Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Currently Reading
THIS IS MY BODY
by Rev. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap.Preacher to the Pontifical Household for 25 years, Fr. Cantalamessa expounds some of the most beautiful words ever to be penned about the Eucharist in the latin hymns, Adoro Te Devote and the Ave Verum.
It was written for the Pope!
These reflections were the last series of meditations preached to the late Pope John Paul II! But before you rush to get a copy, be warned that unless you have had theological training, this isn't an easy book. The author assumes that the reader already possesses knowledge on the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist as well as other related doctrines, knowledge of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the early Church Fathers.
Being sermons, the text is in an interlocutory form.
Adoro Te Devote
Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee, Truly present underneath these veils: All my heart subdues itself before Thee, Since it all before Thee faints and fails.
Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit, Hearing only do we trust secure; I believe, for God the Son hath said it-- Word of Truth that ever shall endure.
On the Cross was veiled Thy Godhead's splendor, Here Thy manhood lieth hidden too; Unto both alike my faith I render, And, as sued the contrite thief, I sue.
Though I look not on Thy wounds with Thomas, Thee, my Lord, and Thee, my God, I call: Make me more and more believe Thy promise, Hope in Thee, and love Thee over all.
O Memorial of my Saviour dying, Living Bread that givest life to man; May my soul, its life from Thee supplying, Taste Thy sweetness, as on earth it can.
Deign, O Jesus, pelican* of heaven, Me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave, To a single drop of which is given All the world from all its sin to save.
Contemplating Lord, Thy hidden presence, Grant me what I thirst for and implore, In the revelation of Thine essence To behold Thy glory evermore.
Ave Verum
Hail, true Body, truly born of the Virgin Mary mild. Truly offered, wracked and torn, on the Cross for all defiled, from Whose love-pierced, sacred side flowed Thy true Blood's saving tide: be a foretaste sweet to me in my death's great agony.
O my loving, Gentle One, Sweetest Jesus, Mary's Son. Amen.
Labels: Books, Eucharist, Holy Father, Hymns, Latin, Liturgy, Meditation
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Tension of Opposites
Morrie: Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.
Mitch: Sounds like a wrestling match
Morrie: Yes, you could describe life that way.
Mitch: So which side wins?
Morrie: Love wins. Love always wins. [Emphasis mine]
Extracted from Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Mitch: Sounds like a wrestling match
Morrie: Yes, you could describe life that way.
Mitch: So which side wins?
Morrie: Love wins. Love always wins. [Emphasis mine]
Extracted from Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Labels: Books, Life, Love, Miscellaneous
Friday, June 8, 2007
Why Latin?
Many of us who are interested in the use of latin in liturgy may not be able to explain why we like it. I mean, how interesting could a dead language make the Mass- which is already so boring in English- more interesting? And why should we pray in a language we do not understand?
To understand this we have to thrust ourselves into the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. To enter the Celebration is to enter a sacred mystery. Latin is able to give the Mass a holistic sense of mystery. But, can't other vernacular languages acomplish that too? To answer that question we need to look at what worship and prayer is and how they work.
In his book, Prayer Primer, Rev. Fr. Thomas Bubay SM, talks about interpersonal union and intimacy in prayer. In chapter 9, Fr. Bubay explains that contemplation is, "a real awareness of God, desiring and loving Him...", "... there are no words." If we read the teachings of St. Thomas Aquinas and some modern writers such as Evelyn Underhill and Dom John Chapman OSB, we will see that God does not communicate to the human soul by words or via our intellect.
Would you believe me if I told you that worship that remains at our human intellectual level is not really prayer? Such worship is only a mutual admiration and exhortation.
Genuine Catholic worship is "a deep absorption, so deep that any distractions cease for five to ten minutes," Fr. Thomas Bubay SM. Genuine prayer also lifts us out of ourselves and to the incomprehensible and indescribable God.
The forms, words and actions we use are only symbols that help us raise our heats, minds, and soul to God. Prayer is a matter of the heart, not head. Even when we pray using words, etc... the real business should be taking place in the heart; at a much deeper level.
Fr. Thomas Bubay SM, explains in Prayer Primer, the traditional three kinds of prayer: vocal, meditation, and comtemplation. Vocal prayer is one that remains mainly in the head. Meditation, exercises the intellect- one thinks profoundly about God. Contemplation (which will be emphasised here) is a purely wordless prayer. In contemplation, "we open our hearts and minds to God, " says Fr. Francis Randolph (author of Know Him in the Breaking of the Bread), we "are aware of His presence and are longing for His love; there are no conscious or intellectual thoughts. Words mean very little; glancing lightly off the surface."
