From www.irishtimes.com
PADDY AGNEW in Rome
Pope Benedict XVI is expected to sign off today on a pastoral letter to the Irish faithful addressing the question of clerical sex abuse.
The Holy See confirmed yesterday that the letter will be released tomorrow.
Speaking at his weekly public audience on Wednesday, the pope had announced that he would formally “sign off” on the letter today, adding that it would be released “soon after”.
A brief Vatican statement yesterday said the pope’s senior spokesman, Fr Federico Lombardi, will present the letter to the world’s media tomorrow.
It is not known if, and to what extent, the current sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in the pope’s native Germany will impinge on a document which was originally intended exclusively for the Irish faithful.
It is, however, unlikely that the most recent revelations concerning the primate of the Irish church, the Archbishop of Armagh, Seán Brady, will much influence the document.
The letter will offer a Holy See reflection on a problem which in recent months has damaged the Catholic Church not only in Ireland, but also in Austria, Brazil, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
Vatican commentators believe that much-discussed issues such as a radical reorganisation of Irish church structures and dioceses are unlikely to feature in the pastoral letter.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Latin Mass Propers for the Feast of St. Patrick for the dioceses of Ireland
(excluding dioceses of Armagh, Dromore, Kilmore and Ross)Introit
Egredere de terra tua et de cognatióne tua, et de domo patris tui, et veni in terram quam monstrábo tibi. Faciámque te in gentem magnam. Ps. Confitémini Dómino, et invocate nomen ejus: annuntiáte inter gentes opera ejus. Glória Patris ...
Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, and come into the land that I shall show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation. Ps Give glory to the Lord and call upon His name: declare His deeds among the gentiles. Glory be to the Father ...
Prayer
O God, who didst vouchsafe to send Blessed Patrick, Thy Confessor and Bishop, to preach thy glory to the nations: grant, through his merits and prayers, that what thou commandst us to do, that same we may, by Thy mercy, be able to accomplish. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ ...
Epistle
From Letter of St Paul to Romans 10:10-18
Brethen, with the heart we believe...
(See Epistle Nov 30th Feast of St Andrew)
Gradual
Misit ante eos virum: in servum venúmdatus est Joseph. Donec venire verbum ejus. Elóquium Dómini inflammávit eum.
He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. Until his word came. The word of the Lord inflamed him.
Tract
Ego Dóminus vocávi te in justíta, et apprehéndi manum tuam, et servávi te. Et dedi te in foedus pópuli in lucem géntium. Ut aperíres óculos caecórum et edúceres de conclusion vinctum, de domo cárceris sedéntes in ténebris. Ego Dóminus, hoc est nomen meum: glóriam meam álteri non dabo, et laudem meam sculptílibus.
I the Lord, have called thee in justice, and have taken thee by the hand and preserved thee. And I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light to the gentiles. That thou mightiest open the eyes of the blind and bring forth the prisoners out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I, the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things.
Gospel
Continuation of the Holy Gospel according to St Luke 10:1-9
At that time, the Lord appointed also other seventy-two: ...
(See Gospel April 25th Feast of St. Mark the Evangelist.)
Offertory
Eduxit eum foras, et ait íllí: Súscipe caelum, et númera stellas, si potes. Et dixit ei: Sic erit semen tuum.
And he brought him forth abroad, and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars if thou canst. And he said to him: So shall thy seed be.
Secret
May this clean oblation be acceptable unto Thee, O Lord of Hosts, which, as it hath pleased Thee, shall be offered unto the greatness of Thy name among the nations, through the labours of Blessed Patrick, from the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ ...
Preface for weekdays
Communion
Manus Dómini confortávit te, et ídeo eris benedíctus in aetérnum.
The hand of the Lord hath strengthed thee, and therefore thou shalt be blessed for ever.
Postcommunion
O God, who dist ordain the Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood as a pledge of love among the peoples: grant in Thy mercy that those who Thou hast hallowed by the divine mystery may, through the intercession of Blessed Patrick, be knit closer together, day by day, by the bonds of peace and concord. Who livest and reignest...
Monday, March 15, 2010
People are looking for Cardinal Brady's resignation over Fr Smyth case
From http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0315/abuse.html
Monday, 15 March 2010
Cardinal Seán Brady has reiterated his determination not to resign in the wake of new information about the way in which he dealt with paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
In an interview with RTÉ News this morning, Dr Brady said it was not a resigning matter and he rejected the suggestion that his silence had allowed Fr Smyth to continue to sexually assault children for a further two decades.
He also said he heard calls for him to stay on and deal with the matter of abuse.
He was responding to calls for his resignation from victims of clerical child abuse.
Clerical child abuse victim Marie Collins said the Cardinal should resign because he had lost all moral authority or credibility.
Colm O'Gorman has said Cardinal Brady rose through the ranks in the Catholic Church while Smyth continued to rape and abuse children.
Andrew Madden said Dr Brady was not just responsible for taking notes at the meetings.
Also on Morning Ireland, Fr Kevin Hegarty, the first priest to publicly challenge the bishops' handling of clerical sexual abuse, said Cardinal Brady should reflect on his position.
At the weekend, Dr Brady confirmed that he was present in 1975 when two young victims of the late Fr Brendan Smyth were asked to sign an oath of secrecy.
The Cardinal - then a part-time secretary to the then Bishop of Kilmore, the late Francis McKiernan - took notes during two meetings with children who he believed had been abused by Smyth.
The senior churchman said his actions in 1975 had been part of a process that removed the shamed cleric's licence to act as a priest. He maintained Smyth's Norbertine Order was otherwise responsible for him.
Fr Brendan Smyth later admitted a litany of sex attacks on about 90 children over a 40-year period and was sent to prison - where he died in 1997.
Yesterday, Cardinal Brady rejected claims that he had failed to act and said he was not the designated person responsible for contacting the relevant statutory authorities.
Monday, 15 March 2010
Cardinal Seán Brady has reiterated his determination not to resign in the wake of new information about the way in which he dealt with paedophile priest Brendan Smyth.
In an interview with RTÉ News this morning, Dr Brady said it was not a resigning matter and he rejected the suggestion that his silence had allowed Fr Smyth to continue to sexually assault children for a further two decades.
He also said he heard calls for him to stay on and deal with the matter of abuse.
He was responding to calls for his resignation from victims of clerical child abuse.
Clerical child abuse victim Marie Collins said the Cardinal should resign because he had lost all moral authority or credibility.
Colm O'Gorman has said Cardinal Brady rose through the ranks in the Catholic Church while Smyth continued to rape and abuse children.
Andrew Madden said Dr Brady was not just responsible for taking notes at the meetings.
Also on Morning Ireland, Fr Kevin Hegarty, the first priest to publicly challenge the bishops' handling of clerical sexual abuse, said Cardinal Brady should reflect on his position.
At the weekend, Dr Brady confirmed that he was present in 1975 when two young victims of the late Fr Brendan Smyth were asked to sign an oath of secrecy.
