Deanery Meeting

Yesterday, Thursday, the priests of the deanery met with the bishop at St. Edward's in Texarkana. We have the largest geographical deanery of the, newly designated, deaneries in the diocese. From being the Southwest Deanery, we are now the Ouachita Deanery, encompassing more counties (16) than we did before. In this deanery there are thirteen parishes and six priests. I realized at the meeting the other day that I'm the oldest. This is kind of funny when you realize that I'm the youngest priest of Subiaco Abbey. Go figure. Of these thirteen parishes, I am the only pastor who does not have a mission parish. What that portends for the future is not known to me.

The pastors were given the role of facilitating parish planning in their various cures. This information will, in turn, be used to prepare a deanery 5-year plan. The combination of the various deanery plans will then be the springboard for the diocesan plan.

Unlike previous "plans" that we have experienced, this one is from the ground up. Our history shows that we've usually received plans from on high and were then expected to implement them---usually with un-funded mandates attached. This process is quite different than what we've experienced before, and I believe that it has a much greater chance of success than previous ones.

A tip of the capuche to Bishop Taylor and his curia for approaching the future in this novel way.

St. Blaise, bishop and martyr

Today is the feast of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr. He is known as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. He was bishop of Sebaste in Armenia and was martyred for the faith. He is the patron for those with diseases of the throat, and on this day a special "St. Blaise Blessing" is administered in many churches, including mine. According to tradition he saved the life of a boy who was choking on a fish bone. The use of the crossed candles in the administration of the blessing is a symbol of that incident.

Blessing: Through the intercession of St. Blaise, bishop and martyr, may you be preserved from every illness of the throat, and every other disease, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

New Patriarch of Moskow enthroned in 3-hour service

Genealogy

Genealogy research took up a bit of time this afternoon. I'm seeking to prove my descent from Capt. Louis Stagg of Louisiana. This will allow me to join the Military Order of the Stars and Bars for descendants of Confederate officers. With that in the hopper, I'm also working to prove my collateral descent from Capt. Charles O. Savoie of Illinois. That will allow me to apply for membership in the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, for descendants of Union officers. I went down to Barton Library and spent an hour in the genealogy room. Lots of interesting stuff there, but nothing jumped out at me as being immediately helpful.

Through the line of Louis Stagg, I can trace back to General John Stagg who served in the Revolutionary War. Then I can apply for membership in the Sons of the American Revolution. Who knows where it will end. I might find that I'm also a descendant of Adam. How curious.

Daily life in the parish

I just did a funeral this afternoon. It's quite chilly here, down in the 30's, which is cold for south Arkansas. The funeral was nice and well attended. It sleeted here all night, but it wasn't cold enough for it to stick, so while most of north Arkansas is suffering from ice damage and no electricity, we're doing OK. We have PRE this evening, and I wonder how many kids will be missing. The program starts off with a great deal of participation, but it starts dropping off during Advent, and then doesn't seem to pick back up very much during the rest of the year. Yes, Virginia, it does take commitment---just like anything else.

The Three Holy Abbots of Citeaux

Today we celebrate from the monastic calendar, the three founding abbots of Citeaux, the founders of the Cistercian branch of the Benedictine family. They were St. Robert, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Molesme, St. Alberic, and St. Stephen Harding.

The holy abbots Robert of Molesme, Alberic and Stephen Harding gave the Benedictine tradition a particular form when in 1098 they built the New Monastery of Citeaux and founded the Cistercian Order. About 1125, Saint Stephen established the nuns' monastery of "Tart" as Citeaux's own daughter-house, and entrusted it to the pastoral care of the abbot of this
monastery. Under the influence of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and others the ideal of their reform spread and monasteries of monks and nuns following the Cistercian way of life multiplied even beyond western Europe. From the very beginning, the Order received lay brothers and lay sisters. A substantial spiritual heritage was engendered through the lives and labours of innumerable brothers and sisters that found expression in writing, chant, architecture and
crafts, and in the skillful management of their lands.

The order was created by a breakaway group of 21 Cluniac monks, who in 1098 left the abbey of Molesme in Burgundy along with their Abbot. Their motivation was to live in strict observance of the Rule of Saint Benedict - the Cluniacs were an offshoot of the Benedictines.
In 1098 the group acquired a plot of marsh land south of Dijon called Cîteaux. In Latin the name
is "Cistercium" from which we have the name Cistercian. The remaining monks in Molesme petitioned the Pope (Urban II) for the return of their abbot. Robert was instructed to return to his position in Molesme, where he spent the rest of his life. Some of the monks remined.
They elected a new abbot, Alberic. He discontinued the use of Benedictine black garments and clothed his monks in white dyed wool, who thus became known as the White Monks.

So from this "Black Monk" go greetings and prayers for our brothers and sisters of the "White Monks."

From Catholic News Services

Roe v. Wade the 'Dredd Scott' of our age, commentator argues
Washington DC, January 22 (CNA).-In an article for the National Review, M. Edward Whelan III, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, made the argument today that the pro-abortion rights U.S. Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade is the "Dredd Scott" decision of our age. Both cases, he wrote, invoke "substantive due process" to deny American citizens the authority to "protect the basic rights of an entire class of human beings."
The 1857 Dredd Scott v. Sandford decision ruled that a prohibition on slavery could not apply to slave owners who brought their slaves into free territory. This ruling helped precipitate the U.S. Civil War.
The 1973 decision Roe v. Wade, Whelan explained, imposed permissive abortion laws nationwide. January 22, 2009 marked the 36th anniversary of the ruling.
He noted that the Dredd Scott decision ruled that a prohibition on slavery "could hardly be dignified with the name of due process."

