The Church and art - Pope John Paul II

(Giotto di Bondone - Last Supper - Cappella Scrovegni padua 1304-06)

Art too in all its manifestations - and to these must be added the potential offered by the cinema and television - has humanity as its fundamental theme: the human image, human truth. Though appearance may often be to the contrary, even contemporary art is cognizant of these deep-down assertions and demands. The religious and Christian origin of art is by no means exhausted. Themes such as guilt and grace, deceit and liberation, injustice and justice, compassion and freedom, solidarity with and love for one's neighbor, hope and consolation, all have their place in today's literature, in text-books and film scripts, and get ample feed-back.


Collaboration between the Church and art regarding humanity is based on the fact that both seek to set humanity free from slavery and want it to become self-aware. They open the way to freedom for humanity: freedom from the pressures of needs, of productivity at any cost, of efficiency, of programming and functionalism.

Catechesis and orthodoxy - Pope John Paul II

Christians today must be formed to live in a world which largely ignores God or which, in religious matters, in place of an exacting and fraternal dialogue,stimulating for all, too often flounders in a debasing indifferentism, if not maintaining a scornful attitude of suspicion in the name of the progress it has made in the field of scientific 'explanations', To 'hold on' in this world, to offer to all a 'dialogue of salvation' in which each person feels respected in his or her most basic dignity - the dignity of one who is seeking God - we need a catechesis which trains the young people and adults of our communities to remain clear and consistent in their faith, to affirm serenely their Christian and Catholic identity, to 'see him who is invisible' and to adhere so firmly to the absoluteness of God that they can be witnesses to him in a materialistic civilization that denies him. Without monopolizing or enforcing uniformity, the parish remains the preeminent place for catechesis. It must rediscover its vocation, which is to be a fraternal and welcoming family home, where those who have been baptized and confirmed become aware of forming the People of God. In that home, the bread
of good doctrine and the Eucharistic Bread are broken for them in abundance, in the setting of the one act of worship; from that home they are sent out day by day to their apostolic mission in all the centres of activity in the life of the world.

Family catechesis precedes, accompanies and enriches all other forms of catechesis. Furthermore, in places where anti-religious legislation endeavours even to prevent education in the Faith, and in places where widespread unbelief or invasive secularism makes real religious growth practically impossible, 'the Church of the home' remains the one place where children and young people can receive an authentic catechesis.
Thus there cannot be too great an effort on the part of Christian parents to prepare for this ministry of being their own children's catechists and to carry it out with tireless zeal. Encouragement must also be given to the individuals or institutions that, through person-ta-person contacts, through meetings and through all kinds of pedagogical means, help parents to perform their task the service they are doing to catechesis is beyond price.

Christians: Witnesses of Easter's New Path - Pope Benedict XVI

"Christ resurrected from the dead", the Holy Father asserted, "is the foundation of our faith that radiates throughout the Church's liturgy, giving it content and meaning ... Christ's resurrection is the door to a new life that is no longer subjected to the termination of time, a life immersed in the eternity of God. With Jesus' resurrection begins a new condition of human being, which illuminates and transforms our daily path and opens a qualitatively new and different future for all humanity".


"In his Epistle to the Colossians, St. Paul says 'If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth'". However, Benedict XVI emphasized, the apostle "is far from inviting Christians, any of us, to shun the world in which God has placed us. It is true that we are citizens of another 'city', our true home, but the path toward this goal must be traversed every day in this land. To participate, from this moment, in the life of the resurrected Christ, we must live as new men and women in this world, at the heart of this earthly city".


"This is the path", the Holy Father continued, "to transform not only ourselves but also to transform the world, to give the city a new face that favors the development of humankind and society within the logic of solidarity, goodness, and profound respect for the dignity proper to each ... Easter offers the newness of a profound and complete passage from a life subject to the slavery of sin to a life of freedom, inspired by love, the force that breaks down barriers and builds new harmony in our hearts and in our relationships with others and with things".


Every Christian, just as every community, "that lives the experience of this passage to the Resurrection, cannot help but be new leaven in the world giving themselves without reserve to the most urgent and just causes, as seen by the witness of the saints in every age and place. The expectations of our time are also great: believing firmly that the resurrection of Christ has renewed humankind without separating it from the world in which it builds its history, we Christians must be the radiant witnesses of Easter's new path".


"Easter is, therefore, a gift that must be welcomed in faith more deeply each time, to work in any situation with the grace of Christ, according to the logic of God, the logic of love", the pontiff concluded.

The relationship between the Magisterium and theology - Pope John Paul II

The Church particularly needs her theologians in this day and age, which is so deeply marked by radical change in every sphere of life and society. The Bishops of the Church, to whom our Lord has entrusted the task of preserving the unity of the Faith and the proclamation of the message - individually for their dioceses and collegially with Peter's Successor for the Universal Church - all need your work as theologians, your dedication and the fruit of your reflections. We want to hear you and are eager to receive the great help which your training as responsible scientists can be to us.

But this authentic theological training and, by the same, token, your teaching of theology cannot be sound and fruitful unless you concentrate on what inspires it and where it comes from - that is to say, the word of God contained in Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the Church, as intetpreted by the authentic Magisterium down the ages ( Dei verbum 10). True academic freedom must be seen in relation to the final purpose of academic work, which looks to the total truth of the human person.

The theologian's contribution will only enrich the Church if it takes into proper account the proper function of Bishops and the rights of the faithful. To Bishops, theology attributes the duty of safeguarding Christian authenticity, the unity of the Faith and moral instruction, in accordance with the Apostle Paul's exhortations: 'Proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error,' recall to obedience ...it is the right of the faithful not to be disturbed by theories and hypothesis on which they are not qualified to pass judgement, or which can easily be simplified or manipulated by public opinion for purposes remote from the truth. On the day he died, John Paul I stated: 'Among the rights of the faithful, one of the greatest is to receive the word of God in all its entirety and purity .. .' (28 September 19791. It is right that the
theologian should be free, but that freedom should be an openness to the truth and light that come from faith and from loyalty to the Church. The Church wants theological research to be independent and not identified with the Church's magisterium, but to recognize that, with the magisterium, it is committed in common service to the truth of the Faith and to the People of God. That tensions and even conflicts will arise cannot be ruled out. But this cannot be ruled out either regarding relations between the Church and science. The reason for this
is to be found in the finite nature of the human mind, which is limited in its scope and therefore open to error. Nonetheless, we can always hope for a re-conciliatory solution, if we take our stand precisely on the ability of the human mind to reach the truth. 
Theology is a science with all the potentialities of human knowledge. It is free as to the way it applies its methods and analyses. Yet, theology must be mindful of the relationship in which it stands to the Church. We do not owe the Faith to ourselves; it is 'founded on the Apostles, and Christ himself is the corner-stone' (Ephesians 2:20). Even theology has to presuppose the Faith. It can clarify and promote it, but it cannot produce it. Even theology must always stand on the shoulders of the Fathers in the Faith. It knows that its specific sphere doesn't consist of dates and historical facts in a vas ciusum, but rather of the living Faith of the Church. So theologians teach on behalf of and by the mandate of the Church - that is, of the communion of faith. They can and should put forward new suggestions for understanding the Faith, but these are only offered to the Church at large. Many corrections and adaptations are needed before the Church at large can accept them.

Theology is a very disinterested service to the community of believers, in the deepest sense, for it essentially entails objective discussion, brotherly dialogue, openness and a readiness to change its own opinion. Believers have the right to know how far they can go regarding the Faith. Theology should show us
where to call a halt. The magisterium intervenes only to state the truth of God's word, above all when this is threatened by distortions and false interpretations. In this context too is to be seen the infallibility of the Church's magisterium.
Love for the institutional Church, which also involves loyalty to the witness of faith and to the Church's magisterium, does not distract theologians from their work, nor does it take away any of their inalienable independence. Magisterium and theology each have a different task. Hence neither can diminish the other. Both of them serve the same cause. Precisely because they are so linked, constant dialogue
has to be maintained between them. In the years since the Council there have been many examples of good collaboration between theology and magisteriurn. Strengthen this foundation and, even though new conflicts will probably arise, go on with your common work in the spirit of the common Faith, of that same hope and the love that unites us all."
This studying of theology, here and everywhere in the Church, is thinking about the Faith, and thinking within the Faith. A theology that doesn't deepen faith, that doesn't lead to prayer, may discourse eloquently about God; but the discourse can never be truly about God, the Living God, the God who Is, and whose Being is Love. From this it follows that theology can be authentic only within the Church, within the community of faith. Only when the teaching of theologians conforms to the teaching of the Bishops united with the Pope, can the People of God know with certainty that this teaching is 'the faith which has been once and for all entrusted to the saints' (Jude 3).
This is no limitation for theologians but a liberation, since it preserves them from changes in fashion and keeps them safely bound to Christ's unchangeable truth, the truth that sets us free (John 7:32)

Regina Coeli: Learning to be Witnesses of the Risen Lord

"Christ has conquered death, caused by our sin, and brings us again to eternal life. The entire life of the Church and our very existence as Christians comes from this event. Today, Monday of the Angel", the Pope said, "we read in the first missionary address of the nascent Church: 'God raised this Jesus', the apostle Paul proclaimed, 'of this we are all witnesses'.


"How can we meet the Lord, each time becoming more and more his true witnesses?" the Holy Father asked, explaining that St. Maximus of Turin affirmed, "whosoever wishes to reach the Savior must first put themselves, in their very faith, at the right hand of the divinity, and place themselves in heaven with the belief of their hearts". This is constantly learning to direct the mind's and the heart's gaze toward the heights of God where the risen Christ is. In prayer and in adoration God encounters the human being ... Only if we know how to direct ourselves toward Him and pray to Him can we discover the deepest meaning of our lives and our daily path will be illuminated with the light of the Risen One".

Finally, Benedict XVI recalled that today the Church in the East and the West celebrate St. Mark the Evangelist, patron of the Italian city of Venice, and that he will make a pastoral visit there on 7 and 8 May of this year. After praying the Regina Coeli he greeted the members of the Meter Association, founder of the National Day for children victims of violence, abuse, and indifference. "I encourage you", he said, "to continue your work of prevention and raising awareness side by side with the various educational associations. In particular, I am thinking of the parishes, societies, and other ecclesial institutions that generously dedicate themselves to the formation of the new generations".

