Saints Crispin and Crispianus

Crispin and Crispinian are the patron saints of shoemakers, saddlers, and tanners.

Martyrs of the Early Church who were beheaded during the reign of Diocletian; the date of their execution is given as 25 October, 285 or 286. It is stated that they were brothers, but the fact has not been positively proved. The legend relates that they were Romans of distinguished descent who went as missionaries of the Christian Faith to Gaul and chose Soissons as their field of labour. In imitation of St. Paul they worked with their hands, making shoes, and earned enough by their trade to support themselves and also to aid the poor. During the Diocletian persecution they were brought before Maximianus Herculius whom Diocletian had appointed co-emperor. At first Maximianus sought to turn them from their faith by alternate promises and threats.

But they replied: “Thy threats do not terrify us, for Christ is our life, and death is our gain. Thy rank and possessions are nought to us, for we have long before this sacrificed the like for the sake of Christ and rejoice in what we have done. If thou shouldst acknowledge and love Christ thou wouldst give not only all the treasures of this life, but even the glory of thy crown itself in order through the exercise of compassion to win eternal life.”

When Maximianus saw that his efforts were of no avail, he gave Crispin and Crispinian into the hands of the governor Rictiovarus (Rictius Varus), a most cruel persecutor of the Christians. Under the order of Rictiovarus they were stretched on the rack, thongs were cut from their flesh, and awls were driven under their finger-nails. A millstone was then fastened about the neck of each, and they were thrown into the Aisne, but they were able to swim to the opposite bank of the river. In the same manner they suffered no harm from a great fire in which Rictiovarus, in despair, sought death himself. Afterwards the two saints were beheaded at the command of Maximianus. (Read entire post.)

Has the Virgin Mary Appeared Again in Egypt?

A report from the OCP Media Network:

It is reported that, after the events of the massacre of Copts in Maspero, Virgin Mary appeared in Cairo and Alexandria.

Reports says that, Virgin Mary in the sky, in Cairo and Alexandria and at different areas nearby. Lights appeared in the sky, followed by voice. Copts believe that the voice came from heaven to reassure that their prayers are heard after what they have suffered severely in the events of Maspero, which killed 27 believers and left dozens wounded.

Some of the TV channels have broadcasted the miraculous appearance of the holy Theodokos.

Carmelite Nun to be Beatified

The Catholic News Agency reports:

Sister Maria Carmen Crespo Roig, or Teresa of the Incarnation, was born in Beniarres, Spain on March 25, 1912. “From a young age she was very involved in the life of her parish and worked tirelessly in its activities and movements,” the Archdiocese of Valencia said.

During the Spanish Civil War in 1936, she risked her life to help priests and nuns who were in need of assistance. In 1941, she entered the Carmelite convent at Ontinyent, “where she lived for the Church and the salvation of souls” until her death on Feb. 4, 2006.

“Day after day, during her 93 years of life and 65 years as a religious, Maria Carmen Crespo learned to offer her joys and sufferings to God in good spirits.” As a Carmelite, “she was an example to her religious sisters and to those she met with and were her friends,” the archdiocese said.

She also patiently bore her sufferings, as she was of frail health from a young age.  At the end of her life, she suffered both from a stroke that left her unable to move and from cancer. (Read entire article.)

On Holy Humility

Thoughts of Blessed Charles de Foucauld.

God has not bound salvation to science, to intelligence, to riches, to much experience, to rare gifts which not all have received, no.  He has bound it to that which is within the reach of everyone, absolutely everyone, the young and the old, human beings of every age and class, of whatever degree of intelligence and of whatever condition…He has bound it to that which everyone, absolutely everyone, can give Him, to that which every human being, whoever he may be, can give Him, having a little good will: a little good will is all that is necessary in order to gain this Heaven which Jesus binds here to humility,  in making yourself little,  in taking the last place,  in obeying, and which elsewhere He links to poverty of spirit, to purity of heart, to love of justice, to a spirit of peace, etc. (Read entire post.)

Prayer Tips from the Carmelites

I found these suggestions worth pondering:

• Take a line from the liturgy of the day and repeat it during the day – a new line every day. The responsorial psalm and the Gospel Acclamation theme are good ones to use.
• Let a spiritual thought from a hymn or a book or Mass be as background music in your mind during the day.
• Take a holy card (or picture) of Christ and place it where you can see it so that you may think of Him.
• Make a spiritual communion every hour. I set the stop watch I use.
• Fix your inward gaze upon Him amidst your occupations.
• Find a “trigger moment,” such as putting your keys on the desk; turning off the computer, or laying out clothes for the next day that can serve as a reminder to take a moment for short prayer.
• Instead of a coffee break, take a short prayer break. In the mid-morning or mid-afternoon, get up and move into a different space and think of God.
• I think of God every time I look at a watch or clock.
• I sing hymns in my heart during the day.
• Make Spiritual aspirations during the day. (Read entire post.)

