Pope John Paul II
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
Ave Maria Meditations
When we read that the messenger addresses Mary as “full of grace,” the Gospel context, which mingles revelations and ancient promises, enables us to understand that among all the spiritual blessings in Christ, this is a special blessing. In the mystery of Christ she is (more…)
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Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Ave Maria Meditations
Blessed John Paul II’s Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes:
Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High! Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era, We join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.
Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ! Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word, Teach us to persevere in listening to the Word, and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience and to his manifestations in the events of history.
Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living! Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, Be our guide along the paths of the world. Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ, to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.
Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples! Virgin Mother of the Church, help us always to (more…)
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Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
Ave Maria Meditations
THE KING’S GOOD SERVANT BUT GOD’S FIRST…
St. Thomas More, a Franciscan Tertiary, has been named the patron for lawyers and politicians. This holy and wholly Catholic man was a husband and father in addition to being a lawyer and became Lord Chancellor of England so much was he respected and regarded in his own time. He was beheaded in witness of the Truths of the Faith in 1535.
Blessed Pope John Paul II would write of him: “Precisely because (more…)
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Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
MORE PHOTOS BELOW BY THE ETHIERS (more…)
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Tuesday, January 25th, 2011
One Minute Meditation
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It is impossible to think of the limit placed by God himself upon the various forms of evil without reference to the mystery of Redemption. Could the mystery of Redemption be the response to that historical evil which, in different forms, continually recurs in human affairs? Is it also the response to the evil of our own day? It can seem that the evil of concentration camps, of gas chambers, of police cruelty, of total war, and of oppressive regimes – evil which, among other things, systematically contradicts the message of the cross – it can seem, I say, that such evil is more powerful than any good. Yet if we look more closely at the history of those peoples and nations who have endured the trial of totalitarian systems and persecutions on account of faith, we discover that this is precisely where the victorious presence of Christ’s cross is most clearly revealed. Against such a dramatic background, that presence may be even more striking. To those who are subjected to systematic evil, there remains only Christ and his cross as a source of spiritual self-defense, as a promise of victory.
Venerable Pope John Paul II |
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Tuesday, October 26th, 2010
Variety #94 – Bsp. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska ( 14min) >>> Play |
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Ave Maria!
Fr. Elias Mills of our Bloomington, Indiana friary recently interviewed the renowned Bishop Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska on current issues of faith and Church in America. We are posting them here in a five part series. In the first part, in answering Fr. Elias questions, the bishop relates his thoughts about:
- His 50 years as a priest and bishop in the Church and all the changes and events in the time.
- His visits to shrines in Europe and Rome.
- His 19 years as Bishop of Lincoln.
- The graces that are ever needed for his office
- His work with John Paul II and Benedict XVI
- What these two papacies have done for the Church especially the continuity that they reaffirmed between the post and pre-Vatican II Church
- The Moto Proprio of Pope Benedict and how it is not at all against Vatican II
- The unlikelihood of a mixture of the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms of the liturgy
- New English translation of the Ordinary Form of the Liturgy
- How well Catechisis has been carried out in the Post Vatican II era
- balance needed between doctrine and pastoral and social concerns
Listening to Bsp. Bruskewitz’s clear insights and answers is refreshing indeed.
Ave Maria!
 Audio (MP3)
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Posted in Catechism, Fr. Elias Mills, Liturgy, Podcasts, Pope Benedict, Pope John Paul II, Popes, Priesthood, Variety | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
LITANY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
PRIEST AND VICTIM
Lord, have mercy – Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy – Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy – Lord, have mercy
Christ hear us – Christ hear us
Christ, graciously hear us – Christ, graciously hear us
God the Father of heaven, *Have mercy on us
God the Son, Redeemer of the world,
God the Holy Spirit,
Holy Trinity, One God,
Jesus, Priest and Victim, *Have mercy on us
Jesus, Priest forever according to the Order of Melchizedek, Have mercy on us
Jesus, Priest Whom God sent to preach the Gospel to the poor, Have mercy on us
Jesus, Priest Who at the Last Supper institute the form of the eternal sacrifice, Have mercy on us
Jesus, Priest Who lives forever to intercede for us, Have mercy on us
(more…)
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Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
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| On The Priesthood
After having called the Twelve to follow him, Jesus kept them at his side and lived with them, imparting his teaching of salvation to them through word and example, and finally he sent them out to all mankind … Priests are called to prolong the presence of Christ, embodying his way of life and making him visible in the midst of the flock entrusted to their care … The priest is a servant of the Church as communion because he builds up the unity of the Church community in the harmony of diverse vocations, charisms, and services … Priests are there to serve the faith, hope, and charity of the laity. (more…) |
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Monday, April 19th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
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| The Divine Mercy: PREPARING FOR THE SECOND COMING
Our Lord makes it very clear to Saint Faustina that this need to proclaim His message of mercy is urgent, because the world needs it as a preparation for His corning again: Speak to the world about My mercy…It is a sign for the end times. After it will come the Day of Justice (848) …You will prepare the world for My final coming (429) … Tell souls about this great mercy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My justice, is near (965).
