Gregory Mussmacher

Father Leo's Email Blast 06-25-09

2009-06-26T10:40:00.005-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "I love You, O my God, and my only desire is to love You until the last breath of my life. I love You, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving You, than live without loving You. I love You, Lord and the only grace I ask is to love You eternally....My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love You, I want my heart to repeat it to You as often as I draw breath." St. Jean Vianney

Year Long Father’s Day!

This past weekend (June 19th to be exact), the Church Universal began kicked off its yearlong celebration of the “Year of the Priest” with the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a year to honor the sacred nature of the priesthood, the spiritual fatherhood of these particular chosen men, and to help promote a culture of sacrificial love required by all loving fathers – our own dads and our spiritual fathers.

My dad and me before an outdoor Mass celebrating Filipino Independence Day.

To help celebrate this year, the Pope officially proclaimed St. Jean Vianney the Patron Saint of all Priests.

In his entire priesthood, this simple parish priest had only one assignment, in a small town in Ars, France. He was not that smart. In fact he barely passed his seminary education. He was not talented, accused of being a simpleton by his own brother priests. He had no unique charm, style, or fashion sense. For meals, he often fasted and ate only simple foods such as boiled potatoes – often times, old potatoes ! I have so much to learn from such a good and holy priest. We all do.

Seminarians who participated in this year’s Priest, Deacon, and Seminarian Conference.

Despite the lack of natural gifts to be successful in this world, he did possess a supernatural gift: heavenly love for his spiritual children. His devotion to God’s people eventually made him a highly sought out priest, confessor, and spiritual guide. His know-nothing town eventually became one of France’s most popular pilgrimage sites for prayer and conversion, just because of him. His priesthood was marked with incredible miracles of holiness. He delivered the hope and love of God to his parishioners and beyond. He is such a model of priesthood that I can only pray to be half the man of God he was! Who am I kidding? A 10th of the man would be a more realistic prayer.

Giving a Final Blessing at the Mass for the Filipino Independence Day. Don’t make fun of the sunglasses . It was necessary because God was shining his glory so brightly I could barely read the words of the prayers! I don’t think St. Jean Vianney would have used sunglasses.

There is a fantastic story about his holiness. It was told how the devil revealed that if there were only three priests as holy as St. Jean Marie Vianney, the kingdom of evil would come to an end . That’s holy! That’s a fatherhood worth celebrating for more than just one day .

I sometimes think dads forget they have to share in the fatherhood of the sacred priesthood by doing what St. Jean Vianney did: protect his children from evil!

Benjimen Cahill giving his testimony about becoming a priest. Supporting him on the stage are Fr. Ken, Director of the Steubenville pre-theology program, and classmate Sean.

For me, I couldn’t have been in a better place to kick off this yearlong celebration. I was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio giving conferences to priests, deacons, and seminarians. The following weekend I then offered talks to more than 2,000 high school youth for one of their youth retreats.

It was so encouraging to celebrate with my brother priests and deacons and to honor spiritual fatherhood, with St. Jean Vianney as a guide. There were so many young men interested in becoming priests. That felt good for me to hear of their desire to be spiritual fathers! It was also so wonderful to be part of the Steubenville team and to serve the many young people by providing spiritual bread from Heaven to satisfy their “hunger” for God. I definitely felt like a spiritual father – not changing diapers – but helping to change hearts and minds.

The Steubenville experience is so full of charismatic enthusiasm that I wish all my subscribers would know of the joy that comes when a person is filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit!

After this week of spiritual feasting, I felt very confirmed in the purpose of the Grace Before Meals mission. Despite the unique nature of this ministry, it’s very normal for a father – biological or spiritual – to feed his children. That’s what St. Jean Vianney did, and that’s what spiritual fathers and dads hope to do. That’s something worth celebrating, not just on one Sunday a year.

Although highlighting the ministry of priesthood, the Pope’s desire to promote the spiritual fatherhood of priests this year, is a celebration for the entire parish family!

Kelly Pease & Band wowing the crowd during the entertainment portion of the weekend.

Here’s a suggestion to help your family celebrate this event. Invite your parish priest to your home for dinner some time this year. You may have to plan it in advance because they are incredibly busy. You may even want to team up with a few families in the neighborhood to share in the celebration to make it easier on his schedule. It’s definitely a Grace Before Meals mission to encourage you to get to know your parish priests as spiritual fathers around the dinner table. You may be giving him a meal for the body, but his spiritual fatherhood will feed you with the Daily Bread from Heaven.

Fr. Dave incensing the Blessed Sacrament

Potatoes – not like St. Jean Vianney’s

The Franciscan Friars who staff the Franciscan University of Steubenville always provide wonderful hospitality to the speakers and staff for the summer conferences. One night, however, we had some free time for dinner. I went with another priest to a local place in downtown Steubenville. This restaurant had wonderful Gyros – a deliciously flavored grilled lamb served on warm and moist pita bread, garnished with onions, tomatoes, and topped with a cucumber sour yogurt, called tzatziki.

But for me the highlight of this dish were the potatoes. These boiled potatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper, were probably also folded with some cream and oregano to add extra creamy richness. These were definitely NOT the potatoes St. Jean Vianney ate! But I think our sincere Grace Before Meals made this delicious tribute to Greek food a very fitting way to celebrate a year dedicated to the priests.

Click here to lean more about a great Steubenville Restaurant that had wonderful potatoes to compliment the flavorful Gyro platter.

This week’s Food for the Soul wants to give all our subscribers a nice tip on where to eat if you ever go to Steubenville for the summer conferences or if you want to celebrate Steubenville’s most famous native son – Dean Martin. Ironically, the city of Steubenville honored him that same weekend with a big citywide party!

When in Steubenville, be sure to try Yorgo’s Gyros Potatoes. Portions are huge! So bring an appetite or share a platter with a friend. You definitely get your money’s worth. Although the place is considered a “hole in the wall” by most of the University students, patrons are treated to a clean restaurant and friendly service. The table and chairs are extremely outdated and uncomfortable, but you can also get carry out and enjoy this cuisine in your own backyard. The white and deep sea blue colors give you a feel for authentic Greek Flavors. Just step up to the counter where you order. From there you can see the other prepared foods like the spinach pie, the toppings for the Gyros, and those wonderful potatoes. The smell of the lamb roasting on the spit is rather appealing too. But then the owner adds extra flavor by shaving off large portions of meat and searing it on an open grill. This gives great color and caramelized flavor to the lamb, yet keeping it very moist with great texture. Surprisingly, it wasn’t very greasy either. I think you may also impress the owner properly pronouncing the word Gyro as “ hEro,” and not “jIro.” I know I impressed him when I thanked him in Greek : “Efkaristo” – the same word as Eucharist – “Thanksgiving!”

While in Stuebenville, I had a chance to hang out with Bob Rice and his wonderful family. Bob is the music minister for the summer conferences. He and the band turned the words of the prayer into a huge celebration of joyful and spiritually uplifting praise .

By the way, be sure to check out his blog that has a video of the “DANCE OFF” between me and Bob Rice!

Bob in the center with Beard and guitar.

At his home, Mrs. Rice put out a spread of warm appetizers and desserts for Team Leaders. She can cook! She also promised to send me the recipe for the cake she prepared. But the best part about this gathering was the people around the table – the team is dedicated, faithful, and inspiring. But the best treat of all was seeing Bob’s beautiful family, and especially his fifth child and youngest daughter Maria.

Just seeing Bob’s family and hearing stories of the rest of the Team members’ families, I could not help feel a sense of joy for them. I also felt a deep responsibility to be sure that I, as a spiritual father, help them with my own prayer and example.

Let us Pray: God, our Father in Heaven, help us all to be reminded of the great responsibility you give to us as priests – spiritual fathers. In a special way, I ask blessings for all parish families, especially those parishes that do not have a full- time priest to be present to the parish families’ many needs. Lord, in this year of the Priest, raise up many more men to accept the call to Spiritual Fatherhood and thus share the Food that leads all to Heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Ask Fr. Leo for fatherly advice.
Any submissions may be used in future Grace Before Meals publications.

Please forward Fr. Leo's weekly email blast to anyone you think would benefit. If you haven't
signed up for the Food for the Body, Food for the Soul weekly email blast, go here and register now.
Also please visit our blog. weekly to stay up to date with Grace Before Meals.

2009-06-26T10:40:00.003-07:00

Year Long Father’s Day!

This past weekend (June 19th to be exact), the Church Universal began kicked off its yearlong celebration of the “Year of the Priest” with the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is a year to honor the sacred nature of the priesthood, the spiritual fatherhood of these particular chosen men, and to help promote a culture of sacrificial love required by all loving fathers – our own dads and our spiritual fathers.

My dad and me before an outdoor Mass celebrating Filipino Independence Day.

To help celebrate this year, the Pope officially proclaimed St. Jean Vianney the Patron Saint of all Priests.

In his entire priesthood, this simple parish priest had only one assignment, in a small town in Ars, France. He was not that smart. In fact he barely passed his seminary education. He was not talented, accused of being a simpleton by his own brother priests. He had no unique charm, style, or fashion sense. For meals, he often fasted and ate only simple foods such as boiled potatoes – often times, old potatoes ! I have so much to learn from such a good and holy priest. We all do.

Seminarians who participated in this year’s Priest, Deacon, and Seminarian Conference.

Despite the lack of natural gifts to be successful in this world, he did possess a supernatural gift: heavenly love for his spiritual children. His devotion to God’s people eventually made him a highly sought out priest, confessor, and spiritual guide. His know-nothing town eventually became one of France’s most popular pilgrimage sites for prayer and conversion, just because of him. His priesthood was marked with incredible miracles of holiness. He delivered the hope and love of God to his parishioners and beyond. He is such a model of priesthood that I can only pray to be half the man of God he was! Who am I kidding? A 10th of the man would be a more realistic prayer.

Giving a Final Blessing at the Mass for the Filipino Independence Day. Don’t make fun of the sunglasses . It was necessary because God was shining his glory so brightly I could barely read the words of the prayers! I don’t think St. Jean Vianney would have used sunglasses.

There is a fantastic story about his holiness. It was told how the devil revealed that if there were only three priests as holy as St. Jean Marie Vianney, the kingdom of evil would come to an end . That’s holy! That’s a fatherhood worth celebrating for more than just one day .

I sometimes think dads forget they have to share in the fatherhood of the sacred priesthood by doing what St. Jean Vianney did: protect his children from evil!

Benjimen Cahill giving his testimony about becoming a priest. Supporting him on the stage are Fr. Ken, Director of the Steubenville pre-theology program, and classmate Sean.

For me, I couldn’t have been in a better place to kick off this yearlong celebration. I was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio giving conferences to priests, deacons, and seminarians. The following weekend I then offered talks to more than 2,000 high school youth for one of their youth retreats.

It was so encouraging to celebrate with my brother priests and deacons and to honor spiritual fatherhood, with St. Jean Vianney as a guide. There were so many young men interested in becoming priests. That felt good for me to hear of their desire to be spiritual fathers! It was also so wonderful to be part of the Steubenville team and to serve the many young people by providing spiritual bread from Heaven to satisfy their “hunger” for God. I definitely felt like a spiritual father – not changing diapers – but helping to change hearts and minds.

The Steubenville experience is so full of charismatic enthusiasm that I wish all my subscribers would know of the joy that comes when a person is filled with the fire of the Holy Spirit!

After this week of spiritual feasting, I felt very confirmed in the purpose of the Grace Before Meals mission. Despite the unique nature of this ministry, it’s very normal for a father – biological or spiritual – to feed his children. That’s what St. Jean Vianney did, and that’s what spiritual fathers and dads hope to do. That’s something worth celebrating, not just on one Sunday a year.

Although highlighting the ministry of priesthood, the Pope’s desire to promote the spiritual fatherhood of priests this year, is a celebration for the entire parish family!

Kelly Pease & Band wowing the crowd during the entertainment portion of the weekend.

Here’s a suggestion to help your family celebrate this event. Invite your parish priest to your home for dinner some time this year. You may have to plan it in advance because they are incredibly busy. You may even want to team up with a few families in the neighborhood to share in the celebration to make it easier on his schedule. It’s definitely a Grace Before Meals mission to encourage you to get to know your parish priests as spiritual fathers around the dinner table. You may be giving him a meal for the body, but his spiritual fatherhood will feed you with the Daily Bread from Heaven.

Fr. Dave incensing the Blessed Sacrament

Potatoes – not like St. Jean Vianney’s

The Franciscan Friars who staff the Franciscan University of Steubenville always provide wonderful hospitality to the speakers and staff for the summer conferences. One night, however, we had some free time for dinner. I went with another priest to a local place in downtown Steubenville. This restaurant had wonderful Gyros – a deliciously flavored grilled lamb served on warm and moist pita bread, garnished with onions, tomatoes, and topped with a cucumber sour yogurt, called tzatziki.

But for me the highlight of this dish were the potatoes. These boiled potatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper, were probably also folded with some cream and oregano to add extra creamy richness. These were definitely NOT the potatoes St. Jean Vianney ate! But I think our sincere Grace Before Meals made this delicious tribute to Greek food a very fitting way to celebrate a year dedicated to the priests.

Click here to lean more about a great Steubenville Restaurant that had wonderful potatoes to compliment the flavorful Gyro platter.

This week’s Food for the Soul wants to give all our subscribers a nice tip on where to eat if you ever go to Steubenville for the summer conferences or if you want to celebrate Steubenville’s most famous native son – Dean Martin. Ironically, the city of Steubenville honored him that same weekend with a big citywide party!

When in Steubenville, be sure to try Yorgo’s Gyros Potatoes. Portions are huge! So bring an appetite or share a platter with a friend. You definitely get your money’s worth. Although the place is considered a “hole in the wall” by most of the University students, patrons are treated to a clean restaurant and friendly service. The table and chairs are extremely outdated and uncomfortable, but you can also get carry out and enjoy this cuisine in your own backyard. The white and deep sea blue colors give you a feel for authentic Greek Flavors. Just step up to the counter where you order. From there you can see the other prepared foods like the spinach pie, the toppings for the Gyros, and those wonderful potatoes. The smell of the lamb roasting on the spit is rather appealing too. But then the owner adds extra flavor by shaving off large portions of meat and searing it on an open grill. This gives great color and caramelized flavor to the lamb, yet keeping it very moist with great texture. Surprisingly, it wasn’t very greasy either. I think you may also impress the owner properly pronouncing the word Gyro as “ hEro,” and not “jIro.” I know I impressed him when I thanked him in Greek : “Efkaristo” – the same word as Eucharist – “Thanksgiving!”

While in Stuebenville, I had a chance to hang out with Bob Rice and his wonderful family. Bob is the music minister for the summer conferences. He and the band turned the words of the prayer into a huge celebration of joyful and spiritually uplifting praise .

By the way, be sure to check out his blog that has a video of the “DANCE OFF” between me and Bob Rice!

Bob in the center with Beard and guitar.

At his home, Mrs. Rice put out a spread of warm appetizers and desserts for Team Leaders. She can cook! She also promised to send me the recipe for the cake she prepared. But the best part about this gathering was the people around the table – the team is dedicated, faithful, and inspiring. But the best treat of all was seeing Bob’s beautiful family, and especially his fifth child and youngest daughter Maria.

Just seeing Bob’s family and hearing stories of the rest of the Team members’ families, I could not help feel a sense of joy for them. I also felt a deep responsibility to be sure that I, as a spiritual father, help them with my own prayer and example.

Let us Pray: God, our Father in Heaven, help us all to be reminded of the great responsibility you give to us as priests – spiritual fathers. In a special way, I ask blessings for all parish families, especially those parishes that do not have a full- time priest to be present to the parish families’ many needs. Lord, in this year of the Priest, raise up many more men to accept the call to Spiritual Fatherhood and thus share the Food that leads all to Heaven. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Ask Fr. Leo for fatherly advice.
Any submissions may be used in future Grace Before Meals publications.

Please forward Fr. Leo's weekly email blast to anyone you think would benefit. If you haven't
signed up for the Food for the Body, Food for the Soul weekly email blast, go here and register now.
Also please visit our blog. weekly to stay up to date with Grace Before Meals.

2009-06-26T10:40:00.001-07:00

Matthew 7:15-20

2009-06-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "At the end of our life, we shall all be judged by charity." St. John of the Cross

Daily Reading & Meditation
Wednesday (6/24): "You will know them by their fruits"
Scripture: Matthew 7:15-20 [alternate reading: Luke 1:57-66,80]

15 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. 18 A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will know them by their fruits.

Meditation: What do grapes, thorns, figs, and thistles have to teach us about the kingdom of God? The imagery used by Jesus would have been very familiar to his audience. A certain thornbush had berries which resembled grapes. And a certain thistle had a flower, which at least from a distance, resembled the fig. Isn't it the same today? What we "hear" might have a resemblance of the truth, but, in fact, when you inspect it closely, it's actually false. False prophets or teachers abound today as much as they did in biblical times.

What's the test of a true or false teacher? Jesus connects soundness with good fruit. Something is sound when it is free from defect, decay, or disease and is healthy. Good fruit is the result of sound living – living according to moral truth and upright character. The prophet Isaiah warned against the dangers of falsehood: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness (Isaiah 5:20). The fruits of falsehood produce an easy religion which takes the iron out of religion, the cross out of Christianity, and any teaching which eliminates the hard sayings of Jesus, and which push the judgments of God into the background and makes us think lightly of sin.

How do we avoid falsehood in our personal lives? By being true – true to God, his word, and his grace. And that takes character! Those who are true to God know that their strength lies not in themselves but in God who supplies what we need. The fruit of a disciple is marked by faith, hope and love, justice, prudence, fortitude and temperance. Do you cultivate good fruit in your life and reject whatever produces bad fruit?

"Lord Jesus, may I bear good fruit for your sake. Help me to reject whatever will produce evil fruit. And help me grow in faith, hope, love, sound judgment, justice, courage, and self control."

Psalm 119:33-37,40

33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I will keep it to the end.
34 Give me understanding, that I may keep thy law and observe it with my whole heart.
35 Lead me in the path of thy commandments, for I delight in it.
36 Incline my heart to thy testimonies, and not to gain!
37 Turn my eyes from looking at vanities; and give me life in thy ways.
40 Behold, I long for thy precepts; in thy righteousness give me life!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go to | Daily Reading & Meditation Index |
(c) 2009 Don Schwager

THE 12 PROMISES OF THE SACRED HEART: Of Jesus

2009-06-22T03:58:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "It's time to come home... to your father who awaits you with open and loving arms." http://www.indefenseofthecross.com/

THE 12 PROMISES OF THE SACRED HEART:
1. I WILL GIVE THEM ALL THE GRACES NECESSARY FOR THEIR STATE OF LIFE.
May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved in every place. [223]

2. I WILL GIVE PEACE IN THEIR FAMILIES.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us and on our erring brethren. [233]

3. I WILL CONSOLE THEM IN ALL THEIR TROUBLES.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I believe in Thy love for me. [230]

4. THEY SHALL FIND IN MY HEART AN ASSURED REFUGE DURING LIFE AND ESPECIALLY AT THE HOUR OF DEATH.
Divine Heart of Jesus, convert sinners, save the dying, deliver the Holy Souls in Purgatory. [229]

5. I WILL POUR ABUNDANT BLESSINGS ON ALL THEIR UNDERTAKINGS.
All for Thee, Most Sacred Sacred Heart of Jesus. [234]

6. SINNERS SHALL FIND IN MY HEART THE SOURCE AND INFINITE OCEAN OF MERCY.
Glory, love and thanksgiving be to the Sacred Heart of Jesus! [231]

7. TEPID SOULS SHALL BECOME FERVENT.
Sweet Heart of Jesus, be my love. [237]

8. FERVENT SOULS SHALL SPEEDILY RISE TO GREAT PERFECTION.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, mayest Thou be known, loved, and imitated! [235]

9. I WILL BLESS THE HOMES IN WHICH THE IMAGE OF MY SACRED HEART SHALL BE EXPOSED AND HONORED.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy Kingdom come! [228]

10. I WILL GIVE TO PRIESTS THE POWER TO TOUCH THE MOST HARDENED HEARTS.
Sweet Heart of my Jesus, grant that I may ever love Thee more. [224]

11. THOSE WHO PROPAGATE THIS DEVOTION SHALL HAVE THEIR NAME WRITTEN IN MY HEART, AND IT SHALL NEVER BE EFFACED.
Heart of Jesus, burning with love for us, set our hearts on fire with love of Thee. [225]

12. I PROMISE THEE IN THE EXCESS OF THE MERCY OF MY HEART, THAT ITS ALL-POWERFUL LOVE WILL GRANT TO ALL THOSE WHO SHALL RECEIVE COMMUNION ON THE FIRST FRIDAY OF NINE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS THE GRACE OF FINAL REPENTANCE; THEY SHALL NOT DIE UNDER MY DISPLEASURE, NOR WITHOUT RECEIVING THE SACRAMENTS; MY HEART SHALL BE THEIR ASSURED REFUGE AT THAT LAST HOUR.
Heart of Jesus, I put my trust in Thee! [226]

Salutations to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary

For Private Use Only.

Hail, Heart most holy!
Hail, Heart most gentle!
Hail, Heart most humble!
Hail, Heart most pure!
Hail, Heart most devout!
Hail, Heart most wise!
Hail, Heart most patient!
Hail, Heart most obedient!
Hail, Heart most vigilant!
Hail, Heart most faithful!
Hail, Heart most blessed!
Hail, Heart most merciful!
Hail, most loving Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
We revere Thee! We glorify Thee!
We give Thee thanks!
We love Thee with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength.
We offer Thee our heart. We give it to Thee.
We consecrate it to Thee. We immolate it to Thee.
Receive it and possess it wholly. Purify it.
Enlighten it. Sanctify it.
That Thou mayest live and reign in it now, always, and forever and ever.
R. Amen.

This prayer was composed by St. John Eudes in 1643.

Matthew 7:1-5

2009-06-22T03:51:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever." Daniel 12

Daily Reading & Meditation
Monday (6/22): "First take the log out of your own eye"
Scripture: Matthew 7:1-5

1 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

Meditation: Everybody is a critic, but nobody wants to be judged or condemned. Then why is judgementalism so rampant, even among Christians? "Thinking the best of other people" is necessary if we wish to grow in love. And kindliness in judgment is nothing less that a sacred duty. The Rabbis warned people: "He who judges his neighbor favorably will be judged favorably by God." How easy it is to misjudge and how difficult it is to be impartial in judgment. Our judgment of others is usually “off the mark” because we can’t see inside the person, or we don’t have access to all the facts, or we are swayed by instinct and unreasoning reactions to people. It is easier to find fault in others than in oneself.

Jesus states a heavenly principle we can stake our lives on: what you give to others (and how you treat others) will return to you. The Lord knows our faults and he sees all, even the imperfections and sins of the heart which we cannot recognize in ourselves. Like a gentle father and a skillful doctor he patiently draws us to his seat of mercy and removes the cancer of sin which inhabits our hearts. Do you trust in God’s mercy and grace? Ask the Lord to flood your heart with his loving-kindness and mercy that you may only have room for charity and forbearance towards your neighbor.

"O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for thy name’s sake. (Prayer of William Barclay, 20th century)

Psalm 60:3-12

3 Thou hast made thy people suffer hard things; thou hast given us wine to drink that made us reel.
4 Thou hast set up a banner for those who fear thee, to rally to it from the bow. [Selah]
5 That thy beloved may be delivered, give victory by thy right hand and answer us!
6 God has spoken in his sanctuary: "With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine; Manas'seh is mine; E'phraim is my helmet; Judah is my scepter.
8 Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph."
9 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Hast thou not rejected us, O God? Thou dost not go forth, O God, with our armies.
11 O grant us help against the foe, for vain is the help of man!
12 With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Go to | Daily Reading & Meditation Index |
(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Listening to the Losers: The True Nature of War

2009-06-22T03:49:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint." Jeremiah 31:25

Listening to the Losers:
The True Nature of War
For Sunday June 28, 2009
Lectionary Readings (Revised Common Lectionary, Year B)
2 Samuel 1:1, 17–27 or Wisdom of Solomon 1:13–15; 2:23–24
Psalm 130 or Psalm 30 or Lamentations 3:23–33
2 Corinthians 8:7–15
Mark 5:21–43

Chris Hedges.

Some parts of the Bible are so gruesome that you wonder why the writers included them in a sacred book. In the Old Testament reading this week, David laments the death of king Saul. Turn back one page in your Bible and you learn why: "The next day, when the Philistines came to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. They cut off his head and stripped off his armor, and they sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temple of their idols and among their people. They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and fastened his [decapitated] body to the wall of Beth Shan" (1 Samuel 31:8–10; cf. 1 Chronicles 10:10).

With war crimes, "turn about is fair play." In last week's reading, David humiliated the Philistines by beheading Goliath and then taunting the enemy. Now the tables were turned, and the oppressed became the new oppressor.

Reading about the mutilation of Saul's corpse reminded me of an interview with Chris Hedges (War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning) in which he recalled what he had seen in twenty years as a war correspondent. His war narrative is separated from king Saul's by 3,000 years, but the two accounts are eerily similar. In war, says Hedges, "routine death becomes boring. It's why you would go into central Bosnia and see bodies crucified on the sides of barns, or why in El Salvador genitals were stuffed in people's faces — mutilation, you know, the body as sort of trophy, the body as a kind of performance art."1

Nailing Saul's beheaded corpse to the wall of a Philistine temple, and the bodies of young soldiers to Bosnian barns, are horrific reminders of the true nature of war, whether ancient or modern. They belie the sanitized sound bites of embedded reporters or the patriotic propaganda of government spokesmen. So do My Lai (1968), dragging dead American soldiers through the streets of Mogadishu (1993), torturing prisoners in Abu Ghraib (2003), hanging the charred bodies of four American soldiers from a bridge over the Euphrates River (2004), and murdering two dozen civilians in Haditha (2005).

Origen of Alexandria.

You might explain these desecrations as rare exceptions committed by deranged individuals, but I believe that Hedges is right when he characterizes them as "an inevitable consequence of war." They peel back the rhetorical veneer of war to reveal its true nature as what he calls "almost pure sin." War turns some boys into men, William Sloan Coffin once observed, but it turns others into animals.

To learn what real war is like, says Hedges, listen to the losers. The vanquished are better guides than the victors:

They see through the empty jingoism of those who use the abstract words of glory, honor, and patriotism to mask the cries of the wounded, the senseless killing, war profiteering, and chest-pounding grief. They know the lies the victors often do not acknowledge, the lies covered up in stately war memorials and mythic war narratives, filled with stories of courage and comradeship. They know the lies that permeate the thick, self-important memoirs by amoral statesmen who make wars but do not know war. The vanquished know the essence of war--death. They grasp that war is necrophilia. They see that war is a state of almost pure sin with its goals of hatred and destruction. They know how war fosters alienation, leads inevitably to nihilism, and is a turning away from the sanctity and preservation of life. All other narratives about war too easily fall prey to the allure and seductiveness of violence, as well as the attraction of the godlike power that comes with the license to kill with impunity.2

In a spiral of violence begetting violence, the oppressed becomes the oppressor, and the losers savor their bitter memories of the past in hopes of revenge in the future. This is why Slobodan Milosevic's war rhetoric reached back to Serbia's humiliation by the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, or why when King David learned of Saul's death he executed the messenger who brought the news. Instead of waging peace David lamented the demise of Israel's military might: "How the mighty have fallen / the weapons of war have perished!" (2 Samuel 1:27).

Some wars are necessary, even unavoidable. For all his passionate opposition to war, Hedges admits that some wars are a "moral imperative." The gist of Samantha Power's book A Problem from Hell is precisely that — the moral failure of the United States to intervene to stop genocides in places like Bosnia, Rwanda or Darfur. When we lived in Moscow (1991–1995), Russian war veterans in their seventies would smile and grab our hands on the sidewalk at a metro station, thanking America for what we did in World War II — "we were allies against Hitler!"

But war as a regrettable last resort, when every eligible citizen-soldier does his/her part, is different than the unilateral and pre-emptive use of military force, when waged by the proxy of a professional army and as a de facto tool of diplomacy.

A growing number of observers have lamented what Andrew Bacevich calls "the new American militarism." Our military idolatry, Bacevich believes, is now so comprehensive and beguiling that it "pervades our national consciousness and perverts our national policies." We have normalized war, romanticized military life that formally was deemed degrading and inhuman, measured our national greatness in terms of military superiority, and harbored naive, unlimited expectations about how waging war, long considered a tragic last resort that signaled failure, can further our national self-interests. Utilizing a "military metaphysic" to justify our misguided ambitions to recreate the world in our own image, with ideals that we imagine are universal, has taken about thirty years to emerge in its present form. It is a problem not merely of the government or of any single administration, says Bacevich, but of American society at large.

Many of the earliest Christians repudiated the violence of war, military service, and even the state itself. For two dozen examples, click here. Origen of Alexandria (185–254 AD), perhaps Christianity's greatest early scholar, is representative. In his book Against Celsus, Book VIII, Chap. 73, he writes:

And as we — by our prayers —
vanquish all the demons that stir up war,
and lead to the violation of oaths,
and disturb the peace,
we in this service
are much more helpful to the kings
than those who go into the field
to fight for them.

And we do take our part in public affairs,
when along with righteous prayers,
we practice self-denying disciplines and meditations,
which teach us to despise pleasures,
and not to be lead astray by them.
And none fight better for the king
[and his role of preserving justice]
than we do.
We do not indeed fight under him,
although he demands it;
but we fight on his behalf,
forming a special army of piety
by offering our prayers to God.