"Thus were discarded the efforts of the people, through their representatives, to resolve politically and peacefully the greatest moral issue of their age," Whelan wrote.
"Roe is the Dredd Scott of our age. Like few other Supreme Court cases in our nation's history, Roe is not merely patently wrong but also fundamentally hostile to core precepts of American government and citizenship," he argued.
"Roe is a lawless power grab by the Supreme Court, an unconstitutional act of aggression by the Court against the political branches and the American people. Roe prevents all Americans from working together, through an ongoing process of peaceful and vigorous persuasion, to establish and revise the policies on abortion governing our respective states."
The Roe v. Wade decision, he charged, imposes on all Americans "a radical regime of unrestricted abortion for any reason all the way up to viability."
"Sloppy language" in the predominant reading of Roe v. Wade's companion case, Doe v. Bolton, leaves abortion "essentially unrestricted even in the period from viability until birth."
Whelan argued that Roe v. Wade fuels "endless litigation" as "pro-abortion extremists" challenge minor abortion-related measures enacted by state legislatures despite such laws being "overwhelmingly" favored by the public. He said these contested measures include those requiring informed consent, parental involvement in the case of a minor who seeks an abortion, and partial-birth abortion bans.
He further argued that Roe v. Wade "disenfranchises" those millions of Americans who believe the "unalienable right to life" warrants "significant governmental protection of the lives of unborn human beings."
"So long as Americans remain Americans—so long, that is, as they remain faithful to the foundational principles of this country—I believe that the American body politic will never accept Roe."
A 2007 study sponsored by the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the Judicial Confirmation Network found that Americans were opposed to overturning Roe v. Wade 55 to 34 percent. However, the survey found that Americans were also ignorant about how Roe v. Wade functions in practice.
When educated about the permissive mandates of Roe v. Wade, survey respondents then favored overturning Roe v. Wade by 48 to 43 percent.
Noting a difference of opinion on abortion, Whelan concluded his National Review essay:
"I respectfully submit… it is well past time for all Americans, no matter what their views on abortion, to recognize that the Court-imposed abortion regime should be dismantled and the issue of abortion should be returned to its rightful place in the democratic political process."
Asked by CNA about the argument of Democratic-leaning Catholics that the legal battle to overturn abortion laws should be abandoned in favor of a "common ground" that would reduce abortions via social policies, Whelan said:
"Genuine pro-lifers have long recognized the need both to provide legal protection to the unborn and to provide support to mothers facing unwelcome pregnancies. There's no reason not to pursue both goals. The policies that President Obama has embraced -- including, for example, repeal of the Hyde Amendment -- would instead result in a dramatic increase in the number of abortions."

Always good fun from Landover Baptist

Interesting idea

Who wants chowder?

Nothing like mutual respect to build up the nation.

"Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around. . .when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen. Say Amen. . ."

Olympic Instruments say that my new hurdy-gurdy will be ready in a few weeks!

St. Ita of Kileedy

Beside being the feast of Sts. Maur and Placid, January 15 was also the feast of St. Ita of Kileedy, aka "The foster-mother of the saints of Ireland." Born into the Irish royalty, she became a nun and eventually and abbess.

There is no doubt Ita excelled in the ‘Six Gifts" of Irish womanhood the ancient Celt looked for in the well educated girl - wisdom, purity, beauty, music, sweet speech, embroidery. She refused an offer of marriage as she wanted to consecrate herself completely to Christ. Her father refused her. She went at once to an aged priest she had known from childhood and publicly made her vows which she had already formed in her heart. She left her father’s house and the pleasant places round it and set out with some companions for the Ua Conaill territory in the West of Munster, the present Co. Limerick, to a place called "Cluain Creadhail" which some interpret to mean "Meadow of Faith" and which is now called Kileedy. Legend has it that Ita was lead to Killeedy by three heavenly lights. The first was at the top of the Galtee mountains, the second on the Mullaghareirk mountains and the third at Cluain Creadhail. Her sister Fiona also went to Killeedy with her and became a member of the community. (by Bridgid Haggerty)

She had a school for girls, and later, one for boys. Several Irish saints came under her instruction in their childhood and youth. There are several "visions" attributed to her that have been collected over the centuries. They are remarkable examples of Celtic religious poetry. Here is one called

Saint Ita sees Christ come to her in a vision as a baby to be nursed:

It is Jesukin ("Jee-su-kin" diminutive of Jesus)

who is nursed by me in my little hermitage:

though it be a cleric with treasures,

all is a lie save Jesukin. (One can imagine her addressing one of her boy students with this fond diminutive.)

The nursing I do in my house

is not the nursing of a base clown:

Jesus with the men of Heaven

under my heart every single night. (A description of her mystical union with Christ and the saints.)

Young Jesukin, my eternal good! (Absolutely!)

To heed him is a cause of forgiveness,

the king who controls all things,

not to beseech Him will cause repentance.

It is Jesus, noble, angelic,

not an unlearned cleric, ('Way too many of those even now.)

who is fostered by me in my little hermitage,

Jesus the son of the Hebrew woman. (St. Mary the Virgin)

Sons of princes, sons of kings,

though they should come into my country,

I should not expect profit from them;

more likely, I think from Jesukin. ("Put no trust in princes, in man in whom there is no help.")

Sing ye a chorus, O maidens, (She could be addressing her nuns.)

to Him who has a right to your little tribute,

who sits in his place above,

though Jesukin is at my breast.

Source: The Martyrology of Oengus trans. by Whitley Stokes, London, 1905

Brother Tobias DeSalvo, OSB, of happy memory

Father Prior David called me Sunday afternoon with the word that our beloved Brother Tobias had died. He had been battling cancer for a short while, and had received chemotherapy in Fort Smith. They brought him home Friday, but had to take him back to Ft. Smith Saturday because he was in great pain. The reality was that the chemo, because of his weakened condition, had seeped through his intestines into his abdominal cavity and caused septicemia (septic shock leading to death). Of course by being so weak, the intestinal walls could not hold back whatever was in the intestines.

I shall miss him as a friend, beyond the loss to our monastic community at his passing. He was the only one who stood with me in the late unpleasantness, and actually suffered with me in the aftermath, although he did not go into voluntary exile as I did. We never saw eye-to-eye on a number of issues, but that did not stop us from being close. I drank his wine and enjoyed his company. He was always cheerful even in trials, and had a lot more energy than you could believe from looking at the picture to the left. He looks like an old man there, and I guess that years of hard physical labor and little sleep had taken their toll, but I will not remember him thus. (When he was in college at SLU at the time I was there, I can remember him falling asleep over his books, nodding off, waking up and trying to study again. It was kind of funny, but he was never absent from Morning Prayer, which is more than you can say for me.) You can see the beginning of a smile at the corner of his lips, and I'm sure that he thought that taking his picture was more to be endured than enjoyed, especially when there was work to be done.

