sense of the sacred

Children as Signs of Contradiction

2012-02-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

Praised be Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!

“Lord, what good will your gifts be if I keep on being childless?” so Abram asked God who has showered his faithful servant with many good things. Blessed by God with land, livestock, and many other properties, Abram should have been satisfied with what he had. However, his sterility bothered him. All his properties did not compensate for that longing which remained unsatisfied: he longed for a child, an offspring to whom he shall bequeath his properties, an offspring for whom he shall dedicate his efforts. Such is the generous disposition of Abram. He was truly a man of God because he is like God whose desire to give himself is an expression of his love.

So unlike him is the attitude which characterizes the world we live in. So deep are the roots of materialism in us that we no longer ask what Abram asked the Lord: What good will your gifts be if I keep on being childless? In fact, isn’t this what many modern people want to achieve: to remain childless so as to be free of burdens and responsibilities and also to continue enjoying for the self the fruits of one’s own labors? Ah! The joy of having no children! The less mouths I have to feed, the more I have to enjoy for myself!

When the old Prophet Simeon took the child Jesus into his arms, he declared this child to be a sign that will be contradicted. Early in his life, the Cross begins to cast its shadow upon Jesus. He will be a sign that will be contradicted because the world will hate him for what he will say and for who he is. What he will say will directly oppose what the world teaches. Who he is will threaten the dark forces that control the world: “Have you come to destroy us? We know who you are: the Holy One of God!”

However, when we consider the hostility of the world today towards children, the words “sign of contradiction” begin to take on a new light. In becoming a little child, the Lord Jesus stands in solidarity with all children who, unfortunately are also signs that are contradicted. And the opposition to having children is so subtle because it takes the guise of informed choices, reproductive health, and planned parenthood. And the forces behind this opposition are so great if only we consider how much money is poured behind planned parenthood and the RH bill. So great are these forces that clearly we are up against more than just human beings but against principalities and powers in high places.

Against these principalities and powers that have connived against the child, the Christian family has only one weapon: faith in the Cross. “By faith, (Abraham) received the power to regenerate,” so said St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews, “…So it was that there came forth from one man, himself as good as dead, descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.” This faith of Abraham is complemented by the willingness of Mary to take up the cross: “you yourself, a sword will pierce.” In order to defend the child from the forces that contradict it, Christian families must be willing to take up the crosses that go with raising children. Nobody said that having children will be easy. In fact it is difficult but even so, it has to be done because it is the will of God. God wanted Abraham to have “descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore.” Difficult as this cross may be, Christian families have to carry it with faith – faith in the wisdom and in the providence of God. After all, God does not impose burdens that we cannot bear. His wisdom sees what the world, in its shortsightedness, cannot see. The world cannot see beyond present convenience. The Lord sees the preservation of humankind. The aging European population is proving right the wisdom of God. With an almost zero birth rate, there is no one to replace an aging workforce. There is no one set to sustain the economy. Indeed, what good will the Lord’s gifts to us be if we were to remain childless?

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Solemn High Mass at Holy Family Parish

2012-02-14T05:50:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, February 12, 2012, the High Mass was offered at the Holy Family Church. This is the external Solemnity of the Holy Family. It was celebrated by Rev. Fr. Jean-Marie Moreau of the Institute of Christ the King, with Rev. Fr. Eric Forbes, OFM Cap. serving as Deacon and Rev. Fr. Rodel Lopez, OMI as sub-deacon. It was truly a blessed event - the highlight of our Parish Fiesta.

Thank you Mr. Jay Balza for the pictures and also for bringing Fr. Moreau!

The Common Liturgical Direction (ad orientem)

The elevation of the Body of the Lord

The elevation of the Precious Blood

The second Confiteor

Ite Missa Est.

Consecration to the Blessed Virgin

2012-02-02T05:03:00.000-08:00

The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord and the Purification of Our Lady is an opportune time for priests and religious to renew their self donation to the Lord through our Lady. In the blog of Fr. Mark Kirby, I found this prayer of St. Ildefonsus of Toledo (+667) which is a beautiful consecration to the most holy Virgin:

Prayer of Saint Ildephonsus of Toledo, bishop

The Abundance of the Sweetness of Thy Son

I come to thee, only Virgin Mother of God.

and fall prostrate before thee,

who alone didst cooperate in the Incarnation of God.

I humble myself before thee, who alone wert found to be the handmaid of thy Son:

obtain that my sins be wiped away;

command that I be cleansed of the wickedness of my deeds,

and, that I may love the glory of thy virtue,

reveal to me the abundance of the sweetness of thy Son.

Thou art His Co-worker in my redemption

bestow upon me the gift of proclaiming the true faith of thy Son,

and of defending it.

Grant that I may cleave to God and to thee,

that I may serve thy Son and thee,

that I may be His bondsman and thine;

His, because He is my Creator.

and thine, because thou art the Mother of my Creator;

His, because He is the Lord of the angelic powers,

and thine, because thou art the handmaid of the Lord of all;

His, because He is God,

and thine, because thou art the Mother of God;

His, because He is my Redeemer,

and thine, because thou art His co-worker in my redemption.

The Body by which He healed my wounds

that which He wrought for my redemption,

verily He formed in thine own person.

that He might be my Redeemer,

He became thy Son.

That He might be the price of my ransom,

He became Incarnate of thy flesh.

The Body by which He healed my wounds,

He took from thee so that He, in it, might be wounded.

The mortal Body by which He took away my death,

He took from thy mortality.

The Body b y which He brought my sins to nought,

He received sinless from thee.

This nature of mine that ahead of time, in Himself,

He placed above the angels in the glory of His Father's right hand,

He assumed - humbling Himself - out of thine own true body.

I am thy slave

Therefore, I am thy slave,

because Thy Son is my Master,

Therefore thou art my Lady,

because thou art the handmaid of my Lord.

Therefore, I am the slave of the handmaid of my Lord,

because thou, my Lady, didst become the Mother of my Lord.

Therefore I have become thy slave,

because thou didst become the Mother of my Maker.

By the Holy Spirit

I pray thee, I pray thee, holy Virgin,

may I, by the Spirit through Whom thou didst give birth to Jesus,

have Jesus, and hold Him.

By that Spirit through Whom

thou didst conceive this same Jesus in thy flesh,

may my soul receive Jesus.

Let the Spirit gift me with the knowledge of Jesus,

this Spirit by Whom it was given thee to bear Jesus and to give Him birth.

Let the Spirit in Whom thou didst declare thyself the handmaid of the Lord,

choosing that it should be done unto thee according to the Angel's word,

grant me to proclaim the heights of Jesus with lowliness.

To Love Jesus and fear Him

In the Spirit thou didst adore Jesus as thy Lord

and gaze upon Him as thy Son;

in that same Spirit may I love Him.

And may I fear this same Jesus,

with that reverence by which He, truly being God,

became subject to His parents.

link

Novena to the Holy Family

2012-02-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

Our Parish begins the novena to the Holy Family on February 3, 2012. The Parish Fiesta is celebrated on the 2nd Sunday of February every year. I really wonder why this is so. In the old calendar, the Feast of the Holy Family used to be celebrated on the Sunday after Epiphany. Why my new parish and 2 other parishes in the Manila and Quezon City areas celebrate the feast on the 2nd Sunday of February is an interesting subject to research.

Anyway, I found these novena prayers to the Holy Family. Follow this link: Novena to the Holy Family

Implement the Motu Proprio: A Bishop Speaks

2012-01-31T09:06:00.000-08:00

At The New Liturgical Movement blog, excerpts of the pastoral letter of Bishop Mario Oliveri to priests and deacons of his diocese were made. The good bishop said:

"I understand that in some areas, on the part of several priests and pastors, there was also the manifestation almost of ridicule toward faithful who have asked to make use of the option, and indeed of the right, for the celebration of Holy Mass in the Extraordinary Form; there is also an expression of contempt and almost of hostility toward Brother Priests who are well prepared to understand and respond to the requests of the faithful...

"I ask that you put away every attitude not in conformity with ecclesial communion, the discipline of the Church and the convinced obedience due to important acts of the magisterium or government."

In the Philippines, many priests continue to show hostility towards the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. Among them is a Pauline Priest who recently ridiculed the extraordinary form on national TV. To these priests, the exhortation of the good bishop is fittingly addressed: Put away every attitude not in conformity with ecclesial communion, the discipline of the Church, and the convinced obedience due to important acts of the Magisterium or government of the Church. They should be asked: Are you thinking with the Church? Are you moving with the Church?

Follow the link: Implement the Motu Proprio: A Bishop Speaks

The TLM in its new home

2012-01-20T03:52:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Ron Yu for the picture

Have been busy for the past weeks on account of my transfer to Holy Family Parish. The transfer is nearly done. The first Mass of the Roman Rite in the Extraordinary Form was celebrated in the new parish at 8:30 am on the 19th of January 2012. The Mass in the Extraordinary form has a new home in the Diocese of Cubao, Philippines.

Please visit us at the Holy Family Parish, Madre Silva corner Lilac Streets, Roxas District, Quezon City. Mass on Ferial days at 8:30 am. Mass on Sundays at 2:00 pm

Without Evident Greatness

2012-01-15T09:42:00.000-08:00

The much revered image of the Sto. Niño commemorates the holy childhood of our Lord Jesus – the hidden life during which, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Lord spent “the greater part of his life” sharing “the condition of the vast majority of human beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual labor.” (CCC, 531). This hidden life in Nazareth, about which the Sacred Scriptures gives very few details, embraces much of His life on earth. Whatever we know about our Lord in his public ministry took place only in the last 3 years of his life. 30 years of it was very much spent in anonymity, in hiddenness: “a daily life spent without evident greatness.” The Catechism tells us that one of the purposes of the Incarnation is for the Word of God “to be our model of holiness.” (CCC, 459.) This means that God desires that we imitate his Son so that we can become holy. Often, many people wonder how this can be possible. After all, much of what the Lord did were easily done because of his Divinity. It can be easy for us to justify our failure in imitating Christ by saying, “I am not God like Christ.” It is in His hidden life in Nazareth where the Lord is very much like us who spend our daily lives without evident greatness. The 8 million crowd who drew close to the Nazareno in the 22 hour long procession last Monday – they are the ones like us who spend their daily lives without evident greatness. The Lord spent much of his life being like most of us – without splendor, without evident greatness. It is in the mystery of his childhood that his life resembles very much like ours. And seeing him as so much like ourselves, we find it so much easier to draw close to Him. Perhaps, the similarity of the hidden life of Christ to our very ordinary selves is the reason why Reina Juana of Cebu chose the image of the Sto. Niño from the 3 images presented to her at her baptism. Perhaps, this same similarity becomes the reason for the Sto. Niño’s popularity. What Filipino home is without a Sto. Niño? We are comfortable in seeing the Almighty God as being so much like us. Here He is reachable. Here He is approachable. Here He is accessible. Looking at the Sto. Niño, we realize that the Christian life, as an imitation of Christ, is not impossibly difficult. This is so because God bent himself so low – He became like us, without evident greatness.

And he wants us to draw close to him in the ordinariness of our humanity. That is why he says, “Let the little children come to me. Do not prevent them.” Not only does he want the children to come to him. He wants us to approach Him like little children – without the evident greatness of adult achievement. Last Sunday, we said that one of the reasons why the Magi were believed to be kings is that they were received by Herod – something that can easily be done if they were kings. Today, Jesus receives children. He wants us to approach as children – without the trappings and complications demanded of adults. We can approach him even without proofs of achievements. And to make it easier, the Lord becomes a little child – a Child among children as Herod was king among the Magi who were kings.

“To such belongs the Kingdom of God” – when we look at the Sto. Niño, we see him dressed as King and rightly so. After all, He is the owner of the Kingdom of God. “God will give him the throne of David his father, and his kingdom will be without end.” But in the image of the Sto. Niño, we see this King in the utter ordinariness of a Child. This King is a Child. As a child, He is so much like us. As King, He is so much above us. As a child, He makes it easy for us to approach Him. As King, He gives us the reason why we must approach Him – He has the power to give us what nobody else can: access to the Kingdom of God.

Epiphany and Modern Paganism

2012-01-09T01:53:00.000-08:00

The Birth of the Lord took place inconspicuously under the shadows of that silent night, holy night. No one knew of His birth except for our Lady, St. Joseph, and some shepherds who were keeping watch of their flock that night.. Today, guided by a star, magi came and prostrated themselves in homage before the new-born King and they offered him gifts of gold in recognition of his royalty, frankinscense in recognition of his Divinity, and myrrh in recognition of the sacrificial character of his mission.. The coming of the magi brings to fulfillment what Isaiah said: “the wealth of nations shall be brought to you. Caravans of camels shall fill you; dromedaries from Midian and Ephah; all from Sheba shall come, bearing gold and frankinscence, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.”

Today, the Lord appears to all nations and He invites them to His light. The Magi, coming from the superstitions of their pagan faith, have searched for the true God and found Him in the arms of the Virgin Mary. Guided by the elements of nature, they have discovered the Word through whom all things were made and apart from whom nothing came to be. Because they were deprived of Divine Revelation, they groped in the dark but thanks to signs in the sky, the found the true Light that dispels all darkness and all ignorance. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The Magi began a procession of nations towards the one true Redeemer. And we ourselves are part of that procession for we have accepted the light of the Christian Faith and thus, we emerged from darkness into the Lord’s wonderful light. Thanks to the Cross which the Spanish missionaries planted on Philippine soil, we no longer grope in the dark. Rather, we bask in the light of the Christian Faith. Christianity is the best gift which the Lord has ever bestowed upon our nation for, as the Holy Father said, “Belief in Jesus Christ is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.”

Epiphany, being one of the 4 highest feasts of the Church, must be restored to its original place of prominence in the liturgical year. Unfortunately, Epiphany has become an inconspicuous ending to a holiday season that the world has higly commercialized. Epiphany must once again find its rightful place because its message is ever more relevant today because we find ourselves again in a world that is beset with paganism. The people that once sat in darkness and saw a great light are once again returning to the darkness they came from. And worse, the return to darkness is now disguised as intellectual enlightenment. Christianity is now being packaged as superstition and paganism as the new wisdom. “We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden,” said the Holy Father, “the people of today can still experience the need… to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the sources of living water welling up within him.” “The door of faith is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. It begins with baptism…and ends with the passage through death to eternal life…To profess faith in the Trinity…is to believe in one God who is Love: the Father, who in the fullness of time, sent his Son for our salvation, Jesus Christ, who in the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy Spirit, who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s glorious return.”

Educating the Young in Justice and Peace

2012-01-01T02:05:00.000-08:00

The octave of Christmas is also known as the World Day of Peace. For this day, the Holy Father chose as theme: Educating young people in Justice and Peace. Last night, we heard that our Holy Father acknowledge the fact that last year “has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and the economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing the light of day.” (World Day of Peace 2012) The year that has just concluded was marked by turmoil because young people are frustrated with the way things are. Thus, we saw the occupy Wall Street movement that caught the world in fire. Likewise, we see how one after another, dictatorships in the Middle East collapsed due to popular uprising. There is truly a hunger for justice and peace. And it is really time to start along the way of peace by educating the young according to this path.

Where does education in justice and peace begin? The Holy Father says that it begins in the family. In the Holy Gospel, we heard: The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the infant lying in the manger. The infant lying in the manger is the Sun of Justice. He is our Peace. The shepherds found the Sun of Justice and the Prince of Peace in the company of Mary and Joseph…in the Holy Family.

The Holy Father writes: “Where does true education in peace and justice take place? First of all, in the family, since parents are the first educators. The family is the primary cell of society; ‘it is in the family that children learn the human and Christian values which enable them to have a constructive and peaceful coexistence. It is in the family that they learn solidarity between the generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and how to welcome others.’ ( BENEDICT XVI, Address to Administrators of Lazio Region and of the Municipality and Province of Rome ,14 January 2011: L’Osservatore Romano, 15 January 2011, p. 7.) The family is the first school in which we are trained in justice and peace.” (World Day of Peace 2012.)

The troubles that afflict the world today are really issues of injustice. When banks and businesses grow while workers become more subjected to poverty…there is injustice. When government cries for the rule of law but resorts to short cuts and say that the end justifies the means…there is injustice. When state laws are manipulated in defiance of natural law…there is injustice. And young generations are disturbed by what they see. For what future is there when laws are constantly manipulated to the advantage of the mighty and powerful? When we grab what we want because the end justifies the means, then we have the beginnings of anarchy.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, shows us that peace is the fruit of justice. He who is the Son of God was not only born of a woman. He was born under the law. While the Scriptural context of the letter to the Galatians refer here to the law of Moses, I think that by the mystery of the Incarnation, the Son of God subjected himself even to natural law. Such is the humility that was manifested in the Incarnation. The Son of God does not put himself above the law. He placed himself under the authority of human parents. He was born under the law. By his incarnation, the Lord Jesus teaches us the value of solidarity between generations, respect for rules and fair play, forgiveness, and living peacefully with others. Born under the law, the Lord Jesus teaches us that at the very foundation of justice is basically respect for rules, respect for laws. When we place ourselves above the law, we pave the way for injustice.

Human and Christian values must once again be taught in the family if we want to assure the world of a peaceful future founded on justice. The way things are now, young people are easily swayed by ideologies that manipulate them to achieve party goals. This is not the way to peace. We have to go by the way the shepherds took. They went in haste to Bethlehem and search for him who is the Source of Justice and Peace. The Holy Father wrote: “It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?” (BENEDICT XVI, Address at Youth Vigil (Cologne, 20 August 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 885-886.) Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-13).”

The Catholic Way to celebrate New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T21:44:00.000-08:00

Year End Vigil

Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament

Prostration at the stroke of midnight

Pictures thanks to Dennis Maturan

Both Christmas and New Year’s day fall on Sundays this year and I was surprised that the Mondays following them were not declared as non working holidays. I raised this up in a conversation and a lady said to me: Father, kahit yung January man lang sana ay ideclare na holiday. I wondered why the preference for Jan 2 over Dec. 26. The answer came: Father, mas maraming puyat sa New Year kaysa Pasko. The answer made me think: it seems that New Year’s eve is becoming more popular than Christmas eve. I could validate that by the fact that most of my staff would prefer to be home on New Year’s day than on Christmas. There seems to be greater excitement and activity in New Year’s day. In fact, more rituals are observed tonight than on Christmas night. On Christmas night, all we had would be the midnight Mass and the Noche Buena. Tonight, after the Mass would be the waiting for the actual midnight with the lighting of firecrackers, food, and all night partying. Of course, there would be the rules for tonight’s meal: round fruits on the table, fish, meat, no chicken (because the manok is isang kahig isang tuka). Clothes would definitely be polka dots, pockets filled with coins, jumping up and down at the stroke of midnight (believe me it does not work), house cleaned and brightened up…and many more. All these customs and beliefs meant to ensure a prosperous year to come. Yesterday, someone asked me: Father, ano ba ang magandang feng sei para sa year of the dragon. I answered: Hindi ako naniniwala sa feng sei. Ang Feng sei ay labag sa unang utos sa 10 commandments. She asked back: Bakit Father, di ba Chinese ka? And I responded: Kristiyano muna ako bago maging Instik.

I think, tonight is the night when we should give witness to our own Faith in Christ. We have been talking about faith during the days that led to Christmas. And we even heard the Holy Father saying: Faith in Jesus Christ is the way to arrive definitively at salvation. I think somehow, we accept the principle but what we do tonight will reveal if we really believe in Christ. On whom do you put your faith? If you truly believe in the Lord Jesus, then why do you have to subject yourself to superstitious practices? Para makasigurado? Are you not confident that the Lord Jesus is sufficient so that you think that by hanging oranges on your window or lighting fire crackers or eating fish would assure you of a better year? Remember that “when we believe, we freely accept the whole mystery of faith, because the guarantor of its truth is God.” (PF, 10)

How should Christians meet a new civil year? The 1^st reading tells us to imitate the Israelites who go to the priests to be blessed in the name of the Lord: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord let his face shine upon you And be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace. Mark what the Lord declares: So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites and I will bless them.

In the Holy Gospel we heard: the shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. The word of God tells us that we must imitate the shepherds to go in haste to the Virgin and St. Joseph because in their company we shall see the infant lying in the manger…that infant whose name is Jesus “for he will save his people from their sins.” It is not in the company of the 12 animals of Buddha that we can be assured of salvation. Only in Christ Jesus will we find this for only Christ is the Savior of the world.

Tonight, as in ever New Year’s night, I challenge you to make that leap of faith. Let go of those practices that give you nothing but false hopes. Come into the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Entrust your past to his justice and your future to his providence. Hasten to Him tonight and declare that He alone is Lord and there is no other. There is no God but him. “With what attitude should we look to the New Year? We find a very beautiful image in Psalm 130. The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning” (v. 6); they wait for him with firm hope because they know that he will bring light, mercy, salvation. This waiting was born of the experience of the Chosen People, who realized that God taught them to look at the world in its truth and not to be overwhelmed by tribulation. I invite you to look to 2012 with this attitude of confident trust. It is true that the year now ending has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and the economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing the light of day. In this shadow, however, human hearts continue to wait for the dawn of which the Psalmist speaks.” (Benedict XVI, World Day of Peace 2012)

Tonight, let us profess our faith. Let us wait for the Lord with firm hope because we know that he will bring light, mercy and salvation. And we will not hope in vain. Like the shepherds, we will glorify and praise God for all we had heard and seen will be just as we had been told. The Lord fulfills his promises.

The Vesting of a Bishop

2011-12-28T06:35:00.000-08:00

A wonderful post on vesting the Bishop in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite! Perhaps many bishops will hesitate to go through this ritual vesting. In fact, liturgical vestments have lost their meaning in the minds of many priests. Today, we don our vestments while chatting. We no longer say the prayers while vesting. Thus, it should not come as a surprise how the liturgical vestment is regarded simply as a uniform or a costume. Some priests are more delighted in wearing an academic gown than a liturgical vestment. How I wish we could restore the sense of the sacred with regards the liturgical vestments.

Follow the link The Vesting of a Bishop in East and West

The witness of Martyrs

2011-12-28T05:34:00.000-08:00

The shepherds offered the Christ Child the gift of sheep. The Magi offered him gold, frankincense, and myrhh. But Herod, with his evil intentions, unwittingly honored Christ with the best tribute...he offered the Lord 30 children martyrs!

How glorious are you, O Christ, for to honor You, the army of children martyrs sang a carol written with their own blood! Glory and praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ!

Blessed are the Pure of Heart!

