VATICAN CITY, March 13 (Reuters) – Pope
Benedict is “profoundly moved and saddened” by the death of Paulos
Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop in Iraq who was kidnapped
last month, a Vatican spokesman said on Thursday.
“All of us had continued to pray and hope for his release, which the
Pope had repeatedly urged,” Father Federico Lombardi said in a
statement shortly after news of the death.
Dave Armstrong has an extensive article on centering prayer.
I was glad to hear that Dave now has a staff job with The
Coming Home Network and as part of his new job he had to answer a
question concerning centering prayer and the orthodoxy of one of its
main promoters the late Fr. Pennington. The questioner had
asserted that critics of centering prayer have misrepresented Fr.
Pennington’s views. I think Dave Armstrong’s research on the
subject certainly show that while Fr. Pennington was not a flagrant
dissenter, he certainly held many questionable and unorthodox views in
both the area contemplation and other areas of Catholic dogma.
As I wrote some years ago the best part of Thanksgiving is now I know
of whom to give thanks to!
Te Deum
We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship Thee and the Father everlasting.
To Thee all Angels: to Thee the heavens and all the Powers therein.
To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim: cry with unceasing voice:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Hosts.
The heavens and the earth are full: of the majesty of Thy glory.
Thee the glorious choir: of the Apostles.
Thee the admirable company: of the Prophets.
Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs: praise.
Thee the Holy Church throughout all the world: doth acknowledge.
The Father of infinite Majesty.
Thine adorable, true: and only Son
Also the Holy Ghost: the Paraclete.
Thou art the King of Glory: O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son: of the Father.
Thou having taken upon Thee to deliver man: didst not abhor the
Virgin’s womb.
Thou having overcome the sting of death: didst open to believers the
kingdom of heaven.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God: in the glory of the Father.
We believe that Thou shalt come: to be our Judge.
We beseech Thee, therefore, help Thy servants: whom Thou has redeemed
with Thy precious Blood.
Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints: in glory everlasting.
Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine inheritance.
Govern them: and lift them up forever.
Day by day: we bless Thee.
And we praise Thy name forever: and world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day: to keep us without sin.
Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us.
Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us: as we have hoped in Thee.
O Lord, in Thee have I hoped: let me never be confounded.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.
… read this blog post and forward it to 15
people, unspecified bad
things will happen to you. The Paragraph Farmer looks at
chain prayer email.
Here is a prayer
target=”_blank”>that Bishop Vasa relates that he
found years ago.
Lord, I give this day entirely to You — I retain none of it for
myself. It is Yours. If on this, Your day, You send me joy — I thank
you. If on this, Your day, You send me loneliness — I will draw closer
to You. If on this, Your day, You send me sorrow — I accept it. If on
this, Your day, You send me peace — I will share it with the anxious.
If on this, Your day, You send me pain — I will suffer it with You. If
I accept good things from You, should I not also accept unpleasant?
Since this is Your day, which You graciously have given to me, and
which I now in intention return to You, help me to live it well; not to
waste what You have given on idleness but to use it as You have
designed. Help me to remember how well the day goes when it is given to
You. I trust that You will give to me this day all that I need and that
all that is given or withheld is for my good. With all this in mind,
help me to live this day with You in joy. Amen.
Jay Anderson has an excellent post on St. Thomas More, today being his feast day along with fellow English martyr St. John Fisher.
On this day I always love to read the letter he wrote to his daughter Margaret from prison that is included in today’s Office of Reading in the Liturgy of the Hours. Most of the versions of this letter I found on the internet were truncated in parts and the following version is the same one found in the office.
Although I know well, Margaret, that because of my past wickedness I deserve to be abandoned by God, I cannot but trust in his merciful goodness. His grace has strengthened me until now and made me content to lose goods, land, and life as well, rather than to swear against my conscience. God’s grace has given the king a gracious frame of mind toward me, so that as yet he has taken from me nothing but my liberty. In doing this His Majesty has done me such great good with respect to spiritual profit that I trust that among all the great benefits he has heaped so abundantly upon me I count my imprisonment the very greatest. I cannot, therefore, mistrust the grace of God. Either he shall keep the king in that gracious frame of mind to continue to do me no harm, or else, if it be his pleasure that for my other sins I suffer in this case as I shall not deserve, then his grace shall give me the strength to bear it patiently, and perhaps even gladly.
By the merits of his bitter passion joined to mine and far surpassing in merit for me all that I can suffer myself, his bounteous goodness shall release me from the pains of purgatory and shall increase my reward in heaven besides.
I will not mistrust him, Meg, though I shall feel myself weakening and on the verge of being overcome with fear. I shall remember how Saint Peter at a blast of wind began to sink because of his lack of faith, and I shall do as he did: call upon Christ and pray to him for help. And then I trust he shall place his holy hand on me and in the stormy seas hold me up from drowning.
And if he permits me to play Saint Peter further and to fall to the ground and to swear and forswear, may God our Lord in his tender mercy keep me from this, and let me lose if it so happen, and never win thereby! Still, if this should happen, afterward I trust that in his goodness he will look on me with pity as he did upon Saint Peter, and make me stand up again and confess the truth of my conscience afresh and endure here the shame and harm of my own fault.
