tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91538922471909692662024-03-13T05:27:06.606-07:00Society of Saint Gregory the GreatThe Society of Saint Gregory the Great is a membership association of Catholic laity formed in 2008 to promote divine worship in accordance with the Supreme Magisterium of the Church. The Society has its own schola cantorum, and regularly sponsors presentations and workshops on the Sacred Liturgy, Gregorian chant, and sacred polyphony.Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.comBlogger386125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-24911697750302174762017-10-30T20:25:00.003-07:002017-10-30T20:25:58.131-07:00Good News in Idaho!<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Good news! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The "Treasure Valley Latin Mass Society" has been newly
formed in Boise, ID! The group has applied to Una Voce under the name Una Voce
Treasure Valley, St Joseph Chapter.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Treasure Valley LMS is seeking to build a list of supporters,
from those who are “interested”, to those who are willing and able to assist
weekly at the Mass, to those who are able to offer financial support. The
pastor in Nampa, ID, is supportive of adding a weekly TLM to the schedule; still,
this will involve considerable expense to bring priests in to say the Mass, and
to supply everything necessary for the Mass.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Please visit the new website (a blogspot page) at <span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https://unavoceidaho.blogspot.com/&data=02%7c01%7cdrjayboyd%40msn.com%7c8253a334e9c248f5c83208d51ef935df%7c84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7c1%7c0%7c636448978051074179&sdata=%2BRSRuGuOzLF/36Y0w6MIXhjxgKkdS3QjLrfEmVERptc%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" title="https://nam01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Funavoceidaho.blogspot.com%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cdrjayboyd%40msn.com%7C8253a334e9c248f5c83208d51ef935df%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C636448978051074179&sdata=%2BRSRuGuOzLF%2F36Y0">https://unavoceidaho.blogspot.com/</a> </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">to see how things are
progressing for this group. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;">To express your interest and support, and to be on
an email list regarding this group and Masses offered, please write to </span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><a href="mailto:LatinMassIdaho@gmail.com" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-large;" target="_blank" title="mailto:LatinMassIdaho@gmail.com">LatinMassIdaho@gmail.com</a></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-78478003234894924672015-10-11T10:05:00.000-07:002015-11-25T13:39:45.544-08:00Announcement<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Posting here will be very sporadic
for the foreseeable future. </span>If we are particularly inspired to post something, or if there are important notices regarding the Society, then you will see a new post!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the meantime, be sure to “like” the St. Gregory the Great
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/Society-of-St-Gregory-the-Great-134984789931398/timeline/">Face Book page</a> for links to interesting articles and news. Even if you are not
a FB user, it may be possible to view the page.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We will continue to update the “Coming
Events” section with the Mass times and any changes to be noted.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-14956126747382392892015-09-23T08:16:00.001-07:002015-09-23T08:16:22.248-07:00The Traditional Latin Mass Should be Made Available<div style="line-height: 115%;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k-k40ZpTmhs/UMdhlEMzBsI/AAAAAAAABJY/I5a9AaYQi00/s1600/32312_421106264629769_113859454_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k-k40ZpTmhs/UMdhlEMzBsI/AAAAAAAABJY/I5a9AaYQi00/s320/32312_421106264629769_113859454_n.jpg" width="199" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">The year was <b>2008</b>, following
Pope Benedict’s promulgation of his apostolic letter <i>Summorum Pontificum</i>
in July of the previous year. <b>Darío Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos</b>,
was President of the Pontifical Commission <i>Ecclesia Dei</i>.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">As
President of said Commission, His Eminence was appointed directly by the Pope
as the official spokesman for the Holy See on matters pertaining to relations
with the Society of St Pius X, as well as with what the Holy Father referred to
(in <i>Summorum Pontificum</i> and its cover letter to the bishops)
as “the extraordinary form”, the “older usage”, the “classical
Roman Rite”, etc. Thus His Eminence’s comments can rightly be taken as
expressing the thought of the Supreme Pontiff himself, unless otherwise indicated
as his own personal thoughts.</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">At the June 15, 2008,
London press interview with the Cardinal, in conjunction with a major
conference of the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, His Eminence was
asked by a reporter from <i>The Telegraph</i>, one of the country’s major
newspapers:</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">Damian Thompson:</span></b><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;">
So would the Pope like to see many ordinary parishes making provision for the
Gregorian Rite?</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">Cardinal Castrillón: </span></b><u><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;">All</span></u><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Batang;"> the
parishes. Not ‘many’ – <b><u>all</u></b> the parishes, because this is a
gift of God. He offers these riches, and it is very important for new
generations to know the past of the Church. This kind of worship is so noble,
so beautiful – the deepest theologians’ way to express our faith. The worship,
the music, the architecture, the painting, makes a whole that is a treasure.
The Holy Father is willing to offer to all the people this possibility, not
only for the few groups who demand it but so that everybody knows this way of
celebrating the Eucharist in the Catholic Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">In
his introduction for an instructional video about the EF Mass, the Cardinal
also said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">All
this liturgical richness, all this spiritual richness, and all the prayers so
well-preserved during the centuries, all of this is offered by the Rome of
today for all. As <strong>a
gift for all, it is not a gift merely for the so-called traditionalists</strong>.
No, it is a gift for the <strong>whole</strong>
Catholic Church.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
“sacred silence” and contemplation of the ancient rite, the cardinal said,
“makes present the <st2:personname w:st="on">Lord <st1:sn w:st="on">Jesus</st1:sn></st2:personname>
in an expression of rich liturgical beauty, as the conqueror of death and sin…
this rite brought unity to the faith and became the single expression through
which the Church adores God.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">The
cardinal said that parishes and priests should make available the Extraordinary
Form</span></strong><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";"> so that
“everyone may have access to this treasure of the ancient liturgy of the
Church.” He also stressed that, “<strong>even
if it is not specifically asked for, or requested” it should be provided</strong>.
Interestingly, <strong>he added
that the Pope wants this Mass to become normal in parishes</strong>, so
that “young communities can also become familiar with this rite.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif";">[See
Fr. Z’s report of the above on <a href="http://wdtprs.com/blog/2008/05/pceds-card-castrillon-hoyos-celebrate-tlm-in-parishes-even-when-it-isnt-requested/">his
blog, here</a>.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-48872517330060094882015-09-13T09:46:00.002-07:002015-09-13T09:46:57.489-07:00To Lose One's Life, Or Save It<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtsQrZYWZyM/VaQAAL0BYuI/AAAAAAAAC8Q/YuQGuvh_--A/s1600/fr%2Bandersen%2Bpreach%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtsQrZYWZyM/VaQAAL0BYuI/AAAAAAAAC8Q/YuQGuvh_--A/s320/fr%2Bandersen%2Bpreach%2Bcrop.jpg" width="320" /></a>A Homily by Fr. Eric M. Andersen</div>
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St. Stephen Catholic Church, Portland<br />September 13th, 2015</div>
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Dominica XXIV Per Annum, Anno B<br /><br />“whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.”<br /><br />These words might call to mind the bloody martyrdom of Christians in the early Roman Empire, or even today in the Midd<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">le East. But one need not be a martyr in order to fulfill these words. There is also the unbloody martyrdom of living a pure and holy life. This coming Thursday, Sept 17th, the Franciscan Order commemorates the imprinting of the Sacred Stigmata into the hands, feet, and side of their holy founder St. Francis of Assisi. In his biography of St. Francis, St. Bonaventure writes this account:</span></div>
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<br /> "Two years before he gave his spirit back to heaven after many and varied labors, he was led apart by divine providence to a high place which is called Mount La Verna. When according to his usual custom he had begun to fast there for forty days in honor of St. Michael the Archangel, he experienced more abundantly than usual an overflow of the sweetness of heavenly contemplation, he burned with a stronger flame of heavenly desires, and he began to experience more fully the gifts of heavenly grace (Ch. 13.1).</div>
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<br /> Through divine inspiration he had learned that if he opened the book of the Gospel, Christ would reveal to him what God considered most acceptable in him and from him. After praying with much devotion, he took the book of the Gospels from the altar and had his companion, a holy man dedicated to God, open it three times in the name of the Holy Trinity. When all three times the book was opened the Lord’s passion always met his eyes, the man filled with God understood that just as he had imitated Christ in the actions of his life, so he should be conformed to him in the affliction and sorrow of his passion, before he would pass out of this world (John 13:1). And although his body was already weakened by the great austerity of his past life and his continual carrying of the Lord’s cross, he was in no way terrified but was inspired even more vigorously to endure martyrdom (13.2).</div>
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<br /> …On a certain morning about the feast of the Exultation of the Cross, while Francis was praying on the mountainside, he saw a Seraph with six fiery and shining wings descend from the height of heaven. And when in swift flight the Seraph had reached a spot in the air near the man of God, there appeared between the wings the figure of a man crucified, with his hands and feet extended in the form of a cross and fastened to a cross…When Francis saw this, he was overwhelmed and his heart was flooded with a mixture of joy and sorrow. He rejoiced because of the gracious way Christ looked upon him under the appearance of the Seraph, but the fact that he was fastened to a cross pierced his soul with a sword of compassionate sorrow (Luke 2:35).</div>
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<br /> …Eventually he understood by a revelation from the Lord that divine providence had shown him this vision so that, as Christ’s lover, he might learn in advance that he was to be totally transformed into the likeness of Christ crucified, not by the martyrdom of his flesh, but by the fire of his love consuming his soul.<br /> As the vision disappeared, it left in his heart a marvelous ardor and imprinted on his body markings that were no less marvelous. Immediately the marks of nails began to appear in his hands and feet just as he had seen a little before in the figure of the man crucified. …Also his right side, as if pierced with a lance, was marked with a red wound from which his sacred blood often flowed, moistening his tunic and undergarments (13.3).</div>
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<br /> When…the forty days were over that he had planned to spend in solitude, and the feast of St. Michael the Archangel had also arrived, the angelic man Francis came down from the mountain, bearing with him the image of the Crucified, which was depicted not on tablets of stone, or on panels of wood by the hands of a craftsman, but engraved in the members of his body by the finger of the living God… (13.5).<br /><br /> St. Francis was not called to martyrdom, but he endured suffering for the sake of the gospel. He did so not only by a life of self-denial, or mortification of the flesh, but also by praying for and accepting the very wounds of Jesus Christ onto his own mortal flesh. He did not wish to save his life, but to lose it for the sake of Christ. I remember many years ago when I was first discerning priesthood, that I wrote to my great aunt, Sr. Dolorine of the Immaculate Conception, a Franciscan sister, in her 90s at the time. I shared with her my romantic notion of wishing to suffer for Christ for the conversion of souls. She responded by saying, 'Dear great nephew, you do not have to ask for suffering, you will get plenty of it without asking.'</div>
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<br /> Suffering is a stumbling block for many. We should never wish suffering on another person. When we love another person, it hurts us to see him or her suffer. We wish that we could take their suffering away. We might even pray to God that we might take some of their suffering so that they might be relieved and spared. Is that not just what Our Lord is asking from us? He asks us to imitate Him, to take on some of His sufferings, for the sake of His Body, the Church.</div>
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<br /> “‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’ If there is any one who must follow Jesus, it is he who seeks after perfection. But how can a lover of pleasure, of honors, of riches follow Jesus? How can one follow Christ, if one is unwilling to carry his cross daily––the cross that God Himself has chosen for him and sent to him?” (Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, ¶761). St. Francis was given his own share in the cross. But each of us has his or her own special cross chosen for us by God. It is special. As Jesus embraced His Cross and loved His Cross, let us consider how we must love the Cross given to us to carry. Let us give thanks to God for it everyday. Let us praise God for the Cross He has chosen for us. In that praise and thanksgiving, we will discover consolation, healing, and salvation by embracing and loving our cross, by taking it up daily and following Him. </div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-32870968500793400692015-09-04T16:40:00.000-07:002015-09-04T16:40:05.585-07:00About Our Masses<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> The date for the next Extraordinary Form (aka Latin Mass) at St. Francis in Bend, Oregon, is this coming Sunday (September 6, 2015) at 1:30 PM. Here after celebrations of the Latin Mass at St. Francis will occur every other week (September 20, September 29<sup>th</sup>, October 4<sup>th</sup>, etc) at 1:30.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The Latin Mass at St. Francis is sanctioned and sponsored by Bishop Cary, but is not funded by Baker Diocese or St. Francis Parish. The Society of Saint Gregory the Great (SSGG) defrays all expenses connected with celebrating the Latin Mass at St. Francis. The Society and its members, however, also contribute to the financial support of St. Francis Parish.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">It costs the Society $160.00 to bring in a priest to offer each scheduled Mass. Approximately 70% of this sum is used to pay the priest’s mileage expenses round-trip to and from Chiloquin (222 miles). This expense will continue until such a time as a Priest residing in Deschutes County or the northern end of Klamath County is made available. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Please help the SSGG continue to have the resources to sustain the Latin Mass at St. Francis.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">*** *** *** ***</span></div>
