Happy St. Patricks Day!

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

And

Irish Step Dancing Flash Mob!

 

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What Anti-Pope is also a Saint?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

Who knew? Via Jimmy Akin.


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Saint of the Day: St. Patrick

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.  St. Patrick is a great saint of the Church. It is not about green beer–which my favorite Irish deacon thinks is an abomination–and parades.

St. Patrick gave himself completely to God. Deacon Keith Fournier has an article posted at Catholic Online. Excerpt:

“Patrick chose to reject “victim-hood” and self-centeredness. Instead, he embraced the way of the Cross, and learned the power of the Resurrection. That is why he was able to become a true disciple and carry on the redemptive mission of Jesus. He fell in love with the Lord by developing a profound and transforming interior life and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which was nourished in the Sacramental life of the Church. Patrick cultivated a lifestyle of deep, constant and abiding prayer which bore the fruits of ongoing conversion. He learned to discern the voice of the Lord in his daily life, developed the eyes of faith and received the power of the Holy Spirit through which he was able to respond to the call to become a missionary in his age. Each of us is invited to do exactly the same in our age. The Risen Lord who changed Patrick’s life still calls men and women, just as he called Patrick, and invites them to a new life in and through His Son Jesus Christ.

On this day, when the entire world pauses to remember Patrick´s life and his legacy, to rightly celebrate his full and meaningful life, and to honor to a beautiful country and people who have sent Christian missionaries to the rest of the world, let us truly honor his memory by choosing to walk as Christians in both word and deed. Like Patrick, let us choose to really follow Jesus Christ. Let us march into the Third Christian Millennium called as was this wonderful saint and hero, to proclaim, demonstrate and live the fullness of the Gospel, living in the heart of the Church for the sake of the world. Like Patrick we are called to become “fishers of men and women”. Read all about St. Patrick here.

St. Patrick brought the Irish to the one true God. Ireland is in dire need of another St. Patrick.

There is a beautiful prayer attributed to St. Patrick, St. Patrick’s Breast Plate. Here is a video of the prayer being recited. It has some lovely shots of Ireland. I will post the prayer following the video.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the love of seraphim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In purity of holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.
Christ, protect me today
Against every poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ on the deck,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.
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Confessions of a Liturgical Cop

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

My favorite deacon and I have been having many discussions about liturgy, or rather, bad liturgy.  After 40 years of liturgical abuse, major, minor and everything in-between, by both the progressive and orthodox fractions in the Church we have a simple request:

Cut it out!

First in the words of Father Z say the black and do the red.  Father is referring to the text of the Roman Missal which contains the words (printed in black) and gestures (printed in red) of the Mass.  Nothing should be added or subtracted from the Order of the Mass.

There are a whole litany of other abuses that take place in the majority of parishes every Sunday from the overuse of adult MC’s who turn the poor altar servers into potted plants, the overuse of  Extra ordinary ministers of communion, almost heretical songs, to the total absence of holy silence.

But no matter how respectful one is when attempting to discuss liturgy with most pastors, stony silence is the usual response. Attempts to get the liturgy committee to actually read the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), gets one dis-invited to future meetings.

In progressive parishes one is accused of belonging to the Liturgical Police.

The ranks of the liturgical cops are larger than most pastors realize. Their numbers are quite large among the young adult population. This is because the 20 and 30 something’s that actually plant their hind quarters in the pews every Sunday really love the Eucharist. They long for reverent beautiful liturgies. Young people want to be drawn into the mystery.

Me too.

But a few years ago, I decided to leave my badge and weapons (the Roman Missal and the GIRM) at home on Sundays. Ok. Sometimes they are in my handbag just in case.

Why?  I stopped because I realized that playing cop was keeping me from fully participating in the Mass.  My gaze was no longer on Christ. Keeping watch for abuse or errors prevents me from uniting myself to Christ and truly receiving him in the Eucharist.

As long as, the abuses are not so grave as to render the Mass invalid, I need to actively participate in the Mass not police it.

That is the only way that I can let Jesus Christ into my soul and into the very life of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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Catholics Do NOT Worship Saints!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

But the press continually gets it wrong. Here is a version of an Associate Press report, via Fox News, on the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux:

JERUSALEM –  Remains of a revered French nun who died more than 100 years ago have traveled the world, ventured into outer space and been worshiped by hundreds of thousands of Catholics. Now the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux are making their way through the Holy Land.

Grrrrrrrrr! The word is venerate NOT worship.  I have posted on this before, Do Catholics Worship Mary and the Saints?

Terry Mattingly, of the Get Religion blog has a post up on the subject, Worship? Just say ‘NO’.

Excerpt:

“The faithful in the ancient churches of Christianity do not “worship” the relics of saints, in the definition that is clearly implied in this story. The proper word is “venerate.”

Here is a useful comparison. Let’s say that your immediate family includes a grandmother who, at some point in the past, lost her husband. Let’s say that on her bedside table there is a picture of her beloved and, at bedtime, it is her custom to kiss this portrait goodnight. The proper term for this action is “veneration,” not “worship,” in the sense that this word is customarily used.