2011-12-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

St. John's writings enjoy pride of place in the Liturgy. His epistles are read during the Christmas Season. His Gospel and the Book of Revelations are read during the Easter Season. The Gospel on Christmas day, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday came for his Gospel. This only shows how the Church regards highly this Beloved Apostle of Christ.

Come to think of it, St. John seems to have the gift of being first to recognize the Lord Jesus. His prologue shows the St. John recognized the glory of Christ as the glory of God's only begotten Son, full of grace and truth. In the resurrection narrative, he was first to "see and believe" the signs of the Resurrection. When they were out fishing, St. John was the one who recognized the Lord on the shore: "It is the Lord!"

His purity enabled him to immediately recognize and believe in the Lord's presence. The Divine Office today repeatedly refers to the "virgin John". Did not our Lord say in the Beatitudes: Blessed at the pure of heart, for they shall see God!

The first to lay mortal eyes on the new-born Babe was the Blessed Virgin. The first to see the Risen Christ was still the Blessed Virgin. Second to the Blessed Virgin, the virgin John recognized the signs of the Resurrection.

How wonderful virginity is! God derives much honor from virginity! Among the martyrs, the virgin-martyrs are a specially beloved class. Consecrated virgins enjoy a special place in the Church. God is truly glorified by virginity because this is a manifestation of a person's total availability to God. Thus, Satan struggles to destroy it. The sexual revolution that opened the way to promiscuity in society was definitely the work of the Evil One.

Our gift to the Christ-child ought to be the revival of the culture of purity in our own homes. Worthy are you, O John, for in your purity, you have seen and heard the Word of Life!

Christmas Devotion

2011-12-25T19:05:00.000-08:00

photo by Jay Arwin Espiritu

Christmas is an epiphany – the appearing of God and of his great light in a child that is born for us. Born in a stable in Bethlehem, not in the palaces of kings. In 1223, when Saint Francis of Assisi celebrated Christmas in Greccio with an ox and an ass and a manger full of hay, a new dimension of the mystery of Christmas came to light. Saint Francis of Assisi called Christmas “the feast of feasts” – above all other feasts – and he celebrated it with “unutterable devotion” (2 Celano 199; Fonti Francescane, 787). He kissed images of the Christ-child with great devotion and he stammered tender words such as children say, so Thomas of Celano tells us (ibid.). For the early Church, the feast of feasts was Easter: in the Resurrection Christ had flung open the doors of death and in so doing had radically changed the world: he had made a place for man in God himself. Now, Francis neither changed nor intended to change this objective order of precedence among the feasts, the inner structure of the faith centred on the Paschal Mystery. And yet through him and the character of his faith, something new took place: Francis discovered Jesus’ humanity in an entirely new depth. This human existence of God became most visible to him at the moment when God’s Son, born of the Virgin Mary, was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God’s Son to take the form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. “The kindness and love of God our Saviour for mankind were revealed” – this phrase of Saint Paul now acquired an entirely new depth. In the child born in the stable at Bethlehem, we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart.

This has nothing to do with sentimentality. It is right here, in this new experience of the reality of Jesus’ humanity that the great mystery of faith is revealed. Francis loved the child Jesus, because for him it was in this childish estate that God’s humility shone forth. God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love, he put himself in the position of asking for human love – our love. Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light.

Francis arranged for Mass to be celebrated on the manger that stood between the ox and the ass (cf. 1 Celano 85; Fonti 469). Later, an altar was built over this manger, so that where animals had once fed on hay, men could now receive the flesh of the spotless lamb Jesus Christ, for the salvation of soul and body, as Thomas of Celano tells us (cf. 1 Celano 87; Fonti 471). Francis himself, as a deacon, had sung the Christmas Gospel on the holy night in Greccio with resounding voice. Through the friars’ radiant Christmas singing, the whole celebration seemed to be a great outburst of joy (1 Celano 85.86; Fonti 469, 470). It was the encounter with God’s humility that caused this joy – his goodness creates the true feast.

Benedict XVI, Homily for Midnight Mass 2011

Christmas and Violence

2011-12-25T19:00:00.000-08:00

God has appeared – as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace. At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways, when over and over again there are oppressors’ rods and bloodstained cloaks, we cry out to the Lord: O mighty God, you have appeared as a child and you have revealed yourself to us as the One who loves us, the One through whom love will triumph. And you have shown us that we must be peacemakers with you. We love your childish estate, your powerlessness, but we suffer from the continuing presence of violence in the world, and so we also ask you: manifest your power, O God. In this time of ours, in this world of ours, cause the oppressors’ rods, the cloaks rolled in blood and the footgear of battle to be burned, so that your peace may triumph in this world of ours.

Benedict XVI, Homily for Midnight Mass 2011

His Light is Greater than the Darkest Night

2011-12-25T02:03:00.000-08:00

We usually say that darkness is very deceptive because it is able to camouflage the real appearance of things. Beauty is easily simulated through a play of light and darkness. This is why we should never make definitive conclusions unless we see things in the morning light. It is at day time when the truth appears – with all its imperfections being exposed in the light.

The birth of our Lord, as we said last night, took place under the cover of darkness…in the secrecy of the night. Of course, the angels bathed the night sky with light but it is really under the light of day that we shall truly appreciate what appeared on earth last night. The prophet Isaiah spoke last night about the child born to us. He is called “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, and Prince of Peace.” But under the morning light, far from revealing imperfections that darkness could hide, the mystery becomes even more resplendent for the Divinity of the Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes is made manifest: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” This is the Son “whom (God) made heir of all things, and through whom he created the universe; who is the refulgence of his glory, the very imprint of his being, and who sustains all things by his mighty word.” This is the Son “who took his seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high, as far superior to the angels, as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.”

It is true that we see a lowly babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying on a manger. But the light of faith makes us see underneath the surface. Faith allows us to see beyond what mortal eyes behold. It is this light of faith that enables us to see his glory, “the glory of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” Yes, his glory is full of grace. He is able to make us “holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.” His glory is full of truth. There is no deception in him. He is worthy of our faith and trust. Our mortal eyes may behold the limitations of his human flesh. But his glory which is full of truth is even more reliable than what we can see and measure. His is the “Light that shines through the darkness.” His is the “true Light which enlightens everyone.”

Our faith is illumined by his Light. Thus, although we may walk through very dark and trying times, faith allows us to walk from glory to glory for before the Light of Christ, even the dark turns to light. “His Light shines in the darkness but the darkness has not overcome it.” The principalities of the air and water may have their way of ruining our Christmas by timing calamities close to it. But faith that allows us to see in the dark pushes us forward as we, by our lives, allow Christ to illumine the world. (I saw from the news that the survivors in Iligan and CDO ate sardines for noche buena. Some see sadness and misery here but I see faith. Isipin mo, mawalan na ng lahat pero they still celebrated Christmas in the way they could afford! If this is not faith, I don’t know what is.) Like John the Baptist, we testify to the Light so that all may believe in him. We received the Light so that we can give light. “Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us.” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 9). Christ is greater than even the angels. His light is greater than the darkest night. It is not faith in ourselves that will raise and sustain us. It is our faith in Jesus that will do this. Faith in Jesus will help us walk through the darkness. “Belief in Jesus Christ is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.” (PF, 3.)

Merry Christmas and keep firm in the faith.

Pope Benedict XVI’s Midnight Mass Homily

2011-12-24T15:41:00.000-08:00

The Holy Father's Midnight Mass Homily:
Pope Benedict XVI’s Midnight Mass Homily

The Food and Gift of Christmas

2011-12-24T15:16:00.000-08:00

It was under the cloak of darkness that the birth of our Savior took place. It was so hidden an event that no one in that City of Bethlehem knew that the longed for coming of the Promised One was at last taking place. On account of the census, there were so many people in that city on that night so much so that “there was no room for them in the inn.” Our Lady and St. Joseph were forced into the stable not really because the innkeeper did not want them in. Rather, they took refuge in that lowly stable because of the privacy the Virgin needed in bringing forth her first born Son. So many people crowding the city and yet not one sensed that this particular night is not a night like any other. It was a silent night, yet a holy night – holy because the earth is blessed to receive its Savior.

But what is hidden has to be proclaimed on rooftops. Our Lord would say this later in his public ministry. Before this declaration was made, the angels took heed of it. On that night, the angels appeared to shepherds who were in the fields. Divine light broke the darkness of the night. An angel tells the shepherds of the good news that today, in the City of David, is born Christ the Lord. A huge multitude of heavenly spirits appeared as they sang: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. The secret cannot be kept. The darkness could not hide it. Truly Isaiah’s prophecy is now fulfilled: The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom, a light has shone. The angels could not even wait for dawn. They had to dispel the darkness of this midnight clear. It was a joy which they could not keep to themselves: Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Angels sang of the beauty of this glorious night. No, it was not glorious because of the splendor of heavenly light. The beauty and glory of this night lay hidden in human flesh. This human flesh is further wrapped in swaddling clothes and even disguised in humbler form as this baby lay in a manger. Mortals like you and me could easily be deceived by the humility of its wrappings. We are easily attracted and deceived by appearance. Easily we mistake importance with pomp. The serpent tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit which was enticing to the eyes. Who can be attracted to a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger? We may be deceived by what we see but not the angels. They know who he is: he is the Christ and the Lord. Isaiah foretold him and called him “Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, and Prince of Peace. His dominion is vast and for ever peaceful, from David’s throne, and over his kingdom, which he confirms and sustains by judgment and justice both now and forever.”

If only we see him as the angels do, we would immediately abandon the trappings and trimmings of the holidays and understand that this feast is not to be measured by the abundance of food and the affluence of gifts. The only food that makes this day significant is the one who lays on the manger, the one who is born in Bethlehem which means the House of Bread. The only gift that really counts today is the one that is wrapped in swadding clothes (Lk 2:7) to be unwrapped later on upon the wood of the Cross (Mk 15:24) and wrapped in glory in heaven (Mk 16:19). Let us rush not to our hearty meal but to the altar so that we may see the feast the Lord has prepared for us – the Body and Blood of the Son. Let us rush not to the Christmas tree but to the manger bed to see this heavenly Gift the Father has sent us: His only begotten Son. Let us kneel in adoration and keep silent in awe for tonight, heaven comes down to earth, God and man are truly one in this little child: the glory of God lay hidden in the humble flesh of a new born baby. When morning comes, let us proclaim from the rooftops what we have seen tonight. Let us go tell it to the mountains that Jesus Christ is born. Let us not hide the mystery in the cloak of a Happy Holiday. Let us call this day by its true name: Christmas. Merry Christmas…Christ is born today!

Aim at Faith (Simbang Gabi 9)

2011-12-24T00:24:00.000-08:00

The long night of Advent ends with Zechariah singing: “In the tender compassion of our God, the Dawn from on high break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Oppressed by sin, all humanity dwelt in the shadow of death: for through the disobedience of Adam sin entered into the world and together with it, death. Tonight, the skies will be filled with light as angels would sing of the glory of God and proclaim to shepherds the birth of Christ. The Lord Jesus is that Light whose coming breaks the dark reign of sin. The impending birth of the Lord Jesus is truly the rising dawn. It is the end of the night and the beginning of the day.

But remember that Advent is not just a preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth. This season also is our preparation for the end of time when Christ shall come to judge the living and the dead. This season speaks our joyful expectation of the end, either the end of our lives or the end of history. As we have said before, from the time the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles on that Pentecost day, the Church has been living in the end times. History presses forward. It inches its way towards that blessed day when Christ returns with salvation for his people. The Lord bids us to raise our heads and stand erect for salvation is at hand.

As we await for that blessed day, we are guided by the light of faith. Faith, as we have said in the past, helps us walk in the middle of darkness. We walk by faith and not by sight. There are many times when we feel disheartened by the difficulties and trials of life. Such difficult times leave us weak and discouraged. St. Augustine tells us: “Believers strengthen themselves by believing.” “Only through believing…does faith grow and become stronger; there is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard one’s life apart from self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God.” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 7.)

Therefore, as we move through history towards the blessed day of the revelation of our Lord Jesus, let us go forth with confidence that God has sent us a mighty Savior who sets us free from the hands of all who hate us. Let us be confident that this Savior frees us to worship him without fear by making us holy and righteous in his sight. Our faith gives us knowledge of salvation by having our sins forgiven. This Savior who shines upon our darkness will guide our feet into the way of peace. Like a shepherd, he leads us to restful waters.

“Having reached the end of his life, St. Paul asks his disciple Timothy to ‘aim at faith’ (2 Tim 2:22) with the same constancy as when he was a boy (cf. 2 Tim 3:13). We hear this invitation directed to each of us, that none of us grow lazy in the faith. It is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the marvels that God works for us. Intent on gathering the signs of the times in the present of history, faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many of the desire for God and for true life, life without end.” (PF, 13.).

Rorate Mass in the Longest Night of the Year

2011-12-22T23:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Dwen Marites Lumaque

Commitment to the Public Testimony of Faith (Simbang Gabi 8)

2011-12-22T23:30:00.000-08:00

The messenger sent by the Lord to prepare the way before him is born of Elizabeth, the wife of Zechariah. True to the words of the angel, his birth brought joy to people. The neighbors and relatives who heard of the Lord’s mercy shown to Elizabeth rejoiced with her. The birth of John the Baptist was not only the manifestation of the Divine Mercy to Elizabeth. It was likewise a manifestation of mercy towards Zechariah who, after 9 months of silence, was able to speak again – and he spoke blessing God. The restoration of Zechariah’s sense of speech was not only the lifting up of a punishment imposed on him personally. It was also the end of the Divine silence – for a long time, Israel was without a prophet. God sent no oracles. No one came up to speak in the Lord’s name. The silence of Zechariah was the sign of the long prophetic drought that beset Israel. Now, the promised voice who will cry in the wilderness is born as the voice of Zechariah is restored. God is once again in a speaking mood with his people.

“Faith in the heart leads to justification, confession on the lips to salvation” (Rom. 10:10) For the past days we have been looking at the Virgin Mary whose heart was constantly filled and led by faith. We heard the Holy Father say that “knowing the content to be believed in is not sufficient unless the heart is opened by grace that allows the eyes…to understand that what has been proclaimed is the word of God” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 10.).

But faith must not be kept to heart only. It must be confessed with the lips. “Confessing with the lips indicates…that faith implies public testimony and commitment. A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him…Faith…demands social responsibility for what one believes.” (Ibid.)

The prophets of the past opened their mouths to proclaim the oracles of the Lord. We open our mouths today to proclaim our faith. “Today, as in the past, he sends us through the highways of the world to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth (cf. Mt 28:19). Through his love, Jesus Christ attracts to himself the people of every generation: in every age he convokes the Church, entrusting her with the proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today, too, there is a need for stronger ecclesiastical commitment to new evangelization in order to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith. In rediscovering his love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers attains force and vigour that never fades away. Faith grows…when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy. (Faith) makes us fruitful, bacause it expands our hearts to hope and enables us to bear life-giving witness. Indeed, it opens the hearts and minds of those who listen to respond to the Lord’s invitation to adhere to his word and become his disciples.” (PF, 7.)

The Year of Faith will be a time for an intensified reflection on the Faith so that all believers in Christ may “acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently experiencing.” (PF, 8.) We want everyone to “feel a strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times.” (ibid.) For some time in the past, we have been very timid in the profession of our faith. We shy from professing the faith because of a faulty sense of “respect” for those who do not share the faith with us. We thought that we should not offend non-believers with our open profession of faith. But isn’t hiding our faith the real offense? When we are timid about our faith, when we do not share the Gospel to others, we deny the non believers of the opportunity to encounter Jesus and be saved by him. Confession on the lips leads to salvation – both ours and the salvation of others. Let us not deprive humanity of the Savior. Yes, times are really changing. It is becoming more and more pagan by the minute. The spreading of pagan ideologies does not mean that the world needs the Lord less. It is even an indication that it needs the Lord more. Let us go before the Lord and pave the way for him. Let us “profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and with hope.” (PF, 9.)

An Oracle of the world to come (Simbang Gabi 7)

2011-12-22T11:45:00.000-08:00

At the Visitation, the Holy Spirit inspires Our Lady to proclaim in song the praises of the Lord. The song contains very radical images: The Lord has shown the strength of his arm, he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away. Taken out of its scriptural context this would seem to be a communist propaganda song which advocates the inversion of the social order. And yet, far from provoking a class war, the song of our Lady is actually a declaration of the greatness of God. Mary, the Queen of Prophets, is inspired by the Holy Spirit to sing of the things to come at the establishment of the Kingdom of God. This hymn is a prophecy of things to come in the new order of creation which Christ and the Holy Spirit will inaugurate. It is a prophecy on the manifestation of the true values of the Kingdom of God. Our Lord will later bring this prophecy to fullfilment when he teaches the Beatitudes where the poor, the meek, the sorrowful, the hungry and thirsty, the pure, the merciful and the persecuted will all be called blessed. On that day, he shall lament about the woes of the rich, the powerful, the happy, the satisfied and the adulated. The Magnificat is a declaration of the order of reality according to the point of view of God.

Who are the poor, the hungry, and lowly ones refered to in the song of Mary? Who are the ones who will be satisfied and exalted in the Kingdom of God? The Holy Father writes: Visiting Elizabeth, (Mary) raised her hymn of praise to the Most High for the marvels he worked in those who trust him (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 13.). The poor, the hungry, the lowly ones referred to in both the Magnificat and the Beatitudes are those who trust in God. It is true that those who trust in God are bound to be the underprivileged in this world. It is difficult to trust in the Lord because those who trust in God are those hated by the world. The world hates them because the same world hated Christ first. The world hates Christ because he has proven wrong the very values extolled by the world. The world hates Christ because his teachings directly oppose the lessons taught by the world. The world which passes away in corruption refuses to look at Jesus who alone can give eternal life.

But even if it is difficult to trust in the Lord while living on earth, we still hold on firmly in faith because “Only in (Christ) is there the certitude for looking to the future and the guarantee of an authentic and lasting love. The words of Peter shed one final ray of light on faith: ‘In this you rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. without having seen him you love him, though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. At the outcome of your faith you obtain the salvation of your souls’ (1 Pet 1:6-9). The life of Christians knows the experience of joy as well as the experience of suffering. How many of the saints have lived in solitude! How many believers, even in our own day, are tested by God’s silence when they would rather hear his consoling voice! The trials of life, while helping us to understand the mystery of the Cross and to participate in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Col 1:24), are a prelude to the joy and hope to which faith leads: ‘when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor 12:10). We believe with firm certitude that the Lord Jesus conquered evil and death. With this sure confidence we entrust ourselves to him: he, present in our midst, overcomes the power of the evil one (cf. Lk 11:20); and the Church, the visible community of his mercy, abides in him as a sign of definitive reconciliation with the Father.” (PF, 15.)

Faith Working through Love (Simbang Gabi 6)

2011-12-21T03:14:00.001-08:00

Having heard from the angel that her aged cousin Elizabeth was with child, Our Lady “set out in those days, and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah.” There were no grand purposes but the simple intention of assisting an aged pregnant cousin. The Incarnation has just taken place, the Son of God has just arrived and now he is immediately on the go. Carried by his Mother in the womb, the Lord deigned to visit his precursor John. Our Lady simply intended to help her cousin. Little did she realize that her good intention was used by her unborn Divine Son to send the Holy Spirit to sanctify John the Baptist in his mother’s womb. The Virgin visits Elizabeth. The Lord visits John.

Yesterday, we saw Mary as a woman of great faith. Today, we see Our Lady being motivated by her faith to perform an act of charity for her cousin. What the Blessed Virgin did may be best described by St. Paul who spoke of “faith working through love” (Gal 5:6). Indeed, her charity is one driven by faith. St. James speak of the relationship between faith and charity: “What does it profit if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food and one of you says to them:’Go in peace, be warmed and filled’, without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But someone says, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works and I by my works will show you my faith.” (Jas 2:14-18).

The Holy Father writes: “Faith without charity bears no fruit; while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path. Indeed, many Christians dedicate their lives with love to those who are lonely, marginalized or excluded, (as to those who are the first with a claim on our attention and the most important for us to support), because it is in them that the reflection of Christ’s own face is seen. Through faith, we can recognize the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40)…It is faith that enables us to recognize Christ and it is his love that impels us to assist him whenever he becomes our neighbor along the journey of life.” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 14).

Impelled by Christ in her womb, Mary hastened to assist Elizabeth. We know that it was her faith that worked through charity because Elizabeth herself, inspired by the Holy Spirit, acknowledged Mary’s faith: Blessed are you who believed that everything the Lord said to you would be fulfilled.”

The season of Christmas disposes us to be more generous to the poor. We are infected by the same generosity which disposed our Lord to come down from heaven to visit and assist us in our misery and poverty. Behind Mary’s visit to Elizabeth was Jesus’ visit to John. So also should Christ’s Charity towards man be the only motive underneath our charities. Let us give because we believe in Christ. Let our faith work through love.

Virgo Fidelis (Simbang Gabi 5)

2011-12-19T21:22:00.000-08:00

At the very heart of the Simbang Gabi is this day, the day which commemorates the Annunciation. It is the fullness of time, 9 months before Christmas day, when God sent the Angel Gabriel to bring the news of great joy to Mary that she was chosen to be the most holy Mother of His only begotten Son. This is the moment of the Incarnation, the time when the Word became flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Of this moment, the Holy Father exclaims: “The joy of love, the answer to the drama of suffering and pain, the power of forgiveness in the face of an offense received, and the victory of life over the emptiness of death: all this finds fulfillment in the mystery of the Incarnation… In Him who died and rose again for our salvation, the examples of faith that have marked these 2,000 years of our salvation history are brought into the fullness of light” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 13.).

At the head of these examples of faith would be that of the Blessed Virgin. She, who is the Virgin most faithful (Virgo Fidelis), manifested great faith at the Annunciation: “By faith, Mary accepted the Angel’s word and believed the message that she was to become the Mother of God in the obedience of her devotion (cf. Lk. 1:38.)” (Ibid.) Mary obedience of faith stands in contrast to the disobedience of Eve. A fallen angel tempted Eve to mistrust the limits that God has set for human nature and so enticed her to take things in her own hands by eating the forbidden fruit. An Archangel invited Mary to trust and submit to the Divine Plan, “for nothing is impossible to God.” Eve wanted to become like God without God’s help…and lost everything she had. Mary saw herself as nothing more than the Lord’s handmaid…and was so exalted as God’s Mother and Queen of heaven and earth. Eve believed in herself. Mary believed in God. Faith was Mary’s way of life: “Visiting Elizabeth, she raised her hymn of praise to the Most High for the marvels he worked in those who trust him (cf. Lk. 1:46-55). With joy and trepidation she gave birth to her only Son, keeping her virginity intact (cf. Lk. 2:6-7). Trusting in Joseph, her husband, she took Jesus to Egypt to save him from Herod’s persecution (cf. Mt. 2:13-15). With the same faith, she followed the Lord in his preaching and remained with him all the way to Golgotha (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). By faith, Mary tasted the fruits of Jesus’ resurrection, and treasuring every memory in her heart (cf. Lk 2:19, 51), she passed them on to the 12 assembled with her in the Upper Room to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14, 2:1-4)” (Ibid.)

