May 2009 Archives

Here is a translation of the address the Holy Father gave Saturday evening at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens at the annual Marian celebration closing the month of May.

Venerable Brothers,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Persevering and United in Prayer With Mary

I greet all of you with affection at the end of the traditional Marian vigil that concludes the month of May in the Vatican. This year it has acquired a very special value since it falls on the eve of Pentecost. Gathering together, spiritually recollected before the Virgin Mary, contemplating the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, you have relived the experience of the first disciples, gathered together in the room of the Last Supper with "the Mother of Jesus," "persevering and united in prayer" awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). We too, in this penultimate evening of May, from the Vatican hill, ask for the pouring out of the Spirit Paraclete upon us, upon the Church that is in Rome and upon the whole Christian people.

The Holy Spirit and the Heart of Mary

The great Feast of Pentecost invites us to meditate upon the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Mary, a very close, privileged, indissoluble relationship. The Virgin of Nazareth was chosen beforehand to become the Mother of the Redeemer by the working of the Holy Spirit: in her humility, she found grace in God's eyes (cf. Luke 1:30). In effect, in the New Testament we see that Mary's faith "draws," so to speak, the Holy Spirit. First of all in the conception of the Son of God, which the archangel Gabriel explains in this way: "The Holy Spirit will descend upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35). Immediately afterward Mary went to help Elizabeth, and when her greeting reached Elizabeth's ears, the Holy Spirit made the child jump in the womb of her elderly cousin (cf. Luke 1:44); and the whole dialogue between the two mothers is inspired by the Spirit of God, above all the "Magnificat," the canticle of praise with which Mary expresses her sentiments. The whole event of Jesus' birth and his early childhood is guided in an almost palpable manner by the Holy Spirit, even if he is not always mentioned. Mary's heart, in perfect consonance with the divine Son, is the temple of the Spirit of truth, where every word and every event are kept in faith, hope and charity (cf. Luke 2:19, 51).

The Two Hearts and the Precious Blood

We can thus be certain that the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, in his whole hidden life in Nazareth, always found a "hearth" that was always burning with prayer and constant attention to the Holy Spirit in Mary's Immaculate Heart. The wedding feast at Cana is a witness to this singular harmony between Mother and Son in seeking God's will. In a situation like the wedding feast, charged with symbols of the covenant, the Virgin Mary intercedes and, in a certain sense, provokes, a sign of superabundant divine grace: the "good wine" that points to mystery of the Blood of Christ. This leads us directly to Calvary, where Mary stands under the cross with the other women and the Apostle John. Together the Mother and the disciple spiritually taken in Jesus' testament: his last words and his last breath, in which he begins to send out the Spirit; and they take in the silent crying out of his Blood, poured out completely for us (cf. John 19:25-34). Mary knew where the Blood came from: it was formed in her by the work of the Holy Spirit, and she knew that this same creative "power" would raise Jesus up, as he promised.

Mary's Universal Maternity

In this way Mary's faith sustains the faith of the disciples until the meeting with the risen Lord, and will continue to accompany them even after his ascension into heaven, as they await the "baptism of the Holy Spirit" (cf. Acts 1:5). At Pentecost, the Virgin Mary appears again as Bride of the Spirit, having a universal maternity with respect to those who are born from God through faith in Christ. This is why Mary is for all generations the image and model of the Church, who together with the Holy Spirit journeys through time invoking Christ's glorious return: "Come, Lord Jesus" (cf. Revelation 22:17, 20).

In Mary's School

Dear friends, in Mary's school we too learn to recognize the Holy Spirit's presence in our life, to listen to his inspirations and to follow them with docility. He makes us grow in the fullness of Christ, in those good fruits that the apostle Paul lists in the Letter to the Galatians: "Love, joy, peace, magnanimity, benevolence, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22). I hope that you will be filled with these gifts and will always walk with Mary according to the Spirit and, as I express my praise for your participation in this evening celebration, I impart my Apostolic Benediction to all of you from my heart.

[Zenit Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

Homily of Pope Benedict XVI for the Solemnity of Pentecost 2009

Apart from being a magnificent example of mystagogical preaching, the Holy Father's Pentecost homily reveals an exquisite sensitivity to role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in preparing the Church for the descent of the Holy Spirit. Pope Benedict XVI continues to offer us a wealth of Mariological insights masterfully harmonized with the liturgical cycle of feasts and mysteries. The subtitles and italics are my own.

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

The One Center of the Liturgy and of the Christian Life

Every time that we celebrate the Eucharist we experience in faith the mystery that is accomplished on the altar, that is, we participate in the supreme act of love that Christ realized with his death and resurrection. The one center of the liturgy and of Christian life -- the paschal mystery -- then assumes specific "forms," with different meanings and particular gifts of grace, in the different solemnities and feasts.

The Holy Spirit, the True Fire

Among all the solemnities, Pentecost is distinguished by its importance, because in it that which Jesus himself proclaimed as being the purpose of his whole earthly mission is accomplished. In fact, while he was going up to Jerusalem, he declared to his disciples: "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish for it to be kindled!" (Luke 12:49). These words find their most obvious realization 50 days after the resurrection, in Pentecost, the ancient Jewish feast that, in the Church, has become the feast of the Holy Spirit par excellence: "There appeared to them parted tongues as of fire ... and all were filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:3-4). The Holy Spirit, the true fire, was brought to earth by Christ. He did not steal it from the gods -- as Prometheus did according to the Greek myth -- but he became the mediator of the "gift of God," obtaining it for us with the greatest act of love in history: his death on the cross.

Receive the Holy Spirit

God wants to continue to give this "fire" to every human generation, and naturally he is free to do this how and when he wants. He is spirit, and the spirit "blows where he wills" (cf. John 3:8). However, there is an "ordinary way" that God himself has chosen for "casting fire upon the earth": Jesus is this way, the incarnate only begotten Son of God, dead and risen. For his part, Jesus constituted the Church as his mystical body, so that it prolongs his mission in history. "Receive the Holy Spirit" -- the Lord says to the Apostles on the evening of his resurrection, accompanying those words with an expressive gesture: he "breathed" upon them (cf. John 20:22). In this way he showed them that he was transmitting his Spirit to them, the Spirit of the Father and the Son.

The Grace of the Cenacle: Prayer and Concord

Now, dear brothers and sisters, in today's solemnity Scripture tells us how the community must be, how we must be to receive the Holy Spirit. In his account of Pentecost the sacred author says that the disciples "were together in the same place." This "place" is the Cenacle, the "upper room," where Jesus held the Last Supper with his disciples, where he appeared to them after his resurrection; that room that had become the "seat," so to speak, of the nascent Church (cf. Acts 1:13). Nevertheless, the intention in the Acts of the Apostles is more to indicate the interior attitude of the disciples than to insist on a physical place: "They all persevered in concord and prayer" (Acts 1:14). So, the concord of the disciples is the condition for the coming of the Holy Spirit; and prayer is the presupposition of concord.

A Church Less Preoccupied With Activities and More Dedicated to Prayer

This is also true for the Church today, dear brothers and sisters. It is true for us who are gathered together here. If we do not want Pentecost to be reduced to a mere ritual or to a suggestive commemoration, but that it be a real event of salvation, through a humble and silent listening to God's Word we must predispose ourselves to God's gift in religious openness. So that Pentecost renew itself in our time, perhaps there is need -- without taking anything away from God's freedom [to do as he pleases] -- for the Church to be less "preoccupied" with activities and more dedicated to prayer.

Mary Most Holy, the Mother of the Church and Bride of the Holy Spirit

Mary Most Holy, the Mother of the Church and Bride of the Holy Spirit, teaches us this. This year Pentecost occurs on the last day of May, when the Feast of the Visitation is customarily celebrated. This event was also a little "Pentecost," bringing forth joy and praise from the hearts of Elizabeth and Mary -- the one barren and the other a virgin -- who both became mothers by an extraordinary divine intervention (cf. Luke 1:41-45).

The Hayden Harmoniemesse

The music and singing that is accompanying our liturgy, also help us to united in prayer, and in this regard I express a lively recognition of the choir of the Cologne cathedral and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra. Joseph Haydn's "Harmoniemesse," the last of the Masses composed by this great musician, and a sublime symphony for the glory of God, was chosen for today's Mass. The Haydn Mass was a fitting choice given that it is the bicentennial of the composer's death. I address a cordial greeting to all those who have come for this.

The Air We Breathe

To indicate the Holy Spirit, the account in the Acts of the Apostles uses two great images, the image of the tempest and the image of fire. Clearly, St. Luke had in mind the theophany of Sinai, recounted in Exodus (19:16-19) and Deuteronomy (4:10-12:36). In the ancient world the tempest was seen as a sign of divine power, in whose presence man felt subjugated and terrified. But I would like to highlight another aspect: the tempest is described as a "strong driving wind," and this brings to mind the air that distinguishes our planet from others and permits us to live on it. What air is for biological life, the Holy Spirit is for the spiritual life; and as there is air pollution, that poisons the environment and living things, there is also pollution of the heart and the spirit, that mortifies and poisons spiritual existence. In the same way that we should not be complacent about the poisons in the air -- and for this reason ecological efforts are a priority today -- we should also not be complacent about that which corrupts the spirit. But instead it seems that our minds and hearts are menaced by many pollutants that circulate in society today -- the images, for example, that make pleasure a spectacle, violence that degrades men and women -- and people seem to habituate themselves to this without any problem. It is said that this is freedom but it is just a failure to recognize all that which pollutes, poisons the soul, above all of the new generations, and ends up limiting freedom itself. The metaphor of the strong driving wind of Pentecost makes one think of how precious it is to breathe clean air, be it physical air without lungs, or spiritual air -- the healthy air of the spirit that is love -- with our heart.

Fire From Heaven

Fire is the other image of the Holy Spirit that we find in the Acts of the Apostles. I compared Jesus with the mythological figure of Prometheus at the beginning of the homily. The figure of Prometheus suggests a characteristic aspect of modern man. Taking control of the energies of the cosmos -- "fire" -- today human beings seem to claim themselves as gods and want to transform the world excluding, putting aside or simply rejecting the Creator of the universe. Man no longer wants to be the image of God but the image of himself; he declares himself autonomous, free, adult. Obviously that reveals an inauthentic relationship with God, the consequence of a false image that has been constructed of him, like the prodigal son in the Gospel parable who thought that he could find himself by distancing himself from the house of his father. In the hands of man in this condition, "fire" and its enormous possibilities become dangerous: they can destroy life and humanity itself, as history unfortunately shows. The tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in which atomic energy, used as a weapon, ended up bringing death in unheard of proportions, remain a perennial warning.

With Mary in the Cenacle

We could of course find many examples, less grave and yet just as symptomatic, in the reality of everyday life. Sacred Scripture reveals that the energy that has the ability to move the world is not an anonymous and blind power, but the action of the "spirit of God that broods over the waters" (Genesis 1:2) at the beginning of creation. And Jesus Christ "cast upon the earth" not a native power that was already present but the Holy Spirit, that is, the love of God, who "renews the face of the earth," purifying it of evil and liberating it from the dominion of death (cf. Psalm 103 [104]: 29-30). This pure "fire," essential and personal, the fire of love, descended upon the Apostles, gathered together with Mary in prayer in the Cenacle, to make the Church the extension of Christ's work of renewal.

The Holy Spirit Overcomes Fear

Finally, a last thought also taken from the Acts of the Apostles: the Holy Spirit overcomes fear. We know that the disciples fled to the Cenacle after the Master's arrest and remained there out of fear of suffering the same fate. After Jesus' resurrection this fear did not suddenly disappear. But when the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost, those men went out without fear and began to proclaim the good news of Christ crucified and risen. They had no fear, because they felt that they were in stronger hands.

His Infinite Love Will Not Abandon Us

Yes, dear brothers and sisters, where the Spirit of God enters, he chases out fear; he makes us know and feel that we are in the hands of an Omnipotence of love: whatever happens, his infinite love will not abandon us. The witness of the martyrs, the courage of the confessors, the intrepid élan of missionaries, the frankness of preachers, the example of all the saints -- some who were even adolescents and children -- demonstrate this. It is also demonstrated by the very existence of the Church, which, despite the limits and faults of men, continues to sail across the ocean of history, driven by the breath of God and animated by his purifying fire. With this faith and this joyous hope we repeat today, through Mary's intercession: "Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth!"

[Zenit Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

Days of Fire and of Light

In the traditional Roman liturgical calendar the glorious solemnity of Pentecost has its own Octave: eight days under the grace of the Holy Spirit, eight days of joy in the fire and light of His presence, eight days of thanksgiving for His gifts. The Octave of Pentecost was one of the most beautiful moments in the Church Year, not only by reason of the liturgical texts, but also by reason of its effect in the secret of hearts. Each day of the Octave the Church would sing her “Golden Sequence,” the Veni, Sancte Spiritus: a chant of such unction that one never tires of repeating it.

The Suppression of a Great Joy

In some places in the Catholic world, Whit Monday was a reason to have a civil holiday, as well as a liturgical celebration. In this way, the mysterious presence of the Holy Spirit marked even the secular culture. It came as shock, and brought no little distress to the faithful, when in 1969 the Octave of Pentecost suddenly disappeared from the calendar. It would appear that not even the Pope was apprised of the suppression of one of the Church’s great joys.

For Pentecost I translated this passage from the Spiritual Journal of Concepción (Conchita) Cabrera de Armida. In it Our Lord speaks to Conchita concerning his plan for the sanctification of priests by the Holy Spirit through Mary.

"To obtain that which I ask, all priests must make a general consecration and a particular consecration to the Holy Spirit, not only of the diocese and of the nations, but also each one, personally, of their priestly souls, asking Him through the intercession of Mary, that He would descend upon them as in a new Pentecost, and that he would purify them, enamour then, possess them, unify them, sanctify them and transform them in Me.

The Holy Spirit is the great motor of the Church, her soul, her life, the One to whom belong the heartbeats of those who give themselves to Him. Let my priests do this and they will render glory to the Trinity, attaining the end which I pursue, that is, to console my Heart: for their own good and for the salvation of the world.

