Another Irish ballad

This touched me very deeply; there is a mystical sense about these words.
We are in a "foreign land" here on earth...we know, instinctively, and by faith, that we belong to another "land", "another home."
The Irish, because of their particular history, know what it is to "leave", to "long" for "home"; their traditional Catholic Faith held them to the "ultimate home"...Heaven.

But now, because of the horrid cases of child abuse that have rocked the Church in Ireland, causing the resignation of bishops, poor morale among the clergy and religious, and in the Fall, a Vatican investigation to the Archdioceses and religious communities that will hopefully bring reconciliation and healing, there is much need of prayer and love for the Irish Church.

Many bishops, priests, men and women religious from Ireland came to the USA and served this mission Church of ours for over a hundred years. Many, many of them are heroic in so many ways; they sacrificed much, leaving home, family and even giving their lives to bring the message of our Lord to this country.

The Church in Ireland deserves our love, prayer and respect.
This song is in honor of the many nameless priests and religious who came here to give of themselves to the poor and destitute, to educate children, care for orphans and all the unwanted. Some of them were even in the Civil War, caring for our soldiers on both sides. They are truly heroes and heroines. May God bless Ireland.

An Irish kinda mood

I'm in an Irish kinda mood today.
Pray for the Church in Ireland; they are in such dire need of our prayers, concern and best.
The lyrics:
English Translation:

Halleluia, halleluia
Halleluia, my Savior
You are my God, I am your servant
Halleluia my heart forever

My love, my God, my guardian, my rock
My fair love, my Lord
My love, my christ, my love, my heart
My love in full, You, my glorious King

(Chorus)

My love __, holy in your court
My love, your heart and your fair appearance
My love, your flock, long is your path
My love, my light, my strength, my king

(Chorus)

You are my God, I am your servant
Halleluia my heart forever

A Place of Peace, of Rest, of God

With so much strife, enmity, tragedy and sadness...let us place ourselves in the "Heart of God"...where we can find a true source of strength, holiness and meaning.
Our prayers for all of you struggling...we feel the pain, sadness and anxiety of your lives. Trust in the Lord! He is our refuge and strength!

There is something beyond this material world; it is something we intuit by just "being"

I love this music from "The Secret Garden"...it just takes you to a "place beyond time and space"...to God.

Prayers and blessings from our little dovecot of our Lady! We love you all!

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in Thee!

Homily for the External Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
13 June 2010

Our texts from this Sacred Liturgy, the External Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, point toward a wonderful mystery: God has so loved us, has made Himself so vulnerable, so approachable, so absolutely weakened by physical, psychological and mental sufferings that no sinner could ever feel that the God who created him, loved him from all eternity, shed His very Blood for him, suffered untold agonies in the Garden of Gethsemane, was scourged without mercy at the pillar, tried before men who closed their hearts to the the Truth, was given a heavy Cross-beam, was humiliated before the crowd, affixed to the Cross in a most horrible manner, suffered for three hours, forgave His enemies and entrusted Himself to His Eternal Father before He breathed His last; this is Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, Whose Sacred Heart bore all of these burdens for our sake, Who was wounded, and at His death, His Sacred Heart was pierced, from which blood and water flowed. The source of all Sacramental life; the water of Baptism; the Blood of the Holy Eucharist which came forth from the Sacred Body of the God-Man Who loved each one of us unto death, the complete spending of Himself in obedience, the complete blood=letting of His Precious Blood.

We stand before this most sublime mystery today in our celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which Holy Mother Church allows us to celebrate in an External Form on this Sunday closest to the actual Feast. The Patron of this church, of this “Oratory of Cor Jesu”, which, God willing, will soon have the daily praises of the Divine Office sung here; the daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; the daily Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; the daily reparation requested by our Lord to Saint Margaret Mary Alocoque, in her French convent, some four hundred years ago. It is no mistake that our small, humble, hidden monastic community was given this place dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus; Archbishop Raymond Burke entrusted us with the work of writing an icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that he blessed and then consecrated our Diocese in 1999 to the Sacred Heart. We have gone through many years of discernment and search of where our “permanent home” would one day be; the Lord knew the answer; He gave us this most historical religious site, dedicated to His Sacred Heart. The church bell that rings out the announcement of the Holy Mass each Sunday is dedicated to Saint Joseph, under the inspiration of Fr. Goldsmith, the great missionary of this area. And it was consecrated on June 11th, the birthday of our co=founder, Rev. William Felix, one hundred years before we took possession of this holy ground. The Lord, in His Providence, makes no mistakes; He knows and provides for everything. Praised be His Holy Name!