It is only fitting that Mary, who is Christ’s Mother and the first of his disciples, should be a woman of great faith for those who follow Christ “walk by faith and not by sight.” “By faith, across the centuries, men and women of all ages…have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus wherever they were called to bear witness to the fact that they were Christian: in the family, in the workplace, in public life, in the exercise of the charisms and ministires to which they were called. By faith, we too live: by the living recognition of the Lord Jesus, present in our lives and in our history.” (Ibid.) Let us live by this faith most especially amidst the difficulties of our times. Even amidst our sorrows and pains, let us continue to say: Let it be done to me according to your word. “Man believes with his heart, and so is justified.” (Rom. 10:10)

Questiions on the Simbang Gabi take 2

2011-12-19T00:18:00.000-08:00

As I was praying the Office of Readings for the 4th Sunday of Advent (Novus Ordo), it just dawned on me that this particular Sunday does not have its own Office of Readings. Rather, the rubrics will direct you: Verse, readings and responsories from the office of the day. Also, the antiphon for the Magnificat is also taken from the office of the day. The Ordo for the Philippines directs that at the Simbang Gabi on the 4th Sunday of Advent, the priest wears white and the Gloria is sung. But the Readings and Texts for prayers will be of the 4th Sunday of Advent. Apparently, this is due to the fact that in nothing takes precedence over a Sunday of Advent. But my contention is that this is not so as indicated in the indult for the Rorate Caeli Mass during the Simbang Gabi. See sense of the sacred: Questions on the Simbang Gabi

If the Divine Office on the 4th Sunday of Advent gives way to the readings of the Office of the day, why can't the same principle be applied to the readings of Simbang Gabi?

All that He reveals is true (Simbang Gabi 4)

2011-12-18T18:21:00.001-08:00

St. Luke describes the couple Zechariah and Elizabeth in the most positive terms: “Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing the ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.” Advanced in years, they had no child until the Angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah to bid him the good news that at last, their prayers were heard: a son will be given them and no ordinary boy will he be for “he will be great in the sight of the Lord…he will prepare a people fit for the Lord.”

Perhaps he was already resigned to the fate of barrenness and so, although this news of an answered prayer was something he waited for so long, Zechariah responds to the angel: “How shall I know this? I am an old man and my wife is advanced in age.” Old age tempers the daring spirit of youth. While one is young, even the impossible is attainable – a person is driven to test life to its limits. But when advancement in age overtakes a person, he becomes more resigned to limitations: “to accept the things I cannot change.” There simply are dreams that cannot come true. Zechariah should have rejoiced that his prayers were heard – but there is simply one problem: the answer came in too late – I am old and my wife is advanced in age. The reality of limitations overcame him. It kept him from believing. He started to object.

Thus, the angel declares: “You shall be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fullfilled at their proper time.” The angel subjected Zechariah to silence. Perhaps it was because Zechariah was allowing his darkness to speak so much to him. With the plank of his human limitations before his eyes, he failed to see the fact that God is not subject to limitations. “To God, nothing is impossible.” Looking at himself, he failed to look at God. Even as the angel spoke, Zechariah wasn’t listening because the voice of the limitations of his old age kept interfering in his mind. And so the angel silences him until all these come to pass. Unlike St. Joseph who listened in silence to what the angel had to say in his dream, Zechariah was conversing with himself in his own mind: How can this be? I am old. It simply is impossible.

That is why he had to be silenced so that he may allow God to open his heart to give heed to what was said (Acts 16:14). The Holy Father writes, “Knowing the content to be believed in is not sufficient unless the heart, the authentic sacred space within the person, is opened by grace that allows the eyes to see below the surface and to understand that what has been proclaimed is the word of God.” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 10.) When the angel announced himself as Gabriel who stood before God, he said: I was sent to speak to you, and to announce to you the good news.” He was assuring Zechariah that what he revealed was worthy of faith because his words were not his own but those of God who sent the angel to announce the good news. The angel’s words were worthy of faith because they were the words of God himself. Faith is the assent of man’s thought to the revelation of God who neither deceives nor can be deceived. “Knowledge of faith opens a door into the fullness of the saving mystery revealed by God. The giving of assent implies that, when we believe, we freely accept the whole mystery of faith, because the guarantor of its truth is God who reveals himself and allows us to know his mystery of love.” (ibid.)

Silence opens our hearts to this grace of faith. Faith enables us to recognize the trustworthiness of the word of God. When we believe we freely accept the saving mystery revealed by God. Because the guarantor of this revealed mystery is God, we adhere to it as we are sure that God will never deceive us. All that he reveals is true!

God Creates His Own House

2011-12-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

Our Advent journey is almost done. The prophets have spoken about the coming Messiah and the Spirit who will renew the world. Preaching a baptism of repentance, John the Baptist points to the coming to the One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Now the time has come. It is the fullness of time. The time has come to send both Son and Spirit in a joint mission of mercy. The Father is now prepared to reconcile Himself with humankind.

In sending both the Son and the Holy Spirit, the concern of a dwelling place is brought up. Where shall he take his residence? King David offers to build a house for Him in thanksgiving for all that the Lord has done for him. But God sends word and asks: “Shall you build me a house to dwell in? …The Lord reveals to you that He will establish a house for you!” What house can we build that befits the Holy One? What Temple can we build to house the Word through whom everything was created and the Spirit by whose power all came to be? Can any human being build a house great enough, holy enough to befit the true God?

Knowing that none is worthy nor capable to create a dwelling for the powerful Word and the Creator Spirit, the Father Himself builds a house. He prepared the soul of the Virgin Mary as a dwelling for the Holy Spirit and her womb for His only begotten Son. So great was His desire to be merciful that the Lord Himself builds His own Temple.

Now that the temple is created, the Lord, through an angel, knocks at the door and begs to enter. He appeals to the Virgin that she accepts the dignity of being the Mother of the Most High. All she needed to do was to open the door of her heart and let God enter. All she needed to do was to consent…to say “Yes!” It will not be a violent intrusion but a gentle descent like dew from heaven above. Yes, He is God at whose word all things are made. But now, this All powerful God humbles Himself. He awaits the Virgin’s word. He awaits the Virgin’s consent. Will there be anything like this humility of the Divine Mercy? Has the universe seen anything like it? Will the universe see anything like it again? The Lord subjects His mercy to the Virgin’s will. Creation gasps in silence. All the universe appeals to the Virgin: Please be merciful to this weary world: Say Yes to Him who humbles Himself and asks for your consent. Your Yes will be the door that will let the Divine Mercy enter.

The Virgin responds: Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” O gates lift up your heads, grow higher ancient doors: let Him enter the King of glory!

St. Faustina exclaims in her diary:

“Mercy has moved You to deign to descend among us and lift us up from our misery. God will descend to earth; the Immortal Lord of lords will abase Himself. But where will You descend, Lord; will it be to the temple of Solomon? Or will You have a tabernacle built for Yourself? Where do You intend to come down? O Lord, what kind of tabernacle shall we prepare for You, since the whole earth is Your footstool?

“You have indeed prepared a tabernacle for Yourself: the Blessed Virgin. Her Immaculate Womb is Your dwelling place, and the incoceivable miracle of Your mercy takes place, O Lord. The Word becomes flesh; God dwells among us; the Word of God, Mercy Incarnate. By Your descent, You have lifted us up to Your divinity. Such is the excess of Your love, the abyss of Your mercy. Heaven is amazed at the superabundance of Your love. No one fears to approach You now. You are the God of mercy. You have compassion on misery. You are our God, and we are Your people. You are our Father and we are Your children by grace. Praise be to Your mercy, that You have deigned to descend among us.” (Diary, 1745)

Thank you, O merciful God. Thank you, O Virgin of mercy!

Transformed by Faith (Simbang Gabi 3)

2011-12-17T17:19:00.000-08:00

The Simbang Gabi is a novena to the Blessed Virgin Mary for the preservation of the Catholic Faith in the Philippines. Thus, we honor the woman of whom was born the Christ. However, let us not forget that beside the Blessed Mother is someone whom we could easily miss – the just man St. Joseph. I said that we could easily miss him because his presence in the story of the nativity is always a silent and a hidden one. He was always in the background, always silently giving his ever reliable support to mystery of salvation that unfolded before his very eyes. The silence of St. Joseph is so uncharacteristic of his high status. He should have been a celebrity. After all, the Scriptures never tire of singing his praises as the son of David. Yes, St. Joseph was royalty truly fit to be chosen by God to be the husband of the Queen of heaven and earth. When the Incarnation was to take place, the Lord saw to it that the virgin would be bethrothed to a man of the House of David. Authors have constantly commented that God could not have chosen a better spouse for Our Lady.

And yet, St. Joseph did not see things this way. In fact, when he found Mary to be with child by Divine decree, St. Joseph found himself unworthy of taking the Mother of the Messiah as his wife. He did not see himself worthy to take custody of the Son of God and of his holy Mother. His decision to divorce Mary quietly was not driven by any doubt about her integrity. His doubt was not about her worth, but about his own. He keeps his pain to himself and decides to fade away quietly.

But such is not God’s will. The Lord has chosen St. Joseph to be the custodian of the great mystery of the Incarnation. Through a dream, the angel reveals to St. Joseph the Divine plan which does not concern Mary alone but also included him. St.Joseph may have planned to maintain a respectful distance from the Divine plan of salvation but God wanted him to take part, a very important part: Joseph would give the Son of Mary a name – not just the name Jesus Son of Joseph but the exalted name of the Promised Messiah – Jesus, Son of David. The message of the angel was the Divine invitation for Joseph to conform his plan to God’s plan and not to be afraid of it. It was a message that dared him to believe. The Holy Father said: “To the extent that he freely cooperates, man’s thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are slowly purified and transformed, on a journey that is never finished in this life. ‘Faith working through love’ (Gal 5:6) becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man’s life (cf. Rom 12:2; Col 3:9-10; Eph 4:20-29; 2 Cor 5:17)” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 6.) With his thoughts and will purified by faith, St. Joseph decided to do what is right: he took Mary as his wife and became a father to her Son. His life was transformed and made perfect by faith.

Fulton Sheen said: “In what does your life consist except in two things: (1) Active duties; and (2) passive circumstances. The first is under your control: do these in God’s name. The second is outside your control: these submit to in God’s name. Consider only the present; leave the past of God’s justice, the future to his Providence. Perfection of personality does not consist in knowing God’s plan, but in submitting to it as it reveals itself in the circumstances of life.” (F. Sheen, The Seven Words of Jesus and Mary.)

Without the Catholic Religion, Where will we be?

2011-12-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

The Christian Faith transforms persons. The Christian Faith transforms society. The Christian Faith transforms history. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical DALL'ALTO DELL'APOSTOLICO SEGGIO, promulgated on October 15, 1890, wrote about the good that the Catholic Religion has done for society:

"12. All know with what salutary effect and in how many ways the influence of religion penetrates society. It is beyond dispute that sound public and private morality gives honor and strength to States. But it is equally certain that, without religion there is no true morality, either public or private. -- From the family, solidly based on its natural foundations, comes the life, the growth, and the energy of society. But without religion, and without morality, the domestic partnership has no stability, and the family bonds grow weak and waste away. -- The prosperity of peoples and of nations comes from God and from His blessings. If a people does not attribute its prosperity to Him, but rises up against Him, and in the pride of its heart tacitly tells Him that it has no need of Him, its prosperity is but a semblance, certain to disappear so soon as it shall please the Lord to confound the proud insolence of His enemies. -- It is religion which, penetrating to the depth of each one's conscience, makes him feel the force of duty and urges him to fulfill it. It is religion which gives to rulers feelings of justice and love towards their subjects; which makes subjects faithful and sincerely devoted to their rulers; which makes upright and good legislators, just and incorruptible magistrates, brave and heroic soldiers, conscientious and diligent administrators. It is religion which produces concord and affection between husband and wife, love and reverence between parents and their children; which makes the poor respect the property of others, and causes the rich to make a right use of their wealth. From this fidelity to duty, and this respect for the rights of others come the order, the tranquillity, and the peace, which form so large a part of the prosperity of a people and of a State. Take away religion, and with it all these immensely precious benefits would disappear from society."

Faith in Christ transforms History (Simbang Gabi 2)

2011-12-16T23:32:00.000-08:00

The long list of names which we have just heard is the family tree of the Lord Jesus. This line of ancestors shows us how God has prepared a human family into which his Son will be born. 42 generations became part of that long preparation for the coming of the Savior. Truly, this is history in a glance and simply looking at the names does not do justice to the entire story. It is only when we read the Bible that we shall appreciate the fact that every name in this list brings with it a unique and unrepeatable story. Each story might seem to be unrelated to the other and yet, when the names are listed in a genealogy, suddenly it dawns upon us that these stories tend toward the same goal: the birth of the Promised One. The entire family tree moves towards Jesus, the Son of Mary, the one who is called the Christ.

However, the story of this family does not end with Christ. It is true that Jesus never got married and never begot children of his own flesh. The irony of this is that it is Jesus who expands the family and brings to fulfillment the Divine promise to Abraham that he shall have descendants as numerous as the stars in the heavens and as the grains of sand on the shore of the sea. How did our Lord expand this family? He did it by changing the manner of affiliation into this family. Before he came, the affiliation was by relationship of blood. A person enters into this family by birth to a legitimate member of this family. But the Lord Jesus changed this. In his new family, which is the Church, affiliation is by relationship of faith. A person enters into this family of Christ no longer by physical birth but rather by the Sacrament of Baptism, a birth by water and the Holy Spirit. The Church, the new family of Christ, the family begotten not by flesh but by the Holy Spirit, continues to our day and even beyond our days into the end of time, the story of this family of Abraham and the family of David. As in the Old Testament, the ancestors of Jesus pressed forward to bring the plan of salvation to fulfillment, so today, in the New dispensation, the Church, the spiritual family of Christ, “like a stranger in a foreign land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God, announcing the cross and death of the Lord comes (cf. 1 Cor 11:26). But by the power of the risen Christ, it is given strength to overcome, in patience and in love, its sorrows and difficulties…so that it may reveal in the world, faithfully, although with shadows, the mystery of the Lord until, in the end, it shall be manifested in full light (Lumen Gentium, 8.)” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 6.)

The Year of Faith that we shall be celebrating next year will allow us to look at the Church in the very same way we now look at the genealogy of Jesus Christ. The Year of Faith will allow us to retrace “the history of our faith, marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin. While (the mystery of holiness) highlights the great contribution that men and women have made to the growth and development of the community through the witness of their lives, the (mystery of iniquity) must provoke in each person a sincere and continuing work of conversion in order to experience the mercy of the Father which is held out to everyone.” (PF, 13.) (I really think that retracing the history of our faith is very much needed today considering the fact that as part of the crisis of faith today, there is a seeming denial of the contributions of the Christian faith to humanity. The Pope, for example, usually expresses his concern that Europe is now forgetting its Christian heritage. People have forgotten that European culture is basically Christian. We are not yet in this stage but we are going there.) Indeed, like the Old Testament family to which Jesus was born, “the Church, clasping sinners to its bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly a parth of penance and renewal.” (PF, 6.) And we are those sinners whom the Church clasps into her bosom. We are the ones in need of penance and renewal. In the coming Year of Faith, let us once again look at the history of the Church to discover how faith in Christ transformed the history of the world by trnasforming lives of men and women. In this manner, we shall understand that when we allow our Christian faith to transform us and conform us into the likeness of Christ, we give the Lord the occasion to transform the world we live in. Faith in Christ transforms people. Faith in Christ transforms society. Faith in Christ transforms history.

NYC: Nativity Scene at Central Park

2011-12-16T15:26:00.000-08:00

The public display of the Nativity Scene is putting Christ back into Christmas. This recovers the true spirit of Christmas which, in the first place, is a Holy Day, a Religious Feast. Congratulations to the Catholic League!

NYC: Nativity Scene at Central Park

On the Crisis of Faith (Simbang Gabi 1)

2011-12-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

The longest Christmas Season in the world begins in our country today with the opening of the Simbang Gabi. Well, it is noticeable that the spirit of Christmas may seem to have come late this year. Even with December begun, many houses have tardied in setting up their decorations and lights. Is this telling of a spreading climate of secularism that has toned down our sensitivity to holy feasts? I have said in the past that the Simbang Gabi was instituted as a novena for the preservation of the Catholic Faith in the Philippine Islands. Thus, it would be beneficial that we take the last steps of this year’s Advent journey together with our Holy Father as he leads us to the Year of Faith which he intends to open on October 11, 2012.

It cannot be denied that times have so much changed that the lamp of faith seems to wane in many parts of the world today. The Holy Father observed that “it often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social, cultural, and political consequences of their commitment, continuing to think of the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society. (However) in reality, not only can this presupposition no longer be taken for granted, but is is often openly denied. Whereas in the past, it was possible to recognize a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today it no longer seems to be the case in large swatches of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people.” (Benedict XVI, Porta Fidei, 2.)

A crisis of faith…this is a reality which we all have to recognize. But we should not accept this crisis with passive resignation. The Holy Father says, “We cannot accept that salt should become tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt. 5:13-16). The people of today can still experience the need to go to the well , like the Samaritan woman, in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the sources of living water welling up within him (cf. Jn. 4:14). We must rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God, faithfully handed down by the Church, and on the Bread of life, offered as sustenance for his disciples (cf. Jn. 6:51). Indeed, the teaching of Jesus still resounds in our day with the same power: “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life.” (cf. Jn. 6:27) The question posed by his listeners is the same that we ask today: ‘What must we do, to be doing the works of God.’ (Jn. 6:28)” (PF, 3)

What must we do to be doing the works of God? What must we do to avert this crisis of faith? The Holy Father answers: “The Church as a whole with all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.” (PF, 2.) We, as Church, once again teach the AUTHENTIC daang matuwid: “Observe what is right, do what is just…” We must once again teach our children to “keep the Sabbath free from profanation, and hold to (God’s) covenant.” We must “bring them to (God’s) holy mountain and to make joyful in (His) house of prayer.”

Our last Simbang Gabi together opens with the Lord speaking about John the Baptist as a man who “testified to the truth” and who “was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his shining lamp.” We should be like John the Baptist: shining lamps. Let us not pretend to be the light because we are not the light. Only Christ is the Light. We are merely lamps and our faith in Christ is the light. Let us make this faith shine brightly for “Belief in Jesus Christ is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.” (PF, 3)

Awaiting for the Son and the Holy Spirit

2011-12-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

St. John the Baptist attests to the greatness of the one who comes after him: I baptize with water but there is one among you whom you do not recognize, the one who is coming after me whose sandal straps I am not worthy to untie. This greater one who comes after him is the one who, in last Sunday’s Gospel, will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

Whenever we celebrate Advent, we presume that we are preparing for the coming of Jesus, the Son of God. Thus, we presume that St. John the Baptist was referring to Jesus as the one “who is among you whom you do not recognize.” However, seldom do we realize that it is not only God the Son who was hidden and unrecognized in the past. So also was the Holy Spirit. The Catechism points out: “From the beginning until the ‘fullness of time,’ the joint mission of the Father’s Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at work. God’s Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is fully revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and welcomed at their manifestation.” (CCC 702.) In fact, we should know that the mission of Christ and the mission of the Holy Spirit are inseparable: “When the Father sends His Word, He always sends His Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible Image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals Him.” (CCC, 689). The Prophecy of Isaiah reveals the inseparability of both the Son and the Holy Spirit: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me.” The reason why Jesus is called the Christ, the Messiah, is because He is anointed by the Holy Spirit. Messiah means “Anointed One.” Jesus is the Anointed One and the Holy Spirit is His Anointing.

Thus, in the Old Testament, “Two prophetic lines were to develop, one leading to the expectation of the Messiah, the other pointing to the announcement of a new Spirit.” (CCC 711) Thus, the prophets of old did not wait only for the Messiah. They also awaited the Spirit who would renew the face of the earth. These two prophetic lines will be fulfilled by Jesus who does not come alone, but one who comes anointed by the Holy Spirit. He comes to bestow the Holy Spirit: He will baptize with the Holy Spirit. “The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promises, with the ‘accents of love and fidelity.’ …According to these promises, at the ‘end time’ the Lord’s Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace.” (CCC 715)

And that time, the “end times” referred to, is now. The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost inaugurated the end times – “By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to enter into the ‘last days’ , the time of the Church, the Kingdom of God already initiated though not yet consummed.” (CCC 732) Isn’t this what Advent is all about? It is not simply a preparation period for Christmas, the annual commemoration of Christ’s first coming. It is also the preparation for Christ’s coming at the end of time. Christ has already come and by his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, has delivered to us the Holy Spirit whom He promised. Now, as we joyfully await the glorious coming of the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit is at work to prepare us to face the Lord Jesus. How does the Holy Spirit do this? St. Paul gives the answer: “May the God of Peace make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” As the prophets cooperated with the Holy Spirit in preparation for Christ’s coming, so should we, in preparing for the Lord’s 2^nd coming, cooperate with the Holy Spirit: Pray without ceasing. In all circumstances, give thanks…Do not quench the Spirit…Test everything, retain what is good. Refrain for every kind of evil.”

Nuestra Senora de la O: the Expectation of our Lady

2011-12-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

In the town of Pangil, Laguna is an image of the Virgin of Expectation which the people call as Nuestra Senora de la O. I have been intrigued by this title. I asked people about the title and they say that she is called Nuestra Senora de la O because she answers "OO" (Yes) to all petitions given to her. Well, that's folk religiosity for you! Anyway, further reading about this image of the Virgin is that during the Christmas Novena (simbang gabi), a peculiar antiphon is sung wherein the Virgin is addressed with the "O". I thought it was the "O Antiphons" of Advent until I stumbled upon an article by Fr. Z about the Spanish Veneration to Our Lady of Expectation, popularly known as Nuestra Senora de la O.

This is interesting read: Expectation of the Blessed Virgin – interesting customs

St. Nicholas, Christmas Saint

2011-12-08T18:39:00.000-08:00

Jolly Old St. Nicholas punched the heretic Arius because he could not take what the heretic was saying about the Lord! Wow! This makes St. Nicholas all the more a fitting Advent/ Christmas saint. More than just a symbol of generosity in gift giving, St. Nicholas is the Defender of the Divinity of Jesus Christ! Ho, Ho, Ho!

