Habemus papam...

Let us pray for our Holy Father, Pope Francis.

May the Lord preserve him,

give him a long life,

make him blessed upon the earth,

and may the Lord not hand him over

to the power of his enemies.

May your hand be upon your holy servant.

Upon your son whom you have chosen for this ministry.

Let us pray.

O God,

the pastor and ruler of all the faithful,

in your mercy look upon your servant, Francis.,

whom you have appointed to preside over your Church.

Grant, we beseech you,

that by word and example

he may edify all those under his charge

so that, with the flock entrusted to him,

he may arrive at length unto life everlasting.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

---- Directory of Devotional Prayer, Congregation of Holy Cross

Ratzinger Prize...

Heart-felt congratulations to Fr. Brian Daley, SJ for receiving the 2012 Ratzinger Prize.  He is a man of sincerity and dedication and I am quite grateful to have had him as professor, spiritual director [don't blame him], and now a priest to minister alongside.

The Holy Father addressed these words at the awarding.

"I warmly congratulate Prof. Daley and Prof. Brague, who by their personalities illustrate this initiative in its second edition. And here I mean “personality” in the full sense: the character of the research and the whole scientific endeavor; the precious service of teaching, which both have undertaken for many years; but also their being, naturally in in different ways – one a Jesuit, the other a married layman – working in the Church, active in offering their qualified contribution to the Church’s presence in today’s world.

In this regard I noted something that led to some reflection, and that is that this year’s two recipients are competent and engaged in two matters that are decisive for the Church of our times: I am referring to ecumenism and the encounter with other religions. Father Daley, studying the Fathers of the Church in depth, has placed himself in the best school for knowing and loving the Church one and undivided but in the richness of her different traditions; thus he carries out a service of responsibility in relations with the Orthodox Churches. And Prof. Brague is a great scholar of the philosophy of religions, particularly the medieval Jewish and Islamic."

A Bishop Teaches...

Bishop Daniel Jenky, CSC, of the Diocese of Peoria, has issued the following letter upon which we might reflect and act.

Our Lady of Sorrows, Patroness of the Congregation of Holy Cross...

Having celebrated yesterday the great solemnity of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Church situates the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows next to it, just as she stood next to the Cross upon which her Son brought redemption to the world.

Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Sorrows, is the patroness of the Congregation of Holy Cross.  Our founder, Blessed Basil Moreau, entrusted his new community to her protection.

Fr. Molinaro, CSC offers a reflection upon the significance of this feast.

Last night, the New York based ensemble Pomerium performed a selection of Renaissance pieces in honor of Mary.   One such piece was the sequence Stabat mater composed by Josquin Desprez.

Conference reminder....

A reminder to attend the upcoming conference sponsored by Sacred Music at Notre Dame and featuring composer James MacMillan.  More information can be found at MSM.

MacMillan at Notre Dame...

I highly encourage participation in the upcoming "Modes of Mary and the Cross" music festival.  Along with several musicians will be the presence of Scottish composer James MacMillan.  Sponsored in-part by the Notre Dame Sacred Music program, the three day festival will surely be worthwhile.

Kolbe the Saint...

To his  parents he was called Raymund.
To his fellow Franciscans he was called Maximilian Maria.
To the Nazi guards of Auschwitz he was called #16670.
To the Church, he is called a saint.

And to husband and father Franciszek Gajowniczek, for whom St. Maximilian Kolbe laid down his life, he is called a friend and brother.

When others chose to see lives as faceless numbers, St. Maximilian put his face forward.

In the presence of hatred, he chose love.

In the presence of revenge and violence, he chose mercy.

Praised be God for his example and intercession.

"....of the deepest..."

"Have you ever thought about the community of suffering?  Have you considered that one man transmits to  another not only the force of example, speech and instruction, not only the superflux of grace and the efficacy of prayer and intercession, but also the power of suffering?  Have you ever contemplated a truth of awe-inspiring  profundity: that whenever one member offers his suffering to God for others in the community of Christ's Passion, that suffering becomes a life-giving and redeeming force for those for whom it has been offered up, and where nothing else could bring them help at any distance in space and in spite of any barriers intervening.

Not one of us knows to what extent he is living by the power of grace which flows into him through others - by the hidden prayer of the tranquil heart, the atoning sacrifices offered up by persons unknown to him, and the satisfaction made on his behalf by those who is in silence offer themselves for their breathren.  It is a community of the deepest and most intimate forces.  They are silent, for nothing noisy can produce these substantial effects.  But it cannot resist them because their source is God."
                        -- Romano Guardini, The Church and the Catholic, 1935, p 103.

My recent encounter with this moving passage coincided with the personal encounter of a beautiful soul who is a local hermit - sanctioned and blessed by the diocese.  The eremitical life, generally thought of as a sort of past legend, is a profound life that has always existed and always will.  "It is a community of the deepest and most intimate forces."