All depends on their response to that which I ask: be it their faithfulness and their love for Me; be it this transformation, this Union, this making of their will one single will with mine. Mary had an active role by which she caused that these graces should be poured out upon my priests and upon my Church. Let them be grateful sons, let them honour and love her always more, because they are the sons whom she loves more intimately, because, like the Saviour of the world, they have, in a certain sense, life from her life, from her immaculate being, from the maternal warmth of her Heart. I promise that this radical change will come to pass; I will reign above all in my priests, for I am the Universal King of my Church and of hearts."

Here is the Act of Consecration to the Holy Spirit that the Venerable Servant of God, Concepcíon Cabrera de Armida was accustomed to renew:

Consecration to the Holy Spirit

O Holy Spirit,
receive the perfect and total consecration
of all my being.

Deign to be from this moment hence
in every instant of my life
and in my every action:
my Director, my Light, my Guide, my Strength
and all the Love of my heart.

I abandon myself without reserve to all Thy divine actions
and I want always to be docile to Thy inspirations.

Holy Spirit, transform me with Mary and in Mary
into Christ Jesus
for the glory of the Father and the salvation of the world.
Amen.

Alleluia!
Today the Spirit of the Lord has invaded the cosmos and filled it!
Life spills out of the Cenacle
and, like a torrent of wine,
courses through the streets of Jerusalem.
God arises and His enemies are scattered;
those that hate Him flee before his face,
and those that love Him sing: Alleluia!

Today He who came down to see Babel’s tower
and confused the speech of the proud
visits the Upper Room.
He unties the tongues of the humble
and unites into one holy people those long divided by sin.
Amazed at what she sees and hears,
the Church intones her birthday song: Alleluia!

Today He who on Sinai descended in fire,
causing rocks to quake and peaks to pale,
descends upon Jerusalem;
tongues of fire dance over the heads of those
who, cloistered in the Cenacle, waited to meet their God
and at His coming, they cry out: Alleluia.

Today the valley of dry bones
begins to stir, to rattle, and to reverberate.
Behold, I will cause the Spirit to enter you,
and you shall live:
and they lived and stood upon their feet,
an exceeding great host
singing: Alleluia!

Today the Cenacle sealed like tomb
opens, a joyful Mother’s fruitful womb.
None was ever born of the Spirit
who did not take his birth from her,
and each, claiming from her the springs of his life,
calls her forever glorious, repeating: Alleluia!

Today the Spirit is poured out in superabundance;
today sons and daughters prophesy;
today old men dream dreams and young men see visions;
today menservants and maidservants
join the choir to chant with one many-tongued voice: Alleluia!

Today the Virgin whom the Spirit covered with His shadow
is wrapped in Love and crowned in flame.
Today the Woman who interceded at Cana
tastes New Wine, for the Hour has come.
Today the Mother who stood watching by the Tree
remembers the stream of water and of blood
and filled with sweetness, cries: Alleluia!
Today the Spirit helps us in our weakness
and we who do not know to pray as we ought,
pray in a way that is wonderful and new;
for now the Spirit Himself intercedes for us
with sighs too deep for words.
In the valley of the shadow of death
there rises the canticle of life: Alleluia!

Today, for the poor there is a Father,
for the destitute a Treasury,
for hearts grown dark an inblazing of brightness.
Today, for those who weep there comes the Best of Comforters,
for the lonely, there arrives a gentle Guest,
for the worn and weary there is a refreshment so sweet
that even they begin to sing: Alleluia!

Today, for workers there is repose,
for those scorched in the heat of discord, refreshment,
for those brought low by too great a weight of sorrow, solace,
and for those with tears to shed,
a chalice ready to receive them.
Today there is no one who cannot say: Alleluia!

Today, even where there is nothing good
Goodness elects to dwell;
and where there is nothing holy
Holiness makes a tabernacle,
so that the broken, the sad, and the powerless
find their voices to sing: Alleluia!

Today, there is a balm for every wound,
a dew sprinkled over every dryness;
a cleansing water for every stain.
Today, the stubborn heart learns to bend
and the stiff spine learns to bow.
In the twinkling of an eye the frozen are thawed
and icy hearts warmed through and through,
making them declare as never before: Alleluia!

Today there are Seven Gifts
lavishly given for each according to his need:
Wisdom for the foolish,
Understanding for the dull,
Counsel for the hesitant,
Fortitude for the weak,
Piety for the feckless,
and Fear of the Lord for those who have forgotten to adore,
saying humbly: Alleluia

Today for sinners there is forgiveness,
for the stranger a home,
for the hungry a Holy Table,
for the thirsty a river of living water,
and for every mouth the long-awaited Kiss.
Today heaven is poured over the face of the earth,
while the children of men in amazement sing: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

I have another meditation for Pentecost here.

Goya's painting of the repentant Apostle Peter fits today's Gospel. Note the keys resting on a rock directly beneath Saint Peter's hands.

Raised Up by the Hand of Christ

Today the Church gives us the Gospel of a saint who fell as low as one can fall, only to be raised up by the hand of the risen Christ. Mysteriously and powerfully, the Holy Ghost is at work in the fallen Saint Peter and in the risen Christ. In Our Lord's encounter with Saint Peter one senses the same communion in the Holy Ghost that binds priest to penitent, and penitent to priest, in the Sacrament of Penance. The Heart of Jesus goes out to the heart of Peter, and the heart of Peter rises to the Heart of Jesus.

In the Responsorial Psalm we heard that, "as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His abiding mercy toward those who fear Him" (Ps 103:11). The pierced Heart of Jesus draws repentance out of His apostle's heart, broken with compunction. The Heart of Jesus overflows with mercy and forgiveness. The heart of the apostle is burdened with the shame of his betrayal and heavy with sorrow.

Peter's Shame

Peter is ashamed of his weakness, ashamed of having trembled with fear in front of a serving girl who recognized him by his Galilean accent, ashamed of having denied Jesus his Lord, not once but three times. Peter's denial was not a private affair. Everyone knew about it. The other apostles were sickened and embarrassed by it. And yet, the word of the psalm finds here its fulfillment: "As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us" (Ps 103:12).

The Choice of Peter

The ways and choices of God are not the ways and choices of men. As chief shepherd of His Church, Jesus did not designate John, the beloved disciple who rested his head upon the Bridegroom's breast at the Mystical Supper, John who stood faithful with Mary, the Mother of Jesus at the foot of His Cross. He chose rather Peter -- insecure, bumbling, fearful Peter. Peter was to be the pillar of the Church's faith, the servant of the Church's unity, the shepherd chosen to nourish the lambs of Christ and care for His sheep.

Another shepherd, Saint Aelred, the gentle abbot of Rievaulx in the twelfth century, prayed:

O Good Shepherd Jesus,
good, gentle, tender Shepherd,
behold a shepherd, poor and pitiful,
a shepherd of Thy sheep indeed,
but weak and clumsy and of little use,
cries out to Thee.
To Thee, I say, Good Shepherd,
this shepherd, who is not good, makes his prayer.
He cries to Thee,
troubled upon his own account,
and troubled for Thy sheep.
(Saint Aelred of Rievaulx, The Pastoral Prayer)

Reparation

In reparation for his triple denial, Jesus invites Peter to make a triple profession of love. "Simon, Son of John, lovest thou me?" (Jn 21:17) With each profession of love comes a responsibility to nourish and care for the lambs of Christ. One cannot profess to love Christ the Head without enfleshing that love in the feeding and care of Christ's members.

Reparation

It is for us today as it was for Peter then. No matter what our weaknesses are, no matter what our betrayals may have been, Jesus invites us to profess our love, to confess our attachment to Him. He invites us to reparation. Reparation is the love offered to the Heart of Jesus to make up for our denials, for our indifference, and for our want of trust in His mercy. Reparation is also the prayer by which we offer ourselves to Him for the healing of all who are fragmented by sin, wounded, and sick of soul. Adoration of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, close to His Open Heart, remains the privileged expression of our desire to make reparation.

The Great Thanksgiving

Our Lord nourishes us with His Word and with the Sacred Mysteries of His Body and Blood, that we might nourish one another and, out of the grace of compunction, offer a broken world the healing that we ourselves have received. The work of reparation flows out of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and returns to it. The Mass is the Great Thanksgiving of those "repaired," that is, made whole, by the love of Christ and the action of the Holy Ghost.

Follow Me

In the end we are left with Our Lord's enigmatic and prophetic command to Saint Peter, "Follow Me" (Jn 21:19). Implicit in this command is the gift of the Divine Paraclete, for apart from the Holy Spirit there can be no sequela Christi, no following of Christ. At the close of the Holy Sacrifice, Our Lord says "Follow me" to each of us; the Holy Mysteries are viaticum, food for the journey, and sustenance for the passage out of ourselves into the mystery of Christ. "Follow Me," He says, "follow Me into the unknown. Follow Me into the unfamiliar. Follow Me into the uncharted. Follow Me into the unforeseen.

"Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art Mine. When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee: For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour" (Is 43:2-4).

He Abjured Protestantism

May 30th is the feast of someone very dear to me -- for the obvious reason -- Saint Luke Kirby, priest and martyr. Born in 1549 in England under Edward VI -- an England severed from its Catholic roots -- Saint Luke was educated at Cambridge. He abjured Protestantism and was reconciled to the Catholic Church at Louvain. He studied for the priesthood at Douai College, then in Rome, and was ordained at Cambrai in 1577 for the English mission.

A Catholic Priest

As the world measures such things, Father Kirby's missionary apostolate was a failure because it lasted but a few hours. He set out for England in the same valiant band that included Saint Edmund Campion, Saint Ralph Sherwin, and others, and made his way eventually to Dunkirk. He was arrested immediately upon landing at Dover in June 1580. His crime: simply being a Catholic priest. The threat he posed to national security: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered according to the Roman Missal. The young Father Kirby risked his life, and lost it, to bring the Sacrifice of the Mass to England.

VATICAN CITY, MAY 27, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is the text of the letter Cláudio Cardinal Hummes, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, wrote in preparation for The Year of the Priest, which will begin on June 19th.

Dear Priests,

That Priests May Be Happy and Holy

The Year for Priests, announced by our beloved Pope Benedict XVI to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the death of the saintly Curé of Ars, St. John Mary Vianney, is drawing near. It will be inaugurated by the Holy Father on the 19th June, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests. The announcement of the Year for Priests has been very warmly received, especially amongst priests themselves. Everyone wants to commit themselves with determination, sincerity and fervor so that it may be a year amply celebrated in the whole world -- in the Dioceses, parishes and in every local community -- with the warm participation of our Catholic people who undoubtedly love their priests and want to see them happy, holy and joyous in their daily apostolic labors.

The Church Is Proud of Her Priests

It must be a year that is both positive and forward looking in which the Church says to her priests above all, but also to all the Faithful and to wider society by means of the mass media, that she is proud of her priests, loves them, honors them, admires them and that she recognizes with gratitude their pastoral work and the witness of the their life. Truthfully priests are important not only for what they do but also for who they are. Sadly, it is true that at the present time some priest have been shown to have been involved in gravely problematic and unfortunate situations. It is necessary to investigate these matters, pursue judicial processes and impose penalties accordingly. However, it is also important to keep in mind that these pertain to a very small portion of the clergy. The overwhelming majority of priests are people of great personal integrity, dedicated to the sacred ministry; men of prayer and of pastoral charity, who invest their entire existence in the fulfillment of their vocation and mission, often through great personal sacrifice, but always with an authentic love towards Jesus Christ, the Church and the people, in solidarity with the poor and the suffering. It is for this reason that the Church is proud of her priests wherever they may be found.

Days of Recollection and Spiritual Exercises

May this year be an occasion for a period of intense appreciation of the priestly identity, of the theology of the Catholic priesthood, and of the extraordinary meaning of the vocation and mission of priests within the Church and in society. This will require opportunities for study, days of recollection, spiritual exercises reflecting on the Priesthood, conferences and theological seminars in our ecclesiastical faculties, scientific research and respective publications.

The Eucharist: Heart of Priestly Spirituality

The Holy Father, in announcing the Year in his allocution on the 16th March last to the Congregation for the Clergy during its Plenary Assembly, said that with this special year it is intended "to encourage priests in this striving for spiritual perfection on which, above all, the effectiveness of their ministry depends". For this reason it must be, in a very special way, a year of prayer by priests, with priests and for priests, a year for the renewal of the spirituality of the presbyterate and of each priest. The Eucharist is, in this perspective, at the heart of priestly spirituality. Thus Eucharistic adoration for the sanctification of priests and the spiritual motherhood of religious women, consecrated and lay women towards priests, as previously proposed some time ago by the Congregation for the Clergy, could be further developed and would certainly bear the fruit of sanctification.

Priests in Poverty and Hardship

May it also be a year in which the concrete circumstances and the material sustenance of the clergy will be considered, since they live, at times, in situations of great poverty and hardship in many parts of the world.

Priestly Communion and Friendship

May it be a year as well of religious and of public celebration which will bring the people -- the local Catholic community -- to pray, to reflect, to celebrate, and justly to give honor to their priests. In the ecclesial community a celebration is a very cordial event which expresses and nourishes Christian joy, a joy which springs from the certainty that God loves us and celebrates with us. May it therefore be an opportunity to develop the communion and friendship between priests and the communities entrusted to their care.

Local Churches

Many other aspects and initiatives could be mentioned that could enrich the Year for Priests, but here the faithful ingenuity of the local churches is called for. Thus, it would be good for every Dioceses and each parish and local community to establish, at the earliest opportunity, an effective program for this special year. Clearly it would be important to begin the Year with some notable event. The local Churches are invited on the 19th June next, the same day on which the Holy Father will inaugurate the Year for Priests in Rome, to participate in the opening of the Year, ideally by some particular liturgical act and festivity. Let those who are able most surely come to Rome for the inauguration, to manifest their own participation in this happy initiative of the Pope.

God will undoubtedly bless with great love this undertaking; and the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the Clergy, will pray for each of you, dear priests.