Canterbury Tales by Taylor Marshall: Saint Nicholas Allegedly Punched This Heretic in t...

Our Lady of the Annunciation

2011-12-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

I recently acquired an antique image of Our Lady of the Annunciation just in time for the celebration of Advent. As Advent is the time of great expectation, the Annunciata is the fitting Advent image. At the New Liturgical Movement blog is an interesting article on the Annunciation in Art.

The Apocryphal Gospels as a Source of Imagery

The Immaculate Conception: the True Breaking Dawn

2011-12-08T17:57:00.000-08:00

We will never recognize sin clearly without the knowledge which is given to us by Divine Revelation. Born in sin, we would have thought that sin is a “normal developmental flaw, a psychological weakness, a mistake, or simply the necessary sonsequences of an inadequate social structure” which we all have to live with in this imperfect world of ours. Were it not for Divine Revelation, we would not have known the sublime dignity that God intended for us who were originally created in His image and likeness. “God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating ‘of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ spells this out:’for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die.’” (CCC, 396) Last night someone asked me: “Father, why did God create that tree of knowledge only to prohibit us from eating of its fruit?” The Catechism answers: “The ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.” (CCC 396) The sublime dignity of the human nature is shown by the fact that “Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully ‘divinized’ by God in glory.” (CCC, 398.) However, “seduced by the devil, man wanted to ‘be like God,’ but ‘without God, before God, and not in accordance with God.’” (Ibid.) This desire to be like God but without God is being popularized today by that famous “Twilight” vampire series wherein one can become immortal even without God – all you have to do is to be transformed into a vampire.

Thinking that they can become like God even without God, our first parents lost the grace of original holiness: “the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions…lust and domination; …visible creation becomes hostile to man. Because of man, creation is now subject ‘to its bondage to decay.’ And finally…Death makes its entrance into human history.”(CCC, 400) Not only did Adam and Eve suffer this loss on account of their personal disobedience, they transmitted to their children a human nature that is in a fallen state: a human nature that is deprived of original holiness and justice, a human nature that is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and a human nature inclined to evil (and sin). (CCC, 405) Original sin is like a very wealthy man who lost everything to gambling. Because of this, his children and descendants would have to be born in poverty. The nakedness of Adam and Eve shows us the abject poverty that sin has brought upon the human nature. Original sin consists in the fact that “all men…are deprived of the glory of God.” Thus, the whole world was plunged into darkness, into “captivity under the power of the devil who had the power of death.” (CCC407) “The whole world is in the power of the evil one.” (CCC 409.)

Thus, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin is the true Breaking Dawn at the end of the long dark night of sin. Not deprived but rather “full of grace”, not naked but clothed in the garments of salvation and robed in a mantle of justice (Is. 61:10), “Mary benefitted first of all and uniquely from Christ’s (future) victory over sin: she was preserved from all stain of original sin and by a special grace of God committed no sin of any kind during her whole earthly life.” (CCC 411). Untouched by sin, this uniquely beautiful creature called Mary does not only show us the original intention of God for our humanity had it not fallen into sin. Mary the Immaculate Conception shows us that “Christ’s inexpressible grace gives us blessings better than those the demon’s envy had taken away.” (St. Leo the Great, CCC, 412.) The twilight of man’s fall led to a long dark night of the reign of evil. The Immaculate Conception was the breaking dawn that announced the end of the long night. “It was a breaking of light over a dark and wintry world.” Conceived immaculate, sinless and free from the guilt of our first parents, Mary was the dawn for Christ the day, the was the aurora for the Sun of Justice. She was the Immaculate Conception for Him the Son of God who will later on be her Son. Mary is God’s response to humanity’s plea for a renewal of creation. The Immaculate Conception is the beginning of the new creation.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!

Divine Mercy and Advent

2011-12-04T01:17:00.000-08:00

In a catechetical class about the long Old Testament preparation for the coming of the Messiah, a student once asked me: Why did it take God so long in sending His Son? We ask ourselves: Why the delay in the Lord’s return? St. Peter, in the 2^nd reading, reminds us that what seems a “delay” to us isn’t really so for the Lord because “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day.” The length of time did not really matter to the Lord to whom past, present, and future is all the same. God dwells in the eternal present. Time does not matter to Him who is beyond time.

The seeming delay of that dreadful day of judgment, when everything shall be dissolved by fire, is actually an expression of the patience of the Divine Mercy: the Lord is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. It is not that the Lord is slow in coming. Rather we are slow to repent. It takes us so much time to realize our faults. It even takes longer for us to come to repent over what we have done. All we have to do is to look at the way we deal with our favorite sins. It takes long for us to admit our guilt. It takes so long for us to overcome it. We confess our favorite sins again and again because we keep on doing it. That is why it is called “favorite sin.”

Thus, the Lord delays in bringing us to justice. He gives us time to repent. Patiently, he awaits for our return to him because he does not want the sinner to die. Rather, he wants the sinner to repent and live. Thus, he gives us many opportunities to avail of his mercy. Look at the Gospel. Before sending His Son, he sends first John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord. Contrary to our stereotyping of John the Baptist as a fire and brimstone prophet, the man is actually a proclaimer of the Divine Mercy: John the Baptist appeared in the desert proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. His mandate is one of tender compassion: Comfort, give comfort to my people…Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated. Attracted by the message of mercy that the Baptist brings, people were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins. Indeed, that dreadful day of judgment will come with the suddenness of a thief’s coming. But before that day, the Lord extends the limits of his mercy. He makes his mercy accessible to all.

Thus, we should take advantage of this time of reprieve. We should not hesitate to go to confession which is the tribunal of the Divine Mercy. Let us repent while we still can. Let us go to the priest and to him acknowlege our sins. Let us do this while the Lord allows his patience to delay his judgment. “Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.” To St. Faustina, the Lord said: “Before I come as the just Judge, I am coming first as the King of Mercy.” (Diary, 83.)

On the Sense of Urgency in our Advent Prayer

2011-12-04T01:08:00.000-08:00

The Carpenters have a beautiful song which was recently used as title for a movie: “I wont last a day without you.” The refrain goes: When there’s no getting over that rainbow; when my smallest of dreams wont come true, I can take all the madness the world has to give, but I wont last a day without you.” Romantic as it seems but the song reflects the sentiments of the Prophet Isaiah which sets the mood of the Advent Season we begin today. The prophet laments: Why do you let us wander, O Lord, from your ways, and harden our hearts so that we fear you not? He laments that God has hidden his face and that he has every right to do so for “you are angry and we are sinful, all of us have become like unclean people, all our deeds are like polluted rags, we have all withered like leaves, and our guilt carries us away like the wind.” And because God has hidden his face, no one calls upon his name and none clings to him. Because of this, we have become even poorer, because we do not know what we are missing: You Lord are our father, our redeemer you are named forever. “No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you doing such deeds for those who wait for him.”

Advent is once again upon us and unfortunately, it does not seems to have much impact upon our lives. Well, of course, there is that anticipation for the coming holidays with much gift, food, and merrimaking to expect. But the idea of waiting for the Lord’s return, which is the real spirit of Advent, seems lost to us. No longer to we see ourselves in the shoes of the gatekeeper whose task is to be on the watrch for the coming of the lord of the house. Nostalgic Christimas songs like Pasko na Sinta ko speak of a longing for a loved one who might be anyone, a spouse, a girl friend, anyone but the Lord. The holidays become very sentimental on account of the absence of people we love, but seldom on account of the absence of God. The Lord is definitely not sorely missed.

He is not sorely missed because we think that we can live without him. We presume that we can last a day without him. But that is not true for the Prophet Isaiah says: O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay and you the potter: we are all the work of your hands. Even if you look through the paradigm of master and servant, as shown in the gospel, we still cannot miss the relationship of absolute dependence which we have with the Lord. The servant is dependent on his master for his livelihood. The clay is dependent on his potter for his existence. The child is dependent on his father for everything. In other words, “I wont last a day without you” is first and foremost true between the Lord and our selves.

And that is why we wait for his return. We watch for his coming. Although he is long delayed in coming, we still light our lamps and watch for his return. We patiently do so because the Lord Jesus has promised to return. And we hold on to his promise because “God is faithful.” And we are sure of his fidelity. But can we be sure of ours? We know how fragile our fidelity is. We know how easily we are swayed to mediocrity and compromises. It is on account of our awareness of our inclination to infidelity that we pray to the Lord with a certain sense of urgency: Return for the sake of your servants…Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down! Please Lord, return while we are still faithful. Return while we are still awake lest we drowse into sleep and be caught unprepared when you come.

St. Faustina wrote in her diary: “I am reliving these moments with Our Lady. With great longing, I am waiting for the Lord’s coming. Great are my desires. I desire that all humankind come to know the Lord. I would like to prepare all nations for the coming of the Word Incarnate. O Jesus, make the fount of your mercy gush forth more abundantly, for mankind is seriously ill and thus has more need than ever of your compassion. You are a bottomless sea of mercy for us sinners; and the greater the misery, the more right we have to your mercy. You are a fount that makes all creatures happy by your infinite mercy. (Diary, 793.)

Establishment of Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission as part of CDW?

2011-11-21T19:56:00.000-08:00

Over at New Liturgical Movement is an article about the possibility of the establishment of the Liturgical Art and Sacred Music as part of the CDW. If this pushes through, this would be a welcome move of the Holy See. The regulation of both Sacred Art and Music is long overdue. If we want an authentic liturgical reform, we must never neglect the role of art and music in the liturgy.

Establishment of Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission as part of CDW?

Simon Vouet: St. Cecilia (c. 1626)

2011-11-21T19:20:00.001-08:00

Simon Vouet: St. Cecilia (c. 1626), a photo by euthman on Flickr.

St. Cecilia, Patroness of musicians, pray for us.

Christ the King and the Works of Mercy

2011-11-20T07:49:00.000-08:00

St. Faustina recorded this incident in her diary: “Jesus came to the main entrance today, under the guise of a poor young man. This young man, emaciated, barefoot, and bareheaded, and with his clothes in tatters, was frozen because the day was cold and rainy. He asked for something hot to eat. So I went to the kitchen but found nothing there for the poor. But, after searching around for some time, I succeeded in finding some soup, which I reheated and into which I crumbled some bread, and I gave it to the poor young man, who ate it. As I was taking the bowl from him, he gave me to know that He was the Lord of heaven and earth. When I saw Him as He was, He vanished from my sight. When I went back in, and reflected on what happened at the gate, I heard these words in my soul: My daughter, the blessing of the poor who bless me as they leave this gate have reached my ears. And your compassion, within the bounds of obedience, has pleased Me, and this is why I came down from My throne – to taste the fruits of your mercy.” (Diary, 1312)

St. Faustina responded to that voice: “O my Jesus, now everything is clear to me, and I understand all that has just happened. I somehow felt and asked myself what sort of a poor man is this that radiates such modesty. From that moment on, there was stirred up in my heart an even purer love toward the poor and the needy. Oh, how happy I am that the superiors have given me such a task! I understand that mercy is manifold: one can do good always and everywhere and at all times. An ardent love of God sees all around itself constant opportunities to share itself through deeds, word and prayer. Now I understand the words which You spoke to me, O Lord, some time ago”. (Diary 1313)

The Lord Jesus answered St. Faustina: “I know, My daughter, that you understand it and that you do everything in your power. But write this for the many souls who are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet, spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of each soul. If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of ju dgement. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasures for themselves, they would not be judged for they would forestall My judgement with their mercy.” (Diary, 1317)

The Son of Man will come seated on His throne and escorted with His angels. He will come to judge all the nations who will be assembled before Him. And He will judge each of us according to our works of mercy. There will be no exemption because “one can do good always and everywhere and at all times.” If we cannot afford to do temporal works of mercy, there are always the spiritual works of mercy that are within the reach of every soul. The temporal works of mercy are: To feed the hungry; To give drink to the thirsty; To clothe the naked; To harbour the harbourless; To visit the sick; To ransom the captive; To bury the dead. The spiritual works of mercy are: To instruct the ignorant; To counsel the doubtful; To admonish sinners; To bear wrongs patiently; To forgive offences willingly; To comfort the afflicted; To pray for the living and the dead.

Knowing that our time is running out and that we are really approaching the day of judgement, let us waste no time. Let us take hold of every opportunity to gather eternal treasure for ourselves. Remember: If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Blessed are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy.

John Paul II, the Saints, and Holiness

2011-11-02T02:21:00.000-07:00

We have the strange understanding of saints as people who are totally remote from our own experiences: medieval, other worldly, strange – almost fairy tale like. To many, saints are those whose feet are up there in the clouds, residing in their own ivory towers, so far from our daily experiences – they must be people who belonged to some other time, definitely not ours.

That is why at the end of the Great Jubilee 2000, when John Paul II wrote that “all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness” ( John Paul II, Novo Millenio Ineunte, 30.), some people thought that it was simply impractical to still speak of holiness in pastoral plans. It simply did not seem consistent with the language of the times. Can holiness be the foundation of pastoral planning? Shouldn’t we speak in more practical terms?

John Paul II taught that holiness is very much the language of the 2^nd Vatican Council: “It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the "universal call to holiness". The Council Fathers laid such stress on this point, not just to embellish ecclesiology with a kind of spiritual veneer, but to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of their teaching on the Church. The rediscovery of the Church as "mystery", or as a people "gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit",¹⁵ was bound to bring with it a rediscovery of the Church's "holiness", understood in the basic sense of belonging to him who is in essence the Holy One, the "thrice Holy" (cf. Is 6:3). To profess the Church as holy means to point to her as the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave himself precisely in order to make her holy (cf. Eph 5:25-26). This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized.” (Ibid.)

John Paul made it so simple. To him, Holiness is simply “belonging to Him who is…the Holy One.” It means incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. It means abiding in Christ as He abides in us because He is the Vine and we are the branches…we belong to Him. Thus, at baptism, the question asked of the catechumen: “Do you want to be baptized?” actually means “Do you want to be holy?” It is because baptism incorporates us into Christ, makes us belong to Christ. Belonging to Christ is the very essence of holiness. Christian life as a vocation to holiness expresses the radicality of the words of Jesus: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt. 5:48.)

John Paul canonized and beatified many saints, “among them many lay people who attained holiness in the most ordinary circumstances of life.” (NMI, 31.) He did so in order to teach that the “ideal of perfection must not be misunderstood as if it involved some kind of extraordinary existence, possible only for a few ‘uncommon heroes’ of holiness. The ways of holiness are many, according to the vocation of each individual.” (Ibid.) “The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living.” (Ibid.) Yes, the standards of ordinary Christin living are high. Therefore, “it would be a contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity, marked by a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.” (Ibid.) John Paul has always been critical of mediocity. He always reminded us to “cast into the deep.” (Duc in altum.) We should not be satisfied with a minimalist ethic and a shallow religiosity.

John Paul, who canonized and beatified many saints is himself now a “Beato.” He himself understood that if all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness, the pastor himself must lead by example of holiness. And holy indeed was John Paul – intense in his prayer, exemplar in his ministry, heroic in his suffering. His holiness was rooted in his communion with the Lord and His Blessed Mother. Totus Tuus – his famous motto, expressed his unconditional surrender and consecration to the Blessed Virgin. It was his constant fiat, closely in imitation of the Fiat of Mary that accounted for a truly fruitful ministry. And the fruits are undeniable: the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the death of Communism, the struggle against Moral relativism, the defense of all human life, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Code of Canon Law, the publication of the new liturgical books, the World Youth Days, and the World Meetings of Families. Truly, when one abides in Christ the Vine and Christ abides in him, he bears fruits, fruits that endure.

Blessed John Paul brings the world of saints so close to us. His sanctity isn’t just a story we read in the Roman Martyriology but one which we saw with our own eyes. Our eyes have seen him emerge from the balcony of St. Peter’s at his election to the papacy. Our eyes have seen him traverse the world to preach the Gospel. Our eyes have seen him here, at this very place, when he met with businessmen. Our eyes have seen him meet our clergy, our consecrated persons, our catechists, our youth, and our families. We saw him advance in age, suffer in illness, and die in peace. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of his saintly predecessor: “No pope has left us such a quantity of texts as he had bequeathed to us; no previous pope was able to visit the whole world like him and speak directly to people from all continents. In the end, however, his lot was a journey of suffering and silence…He has left us an interpretation of suffering that is not a theological or philosophical theory but a fruit that matured on his personal path of suffering which he walked, sustained by faith in the Crucified Lord.” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005.)

I am so confident that from heaven, Blessed John Paul looks upon us at this moment. From heaven he continues to challenge us: “Do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows "what is in man". He alone knows it.” (John Paul II, Homily at the Inauguration of his Pontificate, October 22, 1978.) Let us not be afraid to belong to Christ. Let us not hesitate to surrender all to Him. Let us abandon ourselves totally to His Blessed Mother. His formula for sanctity are two simple words: Totus Tuus. I am all yours, completely yours!

The Means to Renew the Face of the Earth

2011-10-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

The Lord said, I have come to light a fire on the earth and how I wish it were blazing. How can priests light the world with the fire of the Holy Spirit and so be instruments in renewing the face of the earth? St. Anthony Claret has this to say:

"The prophet asked the Lord: Emitte Spiritum tuum, et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae. Lord, send your spirit upon your priests, and they, filled with this Holy Spirit, will hasten everywhere, like the apostles, and the face of the earth will be changed completely. For the moral earth does the same thing that the physical earth does: if it is well cultivated it yields abundant fruits, but if it is not cultivated it yield nothing but weeds and thorns. Thus people, if they are well cultivated, produce choice fruits of virtue, but if they are abandoned to themselves, they produce nothing but errors and vices. Hence we must work to form good clergy, who are the laborers in the Lord's fields, and we must ask the good Lord of the harvest to send good laborers to his inheritance.

The means assigned to change the face of the earth promptly and easily are the following:

The 1st means is to form good, virtuous, and well-educated priests, and we have no doubt that this will be achieved if we put into practice the means indicated in the present little work.

The 2nd means are missions, which should be repeated every three years in parishes great and small, lasting for a varying number of days, according to the needs of the people.

The 3rd means is that on all Sundays and Feast days of the year, the pastors should preach or read some talk, and teach Christian doctrine and the way to make mental and vocal prayer.

The 4th means is instructing girls and boys in catechism, morals, and religion. Radical reform must begin with the children.

The 5th means is not to allow boys and girls to receive the Eucharist without making a First Communion, preceded by a preparatory retreat, and followed by enrollment in a confraternity, so that they may continue receiving the sacraments monthly or every 2 or 3 months.

The 6th means is to revive those confraternities that are already established in parishes but have fallen off, and have them fulfill their statutes exactly, beginning with a few good and more fervent souls.

The 7th means is to keep Sundays and Feast days holy, not only because God commands it, but also that they may be devoted to spiritual gatherings, frequenting the sacraments and pious reading, so that everyone may keep God's law and pray.

The 8th means is to strive to spread good books.

The 9th means is to practice the 14 works of charity or mercy.

The 10th means is to exhort those who can do so to attend Mass daily, to say a 3rd part of the Rosary, to direct all they do to the greater glory of God, to suffer all afflictions with patience, to walk always in the presence of God, and to receive the holy Sacraments frequently.

St. Anthony Claret, The Well-Instructed Seminarian, Vol 11, Chap. III, 5.

The Program for a truly Priestly Life

2011-10-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

Emerging from our yearly retreat, I am concerned about how to keep the priestly spirituality. St. Anthony Mary Claret has this program for priests which is worth our consideration:

"If you would not extinguish or sadden the spirit and grace you have received in ordination (for by the grace of God you are what you are), if you would not have received the grace of God in vain, and if, finally, you would like to be a good and faithful servant, then you must distribute your time well in a plan of life which you must keep most faithfully. You may use the one which we are going to trace out for you here, or else use some other that may seem better for you.

1. Every year. You will make a spiritual retreat.

2. Every three months. On the Ember Days, you will call to mind your ordination...

3. Every month. You will have a day of recollection, during which you will read your resolutions.

4. Every week. You will receive the Sacrament of Penance.

5. Every day. You will set the hour for rising, after 6 or 7 hours of sleep, and you will be punctual in rising at that time, without allowing yourself to be misled by Satan into committing an act of sloth.

6. You will offer God all the works of the day.

7. You will have an hour, or at least half an hour, of mental prayer.

8. You will celebrate Holy Mass with devotion, preparing yourself in advance and giving thanks afterwards.

9. You will station yourself in the confessional, even when there may be no one waiting to confess; for if they do not come one day, they will come another, seeing that you give them the opportunity.

10. You will recite the lesser Hours with pauses and with devotion.

11, You will occupy yourself by studying the Holy Bible, the Fathers of the Church, moral and ascetical theology, and you will make a special point of reading Rodriguez.

12. You will dine not only with temperance, but also with mortification, saying the blessing before and grace after meals.

13. After dining and resting a while, you will recite Vespers and Compline.

14. Afterwards, you will commit yourself to studying matters proper to your holy ministry.

15. In the afternoon,you will visit the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle, and you will likewise visit Mary most holy at one of her images.

16. You will visit the sick in their homes or in some hospital or charitable establishment.

17. At night you will recite Matins and Lauds attentively and devoutly before some blessed image.

18. You will recite one part of the Holy Rosary with great fervor.

19. You will have light supper or collation, and this will be very good for both body and soul.

20. You will make two examens: a particular examen on some virtue at noon and night, and a general examen which will include everything that occurred during that day.

21. Finally, you will preview the meditation you are to make on the morrow, and then retire. Once you are in bed, you will think of the time for rising next day, and of the meditation you are going to make.

22. Always. You will wear clerical dress.

23. You will walk in the presence of God and make frequent prayers of aspiration. Especially, whenever the clock strikes, you will consider what Jesus suffered at that hour of His Passion, and you will make a spiritual communion.

24. You will love God with all your heart, and in proof of his love you will keep the precepts of God's holy law and the evangelical counsels.

25. You will keep the sacred vestments and vessels very clean and tidy, and the Church in good array, and and see to it that silence and recollection is kept in it.

26. You will strive with possible zeal for the salvation of souls. You will lead the way with good example, practicing the virtues of humility, chastity, meekness, patience, charity and obedience, without grumbling about the dispositions God has made through your prelate.

27. You will be solicitous and tireless in preaching, catechizing, hearing confessions and administering the other Sacraments.

28. In all your works, think on the Last Things. Thus, consider that life is passing by and death is drawing nigh. Hence, never be idle, but always usefully be employed in prayer, study, the obligations of your holy ministry and, if you have time and place for it, in some manual labor.

