To the Honor of the Apostles

Thou art the Shepherd of the sheep, the Prince of the Apostles, unto thee were given the keys of the Kingdom of heaven.

V/ Thou art Peter;

R/ And upon this Rock I will build my Church

Let us pray.

Raise us up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, by the apostolic assistance of Blessed Peter, Thine Apostle; so that the weaker we are, the more mightily we may be helped by the power of his intercession: and that being perpetually defended by the same holy Apostle, we may neither yield to any iniquity, nor be overcome by any adversity. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thou art the Vessel of election, Saint Paul the Apostle, the Preacher of truth in the whole world.

V/ Pray for us, Saint Paul the Apostle,

R/ That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of Thy divine mercy, didst instruct Thy blessed Apostle Paul what he should do that he might be filled with the Holy Ghost; by his admonitions directing us and his merits interceding for us, grant that we may serve Thee in fear and trembling and so be filled with the comfort of Thy heavenly gifts. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

-from the Raccolta

Back to Thursday!

Last Sunday, I was ranting about the unfortunate transfer of Corpus Christi from Thursday to Sunday just because Corpus Christi is not a Holy Day of Obligation. I thought that this is an indication of spiritual sloth. Just because we do not want to "burden" the faithful with the obligation of assisting at Mass on a working day, we transfer the feast to the succeeding Sunday. In ancient Christianity, before Constantine declared Sunday as a non-working day, the day of the Lord used to be the first working day. Remember that the Sabbath (the Jewish day of rest) was Saturday. Because Sunday was a working day, the Christians broke bread at dawn (before they went to work). Isn't it strange that by transferring Corpus Christi to Sunday, we are actually training people to "hit two birds with one stone" (that is, fulfill the obligation of Sunday and Corpus Christi on the same day)?

By transferring Corpus Christi to Sunday, its immediate association with Holy Thursday is lost. I am glad that I am not alone in this ranting. Guess who rants in the same way?

follow the link: ZENIT - Liturgy Official Backs Return of Corpus Christi to Thursday

Need for Real Education in the Faith

Bishop Honesto F. Ongtioco, Bishop of Cubao, gave this homily during the Mass of the Holy Spirit this morning at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Cubao:

Noong nakaraang Huwebes, naging panauhin ng kaparian ng Cubao si Bishop Ambo David ng Pampangga. Nagbigay siya ng panayam tungkol sa kaugnayan ng Salita ng Diyos sa buhay at gawain ng mga pari. Sa pagwawakas ng kanyang panayam nabanggit niya ang suliranin ng Simbahan sa Europa: ang paglaganap ng sekularismo at ang mabilis na kamatayan ng pananampalatayang Kristiyano sa Europa. Napaisip ako sa sinabi niyang ang isa sa mga instrumento ng paglaganap ng sekularismo sa Europa ay ang edukasyon. Habang nagiging edukado ang mga tao, lalo naman silang napapalayo sa Simbahan. Marahil, isa itong indikasyon na hindi na nagagampanan ng mga paaralan at pamantasang Katoliko ang kanilang naatasang gawain bilang tagapaghubog sa pananampalataya.

Marahil, madali para sa atin ang ipagwalang bahala ang kalagayan ng Simbahan sa Europa sapagkat tila malayo ito mangyari sa Pilipinas. Sa pag-aakala ng marami, Katoliko sarado pa rin ang ating bansa: punung puno pa rin ang maraming simbahan at iginagalang pa rin ng marami ang mga pari. Subalit ganito rin ang Europa noong dekada singkwenta: punung puno rin ang mga simbahan, iginagalang ang mga kaparian, ang kulturang Europeo ay malinaw na kulturang Kristiyano. Subalit, sa loob lamang ng napakaiksing panahon, ay baliktad na ang kalagayan: wala nang nagsisimba, hindi na pinakikinggan ang turo ng mga Obispo, napakarami nang nagtatwa sa kanilang pananampalataya.

Kung tutuusin, nakikita na natin dito sa ating bansa ang mga palatandaan ng sekularismo: ang lumalaking hayagang pagsang-ayon ng maraming mga katoliko sa RH at sa diborsyo. At totoo na ang edukasyon ay ang instrumento ng mabilis na pagguho sa pananampalatayang kristiyano. Hindi ba ang mga pangunahing mga tagapagsulong ng mga makabagong pananaw na salungat sa mga turong Kristiyano ay ang mga “edukado” – silang mga may mataas na pinag-aralan? Saan tayo nagkulang? Ano ang nangyari sa mga pamantasan at paaralang Katoliko? Naging tanyag ang ating mga pamantrasa’t paaralan sa paghubog ng mga graduates na bihasa sa kani-kanilang larangan ng pag-aaral. Subalit nagkulang sa paghuhubog sa kanila sa larangan ng pananampalataya. Ang katekismo ay naging malabnaw at nauwi na lang sa “values formation” lamang. Oo nga’t natuturuan natin ang mga kabataan ng kabutihang asal, ngunit higit pa riyan ang dapat nilang matutunan. Kailangan nilang matutunan ang mga aral ng pananampalatayang kristiyano.

