Real Catholic Blog

Rejoice in the Lord for the gift of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here are the lyrics to the beautiful Holy, Holy Queen Enthroned Above:

Hail, holy Queen enthroned above, O Maria. Hail, Queen of mercy and of love, O Maria.

Triumph, all ye cherubim, Sing with us, ye seraphim, Heaven and earth resound the hymn:

Salve, salve, salve Regina!

Our life, our sweetness, here below, O Maria! Our hope in sorrow and in woe, O Maria!

Triumph, all ye cherubim, Sing with us, ye seraphim, Heaven and earth resound the hymn:

Salve, salve, salve Regina!

To thee we cry, poor sons of Eve, O Maria! To thee we sigh, we mourn, we grieve, O Maria!

Triumph, all ye cherubim, Sing with us, ye seraphim, Heaven and earth resound the hymn:

Salve, salve, salve Regina!

Turn then most gracious Advocate, O Maria! Toward us thine eyes compassionate, O Maria!

Triumph, all ye cherubim, Sing with us, ye seraphim, Heaven and earth resound the hymn:

Salve, salve, salve Regina!

The cause of joy to men below, O Maria! The spring through which all graces flow, O Maria!

Angels, all your praises bring, Earth and heaven, with us sing, All creation echoing:

Salve, salve, salve Regina!

Tomorrow is The Feast of the Assumption, a Holy Day of Obligation — except in most dioceses, when a Holy Day falls on a weekend, it’s not obligatory. Be sure you know what your diocese says about this. However, in the Maronite Rite and other Eastern Rites that are part of the Universal Church, it remains a Holy Day of Obligation, and Mass attendance is required at a vigil Mass today or tomorrow before the Sunday vigil Mass.

The Feast of the Assumption may be the most mysterious of all the Holy Days. Many non-Catholics have an interesting take on it and even some Catholics do not fully understand it. 

We believe that the Blessed Virgin Mother, Mary, the mother of the Son of Man, was taken up whole after her death. Of course, there is no physical evidence of this. How could there be? But there is one very curious bit of circumstantial evidence: During the early years and decades of the Church, faith communities exclaimed the importance of their villages or landmarks as shrines to encourage pilgrimages, devotion and even tourism. An Apostle preached here, a disciple was baptised there, etc.  

Why wouldn’t someone, some group have claimed Mary, the Mother of The Christ, was buried in their village or city? No faith community, not even the most cynical political leadership or commercial interests ever did, not at the beginning of the Christianity and not in modern times with hundreds of years of archeological and historical scholarship available.

Unfortunately, that is not good enough for Evangelical Christians or other Protestants who believe that if it’s not specifically in Scripture, then it is not Biblically based. But is it not Biblically based?

Mary, to be the Mother of Christ, had to be spiritually uncorrupt, thus, she was born without original sin (which leads to another misconception, even among Catholics: the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is the Feast of Mary’s conception into life; immaculate because she was born without original sin). So, why, at her death, would God let her suffer bodily corruption?

Still, skeptics claim, a man, Pope or not, cannot claim to be true what’s not in the Bible. But that’s not what Popes do in those rare occasions when they proclaim a dogma of faith. They only promulgate teachings established from the earliest days of the Church based on the witness of early Church fathers. This is done to clarify the understanding of Church teachings, all Biblicaly based, that have been misinterpreted, either through legitimate misunderstanding or through the intentional misleading of the faithful.

As Father Matthew R. Mauriello writes about the establishment of The Assumption:

. . . assuring himself of the “universal, certain and firm consent of the Church’s ordinary Magisterium” and by the Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, on November 1, 1950, Pius XII solemnly defined the Assumption as a dogma of faith, stating that: “the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

This gave doctrinal substance to an idea which recurred frequently in biblical foundations, church teaching and testimony of the Fathers, popular devotion and iconography. References beginning from the Council of Ephesus in 431 were mentioned to testify to the royal dignity of Mary.

So whether it falls on a weekend or not, The Feast of the Assumption, and any Holy Day which may fall on a weekend, have a special place in the heart of Jesus, and are no less significant than Sunday worship, and deserve our devotion.

Oh, were this an April fool’s joke in August, but I just stumbled upon this column from Newsweek, by Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend, thanks to Pro Ecclesia. The former lieutenant governor of very Catholic Maryland and member of America’s most prominent Catholic political family, is not joking. Abortion? Homosexuality? Please! That’s just the Church hierarchy’s intolerance, of course. Not the Church, certainly not the American Church, and most definitely not the crazy pro-life types who so adamantly opposed President Obama’s glorification at Notre Dame.

