Catastrophe

How the lack of the interior life has led to catastrophe within the Church. From Toronto Catholic Witness:

Faith is manifested in actions and not words. Words, should be the result of action. For example, it was not the brilliance of St. Bernard's speech, but his disposition, his obvious Faith that attracted. Faith is a supernatural gift and can only be breached by God alone, and not the intellect. It is the holiness (or lack of) coming from the priest or the layman that assists in attracting (or repulsing) the us.

Hope is manifested by a man of prayer. The secret and joy of the Cross must be lived, or all our efforts will fall on stoney ground. This means to embrace suffering joyfully. Difficult, at times seemingly impossible, yet with Christ all is possible.  

Charity is the road to sanctity. The detaching of a soul from sin is best achieved by living and demonstrating the love of Christ. The sinner (me and you) needs to catch a glimpse, a feeling, that they are engaged with a person who really loves Jesus Christ. 

Kindness will come to the soul who is dominated by Christ. Words and actions will be full of kindness. Without kindness zeal is not charitable, and therefore not genuine. Fr. Faber tells us that "kindness shows itself the best pioneer of the Precious Blood..." 

Humility is the living the words of Christ: "without me you can do nothing". St. Vincent de Paul warned his priests to consider themselves more fit for ruining than making success. The modern man, surrounded by individualism and a so-called false "liberty" has great difficulty with being humble. Without humility correct doctrine and good judgment will not preserve us from falling. Without Humility we are at the mercy of our passions. 

Firmness and Gentleness implies that we be - like St. Bernard - pitiless towards errors - but showing great affection for the sinner. St. Francis de Sales astonished Protestants with his firmness and gentleness. Such meekness does not mean weakness. Our Lord excoriated the scribes and pharisees, yet out of love, and charity to prevent the spread of evil.

If we do anything less, we are, as St. Paul wrote: "enemies of the Cross". Catholicism is not social conformity, or a habit of external practices handed down by tradition. Religious practice to have real meaning must be united to the combat of passions, the living of the Gospel in daily life. It is impossible to win disciples for Christ if we have no interior life ourselves. 

The above I drew liberally from the "The Soul of the Apostolate" by Dom Chautard. (Read more.)

The Roots Of Carmel

A beautiful new Carmelite monastery in Fairfield, PA. More HERE.

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.)