9 Day Divine Mercy Novena

Open each day with the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy then say the prayer for the day's intention:

Fourth Day

Jesus said: "Today bring to me those who do not believe in God and those who do not yet know me. I was thinking also of them during my bitter passion, and their future zeal comforted my heart. Immerse them in the ocean of my mercy."

Most Compassionate Jesus, You are the Light of the whole world. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who as yet do not believe in You or do not know You. Let the rays of Your Grace enlighten them that they, too, together with us, may extol Your wonderful Mercy, and do not let them escape from the abode which is Your Compassionate Heart. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls who do not believe in Your Son, and of those who as yet do not know You, but who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Draw them to the light of the Gospel. These souls do not know what great happiness it is to love You. Grant that they, too, may extol the generosity of Your Mercy for endless ages. Amen

9 Day Divine Mercy Novena

Open each day with the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy then say the prayer for the day's intention:

Second Day

Jesus said: "Today bring to me the souls of Priests and Religious and immerse them in my unfathomable mercy. It was they who gave me strength to endure my bitter passion. Through them, as though channels, my mercy flows out upon mankind."

Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in men and women consecrated to Your service that they perform worthy works of mercy, and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in Heaven. Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the company of chosen ones in Your vineyard - upon the souls of Priests and Religious - and endow them with the strength of Your Blessing. For the Love of the Heart of Your Son in which they are enfolded, impart to them Your Power and Light, that they may be able to guide others in the way of salvation, and with one voice sing praise to Your boundless Mercy for ages without end. Amen

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion

Readings: Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12; Hebrews 4: 14-16, 5:7-9; John18:1 - 19:42

I read somewhere a very challenging statement saying: “What will kills Christianity, what will kills the Catholic Church is not the atheism, not the enemies of Christ but the lukewarm attitude of believers, the indifference of Catholics.” And it is true. Nothing is able to kill my faith but my own lukewarm indifference.

Jesus is alone ….

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me."

He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer … When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep. He said to Peter, "So you could not keep watch with me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again … Then he returned once more and found them asleep, for they could not keep their eyes open.

He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing again.

Then he returned to his disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.”              (Matthew 26; 36-45)

And in today’s Gospel:

“Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala and the youngest of his disciples John.”                                (John 19; 25)

I was thinking about this yesterday evening, while seating in the adoration room after the Holy Thursday Mass. From among the whole parish only two couples and four women find the time to spend few minutes in adoration yesterday evening …

I am very sorry, to say this but, does it mean that all others were sleeping? Jesus is constantly asking the same question: “Could you not keep watch with me for one hour?”

Today during the day nobody came even for the shortest adoration …

And I am consoling myself with the statements: “I am not bed. I am actually a good person.” Does it mean that I don’t need the passion, the death and the resurrection of Christ? Does it mean that I don’t need these few minutes of adoration on the Holy Thursday?

********************************

Sorrow and pain, suffering and anguish can lead us into one of four lands:

- The barren land in which we try to escape from it and when we cannot we are overwhelmed,

- The broken land in which we are not able to deal with it and we sink under it,

- The bitter land in which we resent it, where we are offended by it,

or

- The better land in which we bear it and become a blessing to others.

This is what Jesus did with all our sorrows and sufferings on the Cross.

I heard once the words which moved me. It was during a painful ceremony of funeral:

"These difficult days for you and your family may become a time of great graces if you unite your suffering to those of Christ crucified. All too often we forget that it was not when Our Lord was preaching and teaching, and multiplying the bread that He saved the world. It was, rather, when He was seemingly helpless and abandoned on the Cross. There, in the midst of unspeakable anguish and pain, suffering and sorrows Christ wrought redemption for us. By joining your anxiety and pain to His, you will help countless others open their hearts to His grace and love."

Pope John Paul II in his remarkable book “Crossing the Threshold of Hope” wrote:

"There is no Christian holiness; there is no Christianity at all without devotion to the Passion, without the Cross of Jesus Christ."?

Saint Paul in the letter to the Galatians says:

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal 6,14)

We will be more then pleased or even delighted with a religion giving us only the good feelings and positive emotions, with a religion similar to a talisman or religion amulet. But unhappily or rather happily the symbol of Christ’ religion is not a four leaf clover or a horseshoe.

