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March 31, 2009

4 St. Vincent Monks Installed Lectors!!!

Taking part in the installation to ministry of reader, held March 16 at Saint Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, were, from left, Rev. David Brzoska, Seminary Vice Rector; Nathanael Polinski, O.S.B., and Gabriel Myriam Kurzawski, O.S.B., Saint Vincent Archabbey, who were installed; Most Rev. Joseph V. Adamec, Bishop of Altoona-Johnstown, installing prelate; Francis Ehnat, O.S.B., and Elijah Cirigliano, O.S.B., Saint Vincent Archabbey, who were installed; and Very Rev. Justin Matro, O.S.B., Seminary Rector.
 
The Bishop processing into the Basilica (Fr. Brian Boosel, OSB - in surplice and stole serves as Master of Ceremonies)
 
Bishop Adamec delivers the homily

March 30, 2009

Stations of the Cross

Click here for a link to St. Alphonsus Liguori's Stations of the Cross (beautiful words to reflect upon as we enter Holy Week)

March 27, 2009

British Museum uncovers relics of St Benedict

By Anna Arco and Olivia Sayer
An altar containing the relics of nearly 40 saints was opened for the first time in years before going on display in a new medieval gallery in the British Museum this week.

Opened for the first time in the Eighties for scientific study, the 12th-century altar contained 39 relics, carefully folded into a piece of linen. Each individual relic is wrapped in fabric and bears a 13th-century vellum label with the respective saint's name on it. Among the saints represented by relics are St John, St James and St Mary Magdalene, but the treasure of the collection is what is believed to be a relic of St Benedict of Nursia. The presence of the relics was not made public until this week.

The news was met with excitement. Mgr Keith Barltrop, who has been organising the visit of St Thérèse of Lisieux's relics to Britain this year, said: "I think it's rather exciting. Relics are as relevant today as they always have been. They serve as a reminder of our incarnational faith, that it inhabits the physical world, that there are bodies. I think that the bodies of holy people help us draw closer to God and the communion of saints."

Mgr Barltrop said: "What is exciting is that the relic they seem most definite about is that of St Benedict. I think that it is important to venerate St Benedict, who after all is a saint for Europe. Even if Europe has forgotten its Christian roots, it was the monasteries that helped rebuild Europe. St Benedict played a pivotal role in this with his monastic rule."

St Benedict is one of the patron saints of Europe. The sixth-century saint was the founder of western monasticism, which helped spread Christianity and stabilise Europe.

Dom Antony Sutch, the former headmaster of Downside, a school run by Benedictines, said: "I think there's no doubt in the fact that having a relic contributes a great deal. It has real devotional value. To know that somebody really existed, to come into contact with that, makes that person more real and the example they set more tangible."

James Robinson , the curator of the British Museum's new medieval gallery, said they had opened the portable altar from Hildesheim in Germany while they were conserving the piece to display it in the gallery which opened to the public on Wednesday.

Mr Robinson said: "It's difficult to say for certain whether these are the relics of the actual saints. All we could really ascertain was the age of the textiles, which could themselves be relics." The fabric encasing the relic of St Benedict is ninth to 10th-century Byzantine silk, and Mr Robinson said it would have been highly prized by a high-placed ecclesiastic.

A dedicatory inscription to Abbot Theoderic III on the back of the portable altar dates it to somewhere between 1180 and 1200. The altar has a wooden core, with a central cavity for the relics covered by a Purbeck stone slab. from Dorset. The front is typical of the area of modern day Saxony, with gilt and copper panels showing the evangelists and saints, as well as two crafted from walrus ivory and two manuscript illuminations.

He said: "The altar would have been used to celebrate Mass in a space that had not been consecrated yet. I believe it was the Council of Nicea which pronounced on the criteria for celebrating Mass.

A relic of a saint needed to be in the altar and the stone itself is the right size for the footprint of a chalice." Hildesheim is still an active place of pilgrimage dedicated to St Gotthard, who is featured with three other bishop-saints including St Bernard on the altar.

The British Museum acquired the altar in 1902 and will keep it on display in Bloomsbury. There are other relics on display in the new gallery.

March 25, 2009

Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

"To do your will, O my God, is my delight."

The Mother of God, Mary most holy, prayed with the words of Psalm 40, and her prayer was authentic. From the moment of her conception in the womb of Saint Anne, she was obedient. There was no sacrifice, oblation, holocaust, or sin-offering that the LORD asked of her. She wanted to give herself and nothing less. The Blessed Virgin Mary responded from the depths of her heart, "Behold I come." It was here delight to do the will of God, and his law was in her heart. She never failed to announce his justice in the vast assembly, nor did she restrain her lips, as well the LORD knows. She kept not his justice bottled up inside, hidden and safe. The Blessed Mother spoke freely of her LORD; she proclaimed his kindness and truth in the vast assembly. Psalm 40 proclaims the real joy of human life is to give yourself over to the LORD and his glory. As Mary, the Theotokos, gave herself over to the will of God, so too, our only delight is to surrender to his word and his will.

