Dressing Properly For Church

Pope consecrates priests of the world to Immaculate Heart of Mary :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Pope consecrates priests of the world to Immaculate Heart of Mary :: Catholic News Agency (CNA)

Whispers in the Loggia: "May the Church Be Renewed By Priests Who Are Holy"

Whispers in the Loggia: "May the Church Be Renewed By Priests Who Are Holy"

Pope Benedict consecrated and entrusted the global presbyterate to the protection of the Madonna of the Cova

His Holiness consecrated the priests of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary during his trip to Fatima.

What a splendid way to wind down the YEAR FOR PRIESTS.

On behalf of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy, we say

THANK YOU, YOUR HOLINESS.





ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT AND CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY


PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI


Wednesday, 12 May 2010




Immaculate Mother, in this place of grace, called together by the love of your Son Jesus the Eternal High Priest, we, sons in the Son and his priests, consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart, in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.


We are mindful that, without Jesus, we can do nothing good and that only through him, with him and in him, will we be instruments of salvation for the world.


Bride of the Holy Spirit, obtain for us the inestimable gift of transformation in Christ. Through the same power of the Spirit that overshadowed you, making you the Mother of the Saviour, help us to bring Christ your Son to birth in ourselves too.


May the Church be thus renewed by priests who are holy, priests transfigured by the grace of him who makes all things new.


Mother of Mercy, it was your Son Jesus who called us to become like him: light of the world and salt of the earth

Help us, through your powerful intercession, never to fall short of this sublime vocation, nor to give way to our selfishness, to the allurements of the world and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity, guard us with your humility and enfold us with your maternal love that is reflected in so many souls consecrated to you, who have become for us true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church, we priests want to be pastors who do not feed themselves but rather give themselves to God for their brethren, finding their happiness in this. Not only with words, but with our lives, we want to repeat humbly, day after day, Our “here I am”.


Guided by you, we want to be Apostles of Divine Mercy, glad to celebrate every day the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar and to offer to those who request it the sacrament of Reconciliation.


Advocate and Mediatrix of grace, you who are fully immersed in the one universal mediation of Christ, invoke upon us, from God, a heart completely renewed that loves God with all its strength and serves mankind as you did.


Repeat to the Lord your efficacious word: “They have no wine”, so that the Father and the Son will send upon us a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Full of wonder and gratitude at your continuing presence in our midst, in the name of all priests I too want to cry out: “Why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”


Our Mother for all time, do not tire of “visiting us”, consoling us, sustaining us. Come to our aid and deliver us from every danger that threatens us. With this act of entrustment and consecration, we wish to welcome you more deeply, more radically, for ever and totally into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth in the desert of our loneliness, let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness, let it restore calm after the tempest, so that all mankind shall see the salvation of the Lord, who has the name and the face of Jesus, who is reflected in our hearts, for ever united to yours!

Amen!

What Does The Prayer Really Say?»Blog Archive » My now annual rant about Ascension Thursday Sunday

What Does The Prayer Really Say?»Blog Archive » My now annual rant about Ascension Thursday Sunday

Fr. Z has a good analysis of tomorrow's Holyday (unless you live in a diocese where Ascension is moved to Sunday). Of all the Holydays of the Catholic Church, this one is explicitly in the Bible insofar as it is stated unequivocally that Jesus Christ ascended into heaven FORTY DAYS after His Resurrection. Do the math and add 40 days to Easter, you get Ascension THURSDAY, not SUNDAY. Yet, to make our religion more comfortable and eliminate any inconvenience, we move Holydays to Sunday or merely not celebrate them as obligatory (Saint Joseph, March 19).

All eight dioceses of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania celebrate Ascension on the actual day (Thursday). Cross the border over the Mason-Dixon Line, our neighboring Archdiocese of Baltimore (Maryland) moved Ascension to Sunday. Even Birmingham, AL, (EWTN) moved it to Sunday. So the televised Mass tomorrow will not be the Ascension.

Ironically, Islam has no hesitancy to require Muslims to honor their historical holydays. Judaism does not move Yom Kippur to make it more convenient. But Catholics have to get a dispensation so our traditional holydays can be moved to accommodate our people's convenience. Canon Law (#1246) states TEN Holydays:

Nativity (Dec. 25)
Epiphany (Jan. 6)
Ascension (40 days after Easter)
Corpus Christi (Thur. after Trinity Sunday)
Mary, Mother of God (Jan. 1)
Immaculate Conception (Dec. 8)
Assumption (Aug. 15)
Saint Joseph (Mar. 19)
Saints Peter and Paul (Jun. 29)
All Saints (Nov. 1)

That same canon, however, allows for each nation's episcopal conference to petition Rome for permission to move one or more of these holydays to Sunday. Today, when people are the most mobile next to being nomads, we cater to their convenience.