When I came back for visits, if I had the time, I would try to take him over to the Sonic in Paris and get him a root beer float. He loved sweets, especially ice cream, so it was always a treat for him.

Today at 5:30 I shall say the Requiem Mass for the repose of his soul and the Officium defunctorum (Office for the Dead) during the day. May his memory be eternal, and may he rest in the peace he so justly deserves!

The King-Martyr, Louis, by the grace of God

January 21, besides being the feasts of St. Agnes, virgin and martyr, and St. Meinrad, monk and martyr, is the commemoration of the murder of King Louis XVI, the king-martyr, and savior of the American Revolution. The evil deed of evil me was 215 years ago: January 21, 1793. The more I study that whole period and the lives of the principal players, the more I come to see that the French Revolution was one of the most satanic events in human history. It has produced nothing but evil in its wake and the world still suffers from it. The noble king Louis, and his sainted wife, Marie Antoinette of Austria, are the most maligned persons that I have ever encountered. Almost everything that popular culture believes about them are, and were, malicious lies, the monstrosity thereof unfathomable. I truly believe that the king and queen are in the ranks of the martyr saints, and deserve our veneration and admiration. Louis' support for the American Revolution, albeit a totally political act to embarrass Britain, bankrupted France while it rocketed our nation to freedom. In so doing, the evil "thinkers" of France found their opportunity to create the first political holocaust of modern times. God save the king! Holy Louis, pray for us.

This is vocations awareness week

Have you noticed how often the call for freedom is made without ever referring to the truth of the human person? Some today argue that respect for freedom of the individual makes it wrong to seek truth, including the truth about what is good. In some circles to speak of truth is seen as controversial or divisive, and consequently best kept in the private sphere. And in truth’s place – or better said its absence – an idea has spread which, in giving value to everything indiscriminately, claims to assure freedom and to liberate conscience. This we call relativism. But what purpose has a “freedom” which, in disregarding truth, pursues what is false or wrong? How many young people have been offered a hand which in the name of freedom or experience has led them to addiction, to moral or intellectual confusion, to hurt, to a loss of self-respect, even to despair and so tragically and sadly to the taking of their own life? Dear friends, truth is not an imposition. Nor is it simply a set of rules. It is a discovery of the One who never fails us; the One whom we can always trust. In seeking truth we come to live by belief because ultimately truth is a person: Jesus Christ. That is why authentic freedom is not an opting out. It is an opting in; nothing less than letting go of self and allowing oneself to be drawn into Christ’s very being for others (cf. Spe Salvi, 28).

MEETING WITH YOUNG PEOPLE AND SEMINARIANS
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Saint Joseph Seminary, Yonkers, New YorkSaturday, 19 April 2008

Sts. Maur and Placid

Yesterday, the 15th of January, was the feast of Sts. Maur(us) and Placid(us), companions and students of St. Benedict. They had joined up with him in their youth, and became, in tradition, the quintessential disciples of the Master. The picture at the left, by Filipo Lippi at Monte Oliveto Maggiore (the home office of the Olivetan branch of the Benedictine family), shows St. Benedict telling Maur that Placid was drowning and that he should go pull him out of the water. St. Gregory, in his Dialogs, where this event is narrated, says that the obedience of Maur was so perfect that he hastened to the lake and, walking on the water, pulled Placid to safety. He doesn't explain why they all had to wear choir dress for this undertaking, but I suppose that was simply the artist's way of depicting them.
Legend says that Maur went to France and founded a monastery there. Placid and his companions were martyred in Sicily by the perfidious Mohammedan infidels.

Collect: Lord our God, you have filled us with wonder by the example of monastic observance in the lives of blessed Maurus and Placid. As we follow in their footsteps, may we come to share in their reward. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.

If you can watch through all of this, you have more control than I do

Oh, Andy

China�s Andy Rooney Has Some Funny Opinions About How Great The Chinese Government Is

From Epiphany to Ordinary

With the Feast of the Lord's Baptism we move from the Christmas-Epiphany liturgical cycle to the weeks of "ordinary time." These are so-called because they are ordered from week one to week 33. They are interrupted by the Lent-Easter cycle that begins with Ash Wednesday. In the Liturgy of the Hours, we begin week 1 today. (Baptism of the Lord is in the Advent-Christmas book.)
I am planning to teach on the sacred liturgy and liturgical music during these Sundays before Lent. During Lent, our "Tuesdays in Lent" series will be on basic Catholic Apologetics which I am going to teach. I get requests for this every now and then so I thought that this year it would be a good thing to do.

Someone sent me the very nice 3-d-like image of my coat of arms that I've added to this post. It shows a nice way to make a flat-2-dimensional rendering into something with more zip. I'm not sure who sent it to me, though, as I opened it here in my house, and the name doesn't ring a bell with others in my address book. An old friend or an anonymous admirer? We'll see.

Butch and Brice are resting this afternoon after spending yesterday evening and this morning visiting their friends. I wish Brice would get over all the chewing up of stuff. Butch out-grew it, I'm still waiting for little Brice.

It's in the 50's and cold, but quite sunny here in old El Dorado today. I've been invited to someone's home for dinner this evening. I need to start on my garden soon.

Pilgrimage Reunion

Those who went on the EOHSJ pilgrimage to the Holy Land and Rome in November with me are having a reunion here in El Dorado this weekend. Pictures will be shared, memories enhanced, notes revised and general fellowship all around. They will attend Mass tomorrow for the Feast of the Lord's Baptism as a group. It should be a great reunion.

Successful Bishop's Pastoral Visit

A very happy pastoral visit by our Bishop concluded after the lunch after the Spanish Mass. Bishop Anthony B. Taylor of our diocese of Little Rock arrived Saturday at noon. Following lunch he began a series of scheduled meetings with the finance committee, planning committee, Hispanic community, St. Agnes Guild, K of C, Catholic Daughters, among others.

