Catholic Culture
Collect: God our Creator, we give thanks to you, who alone have the power to impart the breath of life as you form each of us in our mother's womb; grant, we pray, that we, whom you have made stewards of creation, may remain faithful to this sacred trust and constant in safeguarding the dignity of every human life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
o Pollo Chilindrón
o A Day of Penance and Prayer
o Novena for Church Unity
o Prayer to End Abortion
o Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity
o The Catholic Duty to Be Pro-life | Austin B. Vaughan
· Ordinary Time: January 22nd
· Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children
Old Calendar: Saints Vincent and Anastasius, martyrs
January 22 is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and the day established by the Church of penance for abortion, has been formally named as the “Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children.” On this day (or January 23rd when January 22nd falls on a Sunday) your parish, school or religious formation program may celebrate the Mass for Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life. This Mass, found in our newly-translated Missal, may now be used on occasions to celebrate the dignity of human life.
The relevant change reads: “The liturgical celebrations for this day may be the Mass “For Giving Thanks to God for the Gift of Human Life? (no. 48/1 of the Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions), celebrated with white vestments, or the Mass “For the Preservation of Peace and Justice? (no. 30 of the Masses and Prayers for Various Needs and Occasions), celebrated with violet vestments.”
In addition to this special Mass on this day, perhaps your parish, school or religious formation program could encourage traditional forms of penance, host pro-life and chastity speakers, lead informative projects that will directly build up the culture of life, show a pro-life DVD, raise funds for local crisis pregnancy centers or offer additional prayer services.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
The Love of Life
Love is not merely a feeling, but is rather the desire for the best possible good for those whom we love. Through our natural intelligence and through Divine Revelation we become aware of the value of this most basic of all gifts which is life. Mere reason leads us to comprehend that it is better to be alive than never have had been in existence. The knowledge of the value of life that comes through revelation leads us to understand better this gift and to appreciate it: as a result, we worship and love more and more the Giver of this gift. This love is what moves us to protect the life of the unborn or any who might be unjustly treated. We are also led to protect women that might feel tempted or forced to commit abortion, as we know the devastating consequences that abortion will have in their lives. Last but not least we have to love, even if most of them seem to be utterly unlovable, the many perpetrators of abortion: medical personnel, and pro-abortion activists and politicians. We have to do everything that we can to convince them of their errors so that they repent and change their ways, both for their own benefit and for the benefit of society.
All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. Using a traditional scholastic term, we can state that He is the exemplary cause of every human being, in other words, He is the model on which all human beings are created. He looked upon himself and wished that other beings would share in His own happiness. So if we reflect upon ourselves, we can begin to understand our participation in the greatness of our Creator. This participation on His greatness leads us to comprehend that He has brought us out of nothing with a purpose, because knowing His intelligence and His loving nature it is clear that all His actions are always guided by a magnificent purpose. The first intention for which He has created us is that we should enjoy for an eternity His loving company in Heaven. All human persons are called to this eternal and loving company, no one is excluded, save those who, through their own actions, exclude themselves.
This manner of creation brings us to understand the unique essential dignity of every human being. A dignity that is not lost for any deprivation of the many external perfections that we might expect to find in a human person. A person might be born with a disability, or may suffer disability through injury or disease, but these deprivations do not affect his basic dignity. A Christian also has the hope that one day when the doors of Paradise will be opened for those children, all their human imperfections will be healed and they will enjoy forever the beatific vision that we all long for.
We are also created to be collaborators in the salvation of the World. The Lord normally does not intervene directly in the world; He does it through our free collaboration in his plans of salvation. He gives to us the saving truths through Holy Scripture, our natural reason and the mediation of the Church and we have to manifest them in our daily lives. If we love those truths we should be impelled to share them with all whom the Lord places in front of us. So when we speak with love and conviction of those truths we cannot be accused of carrying out an exaggerated rhetoric when we defend human life from its biological beginning until natural death. Nobody in his right mind can call it "vitriolic rhetoric" when we denounce that millions upon millions of unborn babies have been killed in the womb in the U.S. and in the rest of the world. It is literally a question of life and death, for the victim, for the mother of the baby and for the perpetrator of abortion, assisted suicide or euthanasia. The victim will have his earthly life terminated; the mother will suffer greatly for her actions, and the perpetrator and the mother will live under the shadow of the unhappiness of having rejected the loving truths of their Creator and certainly they will place their eternal salvation in jeopardy. Our main solidarity has to be always with the victim of the crime, because if the conscience of the nation is not moved by this growing injustice, we know that a growing number will be victimized in the future. Our solidarity is also with the mothers of those babies because often they have been misled or forced into committing this terrible action.
Last but not least we wish and pray that all abortionists will understand the terrible consequences of their actions and be converted.