Pope Benedict, in his homily for the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday of this last week, in the closing Mass for the “Year for the Priest” spoke most eloquently of the “Good Shepherd,” Jesus Who loves and cares for his sheep, His people. The past years have been filled with the news of how bishops and priests have not loved their flock as “Good Shepherds”, have, in fact, abused their authority and responsibility toward the innocent, the vulnerable, the dependant; this is a grave sin and a horrid violation of the true vocation of the “Good Shepherd”, one who is to imitate Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd and
Guardian of Souls. The violation of even one of the innocent is a sin that cries to God for vengeance; it is a horrible violation of the trust that a representative of Jesus Christ, a bishop or priest,
must be always careful to observe. I want to make public reparation, apology, and ask forgiveness from any of you, here present, who have been treated in any way that is abusive or somehow outside the proper treatment that a “Good Shepherd” should treat His flock. It is a horrible crime for the innocent to be violated in any way by the very one who should be leading them to God. It is not always sexual abuse that is the case, here; many times, the abusive and atrocious behaviour of God’s representatives manifests itself in the insensitive, uncharitable, and dismissive acts and attitudes of bishops and priests, who should, above all, be very sensitive and attentive to the needs of the faithful.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is a pierced Heart; it is a Heart that is full of mercy, kindness, forgiveness, understanding, compassion, love. Pierced by a lance. From which blood and water flowed. A Heart so vulnerable, so impassioned, so full “of fire”…how can we ever begin to understand the Divine Compassion?

In the revelations to Saint Margaret Mary, Jesus made a definite reference to a very important point: He was deeply offended by the lack of love of His chosen ones; He felt the deep sadness and neglect of those who should be His dearest friends. In other words, Jesus came to us, in these revelations, as a beggar. He so wants our love, our adoration, our reparation, our time, our attention…He is like a neglected friend who calls, leaves messages, tell us that He wants us to “call back”…He wants us to spend time with Him, He wants us to avail ourselves of the graces that He wants to give us…He wants to be our constant friend and companion.

For me, this is most poignant and important.
Jesus begs to be MY friend; my friend.
He is the God of all; the Second Person of the Trinity; the Lord and Beginning and End of all; and He begs to be MY friend?
How is this possible?
How is this even imaginable?

When we say the Creed, we bow or genuflect at the words “Et incarnatus est”—the Word became Flesh…He is one of us! He unites Himself to us! Always and forever more!
His Sacred Heart, beating within the womb of the Virgin Mother, knows me, He loves me, He has thought of me from time immemorial! How can I not accept His Love?

The true devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is based in the biblical revelation that “God so loved us, that He sent His Son”…He sent His Son! Born of the Virgin Mother; Who lived thirty years at Nazareth under the obedience of a Son to His Mother and Guardian, St. Joseph. This is most relevant to us today; the Christian family, who is under constant attack, must be rooted in the home of Nazareth: the love of the Son for His Mother and Guardian, St. Joseph. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the love for the family, both the Christian family of mother, father and children, the family of the religious community who is consecrated to the Holy Family in the Holy Trinity and makes present the “Kingdom of God” and the men and women who are consecrated to the Lord in various ways, celibate for the Kingdom of God. The reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is manifest in those who give everything to God in their particular circumstances; who live only for Him, through Him, in Him by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and their commitment to living His Law according to their particular state in life.