Marble head of 40-foot
Colossus of Constantine.

Of course, many Romans considered Origen's words seditious. Things changed radically when Constantine became emperor and ordered Christian emblems on shields and helmets. But his celebration of war and exploitation of the faith was not always the status quo, and it need not be so today.

For further reflection:

* Cf. Tertullian (c. 200 AD): “What will be God’s if all things are Caesar’s?”
* What are the implications of the fact that 70-90% of war deaths are civilian?
* Would we think differently about militarism if we had compulsory conscription?
* How do we honor the sacrifices made by our soldiers while dissenting from militaristic ideology?
* See Chris Hedges, War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning; Stephen Kinzer, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering; Death and the American Civil War; and David Livingstone Smith, The Most Dangerous Animal; Human Nature and the Origins of War.

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[1] Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, January 31, 2003 Episode no. 622. See http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week622/hedges.html
[2] New York Review of Books, December 16, 2004.

Two Hearts

2009-06-19T08:10:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste.” Fulton J. Sheen

In an article published in the February 2005 issue of CATHOLIC FAMILY NEWS Sister Elena Aiello [1895-1961], who was a holy nun in southern Italy
and a stigmatist, and who was given revelations approved by the Church, we read that on Good Friday, April 8, 1955, Our Lady told her:

". . . Tremendous will be the upheaval of the whole world, because men-----as at the time of the Deluge-----have lost
God's ways and are ruled by the spirit of Satan.

"Priests must unite by prayers and penance. They must hasten to spread devotion to the Two Hearts. The hour of My triumph is close at hand.
The victory will be accomplished through the love and mercy of the Heart of My Son, and of My Immaculate Heart-----the Mediatrix
between men and God. By accepting this invitation, and by uniting their tears to those of My Sorrowful Heart,
priests and religious will obtain great graces for the salvation of poor sinners."
[Divine Love, Second-Third Qrtrs, 1981]

We found the following chaplet, and present it here as a reparational devotion.

The Chaplet of the Two Hearts

There are 20 beads in 5 sets [One can use the regular Rosary, just going around twice on the decades, saying three Hail Marys on each bead], each consisting of 1 Our Father and 3 Hail Marys.

These are the meditations for the five sets:

1. In honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
2. In honor of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
3. The Passion of Our Lord.
4. The Sorrows of Mary.
5. In atonement to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

At the end on the medal say the prayer to the United Hearts of Jesus and Mary:

O United Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Thou art all grace, all mercy, all love. Let my heart be joined to Thine, so that my every need is present in Thine United Hearts. Most especially, shed Thy grace upon this particular need [mention it]. Help me to recognize and accept Thy loving will in my life. Amen.

Matthew 6:19-23

2009-06-19T08:05:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Let me solemnly assure you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."

Daily Reading & Meditation
Friday (6/19): “Lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven”
Scripture: Matthew 6:19-23 [alternate reading: John 19:31-37]

19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; 23 but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

Meditation: What kind of treasure and wealth are you looking for? Jesus offers a treasure of imcomparable value and worth, but we need healthy eyes – good spiritual vision – to recognize it. What Jesus said about seeking treasure made perfect sense to his audience: keep what lasts! Aren’t we all trying to find something we treasure in the hope that it will bring us happiness, peace, and security? Jesus contrasts two very different kinds of wealth – material wealth and spiritual wealth. Jesus urges his disciples to get rich by investing in wealth and treasue which truly lasts, not just for a life-time, but for all eternity as well. Jesus offers heavenly treasures which cannot lose their value by changing circumstances, such as diminishing currency, material degradation, lose, or physical destruction. The treasure which Jesus offers is kept safe and uncorrupted by God himself.

What is this treasure which Jesus offers so freely and graciously? It is the treasure of God himself – the source and giver of every good gift and blessing in this life – and a kingdom that will endure forever. The treasure of God's kingdom produces unspeakable joy because it unites us with the source of all joy and blessings which is God himself. God offers us the treasure of unending joy and friendship with himself and with all who are united with him in his heavenly kingdom. In Jesus Christ we receive an inheritance which the Apostle Peter describes as imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us (1 Peter 1:4 ). Paul the Apostle describes it as a kingdom of everlasting peace, joy, and righteousness in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).

How realistic and attainable is this heavenly treasure? Can we enjoy it now, or must we wait for it in the after-life? The treasure of God’s kingdom is both a present and a future reality – like an investment which grows and matures, ever increasing, and multiplying in value.

Seekers of great treasure will go to any length to receive their reward. They direct all their energies and resources to obtain the treasure. We instinctively direct our energies and resources – an even our whole lives – towards that which we most value. To set one’s heart on heavenly treasure is to enter into a deeper and richer life with God himself. It is only by letting go of false treasure that one can eter into the joy of a heavenly treasure that is immeasurable and worth more than we can give in exchange. Do you seek the treasure which lasts for eternity?

Jesus also used the image of eyesight or human vision to convey an important principle of God's kingdom. Blurred vision and bad eyesight serve as a metaphor for moral stupidity and spiritual blindness. (For examples, see Matthew 15:14, 23:16 ff.; John 9:39-41; Romans 2:19; II Peter 1:9; and Revelations 3:17.) Jesus describes the human eye as the window of the “inner being” – the heart, mind, and soul of an individual person. How one views life and reality reflects not only their personal vision – how they view life, reality, and the world around them – it also reflects their inner being and soul – the kind of moral person and character they choose for themselves. If the window through which we view life, truth, and reality is clouded, soiled, or marred in any way, then the light of God's truth will be deflected, diminished, and distorted. Only Christ can free us from the spiritual darkness of sin, unbelief, and ignorance. That is why Jesus called himself the light of the world – the one true light that can overcome the darkness of sin and the lies of Satan.

What can blind or distort our “vision” of what is true, good, lovely, pure, and eternal (Philippians 4:8)? Certainly prejudice, jealousy, and self-conceit can distort our judgment of ourselves and others and lead to moral blindness. Prejudice and self-conceit also destroys good judgment and blinds us to the facts and to their significance for us. Jealousy and envy make us despise others and mistrust them as enemies rather than friends. We need to fearlessly examine ourselves to see if we are living according to right judgment and sound principles or if we might be misguided by blind prejudice or some other conceit. Love is not jealous ...but rejoices with the truth (1 Corinthians 13:4-6). Do you live your life in the light of God’s truth?

“Lord Jesus, you have the words of everlasting life. May the light of your truth free me from the error of sin and deception. Take my heart and fill it with your love that I may desire you alone as my Treasure and my All."

Psalm 132:11-14,17-18

11 The LORD swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: "One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies which I shall teach them, their sons also for ever shall sit upon your throne."
13 For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his habitation:
14 "This is my resting place for ever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it.
17 There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon himself his crown will shed its luster."

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Matthew 6:7-15

2009-06-18T14:57:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "He who labors as he prays lifts his heart to God with his hands." St. Benedict of Nursia

Daily Reading & Meditation
Thursday (6/18): “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him”
Scripture: Matthew 6:7-15

7 "And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.11 Give us this day our daily bread; 12 And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; 13 And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Meditation: Do you pray with joy and confidence? The Jews were noted for their devotion to prayer. Formal prayer was prescribed for three set times a day. And the rabbis had a prayer for every occasion. Jesus warns his disciples against formalism, making prayer something mechanical and devoid of meaning, with little thought for God. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray he gave them the disciple’s prayer, what we call the Our Father or Lord’s Prayer. This prayer dares to call God “our Father” and boldly asks for the things we need to live as his sons and daughters.

It is through the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can know God personally and call him “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Jesus Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection. When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, he responds with grace and favor and mercy. It is his nature to love generously and to forgive mercifully. When he gives he gives more than we need so we will have something to share with others in their need as well.

God is kind and forgiving towards us and he expects us to treat our neighbor the same. Do you treat others as they deserve, or do you treat them as the Lord would treat you with his grace and favor and mercy? Jesus’ prayer includes an injunction that we must ask God to forgive us in proportion as we forgive those who have wronged us. Ask the Lord to free your heart of any anger, bitterness, resentment, selfishness, indifference, or coldness towards others. Let the Holy Spirit fill you with the fire of his burning love and compassion and with the river of his overflowing mercy and kindness.

“Father in heaven, you have given me a mind to know you, a will to serve you, and a heart to love you. Give me today the grace and strength to embrace your holy will and fill my heart with your love that all my intentions and actions may be pleasing to you. Give me the grace to be charitable in thought, kind in deed, and loving in speech towards all."

Psalm 97:1-7

1 The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3 Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about.
4 His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles.
5 The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him.

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Go to | Daily Reading & Meditation Index |
(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Father Leo's E-Mail Blast for 06/18/09

2009-06-18T14:54:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, visit Father Leo's webpage at htp://www.gracebeforemeals.com

Uplifting Throwdown with Bobby Flay!

How can a “throwdown” be at the same time “uplifting”? During last week’s Food Network shoot, I was surprised to learn I was actually competing in a food-for-food, recipe-for-recipe, grill-for-grill competition in an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay. On the menu? Fajitas—one of Bobby’s specialties. Ugh! And yet the challenge of going up against the critically acclaimed Chef Flay completely uplifted me.

First, I was nervous enough being in front of the camera. Who knows what they will edit out, or worse, leave in the footage? I thought I was simply filming a cooking Q and A with families, but then, as I was explaining the dry ingredients in the marinade, Bobby Flay stands off to the side, slightly out of my view.

At one point I heard rustling and the sound of excitement from the crowd. But, I just thought the crowd was reacting to some of my “special ingredients.” I was so focused on speaking to the camera that it took a few moments, as well as the producer pointing in Bobby’s direction, for me to turn and see him standing right there.

Bobby Flay, standing right in front of me! Huh?

Then it hits me. Oh my Good God in Heaven, he’s going to challenge me to a Throwdown!

Me on set filming with Food Network. Unfortunately, I can’t post the pictures from the Food Network taping until after the show airs in a couple weeks.

I can’t remember exactly how he proposed the Throwdown. It was too surreal! I just knew I couldn’t turn down that opportunity. Although I was tired from the previous day’s shoot and very intimidated by a super chef, something kicked in: “grace” before the meal. I accepted! And, I’m so glad I did.

Challenges will definitely come our way. Challenges will surprise us. Do we back down out of fear? Or do we move forward, albeit cautiously and prayerfully, and therefore confident in God’s help? Do we see in each challenge a real opportunity to grow stronger and to be better?

Last year’s Rector’s Cup Soccer Champs – Team Mount St. Mary’s took on the challenge of four other seminaries for the championship!

Part of me wonders what exactly would have happened if I said, “no thank you” to Bobby’s invitation? After all, he’s an Iron Chef, and I’m a priest who likes to cook. While my cooking has won over hearts and minds, and has perhaps turned a few people into believers, I have never won any culinary awards. My recipes have no notoriety and I have no real stature in the culinary world! Who am I that a great chef would come to me?

Me with some seminarians, taste testing Salmon Florentine.

However, I did have a very special ingredient: faith! That helped me remember that with God, all things are possible!
Faith also helped me remember one of the first “throwdown” challenges in Biblical History. It was when God sent His Son down into our world to an unknown virgin. She accepted this challenge, and I’m so glad she did!

Annunciation of Angel Gabriel to Mary – talk about a challenging situation!

Talk about a real struggle and challenge to bring life into this world. But the challenge wasn’t to upset world order or degrade our humanity. Instead, every real challenge is supposed to lift us up. The “challenge” is to live better lives; to bring out the best in us; to bring us to His level.
In human analogy, that’s what Iron Chef Bobby Flay did for me. His years of epicurean study, training, practice and experience meant that I was no match for him. But, he challenged me nonetheless, despite my unworthiness in the culinary arts. In fact, when Food Network called me a while ago, I honestly told them that I’m not “good enough” for them.

It’s the same, but elevated to the highest level, when we stand before God. No one is worthy to stand before the Eucharist! When Bobby Flay came to me to challenge me, he made me work harder in my cooking skills. His presence encouraged me to put my best foot forward. God is the same way, but to the ultimate degree. He challenges us to become saints—people who will feed the poor, care for the sick, forgive those who hurt us, and console the empty spirit of godlessness in this starving world!

That’s what people of greatness do. They elevate and uplift, rather than “put down.” That was definitely my experience of this Throwdown Challenge with a great chef, and seemingly, a great person!

Msgr. Nalty, a great friend of mine from the North American College and my assistant grill master for the day, offering a few reminders and pointers, like “fix your collar”!.

My experience with Chef Flay will be with me for a while. I’m still processing this great experience, so you may hear even more about this in future Blasts, especially as the network premieres the episode. Sorry for repeating myself. But, I learned so much from that challenge, and it encouraged me to keep doing what I do in my ministry: to feed people, body, mind and soul. This truly was one of the most uplifting Throwdown “challenges” I’ve ever had.

Grilling Goodness

Who won the Steak Fajita Throwdown Competition? Good question! The network has asked that no one reveal the winner just yet. Hopefully the challenge to keep the winner a secret will entice even more viewers to watch the show that will air some time in late summer. And I don’t want to jeopardize the chance of the show not airing because of bad press. So, if you were part of the crowd – Shhh!!!!

Fr. Leo, Msgr. Nalty, and some seminarians who helped serve the steak fajitas.

Don’t worry. I’ll definitely let you know the exact dates, especially since we may be hosting a screening party somewhere in the Baltimore area. Should be lots of fun, so stay tuned.
The challenge with Chef Flay reminded me of another fun grilling recipe we featured last year when we offered tailgating recipes. In these webisodes we talked about competition and how it’s supposed to bring the best out in competitors—not the worst. I would have loved for Chef Flay to try my mini Asians burgers. I think he would have loved them! They have been a big hit with viewers. I’d love to offer this to you all again, just to put you in the grilling and appropriately competitive spirit.

Click here for the recipe.

Click here to see the video.

Spiritual Competition

This week, I’ll be giving conferences in Steubenville, Oh for the Priest, Deacon and Seminarian Conference. Then next week, I’ll give some talks for a youth conference.

June 12, 2008 – Steubenville Priest, Deacon and Seminarian participants.

Whenever I go to these conferences, I find myself challenged by the holiness and goodness of the participants. Their great, yet humble example helps me see that we are all in need of “spiritual competition” in order to make ourselves spiritually stronger and personally better. Perhaps we ought to consider the people who build us up and why? How can we improve our relationship with people who, in their greatness, may tear us down? And how can we help build up the spirits of others.

Let us Pray: Father in Heaven, You came down to us in order to challenge our sinful ways, to show us Your greatness and to invite us to the same glory. We ask Your goodness on all of those who we consider mentors. We ask Your grace so that we can become people who challenge others by helping to bring out the best in the other. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rome, 2008. Msgr. Nalty and the Watkins Family at Scarpone’s Restaurant. Tim Watkins (top left) is the producer for Grace Before Meals, and his family, as well as Msgr. Nalty, have been great supporters of this important movement of the New Evangelization.

Ask Fr. Leo for fatherly advice.
Any submissions may be used in future Grace Before Meals publications.

Please forward Fr. Leo's weekly email blast to anyone you think would benefit. If you haven't
signed up for the Food for the Body, Food for the Soul weekly email blast, go here and register now.
Also please visit our blog. weekly to stay up to date with Grace Before Meals.

Sad News: Hannah Garman has died

2009-06-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Sad News: Hannah Garman has died.

Sad News: Hannah Garman has died
Tonight at 5:45 Hannah went home to be with Jesus. She was surrounded by family & passed peacefully. Right now I’m pretty exhausted. It’s been a long day. Please pray for the family & me over this tough time.
Darin

Christ Jesus, most merciful Saviour,
Hear our prayers as we gather in Your name
We commend this child into Your arms of mercy.
Hannah Garman has been a blessing to all who knew her.

She brought laughter, warmth, and comfort to many
And in the moments when her father, Darin, and others showed despair
Hannah provided a noble message of hope and promise,
in her unfailing conviction that her life here may be limited
but is by no means final.

Grant comfort and strength to those who gather here now,
dedicating their lives to the care of others,
who often must face life as it moves to shadows.
Embrace them with Your eternal love
through everything they do.

Thank you for the love we would never have known,
but for Hannah's brief days with us.
May the angels and the saints surround Hannah
and welcome her with joy.

Lord God, we commend this child to Your everlasting care.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/hannahgarman

Arrangements are made. The viewing will be Friday night & the funeral will be Saturday, all at our home church, Middle Creek Church of the Brethren.
As I spent time today reading the hundreds of responses, I was again overwhelmed. Through the tears, I realized that I have had a lot of help the last 7 months & to guide me through this rough week. My biggest thank-you goes to my parents who really put their life on hold for the last 7 months to care for my precious Hannah. I know I wouldn't have been able to handle everything without all the love & sacrifice they've given to Hannah & myself. I just hope that I can be the same parent to my children that they have been to me.
I would also like to thank everone of you out there that have prayed, sent cards, gifts & inspirational messages to our entire family throughout this ordeal. It's hard to put into words how much of a blessing this has been for our family. I would like to thank our ministry team & our church body for their constant support & numerous meals they have given to us. Thanks also go out to our great EMS crews for their wonderful rally for Hannah over Christmas. Hannah really enjoyed the evening & loved the avalanche of cards they started. We continued to get cards every week & she ended up with around 170000.
Sometimes, when I start to wonder why, I realize that God has already revealed part of his plan to me. I see it in the thousands of lives Hannah has touched. She has touched more lives positively in just a short time than a lot of people will in a lifetime. Hopefully, we can all learn from a 5-year-old girl & all be a better person in this world. Yesterday was really rough as Hannah's condition rapidly changed. I know that she is in a better place & is painfree, but it's still really hard watching a loved one pass away. Please continue to pray for me & the family as we go through the next few weeks & especially the next few days. Also keep me in your prayers as June 30th is the 3rd anniversary of my wife's death.
I'll finish on a positive note. The last few hours of Hannah's life, most of what she said wasn't understandable. About 5:00 she said "momma" as plain as day. I just know that my wife & Jesus were waiting for her with open arms to come to them & she had a brief glimpse of that before she passed on.

Darin

The Catholic Mass-He sends us out into the world

2009-06-17T05:11:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, The Catholic Mass-He sends us out into the world

ACT OF CONSECRATION

2009-06-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "To love God is something greater than to know Him." St. Thomas Aquinas

ACT OF CONSECRATION
By St. Francis de Sales

MOST Holy Mary, Virgin Mother of God, I (full name), most unworthy though I am to be thy servant, yet touched by thy motherly care for me and longing to serve thee, do, in the presence of my Guardian Angel and all the court of Heaven, choose thee this day to be my queen, my advocate, and my mother, and I firmly purpose to serve thee evermore myself and to do what I can that all may render faithful service to thee.

Therefore, most devoted Mother, through the Precious Blood thy Son poured out for me, I beg thee and beseech thee, deign to take me among thy clients and receive me as thy servant forever.

Aid me in my every action, and beg for me the grace never, by word or deed or thought, to be displeasing in thy sight and that of thy most holy Son.

Think of me, my dearest Mother, and desert me not at the hour of death. Amen.

This prayer once carried an Indulgence of 300 days, for each recitation.----Pius X, Nov. 17, 1906.

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

2009-06-17T05:05:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Confession heals, confession justifies, confession grants pardon of sin. All hope consists in confession. In confession there is a chance for mercy. Believe it firmly. Do not doubt, do not hesitate, never despair of the mercy of God. Hope and have confidence in confession." --St. Isidore of Seville

Daily Reading & Meditation
Wednesday (6/17): “When you pray, fast, and give alms”
Scripture: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

1 "Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 "Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3 But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5 "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 16 "And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Meditation: Why did Jesus single out prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for his disciples? The Jews considered these three as the cardinal works of the religious life. These were seen as the key signs of a pious person, the three great pillars on which the good life was based. Jesus pointed to the heart of the matter. Why do you pray, fast, and give alms? To draw attention to yourself so that others may notice and think highly of you? Or to give glory to God? The Lord warns his disciples of self-seeking glory – the preoccupation with looking good and seeking praise from others. True piety is something more than feeling good or looking holy. True piety is loving devotion to God. It is an attitude of awe, reverence, worship and obedience. It is a gift and working of the Holy Spirit that enables us to devote our lives to God with a holy desire to please him in all things (Isaiah 11:1-2).

What is the sure reward which Jesus points out to his disciples? It is communion with God our Father. In him alone we find the fulness of life and happiness, truth and beauty, love and joy. Saint Augustine, the great fourth century bishop of Hippo, wrote the following prayer in his Confessions: When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrows or trials; entirely full of you, my life will be complete. The Lord rewards those who seek him with humble and repentant hearts. He renews us each day and he gives us new hearts of love and compassion that we may serve him and our neighbor with glad and generous hearts. Do you want to grow in your love for God and for your neighbor? Seek him expectantly in prayer, with fasting, and in generous giving to those in need.

“Lord Jesus, give me a lively faith, a firm hope, a fervent charity, and a great love for you. Take from me all lukewarmness in meditating on your word, and dullness in prayer. Give me fervor and delight in thinking of you and your grace. Fill my heart with compassion for others, especially those in need, that I may respond with generosity.”

Psalm 31:20,21,24

20 In the covert of thy presence thou hidest them from the plots of men; thou holdest them safe under thy shelter from the strife of tongues.
21 Blessed be the LORD, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was beset as in a besieged city.
24 Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD!

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Prayer to the Blessed Virgin

2009-06-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

Prayer to the Blessed Virgin

Composed by Pope Pius XII
O Virgin, fair as the moon, in whom the Heavens rejoice, upon whose face the blessed gaze, and
whom the Angels acknowledge as their model; make us, thy children, like unto thee by shedding upon our souls a ray of thy beauty such as will not grow dim with passing time, but will shine for all eternity.

O Mary, thou mystic sun, reawaken life wherever there is death, and cast thy light on souls where shadows fall. Let thy image be mirrored in the faces of thy children, and grant us to reflect thy light and thy ardor.

O Mary, powerful as an army, grant victory to our ranks. We are so weak, and our proud enemy unceasingly rages against us. But under thy standard we have the sure hope of conquering him, for he knows the power of thy heel and trembles at the majesty of thy countenance.

Save us, O Mary, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, powerful as an army set in array, whose strength lies not in hate but in the most glowing love. Amen.

January 17, 1956

Matthew 5:43-48

2009-06-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Earthly riches are like the reed. Its roots are sunk in the swamp, and its exterior is fair to behold; but inside it is hollow. If a man leans on such a reed, it will snap off and pierce his soul." -- St. Anthony of Padua

Daily Reading & Meditation
Tuesday (6/16): “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”
Scripture: Matthew 5:43-48

43 "You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Meditation: What makes Christians different from others and what makes Christianity distinct from any other religion? It is grace – treating others, not as they deserve, but as God wishes them to be treated – with loving-kindness and mercy. God is good to the unjust as well as the just. His love embraces saint and sinner alike. God seeks our highest good and teaches us to seek the greatest good of others, even those who hate and abuse us. Our love for others, even those who are ungrateful and selfish towards us, must be marked by the same kindness and mercy which God has shown to us. It is easier to show kindness and mercy when we can expect to benefit from doing so. How much harder when we can expect nothing in return. Our prayer for those who do us ill both breaks the power of revenge and releases the power of love to do good in the face of evil. How can we possibly love those who cause us harm or ill-will? With God all things are possible. He gives power and grace to those who believe and accept the gift of the Holy Spirit. His love conquers all, even our hurts, fears, prejudices and griefs. Only the cross of Jesus Christ can free us from the tyranny of malice, hatred, revenge, and resentment and gives us the courage to return evil with good. Such love and grace has power to heal and to save from destruction. Do you know the power of Christ’s redeeming love and mercy?

Was Jesus exaggerating when he said we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? The original meaning of “perfect” in Aramaic is “completeness” or “wholeness – not lacking in what is essential.” God gives us every good gift in Jesus Christ so that we may not lack anything we need to do his will and to live as his sons and daughters. He knows our weakness and sinfulness better than we do. And he assures us of his love, mercy, and grace to follow in his ways. Do you want to grow in your love for God and for your neighbor? Ask the Holy Spirit to change and transform you in the image of the Father that you may walk in the joy and freedom of the gospel.

“Lord Jesus, your love brings freedom and pardon. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and set my heart ablaze with your love that nothing may make me lose my temper, ruffle my peace, take away my joy, nor make me bitter towards anyone.”

Psalm 51:3-6,11,16

3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy sentence and blameless in thy judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
11 Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
16 For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.

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Mary's Universal Mediation during her Earthly Existence

2009-06-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, The Hail Mary
Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

Mary's Universal Mediation during her Earthly Existence

We shall see fIrst of all in what this mediation consists and what are its principal characteristics. After that we shall examine the two ways in which Mary exercised her mediation during her life on earth, by her merits and her satisfaction.

Article I
MARY'S UNIVERSAL MEDIATION IN GENERAL

Our Holy Mother the Church approved during the pontificate of Benedict XV the proper Mass and Office of Mary, Mediatrix of all Graces. [1] Many theologians consider that the doctrine of Mary's universal mediation is sufficiently contained in the deposit of revelation to be one day proposed solemnly as an object of faith by the infallible Church. It is taught by the ordinary magisterium of the Church through the liturgy, through encyclical letters, through pastoral letters, in preaching, and in the works of theologians approved by the Church. Let us see first what is meant by this mediation and then inquire if it is affirmed by tradition and proved by theology.

What is meant by Mary's Universal Mediation?

St. Thomas says, speaking of the mediation of the Savior (IIIa, q. 26, a. I): 'It pertains to the office of a mediator between God and men to unite them.' That is, as he explains in the following article, the Mediator offers to God the prayers of men, and most particularly, sacrifice which is the principal act of the virtue of religion, and distributes as well to men God's sanctifying gifts, light from on high and grace. There is, thus, a double movement in mediation: one upwards in the form of prayer and sacrifice, and the other downwards in the form of God's gifts to men.

The office of Mediator belongs fully only to Jesus, the Man-God, Who alone could reconcile us with God by offering Him, on behalf of men, the infinite sacrifice of the Cross, which is perpetuated in Holy Mass. He alone, as Head of Mankind, could merit for us injustice the grace of salvation and apply it to those who do not reject His saving action. It is as man that He is Mediator, but as a Man in Whom humanity is united hypostatically to the Word and endowed with the fullness of grace, the grace of Headship, which overflows on men. As St. Paul puts it: 'For there is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave Himself for a redemption for all, a testimony in due times' (1 Tim. ii, 5-6).

But, St. Thomas adds (loc. cit.): 'there is no reason why there should not be, after Christ, other secondary mediators between God and men, who co-operate in uniting them in a ministerial and dispositive manner.' Such mediators dispose men for the action of the principal Mediator, or transmit it, but always in dependence on His merits.

The prophets and priests of the Old Testament were mediators of this kind, for they announced the Savior to the chosen people by offering sacrifices which were types of the great sacrifice of the Cross. The priests of the New Testament may also be spoken of as mediators between God and men, for they are the ministers of the supreme Mediator, offering sacrifice in His Name, and administering the Sacraments.

The question arises, is Mary, in subordination to and in dependence on the merits of Christ, universal mediatrix for all men from the time of the coming of the Savior, in regard to obtaining and distributing all graces, both in general and in particular? Does it not appear that she is? Nor is her role precisely that of a minister, but that of an associate in the redemptive work, in the words of St. Albert already quoted.

Though non-Catholics answer the question with a denial, the Christian sense of the faithful, formed for years by the liturgy, which is one of the voices of the ordinary magisterium of the Church, has no hesitation in maintaining that, by the very fact of her being Mother of the Redeemer, all the indications are that Mary is universal mediatrix, for she finds herself placed between God and men, and more particularly between her Son and men.

Since she is a creature she is, of course, altogether below God Incarnate. But at the same time she is raised far above men by the grace of the Divine maternity, which is of the hypostatic order, and by the fulness of grace which she received even from her Immaculate Conception. Hence, the mediation attributed by the liturgy and the Christian sense of the faithful to Mary is, strictly speaking, subordinated to that of Jesus and not co-ordinated; her mediation depends completely on the merits of the Universal Mediator. Nor is her mediation necessary [for that of Jesus is superabundant and needs no complement: it has however been willed by God as a kind of radiation of the Savior's mediation, and of all radiations the most perfect. The Church regards it as most useful and efficacious to obtain from God all that we need to lead us directly or indirectly to salvation and perfection. Last of all, Mary's mediation is perpetual and extends to all men, and to all graces without any exception whatever.

The above is the precise sense in which universal mediation is attributed to Mary in the liturgy, in the Feast of Mary Mediatrix, and by the theologians who have recently treated the question at great length.

The Testimony of Tradition

Mary's mediation was affirmed in a general and implicit way from the earliest centuries by the use of the titles, the New Eve, the Mother of the Living. There is all the more reason for so understanding tradition in that the titles were attributed to her not solely because she gave birth physically to the Savior but because she co-operated morally in His redemptive work, especially by uniting herself very intimately to the sacrifice of the Cross. [2] From the 4th century onwards, and notably in the 5th century, the Fathers affirm clearly that Mary intercedes for us, that all the benefits and helps to salvation come to us through her, by her intervention and her special protection. From the same time too she is called mediatrix between God and men or between Christ and us. Recent studies have thrown much light on this point. [3]

The antithesis between Eve, cause of death, and Mary, cause of salvation for all men is repeated by St. Cyril of Jerusalem, [4] St. Epiphanius, [5] St. Jerome, [6] St. John Chrysostom. [7] The following invocation of St. Ephrem deserves to be quoted in full: 'Hail, most excellent mediatrix of God and men, hail most efficacious reconciler of the whole world.' [8]

St. Augustine speaks of Mary as mother of all the members of our Head, Jesus Christ. He tells us that by her charity she co-operated in the spiritual birth of all the faithful who are Christ's members. [9] St. Peter Chrysologus says that Mary is the mother of all the living by grace whereas Eve is the mother, by nature, of all the dying. [10] It is evident that he considers Mary as associated with the Divine plan for our redemption.

