Novena to St. Peter Julian Eymard and miscellania

Today begins the novena to St. Peter Julian Eymard, the apostle of the Eucharist and founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament. This particular order has been such a blessing to me for many years. One of my dearest and  most beloved friends, my long-time confessor and spiritual director, Fr. J.T. Lane belongs to this congregation, as does my first confessor, the late and dearly remembered Fr. Maurice Prefontaine. My life has also been very blessed by Frs. Dana Pelotte and Mike Arkins, as well as Bro. David. I am so sad that the Congregation's St. Ann's province no longer has a presence in the western U.S., especially here in Salt Lake City where they are still very beloved and missed.

St. Peter Julian's feast day is 2 August. So, the annual novena to him commences today and finishes Monday, 1 August. So, if you have a specific need or intention, whether it's personal, or for someone else, please join in praying this novena, asking St. Peter Julian to intercede for your need. Bring whatever, whether for discernment, health (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual), a job, school, whatever. During these nine days, visit the Blessed Sacrament as often as you can, especially if doing so results in you making some personal sacrifice. Also consider closing the novena by going to confession during this time and assisting at Mass on 2 August.

Novena prayer, prayed daily for nine days:

Saint Peter Julian, who listened with such loving response to the voice of Jesus, help us also to listen and hear Him as He calls us to serve Him each in our own vocation. Help us especially during this Novena when we turn with our petitions to your powerful intercession.

(intentions… mention in the quietness of your own heart).

Lord Jesus Christ, through Your grace, St. Peter Julian understood the Eucharist to be Your Gift of Self to the world. May our prayers lead us to an ardent love of the Eucharist so that, like St. Peter Julian, we may shine in the world with the Radiance of Your Presence, a radiance that will silently say:

Jesus is there- let us go to Him!

St. Peter Julian, Apostle of the Eucharist, pray for us.

Day 1, 24 July:

O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.
Our Lady of the most Blessed Sacrament, pray for us.
St. Peter Julian, pray for us.

Peter Julian Eymard was born on 4 February 1811 in La Mure d’Isere near Grenoble in the French Alps, and was baptised there the following day. The younger of only two surviving children of his parents, Madeleine and Julien, he showed a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament from his earliest years. As a small child, he took on the task of ringing a bell through the streets of La Mure to announce that Mass time was near. This was indeed prophetic as his whole life would eventually be dedicated to proclaiming Jesus’ Eucharistic Presence in the world and encouraging devotion to Him.

AND YOU LITTLE CHILD, YOU SHALL BE CALLED PROPHET OF GOD THE MOST HIGH FOR YOU WILL GO BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE THE WAY FOR HIM. TO GIVE TO THE PEOPLE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION… (Luke 1:76-77).

St Peter Julian,
We pray that through your intercession and inspired by your example, people may be drawn to honour and join Jesus in the Eucharistic celebration, and that those who have drifted away may once again find fullness of joy in His Presence.

St. Peter Julian, pray for us.

See Blessed Sacrament novena webpage.

Miscellania

I visited a suburban Barnes and Noble because you can very often find really great books in the remainder bins of these stores. I picked up A Roland Barthes Reader, complied by the late Susan Sontag. This contains several Barthes' works I have not previously read. The real gem I unearthed was a copy of James L. Kugel's How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture Then and Now. Kugel is an Orthodox Jew and world renown biblical scholar who now lives and teaches in Jerusalem. Dr. Kugel has a remarkable website, which will appear in my sidebar. I also acquired a very inexpensive copy of John Leland's Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of On the Road (They're Not What You Think). Finally, I bought A Daybook of Prayer: Meditations, Scriptures, and Prayers to Draw Near to the Heart of God, which is a wonderful anthology. When I will have the leisure to read them remains unknown.

Because love conquered death, despair cannot erase hope

Just about every year someone I know commits suicide. Not a few times they have been people close to me, even touching my own family. Other times it has been people I have come to know in various other ways. It is always indescribably sad and scary. I cannot imagine how bereft of hope a person must be to take her/his own life.

I learned this morning that a parishioner sought relief from suffering in death last night. In the face of such a great tragedy, we are comforted by these words from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives" (par. 2283). So, I ask your prayers this morning for her to Our Lady of Sorrows, who is so full of grace and love for us, especially her wayward and lost ones. I also ask you to pray for her husband and two young daughters. She suffered from really devastating depression for a long time. Hence, let us also invoke the intercession of St. Dymphna on her behalf.

