Informational Video about the Tridentine Mass.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Feast of Corpus Christi
Recently, I obtained a key to the local Perpetual Adoration chapel which is luckily located in the next town over from me. I was thrilled to be able to say my breviary before the Blessed Sacrament and to spend time with our Lord.
Today, spend some quiet time with the Lord.
Today, spend some quiet time with the Lord.
Photo from Our Lady of the Angels Monastery Hanceville, Alabama
Check out this online live stream of a chapel of Perpetual Adoration: www.stmartinoftourschurch.org
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Wherein I rant! : Bad Catechism and Confirmation
In plain English.....
It is incredibly sad that many students see the sacrament of Confirmation as a sort of "graduation" from catechism class. After all, they receive gowns, certificates (diplomas) get to walk across stage (along the altar rail), get dressed up, celebrate with family, get to take pictures at the end, and never have to report with their catechism books and pencils ever again. After Confirmation, the Confirmation "CLASS" never again is required to attend "mandatory" class Masses, do homework about the Sunday Scripture, write essays about their "favorite" saints who most of them have no devotion to other than they share a name with a family member, or think about going to church. After all, no one is going to go after them if they don't go to church, and if someone does, they're a "Jesus freak" that is a loser for wasting time on Sundays when they should be hanging out at the local varsity football game.
Throughout their catechism careers as students, these kids week after week (for the most part) fought their parents on going to class. Excuses being that they don't need any extra schooling, it's boring, and it's irrelevant to everyday life. However, most parents, though they themselves agree with those claims, force their kids to go to catechism for a number of different reasons. Common reasons are:
1. To get that picture of your son/daughter in a red gown that everyone else has in their living room.
2. I suffered through it; they should too.
3. What would happen if my mother (who goes to daily mass and is head of the Rosary Society) found out that I didn't send my kid to catechism.
4. Everyone else is forcing their kids to do it.
and the mother of all reasons,
5. I want my son/daughter to be able to get married in church.
Since too many parents tend to agree with the idea that catechism, God and church aren't important things in life, they let their kids treat Confirmation as a graduation and therefore an end of something rather than what it truly is, a beginning of something even greater.
Confirmation can be summed up in 3 letters: GAP.
G ifts of the Holy Spirit received- consecration to the Holy Spirit
A dulthood spiritually- take complete responsibility in conjunction with sacramental grace
P romises of Baptism renewed and made your own
All three of those points us to a new life in Christ, a spiritual adulthood if I may call it that. Confirmation gives us the tools to handle that spiritual adulthood. Those tools are the sacramental grace of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit:
- Wisdom
- Understanding
- Counsel
- Fortitude
- Knowledge
- Piety
- Fear of the Lord
Yes, these are VERY important for someone to have!!! Therefore, it is very important that you take your Confirmation seriously because it's your life not mine, and these tools are gifts from above to make your life and the lives of others BETTER!
It is with these very important tools, that I pray all confirmandi go out into the world and do God's will. Confirmation is the start of a new chapter of your life in which YOU have the reigns to steer your soul on the course of your choosing. Let that course be one in accordance with God's will. I pray that your life story and mine ends with heaven as our eternal epilogue.
Congratulations on your Confirmation, and may the Lord's work be ever done through your hands.
May God bless and reward you!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Can You Imagine?
+JMJ+
"Fratres: obsecro vos ego vinctus in Domino, ut digne ambuletis vocatione, qua vocate estis." -Ephesians 4:1
"Brethren: I beseech you, I, a prisoner of the Lord, that you might walk worthy of the vocation which you have received." -Ephesians 4:1
What's your vocation? What are you called to do with the life which was given to you?
Perhaps you're called to be a consecrated religious or cleric. Have you considered these options fairly if at all? In my opinion, if you're a girl, you haven't fairly considered the option of religious life as a vocation if you haven't checked out the group called "Imagine Sisters".
From their website:
"Imagine Sisters is a grassroots, web-based movement to promote young women’s vocations to religious life. Our team is comprised of Sisters, young women, and seminarians from around the United States. We want to show the world the beauty, joy, purpose, and fun of becoming a sister in the 21st century!
The sisters featured on the Imagine Sisters website and films are from orders that have graciously provided our content and support for our movement."
Imagine Sisters isn't just for women to discern the vocation to active religious orders. They're very big on sharing info about contemplative life as well. It's mission is exactly as stated above: "to promote young women's vocations to religious life." Ladies, I invite you to check out this amazing organization to help you see if religious life is you're calling. May God bless you, and may God bless the Imagine Sisters Movement!