First Profession of Vows 2012

Congratulations to and blessings upon our novices who will make their first profession of vows in the Congregation of Holy Cross this Saturday, July 28th.

"We accept the Lord’s call to pledge ourselves publicly and perpetually as members of the Congregation of Holy Cross by the vows of consecrated celibacy, poverty and obedience. Great is the mystery and meaning within these vows. And yet their point is simple. They are an act of love for the God who first loved us. By our vows we are committed to single-hearted intimacy with God, to trusting dependence upon God and to willing surrender to God. We wish thus to live in the image of Jesus, who was sent in love to announce God’s rule and who beckons to us to follow him."   --Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, 43.

St. Benedict, Pray for Us....

Town square of Norcia (Nursia), Italy where Sts. Benedict and Scholastica were born.

Today the Church celebrates the memorial of St. Benedict, founder of Western Monasticism and author of the Rule of St. Benedict which for centuries and to this very day has guided men and women in the spiritual life.

God's blessings to the Benedictine Sisters of Holy Angels Convent in Jonesboro, AR who taught thousands of families including my own. 

God bless the Benedictine monks of St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN who assist students in all matters liturgical. 

And to the Benedictine community of Sant'Anselmo on the Aventine Hill in Rome, may God's blessings be with you all.

Prayers for Peace....

God save us and the Christian people of Nigeria.  From the Associated Press:

JOS, Nigeria, JULY 10, 2012 - Today Boko Haram, an extremist Islamic group, claimed responsibility for attacks over the weekend that killed many people in villages near the central Nigerian town of Jos.

Christians "will not know peace again" if they do not accept Islam, said a statement from the Boko Haram sect, according to the Associated Press.

According to the Associated Press hundreds of assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed a dozen Christian villages on Saturday. Estimates of the numbers killed vary, but one report put it at 65.

In a press release written in a local dialect of Hausa and signed by Boko Haram leader Abul Qaqa, the group said, "We thank God for our success in the attack on Christians at Barikin Ladi and Riyom, whereby security agents, Christians and two state and national assembly members were killed,” according to Reuters.

Gunmen, divided into five groups, attacked 10 villages, killing mostly women and children on Saturday night, according to a report by a Nigerian newspaper, The Nation.

According to the report the attackers came back as the bodies from the initial attack were being buried. Among those killed in the second attack were some local legislators.

Some Summer Reading....

With multiple flights back to the States and then to my hometown for Masses and a baptism, I picked up a book that had been highly recommended to me by friends of the author, Thomas Hibbs.  Originally published in 1999 and revised this year, Shows About Nothing explores the presence of Nihilism in American society through the lens of both film and television.

If you are the sort who has never heard of or just has a casual understanding of nihilism, the influence of Nietzsche, or the ongoing effects of Romanticism, then Shows will not only explain them, but will also cause surprise as it effectively reveals how influenced we Americans are by these ubiquitous traits.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus....

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus which is a Titular Feast for the priest society in the Congregation of Holy Cross.

This Spring the Congregation for Clergy at the Vatican encouraged a renewal of sanctity among all Christians and particularly among priests. 

And so we join our prayers with that of St. Faustina.

O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church:

Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit,

and give power to the words of Priests

so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord.

Lord, give us holy Priests;

You yourself maintain them in holiness.

O Divine and Great High Priest,

may the power of Your mercy

accompany them everywhere and protect them

from the devil's traps and snares

which are continually being set for the soul of Priests.

May the power of Your mercy,

O Lord, shatter and bring to naught

all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests,

for You can do all things.

My beloved Jesus,

I pray to you for the triumph of the Church,

that you may bless the Holy Father and all the clergy;

I beg you to grant the grace of conversion

to sinners whose hearts have been hardened by sin,

and a special blessing and light to priests,

to whom I shall confess for all of my life.

-- Saint Faustina Kowalska

The University of Portland will host the delegates to the 2012 Chapter of the United States Province of Priests and Brothers of the Congregation of Holy Cross. 

Let us keep the delegates and their deliberations in our prayers as they meet from June 10 - 22.

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of our delegates to the Chapter and kindle in them the fire of your love.  Inspire them with Your sevenfold gifts;

The gift of wisdom that they might desire all that is right and good;

The gift of understanding that they might penetrate deeply into the mysteries You have revealed;

The gift of counsel that they might hear and be guided by Your voice as spoken through Chapter;

The gift of knowledge that they might discern Your truth;

The gift of fortitude that they might be ever faithful and vigilant to the needs of the Church and the works of the Province;

The gift of piety that they might witness true holiness of heart;

And the gift of fear of the Lord that they might trust in Divine Providence and grow always stronger in virtue.

