Category Archives: WDTPRS

Perhaps this shot of the head of the representation of The Nile on G.L. Bernini’s Fountain of the Rivers in the Piazza Navona might stir you to think of a caption? Read More →

EXCERPT:
Today perhaps there is rather too much emphasis in preaching and literature on the Resurrection aspect of our Christian lives to the detriment of the reality of the Cross. Remembering that we are all destined for the Resurrection is of great importance in all we do, course, especially in the way we treat others. It helps in our daily dealings with people to see them also as people destined for the Resurrection. At the same time, there is no resurrection without the Cross. We also have our daily crosses to bear, and so do those around us. In our words and actions both the Resurrection and the Cross must be evident. There will sometimes be more emphasis on the one than the other, depending on the circumstances. Read More →

EXCERPT:

This is a time of year when many are being received into the Church and young people are being confirmed. Sometimes, very often as a matter of fact, confirmation winds up being the exitus sacrament rather than the aditus sacrament bringing them into deeper participation in the Church. Many of our brothers and sister, once their formal catechism ended, have never bothered to continue their Christian formation in the faith in which we believe, so that the faith by which we believe could also increase. So, they come to their 70th year with the “faith” of a 17 year old, or even a 7 year old, and not in the sense Jesus’ was talking about in Mark 10:13-16!

Going back to the roots of this prayer, I am lead to muse on the issue of being an enemy of the faith. Enemies are not only those who take up arms and wickedly fight against you. They are also those who stand around and do nothing. Read More →

EXCERPT:
The Gifts are supernatural infused habits. We distinguish them, however, from the virtues and from actual graces. They are wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, piety and fear of the Lord. The first four habits affect the intellect and the last three the will. You could also say that the first four relate to contemplative life with the corresponding intellectual virtues and the last three to the active life with the corresponding moral virtues. Among the first four, which concern the intellect, understanding helps us to attain to the truth of things, while wisdom, knowledge and counsel help us to make good judgments about, respectively, divine things (wisdom), created things (knowledge) and practical conduct (counsel).The last three concern more the appetites.Piety helps us in relation to others, namely, God, parents/family and country. Fortitude and fear of the Lord, however, concern the appetites and our own selves, namely, in regard to dangerous things (fortitude) and disordered concupiscence (fear of the Lord). By these supernatural Gift/habits the intellect and will are better disposed to receive the help of the Holy Spirit and then, with that illumination and help, act properly. By contrast, virtues dispose the faculties to act properly according to reason). Read More →

EXCERPT:
Augustine was deeply, passionately, fiercely interested in love. Often and appropriately he is depicted with a burning heart. For Augustine, belief and love were intertwined. He described love as a gravitational force pulling us to where we by nature belong. Some people think the old man was a terrible pessimist about the human condition, especially as he got older, was worn down by constant theological battles and pastoral burdens and deteriorating health. If he saw the negative side of the human condition, he knew with absolute conviction that love was its solution. This conviction grew as the years passed. The great Augustinian scholar A.-M. La Bonnardiere found that between 387-429, Augustine (+430) quoted Romans 5:5 at least 201 times. Augustine rarely used Romans 5:5 before 411 (the year Rome was sacked by Alaric). Romans 5:5 is found more frequently between 411-421 when he was fighting with Pelagians about grace. Many references continue from 421 until his death while he was engaged in his bitter fight with the bête noir of his old age Julian of Eclanum.

What is Romans 5:5? Read More →

COLLECT: Praesta, quaesumus, omnipotens et misericors Deus, ut Spiritus Sanctus adveniens templum nos gloriae suae dignanter inhabitando perficiat. LITERAL VERSION: Grant, we beseech You, Almighty and merciful God, that the Holy Spirit, now coming, will by the indwelling of His … Read More →

EXCERPT:
What you do outwardly can have an enormous impact on the faith of others. You can jump start a dormant faith life, strengthen another, or perhaps spark someone else into seeking answers to the questions they have. On the other hand, you can damage people too. Read More →

It is immediately after this prayer that we launch into the Euchrist Prayer beginning with the Preface and Sanctus. You all know the phrase, “Sursum corda! Lift up your hearts!” In 418 St. Augustine (s. 261) declared to his flock:

“The resurrection of the Lord is our hope, the Lord’s ascension our glorification. … So if we are to celebrate the Lord’s ascension in the right way, with faith, with devotion, with reverence as godfearing people, we must ascend with him, and lift up our hearts. In ascending, however, we mustn’t get above ourselves. Yes, we should lift up our hearts, but to the Lord. Hearts, you see, lifted up, not to the Lord – that’s pride; while hearts lifted up to the Lord, that’s called taking refuge. After all, we say to the one who has ascended, Lord, you have become a refuge for us (Ps 90:1).” Read More →

EXCERPT:
In the Incarnation, God the Son, the Second Person, took our humanity, our substantia into an indestructible bond with His divinity, His substantia. In the Resurrection, our substantia rose from death in Christ. In His Ascension, the God Man took our human nature to be seated at the right hand of the Father. Our humanity is at this very moment already seated in bliss with the Father in the Person of the risen Christ. By living in friendship with Him in the state of grace and striving with real single-minded focus (devotio) to bend all that we say, do, think and desire toward that final end of heaven, God will give us the help we need to get there. He already gives us, in anticipation of that great homecoming in heaven (for our humanity is already home in Him), the greatest help of all: spiritual nourishment in the Eucharist. He permits us here in this fading and passing vale of tears to make loving use of unfading and eternal mysteries. Read More →