He presided and preached at Solemn Vespers of the Epiphany Saturday evening, which was followed by a pot-luck supper in the parish hall. During desert he took the microphone and filled us in, in a kind of state-of-the-diocese presentation. He then responded to questions and as supper finished stayed around to kibbutz with the people.

On Sunday morning, the Solemnity of the Epiphany (observed) he presided at Adoration, Morning Prayer, and Benediction at 8 o'clock. Following that he visited with the Lay Missionaries of Charity and other parishioners.

At 10 we celebrated the Pontifical High Mass where the Bishop preached. The choir sang my setting of Videntes Stellam. Following the Mass, he taught the RCIA class in the library (see picture). Then, we celebrated the Pontifical High Mass in Spanish at 12:30. All of the liturgies went very well, and I was especially pleased with the work of our acolytes.

The Hispanic community had a wonderful soup, menudo with pork and vegetables upon which we feasted with gusto. Again during the postre (desert) Bishop Taylor gave the same presentation that he did after the Saturday evening meal in Spanish.

Finally, about 3:30, all was finished and we bade our pastor godspeed as he returned to Little Rock. It was a blessed weekend for us, and we are thankful for Bishop Taylor taking the time to visit us.

Uncle Jay Explains the News

My favorite chorus from Bach's Christmas Oratorio

And English version by Americans

Nothing like a German Christmas

It's getting to be time to let 'er rip!

Confession

St. Lucy, 13 December

In the dark of winter, the Church presents us with the celebration of St. Lucy, virgin and martyr on December 13. Before the Gregorian reform of the calendar in 1522, her feast fell on the winter solstice. "Lucy" means light and her life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucy) follows that of other traditional accounts of the persecution of virgin-martyrs. She is the patron of the blind since part of her sufferings were the removal of her eyes. (In the picture, her sockets are empty and her eyes are on the plate.)
She is one saint for whom even the Lutherans maintained veneration, and St. Lucy Day customs still are observed in the Scandinavian countries. One of these consists in the daughters of the family to dress in white gowns and, with crowns of lighted candles on their heads, to serve their parent's breakfast. (This is risky and should only be done with plenty of water available!)
For all of us, living in the present darkness, a saint of light should make a good guide. After her feast, in the old calendar, the days began to get longer. Now that lengthening of light is rightly celebrated at Christmas. Even if the calendar does not cooperate, the example of a young girl's ardent faith in the midst of trials that most of us would never be able to endure should brace us for the difficulties of the present. May the Christ to whom she witnessed come and set us free!
Collect: Hear us, God our Savior, so that, as we celebrate with joy the festival of blessed Lucy, your virgin and martyr, we may learn to be loving and devout to you.

The Immaculate Conception of the Holy Theotokos

The Holy Mother of God, by virtue of the saving grace of Christ's Sacred Death and Glorious Resurrection, received from the moment of HER conception (in the womb of her mother, St. Anne) the justification that we receive in Holy Baptism. While not being the actual words of the dogma, this is what it teaches. The grace of Holy Baptism is incapable of being purchased or earned. It is given to us freely by God in response to faith.
The readings for today present Adam and Eve and the story of the fall. Man lived in a state of innocence, i.e., "not knowing" either good or evil. With the fall, they knew that they were naked. They had learned evil. God's plan was frustrated by the freedom of will that he had endowed us with. There had to be a remedy.
The death and resurrection of Christ was able to work salvation in folks after those historical events took place. But they also worked backwards to grant justification to those who went before. Think of the holy worthies of the Old Testament: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebeca, Rachael, Moses, Joshua, Aaron, Miriam, etc. Then consider those others, too many to be named and unknown to us who followed God as best they could. At the moment of Christ's death, they received the justification that was needed for them to be completely joined to God. So we can see from that they the grace of the "Paschal Mystery" can work backward in time, for it is only by virtue of this event that any can be saved.
But if Christ's saving grace can work backward, then it could also work forward, in the sense that it could be available to for God's divine purpose at any time. Thus, in order that the freely-chosen sin of Eve could be overturned by an act of freely-chosen obedience, the Immaculate Conception fits the bill.
In order for the Theotokos to be free to choose to say "yes" to God, she had to be free from the effects of sin. When we choose, it is always from our selfishness. Even when we choose for God, we still want to know what's in it for us. It is only by cooperation with grace that we can even choose to do the good and avoid evil at all. By giving St. Mary the Virgin at her conception the justification that he won for our salvation, Christ, frees her without the sacrament of Baptism (that didn't exist then) through the grace of his sacrifice that is available at all times to fulfill the Father's purpose.
Collect: Father, you prepare the Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of your Son. You let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by his death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Help us by her prayers to live in your presence without sin. 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. Amen

Know the Enemy

Here is a discussion between fundamentalists and Oprah. Both are wrong, and need to read Nostra aetate from Vatican II.

I could survive for 1 minute, 3 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

Created by Bunk Beds.net

Wake, awake! for night is flying

Enjoy J.S. Bach's organ chorale Wachet auf! (Wake up!) for Advent. The melody is in the tenor.

Advent

It is difficult to believe that the glorious season of Advent is upon us. It is that wonderful spiritual time of the year when we recall the return of Christ at the end of time and celebrate his first coming among us in Bethlehem. It marks the beginning of the liturgical year for us Catholics. With all the saints we cry out "How long, O Lord?" With the prophets we immerse ourselves in the scriptures. With the wise virgins we procure the spiritual oil that lights our way into the new and eternal kingdom of Christ. John the Baptist (the Forerunner, Prodromos, Precursor) points our way to the Christ who is come and yet to come.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem reminds us that when Christ came the first time, he came to draw us to his kingdom by gentle persuasion. He kept silent before those who accused and judged him. When he comes finally, at the end of the ages, he will judge those who judged him. "Then, whether men like it or not, they shall be members of his kingdom by necessity." Think of that! What greater discomfort for anyone who had rejected Christ! While we are free to join his kingdom now, and live lives of holiness and grace, we become more like him, and his joy becomes our joy. After all, he only promises us the joy "of your Lord." There are no other joys available to us than this. Those who seek other joys will in the end only have the one, infinite, joy. Those who reject the one joy will endure forever what they do not desire, have never sought, and will seek forever to be relieved of. Let this Advent be a time of restoration and rebuilding for us. Make straight the way of the Lord!