Several months ago I had to rent a car at the airport while visiting Irondale, AL. The only car available had manual windows and locks and no air conditioning. Talk about a time warp. Boy, was annoyed. Most of us have forgotten the days where only expensive luxury cars like Cadillacs had power windows, power locks, electric seats, heated seats, and FM. El cheapo cars were all manual and often had manaul transmission, too. Times changed and technology got less expensive. People now EXPECT and DEMAND convenience. Nothing wrong in that but it can spill over into one's spirituality. When you are used to having remote control, cable TV with 50+ channels, microwave ovens and high-speed broadband internet access, any delay is considered irritating to say the least.

Hence, people EXPECT the times of Mass to be convenient. They expect diocesan policies and even canon law to cater to their convenience. People complain when you make demands of them, like having only practicing Catholics as godparents for baptism or confirmation. When you tell them they NEED at least one practicing Catholic but they CANNOT have two men or two women as godparents, nor can the parents be sponsors for baptism or confirmation, you get rebellion. "What do you mean?" We changed the laws of fast and abstinence and made them so convenient they are almost ineffective for some people. We don't have to return to the rigor of ancient days but I read somewhere a doctor is advocating VOLUNTARY practice of the old THREE HOUR fasting before receiving Holy Communion. Once, it had been no food from midnight on, then it was three hours, now, one hour before reception of the Holy Eucharist. One hour has no effect on the body but three hours actually has a physiological effect but not deleterious or dangerous (unless you have a condition like diabetes, etc.)

Could you imagine the UPROAR if the Church demanded we return to the 3 hour Communion fast? But any one of us can do VOLUNTARILY and do it for the intention of making reparation for sacrileges committed against the Most Blessed Sacrament around the world. Just a thought. And, why not go to Mass even on those 'non-obligatory' holydays especially when they fall on a Saturday or Monday? If our Jewish and Muslim brethren can keep their feasts and traditions, why can't we Catholics? Embrace the inconvenience and offer it up. Save souls. One by one, brick by brick.

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY

ecce mater tua

MOTHER - It was no accident nor coincidence that Our Divine Lord had a human mother. He could have come to earth out of thin air, being a Divine Person.  As God He could have created His human nature without the assistance of a mother since He did so without the help of a biological father anyway. YET, Jesus Christ WAS born of a woman. He HAS a human mother. Her motherhood did not end when she gave birth. It was not a nine month assignment. Motherhood BEGINS at conception, continues through gestation and birth and really kicks off once Jr. starts to cry and needs food, shelter and plenty of LOVE.

On this Mother's Day, we honor those special women who have been given the same vocation shared by the Virgin Mary. Not only did these women bring us INTO the world, they also LOVED us. Children know and learn about the love of God by first experiencing it from MOM and DAD. Jesus felt the warm caress of Mary's cheek against His as she cuddled Him as an infant. She lovingly and tenderly rocked Him in her arms. She nursed Him, bathed Him, kissed Him, hugged Him and held His hand.

Since Christ was TRUE GOD and TRUE MAN, His human nature was as real as ours. Even though He had a divine nature hypostatically united to His human nature in His one Divine Person, Jesus had the same human emotions any son would have for His mother. Since His humanity never ended once the Incarnation took place, His relationship, His LOVE for His Mother can never cease, either. As God, He is her Lord but as Man, He is her Son. 

God blesses us with our own dear mother's who sacrifice so much for their children and who love us unconditionally. My Mom endured the death of three of her five children. One was an infant of three days (my sister Mary Jo). The other was a victim of Muscular Dystrophy (my brother Michael) who died at the age of 26. The last was a victim (my brother Joe) of an underage drunk driver. Six months after his tragic death, my dad died just before he and my mom could celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. Now, she lives with my last surviving brother (Mark) who (Deo gratias) is in remission from leukemia and she suffers with horrible back pain. More than 40 years of nursing as head of the Trauma Center and Emergency Room ruined her vertebrae, disks, spine, etc.  Still, when possible, she enjoys a visit to Alabama to see the Poor Clares and Franciscan Friars at EWTN. Before Mother Angelica suffered her stroke, the two of them would chat and I would be a spectator thinking that this is what it must have been like when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth. Two 'mothers' in conversation about, whom else, their sons?

Today, I thank God for MY mom, Elizabeth Trigilio; for Mother Angelica; for the Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary; and for Holy Mother Church. God is GENEROUS not stingy in His love for us that He has given us all these mothers to show us the breadth, length and depth of divine love.

I also pray for the repose of the souls of my two grandmothers (Anna and Mary) and for the health of my godmother (my mom's sister), my Aunt Rita.

Having been blessed with so much motherly love and affection, I find it incredulous when any human being cannot accept the fact that Jesus must love His own mother even more than we can our own. While God, He is also Man. His humanity is not overwhelmed nor eclipsed by His divinity. She was there for His birth and for His death.  She was His most faithful disciple.