The Cardinal - then a part-time secretary to the then Bishop of Kilmore, the late Francis McKiernan - took notes during two meetings with children who he believed had been abused by Smyth.
The senior churchman said his actions in 1975 had been part of a process that removed the shamed cleric's licence to act as a priest. He maintained Smyth's Norbertine Order was otherwise responsible for him.
Fr Brendan Smyth later admitted a litany of sex attacks on about 90 children over a 40-year period and was sent to prison - where he died in 1997.
Yesterday, Cardinal Brady rejected claims that he had failed to act and said he was not the designated person responsible for contacting the relevant statutory authorities.
Media are attacking Pope over child abuse claims in Germany
From http://www.independent.ie/national-news/pope-will-struggle-to-survive-abuse-scandal-2098357.html
By John Cooney
Saturday March 13 2010
A depressing week for Pope Benedict dramatically escalated last night into an unprecedented papal crisis when he was directly implicated in a cover-up of a German paedophile priest when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich 30 years ago.
The latest revelations are so potentially damaging to the reputation of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that speculation was mounting last night that they could severely, perhaps even irreparably, damage his moral authority as Pope Benedict XVI.
It was being speculated that the German Pope could conceivably have to recognise that his position as supreme pontiff could become untenable -- and do what was until now considered impossible, resign from the Petrine throne.
Benedict got a first-hand readout of the scope of the scandal yesterday in his native land from the head of the German Bishop's Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, who reported that the pontiff had expressed "great dismay and deep shock" over the scandal, but encouraged bishops to continue searching for the truth.
Less than a month after the Pope's summit meeting in Rome with the Irish bishops, at which he ordered them to step united in line behind the papal throne, the abuse issue is no longer "an Irish problem", as one senior Vatican cardinal crassly claimed. Clerical child abuse is now a German problem. It has become a Dutch problem. It is also an Austrian problem.
This Europe-wide dimension, on top of similar scandals and cover-ups in the United States, the Philippines and Mexico, to name but a few, makes it Rome's problem. To paraphrase former US president Harry Truman, the buck stops on the Pope's desk, as the spiritual leader of over one billion Catholics worldwide.
In the Pope's homeland of Germany the number of alleged victims nationwide has soared to 300 since the scandals first broke last month in a Jesuit-run boarding school in Berlin.
The Dutch church has climbed to 350 complaints just a week after the Salesians first admitted they were investigating claims that three pupils in a school were abused in the 1960s. In Austria, the Benedictine arch-abbot of St Peter's in Salzburg has resigned after admitting he abused a 12-year-old boy 40 years ago.
Worse still for Pope Benedict, the public spotlight has zoomed in on his older brother (86), Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, who denies that the issue of sexual abuse came to his notice when he was master of Germany's most illustrious group of choir boys in Regensburg from 1964 until 1994.
A former singer in the choir has alleged it was well known among the boarders that a headmaster of the school, now dead, would summon two or three of the boys from their dormitories to come up to his room, where abuse would take place.
"The issue of sexual abuse never came up but if I had known with what exaggerated brutality he (the former headmaster) had proceeded, then I would have said something," Mgr Georg said on Tuesday.
Questions are being asked about how the Pope dealt with abusive clergy when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich-Freising from 1977 to 1982, before he moved to Rome to head the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal Ratzinger's central role in handling abuse cases as 'the Vatican Rotweiller' has come back to haunt him as Pope Benedict, principally his 2001 confidential directive to bishops "on more serious crimes". This gave the Doctrinal Congregation control over how the church handles cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests.
This week Vatican spin-doctors robustly presented this directive as an important advance in making sure priest perverts were brought to justice.
The Vatican spokesman, Fr Frederico Lombardi, stressed it dealt with how canon law treated cases, and insisted this was not a substitute for civil law, which deals with the offence separately.
However, the media has interpreted the directive as a ban on bishops reporting serious accusations to civil authorities. The rub is that a personal letter from Cardinal Ratzinger to bishops accompanying the 2001 document said complaints against paedophile priests were covered by "pontifical secret", to be handled by bishops in strict confidentiality. Thus, the charge of "cover-up" against the Pope.
The Irish bishops at their Wednesday news conference in Maynooth backed the Vatican interpretation and accused the media of misrepresentation of Benedict. The Bishop of Dromore, John McAreavey, said it was clear to the bishops at their Rome summit that the 2001 letter "in no way precluded church authorities from their civil obligations, especially in regard to reporting and cooperating fully with the civil authorities."
The Irish bishops may have made the wrong call. Only hours after the Pope's meeting with Cardinal Zollitsch, the world's attention switched to his involvement in the 'Fr H' cover-up. Benedict is now in the eye of the biggest sex abuse crisis to hit the Vatican. Whether he can survive is doubtful -- if the Catholic Church he rules is also to survive.
By John Cooney
Saturday March 13 2010
A depressing week for Pope Benedict dramatically escalated last night into an unprecedented papal crisis when he was directly implicated in a cover-up of a German paedophile priest when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich 30 years ago.
The latest revelations are so potentially damaging to the reputation of then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger that speculation was mounting last night that they could severely, perhaps even irreparably, damage his moral authority as Pope Benedict XVI.
It was being speculated that the German Pope could conceivably have to recognise that his position as supreme pontiff could become untenable -- and do what was until now considered impossible, resign from the Petrine throne.
Benedict got a first-hand readout of the scope of the scandal yesterday in his native land from the head of the German Bishop's Conference, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, who reported that the pontiff had expressed "great dismay and deep shock" over the scandal, but encouraged bishops to continue searching for the truth.
Less than a month after the Pope's summit meeting in Rome with the Irish bishops, at which he ordered them to step united in line behind the papal throne, the abuse issue is no longer "an Irish problem", as one senior Vatican cardinal crassly claimed. Clerical child abuse is now a German problem. It has become a Dutch problem. It is also an Austrian problem.
This Europe-wide dimension, on top of similar scandals and cover-ups in the United States, the Philippines and Mexico, to name but a few, makes it Rome's problem. To paraphrase former US president Harry Truman, the buck stops on the Pope's desk, as the spiritual leader of over one billion Catholics worldwide.
In the Pope's homeland of Germany the number of alleged victims nationwide has soared to 300 since the scandals first broke last month in a Jesuit-run boarding school in Berlin.
The Dutch church has climbed to 350 complaints just a week after the Salesians first admitted they were investigating claims that three pupils in a school were abused in the 1960s. In Austria, the Benedictine arch-abbot of St Peter's in Salzburg has resigned after admitting he abused a 12-year-old boy 40 years ago.
Worse still for Pope Benedict, the public spotlight has zoomed in on his older brother (86), Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, who denies that the issue of sexual abuse came to his notice when he was master of Germany's most illustrious group of choir boys in Regensburg from 1964 until 1994.
A former singer in the choir has alleged it was well known among the boarders that a headmaster of the school, now dead, would summon two or three of the boys from their dormitories to come up to his room, where abuse would take place.
"The issue of sexual abuse never came up but if I had known with what exaggerated brutality he (the former headmaster) had proceeded, then I would have said something," Mgr Georg said on Tuesday.
