Saturday, November 30, 2013

1st Sunday Advent 2013



1st Sun Advent 2013

Fr. Charles Irvin


1st Advent [A] 2013

Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:11-14; Matthew 24:37-44
 
In today’s first reading we hear the prophet Isaiah calling us to climb to the top of the mountain and look for the Lord’s advent, the Lord’s coming into our lives. At the end of today’s first reading when we hear Isaiah cry out, “O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” We need to understand that Isaiah isn’t simply talking about nature’s daylight and nighttime’s darkness, he is talking about what we see with our minds and hearts. He’s calling us to rise above our daily worries, concerns and anxieties in order to take a look over the whole of our lives with all of their peaks and valleys. As Christians we do that in the vision of Christ, the Light of the World, God’s gift to us.
 
The problem you and I face comes not from the fact that we are unconcerned or apathetic or lazy. The problem you and I have is that we’re far too concerned about so many other things. Often these are legitimate concerns, worries that are thrust upon us by the world in which we live. We are so caught up in all of the events of our days that we do not pay attention to our souls, our inner spirits, and our inner selves. This spiritual blindness is spoken of in biblical language as darkness. And what do we do in darkness? Usually we sleep. We sleep because we shut down, tune out, and turn off.
 
When we, through accident, through chance, or in some other unexpected event, become aware of God’s activity in our lives, we suddenly pay attention -- we wake up. And in that moment of waking up we likely think that God’s coming to us is sudden, unexpected, startling. God has, however, always been there. He is actively present to us all of the time, each and every day. It’s our awareness of Him that has changed. God hasn’t changed in the slightest way. He is constant; He is always present. It is we who are inconstant, changeable and inattentive.
 
We often speak of Advent as being a season of time in which we prepare for the Lord’s coming into our lives. Perhaps we should see it as a season of heightened awareness, for the truth is that we should be looking for God already at work in our lives every day. God is always offering Himself to us. We, however, are not always responding because we’re not paying attention. Advent is a time to conscientiously, deliberately, and with awareness respond to His offer of Himself to us. We have to “see the Light,” so to speak.
 
It’s all a matter of seeing eternity in every season of our lives. It’s all a matter of paying attention to God’s presence to us in our lives as children, as teens, as young adults, in our middle age, and in the final seasons of our lives when we mirror the time when the leaves fall from their branches and the world goes to sleep under a blanket of snow. In each of those seasons of our lives God’s ever-present and everlasting love can break in upon us. We all, each one of us, feel it to be unexpected. But what is so unexpected about it? Why should we be surprised? God is always calling us to climb to the top of the mountain, look for His coming, and take a look over the broad range of our lives.
 
Our lives are cluttered with too many things demanding our attention, draining us of our energies, and blinding us to the big picture. Money only goes so far. Technology can only do so much. Medicines have a short shelf life. All of our human resources are limited. Only God has what we need. He has all that we need in an inexhaustible supply.
 
Can we look ahead? Yes, we can… if we take the time and make the space to do so. Can we trace the writing of God’s finger as He sends us His messages? We can. Can we seize the
opportunity
to make time during Advent to come to some daily Advent Masses? Attend Communal Penance Services? Read from the bible? Spend extra time in thoughtful reflection and quiet prayer? We can. But that is not the issue. The big question is not what we can do – it’s what we will do. It’s our will that is controlling, not our wishes.
 
We live in the time after the arrival of the year 2,000 A.D. Do you remember our worries when the year 2000A.D. arrived and we were told that our computers were not programmed for those digits and might shut themselves down and everything with them? We also live in the time after September 11th. We live in an age of terrorism. We live in an economic mess. We live with a lot of emotional anxieties. We would do well to ask ourselves the question: “Where is God in all of this?” and then seriously, during this Advent, pursue answers to that question. For questions are not denials, they are quests. And God always wants to be sought. All lovers do.
 
