Historic St. Anthony Catholic Church
258 Ohio, Wichita, Ks
2nd St. & Ohio
Two blocks east of Old Town
Sunday Mass at 1:oo
English/Latin missals provided. Join us for coffee and donuts after mass downstairs in the St. Clair/Sunshine room, south exterior basement entrance.
Pastor of St. Anthony Parish: Fr. Ben Nguyen
EFLR Celebrants: Fr. John Jirak, Fr Nicholas Voelker
Master of Ceremonies: Tony Strunk
Choir Director: Bernie Dette


Continuing News

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Did You Know

Mass Propers, the readings that change everyday, can be found in the red missalettes at the entrance of church?

Fr. Nicholas Voelker celebrates Low Mass Saturdays at 8:00 a.m., St. Mary's Catholic Church, 106 East 8th street, Newton. There is no mass this Saturday, January 30, 2016.


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Post #76

Topics: Thomas A'Kempis: For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary....Arch-Bishop Fulton Sheen: Waste of Suffering....Test For a Reluctant Pope: Interestingly enough, written from the United Arab Emirates...I Tripped Over This: Randomness Off the Web.... Transcript of Benedict XVI's Q&A: Priests in Northern Italy....Swine Flu In Egypt: Coptic Christian Persecution?...The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria....St. Mary Orthodox Church: Mediterranean Festival, Good Eats!!!!!!!...SaintCast: Free Podcasts on Saints, News, Sermons and Entertainment....Pope Benedict XVI: Names Five New Saints


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Thomas A'Kempis
For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary
Submitted by James Spencer

"If thou carry the cross willingly, it will carry thee, and bring thee to thy desired end, namely, to that place where there will be an end to suffering, though here there will be no end. If thou carry it unwillingly, thou makest it a burden to thee and loadest thyself the more, and nevertheless thou must bear it. If thou fling away one cross, without doubt thou wilt find another,and perhaps a heavier."

(This is part 5 of 14 from Book II, Chapter 12, "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross," of The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A'Kenpis.)

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Arch-Bishop Fulton Sheen

Submitted by James Spencer

Many years ago Arch-Bishop Fulton Sheen lamented the widespread "waste of suffering." By this he did not mean that suffering as such is a waste, but that so many waste their sufferings by failing to offer them up to God as a prayer and a sacrifice. The surest way to avoid wasting one's sufferings is to make a the "morning offering" every day.

Here are two versions of that prayer.

Version #1

"O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee all my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, for all the intentions of Thy Sacred Heart, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, in reparation for my sins, for the intentions of all our associates, and in particular for the intention recommended this month by our Holy Father, the Pope. I wish to gain all the indulgences attached to the prayers I shall say and the good works I shall perform this day."

Version #2

"O God, in union with the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer Thee the Precious Blood of Jesus from the altars throughout the world, joining with it the offering of my every thought, word, and action of this day O my Jesus, I desire today to gain every indulgence and merit I can and I offer them together with myself to Mary Immaculate that she may best apply them in the interests of Thy Most Sacred Heart. Precious Blood of Jesus, save us."


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Test For a Reluctant Pope
by Damian Thompson
Courtesy The National
Interestingly enough, written from the United Arab Emirates

Benedict XVI will pay his first visit as Pope to the Holy Land on Friday. His itinerary will bring him into proximity to the sacred shrines of three religions in Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Those famous red shoes – not Prada, as legend has it – will be tiptoeing through a religious minefield.

This is a gruelling challenge for an 82-year-old theologian who, until 2005, was convinced that he was going to spend his retirement browsing happily in libraries and listening to his beloved Mozart.

And matters are not made easier by the fact that this Pope has upset both Muslim and Jewish communities in the past three years, by accident rather than design.
The world was surprised when the name of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who had been John Paul II’s doctrinal watchdog for many years, was proclaimed from the balcony of St Peter’s four years ago.

Many Catholics were dismayed. One of them was Ratzinger himself, who had assumed that, at 78, he was safely out of the running. When conservative cardinals put him forward as a candidate he tried to dissuade them. He was too old for the job, he felt – and perhaps too controversial.
On the morning after the election, The Daily Telegraph in London announced that the leadership of the world’s billion Catholics had gone to “God’s Rottweiler”. That was indeed Ratzinger’s nickname, acquired when he disciplined renegade theologians and approved documents reiterating the Catholic Church’s strict line on homosexuality.

Some liberal Catholics were beside themselves with rage and disappointment when they heard of Ratzinger’s election – one Vatican commentator, Robert Mickens, burst into tears on the spot.

They envisaged the Church being taken over by a hard-faced, ultraconservative Bavarian, stroking a white cat like a Bond villain as he fed Catholic lefties and gays to the Vatican piranhas.
The biog
April 16 1927 born Joseph Alois Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, son of a police officer.

1941 enrolled in the Hitler Youth.

1943 called up to join the German anti-aircraft corps.

1945 placed in a prisoner of war camp by US troops and released at the end of the war.

June 29 1951 ordained with his brother in Freising.

1959 appointed professor at the University of Bonn.

1963 becomes Archbishop of Munich and Freising.

1966 takes up a chair in dogmatic theology at the University of Tübingen.

1977 made a cardinal.

Nov 25 1981 named Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, formerly known as the Holy Office, the historical Inquisition.

Sept 1991 suffers stroke, temporarily impairing his eyesight.

April 19 2005 elected the successor to Pope John Paul II by papal conclave.

Sept 12 2006 upsets Muslim world by quoting a medieval Byzantine emperor’s damning comments on Islam during an address at the University of Regensburg.

They soon changed their minds. These days, no one thinks that Benedict XVI is by nature a cruel enforcer. Now that his job no longer involves snapping at liberal heels, he has changed breed. As they say in Rome, the Rottweiler has revealed himself to be a German shepherd.

This does not mean, however, that Pope Benedict’s liberal opponents inside the Church have been won over to his policies. They realise that many of his instincts are profoundly, even radically, conservative.

They strongly disapprove of his attempts to revive the traditional Latin Mass (effectively outlawed in 1970 after the Second Vatican Council) and they scan the media eagerly, anxious to exploit any papal misjudgements. They have been having a field day in the last few months.
Until this year Pope Benedict was judged by world opinion to have made only one gaffe. In September 2006, addressing the University of Regensburg in Germany, he quoted a medieval Byzantine emperor’s damning opinion of Islam. He was not endorsing the opinion; the quotation formed part of a complex argument about faith and reason, but the clumsy translation of the Pope’s German text into English made matters worse.

Benedict’s speech was carefully nuanced and certainly not crudely anti-Islamic. Nevertheless, the pontiff and his advisers had failed to anticipate the predictable outrage of many Muslim commentators.
Suspicions that this exceptionally clever Pope lacked media skills were confirmed this year when, in a move designed to heal a tortuous dispute with the rebel traditional Catholics of the Society of St Pius X, he lifted the excommunications on four bishops, one of whom, an Englishman named Richard Williamson, was a Holocaust denier.

This was a crisis of the Vatican’s making: evidence of Williamson’s extreme views could be found all over the internet, yet apparently no one had warned Benedict that he was about to make a gesture that would outrage the worldwide Jewish community.
Likewise, when the Pope visited Africa in March he answered a question about Aids and condoms aboard the papal plane in a way that could be taken to imply that condoms spread, rather than contained, the disease.