From the 8th century we may quote the Venerable Bede. [11] St. Andrew of Crete calls Mary Mediatrix of grace, dispenser and cause of life. [12] St. Germanus of Constantinople says that no one has been saved without the co-operation of the Mother of God. [13] The title of mediatrix is given by St. John Damascene also, who asserts that we owe to her all the benefits conferred on us by Jesus. [14]

In the 9th century we find St. Peter Damien teaching that nothing is accomplished in the work of our redemption without her. [15] The teaching of St. Anselm, [16] Eadmer, [17] and St. Bernard in the 12th century is the same. St. Bernard speaks of Mary as: gratiae inventrix, mediatrix, salutis restauratrix saeculorum. [18]

From the middle of the 12th century the explicit affirmation of Mary's co-operation in our redemption becomes quite common. Her co-operation is looked on as consummated by her consent to her sacrifice at the Annunciation, and its accomplishment on Calvary. Among names that may be cited are those of Arnold of Chartres, Richard of St. Victor, St. Albert the Great, [19] and Richard of Saint- Laurent. St. Thomas seems to be of the same opinion. [20] It is found quite explicitly in St. Bernadine of Siena, St. Antonine, [21] Suarez [22], Bossuet, [23] and St. Alphonsus. St. Grignon de Montfort is one of those who, in the 18th century, did the most to spread the doctrine by bringing out its practical conclusions. [24]

In the encyclical Ad Diem IlIum, Pius X stated that Mary is the all-powerful mediatrix of the world before her Son: 'Totius terrarum orbis potentissima apud Unigenitum Filium suum mediatrix et conciliatrix.' The title of mediatrix has been consecrated by the institution of the Feast of Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces, on January 21St, 1921.

Theological Arguments

The theological arguments invoked by the Fathers and still more explicitly by theologians are principally the following:

Mary deserves the title of universal mediatrix, subordinated to the Redeemer, if she is an intermediary between Him and men, presenting to Him their prayers and obtaining benefits from Him for them. But that is precisely Mary's role. For, though a creature, she reaches by her divine maternity to the frontiers of the Divinity , and she has received a fulness of grace which is intended to overflow on us. She has, too, co-operated in saving us by consenting freely to be the Mother of the Savior and by uniting herself as intimately as possible to His sacrifice. We shall see later that she has merited and made satisfaction for us, and we know from the teaching of the Church that she continues to intercede for us so as to obtain for us all graces that contribute to our salvation. These different offices pertain to the exercise of her maternity , as we have already seen.

Thus Jesus is the principal and perfect Mediator, in dependence on whose merits ---- and they are superabundant and sufficient of themselves ---- Mary exercises her subordinate mediation. [25] But Mary's mediation has nevertheless been willed by God because of our weakness and because God wished to honor her by allowing her the exercise of causality in the order of salvation and sanctification.

The work of redemption proceeds therefore entirely from God as First Cause of grace, entirely from Jesus as principal and perfect Mediator, and entirely from Mary as subordinate mediatrix. These three causes are not partial and co-ordinate ---- as are three men who drag the same load ---- but total and subordinated: the second acts under the influence of the first, and the third under the influence of the second. An example which may make the point clear is that of the fruit which proceeds entirely from God the Author of nature, entirely from the tree, and entirely from the branch on which it grows. It does not proceed in its different parts from different causes: neither is our redemption the work in part of the Divinity, in part of the Humanity, and in part of Mary. [26]

It is worth noting how becoming it is that Mary who was redeemed by the Savior in a most excellent manner and preserved from all sin, Original and actual, should co-operate in this way in our justification and our final perseverance.

Mary's mediation is of a much higher order than that of the Saints, for she alone has given us the Savior, she alone was so intimately united to the sacrifice of the Cross, she alone is universal mediatrix for all mankind and for all graces in particular ---- even for that grace which is of all the most particular, the grace of the present moment which assures our fidelity from instant to instant.

"After He Killed Him, He Cut Off His Head:"

2009-06-15T08:38:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Place nothing before Christ, because he has placed nothing before you."
—Cyprian (third century)

"After He Killed Him, He Cut Off His Head:"
David, Goliath, and Sacred Violence
For Sunday June 21, 2009
Lectionary Readings (Revised Common Lectionary, Year B)
1 Samuel 17:1a, 4–11, 19–23, 32–49 or I Samuel 17:57–18:5, 10–16
or Job 38:1–11
Psalm 9:9–20 or Psalm 133 or Psalm 107:1–3, 23–32
2 Corinthians 6:1–13
Mark 4:35–41

Caravaggio (1573-1610).

Those of us who went to Sunday School as kids remember flannel graph stories about David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). David was the youngest "little brother" of Jesse's eight sons, relegated to errand boy status, while his older brothers battled the Philistines as manly soldiers. Twice the writer describes David as "only a boy." The narrator pictures David as "ruddy and handsome," hardly the traits of a warrior. When his brothers berated him when he delivered reinforcements to the front lines, he responded plaintively, "Can't I even speak?" (17:29). Saul's armor was so big on him that he couldn't move. Then, of course, there was his famous slingshot that he wielded — whap! — to slay the nine-foot Goliath who had "defied the armies of the living God" (17:26).

The punch line about David and Goliath was something to the effect that God uses insignificant people and unlikely means to accomplish improbable feats. That is certainly true (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18–25; 3:18–23). But there's one horrifying detail in the story that my Sunday School teacher skipped. David "took hold of the Philistine's sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword" (17:51). David then displayed Goliath's head in Jerusalem, brandished it before King Saul, and kept his sword in his tent as a souvenir. By decapitating Goliath, David wanted to "show the whole world that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by the sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give all of you into our hands" (17:46–47).

This story made my mind ping to the decapitation of Nicholas Berg in May 2004, and to numerous other expatriots and Iraqi citizens. In their book The Next Attack (2005), Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon show how decapitation (still a form of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia) and the signature ear-to-ear throat-slitting by extremists are ways to traumatize and terrorize your enemy. They are "spectacles for ogling," and "participatory events" for those who download replays of the horrific act on the internet. MIT's Technology Review (February 2005) reported that videos of the Berg beheading were downloaded 15 million times, crashing many servers. But decapitation — and this takes us back to David and Goliath — is also a "public sacrament," a "way of making the violence holy," and, write Benjamin and Simon, "an act redolent with the sense of sacrifice and the literal execution of God's law, which to the jihadist means death for infidels and apostates."

Caravaggio (1573-1610).

Years later, as a poet and song writer David returned to this theme of sacred violence as proof of God's favor. In his acrostic psalm for this week (each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet), he insists that his cause is righteous, and that his enemies are the enemies of God. He prays for God to rebuke, destroy, blot out, annhilate, and to vanquish his enemies with "endless ruin." As if to erase the least vestige of their humanity, he prays for "even the memory of them [to] perish." He concludes his prayer, "Strike them with terror, O Lord!" (Psalm 9).

How should we read these two texts of terror? You might dismiss the decapitation of Goliath as patriotic fiction or legend, but that takes the easy way out; for some reason, the Hebrews included this story (and other disturbing ones) in their sacred canon. There are also reasonable caveats and qualifications that might mitigate the sacred horror — maybe we have here a case of historical description of something that happened, but that does not mean that God approved of it; primitive cultures back then were more barbaric than ours; divine retribution for truly wicked people and nations is a necessary part of humanity's moral compass and calculus; war and its tragic consequences seem to be an inevitable and inscrutable aspect of the intersection of human history and divine sovereignty; later progress in God's revelation of himself supercedes earlier stories like these; and maybe poetry like Psalm 9 is just angry exagerration or emotional overstatement.

Whether ancient or modern, violence in God's name knows no boundaries. All religions have engaged in sacred terror, including widow burning, child sacrifice, caste systems, mass suicide, female genital mutilation, witch hunts, ritual abuse, ethnic cleansing, suicide bombers, and apartheid — the list is depressingly long. Christians killed thousands in the Crusades and Inquisitions, defended slavery, were complicit in the Holocaust that killed six million Jews, ravaged the Native American peoples, and have murdered abortion doctors and gays.

Phillip Ratner, David and Goliath.

I'm not sure how to read the Bible's texts of terror, but here are two suggestions.

Whereas the Old Testament contains violence that is divinely sanctioned, at least according to its writers, in the New Testament I can think of only two examples when the followers of Jesus wanted to use violent means for his cause — when James and John wanted to call down fire upon the Samaritans because of their unbelief (Luke 9:51–55), and in the Garden of Gethsemane when his disciples tried to prevent His arrest (Mark 14:47). In both instances Jesus rebuked those who tried to show their allegiance to him through violent means. Instead, he insisted that his Father in heaven causes his sun to shine on both the wicked and the righteous. He told us to love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us, because in the end the ultimate measure of my love for God is my love for my neighbor.

I can't recall anyone who made this point better than the German pastor Martin Niemoeller (1892–1984), who protested Hitler's anti-semitic measures in person to the fuehrer, was eventually arrested, and then imprisoned for eight years at Sachsenhausen and Dachau (1937–1945). He once confessed, "It took me a long time to learn that God is not the enemy of my enemies. He is not even the enemy of his enemies." When God hates all the same people that you hate, you can be absolutely certain that you have created him in your own image (Lamott).

Second, we should not remain silent when we see attempts to legitimize sacred violence, but instead name it for what it is. We should learn the warning signs that religion has become evil and evil has become religious:

* Fanatical claims of absolute truth. I do not mean the belief that absolute truth exists, but the doubt-free and uncritical confidence that one understands such absolute truth absolutely.
* Blind obedience to totalitarian, charismatic, and authoritarian leaders or their views that undermines moral integrity, personal freedom, individual responsibility, and intellectual inquiry.
* Identifying and rationalizing “end times” scenarios in the name of your religion.
* Justifying religious ends by dubious means.
* Any and all forms of dehumanization, from openly declaring war on your enemy, demonizing those who differ from you, construing your neighbor as an Other, to claiming that God is on your side alone.
* Pressure tactics of coercion, deception, and false advertisement.
* Alienation, isolation and withdrawal from family, friends and society, whether psychologically or literally.
* Exploitation and all forms of unreasonable demands upon one's time, money, resources, family, friendships, sexuality, etc.

Often one or more of these danger signs combine.1

Gustave Dore: David and Goliath.

We should judge religions by their most authentic examples rather than by their worst corruptions. There is also a difference between evil committed by people who happen to be religious, and evil promoted in the name of religion. Some people overstate the connection between religion and violence, as when Charles Kimball writes that “more evil [has been] perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history” (a distinction that probably goes to Soviet and Chinese atheism). Sometimes the connection between religion and violence is tenuous, sometimes it is explicit. Sacred terror is almost always complex and bound up with other causes (social, historical, economic, cultural, political, etc). But at the end of the day we must admit that there is far too much violence in the world that is fomented with a specifically religious rationale, motivation, or justification. Christians should commit ourselves to do whatever we can to stop it.

For further reflection:

* What has been your experience of religious violence?
* Contemplate the powerful words of Martin Niemoeller.
* Can you identify any of the eight warning signs in contemporary American Christianity?
* See Charles Kimball, When Religion Becomes Evil, and Mark Juergensmeyer, Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious

The Song of the Woman: the Visitation by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen

2009-06-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, “Never measure your generosity by what you give, but rather by what you have left.” Fulton J Sheen

The Song of the Woman: the Visitation
by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
1952

TAKEN FROM THE WORLD'S FIRST LOVE
[Slightly abbreviated]

One of the most beautiful moments in history was that when pregnancy met pregnancy --— when child bearers became the first heralds of the King of Kings. All pagan religions begin with the teachings of adults, but Christianity begins with the birth of a Child. From that day to this, Christians have ever been the defenders of the family and the love of generation. If we ever sat down to write out what we would expect the Infinite God to do, certainly the last thing we would expect would be to see Him imprisoned in a carnal ciborium for nine months; and the next to last thing we would expect is that the "greatest man ever born of woman," while yet in his mother's womb, would salute the yet imprisoned God-Man. But this is precisely what took place in the Visitation.

At the Annunciation the Archangel told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was about to become the mother of John the Baptist. Mary was then a young girl, but her cousin was "advanced in years," that is, quite beyond the normal age of conceiving. "See, moreover, how it fares with thy cousin Elizabeth; she is old, yet she too has conceived a son; she who was reproached with barrenness is now in her sixth month, to prove that nothing is impossible with God. And Mary said, 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to thy word.' And with that the Angel left her" (Lk. 1:36-38).

The birth of Christ is without regard to man; the birth of John the Baptist is without regard to age! "Nothing is impossible with God." The Scripture continues the story:
"In the days that followed, Mary rose up and went with all haste to a city of Juda, in the hill country where Zachary dwelt; and entering in she gave Elizabeth greeting. No sooner had Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, than the child leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth herself was filled with the Holy Spirit; so that she cried out with a loud voice, "Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. How have I deserved to be thus visited by the mother of my Lord? Why, as soon as ever the voice of thy greeting sounded in my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed art thou for thy believing; the message that was brought to thee from the Lord shall have fulfillment" (Lk. 1:39-45).

Mary "went with all haste"; she is always in a hurry to do good. With deliberate speed she becomes the first nurse of Christian civilization. The woman hastens to meet a woman. They serve best their neighbor who bear the Christ within their hearts and souls. Bearing in herself the Secret of Salvation, Mary journeys five days from Nazareth to the city of Hebron, where, according to tradition, rested the ashes of the founders of the people of God: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The terraced fields of Juda
pregnant with seed
called out to her
as she passed,
praising the Child
she was yet to bear;
invoking His Blessing
on their expectancy. (1)

"She gave Elizabeth greeting"; springtime served the autumn. She, who is to bear Him Who will say: "I came not to be ministered unto but to minister," now ministers unto her cousin, who bears only His trumpet and His voice in the wilderness. Nothing so provokes the service of the needy as the consciousness of one's own unworthiness when visited by the grace of God. The handmaid of the Lord becomes the handmaid of Elizabeth.

On hearing the woman's greeting, the child whom Elizabeth bore within her "leaped in her womb." The Old Testament is here meeting the New Testament; the shadows dissolve with joy before the substance. All the longings and expectations of thousands of years as to Him Who would be the Savior are now fulfilled in this one ecstatic moment when John the Baptist greets Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Mary is present at three births: at the birth of John the Baptist, at the birth of her own Divine Son, and at the "birth" of John the Evangelist, at the foot of the Cross, as the Master saluted him: "Behold thy mother!" Mary, the Woman, presided at the three great moments of life: at a birth on the occasion of the Visitation, at a marriage at the Marriage Feast of Cana, and at a Death, or surrender of Life, at the Crucifixion of her Divine Son. [Bishop Sheen and St. Alphonsus interpret the second chapter of Luke differently in which it reads that Mary remained for about three months with her cousin then departed for her own house; then St. Luke records that Elizabeth bore her son. St. Alphonsus is taking it literally in time sequence and Fulton Sheen reads it not sequentially but poetically or stylistically. --- The Web Master.]

"The child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth herself was filled with the Holy Spirit." A Pentecost came before Pentecost. The physical body of Christ within Mary now fills John the Baptist with the Spirit of Christ; thirty-three years later the Mystical Body of Christ, His Church, will be filled with the Holy Spirit, as Mary, too, will be, in the midst of the Apostles abiding in prayer. John is sanctified by Jesus. So Jesus is not as John --— not man alone, but God as well.

The second part of the second most beautiful prayer in the world, the Hail Mary, is now about to be written; the first part was spoken by an Angel: "Hail (Mary) full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women" (Lk. 1:28).

Now Elizabeth adds the second part in a "loud voice"; "Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb (Jesus)." Old age is here not jealous of youth or privilege, for Elizabeth makes the first public proclamation --— that Mary is the Mother of God: "How have I deserved to be thus visited by the mother of my Lord?" She learned it less from Mary's lips than from the Spirit of God nestling over her womb. Mary received the Spirit of God through an Angel; Elizabeth was the first to receive it through Mary.

Cousin-nurse at birth, Mother-nurse at death. There is nothing Mary has that is for herself alone --— not even her Son. Before He is born, her Son belongs to others. No sooner does she have the Divine Host within herself than she rises from the Communion rail of Nazareth to visit the aged and to make her young. Elizabeth would never live to see her son lose his head to the dancing stepdaughter of Herod, but Mary would live and die at once in seeing her Son taste death, that death might be no more. ... Elizabeth, describing how the God-Man hidden within Mary worked on her soul and the new life within her old body, exclaimed: "Why, as soon as ever the voice of thy greeting sounded in my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed art thou for thy believing; the message that was brought to thee from the Lord shall have fulfillment" (Lk. 1:44, 45). Eve had believed the serpent; Elizabeth now praises Mary for blotting out the ruin of Eve by believing in God.

But no sooner did an unborn child leap with joy in a prison house of flesh than a song leaped with joy to Mary's lips. To sing a song is to possess one's soul. Maria, the sister of Moses, sang after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. Deborah sang after the defeat of the Canaanites. Wherever liberty is, there the free sing. Elizabeth's husband sang the Benedictus to usher in the New Order, for Our Lord came "not to destroy the law but to fulfill it." Yet only as a Mirror, in whom Elizabeth sees reflected the unborn Emmanuel, does Mary glow with the song of those future days when He alone shall be the Light of the World. Mary smiles through tears of joy, and she makes rainbow of a song. At least until the Birth, the Woman shall have mirth. After those nine months He, Who is sheathed within her flesh, would say: "I come not to bring peace, but the sword" (Mt. 10:34).

The Magnificat is the hymn of a mother with a Child Who is at once the "Ancient of Days." Like a great artist, who has finished a painting in a few months, Mary could say: "In how short a time, and yet it is my life," so the song sprang from Mary's lips like a jet in a few seconds —-- and yet she was a lifetime in composing it.

She gathered up the soul melodies of her people --— a song of David, a song above all which Hannah sang centuries before at the door of the tabernacle of Shiloh, when she brought her infant son Samuel, "to lend him to the Lord as long as He liveth" (1 Sam. 1:28). But Mary makes their words and her own refer not to the past but to the future, when the Law of Fear will give way to the Law of Love, and when another life, another kingdom, will arise in a towering flight of sanctity and praise.

"My soul magnifies the Lord: My spirit has found joy in God, Who is my Savior." The faces of women had been veiled for centuries, and the faces of men were veiled, too, in the sense that men hid themselves from God. But now that the veil of sin is lifted, the Woman stands upright and looks at the face of God to praise Him. When the Divine enters into the human, then the soul thinks less of asking than of loving Him. The lover seeks no favors from the beloved; Mary has no petitions but only praise. As the soul becomes detached from things and is conscious of itself and of its destiny, it knows itself only in God. The egotist magnifies himself, but Mary magnifies the Lord. The carnal think first of body, and the mediocre think of God as an afterthought. In Mary nothing takes precedence over Him Who is God the Creator, the Lord of history, and the Savior of mankind.

When our friends praise us for our deeds, we thank them for their kindness. When Elizabeth extols Mary, Mary glorifies her God. Mary receives praise as a mirror receives light: she stores it not, nor even acknowledges it, but makes it pass from her to God to Whom is due all praise, all honor and thanksgiving. The shortened form of this song is: "Thank God." Her whole personality is to be at the service of her God. Too often do men praise God with our tongues, while our hearts are far from Him. "Words go up, but thoughts remain below." But it was the soul and spirit of Mary, and not her lips, that overflowed in words, because the secret of Love within had already burst its bonds.

Why magnify God, Who cannot become less by subtraction through our atheism or greater by the addition of our praise? It is true --— not in Himself does God change stature through our recognition, any more than, because a simpleton mocks the beauty of a Raphael, the painting loses its beauty. But, in us, God is capable of increase and decrease as we are lovers or sinners. As our ego inflates, the need of God seems to be less; as our ego deflates, the need of God appears in its true hunger.

The love of God is reflected in the soul of the just, as the light of the sun is magnified by a mirror. So Mary's Son is the Sun, for she is the moon. She is the nest —-- He the Fledgling Who will fly to a higher Tree and will then call her home. She calls Him her Lord or Savior, even though she is preserved free from the stain of Original Sin, for it is due entirely to the merits of the Passion and Death of her Divine Son. In herself she is nothing, and she has nothing. He is everything! Because He has looked graciously upon the lowliness of His handmaid —-- because He Who is Mighty, He whose name is Holy, has wrought these wonders for me.

The proud end in despair, and the last act of despair is suicide or the taking of one's life, which is no longer bearable. The humble are necessarily the joyful, for where there is no pride, there can be no self-centeredness, which makes joy impossible.

Mary's song has this double note; her spirit rejoices because God has looked down on her lowliness. A box that is filled with sand cannot be filled with gold; a soul that is bursting with its own ego can never be filled with God. There is no limit on God's part to His possession of a soul; it is the soul alone that can limit His welcome, as a window curtain limits the light. The more empty the soul is of self, the greater the room in it for God. The larger the emptiness of a nest, the bigger the bird that can be housed therein. There is an intrinsic relation between the humility of Mary and the Incarnation of the Son of God within. She whom the heavens could not contain now tabernacles the King of the Heavens Himself. The Most High looks on the lowliness of His handmaid.

Mary's self-emptying, alone, would not have been enough, had not He Who is her God, her Lord and Savior, "humbled Himself." Though the cup be empty, it cannot hold the ocean. People are like sponges. As each sponge can hold only so much water and then reaches a point of saturation, so every person can hold only so much of honor. After the saturation point is reached, instead of the man's wearing the purple, the purple wears the man. It is always after the honor is accepted that the recipient moans in false humility: "Lord, I am not worthy."

But here, after the honor is received, Mary, instead of standing on her privilege, becomes a servant-nurse of her aged cousin and, in the midst of that service, sings a song in which she calls herself the Lord's handmaid --— or better still the bondwoman of God, a slave who is simply His property and one who has no personal will except His own. Selflessness is shown as the true self. "There was no room in the inn" because the inn was filled. There was room in the stable because there were no egos there —-- only an ox and an ass.
God looked over the world for an empty heart —-- but not a lonely heart —-- a heart that was empty like a flute on which He might pipe a tune --— not lonely like an empty abyss, which is filled by death. And the emptiest heart He could find was the heart of a Lady. Since there was no self there, He filled it with His very Self.

"Behold, from this day forward, all generations will count me blessed." These are miraculous words. How can we explain them, except by the Divinity of her Son? How could this country girl, coming from the despised village of Nazareth and wrapped in anonymity by Judean mountains, foresee in future generations how painters like Michelangelo and Raphael, poets like Sedulius, Cynewulf, Jacopone da Todi, Chaucer, Thompson, and Wordsworth, theologians like Ephrem, Bonaventure, and Aquinas, the obscure of little villages, and the learned and the great would pour out their praise of her in an unending stream, as the world's first love, and say of their impoverished rhymes:
And men looked up at the woman made for the morning
When the stars were young,
For whom, more rude than a beggar's rhyme in the gutter,
These songs are sung.

Her Son will later give the law explaining her immortal remembrance: "He that humbleth himself, shall be exalted." Humility before God is compensated for by glory before men. Mary had taken the vow of virginity and, seemingly, thus prevented her beauty from passing on to other generations. And yet now —-- through the power of God —-- she sees herself as the mother of countless generations without ever ceasing to be a virgin. All generations who lost the favor of God by eating the forbidden fruit will now exalt her, because through her they enter once again into the possession of the Tree of Life. Within three months Mary has had her eight Beatitudes:
1. "Blessed art thou because full of grace," said the Archangel Gabriel.
2. "Blessed art thou for thou shalt conceive in thy womb the Son of the Most High, God."
3. "Blessed art thou, Virgin Mother, for 'the Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.'"
4. "Blessed art thou for doing God's will: 'Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.'"
5. "Blessed art thou for believing," said Elizabeth.
6. "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb (Jesus)," added Elizabeth.
7. "Blessed art thou among women."
8. "Blessed art thou, for the message that was brought to thee from the Lord shall have fulfillment."
Lowliness and exaltation are one in her: lowliness because, judging herself to be unworthy of being the Mother of Our Lord, she took the vow of virginity; exalted because God, looking upon what Mary believed was her nothingness, once more created a world out of "nothing."

Blessedness is happiness. Mary had everything that could make a person truly happy. For to be happy, three things are required: to have everything one wants, to have it united in one person who is loved with all the ardor of one's soul, and to know that this is possessed without sin. Mary had all three.

If her Divine Son had not intended that His Mother should be honored where He is adored, He would never have permitted these prophetic words of hers to have had fulfillment. He would have nudged the hands of the artists at their canvas, would have stopped the lips of the poets, and would have frozen our fingers as we told our beads.

How quickly the great men and women are forgotten, and how few of their names are remembered at all! A guidebook is necessary for us to identify the dead in Westminster Abbey; few are the citizens who know their world war heroes, after whom the streets were named. But here in Mary is a young girl, obscure and unknown, in an outpost of the Roman Empire; she who affirms that the law of forgetfulness will be suspended in her favor, and she prophesies it before a single Gospel has been written, before the Son of God has seen the light of day in the flesh.
He has mercy upon those who fear Him, from generation to generation; He has done valiantly with the strength of His arm driving the proud astray in the conceit of their hearts; He has put down the mighty from their seat, and exalted the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty handed; He has protected His servant Israel, keeping His merciful design in remembrance, according to the promise which He made to our forefathers, Abraham and his posterity for ever more.

This part of the Magnificat is the most revolutionary document ever written, a thousand times more revolutionary than anything Karl Marx wrote. In relation to the preceding verses, it is suggestive to compare Mary's Revolution with the Revolution of Marx and Communism.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF REVOLUTION
Mary

Mary begins with the soul and God. "My soul magnifies the Lord; my spirit has found joy in God Who is my Savior." The whole universe revolves around these two realities: the soul aspiring to an infinity of happiness, which God alone can supply. Marx

Marx ended the first of his books with the words: "I hate all the gods." For Communism there is only matter endowed with its own inner contradiction, which begets movement. Since there is only matter, there is no soul. The belief that each man has value "is founded," said Marx, "on the Christian illusion that every man has a soul."

There is no God, because a belief in God alienates man from himself and makes him subject to someone outside self. There is not God, but man. "Religion is the Opium of the people."

THE FUTURE OF REVOLUTION
Mary

"All generations will count me blessed." She will be an exception to the law of forgetfulness, because the Lord of History has willed that she be venerated through the centuries. History is providentially determined. The progress and fall of civilizations depend on the moral ordering of human life. Peace is the tranquility of order, and order implies justice to God and neighbor. Peace fails when each man seeks his own and forgets the love of God and neighbor. Marx

History is dialectically determined. It is not God or the way men live that decides the progress and decay of civilization but a law of class conflict that continues until Communism takes over and classes no longer exist. The future is determined by matter. The present generation and all the past can look to a remote future where they will dance on the graves of their ancestors. Certain classes are destined to be the funeral pyre to light future generations, lifting clenched fists over the corpse of Lenin .

FEAR AND REVOLUTION
Mary

"He has mercy on those who fear Him, from generation to generation." Fear is here understood as filial, that is, a shrinking from hurting one who is loved. Such is the fear a son has for a devoted father and the fear a Christian has of Christ. Fear is here related to love. Marx

Communism is founded not on filial but on servile fear, the kind of fear a slave has for a tyrant, a worker has for a dictator. The fear begotten by the revolution is a compulsion neurosis, born not of love but of power. A revolution that destroys filial fear of God always ends in the creation of servile fear of man.

TECHNIQUE OF REVOLUTION
Both Mary and Marx advocate the exaltation of the poor, the dethroning of the proud, the emptying of the rich in favor of the socially disinherited, but they differ in their technique.

Mary

Violence is necessary. "The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence." But the violence must be against self, against its selfishness, greed, lust, and pride.
The sword that strikes must be thrust inward to rid oneself of all that would make one despise neighbor.

The transfer of wealth, which makes for the prosperity of the poor, is inspired by an inner charity that loves God and neighbor.

Man has nothing to lose but the chains of sin, which darkens his intellect and weakens his will. By throwing off sin through the merits of Christ, man becomes a child of God, an heir of Heaven, enjoying inner peace in this life and even amid its trials, and an ultimate and final ecstasy of love in Heaven. Marx

Violence is necessary. But the violence must be against neighbor, against those who own, who believe in God and in democracy. Egotism must be disguised as social justice.
The sword that strikes must be thrust outward to rid society of all that would despise a revolution based on hate.
The transfer of wealth takes place through "violent confiscation" and the shifting of booty and loot from one man's pocket to another.

Man has nothing to lose but the chains that bind him to God and to property. Thanks, then, to atheism and socialism, man will be restored to himself as the true god.

It is remarkable how Mary begins her Magnificat with her personal experiences and soon passes on to identify herself with the whole human race. She looks ahead and sees what the effect of the birth of her Son will be to the world, how it will improve the whole condition of human life, how it will free the oppressed, feed the hungry, and assist the helpless. And when she said these words, her Son was not yet born --— although one would think, from the joy of the song, that He was already in her arms. She is singing here a song of pure faith about something certain to happen because God will make it come true, not predicting the mere revolution of blind material forces.

