Easter Sunday and the Octave of Easter

March is the month dedicated to Saint Joseph

April is the month dedicated to the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Spirit

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 49 The Observance of Lent - Ch 54 Letters or Gifts for Monks

The stone which the builders rejected.

JOSEPH, GUARDIAN OF THE REDEEMER,

MOTHER OF OUR SAVIOR,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

SPIRIT OF LOVE AND TRUTH,

JESUS, BREAD OF LIFE,

HAVE MERCY ON US.

Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised.

(Mark 16:6)

Christians to the Paschal Victim

Offer your thankful praises! ...

The Prince of life, who died, reigns immortal.

(Victimae paschali laudes)

Welcome to Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord, especially to the newly baptized and confirmed. Together, all members of Christ, let us remain faithful to the Church all the days of our lives. And as members of the Body, we have been raised with Christ, so we seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (see Col 3:1). Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

It's pretty difficult, what with all the Word proclaimed last night at the Easter Vigil, and today on Easter Sunday, to choose a favorite text. Every time I hear the Word proclaimed, or read something in my missal, that particular text becomes my favorite. And so, let us just rejoice in it all, and not draw back, and if we are not already going about it, get busy and announce the Good News: The Lord is truly risen, alleluia. To Him be glory and power for all the ages of eternity, alleluia, alleluia. Live in newness of life (see Roman 6:4); live for God in Christ Jesus (see Romans 6:11)! Alleluia! 

... we ought all rejoice on this holy day. Let no one draw back from the common celebration because of his awareness of sin. Let not one stand off from the public acts of worship because of his burden of crimes. Although one may be a sinner, on this day he ought not to despair of pardon. This is no small privilege. If even the thief merited paradise, why should not the Christian merit pardon? And if the Lord, when He is crucified, has mercy on the former, will He not all the more have mercy on the latter when He rises?

(From a sermon by Saint Maximus of Turin, 380-465)

SAINT CEALLACH,

SAINT MARY OF EGYPT,

SAINT FRANCIS OF PAOLA,

SAINT IRENE OF ROME,

SAINT JOHN PAYNE,

BLESSED PEDRO CALUNGSOD,

SAINT ISIDORE OF SEVILLE,

SAINT LEANDER,

SAINT BENEDICT "THE BLACK",

SAINT VINCENT FERRER,

BLESSED PIERINA MOROSINI,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Image of Icon of the Resurrection, through the hand of Sister Suzanne, ocso. Has become the cornerstone.

© Gertrude Feick 2024

Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord and Holy Week

March is the month dedicated to Saint Joseph

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 44 Satisfaction by the Excommunicated - Ch 48 The Daily Manual Labor 

They have pierced my hands and my feet,

JOSEPH, TERROR OF DEMONS,

MARY, SORROWFUL MOTHER,

SAINT MICHAEL "WHO IS LIKE GOD" THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced.

(Isaiah 50:7)

Welcome to Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord and our entry into Holy Week. We will need a little extra protection this week, trust me. The week is not an easy one. This is one reason why we invoke Saint Michael the Archangel to guide and protect us, for, as Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540-604) tells us, "'Whenever something is to be done needing great power, Michael is sent forth so that from his action and his name we may understand that no one can do what God can do.' His name means Who is like God?, attesting to the foundational nature of humility in the spiritual battle." Something else to do is pray the traditional Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, a prayer that originated with Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903). At the holy father's request, the prayer was recited after Mass for decades. In more recent years, Pope Saint John Paul II and the current pontiff, Pope Francis, have encouraged the faithful to pray the mighty prayer.* And let me tell you, folks, Saint Michael will help you. I now have the prayer next to my bed and got to it first thing this morning. Dreading this week, I turned to Saint Michael for help and God sent him forth. He who is mighty has done great things for me. And as far as dreading this week, I am sure Jesus dreaded it too. Abba Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup away from me, but not what I will but what you will (Mark 14:36).

Here are our voices, to help us gain perspective on the week, and be encouraged to keep going. With Jesus, we resolutely set out for Jerusalem. May we courageously pick up and carry our cross and not deny Him. 

Let us run to accompany Christ as He hastens toward His passion, and imitate those who meet Him then, not by covering His path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to prostrate ourselves before Him by being humble and by trying to live as He would wish. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at His coming, and God, whom no limits can contain, will be within us.