Cardinal Cláudio Hummes
Archbishop Emeritus of São Paulo
Prefect, Congregation for the Clergy

Désiré-Joseph Cardinal Mercier (1851-1926) was Archbishop of Malines, Belgium from 1906 until his death. Besides the heroic leadership he demonstrated during World War I, Cardinal Mercier hosted the famous Catholic-Anglican dialogue known as the Malines Conversations, and obtained the establishment of the liturgical feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatress of All Graces with its proper Mass and Office. His spiritual mentor was Blessed Dom Columba Marmion. Here, in his own words, is the daily practice he recommended:

I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness.

Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world, in order to enter into yourself. Then, in the sanctity of your baptized soul (which is the temple of the Holy Spirit), speak to that Divine Spirit, saying to Him:

O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me. Tell me what I should do. Give me your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your Will.

If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely, and full of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be proportioned to the trial, giving you strength to carry it, and you will arrive at the Gate of Paradise laden with merit. This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity.

Drawing upon the traditional mysteries of the rosary -- Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious, and the new mysteries of Light proposed by Pope John Paul II -- it becomes possible to pray through seven mysteries that, in a special way, reveal the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. I find it practical to use my Seven Dolours Rosary, with its "seven times seven" series of beads for this persevering invocation of the Holy Spirit through Mary.

1. The Annunciation, the “Proto-Pentecost” in which the Virgin is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:35). Ask for the Gift of Wisdom.

2. The Visitation in which Elizabeth, “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:42), greets the Mother of her Lord. Ask for the Gift of Understanding.

3. The Baptism of Jesus, at which the Holy Spirit descended upon him “in bodily form, as a dove” (Lk 3:22). Ask for the Gift of Counsel.

4. The Wedding Feast at Cana (Jn 2:1-11) at which, in response to the intervention of his Mother, Jesus provides wine in abundance prefiguring the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Ask for the Gift of Fortitude.

5. The Death of Jesus Crucified who, “bowing his head, handed over his spirit” (Jn 19:30). Ask for the Gift of Knowledge.

6. The Resurrection of Jesus who, appearing to the disciples “on the evening of that day, the first day of the week” (Jn 20:19), “breathed on them, and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Jn 20:22). Ask for the Gift of Piety.

7. The Descent of the Holy Spirit “when the day of Pentecost had come” (Ac 2:1). Ask for the Gift of Holy Fear.

A Missionary-Monk

The Year of the Priest will begin on Friday, June 19th, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It may well spark a greater interest in models of priestly holiness. Today, for example, is the dies natalis of Father Leopoldo Pastori (1939-1996), an Italian missionary monk in Guinea-Bissau.

The Will of the Father

Born in Lodi, Italy on February 9, 1939, Leopoldo entered the PIME Fathers (Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions) in September 1957. On May 1, 1961, he received the clerical habit. In his photo album of pictures taken that day, Leopoldo wrote:

Come Gesù giovinetto, mi porto all' altare del Padre e con Gesù offro la mia giovinezza per fare la volontà del Padre. Non c'è cosa più bella al mondo che fare sempre e ovunque la volontà di Dio: fonte di pace e di consolazione.

"Like the young lad Jesus, I bring myself to the altar of the Father and with Jesus I offer my youth to do the will of the Father. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than always and everywhere to do the will of God: the wellspring of peace and of consolation."

To Love the Madonna and Make Her Loved

Maria! Ecco un tesoro che vengo a scoprire continuamente. La mia vestizione è stata tanto bella e felice perché mi ero preparato con la Madonna. Maria ! Se ho un desiderio forte, è quello di amare tanto e di far amare la Madonna.

"Mary! Behold a treasure that I am coming to discover continually. My vestition was so beautiful and happy because I prepared myself with the Madonna. Mary! If I have one strong desire it is this one: to love the Madonna so much, and to make her loved."

Changing Times

Leopoldo was ordained a priest on June 29, 1969. Instead of being sent straightaway to the foreign missions, he was assigned to the PIME Minor Seminary built by Blessed John XXIII in Sotto Il Monte. The ideological climate was marked by May 1968. A popular slogan among confused young clerics was, "Obedience is no longer a virtue." Leopoldo remained constant, faithful to his life of prayer and to the ascetical disciplines he had chosen for himself.

To the Missions

In 1972, Father Leopoldo went for the first time to visit the PIME missions in Guinea-Bissau. In 1974, at thirty-five years of age, he was assigned to those same missions. To his friends he wrote, "I am leaving in the name of Jesus and for love of Him; only in this why can I feel that my life is right." He devotes himself to the poor, visits the sick, and forms a local orchestra for young people. His afternoons are given to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to reading. Father Leopoldo wrote:

Il lavoro è importantissimo, l'impegno e le attività importantissimi, necessari, ma se non c'è un'unione insistente, profonda e frequente con Gesù, soprattutto nell'Eucarestia, tutto il resto non serve a niente, finisce solo in una delusione, in mani vuote, nel cercare continuamente di seminare ma seminare a vuoto.

"Work is most important, duties and activity are most important and necessary, but if there is not an insistant, profound, and frequent union with Jesus, above all in the Eucharist, all the rest is worth nothing, it ends only in a delusion, in empty hands, trying continually to sow the seed, but sowing in a void."

Illness

In July 1977 Father Leopoldo is found to be suffering from hepatitis. He is hospitalized in the international clinic in Dakar. He accepts the solitude of his hospitalization, prays constantly, and seeks union with Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. He goes to the Benedictines in Cap-des-Biches for a month of convalescence. In March 1978 he returns to Italy to serve as rector of the seminary at Sotto Il Monte. He remains there until 1996.

Prego sempre che il Signore, dopo questo forzato "esilio", mi dia la grazia di ritornare ancora in Guinea. Il vescovo mi aspetta.

"I am always praying that the Lord, after this forced exile, will give me the grace to return again to Guinea. The bishop is waiting for me."

Silence

On September 23, 1990, Father Leopoldo receives his missionary crucifix for the second time. He returns to Guinea on December 16, 1990. He will remain there for five and a half years: the most fruitful years of his life.

Sto acclimatandomi bene in questa nuova casa, con una bellissima chiesa. Mi trovo bene. Per ora faccio la vita del missionario-monaco, attorniato da un silenzio profondo, cadenzato dal richiamo di tanti uccelli, cicale, grilli, e dai canti notturni dei villaggi vicini. . . . A poco a poco mi inserisco nel lavoro, che è soprattutto di animazione spirituale, approfondimento dei contenuti missionari alla gente.

"I am acclimatizing myself well in this new house with a most beautiful church. I am well here. For the moment I am leading the life of a missionary-monk, surrounded by a profound silence, marked by the calls of so many birds, cicadas, crickets, and by the nocturnal songs of the villages . . . . Little by little I insert myself into the work: mostly spiritual direction, the deepening of the missionary message to the people."

Father Leopoldo has deep spiritual affinities with Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, and with Blessed Charles de Jésus (de Foucauld), whom he calls, quoting Pope Paul VI, "one of the greatest missionaries of the century."

Five Hours of Prayer Daily

Prayer holds the first place in Father Leopoldo's missionary life:

Sto cercando di vivere il mio ideale: essere missionario-contemplativo per annunziare Cristo in modo credibile ("Redemptoris Missio", n. 91). Do molto tempo alla preghiera davanti all'Eucarestia, almeno cinque ore al giorno, come facevano i primi missionari del Pime. E sto provando, dato che Gesù vuole crescere e io diminuire, che la preghiera sta diventando continua, di giorno e, quando mi sveglio, di notte!

"I am seeking to live my ideal: to be a missionary-contemplative so as to announce Christ in a credible manner ("Redemptoris Missio," n. 91). I give much time to prayer before the Eucharist, at least five hours a day, as did the first PIME missionaries. And I am experiencing, given that Jesus wants to increase and wants me to decrease, that prayer is becoming continual, by day, and when I wake up, by night."

Sixth Monday of Paschaltide

Acts 16:11-15
John 15:26--16:4

Three Fundamental Values

Saint Luke's account of the conversion of Lydia Purpuraria (the dealer in purple stuffs) is a paradigm of three fundamental monastic values: 1) Lydia listens to the Word with an open heart; 2) she is baptized, 3) she practices hospitality. These three elements come down to us in a somewhat stylized form as lectio divina, a listening to the Word that leads to conversion; as the Opus Dei, the full sacramental and liturgical life; and as sacred Hospitality, the service of Christ in guests who, according to Saint Benedict, are never lacking.

By the River

Saint Luke places Lydia at the center of a tableau rich in details. It is the Sabbath, the day of repose in God, the day of listening to the Word. Paul and his companions go outside the city gates. There is a place of prayer by the river. We are given to understand that this is an "unofficial" place of prayer, not a synagogue. In order to hold a proper synagogal liturgy the presence of at least ten men is required. Luke mentions only the presence of women. This "assembly of women," irregular and marginal in its own way, is the context for Lydia's hearing of the Word. "God's word is not chained" (2 Tim 2:9), and "the Spirit blows wherever it pleases" (Jn 3:8).

Lydia and Mary of Bethany

Lydia is a professional woman, a merchant dealing in purple dyed fabrics. I imagine her to be smart, capable, a good judge of character. She is already an adorer of God, that is to say, one who adheres to the worship of the God of Israel. Adoration of the one God, the God of Israel, has prepared her heart to receive the seed of the Gospel. Lydia was "all ears" because the Lord had opened her heart to heed what was said by Paul (Ac 16:14). The Word Himself says, "No one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father" (Jn 6:65). Reception of the Word of God is itself a gift of God. It is the Lord who opens the ear of the heart to the Word. Luke's portrait of Lydia bears a certain resemblance to his portrait of Mary of Bethany who "sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching" (Lk 10:39).

The Sacramental Finality of the Word

Through ears opened by the Lord, Lydia receives the Word of God into her heart. This is the very substance of lectio divina. For Lydia, it leads to Baptism. The Word is fulfilled in the Mysteries, in the Opus Dei, the work wrought by God for us. Every hearing of the Word has this sacramental finality. The celebration of the Holy Mysteries delivers what the Word proclaims. We experience the same pattern in every Mass: the Word proclaimed, heard, repeated, and prayed sends us to the altar for its actualization in the Mystery of Sacrifice.

The Divine Hospitality

Lectio divina and Opus Dei come to fruition in service and, particularly, in hospitality. Lydia, having experienced the hospitality of God in Word and in Sacrament, witnesses to the Divine Hospitality by extending it. Having opened her heart to the Word, she opens her home to Paul and his companions. This is the very foundation of monastic Hospitality. All of us, guests and sojourners in the house of God, "hospitalized" in His Word, and nourished from the altar of His Sacrifice, are compelled to go and do the same.

Come, Holy Spirit

Lectio divina, Opus Dei, and Hospitality -- each being sacramental in its own way -- imply the secret action of the Paraclete promised by Our Lord in the Gospel. In lectio divina, as in the Opus Dei, and in sacred Hospitality, we witness the presence and action of the same Holy Spirit who, in the Holy Sacrifice will descend today upon the holy oblations and upon ourselves.

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Cher M. l'abbé,

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Veuillez croire, M. l'abbé, à l'expression de mes sentiments les plus respectueux.

Sixth Sunday of Paschaltide B

John 15:9-17
1 John 4:7-10
Acts 10:25-26. 34-35.

Photo of a window in the chapel of All Saints Convent, Oxford, by Fra Lawrence, O.P.

When Love Awakens Love

Love alone can awaken love. Love is always a resurrection, a springing from death to life, a passage from solitude to communion, a calling forth from the chill darkness of the tomb into a pure and wonderful light. The Father's love for us was revealed when He sent into the world His only-begotten Son (Jn 3:17) so that we could have life through Him. This is the love that is life-giving: not our love for God, but God's love for us revealed in the friendship of Christ (1 Jn 4:10). "I have called you friends," He says (Jn 15:15).

Catholic Love

We have heard so many times that God loves us that we are in danger of being lullabyed into a religion of comfortable sentimentality, one that, as Father Aidan Kavanagh would say, "tucks us in with feather puffs." Institutionalized Christianity is all too easily subverted by the socially acceptable gospel of niceness, by a religion that finds the saccharine verses in greeting cards interchangeable with the hard, bracing words of the Gospel. A Catholicism that makes few demands on us, that offers a cheap consolation, and leaves us relatively untouched, unmoved, and undisturbed, is no Catholicism at all, certainly not the Catholicism of the apostles, the martyrs, and the mystics.

With Riven Heart

It is easy to forget that the revelation of God's infinite love for us is something which burns, which pierces, which wounds, which sets us all ablaze. I am reminded of the words of a Franciscan poet of the thirteenth century:

Before I knew its power, I asked in prayer
For love of Christ, believing it was sweet;
I thought to breathe a calm and tranquil air,
On peaceful heights where tempests never beat.
Torment I find instead of sweetness there.
My heart is riven by the dreadful heat;
Of these strange things to treat
All words are vain;
By bliss I am slain,
And yet I live and move.
(Jacopone da Todi, Lauda 90)

This searing experience of Divine Love has nothing in common with the complacent, insipid sort of piety that so many confuse with authentic Christianity. This experience of the friendship of Christ is wounding; it has nothing in common with a friendship content with vague sentiments and the occasional nod to a conventional piety.

As the Father Has Loved Me

Today's Gospel is a passionate declaration of love on the part of God. It comes from the mouth of Jesus, the Father's Eternal Word, the Friend and Lover of our souls. Like a flame, it leaps out of the blazing furnace of His Heart. "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you" (Jn 15:9).

How does the Father love the Son? The Father loves the Son infinitely, immeasurably, eternally, ineffably, from before the creation of the world unto the ages of ages. The Son is pure response to that love, equally perfect, equally eternal. So intense, so immense, so alive is the ebb and flow of love between the Father and the Son that it is their Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Love with which God the Father loves the Son. The Holy Spirit is the Love with which God the Son loves the Father. The Holy Spirit is the embrace of the Father and the Son, the Kiss of the Mouth of God.