Magandang halimbawa ni Manny Pacquiao na minamaliit ng marami dahil sa kanyang hamak na pinanggalingan. Pinaninindigan niya ang turo ng ating pananampalataya hinggil sa RH. Kinukuwento niya na naging bahagi ng buhay ng kanilang pamilya ang panalangin. Tuwing alaskwatro ng madaling araw, tinipon ni nanay Dionisia ang kanyang mga anak para sa sama-samang pagdarasal ng Rosaryo. Ano pa mang hirap ang kanilang pinagdaanan, napagtagumpayan nila ito dahil sa pagtuturo ng kanilang ina. Mula sa kanya natutunan niyang pagpahalagahan ang Simbahang Katolika at ang kanyang mga katuruan.

Mula sa kuwento ng pambansang kamao, natututunan natin ang halaga ng tunay na katekesis. Religion must once again be the core of the curriculum of our Catholic schools. Yes, we want to produce competent graduates but we must never forget that the purpose of Catholic education is “education in the faith.” Ang siryosong at tapat na katekesis sa ating mga paaralan at pamantasan ang magpapaampat sa mabilis na paglaganap ng sekularismo. Sabi ng ating Santo Papa: “Concern for young people calls for courage and clarity in the message we proclaim; we need to help young people to gain confidence and familiarity with sacred Scripture so it can become a compass pointing out the path to follow. Young people need witnesses and teachers who can walk with them, teaching them to love the Gospel and to share it, especially with their peers, and thus to become authentic and credible messengers.” (Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, 104.)

Napakasimple ng mga palatandaan ng matagumpay na katekesis. Narinig ko ito kay Msgr. Gerry Santos: Alam natin na nakapagbigay tayo ng epektibong katekesis kapag nakita natin ang mga kabataan na nagsisimba at marami sa kanila ang mahikayat na magpari at mag madre. Reality check lang mga kapatid: ilan sa mga estudyante ninyo ang nag pari at nag madre?

Sa Misang ito sa karangalan ng Espiritu Santo, muli nating italaga ang ating sarili sa tunay na paghuhubog sa pananampalataya. Maging masigasig tayo sa katekesis at hingin natin ang tulong ng Espiritu ng katotohanan upang gabayan niya tayo sa lahat ng katotohanan at ang mga kabataan ay maakit na sumunod sa yapak ni Kristo.

Sabi nga ng Santo Papa: “Study centres supported by Catholic groups offer a distinct contribution to the promotion of culture and education – and this ought to be recognized. Nor must religious education be neglected, and religion teachers should be given careful training. Religious education is often the sole opportunity available for students to encounter the message of faith.” (Verbum Domini, 111.)

Benedict XVI's Corpus Christi Homily

Dear brothers and sisters!

The feast of Corpus Domini is inseparable from the Holy Thursday Mass of Caena Domini, in which the institution of the Eucharist is also celebrated. While on the evening of Holy Thursday we relive the mystery of Christ who offers himself to us in the bread broken and wine poured out, today, in celebration of Corpus Domini, this same mystery is proposed for the adoration and meditation of God's people, and the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession through the streets of towns and villages, to show that the risen Christ walks among us and guides us toward the kingdom of heaven. Today we openly manifest what Jesus has given us in the intimacy of the Last Supper, because the love of Christ is not confined to the few, but is intended for all. This year during the Mass of Our Lord's Last Supper on Holy Thursday, I pointed out that the Eucharist is the transformation of the gifts of this land -- the bread and wine -- intended to transform our lives and usher in the transformation of the world. Tonight I would like to return to this point of view.

Everything starts, you might say, from the heart of Christ, who at the Last Supper on the eve of his passion, thanked and praised God and, in doing so, with the power of his love transformed the meaning of death, which he was about to encounter. The fact that the sacrament of the altar has taken on the name "Eucharist," "thanksgiving," expresses this: that the change in the substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ is the fruit of the gift that Christ made of himself, a gift of a love stronger than death, divine love that brought him to rise from the dead. That is why the Eucharist is the food of eternal life, the Bread of life. From the heart of Christ, from his "Eucharistic Prayer" on the eve of his passion, flows the dynamism that transforms reality in its cosmic, human and historical dimensions. All proceeds from God, from the omnipotence of his love One and Triune, incarnate in Jesus. The heart of Christ is immersed in this love; because of this he knows how to thank and praise God even in the face of betrayal and violence, and thus changes things, people and the world.

