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October 17, 2008 –  Friday of  28th Week in Ordinary Time       DAILY LITURGICAL/THEME MEDITATION: "Do not fear those who kill the body" UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENT(S): John Paul II: The Man From a Distant Land SAINT OF THE DAY St. Ignatius of Antioch  GENERAL MARIOLOGY THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY - 17th Rose DIVINE MERCY On Happiness, Joy, Delight, Rejoice: Oh, How Happy I Am!  TEACHING/TESTIMONY/CONVICTION: Heroes: Columbus and Pius XII   Monthly Index

DAILY LITURGICAL MEDITATION

Friday (10/17):  "Do not fear those who kill the body" Scripture:  Luke 12:1-7 1 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. 3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed  upon the housetops. 4 "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. Meditation: What does leaven have to do with hypocrisy? To the Jews leaven was a sign of evil. It was a piece of dough from left-over bread which fermented.  Fermentation was associated with putrefaction – the state of foul-smelling decomposition. Why did Jesus warn his disciples to avoid the ways of the Pharisees? The Pharisees wanted everyone to recognize that they were pious and good Jews because they meticulously and scrupulously performed their religious duties. Jesus turned the table on them by declaring that outward appearace doesn't always match the inward intentions of the heart. Anyone can display outward signs of goodness while inwardly harboring evil thoughts and intentions. The word hypocrite means actor – someone who pretends to be what he or she is not. But who can truly be good, but God alone? Hypocrisy thrives on making a good appearance and masking what they don't want others to see. The good news is that God's light exposes the darkness of evil and sin in our hearts, even the sin which is unknown to us. And God's light transforms our hearts and minds and enables us to overcome hatred with love, pride with humility, and pretense with integrity and truthfulness. God gives grace to the humble and contrite of heart to enable us to overcome the leaven of insincerity and hypocrisy in our lives. What does fear have to do with the kingdom of God? Fear is a powerful force. It can lead us to panic and flight or it can spur us to faith and action. The fear of God is the antidote to the fear of losing one's life. "I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. ..O fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no want! ..Come, O sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord." (Psalm 34:4,9,11) What is godly fear? It is reverence for the One who made us in love and who sustains us in mercy and kindness. The greatest injury or loss which we can experience is not physical but spiritual – the loss of one's soul to the power of hell. A healthy fear of God leads to spiritual maturity, wisdom and right judgment and it frees us from the tyranny of sinful pride, deceit and cowardice – especially in the face of evil and spiritual deception. Do you trust in God's grace and mercy and do you submit to his word? "Lord Jesus, may the light of your word free my heart from the deception of sin and consume me with a burning love for your truth and righteousness." Psalm 33:1-13 1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. 2 Praise the LORD with the lyre, make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! 3 Sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. 4 For the word of the LORD is upright; and all his work is done in faithfulness. 5 He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. 6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth. 7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle; he put the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD, let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth. 10 The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nought; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. 11 The counsel of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. 12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage! 13 The LORD looks down from heaven, he sees all the sons of men   RETURN TO TOP

UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENTS

John Paul II: The Man From a Distant Land Who Taught Us to Not Be Afraid   By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB VATICAN CITY, OCT. 16, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Today marks another of Rome’s and the Vatican’s significant anniversaries taking place during the Twelfth Ordinary Synod of Bishops at the Vatican. I remember very well this night 30 years ago -- Oct. 16, 1978. I was a 19-year-old university student, driving home from classes at the university, when the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church elected Cardinal Karol Wojtyla as the 264th Successor to the Apostle Peter. The radio announced that there was white smoke in the evening Roman air. After the sad events of the previous weeks of 1978 in Rome, anxiety and expectation were in my North American air. Little did I ever imagine that night that I would come to know this man, serve him, love him and strive to imitate him. On that first night in 1978, Pope John Paul II stood on the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and opened his arms, his heart and his mind to the world. His refrain would become: “Do not be afraid! Open wide the doors to Christ!” During this synod, John Paul II’s name and memory have been evoked dozens of times by the synod fathers, especially in relation to his now famous letters “Redemptoris Missio” and “Novo Millennio Ineunte.” There are few places on this planet that have not been touched by Pope John Paul II. He opened the doors to millions of human hearts, bringing to women and men of every race, nation and culture, a message of hope; a message telling us that human dignity is rooted in the fact that each human being is created in the image and likeness of God. He was a living exegesis of the Gospels. He walked his talk. The final days At the end of March and the beginning of April in 2005, we were inundated with words, stories, images, and profoundly moving ceremonies coming to us from this very place. We learned once again in the retreating and passing of Pope John Paul II how vast a person he was among us and on the world stage. Our memories of what he was like before his "retreat" or "departure" became suffused with the profound weight of post-mortem insight. That period of 2005 was an extraordinary time of evangelization, catechesis and education for the universal Church. John Paul II was a bestseller in life and also in death. The Vatican daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, got it right on the Wednesday after John Paul II’s death with the huge title on its Wednesday daily Italian edition -- a day normally set aside to cover the Pope's weekly General Audience. The title read "Che Udienza!" (What an audience!) as over 600,000 people passed silently that day through the Vatican basilica to pray before the body of John Paul II.   This morning as I sat quietly in the chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae in Vatican City before walking over to the Synod building, many moments and images came flooding back to me about the man who took the world by storm 30 years ago tonight. One, in particular, far from the glare of cameras and the media, was cause for quiet gratitude to God. It took place in June 2001, and happened to be Corpus Christi weekend in the Church and Father’s Day back home. As national director and CEO of World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, I was in Rome with our senior team of World Youth Day 2002 attending a Vatican international forum of youth leaders preparing for the event. On the Saturday evening, the Pope’s private secretary and gatekeeper, then-Archbishop Stanislas Dziwisz, phoned me and told me that the Holy Father wanted to invite me and the 12 members of our World Youth Day national team for mass the following morning -- the feast of Corpus Christi. Family affair “Don Stanislao” said that it was a “family affair” and he asked me to prepare the readings and music. He didn’t give any more details than that. My staff was stunned with the invitation and that night at Domus Mariae where we were staying, we rehearsed several hymns. Click here for Salt and Light Television’s WITNESS Interview with Cardinal Stanislas Dziwisz: http://www.saltandlighttv.org/prog_slprog_witness_popup_dziwisz.html The following morning we showed up at the Vatican’s Bronze Door for Mass, not quite knowing what to expect. Upon arrival in the Papal apartment, we were ushered into the Papal chapel and saw the Pope kneeling, deep in prayer. On the right side of the chapel was a family of about 20 people: grandparents, parents and several children. In the front row was a young couple holding a baby in what appeared to be baptismal garments. I suddenly realized what this was -- a baptism ceremony in the Pope’s chapel! Who was this family? After vesting, Archbishop Dziwisz said to me: “Oh, I forgot to tell you; 'il Santo Padre' is baptizing Maria Cristina, granddaughter of one of his best childhood friends. We wanted you to come with your young staff to join in on this family celebration and sing for us." It was an unforgettable Mass and baptismal ceremony that moved all of us to tears and many smiles! After mass we gathered in the Papal library for “family photos” and much fun with a Pope who was elderly and suffering before our very eyes. I recall at one point as I was introducing the World Youth Day staff to him, that the Holy Father leaned over and asked me why several of the young adults were crying. Fighting back my own tears, I responded to him: “Because of you.” In the midst of such daunting responsibilities, John Paul II never lost the common touch and the gift of friendship with those who formed the mosaic of his childhood and youth. On the way out of the papal apartment that morning, his best friend from childhood was beaming, telling me that the Holy Father had married his children and baptized all of his grandchildren. It was a promise that the Pope made to his friend. The elderly man said, “This morning, Lolek was Lolek." ("Lolek" was Karol Wojtyla's childhood nickname among his personal friends.) Suffering During the final years of that brilliant pontificate, John Paul II brought suffering back into the realm of the expected in human life. Everyone could see that his spirituality gave him an inner strength -- a spirituality with which one can also overcome fear, even the fear of death. What an incredible lesson for the world! His struggle with the physical effects of aging was also a valuable lesson to a society that finds it hard to accept growing older, and a culture that sees no redemption in suffering. To this Botox generation of false, eternal youth, John Paul II's unwillingness to hide his age carried a countercultural twist. The contrast between John Paul II's physical vigor at the start of his pontificate and his state at journey’s end was striking. Though broken and bent at the end of his earthly pilgrimage, John Paul II crossed the threshold of history, standing tall, as a giant. As I look out over this synodal assembly of pastors and leaders from every corner of the earth, I realize how much they have been marked and impacted by John Paul II. We were told yesterday that all but 39 of 253 “padri sinodali” were appointed bishops by Pope John Paul II. His spirit has gently hovered over this synodal assembly and I have no doubt that the servant of God is kept busy interceding for us. This evening at 5:30 p.m. we went over to the Paul VI Hall to join Benedict XVI, Cardinal Stanislas Dziwisz and nearly 5,000 invited guests for the premiere showing of the movie: “Testimony” based on the book by Cardinal Dziwisz “My Life with Karol.” Dziwisz had served as Cardinal Wojtyla’s and then Pope John Paul II’s secretary for nearly 40 years. Cardinal Dziwisz is now the archbishop of Krakow, following in the footsteps of his mentor, father and friend. It was a deeply moving experience to be in that assembly tonight, gathered around Benedict XVI and the thousands of invited guests who were invited to gather together at the Vatican this evening and remember that blessed night 30 years ago when they called to Rome that man from a distant country. May we learn from "Papa Wojtyla" how to cross thresholds, open doors, build bridges and proclaim the Gospel to the people of our time. May we have a small portion of the fidelity of Peter's witness and the boldness of Paul's proclamation that were so mightily present in Karol Wojtyla -- Pope John Paul II. Thank you, Pope John Paul II, for the memories, the example and the legacy. Remember us, intercede for us, guide this synod to its completion, and bless us from your window in the Father's house! Click here for special Salt and Light Television tribute titled “(A href="http://www.saltandlighttv.org/prog_slprog_thanku_jp2.html">Thank you, John Paul II.” * * * Basilian Father Thomas Rosica is the Vatican's English-language press attache for the 2008 world Synod of Bishops. A Scripture scholar and university lecturer, he is the chief executive officer of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation and Television Network in Canada, and a member of the General Council of the Congregation of St. Basil. RETURN TO TOP