Recovering from pilgrimage

I and the other pilgrims returned from the Holy Land and Rome on Saturday. Jet lag behind me, I can now devote some time to the blog. It passes belief that the Holy Season of Advent is before us!

The highlight of the time I was there was to celebrate the Holy Eucharist on the very tomb of Christ while the group was in the outer room of the aedicule (the structure around the Holy Sepulcher).

The picture shows the north transept of the basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. While we were there, a rather disedifying fight broke out between a Greek and a Russian Orthodox priest. Unfortunately, I was not in that part of the church at the time to witness this sight. Although our guide did try to find me, it was over and the priests taken away by the police before I could get there.

One thing that comes out of a pilgrimage such as this is that the plight of the Arab population under the Jews is insufferable. No one protests the Israeli right to protect themselves. It is just that they have taken a big bite out of lands that don't belong to them. It is to long to go into here, but it is time for the Israelis to start abiding by some international laws in this regard.

Continuing Education

Last week the clergy of the diocese was at St. John Catholic Center for three days of continuing education. The topic was the further implementation of the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) that has been mandatory since its publication in 1988. I must say that there are many, including myself, who have not fully implemented the rite as it should have been done twenty years ago. Of course, twenty years ago I was not a pastor, and there was very little reason for me to study it.
Now, however, as we have seen a great growth of persons seeking admission to the Church, it is more necessary than ever to persuade the people that the process of initiation is a ministry of all the faithful.
I have done something to increase the awareness of the congregation regarding its part in the process of initiation by moving the celebration of infant baptism to the main Mass of Sunday, rather than doing it in a private ceremony. This is not, of course, a further extension of the RCIA, but it does at least make the congregation part of the celebration even if only as witnesses.
Now it is necessary to gather our initiation team and get going with the complete implementation of the RCIA so that it becomes a normal part of the liturgical year, and a normal part of the engrafting of new members into the Church

Christians persecuted in India

Continuing news of persecutions reach us almost daily. However, the Church in the United States hardly hears about it. I suggest that the following URL be followed for more information: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13987

We basically abandoned the Church in the Holy Land when, a few years ago, Mohammedan terrorists took control of the Church of the Nativity, committing sacrilege, terrorizing the clergies of the church, and committing other horrors. The Arab Catholics and Orthodox of the East Bank felt completely abandoned. No one did a thing to help them. Finally, the Israeli Defense Forces brokered a deal to get them out, but there was no consolation for the Church.

As Catholics we need to develop a more catholic understanding of the Church. If one member suffers, we have found in our day, that contrary to the Apostle, none of the other members seem to suffer with it. Of course, this has been happening for a long time. In 1917-18, during the Armenian massacre by the Turks, almost two million Armenian Christians were killed. There was not even a peep from the Western Powers to stop it. Hitler used this amazing lack of concern on the part of Europeans (and Americans) as further justification for his solution of the "Jewish Question." After all, if Christians won't even lift a finger to help their own, why would the help Jews? We know the sad result of all that.

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary (OL of Victory)

Today is the feast of our Lady of the Rosary,. This is the anniversary of the naval battle of Lepanto in Greece in which a combined Christian fleet defeated the Ottoman navy, eliminating them as a naval power in the Mediterranean.

For a good overview, go to this link to read about the battle and its significance:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto_(1571)

Because the victory was deemed the result of the intercession of the Mother of God, through the holy rosary, Pope Pius V declared it to be the feast of our Lady of Victory. Gregory XIII changed the name to the feast of the Holy Rosary.

The summer torpor is over

Back by popular demand, I have thrown off the torpor of summer and will start blogging regularly. It is such a cool day that we have the windows open and are enjoying the fresh air. It is amazing how much is noticible when the windows are open. Sounds that closed windows and air conditioning cover up are all around, not just the birds and traffic but even voices. My house is so close to others that the people in ancient times (B.A.C, "before air conditioning") could hear conversations in the other houses.
Today is the feast of St. Theresa of Lisieux, virgin and nun. She died in her twenties, but lived a life of heroic virtue in the Carmel of Lisieux. Living the life of a strictly enclosed nun, it is amazing that she is the patroness of missionaries. However, her prayers and mortifications for the missions caused the Holy Father, to name her the heavenly patroness of the missions. Below is a biography of her life that I have shamelessly lifted from the site "Catholic Online:"

Over the years, some modern Catholics have turned away from her (Theresa) because they associate her with over- sentimentalized piety and yet the message she has for us is still as compelling and simple as it was almost a century ago.

Therese was born in France in 1873, the pampered daughter of a mother who had wanted to be a saint and a father who had wanted to be monk. The two had gotten married but determined they would be celibate until a priest told them that was not how God wanted a marriage to work! They must have followed his advice very well because they had nine children. The five children who lived were all daughters who were close all their lives.

Tragedy and loss came quickly to Therese when her mother died of breast cancer when she was four and a half years old. Her sixteen year old sister Pauline became her second mother -- which made the second loss even worse when Pauline entered the Carmelite convent five years later. A few months later, Therese became so ill with a fever that people thought she was dying.

The worst part of it for Therese was all the people sitting around her bed staring at her like, she said, "a string of onions." When Therese saw her sisters praying to statue of Mary in her room, Therese also prayed. She saw Mary smile at her and suddenly she was cured. She tried to keep the grace of the cure secret but people found out and badgered her with questions about what Mary was wearing, what she looked like. When she refused to give in to their curiosity, they passed the story that she had made the whole thing up.

Without realizing it, by the time she was eleven years old she had developed the habit of mental prayer. She would find a place between her bed and the wall and in that solitude think about God, life, eternity.