The Holy Spirit

Today, Our Divine Lord says to us, "As the Father has loved me so I have loved you" (Jn 15:9). Christ's love for us brings us -- created and finite human beings -- into the circle of God's Trinitarian life, not as mere spectators, but as participants. Christ loves us with the same burning, boundless, love with which He Himself is loved by the Father. The seal of that love is the Holy Spirit. Jesus says to us, "Abide in my love" (Jn 15:9 ), which means, "Abide in my Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit is the seal of our friendship with Christ. "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15), and that you may grasp this, I give you my Holy Spirit, the Kiss of My Mouth.

A Love Stretched and Broadened

The words of Jesus, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you" (Jn 15:9) are completed by these other words, "Love one another as I have loved you" (Jn 15:12). Christ loves us with all the wideness of His mercy; He loves us with a love that cannot be measured. We, for our part, love selectively and cautiously. We have set ideas about who is lovable, and who is not; we have our own private criteria for determining who is worthy of our love, and who is not. We love narrowly, not widely. We exclude certain categories of people. We are reluctant to invest love in people too different from ourselves. Different race, different background, different religion. Different tastes, different culture, different appearance, different values, different politics. The lists could go on and on.

In today's lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, we see Saint Peter's capacity for love stretched and broadened by circumstances, and by the Holy Spirit. Peter's change of heart takes place in three steps. In verse 28, Peter says, "God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean" (Ac 10:28). In verse 35, he stretches a little more: "Truly, I perceive that God shows no partiality . . . . In every nation anyone who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him" (Ac 10:35). Finally, in verse 47, his change of heart is complete: "These people, he says, have received the Holy Spirit just as we have" (Ac 10: 47). Peter begins to love people different from himself. Peter begins to love as Christ loves.

By the Holy Spirit

How can we, narrow-hearted sinners, wounded by life's hurts--selfish, impatient, and limited -- how can we ever hope to love each other as Christ loves us? The point is, of course, that it is impossible. The realization that the Christian life is impossible is precisely what begins to make it possible. We cannot love one another as Christ has loved us, except by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is not the optional Person of the Most Holy Trinity. Christ was conceived in the Virgin Mary's womb by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians are brought to birth in the bath of regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit. Bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Christians are made, not by dint of their own efforts to love, but by "God's love poured forth into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). The Holy Spirit is Christ's first gift to those who believe. The Holy Spirit is fire, consuming our sins, cauterizing our wounds, purifying us of the selfishness, narrow-mindedness, and fear that thwart our best attempts to love as Christ loves.

Seven Gifts

The Holy Spirit dilates the hearts' capacity for love. The Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to correspond to the friendship of Christ and to love as Christ loves by gracing us with His seven gifts. Tradition identifies them as wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord. These gifts of the Holy Spirit make us capable of a bold love, an inventive love, a wise love, a sacrificial love. Thus what was impossible becomes possible. This is what we see and admire in the lives of the saints.

Twelve Fruits

When we begin to rely on the Holy Spirit's gifts more than on ourselves, fruits of the Holy Spirit begin to blossom, to develop, and to mature. The tradition of the Church, based on Saint Paul (Gal 5:22-23), lists twelve of them: "charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity (CCC, 1832).

Fruitful Friendship

By the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit, we are able to do what Jesus commands us. Without them, the Christian life is impossible. And if, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we do what Christ commands us, then we become more than the servants of Christ (Jn 15:15), we become, according to the desire of His Heart, His friends (Jn 15:15), His intimates, those with whom He is pleased to share everything He has heard from His Father (Jn 15:15), the secrets of His mercy, of His wisdom, of His love.

Jesus commissions us to go and bear fruit, fruit that will abide (Jn 15:16). The fruit we bear manifests the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the Church. The fruits of the Holy Spirit are dependent upon the Spirit's seven gifts. The seven gifts themselves are grafted onto the virtues of faith, hope and charity, the theological virtues infused by the Holy Spirit at Baptism and Confirmation. The same Holy Spirit is given us afresh in every Eucharist, overshadowing altar and assembly, descending to gather us into the circle of Trinitarian love, and into its earthly manifestation, the communion of the Church.

Toward Pentecost

The liturgy begins to prepare us for Pentecost, inviting us to make ready our hearts for the breath of the risen Christ who says "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22). Prepare then for the "rush of a mighty wind" (Ac 2:2) and for "tongues as of fire" (Ac 2:3). Already, the liturgy invites us to lift our faces heavenward that we might receive anew the Kiss of the Mouth of God. Why not pray in the words of the Song of Songs, "O that you would kiss me with the kiss of your mouth" (Ct 1:2)?

And the Inexhaustible Chalice

In just a few moments, we will approach the Inexhaustible Chalice, if not by a movement of the feet, then by a movement of the heart by the vehemence of a holy desire that God will honour. He will not send the hungry away empty. The friendship of Christ is not paralyzed by the dullness of our bureaucracies and the impersonal strictures of a system that, at times, seems distant, faceless, and even heartless. Nothing can separate us from the friendship of Christ; nothing can come between those to whom He says, "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15) and the love revealed on His Face and in His pierced Heart. Receive the Eucharistic infusion of the Holy Spirit, if not in eating and drinking the Holy Mysteries, then by desiring them with a great desire. He who says, "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15), wants nothing but that "His joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (cf. Jn 15:11).

A faithful friend of mine in the Eternal City, an Apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, sent me this text from a booklet by Cardinal Pironio: "Povertà e Speranza." The passage is taken from the chapter entitled "Speranza e contemplazione." The English translation is my own.

In generale noi ci angustiamo e disperiamo quando non abbiamo tempo e tranquillità per pregare. I monaci non solo ci acquietano perché sono un segno di quello che deve venire (i beni futuri che aspettiamo), ma soprattutto perché ci introducono nell'invisibile di Dio e ci fanno sperimentare ora la sua presenza. L'esperienza di Dio nell'orazione ci inonda della 'letizia della speranza' (Rom 12:12). E' cosa tremenda, infatti, quando un monaco lascia la contemplazione attratto dall'illusione di trasformare il mondo con un'attività immediata. Il suo modo specifico di cambiare il mondo, di costruire la storia e di salvare l'uomo, è continuare ad essere profondamente contemplativo. Vero uomo di Dio e maestro di orazione. Cioè, un autentico veggente.

In general we give in to anguish and despair when we don't have the time and tranquility to pray. Not only do monks still themselves because they are a sign of what is to come (the good things in the future that we await), but above all because they introduce us into the invisible of God and allow us to experience His presence now. The experience of God in secret prayer floods us with "the joy of hope" (Rom 12:12). It is a frightful thing, in fact, when a monk, attracted by the illusion of transforming the world with an immediate activity, forsakes contemplation. His specific manner of changing the world, of building history and of saving man, is to continue being profoundly contemplative. A true man of God and a master of secret prayer. Therefore, an authentic seer.

The antiphon Ad Benedictus this morning, with its lilting seventh mode melody, is an apt portrayal of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the life of Saint Pachomius. The text is Isaiah 35:1.

Laetabitur deserta et exsultabit solitudo et florebit sicut lilium, alleluia.

Thrills the barren desert with rejoicing, the wilderness takes heart, and blossoms, fair as the lily, alleluia.

Julian Green wrote a book entitled "Chaque homme dans sa nuit," -- Each Man in His Night; one might also speak of "each man in his desert." Irrigated by the living water of the Holy Spirit life's deserts become gardens, and joy comes to inhabit the solitudes of the heart.

The Collect is a jewel:

Deus, qui beatum Pacomium abbatem
ad doctrinae virtutumque culmina pervenire fecisti,
concede, quaesumus, ut eius exemplo,
panem Verbi tui primum quaeramus
a quo mentes lumen accipunt et corda quietem.

O God, Who didst raise the blessed abbot Pachomius
to the heights of doctrine and of virtue,
grant that we, by following his example,
may seek before all else the bread of Thy Word:
light for our minds, and stillness for our hearts.

-- Or, one may want to render that last line, "by which our minds are illumined and our hearts quieted."

The example of the Desert Fathers, of desert-dwellers, of hermits, and of monks speaks to all of us. There is no desert that cannot be reclaimed for Christ; there is no barrenness that cannot be made fertile by the action of the Holy Spirit.

John 15:9-17

Go and Bear Fruit

In the Roman Missal the Mass for the feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle begins, not with an antiphon drawn from the Psalms as it usually does, but with a word of Our Lord: "You did not choose Me, says the Lord, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide" (Jn 15: 16). The same word is given us again in the Gospel. How extraordinary that while we are yet on the threshold of the Holy Sacrifice, Jesus should address a word -- and such a word -- to us. Before we had a chance to open our mouths, He spoke to us. He revealed to us the choice of His love and His desire, even more, His design that we should bear fruit, fruit that will abide.

The Gospel of Life

A Christian cannot be barren. "My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, He takes away" (Jn 15:2). Spiritual sterility is incompatible with the choice of God. God wants us fruitful; he wants us to be bearers of life, givers of life, witnesses to the life that courses from the True Vine into every branch and tendril.

The Contraceptive Mentality

Just as there can be in the natural order a "contraceptive mentality" that thwarts and inhibits the transmission of the gift of life, so too there can be in the supernatural order a "contraceptive mentality" that thwarts and inhibits the transmission of the life of grace. There is such a thing as "sterilization" of the soul -- a reversible state because of God's ever-ready mercy -- but a frightening reality nonetheless.

Spiritual Fecundity

Spiritual fecundity is not always visible. The children of our prayers and tears may remain unknown to us in this life but we will see their faces in heaven. Our part here below is to accept the responsibilities of spiritual fatherhood and motherhood. "You did not choose me, but I chose you" (Jn 15:16).

Families of Souls

Parents consecrated in marriage have a spiritual fatherhood and motherhood of the children they have brought into the word; it is not enough to provide housing, food, drink, clothing, healthcare, education, security, and affection. There is something more. The married couple is called to spiritual fecundity and this long after the passing of the natural seasons of bearing and raising children, right into eternity. Spiritual parenting is a coordinate of the baptismal priesthood in the state of married life. Father and Mother are sweet names in the mouths of a couple's children; they are made sweeter by the Holy Spirit who reveals their meaning in the family of souls.

The Johannine Fatherhood of the Priest

The priest is called to fatherhood; he refuses this fatherhood or minimizes it at the peril of his own soul because it was for this priestly fruitfulness that he was chosen by Christ. The priest is called to cherish the Mystical Body of Christ and to nourish it, to play an indispensable role in the transmission of divine life. Spiritual fatherhood is actualized sacramentally in preaching, in hearing confessions, and in the celebration of the other sacraments, above all in offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. There is also a hidden aspect to the fatherhood of the priest: suffering and the secret prayer that pleads the Blood of Christ over every sorrow and every wound opened by sin. The fatherhood of the priest -- his Johannine fatherhood -- grows out of his contemplation of the pierced Heart of the Crucified. It is the wound from which flows life, "life in abundance" cf. Jn 10:10).

The Marian Motherhood of the Consecrated Woman

The consecrated woman, be she in a monastery or in an apostolic congregation, is called to spiritual fecundity, to the joys and sorrows of a real motherhood of souls. Just as the fatherhood of the priest is Johannine,the motherhood of the consecrated woman is Marian. The sister who hesitates before the motherhood to which Christ calls her or who, at some level, resists growing into it, is spiritually contracepting. She risks becoming the barren wife so often lamented in Scripture. The sister who says "Yes" to the fecundity willed for her by Christ enters deeply into the mystery of Mary and of the Church. The fruitfulness of spiritual motherhood is rarely visible, obliging the consecrated woman to live an intense faith, an austere hope and, at times, a crucifying love. The reality is that on the other side of eternity every sister made fruitful in Christ will be called Mother and, appearing before the face of God will be able to say, "Here am I, and the children God has given me" (Heb 2:13).

And Friends of Christ

The vocation to the fatherhood and motherhood of souls is daunting. It would be altogether frightening except for one thing. He who said, "I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit" (Jn 15:16) also says today, "I have called you friends" (Jn 15:15). The Most Holy Eucharist is the sign of that friendship and the source of all fecundity. And the Church is in every age "a fruitful vine" with her children "like olive plants around her table" (cf. Ps 127:3).

Judging from some recent comments, I think it may be helpful to say something about the practice of Eucharistic adoration in the home for those who, for one reason or another, cannot go to a church or chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. The zealous apostle of this kind of adoration in the home was a priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary of Perpetual Adoration, Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey (1875-1960). Father Mateo wrote:

Not every one is able to make the hour of Eucharistic Adoration in the church, particularly at night. Must they be deprived, then, of the honor and privilege of consoling the Divine Prisoner, alone and forsaken in so many tabernacles? By no means! In the sanctuary of their homes, let them prostrate themselves in spirit before the tabernacle, and, in union with the Priests who at that moment, in some part of the world, are offering the Sacrifice of Calvary to the Trinity, let them adore, praise, petition and atone in the name of their own and other families who offend and sadden the Sacred Heart by their daily denial of His rights as King.

It is helpful to make one's adoration at home in front of a blessed image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or of the Holy Face. There are many people suffering from chronic illnesses, who are unable to go to a church where the Blessed Sacrament is present. They are not deprived of the graces flowing from Eucharistic adoration, and their prayer, even if it is made from a sickbed or a chair, is all the more precious in the sight of Our Lord, insofar as they unite it with patience to His own sufferings. One might say something like this;

Lord Jesus Christ,
my desire and the intention of my heart
is to pray before Thy holy image as if I were in Thy Eucharistic presence.
Transport my soul before the tabernacle where
Thou art most forsaken at this hour,
and there let me offer Thee my desire to adore Thee,
and my love,
in a spirit of reparation.

Or, like this:

Receive this time before Thee
as an act of adoration and reparation directed to Thee
in the Most Blessed Sacrament,
especially in that tabernacle on earth where Thou art most forsaken.
Make me, especially for the sake of Thy priests and for their sanctification,
a faithful adorer of Thy Eucharistic Face
and of Thy Open Heart hidden in the Sacrament of Thy Love.
Trusting that faith, hope, and love abolish every distance
and transport the soul straightway to the object of its desire,
I will adore Thee now with the same sentiments
of thanksgiving, confidence, and pleading love
that I would have,
were I prostrate before the Sacrament of Thy Body and Blood
hidden in the tabernacle, or exposed to my gaze upon the altar.

