Monday, October 4, 2010

Rosary Bowl NW 2010

This past Saturday, Oct 2nd,  was the 4th annual Rosary Bowl NW.  It was once again held inside the pavillion at the state fair grounds, with approximately 1000 people in attendance.  This year's event again began with Holy Mass, celebrated with Archbishop John Vlazny.  Eucharistic Benediction followed Mass, and the recitation of the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary followed Benediction.  It was once again a beautiful joyous occasion.  Seraphim lead us in beautiful music.  Archbishop Vlazny gave a beautiful homily on angels, and in particular our Guardian Angels on this feast day of the guardian angels.  The afternoon included recitation of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, music by Donna Cori Gibson, Michael John Porier, and Fr. Eric Anderson leading an enrollment in the Brown Scapular.  Before leaving we were able to spend a few quiet moments with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in the small adoration chapel.  It was a blessed day.  

http://rosarybowlnw.org/

at 3:20 PM 0 comments

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Pope Benedict's Apostolic Visit to the UK

I have been following the run-up to Pope Benedict's trip to the UK in various news sources for the past year. As the actual trip approached, I prayed. I worried about his safety, and I prayed for his strength, protection, courage, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and that our Holy Father's visit would open hearts and minds.  Finally, I prayed that he would be at peace and be granted great consolation and grace himself. I can now only offer prayers of deep thanksgiving. Our Holy Father transcended my hopes and expectations and the trip was a wonderful success.  It is clear from reading reports that hearts and minds were truly changed by his simple, kind, warm presence.  We are truly blessed to live in a time with such warm, intelligent and holy Popes.  As far as Pope Benedict is concerned, I must agree with the comments of Joseph Margo, the abuse victim in Malta, who said  "You people in Italy have a saint. Do you realize that? You have a saint.".

The links below are to each of his public addresses and homilies on this historic visit.  I am linking to the posts from one of my favorite Catholic news sources, whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com, which contains the raw text of each address, along with beautiful images capturing the spirit of each event.  The official Papal Visit site also has video of most of the events below.


In flight questions on the plan to the UK, 9/16/20010:


HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
MASS OF ST NINIAN, APOSTLE OF SCOTLAND
BELLAHOUSTON PARK
GLASGOW
16 SEPTEMBER 2010



ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO SCHOOL PUPILS
ST MARY'S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TWICKENHAM
17 SEPTEMBER 2010


ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF OTHER RELIGIONS
ST MARY'S UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, TWICKENHAM
17 SEPTEMBER 2010


ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
LAMBETH PALACE
LONDON
17 SEPTEMBER 2010


ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO BRITISH SOCIETY
WESTMINSTER HALL
THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
LONDON
17 SEPTEMBER 2010


ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
EVENSONG
WESTMINSTER ABBEY
LONDON
17 SEPTEMBER 2010



HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
CATHEDRAL OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD
WESTMINSTER
18 SEPTEMBER 2010


GREETING OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO YOUNG PEOPLE
WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL
18 SEPTEMBER 2010


ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
ST PETER'S RESIDENCE FOR THE ELDERLY
18 SEPTEMBER 2010


Meeting with abuse victims and child protection officers


HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
VIGIL OF THE BEATIFICATION
OF VENERABLE JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
HYDE PARK
LONDON
18 SEPTEMBER 2010


HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
MASS FOR THE BEATIFICATION
OF BLESSED JOHN HENRY NEWMAN
COFTON PARK
BIRMINGHAM
19 SEPTEMBER 2010


ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
CHAPEL OF THE FRANCIS MARION HOUSE


FAREWELL ADDRESS OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
BIRMINGHAM AIRPORT





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Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Assumption of Mary



Today Catholics around the world will celebrate the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother Mary into Heaven. In honor of the Assumption, I read Pope Pius XII's 1950 Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, which declared as dogma what was always believed by the Church. My first question on the Assumption when I became Catholic was why? Why in 1950 would the Church declare this as dogma? The impression I get from non-Catholic Christians is that they believe "Catholics just make this stuff up" and declare it, but of course after looking at the history of this and reading Munificentissimus Deus, that is not the case at all. When the Church declares something to be a part of the deposit of faith, it does so usually in response to existing controversies/questions and to ensure long accepted vibrant truths of the faith are not lost for future generations.

