Our Father, Again

 Four days ago, I posted about The Lord's Prayer.  Today, I read in Aleteia, that Philip Kosloski is just as much gobstruck as I am, by the thought of the number of people, kinds of people, nationalities, from way back when, 33 AD, that have prayed the very same prayer that I am praying now.  

Add Two More Prayers to the Rosary

You know how I have this love/hate relationship with the rosary.  I don't like rote prayers and the rosary is an example.  I have been praying it, however, because as a Lay Dominican it is part of our rule.  It is part of my life. I miss it when I don't pray it.  Well, today in Aleteia,in an article by Kathleen Kattrup, I read that the pope asks Catholics to add two more prayers to the rosary during the month of May, which is a month dedicated to Mary.  Of course, I will do it.  After all, Thomas Merton says it's worth more when you push yourself.

First Prayer

O Mary,
You shine continuously on our journey
as a sign of salvation and hope.
We entrust ourselves to you, Health of the Sick,    who, at the foot of the cross,
were united with Jesus’ suffering,
and persevered in your faith.

“Protectress of the Roman people”,
you know our needs,
and we know that you will provide,
so that, as at Cana in Galilee,
joy and celebration may return
after this time of trial.

Help us, Mother of Divine Love,
to conform ourselves to the will of the Father
and to do what Jesus tells us.
For he took upon himself our suffering,
and burdened himself with our sorrows
to bring us, through the cross,
to the joy of the Resurrection.
Amen.

We fly to your protection,
O Holy Mother of God;
Do not despise our petitions
in our necessities,
but deliver us always
from every danger,
O Glorious and Blessed Virgin.

---

Second Prayer

“We fly to your protection, O Holy Mother of God”.

In the present tragic situation, when the whole world is prey to suffering and anxiety, we fly to you, Mother of God and our Mother, and seek refuge under your protection.

Virgin Mary, turn your merciful eyes towards us amid this coronavirus pandemic. Comfort those who are distraught and mourn their loved ones who have died, and at times are buried in a way that grieves them deeply. Be close to those who are concerned for their loved ones who are sick and who, in order to prevent the spread of the disease, cannot be close to them. Fill with hope those who are troubled by the uncertainty of the future and the consequences for the economy and employment.

Mother of God and our Mother, pray for us to God, the Father of mercies, that this great suffering may end and that hope and peace may dawn anew. Plead with your divine Son, as you did at Cana, so that the families of the sick and the victims be comforted, and their hearts be opened to confidence and trust.

Protect those doctors, nurses, health workers and volunteers who are on the frontline of this emergency, and are risking their lives to save others. Support their heroic effort and grant them strength, generosity and continued health.

Be close to those who assist the sick night and day, and to priests who, in their pastoral concern and fidelity to the Gospel, are trying to help and support everyone.

Blessed Virgin, illumine the minds of men and women engaged in scientific research, that they may find effective solutions to overcome this virus.

Support national leaders, that with wisdom, solicitude and generosity they may come to the aid of those lacking the basic necessities of life and may devise social and economic solutions inspired by farsightedness and solidarity.

Mary Most Holy, stir our consciences, so that the enormous funds invested in developing and stockpiling arms will instead be spent on promoting effective research on how to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.

Beloved Mother, help us realize that we are all members of one great family and to recognize the bond that unites us, so that, in a spirit of fraternity and solidarity, we can help to alleviate countless situations of poverty and need. Make us strong in faith, persevering in service, constant in prayer.

Mary, Consolation of the afflicted, embrace all your children in distress and pray that God will stretch out his all-powerful hand and free us from this terrible pandemic, so that life can serenely resume its normal course.

To you, who shine on our journey as a sign of salvation and hope, do we entrust ourselves, O Clement, O Loving, O Sweet Virgin Mary. Amen.

Living Without the Eucharist

I wanted to post this on Facebook but there is something wrong on FB.  It won't let me post on my page. So I'll post it here.  This is from https://aleteia.org/

                                                                             I hope this gives you encouragement.

Saints who have had to live without the Eucharist

Public Domain | Gini George/Pixabay

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Meg Hunter-Kilmer | Mar 18, 2020

These stories will put our momentary fast from the Body and Blood of Christ into perspective.