Repeatedly the Lord tells Saint Faustina that He is offering sinners the “last hope of salvation.” No matter how great our sins, He wants us to come back to Him, but we must respond now, while it is still the time of mercy: Before the Day of Justice, I am sending the Day of Mercy (1588)… I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of sinners. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation (1160)…While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fountain of My mercy (848) … He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice (1146).
Our Lady, too, speaks to Saint Faustina about the urgency of the message of mercy: You have to speak to the world about His great mercy and prepare the world for the Second Coming of Him who will come, not as q merciful Savior, but as a just Judge. Oh how terrible is that day! Determined is the day of justice, the day of divine wrath. The angels tremble before it. Speak to souls about this great mercy while it is still the time for granting mercy (635).
Pope John Paul II seems to have a strong sense of this urgency. In 1981, at the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy, he stated that from the very beginning of his ministry he has considered the message of mercy as his “special task,” assigned to him by God “in the present situation of man, the Church and the world.” In four of his encyclicals he speaks repeatedly of the year 2000 as the “new Advent” and stresses that we are now living in a special time of preparation for the new coming of the Lord. He urges us “to implore God’s mercy for humanity in this hour of history … to beg for it at this difficult, critical phase of the history of the Church and of the world as we approach the end of the second millennium” (Rich in Mercy, 15). |
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Tuesday, April 13th, 2010
One Minute Meditation
“Jesus, I trust in you…You are burning with the desire to be loved and those in tune with the sentiments of Your Heart learn how to build the new civilization of love. A simple act of abandonment is enough to overcome the barriers of darkness and sorrow, of doubt and desperation. The rays of Your divine mercy restore hope.”
(Homily, JPII – Mercy Sunday, April 22, 2001)
O God, merciful Father, in your Son, Jesus Christ, you have revealed your love and poured it out upon us in the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, We entrust to you today the destiny of the world and of every man and woman. Bend down to us sinners, heal our weakness, conquer all evil, and grant that all the peoples of the earth may experience your mercy. In You, the Triune God, may they ever find the source of hope. Eternal Father, by the Passion and Resurrection of your Son, have mercy onus and upon the whole world!
(Act of consecration of the world to Jesus of the Divine Mercy by His Holiness, John Paul II on August 17, 2002 in the Shrine of Divine Mecy, Cracow, Poland)
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Thursday, April 8th, 2010
Ave Maria Meditations
Christ’s Resurrection Was A Concrete Event
by Pope John Paul II
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. In the liturgical season running from Easter to Pentecost, the Church is recollected in contemplation of the risen Christ. Thus she relives the primordial experience that lies at the basis of her existence. She feels imbued with the same wonder as Mary Magdalen and the other women who went to Christ’s tomb on Easter morning and found it empty. That tomb became the womb of life.
Whoever had condemned Jesus, deceived himself that he had buried His cause under an ice-cold tombstone. The disciples themselves gave in to the feeling of irreparable failure. We understand their surprise, then, and even their distrust in the news of the empty tomb. But the Risen One did not delay in making himself seen and they yielded to reality. They saw and believed! Two thousand years later, we still sense the unspeakable emotion that overcame them when they heard the Master’s greeting: “Peace be with you.’”.