When her other sisters, Marie and Leonie, left to join religious orders (the Carmelites and Poor Clares, respectively), Therese was left alone with her last sister Celine and her father. Therese tells us that she wanted to be good but that she had an odd way of going about. This spoiled little Queen of her father's wouldn't do housework. She thought if she made the beds she was doing a great favor!

Every time Therese even imagined that someone was criticizing her or didn't appreciate her, she burst into tears. Then she would cry because she had cried! Any inner wall she built to contain her wild emotions crumpled immediately before the tiniest comment.

Therese wanted to enter the Carmelite convent to join Pauline and Marie but how could she convince others that she could handle the rigors of Carmelite life, if she couldn't handle her own emotional outbursts? She had prayed that Jesus would help her but there was no sign of an answer.

On Christmas day in 1886, the fourteen-year-old hurried home from church. In France, young children left their shoes by the hearth at Christmas, and then parents would fill them with gifts. By fourteen, most children outgrew this custom. But her sister Celine didn't want Therese to grow up. So they continued to leave presents in "baby" Therese's shoes.

As she and Celine climbed the stairs to take off their hats, their father's voice rose up from the parlor below. Standing over the shoes, he sighed, "Thank goodness that's the last time we shall have this kind of thing!"

Therese froze, and her sister looked at her helplessly. Celine knew that in a few minutes Therese would be in tears over what her father had said.

But the tantrum never came. Something incredible had happened to Therese. Jesus had come into her heart and done what she could not do herself. He had made her more sensitive to her father's feelings than her own.

She swallowed her tears, walked slowly down the stairs, and exclaimed over the gifts in the shoes, as if she had never heard a word her father said. The following year she entered the convent. In her autobiography she referred to this Christmas as her "conversion."

Therese be known as the Little Flower but she had a will of steel. When the superior of the Carmelite convent refused to take Therese because she was so young, the formerly shy little girl went to the bishop. When the bishop also said no, she decided to go over his head, as well.

Her father and sister took her on a pilgrimage to Rome to try to get her mind off this crazy idea. Therese loved it. It was the one time when being little worked to her advantage! Because she was young and small she could run everywhere, touch relics and tombs without being yelled at. Finally they went for an audience with the Pope. They had been forbidden to speak to him but that didn't stop Therese. As soon as she got near him, she begged that he let her enter the Carmelite convent. She had to be carried out by two of the guards!

But the Vicar General who had seen her courage was impressed and soon Therese was admitted to the Carmelite convent that her sisters Pauline and Marie had already joined. Her romantic ideas of convent life and suffering soon met up with reality in a way she had never expected. Her father suffered a series of strokes that left him affected not only physically but mentally. When he began hallucinating and grabbed for a gun as if going into battle, he was taken to an asylum for the insane. Horrified, Therese learned of the humiliation of the father she adored and admired and of the gossip and pity of their so-called friends. As a cloistered nun she couldn't even visit her father.

This began a horrible time of suffering when she experienced such dryness in prayer that she stated "Jesus isn't doing much to keep the conversation going." She was so grief-stricken that she often fell asleep in prayer. She consoled herself by saying that mothers loved children when they lie asleep in their arms so that God must love her when she slept during prayer.

She knew as a Carmelite nun she would never be able to perform great deeds. " Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love." She took every chance to sacrifice, no matter how small it would seem. She smiled at the sisters she didn't like. She ate everything she was given without complaining -- so that she was often given the worst leftovers. One time she was accused of breaking a vase when she was not at fault. Instead of arguing she sank to her knees and begged forgiveness. These little sacrifices cost her more than bigger ones, for these went unrecognized by others. No one told her how wonderful she was for these little secret humiliations and good deeds.

When Pauline was elected prioress, she asked Therese for the ultimate sacrifice. Because of politics in the convent, many of the sisters feared that the family Martin would taken over the convent. Therefore Pauline asked Therese to remain a novice, in order to allay the fears of the others that the three sisters would push everyone else around. This meant she would never be a fully professed nun, that she would always have to ask permission for everything she did. This sacrifice was made a little sweeter when Celine entered the convent after her father's death. Four of the sisters were now together again.

Therese continued to worry about how she could achieve holiness in the life she led. She didn't want to just be good, she wanted to be a saint. She thought there must be a way for people living hidden, little lives like hers. " I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new.

" We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in holy Scripture some idea of what this life I wanted would be, and I read these words: "Whosoever is a little one, come to me." It is your arms, Jesus, that are the lift to carry me to heaven. And so there is no need for me to grow up: I must stay little and become less and less."

She worried about her vocation: " I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places...in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love...my vocation, at last I have found it...My vocation is Love!"

When an antagonist was elected prioress, new political suspicions and plottings sprang up. The concern over the Martin sisters perhaps was not exaggerated. In this small convent they now made up one-fifth of the population. Despite this and the fact that Therese was a permanent novice they put her in charge of the other novices.

Then in 1896, she coughed up blood. She kept working without telling anyone until she became so sick a year later everyone knew it. Worst of all she had lost her joy and confidence and felt she would die young without leaving anything behind. Pauline had already had her writing down her memories for journal and now she wanted her to continue -- so they would have something to circulate on her life after her death.

Her pain was so great that she said that if she had not had faith she would have taken her own life without hesitation. But she tried to remain smiling and cheerful -- and succeeded so well that some thought she was only pretending to be ill. Her one dream as the work she would do after her death, helping those on earth. "I will return," she said. "My heaven will be spent on earth." She died on September 30, 1897 at the age of 24 years old. She herself felt it was a blessing God allowed her to die at exactly that age. she had always felt that she had a vocation to be a priest and felt God let her die at the age she would have been ordained if she had been a man so that she wouldn't have to suffer.

After she died, everything at the convent went back to normal. One nun commented that there was nothing to say about Therese. But Pauline put together Therese's writings (and heavily edited them, unfortunately) and sent 2000 copies to other convents. But Therese's "little way" of trusting in Jesus to make her holy and relying on small daily sacrifices instead of great deeds appealed to the thousands of Catholics and others who were trying to find holiness in ordinary lives. Within two years, the Martin family had to move because her notoriety was so great and by 1925 she had been canonized.