With dioceses around the world canceling public Masses for weeks to come, many Catholics are already feeling starved for the Eucharist. When the world is fighting a global pandemic, it seems that the Mass would be more necessary than ever. But while public Masses are canceled, the private ones continue and the body of Christ is able to receive the graces from those Masses, especially when we make a spiritual communion.

Still, how can we who depend on the Sacraments survive this crisis when divorced from holy Mass? Well, there are plenty of saints (and millions more Christians) who’ve had similar experiences, months and years of surviving without the Sacraments. Looking to them can strengthen us to persevere.

Though not canonized, thousands and thousands of Japanese Christians lived without priests for nearly 250 years. They baptized their children in secret, passing down the faith in whispered lessons, praying before images of the Madonna and Child that were disguised to look like Buddhist images. In 1858 Japan finally readmitted Christian missionaries, who found 10,000 hidden Christians waiting for them. Imagine being raised with the near certainty that you would never in your life attend Mass, knowing of the Eucharist only because your grandmother’s grandmother’s grandmother once went to Mass. It puts social distancing in perspective.

The saints of 19th-century Korea were in a similar situation. After the Gospel was first preached by Servant of God Yi Beok and his companions in 1784, the Church was run entirely by laypeople until 1795. At that point, Bl. James Zhou Wen-Mo arrived and discovered 4,000 Catholics, only one of whom had ever seen a priest. Wen-Mo served as the only priest in all of Korea for six years, until his martyrdom. For the next 36 years, there were again no Masses in Korea until a small group of French priests arrived in 1836—and were killed two years later.

St. Isaac Jogues (1607-1646) may have been prepared for torture and martyrdom when he traveled to North America to evangelize Native Americans. But as a priest, he wouldn’t have expected to be deprived of the Eucharist — until his hands were marred by his captors. At the time, a priest who was missing thumb or forefinger was unable to celebrate the Mass, so from the time of his injury until (having escaped his Mohawk captors) his return to France 17 months later, Fr. Jogues was unable to confess, to celebrate Mass, or even to attend Mass. He was given a special dispensation and permitted to celebrate Mass again, in spite of the state of his hands, and requested permission to return to America after his recovery. He was killed not long after his return, but his killer later repented and was baptized with the name “Isaac Jogues.”

 

Read more:

The first Catholic priest to say Mass in Manhattan

Bl. Victoire Rasoamanarivo (1848-1894) was a Malagasy noblewoman and a convert to Catholicism. A leader in the Church in Madagascar, when the French were expelled from Madagascar in 1883, the departing priests left the care of the Church in her hands, along with Bl. Raphael Rafiringa, a Malagasy religious Brother. For nearly three years, Victoire and Raphael led the 21,000 lay Catholics in Madagascar, bringing them together each Sunday for communal prayer though there were no priests to celebrate Mass. Victoire explained, “I place before my mind the missionaries saying the Mass, and mentally attend all the Masses being said throughout the world.” Three years later, a vibrant community hungry for the Eucharist welcomed their priests back—all of them far more grateful for the Mass than they had been before their three years without it.

St. Mark Ji TianXiang (1834-1900) was an opium addict. Because his priest didn’t understand the nature of addiction, he told TianXiang that he couldn’t be absolved until he had beaten his addiction—which meant that he couldn’t receive communion either. For 30 years, TianXiang continued to practice the faith while being denied the Sacraments. He never did manage to get clean, but he died a martyr and has been canonized a saint not just for his martyrdom but for his decades of attempting to follow Jesus even in the absence of the Sacraments.

Bl. Laurentia Herasymiv (1911-1952), like countless other Catholics in Nazi concentration camps or Soviet gulags, spent the last months of her life without the Sacraments and in the near certainty that she would have no opportunity for viaticum or a final confession. Arrested for refusing to abandon the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for Orthodoxy, Sr. Laurentia and Bl. Olympia Bida were sent to Siberia, where both died as a result of all they’d suffered at the hands of the communists. As she lay dying, she begged for the Eucharist, calling out in her delirium, “Jesus, I do not want to die without you!” She died, as she had lived for two long years, without the Eucharist, and was fully united to Jesus.

Why Them and Not Me?