This transformation is possible thanks to a communion stronger than division, the communion of God himself. The word "communion," which we use to designate the Eucharist, sums up the vertical and horizontal dimension of the gift of Christ. The beautiful and eloquent expression "receive communion" refers to the act of eating the bread of the Eucharist. In fact, when we carry out this act, we enter into communion with the very life of Jesus, in the dynamism of this life that is given to us and for us. From God, through Jesus, to us: a unique communion is transmitted in the Holy Eucharist. We have heard as much, in the second reading, from the words of the Apostle Paul to the Christians of Corinth: "The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ"(1 Corinthians 10:16-17).

St. Augustine helps us to understand the dynamics of holy Communion when referring to a kind of vision he had, in which Jesus said to him: "I am the food of the mature: grow, then, and you shall eat me. You will not change me into yourself like bodily food; but you will be changed into me"(Confessions, VII, 10, 18). Therefore, while the bodily food is assimilated by the body and contributes to sustain it, the Eucharist is a different bread: We do not assimilate it, but it assimilates us to itself, so that we become conformed to Jesus Christ and members of his body, one with him. This is a decisive passage. Indeed, precisely because it is Christ who, in Eucharistic communion, transforms us into him, our individuality, in this encounter, is opened up, freed from its self-centeredness and placed in the Person of Jesus, who in turn is immersed in the Trinitarian communion. Thus, while the Eucharist unites us to Christ, we open ourselves to others making us members one of another: We are no longer divided, but one thing in him. Eucharistic communion unites me to the person next to me, and to the one with whom perhaps I might not even have a good relationship, but also to my brothers and sisters who are far away, in every corner of the world. Thus the deep sense of social presence of the Church is derived from the Eucharist, as evidenced by the great social saints, who have always been great Eucharistic souls. Those who recognize Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, recognize their brother who suffers, who is hungry and thirsty, who is a stranger, naked, sick, imprisoned, and they are attentive to every person, committing themselves, in a concrete way, to those who are in need.

So from the gift of Christ's love comes our special responsibility as Christians in building a cohesive, just and fraternal society. Especially in our time when globalization makes us increasingly dependent upon each other, Christianity can and must ensure that this unity will not be built without God, without true Love. This would give way to confusion and individualism, the oppression of some against others. The Gospel has always aimed at the unity of the human family, a unity not imposed from above, or by ideological or economic interests, but from a sense of responsibility toward each other, because we identify ourselves as members of the same body, the body of Christ, because we have learned and continually learn from the Sacrament of the Altar that communion, love is the path of true justice.

Let us return to Jesus' act in the Last Supper. What happened at that moment? When he said: This is my body which is given to you, this is my blood shed for you and for the multitude, what happened? Jesus in that gesture anticipates the event of Calvary. He accepts his passion out of love, with its trial and its violence, even to death on the cross; by accepting it in this way he transforms it into an act of giving. This is the transformation that the world needs most, because he redeems it from within, he opens it up to the kingdom of heaven. But God always wants to accomplish this renewal of the world through the same path followed by Christ, indeed, the path that is himself. There is nothing magic in Christianity. There are no shortcuts, but everything passes through the patient and humble logic of the grain of wheat that is broken to give life, the logic of faith that moves mountains with the gentle power of God. This is why God wants to continue to renew humanity, history and the cosmos through this chain of transformations, of which the Eucharist is the sacrament. Through the consecrated bread and wine, in which his Body and Blood is truly present, Christ transforms us, assimilating us in him: He involves us in his redeeming work, enabling us, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, to live according to his same logic of gift, like grains of wheat united with him and in him. Thus unity and peace, which are the goal for which we strive, are sown and mature in the furrows of history, according to God's plan.

Without illusions, without ideological utopias, we walk the streets of the world, bringing within us the Body of the Lord, like the Virgin Mary in the mystery of the Visitation. With the humble awareness that we are simple grains of wheat, we cherish the firm conviction that the love of God, incarnate in Christ, is stronger than evil, violence and death. We know that God is preparing for all people new heavens and new earth where peace and justice prevail -- and by faith we glimpse the new world, that is our true home. Also this evening as the sun sets on our beloved city of Rome, we set out again on this path: With us is Jesus in the Eucharist, the Risen One, who said, "I am with you always, until the end of world "(Mt 28:20). Thank you, Lord Jesus! Thank you for your fidelity, which sustains our hope. Stay with us, because the evening comes. "Jesus, good shepherd and true bread, have mercy on us; feed us and guard us. Grant that we find happiness in the land of the living." Amen.



