The Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks Regional Newsletter for September has the address Denver Archbishop Chaput gave in late August in Slovakia to the Canon Law Society.  Chaput’s clear thinking and inspiring words are a call to spiritual arms and public witness in a world that wants to suppress Christ. You will enjoy reading his plain and direct English.

And for readers who love the Traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary form of the Roman Rite) we have great news of the project to build a church solely dedicated to the TLM in north central Arkansas. This will be a boon to Catholics in southern Missouri who live close enough to take advantage of it. Check out the drawing of the new church.  The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter is in charge of the effort and it includes plans for a Catholic school.  For details about the stages of building project, go to the link above.

The Latin Mass Community at Cherokee Village is also holding its annual pilgrimage in honor of St. Michael the Archangel October 1-2.

I also started a series called “The Treasures of the Mass” to help people learn about the meaning of the parts of the Traditional Mass.

This newsletter can be great for homeschoolers and family discussions.  If you want to receive it by email, just contact me through my contact tab and let me know.  I know there is a lot of verbiage out there, but not so much in the way of Catholic Christianity as witness.

Just click on the link above to access the articles.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.)

For some time now I’ve been moved to start something at this blog, regardless of the subject of the post.  It has to do with Christ the King.

Christ in Glory, 1597-98, oil on canvas, Annibale Carracci (b.1560, Bologna, d. 1609, Roma), Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Few people would deny that the world is against God or that many people who claim to be Christians twist the Word of God to suit their own agenda which often masquerades as “social justice” which always seems to create more injustice, not less. You would have to be a sleeping Rip van Winkle not to see that this is the most godless age ever in the history of the world since God called Abraham – or even maybe before.  Since the beginning of the age of enlightenment man has steadily become more homocentric as opposed to theocentric. The heresy of modernism has, since its spawning in the 19th century, greatly facilitated this trend. Sadly, many in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have become infected to the point of over-emphasizing the horizontal aspect of worship at the expense of the vertical dimension and social work at the expense of spiritual growth.

Interwoven with the de-emphasis on the first three commandments we can see that doctrinal truth has been sacrificed at the expense of ideology of all kinds. Natural law is violated without regard to the consequences.  “If it feels good, do it!” is a prevailing mantra which originated in the 1960s and has become the rule of life for many today.

Inconvenient truths in many places simply are not taught, such as contraception being a grave offense against God.  Priests have been punished for speaking the truths of the Faith from their pulpits and in their parish bulletins while other priests who speak falsely are rewarded.  I have direct experience with a bishop who opposed the Pope and Catholic tradition on a number of issues and earned a very bad name for myself among his supporters.  It seems the word “obey” applied only to those of us he strove to corrupt and not to himself. But we cannot obey unjust commands from anyone, which is why some Catholic dioceses are shutting down Catholic adoption agencies, for example.  The state demands same-sex couples be allowed to adopt children into a life style opposing the very clear will of God as spoken in sacred scripture, and the Church cannot act opposite to her teachings.

The answer to the corruption of the world

On Facebook and other places you can find groups dedicated to the “Social Reign of Jesus Christ.”  That is an admirable and desired end for the world, but Christ must rule in every heart first. If our Savior does not reign in our hearts, our actions will not be congruent with His words.  It is up to each individual to examine his conscience daily on the subject of whether he is putting God first and not himself.  Only when sufficient numbers of Christians really put Christ first in their hearts, when they ruthlessly root out attachments to their own wills, when they are willing to stand up and live the Two Great Commandments – not just the one, will we have anything approximating the “Social Reign of Jesus Christ.” No doubt, as in the past, we will have many martyrs spilling their blood before this comes to pass, if it ever does in this life.

The difficulty of achieving the preeminence of Christ in this life is no reason for any of us to shirk doing battle with ourselves.  Many useful practices and devotions are available to help us, bringing graces upon our souls that strengthen us in fortitude, for the virtue of fortitude is most necessary to fight the human inclination to want to be liked, to blend in and do what everybody else is doing, and to talk and think like the majority – and the majority is not and has not been for Christ in centuries.

We are the servants of the Lord.  The servant is not above his Master (Matt. 10: 24).  Standing up for Christ is an invitation to get publicly clobbered by the many who want to enforce their self-originated version of truth.  But we need not fear the majority because Jesus tells us in Matthew 10: 26-31:

Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

And in Matthew 10: 32-33 we hear the glorious promise to those of us who stand strong against the world:

Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

In the times of Ruth and Boaz, the people had a custom of greeting one another with the phrase, Dominus vobiscum (tecum), meaning “The Lord be with you.”  The response was, “The Lord bless you.”  Today at Mass we hear “The Lord be with you” many times, and we respond, “And with your spirit.”  I do not intend to go into the theology of this today, but simply wish to use this as an illustration of one practice people used in Old Testament times to keep the Lord in mind, a practice that is enshrined within our sacred liturgy today.