29. You will arrange your devotions according to the days of the week, so that you may make them with greater fervor.

Sundays will be in honor of the Blessed Trinity.

Mondays, of your guardian angel.

Tuesday, of your Patron Saint.

Wednesdays, on behalf of the poor.

Thursdays, in honor of the Blessed Sacrament.

Fridays, in memory of the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, and in prayer for the souls in Purgatory. And you will fast.

Saturdays, in honor of Mary. And you will mortify yourself in some day.

St. Anthony Claret, The Well-Instructed Seminarian vol. II, Chapter III, 5.

St. Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro

2011-10-23T03:20:00.000-07:00

St. Bonifacia Rodriguez Castro, pray for us.

http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20031109_castro_en.html

On Honor and Money

2011-10-22T22:43:00.000-07:00

The pharisees and Herodians began by acknowledging our Lord’s sincerity and detachment from the world: “Teacher, we know you are a truthful man and that you teach the way of God with the truth. And you are not concerned with anyone’s opinion for you do not regard a person’s status.” Rightly did they say so because our Lord was really as they say he was. At the last supper, he spoke about this sense of detachment by saying: “They do not belong to the world as I do not belong to the world.” He was not concerned for earthly honors nor for any human respect. What mattered to him was the favor of the Father who sent him: “Behold my Son, my beloved, in whom my favor rests.”

That is why the question which they posed to him seemed inappropriate: Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not? It seemed inappropriate because the issue at hand was that of money. And why should anyone, after acknowledging our Lord’s sense of detachment from worldly honor, ask him about money? Money issues are asked of worldly people like Donald Trump or Bill Gates. But the Lord? If he did not care much about the honors of the world, why should he care about money? St. Teresa of Jesus makes this point about the corelation of desire for honor and love of money: “In (poverty of spirit) lies great dominion. I say that it gives once again to one who doesn’t care about the world’s good things dominion over them all. What do kings and lords matter to me if I don’t want their riches, or don’t care to please them if in order to do so I would have to displease God in even the smallest thing? Nor do I care about their honors if I have understood that the greatest honor of a poor person lies in the fact of his being truly poor? In my opinion honor and money always go together: anyone who wants honor doesn’t despise money, and anyone who despises money doesn’t care much about honor. Let me be clearly understood, for it seems to me that the desire for honor always bring with it some interest in money or income. It would be a wonder if any poor person were honored in the world; on the contrary, even though he may be worthy of honor, he is little esteemed. True poverty brings with it overwhelming honor. Poverty that is chosen for God alone has no need of pleasing anyone but Him.” (Teresa of Jesus, The Way of Perfection II, 5-6.)

The Lord’s sense of detachment from both honor and money is what great men are really made of. Before his retirement, Cardinal Rosales said that the moment Rome appoints a new archbishop of Manila, he will take his maleta and ride to the retirement home in Lipa, Batangas. Last Thursday, when the appointment of the new archbishop of Manila was announced, the good Cardinal was asked what legacy was he leaving the archdiocese. He replied: “Legacy? What legacy? Forget me.” Here was a man who was truly detached from both money and honor. He cared for neither. And this is what great men are made of.

A man who is truly detached will rightly identify what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God. Because he did not care about Caesar’s favor, he would rightly say that the coin belongs to Caesar but everything else belongs to God…yes, even Caesar belongs to God. Lest Caesar forget, if he has power, it is only because the Lord loaned it to him. To Cyrus the king, the Lord said: “I called you by name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God but me. It is I who arm you, though you know me not, so that from the rising and setting of the sun, people may know that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other.”

When a man chooses to serve God and him alone, he finds no need for money nor honor. He is not afraid to lose rich benefactors because he trusts that the Lord will always sufficiently provide for his works. He is not afraid to be judged by human opinion. He is not afraid to lose human respect. The only things that matters is what God would say. The only words he desires to hear would be those of the Lord who, at the end of his service, would say to him: “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the reward prepared for you by my Father in heaven!”

Senate shelves reproductive health bill

2011-10-12T23:06:00.000-07:00

The Philippine Senate temporarily shelved the Reproductive bill in the light of more pressing concerns like the National Budget for 2012. I find it significant that this happened on the Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. What a wonderful tribute to the mystery of Motherhood! Prayers, especially the Rosary, are really answered. When the Bishops of the Philippines had Senator Tito Sotto as their guest, they talked about the status of the RH bill in the Senate. When asked by the bishops about what they could do for to help oppose the passage of a reproductive health bill, Senator Sotto said, "Prayers are really a big help." Thereupon, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, wrote to all Parish Priests to ask the faithful to offer their Rosaries during the month of October for the intention of the opposition to the passage of the RH bill.

Now that the bill is temporarily shelved, we should further intensify our Rosary campaign. We should not relent! Like wise soldiers, we should take advantage of the "truce" to store up our armaments to ensure advantage over the enemy when war breaks out. Let us say more Rosaries, increase the treasury of merits, and brace ourselves for fierce spiritual battle come January. After all, our enemies are not just human beings but powers and principalities in high places.

Blessed be the Great Mother of God, Mary most holy!

Senate shelves reproductive health bill

Come to the Feast

2011-10-10T02:35:00.000-07:00

For the past 3 Sundays, we have been listening to parables that likened the Kingdom of God to a vineyard in which the Lord invited us to work and collect for him the harvest. However, lest we say that religion is an oppressive toil for a God who is nothing but a taskmaster, the Lord gives us a parable that likens the His Kingdom to a wedding feast. Instead of hearing the command, “Go and work in my vineyard,” we hear today a very cordial invitation: “Everything is ready. Come to the feast.” It is a feast that the Lord prepared for us on His holy mountain – a feast of “juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.” It is an invitation too good to resist. First of all, the one who prepared and invited us to this feast is the Lord our God. Better than an English Royal Wedding, the affair is the wedding Feast of God’s Son to His Bride, the Church. Who of us would ever think that he is worthy to be invited as a wedding guest to the marriage of the Lamb and of his Bride? This is indeed an honor too great to pass.

And yet, the surprising thing of all is that so many refuse this invitation because they think they have better things to do: one went to his farm and another to his business. And this is the problem of our modern world: it has measured life according to a paradigm of achievements or accomplishments that it has forgotten the value of feasts. Things have become too bland for a world that has assumed the likeness of a corporation which is higly concerned with mechanical productivity. And so to keep the physical well being, it simply provides for us the gym where play has become an individualistic routine of exercises. We think that time will be used more wisely in work than in accepting the invitation to “Come to the feast.”

And this is a pitiful situation because we do not know the joy we are missing. Being too preoccupied with our own affairs, we fail to appreciate the graces that God lavishes upon us and also the beauty of the eternal life to which He invites us. As St. Faustina remarked in her diary: “O Jesus, I see so much beauty scattered around me, beauty foir which I give You constant thanks. But I see that some souls are like stone, always cold and unfeeling. Even miracles hardly move them. Their eyes are always fixed on their feet, and so they see nothing but themselves.” (Diary 1284.)

God gave us 6 days to work and requires us to return to Him the 7^th. He wants to us stop working on the 7^th so that we may learn to lift our eyes from being fixed to ourselves and look around to see the wonderful things God has done for us. As He rested on the 7^th day to declare the goodness of what He has done, so should we imitate Him in declaring: “:Lord, You are truly good. Everything You have done is good!” Sunday is not a rest day so that we can think about ourselves. It is a rest day so that we can think about God. This is God’s day. This is God’s feast. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in him!

For once, let us not think about ourselves. For once, let us think about God. Let us trust that we do not lose when we offer this day to Him. Let us trust enough that because we return this day to Him, “God will fully supply whatever you need in accord with the glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” Only by doing so that we shall appreciate life for what it truly is. We shall realize that life is more than the food we eat and the clothes we wear. We shall realize that it is a blessing – it is grace upon grace. We shall realize that we are destined for something greater, for something eternal. And then we shall be grateful. “You have surrounded my life with Your tender and loving care, more than I can comprehend, for I will understand Your goodness in its entirety only when the veil is lifted. I desire that my whole life be but one act of thanksgiving to You, O God.” (Diary, 1285.)

On Negligence in Praying the Rosary

2011-10-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

"A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our Divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out about Him - what He did and what He went through in order to save us.

"A Christian of this kind ought to fear that having never known Jesus Christ or having put Him out of his mind and heart, He will disown him at the Day of Judgment and will hear reproachfully: 'Amen I say to you, I know you not.'

"Let us, then, meditate on the life and suffering of Our Lord by means of the Holy Rosary; let us learn to know Him well and to be grateful for all His blessings so that, at the Day of Judgment, He may number us among His children and His friends."

St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, 23rd Rose.

The Science of the Rosary

2011-10-06T17:16:00.000-07:00

"I should like to give you even more reason for embracing this devotion which so many souls have practiced; the Rosary recited with meditation on the mysteries brings about the following marvelous results:

1. it gradually gives us a perfect knowledge of Jesus Christ;

2. it purifies our souls, washing away sin;

3. it gives us victory over all our enemies;

4. it makes it easy for us to practise virtue;

5. it sets us on fire with love of our Blessed Lord;

6. it enriches us with graces and merits;

7. it supplies us with what is needed to pay all our debts to God and to our fellow men, and finally, it obtains all kinds of graces for us from Almighty God.

"The knowledge of Jesus Christ is the science of Christians and the science of salvation; St. Paul says that it surpasses all human sciences in value and perfection. This is true:

1. because of the dignity of its object, which is a God-man compared to Whom the whole universe is but a drop of dew or a grain of sand;

2. because of its helpfulness to us; human sciences, on the other hand, but fill us with smoke and emptiness of pride;

3. and finally, because of its utter necessity: for no one can possibly be saved without the knowledge of Jesus Christ - and yet a man who knows absolutely nothing of any of the other sciences will be saved as long as he is illuminated by the science of Jesus Christ.

"Blessed is the Rosary which gives us this science and knowledge of our Blessed Lord through our meditations on His life, death, passion, and glory."

St. Louis de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, 27th Rose.

On Confession

2011-10-06T10:40:00.000-07:00

Jesus said to St. Fautina: "Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls."

Diary, 1602.

St. Faustina, Doctor of the Church?

2011-10-06T10:09:00.000-07:00

One of the graces I have received in my pastorate of the Divine Mercy Parish is the opportunity to read the Diary of St. Faustina: Divine Mercy in my Soul. I am really convinced that one day, she will be declared Doctor of the Church on account of this diary.

"In the Old Covenant I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart. I use punishment when they themselves force Me to do so; My hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice. Before the Day of Justice I am sending the Day of Mercy." (Diary, 1588.)

ZENIT - St. Faustina, Doctor of the Church?

Brick by Brick

2011-10-05T23:13:00.000-07:00

I offered Mass for a Charismatic Community last Monday and I was delightfully surprised. Even with the date of the implementation of the use of the new English translation of the Roman Missal (for the Philippines) still a long way off (2012 Advent), the said community is already using it! I was further delighted when, at Holy Communion, the faithful knelt to receive our Lord. And this is not a conservative Latin Mass community but a Charismatic one! Even with the great influence which opponents to the Reform of the reform exert in the Philippine landscape, it seems that little by little, the reform is underway. I know for a fact that this Charismatic community is steeped in Scriptural formation. I am of the belief that a person who takes the Sacred Scripture seriously will begin asking questions about reverence in worship.

ZENIT - Anti-Christian Censorship and New Media

2011-10-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

ANTI-CHRISTIAN CENSORSHIP AND NEW MEDIA

Report Highlights Defects

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, OCT. 2, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A report commissioned by the Virginia-based National Religious Broadcasters has revealed substantial problems in the way new media communications platforms treat religion.

Titled "True Liberty in a New Media Age: An Examination of the Threat of Anti-Christian Censorship and Other Viewpoint Discrimination on New Media Platforms," the report looked at many of the leading companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

NRB is a non-partisan, international association of Christian communicators according to a description of its mission on its Web site.

While it is true that the new means of communications made possible by the Internet have opened up many possibilities for the exchange of ideas and opinions, at the same time the report expressed concern that a small number of large companies have a lot of control of this industry.

When it comes to religion the report saw real problems. "Our conclusion is that Christian ideas and other religious content face a clear and present danger of censorship on Web-based communication platforms," it stated.

The study revealed a number of ways in which the policies of the new media giants affected religion.

Apple

Some of the companies have already banned Christian content, while others have established guidelines that will very probably lead to censorship in the future, the report affirmed. On two occasions Apple has blocked Christian apps on the iTunes App Store due to the religious content.

In fact, the only apps that Apple has blocked due to the views expressed in them are ones that reflect Christian views, according to the report.

In November of 2010, Apple revoked its approval of the Manhattan Declaration App. This declaration was a statement of Christian beliefs about marriage, the sanctity of life and religious liberty. The reason given was that one of the points in the declaration was that homosexual conduct is immoral and this, in Apple's view, was offensive.

Later, in March 2011, Apple also censored the app for Exodus International, a Christian ministry that helps people to leave the homosexual lifestyle. Once again Apple declared that this was offensive and violated its guidelines.

Then, in July 2011, Apple pulled iTunes out of the Christian Values Network, a portal that contributes funds to charities. The report said that this action was caused by complaints that some of the charities had policies critical of homosexual rights initiatives.

In general, the report concluded that several of Apple's policies for its apps are broad and vague, as well as being in some cases censorious on the subject of religion. When it comes to satire, humor or political commentary the norms are quite different, giving wide latitude to content.

For example, its guidelines on religion define content should be prohibited if it is "offensive, mean-spirited" or if it contains material that has "abuse," or is "inappropriate" or "unacceptable." Using such fuzzy terms means that Apple has very wide discretion to determine which religious ideas they prefer and which they will censor, the report pointed out.

There is no doubt, the report concluded, that Apple's policies on religious content would be found "extraordinarily wanting" if they were matched up against the standards for free speech that the Supreme Court has established under the First Amendment.

Google

Turning to Google the report noted that it refused to place a Christian pro-life advertisement from the Christian Institute on its search engine. The ad was refused on the grounds that Google's "policy did not permit the advertisement of Web sites that contain abortion and religion-related content."

The Christian Institute then took Google to court and as a result the ad was allowed and Google changed its policy to allow ads on abortion from religious groups so long as they are framed in a factual way.

Google's policy is still, however, to block any ad on abortion that contains the phrase "abortion is murder," as this is deemed to be "gruesome."

Another problem outlined by the report related to Google's guidelines for its Web tools available for non-profit groups. The free or discounted use of these tools is not allowed for churches, faith groups, or organizations that take religion or sexual orientation into account in hiring employees. According to the report Christian churches who have applied to Google for non-profit status are being rejected.

A further case involving Google was related to a Norwegian site that contained criticism of Scientology. Lawyers representing Scientology protested to Google that the site contained copyrighted content. As a result the pages of the critical site were removed from Google's index.

The NRB report said that this action was troubling as there are a number of Christian groups that expose religious movements for their lack of fidelity to the Bible. In order to do so they need to quote from the original sources. Copyright law allows the fair use of material for reporting and criticism, so Google's approach could unjustly block legitimate Christian groups from engaging in criticism of what they consider to be false teachings.

Google also showed itself willing, during the time it operated in China through a local version of its Web site, to cooperate with the government in blacklisting words from its search engine relating to the Falun Gong religious group and the Dalai Lama.

The report concluded its section on Google by quoting testimony from Scott Cleland, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Information and Communication Policy, who has stated that "Google rejects traditional Judeo-Christian values."

Facebook is also guilty of censorship according to the report. It has a policy of erasing anti-homosexual comments from its site and has partnerships with some organizations that promote the homosexual agenda.

Another example in the report was the case of how Facebook removed a posting of a photo of two men kissing. This decision was quickly reversed and Facebook made an apology. By contrast in other cases of photos involving sexual depictions unrelated to homosexuality the material has been permanently removed.

Hate speech

With the exception of Twitter the policies of the main Web-based platforms have very loose definitions of what they regard as hate speech, which the report criticizes as being a danger to free speech. Facebook, for example, prohibits "Inflammatory religious content; Politically religious agendas."

Quoting from the Google guidelines, the report said that it defines hate speech in the following way. "By this, we mean content that promotes hate … towards groups based on …religion … or sexual orientation/gender identity.

Google's rules also block advertising content that is critical of groups for their religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. The report pointed out that this eliminates ads by Christian pro-family groups that oppose what some homosexual advocacy groups are doing to promote the legalization of same-sex marriage. It also means that criticism of other religions or sects as being theologically wrong would violate Google's policy.

The report went on to identify similar problems with other new media organizations, such as MySpace, which also has very broad and ill-defined policies when it comes to hate speech and homosexuality.

The Internet service providers Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon also violate free speech and their rules would allow censorship of Christian content, according to the report.

The report finished with a plea to these companies to change their policies so as to guarantee free speech and also to renounce censorship of lawful Christian viewpoints. A plea that we can only hope will not fall on deaf ears.

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ZENIT - Anti-Christian Censorship and New Media

They are not called Acts of God for Nothing!

2011-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

We have just come from remembering the tragedy of the storm Ondoy when another powerful storm Pedring hit us. The winds were so strong that we witnessed waves as high as coconut trees hitting the sea walls of Manila Bay and thus causing the flooding of Roxas Boulevard. Until now, people in Bulacan and elsewhere in the north are suffering on account of floods and yet, they have to endure another storm Quiel. Let us pray for them and also come to their aid.

Such destruction caused by an act of God may truly be a reflection of what the Prophet Isaiah said: “Now I will let you know what I mean to do with my vineyard: take away its hedge, give it to grazing, break down its wall, let it be trampled! Yes, I will make it a ruin, it shall not be pruned or hoed, but overgrown with thorns and briers; I will command the clouds not to send rain upon it.” In the parable today, the Lord said, “He will put these wretched men to a wretched death…” Why such anger? Why such destruction? It is because in spite of what the Lord has done for his vineyard, he did not receive any fruit from it: He planted the vineyard, spaded it, cleared it of stones and planted the choicest vines. “What more is there to do for my vineyard that I had not done?”

We have been talking about vineyards for the past 3 Sundays. And everytime, we hear the command to go and work in it. Hired workers, sons, tenants – we all work in the Lord’s vineyard. And as in the first reading and the Gospel parable, the Lord seeks the fruits of his vineyard, he shall also ask from us the same. What fruits will we show him? Will we be able to show him “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious”? Will we offer him fruit that is excellent and worthy of praise? Or will we yield him wild grapes? Or will we yield him nothing at all?

Perhaps, the breaking of the sea walls should be a warning to us. After all, did not the Lord say: “I will break itsw walls”? In all the destruction of nature happening around us, we should see more than just climate change or global warming. We should see them as messages coming from God. After all, these are not called “acts of God’ for nothing! These acts of God should make us reflect about the fruits that we bear…Are they commensurate to all the graces we have received from God? “Think about these things” The Lord has chosen us and therefore he expects something from us. He has chosen us to bear fruit that will last. Let us return to the Lord and seek his mercy. Let us not reject the Son of God. The Lord refers to Himself as the Stone rejected by the builders which became the cornerstone. take away the capstone and the structure collapses. St. Paul speaks of Christ as the One who holds all things together in Himself. Delete Him from the picture and everything else collapses because no one will hold all these together. Therefore, let us not reject the Son of God. Let us not reject his servants. Let us return to what we have learned and received and heard and seen in Christ so that the God of peace will again be with us.

On Spiritual Warfare

2011-09-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

On this Feast of St.Michael the Archangel, our thoughts are raised towards the reality of spiritual warfare. St. Teresa of Jesus has this to say:

"I am certain that those who seek perfection do not ask the Lord to free them from trials or temptations or persecutions or struggles. This is another very great and certain effect of the contemplation and the favors His Majesty gives and of the Lord's Spirit rather than of an illusion...These persons desire, ask for, and love trials. They are like soldiers who are happier when there are more wars because they then hope to earn more. If there is no war, they receive their wages but realize they won't get rich.

"Believe, sisters, that the soldiers of Christ, those who experience contemplation and engage in prayer, are very eager to fight. They never fear public enemies very much; they already recognize them and know that their enemies have no power against the strength the Lord gives and that they themselves always come out victors and with much gain. They never turn from these enemies. Those whom they fear...are the traitorous enemies, the devils who transfigure themselves into angels of light, who come disguised. Not until they have done much harm to the soul do they allow themselves to be recognized. They suck away our blood and destroy our virtues, and we go about in the midst of the same temptation but do not know it. With regard to these enemies, let us ask and often beg the Lord in the Our Father to free us and not let us walk into temptation, so that they will not draw us into error or hide the light and truth from us, that the poison will be discovered...

"Consider, daughters, the many ways these enemies can cause harm. Don't think that they do so only by making us suppose that the delights and consolations they can feign in us are from God. This seems to me the least harm...they can cause: rather it could be that by means of this they will make one advance more quickly. For, in being fed on that delight, such a person will spend more hours in prayer. Since he doesn't know that the delight is from the devil and since he sees he is unworthy of these consolations, he doesn't stop thanking God. He will feel greater obligation to serve Him and, thinking the favors came from the hand of the Lord, he will strive to dispose himself so that God will grant him more.

"Strive always, sisters, for humility and to see that you are unworthy of these favors; do not seek them. I hold that the devil loses many souls who strive for this humility. He thinks he is going to bring them to perdition, but the Lord draws good from the evil the devil aims at. His Majesty looks at our intention, which is to please and serve Him and remain with Him in prayer; and the Lord is faithful. It's good to be on one's guard lest there be a break in humility, or some vainglory emerge. If you bessech the Lord to free you from this, do not fear that His Majesty will allow you to be favored very much by anyone other than Himself.

"The way the devil can do a great deal of harm, without our realizing it, is to make us believe we have virtues when we do not. This is a pestilence. In regard to the delights and consolations, it seems merely that we are receiving and that we have the greater obligation to serve. In regard to our thinking we are virtuous, it seems we are serving and giving and that the Lord is obliged to pay. Thus little by little this latter notion does great harm. On the one hand, it weakens humility, and on the other hand, we grow careless about acquiring that virtue which we think we have already acquired. Well, what is the remedy, sisters? That which seems best to me is what our Master teaches us: prayer and supplication to the Eternal Father not to let us enter into temptation.

St. Teresa of Jesus, The Way of Perfection, XXXVII, 1-5.