And finally, Margaret, I know this well: that without my fault he will not let me be lost. I shall, therefore, with good hope commit myself wholly to him. And if he permits me to perish for my faults, then I shall serve as praise for his justice. But in good faith, Meg, I trust that his tender pity shall keep my poor soul safe and make me commend his mercy.
And, therefore, my own good daughter, do not let your mind be troubled over anything that shall happen to me in this world. Nothing can come but what God wills. And I am very sure that whatever that be, however bad it may seem, it shall indeed be the best.
This letter always gets to me and it reminds me of the series of letters that St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote on his way to be executed in Rome.
It was said of Thomas More by his friend Erasmus "it might seem that jesting was the main object of his life" when he wrote to Ulrich von Hutten. That he was also a jester only makes me love him more. I don’t know the accuracy of the following, but it would not surprise me if true.
After stumbling on the scaffold steps, runs one story, More told the executioner that he could use a hand when going up–but could manage for himself when coming down. Moving aside his long beard as he positioned his head on the block, says another tale, More explained that it had grown since his indictment and so had to be innocent.
I re-read Thomas More’s Utopia earlier this month which ably displays his humor and wit and is I think is a form of satire much like what Jonathan Swift would later excel at.
Almighty and ever-living God, I approach the sacrament of your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. I come sick to the doctor of life, unclean to the fountain of mercy, blind to the radiance of eternal light, and poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth.
Lord, in your great generosity, heal my infirmity, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I receive the bread of angels (Ps 78:25), the King of kings and Lord of lords (1Tm 6:15), with humble reverence, with the purity and faith, the repentance and love, and the determined purpose that will help to bring me to salvation.
May I receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood, and its reality and power. Kind God, may I so receive the Body of your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which was born from the womb of the Virgin Mary, that I be received into his mystical Body and numbered among his members.
Loving Father, as on my earthly pilgrimage I now receive your beloved Son under the veil of a sacrament, may I one day see him Face to face in glory, who lives and reigns with you for ever. Amen.
– Saint Thomas Aquinas
Aparecida, May 17, 2007 (CNA).- The archbishop of Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, said Wednesday that although the bishops have not excommunicated lawmakers who voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City, they “are impeded from receiving Communion.”
While fielding questions from reporters, the Mexican cardinal explained that while “nobody has sent a declaration to any politician or lawmaker,” it must be stated that “we also have to repeat what the traditional doctrine of the Church is: Voting for those kinds of laws is not compatible with the reception of Communion, which is not the same as excommunication.”
“We are saying that this way of thinking is not compatible with Eucharistic Communion, we are not going to deny them the Eucharist. Every human being can have the forgiveness of the Church and of God when there is repentance,” the cardinal explained.
Unfortunately this seems to be the exact same mixed message so frequently given out. All of the responsibility is placed on the person receiving Communion. While this is necessarily true for the large majority of Communicants, it becomes a different story when the person is a public sinner where the one giving Communion knows that his reception is not only scandalous, but dangerous for his immortal soul. I just can not understand this reasoning. It is like saying no I am not my brother’s keeper. If he chooses to receive well I would rather he does not, but I will wash my hands of it if he does.
If a doctor told a patient that he should not take a certain type of medicine because for him it would have severe side effects and then told him that if the patient asks for it then he would write them a prescription you might think the doctor didn’t really care about the patients health.
This type of response I think only tells the public sinner that their sin is really not all that serious after all. How exactly this type of lame response causes somebody to repent is beyond me. Denial of Communion in these cases is an act of charity that hopefully leads to repentance.
WASHINGTON — The Rev. Robert Drinan, a Jesuit who – over the objections of his superiors – was the only Roman Catholic priest elected as a voting member of Congress, died Sunday.
Drinan, 86, had suffered from pneumonia and congestive heart failure during the previous 10 days, according to a statement by Georgetown University which said he died at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington.
Former Massachusetts Rep. Father Robert Drinan holds up a copy of the 1974 impeachment report of President Nixon while testifying on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing in this Dec. 8, 1998 file photo. Drinan, a Jesuit who – over the objections of his superiors – became the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress, died Sunday. . (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Former Massachusetts Rep. Father Robert Drinan holds up a copy of the 1974 impeachment report of President Nixon while testifying on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment hearing in this Dec. 8, 1998 file photo. Drinan, a Jesuit who – over the objections of his superiors – became the first Roman Catholic priest to serve as a voting member of Congress, died Sunday.
"His death was peaceful, and he was surrounded by his family," said the Rev. John Langan, rector of the Georgetown University Jesuit Community where Drinan lived.
I can’t say my immediate reaction was to pray for him, but I will pray for him.
Here is an interesting new blog devoted towards those in Purgatory.
The main purpose of this blog is to have Masses said and multitudes of people praying for the repose of those souls who have gone before us. Also
there will be related topics as well, such as prayer, spirituality, meditations on life and death, and the Mass (particularly the Requiem Mass),etc.
Please feel free to contact me at mortuum_mundo@mac.com if you have someone that you would like me to add to this site. (When sending me the person’s
info, please include a picture and a little bit about the person as well, especially their dates of entering and leaving this life.)
I pray that the prayers said for the souls who will be listed on this site be a source of great and necessary grace for them at the most important time of their lives – the hour of their death.