(From a sermon by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop, 650-712/726/740, in Office of Readings, Palm Sunday) 

During this Easter walk that we are traveling together, we would like to live and experience the healing of our true, profound, interior sickness. In the crossing of the desert ... we cleanse ourselves from all that is useless, of our interests, our ambitions ... 

We were born to live. We are called to life, to be the extension of Jesus in the midst of suffering and lost humanity. We want to be the hands, the face, and the heart of Lord that the world (and especially the youth) seek. We want to be the love that is composed of small daily gestures, which day after day become our life and lead us to realize that our life is a gift for those around us.

(Mother Elvira Petrozzi, 1937-2023, foundress of Comunita Cenacolo)

May we never go without the affection and tenderness of Mary, who whispers the word of God in our ears. Then we will receive the power to turn a deaf ear to the blandishments of the Evil One, and walk away laughing.

(Pope Francis)

Try to meditate on the cross a little. You do not understand it. I am sure you do not see the connection between Jesus crucified and yourself. Ask God to enlighten you, and when you come to understand that the nails that pierced Christ's hands and feet have their like awaiting you, then you will be saved!

(Servant of God Jacques Fesch, 1930-1957) 

The most cruel torments of the martyrs could have no comparison with the Sufferings of Mary. Our Mother - let us remain with you at the foot of the cross, and at least share your sorrows.

(Mother Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821)

I believe that the Church dies if it is not sufficiently close to the Cross of her Lord. Though it may seem paradoxical, strength, vitality, hope, Christian fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the Church come from her.

(Blessed Pierre-Lucien Claverie, Bishop of Orans, 1938-1996)

We are never strong enough to bear our own cross, it is the cross which carries us; nor so weak as to be unable to bear it, since the weakest become strong by its virtue ... He is a Physician who pays His patient, and gives a great recompense for the smallest pains.

(Mother Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774-1821)

Teach me how you love and have to die

And I will try

Somehow to forget myself and give

Life and joy so dead things start to live

Let me show now an untrammeled joy

Gold without alloy.

(Elizabeth Jennings, 1926-2001, "Prayer for Holy Week")

SAINT CATHERINE OF SWEDEN,

SAINT DISMAS,

SAINT MARGARET OF CLITHEROW,

SAINT JOHN OF EGYPT,

SAINT RUPERT,

POPE SAINT SIXTUS III,

SAINT JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA,

SAINT JOHN CLIMACUS,

PRAY FOR US.

* See Magnificat, "Saint Who?", March 2024, p. 348.

Today's photo: Passiflora, or passionflower, perfect for the holiest week of the year. Seen here in the cloister garden, 2018. I can count all my bones.

© Gertrude Feick 2024

Fifth Sunday of Lent

March is the month dedicated to Saint Joseph

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 38 The Reader for the Week - Ch 43 Tardiness at the Work of God or at Table

A clean heart create for me, O God.

SAINT JOSEPH, MINISTER OF SALVATION,

SAINT JOSEPH, TERROR OF DEMONS,

MARY, MIRROR OF JUSTICE,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

He was heard because of His reverence. Son though He was, He learned obedience from what He suffered; and when He was made perfect, He became the source of eternal life for all who obey Him.

(Hebrews 5:8-9)

Welcome to the Fifth Sunday of Lent, and in other years, the commemoration of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland. Remember that on Saint Patrick's Day, everyone is Irish. So why not join my very Irish Great Aunt Mary of happy memory and send out this old Irish blessing, or perhaps it's an old Irish curse. 😉 Aunt Mary had it typewritten on a bit of paper and placed with a magnet on the front of her refrigerator. 

May those who love us, love us.

And those who don't love us, 

may God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn't turn their hearts, 

may He turn their ankles,

so we'll know them by their limping.