Of course the idea of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven, at the end of her life has been with the church from earliest times, in both East and West. The Orthodox church celebrates the end of Mary's life as the Dormition. The Orthodox believe that following her dormition, Mary experienced bodily resurrection 3 days later.  The Ivory carving below depicting the Dormition is from the late 10th, early 11th century.


According to our faith, "we believe in the resurrection of the dead", and that when we die our souls and bodies separate, but that at the end of all time, there will be a bodily resurrection and souls will be united with the glorified resurrected body.

Pope Pius XII states it as follows in the letter:

"God does not will to grant to the just the full effect of the victory over death until the end of time has come. And so it is that the bodies of even the just are corrupted after death, and only on the last day will they be joined, each to its own glorious soul."

In the Immaculate Conception, we also believe that Mary, this singularly unique human being whom God chose take on flesh through (and she assented), was "full of grace" and conceived with a privileged gift of grace sufficient to remain sinless while on earth.  In the Pope's letter, he describes the relationship:

"Now God has willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should be exempted from this general rule. She, by an entirely unique privilege, completely overcame sin by her Immaculate Conception, and as a result she was not subject to the law of remaining in the corruption of the grave, and she did not have to wait until the end of time for the redemption of her body."

As Pope Pius XII discusses the events leading up to the declaration, he reiterates that the assumption is consonant with historic Christian understanding:

"Many outstanding theologians eagerly and zealously carried out investigations on this subject either privately or in public ecclesiastical institutions and in other schools where the sacred disciplines are taught. Marian Congresses, both national and international in scope, have been held in many parts of the Catholic world. These studies and investigations have brought out into even clearer light the fact that the dogma of the Virgin Mary's Assumption into heaven is contained in the deposit of Christian faith entrusted to the Church."

and he goes on to quote Vatican II documents saying:

"the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter in such a way that, by his revelation, they might manifest new doctrine, but so that, by his assistance, they might guard as sacred and might faithfully propose the revelation delivered through the apostles, or the deposit of faith"

Then he goes into a long litany of sources affirming The Assumption through time:

"This belief of the sacred pastors and of Christ's faithful is universally manifested still more splendidly by the fact that, since ancient times, there have been both in the East and in the West solemn liturgical offices commemorating this privilege."

795
"Thus, to cite an illustrious example, this is set forth in that sacramentary which Adrian I, our predecessor of immortal memory [~795], sent to the Emperor Charlemagne. These words are found in this volume: "Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten your Son our Lord incarnate from herself."

8th century
"Byzantine liturgy [8th century], not only is the Virgin Mary's bodily Assumption connected time and time again with the dignity of the Mother of God, but also with the other privileges, and in particular with the virginal motherhood granted her by a singular decree of God's Providence. "God, the King of the universe, has granted you favors that surpass nature. As he kept you a virgin in childbirth, thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has glorified it by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb."

St Sergius: 687 to 701
"And, when our predecessor St. Sergius I prescribed what is known as the litany, or the stational procession, to be held on four Marian feasts, he specified together the Feasts of the Nativity, the Annunciation, the Purification, and the Dormition of the Virgin Mary."

St Leo IV: 847 to 855
"Again, St. Leo IV saw to it that the feast, which was already being celebrated under the title of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother of God, should be observed in even a more solemn way when he ordered a vigil to be held on the day before it and prescribed prayers to be recited after it until the octave day. When this had been done, he decided to take part himself in the celebration, in the midst of a great multitude of the faithful."

St. John Damascene, 676
"It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death. It was fitting that she, who had carried the Creator as a child at her breast, should dwell in the divine tabernacles. It was fitting that the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself, should live in the divine mansions. It was fitting that she, who had seen her Son upon the cross and who had thereby received into her heart the sword of sorrow which she had escaped in the act of giving birth to him, should look upon him as he sits with the Father. It was fitting that God's Mother should possess what belongs to her Son, and that she should be honored by every creature as the Mother and as the handmaid of God."

St. Albert the Great, ~1200
"From these proofs and authorities and from many others, it is manifest that the most blessed Mother of God has been assumed above the choirs of angels. And this we believe in every way to be true.