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<tr><td style="border-image-source: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0.75pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt;">Apostolic Letter "Summorum Pontificum" issued Motu Proprio</span></b><br />
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<tr><td style="border-image-source: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Benedict XVI</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="border-image-source: none; border: rgb(0, 0, 0); padding: 0.75pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><i><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">On Saturday 7 July 2007 Pope Benedict XVI issued an Apostolic Letter on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962. The following text is the unofficial Vatican Information Service translation of the official Latin text.</span></i><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><div align="right" style="text-align: right;">
<a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum2.htm" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum2.htm"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Accompanying Letter of Pope Benedict</span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Up to our own times, it has been the constant concern of supreme pontiffs to ensure that the Church of Christ offers a worthy ritual to the Divine Majesty, 'to the praise and glory of His name,' and 'to the benefit of all His Holy Church.' </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since time immemorial it has been necessary - as it is also for the future - to maintain the principle according to which 'each particular Church must concur with the universal Church, not only as regards the doctrine of the faith and the sacramental signs, but also as regards the usages universally accepted by uninterrupted apostolic tradition, which must be observed not only to avoid errors but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, because the Church's law of prayer corresponds to her law of faith.' </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_(1)"></a><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#1" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#1"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(1)</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Among the pontiffs who showed that requisite concern, particularly outstanding is the name of St. Gregory the Great, who made every effort to ensure that the new peoples of Europe received both the Catholic faith and the treasures of worship and culture that had been accumulated by the Romans in preceding centuries. He commanded that the form of the sacred liturgy as celebrated in Rome (concerning both the Sacrifice of Mass and the Divine Office) be conserved. He took great concern to ensure the dissemination of monks and nuns who, following the Rule of St. Benedict, together with the announcement of the Gospel illustrated with their lives the wise provision of their Rule that 'nothing should be placed before the work of God.' In this way the sacred liturgy, celebrated according to the Roman use, enriched not only the faith and piety but also the culture of many peoples. It is known, in fact, that the Latin liturgy of the Church in its various forms, in each century of the Christian era, has been a spur to the spiritual life of many saints, has reinforced many peoples in the virtue of religion and fecundated their piety. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Many other Roman pontiffs, in the course of the centuries, showed particular solicitude in ensuring that the sacred liturgy accomplished this task more effectively. Outstanding among them is St. Pius V who, sustained by great pastoral zeal and following the exhortations of the Council of Trent, renewed the entire liturgy of the Church, oversaw the publication of liturgical books amended and 'renewed in accordance with the norms of the Fathers,' and provided them for the use of the Latin Church. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">One of the liturgical books of the Roman rite is the Roman Missal, which developed in the city of Rome and, with the passing of the centuries, little by little took forms very similar to that it has had in recent times. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">"It was towards this same goal that succeeding Roman Pontiffs directed their energies during the subsequent centuries in order to ensure that the rites and liturgical books were brought up to date and when necessary clarified. From the beginning of this century they undertook a more general reform.' </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_(2)"></a><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#2" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#2"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(2)</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Thus our predecessors Clement VIII, Urban VIII, St. Pius X </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_(3)"></a><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#3" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#3"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(3)</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">, Benedict XV, Pius XII and Blessed John XXIII all played a part. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">In more recent times, Vatican Council II expressed a desire that the respectful reverence due to divine worship should be renewed and adapted to the needs of our time. Moved by this desire our predecessor, the Supreme Pontiff Paul VI, approved, in 1970, reformed and partly renewed liturgical books for the Latin Church. These, translated into the various languages of the world, were willingly accepted by bishops, priests and faithful. John Paul II amended the third typical edition of the Roman Missal. Thus Roman pontiffs have operated to ensure that 'this kind of liturgical edifice ... should again appear resplendent for its dignity and harmony.' </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_(4)"></a><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#4" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#4"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(4) </span></a><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">But in some regions, no small numbers of faithful adhered and continue to adhere with great love and affection to the earlier liturgical forms. These had so deeply marked their culture and their spirit that in 1984 the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II, moved by a concern for the pastoral care of these faithful, with the special indult 'Quattuor abhinc anno," issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship, granted permission to use the Roman Missal published by Blessed John XXIII in the year 1962. Later, in the year 1988, John Paul II with the Apostolic Letter given as Motu Proprio, 'Ecclesia Dei,' exhorted bishops to make generous use of this power in favor of all the faithful who so desired.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Following the insistent prayers of these faithful, long deliberated upon by our predecessor John Paul II, and after having listened to the views of the Cardinal Fathers of the Consistory of 22 March 2006, having reflected deeply upon all aspects of the question, invoked the Holy Spirit and trusting in the help of God, with these Apostolic Letters we establish the following:<br /><br /> Art 1. The Roman Missal promulgated by Paul VI is the ordinary expression of the 'Lex orandi' (Law of prayer) of the Catholic Church of the Latin rite. Nonetheless, the Roman Missal promulgated by St. Pius V and reissued by Bl. John XXIII is to be considered as an extraordinary expression of that same 'Lex orandi,' and must be given due honour for its venerable and ancient usage. These two expressions of the Church's Lex orandi will in no any way lead to a division in the Church's 'Lex credendi' (Law of belief). They are, in fact two usages of the one Roman rite.<br /><br /> It is, therefore, permissible to celebrate the Sacrifice of the Mass following the typical edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962 and never abrogated, as an extraordinary form of the Liturgy of the Church. The conditions for the use of this Missal as laid down by earlier documents 'Quattuor abhinc annis' and 'Ecclesia Dei,' are substituted as follows:<br /><br /> Art. 2. In Masses celebrated without the people, each Catholic priest of the Latin rite, whether secular or regular, may use the Roman Missal published by Bl. Pope John XXIII in 1962, or the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970, and may do so on any day with the exception of the Easter Triduum. For such celebrations, with either one Missal or the other, the priest has no need for permission from the Apostolic See or from his Ordinary.<br /><br /> Art. 3. Communities of Institutes of consecrated life and of Societies of apostolic life, of either pontifical or diocesan right, wishing to celebrate Mass in accordance with the edition of the Roman Missal promulgated in 1962, for conventual or "community" celebration in their oratories, may do so. If an individual community or an entire Institute or Society wishes to undertake such celebrations often, habitually or permanently, the decision must be taken by the Superiors Major, in accordance with the law and following their own specific decrees and statues.<br /><br /> Art. 4. Celebrations of Mass as mentioned above in art. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">2 may</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> - observing all the norms of law - also be attended by faithful who, of their own free will, ask to be admitted.<br /><br /> Art. 5. § 1 In parishes, where there is a stable group of faithful who adhere to the earlier liturgical tradition, the pastor should willingly accept their requests to celebrate the Mass according to the rite of the Roman Missal published in 1962, and ensure that the welfare of these faithful harmonises with the ordinary pastoral care of the parish, under the guidance of the bishop in accordance with canon 392, avoiding discord and favouring the unity of the whole Church. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">§ 2 Celebration in accordance with the Missal of Bl. John XXIII may take place on working days; while on Sundays and feast days one such celebration may also be held. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">§ 3 For faithful and priests who request it, the pastor should also allow celebrations in this extraordinary form for special circumstances such as marriages, funerals or occasional celebrations, e.g. pilgrimages. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">§ 4 Priests who use the Missal of Bl. John XXIII must be qualified to do so and not juridically impeded. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">§ 5 In churches that are not parish or conventual churches, it is the duty of the Rector of the church to grant the above permission.<br /><br /> Art. 6. In Masses celebrated in the presence of the people in accordance with the Missal of Bl. John XXIII, the readings may be given in the vernacular, using editions recognised by the Apostolic See.<br /><br /> Art. 7. If a group of lay faithful, as mentioned in art. 5 õ 1, has not obtained satisfaction to their requests from the pastor, they should inform the diocesan bishop. The bishop is strongly requested to satisfy their wishes. If he cannot arrange for such celebration to take place, the matter should be referred to the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei".<br /><br /> Art. 8. A bishop who, desirous of satisfying such requests, but who for various reasons is unable to do so, may refer the problem to the Commission "Ecclesia Dei" to obtain counsel and assistance.<br /><br /> Art. 9. § 1 The pastor, having attentively examined all aspects, may also grant permission to use the earlier ritual for the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism, Marriage, Penance, and the Anointing of the Sick, if the good of souls would seem to require it. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">§ 2 Ordinaries are given the right to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation using the earlier Roman Pontifical, if the good of souls would seem to require it. </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">§ 3 Clerics ordained "in sacris constitutis" may use the Roman Breviary promulgated by Bl. John XXIII in 1962.<br /><br /> Art. 10. The ordinary of a particular place, if he feels it appropriate, may erect a personal parish in accordance with can. 518 for celebrations following the ancient form of the Roman rite, or appoint a chaplain, while observing all the norms of law.<br /><br /> Art. 11. The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei", erected by John Paul II in 1988 </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_(5)"></a><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#5" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#5"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">(5)</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">, continues to exercise its function. Said Commission will have the form, duties and norms that the Roman Pontiff wishes to assign it.<br /><br /> Art. 12. This Commission, apart from the powers it enjoys, will exercise the authority of the Holy See, supervising the observance and application of these dispositions.<br /><br /> We order that everything We have established with these Apostolic Letters issued as Motu Proprio be considered as "established and decreed", and to be observed from </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">14 September</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"> of this year, Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, whatever there may be to the contrary.<br /><br /> From Rome, at St. Peter's, 7 July 2007, third year of Our Pontificate.</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pope Benedict XVI</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_1"></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">(1) General Instruction of the Roman Missal, 3rd ed., 2002, no. 397. [</span><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#%281%29" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#(1)"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">back to text</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">]</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_2"></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">(2) John Paul II, Apostolic Letter "Vicesimus quintus annus," 4 December 1988, 3: AAS 81 (1989), 899. [</span><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#%282%29" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#(2)"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">back to text</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">]<br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_3"></a>(3) Ibid. [</span><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#%283%29" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#(3)"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">back to text</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">]</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_4"></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">(4) St. Pius X, Apostolic Letter Motu propio data, "Abhinc duos annos," 23 October 1913: AAS 5 (1913), 449-450; cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter "Vicesimus quintus annus," no. 3: AAS 81 (1989), 899. [</span><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#%284%29" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#(4)"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">back to text</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">]</span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="14f86b05c370291b_5"></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">(5) Cf John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Motu proprio data "Ecclesia Dei," 2 July 1988, 6: AAS 80 (1988), 1498. [</span><a href="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#%285%29" target="_blank" title="http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/b16SummorumPontificum.htm#(5)"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">back to text</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">]</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-19094912336111691692015-08-28T19:51:00.001-07:002015-08-28T19:51:09.304-07:00The Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>This is a re-post of a homily by Fr. Eric Andersen, who is currently at St. Stephen's in Portland, OR. This post first appeared on this blog three years ago.</b></span><br />