This is the charism of our Institute of Saint Joseph. We endeavour to promote and sustain the “universal call to holiness” that the Church has consistently taught and which is made manifest in “Lumen gentium”…the call to holiness of all the members of the Body of Christ, His Church. This is what this Oratory and future priory of monastics is all about: “to make God present to the world, and the world present to God” through the daily celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, the daily celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Adoration of the Lord in the most Blessed Sacrament, and the oblation of love, sacrifice and commitment to the norms of Christian life.

This place is meant to be a “Temple of the Lord”. We need your prayers, your financial help, your gifts and assistance. This is not meant to be a place only for ourselves. It is meant to be a holy place, a place “set apart” for the exclusive praise of God, for daily Sacrifice, reparation and love.

It is meant to be a place where the “Heart of Jesus” is loved above all. Where He is put first. Where He matters the most. We are most grateful for all that you do to assist us in this aim; we are in most need of your continued help. Jesus is not loved in most places; His Heart is wounded, beyond measure, in many places, especially where the innocent and vulnerable are abused or neglected. We attempt to make reparation for this and want to be a “sign of hope”. Will you assist us? Can you help us?

“Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place my trust in you.” Amen.

Octave of Corpus Christi

In the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, we are in the final days of the "Octave of Corpus Christi", which culminates in the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, June 11.

This is the Sequence from the Mass of Corpus Christi. It was written by St. Thomas Aquinas specifically for this Feast. It gives the essential teaching of the Catholic Church on the Holy Eucharist, the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the appearances of bread and wine.

Let us worship and adore the Lord, present in such humble forms; let our adoration never cease!

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Homily for Holy Trinity Sunday, 30 May 2010
Cor Jesu Oratory

We hear in our Epistle for today’s Mass, the Feast of the Holy Trinity: “”For from him and through him and in him are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.”

This phrase from Sacred Scripture is the “final doxology” at the end of the Roman Canon where the priest takes the Sacred Host and over the Chalice of the Precious Blood signs with the Cross three times and then two times in front of it saying words based upon this praise of the Most Holy Trinity. It is a profound signification of the life and action of the Holy Trinity: the Father sends the Son to become a “victim” in complete obedience in the Love of the Holy Spirit.

The three “signs of the Cross” indicate the Trinitarian work present in the Sacrifice of the Cross; the two “signs of the Cross” in front of the Chalice indicate the identity of the Son Who offers Himself in Sacrifice: True God and True Man.

Deacon Laurence Hemming, in his work, “Worship as Revelation”, describes the “unfolding of the mystery” of our life in God, in His Trinitarian life, in the rites and words of the Sacred Liturgy, particularly in the Holy Mass. He writes:

Symbolically the activity of the liturgy….is how the altar ‘speaks’ and how it enters into human conversation. The conversation is double; it is the means by which the conversation between the First and Second Persons of the Divine Trinity is made available to the understanding of the baptized, and so how the baptized are inserted into the eternal conversation between the Father and the Son through the work of the Spirit; and it is the means by which mere human conversation is fully taken up into the divine life so that it can disclose, and so be, what it signifies. ‘Speaking’ here does not just mean words: it means every symbolic or ritual gesture, every silence, that the liturgy employs in its divinely authorized activity (p. 54).

The sacred actions and words of the Holy Mass reveal to us who God is, what God’s requirements are, how we are to approach Him, how we are to be formed and molded according to His image and likeness.

Our understanding of the Holy Trinity is not merely an intellectual exercise, like mathematics. We do not leave aside our ability to reason, our intellect, but are transformed and allow the concepts we have to be transcended in the grace of God, His revelation to us, given through the Holy Church, by the action of grace. Deacon Hemmings describes this reality in this way:

…God is no longer ‘other’ to me…God’s interior self-revelation in the Persons of the Trinity, through the redemption wrought in Christ, now includes me insofar as I am called to live within it, and know myself to be so living. This is in consequence of the death and resurrection of Christ, within which mystery I am included through Baptism…now I live through the Son in the power of the Spirit toward the Father: insofar as I receive the Spirit in Baptism and Confirmation, I live in the Christ I come to know in the liturgy, and so I am brought to meet the Father. Insofar as I am in Christ, I am caught up into the divine, Trinitarian, life….my every participation in the liturgy re-enacts, brings into existence, and enfleshes the baptismal even and makes it real, above all in the even of the Mass and my reception of the Eucharist. I live my Baptism, above all through my very embodiment (whilst gaining an understanding of what it will be to have a new body on a new earth under a new heaven)…My Baptism is the conditioning possibility of my vocation as a Christian (pp. 41-42).

