To Whom Shall I Cry But To Thee

The house of my soul is too narrow
for thee to come in to me;
let it be enlarged by thee.
It is in ruins; do thou restore it.
There is much about it
which must offend thy eyes;
I confess and know it.
But who will cleanse it?
Or, to whom shall I cry but to thee?
"Cleanse thou me from my secret faults,"
O Lord,
"and keep back thy servant from strange sins."

-- St. Augustine,
Confessions, Chapter 5

Get Up And Walk (Matthew 9:5)

"Get up take your mat and go home." (Matthew 9:6)

In today’s gospel passage, Jesus heals the paralytic. This story is so famous that three evangelists, Matthew, Mark and Luke, recorded it. However, Matthew’s narrative is shorter because he has omitted some parts and focused directly on Christ. It is quite touching to see the faith of the man’s friends. If this poor man didn’t have friends, he would never have met Jesus.

When Jesus sees this man being carried, he says, “Have courage, son, your sins are forgiven.” The paralytic and his friends are all silent. They came to Jesus in faith but they asked for nothing. All they did was come! Still their coming speaks volumes. The heart of this paralytic’s faith was simply a trusting and believing that Jesus was truly the Son of God who would forgive and restore his health. It is very likely that sin was weighing this man down. According to the Jews, he or someone in his family lineage might have sinned. Hence, forgiveness of the man’s sins had to come before the cure. Maybe the guilty feelings were so strong that this man was unable to move because of them. Today doctors are convinced that there is a link between un-forgiveness and physical illness. It’s the power of mind over matter. For quicker healing, we have to let go of negative attitude. “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”

It could have been that because of the paralysis, this man was unable to confess his sins, but God saw his need, his faith and the faith of his friends and forgave him. Notice Jesus does not ask God to forgive sins. He forgives them. He sets him free by lifting the burden of sin and guilt from this man’s heart. Stand up, pick your mat and go home! Get on with your life. Help build the Kingdom. Help carry others who are paralysed in mind, body and spirit.

Truly, it is the faith of the paralytic’s friends that bring about this miracle of forgiveness and healing. Take a moment to praise and thank God for all those people in our lives who have carried us to Jesus. Those who have prayed for us and over us, those who pleaded with God on our behalf. Some of us are just living on a prayer! They loved us so much that they carried us when we just couldn’t make it on our own. Their love is a sacrament of Christ’s love and he has, already touched us, in their holy touch. His ministry grows as we the disciples share his love and compassion with others.

"Lord, in my anguish I called and you rescued me from the shackles of sin and death. I thank you for those heavenly beings who help us get through the day."

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul [Pope's Homily - 2011]

FEAST OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL

HOLY MASS FOR THE IMPOSITION OF THE SACRED PALLIUM
ON METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica
Wednesday, 29 June 2011

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos” - “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (cf. Jn 15:15).

Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice. According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way. In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family. But what was taking place now was something greater still. He calls me his friend. He welcomes me into the circle of those he had spoken to in the Upper Room, into the circle of those whom he knows in a very special way, and who thereby come to know him in a very special way. He grants me the almost frightening faculty to do what only he, the Son of God, can legitimately say and do: I forgive you your sins. He wants me – with his authority – to be able to speak, in his name (“I” forgive), words that are not merely words, but an action, changing something at the deepest level of being. I know that behind these words lies his suffering for us and on account of us. I know that forgiveness comes at a price: in his Passion he went deep down into the sordid darkness of our sins. He went down into the night of our guilt, for only thus can it be transformed. And by giving me authority to forgive sins, he lets me look down into the abyss of man, into the immensity of his suffering for us men, and this enables me to sense the immensity of his love. He confides in me: “No longer servants, but friends”. He entrusts to me the words of consecration in the Eucharist. He trusts me to proclaim his word, to explain it aright and to bring it to the people of today. He entrusts himself to me. “You are no longer servants, but friends”: these words bring great inner joy, but at the same time, they are so awe-inspiring that one can feel daunted as the decades go by amid so many experiences of one’s own frailty and his inexhaustible goodness.

“No longer servants, but friends”: this saying contains within itself the entire programme of a priestly life. What is friendship? Idem velle, idem nolle – wanting the same things, rejecting the same things: this was how it was expressed in antiquity. Friendship is a communion of thinking and willing. The Lord says the same thing to us most insistently: “I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14). The Shepherd calls his own by name (cf. John 10:3). He knows me by name. I am not just some nameless being in the infinity of the universe. He knows me personally. Do I know him? The friendship that he bestows upon me can only mean that I too try to know him better; that in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in the communion of saints, in the people who come to me, sent by him, I try to come to know the Lord himself more and more. Friendship is not just about knowing someone, it is above all a communion of the will. It means that my will grows into ever greater conformity with his will. For his will is not something external and foreign to me, something to which I more or less willingly submit or else refuse to submit. No, in friendship, my will grows together with his will, and his will becomes mine: this is how I become truly myself. Over and above communion of thinking and willing, the Lord mentions a third, new element: he gives his life for us (cf. Jn 15:13; 10:15). Lord, help me to come to know you more and more. Help me to be ever more at one with your will. Help me to live my life not for myself, but in union with you to live it for others. Help me to become ever more your friend.

Jesus’ words on friendship should be seen in the context of the discourse on the vine. The Lord associates the image of the vine with a commission to the disciples: “I appointed you that you should go out and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide” (John 15:16). The first commission to the disciples, to his friends, is that of setting out – appointed to go out -, stepping outside oneself and towards others. Here we hear an echo of the words of the risen Lord to his disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations ...” (cf. Matthew 28:19f.) The Lord challenges us to move beyond the boundaries of our own world and to bring the Gospel to the world of others, so that it pervades everything and hence the world is opened up for God’s kingdom. We are reminded that even God stepped outside himself, he set his glory aside in order to seek us, in order to bring us his light and his love. We want to follow the God who sets out in this way, we want to move beyond the inertia of self-centredness, so that he himself can enter our world.

After the reference to setting out, Jesus continues: bear fruit, fruit that abides. What fruit does he expect from us? What is this fruit that abides? Now, the fruit of the vine is the grape, and it is from the grape that wine is made. Let us reflect for a moment on this image. For good grapes to ripen, sun is needed, but so too is rain, day and night. For noble wine to mature, the grapes need to be pressed, patience is needed while the juice ferments, watchful care is needed to assist the processes of maturation. Noble wine is marked not only by sweetness, but by rich and subtle flavours, the manifold aroma that develops during the processes of maturation and fermentation. Is this not already an image of human life, and especially of our lives as priests? We need both sun and rain, festivity and adversity, times of purification and testing, as well as times of joyful journeying with the Gospel. In hindsight we can thank God for both: for the challenges and the joys, for the dark times and the glad times. In both, we can recognize the constant presence of his love, which unfailingly supports and sustains us.

