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Enjoy these shots of the church taken just yesterday.  

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What you say of me does not come from yourselves;
it is the Spirit of my Father speaking in you.

We end the calendar year with the feast of Saint Sylvester I, who in God’s providence was elected Bishop of Rome just after Constantine issued the Edict of Milan.  With Christianity thus legalized throughout the Roman Empire, Sylvester was charged with bringing the Church out from the catacombs and into the public square.  His efforts at preserving and purifying the faith, as well as developing the Church into a cultural and political force, bore much fruit.  Within 75 years, Christianity became the official state religion of the empire.

From Defending the Faith:

Sylvester was a Roman, the son of Rufinus. He was ordained a priest by Marcellinus. Chosen Pope in 314, he continued the work of organizing the peacetime Church so well begun by St. Miltiades. Sylvester saw the building of famous churches, notably the Basilica of St. Peter and the Basilica of St. John Lateran, built near the former imperial palace of that name. It is quite probable too that the first martyrology or list of Roman martyrs was drawn up in his reign.

Towering over all other events of his pontificate, however, was the first ecumenical or general council of the Church. An ecumenical council represents the entire teaching Church as opposed to a diocesan synod or a metropolitan or a national council. The ecumenical council, like the pope, is infallible in matters of faith and morals because it is the voice of the teaching Church.

A heresy had arisen in Alexandria and at that time was making great headway throughout the East, the heresy of Arius, a priest of Alexandria. Arius taught that Jesus Christ was not truly divine, that His nature was not the same as that of the Father but only similar. It was to study this question and to pronounce the true teaching of the Church that bishops from all parts of the empire made their way to Nicaea in 325. The Emperor Constantine, still a catechumen, had at first made light of the matter, but when his eyes were opened to the danger of Arian doctrine by Hosius of Cordova, he became so interested that he went to Nicaea himself.

Pope Sylvester sent two legates to represent him Vitus and Vincentius, and it seems that it was the Pope who suggested the term consubstantial to describe the relation of Christ’s nature to the Father. The Council condemned Arius and drew up the famous Nicene Creed. This creed, said in all the Catholic Churches throughout the world, proclaims that Jesus is true God of true God consubstantial with the Father.

St. Sylvester died in 335. He was buried in a church which he himself had built over the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. His feast is kept on December 31.

Lord,
help and sustain your people
by the prayers of Pope Sylvester.
Guide us always in this present life
and bring us to the joy that never ends.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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We sing your praises, holy Mother of God:
you gave birth to our Savior, Jesus Christ;
watch over all who honor you.

All-powerful God,
may the human birth of your Son
free us from our former slavery to sin
and bring us new life.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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On January 11, Canada’s Salt+Light Television will debut a special on the Nashville Dominicans.  Click below for the trailer.  DVDs of the program are available at Salt+Light’s website.

"Beloved" trailer Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Whoever hates his life in this world keeps it safe for life everlasting.

One of the most revered saints of the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was martyred on this day in the year 1170 by henchmen of the English king, Henry II.  The circumstances surrounding Thomas’s martyrdom, a tragic fruit of his troubled friendship with Henry, have been dramatized in our own day in T. S. Eliot’s 1938 play Murder in the Cathedral, and in Peter Glenville’s 1964 film Becket.  Both are worth your time.

Becket’s biography displays for us in full color how one life, transformed by grace, can become a force that shapes history.  When Christ said that he came not to bring peace but the sword (Mt 10:34), he highlighted the resistance his disciples should expect to encounter for the truth and love they would live and preach. More turbulent would be the situations in which a conversion would take place later in life.  Drastic changes in conviction are not well received by the complacent and comfortable, especially when these changes occur in a family member or friend. Life is disturbed, and challenge is given to accepted ways of living and acting.  In the wake of an authentic conversion, therefore, the sword more than the olive branch tends to hover over old relationships.  It is fitting that we ponder this effect of grace just days after Christmas.