Excerpted from Spirit & Life, Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro-Carámbula, Interim President, Human Life International
St. Anastasius
The Martyrology relates: At Bethsaloen in Assyria, St. Anastasius, a Persian monk, who after suffering much at Caesarea in Palestine from imprisonment, stripes, and fetters, had to bear many afflictions from Chosroes, king of Persia, who caused him to be beheaded. He had sent before him to martyrdom seventy of his companions, who were drowned in a river. His head was brought to Rome, at Aquæ Salviæ, together with his revered image, by the sight of which demons are expelled, and diseases cured, as is attested by the Acts of the second Council of Nicea. The saint was venerated highly in Rome.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Day Five: Together... we are called into fellowship
We are called into fellowship with God the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. As we draw closer to the Triune God, we are drawn closer to one another in Christian unity.
Christ has initiated a change in our relationship, calling us friends instead of servants. In response to this relationship of love, we are called out of relationships of power and domination into friendship and love of one another.
Called by Jesus, we witness to the gospel both to those who have not yet heard it and to those who have. This proclamation contains a call into fellowship with God, and establishes fellowship among those who respond.
Vatican Resources
1. And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
2. And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath day; that they might accuse him.
3. And he said to the man which had the withered hand, Stand forth.
4. And he said to them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill? But they held their peace.
5. And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.
THEOPHYL. After confounding the Jews, who had blamed His disciples, for pulling the ears of corn on the sabbath day, by the example of David, the Lord now further bringing them to the truth, works a miracle on the sabbath; showing that, if it is a pious deed to work miracles on the sabbath for the health of men, it is not wrong to do on the sabbath things necessary for the body: he says therefore, And he entered again into the synagogue; and there was a man there which had a withered hand.
And they watched him, whether he would heal him on the sabbath-day; that they might accuse him.
BEDE; For, since He had defended the breaking of the sabbath, which they objected to His disciples, by an approved example, now they wish, by watching Him, to calumniate Himself, that they might accuse Him of a transgression, if He cured on the sabbath, of cruelty or of folly, if He refused. It goes on: And he said to the man which had the withered hand, Stand in the midst.
PSEUD-CHRYS. He placed him in the midst, that they might be frightened at the sight, and on seeing him compassionate him, and lay aside their malice.
BEDE; And anticipating the calumny of the Jews, which they had prepared for Him, He accused them of violating the precepts of the law, by a wrong interpretation. Wherefore there follows: And he said to them, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-day, or to do evil? And this He asks, because they thought that on the sabbath they were to rest even from good works, whilst the law commands to abstain from bad, saying, You shall do no servile work therein; that is, sin: for Whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. What He first says, to do good on the sabbath-day or to do evil, is the same as what He afterwards adds, to save a life or to lose it; that is, to cure a man or not. Not that God, Who is in the highest degree good, can be the author of perdition to us, but that His not saving is in the language of Scripture to destroy.
But if it be asked, wherefore the Lord, being about to cure time body, asked about the saving of the soul, let him understand either that in the common way of Scripture the soul is put for the man; as it is said, All the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob; or because He did those miracles for time saving of a soul, or because the healing itself of the hand signified the saving of the soul.
AUG. But someone may wonder how Matthew could have said, that they themselves asked the Lord, if it was lawful to heal on the sabbath-day; when Mark rather relates it that they were asked by our Lord, Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath-day, or to do evil? Therefore we must understand that they first asked the Lord, if it was lawful to heal on the sabbath-day, then that understanding their thoughts, and that they were seeking an opportunity to accuse Him, He placed in the middle him whom He was about to cure, and put those questions, which Mark and Luke relate. We must then suppose, that when they were silent, He propounded the parable of the sheep, and concluded, that it was lawful to do good on time sabbath-day. It goes on: But they were silent.
PSEUD-CHRYS. For they knew that He would certainly cure him. It goes on: And looking round about upon them with anger. His looking round upon them in anger, and being saddened at the blindness of their hearts, is fitting for His humanity, which He deigned to take upon Himself for us. He connects the working of the miracle with a word, which proves that the man is cured by His voice alone. It follows therefore, And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored. Answering by all these things for His disciples, and at time same time showing that His life is above the law.
BEDE; But mystically, the man with a withered hand shows the human race, dried up as to its fruitfulness in good works, but now cured by the mercy of the Lord; the hand of man, which in our first parent had been dried up when He plucked the fruit of the forbidden tree, through time grace of the Redeemer, Who stretched His guiltless hands on the tree of the cross, has been restored to health by the juices of good works. Well too was it in the synagogue that the hand was withered; for where the gift of knowledge is greater there also the danger of inexcusable guilt is greater.
PSEUDO-JEROME; Or else it means the avaricious, which, being able to give had rather receive, and love robbery rather than making gifts. And they are commanded to stretch forth their hands, that is, let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hand the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs.
