Blessed Villana de'Botti

Today is the feast of Blessed Villana de'Botti according to the Domincan Ordo. (It is Feb. 28 in the Ordinary calendar of the Roman Rite.) Bl. Villana tried to enter religious life by running away to a convent when she 13 years old.  Expectedly, she was turned away.  This prompted her father to arrange an early marriage for her to a wealthy man.  She gave into a worldly life of the idle rich.  Eventually, she saw the effects of how her turning away from God had sullied her soul.

She sought the help of the nearby Dominican Fathers of Santa Maria and made herself right with God.  She became a third-order/lay Dominican, living the rest of her short life in a holy marriage while also given to prayer, doing penance, and studying.  She was publically ridiculed but remained strong in her spiritual life and duties.  She was only 30 years old when died in AD 1361.  Beacause of the constant amounts of mourners, it was a month before the Dominican Fathers could bury her.      

Prayer

 

O God, our merciful Father, you called Blessed Villana back from the emptiness of the world and aroused in her a spirit of humility and true penitence. Recreate in our hearts the power of your love and, filled by that same spirit, may we serve you in newness of life. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Tomb of Bl. Villana de'Botti

St. Thomas Aquinas

  Today is the Ordinary calendar feast of one of the Dominican Order's greatest glories, St. Thomas Aquinas. There is absolutely nothing I can say about him that has not already been better recorded.

Instead, here is list of personal suggestions of things anyone can do to honor the Angelic Doctor on his feast:

• Spend an hour in Eucaristic adoration.
• Read some of the Summa Theologiae (Click here for an online version of the 1947 translation by The Fathers of the English Dominican Province)
• Join the Angelic Warfare Congraternity (A Dominican apostalate under St. Thomas' partronage. Anyone can join!)
• Pray a prayer by St. Thomas or for his intercession
• Sing or listen to a hymn written by St. Thomas:
• Pange Lingua
• Adoro Te Devote  
• O Salutaris Hostia

Some prayers by St. Thomas Aquinas

Prayer for Guidance

 
O creator past all telling,
you have appointed from the treasures of your wisdom
the hierarchies of angels,
disposing them in wondrous order
above the bright heavens,
and have so beautifully set out all parts of the universe.
You we call the true fount of wisdom
and the noble origin of all things.
Be pleased to shed
on the darkness of mind in which I was born,
The twofold beam of your light
and warmth to dispel my ignorance and sin.
You make eloquent the tongues of children.
Then instruct my speech
and touch my lips with graciousness.
Make me keen to understand, quick to learn,
able to remember;
make me delicate to interpret and ready to speak.

Guide my going in and going forward,
lead home my going forth.
You are true God and true man, 
and live for ever and ever.

 

Prayer After Communion

 

I thank You, Lord, Almighty Father, Everlasting God, for having been pleased, through no merit of mine, but of Your great mercy alone, to feed me, a sinner, and Your unworthy servant, with the precious Body and Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that this Holy Communion may not be for my judgment and condemnation, but for my pardon and salvation. Let this Holy Communion be to me an armor of faith and a shield of good will, a cleansing of all vices, and a rooting out of all evil desires. May it increase love and patience, humility and obedience, and all virtues. May it be a firm defense against the evil designs of all my visible and invisible enemies, a prefect quieting of all the desires of soul and body. May this Holy Communion bring about a perfect union with You, the one true God, and at last enable me to reach eternal bliss when You will call me. I pray that You bring me, a sinner, to the indescribable Feast where You, with Your Son and the Holy Spirit, are to Your saints true light, full blessedness, everlasting joy, and perfect happiness. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Redundant Headline

From The Blaze:

The Conditions at This MI Abortion Clinic Were So ‘Dangerous’ & ‘Disgusting’ It Was Shut Down

Funny, aren't all abortion clinics 'dangerous' and 'disgusting' by definition and design?

Our Lady of Guadelupe

Prayer to the Madonna of the Americas, Our Lady of Guadalupe

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mystical Rose, make intercession for the Holy Church, protect our Sovereign Pontiff, help all those who invoke thee in their necessities, and since thou art the ever Virgin Mary, and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from thy most holy Son, the grace of keeping our Faith. You are our sweet hope in the midst of the bitterness of life, burning charity, and the precious gift of final perseverance. Amen.

La Oración a Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

Santa María de Guadalupe, Mística Rosa, intercede por la Iglesia, protege al Soberano Pontífice, oye a todos los que te invocan en sus necesidades. Así como pudiste aparecer en el Tepeyac y decirnos: "Soy la siempre Virgen María, Madre del verdadero Dios", alcánzanos de tu Divino Hijo la conservación de la Fe. Tu eres nuestra dulce esperanza en las amarguras de esta vida. Danos un amor ardiente y la gracia de la perseverancia final. Amén.

"Not In My Diocese" Gratitude

While I am always extremely hurt and saddened to see all forms of abuse by religious, I have of late been increasingly grateful for what does not happen in my own diocese.  More and more the grass is greener on the inside of this diocese's fence.  In my own experience, we have been very mercifully free from the horrendeous abuse know as "liturgical dance."

Coming to light is one Fr. Joachim Andrade in Brazil performing profane acts in immodest dress. This apparently happened only earlier this year (see photo above).  It's hard to say which is more disturbing and scandalous: the priest displaying this blasphemey or the silence and allowance of the local bishop and clergy as it transpires.  Apparently, it's been happening and ignored for some time.  While the latest incident was a mere few months ago, it's been happening for years as evidenced by this 2009 video of Fr. Andrade strutting his pagan stuff:

I honestly cannot understand why this blatantly happens when it has been quite clear it should not be so!  The Vatican Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship issued the still authoritive 1975 Dance in the Liturgy which stated:

"...it [dance] cannot be introduced into liturgical celebrations of any kind whatever: that would be to inject into the liturgy one of the most desacralized and desacralizing elements; and so it would be equivalent to creating an atmosphere of profaneness which would easily recall to those present and to the participants in the celebration worldly places and situations."  (emphasis mine.)

Note that while the above forbids any liturgical use, the following excerpt fully excludes the participation by priests outside the liturgy as well!

"If the proposal of the religious dance in the West is really to be made welcome, care will have to be taken that in its regard a place be found outside of the liturgy, in assembly areas which are not strictly liturgical. Moreover, the priest must always be excluded from the dance." (emphasis original, bold is mine.)

Most importantly, let's remember the priest is taking it upon himself to insert something into the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that is not part of the Roman Missal. If we go right to the church instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum (On certain matters to be observed or to be avoided regarding the Most Holy Eucharist) available on the Vatican website we read concerning priests plainly in Chapter I, 3 (paragraph 31):

They ought not to detract from the profound meaning of their own ministry by corrupting the liturgical celebration either through alteration or omission, or through arbitrary additions. For as St. Ambrose said, 'It is not in herself . . . but in us that the Church is injured. Let us take care so that our own failure may not cause injury to the Church'.

What can be done?

Pray for the conversion of Fr. Andrade and other religious!

Proofs that Our Religious Liberty Is Threatened

As today marks the beginning of the Fortnight for Freedom, here is a great article from the Campus Notes Blog of the Cadinal Newman Society offering six proofs of current threats to U.S. religious liberty.

The Catholic University of America President John Garvey addressed the General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Atlanta, Ga., last week and offered six reasons to believe that religious liberty is under attack.

Garvey compared the current situation with regard to religious liberty in the U.S. to that of Tudor England, a time and place synonymous with religious persecution. “We are not the kind of violent and intolerant society Tudor England was,” he said. “But in recent years the landscape of religious freedom has changed. Its purview has narrowed considerably. Let me give six examples.”

Read the complete six examples from the article here.

Starts Tomorrow!