In religious communities in the 1960s and before, the common greeting when meeting someone in the halls or entering a room was the phrase, “Praised be Jesus Christ.”  The answer was, “Now and forever.”  I don’t know if this practice is still observed, but I am convinced that if Christians greeted each other this way every time we meet, it would be a big help towards the world being brought back into a right relationship with God.

To do my part in witnessing to the supremacy of Christ the King and to building the virtue of fortitude in my soul, I am going to try to remember to end each blog post with this phrase regardless of the subject.  I trust that this practice will keep my posts on track with pure intentions and charity, and that it will always be a reminder to me to suffer with joy.  I will explain the “Amen” addition in another post.  Will anyone stand with me?  I invite you all.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ.

R. Now and forever.  Amen.

We are between the two great seasons of penance and anticipation: Lent and Advent.  With all the summer activities and schedule interruptions, the temptation to slack off on our spiritual life is not unusual.  In the Una Voce Arkansas Regional Newsletter for August, I have a couple of articles that might just be the pick-me-up we all need.

Father Mark Kirby had a great post on the Benedictine rule and spirituality and then we have prayers against the seven deadly sins.  We also want to invite everyone who can make it to the Michaelmas Pilgrimage held every year at St. Michael’s in Cherokee Village, Arkansas. This is a great event, held on October 1-2, with spiritual conferences, food and fun, and of course, the short pilgrimage.  The details and contacts are in the newsletter.  We often have people from outside the area join us, so don’t be shy about joining us.  And if you’ve never attended the Traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form), this pilgrimage weekend is a good way to get acquainted with it.

God bless you and enjoy the newsletter.

Sabbath Moments are those times when we rest in the Lord, rather than doing, although sometimes when we are doing something we are recollected in God and it becomes a Sabbath Moment.  Hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace, we get together weekly to share and learn from each other ways to be close to God in this busy world.

This week I was praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary when the thoughts and images of Jesus being abandoned by His disciples over His statements on eating His flesh and drinking His blood came to mind.  This had nothing to do with the Glorious Mysteries, but I went with it anyway. St. Peter’s response to the question Jesus put to His apostles (John 6: 68-70) at this turn in His ministry kept pulling at me,

“Will you also go away?” Simon Peter therefore answered, “Lord, to whom shall we go?  Thou hast words of everlasting life, and we have come to believe and to know that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Thou hast words, indeed.  What are these words of everlasting life the Savior speaks?  Word after word came to me:

Go and sin no more. (John 8:11)

Whose faith when he saw, he said: Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. (Lk. 5: 20)

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. (John 14: 6)

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. (Matt. 11: 29)

Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. (Matt. 16: 24)

I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. (John 6: 48-51)

Suffer children to come to me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.  Amen, I say to you: Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter into it. (Lk. 18: 16-17)

…every one that exalteth himself, shall be humbled; and he that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. (Lk. 14: 11)

Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. (John 14: 9)

Many more thoughts came to me and forced me to examine my conscience as to my faithfulness to His word. I thought of the bumper stickers that were so common some years ago and which one hardly sees any more: “Jesus is the Answer.” He is indeed the answer to every question of any importance, and He has told us exactly what to do to be with Him forever.  Throughout the week I returned to St. Peter’s great confession for many more Sabbath Moments.  “Lord, indeed, to whom shall I go?  Thou hast the words of everlasting life.”

A second Sabbath Moment: These musings reminded me of the great aria from Handel’s Messiah, “Come Unto Him” which contains the words, “and learn of Him for He is meek and lowly of heart.” It is the soprano aria that comes after the contralto aria “He shall feed His flock.”  When I was a parish choir director we sang the first for the Communion hymn at midnight Mass with organ and violin.  From the choir loft, of course, in the back of church as this was not a performance!  The whole choir sang in unison “He shall feed His flock” and the violin took the place of the soprano aria, “Come unto Him.”  The beauty and reverence of that night stays with me to this day.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been thinking of a dear friend, Father Philip Schuster, O.S.B., one of the monks murdered at Conception Abbey on June 10, 2002 by a gunman whose motives will forever remain unknown as he had no connection to any of the monks nor to the abbey and left nothing in spoken word or writing to say why he did it.