No, the Honorable Ms. Kennedy-Townsend says Mr. Obama reflects the real American Catholic, who nods at the pro-life, pro-traditional marriage teachings, but really doesn’t care. Meanwhile, maybe the Pope should take a lesson from the uber community organizer on how to build consensus, as if God’s word can be compromised.

I just want to scream! As Jerry Seinfeld would say about the clueless:

Who are THESE people?!

By these people, I mean, of course, Kennedy-Townsend and the like minded who think the Church is a social club, not a community of faith. Sorry. Didn’t meant to insult social clubs. Many are more principled and stand for more than the transient “believers” whose lives revolve around secular political agendas, whose only purpose for the Church is to turn it into a willing arm capable of advancing their ideology.

Here’s Ms. Kennedy-Townsend making the affront herself: 

Politics requires the ability to listen to different points of view, to step into others’ shoes. Obama might call it empathy. While the pope preaches love, listening to the other has been a particular stumbling block for the Catholic hierarchy (as it is for many in power). The hierarchy ignores women’s equality and gays’ cry for justice because to heed them would require that it admit error and acknowledge that the self-satisfied edifice constructed around sex and gender has been grievously wrong. Before he became John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla had a telling all-or-nothing formulation: “If it should be decided that contraception is not an evil in itself then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit is on the side of the Protestant Churches.”

Much has been said about the president, his ego and his supporters unending adulation for him, but Ms. Kennedy-Townsend’s genuflecting worship would make even him blush. Her disingenuous treatise fully exposes the agenda of leftists who were raised Catholic but long ago succumbed to the dictatorship of relativism — the same people who fawned over John Paul II for domestic political consumption (and Pope Benedict XVI, as well), but who openly disregard and belittle their Gospel ministries.  

If you have never seen the videos from CatholicVote.org, you should. They are truly inspirational and moving, and should be shared as much as possible. They are yet another tool to combat the culture of death of which we must constantly do battle.  CatholicVote.org has produced three pro-life videos in its “Imagine” series, one of which we posted earlier this week (”First Steps”). This particular video vividly demonstrates how empty our world would be if certain parents, facing tough obstacles, had opted for abortion.

The people in this video were or are happy their parents chose life. For all their contributions to our world, we are, too.

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration. Wait! Didn’t we celebrate that at Lent? Yes, we did, on the Second Sunday of Lent. However, it has its own feast day as well, to signify, since the beginning of the Church, the vast importance of this event.

It is not a moment not only of pure wonder that the Father spoke from the clouds of his Son, our Lord; nor that Moses and Elijiah appeared with Jesus on the mountain — as full of glory as these moments are. It is a moment of our transfiguration as well, of transforming ourselves into brothers and sisters of Christ, The Son of Man, a term He uses to foretell His death, His resurrection and return to judge all. 

From Deacon Keith Fournier at Catholic.org:

In accordance with a very ancient custom, the Catholic Church has included this account of the Transfiguration in the Liturgy of the Second Sunday of Lent. Today, we hear it proclaimed as well on its Proper Feast Day, the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, a day of great meaning in the fullness of the Mystery of the Ancient faith. Whether during Lent or on today’s Feast, it is meant to focus all of her faithful on the “end”, the goal or final purpose of the Christian life and vocation. We will all be transfigured, as the Lord Himself was transfigured, when our redemption is complete in the Resurrection of the Body. Then, we will live in the new heaven and new earth. This reality is meant to inform and transform the way we live our lives now.

From the earliest centuries, the entire Christian Church, both East and West, emphasized the centrality of the Transfiguration of the Lord in understanding the fullness of redemption. Our experience of our life in the Lord and in His Church, is only the beginning of what is to come in the kingdom, the life eternal, but it is already a participation in that new reality. The Church, in the words of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, is a “seed of the kingdom” to come. Our life within the Church is a real participation in the eternal, beginning in the now. The Transfiguration presents us with an opportunity to reflect on the implications of what that can mean.

This wonderful event on the Mountain was meant to strengthen the faith of these three disciples. They were about to witness the events that would lead their Messiah, their Lord and Master, along what would appear to be an ignominious path, up Golgotha’s lonely hill, to be crucified, a fate reserved for common criminals. Their own faith would be shaken, tested and tried. He loved all who were His own in this world. He wanted encourage them — and to encourage us — to persevere.

Click here for today’s readings.

Today is the Feast of Saint Addal, who followed Saint Thomas, and died a martyr’s death, but had a huge impact in the early Church, converting King Abgar, the Osroene, who himself, legend has it, was on a path to faith in Jesus. Saint Addal converted regions of Edessa, Syria and Persia in the second century.

