Real Catholic Blog

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Jerome, one of the Four Doctors of the Western Church. He is known for translating the Bible into Latin. But instead of translating it from Greek to Latin, he first learned Hebrew to get a more accurate translation. He believed ignorance of Scripture means ignorance of Christ (see DoctorsoftheCatholicChurch.com).

Here is a homily by Fr. Ignatius Manfredonia, a Franciscan Friar, on Saint Jerome:

Saint Jerome lived a determined life to bring the Word of God to life, spiritually and academically. 

Following up on yesterday’s post about receiving the Blessed Sacrament reverently and Cardinal Cipriani’s urging of Communicants to receive it kneeling and on their tongue, here is a prayer for consideration as you meditate in line:

My Lord Jesus Christ, I firmly believe that I am about to receive, in Holy Communion, Your Body, Your Blood, Your Soul and Your Divinity.

I believe it because You have said it and I am ready to give my life to maintain this truth.

Amen.

The Archbishop of Lima, Peru, his eminence Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, in a homily Sunday at the Cathedral of Lima, said that the most reverent way to receive the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is on the tongue and kneeling (see CNA, here). While this may seem old fashioned to many who see no reason to “go back” to traditional forms of worship, it is perfectly in line with a new emphasis by the Church to ensure proper reverence when receiving Holy Eucharist, which is the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, the pillar of the Faith and the summit of our worship to Christ our Lord.

How often do we observe people casually walk up to the altar as if receiving a treat? Are people in prayer as they walk toward the Holy Eucharist? Do they contemplate the significance of the act of which they are about to undertake? If not, do they not know the holy significance of what they are about to receive?

It is our Lord’s Body and Blood! If He were to appear to you in a room, wouldn’t you fall to your knees in worship of our Lord? Of course! At the same time, the Holy Eucharist is our Lord present in transubstantiated bread and wine, just as He said at the Last Supper! So, kneeling makes not only perfect logical sense, but perfect theological sense. His eminence has it right.

Many now show reverence with a bow before receiving Holy Eucharist, which is a vast improvement over a casual walk up. Others, such as myself, genuflect and make the Sign of the Cross before receiving Holy Communion. I have read, rightly or wrongly, this imparts a special blessing. It seems to me this is the least we can do to show our adoration to our Saviour.

As Cardinal Cipriani proclaimed:

The most respectful manner of receiving the Eucharist is kneeling and on the tongue. We must recover the respect and reverence that the Eucharist deserves, because the love of Jesus is the center of our Christian life. The soul is at stake.

The days of the Communion rail may be over, but that does not preclude us, laity and clergy alike, from showing and facilitaing the proper reverence for our Lord. 

Cardinal Cipriani urges his flock to show the proper reverence when receiving our Lord’s Body and Blood. It’s something we all can take to heart.

Saint John Vianney often said this and the patron saint of priests knew of what he spoke. Could there be a higher or more important or more selfless calling?

Fittingly, earlier this year, on the 150th anniversary of Saint John Vianney’s departure from earthly life and entry into the Father’s Kingdom, Pope Benedict XVI declared The Year for Priests.

Here, then a reminder to not only pray for vocations, but also pray for those priests who daily sacrifice so much for the Lord. Pray for their judgement, health and constant zeal to proclaim the Holy Word.

Pope Benedict put it in extraordinary context (doesn’t he always?) in his letter proclaiming the Year for Priests (see entire text here):

I still treasure the memory of the first parish priest at whose side I exercised my ministry as a young priest: he left me an example of unreserved devotion to his pastoral duties, even to meeting his own death in the act of bringing viaticum to a gravely ill person. I also recall the countless confreres whom I have met and continue to meet, not least in my pastoral visits to different countries: men generously dedicated to the daily exercise of their priestly ministry. Yet the expression of Saint John Mary (Vianney) also makes us think of Christ’s pierced Heart and the crown of thorns which surrounds it. I also think, therefore, of the countless situations of suffering endured by many priests, either because they themselves share in the manifold human experience of pain or because they encounter misunderstanding from the very persons to whom they minister. How can we not also think of all those priests who are offended in their dignity, obstructed in their mission and persecuted, even at times to offering the supreme testimony of their own blood?

The Year for Priests, “meant to deepen the commitment of all priests to interior renewal for the sake of a stronger and more incisive witness to the Gospel in today’s world,” will end in 2010 on the same day it began this year — on June 19, the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Don’t we all treasure the priests that have such an influence in our lives? Who helped us through troubling times? Who administered the sacraments to us?

Priests do so much and, in my experience, to a man, they make it seem as if you are the only one to which they minister. Imagine all the people to which they must pour out so much of themselves! Please pray for priests throughout this Year for Priests. Help them by becoming more active in your parish. Volunteer for ministries. Most of all, don’t take them for granted.

From CTV/The Vatican YouTube Channel:

Pope Benedict reminds the faithful of the great missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius, and exhorts the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The Holy Father’s message today at the Angelus, after celebrating Mass during the second day of his three day visit to the Czech Republic, was particularly timely because . . . it was about time. No one is immune to the demands of the accelerated pace of modern life. All the convenieces the Internet, cell phones and other technological advances provide us are counter balanced by the additional pressures and increased activity they concoct in our lives. The important (enduring) things sometimes evaporate in the rush to satisfy the (immediate) transitory things.

Here is the introductory remarks of The Holy Father. Click here to read The Holy See’s translations of the rest of them:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We have come to the end of this solemn celebration, and the midday hour invites us to pray the Angelus. I am pleased to do so here, in the heart of Moravia, Bohemia’s sister territory, a land marked for many centuries by the Christian faith, a land that reminds us of the courageous mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius.

