Can You Imagine

Can you imagine...

St. John Vianney, pray for us.

The Call of Beauty

Latin Anyone?

Experiment: Communion in the Hand

The first few minutes of this video shows how much particles fall onto our hands when the Host is placed on them.

My.... I shudder to think how much of Christ I have 'dropped' in the past...

Jesus is on the Floor

Let us renew our holy fear of ever allowing willful or unwillful desecration of the Eucharist.

Comments from kolbe1019:

"Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord." - 1 Cor. 11:27

(From the Council of Trent)
Canon 1: If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as in a sign, or figure or force, let him be anathema.

Canon 2: If anyone says that in the sacred and, holy sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denies that wonderful and singular change of the whole substance of the bread into the body and the whole substance of the wine into the blood, the appearances only of bread and wine remaining, which change the Catholic Church most aptly calls transubstantiation, let him be anathema.

Canon 3: If anyone denies that in the venerable sacrament of the Eucharist the whole Christ is contained under each form and under every part of each form when separated,let him be anathema.

Canon 4: If anyone says that after the consecration is completed, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are not in the admirable sacrament of the Eucharist, but are there only , while being taken and not before or after, and that in the hosts or CONSECRATED PARTICLES which are reserved or which remain after communion, the true body of the Lord does not remain, let him be anathema.

Canon 6: If anyone says that in the holy sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is not to be adored with the worship of latria . . . let him be anathema.

See the rest of the Canons of the Council of Trent on the Most Holy Eucharist. As you can see what we believe is very clear.

(ANATHEMA... Does it mean what you think it means? I include the following not to condemn and nor does the Church condemn, but to show the severity of the situation on this matter.)

"Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N-- himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Christians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we declare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgement."

(The Church has ALWAYS believed in the Eucharist...From the Early Church)

"This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God's Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus."- Justin Martyr's First ApologyCh. 66, inter A.D. 148-155.

"They do not admit that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, the flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His graciousness, raised from the dead." -Ignatius of Antioch's Letter to the Smyrnaeans paragraph 6. circa 80-110 A.D.

If you have a problem with all of this... I am sorry, but your problem is with God. He instituted the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Catholic faith. Safe guarding this Sacred Mystery should be the first thing on the minds and hearts of every Catholic. How can we recognize Christ in his distressing disguise of the poor if we cannot recognize him in his humble disguise of the host?

Risk

'If we not risk anything for God we will never do anything great for Him.' - St Louis de Monfort

Ritus Narcissus

Here's a good post by Fr. Paul Scalia of what we sing in Mass today and the issues they post:

1. Why Do We Sing of Ourselves and Celebrate Ourselves?
2. The Cult of Conceit - Why Are We Singing to Each Other?
3. The Confused Dialogue - Why Are We Singing God's Part?

First cloistered Benedictine monastery inaugurated in Indonesia

Perhaps an alternative to New Zealand. Thanks to Fr. Varghese whom I got to do some catching up with last Friday as he was back for a break from his studies in Boston.

Jakarta, Indonesia, Aug 14, 2007 / 10:36 am (CNA).- The first cloistered Benedictine monastery has been inaugurated in Indonesia, in the western city of Kupang. The monastery is the result of ten years of work by Indonesians and some Italian young people from the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie di Orte, in Viterbo, Italy.

Father Mauro Pace, pastor of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Orte, Italy, who also participated in the project, explained that in Orte, “We have had a Benedictine monastery for 300 years.  A nun from this monastery visited Indonesia and saw there was great interest there.”

“There were many young girls who wanted to experience religious life,” he went on.  “Therefore, this collaboration began between the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie di Orte and Indonesia.”

“In the last twelve or thirteen years,” the Italian priest said, “some thirty girls have come and the Bishop of Kupang suggested the idea of having a Benedictine presence in Indonesia, where this type of spirituality does not exist.”

Abuse of Divine Mercy

Sermon by St. Alphonsus Liguori

"Take care of Him." Luke x. 35

In this day’s gospel we read, that a certain man fell into the hands of robbers, who, after having taken his money, wounded him, and left him half dead. A Samaritan who passed by, saw him, and taking pity on him, bound up his wounds, brought him to an inn, and left him to the care of the host, saying: "Take care of him." These words I this day address to those, if there be any such among you, who, though their souls are wounded by sin, instead of attending to the care of them, continually aggravate the wounds by new sins, and thus abuse the mercy of God, who preserves their lives, that they may repent, and not be lost forever. I say to you: Brethren, take care of your souls, which are in a very bad state; have compassion on them. "Have pity on thy own soul (Eccl. xxx. 24)." Your souls are sick, and what is worse they are near the eternal death of hell; for he who abuses to excess the divine mercy, is on the point of being abandoned by the mercy of God. This shall be the subject of the present discourse.

St. Augustine says that the devil deludes Christians in two ways "by despair and hope." After a person has committed sin, the enemy, by placing before his eyes the rigour of divine justice, tempts him to despair of the mercy of God. But, before he sins, the devil by representing to him the divine mercy, labours to make him fearless of the chastisement due to sin. Hence the saint gives the following advice: "After sin, hope for mercy; before sin, fear justice." If, after sin, you despair of God’s pardon, you offend him by a new and more grievous sin. Have recourse to His mercy, and He will pardon you. But, before sin, fear God’s justice, and trust not to His mercy; for, they who abuse the mercy of God to offend him, do not deserve to be treated with mercy. Abulensis says, that the man who offends justice may have recourse to mercy; but to whom can they have recourse, who offend and provoke mercy against themselves?

He is Risen!

The disciples Peter and John came running to the tomb on the morning of the Resurrection:
Eugene Burnand (1898) Musee d'Orsay, Paris

Beautiful music for Easter here.

Resurrexit sicut dixit, Alleluia! He is risen as he said, Alleluia!

Shakespeare's Quote

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs,
Being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers' eyes,
Being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers' tears.
What is it else? A madness most discreet,
A choking gall and a preserving sweet.
~ William Shakespeare

Happy Valentine's Day!

Je Te Veux - Satie

The Hope

 
The Extraodinary Form celebrated in the modern church - how we yearn for that to happen one day here.

Usus antiquior in Poland: a local story

Lesson from A Donkey

This story was in my inbox, and I found it quite inspiring:

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.

He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw. With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.

Faith

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

Saint Augustine

The most unexpected consolation can come from the least expected source sometimes. This one came from a Malay colleague in my corporate relations department in the daily news letter - just when I needed it the most. Thank You, Lord.