(i looked up tableform in the common sense dictionary, and it gave me this picture.)

Our Lady, Immaculately conceived, Pray for us!

Do we have to pull up chairs for it to be a table?

A tale of two alters...

The author had quite the informative talk yesterday with a dear friend. Pope Pius XII's encyclical Mediator Dei was the topic of discussion. This writer (we'll call him A) believes he had it in the bag, while friend B thought so too...

In paragraph 62 when it says it would be straying from the right path to wish the altar restored to its primitive tableform, I didn't think there was much wiggle room. My friends answer was he doesn't think the new alters are table form. He sees "primitive table form" where it was like the Last Supper and everyone has his or her seat. He doesn't see the four legs and a top as tableform, so I don't know what else I can do. Is it me? Am I wrong thinking that Pope Pius meant something when he said table form? I know friend B is not stupid, but look at it! I have provided a picture of two altars, and I would like you to point out the table. If it looks like a table, it smells like a table, it barks like a table, it is a table.
Also in that paragraph, the Holy Father warns us not to get rid of black vestments. Oops!

Paragraph 109. " Let everything be done with due order and dignity, and let no one, not even a priest, make use of the sacred edifices according to his whim to try out experiments."
Well some brave priest out there must have said, "You know what? I am going to try something new and say Mass toward the people today." And then everybody went along with it and that is the normal way now.
B was anxious to point out that A's priest is the rouge here, and that he is more or less doing what ever he wants. If a priest is faithful to the way the Holy Mass has been celebrated for well over a millennium, how is this according to his whim?
Man has been walking upright for at least 8,000 years :). Somewhere in history, someone experimented and found out that it is possible to walk on your hands. You cannot get very far, but you can get from one location to another. That is what we have here. There is a fun cool way to get around nowadays, and it is called the Novus Ordo. But if my priest chooses to put one foot in front of the other, like the fathers have taught him, who is experimenting?

My dear friend B had an idea. He said that all the Masses around the world should be said like how the Holy Father says Mass. (Hey, you could even kneel and receive Our Lord on the tongue! This writer gives it to B, he hates Communion in the hand as much as A does.) He basically told me that if the Pope is wrong, then that is his sin, and we will be judged whether we were good sheep and followed the head.
That is why Holy Mother Church sets up rules, canons, and laws that foresee the problems of today! You just have to take of your Modernism glasses and think clearly and listen to logic.

Also, Pope Pius XII has some black and white things to say about Gregorian Chant! The music that has been in the priests' hearts and on their lips for over 1400 years. He also has some gray things to say about modern music. I find it hard to believe Pius XII would find 1947 modern music the same as 2010 modern music, but we shall see. We shall see.

A pray that all two of my readers have a fruitful Holy Week. May our suffering bring us closer to the Cross. No Resurrection with out Crucifixion! May all of those present at the foot of the Cross some 1,977 years ago pray for us.

Mother of Sorrows, Pray for us,
St. Mary Cleophas, pray for us,
St. Mary Magdalen, pray for us,
St. John the beloved, pray for us,
St. Joseph of Arimathea, pray for us,
St. Nicodemus, pray for us
the penitent thief, pray for us!
St. Pope Gregory the great, pray for us!

I will possess your heart

I'm not the biggest fan of Death Cab for Cutie (perhaps I covet the front man's wife, Zooey Deschanel) but they do have a fantastic song that can get you thinking, because it points out something so obvious it hurts.

The first time I heard this song, I thought only of the girl whom I spent every hour thinking of, and unfortunately for this author, dear reader, I did not quite get the same response back...

Well, that is very selfish of me. What about Our Lord! He who loves me more than I can fathom. The Word can use these lyrics to move even the most hard of hearts. In the sacred silence of adoration the Holy Ghost can whisper His wish of complete union of wills. Sanctification will come when my will and His Will are one. One Voice singing...

How I wish you could see the potential,
the potential of you and Me.
Like a book elegantly bound...
but in a language that you can't read (just yet.)
You gotta spend some time, love.
You gotta spend some time with Me.
And I know that you'll find love.
I will possess your heart.

