The Secret of Knighthood

The following is an insightful and thought provoking article by Sir Paul Xavier from Catholic Discussion, which he has graciously allowed me to reproduce on this blog. I know that his post is about Knighthood, but i believe that us ladies and sheildmaidens can benefit from it as well.

This isn’t going to explore a new branch of Medieval Conspiracy about the Knights Templar, nor is it an exploration of the Code of Courtly Love which predominated European Literature; rather, I am taking this as a step from the obvious and most reconcilable ideas of Knighthood and Chivalry and focusing on something deeper and more profound. Something which historians and experts have barely scratched the surface of, if indeed even opening up this new idea of what essentially is: The Secret of Knighthood.

The word Chivalry, and the terminology often associated with it derive from the French word Chevalier, which in translated means a mounted knight. Over time, this word Chevalier became acquainted with the manner and conduct of such mounted knights, who were beckoned by the Church to Defend the Poor, Weak, and Defenseless.

Chivalry was a way of life for the upper class in the Medieval past, guiding men along the lines of propriety and social expectation. That is, men who were powerful and had the means to defend, were looked at to defend those who were unable to do so themselves. Hence the entire idea of the Feudal System: A Lord, who through power or ability ruled a certain amount of land, recruited the local populace to work for him and his needs, and in return, would provide military protection of their welfare in time of need.

The idea was quite simple and easy to understand, that those who had the ability to defend the weak and defenseless had the obligation of doing so.

But alas, human nature is corrupt, and twisted from its true origins by means of original sin. Thus, all that starts off as something good often extends itself to improper and often selfish means. Chivalry became a means to abuse the norms of proper virtue for the sake of personal glory and vice. Generosity was rewarded with the praise and lavish decor of this world; courtesy towards women was often engaged into a means of flattery and deception, its main intention being to entice women to illicit affairs; courage and honor in themselves becoming more and more an arrogant pride, the cause of many wars and suffering for the peoples of Christendom.

This being said, we must bring this into question: Is Chivalry Dead? Did it ever truly exist?

As an idea, Chivalry seems to have always existed, inspiring the young and spirited to strive for a greater cause above their own self and their standing in life.

Essentially, anyone can practice chivalry, or at least attempt to; but as with all things without a proper motivation (in the case of Chivalry, fame, glory, riches, and love were the motivations to do the right things) and guidance of virtue, Chivalry is a sham.

What is the necessary remedy to save Chivalry from the corruption of our failing human nature? Is it the practice of good deeds? Championing the rights of the defenseless? Courtesy? All of these things can be abused. Turned from their right purpose, and eventually, become outer coverings of proper thing done for the wrong reasons.

For a Knight to attain true perfection, he must work against the concupiscence of human nature which desires the praise of the world. The pride which slowly infects the human soul when it comes to public acknowledgment of his good deeds. The jealousy of another’s good name. The answer to Knighthood’s Perfection is simple: Humility.

Humility is the weapon which ever knight should wield when entering into combat with the world. For Humility allows the virtues and the good deeds which are often associated with the chivalry of knighthood to flourish into a something supernaturally beneficial, allowing a knight to gain what is most important rather than focusing on the fleeting praise and laud of this world.

The finest art of this virtue, Humility, may be found in the most profound and power of prayers. It’s one prayer which anyone who sincerely prays it with a heart, may say that it truly works:

The Litany of Humility

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed,
Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

That others may be loved more than I,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I …
That, in the opinion of the world,
others may increase and I may decrease …
That others may be chosen and I set aside …
That others may be praised and I unnoticed …
That others may be preferred to me in everything…
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should…

The Litany of Humility is one of the most perfect prayers. Why? Essentially, rather than the usual practice of praying for what we want, which is often against what God wants for us, we have a list of human failures due to Original Sin, which we pray to God to help vanquish, and/or overcome.

Read the Litany, and tell me, if a Knight truly is able to conquer such things, would he not be the perfect knight?