Check it out!!
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Liturgical Music
On Monday, September 10, 2012 I embarked on retreat with a choral group that I belong to, Kellenberg Memorial High School's Gregorian Consortium. The retreat served a practical purpose because the following morning, the morning of Tuesday, September 11, 2012 we went together to Point Lookout Beach to sing at the Town of Hempstead 9/11 Memorial Service. Naturally, as a liturgical choir going on retreat for the first time together, the theme of the retreat was music.
Monday night, we gathered in the retreat house living room and took 5 minutes to write down the names of a few artists whose music reached us emotionally on a personal level and why. We also had to come up with, in lieu of the annual letter of intent, a few reasons why providing liturgical music is important. Then we would all share.
My list was unique, to say the least. The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, L'Angelus, & the choir at St. Ladislaus (my parish). I explained that Karen Carpenter's voice was just enough to make me cry, how the Bee Gees reminded me of my grandfather who I love dearly, and how the power behind the music of L'Angelus was great and how when I think about that band, I see a musical family who seems to have a wonderful example of what Catholic joy is all about.
Then I got to the St. Ladislaus Choir. I said a little something like this:
"So, as some of you may know, I attend Mass that is said in a different rite than all of you. In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, also affectionately called the Traditional Latin Mass, it's not like the English one because there isn't too much dialogue between the priest and the congregation. It provides a plentiful amount of time to pray and meditate on what is going on at Mass before you because as you follow along you don't have to worry about what to respond and such. It's generally very quiet. However, and this is especially true for Missa Cantata, or Sung High Mass... As for any of you that take Spanish, "cantar" means "to sing". ... Anyway, there is plenty of time for you to be there absorbing the sacrifice that is going on before your very eyes, and to allow the music provided to permeate every fiber of your being. And when you encounter the beautiful music in a way you are encountering the Divine. Because "God is Ultimate Beauty". Art matters because it elevates your spiritual experience by exposing you to the beautiful which is in a sense exposing you to God."
I would like to share that with all of you because many people out there in the Church are involved with or are exposed to Liturgical music ministry in some way shape or form. When we encounter beautiful music, we experience God in a similar way to when we encounter truth and love. Please support those who provide liturgical and religious music to your parishes and in your schools and universities. Whether that be by joining their ranks or making a donation or other contribution to bringing what is beautiful to the faithful.
Monday night, we gathered in the retreat house living room and took 5 minutes to write down the names of a few artists whose music reached us emotionally on a personal level and why. We also had to come up with, in lieu of the annual letter of intent, a few reasons why providing liturgical music is important. Then we would all share.
My list was unique, to say the least. The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, L'Angelus, & the choir at St. Ladislaus (my parish). I explained that Karen Carpenter's voice was just enough to make me cry, how the Bee Gees reminded me of my grandfather who I love dearly, and how the power behind the music of L'Angelus was great and how when I think about that band, I see a musical family who seems to have a wonderful example of what Catholic joy is all about.
Then I got to the St. Ladislaus Choir. I said a little something like this:
"So, as some of you may know, I attend Mass that is said in a different rite than all of you. In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, also affectionately called the Traditional Latin Mass, it's not like the English one because there isn't too much dialogue between the priest and the congregation. It provides a plentiful amount of time to pray and meditate on what is going on at Mass before you because as you follow along you don't have to worry about what to respond and such. It's generally very quiet. However, and this is especially true for Missa Cantata, or Sung High Mass... As for any of you that take Spanish, "cantar" means "to sing". ... Anyway, there is plenty of time for you to be there absorbing the sacrifice that is going on before your very eyes, and to allow the music provided to permeate every fiber of your being. And when you encounter the beautiful music in a way you are encountering the Divine. Because "God is Ultimate Beauty". Art matters because it elevates your spiritual experience by exposing you to the beautiful which is in a sense exposing you to God."
I would like to share that with all of you because many people out there in the Church are involved with or are exposed to Liturgical music ministry in some way shape or form. When we encounter beautiful music, we experience God in a similar way to when we encounter truth and love. Please support those who provide liturgical and religious music to your parishes and in your schools and universities. Whether that be by joining their ranks or making a donation or other contribution to bringing what is beautiful to the faithful.
Kellenberg Memorial High School Gregorian Consortium
Saturday, September 15, 2012
We Are Catholic
Catholic Identity needs to be shared among all those who call themselves Catholic. If you're curious about Catholicism, fallen away from Catholicism or are looking to deepen your Catholic faith, please feel free to contact me, and I can help you find someone or something to aid you on your way!
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