Lloyd Robert Jeffress got in his car with an AK 47 and a .22 caliber sawed off rifle and drove a couple of hours from Kansas City to Conception, Missouri to execute as many monks as he could find. Father Philip, age 84 and monastery porter, was shot in the torso and finished off with a shot to the head after he fell.  The bullet hole remains in the hallway floor.  Brother Damian, known as “the weather monk” was also killed.  Two other monks who entered the hallway from their offices were shot, gravely wounded, and recovered after a long time.  When Jeffress couldn’t find anybody else to shoot, he went back down the hall and through the same door to the basilica he had used to enter the monastery, and killed himself.  In the midst of mourning the Abbot re-consecrated the basilica the next day.

I made a some private retreats at the abbey with Father Philip and visited him there with my husband on our way north to see friends.  He had been the novice master of my pastor and he was just the person I needed at that time of my life.  On one of my visits, he gave me a copy of the book he wrote, Seeking God’s Will Through Faith, Hope & Charity, full of the simple wisdom about life only a very prayerful monk with vast pastoral experience could write.

Father Philip was everything a priest should be and solid as a rock theologically.  He set a good example for me in the spiritual life and I often think of things he said in our conferences.  One typical exchange between us happened when I was sitting in his porter’s office and we were discussing the rosary.  Father pulled an old, really old broken rosary out of his breast pocket (it came from a monk who died in 1927 and I have one just like it from the same monk) and waving it in the air said, “I love praying the rosary.  I don’t worry about getting all the prayers in.  Sometimes I just get a good meditation on the mystery and don’t worry about finishing every decade.” In other words, keep to the purpose of what you’re doing and don’t sweat the small stuff. Of the monk who blessed our rosaries so long ago he said, “Father Lucas hung every indulgence under the sun on these rosaries. I don’t mind that it’s broken.  Our Lady doesn’t mind if we pray on broken rosaries.”And Father Philip prayed on his so much he plumb wore it out.

If you boiled down the essence of Father Philip, it would be simplicity and faithfulness in conforming ourselves to God’s will.  He was kind and gentle, but very firm about obeying God’s laws.  He was utterly faithful to his monastic vows and using that old, broken rosary was a perfect example of his approach to the vow of poverty.  He clearly knew what was important and what was not.

Because life itself is threatened with such great intensity from so many sides these days, and peace of soul can be elusive for the person in the world, I decided to read a little of Father Philip’s book again every day and share some passages with you here.  This is a great book that never gets boring no matter how many times you read it. Father Philip was a gift from God to all, but especially to the tortured soul who needs to learn to suffer with joy, and I’m sure he brought many to God.  He lived what he wrote.

From Chapter Two: Faith:

“He who through faith is righteous shall live” (Rom. 1: 17).  In an age when personal freedom is so much stressed, it seems helpful and necessary to try to clarify our notion of faith.

Many of us were born into a Christian family.  Many of us, especially Catholics, were baptized as infants, or when we were very young.  I do not wish to see this practice changed.  I agree with it.  But it does have at least one danger.  We are prone to think that faith, like love, comes easily, naturally, without real effort on our part.  We assume that anyone who professes to be Catholic, and who goes to church, has a deep faith.  I challenge that notion.

It is true that when the child receives the sacrament of baptism, the virtue of faith is implanted in the soul, like a seed.  Whatever else that virtue may be at the time of baptism, it is an inclination, a force, that inclines us, helps us, gives us the attitude of one ready to believe, ready to be taught by God, relying simply on His wisdom, His fidelity, His goodness.  Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

“Relying on God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.”  Wherever lies or deception of any kind exists, there is Satan who is the clever master of re-direction and re-definition. We see and hear this every day in the news media.  Something is forever being presented as something it is not and people rely on these deceptions to justify the unjustifiable. A fair question to ask is, am I ready to be taught by God, or do I habitually look elsewhere to be told what I want to hear?

The Church prays her sacred liturgy as the words of all true believers.  We can never go wrong when we address God through her official prayers. They are chanted in the name of all in her Body, which is the mystical Body of Christ. The thought that all the baptized are members of this Body is truly awesome to contemplate, and we should do our best to help others to become part of it that they may find the great spiritual joy we have.

From the rising to the setting of the sun all over the earth, the Holy Sacrifice is re-presented to our heavenly Father and we benefit from all the graces that come from this perpetual offering.  There is not one moment in time that the Church is not praying and there is not one prayer in the sacred liturgy that fails to show a right relationship with our Father. By praying these words attentively and with all our heart, we are imitating Christ just as much as we imitate Him by doing good to others.

When we pray the sacred liturgy we need never fear that our prayers are not good enough, or that we are praying for the wrong thing, or that our prayers lack sufficient merit, because it is Christ Himself offering the prayers. This is why our sacred liturgy is infinitely pleasing to the Father. With this in mind I take great comfort in the Sunday collect (prayer) which is prayed often in the liturgy throughout the week.  This past Sunday’s prayer is much needed in our day.