On this Feast of Our Lady of Fatima, I would like to conclude by invoking Mary's intercession as I impart my Apostolic Blessing to the children and all of you. Let us pray: Mary, Health of the Sick, Refuge of Sinners, Mother of the Redeemer: we join the many generations who have called you "Blessed". Listen to your children as we call upon your name. You promised the three children of Fatima that "in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph". May it be so! May love triumph over hatred, solidarity over division, and peace over every form of violence! May the love you bore your Son teach us to love God with all our heart, strength and soul. May the Almighty show us his mercy, strengthen us with his power, and fill us with every good thing (cf. Lk 1:46-56). We ask your Son Jesus to bless these children and all children who suffer throughout the world. May they receive health of body, strength of mind, and peace of soul. But most of all, may they know that they are loved with a love which knows no bounds or limits: the love of Christ which surpasses all understanding (cf. Eph 3:19). Amen. (Pope Benedict XVI at Caritas Baby Hospital in Bethlehem, Wednesday 13 May 2009)

My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph

Today's feast of Our Lady of Fatima coincides with the twenty-eighth anniversary of the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in Saint Peter's Square. In Bethlehem, Pope Benedict XVI did not forget Our Lady's feast. He spoke of the three children of Fatima and of the Blessed Virgin Mary's promise to them: "You promised the three children of Fatima that 'in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.' May it be so!" Seven years ago Pope John Paul II declared a Year of the Rosary. In his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary, he called it "a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness." This is worth recalling as the Church prepares to enter into another special year of grace: The Year of the Priest.

Mater Misericordiae

The Rosary is a presence of Mary, the Refuge of Sinners, saying to us in a still, small voice, "Child, never despair of God's mercy." She is Mater Misericordiae, the Mother of Mercy. Where Mary goes the mercy of God follows bringing forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, and peace. If you would know the mercy of God, seek to know the Mother of Mercy. She preserves sinners from the one sin that is greater than all other sins put together, that of despairing of the mercy of God.

Spes Nostra

By making "never to despair of God's mercy" the last of the Instruments of Good Works in Chapter Four of the Holy Rule, Saint Benedict is saying to us, "Even if you fail in all else, even if you fall into grievous sin, hold fast to this and you will not be disappointed in your hope." In the Salve Regina, Mary is called not only Mater misericordiae but also spes nostra. The Rosary is a childlike and humble way of putting our hand in the hand of the Mother of God lest we slip into discouragement, and from discouragement fall into the pit of despair.

The Face of Christ

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima compels us to ask ourselves if, with the passing years, Pope John Paul II's Year of the Rosary has become a distant memory, something vague and without bearing on us seven years later. The Rosary -- a prolonged contemplation of the Face of Christ in the company of Mary -- opens us to the mystery of Our Lord's word on the night before suffered: "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9). If you would see Christ, pray the Rosary. If you would see the glory of the Father shining on the Face of the Son, pray the Rosary.

The Fragrance of the Knowledge of Christ

Do I persevere in the simple but sometimes difficult prayer of the Rosary, or I do I give in to discouragement, laziness, indifference, or routine? Where is the Rosary in my own moments of joy, light, sorrow, and glory? And where is my life in the context of the joys, lights, sorrows, and glories of Christ and of his holy Mother? Like his predecessor Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI is not ashamed to unite himself to little ones the world over who, in simplicity of heart and poverty of spirit, love the Rosary and in praying it breathe in the fragrance of the knowledge of Christ (cf. 2 Cor 2:14).

Penitence

Our Lady of Fatima's message was a call to prayer and to penitence. To prayer first, and then to penitence: this because prayer, especially the humble prayer of the Rosary softens even the most hardened heart, decapitates pride, and makes penitence possible. The grace of conversion of heart is given to those who pray for it, and for this there is no better prayer than the Rosary. One does not first change one's way of life and then begin to pray. One prays first -- and sometimes for a very long time -- in order to be able to receive the grace of inner conversion for oneself or even for another.

For me, what I find most beautiful about the Rosary is that sinners are comfortable praying it. It is a chain that, with each "Hail Mary," binds the heart more strongly to its treasure (cf. Mt 6:21). One need not be perfect to pray the Rosary; one need only be capable of saying again and again, "pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death."

The Poor Man's Rosary

The Rosary is, I said, a simple prayer. That does not mean that it is always easy. At certain times in life, one must be content with what I call "the poor man's Rosary." This may mean that when you are weary, discouraged, and unable to focus, you content yourself with saying a little phrase on each bead instead of the whole prescribed prayer: just "Hail, Mary, full of grace," or just "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus," or just, "Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." Do you think that Our Lady is less pleased with the humble, incomplete stammerings of a little child than with the perfect recitation of one who, by the grace of God, can do more? Many a sleepless night has been filled with the murmurings of the "poor man's Rosary" and in that humble prayer the Mother of God finds an immense joy.

A Path to Contemplation

The Rosary is the simplest and most accessible of prayers. It is, at the same time, a sure path to contemplation, leading ever more deeply, almost imperceptibly, into the stillness of the Most Holy Trinity. The Rosary is a way of abiding with Mary in the radiance of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus. It is a way into the ceaseless prayer of the heart that is an evangelical precept addressed to all: "Jesus told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart" (Lk 18:1). Do that and you will be "filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit" (Ac 13:52). Our Lady of Fatima promises it.

The lovely image of Our Lady of Fatima appearing to the three children is the work of Sister Mary of the Compassion, O.P. Born Constance Mary Rowe on March 17, 1908, she was baptized at the famous Brompton Oratory. Constance Mary Rowe won an international art award, the Prix de Rome, in 1932. In 1935 she left England for New York City, where she had accepted a number of commissions; among them was a drawing of the Dominican Saint Martin de Porres. Constance Mary Rowe was never to return to her beloved England. In 1937 she made profession as a Cloistered Dominican Sister of the Perpetual Rosary at the "Blue Chapel" in Union City, New Jersey. While I had seen her work and read about her in Jubilee magazine, I had the privilege of meeting Sister Mary of the Compassion only shortly before her death in 1977. If I am not mistaken, the "Blue Chapel" Monastery is now in the process of being closed.

The image is Adé Béthune's Christ the Priest. The vine and branches of John 15:1-8 surround the wood of the Cross. Christ is depicted in priestly vesture. Note the maniple on His left arm. Adé shows the glorious wounds in His hands and feet; the wound in His side appears on the outside of the chasuble, making this also an image of the Sacred Heart. Adé always worked with the Bible, Missal, and Breviary close at hand.

 VATICAN CITY, 12 MAY 2009 (VIS) - According to a decree made public today and signed by Cardinal James Francis Stafford and Bishop Gianfranco Girotti, O.F.M. Conv., respectively penitentiary major and regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Benedict XVI will grant priests and faithful Plenary Indulgence for the occasion of the Year for Priests, which is due to run from 19 June 2009 to 19 June 2010 and has been called in honour of St. Jean Marie Vianney.
 
  The period will begin with the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, "a day of priestly sanctification", says the text, when the Pope will celebrate Vespers before the relics of the saint, brought to Rome for the occasion by the bishop of the French diocese of Belley-Ars. The Year will end in St. Peter's Square, in the presence of priests from all over the world "who will renew their faithfulness to Christ and their bonds of fraternity".
 
  The means to obtain the Plenary Indulgence are as follows:
 
  (A) All truly penitent priests who, on any day, devotedly pray Lauds or Vespers before the Blessed Sacrament exposed to public adoration or in the tabernacle, and ... offer themselves with a ready and generous heart for the celebration of the Sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance, will be granted Plenary Indulgence, which they can also apply to their deceased confreres, if in accordance with current norms they take Sacramental Confession and the Eucharist and pray in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. Priests are furthermore granted Partial Indulgence, also applicable to deceased confreres, every time they devotedly recite the prayers duly approved to lead a saintly life and to carry out the duties entrusted to them.
 
  (B) All truly penitent Christian faithful who, in church or oratory, devotedly attend Holy Mass and offer prayers to Jesus Christ, supreme and eternal Priest, for the priests of the Church, or perform any good work to sanctify and mould them to His Heart, are granted Plenary Indulgence, on the condition that they have expiated their sins through Sacramental Confession and prayed in accordance with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. This may be done on the opening and closing days of the Year of Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. Jean Marie Vianney, on the first Thursday of the month, or on any other day established by the ordinaries of particular places for the good of the faithful.
 
  The elderly, the sick and all those who for any legitimate reason are unable to leave their homes, may still obtain Plenary Indulgence if, with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin and with the intention of observing, as soon as they can, the usual three conditions, "on the days concerned, they pray for the sanctification of priests and offer their sickness and suffering to God through Mary, Queen of the Apostles".
 
  Partial Indulgence is offered to all faithful each time they pray five Our Father, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri, or any other duly approved prayer "in honour of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to ask that priests maintain purity and sanctity of life".

Fifth Monday of Paschaltide

Acts 14:5-18
John 14:21-26

And I Will Love Him

I am grateful to the Apostle Saint Jude for the marvelous dialogue recounted in today's Gospel. Our Lord reveals what it means to love Him and to be loved by Him. He declares that anyone who loves Him will be loved by the Father. He promises to love the one who loves Him and to manifest Himself to him. "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

The Way of Love

Saint Jude doesn't immediately grasp what Our Lord is saying. He cannot conceive of a way of knowing Christ apart from the obvious way given to all. Jude seems to think that it is enough to observe Jesus: something that everyone can do. That there should be a higher way of knowing, a more intimate way, the way of love, completely eludes him. "Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?" (Jn 14:22).

We Will Make Our Home With Him

Our Lord explains that the manifestation of Himself to His disciples will be inseparable from His Father's love for them. He promises a mysterious indwelling: "We will come to him and make our home with him" (Jn 14:23). He declares that anyone who loves Him will hold fast to His words. Those who let go of His words, those who fail to store them up in their hearts, will not enjoy the manifestation reserved to His friends. They will remain strangers to the joy of the indwelling of the Father and the Son.

The Heart of Jesus

How can we not relate this Gospel to the tender love Our Lord revealed in manifesting Himself to the friends of His Sacred Heart over the centuries. To each one of them He said in a unique way, "Behold, I love you and manifest Myself to you, even as I promised."

The Virgin Mother and the Virgin Disciple

I am thinking above all of the Virgin Mother beneath whose own Pure Heart His Sacred Heart of flesh first began to beat. I am thinking of Saint John the Beloved Disciple who, inflamed by his experience of the Heart of Jesus, was compelled to write: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life-- the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it" (1 Jn1:1-2).

Lovers of the Sacred Heart

I am thinking of Saint Bernard, Saint Gertrude, Saint Mechthilde, Saint Lutgarde, and Saint Bonaventure. I am thinking of Saint Margaret Mary, of Saint Claude la Colombière, of Blessed Marie de Jésus Deluil-Martiny, of Sister Josefa Menendez, of Father Mateo Crawley-Boevey, Father Jean du Coeur de Jésus d'Elbée, and of so many others. For each one of these men and women Our Lord fulfilled the promise he makes in today's Gospel: "He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him" (Jn 14:21).

Christ's Gift to Us

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, before being a gift of ours offered to Christ is a gift that He offers us. "If you but knew the gift of God!" (Jn 4:10). This is the clear teaching of Pope Pius XII in Haurietis Aquas: "We are perfectly justified in seeing in this same devotion . . . a gift without price which our divine Saviour . . . imparted to the Church, His mystical Spouse in recent centuries when she had to endure such trials and surmount so many difficulties" (HA, art. 2).

The Holy Spirit, Gift of the Heart of the Son

For Pope Pius XII, the Holy Spirit is the first Gift from the Heart of the risen Christ. This too is announced in today's Gospel: "The Counselor, the Holy Spirit Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn 14:26). The work of the Holy Spirit is threefold. (1) The Holy Spirit is our Advocate with the Father, "interceding for us with sighs too deeps for words" because "we do not know how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26). (2) The Holy Spirit is sent to teach us all things, that is, to make clear for us "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8). (3) The Holy Spirit is sent to quicken the memory of the Church, to bring to remembrance all that Christ said, lest any word of His be neglected or forgotten.

Advocate, Teacher, and Prompter

The Holy Spirit is our Advocate, our Teacher, and our Prompter. As Advocate, the Holy Spirit aligns us with the prayer of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the Father; "the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom 8:27), that is, according to the Heart of Christ. As Teacher, the Holy Spirit gives us "the power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" (Eph 3:18); in a word, the Holy Spirit teaches us the Heart of Christ. As Prompter, the Holy Spirit calls to mind the words by which Christ communicates to us all "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:3) hidden in His Sacred Heart.

Today is the feast of the Holy Abbots of Cluny, Odo, Maiolus, Odilon, Hugh, and Peter the Venerable. Each of the first four has a special antiphon dedicated to him at Lauds, the Little Hours, and Vespers:

Odo arose full of the Holy Spirit,
and renewed the beauty of the monastic Order
throughout the world, alleluia.

Maiolus, overflowing with charity and with grace,
and emulating the holiness of the angels,
was lifted high above men in virtue, alleluia.

Odilo showed wondrously what was the charity of his heart,
who, while pitying sufferings of the faithful departed,
yearly decreased them by a sweet refreshment, alleluia.

When blessed Hugh was about to expire
on the day of the sacred rites of the great Sabbath (Holy Saturday),
he greeted the new light of the Paschal Candle,
earnestly praying with sighs
that he might happily reach the promised land, alleluia.

At Vigils I read from an exhortation of Saint Hugh of Cluny:

Ever since we founded this monastery, prepared and helped by the divine clemency, we have very clearly experienced in this place the presence of the compassion of Almighty God and the gaze of His fatherly devotedness.

And here is the Collect of the feast:

O God, refuge and surpassing reward
of those who walk blamelessly in Thy presence,
perfect in us, we beseech Thee,
the love of holy religion,
that by the example and intercession of the blessed Abbots of Cluny
we may run with dilated hearts along the way of charity.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

And, for Mother's Day, another touching excerpt from E. Boyd Barrett's autobiographical A Shepherd Without Sheep:

In spite of his rebellion, his confusion of mind, his human faults, he [the renegade priest] clings to his faith and his hope in Mary. He trusts that she will somehow save him. And when moments of sorrow strike, and he sheds bitter tears over his fate, it is at the feet of his little Mother that he sheds those tears.

For seventy years I have known and loved Mary, though there was a long dark period, a score of years, when my love was weak and no spark at all in it. Many a million times I've asked Mary to help me in my last hour, and it is no small comfort to me to know, for certain, that she will do just that.

Back where memory begins, I see myself lighting an old-fashioned oil lamp before her statue in my little bedroom. It was a sweet statue of her and I knelt there as often as the thrush sings. And sometimes I had flowers for her, that my mother gave me from her garden; heliotrope, or geraniums, or red passionflower, or maybe a bright yellow rose.

Now, at the end of the day, I have another little statue in my room, the Immaculate of Lourdes. There are roses before it, almost all the year round, the loveliest roses, fresh and fair, for they never fail me on this hill. Now, with a kind of trusting pride, I can say to my little Mother: "Listen, Lady! I'm the old man who gives you flowers!"

In A Shepherd Without Sheep (Bruce Publishing, 1956), E. Boyd Barrett, who left the priesthood in stormy circumstances and, after twenty years, was reconciled, and so finished out his life in repentance and peace, writes:

I have no chapel; no altar at which to offer the holiest sacrifice; no pulpit from which to preach. There is no confessional where penitents await counsel and absolution from my lips; no baptismal font where, by the sacrament of regeneration, I may give to the Eternal Father another child. I am a priest, Christ's shepherd, but I have no sheep.

But though I have no sheep, the Prince of Shepherds is my Friend. He needs me; He is my Divine Companion. It is His will that I should be as I am. "Christ is in me," and for me that is enough.

There are others like me, in every country throughout the world, "silenced priests" living hidden lives; hidden from the world; hidden, as far as may be, in Christ. Some are my good friends. . . .

Prayers going up to heaven, in every increasing volume for faithless priests are wondrously fruitful. Many "stray shepherds" heed the call of Christ, who searches for them in the mist. When they see Him again their hearts are moved and they come back. Then there occurs what Luke (2:20) mystically foretold: "The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God."

The Appropriate Response

What is the appropriate response to the media's sensationalization and amplification of the weaknesses of certain priests? In our response there should be nothing harsh, nothing that condemns, nothing swollen with the self-righteousness indignation that was "the leaven of the Pharisees" (Mt 16:6). "Let him who is without sin," says the Lord Jesus, "be the first to cast a stone at him" (Jn 8:7). Read all of John 8: 1-11, and in place of the woman caught in adultery, put the priest caught in sin.

A Resolution

If every time one heard of the moral failing of a priest, one resolved on the spot to pray and fast for him, what miracles of grace might occur? "And when He entered the house, His disciples asked Him privately, 'Why could we not cast it [the unclean spirit] out?' And He said to them, 'This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting'" (Mk 9:28-29).

If every time one heard of the moral failing of a priest, one offered a Rosary for him, or spent an hour before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, or fasted, or gave alms, or even "adopted" him spiritually by offering for him one's weaknesses, sufferings, and losses,
what graces might touch his heart?

Lord, Thou Knowest All Things

The Heart of Jesus is full of tender compassion for sinners; for His priests, His chosen and privileged friends, there is nothing He will not do to lift them when they fall, to bind up their wounds, and to restore them to wholeness. He waits for them to say but one thing, the very thing that Peter said, making reparation for his triple denial: "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee."

Where the world sees scandal, the friend of the Lamb sees an opportunity for reparation, a call to love, a summons to intercession through the Most Pure Heart of Mary. The Heart of Jesus will do the rest.

I am reading the Italian translation of Sacerdotes di Cristo, texts of Conchita Cabrera de Armida, selected and presented with a theological introduction by Juan Gutiérrez González, MSpS, Citta Nuova, 2008. The English translation is my own.

In fact, in my priests the Father sees Me, the only Priest worthy of offering Himself in purity, of immolating Himself efficaciously, of glorifying God as God.

Is not then this predilection of love a most tender act of the will of the Father for the good of the priests who will have represented Me and who will represent Me until the end of the ages?

What esteem do they show for their own vocation, those priests who are shallow, worldly, lukewarm and sinful in spite of their holy, admirable, and incomparable priestly vocation?

All the same there is yet time so that many of them, who until now have remained deaf to the voice of grace, might turn back on their steps, drawn by my incomparable tenderness and by my Heart, which is that of a Saviour, and come to Me. I, with my affection, will cure their wounds; with my power I will free them from the enemy, and give them relief in all their sufferings.

Our Lord to Conchita Cabrera de Armida

Shepherds in the Mist

Not very long ago I finished reading a soul-stirring book: Shepherds in the Mist, by E. Boyd Barrett. Barrett, a Jesuit priest who went astray and then found his way back to the Church, published the odyssey of his own conversion in 1949. In telling the story of his own struggle, Father Barrett, had but one purpose: to move souls to pray for priests, especially for fallen priests, for priests wounded in spiritual combat, and for priests momentarily blinded by passion. In the Preface to his book, Father Barrett writes:

I know that you, fellow Catholics, have charity in your hearts for priests in trouble. I know that you pray for them. But you will want to know, among other things, if there is any way in which you can help them, over and above praying for them. And you will want to be encouraged to pray even more than you are praying and to sacrifice yourselves even more than you are doing for their sakes.

But, besides thinking of you, fellow Catholics of good standing, I am also thinking of our Shepherds in the mist. Some of them will read this book. There are things I want to tell them. Above all, I want to disabuse them of their fear that you have feelings of dislike and resentment against them. I want to tell them that the one burning thought in your minds is how to induce them to come home. I want to reassure them of the fact that it is not hard to come home -- to reassure them that, however rugged his exterior may seem, Peter is kind and gentle with the kindliness and gentleness of Christ.

When a son runs away from home, his mother's one thought is how to get him back again. She worries over his loneliness and sufferings. It is of the dangers that he is in that she thinks, and of the hardships he is undergoing -- not of the faults he has committed. She does not remember the wrong her son has done her by running away; but she dreams of the joy it will be for her when he returns.

Peace and Rest on the Heart of Christ

In 1948 when Father Barrett wrote his book, he was particularly concerned with the plight of priests who, like himself, left the Church and went into the night searching for happiness, wholeness, and love. After an initial period of euphoric relief, most found a gnawing discontent instead of happiness. Further fragmentation instead of wholeness. Loneliness instead of love. The world proved deceiving and its promises empty. Some, like Father Barrett, returned to full sacramental life in the Church, and found peace of heart and rest on the Heart of Christ.

In the Shadows

The past forty years have seen another kind of clerical misery: that of the priest who, while remaining in the Church and keeping up a modicum of outward conformity to what is expected of him, withdraws into a parallel universe of shadows and secrecy. Addictions and vices of all sorts flourish under cover of darkness. The heart of such a priest is painfully divided; the fissure opened by the metastatizing roots of vice exposes the heart to every kind of spiritual infection.

The Drama of Father X

The experience of Father X may help readers to understand how a priest, in spite of all the graces freely offered him, can lose his way.

Off to a Bad Start

Father X was ordained less than ten years at the time of his fall from grace. Intelligent, winning, handsome, and sincere in his youthful desire for holiness, he was "cultivated" by the superior of the religious community who recognized his gifts. He joined the community and, being the superior's protégé, enjoyed a continuous stream of privileges, gifts, opportunities, and promotions.

Late Glittering Nights

A popular guest at ecclesiastical dinner parties and worldly social engagements, Father X enjoyed the compliments and flattery lavished on him wherever he went. Late glittering nights, fine eating and drinking, and stimulating but superficial conversation began to take their toll on his relationship with God. He became addicted to compliments and flattery, and lost his need for silent adoration in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. He began excusing himself from community prayer, from community meals, and community recreation.

Satiety and Emptiness

Admirers showered him with gifts of all sorts. His room became elegantly comfortable; he acquired a taste for the costly and the chic. His magnetism, popularity, and good looks attracted to his religious community the interest of the powerful and the contributions of the wealthy. While his superior looked on approvingly, Father's life became a whirlwind as he rushed from one social or cultural event to another. Increasingly, between events, he began to experience moments of emptiness and solitude. When an illicit relationship presented itself, offering a new and higher dose of flattery, and a certain measure of relief from loneliness, Father X fell into it.

The Crash

After a few months the other party in the relationship demanded a measure of commitment that Father X was incapable of giving. Hurt and disappointed, she went public with her anger. As a result of her disclosures, Father X was ordered to withdraw from public ministry and provided with "professional" help. The underlying spiritual crisis was not, however, addressed. Without a humble surrender to the grace of Christ and to the maternal mediation of the Blessed Virgin Mary how will Father X be able to reactivate the sacramental grace of his priestly ordination, and so salvage his vocation?

What Could Have Been

Looking at Father X's story one can see the real downward spiral began when he stopped praying. Had Father X gone to Confession weekly, remained faithful to daily Mass, to the Divine Office, to Eucharistic adoration, the rosary, lectio divina, and the examination of his conscience, he could have stopped the impending spiritual disaster. Had his superior not been in complicity with his worldly successes, and exercised the vigilance of a true spiritual father, he could have been spared the wreckage of his vocation. Had his brethren, instead of whispering about his absences from community exercises and gossiping about his late nights out, gone to him offering wise counsel and support, he could have been pulled back from the edge of the miry pit. Had Father X, when confronted with the temptation of an illicit relationship, gone to a spiritual father and revealed his situation with humility and complete transparency, he would have found "grace in time of need" and much pain would have spared the other party.

Father X's issues were, I think, more spiritual than affective or psychological. Will he be able to turn his life around and return to the love he had at first? This depends, I think, not only on Father X's cooperation with the unfailing grace of Christ, but also on the supplication and reparation of those who, participating in the merciful advocacy of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Priests, accept to abide before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus for the sake of all priests, and especially for the most needy and broken among them.

Disclaimer: Father X, even if his story resembles that of hundreds of priests, is no one priest in particular. His story is a fictional composite based on the convergence of the experiences of priests of entirely different times, places, and backgrounds.

Canon 904: Remembering always that in the mystery of the eucharistic sacrifice the work of redemption is exercised continually, priests are to celebrate frequently; indeed, daily celebration is recommended earnestly since, even if the faithful cannot be present, it is the act of Christ and the Church in which priests fulfill their principal function.

The Work of God

A certain secular model of professionalism is pernicious when applied to the priesthood. The priesthood is a life, not a profession, and certainly not a career. While a weekly "day off" and an annual vacation are legitimate and healthy variations in the ordinary pursuits of priestly life, they do not dispense a priest from the "Work of God" -- the Divine Office -- into which the Church sets the daily offering of the Holy Sacrifice.

Desiring With A Holy Desire

The daily celebration of Holy Mass takes its place, in effect, within the living context of the daily Liturgy of the Hours to which every priest is bound (Can. 276 § 3); Canon Law also earnestly recommends daily celebration of Holy Mass (Can. 904). The priest who is faithful to the Divine Office, even on his "day off" or while on holiday, will desire with desire to complete and crown the daily round of praise with the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, even if he must celebrate without the presence of the faithful. Thus will the word of Our Lord come to burn like a fire in the heart of the priest: " With desire I have desired to eat this Pasch with you, before I suffer" (Lk 22:15).

Trends

Certain trends holding sway over the past forty years have contributed in no small measure to a loss of attachment, among certain priests, to the daily celebration of Holy Mass. What theological suppositions and liturgical shifts of emphasis have shaped these trends or contributed to their entrenchment?

Sacrifice Offered to God

First of all, there has been a general weakening of adhesion to the essential character of the Most Holy Eucharist as a sacrifice offered to God in view of four ends: adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and supplication. This theological loss of perspective obviously goes hand in hand with the horizontalization of the priesthood to the detriment of its essential vertical (and mediatory) dimension. The priest, before being a man for others, is a man for God, a man who places himself upon the altar of the Holy Sacrifice day after day, offering himself through Christ and with Him as one victim (hostia) to the glory of the Father, out of love for the Spouse of Christ, the Church.

To the Altar

This reality is impressed upon the priest himself, and expressed to the faithful, when he alone ascends the altar, acting in the person of Christ the Head, with the body of the Church behind him, there to face God "on behalf of all and for all" (Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom).

Facing God vs. Facing the People

When, in fact, the trend of Mass "facing the people" came to be perceived as normative, a loss of awareness of the latreutic character of the Mass ensued. While addressing the Father in the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest found himself facing the people and, in some instances, was even led to believe that he should actively look at them. In most instances, this contributed, at least subjectively, to a loss of recollection, focus, and singlehearted devotion on the part of the priest. The physical change of direction led insidiously and almost imperceptibly to to a theological change of direction. Even without formulating it consciously, a question began to hang in the very air of the sanctuary: "Is the Mass a sacrifice offered to God or a service offered to the people?" A flashback to the Protestant Reformation.

I would argue, then, that the habit of celebrating "versus populum" has contributed significantly to the disaffection of many priests for the so-called "private Mass," or celebration of Holy Mass without an assembly. This is not the only factor to be considered. Although the Ordo Missae of Pope Paul VI specifically provides for celebration without an assembly, certain elements in it de-emphasize the theocentric direction of the Mass, actual communion with the intercession of the Mother of God and of the saints, and the benefits derived from the Holy Sacrifice for both the living and the dead.

The Rites Themselves

First among these elements would be the curious structure of the Introductory Rites with the salutation of the people being given before the Rite of Penitence, Kyrie, and Gloria, that is, before the Godward direction of the celebration has been unambiguously established. In no traditional Catholic or Orthodox liturgy does the celebration open with the salutation of the people followed straightaway by a monitio addressed to them. This is, I would suggest, the first "structural defect" in the Mass of Pope Paul VI. It is one that could, however, be remedied quite easily.