In fact, neither the Pope nor the Church has made a definitive statement about the morality of using condoms against disease. The Vatican press office later tried to tinker with the transcript of the interview to make the comments less controversial, confirming Catholic anxieties that Pope Benedict was badly advised.
What went wrong? The answer lies in the remarkable fact that Joseph Ratzinger, despite working for nearly 30 years in the Vatican, is a loner. There are few visitors to the Apostolic Palace: the Pope wants to spend his spare time reading, writing and playing the piano (badly, alas). He does not possess, or want to possess, allies among the ambitious and gossipy monsignori of the Curia.

This gentle, cultivated Bavarian policeman’s son did not seek to become a bishop, let alone a cardinal or the supreme Pontiff. His personality bears the mark of the flowery piety of his childhood Bavaria and, in contrast, the dry rigour of the German universities where, as a young priest-professor, he made friends with Protestants and Catholic leftists.

Well into middle age he sometimes dressed in a suit and tie, just like the fashionable radical professors of the era. (These days, however, he proudly wears beautiful antique vestment, much to the horror of liberal puritans.)
Ratzinger’s compulsory membership in the Hitler Youth is utterly irrelevant to his thinking: nowhere in his writings is there the slightest sympathy for the clerical fascism embraced by Catholic ultra-traditionalists.

His politics, in so far as he has any, seem to be middle-of-the-road Christian Democrat. He flirted with mild theological liberalism at the time of the Second Vatican Council, but abandoned that after he became convinced radicals were interpreting the council – which affirmed the role of lay people, reached out to other faiths and prepared the way for vernacular worship – as a moment of total rupture with the past.
Cardinal Ratzinger saw the papacy of the charismatic John Paul II as an opportunity to reassert the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church while reaching out to new audiences. His own project depends less on personal charisma or the thunderous condemnation of modern society.

At the heart of Benedict’s papacy is the belief that Catholics must worship God properly. He wants to heal the wounds caused by the liberals’ cruel repudiation of beautiful Latin services. In 2007 he dramatically removed all the restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. Old and new worship should live side by side, enriching each other, he believes.
This policy has alarmed a generation of middle-aged and elderly Catholics (including bishops) brought up to regard Vatican II as a new beginning, a year zero. And Benedict has paid a price for his lack of allies in the Vatican: some cardinals sought to exploit the crisis.

However, the new generation is on the side of the Pope, for younger active Catholics are surprisingly conservative. They see the Pope as a grandfatherly figure who is introducing them to ancient treasures rejected by their hippy parents. Rome these days is full of black-clad seminarians inspired by this “Benedictine” conservatism.
There are interesting parallels here with Islam. Benedict does not believe that Christianity and Islam can converge theologically, but he shares an understanding with Muslim leaders who believe that the strength of a religious community lies in its traditions. Liberal Catholicism and liberal Islam have one thing in common: they have a very poor track record of attracting followers.

Benedict rejects extremists of all faiths, but he is also unimpressed by diluted religion. And he is curious to learn more about how Islam is walking the tightrope of modernising without surrendering its identity because he is walking a similar tightrope.
His visit to the Middle East is fraught with difficulties. So many things could go wrong. But Pope Benedict has a secret weapon: a deep, unaffected charm that breaks out through the shyness to win friends in unlikely places.

When he was a senior cardinal, he walked across St Peter’s Square every morning. He did not march ahead with an entourage of advisers: he was often on his own and only too delighted to chat to pilgrims, sometimes for as long as 20 minutes. That is the side of Joseph Ratzinger that the Muslims, Jews and Christians of the Holy Land are about to discover. Whether it is enough to produce a diplomatic triumph remains to be seen.

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I Tripped Over This: Randomness Off the Web

St. Teresa of Avila: "Remember . . . that you have only one life, which is short and has to be lived by you alone; and there is only one glory, which is eternal.
If you do this, there will be a great many things about which you care nothing."

What the....?: 1999 – Sinead O’Connor is ordained as the first woman priest in the Latin Tridentine Church, a Roman Catholic splinter group.

His Holiness Benedict XVI: "When I was young I was rather more severe. I said: the sacraments are the sacraments of the faith, and when the faith isn’t there, where there’s not practice of the faith, the sacraments can’t be conferred. ... (I) have realized that we have to follow instead the example of the Lord, who was very open also with the people who were at the margins of Israel at that time. He was a Lord of mercy, too open – according to many of the official authorities – with sinners, welcoming them or allowing himself to be welcomed by them at their dinners, drawing them to himself in his communion..." blogger's note: this was taken from the article following...

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Transcript of Benedict XVI's Q&A with Priests in Northern Italy
By John L Allen Jr Daily
Courtesy the National Catholic Reporter
Blogger's note: this is a great read and insight into the Holy Father's stream of thought. Alas it is much to long to post here...visit the link here

The morning of Wednesday, August 6, Pope Benedict XVI met with some 400 priests of the diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone in the local cathedral. He was welcomed by the local bishop, made some brief opening remarks, and then took six questions. The pope spoke in German and Italian; the following is a rush NCR translation of the transcript of the exchange released this morning by the Vatican. visit the link here


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Swine Flu + Egypt +Slaughter of Pigs = Coptic Christian Persecution?
Courtesy Stellaa's Blog

Blogger's Note: This is an interesting read from one blogger's personal blog. I had thought the original story, when it hit the news, was a little wacky ...an over reaction by Egypt to the swine flu scare.
Please note: the accuracy said information has not been verified by Venite Missa Est! I leave it to you good readers to discern truth from hyperbole.

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Egypt is predominantly Moslem , you all know that. Egypt has Christians, the biggest group are the Copts, but there are other denominations. A small group of Copts are the Zabaleen. Who are the Zabaleen and what does all have to do with Egyptian politics and economy?

Zabaleen basically pick up all the rubbish, or garbage. They have done this in Egyptian cities for centuries. What they also do is use the organic material to feed their pigs. They raise pigs and sell them on an as needed basis. The service they provide is incredible. Daily pick up and no charge. They basically recycle pretty much all the material.

For some time now, part of the modernization and continued corruption of Egypt by the Mubarak dynasty, they have wanted to take away that work from the Zabaleen and give garbage contracts to corporations that will do the service for a price. Trucks sold by European companies, contracts, charges etc. Of course the reasons used are sanitation, public health. Instead, they should be looking for a way to help the Zabaleen enter into modern methods and sustain their way of living.

So, what an excuse, the swine flu. Now the Egyptian government wants to slaughter the 300,000 pigs owned by Zabaleen for the prevention of the swine flu. The original decree was that the Zabaleen would be compensated for the pigs, but now they are saying that since they can sell the pigs, they will not be compensated.

The Zabaleen sell pigs one by one. They are not butchers and have no refrigeration or a system to sell the pigs. So, it's impossible to sell pigs slaughtered en masse. Not to mention the danger of cholera.

Also, at this time Egypt is in the midst of many worker strikes. What a great time to create an artificial enemy, the Zabaleen to distract from the strikes by numerous sectors.

Yet, what do Western eyes see: 1. The little piglets ,or 2. The fellow OS blogger who thinks this is a brilliant move to protect the Christians.