On Reinventing Jesus

2011-09-24T18:35:00.000-07:00

In the bookstore, I found this book published in 2007 by Dr. Erwin Lutzer, a senior pastor of The Moody Church in Chicago. Little may he have realized it but Dr. Lutzer was proving the Popes right in their teachings against Modernism:

"Living as we do at the beginning of a new century, many new Jesuses are being fabricated year by year; this is the age of designer Jesuses. Often the only similarity is the name; the character traits are entirely different. So your Jesus might not be my Jesus and mine might not be the Jesus of my-next-door neighbor.

"...The Jesus whose biography is found in the New Testament is being treated like putty in the hands of those who wish to refashion Him to fit to their particular view of the world. Just take a moment to browse your neighborhood bookstore and you will find dozens of books, with topics ranging from Jesus and women's rights to Jesus and Zen to Jesus and inner healing. Jesus is used - or rather, misused - for every cause imaginable, from gas-saving minivans to religious zealots. I'm reminded of the words of the late Yasser Arafat, who at a press conference at the United Nations in 1983 called Jesus "the first Palestinian fedayeen who carried his sword." Think of it: Jesus was the first freedom fighter for Islam!

"It seems as though everyone wants Jesus in their parade," writes Joseph Stowell: 'From gay activists to abortionists to religious leaders to politicians, making Jesus fit their agenda and flying His flag provides a guise of propriety and credibility.'

"Stowell is right, but we have to ask: How can scholars take the radical, all-demanding Jesus of the Gospels and reinvent Him so that He, like a book on the shelf, is wholly within our power to do with Him as we will? This Jesus allows us to be in charge, never insisting that we come under His authority, never asking us to stake our eternal destiny on His claims.

"No other name has inspired such great devotion and so much controversy; no other person has been tweaked to serve so many agendas. Scholars are writing books not about Christianity, but about 'Jesusanity', as my friend Darrel Bock describes it. Learning about these evolving images of Jesus will help us identify the one Jesus who stands above all others and is actually as good as His word!"

E. Lutzer, Slandering Jesus: 6 Lies People Tell About The Man Who Said He Was God, 4-5.

Benedict XVI on Secularism and New Forms of Christianity

2011-09-23T19:16:00.000-07:00

In his address to the Evangelical churches of Germany, the Holy Father made reference to two concerns: the emergence of a new form of Christianity and the secularization of society:

To be sure, the risk of losing it is not unreal. I would like to make two brief points here. The geography of Christianity has changed dramatically in recent times, and is in the process of changing further. Faced with a new form of Christianity, which is spreading with overpowering missionary dynamism, sometimes in frightening ways, the mainstream Christian denominations often seem at a loss. This is a form of Christianity with little institutional depth, little rationality and even less dogmatic content, and with little stability. This worldwide phenomenon -- that bishops from all over the world are constantly telling me about -- poses a question to us all: what is this new form of Christianity saying to us, for better and for worse? In any event, it raises afresh the question about what has enduring validity and what can or must be changed -- the question of our fundamental faith choice.

The second challenge to worldwide Christianity of which I wish to speak is more profound and in our country more controversial: the secularized context of the world in which we Christians today have to live and bear witness to our faith. God is increasingly being driven out of our society, and the history of revelation that Scripture recounts to us seems locked into an ever more remote past. Are we to yield to the pressure of secularization, and become modern by watering down the faith? Naturally faith today has to be thought out afresh, and above all lived afresh, so that it is suited to the present day. Yet it is not by watering the faith down, but by living it today in its fullness that we achieve this. This is a key ecumenical task in which we have to help one another: developing a deeper and livelier faith. It is not strategy that saves us and saves Christianity, but faith -- thought out and lived afresh; through such faith, Christ enters this world of ours, and with him, the living God. As the martyrs of the Nazi era brought us together and prompted that great initial ecumenical opening, so today, faith that is lived from deep within amid a secularized world is the most powerful ecumenical force that brings us together, guiding us towards unity in the one Lord. And we pray to him, asking that we may learn to live the faith anew, and that in this way we may then become one.

ZENIT - Papal Words to Germany's Evangelical Church

On Interior Silence

2011-09-23T09:11:00.000-07:00

"The tongue is a small member, but it does big things. A religious who does not keep silence will never attain holiness; that is, she will never attain holiness; that is, she will never become a saint. Let her not delude herself - unless it is the Spirit of God who is speaking through her, for then she must not keep silent. But, in order to hear the voice of God, one has to have silence in one's soul and to keep silence; not a gloomy silence, but an interior silence; that is to say, recollection in God. Once can speak a great deal without breaking silence and, on the contrary, one can speak little and be constantly breaking silence. Oh, what irreparable damage is done by the breach of silence! We cause a lot of harm to our neighbor, but even more to our own selves.

"In my opinion, and according to my experience, the rule concerning silence should stand in the very first place. God does not give himself to a chattering soul, which, like a drone in a beehive, buzzes around but gathers no honey. A talkative soul is empty inside. It lacks both the essential virtues and intimacy with God. A deeper interior life, one of gentle peace and of that silence where the Lord dwells, is quite out of the question. A soul which has never tasted the sweetness of inner silence is a restless spirit which disturbs the silence of others. I have seen many souls in the depths of hell for not having kept their silence; they told me so themselves when I asked them what was the cause of their undoing. These were souls of religious. My God, what an agony it is to think that not only might have been in heaven, but they might even have become saints! O Jesus, have mercy!"

St. Faustina, Diary, 118.

Go to the Vineyard!

2011-09-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

The catechetical landscape of the Diocese of Cubao is deteriorating because in spite of the the decrease in the public school population from last year’s 163, 686 students to this year’s 159,740, there is an increase in the number of uncatechized students from last year’s 31, 623 students to this year’s 36, 389. 4, 766 more students this year are added to the increasing number of those who will not hear the teachings of Jesus for this school year. This is due to the decreasing number of catechists this year.

Every September, we celebrate the Catechetical Month. Everytime we do this, we make an appeal for volunteer catechists. Like the landowner in today’s parable, we come out time and again to look for laborers to work in the vineyard. The appeal does not change, it has been repeated year after year: “You go into the vineyard.” It has remained unchanged because the Harvest is rich but the laborers are few. The once-a-week teaching of catechism is already a bad situation because the catechetical instruction does not stand a chance against the constant bombardment our youth receive from elements that are hostile to the gospel of Jesus. This is made worse by the absence of regular parental guidance and even worse still, the lack of catechists..36, 389 might seem to you a faceless numbers. But behind the figures are real human beings who are condemned to ignorance of Jesus Christ and of his truth that sets all men free. Many young people do not seek the Lord because they do not know that He wants to be found. Many young people do not call on the Lord because they do not know that He is near. Being deprived of catechesis, many people are condemned to a linited world view that stretches no further than the here and now. They are deprived of the opportunity to raise their thoughts to the thoughts of God which is higher and wider than ours: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.” And these many people do not know what they are missing. Like slaves that think that everything is fine because they do not know what being free means, many people think that they are satisfied with what the world has to offer because they do not know that they are meant for something more: they are destined to live for ever in heaven.

It is his knowledge of Jesus Christ that implants in the heart of St. Paul the sincere concern that the gospel be preached to those who have not heard it. While he finds death to be profitable because it would mean that he would enjoy the company of Christ for ever, he prefered to labor and toil in preaching the Gospel for the benefit of those who would hear it. If only each of us would have the heart of St. Paul. If only we had enough generosity of heart to respond to the call of Christ: “You go into my vineyard!”

When we hear these words: You go into my vineyard, we always think that the Lord meant to speak to other people...but not to me. But the Lord is really addressing these words to you! If only parents took seriously their catechetical obligation towards their children, the catechetical situation would not be so bad. We see these signs around us: Aso ko, tali ko; Tapat ko, linis ko. We recognize our responsibility towards our dog and toward our environs. But why do we not recognize our responsibility towards our own children: Anak ko, turo ko! Many parents do not recognize that they are the primary catechists of their own children. Godparents do not recognize that they are the secondary catechists of their godchildren. Many are like the men who, at late afternoon, hear the Lord's reproach: "Why are you standing here idle all day? You go to my vineyard!" Late in life...you have not yet worked in the vineyard? You go to the vineyard!

Dare to respond generously to the invitation of Christ…for the Lord is never outdone in his generosity. Not only does he pay us what is just. He gives us more out of the abundance of his mercy: “Those that glorify and proclaim My great mercy, I shall protect them Myself at the hour of death as My own glory. And even if the sins of soul are as dark as night, when the sinner turns to My mercy he gives Me the greatest praise and is the glory of My Passion. When a soul praises My goodness, Satan trembles before it and flees to the very bottom of hell.” (Diary, 378.)

Our Lady of La Sallete on the negligence of the Sunday Obligation and Blasphemy

2011-09-18T02:46:00.000-07:00

on September 19, 1846, the Blessed Virgin appeared to two shepherd children Maximin and Melanie. She appeared with profuse tears falling from her eyes because of a grave message she brought mankind:

"If my people do not obey, I shall be compelled to loose my Son's arm. It is so heavy that I can no longer restrain it.

"How long have I suffered for you! If my Son is not to abandon you, I am obliged to entreat Him without ceasing. But you take no heed of that. No matter how well you pray in the future, no matter how well you act, you will never be able to make up to me what I have endured on your behalf.

"I have given you six days to work. The seventh I have reserved for myself, yet no one will give it to me. This is what causes the weight of my Son's arm to be so crushing.

"The cart drivers cannot swear without bringing in my Son's Name. These are the two things which make my Son's arms so heavy."

"...Do you say your prayers well, my children?

"Ah! my children, it is very important to do so, at night and in the morning. When you don't have time, at least say an 'Our Father' and a 'Hail Mary,' and when you can, say more.

"Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the summer. Everyone else works every Sunday all summer long, And in winter, when they don't know what else to do, they go to Mass only to scoff at religion. During Lent, they go to the butcher shop like dogs."

The Catechetical Dimension of Liturgy

2011-09-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone gave this address to the 62nd Italian Liturgical Week, in behalf of the Holy Father. Here are salient points:

"The Church, especially when she celebrates the divine mysteries, recognizes and manifests herself as a reality that cannot be reduced to a solely earthly and organizational aspect. It must appear clearly in these mysteries that the beating heart of the community should be recognized beyond the narrow yet necessary limits of ritualism, because the liturgy is not what man does, but what God does with his admirable and gratuitous condescendence. This primacy of God in the liturgical action was highlighted by the Servant of God Paul VI at the closing of the second period of the Vatican Council, when he announced the proclamation of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium: "In this event we observe that the correct order has been respected of the values and duties: thus we have recognized that the post of honor is reserved to God; that as first duty we are called to raise prayers to God; that the sacred Liturgy is the primary source of this divine exchange in which the life of God is communicated to us; it is the first school of our soul, it is the first gift that must be made by us to the Christian people." (Paul VI, Address for the Closing of the Second Period, December 4, 1963, AAS [1964], 34).

"In addition to expressing the absolute priority of God, the liturgy manifests its being "God with us," since "being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction." (Benedict XVI, encyclical Deus Caritas Est, 1). In this connection, God is the great educator of his people, the loving, wise, tireless guide in an through the liturgy, the action of God in the today of the Church."

"From this foundational aspect, the 62nd National Liturgical Week is called to reflect on the educational dimension of the liturgical action, in as much as it is a "permanent school of formation around the Risen Lord, educational and relative place in which the faith acquires form and is transmitted" (Italian Episcopal Conference, Educare alla Vita Buona del Vangelo, n. 390). For this purpose, it is necessary to reflect ever better on the relation between catechesis and liturgy, yet rejecting all undue instrumentalization of the liturgy with "catechetical" ends. In this regard, the living Patristic tradition of the Church teaches us that the liturgical celebration itself, without losing its specificity, always has an important catechetical dimension (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 33). In fact, in as much as it is the "the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit" (ibid., 14), the liturgy can be called the permanent catechesis of the Church, the inexhaustible source of catechesis, precious catechesis in act (cf. Italian Episcopal Conference, Il Rinnovamento della catechesis, Feb. 7, 1970, 113). As an integrated experience of catechesis, celebration and life, it expresses in addition the maternal support of the Church, thus helping to develop the growth of the believer's Christian life and the maturation of his conscience.

ZENIT - Papal Message on Liturgy as Source of Catechesis

Discrimination against Christianity

2011-09-16T17:11:00.000-07:00

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's department for external Church relations, gave an address at the opening session of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) high-level meeting on anti-Christian violence. Here are salient points of his talk:

"If in Europe, and in the OSCE region, voices can be heard against the presence of Christian symbols in public life, and there are signs of other forms of an intolerant attitude towards Christians, then this is a good occasion to think upon the reasons for such things. There is a simple axiom, understandable to every educated European. European civilization is a culture that has developed on a Christian foundation. Today Europe, and indeed the entire OSCE region, has acquired a clearly expressed multicultural nature, having become a place of contact between peoples and religions from all over the world. Yet, does this mean that the cultural and religious diversity of Europe definitely threatens her Christian roots? Not at all. The real threat is not in offering to the continent’s new religious and national communities the chance to make use of Christian hospitality. The basic danger is in attempting to use religious diversity as an excuse to exclude signs of Christian civilization from the public and political realities of the continent, as though this would make our continent friendlier towards non-Christians. I am convinced that society, which has renounced its spiritual heritage under the pretext of the radical separation of religious life from public life, becomes vulnerable to the spirit of enmity in relation to representatives of any religion. This indeed does create an atmosphere of intolerance in relation to Christians, as well as to representatives of other traditional religions."

"...Organizations in the OSCE countries responsible for notifying the public about cases of Christianophobia regularly report cases of persecution of Christians who criticize social evils, albeit that they are legally recognized. For example, clergy and lay believers who criticize homosexuality as sinful often face public ostracism or severe discrimination. Statutory guarantees of freedom of speech laid down in international law are always ignored in such cases.

"Christians in the OSCE region are consistently attacked because of their position on abortion and euthanasia. Opponents not only fail to see that behind their false justifications lie the deprivation of human life, but they also question Christians’ right to present their views and their democratic efforts to have them reflected in European legislation. It has been an encouragement and inspiration to see the recent recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe upholding the right to conscientious objection for medical workers who refuse to take part in such operations. I hope that refusal on grounds of conscientious objection will be an accepted approach in the educational and in public service spheres."

ZENIT - Russian Orthodox Church on Discrimination Against Christianity

Kneeling no more?

2011-09-15T01:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I visited the seminary I studied in and I decided to say a prayer in the big chapel. The seminarians were just about to pray the Midday Prayer for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. I observed one thing which disturbed me...the seminarians did not kneel at any point of the prayer. They sat through the hymn (we said it standing) and the psalms and reading. They stood for the collect and then, for the Angelus (In our time, we knelt during the Angelus during weekdays and stood for it during Sundays.) Afterwards, at the end of the prayer, some simply left while the others sat for some silent prayer. I did not see anyone kneel.

In the evening, I shared this with some members of the exorcism team. One of them said that when a seminarian kneels in prayer, he is oftentimes judged as a showoff! I am disturbed at this prevailing culture in the seminary. Now I am not at all surprised that many priests are reluctant to make acts of reverence. Perhaps, they do not like to look too pious? But then, aren't priests supposed to be pious? Shouldn't acts of reverence (like kneeling) be second nature to them? How can priests lead the faithful in acts of piety if they themselves are not pious?

The Belgian missionaries then taught us the value of piety. Towards the end of my stay in that seminary, small group Masses in the oratories became more and more fashionable and the big chapel was used less and less. I remember that the oratories did not encourage kneeling as these were in the amphitheater style. Perhaps kneeling became less fashionable also to the point that this is now seen as a sign of religious hypocrisy.

But we should kneel before the Lord. "So that at Jesus' Name, every knee should bend in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth..." so would St. Paul say. Man becomes most a man when he kneels before his Creator!

Our Lady of Sorrows: Co-Redemptrix

2011-09-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

It is only fitting that the Blessed Mother should be found standing beneath the Cross of our Lord. After all, she has been his most intimate associate in the work of salvation. It was for this moment that she became Mother. The Incarnation, which took place in her womb, was for the purpose of giving the Son of God a human nature that is capable of both suffering and death. The Body of the Lord, which hung upon the cross, was taken from the womb of Mary. The Blood that became the price of our redemption, Jesus received from his own Mother. From the very first instant of his Incarnation, Jesus our Lord has closely associated his Blessed Mother to Himself in the work of Redemption.

If it were not for Our Lady, Our Lord, the only begotten Son of the Father, could not be both Priest and Victim. Had he not assumed human nature in the womb of the Virgin, Our Lord could not have become the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Indeed, from the beginning of his Mortal life, Our Lord has closely involved his Mother in his work of redemption.

Thus, it is only fitting that, inasmuch as Our Lady was His partner from the very beginning, she should accompany Him to the very end - to the consummation of the Sacrifice upon the Cross. And when our Lord said to His Mother, "Behold your son," He did not only entrust His disciples to the care of His Mother. The Lord showed His Mother the fruit of their partnership...the disciple whom Christ wanted Mary to consider her son. It was as if He was telling her: "Mother, here is the one whom I have bought with the Blood I took from you. Here is the one I redeemed with this Body that you gave me. Because he was redeemed by the Blood that I took from you, you have every right to claim him...He is yours. Call him your son."

Indeed, we are hers. She has every right to call us her children. She has every right to be called "Mother" by us. We are the fruit of the partnership of Mother and Son.

Mary gave Jesus a human nature that suffers and dies. Jesus shares with Mary His suffering, His desolation, His pain...but most of all, He shares with her the fruits of His sacrifice: the redeemed. We are hers. She is our Mother!

Calvary and the Mass by Fulton Sheen

2011-09-13T23:39:00.000-07:00

On the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, we celebrate the promulgation of Summorum Pontificum four years ago. I started celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite everyday when the Motu Propio was promulgated. The Prologue of Archbishop Fulton Sheen to his work "Calvary and the Mass" is worth our consideration on this blessed day:

THERE are certain things in life which are too beautiful to be forgotten, such as the love of a mother. Hence we treasure her picture. The love of soldiers who sacrificed themselves for their
country is likewise too beautiful to be forgotten, hence we revere their memory on Memorial Day. But the greatest blessing which ever came to this earth was the visitation of the Son of God in the form and habit of man. His life, above all lives, is too beautiful to be forgotten, hence we treasure the divinity of His words in Sacred Scripture, and the charity of His deeds in our daily
actions. Unfortunately this is all some souls remember, namely His Words and His Deeds; important as these are, they are not the greatest characteristic of the Divine Saviour.

The most sublime act in the history of Christ was His Death. Death is always important for it seals a destiny. Any dying man is a scene. Any dying scene is a sacred place. That is why the great literature of the past which has touched on the emotions surrounding death has never passed out of date. But of all deaths in the record of man, none was more important than the Death of Christ. Everyone else who was ever born into the world, came into it to live; our Lord came into it to die. Death was a stumbling block to the life of Socrates, but it was the crown to
the life of Christ. He Himself told us that He came "to give his life as redemption for many"; that no one could take away His Life; but He would lay it down of Himself.

If then Death was the supreme moment for which Christ lived, it was therefore the one thing He wished to have remembered. He did not ask that men should write down His Words into a Scripture; He did not ask that His kindness to the poor should be recorded in history; but He did ask that men remember His Death. And in order that its memory might not be any haphazard narrative on the part of men, He Himself instituted the precise way it should be
recalled.

The memorial was instituted the night before He died, at what has since been called "The Last Supper." Taking bread into His Hands, He said: "This is my body, which shall be delivered for you," i.e., delivered unto death. Then over the chalice of wine, He said, "This is my blood of the new testament, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins." Thus in an unbloody symbol of the parting of the Blood from the Body, by the separate consecration of Bread and Wine, did Christ pledge Himself to death in the sight of God and men, and represent His death which was to come the next afternoon at three. He was offering Himself as a Victim to be immolated, and that men might never forget that "greater love than this no man has, that a man lay down his life for his friends," He gave the divine command to the Church: "Do
this for a commemoration of me."

The following day that which He had prefigured and foreshadowed, He realized in its completeness, as He was crucified between two thieves and His Blood drained from His Body for the redemption of the world.

The Church which Christ founded has not only preserved the Word He spoke, and the wonders He wrought; it has also taken Him seriously when He said: "Do this for a commemoration of me." And that action whereby we re-enact His Death on the Cross is the Sacrifice of the Mass, in which we do as a memorial what He did at the Last Supper as the prefiguration of His Passion.

Hence the Mass is to us the crowning act of Christian worship. A pulpit in which the words of our Lord are repeated does not unite us to Him; a choir in which sweet sentiments are sung brings us no closer to His Cross than to His garments. A temple without an altar of sacrifice is non-existent among primitive peoples, and is meaningless among Christians. And so in the Catholic Church the altar, and not the pulpit or the choir or the organ, is the
center of worship, for there is re-enacted the memorial of His Passion. Its value does not depend on him who says it, or on him who hears it; it depends on Him who is the One High Priest and Victim, Jesus Christ our Lord. With Him we are united, in spite of our nothingness; in a certain sense, we lose our individuality for the time being; we unite our intellect and our will, our heart and our soul, our body and our blood, so intimately with Christ, that the Heavenly Father sees not so much us with our imperfection, but rather sees us , the Beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. The Mass is for that reason the greatest event in the history of mankind; the only Holy Act which keeps the wrath of God
from a sinful world, because it holds the Cross between heaven and earth, thus renewing that decisive moment when our sad and tragic humanity journeyed suddenly forth to the fullness of supernatural life.

What is important at this point is that we take the proper mental attitude toward the Mass, and remember this important fact, that the Sacrifice of the Cross is not something which happened
nineteen hundred years ago. It is still happening. It is not something past like the signing of the Declaration of Independence; it is an abiding drama on which the curtain has not yet rung down. Let it not be believed that it happened a long time ago, and therefore no more concerns us than anything else in the past. That is why, when our Blessed Lord ascended the heights of Calvary, He was fittingly stripped of His garments: He would save the world without the trappings of a passing world. His garments belonged to time, for they localized Him, and fixed Him as a dweller in Galilee. Now that He was shorn of them and utterly dispossessed of earthly things, He belonged not to Galilee, not to a Roman province, but to the world. He became the universal poor man of the world, belonging to no one people, but to all men.

To express further the universality of the Redemption, the cross was erected at the crossroads of civilization, at a central point between the three great cultures of Jerusalem, Rome, and Athens, in whose names He was crucified. The cross was thus placarded before the eyes of men, to arrest the careless, to appeal to the
thoughtless, to arouse the worldly. It was the one inescapable fact that the cultures and civilizations of His day could not resist. It is also the one inescapable fact of our day which we cannot resist.