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<i><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">A homily by Fr. Eric M. Andersen, on The Passion of St. John the Baptist<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” Death has no power over these words (cf. Gueranger. The Liturgical Year. vol. 14., p. 109). A tyrant may put to death the man who speaks these words, but he cannot put these words to death. They are truth itself. “It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” This is not a man made law. This is God’s eternal law that cannot be broken without dire consequences.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">These are the dire consequences:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">“Josephus relates how [Herod Antipas] was overcome by the Arabian Aretas, whose daughter he had repudiated in order to follow his wicked passions; and the Jews attributed the defeat to the murder of St. John. He was deposed by Rome from his tetrarchate, and banished to Lyons in Gaul, where the ambitious Herodias shared his disgrace. As to her dancing daughter Salome, there is a tradition gathered from ancient authors, that, having gone out one winter day to dance upon a frozen river, she fell through into the water; the ice, immediately closing round her neck, cut off her head, which bounded upon the surface, thus continuing for some moments the dance of death" (Gueranger 112).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">This feast actually celebrates four events. The first event is the beheading itself. “The second event is the burning and gathering, or collecting, of St. John’s bones” (Voragine, The Golden Legend. Vol II., p. 135). This is called the second martyrdom of St. John the Baptist. His disciples had buried his body at Sebaste, a city in Palestine…and many miracles had occurred at his tomb (cf. Voragine 135). “For this reason the pagans, by order of Julian the Apostate, scattered his bones, but the miracles did not cease, and the bones were collected, burned, and pulverized, and the ashes thrown to the winds to be blown over the fields…” (135). On the day when the bones were collected to be burned, some monks from Jerusalem secretly mingled with the pagans and carried out many of the relics, saving them from destruction. They delivered these to Philip, bishop of Jerusalem, who sent them to Anastasius, the bishop of Alexandria. During the Crusades, many of them were brought into the West and distributed among many churches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The third event commemorated on this feast is the finding of the head of St. John the Baptist which happened on this day. It is said that when John was beheaded, Herodias had John’s head taken to Jerusalem to be buried because “she feared that the prophet would return to life if his head was buried with his body. Four hundred years later some monks took the head to venerate it in a more proper place. It was stolen and hidden in a cave. The man who stole it revealed on his deathbed where it was, but the hiding place was kept secret for a long time. Many years later, a holy monk, St. Marcellus, had taken up residence in this cave. It was revealed to him where the head was hidden. The head was then enshrined in a beautiful church in Poitiers in France.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">The fourth event is the translation of one of St. John’s fingers and the dedication of a church. The finger with which he pointed to the Lord, could not be burned. The finger made its way to Normandy, France where a church was built in honor of St. John the Baptist. </span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-83047015794545119912015-08-16T15:35:00.000-07:002015-08-16T15:35:34.561-07:00Why Ad Orientem? A Short Video Explanation<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's an instructive video, with this description on You Tube:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>One of the most obvious differences between the Old Rite of Mass and the Novus Ordo is the direction in which the priest faces.<br /><br />Worship 'ad orientem', or facing East, is an ancient practice going back to the earliest centuries of the Church. Criticised by advocates of the New Mass as 'the priest turning his back to the people', it is nothing of the sort. Quite the reverse, in fact, it unites priest and people in a deep and spiritual way unheard of in most Novus Ordo celebrations.<br /><br />Here Dr Joseph Shaw explains the ancient roots of Mass facing East, its theological and spiritual symbolism, and why arguments claiming that Mass facing the people was the practice in the early Church are totally spurious.</i></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-91084839774997050002015-08-03T11:18:00.001-07:002015-08-03T11:18:11.524-07:00Fr. Andersen Homily: Becoming New Through Confession and the Eucharist<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fr. Eric M. Andersen<br />
August 2nd, 2015<br />
St. Stephen Catholic Church<br />
<br />
Dominica XVIII Per Annum, Anno B<br />
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The philosophers and scientists of Ancient Greece and Rome had
incredible intellects: Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle––to name a few. God
gave them their intellect as He gives it to all of us. Man can achieve amazing
things through the use of his God-given genius. It might sometimes seem like
nothing is beyond what man can achieve through science. We turn to science to
unlock the mysteries of creation and to reveal the truth. Science is always
progressing. Truth however, does not progress. Truth was truth in the
beginning, is now, and it ever shall be truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The great men of antiquity discovered and passed on to us the fruits of
their inquiry by the natural use of their minds. Yet, as great as they were,
these great men of science from pagan antiquity represent the old man, about
which St. Paul writes. The old man has much to commend him. The natural state
of man is pretty amazing, by God’s design; but it pales in comparison with the
supernatural state of man––also by God’s design. Who, then, is the new man? If
the old man is one in his natural state, the new man is one in a supernatural
state, elevated by God with sanctifying grace. St. Paul teaches us that we are
to put off the old man and put on the new man. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
St. Thomas writes: “The substance of human nature is not to be rejected
or despoiled, but only wicked actions and conduct” (Aquinas. Commentary on
Ephesians. C.4 L.7 §241). First, we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind,
which refers to our rational spirit. Here is a good example of how pagan
antiquity got it right, but not fully. Aristotle observed that human beings are
distinguished above all other creatures by their rational intellectual souls.
St. Thomas Aquinas is famous for christianizing the philosophy of Aristotle.
St. Thomas corrected it based upon his own intellect having been elevated by
means of sanctifying grace. Aristotle represents the old man; St. Thomas
represents the new man of grace. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The ancient Greek and Roman philosophers sought truth, and by the
natural use of their reason, they came close. They discovered some truth, but
not the fullness of truth. The fullness of truth cannot be discovered by
unaided reason. God assists the new man by elevating his intellect by grace
through faith. Faith and reason must accompany one another to arrive at a
higher truth which must be revealed by God.<br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Likewise, Plato and
Aristotle, by the natural use of their reason arrived at the truth of
monotheism (one God), but they could not arrive at the truth that there is one
God in three persons. Unaided reason cannot arrive at that. It must be revealed
by God and received with the help of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of knowledge
and understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Now, I must clarify something. Earlier I spoke of the old man who is
natural and the new man who is supernatural. I need to clarify: The true order
of nature is the state of original justice, like Adam and Eve before the fall.
What we refer to as nature today is fallen nature. The true natural state is
restored in us by God in the sacrament of Baptism. God gives us new life, as
the new man, by placing His Holy Spirit within us by means of the sacramental
life. He tells us “My Father gives you the true bread from heaven…who comes
down from heaven and gives life to the world” (Jn. 6:34). And then the clincher:
“I AM the bread of life.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Church takes this literally. I AM is the name of God given to Moses.
Jesus not only identifies that He is God––the very same God revealed to
Moses––but He also identifies Himself with a bread from heaven that is greater
than the miraculous manna given in the desert. The Manna was miraculous. This
bread, however, is not just miraculous, it is even more. This bread from heaven
is the Holy Eucharist that we celebrate in this and every Mass. The old man
cannot understand this by the unaided use of his reason. We must put off the
old man and put on the new man in order to understand what Jesus is saying. We
must receive it with the help of the Holy Spirit who elevates our intellect to
understand it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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But what if I doubt? Am I lacking faith? Is it a sin to doubt? Is it my
fault that I doubt? These are good questions. Doubt can be a temptation. What
happens when we entertain thoughts that are temptations? We risk giving into
the temptation. When that happens, we become like the old man again. Do not
despair. Take it to Confession. Confess that you struggle with doubt. Give it
over to God. He will renew and refresh each of us as new men, as new women,
putting off the old man of doubt. St. Paul says, “Be renewed in the spirit of
your mind.” In Confession, the Holy Spirit renews our minds and infuses our
souls with the supernatural virtue of faith to combat doubt. God will help us,
but we must cooperate with Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
By our cooperation with Him––as new men, as new women––we can far exceed
in faith what the most brilliant men of old acquired by unaided reason. We may
not become geniuses in the eyes of the world when it comes to science, but
being renewed in the Spirit, we will come to know the mind of God and to share
in His knowledge. We will look upon the Sacred Host in adoration, understanding
deeply in our souls that the Eucharist is not just a piece of bread, not just a
symbol, but in reality, the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus
Christ who is the Almighty and Eternal God. That’s pretty incredible! Now,
imagine what the most brilliant of scientific minds could achieve in our day in
a habitual state of sanctifying grace through regular confession and worthy
reception of Holy Communion. Now, imagine what each of us could achieve in our
day in a habitual state of sanctifying grace through regular confession and
worthy reception of Holy Communion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-22782939871367842322015-07-29T07:24:00.001-07:002015-07-29T07:24:35.394-07:00The Feast of St. Martha, Virgin<div class="MsoNormal">
<a data-ved="0CAcQjRxqFQoTCKrkj7LFgMcCFQMuiAodqJEADg" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCKrkj7LFgMcCFQMuiAodqJEADg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.examiner.com%2Farticle%2Fmartha-patron-of-cooks-feast-day-to-be-celebrated&ei=_OG4Var2EYPcoASoo4Jw&bvm=bv.99028883,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNHCB_fFHIC8Wj7BMgKgz3PR8WlVGA&ust=1438266211651116" id="irc_mil" jsaction="mousedown:irc.rl;keydown:irc.rlk;irc.il;" style="border-image-source: none; border: 0px currentcolor; clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img height="200" id="irc_mi" src="http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/58/43/5843cc243a7db7ff933523539bd42c34.jpg?itok=3OTM1wW_" style="margin-top: 22px;" width="150" /></a><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">From the <a href="http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl">Office of Matins</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Martha was the daughter of
noble and wealthy parents, but is best known as having been the</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> hostess of the
Lord Christ. After that He was ascended into heaven, Martha, along with her
brother Lazarus, her sister Mary Magdalene, her waiting-woman Marcella,
Maximin, who was one of the seventy-two disciples of the Lord Christ, and who
had baptized the whole of the family, and many other Christians, was taken by
the Jews, and turned adrift upon the open sea in a ship without sail or oars,
to meet with certain wreck, but by the governance of God the ship came to land
at Marseilles with all safe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Through this miracle and the
preaching of the Saints, the people of Marseilles first, and then those of Aix,
and of the uttermost tribes, believed in Christ, and Lazarus was made Bishop of
Marseilles, and Maximin Bishop of Aix. Mary Magdalene sat still at Jesus' Feet,
being altogether given to prayer and the contemplation of heavenly blessedness,
that that good part which she had chosen might not be taken away from her,
withdrew herself to a great cave in an exceeding high mountain, where she lived
for thirty years, utterly cut off from all conversation with men, and every day
during that time carried up by Angels into the air, to listen to them that
dwell in heaven praising God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Martha, by the wondrous
holiness and charity of her life, drew upon herself the love and wonder of all
the inhabitants of Marseilles. She withdrew herself in company with some other
honourable women into a place out of the way of men, where she lived long, with
great praise for godliness and discretion. She foretold her own death long
before, and at last, illustrious for miracles, passed away to be ever with the
Lord, upon the 29th day of July. Her body is held in great worship at Tarascon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Commentary on the Gospel for this Feast<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">From the Holy Gospel according
to Luke<br />
<i>Luke 10:38-42</i><br /> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At that time: Jesus entered into a certain village, and a certain woman, named
Martha, received Him into her house. And so on.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Homily by St Austin, Bishop of
Hippo.<br />
<i>26th upon the Words of the Lord.</i><br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The words of our Lord Jesus Christ which have just been read from the Gospel,
give us to wit that there is one thing toward the which we are making our way,
all the while that we are striving amid the divers cares of this world.