Questions are being asked about how the Pope dealt with abusive clergy when he was Cardinal Archbishop of Munich-Freising from 1977 to 1982, before he moved to Rome to head the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith.
Cardinal Ratzinger's central role in handling abuse cases as 'the Vatican Rotweiller' has come back to haunt him as Pope Benedict, principally his 2001 confidential directive to bishops "on more serious crimes". This gave the Doctrinal Congregation control over how the church handles cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests.
This week Vatican spin-doctors robustly presented this directive as an important advance in making sure priest perverts were brought to justice.
The Vatican spokesman, Fr Frederico Lombardi, stressed it dealt with how canon law treated cases, and insisted this was not a substitute for civil law, which deals with the offence separately.
However, the media has interpreted the directive as a ban on bishops reporting serious accusations to civil authorities. The rub is that a personal letter from Cardinal Ratzinger to bishops accompanying the 2001 document said complaints against paedophile priests were covered by "pontifical secret", to be handled by bishops in strict confidentiality. Thus, the charge of "cover-up" against the Pope.
The Irish bishops at their Wednesday news conference in Maynooth backed the Vatican interpretation and accused the media of misrepresentation of Benedict. The Bishop of Dromore, John McAreavey, said it was clear to the bishops at their Rome summit that the 2001 letter "in no way precluded church authorities from their civil obligations, especially in regard to reporting and cooperating fully with the civil authorities."
The Irish bishops may have made the wrong call. Only hours after the Pope's meeting with Cardinal Zollitsch, the world's attention switched to his involvement in the 'Fr H' cover-up. Benedict is now in the eye of the biggest sex abuse crisis to hit the Vatican. Whether he can survive is doubtful -- if the Catholic Church he rules is also to survive.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Pope urges priests to offer Confession and educate faithful on sin
Vatican City, Mar 11, 2010 (Catholic News Agency/EWTN News).
Participants in this week’s course on the hearing Confessions met with the Holy Father in audience on Thursday morning. To the group of priests, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the importance of guiding their flocks "not to conform itself to this world" and the necessity of opening a “dialogue of salvation” with those who seek forgiveness.
Remembering the Cure of Ars, St. Jean Vianney, as having “exercised heroically and fertilely the ministry of reconciliation,” the Holy Father said that priests can learn “not only an inexhaustible trust in the Sacrament of Penance... but also the method of the ‘dialogue of salvation’ that must be carried out in it.”
The roots of this “heroicism and fecundity,” explained the Holy Father, are found “above all, in an intense personal penitential dimension.”
"Awareness of one's own limits and the need to turn to Divine Mercy in order to ask forgiveness, to convert the heart and to find support on the path of saintliness, are fundamentals in the life of priests. Only someone who has himself experienced greatness can convincingly announce and administer the Mercy of God," the Holy Father explained.
Living in a society "marked by the hedonistic and relativistic mentality, that tends to erase God from the horizon of life," does not lend to the development of "a clear framework of reference values does not help to discern good from evil and mature a just sense of sin," the Pope observed.
This, Benedict XVI noted, is not very different from the period in which St. Jean Vianney lived, marked as it was by "a mentality hostile to the faith, as expressed by certain forces that even sought to prevent the exercise of the priestly ministry."
"In these circumstances, the saintly 'Cure of Ars' made 'the church his home' in order to lead men and women to God," the Pope added, "and he appeared to his contemporaries to be an evident sign of God that he encouraged many penitents to come to his confessional".
Thus, the Holy Father urged, "it is necessary for priests to live their own response to vocation 'exaltedly,' because only someone who daily becomes a living and clear presence of the Lord can arouse a sense of sin in the faithful, give them courage and stimulate their desire for forgiveness from God."
There is a necessity for priests to return to the confessional, Benedict XVI emphasized, to ensure that the people "find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel loved and understood by God and experience the presence of the Divine Mercy, alongside the real Presence in the Eucharist."
The Holy Father also touched on the "crisis" of participation in the Sacrament of Penance. He said that this lack of repentance is "an appeal addressed first and foremost to priests and to their great responsibility to educate the people of God in the radical demands of the Gospel. In particular, it calls on them generously to dedicate themselves to hearing sacramental confessions, and courageously to guide their flock not to conform itself to this world, but to make choices that go against the tide, avoiding deals and compromises."
This is the task of the priest, Pope Benedict concluded, to open a "dialogue of salvation" with their penitents, as suggested by the "Cure of Ars." A dialogue that, "arising from the certainty of being loved by God, helps man to recognise his own sin and progressively to introduce himself into a stable process of conversion of heart, which leads to the radical rejection of evil and to a life lived in accordance with God's wishes."
Young priests have been taking part in a conference on Confession promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary this week in the Vatican. The course is focused on "moral and canonical themes that involve the penitential ministry" and has touched on specific and delicate circumstances such as confession for divorcees and pedophiles.
Participants in this week’s course on the hearing Confessions met with the Holy Father in audience on Thursday morning. To the group of priests, Pope Benedict XVI underlined the importance of guiding their flocks "not to conform itself to this world" and the necessity of opening a “dialogue of salvation” with those who seek forgiveness.
Remembering the Cure of Ars, St. Jean Vianney, as having “exercised heroically and fertilely the ministry of reconciliation,” the Holy Father said that priests can learn “not only an inexhaustible trust in the Sacrament of Penance... but also the method of the ‘dialogue of salvation’ that must be carried out in it.”
The roots of this “heroicism and fecundity,” explained the Holy Father, are found “above all, in an intense personal penitential dimension.”
"Awareness of one's own limits and the need to turn to Divine Mercy in order to ask forgiveness, to convert the heart and to find support on the path of saintliness, are fundamentals in the life of priests. Only someone who has himself experienced greatness can convincingly announce and administer the Mercy of God," the Holy Father explained.
Living in a society "marked by the hedonistic and relativistic mentality, that tends to erase God from the horizon of life," does not lend to the development of "a clear framework of reference values does not help to discern good from evil and mature a just sense of sin," the Pope observed.
This, Benedict XVI noted, is not very different from the period in which St. Jean Vianney lived, marked as it was by "a mentality hostile to the faith, as expressed by certain forces that even sought to prevent the exercise of the priestly ministry."
"In these circumstances, the saintly 'Cure of Ars' made 'the church his home' in order to lead men and women to God," the Pope added, "and he appeared to his contemporaries to be an evident sign of God that he encouraged many penitents to come to his confessional".
Thus, the Holy Father urged, "it is necessary for priests to live their own response to vocation 'exaltedly,' because only someone who daily becomes a living and clear presence of the Lord can arouse a sense of sin in the faithful, give them courage and stimulate their desire for forgiveness from God."
There is a necessity for priests to return to the confessional, Benedict XVI emphasized, to ensure that the people "find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel loved and understood by God and experience the presence of the Divine Mercy, alongside the real Presence in the Eucharist."
