St.. Dominic, Priest (1170-1221) EC2006 - Fr. Peter M. Girard, OP - Why St Dominic Wept

Youtube:  

COELLO_Claudio_St_Dominic

Why St. Dominic wept.

Friday, 08 August 2014

ST DOMINIC Priest (1170-1221)

Published on 22 Nov 2012

In 2006 Father Peter Girard gave three presentations at our convention. Here is the second of them entitled "Why St Dominic Wept".

Fr. Peter M. Girard, OP, STD was ordained to the holy priesthood in 1992. He holds a Masters Degree in Communications (M.A.) from American University and the Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) and License in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, DC. He received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.) from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome in 2001.

Fr. Peter has served as theological advisor to Virgil Dechant, the former Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, as Dean of Men and Director of Homiletics at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, CT and Vice-Rector at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, OH. He is the author of over 60 articles in Homiletic & Pastoral Review and other publications, as well as A Textual Study and History of the Inscription of the Paschal Candle, his first book published by The Edwin Mellen Press of New York in 2004.

Fr. Peter has given numerous retreats and missions throughout the United States and around the world. He is currently Chaplain to the Dominican Cloistered Nuns in West Springfield, MA and Professor of Homiletics at Holy Apostles Seminary. He recently began a Got Forgiveness? campaign to bring priests and laity back to Confession which has born much good fruit. A priest with experience in international diplomacy, Fr. Peter is often called upon to speak on topics of significance for the Church and the world.

Feast of the Transfiguration. Youtube

Ordinary Time: August 6th

Feast of the Transfiguration

 Fr. Hugh had the Introduction of the Mass.

Today we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord.

St. Leo the Great calls this a great sign. It indicates the hidden glory of Christ but is always with us.

St. Paul says that we are changed.

“We are unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same images from glory to glory.

Christ is not only transfigured he transformCatholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Youtube: Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)The deep identification between Christ and His Church, so clear in Pope St. Leo's homily, is a hallmark of authentic Catholic Christianity

hallmark of authentic Catholic Christianity

My dear brethren, there is no doubt that the Son of God took our human nature into so close a union with himself that one and the same Christ is present, not only in the firstborn of all creation, but in all his saints as well. The head cannot be separated from the members, nor the members from the head. Not in this life, it is true, but only in eternity will God be all in all, yet even now he dwells, whole and undivided, in his temple the Church. Such was his promise to us when he said: See, I am with you always, even to the end of the world (Pope St. Leo the Great) 

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

http://classicalchristianity.com/2012/08/18/pope-st-leo-on-the-transfiguration/

Patrick Comerford: The Transfiguration: finding meaning in icons and Orthodox spirituality

   

 www.patrickcomerford.com497 × 628Search by image

although Peter – as the icons show – saw Christ. He is traditionally coloured with green and locates on the bottom left. The position of his hands is a reminder of prayer

Conservation of the Transfiguration mosaic - The Getty



www.getty.edu/conservation/publications_resources/public.../sinai.html

Conservation image. Enlarge Mosaic of the Transfiguration, in the basilica of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai. Photo: Robert S. Nelson  ...

Transfiguration of Christ, Wednesday, August 6 we celebrate the Feast of the

Surfing courtesy of
 http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/nonews.html  

The Transfiguration and "Mountaintop Experiences"

This Wednesday, August 6 we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ. We have seen paintings of it, and read about it – but what meaning does this experience on Mt. Tabor have for Jesus as well as for us?

Come to The Crossroads and read why God from time to time gives us"Mountaintop Experiences" – then check out what two Early Church Fathers have to say about this miraculous event -  St. Anastasiuswrites to us and tell us - "It is Good for us to Be Here!" Then Saint Leo the Great explains why Moses showed up for the occasion. 

For a mountaintop experience of your own, sign up for our Holy Land Pilgrimage Dec 27-Jan 6 and join us in climbing Mt. Tabor.  Check out this short video to catch a view from the top of this sacred mountain!

(if the links don't work, just cut and paste www.dritaly.com into your browser)

Saint John Mary Vianney, priest. 4 August 2014

Ordinary Time: August 4th

Memorial of St. John Vianney, priest

SECOND READING

From the Catechetical Instructions by Saint John Mary Vianney, priest
(Catechisme sur la prière: A. Monnin, Esprit du Curé d’Ars, Parish 1899, pp. 87-89)

The glorious duty of man: to pray and to love

My little children, reflect on these words: the Christian’s treasure is not on earth but in heaven. Our thoughts, then ought to be directed to where our treasure is. This is the glorious duty of man: to pray and to love. If you pray and love, that is where a man’s happiness lies.

Prayer is nothing else but union with God. When one has a heart that is pure and united with God, he is given a kind of serenity and sweetness that makes him ecstatic, a light that surrounds him with marvelous brightness. In this intimate union, God and the soul are fused together like two bits of wax that no one can ever pull apart. This union of God with a tiny creature is a lovely thing. It is a happiness beyond understanding.

We had become unworthy to pray, but God in his goodness allowed us to speak with him. Our prayer is incense that gives him the greatest pleasure.

