Litany for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart

Image source: Communio

Friday, July 1, is the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, celebrated 19 days after Pentecost Sunday.

Here's a brief history of devotion to the Sacred Heart and here are the scriptures for today's liturgy.

Every First Friday on this page Concord Pastor posts a litany of the Sacred Heart (below).  In 2010, I offered a novena leading up to this special day.  The prayers for those nine days can be found here.

This year the gospel for the feast of the Sacred Heart is the same as that for this coming Sunday, the 14th in Ordinary Time.  Twice this weekend we'll hear these consoling words:

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

Christ's heart may be meek and humble but it is also strong and deep enough to hold within its chambers the burdens of all...

All are invited to come to the heart of Jesus to find rest and light...

What burdens, what weariness do you bring to Jesus' heart this day?

Let us pray...

Litany of the Sacred Heart

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

So loving

So humble

So gentle

So compassionate

So faithful

So wise

So patient

So steadfast

So tender

So spacious

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

God’s joy

God’s shalom

Harp of the Trinity

Wingbeat of the Spirit

Breath of God

Five-petaled rose

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Womb of justice

Birthplace of peace

Our dearest hope

Longing of our lives

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Freely flowing fountain

Spring of grace

Freshet of forgiveness

Merciful river

Mystical dew

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Warmth of our hearts

Transforming fire

Cosmic furnace

Enflamer of hearts

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Heart of evolution

Beginning and ending

Center of all

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Garden of virtues

Mystical dew

Table and food

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Our refuge

Our shelter

Our comfort

Our rest

Our welcoming breast

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Wounded by love

Pierced by our cruelty

Broken by our hardness

Mystic winepress

Poured out as gift

Heart of Jesus, hear our prayer!

Have mercy, gracious heart,

Give us gratefulness

Teach us tenderness

Let us learn to love.

Hear our prayer!

(Litany by Wendy Wright)

Let us pray...

Father,
we rejoice in the gifts of love
we have received from the heart of Jesus your Son.
Open our hearts to share his life
and continue to bless us with his love.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

(Opening Prayer of today's Mass)

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A Monday Morning Offering - on a Thursday

Image: George Mendoza

It was three years ago today that I posted my first Monday Morning Offering. When I wrote that prayer it wasn't my intention to make it a weekly feature but: the response was very good; I enjoyed working on this theme; and now there have been 149 MMO's.  Now and again I've redacted and/or reposted an earlier piece so the actual count could be challenged.  Some day, when I have the time, I hope to edit and publish these as a collection but that's not any time soon.  For now, my MMO's are archived here.

I'm aware that it's the weekly MMO that regularly draws many readers to this page.  I've also been happy to hear how often readers have forwarded a MMO to family and friends to share in times of a particular need.

So, here on a Thursday is a repost of the first Monday Morning Offering...

O God,
it's Monday!

A new week stretches before me:
will you walk with me this week, Lord?

Slow me down before I go too fast
and give me strength to do well
the things I really need to accomplish...

Give me the wisdom to lay aside
the things I do not need,
the cares I need not carry,
the burdens I need not bear...

Amid the worries of this week, Lord,
calm my fears,
lift my spirits,
give me rest
- and keep me in today...

Open my eyes to any way
I might lighten the burdens of others
and give me the grace and courage to offer:
my hand, my arm, my shoulder;
my heart, my support, my comfort;
my smile, my story, my love...

Show me yourself this week, Lord:
open my ears to your voice,
my eyes to your beauty,
my heart to your mercy,
my mind to your counsel,
my weary limbs to your strength,
my mouth to give you praise...

A new week stretches before me, Lord:
help me to live it
a day at a time,
in your time,
in peace...

Amen.

(Click here for an archive of Monday Morning Offerings)

 
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Word for the Weekend: July 3

Photo: BerryBrook

Although we re-enetered Ordinary Time the day after Pentecost, the next two Sundays were, as they are every year, trumped by Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi.

So July 3 finds us on the Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.  But in the U.S.A. there's nothing very ordinary about the Fourth of July weekend!