The Holy Father also touched on the "crisis" of participation in the Sacrament of Penance. He said that this lack of repentance is "an appeal addressed first and foremost to priests and to their great responsibility to educate the people of God in the radical demands of the Gospel. In particular, it calls on them generously to dedicate themselves to hearing sacramental confessions, and courageously to guide their flock not to conform itself to this world, but to make choices that go against the tide, avoiding deals and compromises."
This is the task of the priest, Pope Benedict concluded, to open a "dialogue of salvation" with their penitents, as suggested by the "Cure of Ars." A dialogue that, "arising from the certainty of being loved by God, helps man to recognise his own sin and progressively to introduce himself into a stable process of conversion of heart, which leads to the radical rejection of evil and to a life lived in accordance with God's wishes."
Young priests have been taking part in a conference on Confession promoted by the Apostolic Penitentiary this week in the Vatican. The course is focused on "moral and canonical themes that involve the penitential ministry" and has touched on specific and delicate circumstances such as confession for divorcees and pedophiles.
Chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth says Devil is in the Vatican
From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article7056689.ece
From The Times March 11, 2010
Richard Owen in Rome
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".
He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia."
He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican "cover-up" over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. "They covered up everything immediately," he said. "Here one sees the rot".
A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay's relatives have challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who was never identfied.
Father Amorth, who has just published Memoirs of an Exorcist, a series of interviews with the Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti, said that the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been the work of the Devil, as had an incident last Christmas when a mentally disturbed woman threw herself at Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Midnight Mass, pulling him to the ground.
Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that Father Amorth had "gone well beyond the evidence" in claiming that Satan had infiltrated the Vatican corridors.
"Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God," he said. Some Vatican officials were more pious than others, "but from there to affirm that some cardinals are members of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."
Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit, invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me."
He said it sometimes took six or seven of his assistants to to hold down a possessed person. Those possessed often yelled and screamed and spat out nails or pieces of glass, which he kept in a bag. "Anything can come out of their mouths – finger-length pieces of iron, but also rose petals."
He said that hoped every diocese would eventually have a resident exorcist. Under Church Canon Law any priest can perform exorcisms, but in practice they are carried out by a chosen few trained in the rites.
Father Amorth was ordained in 1954 and became an official exorcist in 1986. In the past he has suggested that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were possessed by the Devil. He was among Vatican officials who warned that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels made a "false distinction between black and white magic".
He approves, however, of the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although "exaggerated" offered a "substantially exact" picture of possession.
In 2001 he objected to the introduction of a new version of the exorcism rite, complaining that it dropped centuries-old prayers and was "a blunt sword" about which exorcists themselves had not been consulted. The Vatican said later that he and other exorcists could continue to use the old ritual.
He is the president of honour of the Association of Exorcists.
From The Times March 11, 2010
Richard Owen in Rome
Sex abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church are proof that that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican", according to the Holy See's chief exorcist.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".
He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia."
He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican "cover-up" over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. "They covered up everything immediately," he said. "Here one sees the rot".
A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay's relatives have challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who was never identfied.
Father Amorth, who has just published Memoirs of an Exorcist, a series of interviews with the Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti, said that the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been the work of the Devil, as had an incident last Christmas when a mentally disturbed woman threw herself at Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Midnight Mass, pulling him to the ground.
Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that Father Amorth had "gone well beyond the evidence" in claiming that Satan had infiltrated the Vatican corridors.
"Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God," he said. Some Vatican officials were more pious than others, "but from there to affirm that some cardinals are members of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."
Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit, invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me."
He said it sometimes took six or seven of his assistants to to hold down a possessed person. Those possessed often yelled and screamed and spat out nails or pieces of glass, which he kept in a bag. "Anything can come out of their mouths – finger-length pieces of iron, but also rose petals."
He said that hoped every diocese would eventually have a resident exorcist. Under Church Canon Law any priest can perform exorcisms, but in practice they are carried out by a chosen few trained in the rites.
Father Amorth was ordained in 1954 and became an official exorcist in 1986. In the past he has suggested that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were possessed by the Devil. He was among Vatican officials who warned that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels made a "false distinction between black and white magic".
He approves, however, of the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although "exaggerated" offered a "substantially exact" picture of possession.
In 2001 he objected to the introduction of a new version of the exorcism rite, complaining that it dropped centuries-old prayers and was "a blunt sword" about which exorcists themselves had not been consulted. The Vatican said later that he and other exorcists could continue to use the old ritual.
He is the president of honour of the Association of Exorcists.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
How to Keep Lent, Part 3: Almsdeeds
(An excerpt from the booklet How to Keep Lent, + Imprimatur by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, February 6, 1935).
The Gospel shows us what value God sets on works of charity. These works are the standard by which He will judge all men at the last day.
St. Augustine thus explains this Gospel truth: "It is written: Redeem your sins with alms, because, in effect, our Lord loves the charitable above all things, and recompenses His elect principally in consideration of the relief they have given to the miserable. As if He should more clearly say: It is a difficult matter diligently to examine your life and use mercy towards you; nevertheless, go enter into the eternal kingdom; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; so that the kingdom of heaven is not given to you because you have not sinned but because you have redeemed your sins with alms."
St. Peter of Ravenna goes a step farther: "It is an admirable thing to see how pleasing to God the relief is that is given to the poor, since that, in the kingdom of heaven, in the presence of angels, and in that great assembly of men raised from the dead, there is no mention of the death that Abel suffered, nor of the world which Noe preserved, nor of the faith that Abraham had, nor of the law which Moses gave, nor of the cross to which St. Peter was fastened, but only of the bread that is given to the poor."
The day of judgment will be a day of surprises; but the greatest surprise of all will be to see how easily we might have redeemed our sins, how easily we might have attained heaven, and how we have gone out of the way to reach hell.
"Charity covereth a multitude of sins."
Almsgiving must be the faithful companion of fasting. Persons who do not fast may give alms more liberally but almsgiving must not merely supply the place of fasting. There is a poor-box in every church. Sometimes a special box is placed for Lenten alms. Few know of the many and varied calls made on a priest in every large city. How often the sick and poor of the parish stand in need of things and the priest has not the wherewith to supply the need.
Day by day in Lent we call on God for mercy. God is liberal to us; le us be liberal and generous with temporal goods. We ask for mercy, but we cannot hope to receive it unless we ourselves are merciful. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Under almsdeeds come all the works of mercy. There is no man so poor who cannot perform this good work. The poor, pinched as they are by poverty often perform works of mercy. They suffer so much they have more than their share of sympathy for those in distress. When we are unable to assist the poor, the sick, the suffering with temporal goods, we have it still in our power to perform one or other of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Above all we can assist them with our prayers.
St. Gregory says: "He whose heart is touched with compassion gives no less than he who exercises liberality toward the poor; for the one gives his wealth, and the other his soul, which is much more precious than all the worldly wealth."
St. Augustine says: "Of all the works of mercy with which we may obtain pardon for our sins, there is none greater or more prevalent than willingly to pardon those who have offended us."
