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March 3, 2009 -  Tuesday in the 1st Week of Lent     LITURGICAL/THEME MEDITATION: "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you" UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENT(S): Pope, Curia Under Way With Retreat SAINT OF THE DAY St. Katharine Drexel  GENERAL MARIOLOGY POPE JOHN PAUL II ON BLESSED MARY Mary has always been specially venerated DIVINE MERCY On God's Will Rule Me  TEACHING/TESTIMONY/CONVICTION: Papal Message on Unity With Orthodox

DAILY LITURGICAL MEDITATION

"If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you" Gospel Reading:  Matthew 6:7-15 7 "And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread; 12 And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; 13 And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 55:10-11 10 "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,11 so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Meditation: Do you believe that God’s word has power to change and transform your life today? Isaiah says that God’s word is like the rain and snow which makes the barren ground spring to life and become abundantly fertile (Isaiah 55:10-11). God’s word has power to penetrate our dry barren hearts and make them springs of new life. If we let God’s word take root in our heart it will transform us into the likeness of God himself and empower us to walk in his way of love and holiness. God wants his word to guide and shape the way we think, act, and pray. Ambrose, a fourth century church father, wrote that the reason we should devote time for reading scripture is to hear Christ speak to us. "Are you not occupied with Christ? Why do you not talk with him?  By reading the scriptures, we listen to Christ." We can approach God confidently because he is waiting with arms wide open to receive his prodigal sons and daughters. That is why Jesus gave his disciples the perfect prayer that dares to call God, Our Father. This prayer teaches us how to ask God for the things we really need, the things that matter not only for the present but for eternity as well. We can approach God our Father with confidence and boldness because Christ has opened the way to heaven for us through his death and resurrection. When we ask God for help, he fortunately does not give us what we deserve. Instead, he responds with grace, mercy, and kindness. He is good and forgiving towards us, and he expects us to treat our neighbor the same. God has poured his love into our hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). And that love is like a refining fire – it purifies and burns away all prejudice, hatred, resentment, vengeance, and bitterness until there is nothing left but goodness and forgiveness towards those who cause us grief or harm. Consider what John Cassian, a 5th century church father who lived in a monastery in Bethlehem and then with Egyptian monks, wrote about the Lord’s Prayer and the necessity of forgiving others from the heart: “The mercy of God is beyond description. While he is offering us a model prayer he is teaching us a way of life whereby we can be pleasing in his sight. But that is not all. In this same prayer he gives us an easy method for attracting an indulgent and merciful judgment on our lives. He gives us the possibility of ourselves mitigating the sentence hanging over us and of compelling him to pardon us. What else could he do in the face of our generosity when we ask him to forgive us as we have forgiven our neighbor? If we are faithful in this prayer, each of us will ask forgiveness for our own failings after we have forgiven the sins of those who have sinned against us, not only those who have sinned against our Master. There is, in fact, in some of us a very bad habit. We treat our sins against God, however appalling, with gentle indulgence: but when by contrast it is a matter of sins against us ourselves, albeit very tiny ones, we exact reparation with ruthless severity. Anyone who has not forgiven from the bottom of the heart the brother or sister who has done him wrong will only obtain from this prayer his own condemnation, rather than any mercy.” Do you treat others as you think they deserve to be treated, or do you treat them as the Lord has instructed us – with mercy, steadfast love, and kindness? "Father in heaven, you have given me a mind to know you, a will to serve you, and a heart to love you. Give me today the grace and strength to embrace your holy will and fill my heart and mind with your truth and  love that all my intentions and actions may be pleasing to you. Help me to be kind and forgiving towards my neighbor as you have been towards me." Psalm 34:4-7, 16-19 4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. 5 Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed. 6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. 16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all.   www.dailyscripture.net   RETURN TO TOP

UNIVERSAL CHURCH/WORLD EVENTS

Pope, Curia Under Way With Retreat   VATICAN CITY, MARCH 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI and the Roman Curia spent the day reflecting and praying on the role God has in their lives. The Pope and his immediate collaborators are in the silence of retreat through Saturday, following a Lenten tradition of taking time to dedicate themselves exclusively to prayer; their first meditation was Sunday evening. Cardinal Francis Arinze, retired prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, is preaching on the theme of "The Priest Meets Jesus and Follows Him." Today, the meditations have focused on the idea: "The priest follows Jesus to find God, who should have the first place in their lives." Cardinal Arinze told Vatican Radio that he chose the themes because "every Christian life can be considered as hearing Jesus' call to follow him." "And, given that the majority of those who participate in the [spiritual] exercises with the Holy Father are priests -- presbyters, bishops, cardinals -- I have thought of this title," he said. During the spiritual exercises, all the public audiences of the Pontiff are suspended.   RETURN TO TOP