Resurrection Gives Strength to Human Hope - Pope Benedict XVI

"Easter morning brings us news that is ancient yet ever new: Christ is risen! The echo of this event, which issued forth from Jerusalem twenty centuries ago, continues to resound in the Church, deep in whose heart lives the vibrant faith of Mary, Mother of Jesus, the faith of Mary Magdalene and the other women who first discovered the empty tomb, and the faith of Peter and the other Apostles".

"Just as the sun's rays in springtime cause the buds on the branches of the trees to sprout and open up, so the radiance that streams forth from Christ's resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope, to every expectation, wish and plan. Hence the entire cosmos is rejoicing today, caught up in the springtime of humanity, which gives voice to creation's silent hymn of praise. The Easter Alleluia, resounding in the Church as she makes her pilgrim way through the world, expresses the silent exultation of the universe and above all the longing of every human soul that is sincerely open to God, giving thanks to him for his infinite goodness, beauty and truth".

"'In your resurrection, O Christ, let heaven and earth rejoice.' To this summons to praise, which arises today from the heart of the Church, the 'heavens' respond fully: the hosts of angels, saints and blessed souls join with one voice in our exultant song. In heaven all is peace and gladness. But alas, it is not so on earth! Here, in this world of ours, the Easter Alleluia still contrasts with the cries and laments that arise from so many painful situations: deprivation, hunger, disease, war, violence. Yet it was for this that Christ died and rose again! He died on account of sin, including ours today, he rose for the redemption of history, including our own. So my message today is intended for everyone, and, as a prophetic proclamation, it is intended especially for peoples and communities who are undergoing a time of suffering, that the Risen Christ may open up for them the path of freedom, justice and peace".

"May the Land which was the first to be flooded by the light of the Risen One rejoice. May the splendour of Christ reach the peoples of the Middle East, so that the light of peace and of human dignity may overcome the darkness of division, hate and violence. In the current conflict in Libya, may diplomacy and dialogue take the place of arms and may those who suffer as a result of the conflict be given access to humanitarian aid. In the countries of northern Africa and the Middle East, may all citizens, especially young people, work to promote the common good and to build a society where poverty is defeated and every political choice is inspired by respect for the human person".

"May help come from all sides to those fleeing conflict and to refugees from various African countries who have been obliged to leave all that is dear to them; may people of good will open their hearts to welcome them, so that the pressing needs of so many brothers and sisters will be met with a concerted response in a spirit of solidarity; and may our words of comfort and appreciation reach all those who make such generous efforts and offer an exemplary witness in this regard".

"May peaceful coexistence be restored among the peoples of Ivory Coast, where there is an urgent need to tread the path of reconciliation and pardon, in order to heal the deep wounds caused by the recent violence. May Japan find consolation and hope as it faces the dramatic consequences of the recent earthquake, along with other countries that in recent months have been tested by natural disasters which have sown pain and anguish".

"May heaven and earth rejoice at the witness of those who suffer opposition and even persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ. May the proclamation of his victorious resurrection deepen their courage and trust".

Women's role in the Church - Pope John Paul II

In the context of Christian anthropology, every human person has his or her dignity and as persons women have no less dignity than men. Too often, women are regarded as objects because of male egoism, of which there have been endless manifestations in the past and of which there are still many today. In today's situation there are all sorts of cultural and social reasons for this, and these need calm and objective consideration. Even so, it is not hard to detect the influence of a tendency to domination and arrogance, a tendency which has found and is still finding its victims especially among women and young girls.

However, the phenomenon has been and still is more general than this, having its origins has (as I wrote in Christifideles laici) 'in that unjust and deleterious mentality which considers the human being as a thing, as an object to buy and sell, as an instrument for selfish interests or for pleasure only' (n. 49).

The Christian laity are called to fight against all the forms which this mentality takes, including advertising, which is motivated by the intention to accelerate the frenetic race for consumer goods. But women themselves have a duty to play their part in obtaining respect for their personality, by not lowering themselves to any form of complicity with anything which militates against their dignity.

Perfection for women does not mean being like men, masculizing themselves until they lose their specifically womanly qualities. Their perfection - with its self-affirmation and relative autonomy - is to be women, equal to men but different. In civil society and in the Church too, the fact that women are equal and different has to be recognized. Difference does not mean an inevitable and almost implacable opposition. In the Bible story of the creation, co-operation between man and woman is laid down as the condition for the development of the human race and for its work of mastering the universe: 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it' (Genesis 1:28). In the light of this command from the Creator, the Church holds that 'the married couple and the family constitute the first and basic expression of the social dimension of the faithful' (Christifideles laici 40). On a more general plane we may say that the renewal of the temporal order can only come about by the co-operation of men and women.

