The Canticle of Simeon and the End of an Era

From The Five Beasts:

Simeon is recalling the prophecy of Isaiah, “I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Is. 49:6). But Simeon adds that the Jews will not accept Jesus, referring to the infant as “…a sign that will be contradicted”. This is the meaning of “the hearts of many will be revealed”, suggesting to Theophilus that the true cause of the rioting at the synagogues is the stubborn refusal of most of the Jews to accept that God’s salvation was to be extended to “all the nations” as taught by their own prophets. Luke’s task was a difficult one; he needed to convince this influential Roman who was sympathetic to Christianity that in it the promises of the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in spite of its rejection by the Jews. (Read more.)

Pentecost: Ireland 2018

A powerful exhortation to the people of Ireland. From Vultus Christi:

The Spirit of the Lord, in ages past, filled Ireland with a mighty wind, sweeping away the idols that held her people in the grip of fear, violence, and superstition; and infusing men, women, and children, rich and poor, powerful and weak, learned and ignorant with a sweet and liberating power that no one could contest or resist. The irrefutable evidence of the Holy Ghost is Ireland’s saints. Wheresoever the Holy Ghost passes, He leaves behind Him a trail of saints. Ireland, long known as the island of saints, was, in ages past, a wholly Pentecostal island, a place ablaze with the fire and light of the Holy Ghost.

The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds. They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord shall reign for ever. They that trust in him, shall understand the truth: and they that are faithful in love shall rest in him: for grace and peace is to his elect. (Wisdom 3:7–9)

The Holy Ghost, we sang in the introit, “hath knowledge of the voice”. Knowledge of what voice? The voice of whom? The psalmist tells us: “The Lord hath not forgotten the cry of the poor” (Psalm 9:13), and again, “The Lord hath heard the desire of the poor: thy ear hath heard the preparation of their heart.” (Psalm 9:38). Do not listen to those who would want you to think that the Irish have given up on the Holy Ghost or, what is worse, that the Holy Ghost has given up on Ireland. The words of Frank Duff, pronounced in 1997, are today prophetic:

Your ambition [said the great man] is colossal: to conquer with a single blow, to convert a population in a week or so. It is magnificent and fantastic at the same time. But it does become possible if you can make yourselves the outlet point of the Holy Spirit. For He can convert at a stroke, in the twinkling of an eye.

“The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world, alleluia” — this includes Ireland, Ireland today; an Ireland fascinated by glittering images of a new identity; an Ireland seduced by the lying discourses of those who call good what is evil, and evil what is good; an Ireland tempted to give ear to the deception of the age–old serpent. Today’s feast of Pentecost is a magnificent manifestation of the liturgical providence of God. It is an immense ἐπίκλησις, an invocation, a calling–down of the Holy Ghost upon Ireland. The Collect of today’s Mass, becomes, in the context of the this coming week in Ireland, a prayer that one might think crafted in view of what will face us on Friday:

O God, who on this day didst teach the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Ghost: grant unto us, by the same Spirit, to be wise in what is right, and ever to rejoice in His consolation.

To be wise in what is right. Why should Ireland follow nations become foolish in what is wrong? Why should Ireland open her doors to the industry of death that ravages England, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, the United States, and so many other nations? An Ireland enlightened by the Holy Ghost will show the world the consolation that comes from relishing those things that are right — always and everywhere right — and from holding fast to the laws that uphold and protect such things. All of Ireland needs a new Pentecost, a great cleansing as by a mighty wind. All of Ireland needs to be set ablaze again with the fire of the Holy Ghost that blazed up long ago when Saint Patrick enkindled his fire on the Hill of Slane. Take the verse of the First Alleluia and make it today a prayer for Ireland:

Emitte Spiritum tuum, et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae.
Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Send forth Thy Spirit, and they — sons and daughters quickened in the Holy Faith — shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of Ireland. There are, to be sure, naysayers and prophets of doom who declare the death of Catholicism in Ireland. The first error of such people is to assume that the Holy Faith of our Fathers is an “ism”. “Isms” come and go. They are in fashion and out of fashion. They are the subject of debate and of ideological wars. The faith of the Church is not an “ism”. It is fire and light. It cannot be stopped, or consigned to cultural museums, or contained by iniquitous laws. “The Spirit breatheth where He will; and thou hearest His voice, but thou knowest not whence He cometh, and whither He goeth”(John 3:8). (Read more.)

Funeral Homily for Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner

By Fr. James McCurry, OFM, Conv. May 11, 2018.

Fr. Peter Damian, R.I.P.

Fr. Peter on The Marian Issue in the Church, Greenwood, 2007

Fr. Peter on Hope in Difficult Times

 Fr. Peter on The Mystical City of God

 Fr. Peter on Fatima vs Communism

A saint has gone home to heaven. I learned much from Fr. Peter's conferences and homilies and thank God for sending me such a wonderful spiritual father, even for a short time.

