Pentecost Sunday - Suggestions

Highly recommend this:



or this




Strongly discourage (except for entertainment)



and



Hymn to the Holy Spirit

O Fire, Spirit, Comforter, life of the life of all creation!
Holy are you, bringing thought alive in flesh.
Holy are you, anointing the lost and broken.
Holy are you, healing infected wounds.
O sacred breath, O loving fire,
O sweetness in the breast
and flooding of the heart with the fragrance of goodness.
O clearest spring in which it is seen
that God gathers in strangers and seeks the lost.
O breastplate of life and hope for the unity of all the members,
O sword-belt of honor:
Save the blessed.
Protect those who are imprisoned by the enemy.
Set them free! Divine power wants to save them.
O most mighty way, you are everywhere
—in the heights and on the earth and in all the depths.
You gather and reconcile all people.
Clouds flow from you, skies fly, stones take in moisture,
Rivers of water overflow and drench the earth in living green.
You continually teach scholars who rejoice in Wisdom's gifts.
Therefore, praise be to you!
You yourself are the sound of praise and the joy of life,
You are hope and the most powerful grace,
Giving the gift of life.

- Hildegard of Bingen (translation by Ellen Oak)

Saint Servatius

Today the Order of Preachers remembers the feast day of Saint Servatius according to the Extraordinary Calendar. He was declared protector of the order in the 14th century.

"In the fourteenth century the Church and the Order of Preachers were suffering bitter persecution from the schismatical Emperor, Lewis of Bavaria. Learning that the General Chapter was convoked to meet in his dominions , at the city of Cologne, 1330, A.D., this prince secretly plotted the death of the capitular Fathers. They had just assembled, when Saint Servatius appeared in a dream to one of their number, a very holy religious, warned him of the danger which threatened himself and his brethren , and bade them to flee to Maestricht. This they accordingly did, thus escaping the snares which had been laid for them. And though their coming to Maestricht was wholly unexpected, God disposed the hearts of the inhabitants to receive them with the utmost kindness."

Prayer

Graciously hear these our prayers, we beseech Thee, O Lord, while we offer to Thee in this soleminity of Blessed Servatius, Thy Confessor and Bishop, that as he deserved to do Thee worthy service, so, through his merits and intercession, Thou wouldst mercifully absolve us from all our sins. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Text and Prayer: A Sister of the Congregation of St. Catherine of Siena (1909). Short Lives of the Dominican Saints. London, United Kingdom: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & CO. LTD. Now in public domain.

The News That Hurts

With an intense work project, studying, defining my personal apostolate and Spring cleaning in the house, I haven't allowed myself time to post regularly. So for today, here is just some slight commentary and links of some of the recent not-so-good Catholic news that has been bugging me this past week.

Apparently, God has had some fairly stealthy directives hidden in the Bible via the Commandments and previously suppressed Church teaching. Thanks to some feel-good "Catholic" scholars, we now know that workers' unions are close to being natural law and union busting is a "mortal sin." Click here to read about it.

Continuing proof that too many of today, particularly those that claim to be Catholic, no longer have any sense of the sacred: the Rainbow Sash homosexual movement announced plans to disrupt mass this coming Pentecost Sunday.
Have your say or object to whatever you please but in the proper venue! If they actually were the deserving Catholics they claim to be, they would never disrupt the Church's most sacred rite.

One can't help but be confused by the recent public comments from a Jesuit about some of Pope Benedict XVI's words to social workers during an audience with them in Portugal.
To quote Fr. James Martin, S.J., ...he [The Pope] stated that abortion and same-sex marriage, were "some of today's most insidious and dangerous threats" to the common good seemed oddly discordant. The equation of abortion, something that clearly is about a threat to life, with same-sex marriage, which no matter how you look at it, does not mean that anyone is going to die, is bizarre.
Beyond the fact that too many contemporary Jesuits are incapable of defending the Pope (no surprise), one would expect a magazine editor of America to correctly interpret a simple statement in context of Catholic teaching. Nowhere does the Holy Father equate abortion to same-sex marriage as the same thing materially. They are mentioned as two distinct evils that are equally dangerous (and murderous) spiritually.
Edited out the article was the fact that Fr. Martin went as far as to say that the Pope's statement went against the Gospel!

It's only a personal perception but is seems the recent meeting of 800 women religious leaders in Rome was failed damage control for the recent "inquisition" of the U.S. Apostolic Visitation. They released a declaration using their best "Spirit of Vatican II" newspeak (which has nothing to do with the true Vatican II). I suggest reading the declaration and commentary over at the Acts of the Apostasy blog. You must play the optional accompanied music for the best effect!

Don't get me started on the son-of-a-lesbian-couple-attending-Catholic-school fiasco in the Archdiocese of Boston.

As it is almost impossible now to escape any mention of the recent Arizona illegal immigration law in all mass media, individuals and groups from various levels of the Church are making sure they get their two-cents in. Their opinions represent both "sides" of the law. Not matter which "side" is taken, the more extreme of either often displays their ignorance of the bill itself. Anyone who vocalizes an opinion on it should at least read it first and then speak!

Here's a topic to discuss amongst yourselves: should a lesbian that decided she could be ordained a priest, and pretended to be one, be buried in the consecrated ground of a Catholic cemetery?