Contemplative souls find it very difficult to keep attention on the the intellectual surface of the mind and still be able to pray. A contemplative person will be frustrated if natural contemplation is forced to remain at a level of vocal prayer. He or she will feel as if he/she has not prayed at all.
This is the problem with the new Mass in the vernacular. Contemplatives are agonized when they are 'forced' to keep in touch with the words; they are 'prevented' from praying. In a Latin Mass, which is mostly silent, a contemplative will find attendence and assistance more relaxing. They wouldn't mind going to Mass again!
The problem is that many people have not read St. Thomas or Abbot Chapman, thus, they feel guilty attending a Latin Mass. Fr. Francis Randolph explains that in his experience of many years of confessions, he has been convinced that a very large proportion of people are natural contemplatives but do not know it.
The Catholic Church is a diverse community of believers, we need to respect the mode of prayer of others and cannot insist that one form of prayer is better that the other. Let the vocal/intellectual Catholic worship in the Vernacular Mass, let the contemplative Catholic worship on the Latin Mass. His Holiness, the late Pope John Paul II, the Great, acknowledged that mistake that the Church by forcing the changes the Mass without any sensitivity to the feelings of the people. In a letter to the Bishops on Holy Thursday, 1980, Pope John Paul II wrote, "I would like to ask forgiveness- in my own name and of all of you, venerable brothers in the Episcopate- for everything which, for whatever reason, through whatever human weaknessimpatience, or negligence, and also through the times at partial, one-sided and erroneous application of the directives of the Second Vatican Council, may have caused scandal and disturbance concerning the interpretation of doctrine and the verneration due to this great Sacrament." and also “to all those Catholic faithful who feel attached to some previous liturgical and disciplinary forms of the Latin tradition, I wish to manifest my will to facilitate their ecclesial communion by means of the necessary measures to guarantee respect for their rightful aspirations. In this matter I ask support of the Bishops and of all those engaged in the pastoral ministry in the Church.", "By virtue of my Apostolic Authority I Decree... Respect must everywhere be shown for the feelings of this who are attached to the Latin liturgical tradition, by a wide and generous application of the directives already issued some time ago by the Apostolic See, for the use of the Roman Missal... of 1962.” Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia Dei.
An International Language
This is an entire different consideration. In our globalized, modern world, we need a language that does not carry any political implications with it. Three of the world's most dominant languages are French, English and Spanish. But to use these languages isn't fair to those who speak minority languages and tongues. For this, Latin has the advantage. No one race or political system can claim the language. Latin belongs to the world that has already gone by- the old world.
Our cosmopolitant world, filled with migrants, refugees, tourists, etc... the abolition of an international language is absolutely absurd! I don't think it is too late to repair the damage.
In Christo,
J-PDM
Acknowledgements/References:
Know Him in the Breaking of the Bread by Fr. Francis Randolph
Prayer Primer: Igniting the Fire Within by Fr. Thomas Bubay, SM
Labels: Books, Languages, Latin, Liturgy, Novus Ordo, Prayer, Quote, Quotes, Thoughts, Traditionalism
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Now Reading:
Know Him in the Breaking of the Bread
In this book, Fr. Francis Randolph let's his passion for the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass 'run wild' by revealing the treasures of the Mass to "people (especially youth) who have been living in poverty (of the Mass) for far too long." The Mass is brought to life with rich illustrations and explainations of every word, gesture, and ritual. Fr. Fancis Randolph makes the Mass very personal and enables the reader to have a more intimate relationship with the Lord during the celebration of the liturgy. In chapter 9, the author also talks about the distinctive contemplative nature of the old rite of Mass that is lacking in the new liturgy.
Even though Fr. Randolph's remains faithful to the magisterial, he presents readers the reality of the Catholic Church as it was during the Second Vatican Council and as it is today. This made the book so controversial that the diocesan censor absolutely condemned it and refused permission for it to be published at first, even though a friendly Archbishop who had read the text approved it and was willing to write an introduction. Fr. Randolph continues to remain faithful to orthodoxy and has not minced his words; he not only inspires devotion but gently corrects error.
'Know Him in the Breaking of the Bread' is a good book that "weaves together liturgical, doctrinal, historical, and spiritual themes," Msgr. Peter Elliot, Author, Ceremonies of the Mordern Roman Rite.
