I'm Just Learning How to Do This

I just found comments from several weeks past that needed to be published.
Dumb me; I'm just learning how to do this "blog-thing."
Thank you for your comments and your interest in our community. Be assured of our prayers and our gratitude.

Christmas CD

We are happy to announce a Christmas CD that is a fund raiser for the Institute of Saint Joseph, in particular, for our renovation of the former Sacred Heart School, now the Cor Jesu Priory.
This CD has Christmas music by our own Oblate Priest, Fr. James Thomas Benzmiller, playing traditional Christmas music on the organ of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in La Crosse, WI, with the narration of the Christmas story by Archbishop Raymond L. Burke.
You can log onto our site for more information.
Help us to make our June 2010 dedication a possibility!
Thank you!

Saint Padre Pio, pray for us!

Today is the Memorial of Saint Pio of Pietrelcino, or more popularly known, as Padre Pio. He is a contemporary Saint, dying in 1968. He lived a life of heroic virtue while having the wounds of Jesus for fifty years.

Padre Pio is a very important person of the Twentieth Century. He lived a life of untiring service as a Capuchin friar, priest and "victim soul" during the most tumultuous years of the 1900's--witnessing first-hand the First and Second World Wars, the encroachment of modernity, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, and the years of increasing immorality and the denial of the rights of God.

Most especially, Padre Pio was a sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God by the miraculous events that surrounded his life: visions, bilocation, mystical reading of souls, healings, and ultimately the impression of the Five Wounds of Jesus: the stigmata, as well as the scourging. And yet, these extraordinary manifestations of his being in solidarity with the Crucified Lord were not the reasons for his canonization.

It was his heroic virtue: the living of the supernatural life of Christ in his life that makes him a saint. The "signs" of God's blessing and workings in his life were for the faithful. The true reason he is a saint is because he loved the Lord Jesus with a faithful and enduring love.

He loved our Lady, especially in her Holy Rosary, where the basics of our belief as Catholics is repeated over and over..."Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." In the mysteries of the Rosary, which he prayed unceasingly, he united himself with the saving mission of the Lord and His Mother.

The Sacrifice of the Mass was the very reason he got up in the morning and the reason he made thanksgiving throughout the rest of the day. It is reported that he arose at 2 AM to prepare to celebrate the Holy Mass each day and could not stop thanking the Lord throughout the day for this sublime privelege.

He is the "martyr" of the confessional, spending countless hours hearing confessions and giving absolution. Any priest who has spent only an hour or two in the confessional knows how taxing and sacrificial this ministry can be. And yet, Padre Pio tirelessly spent time in hearing the confessions of the faithful to bring healing, salvation, and comfort to his penitents.

Padre Pio, saint of the Holy Mother, the Holy Sacrifice, and the confessional, pray for priests during this Year of Priests, that they may follow your sublime example.
Pray for the faithful, that that may grow in love with Mary, the Holy Eucharist, and learn to confess often in the Sacrament of Penance in order to grow in the love of Jesus and to experience the Divine Mercy He wishes to impart! Amen.

On Retreat

I haven't posted since Monday because our community is on retreat this week.
We're reading the Rule of Saint Benedict and meeting before Evening Prayer to discuss it. So, you could say that Saint Benedict is a kind of "retreat master".

What is interesting, for me, is that we have different editions of the Rule with different commentaries, and so there is an opportunity to see things from different points of reference (some old, one new). There are only three of us, so it doesn't get too confusing!

I had a seminar class with a Benedictine Abbot on the Rule of Saint Benedict in the 1980's when I was a graduate student, so it is a real treat to return to the beautiful teachings and the venerable texts of the monastic life in the Christian West and have time to reflect upon them in greater depth.

We ask for your prayers, assuring you of our remembrances.

I'll be back in the next few days.

Happy name day, Sr. Petra Rose of Sorrows!

Tomorrow, September 15th, the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows, is Sister Petra Rose of Sorrows' name day. She is an Oblate Sister of the Nazareth Community and has been a consecrated monastic sister since 1992.

She is a very important person in our community. Her talent for iconography, sacred music, and being the "straw boss" (as I affectionately call her) for our renovations at Cor Jesu Priory is incredible.

Thank you, Sister Petra, for your loving devotion to our Lord, to His Church, to living the consecrated monastic life in our Nazareth Community.

And I cannot leave out a very important part of Sister's life: HER "cloister dog", Chipette, known as "Chip" who although being very annoying by barking at the washing machine, the microwave and the vacuum cleaner, as well as the printer on the computer, is Sister's companion and guardian.

Our Lady of the Passion, pray for us!

Tomorrow is the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows.

The icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is known in the Eastern Church as "Our Lady of the Passion," who is clothed in red, symbolizing our Lord's Passion, instead of the blue mantle of Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

But in both the instruments of our Lord's Passion are held by the two Archangels in the corner of the icon.

The Child Jesus is looking up to them; his sandal is falling from his feet. The Mother holds Him closely to herself.

And yet she is looking out at us. As if to say, "This is what the 'sword of sorrows' means." She lived the Sorrows long before Jesus was arrested, tortured, and crucified. The First Sorrows are: The Prophecy of Simeon; The Flight into Egypt; the Losing of the Child in the Temple.

And the remaining Sorrows are at the time of the Lord's Passion and Death: His Way of the Cross, His Crucifixion, His Body taken from the Cross and His Burial.

Our Mother of Sorrows accompanies each one of us, her children, in our sorrows. We can be assured of her compassion and assistance. Her solidarity with us, especially at times of grief and loss, is a Mother's love.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Introit for today's Mass in the Extraordinary Form:
Surely we ought to glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; in Him is our salvation, our life and resurrection; through Him we are saved and set free.