Of course, the liturgical year does not reflect the civil calendar so this weekend's readings are not chosen in light of our nation's birthday. (Although it does occur to me that in liturgical language the "night before the Fourth" would be "the Vigil of the Nativity of the United States"!)

With just a click you can find this weekend's scriptures and background material on them.

Bringing children to Mass this weekend?  Check here for hints on how to help them prepare the Lord's Word.

From this weekend's gospel:

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

A few questions for reflection:

Do I "take the yoke of Christ" upon myself?
How do I experience Christ's yoke upon you life?
Do I learn from being in Christ's yoke?
Are there ways that I make that yoke harder, heavier
than it needs to be?

 
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Poem for a summer's day

Image by Bruce

Messenger

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird --
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and those body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up glam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
what we live forever.

-Mary Oliver in the collection Thirst


 
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Scola to Milan

Photo: CNS

Again we tip our hats to Rocco for this quote from Cardinal Angelo Scola, named today as Archbishop of Milan, Italy.

The importance of this appointment will be of interest to those who like to speculate on "who the next pope will be."  Nothing definite here, of course, but Rock also has some interesting detail on the relationship between Milan and succession to the Holy See.

(And here's an interesting 2005 report on Scola from CNS.) 

My purpose in bringing all this to your attention is the quote below from Scola which I find refreshing and hopeful.  While in no way diminishing any point on the spectrum of what it means to live a Christian life, Scola brings us to the heart of the matter and sets it in contrast to any who might think or act or judge that Christian faith is primarily a matter of doctrine.

These words might offer a healthy caution to some in the Catholic blogosphere who have narrowly concentrated on the doctrinal to the near exclusion of much of that 360 degree dialogue encouraged by the archbishop-elect.  And of course there is caution here, too, for those in the same blogosphere who concentrate so exclusively on the personal and on relationships that they lose sight of what the moral dimensions of the gospel demand of us.

“It is clear that we are faced [today] with a framework that is radically different from that which prevailed up to the 1980s, and it seems to me that the church, in this context, has to insist on the fact that the ‘I’ does not exist without relationships. This is the point. Because it is from the ‘I’ that the dynamism of the truth, the good and the beautiful is documented within the human family and, in my view, this fact is irrepressible....

It seems to me that, in this context, the mission of the church is more relevant than ever. Indeed, I believe that the Christian proposal is particularly relevant now, because if we read the Gospel we see it revolves around the theme of happiness and freedom. Jesus said that if you wish to be happy, come and follow me, and he who follows me will be truly free. It inserts the dynamic of truth, goodness and beauty within the horizon of happiness and freedom.

So when the Christian proposal is freed from the many things that weigh it down because of the contradictions and sins in the men and women of the church, and is re-proposed in its youthful simplicity as an encounter with a humanity made whole by Christ, then it is more relevant than ever....

An effective dialogue requires that I engage my faith in a dynamic way. It implies an identity, but a dynamic identity, and so we return to what we spoke about earlier: What is Christianity? The event of Christ, by which he gives himself as a gift to mankind to be the way, the truth and the life, is open to dialogue at 360 degrees. But if I reduce Christianity to a question of doctrine only, then I reduce it to a dialogue of a purely speculative kind.

Certainly, Christianity implies a doctrine and a moral teaching, but they are incarnated in the life of a person and in the life of a community. Therefore, if I practice the Christian life for what it is – ‘the good life’ which the Gospel documents and witnesses to, then I can go and dialogue with everyone....”

--Cardinal Angelo Scola
Archbishop-elect of Milan
Interview with The Universe
26 June 2011

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Pope on an iPad!

Rocco posted this moment of papal cyber history (above).

This was the launch of News.va, a significant retooling of the Holy See's online information presence. And here's the first papal Tweet:

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Simple, natural beauty

Photo my MDR

My baby broc holding on to yesterday's raindrop...


Which is more beautiful: the image or the caption?

Nature's beauty is refracted and magnified in the eye of the beholder...

(H/T to reader MDR who captioned this photo which she took with her iPhone two years ago. Click on the image for a larger version.)


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Monday Morning Offering - 149

Image: George Mendoza

Good morning, good God!