Thitherward we make our way, while we are still strangers and pilgrims,
unpossessed as yet of any abiding city, still on the journey, not yet come
home, still hoping, not yet enjoying. Still thitherward let us make our way,
not slothfully nor by fits and starts, but so that some day we may arrive
thither. Martha and Mary were sisters, not in the flesh only, but also in
godliness; together, they clave unto the Lord; together, with one heart they
served the Lord present in the Flesh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Martha received Him into her
house. It was just as strangers are received, but it was the handmaiden
receiving her Lord, the sick receiving her Saviour, the creature receiving her
Creator. She received Him, to give bodily meat unto Him by Whom she herself was
to be fed unto eternal life. It had been the Lord's will to take upon Him the
form of a servant, to be fed by servants, (still out of His good pleasure, not
of necessity,) and in that form of a servant which He had taken upon Him. This
was His good pleasure, to offer Himself as a subject for hospitality. He had
Flesh, wherein He was sometimes hungered and thirsty, but know ye not how that,
when He was in the desert and was an-hungered, angels came and ministered unto
Him. Himself it was therefore, That gave unto them of whom He was fain to be
fed, the wherewithal. And what wonder is this if we consider how that holy
Elijah, coming from being fed by the ministry of ravens, asked bread of the
widow of Zarephath, and himself gave her the wherewithal to feed him? Had God
failed to feed Elijah when He sent him unto the widow? God forbid. He did so
that He might bless that godly widow for a service rendered unto His servant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Thus was that same Lord
received as a guest, Who came unto His own, and His own received Him not, but
as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,
adopting servants and making them children, redeeming prisoners and appointing
them coheirs. Perchance some of you will say: O how blessed were they who were
worthy to receive Christ as a guest into their own home! but mourn not, neither
murmur, for that thou hast been born in an age wherein thou canst no more see
Christ in the flesh. He hath not put the honour of receiving Him beyond thy
reach. Inasmuch, saith He, as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My
brethren, ye have done it unto Me. The above remarks have occurred to me
regarding the Lord considered as fed in the flesh, and I shall now touch
briefly, as time permits, upon the Same, considered as the Feeder of the soul.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-84583295338381384442015-07-20T09:34:00.001-07:002015-07-20T09:34:30.096-07:00Save the Liturgy, Save the Large Family<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/awareness-week/2015/images/2015-nfp-poster-english-470w.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img all="" alt="The theme for Natural Family Planning Week 2015 is " border="0" height="154" hspace="0" natural.="" src="http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/awareness-week/2015/images/2015-nfp-poster-english-470w.jpg" title="The theme for Natural Family Planning Week 2015 is " vspace="0" width="200" /></a><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">July
19-25, 2015 is “NFP Awareness Week”. Although the USCCB intends this to be a
week </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">of promotion of NFP, this post presents the other side of the issue, and
makes a point concerning the importance of the liturgy as it influences how we
choose to live our lives.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An NFP-teaching couple once made the following comment:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My husband and I are NFP
teachers, and we do the "sex talk" at the marriage prep our cluster
hosts every spring. We work hard to put forth the essence of the Church's
teaching in the 45 minutes given to us. We also think carefully about how we
present ourselves verbally and physically in an attempt to make Catholic Large
Family life attractive. (we have 7 children so far).<br />
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This is what it looks like in the trenches (at least in the Northeast). One or
2 couples out of 30 in these prep classes have an understanding of Church
teaching. Most are openly living together and contracepting. Even those who go
to Mass every weekend are often introduced to the reasons behind the teaching
against contraception for the first time at our session!...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is a fact that most couples – even Catholics – live
together and/or are having sex before marriage, and often they are using contraception.
Bishops, priests, and the laity are all quite aware of this. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And why are people living this way? Consider this possibility:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Historically, right around the time of <i>Humanae Vitae</i> and Roe v. Wade, Catholics had also been introduced
to the <i>Novus Ordo</i>, and they were
being shown that it was acceptable to tamper with the liturgy, to make it “more
relevant”, to not follow the rubrics. What would this tell them about the
Church? It would suggest that if we may interpret the “source and summit” the
way we want to, then surely we may interpret other Church teaching that way,
too. And it would suggest that surely we should be living contemporary lives;
maybe the Church is just behind the times on this contraception thing. We’ve
got to help her along and make the change ourselves so that the Church will be
more relevant to others. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now, if we are free to re-write liturgical rules for the
Mass, why should we not be free to form our consciences according to moral
relativism? And this is what happened. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dissident theologians and priests, aided and abetted by
silent bishops (and some vocal ones, as well), led the faithful astray by
blatantly asserting that disobedience was the order of the day when it came to <i>Humanae Vitae’s</i> affirmation of the
Church’s ban on contraception.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The changes in the Mass took away some of the mystery that
had been there previously, including the mystery of the Eucharist. Belief in
the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist has declined precipitously since
Vatican II. Reverence at the typical <i>Novus
Ordo</i> Mass has declined compared to what it was (and still is) in the
extraordinary form. The number of religious vocations has declined. The number
of children born to Catholic families has declined. It seems unlikely that all
these things are unrelated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The liturgy has suffered in its redefinition and revision; and
our faith has suffered because of that: <i>lex
orandi, lex credendi</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The innovations and modifications that resulted in a
weakening of the sense of reverence that was previously shown for the Eucharist
include:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">receiving Holy Communion in the hand instead of on the
tongue (which diminishes the sense of the Real Presence of Christ);</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">allowing lay “ministers” to handle the Eucharist (creating a
false sense of our “equality” with priests and therefore with Jesus);</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">renovations that lower the sanctuary to the level of the
people;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">removing “barriers” (like communion rails) between the
people and the sanctuary;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">having the priest face the people as if he is a talk-show
host; de-emphasizing the altar as a place of sacrifice and over-emphasizing the
concept of Mass as a shared meal;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">introducing popular music
as a replacement for Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Likewise, our sense of the mystery, beauty, and inherent
dignity of life – from conception to natural end, and even of life that has not
yet been conceived – has been compromised by the innovations, modifications,
and revelations of science. While scientific advances themselves have the
potential to increase our sense of reverence for life, they can also be used
for evil: the capability of creating a new human being outside the womb; the
advances in fertility treatment that result in “extra” babies being aborted;
the use of human embryos to harvest stem cells for research. All of these
things give us the sense that we mere creatures have become Creators, able to
“create” (and destroy) life at our own whim; able to regulate the health and genetic
soundness of that life; and able to “create” or “not create” that life as we
see fit – as if life is just another commodity or resource we must learn to
exploit to our advantage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To recap: After Vatican II, the
liturgy changed…dramatically: Less reverence…less respect…fewer “absolutes”. After
Vatican II, <i>Humanae Vitae</i> confirmed
the Church’s perennial teaching against contraception, but dissident
theologians and clergy encouraged dissent and rebellion against that teaching:
Less reverence for life…less respect for large families…fewer “absolutes”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">People saw that the Church could change the liturgy; why
couldn’t the Church change the teaching on contraception? And why didn’t She?!
If the stodgy old men in Rome won’t make the Church more “contemporary”, the
faithful must do it themselves…right?!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So the Catholic faithful were taught to follow their
consciences with regard to birth control, and many of them chose illicit
contraception. Family size decreased. The vocations “crisis” ensued. Etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Interestingly, if you find a group of people who attend the
EF Mass regularly, you will often find large families. While correlation does
not imply causation, it’s worth a try: if we return to the reverence and
mystery and awe of the EF Mass, perhaps we can recover the sense of reverence
and mystery and awe of life that leads couples to embrace the concept of not
limiting the number of children they will accept from God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Save the liturgy, save the large family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But instead, for now, NFP has been called in to save the
day. The commenter mentioned above added:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But in defense of NFP teachers,
we need to meet people where they are before we hit them with the deeper issues
behind Catholic teaching. “Hmmm, NFP might work for us...” is a more possible
step than “I need to get off contraception and be open to life!” Though I have
seen this happen too, happily!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is some truth to this statement, too: Our bishops and
priests have neglected to talk about the evil of contraception for over 40
years now. To counteract contraceptive use, the USCCB calls for NFP programs in
every diocese; NFP teachers have to deal with the contraceptive mentality of
today’s culture, which has infected an overwhelming proportion of Catholics.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And why does the USCCB call for NFP programs? It’s not
because NFP is a good thing. It’s because unrestrained use of NFP is a lesser
sin than the use of illicit contraception. The teaching of NFP is promoted
because “if we don’t teach them NFP, they’ll use contraception.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That may well be true. The illicit use of NFP is to be
preferred over the use of illicit contraception (it is permitted to choose a
lesser evil over a greater evil)…but only if there is no other option.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is another option in this case, though: Teach the evil
of contraception. Teach the need for “serious reasons” to avoid procreation. Teach
the sanctity and value of life – the blessings and joys – and yes, the
sacrifices – of large families. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Teach the Truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And follow the thread back to the source: restore to the
liturgy the dignity, reverence, and devotion that is proper to the worship of
God – who is, after all, the Author of Life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-78693409347312771212015-07-13T11:16:00.000-07:002015-07-13T11:16:09.784-07:00Angels, Demons, and Healing: Fr. Eric Andersen<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>This is Fr. Eric Andersen's homily for Sunday, July 12, 2015, taken from his Face Book page.</i></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtsQrZYWZyM/VaQAAL0BYuI/AAAAAAAAC8M/jj3pPAmJcFU/s1600/fr%2Bandersen%2Bpreach%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mtsQrZYWZyM/VaQAAL0BYuI/AAAAAAAAC8M/jj3pPAmJcFU/s200/fr%2Bandersen%2Bpreach%2Bcrop.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fr. Eric M. Andersen<br />
St. Stephen Catholic Church<br />
July 12th, 2015<br />
<br />
Dominica XV Per Annum, Anno B<br />
<br />
<i>“The Twelve drove out many demons, and they anointed with oil many who were
sick and cured them."</i><br />
<br />
When God created the heavens and all things invisible, He created the
angels. St. Paul writes (elsewhere in the scriptures) about thrones, dominions,
principalities, and powers (Col. 1:16); elsewhere again about the virtues (Eph
1:21); angels (Heb. ch.1), archangels (1 Thess. 4:15), and cherubim (Heb. 9:5).
The scriptures give us one other type of angel called seraphim (Is. 6:2). That
makes nine different ranks or choirs of angels. Each of these nine choirs of
angels are hierarchically ordered. We acknowledge that each of the various
hierarchies exercise different offices, some higher and some lower. In order to
learn about the science of angelology, we can look to one of the Church Fathers
named Dionysius the Areopagite in his work, “The Celestial Hierarchy.” We can
also look to St. Thomas Aquinas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
St. Thomas, keeping with Dionysius the Areopagite, <i>“divides the
angels into three hierarchies each of which contains three orders.”</i> So,
there are three sets of three. They are ranked and ordered according to their
proximity to the God: The Supreme Being. <i>“In the first hierarchy he
places the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; in the second, the Dominations,
Virtues, and Powers; in the third, the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels”</i>(cf.
Pope, Hugh. "Angels." <u>The Catholic Encyclopedia</u>. Vol. 1.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. pg. 478 (column II). 11 Jul. 2015 <<a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newadvent.org%2Fcathen%2F01476d.htm&h=jAQHxALsn&s=1" target="_blank">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm</a>>.). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
Venerable Prosper Gueranger writes that <i>“It is from the lowest
of the nine choirs, the nearest to ourselves, that the Guardian Angels are for
the most part selected” </i>(The Liturgical Year. Vol. XIV. Feast of the
Guardian Angels). By this he is saying that the guardian angels may be called
from among the other choirs of angels, but principally from among the lowest
choir which are called angels. Other angelologists (cf. “Our Guardian Angel”
available from Opus Sanctorum Angelorum. <a href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.opusangelorum.org%2FBooks%2FBooks.html&h=YAQFrPyTR&s=1" target="_blank">http://www.opusangelorum.org/Books/Books.html</a>) teach that
our guardian angels are assigned to us from among all nine choirs of angels
according to our needs, our talents, and our personality. To understand this,
let’s look back at each of the nine choirs of angels to see what each of them
do. Venerable Prosper Gueranger continues:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i>“God reserves to the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones the honour of following
His Own immediate court. The Dominations, from the steps of His throne, preside
over the government of the universe; the Virtues watch over the course of
nature's laws, the preservation of species, and the movements of the heavens;
the Powers hold the spirits of wickedness in subjection. The human race in its
entirety, as also its great social bodies, the nations and the churches, are
confided to the Principalities; while the Archangels, who preside over smaller
communities, seem also to have the office of transmitting to the Angels the
commands of God, together with the love and light which come down even to us
from the first and highest hierarchy.”</i> (<i><u>The Liturgical Year</u></i>. Vol. XIV. Feast of the Guardian
Angels).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
Each of us has a holy guardian angel. That holy angel will have been taken from
among these nine choirs of angels and during the time of our life on earth,
that angel will serve us and guard and protect us. He will encourage us to
virtue and holiness. But there are other angels who are not holy. These angels
seek to discourage us and tempt us to turn from God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
In the beginning, there was an angel from among the highest choir––the
seraphim––who refused to stoop to serve a mere man. He said, <i>Non
serviam!</i> “I will not serve,” and by those words, he fell taking
with him a third of the angels. Our Lord tells us elsewhere that He watched
satan fall like lightening from heaven. Those angels spend their time prowling
about the earth for the ruin of souls. We can call them fallen angels or
demons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
So there are holy angels who encourage us and demons who discourage us.