The so-called king, Ahaz hesitated to bother the LORD. He was feigning humility when he responded to the Prophet Isaiah, "I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!" Isaiah pushed him a little bit further; rhetorically speaking, he spoke of how the King wearies the people and now he is wearing the LORD. Do you really want to do this? Do you want to weary the LORD God Almighty? The Prophet Isaiah appeals to his identity as the corporate personality, the house of David. He has responsibility to make a choice for the nation. Will he choose God or will he choose some false god? Such verbal pressure only makes the heart of the king even more resistant. He refuses to seek the LORD. He tries to straddle the fence. It doesn't work. The LORD speaks without hesitation and with great clarity, "the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel, which means God is with us!" This promise echoes through history and brings gladness to every heart that seeks the face of the LORD. Even the heart of the unfaithful king is touched by the good news of Emmanuel. He is touched with fear and not with gladness. The powerful in every age would prefer a distant and uninvolved God.

Some scholars suggest that King Ahaz was coming back from the place where desperate families sacrificed their children. Perhaps that's why he was so startled and tongue tied to meet the Prophet. Perhaps his conscience was beginning to work, and he discovered that it is impossible for the blood of any bull, goat, or even a son to take away sins. Only the Blood of the Lamb can cleanse and purify the human soul so capable of such horror. The Letter to the Hebrews takes this text from Psalm 40 and uses it to unfold the drama of the incarnation. It is the self-sacrificing love of the Son of God that far outweighs the sacrifices, offerings, holocausts and sin offerings of the temple priesthood. This Great High Priest is delighted to do the will of his Father. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus is offered once and for all upon the altar of the cross, and that offering is made present in the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in the Eucharist. Indeed, in his free-will offering we are consecrated by sharing in the consecrated Bread and Wine. Like Christ and his mother, Mary, we find our greatest delight in doing the will of the Father.

Every time an angel of the LORD appears it seems that he has to say, "Do not be afraid." The sight of the LORD's Messenger is overwhelming and terrifying. This one, the Archangel Gabriel, comes with a message to match his frightful appearance. He announces to the Virgin Mary, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." To be filled with the self-gift of God is to be full of grace; indeed, such a one is filled with the LORD. This is repetition for the sake of clarity. For any faith-filled Jewish girl this is not possible. How can I be full of grace? How is it that the Lord is with me? Such a powerful union is so rare and so impossible. How can the Lord whom the heavens and earth cannot contain fill me? This kind of theological language is so foreign, what could it mean? As the Angel continued the very thing Mary feared the most was announced. Indeed, she is invited to become a mother. Her womb is about to be filled with the very Son of the Most High. When the Virgin questioned the Angel about her not having any relations with a man, he responded that the Holy Spirit would come, the power of the Most High would overshadow, and nothing is impossible for God. More powerful words were never spoken. In these angelic words the Blessed Virgin put complete trust and she responded, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." This response was inspired by the same Spirit who inspired the Son to become one with us. It is the same Spirit who hovered over the Word throughout eternity and now hovers of the Lord Jesus for all of time. This Spirit inspires us to cry out "Abba, Father" and we are enabled to cry out, "Jesus is Lord". Such is the voice of the Lord upon our lips when we pray with Psalm 40, "It is my delight to do your will."

March 20, 2009

The Transitus of St. Benedict

The monks invite you to join us as we celebrate the passing of our Holy Father Saint Benedict into eternal life:
Solemn Vespers: 
Friday, March 20, 2009 at 4:00 PM in the Archabbey Basilica 

Holy Mass of the Solemnity of the Passing of our Holy Father Saint Benedict: 
7:30 AM in the Archabbey Basilica


March 18, 2009

Pontiff Proclaims Year for Priests

VATICAN CITY, MARCH 16, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is proclaiming a Year for Priests on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars.

The Pope announced this today during an audience granted to participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Clergy, a Vatican communiqué reported. 

 
The theme for the priestly year is "Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness of Priests." The Pope is scheduled to open the year with a celebration of vespers June 19, the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in the presence of the relic of the Curé of Ars, to be brought to Rome by Bishop Guy Bagnard of Belley-Ars, the press release stated.

The closing ceremony will take place exactly one year later, with a World Meeting of Priests in St. Peter's Square.

