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Apr
24
April CSPYA/YCNY Bible Study
Filed Under Events | Leave a Comment
| April 26, 2008 | ||
| 7:00 pm |
The CSPYA and YCNY have organized a Bible Study every 2nd and 4th Saturday of the month. We will meet in the back of the Cathedral of St. Patrick at the Information Desk between 5:00 P.M. - 5:20 P.M. At 5:20 P.M., we shall head to our pews for the 5:30 P.M. Mass which fulfills your Sunday obligation.
After Mass, we shall meet again at the Information Desk and then proceed down to the Small Meeting Room for our discussion. Those who wish to join us for the study but cannot attend Mass can meet us at the Cathedral Information Desk between 6:15 - 6:20 P.M. There will be someone at the Cathedral Parish House entrance to let you in until 7:00 P.M. The downstairs entrance is at 14 East 51st Street. After the study, we will head out to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
Apr
24
Co-Workers of the Truth 4/24
Filed Under Pope Benedict XVI | Leave a Comment
Our relationship to God needs not only the inward aspect; it also needs to be expressed. And as well as speech, singing and silence, standing, sitting and kneeling, expression also calls for this celebratory walking along together in the community of the faithful, together with the God in whom we believe.
In the Christian liturgy itself we can identify two elements which gave rise to the Corpus Christi procession. The liturgy of Holy Week, in which the Church reenacts the drama of the last week of Jesus’ life, presents two “processional” paths found in the sacred events themselves, namely, the procession of palms and Jesus’ ascent to the Mount of Olives after the institution of the Eucharist.
In the one he enters the Holy City in triumph; in the other he goes from it in prayer, into the darkness of night, into betrayal and death. There is a close relationship between these two processions: Jesus enters the city to cleanse the Temple, symbolically destroying it and thus incurring his death. This in turn is the inner precondition for his giving of himself in instituting the Eucharist and this opening the new Temple of his love. Again, in sharing himself in the Eucharist, he is anticipating his death and looking forward to the Resurrection. But his departure from the city into the Passover night is a departure from the peaceful and protected sphere of salvation into the realm of death. Very early on, the liturgy began to enact these processions in a solemn manner.
In certain parts of France in the eleventh century the Blessed Sacrament was carried along in the procession of palms: it was a case of going beyond mere historical remembrance and of accompanying Christus Victor on his triumphal entry into his house to take possession of it once again. Essentially, the Holy Thursday procession is an accompanying of the Host, a walking with the Lord as he goes to deliver himself up for us. All this must be peripheral in Holy Week, but Corpus Christi brings these partial elements of the Easter mystery into the center and makes them into a special great feast. What was ambivalent on Palm Sunday, overshadowed by the darkness of the Cross, takes place publicly and on a grand scale at Corpus Christi in the joy of the Resurrection.
From: The Feast of Faith, pp.132-34
Apr
24
John 10:11-16
Filed Under Today's Gospel | Leave a Comment
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me,
15 as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.
Apr
24
St Athanasius
Filed Under The Wisdom of the Saints | Leave a Comment
The very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the Lord gave, was preached by the apostles and was preserved by the Fathers. On this was the Church founded, and if anyone departs from this, he neither is, nor any longer ought to be called, a Christian.
– St Athanasius
Apr
24
Pope makes time to pay homage to U.S. theologian Cardinal Dulles
Filed Under News & Current Events | Leave a Comment
By Chaz Muth
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) — During his whirlwind April 15-20 U.S. visit, Pope Benedict XVI took a few moments out of his demanding schedule for a private meeting with one of America’s pre-eminent theologians, the ailing, 89-year-old Cardinal Avery Dulles.
The wheelchair-bound Jesuit scholar traveled from his residence at Jesuit-run Fordham University’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx to St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., April 19, for a prearranged, 15-minute private meeting with the pope, just after the pontiff met with disabled youths.
“It was a lovely meeting,” said Dominican Sister Anne-Marie Kirmse, the cardinal’s executive assistant for the past 20 years. She was present to help facilitate the get-together, held in a suite of offices at the seminary.
“The pope literally bounded into the room with a big smile on his face,” she told Catholic News Service in a telephone interview April 21. “He went directly to where Cardinal Dulles was sitting, saying, ‘Eminenza, Eminenza, Eminenza, I recall the work you did for the International Theological Commission in the 1990s.’” Continue reading here.
Apr
23
C+M+B Young Adults | May 11
Filed Under Events | Leave a Comment
| May 11, 2008 | ||
| 3:30 pm |
Dear friends,
After the visit of the Holy Father we are with our thoughts still with him and with the messages he gave. Before his departure he said again: “I urge you to bear joyful witness of Christ our Hope!”
