Aug 19 – Homily – Fr Ignatius: Maximum Responsibility
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009
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Audio (MP3)St. John Vianney: Patron of ALL Priests
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009In this Year of the Priest it is a special pleasure to consider the Patron Saint of ALL Priests, St. John Vianney. He had been the Patron of Parish Priests but our Holy Father has extended that patronage to all Priests. Ave Maria Meditations
St. John Mary Vianney was born in France in 1786. His childhood coincided with the terrible French revolution. He was devout even as a boy and quietly taught other children their prayers. He would be ordained a priest in 1815 but struggled mightily through seminary and was a poor student. He had a very difficult time with Latin. There was even talk among his superiors if he should be ordained or, if ordained, be allowed to hear confessions. They decided to ordain him but gave him one of the least desirable of assignments: to the little town of Ars. The young priest was told that the faith was all but lost there and so he would have little to do. “Then I have everything to do!”, he exclaimed. Upon arriving in Ars the conditions were as foretold but this good priest knew that the holiness of the people would first need a holy priest and so he took upon himself not only his own seeking of personal holiness but also severe penances for his flock. He fasted continually and only slept a few hours a night, spending most of his time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. |
Aug 02 – Homily – Fr Tito: From The Mouth of A Dead Dog
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009
Homily #090802t ( Ave Maria! Mass readings +++ |
Year of the Priest: a prayer
Sunday, July 12th, 2009One Minute Meditation
 Prayer for Holy Vocations to the Priesthood
Almighty God and Father:
We prayerfully ask You to give Your Church holy priests: men of charity, goodness and prayer, good shepherds like Your son, Jesus. Through the prompting of Your grace may they always realize that they are your chosen ones, called by name.
Comfort them more dearly when they are discouraged, lonely or greatly beset by the temptations of the evil one. Help them in their troubles to now that they are Your holy anointed ones, that with You they can do all things.
We ask these favors for Your priests in the world, through Your Son, Jesus Christ, the first and eternal priests. Amen.
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St. Therese’s Prayer for Priests
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
One Minute Meditation
by St. Therese of Lisieux
O Jesus, eternal Priest, keep your priests within the shelter of Your Sacred Heart, where none may touch them.
Keep unstained their anointed hands, which daily touch Your Sacred Body. Keep unsullied their lips, daily purpled with your Precious Blood.
Keep pure and unearthly their hearts, sealed with the sublime mark of the priesthood.
Let Your holy love surround them and shield them from the world’s contagion.
Bless their labors with abundant fruit and may the souls to whom they minister be their joy and consolation here and in heaven their beautiful and everlasting crown. Amen.
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Pope John Paul writes to Priests
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009Ave Maria Meditations
In his 1986 Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, Pope John Paul II wrote:
The Mass was for John Mary Vianney the great joy and comfort of his priestly life. He took great care, despite the crowds of penitents, to spend more than a quarter of an hour in silent preparation. He celebrated with recollection, clearly expressing his adoration at the consecration and communion. He accurately remarked: “The cause of priestly laxity is not paying attention to the Mass!”
The Curé of Ars was particularly mindful of the permanence of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. It was generally before the tabernacle that he spent long hours in adoration, before daybreak or in the evening; it was towards the tabernacle that he often turned during his homilies, saying with emotion: “He is there!”
It was also for this reason that he, so poor in his presbytery, did not hesitate to spend large sums on embellishing his church. The appreciable result was that his parishioners quickly took up the habit of coming to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, discovering, through the attitude of their pastor, the grandeur of the mystery of faith.
Dear brother priests, the example of the Curé of Ars invites us to a serious examination of conscience: what place do we give to the Mass in our daily lives? Is it, as on the day of our Ordination — it was our first act as priests! — the principle of our apostolic work and personal sanctification? What care do we take in preparing for it? And in celebrating it? In prayng before the Blessed Sacrament? In encouraging our faithful people to do the same? In making our churches the House of God to which the divine presence attracts the people of our time who too often have the impression of a a world empty of God.
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Daily Prayer During the Year for Priests
Saturday, June 20th, 2009One Minute Meditations
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Year of the Priest begins June 19th
Friday, June 19th, 2009Ave Maria Meditations  Pope Benedict XVI / St. Jean Vianney
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St. John Vianney, the great parish priest of Ars, France said in his catechism lesson on priesthood: The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you… When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice there is no religion… |
My God, if You exist, make Your existance known to me!
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
A cry from the heart: My God, if You exist, make Your existance known to me! from Bl. Charles de Foucauld before his conversion
As soon as I believed there was a God, I understood I could do nothing else but live for him, my religious vocation dates from the same moment as my faith: God is so great. There is such a difference between God and everything that is not. |
Jul 02 – Homily – Fr Ignatius: The Holy Priesthood
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
Homily #080702 ( |
Video – Roving Reporter #18: Fr Stefano Manelli’s Visitation to the US
Monday, October 8th, 2007
Ave Maria! Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli F.I., the founder and Minister General of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, arrived in the United States on Saturday 6th October, to attend the 50th Anniversary of the Ordination to the Priesthood of Fr. Alphonsus Maria Sutton F.I., held on Sunday 7th October at Our Lady’s Chapel in New Bedford, MA. Fr. Stefano will also take the opportunity while he is in the US to attend the Coredemption Conference in Indiana on Saturday the 13th of October, and also to visit all the friars and friaries of the Franciscans of the Immaculate in the US. Our Roving Reporter, Friar Roderic Mary, caught up with Fr. Stefano at New Bedford on Sunday afternoon, after the Celebration of Fr. Alphonsus’s Anniversary, and the Luncheon held afterwards in the basement of the friary. Ave Maria! |
Video – FiNews #11: Ten Franciscans of the Immaculate Ordained to the Priesthood
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
Ave Maria! We are happy to announce that ten Franciscans of the Immaculate were ordained to the priesthood through the imposition of the hands of His Eminence Crescenzio Card. Sepe, Archbishop of Napoli on March 24, 2007 in the Church of St. Theresa of the Discalced, Naples. This is an incredible blessing to the order and the Church. As the saintly Don Donlindo Ruotolo put it, “The priest is a flower that has bloomed in the magnificence of the love of Jesus Christ … that shines in the splendor of his dignity and excels all others … a rose from the Immaculate Heart of Mary” There were no Americans ordained this year but one of the ordained, Fra Agnelus from England, made his postulancy and novitiate here in America and several American seminarians were in the Church and are anxiously awaiting their ordination in just a few short years, after which they will be able come back and minster to us here. Fra Bonaventure from Cameroon was ordained as well. Generous benefactors from the US paid for the plane tickets for his family to come and see his ordination. All those who contributed will be glad to see that they were, in fact, able to come. They stand out in their beautiful traditional African clothes, captured here in some of the slides. The beautiful church is staffed by the FI sisters who also sang magnificently for the ceremony. Thank you, Jesus and Mary!! Ave Maria! |