Twenty years ago, when Pope John Paul II decided to visit Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of Communist totalitarianism, he chose to being his pastoral journey in Velehrad, the place where the famous Unionist Congresses were held, those precursors of ecumenism among the Slav peoples, a place known throughout the Christian world. I am sure you also remember another of his visits, in 1995, when he went to Svatý Kopeček near Olomouc for an unforgettable meeting with young people. I should like to make my own the ideas put forward by my venerable predecessor, as I invite you to remain faithful to your Christian vocation and to the Gospel, so as to build together a future of solidarity and peace.

Moravia is blessed with a number of Marian shrines that are visited by crowds of pilgrims throughout the year. At this moment I should like to make a pilgrimage in spirit to the mountainous forest shrine of Hostýn, where you venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary as your protectress. May Mary keep the flame of faith alive in all of you, a faith that is nourished by traditions of popular piety with deep roots in the past, which you rightly take care to maintain, so that the warmth of family conviviality in villages and towns may not be lost. At times one cannot help noticing, with a certain nostalgia, that the pace of modern life tends to diminish some elements of a rich heritage of faith. Yet it is important not to lose sight of the ideal expressed by traditional customs, and above all to maintain the spiritual patrimony inherited from your forebears, to guard it and to make it answer to the needs of the present day. May the Virgin Mary assist you in this, as we renew the entrustment to her of your Church and of the entire Czech nation.

Here’s a profile in courage: Henry I, the Duke of Luxembourg, received the Van Thuan Prize in Rome earlier this month for his fight against euthanasia. Last December, he refused to agree with a bill passed by parliament to legalize the killing of people who are sick. Unfortunately, the victory for life was short lived as the parliament then changed the country’s constitution to limit his power. Unrestrained, it then passed the bill into law making Luxembourg the third country in the European Union to allow euthanasia (see Catholic News Agency).

The Van Thuan Prize is named for the Cardinal Francois-Xavier Van Thuan, a Vietnamese cardinal who was for imprisoned for 13 years because of his faith. A cause for his beatification was opened in 2007.

The Bishop of the Diocese of Madison, Wisc., has defended the five priests of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest, a relatively new and small society (officially recognized in 1980), and based in Spain, who administer five of the diocese’s parishes. The priests have added times for confession (an hour before each Mass), increased the number of Latin Masses, and ended female alter “servers” and lay extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion.

While the traditionalist approach by the society, whose mission is to increase the interest in vocations among boys, has been criticized by some, Bishop Robert Morlino has defended the priests.

According to the Sauk Prairie Eagle:

Morlino said any time parishes change priests, some upheaval is inevitable. He said the priests follow a different course from many in the diocese, but that diversity is good and everything the priests do falls within the accepted practices of the church.

“They are not in any sense renegades,” he said.

Unfortunately, some in the American Church think diversity always is good except when it is to provide at least a taste of traditionalism. Bishop Morlino has stood up to them. Of course, there are many who applaud the priests, whose founder, the Rev. Alfonso Galvez, now 77, wrote this in a 1994 book on the society’s formation:

If we can manage to get the young people to fall in love with Jesus Christ, then they will not but want to be like him and to share his life and mission.

Kay Ringelstetter, a member of Saint Aloysius Parish, told the Eagle:

“They tell us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear” . . . who calls the changes beautiful. “We see their love for Jesus Christ and the joy in everything they do, and we desire it.”

I received an e-mail from Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote.org. He has some exciting news I will share with you soon. In the meantime, if you are not familiar with the organization, you should be. Known for its world class — unparalleled production — videos/ads in defense of traditional, Biblical values, it is a leading force in the American Catholic community in the public policy field, educating the public and politicians alike on the grave issues of the day, especially the issue of life. The two links above will take you to two of its most recent videos. We hope you view them and forward the links. Then take a minute to go by its Web site and wish it a happy anniversary.

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Pio Of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio. Born Francesco Forgione in 1887 to a devout family in the village of Pietrelcina, Italy, in which devotion flourished among all of its residents, he knew as early as age five he wanted to give his life to God in the priestly ministry (read more at EWTN.com).

He entered the monastery as a young teenager, but only after his father moved to the United States to make enough money to pay for the private tutor he would need to bring his education up to the level where the monastery would accept him. This is an extraordinary act of love, not only to his son, but to God. So although much has been written about Padre Pio —his stigmata inspired hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to seek the sacraments from him and attend the Masses at which he presided — by believers and non, it his parents from whom I draw the lesson.

Both were illiterate (imagine being illiterate in your language, not to mention moving to a new country) but had memorized Scripture and Bible stories, taught them to their children, as well as the Rosary and all other prayers. Early on his parents instilled in the Faith in him and his siblings. Not only that, but they lost two children at birth — what devotion and love for God!

At Baptism, the parents are called to raise their child in the Faith; they are reminded that their child’s first teachers of the Faith. How many parents take this responsibility in more than a perfunctory way? Is it one more thing they slough off to Sunday school or even the Catholic school? I hope there is a renaissance of parenting in the Catholic tradition, where parents teach their children from the very earliest of ages how to pray and about the Church and Faith, who actively involve themselves in their children’s formation. Teaching rights and wrongs in a civil sense, which is what some parents reduced their moral responsibility to, is irrelevent without formation and a foundation.

Padre Pio heard God’s call through his formation from his parents.