The depth of Thomas’s rather late conversion can been seen in the ways he, as archbishop, opposed the political maneuvers of his old friend, Henry.  Against Henry’s attempts to control certain aspects of the Church’s inner life, Thomas became a staunch defender of the rights of the bishops and clergy.  Thomas read the resulting tensions between cathedra and crown, which led to his exile and eventual death, through the lens of the Church’s spiritual tradition, wherein struggle and difficulty are seen as necessary for growth in holiness.  Becket makes this very point in one of his letters, which we examine in today’s Office of Readings:

If we who are called bishops desire to understand the meaning of our calling and to be worthy of it, we must strive to keep our eyes on him whom God appointed hight priest for ever, and to follow in his footsteps.  For our sake he offered himself to the Father upon the altar of the cross.  He now looks down from heaven on our actions and secret thoughts, and one day he will give each of us the reward his deeds deserve.

As successors of the apostles, we hold the highest rank in our churches; we have accepted the responsibility of acting as Christ’s representatives on earth; we receive the honor belonging to that office, and enjoy the temporal benefits of our spiritual labors.  It must therefore be our endeavor to destroy the reign of sin and death, and by nurturing faith and uprightness of life, to build up the Church of Christ into a holy temple in the Lord.

[. . .]

Remember then how our fathers worked out their salvation; remember the sufferings through which the Church has grown, and the storms the ship of Peter has weathered because it has Christ on board.  Remember how the crown was attained by those whose sufferings gave new radiance to their faith.  The whole company of saints bears witness to the unfailing truth that without real effort no one wins the crown.

For more on St. Thomas’s life and death, click here.

Almighty God,
you granted the martyr Thomas
the grace to give his life for the cause of justice.
By his prayers
make us willing to renounce for Christ
our life in this world
so that we may find it in heaven.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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Fr. Keitz's Homily - Holy Family Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fr. Guilbeau's Homily - Holy Family Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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The Word was made flesh and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory.

Still at the beginning of her Christmas Octave, the Church honors today the apostle whose writings penetrate most deeply the mystery of the Word made flesh—the Beloved Disciple, St. John.  

The youngest of the Twelve, John seems to have come closest to sharing in the “fullness of grace” enjoyed by Our Lady.  Given filial custody of Mary by Christ himself, John constantly distinguished himself from his fellow apostles by his innocence, trust, and quickness to believe.  On the day of the resurrection, for example, John outran Peter both on foot and by faith.

Seemingly taciturn during Christ’s life, the force of John’s later writings reveal an active mind and heart operating at the deepest level of contemplation of the mysteries before him.  With Mary at the Cross, with Mary at Pentecost, John eventually joined Peter after the ascension and allowed his piercing gaze to shape his preaching and the Church’s apostolate.

Such was his grace that John was the only apostle to die a natural death.  Again, his witness was unique.  The world needed not the witness of his blood, but rather that of his contemplation, the fruits of which have been collected in the New Testament.

Today, we ask St. John to accompany us to the crib, hoping for the grace to see too what he saw.

Click here for a short article on the life and thought of St. John.

God our Father,
you have revealed the mysteries of your Word
through John the apostle.
By prayer and reflection
may we come to understand the wisdom he taught.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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The gates of heaven opened out to blessed Stephen,
and he was crowned first of martyrs.

Just a day after celebrating the birth of Our Lord, the Church observes the feast of St. Stephen, the first disciple to shed his blood in witness to Christ.  Besides serving to warn Christians of the hostility awaiting them in the world, the feast also heralds the great conformity each Christian can attain to the life of Christ. Considered in it fullness, this conformity pertains not only to the pattern of Christ’s life but also to the manner of his death.

To be sure, St. Stephen’s imitation of Christ did not culminate simply in his violent death.  Rather, its particularly Christian mode is found in the way in which he suffered that death.  In recording the event of Stephen’s martyrdom, St. Luke is careful to relate the last words that parted Stephen’s lips before dying.  They were those of Christ on the cross—a prayer for forgiveness and a self-surrender to the Father.  In this, we can all follow St. Stephen.  Desiring to die like Christ does not mean wishing for oneself a violent death, but rather a death which is good, meaning one shaped by the spiritual aspirations of a forgiving and obedient heart.

Today’s Office of Readings contains one of my favorite lessons of the entire year. It is taken from a homily written by St. Fulgentius of Ruspe, a disciple of St. Augustine.  In it, Fulgentius describes the communion enjoyed by St. Paul and St. Stephen in heaven.  Remember, St. Luke tells us that Paul was present and complicity in Stephen’s martyrdom.