In the Liturgy of Saint Gregory, the Godward movement set in motion by the Introit and by the priest's private declaration at the foot of the altar, "I will go unto the altar of God," affects the entire theological direction and spiritual climate of the celebration. The place of the salutation after the Introit, Kyrie, and Gloria, and before the Collect, has about it a "rightness" that signifies and fosters the over-arching Godward direction of the celebration even before the Liturgy of the Word.

More could be said on the subject. For today I must limit myself to what I have written thus far. The commitment of priests to the daily celebration of Holy Mass, even on days off and while traveling, will be, I think, all of a piece with the ongoing reform of the reform. What must be recovered above all is a new appreciation for the latreutic character of the Holy Sacrifice. Readers comfortable with Italian will also want to read Cantuale Antonianum on this subject. I welcome comments.

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.

I just translated (rather quickly) a section of the splendid homily given yesterday by Pope Benedict XVI at the Ordination to the Priesthood of nineteen deacons in Saint Peter's Basilica. In my own service to my brother priests, I find that a recurring question is how best a priest can go about praying . . . praying in such a way that his life is prayer, and that prayer is his life. This is precisely the question that the Holy Father addressed yesterday. My own comments follow each section. I dedicate this little entry to my dear brother and son in Christ, Father B.J.

Prayer and Priestly Service

Here I would like to touch upon a point that is particularly close to my heart: prayer and its link to service. We saw that to be ordained priests means to enter, in a sacramental and existential way into the prayer of Christ for "His own." Out of this, for us priests, flows a particular vocation to prayer, in a strongly Christocentric sense: we are called, that is, to "abide" in Christ -- as the Evangelist John loved to repeat (cf. Jn 1, 35-39; 15, 4-10) -- and this is realized especially in prayer. Our ministry is totally bound up with this "abiding", which equals praying, and from this derives its efficacy.

There is an extraordinary density in this excerpt. First of all, the Holy Father confesses that the relationship of prayer to service (diakonìa) is particularly close to his own heart. Then, like the Johannine eagle, he rises to the heights of the mystery of priestly prayer; it is nothing other than an ongoing entrance -- or "passing into" -- the prayer of Christ for His own, for all whom the Father has given Him. "I came," He says, "that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10).

Pope Benedict XVI then affirms that priests have a particular vocation to prayer. "Wait just a minute," I can hear some of my brother priests saying, "I thought that monks had a particular vocation to prayer. My vocation is to ministry." (I've heard this old slogan before.) From the beginning of his pontificate Pope Benedict has sought to close the artificial gap between monastic spirituality and ministerial spirituality. The tired slogan, "We are not monks" has been used to justify slacking off in a multitude of ways. The Curé of Ars was not a monk -- he was the quintessential parish priest -- and yet his life surpassed in prayer and in austerity that of the most observant monks in their cloisters.

Let's allow the Holy Father to address the issue. The priest, before being sent forth to minister, is called to abide in Christ. Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his hymn for Lauds of Corpus Christi, has us sing:

Verbum supernum prodiens,
Nec Patris linquens dexteram,
Ad opus suum exiens,
Venit ad vitæ vesperam.

The heavenly Word proceeding forth,
Yet leaving not his Father's right side,
And going to His work on Earth,
Has reached at length life's eventide.

Just as Christ, on His mission of salvation, came into this world from the bosom of His Father, without leaving the Father's side, so too does the priest go forth on His mission from the Side of Christ, and without leaving the Side of Christ or, if you will, the tabernacle of His Sacred Heart. The priest is called to "abide" in ceaseless prayer, to go forth enveloped in prayer and to bring the sweet fragrance of his prayer wherever he goes. "But thanks be to God," says the Apostle, "who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing" (2 Cor 2, 14-15).

The Priest's Daily Rule of Prayer

In such a perspective we must think of the various forms of the prayer of a priest, first of all daily Holy Mass. The Eucharistic celebration is the greatest and highest act of prayer, and constitutes the center and wellspring from which all the forms receive their "lifeblood": the Liturgy of the Hours, Eucharistic adoration, lectio divina, the Holy Rosary, and meditation. All these expressions of prayer have their centre in the Eucharist, and together bring about in the day of the priest and in all his life the fulfillment of the word of Jesus: "I am the good shepherd, I know My own and My own know Me, as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep" (Jn 10, 14-15).

Concretely, how does a priest go about abiding in Christ, remaining in His Heart, just as He abides in the bosom of the Father? By persevering in prayer. "Pray constantly," says Saint Paul (1 Th 5,17). The Holy Father presents priests with a Rule of Prayer: note well that this represents the daily minimum requirement. If you are too busy to do this, you are simply too busy. If you are too tired to do this, you are simply too tired. If you have no interest in doing this, your vocation is in danger and you are cheating your people of the "fragrance of Christ" that only a priest who prays always can spread.

What is Father Everypriest's daily Rule of Prayer according to Pope Benedict XVI? Let's consider the elements of the Rule in the order in which the Holy Father presents them.

1) Daily Holy Mass. Daily. Not 6 days week, not 5, or 4 days a week, but daily. The liturgical cycle in its hourly, daily, weekly, and yearly rhythms is given us precisely to facilitate our "abiding" in Christ hour by hour, day by day, week by week, and year after year. Integral to the liturgical cycle is daily Holy Mass. The Eucharistic Sacrifice sends the divine lifeblood coursing through one's spiritual organism. Without daily Mass, the priest will succumb to spiritual anemia.

2) The Liturgy of the Hours. The Hours give rhythm and grace to daily life. They are a school of discipline (discipleship), a supernatural system of irrigation channeling grace into every moment of the day, a privileged way of offering thanks in communion with all who, "in heaven, on earth, and under the earth," confess the Name of Jesus and bend the knee before Him. A priest who loves the Divine Office will enjoy an interior life that is sane, and sound, and wholly ecclesial. Fidelity to the Divine Office refines the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, sharpens one's discernment, and imparts to everything the priest does a certain Eucharistic and doxological quality.

3) Eucharistic Adoration. Are you surprised? Eucharistic adoration has known a kind of springtime since The Year of the Eucharist (2004-2005) that was also the year of the death of Pope John Paul II and of the election of Pope Benedict XVI. Two Americans known for loving their brother priests and ministering to them tirelessly -- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and Father Gerald Fitzgerald of the Holy Spirit -- insisted on a daily hour before the Blessed Sacrament as a sine qua non of priestly spirituality. The priest who adores the Blessed Sacrament exposes his weaknesses and wounds to the healing radiance of the Eucharistic Face of Jesus. Moreover, he abides before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus as the representative of his people: of the sick, the poor, the bereaved, and of those locked in spiritual combat. The priest who looks to the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, and draws near to His Open Heart in the Sacrament of the Altar, will, just as the psalm says, be radiant, and he will not be put to shame.

4) Lectio Divina. Again -- a monastic thing? No, a Catholic thing. The quality of a priest's preaching is directly proportionate to his commitment to lectio divina. Neglect of lectio divina leads to mediocre preaching. Opening the Scriptures is like opening the tabernacle: therein the priest finds the "hidden manna" his soul craves. The four steps of lectio divina can be accommodated to any length of time: 1) lectio, i.e. the Word heard; 2) meditatio, i.e. the Word repeated; 3) oratio, i.e. the Word prayed; 4) contemplatio; i.e. the indwelling Word. Lectio divina cannot be occasional; it is not a random pursuit. Learn to say, "I am not available." Get over feeling guilty about taking time for God!

5) Holy Rosary. Yes, the daily Rosary. It's a spiritual lifeline that has saved many a priest from spiritual shipwreck. The brilliant and holy exegete and founder of the École biblique in Jerusalem, Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange, was observed praying fifteen mysteries of the Rosary each day, and asked, "Why, Father, do you, a great exegete, need to pray the Rosary?" "Because, " he answered, "it decapitates pride." I would add that not only does the Rosary decapitate pride; it decapitates each of the seven capital sins: pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. With the passing of the years I have come to appreciate the profound wisdom of an old Dominican priest to whom I used to make my confession years ago. Invariably, after confessing my miseries, Father would ask, "Do you say the Rosary, son?" And invariably I would reply, "Yes, Father." And then he would say, "Aye, then you'll be alright." A priest who prays the Rosary daily will be alright and, almost imperceptibly, will grow in purity and humility.

6) Meditation. Meditation can mean many things, even within our Catholic tradition. It is integral to the prayerful celebration of Holy Mass and the Hours. "it nourishes Eucharistic adoration. It is the second "moment" of lectio divina. It is the soul of the Rosary. In my own experience, meditation is related to "remembering the things the Lord has done." Saint Gertrude the Great, a model of the mystical life grounded in the liturgy, used to say, "A grace remembered is a grace renewed." Understood in this sense, meditation, by recalling the mercies of the Lord in the past, infuses the present with hope, and allows the priest to go forward with a holy boldness.

Is it necessary to set a period of time apart for meditation as such? That depends on whom you ask. The Carmelite, Jesuit and Sulpician traditions would hold fast to some form of meditation as a daily exercise. The monastic tradition has, on the whole, taken a more supple approach to meditation. It is a daily practice, but one diffused in every form of prayer, including the liturgy itself. One learns to pace one's prayer, to pause, to breathe, to linger over a phrase, a word, or an image. Whether one espouses the Ignatian way or the monastic approach, meditation is an integral to every priest's daily Rule of Prayer.

The Priest Who Prays Much and Prays Well

In fact, this "knowing" and "being known" in Christ and, through Him, in the Most Holy Trinity, is nothing other than the truest and deepest reality of prayer. The priest who prays much, and who prays well, progressively becomes expropriated of himself and ever more united to Jesus, the Good Shepherd and Servant of the brethren. In conformity with Him, the priest also "gives his life" for the sheep entrusted to him. No one takes it from him; of himself he offers his life, in union with Christ the Lord, Who has the power to give His life and to take it upon again, not only for Himself, but also for His friends, bound to Him by the Sacrament of Orders. In this way the very life of Christ, Lamb and Shepherd, is communicated to the whole flock, through the mediation of consecrated ministers.

"The priest who prays much and prays well" -- what a marvelous phrase! It sums up the Holy Father's teaching on the subject. What is the fruit of praying much and praying well? A progressive, and I would add almost imperceptible, death to self and rising to newness of life in Christ Jesus, for the sake of His Spouse, the Church. The priest who prays much and prays well will, sooner or later, find himself drawn into the mystery of Christ Priest and Victim. He will learn to stand at the altar not only as the one who offers the Sacrifice, but as the one who is sacrificed, becoming one with the immolated Lamb. This is the secret of a fruitful priesthood. "Give your blood," said one of the Desert Fathers, "and receive the Spirit." Through the victimhood of the priest, the entire Body is quickened and sanctified. "And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth" (Jn 17, 19).

It is very probable that this litany was used by Saint Berchán's monastic community about 725 A.D. at Cluain Sosta (Clonsast). Saint Berchán's disciples also first compiled the Leabhar Breac as a devotional work.

Saint Berchán is commended in the Donegal Martyrology as one of the four prophets of Ireland, ranking with Saints Columcille, Moling the Perfect, and Brendan of Birr. His monks were driven first from Clonsast, and then by the Danes from Dun Doighre, near Athlone, retiring subsequently to Scariff.

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.

Readers familiar with the work of Adé Béthune will recognize here her Good Shepherd. Clean lines, simplicity, and strength characterize Adé's work. She has had an enduring influence on my life since my apprenticeship to her in the early 1970s. Ade shared my passion for Gregorian Chant. One of her favourite expressions was, "Plain Chant for plain folk." More about Adé here.

Fourth Sunday of Paschaltide

Good Shepherd Sunday

The Voice of the Shepherd

On this Good Shepherd Sunday, the Lord Jesus says, "My sheep will hear My voice" (Jn 10:16). For the sheep of His flock, the voice of Jesus the Good Shepherd has a uniquely penetrating quality, an unmistakable accent of tenderness, a note of divine authority that goes straight to the heart. The believing heart leaps with recognition at the sound of Jesus' voice. "The sheep hear His voice, and He calls His own sheep by name, and leads them out" (Jn 10:3).

Say Only the Word

The word of Christ accomplishes what it expresses. Just before approaching the altar for Holy Communion, we will pray in the words of the centurion, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; but say only the word, and my soul shall be healed" (Lk 7:6-7). Our hearts may be frozen in an icy indifference. They may be shriveled up in the desert wastes of sin, or numbed by a secret pain. Even so, the psalmist sings, "He sends forth His word and it melts them; at the breath of His mouth the waters flow" (Ps 147:18).

Listen with the Ear of the Heart

To listen to the voice of Jesus with the ear of the heart is the first step in any relationship with Him. In the book of the Apocalypse He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me" (Ap 3:20-21). Intimacy with Christ the Good Shepherd requires a listening heart. A listening heart will be a vulnerable heart. To listen with the ear of the heart is to open oneself to the other; it is to risk relationship. When the heart stops listening to the other, relationship -- communion with the other -- begins to disintegrate. This is true of friendship. It is true of marriage. It is true of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

The Good Portion

Recall that in Saint Luke's gospel, Mary of Bethany, the sister of Lazarus and of Martha, seated herself at the Lord's feet and stayed there listening to His words (Lk 10:39). Mary of Bethany was like a lamb resting at her shepherd's feet, and Jesus praised her listening heart. "Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her" (Lk 10:42). The Song of Songs interprets her experience, "With great delight I sat in His shadow, and His fruit was sweet to my taste" (Ct 2:3), and again, "His speech is most sweet, He is altogether desirable" (Ct 5:16). This is the experience of all who, down through the ages, have stilled and quieted their hearts to listen to the voice of the Shepherd Christ. Our relationship with Christ necessarily expresses itself in action -- and in words -- but it begins in listening. This listening in adoring silence is, to borrow Dom Chautard's expression, the soul of the apostolate.