I'll end this post by noting that "[w]e are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for [God's] honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of" (par. 2280). Life is the supreme gift of love given us by God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All the factors involved in any suicide are known to God and God alone, thus we commend Billy to God's mercy and pray for her, even as we comfort those she left behind. Especially in the face of tragedy and devastation, we are to be heralds of hope, witnesses to the infinite mercy and love of God, "who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all" (Rom. 8:32). In this same verse, in light of the fact that God not only gave his Son up for us, but raised him from the dead for us, St. Paul asks rhetorically "will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" The only way to bear our suffering and to allow God to use it for our salvation and that of the whole world is to unite whatever we suffer with the sufferings of Christ Jesus. Otherwise, we are liable to succumb to despair, which is the most devastating weapon in the arsenal of our enemy, who "prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour," even when we factor in depression and other natural causes (1 Peter 5:8). Jesus Christ gives us hope by giving himself for us and to us. He is our hope.

It is weird that preaching, teaching, and blogging about the role suffering plays in our salvation has been laid so heavily on my heart this past month or so. It is a message that needs to be heard, understood, and put into practice in our lives.

Notes and ramblings for a Sunday morning

Liturgically, Sunday trumps all saints memorials and feasts, but then each Sunday is All Saints. Today is the day on which we memorialize St. Francis of Assisi, a deacon of the church. As my wife and I walked through the mission here in Carmel yesterday afternoon, she purchased a medal of Bl. Junípero Serra, a son of St. Francis, as was Fr. Escalante, who first journeyed through Utah.

I also think of my dear friend Sara, who I miss terribly. She just began her formation to become a Poor Clare. The Poor Clares were founded by St. Clare, Francis' companion and friend. The charism of the Poor Clares is to pray for the apostolate, for the active works of spreading the Gospel in the world.

Mission Carmel by the Sea
From the end of the Prayer of St. Francis.:

"For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

Easy words to utter, but far more difficult to live. Francis' prayer exemplifies well the exhortation he is credited with giving his friars: "It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching." He also said something that forms a deep part of my personal spirituality: "Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self."

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
St. Francis, pray for us
St. Clare, pray for us
St. Anthony of Padua, pray for us
St. Bonaventure, pray for us
Bl. Junípero Serra, pray for us

I seek the intercessions of our Blessed Mother, Mary, along with those of the Franciscan family and for my sister, who is getting married today here in Carmel.

While I am on the subject of spreading the Gospel, I also seek the intercession of Holy Mary and the saints, especially St. Mary Magdalene, along with Sts. Francis and Clare, for Dr.Douglas O’Neill, his wife Dr. Sujin Yoon, and Mr. Hines Vaughn, Jr., who are being received into the Church today at The Cathedral of the Madeleine by His Excellency, Bishop William K. Weigand, formerly the bishop of Salt Lake City, who retired as bishop of Sacramento earlier this year.

How are you doing on praying the rosary so far this month? Sunday is always a good reboot day! Today we pray the Glorious mysteries.

I also want to both congratulate and express my gratitude to my friend, Deacon Greg Kandra, who links to this humble blog from his on-line endeavor The Deacon's Bench, which is now featured on beliefnet.

Veni Sancti Spiritus, veni per Mariam.

Monday and the world awaits

It is Monday, a new week dawned yesterday and the world awaits us this morning. Strengthened by our Sunday Eucharist, it is time for us to go forth, as we were sent, and usher in God's kingdom today. On the whole, it is no small task. However, it is done by many small tasks, motivated by love, throughout the day and week. Always, but especially during this month, we have recourse to our Blessed Mother. Do not forget the Memorare and/or the rosary today.

Please pray for those young people in your parish who are preparing to continue or complete their Christian initiation by receiving the sacrament of confirmation and making their First Communion. If possible, get a list and pray for them by name. If not, just pray for them as a group.

Remember to pray with intention, to ask for what you need and to lift up others in prayer. Be specific about what you ask our Blessed Mother to intercede for on your behalf. Only in this way can you come to know that her intercession is efficacious.

Veni Sancti Spiritus, veni per Mariam.

"The losers in this globalization game are the migrants themselves"

On the day he had surgery (i.e., yesterday), the Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial by our bishop, John Wester, on the issue of immigration. What Bishop Wester consistently shows is that what needs to be happening with regards to this highly-charged issue is at once clear-headed, compassionate, and practical. His editorial is entitled Migrants should be more than pawns in the game. The thing that really puts Catholic social teaching in contrast with so many other views on this issue is the insistence, on the part of Bishop Wester and other bishops, on not only recognizing, but putting the humanity of migrants at the center of the debate.

Bishop John Wester of the Diocese of Salt Lake City
"the United States receives the benefit of their toil and taxes without having to worry about protecting their rights, either in the courtroom or the workplace. When convenient, they are made political scapegoats and attacked -- both rhetorically and through work-site raids -- as if they were not human.

"Under this system, Mexico wins financially as well, as the country receives up to $20 billion in remittances per year without having to pay attention to the lower rungs of the economy."

Please keep Bishop Wester in your prayers, pray for his full recovery, for all afflicted with cancer, and pray that we can realize that justice and compassion are not mutually exclusive. Good Friday is a good time to pray for the alleviation of suffering and freedom for the oppressed.

More vexation on the Feast of St. Joseph

A friend from Brazil, Adriano, writes in reply to my first post on the very troubling series of events in Brazil:

"Fisichella did a bad work.

"He was not well informed about what was really going [on] here in Brazil. He was right when he talked of the need of protecting the girl and her family, but he was [poorly] informed about the rest.

"Our pro aborti[on] politic[ian]s, doctors and activists will keep his letter to justify their future 'social abortions'.

"The message sent: the church is a mess, with poor communications, abortions are endorsed in th[ese] cases.

"Dom Jose was trying to save the 3 children. Last week a girl [who was] 11 gave birth here, helped by the local church, she is well. She was raped, too.

"The doctors who performed the abortion, were from a staff of abortists, with political connections and interests.

"Only they say she was immediatly in danger."

To which I replied:

Adriano:

Thank you for further enlightening us from your closer view of the matter. I would urge you to read my follow-up post on this very troubling series of events. In the end, the thing that Fisichella spoke out against was the very public way in which the local ordinary handled the matter. He conceded that those who procured and performed the abortions were excommunicated latae sententiae. I think, as you suggest, he was asking to see and hear more compassion for the 9 year-old girl, who is a victim many times over in this horrid series of events. As with here in the States, all that was likely heard in Rome was the archbishop's condemnation.

Also, after looking into things further, I cannot reconcile the abortions even using the principle of double effect because the good effect (i.e., saving the girl's life) went through the bad effect (i.e., the abortions). At the end of the day, I regret posting anything on this at all. However, I do not want to be a revisionist. So, I will leave these posts confusions and convolutions and all. I am grateful for you and Joseph for constructively engaging me. So, thank you for your clarification and correction. Like Archbishop Fisichella, I do not want to encourage those who do not look at human life from the proper perspective.

Adriano also passes along the link to a letter written and signed by the Archdiocese of Olina and Recife's chancellor, vicar general, archdiocesan seminary rector, attorney, and the priest within whose parish the abortions were conducted, in response to Archbishop Fisichella's article, setting forth the pastoral care and concern taken for the girl, her mother, and everyone involved, as well as making some clarifications and corrections as to matters of fact to the L'Osservatore Romano article .

On this, the Feast of St. Joseph, let us pray to him on behalf of this young girl and on behalf of her step-father, whose rape was the cause of all that followed. Let us ask for his intercession on our behalf that we, like him, when he learned his bethrothed was with a child that was not his, might do the right thing in any all circumstances.

Here is a passage, a reprise, from my homily for the Holy Family:

"When we consider the Holy Family it is easy to become sentimental. In recent years, however, we have recovered the human context of the Incarnation from the perspective of Mary, an event that made her, for a time, an unmarried, pregnant teenager. But in order to see the bigger picture, we need to recover the perspective of St. Joseph, too. He was betrothed to a young woman, with whom he had not had relations, but who turns up pregnant before coming to live with him. Despite this, he did not abandon her, but accepted the will of God, which, even though made known to him by an angel, must have remained incomprehensible and difficult for him, especially in the months leading up to the birth of the divinely conceived child. It is the kind of manliness exemplified by St. Joseph that we desperately need today. After all, the collapse of the family falls disproportionately on women and children, crushing many. The need for this kind of responsibility is reflected in the divine command to ancient Israel to care for the widow and the orphan, something for which they were frequently chastised by God through the prophets for failing to do. The crisis of fatherhood today, which results in the grave sin of men failing and refusing to provide materially, emotionally, and developmentally for their children, stems from our rejection of the family as an institution ordained by God through nature and grace."

To all the Josephs out there, including Msgr. Joseph Mayo, my pastor, and Msgr. Joseph Terrence Fitzgerald, our tireless vicar general, happy day!

Prayers needed

Please put my father-in-law, Al, in your prayers. He is in ICU in Columbus, Ohio, the nearest city to where he lives. He suffered two heart attacks, the second one yesterday. Being the stubborn old farmer that he is, he did not seek help until the second attack, but just kept working. It looks like he is out-of-the-woods this morning, but he needs all the prayers he can get.

Sadness in the mo[u]rning

UPDATE: Fr. Neuhaus passed away this morning, not long after this was posted. Eternal rest grant unto him, oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

In fulfillment of the title of his book from several years ago, As I Lay Dying: Meditations Upon Returning, written after a close a brush with death, dispatches from New York report that Fr. Richard John Neuhaus lays dying this morning. He was administered the last rites of the church by his friend, Fr. George Rutler. Fr. Rutler says "that it is appropriate that prayers be offered for a holy death." I am mindful that the fruit of the fifth Glorious Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the joy of a happy death. Far from being morbid, it is a deep and real profession of faith in the fact that Jesus Christ defeated death, our enemy, by his dying and rising again. Existentially, it is a recognition of our finitude, of the fact that we will, in fact, die.

I am terribly sad as I write this, but I embrace my sadness as a wholesome part of my humanity. I am also thinking of my dear pastor, Fr. Thomas Kraft, OP, another good and holy priest, whose physical health is failing. Part of me, considering the state of things, wants to yell Lord, we need them! Jesus Christ will never abandon us and submitting to him, to his holy will, is obedience, which is a choice I make in freedom. Therefore, I pray in the manner Jesus teaches thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread, which is you, Lord.
Rocco draws our attention to something Fr. Neuhaus wrote back in 2000:

"We are born to die. Not that death is the purpose of our being born, but we are born toward death, and in each of our lives the work of dying is already underway. The work of dying well is, in largest part, the work of living well."

Let us uphold him as he works through his pains of labor, being born to life eternal. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

The New Year

As always, we begin with a prayer:

The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary
and she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord,
be it done unto me according to thy word.

And the Word was made flesh
and dwells among us.

Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee,
blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

Pray for us O holy Mother of God
that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Pour forth, we beseech thee O Lord, thy grace into our hearts that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ thy Son was made known by the message of angel, may by his Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Veni Sancte Spiritus, veni per Mariam

Feast of St. John Apostle and Evangelist

Today is the Feast of St. John, a day for priests, just as St. Stephen's is a feast for deacons. I am thankful for all the priests I know and I have the privilege of knowing quite a few. God is good and Christmas is a grand season.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. The violence unleashed today in Gaza by Israel is in retaliation for the continued rocket attacks into Israel. Gaza, which is geographically separated from the West bank, is controlled by Hamas, not by the more moderate Palestinian Authority, with whom Israel has been in negotiations. It is odd that just a few days ago Israel opened the border crossings into Gaza at the request of U.N. envoy Tony Blair. This seemed a step in the right direction.

Seattle, part II

My visit to Seattle concluded by attending the 9:00 AM Mass at Blessed Sacrament Parish yesterday morning before heading to the airport. It is a very vibrant community and very beautiful church. The Mass was presided over by Fr. Tom Kraft, OP. He is a dear friend, who was the associate pastor and chaplain of students while I was at the University of Utah. I had not seen or spoken to him during my visit. I was feeling guilty about it. I arrived at the church planning a visit to the priory after Mass, only to see Fr. Tom vested and standing on the church steps, in a truly Fr. Tom gesture, greeting people before Mass. Seeing him there in that moment was an answer to my prayer.

St. Dominic at the Cross

He is a dear friend and one who sealed the deal for me after I became Catholic by taking a personal interest in me, in my faith, in my struggles. It was with his encouragement and guidance that I began thinking about my vocation. He was more confident than I was that I actually had one. I explored the possibility of becoming a Dominican friar. He put me in touch with Fr. Anthony Rosevear, who was then the Western Dominican Province vocations director. Fr. Anthony helped me with my discernment. With Fr. Kraft's encouragement, I spent time at St. Albert's in Oakland, the Dominican house of formation, at the beginning of new novice class. I was not a novice, just an observer.

He witnessed our marriage and baptized our oldest son before going off to the Dominican mission in Mexicali, where he labored fruitfully for quite a few years. I commend him to your prayers as he continues his courageous struggle against cancer. His serenity, his humble trust in the goodness of God as shown forth in Jesus Christ, especially in the Eucharist, and his friendship with Sts. Dominic, Catherine of Siena, Francis, and Clare, is so beautiful.

On a related note, I cannot recommend too highly Fred's review of Frank Schaeffer's autobiography, Crazy for God. I was struck by a number of things that Fred wrote, but in a particular way by these words because they explain better than I am able the remarkable witness of Fr. Tom and others: "we should not act as if Christian ideas can save us from the sufferings and trials of human existence. This approach [is] triumphalist, dualistic, and reductionist". This way of looking at things is the ultimate abstraction. It is a lie about reality, about our experience. If our Lord himself was honest in these matters, not just in words, but in what he experienced, how can we justify not being honest? Such dishonesty is a betrayal of Christ and a denial of ourselves.

Hoping not to sound too trite or sentimental, I am thankful to Fr. Tom for showing me this truth by the honesty of his witness, by the way he bears his suffering and pain caused by cancer.