Graciously grant to us, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the spirit to think and do always such things as are rightful: that we, who cannot exist without Thee, may be enabled to live according to Thy will.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end.  Amen.

How can our heavenly Father not grant this to us? We are asking that our minds and bodies be infused with the Holy Spirit so that we do only that which is just in His eyes and think only of that which is in accord with His law. We can be confident that God will give us what we ask for because we are asking for exactly what He wants to give us.  This prayer opens our hearts to Him, He who is deserving of all our love, honor, and worship.

In today’s age with the supreme arrogance of man wafting over airwaves and satellite day and night, the Church admits (and we with Her) that we cannot exist, and in fact would not exist at all without the power of our Creator.  This humble acknowledgment is the simple truth, and when we pray in total humility, we honor our Father who is offended by those who act as if all power comes from themselves. Moreover, this just prayer benefits all humanity.  We ask these things from God not only for ourselves, but for all our fellow men everywhere. As God was willing to spare Sodom and Gomorrah if Abraham could find only ten righteous men (Gen. 18), so the humble prayers of the few bring grace to the many.

We ask to be enabled to live according to the Father’s will.  We can do this only if we practice daily surrender to His providence and keep our eyes fixed on Christ, our Teacher and Savior.  The entire world becomes a better place when even one person becomes better at thinking and acting like Christ, doing the Father’s will. It’s the ripple effect of good that, if strong, can collide with and turn back the ripples of evil.  The effects of this prayer will be hidden from those who have eyes that do not see (Ez. 12: 2, Jer. 5: 21, Ps. 135: 16, Ps. 115: 5) but will be obvious to those who strive towards God, trusting in His care.

St. Josemaria Escriva

One of my favorite bishops in this country is Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese in Missouri.  On the feast of St. Josemaria Escriva at Our Lady of Good Counsel parish he preached a great sermon that reinforces the “Little Way” of St. Therese of Lisieux and “The Work” of St. Josemaria which is very like the “Little Way” applied to modern times in the world.

When St. Augustine wrote that “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee,” he was speaking of man’s search for peace, joy, and meaning in life. These desires can only be fulfilled by the all-holy God who fills us with His holiness when we open our hearts to Him. As a practical matter, doing this is not easy because with all the cares of the world we often become side-tracked, chasing after everything else but God.  It is just this condition that makes St. Josemaria’s message so appealing for the modern person who is not called to the cloister, the hermitage, or the priesthood.  Holiness is for everyone.

Here are some excerpts from Bishop Finn’s sermon:

I know that one of the primary things that has attracted me to St. Josemaria is his humble devotion, his fidelity to the Church at a time when there was much upheaval, and his simple plan to help us see all of our most everyday tasks and efforts, our daily work, as a path to holiness…

And he was given such a profound God’s-eye view of the way that ordinary men and women, lay faithful, family men and women, and diocesan priests as well, could be holy in accord with God’s plan: not by leaving the world but precisely by living close to God in the world – and offering all that happens, and all they do as a gift to God for the end of sanctification…

We can reach heaven surely and safely by being contemplatives in the middle of the world. This is so important because, in fact it is the vocation of probably 95% of humanity!…[So important for the sick, suffering, disabled, and war-torn to understand.  Our lives are not useless or meaningless no matter what the politics of the day may say.]

Emblematic of the simplicity and depth of St. Josemaria’s vision for holiness is the truth that God is our Father… [And trusting in Him is fundamental.  "Ours not to reason why, ours but to do and die..." - Kipling's "Charge of the Light Brigade".]…

[Jesus] has a Father, and…we can call Him “Our Father.”…this truth is not for a few. It is for all the sons and daughters. It is for you and me. WE have a Father. We must never forget it. We must, again and again, surrender ourselves onto His lap, into His arms…

We are, as St. Josemaria said, like God’s donkey, quietly pulling the load and doing the work. [Donkeys are beautiful (to me), dependable, and sure-footed.  One bore Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Being a donkey bearing the Son of God to others through daily work seems like a very good thing to me.]

To read the entire sermon visit The Catholic Key blog, written by the staff of the diocesan paper for Kansas City – St. Joseph.  I promise that if you liked these excerpts, you will like all the rest.