Women have understanding, sensitive, compassionate hearts, giving them a tactful and practical approach to charity. In the Church, we know, there have always been many women - religious and lay, mothers of families and single women - who have devoted their lives to alleviating human suffering. What wonderful pages they have contributed to the annals of dedication to the needs of the poor, the sick, the infirm, the paralyzed, and all those rejected by society, both in former times and in today's world. How many names leap from heart to lips when we only intend to make a passing mention of those heroic figures who exercised charity with a tact and skill entirely feminine, be it within the family or in Institutes, in hospitals or in dealing with people vulnerable to moral anguish, oppression or exploitation. Nothing of this escapes God's eye, and the Church too treasures the names and exemplary activities of those many, many noble representatives of charity; sometimes she enters them in the register of her Saints.

A significant field for the female apostolate in the Church is that of contributing to the Liturgy. Women's attendance at church services, where they usually outnumber the men, shows their commitment to the Faith, their spiritual sensitivity, their inclination to piety and their attachment to liturgical prayer and the Eucharist.

In this co-operation of women with the priest and other members of the faithful in the eucharistic celebration, we may see a type of the Virgin Mary's cooperation with Christ in the Incarnation and the Redemption. Ecce ancilla Domini: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word' (Luke 1:38). Mary is the model of Christian womanhood, spreading the mystery of the incarnate and redeeming Word through the world.

The true promotion of women consists in promoting them to that which is proper to them and suited to them as women - that is, as creatures different from men, called, no less than men, to be a model of human personality. This is 'emancipation' as indicated and intended by Jesus, who wished to assign women a mission of their own, appropriate to their natural difference from men. Discharging this mission allows women to develop their personalities and thus to serve humanity, and particularly the Church, in a way consistent with their qualities.

Quite recently and even in Catholic circles, a claim has been advanced by some women to be admitted to the priestly ministry. The claim is in fact based on a false assumption. For the ministerial priesthood is not a job which one can take on the basis of social qualification or legal procedures, but only in obedience to the will of Christ. Now, Jesus entrusted the task of the ministerial priesthood to members of the male sex alone. In spite of having also invited certain women to follow him and in spite of having asked them to work with him, he did not call or admit any of them to the group whom he had entrusted with the ministerial priesthood of his Church. His will is made plain by the sum of his behaviour, as also by significant actions, which Christian tradition has always interpreted as pointers to be followed.

Thus we see from the Gospel that Jesus never sent women on preaching missions, as he did the group of the Twelve, who were all men (Luke 9:1-6); similarly with the Seventy-Two, among whom no female presence is mentioned (Luke 10:1-20). Only to the Twelve does Jesus give authority over the Kingdom: 'Now I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me' (Luke 22:29). Only on the Twelve does he confer the mission and power of repeating the Eucharist on his behalf (Luke 22:19). Only to the Apostle does he give the power to remit sins (John 20:22-23) and to undertake the work of universal evangelization (Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16.:16-18).

Christ's will was followed by the Apostles and by those subsequently responsible for the earliest communities, thus giving rise to the Christian tradition which has been in force in the Church ever since. I felt it my duty to confirm this tradition in my Apostolic Letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis (22 May 1994),declaring that 'the Church has no power whatever to confer priestly ordination on women, and that this ruling should be held as definitive by all the Church's faithful' (n. 4). Here faithfulness to the pastoral ministry as instituted by Christ is at stake.

The True Meaning of Easter - Dr. Plinio Correa

The Resurrection represents the eternal and definitive triumph of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the complete defeat of his adversaries, and the supreme argument of our faith. Saint Paul said that, if Christ had not resurrected, our faith would be vain. The whole edifice of our beliefs is founded on the supernatural fact of the Resurrection. Let us then meditate about this highly elevated subject.

Christ Our Lord was not resurrected: He resurrected. He was dead. Lazarus was resurrected. Someone other than him, in this case, Our Lord, called him back to life. As for the Divine Redeemer, no one resurrected Him. He resurrected Himself, needing no one to call Him back to life. He took his life back when He so willed.

Everything that is said about Our Lord can be analogically applied to the Holy Catholic Church. We often see, in the history of the Church, that precisely when She seemed irremediably lost and all the symptoms of catastrophe seemed to undermine Her, events took place that kept Her alive against all the expectations of Her adversaries. A rather curious fact is that sometimes it is the Church’s enemies that come to Her aid, rather than Her friends. For example, in a most sensitive time period for Catholicism like Napoleon’s era, an extremely unusual episode took place: a conclave was convened for the election of Pius VII under the protection of Russian troops, all of them schismatic and under the command of a schismatic sovereign. In Russia itself, the practice of the Catholic religion was curbed in a thousand ways. Yet, in Italy, Russian troops ensured the free election of a Sovereign Pontiff precisely at the moment when a vacancy in the See of Peter would have caused such grievous damages for Holy Church that, humanly speaking, she might never have been able to overcome them.

Such are the marvelous means that Divine Providence employs to demonstrate that God has the supreme government of all things. However, let us not think that the Church owed Her salvation to Constantine, Charlemagne, John of Austria, or Russian troops. Even when She seems to be entirely abandoned and when She lacks the most indispensable natural resources for survival, let us be certain that Holy Church will not die. Like Our Lord, She will rise with Her own, divine strength. And the more inexplicable the seeming resurrection of the Church may be from the human standpoint (we say seeming, because, unlike Our Lord, the Church will never die a real death), the more glorious Her victory will be.