And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven; shown first in the king, it later shone forth in his soldier. Love was Stephen’s weapon by which he gained every battle, and so won the crown signified by his name.  His love of God kept him from yielding to the ferocious mob; his love for his neighbor made him pray for those who were stoning him. Love inspired him to reporve those who erred, to make them amend; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment. Strengthened by the power of his love, he overcame the raging cruelty of Saul and won his persecutor on earth as his companion in heaven.  In his holy and tireless love he longed to gain by prayer those whom he could not convert by admonition.

Now at last, Paul rejoices with Stephen, with Stephen he delights in the glory of Christ, with Stephen he exults, with Stephen he reigns.  Stephen went first, slain by the stones thrown by Paul, but Paul followed after, helped by the prayer of Stephen.  This, surely, is the true life, my brothers, a life in which Paul feels no shame because of Stephen’s death, and Stephen delights in Paul’s companionship, for love fills them both with joy.  It was Stephen’s love that prevailed over the cruelty of the mob, and it was Paul’s love that covered the multitude of his sins; it was love that won for both of them the kingdom of heaven.

Lord,
today we celebrate the entrance of Saint Stephen into eternal glory.
He died praying for those who killed him.
Help us to imitate his goodness
and to love our enemies.

We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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“The grace of God our Saviour has appeared to all” (Tit 2:11, Vulg.)

Dear brothers and sisters, in the words of the Apostle Paul, I once more joyfully proclaim Christ’s Birth. Today “the grace of God our Saviour” has truly “appeared to all”!

It appeared! This is what the Church celebrates today. The grace of God, rich in goodness and love, is no longer hidden. It “appeared”, it was manifested in the flesh, it showed its face. Where? In Bethlehem. When? Under Caesar Augustus, during the first census, which the Evangelist Luke also mentions. And who is the One who reveals it? A newborn Child, the Son of the Virgin Mary. In him the grace of God our Saviour has appeared. And so that Child is called Jehoshua, Jesus, which means: “God saves”.

The grace of God has appeared. That is why Christmas is a feast of light. Not like the full daylight which illumines everything, but a glimmer beginning in the night and spreading out from a precise point in the universe: from the stable of Bethlehem, where the divine Child was born. Indeed, he is the light itself, which begins to radiate, as portrayed in so many paintings of the Nativity. He is the light whose appearance breaks through the gloom, dispels the darkness and enables us to understand the meaning and the value of our own lives and of all history. Every Christmas crib is a simple yet eloquent invitation to open our hearts and minds to the mystery of life. It is an encounter with the immortal Life which became mortal in the mystic scene of the Nativity: a scene which we can admire here too, in this Square, as in countless churches and chapels throughout the world, and in every house where the name of Jesus is adored.

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Fr. Guilbeau's Homily - Christmas Vigil Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fr. Jones's Homily - Christmas Morning Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fr. Keitz's Homily - Christmas Morning Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fr. Guilbeau's Homily - Christmas Morning Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Still another article in the Christmas edition of the New York Times gives us a glimpse into lesser seen aspects of the Church’s life.  This time, we’re introduced to the Cavanagh Company, a family run business in Rhode Island that makes about 80% of the altar bread used in the United States.

Here’s the secret family recipe:

In huge tubs, about 90 pounds of cake flour is mixed with about 13 gallons of water. The batter is then sent through a tube, where it is piped onto a large metal plate. Another plate clamps on top, and it goes through the oven. Each plate is like a “very large, 500-pound waffle iron,” Dan Cavanagh said.

After coming out of the oven, the wafers spend about 15 minutes in what amounts to a humidifier, so they do not become brittle. When sufficiently moist they roll down a tube and into a spinning cylinder that resembles the ones in bingo halls.

The wafers are then shot to a machine that either puts them in sleeves of 100 or counts them for bags of 250. Then they are boxed.

Click here for the audio slide show that accompanies the article.

(photo credit)

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Today’s New York Times carried this article on the Franciscan Friar’s of the Renewal and their apostolate at St. Crispin’s Friary in the Bronx.  It’s an unexpected and inspiring Christmas gift from the Times.