As we absorb the words from the Letter to the Hebrews above, how about we make this week one of obedience to God's will. Our Lord tells us quite plainly in today's Gospel that whoever serves Him must follow Him; where He is so will His servant be (John 12:26). We are here to love and serve the Lord and obey Him by carrying our crosses, the big ones, and the little ones of tiny pinpricks that rub us the wrong way, upset our nicely organized apple carts, and shake us up a bit. In a beautiful letter received the other day, a young wife and mother related what a spiritual director told her once, before even dating her now husband: "Marriage is choosing to love your spouse every day. Every single day you have to wake up and choose to love him." It is like that for all the faithful. Every day. Every day we wake up and choose to love God and our neighbor, our husband or wife, our children, our co-workers, our teenage neighbor next door, the old man in the pew behind us at Mass, the sister or brother sitting next to us at a meal, and so on. Or not. We choose to follow the Lord, or not. The choice is ours. We will encounter much joy in the daily, and much suffering too. The Lord certainly did. No matter. He kept going; He was made perfect. Thankfully, the Father honors whoever serves His Son, Jesus Christ. We reach out to the Lord who is with us, without fail. 

Our voices for the week continue with a prayer that might be used as a morning offering, especially this week. 

Jesus, you know that we love you and that we wish to imitate your virtues. Today, grant us the virtue of obedience, that we might submit our judgment and our will to God's. Grant us that forgetfulness of self that will separate us from ourselves and which will unite us more to you forever. O Holy Virgin, obtain for me the grace of never wasting the least opportunity to obey, because this is the indisputable road to holiness, to maintain interior peace, to please Jesus, and to attain heaven.

Amen.

(Blessed Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, 1862-1937, wife, mother, and widow, the first Mexican laywoman to be beatified, see Magnificat, Meditation of the Day, March 15, 2024)

The first step of humility is unhesitating obedience, 

which comes naturally to those who cherish Christ above all else.

(Rule of Saint Benedict, 5:1)

Bow down in suffering, love your enemies, avoid your friends, be patient in the midst of adversities. That is my cry now. Give me your help generously now, so that God may make my grief and my suffering bearable, so that I may wrest my way to the very pinnacle of God's will: Not as I will, but as you will ...

(Servant of God Joseph Mueller, 1894-1944)

I was like a stone lying in the deep mire;

and He that is mighty came, 

and His mercy lifted me up,

and verily raised me aloft and placed me on top of the wall.

(Saint Patrick, 5th century)

It is always tempting to take credit for the gifts of grace and to lay blame elsewhere for our faults. If we do not claim responsibility for the choices that are truly ours, neither can we ask for or accept forgiveness. Too heavy for us, our offenses-too heavy not to allow the Lord to wipe them away.

(Magnificat, Prayer for the Morning, Introduction to Psalm 65, March 9, 2024)

United in faith and prayer, we keep going.

I trust in your faithfulness.

Grant my heart joy in your help,

That I may sing of the Lord,

"How good our God has been to me!"

(Psalm 13:6)

SAINT PATRICK, APOSTLE OF IRELAND,

SAINT BRIGID OF KILDARE,

SAINT GERTRUDE OF NIVELLES,

SERVANT OF GOD CHIARA LUBICH,

SAINT CYRIL OF JERUSALEM,

SAINT EDWARD THE MARTYR,

BLESSED FRANCIS PALAU Y OUER,

SAINT HERBERT,

SAINT CUTHBERT,

SAINT BENEDICT,

SAINT DEOGRATIUS,

SAINT NICHOLAS OWEN,

SAINT LEA,

SAINT TURIBIUS OF MONGROVEJO,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Peach tree blossom; glorify the Lord with me. A willing spirit sustain in me. Thank you, dear Beth.

© Gertrude Feick 2024

Fourth Sunday of Lent

March is the month dedicated to Saint Joseph

Laetare Sunday

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 32 The Tools and Goods of the Monastery - Ch 37 The Elderly and Children

We hung up our harps.

SAINT JOSEPH, LOVER OF POVERTY,

MARY, MOTHER OF HOPE,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

By grace you have been saved ... For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works so that you may boast. For we are His handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

(Ephesians 2:5, 8-10)

How about Saint Paul's words to the Ephesians above? Awesome. More on this after a few ☺introductory musings.  

Welcome to the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday: Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful all who were in mourning; exult and be satisfied at the consoling breast (see Isaiah 66:10-11). We pray especially for all those preparing to enter the Church this Easter who will receive the Second Scrutiny today. We join them in prayer so as to be free from the deceptions of the world and heed the words of Saint Benedict: "Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else" (Rule of Saint Benedict, 4:20-21).