In these murky and sad days, let us thus confide. However, in order to restore all things in the Kingdom of Christ, let us confide not in this or that power, man, or ideological current but in Divine Providence, which will once again force the sea to open wide, move mountains and cause the whole earth to tremble if necessary to fulfill the divine promise: “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against Her.”

What Sunday mass at the Toronto Oratory Sounds like

This is about as close to what Sunday mass at the Toronto Oratory sounds like, if you are ever in this part of town do drop by

Regina Caeli

Victimae Paschali Laudes with amazing pipe organ

This one made a few babies in church wail. Quite amusing



CHRISTIANS, to the Paschal Victim offer sacrifice and praise.

The sheep are ransomed by the Lamb; and Christ, the undefiled, hath sinners to his Father reconciled.

Death with life contended: combat strangely ended! Life's own Champion, slain, yet lives to reign.

Tell us, Mary: say what thou didst see upon the way. The tomb the Living did enclose; I saw Christ's glory as He rose! The angels there attesting; shroud with grave-clothes resting.

Christ, my hope, has risen: He goes before you into Galilee. That Christ is truly risen from the dead we know.

Victorious King, Thy mercy show!

Amen. Hallelujah.

Victimae Paschali

Today morning at mass this was the sequence, first time I heard it.



Victimæ paschali laudes inmolent Christiani.

Agnus redemit oves:
Christus innocens Patri
reconciliavit peccatores.

Mors et vita duello
conflixere mirando:
dux vitae mortuus,
regnat vivus.

Dic nobis Maria, quid vidisti in via?
Sepulcrum Christi viventis,
et gloriam vidi resurgentis,
angelicos testes, sudarium et vestes.

Surrexit Christus spes mea;
præcedet suos in Galileam.
Scimus Christum surrexisse
a mortuis vere.

Tu nobis victor Rex, miserere.

Amen. Alleluia.

Happy Easter 2011

New Canadian and Indian venerables

Today, during a private audience with Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Pope authorised the congregation to promulgate the following decrees

Servant of God Thomas Kurialacherry, Indian, first bishop of Changanacherry and founder of the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament (1873-1925).

Servant of God Adolphe Chatillon (Br. Theophanius-Leo), Canadian professed religious of the Brothers of Christian Schools (1871-1929).

Lent Day 9 - Catechism on the Priesthood

(The following is from the Cure of Ars Lenten reading Plan)

My children, we have come to the Sacrament of Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This Sacrament raises man up to God. What is a priest! A man who holds the place of God – a man who is invested with all the powers of God. "Go," said Our Lord to the priest; "as My Father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given Me in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations.... He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you despises Me." When the priest remits sins, he does not say, "God pardons you"; he says, "I absolve you." At the Consecration, he does not say, "This is the Body of Our Lord;" he says, "This is My Body."
St. Bernard tells us that everything has come to us through Mary; and we may also say that everything has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts. If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, we should not have Our Lord. Who placed Him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest – always the priest. And if that soul comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will restore it to calmness and peace? Again the priest. You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this recollection, the image of the priest.
Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they absolve you? No. Will they give you the Body and Blood of Our Lord? No. The Holy Virgin cannot make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You might have two hundred angels there, but they could not absolve you. A priest, however simple he may be, can do it; he can say to you, "Go in peace; I pardon you." Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love. The other benefits of God would be of no avail to us without the priest. What would be the use of a house full of gold, if you had nobody to open you the door! The priest has the key of the heavenly treasures; it is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the distributor of His wealth. Without the priest, the Death and Passion of Our Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it availed them that Our Lord has died? Alas! they can have no share in the blessings of Redemption, while they have no priests to apply His Blood to their souls!
The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there: we may as well pray at home." When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice there is no religion.
When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul." If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept." "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest." "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord." O God! O God! how You have loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world.... Someone said, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Cure of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him.
If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St. Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul." At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord." "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass."
What joy did the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loreto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lent Day 8 - Catechism on Prayer

(The following is from the Cure of Ars Lenten reading Plan)