From Cathlolic.org:

St. Thomas to the court of King Abgar the Black, the second century Osroene ruler. Legendary accounts claim Abgar wrote to Christ asking Jesus to cure him of an intolerable and incurable illness. Abgar’s court was in Edessa in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). Addal cured Abgar and converted the king and his people to the faith. One of these was Addai, who became Addal’s successor. Addal is also supposed to have sent another disciple, Man, to various sites along the Tigris River. It is known that Addal did missionary work around Edessa toward the end of the second century. Both Addal and Man have been venerated in the Syrian and Persian churches since that era. Addal is recorded as a martyr for the faith.

Here’s a new, great and inspirational video from CatholicVote.org. It is video number three in its “Imagine” series. We’ll post the other two in the near future, as well as any subsequent videos it produces.

These first steps may be lead to more than only earthly accomplishments. Who’s to say who lives and who dies?

What a day to pray for vocations to the priesthood! Today is the feast day of Saint John Vianney, the patron saint of priests. What an inspiration that holy man is, with so many churches and schools world wide named for him.

From Catholic.org:

Universally known as the “Cure of Ars,” St. John Mary Vianney was ordained a priest in 1815. Three years later he was made parish priest of Ars, a remote French hamlet, where his reputation as a confessor and director of souls made him known throughout the Christian world. His life was one of extreme mortification.

Accustomed to the most severe austerities, beleaguered by swarms of penitents, and besieged by the devil, this great mystic manifested a imperturbable patience. He was a wonder worker loved by the crowds, but he retained a childlike simplicity, and he remains to this day the living image of the priest after the heart of Christ.

He heard confessions of people from all over the world for the sixteen hours each day. His life was filled with works of charity and love. It is recorded that even the staunchest of sinners were converted at his mere word. He died August 4, 1859, and was canonized May 31, 1925.

It’s always a good time to pray for priestly vocations. Today, seek the intercession of the patron saint of priests.

Despite the promises of the ”new face of communism” in countries such as China and Vietnam, where freedoms allegedly are granted and the societies gradually gain freedom, communism remains the same ideological dictatorship as it ever was, no matter the country, no matter the so-called modernization of it. Deacon Keith Fournier, of the Diocese of Richmond, Va., has written a piece for Catholic Online (Catholic.org)  that documents the absolute oppression of Catholic priests in Vietnam — physical attacks, arrests and mock trials leading to imprisonment or worse. Yet, our government and the international community does nothing, and even warms up relations with this dictatorship.

Deacon Fournier writes that this hostility is the “New Vietnam War,” but that this “Christianphobia” manifests itself in the West as well — including America — in the anti-life and anti-family movements, as well as in physically dangerous situations in the Middle East and Asia:

“Christianophobia” is a word coined by the Holy See to explain this growing anti-Christian sentiment in our age. It is spreading in the European community, in America and throughout the entire world. It is now showing its violent propensities in Vietnam. …

Over the last few years we have witnessed the evil inflicted against Christians in Iraq, the anti-Christian hostility spreading throughout the entire Middle East, the attacks against Christians in Asia and, in particular, the deadly violence in India. We have seen this evil “Christianophobia” spread into countless other places through the less blatant but still insidious anti-Christian ideology fueling so much of the anti-life, anti-family and anti- freedom ideologies of the declining West.

Sadly, we did not rise up the way we could or should when our brethren were attacked in Iraq. Nor did we act when they killed our brethren in India! We have done little to truly expose the dangers faced by Christians in the land where Jesus walked. In short, we Christians have failed in our watch.

We have another chance now. Ironically it comes in the Nation which so many of us, particularly Americans, still remember with regret, no matter which “side” of the failed Vietnam War we stood on, the Nation of Vietnam. That was then and this is now. There is a new Vietnam War being waged. They are attacking Catholic priests and seeking to silence the voice of authentic liberation, the Catholic Church. We must not fail this time.

Indeed, fail we must not. Pray we must. We also must not be afraid to educate our fellow citizens, Catholic and otherwise, including our elected representatives in Washington, to stand up to this persecution of priests in Vietnam.

Today is the feast day of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, a French priest who was the founder of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and the women’s Congregation of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament. He lived from 1811-1868. During the first phase of his ministry, he was called to a spirituality of reparation, but gradually moved toward a spirituality of Christ-centered love. He was canonized in 1962, one day after Vatican II’s first session ended (American Catholic.org).

From Catholic.org:

Born in LaMure, France, he worked at his father’s trade as cutler until eighteen when he went to the seminary at Grenoble and was ordained in 1834. He served as a parish priest for several years then joined the Marists and in 1845 became their provincial at Lyons. He established the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament whose nuns devoted themselves to perpetual adoration.

Saint Peter Julian Eymard: Overwhelmed with a love for the Blessed Sacrament.