As your teachers taught you in school, the Greek philosopher Plato (who lived four hundred years before Christ) declared, “The life which is unexamined is not worth living.” Every Advent, and indeed every time we come here to Mass, Holy Mother Church bids us to examine our lives. As your priest I have always had that purpose in mind every time I’ve stood here preaching homilies over the past forty years.
 
Once again we enter into and begin our journey through Advent, hopefully looking for the coming of the Lord into our lives. And so I repeat to you the words of St. Paul, words you just heard in his letter to the Romans, remembering that the Romans back in those days lived in a culture not altogether different from the one in which we presently live:
 
“Brothers and sisters: You know the time; it is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. 

 For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed; the night is advanced, day is at hand. 

Let us then throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; Let us conduct  ourselves 
 properly as in the day… Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make  no provisions for the desires of the  
 flesh.”

 
In the words of Jesus you just heard in today’s gospel account:



 

So, too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

November 27th 2013 - Feast of the Miraculous Medal

The Twelve Stars

Bishop Fernando Rifan*

The Flag of the European Union (EU), as established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1990, should have a 12-golden-stars circle form on a blue background. This flag appears on the face of all the note bills of "Euro" and the stars in all currencies. This flag was created by the Catholic French designer Arsène Heitz, who was awarded in the competition for the greatest symbol of the EU. Heitz said he was inspired by the " Miraculous Medal " he wore around his neck. The symbolism of the flag is a clear allusion to Marian devotion, which attributes to Our Lady of the referred passage in the beginning of chapter 12 of Revelation: "Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars". The president of the jury was a Belgian Jew who was converted into Catholicism and was quite sensitive to the number 12, in biblical symbolism, represents perfection: 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 months in a year, etc...

It is Interesting, indeed ironic ! Europe, which increasingly rejects Christian values​​, which had refused to stamp the cross on their flag because it is a Christian symbol, has ended up putting a Marian symbol, thus honoring the Mother of Jesus. "Ad Jesum per Mariam !" It reminds  the the story of an atheist who could not pray the Holy ​​Prayer, while tried to pray the Hail Mary: of course He became a converted catholic. He encountered Mary trough Jesus, Safe Way !

The "Miraculous Medal", which inspired the French designer, has its origin in the famous apparition of Our Lady to St. Catherine Laboure, then a novice of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, in Paris on November the 27, 1830, exactly 183 years ago. The Virgin appeared to her on a large globe, with her arms outstretched and fingers adorned with rings radiating light and surrounded by a sentence that said: 

"O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee." 

She said: " have a medal struck on this model, and all those who wear it will receive abundant graces, especially when worn around the neck". "And Mary showed her how the reverse of the medal should be: the letter "M" monogram of Mary, with a cross on top, the Hearts of Jesus and his Mother, surrounded by a crown of 12 stars .

The phrase stamped on the medal summarizes the message revealed by the Virgin: Her The Immaculate Conception, soon proclaimed as Dogma of the Catholic Faith in 1854 by Pope Pius IX, and ratified in the Our Lady apparition at Lourdes in 1858, and the mediation of the Mother of God with his Divine son: Mary Immaculate Mediatrix. Therefore, we have Our ​​Lady of Graces and Miraculous Medal.

It is Interesting that initially, the confessor of St. Catherine, Father Jean Marie Aladel did not believe what she revealed him, but after two years of careful observation, he addressed the issues to the local Archbishop, who ordered the making of medals, later spread out across Europe and around the world, being the vehicle of countless graces of God.

Pope Pius XII called Saint Catherine Laboure of the "holy silence" as she kept the secrets of the apparitions until her passing day.


* Bishop of the Personal Apostolic Administration of St. John Vianney



O Marie, conçue sans péché, prie pour nous qui recourrons a Toi, et pour tous ceux qui ne recourent pas à Toi, en particulier pour ceux qui s'opposent à l'Eglise et pour toutes les personnes que nous Te recommandons. 

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee, and for those who do not have recourse to you, especially for those who are distant from the Church, and for all who have been recommended to you.