That Your Joy May Be Full

From Vultus Christi:

On this Sunday before Ascension Thursday, we are again admitted into the Cenacle. There Our Lord is deep in conversation with His Apostles. He is opening their hearts and minds to what is and to what will come. He acts upon His own by the secret operations of His grace, and so renders them capable of receiving what He desires to give them, and of desiring what He gives. This is Our Lord’s way of acting with each of us. The man who tarries in the presence of Christ will find himself gently opened to the truth. He will be surprised by the light that shines within him and by the fire enkindled in his heart.

Origen passed on a saying attributed to Our Lord but found nowhere in the Scriptures: “The Saviour himself saith: He who is near me is near the fire; he who is far from me, is far from the kingdom” (Homil. in Jer., XX, 3). It seems to me that all through Paschaltide, in listening to the reading of the Discourse in the Cenacle, we are very near the fire. With us, it is, I think, as with the disciples who said one to the other: “Was not our heart burning within us, whilst he spoke in the way, and opened to us the scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).

What does Our Lord says to us today? He says, “The Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came out from God” (John 16:27). If ever you have looked for divine assurance, know that you find it in these words of Jesus: “The Father Himself loveth you”. Any preacher, it seems to me, would be fully justified in repeating only this, and saying nothing more. This is the word that every soul waits to hear, lives to hear. This is the word that, once heard, allows a man to live as Christ would have him live. “I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

But there is more: Jesus tells us why the Father loves us. The Father loves us because we have loved Jesus, and believed that He came forth from God. Loved and believed: charity and faith. Even these are not the effect of some human industry or the result of human seeking, willing, thinking, and knowing. Charity and faith are themselves gifts of God, and, together with hope, they are the gifts by which God renders us capable of receiving His love. (Read more.)

Fatima Triptych

A conference on Fatima by Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, FFI from October 2011. A must-listen.

Irish Litany to Our Lady

From Vultus Christi:

O GREAT MARY, pray for us.
Mary, greatest of Marys, pray for us.
Most great of women, pray for us.
Queen of the angels, pray for us.
Mistress of the heavens, pray for us.
Woman full and replete with the grace of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.
Blessed and most blessed, pray for us.
Mother of eternal glory, pray for us.
Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church, pray for us.
Mother of love and indulgence, pray for us.
Mother of the golden light, pray for us.
Honor of the sky, pray for us.
Harbinger of peace, pray for us.
Gate of heaven, pray for us.
Golden casket, pray for us.
Couch of love and mercy, pray for us.
Temple of the Divinity, pray for us.
Beauty of virgins, pray for us.
Mistress of the tribes, pray for us.
Fountain of the gardens, pray for us.
Cleansing of sins, pray for us.
Washing of souls, pray for us.
Mother of orphans, pray for us.
Breast of the infants, pray for us.
Refuge of the wretched, pray for us.
Star of the sea, pray for us.
Handmaid of God, pray for us.
Mother of Christ, pray for us.
Abode of the Godhead, pray for us.
Graceful as the dove, pray for us.
Serene like the moon, pray for us.
Resplendent like the sun, pray for us.
Destruction of Eve’s disgrace, pray for us.
Regeneration of life, pray for us.
Perfection of women, pray for us.
Chief of the virgins, pray for us.
Garden enclosed, pray for us.
Fountain sealed, pray for us.
Mother of God, pray for us.
Perpetual Virgin, pray for us.
Holy Virgin, pray for us.
Prudent Virgin, pray for us.
Serene Virgin, pray for us.
Chaste Virgin, pray for us.
Temple of the Living God, pray for us.
Throne of the Eternal King, pray for us.
Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, pray for us.
Virgin of the Root of Jesse, pray for us.
Cedar of Mount Lebanon, pray for us.
Cypress of Mount Sion, pray for us.
Crimson Rose in the land of Jacob, pray for us.
Fruitful like the olive, pray for us.
Blooming like the palm, pray for us.
Glorious Son-bearer, pray for us.
Light of Nazareth, pray for us.
Glory of Jerusalem, pray for us.
Beauty of the world, pray for us.
Noblest born of the Christian people, pray for us.
Queen of life, pray for us.
Ladder of Heaven, pray for us.
Hear the petition of the poor; spurn not the wounds and the groans of the miserable. Let our devotion and our sighs be carried through thee to the presence of the Creator, for we are not ourselves worthy of being heard because of our evil deserts.
O powerful Mistress of heaven and earth,
wipe out our trespasses and our sins.
Destroy our wickedness and depravity.
Raise the fallen, the debilitated, and the fettered.
Loose the condemned.
Repair through thyself the transgressions of our immorality and our vices.
Bestow upon us through thyself the blossoms and ornaments of good actions and virtues.
Appease for us the Judge by thy prayers and thy supplications.
Allow us not, for mercy’s sake, to be carried off from thee among the spoils of
our enemies.
Allow not our souls to be condemned, but take us to thyself for ever under thy protection.
We, moreover, beseech and pray thee, Holy Mary, to obtain, through thy potent supplication, before thy only Son, that is, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, that God may defend us from all straits and temptations.
Obtain also for us from the God of Creation the forgiveness and remission of all our sins and trespasses, and that we may receive from Him further, through thy intercession, the everlasting habitation of the heavenly kingdom, through all eternity, in the presence of the saints and the saintly virgins of the world; which may we deserve to enjoy, in saecula saeculorum. Amen.
(Read more.)