Yet now we must ask: what sort of fruit does the Lord expect from us? Wine is an image of love: this is the true fruit that abides, the fruit that God wants from us. But let us not forget that in the Old Testament the wine expected from noble grapes is above all an image of justice, which arises from a life lived in accordance with God’s law. And this is not to be dismissed as an Old Testament view that has been surpassed – no, it still remains true. The true content of the Law, its summa, is love for God and for one’s neighbour. But this twofold love is not simply saccharine. It bears within itself the precious cargo of patience, humility, and growth in the conforming of our will to God’s will, to the will of Jesus Christ, our friend. Only in this way, as the whole of our being takes on the qualities of truth and righteousness, is love also true, only thus is it ripe fruit. Its inner demand – faithfulness to Christ and to his Church – seeks a fulfilment that always includes suffering. This is the way that true joy grows. At a deep level, the essence of love, the essence of genuine fruit, coincides with the idea of setting out, going towards: it means self-abandonment, self-giving, it bears within itself the sign of the cross. Gregory the Great once said in this regard: if you are striving for God, take care not to go to him by yourselves alone – a saying that we priests need to keep before us every day (H Ev 1:6:6 PL 76, 1097f.).

Dear friends, perhaps I have dwelt for too long on my inner recollections of sixty years of priestly ministry. Now it is time to turn our attention to the particular task that is to be performed today.

On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul my most cordial greeting goes first of all to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios I and to the Delegation he has sent, to whom I express sincere thanks for their most welcome visit on the happy occasion of this feast of the holy Apostles who are Rome’s patrons. I also greet the Cardinals, my brother bishops, the ambassadors and civil authorities as well as the priests, the confrères of my first Mass, religious and lay faithful. I thank all of you for your presence and your prayers.

The metropolitan archbishops appointed since the feast of Saints Peter and Paul last year are now going to receive the pallium. What does this mean? It may remind us in the first instance of Christ’s easy yoke that is laid upon us (cf. Matthew 11:29f.). Christ’s yoke is identical with his friendship. It is a yoke of friendship and therefore “a sweet yoke”, but as such it is also a demanding yoke, one that forms us. It is the yoke of his will, which is a will of truth and love. For us, then, it is first and foremost the yoke of leading others to friendship with Christ and being available to others, caring for them as shepherds. This brings us to a further meaning of the pallium: it is woven from the wool of lambs blessed on the feast of Saint Agnes. Thus it reminds us of the Shepherd who himself became a lamb, out of love for us. It reminds us of Christ, who set out through the mountains and the deserts, in which his lamb, humanity, had strayed. It reminds us of him who took the lamb – humanity – me – upon his shoulders, in order to carry me home. It thus reminds us that we too, as shepherds in his service, are to carry others with us, taking them as it were upon our shoulders and bringing them to Christ. It reminds us that we are called to be shepherds of his flock, which always remains his and does not become ours. Finally the pallium also means quite concretely the communion of the shepherds of the Church with Peter and with his successors – it means that we must be shepherds for unity and in unity, and that it is only in the unity represented by Peter that we truly lead people to Christ.

Sixty years of priestly ministry – dear friends, perhaps I have spoken for too long about this. But I felt prompted at this moment to look back upon the things that have left their mark on the last six decades. I felt prompted to address to you, to all priests and bishops and to the faithful of the Church, a word of hope and encouragement; a word that has matured in long experience of how good the Lord is. Above all, though, it is a time of thanksgiving: thanks to the Lord for the friendship that he has bestowed upon me and that he wishes to bestow upon us all. Thanks to the people who have formed and accompanied me. And all this includes the prayer that the Lord will one day welcome us in his goodness and invite us to contemplate his joy.

© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Eye Of The Hurricane - Me In Motion

Prayer

Praise to you, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who in your great mercy
have given us new birth and hope
through the power of Christ's resurrection.

Grant us Heavenly Father,
that through the prayers and intercessions,
of the apostles Peter and Paul
may we who received this faith through their preaching
share their joy in following You
to the unfading inheritance
reserved for us in heaven.

We make our prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.

Amen

Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles (Solemnity)

This day has been consecrated for us by the martyrdom of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. It is not some obscure martyrs we are talking about. Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. These martyrs had seen what they proclaimed, they pursued justice by confessing the truth, by dying for the truth.

The blessed Peter, the first of the Apostles, the ardent lover of Christ, who was found worthy to hear, And I say to you, that you are Peter. He himself, you see, had just said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Christ said to him, And I say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Upon this rock I will build the faith you have just confessed. Upon your words, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, I will build my Church; because you are Peter. Peter comes from petra, meaning a rock. Peter, “Rocky,” from “rock”; not “rock” from “Rocky.” Peter comes from the word for a rock in exactly the same way as the name Christian comes from Christ.

Before his passion the Lord Jesus, as you know, chose those disciples of his whom he called apostles. Among these it was only Peter who almost everywhere was given the privilege of representing the whole Church. It was in the person of the whole Church, which he alone represented, that he was privileged to hear, To you will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven. After all, it is not just one man that received these keys, but the Church in its unity. So this is the reason for Peter’s acknowledged pre-eminence, that he stood for the Church’s universality and unity, when he was told, To you I am entrusting, what has in fact been entrusted to all. To show you that it is the Church which has received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, listen to what the Lord says in another place to all his apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit; and immediately afterwards, Whose sins you forgive, they will be forgiven them; whose sins you retain, they will be retained.

Quite rightly, too, did the Lord after his resurrection entrust his sheep to Peter to be fed. It is not, you see, that he alone among the disciples was fit to feed the Lord’s sheep; but when Christ speaks to one man, unity is being commended to us. And he first speaks to Peter, because Peter is the first among the apostles. Do not be sad, Apostle. Answer once, answer again, answer a third time. Let confession conquer three times with love, because self-assurance was conquered three times by fear. What you had bound three times must be loosed three times. Loose through love what you had bound through fear. And for all that, the Lord once, and again, and a third time, entrusted his sheep to Peter.

There is one day for the passion of two apostles. But these two also were as one; although they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, Paul followed. We are celebrating a feast day, consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. Let us love their faith, their lives, their labours, their sufferings, their confession of faith, their preaching.

~ Saint Augustine

Yahweh, I Know You Are Near

Yahweh, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.

Lord, you have searched my heart,
And you know when I sit and when I stand.
Your hand is upon me protecting me from death,
Keeping me from harm.

Yahweh, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.

Where can I run from Your love?
If I climb to the heavens You are there;
If I fly to the sunrise or sail beyond the sea,
Still I'd find You there.

Yahweh, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.

You know my heart and its ways,
You who formed me before I was born
In the secret of darkness before I saw the sun
In my mother's womb.

Yahweh, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.