Instead of just giving you the link to this most excellent article I found it worthy enough to copy and paste it in its entirety.  What Pope Francis thinks of prisoners.  This Article is from Aleteia, February 7, 2019.

AFP PHOTO / OSSERVATORE ROMANO/HO

Pope Francis (R) kissing the feet of a young offender after washing them during a mass at the church of the Casal del Marmo youth prison on the outskirts of Rome as part of Holy Thursday. - es

Pope Francis had an audience with the staff of the Regina Coeli Correctional Facility in Rome, and this is what he told them:

~

…

I express to each one of you my acknowledgement and that of the Church for your work alongside the detainees: this requires inner strength, perseverance and awareness of the specific mission to which you are called. And another thing. It takes prayer every day, that the Lord may give you good sense: good sense in the different situations in which you will find yourselves.

The prison is a place of pain in the dual sense of punishment and suffering, and has a great need for attention and humanity. It is a place where all, Penitentiary Police, chaplains, educators and volunteers, are called to perform the difficult task of tending to the wounds of those who, on account of the errors they have made, find themselves deprived of their personal freedom. It is well known that good collaboration between the different prison services provides an action of great support in the re-education of detainees. However, due to a lack of personnel and chronic overcrowding, this painstaking and delicate work risks being in part in vain. Workplace stress caused by pressing shifts and often distance from families are factors that weigh down a job that already involves a certain psychological burden.

Therefore, professional figures such as yours need personal balance and valid motivations, continually renewed; indeed, you are called not only to guarantee the protection, order and security of the institute, but also very often to bind the wounds of men and women you meet on a daily basis in their sections.

No-one may condemn another for the errors he has committed, nor inflict suffering that offends human dignity. Prisons need to be increasingly humanized, and it is painful instead to hear that very often they are considered to be places of violence and illegality, where human evil rages.

At the same time, we must not forget that many detainees are poor people, without points of reference, they have no security, they have no family, they have no means to defend their own rights, they are marginalized and abandoned to their destiny. For society, detainees are uncomfortable individuals, they are rejects, a burden. This is painful, but the collective subconscious leads us there.

But experience shows that prison, with the help of prison workers, can truly become a place of redemption, of resurrection and of change of life; and everything is possible through paths of faith, work and professional formation, but above all with spiritual closeness and compassion, following the example of the Good Samaritan, who stooped to care for his wounded brother. This attitude of closeness, that finds its root in Christ’s love, may favour in many detainees the trust, awareness and certainty of being loved.

In addition, a punishment, any punishment, must not be closed; it must always have “the window open” to hope, on the part of both the prison and of each person. Everyone must always have the hope of partial rehabilitation. Let us think of those serving life sentences, even for them: “With my work in prison…”. Give, do work… Always the hope of rehabilitation. A penalty without hope is useless, it does not help, it provokes in the heart feelings of rancour, very often of revenge, and the person leaves worse than when they entered. No. It is always necessary to ensure that there is hope and to help to see beyond the window, hoping in rehabilitation. I know that you work hard, looking to this future to rehabilitate each one of those who are in prison.

I encourage you to carry out your important work with sentiments of harmony and unity. All together, Directorate, Penitentiary Police, Chaplains, educational sector, volunteers and external community are called to march in a single direction, to help raise up and nurture in hope those who, unfortunately, have fallen into the trap of evil.

For my part, I accompany you with my affection, which is sincere. I have great closeness to prisoners and those who work in prisons. My affection and my prayer, that you may be able to contribute, with your work, to ensuring that prison, a place of pain and suffering, may also be a laboratory of humanity and hope. In the other diocese [Buenos Aires], I often went to the prison; and now every fortnight, on Sunday, I make a telephone call to a group of prisoners in a prison I visited frequently. I am close. And I have always had a sensation when entering a prison: “Why them and not me?” This thought has done me great good. Why them and not me? I could have been there, and instead no, the Lord gave me a grace that my sins and my shortcomings were forgiven and not seen, I don’t know. But that question helps greatly: why them and not me?

I heartily bless all of you and your loved ones, and I ask you, please, to pray for me, as I am in need. Thank you!

