we are reconciled with Almighty God. And when through that reconciliation, we respect the human rights and dignity — the inherent human rights and dignity, of every person. That is when peace comes. Peace is not lost when the first gun is fired or the first bomb is dropped or the first tank rolls in. That is not when peace is lost. Peace is lost whenever an injustice is committed against a human being. That is when peace is lost. It can happen in the quiet silence of an apparently peaceful city. But if human lives in any way are being oppressed or downtrodden, peace has already been lost. Lets not have a superficial understanding of what peace is or what the way to peace might be.

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Book Recommendations for Lent

With Lent only three weeks away, it's time to start thinking about Lent. Not only should we fast, abstain, and give up something during Lent, but also we should do spiritual reading. The Rule of St. Benedict stipulated that monks must read one spiritual book during Lent. We could find great benefit in imitating their example.

'"A willow tree,' says Pope St. Gregory the Great, 'bears no fruit, but by supporting as it does the vine together with its grapes, it makes these its own by supporting what is not its own.' In like manner, he who warmly recommends a book calculated to do much good makes his own all the good that is done by the book" (Father Michael Mueller in The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass)

Here are some Lenten Book Recommendations:

• The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich.
• Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Father Alban Goodier
• Suffering With Christ by Abbot Marmion
• Why the Cross? by Father Edward Leen
• Seven Words on the Cross by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
• The Definitive Guide to Catholic Fasting & Abstinence by Matthew Plese
• School of Jesus Christ Crucified by Fr. Ignatius
• Daily Lenten Meditation by St. Thomas Aquinas

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Words of Inspiration: January 28

Blessed Mother Teresa:

"We need to bring prayer into our family life. Through prayer, we will be able to teach our children and relatives to share. We will gain more through genuine prayer than with mere words."

Archbishop Fulton Sheen:

“The heart is the mint wherein the coinage of human life is stamped; it is the anvil which forges habits and routines; it is the ‘stick’ which pilots the plane of life. Sir Walter Scott once said to his son-in-law Lockhart: ‘We shall never learn to feel and respect our own calling and destiny, until we have taught ourselves to consider everything as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.’”

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St. Timothy

Double (1954 Calendar): January 24

Memorial of Sts. Timothy and Titus (1969 Calendar): January 26

St. Timothy was not only a co-worker and companion to St. Paul but also his spiritual son. St. Timothy was converted and baptized into the True Faith during St. Paul's first missionary journey, and St. Timothy was later ordained a priest at a young age by St. Paul. St. Timothy eventually became the Bishop of Ephesus when St. Paul consecrated him thus. It was 30 years after St. Paul's martyrdom that St. Timothy followed his friend in martyrdom - St. Timothy was stoned to death.

Traditional Matins Reading:

Timothy was born at Lystra in Lycaonia. His father was a Gentile, and his mother a Jewess. When the Apostle Paul came into those parts, Timothy was a follower of the Christian religion. The Apostle had heard much of his holy life, and was thereby induced to take him as the companion of his travels: but on account of the Jews, who had become converts to the faith of Christ, and were aware that the father of Timothy was a Gentile, he administered to him the rite of circumcision. As soon as they arrived at Ephesus, the Apostle ordained him Bishop of that Church.

The Apostle addressed two of his Epistles to him—one from Laodicea, the other from Rome—to instruct him how to discharge his pastoral office. He could not endure to see sacrifice, which is due to God alone, offered to the idols of devils; and finding that the people of Ephesus were offering victims to Diana on her festival, he strove to make them desist from their impious rites. But they, turning upon him, stoned him. The Christians could not deliver him from their hands till he was more dead than alive. They carried him to a mountain not far from the town, and there, on the ninth of the Kalends of February (January 24), he slept in the Lord.

Prayer:

Look down upon our weakness, almighty God; and since the weight of our own deeds bears us down, may the glorious intercession of Blessed Timothy, Thy Bishop and Martyr, protect us. Through our Lord.

Prayer Source: 1962 Roman Catholic Daily Missal

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Tridentine Mass Returns to Diocese of Lafayette

Mass in Latin is no longer a memory relegated to Lafayette Roman Catholic Diocese annals.

Latin Masses returned to the Lafayette Roman Catholic Diocese on Jan. 14, when the Rev. Jerome Frey celebrated the initial Latin Tridentine service at St. Peter Church. Beginning Feb. 4, the services will be offered at 1 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month at the church located at 102 N. Church St.

Previously, Catholics who preferred the Latin service had to drive nearly 60 miles, or about an hour, to St. Agnes Catholic Church in Baton Rouge. The Baton Rouge Diocese church conducts the service at 9:30 a.m. each Sunday.

Wonderful! It's great to see the Traditional Latin Mass spreading!

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Archbishop Sheen on the Rosary

Bishop Fulton Sheen in 1953:

“The Rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of the world and open on the substance of the next.”

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Catholicism in Tibet

I came across an uplifting article on Catholicism in Tibet. Although the man in the story says that he only sees a priest once a year, he says that the faith of Catholics remains alive.

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Conversion of St. Paul

Today is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. See my post from last year for a reflection on today.

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Pope Benedict XVI Photo from January 2007

The above photo is of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI from January 17, 2007. Remember to pray daily for the Holy Father. Photo Source: AFP/File/Andreas Solaro

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Words of Inspiration: January 23, 2007

Whenever I go to the chapel, I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, and I say to him, 'Lord, I am here. Tell me what you would have me to do ' . . . . And then, I tell God everything that is in my heart. I tell him about my pains and my joys, and then I listen. If you listen, God will also speak to you, for with the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen. God always speaks to you when you approach him plainly and simply" (St. Catherine Laboure).

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