Category Archives: WDTPRS

EXCERPT:
Remember that by the Sacrament of Confirmation, which deepens our baptismal character, we can draw great strength in moments of need. The Enemy and our own wounded nature will make some choices and actions difficult. Our hope and even our faith will be challenged. We can call upon, so to speak, that Sacrament of Confirmation, our “confirmed character” for those actual graces we need when we are facing something difficult. “O God, who by the sacrament of confirmation deepened and strengthened my bond with You and Your indwelling in me, in this moment of need give me the courage and force to do what I must do for Your glory and the sake of my soul’s salvation.” Read More →

EXCERPT:
We love and desire God’s will in the concrete situation, this concrete task. A challenge of living as a good Christian in “the world” is to love God in the details of life, especially when those details little to our liking. We must love him in this beggar, this annoying creep, not in beggars or creeps in general. We must love him in this act of fasting, not in fasting in general. This basket of laundry, this paperwork, this ICEL translation…. Hmmm…, didn’t I say it was a challenge? God’s will must not be reduced to something abstract, as if it is merely a “heavenly” or “ideal” reality. “Thy will (voluntas) be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Read More →

What Does the Prayer Really Say?  5th Sunday of Easter ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2003 Dare we to hope?  The 2 May 2003 edition of the Catholic Herald published in the UK provides a story by Simon Caldwell … Read More →

EXCERPT:
There are some interesting things here. First, perfice as the imperative “perfect” has the force of “bring to completion”. It could be perceived as “perfect” in an instant of time, by a sudden and all embracing act, or it could be construed as being an ongoing process of perfection, of bringing to completion. In a way the Paschale Mystery itself (remember that mysterium and sacramentum are pretty much interchangeable in these contexts) reflects this same problem of our perception of time and God’s work in time, or outside of time, or beyond time. The Paschal Mystery is both completed and not completed. Our redemption is “already” completed, but “not yet” completed. As Christians we live in this pilgrim life, this earthly continuum, in a constant state of “already but not yet”. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Though Christ freely shed His Blood for all who have ever lived or ever will live, in the end not all will accept the benefits Christ won by His Sacrifice. Many will accept them, but not all… not all. Read More →

Thursday of the 4th Week of EasterI liked today’s prayer enough to share what it really says. COLLECT:Deus, qui humanam naturamsupra primae originis reparas dignitatem,respice ad pietatis tuae ineffabile sacramentum,ut, quos regnerationis mysterio dignatus es innovare,in his dona tuae perpetuae … Read More →

Here is a second version.

Oratio pro interpretibus

Omnipotens et misericors Deus,
qui super Unigeniti Filii tui Ecclesiam
Sanctum Spiritum abundanter misisti,
tribue, quaesumus, inspirationem et fortitudinem
laborantibus magno cum studio
in preces eiusdem sanctae Ecclesiae Latinas
in omnium gentium sermones convertendo,
ut nos, superbia dissociati vetusta,
et orationes offere tibi valeamus decore
et unanimiter a te accipere salutifera.
Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Read More →

EXCERPT:By the English word “continuum” the seasoned Catholics understand “an uninterrupted whole or a series of things without a break”. Those of us who are of the Star Trek generation know that “continuum” refers to a time/space phenomenon which, though incredibly rare, figures in episodes about every other week. An imbalance in the time/space continuum will usually destroy the whole galaxy, which would be very bad. To prevent this bad thing the Captain and crew must “reverse the polarity” of a gizmo with a long name, often the big dish on the front of the ship. They have only five seconds left before the ship explodes and everyone everywhere dies. The unflinching Captain tells someone sporting a forehead with ridges or bluish skin to do an amazingly risky thing, which the first officer must passionately question. The risk works miraculously, probably because there are more episodes left in the season, and the time/space continuum is restored to its proper order. Everyone throughout the galaxy are until the next week. Now, you would think that after saving the galaxy, the galaxy saviors would get more recognition from saved. They should all be offered their own luxury resort planets or, if that sounds too much like Mormon afterlife, at least some stock options or a medal or… something. Maybe a high school named after them. I don’t get it. In any event, I digress…. Read More →

EXCERPT:
Today’s Mass has various “pastoral” images. Two years ago we saw what the Collect really said for this Sunday: “Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, deduc nos ad societatem caelestium gaudiorum, ut eo perveniat humilitas gregis, quo processit fortitudo pastoris… Almighty and ever-living God, lead us unto the communion of heavenly joys, so that the humility of the flock may reach that place from whence the might of the shepherd came forth.” Clearly there is a thematic connection between the collect and final prayer today: gregis…pastoris. Notice the intertwined meanings of “flock, communion, society”. Both the Collect and Post communion seem to be from similar sources. Neither were in the 1962MR while the Super oblata was. I may be going out on a limb, but I am guessing they were put together by the same person. Read More →

EXCERPT:
The once for all time Sacrifice of the Cross transcends all time and space. God makes it possible for the very same reality to be renewed and represented to the Father through the constant and faithfully fulfilled religious offering of the Church (operatio continua), which is His own mystical person continuing in this earthly realm. This bloody Sacrifice which occurred at a single point in the continuum of both time and physical space, which took place on the Cross outside the walls of Jerusalem nearly 2000 years ago, is both completed and is still taking place on our altars in all places and at all times. By this Sacrifice, Christ reversed the course of the human race, hurtling headlong into the darkness of oblivion and the hellish separation from God that sin deserves. Now all peoples of all times and places have the opportunity of salvation, even though they have no idea of whence it comes. And yet so many of those who actually know Him will blithely go on their way without so much as a “Thank you, O Lord, for the unfathomable act of self-emptying and brutal, painful death, by which you saved us from the hell our sins merited, and by which you taught us who we really are.” Many who profess His Holy Name will come to Sunday Mass and receive the very sacrament of our salvation without discerning what it is or what they do. Some will even take the Lord and head for the door to beat the parking rush. Read More →