Marvellous to me are Your works;
How profound are Your thoughts, my Lord.
Even if I could count them, they number as the stars,
You would still be there.

Yahweh, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.

Till The Storm Passes By

In the dark of the midnight,
Have I often hid my face;
While the storm howls above me,
And there's no hiding place;
Mid the crash of the thunder,
Precious Lord, hear my cry;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

'Til the storm passes over,
'Til the thunder sounds no more;
'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,
Hold me fast, let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

Many times Satan whispers,
There is no need to try;
For there's no end of sorrow,
There's no hope by and by;
But I know Thou art with me,
And tomorrow I'll rise;
Where the storms never darken the skies.

'Til the storm passes over,
'Til the thunder sounds no more;
'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,
Hold me fast, let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

When the long night has ended,
And the storms come no more,
Let me stand in Thy presence.
On that bright, peaceful shore.
In that land where the tempest
Never comes, Lord may I
Dwell with Thee when the storm passes by.

'Til the storm passes over,
'Til the thunder sounds no more;
'Til the clouds roll forever from the sky,
Hold me fast, let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

Hold me fast, Let me stand,
In the hollow of Thy hand;
Keep me safe 'til the storm passes by.

'Til the storm passes by.

Save Us Lord, We Are Going Down! (Matthew 8:25)

"He stood up and rebuked the winds and the seas; and all was calm again." (Matthew 8:26)

All of us would love to have Jesus in our boat during a ragging storm at sea. Only a fool wouldn’t. There are many moments in our lives when we feel better and safer when people we love are by our side, supporting and encouraging us. There is tremendous power in the bonding of family and friends. With their presence, touch and love we feel more secure and less afraid.

The disciples in today’s Gospel are a frightened lot. They have Jesus with them in the boat but they didn’t quite understand that Presence. Jesus is exhausted after his public ministry hence he takes a nap. The disciples should have been resting too but instead they chose to worry about the wind and waves. We are so much like those disciples, even though we know that God is always by our side, we need the assurance. We need him to touch us, to speak to us, and to reassure us. We need to feel the warmth of his presence and to be able to hear his voice.

Life is unpredictable, one moment you are safely sailing the next you are sinking. When storms arrive, all calmness can turn into chaos in the blink of an eyelid. We are helpless and powerless in turbulent times all we can do then is to surrender and call out to Jesus. God always hears our cries of distress and jumps in to save us. He answers every prayer and wipes away every tear! God promised to be with us always to the very end of the age. Therefore, rest in the assurance that God is just a prayer away, do not fear, only believe!

“Heavenly Father, I thank you that by your word fear flees and faith is restored. Lord, shelter me under your wings when life buffets me about.”

Man's life is God's glory

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him. It is impossible to live without life, and the actualisation of life comes from participation in God, while participation in God is to see God and enjoy his goodness.

Men will therefore see God if they are to live; through the vision of God they will become immortal and attain to God himself. As I have said, this was shown in symbols by the prophets: God will be seen by men who bear his Spirit and are always waiting for his coming. As Moses said in the Book of Deuteronomy: On that day we shall see, for God will speak to man, and man will live.

God is the source of all activity throughout creation. He cannot be seen or described in his own nature and in all his greatness by any of his creatures. Yet he is certainly not unknown. Through his Word the whole creation learns that there is one God the Father, who holds all things together and gives them their being. As it is written in the Gospel: No man has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has revealed him.

From the beginning the Son is the one who teaches us about the Father; he is with the Father from the beginning. He was to reveal to the human race visions of prophecy, the diversity of spiritual gifts, his own ways of ministry, the glorification of the Father, all in due order and harmony, at the appointed time and for our instruction. where there is order, there is also harmony; where there is harmony, there is also correct timing; where there is correct timing, there is also advantage.

The Word became the steward of the Father’s grace for the advantage of men, for whose benefit he made such wonderful arrangements. He revealed God to men and presented men to God. He safeguarded the invisibility of the Father to prevent man from treating God with contempt and to set before him a constant goal toward which to make progress. On the other hand, he revealed God to men and made him visible in many ways to prevent man from being totally separated from God and so cease to be. Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation gives life to all who live upon the earth, much more does the manifestation of the Father through the Word give life to those who see God.

~ From the treatise Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus

Prayer - Queen of this House

Dear Lady of Perpetual Help, spotless Mother of God,
we choose thee as the Mistress
and Lady of this house. Guard it, dearest Mother,
from pestilence, lightning, fire and tempest,
from schisms and heresies, from air-raids, earthquakes
and the malice of enemies.
Protect those who dwell herein, most loving Mother,
watch over our going out and coming in,
and preserve us from sudden death.
Keep us away from all sin and harm
and pray for us, that we may serve God faithfully here,
and afterwards enjoy with thee for evermore
the blissful vision of His face.
Amen.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help [Image Description]

Description of the Image: -

The original wooden icon suspended in the altar measures 17" × 21" inches and is painted on hard nut wood with a gold leaf background. The image depicts the Blessed Virgin Mary wearing a dress of dark red, representing the Passion of Jesus with a blue mantle representing her perpetual virginity and cloaked veil which represents her pure modesty.

On the left side is the Saint Archangel Michael, carrying the lance and sponge of the crucifixion of Jesus.

On the right is the Saint Archangel Gabriel carrying a 3-bar cross used by Popes at the time and nails.

The Virgin Mary has a star on her forehead, signifying her role as Star of the Sea while the cross on the side has been claimed as to the school which has produced this icon.

The Byzantine depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in art has three stars, one star each on the shoulder and one on the forehead. This type of icon is called Hodegetria composition, where Saint Mary is also pointing to her Son, known as a Theotokos of the Passion.

The Greek inscriptions read 'MP-ΘΥ (Μήτηρ Θεού, Mother of God); OAM (Archangel Michael); OAΓ (Archangel Gabriel); and Iς-Xς ( Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Jesus Christ ), respectively. The icon is painted with a gold background on a walnut panel which was probably painted in the islands of Crete, which at the time was then ruled by the Republic of Venice.

The Cretan School was the source of the many icons imported into Europe from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. The icon was cleaned and restored once in 1866 and again in the year 1940.

*On the current feast of Roman Catholic calendar of saints Our Lady of Perpetual Help is commemorated on June 27, while common established days for novena prayers are customarily held every Wednesdays.


Mary From Thy Sacred Image [Hymn]

Mary from thy sacred image,
With those eyes so sadly sweet,
Mother of Perpetual Succour!
See us kneeling at thy feet.

In thy arms thy Child thou bearest
Source of all thy joy and woe;
What thy bliss, how deep thy sorrows,
Mother, thou alone canst know

Litany of Praise of the Mother of God (St.Cyril)

St. Cyril of Alexandria's Litany of Praise of the Mother of God

Excerpt from sermon preached by St. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria (444), presiding as representative of the Holy See at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, 431. In refuting Nestorianism, he is called 'Doctor of the Incarnation'. The below translation of his praises of Dei-para received the imprimatur of the Most Rev. Francis Gilfillan, Bishop of St. Joseph (d. 1933).