Not Your Usual Prayers

This article in Aleteia caught my eye.  It is talking about dangerous prayers.  The article's author, Elizabeth Scalia says that Flannery O'Connor once said, " my prayers take a line through Flannery O’ Connor: “Lord, I’ll never be a saint but I might be a martyr if they can kill me quickly!”

I'm even worse.  I will try to be a normal, ordinary saint, but please Lord, never a martyr. I'm such a coward.

The article's eye-grabbing headline is "Dangerous Prayers."  I won't be a spoiler.  Read the article to see what they are.

The Hidden Power of Holy Water

 Holy Water Font from Royal Tara Fine Bone China, Galway, Ireland.
I hope to come home with this when I visit Galway, next month.

The Hidden Power of Holy Water: Many people have forgotten about holy water.  I haven't.  I love to sprinkle it upon each bed in my home.  I have a small font of holy water on my kitchen window sill.  (No my cooking isn't that bad!)  I bless myself often during the day.  This reminds me of my baptism.  I am a child of God.  I need Him.  To quote this article in Aleteia:



In theological terms, holy water is a sacramental. It is a mixture of blessed salt and blessed water, and, although, by its use, sanctifying grace is not conferred, actual grace is obtained. 



Every church has a container of holy water.  Most people don't even notice it.  Every time I fill my bottle with holy water from St. Mary's container, I see people look at me quizzically.  One time a lady asked me after Mass, "What were you doing?"  I jokingly quipped, "Worshipping the radiator."  Don't worry; I laughingly explained that I was getting holy water out of the little tank.  This was an opportunity to evangelize to that segment of the population who need it the most--Catholics.  She learned more than she ever wanted to know about holy water.



She learned something that day.

Do Your Job!

Aleteia hits the nail on the head, again!  Today there's an article by Tom Hoopes on 5 Lessons he wants his sons to learn from the Patriots win in Super Bowl LI.

He's highlighting spiritual lessons:
Don't coast.
Never give up.
Never turn against your own.
When it's hard to do, do it for your Mom.
Do your job!

I think I'll use this in my next TOPS meeting.      

Don't slack.
Keep trying.
Don't get down on yourself.
Do it for your family.
Do it for your health!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, says it so clearly.  In her article, "Catholic Social Media: Why Its Important to our bishops and pope," she lays the reasons why we need authoritative voices and as such, respect is due them. I've often bemoaned the false news and the angry tone often portrayed on social media.  Sister gives us these criteria to help us judge whether or not what we are looking or reading will really help us.

1. Does this article/writer/website give other people in society (lay leaders, politicians, Catholic organizations) more benefit of the doubt than the bishops or the pope?

2. Does this article either subtly or overtly make personal attacks?

• Name calling or the use of disrespectful nicknames.
• Attacks against a person’s character (i.e. judgments about a person’s inner life based on outward actions).
• Negative judgments about a person that communicate condescension, bitterness, or contempt.

3. Is this article opinion or fact based? If an opinion, does the writer share his thoughts humbly while giving the people involved the benefit of the doubt? Or does the writer share his opinion as if it is fact while assuming the worst of those involved?

4. Does this article unfairly assume intention, make conjectures about a person’s inner life, and base analyses on guesses rather than facts?

5. Does this article present itself as sharing objective information in a journalistic style while subtly adding in phrases of opinion that sow doubt and direct the reader to make certain conclusions?

6. Does this article/writer/website hold up certain Church teachings with reverence and respect while dismissing other teaching as non-essential or simply wrong? Or does this article/writer/website gloss over certain Church teachings or subtly subvert them because they are seen as unpopular or uncharitable in the secular world?

7. Is this article’s headline sensational? Does it suggest something scandalous without clear evidence? What would a non-Catholic think upon reading this headline? Does this headline portray events in the worst possible interpretive sense?

8. Does this article use scare quotes to suggest intention and to manipulate readers to absorb the information or a person’s words in a certain way rather than allowing the reader to make his or her own judgments about what was said?

9. Does this article use logical fallacies? (Uncharitable articles are often full of bad arguments.)

10. Does this article/writer/website set itself up against the hierarchy as a “guardian of orthodoxy” or as a de facto alternate Magisterium? Or does this website set itself up against the hierarchy as a prophetic voice of correction and worldly common sense?