Mother Seton Prays Fervently

This is my latest response to a news story. This one is in response to other commenters on "The Chronicle of Higher Education" concerning a small article about Seton Hall Univerity possibly canceling a same-sex marriage course prompted by the archbishop of Newark.

Seton Hall is the oldest DIOCESAN University in the country and is under the Archdiocese of Newark. Therefore it is under the Catholic teaching of the archbishop. The university, itself, publically self-identifies as a Catholic institution and states, "A university is Catholic in many ways: ...living Catholic values." The university is obligated to uphold Catholic teaching by its own declaration while the archbishop is doing his job as the primary teacher and sanctifier for his see.

Even if it wasn't a diocesan establishment, as a Catholic institution it requires a "professio fidei" under canon 833 of the current Canon Law. In the revised code of 1983, a "professio fidei" was extended to theologians and others who teach in faith and ethics "in any [Catholic] universities whatsoever" as well as priests, bishops, etc.

A "same-sex marriage course" at a Catholic college is not a bad thing in itself. However, if such a course is to be taught, it should be solely from the spiritual teaching of the Church.

If it were truly from an "academic perspective" or some people believe Seton Hall should adhere to their personal interpretation of a "'real' open academic institution," then the expectation should also be for a "'real' open academic" lecturer. The class professor, W. King Mott, is an openly homosexual man in a same-sex relationship; he called the Catholic Church "prima facie homophobic" and has publically stated Church teaching on marriage being between one man and one woman as "laughable." This is hardly an "open academic" situation. Sounds rather biased to me.

It's easy for modernist academics to put a chosen spin on Bible passages despite 2000 years of previous teaching descended from others much closer to the time. But let's not also forget that there was no word or concept to fully convey our current understanding of what we now call "homosexual."
There are a lot of things Jesus never mentioned! (He DID refer to the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, though.) You would have to disregard then entire New Testament save for the four Gospels if you “cherry-pick” to only believe something because "Jesus said it."

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano

SAINT AGNES was born in Montepulciano, a neighborhood in Tuscany, c.1268. Not uncommon among many saints, St. Agnes showed great piety since childhood. While still very young she succeeded in convincing her parents to grant permission to enter a very strict monastery. After a few years she was sent to assist in the foundation of another monastery for the education of young girls at Procena. She became Abbess by a special dispensation from the Holy See when only fifteen! She was at Procena for 20 years (some sources say 17). By her own self-discipline, she lived on bread and water for fifteen years and slept on the floor with a stone for a pillow. Her great piety resulted in many signs and wonders: visually beautiful and fragrant flowers would spring up on the spot where she had prayed; she was sometimes showered with manna in the shape of little white crosses, witnessed by crowds; she was a visionary and t received Holy Communion from an angel's hand 10 times.

After her years at Procena the people Montepulciano requested her to establish a monastery. St. Agnes was unsure which rule to adhere in starting the new monastery, so she prayed and received her answer in a vision. From her vision of St. Augustine, St. Francis and St. Dominic she knew she was to begin a new community of woman according to the rule of St. Dominic. St. Dominic made known to her she was to start a community of virgins at Montepulciano on a hill which previously had the site of brothels.

It is said she was granted a warning of her purgatory before going to Heaven and mystical experiences on many consecutive Sundays when, shortly afterwards, she began her painful terminal illness.

Her sisters took her to the medicinal baths at Chianciano but they did not help her. However, while she was there, a miraculous hot water spring gushed (later named for her) and she miraculously brought a child back to life that had drowned there.
St. Agnes died when she was 49.

Another great female Dominican saint, St. Catherine if Siena, made a famous pilgrimage to St. Agnes’ tomb. St. Agnes’ incorrupt body lifted her foot for St. Catherine to kiss. St. Agnes was canonized AD 1726.

Let us pray...

O God who was ofttimes pleased to shed a heavenly dew over Thy Holy Virgin, Blessed Agnes, and to deck the places of her prayer with divers fresh blown flowers, mercifully grant that we, through her prayers, may be sprinkled with the unfailing dew of Thy blessing, and made fit to receive the fruits of immortality.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The incorrupt body of St. Agnes

3rd Annual Catholic Men's National Day of Prayer

Today is the 3rd annual Men's National Day of Prayer.

It was originally conceived by Dan Spencer, founder of The St. Joseph Center of Kansas City.

It calls for men to pray...

• For every man to heed Christ's call to personal conversion.
• For every man to become a transformed disciple of Jesus.
• For every Catholic man to fully actualize his vocational state of life calling.
• For every married man to love his wife and children as Christ loved the Church.
• For every ordained and religious man to serve Christ and His Church in accord with his specific vocation.
• For every man to embrace, proclaim and exemplify the truth of the Gospel in his home, parish, workplace and community.

Learn more about this day of prayer at the NFCM site.

Tomorrow is the 10th annual Diocesan Catholic Men’s Conference for the Worcester, MA diocese which I will be attending!

Uh Oh, I'm Back

Shame on me for letting myself be too pre-occupied to have posted the last couple of months. I've unintentionally dropped out of digital sight. Whether you think it's a good or bad thing, I'm back!