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 account for the hope that is in us, with trust in human goodness and the Father’s love. Teach us to build up the world beginning from within: in the depths of silence and prayer, in the joy of fraternal love, in the unique fruitfulness of the Cross.

Holy Mary, Mother of believers, Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.  Amen.

This prayer was said during the Holy Father’s  August 15, 2004 visit to Lourdes, France.  The Pope asked her among other things to “be our guide along the paths of the world.”

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 of the witness which he bore, even at the price of his life, to the primacy of truth over power, Saint Thomas More is venerated as an imperishable example of moral integrity. And even outside the Church, particularly among those with responsibility for the destinies of peoples, he is acknowledged as a source of inspiration for a political system which has as its supreme goal the service of the human person.”

Sir Thomas More would not compromise on two tenets of the Catholic faith: the primacy of the papacy and the dignity of marriage.  When imprisoned before his martyrdom, he would write. The following are just a few quotes from these writings, particularly from a book called “A Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation”:

We shall consider tribulation a gracious gift from God, a gift that He specially gives His special friends…if God does not send it, people need to seek out and put upon themselves by penance, a thing that helps purge our past sins; a think that preserves us from sins that we would otherwise commit; a thing that causes us to attach less importance to the world; a thin that incites us to draw closer to God; a thing that greatly diminishes our pains in purgatory; a thing that greatly increases our final reward in Heaven…if we reflect on these things and remember them well, we shall not murmur or complain in a time of tribulation. Instead we shall first of all take our pain patiently and see it as something of worth.  And then we shall realize that God has sent if for our own good and so be moved to thank God for it.  As a consequence, our grace shall increase and God shall give us the comfort of realizing that He is, in the midst of our trouble, always close.

I find, then, that one great part f the terror of the nights is the fault of faintheartedness: that fearful and feeble disposition, that is, which causes some people to be afraid where there is no need to be afraid. The fault of faintheartedness first causes people in tribulation to become impatient.  The fault of faintheartedness, or a timed spirit, also often prevents people from doing many good things which, if they acquired a strong spirit by trusting in God’s help, they would be well able to do. The devil, however not only puts them in a state of cowardice but also makes them take it as humility to think themselves unfit for an incapable of many a good thing that God has given them the opportunity and has made them well suited to do. Such folks need to lift up their hearts and call upon God.  All this fear comes by scheming of the devil.

St. Thomas More, pray for us!  Help us to never compromise on the Truths of the faith, no matter the cost.

MORE PHOTOS BELOW BY THE ETHIERS

TOTUS TUUS: ALL YOURS

About 4 stories up, inner court of the friary, 4-5 minute walk from St. Peter’s. This is where Fr. Ignatius is the Guardian. He’s probably pointing out to David the wall that is actually part of Vatican City. So if you scale the very high wall of the building you could enter part of Vatican City. Very tempting.

Scaling the wall…not a good idea.

The Romans have wine running through their veins.

Large Chapel at the friary on Via Boccea in Rome. To me the curtains that the friars hung say, “We are hiding a big ugly wall.”

Papal Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.

In 1209, Francis led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. Upon entry to Rome, the brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the Cardinal Bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately sympathetic to Francis and agreed to present Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent agreed to meet with Francis and the brothers the next day. After several days, the pope agreed to admit the group informally, adding that when God increased the group in grace and number, they could return for an official admittance. Though Pope Innocent initially had doubts, following a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John Lateran (the bishopric seat of the Pope and cathedral of Rome, thus the ‘home church’ of all Christendom), he decided to endorse Francis’ order.

From the right spot we see St. Francis holding up the Church. (Same Statue Above)

Friar Antony’s mouth looks funny ’cause he’s been speaking Italian.

Inside the Colosseum.

Americans in Europe always seem to stand out.

Friar Philomeno

Friar Josemaria

1 Philipino, 2 Africans, and 1 Italian.

(Right) FI Founder Fr. Stefano, (Left) Co-Founder Fr. Gabriel in the refectory at Boccea.

Friar Maximilian M. Scozzare and David Ethier in the kitchen at Boccea.

The coffin containing the mortal remains of Blessed John Paul II.

Variety #94 – Bsp. Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska ( 14min) >>> Play

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)

+++

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

Jesus, High Priest whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest chosen from among men, Have mercy on us

Jesus, made High Priest for men, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest of our confession of faith, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest of greater glory than Moses, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest of the true tabernacle, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest of the good things to come, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest, holy, innocent and undefiled, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest faithful and merciful, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest inflamed with zeal for God and souls, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest, perfect forever, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest, Who by Your own Blood entered the heavens, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest, who opened us a new way for us, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest, who loved us and washed us from our sins in Your Blood, Have mercy on us

Jesus, High Priest, who offered Yourself to God as an oblation and sacrificial Victim, Have mercy on us

Jesus, sacrificial Victim of God and men, Have mercy on us

Jesus, holy and immaculate sacrificial Victim, Have mercy on us

Jesus, pleasing sacrificial Victim, Have mercy on us

Jesus, peace-making sacrificial Victim, Have mercy on us

Jesus, sacrifice of propitiation and praise, Have mercy on us

Jesus, sacrificial Victim of reconciliation and peace, Have mercy on us

Jesus, sacrificial Victim in whom we have confidence and access to God, Have mercy on us

Jesus, sacrificial Victim living forever and ever, Have mercy on us

Be merciful, spare us, Jesus.
Be merciful, graciously hear us, Jesus.

From rashly entering the clergy, * deliver us, Jesus

From the sin of sacrilege,

From the spirit of incontinence,

From sordid pursuits,

From every lapse into simony,

From the unworthy administration of the Church’s treasures,

From the love of the world and its vanities,

From the unworthy celebration of Your Mysteries,

Through Your eternal priesthood,

Through the holy anointing whereby You were constituted a priest by God the Father,

Through Your priestly spirit,

Through that ministry whereby You glorified Your Father on earth,

Through the bloody immolation of Yourself made once and for all upon the Cross,

Through that same sacrifice daily renewed upon the altar,

Through that divine power which You exercise invisibly in Your priests,

That You would deign to maintain the whole priestly order in holy religion, * We beseech You, hear us

That You would deign to provide Your people with pastors after Your own heart,

That You would deign to fill them with the spirit of Your priesthood,

That the lips of Your priests might preserve true knowledge,

That You would deign to send faithful workers into Your harvest,

That You would deign to multiply the faithful dispensers of Your Mysteries,

That You would deign to grant them perseverance in the service of Your will,

That You would deign to give them gentleness in their ministry, resourcefulness in their actions, and constancy in prayer,

That through them You would deign to promote the veneration of the Blessed Sacrament everywhere,

That You would deign to receive into Your joy those who have served You well,

Lamb of God, Who take away the sin of the world, spare us, 0 Lord

Lamb of God, Who take away the sin of the world, graciously hear us, 0 Lord

Lamb of God, Who take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us, 0 Lord

Jesus, Our Priest, hear us

Jesus, Our Priest, graciously hear us

 

Let us pray:

O God, Sanctifier and Guardian of your Church, raise up in her through Your Spirit suitable and faithful dispensers of the holy Mysteries, so that by their ministry and example, the Christian people may be guided under Your protection in the path of salvation. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

O God, who, while the disciples were worshiping and fasting, ordered Saul and Barnabas to be set apart for the work to which You had called them, be present now to Your Church in prayer, and You, who know the hearts of all, indicate those whom You have chosen for ministry. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.(This prayer was prayed in Latin by Pope John Paul II as a seminarian in Cracow,
and often in later life as well.)

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.