- See more at: http://aleteia.org/2017/02/07/catholic-social-media-why-its-important-to-respect-our-bishops-and-pope/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en#sthash.kPMBfawp.dpuf

Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble

Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, is the author of The Prodigal You Love: Inviting Loved Ones Back to the Church. She blogs at Pursued by Truth.

- See more at: http://aleteia.org/2017/02/07/catholic-social-media-why-its-important-to-respect-our-bishops-and-pope/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en#sthash.kPMBfawp.dpuf

The Art of Listening

http://aleteia.org/2017/02/02/listening-is-pastoral-care-and-even-you-can-do-it/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en     Listening is hard for me.  I always want to jump in with advice. I have heard and understand that isn't what's needed.  Affirmation is called for and the easy way is to spend all the time that the person needs, with him, listening intently--without interruption.  

Anacleto Gonzalez Flores

I was reading about Anacleto Gonzalez Flores in Aleteia, this morning and was poignantly moved.  Here is a saint after my own heart.

He didn't grow up in a particularly devout household--his father barely tolerated the mother's religiosity.  


He was studious and religious.

He was a lawyer and went to daily Mass.

He was married and had two children.

He visited prisoners and taught religion.

He was a writer and published a magazine.

At that time, the Mexican government became very anti-religion.  The government purposely aimed to rid the country of Catholicism.  Anacleto Gonzalez Flores worked to defeat the government's policies.  Eventually, he was martyred for his activities.

May he rest in peace and may we all be as steadfast in faith as he.  Lord Jesus in Your Name I pray.

A Church Full of Sinners

Aleteia has an article which reminded me of an incidence with the mother of a friend.  The article is about people criticizing Catholics as "bad" people:

Renaissance cardinals who have mistresses
Catholic mobsters
Catholics are drunkards
Catholic girls are "loose"
Catholic boys are petty criminals
etc..

Yet, these "bad" Catholics wear large crucifixes around their necks and have statues of Mary on their front lawn.

The author, David Mills, converted to Catholicism essentially because of people with "logs in their eyes."  (Matt 7: 5)  His former religion had its share of "bad" people, also, but they didn't acknowledge it.

Anyway, I remember my own Protestant friend had a mother who was very anti-Catholic.  We were discussing this very fact.  People go to church to straightened out their lives.  Don't sick people go to doctors to get well?  Well, spiritually sick people go to church to get well.

However, there's a joke that builds on this idea:

I don't go to church.   
Why?
It's full of sinners!

She didn't get it.

Jose Brochero

Pope Francis refers to him as the Gaucho priest.  He's Jose Gabriel Brochero from Argentina.  He was what I would call a 'street' priest.  He wasn't a businessman.  He didn't stay in the rectory office.  He traveled his extensive parish.  And he did it by traveling on a burro.  Read more at Aleteia.

Mother Superior

Do you want to know what it is really like to be a Mother Superior?  Read the article in Aleteia.

Texting Novenas

What a good idea!  In reading "Confessions of a novena failure," in Aleteia, by Katheryn Jean Lopez, I found a novel way to pray.

Lopez talks about a website that constantly has a novena going in.  It's short and sweet which makes it doable.  Copy the prayer and text it every day for nine days to your prayer buddy.  She likewise, prays and passes it on.

Do you think it will work?

I don't think it will work in my prayer group because 9 out of the 10 people don't have cell phones.  It might work in my Lay Dominican chapter.  We text each other to keep community and what better way to keep in touch than to pray with each other.

Deal with God

I love this picture and the story is heart warming.  Click on the link:
http://aleteia.org/2016/08/26/after-the-flood-cajun-armies-answer-the-call-and-volunteer-in-louisiana/?utm_campaign=NL_en&utm_source=daily_newsletter&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=NL_en

Do Your Best, God does the Rest

photo from Aleteia

Paige McPherson, 25-year-old Taekwondo phenom  she says it’s God’s presence in her life that firmly cements her strength and success. “I’ve put in the work; I’ve done what I’m supposed to do. I’m learning, though, that there are certain things I just can’t control, and that’s when I give it up to Him.”  She's competing in the Olympics and tells the story of how she came to be there.  It's God's will.  She does her part, and depends on God for the rest.  Read about her faith and journey on Aleteia.