From the desire of being loved…
From the desire of being extolled …
From the desire of being honored …
From the desire of being praised …
From the desire of being preferred to others…
From the desire of being consulted …
From the desire of being approved …
From the fear of being humiliated …
From the fear of being despised…
From the fear of suffering rebukes …
From the fear of being calumniated …
From the fear of being forgotten …
From the fear of being ridiculed …
From the fear of being wronged …
From the fear of being suspected …

Have we not often seen the beauty of Knighthood tarnished by the cause of a man seeking to be loved, honored, extolled amongst his peers, consulted for his wisdom; who amid the royal court, fears to be humiliated, fears to be rebuked by his lord and his fellow knights, who fears to be forgotten when the lord deals out favors and graces to his servants. Sin contaminates the true essence of the perfection of knighthood. Chivalry is doing the right things, for the right reasons, at the right time. Alas, we often find it that man is compelled into such noble actions, but namely for his own purposes and advancements.

What is the solution? How does Humility tie in with Perfect Knighthood? The answer is quite simple, yet so overlooked that we never see it happen. Chivalry is something spiritual as well as secular, and in order to attain the highest rewards and reap the benefits of both natures of Chivalry, the knight must conquer himself. Conquer his passions. Conquer his lower nature which seeks to be consoled, gratified, in the most improper and ridiculous ways. He must learn to silently bow his head, and not take the glory of this world for the sake of the praise and honor he will receive. A true Knight serves the master, not the servant. He knows that God is always watching, rewarding his faithful servants who follow the conduct of Chivalry for more noble purposes.

Anyone can do something good for illicit purposes. But if we are able to silence that part of us screaming out for attention from our fellow men. Recognizing the important of only have God as our witness. Then we have attained true knighthood.

The selfless charisma of the Knight of Our Lady. Like St. Maximilian, and St. Francis of Old. True knights who did the right things, for the right reasons, regardless of what the world thought of them. Focusing on the importance of conquering self, and realizing the true nature of knighthood as something beautiful, and meritorious of the greatest graces yet to beheld by human hands. The idea of Sacrificial Love, like unto Christ, the Perfect Knight who gave his life in defense of the weak, in defense of the sinner, bringing joy to the sorrowful, courtesy towards his oppressors, humility when His people wished to crown Him as the Son Of David, yet most importantly, having courage in championed combat against the great dragon, Satan.

Knighthood is about humility. Any other rendition of what knighthood and chivalry are is simply an illusion and idea the world has painted in order to satisfy our tastes and curiosities. I would like to end this post with a quote from last July, during the Funeral of Thom and Marc Girard:

“To Arms, Then, In the Service of Our Queen.”

The Fourth Week of Advent

"Advent' is a Latin word that can be translated as "presence" or "coming". In the ancient world, it was a technical term, denoting the arrival of a person in office such as a king or an emperor. It could also indicate the coming of the deity, in which case the god's advent was his emerging from concealment and making his presence known in power or else having it solemnly celebrated in an act of worship.
Christians took over this world in order to express their particular relationship with Jesus Christ. For them, He was and is the king who has entered this wretched province, the earth, and enables it to celebrate His visit. What Christians mean in general by this word "Advent", then is: God is there. He has not withdrawn from the world. He has not left us alone. Even though we cannot see Him or touch Him as we can the things that surround us, He is still there and, what is more, He comes to us in many different ways. We have mentioned the word "visit" in this context. This word can be used in its happy, original, and almost literal sense of "going to see" a person, persons, or a place. It is, however, also used in the less pleasant sense of afflicting or punishing, when it is associated with such concepts as trouble, famine, plague, or illness. This word should therefore enable us to see that something of the beauty of Advent can be found even in difficulty. Illness and suffering can therefore, like a great joy, also be a personal Advent - a visit by God who wants to enter my life and turn toward me.