This is nothing to squirm about. Each of us encounters temptation every day of
one sort or another. It is common to refer to a temptation as a demon or a
spirit. For instance, if one is tempted to doubt a truth of the faith, one
could acknowledge the doubt itself to be a spirit. It is the spirit of doubt
that tempts one to doubt God. There is a spirit of jealousy, a spirit of
unforgiveness, a spirit of self-pity, a spirit of sloth, pride, lust, etc. We
can just as well call them spirits as we do demons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
When the gospel says that <i>“The Twelve drove out many demons”</i> this
is the context. Some are more afflicted by demons than others. The Twelve drove
out demons from those who were possessed, those who were oppressed, those who
were obsessed, those who were harassed, and from those who were merely fighting
normal temptations. This must happen before a person can be healed by
anointing. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick is referred to as a
Sacrament for the living. The Church acknowledges that among the seven
sacraments there are two sacraments of the dead and five sacraments of the
living. The sacraments of the dead are baptism and penance: <i>“sacraments
of the dead aim to give sanctifying grace to one spiritually dead through sin”</i> (LaRavoire
Morrow, <u>My Catholic Faith</u>, pg. 251). <i>“Sacraments of the
living are those that may be received only by one living in the state of grace”</i> (ibid.). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
So first we must be given life; then that life may be healed. In the
gospel, the Twelve first drove out the demons, then they anointed the sick and
cured them. We see this in the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, aka., the
Anointing of the Sick. One must be living in order to receive the healing grace
of the Sacrament of Anointing. It is a sacrament of the living in order to
prepare for a holy death which leads one to eternal life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
The Council of Trent teaches us that the Sacrament of Extreme Unction,
aka the Anointing of the Sick, is the completion of the Sacrament of Penance.
Many are under the mistaken belief that the Anointing of the Sick forgives
one’s sins. That is not true unless one is unconscious or unable to confess due
to illness which would prevent it. In that case, the sacrament supplies the
grace for the forgiveness of sins provided that one intends to confess. But
ordinarily, as long as one is able to confess, then one must confess
sacramentally to a priest first, and then receive the anointing as the
completion of the Sacrament of Penance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
Good health is not only physical, but also spiritual, mental, and
emotional. When we are in a state of sanctifying grace, the Holy Spirit fills
our souls and we are truly alive and we are truly healthy. We receive this
health when we get rid of the spirits of anger, bitterness, unforgiveness,
jealousy, self-righteousness, pride, lust, etc., in the sacrament of Penance.
We make a good confession and ask God to banish all of these spirits, these vices
and sins in the name of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit then comes to fill our
souls. This is what our holy guardian angels will constantly encourage us to
do. The fallen angels will constantly try to discourage us and fill us with
fear and anxiety about going to Confession. They know that Confession will give
us peace, and health, and eternal life. Our enemies prowl about the earth
seeking the ruin of souls by spreading anxiety, sickness and death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
Let us not listen to the voices of the fallen angels. Let us listen to
the voices of the holy angels: our holy guardian angel, the holy archangel of
this parish, the holy principality of this archdiocese and of this nation. But
in order to hear the voices of the holy angels, we must listen. We must pray and
we must have silence in our life. The demons will try to fill our ears and our
eyes with noise and distractions. At the grocery store, we are bombarded with
tabloids celebrating vice and scandal. Where will we hear the encouraging
message of holiness, purity, and virtue if we do not listen to our guardian
angels? We must listen and we must repeat what they say to us. We must
also be the voices of our guardian angels to the rest of the world. We must
counter the messages of vice and scandal by our good example of living well and
encouraging others to seek truth, goodness, beauty, and to live lives of virtue
and holiness. We must be the voice of such things in this world because nobody
else is going to do it. If the Church does not speak up, and if Christians do
not encourage one another, then who will speak out against the evils of the
world?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Let us first confess our sins and ask Jesus Christ to drive out the
demons so that we can be healed. Let us listen to our own guardian angels, and
then be as guardian angels to one another and to the world, repeating their
holy words of encouragement. Let us seek to counter the voices of
discouragement and offer the hope of healing to a wounded world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-56983331044996303832015-07-10T11:34:00.000-07:002015-07-10T11:34:02.029-07:00Another Summary of Why to Attend the EF Mass<div class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Be sure to read this article by Peter Kwasniewski and Michael Foley in its entirety <a href="http://www.onepeterfive.com/ten-reasons-to-attend-the-traditional-latin-mass/">here</a>.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here's an excerpt from the conclusion:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #606569; line-height: 24.140998840332px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">In sum, the classical Roman Rite is an ambassador of tradition, a midwife for the interior man, a lifelong tutor in the faith, a school of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication, an absolutely reliable rock of stability on which we can confidently build our spiritual lives.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #606569; line-height: 24.140998840332px; margin-bottom: 1.857em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">As the movement for the restoration of the Church’s sacred liturgy is growing and gaining momentum, now is not a time for discouragement or second thoughts; it is a time for a joyful and serene embrace of all the treasures our Church has in store for us, in spite of the shortsightedness of some of her current pastors and the ignorance (usually not their own fault) of many of the faithful. This is a renewal that <em style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">must</em> happen if the Church is to survive the coming perils.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Click <a href="http://www.onepeterfive.com/ten-reasons-to-attend-the-traditional-latin-mass/">here</a> for the full article.</span></span>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-86343941773383046482015-07-05T09:05:00.002-07:002015-07-05T09:05:31.556-07:00We Are Obliged to Speak the Truth: Fr. Eric Andersen<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Homily for Sunday, June 5th, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fr. Eric M. Andersen<br />
St. Stephen’s Catholic Church<br />
July 5th, 2015<br />
<br />
Dominica XIV Per Annum, Anno B<br />
<br />
Our Blessed Lord went into His own country, i.e., Nazareth. He had grown
up there. It was the hometown of St. Joseph who brought Mary up from Jerusalem
to be his bride and settle down in Nazareth. After the Holy Family returned
from Egypt, Jesus spent his mid-childhood up through his young adult life
there, working side by side with St. Joseph. We look in upon the continuation
of the Gospel today in the midst of Jesus’ public ministry. He returns to his
own country, and His disciples follow Him. He teaches with wisdom and the
people are offended by Him. Why are they offended? Let’s look back in time to
see the origin of this scandal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We know very little about the childhood of Jesus from the Gospels. We
know that the Holy Family spent some time in Egypt and then returned to
Nazareth by way of Jerusalem. We also know that at the age of 12, the Lord
stayed behind in Jerusalem and conversed with the doctors of the Law in the
Temple. At this young age, He manifested exceptional wisdom. Did the word of
this get out? Did the people of Nazareth know about this child’s wisdom? We
cannot say. But here we encounter Him as an adult manifesting His wisdom again.
The people at the synagogue in His own hometown remark: “Where did this man get
all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought
by his hands!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Wisdom and mighty works! Certainly, they should expect
fine works wrought by His hands. After all, they remark that He is the
carpenter. In Latin, the word used is faber. We might recognize this word in
the English word ‘fabricator.’ He fabricated, or made things. So Jesus was
recognized by his hometown citizens as a maker of things. Pseudo-Jerome
comments: “Jesus is called the son of a workman, of that one, however, whose
work was the morning and the sun…” (Catena Aurea). The allusion here is that
the people are right in that He is a maker of things, but they do not realize
the full impact in that through Him all things were made. Their eyes are
covered with a veil and it has not yet been given them to see the fullness of
that truth. They are, therefore, offended by Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Pseudo-Jerome
comments: “Oftentimes…the origin of a man brings him contempt” (Catena). Any
priest knows this. It is difficult for a priest to preach to his own family and
to his childhood friends: they know him too well. Another early commentator by
the name of Theophylact writes: “Or again, if the prophet has noble relations,
his countrymen hate them and on that account do not honor the prophet”
(Catena). Even if his relatives are not noble; in his own hometown, it is
likely that someone will know his relatives, whether they like them or not––
and, on that account, they may dismiss what he has to say. But what the people
often do not consider is that the words spoken by the priest, or the prophet
(and in this case, the Lord Himself) are not His own words. He is speaking the
words of the Father who has sent Him to speak to a hardhearted and rebellious
people, as the prophet Ezekiel was sent to do. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We might place ourselves in this same predicament! Can we
not identify with the prophet Ezekiel who wrote: ‘And the spirit entered into
me after he spoke to me, and he set me upon my feet: and I heard him speaking
to me. And saying, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a
rebellious people, that have revolted against me, they and their fathers, have
transgressed my covenant even to this day” (Ez 2:2-3). How many times have we
sat with friends or relatives who no longer practice their faith and get into
unexpected debates over things we take for granted? We enter the conversation
thinking that we are on the same page, and then we hear a comment like, “Do you
really still believe all that stuff?” or “I gave up believing all that years
ago.” This can be heartbreaking, and yet in that very situation, we are called
to be like Ezekiel, but even more so, because through the sacraments, we are
conformed to Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
We too have been given the Holy Spirit, but in a greater way than
Ezekiel and the prophets who only received that charism to accomplish the work
of God as prophets. We receive the Holy Spirit through the sacramental life to
dwell in our souls. That is what we call sanctifying grace. And when we are in
a state of sanctifying grace, the Holy Spirit elevates our intellects to an
understanding of divine wisdom. Sanctifying Grace prompts us to conform our
wills to the will of the Almighty Father. We are given an infusion of the
virtue of Faith to help us to belief all that God has revealed. We do not
summon up that faith on our own. It is infused into us, and through sanctifying
grace, we are able to assent to things that are beyond our natural capacity and
our natural understanding. When we are filled with faith, we encounter
rebellious people. We might think it is a coincidence, but we are sent to them,
or perhaps they are sent to us so that we might exercise our vocation to speak
the truth of divine wisdom. When we are baptized, we are anointed on the crown
of our head and we enter into a participation with Christ in his threefold
office of Priest, Prophet, and King. Today we speak particularly about that
office of prophet. We participate in that prophetic office by speaking the
objective truth of the Catholic faith in love. This is the truth that is not
our subjective truth, but objective Truth who is Jesus Christ Himself. We speak
His words of divine wisdom but we leave the mighty works to Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> During those times when we sit with relatives or
friends who disagree with our Catholic faith, we can recall those words spoken
to the prophet Ezekiel: “I am sending you to…a rebellious people, that have
revolted against me (and)…have transgressed my covenant.” The pitfall, or
danger here is that we might get distracted by pride. In this situation, we
must remember that we are no better than them. It is not to our credit that we
have the gift of faith and they do not. It is a gift from God. But because we
have the gift of faith, we are obliged to speak the objective truth of that
faith to those who are hard of heart. We might dread such a thing because our
relatives may refuse to listen to us. After all, they know our origin. They know
our relatives. But that is not the point. Even if they do not listen to us, we
still must speak the truth in love. That is a manifestation of the Lord’s
wisdom. They may reject that divine wisdom. We have no control over that. We
are not to be judged by God based upon whether or not people heeded our words.