There is an intrinsic antagonism between her revolution and any other, because hers is based on the true psychology of human nature. Hers is based on the existence of an immense want, so serious and so imperative that every honest heart must crave for its satisfaction. Happy are they who experience, within themselves, the expelling of pride and egotism, and in whom spiritual hunger is fed --— who discover, before it is too late, that they are poor, and naked, and blind, and who seek to clothe themselves with the raiment of grace that her Son brings.

(1) Calvin Le Compte, I Sing of a Maiden (Macmillan, 1949).

www.catholictradition.org/Mary/visitation.htm

To My Wife, Andrea Mussmacher

2009-06-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, this song is for my beautiful wife, Andrea Mussmacher. It reminds me of her everytime I listen to it. Andrea, I Love You!!

Zac Brown Band
Whatever It Is lyrics

she got eyes that cut you like a knife
and lips that taste like sweet red wine
and her pretty legs go to heaven every time
she got a gentle way that puts me at ease
when she walks in the room I can hardly breathe
got a devestating smile, knock a grown man to his knees

she got whatever it is
it blows me away
shes everything I wanna say to a woman but I couldn't find the words to say
she got whatever it is
I don't know what to do
cuz everytime I try to tell her how I feel it comes out I love you
you got whatever it is

You know I never been the type that would ever wanna stay
bring 'em home at night then they're gone the next day
but that all changed when she walked into my life
and people ask me what it is tell them I don't know
just something 'bout the woman make my heart go haywire
she's gonna be my wife

she got whatever it is
it blows me away
shes everything I wanna say to a woman but I couldn't find the words to say
she got whatever it is
I don't know what to do
cuz everytime I try to tell her how I feel it comes out I love you
you got whatever it is

Cuz when she loves me
girl thats how I feel
cuz when she loves me
I'm on top of the world
cuz when she loves me
I can live forever
cuz when she loves me
I am untouchable

she got whatever it is
it blows me away
shes everything I wanna say to a woman but I couldn't find the words to say
she got whatever it is
I don't know what to do
cuz everytime I try to tell her how I feel it comes out I love you, I do
you got whatever it is

ooooh you got what ever it is

Angelina sings HOW BEAUTIFUL

2009-06-11T06:57:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, The Lord's prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen

Angelina sings HOW BEAUTIFUL

Devotion to Mary in Proficients

2009-06-11T06:52:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "The proud man counts his newspaper clippings, the humble man his blessings." Fulton J. Sheen

Devotion to Mary in Proficients
TAKEN FROM THE THREE AGES OF
THE INTERIOR LIFE
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP
with Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, 1948

THE ESSENTIAL CONSECRATION

O Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom! O most amiable and adorable Jesus,
true God and true Man, I thank Thee for having annihilated Thyself,
taking the form of a slave, to draw me from the slavery of the devil.
... I have recourse to the intercession of Thy most holy Mother,
whom Thou hast given me as a Mediatrix. By this means I hope to
obtain from Thee contrition and the pardon of my sins, the
acquisition and preservation of wisdom.

Hail, Immaculate Mary, Queen of Heaven and earth, to whom everything
under God is subject. Hail, safe Refuge of sinners, whose mercy fails
no one; hear and grant my desires for Divine wisdom, and to that
end receive the vows and offerings that my baseness presents to thee.

I, an unfaithful sinner, today renew and ratify in thy hands my Baptismal vows.
I forever renounce Satan, his works and pomps, and I give myself completely
to Jesus Christ, Incarnate Wisdom, to carry my cross after Him all the days
of my life. And that I may be more faithful to Him than I have been hitherto,
I choose thee, O Mary, for my mother. I give and consecrate to thee
my body and soul, my interior and exterior goods, and the very value
of my good works past, present, and future. Present me to thy Son and
grant me the grace to obtain true wisdom from God, and for that purpose
to place myself in the number of those whom thou dost love, teach, lead,
feed, and protect. O faithful Virgin, render me in all things so perfect
a disciple and imitator of Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ, thy Son,
that by thy intercession and example, I may attain to the plenitude of
His age on earth and His glory in Heaven. Amen.

Father Leo's E-Mail Blast 06-11-09

2009-06-11T06:46:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?" Fulton J. Sheen

www.gracebeformeals.com
The Original Food Network – A Family of Faith!

I’m writing this email blast a few days before you will receive it. While writing an early draft is normal for me, this Blast is a bit unique for me simply because I’m also writing this before the Food Network taping on Monday and Tuesday this week. As you can imagine, I’ll be a little busy.

As of my writing, I have no idea what they are actually going to tape. They say it will be used as part of an episode on one of their upcoming shows. Who knows? Many of you have written suggesting that it could even be a “Throw down” with Bobby Flay. But, at this point, I have no idea. I just know the Lord is my Shepherd and he would never lead me to such “danger” as to do food battle with an Iron Chef! Besides, I’m not a “master chef” nor do I have a particular specialty. But, they simply asked me to feature my “fusion fajita” recipe, which I’ll provide for you in a future Blast.

Some pictures of the Fajita that I’ll be making for Food Network

At this point, I can confirm they want me to film me celebrating Mass in our Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. That may possibly be a “first” for the Food Network!

Chapel of the Immaculate Conception Emmitsburg, MD

Another reason why I had to write this Email Blast well in advance is because I recently celebrated my 10th year anniversary to the priesthood. My family hosted an “intimate” gathering of 300 people for a reception after the Mass. It is a “tradition” in my family to be hospitable, although it was never my intention to host something so grand! For my family, especially my mother, when it comes to celebrations, we say, “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing it BIG!”

Crowds poured into the hall of St. Rose of Lima for a feast!

Archbishop O’Brien graciously stopped by the reception and offered the Grace Before the Meal. We should have had the cameras rolling!

All of this attention makes me think, “what does this all mean?”

Recent Presentation at Holy Family Catholic Church in Middletown, MD

In other words, with the crowds for my first Mass or the crowds gathered for the Food Network taping, one can be tempted to think all of this attention is about “me”. But, I’ve been a priest long enough to know that it is not for the priest that the people come to Mass. They come for Jesus who feeds our hungry souls! We all know the reason for the attention is because people want to be part of the Church – the original “network” for food lovers!

One of my favorite things about the Food Network (i.e., the television network), is their strong identity as a “family”. They work very hard to ensure the programs are all family friendly. Honestly, it’s one of the few networks that I regularly watch because of that. They do such a fine job with their production that just watching the celebrity chefs makes you feel like you are a part of their family. How do they do it? Through their positive personalities and their creative use of food.

Doesn’t this sound a little like Jesus as he fed the 5,000? Jesus drew so many to Himself, not because he was full of vainglory, but because he wanted to point to the Father’s love. That’s the reason why this invitation to do an episode on the food network is such an honor. It’s a small way I can point to God who feeds His hungry flock through the Church – a true “food network” called “Holy Communion.”

Incensing the gifts of Bread and Wine before the Consecration at by 10th year anniversary Mass

That sense of family – a network of people who truly love one another – is what makes the Church an “original” food network. We are brothers and sisters, one family, because of the food we eat.

Last year’s celebration of World Youth Day is a perfect example of how the many nations came together around the common table of God’s family! I would love for people from around the world to share in our growing mission. So, if you know people in other countries, be sure to send a link and encourage them to sign up for the free weekly blasts!

Some of the crowds gathered at World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney, Australia.

This week’s blast offers all of the subscribers a very basic message of encouragement: get involved in your parish, church group, or congregation! Be a part of a family of believers! I know that a good number of people who subscribe to this website aren’t even connected to any parish or to any ‘organized religion.’ My humble suggestion is to try and make connections, develop a network of faith, and don’t ever think that you do not have a place in a spiritual home or in a spiritual family. You do. It’s called the Church! And in this family of faith, we want you to be part of this food network of stars, which we call saints!

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Parish Church in San Francisco with statues of saints at the pillars, a sign that saints truly uphold the church’s family of faith!

Pollo Enchilado (i.e., to add chile)

My busy traveling schedule doesn’t allow me to be as connected to a local parish as much as I’d like. I admit, I do miss the regular parish family experience. However, whenever I travel for work, I sense a real family in the Catholic Faith because of the consistency of our liturgy, the knowledge of the prayers we say together, as well as the brotherhood of the priesthood.

Left to Right: Archbishop O’Brien – Archbishop of Baltimore, Fr. Jim Sorra – Associate Pastor of St. Louis Parish, Fr. Joe O’Meara – Pastor of St. Rose, Fr. Leo, Fr. Adam Parker – secretary to Archbishop O’Brien and classmate from the North American College

A few months ago, I was in North Carolina giving a parish mission to St. Stephen Parish in the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina. Although I had never been to that parish before, I felt very much at home. Since there was a large Latino Community in this parish, I even celebrated the Mass in the Spanish Language. Thank God I had a translator who assisted me with my homily. While I have some proficient knowledge to celebrate Mass in the Spanish language, whenever I try to speak it conversationally, it always comes out Italian!

a few of the parishioners holding a meeting and rehearsal for the Stations of the Cross

After that Spanish Language Mass, we all spoke the universal language of good food! The community hosted a luncheon for the entire parish. It was great to see such an active parish grow closer together through Food. I know that many parishes offer chicken dinners. Perhaps you may want to get involved in your community and try this recipe for a future event.

some of the volunteers preparing individual lunches for the crowds

Click here for the recipe.

The marinade for the chicken

Baked chicken enchilado with a macaroni salad, and a wonderfully spicy cilantro sauce

A Prayer for Networkers

Since this Grace Before Meals movement began some six years ago, I’ve realized the importance of networking – for all the right reasons. My love for food has led to common interests with many people from all walks of life. After meeting so many different people, I try to remember them in prayer each day. I wonder if we take our network of prayer seriously? We should. We are connected to each other in a spiritual way. After all, as God’s children, we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord. Consider all of the people you meet in one day, say a prayer for them, and you’ll be surprised by what that connection and a network of food, faith, and family can do for you.

My network of “foodies” – my family!!

Let us pray:

Father, we are all connected with each other. For that reason, we have to even pray for our enemies, because we are connected to them. I pray that we can purify our relationships, and see each other not just as business networks, (i.e., what they can do for me), but hopefully as people who are called to the same heavenly reward as you and me. Help me Dear Lord, to do what I can to give them a sense of being part of my family, and bless all of my associations with a deep knowledge of the Church’s love for them. We humbly ask this prayer in the name of our Savior and Lord! Amen

Ask Fr. Leo for fatherly advice.
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On A Wing and A Prayer/Amazing Grace sung by Angelina

2009-06-09T02:16:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmaher, We are at Jesus' disposal. If he wants you to be sick in bed, if he wants you to proclaim His work in the street, if he wants you to clean the toilets all day, that's all right, everything is all right. We must say, "I belong to you. You can do whatever you like." And this ..is our strength, and this is the joy of the Lord. -- Mother Teresa

On A Wing and A Prayer/Amazing Grace sung by Angelina

The Efficacy and Power of One Hail Mary

2009-06-09T02:10:00.001-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials. -- St. Teresa of Avila

www.catholictradion.org
The Efficacy and Power of One Hail Mary

HAIL, MARY, full of grace; the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

HOLY MARY, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Millions of Catholics often say the Hail Mary. Some repeat it hastily not even thinking on the words they are saying. These following words may help some say it more thoughtfully.

They can give God's Mother great joy and obtain for themselves graces that she wishes to give them.

One Hail Mary well said fills the heart of Our Lady with delight and obtains for us indescribably great graces. One Hail Mary well said gives us more graces than a thousand thoughtlessly said.

The Hail Mary is like a mine of gold that we can always take from but never exhaust.
Is it hard to say the Hail Mary well? All we have to do is to know its value and understand its meaning.

St. Jerome tells us that "the truths contained in the Hail Mary are so sublime, so wonderful that no man or Angel could fully understand them."

St. Thomas Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, "the wisest of Saints and holiest of wise men," as Leo XIII called him, preached for 40 days in Rome on the Hail Mary, filling his hearers with rapture.

Father F. Suarez, the holy and learned Jesuit, declared when dying that he would willingly give all the many learned books he wrote, all his life's labors, for the merit of one Hail Mary prayerfully and devoutly said.

St. Mechtilde, who loved our Lady very much, was one day striving to compose a beautiful prayer in her honor. Our Lady appeared to her, with the golden letters on her breast of: "Hail Mary full of grace." She said to her: "Desist, dear child, from your labor for no prayer you could possibly compose would give me the joy and delight of the Hall Mary."

A certain man found joy in saying slowly the Hail Mary. The Blessed Virgin in return appeared to him smiling and announced to him the day and hour that he should die, granting him a most holy and happy death.

After death a beautiful white lily grew from his mouth having written on its petals: "Hail Mary."

Cesarius recounts a similar incident. A humble and holy monk lived in the monastery. His poor mind and memory were so weak that he could only repeat one prayer which was the "Hail Mary." After death a tree grew over his grave and on all its leaves was written: "Hail Mary."

These beautiful legends show us how much devotion to Our Lady was valued, and the power attributed to the Hail Mary devoutly prayed.

Each time that we say the Hail Mary we are repeating the very same words with which St. Gabriel the Archangel saluted Mary on the day of the Annunciation, when she was made Mother of the Son of God.

Many graces and joys filled the soul of Mary at that moment.

Now when we say the Hail Mary we offer anew all these graces and joys to Our Lady and she accepts them with Immense delight.

In return she gives us a share in these joys.

Once Our Lord asked St. Francis Assisi to give Him something. The Saint replied: "Dear Lord, I can give You nothing for I have already given you all, all my love."

Jesus smiled and said: "Francis, give Me it all again and again, it will give Me the same pleasure."

So with our dearest Mother, she accepts from us each time we say the Hail Mary the joys and delight she received from the words of St. Gabriel.

Almighty God gave His Blessed Mother all the dignity, greatness and holiness necessary to make her His own most perfect Mother.

But He also gave her all the sweetness, love, tenderness and affection necessary to make her our most loving Mother. Mary is truly and really our Mother.

As children when in trouble run to their mothers for help, so ought we to run at once with unbounded confidence to Mary.

St. Bernard and many Saints said that it was never, never heard at any time or in any place that Mary refused to hear the prayers of her children on earth.

Why do we not realize this most consoling truth? Why refuse the love and consolation that God's Sweet Mother is offering us?

Is it our lamentable ignorance which deprives us of such help and consolation.

To love and trust Mary is to be happy on earth now and afterwards to be happy in Heaven.

Dr. Hugh Lammer was a staunch Protestant, with strong prejudices against the Catholic Church.

One day he found an explanation of the Hail Mary and read it. He was so charmed with it that he began to say it daily. Insensibly all his anti-Catholic animosity began to disappear. He became a Catholic, a holy priest and a professor of Catholic Theology in Breslau.

A priest was called to the bedside of a man who was dying in despair because of his sins.
Yet he refused obstinately to go to confession. As a last recourse the priest asked him to say at least the Hail Mary after which the poor man made a sincere confession and died a holy death.

In England, a parish priest was asked to go and see a Protestant lady who was gravely ill, and who wished to become a Catholic.

Asked if she had ever gone to a Catholic Church, or, if she had spoken to Catholics, or if she had read Catholic books? She replied, "No, no."

All she could remember was that------when a child------she had learned from a little Catholic neighbor girl the Hail Mary, which she said every night. She was Baptized and before dying had the happiness of seeing her husband and children Baptized.

St. Gertrude tells us in her book, "Revelations" that when we thank God for the graces He has given to any Saint, we get a great share of those particular graces.

What graces, then, do we not receive when we say the Hail Mary while thanking God for all the unspeakable graces He has given His Blessed Mother?

With Ecclesiastical Approval.

". . . One Ave Maria [Hail Mary] said without sensible fervor, but with a pure will in a time of aridity, has much more value in my sight than an entire Rosary recited in the midst of consolations."

--------The Blessed Mother to Sr: Benigna Consolata Ferrero

"The holy and learned Jesuit, Father Suarez, was so deeply aware of the value of the Angelic Salutation [Hail Mary] that he said that he would gladly give all his learning for the price of one Hail Mary that had been said properly."

--------St. Louis De Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, p. 48

Facebook Wisdom: "Life Does Not Turn By Your Own Hand"

2009-06-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me." Psalm 138:8

http://www.journeywithjesus.net/
Facebook Wisdom:
"Life Does Not Turn By Your Own Hand"
For Sunday June 14, 2009
Lectionary Readings (Revised Common Lectionary, Year B)
1 Samuel 15:34–16:13 or Ezekiel 17:22–24
Psalm 20 or Psalm 92:1–4, 12–15
2 Corinthians 5:6–10, 11–17
Mark 4:26–34

The Death of King Saul, 1848, Elie Marcuse.

I'm a newcomer to Facebook, but I've already learned a smart little trick. Facebook allows you to "hide" those crazy posts like what someone ate for breakfast, which character in literature they resemble, where they're vacationing, or when they're washing the dog. But other posts enrich me, like a former colleague who suggested a book that he "wished he had read thirty years ago."

This morning a Facebook friend posted a remark that crystallized the wisdom of this week's Scriptures: "Many times life does not turn by your own hand." She's right. We're all amateurs of our own mysterious lives.

In The New York Review of Books (May 28, 2009), Sue Halpern reviews three books about how and why people succeed. Are there common denominators among successful people that we could imitate? Just imagine that I really could invest like Warren Buffett if I knew what he knew. Or maybe extraordinary success is the gift of inimical genius, and so I'll never be a Mozart or an Einstein. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell invokes the "10,000 hour rule of hard work." If I practiced as long, as hard, and as carefully as Tiger Woods, then … Then what? Statisticians remind us, says Halpern, that you can't extrapolate anything from a sample of one life. Plus, people of similar circumstances experience drastically different outcomes. All such "blanket explanations," she concludes, appear speculative and unprovable. In all of our lives there's a mysterious mix of many factors — biology, family, history, chance, choice, education and wealth.

Columnist David Brooks of the New York Times reaches a similar conclusion in his piece "They Had It Made" (May 11, 2009). Brooks considers Harvard's "Grant Study" as discussed in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?” by Joshua Wolf Shenk in The Atlantic (June 2009). The Grant Study identified 268 young men who entered Harvard in 1936 and has studied them for over seventy years. "The categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation," writes Brooks, "are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s … It’s the baffling variety of their lives that strikes one the most. It is as if we all contain a multitude of characters and patterns of behavior, and these characters and patterns are bidden by cues we don’t even hear."

Statue of Israel's King David in Copenhagen,
Denmark. Sculptor: F. A. Jerichau (1860).

Maybe this is why the psalmist's prayer is a little schizophrenic. At first he prays, "May God give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed; may the Lord grant all your requests" (20:4–5). That's not a bad prayer to pray, not by any means, but I'm also grateful that God did not give me much of what I asked for. So the psalmist qualifies and deepens the thought: "some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God" (20:7). Better to trust God's providential care for all things large and small than to insist upon success for what you've tried to micro-manage.

King Saul was a war president: "All the days of Saul there was bitter war with the Philistines." He was also a war profiteer who after defeating the Amalekites took for himself "the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs — everything that was good," all under the pretext of religious piety (1 Samuel 14:52, 15:9). Saul conscripted Israel's children for wars and made them his domestic slaves. He confiscated their lands and imposed exorbitant taxes. He "set up a monument in his own honor" (15:12). Does this ancient story not sound strangely modern?

But divine destiny overshadowed Saul's human decisions, and history did not turn by his own hand. Samuel deposed Saul and anointed the least likely successor. David was the last and the least of Jesse's seven sons. The first six sons had all the marks of regal authority, but the Lord told Samuel: "The Lord does not look at the things that man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (16:7). David might have looked like a lady's man, handsome and "ruddy," but God directed Samuel: "Rise and anoint him; he is the one." God looks at things differently than we do.

Ezekiel had a strange vision of two eagles and a vine, and a word from the Lord that was even stranger. In the waning days of Israel's kingdom, hapless king Zedekiah broke his treaty with powerful Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon by turning to Egypt for help. No, said Ezekiel, that looks and feels patriotic and brave, but to resist pagan Babylon was to resist the very hand of God. "I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish" (Ezekiel 17:24). Things aren't always what they seem.

Ezekiel by Michaelangelo.

The kingdom of God grows in inexplicable ways, said Jesus. It's like a farmer who scatters seeds. Then, "whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how." Sunshine, dirt, and water, then "all by itself," says Jesus, the seed of the kingdom grows. Nor does this require super genetically modified seeds; even a tiny mustard seed produces unlikely giants (Mark 4:26–34). Maybe this is why Paul tells the Corinthians that he would never dare to "commend himself" to them, as if he had somehow bottled the lightning (2 Corinthians 5:12).

When you search for your high school sweetheart or college classmate on Facebook, you can't help but wonder, "where are they now thirty years later? How did they get there and why? Who could have guessed?!" My wife once told me that if she had not married me, today she probably would be a pastor's wife in a small midwestern town baking cookies in a parsonage. That's not a criticism of that life style, just an acknowledgement that neither of us could have predicted the many twists and turns of marriage. Life, after all, and despite your best efforts and fondest hopes and dreams, does not turn by your own hand

The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary

2009-06-08T06:25:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Magnificat"
My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

The Little Crown of the Blessed Virgin Mary

By St. Louis Mary De Montfort

Preface
St. Louis De Montfort, universally known for his True Devotion to Mary, embellished the Little Crown by adding to each Hail Mary a distinctive invocation in praise of the Blessed Virgin's excellence, power, and goodness, ending with the joyful strain, "Rejoice, O Virgin Mary! Rejoice a thousand times!"

St. De Montfort gave the Little Crown as a morning prayer to both his religious families, the Montfort Fathers and the Daughter of Wisdom. He heartily recommends it to all who embrace the holy and loving slavery to Jesus through Mary. Thus the world over, from the lips of Mary's favorite children the Little Crown rises like fragrant incense to our Blessed Mother's throne in Heaven and returns to earth in showers of Divine benediction. Since the Blessed Virgin is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, St. Louis prefaces the Little Crown with an invocation to the Holy Spirit.

INTRODUCTORY PRAYER
I. CROWN OF EXCELLENCE
II. CROWN OF POWER
III. CROWN OF GOODNESS
CONCLUDING PRAYER

INTRODUCTORY PRAYER

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful and enkindle
winthin them the fire of Thy love!

V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created.
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Let us pray.

O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit dost instruct the hearts of
the faithful, grant us by this same Spirit to relish what is right and
ever to rejoice in His consolation, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

I. CROWN OF EXCELLENCE

[To honor the Divine Maternity of the Blessed Virgin, her ineffable Virginity,
her purity without stain and her innumerable virtues.]

1. Our Father, Hail Mary.
Blessed art thou, O Virgin Mary, who didst bear the
Lord, the Creator of the world; thou didst give birth to Him Who
made thee, and remainest a Virgin forever.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

2. Hail Mary.
O holy and immaculate Virgin, I know not with what
praise to extol thee, since thou didst bear in thy womb the very
One Whom the Heavens cannot contain.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

3. Hail Mary.
Thou are all fair, O Virgin Mary, and there is no stain in thee.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

4. Hail Mary.
Thy virtues, O Virgin, surpass the stars in number.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

Glory be to the Father.

II. CROWN OF POWER

[To honor the royalty of the Blessed Virgin, her magnificence, her
universal mediation and the strength of her rule.]

5. Our Father, Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee, O Empress of the world! Bring us with thee to the joys of Heaven.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

6. Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee, O treasure house of the Lord's graces! Grant us a share in thy riches.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

7. Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee, O Mediatrix between God and man!Through thee may the Almighty be favorable to us. Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

8. Glory be to thee who destroyest heresies and crushest demons! Be thou our loving guide. Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times! Glory be to the Father.

Glory be to the Father.

III. CROWN OF GOODNESS

[To honor the mercy of the Blessed Virgin toward sinners, the poor,
the just and the dying.]

9. Our Father, Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee, O refuge of sinners! Intercede for us with God.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

10. Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee, O Mother of orphans! Render the Almighty favorable to us.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

11. Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee, O joy of the just! Lead us with thee to the joys of Heaven.
Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

12. Hail Mary.
Glory be to thee who are ever ready to assist us in lifeand death! Lead us with thee to the kingdom of Heaven! Rejoice, O Virgin Mary; Rejoice a thousand times!

Glory be to the Father.

CONCLUDING PRAYER

Let Us Pray.

<>Hail, Mary, Daughter of God the Father; Hail, Mary, Mother of God the Son; Hail, Mary, Spouse of the Holy Ghost; Hail, Mary, Temple of the most Holy Trinity; Hail, Mary, my Mistress, my treasure, my joy, Queen of my heart; my Mother, my life, my sweetness, my dearest hope ---- yea, my heart and my soul! I am all thine and all that I have is Thine, O Virgin blessed above all things! Let thy soul be in me to magnify the Lord; let thy spirit be in me to rejoice in God. Set thyself, O faithful Virgin, as a seal upon my heart, that in thee and through thee I may be found faithful to God. Receive me, O gracious Virgin, among those whom thou lovest and teachest, whom thou leadest, nourishest and protectest as thy children. Grant that for love of thee I may despise all earthly consolations and ever cling to those of Heaven until, through thee, His faithful spouse, Jesus Christ thy Son be formed in me for the glory of the Father. Amen.

O Jesus King Most Wonderful: From the Raccolta

2009-06-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

As Thomas Droleskey has written in October 31, 2004 issue of THE REMNANT, the only election that actually counts is our Baptism and from this grace and our continual striving for the Social Reign of Christ the King. To that end we offer these prayers from the Raccolta:

O Jesus King Most Wonderful: From the Raccolta

O Jesus, King most wonderful,
Thou Conqueror renowned!
Thou Sweetness most ineffable,
In Whom all joys are found!

When once Thou visitest the heart,
Then truth begins to shine;
The earthly vanities depart;
Then kindles love Divine.

O Jesus, Light of all below!
Thou Fount of life and fire,
Surpassing all the joys we know,
And all we can desire!

May every heart confess Thy Name,
And ever Thee adore;
And seeking Thee, itself inflame
To seek Thee more and more.

Thee may our tongues forever bless;
Thee may we love alone;
And ever in our lives express
The image of Thine Own. Amen.

Matthew 5:1-12a

2009-06-08T06:20:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher,
The science of Religion is not human, therefore it does not belong to the empirical sciences, to be discovered by experimental research; but as it unfolds a knowledge of God-----a pure Spirit-----His attributes, and His relations with man, it is entirely beyond the powers of a finite human intellect to penetrate into His mysteries; hence man depends altogether for his knowledge of Heavenly things on the revelations that God has deigned to give of Himself. Under the Old Covenant, He revealed much of Himself, through His chosen prophets; under the New Covenant, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Son, became man, lived amongst men, taught men with human words through human lips still more of the mysteries of Heaven. He then chose men to be the appointed Teachers of His revealed Truths; He breathed on them the power He possessed; He commissioned them and their successors to be His only representatives, in preaching the Gospel and administering His Sacraments until the end of time.
Find, therefore, the successors of the Apostles, and you find the only accredited, genuine ambassadors of Christ on earth. All others are spurious, all others are wolves in sheep's' clothing, leading men to spiritual destruction. To one who has grasped this all-important principle all else follows in a natural sequence. "Faith is to believe without doubting, whatever God has revealed," and since this revelation can only be known from the successors of the Apostles who reside in the Catholic Church alone, we must in consequence go to the Catholic Church to learn the true science of religion.

Whilst it is our duty to remove all obstacles that stand between us and Divine Faith, we must at the same time ever know and remember that it is a free gift of God, which He will certainly grant to us if we seek it by fervent prayer.

BISHOP OF GALLOWAY
ST. BENEDICT'S, MAXWELLTOWN, DUMFRIES
July 13, 1914

Daily Reading & Meditation
Monday (6/8): "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven"
Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12a

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven

Meditation: What is the good life, and the ultimate end or purpose of life? Is it not happiness, which is none other than the complete good, the sum of all goods, leaving nothing more to be desired? Jesus addresses this question in his sermon on the mount. The word beatitude literally means "happiness" or "blessedness". What is the significance of Jesus' beatitudes, and why are they so central to his teaching? The beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness that God has placed in every heart. They teach us the final end to which God calls us, namely the coming of God's kingdom (Matt. 4:17), the vision of God (Matt. 5:8; 1 John 2;1), entering into the joy of the Lord (Matt. 25:21-23) and into his rest (Hebrews 4:7-11). Jesus' beatitudes also confront us with decisive choices concerning the life we pursue here on earth and the use we make of the goods he puts at our disposal. God alone satisfies. Do you seek the highest good, the total good, which is above all else?

The beatitudes which Jesus offers us are a sign of contradiction to the world's understanding of happiness and joy. How can one possibly find happiness in poverty, hunger, mourning, and persecution? Poverty of spirit finds ample room and joy in possessing God as the greatest treasure possible. Hunger of the spirit seeks nourishment and strength in God's word and Spirit. Sorrow and mourning over wasted life and sin leads to joyful freedom from the burden of guilt and spiritual oppression. God reveals to the humble of heart the true source of abundant life and happiness. Jesus promises his disciples that the joys of heaven will more than compensate for the troubles and hardships they can expect in this world. Thomas Aquinas said: No one can live without joy. That is why a person deprived of spiritual joy goes after carnal pleasures. Do you know the happiness of hungering and thirsting for God alone?

"Lord Jesus, increase my hunger for you and show me the way that leads to everlasting peace and happiness. May I desire you above all else and find perfect joy in doing your will".

Psalm 121:1-8

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From whence does my help come?
2 My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved, he who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand.
6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
8 The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and for evermore.

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Go to | Daily Reading & Meditation Index |
(c) 2009 Don Schwager

10 Year Priesthood and Food Network!!!

2009-06-04T04:34:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Father Leo's E-Mail Blast!!!

