The one that martyrdom lacks...

Saint Martin giving half of his cloak to Christ, by El Greco (Spanish, 1597)

Today the Church celebrates and remembers Saint Martin of Tours. While we rarely hear of Saint Martin anymore, it is interesting to see how many very old churches in Europe are dedicated to him, almost as many as there are dedicted to the Blessed Virgin Mary!

Saint Martin was the first non-martyr Catholic honored as a saint of the Church. This was remember in the Church with the saying: It was not Martin that lacked martyrdom, but martyrdom that lacked Martin. While this can remain only an interesting bit of trivia, we really should ask what this means in our life. Are we asked to make the ultimate sacrifice of martyrdom? Probably not, but by declaring Martin of Tours a saint, we re-affirm the belief that each of us are called to be saints. It is not limited to a holy elite, but the way of happiness opened to us all.

Saint Martin of Tours...

...Pray for us!

Triduum for Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Part III)

Some nationals of India attending the beatification of Mother Teresa

Last of the triduum of reflections for Mother Teresa

On this day twelve years ago Mother Teresa enter her Master's Joy when she died and was accepted into the loving hands of God in heaven. In more crude terms she expired.

In the first reflection we looked at the word inspire, meaning breathing in - in specifically breathing in the Holy Spirit. Expire than means breathing out - in specific breathing out the the Spirit we have received. Mother spent her whole life breathing out the Spirit that she received - she literally spent her whole life ex-(s)piring. She remembered the words of the Gospel:

To those who have, more will be given; and to those who have not, even what they
have will be taken away from us.

She received the Spirit of God, and she breathed it out back into the world, so she was given it all the more. If she had not breathed it out into the world, it would have been taken from her. But God saw that He made "a good investment" in Mother, and continued to invest His Spirit - continued to breath His Spirit into her heart.

We too receive this Spirit, not for our own sake, but so that we can be the eyes, hands, feet and HEART of Jesus in the world. So let us spend our life expiring for:

Only when a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies does it bring forth new life.

Let us pray:

Mary, Mother of Jesus,
Give me your most beautiful heart,
As pure, as immaculate,
As full of love and of humility,
So that I can receive Jesus in the Bread of Life,
So that I can love Him as you have loved Him,
And so that I can serve Him as you have served Him
Under the figure of the poorest of the poor.
Amen.

Prayer composed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Triduum for Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Part II)

Two saints: Blessed Mother of Teresa meeting Venerable Servant of God John Paul II

Continuing the Triduum of reflections on Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Soon after God called Mother Teresa to the “new path” of serving Him in the poorest of the poor, Mother made a vow: Never to deny God anything.

Let us reflect just for a second how amazing this is: It is total gift. It is totally a gift of love to Him who first loved us. It is also total Freedom. This may sound odd, after all by never denying God anything, do we not give up our Freedom? This is the amazing part. God is all powerful, He has the might to force and coerce us into doing His will. He does not though. He loves us too much to do that. He allows us to share in His Freedom. So when we give ourselves totally to Him, we share totally in His Freedom.

Mother Teresa found this to be true in her own life. She was now free for God, free to serve Him in a radical way that she could not before. We are called to this same Freedom – I am not saying we are called to do the same things that Mother did, but we are called never to deny God anything. We recall the words of Saint Francis de Sales, “God asks only one thing of us, and that is to be ourselves perfectly.” So when God ask something of us, He is asking us to be more who we are. This could be to be more of a husband or wife, more of a father or mother, more of a son or daughter. This is how we are called to follow the path that Mother took, but in the way that God calls us. This is the basis of what the Church calls the Universal Call to Holiness. We are all called to be saints.

Let us pray:

Mary, Mother of Jesus,
Give me your most beautiful heart,
As pure, as immaculate,
As full of love and of humility,
So that I can receive Jesus in the Bread of Life,
So that I can love Him as you have loved Him,
And so that I can serve Him as you have served Him
Under the figure of the poorest of the poor.
Amen.

Prayer composed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Triduum for Mother Teresa of Calcutta (Part I)

Young Mother Teresa of Calcutta

In preparation for remembering Mother Teresa on her feast day I have prepared a short series of reflections on her life.