We will be asked whether we spoke the truth of the faith without hesitation or
embarrassment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <br />
Perhaps our Catholic faith in its integrity will provoke others to take
offense at us. That can be a real cross. It is a sorrow to be rejected by
others, but in that sorrow, we are truly one with Jesus Christ because it is He
whom they reject. We must remember that when others reject our Catholic Faith,
they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Him who sent us. We share in His
rejection and we enter into the wounds of His Sacred Heart, pierced and
rejected by the indifference of men towards His unfathomable love for them. Let
us not worry about performing any mighty deeds, but in docility, we allow God
to be Almighty. He will perform mighty deeds where He sees fit to do so. Let us
merely persevere as we are sent to lovingly speak the truth of divine wisdom
even to those who will reject us. <br /> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-89336919650704350732015-07-03T14:59:00.002-07:002015-07-03T14:59:37.627-07:00Dominican Rite Retreat Opportunity<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Blessed Margaret of
Castello Chapter of the Third Order of St. Dominic is based in Homedale, ID. The group describes itself on <a href="http://domid.blogspot.com/">its blog</a> in this way:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We
are a diverse community, united in the tradition of St. Dominic, joyfully
obedient to the Word of God spoken in His Catholic Church. We accept willingly
in faith the defined teachings of the Church's ordinary and universal
magisterium. We acknowledge also our duty to adhere with religious assent to
those teachings which are authoritatively, even if not infallibly, proposed by
the Church [Lumen Gentium, 25]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Chapter also announces its 11th
annual Mary Magdalene Retreat to be held July 17-19, 2015, at their chapter house in
Homedale, Idaho. There will be presentations, Masses, Adoration, and good
company. Fr Vincent Kelber, OP, Pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Portland, OR, will
be the Retreat Master.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Map and directions to chapter
house: <a href="http://www.dominicanidaho.org/map.html">http://www.dominicanidaho.org/map.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For further information, contact
</span><a href="mailto:Pam.Gross.OP@gmail.com" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: blue;">Pam.Gross.OP@gmail.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Blessed Margaret of
Castello Chapter has also established a “Dominican Rite Council”, the mission
of which is <i>to promote traditional Catholic worship, with an emphasis on the
Dominican Rite of the Mass.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Participation is open to anyone
interested in promoting the Traditional Mass. Please visit the <a href="https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/dominicanritecouncil/info?prop=eupdate">Dominican
Rite Council</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-19918168414995716662015-06-25T07:59:00.000-07:002015-06-25T07:59:20.998-07:00A Book About the Altar<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Here’s an excellent,
informative book about the altar:</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x0I2g4gmztE/VYwXGFN4yfI/AAAAAAAAC70/5JpdcqM6POE/s1600/liturgical_altar_cover316.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x0I2g4gmztE/VYwXGFN4yfI/AAAAAAAAC70/5JpdcqM6POE/s1600/liturgical_altar_cover316.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Liturgical Altar,</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> by
Geoffrey Webb<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The first edition of this book
was published in 1933, the second in 1939. The title page also gives a date of
1949. The book is in its second printing by Romanitas Press (2010 and 2014). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The “Reprint Preface” on page 1
of the book notes that it is hoped that the book will<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">…further
the understanding – and thereby hopefully the implementation – of the Church’s
symbolism, prescriptions, traditions and liturgical spirit in regards to the
correct building, vesting and decorating of the center of Catholic life: the
altar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This
book is also valuable in resenting ideas for how to erect a decorous altar that
fulfills all of the Church’s liturgical laws, while not exhausting the parish
coffers. Accordingly, the tongue-in-cheek subtitle of this book could easily
be: <i>How to Attain a Proper Altar,
Cheaply.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The book has a wealth of
information about the history of the Catholic altar, though the illustrations
are regrettably few and far between (understandably, though, given the original
date of publication). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">We
will be examining more of the contents of the book on later posts.</span>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-87144208821320913252015-06-15T09:11:00.001-07:002015-06-15T09:11:10.059-07:00A Children's Book: The Enchanted Rainbow<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Newly released: a very sweet children's book! It was written by Russ Voris, father of Michael Voris of "The Vortex", and was illustrated by a young teenager. A <a href="http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/the-vortexrainbow-fairies#.VX70fJZldT8.blogger">recent episode</a> of the Vortex gives the background and info on ordering</span>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4JwNuh7ah1c/VX7249N4BPI/AAAAAAAAC7E/DY0ufjdC7wk/s1600/20150221_135044.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4JwNuh7ah1c/VX7249N4BPI/AAAAAAAAC7E/DY0ufjdC7wk/s320/20150221_135044.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Please click on the link and watch the video! And if you have young children in your life, order them a copy!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span><a href="http://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/the-vortexrainbow-fairies#.VX70fJZldT8.blogger">The Vortex—Rainbow Fairies</a> <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Here are two photos of the interior:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7S-E3UvicD4/VX73K8qtQ0I/AAAAAAAAC7Q/jCnLSHVMzMs/s1600/20150221_134737.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7S-E3UvicD4/VX73K8qtQ0I/AAAAAAAAC7Q/jCnLSHVMzMs/s400/20150221_134737.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pEAr-3yhF2c/VX73KYrTT1I/AAAAAAAAC7M/lg8umLoHKcA/s1600/20150221_134751.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pEAr-3yhF2c/VX73KYrTT1I/AAAAAAAAC7M/lg8umLoHKcA/s400/20150221_134751.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-72921828437716601152015-06-04T09:13:00.001-07:002015-06-04T09:13:34.814-07:00Homeschool Family Camp with EF Mass<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Over the Pentecost weekend, a Family Camp was sponsored by a homeschool group at the Diocesan Retreat Center. The camp activities included a low Mass in the extraordinary form celebrated by Fr. Andrew <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.4799995422363px;">Szymakowski.</span> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Visit "</span><a href="http://showerofroses.blogspot.com/2015/06/homeschool-family-camp-pentecost-sunday.html" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A Shower of Roses</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">" blog for a nice summary of the festivities and some great photos.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Here are some of the photos of the Mass, courtesy of A Shower of Roses:</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dJrdVcG_bxg/VXBkeqXjKwI/AAAAAAAAC5k/j2uU2i-3vts/s1600/benediction%2Bfr%2Ba%2Bs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dJrdVcG_bxg/VXBkeqXjKwI/AAAAAAAAC5k/j2uU2i-3vts/s400/benediction%2Bfr%2Ba%2Bs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UD--FYKdQW0/VXBkedRp6RI/AAAAAAAAC5c/k1sOq637ai4/s1600/fr%2Bandrew%2Bs%2Bwith%2Bservers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UD--FYKdQW0/VXBkedRp6RI/AAAAAAAAC5c/k1sOq637ai4/s400/fr%2Bandrew%2Bs%2Bwith%2Bservers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LcgXZrpi5RQ/VXBkeHOeOZI/AAAAAAAAC5Y/wJfGeMEEYU8/s1600/Fr%2Bandrew%2Bs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LcgXZrpi5RQ/VXBkeHOeOZI/AAAAAAAAC5Y/wJfGeMEEYU8/s400/Fr%2Bandrew%2Bs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span>Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-38760150796582730302015-06-01T11:55:00.001-07:002015-06-01T11:55:37.262-07:00"Creed 101" Project<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/10991184_1542646869350652_458038184698262542_n.jpg?oh=80ba5e74d6ab98008cd56602f84baa23&oe=560C6B32" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/t1.0-9/10991184_1542646869350652_458038184698262542_n.jpg?oh=80ba5e74d6ab98008cd56602f84baa23&oe=560C6B32" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“</span><a href="http://www.creed101.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Creed 101</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">” is a series of You Tube videos
about our Catholic faith. The videos are each </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">about 101 seconds long – just a
minute and a half or so – and each tackles a question about the faith. We’ve
seen these videos pop up on Face Book; all of the videos are available at the </span><a href="http://www.creed101.com/" style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Creed 101 website</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Face Book users can “like” the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Creed101">Creed101 page</a> in order to see the videos. It is also possible
to sign up to receive the videos by email by visiting <a href="http://www.creed101.com/#subscribe">this page</a>; new subscribers will
receive this email: </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Welcome</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">
- Thank you for signing up for Creed 101!<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></i><br /><i><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Purpose:
</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Creed101 is a video series that
answers questions about the Catholic Faith — all in 101 seconds or less.<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></i><br /><i><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Inspiration: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Our
creed is our faith or set of beliefs. But too few among us actually understand
it and are prepared to defend it. So we set out to eliminate some of the hard
work for our viewers and headed straight to a trustworthy source on the faith.
The series features priests from the Portland Archdiocese who speak on their
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-90871010221962551902015-05-31T07:36:00.000-07:002015-05-31T07:36:07.475-07:00Holy Trinity: Fr. Andersen Homily<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday, May 31st, 2015</span></b></div>
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<b><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x3W86idnD6M/UXRcUD3-PjI/AAAAAAAABlQ/rUzTprHF0kE/s1600/fr%2Bandersen%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x3W86idnD6M/UXRcUD3-PjI/AAAAAAAABlQ/rUzTprHF0kE/s200/fr%2Bandersen%2Bcrop.jpg" width="156" /></a></b></div>
<b><o:p></o:p></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Fr. Eric M. Andersen<br />
Holy Trinity in Bandon/St. John the Baptist in Port Orford<br />
May 31st, 2015<br />
<br />
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity<br />
<br />
What do we mean when we say that God is One? We mean that He is
undivided, and indivisible. In other words, the One God cannot be added to or
subtracted from. Whatever is undivided in itself, is one. When something is
incapable of being divided, it is called simple. Other things are referred to
as composites. God is undivided and indivisible and therefore, God is simple.
God is not a composite. But what is a composite? A composite has no being so
long as its parts are not united into one, and a composite receives its unity
at the moment when composition sets in. So for instance, water is a composite of
hydrogen and oxygen (H2O). It is not water until that composition is made. The
water has no being before and it cannot be divided and still be water. This is
different from the unity of the One God. God is not a composite like water. God
is simple unity. But do we not believe that God is a Trinity? Doesn’t that mean
three parts? Would that not make a composite? How do we say that God is simple
when we can identify three parts? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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First of all, we do not identify three parts because a “part” signifies “an
incomplete being,</span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"></span></div>
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requiring it to be complemented by another” (Pohle-Preuss. <i>God: His Knowability</i>. . . 201). God is
not incomplete. There is no potentiality in God. He is not becoming, not
expanding, <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">not growing. He is complete. He is perfection Himself in His
fullness before time, in time and outside of time. So God is simple. This was
taught in the 2nd century by the earliest of Church fathers, Origen and
Irenaeus, and later, it was formally defined by the 4th Lateran Council in
1215. So, if anyone ever attempts to put you down by calling you simple, you
just say to them: “Well, the 4th Lateran Council defined God as simple; so if
it’s good enough for God, then it’s good enough for me!” </span><br />
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By saying that God is One, we also mean that God is unique in His being.
In other words, there is no other. This is what we profess in the Creed: I
believe in One God. In this we are monotheistic. God Himself has told us
through the prophet Isaiah: “I am the first and the last, and therefore there
is no God besides me” (Is 44:6). God, being One, is then defined as Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. These three persons in the One God are indivisible, because
they are not parts. If God had parts, He would be a composite. No, God remains
simple, not a composition, even in His three persons.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Various heresies emerged during the first centuries of Christianity as
theologians struggled to figure out this quandary. The heresy of Arianism
contended that God the Father was indeed uncreated but that the Son and the
Holy Spirit were created by the Father and inferior to Him. The Church
countered by defining that the Son is consubstantial with the Father.