We come this morning with our arms full, Lord,
because today we offer you the Church,
the whole Church,
the beautiful, blessed Body of Christ:
your faithful sons and daughters,
born again in baptism and in the grace of the Holy Spirit...

We offer you the Church, the mystical Body of Christ,
in all its beauty-
but a beauty marred and scarred
by our sin and selfishness,
our carelessness and conceit,
our hunger for power and desire for self-promotion...

You call us to serve one another,
and we make victims of the innocent,
children of adults
and hirelings of our siblings in Christ...

You call us to be pure of mind and heart,
and we sully ourselves and others
for the sake of passion and prestige...

You call us to be channels of your peace,
and we cripple the souls of the young,
betray the faith of elders
and choke the trust of believers...

You call us to be merciful to one another
and we set ourselves up as judges,
handing down verdicts we pray
you would never hand down on us...

You call us to be just in all our doings,
and we fail to be accountable
to you, your Word, your law
and your people...

You call us to be a city set on a hill,
shining for all,
and we grow content with the darkness;
you call us to be yeast
to make the dough rise
but our leaven is old and impotent;
you call us to be servants
to our neighbors
but our selfishness leaves others in need…

You call us to be the Body of Christ,
Corpus Christi,
but we shame you, Lord,
whose Body we are…

Lord, have mercy!
Christ, have mercy!
Lord, have mercy!

Be merciful, O Lord, and spare your people!

Help us turn our hearts to you, Lord,
so that with honesty and humility
we might stand before you as we are,
each of us and all of us together,
to offer you the Church, ourselves,
for help, for healing, for holiness...

Help us turn our hearts to you, Lord,
so that with eyes wide open
to the truth of justice and compassion
we might confess our sins, do penance
and amend our life as Church...

Help us change our hearts
and offer them to you, Lord,
in the crucible of hard times…

Let your Cross be our only hope
as we let go self-righteous ways
and learn to surrender anything
standing in the way of your will and your Word.

Let your Holy Spirit counsel us
to offer you the Church
and its history, traditions and customs,
its forms, methods and practices
to be weighed and judged afresh in the light and grace
of your saving, sacred and merciful Heart...

Preserve everything that is right and just, Lord,
and change what needs to be turned around,
turned upside down or inside out
that the Church might be what you call us to be
and nothing more and nothing less than this:
the Body of Christ…

We offer you the Church, Lord,
which is ours only because it is yours
and we are your Body,
the Body of Christ…

We pray you will save us
from harm already done
and help us flourish anew
in your grace and your peace,
in the power of your name,
and for the sake of your Gospel...

We offer you your Church, Lord,
this morning, this day, this week and always,
as we wait in joyful hope until you come again:
for the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours
now and for ever.

Amen.


 
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Homily for Corpus Christi

Homily for the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
(Scriptures for today's liturgy)

Audio for homily

No small amount of effort goes into making our Sunday worship,
a reverent, gracious, prayerful moment of beauty,
worthy of our God whom we’ve gathered to thank and praise.

And yet, at the heart of this weekly celebration
there is something broken, something spilled:
the broken body of a victim
whose blood has been spilled, shed for us…

I’m referring not only to the large crucifix
that hovers over our prayer every week,
but more to the broken Body of Christ
and his Blood poured out for us
in the bread and cup of the Eucharist.

Think of Michelangelo's great sculpture, the Pieta.
Think of the Mary, the mother of Jesus,
holding the body of her crucified son in her lap and her arms.
Picture the pathos, the tenderness, the intimacy of that image...

That is what we do here, each week,  not in marble,
but in bread and wine, in flesh and blood.

With tenderness, we hold the broken Body of Christ close to our hearts
consuming his presence, in thanksgiving for his great love for us.

As individuals and as the whole church
we receive the gift of the Lord’s brokenness into our own:
into the brokenness of our sins,
into our broken hearts, broken memories, broken promises,
broken spirits, broken relationships, broken bodies,
into our broken hopes and dreams.

Is there anyone among us who does not bring some brokenness today
to the Body of Christ broken for us?