10 Year Priesthood and Food Network!!!

I can’t believe it, but I’ll celebrate my 10th year of priesthood this Friday, June 5th. It’s incredibly cliché, but nonetheless true when I say, “Ten years has gone by so quickly!” Granted, there were those particular days when I wondered if the day would ever end. You know that feeling, especially when a priest gives a really long homily! Ugh! Sigh!

Me in Orvieto. I’d rather kiss a pig than listen to a boring homily!

Some days, however, have gone by so quickly I retire at the end of the day slightly embarrassed about just how little I got accomplished. It’s no excuse, but it’s true: there just wasn’t enough time! And although I am determined to do better the next day, it seems like time keeps its own schedule – which doesn’t always correspond to mine!

Timing is everything! That’s true for telling jokes, making a big sale, and cooking the perfect meal. Good timing is necessary for successful living.

Fr. Leo teaching seminarians Carbonara – egg and pancetta pasta which requires perfect timing for real authentic results.

Don’t worry, I won’t offer you time-tested advice. After only 10 years of priesthood, I can’t offer the sage-like-advice of some aged and grey-headed Confucious character, simply because I’m not that old – yet!

But after 10 years I have learned something about time. I’ve learned that while it’s generally better for us to slow things down in life (by slowing down ourselves), it’s usually not a good idea to try and speed things up for ourselves. Speeding up time oftentimes leads to children becoming mommies and daddies too soon; getting wrinkles more quickly; speeding equals expensive traffic tickets; and, in some cases, moving too quickly can lead young couples to become young widows or widowers.

For me and the Grace Before Meals movement I can see the obvious parallels between life, cooking, and taking time. Try to cook chicken quickly. We can take it out of the oven too quickly and risk eating it raw, or we can try to speed things up by turning up the heat and dry it out. Life and life’s lessons are like that – they take time.

Our modern world’s craving for immediate and instant success leads to early failures. Overnight success oftentimes winds up as a tragic story on a front-page tabloid and entertainment show. Long-lasting satisfaction doesn’t – shouldn’t – can’t happen overnight.

Let me admit something: after 10 years of struggling through the priesthood’s demanding schedule, patience is still not my strong suit. That’s probably why I’m not a baker. I prefer high heat and quick fire dishes! But I definitely value the virtue of patience and I pray for it everyday. After all, “Good things come to those who wait.”

Perhaps it’s providential that it’s taken 10 years of priesthood and many years of working on Grace Before Meals before we were considered to take this movement to an even bigger audience. It’s taken this long for me to realize the Grace Before Meals movement can’t be a huge success in a microwaveable minute. In order for this movement to grow, it requires patience, perseverance, and God’s timing!

But now I think the time is right: Food Network will be coming to do some filming next week!

What a gift God has given to me to commemorate 10 years of priesthood and the production team’s many years of long and hard work! After years of working on this project, I began to wonder if anyone ever noticed, or if this Web site is making a difference for your faith, your family, and mealtime fun? At times, I’ve wondered if taking time to produce the Webisodes are worth it? Does anyone even watch these things?

It’s taken me some time to finally realize people are watching. People are paying attention. People do think this message about family meals is important.

A young fan in South Carolina.

And who is watching? Who seems to care? Well, someone at Food Network thinks this idea is good enough for them!

No, I won’t have my own Food Network Show. And no, I won’t be a judge on Iron Chef either – which is what I hoped for when they called! After all, I’d at least be honest!

Instead, Food Network will be conducting a two-day shoot about Grace Before Meals for one of their upcoming specials. They want to highlight my Fusion Fajitas – a big hit with my family and the seminarians!

Deacons Joe Upton and John Reutemann who taste-tested my recipe.

This week, please take time and say a prayer for me – and all of those priests celebrating anniversaries this year. Please say a prayer that we continue to persevere, knowing that the good things in life do not happen instantly, but only through patience. In fact, prayers help us remember that Eternal Life can’t be found here on an earth that won’t last forever. But glimpses of heaven can be detected if we are patient enough to pray through our struggles and see things in a more loving and Godly way.

.

Some of my classmates at the Nalty Tree Farm in Jan 09

Finally, please pray for me next week (June 8th and 9th) as I film with Food Network. Pray I don’t say anything stupid, or more importantly, that I don’t cut my finger trying to chop onions too quickly! And if you want to be part of the action, come to the Mass that will be taped by Food Network on Monday, June 8, at Mount St. Mary’s Immaculate Conception Chapel. If we take time for Mass – even if it sometimes feels like a really long Mass – we receive the Food that lasts forever!

Fusion Fajita

The recipe that Food Network wants to highlight is my take on a traditional Mexican Dish – Fajitas! Since I’m Filipino and only part Spanish, but also heavily influenced by all of my travels, I had to throw in an internationally infused flavor to the traditional dish. I have a special marinade to wake up the hangar steak, which is generally a tough piece of meat that can easily dry out if overcooked.

Unfortunately, I probably can’t give you the recipe until after the Food Network filming. For now, you can simply watch another version of my more traditional fajitas that I made with my brother and sister-in-law in their home last year.

So, click here for the video and recipe.

Celebrating 10 years of Feeding the Flock!

If you remember, I was in Lincoln, NE last week for that Diocese’s ordinations. Before I officially departed from the great state of Omaha, I had a chance to visit some seminarians going through spiritual exercises at Creighton University. Their chapel and the expert guidance of their staff will lead them to a deeper confidence in God’s Call.

I also visited my classmate, Fr. Ryan Lewis (the priest on right), who celebrates his 10th year priesthood on the same day as my anniversary – June 5, 1999. Together with Fr. Taphorn (the priest on left) and a few seminarians, we celebrated the joy of our brotherhood and our priesthood.

If you’re ever in Omaha, be sure to stop by Spezia Restaurant for some Oma-wowed Style Italian food and tender steaks!

Let us Pray:

Most gracious Heavenly Father,
We thank You for our faithful priests and bishops, whose spiritual fatherhood and example of fidelity, self-sacrifice, and devotion is so vital to the faith of Your people.

May our spiritual fathers be guided by the examples of Saints Peter and Paul, all the Apostles and their saintly successors. Give them valiant faith in the face of confusion and conflict; hope in time of trouble and sorrow; and steadfast love for You, for their families, and for all Your people throughout the world. May the light of Your Truth shine through their lives and their good works.

Assist all spiritual fathers, that through Your Grace they may steadily grow in holiness and in knowledge and understanding of Your Truth. May they generously impart this knowledge to those who rely on them.

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer is from the Women for Faith & Family Web site.

St. Jean Marie Vianney – Patron Saint for all Diocesan Priests.

Ask Fr. Leo for fatherly advice.
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Prayer of St. Francis, sung by Angelina

2009-06-04T04:06:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self."
Francis of Assisi

O Jesus, Living in Mary

2009-06-04T03:58:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Almighty God, the Refuge of all that are distressed, grant unto us that, in all trouble of this our mortal life, we may flee to the knowledge of Thy lovingkindness and tender mercy; that so, sheltering ourselves therein, the storms of life may pass over us, and not shake the peace of God that is within us. Whatsoever this life may bring us, grant that it may never take from us the full faith that Thou art our Father. Grant us Thy light, that we may have life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen.
--- George Dawson

O Jesus, Living in Mary

O Jesus, living in Mary,
Come and live in Thy servants,
In the spirit of Thy holiness,
In the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries.
Subdue every hostile power
In Thy spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen.

-------St. Louis de Montfort

Mark 12:28-34

2009-06-04T03:55:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Be our light in the darkness, O Lord, and in your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night; for the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ." Amen.

Daily Reading & Meditation
Thursday (6/4): "Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength"
Scripture: Mark 12:28-34

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" 29 Jesus answered, "The first is, `Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' 31 The second is this, `You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." 32 And the scribe said to him, "You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that he is one, and there is no other but he; 33 and to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any question.

Meditation: What is the purpose of God's law or commandments? The Pharisees prided themselves in the knowledge of the law and their ritual requirements. They made it a life-time practice to study the 613 precepts of the Old Testament along with the numerous rabbinic commentaries. They tested Jesus to see if he correctly understood the law as they did. Jesus startled them with his profound simplicity and mastery of the law of God and its purpose. What does God require of us? Simply that we love as he loves! God is love and everything he does flows from his love for us. God loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding grace and kindness towards us. The love of God comes first and the love of neighbor is firmly grounded in the love of God. The more we know of God's love and truth the more we love what he loves and reject what is hateful and contrary to his will. What makes our love for God and his commands grow in us? Faith in God and hope in his promises strengthens us in the love of God. They are essential for a good relationship with God, for being united with him. The more we know of God the more we love him and the more we love him the greater we believe and hope in his promises. The Lord, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, gives us a new freedom to love as he loves. Do you allow anything to keep you from the love of God and the joy of serving others with a generous heart? Paul the Apostle says: hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us (Romans 5:5). Do you know the love which conquers all?

"We love you, O our God; and we desire to love you more and more. Grant to us that we may love you as much as we desire, and as much as we ought. O dearest friend, who has so loved and saved us, the thought of whom is so sweet and always growing sweeter, come with Christ and dwell in our hearts; that you keep a watch over our lips, our steps, our deeds, and we shall not need to be anxious either for our souls or our bodies. Give us love, sweetest of all gifts, which knows no enemy. Give us in our hearts pure love, born of your love to us, that we may love others as you love us. O most loving Father of Jesus Christ, from whom flows all love, let our hearts, frozen in sin, cold to you and cold to others, be warmed by this divine fire. So help and bless us in your Son." (Prayer of Anselm, 12th cen.)

Psalm 25:4-4-5,8-10,14

4 Make me to know thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.
5 Lead me in thy truth, and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation; for thee I wait all the day long.
8 Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Love Song sung by Angelina

2009-06-03T02:50:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "God gave Himself to you: give yourself to God." Blessed Robert Southwell

Memorare to Our Lady of the Precious Blood

2009-06-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "The Holy Rosary is the storehouse of countless blessings. Bessed Alan de la Roche

Memorare to Our Lady of the Precious Blood

REMEMBER, O Lady of the Precious Blood, the sorrowful Sheddings of the Blood of thy Jesus and the most bitter tears thou didst mingle with His Redeeming Blood. In the name of the Blood of the Victim of Reparation and of thy holy tears; in the name of the seven swords which pierced thy heart, by which thou didst become the Mediatrix of all graces for the human race and the Queen of Martyrs, have pity on my soul and on all its miseries; have pity on sinners and on the innocent souls they seek to pervert; have pity on the poor, the sick, the infirm, on all their sufferings, both physical and moral; have pity on the agonizing, especially upon those who, except for thine intercession, would leave this world without being purified in the Blood of the Lamb.

It is by the Blood of thy Dying Son, by His inexpressible Sufferings, by His last plea to His Father in favor of mankind, by His ignominious Death and by the perpetuation of His Sacrifice on Catholic Altars, that I beg thee not to reject my supplications, but graciously to hear them. Amen.

Mark 12:18-27

2009-06-03T02:39:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Love is a mutual self-giving which ends in self-recovery." Fulton J. Sheen

Daily Reading & Meditation
Wednesday (6/3): "You know neither the scriptures nor the power of God"
Scripture: Mark 12:18-27

18 And Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, 19 "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife, but leaves no child, the man must take the wife, and raise up children for his brother. 20 There were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and when he died left no children; 21 and the second took her, and died, leaving no children; and the third likewise; 22 and the seven left no children. Last of all the woman also died. 23 In the resurrection whose wife will she be? For the seven had her as wife." 24 Jesus said to them, "Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God? 25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. 26 And as for the dead being raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God said to him, `I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? 27 He is not God of the dead, but of the living; you are quite wrong."

Meditation: The Sadducees had one big problem – they could not conceive of heaven beyond what they could see with their naked eyes! Aren’t we often like them? We don’t recognize spiritual realities because we try to make heaven into an earthly image. The Sadducees came to Jesus with a test question to make the resurrection look ridiculous. The Sadducees, unlike the Pharisees, did not believe in immortality, nor in angels or evil spirits. Their religion was literally grounded in an earthly image of heaven. Jesus retorts by dealing with the fact of the resurrection. The scriptures give proof of it. In Exodus 3:6, God calls himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He defeats their arguments by showing that God is a living God of a living people. God was the friend of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when they lived. That friendship could not cease with death. As Psalm 73:23-24 states: "I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory." The Holy Spirit reveals to us the eternal truths of God’s unending love and the life he desires to share with us for all eternity. Paul the Apostle, quoting from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 64:4; 65:17) states: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,” God has revealed to us through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9-10). The promise of paradise – heavenly bliss and unending life with an all-loving God – is beyond human reckoning. We have only begun to taste the first-fruits! Do you believe the scriptures and do you know the power of the Holy Spirit?

“May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart’s vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages.” (Prayer of Origen, c. 185-254)

Psalm 123:1-2

1 To thee I lift up my eyes, O thou who art enthroned in the heavens!
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he have mercy upon us.

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Away in a Manger, sung by Angelina EWTN

2009-06-02T02:43:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?"
Fulton J. Sheen

Imitation of Mary

2009-06-02T02:30:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Pride is an admission of weakness; it secretly fears all competition and dreads all rivals."
Fulton J. Sheen

From the Imitation of Mary
PREFACE

No sooner had the incomparable Imitation of Christ appeared than the faithful began spontaneously to wish for an Imitation of Mary that might be set beside Kempis' great work. Finally, a sixteenth-century Spanish Jesuit, Francisco Arias, published a little book entitled The Imitation of Our Lady [Valencia 1588], and it seemed that the prayers of many devout souls had been answered. But the work was not what they were waiting for. It was a short pamphlet of twelve chapters that dealt in a very general way with the virtues of Mary and was in no way comparable to the great book that had already won the name of "Fifth Gospel."

The book here translated, on the contrary, was indeed what devotees of Mary had been looking for. It was published in French in 1768 and did not bear its author's name. Italian translations of a later date did, however, have an author's name on the title page: the Abbé d'Hérouville. Who was he and how is the initial anonymity to be explained?

The author was in fact a French Jesuit, Alexandre Joseph de Rouville [born at Lyons in 1716.] After the Society of Jesus had been suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773, he took the name Abbé d'Hérouville, thus assimilating himself, as far as title went, to the secular clergy. But even before the suppression by the Pope, Louis XIV had expelled the Society of Jesus from France in 1764; for this reason when the Imitation of Mary was first published in 1768 it had to appear anonymously.

The book quickly won a wide readership in France and Belgium and was translated into many languages. The first Italian translation, for example, was published at Padua in 1772, only four years after the book first appeared.

In the Imitation of Mary the author follows the Blessed Virgin through the different mysteries and circumstances of her life, from her Immaculate Conception to her Assumption into Heaven. At each point he reflects on her conduct and her sentiments, thus providing instructive insights which will help every Christian in the varying situations of his or her own life.

In order to hold the reader's attention the author varies the manner in which he presents his reflections. Sometimes he speaks to God, sometimes to Mary, sometimes to the reader; at times he reflects as though he were by himself in meditation, and very often he has the Blessed Virgin speak to her child, the reader.

The reader will not judge this book as though its author were claiming to rival the perfection of his model, Kempis' Imitation of Christ; he professed, on the contrary, to be fully satisfied if only his book were not totally unlike its model. In fact, however, if we judge by the devotion and solid piety toward God and His Blessed Mother which fill these pages, we must say that author has not been unworthy of his more famous forerunner.

The excerpt Catholic Tradition has selected is taken from two chapters of the fourth book, on Recourse to Mary, and Confidence in Mary.

NIHIL OBSTAT: Richard T. Adams, M.A. Censor Deputatus
IMPRIMATUR: James P. Mahoney, D.D. Vicar General, Archdiocese of New York

From CHAPTER 9
RECOURSE TO MARY

Mary

MY CHILD, in whatever difficult situation you find yourself, invoke my aid and I will intercede for you. If there is anything you want that is not contrary to God's glory and your own salvation, ask me and I will always be ready to hear you.

Do not ask for anything unless you also want God's will to be done. Any prayer made to me in that spirit will never be fruitless. Many Christians ask me to obtain what they know is contrary to God's will. Can they deceive themselves into thinking their prayers will be answered?

Others think of turning to me only when they want earthly goods, but they are completely indifferent when it comes to God's graces. If I pray for such people, it is not in order to obtain the harmful thing they ask for, but to obtain for them that which would be advantageous to them and which they do not think of requesting.

I ask for them the afflictions that will detach them from this world and urge them to think of Heaven.

What you ought to ask of me before all is graces of conversion and salvation, graces whereby you may grow in virtue and win merit for Heaven. I always listen favorably to such prayers.

I do not ask temporal favors for those who invoke me, unless these may bring them genuine profit. The successful outcome of a lawsuit or an abundant harvest may be the worst thing in the world for the person who asks it, for people who are prosperous often fail to think of eternity.

Many sick people ask me for a cure, but I request of God only the graces they need in their illness. I am not the kind of mother who is blinded by feeling and fails to look for the true happiness of her children. My tender love for you, my child, will never lead me astray.

I intercede for you with Jesus only to obtain for you what is most useful in this life and the next.

Believe this and confidently ask my protection. Ask it in all your trials, whatever their nature be. Such trials are frequent. Let my name, therefore, after the name of Jesus, be ever on your lips and written indelibly on your heart.

The Believer

Holy and lovable name of Mary! Name that no one utters confidently without being the better for it! Happy the man who often recalls it with love, utters it devoutly, venerates it from the heart, and calls upon it often.

After the name of Jesus, that name that is above every other name [Phil 2, 9] , there is no other more worthy of respect, no other that is sweeter and dearer to the faithful than the name of Mary.

When the sinner invokes it, he feels a surge of hope in the Lord's mercy; the just man conceives a more ardent love; he who is tempted overcomes his own passions; he who is in tribulation feels consoled and inclined to be long-suffering.

After the name of Jesus, your name, Mary, will be my comfort in affliction, my counsel in
doubt, my strength in the struggle, and my guide at every step I take.

From CHAPTER 10
CONFIDENCE IN MARY

Mary

MY CHILD, you do not have perfect confidence in me. At times you are slow to call on me when you are in need, and at all times you seem unsure of my good will toward you.

I want you to have all the confidence in me that any son should have in his mother, knowing as he does her tender love and her goodness. Come to me always and everywhere, in all your .spiritual and temporal needs, in difficulties of soul and body, in the difficulties of your relatives and friends.

Is it a sign of any great confidence in me if you turn to me only from time to time, on my feast days, for example, as some Christians do? You should imitate the Church which asks nothing of God without appealing to my intercession.

The Church has recourse to me as dispenser of the Lord's graces; let her conduct be the norm for yours, and, like her, have unfailing confidence in me, a confidence that is all-embracing, ardent, sweet, and affectionate.

Turn to God through Jesus, but turn to Jesus through His Mother. I am the surest way of reaching Jesus, of finding Him, and of receiving a warm welcome from Him.

The Believer

Queen of Heaven, I acknowledge your power and goodness, but I fear that I am unworthy of you. Can a virgin so pure, so zealous for God's honor, and so perfect, turn to me in compassion?

Mary

My child, am I not the refuge of sinners? I intercede for all those who want to turn back to God's service and who call upon me with confidence.

Moved by my concern for their reconciliation, God has never said no to my prayer. For many sinners I am the only means left them and the only means God gives them of regaining His friendship. I have won pardon for sin, even enormous sins, for so many Christians. They asked my protection against God's justice, and I protected them until I won their reconciliation with their Judge.

Some sinners live stubbornly on in their sins while deluding themselves that I will win for them the grace of not dying in their sins.

That is presumptuous confidence and an insult to me. Others, however, groan beneath the weight of their sins and want to cast it off; they are aware of their weakness and put their trust and hope in me, praying that through my intercession I may win the grace of strength and forgiveness for them. Come! Draw near! I will not reject you but welcome you with love.

The Believer

Mother of my Lord, the moment your greeting sounded in my ears [Lk 1,43-44], all my disquiet vanished, and my confidence in you returned, stronger than ever.

To me you are like the dove that returned after the flood carrying an olive branch, the symbol of peace. Accept under your saving protection this sinner who is ashamed, deeply moved, and sorry for the sins of his lifetime, sins that he would like to expiate with his blood.

Obtain for me the grace to weep bitterly for the sins I have committed and to die rather than commit once again sins I so much detest. Through the holy Child of your womb, you won peace between God and men. Win peace for me as well, between me and my conscience, between me and my God.

Virgin, powerful and so full of kindness, how grateful I should be for all the blessings I receive from God through your intercession! Let all hearts be forever dedicated to you! Let all mouths voice the praises which Heaven speaks to earth: "May Mary be loved and glorified!" and which earth echoes back to Heaven: "May Mary be glorified and loved through all ages!"

Mark 12:13-17

2009-06-02T02:27:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Life is like a cash register, in that every account, every thought, every deed, like every sale, is registered and recorded."
Fulton J. Sheen

Daily Reading & Meditation
Tuesday (6/2): "Give to God what belongs to God"
Scripture: Mark 12:13-17

13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Hero'dians, to entrap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? 15 Should we pay them, or should we not?" But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why put me to the test? Bring me a coin, and let me look at it." 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's." 17 Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at him.

Meditation: What do we owe God and what’s our obligation towards others? Paul the Apostle tells us that we must give each what is their due (Romans 13:6-8). The Jewish authorities sought to trap Jesus in a religious-state dispute over the issue of taxes. The Jews resented their foreign rulers and despised paying taxes to Cesar. They posed a dilemma to test Jesus to see if he would make a statement they could use against him. If Jesus answered that it was lawful to pay taxes to a pagan ruler, then he would lose credibility with the Jewish populace who would regard him as a coward and a friend of Cesar. If he said it was not lawful, then the Pharisees would have grounds to report him to the Roman authorities as a political trouble-maker and have him arrested. Jesus avoided their trap by confronting them with the image of a coin. Coinage in the ancient world had significant political power. Rulers issued coins with their own image and inscription on them. In a certain sense the coin was regarded as the personal property of the ruler. Where the coin was valid the ruler held political sway over the people. Since the Jews used the Roman currency, Jesus explained that what belonged to Caesar must be given to Caesar.

This story has another deeper meaning as well. We, too, have been stamped with God’s image since we are created in his own likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). We rightfully belong, not to ourselves, but to God who created us and redeemed us in the precious blood of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul the Apostle says that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1). Do you acknowledge that your life belongs to God and not to yourself? And do you give to God what rightfully belongs to Him?

"Lord, because you have made me, I owe you the whole of my love; because you have redeemed me, I owe you the whole of myself; because you have promised so much, I owe you all my being. Moreover, I owe you as much more love than myself as you are greater than I, for whom you gave yourself and to whom you promised yourself. I pray you, Lord, make me taste by love what I taste by knowledge; let me know by love what I know by understanding. I owe you more than my whole self, but I have no more, and by myself I cannot render the whole of it to you. Draw me to you, Lord, in the fullness of love. I am wholly yours by creation; make me all yours, too, in love." (prayer of Anselm, 1033-1109)

Psalm 90:2-4,14-16

2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.
3 Thou turnest man back to the dust, and sayest, "Turn back, O children of men!"
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad as many days as thou hast afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.
16 Let thy work be manifest to thy servants, and thy glorious power to their children.

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Restful Waters (remake) - Annie Karto

2009-06-01T03:57:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Keep close to the Catholic Church at all times, for the Church alone can give you true peace, since she alone possesses Jesus, the true Prince of Peace, in the Blessed Sacrament." Saint Padre Pio

Restful Waters (remake) - Annie Karto

MARY'S PERPETUAL VIRGINITY

2009-06-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "It is by the path of love, which is charity, that God draws near to man, and man to God. But where charity is not found, God cannot dwell. If, then, we possess charity, we possess God, for "God is Charity""(1John 4:8) -- St. Albert the Great

MARY'S PERPETUAL VIRGINITY

Article 4 of The Divine Maternity
and the Plenitude of Grace

The Church teaches three truths concerning Mary's virginity; that she was a virgin in conceiving Our Savior, that she was a virgin in giving Him birth, and that she remained a virgin her whole life through. The first two truths were defended against the Corinthians and the Ebionites towards the end of the 1st century; against Celsus, who was refuted by Origen; in the 16th century against the Socinians, whom Paul IV and Clement VIII condemned; and recently against the rationalists --- Strauss, Renan, and the Pseudo --- Herzog in particular. [21] The second truth was attacked by Jovinian, Who was condemned in 390. The third truth was denied by Helvidius and defended by St. Jerome. [22]

The Virginal Conception

Mary's virginity in the conception of her Son was foretold by Isaias (Is. vii, 14): ' A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son.' The virginal conception is clearly the literal sense of this text; otherwise, as St. Justin pointed out to Tryphon, [23] there would be no question of a sign, as Isaias had promised. Gabriel also gave testimony to the virginal conception at the Annunciation: 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.' The message given by the Angel to St. Joseph is to the same effect: 'Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost' (Matt. i, 20). And St. Luke says of Jesus: '. . . being (as it was supposed) the son of Joseph' (Luke iii, 23).

Tradition confirms that the conception of Christ was virginal, as can be learned from the testimonies of St. Ignatius the Martyr, Aristides, St. Justin, Tertullian, St. Irenaeus. All the creeds teach that the Son of God made flesh 'was conceived by the Virgin Mary, by the operation of the Holy Ghost'. [24] It was defined by the Lateran Council under Pope Martin I in 649 [25] and it was reaffirmed by Paul IV against the Socinians. [26]

The arguments which show the appropriateness of the virginal conception are exposed by St. Thomas [27]: l --- It is appropriate that He Who is the natural Son of God should have no father on earth, but only in heaven; 2 --- The Word, conceived eternally in the most complete purity, should be conceived virginally when being made flesh; 3 --- That the human nature of the Savior be exempt from original sin it was appropriate that it should not be formed by the ordinary process of human generation, but virginally; 4 --- By being born of a virgin Christ showed that His members should be born by the Spirit of His virginal and spiritual spouse, the Church.

The Virginal Birth

St. Ambrose bears witness to the virginal birth when commenting on the text of Isaias: 'A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son;' she will be a virgin, he says, in giving birth as well as in conceiving. [28] The same had been said earlier by St. Ignatius the Martyr, [29] Aristides, [30] Clement of Alexandria. [31] It was defined by the Lateran Council. [32]

St. Thomas gives the following arguments to show the appropriateness of the virginal birth: I --- The Word, Who is conceived and Who proceeds eternally from the Father without any corruption of His substance; should, if He becomes flesh, be born of a virgin mother without detriment to her virginity; 2 --- He Who came to remove all corruption should not by His birth destroy the virginity of her who bore Him; 3 --- He Who commands us to honor our parents should not Himself diminish by His birth the glory of His holy mother.

The Perpetual Virginity of Mary after the Savior's Birth

The Lateran Council affirmed this point of doctrine in 649, as did Paul IV later against the Socinians. [33]

Among the Greek Fathers two deserve special mention as having explicitly taught it: Origen [34] and St. Gregory the Wonder worker. [35] The expression semper virgo --- 'always a virgin' --- is common in the 4th century, especially in the works of St. Athanasius and Didymus the Blind. [36] It was also used by the 2nd Council of Constantinople. [37] The Latin Fathers are represented by Saints Ambrose [38], Augustine [39], and Jerome [40]. St. Ephrem voices the mind of the Syriac Church. [41]

St. Thomas's arguments to show the appropriateness of the perpetual virginity are as follows (IlIa, q. 28, a. 3): I --- Helvidius' error is opposed to the dignity of Christ Himself, for just as He is the only Son in eternity of the Father so also He ought to be the only Son in time of the Virgin; 2 --- It is opposed also to the dignity of the Holy Ghost who sanctified once and for ever the virginal womb of Mary; 3 --- It is opposed to the dignity and holiness of the Mother of God as it would imply that she was dissatisfied with having borne such a Son; 4 --- Finally, St. Joseph would have been guilty of the greatest presumption had he violated the virginity of her whom he knew, by the Angel, to have conceived of the Holy Ghost. [42]

St. Thomas explains also (IIIa, q. 28, a. 4) the, commonly accepted teaching that the Blessed Virgin had taken a vow of perpetual virginity. Her words to the Angel prove the point: 'How shall this be done, because I know not man?' Tradition is summed up in the phrase of St. Augustine's: 'Virgo es, sancta es, votum vovisti.' [43]

21. Cf. Denzinger. nos. 20, 91, 113, 143 sqq., 201, 214, 255 sqq., 282, 290, 344, 429, 462, 708, 735, 993, 1314,1462.
22. De perpetua virginitate B. Mariae adversus Helvidium. P. L., XXIII. 183-205.
23. Dial. cum Tryphone. LXXXIV; P. G., VI. 673.
24. Denz., 6 sqq.
25. Denz., 256.
26. Denz., 993.
27. Illa. q. 28, a. I.
28. Epist. XLII ad Siricium Papam, P. L., XVI, 1124: 'Non enim concepturam tantum inodo virginem. sed et parituram (Isaias) dixit.'
29. Ad Ephes., xv, I.
30. Ex vita Barlaa,n et Josaphat, P. G., XCVI, 1121.
31. Strom., VII, xvi; P. G., IX, 529.
32. Denz., 256; item 993.
33. Denz., 256; 993.
34. In Matt., t. X, xvii; P. G., XIII, 876 B; Homil. VII in Luc.; P. G., XIII, 1818.
35. Serm. in Nativit. Christi; P. G., X, 391.
36. St. Athanas., Orat. II contra Arianos, LXX; P. G., XXVI, 296; Didymus, De Trinitate, I. xxvii; P. G., XXXIX, 404.
37. Denz., 214, 218.
38. Epist. XLII ad Siricium Papam; P. L., XVI, 1124.
39. Serm. III in Natali Domini, n. I; P. L., XXXVIII, 995.
40. De perpetua virginitate B. Mariae adversus Helvidium.
41. S. Ephrem Syri opera, ed. Rom., 1743, t. II, p. 267.
42. Those mentioned in the New Testament as brothers of the Lord were merely relatives, as tradition has always taught. The Hebrew word corresponding to 'brother' signified near relative, and was used to cover cousins, nephews, etc. Cf. Gen, xiii, 8; xiv, 6. Cf. A. Durand, Freres du Seigneur in Dict. Apol.
43. Sermo CCCX in Natali joannis Rapt.; P. L., XXXVIII, 1319.