Hail, O Mary, Mother of God, Virgin and Mother! Morning Star, perfect vessel.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! holy temple in which God Himself was conceived.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! chaste and pure dove.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! ever-effulgent light; from thee proceedeth the Sun of Justice.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God ! Thou didst enclose in thy sacred womb the One Who cannot be encompassed.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! With the shepherds we sing the praise of God, and with the angels the song of thanksgiving: Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth to men of good will.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Through thee came to us the Conqueror and the triumphant Vanquisher of hell.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Through thee blossoms the splendor of the resurrection.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Thou hast saved every faithful Christian.
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Hail, O Mary, Mother of God! Who can praise thee worthily, O glorious Virgin Mary!
We salute thee, Mother of God.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria

St. Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376-444) was Born at Alexandria, Egypt around the year 376 and was the nephew of the patriarch of Alexandria, Theophilus. He received a classical and theological education at Alexandria and was ordained by his uncle. He accompanied Theophilus to Constantinople in 403 and was present at the Synod of the Oak which deposed John Chrysostom, who was later restored and confirmed as bishop of Constantinople. Cyril succeeded his Uncle as patriarch of Alexandria in 412.

Cyril began a series of attacks against the Novatians, whose churches he closed, and against the Jews whom he drove out of the city. In 430 Cyril became embroiled with Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantnople, who was preaching heresies denying Mary as the Mother of God, and opposing the doctrine of the Incarnation. A synod was held in Rome under Pope Celestine I which condemned Nestorius and his teachings. Refusing to recant his positions, Nestorius was excommunicated.

In 431 Cyril presided over the third general Council at Ephesus, attended by some two hundred bishops, which condemned all the tenets of Nestorius and his followers. Nestorius was forced into exile. Cyril wrote treatises that clarified the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation which helped stem the spread of Nestorianism and Pelagianism from taking root in the Christian community.

He died in 444 at the age of 68. He was the most brilliant theologian of the Alexandrian tradition. His writings are characterized by accurate thinking, precise exposition, and great reasoning skill. Among his writings are commentaries on John, Luke, and the Pentateuch, treatises on dogmatic theology, an Apologia against Julian the Apostate, and letters and sermons.

He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1882.


Honoured in:- Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Anglicanism, Lutheranism.

Feast Days: - 18 January and 9 June (Orthodox Churches)
27 June (Coptic Church, Roman Catholic Church- but 9 February in Roman Calendar 1882-1939 - and Lutheran Church)

Attributes:- Vested as a Bishop with phelonion and omophorion, and usually with his head covered in the manner of Egyptian monastics (sometimes the head covering has a polystavrion pattern), he usually is depicted holding a Gospel Book or a scroll, with his right hand raised in blessing.

Patronage:- Alexandria

Pilgrims Flock To Medjugorje For Anniversary

On June 25, about 100,000 pilgrims celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first appearance of what are described as apparitions of the Virgin Mary in the southern Bosnian town of Medjugorje. Since 1981, more than 40 million people have visited the shrine.

At dawn, pilgrims from around the world, some of them barefoot, climbed a hill above Medjugorje where six children claimed they saw visions of the Virgin Mary in June 1981.

In the village, the pilgrims attended an open-air Mass. Some of them walked on their knees around a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The Medjugorje apparition has been disputed for decades. Unlike Fatima in Portugal or Lourdes in France, the Vatican has not recognized the sightings as authentic and has not formally approved Medjugorje as a shrine site.

Last year, however, it started formally investigating the apparitions that the six claim still occur regularly.

Despite the Vatican's stance, Medjugorje has thrived, becoming one of the wealthiest towns in Bosnia.

Pilgrims never stopped coming, even during the 1992-95 Bosnian war, when heavy fighting between Bosnia's Muslims and Croats raged in nearby Mostar.

-- Nedim Dervisbegovic

News Source

Words Matter

Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, "My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him 50 bucks."

The second boy says, "That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him 100 bucks."

The third boy says, "I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon and it takes eight people to collect all the money!"

Gifting Time

Pope Benedict XVI (R) receives a gift from Matthew Festing, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta, during a private audience at the Vatican June 25, 2011.

~ REUTERS PICTURES

Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano, Italy (8th Century A.D)

Ancient Anxanum, in the Church dedicated to Saints Legontian and Domitian in Lanciano, Italy, has contained for over twelve centuries the first and greatest Eucharistic Miracle of the Catholic Church. This wondrous Event took place in the 8th century A.D. in the little Church of St. Legontian, as a divine response to a Basilian monk's doubt about Jesus' Real Presence in the Eucharist.

During Holy Mass, after the two-fold consecration, the host was changed into live Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood, which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size.

The Host-Flesh, as can be very distinctly observed today, has the same dimensions as the large host used today in the Latin church; it is light brown and appears rose-coloured when lighted from the back.

The Blood is coagulated and has an earthy color resembling the yellow of ochre.
Since 1713 the Flesh has been preserved in an artistic Ostensorium, delicately embossed by an artisan of the Neapolitan school. The Blood is enclosed in a rich and very old cup made of Rock-crystal. In 1970-71 and again partly in 1981 there were scientific investigations by the most illustrious scientist Prof. Odoardo Linoli, eminent Professor in Anatomy, Pathological Histology, Chemistry and Clinical Microscopy. He was assigned by Prof. Ruggero Bertelli of the University of Siena.

The analysis were conducted with absolute and unquestionable scientific precision and they were documented with a series of microscopic photographs. These analyses sustained that the Flesh is real Flesh, consists of the muscular tissues of the heart, complete in its essential structure. The Blood is real Blood, it contained proteins, minerals in the same normal proportions. The Flesh and the Blood belong to the human species having the same blood-type: AB (Blood-type identical to that which Prof. Baima Bollone uncovered on the Holy Shroud of Turin).

Prayer

O Jesus, living Bread descended from heaven, how infinitely great and good is Your love! In order to perpetuate and strengthen our faith in Your Real Presence in the Eucharist, you changed the consecrated species of bread and wine into the Flesh and Blood, which are perpetually reserved in the Eucharistic Sanctuary of Lanciano. O, increase ever more our faith in You, Sacramental Lord.

Grant us a burning love for You, that we may come to seek comfort in dangers, in necessities and in anxieties, only at your feet, O Divine Prisoner of our tabernacles, O Perpetual Font of every grace.

Excite in us hunger and thirst for your Eucharistic food, so that in keeping Your Word, tasting this heavenly Bread, we may be able to enjoy true life now and forever. Amen.