DAILY LITURGICAL SAINT

March 3, 2009 St. Katharine Drexel (1858-1955)   If your father is an international banker and you ride in a private railroad car, you are not likely to be drawn into a life of voluntary poverty. But if your mother opens your home to the poor three days each week and your father spends half an hour each evening in prayer, it is not impossible that you will devote your life to the poor and give away millions of dollars. Katharine Drexel did that. She was born in Philadelphia in 1858. She had an excellent education and traveled widely. As a rich girl, she had a grand debut into society. But when she nursed her stepmother through a three-year terminal illness, she saw that all the Drexel money could not buy safety from pain or death, and her life took a profound turn. She had always been interested in the plight of the Indians, having been appalled by reading Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor. While on a European tour, she met Pope Leo XIII and asked him to send more missionaries to Wyoming for her friend Bishop James O’Connor. The pope replied, “Why don’t you become a missionary?” His answer shocked her into considering new possibilities. Back home, she visited the Dakotas, met the Sioux leader Red Cloud and began her systematic aid to Indian missions. She could easily have married. But after much discussion with Bishop O’Connor, she wrote in 1889, “The feast of St. Joseph brought me the grace to give the remainder of my life to the Indians and the Colored.” Newspaper headlines screamed “Gives Up Seven Million!” After three and a half years of training, she and her first band of nuns (Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored) opened a boarding school in Santa Fe. A string of foundations followed. By 1942 she had a system of black Catholic schools in 13 states, plus 40 mission centers and 23 rural schools. Segregationists harassed her work, even burning a school in Pennsylvania. In all, she established 50 missions for Indians in 16 states. Two saints met when she was advised by Mother Cabrini about the “politics” of getting her Order’s Rule approved in Rome. Her crowning achievement was the founding of Xavier University in New Orleans, the first Catholic university in the United States for blacks. At 77, she suffered a heart attack and was forced to retire. Apparently her life was over. But now came almost 20 years of quiet, intense prayer from a small room overlooking the sanctuary. Small notebooks and slips of paper record her various prayers, ceaseless aspirations and meditation. She died at 96 and was canonized in 2000 Comment: Saints have always said the same thing: Pray, be humble, accept the cross, love and forgive. But it is good to hear these things in the American idiom from one who, for instance, had her ears pierced as a teenager, who resolved to have “no cake, no preserves,” who wore a watch, was interviewed by the press, traveled by train and could concern herself with the proper size of pipe for a new mission. These are obvious reminders that holiness can be lived in today’s culture as well as in that of Jerusalem or Rome. Quote: “The patient and humble endurance of the cross—whatever nature it may be—is the highest work we have to do.” “Oh, how far I am at 84 years of age from being an image of Jesus in his sacred life on earth!” (Saint Katharine Drexel)   http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay RETURN TO TOP

GENERAL MARIOLOGY

POPE JOHN PAUL II ON BLESSED MARY GENERAL AUDIENCE Wednesday, 1 5 October 1997 Mary has always been specially venerated 1. "When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman" (Gal 4:4). Marian devotion is based on the wondrous divine decision, as the Apostle Paul recalls, to link forever the Son of God’s human identity with a woman, Mary of Nazareth. The mystery of the divine motherhood and of Mary’s co-operation in the work of Redemption has filled believers in every age with an attitude of praise, both for the Saviour and for her who gave birth to him in time, thus co-operating in Redemption. A further reason for grateful love for the Blessed Virgin is offered by her universal motherhood. By choosing her as Mother of all humanity, the heavenly Father has wished to reveal the motherly dimension, so to speak, of his divine tenderness and concern for all people in every era. On Calvary, with the words: "Behold, your son!", "Behold, your mother!" (Jn 19:26-27), Jesus gave Mary in advance to all who would receive the Good News of salvation, and was thus laying the foundation of their filial affection for her. Following John, the faithful would prolong Christ’s love for his Mother with their own devotion, by accepting her into their own lives. 2. The Gospel texts attest to the presence of Marian devotion from the Church’s origins. The first two chapters of St Luke’s Gospel seem to relate the particular attention to Jesus’ Mother on the part of Jewish Christians, who expressed their appreciation of her and jealously guarded their memories of her. Moreover, in the infancy narratives we can discern the initial expressions of and reasons for Marian devotion, summarized in Elizabeth’s exclamations: "Blessed are you among women.... And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (Lk 1:42, 45). Traces of a veneration already widespread among the first Christian community are present in the Magnificat canticle: "All generations will call me blessed" (Lk 1:48). By putting these words on Mary’s lips, Christians recognized her unique greatness, which would be proclaimed until the end of time. In addition, the Gospel accounts (cf. Lk 1:24-35; Mt 1:23 and Jn 1:13), the first formulas of faith and a passage by St Ignatius of Antioch (cf. Smyrn. 1, 2: SC 10, 155) attest to the first communities’ special admiration for Mary’s virginity, closely linked to the mystery of the Incarnation. John’s Gospel, by noting Mary’s presence at the beginning and at the end of her Son’s public life, suggests that the first Christians were keenly aware of Mary's role in the work of Redemption, in full loving dependence on Christ. 3. The Second Vatican Council, in stressing the particular character of Marian devotion, says: "Mary has by grace been exalted above all angels and men to a place second only to her Son, as the most holy Mother of God who was involved in the mysteries of Christ: she is rightly honoured by a special cult in the Church" (Lumen gentium, n. 66). Then, alluding to the third-century Marian prayer, "Sub tuum praesidium" — "We fly to thy patronage" — it adds that this characteristic emerges from the very beginning: "From the earliest times the Blessed Virgin is honoured under the title of Mother of God in whose protection the faithful take refuge together in prayer in all their perils and needs" (ibid.). 4. This assertion has been confirmed in iconography and in the teaching of the Fathers of the Church since the second century. In Rome, in the catacombs of Priscilla, it is possible to admire the first depiction of the Madonna and Child, while at the same time, St Justin and St Irenaeus speak of Mary as the new Eve who by her faith and obedience makes amends for the disbelief and disobedience of the first woman. According to the Bishop of Lyons, it was not enough for Adam to be redeemed in Christ, but "it was right and necessary that Eve be restored in Mary" (Demonstratio apostolica, 33). In this way he stresses the importance of woman in the work of salvation and lays the foundation for the inseparability of Marian devotion from that shown to Jesus, which will endure down the Christian centuries. 5. Marian devotion is first expressed in the invocation of Mary as "Theotókos", a title which was authoritatively confirmed, after the Nestorian crisis, by the Council of Ephesus in 431. The same popular reaction to the ambiguous and wavering position of Nestorius, who went so far as to deny Mary’s divine motherhood, and the subsequent joyful acceptance of the Ephesian Synod’s decisions, confirm how deeply rooted among Christians was devotion to the Blessed Virgin. However "following the Council of Ephesus, there was a remarkable growth in the devotion of the People of God towards Mary, in veneration and love, in invocation and imitation" (Lumen gentium, n. 66). It was expressed especially in the liturgical feasts, among which, from the beginning of the fifth century, "the day of Mary Theotókos" acquired particular importance. It was celebrated on 15 August in Jerusalem and later became the feast of the Dormition or the Assumption. Under the influence of the "Proto-Evangelium of James", the feasts of the Nativity, the Conception and the Presentation were also introduced, and notably contributed to highlighting some important aspects of the mystery of Mary. 6. We can certainly say that Marian devotion has developed down to our day in wonderful continuity, alternating between flourishing periods and critical ones that, nonetheless, often had the merit of fostering its renewal even more. Since the Second Vatican Council, Marian devotion seems destined to develop in harmony with a deeper understanding of the mystery of the Church and in dialogue with contemporary cultures, to be ever more firmly rooted in the faith and life of God’s pilgrim people on earth.  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/audiences/1997/index.htm    RETURN TO TOP