The symbol of our religion is THE CROSS of Jesus Christ.

And maybe one thing more: It is not about our feelings, or emotions.

It is about our salvation, and for our salvation our feelings are rather irrelevant.

If Jesus Christ stresses constantly His feelings and His moods He will never accept the cross, the passion and the death.

9 Day Divine Mercy Novena

Open each day with the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy then say the prayer for the day's intention:

First Day

Jesus said: "Today bring to me all mankind, especially all sinners, and immerse them in the ocean of my mercy. In this way you will console me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges me."

Most merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us to forgive us, do not look upon our sins, but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from it. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit. Eternal Father, turn Your Merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion show us Your Mercy, that we may praise the infinite power of Your Mercy, forever and forever. Amen."

ZENIT - Holy Week's Sore Loser

HOLY WEEK'S SORE LOSER

Every year, the forces of evil get very anxious as we reach Holy Week. After six weeks of purification and prayer, we reach the great celebration of Christ’s victory over sin and our reconciliation with God. Satan is a sore loser.

So the Christian celebration of the Lord’s passion, death and resurrection is accompanied by the yearly ritual of Christ-bashing in the mainstream media. You will recall that just a year ago Newsweek Magazine celebrated Easter with a cover story titled “The Decline and Fall of Christian America,” while the Discovery channel aired a documentary that portrayed Jesus as a political opportunist.

This Lent, the attacks have been more pointed, targeting Christ’s vicar, the Pope. The last few weeks have seen a frenzy of accusations against the clergy, the bishops and the Pope himself regarding cases of sex abuse in Germany, Ireland and the United States. The strategy has been that of pre-Geneva Convention warlords: fire as many shots as possible into the air and hope that something will hit the mark. Since the media are held to no rules of engagement, innocent casualties and wanton destruction are welcomed as tactics to weaken the adversary.

more: ZENIT - Holy Week's Sore Loser

Holy Thursday – April 1^st 2010

“Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end. … (J 13,1)

on the night he was handed over, he took bread, and, after he had given thanks, broke it and said, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”( 1 Cor 11:23-24)

John Paul II begins his Encyclical Letter “Ecclesia de Eucharistia” with the statement:

“The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. (n. 1)”

And he continues:

“The Church was born of the paschal mystery. For this very reason the Eucharist, which is, in an outstanding way, the sacrament of the paschal mystery, stands at the centre of the Church's life. (n. 3)”

I ask myself, as well as I also ask you: “Is the Eucharist really the center of my life? What is the meaning, the significance of this Sacrament in my Christian life?”

The Pope further wrote:

“Even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation. (n. 8) The Eucharist, as Christ's saving presence in the community of the faithful and its spiritual food, is the most precious possession which the Church can have in her journey through history. (n. 9) The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift – however precious– among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of Himself, of His person in His sacred humanity (n. 11)”

Do we realize, do we understand the depth and the meaning of these words? Are we really aware of the greatness of the gift we are receiving in the Sunday Eucharist?

Pope Benedict XVI, in the apostolic Exhortation “Sacramentum Caritatis”, writes:

“The sacrament of charity, the Holy Eucharist is the gift that Jesus Christ makes of himself, thus revealing to us God's infinite love for every man and woman. This wondrous sacrament makes manifest that "greater" love which led him to "lay down his life for his friends" (n. 1)

Jesus in the Eucharist does not give us a "thing," but Himself; He offers His own body and pours out His own blood. He thus gives us the totality of his life and reveals the ultimate origin of this love (n. 7). In instituting the sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus anticipates and makes present the sacrifice of the Cross and the victory of the resurrection. (n. 10)”

"The Eucharist draws us into Jesus' act of self-oblation. More than just statically receiving the incarnate Logos, we enter into the very dynamic of his self-giving." (21) Jesus "draws us into Himself." (22) The substantial conversion of bread and wine into his body and blood introduces within creation the principle of a radical change, a sort of "nuclear fission,” which penetrates to the heart of all being, a change meant to set off a process which transforms reality, a process leading ultimately to the transfiguration of the entire world, to the point where God will be all in all. (n. 11)”

These are the deepest dimensions of the Most Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament which we are celebrating today- in a very special way re-commemorating the very first Eucharist celebrated by our Lord and Saviour, the very night preceding His betrayal, passion and death.