The Body and Blood of Christ (Solemnity)

"Whoever eats this bread will live forever." (John 6:58)

Today's, feast of the Body and Blood of Christ - traditionally, Corpus Christi, celebrates Jesus’ gift of the Eucharist to His Mystical Body, the Church. At the heart of the Eucharist is, the mystery of God’s unconditional love for each one of us seen in the self-sacrificing love of Jesus. In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI entitled his Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist as Sacramentum Caritatis, which means sacrament of love.

Blood symbolizes life [Leviticus 17:11, 14]. Jewish tradition forbade drinking of blood, for it stood for life sacred to God (Genesis 9:4; Leviticus 7:26). Jesus’ sacrifice brought us life through sacramental communion. In the second reading St. Paul says, “We form a single body because we share this one bread” (v.17). Referring to ‘communion’ with the Blood of Christ [wine] and the Body of Christ [bread], Paul connects the Corinthian Christian community with Jesus’ sacrifice.

The Eucharist is the Gospel made Sacrament; Christ is both baker and bread. Not by any accident does He use the oldest known and most nourishing food to give us Himself. Christ is the bread that came down from heaven, anyone who eats this bread will live forever. St. Augustine said that, “The image of God exists in every person, but that image has been distorted and clouded over by sin. Thus, each of us has an absolute need of God's grace to restore the broken image. So we turn to the only thing here on earth that we can worship - the Blessed Sacrament.” Receiving Our Lord in the Eucharist should never be taken lightly, it is a moment of grace, which requires us to be rightly disposed and not conscious of serious sin in our lives.

Jesus offers himself completely to us in the Eucharist. Each one of us who communes with Christ must offer ourselves to be bread and to satisfy the hungers of the world. On 24 March, 1980 Archbishop Oscar Romero preached, “The Eucharist is an act of faith… May this body immolated and this blood sacrificed for humankind nourish us also, so that we may give our body and our blood, like Christ, for our people.” Minutes later, while raising the chalice during the consecration, Romero was shot dead by an ex-soldier. Romero’s blood mingled with the blood of Christ on the altar. His body broken for the poor people in San Salvador. His twenty-fifth death anniversary 2005, was marked the ‘Year of the Eucharist’. At the papal Mass, Pope Benedict XVI made us aware of belonging to that ‘Body of Christ’ which is the “fount and summit of Christian life.”

Indeed, each one of us will truly be celebrating the Eucharist only when we can say with Jesus, “Take, this is my body, my blood, given for all!” May the Eucharist motivate and move us to carry the broken body of Jesus towards the glory of the Risen Lord. Amen

Doomsday dream prompts man to build Noah's Ark

A doomsday dream about massive flooding prompted Dutch man Johan Huibers to build a huge Noah's Ark, which he plans to float down London's River Thames ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

Johan, the head of a construction company in the town of Dordrecht in the western Netherlands, started work on the 100-yard long, four-storey tall ship three years ago after a night-time vision that came to him some 20 years ago.

'I dreamt that a part of Holland was flooded,' the 60-year-old explained to NBC's Today Show in the US. 'The next day, I get the idea to build an ark.'

Johan's Ark is 450 feet long and weighs 2,970 tons. It is built of Swedish pine, which Huibers told New York Times is in keeping with God's command to Noah that the ark be built of resin wood. It has two conference rooms capable of holding 1,500 people. That makes it roughly the same dimensions as Noah's Ark.

True to the Book of Genesis, Johan's Ark features life size replicas of animals -- including pairs of giraffes, zebras, cows and donkeys, and an elephant that cost $11,000. There are also live chickens on board.

In 2007, Johan opened a smaller Noah's Ark as a tourist attraction, drawing more than 600,000 worldwide visitors in approximately three years.

The ark's creator reckons it could eventually become a type of museum that inspires people to read the Bible.

He expects his latest project to be completed next month.

The Birth of Saint John the Baptist (Solemnity)

The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s. This point cannot be passed over in silence, and if I may not perhaps be able to explain it in the way that such an important matter deserves, it is still worth thinking about it a little more deeply and fruitfully than usual.

John is born of an old woman who is barren; Christ is born of a young woman who is a virgin. That John will be born is not believed, and his father is struck dumb; that Christ will be born is believed, and he is conceived by faith.

I have proposed some matters for inquiry, and listed in advance some things that need to be discussed. I have introduced these points even if we are not up to examining all the twists and turns of such a great mystery, either for lack of capacity or for lack of time. You will be taught much better by the one who speaks in you even when I am not here; the one about whom you think loving thoughts, the one whom you have taken into your hearts and whose temple you have become.

John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, The Law and the prophets were until John. So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb. You will remember that, before he was born, at Mary’s arrival he leapt in his mother’s womb. Already he had been marked out there, designated before he was born; it was already shown whose forerunner he would be, even before he saw him. These are divine matters, and exceed the measure of human frailty. Finally, he is born, he receives a name, and his father’s tongue is loosed.

Zachary is struck dumb and loses his voice, until John, the Lord’s forerunner, is born and releases his voice for him. What does Zachary’s silence mean, but that prophecy was obscure and, before the proclamation of Christ, somehow concealed and shut up? It is released and opened up by his arrival, it becomes clear when the one who was being prophesied is about to come. The releasing of Zachary’s voice at the birth of John has the same significance as the tearing of the veil of the Temple at the crucifixion of Christ. If John were meant to proclaim himself, he would not be opening Zachary’s mouth. The tongue is released because a voice is being born – for when John was already heralding the Lord, he was asked, Who are you and he replied I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.

John is the voice, but the Lord in the beginning was the Word. John is a voice for a time, but Christ is the eternal Word from the beginning.

~ Saint Augustine

What Will Your Epitaph Be?

What have you embossed on memory's page?
Faith and wisdom gained with the coming of age

Your life lived under the Eternal gaze...
Hopefully there are deeds done in the Master's name

Maybe words spoken to spread His fame
Or is it just an earthly legacy left to the hungry lot!

O mortal, what will your epitaph be...
A thanksgiving or just a blot.

~Olivia
Copyright© 2011 All rights reserved

Build Your House On Rock (Matthew 7:24)

“Not everyone who says to me: Lord! Lord! will enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 7:21)

Today Jesus concludes his three-chapter 'Sermon on the Mount' with the most direct message: you do not enter the Kingdom of God by what you say but by who and what you are. Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak! While this message is important to all Christians, it is imperative for all who are in the Christian ministry, parents, lay ministers, clergy etc. We know that it refers to us ‘professing’ Christians because it says, “not everyone who says to me, Lord! Lord!”