The May, 2010 issue of Inside the Vatican published Vincent Twomey’s opening address for the first International Liturgical Conference on the theme Pope Benedict XVI and the Sacred Liturgy.  Held on Fota Island, Co. Cork, July 12th-13th, 2008, the conference marked a new beginning in the restoration of the Catholic sacred liturgy. Although this occurred two years ago, Twomey’s address titled “Pope as Leitourgos” is worth revisiting in light of the world’s current mad exaltation of every corrupt deviance in man which appears to be heading towards an explosive and disastrous crescendo.

Twomey first summarizes Pope Benedict’s commentary on Romans 15:16, which reveals St. Paul’s understanding of his own mission, quoting from the Pope’s sermon from the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul in 2008:

[Paul knows he has been called 'to be a leitourgos of Christ Jesus for the Gentiles, serving the Gospel of God as a priest, so that the pagans become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.' Only in this passage does Paul use the [Greek] word heirourgein – serving as a priest – together with leitourgos – liturgist.  Paul speaks of the cosmic liturgy, in which the world of men itself must become worship of God, an offering in the Holy Spirit. When the whole world will have become the liturgy of God, when in its reality it will have become adoration, then it will have reached its goal; then it will be whole and saved. And this is the ultimate objective of St. Paul’s apostolic mission and of ours. It is to such a mystery that the Lord calls us.  let us pray in this hour that he may help us carry it out in the right way, to become true liturgists of Jesus Christ. Amen.

In this statement Pope Benedict identifies his mission as Pope with St. Paul’s mission.  Twomey then remarks that the above quote “sums up… the central concerns of the theology that Joseph Ratzinger had systematically developed over the course of his life as a theologian.”  He says that even when speaking or writing on other subjects, especially creation, “the liturgy found a central place in his writings.”

Twomey addresses a core point in the Pope’s theology:

The first account of creation in Genesis has nothing to do with how we were created (such as is proposed by the scientific theory of evolution).  its message, rather, is to convey to the reader why we were created.  According to Ratzinger, the cosmos has been brought into existence for one thing only: worship.

More precisely, God called the cosmos into being so that humanity could share in God’s Sabbath rest and hence experience that life is good, and that creation, especially humanity, is very good. In the Old Testament, creation and covenant form a unity.

In other words, God created humanity so that he might enter into a covenant relationship with us, so that he might heal our infirmities and restore us to the relationship that he intended from the beginning of the world: union with him in Christ, the source of that joy which God intends for humanity and which is the object of the Church’s mission.

As Ratzinger reminds us, St. Paul expressed it in another way: “the whole of creation has been groaning in travail together until now.”  Paul was acutely conscious that “the creation itself will be set free from bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8: 21-22).

After making a number of excellent points about the Pope’s writings on the liturgy, he closes with this:

But the Pope’s concern for a true reform of the liturgy is also expressed in the care and attention he gives to every celebration of Holy Mass according to the new rite over which he presides as Pope.

Today he teaches the Church not only by words but also by example.

As I was reading this address I couldn’t help being reminded of the core truth: that God created everything for the purpose of worship of Him.  Unless and until we are willing to fall on our knees before Him with a clear interior disposition of awe and reverence, we deceive ourselves about our own importance and power. Moreover, the sacred liturgy is the work of the Body of Christ, designed to bring us individually and corporately into a right relationship with God.  It belongs to no one individual but to the Mystical Body as a whole.

I also thought of the nonsense put out by various gurus of positive thinking.  Things like telling people they should stand in front of the mirror and say “Every day in every way I am getting better and better”, and writing books with the theme: “Think and Grow Rich” and other topics designed to give the impression that we are our own masters.  These promisers of earthly success and delights enrich themselves while never pointing to Christ Who is our only true hope.  We achieve our highest calling when we lose ourselves in God in trustful surrender and praise.  Nothing else matters that much in comparison.

Oldest known image of St. Paul, represented as a philosopher, the Christian Plato

Last June, near the end of the year dedicated to St. Paul the Apostle, L’Osservatore Romano revealed that archeologists had uncovered the oldest known image of the Apostle to the Gentiles in a catacomb beneath a modern Italian office building. The tomb named after St. Thecla, a noblewoman, is not far from the basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on the Via Ostiense and contains important historical evidence of Christian devotion to the Apostles.

It is through the application of modern laser technology that images of Sts. Peter, Paul, Andrew, and John have been liberated from a crust of calcium carbonate in the basement of an Italian insurance company.  Archeologists say that these paintings in St. Thecla’s tomb are the oldest known representations of the Apostles, dating from the late 300s.

Well into the fourth century Christians always tried to bury the dead near the tombs of martyrs.  If the deceased were wealthy, the walls of the tomb would be decorated with Christian symbols, biblical scenes, and references to the martyr.

