The Silence

So, I have been running around going crazy nuts after my ordination to the diaconate back in May. I have [recently acquired] many leather-bound books (cf. Anchorman...sorry, had to do it). Anywho, I hope to be back on the reading rainbow (seriously, I don't know where this is coming from) sometime soon, at which point I will hopefully begin to post a bit more frequently.

In other news, I have started a blog of my own dedicated to homilies and reflections that I have written. As a deacon, I'm preaching 4-5 days a week now and so I will be posting on there pretty frequently. Until next time, you stay classy, San Diego. Or Baton Rouge. Or New Orleans. Or wherever you are.

http://philomenarocks.blogspot.com/
^my new blog.

Catholic Study Bible

All of us on this blog are big fans of Dr. Scott Hahn and all that he has done for contemporary Biblical scholarship and making that scholarship available to the average Catholic lay person. We found great resources in the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible series on the New Testament. They in essence became our text books when the assigned one's failed. Ignatius press has decided to put the New Testament series into volume.

Y'all this a great buy for everyone:

the Catholic wishing to learn more about the New Testament

the Catholic school teacher

the parish DRE

the CCD teacher

the preacher

the youth minister

I know that I speak for all us in recommending this study edition of the New Testament.

Men Preparing for the Priesthood Using Their Bodies Well

Warning: After you press play, you need to move the video cursor thingy forward for it to start playing. Bear with the freeness of the website.

A buddy of mine attends seminary at the North American College in Rome. Each year there is a soccer competition between all of the seminaries in Rome called the Clericus Cup. This year its final was covered by FoxSports.

Other than the awesomeness of being covered by a national news syndicate. These men and their formators were a great witness. Monsignor Claudio Paganni, President of the Clerius Cup, threw out the theology of body on a major news syndicate. "We are showing here how games and the body are values and not imitations ... The human body should used to give glory to God not for acts of deviance."

Such a great witness to the whole world and nobody was "copping a vicious headbutt when the ref's not looking."

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart

We started last week with a prayer of the week. This week I figured it would be good to have a prayer to the Sacred during the Year of the Priest. I found this prayer along with many others here.

Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart

I give myself
and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ,
my person and my life,
my actions,
pains and sufferings,
so that I may be unwilling to make use
of any part of my being other than to honor,
love and glorify the Sacred Heart.
This is my unchanging purpose, namely,
to be all His,
and to do all things for the love of Him,
at the same time renouncing with all my heart
whatever is displeasing to Him.
I therefore take You,
O Sacred Heart,
to be the only object of my love,
the guardian of my life,
my assurance of salvation,
the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy,
the atonement for all the faults of my life
and my sure refuge at the hour of death.

Be then, O Heart of goodness,
my justification before God the Father,
and turn away from me the strokes of his righteous anger.
O Heart of love,
I put all my confidence in You,
for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty,
but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty.

Remove from me all that can displease You
or resist Your holy will;
let your pure love imprint Your image
so deeply upon my heart,
that I shall never be able to forget You
or to be separated from You.

May I obtain from all Your loving kindness
the grace of having my name written in Your Heart,
for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory,
living and dying in bondage to You.

Amen.

The Role of Service in the Life of a Deacon in Commemoration of the Diaconal Ordination of One of Our Blog Writers

So today one of our blog writers Brent (has no cool nickname) was ordained to the diaconate. His soul is now marked with Holy Orders forever changed. As I was listening to the readings (actually I had the privilege of reading one) and the prayers during the liturgy, I couldn't help but meditate on the role of service both in the diaconate and in the priesthood.

Stemming from Dr. Brant Pitre's class on the Pentateuch that I had last semester, I couldn't help but think about the Hebrew word abodah, which is usually translated into English as some form of the word serve. In the Pentateuch it is always in reference to sacrifice and serving at the altar. Today's first reading (which was read quite well I must say) was from Numbers which recounted the calling of the tribe of Levi to serve Aaron and his sons who were the high priests. They were there to assist those men who were consecrated and set apart by God to offer sacrifice. It requires a great deal of humility and reverence for the sacred to maintain and fulfill this duty. One with this role is always close to the altar but never makes the sacrifice. A weak man can easily be led to jealously or anger for not being able to offer sacrifice. For instance one can look at Korah and company in Numbers 16. Korah was a Levite who took offense at the priest who were set apart, or consecrated, to do the work of the Lord. Indeed, then to take up such a duty as to serve at the altar of Christ with he who is alter Christus requires great humility (even if one is on his way to becoming a priest). So first I ask all of you to pray for all deacons who serve at the altar of God that they may be men who are humble just as Christ humbled himself to wash the feet of his disciples in John 13. I also ask you to pray for Brent that he may humbly serve at the altar of God.