~ Taken from "Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI"

"I Will Take the Ring" - The Fiat of Frodo

Anne Marie, from The Road Through Middle-Earth, again graciously allowed me to reprint another one of her moving, thought provoking and wonderfully Catholic posts. I encourage you all to follow her blog and read her posts - which really are meditations - whether or not you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings. Since it is rather a lengthy post, I have only put part of it on my blog and included a link to the rest, which can be found on Anne Marie's blog. Please read and enjoy!

"We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph. 2:10).

Frodo could have said no when the Secret Fire, the Holy Spirit, presented him his vocation. All he had to do was remain silent. The Voice was heard within his own heart and soul. He could have remained still. The Virgin Mary could have said no at the Annunciation. She was alone when the angel visited her. But God had prepared His children well and had molded their souls in such a way all their lives for this one moment, though they knew it not. It was their humility that allowed them to submit themselves to the Will of a Power which in Frodo’s case, he doesn’t even know. His heart and soul recognized their Maker, though, and said yes.

God knows our answer even before we do, but He gives us the free will to choose that answer. "...what you are to say will be given to you when the times comes; because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you" (Mt 10:19-20). Frodo felt very much like "some other will was using his small voice", but it was still his choice to let that other Will speak through him. God has such respect for that that He doesn’t force us to do anything even though He knows it would benefit us and/or others. He allows for abortion and abuse and all sorts of hatred and violence because in the end, even our evil choices, though we may thwart Him in one turn, He will still bring good out of them in another way. He asks for our free consent to His good Will, but He doesn’t coerce us as the Ring bludgeoned Frodo when it could no longer seduce him.

It takes great courage and sacrifice to say yes aloud when we are screaming no inside, to totally surrender ourselves to Someone else, to give up control and say "I am yours; do with me as You will." But it is in that crucible that we discover ourselves to be who we truly are meant to be: the person God has already seen us becoming if we say yes, the one He has loved from all eternity. He knows that we are weak, but He deliberately chooses the weak so His Power can shine through all the more clearly. He has no use for the self-proclaimed strong of the world. Frodo is among the myriad others who would have much rather not been chosen since they did not felt equal to the task God was asking of them. But He Who had fashioned them and knew them better than they knew themselves, knew they were equal, not on their own strength, but on the strength that He would provide with His grace. Both could have said no, indeed Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI begged God not to choose him, as Jesus had prayed to be spared His agony, but both hobbit and man submitted and surrendered their own wills to God’s Will, as did Jesus. Like Mary would say millennia later at the Annunciation, they said, "Fiat" - "Let it be done."

In speaking of this and the choices that confront us all, Cheryl Forbes said in an article for Christianity Today, "We choose to be chosen."(12/19/75, p. 12). The choice Frodo made at the Council, he made again and again with every breath and step he took toward Mordor. Mary said it many times, even at the Cross, watching her Son die in agony. Surrender is not a one-time event that does not need to be repeated, but an ongoing, continuous one that has to be embraced every day, every moment. Under the coercive pressure of the Ring, Frodo said no several times along the way and at the end, as we all do at times, but he said yes many, many more times and we must also.

"I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way." As Peter Kreeft says, these are the "sacramental, operative words that set in motion the only power that can conquer Sauron..." ("Wartime Wisdom: Ten Uncommon Insights About Evil in The Lord of the Rings" in Celebrating Middle-earth, p. 39).

Though Frodo’s heart quails to contemplate the terrible journey before him, he still accepts that it has been "ordained" and "appointed" that he walk the dark Road that is ahead. We are not placed when and where we are by accident. There is a plan and purpose for everything. We may not see it at once or maybe not even until we pass from this life, but there is a reason all happens as it does. God has an intent for all of us and we must be ready when He calls us. We have been given experiences, been molded and shaped a particular way, given specific interests and abilities, set in a particular place and time, along specific roads just so we are where we need to be at the time we need to be. We have the freedom to say no also to all this careful, deliberate planning, such is God’s gift to us, but if we say no, then we will not be performing what we were made to do. "[I]f you do not find a way, no one will," Elrond tells Frodo after Frodo has embraced his vocation. God has created us for a particular purpose and if we don’t do it then that job may not get done, that part of the Song not heard. St. Padre Pio once had a vision of a woman’s son when she came to the priest for confession. He grew greatly agitated and told the woman he had seen her son. When she denied having one, he told her... Read the rest here