Mark 12:1-12

2009-06-01T03:50:00.001-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Prayer reveals to souls the vanity of earthly goods and pleasures. It fills them with light, strength and consolation; and gives them a foretaste of the calm bliss of our heavenly home. -- St. Rose of Viterbo

Daily Reading & Meditation
Monday (6/1): "They will respect my beloved Son"
Gospel reading: Mark 12:1-12

1 And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the wine press, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. 2 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 And they took him and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Again he sent to them another servant, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. 5 And he sent another, and him they killed; and so with many others, some they beat and some they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son; finally he sent him to them, saying, `They will respect my son.' 7 But those tenants said to one another, `This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8 And they took him and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. 9 What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants, and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this scripture: `The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; 11 this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?" 12 And they tried to arrest him, but feared the multitude, for they perceived that he had told the parable against them; so they left him and went away.

Meditation: What does Jesus' parable about an absentee landlord and his tenants say to us? The hills of Galilee were lined with numerous vineyards, and it was quite normal for the owners to let out their estates to tenants. Many did it for the sole purpose of collecting rent. Why did Jesus' story about wicked tenants cause offense to the scribes and Pharisees? It contained both a prophetic message and a warning. Isaiah had spoken of the house of Israel as "the vineyard of the Lord" (Isaiah 5:7). Jesus' listeners would likely understand this parable as referring to God's dealing with a stubborn and rebellious people.

This parable speaks to us today as well. It richly conveys some important truths about God and the way he deals with his people. First, it tells us of God's generosity and trust. The vineyard is well equipped with everything the tenants need. The owner went away and left the vineyard in the hands of the tenants. God, likewise trusts us enough to give us freedom to run life as we choose. This parable also tells us of God's patience and justice. Not once, but many times he forgives the tenants their debts. But while the tenants take advantage of the owner's patience, his judgment and justice prevail in the end. Jesus foretold both his death and his ultimate triumph. He knew he would be rejected and be killed, but he also knew that would not be the end. After rejection would come glory – the glory of resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father. How do we share in this glory? By submitting to Jesus' kingly rule in our lives. Jesus promises that we will bear much fruit (certainly the fruit of peace, righteousness, and joy, and much more besides) if we abide in him (see John 15:1-11). The Lord also entrusts his gifts to each of us and he gives us work to do in his vineyard – the body of Christ. He promises that our labor will not be in vain if we persevere with faith to the end (see 1 Corinthians 15:58). We can expect trials and even persecution. But in the end we will see triumph. Do you labor for the Lord with joyful hope and with confidence in his triumph?

"Thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits which you have given us; for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us. O most merciful redeemer, friend, and brother, may we know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, for your own sake!" (Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester, 13th century)

Psalm 112:1-6

1 Praise the LORD! Happy are those who fear the LORD, who greatly delight in his commandments.
2 Their descendants will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.
4 They rise in the darkness as a light for the upright; they are gracious, merciful, and righteous.
5 It is well with those who deal generously and lend, who conduct their affairs with justice.
6 For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever.

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I Love You, Lord, sung by Angelina EWTN

2009-05-29T04:25:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of the trial and in the exaltation after the combat." Saint Padre Pio

The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

2009-05-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "You cannot please both God and the world at the same time, They are utterly opposed to each other in their thoughts, their desires, and their actions." -- St. John Vianney

The Beautiful Hands of a Priest

We need them in life's early morning,
we need them again at its close;
We feel their warm clasp of friendship,
we seek them when tasting life's woes.
At the altar each day we behold them,
and the hands of a king on his throne
Are not equal to them in their
greatness; their dignity stands all alone;
And when we are tempted and wander
to pathways of shame and sin,
It's the hand of a priest that will absolve
us----not once, but again and again;
And when we are taking life's partner,
other hands may prepare us a feast,
But the hand that will bless and unite
us is the beautiful hand of a priest.
God bless them and keep them all holy
For the Host which their fingers caress;
When can a poor sinner do better than
to ask Him to guide thee and bless?
When the hour of death comes upon us
may our courage and strength be increased.
By seeing raised over us in anointing the
beautiful hands of a priest!

Author Unknown

John 21:15-19

2009-05-29T04:18:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Christ said, "I am the Truth"; he did not say "I am the custom." -- St. Toribio

Daily Reading & Meditation
Friday (5/29): "Do you love Jesus more than these?"
Scripture: John 21:15-19

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16 A second time he said to him, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17 He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go." 19 (This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God.) And after this he said to him, "Follow me."

Meditation: Do you want the fire of God’s love to burn in your heart? John the evangelist tells us that God is love (1 John 4:16). His love is unconditional, unmerited, and without limit. It edurings forever. It’s the beginning and the end – it's the reason God created us wants us to be united with him – and it’s the essence of what is means to be a Christian – one who knows God's love and forgiveness and who loves God in return with all one's heart, mind, soul, and body. God's love heals and transforms our lives and frees us from fear, selfishness, and greed. It draws us to the very heart of God and it compels us to give to him the best we have and all we possess – our gifts, our time, our resources, our full allegiance, and our very lives. Paul the Apostle tells us that God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given us (Romans 5:5). What can quench such love? Certainly indifference, disbelief, and rejection of God and his word.

Why did Jesus question Peter’s love and fidelity three times in front of the other apostles? It must have caused Peter pain and sorrow since he had publicly denied Jesus three times. Now Peter, full of remorse and humility, unequivocally stated that he loved his master and was willing to serve him whatever it might cost. When Jesus asks him "do you love me more than these?" Jesus may have pointed to the boats, nets and catch of fish. He may have challenged Peter to abandon his work as a fisherman for the task of shepherding God's people. Jesus also may have pointed to the other disciples and to Peter's previous boast: "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away" (Matthew 26:33). Peter now makes no boast or comparison but humbly responds: "You know I love you."

The Lord calls us, even in our weakness and sin, to love him above all else. Augustine in his Confessions wrote: "Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new. Late have I loved you! ...You shone your Self upon me to drive away my blindness. You breathed your fragrance upon me... and in astonishment I drew my breath...now I pant for you! I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst for you. You touched me! - and I burn to live within your peace." (Confessions 10:27) Nothing but our sinful pride and wilfulness can keep us from the love of God. It is a free gift, unmerited and beyond payment. We can never outmatch God in giving love. He loved us first and our love for him is a response to his exceeding graciousness and mercy towards us. Do you allow God's love to change and transform your heart?

"Lord Jesus, inflame my heart with your love and remove everything that is unloving, unkind, ungrateful, unholy, and not in accord with your will."

Psalm 103:1-2,11-12,19-20

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word!

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Jesus

2009-05-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, another great song sung by Angelina from EWTN!!

The Miracle Prayer
Lord Jesus, I come before Thee, just as I am, I am sorry for my sins, I repent of my sins, please forgive me. In Thy Name, I forgive all others for what they have done against me. I renounce Satan, the evil spirits and all their works. I give Thee my entire self, Lord Jesus, I accept Thee as my Lord God and Savior. Heal me, change me, strengthen me in body, soul, and spirit.

Come Lord Jesus, cover me with Thy Precious Blood, and fill me with Thy Holy Spirit, I love Thee Lord Jesus, I praise Thee Lord Jesus, I thank Thee Jesus, I shall follow Thee every day of my life. Amen.

Mary, My Mother, Queen of Peace, all the Angels and Saints, please help me. Amen.

Say this prayer faithfully, no matter how you feel. When you come to the point where you sincerely mean each word with all your heart, Jesus will change your whole life in a very special way. You will see.

Padre Pio and Our Lady

2009-05-28T03:49:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Do you not see the Madonna always beside the tabernacle?" Padre Pio

Padre Pio and Our Lady

" 'Love our Lady. Recite the Rosary. May the Blessed Mother of God reign supreme over your hearts.' These were the messages Padre Pio sent out continually to his spiritual sons and daughters near and far. This was the order he issued and the legacy he left to all, springing from his own ardent love for the Mother of God.

"His love for Our Blessed Lady was a tender love, the love of a son who believes and hopes and trusts. It was no sentimental piety expressed in fine phrases, but a deep love resulting from constant meditation which gradually influenced his whole life. His own mother . . . was deeply devoted to Mary the Mother of God. In the little rural centre in which he was born, devotion to the Madonna has been an outstanding characteristic of the people's religion for many centuries. In this respect the Pietrelcinese share a heritage common to the whole of southern Italy. Shrines to Our Blessed Lady, honoured under a great variety of titles, are to be found all over the region." [Padre Pio: His Life and Mission, Mary E. Ingoldsby, p. 127.]

As a young boy Francesco Forgione made pilgrimages with others from his town to various Marian shrines, including Our Lady of Pompeii.

The image above was carried in procession by the people of the region every year, the highlight of a festival.

We have a number of charming vignettes about his devotion to Our Lady under various titles, from those who knew the Saint:

When Francesco was leaving for the Capuchin novitiate, the singular gift his mother bestowed upon him was a large Rosary, which is maintained in the archives of the Postulation in San Giovanni Rotondo. He cherished this Rosary which he carried all his life, along with a picture of "our own Madonna" as he referred to Our Lady Liberatrix. The title Our Lady Liberatrix (Madonna della Libera) goes back very far in the history of that region. [Ibid., p. 128.] In the seventh century, when the little dukedom of Benevento was besieged by the Byzantine Emperor Constans II, the saintly local bishop who is known today as San Barbato led his people in prayer to Our Blessed Lady with the intention of freeing (liberare) the city from the fury of the Greeks. Their prayer was heard and San Barbato spread devotion to Our Lady under the title of Liberatrix. "In his youth Padre Pio venerated the Mother of God under this title, which has special import in Pietrelcina even today. The little town celebrates a feast in honour of its Madonna more than once during the year, in grateful thanks for past favours." [Ibid.]

In 1854 Pietrelcina was ravaged by cholera. At the beginning of December it seemed as if the population would be wiped out completely. "Dozens were dying each day," says the local historian. " [Ibid.] On the third day of that month the whole population gathered at the church to pray at the feet of Our Lady of Liberatrix. Then her statue was carried through the streets because the people were convinced that would flee before her image, which is exactly what happened: "from that day the disease claimed no more victims and the people were convinced that Our Lady of the Libera had obtained this grace for their town". [Ibid.]

Under this title, the Mother of God has often come to the assistance of her petitioners in Pietrelcina, water during times of drought so that the crops would have a good yield, and the protection of the fields from hail-storms.

A most special grace from Our Lady occurred at the turn of the last century.

The day is Palm Sunday 1906, and the church in the castle district was packed for high Mass at noon. To everyone's surprise the sun-brushed sky turned black as ink, as if night had come. A tempest of a thunderstorm struck with such fury that the parishioners were not able to hear the priest's words----moreover the storm came in the form of not just water, but clay and stones! They were so frightened that they cried out and wept for it appeared as if the end of the world was upon them. Then they began to pray most fervently to our Lord and His Blessed Mother. As suddenly as the storm had erupted, it subsided, the sun came out and everyone could walk back home. The explanation of this phenomenon only reached Pietrelcina some days later. They later learned that the stones and other debris which pelted the church was formed of ashes and cinders, from a violent eruption of Vesuvius over fifty miles distance.

"Although there is feasting and music in the piazza, including fireworks without which no southern Italian fiesta would be complete, the feast of Our Lady Liberatrix is an essentially religious celebration with a preparatory novena which is always well attended. In Padre Pio's letters, written during his prolonged stay in Pietrelcina as a young priest, there is frequent mention of this celebration and Padre Agostino, his Confessor at the time, was invited more than once to preach for the occasion." [Ibid., p.129]

The wooden statue of Our Lady Liberatrix, the work of a seventeenth-century Neapolitan artist, was formerly venerated in a church that lay just outside Pietrelcina, which was destroyed by a landslide; the statue was removed to the parochial church where it can be seen today. It was restored and repainted in 1965 and on July 17,1966 the Vatican Chapter assigned to it a golden crown in recognition of the part it had played for centuries in the people's devotion to Mary. In a solemn ceremony on August 6, 1966, the crown was placed on the head of the Madonna by Mgr. Raffaele Calabria, Archbishop of Benevento. Padre Pio, in his friary at San Giovanni Rotondo many miles away, rejoiced along with his townsfolk. Some of the older folk in Pietrelcina tell how they used to see him as "a young Capuchin priest of thoughtful and ascetical appearance, transfigured before the statue of his beloved Madonna" as he prayed there each day during his enforced residence at home. [Ibid., p. 130.]

Our Saint was blessed with a deep contemplative knowledge of Mary's role in our salvation, the closer he felt to her, the closer he said he felt to jesus, her Son. In a letter he sent May 6, 1913 to Padre Agostino he wrote:

"This most tender Mother, in her great mercy, wisdom and goodness, has been pleased to punish me in a most exalted manner by pouring so many and such great graces into my heart that when I am in her presence and in that of Jesus I am compelled to exclaim: 'Where am I? Who is this who is near me?' I am all aflame although there is no fire. I feel myself held fast and bound to the Son by means of this Mother, without seeing the chains which bind me so tightly." [Ibid.]

His devotion to the Mother of God can best be said to be continued, uninterrupted prayer, especially the Rosary, some days he managed 200 decades.

Padre Pietro Tartaglia, Guardian of the friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in 1978, said:

"I can see him today as he appeared to me when I was a youngster. It was beautiful to see him there in the silence of his cell when we Capuchin aspirants went to him for Confession. The dim light gave a mystical touch to his emaciated but radiant countenance. Near him was . . . a little statue of Our Lady and he spoke to us about her and taught us to love her. At a certain hour he used to walk in the friary garden, absorbed in his sufferings and his love while the beads slipped through the fingers of his wounded hands. And how full and ardent was his voice when he recited the Angelus with the others." [Ibid., pp. 130-131.]

"From his earliest years Padre Pio cherished a tender filial love for the Blessed Virgin honoured as Our Lady of Pompeii and on many occasions he went to her shrine near the ruined city. In 1901, at the age of fourteen, he made a pilgrimage there with seven of his schoolmates accompanied by their teacher. His mother does not seem to have been very happy about that trip and complained about it in a letter to her husband who had emigrated to America to earn some extra money for his son's studies. When his father wrote to young Francesco from America the boy answered him in order to justify his trip to Pompeii: 'As regards my going to Pompeii, you are quite right. However, you ought to remember that next year, please God, all holidays and amusements will be over for me when I abandon this life to embrace a better one.' " [Ibid., pp. 134.]

Even while he served in the army as a young friar, he took every opportunity to pay a visit to Pompeii from Naples where he was stationed, to pray to Our Lady. When he left army service for a six months' convalescence in 1917, he went again to thank Our Lady of Pompeii for this grace. He made one novena after another novena for a return to conventual life, though still obliged by ill health to stay in his own home. He also prayed to her for what he called his "speedy departure", by which he meant his death. He asked his directors and to others bound to him by spiritual ties to say novenas to Our Lady of Pompeii for his intentions. It was to the Virgin Mother of God honoured under this title that he also directed his fervent prayers to be finally exempt from the military, which he found was both physical and spiritual torture. At last he was granted a return to his community and a discharge from the army, but the "speedy departure" would not be for half a century. In 1968, when he knew that he was dying, it was to Our Lady of Pompeii that he turned, to thank her from the depths of his heart.

Meanwhile, in our narrative, after having briefly looked forward in Padre Forgione's life with the Mother of God, it is still 1917; World War I is drawing to a cessation; Our Blessed Lady appears in Fatima. St. Pio has experienced the hardship of life in a military barracks. Now he meditates deeply on the Fatima message, "and in response to Our Lady's invitation prayed without ceasing that the Divine mercy might prevail over the Divine justice." [Ibid., p. 135.] No one of Catholic faith and with their wits about them can deny the connection between the apparitions in Fatima and the justice of God-----and what is just as certain, of that between this justice and the victim state, the state of those souls who offer themselves in reparation for the sins of men against God, to appease His Divine Majesty. It was through the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima that St. Pio obtained a true miracle for himself, he who was the inspiration and pathway of so many miraculous graces for others. He had been ill with pleurisy since May of 1959 and the doctors had discovered a lung tumor, so that his life was in mortal danger. It was not coincidence that it was then that the pilgrim statue of Our Lady of Fatima was being transported throughout Italy in the Peregrinatio Mariae or Rosary Caravan. "On August 5, in the last days of the pilgrimage, the statue was brought to San Giovanni Rotondo in a helicopter, which circled over the Capuchin friary. Before the image departed, Padre Pio addressed a fervent prayer from his sick-bed to Our Blessed Lady in the following words: 'My dear Mother, since your arrival in Italy I have been reduced to helplessness by this illness, and now that you are leaving have you nothing to give me?' At once he felt a mysterious strength invade his body and he exclaimed to his confreres: 'I'm cured!' Shortly afterwards a local paper in Foggia published an article asking why the Pilgrim Virgin should have been taken to San Giovanni Rotondo and not to the famous shrine of St. Michael in Monte Santangelo higher up on Mount Gargano, a place of pilgrimage for centuries. When one of the Capuchins drew Padre Pio's attention to this complaint, he replied quite simply: 'Our Lady came here because she wanted to cure Padre Pio!' " [Ibid.]

He once said , "Always hold the weapon of Mary tight in your hand. It will bring you victory over your enemies." [From the Housetops, p. 13.] Our blessed friar was able to do more than one thing at a time and well, thus it was possible for him to recite so many Rosaries, a set of beads being a permanent fixture in his hands. He was often seen in conversation while the beads were filing one by one through his fingers. He paid tribute to Our Lady once by saying, "May Mary fill your heart with the flowers and fragrance of ever-fresh virtues, and place her maternal hand on your head. Always keep close to our Heavenly Mother, because she is the sea that must be crossed, in order to reach the shores of eternal splendor in the kingdom of dawn." [Ibid.] Padre Pio exclaimed that those who thought they could go through life without the assistance of the Blessed Virgin were foolish. She would come to him many times when he had special need of her. A priest asked him if she ever appeared to him and Padre pio replied "Why not ask me instead if she ever leaves my room?"

Our holy card image is not in good shape, but we managed to remove the worst stains and cracks. This is one of the loveliest of the old type of paper holy cards in color; as far as I know it is no longer available for sale. I did an extensive search on the web with three major engines. If it is available, it is going by another title, for whatever reason. I bypassed E-Bay for practical reasons.

John 17:20-26

2009-05-28T03:47:00.001-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, "Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God's heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart. In fact on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your heart." Padre Pio

Daily Reading & Meditation
Thursday (5/28): “May they become perfectly one”
Scripture: John 17:20-26

20 "I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Meditation: Do you pray as Jesus did for the unity of all Christians? The distinctive mark of Jesus’disciples is their love and unity. “How good and delightful it is when brethren dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133:1). Jesus' high priestly prayer at the last supper concludes with the petition for Christian unity among all who profess Jesus Christ as Lord. Jesus prays for all men and women who will come after him and follow him as his disciples. In a special way Jesus prays here for us that as members of his body the church we would be one as he and his Father is one. The unity of Jesus and his Father is a unity of love and obedience and a unity of personal relationship. Because Jesus loved us first and united us in baptism we are called to live in a unity of love. Jesus’ prayer on the eve of his sacrifice shows the great love and trust he has in his beloved disciples. He knows they would abandon him in his hour of trial, yet he entrusted to them the great task of spreading his name throughout the world and to the end of the ages. The Lord entrust us with the same mission – to make him known and loved by all. Jesus died and rose again that all might be one as he and the Father are one. Do you love and accept all baptized Christians as your brothers and sisters in Christ?

"Lord God, have mercy on your people and heal the divisions in the body of Christ. May all Christian people throughout the world attain the unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of his sacrifice. Renew in us the power of the Spirit that we may be a sign of that unity and a means of its growth. Increase in us a fervent love for all our brothers and sisters in Christ."

Psalm 97:1-2,6-7,9

1 The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!
2 Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; all gods bow down before him.
9 For thou, O LORD, art most high over all the earth; thou art exalted far above all gods.

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

Padre Pio

2009-05-27T02:10:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher,"Pray, hope, and don't worry. Worry is useless. God is merciful and will hear your prayer." Padre Pio

Litany of Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven,
have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the World,
have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit,
have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God,
have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Virgin Immaculate, pray for us.
St. Pio of Pietrelcina, pray for us.
Beloved of God, pray for us.
Imitator of Jesus Christ, pray for us.
Good shepherd of the people, pray for us.
Model for priests, pray for us.
Light of the Church, pray for us.
Adorer of the Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
Faithful son of St. Francis, pray for us.
Marked with the stigmata of Jesus, pray for us.
Patient in suffering, pray for us.
Helper of the dying, pray for us.
Director of souls, pray for us.
Heart of gold, pray for us.
Apostle of mercy, pray for us.
Worker of miracles, pray for us.
Consoler of the afflicted, pray for us.
Lover of the Most Holy Rosary, pray for us.
Helper of souls in doubt and darkness, pray for us.
Comforter of the sick, pray for us.
Example of humility, pray for us.
Source of wisdom, pray for us.
Mirror of the divine life, pray for us.
Lover of Jesus Crucified,
Resigned to the will of God, pray for us.
Doing good upon earth, pray for us.
Filled with the spirit of self-sacrifice, pray for us.
Our help and hope in all our needs, pray for us.
Vessel of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.
Leading us to Christ, pray for us.
Our spiritual father and advocate, pray for us.
Crowned with glory in Heaven, pray for us.

God our Father, You helped St. Pio to reflect the
image of Christ through a life of charity and self-sacrifice.
May we follow your Son by walking in the footsteps of
St. Pio of Pietrelcina and by imitating his selfless love.
Amen

The Bread That Our Heavenly Mother Gives Us

2009-05-27T02:06:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings. -- St. Isaac Jogues

The Bread That Our
Heavenly Mother Gives Us

Taken From JESUS OUR EUCHARISTIC LOVE
by Fr. Stefano Manelli,
OFM Conv., STD
Imprimatur, 1973

The Holy Eucharist is the Bread that comes from our Heavenly Mother. It is Bread produced by Mary from the flour of Her immaculate flesh, kneaded into dough with her virginal milk. St. Augustine wrote, "Jesus took His Flesh from the flesh of Mary."

We know, too, that united to the Divinity in the Eucharist there is Jesus' Body and Blood taken from the body and blood of the Blessed Virgin. Therefore at every Holy Communion we receive, it would be quite correct, and a very beautiful thing, to take notice of our Holy Mother's sweet and mysterious presence, inseparably united with Jesus in the Host. Jesus is always the Son She adores. He is Flesh of Her flesh and Blood of Her blood. If Adam could call Eve when she had been taken from his rib, "bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh" (Gen. 2:23), cannot the holy Virgin Mary even more rightly call Jesus 'Flesh of my flesh and Blood of my blood"? Taken from the "intact Virgin" as says St. Thomas Aquinas, the flesh of Jesus is the maternal flesh of Mary, the blood of Jesus is the maternal blood of Mary. Therefore it will never be possible to separate Jesus from Mary.

For this reason at every Holy Mass which is celebrated, the Blessed Virgin can repeat with truth to Jesus in the Host and in the Chalice, "You are my Son today I have generated You" (Ps. 2:7). And justly St. Augustine teaches us that in the Eucharist "Mary extends and perpetuates Her Divine Maternity", while St. Albert the Great exhorts with love, "My Soul if you wish to experience intimacy with Mary let yourself be carried between Her arms and nourished with Her blood" ... Go with this ineffable chaste thought to the banquet of God and you will find in the Blood of the Son the nourishment of the Mother.

Many Saints and theologians (St. Peter Damian, St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, St. Bernadine ...) say that Jesus instituted the Eucharist above all for Mary and then through Mary, the Universal Mediatrix of All Graces, for all of us. And from Mary therefore Jesus comes to be given to us day by day; and in Jesus is always the Immaculate flesh and the Virginal blood of His Most Holy Mother which penetrates into our hearts and inebriates our souls. In an ecstasy during the celebration of Holy Mass, St. Ignatius of Loyola contemplated one day the reality revealed by this most sweet truth and he remained celestially moved for a long time.
Furthermore, if we reflect that Jesus, the Fruit of Mary's immaculate womb, constitutes all of Mary's love, all of Her sweetness, all of Her tenderness, Her whole riches, her whole life, then we see that when we receive Him we cannot fail to also receive her who, by ties of the highest love, as well as by ties of flesh and blood, forms with Jesus one unity, one whole, as She is always and inseparably "leaning upon her Beloved" (Cant. 8:5). Is it not true that love, and above all divine love, unites and unifies? And aside from the Unity in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, can we think of a unity more close and total than that between Jesus and the Virgin Mary?

Mary's purity, her virginity, her tender ways, her sweet manner, her love, and even the very features of her heavenly face---all these we find in Jesus; for the most holy humanity assumed by the Word is wholly and only Mary's humanity, on account of the great mystery of the virginal Conception accomplished by the Holy Spirit, Who made Mary Jesus' Mother, while consecrating her as a Virgin that would be forever undefiled and glorious in soul and body.
And thus "The Eucharist," writes St. Albert the Great, "produces impulses of a love that is angelic, and It has the unique power to put in souls a holy feeling of tenderness toward the Queen of Angels. She has given us what is Flesh of her flesh and Bone of her bone, and in the Eucharist she continues to give us this sweet, virginal, heavenly banquet.

Finally, in the eternal generation of the Word in the bosom of the Trinity, the Father gives Himself wholly to the Son, Who is "Mirror of the Father", similarly in the temporal generation of the same Word in the bosom of humanity, the Mother of God gives herself wholly to the Son, to her Jesus, "the virginal Flower of the Virgin Mother" (Pius XII). And the Son in His turn gives Himself wholly to the Mother, making Himself similar to her and making her "fully Godlike" (St. Peter Damian).

St. Peter Julian Eymard, that Saint so totally devoted to the Eucharist, declared that even in this world, after Jesus' Ascension into Heaven, the Blessed Virgin "lived a life in and by the Blessed Sacrament;" and thus he liked to call her "Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament." And Padre Pio of Pietrelcina would sometimes say to his spiritual children, "Do you not see the Madonna always beside the tabernacle?" And how could she fail to be there ---she who "stood by the Cross of Jesus" on Calvary (John 19:25)? Therefore St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his book of devotions, used to always join a visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary to each visit to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. And Saint Maximilian M. Kolbe used to recommend that when we go before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we never fail to remember Mary's presence, calling on her and associating ourselves with her, at least seeing to it that her sweet name comes to mind.

In the life of the Dominican friar, St. Hyacinth, we read that once in order to avoid a profanation of the Blessed Sacrament, the Saint hastened to the tabernacle to take out the ciborium containing the sacred Particles, in order to put it in a safer place. When, hugging Jesus in the Eucharist close to his breast, he was about to leave the altar, he heard a voice coming from the statue of the Blessed Virgin which was next to the altar, saying, "What? Would you take Jesus away without taking me?" The Saint halted in surprise. He understood the message, but he did not know how he could manage to carry Mary's statue too. Puzzled, he drew near the statue to see if he could take it with his one free hand. There was no need to strain himself, for the statue became as light as a feather. There is a precious lesson in this miracle: When we take Mary along with Jesus, she adds absolutely no weight or cost, for in a wonderful way they abide in one another (John 6:57).

The reply St. Bernadette Soubirous gave was very beautiful, when someone put this tricky question to her: "What would please you more, to receive Holy Communion, or to see the Madonna in the grotto?" The little Saint thought for a minute and then answered, "What a strange question! The two cannot be separated. Jesus and Mary always go together."

The Madonna and the Holy Eucharist are by the nature of things united inseparably "even to the end of the world" (Mt. 28:20). For Mary with her body and soul is the heavenly "tabernacle of God" (Apoc. 21:3). She is the incorruptible Host, "holy and immaculate" (Eph. 5:27), who, with her very self, clothes the Word of God made Man. St. Germain ventured to call her "sweet paradise of God." According to a pious opinion, supported by the ecstasies and visions of St. Veronica Giuliani and especially those of Blessed Magdalen Martinengo, within her breast the Blessed Virgin in Paradise preserves and will always preserve Jesus in a visible Host; and this is for her "eternal consolation, is an occasion of rejoicing for all the blessed inhabitants of Heaven, and in particular is an everlasting joy to all devotees of the Blessed Sacrament." This is represented in the "Madonna Mediatrice Universale," which Mother Speranza in recent times has painted and which has been placed in the Shrine at Collevalenza. It is the same as the image often reproduced in monstrances (sacred stands for exposing the Holy Eucharist for adoration) of the last century, which represent the Madonna, and make a place in her breast for the visible cavity in which the consecrated Host is put. "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee!" cried the woman amid the crowd (Lk. 11 :27). Thus in some of the churches in France the tabernacle used to be encased in a statue of Our Lady of the Assumption. The significance is quite clear: it is always the Blessed Virgin Mary who gives us Jesus, Who is the blessed Fruit of her virginal womb and the Heart of her Immaculate Heart. And She will forever continue to carry Jesus in the Holy Eucharist within her breast so as to present Him for the joyful contemplation of the Saints in Heaven, to whom it is even now given to see His Divine Person in the Eucharistic Species, according to the teaching of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas' Aquinas.