Let’s do it personally and together! Come and join us on
Sunday May 11
at 3.30 pm
St Vincent Ferrer Church (Lexington Avenue @ 66th street)
where we will have a talk on CHRISTIAN VOCATION followed by prayer, adoration Afterwards we gather for refreshments! The Dominican friars will also be present for a chat, for questions and
confession.
Our guest speaker will be Fr Joel Warden, CO. He is an Oratorian Father,
based in Brooklyn. The Oratorians are founded by Filip Neri. The well known Cardinal John
Henri Newman started the Oratory in England.
We look forward seeing you on May 11! We would appreciate if you could let us know if you can(not) join us!
With our regards and prayers!
Sr. Monika and Sr. Mirjam
Apr
23
Co-Workers of the Truth 4/23
Filed Under Co-Workers of the Truth, Pope Benedict XVI | Leave a Comment
What does Corpus Christi mean to me? Well, first of all, memories of special feast days in which we took literally what Thomas Aquinas had urged in one of his hymns for Corpus Christi: Quantum potes, tantum aude: “Dare to do as much as you can” in order to give him [the Lord] the glory that is his due.
We migh note in passing how reminiscent these words are of those written as early as the second century by Justin Martyr, who, in his description of the Christian Liturgy, states that the one who presides, i.e. the priest, is to offer up prayers and thanksgivings “with all his strength, as much as he is able”. THis is what the whole community feels called upon to do on Corpus Christi: dare to do what yu can. I can still smell the carpets of flowers and the freshness of the birch trees; I can recall the decorations on all the houses, the banners, the singing; I can still hear the village band, which, on this occasion, sometimes ventured even more than it could! I hear the firing of guns by which the local youth celebrated their own joie de vivre while, at the same time, saluting Christ as a head of state, as the Head of State, the Lord of the world, and welcoming him to their streets and into their village. The perpetual presence of Christ was celebrated on this day as though it were a state visit in which not even the smalles village was forgotten.
The Council of Trent said that the purpose of Corpus Christi was to awaken gratitude in the hearts od all people and to remind them of their common Lord. Here, in brief, are three purposes: Corpus Christi compensates for man’s forgetfulness, it elicits his thankfulness, and it has something to do with fellowship, with that unifying power that is operative when people are looking to the one Lord. Ultimately, then, Corpus Christi is a confession of faith in God and in loe, a confession that God is love. All that is said or done on Corpus Christi is actually just a variation of this theme: of what love is and what it does.
In one of his hymns for Corpus Christi, Thomas Aquinas has found the following beautiful formula for this theme: nec sumptus consumitur: love does not consume, it gives; and in giving, it receives. In giving it is not emptied, but renews itself. Because Corpus Christi is a profession of faith in love, it is appropriate that it should center around the mystery of transubstantiation. Love is transubstantiation. Corpus Christi tells us: Yes, love does exist, and because it exists, there is transubstantiation,a nd therefore there is hope. And hope gives us the strength to live and to overcome the world.
From: The Feast of Faith, pp.127-31
Apr
23
by Mark Shea
The relationship between the Old and New Covenants has been a hot topic for 2000 years. Not long ago, Ann Coulter caused a media row by announcing that Christians are “perfected Jews”. A few years before that, a document called Reflections on Covenant and Mission made headlines by apparently saying that Jews did not need Jesus. What do we make of it all?
The Reflections document is as good a place to start as any, since so many people still think it is “what the Church teaches”. In fact, it was released without episcopal permission, had no magisterial authority and was immediately pulled from circulation by the bishops.
The subject of the document was the Church’s relationship with the Jewish people and the most easily misread passage was this:
God’s grace, which is the grace of Jesus Christ according to our faith, is available to all. Therefore, the Church believes that Judaism, i.e. the faithful response of the Jewish people to God’s irrevocable covenant, is salvific for them, because God is faithful to his promises.
Contrary to the headlines, this does not mean “Christians are saved by Jesus, Jews don’t need him.” Rather, it means that everybody who is saved—including Jews—will find that they have been saved by Jesus Christ at work in the light they have received in their own particular situation. That’s not new. It’s biblical. Click to continue
Apr
23
John 15: 1 - 8
Filed Under Today's Gospel | Leave a Comment
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
2 Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
3 You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
6 If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
Apr
23
St Alphonsus Liguori
Filed Under The Wisdom of the Saints | Leave a Comment
Who loves God, finds pleasure in everything; who not loves God, finds no true pleasure in anything
– St Alphonsus Liguori