Before she founded the Missionaries of Charity, Teresa was a Sister of Loretto. She taught young Indian girls, and was quite content doing this. She was not looking to start a new religious order. She was not looking to be sent out on mission. This all changed when she was travelling to her annual retreat. On the way there she was inspired to care for God in His poorest of the poor.

We too are on a journey like Mother was. We too are quite content the way things are. Are we prepared to be lead by God into the direction that He wants to take us? This can be scary, since this direction very often be different than where we would like to go. Mother Teresa also experienced this same fear, but she was inspired. God also wants to inspire us. He loves us and wants to direct us to the deep happiness that we can only find in His heart.

When we look at the word inspire, we can see it literally means to breath into. When God inspired Mother Teresa, He literally breathed His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, into her heart. This is what gave Mother the strength to follow where God was leading her. God also breathes the Holy Spirit into our hearts.

Let us pray:

Mary, Mother of Jesus,
Give me your most beautiful heart,
As pure, as immaculate,
As full of love and of humility,
So that I can receive Jesus in the Bread of Life,
So that I can love Him as you have loved Him,
And so that I can serve Him as you have served Him
Under the figure of the poorest of the poor.
Amen.

Prayer composed by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta

Here is my practice homily from two days ago:

Please leave comments, suggestions, etc. in the comments

Reading for the third Sunday of Lent: First: Exodus 17:3-7, Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-2.5-8, JOHN 4:5-42
A reading from Saint Augustine that I used in preparing the homily: from a Treatise on John by Saint Augustine, bishop and doctor (scroll down to the bottom)

The homily:

For a number years I worked in a men’s shelter ran by the Sisters of Mother Theresa. In every one of their chapels next to the crucifix it is always written, “I Thirst.” This comes from Mother’s first inspiration for founding the Missionaries of Charity. She had seen a dying man in a train station in India, and through that man Jesus revealed to Mother these words, “I thirst,” and his deep thirst for souls.

These are also the first words of Jesus in today’s Gospel. He sits with the woman at the well and says, “Give me a drink.” He is thirsty. “Give me a drink of water.”

This woman is an outcast. She is a Samaritan, so she is not considered to be one of the chosen people of God. Even still she is outcast from among Samaritans, since she must gather her water during the heat of the day. Yet, alone at the well she meets Jesus. He thirsts, and says, “Give me a drink.” At this moment Christ is inviting us to join this woman at the well. He is inviting us to sit with him, and listen to his words. He is asking for a drink from us, but soon he will offer us a NEW DRINK.

In these words, “give me a drink,” Christ is revealing to us the heart of the Father, a heart that seeks us to worship and love him in spirit and truth. Soon we will pray during the preface of the Mass: when he asked the woman of Samaria for water to drink Christ had already prepared her for the gift of faith. In his thirst he awakened in her heart the fire of your love. Christ is thirsting for our faith, and for our souls, so that we can return his love through worship.

Jesus is not the only thirsty one in this Gospel. Like the woman of Samaria, we are also thirsty. We have come with her to draw water. She, the outcast, is thirsty for love; and we, who at times are distant from God, thirst for his love. Like in the psalm, “Like a deer that yearns for flowing waters, so my heart yearns for You.”

As we sit with Christ at the well, he gazes at us – He knows that we are thirsty. He offers us a drink saying, “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will never be thirsty again; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus has asked us for a drink of water, but now he offers the most amazing drink – one that will satisfy all our thirst. At this moment the thirst of God for our faith and love meet our thirst for him.

What does he offer? He offers a “spring welling up to eternal life,” but where is this spring?
Let us remember these words, “There is no greater love than this; to lay down your life for a friend.” We meet this spring of eternal life at Calvary, where Jesus is dying on the cross. As Saint Paul teaches us in today’s second reading, “God proves his love for us, in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” God speaks to us and tells us, “My children, I love you so much! I come to you as a little child! I am even dying for you here on the cross! I thirst. Give me a drink of your faith. I thirst for you.” At this moment a solider pierces his side and out of his side flows “blood and water.” This is the spring welling up to eternal life, and he is living out the words of consecration, “Take this all of you, drink from it: this is the cup of my blood, the blood of a new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for the many, so that sins may be forgiven.” This is the “spring welling up to eternal life.”

Paul continues to teach us about how we respond to this love, as he writes, “[Our] hope does not disappoint because the Love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

We have been given the Holy Spirit at our baptism, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are brought again and again to the spring of eternal life.