You reject my advances,
and desperate pleas,
I wont let you let me down so easily.

We must spend time with Our Lord in front of the Blessed Sacrament. How can we love someone who we don't know? How will we know what we don't try to know? Two of the few real gifts we are all given are time and choice. Sure, some of us have beauty, others of us have money, few have smarts. Woe to those who have all three! But we all can become saints. Beauty, money, or brains wont get you into heaven. Something else will though. But what?

Let us start with Catechism 101. We must know God, love God, and serve God.

Can we say we know God if we don't continually study Him and the works of the Holy Spirit? If we don't take time out from our busy schedule to get on our knees and ask for the graces necessary to know what offends Him and what pleases Him?

Can we honestly say we love Him if we only visit Him once a week? I see old friends more than that. Can we say we love Him who is Love if we receive Holy Communion like snacks? I admit, I have received Our Lord unworthily. I should perhaps reread I Cor. 11:27. And I would do well to remember that the reception of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament needs not only a soul in the state of Grace, but a right intention. How do I know something is wrong? Because I am not a saint. There are enough graces that receiving the Holy Eucharist just once to a predisposed and open soul would make an immediate saint. Time and time again the graces are poured, but like a water on a rock they shed off me and most do not permeate. Why? Because I do not Love Him as much as he loves me! I reject his advances. I try to keep my life instead of saving it. Catechism 1 says to know God, love God, and serve God. Not "know God, love Ourselves, and serve God."

The last of the three commands is to serve God. How should we serve God? Being a postulate to the Dominican order of Penance, I would say take our patriarch as an example. He sold everything he owned, even books copied by his own pen, to relieve the poor. I haven't even seriously considered going near a soup kitchen. He went barefoot and begged for bread from door to door. Ive been eating like a king (and its Lent.) He was walking down a road from one town to another and hired assassins lay in wait to kill him. The hired hands were "struck by the sanctity and dignity of the man of God and was powerless to raise their weapons." They asked Saint Dominic what would he have done if they would have gone on with their plan, and he said "I would have asked you not to kill me with one blow, but to cut off my limbs one by one, and then to put out my eyes and to leave me half dead, bathed in my blood, that I might suffer the longer for the love of my Crucified Savior." I have yet to have a thought like that cross my mind. What service St. Dominic had for our Lord and Our Lady, and what ground I have to make up!

Now that we have heard the Good News, we can no longer stand in the middle ground. It is black or white. It is Jesus Christ or the Prince of the World we chose to follow.
I would like to end with a short prayer...

Oh, most Holy Trinity, grant us more time to do penance and make reparation. Give us opportunities to prove ourselves to you. Let us spend Your time (for it is ours only on loan) in a manner more fit. Let this Passion week be fruitful. Give us an eye for what is easy, and what is right. We beg for a greater desire to devote our gifts to a supernatural end: sanctity. We give thanks to Thee for health and joy! Do not let us let You down. We ask for strength to let us die to ourselves, so that we may rise with you on the third day and reign with You and Your saints forever and ever. Amen.

May Our lady keep you well,

St. Paul, Pray for us.
St. Dominic, Pray for us.

A commentary on United We Stand

I happen to live in the New World's oldest diocese. My bishop turns 75 this year. In the March issue of the monthly magazine our fair diocese puts out His Excellency has a column... and this is what he writes.

"...As some of you already know, this September I will celebrate my 75 birthday, which according to church law is the canonical age for a bishop to submit his letter of resignation...
As the end to my tenure draws near, I do have one desire that I long to see realized in our diocese- harmonious union."
He cites St. Paul. "...so that there should be no division among the members... If one part suffers, every part suffers... if one part is honored, every part rejoices."

I can think of a little chapel that is suffering now. If it would only but be honored, the whole Church universal would rejoice!

My Bishop goes on to quote St. Paul and St. Augustine (and I'll italicize what he italicizes) "no division among the members... union, but not uniformity," and "in all things charity."

His Excelency remembers Christs prayer before the Agony in the Garden. Is his wish Christ's wish? "May they be one in us."