I recommend this book to teachers, catechists, and young people. It would be good to have some knowledge of Church before 1962 in order to understand more clearly what Fr. Randolph's writes in the preface and the Appendix (Chapter 9).
Get this book for S$21.50 from the Archdiocesan Media Center (beside the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary) at Highland Road, Kovan.
The Whole World Will Love Me
Already into the 8th chapter (of 37)... this inspiring book by Dorothy Scallan reveals the life of the Little Flower (1873-1897) the time of her conception. I like Dorothy's style of linking the life of the great saint with the historic events that were taking place during her life; it gives a overview of the socio-political environment that St. Therese lived in.
Dorothy Scallan also indulges the reader with 6 chapters on the lives of St. Therese's parents and grandparents (yes... even her grandparents!). It is essential for us to understand the richly-pious Catholic family background in which St. Therese grew up into, in order to appreciate more deeply her life, and more importantly, her love for Jesus.
Get this book for S$28.50 from the Carlo Catholic Society (beside the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul) at Queen Street, Bugis.
Other Books I Want to Purchase:
- Turning Towards the Lord by UM Lang; an argument for the tradition of celebrating Mass facing East, towards Jerusalem. [LITURGY]
- Celebrating the Holy Eucharist by Francis Cardinal Arinze [LITURGY]
- The Mass of the Early Christians by Mike Aquilina [LITURGY]
- Story of a Soul; Autobiography of St. Therese of the Child Jesus [SAINTS/A-BIOGRAPHY]
- Never Stop Walking: The Life and Spirit of St. Alphonsus Liguori by Nancy Fearon, IHM [SAINTS/BIOGRAPHY]
- The Priest in Union With Christ [PRIESTHOOD]
Labels: Books, Catechists, Liturgy, Novus Ordo, Review, Saints, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Friday, May 4, 2007
Currently Reading
The Mass: A Study of the Roman Liturgy:
(Adrian Fortesque) An in depth analysis of the liturgical beauty of the Roman Mass as well as a defence of it's sacrificial nature.The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Writings & Speeches
(John F. Thornton, susan B. Varenne) Joseph Ratzinger's writings, homilies, talks, and speeches that takes the reader directly to the heart of the H.H. Benedict XVI's thought.Labels: Books
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Road to Life
(Extract: Peter on the Shore)
When choosing to take up our cross, it is not so much that we are choosing between a life without crosses and a life with crosses, as deciding which cross to choose, or what meaning to give to the crosses that are part and parcel of our very existence. Cross and suffering are inescapable realities. It is not only Christians who have to go to the hospital, and it is not only Christians who have to bear moral sufferings, or who have to pay a price to attain their ideals.
The mystery of suffering touches every human life. Every person born on this earth has to face his own mortality. And how he does so determines how he lives and his impositions on those around him.
Our consumer society today has set its parameters wholly within the material world, opting for its fleeting satisfactions and comforts, and the cult of the body. In the process it has bred a culture of death and egotism, a grinding and dehumanizing reduction of man to the material, where he has no greater value than a tree or snaildarter.
To save our society, to give it some hope, we are going to have to take Christ at his word, believe that his cross is the only road to life, and live and preach that, giving this same hope to everyone around us. As we search for our vocation, we should not make the mistake of looking for the wide and easy way. Even less should we commit the injustice of preaching the wide and easy way as the way of life - for it is precisely the way that has led to the despair and suicide into which our western civilization is falling.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Personal call, Personal love, Personal mission
(By Fr. Anthony Bannon, from his book 'Peter On The Shore')
He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." (John 21:17)
Christ first verifies Peter's love for him, and then gives him his personal mission to preach and spread the kingdom. He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." (John 21:17) Christ first verifies Peter's love for him, and then gives him his personal mission to preach and spread the kingdom.
Christ himself in the hours of his agony in Gethsemane has words that allow us to see that he lives the same order in his own life and action: he is in prayer, his human nature is rebelling against the suffering and death he sees before him, but his love for his Father brings him to say not my will but thine be done. In his encounter with his Father in prayer he renews his love, and in that love his human will finds reason and strength to do what his Father wants, despite the personal revulsion he experiences.
Our encounter with Christ is an encounter which takes place through the exercise of the gift of faith we received in baptism, which allows us to discover him in the eucharist and in the gospel, principally, and converse with him there, nourishing our love.