It is in the Eucharist, and especially in Holy Communion, that our union with the Madonna becomes a full and loving conformity with her. We receive her devoted care and protection along with the Blessed Sacrament. her tender attentions overlook nothing as Christ is united to each of us, her children, moving her to pour out all her motherly love on our souls and bodies. The great St. Hilary, Father and Doctor of the Church, wrote this excellent passage: "The greatest joy that we can give Mary is that of bearing Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament within our breast." Her motherly union with Jesus becomes a union also with whoever is united to Jesus, especially in Holy Communion. And what can give as much joy to one who loves, as union with the person loved? And we—--do we not happen to be beloved children of the heavenly Mother?
When we go before Jesus on the altar, we always find Him "with Mary His Mother," as the Magi did at Bethlehem (Mt. 2:11). And Jesus in the sacred Host, from the altar of our hearts, can repeat to each of us what He said to St. John the Evangelist from the altar of Calvary, "Behold thy Mother" (John 19:27).

St. Augustine beautifully illustrates even better how Mary makes herself our own and unites herself to each one of us in Holy Communion. He says, "The Word is the Food of the Angels. Men have not the strength to feed It to themselves, nor need they do so. What is needed is a mother who may eat this supersubstantial Bread, transform it into her milk, and in this way feed her poor children. This mother is Mary. She nourishes herself with the Word and transforms It into the Sacred Humanity. She transforms It into Flesh and Blood, i.e., into this sweetest of milk which is called the Eucharist."

Thus it is quite natural that the great as well as the lesser Marian shrines always foster devotion to the Holy Eucharist, so much so that they can also be called Eucharistic shrines. Lourdes, Fatima, Loretto, Pompei, come to mind, where crowds approach the altar in almost endless lines to receive Mary's blessed Fruit. It cannot be otherwise; for there is no bond so close and so sweet with the Madonna, as the one realized in receiving the Holy Eucharist. Jesus and Mary "always go together," as St. Bernadette said.

Remember, too, that at Fatima the Madonna asked that, together with the holy Rosary, there be above all the Communion of Reparation for all the offenses and outrages which her Immaculate Heart receives. She is looking for loving hearts that want to console her by welcoming her into their home, as St. John the Evangelist did (John 19:27). We truly welcome her in the home of our hearts with the warmest hospitality, the hospitality dearest to her, every time we invite her company by way of our receiving Jesus in Holy Communion, when we present her with the living, true Jesus for her great comfort and delight. We need to appreciate what a great grace this is to have the Madonna's full care and attention with Jesus and in Jesus. Ah, St. Ambrose wanted all Christians to have "Mary's soul to magnify the Lord and Mary's spirit to exult in God"! This is the favor granted us in the noblest way in every Holy Communion. Let us reflect on it with love and gratitude.

One of the old monstrances made in the figure of Mary carrying the Holy Eucharist in her breast has these words inscribed on its base: "O Christian who comest full of faith to receive the Bread of life, eat It worthily, and remember that It was fashioned out of Mary's pure blood." Mary can quite rightfully beckon to us and speak to us in the words of the inspired prophet, "Come and eat my bread, drink the wine I have prepared" (Prov. 9:5). Saint Maximilian M. Kolbe wanted to convey the thought of this passage when he proposed that all altars of the Blessed Sacrament be surmounted with a statue of the Immaculate Virgin with her arms extended to invite us all to come eat the Bread that She herself had made.

With beautiful imagery, St. Gregory of Tours said that Mary's Immaculate bosom is the heavenly cupboard, well-stocked with the Bread of Life that was made in order to feed her children. "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee and the paps that gave Thee suck!" exclaimed a certain woman to Jesus (Lk. 11:27). The Immaculate Virgin carried Jesus within her while His Body was being formed from her own flesh and her own blood. Thus every time we go to Holy Communion, something sweet to recall is that Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the Bread of Life produced from Mary with the flour of her Immaculate flesh, kneaded with the admixture of her virginal milk. She has made this for us, her children. And we realize more fully our brotherhood with one another as we all partake of this savory, exquisite Bread of our Mother.

Communion With Mary
(Meditating on the Hail Mary)
Preparation

O holy Virgin, I am about to receive thy Jesus. I wish my heart were like thine when thou didst become Mother of the Savior at the time of the Annunciation of the Angel.

Hail Mary

I greet thee, good Mother. Allow me to unite myself with thee to adore Jesus. Lend me thine affections, thy sentiments. Moreover I ask thee to adore Him for me. Hail, O true Body of Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary! I believe, and I adore Thee.

Full of grace

Thou, Mary, wert worthy to receive the all-holy God, for thou wert full of grace from the first moment of thy life. But I am poor and sinful. My evil ways make me unfit to go to Communion. O my Mother, cover me with thy merits and lead me to Jesus.

The Lord is with thee

The Lord is with Thee, O most Holy Virgin. By thy ardent longing thou didst draw Him down from Heaven into thy heart. Instill also in my heart an ardent longing and an insatiable hunger for Jesus, so that I can truly say, "Come, O my Jesus, I long for Thee with the heart of Mary, Thy Mother and mine."

Blessed art Thou among women

Blessed art Thou, O Mary, who hast never known the remorse that comes from committing sin; for thou art free of every kind of sin and imperfection. But I know I have sinned, and I am not sure that I have been sufficiently sorry. Make me understand the evil of my sins and the goodness of God Whom I have offended. I weep for my sins. Present me thus penitent to thy Jesus.

And blessed is the Fruit of Thy womb

Ah, good Mother! What a great gift thou hast given us in giving us our Savior, Jesus! And behold, He wants to come to me to make me an especially beloved child of thy heart. I go with confidence to receive Him, and I say to Him: "My Jesus, I abandon myself to Thee. Come to give me strength to serve Thee faithfully, and the hope of enjoying Thee forever with Thy Mother in Heaven."

Jesus

Grant, O Mother, that I experience those sentiments that thou didst experience as thou didst live in Jesus' company, as thou didst call Him by name. I am now about to receive Him. Allow me to be able to say to Him: "Come, O my Jesus. Thou wilt find in me the same welcome that Thou didst have from Thy Mother on earth. I hope that through her intercession Thou wilt welcome me into Heaven."

Thanksgiving

Holy Mary, Mother of God

O my Mother, how happy I am to be united with my Jesus! But how do I deserve to have my Lord come down to me? O Mary, who art holy and Immaculate, offer Him worthy thanks for me.
O Thou who from the first perceived the heartbeats of that Jesus Whom I now welcome within me, Thou who loved Him more than all the Saints together hast loved Him, and who lived for Him alone when thou wert on earth, grant that I may now share thy sentiments and thy love.

And Thou, O Jesus, accept the love of Thy Mother as though it were my own and do not deny me a tender glance while I also say to Thee with all my heart, "I love Thee."

Pray for us sinners

Pray for me, O Mary. At this time unite Thy prayers to mine. And now that Jesus has come into my heart, ready to grant me all graces, I wish to ask Him above all that I never separate myself from Him by sin. And thou, O Mary, preserve me from evil, and be my refuge in temptation.

Now

For now and from now on, beloved Mother, I beg for all the graces that are profitable to my soul. Obtain for me this favor: that I be clothed with the virtues of goodness and meekness and that my life be one of spotless purity.

And at the hour of our death

From now on my prayer, O Jesus, is that I may receive Thee worthily at the time of my death and that my death may be a holy one. I accept it, when and how Thou shalt send it to me—--I welcome it in union with Thy sacrifice fulfilled on the Cross. I accept it in order to submit myself to the Divine Will, for the glory of God, for my salvation, and for the salvation of souls.

O Sorrowful Virgin, assist me as thou didst assist Jesus in His last agony.

"Amen"

"So be it." O Jesus, here is the word that I want to repeat at every instant, both during my youth and throughout my life. May Thy Will be done always. And all that Thou doth provide is the best thing for me, and from now on I accept it and give Thee thanks. Amen.

Before The Holy Eucharist
The Visit to the Blessed Sacrament

My Lord Jesus Christ, Who, for the love Thou doth bear towards men, remain in this Sacrament night and day, filled with compassion and love, waiting, calling, and welcoming all who come to visit Thee: I believe that Thou art present in the Sacrament of the Altar; I adore Thee from the abyss of my nothingness, and I thank Thee for all the graces Thou hast given me, particularly for having given me Thyself in this Sacrament, for having given me Thy Most Holy Mother Mary as my Advocate, and for having called me to visit Thee in this church.

I pay reverence to Thy most loving Heart today, and this for three purposes: first, in thanksgiving for this great Gift; second, to make reparation for all the outrages Thou hast received from all Thy enemies in this Sacrament; third, I intend by this visit to adore Thee in all the places on earth in which Thou art present in this Sacrament, and in which Thou art least honored and most abandoned.

My Jesus, I love Thee with all my heart. I repent of having so often displeased Thy infinite Goodness in the past. I resolve with the help of Thy grace not to offend Thee ever again in the future; and for the present, poor sinner though I be, I consecrate myself wholly to Thee. I renounce and surrender to Thee my whole will, my affections, my desires, and all that belongs to me. From this day forward do whatever You please with me and what belongs to me. I ask and wish only of Thee Thy holy love, final perseverance, and the perfect fulfillment of Thy Will.

I recommend to Thee the souls in Purgatory, especially those most devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament and to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I also recommend to Thee all poor sinners.

O my beloved Savior, I unite all my affections with the affections of Thy most loving Heart, and thus united, I offer them to Thy Eternal Father, and I beg Him in Thy name that for love of Thee He accept them and heed them. Amen.

Spiritual Communion

My Jesus, I believe that Thou art really present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I love Thee above all things, and I desire to possess Thee within my soul. Since I cannot now receive Thee sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.

(Make a brief pause, and during it unite yourself with Jesus.)

I embrace Thee as being already there and unite myself wholly to Thee. Never, never permit me to be separated from Thee. Amen.

Visit to the Blessed Virgin Mary

O most holy, Immaculate Virgin and my Mother Mary, to thee who art the Mother of my Lord, the Queen of the world, the Advocate, the hope, the refuge of sinners, I, who am the most miserable of all sinners, have recourse today. I venerate thee, O great Queen, and I thank thee for all the graces thou hast conferred on me until now, especially for having delivered me from Hell, which I have so often deserved. I love thee, O Most amiable Lady, and because of the love I bear thee, I promise to serve thee always and do all in my power to make thee loved by others. I place in thee all my hopes; I confide my salvation to thy care. Accept me as thy servant, and shelter me under thy mantle, O Mother of Mercy. And since thou art so powerful with God, deliver me from all temptations, or obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until my death.

Of thee I ask a perfect love of Jesus Christ. From thee I hope to die a good death. O Mary, my Mother, for the love thou doth bear to God, I beg thee to help me always, but especially at the last moment of my life. Leave me not, I beseech thee, until thou seest me safe in Heaven, blessing Thee and singing thy mercies for all eternity. Amen. So I hope. So may it be.

—--St. Alphonsus Liguori

John 17:11-19

2009-05-27T02:00:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, When you feel the assaults of passion and anger, then is the time to be silent as Jesus was silent in the midst of His ignominies and sufferings. -- St. Paul of the Cross

Daily Reading & Meditation
Wednesday (5/27): "Sanctified and consecrated in God's truth"
Scripture: John 17:11-19

11 And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. 14 I have given them your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you did send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth.

Meditation: Do you know why God created you – what purpose and mission he has entrusted to you? Jesus' aim and mission was to glorify his heavenly Father. All he said and did gave glory to his Father. On the eve of his sacrifice on the cross and in the presence of his disciples, Jesus made his high priestly prayer: "Holy Father, keep them in your name that they may be one as we are one". Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples and for all who would believe in him. Jesus' prayer for his people is that we be united with God the Father in his Son and through his Holy Spirit and be joined together, in unity with all who are members of Christ's body.

What motivated Jesus to lay down his life on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world? It was love – love for his Father in heaven and love for each and everyone of us who are made in the image and likeness of God. Jesus was sent into the world by his Father for a purpose and that purpose was a mission of love to free us from slavery to sin, Satan, fear, death, and hopelessness. Jesus saw glory in the cross rather than shame. Obedience to his Father's will was his glory. Jesus kept his Father's word even when tempted to forgo the cross. Jesus did not rely on his own human resources and strength to accomplish his Father's will. He trusted in his Father to give him strength, courage, and perseverance in the face of opposition, trials, and temptation. We also must take up our cross and follow the Lord Jesus whever he may call us. He will give us the strength and power of the Holy Spirit to live as his disciples. John Henry Newman wrote: "God has created me, to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. Therefore, I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away." Do you trust in God and in his call and purpose for your life?

Jesus prayed that his disciples would be sanctified and consecrated in God's truth and holiness. The scriptural word for consecration comes from the same Hebrew word which means holy or set apart for God. This word also means to be equiped with the qualities of mind and heart and character for such a task or service. Just as Jesus was called by the Father to serve in holiness and truth, so we, too, are called and equipped for the task of serving God in the world as his ambassadors. God's truth frees us from ignorance and the deception of sin. It reveals to us God's goodness, love, and wisdom. And it gives us a thirst for God's holiness. The Holy Spirit is the source and giver of all holiness. As we allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives, he transforms us by his purifying fire and changes us into the likeness of Christ. Is your life consecrated toGod?

"Lord Jesus, take my life and make it wholly pleasing to you. Sanctify me in your truth and guide me by your Holy Spirit that I may follow you faithfully wherever you lead."

Psalm 103:1-2,11-12,19-20

1 Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
19 The LORD has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
20 Bless the LORD, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hearkening to the voice of his word!

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

St. Patrick's Breastplate, sung by Angelina (EWTN)

2009-05-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher,“The only way to win audiences is to tell people about the life and death of Christ. Every other approach is a waste.”
Fulton J. Sheen quote

SIN! THE ONLY REAL EVIL

2009-05-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Mother Mary keep me from sin and protect me from evil. Amen!!

A VOICE FROM THE PAST!
WHEN ALL CHURCH INSTITUTIONS
WERE UNEQUIVOCALLY CATHOLIC
Taken from C.T.S. Leaflets, Series No. 3.

SIN!
THE ONLY REAL EVIL

PHYSICAL EVIL.

The world is for ever complaining and murmuring about the supposed evils that oppress it. It complains of poverty, of hard work, of pain and sickness, and of disease and death. But can such things be truly called evil? Can we rightly stigmatize as evil that which may be made an occasion of immense good? How can we truly say, for instance, that poverty is an evil, when our Divine Lord Himself, says:---"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven" (Matt, vi, 3)? Or again, are hard work and labour and early tribulations to be reckoned as evils when we know that it is---"through many tribulations that we must enter into the Kingdom of God" (Acts xiv, 21.)? Are disease and suffering and sickness to be classed among evils, when we are well aware that, if patiently borne, they will purchase for us eternal treasures, far beyond anything that the world can offer us? Why! To one who is serving God faithfully, even death itself is a blessing. For to such a one death is but the flinging open of the prison doors, and the entry of the soul into ecstatic joys which will have no end. Surely then, none of these things should be looked upon as evil!

MORAL EVIL.

As a matter of fact and if rightly understood, THERE IS BUT ONE ONLY EVIL---but one thing that may rightly and justly bear the name. I call that thing evil, which is so powerful and so terrible that it can, in a moment, transform an Angel into a devil, a Saint into a demon, and blast the whole of my eternal career. I call that thing evil which can deprive me, at one fell stroke, of the supreme end for which I have been created, and that can rob me in an instant of the accumulated graces and merits of a lifetime; take from me the very power of meriting; change God Himself from a loving Father into an angry Judge; that can---in a word---close the gates of Heaven for ever against me, and open wide the dreadful portals of Hell to receive me. Now there is only one thing that possesses this awful power, and that one thing is SIN. I need fear nothing else, for nothing else can do me any permanent injury.

THE REMEDY.

So long as I maintain myself, having been Baptized, "in a a state of a grace," and am truly repentant of all serious sin, I am a child of God, a brother of Jesus Christ, an heir to the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven. My soul reflects the supreme beauty of God Himself, I even share in His Divine life (2 Peter i, 4), and am destined to be the companion of the glorious company of Saints and Angels in God's heavenly home.

Now neither poverty, nor sickness, nor persecution, nor any temporal misfortune nor even death itself has any power whatsoever to deprive me of anyone of these infinite treasures. There is one thing only that can rise to dispute my claim to my sublime and eternal destiny, and that can wreck my entire being; that one thing is Sin.

Our natural life consists of the union of body and soul. Death is their separation. The supernatural life of the soul consists of the supernatural union of the soul and God. The death of the soul consists, not in its annihilation, for it is immortal, but in its separation from God.

As God is infinite, this may be described as an Infinite Evil, an Infinite Loss.

Every thinking man who has tried in vain to solve for himself the problem of evil must consider the solution just outlined. It is the only satisfactory solution, since it embodies the teaching of Christ.

The Catholic Church, as the Church founded by Christ, and the only authoritative interpreter of His teaching, gives the one adequate explanation of the evil in the world, and offers the only real remedy.

This leaflet was found in a second-hand book published in 1914. We used an old-style holy card image printed in vintage tones and a late victorian flower motif to match the age of the leaflet. No image painted by mere men can match the power of the eternal verities, such as this one!

John17:1-11

2009-05-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ -- St. Jerome

Daily Reading & Meditation
Tuesday (5/26): "This is eternal life, that they know the Father the only true God"
Scripture: John 17:1-11

1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; 5 and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. 6 "I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; they were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; 8 for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours; 10 all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

Meditation: In his Last Supper discourse Jesus speaks of his glory and the glory of his Father. What is this glory? It is the cross which Jesus speaks of here. How does the cross reveal his glory? In the cross God reveals the breadth of his great love for sinners and the power of redemption which cancels the debt of sin and reverses the curse of our condemnation. Jesus gave his Father the supreme honor and glory through his obedience and willingness to go to the cross. In times of defense the greatest honor belongs not to those who fought and survived but to those who gave the supreme sacrifice of their own lives for their fellow citizens.

Jesus speaks of the Father bringing glory to the Son through the great mystery of the Incarnation and Cross of Christ. God the Father gave us his only begotten Son for our redemption and deliverance from slavery to sin and death. There is no greater proof of God's love for each and every person on the face of the earth than the Cross of Jesus Christ. In the cross we see a new way of love – a love that is unconditional, sacrificial and generous beyond comprehension.

Jesus also speaks of eternal life. What is eternal life? It is more than simply endless time. Science and medicine today looks for ways to extend the duration of life; but that doesn't necessarily make life better for us here. Eternal life is qualitative more than quantitative. To have eternal life is to have the life of God within us. When we possess eternal life we experience here and now something of God's majesty, his peace, joy and love and the holiness which characterizes the life of God. Jesus also speaks of the knowledge of God. Jesus tells his disciples that they can know the only true God. Knowledge of God is not simply limited to knowing something about God, but we can know God personally. The essence of Christianity, and what makes it distinct from Judaism and other religions, is the knowledge of God as our Father. Jesus makes it possible for each of us to personally know God as our Father. To see Jesus is to see what God is like. In Jesus we see the perfect love of God – a God who cares intensely and who yearns over men and women, loving them to the point of laying down his life for them upon the Cross. Jesus is the revelation of God – a God who loves us completely, unconditionally and perfectly. Do you seek unity of heart, mind and will with God and unity of love and peace with your neighbor?

"If only I possessed the grace, good Jesus, to be utterly at one with you! Amidst all the variety of worldly things around me, Lord, the only thing I crave is unity with you. You are all my soul needs. Unite, dear friend of my heart, this unique little soul of mine to your perfect goodness. You are all mine; when shall I be yours? Lord Jesus, my beloved, be the magnet of my heart; clasp, press, unite me for ever to your sacred heart. You have made me for yourself; make me one with you. Absorb this tiny drop of life into the ocean of goodness whence it came." (Prayer of Francis de Sales, 1567-1622)

Psalm 68:10-21

10 thy flock found a dwelling in it; in thy goodness, O God, thou didst provide for the needy.
11 The Lord gives the command; great is the host of those who bore the tidings:
12 "The kings of the armies, they flee, they flee!" The women at home divide the spoil,
13 though they stay among the sheepfolds -- the wings of a dove covered with silver, its pinions with green gold.
14 When the Almighty scattered kings there, snow fell on Zalmon.
15 O mighty mountain, mountain of Bashan; O many-peaked mountain, mountain of Bashan!
16 Why look you with envy, O many-peaked mountain, at the mount which God desired for his abode, yea, where the LORD will dwell for ever?
17 With mighty chariotry, twice ten thousand, thousands upon thousands, the Lord came from Sinai into the holy place.
18 Thou didst ascend the high mount, leading captives in thy train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there.
19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. [Selah]
20 Our God is a God of salvation; and to GOD, the Lord, belongs escape from death.
21 But God will shatter the heads of his enemies, the hairy crown of him who walks in his guilty ways.

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2009-05-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

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Father Aloysius H. Schmitt & Inoculation Against Tradition

2009-05-25T04:23:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher,
No earthly pleasures, no kingdoms of this world can benefit me in any way. I prefer death in Christ Jesus to power over the farthest limits of the earth. He who died in place of us is the one object of my quest. He who rose for our sakes is my one desire. Do not talk about Jesus Christ as long as you love this world. --St Ignatius of Antioch

Inoculation Against Tradition
PAULY FONGEMIE

So many Catholics who have been attending the Novus Ordo Mass exclusively since its imposing eruption onto the scene, and who have had little if any exposure to good Traditional literature and or the Council of Trent and various encyclicals of the Pontiffs before 1960, have been almost completely inoculated against Tradition, which is treated as if it were a fatal, communicable disease. I was reminded of this pathology last week.

I know a woman who drives a relative to the Traditional Mass, and remains to return him home, then goes back to her own parish for the NO Mass, where she takes Communion, having refrained at the first Mass. I have overheard people discussing the Traditional Mass who suspect that the Mass itself is invalid, which is quite ironic, if you think about it. That woman has a very kind heart and her dedication to her relative who is unable to drive is laudatory. I expect God will reward her with much grace that will impel her towards Tradition when He deems to do so. When you tell these people that it is the same Mass many of them grew up with, they just look at you as if you are eccentric and change the subject. A few turn their backs, literally, they are so repulsed by the mere thought of a Mass in Latin; yet they do not mind at all about attending a "Polish" Mass, a "Spanish" Mass, when they do not speak these languages either. They say, well, there is an English translation provided. Indeed. And one as well, with the Latin Mass. The inconsistency of their argument does not escape them, the realization of which makes them irritable. Truth---and its pristine logic---has this uncanny quality.

They no longer want to be reminded that they now worship as the Protestants do. I know that they know they do, down deep, because almost to a person the same people say, "There's not much difference now between us." One said, "no more difference", not "not much difference." Since the Protestants haven't changed, this must mean by definition that they have. It is the NO Mass that changed them, because it is the common denominator. Books by heretics are not on their reading list as I understand it. I have no reason to doubt them at all. In fact, I know they are devout and sincere.

Their frame of reference as Catholics is Vatican II, not Tradition, although I suspect they would not put it that way---because they have no frame of reference for that reference point. Then, too, just as the newly formed Anglicans of their day thought themselves still Catholic while Anglican in name only, although their children would know otherwise and be proud of it, these Catholics are no longer Catholic, only this time it is in name only, the very opposite. Of course they intended no such thing at all. Their children know better, too, and being pragmatic as good little Americans, they simply walk away more often than not. The Novus Ordo Mass and the culture it spawned is more than an insult to Almighty God, it is an insult to that which is the best in people and just as it has laid waste to whole dioceses, it has decimated entire families. Almost every Catholic family bewails the apostasy of at least one of the children, sometimes all the children, including families of ten children. I am speaking of families where the Rosary was prayed. The Rosary did not do this, for it is holy and most salutary; it took the full force of liberalism with all its rotten fruits to accomplish the deed. The true cost cannot be calculated this side of eternity. Of course there were other influences, but where the true faith is strong, those worldly lures are minimized, for there is ever the world and its attractions to deal with for every generation.

I do not place any blame on the first generation [as I don't for the next], for they grew up believing that the priest was beyond reproach and what he says, is right, just as you and I were taught. Those of us who had someone wiser take us under his wing as he guided us out of the scorched earth that was the "American" [C]hurch milieu were blessed beyond the words to tell. Not so, for everyone. Why God's grace is communicated to one and not another at a particular moment is indeed a mystery. We were gently, but persistently prodded to recall our bounden duty to adhere to Tradition, to avoid novelty in faith, morals, and worship, following the counsel of all the Saints, Martyrs [St. Paul for one], and good Popes. Even if it meant disregarding the pastor and avoiding his bad example whenever possible. Eventually it became an utter necessity to avoid it altogether or risk the loss of the gift of faith in some places.

Those left behind, beyond our reach for now at least, are under the sway of priests steeped in the habit of conducting search and destroy missions in order to detect any vestige of Tradition and the authentic Catholic faith that might be lingering in parishioners, thereby to eradicate them before objective truth, reverence for holy things---the sacred---makes a serious comeback. This is why the "new evangelization" is successful in closing parishes because of dwindling numbers while the Protestant hives have an abundance of busy bees with churches springing up all over and those which are long established, building additions. In our locale of a 16 mile radius five Catholic parishes have been joined as one while four Protestant sects have been added to the scene, a large Mormon tabernacle I think is what you call it, two Baptist churches and one of the Pentecostal genre. This is in the last two years alone. Astonishing! They are having more than two children per family and gaining converts, a number of them from the Catholic exodus. If you are going to have Protestantism by another name rammed down your throat, you might as well have the real McCoy which is not playing coy, at least give them that credit. We live next door to a Baptist church and every Sunday we see the families with several children arrive, the girls in dresses, too, not blue jeans and skimpy tops. If you did not know better you would think that they were Traditional Catholic families. Some even have head coverings, I kid you not. The irony is spectacular! They at least do not have St. Paul in a three year cycle designed to avoid pertinent passages pertaining to women in church.

Modernist priests trained in the deprivation of Tradition in the morally depraved and spiritually disoriented seminaries from the 1960s until the beginning of this decade, learned their lessons well. They merit our pity and prayers, for who can gauge the demoralization of spirit, the total "breakdown" they underwent before ordination? Perhaps through the same sort of process they use themselves now? At best they are woefully ignorant. Their parishioners merit our pity and prayers as well. They are contracepting because these priests do not preach on Christian marriage and because of the contracepting, how many future priests have not been born? The current rage---the scam "theology of the body" ought to complete the devastation. How many have been lost at the altar [table now] because the priest is either wishy-washy or swishy-swashy or both? Liberalism destroys the sacerdotal in favor of the man-made or secular; but tepidity, the very soul.

One of the priests who appears regularly on EWTN said that when he was in the seminary in the 60s and 70s, he was told that the Liturgy is "wide open", meaning that he could experiment. The Catholics of today are still feeling the effects of this sacrilege. Although the heady experimentation of those decades has somewhat moderated, the false religion it taught has found fertile ground in the mentality of a captive people stripped of the sense of mystery. That same priest said that Mass facing the people has removed the mystery of the Mass. Why he does not say the ancient Roman Mass exclusively is beyond me! So, even he, who seems to know better, appears to be still imprisoned within the confines of the liturgical shipwreck that is the new "liturgy". It has partially blinded him. He mistakenly believes, with all good intentions, that the NO "offertory" is equivalent, theologically and liturgically with the authentic offertory of the Traditional Roman Mass. A comparison of the two forms, side by side is startling! I am struck that he fails to see!

Inoculating against Tradition is carried out at a three-prong injection site---at Mass---in an unholy trinity:

1. Condemnation of the past [and the sense of the sacred];
2. Marginalization of parishioners who do not get with the program; and
3. Ridicule or sarcasm and mockery.

Human nature and the insidious poison of the Mass of Pope Paul VI [his "smoke of Satan making its entrance"] itself take care of the rest.

Numbers 2 and 3 are nasty, sordid undertakings and the average "apostate" will avoid using them if necessary, especially if he is prescient, because he knows that this renders him smaller than he considers the ones he victimizes. No, the pride of the worldly heretic, the thief in the sanctuary, who has come to plunder the Catholic heritage and strip the altars of the Divine---the new evangelization---induces him to choose the first option with the other two as backup plans B and C. He will only opt for these as first choice if the person or persons, who meet his hubris head on by challenging his conceits, salacious suggestions, and false notions, have any knowledge of the Sacred Councils, Church history and Tradition. He, too, is a good little pragmatic American. The bully in the pulpit has too much self-awareness to let himself be bested in an honest discussion, if he can help it. Lest you think I am being presumptuous, let me assure you that more than one priest has announced his intentions and I quote one precisely, "to change the faith" of the people he has found in his new assignment. One of them even boasted that it would take him "less than two years" and he was dead on, unfortunately. He had prefaced his remarks by saying that he was amazed to find such traditional devotions. It is to weep. He died an unexpected death at what most would consider a far too young age. Ah, but "death" was his constant companion.

Condemnation of the past [and the sense of the sacred]

The tools of the trade for this undertaking come straight out of the secular-liberal manual for denigrating Western culture: Exaggeration of the faults of the past or the deliberate distortion of history, and the tyranny of "tolerance" which in actuality will brook no dissent from its peculiar orthodoxy.