Of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Pope Pius XII says:
".. the Angelic Doctor, despite the fact that he never dealt directly with this question, nevertheless, whenever he touched upon it, always held together with the Catholic Church, that Mary's body had been assumed into heaven along with her soul"

Of St. Bonaventure (1221-1274), he says:
"...the Seraphic Doctor held the same views. He considered it as entirely certain that, as God had preserved the most holy Virgin Mary from the violation of her virginal purity and integrity in conceiving and in childbirth, he would never have permitted her body to have been resolved into dust and ashes.(32) Explaining these words of Sacred Scripture: "Who is this that comes up from the desert, flowing with delights, leaning upon her beloved?"(33) and applying them in a kind of accommodated sense to the Blessed Virgin, he reasons thus: "From this we can see that she is there bodily...her blessedness would not have been complete unless she were there as a person. The soul is not a person, but the soul, joined to the body, is a person. It is manifest that she is there in soul and in body. Otherwise she would not possess her complete beatitude"

St. Bernardine of Siena, 1450
St. Robert Bellarmine, 1542

St. Peter Canisius 1521-1597
"This teaching has already been accepted for some centuries, it has been held as certain in the minds of the pious people, and it has been taught to the entire Church in such a way that those who deny that Mary's body has been assumed into heaven are not to be listened to patiently but are everywhere to be denounced as over-contentious or rash men, and as imbued with a spirit that is heretical rather than Catholic.

St. Francis de Sales, 1622
St. Alphonsus, 1696

So, clearly, it is indisputable that the Assumption was a part of the practiced deposit of faith for many, many centuries. However, just being a part of the liturgy does not in itself 'make it true', as Pope Pius XII goes on to say:

"However, since the liturgy of the Church does not engender the Catholic faith, but rather springs from it, in such a way that the practices of the sacred worship proceed from the faith as the fruit comes from the tree, it follows that the holy Fathers and the great Doctors, in the homilies and sermons they gave the people on this feast day, did not draw their teaching from the feast itself as from a primary source, but rather they spoke of this doctrine as something already known and accepted by Christ's faithful."

Of what use is it for me as a Christian to contemplate the Assumption? Pope Pius XII writes:

"Finally it is our hope that belief in Mary's bodily Assumption into heaven will make our belief in our own resurrection stronger and render it more effective."

So the actual proclamation of the Assumption is near the end:

by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory."

And finally, Pope John Paul II, says the following in his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, Rosarium Virginis Mariae:

"In the Ascension, Christ was raised in glory to the right hand of the Father, while Mary herself would be raised to that same glory in the Assumption, enjoying beforehand, by a unique privilege, the destiny reserved for all the just at the resurrection of the dead. Crowned in glory – as she appears in the last glorious mystery – Mary shines forth as Queen of the Angels and Saints, the anticipation and the supreme realization of the eschatological state of the Church. At the centre of this unfolding sequence of the glory of the Son and the Mother, the Rosary sets before us the third glorious mystery, Pentecost, which reveals the face of the Church as a family gathered together with Mary, enlivened by the powerful outpouring of the Spirit and ready for the mission of evangelization. The contemplation of this scene, like that of the other glorious mysteries, ought to lead the faithful to an ever greater appreciation of their new life in Christ, lived in the heart of the Church, a life of which the scene of Pentecost itself is the great “icon”. The glorious mysteries thus lead the faithful to greater hope for the eschatological goal towards which they journey as members of the pilgrim People of God in history"
at 1:14 AM 0 comments

Saturday, June 5, 2010

St. Boniface: Apostle to the Germans

Today is the feast day of St. Boniface (754).  This morning while driving to the Airport and listening to the Daily Mass on KBVM, I heard a wonderful homily which introduced me to St. Boniface, the English Benedictine monk who would become "The Apostle to the Germans" (The archived readings and homily can be found here, June 5th).

In order to understand the life and actions of St. Boniface, we first need to understand the context into which he was called to proclaim the Gospel.  Boniface went on his first missionary journey to Germany in 719 at the request of Pope Gregory II.  From his biography on www.americancatholic.org, we see that when St. Boniface arrived in Germany. he found that....

Paganism was a way of life. What Christianity he did find had either lapsed into paganism or was mixed with error. The clergy were mainly responsible for these latter conditions since they were in many instances uneducated, lax and questionably obedient to their bishops .... These are the conditions that Boniface was to report in 722 on his first return visit to Rome. The Holy Father instructed him to reform the German Church.
So what were the paganism practices the Germanic people had lapsed into?  According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germanic_paganism,

Across the Germanic world, there was some variation in the places where pagans worshipped, however, it was common for sites displaying prominent natural features to be used. Tacitus claimed that the 1st century tribes of Germany did not "confine the gods within walls... but that they worshipped outdoors in sacred woods and groves",[14] and similarly there is evidence from later continental Europe, Anglo-Saxon England and Scandinavia that the pagans worshipped out of doors at "trees, groves, wells, stones, fences and cairns".[15] In some later cases, temples would be built on such sites, the most notable being the Swedish Temple at Uppsala which, according to Adam of Bremen, writing in the 11th century, was built around a grove which was "so holy that each tree is itself regarded as sacred".