Ó Maria concebida sem pecado, rogai por nós que recorremos a Vós e por todos quantos não recorrem a Vós, especialmente pelos inimigos da Santa Igreja e por todos quantos são a vós recomendados. 

Monday, November 25, 2013

Saint Rafael Kalinowki - 19th December 2013



Father Raphael of Saint Joseph Kalinowski, was born at Vilna, 1st September 1835, and at baptism received the name Joseph. Under the teaching of his father Andrew, at the Institute for Nobles at Vilna, he progressed so well that he received the maximum distinction in his studies. He then went for two years (1851-1852) to the school of Agriculture at Hory-Horky. During the years 1853-1857, he continued his studies at the Academy of Military Engineering at St Petersburg, obtaining his degree in Engineering, and the rank of Lieutenant. Immediately afterwards he was named Lecturer in Mathematics at the same Academy. In 1859, he took part in the designing of the Kursk-Kiev-Odessa railway.

In 1863 the Polish insurrection against their Russian oppressors broke out. He resigned from the Russian forces, and accepted the post of Minister of War for the region of Vilna, in the rebel army. On 24th March 1864, he was arrested and condemned to death, a penalty that was mitigated to 10 years hard labour in Siberia. With an admirable strength of spirit, patience, and love for his fellow exiles, he knew how to instill into them the spirit of prayer, serenity and hope, and to give material help together with a word of encouragement.

Repatriated in 1874, he accepted the post of tutor to the Venerable Servant of God, Augusto Czartoryski, living mostly in Paris. His influence on the young prince was such, that Augusto discovered his true vocation as priest and religious. He was received into the Salesians by their founder, Saint John Bosco, in 1887. On the other hand, Joseph Kalinowski entered the Discalced Carmelites at Graz in Austria, and received the religious name of Brother Raphael of Saint Joseph. He studied theology in Hungary, and was ordained Priest at Czerna near Krakow, 15th January 1882.

Afire with apostolic zeal, he did not spare himself in helping the faithful, and assisting his Carmelite brothers and sisters in the ascent of the mountain of perfection.

In the sacrament of Reconciliation, he lifted up many from the mire of sin. He did his utmost for the work of reunification of the Church, and bequeathed this mission to his Carmelite brothers and sisters. His superiors entrusted him with many important offices, which he carried out perfectly, right until the time of his death.

Overcome by fatigue and suffering, and held in great respect by all the people, he gave his soul to God, 15th November 1907, at Wadowice in the monastery founded by himself. He was buried in the monastery cemetery, at Czerna, near Krakow.

During his life and after death, he enjoyed a remarkable fame for sanctity, even on the part of the most noble and illustrious of people, such as the Cardinals Dunajewski, Puzyna, Kakowski and Gotti. The Ordinary Process for his eventual beatification, was set in motion in the Curia of Krakow during the years 1934-1938, and later taken to Rome where in 1943 was issued the Decree concerning his writings. His cause was introduced in 1952. From 1953-1956 the Apostolic Process was carried out, and the Congregation proceeded to the discussion on his virtues.

Pope John Paul II, on the 11th October 1980, promulgated the Decree on the heroicity of his virtues. After the approval of the miraculous healing of the Reverend Mis, the Holy Father beatified Father Raphael Kalinowski at Krakow on 22nd June 1983.

As the fame of his miracles was increasing, the Curia of Krakow in 1989, set in motion the Canonical Process to investigate the extraordinary healing of a young child. The discussions of the doctors, theologians and cardinals, were brought to a happy conclusion. On the 10th July 1990, the Holy Father John Paul II, approved the miracle for the canonization.

In the Consistory of 26th November 1990, Pope John Paul together with the Cardinals, decided to canonize Blessed Raphael Kalinowski. They set the ceremony for Sunday, 17th November 1991.
Pope John Paul II, today canonizes him, and presents him as a model to all Christians in the universal Church.

    

Additional Articles

http://www.kilmacudcarmel.ie/raphael.html

http://www.ocd.ie/index.php/component/content/article/353.html