It goes something like this, to use just two prominent, pervasive examples. Father ------- opens his monologue replete with jokes [sermons and homilies are passé now that the microphone has empowered him] with some news item that fits his agenda. Let us use a recent one, the English schoolteacher who was imprisoned by the Islamic Sudanese government for unintended blasphemy and released after international outrage. Any similar incident would suffice, provided it involves a clash of religions or cultures. Father then expresses his disgust, quite normal under the circumstances, then launches into an undocumented, unexplained general condemnation of past injustices at the hands of the official Church toward those of other religions. He is never precise, and omits any context, this way he can't be tripped up by the actual facts. How does one challenge a generality that could be a little bit true about individual Catholics in theory? It is like trying to prove a negative. Tails he wins, heads you lose. Now that his audience---I use the term pointedly---is softened up and feeling a sense of shame for the supposed past injustices of its forebears in the faith, he maneuvers for the coup d'etat. "We must be tolerant". "We ought not judge others." Of course we ought not judge our neighbor per se, but this does not mean we have to pretend to be blind to the situation at hand. How otherwise are we to make an assessment of any danger to the faith, for instance? And sound the alarm? The necessary distinctions are eliminated from the beginning as if to purposefully muddy the waters.

Inordinately skilled at rooting out any trace of intolerance in others, especially the Church he imagines, he is blind to his own. He proceeds to demonstrate this irony with consummate tediousness by always bringing up some irksome person of the past weeks [becoming fewer and farther between] who has had the temerity of pointing out Father's peccadilloes or less than priestly habits that may be bad examples for others, say young children. "How dare they judge me!" "They are being intolerant and judgmental!" Which is a judgmental declaration, is it not?

He fails to see that he has made the very judgment he claims to abhor against his own neighbor, who may have very well have been accurate in his conclusion that Father has room for improvement as they say, without actually judging the state of his soul. Yet Father presumes that the person meant to "judge" him as is forbidden. Following Father's standard no parent could correct a child, no teacher a student, no constituent his Congressman, no Senator his President, and so forth. And no priest his parishioner. Including the person being denounced. A parent who must have a priest who is a good example for his children has the obligation to his children to remove them from bad influences. Now I know that Mutter Vogel, in a short adviso in the PIETA prayer book condemns anyone who would correct a priest, and that this has caused many a Catholic to permit a modernist priest to harm the faith of his children. I do not think that Mutter ever met Father ------- or had any children under his charge. Prudence and humility, yes, stupidity, no!

Now that Father knows the assembly is more likely to be reluctant to disagree with his monologue which gets worse, each and every time, he wipes up his campaign for dissent with the following [example two], with almost no variation:

"In the past the Church was fixated on sin, mortal sin." Since he rightly suspects that his parishioners no longer have a sense of sin, particularly mortal sin---apart from murder and adultery---since it is he that has contributed to the loss, he then explains what a mortal sin was or is. It is Tradition, especially the Roman Mass of Tradition that he fears and despises. So the mortal sins he chooses to expound on are the imaginary ones he presumes the Church once anathematized, using a few real ones, but greatly exaggerating the number, stressing the injustice of it all. Perhaps the best example is that concerning the ancient norms for the Latin Mass that bind the priest under pain of sin, mortal and or venial. He says, or words to this effect, "Personally I never bought into it, all those supposed mortal sins a priest could commit. Now that is no more. This is the same with missing Sunday Mass. The Church used to teach that it was a mortal sin to miss Mass even if you were so sick you could not literally get out of bed. It isn't a sin anymore. If you want to go fishing, well, who's to judge."

Now Father is more than confused, he is being dishonest. Everyone of us older Catholics [the approximate age of Father] remembers what we were taught as wee ones about attending Sunday Mass, the same as today: It is a mortal sin to miss Sunday Mass unless one has a valid reason, illness, unduly taxing and hazardous travel, such as in winter, serious family obligations [an elderly dependent at home who has no one else to care for him, for instance or that do not include social and sporting events] unexpected emergency police duty and the like, or necessary travel that could not be adjusted. Today the problem of finding a Mass that does not endanger the faith of one's children or your own is also a priority.

And in almost every case cited above the obligation to read your Missal still binds where possible. Who judges if we go fishing instead? Christ does, and so do we, objectively speaking, for we know it is still a mortal sin, no matter what Father ------- says. It may not be any of my business if my neighbor goes fishing, but it is if he is influencing my son who likes to fish. How does Father absolve in Confession???? Does he say, "So what?"

As for the mortal sins of the priest, I can think of one he overlooked, the mortal sin of telling one's parishioners that it is not a mortal sin to deliberately miss Sunday Mass of one's own choosing. Regarding the others, yes, some deliberate failures of the priest who did not simply forget due to old age, etc., were indeed included in mortal sin. And to the good! The Catholic people have a right to a noble and pure liturgy, unstained by neglect and casualness. They have this right because they have the obligation to render to Almighty God the worship that is worthy of Him. When the Israelites abandoned the worship commanded by God, they were slain in great numbers, on at least one occasion. Mortal sin is death, death of the soul and merits death itself. But God is patient and long enduring, giving us chance after chance, but for how long? This is why the Church was so exact. Would it were the same today! Sometimes a change in practice can be for the worse, not the better. Just ask anyone who lives in a border state.

Father overlooked the fact that it was Christ Who said to Peter and the other Apostles, "What you bind, is bound in Heaven ...". This is understood by the Church to mean absolution in Confession and governance, the authority to bind in conscience even disciplinary acts. Thus, when the Church was more strict in its requirements for Lenten penance and Friday penance, it had the full authority to do so. Was it "unfair" that my grandmother had to fast more than I am required to do? I think she was better off for it. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We need prods sometimes, stinging ones, like the penalty of mortal sin. Would that we were all Saints now! Father is confusing [I surmise] doctrinal sin with disciplinary sin. Because the latter can change he thinks the former can and that because he thinks the past was unfair the present must be fair. Fair is what is required in a just manner at the time. Fairness or equity is a characteristic of justice, not charity. It is nothing short of a scandal that he would tell his people "I never bought into it." He had to "buy into it" or else be guilty of sin himself, because the Church had the authority under Christ and Christ honors that authority, provided it does not violate morals or doctrine or Tradition. No one has the right to abrogate those. Beyond belief, this priest! Does he not consider that if he can in "good conscience" undermine the authority of the Church herself, that he consequently undermines his own? In this case a good thing no doubt. And he is legion. With one monologue he manages to scandalize those still clinging to the faith, however tentatively, render sin attractive to the rest, mislead children or the pure of heart who trust the priest, and divide the parish along those lines.

He mops up with the usual gag line or amusing joke, sometimes genuinely funny and wholesome, sometimes not at all. So they know what a regular Joe he is, how human and just like them. After all, the church is no longer a sacred place, it is a meeting hall with profane music, clapping and laughing and talking while before the Blessed Sacrament. There is virtually no more Benediction in many parishes and where there is still Eucharistic Adoration it is by the laity and "Eucharistic ministers" with nary a priest in sight, including the placement of the Sacred Host in the monstrance. Attendance is often slight. Mass is a hootenanny circus unbecoming a Catholic people worthy of the name. And to think we do not permit [rightly] dogs to enter a church. Every dog I have raised would show more reverence, if prayer time at home is any indicator. From the profane to the insane. Modern "progress". This is desecration itself, terribly sinful, an abomination, yes mortal sin objectively speaking!

Time for old-fashion regression, less tolerance as befitting a people with the use of reason if nothing else.

Marginalization of parishioners who do not get with the program

This is easily accomplished by the above method, from the pulpit ordinarily, in two formats, direct and indirect. The direct approach is to either mention the person outright while pointing out a fault of "intolerance" with a slight note of humor to cover the legalities canon law-wise, or to condemn parts of a letter the "offending" parishioner may have written to the pastor, about concerns, facts of Church history, and so forth. The excoriation is swift, and withering. The purpose is to dissuade any one else with the same inclination. It works with few exceptions: "I am not going to say a word to Father, I do not want to be the focus at Mass." The person who says such a thing is quite understandable from a human nature point of view. However, since he knows that Father has scandalized the faithful, he undergoes inner turmoil and if he decides to make his peace with his pusillanimity he succeeds at a great price, his self-respect, then the light of faith dims slowly if he feels constrained to repeat the rationalization. This, too, is human nature. I wonder if they have a sub-course in the seminary or update bulletins at priestly summer institutes on how to "dispose" of Traditionalists, just as the teachers' organizations instruct their members how to get around objecting parents. The person who is denounced is now effectively marginalized by the rest if they want to be in Father's favor or seen as one of the crowd. It was the crowd that proclaimed, "Give us Barabbas!" So much for the insights of the crowd ...

The indirect approach involves simply ignoring the concern and never mentioning it to the person who raised it, no reply by mail, phone or in person. As if the person is a non-person. Chairman Mao would be proud. When money is needed the non-person is "rehabilitated" momentarily.

Ridicule or sarcasm and mockery

This is the last resort, although in practice it tends to be combined with the second modus operandi, and is self-explanatory. It is the worst because of its cruelty and spitefulness, and requires no ignorance. The first two at least admit to a possibility: one could say that the priest is simply ignorant and thinks he is doing the right thing, but with mockery there is no such exculpatory circumstance because the Church including the modern "American Church" still teaches the venality and utter sinfulness of willfully subjecting one's neighbor in person or by name [as opposed to the situation sans name in a rhetorical exercise] to derision for his beliefs and the upholding of them. My neighbor may no longer believe in the Real Presence, but I must not use ridicule against him; I ought to pray for him at the very least while looking for an opportunity to talk to him about this doctrine everywhere and always taught by the Church and believed by the faithful. Sarcasm is okay for political satire when dealing with a known hypocrite with unjust designs, if necessary, but this is not what we are talking about. The average Catholic is defenseless against such a merciless attack, which is the whole point in using it. This will stick deeply when the other two barely prick. Lawyers use this approach all the time: if the law is against you, argue facts; if the facts are against you, argue the law; if both are against you, assassinate the character of the opposing witness.

The bad medicine continues, uncontraindicated by a group of bishops who appear to be apostates themselves, if their latest pronouncement about the film, "The Golden Compass" means anything at all. This while still remaining mute as a group on the Motu proprio ...

DECEMBER ALL THE WAY

Father Aloysius H. Schmitt
December 4, 1909 – December 7, 1941

Roman Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque
Chaplain in the United States Navy during World War II

Early Life and Ordination
He was born in St. Lucas, Iowa and studied at Loras College in Dubuque after which he prepared for the priesthood as a seminarian in Rome, where he was prophetically ordained on Our Lady's Feast, the Immaculate Conception, December 8, 1935. Father Schmitt then served in Dubuque parishes, and one in Cheyenne, Wyoming. After four years, he received permission to become a chaplain, and joined the United States Navy. He was appointed Acting Chaplain with the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade (LTJG) on June 28, 1939.

The USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor
On December 7th, 1941, Fr. Schmitt was serving on board the battleship, USS Oklahoma when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He had just finished saying Mass when the call went out for "general quarters". A Japanese hit caused the ship to capsize. A number of sailors, including Fr. Schmitt, were trapped in a compartment with only a small porthole as the means of escape. Fr. Schmitt helped a number of men through this porthole. When it came his time to leave, he declined and helped more men to escape. In total, he helped 12 men to escape.

Fr. Schmitt died on board the Oklahoma. He was the first chaplain of any faith to have died in World War II. His example inspired a number of other priests to become chaplains.

Posthumous Honors
He was honored posthumously by the U.S. government when it awarded him the Navy and Marine Corps Medal along with the Purple Heart. A destroyer escort named USS Schmitt was commissioned in 1943 by the Navy in his honor, ceremonially launched by his sister, and served the U.S. Navy until 1967 when it was transferred to Taiwan. The Christ the King Chapel at Loras College was dedicated in his memory, and contains some of Fr. Schmitt's property that was donated to the school. When the USS Oklahoma ["the Oakie"] was recovered his body was never identified, but his liturgical book was found. There are many memorials in his honor. A picture of one on the web is HERE.

Another link of interest that includes Catholic Chaplain, Fr. Kirkpatrick [Captain] of the USS Arizona is HERE.

We chose the shell as one of Father's symbols because it represents the Sacrament of Baptism, rather than the Navy anchor. The medal is the Purple Heart. The title of this brief memorial is taken from the video documentary of the same title which was broadcast on EWTN. The image of him in his Navy uniform is the only one we could locate. The documentary has many fine black and white photos of him.

THIS IS HOW CATHOLIC TRADITION WANTS TO CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY,
FOLLOWING HIS QUIET EXAMPLE, INSTEAD OF FIREWORKS.

John 16:29-33

2009-05-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, You must ask God to give you power to fight against the sin of pride which is your greatest enemy - the root of all that is evil, and the failure of all that is good. For God resists the proud. -- St. Vincent de Paul

Daily Reading & Meditation
Monday (5/25): "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world"
Scripture: John 16:29-33

29 His disciples said, "Ah, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and need none to question you; by this we believe that you came from God." 31 Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone; yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Meditation: How did Jesus convince his disciples that he was the Son of God? Jesus could read their hearts like an open book. He answered their questions before they could even speak them out. And he showed them the glory of God. For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased". We can believe in Jesus and in the words he speaks because he is himself God, the Word made flesh. Since he "has seen the Father," and is "one with the Father," Jesus is the only one who knows the Father as he truly is and can reveal him to us. Our faith is "certain" because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. Faith is already the beginning of eternal life. Basil the Great says: "When we contemplte the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us we shall enjoy one day." Do you nourish and strengthen your faith with the word of God?

In spite of their belief, Jesus warned his disciples that their faith would be put to the test and that they would fail. Jesus spoke plainly about the tragedy of betrayal and the triumph of the cross. Jesus knew the hearts of his disciples better than they knew. He knew they would desert him in his hour of trial. Such knowledge could have easily led to bitterness and rejection. Jesus met the injury of betrayal and disloyalty with supreme love and trust in his disciples. He loved his disciples to the very end even when they left him alone to die on the cross. He knew that the cross would not bring defeat but victory over sin and death. Jesus speaks the same word to us today. "My love for you is unconditional and I will never abandon you." While we cannot avoid all pain and suffering in this life, Jesus, nonetheless assures us that he will guide us safely through any difficulty or trial we may have to undergo for his sake. Jesus calls each of us to take courage, because he has overcome the world. The Holy Spirit gives us a living hope in the power of the resurrection and a confident trust in God's abiding presence. Nothing can overcome this faith and hope in Christ's victory – no trial, suffering, temptation, or testing. The Holy Spirit gives us the strength and courage we need to overcome adversity and to persevere in faith. Do you believe that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:38-39)?

"Lord Jesus, help me to trust in your saving power, especially when I meet adversities and trials. Give me your peace when I am troubled and let me know the joy of your victory over sin and death."

Psalm 68:2-7

2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before fire, let the wicked perish before God!
3 But let the righteous be joyful; let them exult before God; let them be jubilant with joy!
4 Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides upon the clouds; his name is the LORD, exult before him!
5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.
6 God gives the desolate a home to dwell in; he leads out the prisoners to prosperity; but the rebellious dwell in a parched land.
7 O God, when thou didst go forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness, [Selah]

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(c) 2009 Don Schwager

The Descent of a Dove and the Peace of Pentecost

2009-05-25T04:18:00.001-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Am I my brother's keeper? No, I am my brother's brother.

—William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

The Descent of a Dove and the Peace of Pentecost
For Sunday May 31, 2009
Lectionary Readings (Revised Common Lectionary, Year B))
Acts 2:1–21 or Ezekiel 37:1–14
Psalm 104:24–34, 35b
Romans 8:22–27 or Acts 2:1–21
John 15:26–27; 16:4b–15

Catacomb fresco of two doves, vase, palm branches.
I once told a friend who's a film expert that when I watch a movie, I listen for a single sentence or short dialogue that captures the entire film. "I do the same thing," said Scott, "but I look for an image that summarizes the movie." Christians identify themselves as people of the Book who worship the Word made flesh. It took a while, but Christians also became people of images, and in those images they expressed their faith as much as they did in words.

In the marvelous book Picturing the Bible: The Earliest Christian Art (2007), Jeffrey Spier explains how the early Jesus movement first expressed itself in visual forms. Art and architecture flourished in classical Greece and Rome, of course, but "the Christians were slow to express their religious beliefs pictorially, and no churches, decorated tombs, nor indeed Christian works of art of any kind datable before the third century are known." This might have been because the earliest Christians were a persecuted and illicit sect comprised largely of people from lower socio-economic classes. They also inherited Judaism's ambivalence toward art rooted in the prohibition against graven images in Exodus 20:4.

Around the year 200, says Spier, "purely Christian images began to appear." The forty catacombs in and around Rome, along with the discovery of a house church at Dura Europos in Syria dated to 240 AD, show how the earliest Christian art was not merely decorative but intentionally devotional; its purpose was not "objective beauty" but an "expression of faith." In the first decades of the third century, genuine Christian art appears on seal rings, tombs, clay lamps, engraved gems, and in one instance a marble statuette. A hundred years after that, Christian art adorns belt buckles and Bible covers, plates and coins, intricate mosaics and ornate crosses (see Spier, pp. 1–23).

Just as Christians portrayed Jesus as a shepherd, fish, anchor, or a lamb, the five images in this essay illustrate how the Holy Spirit was represented by a dove. The symbolism of the dove hearkens back to when Noah sent a dove out from the ark to see if the flood waters had receded. When the dove returned, "there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf" (Genesis 8:11). Peace and safety at last for all humanity! In all three synoptic gospels, when John baptized Jesus, the Spirit descended upon him as a dove (Matthew 3:16 = Mark 1:10 = Luke 3:22). The illuminated Rabbula Gospel from the sixth century, like thousands of similar images thereafter, reminds us that Pentecost celebrates the descent of the dove and the peace of the Spirit into our own lives today.

The earliest Christian writers didn't say much about art and images, and Spier believes that their hostility toward visual representations has been exaggerated. Most of early Christian art drew upon well-known Bible texts like Noah, Daniel in the lion's den, Moses, Jonah, Adam and Eve, and Abraham. In perhaps the earliest textual reference to Christian art, Clement of Alexandria (150–215) writes that Christians could also borrow pagan symbols as long as they were appropriate. Swords and bows would be inappropriate, he said, because they signaled war and violence, but a dove was suitable, said Clement, "since we follow peace."

Truly "pentecostal" believers are people of peace and the descent of the dove. "Seek peace and pursue it," wrote the ancient psalmist (Psalm 34:14). "Make every effort to live in peace with all people," says Hebrews 12:14. "Make every effort to do what leads to peace," wrote Paul to the Romans (Romans 14:19). As followers of the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) and the "Lord of peace," we wish every person "peace at all times and in every way" (1 Thessalonians 3:16). "Blessed are the peacemakers," said Jesus (Matthew 5:9).

There's a fascinating commentary about the work of the Spirit in the life of Israel's first king, Saul. We read in 1 Samuel 10:6 that when the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, “he was changed into another person." This Pentecost I'm praying the Peace Prayer ascribed to Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226). It captures the sort of radical change into "another sort of person" for which I pray:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in self-forgetting that we find;
And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

We don't know the actual author of this famous prayer, and it was not until the 1920s that it was even ascribed to Saint Francis. By one account the prayer was found in 1915 in Normandy, written on the back of a card of Saint Francis. But it certainly expresses his longing to be an instrument of peace in our violent world.

Pentecost, the Rabbula Gospel, c. 586,
illuminated Syriac Bible,
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word for "spirit" (ruach) means breath or wind. The very first sentences of the Bible describe God's Spirit hovering over all creation like a tender mother (Genesis 1:2). In the New Testament, the Spirit is called the paraclete, literally, one called alongside to help, an encourager, comforter or counselor. And in the earliest art of the first believers, the Spirit is a dove of peace descending into our lives to bring the presence of God's shalom, that is, anything and everything that nourishes human wholeness and well-being.

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Image credits: (1) Yale Divinity Digital Image & Text Library; (2–4) JesusWalk.com; and (5) Wikimedia.org

Ave Maria sung by Angelina

2009-05-24T03:45:00.000-07:00

Gregory Mussmacher, Mother Mary stated this during her appearence to Bruno Cornacchiola, in Rome, on April 12, 1947, "I am the one that is of the Divine Trinity: daughter of the Father, the Mother of the Son, and Spouse and Temple of the Holy Spirit"

Fatima "Our Lady of the Rosary"
"Fatima is the key Marian apparition of the Twentieth Century. Pope Pius XII noted that the message of Fatima is one of the greatest interventions of God through Mary in world history since the death of the Apostles. Only in the name of God does the Blessed Mother intervene. She does not say a word, does not take a step without the explicit will of God. The message of Fatima cannot be understood if you do not know atheistic communism, if you do not know what happened in Russia."

On 13 May 1917, three children were pasturing their little flock in the Cova da Iria, parish of Fatima, town of Vila Nova de Ourém. today the diocese of Leiria-Fatima. They were called: Lucia de Jesus, aged 10, and her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto, aged 9 and 7.

About midday, after praying the Rosary, as was their custom, they were amusing themselves building a little house of stones scattered around he place where the Basilica now stands. Suddenly they saw a brilliant light, and thinking it to be lightning, they decided to go home. But as they went down the slope another flash lit up the place, and they saw on the top of a holmoak (where the Chapel of Apparitions now stands), "a Lady more brilliant than the sun", from whose hands hung a white rosary.
The Lady told the three little shepherds that it was necessary to pray much, and she invited them to return to the Cova da Iria during five consecutive months, on the 13th day at that hour. The children did so and the 13th day of June, July, September and October, the Lady appeared to them again and spoke to them in the Cova da 0a. On the 19th of August, the apparition took place at Valinhos, about 500 meters from Aljustrel, because on the 13th the children had been carried off by the local Administrator to Vila Nova de Ourém.

At the last apparition, on October 13, with about 70,000 people present, the Lady said to them that she was the "Lady of the Rosary" and that a chapel was to be built there in her honor. After the apparition all present witnessed the miracle promised to the three children in July and September :the sun, resembling a silver disc, could be gazed at without difficulty and, whirling on itself like a wheel of fire, it seemed about to fall upon the earth.

Afterwards, when Lucia was a Religious Sister of Saint Dorothy, Our Lady appeared to her again in Spain (10 December 1925 and 15 February 1926, in the Convent of Pontevedra, and on the night of 13/14 June 1929, in the Convent of Tuy), requesting the devotion of the five first Saturdays (to pray the Rosary, meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary, confess and receive Holy Communion, in reparation for the sins committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary), and the Consecration of Russia to the same Immaculate Heart, This request had been announced by the Apparition on 13 July 1917, in what is called the "Secret of Fatima".
Years later, Sr. Lucia related that, between April and October of 1916, an Angel had appeared to the three seers on three occasions, twice in the Cabeço and once at the well in the garden behind Lucia´s house, who exhorted them to prayer and penance. Since 1917 pilgrims have not ceased to come to the Cova da Iria in thousands upon thousands from all parts of the world, at first on the 13th of each month. later during the summer and winter holidays, and now more and more at weekends and any day all the year round.

The Secrets of Fatima: The Prophecies provided at Fatima serve merely as a reminder to people of what they already know - but try to deny. God is Great, God Made Us, Sin is bad, Sin brings us away from God. If we continue to Sin and offend God - there will be consequences. The detail of the prophecies and their historical accuracy should serve as a wakeup call to us all --

The First Secret : A Brief Vision of Hell to remind us that Hell is real.

"Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent. This vision lasted but an instant. How can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly Mother, who had already prepared us by promising, in the first Apparition, to take us to heaven. Otherwise, I think we would have died of fear and terror."

The Second Secret : The creation of the Soviet Union and the persecution of the Church in Eastern Europe.

"You have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish in the world devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace. The war is going to end: but if people do not cease offending God, a worse one will break out during the Pontificate of Pius XI. When you see a night illuminated by an unknown light, know that this is the great sign given you by God that he is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and of the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred; the Holy Father will have much to suffer; various nations will be annihilated. In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she shall be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world."

The Third Secret: An outright attack on the Catholic Church and its leaders.

"After the two parts which I have already explained, at the left of Our Lady and a little above, we saw an Angel with a flaming sword in his left hand; flashing, it gave out flames that looked as though they would set the world on fire; but they died out in contact with the splendor that Our Lady radiated towards him from her right hand: pointing to the earth with his right hand, the Angel cried out in a loud voice: ‘Penance, Penance, Penance!' And we saw in an immense light that is God: ‘something similar to how people appear in a mirror when they pass in front of it' a Bishop dressed in White ‘we had the impression that it was the Holy Father'. Other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women going up a steep mountain, at the top of which there was a big Cross of rough-hewn trunks as of a cork-tree with the bark; before reaching there the Holy Father passed through a big city half in ruins and half trembling with halting step, afflicted with pain and sorrow, he prayed for the souls of the corpses he met on his way; having reached the top of the mountain, on his knees at the foot of the big Cross he was killed by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and arrows at him, and in the same way there died one after another the other Bishops, Priests, Religious men and women, and various lay people of different ranks and positions. Beneath the two arms of the Cross there were two Angels each with a crystal aspersorium in his hand, in which they gathered up the blood of the Martyrs and with it sprinkled the souls that were making their way to God"
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First Apparition of the Angel

In the spring of 1916 Lucia, Francisco and Jacinta, had their first encounter with a heavenly messenger. Writing in her memoirs, composed under obedience to the Bishop, Lucia tells of that first meeting.

We went on that occasion to my parents' property, which is at the bottom of the Cabeco, facing east. It is called Chousa Velha.

About the middle of the morning it began to drizzle and we climbed up the hill, followed by our sheep, in search of a rock that would shelter us. And so it was that we entered for the first time into that blessed place. It is in the middle of an olive grove that belongs to my godfather, Anastacio. From there one can see the village where I was born, my father's house, and also Casa Velha and Eira da Pedra. The olive grove, which really belongs to several people, extends as far as these places.

We spent the day there, in spite of the fact that the rain had stopped and the sun was shining in a clear sky. We ate our lunch and began to say the Rosary. After that we began to play a game with pebbles. We had only been at it a few moments when a strong wind began to shake the trees and we looked up to see what was happening, since it was such a calm day. And then we began to see, in the distance, above the trees that stretched to the east, a light whiter than snow in the form of a young man, quite transparent, and as brilliant as crystal in the rays of the sun. As he came near we were able to see his features. We were astonished and absorbed and we said nothing to one another. And then he said:

Do not be afraid. I am the angel of peace. Pray with me.

He knelt, bending his forehead to the ground. With a supernatural impulse we did the same, repeating the words we heard him say:

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You.

After repeating this prayer three times the angel rose and said to us:

Pray in this way. The hearts of Jesus and Mary are ready to listen to you.

And he disappeared. He left us in an atmosphere of the supernatural that was so intense we were for a long time unaware of our own existence. The presence of God was so powerful and intimate that even among ourselves we could not speak. On the next day, too, this same atmosphere held us bound, and it lessened and disappeared only gradually. None of us thought of talking about this apparition or any pledge of secrecy. We were locked in silence without having willed it.

The intense effect that the apparition of the Angel had on the children, quite different from the more serene experience of the Virgin the following year. Lucia states,

I don't know why, but the apparitions of our Lady produced in us effects quite different from the angel's visitations We felt in both instances the same intimate happiness, peace and joy, but instead of the physical prostration the angel imposed, our Lady brought a feeling of expansion and freedom; and instead of this annihilation in the divine presence, we wished only to exult in our joy. There was no difficulty of speech when our Lady appeared; there was rather on my part a desire to communicate.

This difference can perhaps be explained in this way. The angels of whatever choir share in common with God a spiritual nature, unmixed with matter. The goodness of their being, filled with the divine justice according to the degree of glory granted to each, radiates that holiness unmediated, though proportioned to the capacity of human beings to experience it. Not without reason Scripture shows how easily an angel appearing to men can be confused with God Himself (Rev 19:10, 22:9). When our Lady appears, however, although her glory is greater than that of the highest seraphim her human nature cloaks that glory in the familiar, just as did Our Lord's human nature, even after the Resurrection.

Although the angels, too, can appear in more mundane fashion, it must have suited the divine purposes to reveal to the children something of the holiness of God. Lucia tells us of the lingering effect it had on them.

His words sank so deeply into our minds that we never forgot them, and ever after we used to spend long periods on our knees repeating them, sometimes until we fell down exhausted.

Second Apparition of the Angel

Sometime during the summer of 1916 the three cousins were playing in the heat of the day in the garden near the well behind the Santos home in Aljustrel. Lucia describes how the angel appeared to them once more, chastising them for their for their lack of spiritual seriousness.

Video
Suddenly we saw the same angel near us.

What are you doing? You must pray! Pray! The hearts of Jesus and Mary have merciful designs for you. You must offer your prayers and sacrifices to God, the Most High.

"But how are we to sacrifice?" I asked.

In every way you can offer sacrifice to God in reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and in supplication for sinners. In this way you will bring peace to our country, for I am its guardian angel, the Angel of Portugal. Above all, bear and accept with patience the sufferings God will send you.

This apparition renewed the same profound effect which the first one had on them. Francisco, who throughout the appearances of the angel and Our Lady would see but not hear, was unsuccessful in prying from the girls the words which the angel had spoken until the following day. Lucia tells us,

The Angels' words sank deeply into our souls like a gleaming torch, showing us Who God is, what is His love for us, and how he wants us to love Him too; the value of sacrifice and how it pleases Him; how He receives it for the conversion of sinners. That is why from that moment we began to offer Him whatever mortified us.

read the rest at http://www.indefenseofthecross.com/fatima.htm