“I’m Back!!!”

 

Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Today’s Content:

 

• ·        Dan’s Deliberations, Discoveries, & Declarations (occasionally)
• ·        Today in Catholic History
• ·        Catholic Apologetics
• ·        A Franciscan’s Saint of the Day
• ·        Reflection on part of  the OFS Rule

 

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Dan’s Deliberations, Discoveries, & Declarations:

 

This past weekend, I participated in a spiritually uplifting OFS (Secular Franciscan) Retreat.  I arrived Friday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon.  Along with being in community with about 80 other Franciscans from all over Missouri and Illinois, we had a superb spiritual weekend. 

Our “retreat master” was Father Pio, OFM from Sacred Heart Province (St. Louis), and the Regional Spiritual Assistant for our Region (St, Clare of Assisi Region).  This Father Pio is not the well-known Saint of Italy.  However, he is saintly in most Secular Franciscan eyes, because of his heroic piousness.  He led us in sessions on the subject of our individual spiritual journeys with our Lord.  His retreat was humorous, thought provoking, and even challenging at times.

Besides the retreat sessions by “Padre Pio”, we also prayed the Divine Office – – in community – – twice daily, had opportunities for Eucharistic adoration throughout the retreat, including adoration throughout the night-time hours, Mass, Confession, and even the Sacrament of Healing for those who chose.

The grounds at King’s House in Belleville, Illinois are beautiful and peaceful.  I took some pictures and hopefully will be able to post them to this blog at a later date.

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Today in Catholic History:

 

†   565 – St. Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland.

†   1241 – Death of Gregory IX, [Ugolino di Segni], Italian Pope

†   1280 – Death of Nicholas III, [Giovanni Gaetano Orsini], Italian Pope (1277-80)

†   1679 – Birth of Pierre Guérin de Tencin, French cardinal (d. 1758)

†   1760 – Birth of Leo XII, [Annibale Sermattei], Italy, Pope (1823-29)

†   1922 – Michael Collins, Commander-in-Chief of the Irish Free State Army is shot dead during an Anti- Treaty ambush at Beal County Cork, during the Irish Civil War.

†   1968 – 1st papal visit to Latin America (Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota)

†   1968 – Pope Paul VI opens Eucharistic congress in Bogota

†   2003 – Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was suspended after refusing to comply with a federal court order to remove a rock inscribed with the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the Alabama Supreme Court building. (religious freedom issue)

†   Feasts/Memorials: Mary Queen of angels, Immaculate Heart

(From the “On This Day” Blog Site
otday.wordpress.com &/OR
“Today in Catholic History”
http://www.historyorb.com)

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Catholic Apologetics:

 

My reason and purpose for this section on my blog is to provide “scriptural confirmation” for our beliefs and doctrines, not to cause dissention or opposition with my fellow believers in Jesus Christ, yet not in union with the Roman Catholic Church.  Whether God speaks to us through the “Bible”, or through “Tradition”, it is the Holy Spirit who inspires the “Word” from which all authentic tradition flows.

Tradition can be separated into two aspects: oral and behavioral.  Oral tradition includes written forms.  After all, it ALL started with oral tradition.  Behavioral tradition includes Baptism, Eucharist or Lord’s Supper, Laying on of hands for healing, Intercessory prayer, and Ordination. 

All Scriptural verses are taken from both the Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible and the King James Version of the Holy Bible.

The Papacy

“‘Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren’” (Luke 22:31-32) RSV.

“And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:31-32) KJV.

 

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“He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, ‘So you are Simon the son of John? You shall be called Cephas’ (which means Peter)” (John 1:42) RSV.

“And he brought him to Jesus.  And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone” (John 1:42) KJV.

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A Franciscan’s Saint of the Day:  Queenship of Mary

 

Pius XII established this feast in 1954.  But Mary’s queenship has roots in Scripture.  At the Annunciation, Gabriel announced that Mary’s Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever.  At the Visitation, Elizabeth calls Mary “mother of my Lord.”  As in all the mysteries of Mary’s life, Mary is closely associated with Jesus: Her queenship is a share in Jesus’ kingship.  We can also recall that in the Old Testament the mother of the king has great influence in court.

In the fourth century St. Ephrem called Mary “Lady” and “Queen.”  Later Church fathers and doctors continued to use the title. Hymns of the 11th to 13th centuries address Mary as queen: “Hail, Holy Queen,” “Hail, Queen of Heaven,” “Queen of Heaven.”  The Dominican rosary and the Franciscan crown as well as numerous invocations in Mary’s litany celebrate her queenship.

The feast is a logical follow-up to the Assumption and is now celebrated on the octave day of that feast.  In his encyclical To the Queen of Heaven, Pius XII points out that Mary deserves the title because she is Mother of God, because she is closely associated as the New Eve with Jesus’ redemptive work, because of her preeminent perfection and because of her intercessory power.

Comment:

As St. Paul suggests in Romans 8:28–30, God has predestined human beings from all eternity to share the image of his Son.  All the more was Mary predestined to be the mother of Jesus.  As Jesus was to be king of all creation, Mary, in dependence on Jesus, was to be queen.  All other titles to queenship derive from this eternal intention of God.  As Jesus exercised his kingship on earth by serving his Father and his fellow human beings, so did Mary exercise her queenship.  As the glorified Jesus remains with us as our king till the end of time (Matthew 28:20), so does Mary, who was assumed into heaven and crowned queen of heaven and earth.

Quote:

“Let the entire body of the faithful pour forth persevering prayer to the Mother of God and Mother of men.  Let them implore that she who aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers may now, exalted as she is in heaven above all the saints and angels, intercede with her Son in the fellowship of all the saints.  May she do so until all the peoples of the human family, whether they are honored with the name of Christian or whether they still do not know their Savior, are happily gathered together in peace and harmony into the one People of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 69).

Saint of the Day: Lives, Lessons and Feast
By Leonard Foley, O.F.M.;
revised by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M.
(From http://www.americancatholic.org website)

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Secular Franciscan Order (OFS) Rule
Article #’s 22 & 23 of 26:

22.  The local fraternity is to be established canonically.  It becomes the basic unit of the whole Order and a visible sign of the Church, the community of love.  This should be the privileged place for developing a sense of Church and the Franciscan vocation and for enlivening the apostolic life of its members.

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23.  Requests for admission to the Secular Franciscan Order must be presented to the local fraternity, whose council decides upon the acceptance of new brothers and sisters.

Admission into the Order is gradually attained through a time of initiation, a period of formation of at least one year, and profession of the rule. The entire community is engaged in the process of growth by its own manner of living. The age for profession and the distinctive Franciscan sign are regulated by the statutes.

Profession by its nature is a permanent commitment.

Members who find themselves in particular difficulties should discuss their problems with the council in fraternal dialogue. Withdrawal or permanent dismissal from the Order, if necessary, is an act of the fraternity council according to the norm of the constitutions.

 

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