First of all the Zabaleen are being scape goated and the means of survival are being taken away by the tyranny that is Mubarak, our best friend in the Middle East. The government knows that this is not a solution, but they will use it to manipulate public opinion. They will use it as the reason to eliminate the living of the Zabaleen.

In the name of modernization and in the name of public health two wrongs will take place and we in the West will applaud:

1. An impoverished minority will lose the means of sustainability, methods that date back centuries. Modern companies will do the work with trucks and contracts, kick backs to government officials. The west will probably give loans for this modernization and they will get to sell the trucks. There will be ribbon cutting ceremonies and tv coverage talking about modernization.

2. Mubarak is using the swine flu hysteria to distract from his political problems, the strikes and general dissatisfaction by the Egyptian people with the economy and the policies. Pigs, the symbol of the unclean and non believers will be used to redirect frustration with his regime.

Next time you look for fanatic Isalmists, look at the regimes that we support and how they manipulate and oppress their people.

You see when you reduce the middle east to the binaries we know, just religion, you miss the layers of economic and political nuance that complicate the issues in those countries. Then we can justify supporting their dictators, because we convince ourselves that the dictators are good for the people and ultimately good for us.

Whenever you see an easy binary, look underneath. See all the layers and look at them once in a while from the point of view of the people living in that nation, not just "our interests".


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The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria

Here is a quick look at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt from Wikipedia. Though Wikipedia is by no means a source for scholarly inquiry (it is a free and open access dictionary) it is a great place to start on any given subject.

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The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria literally: the Egyptian Orthodox Church of Alexandria) is the official name for the largest Christian church in Egypt. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451, when it took a different position over Christological theology from that of the Eastern Orthodox and Western churches, then still in union. The precise
differences in theology that caused the split are still disputed, highly technical and mainly concerned with the Nature of Christ. The foundational roots of the Church are based in Egypt but it has a worldwide following.
According to tradition the Coptic Orthodox Church is the Church of Alexandria which was established by Saint Mark the apostle and evangelist in the middle of the 1st century (approximately AD 42).[1] The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All Africa on the Holy See of Saint Mark, currently His Holiness Pope Shenouda III. About 90% of Egypt's Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, though other churches also claim Patriarchates and Patriarchs of Alexandria.
go to Wikipedia for more information and links here.


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St. Mary Orthodox Christian Church, Wichita Kansas
Mediterranean Festival, Good Eats!!!!!!!

The last time I went to this function I found the people at St. Mary's to be warm and happy. There is a real sense of hospitality and family with great food, dancing and fellowship. In my opinion, I found the food to be better than the "other" Orthodox festival in town (and the parish not as "well off" if you get my drift) and the people to be more genuine. Please visit and give them your support...and take the tour of the church!


St. Mary Orthodox Christian Church is pleased to invite you to the St. Mary Mediterranean Festival, Saturday May 2nd to Sunday May 3rd. For over 75 years, we have celebrated our Mediterranean heritage by holding public dinners and bake sales. With the Mediterranean Festival, we have combined the best of both events.

With our Ala Carte concept, you can taste authentic foods from Lebanon, Syria, Greece, Russia, and Serbia for lunch or dinner. The traditional Lebanese dinner you know and love will still be available as separate items on the Ala Carte line.

In addition to the foods available as Ala Carte items, you can explore our Mediterranean Marketplace where you will find traditional and ethnic baked goods like pastries, breads, & desserts from Greece, Lebanon, Syria, Serbia, Russia, & more, along with imported gift items. Browse our bookstore for gifts, icons, and books on the Orthodox faith, and make sure to take a church tour and see our hand-painted Byzantine frescoes and icons.

This two-day event is our opportunity to share our heritage, and to give back to the community, as we continue our support of local non-profit groups. This year we will share a portion of our proceeds with The Treehouse, A Project of Orthodox Christian Ministries, Inc.

As always, you can pre-order some of your favorite foods by filling out the order form in the PDF below and sending it to the church. All orders must include payment. Pre-orders are to be picked up before the Festival. You can pick up your order on Wednesday April 29th from 9 AM - 12 PM, or Thursday April 30th from 3 PM - 7 PM.

We look forward to seeing you!


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Saint Cast
The Best in Catholic Podcasts
Podcasts on saints, news, sermons and entertainment.

Here is my latest online hobby. At Saint Cast, a production of Star Quest Production Network (Catholic Media) you can download all manner of podcasts on saints and related information. You can also subscribe right out of iTunes. iTunes is a free service from Apple where you can subscribe to many podcasts. I subscribe to Father Z's What Does the Prayer Really Say and Saintcast. IT"S FREE and you don't need an iPod (mp3 player), you can listen to them right out of iTunes on your computer or burn them on a CD for the car. Check it out! http://www.saintcast.org/
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Speaking in a packed St Peter's Square, the Pope praised each of the five as a model for the faithful, saying their lives and works were as relevant today as when they were alive. The Pontiff singled out the Rev Arcangelo Tadini, who lived at the turn of the last century and founded an order of nuns to tend to factory workers – something of a scandal at the time, since factories were considered immoral and dangerous places. Tadini also created an association to provide emergency loans to workers experiencing financial difficulties.

Related ArticlesPope Benedict XVI: condoms make Aids crisis worsePrince Charles warns of 'Dark Age'Paraguay President asks for forgiveness over paternity claim scandalThe Kitchen Thinker: are pretzels worth their salt?G20 Summit: Pope Benedict XVI urges leaders to help poor"How prophetic was Don Tadini's charismatic intuition, and how current his example is today, in this time of grave economic crisis!" Benedict marvelled in his homily.

The only non-Italian canonised Sunday was Nuno Alvares Pereira, who helped secure Portugal's independence from the Spanish kingdom of Castile, leading Portuguese forces in the critical Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385.

After leaving the military, he entered religious life as a Carmelite and changed his name to Nuno de Santa Maria. He dedicated himself to the poor, never taking the privileges that would have been afforded to him as a former commander. He is remembered as a national hero today in Portugal, with street signs named after him in many towns, but also as a humble man of great spirituality.

"The canonisation of Nuno Alvares Pereira honours one of the personalities that most clearly mapped out our national history," Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva said in Lisbon. Also canonised on Sunday was Bernardo Tolomei, a nearly blind monk who founded the Benedictine Congregation of Santa Maria di Monte Oliveto in the 1340s. He died in 1348 along with 82 of his monks after leaving the safety of his monastery to tend to plague victims in Siena. The Pope praised his dedication, saying he died "as an authentic martyr of charity." The others canonised were Gertrude Comensoli and Caterina Volpicelli, 19th century Italian nuns who founded religious orders.