The spring continues to well up to this day. It wells up not only in the sacrament of baptism, put also in the sacrament of the Eucharist in which we are celebrating.

This love calls for a response.

For Mother Theresa the response was a radical call to love in return; to love Christ in the poorest of the poor. During this season of Lent, we join her in her call to return the love of Christ with our own life. We are given main ways to do this: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Let the love that we will receive in this Eucharist, allow a spring to well up in our own hearts and lives, so that like the woman, we can say, “We have found the Messiah, we have found the spring of eternal life, and all our thirst have been satisfied.” And so draw others to the fire of God’s love.

God bless you, and may the name of Jesus be praised.

Saint Anastasia

Tuesday of the First Week of Lent:

Father, look on us, your children. Through the discipline of Lent help us to grow in our desire for you. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.

Do you like to be called a child?


Today's pray calls us children. It asks the Father to look on us. He does look on us in love. He wants us to be happy. He sees into our heart, and knows it better than we do. He sees what keeps us from being happy. These are our sins -- the chains I wrote about yesterday. God has sent us this Lent to examine these, and to break free from them -- with His help.



It is through Lent -- and the disciplines of Lent -- fasting, prayer, almsgiving -- that God wants to draw us to greater freedom.



He wants to arouse us to desire to see Him more. In the prayer language of the Church prayer, to see and to know mean the same thing. So as we pray today asking God to help us grow in our desire to see Him, we are asking for our desire to know Him to grow.



Here in this Church there is a rare opportunity to see and to know the Lord. This is the only parish in Rome with perpetual adoration of the Eucharist. To see the wholeness of the Lord --body and blood, soul and divinity -- and so to come to know Him and to come to know that He knows us -- for He has come to become a man. He knows our weakness, since He has flesh, and so He can call us to greater things.



North American Church Guide

Saint John Cantius Parish Guide

Saint Peter in Chains

It is Monday of the First Week of Lent:

God our Savior bring us back to you and fill our minds with your wisdom. May we be enriched by our observance of Lent. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Saint Peter in Chains: It is a quiet and simple church located close to the Coliseum and the Maritime Prison (where Saint Peter was keep before being executed). Traditionally this church is thought to be on the sight of the house of Saint Balbina, the daughter of Peter's jail and who was converted by Peter while in prison.

What a great reflection for Lent. The chains of Peter -- chains in general. Peter was often chained down by hsi fear -- this lead him to deny the Lord three times -- to abandon Christ on the cross.

Can we reflect on the chains that hold us back from loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbor as ourselves? These are hard to face. But in the prayer today we asks God's help to be released from these chains, and this is what Lent is for -- to cooperate with God's loving call back. We acknowledge like Peter did, that we deny the Lord when we sin. But the Lord wants us to meet him on the sea shore, like He met Peter to ask us, "Do you love me?"

More about today's church:
North American College Guide
Saint John Cantius Parish Guide

Why are you becoming a priest?

This is a question I am often asked. More often am asked this by children, but I think adults wander about this. Perhaps they think it is not polite to ask. I wish they would ask. This is how I would answer:

One name:

Christ

We must not project our own needs on to the young. I am demographically part of the "youth" of America. Looking at the United States through the lenses of history the the time before 1968, the great cultural "tipping point," I could see how there was a real hunger for freedom and liberation. The outlet to allow for expression.

This is forty years later, and the time that separates the moment of the moment from then grows with (well) each moment. The needs of the young, of whom I am one, are different. We do not hunger for freedom. This is something we should be grateful to our parents for.

We have our ways of expressing ourselves. If anything we are "hyper-expressed." We have tried everything. We have found everything wanting. We look to the past, and it is something more than nostalgia. We have grown up, and in the process we have been told that mean and purpose and significance have been de-constructed. We do not seek to return to a period of person repression, enforced by unjust laws and outdated cultural mores, but rather we seek to return to the world that has meaning, purpose and significance. We ask the question:

If the world has no meaning, purpose or significance; does it not necessarily follow that I do not have any meaning, purpose or significance?

In some of this hunger has taken explicit form, and we start on our pilgrimage toward the horizon of meaning. All of us, if even only in implicit and unexamined form, share in this hunger. We know in the depth of our very beings, we are not mistakes of chemistry and biology, but that we do have purpose (to use the Greek word: telos, we seek an ultimate end).