Still in the month of March dedicated to Saint Joseph, how is it going as we work on four weeks into the holy season of Lent? Be alert, faithful readers, as we recall some words from C.S. Lewis: "The tempter always works on some real weakness in our own system of values: offers food to some need we have starved" ("Equality", The Spectator, August 27, 1943). Saint Joseph, faithful guide and source of inspiration, pray for us.

On the subject of the gift of grace, I pass along something from Father Michael Casey, in Grace: On the Journey to God (Paraclete, 2018), pp. 31-32: "We need to appreciate how the transcendent reality of divine grace interacts with the workaday reality of the human condition since, as the Scholastic theologians used to say, 'Whatever is received is received in the measure of the receiver.' Grace itself is limitless; any restrictions come from the side of the receiver, that is, us. Grace as it is received is often less complete than grace as it is given." I pass this along because yesterday, while standing near the altar at Mass, I prayed, "Jesus and Mary, please do something." At the moment, I don't think I could have stood more unprotected before the Lord. I needed help. And you know what? Jesus and Mary did something. For this gift, I give God the praise. If you going to petition Jesus and Mary, then believe and be open, for as Saint Paul writes, "by grace you have been saved through faith." And if you are going to boast, boast in the Lord. It's all gift; don't put limits on the gifts of God. I believe, help my unbelief. 

On to our voices for the week ...

It is always tempting to take credit for the gifts of grace and to lay the blame elsewhere for our faults. If we do not claim responsibility for the choices that are truly ours, neither can we ask for or accept forgiveness. Too heavy for us, our offenses-too heavy not to allow the Lord to wipe them away.

(Magnificat, Introduction to Psalm 65, Saturday, March 9, 2024, p. 129)

What then is man, if you do not visit him? Remember, Lord, that you have made me as one who is weak, that you formed me from dust. How can I stand, if you do not constantly look upon me, to strengthen this clay, so that my strength may proceed from your face? When you hide your face, all grows weak (Ps 104:29) ... [But] God does not reject those He sees, because He purifies those upon whom He gazes. Before Him burns a fire capable of consuming our guilt. 

(Saint Ambrose of Milan, 339-397, De Interpellatione David The Plea of David, IV, 6, 22)

In this Holy Lent, let us lift up our hearts and always go forward for the triumph of the reign of Christ in Society.

(Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, 1901-1925)

In the case of those who are making progress from good to better the good angel touches the soul gently ... while the evil spirit touches the soul sharply, with noise and disturbance.

(Saint Ignatius of Loyola, 1491-1556)

Become what you were meant to be and you will set fire to the whole earth.

(Saint Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380)

There is a dignity and poignancy in the bare fact that a thing exists.

(C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, They Asked for a Paper)

And lastly, united in faith and prayer, we set about the week, and no matter what, we keep going inspired by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), from a letter he wrote to Pope Innocent II in 1134:

If sadness were our continual state, who could bear it? If, on the other hand, things always went well, then who could not think little of them? Wisdom, the careful controller of all things, alternates the temporal life of his chosen ones with necessary changing between good things and bad. By such a regimen, they will neither be crushed by adversity nor lose discipline through too much joy. Also, it is by this means that joys are appreciated and difficulties more readily endured. Blessed be God forever!

THE FORTY HOLY MARTYRS OF SEBASTE,

SAINT JOHN OGILVIE,

SAINT AENGUS,

SAINT CONSTANTINE,

SAINT THEOPHANES THE CHRONICLER,

SAINT SERAPHINA,

SAINT RODERICK,

SAINT MATILDA OF RINGELHEIM,

SAINT LOUISE DE MARILLAC,

BLESSED JOHN ANNE,

SAINT CLEMENT M. HOFBAUER,

POPE SAINT ZACHARY,

SAINTS HILARIUS AND TATIANUS OF AQUILEIA,

SAINT JULIAN OF ANTIOCH,

VENERABLE JAN TYRANOWSKI,

VENERABLE MARY ALPHONSA HAWTHORN,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: Not rose colored on this Laetare Sunday, it will do just fine. Our despoilers urged us to be joyous. 

© Gertrude Feick 2024

Third Sunday of Lent

March is the month dedicated to Saint Joseph

Readings for the Rule of Saint Benedict for the Week: Ch 26 Unauthorized Association with the Excommunicated - Ch 31 Qualifications of the Monastery Cellarer

Come, let us bow down in worship.