Guide the discernment of our delegates as they consider our vowed life and mission.  Fill them with zeal for the apostolates.  May their decisions further strengthen our brotherhood in Holy Cross as together we shape a future faithful to Your will.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us!

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray  for us!

Saint Joseph, pray for us!

Blessed Basil Moreau, pray for us!

Saint Andre Bessette, pray for us!

May: The Month of Mary

MAY is Mary’s month, and I

Muse at that and wonder why:

   Her feasts follow reason,

   Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;

But the Lady Month, May,

   Why fasten that upon her,

   With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter

Than the most are must delight her?

   Is it opportunest

   And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:

Her reply puts this other

   Question: What is Spring?—

   Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,

Grass and greenworld all together;

   Star-eyed strawberry-breasted

   Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin

Forms and warms the life within;

   And bird and blossom swell

   In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing

Mary sees, sympathising

   With that world of good,

   Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind

With delight calls to mind

   How she did in her stored

   Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:

Spring’s universal bliss

   Much, had much to say

   To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple

Bloom lights the orchard-apple

   And thicket and thorp are merry

   With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes

Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes

   And magic cuckoocall

   Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth

Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth

   To remember and exultation

   In God who was her salvation.

--- The May Magnificat by Gerard Manley Hopkins

49th World Day of Prayer for Vocations

The Congregation of Holy Cross and the Universal Church invite you to pray this day in particular for the gift of discernment of Christian vocations.

God our Father,

we thank you for having called us to be your son and daughters,

to work together as brothers and sisters for the mission of Christ.

Transform our minds and hearts,

and guide us along the pathways of Truth.

Lord Jesus,

let us experience the peace and joy

of your presence in our midst.

Make us faithful disciples,

educators in the faith,

servants who are sensitive to the poor and needy.

Holy Spirit of God,

enlighten and strengthen us

in living and proclaiming the good news of salvation,

so that the witness of our lives as disciples

may inspire young men and women today

to lay down their lives in service of you

especially as priests, brothers, and sisters in Holy Cross.

Hear this prayer,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Christ is risen, truly risen!

O vos omnes....

Vocation Blog Post....

Here is a recent posting I wrote for the Holy Cross Vocation Office blog.

The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in that God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one's own faith - a profession that no State can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God's grace in freedom of conscience. A missionary Church known for proclaiming her message to all peoples must necessarily work for the freedom of the faith. She desires to transmit the gift of the truth that exists for one and all.

At the same time, she assures peoples and their Governments that she does not wish to destroy their identity and culture by doing so, but to give them, on the contrary, a response which, in their innermost depths, they are waiting for - a response with which the multiplicity of cultures is not lost but instead unity between men and women increases and thus also peace between peoples.
- Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 22, 2005

Prayer Before a Crucifix

Behold, O good and most sweet Jesus, I fall upon my knees before Thee, and with most fervent desire beg and beseech Thee that Thou wouldst impress upon my heart a lively sense of faith, hope and charity, true repentance for my sins, and a firm resolve to make amends. And with deep affection and grief, I reflect upon Thy five wounds, having before my eyes that which Thy prophet David spoke about Thee, O good Jesus: ‘They have pierced my hands and feet, they have counted all my bones.’

A plenary indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful who: in any Friday in the season of Lent piously recite the prayer ‘En ego, o bone et dulcissime Iesu,’ before an image of the Crucified Jesus Christ after communion; (Reference: Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th ed.)

An Engaging Quote....

As a nation we began by declaring that "all men are created equal". We now practically read it "all men are created equal except Negroes".

Soon it will read "all men are created equal except Negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.

When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty; to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.
--- Abraham Lincoln, 1855

Ecce agnus Dei....

"John was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, "What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" - which translated means Teacher -, "where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see." So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and they stayed with him that day.

It was about four in the afternoon. Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus. He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
"We have found the Messiah" - which is translated Christ -. Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of John; you will be called Cephas" - which is translated Peter." --- John 1:35-42

Archbishop Brown.....

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, His mercy endures forever. - Psalm 118

Merry Christmas...

The Resurrection presupposes the Incarnation. For God’s Son to take the form of a child, a truly human child, made a profound impression on the heart of the Saint of Assisi, transforming faith into love. “The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed” – this phrase of Saint Paul now acquired an entirely new depth. In the child born in the stable at Bethlehem, we can as it were touch and caress God. And so the liturgical year acquired a second focus in a feast that is above all a feast of the heart. This has nothing to do with sentimentality. It is right here, in this new experience of the reality of Jesus’ humanity that the great mystery of faith is revealed. Francis loved the child Jesus, because for him it was in this childish estate that God’s humility shone forth. God became poor. His Son was born in the poverty of the stable. In the child Jesus, God made himself dependent, in need of human love, he put himself in the position of asking for human love – our love. Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light.
-- Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, Christmas Mass at Night 2011