2. The Church is based on their extraordinary experience. The first proclamation of the Gospel was nothing other than the testimony of this event: “This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses!” (Acts 2:32). The Christian faith is so linked with this truth that Paul did not hesitate to declare: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:14). Along these lines the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: “The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community, handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 638).
Christ’s Resurrection is the strength, the secret of Christianity. It is not a question of mythology or of mere symbolism, but of a concrete event. It is confirmed by sure and convincing proofs. The acceptance of this truth, although the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s grace, rests at the same time on a solid historical base. On the threshold of the third millennium, the new effort of evangelization can begin only from a renewed experience of this Mystery, accepted in faith and witnessed to in life.
3. Regina caeli, laetare! Rejoice, Holy Virgin, because He whom you bore in your womb is risen! Dear brothers and sisters, let us try to relive the joy of the Resurrection with Mary’s heart. Even in the darkness of Good Friday she prepared herself to receive the light of Easter morning.
Let us ask her to obtain for us a deep faith in this extraordinary event, which is salvation and hope for the world.
From an address given by Pope John Paul II before reciting the Regina Caeli on Sunday, 21 April 1996.
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Thursday, February 11th, 2010
One Minute Meditation
Laborers for the Harvest
O Jesus, Good Shepherd, raise up in all parish communities, priests and deacons, religious, consecrated lay people and missionaries according to the needs of the whole world, which You love and want to save.
We entrust toYou in a particular way our parish community; create in it the spiritual atmosphere of the first Christians in order that it may be a cenacle of prayer where we lovingly receive the Holy Spirit and His gifts.
Assist our pastors and all consecrated souls. Guide the steps of those who have generously welcomed Your call and prepared themselves for Holy Orders or the profession of the evangelical counsels. Direct Your loving gaze to the many well-disposed young people and invite them to follow You. Help them to understand that only in You they can achieve their fulfillment.
We entrust these great desires of Your Heart to the powerful intercession of Mary, Mother and model of all vocations, and beg You to sustain our faith in the certainty that the Father will listen to what You Yourself have instructed us to ask for. Amen.
~Venerable Pope John Paul II
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Monday, December 28th, 2009
The stone for the tomb of the unborn babies’ bodies
rescued from the Boulder Abortion Clinic–article posted
at the end of the homily
St. Matthew’s Gospel (Mat. 2: 1-18) describes the events that took place in Bethlehem at the time of Christ’s birth and King Herod’s order that all male infants, two years old and younger, then living in and around Bethlehem be killed. He ordered this in an attempt to kill the new born King who he saw as a threat to his own power. The Book of Micah in the Bible predicted that the Messiah would come from Bethlehem: “But you, Bethlehem out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” (Micah 5: 2) We call these Holy Innocents martyrs because (more…)
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Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Ave Maria Meditations
October 7th: Our Lady of the Rosary
Feast of the Holy Rosary
The feast of the Holy Rosary was established by Saint Pius V on the anniversary of the naval victory won by the Christian fleet at Lepanto, October 7, 1571. The victory was attributed to the help of the holy Mother of God whose aid was invoked through praying the Rosary. The celebration of this day invites all to mediate upon the mysteries of Christ, following the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary who was so singularly associated with the incarnation, passion and glorious resurrection of the Son of God.
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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009
Ave Maria Meditations
Mary, Coredemptrix
You are blessed among women, Coredemptrix! Blessed One selected in preference to all who are blessed! Chosen One, singular among all who are chosen! Priceless Pearl that belongs in the treasury of God’s wisdom! Mother, you are the Glory of Mothers! We seek you, O Lady, and in all sincerity turn to you in prayer. Help us in our weakness; turn away from us all disgrace. Who is more worthy of entreating the Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ than you, blessed Mary, who live with your Son and speak with Him? Speak, Mother, for your Son listens to you; and whatever you desire you will receive. Invoke His holy name in our behalf.
- St. Bernard (+1153)
O Mary, Mary, bearer of the fire of love, and dispenser of mercy! Mary, Co-redemptrix of the human race, when you clothed the Word with your flesh, the world was redeemed. Christ paid its ransom with His Passion and you paid it with the sorrows of your body and soul.
-St. Catherine of Siena
(more…)
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