It is very important to be a good parent, or a good friend, but it is more important to be a good Christian. And, to be a good Christian we ought to have a strong foundation in Christ. Personally, I love the verse where Jesus changes Simon’s name to Cephas [Aramaic] Peter [Greek], which means ‘Rock’ (John 1:42) and promises that His Church will be built “on this rock” (Matthew 16:18-19, RSV). The Church is the Body of Christ we are the members of His Body. Unless we function, in a godly manner, our words and deeds are unfruitful. We are like the seed that has missed the good soil or the fool who has built his house on sinking sand.

Jesus went on to say that, when the winds came and the floods rose, the house built on sand had a great fall. Winds, rains and floods are nothing more than troubles and persecution, worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things. These storms of life test the work and structure of our foundation. If our faith in Jesus is weak, we will crumble as the house built on sand. However, if it is rock solid nothing can uproot us.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to build our lives on a strong foundation, upon rock not on sand. With the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is calling us to put into action all of what He has said. The prophet Micah says, “And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). So don't just sit in the pews and listen to God's word. Go forth and be doers. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves (James 1:22). The whole duty of man is to, “fear God and keep his commandments, for God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14).

“Lord, help me build a temple worthy of my calling. Let my foundation be chiseled by your will.”

Book of Psalms, The Great Prayerbook - Pope Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

St. Peter's Square
Wednesday, 22 June 2011


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis on Christian prayer, we have looked to a number of Old Testament figures who represent models of prayer. We now turn to the great “prayerbook” of sacred Scripture: the Book of Psalms. These inspired songs teach us how to speak to God, expressing ourselves and the whole range of our human experience with words that God himself has given us. Despite the diversity of their literary forms, the Psalms are generally marked by the two interconnected dimensions of humble petition and of praise addressed to a loving God who understands our human frailty. In Hebrew, the Psalms are called Tehellim or songs of praise; the prayer of praise is, in fact, our best response to the God who even at times of trial remains ever at our side. Many of the Psalms are attributed to David, the great King of Israel who, as the Lord’s Anointed, prefigured the Messiah. In Jesus Christ and in his paschal mystery the Psalms find their deepest meaning and prophetic fulfilment. Christ himself prayed in their words. As we take up these inspired songs of praise, let us ask the Lord to teach us to pray, with him and in him, to our heavenly Father.

* * *

I welcome the participants in the Congress of the European Society of Clinical Neurophysiology, with good wishes for their deliberations. I greet the Catholic educators from Canada and the United States meeting in Rome. I also greet the officers of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. My welcome goes to the American seminarians taking part in a study program in Rome, and to the novices of the Missionaries of Charity. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims, especially those from England, Scotland, Sweden, Indonesia and the United States, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.



© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Death is Only a Horizon

We give them back to you, O Lord

who first gave them to us;

and as you did not lose them in the giving,

so we do not lose them in the return.

Not as the world gives do you give,

O Lover of souls.

For what is yours is ours also,

if we belong to you.

Life is unending because love is undying,

and the boundaries of this life are but a horizon,

and a horizon is but the limit of our vision.

Lift us up, strong Son of God,

that we may see further.

Strengthen our faith that we may see beyond the horizon.

And while you prepare a place for us,

as you have promised,

prepare us also for that happy place;

that where you are we may be also,

with those we have loved, forever.

~ Fr Bede Jarrett O.P

Pope's Speech To Indian Episcopal Bishops On Their Ad Limina Apostolorum

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO BISHOPS OF THE EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE OF INDIA
ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT

Consistory Hall
Monday, 18 June 2011


Dear Brother Bishops,

I am pleased to welcome all of you on the occasion of your visit ad Limina Apostolorum, a privileged time in which to deepen the bonds of fraternity and communion between the See of Peter and the particular Churches that you lead. I wish to thank Archbishop Malayappan Chinnappa for the cordial sentiments that he expressed on your behalf and in the name of those whom you shepherd. My warm greetings go to the priests, the men and women religious, and all the lay faithful entrusted to your pastoral care. Please assure them of my solicitude and my prayers.

Continuing these reflections on the life of the Church in India, I would like to address a word to you, dear brother Bishops, concerning your responsibilities towards the clergy and the men and women religious of the country. By the laying on of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, you are set over God’s people as Pastors, and you are called to teach, sanctify and govern the local Churches. You do this through your preaching of the Gospel, your celebration of the Sacraments, and your care for the sanctity and effective pastoral action of the clergy. Through them you are able to reach out more effectively to the religious and lay people in your care. You are also called to govern in charity by means of a prudent vigilance in your legislative, executive and judicial capacities (cf. Code of Canon Law, cc. 384-394). In this delicate and demanding role, the Bishop, as pastor and father, should so unite and mould his flock into one family that all, conscious of their duties, will wish to live and act as one in charity (cf. Christus Dominus, 16). Promoting the charism of unity, which is a powerful testimony to the oneness of God and a mark of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, is among the most important responsibilities of the Bishop. In the many tasks which require your prayerful attention, dear Bishops, you recognize the presence of the Spirit of the Lord who is active in the Church. The Spirit, promised to all in Baptism and poured out upon God’s people to guide and sanctify them in Confirmation, longs to unite all Christians in bonds of faith, hope and charity. By your ministry, you are called to strengthen the people whom God has chosen to be his own, to serve them and to build them into a unified temple, a worthy dwelling-place for the Spirit, whether they be young or old, male or female, rich or poor. The Lord, by shedding his blood, has ransomed people of every tribe and tongue, of every people and nation (cf. Rev 5:9). Therefore, I encourage you to continue to be at the service of unity and, leading by example, to draw the people that you shepherd into deeper communion, fraternity and peace.

One of the ways in which the communion of the Church is most clearly manifested is in the particularly important relationship that exists between you and your priests, whether diocesan or religious, who share and exercise with you the one priesthood of Christ. Together in your Dioceses, you form one priestly body and one family, of which you are the father (cf. Christus Dominus, 29). Thus, you are to be supportive of your priests, your closest collaborators, and to be attentive to their needs and aspirations, showing solicitude for their spiritual, intellectual and material well-being. They, as sons and co-workers, are called in turn to respect your authority, working cheerfully, humbly and with complete dedication to the good of the Church, but always under your direction. The bonds of fraternal love and mutual concern which you foster with your priests will become the basis for overcoming any tensions that may arise, and will promote those conditions which are most propitious for the service of the people of God, edifying them spiritually, leading them to know their worth and to assume the dignity which is theirs as children of God. Moreover, the witness of the reciprocal love and service between you and your priests – without regard for caste or ethnicity but focussed upon the love of God, the spread of the Gospel and the sanctification of the Church – is earnestly desired by the people you serve. They look to you and your priests for a model of holiness, friendship and harmony that speaks to their hearts and teaches by example how to live the new commandment of love.