Here’s an excerpt:

Nourishment, spiritual and material, is something that the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal have been dispensing since 1987 when a group of friars started the religious community in the South Bronx to serve neighborhoods with a variety of problems.

The order has grown steadily, attracting men from across the country willing to give up material possessions and devote their lives to prayer and charity. The order now has 120 friars and 14 friaries worldwide.

Brother Nicholas, 32, is from Ohio, and has been in the South Bronx for more than a year. He has a close-cropped head and a red beard, and wears a gray robe with a hood, sandals and a wooden cross attached to rosary beads that hang from a rope tied around his waist.

The friars, who take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, spend four to five hours a day praying and most of the rest of their time trying to help the poor. They depend almost entirely on donations to support themselves and their charities, which include a homeless shelter, a youth center and food handouts.

Brother Nicholas was working as an audio engineer when he went through what he described as a religious conversion, a calling to a devout life. While doing research on the Internet he came across the Web site of the Friars of the Renewal.

“I saw a picture of a friar in a beard with his habit on and his hood up and bare feet, sitting on the floor praying the rosary, and I was like: you mean to tell me people are actually doing that?” Brother Nicholas said.

“I was floored,” he added. “I recognized an authenticity that here was a group of men that desired to live the Gospel and nothing more.”

Click here for the video that accompanies the story.

(photo credit)

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Christ the Lord is born today; today, the Savior has appeared.
Earth echoes songs of angel choirs, archangels’ joyful praise.
Today on earth his friends exult: Glory to God in the highest, alleluia.

“Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption.  Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.”

St. Augustine, Sermon 185

Lord God,
we praise you for creating man,
and still more for restoring him in Christ.
Your Son shared our weakness:
may we share his glory,
for he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

“Who is like the Lord our God, who is seated on high, who looks far down upon the heavens and the earth?” This is what Israel sings in one of the Psalms (113 [112], 5ff.), praising God’s grandeur as well as his loving closeness to humanity. God dwells on high, yet he stoops down to us… God is infinitely great, and far, far above us. This is our first experience of him. The distance seems infinite. The Creator of the universe, the one who guides all things, is very far from us: or so he seems at the beginning. But then comes the surprising realization: The One who has no equal, who “is seated on high”, looks down upon us. He stoops down. He sees us, and he sees me. God’s looking down is much more than simply seeing from above. God’s looking is active. The fact that he sees me, that he looks at me, transforms me and the world around me. The Psalm tells us this in the following verse: “He raises the poor from the dust…” In looking down, he raises me up, he takes me gently by the hand and helps me – me! – to rise from depths towards the heights. “God stoops down”. This is a prophetic word. That night in Bethlehem, it took on a completely new meaning. God’s stooping down became real in a way previously inconceivable. He stoops down – he himself comes down as a child to the lowly stable, the symbol of all humanity’s neediness and forsakenness. God truly comes down. He becomes a child and puts himself in the state of complete dependence typical of a newborn child. The Creator who holds all things in his hands, on whom we all depend, makes himself small and in need of human love. God is in the stable. In the Old Testament the Temple was considered almost as God’s footstool; the sacred ark was the place in which he was mysteriously present in the midst of men and women. Above the temple, hidden, stood the cloud of God’s glory. Now it stands above the stable. God is in the cloud of the poverty of a homeless child: an impenetrable cloud, and yet – a cloud of glory! How, indeed, could his love for humanity, his solicitude for us, have appeared greater and more pure? The cloud of hiddenness, the cloud of the poverty of a child totally in need of love, is at the same time the cloud of glory. For nothing can be more sublime, nothing greater than the love which thus stoops down, descends, becomes dependent. The glory of the true God becomes visible when the eyes of our hearts are opened before the stable of Bethlehem.

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The time has come for Mary to give birth to her firstborn Son.

Come, Lord Jesus,
do not delay;
give new courage to your people who trust in your love.
By your coming, raise us to the joys of your kingdom,
where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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From the archdiocesan Family Life – Respect Life Office:

Dear Friends,

Join with the Sisters of Life – be part of a new generation building a culture of life.

Saturday, January 3, 2009 / 8am Mass at Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, NYC – Come to all or part of the morning.