He has presided over a handful of canonisation ceremonies in his four-year pontificate, and has left it to other Vatican officials to officiate at beatification ceremonies. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, beatified 1,338 people and canonised 480 during his quarter-century pontificate. Beatification is the first step to possible sainthood. The Vatican must certify one miracle attributed to the candidate's intercession for beatification, and a second miracle that occurred after beatification for the candidate to be declared a saint.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Post #75

Topics: Book Signing: Local Author Stephanie A. Mann.... Franciscans of the Immaculate Messaenlatino: Nice Pictures....EWTN Broadcast: Missa Cantata For Good Shepard Sunday....Just For Fun: Pic....Thomas A'Kempis: For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary...SSPX: New Rosary Crusade....Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter: Chant Online in mp3 file format....Newman University Students: Visiting St. Anthony

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Book Signing, Sunday April 26 with Stephanie A. Mann

Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured theEnglish Reformation

A couple of months ago, the Venite blog featured a review by EighthDay Books of Supremacy and Survival: How Catholics Endured theEnglish Reformation published by Scepter Publishers. The author,Stephanie A. Mann, and her husband Mark, often attend the ELFR hereat St. Anthony's. Next Sunday, April 26, she will bring copies of her book for sale (and to sign) at coffee and donuts after the 8a.m. Mass. She will also offer a brief reading. As Venite, Missa Est commented, this is "an enjoyableand important book". Her website is http://www.supremacyandsurvival.com/The price for the book is $15.00, including tax.



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Franciscans of the Immaculate Messaenlatino





Tenebrae:
Low Masses of Easter morn:






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EWTN Broadcast

Missa Cantata For Good Shepard Sunday



From the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Missa Cantata High Mass in the extraordinary form for Good Shepherd Sunday.
Times:Sun 4/26/09 8:00 AM ET / 5 AM PTMon 4/27/09 12:00 AM ET / (Sun) 9 PM PT


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Just For Fun








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Thomas A'Kempis
For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary
Submitted by James Spencer



"Wouldst to God thou wert worthy to suffer something for the Name of Jesus! How great glory would remain unto thyself! How great joy would it be to all the Saints of God! And how great edification to thy neighbor! All recommend patience, but, alas, how few are there that desire to suffer! With good reason oughtest thou willingly to suffer for Christ, since many suffer greater things for the world."
(This is part 13 of 14 from Book II, Chapter 12, "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross," from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A'Kempis.)

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New SSPX Rosary Crusade


In his latest Letter to Friends and Benefactors (in French, dated April 15, 2009), the Superior General of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX), Bishop Bernard Fellay, after some strong words about those enemies of the Church (inside and outside Church institutions) who have been trying to undermine the Pope's efforts of reconciliation, proposes another Rosary Crusade, much larger than the other two previous Crusades:


"It seems to us that the moment is come to launch a substantial offensive, deeply anchored in the message of Our Lady at Fatima, in which she herself promised the happy ending, for she announces that, in the end, her Immaculate Heart will triumph. It is this triumph that we ask her, by the means that she herself requests, the consecration of Russia to her Immaculate Heart by the Supreme Shepherd and all the bishops of the Catholic world, and the propagation of the devotion to her Dolorous and Immaculate Heart. It is for this that we wish to offer her, with this purpose, from now to March 25, 2010, a bouquet of 12 million Rosaries, as a crown of as many stars around her, accompanied by an equivalent sum of daily sacrifices that we may be able to fulfill most of all in the faithful accomplishment of the duties of our state of life, and with the promise to propagate the devotion to her Immaculate Heart."

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FSSP: mp3 Chant Files Online

Epistles & Gospels and Holy Week For the Liturical Year

http://www.fsspolgs.org/chant.html

From the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary...here is a great page off their website with mp3 files of Epistle and Gospel chants of the liturgical year. Available also is the sheet music for each chant. Download and enjoy....If you have a cd burner (and most computers now do), I would suggest burning a cd for the car or download the files for your iPod.

Link is here:

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Newman University Students to Visit St. Anthony

High Mass to Be Sung On Sunday 26

On Sunday April 26th St. Anthony will be blessed by the visitation of a large group of Newman University students. Instead of our usual last Sunday Low Mass a High Mass will be celebrated. Let's welcome these beautiful young minds with open hearts and prayers for their continuing education and journey through life.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Post #74

Topics: Why Do You Care: About Maniples.... Overheard of the Web: Snippets Off the Internet....People Look East: Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word...Thomas A'Kempis: For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary...The Execution of Jesus of Nazareth: The Secular Reasons That Lead to Jesus Death...Of the Virtues Putting Vices to Flight: Kingman Catholic

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"Why Do You Care So Much About Maniples?"

Courtesy: My Heart Was Restless

http://myheartwasrestless.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-do-you-care-so-much-about-maniples.html

Someone asked me today: "why do you care so much about maniples?"


Well, it's not a silly traddie vestment thing. Nothing to do with vestments is silly, nor ought it to be exclusively traddie!
What is a maniple?
The maniple is a narrow strip of linen, of the same colour as the chasuble, which is suspended from the left forearm so that if falls equally on both sides of the arm. It serves to remind the Priest that he must patiently bear the cares and sorrows of this earthly life in the service of God and for Heavenly reward. The use of the maniple was never abrogated in the Ordinary Form but it is a rare sight these days.

As the Priest puts on the maniple, he kisses the Cross on the maniple and prays, in Latin or in English:


Grant, O Lord, that I may so bear the maniple of weeping and sorrow, that I may receive the reward for my labors with rejoicing.
Merear, Domine, portare manipulum fletus et doloris; ut cum exsultatione recipiam mercedem laboris.


So why do I care? For one thing, it is an important part of the priestly ministry to be a servant and to live a life of sacrifice.

I also care as a member of the laity. I have been carried this far in my spiritual journey, thanks to God's mercy, even though I have no resources of my own. When God's will seems distasteful to me, as it does at times, I remember that I please Jesus not by feeling discouraged but by bringing Him my weakness. The Offertory of the Mass is the perfect time to do this. The Priest wears a maniple, and from the pews I do my best to interiorly unite myself with the Sacrifice by offering up my own sorrows in the Chalice.

Often the devil tries to convince us not to submit everything to the Lord. The devil does this because he knows that if we bring God our weakness then He will strengthen us. Maniples matter to me because they point to the integrity of the spiritual life and to the theology of the Mass.




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Overheard off the Web
Snippets Off the Web...Some Good, Some Not...



G.K. Chesterton: I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
Unknown source: It is because of it’s emptiness that the cup is useful.
St. Hildegard of Bingen: The entire world has been embraced by the kiss of God’s love.
St. Lawrence burning at the stake: "Let my body be turned; one side is broiled enough." After having been turned over a while, he turned to the executioner and said, "It is cooked enough; you may eat."



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People Look East

Franciscan Missionaries of the Eternal Word


For one moment, imagine that you are riding in a huge tour bus; everything seems to be going smoothly, when you notice that the driver is facing the wrong direction. To your surprise, you ask the driver what he is doing driving facing the people. Something is not right with this picture. The driver is not facing the direction that he should be facing while leading the people to their destination. Several people be-gin to notice and with one voice as it were begin to cry out, “Turn around and face the direction we are driving!” The driver had been using a mirror to guide his course of action while facing the passengers. This seemed perfectly acceptable by passengers for most of the trip until some of them intuitively realized that something did not seem just right. The direction of the driver became very important to the passengers once they became aware of the significance of the matter. Practically speaking, direction matters. This can be seen and proven in the most mundane situations in the natural order.