St. Thecla is one of the most ancient of virgin-martyrs, having been converted by St. Paul at Iconium.  She was of a noble family who had espoused her to a wealthy young man but she was determined to remain a virgin in spite of their pleading.  At the first opportunity she fled her luxurious home and followed St. Paul.  This act earned the rage of her fiance, who captured her and turned her in to Roman authorities who set her amid lions at the colosseum at Antioch.  The beasts merely laid down and licked her feet while nothing the keepers did to incite them prevailed upon them to tear her to pieces. It is believed that at Rome the authorities attempted to burn her to death, but God protected her and she emerged from the flames unscathed.  She is said to have died a hermit in Seleucia.

St. Thecla attended St. Paul in several of his journeys, following his example of austerity and penance. She was well versed in philosophy, literature and science and is often portrayed wearing the dark brown or gray of the Greek philosophers and surrounded by lions and tigers. She is described by SS. Gregory Nazianzen, Chrysostom, Augustine, and others as a virgin and martyr because of the many persecutions she suffered, though St. Bede in his Martyrology writes that she died in peace.  The Roman Church celebrates her feast on September 23rd and the Greeks on September 24th.   Because of her fame as a holy woman in the earliest times of Christianity and the many wonders God worked on her behalf, she has been especially revered over the ages.  It is not surprising, then, that a catacomb in Rome would bear her name.

Christ the Good Shepherd on the ceiling of the burial chamber of the tomb named for St. Thecla

In the burial chamber medalions of the four Apostles mentioned above grace the four corners.  In the center of the ceiling is a painting of Christ as the Good Shepherd, a common theme found in many paintings in the early Christian catacombs. The arch over the vestibule features a fresco of a group of figures Vatican experts describe as “The College of the Apostles.” It’s hard to overestimate the importance of these discoveries because they show that devotion to the Apostles began much earlier in Christianity than historians formerly believed.

Before the advent of laser technology, archeologists would painstakingly scrape away at the white crust with scalpels and brushes, always resulting in the loss of some of the paint.  Now, however, lasers move pinpoint by pinpoint across the walls releasing the images without loss. In this modern age of unbelief and mocking of God, of the attempts by man to glorify himself in wealth and possessions, it seems that God turns the very science man uses to declare his intellectual superiority over previous ages into His own tool.  Again and again, as in the miraculous images of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Holy Shroud, God demonstrates through science that being Christian is timeless, and that what we believe today is the same testimony the early Christians painted on the walls and ceilings of tombs and that testimony is true.

I was born in the way of Truth:  Though my childhood was unaware of the greatness of the benefit, I knew it when trial came.

Today is the feast of St. Ephrem, the Prophet of the Syrians, Harp of the Holy Ghost, Father of Hymnody, Mary’s Own Singer, and other grand titles including Doctor of the Church. He lived from around 306-373 and we are very fortunate to still have large remnants of his writings.

You might think that anything he wrote so long ago  be would be old-fashioned or irrelevant to today’s world, but like all the Doctors of the Church, St. Ephrem’s writings get down to the simplicity and truth of life as found in sacred Scripture. Here is part of a poem he wrote:

There lie those who improved their complexions,

And artfully disguised their faces;

There lie those who painted their eyelids,

And the worm corrodes their eyes…

There lie those who were enemies,

And their bones are mingled together.

The scroll St. Ephrem holds in the icon above says: “Take thou refuge in God, who passes not away nor is changed.” He wrote about the Holy Eucharist, Penance, the primacy of Peter, about the Blessed Virgin and the sufferings of Christ.

St. Ephrem is known as “The Deacon of Edessa” and is the only male Doctor of the Church who was not ordained a priest or bishop. He lived for some time as a hermit and wrote many poems illustrating the doctrines of Christianity. This beautiful work from the Nativity series gives words to Mary:

The babe that I carry carries me, saith Mary, and He has lowered His wings, and taken and placed me between His pinions, and mounted into the air; and a promise has been given me that height and depth shall be my Son’s… [O Lord Jesus,] In her virginity Eve put on the leaves of shame: Thy Mother put on in her virginity the Garment of Glory that suffices for all.  She gave the little vest of the body to Him that covers all.

Blessed is she in whose heart and mind Thou wast!  A King’s palace she was by Thee, O Son of the King, and a Holy of Holies by Thee, O High Priest!

St. Ephrem organized choirs of women and taught them verses to replace the heretical hymns of Bardesanes, a Syrian writer of the early 3rd century who had written 150 of them, while keeping the music.  Today many of the hymns of St. Ephrem are part of the Syrian liturgy.

Pope Benedict XV proclaimed him a Doctor of the Church on October 5, 1920.