This subject is fresh in my mind because this past Sunday was the first in the season of Great Lent in the churches of the East — known as the Sunday of Orthodoxy. At the end of the service, in a rite marking the ultimate defeat of the iconoclasts, the faithful loudly make the following proclamation. Note the language used in the references to icons (since this would also apply to relics) and the language applied to Jesus.

As the Prophets beheld, as the Apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the Teachers have dogmatized, as the Universe has agreed, as Grace has shown forth, as Truth has revealed, as falsehood has been dissolved, as Wisdom has presented, as Christ has awarded, let us declare, let us assert, let us preach in like manner Christ our true God and honor His Saints in words, in writings, in thoughts, in deeds, in churches, in holy icons — worshiping Him as God and Lord and honoring them as His true servants of the master of all, and offering to them due veneration.

This is the Faith of the Apostles! This is the Faith of the Fathers! This is the Faith of the Orthodox! This is the Faith, which has established the Universe!

This is certainly not timid language. However, note the terms applied to the icons — “honor” and “veneration.” What is the term applied to Jesus Christ? The phrase is “worshiping Him as God and Lord. …”

Now I bring this up as a journalistic issue, not as a subject for doctrinal debates. Other churches are free to believe what they believe and the Associated Press should cover those beliefs accurately. However, this particular AP story is simply wrong. The word “worship” should not be used in this lede because that is not what Catholics believe.” Read more here.

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Pray for the people of Japan

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

The devastation from the Earthquake and tsunami is heart breaking. It is feared that the death toll will exceed 10,000.

To help out donate go here.

To send prayers go here (scroll down to the email link)

 

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How is your Lent going?

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

As we prepare for Easter, reflect on the promises that we made, or our parents and God Parents made on our behalf, at Baptism.

How will we reject Satan, and all his works, and all his empty promises?  What can we change in our lives so that we can reject sin in order to live in the freedom of God’s children? Do we truly believe, in the depths of our hearts, the Creed that we profess every Sunday? How can we better profess our faith and proclaim it to others?

This Lent let us all take a hard look in the mirror at our souls.  It is a time to pray, fast, and give more of ourselves to others. We ask God’s help to turn our lives more completely to Him so that we can truly become disciples of Jesus Christ.   A great way to prepare for Easter is to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance and to participate in daily Mass.

SUGGESTIONS FOR A FRUITFUL LENT:

Pray More

A good idea is to set up a prayer space in your home. Decorate the space with a crucifix, candles, Icon or a Holy picture, and display a bible. It is a visible reminder to pray every day.  It is easier to develop the habit of praying if we resolve to pray at the same time every day.

St. John Chrysostom on Prayer

“Prayer stands before God as an honored ambassador.  It gives joy to the spirit, peace to the heart.  I speak of prayer, not words. It is the longing for God, love too deep for words, a gift not given by man but by God’s grace. The apostle Paul says: We do not know how we are to pray but the Spirit himself pleads for us with inexpressible longings.)

Prayer of St. Francis Of Assisi

This is one of my favorite prayers.

“All highest, glorious God, cast your light into the darkness of my heart. Give me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity and profound humility, with wisdom and perception, O Lord, so that I may do what is truly your holy will. Amen”

Fast More

We fast to prepare for the great feast.

Fasting reminds us to hunger for God. When we fast we should pray. Fasting is an aid to prayer. It is not a self help method.  Jesus told his disciples to fast and pray, and it is an ancient practice of the Church.

Fasting:  A Way  to Radical Transformation

Catholics usually give something up for Lent. But sometimes we forget the purpose of this noble practice. We should fast from something, a behavior, habit, food or drink that tempts us away from the Lord and towards sin. The purpose is to leave behind our old way of living permanently and not just for Lent.

Give More Alms

Excerpt from Pope Benedict’s  Lenten Message

”In our journey, we are often faced with the temptation of accumulating and love of money that undermine God’s primacy in our lives. The greed of possession leads to violence, exploitation and death; for this, the Church, especially during the Lenten period, reminds us to practice almsgiving – which is the capacity to share. The idolatry of goods, on the other hand, not only causes us to drift away from others, but divests man, making him unhappy, deceiving him, deluding him without fulfilling its promises, since it puts materialistic goods in the place of God, the only source of life. How can we understand God’s paternal goodness, if our heart is full of egoism and our own projects, deceiving us that our future is guaranteed? The temptation is to think, just like the rich man in the parable: “My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come…”. We are all aware of the Lord’s judgment: “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul…” (Lk 12: 19-20). The practice of almsgiving is a reminder of God’s primacy and turns our attention towards others, so that we may rediscover how good our Father is, and receive his mercy.”

Build  Up Your Spiritual Muscles: Grow in Virtue

Give up Pride; Cultivate Humility

Give up Greed; Cultivate Generosity

Give up Envy; Cultivate Charity

Give up Anger; Cultivate Meekness

Give up Lust; Cultivate Chastity

Give up Excess; Cultivate Temperance (Moderation)

Give up sloth (laziness); Cultivate Diligence

A Prayer from St. Augustine

O Lord,
The house of my soul is narrow;
enlarge it that you may enter in.
It is ruinous, O repair it!
It displeases Your sight.
I confess it, I know.
But who shall cleanse it,
to whom shall I cry but to you?
Cleanse me from my secret faults, O Lord,
and spare Your servant from strange sins.

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First Sunday In Lent. Reflection

Posted on March 12, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

Now we begin our long painful journey through the desert of Lent.  It is a time when we remember our baptism.

Baptism is at the heart of the Lenten season. Lent is the time when Catechumens, those who will be baptized at the Easter Vigil, prepare to enter into the Church.   Those of us who are already baptized are also called to renew our Baptismal promises at Easter. Our white baptismal garments are soiled; our relationship with God is often broken by sin. It is time to convert our hearts and to ask God to “Lead us back to you, O LORD, that we may be restored” (Lamentations 5:20).

As the first reading tells us today, pride is the root of all sin. Adam and Eve, even though they walked with God, thought that they could survive without God.  They believed the lies of the devil  This led them to disobey their Creator. They refused to recognize their sin before God. They were cast out of the garden into a desert.

In today’s Psalm, however, we learn that turning to God saying; “against you alone I have sinned” is the first step to conversion. Humility is the key to turning away from sin.   It is the first step back to the garden.  ‘Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.”

St. Paul tells us in the second reading that just as original holiness was lost through Adam disobedience; our salvation was won through the obedience of Jesus Christ. In baptism our holiness is restored. The gates of heaven are opened to us.

But we are still tempted by sin. In today’s Gospel, Jesus fasted for forty days and forty nights in the desert. Although Jesus could not sin, he was tempted three times by the devil.  In the first temptation, when the devil tells Jesus to make bread from stones, Jesus answers , “ One does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God”

Jesus is the Word made flesh. We receive the word fully in the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the very bread of life. That is why the Catechumens and Candidates, who knock on the doors of the Church, are hungry for the Eucharist. They have feasted on Christ in the liturgy of the Word.  It is in the scriptures that they have met Christ.  Now they wait with great longing  to be admitted to the table of our Lord. It is there that Christ becomes receivable, knowable, and touchable.
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How would Satan Tempt Jesus in 2011?

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

Cardinal Mahony, shortly before his retirement, wrote a terrific article on temptation. He relates the three temptations of Jesus to how satan uses the internet in three significant ways. H/T Michael Barber at The Sacred Page.

He calls it ” a Satan virus:

As we enter upon our Lenten Journey 2011, and as we listen once again to the Gospel of the First Sunday of Lent, we are reminded that as human beings we also are tempted frequently by Satan.

The Gospel for the First Sunday of Lent always focuses upon the temptations which Satan offered to Jesus. We are all familiar with the story and the outcome.

However, if Jesus lived in 2011 and was tempted by Satan, what would be today’s points of temptation? Where would Satan take Jesus today?

Exactly where he tempts us to go: Straight to the internet.

With all of its great advantage as a marvelous font of information, knowledge, and connectivity, sadly the internet has also become infected with a terrible “virus”–the Satan Virus.

Let me propose three internet temptation “sites” where Satan might take Jesus, and let’s reflect ourselves on whether we have been tempted similarly.  Read more here.

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Getting ashes on the fly

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Susan Kehoe

Many airports around the world offer religious services.

Via the Denver Post:

“Lent begins.

The first of 40 days of sacrifice and reflection preceding the holiest day of the Christian calendar came Wednesday, even in the middle of a thrumming Denver International Airport.

Travelers, ticket agents and baggage handlers ducked into the small Interfaith Chapel at the end of a long row of fast-food stands in the terminal’s east side.

With Ash Wednesday, preparation for Easter was underway.

Many had to stand, and some peered through the glass walls of the overflowing chapel. They came to hear the Gospel and to wait for a daub of black ashes on their foreheads from a Catholic deacon.

Some came late. Some left early, glancing at watches and grabbing luggage to head for their gates.

“We kid that we have crowds at Easter and Christmas, but Ash Wednesday is just as compelling for people,” Deacon Jack Sutton said.

Sutton has done the Ash Wednesday ceremony at DIA for 10 years, although, for a reason he doesn’t remember, the service wasn’t held last year. This year, short services were offered at noon, which drew a stream of at least 50 people, and at 2:30 p.m.

“I like Easter and want to get ready for it. It’s the most important holiday, Jesus’ resurrection,” said 40-year-old Tiffiany Johnson. She was headed home to Mandaree, N.D., but first, she would attend the 2:30 p.m. service.

“Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned,” Denver Archdiocese staff member Tony Schoenberger read at services. “Create in me a clean heart.”

In the background, the airport address system continued booming messages about gate changes and paging passengers.

“Today we begin our annual journey into Lent,” Sutton said. “The cross of ashes traced on our foreheads is an outward sign that we are to trace that cross inwardly, on our hearts.”

The Wall Street Journal has a nice article here. FYI it may be behind a subscription firewall.

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