If you grew up in the generation before the Second Vatican Council and if you were asked what are two distinct things that you remember happening afterward, what would they be? The two most common answers would be that the Holy Mass is no longer in Latin and the priest no longer has his back to the people while celebrating Holy Mass. You would think that they were the primary “fruits” of Vatican II. However, the Council itself never discouraged either of the two. Upon reading the Council documents, we see the Church encouraged the faithful to learn basic Gregorian chants in Latin for a full, active, and conscious participation in the Sacred Liturgy. The position or direction of the priest facing the people while celebrating the Sacred Liturgy was something that came into effect after Vatican II. The Council documents never mentioned the priest facing the congregation during the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. This was done with the best intentions of trying to direct people’s minds and hearts into the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy and the Reality that is being made present on the Altar in the Holy Eucharist.

The question now has to legitimately be asked, “Has this been done?” or better stated, “Has the priest facing the people during the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass actually drawn the faithful into a more full, active, and conscious participation?” or “Has it had drastic effects on how the faithful view and understand the Sacred Liturgy?” Most of our Catholic faithful do not even know that the Novus Ordo or Mass of Paul VI can still be celebrated with the priest facing the same direction as the people during the Eucharistic Prayer. If most of the Catholic faithful saw a priest facing the Altar during the Eucharistic Prayer they might be tempted to think that they are at an Extraordinary Form Mass or Tridentine Mass. The question must be raised, “Why did the priest face in that direction (toward the Altar) for centuries?”

There is a growing realization in the Roman Rite of the importance of liturgical orientation and direction during prayer, most especially during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The terms the Church uses for the posture or direction of the priest during the Eucharistic Prayer are called ad orientem (toward the east) or ad Dominum (toward the Lord). It must be said that the direction of the priest “facing away” from the people was never looked at by the Church as the priest “turning his back” on the people. Rather, from the time of the early Church, the understanding has always been that the priest is facing “with” the rest of the faithful in unison as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is being offered. The direction of this liturgical action was seen as not just something symbolic, but as an entering into (and facing a reality) far greater than ourselves. The Church when she celebrates the Sacred Liturgy is literally facing God and oriented toward the Lord. The Holy Mass is always directed toward the Eternal Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit.

This Trinitarian action is shown in the Holy Mass as the priest, standing in persona Christi (in the person of Christ), offers the once and for all perfect Sacrifice of the Son of God to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit. The direction of the priest facing with the faithful toward the Lord as He raises the Holy Body and Blood of Christ has not only a practical, common sense dimension, but more importantly, an eschatological dimension. Simply put, this means our final end or end times when the Son of God and Son of Man will come again from the East.

Facing east during liturgical prayers is much more than an external gesture. It involves the whole of man’s purpose of striving to be a Christian. The external gesture of facing east has to also have an internal orientation of the heart toward the Lord. This internal orientation during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was precisely what Vatican II intended when it spoke of full, conscious, and active participation. When all of us face the Lord together, both priest and lay faithful, all creation comes together to worship the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit.

Br. John Paul Mary, MFVA

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Thomas A'Kempis

For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary

Submitted by James Spencer

"Wouldst to God thou wert worthy to suffer something for the Name of Jesus! How great glory would remain unto thyself! How great joy would it be to all the Saints of God! And how great edification to thy neighbor! All recommend patience, but, alas, how few are there that desire to suffer! With good reason oughtest thou willingly to suffer for Christ, since many suffer greater things for the world."
(This is part 13 of 14 from Book II, Chapter 12, "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross," from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A'Kempis.)

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The Utilitarian Case for the Execution of Jesus of Nazareth
By Mark Llamas
This writing deals with only the secular and civil circumstances between Jesus of Nazareth, the Roman and Jewish ruling authorities of the time and the tragic circumstances that lead to his execution. The divine and messianic aspects of Jesus Christ are not addressed.

Some two thousand years ago in the city of Jerusalem after a request by the high priest Caiaphas and the Jewish judicial body, a Galilean man was brutally executed by the Roman power establishment. Executions were commonplace, but for many locals of the time and for many worldwide today, one execution in particular stands out amongst the rest: the brutal torture and crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth.

What lead to this man’s grisly execution? Was it a power play by the Jewish priestly elite to quash a threat to their authority? Had Roman law been broken and the execution of Jesus a simple civic matter? Had the circumstances presented themselves in such fashion as to form a “perfect storm”, a storm in which the two authoritarian bodies acted in unison to extinguish a threat to their fragile co-existence?

Continue to article...


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Of the Virtues Putting Vices to Flight.
Posted by Fr. James Weldon on his blog Kingman Catholic
http://stpatskingman.blogspot.com/2009/03/i-really-like-this-one.html


Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance.

Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry.

Where there is poverty and joy there is neither cupidity nor avarice.

Where there is quiet and meditation there is neither solicitude nor dissipation.

Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter.

Where there is mercy and discretion there is neither superfluity nor hard-heartedness.

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Monday, April 6, 2009

Post #73

Topics: Diocese of Wichita: Bishop Jackels on Holy Week Services.... You, O Hell, Have Been Troubled: From An Easter Sermon from St. John Chrysostom...."Good Morning": No More....Random Thoughts: Overheard on the Web ....A Blessed Easter: to All Our Readers....Thomas A'Kempis: For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary....A Storm is Brewing: Simple Tolerance Forces Radical Change...Christ Changed the World: YouTube, the Vatican

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Participate in Palm Sunday, Holy Week Church Services

Let the Eucharist have its full effect, changing us into Jesus, filling us with the spirit of Christ

The Catholic Advance

http://cdowk.org/advanceonline/

By His Excellency The Most Reverend Bishop Jackels

The Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem.

The Holy Thursday foot washing.

The Good Friday passion and cross.

The Holy Saturday resurrection light.

The Holy Week services take us in a participatory way through the most significant events in the life of Christ. This week our imitation is as close to acting as it will ever get.

What might be said about Lent can be said in spades about Holy Week: we do what Jesus did and why to prepare for Baptism or to renew our baptismal promises at Easter so to live our lives in Christ.

The stage of our acting like Christ is clearly not limited to the liturgy in church. Otherwise, those worship services would be cold and empty. They might even be considered harmful for giving us a sense of being holier-than-thou because we went to church.

So, take up a palm branch on Sunday and take it home to adorn a crucifix or holy picture. But let it also be a memento of the Lord’s second coming in glory, stirring us to live in joyful expectation, and reminding us to persevere in our efforts to live our faith (we can be fickle like the inhabitants of Jerusalem that first holy week, turning from Jesus to sin).

On Holy Thursday, kiss the hand of the priest who provides the food of the Eucharist, receive it worthily in Holy Communion, and adore it in the chapel of reservation. But let the Eucharist have its full effect, changing us into Jesus, filling us with the spirit of Christ, such that it is natural and unremarkable for us to wash the feet of others.

On Good Friday, listen again to the story of the Passion, watch as Jesus walks the way to Calvary, and venerate the cross as an expression of contrition for sin and gratitude for being loved so very, very much. But we take up our own cross, Jesus tells his followers, understood to mean putting to death self, or more specifically a selfish, self-centered, self-serving life. No more “I, me, and mine” or at least not only; but now also “we, you, and ours.”

On Holy Saturday, hold a lighted candle in memory of Jesus’ resurrection snuffing out the darkness of sin and death, and renew the promises to life differently, in imitation of Jesus, making the world a different, better place because we try. Allel… (Oops; not yet).

Let me take this occasion to wish you all Easter peace and joy.


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 You, O Hell, Have Been Troubled by Encountering Him Below

From An Easter Sermon from St. John Chrysostom 

(attributed to Isaias)


Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.

It was in an uproar because it is mocked.

It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.

It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.

It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.

Hell took a body, and discovered God. 

It took earth, and encountered Heaven.

It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?

O Hades, where is thy victory?


Christ is Risen, and you, O death, are annihilated!

Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!

Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!

Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!

Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.


To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen! 


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"Good Morning" No More

Courtesy: CathNews

http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=12830


Some Leeds priests have stopped saying "good morning" to their congregations after a diocesan meeting on the work of the International Commission of English in the Liturgy expressed concerns that services had become too informal.

The UK Telegraph reports that priests at the meeting, held in the Diocese of Leeds, were told to question whether it was appropriate to say "good morning" once the priest was on the altar and had made the sign of the cross.

Following the meeting, some priests in the diocese told their congregations that they would no longer greet them in an informal manner at the start of services.

A spokesman for the diocese said: "The review of the liturgy is looking at whether there are elements of the service that have become a bit too distracting.

"People might argue that if you go in to a house, you say 'hi', but the priest is not going in to a house. He is going in to a sacred service. We need to emphasise that the priest is president of the community and is presiding at the service.

"It is a debate that has been going on in the Church for a long time, are we doing a cabaret or are we actually celebrating the Eucharist?

"The fear is that if some guidance is not given and general decisions are not put down, the interpretation of the liturgy leads to unsuitable things, like strobe lights and girls in hotpants. The aim of the new translation is to bring more dignity to the service


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Overheard on the Web
Snippets from the internet....some good, some not....
  • I forgot where I found this but I have often thought the same: "I can't help but feel that putting the mass into the vernacular has *divided* Catholics rather then uniting us. Instead of every race attending mass together, we're divided up into Spanish mass, Chinese mass, English mass, Korean mass... you get my point! How is this ok???? How is this "progress"??? We now have White People mass and Brown People mass instead of UNIVERSAL (Ca-tho-lic) mass."
  • Just recently, a 6-yr-old said:“Daddy, why in the English Mass does the priest have his back to Jesus the whole time?”
  • Referring to the abolished Octave of Pentecost: The story goes that on the Monday after Pentecost in 1970 His Holiness Pope Paul VI rose early and went to his chapel for Holy Mass. Instead of the red vestments he expected, green ones were laid out for him. He asked the Master of Ceremonies, "What on earth are these for? This is the Octave of Pentecost! Where are the red vestments?" "Your Holiness," replied the Master of Ceremonies, "this is now The Time Throughout the Year. It is green, now. The Octave of Pentecost is abolished." "Green? That cannot be," said the Pope, "Who did that?" "Your Holiness, you did." And Paul VI wept.
  • In regards to His Holiness Benedict XVI, Vatican II and "reform of the reform": Pope Benedict, although he may seem very traditional, actually is doing exactly what the council (VII) called for.
  • Yogi Berra: If you don't know where you're going, you'll wind up somewhere else.
  • And for absolutely no reason: You know what still bothers me to this day? My grandfather had a wooden leg, and a real foot.

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A Blessed Easter to All of Our Readers

In the last  week we at Venite Missa est! have had visitors from all over the world. Thank you for reading our little blog and supporting us and each other in our collective embrace of Catholicism, Mother Church, our Blessed Priests and religious and especially the ancient liturgy, the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

May you have a blessed Easter and let us rejoice together, at home, in community and around the globe in God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice which is our salvation.

The Lord be with you....Sweden, United Kingdom, Ireland, Argentina, Panama, Dominican Republic, Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Romania, India, Kenya, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Slovakia, Mexico and Japan.

Here in Kansas...Dodge City, Hutchinson, Caldwell, McPherson, Moundridge, Newton and North Newton, Mission, Manhattan, Lenexa, Belleville, Junction City, Wamego, Lawrence, Olathe, Leawood, Overland Park, Leavenworth, Independence, Pittsburgh and of course Wichita.

Thank you for visiting....Washington, California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma, South Nebraska, Nebraska, Texas, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, N. Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Maine.


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Thomas A'Kempis

For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary

"Set thyself, then, like a good and faithful servant of Christ, to bear manfully the cross of thy Lord, for the love of Him Who was crucified for thee. Prepare thyself to suffer many adversities and divers evils in this miserable life, for so it will be with thee, wherever thou art, and so indeed wilt thou find it, wheresoever thou hide thyself. It must be so, and there is no remedy against tribulation and sorrow, but to bear them patiently. Drink of the chalice of thy Lord lovingly if thou desirest to be His friend and to have part with Him. Leave consolation to God, to do with them as best pleaseth Him. But be ready on thy part to bear tribulations, and account them the greatest consolations, for the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, although thou alone couldst suffer them all." (This is part 10 of 14 from Book II, Chapter 12, "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross," from The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas A'Kempis.)

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A Storm is Brewing

By Bob Ellis on April 8th, 2009
Dakota Voice
http://www.dakotavoice.com/2009/04/a-storm-is-brewing/



If you think the assault by homosexual activists on values, marriage and family doesn’t affect you, think again.

Simple “tolerance”was just a foot in the door to make way for a host of radical social changes that will end up affecting everyone…and trampling on the freedoms of good people.

When it comes down to it, there is no middle ground: homosexual activists demand no less than your full and complete endorsement of their sexual behavior…and if your opinion, rights and freedom take a back seat to that, so be it.

If you’re a doctor, you must not deny lesbians who want to you artificially inseminate one (or both) of them, and if you are a counselor, you must not give the slightest hint that you believe homosexuality is immoral or unhealthy.

If you are a church, ministry or religious person, you must cater to the whims of homosexual depravity or face legal consequences.

If you are a parent, you must allow the politically-correct education system to teach your children that this immoral, unnatural and unhealthy sexual practice is perfectly fine.

If you want to preserve your rights and freedom, if you want to preserve a society that has a moral compass, you must get involved NOW. You no longer have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines.

This video is from the National Organization for Marriage.



Christ Changed the World by Letting Himself Be Killed

YouTube: the Vatican

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROcfWjiS-0o&feature=channel_page



Friday, April 3, 2009

Post #72

Topics: Thomas A'Kempis: For the Greater Glory of God and the Honor of The Blessed Virgin Mary....A Layman's Manifesto: Kneeling at Communion....Passiontide Veils:Courtesy, What Does the Prayer Really Say....Papal Mass Picture: Just a Great Pic....Cardinal Accused of Disobeying Pope: Vatican's Ecclesia Dei Throws Down....Vietnam: Decline in Vietnamese Catholics....The Vatican: On YouTube

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A.M.D.G et B.V.M.H.
From Book II, Chapter 12, "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross" from The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A'Kempis
Submitted by James Spencer

"To bear the cross, to love the cross, to chastise the body and bring it under subjection; to fly honors, to love suffering insults, to despise one's self, and wish to be despised; to bear all adversities and losses, and to desire no prosperity in this world -- all this is not according to man's natural inclination. It thou lookest unto thyself, thou canst do nothing of this sort of thyself. But if thou confidest in the Lord, strength will be given to thee from heaven, and the world and the flesh shall be made subject to thee. Neither shalt thou fear thine enemy, the devil, if thou art armed with faith and signed with the cross of Christ."

