Quote for the Day

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Deacon Bob

“The name of Jesus is a standard in battle, that is to say, in the fight against evil.” — St. Bernardine of Sienna OFM

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Websites of Interest

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Deacon Bob

I have found a couple of websites you may want to browse.  The first is a blog that is realtively well known called Whispers in the Loggia (http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com) 

The second is a site of a photographer who seems to do wonderful shots of a religious nature.  His name is Sam Lucero (www.samlucero.com)

Enjoy!

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Christian Perfection

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Deacon Bob

St. Gregory of Nyssa discussed three elements of a good Christian life:  Thoughts, words and deeds.  Sound familiar?  He wrote (my translation):

“What else would he who has been given the name Christian do but explore diligently each of his thoughts, words and actions, and see if each of them leads to Christ, or leads away from Him?

“…. the purity that is in Christ and the purity which is in our hearts is the same; the purity of Christ though can be identified as the source; our purity however comes from Him and flows into us, sweeping us along the way of beauty and honesty of thought, in such a way that there appears a certain coherence and harmony between the interior man and the exterior man, so that the thoughts and sentiments which come from Christ will regulate our lives and guide them in holiness…

“In this way then,  in my judgment, Christian life is perfected: In the assimilation and the concrete realization of all the titles expressed by the name of Christ, be they of the interior of our hearts or our external words and actions.” — Gregory of Nyssa,  PG 46, 283-286

An interesting thought for consideration — we are to assimilate and concretize in our words and actions all we have come to say and believe about Jesus Christ.

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St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Deacon Bob

My parents gave me the middle name of Thomas, and since childhood I have always  considered St. Thomas More my patron saint.  I don’t know why him rather than St. Thomas the Apostle, all I know is from my earliest memory, Thomas More was “the man.”

Today it is his optional memorial on the liturgical calendar.  He shares it with St. Bishop John Fisher.  Both were executed in England in 1535 of treason, because they held fast to the Catholic Church and the pope, and refused to follow the orders of Henry VIII.

Whereas John Fisher was a bishop, Thomas More was a married man, a lawyer, and a high government official, who was actually at one time a friend of sorts with the king, until Henry’s break with Rome over his divorce and the pope’s refusal to find any grounds for an annulment of Henry’s marriage.  As you recall, the king wanted to marry again.  Since Rome refused to declare his marriage null, Henry decided to establish the Church of England, put himself at its head and demanded that all Catholic clergy and faithful swear allegiance to the new Church. 

Fisher and More refused and were executed.

For a great website on these saints and their writings, log on to:

www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm

www.luminarium.org/renlit/fisher.htm

Even though today’s memorial is optional on the calendar, I celebrate it in the breviary.  Hope all of you do the same!

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Quote for the Day

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Deacon Bob

Another quote here from St. Bonaventure. He actually is speaking of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the feast we celebrated several days ago.

“Not only ‘see in his hands the print of the nails,’ with the apostle Thomas, not only put your finger into the place of the nails, not only put your hand into his side, but enter with your whole being through the door of his side into Jesus’ heart itself.” — St. Bonaventure, OFM

The invitation is there.  The grace is available. For us to enter that deeply into the heart of Jesus, our hearts need to be open to that grace and invitation.

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National Catholic Partnership on Disability

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Deacon Bob

Going to daily Mass can be a different experience than the Sunday liturgy. Subtle nods, smiles, hand gestures, and other greetings cross the spaces that may physically separate us at 6:30 AM.  Even in the midst of perhaps forty people or so, I find a true amalgam of the socio-economic strata — professionals, housewives, the retired, military personnel, religious, a deacon, and of course, the priest.  Occasionally, even a bishop.

There is one segment that is also invariably there –the disabled. Those with physical and/or the mentally illness.

One cannot but responsibly ask:  Are we ministering to them well?

Being a clinical social worker having worked with the mentally ill for nearly thirty years now, this question becomes an important one for me.

I want to direct your attention to a fine website having to do with all of this.  Log on to:

www.ncpd.org

More great stuff our Church is doing that doesn’t seem to hit the headlines often. A ton of good information and opportunities for keeping abreast of current political, legal and social concerns.

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The Sacred Heart – Pope Paul VI

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Deacon Bob

Paul VI spoke and wrote on many occasions about the Sacred Heart. Back on January 25, 1978, I received the book, La Devozione al Sacro Cuore nei Discorsi di Papa Montini, (The Devotion to the Sacred Heart in the discourses of Pope Paul VI), published by the Libreria Editrice Vaticana.  There are pages on pages of talks that Paul VI gave before and after he became pope on this devotion.

For any of you who can read Italian, it is worth your time to study.

One quote from a discourse given on June 8, 1956 (my translation of the Italian original):

“The devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus speaks to the faithful a double invitation.  First, to profoundly know Christ, to know him in his interior reality. Many times the name Christian has become a common name, almost an emblem of things far from Christianity. One gives this name to many things, doings, manifestations, arts, literature, etc. that have, I would say, only a resemblance of some Christian sign. There stops in large part our modern culture’s attention. We may unfortunately say, a very superficial religiosity.

“The Heart of Jesus says, ‘Do not stop here, go farther into the deep, know Christ in his reality, approach him, go deeply into his mysteries’……

“From this first invitation comes another: A religion of exterior cult no longeris  enough, nor are purely practical, numerable, hurried prayers measurable by time and hour.  It requires an interior religion, even for the beginner, for he who accepts the invitation of the Heart of Christ. It requires we enter with measured steps, with attentive spirits, with collected meditation, with a profundity ready to receive the echo of this immensity that comes little by little to he who dares to explore the psychology of the Heart of Christ.”

This solemnity calls us to depth, to explore, as Paul VI said, the immensity of Christ’s love.  It is not simple pious devotion, as some would have it.  It is real contemplation!

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Sacred Heart of Christ

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Deacon Bob

St. Bonaventure had this to say about the Sacred Heart of Jesus (my translation):

“O ineffable beauty of the most high God, O purist splendor of eternal light!  You are life that animates every life, light that illumines every light and keeps in eternal splendor the multi-formed luminaries that shine before your divine throne since the dawning of first light.  O eternal and inaccessible, splendid and sweet flowing from the fount hidden from all mortak eyes!  Your depth is endless, your height limitless, your breadth infinite, your purity undisturbed!  From you gushes forth a river ‘that gives joy to the city of God’ (Psalm 45, 5), so that ‘in the midst of songs of the multitude in festivity’ (Psalm 41, 5) we can sing songs of praise, demonstrating with the witness of experience that ‘in you  is the source of life and in your light we see light’ (Psalm 35, 10)” —  Bonaventure, Opusc. 3, The wood of life, 29-30. 47: Opera omnia 8, 79

Beautiful words to try to describe the Heart of Jesus.

Pope Paul VI wrote a book on the Sacred Heart a number of years ago.  It is in Italian, and I don’t think it is translated into English.  I may post on it later today.

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Authenticity in Catholic Universities

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Deacon Bob

Originsonline.com had the following:

“An authentic Catholic university ‘needs to affirm confidently what those great medieval universities assumed: Faith and reason are the foundation for a university education,’ says Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins. This means the Catholic university must be countercultural, resisting the secular tendency to dismiss religious insight as either a ‘cultural artifact on the museum shelf of comparative religion’ or an ’emotional security blanket needed by some to cope with a threatening world,’ he says.” www.originsonline.com/thisweek1.htm

I wonder what would happen to enrollment at our Catholic colleges and universities if they truly founded their curricula and methods of education on faith and reason, giving ample attention to both sources of truth.

Hard to say.  Any ideas?

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Quote for the Day

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Deacon Bob

“Humility teaches us to have resignation in our prayer life.  Otherwise we can be too wild and over expectant.” — Philip Marquard, OFM

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The Departure of Fr. Alberto Curie

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Deacon Bob

I hesitate on posting about Fr. Curie.  He is the priest from Miami, Florida who was very well known because of his television show and other media outlets.  He was caught with a woman on a beach a few weeks back, and now the news is reporting he left the Catholic Church, affiliating with the Episcopal Church and is seeking to be an Episcopal priest and has married his girlfriend.

The national coverage of this is another scandal for the Catholic faithful.  Clearly, Fr. Cutie’s behavior and decisons in regard to all this gives rise to the scandal.

He, obviously, is one among other priests who have left the Catholic Church to marry and then affiliate with the Episcopal Church. One of my better friends in seminary did just that a number of years ago.  But in Mike’s case, the national news didn’t make a spectacle of it even if his personal situation was perhaps similar.

I was thinking of all this as I prayed Midday Prayer today.  The antiphon for Psalm 75 was, “The Lord does not judge by appearances, but with justice and right.”

How incredibly true that is. 

If there is one thing I have learned in my ministry as a clinical social worker, it is this:  You really never know the entirety of a person.  There are aspects of ourselves and others that only come to light when in certain environments.  Only God is able to see through it at times. That is why, as our antiphon for the second Psalm in Midday Prayer reminded us:  “I am poor and unhappy; O God come quickly to help me!”  There are many good looking people out there who are in fact poor and hungry and are in need to God’s help.  And we are to be Christ to them.

I find myself thinking where the system failed individuals like Fr. Cutie, or my friend Mike, or even another priest friend who had some secret serious problems.  In other words, how did the community fail them? How did we, the Church, not be there for them in their need?  I am not trying to blame anyone for their moral behavior, but I am asking how we as a community could better support and challenge and develop those who minister in the name of the Church.

Finally, I think it is imperative and incumbent on those of us called into public ecclesial service to develop for ourselves and for colleagues the necessary structures of support, encouragement and challenge to identify, bring to the light and challenge to growth and fidelity those in ministry who are in trouble.

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St. Cyprian on the Our Father

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Deacon Bob

The Office of Readings today contains the writings of St. Cyprian on the Our Father.  He focuses on the words, “Holy be your Name.” 

He notes that God’s name is already holy, so holy in fact that we would dare not utter it unless bidden to do so by God himself, and we do so because we are adopted sons and daughters of the Lord.

What, then, are we praying when we pray, “Hallowed be thy Name”?

Cyprian reminds us, in answer to this question, that by the grace of baptism, we become temples of God.  God lives in us.  Our continual prayer and effort in life is to keep undefiled the divine life within us.

We are praying actually, that we retain our sanctity.  That we remain both in the image and likeness of God.  That we not blemish the temple of God, which we are, with sin. 

To quote Cyprian, “… we ask him day and night to keep us in that sanctity and that life that comes from his grace.” (Cyprian, Nn. 12: CSEL 3, 275)

When you pray the Our Father next time, keep in mind that in a certain sense, you are praying for yourself as a son or daughter of God when you say, “Hallowed be thy Name!”

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Quote for the Day

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Deacon Bob

“Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains.” — St. John Vianney

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Pope2You Website

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Deacon Bob

For any young readers, if you haven’t already found Pope Benedict’s website, take a look at:

www.pope2you.net

Browse around a bit and you may find it worth your while. (Actually, I guess we older fellows would benefit from a peek or two also.)

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St. Thomas Aquinas on the Eucharist

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Deacon Bob

Those of us who pray the Office of Readings enjoyed St. Thomas today. Here is a quote (my translation from the Italian):

“The only begotten Son of God, willing that we become participants in his divine nature, assumed our nature and became man to make of us, as men, gods.

“All that he assumed, he did so for our salvation.  He offered, in fact, his body to God the Father as a victim on the altar of the cross for our reconciliation. He shed his blood making of it for us both price of redemption and a cleansing of us, so that we may be purified of all our sins and redeemed from humble servitude….

“O immense and wonderful banquet, that gives salvation and unending joy to all the gathered!  What is capable of being more precious to you?…. you are given Christ, true God, in food. What is more sublime than this sacrament?…

“The Eucharist is the memorial of his passion, the fulfillment of the figures of the Old Testament, the greatest of all the works done by Christ, the admirable document of his immense love for men.” — Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, the feast of the Body of the Lord, lect. 104

St. Thomas here reminds us that the Body and Blood of our Lord, when received worthily and when we have open hearts to receive him, makes us like him. The theological word here is theosis which means divinization, becoming like God himself.  It speaks of our need and desire to be oriented to the true good in life, to God alone. It speaks of the tremendous gift of the Incarnation. Not only did it redeem us from our sin, but it brought our very nature, our human nature, back to God. We are made in the image and likeness of God, and when that image was so badly marred that the likeness was gone, Jesus removed the muck and dung that hid our divine image.  He made it possible for us to become as God is; he set us back on the road to God.

The Eucharist is the sacrament where we celebrate all of this, especially Jesus’ self-sacrifice (kenosis) that filled us with divine life and made us sons and daughters of the Father (theosis). 

Let us always be well disposed in mind, body, and soul when we receive this sacrament of love.

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