Religious men and women also look to you for guidance and support. The witness of your own deep love for Jesus Christ and his Church will serve to inspire them as they devote themselves with perfect poverty, chastity and obedience to the life to which they have been called. They will be confirmed in their selfless dedication by your faith, example and trust in God. In this way, in union with them, you will bear ever greater witness before the men and women of our day to the fact that, while the form of this world is passing away (cf. 1 Cor 7:31), whoever does the will of God abides forever (cf. 1 Jn 2:17).

The radiant witness of consecrated life is of course a treasure not only for those graced with a vocation to it, but also for the entire Church. Through close cooperation with religious Superiors, continue to ensure that the members of Religious Institutes in your Dioceses live their particular charisms in their fullness and in harmony with the priests and lay faithful. In addition to ensuring that they receive a solid human, spiritual and theological foundation, see that they are provided with a thorough ongoing formation that will help them mature in all aspects of consecrated life. Because of the unique contribution made by all Religious, women and men, contemplative and active, to the mission of the Church, and because of their role as protagonists of evangelization through prayer and supplication, education, health care, charity and other apostolates, their charisms will surely continue to strengthen the entire ecclesial community and enrich wider society. In a particular way, I wish to express the Church’s appreciation of the many women Religious of the Church in India. They bear witness to its holiness, vitality and hope. They offer countless prayers and perform innumerable good works, often hidden, but nevertheless of great value to the up-building of God’s kingdom. I ask you to encourage them in their vocation, and to invite young women to consider a similar life of fulfilment through love of God and service to others.

With these thoughts, dear Brother Bishops, I express my fraternal affection and esteem. Invoking upon all of you the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, and assuring you of my prayers for you and for those entrusted to your pastoral care, I gladly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of grace and peace in the Lord.



© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

God's Mercies Shall Be My Song For Ever (St Aloysius Gonzaga)

May the comfort and grace of the Holy Spirit be yours for ever, most honoured lady. Your letter found me lingering still in this region of the dead, but now I must rouse myself to make my way on to heaven at last and to praise God for ever in the land of the living; indeed I had hoped that before this time my journey there would have been over. If charity, as Saint Paul says, means to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who are glad, then, dearest mother, you shall rejoice exceedingly that God in his grace and his love for you is showing me the path to true happiness, and assuring me that I shall never lose him.

The divine goodness, most honoured lady, is a fathomless and shoreless ocean, and I confess that when I plunge my mind into thought of this it is carried away by the immensity and feels quite lost and bewildered there. In return for my short and feeble labours, God is calling me to eternal rest; his voice from heaven invites me to the infinite bliss I have sought so languidly, and promises me this reward for the tears I have so seldom shed.

Take care above all things, most honoured lady, not to insult God’s boundless loving kindness; you would certainly do this if you mourned as dead one living face to face with God, one whose prayers can bring you in your troubles more powerful aid than they ever could on earth. And our parting will not be for long; we shall see each other again in heaven; we shall be united with our Saviour; there we shall praise him with heart and soul, sing of his mercies for ever, and enjoy eternal happiness. When he takes away what he once lent us, his purpose is to store our treasure elsewhere more safely and bestow on us those very blessings that we ourselves would most choose to have.

I write all this with the one desire that you and all my family may consider my departure a joy and favour and that you especially may speed with a mother’s blessing my passage across the waters till I reach the shore to which all hopes belong. I write the more willingly because I have no clearer way of expressing the love and respect I owe you as your son.

~ St Aloysius Gonzaga [A letter to his mother]

Do Not Judge, Or You Too Will Be Judged (Matthew 7:1)

"Stop judging, that you may not be judged." (Matthew 7:1)

Today Jesus warns us about being too quick in judging others. Indeed, he tells us that if we want to avoid being judged ourselves, we must avoid judging others.

This admonition of Jesus is a difficult one. After all, we are always making judgments about what people are saying and what they are doing. Somehow we cant seem to get through life without passing judgments. There is an obligation to distance ourselves from people, places, and things that are not good for us. We used to call them the occasion of sin: anything that would or could lead us away from the Lord’s way to another that would hurt us. We are always making judgments about the places we frequent, the people we work with, the neighbours we try to avoid, and the things we watch and hear. Of course, we need to make moral judgments. As Christians, we have to choose between right and wrong…. that would involve judging!

However, Jesus isn’t talking about that kind of mature Christian here. Jesus is speaking of the hypocritical looking down on people as if they were below us and we being superior to them. The type of judging that delights in the weakness and failures of another. It’s a terrible thing to expose and harp upon the failures of our brethren. None of us are perfect. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God. An offence against our neighbour is a fence between God and us. We should let God do the judging because all of us are equally guilty. People will be judged by the way God sees them, not by the way we see them.

Mother Teresa once said, “If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” Rightly so, with our judging and faultfinding, there will be no room left for love. Instead, we must try to help those stuck in such situations, maybe offer godly counsel. We should pray for those who are not in-sync with the Christian way of life. That way we would love the sinner and not the sin. Jesus commands us to do a thorough job on ourselves before we attempt to help someone else. Those who are not concerned about removing the plank from their own eyes have very little time to try removing the tiny speck from a neighbour’s eye.

“Lord, I’m sorry for failing to see others, through your merciful gaze. Forgive me Lord, for all the times I took my place on the judgment seat.”

Mass At The Olympic Stadium (San Marino)

Pope Benedict XVI celebrates mass at the Serravalle Olympic stadium on June 19, 2011. The pope paid his first visit to tiny Republic of San Marino, the world's oldest sovereign state nestled on the eastern slopes of Italy's Appenine Mountains. ~ Getty Images

And The Fellowship Of The Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:13)

"The grace of Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all." (2 Corinthians 13:13)
To his group of clever, yet conceited, disciples the Master announced, “I have a book that paints a perfect picture of God!” Undoubtedly, the disciples yearned to possess that book and understand God fully. But, the Master guarded it under lock and key. Finally, one day while the Master was out, a disciple stole the book and hurried to read it. Every single page was blank. On the Master’s return the disciple protested, “Your holy book says absolutely nothing about God!” “Ah, yes!” replied the Master smiling, “But, don’t you see how much it indicates?”

Trinity Sunday confounds many a homilist. St Augustine spent 21 years writing De Trinitate, his 15-book magnum opus on the Trinity. Theologian Karl Rahner laments that most Catholics are “mere monotheists,” and, after their 1989 deliberations on the Trinity, the British Council of Churches entitled their document “The Forgotten Trinity.”

The Trinity is not merely a mystery but a precious part of our everyday life. In his book ‘Encounters with Silence’, Rahner himself writes, “If you were not incomprehensible, my God, You would be inferior to me, for my mind could grasp and assimilate You. You would belong to me, instead of I to you. And that would truly be hell!”

The mystery dimension of the Triune has led thinkers to propose analogies to explain the Trinity. St Augustine of Hippo explains the Trinity as Lover (Father), Beloved (Son) and the Love (Spirit) binding them; St Ignatius of Loyola sees the three divine persons as three notes of a musical chord and St Patrick of Ireland likens the Trinity to a three-leafed shamrock rising from one stem.

