Monthly Archives: June 2011

Corpus Christi V

“This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us. For we do not receive these things as common bread or common drink; but as Jesus Christ our Savior being incarnate by God’s Word took flesh and blood for our salvation, so also we have been taught that the food consecrated by the Word of prayer which comes from him, from which our flesh and blood are nourished by transformation, is the flesh and blood of that incarnate Jesus.”

St. Justin Martyr, 2nd Century AD

Categories: Miscellanea | Tags: ,

Corpus Christi IV

Panis angelicus
fit panis hominum;
Dat panis caelicus
figuris terminum:
O res mirabilis!
manducat Dominum
Pauper, servus, et humilis.
Te trina Deitas
unaque poscimus:
Sic nos tu visita,
sicut te colimus;
Per tuas semitas
duc nos quo tendimus,
Ad lucem quam inhabitas.
Amen.

Bread of Angels,
made the bread of men;
The Bread of heaven
puts an end to all symbols:
A thing wonderful!
The Lord becomes our food:
poor, a servant, and humble.
We beseech Thee,
Godhead One in Three
That Thou wilt visit us,
as we worship Thee,
lead us through Thy ways,
We who wish to reach the light
in which Thou dwellest.
Amen.

Categories: Miscellanea | Tags: ,

The Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul

Today is a great day because it is one of my feast days!!! I get to honor my patron, St. Paul!!!

When I was received into the Church, I chose St. Paul as my patron because our conversions were so similar. He persecuted Catholics; I persecuted Catholics. He became Catholic; I became Catholic. St. Paul had also been my favorite dude when I was Protestant. I practically worshiped the guy (that’s a joke, because now that I’m Catholic I worship Saints….geez, nevermind).

Anyway, this feast celebrates the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul. We celebrate that the both of these men were Apostles: St. Paul for gentiles and St. Peter for the Jews (Galatians 2:7-8). We celebrate that the Apostles were indeed the pillars of the Church (Galatians 2:9). We celebrate the unity that exists within the Church. Sts. Peter and Paul were very different men. One was a poor fisherman, the other an educated Jew. They taught very differently, and they had experienced Jesus in very different ways. Yet, they defended one Faith. They were both Catholic priests. They were both believers in the transubstantiation of the Eucharist as St. Peter was there when Jesus performed this miracle for the first time, and St. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the nature of the Banquet.

I used to believe that Catholics had Pope Peter and that Protestants had Christian Paul. I never thought that Paul and Peter were reconcilable. But they are more unified than I ever imagined. They are more Catholic than ever. They are more Christian than ever.

I hope and pray that I will become half the man that each of these men were in Christ.

Image by Lawrence Klimecki

Categories: Miscellanea | Tags: , , ,

Corpus Christi III

The Eucharist is like a beating heart giving life to the mystical Body of the Church, which is a social organisation entirely founded on its spiritual yet tangible bond with Christ. … Without the Eucharist the Church would simply cease to exist. In fact, it is the Eucharist which renders a human community a mystery of communion, capable of bringing God to the world and the world to God. The Holy Spirit, which transforms the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, also transforms those who receive it with faith into limbs of Christ’s Body, thus the Church truly is a Sacrament of men’s unity, with God and with one another. In an increasingly individualistic culture such as that in which we live in western societies and which is tending to spread throughout the world, the Eucharist constitutes a kind of ‘antidote’, working on the hearts and minds of believers and continually infusing them with the logic of communion, service and sharing, the logic of the Gospel. The first Christians in Jerusalem were an evident sign of this new lifestyle because they lived in fraternity and shared all their worldly goods, so that no one should be left in want. … In later generations too, the Church, despite human limitations and errors, has continued to be a force for communion in the world. We think particularly of the times of greatest difficulty, times of trial: for example, what could the chance of coming together at Sunday Mass have meant in countries ruled by totalitarian regimes? … Yet the vacuum produced by false freedoms can be equally dangerous; thus communion with the Body of Christ is like a medicine for the mind and the will, helping us rediscover our taste for truth and for the common good.

Pope Benedict XVI

Categories: Miscellanea | Tags: , ,

Corpus Christi II

Pange, lingua, gloriosi
Corporis mysterium,
Sanguinisque pretiosi,
quem in mundi pretium
fructus ventris generosi
Rex effudit Gentium.

Nobis datus, nobis natus
ex intacta Virgine,
et in mundo conversatus,
sparso verbi semine,
sui moras incolatus
miro clausit ordine.

In supremae nocte cenae
recumbens cum fratribus
observata lege plene
cibis in legalibus,
cibum turbae duodenae
se dat suis manibus.

Verbum caro, panem verum
verbo carnem efficit:
fitque sanguis Christi merum,
et si sensus deficit,
ad firmandum cor sincerum
sola fides sufficit.

Tantum ergo Sacramentum
veneremur cernui:
et antiquum documentum
novo cedat ritui:
praestet fides supplementum
sensuum defectui.

Genitori, Genitoque
laus et iubilatio,
salus, honor, virtus quoque
sit et benedictio:
procedenti ab utroque
compar sit laudatio.
Amen. Alleluia.

Sing, my tongue, the Savior’s glory,
of His flesh the mystery sing;
of the Blood, all price exceeding,
shed by our immortal King,
destined, for the world’s redemption,
from a noble womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless Virgin
born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing,
stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
then He closed in solemn order
wondrously His life of woe.