During this year, a directory for confessors and spiritual directors will be published, along with a compilation of texts by the Pope on the core issues of the life and mission of priests in the modern times. As well, Benedict XVI will officially proclaim St. Jean Marie Vianney as "patron saint of all the priests of the world."

The congregation will aim in this year to promote initiatives that will "highlight the role and mission of the clergy in the Church and in modern society."

Another goal will be to address "the need to intensify the permanent formation of priests, associating it with that of seminarians."

March 14, 2009

Catholics sense peace during rite celebrated with times of silence

By Kristy MacKaben
Altoona Mirror newspaper

After a hiatus of more than three decades, the extraordinary Mass, also known as the traditional liturgy of the Roman rite, is being offered again in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese.
(Mirror photo illustration by Patrick Waksmunski) The Rev. Ananias Buccicone, O.S.B., turns to face the congregation before Communion with altar servers Tim Kopp, and Patrick Illig III. Left: Buccicone gives Communion at the Communion rail with the help of altar server Brian Walker of Hollidaysburg.

Queen of Peace Church in Patton is the only church in the diocese providing the all-Latin Mass since the mid-1960s.

After the Second Vatican Council, in the mid-1960s, the traditional Latin Mass only was permitted to be celebrated privately by priests.

But in July 2007, Pope Benedict XVI launched an initiative allowing the traditional Latin Mass to be offered publicly. Bishop Joseph V. Adamec gave permission to the Rev. Ananias Buccicone, O.S.B., to celebrate the extraordinary Mass at Queen of Peace Sunday afternoons.

''When the pope allowed it, many requests came to me from within and outside the parish. They said, 'if anybody is going to do it, it's going to be you,'" Buccicone said. ''I have a tendency to be more traditional in the way I celebrate Mass."

To offer the Mass, Buccicone is required to understand and speak Latin, as well as perform the precise hand movements.
Unlike the new or ordinary Mass, in the extraordinary Mass, priests face the altar, not the people. It appears as if the priest is turning his back to the congregation. But, Buccicone said, the purpose is for the priest to face God.

''The priest is facing liturgical east, facing towards God and he is acting as the mediator between God and man, therefore he leads the people into the sanctuary, then acts as the mediator," Buccicone said.

The extraordinary Mass is much different than the ordinary Mass in its silence and lack of response from the congregation.

There is no singing and the congregation does not respond to the priest vocally.

During Holy Communion, communicants must kneel at the rail and take Communion on their tongue.

No one is permitted to touch the host with their hands and the priest must not separate his thumb and forefinger when holding the host, to prevent any particle from falling. The communicant also does not say ''amen" after receiving the host.
Instead, the priest says ''May the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ preserve your soul unto everlasting life. Amen."

About 175 people attend the extraordinary Mass Sundays; some come from Lock Haven or Somerset.
The solemn Mass, which is said completely in Latin, attracts different types of people. While older Catholics enjoy it because it is the Mass of their youth; younger people, including some with families, appreciate the silence and mystery of the Mass.

''It's a matter of personal taste. Some will come for nostalgia sake. They remember it as the Mass of their youth.

"Others appreciate it on a very deep level. Low Mass is almost completely silent. Most of the prayers are being prayed with priests facing God. There is a sense of mystery. There's a sense of awe," Buccicone said.
Teresa Bentivegna of Ebensburg attends the extraordinary Mass at Queen of Peace, although she is a member of Holy Name Catholic Church in Ebensburg. She attends church alone while her husband watches her two young children.

''It's kind of my time. It's just very peaceful," Bentivegna said. ''In the world we live in we're surrounded by noise. It's my time with God because it's so peaceful and it totally envelops you without having to make an effort whatsoever."

When Ray Seymour of Loretto heard Buccicone was thinking about offering the Mass, he was excited.

''I had been encouraging it for 15 or 20 years. It's just great that it became available," said Seymour who teaches Latin at Bishop Carroll High School in Ebensburg. ''It's the Mass of my youth."

Because of his teaching background, Seymour understands the Latin Mass, but missals are provided to the congregation so people can follow it in English.

Seymour and Bentivegna enjoy the solemnity of the Mass, as well as the mystery.
''In the extraordinary form, I think the pressure is off the priest and the pressure is off the people. 

Sometimes I think we have the idea that the sacraments are something we do for God. In the extraordinary form, it's very evident that God does this for us," Seymour said.

Although Seymour and Bentivegna regularly attend Queen of Peace, they are not members of the church. The diocese does not want people to join Queen of Peace for the reason of the extraordinary Mass. Instead, Catholics are encouraged to join parishes in their communities.

Monsignor Michael Servinsky, vicar general for the diocese, said people should belong to churches in their territories so the priests can better help their members.