In a world that has (thus far) told us that an autonomous will to power, ultimate freedom and a shallows stagnant form of false-tolerance are the ultimate values, we have experienced a type of existential vertigo. We search for the stability, for the lines, from which to stabilize ourselves in a dizzy culture. Our need for stability is not neurotic, but legitimate.

So from this general milieu I emerge. I ask:

Where should I go?

No direction was offered. Upon discovering Christ, or more accurately, upon knowing that he had discovered me, I ask:

Where should I go Lord? You have the words of eternal life.

The current Pope and the previous Pope have both drawn us in over and over with this simple phrase: Come to know the face of Christ, and he will change everything.

This is true. So I say to you: Come to know the face of Christ, and he will change everything.

Thoughts on the Conversion of Paul:

Conversion of Saint Paul by Michaelangelo

In celebration of the year of Saint Paul, yesterday we celebrated the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, instead of the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time. We know the story from the Acts of the Apostles: Paul was hostil to the Church, he persecuted Her. On the road to Damascus he was surronded by a great light (Christ says: I am the way, the truth and the light), and in that light he met Christ. Later in his life, after spreading Christianity throughout the then known world, from Syria to Spain (quite a journey in those days!), he reflected on how at that moment he was called to be an apostle by Christ.

Let us reflect on our own calling by Christ. I am often asked, "When did you know you wanted to be a priest?" I always want to ask, "When did you know you wanted to be a husband, a father, a wife, a mother, a teacher, etc.?" Each of us is called by Christ. When our ancestors came to these shores of Lake Michigan, they were called by Christ to establish the Church here. We can read how they cleared plots of land, and working with priest and religious sisters, established and built with their own hands our parishes, schools, hospitals, etc. (lay involvment is not something new from the last fifty years!). We are also called to continue building up the Church in our own time as a great treasure. We must always remember that that we do not own this treasure, since the Church is not our body, but the body of Christ, but we are caretakers of it.

In view of this, we have to ask: "How is Christ asking us to take care of His Body here on earth?" He has called me to be married to the Church and to be the father of a parish. He is also calling you. What have we been doing to build up the Body of Christ?

We do not face the same challenges that our ancestors faced. We do not need to literally carve out space for the Church from the forest-wilderness, but we need to carve a space for the Church in the public-sphere. The Church is by and far one of the greatest advocates of human dignity. For the past two thousand years She has been building hospitals and schools, raising up religious orders to take of the poor, and advocating for the down trodden. To continue to be this great advocate, to literally "call it out" when human dignity is trampled, is the greatest challenge that the Church faces today.

In the center of Paul's conversion and what he held as the center of his life was the encounter with Christ. This has been the center of my calling, I cannot be a priest, in fact I cannot even call myself Christian, if Christ is not in the center of my life. Christ is the point on which all calling pivot. As members of His Body, we are called to encounter him, and from that encounter to be called by Him.

God bless you, and may the name of Jesus Christ be Praised!

Saint Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles...

...Pray for Us!

Going up the mountain to pray...

Death of Saint Francis Xavier by Peter Paul Reubens

Dec. 3 is the feast of Saint Francis Xavier, a saint that I have a great devotion to since he is the patron of the diocese of Green Bay.

He is know as the Apostle to the Indies, since he brought the faith there. As the first missionary in the area, he made a number of mistakes, but he also laid down the ground work for further missionary work that has changed these cultures ever since.

He used artwork to evangelize, since it was difficult to explain the faith in the languages of the different peoples he encountered. For that reason I keep this post short, and leave you with some art.

Relic of the hand of Saint Francis Xavier in the Church of the Gesu in Rome. This is the hand that baptized "100,000" men, women and childre. You can see why I refer to Saint Francis as the "high-five" saint.

As Father Benjamin Sember says:

Father Benjamin Sember was my main source of sanity last year, and hence a good friend. So I have decided to share a quote from a recent conversation. Anyone who has spent anytime in Italy will appreciate this:

Welcome to Italy, where you have to obey all the rules that you have to obey. Which rules are the ones you have to obey? The ones you have to obey. You don't need to obey the ones you don't need to obey.