On the night of that Last Supper,
seated with His chosen band,
He the Pascal victim eating,
first fulfills the Law’s command;
then as Food to His Apostles
gives Himself with His own hand.

Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
by His word to Flesh He turns;
wine into His Blood He changes;-
what though sense no change discerns?
Only be the heart in earnest,
faith her lesson quickly learns.

Down in adoration falling,
Lo! the sacred Host we hail;
Lo! o’er ancient forms departing,
newer rites of grace prevail;
faith for all defects supplying,
where the feeble sense fail.

To the everlasting Father,
and the Son who reigns on high,
with the Holy Ghost proceeding
forth from Each eternally,
be salvation, honor, blessing,
might and endless majesty.
Amen. Alleluia.

Categories: Miscellanea | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Corpus Christi I

O Precious and Wonderful Banquet

St. Thomas Aquinas

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. he offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be fore the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

Categories: Miscellanea

Married in a Catholic Church

Two weeks ago, two of my friends were married. They aren’t Catholic, but they did make a choice for their wedding that was very surprising to me: they got married in an old Catholic Church. Though its not a Catholic Church any longer, I thought the choice was rather strange given that it still looks like a Catholic Church. The first thing I noticed was the shrine out front to the Virgin. The inside was even more Catholic. Three large high altars with over nine saint statues, three of which were of Mary herself! There was still a tabernacle (empty) and candlabras everywhere. What a beautiful place to get married!

But I wonder, why choose it? Yes, it is beautiful, but the very beauty of it expresses truths that they do not believe. The Immaculate Conception, the Real Presence of the Eucharist, the Communion and intercession of the Saints, the Rosary, the Mass…all of these things were expressed in this Church. So why? I know that they both have home churches, why not choose one of those nearby places? It just boggles my mind. I would never get married in a mosque no matter how beautiful because its beauty expresses something I do not believe.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m very glad that they were married there. Just because it is no longer a Catholic Church does not mean that the power of the blessings upon the building or the patronage of St. Boniface (the name of the Church) has left the Church. I’ve decided to take advantage of that and I have given the married couple to the patronage of St. Boniface, asking him to look after them and to continually make intercession for them that they might be fully converted and brought into the One Fold that Jesus founded and take part in the once-for-all sacrifice of the Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

St. Boniface, pray for them!

Categories: Miscellanea

As a Deer Longs for Flowing Streams

Categories: America, Miscellanea | Tags: ,

Prayer for Pam

It’s been a long time since I’ve thought of a friend of mine, we’ll call her Pam. But suddenly while I was out in the middle of a field of beets, I thought of her. First an image of her walking towards the dining center with her ipod headphones in with that sad look she had popped into my mind, and then I heard her voice. I don’t know why, I don’t know if she needs some extra prayers right now, but God just layed this woman on my heart today.

I actually haven’t talked to Pam in over a year, and haven’t seen her in over four years. In fact, I only knew her for a few short months when I began college. It was the semester before I found Jesus and it was the only semester we had together before she transferred to another school. I know that she had experienced some deep pain in her past and struggled with some of the things that girls do in our culture today. I know that she had no desire to know of God. That’s most of what made our friendship fall apart.

I don’t know what she is doing today, but I know that I promised I would always pray for her. And I do…when I think of it…like today. If you get the chance, would you say a Hail Mary or Glory Be for her conversion, or maybe even offer her up as your next Mass intention? Just call her Pam, God will know who you are praying for.

Categories: Miscellanea

Christian Perfection

The Christian is another Christ

By St. Gregory of Nyssa

No one has known Christ better than Paul, nor surpassed him in the careful example he gave of what anyone should be who bears Christ’s name. So precisely did he mirror his Master that he became his very image. By a painstaking imitation, he was transformed into his model and it seemed to be no longer Paul who lived and spoke, but Christ himself. He shows his keen awareness of this grace when he refers to the Corinthians’ desire for proof that Christ was speaking in him; as he says: It is no longer I who live: it is Christ who lives in me.

Paul teaches us the power of Christ’s name when he calls him the power and wisdom of God, our peace, the unapproachable light where God dwells, our expiation and redemption, our great high priest, our paschal sacrifice, our propitiation; when he declares him to be the radiance of God’s glory, the very pattern of his nature, the creator of all ages, our spiritual food and drink, the rock and the water, the bedrock of our faith, the cornerstone, the visible image of the invisible God. He goes on to speak of him as the mighty God, the head of his body, the Church, the firstborn of the new creation, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, the firstborn of the dead, the eldest of many brothers; he tells us that Christ is the mediator between God and man, the only-begotten Son crowned with glory and honor, the Lord of glory, the beginning of all things, the king of justice and of peace, the king of the whole universe, ruling a realm that has no limits.

Paul calls Christ by many other titles too numerous to recall here. Their cumulative force will give some conception of the marvelous content of the name “Christ,” revealing to us his inexpressible majesty, insofar as our minds and thoughts can comprehend it. Since by the goodness of God, we who are called “Christians” have been granted the honor of sharing this name, the greatest, the highest, the most sublime of all names, it follows that each of the titles that express its meaning should clearly be reflected in us. If we are not to lie when we call ourselves “Christians,” we must bear witness to it in our way of living.

Categories: Miscellanea

Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Adventure Journal by Contexture International.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 128 other followers

%d bloggers like this: