Novena for the Feast of St. Thomas More June 14 – June 22, 2014

First Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of prudence. You never thrust yourself rashly into any serious matters; instead, you waited on God's will in prayer and penance, then boldly carried out your duty without hesitation. We ask that through your prayers and intercession, you my obtain for us the virtues of patience, prudence, wisdom and courage.     Our Father...   Hail Mary...   Glory Be...

Glorious St. Thomas More, we ask you to take up our cause, confident that you will advocate for us before God's Throne of Grace with the same zeal and diligence that marked your career on earth. In accord with God's will, obtain for us zeal in the New Evangelization that together with our fellow Catholics we may win souls to the Kingdom of God.

V.  Pray for us, O Blessed St. Thomas More.

R.  That we may faithfully follow you on the hard road that leads to the narrow gate of eternal life.

Second Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of diligence. You shunned procrastination, applied yourself with fervor to your studies, and spared no effort in achieving mastery in your skills. We ask that through your prayers and intercession, you may help us obtain the virtues of diligence and persistence in all our work fro God and his Church.

Our Father...    Hail Mary...   Glory Be...   Glorious St. Thomas More...

Third Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of industriousness. You threw yourself wholeheartedly into everything you did, and you found enjoyment even in the most serious matters. We ask that through your prayers and intercession, obtain for us the grace to find our several vocations, the grace to find interest in everything fitting, and the fortitude always to pursue excellence in whatever task God gives us.

 Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

Fourth Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a brilliant lawyer and a just and compassionate judge. You attended to the smallest details of your legal duties with the greatest care, and you were unflagging in your pursuit of justice tempered by mercy.  We ask that through your prayers and intercession, obtain for us the grace to overcome every temptation to laxity, arrogance, and rash judgment in our duties.

Our Father...   Hail Mary...   Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

Fifth Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of humility. You never allowed pride to lead you to take on enterprises beyond your abilities; even in the midst of wealth and honor, you never forgot your total dependence on your Heavenly Father. We ask that through your prayers and intercession you may  obtain for us the grace to grow in humility, the wisdom not to overestimate our own strength and the love of all our fellow humans especially the weakest and those most in need.

Our Father...  Hail Mary...  Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

Sixth Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model husband and father. You were loving and faithful to your spouse, and a diligent provider and example of virtue for your children. We ask that through your prayers and intercession you may obtain for us the grace of a happy home, peace in our families, and the strength to persevere in chastity according to our various states of life.

Our Father...   Hail Mary...   Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

Seventh Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a model of Christian fortitude. You suffered bereavement, disgrace, poverty, imprisonment and a violent death; yet you bore all with the strength and good cheer for which you were known throughout your life. We ask that through your prayers and intercession you may obtain for us the grace to bear all the crosses that we are given with patience and joy. Our Father...   Hail Mary...   Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

Eighth Day

Dear St. Thomas More, in your earthly life, you were a loyal child of God and a steadfast son of the Church, never taking your eyes off the crown for which you strove. Even in the face of death, you trusted in God to give you the victory, and our Lord rewarded you with the palm of martyrdom. We ask that through your prayers and intercession you may obtain for us the grace of final perseverance and protection from sudden and unprovided death, so that we may one day enjoy the Beatific Vision in your glorious company.

Our Father...  Hail Mary...   Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

Ninth Day

Dear St. Thomas More, you spent your earthly life preparing for the life to come. Everything you endured prepared you not only for the glory God has bestowed upon you in heaven, but for your work as the patron of lawyers, judges and statesmen, and as steadfast friend to all who call upon you. Through your prayers and intercession, we ask that you obtain for us aid in all our necessities, both corporal and spiritual, and the grace to follow in your footsteps, until at last we are home with you in the mansions our Father has prepared for us where the law is peace and justice in the city of God.

Our Father...  Hail Mary...  Glory Be...  Glorious St. Thomas More...

THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY, THE LIBERAL PRESS AND FREE-FALL IN THE LIBERAL MAINLINE CHURCHES

The Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops will be devoted to the pastoral care of families. Some in the liberal press have suggested that they will debate teachings on divorce, birth control and gay unions, claiming that Pope Francis is laying the groundwork for a subtle change in established Church teachings. 

The LA Times has suggested that this will be a  “work-around,” which could extend to contraception and same-sex unions, among other issues and lead to departure from Catholic tradition. Apart from anything else, if the press were to review the havoc that such changes in doctrine and "work arounds" have caused in the liberal Protestant world they would be given pause.  

The free-fall in adherence and attendance in the Anglican Church follows that of the United Church in Canada and similar "progressive" bodies. Indeed promotion for the clergy in these groups seems to be linked to "affirming" a variety of lifestyles never contemplated in Christian life before the 1960s. For example, this week the liberal press reports the pregnancy of a threesome of lesbians who are purportedly "married". Once the absolute sanctity of marriage being the exclusive life-long union of one man and one woman is removed, logically anything goes and society has no grounds to oppose any variation.

However, the liberal press fails to point out that Church teachings are not “policies” which can be changed by a council or a pope. Catholic doctrines are based on the revelation of God. This is something that liberal Protestants have largely given up on. 

The preparatory questionnaire for the Synod of Bishops was not an opinion poll leading to change in Church teachings, but diocesan data to show exactly where the universal teaching need strengthening. 

Stories about revolution in the Catholic Church and catastrophizing are usual fare in the liberal press. Writing in the Week, Michael Brendan Doherty says: “My prediction is that the synod will issue a document strenuously claiming to affirm the indissolubility of marriage, while instituting a practice that contradicts it.” New York Times columnist Ross Douthat believes changes in doctrine might result in a schism. 

Walter Cardinal Kasper, who has suggested that divorced and remarried Catholics be allowed to receive Communion, after a period of penance and conscientious reflection, is close to Pope Francis. However, the idea that Francis is looking for ways to rationalize and effectively permit sin, either by giving authority to controversial prelates or advocating in favour of mercy, runs counter to his statements.

Francis is certainly a pope who has emphasized mercy, but he has also referred many times to the theology of sin. He understands mercy to involve Catholics facing their sins squarely, not pretending they aren’t obstacles to a faithful Christian life. Yes, he has been critical of the  harsh legalism of certain clergy but has also warned against “loose ministers” of the Gospel who tell penitents “this is not a sin” when it is. We see what this has done to Anglican and other bodies.

Francis did praise Cardinal Kasper's recent address, but did not to endorse all its views. The Pope encourages theological discussion which has resulted in many thoughtful responses.  

Professor Robert Fastiggi recently wrote, “I agree with Pope Francis that there are many beautiful insights about marriage” in Cardinal Kasper’s presentation, but on the issue of communion for the divorced and remarried, Kasper is decidedly wrong, for reasons laid out by Fastiggi and by Francis’s own doctrinal chief, Gerhard Cardinal Muller.

There is a notable series of statements Francis has been made on topics relating to the family i.e. the proper formation of conscience, the prophetic nature of Humanae Vitae, the true meaning of the sensus fidelium, and the need for bishops to preach the truth about the indissolubility of marriage.

After the canonization of John Paul II, Pope Francis met with a group of Polish pilgrims, and spoke to them about faith, hope, charity, and mercy, linking them all to the exemplary witness of Catherine of Siena. He encouraged the pilgrims to “learn from her how to live with the clear conscience of those who do not bend to human compromises,” to be inspired by “her example of strength in the moments of greatest pain,” and to “imitate the solidity of faith of those who trust in God.”

While we wait for the Synod, we pray for Pope Francis that he will strengthen the family with Catholic teaching in faith, hope and love.

A HOMILY FOR PENTECOST – YEAR A, STM, TORONTO 2014

“Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

In today’s reading from Acts the mysteries prefigured in the Jewish feast of Pentecost are fulfilled in the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on Blessed Mary and the Apostles (Acts 1:14).

For Israel, Pentecost – the celebration of the harvest – had become the celebration marking God’s Covenant with the People of Israel on Mt. Sinai. There, in wind and fire, God made his presence known to the people and then gave them the gift of his Law, the Ten Commandments or Decalogue.

In this singular way God established the principle of human freedom. With the Exodus from Egypt, God brought about the first fruits of our collective freedom, a freedom always shared in the essential “togetherness” which is necessary for liberty.  However, our common liberty can last only in an ordered harmony of freedom that reveals to each person his or her limits – and so, the Spirit must always be seen in relation to the Law and the universal gathered community, the Catholic Church.

The gift of the Law on Mount Sinai is not, then, a restriction nor is it an abolition of freedom.  Covenant Law is the foundation of true liberty.  

The Law is the first fruit of the Covenant just as Pentecost is, for Christians, the manifestation of the first fruits of the Holy Spirit in the Church (ekklesia - gathered) a gathering of all nations.

A fruitful ordering of society finds stability only if it comes from God, uniting men and women in the perspective of God expressed in the Commandments for our mutual good and the nurture, by grace, of the virtues, these gifts of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control.

The Nash Papyrus

Israel fully became a people, through the Covenant with God on Mt Sinai. This happened when Israel encountered God on Sinai and was given the Covenant Law as the foundation and the guarantee of their free existence as a people. 

Likewise, the wind and fire, which enveloped the community of Jesus' disciples gathered in the Upper Room is a development of the event of Mount Sinai and brings full freedom by extending true freedom, under God, to all humanity.

The People of God found its first configuration, then, on Mount Sinai. Now by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the People of God is enlarged to the point of recognizing no limitations. The new People of God, the Church, is made up of all nations. The Church is catholic from her beginnings and this catholicity is of her deepest essence and character.

St Paul explains and underlines this in the Second Reading when he says: “It was in one Spirit that all of us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, were baptized into one body. All of us have been given to drink of the one Spirit” (I Cor 12: 13).

In the words of Pope Emeritus Benedict speaking at Pentecost in 2010:

“The wind and fire of the Holy Spirit must continually break down those barriers that we men and women continue to build between us; we must continually pass from Babel – being closed in on ourselves – to Pentecost.

So it is that we must continually pray for the Holy Spirit to open us, giving us the grace of understanding, so that we become the People of God. St Paul tells us more along these lines: in Christ, who as the one Bread feeds all of us in the Eucharist and draws us to him in his Body wracked on the Cross, we must become only one body and one spirit.”

Benedict continues: “The Risen Lord passes through the closed doors and enters the place where the disciples are, and greets them twice with the words: ‘Peace be with you’.  We continually close our doors; we continually want to feel secure and do not want to be disturbed by others and by God. And so, we can continually implore the Lord just for this, that he come to us, overcoming our closure, to bring us his greeting: ‘Peace be with you’ ”.

This greeting of the Lord is a bridge that God builds between heaven and earth. God the Holy Spirit descends to this bridge, reaching us. We can climb up on this bridge of peace to reach him. On this bridge, always together with him, we reach out to our neighbours, reach the ones who need us.” 

We can reach out to those who would come into the full communion of the universal Church.

The Lord’s greeting of peace is followed by two gestures that are decisive for Pentecost: Jeus wants the disciples to continue his mission: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20: 21).

The Holy Spirit must guide our hearts because we see what happens increasingly in a society which has no reference to God or to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.  Sadly, the void is filled by spirits of intemperance, of anger, of wrath and of wanton murder as we saw tragically in Moncton this week and recently in Calgary and elsewhere.  We see this violence and evil increase when we let go of the formal commitment of our society to the virtues of faith, hope and love taught to and nurtured in our children by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus with his apostles breathes on the apostles and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the the sins of any, they are retained.” (Jn 20: 23). The Lord breathes on the apostles, giving them the Holy Spirit, his own Spirit. The breath of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.