The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass begins our day in Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral (the Sisters of Life will provide a Schola), Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament follows, and people can either remain in the Church to adore our Lord or attend the rosary procession to the local abortion clinic.

Upon return from the clinic (approx 10:15am) we will have a social (complete with coffee and bagels) with a short (10 mins) presentation by the Sisters of Life. You will hear of concrete ways to be of service, as Co-Workers, helping vulnerable pregnant women that are currently being served by the Sisters.

Promote this to your friends and keep the spiritual success of this effort for Life in your daily prayers.

Sr. Lucy Marie
Respect Life Coordinator
Archdiocese of New York
1011 First Ave., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10022
212-371-1011 X3192
Mon-Thurs 9:30am-4:30pm

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Hidden beneath the Church’s preparations for Christmas is today’s feast of St. John of Kanty, also known as St. John Cantius.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

Born at Kenty, near Oswiecim, Diocese of Krakow, Poland, 1412 (or 1403); died at Krakow, 1473, and was buried there under the church of St. Anne; his feast is on 20 October. He was the son of Stanislaus and Anne who were pious country people; he received his primary education at his native town, and then being sent by his parents to the Academy of Krakow, he soon impressed his professors and colleagues with his pleasant and amiable disposition; always happy, but serious, humble, and godly, he won the hearts of all who came in contact with him. Having made excellent progress in the study of philosophical and theological sciences, he was graduated first as bachelor, then as master and doctor, was ordained priest and then appointed professor of theology at the Academy of Krakow, from where he was sent, after a short time, by his superiors to Olkusz, Diocese of Krakow, to be parish priest. Being afraid of the great responsiblity of parish work, he very soon left the parish, and was again appointed professor of Sacred Scripture at the Academy of Krakow, which position he held without interruption until his death. As testified by Michael Miechowita, the medieval Polish historian and the saint’s first biographer, extreme humility and charity were conspicuous in his life.

He distributed to the poor all the money and clothes he had, retaining only what was absolutely necessary to support himself. He slept but little, and on the floor, ate very sparingly, and was a total abstainer from meat after he became a doctor. He made one pilgrimage to Jerusalem with the desire of becoming a martyr among the Turks, and four pilgrimages to Rome on foot. Durng his life he performed various miracles, which were multiplied after his death at his tomb. He was canonized by Clement XIII in 1767. The Roman Breviary distinguishes him with three hymns; he is the only confessor not a bishop who is thus honoured.

In recent years, a society of canons regular has been founded in Chicago under the patronage of St. John Cantius.

Almighty Father,
through the example of John of Kanty
may we grow in the wisdom of the saints.
As we show understanding and kindness to others,
may we receive your forgiveness.

We ask this through our Lord, Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever. Amen.

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Earlier today, I googled “St. Dominic, Christmas” and found a link to the video posted below.  It’s not the kind of match I was looking for, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

No offense to Dominick the Donkey, but I’m a bigger fan of La Befana, another Italian Christmas tradition.

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Over the past day or so, expected criticism has been running high regarding the speech Pope Benedict gave yesterday to the Roman Curia.  In his annual “State of the Church” address, the Holy Father offered a passing critique to the seemingly disproportionate attention we give to the environment over the care and attention we give to man himself.  Here are the pope’s words, in context:

First of all, there is the affirmation that comes to us from the start of the story of Creation, which tells of the Creator Spirit that moved over the waters, created the world and continuously renews it.

Faith in the Creator Spirit is an essential element of the Christian Creed. The fact that matter has a mathematical structure, is full of spirit (energy), is the foundation of the modern science of nature.

Only because matter is structured intelligently, our mind is able to interpret it and actively remodel it. The fact that this intelligent structure comes from the same Creator Spirit that also gave us our spirit, implies a task and a responsibility.

The ultimate basis of our responsibility towards the earth is our faith in creation. The earth is not simply a property that we can exploit according to our interests and desires. It is a gift of the Creator who designed its intrinsic order, and through this, has given us the orientative indications to follow as administrators of his Creation.

The fact that the earth, the cosmos, mirror the Creator Spirit also means that their rational structure – which beyond their mathematical structure, become almost palpable through experimentation – carries in itself an ethical orientation.