I will leave you with the bishop's warning. "How can we expect to achieve the unity Jesus desired among the split divisions of Christianity if the parishes continue to harbor an 'us versus them' mentality?... Without the parishes, there is no diocese; and without the diocese there are no parishes- just a mass of congregational assemblies... There is no finer gift you could give me than for all the parishes to work in harmony with the diocese so that together we may make the unity that Jesus prayed for."

hmmm....

St. Paul, pray for us
St. Agustine, pray for us
St. Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Lent

We have been given a gift. It is the squandered gift of time. Hours, minutes, seconds. Time leading up to the Feast of the Resurrection of Our Lord so that we may have life everlasting.

My priest is ill. He started his Lent in the hospital. I'm jealous! Something good has come of this. I already miss going to the Holy Sacrifice daily, and realize I have been taking things for granted. How could I forget the dryness when we were in between priests. I'm so sorry dear Lord for taking Your priest for granted. I thank you for my health, and beg you to restore to the Reverend Father his.

I will now begin fashioning my habit Rosary (the kit just came in the mail.) My heart yearns for the Feast of St. Catherine of Sienna when I can wear it on my left hip as she did.

Yours in Christ Jesus

HOM retreat. Notes IV

The following are the last notes I took on the retreat.

Sin is not the breaking of a rule, but the breaking of a heart. The heart we break is The Heart. The Father's heart, the Son's heart, and the Holy Ghost's Charitable heart. Some would think, "Oh well, I've already sinned once. I might as well do it again before I go to confession." NO! We are not just breaking a rule! It is really like, "Oh well, I have already struck Him across the BACK with a cat-of-nine-tails. Might as well strike Him again." It would do us well to to picture the Roman overseer in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. When we mortally sin it is like saying "Satis..." He then makes the sad gesture to flip the Body that has gone through so much. We say Enough, roll Him over and begin again on His FRONT.
Without sincere purpose of amendment we turn over Our Lord and begin again flailing His fresh skin. We do not just break a law again.

Like an adulterous spouse, we are like an adulterous people to our Bridegroom. All our actions are frivolous and dangerous if they are not derived from the Passion.
Agon is a Greek word that means a contest, a struggle, to combat. Christ was a spiritual athlete from the Agony in the Garden. He teaches us how to live, how to win by suffering. Jesus Christ was reduced to a wreck. He was racked with anguish in the Shadow of the Cross. Sts. Peter, James, and John fell asleep on him. THREE TIMES. How many times have we fallen asleep on Him? The translation in the Gospels does not do it justice. He had extreme fear and anguish. The savior was troubled unto death.
"Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me" writes St. Luke.
The Soul begins to conform...
"Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." records St. Matthew
Then, the final time acceptance...
"And he cometh the third time, and saith to them...It is enough: the hour is come...Rise up, let us go." St. Mark tells us.

His aloneness would keep us awake. We should keep Him company in the Garden when so many will not. Christ sweats blood. He must have been a scared wreck. Be there for Him. The phenomenon has been noted to happen with gladiators, while they wait their turn to go into the arena.
God's pack with his people is fulfilled. The vail is no longer necessary, Christ's death breaks the shroud. There are no more secrets. He will trade His heart of flesh for our hearts of stone. We just have to ask for it. (And again be cautious, for if you beg for Jesus's Sacred Heart, you will get it.)
In the Garden, there were two cups some say. There was the cup that Jesus asked for God to let pass. The cup of bitterness. Full to the brim with scourging, crucifixion, the knowledge that his sacrifice would be useless for most souls. But there was also a cup of consolation, that many would lie down our lives with Him. Be a part of that cup. Use the gift of your imagination. Stretch it and implore God to allow you to know what it was like to prostrate in the Garden of Gethsemani. If His disciples were asleep, you will be there awake with Our Lord, suffering with Him. Ask the Holy Ghost to take you to just one point of the Passion. Meditate on that thought in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Ask for a heart of flesh.