The bread in front of the altar is only a symbol because Jesus Himself decided to use daily bread as the matter, the substance of the Eucharist. He was born in Beth le hem (in Hebrew it means the house of bread), many times He multiplied bread, and He choose the breed as the most powerful sign.

However, the bread which will appear on the altar is not only a symbol. It is really “Christ's saving presence” among us.

Today is perhaps the best opportunity ask oneself some fundamental questions:

-          What is my attitude toward this Most Sacred Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ?

-          Do I recognize Jesus’ real presence in this Sacrament?

-          Do I prepare myself to be as worthy as possible to accept it in communion?

-          Or do I maybe neglect it and am not truly attentive to this Mystery?

When the communists took over China in the late forties, they imprisoned a priest in his own rectory. Looking through the window, he saw the soldier enter the church and break open the tabernacle, scattering the Blessed Sacrament on the floor. The priest knew the exact number of hosts: thirty-two.

Unnoticed by the soldiers, a young 11 year old girl had been praying in the back of the church and she hid when they came in. That night the girl returned, spent an hour in prayer, then entered the sanctuary where she knelt and bent over to take one of the hosts on her tongue.  She actually licked it off from the floor. In those days communicants did not receive the Eucharist in their hands, but only on the tongue.

The next night she came again and did the same despite knowing soldiers were there guarding the imprisoned priest. The girl came back the following night and the next and each night throughout the whole month. She would spend an hour in prayer and receive Jesus by picking up a sacred host with her tongue. The thirty-second night, after consuming the final host, she made an accidental sound, awakening a soldier. He ran after her and when he caught her, he struck her with his rifle butt. The noise awoke the priest – but it was too late. From his house, he saw the girl die.

Bishop Fulton Sheen, who related the story, said that when he heard about this, it inspired him so much that he made a promise that he would spend one hour each day before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. He always said that the power of his priesthood came from that daily holy hour and veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.

Priests should promote Confession, pope says

World News in Brief — wcr:03/22/2010

Priests today are challenged with the task of drawing the faithful back to Confession and assuring them that their true repentance will be met with mercy and compassion, Pope Benedict said. In an address to several hundred young priests, Pope Benedict said March 11 that "we must return to the confessional" not only as a place to confess sins and receive absolution, but also as a place where "the faithful can find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel loved and understood by God." Priests are called on to educate their flocks in the "radical requirements of the Gospel" and help them resist "the mentality of this world" and make choices that take courage and are sometimes unpopular, the pope told the group. The times are difficult, he said, and marked by "a hedonistic and relativistic mentality that cancels God from peoples' lives."

PALM SUNDAY - 2010

the day of temporary glory … the day of Hosanna, the day followed by Good Friday and “crucify him!!!”

“Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.” John 15: 20-22

For last few weeks media has been reporting intensely on the response of the Holy See and the Pope to the painful scandal of sexual abuse committed by priests in several countries. It is terribly tragic news, which saddens us profoundly as children of the Church. After this news offensive, some Catholics are weary and, I admit, so are we all. It seems to have become the only topic out there.

However, we cannot allow these atrocious crimes to make us forget the hundreds of thousands of men and women, the countless priests, men and women religious -- the great majority -- who day by day give their lives to God and to neighbour in so many hospitals, schools, parishes and missions. Today many of them are unjustly associated with the scandals because of superficial reporting.

The Pope paid homage "to all those who in silence, not with words but with deeds, strive to practice this evangelical law of love that propels the world forward. There are so many of them all around but they rarely hit the headlines. They are men and women of all ages, who have realized that it is not worth condemning, complaining or accusing; that it is better to respond to evil by doing good."

Pope Benedict is under sustained assault by the enemies of the moral principles of the Catholic Church. Yes, many bishops have been severely negligent about past sexual abuse incidents and need to be held personally accountable. Nothing wrong with that public campaign. However, the Holy Father is not one of those.