(This is part 9 of 14 from Book II, Chapter 12, "The Royal Road of the Holy Cross" from The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas A'Kempis.)

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Joe's Kneeling Manifesto
Courtesy: Verbum Veritatis (Word of Truth)....in Mahonyland.blogspot

Blogger's note: I recently attended a weekday Ordinary Form mass at the Cathedral. The priest was very young, which always inspires great hope for Catholicism, and was wonderful in the confessional...a great balance of admonishment, teaching, understanding and wisdom (especially since he was so young!).

Mass began and I was sorely aware that it has been a very long time since I have been to a Ordinary Form mass but i found it reverent and prayerful.

What bothered me was taking communion standing. I know this is the norm, but it "just ain't right". I enjoyed Joe's Kneeling Manifesto, especially number 1..............................and here it is. Please note that this blogger, Joe, is speaking from a point of view within his parish and diocese....so you sensitive sorts don't email me about something you may find offensive.

Joe's Kneeling Manifesto
Since apparently the words of the Holy Father, CDF aren't enough to convince priests that I have a right to receive kneeling. This manifesto is to provide the why I receive kneeling and on the tongue.
1. Because I'm NOT holier than thou.
If anything, I'm a far greater sinner than many of you can imagine. I'm a total failure at being Catholic, and I don't know about you because of the fact that I'm a failure, I need constant reminders that I'm not God, which leads us to point 2.

2. Humility
The ultimate act of humility is to kneel before God in contrition, begging for his Mercy to reign. I don't know about you, but I need a ton of that Mercy for the amount of times I've screwed up. Ever wonder why kneelers are set up in the confessional, hint, it's because kneeling is also a penitential act and we imitate the Saints, (most notably St. Mary Magdelen, Ss John and Mary at the foot of the Cross). It's not just an interior attitude, it should be reflected externally as well.

3. For those that want to kneel and can't.
I know that there are many that want to receive kneeling but are physically unable to do so for whatever reason it may be. We are one body in Christ and offering our actions for another is a laudable thing to do :)...I need ALL the brownie points to shorten my purgatory sentence, any act that can help, I'm all for it.

4. Catholic Theology
Et Verbum carno factus est. God came to us, we didn't come to God. We receive Holy Communion, we don't feed ourselves. The fact that we're supposed to be converted like children should say something. It doesn't mean we de-progress as humans, but rather that child like innocence, that child like dependency on God.

5. Vatican II didn't say so.
I was told that Vatican II was the cause for Communion in the hand, read the documents for myself, turns out the catechist was lying...

6. Imitation of the Saints
Who am I to be standing, when all the great lay Saints kneeled before me, my patron St. Thérèse, St. Catherine, Isidore, and many of the other great Saints. :)

7. John Paul II and Mother Theresa were against it.
"Wherever I go in the whole world, the thing that makes me the saddest is watching people receive Communion in the hand."- Bl. Teresa of Calcutta"
"...privledge of the ordained..."
And we all know how EVERYONE loves John Paul II and Bl. Mother Theresa, their words have value.

8. Personal sacrifice and mortification.
For those of you that don't know, my left leg has metal rod in it. Some days it can be a real chore to kneel, and others easier. It's much easier to kneel at the rail, than it is on the hard floor, but I offer it up as such and remember that my sacrifices can help those around the world.

**Disclaimer information so I don't get killed
1. I don't believe those who receive in the hand are intrinsically evil.
2. I know that the indult in the US is to stand, I chose not to for the above reasons
3, I didn't quote Church documents on purpose, no one reads them (I know my readers do, but I can't speak for the world)
4. This is also to remind myself of why I kneel, because sometimes it can get mechanical.



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Passiontide Veils
by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Courtesy: What does the Prayer Really Say?

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2009/03/passiontide-veils/


In the 1962 Missale Romanum, the Extraordinary Use of the Roman Rite, this is First Passion Sunday. In the Novus Ordo we also call Palm Sunday “Passion” Sunday. Today is the beginning of “Passiontide”. It is known as Iudica Sunday, from the first word of the Introit of Mass, from Ps 42 (41).

We lose things during Lent. We are being pruned through the liturgy. Holy Church experiences liturgical death before the feast of the Resurrection. The Alleluia goes on Septuagesima. Music and flowers go on Ash Wednesday. Today, statues and images are draped in purple. That is why today is sometimes called Repus Sunday, from repositus analogous to absconditus or “hidden”, because this is the day when Crosses and other images in churches are veiled. The universal Church’s Ordo published by the Holy See has an indication that images can be veiled from this Sunday, the 5th of Lent. Traditionally Crosses may be covered until the end of the celebration of the Lord’s Passion on Good Friday and images, such as statues may be covered until the beginning of the Easter Vigil. At my home parish of St. Agnes in St. Paul, MN, the large statue of the Pietà is appropriately unveiled at the Good Friday service.

Also, as part of the pruning, as of today in the older form of Mass, the “Iudica” psalm in prayers at the foot of the altar and the Gloria Patri at the end of certain prayers was no longer said.

The pruning cuts more deeply as we march into the Triduum. After the Mass on Holy Thursday the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the main altar, which itself is stripped and bells are replaced with wooden noise makers. On Good Friday there isn’t even a Mass. At the beginning of the Vigil we are deprived of light itself! It is as if the Church herself were completely dead with the Lord in His tomb. This liturgical death of the Church reveals how Christ emptied Himself of His glory in order to save us from our sins and to teach us who we are.

The Church then gloriously springs to life again at the Vigil of Easter. In ancient times, the Vigil was celebrated in the depth of night. In the darkness a single spark would be struck from flint and spread into the flames. The flames spread through the whole Church.

If we can connect ourselves in heart and mind with the Church’s liturgy in which these sacred mysteries are re-presented, then by our active receptivity we become participants in the saving mysteries of Christ’s life, death and resurrection. To begin this active receptivity we must be baptized members of the Church and be in the state of grace.


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Papal Mass Picture
Just a Great Pic




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Cardinal Accused of Disobeying Pope
By Robert Mickens courtesy of WDtPRS



PHILIPPINES
Robert Mickens
In Rome

The Head of the Vatican’s Ecclesia Dei commission has reprimanded the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, for setting “unduly restrictive” conditions on use of the Tridentine Mass, [Again… update on the terms! No one really says "Tridentine" anymore.] saying they were “in direct contradiction” to the wishes of Pope Benedict XVI.

“Your ‘Archdiocesan Guidelines’ are simply not acceptable as they stand and I ask you to reconsider them,” said the Ecclesia Dei president, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, in a letter dated 6 March and seen by The Tablet this week. It said “guidelines allowing only a monthly Mass in a chapel of [the] Metropolitan Cathedral” were in violation of the norms established in the motu proprio, “Summorum Pontificum”, issued by the Pope in 2007 for the widespread use of the Tridentine Mass. [Get this…] Cardinal Castrillón said the papal decree was “part of the universal law of the Church” and could not be limited by the “particular law” of a diocesan bishop. [This is the part that the Pope’s enemies in this matter will really hate!] The Archdiocese of Manila ministers to more than 2.8 million Catholics.

“There is simply no legitimate reason why this [Tridentine] Mass cannot and should not be celebrated in any church or chapel of your archdiocese,” Cardinal Castrillón said in his letter to the Archbishop of Manila.