Love is not about feeling. Love is about knowledge. Love is about being there for your lover. 95% of sin originates from loneliness, for self consolation is futile. No one knows loneliness better than the Christ. He did not say we wouldn't suffer, but we that we would not be alone.

Let us unite ourselves to Christ on the Cross as Our Lady has, and may the peace of the Lord be with you.

St. Peter, pray for us.
St. James, pray for us.
St. John the beloved, pray for us.

HOM retreat. Notes III

Seven Deadly Sins. A lesson given by Sister Zenka (sp?)

The Devil is strategic, he studies us first. Then he attacks our predominate vice...

Pride- An untrue opinion of ourselves. To be humble is to see yourself as God sees you. Those guilty of pride will lower themselves to get others to praise/ raise them. "oh i look fat in this" "oh, no you don't." Correcting a proud person leads them to anger or depression. Obedience is a virtue. Religious sisters have been called "pure as angels...proud as devils."
the virtue of Humility~ Christ stays under the appearance of bread, even when He knows He will be mistreated.
Sloth- To neglect duties. Basically cowardliness. Idleness is the mother of all vices. There is spiritual Sloth and physical Sloth. Are we not good Christians because a Christian life is "too intense?" Don't be lukewarm. We all knows what happens to those who are lukewarm. Right now, souls are being loss because we are not doing anything.
Greed-is being in the middle of water and dying of thirst. You are never satisfied with what you have. It is an inordinate love of a good. Anything can be an attachment. A three corded heavy-duty rope and a piece of fishing line can keep a bird from flying. My friend Brian says it doesn't matter if you have 10,000 dollars that you're attached to, or a single dollar bill that you wont let go of, it is greed.
Give! The combating virtue is generosity. "Many will give things. Some will give time, few will give themselves. A handful will live radically for Christ." What group are we in?
Lust- Pleasures contrary to Purity. Trying to deal with this vice on your own is like walking in a swamp... the more you try to free yourself, the deeper you sink. Impurity is the first sin you fall into when you stop attending Holy Mass routinely. (I can agree 100%.) And to lead another into sin is Scandal. This is so much worse. If a guy tries to get a girl to notice him in an impure way he has committed sin! We are supposed to help girls. If our goal isn't to lead a girl to salvation by our actions then we are in trouble. And vice versa. (Girls, please stop doing what you do best. Thanks.) We must do penance. We may not like it, but it is the only thing that can chastise our defected senses.
What does a Christian "I love you" mean? It means "I want you to never die. You will never die. I want you to have eternal life, because I care about your soul. Heaven is your end." When we have sex, there is a union of Body and Soul. You cannot separate the two! You surrender your whole being to your partner, be faithful to your future spouse. If marriage is your calling, then they are out there now, imagine that!
Envy- Follows Pride. It makes you hate your equals because they are your equals, it makes you hate your inferiors because the may one day surpass you, and you hate your superiors, because they are greater than you. Give thanks to God for the gifts in others. Pray these words..."God, thank you for so and so's virtue of _________, talents of _______, strength in _________."
Gluttony- The inordinate love of eating and drinking. This makes us lower than animals, because animals will only eat until they are satisfied. (Maybe not Franklin, my dad's cat, those are not mini hedge loppers.) We become poor slaves of our body. We give in at the most minimal urge in your body. Satisfy me, satisfy me, satisfy me! NO! Have order. (I would recommend 2 small meatless meals and a third regular meal a day for Lent coming up soon. And nothing in between. Think that is hard, try St. Rose of Lima's diet.)
Anger-We become a puppet in the Devils hands. Let Christ become the Master of the heart. Anger is the violence to despise whatever displeases us. Get over it, invoke mildness. (Think about being in the stable on the first Christmas night, and then try being angry.)

Sister Zenka then filled in what brother David could not get to in the Discerning the Spirits.
The Devil acts like a false lover. He doesn't want you to share your dirty little secrets with your confessor. He is weak if you are strong, but he is strong if you are weak. CUT HIM OFF. Do not even flirt with dialogue with Lucifer.

Yours in Christ,

St. Rose of Lima, Pray for us.
St. Blaise, pray for us.

up next... closing thoughts...