It is in this encounter, as you grow in your love for him, that you will discover the concrete thing he wants you to do. By learning to love him you will learn what he would have you do. Not that he is suddenly going to map out for you in detail your whole life; that can only be discovered one step at a time, and by taking each step he prepares you for the next. But the more we love him, the more we will think like him, and the more we will want to do what he wants.
He said some words to Peter which tell us where our concerns should lie: not in figuring everything out, wanting to know what he is asking of everyone else, but in living our own personal mission. When Peter saw him (the disciple whom Jesus loved), he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about this man?" Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" (John 21:21-22)
We must seek Christ. Nothing else matters, and everything else falls into place when we have him. As the Holy Father repeats: Be not afraid! Open the doors of your heart to Christ. In prayer. In action. In charity.
Labels: Books, Priesthood, Vocation
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Sorting out a Vocation?
(Extracted from "Peter on the Shore" by Rev. Fr. Anthony Bannon, LC)
You are not an island. You have parents, relatives, friends and neighbors, groups you belong to, people who make demands on you. As if that were not enough, you know that our world is not limited to the people we see or the things we feel inside.
We live another life too, the world of the spirit, the world of the interaction - love, interest, salvation - between you and Christ. There is a further interaction - deception, seduction, undoing - that Satan is trying to establish, although he would probably blush if he had to say so in public: you see, that is his private morality and you have no right to question it.
Now, where is this leading us?
You said you think you might have a vocation but you feel you are being pressured. Well, what you have to do is sort out what you mean by that.
Is someone standing over you, waving a finger at you and saying we have a lawyer, we have a doctor and now you are going to be the priest of the family? They say it used to happen in the past, I couldn’t tell. That would be obvious pressure. I’ve never seen it. Or rather I have seen it, but only used in the other direction: Don’t you dare go into the seminary, after all your mother and I have spent on your education...
What is more common for us is to feel a vocation and then to start questioning it. Where did it come from? Was it the Sisters in school? Am I just doing this to please my parents? It seems that I got the thought of a vocation from such and such a circumstance, from someone who mentioned it to me... how can it be a real vocation if I could never have felt it without going on that on retreat?... all those interminable stumpers that seem to force us to conclude, maybe I am thinking or doing this under someone else’s influence, maybe it is not a free decision.
So I think you should look at the root of the pressure you feel. If it is from the outside and nothing more, don’t give it a second thought. Don’t let that be a motive for doing something as important as making a life-decision. If it starts from the outside, but really bothers you because there is something working on the inside too, if your conscience is saying that might be right, then it is time to do something.
It is time to go on your knees if you haven’t done so yet. Because you and your Friend have a lot to talk about.
Labels: Books, Priesthood, Vocation
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Best Catholic Books for Lent
In Singapore, the Daughters of St. Paul Media Apostolate can be found in the Parish of the Risen Christ, Toa Payoh.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Discipline
(From "Christ Is My Life" by Rev. Fr. Marcial Maciel, LC)
A man who is preparing for priesthood, or is already a priest or religious, likewise has to maintain a personal discipline in line with his vocation. For example, if you want to live in priestly celibacy or take the vow of chastity you need the discipline in your life-style that will enable you to be faithful to that commitment. Not to know this would mean operating outside of a healthy concept of man not just on the Christian but even on the merely human level.
I do not believe in discipline for discipline’s sake, but do I believe that man, wounded by original sin, has tendencies that can lead him to evil. The Council of Trent, borrowing an expression of Saint Paul’s, calls this concupiscence. In Romans 7 Saint Paul vividly describes the inner battle waged in the theater of the human heart: I cannot understand my own behavior. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself doing the very things I hate with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want. In my inmost self I dearly love God’s Law, but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15, 19, 22-24).
We all have to wage this battle against our passions. This is undeniable. Discipline, motivated by love for God, helps us to come out on top in this battle. All the elements of discipline that we use are there for a higher goal and motivated by love. This produces free and mature men, not men with complexes, stunted in their faculties or unfulfilled. Just take some time to observe the seminarians and priests who live the classical elements of Church discipline (the only kind that we demand), and see if they give you the impression of not living life fully. Quite the opposite: This discipline, lived in the balance given by faith and the harmony of the nobler faculties, helps them live what Saint Augustine called libertas maior. They radiate freedom, composure and self-mastery. They radiate freedom be they Legionaries of Christ, regular Christians, or members of any other religious congregation or new community. When you practice discipline out of love and in an atmosphere of personal and community balance it does not enslave but liberate.