The Spirit that shaped them is more than mathematics – it is Goodness itself, which, through the language of creation, shows us the road to correct living.

Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Creed, the Church cannot and should not limit itself to transmitting to its faithful only the message of salvation. She has a responsibility for Creation, and it should validate this responsibility in public.

In so doing, it should defend not just the earth, water and air as gifts of Creation that belong to everyone. She should also protect man from destroying himself.

It is necessary to have something like an ecology of man, understood in the right sense. It is not outdated metaphysics when the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and asks that this natural order be respected.

This has to do with faith in the Creator and listening to the language of creation, which, if disregarded, would be man’s self-destruction and therefore a destruction of God’s work itself.

That which has come to be expressed and understood with the term ‘gender’ effectively results in man’s self-emancipation from Creation (nature) and from the Creator. Man wants to do everything by himself and to decide always and exclusively about anything that concerns him personally. But this is to live against truth, to live against the Spirit Creator.

The tropical rain forests deserve our protection, yes, but man does not deserve it less as a Creature of the Spirit himself, in whom is inscribed a message that does not mean a contradiction of human freedom but its condition.

The great theologians of Scholasticism described matrimony – which is the lifelong bond between a man and a woman – as a sacrament of Creation, that the Creator himself instituted, and that Christ, without changing the message of Creation, welcomed in the story of his alliance with men.

Part of the announcement that the Church should bring to men is a testimonial for the Spirit Creator present in all of nature, but specially in the nature of man, who was created in the image of God.

One must reread the encyclical Humanae vitae with this perspective: the intention of Pope Paul VI was to defend love against consumer sex, the future against the exclusive claim of the moment, and human nature against manipulation.

The exclusive media focus being given to the pope’s implicit criticism of homosexuality and the drive to legalize same-sex unions is unfortunate.  Benedict certainly meant to allude to this issue, as is obvious above.  But as usual the media has missed the pope’s larger point.  The reference to “Humanae Vitae,” which is mentioned at least twice in the address, points us to a larger consideration of the health and vitality of marriage as a whole.  Husbands and wives, too, the pope seems to argue, need to develop a greater “human ecology,” a proper view of the “intention” written into the very structure and rhythms of creation, which structures govern their life together and point them to true love and happiness.  Hence, this too appears as an implicit argument of the pope, that a proper “human ecology”—a proper sense of man and woman—will necessarily see as threats to healthy marriage and family life such things as adultery, pornography, artificial contraception, and in vitro fertilization, just to name a few examples.  That notable sectors of modern culture are more concerned with trees than they are about these issues represents for the Holy Father a serious imbalance in the concern we show for creation.

That the issue of homosexuality usually arises in these discussions is unavoidable. But to read the pope’s remarks exclusively through this lens does injustice to his thought.  Overall, Pope Benedict is calling all of us to redevelop a robust appreciation of human nature.  The effects of society’s lack of this appreciation appear everywhere.  What’s the remedy?  For starters, the pope suggests, society’s growing environmental concerns should be paralleled by a similar consideration for the human person.  In other words, a proper ecology of nature must include care for human nature.

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To all iPod Touch and iPhone users: check out this new application—iBreviary! Developed by an Italian priest, iBreviary makes the daily Divine Office and Mass readings available to you electronically in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin.  The texts for both the Latin and Ambrosian rites are included.  

Many find breviaries complicated and expensive. I agree, they can be.  And Magnificat, for all of its beauty and ease of use, offers only a shortened version of the Office.  But now with iBreviary, which costs 99¢, you can easily “sanctify the day” with the Church’s official prayer almost anywhere.  All of the hours are laid out for you in a simple style with readable print.

Looking through the application, I’ve noticed a few bugs (misspellings and the like).  Also, the English translation is that approved for use in the British Isles, not the United States.  In any event, iBreviary appears ideal for private prayer, and future updates should correct many problems.

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O Emmanuel,
Rex et legifer noster,
exspectatio Gentium, et Salvator earum:
veni ad salvandum nos, Domine, Deus noster.

O Emmanuel,
our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come to save us, O Lord our God.