THEOPHYL. Or, he has his right hand withered, whom does not the works which belong to the right side; for from the time that our hand is employed in forbidden deeds, from that time it is withered to the working of good. But it will be restored whenever it stands firm in virtue; wherefore Christ said, Arise, that is, from sin, and stand in the midst; that thus it may stretch itself forth neither too little or too much.
6. And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.
BEDE; The Pharisees, thinking it a crime that at the word of the Lord the hand which was diseased was restored to a sound state, agreed to make a pretext of the words spoken by our Savior; wherefore it is said, And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him. As if every one amongst them did not greater things on the sabbath day, carrying food, reaching forth a cup, and whatever else is necessary for meals. Neither could He, Who said and it was done, be convicted of toiling on the sabbath day.
THEOPHYL. But the soldiers of Herod the king are called Herodians, because a certain new heresy had sprung up, which asserted that Herod was the Christ. For the prophecy of Jacob intimated, that when the princes of Judah failed, then Christ should come; because therefore in the time of Herod none of the Jewish princes remained, and he, an alien, was the sole ruler, some thought that he was the Christ, and set on foot this heresy. These, therefore, were with the Pharisees trying to kill Christ.
BEDE; Or else he calls Herodiamus the servants of Herod the Tetrarch, who on account of the hatred which their Lord had for Joimum, pursued with treachery and hate the Savior also, Whom John preached it goes on, But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea; He fled from their treachery, because the hour of His passion had not yet come, and no place away from Jerusalem was proper for His Passion. By which also he gave an example to His disciples, when they suffer persecution in one city, to thee to another.
Catena Aurea Mark 3
Vultus Christi
Far better that I should think on Him
Wednesday, 22 January 2014 09:59
As time permits, all during this Mectildian Jubilee Year (1614–2014), I shall be posting on the life and writings of Mother Catherine Mectilde de Bar.
A Child and her Mama
In 1623 Madame de Bar fell grievously ill. Catherine was only nine years old. Family and friends stormed heaven to obtain Madame de Bar’s restoration to health. Little Catherine, fearing that her mother may be close to death, whispered a secret into her ear:
My dear Mama, I beg you, once you are in paradise, after having made your reverence to the Holy Trinity, to ask [of God] for me the grace to become a religious. And then, you will turn to the Blessed Virgin and beseech her to take me under her protection.
A Precocious Liturgical Sense
An extraordinary request coming from a nine year old girl! Already, little Catherine had a innate “liturgical” sense of good order and ceremonial courtesy. One recognises the budding Benedictine. She asked her mother first to do reverence to the Holy Trinity, then to make her request and, finally, to entrust her to the Blessed Virgin. We see here, already, in a very condensed form, what will become an underlying motif throughout Mother Mectilde’s long life. How many of us, as mere children, have formulated similar prayers, only to find the substance of them recurring again and again with the passing years?
Enter Saint Francis
Shortly thereafter, Madame de Bar did, in fact, recover from her illness. At about that time, Catherine, visiting a church of the Capuchins, happened upon the text of profession in the Third Order of Saint Francis. The text fascinated her to the point of becoming her favourite prayer. Without formally becoming a Franciscan tertiary, Catherine repeated the formula of profession and found in it a certain sweetness, and a power of attraction:
I, Catherine, promise and vow to God, to the Virgin Mary, to our father Saint Francis, and to all the saints of paradise, to keep all the commandments of God as long as I shall live, and to make fitting satisfaction for the transgressions I will have committed against the Rule and the manner of life of the Penitents.
Saint Francis of Assisi being, at once, so winning and so well known, entered young Catherine’s life, as he has entered the lives and imaginations of countless children over the centuries. The popularity of Saint Francis is due, undoubtedly, to the astonishing proliferation of his sons, but also to the images of him that everywhere adorn churches touched by the influence and preaching of the friars. Nothing appeals more to the religious imagination of a child than the depiction of Saint Francis embraced by the Crucified Jesus, or kneeling with outstretched arms before the mysterious Seraph who marks him with the wounds of Our Lord’s Passion.
The Cure of Her Eyes
Catherine’s health was far from strong. Her eyes were affected with some kind of illness, making her nearly blind. The doctors’ efforts to cure her were all in vain. The family had recourse to prayer. On the Vigil of the Ascension, Catherine and her mother participated in the Rogations procession. The relics of the saints were borne aloft and, among them, were the relics of Saint Odilia, patroness of those with poor eyesight. Slowly, during the procession, Catherine’s sight improved. By the time she and her mother returned home, the cure was complete, and Catherine never again suffered from a disease of the eyes, even until her death at over eighty years of age.
Homeschooling
Catherine was educated at home. She seems to have had a propensity for learning certain liturgical prayers, given in Latin, in the books of piety at her disposal. Catherine had no pretensions whatsoever of becoming a bluestocking. She resisted higher studies, saying, “If I apply myself to all of that, I shall forget God: far better that I should think on Him and neglect the rest.”
">