St. Philip in His Disciples

Being that today is the Feast of St. Philip Neri, who is the patron of my home parish I felt I would share with you a hymn written by one of Philip's spiritual sons, John Henry Cardinal Newman.

St. Philip in His Disciples

I ASK not for fortune, for silken attire,

For servants to throng me, and crowds to admire;

I ask not for power, or for name or success,

These do not content me, these never can bless.

Let the world flaunt her glories! each glittering prize,

Though tempting to others, is nought in my eyes.

A child of St. Philip, my master and guide,

I would live as he lived, and would die as he died.

Why should I be sadden'd, though friendless I be?

For who in his youth was so lonely as he?

If spited and mock'd, so was he, when he cried

To his God on the cross to stand by his side. {313}

If scanty my fare, yet how was he fed?

On olives and herbs and a small roll of bread.

Are my joints and bones sore with aches and with pains?

Philip scourged his young flesh with fine iron chains.

A closet his home, where he, year after year,

Bore heat or cold greater than heat or cold here;

A rope stretch'd across it, and o'er it he spread

His small stock of clothes; and the floor was his bed.

One lodging besides; God's temple he chose,

And he slept in its porch his few hours of repose;

Or studied by light which the altar-lamp gave,

Or knelt at the Martyr's victorious grave.

I'm ashamed of myself, of my tears and my tongue,

So easily fretted, so often unstrung;

Mad at trifles, to which a chance moment gives birth,

Complaining of heaven, and complaining of earth. {314}

So now, with his help, no cross will I fear,

But will linger resign'd through my pilgrimage here.

A child of St. Philip, my master and guide,

I will live as he lived, and will die as he died.

ACT OF ENTRUSTMENT AND CONSECRATION OF PRIESTS TO THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

PRAYER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Church of the Most Holy Trinity - Fátima
Wednesday, 12 May 2010

Immaculate Mother,
in this place of grace,
called together by the love of your Son Jesus
the Eternal High Priest, we,
sons in the Son and his priests,
consecrate ourselves to your maternal Heart,
in order to carry out faithfully the Father’s Will.

We are mindful that, without Jesus,
we can do nothing good (cf. Jn 15:5)
and that only through him, with him and in him,
will we be instruments of salvation
for the world.

Bride of the Holy Spirit,
obtain for us the inestimable gift
of transformation in Christ.
Through the same power of the Spirit that
overshadowed you,
making you the Mother of the Saviour,
help us to bring Christ your Son
to birth in ourselves too.
May the Church
be thus renewed by priests who are holy,
priests transfigured by the grace of him
who makes all things new.

Mother of Mercy,
it was your Son Jesus who called us
to become like him:
light of the world and salt of the earth
(cf. Mt 5:13-14).

Help us,
through your powerful intercession,
never to fall short of this sublime vocation,
nor to give way to our selfishness,
to the allurements of the world
and to the wiles of the Evil One.

Preserve us with your purity,
guard us with your humility
and enfold us with your maternal love
that is reflected in so many souls
consecrated to you,
who have become for us
true spiritual mothers.

Mother of the Church,
we priests want to be pastors
who do not feed themselves
but rather give themselves to God for their brethren,
finding their happiness in this.
Not only with words, but with our lives,
we want to repeat humbly,
day after day,
Our “here I am”.

Guided by you,
we want to be Apostles
of Divine Mercy,
glad to celebrate every day
the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar
and to offer to those who request it
the sacrament of Reconciliation.

Advocate and Mediatrix of grace,
you who are fully immersed
in the one universal mediation of Christ,
invoke upon us, from God,
a heart completely renewed
that loves God with all its strength
and serves mankind as you did.

Repeat to the Lord
your efficacious word:
“They have no wine” (Jn 2:3),
so that the Father and the Son will send upon us
a new outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Full of wonder and gratitude
at your continuing presence in our midst,
in the name of all priests
I too want to cry out:
“Why is this granted me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43).

Our Mother for all time,
do not tire of “visiting us”,
consoling us, sustaining us.
Come to our aid
and deliver us from every danger
that threatens us.
With this act of entrustment and consecration,
we wish to welcome you
more deeply, more radically,
for ever and totally
into our human and priestly lives.

Let your presence cause new blooms to burst forth
in the desert of our loneliness,
let it cause the sun to shine on our darkness,
let it restore calm after the tempest,
so that all mankind shall see the salvation
of the Lord,
who has the name and the face of Jesus,
who is reflected in our hearts,
for ever united to yours!

Amen!