This weekend about 35 Knights of Columbus with their wives are doing a retreat at the Jesuit spiritual center in Milford. Please say some extra prayers for them becuase I will be their director. The topic is a combination of SPE SALVI and St. Paul. The title is Hope does not disappoint us: reclaiming true Christian Hope. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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Compare St. Augustine’s view with that of Fr. LaCordaire:
To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; to be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings; to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to go from man to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men to bring pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to teach and to pardon, console and bless always. My God, what a life! And it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!
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As I am rereading SPE SALVI, I am struck by the Pope’s quotation of St. Augustine’s daily itinerary:
The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weak supported, the Gospel’s opponents need to be refuted, its insidious enemies need to be guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be encouraged, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved.
This is an terrifying job descrption for any priest and bishop. I don’t know if Fr. Kyle would want to use it to promote vocations, but it definitely presents the pastoral life of a priest as an unending adventure. It is similar to a quote from LaCordaire, which I hope to find later. It kind of reminds me of what my daily tasks as a hospital chaplain were. Say a prayer that we will be able to do these things well and for the honor and glory of God.
This year, as last, a generous benefactor stepped forward and offered to pay airfare and lodging for any seminarian who wished to go to the March for Life. Over half of the Seminarians went and are now in Washington. I hope the weather is a little warmer and drier than it is here. They will all come back this evening and tomorrow will be business as usual, whatever that means.
It is always a humbling experience to experience the generosity of another, and I hope that it does for the Seminarians what the generosity of others does for me- namely to make me more generous in serving others and to work harder that the gifts I have received will not be wasted.
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Today is the Feast of St. Agnes and a special ceremony occurs at the Vatican on this day. Pope Benedict will bless two sheep, and the wool from these sheep will be used to make the pallia or the circular bands given to new Archbishops on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Pope Benedict wears a very large one with red crosses on it. Archbishops wear smaller ones with black crosses on them. They wear this over their shoulders as a sign that they must carry their flock on their shoulders, just as Christ the good Shepherd carries the Church.
I suppose that the Feast of St. Agnes is chosen as the day for this blessing becuase of the similarity of her name to the Latin word for Lamb, “Agnus.” She is the little ewe lamb who in obedience to Christ her spouse, gave her life as an offering as a sign of her love for him. Both St. Augustine and St. Ambrose write that she was 12 years old when she was martyred. She reminds us that the Christian life has at its center obedience and sacrifice, two things that are not viewed too highly today.
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I received the latest issue of Glibert Magazine from the American Chesterton Society. There are always a lot of good articles and quotes from Chesterton that make it good reading. There is one quote I have found so far that would be good for us to take to heart in this election year:
Even a political democracy would . . . be a little more practical if people prepared for the general Election as they did for the Eucharistic Congress, with prayer and penance rather than publicity and lies.
There is another wonderful quote that it is equally true today from his book Christendom in Dublin:
Lenin said that religion is the opium of the people . . . But it is only by believing in God that we can ever criticize the government. Once abolish God and the Government becomes God. That fact is written all across human history, but it is written most plainly across the recent history of Russia, which was created by Lenin. . . Lenin only fell into a slight error: he only got it the wrong way around. The truth is that irreligion is the opium of the people. Wherever people do not believe in something beyond the world, they will worship the world.
It appears that this attitude is what Pope Benedict is addressing in Spe Salvi. The more we ignore history, the more we repeat it. The more we will lose hope and fall into despair.
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This date in 1499, John was born in Almovodar del Campo in Spain. He died in 1569 and was canonized in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. His life as a diocesan priest and itinerant preacher was seen as such an example that Pope VI named him the Patron for priests to go to if they have an identity crisis. In 1954. Pope Pius XII named his the Patron of the Diocesan clergy of Spain.
San Juan de Avila is not well known in this country. His feast day in Spain is May 11. I am very well acquainted with him because my STL thesis (about 520 pages including the sermons) was on San Juan’s Marian homilies, commonly known as The Book of the Virgin. He is a powerful preacher, but most of his works are still in Spanish. The only English translations are his Marian homilies, which I have done, and his spiritual work AUDI FILIA, translated by Sr. Joan Gormley who teaches at the other Mt. St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg. Her translation is published in the CLASSICS OF WESTERN SPIRITUALITY SERIES from Paulist Press. Maybe one day I will be able to publish my translations of his Marian works. Also, maybe one day I will be able to finish my doctorate on St. John’s mariology. Also, maybe one day pigs will fly! Time will tell.
San Juan de Avila, ruega por nosotros!!
While Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, I have an intersting doument you might want to look up. About five years ago, the Holy See was to publish a set of guidelines on popular piety and devotion. While they have not to my knowledge published the document in book form, it is on the Vatican website. This is really a great document. It is about 186 pages, but it covers every aspect of Catholic piety from Intercession to the Dead, shrines and pilgrimages, Mary and the devotion to the Saints. It is something that I believe every serious catechist should have in his or her arsenal.
It is called DIRECTORY ON POPULAR PIETY AND THE LITURGY: PRINCIPLES AND GUIDELINES. you can find it in curia/congregations section, specifically: Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship (April 2002).
Also, don’t forget, the SONRISE MORNING SHOW adds another hour starting tomorrow. It will now be on from 6:00-9:00am.
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