According to Tacitus, the Germanic tribes think of temples as unsuitable habitations for gods, and they do not represent them as idols in human shape. Instead of temples, they consecrate woods or groves to individual gods.
So it is clear that pagan worship held created things, trees, nature, as sacred which is evident since the Germanic people of this region worshiped at Thor's Oak, a place of veneration of the Germanic deity Thor, (or Donar), the god of Thunder.

On his return from Rome, in 723, St. Boniface began his efforts to bring the Germanic people to Christ.   To do so, he had to begin by uprooting paganism.  In what might be unimaginable today: 

On his return to Hesse, he decided to try to root out the pagan superstitions which seriously affected the stability of his converts. On a day publicly announced, and in the midst of an awe-struck crowd, Boniface and one or two of his followers attacked with axes Thor's sacred oak. These German tribes, along with many other primitive peoples, were tree-worshipers. Thor, god of thunder, was one of the principal Teutonic deities, and this ancient oak, which stood on the summit of Mt. Gudenberg, was sacred to him. After a few blows, the huge tree crashed to earth, splitting into four parts. The terrified tribesmen, who had expected a punishment to fall instantly on the perpetrators of such an outrage, now saw that their god was powerless to protect even his own sanctuary.
St. Boniface had this sacred oak tree, the tree of pagan worship, felled not because he did not love or appreciate nature and God's Created things, but to dislodge the people from their pagan beliefs and practices so they could come to know and accept Christ. Tradition has it he used the wood from Thor's Oak to build a chapel. The felling of Thor's oak is considered the beginning of the Christianization of Germany.

The site of the original chapel built using the wood of Thor's Oak eventually became the site of the 12-14th century Gothic Cathedral of St. Peter, which stands today in Fritzlar, Germany to this today.  A statue of St. Boniface holding his axe faces the Cathedral

St Boniface was over 70 years old and was spending his final years doing missionary work among some of the early converts who had been drifting back into paganism.  On one of these missionary trips, in 754, he was martyred along with the rest of his party by a band of armed pagans.

St. Boniface, pray for us, that we might never place the good and proper love of nature and created things, above our love of their Creator, our Heavenly Father and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Photos: http://www.orthodoxengland.org.uk/boniface.htm (1), http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bonifacius_by_Emil_Doepler.jpg (2), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fritzlar_dom_st_peter.jpg (3)
at 4:19 PM 0 comments
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Monday, April 19, 2010

5 years !

5 years ago, I was not yet a Catholic, but I will never forget when this beautiful, faithful, man was chosen as our current Holy Father. 5 years ago he, following the example of Mary, said yes and he humbly entrusted himself to our prayers with these simple words..
“Dear Brothers and Sisters,


After the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord.


The fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with inadequate instruments consoles me, so above all I entrust myself to your prayers.


In the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help, let us move forward. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.”

Since that time I have read as much as I can from this beautiful, brilliant, kind, devoted, faithful man. We are truly blessed with his by his deep faith, love, wisdom, and intellect.

Today speaking to youth in Malta, our Holy Father radiates the same untiring encouragement to live and embrace our faith:
"Here in Malta, you live in a society that is steeped in Christian faith and values. You should be proud that your country both defends the unborn and promotes stable family life by saying no to abortion and divorce. I urge you to maintain this courageous witness to the sanctity of life and the centrality of marriage and family life for a healthy society. In Malta and Gozo, families know how to value and care for their elderly and infirm members, and they welcome children as gifts from God. Other nations can learn from your Christian example. In the context of European society, Gospel values are once again becoming counter-cultural, just as they were at the time of Saint Paul."

I pray for perseverance, that my own faith will be as lively at 83 (should I be blessed with that many years) as that of our wonderful Holy Father.

Please pray for our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.  Pray for his continued strength, and protection, and for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Photo: http://www.markmallett.com/blog/wp-images/pope_benedict_xvi.jpg
at 12:02 AM 0 comments
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