DAILY LITURGICAL SAINT

October 17, 2008 St. Ignatius of Antioch (d. 107?)  Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity and eventually became bishop of Antioch. In the year 107, Emperor Trajan visited Antioch and forced the Christians there to choose between death and apostasy. Ignatius would not deny Christ and thus was condemned to be put to death in Rome. Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. Five of these letters are to Churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith. The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom. "The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ." Ignatius bravely met the lions in the Circus Maximus. Comment: Ignatius's great concern was for the unity and order of the Church. Even greater was his willingness to suffer martyrdom rather than deny his Lord Jesus Christ. Not to his own suffering did Ignatius draw attention, but to the love of God which strengthened him. He knew the price of commitment and would not deny Christ, even to save his own life. Quote: "I greet you from Smyrna together with the Churches of God present here with me. They comfort me in every way, both in body and in soul. My chains, which I carry about on me for Jesus Christ, begging that I may happily make my way to God, exhort you: persevere in your concord and in your community prayers" (Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Church at Tralles). RETURN TO TOP

GENERAL MARIOLOGY

THE SECRET OF THE ROSARY FOR RENEWAL AND SALVATION By St. Louis Marie de Montfort     (continued)   Seventeenth Rose 49 Blessed Alan de la Roche, who was so deeply devoted to the Blessed Virgin, had many revelations from her, and we know that he confirmed the truth of these revelations by a solemn oath. Three of them stand out with special emphasis: the first, that if people fail to say the Hail Mary, which has saved the world, out of carelessness, or because they are lukewarm, or because they hate it, this is an indication that they will probably be condemned to eternal punishment. The second truth is that those who love this divine salutation bear the very special stamp of predestination. The third is that those to whom God has given this favour of loving our Lady and of serving her out of love must take very great care to continue to love and serve her until the time when she shall have had them placed in heaven by her Son in the degree of glory which they have earned (Blessed Alan) 50 Heretics, all of whom are children of the devil and who clearly bear the sign of God's reprobation, have a horror of the Hail Mary. They still say the Our Father, but never the Hail Mary; they would rather carry a poisonous snake about them than a rosary. Among Catholics, those who bear the mark of God's reprobation think but little of the Rosary. They either neglect to say it or only say it quickly and in a lukewarm manner. Even if I did not believe what was revealed to Blessed Alan de la Roche, even then my own experience would be enough to convince me of this terrible but consoling truth. I do not know, nor do I see clearly, how it can be that a devotion which seems to be so small can be the infallible sign of eternal salvation, and how its absence can be the sign of God's eternal displeasure; nevertheless, nothing could be more true. In our own day we see that people who hold new doctrines that have been condemned by the Church, with all their would-be piety, ignore the devotion to the Rosary and often dissuade their acquaintances from saying it with all sorts of fine pretexts. They are very careful not to condemn the Rosary and the Scapular, as the Calvinists do, but the way they set about attacking them is all the more deadly because it is the more cunning. I shall refer to it again later on. 51 The Hail Mary, the Rosary, is the prayer and the infallible touchstone by which I can tell those who are led by the Spirit of God from those who are deceived by the devil. I have known souls who seemed to soar like eagles to the heights by their sublime contemplation and yet were pitifully led astray by the devil. I only found out how wrong they were when I learned that they scorned the Hail Mary and the Rosary, which they considered as being far beneath them. The Hail Mary is a blessed dew that falls from heaven upon the souls of the predestinate. It gives them a marvellous spiritual fertility so that they can grow in all virtues. The more the garden of the soul is watered by this prayer, the more enlightened in mind we become, the more zealous in heart, the stronger against all our enemies. The Hail Mary is a sharp and flaming shaft which, joined to the Word of God, gives the preacher the strength to pierce, move, and convert the most hardened hearts, even if he has little or no natural gift for preaching. As I have already said, this was the great secret that our Lady taught St. Dominic and Blessed Alan for the conversion of heretics and sinners. Saint Antoninus tells us that that is why many priests acquired the habit of saying a Hail Mary at the beginning of their sermons. (to be continued)  RETURN TO TOP

DIVINE MERCY

Dairy from St. Faustina On Happiness, Joy, Delight, Rejoice  Oh, How Happy I Am! God's greatness does not frighten me, but makes me happy. By giving Him glory, I myself am lifted up. On seeing His happiness, I myself am made happy, because all that is in Him flows back upon me (Diary, 1246). All the good that is in me is due to Holy Communion. I owe everything to it. I feel that this holy fire has transformed me completely. Oh, how happy I am to be a dwelling place for You, O Lord! My heart is a temple in which You dwell continually ... (Diary, 1392). RETURN TO TOP