The Third Week of Advent

One aspect of Advent is a waiting that is full of hope. In this, Advent enables us to understand the content and meaning of Christian time and history as such... Man is always waiting in his life... Mankind has never been able to cease hoping for better times. Christians have always hoped that the Lord will always be present in history and that he will gather up all our tears and all our troubles so that everything will be explained and fulfilled in his kingdom. It becomes especially clear during a time of illness that man is always waiting. Every day we are waiting for a sign of improvement and in the end for a complete cure. At the same time, however, we discover how many different ways there are of waiting. When time itself is not filled with a present that is meaningful, waiting becomes unbearable. If we have to look forward to something that is not there now - if, in other words, we have nothing here and now and the present is completely empty, every second of our life seems too long. Waiting itself becomes too heavy a burden to bear, when we cannot be sure whether we really have anything at all to wait for. When, on the other hand, time itself is meaningful and every moment contains something especially valuable, our joyful anticipation of the greater experience that is still to come makes what we have in the present even more precious and we are carried by an invisible power beyond the present moment. Advent helps us to wait with precisely this kind of waiting. It is the essentially Christian form of waiting and hoping.

~ Taken from 'Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI'

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This contradiction between God's "is" and man's "is not" is lacking in the case of Mary, and consequently God's judgment about her is pure "Yes", just as she herself stands before him as a pure "Yes". This correspondence of God's "Yes" with Mary's being as "Yes" is the freedom from original sin. Preservation from original sin, therefore, signifies no exceptional proficiency, no exceptional achievement; on the contrary, it signifies that Mary reserves no area of being, life, or will for herself as a private possession: instead, precisely in the total dispossession of self, in giving herself to God, she comes to the true possession of self. Grace as dispossession becomes response as appropriation. Thus from another viewpoint the mystery of barren fruitfulness, the paradox of the barren mother, the mystery of virginity, becomes intelligible once more: dispossession as belonging, as the locus of new life. Thus the doctrine of the reflects ultimately faith's certitude that there really is a holy Church - as a person and in a person. In this sense it expresses the Church's certitude of salvation. Included therein is the knowledge that God's covenant in Israel did not fail but produced a shoot out of which emerged the blossom, the Savior. The doctrine of the Immaculata testifies accordingly that God's grace was powerful enough to awaken a response, that grace and feedom, grace and being oneslf, renunciation and fulfillment are only apparent contradictories; in reality one conditions the other and grants it its very existence.

~Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

The Second Week of Advent

Let us gaze on John the Baptist. Challenging and active he stands before us, a "type" of the manly vocation. In harsh terms he demands metanoia, a radical transformation of attitudes. Those who would be Christians must be "transformed" ever again. Our natural disposition, indeed, finds us always ready to assert ourselves to pay like with like, to put ourselves at the center. Those who want to find God need, again and again, that inner conversion, that new direction. And this applies also to the total outlook on life. Day by day we encounter the world of visible things. It assaults us through bill-boards, broadcasts, traffic, and all the activities of daily life, to such an enormous extent that we are tempted to assume there is nothing else but this.
Yet the truth is that what is invisible is greater and much more valuable than anything visible. One single soul, in Pascal's beautiful words, is worth more than the entire visible universe. But in order to have a living awarness of this, we need conversion, we need to turn around inside, as it were, to overcome the illusion of what is visible, and to develop the feeling, the ears and the eyes, for what is invisible. This has to be more important than anything that bombards us day after day with such exaggerated urgency.
Metanoeite: change your attitude, so that God may dwell in you and, through you, in the world. John himself was not spared this painful process of change, of turning around.

~ Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

The First Week of Advent

"Advent" does not mean "expectation", as some may think. It is a translation of the Greek word parousia which means "presence" or, more accurately, "arrival", i.e., the beginning of a presence. In antiquity the word was a technical term for the presence of a king or ruler and also of the god being worshiped, who bestows his parousia on his devotees for a time. "Advent", then, means a presence begun, the presence being that of God. Advent reminds us, therefore, of two things: first, that God's presence in the world has already begun, that he is present though in a hidden manner; second, that his presence has only begun and is not yet full and complete, that it is in a state of development, of becoming and progressing toward its full form. His presence has already begun and we, the faithful, are the ones through whom he wishes to be present in the world. Through our faith, hope, and love he wants his light to shine over and over again in the night of the world... That night is "today" whenever the "word" again becomes "flesh" or genuine human reality. "The Christ child comes" in a real sense whenever human being act out of authentic love for the Lord.

~ Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

Happy Thanksgiving!

So what if it's a day late? Everyday is a day of Thanksgiving! Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Today in 1863

Then

Now

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ~ Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg PA November 19th 1863

Trivia: The Gettysburg Address was not given at the site of the monument commemorating the event in Gettysburg Soldiers National Cemetery. The stage was set at the approximate location of the statue in the "Now" photograph. The statue is not located in the National Cemetery, but is in the Evergreen Cemetery which immediately adjoins the Soldiers National Cemetery.

It is a Poverty

~ re-printed with permissin from A Maiden's Wreath

I believe the truest measure of any society is how it treats those who are least able to defend and speak for themselves. And who is more vulnerable, or more innocent, than a child?
--- Sarah Palin

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has heard in these past few weeks a lot of: Catholics have one-track minds. Catholics are one-issue voters. Catholics won't use reason and won't think for themselves.

Because of the unwavering stance of devout Catholics against abortion, many are prompted to make such comments.

I don't consider myself as being a one-issue voter. I do, however, think that I have my priorities straight. When I think of the innocents being slaughtered day after day, and when I think of Christ who suffered and died for the guilty, I can't think of an issue that's higher on the list.

But like I said, I don't consider myself as being a one-issue voter. In voting for life in the best way I'm capable of, I firmly believe that I'm also addressing the other failings of society. I don't see everything as disconnected. I don't see there as being the economy, and then education, and then health-care, and then... one thing is going to impact another in some way. A society's values, or lack of, will effect all aspects of that society.

And I believe that society is founded on the family, and that when babies are being killed in their mother's wombs, family is in a bad state and so is society.

I believe that a society in which thousands are legally butchered daily cannot hope to pull itself out of any mud it's slipped into until it walks away from the gates of hell.

Yes, I'm voting pro-life. I have never apologized for it, and I never intend to. People have and will continue to say that when our country is plunged into poverty and darkness because of my bull-headed one-issue voting, I'll have only myself to thank for it.

Poverty? I happen to agree with Mother Teresa when she said: "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."

Pray for an end to the slaughter. Pray for America, its citizens, and its leaders.

Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

Taken from Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

The historical origin of the rosary lies in the Middle Ages. People looked for some kind of psalter for them and found the prayers to Mary with the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ, strung out like beads on a necklace. They touch you in a meditative way, so that the repetition allows the soul to settle into tranquility and, holding fast to the Word, above all to the figure of Mary and to the images of Christ that pass you by, make your soul calm and free and grant it a vision of God. The rosary does in fact provide a link for us with this primitive knowledge that repetition is a part of prayer, of meditation, that repetition is a way of settling oneself into the rhythm of tranquility. It's a matter of allowing myself to be carried away by the calm of repetition and of steady rhythm. So much the more so, since this text does not lack content. It brings great images and visions and above all the figure of Mary - and through her the figure of Jesus - before my eyes.
These people had needed a prayer to bring them calm, to take them out of themselves, away from their troubles, and set before them consolation and healing. This basic experience in the history of religion, of repetition, of rhythm, of words in unison, of singing together, which carries me and soothes me and fills my space, which does not torment me, but lets me be still and comforts me and sets me free, has here become fully Christian, in that people pray quite simply in the Marian context and in that of the appearance of Christ to men, and yet at the same time let this prayer be internalized them - where the soul becomes one with the words.