Consubstantial means that the Son is of the same substance as the Father. This
is what we profess. The Son is begotten of the Father, but begotten from all
eternity; not made, not created, not a creature. He was begotten and He is the
Only-Begotten. Likewise the Holy Spirit was not made, nor created, nor
begotten. Jesus is the Only-Begotten. The Holy Spirit instead proceeds. . . or
spirates. He proceeds from the Father and the Son. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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These three are perfectly co-equal and co-eternal. Each of the
individual persons of God possesses the entire divine nature. St. Augustine
wrote that each one of the divine persons has as much perfection as all three
together have: “So great is the Father alone or so great is the Son alone, or
so great is the Holy Spirit alone as is the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit together.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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I invite you to take up your bulletins and follow along with the Athanasian
Creed. This is a liturgical creed of the faith attributed to St. Athanasius. He
was exiled off an on as a bishop over many years because he defended the
divinity of Jesus Christ against the Arian heresy. This creed is therefore,
very clear in defending the divinity of Jesus Christ and asserting the equality
of all three persons of the Holy Trinity in their Godhead. Historically, this
was recited every Sunday in the Divine Office. Currently it is only recited
once a year on Trinity Sunday, but only in certain forms of the Office. I find
it to be helpful in grasping the Church’s teaching on the Holy Trinity because
it is repetitive and very clear. It may take a few readings for it to settle
in, so I give you the first reading here while we are together, and I invite
you to just listen and follow along this first time, and then take it to your
prayer time as spiritual reading or Lectio Divina.<br />
<br />
<b>The Athanasian Creed:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Whoever wishes to be saved must, before all else, hold the
Catholic Faith: for unless each one maintains it whole and inviolate, he will</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">certainly perish in eternity:</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><br />
<i> This, then, is the Catholic faith: We worship one God in the Trinity
and the Trinity in unity, without confusing the Persons or separating the
substance; for indeed the Person of the Father is one, the Person of the Son
another, the Person of the Holy Spirit another; but the divinity of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, and their majesty
coeternal.</i><br />
<i> As the Father is, so is the Son, and so is the Holy Spirit; uncreated
the Father, uncreated the Son, uncreated the Holy Spirit; infinite the Father,
infinite the Son, infinite the Holy Spirit; eternal the Father, eternal the
Son, eternal the Holy Spirit; and yet they are not three eternal beings, but
one eternal; just as they are not three uncreated beings or three infinite
beings, but one uncreated being. In like manner, omnipotent is the Father,
omnipotent the Son, omnipotent the Holy Spirit; and yet they are not three
omnipotent beings, but one omnipotent being. Therefore, the Father is God, the
Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God; and yet there are not three Gods but one
God. In the same way, the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is
Lord; yet there are not three Lords, but there is one Lord; for just as we are
compelled by Christian truth to confess each Person individually as God and
Lord, just so the Catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three Gods
or three Lords. </i><br />
<i> The Father was not made by anyone; nor was he created or begotten;
the Son is from the Father alone, neither made nor created but generated; the
Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, neither made nor created nor
generated, but proceeding. Therefore, there is one Father, not three Fathers;
one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in the
Trinity, there is nothing before or after, nothing greater or lesser, but all
three Persons are coequal and coeternal with each other. And so, in all things,
as was said already above, both the unity in the Trinity and the Trinity in the
unity must be worshipped. Let anyone therefore, who wishes to be saved think of
the Trinity in this manner. </i><br />
<i> But it is necessary for eternal salvation also to believe faithfully
in the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. The correct faith, therefore, is
that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is both
God equally and man; he is God generated from the substance of the Father before
all ages; and he is man born from the substance of a mother in time; perfect
God and perfect man, subsisting with a rational soul and human flesh; equal to
the Father according to divinity, less than the Father according to humanity;
and while he is both God and man, nevertheless, there is but one Christ, not
two; not one, however, by a transformation of the divinity into flesh, but by
the assumption of the humanity into God; he is entirely one, not by a confusion
of substance, but by the unity of person. For just as one man is a rational soul
and flesh, just so the one Christ is God and man. He suffered for our
salvation, descended into hell, and on the third day rose again from the dead,
ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father, from whence he
shall come to judge the living and the dead. At his coming, all men are to rise
again with their bodies, and they will given an account of the own deeds; and
those who have done good will go on to eternal life, but those who have done
evil will go into eternal fire. </i><br />
<i> This is the Catholic faith: unless each one has believed it
faithfully and firmly, he will not be saved. Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall
be, world without end. Amen. </i><br />
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In closing, the mystery of the Holy Trinity cannot be understood or
demonstrated by reason alone. The Church teaches this. The Athanasian Creed is
a reasonable presentation of this teaching. We can come to understand it
partially by use of our reason and intellect. But the mystery of the Holy
Trinity must be known by Divine Revelation. It must be known by intellect or
reason elevated by the supernatural infused virtue of faith. When we are in a
state of sanctifying grace by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we can come to
be certain of such mysteries of the faith. But even in a state of grace, God
still allows us to struggle for a greater purpose. When we come to know God
personally as a beloved Friend or as the Spouse of our souls, the divine
mysteries become more and more clear to our human minds. When we come to know
Him, we come to understand Him. Let us seek to know Him and to understand Him
and to Love Him in each of His three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-40114942251444765452015-05-14T14:39:00.000-07:002015-05-14T14:39:24.527-07:00The Solemnity of the Ascension<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">It's that time of year again, when Ascension Thursday is celebrated on Sunday for most of us here in the US. For those who are able to attend Mass in the extraordinary form on a regular basis, the issue is moot: Ascension Thursday falls on, well, <i>Thursday</i>, and the following Sunday is called "Sunday after the Ascension". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Whether you celebrate the Ascension on Thursday or on Sunday, here is a good meditation on the subject.</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">From the lessons for the <a href="http://divinumofficium.com/cgi-bin/horas/officium.pl">office of matins</a> for the Solemnity of the Ascension:<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">From the Sermons of Pope St Leo the Great.<br /><i>1st on the Lord’s Ascension.</i></span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">After the blessed and glorious Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, wherein the Divine Power raised up in three days the true Temple of God Which the iniquity of the Jews had destroyed (<i>John ii. 19)</i>, God was pleased to ordain, by His Most Sacred Will, and in His Providence for our instruction and the profit of our souls, a season of forty days which season, dearly beloved brethren, doth end on this day. During that season the bodily Presence of the Lord still lingered on earth, that the reality of the fact of His having risen again from the dead might be armed with all needful proofs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The death of Christ had troubled the hearts of many of His disciples their thoughts were sad when they remembered His agony upon the Cross, His giving up of the Ghost, and the laying in the grave of His lifeless Body, and a sort of hesitation had begun to weigh on them. Hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples, who had been fearful at the finishing on the Cross, and doubtful of the trustworthiness of the rising again, were so strengthened by the clear demonstration of the fact, that, when they saw the Lord going up into the height of heaven, they sorrowed not, nay they were even filled with great joy. And, in all verity, it was a great an unspeakable cause for joy to see the Manhood, in the presence of that the multitude of believers, exalted above all creatures, even heavenly, rising above the ranks of the angelic armies and speeding Its glorious way where the most noble of the Archangels lie far behind, to rest no lower than that place where high above all principality and power, It taketh Its seat at the right hand of the Eternal Father, Sharer of His throne, and Partaker of His glory, and still of the very man's nature which the Son hath taken upon Him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us also rejoice with worthy joy, for the Ascension of Christ is exaltation for us, and whither the glory of the Head of the Church is passed in, thither is the hope of the body of the Church called on to follow. Let us rejoice with exceeding great joy, and give God glad thanks. This day is not only the possession of Paradise made sure unto us, but in the Person of our Head we are actually begun to enter into the heavenly mansions above. Through the unspeakable goodness of Christ we have gained more than ever we lost by the envy of the devil. We, whom our venomous enemy thrust from our first happy home, we, being made of one body with the Son of God, have by Him been given a place at the right hand of the Father with Whom He liveth and reigneth, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.</span></div>
Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-20624243978725320512015-05-10T15:43:00.001-07:002015-05-10T15:43:34.399-07:00Fr. Andersen Homily: God is Love<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x3W86idnD6M/UXRcUD3-PjI/AAAAAAAABlQ/rUzTprHF0kE/s1600/fr%2Bandersen%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-x3W86idnD6M/UXRcUD3-PjI/AAAAAAAABlQ/rUzTprHF0kE/s200/fr%2Bandersen%2Bcrop.jpg" width="156" /></a><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>A Homily by Fr. Eric M. Andersen for the Sixth Sunday of
Easter<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>Holy Trinity in Bandon; St. John the Baptist in Port Orford<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><i>May 10th, 2015</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Dominica VI Paschae<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As
the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Sicut
dilexit me Pater, et ego dilexi vos; manete in dilectione mea.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">In the holy scriptures, we find that there are different
kinds of love. In the English language, they tend to all be translated
with the same word: ’love’. The readings for today speak of love, but two
different words are used even in the same sentence in the Epistle of St. John: <i>Beloved,
let us love one another, because love is of God </i>(1Jn. 4:7).<i> </i>He
uses a verb and a noun. The phrase, ‘let us love’, uses the verb <i>diligo,
dilexit </i>from which the English word ‘diligent’ is derived.<i> </i> This
is the same verb used by Jesus in today’s gospel: <i>As the Father loves
me, so I also love you. </i>This specific word that Jesus uses for
love means <i>to choose </i>to love, to prize, or to esteem
highly. In the English language, the word ‘diligent’ is the opposite of
negligent. Diligent means careful, assiduous, accurate. In this
type of love, there is an intellectual choice that is rooted in the will rather
than the emotions or passions. Jesus is asking you to choose to love Him
and to choose to remain in His love by obeying His Commandments. He says
to us: <i>It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you</i>… By
those words, he is referring to this type of love. He chose to love
us. We must choose to love Him, but it is He who has first chosen to love
us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">St. John extends that message out from the Gospel: Beloved,
let us love one another, because love is of God. Here he uses a second
word for love as a noun. That word is <i>caritas</i>, or ‘charity’
as we know it in the English. Charity has the meaning of something rare,
precious, costly. The love of God is indeed costly, because it cost Him
His very life, His Precious Blood poured out for us. It makes that much
more sense, then, to understand the words that St. John uses here:
Beloved, let us choose to love one another diligently, carefully,
accurately––because charity, which is precious and costly, is of God.
Because charity is so rare, so costly, so precious, it is therefore a treasure
that we must protect and preserve with diligence, care, accuracy as we pass it
on one to another. It is not something to pass on negligently, but
diligently. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">How can we do so? Jesus tells us: “If you keep my
commandments, you will remain in my love. Now the word that Jesus uses
here is not the noun <i>caritas</i>, meaning charity, but back to <i>dilectione</i>,
which is diligent, careful, constant love. We must therefore be diligent
and constant and careful in choosing every day to keep His commandments in
order to remain in His constant love. We do not remain in His diligence
merely by existing. We do remain in His charity. He has died for
all of us and each of us and will not take that back. That is His
charitable love which is precious and always extended to us. But to
remain as His chosen one is up to each of us in our careful, constant
diligence. By doing so we choose Him who has chosen us and we direct that
diligent love not only back to God but to our neighbor, because of the charity
of God, who is charity itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-51796561717896768602015-05-04T16:13:00.000-07:002015-05-04T16:13:02.260-07:00Impressions of a Vigil and Funeral Mass<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wpKv9bDW5Yg/VUf8y8Vmj_I/AAAAAAAAC2c/J6Eu6EXSlGA/s1600/cliff%2Bcolvin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wpKv9bDW5Yg/VUf8y8Vmj_I/AAAAAAAAC2c/J6Eu6EXSlGA/s200/cliff%2Bcolvin.jpg" width="154" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lt. Col. H. Clifford Colvin,<br />requiescat in pace</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Ms. Barbara Etter of Bend, Oregon, writes here about a vigil and a funeral
Mass she attended recently in Baker City, Oregon, at St. Francis de Sales
Cathedral parish. The deceased was Lt. Col. H. Clifford Colvin, a local
parishioner who served with great distinction in the US Marine Corps.</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Vigil and Rosary<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> <b>Introductory
Rite:<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The greeting of the body at the
church with the sprinkling with Holy Water was followed by the family placing
the pall on the casket. During the
procession the small schola (two singers) sang the Latin chant <i>Subvenite Sancti Dei</i>. When the casket had been brought to the front
of the Cathedral, the cross was placed upon it.