St. Peter Chrysologus says: "Consider, brethren, that you cannot be without sin, and that you always desire your sins should be forgiven you; if, you will, then, be forgiven, you must forgive, and so know that your happiness is in your own hands, and that in pardoning others, you pardon yourselves."
St. Caesarius says: "If you have not wherewithal to relieve the captives or clothe the naked, be at least very careful to banish out of your heart all kinds of ill-will against your neighbor. Render not to your enemies evil for evil; on the contrary, love them and pray for them. Living thus, ground yourself securely on the mercy and promises of God, and fear not to say to Him with confidence: Give me, O Lord, for I have given; pardon me because I have pardoned."
***
Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: It is more blessed to given than to receive (Acts xx. 35).
"He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brethren in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him; how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth" (1 John iii. 17,18).
"Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person, for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee" (Tobias iv. 7).
"Let each one love his brother in charity. We have each our faults. He who has to put up with his brother's fault today, will have to be borne with himself tomorrow." - St. Alphonsus Liguori
The Gospel shows us what value God sets on works of charity. These works are the standard by which He will judge all men at the last day.
St. Augustine thus explains this Gospel truth: "It is written: Redeem your sins with alms, because, in effect, our Lord loves the charitable above all things, and recompenses His elect principally in consideration of the relief they have given to the miserable. As if He should more clearly say: It is a difficult matter diligently to examine your life and use mercy towards you; nevertheless, go enter into the eternal kingdom; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; so that the kingdom of heaven is not given to you because you have not sinned but because you have redeemed your sins with alms."
St. Peter of Ravenna goes a step farther: "It is an admirable thing to see how pleasing to God the relief is that is given to the poor, since that, in the kingdom of heaven, in the presence of angels, and in that great assembly of men raised from the dead, there is no mention of the death that Abel suffered, nor of the world which Noe preserved, nor of the faith that Abraham had, nor of the law which Moses gave, nor of the cross to which St. Peter was fastened, but only of the bread that is given to the poor."
The day of judgment will be a day of surprises; but the greatest surprise of all will be to see how easily we might have redeemed our sins, how easily we might have attained heaven, and how we have gone out of the way to reach hell.
"Charity covereth a multitude of sins."
Almsgiving must be the faithful companion of fasting. Persons who do not fast may give alms more liberally but almsgiving must not merely supply the place of fasting. There is a poor-box in every church. Sometimes a special box is placed for Lenten alms. Few know of the many and varied calls made on a priest in every large city. How often the sick and poor of the parish stand in need of things and the priest has not the wherewith to supply the need.
Day by day in Lent we call on God for mercy. God is liberal to us; le us be liberal and generous with temporal goods. We ask for mercy, but we cannot hope to receive it unless we ourselves are merciful. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
Under almsdeeds come all the works of mercy. There is no man so poor who cannot perform this good work. The poor, pinched as they are by poverty often perform works of mercy. They suffer so much they have more than their share of sympathy for those in distress. When we are unable to assist the poor, the sick, the suffering with temporal goods, we have it still in our power to perform one or other of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Above all we can assist them with our prayers.
St. Gregory says: "He whose heart is touched with compassion gives no less than he who exercises liberality toward the poor; for the one gives his wealth, and the other his soul, which is much more precious than all the worldly wealth."
St. Augustine says: "Of all the works of mercy with which we may obtain pardon for our sins, there is none greater or more prevalent than willingly to pardon those who have offended us."
St. Peter Chrysologus says: "Consider, brethren, that you cannot be without sin, and that you always desire your sins should be forgiven you; if, you will, then, be forgiven, you must forgive, and so know that your happiness is in your own hands, and that in pardoning others, you pardon yourselves."
St. Caesarius says: "If you have not wherewithal to relieve the captives or clothe the naked, be at least very careful to banish out of your heart all kinds of ill-will against your neighbor. Render not to your enemies evil for evil; on the contrary, love them and pray for them. Living thus, ground yourself securely on the mercy and promises of God, and fear not to say to Him with confidence: Give me, O Lord, for I have given; pardon me because I have pardoned."
***
Remember the word of the Lord Jesus, how He said: It is more blessed to given than to receive (Acts xx. 35).
"He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brethren in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him; how doth the charity of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth" (1 John iii. 17,18).
"Give alms out of thy substance, and turn not away thy face from any poor person, for so it shall come to pass that the face of the Lord shall not be turned from thee" (Tobias iv. 7).
"Let each one love his brother in charity. We have each our faults. He who has to put up with his brother's fault today, will have to be borne with himself tomorrow." - St. Alphonsus Liguori
Friday, March 5, 2010
'Visionary' dies in crash hours after first baby born
From http://www.independent.ie/national-news/visionary-dies-in-crash-hours-after-first-baby-born-2088009.html
By Isabel Hurley
Thursday March 04 2010
A self-proclaimed visionary who predicted that Our Lady would appear at Knock died in a road crash yesterday just hours after his wife gave birth to their first child.
Keith Henderson (34) was killed when his Toyota hit a pole in the village of Tarmonbarry, Co Roscommon, on the Longford to Strokestown road at 2.45am. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Henderson, who worked as a chef and lived in Scramogue near Tarmonbarry, was alone in the car.
The exact cause of the crash is not yet known. The possibility of driver fatigue or frost on the road will be examined as possible causes.
The body of Mr Henderson was taken to Roscommon General Hospital where a post- mortem examination will be carried out.
Mr Henderson's wife, Sharon, had given birth to their first child in Mullingar Hospital just hours before tragedy struck.
The couple moved to Tarmonbarry from Dublin a little over a year ago. Sharon's father, Ronald, also made the area his home and had to break the terrible news to his daughter in hospital.
Mrs Henderson gave birth on Tuesday and insisted on leaving her hospital bed to identify the body of her husband in Roscommon.
Local parish priest Fr Eamon O'Connor said: "This is a terrible tragedy. I was only talking to him last Sunday after Mass and he was very much looking forward to the birth of their baby.
"Keith's faith was very important to him. We were all very shocked to hear of his death in this road accident.
"Our sympathies, prayers and support go out to them all at this very difficult and sad time.''
Shocked locals described Mr Henderson as "a lovely person who was very devout."
Last year thousands of people gathered at Knock as Keith and spiritual healer Joe Coleman, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, delivered "visionary messages" from Our Lady.
People travelled from all over the country to pray alongside them.
Cllr Tom Crosby, who lives close to the scene of the accident, said: "Our hearts go out to Keith's family and friends, to his wife Sharon and Sharon's father Ronald. Keith was a very nice man to talk to, well-liked and respected by everyone here.
"He was very religious. For this to happen to them at this particular time when their first baby was just born, it's just unbelievable really, It's so very sad and there is a cloud over the entire parish today. Everyone is upset and affected by this terrible tragedy. Our deepest heartfelt sympathies go out to Sharon and Keith's family."
Keith worked as a chef at Gleeson's Townhouse and Restaurant in Roscommon where he was a popular among staff and customers alike.
By Isabel Hurley
Thursday March 04 2010
A self-proclaimed visionary who predicted that Our Lady would appear at Knock died in a road crash yesterday just hours after his wife gave birth to their first child.