CATHOLIC  TEACHING/CONVICTION/TESTIMONY

Heroes: Columbus and Pius XII Remembering the Truth of Their Faith and Courage   By Elizabeth Lev ROME, OCT. 16, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Even the ancient Romans understood the importance of gratitude. Marcus Tullius Cicero, orator extraordinaire, extolled that "gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." Yet in our modern age we seem to have lost this virtue as revisionist history, cinema and popular literature have vilified those whose achievements have shaped the world we live in today. This came to mind Sunday, Oct. 12, on what was once known as Columbus Day in commemoration of the day Christopher Columbus first sighted the New World. This event, which opened the age of discovery, has been since renamed "Indigenous People Day" by some U.S. towns, thus casting into obscurity the courageous and visionary undertaking of the explorer and his patrons who equipped the mission. Columbus himself has been recast as a greedy, social-climbing tyrant, and while his defects have been blown out of all proportion, his admirable qualities have been simply forgotten. Ironically, Columbus, the first European man to set foot in America, was the first example of what would later be called "the American dream." Born of poor parents in Genoa, he immigrated to Spain with only his hard-earned knowledge of seamanship, his desire to get ahead and his profound Catholic faith to sustain him. Like the countless immigrants who would follow him, he had a dream and the drive to work hard and take risks to realize it. Divine Providence decreed that he would find a sympathetic ear in the king and queen of Spain, and so Columbus fulfilled his life's ambition, did well for himself and paved the way for future generations to be able to excel through hard work and ingenuity. A deeply devout man, Columbus was always grateful to God and dedicated his mission to the New World to the conversion of pagan peoples; like the apostles, he hoped to bring the Gospel to those who had never heard of Christ. Upon sighting land on Oct. 13, 1492, the entire crew prayed the Salve Regina. Today, his contributions are masked by words like "exploitation" and "gold-hunger," but all those Americans who descend from families who hoped to live out their ambitions while freely practicing their faith, should be grateful to Christopher Columbus who was not only great navigator on the seas, but in life. * * * Myth and Lies Last Oct. 9, the Church offered a magisterial example of the virtue of gratitude while remembering the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII, one of the unsung heroes of the 20th century. The life of Pius XII seems to have certain parallels with this summer's blockbuster film "The Dark Knight." The hero, Batman, out of love for his fellow citizens, must sacrifice recognition for his relentless battle against evil and ultimately endure persecution by the very people he is protecting. Pius XII, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, spanning the years of the Second World War, was universally lauded for his wartime efforts after the defeat of the Nazis. But revisionists of many stripes in the late 20th century have competed with one another to besmirch his name, culminating in the scandalous label -- or libel -- of John Cornwall's "Hitler's Pope." Obscured by the flood of false accusations, from criminal silence regarding the fate of the Jews in Germany to active participation in their persecution, the brilliantly innovative aspects of this pontificate have been completely neglected. But the tables recently turned for Pius XII as, in the words of Vatican reporter John Allen, Benedict XVI initiated a "full court press" to redeem the name of this great Pope and push forward the cause for his beatification. An international symposium was held in Rome last September under the auspices of the Pave the Way foundation in order to shed light on the activities of Pius XII in favor of the Jews during World War II. This organization was founded by an American Jew, Gary Krupp, who believes that in order to create a fruitful dialogue among religions, the accusations regarding Pius XII, a source "of friction between people," must be laid to rest through the discovery of the truth. Among the findings of the conference was that those who "lived through the brutality of the Nazis and were saved by the church's actions" had a high opinion of the Pope. The Israeli Philharmonic orchestra asked to play for Pope Pius in 1955, and at his death Israeli Foreign Minister Golda Meir mourned "a great servant of peace." Krupp noted that it has been the "subsequent generations born into the safety of the defeat of the Nazi regime" who have bought into the myth of the Pius XII as a Nazi collaborator. During the three-day conference, the meticulous research of Sister Margherita Marchione, Rabbi David Dalin, Andrea Tornielli, Ronald Rychlak and many others was presented, refuting the spurious accusations against the Pope and demonstrating his tremendous role in saving Jewish lives. Paolo Mieli, director of Italy's leading newspaper, "Corriere della Sera," who happens to be a secular Jew, added another interesting point in an interview published in L'Osservatore Romano when he noted that the hostility toward Pius XII did not originate among the Jews. It was an Eastern European playwright, Rolf Hochhuth, apparently backed by the KGB, who started the ripple that turned into an earthquake with his six-hour play "The Deputy," in which the playwright accused the Pius XII of culpable silence regarding the persecution of the Jews. The theatrical piece was quickly picked up by leftist promoters in Paris and London and soon enough, Anglo-Saxon "scholars" hopped on the bandwagon with bestselling books like "Hitler's Pope," "Papal Sin" and "Under His Very Windows." But when Pope Paul VI announced the opening of the beatification process of both John XXIII and Pius XII in 1965, there were no objections. The Pope's decision to jointly open the two processes was a message of continuity within the Church. The lies regarding Pius XII were welcomed and even abetted, however, by those who wanted to create a division in the 20th-century Church by drawing a line between the "good" John XXIII and the "bad" Pius XII, and between the "old" Church and the "new" Church of the Second Vatican Council. But in this wonderful week, as Benedict XVI celebrated a Mass in honor of his esteemed predecessor in a packed St. Peter's Basilica, a giant step was taken toward putting to rest the fictitious legend and honoring the great contributions of Pius XII. Earlier in the day, the Pope's secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone wrote in L'Osservatore Romano of Pius XII's material assistance to the Jews. He said that if Pius XII "had intervened publicly, he would have endangered the lives of thousands of Jews who, at his request, were hidden in the 155 convents and monasteries in the city of Rome alone." During his homily, Benedict XVI offered a refreshing new view of Pius XII indicating "a great multitude of speeches, addresses and messages delivered to scientists, doctors, and representatives of the most varied categories of workers, some of which even today still possess an extraordinary relevance and continue to be a concrete point of reference." The current Pontiff concluded with the thought: "As we pray the process of beatification of servant of God Pius XII proceeds happily, it is well to recall that holiness was his ideal, an ideal that he constantly urged for all." At last, a hero's welcome for Pope Pius XII. * * * Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University's Italian campus. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org.   RETURN TO TOP

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