SAINT JOSEPH, GUARDIAN AND PROTECTOR,

MARY, QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH,

SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL,

PRAY FOR US.

We proclaim Christ crucified ...

Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

(1 Cor 1:22, 24-25)

The world lives unmindful of the sufferings of Jesus, which are the miracle of miracles of the Love of God ... Christ crucified is the work of love, the most stupendous work of the love of God. The bottomless sea of the love of God, where virtues are found, where one can lose oneself in love and sorry.

(Saint Paul of the Cross, 1694-1775)

Welcome to the Third Sunday of Lent in the month of March dedicated to Saint Joseph, spouse of the Mother of God, guardian of the Redeemer, most diligent protector of Christ; dear Joseph, strong, obedient, faithful. We continue to pray for those preparing to enter the Church at Easter who today receive the First Scrutiny. May they persevere and grow in faith. And so may all the faithful. I believe, help my unbelief. 

Some time ago I quoted Willi Graf (1918-1943), who said, "To be a Christian is perhaps the hardest thing to ever become in life." It is true. Otherwise, why would Father Jacques Phillipe (b. 1947) bother to tell us that "the Christian life is a combat, a war without mercy." We proclaim Christ crucified, certainly a stumbling block to Jews and Greeks alike (see 1 Cor 1:23), and countless others. 

However, we are called and so we respond. Rely on the strength of God. Need we question, "Is the Lord in our midst or not?" (Ex 17:7). I think not. The Lord is in our midst, here, there, and everywhere. Keep the faith; keep going. For, "what the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people ... capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life" (Pope Francis, Porta Fidei 15). However, we have to start with ourselves. By God's grace, I am what I am.

We are to hear the words of the Father applied to ourselves: This is by beloved Son ...

The entire Christian life can be understood as the progressive knowing of ourselves as the Father's beloved children. The project of the Christian life is to train our ears to hear these words and our hearts to accept them ...

To encounter Christ is to encounter ourselves. When we behold his glory, we learn our lofty calling and goal. When we listen to His words, we learn the path to such glory.

(Father Paul Scalia, priest in the diocese of Arlington, VA, son of Justice Antonin Scalia, d 2016, who served on the United States Supreme Court for 30 years)

The sword of the spirit, the word of God, must abound in your mouths and hearts. Let all you do have the Lord's word for accompaniment.

(Saint Albert of Jerusalem, 1149-1214)

Our charity should not know limits; it cannot exclude anyone on earth, in purgatory, or in heaven.

(Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, 1877-1964)

Love of our neighbors is the greatest act of gratitude that we can show God for His love. Love is the first thing that God requires of us, and whoever walks in His love remains in God and God in them!

(Blessed Franz Jaegerstaetter, 1907-1943)

Abide in the love of Jesus Christ; always sit before His face; walk along with Him; converse with Him unceasingly.

(Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara of the Holy Family, 1805-1871)

A man without love, a religious without love is like a shadow without sun, totally nothing ... Love is the soul, light, and life of the religious life and of each human association.

(Saint Stanislaus Papczynski, 1631-1701)

United in faith and prayer, we go forth and listen to Saint Benedict when he quotes from the Book of Sirach: "A kind word is better than the best gift" (see Rule of Saint Benedict, 31:14/Sirach 18:17). Thank you for being there, faithful readers. 

Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.

(Saint David of Wales, 6th century, his last words)

SAINT KATHARINE DREXEL,

SAINT VIGNAL,

SAINT SAMPSON,

SAINT MAGLIORE,

SAINT CASIMIR JAGIELLON, PATRON SAINT OF POLAND AND YOUNG PEOPLE, 

SAINT KIERAN,

SAINT JOHN JOSEPH,

SAINT KYNEBURGHA,

SAINT COLETTE OF CORBIE,

SAINTS PERPETUA AND FELICITY,

SAINT STEPHEN OF OBAZINE, CISTERCIAN ABBOT,

SAINT JOHN OF GOD,

SAINT SENAN, BISHOP,

SAINT DUTHAC,

SAINT FELIX,

SAINT FRANCES OF ROME,

PRAY FOR US.

Today's photo: We've had a bit of snow; it's wet and heavy. Let us kneel before the Lord who made us.

© Gertrude Feick 2024