We who are broken come to the One who was broken for our sakes,
to share in this simple bread, broken in his memory,
that our brokenness might be healed.

We come to drink from a cup so that his Blood, shed for us,
might transfuse our weakness and hopelessness
and spill like a river of life coursing through the veins of our souls
with grace and healing.

The Eucharist invites us with our broken hearts
into the heart of Jesus, broken for us.

The Eucharist invites us, in our thirst, to drink in,
to be bathed in the Blood of the heart of the Lamb of God,
spilled for us.

In Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ and with one another
we find ourselves drawn into the heart of Jesus
and into his mercy and peace.

Is it any wonder then that when we enter this holy place, this church,
where the Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle,
that we keep a reverent quiet in such a presence,
that we genuflect or bow before taking our own seats?

Could we do any less than listen attentively to the scripture readings
in which the One who will feed us with the Supper of the Eucharist
first nourishes us with the wisdom of his Word?

At Communion time would we approach the altar
with anything but deep reverence in our attitude and posture,
reverence for the Sacrament we’re about to receive?

Would any of us dare to "eat and run" at the Lord’s Table,
exiting the church with the true food and drink
of Christ’s own Body and Blood still fresh on our lips?

Would we not pause, and pray, and sing
in communion with his Body, the people of the church,
gathered all around us?

And when our prayer is done,
when it's time to take our leave, do we remember that
then nourished by the broken Body of Christ
and by his Blood poured out in mercy for us,
then we are called to break ourselves open and pour ourselves out
in service of one another, near and far:
doing for others what he did for us,
what he asked us to do in memory of him?

Do we remember that we are to become what we eat and drink?

Hundreds of years ago St. Augustine said it oh-so-well
when he wrote these words:

"What you see (on the altar) is the bread and the chalice;
that is what your own eyes report to you.
But what your faith obliges you to accept
is that the bread is the Body of Christ
and the chalice the Blood of Christ…
How is the bread his Body?
And the chalice, or what is in the chalice, how is it his Blood?
These elements, brothers and sisters, are called sacraments,
because in them one thing is seen, but another is understood.
What is seen is the corporeal species,
but what is understood is the spiritual fruit…
St. Paul wrote:
'You are the Body of Christ and his members.'
(1 Cor. 12:27)
If, therefore, you are the Body of Christ and his members,
then your own mystery is presented at the table of the Lord,
you receive your mystery.
To that which you are, you answer: `Amen...'
For you hear: `The Body of Christ!' and you answer: `Amen!'
Be, then, a member of Christ's Body,
so that your `Amen' may be the truth."

 
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Music for Corpus Christi

 
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We are what we eat...

Image by The Gazz

The image above is a play on the tag line from the movie, Sixth Sense, but it plays well here as we approach the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ this weekend. Saint Augustine in his sermons (below) spoke clearly that in the Eucharist we become, indeed we are, what we receive. At the Lord's table, then, we become and we are bread people.

Sermons [272] A.D. 391-430:

What you see is the bread and the chalice; that is what your own eyes report to you. But what your faith obliges you to accept is that the bread is the Body of Christ and the chalice the Blood of Christ. ... How is the bread His Body? And the chalice, or what is in the chalice, how is it His Blood? Those elements, brothers and sisters, are called sacraments, because in them one thing is seen, but another is understood. What is seen is the corporeal species, but what is understood is the spiritual fruit. ... `You, however, are the Body of Christ and his members.' If, therefore, you are the Body of Christ and his members, your mystery is presented at the table of the Lord, you receive your mystery. To that which you are, you answer: `Amen...' For you hear: `The Body of Christ!' and you answer: `Amen!' Be a member of Christ's Body, so that your `Amen' may be the truth.

We who believe in the Eucharist are bread people and in those who share our Communion we see bread people!

Spend some time now with the readings and commentary on them for Corpus Christi Sunday this weekend.


 
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Cardinal Sean: Statement on Mass at St. Cecilia

Cardinal Seán P. O'Malley issued the following statement June 22, in response to recent events at St. Cecilia Church in Boston.