Therese of Lisieux is one of the patron saints of the missions, not because she ever went anywhere, but because of her special love of the missions, and the prayers and letters she gave in support of missionaries. This is reminder to all of us who feel we can do nothing, that it is the little things that keep God's kingdom growing.

St. Gregory the Great, 3 September

September 3 is the (new) feast day of St. Gregory the Great (540-604; pope from 590-604). It is the anniversary of his ordination. The original feast was March 12, the day of his death, and still is so in the Oriental Churches, the Episcopal Church and in the Tridentine Calendar. While my parents named me "Gregory," it was really because a 3-syllable first name goes well with a 2-syllable last name, giving the rhythm duh-duh-duh DUM DUM. This fortuitous circumstance allowed me to choose which Gregory I would have as my heavenly patron. Early on as a child I checked out other St. Gregorys but I liked this Gregory the best. The following is from the on-line Catholic Encyclopedia:


Pope St. Gregory I ("the Great")

Doctor of the Church; born at Rome about 540; died 12 March 604.

Gregory is certainly one of the most notable figures in Ecclesiastical History. He has exercised in many respects a momentous influence on the doctrine, the organization, and the discipline of the Catholic Church. To him we must look for an explanation of the religious situation of the Middle Ages; indeed, if no account were taken of his work, the evolution of the form of medieval Christianity would be almost inexplicable. And further, in so far as the modern Catholic system is a legitimate development of medieval Catholicism, of this too Gregory may not unreasonably be termed the Father. Almost all the leading principles of the later Catholicism are found, at any rate in germ, in Gregory the Great. (F.H. Dudden, "Gregory the Great", 1, p. v).

The rest of the article can be found here: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06780a.htm

The Order of St. Benedict claims him as a Benedictine, mainly because of the ink he gave to St. Benedict in his book the "Dialogs." As a matter of fact, a Greek translation of his Dialogs became so popular in the Eastern Empire that there he is known as St. Gregory the Dialogist.

Collect for St. Gregory the Great:

Almighty, eternal God, fasting and satisfied by Thy Gifts, even perfected by the leanness which is pleasing to Thee, we supplients appeal to Thy Majesty that the shadows of sins be expelled from our hearts in this time of fasting. Through our interceding, great and high Priest Gregory, create openness to the Divine Mysteries, and make us approach the True Light which is Christ. Through Christ our Lord, Who reigneth with the Father and the Holy Spirit, throughout all ages of ages. R. Amen.

And another collect:

Almighty and merciful God, who raised up in Gregory a servant of the servants of God, by whose labour the English people were brought into the knowledge of the Catholic and Apostolic faith: Preserve in your Church evermore a thankful remembrance of his zeal and devotion; that your people, being fruitful in every good work, may receive with him and your servants everywhere the crown of glory that does not fade away; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

If I cannot reach the level of his asceticism, may I at least reach the level of his efficiency!

Baptism in St. Louis

I'm in the summertime doldrums, and have left blogging aside for a good while. That's because there's been little to blog about in the course of affairs these past months.
I've been in St. Louis for a few days, primarily to baptize the newest daughter (Broghan Ann) of a former student of mine, T.J. Hunkins, and his wife, Michelle. The ceremony was held Sunday afternoon at the Church of the Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites of Mary (aka Seven Holy Founders or SHF). Oddly enough, this church is staffed by Friars of the Order of Servites, a friendly and helpful bunch as I've come to experience.
The weather here has been beautiful. After a front moved in, it's been clear and cool for the remainder.
Work to do continues in Arkansas that I'll have to address when I return tomorrow, but for now, I will continue to enjoy the peace of not working.

Catholic Cartoon Blog

Catholic Cartoon Blog

Friday in Chicago

Yesterday we celebrated the Eucharist in the extraordinary form (Tridentine). It was interesting and not without a compelling beauty. However, I figure that I was about only one of two priests who were present who actually remember and had lived the old liturgy, even if in my case it was only for a brief time.

I felt that the priest who was doing it really didn't have it down pat. He was rather stiff, as were all of the younger priests assisting. Time and repetition will, I hope, remedy this. In the meantime, I found it distracting.

Yesternight, Father Frank Phillips, CR, pastor of St. John Cantius (see picture above) presented us with an overview of his experience in maintaining and fostering the treasury of the Church's sacred music at his parish. Frank and I had an all-too-brief sharing before the talk. Today, Michael and I are going to play hooky and go to St. John's for a tour. I've been there several times, but I want Michael to enjoy it.

This afternoon there is a session on reforming the role of the cantor at 3:45. If anything needs reforming in the musical life of the Church it is the cantor. I believe that I have it well-regulated at Holy Redeemer, but I am interested to hear what they have to say. I am like that woman in the story by Flannery O'Connor (can't remember the name of it offhand) who was described as one 'who never had any ideas of her own, but was always able to use those of others so well that she never felt the lack.' Like a little bee, I have gone through life taking a little bit here and there. There is hardly anyone that I've encountered from whom I haven't learned something. Some good, some not so good.

Chicago, Loyola University

Michael Odom, our organist-choirmaster, and I are at the 18th annual Sacred Music Colloquium, held this year at Loyola U., Chicago. The campus is on the lake shore of Lake Michigan. The beautifully renovated Madonna de la Strada Chapel is the scene of our liturgies. This beautiful chapel opens right onto Lake Michigan. It is as if one is looking out to see as the lake falls below the eastern horizon.

This is the colloquium of the Church Music Association of America. They are the opposite of the spectrum of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. Here, chant and polyphony, and the extraordinary and ordinary forms of the Roman Liturgy in Latin and Latin/English reign supreme. When I concelebrated Tuesday and Wednesday, I realized that I was the oldest priest in the sanctuary. This gave me pause, not because of my realization of my aging (I could still give most of those that were there a run for their money!) but that I was probably the only one in the sanctuary who actually remembered the old Latin Mass as a part of my life experience---when it was still the only form of liturgy in the Church! The others were celebrating it and promoting it, but it was that they did not grow up with. This led me to opine that there is a difference of approach between me and them. If push came to shove, I believe that these younger priests in their lace surplices and birettas are really play-acting, although they are doing so with great seriousness and piety.