''That is in order for the pastor to know you and take care of you. The way the church is structured is you belong to the territory in which you live," Servinsky said.

Buccicone said another reason Catholics should not join Queen of Peace for the sole reason of extraordinary Mass is because he could be transferred at any time to a different parish or assigned back to the monastery.
''People could join here for the old rite and then it wouldn't be offered anymore," Buccicone said.

Anyone is welcome to attend the extraordinary Mass at 1 p.m. Sundays. On the first Sunday of the month, a high Mass is celebrated with choir singing and Gregorian chant. The other three Sundays, a low Mass is said, which is the more solemn Mass.

March 10, 2009

Fr. Boniface, OSB - Christopher West

Recently our Fr. Boniface Hicks attended the Head and  Heart Immersion Course which featured noted Catholic Speaker and Author: Christopher West.  Here are a few pics from the event.
Christopher West speaking about John Paul II's Theology of the Body 
Fr. Boniface with Christopher West -- Christopher is signing his book  Heaven's Song for Fr. Boniface
-----------------------------
A little more about Christopher West from (his website):

Christopher West is a research fellow and faculty member of the Theology of the Body Institute. He is also one of the most sought after speakers in the Church today, having delivered more than 1000 public lectures on 4 continents, in 9 countries, and in over 150 American cities. His books – Good News About Sex & Marriage, Theology of the Body Explained, and Theology of the Body for Beginners – have become Catholic best sellers.

Christopher has also lectured on a number of prestigious faculties, offering graduate and undergraduate courses at St John Vianney Seminary in Denver, the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne, Australia, and Creighton University’s Institute for Priestly Formation in Omaha. Hundreds of thousands have heard him on national radio programs and even more have seen him defending the faith on programs such as Scarborough Country, Fox and Friends, and At Large with Geraldo Rivera. Of all his titles, Christopher is most proud to call himself a devoted husband and father. He and his wife Wendy have four children and live in Lancaster County, PA.

SVA Monk in Rome

Our Father Kurt Belsoe, OSB, former rector of St. Vincent Seminary is now the Director of Liturgical Formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.  The NAC is America's Seminary in the Eternal City.  Here are some pictures from their website of Fr. Kurt in action: 
Father Kurt (far Right) at the Blessing of the New Seminary field
 
Father Kurt (at St. Peter's Basilica) preparing for Diaconate Ordination
 
Father Kurt (Black Hood) preparing the Bishops prior to Holy Mass

 
Father Kurt (far left) praying before Mass

 
Father Kurt leading the procession into St. Peter's Basilica 
 
The Recessional Procession


 
 

March 5, 2009

Interesting Video

As we do for all young men preparing for the priesthood, let us keep Chase in our prayers.

March 4, 2009

Pope's Lenten Message 2009

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
BENEDICT XVI
FOR LENT 2009

"He fasted for forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2)



Dear Brothers and Sisters!

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving, fasting – to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God’s power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, “dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride” (Paschal Præconium). For this year’s Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord’s fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry” (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah’s fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.

We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gn 2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that “fasting was ordained in Paradise,” and “the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam.” He thus concludes: “ ‘You shall not eat’ is a law of fasting and abstinence” (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land, calls upon the assembled people to fast so that “we might humble ourselves before our God” (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah’s call to repentance, proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: “Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared them.

In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who “sees in secret, and will reward you” (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus directed to eating the “true food,” which is to do the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord’s command “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,” the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.

The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the “old Adam,” and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: “Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God’s ear to yourself” (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one’s body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a “therapy” to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to “no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him … he will also have to live for his brethren“ (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as “twisted and tangled knottiness” (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: “I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness” (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.

At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: “If anyone has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him – how does the love of God abide in him?” (3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V, 20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.

From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: “Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia – Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses.”

Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a “living tabernacle of God.” With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 11 December 2008.

Just a thought

The Mass of St. Gregory the Great (Adrien Ysenbrandt
Netherlandish, 1510 - 1550)

For to despise the present age, not to love transitory things, unreservedly to stretch out the mind in humility to God and our neighbor, to preserve patience against offered insults and, with patience guarded, to repel the pain of malice from the heart, to give one's property to the poor, not to covet that of others, to esteem the friend in God, on God's account to love even those who are hostile, to mourn at the affliction of a neighbor, not to exult in the death of one who is an enemy, this is the new creature whom the Master of the nations seeks with watchful eye amid the other disciples, saying:"If, then, any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away. Behold all things are made new" (2 Cor. 5:17).


St. Gregory the Great

Pax et Gaudium

O.S.B. Vocation Awareness

O.S.B. Vocation Awareness