Our Lady of the Rosary.... Pray for Us!

A Note from Our Pastor

My Dear People,

This coming Friday is a Holy Day of Obligation, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Over the last 40 years the bishops and priests have become painfully aware that the Catholic people we are shepherding do not see Holy Days of Obligation as very important. The Bishops have moved some of these feasts to Sunday so the people will be exposed to the mystery being celebrated. Ascension Thursday is a good example. Because this feast fell on a Thursday, people didn't think it important to attend. The result is that we have members of the community who never celebrated this great feast with the community. We now celebrate Ascension Thursday on Sunday.

"But Father, I work." If you are working at both the 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM Mass times [the mass times for our parish], that is an excuse, unless you are willing to talk to your boss or manager to come in a little late or leave a little early. Most of our bosses don't even know we are Catholic. The group that cannot make either time is small. Then people give a list of things that are obviously more important than gathering with the community and hearing God's Word and Breaking Bread together.

The Church still believes that not attending Mass on Holy Days of Obligation is a serious matter which requires the Sacrament of Reconciliation to get ourselves back on the track that leads to the Lord.

I have had people ask why we do this for a feast like the Assumption. The Assumption is a unique tenet of our Catholic faith. Gathering on a special day to celebrate a unique belief draws attention from those around us and invites them to ponder this wonderful mystery.

Please join us THIS Friday and celebrate the uniqueness of our Catholic Faith.

May the Lord continue to bless each of you and your families.

- Fr. Tom

Fr. Tom is the new pastor of the parish I attend, the replacement for Fr. Ariel, who - if you remember my mentioning - was sadly was moved far away. I am excited about Fr. Tom, as are many people I believe, because he has proved to be very similar to Fr. Ariel. Which could be explained by the fact that Fr. Ariel served as associate pastor to Fr. Tom for several years thus learning from him. I look forward for what Fr. Tom has to teach us in the future.

Original American Humour

by Will Rogers. Here's a few sayings that I came across in my American Liturature book. Some are funny, others are just so true (even today, however many years after they were first said.) Enjoy!


"You know Lincoln's famous remark about "God must have loved the common people, because he made so many of them?" Well, you are not going to get people's votes nowadays by calling 'em common. Lincoln might have said it, but I bet it was not until after he was elected.

"I am not a member of any organized political party - I'm a Democrat.

"Every time we have an election we get in worse men and the country keeps right on going. Times have only proven one thing, and that is that you can't ruin this country, even with politics.

"In 1612 some wise guy decided that he would like to live of the other Virginians instead of off the forest, so they called him a politician. So politics started on these shores in 1612 and in a short space of over 300 years it has grown in leapes and bounds, where it is now America's leading racket.

"If you want to know when a war might be coming, you just watch the U.S. and see when it starts cutting down on its defenses. It's the surest batometer in the world.

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

"A fool that knows he is a fool, is one that knows he don't know all about anything. But the fool that don't know he's a fool, is the one that thinks he knows all about anything.

"Why do they call it traffic? When it ceases to move, it's not traffic.

"The minute you read something and you can't understand it, you can be almost sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer. You see, every time a lawyer writes something, he is not writing for posterity, he is writing so that endless others of his craft can make a living out of trying to figure out what he just said.

"Can you imagine our Savior dying for all of us, yet we have to argue over just whether He didn't die for us personally and not for you. Sometimes you wonder if His lessons of sacrifice and devotion was pretty near lost on a lot of us.

"Baseball is a skilled game. It's America's game - it, and high taxes.

"Politics has got so expensive that it takes lots of money to even get beat with nowadays.

"Our president delivered his message to congress. That is one of the things his contract calls for. It's one of the few stipulated duties of the president - to tell congress the condition of the country.

This message, as I say, is to congress. The rest of the people know the condition of the country, for they live in it, but the congress has no idea what is going on in America, so the president has to tell 'em.