Keith Henderson (34) was killed when his Toyota hit a pole in the village of Tarmonbarry, Co Roscommon, on the Longford to Strokestown road at 2.45am. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Mr Henderson, who worked as a chef and lived in Scramogue near Tarmonbarry, was alone in the car.
The exact cause of the crash is not yet known. The possibility of driver fatigue or frost on the road will be examined as possible causes.
The body of Mr Henderson was taken to Roscommon General Hospital where a post- mortem examination will be carried out.
Mr Henderson's wife, Sharon, had given birth to their first child in Mullingar Hospital just hours before tragedy struck.
The couple moved to Tarmonbarry from Dublin a little over a year ago. Sharon's father, Ronald, also made the area his home and had to break the terrible news to his daughter in hospital.
Mrs Henderson gave birth on Tuesday and insisted on leaving her hospital bed to identify the body of her husband in Roscommon.
Local parish priest Fr Eamon O'Connor said: "This is a terrible tragedy. I was only talking to him last Sunday after Mass and he was very much looking forward to the birth of their baby.
"Keith's faith was very important to him. We were all very shocked to hear of his death in this road accident.
"Our sympathies, prayers and support go out to them all at this very difficult and sad time.''
Shocked locals described Mr Henderson as "a lovely person who was very devout."
Last year thousands of people gathered at Knock as Keith and spiritual healer Joe Coleman, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, delivered "visionary messages" from Our Lady.
People travelled from all over the country to pray alongside them.
Cllr Tom Crosby, who lives close to the scene of the accident, said: "Our hearts go out to Keith's family and friends, to his wife Sharon and Sharon's father Ronald. Keith was a very nice man to talk to, well-liked and respected by everyone here.
"He was very religious. For this to happen to them at this particular time when their first baby was just born, it's just unbelievable really, It's so very sad and there is a cloud over the entire parish today. Everyone is upset and affected by this terrible tragedy. Our deepest heartfelt sympathies go out to Sharon and Keith's family."
Keith worked as a chef at Gleeson's Townhouse and Restaurant in Roscommon where he was a popular among staff and customers alike.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
How to Keep Lent, Part 2: Fasting
(An excerpt from the booklet How to Keep Lent, + Imprimatur by Patrick Cardinal Hayes, February 6, 1935).
The fast of Lent is twofold. There is a spiritual fast and a corporal fast. The spiritual fast is the fast from sin and it is the first condition for the sanctification of the corporal fast. This fast is binding on every Christian, at all times and at every period of life, but special care and watchfulness are needed to keep this fast, to avoid sin in the season of Lent.
The corporal fast of Lent is that by which we limit the amount of food we eat in accordance with the instruction issued by the Church. This fast is binding upon all Christians of the age of twenty-one to fifty-nine unless a dispensation is given by the proper authorities.
For our corporal health we will submit to anything. The doctor lays down strict rules; we submit. We swallow the bitterest of medicines. We accept without complaint the knife of the surgeon when an operation is necessary. What is there a man will not undergo to preserve life? What is there that many women will not undertake in the way of a diet for the sake of vanity?
Shall we do nothing for the eternal life of the soul? God does not ask too much. For our spiritual diseases and in order that we may have eternal life, our Divine Physician recommends us, every now and then, and for a short time, to abstain from certain kinds of food and to limit ourselves to necessity in the amount taken. If the Church did not appoint a certain time and certain days for fasting the majority of Christians would, perhaps, totally neglect this important duty. Have you ever in your lifetime appointed a fasting day for yourself?
The obligation of fasting in Lent is something serious. It is not a question of inclination. It is not a matter of choice. When the Church commands us to fast in Lent we are bound by this obligation unless legitimately dispensed.
Our Divine Lord was born in poverty and died in torments. His life was a life of humiliation, self-denial, suffering and ignominy. There was no need for Him to add fasting to His sufferings, yet He prepared Himself by fasting to preach the Gospel.
He is the leader and captain of our spiritual warfare and though invulnerable, before He encountered the tempter He prepared Himself by a rigorous fast of forty days. This was for our example, to show us how to meet the assaults of the enemy. And Holy Scripture tells us that a heavenly blessing is attached to fasting: "For then the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him."
It is strange that while our Lord lived a life of suffering, we His disciples shrink from the least mortification. He, the Sinless One, carried His heavy Cross on shoulders lacerated by the cruel scourge; we, full of sin, refuse even to touch the Cross. Unless we imitate His self-denial we can hardly hope to be admitted into His kingdom--"He that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38).
Now the Church, in her kindly spirit of interest and thought for her children, has recognized that the rigorous observance of Lent would be too severe a task for many. The aged, the sick, the hard-working people, are, therefore, excused from the strict fast.
There are, no doubt, many people who are not so excused, and who could, not indeed without difficulty and trial--for penance supposes these--but without any serious injury to themselves, observe the Lenten fast. Should you have any doubt as to the extent of your obligation in this respect, you should consult your confessor.
For the vast majority, the strict observance of Lent is not of obligation. But our Catholic instinct will tell us that if it be not within our power to observe Lent strictly, we should substitute other acts of penance that will, as far as possible, make up for the deficiency. While we cannot do all, we can do something.
Self-denial in eating and drinking is the principal form of Lenten penance prescribed by the Church. Naturally, in keeping with the Church's wish, our self-imposed acts of penance would do well to follow the same line. If we cannot keep the fast completely, can we not do so in part or on some days? If we cannot deny ourselves in the quantity of food, can we not do so in quality and variety? If we cannot forego the necessaries at table, can we not abstain from the luxuries? Each one can deny himself something. One who may be in the habit of using intoxicating drink, even though moderately, could during Lent abstain totally. Another who has a strong appetite for this or that delicacy in the line of eatables, would do well, in the spirit of penitential abstinence, to forego that delicacy completely. Or another who is accustomed to smoking could give up the practice throughout Lent.
Then there are other matters in which we can deny ourselves. For many the theater, the dance, other kinds of amusement form a strong attraction. While such things may be perfectly legitimate in themselves, the spirit of Lent would suggest we abstain from such pleasures, that the soul may be freer to devote itself to higher things.
***
"A man's chief care ought to be turned within himself; the renunciation of self-will is a greater thing than the raising of the dead to life." - St. Ignatius
"Prayer without mortification is like a soul without a body, just the same as mortification without prayer is a body without a soul." - St. Francis de Sales
"Whilst a single passion reigns in our hearts, though all the others have been extirpated, the soul will never enjoy tranquility. The fruits of a good heart which God waters and nourishes with His grace, are a total forgetfulness of itself, a great love of humiliation, and a universal joy and satisfaction in everybody's good." - St. Jane Frances de Chantal
"When you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, sad; for they disfigure their faces, that to men they may appear fasting. Amen I say to you they have received their reward" (Matt. vi, 16).
"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face" (Matt. vi, 17).
"That thou appear not fasting to men, but to thy Father, who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, will reward thee (Matt. vi, 18).