The figures at the Cross were symbols of all who crucify. We were there in our representatives. What we are doing now to the Mystical Christ, they were doing in our names to the historical Christ. If we are envious of the good, we were there in the Scribes and Pharisees. If we are fearful of losing some temporal advantage by embracing Divine Truth and Love, we were there in Pilate. If we trust in material forces and seek to conquer through the world instead of through the spirit, we were there in Herod. And so the story goes on for the typical sins of the world. They all blind us to the fact that He is God. There was therefore a kind of inevitability about the Crucifixion. Men who were free to sin were also free to crucify.

As long as there is sin in the world the Crucifixion is a reality. As the poet has put it:

"I saw the son of man go by,
Crowned with a crown of thorns.
'Was it not finished Lord,' said I,
'And all the anguish borne?'

"He turned on me His awful eyes;
'Hast Thou not understood?
So every soul is a Calvary
And every sin a rood.'"

We were there then during that Crucifixion. The drama was already completed as far as the vision of Christ was concerned, but it had not yet been unfolded to all men and all places and all times. If a motion picture reel, for example, were conscious of itself, it would know the drama from beginning to end, but the spectators in the theater would not know it until they had seen it unrolled upon the screen. In like manner, our Lord on the Cross saw in His eternal mind, the
whole drama of history, the story of each individual soul, and how later on it would react to His Crucifixion; but though He saw all, we could not know how we would react to the Cross until we were unrolled upon the screen of time. We were not conscious of being present there on Calvary that day, but He was conscious of our presence. Today we know the role we played in the theater of Calvary, by the way we live and act now in the theater of the twentieth century.

That is why Calvary is actual; why the Cross is the crisis; why in a certain sense the scars are still open; why Pain still stands deified, and why blood like falling stars is still dropping upon
our souls. There is no escaping the Cross not even by denying it as the Pharisees did; not even by selling Christ as Judas did; not even by crucifying Him as the executioners did. We all see it, either to embrace it in salvation, or to fly from it into misery.

But how is it made visible? Where shall we find Calvary perpetuated? We shall find Calvary renewed, re-enacted, re-presented, as we have seen, in the Mass. Calvary is one with the Mass, and the Mass is one with Calvary, for in both there is the same Priest and Victim. The Seven Last Words are like the seven parts of the Mass. And just as there are seven notes in music admitting an infinite variety of harmonies and combinations, so
too on the Cross there are seven divine notes, which the dying Christ rang down the centuries, all of which combine to form the beautiful harmony of the world's redemption.

Each word is a part of the Mass. The First Word, "Forgive," is the Confiteor; the Second Word, "This Day in Paradise," is the Offertory; the Third Word, "Behold Thy Mother," is the Sanctus;
the Fourth Word, "Why hast Thou abandoned Me," is the Consecration; the Fifth Word, "I thirst," is the Communion; the Sixth Word, "It is finished," is the Ite, Missa Est; the Seventh
Word, "Father, into Thy Hands," is the Last Gospel.

Picture then the High Priest Christ leaving the sacristy of heaven for the altar of Calvary. He has already put on the vestment of our human nature, the maniple of our suffering, the stole of priesthood, the chasuble of the Cross. Calvary is his cathedral; the rock of Calvary is the altar stone; the sun turning to red is the sanctuary lamp; Mary and John are the living side altars; the Host is His Body; the wine is His Blood. He is upright as Priest, yet He is prostrate as Victim. His Mass is about to begin.

(CNA) Conversion of Planned Parenthood Manager

2011-09-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Sherman, Texas, Sep 9, 2011 / 04:14 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Ramona Trevino has a compelling story to tell about her exodus from the nation's largest abortion provider. But in her first public appearance, she chose to emphasize what God accomplished through a vigil outside the clinic she used to manage.

“My message is to glorify God, and to glorify what wonderful things all of you are doing and continue to do. I'm so excited, and honored, to hopefully be a part of that,” she told 40 Days for Life participants at a recent event outside the defunct Planned Parenthood facility in Sherman, Texas.

“People like me everywhere are waiting for a miracle. And that is indeed what happened … Three months later, this place is out of business.”

Trevino, its former manager, had already taken a “leap of faith” on May 6, “leaving behind my job … half of my family's income.” It meant “having to worry about how we were going to survive, and pay the mortgage, and put food on the table.”

She told the assembled members of 40 Days for Life that there had been “a tugging in my heart, on and off, during the three years that I was managing. And it was a tugging that it shames me to say, I did ignore.”

Although Trevino's clinic did not perform abortions, she “still had a hand in the referrals. I still had to give out the number, I still had to give out the information on the locations … where they could get an abortion.”

“That's a truth I finally had to face. And that was a truth that would be brought to light due to the wonderful 40 Days for Life vigil that was held out here.”

In an interview with CNA, Trevino gave more details of her story, explaining how she tried to reconcile her Catholic faith with her work at Planned Parenthood. She also described the dramatic change of heart that coincided with the beatification of Pope John Paul II.

“I was raised Catholic, but I didn't really have a lot of formation in my faith as a kid,” said Trevino. “When I was a little girl … I felt like I was being called to the religious life.” But she “didn't have the formation, as a young child, to elaborate on that calling.”

Instead of becoming a nun, Trevino became pregnant in high school. She left school, and was in a non-Catholic marriage for eight years.

Two years after her subsequent marriage within the Church, Trevino learned about a part-time position at Planned Parenthood from a coworker at her former government job. She had gone through more extensive Catholic formation to prepare for marriage, but still lacked a proper understanding of issues surrounding sexuality and human life.

“I think there was still a lot about my faith that I didn't know – that I didn't get,” she recalled.

Trevino, who says she was “always pro-life,” also lacked an understanding of Planned Parenthood's leading role in the abortion industry. She associated the organization mostly with contraception, which she regarded as wrong for Catholics, but not for others.

“It didn't take me long before I became uncomfortable working there,” she remembered. “It was probably within the first three or four months. The thing that struck me hard was when I had to do my first referral for an abortion.”

“We provided pregnancy tests. So a lot of women would come in to confirm pregnancy, and if they were pregnant sometimes they would want an abortion. And we would have to counsel them on the information, the referrals, how far along they were, and that type of thing.”

“I remember the very first time I had to do that. I went into my office, I closed the door, and I cried. I guess it was something that I didn't think I was actually going to have to do. I was naïve, and I was too focused on the opportunity of being a manager.”

The referrals came relatively infrequently in the small Texas town, and other staff sometimes handled them. When they did occur, Trevino found ways to soothe her conscience.

“I would say prayers for them, and I would justify my actions all the time. I'd come home a wreck, and ask my husband 'Am I guilty?' And I would talk myself out of it, to justify it: 'Really, I'm not making the decision for her; when she walks out the door or gets off the phone, it's up to her what she does. I really am not responsible for what she chooses.''”

“I would constantly try to feed myself lies,” she said. “Eventually it got to me. I wasn't standing up for those babies. I wasn't trying to save their lives … Over time, I couldn't deny it to myself anymore.”

Trevino also became disillusioned with policies she said were geared toward “pushing things on people” for financial gain. “It's about making money. You didn't get the sense that they really, truly cared about these women they way they say they did.”

But the clinic manager's decision to leave Planned Parenthood and its practices behind, is mysterious even to her.

“I can't explain it on a human level. To me, it's all divine.”

The point when she says “everything began to change” was December 2010. She tuned in to her local Catholic radio station for the first time, and heard a show on women's post-abortion experiences. Almost every caller spoke of having an abortion through Planned Parenthood. She also learned about “the workings of contraception,” and its ability to cause an abortion.

“I began to tune in every day,” she said. She learned about Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood employee who chronicled her pro-life conversion in the bestselling book “UnPlanned.”

One night, coming back from the clinic, “I was listening to Catholic radio … I remember a woman saying: 'One day, when we die and we meet our maker, he's going to ask: “What did you do to prevent and stop abortion?”’ Right there, it was like a dagger in my heart.”

She began praying the Rosary during Lent, and said that on the third day, “the blinders just completely came off my eyes.” She dropped her excuses about working at a non-abortion-facility, and “understood why working for Planned Parenthood was wrong.”

“Shortly after, the first 40 Days for Life vigil was held outside the clinic. I got the courage to go out and talk to them, and ask for their prayers.” Trevino says she felt the strength God gave her through the prayers of the pro-life volunteers.

And it's possible that another intercessor, whom the Church celebrated just after Easter, may have been offering his prayers as she neared her decision.

“It was on Divine Mercy Sunday, the day that Blessed Pope John Paul II was beatified … At that time, I said I was probably going to leave Planned Parenthood in June. But I remember, on Divine Mercy Sunday … I just couldn't control my tears. Because at that moment I just felt God calling me.”

“I just took that leap of faith, and trusted God, and said: 'I'm out. I'm done.'”

Trevino, who hopes to pursue a pro-life ministry in the future, will give a keynote speech in Dallas on Sept. 27 as 40 Days for Life begins its fall campaign.

New Planned Parenthood defector hopes to glorify God and save lives :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

On the Mandate of Catholic Universities

2011-09-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

In a meeting, I learned from a concerned parent about the predicament of her son who is uncomfortable with an atheist philosophy teacher who is employed by a renowned Catholic university run by the Christian Brothers. I am sad that Catholic universities have forgotten their mandate to educate in the Catholic faith. What is an atheist teacher doing in a Catholic university? Why is he promoting atheism in an institution that is supposed to form students in Christ? Pope Benedict has very relevant teachings about this:

In helping the spiritual, intellectual and moral faculties of their students to mature, Catholic schools should continue to develop a capacity for sound judgment and introduce them to the heritage bequeathed to them by former generations, thus fostering a sense of values and preparing their pupils for a happy and productive life (cf. Gravissimum Educationis, 5). I encourage you to continue to pay close attention to the quality of instruction in the schools present in your Dioceses, to ensure that they be genuinely Catholic and therefore capable of passing on those truths and values necessary for the salvation of souls and the up-building of society.

Of course, Catholic schools are not the only means by which the Church seeks to instruct and to edify her people in intellectual and moral truth. As you know, all of the Church’s activities are meant to glorify God and fill his people with the truth that sets us free (cf. Jn 8:32). This saving truth, at the heart of the deposit of faith, must remain the foundation of all the Church’s endeavours, proposed to others always with respect but also without compromise. The capacity to present the truth gently but firmly is a gift to be nurtured especially among those who teach in Catholic institutes of higher education and those who are charged with the ecclesial task of educating seminarians, religious or the lay faithful, whether in theology, catechetical studies or Christian spirituality. Those who teach in the name of the Church have a particular obligation faithfully to hand on the riches of the tradition, in accordance with the Magisterium and in a way that responds to the needs of today, while students have the right to receive the fullness of the intellectual and spiritual heritage of the Church. Having received the benefits of a sound formation and dedicated to charity in truth, the clergy, religious and lay leaders of the Christian community will be better able to contribute to the growth of the Church and the advancement of Indian society. The various members of the Church will then bear witness to the love of God for all humanity as they enter into contact with the world, providing a solid Christian testimony in friendship, respect and love, and striving not to condemn the world but to offer it the gift of salvation (cf. Jn 3:17). Encourage those involved in education, whether priests, religious or laity, to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen from the dead. Enable them to reach out to their neighbours that, by their word and example, they may more effectively proclaim Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life (cf. Jn 14:6).

A significant role of witness to Jesus Christ is carried out in your country by men and women religious, who are the often unsung heroes of the Church’s vitality locally. Above and beyond their apostolic labours, however, religious and the lives they lead are a source of spiritual fruitfulness for the entire Christian community. As they open themselves to the grace of God, religious men and women inspire others to respond with trust, humility and joy to the invitation of the Lord to follow him.

In this regard, my Brother Bishops, I know that you are aware of the many factors which inhibit spiritual and vocational growth, particularly among young people. Yet we know that it is Jesus Christ alone who responds to our deepest longings, and who gives true meaning to our lives. Only in him can our hearts truly find rest. Continue, therefore, to speak to young people and to encourage them to consider seriously the consecrated or priestly life; speak with parents about their indispensible role in encouraging and supporting such vocations; and lead your people in prayer to the Lord of the harvest, that he may send many more labourers into this harvest (cf. Mt 9:38)

Pope Benedict XVI, To the Bishops of the Episcopal Conference of India,

8 September 2011

The Eucharist as Antidote to Individualism

2011-09-12T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Holy Father gave this homily at the close of the National Eucharistic Congress in Ancona.

"This is a hard saying!" It is hard because we often confuse liberty with the absence of chains, with the conviction of being able to make do by ourselves, without God, who is seen as a limit to liberty. This is an illusion that is soon turned into delusion, generating unrest and fear and leading, paradoxically, to longing for the chains of the past: "Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt," said the Israelites in the desert (Exodus 16:3), as we heard. In reality, it is only in openness to God, in the acceptance of his gift, that we become truly free, free from the slavery of sin that disfigures man and the capacity to serve the real good of brethren.

"This is a hard saying!" It is hard because man often falls into the illusion of being able to "transform the stones into bread." After having put God aside, or having tolerated him as a private choice that must not interfere with public life, certain ideologies have aimed at organizing society with the force of power and the economy. History shows us, tragically, how the objective of ensuring development, material well-being and peace to all, doing without God and his revelation, has resulted in giving men stones instead of bread. Bread, dear brothers and sisters, is the "fruit of man's work," and enclosed in this truth is all the responsibility entrusted to our hands and to our ingeniousness; but bread is also, and even first "fruit of the earth," which receives from on High sun and rain: It is a gift to be requested, which takes away all arrogance and makes us invoke with the trust of the humble: "Father (...), give us this day our daily bread" (Matthew 6:11).

Man is incapable of giving life to himself, he is understood only from God: it is the relationship with Him that gives consistency to our humanity and renders our life good and just. In the Our Father we pray that His name be hallowed, that His will be done. It is first of all the primacy of God that we must recover in our world and in our lives, because it is this primacy that enables us to rediscover the truth of what we are, and it is in knowing and following the will of God that we find our true good -- to give time and space to God, so that He will be the vital center of our existence.

From whence should we start, as the source, to recover and reaffirm the primacy of God? From the Eucharist: Here God makes Himself so close as to become our food, here He becomes the strength on the way that is so often difficult, here he makes himself a friendly presence that transforms. Already the Law given through Moses was considered as "bread of Heaven," thanks to which Israel became the people of God, but in Jesus the last and definitive Word of God becomes flesh, comes to meet us as Person. He, the Eternal Word, is the true manna, he is the bread of life (cf. John 6:32-35) and to carry out the works of God is to believe in Him (cf. John 6:28-29). In the Last Supper, Jesus summarizes his whole existence in a gesture that is inscribed in the great Paschal Blessing of God, a gesture that He lives as Son as thanksgiving to the Father for his immense love. Jesus breaks the bread and shares it, but with a new profundity, because He gives himself. He takes the chalice and shares it, so that all can drink from it, but with this gesture He gives the "new covenant in his blood," he gives himself. Jesus anticipates the act of supreme love, in obedience to the will of the Father: the sacrifice of the Cross. His life will be taken from him on the Cross, but already now He offers it on his own. Thus Christ's death is not reduced to a violent execution, but is transformed by Him into a free act of love, of self-giving; he goes victoriously through death itself and confirms the goodness of creation which came from the hands of God, humiliated by sin and finally redeemed. This immense gift is accessible to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: God gives himself to us, to open our existence to Him, to link it to the mystery of love of the Cross, to render it a participant in the eternal mystery from which we come and to anticipate the new condition of full life in God, in the expectation of which we live.

However, what does this starting from the Eucharist to reaffirm the primacy of God entail for our daily life? Eucharistic communion, dear friends, tears us away from our individualism, it communicates the spirit of Christ dead and risen, it conforms us to Him; it unites us intimately to brethren in that mystery of communion which is the Church, where the one Bread makes of many just one body (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:17), carrying out the prayer of the early Christian community reported in the book of the Didache: "as this broken bread was scattered on the hills, and gathered became only one thing, thus your Church from the confines of the earth is gathered in your Kingdom" (IX, 4). The Eucharist sustains and transforms the whole of daily life. As I reminded in my first encyclical, "Eucharistic communion includes the reality both of being loved and of loving others in turn," for which reason "a Eucharist which does not pass over into the concrete practice of love is intrinsically fragmented" ("Deus Caritas Est," 14).

The 2,000-year history of the Church is studded with men and women saints whose life is an eloquent sign of how in fact from communion with the Lord, from the Eucharist a new and intense assumption of responsibility is born at all levels of community life; born hence is a positive social development, which has the person at the center, especially the poor, the sick and the straitened. To be nourished by Christ is the way not to remain foreign and indifferent to the fortunes of our brothers, but to enter into the very logic of love and of gift of the sacrifice of the Cross; he who is able to kneel before the Eucharist, who receives the Lord's body cannot fail to be attentive, in the ordinary course of the days, to situations unworthy of man, and is able to bend down personally to attend to need, is able to break his bread with the hungry, share water with the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned (cf. Matthew 25:34-36). He will be able to see in every person the Lord who did not hesitate to give the whole of himself for us and for our salvation. Hence, a Eucharistic spirituality is a real antidote to individualism and egoism that often characterize daily life, and leads to the rediscovery of gratuitousness, the centrality of relationships, beginning with the family, with a particular care for binding the wounds of the broken. A Eucharistic spirituality is the soul of an ecclesial community that overcomes divisions and oppositions and appreciates the diversity of charisms and ministries putting them at the service of the unity of the Church, of her vitality and of her mission. A Eucharistic spirituality is a way to restore dignity to man's days and, hence, to his work, in the quest for reconciliation with the times of celebration and the family and in the commitment to surmount the uncertainty of precariousness and the problem of unemployment. A Eucharistic spirituality will also help us to approach the different forms of human fragility conscious that they do not obfuscate the value of the person, but require closeness, acceptance and help. Drawn from the Bread of life will be the vigor of a renewed educational capacity, attentive to witnessing the fundamental values of life, of learning, of the spiritual and cultural patrimony; its vitality will make us inhabit the city of men with the willingness to spend ourselves on the horizon of the common good for the building of a more equitable and fraternal society.

ZENIT - Papal Homily at Close of Eucharistic Congress

The Holy Name of Mary

2011-09-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

Ave Maria! This name was inserted (in the Angelic Salutation) not by the Angel, but by the devotion of the faithful. The blessed Evangelist Luke says significantly, "and the name of the Virgin was Mary" (Luke 1:27). This most holy, sweet, and worthy name was eminently fitting to so holy, sweet, and worthy a virgin. For Mary means bitter sea, star of the sea, the illuminated or illuminatrix. Mary is interpreted lady. Mary is a bitter sea to the demons; to men she is the star of the sea; to the angels she is illuminatrix, to all creatures she is lady...

Let us pray, let us pray most devoutly to Mary and say: O Mary, Bitter Sea, help us, that we may plunged into the bitter sea of penance! O Mary, Star of the Sea, help us that we may be guided rightly through the sea of this world! O Mary, Light-giver, help us, that we may be eternally illumined in glory! O Lady Mary, help us by your government and empire that we may be filially governed. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

St. Bonaventure, OFM

Bishop and Doctor of the Church

(+1274)

Self-denial according to St. Faustina

2011-09-11T02:40:00.000-07:00

The Lord's way is one of self-denial. What does self-denial mean? I was browsing over the pages of St. Faustina's diary and I found something worth our consideration:

1. The denial of my reason. Subjecting it to the reason of those who represent God to me on earth.

2. The denial of my will. Doing the will of God, which is revealed in the will of those who represent God to me and which is contained in the rule of our order.

3. The denial of my judgment. Accepting immediately and without reflection, analysis or reasoning all orders given by those who represent God to me.

4. The denial of my tongue. I will not give it the least bit of freedom; but in one case only I will give it complete freedom; that is, in proclaiming the glory of God. Whenever I receive Holy Communion, I will ask Jesus to fortify and cleanse my tongue that I may not injure my neighbor with it. That is why I have the greatest respect for the rule which speaks about silence.

(St. Faustina, Diary, 375)

Retalliation, Mercy, and 9/11

2011-09-11T01:30:00.000-07:00

Today is the 10th anniversary of that infamous 9/11 attack. We look to that dreadful day when, a decade ago, 3,000 lives perished as a result of a well-orchestrated terrorist act. The war on terror and the death of Osama Bin Laden became the retaliation of the Western world to Muslim terrorists. But as so many things have taken place in a decade, why is it that the papers continue to speak of the US facing new threat on the 10th year of 9/11?

I find it so providential that the 10rh anniversary of 9/11 should fall on that Sunday when the word of God teaches us about retaliation and mercy. The initial international response to the terrorist act was a war on terror. Undeniably, this is an act of retaliation. Call it by so many other names, justify it with so many reasons, but the war on terror will always be a retaliation against the attack that killed so many lives. But the question is: has retalliation accomplished its goal? Is it working? Is it right?

The Book of Sirac speaks in very clear terms against revenge: “Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the Lord’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail.” Our desire for retaliation stems from the false impression that healing comes with revenge. However, even the relatives who witnessed the execution of their loved ones’ assailant would confess that the death of the criminal does not fill in the vacuum left by the crime in their lives. The word of God gives us the only legitimate option that assures healing to any damage created by injustice: that solution is forgiveness. “Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then, when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the Lord? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, and seek pardon for his own sin? If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?” The Lord himself brings out the necessity of forgiveness:”I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?”

Healing does not begin when you have gotten even with your enemy. Healing begins with forgiveness. “Unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart, so will my heavenly Father do to you.” Oftentimes, we still feel the pain despite getting even because we continue to nourish anger against the unjust one. But instead of harbouring that grudge against the offender, why not simply forgive and live everything to God? Remember that we have our own debts to pay to the Lord. We ourselves are in need of his mercy. If you need mercy, then be merciful because Jesus himself says: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” “Remember your last days, set emnity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin. Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbot; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults.”

Perhaps this is the reason why the war on terror goes on with no end in sight. We stubbornly stick to a paradign of revenge that has accomplished nothing but further damage to the world. By doing so, we dig more graves, deeper graves for more dead. We still refuse to try forgiveness as a genuine step to healing, peace, and real security. Peace continues to be elusive because we never turn to mercy. Jesus himself said to St. Faustina: “Mankind will not have peace until it turns in trust to My mercy.” (Diary, 300).

Missionary Zeal

2011-09-10T00:25:00.000-07:00

Eternal Love, I want all the souls You have created to come to know You. I would like to be a priest, for then I would speak without cease about Your mercy to sinful souls drowned in despair. I would like to be a missionary and carry the light of faith to savage nations in order to make You known to souls, and to be completely consumed for them and to die a martyr's death, just as You died for them and for me. O Jesus, I know only too well that I can be a priest, a missionary, a preacher, and that I can die a martyr's death by completely emptying myself and denying myself for love of You, O Jesus, and of immortal souls.

