My 1,500 Post!

The Title says it all.  Save your congratulations and just send cash.

Here Are Some Books I Wont Be Ordering

The Spring 2010 Liturgical Press catalog arrived today and what do you suppose was on both the front and back covers?  UNCOMMON GRATITUDE: Alleluia For All That Is, by Sister Joan Chittister and Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams.  Inside the catalog, on page 10, there’s a series of biographical essays collected into a book entitled: Monika K. Hellwig: The People’s Theologian.

Podcast: The Catechism Explained

From waterboy comes the introduction to Bishop Spirago’s THE CATECHISM EXPLAINED.  Here is the subject matter of this 15 minute podcast: “For what end are we on this Earth? How are we to attain to eternal happiness? Can we attain perfect happiness on earth? these are the questions we look at in this podcast, taken from the famous THE CATECHISM EXPLAINED by Bishop Francis Spirago.”  Click here.

Meditation: Monday After Epiphany

The following meditation (black text) is from a book of meditations by a Monk of Sept-Fonts and is in the public domain.  the text in red represents my additions, all of which are in the public domain, excepting the quote from Father Gabriel’s DIVINE INTIMACY.

On The Journey Of The Magi
By A Monk Of Sept-Fonts

Point I.-The Magi leave their dominions, their homes, and their creature comforts, to obey their call.  Thus they may be seen as in some way exemplifying the demands of discipleship which our Savior would latter lay down: “Jesus answering said: Amen I say to you, there is no man who has left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, 30 who shall not receive an hundred times as much, now in this time: houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions: and in the world to come life everlasting. 31 But many that are first shall be last: and the last, first” (Mk 10:29-31). They undertake a long and painful journey.  we should like to go to God, were the doing so to cost us neither labor nor sufferings.  God deserved that, in order to find Him, we should pay the price of some suffering.  “Behold God calls us by Himself, by the angels, by fathers, by prophets, by apostles, by pastors.  He calls us also by our own selves, by miracles, very often by chastisements.  He calls us by worldly prosperity, and sometimes by adversity.  Let no one despise the call, lest the time should ever come, when they will wish to answer and not be able” (St Gregory (Hom. 32 in Evang.).

Point II.-They seek for Our Savior wherever they hope to find Him; they go even to the court of Herod without any fear.  Let us learn to carry out our good purposes despite the fear of the world.  Father Gabriel, in his outstanding DIVINE INTIMACY, Vol. 1 writes concerning the Magi: “When they saw the star they started out at once in search of it.  They had no doubts: their faith was strong and sure and steadfast.”  What a marked contrast with Herod!  Cornelius a Lapide writes: “Herod was troubled, because he feared that he would lose the Kingdom of the Jews, now that the Messiah, their true and legitimate Prince, was born.  ‘What wonder,’ says St Augustine, ‘that impiety should be troubled at the birth of piety?’  Jerusalem was troubled, as well because there were many in it who favored Herod, as because the Scribes and chief Priests, having leisure only for their own advantage, and being thus in a state of spiritual slumber, had no thought about the coming of the Messiah; that now the scepter was departed from Judah, as Jacob had foretold, the Messiah should be born.  Wisely does St Gregory say, ‘When the King of heaven was born, the earthly (worldly) king was troubled, because indeed, terrestrial (worldly) exaltation is confounded when celestial greatness is disclosed.'”

Point III.-They have the good fortune to arrive at the spot where they find the infinite good they were seeking.  They reached it because they followed the star; they would never otherwise have found Our Savior.  The grace of vocation is our star: if we follow it, we shall attain to happiness; we shall infallibly lose ourselves if we follow any other way.  The star is, 1. The faith of a believer.  2. Prudence.  3. Precepts.  4. Evangelical counsels, especially obedience to a superior.  5. Holy inspirations infused into the mind by God, whereby He calls the sould to some action, in a more perfect state, as, for example, virginity, or martyrdom.  God, let us say, calls thee to sanctity and heroic virtue, to a state of perfection; He shows thee a star to go before thee on the road to heaven.  Gaze then upon it, follow it, lest this star of a divine vocation, being seen of thee, be despised, and in the day of judgment accuse and condemn thee before God.  ‘There is nothing, therefore, too difficult for the humble,’ says St Leo, ‘nothing too rugged for the meek, and all things can be accomplished, when grace furnishes her assistance, and obedience lightens the command.'” (Cornelius a Lapide)

Spiritual Thought: January 4

From Blessed Antonio Rosmini Serbati~Pray always, not merely at stated times, and have a stock of ejaculatory prayers to be said often during the day.  These should be adapted to the end you have in view, and to the various circumstances in which you are placed.

We ought always to pray, and not to faint. (Lk 18:1)