See my children; the treasure of a Christian is not on the earth, it is in Heaven. Well, our thoughts ought to be where our treasure is. Man has a beautiful occupation, that of praying and loving. You pray, you love – that is the happiness of man upon the earth. Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When our heart is pure and united to God, we feel within ourselves a joy, a sweetness that inebriates, a light that dazzles us. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax melted together; they cannot be separated. This union of God with His little creature is a most beautiful thing. It is a happiness that we cannot understand.... God, in His goodness, has permitted us to speak to Him. Our prayer is an incense which He receives with extreme pleasure. My children, your heart is poor and narrow; but prayer enlarges it, and renders it capable of loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of Heaven, an overflow of paradise. It never leaves us without sweetness. It is like honey descending into the soul and sweetening everything. Troubles melt away before a fervent prayer like snow before the sun. Prayer makes time pass away very quickly, and so pleasantly that one does not perceive how it passes....
We see some persons who lose themselves in prayer like a fish in the water, because they are all for God. There is no division in their heart. Oh, how I love those generous souls! St. Francis of Assisi and St. Colette saw Our Lord and spoke to Him as we talk to each other. While we, how often we come to church without knowing what we come for, or what we are going to ask! And yet, when we go to one's house, we know very well what we are going for. Some people seem to say to God, "I am going to say two words to You, and then I can get rid of You." I often think that when we come to adore Our Lord, we should obtain all we wish, if we would ask it with very lively faith, and a very pure heart. But, alas! we have no faith, no hope, no desire, no love!
There are two cries in man, the cry of the angel and the cry of the beast. The cry of the angel is prayer; the cry of the beast is sin. Those who do not pray, stoop towards the earth, like a mole trying to make a hole to hide itself in. They are all earthly, all brutish, and think of nothing but temporal things,... like that miser who was receiving the last Sacraments the other day; when they gave him a silver crucifix to kiss, he said, "That cross weighs a full ten ounces." If... the poor lost souls, notwithstanding their sufferings, could worship, there would be no more Hell. Alas! they had a heart to love God with, a tongue to bless Him with; that was their destiny. And now they are condemned to curse Him through all eternity....
"Our Father who art in Heaven!" Oh, how beautiful it is, my children, to have a Father in Heaven! "Thy kingdom come." If I make the good God reign in my heart, He will make me reign with Him in His glory. "Thy will be done." There is nothing so sweet, and nothing so perfect, as to do the will of God. In order to do things well, we must do them as God wills, in all conformity with His designs. "Give us this day our daily bread." We are composed of two parts, the soul and the body. We ask the good God to feed our poor body, and He answers by making the earth produce all that is necessary for our support.... But we ask Him to feed our soul, which is the best part of ourselves; and the earth is too small to furnish enough to satisfy it; it hungers for God, and nothing but God can satisfy it. Therefore the good God thought He did not do too much in dwelling upon the earth and assuming a body, in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls. "My Flesh," said Our Lord, "is meat indeed.... The bread that I will give is my Flesh, for the life of the world." The bread of souls is in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the storehouse of Christians.... Oh, how beautiful it is, my children! When the priest presents the Host, and shows it to you, your soul may say, "There is my food." O my children, we are too blessed!... We shall never comprehend it till we are in Heaven. What a pity that is!

Lent day 7 - Catechism on the Sanctification of Sunday

(The following is from the Cure of Ars Lenten reading Plan)

You labor, you labor, my children; but what you earn ruins your body and your soul. If one ask those who work on Sunday, "What have you been doing?" they might answer, "I have been selling my soul to the devil, crucifying Our Lord, and renouncing my Baptism. I am going to Hell; I shall have to weep for all eternity in vain." When I see people driving carts on Sunday, I think I see them carrying their souls to Hell.

Oh, how mistaken in his calculations is he who labors hard on Sunday, thinking that he will earn more money or do more work! Can two or three shillings ever make up for the harm he does himself by violating the law of the good God? You imagine that everything depends on your working; but there comes an illness, an accident.... so little is required! a tempest, a hailstorm, a frost. The good God holds everything in His hand; He can avenge Himself when He will, and as He will; the means are not wanting to Him. Is He not always the strongest? Must not He be the master in the end?

There was once a woman who came to her priest to ask leave to get in her hay on Sunday. "But," said the priest, "it is not necessary; your hay will run no risk." The woman insisted, saying, "Then you want me to let my crop be lost?" She herself died that very evening; she was more in danger than her crop of hay. "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting." [Jn. 6: 27].

What will remain to you of your Sunday work? You leave the earth just as it is; when you go away, you carry nothing with you. Ah! when we are attached to the earth, we are not willing to go! Our first end is to go to God; we are on the earth for no other purpose. My brethren, we should die on Sunday, and rise again on Monday.

Sunday is the property of our good God; it is His own day, the Lord's day. He made all the days of the week: He might have kept them all; He has given you six, and has reserved only the seventh for Himself. What right have you to meddle with what does not belong to you? You know very well that stolen goods never bring any profit. Nor will the day that you steal from Our Lord profit you either. I know two very certain ways of becoming poor: they are working on Sunday and taking other people's property

Lent Day 6 - Catechism on the Prerogatives of the Pure Soul

(The following is from the Cure of Ars Lenten reading Plan)

Nothing is so beautiful as a pure soul. If we understood this, we could not lose our purity. The pure soul is disengaged from matter, from earthly things, and from itself.... That is why the saints ill-treated their body, that is why they did not grant it what it required, not even to rise five minutes later, to warm themselves, to eat anything that gave them pleasure.... For what the body loses the soul gains, and what the body gains the soul loses.

Purity comes from Heaven; we must ask for it from God. If we ask for it, we shall obtain it. We must take great care not to lose it. We must shut our heart against pride, against sensuality, and all the other passions, as one shuts the doors and windows that nobody may be able to get in. What joy is it to the guardian angel to conduct a pure soul! My children, when a soul is pure, all Heaven looks upon it with love! Pure souls will form the circle round Our Lord. The more pure we have been on earth, the nearer we shall be to Him in Heaven. When the heart is pure, it will of God, it is God who does his will. Look at Moses, that very pure soul. When God would punish the Jewish people, He said to him: Do not pray for them, because My anger must fall upon this people. Nevertheless, Moses prayed, and God spared His people; He let Himself be entreated; He could not resist the prayer of that pure soul. O my children, a soul that has never been stained by that accursed sin obtains from God whatever it wishes!

Three things are wanted to preserve purity-the presence of God, prayer, and the Sacraments. Another means is the reading of holy books, which nourishes the soul. How beautiful is a pure soul! Our Lord showed one to St. Catherine; she thought it so beautiful that she said, "O Lord, if I did not know that there is only one God, I should think it was one." The image of God is reflected in a pure soul, like the sun in the water. A pure soul is the admiration of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father contemplates His work: There is My creature!... The Son, the price of His Blood: the beauty of an object is shown by the price it has cost.... The Holy Spirit dwells in it, as in a temple.

We also know the value of our soul by the efforts the devil makes to ruin it. Hell is leagued against it – Heaven for it. Oh, how great it must be! In order to have an idea of our dignity, we must often think of Heaven, Calvary, and Hell. If we could understand what it is to be the child of God, we could not do evil – we should be like angels on earth. To be children of God, oh, what a dignity!

It is a beautiful thing to have a heart, and, little as it is, to be able to make use of it in loving God. How shameful it is that man should descend so low, when God has placed him so high! When the angels had revolted against God, this God who is so good, seeing that they could no longer enjoy the happiness for which He had created them, made man, and this little world that we see to nourish his body. But his soul required to be nourished also; and as nothing created can feed the soul, which is a spirit, God willed to give Himself for its Food. But the great misfortune is that we neglect to have recourse to this divine Food, in crossing the desert of this life. Like people who die of hunger within sight of a well-provided table, there are some who remain fifty, sixty years, without feeding their souls.

Oh, if Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them, "Notwithstanding your misery, I wish to see near Me that beautiful soul which I created for Myself. I made it so great, that nothing can fill it but Myself. I made it so pure, that nothing but My Body can nourish it."

Our Lord has always distinguished pure souls. Look at St. John, the well-beloved disciple, who reposed upon His breast. St. Catherine was pure, and she was often transported into Paradise. When she died, angels took up her body, and carried it to Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the Commandments of the law. God has shown by this prodigy that a soul is so agreeable to Him, that it deserves that even the body which has participated in its purity should be buried by angels.

God contemplates a pure soul with love; He grants it all it desires. How could He refuse anything to a soul that lives only for Him, by Him, and in Him? It seeks God, and He shows Himself to it; it calls Him, and God comes; it is one with Him; it captivates His will. A pure soul is all-powerful with the gracious Heart of Our Lord. A pure soul with God is like a child with its mother. It caresses her, it embraces her, and its mother returns its caresses and embraces.

Lent day 5 - Catechism on the Word of God

(The following is from the Cure of Ars Lenten reading Plan)

Catechism on the Word of God

My children, the Word of God is of no little importance! These were Our Lord's first words to His Apostles: "Go and teach"… to show us that instruction is before everything.

My children, what has taught us our religion? The instructions we have heard. What gives us a horror of sin? What makes us alive to the beauty of virtue, inspires us with the desire of Heaven? Instructions. What teaches fathers and mothers the duties they have to fulfill towards their children and children the duties they have to fulfill towards their parents? Instructions.
My children, why are people so blind and so ignorant? Because they make so little account of the Word of God. There are some who do not even say an Our Father and a Hail Mary to beg of the good God the grace to listen to it attentively, and to profit well by it. I believe, my children, that a person who does not hear the Word of God as he ought, will not be saved; he will not know what to do to be saved. But with a well-instructed person there is always some resource. He may wander in all sorts of evil ways; there is still hope that he will return sooner or later to the good God, even if it were only at the hour of death. Instead of which a person who has never been instructed is like a sick person – like one in his agony who is no longer conscious: he knows neither the greatness of sin nor the value of virtue; he drags himself from sin to sin, like a rag that is dragged in the mud....
My children, you make a scruple of missing holy Mass, because you commit a great sin in missing it by your own fault; but you have no scruple in missing an instruction. You never consider that in this way you may greatly offend God. At the Day of Judgment, when you will all be there around me, and the good God will say to you, "Give Me an account of the instructions and the catechisms which you have heard and which you might have heard," you will think very differently.

My children, you go out during the instructions, you amuse yourselves with laughing, you do not listen, you think yourselves too clever to come to the catechism... do you think, my children, that things will be allowed to go on so? Oh no, certainly not! God will arrange matters very differently. How sad it is! We see fathers and mothers stay outside during the instruction; yet they are under obligation to instruct their children; but how can they teach them? They are not instructed themselves.... All this leads straight to Hell.... It is a pity!...

My children, I will give you an example of what it is not to believe what priests tell you. There were two soldiers passing through a place where a mission was being given; one of the soldiers proposed to his comrade to go and hear the sermon, and they went. The missionary preached upon Hell. "Do you believe all that this priest says?" asked the least wicked of the two. "Oh, no!" replied the other, "I believe it is all nonsense, invented to frighten people." "Well, for my part, I believe it; and to prove to you that I believe it, I shall give up being a soldier, and go into a convent." "Go where you please; I shall continue my journey." But while he was on his journey, he fell ill and died. The other, who was in the convent, heard of his death, and began to pray that God would show him in what state his companion had died. One day, as he was praying, his companion appeared to him; he recognized him, and asked him, "Where are you?" "In Hell; I am lost!" "O wretched man! Do you now believe what the missionary said?" "Yes, I believe it. Missionaries are wrong only in one respect; they do not tell you a hundredth part of what is suffered here."

My children, I often think that most of the Christians who are lost for want of instruction-they do not know their religion well. For example, here is a person who has to go and do his day's work. This person has a desire to do great penances, to pass half the night in prayer; if he is well instructed, he will say, "No, I must not do that, because then I could not fulfill my duty tomorrow; I should be sleepy, and the least thing would put me out of patience; I should be weary all the day, and I should not do half as much work as if I had rested at night; that must not be done."

Again, my children, a servant may have a desire to fast, but he is obliged to pass the whole day in digging and plowing, or whatever you please. Well, if this servant is well instructed, he will think, "But if I do this, I shall not be able to satisfy my master." Well, what will he do? He will eat his breakfast, and mortify himself in some other way. That is what we must do – we must always act in the way that will give most glory to the good God.

A person knows that another is in distress, and takes from his parents what will relieve that distress. He would certainly do much better to ask than to take it. If his parents refuse to give it, he will pray to God to inspire a rich person to give the alms instead of him. A well-instructed person always has two guides leading the way before him – good counsel and obedience.

Lent Day 4 - Catechism on the Blessed Virgin

(The following is from the Cure of Ars Lenten reading Plan)

The Father takes pleasure in looking upon the heart of the most Holy Virgin Mary, as the masterpiece of His hands; for we always like our own work, especially when it is well done. The Son takes pleasure in it as the heart of His Mother, the source from which He drew the Blood that has ransomed us; the Holy Spirit as His temple.
The Prophets published the glory of Mary before her birth; they compared her to the sun. Indeed, the apparition of the Holy Virgin may well be compared to a beautifulgleam of sun on a foggy day.
Before her coming, the anger of God was hanging over our heads like a sword ready to strike us. As soon as the Holy Virgin appeared upon the earth, His anger was appeased.... She did not know that she was to be the Mother of God, and when she was a little child she used to say, "When shall I then see that beautiful creature who is to be the Mother of God?" The Holy Virgin has brought us forth twice, in the Incarnation and at the foot of the Cross; she is then doubly our Mother. The Holy Virgin is often compared to a mother, but she is much better still than the best of mothers; for the best of mothers sometimes punishes her child when it displeases her, and even beats it: she thinks she is doing right. But the Holy Virgin does not so; she is so good that she treats us with love, and never punishes us.
The heart of this good Mother is all love and mercy; she desires only to see us happy. We have only to turn to her to be heard. The Son has His justice, the Mother has nothing but her love. God has loved us so much as to die for us; but in the heart of Our Lord there is justice, which is an attribute of God; in that of the most Holy Virgin there is nothing but mercy. Her Son being ready to punish a sinner, Mary interposes, checks the sword, implores pardon for the poor criminal. "Mother," Our Lord says to her, "I can refuse you nothing. If Hell could repent, you would obtain its pardon."
The most Holy Virgin places herself between her Son and us. The greater sinners we are, the more tenderness and compassion does she feel for us. The child that has cost its mother most tears is the dearest to her heart. Does not a mother always run to the help of the weakest and the most exposed to danger? Is not a physician in the hospital most attentive to those who are most seriously ill? The Heart of Mary is so tender towards us, that those of all the mothers in the world put together are like a piece of ice in comparison to hers. See how good the Holy Virgin is! Her great servant St. Bernard used often to say to her, "I salute you, Mary." One day this goodMother answered him, "I salute you, my son Bernard."
The Ave Maria is a prayer that is never wearisome. The devotion to the Holy Virgin is delicious, sweet, nourishing. When we talk on earthly subjects or politics, we grow weary; but when we talk of the Holy Virgin, it is always new. All the saints have a great devotion to Our Lady; no grace comes from Heaven without passing through her hands. We cannot go into a house without speaking to the porter; well, the Holy Virgin is the portress of Heaven.
When we have to offer anything to a great personage, we get it presented by the person he likes best, in order that the homage may be agreeable to him. So our prayers have quite a different sort of merit when they are presented by the Blessed Virgin, because she is the only creature who has never offended God. The Blessed Virgin alone has fulfilled the first Commandment – to adore God only, and love Him perfectly. She fulfilled it completely.
All that the Son asks of the Father is granted Him. All that the Mother asks of the Son is in like manner granted to her. When we have handled something fragrant, our hands perfume whatever they touch: let our prayers pass through the hands of the Holy Virgin; she will perfume them. I think that at the end of the world the Blessed Virgin will be very tranquil; but while the world lasts, we drag her in all directions.... The Holy Virgin is like a mother who has a great many children – she is continually occupied in going from one to the other.