St. Faustina, Diary, 302.

How we wish that such ardent missionary desire would still be present in Catholic souls! If only we would have that desire to make the Merciful Jesus known to many souls drowned in despair! Here is the solution to the problem of suicide the world over: Make the Divine Mercy known and loved to all the world!

Cast in Mary's mold

2011-09-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

That infamous 9-11 attack in the United States will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. How quickly time flies because it seemed just like yesterday. The issue of international security once again takes center stage. So much has happened in 10 years:the war on terror and the death of Al Quaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. So much has happened and yet, we ask: Is the world now at peace?

The Feast of the Birth of Mary is an appeal for peace. At the Opening Prayer, we petitioned the Lord: May the celebration of her birthday bring us closer to lasting peace. Many people are so much engrossed with 9-11 that they missed 9-12 which is the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, a feast so closely associated with today’s feast. The Feast of Mary’s Holy Name commemorates the victory of Christian forces against the Moslems in the battle of Vienna in 1683. It was a feast that disappeared in the reform of the liturgical calendar but was restored by Blessed John Paul in the year 2000, a year before that fateful 9-11. The coincidences are too fantastic to miss. Obviously, the Lord has entrusted the work of Peace to his own Blessed Mother.

“The Lord will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne…He shall stand fast to shepherd his flock…He shall be peace.” The work of peace was entrusted by the Lord to the Virgin Mary because she is the Mother of Him who is our Peace. The One born of her is called Wonder-counsellor, God-hero, Father-forever, Prince of Peace. The One born of her is the One who broke down the walls dividing Jews and Gentiles. “He is our Peace,” so said St. Paul. Obviously, peace is achieved permanently in the rule of Christ whose kingdom lasts for ever. This is the formula that the world has never tried: Pax Christi in Regno Christi. Peace comes only when Christ rules over us. Peace comes only when Christ is formed in us. Thus, we should understand why the work of peace was entrusted to the Virgin Mary.

St. Louis Marie de Monfort wrote: “If Mary is well cultivated in our soul by fidelity to the practices of this devotion, she will bear her fruit in her own time, and her fruit is none other than Jesus Christ. How many devout souls do I see who seek Jesus Christ…and oftentimes, after they have toiled much throughout the night, they say: ‘We have toiled all night, and have taken nothing!’ (Lk. 5:5)…But by that immaculate way of Mary…we toil during the day, we toil in a holy place, we toil but little. There is no night in Mary, because there is no sin nor even the slightest shade (in her). Mary is a holy place, and the holy of holies where saints are formed and molded…Saints are molded in Mary. There is a great difference between making a figure by blows of hammer and chisel, and making a figure by throwing it into a mold. Sculptors labor much to make figures in the first manner, but to make figures in the second manner, they work little and do their work quickly. St. Augustine calls our Blessed Lady “the mold of God” – the mold fit to cast and mold gods. He who is cast in this mold is presently formed and molded in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ in him. At a slight expense and in a short time he will become God because he has been cast in the same mold which has formed a God…Those who embrace the secret of grace which I am revealing to them I may rightly compare to founders and casters who have discovered the beautiful mold of Mary, where Jesus was naturally and divinely formed; and without trusting in their own skill, but only in the goodness of the mold, they cast themselves and lose themselves in Mary, to become the faithful portraits of Jesus…But remember that we cast in a mold only what is melted and liquid, that is to say, you must destroy and melt down in yourself the old Adam to become the new one in Mary.” (True Devotion to Mary, 218-221.)

Only in such way can there be peace if we are molded into Christ who is our Peace. Therefore, let Christ be formed in us. Let us be formed in Christ. Let this be done in the mold of Mary. May our celebration of her birthday bring us closer to lasting peace.

Novena To The Child Mary

2011-08-31T06:06:00.000-07:00

This novena starts on August 30 and ends on September 7
To be recited everyday:
V. O God, come to my assistance
R. O Lord, make haste to help me
V. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit
R. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

First Day:
Heavenly Child, lovable Mary, the Eternal Father delights in your birth, for He beholds in your coming into this world one of His creatures who is so perfect that she will become the worthy Mother of His divine Son. May your birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from the heavenly Father, the pardon of my sins, and an abiding sorrow for them.

Hail Mary...
Second Day: O Chosen One among the daughters of Adam, admirable Mary, the Son of God delights in your birth, for He beholds the one chosen to be His Mother, and oh! such a beloved Mother. May your birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining from your divine Son the grace to be born again spiritually to a holy life, perfectly conformed to yours, so that I may merit to obtain eternal glory.

Hail Mary...

Third Day: O Chosen One among the daughters of Adam, lovable Mary, the Eternal Word takes delight in your birth, for He sees the source of His Immaculate Blood. May your birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from the Word made Flesh, the grace to find in this Divine Blood the eternal happiness of my soul.
Hail Mary...
Fourth Day: O Chosen One among the daughters of Adam, admirable Mary, the Redeemer, promised to mankind from the beginning of the world, takes delight in your birth, for He sees the one who is destined to become the Co-redemptress of souls by uniting her tears to the Blood shed on the Cross to save mankind.
Hail Mary...
Fifth Day: Resplendent Lily of Paradise, lovable Mary, the Holy Spirit takes delight in your birth for He sees in you the soul never stained by sin, which would forever be His worthy Temple. May your birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from the Holy Spirit His divine love and final perseverance.
Hail Mary...

Sixth Day: Most Beautiful Branch of the tree of David, most admirable Mary, whose birth was such a consolation to St. Joachim and St. Anne who were delighted to be the parents of so holy a child, may your birth be the consolation of my soul, by obtaining for me from God, victory over the world and detachment from all the things of this earth.
Hail Mary...

Seventh Day: Resplendent Morning Star, lovable Mary, your birth was the cause of great joy to the angels, for they beheld in you the Mother of the Redeemer of the world, who by His Death would repair the loss sustained by the fall of rebellions angels in paradise. May your birth give joy to my soul also, by obtaining for me from God, victory over the infernal enemy, deliverance from all his snares, and the grace to be associated in glory with the angels in heaven.
Hail Mary...

Eighth Day: Brilliant Aurora of Heaven, lovable Mary, your birth brought great consolation to the souls of the saints detained in limbo, for it announced the approach of the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, who would enlighten their darkness and then conduct them to paradise. May your birth give joy to my soul also, and obtain for me from God, patience in all adversities, a perfect and constant conformity to His most holy will.
Hail Mary...
Ninth Day: Mediatrix between God and mankind, admirable Mary, by your birth you perfected the joy of all the children of Adam, who, through you, have received the Author of Grace, for He has made you the treasurer of all the graces which are imparted to us. May your birth be a special cause of joy to my soul by obtaining for me from God, eternal salvation and all the graces necessary to obtain it.
Hail Mary...

The prayer of each day is ended by the following:

Antiphon: Your Nativity, O Virgin Mother of God, was the herald of joy to the whole world; since from you arose the Sun of Justice, Christ our God, who, destroying the curse, bestowed the blessing, and confounding death, rewarded us with life everlasting.
V. Let us celebrate with joy the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
R. That she may intercede for us with Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let us pray.
Grant to us your servants, we beseech you, O Lord, the gift of Your heavenly grace, that as our salvation was begun in the child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin, so from this solemn festival of her Nativity may we obtain an increase of peace. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Nihil Obstat: Iacobus P. King, I.C.D. Censor Deputatus. Imprimatur: Bryan Iosephus McEntegart, D.D., LL.D. Episcopus Bruklyniensis.

Novena To Mary

On Why there is no Feast of God the Father

2011-08-29T20:47:00.001-07:00

Our predecessor Innocent XII, absolutely refused the petition of those who desired a special festival in honour of God the Father. For, although the separate mysteries connected with the Incarnate Word are celebrated on certain fixed days, yet there is no special feast on which the Word is honoured according to His Divine Nature alone. And even the Feast of Pentecost was instituted in the earliest times, not simply to honour the Holy Ghost in Himself, but to commemorate His coming, or His external mission. And all this has been wisely ordained, lest from distinguishing the Persons men should be led to distinguish the Divine Essence. Moreover the Church, in order to preserve in her children the purity of faith, instituted the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, which John XXII. afterwards extended to the Universal Church. He also permitted altars and churches to be dedicated to the Blessed Trinity, and, with the divine approval, sanctioned the Order for the Ransom of Captives, which is specially devoted to the Blessed Trinity and bears Its name. Many facts confirm its truths. The worship paid to the saints and angels, to the Mother of God, and to Christ Himself, finally redounds to the honour of the Blessed Trinity. In prayers addressed to one Person, there is also mention of the others; in the litanies after the individual Persons have been separately invoked, a common invocation of all is added: all psalms and hymns conclude with the doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; blessings, sacred rites, and sacraments are either accompanied or concluded by the invocation of the Blessed Trinity. This was already foreshadowed by the Apostle in those words: "For of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever" (Rom. xi., 36), thereby signifying both the Trinity of Persons and the Unity of Nature: for as this is one and the same in each of the Persons, so to each is equally owing supreme glory, as to one and the same God.

Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus, 3.

On Secularism and Fundamentalism

2011-08-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

The Christian religion and other religions can offer their contribution to development only if God has a place in the public realm, specifically in regard to its cultural, social, economic, and particularly its political dimensions. The Church's social doctrine came into being in order to claim "citizenship status" for the Christian religion. Denying the right to profess one's religion in public and the right to bring the truths of faith to bear upon public life has negative consequences for true development. The exclusion of religion from the public square - and, at the other extreme, religious fundamentalism - hinders an encounter between persons and their collaboration for the progree of humanity. Public life is sapped of its motivation and politics takes on a domineering and aggressive character. Human rights risk being ignored either because they are robbed of their transcendent foundation or because personal freedom is not acknowledged. Secularism and fundamentalism exclude the possibility of fruitful dialogue and effective cooperation between reason and religious faith. Reason always stands in need of being purified by faith: this also holds true for political reason, which must not consider itself omnipotent. For its part, religion always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentically human face. Any breach in this dialogue comes only at an enourmous price to human development.

Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, 56.

Bishop's Homily on Transfer of Assignments

2011-08-29T09:58:00.000-07:00

When we first decided on this day, August 29, 2011, as the day for the public announcement of the new assignment, we were all amused when one of the priests said that this day is the memorial of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. The amusement seemed to be over the fact that a new assignment was sort of like an execution: “parang pupugutan ng ulo.” Despite the jokes, I think that this feast is a very appropriate time to talk about new assignments.

A few months ago, we had Bishop Ambo David, auxiliary bishop of San Fernando, as our guest in our monthly clergy formation. He gave a commentary on the story of the execution of St. John the Baptist. He said that this was not just the story of the Baptist’s martyrdom. It was not just about John the Baptist being decapitated. It was also about the Johannine community losing John the Baptist as the head of their community. “When (John’s) disciples heard about (the execution of John), they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.” Afterwards, they went to Jesus. Here the words of the Baptist came to be fulfilled: “He must increase; I must decrease.” By his martyrdom, St. John the Baptist delivers his community to Jesus. From this day forth, Jesus will be the head of the community. “He is the head of his body, the Church,” St. Paul would later on teach in his rich theology on the Mystical Body.

In this light we look at the new assignment of our parish priests in the diocese. For many of you, the past six years have been the occasion to forge friendships with your respective parish priests. You benefited from their preaching and guidance. You were blessed by the sacraments they celebrated. But now, your parish priests have to move on to new assignments. You yourselves will have to welcome new pastors. The attachment to the persons of our parish priests might hinder us from recognizing the fact that the Lord Jesus is the head of the Church. The parish is not the parish priest’s flock. Rather, it is part of the flock of Christ. We priests care for our respective parishes without owning them. “God’s flock is in your midst. Give it a shepherd’s care. Watch over it as God would have you do,” said St. Peter.

John the Baptist did not lose his head. He willingly gave it up for the Lord. I find it significant that this is what the promise of obedience really is. When you, my dear priests, were ordained, you made a promise of obedience to your ordinary. You willingly surrendered your individual plans, your dreams, your independence. You are submitting everything that should transform you into self-made men to the will of your bishop. You have so opted to find your self-fulfillment not in your own will but in the will of Christ as expressed in your bishop’s will. Like John the Baptist, you are not losing your head. You, in a sense, gave it up so that you might have the mind of Christ. The promise of obedience might sound good in theology but it is in moments like a transfer of assignments that the promise is put to the test. Understanding our human inclination to hold on to what we have been accustomed to, the exercise of obedience to your bishop is a real experience of self-denial. It is a true martyrdom, an authentic witness to Christ whose food is to do the will of the One who sent him.

And on this second transfer, I am humbled as your bishop by your heroic obedience, my dear priests. I was truly edified by the assurance of your obedience: “I want to glorify God,” so you said. A bishop could not ask for more. Thank you, dear priests. Thank you for your availability. Thank you so much. I am honored by the fact that I am bishop to priests who truly have the mind of Christ.

John the Baptist glorified Christ with his martyrdom. Let us glorify him with the witness of our obedience. In this way, we live out the true identity of the priest as alter Christus – the Christ who glorified the Father by saying: “Not my will but your will be done!”

Christianity as Counter Culture

2011-08-29T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, the Lord Jesus declared the blessedness of Simon and even called him Peter upon whom he builds his Church. Today, he does the opposite: the Lord rebuked Peter and called him Satan. You might immediately conclude that the Lord is fickle-minded: he says one thing today and then its exact opposite the next day. It is easy to accuse the Lord of such because we forget that the apparent contradiction of the names he used on Simon were his response to Simon’s declarations. Jesus called Simon blessed because he listened to the Father. His declaration that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, was something which can be revealed only “by my Father in heaven.” On the other hand, today, Jesus called Simon “Satan” because “you are thinking not as God does but as human beings do.” Simon found the idea of Jesus having to suffer and die as repulsive to his dignity as Son of the Living God. There seems to be nothing wrong about what Simon Peter said. After all, none of us would ever entertain the idea of a loved one having to suffer and die. We humanly find suffering and death as repulsive and as an evil to avoid. But, as Jesus said, this is how human beings think…not God. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. We prefer the path of self-indulgence. But His way is one of self-denial. We pursue a burden-free life. He tells us to carry our cross. We want to do things our own way. He tells us to follow him. We measure profits by gains and accumulations. He measures it by losses: “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?”

The contradiction is so very obvious and we, Christians, find ourselves constantly pressured to compromise with the world in order to make life easier for ourselves. The world has resorted to name-calling to discredit the Church’s fidelity to the teaching of Christ. It has called us “antiquated”, “medieval”, and “irrelevant.” And oftentimes, the world issues us the threat that unless we swim with the tide and move with the times, the Church will simply disappear in anonymity. But to do this is to abandon the uniqueness of the Christian Gospel. To think as human beings do and to oppose the mind of God is to put a hindrance to the spread of the Kingdom of God on earth. The Church must not adjust to the culture of modern times. Rather, she must present to men a counter-culture. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, admonishes us: “Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.” The Christian way is the way of the Cross. The Cross is the sign of contradiction. Christ is the sign of contradiction. And to follow Jesus along this way of the Cross is to swim against the current. To walk along the path of self-denial is to walk against the flow. When we adjust our doctrines and way of life to the standards of the world, we do the world a disservice because we deprive humanity of that opportunity to know Jesus Christ and his Truth that sets us free. What the world needs now is not a Church that dances to its tune, but one who dares to raise the Cross as the only sign of hope and of salvation. GK Chesterton said: in this day and age we need “not a Church that is right when the world is right, but a Church that is right when the world is wrong.” “Whoever loses his life for my sake,” says the Lord, will find it.” Therefore, “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.”

True artists challenge aesthetics, not attack religion

2011-08-28T17:41:00.000-07:00

Ed Castrillo writes on Mideo Cruz' "Politeismo":
true iconoclasts in art are artists who introduce new philosophies, modes, mediums and forms that reflect high aesthetics; they create never-before-seen works.

These radical new ways of creating and thinking inspire other artists to further refine them through time, as in the works of Van Gogh, so that new styles come as unique expressions of their period: Art Nouveau, Expressionism, the Bauhus, Pop Art.

The next generation builds upon the refinements of the previous. The venues of some of these radical breakthroughs in the visual arts have often been biennales.

International biennales welcome all avant-garde artists who exhibit limitless approaches in the visual arts, works that are mind-boggling, hilarious, ridiculous, thought-provoking and savage.

But never in such biennales do you see artworks with forms and themes that insult religious beliefs.

Biennale artists are disciplined enough, possessed of good values. They dedicate their creative quest toward challenging artistic trends or opening new ones.

It is common practice to subject art spaces and even small galleries that sponsor exhibitions, theater presentations, media, and movies that present statements or forms violating human rights or attacking religious freedom to censorship.

Mideo’s art violated respect for religion as it rejected any form of sensitivity toward the majority of Filipinos who are Christians.

Because Mideo’s work was exhibited in a government cultural institution, curatorial censorship for the welfare of the general public should have been done. Would one allow pornography to just be let loose on the TV or the Internet? Worse, why should taxpayer’s money be used in showing a work that disrespects or attacks religion?

True artists challenge aesthetics, not attack religion

CEAP: ‘AND THEY SPAT AT HIM’ A Statement of CEAP on the Exhibit ‘Politeismo’

2011-08-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

Continually striking Jesus on the head with a reed and spitting at him, they genuflected before him and pretended to pay him homage. (Mark 15:19)

This was how the evangelist Mark described Jesus as He was led to his crucifixion. Jesus never retaliated with insult, but voluntarily gave Himself up unto death for the forgiveness of sins.

Last week, we were happy to know of a 12-year old girl named Janella Lelis of Albay who braved the floods during the onslaught of Typhoon Juaning to save the Philippine Flag from ruin. This inspires us. It is a vivid picture of respect, bravery and nationalism. Such an act uplifts the human spirit in the face of calamities. But shortly after this, we were saddened to know about an art exhibit entitled ‘Politeismo’ - a collage of religious icons mixed with phallic symbols put up specifically to provoke, as professed by its creator.

Judging by its expressed purpose, it seemed successful. There were varied reactions; however, most of them were feelings of being appalled, shocked and hurt. Thus, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and the group who mounted the exhibit should not even be surprised if they elicited acts of vandalism, emotions of anger and disgust, and incited quarrel. We are saddened by the purported ‘artwork’ that causes not the upliftment of the human spirit, but its debasement.

We are, likewise, deeply saddened that officials of CCP have given their stamp of approval to this exhibit that evidently offended the sensibilities of many Catholics, Christians and well-meaning people. What are the standards employed by CCP? We wonder whether CCP officials would have allowed the exhibit if Jose Rizal, or other national heroes, or icons of other faiths had been the subject of such desecration. Thus, we find it difficult to understand why this exhibit was displayed in what is supposed to be a shrine of Philippine culture and art.

We are confused by the position of some of those who support the exhibit, invoking rationality and freedom, yet do not realize the violence, intolerance and bigotry the exhibit does to believers and their faith. They, while discrediting the importance of faith, veer towards extremism to the point of persecuting believers and destroying what believers hold as sacred. They, while declaring freedom of expression negate the legitimate expressions of Christian faith.

This we hold true: to believe is not against reason. Our faith in the Lord Jesus is not unreasonable.

Our Interpretation of the Work

In our judgment, the exhibit is offensively obscene and blasphemous - a sentiment shared even by well-meaning non-Christians. It hurts us for we cannot even imagine this done to our parents, how much more to Jesus, whom we consider as our Lord and Savior.

The exhibit, while misrepresenting the Catholic faith and praxis, is vulgar. It professes freedom of expression but misunderstands the nature of freedom. It ignores the fact that the exercise of freedom, especially in the public sphere is not limitless. When free expression usurps the freedom of others, it constitutes an offense, thereby an abuse of the very same freedom.

We need not forget that there are limits to freedoms. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29, #2, states: ‘In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare of a democratic society.’

There is no authentic freedom without justice, respect, responsibility and truth.

Our Appeal

We welcome CCP’s decision to close this particular exhibit. We recognize and respect CCP’s desire to ‘continue to act as catalyst for free expression of Filipino artists.’ We, however, urge that CCP should be a guardian and promoter of Filipino art, culture and heritage in a manner that respects the rights and sensibilities of the very people it is supposed to serve.

We call on the person responsible for the exhibit, to re-examine his actions and evaluate the consequences of his work. One may have the right to express oneself, but again it is not a license to impinge on the rights of others.

We appeal to our fellow citizens, Catholics, Christians and non-Christians, believers or non-believers alike, to treat each other with respect. Respect is an indispensable and necessary condition for peace. Let us seek tolerance not by being intolerant. Respect cannot be gained by being disrespectful. Securing freedom is not simply the insistence on one’s right, but also the respect and the defense of the rights of others. Thus, free expression is betrayed by bigotry, insult and malice.

We call on all CEAP schools all over the country to fully understand that we need to take this issue seriously because we must uphold both the Catholic Tradition and our Filipino Heritage which are intrinsically part of our identity as a people. We should take this as an opportunity to strengthen the Catechetical Programs in our schools. Likewise, we encourage all our schools to do acts of penance, reconciliation and reparation for the sacrilege done against the signs and symbols of our Holy Faith, which is an affront against the very image of God.

We commit to continue to lead the Catholic Educational Community in responding creatively to these challenges by intensifying the work we are called to do in our education ministry. Towards this end, CEAP, through its Religious Education Commission, shall prepare a module to educate the young generation and the public at large on the meaning of Christian Sacred Art and Iconography. Through this instructional tool, we hope to teach our Sacred Tradition and continue to uphold the essential elements of the Catholic Heritage.

Conclusion

We are deeply saddened, hurt and insulted. The exhibit is an act of vandalism not simply of the sacred images and icons of our Catholic and Christian heritage. ‘Politeismo’ is a vandalization of our Faith and desecration of our Lord.

Thus, we recall this description by the evangelist Mark: Continually striking Jesus on the head with a reed and spitting at him, they genuflected before him and pretended to pay him homage. (Mark 15:19) And He endured them all and gave up His life on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

As we express our revulsion at this kind of act, whether directed at Christianity or another faith, we remind ourselves of the admonition from the First Letter of Peter: ‘All of you should be like-minded, sympathetic, loving toward one another, kindly disposed and humble. Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult. Return a blessing instead. This you have been called to do, that you may receive a blessing as your inheritance.’ (1 Peter 4:8-9)

Let us be a blessing to one another.

CATHOLIC EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES
15 August 2011

CEAP-Press Release: ‘AND THEY SPAT AT HIM’ A Statement of CEAP on the Exhibit ‘Politeismo’