The Monastic Office
(Thanks to Mara for this one)
"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
(Thanks to Mara for this one)
Allow me to introduce you to the Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen:
(If you think the good Archbishop was more of a “BOOYA!” guy, I created another version here)
This Sunday, as part of the Fortnight for Freedom, there will be a Eucharistic procession here in San Diego from Our Lady of the Rosary to St. Joseph’s Cathedral, where there will be Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
For more info see the Facebook Event or call John Polhamus 858-997-8636.
(Thanks to Happy Catholic for the picture)
I originally had the following post scheduled for this weekend, but since yesterday Joe posted an article entitled Defending the Deuterocanon Book by Book (Part 1), I thought I’d post it a little earlier…
In case you were unaware, Catholic Bibles are bigger than Protestant Bibles. Protestant Bibles are lacking the following books:
Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, …
…as well as three chapters of Daniel (3:24-90; 13; 14) and six chapters of Esther (10:14-16:14)
Occasionally I run across a non-Catholic who insists that this Deuterocanonical books (referred to as the “apocrypha” by Protestants) should not be part of the Bible. I don’t usually get too much into the apologetic arguments in favour of the inclusion of the Deuterocanon, although they certainly do exist. Instead, I just invite the person simply to read them! I usually suggest that they start with Wisdom, Sirach and Tobit as they’re my favourites.
Before they do that though, I always invite them to start by the following extract from Wisdom, to which I’ve added a series of underlined New Testament hyperlinks. Does any of this sound strangely familiar?
…the ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death… they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves…
“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father.
Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.” Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls…”
Wisdom 1:16, 2:1, 12–22
Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, so let’s hear from Luther concerning the Blessed Virgin…
There are a number of common themes found among the Reading for Mass this week. Death is the subject our First Reading from the Book of Wisdom and it is found again in our Gospel. The theme of Faith in God’s saving power is also present. In our psalm we sing “I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me” and in our Gospel Reading we hear of two such individuals who reached out to Jesus in faith and were blessed.
As we come to the Eucharist this week, let us fall at the feet of Jesus, reach out with expectant faith, praying for the Lord to restore us to the fullness of life.
In times of spiritual cooling and laziness, imagine in your heart those past times when you were full of zeal…remember your past efforts and the energy with which you opposed those who wished to obstruct your progress. These recollections will reawaken your soul from its deep sleep, will invest it anew with the fire of zeal, will raise it, as it were, from the dead and will make it engage in an ardent struggle against the devil and sin, thus returning to its former rank. -St. Isaak of Syria