A Treasure To Be Shared

As we approach secular New Year celebrations, we might take a moment to reflect on the ever-present need to bring the Gospel to a world whose citizens are in constant need of hope and of the assurance that they are capable of giving and receiving authentic love. The necessity of prayer and acceptance of God's invitation to newness of life. To be able to adopt and realize a new way of thinking and being requires an ongoing willingness to change, to encounter the truth about oneself in a world that provides many shallow alternatives to Jesus' way of truth, goodness and beauty.  The path to renewal depends on cooperation with God, Who loves you and Who provides you with the grace - His very life and loving power - to help you be restored to communion with Him.  That communion is a relationship of love.  God informs the heart and mind and draws us into His embrace.  Through prayer and formation in His word, the voice of God speaking in and through Holy Scripture, we come...

Chicagoans are featured in another chapter of a fracas that began in the late 1960s, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/261035/cardinal-cupich-asks-catholics-to-receive-holy-communion-standing-in-chicago-archdiocese Echoes of Another Time? A noisy minority, one might say a minority possessed by a shortsightedness born of a spirit of an era given to anarchy, pushed for acceptance of communion in the hand.  Despite a reminder of the Church's venerable practice of communion on the tongue, reception of communion in the hand soon became wide spread.  Some would say the sainted Pontiff Paul VI gave in to pressure to permit communion in the hand.  Given the wealth of evidence that has gathered over the past several decades like mountains of trash, the results of such a decision scarcely need to be described or subjected to lengthy longitudinal studies.  The choice to allow communion in the hand has had devastating results. A l...

God's Action The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Eternal Word, the Divine Logos, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man,... O Sapientia (O Wisdom) Isaiah 11:2-3 O Adonai (O Lord or Ruler) 11:4-5 and 33:22 O Radix (O Root of Jesse) 11:1 O Clavis (O Key of David) 22:22 O Oriens (O Radiant Dawn) 9:1 O Rex Gentium (O King of the Nations) 2:4 O Emmanuel (O God with Us) 7:14 ... was born for our salvation. The Lord God made His home among men.  The Word-Made-Flesh is received in the Holy Eucharist. He makes His home in us. We, the baptized, are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). Jesus lives in us.  That being the case, how do we keep our household, the household of our lives, hospitable for Jesus? The Lord invites us into communion with Him and provides the grace - His very life, His Presence - to facilitate movement into a deepening communion with Him. The Mass The Liturgy of the Word.  The  Word of God purifies our minds and prepares us to receive Jes...

The Great O Antiphons prayed during the past week preceding Christmas bring us into the mystery of the Incarnation by immersing us in a relationship with Jesus under various titles that speak to the nature of His person and identity. The ancient O Antiphons - from whence comes the hymn O come, O come Emmanuel - began on 17th December. These sentences of Scripture are sung before and after the Magnificat at Evensong from 17th-24th December, and form the Alleluia verse at Mass on the same days. Each Antiphon addresses the coming Messiah by a different title, and refers to a prophecy of Isaiah, thus intensifying our Advent preparation and bringing it to its joyful conclusion on Christmas Eve. | Victoria Ordinariate Let us briefly recall the titles of Christ presented in the O Antiphons. S      Sapientia (17th) Wisdom A      Adonai (18th) Lord and ruler R      Radix Jesse (19th) Root of Jesse C      Clavis David (20th) Key of Da...

[Estimated Read Time: 8 minutes] Disclaimer By "Ordinariate flavour," one should not attribute to this author final say nor conclusive authority.  This blogger is merely an agent (member, messenger) gathering treasures from primary sources and distributing those pearls to a wider audience to celebrate the shared Catholic charism localized in the Personal Ordinariates, to stimulate awareness of the transcendentals, and to foster zeal for the Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ for the salvation of souls. +  +  + Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul. | Saint Augustine The radiant season of Christmas invites us through the transcendentals to mission.  The story of the Incarnation and birth of Christ inspires a wonder, joy and peace that leads us beyond narrow perceptions to the glory of the ultimate reality of salvation in Jesus Christ, a renewal, a revival and a restoration in Christ now and for eternity. The great theol...

Dogmatic and moral truths come from and lead to God.  The truth banishes error, especially idolatry, because all truth is found in the Word made flesh.  What is true is good and beautiful because it unites us to the good and beautiful God. He created us so that we may know Him by knowing the truth that He is. —Fr. Gerald E. Murray When we hear a phrase sung, we hear it differently.  A chant resounds.  Its very voice lingers, if you will, in the echo, particularly in an empty church.  And, from ancient times, it was not enough just to read a text, but to proclaim them aloud, even to sing them, to let the word itself play in rhythm and in pitch.  As St. Augustine would say, it plays to the ear of the heart.  All of this is because Christian faith, the biblical faith that we profess, is incarnational.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father.  We know Him, we recogniz...

Who says the English don't know how to party? (I)n the feaste of Christmas, there was in the kinges house, wheresoeuer hee was lodged, a Lord of Misrule, or Maister of merry disports, and the like had yee in the house of euery noble man, of honor, or good worshippe, were he spirituall or temporall. Amongst the which the Mayor of London, and eyther of the shiriffes had their seuerall Lordes of Misrule, euer contending without quarrell or offence, who should make the rarest pastimes to delight the Beholders. These Lordes beginning their rule on Alhollon Eue (Halloween), continued the same till the morrow after the Feast of the Purification, commonlie called Candlemas day: In all which space there were fine and subtle disguisinges, Maskes and Mummeries, with playing at Cardes for Counters, Nayles and pointes in euery house, more for pastimes then for gaine. The Feast of Fools in England was presided over by a Lord of Misrule, a commoner or sub-deacon, during Christmastide. A celebrati...