A man who is preparing for priesthood, or is already a priest or religious, likewise has to maintain a personal discipline in line with his vocation. For example, if you want to live in priestly celibacy or take the vow of chastity you need the discipline in your life-style that will enable you to be faithful to that commitment. Not to know this would mean operating outside of a healthy concept of man not just on the Christian but even on the merely human level.
I do not believe in discipline for discipline’s sake, but do I believe that man, wounded by original sin, has tendencies that can lead him to evil. The Council of Trent, borrowing an expression of Saint Paul’s, calls this concupiscence. In Romans 7 Saint Paul vividly describes the inner battle waged in the theater of the human heart: I cannot understand my own behavior. I fail to carry out the things I want to do, and I find myself doing the very things I hate with the result that instead of doing the good things I want to do, I carry out the sinful things I do not want. In my inmost self I dearly love God’s Law, but I can see that my body follows a different law that battles against the law which my reason dictates. This is what makes me a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:15, 19, 22-24).
We all have to wage this battle against our passions. This is undeniable. Discipline, motivated by love for God, helps us to come out on top in this battle. All the elements of discipline that we use are there for a higher goal and motivated by love. This produces free and mature men, not men with complexes, stunted in their faculties or unfulfilled. Just take some time to observe the seminarians and priests who live the classical elements of Church discipline (the only kind that we demand), and see if they give you the impression of not living life fully. Quite the opposite: This discipline, lived in the balance given by faith and the harmony of the nobler faculties, helps them live what Saint Augustine called libertas maior. They radiate freedom, composure and self-mastery. They radiate freedom be they Legionaries of Christ, regular Christians, or members of any other religious congregation or new community. When you practice discipline out of love and in an atmosphere of personal and community balance it does not enslave but liberate.
Labels: Books, Priesthood, Spirituality, Vocation
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Franciscan Prayer Book...
Friday, January 5, 2007
Incorruption of Tradition
Msgr. George Agius, Tradition and the Church (Adapted):
The Traditions of the Catholic Church consist of the Constituition which Christ Himself instituited and which the Apostles established throughout the world (as it was known back then). Even after the death of the Apostles, their commands were carried out by their successors. It would be unlikely that in the first centuries, the fundementals and principals of Christianity would become corrupted as to allow way for a different order of things in terms of Church governance. Some of the Apostles and their immediate successors lived to an old age, allowing the intermingling of one generation of Christians with another. This meant that a new generation of Christians would likely be brought up and instructed as were the first generation of Christians.
This affirmation about the impossibility of change in the government of the Church may also be applied to the impossibility of corruption of Apostolic teaching in the early centuries- and thus also down to our day. As no man can reject historical documents, we must take the writings of the Chruch Fathers for what they are worth- as historical documents and not as revealed truths. A destruction of historiacal certitude? I think so. We accept the Fathers' writings just as we accept those of Caesar or Flavius. There isn't a reason why we should believe those authors more than we do theearly writers of the Church. The Church Fathers' enlightened the Church and glorified the Faith!
Among the writings of the Fathers is the Canon of St. Vincent Lerin. In his Commonitorium, St. Vincent discerns what is pure from what is corrupt, to distinguish truth from plain opinion, to determine orthodoxy from faulty. "We must hold what has been held always, every-where and by all; this is truly and properly Catholic... this can be obtained if we follow universality, antiquity, consent."
Labels: Books, Quote, Traditionalism
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Now Reading: The Mystery of the Incarnation
(St. Paul's) "Divided into 3 parts: The Mystery of the Incarnation, The Third Millennium- A Challenge and Celebrating the Incarnation. The late Cardinal Basil Hume reflects on the meaning of the Incarnation and its meaning for our lives and for society (months before his death). He helps us see that it is an event that should be at the center of our millennium celebrations, and encourages us to fix our eyes on Christ, the light of the world."
A book of deep simplicity and prayerfullness that will definately speak to all Catholics, especially those on the margins of faith. This Christmas season is definately a good time to pick up this book.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Finished Reading:
(TAN Books and Publishers, INC.) In 1960, a French nurse, Marie Carre, attended an auto-crash victim who was brought into her hospital in a city she purposely does not name. The man lingered there near death for a few hours and dies. He had no identification on him, but he had a briefcase in which was a set of quasi-biograhipcal notes. She read these notes and kept them. The result is this book, 'AA-1025 The Memiors of an Anti-Apostle' about a communist who purposely entered the Catholic priesthood (along with 1024 others) with the intention to subvert and destroy the Church from within.
It is a must read for every Catholic today and for all who would understand just what has happened to under-mine the Catholic Church since the 1960's.