It cannot be a coincidence that this is occurring so soon after the health care battle when the Catholic Church stood against the Democrat anti-life factions and Catholic Church dissidents who are becoming very emboldened in their opposition to the authority of the Pope and those bishops in union with him.

They are enraged over the Church's unwillingness to bend on life and homosexuality and enraged over the new, more faithful translation of the liturgy, the Pope's welcoming into the Church of traditional and morally conservative Anglicans, his encouragement of the more traditional liturgies, the intensified questioning of the Catholicity of Catholic universities and his increasingly strong actions against dissent and moral corruption among the clergy and religious nuns and brothers. They fear that all their gains from the fraudulent "Spirit of Vatican II" revolution within the Church may be lost. Pray for Pope Benedict.

It is obvious to all with a balanced mind that the international media is out to smear the Pope. Why? Because he is the only voice which dares to speak against the evils of today's society: abortion, contraception, euthanasia, divorce, you name it. He is the only leader who really leads. His words are listened to by all who are genuine and honest. The media wants to bring him down. They cannot stand his words and authority.

Don't you think that this is a simple reaction against the Catholic Church because of the Catholic position in the cases of:

- abortion,
- euthanasia,
- same sex "marriages"
- contraception
and other moral issues?

For me this is an open war against Church which doesn't accept the "modern liberalistic morality

These attacks are precisely because of the church's position on those issues. The liberals attack the church in order to alleviate their deeply hidden feelings of guilt regarding those issues. They know deep down that the church is right and so they like to point a finger and hope to discredit the total position of the church. By proving that the church is "wrong" on this issue they hope to tell their consciences that the church is therefore "wrong" on many similar issues.

War Secularism vs. Christianity

In recent weeks, Europe's secular media has launched what one Vatican official described as an "onslaught" on the Church, and clergy in particular, following continued revelations of clerical sexual abuse in various European countries over the past 50 years.

In the firing line have not only been clergy and bishops, but also Benedict XVI -- particularly in parts of the American, Italian, British and German press. The strength and unreasonableness of the criticism prompted Marcello Pera, an atheist philosopher, to write an open letter to the editor of Corriere della Sera last week. Pera an atheist wrote in 2004 a book "Without Roots: The West, Relativism, Christianity and Islam".

In his article Pera wrote, "There is a war going on. It's not just against the person of the Pope, because, on these grounds, it would be impossible. Benedict XVI remains impregnable because of his image, his serenity, his clarity, firmness and doctrine. It's the war against the Catholic Church."

Pera, who is also a senator in the Italian parliament, noted that "the war is between secularism (liberalism) and Christianity." He said secularists know well that "if a fleck of mud lands on a white robe, the Church would be soiled, and by soiling the Church, so too would be the Christian religion. That is why, secularists question, without any evidence, whether the Church as a whole is capable of looking after children, educating them, or treating them in a Catholic hospital.

He warned that this is a "pitched battle of secularism against Christianity," adding that one would have to recall Nazism and Communism to find a similar conflict. The means have changed, but the end is the same: the destruction of religion. And he said it was "incredible" that secular Germany of all countries, while continuing to "beat its chest" over memories of wartime Europe, "forgets and does not understand that democracy itself would be lost if Christianity is again wiped out."

"The destruction of religion then entailed the destruction of reason," Pera wrote. "Today, it won't be secular reason that triumphs, but another kind of barbarism." He then listed what he saw as the various ethical and barbaric violations of today: "It is those who kill a fetus because his life would be detrimental to the 'mental health' of the mother. Those who say that an embryo is a 'clump of cells' good for experiments. It is killing an old man because he doesn't have a family to care for him anymore. It is about those who hasten the end of a child's life because he is no longer conscious and is incurable. It is those who think that Parent A and Parent B are the same as father and mother."

Political, secularist barbarism, he said, will lead to the destruction of Europe because what will be left will be multiculturalism, relativism and pacifism -- a Europe which says that it "mustn't have its own specific identity, but be a container of all identities."

"This war on Christianity would not be so dangerous if Christians understood it," continued Pera. "Instead, many of them participate in incomprehension." He cited weaknesses in the Church such as theologians "frustrated by the intellectual supremacy" of Benedict XVI; uncertain bishops "who believe any compromise with modernity" is the best way to promote the Christian message; and "cardinals who, in a crisis of faith, begin to suggest that priestly celibacy is not a dogma, and that perhaps it would be better to reconsider."