All of this lead me to describe this event as a kind of liturgical "Jurassic Park." By that I mean that, just as in the movie, people have re-created things from a distant past THAT THEY HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED! In the movie, ancient life forms were re-created, without regard for the fact that the world has moved on, and that a T-rex running around in the jungle is probably a bad thing for folks. Here, an ancient liturgy has been re-created, but without an appreciation that Catholic life, for better or worse, has radically changed since the '50's. You can tell that they are on a certain level play acting since their presentation of the liturgy is so rigid that you can see them mentally trying to remember what is to come next. There is a stiffness to their presentation and, occasionally, some gross fumbles.

The impression I'm getting is that the proponents of this are seeing the ancient liturgy as something to which every liturgy should aspire. The mutual influence of the ordinary and extraordinary forms then becomes rather one-sided. It is not what we can learn from BOTH liturgies, but how can we make the ordinary form more like the extraordinary form. This leads to the ultimate position that we might just otta jettison the new form and go back to the old.

Now they would deny this, and I believe sincerely, but I still have a sneaking suspicion that clericalism is lurking around here, and a kind of piety that is cut off from a vibrant Catholic life. These are just my impressions, and I am willing to be corrected.

At the same time, there is much beauty laid out for us, and as an artist I'm quite enjoying the musical banquet that we are having. There are some practical liturgical things that we're picking up, but they will all have to be critiqued and digested when we get back home. Is this conference worth it? By all means. Oh, and for those of you who thing that I'm on vacation, please understand that we have not left the university campus during our entire time here. There's been no sight-seeing (but much sight-singing), or restaurants or anything like that. Michael and I are planning to take a visit to a church, tomorrow, though. That still doesn't count for a vacation.

St. Columban, abbot

This is from the pope's General Audience of 11 June. It's subject is the Irish monk, Columban, and his contribution to the Christian life of Europe. The Holy Father has been using the saints of Europe as topics for his audiences. Is this an attempt on his part to continue drawing Europe's attention to its Christian roots? I don't know, but it may be part of the strategy.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today’s catechesis we turn to Saint Columban, one of the many Irish monks who contributed to the re-evangelization of Europe in the early Middle Ages. Columban made his monastic profession in Bangor and was ordained a priest. At the age of fifty, he left the monastery to begin missionary work in Europe, where entire regions had lapsed into paganism. Beginning in Brittany, Columban and his companions established monasteries at Annegray and Luxeuil. These became centres for the spread of the monastic and missionary ideals brought by the monks from their native Ireland. Columban introduced to Europe the Irish penitential discipline, including private confession. His stern moral teachings led to conflict with the local Bishops and the Frankish court, resulting in the exile of the Irish monks, first to the Rhineland and then to Italy. At Bobbio, where he established a great monastic centre, Columban worked for the conversion of the Arian Lombards and the restoration of unity with the Bishop of Rome. It was there that he died, leaving behind not only the example of an austere monastic life, but also a corpus of writings which shaped the monastic culture of the Middle Ages and thus nourished the Christian roots of Europe.
* * *

© Copyright 2008 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Life of st. Columban, by the monk, Jonas, can be found here:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/columban.html

Tim Russert, R.I.P.

The surprising death of Tim Russert, noted newsman and faithful Catholic layman came as a shock. The following is from the report in the Catholic News Service:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- NBC News Washington bureau chief and "Meet the Press" moderator Tim Russert, who died June 13 at the age of 58, was remembered for his warm lifelong ties to the Catholic Church and his support for Catholic education as well as for his career covering politics.Russert collapsed of an apparent heart attack at work.An active Catholic who apparently kept a promise to God to never miss Sunday Mass if his son was born healthy, Russert spoke often and fondly of his Catholic school education and of the role of the church in his life."Americans valued his tremendous command of the political electoral process and his commitment to discovering each aspect of the story that contributed to people having a better awareness of the issues of public life and candidates for political office," said Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops' communications committee, who was attending the U.S. bishops' spring meeting in Orlando, Fla."But those of us who shared his Catholic faith and his deep love for it appreciate his sharing of the story of his own faith and his loyalty to the life of the Catholic Church in this country and the many charities to which he contributed his time and talent," the archbishop told Catholic News Service.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace.

Friday, St. Anthony of Padua

Today is the feast of St. Anthony of Padua, priest of the Order of Friars Minor and Doctor of the Church. He was born in Lisbon and ended his days in Padua. One of the relics preserved there are his vocal chords. It was through them that he did his preaching, so I guess that they are worthy of honor. I once read an article about them in the Journal of the National Association of Teachers of Singing. Singers should take care of their vocal equipment with the same veneration.

I had to leave the retreat early, and departed yesterday. I'm sorry to have missed the whole thing. I do have information on how to contact Abbot Marcel, and I hope to be able to sit at his feet sometime in the future.

Michael Odom, our organist-choirmaster, and I are going to Chicago for the Church Music Association of America's annual convention. It will be at Loyola, there. I hope that we will both glean much from it.

I had forgotten how the heat at Subiaco in the summer is worse than it is down here in El Dorado. The abbey is in the Arkansas River valley, and the humidity is really awful. I would like to move somewhere north of Quebec.

Retreat, Wednesday

Abbot Marcel did a brilliant presentation of the Word as 1) information, 2) inspiration, and 3) communication of self. In the Mass we receive the word in these three ways. The importance of the Liturgy of the Word in the Mass should be ever-more clear to us. I wonder, however, how many realize that the proclamation of the Word is really Christ's communication of his very self, and therefore, a Real Presence in the assembly?

Yesterday it was hot and muggy. I'd forgotten how miserable the heat in the river valley can be at this time of the year. Even when it's hot and humid in Eldo, it's not as awful. It's still too hot for me, though. I should work in New Zealand in the summer.

News flash: the monks that were old yesterday, are even older today. Scientists are trying to account for this phenomenon.