Word from Father Robert Barron

For the Octave of the Feast of

Christ, King of the Universe

Courtsey of Word on Fire:
From the Homily for November 23, the Feast of Christ, King of the Universe:
The feast of Christ the King should compel us to ask: Are we with him or against him?

Most observers of the current situation will acknowledge that the Catholic Church in the United States will be entering a very difficult time. Remembering that Christ is King of this all, we recognize that these trials come in some way from him. This tribulation of the Church also becomes a test for us: Are we with him or against him?

God bless!
Persevere!

Catherine of Alexandria: Liberated by Christ, Liberated for Christ

Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, by Giuseppe Ribera, 1648. Catherine is kissing the infant Jesus as He sits on the lap of His mother Mary. Saints Joseph and Anne are in the background.

Catherine was the most fair and most wise of all the maidens of Alexandria. She had her choice of any man that she wanted, and decided that she would take only a man that surpassed her in beauty and wisdom. But even the son of the emperor matched these standards, so she remained unmarried. She was a Christian, and she choose virginity for life. What did this mean for a woman of the Roman-Egypt? It meant liberation, since at that time women were dominated by their fathers and then by their husbands. The women that were called to virginity were liberated from this domination, and became "lights on a hill" announcing to the world the words of Saint Paul, "There is no more Jew or Greek, slave or free, man or woman, but all are one in Christ," the radical teaching Christ that all people are created with dignity.

The ancient world could not tolerate this liberation, and attempted to subject the fair maiden and wise philosopheress to their own worldly wisdom, but she refuted them all. For this she was tortured and beheaded. Her last words were, "I am a bride of Christ."

While she died many years ago, the wisdom of Catherine still holds lessons for our world. The most important is the fundamental teaching of Christian morals that all innocent human life is sacred. This has been constant, but we stand in need of remembering it. The second is a better understanding of freedom. Catherine was freed by the love of Christ for her, and her love for Him. All Christians, and all men of good will are called to this freedom. Catherine in her life also shows that real freedom though does not consist of a radical self-willing, it is not a philosophy of "I do what I want to do, when I want to do," but rather a radical freedom for Christ. Freedom is the ability to live as Christ has called us to live.

Saint Catherine...

...Pray for Us

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions: the "persecuted Church"

The martrydom of Saint Andrew Dung-Lac, priest, martyr and faithful witness, received into the bosom of Christ on this day in 1839

Christ was persecuted during his life on earth, and so the body that extends the life of Christ on earth, the Catholic Church, must also experience persecution. This has happened from the crucifixion, through the stoning of St. Stephan, through the killing of Christians in Rome, from those times up through our own times. One only needs to look at the persecuted Christians in Iraq, the Holy Land, India, and China to make this point clear.

Today’s saint highlights the witness that Christians make to the radical newness and the radical change that Christ brought to the world. Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions provided the ultimate witness to the truth of about Christ before their fellow country-men between the years of 1820 and 1862. They were among some of the first Catholics in Vietnam. These martyr-witnesses includes the namesake of this feast, a priest by the name of Andrew Dung-Lac, but families, normal men and women (even a nine year old girl) who gave the ultimate to be faithful to Christ.

As the United States bishops stated after a visit to the Church in Vietnam in January of 1989:

The Church in Vietnam is alive and vigorous, blessed with strong and faithful bishops, dedicated religious, and courageous and committed laypeople.... The Church in Vietnam is living out the gospel in a difficult and complex situation with remarkable persistence and strength.

The Church is feed by the blood of martyrs as the early Fathers used to say, and so She is still feed by Her martyrs as the vigor of the Church in Vietnam bears witness to in these days.

Let us take strength from the courageous example that Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and his companions showed in the face of persecutions. Let us bear faithful witness as Christians in our public life, so that we too can bring new life and renewed vigor to the Church in the United States. What we can be the blessing of courageous and committed lay people, helping the Church live out the gospel in the complex times we live in.

Saint Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions...

…Pray for Us!

Mary, Queen of All Martyrs…

…Pray for Us!

Christ, King of All!

Christ the King, from an altar in Ghent, artist: Jan van Eyck

It has been an "open-secret" that when Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925 in the Encyclical, Quas Primas, he was doing so for very political reasons. He wanted to illustrate to points: (1) to provide a vivid example of proper government, and (2) to show that government had necessary limits that it could not step beyond. He was not endorsing one political system over another, nor was he endorsing one candidate over another. He was simply highlighting the role of government in relation to other intermediate powers.

The historical context of Quas Primas is Europe between the two world wars. In Russia Papa Pio is seeing the rapid transformation of the Soviet Union into the world’s first totalitarian state under the dictatorship of Josef Stalin. In Germany he can see the incompetence of the Wiemer Republic. In Italy he faces the rise of Mussolini. In many places in the world he is seeing the expansion of atheistic communism and totalitarian-fascism.

Christ the King as depicted in the Cathedral of Wheeling in West Virginia

Neither of these two systems were good forms of government. They subjected their people from their proper roles as citizens, to the subservient role of servants to the powers of the state. Papa Pio accurately fore-told that this would lead to a rapid erosion of personal and human rights, and also to some the catastrophe of Western Civilization we now call World War II and the Holocaust.

These consequences were inevitable, since they denied the basic truths about man: (1) that each person has an inherent dignity that ought not to be violated, (2) that the rights of each person are inherent, especially life – liberty – and the pursuit of happiness, and they cannot be dissolved by the state, and (3) that these ends are to be promoted by the state. In short the state properly exists to promote the temporal and moral well-being of humanity, and both communism and fascism reverses, reducing man to an instrument of the greatness of the state.

Papa Pio wished to counter this by the example of Christ as King. As Saint Irenaeus writes, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” The Kingship of Christ was meant to glorify man and prepare him for eternal life. Papa Pio wished that this serve as an analogous model for the “kingdom of the world” that there glory be found in supporting the full dignity of its citizens.

In Caritate Non Ficta -- A blog I would highly suggest

Here is just the summary and back-story: On October 15, 2008, after two years as an officer in the Navy, my life changed when I was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Putting my concerns in the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary and my trust in Our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that I may be faithful to the Holy Catholic Faith and serve the Church for the rest of my life.

Through this blog, Philip Gerard Johnson, intends to share his faith with us. A faith that is under trial through the disease he battles. This intimate sharing should inspire all of us to a deeper faith.

Today in the Eastern Church

Saint John Chysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople. Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things, saith the Lord (Antiphon from the Benedictus on the Feast of Saint John Chyrsostom).

Today in the Eastern Church is the Feast of Saint John Chrysostom. He was a noted preacher, who was fearless in preaching the Gospel. This included preaching against the many abuses and extragences of the imperial court. His preaching ultimately lead to violent reactions from the imperial court. He was disposed twice. The second time he was exhiled, and as a result died due to ill treatment.

He was exhiled for preaching the Truth in season and out of season.

Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a friendly embrace with Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff

As the our bishops gather in Baltimore, let us pray for them, that through the intercession of Saint John Chrysostom, they too will have the fortitude to preach the Truth of the Gospel of Life. Let us pray too that through the out pouring of the Holy Spirit, this message of the Truth will take root in the hearts of our new regime, and they may heed the words of Moses, "This day I call Heaven and Earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life so that your children may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).

O Lord, who didst vouchsafe to illúmine thy Church with the wondrous righteousness and doctrine of thy blessed Confessor and Bishop Saint Chrysostom: grant, we beseech thee; that the bounty of thy heavenly grace may evermore increase and multiply the same. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen

Master it is good for us to be here...

Jesus took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.) While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.

Luke 9:28-36

An image of the Transfiguration, apparently Saints Dominic and Catherine of Siena were there too!

Returning from Chinese food, Brian and were walking in through Firmum Est, and as we entered the corridor on zero-level we could look up through the big windowns and see the dome of Saint Peters illuminated and sort of hoovering over the college. At that moment I thought, "Wow - it is good for us to be here..." And I really do mean that -- last year was very difficult, but -- it's good for us to be here. Even in the difficulties I can say -- wow, it was good that I was here. This brought me to reflect on the Transfiguration of the Lord. Since the disciples -- Peter, James, and John said, "It is good for us to be here..." They were invited to see the Lord Transfigured before there eyes, and the vision was so amazing that they wanted to remain in it. This was not the Lord's mission though. He lived in the glory as bright as flashing lightning, even if it was hidden while here on earth. His mission was that each of us should live in that same glory, for as Paul writes, "He predestined us to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ." And we were adopted through the Blood of the Cross. This is why Jesus was discussion the fulfillment of his departure in Jerusalem with Moses and Elijah, and this is why they could not stay up on the mountain.