Below is a YouTube recording of John Tavener’s Ikon of the Nativity taken from St. Ephrem’s Nativity hymns.  Tavener is a convert to the Orthodox Church and has written a great deal of music for its liturgy that I think is utterly heavenly. You can also find a recording of a Maronite choir singing St. Ephrem’s Hymn of Light. Unfortunately, embedding is impossible.  Just type in “Hymns of St. Ephrem” and it will come up.

Given the deplorable and sometimes heretical hymns foisted upon Catholics since the 1960s, perhaps it would be wise to call on the patronage of St. Ephrem in the restoration of the sacred liturgy.

No hotter topic incites commentary than illegal immigration. Ever since Arizona passed a recent law upholding federal laws on immigration as it seeks to protect its residents, every talking head and pundit has weighed in on this issue with opinion after opinion while the mainstream media proceeds to favor continued lawbreaking by mainly promoting those comentators who get some kind of advantage from bloviating on the topic.

My primary apostolate since 1997 has been the restoration of the sacred liturgy with the emphasis since 1999 on the restoration of what Pope Benedict dubbed the “Extraordinary Form” in his 2007 motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum.  One of the services I’ve provided gratis all this time is a monthly newsletter on Catholic tradition. Since 2006 it has been hosted by Una Voce Arkansas Ozarks.

Last month the president of the organization tipped me to a statement by Bishop Slattery of Tulsa, Oklahoma on illegal immigration.  The bishop’s writing led me to feature his statement in the newsletter along with my own article, Enabling Illegal Immigration, Cui bono? where I take on certain moral aspects no one else seems to be covering, even the bishops.  Catholics who are praying for the social reign of Christ the King will find a direct application to this need in the article.

Click on the link in the post to read the article.  You will see the connection between the purpose of this site and the subjects covered in the newsletter.  If you want to be on the e-list for the newsletter, please contact me through this blog.

Inside the Bible: An Introduction to Each Book of the Bible by Father Kenneth Baker, S. J. is a handy book to have around to expand your understanding of each book of the Bible.  Father Baker is an old-time Jesuit – one of those whose theology is rock solid. I put him in the same category as Father John Hardon, S. J., whose cause for beatification is already in progress.

Father Baker is the editor emeritus (over 40 years as editor) of the Homiletic and Pastoral Review, a monthly magazine published by Ignatius Press aimed at helping priests preach and counsel parishioners better, as well as understand and celebrate the liturgy better.

Each chapter of the book is a quick and easy read in Father Baker’s clear and organized style.  The chapter sections are: Place in the Bible, Date and Author, Theme, Summary, Theology, Outline, and Reflection which contains a quote from the book for a quick meditation. I found this arrangement very helpful in understanding the meaning and purpose of each book of the Bible as it relates to salvation history.  When we read the Bible with better understanding of the mysteries revealed we cannot help growing closer to God, and even understand today’s events much better from a biblical perspective.

Many of us would like to attend Bible study classes, but are unable to because of various types of limitations.  A book like this can’t take the place of a good study group, but it can help those of us who want to read the Bible on our own with greater understanding.

This book is helpful in another way, too.  I like to look ahead to the Scriptural quotes for the coming Sunday Mass, all of which are linked to the particular season we are celebrating.  Reading the appropriate chapter from Inside the Bible helps me understand the lessons each quote is illustrating better, along with the links between each.

This book is available at a very reasonable price from Amazon.  Just click on the link above or on the image of the book.

The Virgin in Prayer, 1640-1650, Sassoferrato (b. 1609, d. 1685, Roma), Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

Last week we went to St. Louis to visit my aunt and see The Vatican Splendors exhibition in St. Louis.  Even though the two room exhibit was very tiring and elevated my pain levels, I loved it and was glad to have had the chance to see things I would never have otherwise been able to.

Vatican Splendors will be at the Museum of History in Forest Park until Labor Day, so if anyone is planning a trip to the vicinity this summer, it is a great opportunity to learn more about the Catholic “Journey through Faith and art”. Vatican policy is to allow certain items to go on tour, but they must return to the Vatican and remain there for a year before going out again.

From artifact reproductions of items from St. Peter’s tomb to actual paintings by great artists such as Sassoferrato, from sculptures by Bernini to chasubles woven with gold, it all was impressive.  Some of the treasures on display were sent over many centuries to the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. Shown were an Arabic  painting of Madonna and Child, a painting on rice paper of a Vietnamese funeral in 1840,  a painting of a Chinese funeral from 1791, a petition to Pope Pius IX from Chinese Christians sent in 1847, a gorgeous tempera on paper of Our Lady with Jesus and St. John the Baptist all dressed in clothes of Korean royalty, and many others.