The philosophical and political agenda of Gay Pride in relation to marriage and sexual morality is incompatible with the Church's teachings. For that reason, Father Unni rescheduled a Mass of welcome for all his parishioners to a time that would not associate the Mass with the Gay Pride agenda.

I realize that Catholics who have same-sex attractions are often criticized by their friends for coming to Mass and that the parents and friends of homosexual members of our Church are distressed that their loved ones feel rejected by their Church. We want all baptized Catholics to come to Mass and be part of our community, but we cannot compromise the teaching of the Church rooted in Scripture and tradition.

We hope that all Catholics will come to experience the love of Christ in our community and that in that love they will find the courage and strength to embrace the cross that is part of the life of discipleship.

It is regrettable that there has been so much confusion about this matter. I hope the statement on my blog of last week and The Pilot editorial "A teachable moment" will help people to understand the Church's teaching. We must be a community that reflects both the love and the truth of the Gospel.

(Previous related posts are gathered here.)
StCeciliaArchived


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Weekend Word: Corpus Christi/Body of Christ

Last Supper by Nora Kelly

Have you taken some time to read over and ponder the scriptures for this coming Sunday, the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ?

The texts and commentary on them can be found here.

Some beautiful songs appropriate for this weekend's feast are available through the widget at the top of the side bar.  You might want to listen to the music as you're working with the scriptures you'll hear proclaimed at Mass.

And, perhaps, to stir your thoughts on the Eucharist, here's a poem I wrote some 40 years ago.


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Rainy day prayer

Photo: Joseph Dannels

A good friend (also a pastor whose days off are midweek) remarked the other night about how much snow and rain we've had on Wednesdays and Thursdays beginning with this past winter.  I have no meteorological stats on this and I'm willing to concede that our perspective might be biased - but I think he's right!

Anyway... it brought to mind this prayer I posted last June and it seems appropriate to share it once again.


Rain, rain...

Jesus,
let your healing soak me
like the rain:
your mercy, a heavy downpour,
your reign, a summer shower.

Soak me, drench and all but drown me!

Leave me dripping
with moist anointings
of your touch:
my toes and every inch of me
refreshed and cleansed
in healing showers.

Lift my face to rejoice
in the rain of your love:
let me drink it in
and drink it down,
deeply.

Give me the thirst
that only you can quench
and lead me
by a river of your blessings.

Rain, rain,
rain of my Savior:
oh, never go away...


 
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Your mission tonight...

What are you doing at 9:00/8:00c tonight, Thursday, June 23?

I hope you'll have your television tuned to ABC and you'll be watching Expedition Impossible.

For more info, check this earlier post about my friend Concord Carpenter's epic adventure in Morocco!

More info!

 
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Evangelizing through your FaceBook status

I was recently out to dinner with some parishioners and the conversation turned to evangelization and social media. KS made a great suggestion that I want to pass on to you here.

Post your Sunday Mass experience 
as your status on FaceBook! 

Maybe something like the one below.

(Click on the image for a larger version!)

Such a post might:
1) remind your FB friends about prayer on the Lord's Day
2) tease their interest in what you heard and experienced
3) begin a conversation of "comments" and "likes" on what you posted
4) move an inquiring mind to be in touch with you
5) make room for the Spirit to move in ways known only to God...

Guidelines for FaceBook evangelizing:

Keep your post brief and friendly.

Include a few details to spark readers' interest.

Leave your status open ended - and be positive!

And if you're someone who "checks in" on FaceBook via your smart phone, you might do that, too  - but be sure you "check in" and put your phone away before the opening song begins!

Could be interesting if your doing this leads to others on your friends' list doing the same.  I'm going to give it a try - and I hope you will, too.

Thanks, KS!

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Link of the Day: Diary of a Wimpy Catholic

Here's a very good find: a really fine writer, a prolific writer, whose subject is the faith that brings us all together here. 

Max Lindenman's blog, Diary of a Wimpy Catholic: A Hedonist Contemplates Heaven, comes to us through the Catholic Portal at Patheos.  Max is a fairly new arrival there and a look at his posts titles will show you that his blog is kept very fresh with a wide variety of topics. For starters look here and here.

For the record: there is, in fact, nothing wimpy about this blog!

Here are some excerpts from Lindenman's first post at Wimpy Catholic:

After burning through my convert’s zeal in the space of a year, I looked around me and realized that life in the Mystical Body of Christ is okay — a few things are very good, and a few very bad. But on the average, a post-conversion day rates a solid B-minus, which is pretty much what the pre-conversion days rated.

That may sound like a big, fat “duh,” but for me it came as a surprise — a rather liberating one. People who write about the Catholic Church tend either to love or hate it (or, more likely, they love their peculiar vision for it — traditionalist or progressive – and hate whatever stands in the way of realizing it). They write with such intensity, positing such extremes of good and bad, that I find myself wondering what planet they live on. I couldn’t hack it as a polemicist or an apologist; if I had to go around all day feeling enraged or exalted, I’d drop dead from nerves.
...

I want to... write about the life of faith from a distinctly (and distinctively) personal perspective. Don’t worry — dispatches from my navel won’t account for all my posts, or even for the majority. Its contents just aren’t that fascinating, even to me, and in any case I look forward to trying my hand at punditry and cultural criticism. But even on subjects of general interest, I’ll be writing from a personal slant — that of a Catholic convert who gets touched by grace, but very rarely; who believes that God is, but finds Him very far away; who detests his sin because he fears the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, etc., but still can’t help recalling some with a smile.

My writing won’t be to everyone’s taste. No one will mistake it for the broadcasts of Mother Angelica. If you’re one of those people who gravitates toward red-hot culture warriors, I doubt I‘ll make your list of favorites. I make no bones about my ambivalence toward much of what I’ve seen and learned in the Church. Getting to work through that ambivalence is one of the perks of writing, and to my own ear, my voice is at its most authentic and convincing when I address it head-on.
...

(Read the whole post here)

Read Max! ( He has something to say and he says it well.  His page offers a refreshing break from much of what's in the Catholic blogosphere: you won't be disappointed.  (His page is now on my blog roll.) 

 
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Expedition Impossible!

The scruffy trio above includes my blogging buddy, Concord Carpenter (middle) and two of his fellow police officers (Jim and Dani) from the Waltham PD.  They're a team on ABC's new reality show, Expedition Impossible, which debuts tomorrow night (Thursday, June 23) at 9:00 p.m.

For more information you can check out these two earlier posts but the best way to get the scoop on this epic adventure filmed in Morocco is to tune in tomorrow night!

And here are The Cops ready for duty in Waltham!

The Cops: Rob, Dani and Jim

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Welcome, again!

St. Cecilia Church in Boston

A press release from the Archdiocese of Boston indicates that a Mass scheduled for June 19 at St. Cecilia Parish in Boston has been rescheduled for July 10.

It seems that the Archdiocese has worked to distance the Mass from the Gay Pride connection found in  earlier parish bulletin announcements and to expand the intended welcome to a wider community of the faithful.

“The Archdiocese of Boston is committed to evangelization and to being a welcoming Church for all of God’s people. St. Cecilia’s is a wonderful example of the exceptional parishes in the Archdiocese which seek to serve the Catholic faithful with grace, dignity, respect, compassion and love and being devoted to the Gospel and Christ’s saving ministry.

The reports that the Mass, originally scheduled for June 19th, was cancelled are not accurate. Rather the Mass was postponed. As indicated in the statement of the Archdiocese on June 10, a Mass welcoming the wider community of the faithful, including gays and lesbians, will be held. The Mass has been rescheduled to Sunday, July 10th at 11am.

We respect the desire of those individuals organizing and participating in the prayer service. We know that the postponement of the June 19th Mass has been disappointing to them. Our hope and prayer is that we can come together as one community of Catholics sharing in the Lord’s divine love for each of us.”

(Related posts are gathered here.)
StCeciliaArchived

 
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One beautiful brown loaf...

Over 40 years ago when I was in the seminary, a good friend asked me if I believed in the Eucharist. I knew he wasn't looking for text book answers but rather for what was in my heart. I wrote the following in response to his question. I know that writing this helped me and I believe it helped my friend, too.