To his breath, to the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord joins the power of forgiveness. We heard earlier that the Holy Spirit unites, breaks down barriers, leads us one to the other. The strength that opens up and overcomes Babel (divisions amongst us) is the strength of forgiveness.

Jesus can grant forgiveness and the power to forgive because he himself suffered the consequences of sin and dispelled them in the flame of his love. Forgiveness comes from the Cross. Jesus transforms the world with the love that he offers to us through the Holy Spirit. His sacred heart, opened on the Cross, is the door through which the grace of forgiveness enters into the world. And this grace alone is able to transform the world.

The Sacrament of Penance is one of the Church’s precious treasures because authentic renewal of society is accomplished only through forgiveness. Nothing can improve the world if evil is not overcome by the teaching of the virtues and of forgiveness through the Holy Spirit ministered to us by the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Penance.

In this way the Holy Spirit fulfills and seals the Law with the new covenant brought about by Jesus through his life, passion, death, resurrection and ascension.  As a consequence of his sacrifice, the Holy Sprit now fulfills the Law and extends the Law written no longer just on stone tablets but on the hearts of believers, as the prophets promised. (2 Cor. 3:2-8; Rom. 8:2)

The Holy Spirit is revealed as the life-giving breath of the Father, the Wisdom by which God made all things. In the fulfillment of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes as “a strong, driving wind” to renew the face of the earth.

Like a river of living water for all ages, the grace of the Holy Spirit is poured out on the Body of Christ, the Church, for the good of all humanity. (John 7:37-39)

“Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the First Friday Devotion

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus originates in the early centuries of the Church. Exactly when we do not know.  In the seventeenth century, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque made this devotion widespread.

 

Icon of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Michael O'Brien

"The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus . . . which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins." (Catechism of the Catholic Church  266)

In 1675, in the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi, our Lord appeared to her and said: 

"Behold this heart which, not withstanding the burning love for men with which it is consumed and exhausted, meets with no other return from most Christians than sacrilege, contempt, indifference and ingratitude, even in the sacrament of my love [the Eucharist]. But what pierces my heart most deeply is that I am subjected to these insults by persons especially consecrated to my service." 

From The Autobiography of St. Margaret Marie Aloque.




To those who show him love and who make reparation for sins, however, our Lord made a great pledge: "I promise you in the unfath­omable mercy of my heart that my omnipotent love will procure the grace of final penitence for all those who receive communion on nine successive first Fridays of the month; they will not die in my disfavor, or without having received the sacraments, since my divine heart will be their sure refuge in the last moments of their life." (Autobiography)


The promise of the Sacred Heart consoles us: the grace of final perseverance and the joy of having Jesus' heart as our sure refuge and infinite ocean of mercy in our last hour.


To share in this grace we:

- Receive holy Communion on nine consecutive first Fridays.

- Have the intention of honouring the Sacred Heart of Jesus and final perseverance.

- Offer each holy Communion as an act of atonement for offenses against the Blessed Sacrament.

Introductory Prayer


Almighty and everlasting God, look upon the heart of your well-beloved Son and upon the praise and satisfaction which he offers to you in the name of all sinners; and grant them pardon when they seek your mercy. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you for ever and ever.
R.  Amen.


Reading: John 19:31-37


Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from remaining on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him; but when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.


 He who saw it has borne witness-his testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth-that you also may believe. For these things took place that the scripture might be fulfilled, "Not a bone of him shall be broken." And again another scripture says, "They shall look on him whom they have pierced."

St. Josemaría Escrivá, "Finding Peace in the Heart of Christ," 162-170, Princeton, N.J.: Scepter Publishers,1974. 

Love is revealed to us in the Incarnation, the redemptive journey that Jesus Christ made on our earth, culminating in the supreme sacrifice of the cross. And on the cross he showed his love through a new sign: "One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water."

The water and blood from the heart of Jesus speak to us of a self-sacrifice brought to the last extreme: "It is finished" everything is achieved, for the sake of love. 

The fullness of God’s love is revealed and given to us in Christ, in the love of Christ, in the sacred heart of Jesus. It is the heart of him in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." If we lose sight of this great plan of God, the overflow of love in the world through the Incarnation, our Redemption and Pentecost we cannot understand the power of love with which our Lord deals with us.




What do we mean by "the Sacred Heart of Jesus?" When we speak of the human heart, we are not just referring to sentiments, but to the whole person and to our relationship with others. Scripture uses the expression "heart" in its full human meaning, as the summary and source, the expression and ultimate basis of our thoughts, words and actions. One is what one's heart is. 




So, when we talk about the heart of Jesus, we stress the certainty of God's love and the truth of his commitment to us. When we recommend devotion to the Sacred Heart, we are recommending that we should offer our whole selves to Jesus: our feelings and thoughts, our words and actions, our joys and our sorrows, achievements and failures. This is to enter into a deeper knowledge of God and of ourselves. We look to Jesus, turn to him, and allow him to encourage and teach us. This devotion is rooted in the reality of God incarnate, Emmanuel – God become one with us.

Our lives are so important to God that the Son of God gave himself to redeem and cleanse and raise us up. Who will not love his heart so wounded?  Who will not return love for love? 

We, who are made of flesh, want to repay love with love. We embrace the wounded One, whose hands and feet men have nailed to the Cross for us.  We pray that we may link our hearts with his love.

God has given us a human heart, like that of Jesus.  We do not have one heart for loving God and another for loving people. We love Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit who, with our Lady,  touch our hearts.  This is the same we have for our parents, for  friends, for the destitute, those in anguish, those in need. 




If we don't learn from the heart of Jesus, we can never love fully. If, like some people, we were to think that to keep a clean heart, a heart worthy of God, means "not mixing it up, not contaminating it" with human affection, we become insensitive to other people's pain and sorrow. 

Apart from the Heart of Jesus We may only express a kind of  legalistic charity, something dry and soulless. But this would not be the true charity of Jesus Christ, which involves human affection and warmth. 


It is difficult for us as human beings to be truly just.  Without divine grace from the Sacred Heart of Jesus it is difficult for us to be inspired by love and not hatred or indifference towards those who differ from us. 

We must aware that, even if we achieve a reasonable distribution of wealth and a harmonious organization of society, there will still be the suffering of illness, of misunderstanding, of loneliness, of the death of loved ones, of the experience of our own limitations.


Faced with the weight of all this, a Christian can find only one genuine answer: Christ on the cross, the God who suffers and dies for us , who gives us his heart opened by a lance for the love of us all. 

Our Lord abhors injustice and condemns those who commit it. But God respects the freedom of each individual. He permits injustice to happen because, as a result of original sin, it is part and the human condition and linked to our freedom. Yet God's heart is full of love for all. Our suffering, our sadness, our anguish, our hunger and thirst for justice . . . he took all these upon himself by means of his passion and death.




Unfortunately suffering linked to the freedom God gives to us. We would be free if we could not choose evil as well as good. This is the truth, however difficult it may be for us to understand.  

It was difficult for Jesus Christ the man to undergo his passion: "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." In this tension of pleading and acceptance,  Jesus went to his death for our sakes, pardoning those who crucify him.

The supernatural grace to accept suffering is, precisely, the greatest of all conquests. By dying on the cross, Jesus overcame death. The attitude of a child of God is not one of acceptance that we may possibly face pain and suffering. 

Christians have a sense of sharing in the passion of Christ, with a foretaste of victory. In the name of this victorious love of Christ, we go out into the world to be sowers of peace and joy through everything we say and do. We have to fight the fight of peace against evil, against injustice and against sin. We serve notice that the present condition of humanity needs not be permanent.  

Only the love of God, shown in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, can give us the grace to truly love others and together strive for the glorious spiritual triumph of life fully in communion with Christ forever.