The fast of Lent is twofold. There is a spiritual fast and a corporal fast. The spiritual fast is the fast from sin and it is the first condition for the sanctification of the corporal fast. This fast is binding on every Christian, at all times and at every period of life, but special care and watchfulness are needed to keep this fast, to avoid sin in the season of Lent.
The corporal fast of Lent is that by which we limit the amount of food we eat in accordance with the instruction issued by the Church. This fast is binding upon all Christians of the age of twenty-one to fifty-nine unless a dispensation is given by the proper authorities.
For our corporal health we will submit to anything. The doctor lays down strict rules; we submit. We swallow the bitterest of medicines. We accept without complaint the knife of the surgeon when an operation is necessary. What is there a man will not undergo to preserve life? What is there that many women will not undertake in the way of a diet for the sake of vanity?
Shall we do nothing for the eternal life of the soul? God does not ask too much. For our spiritual diseases and in order that we may have eternal life, our Divine Physician recommends us, every now and then, and for a short time, to abstain from certain kinds of food and to limit ourselves to necessity in the amount taken. If the Church did not appoint a certain time and certain days for fasting the majority of Christians would, perhaps, totally neglect this important duty. Have you ever in your lifetime appointed a fasting day for yourself?
The obligation of fasting in Lent is something serious. It is not a question of inclination. It is not a matter of choice. When the Church commands us to fast in Lent we are bound by this obligation unless legitimately dispensed.
Our Divine Lord was born in poverty and died in torments. His life was a life of humiliation, self-denial, suffering and ignominy. There was no need for Him to add fasting to His sufferings, yet He prepared Himself by fasting to preach the Gospel.
He is the leader and captain of our spiritual warfare and though invulnerable, before He encountered the tempter He prepared Himself by a rigorous fast of forty days. This was for our example, to show us how to meet the assaults of the enemy. And Holy Scripture tells us that a heavenly blessing is attached to fasting: "For then the devil left Him and angels came and ministered to Him."
It is strange that while our Lord lived a life of suffering, we His disciples shrink from the least mortification. He, the Sinless One, carried His heavy Cross on shoulders lacerated by the cruel scourge; we, full of sin, refuse even to touch the Cross. Unless we imitate His self-denial we can hardly hope to be admitted into His kingdom--"He that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matt. x. 38).
Now the Church, in her kindly spirit of interest and thought for her children, has recognized that the rigorous observance of Lent would be too severe a task for many. The aged, the sick, the hard-working people, are, therefore, excused from the strict fast.
There are, no doubt, many people who are not so excused, and who could, not indeed without difficulty and trial--for penance supposes these--but without any serious injury to themselves, observe the Lenten fast. Should you have any doubt as to the extent of your obligation in this respect, you should consult your confessor.
For the vast majority, the strict observance of Lent is not of obligation. But our Catholic instinct will tell us that if it be not within our power to observe Lent strictly, we should substitute other acts of penance that will, as far as possible, make up for the deficiency. While we cannot do all, we can do something.
Self-denial in eating and drinking is the principal form of Lenten penance prescribed by the Church. Naturally, in keeping with the Church's wish, our self-imposed acts of penance would do well to follow the same line. If we cannot keep the fast completely, can we not do so in part or on some days? If we cannot deny ourselves in the quantity of food, can we not do so in quality and variety? If we cannot forego the necessaries at table, can we not abstain from the luxuries? Each one can deny himself something. One who may be in the habit of using intoxicating drink, even though moderately, could during Lent abstain totally. Another who has a strong appetite for this or that delicacy in the line of eatables, would do well, in the spirit of penitential abstinence, to forego that delicacy completely. Or another who is accustomed to smoking could give up the practice throughout Lent.
Then there are other matters in which we can deny ourselves. For many the theater, the dance, other kinds of amusement form a strong attraction. While such things may be perfectly legitimate in themselves, the spirit of Lent would suggest we abstain from such pleasures, that the soul may be freer to devote itself to higher things.
***
"A man's chief care ought to be turned within himself; the renunciation of self-will is a greater thing than the raising of the dead to life." - St. Ignatius
"Prayer without mortification is like a soul without a body, just the same as mortification without prayer is a body without a soul." - St. Francis de Sales
"Whilst a single passion reigns in our hearts, though all the others have been extirpated, the soul will never enjoy tranquility. The fruits of a good heart which God waters and nourishes with His grace, are a total forgetfulness of itself, a great love of humiliation, and a universal joy and satisfaction in everybody's good." - St. Jane Frances de Chantal
"When you fast, be not, as the hypocrites, sad; for they disfigure their faces, that to men they may appear fasting. Amen I say to you they have received their reward" (Matt. vi, 16).
"But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face" (Matt. vi, 17).
"That thou appear not fasting to men, but to thy Father, who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret, will reward thee (Matt. vi, 18).
The Second Sunday of Lent
A meditation on Lent from The Liturgical Year by Abbot Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.
THE subject offered to our consideration, on this second Sunday, is one of the utmost importance for the holy season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.
Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even before those who were, in a manner, strangers to Him; but as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words, which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways? Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. (St. Matt. xvi. 16.) Notwithstanding this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put was of such a terrible kind, that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace.
The cross was to be a scandal and a stumbling-block (1 Cor. i. 23.) to the Synagogue, and alas! to more than it. Jesus said to His apostles at the last Supper: `All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 31.) Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the high priests and pharisees, who had hitherto been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him, what a shock to their confidence! But there was to be something more trying still: the people, who, but a few days before, greeted Him so enthusiastically with their Hosannas, would demand His execution; and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the cross, amidst the insults of His triumphant enemies.
Is it not to be feared that these disciples, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years; but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled, will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to Him: Peter, whom He has made the rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of thunder, who is to be the first martyr of the apostolic college; and John, James's brother, and His own beloved disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside, and show them a glimpse of that glory, which, until the day fixed for its manifestation, He conceals from the eyes of mortals.
He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth, and goes in company with the three privileged ones towards a high hill called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the name of the Lord. (Ps. lxxxviii. 13.) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain, than the three apostles observe a sudden change come over Him; His Face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He is about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver; the other is Elias, the prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their divine Master; but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight, and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus' human Nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: `This is My beloved Son!'
This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments: His mission was not on Thabor; it was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire; and when He came to the three apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear, they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone; Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed upon them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! Is it possible that, when the hour of trial comes, they will forget it, and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, will they be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them.
A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His last Supper with His disciples. When the supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: `My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here and watch with Me.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 38.) He then retires some little distance from them, and prays to His eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to His three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with Blood. The apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked: are they keeping watch? are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him; they are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy. (Ibid. 43.) Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him; and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the Man.
After the Resurrection our three apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy wherewith Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them His glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him: let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of divine justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened, when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Ps. xxi. 7.) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows. (Is. liii. 3. 4.) We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Him by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity; we, must join our acclamations with those of the angels and the four-and-twenty elders, whom St. John, one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, heard crying out with a loud voice: `The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!' (Apoc. v. 12.)
The second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration-Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.