"The war of the secularists will continue," Pera wrote, "if not because of a Pope like Benedict XVI, who smiles but does not shrink one iota." He ended by calling on all those who understand why the Holy Father remains steadfast to "take the situation in hand" and not to wait "to take your next shot." Those who hide and limit themselves to being merely in empathy with him, he said, "don't understand why it's necessary."

See more at: Marcello Pera scrive al direttore del Corriere della Sera

or English version: REINTRODUCING VIRTUE; WAR AGAINST RELIGION

See also: Mark Mallett - The scandal

According to Charol Shakeshaft, the researcher of a little-remembered 2004 study prepared for the U.S. Department of Education, "the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests."

Despite these facts, however, “the sexual abuse story in the global media is almost entirely a Catholic story, in which the Catholic Church is portrayed as the epicenter of the sexual abuse of the young.”

See Charol Shakeshaft report HERE

OUR MISSION

We cannot expect Christ to "Be with us" if we do not "Go forth and teach all nations," or if we do worse and teach half-truths, easy options and basic lies. Christ said, "Take up your cross daily," not do what you like on the earth.
A great deal of prayer is needed now before it is too late.

BETWEEN INNOVATION AND TRADITION

The reform of the liturgy, a term to be understood, according to the liturgical constitution of the Second Vatican Council, as instauratio, namely, as a re-establishment of the correct place in ecclesial life, did not begin with Benedict XVI but with the very history of the Church, from the Apostles to the age of the martyrs, from Pope Damasus to Gregory the Great, from Pius V and Pius X to Pius XII and Paul VI. The instauratio is continuous, because the risk that the Church will slide from her place, which is to be source of Christian life, always exists; decadence comes when divine worship is subjected to the personal sentimentalism and activism of clerics and laity who, penetrating in it, transform it into human work and spectacular entertainment. A symptom today, for example, is applause in the church, which indistinctly punctuates the baptism of a newborn and the departure of a coffin in a funeral. Does not a liturgy that has become entertainment need reform? This is what Benedict XVI is doing: the emblem of his reforming work will be the re-establishment of the cross in the center of the altar, to make it understood that the liturgy is addressed to the Lord and not to man, even if he is a sacred minister.

Standing With the Pope

The attempt of the press to implicate Benedict XVI in the question of pedophilia is only the most recent sign of the aversion that many have for the Pope.

It is necessary to ask oneself how this Pontiff, despite his evangelical meekness and honesty, the clarity of his words joined to the depth of his thought and of his teachings, arouses in some places sentiments of disgust and forms of anti-clericalism that it was believed had been surmounted. And this, it must be said, causes even greater astonishment and also distress when those who do not follow the Pope and criticize his alleged errors are men of the Church, whether theologians, priests or laymen.

...

These attacks are echoed sadly by those who do not listen to the Pope, also among ecclesiastics, professors of theology in seminaries, priests and laymen. Those who do not accuse the Pontiff openly, but are deaf to his teachings, who do not read the documents of his magisterium, who write and say exactly the contrary of what he says, give life to pastoral and cultural initiatives, for example in the area of bioethics or in that of the ecumenical dialogue, in open diverge with all that he teaches. The phenomenon is very grave as it is very widespread.

Benedict XVI has given teachings on the Second Vatican Council that many Catholics reject openly, promoting forms of counter-formation and of systematic parallel teaching, led by many "anti-popes"; he has given teachings on "non-negotiable values" which very many Catholics minimize or reinterpret, and this also happens on the part of theologians and famous commentators guests of the Catholic press in addition to secular press; he has given teachings on the primacy of the apostolic faith in the wise reading of events and very many continue talking of the primacy of the situation, or of the practice, or of the data of human sciences; he has given teachings on conscience and on the dictatorship of relativism but very many put democracy or the Constitution before the Gospel. For many, "Dominus Iesus," the Note of 2002 on Catholics in politics, the 2006 Regensburg address, "Caritas in Veritate," is as if they had never been written.