My little children, your hearts are small, but prayer stretches them and makes them capable of loving God. Through prayer we receive a foretaste of heaven and something of paradise comes down upon us. Prayer never leaves us without sweetness. It is honey that flows into the soul and makes all things sweet. When we pray properly, sorrows disappear like snow before the sun.

Prayer also makes time pass very quickly and with such great delight that one does not notice its length. Listen: Once when I was a purveyor in Bresse and most of my companions were ill, I had to make a long journey. I prayed to the good God, and believe me, the time did not seem long.

Some men immerse themselves as deeply in prayer as fish in water, because they give themselves totally to God. There is not division in their hearts. O, how I love these noble souls! Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Colette used to see our Lord and talk to him just as we talk to one another.

How unlike them we are! How often we come to church with no idea of what to do or what to ask for. And yet, whenever we go to any human being, we know well enough why we go. And still worse, there are some who seem to speak to the good God like this: “I will only say a couple of things to you, and then I will be rid of you.” I often think that when we come to adore the Lord, we would receive everything we ask for, if we would ask with living faith and with a pure heart.

ww.ibreviary.com/m/breviario.php?s=ufficio_delle_letture 

Friar Alessandro - The Feast of Indulgence - 1st & 2nd August 2012

The Portiuncula Indulgence 1^st & 2^nd August

 http://www.franciscanfriarstor.com/archive/stfrancis/stf_portuncula_indulgence.htm  

Friar Alessandro - The Feast of Indulgence - 1st & 2nd August 2014

Tomorrow, August 1, there is a plenary indulgence available if the below can be done:

• Sacramental Confession to be in God's grace
(during the eight days before or after);
• Participation in the Holy Mass and Eucharist.

Porziuncola Assisi

• Visit to a Catholic Church, followed by PROFESSION OF FAITH, in order to reaffirm one's own Christian identity;
• Say the OUR FATHER, in order to reaffirm the dignity as child of God that one received in Baptism;
• A prayer for the Pope's intention, in order to reaffirm one's membership in the Church, of which the Roman Pontiff is the foundation and sign of visible unity. 

The miracle of the Porziuncola; painting by Antonio de Oliveira Bernardes (1698)

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porziuncola#mediaviewer/File:S.M.degli.Angeli024.jpg 

St. Francis receiving the Pardon of Assisi by F. Overbeck

August Month is dedicated to The Immaculate Heart of Mary

     

Month dedicated ...

A Catholic Life: Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

acatholiclife.blogspot.com    

Yesterday was the last day of July and the Month of the Precious Blood has ended. August is the Month of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

August, 2014 - Overview for the Month  67  3  8 Google +3 Delicious2   The month of August is dedicated to The Immaculate Heart of Mary. The entire month falls within the liturgical season of Ordinary Time, which is represented by the liturgical color green. This symbol of hope is the color of the sprouting seed and arouses in the faithful the hope of reaping the eternal harvest of heaven, especially the hope of a glorious resurrection. It is used in the offices and Masses of Ordinary Time. The last portion of the liturgical year represents the time of our pilgrimage to heaven during which we hope for reward. The Holy Father's Intentions for the Month of August 2014 General: That refugees, forced by violence to abandon their homes, may find a generous welcome and the protection of their rights. Missionary: That Christians in Oceania may joyfully announce the faith to all the people of that region. (See also www.apostleshipofprayer.net) Feasts for August The feasts on the General Roman Calendar celebrated during the month of August are: 1. Alphonsus Liguori, Memorial 2. Eusebius of Vercelli; Peter Julian Eymard, Opt. Mem. 3. Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday 4. John Vianney, Memorial 5. Dedication of St. Mary Major, Opt. Mem. 6. Transfiguration, Feast 7. Sixtus II and companions; Cajetan, Opt. Mem. 8. Dominic, Memorial 9. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Opt. Mem. 10. Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday 11. Clare, Memorial 13. Pontian and Hippolytus, Opt. Mem. 14. Maximilian Kolbe, Memorial 15. Assumption, Solemnity 16. Stephen of Hungary, Opt. Mem. 17. Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday 19. John Eudes; St. Bernard Tolomei, Opt. Mem. 20. Bernard, Memorial 21. Pius X, Sunday 22. Queenship of Mary, Memorial 23. Rose of Lima, Opt. Mem. 24. Twenty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday 25. Louis of France; Joseph Calasanz, Opt. Mem. 27. Monica, Memorial 28. Augustine, Memorial 29. Passion of Saint John the Baptist , Memorial 31. Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sunday Focus of the Liturgy The Gospel readings for the Sundays in August are taken from St. Matthew and are from Year A, Cycle 2. August 3rd - 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time Jesus feeds the crowd with five loaves and two fish. August 10th - 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time  In this Gospel Jesus tells Peter to walk on the water. August 17th - 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time Jesus is approached by a Canaanite woman begging for her daughter to be healed. August 24th - 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time In this Gospel Peter professes his faith that Christ is the Son of the living God." August 31st - 22nd Sunday of Ordinary Time "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." Highlights of the Month August is often considered the transitional month in our seasonal calendar. It is the time of the year we begin to wind-down from our summer travels and vacations and prepare for Autumn — back to school, fall festivals, harvest time, etc. The Church in her holy wisdom has provided a cycle of events in its liturgical year which allow the faithful to celebrate the major feasts in the life of Christ and Mary. Most notably, during August, we celebrate the feast of the Transfiguration (August 6) and the feast of the Assumption (August 15). The other main feasts of this month are St. Alphonsus Ligouri (August 1), St. John Mary Vianney (August 4), Dedication of St. Mary Major (August 5), Transfiguration of the Lord (August 6), St. Sixtus II and Companions and St. Cajetan (August 7), St. Dominic (August 8), St. Teresa Benedicta (August 9), St. Clare (August 11), Jane Frances de Chantal (August 12), Sts. Pontian and Hippolytus (August 13), St. Maximilian Kolbe (August 14), St. Stephen of Hungary(August 16), St. John Eudes (August 19), St. Bernard (August 20), St. Pius X (August 21), the Queenship of Mary (August 22), St. Louis of France (August 25), St. Monica (August 27), St. Augustine (August 28) and theMartyrdom of St. John the Baptist (August 29). The feasts of St. Lawrence (August 10) and St. Bartholomew (August 24) fall on a Sunday so they are superseded by the Sunday Liturgy.