"Distrust of the senate started with Washington, who wanted to have 'em courtmatialed; Jefferson proposed life inprisonment for 'em; Lincoln said: the Lord must have hated 'em for he made so few of 'em; Teddy Roosevelt whittled a big stick and beat on 'em; they drove Wilson to an early grave; and Coolidge never let 'em know what he wanted, so they never knew how to vote against him.

"Lead your life so you wouldn't be ashamed to sell that family parrot to the town gossip."

Redemption through Suffering

The image of the crucified Christ, which is the focal point of the liturgy of Good Friday, makes us realize the true seriousness of human misery, human aloneness, human sin. Yet, throughout all the centuries of Church history, it has constantly been regarded as an image of consolation and hope. The Isenheim Altar of Matthias Grunewald, which is, prehaps the most moving painting of the crucifixtion to be found in all Christendom, was located in a monestary of the Antonian Hospitalers, who cared for victims of the terrible plauges that afflicted the West during the late Middle Ages. The crucified Jesus is depicted as one of these victims; his whole body is disfigured by the boils of bubonic plauge, the most terrible of the pestilence of that time ... This painting made them realize that precisely by reason of their sickness they were identified with the crucified Christ, who, by his suffering, had become one with all the suffering of history; they felt the presence of the Crucified One in their cross and knew that, in their distress, they were drawn into union with Christ and hence into the abyss of his eternal mercy. They experienced his cross as their redemption ... Instead of divine consolation, they want changes that will redeem suffering by removing it; not redemption through suffering, but redemption from suffering is their watchword; not expectation of divine assistance, but the humanization of man by man is their goal.

~Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XIV

The Seventh Word: It is fineshed

Lenten Transfiguration

Astonished in the presence of the transfigured Lord, who was speaking with Moses and Elias, Peter, James, and John were suddenly enveloped in a cloud from which a voice arose that proclaimed: "This is my beloved Son, listen to him". (Mk 9:7).

When one has the grace to sense a strong experience of God, it is as though seeing something similar to what the disciples experienced during the Transfiguration: For a moment they experienced ahead of time something that will constitute the happiness of paradise. In general, it is brief experiences that God grants on occasions, especiall in anticipation of harsh trials. However, no one lives "on Tabor" while on earth. Human existence is a journey of faith and, as such, goes forward more in darkness than in full light, with moments of obscurity and even profound darkness.

While we are here, our relationship with God develops more with listening than with seeing; and even contemplation takes place, so to speak, with closed eyes, thanks to the interior light lit in us by the word of God... This is the gift and commitment for each one of us in the Lenten season: to listen to Christ, like Mary. To listen to Him in the word, preserved in Sacred Scripture. To listen to Him in the very events of our lives, trying to read in them the messages of providence. To listen to Him, finally, our brothers, especially in the little ones and the poor, for whome Jesus himself asked our concrete love. To listen to Christ and to obey His voice. This is the only way to joy and love.

~ Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XIV

The Fifth Word: "I Thirst"

The Sixth Word: "Father, into Your hands, I commend My Spirit."

The Glad Tidings of the Cross

The content of the Christian evangelium reads: God finds man so important that He Himself has suffered for man. The cross is in truth the center of the evengelium, the glad tidings: "It is good that you exist" - no, "It is necessary that you exist." The cross is the approbation of our existence, not in words, but in an act so completely radical that is caused God to become flesh and pierced this flesh to the quick; that, to God, it was worth the death of His incarnate Son. One who is so loved that the other identifies his life with this love and no longer desires to live if he is deprived of it; one who is loved even unto death - such a one knows that he is truly loved. But if God so loves us, then we are loved in truth. Then love is truth, and truth is love. Then life is worth living. This is the evangelium. This is why, even as the message of the cross, it is glad tidings for one who believes; the only glad tidings tht destroy the ambiguity of all other joys and make them worthy ro be joyful. The "Rejoice!" with which it begins expresses its whole nature. By its very essence, by its very nature, Christian belief is "glad tidings" ... deep joy of the heart is also the true prerequisite for a sense of humor, and thus humor is, in a certain sense, the measure of faith.

~Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

The Fourth Word: "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?"

To learn as to why Latarae Sunday is also known as "Rose Sunday", click on the picture of the Rose

The Church and the Forty Days

The Church is being urged ever more loudly and insistently to exchange a distant and undreal redemption by the Word for a more robust redemption by bread and the sure path of politicization. Our experiance, then, is of a Church in the wilderness, a Church in her forty-day period. It is one of exposure to emptiness, to a world that seems, religously speaking, to have become wordless, imageless, soundless; exposure to a world in which the heavens over us are dark and distant and impalapable. And yet for us too and for the Church of our day this time in the wilderness can become a time of grace in which a new love can grow out of suffering induced by God's distance from us.
We often have the oppressive feeling that the manna of our faith will be enough only for the presant day - but God gives us that manna new each day if we allow him to do so. We must live in a world in which in God is seemingly to be found only as One who is dead - but He can strike living water even from dead stones.
A Church in her Lent, in her "forty days" in the wilderness. I believe that during this season of fasting we must hearten ourselves anew to accept our situation in patience and faith and to follow fearlessly after our hidden God. If we journey on in patient faith, then for us too a new day can dawn out of the darkness. And God's bright world, the lost world of images and sounds, will be restored to us again; there will be a new morning in God's good creation.

- Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

The Third Word of Christ ~ "Woman, behold thy son. Behold thy mother."

Forty Days of Preparation

In the forty days of the preparation fo Easter, we endeavor to get away from the heathenism that wieghs us down, that is always driving us away from God, and we set off toward Him once again. So, too, at the beginning of the Eucharist, in the confession of sin, we are always trying to take up this path again, to set out, to go to the mountain of God's word and God's presence... We must learn that it is only in the silent, barely noticeable things that what is great takes place, that man becomes God's image and the world once more becomes the radiance of God's glory.

Let us ask the Lord to give us a receptivity to His gentle presence; let us ask Him to help us not to be so deafened and desensitized by this world's loud outcry that our receptivity fails to register Him. Let us ask Him that we may hear His quiet voice, go with Him, and be of service together with Him and in His way, so that His kingdom may become present in this world ... We imitate God, we live by God, like God, by entering into Christ's manner of life. He has climbed down from His divine being and become one of us; He has given Himself and does so continually... It is be these little daily virtues, again and again, that we step out of our bitterness, our anger toward others, our refusal to accept the other's forgiveness. This "littleness" is the concrete form of our being like Chirst and living like God, imitting God; He has given Himself to us so that we can give ourselves to Him and to one another.

~ Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI

The First Word of Christ "Father, forgive them, for the know not what they do."

The Second Word of Christ "This day you shall be with me in paradise."

Entering into Lent

Lent is a propitious time in which the Church invites Christians to be more intensely aware of Christ's redeeming work and to live our baptisim more profoundly... With its duration of forty days, Lent tries to recall some of the events that marked the life and history of ancient Israel, presenting to us again its paradigmatic value... The Lenten season is an invitation to relive with Jesus the forty days he spent in the desert, praying and fasting, before undertaking his public mission... This is the authentic and central program of the Lenten Season: to listen to the Word of truth, to live, to speak, and do the truth, to reject lies that poison humanity, and are the door to evils. It is urgent, therefore, during these forty days, to listen again to the Gospel, the Lord's Word, Word of truth, so that in every Christian, in each one of us, the awareness be reinforced of the truth that has been given, that he has given us, to live it and be his witnesses. Lent stimulates us to let the Word of God penetrate our life and in this way to know the fundamental truth: who we are, where we come from, where we must go, what path we must take in life. Thus, the Lenten season offers us an ascetic and liturgical journey that, helping us to open our eyes in face of our weakness, makes us open our hearts to the merciful love of Christ.

~ "Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI"