Archive
Happy 83rd Birthday, Holy Father!
Today is the 83rd Birthday of Our Most Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. This video was from his visit back in 2008.
can laity replace priests?
While the lay faithful share in the “common priesthood,” they are not ordained ministers of Christ and His Church. “Hence,” the Pope cautioned, “it is important to avoid the secularization of clergy and the ‘clericalization’ of the laity.”
Check out the full article from the Catholic New Agency (CNA).
Communion & Liberation
COMMUNION & LIBERATION — this morning was a special presentation in St Raphael Chapel here at St John Vianney College Seminary. We had a keynote speaker, Christopher Bacich, leader of Communion and Liberation in the USA, introducing the latest book by founder Luigi Giussani called “Is It Possible to Live this Way?” The lay ecclesial movement, “CL” for short, is worldwide with an active presence here is South Florida. There are regular meetings nearby the seminary, that do small group spiritual readings (from Luigi Giussani’s books) and discuss their faith experiences together. Besides priests (like Fr Chris Marino, spiritual director here & pastor of Visitation Parish) and religious who belong to the movement, the movement has consecrated lay men and women who are committed to lifelong celibacy, known as the Memores Domini, who keep things going (one man lives down the street from the seminary).
The regular group meetings are called School of Community. [from flyers they handed out:] In it, participants learn to perceive the sense of the Mystery, upon which our life depends, and to live the Catholic faith through a companionship within everyday life. Community life is built through the School of Community, a weekly meeting open to everyone (no membership is needed) and held in places such as high schools, universities, parishes or workplaces with study and discussion about a text. The text (the same for all communities around the world) communicates the experiences of Father Giussani’s charism in a systematic form that helps us understand our lives and life of the Church and of the world. In South Florida, here are the current locations for meetings:
For High School students:
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Columbus High School (3000 SW 87th Ave., Miami, FL 33165), Classroom D16, Friday at 4:30pm. Contact Paolo Cazzoletti (paoloc90@hotmail.com).
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St Thomas Aquinas High School (2801 SW 12th Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312). Contact Tommy (tmaranges@hotmail.com) or Simone (simone_brusa@hotmail.com).
For College Students & Professors:
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Miami locations to be announced, Friday at 7pm. Contact Luis A. Rivero (pater33@gmail.com).
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Ave Maria University. Contact Brendon Ford (Brendon.Ford@avemaria.edu) or Naomi Amsbery (naomi.ambsberry@avemaria.edu)
For Adults:
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Visitation Parish (19100 North Miami Avenue, Miami, FL 33169) in activity room, Tuesday at 7:30pm. Contact Elena Nunez (evnunez@bellsouth.net).
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NEW School of Community beginning in South West Miami. Location and time to be determined. Contact Eduardo & Martina Stadelmann (martina.stadelmann@gmx.net or 305-495-7597).
More info about Communion and Liberation on Wikipedia, CL USA website and CL international website. Apparently, Pope Benedict XVI has been a supporter of this movement back when he was Cardinal Ratzinger and has his own weekly meetings on Saturdays at the Vatican.
The event ended with a beautiful bi-lingual Mass with Archbishop Favalora, another great supporter of the CL movement, especially here in South Florida. — a great presentation by Fr Chris Marino and guest speaker Christopher Bacich (“Einstein of love”) 🙂
beast of burden + men are right + Unknown God + body theology
MASS – (Fr Michael) — today’s Mass intention was for Pope Benedict XVI, very appropriately with the Gospel reading of Jesus telling Peter to “Feed My Sheep.” The story behind the significance of the Corbinian Bear on the Pope’s coat of arms (upper right) was told. According to the background on Saint Corbinian (a Frankish bishop), a bear killed his pack horse on his way to Rome so the saint commanded the bear to carry his load. Pope Benedict XVI first adopted the symbol when, still known as Joseph Ratzinger, he was appointed Archbishop of Freising-Munich in March of 1977. He retained the bear in his revised coat of arms when becoming Cardinal in the same year and when elected to Pope in 2005. In addition to the obvious reference back to St. Corbinian, the founder of the diocese where Benedict was bishop, the bear represents Benedict himself being “tamed by God” as a “beast of burden” to bear the spiritual burdens of Benedict’s own ministries first as bishop, then as cardinal, and now as pope.
AQUINAS – (Fr Vallee) — more on Modernity and the extremes of Rationalism (reason) & Fideism (faith). Nature + supernature. Grace + nature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge quote: “Most men are right in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.”
CONTEMPORARY PHIL – (Fr Santos) — opening quiz on reading of Kierkegaard‘s “Equilibrium between the Aesthetic & the Ethical” in his book Either/Or. Introduced “inauthentic existence,” “radical subjectivity,” “disolving into a mutitude,” and self as “task” & “a dynamic process.”
MEDIEVAL PHIL – (Fr Vallee) — reviewed Stoicism and reflected on St Paul in Athens (Acts 17), especially his approach to preaching the gospel message among the Greeks of his time about their statue to the “Unknown God.”
MINISTERIAL METHODS – (Fr Michael) — “Classroom Management.”
RECTOR’s CONFERENCE – (Fr Michael) — usually on Thursday, this was an exceptional day since this Thursday we’re hosting the seminarians from the St Vincent’s Major Seminary in Boyton Beach, FL. Today’s topic was (part 2 of 3) on the Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.
DOTS — night walk — Superman Returns — busy day
practical atheism
On the first day back to seminary after a 2 week Christmas break, the Rector Fr Michael had a Rector’s Conference disguised as an “Orientation Meeting” with some great points to think about as we begin a 4 day silent retreat tonight.
Beware of “practical atheism” when we say our prayers … and don’t live them.
Christianity is a lifestyle, not just an idea. C.S. Lewis quote: “For when you get down to it, is not the popular idea of Christianity simply this: that Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher and that if only we took His advice we might be able to establish a better social order and avoid another war?” [from chapter 23 of Mere Christianity]
Pope Benedict XVI quote on priesthood:
The priest must be a believer, one who converses with God. If this is not the case, then all his activities are futile. The most lofty and important thing a priest can do for people is first of all being what he is: a believer. Through faith he lets God, the other, come into the world. And if the other is not at work, our work will never be enough; When people sense that one is there who believes, who lives with God and from God, hope becomes a reality for them as well. Through the faith of the priest, doors open up all around for people: it is really possible to believe, even today. All human believing is a believing-with, and for this reason the one who believes before us is so important. In many ways this person is more exposed in his faith than the others, since their faith depends on his and since, at any given time, he has to withstand the hard-ships of faith for them….
There is a mutual given-and-take in faith in which priests and lay people become mediators of the nearness of God for one another. The priest must also nurture the humility of such receiving in himself ….
The first “task” a priest has to do is to be a believer and to become one ever anew and ever more. Faith is never simply there automatically; it must be lived. It leads us into conversation with God which involves speaking and listening to the same degree. Faith and prayer belong together; they cannot be separated. The time spent by a priest on prayer and listening to Scripture is never time lost to pastoral care or time withheld from others. People sense whether the work and words of their pastor spring from prayer fabricated at his desk. [Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, from A New Song for the Lord, tr. by Martha M Matesich, NY: Crossroad Publishing Co., 1996, and quoted in Magnificat for Holy Thursday, March 24, 2005.]
[Other links not mentioned today …The Nature of Priesthood (1990 speech by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger) … Pope Benedict XVI’s Homily to Seminarians in Cologne: “If You Abide in Christ, You Will Bear Much Fruit” (August 19, 2005 World Youth Day Meeting)]
According to St John of the Cross, few will have an ecstacy prayer experience. Opening poem of his Dark Night of the Soul [insert here].
Ended with a guided meditation, “Feed my sheep.”
Pope to Baptists
I ran across a short speech Pope Benedict XVI gave to the ecumenical council for the Baptist World Alliance on December 6, 2007. Here’s an excerpt (the last line is deep):
As believers in Christ, we acknowledge him as the one mediator between God and humanity (1 Tim 2:5), our Saviour, our Redeemer. He is the cornerstone (Eph 2:21; 1 Pet 2:4-8); and the head of the body, which is the Church (Col 1:18). In this Advent season, we look to his coming with prayerful expectation. Today, as ever, the world needs our common witness to Christ and to the hope brought by the Gospel. Obedience to the Lord’s will should constantly spur us, then, to strive for that unity so movingly expressed in his priestly prayer: “that they may all be one… so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). For the lack of unity between Christians “openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world, and harms the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature” (Unitatis Redintegratio, 1).
where’s Heaven?
A thoughtful closing to Pope Benedict’s 2007 homily at Midnight Mass (reposted by Fr Stephanos, OSB on his blog Me Monk Me Meander).
In the stable at Bethlehem, Heaven and Earth meet. … Just as the sinner is called ‘Earth’, so by contrast the just man can be called ‘Heaven'” (Sermo in monte II 5, 17). Heaven does not belong to the geography of space, but to the geography of the heart. And the heart of God, during the Holy Night, stooped down to the stable: the humility of God is Heaven. And if we approach this humility, then we touch Heaven. Then the Earth too is made new. With the humility of the shepherds, let us set out, during this Holy Night, towards the Child in the stable! Let us touch God’s humility, God’s heart! Then his joy will touch us and will make the world more radiant. Amen.
Pope, drugs & Brazil
I read an article in the Miami Herald today on Pope Benedict XVI in Brazil saying “Drug dealers face God’s wrath”on the front page. Americans (especially non-believers) must see that (like I did) and say “Duh! — the Pope just discovered drugs are bad?” I think it’s because most Americans forget how many Latin American countries have government officials so influenced by drug dealers (like special interests in our country), that they’ve been numbed to any promises of changes. A fresh outside voice may jump-start the hard work that needs to be done to bring healing. With nearly half of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics in Latin America, the churches are experiencing an “exodus” of the faithful, like in Europe:
”People only go to church to ask for a favor, and when they get it, they go away.” …”People don’t know what church they belong to anymore, and they’re trying out everything.”
Surveys show that although Brazil remains the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, Catholics are now only 64% of the population, down from 89% in 1980. Those calling themselves evangelical Protestants rose to 15% from 7%.
What’s going on? I can’t say I’m surprised about the numbers. What’s always surprised me is how most Latin Americans can be Catholic in the first place. They have such an extremely patriarchal culture, where woman are expected to ignore “modesty” and ignore their men’s extra-extramarital affairs as a by-product of being over-sexualized. I understand that our response to our Catholic faith differs dependent on our culture, but this kind of culture make Catholicism so superficial that it justify the exodus. I hope and pray that the Latin American and Caribbean bishops’ conference finds some practical ways to awaken a “purified” fruitful response, and not just a paper mission statement. If they don’t, ministry to Latin Americans, especially in south Florida, will continue to be an uphill battle that the church can’t ignore.
Kermit? Anyone?
SJVCS Seminary Life Album
July '09 -- hospital chaplains @ IPF
Easter '09 -- Miami SJVCS friends
the Son always finds a break in let the clouds
Feb '09 -- school vocation talks @ AMHS
Feb '09 -- cold breakfast with brothers (Matias, Fenly & Randy), now at SVDP and Imad (at SJVCS)
Superbowl '09 -- eating great @ SJVCS
Sept '08 -- Worklist Coordinators?
St Raphael Chapel mural @ SJVCS
Sept '08 -- retreats @ SJVCS
"It's not easy being green"
Catholic Kermit 
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