COMMENT: Saint Ignatius of Loyola (+ 1556)Farm Street is one of a series inspired by worship at Farm Street, a Jesuit Church in central London.

COMMENT: Art Essay.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola (+ 1556)

Sister Wendy Beckett

The Story of Painting
Dorling Kindersley London 1994 

p. 388 EPILOGUE

Robert Natkin, Farm Street, 1991

This is both an afterword and a foreword: hundreds and thousands of artists come after the disappearance of the "story line" into the maze of contemporary artistic experience and these same artists may of course be the forerunners of a new story. In the present context of the end of the century it is impossible to know which threads will lead us through the maze and which are in fact dead-ends. I can only then give a very personal, subjective sample of contemporary art and single out just three artists who I hope will endure.

 

Robert Natkin, Farm Street, 1991inspired by worship at Farm Street, a Jesuit Church in central London

One - Robert Natkin - is a senior artist and a supreme colourist who has up until recently resisted being called an abstract painter. Clearly, to Natkin every part of his canvas is vital with what he calls narrative interest. A communication is being made, visually - an experience is being enacted; but this event, so searching and enriching to the spirit, is carried out by means of shapes and colours, integrating into a wholeness. Natkin floats his colours on, denies them, deepens them, teases them into new complexities, always with a masterly elegance that is overwhelmingly beautiful. Farm Street (453) is one of a series inspired by worship at Farm Street, a Jesuit Church in central London. The picture offers the viewer an entry into worship, not just the painter's but our own.

It is a humbling and uplifting work, with its wonderful luminosities. Yet Natkin offends many critics by being too beautiful, purity being suspect in these days of dilemma.  

COMMENT:Peter Chrysologus' gem.. William

Robert Natkin Farm Street Art

[The theologian's reply to the scientist!]

Dear William,

It is a joy to have your spotlighting of Peter Chrysologus' gem.

Thank you.

Meanwhile, I too had to study your exegesis of the metal  detector's of the Pearl of Great Price. More pondering ....

fr. Donald

Fwd: Pearl of Great Price

On Tuesday, 29 July 2014, 10:14, 

William ... wrote:

Dear Father R and D...

I am delighting in the treasure revealed in your homily! The iPad in Father Donald's hand has proved to be a metal detector!

The separation of the two parables, between the one who 'chanced upon' and the one who 'had been searching', is truly most enlightening, and as with all your homilies, it has set me thinking....I wonder...

 ... the someone who "sells all that he has AND buys that field" has a character fault about him that I don't quite like (!) with regard to the fact that he didn't tell the owner of his discovery and thus acknowledge what the field was really worth given its discovered treasure which he went and hid again (OK it had been hidden and we don't think it belonged to the owner), but buying it as just a field, thus in effect mighty cheaply, was that not just a little fraudulent (perhaps for him, the old adage applied, 'Finders keepers, Losers weepers?') Not a man filled with charitable virtue, but dishonourable! Perhaps Jesus was considering this to be the Pharisee, (mine all mine, let the publican forfeit) - alas, I became very embittered as I had these thoughts, considering the 'someone' a rogue! May he be exposed...or is that what Jesus is doing?

[This may be quite the wrong end of the stick! but it still bothers me]

... whereas, it seems to me, the pearl was acknowledged as a very fine one by both its owner and the merchant, changing the word 'and' to "in order TO buy it" - at its true value, its full cost to himself. This parable tells of the wonderful endeavour, and of the longing, the impetuosity and the excitement at its fulfilment - upon which the highest possible value is placed, its sheer expense acknowledged!

The moment of your Profession, and of your Ordination, these won't have been the result of an 'and' but of an 'in order TO'! 

I have much delighted in your homily, thank you.

With my love in Our Lord,

William