(Queenship Publishing Company) The fading picture of St. Peter's Basilica as seen on the front cover of this book is indicative of the fading strength of the faith of Catholics in basic doctrines of our great Faith. The liturgical abuses that are prevalent in many dioceses reflect the astonishing fact that only about 30% of Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Uninformed or poorly informed Catholics reflect the pathetically incompetent religious education at the parish level and the irresponsible attitude of many bishops concerning the orthodoxy of their priests, religious education directors, teachers, and programs. The author maintains that the core cause of these problems is outlined in Chapter 3 where Mr. Michael Rose's, (author of 'Good Bye, Good Men', on homosexuality in the priesthood) reveals the true reason for the shortage of priests which he describes as an artifical shortage and describes the unbelievable decay and horros taking place in many 'Catholic' Seminaries. Mihalik asserts that with unqualified and unorthodox priests comes incompetent religious education and abominable liturgical abuses; they go hand in hand.
This book is a must for the faithful and responsible Catholic.
(Messenger Press) A very good (pre-Vatican II) book that gives a good synopsis of what life in the Seminary is for God's chosen ones- to whom He has given His gifts of gifts, the pearl of great price, a sacerdotal vocation. Consists of 14 chapters that are broken up into two parts:
Part I:
- The Nature of Hapiness
- Pri & Sec Ends of Man
- Sacerdos Alter Christus
- War
- Money
- Self Indulgence
- Pride
- Devil's Agents
- Your Vocation
- Specializing
Part II:
- Divine Love
- Fostering the Right Spirit
- Prayer
- Mary, God's Holy Mother and Ours
- Conclusion
Definately a must read for all aspirants and seminarians! As the book is no longer in publication, it may be obtained from:
Rev. Father Anthony W. Wolf
St. Stephen Church
McConnelsburg Pennsylvania 17233
I found this book in Church (before Mass) on the same day an FSSP apsirant was having his farewell dinner and mass before leaving for OLGS Seminary. How cool can that be?
Labels: Books
Friday, December 15, 2006
I'm Currently Reading... ...
Excommunication. To our modern ears, the very word evokes something dark and foreboding, something out-of-place in contemporary society. Many associate excommunication with the medieval Church, with the Inquisition and witch-hunts, and think it has no place in our more enlightened, tolerant times. Yet this ecclesiastical discipline is as relevant today as it was five hundred or a thousand years ago, an unfortunate last resort in combating the rebellion the Church faces in every age from some of her members... (Read more)
Defenders of the faith have been raised up in every era of the Church to proclaim fidelity to the truth by their words and deeds. Some have fought heresy and overcome confusion like Athanasius against the Arians and Ignatius Loyola in response to the Protestant reformers. Others have shed their blood for the faith, like the early Christian martyrs of Rome, or Thomas More, John Fisher and Edmund Campion in Reformation England... (Read more)Labels: Books
Monday, November 27, 2006
Good Books on the Priesthood
THE PRIEST IS NOT HIS OWN by Abp. Fulton Sheen.
THE PRIEST IN UNION WITH CHRIST by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
PRIESTS FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM by Bp. Timothy M. Dolan.
ABOUT BEING A PRIEST by Fr. Federico Suarez.
COULD YOU EVER BECOME A CATHOLIC PRIEST? by Christopher Duquin and Lorene Duquin.
THE SACRED HEART AND THE PRIESTHOOD by Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche.
Here Bishop Sheen makes a deeply profound examination of the meaning of the
priesthood and relationship of the priest with Christ.
THE PRIEST IN UNION WITH CHRIST by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
What is a priest? What is his vocation? What should his interior life be? What
should his focus be? The author explains all this and much more regarding the
role of the priesthood.
PRIESTS FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM by Bp. Timothy M. Dolan.
A series of reflections on the priestly life with profound applications for
Catholics of every state in life.
ABOUT BEING A PRIEST by Fr. Federico Suarez.
A practical and spiritual book for priests, seminarians and aspirants.
COULD YOU EVER BECOME A CATHOLIC PRIEST? by Christopher Duquin and Lorene Duquin.
If you are a male who is considering the priesthood as a vocation then perhaps
this book will be helpful to you by exploring issues, questions, and concerns
through shared insights with seminarians and priests.
THE SACRED HEART AND THE PRIESTHOOD by Mother Louise Margaret Claret de la Touche.
A book to strengthen the souls of priests in the love of their sublime vocation.
Labels: Books, Priesthood, Vocation
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