Tomorrow, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is the 46th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. In his message for this occasion Pope Benedict XVI writes:

The exhortation of Jesus to his disciples: "Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest" (Mt 9:38) has a constant resonance in the Church. Pray! The urgent call of the Lord stresses that prayer for vocations should be continuous and trusting. The Christian community can only really "have ever greater faith and hope in God's providence" (Sacramentum Caritatis, 26) if it is enlivened by prayer.

The following prayer, presented both in traditional and contemporary language, is a response to the Holy Father's pressing invitation to prayer for vocations. Although written for the Spiritual Mothers of Priests of my own diocese of Tulsa, I am happy to make it available to all who might wish to use it. Pastors might want to print it in the parish bulletin for The Year of the Priest.

Traditional Language

Lord Jesus Christ,
Who callest to Thy service whomsoever Thou wilt,
let the light of Thy Face and the tenderness of Thy Heart
rest upon the young men of our own parishes and families.
Grant that those whom Thou hast chosen from among us
may hear Thy invitation and respond to Thy call
with generosity and courage.
For our part, we are resolved
to welcome and support priestly vocations in our midst
with gratitude, humility, and joy.
We promise to pray tirelessly
for those whom Thou hast set apart to preach Thy Word,
to offer Thy Sacrifice, and to nourish, heal, and comfort our souls.
Confident that Thou hast already heard our prayer,
we entrust the future priests among us
to the Immaculate Heart of Thy Virgin Mother
that, for each one, she may be a guiding star in the night
and, day by day, a perpetual help.
Amen.

Contemporary Language

Lord Jesus Christ,
Who call to Your service whomsoever You will,
let the light of Your Face and the tenderness of Your Heart
rest upon the young men of our own parishes and families.
Grant that those whom You have chosen from among us
may hear Your invitation and respond to Your call
with generosity and courage.
For our part, we are resolved
to welcome and support priestly vocations in our midst
with gratitude, humility, and joy.
We promise to pray tirelessly
for those whom You have set apart to preach Your Word,
to offer Your Sacrifice, and to nourish, heal, and comfort our souls.
Confident that You have already heard our prayer,
we entrust the future priests among us
to the Immaculate Heart of Your Virgin Mother
that, for each one, she may be a guiding star in the night
and, day by day, a perpetual help.
Amen.

Here are some "jottings in the margin of the Missal" as Dom Marmion would call them: just a few random thoughts on the Propers of today's Mass. I don't treat of the Gregorian melodies that clothe the Introit, Offertory, and Communion with a particularly penetrating grace; one has to sing them or hear them sung in order to experience them in all their richness.

Looking at today's Mass

Introit
In the midst of the Church
the Lord opened his mouth,
and He filled him with the spirit of wisdom and understanding;
He clothed him with a robe of glory, alleluia (cf. Sir 15:5).

Wisdom and Understanding

In the midst of His Church, Our Lord Jesus Christ raised up Saint Athanasius, and opened his mouth. He filled Athanasius with the Spirit, that is the Divine Breath of wisdom and understanding. Wisdom is the gift of the Holy Spirit by which a soul tastes God and the things that are God's; understanding is the gift of the Holy Spirit by which one enters into the plan of God, rejoicing in His providence, in His mercy, and in the truth of all that He has revealed and promised. The robe of grace, given in Baptism, becomes for all the saints a robe of glory.

Collect
Almighty and ever-living God,
Who raised up the blessed bishop Athanasius
as the wonderful champion of the divinity of Your Son,
mercifully grant that we,
rejoicing in his doctrine and protection,
may grow ceaselessly in the knowledge and love of You.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever.

Saint Athanasius holds the title, "Father of Orthodoxy." The Collect calls him "the wonderful champion of the divinity of your Son." A champion he was: unafraid of engaging in battle, intransigent and stalwart when it came to the defense of catholic truth.

The Strength of the Saints

Offertory Antiphon
I have found David my servant,
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
my hand shall help him,
and my arm shall make him strong, alleluia (Ps 88:21-22).

The Offertory Antiphon applies to Saint Athanasius the prophecy concerning David: "My hand shall help him, and my arms shall make him strong" (Ps 88:22). Athanasius needed the hand of God and the might of his arms; he suffered no less than five periods of exile, almost sixteen years in all, for his uncompromising support of the Nicene Orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.

The Splendour of the Faith

Prayer Over the Oblations
Look, O Lord,
upon the offerings that we set before you
in commemoration of Saint Athanasius,
that his witness to the truth
may be for the salvation of those
who profess untainted the faith he taught.
Through Christ our Lord.

In the Prayer Over the Oblations we will ask that Saint Athanasius' witness to the truth may be "for the salvation of those who profess untainted the faith he taught." The untainted faith of the saints is not old, dusty, and boring; it is a splendid thing, a living reality. "Its flashes are flashes of fire, a most vehement flame" (Ct 8:6).

The liturgy offers two Communion Antiphons for today's Mass. The first, given in the Roman Missal, has to be heard in the mouth of Athanasius:

Communion Antiphon in the Roman Missal
No other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid,
which is Jesus Christ, alleluia. (1 Cor 3:11)

The Church wants us to hear this at the very moment we approach the mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood. The foundation of the Church, the foundation of the doctrine that nourishes life is given whole, entire, unchanging and ever new in the mystery of the Eucharist: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb 13:8).

Listening in the Night

Communion Antiphon in the Graduale Romanum
That which I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, says the Lord;
and that which you hear in the ear,
preach upon the housetops, alleluia (Mt 10:27).

The Communion Antiphon given in the Roman Gradual has the Lord Jesus Himself speak to us, saying, "That which I tell you in the dark, speak in the light, and that which you hear in the ear, preach upon the housetops, alleluia" (Mt 10:27). The darkness here is the obscurity of faith, the prayer in the night by which God comes closer to us than He does in what we take for light. The secrets whispered in the ear are those of the Holy Spirit, secrets that only the listening heart can hear. It is of this that Jesus speaks in today's Gospel: "When the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness to me" (Jn 15:26). Saint Athanasius, receiving the witness of the Holy Spirit concerning Christ, was compelled to preach it from the housetops and, even today, his voice resounds in the Church.

Quickened and Protected

Postcommunion
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God,
that we who, together with Saint Athanasius,
steadfastly confess the divinity of Your Only-Begotten Son,
may ever be enlivened and protected by this sacrament.
Through Christ our Lord.

In the Postcommunion Prayer we ask that, "we who steadfastly confess the divinity of your only-begotten Son, may ever be enlivened and protected by this sacrament." Note the two parts to the petition: we ask both to be enlivened (or quickened) and to be protected. This is why we go to the altar today: for an infusion of divine vitality, and for the divine protection without which the life we bear in ourselves, as in earthen vessels, is fragile and at every moment threatened.

Saint Anthony of Egypt

Saint Athanasius gave us, we must not forget, the Life of the Father of Monks in East and West, Saint Anthony of Egypt. Nothing better illustrates the principle of the Postcommunion Prayer at work. Anthony was a man fully alive in Christ. He was, at the same time, thrust into fierce spiritual combat where his only recourse was the protection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Anthony's triumph was the triumph of Christ in him. Saint Athanasius wants us to understand this above all else. That same triumph of Christ over sin, the flesh, and the devil, the glorious triumph of Christ over death, is given us in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

At last Wednesday's General Audience, the Holy Father presented Saint Germanus of Constantinople, noting that the holy patriarch's feast is celebrated by the Greek Church on May 12th. Among the texts cited by the Holy Father is this beautiful passage from the Sermon of Saint Germanus on the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God. I have added a few comments in italics.

Just as Our Lady was in communion with heaven during her life on earth, so too is she in communion with the earth -- that is, with her children in this valley tears -- from her place in the glory of heaven. Saint Germanus says that Our Lady continues to communicate with us spiritually.

Could it ever happen, most holy Mother of God, that heaven and earth should feel honored by your presence, and that you, with your departure, would leave man deprived of your protection? No. It is impossible to think of such a thing. In fact when you were in the world you did not feel that the things of heaven were foreign; in the same way, after having emigrated from this world, you do not feel removed from the possibility of communicating in spirit with men.... In fact you have not abandoned those to whom you have guaranteed salvation ... indeed your spirit lives eternally, nor has your flesh suffered the corruption of the tomb.

The holy patriarch emphasizes the Mother of God's closeness to her children. He goes so far as to say that she "lives in the midst of us" and makes herself present "in the most varied of ways."

You, O Mother, are close to everyone and protect everyone, and even though our eyes cannot see you, we completely know, O One on high, that you live in the midst of all of us and that you make yourself present in the most varied of ways ... You are she who, as it is written, appears in beauty, and your virginal body is all holy, all chaste, entirely the dwelling place of God, so that it is henceforth completely exempt from dissolution into dust. Though still human, it is changed into the heavenly life of incorruptibility, truly living and glorious, undamaged and sharing in perfect life.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, says Saint Germanus, "continues walking with us." There is immense comfort in that affirmation. It is the experience of the saints through the ages.

Truly it was impossible that that which had been converted into the vessel of God and the living temple of the most holy divinity of the Only Begotten would be enclosed in the sepulcher of the dead. Again we believe with certainty that you continue walking with us. (PG 98, coll. 344B-346B, passim)

Saint Joseph the Worker

Colossians 3:14-15, 17, 23-24
Psalm 89:2, 3-4, 12-13, 14 and 16 (R. 17c)
Matthew 13:54-58

Saint Joseph in May

The month of May begins with a feast of Saint Joseph. It is significant that the commemoration of Saint Joseph both precedes and follows the heart of the whole liturgical year: the glorious Pasch of the Lord. We celebrated Saint Joseph on March 19th; he returns to us again today.

Saint Joseph is never far from the Blessed Virgin Mary, his immaculate spouse and, yes, his best friend, the friend of his heart, the love of his life, the unfailing cause of his joy in the midst of anxieties, hardship, and sorrow. Saint Joseph participated intimately in all those sorrows of hers that announced and prefigured the mysteries of Christ's passion, death, and burial: the prophecy of Simeon, the flight into Egypt, the disappearance of the boy Jesus in Jerusalem. If you would empathize with the Heart of Mary, go to Joseph.

In a 2006 Regina Caeli address, Pope Benedict XVI explained the link between Paschaltide and the popular dedication of the month of May to the Blessed Virgin. The Holy Father said this:

In the days which followed the Lord's resurrection, the Apostles remained amongst themselves, comforted by the presence of Mary, and after the Ascension they persevered together with her in prayer awaiting Pentecost. Our Lady was for them mother and teacher, a role she continues to develop for the Christians of every age. Each year in Paschaltide, we relive most intensely this experience and maybe for this reason the popular tradition has consecrated to Mary the month of May, which normally falls between Easter and Pentecost. This month . . . is useful for us to rediscover the maternal function which she develops in our lives, that we may always be docile disciples and courageous witnesses of the risen Lord.

Saint Joseph and the Mystical Body of Christ

Similarly, Paschaltide discloses for us the ongoing role of Saint Joseph in the economy of salvation. During Paschaltide we read the Acts of the Apostles, the continuation of the life of Jesus Christ in His Mystical Body, the Church. In the life of the infant Church, as in the life of the Infant Christ, Saint Joseph is present: vigilant, interceding, protecting the poor, the vulnerable, and the weak. This hidden but very real role of Saint Joseph continues through history.

Joseph, having held in his arms the Body of the Infant Christ, having nourished and protected Him, cannot forsake His Mystical Body, the Church. Even the Protestant theologian Karl Barth was compelled to write: "If I were a Roman Catholic theologian, I would lift Saint Joseph up. He took care of the Child; he takes care of the Church." Saint Joseph watches over each member of the Mystical Body with the same devotion, the same tenderness, and the same strength with which he watched over the precious members of Our Lord's Sacred Humanity.

Saint Joseph and Immigrants

We recommend immigrants to Saint Joseph. He knows their struggles. He knows their anxieties, their hardships, and the fears. Saint Joseph was, after all, an immigrant in Egypt. He arrived there, in a strange land, with his Virgin Spouse and her Infant Son. He had to find housing, to look for work, to endure the suspicion, the prejudice, and the slights that are the lot of immigrants in every time and place.

Saint Joseph and Priests

And we recommend priests to Saint Joseph. The Church, in her wisdom, proposes to her priests two prayers in honour of Saint Joseph each day: one before Holy Mass, and one after. Every priest can find in Saint Joseph a friend, a model, a protector. Saint Joseph stands ready a every moment to introduce priests to a deeper intimacy with his Spouse, the Virgin Mary.

If you want to help priests, entrust them to Saint Joseph. All priests, especially parish priests, are exposed to being criticized and judged. It is a particular form of suffering that accompanies every priest from the day of his first Mass until the day of his last. I believe it was Archbishop Fulton Sheen who said that all priests are lacerated by the tongues of the pious! He knew of what he spoke; his own biography was entitled The Passion of Fulton Sheen. An effective way of countering the sins against charity that wound and discourage all priests is to entrust them to Saint Joseph.

Saint Joseph and Work

We recommend workers and those without work to Saint Joseph. People without meaningful work -- be it manual or intellectual -- fall more easily into depression. They have no self-esteem. They go from one thing to the next never finding the satisfaction and fulfillment that come from having a responsibility and from a job well done. Today let us not forget those suffering from idleness and unemployment. There is nothing more degrading to a human person. Even the sick and the very old find joy in work, in rendering the little service, in having others count on them for something.

Saint Joseph and the Dying

Finally, we recommend the dying to Saint Joseph. We will all want Saint Joseph near us at the hour of our death. Saint Joseph visits the dying because they are so much like little infants. They are vulnerable, weak, and subject to the attacks of evil spirits. Saint Joseph, exquisitely tender for souls redeemed by the Blood of Christ, is the "terror of demons." He is the defense of those in the throes of the final combat. If you want to die in the company of Saint Joseph, live in the company of Saint Joseph. Pray to him, seek his company every day.

Saint Joseph is very close to us on this first day of May. Be close to him. He will guide you into the heart of the Mystery. There you will find his beloved Spouse, the Virgin Mary. There you will find the very Body of Christ: His glorious Body made present in the Eucharist, and His Mystical Body, the Church.