A Treasure To Be Shared

Cain Slays Abel Is your workplace beset with individuals who take offence at matters that trigger them and them alone and who then proceed to torture others? Do you view the world through the lens of your wounds and feel justified in cursing others with false accusations simply because you need to feel powerful and in total control? Do you inflict as much or even more harm on others than you yourself have endured? Do you attempt to control circumstances—work, play, church—because you lack the ability to interact in mutually affirming ways? Do you lack a sense of humour, and so playful banter becomes a threat? Do you feel inadequate and looked down upon, though there is no condescension on the part of others? Do you use religion or politics as a means to insulate yourself from confronting your own foibles? Do you persist in projecting your anger onto others and attempt to blame others for making your life miserable? An exasperated acquaintance recently shared workplace tensions. He ...

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...

Evil works... . to create familiarity, and by subtly exploiting weaknesses  stirs up temptations ( see below ), raises doubts and undermines trust in others and in oneself, then capitalizes on confusion by offering a cheap sympathy through false allies to coax dependence,  fueling crisis and chaos, meanwhile feeding despair and fomenting self destruction and death. Before the start of His mission, the Lord Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness. The devil, i.e., Satan, sought to appropriate the very identity, power, and mission of Jesus by assaulting Him with three temptations. Satan challenged Jesus to: turn stones into bread to satisfy his hunger jump from the temple and misuse his power seize the kingdoms of the world by force The devil's temptations follow three approaches: The first temptation of Jesus is the lust of the flesh (St Matthew 4:3–4). Our Lord is hungry, and the devil tempts Him to turn stones into bread, but Jesus responds with Scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3...

The Terpsichorean: can't sit still in the pew; shifts from being seated to kneeling to standing every couple of minutes. The Artful Dozer: half-asleep, leans against the wall or a neighbour; needs an occasional  'psst' to prompt him along. Mr. Fidget: weak bladder. The Chatterbox: attempts to engage others in small talk. You can almost bet she's gonna confess to gossipping. The Judge: whose penetrating gaze could cause a saint to wilt with guilt. The Timekeeper (aka The Tracker): her eyes are constantly on her watch timing each penitent in the box. Probably worked the clock during high school basketball games. The Narrator: rehearses his examination of conscience out loud. Mr. Scruples: you can practically see the sweat draining off his forehead. The Devotionalist: rigorously works the rosary beads, and whose whispering of prayers is almost as annoying as an ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) video of someone slurping hot soup. The Revert: hasn't been to co...

Mickey Sean Winters [ 3 minute read ] Hey Doris, how is it that you always manage to arrive at the beginning of the Gospel, crochet your way through the homily until the Lamb of God, and then vanish right after Communion? Is there some kind of dispensation I don't know about? Mickey, I guess you'll be adding one more item to your confession today, eh? That of cutting in line, aka elbowing one's way in, aka jumping the queue. Have you enrolled your daughter in catechism class? What is catechism?! That's a program to help you mentor your child in the Faith and provides support for your child to help educate her allegedly Catholic parents. Are you new here at Saint Gregory's? You're a regular? It's just that you seem so unfamiliar with the prayers and responses. Ohhh,... you were speaking in tongues. Maybe try sticking to the script. Little Mickey really seems to enjoy causing a commotion during the consecration. That must be frustrating for you and your husban...

The following meditation was prepared for our Ordinariate  community's online News Notes for the Second Sunday of Lent. A Meditation on The General Confession in the Penitential Rite of Divine Worship ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men: God is all-knowing, all-seeing. We acknowledge His sovereignty over our lives. He is Lord; He is loving Father. He knows the full content and orientation of our hearts. What might cause us to recoil in horror - and so we should when confronted with our sins - is trumped by God's mercy. God does not lie to us about the condition of our souls. He wants us to be truly free so that we may love truly. A proper and detailed examination of conscience (e.g., made in the pew facing the Blessed Sacrament) invites God the Holy Spirit to help us see clearly those areas of our life that contradict the will of God (St. John 8:32). We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from ...

Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret (1852–1929) | The Last Supper Jesus Christ is the Eucharist. He is Present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. A Basic Catholic Catechism (C) 1990 by Fr. William G. Most, Part 12 367. What is necessary to receive Holy Communion worthily? To receive Holy Communion worthily it is necessary to be free from mortal sin, to have a right intention and to obey the Church's laws on the fast required before Holy Communion out of reverence for the body and blood of Our Divine Lord. (a) Venial sin does not make us unworthy of receiving Holy Communion; but it does prevent us from receiving the more abundant graces and blessings which we would otherwise receive from Holy Communion. 368. Does he who knowingly receives Holy Communion in mortal sin receive the body and blood of Christ and His graces? He who knowingly receives Holy Communion in mortal sin receives the body and blood of Christ, but he does not receive His graces and commits a grave sin of sacrilege. (a) To receiv...

James Tissot Jesus c 1896 The Pardon of the Good Thief There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who believe in God, and those who imagine themselves to be God. Those who repent, and those who pretend. Those who encourage virtue, and those who endorse vice. Those who stop to help, and those who walk on by. Those who accept that there are absolutes, and those who think they know better. Those who acknowledge reality, and those who attempt to ignore it or bend it to fantasy. Those who pray, and those who probably wish they do. Those who care, and those who gossip. Those who suffer through no fault of their own and offer up their suffering to God, and those who inflict suffering on others. Those who are disciplined and of service to others, and those who are undisciplined and who try to force others to accept their aberrant (and abhorrent) behaviour. Those who see the need to change bad habits, and those whose bad habits blind them to change. Those who are resilient in the face o...

Motet (Just for fun, choose a part and sing along!) Emendemus in melius (Let us amend for the better) Matins response for the first Sunday in Lent by William Byrd for SATTB voices Cantiones sacrae, quae ab argumento sacrae vocantur (1575) Emendemus in melius quae ignoranter peccavimus;   ne subito praeoccupati die mortis,  quaeramus spatium poenitentiae,  et invenire non possimus. Attende, Domine, et miserere;  quia peccavimus tibi.  Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster,  et propter honorem nominis tui libera nos. Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have sinned through ignorance; lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death, we seek space for repentance, and be not able to find it. Hearken, O Lord, and have mercy: for we have sinned against thee. Help us, O God of our salvation, and for the honour of thy name deliver us. (English translation by William Mahrt ) List of melodies:  https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/chant/516275 Score: ...

A 2019 article at CNA by Mary Farrow, featuring comments by Fr. James Bradley and edited for this blog, captures essential features of the season of Shrovetide, which ends today. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/how-to-pregame-lent-septuagesima-carnival-and-shrovetide-56266 Septuagesima Sunday, follows Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays. Sunday kicks off Carnival season, which comes right before Shrovetide, which culminates in Shrove Tuesday - more popularly known as Mardi Gras. [...] “Septuagesima is kept in the personal ordinariates established by Pope Benedict XVI for former Anglicans, now within the full communion of the Catholic Church,” said Father James Bradley, a priest from the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom.   “Septuagesima is still marked in the older Anglican prayer books, and is part of the Anglican patrimony preserved by Divine Worship: The Missal, used by the ordinariates,” Bradley told...

Among the many precious gems to be found in Divine Worship: the Missal, the Mass of the Personal Ordinariates established under the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, is the Confession in the Penitential Rite. For those unfamiliar with Divine Worship, the Penitential Rite follows the Prayers of the People  after the Credo . The Rite includes a beautiful prayer, one among many in the Missal . ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of all things, judge of all men: We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, which we from time to time most grievously have committed, by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine majesty, provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; the remembrance of them is grievous unto us, the burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, fo...