As we prepare to celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ this coming weekend, perhaps you'll find these words helpful for your prayer. 


Bread

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat,
but if it dies, it bears much fruit...

You have to listen with all of you
to hear the white-green shoot
pushing, rubbing, scraping up through
cool, moist earth: wheat being born.

It's a comforting sound when, finally,
you hear it and you know the growing sound
isn't in the field
but in your fragile frailty,
in you...

Then fear comes over you:
you will be torn inside, again, until it hurts
and this may be the time
when growing leaves behind
the one you think you are,
harvesting the one you were made to be...

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat,
but if it dies, it bears much fruit...

You don't have to listen so closely
to hear the wind shuffle its way
through fields of wheat
so you have to look very carefully
to see it's not the wind after all, but simply
wheat brushing against wheat,
wheat supporting wheat,
wheat enjoying wheat,
wheat embracing wheat.

The rustling becomes a symphony
of meeting, knowing, touching, growing:
wheat reaching out to wheat
not with fear, not with flushed face,
but only with the need to touch
and the sound of reaching
is strong, enveloping, alive!

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat,
but if it dies, it bears much fruit...

Grinding grains of wheat: harsh,
breaking, crushing sounds,
a not soft noise - hard.
And now you don't want to hear
wheat being crushed:
it just doesn't look like wheat anymore
and maybe the explosion in you
wasn't a mater of life but...

water is cool
and now it is all around you:
bubbling and swirling
in flour ground of wheat
and now you're not surprised to know
you're listening to blood filling your veins,
flowing all through you: life.

And just before the fire consumed us, too,
we found bread: one beautiful brown loaf
of wheat, wind, water
all rising to life in bread.

Then came One
who broke himself like a loaf
and we heard
in the cracking and tearing of the crust
the Word of life grown, ground and given
for those who share
in the breaking of the bread.

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat,
but if it dies, it bears much fruit...

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Word and Music for the Weekend: Corpus Christi

This coming Sunday, the second after Pentecost, celebrates every year the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ.  This day was and is still known by many as "Corpus Christi" (Body of Christ).

The first scripture (from Deuteronomy) finds Moses reminding the people of how God fed them in the desert with the gift of manna.  The second lesson (from 1 Corinthians) reminds us of how early in the history of our faith did our ancestors understand that in the breaking of the bread and in the sharing of the cup we have a participation in the Body and Blood of Christ.  The gospel (from John 6) reinforces the Pauline text, reminding us that Christ's flesh is true food and his blood true drink, offered to us that we might have eternal life.  Some of those hearing Jesus speak these words had trouble understanding and believing him.  Some, today, struggle with the same questions.

You'll find Sunday's scriptures and commentary on them here and if you're shepherding children to Mass, you'll find hints for helping them prepare to hear the Word here.

As you're reading and pondering the weekend's scriptures, you might want to listen to and pray with some music suited to the feast we're about to celebrate.  The widget above offers 17 songs to nurture your prayer and your preparation for this feast.  (There's a link at the top of the sidebar that will bring you back to this post as it scrolls down during the week.)

(Follow the links here for translations of Ave Verum, O Salutaris, Panis Angelicus and Pange Lingua.)


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Been to a Catholic wedding recently?

Alexis and Dan

The number of marriages being celebrated in the Church 

has dropped nearly 60 percent since 1972

It is June — that time of year when many of us will be receiving wedding invitations. One thing that may have changed from years past is the likelihood that the address on that invitation is for a country club, beach or community center rather than a Catholic parish.

The number of marriages celebrated in the Church has fallen from 415,487 in 1972 to 168,400 in 2010 — a decrease of nearly 60 percent — while the U.S. Catholic population has increased by almost 17 million. To put this another way, this is a shift from 8.6 marriages per 1,000 U.S. Catholics in 1972 to 2.6 marriages per 1,000 Catholics in 2010.

(See the rest of Mark M. Gray's report in OSV Newsweekly)

My own experience as a priest of 38 years bears out the story these numbers tell.


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Purity: sexual and all kinds

Image source

A while back I recommended the blog, Shirt of Flame, as a "Link of the Day." There are many times when I might link to Heather King's page but her current post is quite timely.

There's a good deal of controversy in the Archdiocese of Boston just now regards the ministry of St. Cecilia Parish.  Some engaged in the debate (on both sides) tend to view and judge the matter through a fairly narrow lens.  Beginning with a quote from Leon Bloy, King writes compellingly about sexual purity and what she considers to be "the best apologia (she's) ever read for the teachings of the Church on sex."

I offer her words for consideration by readers of any sexual identity and especially for any who might jump to the false conclusion that I've posted this to take one side or the other. 

Léon Bloy (1846-1917), the novelist, poet, and fervent Catholic convert, had a notoriously foul temper, categorically refused to get a day job, alienated many of his fellow literati, and burned with love for Christ.

In Pilgrim of the Absolute, a collection of diary entries, he wrote:

Every man who begets a free act projects his personality into the infinite. If he gives a poor man a penny grudgingly, that penny pierces the poor man’s hand, falls, pierces the earth, bores holes in suns, crosses the firmament and compromises the universe. If he begets an impure act, he perhaps darkens thousands of hearts whom he does not know, who are mysteriously linked to him, and who need this man to be pure as a traveler dying of thirst needs the Gospel’s draught of water.  A charitable act, an impulse of real pity sings for him the divine praises, from the time of Adam to the end of the ages; it cures the sick, consoles those in despair, calms storms, ransoms prisoners, converts the infidel and protects mankind.

That is perhaps the best apologia I have ever read for the teachings of the Church on sex. To try to be pure is never to follow a set of arbitrarily rigid, life-despising rules. We try to be pure because someone else needs us to be pure. Someone in pain needs us to refrain from using another, whether in reality or fantasy, to anaesthesize our own pain. Someone needs us at least to try to overcome our fear, our anger, our impatience, our lust. To try to be pure in this area—in any area but in this area especially—is to offer up our little bit of suffering, of loneliness, longing, frustration, and anxiety, so that someone else might not suffer, and then transmit their suffering so as to harm another...

(Read King's complete post)

StCeciliaArchived

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Monday Morning Offering - 148

Image: George Mendoza

(Reposted from the early days of MMO)

Good morning, good God!

There are times, Lord,

when we think we don't now how to pray,

when we can't find the words to say,

when we wonder if we pray "the right way..."

How did we become so misinformed

about something so important, Lord?

When did we begin to think of prayer

as a rare gift? a specialized skill?

an art we haven't mastered?

How did we come to forget that every

thought, sigh, hope, cry, word of ours

sounds in your ear and touches your heart

as soon and as surely as any saint's

pure and perfect prayer?

Help us believe, Lord,

that simply sitting in your presence,

... in silence...

is a prayer whose eloquence delights you...

Our very desire to pray, Lord,

is a sign you're already with us,

nudging our hearts to trust that you're near...

You invite us to voice our joys and hopes,

to vent our hurts and sorrows -

all of them known to you long before

we even thought to pray...

Before infants have a word to say,

they pray,

their cooing, mumbling and crying

all sputtering forth their stories

of wonder, hunger, fear, joy and their desire

to be held by parents who hear in every sound

the clear beauty of a prayer that has no words...

Be mother and father to us, Lord,

and hear our prayer,

with or without words...

We offer you this morning

the prayers we sputter from our souls:

prayers that have no words

and prayers that have too many words;

prayers we sob upon your breast

and prayers we sing from happy hearts;

prayers that come from our confusion

but which, in wisdom, you understand so well...

We offer you every thought, sigh,

hope, cry and word of ours

that pleads and pulses from within:

let the beating prayer of our hearts

be heard and held in your heart of hearts

for surely, Lord, that is the right way to pray...

Receive our morning offering, Lord,

and keep us mindful in prayer

of the joys and sorrows, hopes and hurts

of those whose paths cross ours this day...

Good God of Monday mornings,

hear our prayer this day

and every day this week...

Lord, hear us!

Lord graciously hear us!

Amen.

 
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