The Temple of God

The little world of each of us with its persons and places, its sunshine and its shadows, its joys and its pain, is the one and only Holy of Holies, in which is tabernacled the Will of God, the chosen temple in which He alone accepts our worship. "I shall dwell in their midst" was His promise, and He is present in every happening.

The saints are those who see God speaking His desires to them in every situation of their lives. They were not less human than we, and God's Will is not less in our lives than in theirs.

Whatever the future holds, your part is peaceful abandonment- there is no greater gift to God. It makes one a living Amen to His least good pleasure.

Love and sacrifice are the essentials for a life of union with God. How many opportunities for both lie daily around us. Grace and great graces are hidden in every one, if we are but generous enough to correspond with the designs of Divine Providence in fashioning them. An ever increasing faith sees God's design in even the most trivial things- His design to sanctify us.

~Fragrance from Alabaster by Mother Aloysius of the Blessed Sacrament, OCD

Simple English Propers

For those who are tired of having banality at Mass, Fr. Mark recommends a wonderful book.

This extraordinary book has been met with widespread acclaim for the beauty and versatility of the music - and also for being the first generally accessible book of chanted propers in English for every parish. It provides complete entrance, offertory, and communion propers in English with Psalms in modal chant, with four-line notation, for all Sundays and feasts. They can be sung by a single cantor or a full choir. The modes from the Gregorian original are wholly preserved to capture the sound and feel of the Graduale Romanum proper chants. They follow a total of 24 chant formulas to make singing easy for any choir in any parish. (Read entire post.)

Cling to Jesus

Michael O'Brien passes on some powerful advice.

Confusion is created everywhere through media.  Media is the primary shaper of consciousness of our times.  In every nation it was the primary worry of apostolic people—clerics as well as lay apostles.  The unprecedented power of film and television is something we Christians have never had to deal with before on this scale. So new strategies are being initiated everywhere in every country that I went.”

“Everywhere there is the sense of facing a Goliath, a monster that feeds or is driven by money, profit and an underlying agenda of social revolution on a scale I don’t think we have ever seen before in the history of man.  What we are looking at is the dismantling of the great treasure Christianity gave Western civilization.”

“When I was in Italy, I had the most awesome privilege of meeting the fiction writer in his 80’s named Eugenio Corti. His name is being touted around for the Nobel Prize in literature, but I don’t think that is going to happen.”

O’Brien asked Corti: ‘Do you have a word of advice for me?.’  “He leaned forward and he took my hand and he said, ‘We are at war.  We are at war and we will be at war until the end of time.  Cling to Jesus—through everything that is about to happen.’” (Read entire article.)

The Propers of the Mass

Then and now. Fr. Mark explains.

Until the approval of The New Roman Missal by Pope Paul VI on 3 April 1969, there had existed for four hundred years a substantial unity between the texts of the Proper of the Mass contained in the Graduale Romanum and those given in the Roman Missal. The Missal, in effect, reproduced the complete texts of those sung parts of the Mass that in the Graduale Romanum are fully notated.

The Missal takes the text of the Chants of the Proper of the Mass from the Graduale Romanum, and not the Graduale Romanum from the Missal. The Missal, in fact, contains the very same texts found in the Graduale, but in the Missal they are printed without the musical notation that allows them to be brought to life in song and, in a certain sense, interprets them in the context of the liturgy. The melodic vesture of the texts functions as a liturgical hermeneutic, allowing them to be sung, heard, and received in the light of the mysteries of Christ and of the Church.

Originally Mass was always sung. Not until the eighth or ninth century did the so called Low Mass or missa privata come to be celebrated at the lateral altars and private chapels of abbatial and collegiate churches. The Chants of the Proper of the Mass were not omitted at these Low Masses; they were recited by the priest alone. This fact, of itself, suggests that well before the eighth century, the Proper Chants were, in effect, considered to be constitutive elements of the Mass, deemed indispensable to the very shape of the liturgy.

What are the Propers? (Read entire article.)

In the Garden of the Rosary

Fr. Mark reflects on the mysteries.

The Rosary, like the Psalter it parallels, grows with the one who prays it. It is like the manna in the desert that accommodated itself to the taste of each one. There are seasons in each man's life with God, and the garden of the Rosary changes with these seasons. The Rosary is especially valuable in times of dryness; it becomes a way of inviting Our Blessed Lady into one's desert. When Mary comes into the dry and weary land of our soulscapes, she irrigates it with the grace of her presence, causing it to blossom like the rose.

Sufferings and the Soul

The uses of adversity.

Entrust yourself to God and abandon yourself to His holy action. Consent to all the designs that He has to bring you, by means of these troubles and sufferings, to nothingness. You must be more passive than active in your state. Even if the violence [of these troubles and sufferings] sometimes sweeps you away, the powerful hand of God will one day calm this tempest. Wait upon Him for everything, and lose yourself in the infinite goodness of His that bears with you in the rebellions of nature. (Read entire post.)