DIVINE MERCY

Dairy from St. Faustina On God's Will Rule Me I desire nothing but to fulfill God's desires. Lord, here are my soul and my body, my mind and my will, my heart and all my love. Rule me according to Your eternal plans (Diary, 492). I will follow Your will insofar as You will permit me to do so through Your representative. O my Jesus, it cannot be helped, but I give priority to the voice of the Church over the voice with which You speak to me (Diary, 497). RETURN TO TOP

CATHOLIC  TEACHING/CONVICTION/TESTIMONY

Papal Message on Unity With Orthodox "This Beautiful Church Awakens in Us the Nostalgia for Full Unity"   VATICAN CITY, MARCH 2, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the message Benedict XVI sent to a ceremony Sunday in which the president of Italy turned over the keys to a Russian Orthodox church in southern Italy to the president of Russia. The Holy Father was represented at the ceremony by Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, retired archbishop of Palermo, Italy, who read the message on the Pope's behalf. * * * The Holy Father, Benedict XVI, who has asked me to represent him in this significant ceremony, sends his cordial greetings to the religious and civil authorities and to all those present, in particular to the president of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, to the president of the Russian Federation, Dmitriy Medvedev, to the ministers, to His Excellency Mark, "ad interim" president of the Department of External Church Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate, and to the most excellent Monsignor Francesco Cacucci, pastor of this particular Church. He wants to renew, above all, his fervent best wishes to the patriarch of Moscow and of All Russia, His Holiness Kirill I, asking the Holy Spirit to enlighten his demanding ministry. The Pope is pleased at the fact that this building responds, here in Bari, to the devotion of the Russian Orthodox to St. Nicholas. The Russian people has never faltered in its love for this great saint, who has always supported it in moments of joy and in difficulties. This is witnessed also by this Russian Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, built at the beginnings of the past century, to welcome the pilgrims who, in particular in their trips to the Holy Land, made a stop in Bari, a point of encounter between East and West, to venerate the relics of the saint. How could we not recognize that this beautiful church awakens in us the nostalgia for full unity and maintains alive in us the commitment to work for union among all the disciples of Christ? In truth, the history of Bari and of this region is marked in a profound way by the presence of the Eastern world, and ecumenical sensitivity is one of the characteristic traits of the populations of Apulia. Precisely because of this, the Holy Father Benedict XVI hopes that this ceremony too will contribute so that Bari continues being, as Pope John Paul II of happy memory said, a "natural bridge to the East," offering its precious contribution to the path toward full communion among Christians. With these sentiments, invoking the intercession of the Mother of God and of St. Nicholas, the Pope renews his greetings to those present and sends them his blessing through my own. [Translation by ZENIT]   RETURN TO TOP

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