Mosiac representation of the Transfiguration from the apse of the church at Mouth Tabor, traditional location of the Transfiguration

We follow the same path as the Lord. We will be glorified like him, as bright as flashing lightening. This Transfiguration is given a name in among our brothers of the Eastern Christians, deification -- in other words: becoming God like. This starts here and now. For me being in the seminary is a big part of this transformation. I can see how I have been transformed during this past year. It has been great. But this "way of transfiguration" must follow the same way that the Lord took, and this is the "Way of the Cross." This means suffering. There is much suffering in the world, and in our own lives, so I am not saying seek out to suffer more. What I am saying is seek out to let this suffering be a gift -- yes a gift -- a gift to the Lord. He has the power to Transfigure this suffering into our glory -- this is the promise that Easter holds.

One of God's little saints...

Yesterday I mentioned the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (Holy Cross in Jerusalem) as the church close to Saint John Lateran where the pieces of the True Cross and other instruments of the Passion of Christ are kept. If you come to Rome make sure to pay a visit to this church and while there visit the shrine and tomb of Antonietta Meo (Nennolina). She is not yet a saint, but it looks like one day (soon) she will be declared one. Her story of courage in the face of intense suffering at a very young age is an inspiration about the dignity of life, and a tonic to the poison of the "culture of death."

Nennolina at age six in her first communion gown.

Nennolina may very well be the youngest saint the church has ever recognized. At the age of six she fell while playing at school. She broke her leg. There is nothing unusual about this. It took a long time to heal, and it was discovered that this delay in healing was because she had bone cancer. She spent the next year of her life, her last year suffering greatly from this pain. Yet she was always noted for her joy and how she often talked about Jesus and His Mother as if they were her friends and playmates.

She started writing letters to them and leaving them at the foot of the crucifix in her room. It is from these letters that we know this little girl was a mystic of the highest degree, having visions of the saints and carrying on conversation with the Lord. Through the intution of faith she knew that she could join her suffering to the suffering of the Lord on the cross as a sacrifice. She did this often.

After her death, Nennolina appeared to her mother in a glorified body. Her cause for sainthood is currently being pursued, and she has already been declared to have exercised heroic virtues, and it looks like one miracle has already been attributed to her.

This little girl was filled with Wisdom much beyond what her age would allow. This is not Wisdom that she knew, but rather it was given to her by God. It could not have come from anywhere else. This teaches us that God gives each person the tools and gifts that they need to be holy, happy, and healthy in this world and in the next. Through her couragous suffering she teaches us that suffering has a value that is much needed in this world, and that to suffer well can paradoxically be a source of deep and lasting joy.

Please pray to Venerable Servant of God, Antonietta Meo, for the graces that my cousine Stephanie needs as she raises her son, Owen, suffers with similar health issues.

FOLLOW-UP: Dedication of Saint John Lateran, B-XVI's Angelus Message

Cathedra of the diocese of Rome

Dear Brothers and Sisters!


Today the liturgy celebrates the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, called “mother and head of all the churches of the city and the world.” In fact, this basilica was the first to be built after Emperor Constantine’s edict, in 313, granted Christians freedom to practice their religion.The emperor himself gave Pope Miltiades the ancient palace of the Laterani family, and the basilica, the baptistery, and the patriarchate, that is, the Bishop of Rome’s residence -- where the Popes lived until the Avignon period -- were all built there. The basilica’s dedication was celebrated by Pope Sylvester around 324 and was named Most Holy Savior; only after the 6th century were the names of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist added, and now is typically denominated by these latter.

Altar of the Blessed Sacrament, where the table from the Last Supper is kept. Notice the golden columns, these were given by the temple of Jupiter by Emperor Constantine to symbolize that the king of the Roman gods was now replaced by the One True Living God,

May His Kingdom Come!