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Late last week on National Review Online, columnist Mona Charen published this piece covering a recent Witherspoon Institute conference on pornography.  Some of the statistics she cites are staggering.

Pamela Paul, author of Pornified, reported that “Americans rent upwards of 800 million pornographic videos and DVDs per year. About one in five rented videos is porn. … Men look at pornography online more than they look at any other subject. And 66 percent of 18-34 year old men visit a pornographic site every month.”

Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself, noted that pornography use actually changes the brains of consumers. Like other addictions, pornography use breeds tolerance and the need for more intensity to get the desired result. He quoted Tom Wolfe’s I Am Charlotte Simmons, in which a college kid asks casually, “Anybody got porn?” He is told that there are magazines on the third floor. He responds, “I’ve built up a tolerance to magazines … I need videos.” Tolerance is the medically correct term, Doidge notes, which is why pornography becomes more and more graphic. 

As a medically educated society, we are obsessed with so called “silent killers,” those diseases of the body that often progress without symptoms.  We are less attuned, however, to the silent killers of the spirit, maladies of the soul that choke its life and ability to love.  Pornography certainly ranks high on this list of spiritual diseases, as it slowly cripples relationships and marriages, leaving those addicted to it simply unable to relate to others naturally and integrally.

As a remedy to such a killer, the Incarnation takes on a special significance.  The innocence of the Christ Child and the purity of heart he makes attainable shines out as a singular beacon over a dark landscape of fallen, fleshly desire.  Our “pornified” culture needs healing.  It needs the hope and promise of purity.  In his goodness, God has given this remedy to us.  If you struggle with this sin, get help from family and friends, and look to Bethlehem.

UPDATE: For more on lust, pornography, and the Witherspoon conference, see this article at The Catholic Thing.

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O Rex Gentium,
et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis,
qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.

O King of the nations,
and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.

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On this day 792 years ago, Pope Honorius III gave official ecclesiastical recognition to the Order of Preachers.  In his bull of confirmation, the pope expressed the great hope he put in the new friars: “Expecting the brethren of your Order to be the champions of the Faith and the true lights of the world, we confirm your Order.” A firm supporter of St. Dominic’s project, Honorius would issue in the subsequent five years over 60 bulls, letters, and documents further recognizing certain privileges of the Order, which helped it to spread quickly all over Europe.

Click below for a brief description of the Order’s approval by Fr. Augustine DiNoia, OP, a member of this province and the current Undersecretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Fr. DiNoia on the Approval of the Order Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Before the recent liturgical reforms, the Order celebrated today the Feast of the Patronage of Our Lady.  We now observe the usual Advent weekday, the Marian feast being transferred to May 8.  Still, Dominicans around the world today thank God, Our Lady, and St. Dominic for providing the Church such a sure and certain way of living close to and serving the Grace of the Word.  Please join us today in offering this prayer of gratitude.

O God,
who for the salvation of souls
didst place the Order of Preachers
under the special protection of the most Blessed Virgin Mary,
and wast please to pour out upon it her constant benefits:
grant unto thy suppliants
that we may be led unto the joy of heaven
through the aid of that same protectress
whose memory we revere today.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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Fr. Jones's Homily - Advent IV Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fr. Keitz's Homily - Advent IV Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Fr. Guilbeau's Homily - Advent IV Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Br. Austin Litke, O.P., recently interviewed Robert Royal, president of the Institute for Faith & Reason, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.  A columnist for leading publications, he is the author of numerous books, including The Virgin and the Dynamo: The Use and Abuse of Religion in the Environment Debate (1999, Eerdmans) and The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive Global History (2000, Crossroad).  His latest bestseller is entitled The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West (2006, Encounter).

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O Oriens,
splendor lucis aeternae, et sol justitiae:
veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Morning Star,
splendour of light eternal and sun of righteousness:
Come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

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Here are a few shots of the Christmas party held here for the nearby Armory Women’s Shelter.  Our parish’s Social Concerns Committee has hosted this event for many years.

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O Clavis David,
et sceptrum domus Israel;
qui aperis, et nemo claudit;
claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris,
sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David
and sceptre of the House of Israel;
you open and no one can shut;
you shut and no one can open:
Come and lead the prisoners from the prison,
those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

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