Father Colvin then extended the invitation to prayer and sang the
opening prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Liturgy of the Word</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The first reading: 1 John 3:1-2
We shall see God as He really is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Responsorial Psalm, also
chanted in Latin was <i>Unam petii a Domino<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Gospel: John 14:1-6 In My Father’s House there are
many mansions…. This was <i>sung</i><u> </u>by
Fr. Andrew Colvin. Fr. Colvin proceeded
to give a homily which included reminiscences of growing up in the Colvin
family and the intensity of his father’s faith, how he lived his faith, and
instilled the Catholic Faith in his children.
It made me think what it would have been like to grow up in a caring,
sharing, faithful family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Recitation of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin
Mary</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Reading of the poem <i>High Flight</i> was done in honor of his
being a Top Gun fighter pilot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Prayers of Intercession </span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">included
the litany, the sung Lord’s Prayer, and the concluding prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Concluding Rite</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> was
the Blessing and the hymn “For All the Saints” led by the folk group. We sang all eight verses so it was the first
time I had heard some of the verses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We were then invited to come
forward to pay our respects. When it was
my turn I could not help but give a salute and say, “Well done Lt. Col. Colvin.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Afterwards, I heard people making
the comment that it was so good to hear Latin chant in the Cathedral
again. To me it was touching and
prayerful; in fact when I closed my eyes it sounded as if the Angel Gabriel was
singing with a soft voice of another angel.
I don’t know how it was done, but the two voices sounded like a whole
choir of heavenly angels. It was a beautiful experience for me. I can
only dream of having such a beautiful wake service.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Funeral Mass</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This was a concelebrated Mass
with several priests and two prelates: Bishop Liam Cary (<i>in choro</i>), Right Reverend Joseph Stanichar (of the Duchovny Dom Monastery near Weston,
Oregon; Ruthenian Rite), Reverend Andrew Colvin (son of the deceased), Reverend
Robert Greiner (Cathedral Rector), Reverend Stanislaw Strzyz , and Reverend
Andrew Symakowski.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Gold vestments were worn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I had never met a Ruthenian
Rite priest or prelate before, and found Father Stanichar’s vestments striking;
he had no miter, but a gold crown of sorts.
It was beautiful. When it was
time for him to pray his section of the Eucharistic Prayer (Roman Canon), he
sang it. He told me later that they
always sing their prayers, that prayer should be sung. I thought that was interesting; by singing, one
is not just saying words, but is also lifting one’s voice to God in true
prayer. Perhaps that is why we sing the Divine Office. I learned something new from him. [Ed. note: Father Stanichar is a mitered archpriest of
the Byzantine (Ruthenian) Rite; he is not technically a bishop, but is given
the right to wear the vestments of a bishop.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Mass itself followed the
Novus Ordo funeral rite, but instead of all being English, most of the singing
was Latin Gregorian chant.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Introductory Rites<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The opening song was “On Eagles
Wings” (folk group). The entrance
procession was the Introit antiphon <i>Requiem
aeternam dona eis, Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis, </i>followed by several
verses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Kyrie was from the Requiem
Mass, using double, not triple, invocations, but it was done in Latin. The Gloria was sung by Fr. Colvin
himself. I don’t remember ever singing a
Gloria at a funeral Mass before, but I do not know all the rubrics of the Easter
Octave – maybe it is done at this time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Liturgy of the Word</span></b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Following the proclamation of the
first reading the response <i>Requiem </i>(same
as the introit antiphon) with psalm 112 v.7 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Gospel Acclamation was <i>Alleluia alleluia. Laetatus sum in his quae
discta sunt miki: in domo Domini ibimus. </i>Fr. Colvin sang the Gospel if I
remember correctly. A homily and General Intercession followed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Liturgy of the Eucharist<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The offertory hymn was the
traditional text of the prayer <i>Domine,
Jesu Christe…..<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Sanctus and the Agnus Dei
were sung in Latin from Mass XVIII, not the Mass for the Dead. The Agnus Dei
used <i>Miserere nobis</i> instead of <i>dona eis requiem</i>. This is the rubrics for the Novus Ordo Mass.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Communion Hymn was the
antiphon <i>Lux aeternam luceat eis, Domine,
cum sanctis tuis in aeternam: quia pius es.</i> This was with the verses
from psalm 130.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Final Commendation<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Responsory was <i>Libera Me…
</i>The Song of Farewell was the antiphon <i>In paradisum… </i>followed by the Prayer of Commendation with the
antiphon <i>Chorus Angelorum.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The concluding song was the
Navy Hymn: “Eternal Father, Strong to Save”, with all verses, including one
that was written especially for the Marine Corps:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Eternal Father grant we pray to all Marines both night
and day<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> The courage, honor, strength and skill their land to
serve, Thy law fulfill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Be Thou the shield forevermore from ev’ry peril to the
Corps.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">At the reception afterwards, I
was approached by several people who heard me singing and said, “Keep up the
good work.” Again I was told that it was
good to hear chant in the Cathedral. Two
people even looked at my <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Liber-Brevior-Monks-Solesmes/dp/B005LYCE86">Liber
Brevior</a></i> [which includes Gregorian chant propers for Sundays and major
feast days in the Extraordinary Form]. Maybe this is a sign that perhaps chant
will come back now that people have heard it and know it can be done. I know if people only had the opportunity to
hear chant again it would be used more frequently.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is almost the way I would
envision my funeral to be, but… in the Extraordinary Form.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-70202239277954541032015-04-28T08:08:00.002-07:002015-04-28T08:08:32.063-07:00Anniversary of the Dedication of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Today is the anniversary of the dedication of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.saintfranciscathedral.com/chathedral/images/2011Cathedralinspring1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.saintfranciscathedral.com/chathedral/images/2011Cathedralinspring1.jpg" height="320" width="264" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Well...sort of…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">This part of the history of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Baker is a bit confusing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">If you’d looked in the Paulist Press ordo up till a few years ago, you’d have seen the dedication of St. Francis Cathedral listed on April 28. However, this is not the date of the original dedication of the church. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><i>[Disclaimer: I do not have the current edition of the Paulist Press ordo, and so I cannot say for certain what date is listed for the anniversary this year; it is possible that it has been changed, but I am doubtful. Certainly, I have seen nothing in the Cathedral parish bulletin about celebrating the anniversary on any date in April.]</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The project of building St. Francis de Sales Cathedral was initiated by Bishop Charles J. O’Reilly, who had arrived in Baker City in 1903. At that time, the “cathedral” was a little mission church which was certainly not able to accommodate the kind of liturgies that should be held in a Cathedral. So, on March 20, 1905, the old church was removed; on March 24, ground was broken for the new building.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The architect for the new cathedral was M. P. White of Baker City, and the builder was Thomas E. Grant. Stone was brought in from Pleasant Valley, with is southeast of Baker City. The building was actually completed in 1908 and opened on St. Patrick’s Day that year, but it was not put into use until after its dedication on April 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">There’s the <i>original </i>date of dedication of the Cathedral of the Diocese of Baker: April 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">There have been a number of renovations of St. Francis Cathedral, and after the major make-over around 1980 – which took a cathedral that once looked like this (ahhhh!):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">and made it look like this (sigh):<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"> - there was a re-dedication on April 28, 1981. That date was probably given to the Paulist Press people by Bishop Connolly, who had initiated the renovation and who led the dedication ceremony. According to the printed pamphlet commemorating that event, the ceremony was attended by the bishops of five neighboring diocese - including Bishop William S. Skylstad of Yakima, the current Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Baker - as well as the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">So, up until just a few years ago, one would always find April 28 listed as the date of the dedication of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral in the Diocese of Baker. A few years ago, however, it began to be listed as April 9.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Why the change? The reason was probably because someone realized that the original dedication anniversary was on April 9. But you might be surprised to find that the 2012 ordo listed the anniversary of the dedication of St. Francis de Sales Cathedral as April 16! That’s because April 9 fell in the Octave of Easter; the Octave days take precedence, so a celebration of the dedication of any cathedral would not be permitted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Bishop Robert F. Vasa, prior to his transfer to the Diocese of Santa Rosa, had noted that April 9 almost always falls during Lent or in the Octave of Easter; therefore, the date for the celebration of the dedication would be different each year. On the other hand, the April 28 date submitted by Bishop Connolly would <i>almost</i> always be <i>after</i> Easter and the Octave (the latest possible date for Easter is April 25); therefore, keeping that date for the celebration of the dedication would lend it much more stability. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">April 28 is in fact related to a significant historical event for the Cathedral – a re-dedication – and so is an appropriate date that is at least in the same month as the original date, and which would be much more predictable than the April 9 date. Bishop Vasa had intended to mention something about this in the Diocesan newsletter the following year, but since he was transferred to the Diocese of Santa Rosa, the clarification fell by the wayside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">At any rate, in at least the last 10 years, the bishop of the Diocese of Baker has not been at the Cathedral for the celebration of the anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral on either April 9 or April 28 (actually, I am not sure whether Bishop Cary has been there for the anniversary of the dedication in the last couple of years). Even in 2008, for the <i>centennial </i>anniversary of the Cathedral, there was no bishop present: just the rector and two former pastors.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.saintfranciscathedral.com/events/images/StFrancisDeSalesCentennialWedApril920083a.jpg"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; text-decoration: none;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Prior to that, in October of 2007, Bishop-emeritus Thomas Connolly celebrated the 60th anniversary of his priesthood, and at that time, in the presence of a couple of archbishops, several bishops, and numerous priests, the newly renovated Cathedral sanctuary was "blessed and re -dedicated", according to the now-defunct Cathedral </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://www.saintfranciscathedral.com/events/events.htm" target="_blank">parish website</a>, which may have been the best parish website in our diocese - well worth perusing even now, though it is not the official parish website any longer and is not updated. If you follow that link, you will come to the old website which contains many wonderful photos on various pages of the site.).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The anniversary of a Cathedral's dedication is to be celebrated as a solemnity in the Cathedral parish; it is celebrated as a feast elsewhere in the diocese. The cathedral is the "mother church" of the diocese and should be a liturgical example of excellence to the rest of the parishes, according to the <i>Ceremonial of Bishops</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">It could be so in the Diocese of Baker, but it is not so at present.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b4xaEUqtICE/VT-d-5VVtrI/AAAAAAAAC1o/b2LMZUbJomQ/s1600/white%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b4xaEUqtICE/VT-d-5VVtrI/AAAAAAAAC1o/b2LMZUbJomQ/s1600/white%2Bcrop.jpg" height="320" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A current photo of the altar at St. Francis de Sales Cathedral.<br /></td></tr>
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Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153892247190969266.post-3346718488923123822015-04-24T11:35:00.000-07:002015-04-24T14:05:35.618-07:00Requiescat in Pace, Bishop Thomas J.Connolly<a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/i_xpJgWkHYgM-tTyK_awqFPWCII6H_5pA7NXpKLxcUSwKESne4OcoHl0ZNSlA17BPEfeT47nfXEHzlJTUmPY0ENkGBtEGIcsBbrP3LGbMe7J" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.dioceseofbaker.org/images/BishopThomasConnolly.jpg" height="200" width="134" /></a><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">This morning (Friday, April 24) <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" title="x-apple-data-detectors://0/">at 1:15 AM</a>, Bishop Emeritus Thomas J. Connolly (Diocese of Baker) died at Maryville care center in Beaverton. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bishop Connolly had been suffering from dementia for a number of years. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Funeral arrangements are as follows:</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b> Wednesday, April 29</b> at 5:00 PM - </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Vigil Service with Reception of the body at the </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> new </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">St. Francis of Assisi Church in Bend </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><b>Thursday, April 30 </b>at 11:00 AM- </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Pontifical Requiem Mass with reception </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> following at </span></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">St. Francis of Assisi</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>Friday, May 1</b> at 11:00 AM </span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Pontifical Mass of Christian Burial at </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> St. Francis de Sales Cathedral, Baker City. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"> Lunch and burial to follow.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">There are some interesting tidbits here about the saint, and some hints about the effectivness of using social media to evangelize and re-evangelize. </span><br />
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<br />Jayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09927474235629912604noreply@blogger.com0