ZENIT - Benedict XVI's Corpus Christi Homily

Mass With the Society of St. Pius X

Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

"The priests of the Society of St. Pius X are validly ordained, but suspended, that is prohibited from exercising their priestly functions because they are not properly incardinated in a diocese or religious institute in full communion with the Holy See (cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 265) and also because those ordained after the schismatic Episcopal ordinations were ordained by an excommunicated bishop.

"Concretely, this means that the Masses offered by the priests of the Society of St. Pius X are valid, but illicit, i.e., contrary to Canon Law. The Sacraments of Penance and Matrimony, however, require that the priest enjoys the faculties of the diocese or has proper delegation. Since that is not the case with these priests, these sacraments are invalid. It remains true, however, that, if the faithful are genuinely ignorant that the priests of the Society of St. Pius X do not have proper faculty to absolve, the Church supplies these faculties so that the sacrament is valid (cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 144).

"While it is true that participation in the Mass at chapels of the Society of St. Pius X does not of itself constitute 'formal adherence to the schism' (cf. Ecclesia Dei 5, c), such adherence can come about over a period of time as one slowly imbibes a schismatic mentality which separates itself from the teaching of the Supreme Pontiff and the entire Catholic Church. While we hope and pray for a reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X, the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" cannot recommend that members of the faithful frequent their chapels for the reasons which we have outlined above. We deeply regret this situation and pray that soon a reconciliation of the Society of St. Pius X with the Church may come about, but until such time the explanations which we have given remain in force."

Thus I think it is fairly clear. The mere fact of assisting at a Mass of this society is not a sin. It would only become so if a person attended this Mass with the deliberate intention of separating himself from communion with the Roman Pontiff and those in communion with him.



follow the link ZENIT - Mass With the Society of St. Pius X

On Christ's Look of Love

It is also my hope that, after you have made the discernment of the essential and important questions for you youth, for the plan of the whole life that lies before you, you will experience what the Gospel means when it says: "Jesus, looking upon him, loved him". May you experience a look like that! May you experience the truth that he, Christ, looks upon you with love!

He looks with love upon every human being. The Gospel confirms this at every step. One can also say that this "loving look" of Christ contains, as it were, a summary and synthesis of the entire Good News. If we would seek the beginning of this look, we must turn back to the Book of Genesis, to that instant when, after the creation of man "male and female", God saw that "it was very good".(Gen. 1:31) That very first look of the Creator is reflected in the look of Christ which accompanies his conversation with the young man in the Gospel.

We know that Christ will confirm and seal this look with the redemptive Sacrifice of the Cross, because precisely by means of this Sacrifice that "look' reached a particular depth of love. In it is contained an affirmation of man and of humanity such as only he is capable of-Christ the Redeemer and Bridegroom. Only he "knows what is in every man":(cf. John 2:25) he knows man's weakness, but he also and above all knows his dignity.

My wish for each of you is that you may discover this look of Christ, and experience it in all its depth. I do not know at what moment in your life. I think that it will happen when you need it most: perhaps in suffering, perhaps together with the witness of a pure conscience, as in the case of that young man in the Gospel, or perhaps precisely in an opposite situation: together with the sense of guilt, with remorse of conscience. For Christ looked at Peter too in the hour of his fall: when he had three times denied his Master.(cf. Luke 22:61)

Man needs this loving look. He needs to know that he is loved, loved eternally and chosen from eternity.(cf. Eph. 1:4) At the same time, this eternal love of divine election accompanies man during life as Christ's look of love. And perhaps most powerfully at the moment of trial, humiliation, persecution, defeat, when our humanity is as it were blotted out in the eyes of other people, insulted and trampled upon. At that moment the awareness that the Father has always loved us in his Son, that Christ always loves each of us, becomes a solid support for our whole human existence. When everything would make us doubt ourselves and the meaning of our life, then this look of Christ, the awareness of the love that in him has shown itself more powerful than any evil and destruction, this awareness enables us to survive.

My wish for you then is that you may experience what the young man in the Gospel experienced: "Jesus, looking upon him, loved him".

John Paul II, Dilecti Amici, 7.

Deacons should preach less at Mass, Michigan bishop says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

St. Stephen the Deacon

When deacons are assigned to me, I tell them that their primary role is to "wait at the table of widows and orphans." While I require them to assist at Mass and be present at the recitation of Lauds and Vespers, I allow them to preach only on 1 Sunday Mass and the ferial Mass on Thursdays. They are assigned to take charge of the social services of the parish. I really believe that we must return to the original intention for the establishment of the Holy Order of Deacons. I am glad that at least one Bishops shares the same view!

follow this link: Deacons should preach less at Mass, Michigan bishop says :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)