[Read closely…] He insisted that Cardinal Rosales actively promote the implementation of the motu proprio by “helping priests who are desirous to learn how to celebrate” the old rite Mass, which he said only required that the priest be “reasonably competent in Latin”, [which, as WDTPRS has been saying all along, means that the priest can pronounce the words properly. We want more, of course, but that is the minimum. And what is required is sufficiency, the minimum, not expertise.] and that there were faithful [no number set… and the coetus mentioned in the Motu Proprio might be very small indeed.] who wished to assist at its celebration. The Archdiocese of Manila published the Tridentine Mass guidelines on its website last year. But they were quickly removed when supporters of the old rite protested to Rome.


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Why Catholics in Vietnam Are Vanishing

By J B An Dang
Courtesy of Indian Catholic


Inability to witness in everyday life to the true meaning of being Catholic, a lazy conviction that evangelization is ultimately the duty of priests alone, hostility if not outright persecution from the authorities, which is often translated into various forms of discrimination - all of this is detracting from the missionary impulse of the Vietnamese Church, and with this, from the percentage of Catholics in the country. This is the analysis that emerges from a conference organized some time ago by the archdiocese of Saigon, precisely in order to examine the causes of the slowdown in the growth of the number of Catholics.

For decades, in fact, the growth of the number of Catholics - although it has continued - has been lower as a percentage than that of the rise in population. "The latest official statistical figures from the Church in Vietnam," says Fr. Anthony Nguyen Ngoc Son, one of the main speakers at the conference, "show that the Catholic population in 2007 was 6,087,700 among 85,154,900 people, or a rate at about 7.15% of national population,. This indicates a decline in number of registered Catholics comparing to 7.2 % in 1933 or 7.5% in 1939."
It is also alarming that while the percentage of Catholics has diminished over the past 50 years, that of other Christian denominations has risen. In 1999, these counted 400,000 members, and in 2008, according to the latest report, there were 1.5 million. According to Fr. Anthony Nguyen, "these figures are a clear indication of the ineffectiveness of the Church’s mission in Vietnam during the last 50 years."

The conference highlighted the alarming number of those who, baptized as adults, do not continue their faith life. Over the past seven years, about 35,000 adults have received baptism, in 80-90% of the cases through matrimony. Unfortunately, however, the number of these converts who continue to practice their religion is showing an alarming drop, above all because of the problems that they have to face after receiving baptism, like the loss of privileges and promotions in some jobs, or the subtle discrimination to which they are subjected by the atheist government.

To this must be added the attitude of practical indifference that many have adopted toward missionary efforts. Many are convinced that evangelization is something that concerns the priests, not the laity. Many Catholics also do not act as witnesses of Christ in their lives, and their behavior does not make a good impression on their non-Catholic neighbors and friends.
Even among priests, Fr. Anthony Nguyen observes, "the clergy has not assumed the much needed responsibility for the mission ad gentes in the country. Missionary efforts seem to be a personal, sporadic crusade for volunteering individuals and religious orders." Sr. Marie Nguyen, a sociologist in Ho Chi Minh City, adds that "dioceses and the Church in Vietnam as whole lack zeal, a comprehensive missionary strategy and investments of means and tools for evangelical mission, especially in the rural or remote areas."

A significant role is also played by government hostility. In many remote areas of the central highlands and the northern mountain provinces, pastoral activities are blocked by bureaucracy and government harassment. In these areas, missionary activity is always described as "a threat to national security," and local officials make no efforts to hide their hostility toward the Church's efforts to carry out its pastoral duties.

The constant policy of defamation, which is carried forward on all levels of education, also serves to generate confusion among young people and to discourage them from expressing their Catholic identity, in order to avoid a bad reputation. "Faith is often limited to something within a personal sphere that many Catholic youth try to make it as invisible as possible," says Sr. Mari Nguyen. "They try to avoid religion-oriented debates, hence lose chances to bear witness to Gospel."

This reality poses various questions, which were discussed during the meeting. The first is: how can the "Good News" of the Christian message be situated within the context of the bad social, political, and economic developments that the country is experiencing? In the midst of the desperation that is pervading everything, where is there room for the hope and optimism brought by the Gospel?

In the second place, how can the image of the Church as a family be constructed? How can Christian families become authentic domestic churches? What is the role of culture in evangelization? What efforts must be made to facilitate the inculturation of the Gospel into the Vietnamese tradition? What must be done to transmit the Christian message to the socio-cultural, religious, political, and economic reality of Vietnam? What emerged was that all of the answers must be sought in the correct understanding of the person of Christ, of his nature, of his meaning and his message addressed to humanity.
Courtesy: http://www.asianews.it/



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The Baltimore Catechism

Lesson Twenty-Third: On The Ends For Which The Holy Eucharist Was Instituted


251. Q. Why did Christ institute the Holy Eucharist?

A. Christ instituted the Holy Eucharist:1. To unite us to Himself and to nourish our soul with His divine life.2. To increase sanctifying grace and all virtues in our soul.3. To lessen our evil inclinations.4. To be a pledge of everlasting life.

To fit our bodies for a glorious resurrection.6. To continue the sacrifice of the Cross in His Church.


252. Q. How are we united to Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist?

A. We are united to Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist by means of Holy Communion.


253. Q. What is Holy Communion?

A. Holy Communion is the receiving of the body and blood of Christ.


254. Q. What is necessary to make a good Communion?

A. To make a good Communion it is necessary to be in the state of sanctifying grace, to have a right intention, and to obey the laws of fasting. (See Q. 257.)


255. Q. Does he who receives Communion in mortal sin receive the body and blood of Christ?

A. He who receives Communion in mortal sin receives the body and blood of Christ, but does not receive His grace, and he commits a great sacrilege.


256. Q. Is it enough to be free from mortal sin to receive Plentifully the graces of Holy Communion?

A. To receive plentifully the graces of Holy Communion it is not enough to be free from mortal sin, but we should be free from all affection to venial sin, and should make acts of faith, hope, and love.


257. Q. What is the fast necessary for Holy Communion?

A. The fast necessary for Holy Communion is to abstain from all food, beverages, and alcoholic drinks for one hour before Holy Communion. Water may be taken at any time. The sick may take food, non-alcoholic drinks, and any medicine up to Communion time. ** This answer has been changed in the 1977 printing to bring it up to date with the current rules.


258. Q. Is any one ever allowed to receive Holy Communion when not fasting?

A. Any one in danger of death is allowed to receive Holy Communion when not fasting or when it is necessary to save the Blessed Sacrament from insult or injury.


259. Q. When are we bound to receive Holy Communion?

A. We are bound to receive Holy Communion, under pain of mortal sin, during the Easter time and when in danger of death.


260. Q. Is it well to receive Holy Communion often?

A. It is well to receive Holy Communion often, as nothing is a greater aid to a holy life than often to receive the Author of all grace and the Source of all good.


261. Q. What should we do after Holy Communion?

A. After Holy Communion we should spend some time in adoring our Lord, in thanking Him for the grace we have received, and in asking Him for the blessings we need.


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The Vatican: On YouTube

Were you aware that the Vatican and His Holiness have a YouTube channel? They do...and it is great! You can even subscribe. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/vatican