A large part of the exhibit centered around the demolition of the original St. Peter’s Basilica and the many artists and architects who had a hand in designing and constructing the new Renaissance basilica we enjoy today. When the current basilica was constructed, the great obelisk Nero took from the Egyptians was moved to its present location in St. Peter’s square.  An etching showing the thousands of horses and men required to move and raise it gave me a great appreciation of the engineering feat it was.  We also saw Michaelangelo’s calipers, and a pulley and shackle used to erect the basilica.

Two items I will never forget are the chalice and ciborium belonging to Pope John Paul II who used them to celebrate Mass at St. Peter’s. The pictures in the catalogue don’t do them justice.  You must see it in person to have the full beauty sink in.  They are made of gilt silver with lustrous pink gems (called vitreous in the catalogue) and sculpted scenes of Christ.  Looking at these one could never doubt that they are worthy to hold the Sacred Hosts and Precious Blood of Christ.

We hear much today about the need to demonstrate our Catholic identity.  This exhibit showed the continuity of belief and the missionary outreach the Church has faithfully carried on throughout the ages. In spite of all the grave sins committed by her members even today, this exhibit brings home a line from the Apostle’s Creed: “I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church” – a Church who continually strives to bring all to Christ, a Church which, as Bernini’s Colonnade exemplifies, reaches out to embrace all mankind.

Tomorrow we are going to St. Louis to visit my 89 year old aunt and attend the Vatican Splendors exhibit to experience, as the web page says, “2000 Years of Vatican Art and History”. Since my aunt does not have the internet, I will not be able to participate in my favorite weekend memes hosted by fellow bloggers.  I will have one or two posts which will appear at this site during the rest of the week, though.

If you have friends or relatives who live not far from St. Louis, encourage them to go to this exhibit.  No doubt I will never get back to the Vatican in this life, so it will be a great opportunity to see things I would not otherwise get to experience.  Unfortunately I cannot show any pictures here today because the Vatican holds the copyright to all the promotional images, so visit the home page of the exhibit at the link above to see some of the magnificent work on display.  You can be sure I will be posting about my visit next week.  Here’s some information on the exhibit:

Vatican Splendors is organized into nine galleries, with content, narrative, objects, and artworks reflecting important developments, moments, people and events that have marked the foundation of the Church and the history of the Vatican.

April 3, 2010 Urbi et Orbi - Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images Europe

This weekend I finally got around to reading the April edition of Inside the Vatican magazine, one of the few Catholic publications I subscribe to.  It is the commemorative issue of the fifth anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II and of Pope Benedict XVI’s ascension to the Throne of Peter.

Editor-in-Chief Robert Moynihan gave us a great issue with many remembrances of both Popes by those who were (are) close to them.  I loved Pope John Paul II because he showed everyone that the Holy Father is indeed a Father to everyone in the world, not just Catholics. His writings are not easy or quick reads, but his love for mankind in imitation of Christ was easily comprehended.  Most of all, by his living with great physical suffering that was obvious to all he was a silent and continuous witness to the dignity of the human person.

Pope Benedict XVI is special to me in a different way.  His writings are a lot easier for me to read, and his steadfastness in the Faith reminds me of the great Pope of my youth, Pius XII, whose writings are also easy to understand and who bravely and prudently led the Church through a dark and murderous time.  As a child I knew in my heart that Pius XII was a saint, and none of the slander against him has dimmed my affections toward him in any way or caused me any doubt.

My affection for Pope Benedict is the same as that for Pius XII.  The clarity of his communications, the relevance of his words and the strength and dignity he shows in the face of falsehood and adversity is an example of the witness all of us followers of Christ must show to the world.

This issue of Inside the Vatican contained some of the words Pope Benedict spoke at his inaugural Mass homily five years ago about his Petrine ministry. The term that comes to mind is “timeless”.

It is really true: as we follow Christ in this mission to be fishers of men, we must bring men and women out of the sea that is salted with so many forms of alienation and onto the land of life, into the light of God. It is really so: the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men. And only where God is seen does life truly begin.  Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.  We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God.  Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ.  There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him. The task of the shepherd, the task of the fisher of men, can often seem wearisome.  But it is beautiful and wonderful, because it is truly a service to joy, to God’s joy which longs to break into the world.

As Christians, we share in the ministry of revealing God to men in the service of God’s joy. We are indeed all willed, loved, and necessary in God’s plan of salvation.  And it is personal.  No one else can do the job that God has created each individual to do.  Like his predecessor, Pope Benedict is the Pope of Life, the Pope of Hope, and the Pope of Truth.  I never get tired of hearing what he has to say.