With the Sign of the Cross, we trace the Trinity on ourselves. We bring God into our minds first. Then we bring the Trinity down to our hearts. And, with our hearts filled with compassion, we move the Trinity across our bodies to our shoulders and arms to better bear the burdens of our family and friends. The word Trinity appears nowhere in the Bible. Therefore, like that disciple who saw nothing in his Master’s book, there’s the danger of concluding that the Bible says nothing about it. However today’s second reading, is a perfect example that points to the early church invoking the Holy Trinity. We open each Liturgy with the words of St. Paul, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!” We close it by calling upon those same Persons. Grace, love and fellowship are three key words describing the ‘persons’ in God.

The simplest way to understand the Trinity is in the example of the sun shinning through the window and warming us up with its heat. God is like the sun millions of miles away- Jesus His son is like the rays that shines on us from above- and the heat of the combined two is like the Holy Spirit warming us up.

The early church worshipped, blessed, baptized and sang hymns to the Tri-une God. They rejoiced that, in Jesus and with the power of the Holy Spirit they and we are adopted children of God (Galatians 4:6). Thus, the Trinity bids us not to try to condense God into formulae but to love and live like the Trinity in love and fellowship with each other. “Two is company three is not a crowd but a community.” May the grace of the Holy Trinity help us to banish all traces of selfishness in our lives and to live in love of God and fellowship of neighbour.

"Heavenly Father, you sent your Word to bring us truth and your Spirit to make us holy. Through them we come to know the mystery of your life. Help us to worship you, one God in three Persons, by proclaiming and living our faith in you."

Fr. Hugh Fonseca [The Truth Behind The Lies]

Fr. Hugh Fonseca ex-Parish Priest of several churches in Mumbai, his last being St.Michael's Church Mahim died on 16th June 2011. He was at the Clergy home when at about 4.15 p.m. (IST) he suffered a massive heart attack and died.

Fr. Hugh Fonseca had a lot of supporters from the poor and the parishioners of the Jari Mari parish who still visited him in large numbers as proof of their love for him.

In recent years Fr. Hugh was made a target by certain individuals and members of the clergy who were hurt by his policies.

Fr. Hugh has been used as a trouble shooter in the Archdiocese. On 31st May 2005 the canteen was locked by the previous parish priest and on June 1st 2005 which was the first day Fr. Hugh took over as Parish Priest the keys of the canteen were handed over to him. So from day one he was put in the hot seat.What the previous parish priest couldn't do Fr.Hugh was made to do.

Fr. Hugh complained about illegal constructions in Church property being carried out by a prominent catholic.

Fr. Hugh was told to get rid of the candle seller stalls in the Church premises.

Fr. Hugh dared to send notices to all those persons whose church owned rented flats were locked and who were happily settled abroad.

Fr. Hugh installed cameras in the Church premises and wanted to install cameras in the counting room but the same could not be done.

Fr. Hugh told the Choirs who were singing on a professional basis and using church equipment to part with a certain percentage for the welfare of all choirs who do not charge .This too was not liked by those choirs.

A number of other measures were taken which was not to the liking of certain individuals who were used to enjoying power for a number of years.

The list goes on and on and a number of powerful persons and clergy who were hurt with his policies wanted to get even with him.

The first attack was regarding how Marydell came to be sold to a Muslim builder.

All the priests then attached to St. Michael's Church claimed that they were not informed about the deal and complained to the higher ups.Meetings were held in Church premises and support was garnered up against Fr Hugh. Parish Council members who are not supposed to interfere in property matters were openly discussing about property issues and issuing letters mentioning their posts. All those persons who has lost contracts or who were affected by his policies ganged up against him and wanted to stab him. In fact one of the Priests who is still attached to St. Michael's Church posted a comment on Face book that "Happy days are here again" when the news of Fr. Hugh transfer from St. Michael's Church was published in the Examiner. Another priest who was there for a couple of years and then moved to Bandra also wrote on Facebook that he cannot believe the good news.

The Cardinal ordered an inquiry to be conducted with regard to Marydell which was conducted by Justice Aguiar( Retd.) with regard to the Marydell deal and Fr. Hugh was given a clean chit in the said inquiry. In fact one of the priests attached then to St. Michael's Church and a number of years before that and who gave evidence in the inquiry that he was not informed about the deal by Fr. Hugh was asked by the undersigned in the presence of two other persons whether the previous Parish Priest used to inform him of all the deals which take place and he replied in the affirmative. The undersigned then told him that in the year 1996 when that priest was posted at St. Michael's , 3 shops were given on 11 months lease and which have not been taken back by the Church till date and that meant that he was aware of the deal and hence he too was involved. The said priest was quick to reply that he was not aware of the deal. This shows that Fr. Hugh was being targeted.

The Cardinal ordered another inquiry which was conducted by Fr. Felix D’Souza and Fr. John Rumao. As happens in any inquiry persons aware of certain facts are allowed to give evidence.The undersigned gave a written letter to Fr. Felix and Fr. Rumao that he would like to give evidence besides giving certain written submissions. The undersigned was told by Fr. Felix telephonically that he had closed the inquiry on the day the letter was given to him. This was two days before the actual date informed to laity.It appears that the inquiry officers did not want evidence to be given in Fr. Hugh’s favour.In fact priest’s are supposed to retire at 75 but Fr. John Rumao the inquiry officer was allowed to be Parish Priest even after he completed 75 years of age.

Now that Fr. Hugh is dead the same persons will sing his praises. This is the art of hypocrisy. It will take us years to master it. In Gods name everything is possible.

There are and will be very few priests who have Fr. Hugh’s fine qualities. He could remember persons names even after a number of years. He always helped the poor and needy who never went empty handed.He always thought about his workers. He had the guts which most Priests don't have. He was the troubleshooter for the archdiocese. He was willing to call a spade a spade.

May his soul rest in peace.

~A.M.Sodder [@ The Laitytude]
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Fr Hugh Fonseca, beloved brother of Denis/Sheila (Australia), Merwyn/Elsa (US), (Late) Rudy/Merle (Australia), Geoffrey/Maria (US), Mark/Eva (Australia), and Desiree(Rosebud)/Reg (Australia) and beloved uncle to Christine, Ian, Alan, Dave, Susie, Jon, Stephanie, Adrian, Keith, Andrew, Eric, Daniel, Brendan, Lauren and Jason, passed away very suddenly on June 16 in Mumbai.

*Funeral leaves Clergy Home, Bandra, Mumbai on Tuesday 21 June for Mass at 4 p.m. (IST) followed by burial at St. Andrew's Church, Bandra.

He was a shining light to many and loved by many more. We miss him terribly RIP.