The Station at Rome is in the church of St. Mary in Dominica, on Monte Celio. Tradition tells us that in this basilica was the diaconicum of which St. Laurence had charge, and from which he distributed to the poor the alms of the Church.
THE subject offered to our consideration, on this second Sunday, is one of the utmost importance for the holy season. The Church applies to us the lesson which our Saviour gave to three of His apostles. Let us endeavour to be more attentive to it than they were.
Jesus was about to pass from Galilee into Judea, that He might go up to Jerusalem and be present at the feast of the Pasch. It was that last Pasch, which was to begin with the immolation of the figurative lamb, and end with the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Jesus would have His disciples know Him. His works had borne testimony to Him, even before those who were, in a manner, strangers to Him; but as for His disciples, had they not every reason to be faithful to Him, even to death? Had they not listened to His words, which had such power with them that they forced conviction? Had they not experienced His love, which it was impossible to resist? And had they not seen how patiently He had borne with their strange and untoward ways? Yes, they must have known Him. They had heard one of their company, Peter, declare that He was the Christ, the Son of the living God. (St. Matt. xvi. 16.) Notwithstanding this, the trial to which their faith was soon to be put was of such a terrible kind, that Jesus would mercifully arm them against temptation by an extraordinary grace.
The cross was to be a scandal and a stumbling-block (1 Cor. i. 23.) to the Synagogue, and alas! to more than it. Jesus said to His apostles at the last Supper: `All of you shall be scandalized in Me this night.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 31.) Carnal-minded as they then were, what would they think when they should see Him seized by armed men, handcuffed, hurried from one tribunal to another, and doing nothing to defend Himself! And when they found that the high priests and pharisees, who had hitherto been so often foiled by the wisdom and miracles of Jesus, had now succeeded in their conspiracy against Him, what a shock to their confidence! But there was to be something more trying still: the people, who, but a few days before, greeted Him so enthusiastically with their Hosannas, would demand His execution; and He would have to die, between two thieves, on the cross, amidst the insults of His triumphant enemies.
Is it not to be feared that these disciples, when they witness His humiliations and sufferings, will lose their courage? They have lived in His company for three years; but when they see that the things He foretold would happen to Him are really fulfilled, will the remembrance of all they have seen and heard keep them loyal to Him? Or will they turn cowards and flee from Him? Jesus selects three out of the number, who are especially dear to Him: Peter, whom He has made the rock, on which His Church is to be built, and to whom He has promised the keys of the kingdom of heaven; James, the son of thunder, who is to be the first martyr of the apostolic college; and John, James's brother, and His own beloved disciple. Jesus has resolved to take them aside, and show them a glimpse of that glory, which, until the day fixed for its manifestation, He conceals from the eyes of mortals.
He therefore leaves the rest of His disciples in the plain near Nazareth, and goes in company with the three privileged ones towards a high hill called Thabor, which is a continuation of Libanus, and which the psalmist tells us was to rejoice in the name of the Lord. (Ps. lxxxviii. 13.) No sooner has He reached the summit of the mountain, than the three apostles observe a sudden change come over Him; His Face shines as the sun, and His humble garments become white as snow. They observe two venerable men approach and speak with Him upon what He is about to suffer in Jerusalem. One is Moses, the lawgiver; the other is Elias, the prophet, who was taken up from earth on a fiery chariot without having passed through the gates of death. These two great representatives of the Jewish religion, the Law and the Prophets, humbly adore Jesus of Nazareth. The three apostles are not only dazzled by the brightness which comes from their divine Master; but they are filled with such a rapture of delight, that they cannot bear the thought of leaving the place. Peter proposes to remain there for ever and build three tabernacles, for Jesus, Moses, and Elias. And while they are admiring the glorious sight, and gazing on the beauty of their Jesus' human Nature, a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice is heard speaking to them: it is the voice of the eternal Father, proclaiming the Divinity of Jesus, and saying: `This is My beloved Son!'
This transfiguration of the Son of Man, this manifestation of His glory, lasted but a few moments: His mission was not on Thabor; it was humiliation and suffering in Jerusalem. He therefore withdrew into Himself the brightness He had allowed to transpire; and when He came to the three apostles, who, on hearing the voice from the cloud, had fallen on their faces with fear, they could see no one save only Jesus. The bright cloud was gone; Moses and Elias had disappeared. What a favour they have had bestowed upon them! Will they remember what they have seen and heard? They have had such a revelation of the Divinity of their dear Master! Is it possible that, when the hour of trial comes, they will forget it, and doubt His being God? And when they see Him suffer and die, will they be ashamed of Him and deny Him? Alas! the Gospel has told us what happened to them.
A short time after this, our Lord celebrated His last Supper with His disciples. When the supper was over, He took them to another mount, Mount Olivet, which lies to the east of Jerusalem. Leaving the rest at the entrance of the garden, He advances with Peter, James, and John, and then says to them: `My soul is sorrowful even unto death: stay you here and watch with Me.' (St. Matt. xxvi. 38.) He then retires some little distance from them, and prays to His eternal Father. The Heart of our Redeemer is weighed down with anguish. When He returns to His three disciples, He is enfeebled by the agony He has suffered, and His garments are saturated with Blood. The apostles are aware that He is sad even unto death, and that the hour is close at hand when He is to be attacked: are they keeping watch? are they ready to defend Him? No: they seem to have forgotten Him; they are fast asleep, for their eyes are heavy. (Ibid. 43.) Yet a few moments, and all will have fled from Him; and Peter, the bravest of them all, will be taking his oath that he never knew the Man.
After the Resurrection our three apostles made ample atonement for this cowardly and sinful conduct, and acknowledged the mercy wherewith Jesus had sought to fortify them against temptation, by showing them His glory on Thabor a few days before His Passion. Let us not wait till we have betrayed Him: let us at once acknowledge that He is our Lord and our God. We are soon to be keeping the anniversary of His Sacrifice; like the apostles, we are to see Him humbled by His enemies and bearing, in our stead, the chastisements of divine justice. We must not allow our faith to be weakened, when we behold the fulfilment of those prophecies of David and Isaias, that the Messias is to be treated as a worm of the earth, (Ps. xxi. 7.) and be covered with wounds, so as to become like a leper, the most abject of men, and the Man of sorrows. (Is. liii. 3. 4.) We must remember the grand things of Thabor, and the adorations paid Him by Moses and Elias, and the bright cloud, and the voice of the eternal Father. The more we see Him humbled, the more must we proclaim His glory and divinity; we, must join our acclamations with those of the angels and the four-and-twenty elders, whom St. John, one of the witnesses of the Transfiguration, heard crying out with a loud voice: `The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power and divinity, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction!' (Apoc. v. 12.)
The second Sunday of Lent is called, from the first word of the Introit, Reminiscere; and also Transfiguration-Sunday, on account of the Gospel which is read in the Mass.
The Station at Rome is in the church of St. Mary in Dominica, on Monte Celio. Tradition tells us that in this basilica was the diaconicum of which St. Laurence had charge, and from which he distributed to the poor the alms of the Church.
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