Initially the observance of this feast was confined to the city of Rome; then, beginning in 1565, it was extended to all the Churches of the Roman rite. The honoring of this sacred edifice was a way of expressing love and veneration for the Roman Church, which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch says, “presides in charity” over the whole Catholic communion (Letter to the Romans, 1:1).On this solemnity the Word of God recalls an essential truth: the temple of stones is a symbol of the living Church, the Christian community, which in their letters the Apostles Peter and Paul already understood as a “spiritual edifice,” built by God with “living stones,” namely, Christians themselves, upon the one foundation of Jesus Christ, who is called the “cornerstone” (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17; 1 Peter 2:4-8; Ephesians 2:20-22). “Brothers, you are God’s building,” St. Paul wrote, and added: “holy is God’s temple, which you are” (1 Corinthians 3:9c, 17).

These doors are from the Roman Senate House to symbolize that now all power in the world must be subordinate to the power of God -- for all societies and governments that ignore the natural will fall by the natural law -- which is the law of God.

The beauty and harmony of the churches, destined to give praise to God, also draws us human being, limited and sinful, to convert to form a “cosmos,” a well-ordered structure, in intimate communion with Jesus, who is the true Saint of saints. This happens in a culminating way in the Eucharistic liturgy, in which the “ecclesia,” that is, the community of the baptized, come together in a unified way to listen to the Word of God and nourish themselves with the Body and Blood of Christ. From these two tables the Church of living stones is built up in truth and charity and is internally formed by the Holy Spirit transforming herself into what she receives, conforming herself more and more to the Lord Jesus Christ. She herself, if she lives in sincere and fraternal unity, in this way becomes the spiritual sacrifice pleasing to God.

Dear friends, today’s feast celebrates a mystery that is always relevant: God’s desire to build a spiritual temple in the world, a community that worships him in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:23-24). But this observance also reminds us of the importance of the material buildings in which the community gathers to celebrate the praises of God. Every community therefore has the duty to take special care of its own sacred buildings, which are a precious religious and historical patrimony. For this we call upon the intercession of Mary Most Holy, that she help us to become, like her, the “house of God,” living temple of his love.

Pope Benedict conversing with the chief rabbi of the East Park Synagogue in N.Y.C. during His Apostolic Visit to the United States.

[After the Angelus the Pope greeted the pilgrims in various languages. In Italian he said:]

Today is the 70th anniversary of that sad event, which occurred during the nights of Nov. 9-10, 1938, when Nazi fury was unleashed against the Jews in Germany. Shops, offices, dwellings and synagogues were attacked and many people were also killed, initiating the systematic and violent persecution of German Jews, which ended with the Shoah. Today I still feel pain over what happened in those tragic circumstances. The memory of these things must serve to prevent similar horrors from ever happening again and must lead us to dedicate ourselves, at every level, to fight against every form of anti-Semitism and discrimination, educating the younger generations in respect and reciprocal acceptance. I invite you to pray for the victims of that time and to join with me in manifesting a deep solidarity with the Jewish world.
Troubling news continues to come from the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bloody armed skirmishes and systematic atrocities have caused and continue to cause many casualties among innocent civilians; destruction, looting and violence of every type have forced tens of thousands of persons to abandon even what little they had to survive. The number of refugees is estimated at more than 1 and a half million. To all and to each one I desire to express my special nearness, as I encourage and bless those who are working to alleviate their sufferings, among whom are the pastoral workers of the Church of that region. To families and their loved ones I offer my condolences and assure my prayers. Finally, fervently call upon all to work together to restore peace, respect for law and the dignity of every person to that land, for too long martyred.

In Italy today the Day of Thanksgiving is celebrated. This year’s theme is: “I was hungry and you gave me to eat.” I join my voice to that of the Italian bishops who, guided by these words of Jesus, draw attention to the grave and complex problem of hunger, which has become more dramatic due to price increases on staple foods. The Church, re-proposing the basic ethical principle of the universal destination of goods, following the example of the Lord Jesus, puts this principle into practice with multiple initiatives. I pray for farmers, especially for small farmers in developing countries. I encourage and bless those who work to make sure that no one lacks healthy and adequate food: whoever gives succor to the poor gives succor to Christ himself.

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

[In English, he said]

I greet the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims who are here today, especially the groups from Billingham in England, Heulen in the Netherlands and Los Angeles, California. Today we celebrate the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, the Mother Church of all the churches throughout the world. Let us rejoice in this great sign of our unity in faith and love, and let us resolve to become living stones, constantly growing into a holy Temple in the Lord. May God bless you all!