This mystical, sacramental encounter with Jesus Christ in the Sacred Liturgy makes it possible for me to know the Father in the Holy Spirit; where One of the Trinity is active, the others a present, as well. The initial “immersion” in God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in Baptism and the sealing of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation is a transition and transformation from merely “natural” life to supernatural life. It is the very basis of the universal call to holiness, which the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Lumen gentium, has defined and made clear. All of us, in every state in life, are called to become saints; we are called to nurture and increase the life of grace within us, to become virtuous and living signs of the “Kingdom of God”, according to the duties and obligations of our particular vocation. Each state in life makes present the particular mystery of Christ’s Love and Redemptive Sacrifice: the married are called to live in the love of Christ and His Church, the sacrifice of self for the other in imitation of the Lord and His Church; the priest is called to be “alter Christus”: to be the sign and Redemptive sign of the Saviour’s Love for all mankind by offering the Holy Sacrifice, absolving sins, anointing the sick, witnessing Marriages, baptizing the faithful. Consecrated persons are called to witness to the primacy of the Kingdom of God, to renounce possessions, family and their own wills to live in a stable form of life to give glory to the Father, to worship the Son, to live in the grace of the Holy Spirit. I include both religious and secular consecrated persons, as well as those, for whatever reason, remain single in dedication to God’s glory.

The life of the Holy Trinity is the origin of the Church. It is the very mystery of our liturgical life. In the celebration of Holy Mass, all of the Sacraments and the praying of the Divine Office, as the Church calls it, “the song of love between Bride and Bridegroom”, the great mystery of God, His very essence, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is made manifest through the outward signs and symbols, words and chants of His Church.

Deacon Hemmings has a further reflection which illustrates this reality. He writes;

To know ‘about’ the God disclosed through the liturgy is not the same as knowing God in the liturgy…To know the Trinity, to know God as Trinity, is to know through faith in Jesus Christ that God as Father calls me through the Spirit to be an adopted son or daughter. To know, to believe, to trust, that Jesus is the Son of God is to know that I too can be filiated to God. The experience of participating in the liturgy is the practical working out of that knowledge. It is knowledge that can only be gained by, and rejoiced in, through faith. Through faith, and by Baptism, we enter into the life of God by means of the liturgy. The liturgy discloses an understanding of God as he reveals himself to be, in Christ, in a knowledge that can only be gained through faith, not deduced or derived by reason or a rational act of self-posting (I think: I am).

This why the Lord, in our Gospel reading for today, unites the preaching of the Gospel and teaching its truths with baptism in the Name of the Holy Trinity. Faith is not merely the “content” of faith in its intellectual format; it is the interior acceptance of God’s revelation in His Son through the action of the Holy Spirit; Holy Baptism in the Name of the Trinity immerses us in the very life of God. We are then made sharers in that life; we must nurture it, love it, deepen and expand it by our response in love. We can know God, in certain ways, through our reason unaided by grace, it is true, it is the teaching of the Church. But we cannot know God intimately, personally, in union unless assisted by grace, the grace we receive in Baptism, the grace we participate in through the reception of the other Sacraments, esp. Penance and Holy Communion, our prayer, virtuous acts, spiritual reading and acceptance of the demands of our state in life.

May this Eucharistic Sacrifice to which we are present make us more open to the graces God wants to give us, in the imitation of our Lady, Daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Spouse of the Holy Spirit, and St. Joseph, the "man of silence" who did God's will in perfect obedience. May the fruits of this Holy Mass enable us to "be witnesses" in the midst of the world, in our daily duties, to be the "sign" of His Love and work.

"Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen."