PriestYear Intention

Please pray for priests moving to new assignments in these days.

BXVI to priests:

"You are my friends if you do what I command you (Jn 15: 14). Let this be our common resolution: all of us together, to do his holy will, in which lies our freedom and our joy."

Send your intentions for priests to mcitl DOT blogspot DOT com AT gmail DOT com.
No names, please.

Thank you.

Jesus Christ Eternal High Priest, sanctify our priests!

«Fedeltà di Cristo, fedeltà del sacerdote»

[O]ur needs, our limits and weaknesses must lead us anew to the Heart of Jesus. If it is in fact true that sinners, by contemplating Him, must learn from Him the necessary "sorrow of sins" that leads them to the Father, this is even more true for sacred ministers.

How to forget, regarding this, that nothing makes the Church, Body of Christ, suffer so much as the sins of her shepherds, above all of those who turn into "robbers of sheep" (John 10, 1), either because they misguide them with their private doctrines, or because suffocate them within snares of sin and of death? Even for us, dear priests, the call to conversion and to recourse to Divine Mercy holds true, and we ought also to present with humility to the Heart of Jesus the request that He preserves us from the terrible risk of harming those whom we are bound to save.

Benedict XVI

Homily during Vespers - Opening of the Year for Priests

June 19, 2009

Very best wishes to Archbishop-elect Augustine Di Noia, O.P.

Some indicators of the reason for my joy in anticipating the 11 July archiepiscopal ordination of Father Augustine Di Noia, O.P., at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.:

"I think the liturgy should give us a sense of the heavenly liturgy; it's about God, not us," DiNoia said.

Looking at liturgy today, Archbishop-designate DiNoia said, "The great danger is when the focus is on the celebrating community" rather than on God.

Archbishop-elect Di Nois has been appointed secretary at the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

Many best wishes. Tanti auguri!

For more information, please visit The New Liturgical Movement.

War Memorial, Fordham University Church

I invite readers to take a look at the news item on Fordham Notes blog in regard to the restored doors of Fordham University Church, the author's alma mater. The bronze decorations celebrate the veterans of every service sent forth by the University to defend our Nation. The author is also a graduate of Fordham University's Army ROTC program, receiving a commission as a second lieutenant of Armor in May 1984.

Thanks to Sean McCooe, FCRH 84 classmate and blog follower, for bringing attention to this item.

Father's Day

The family gathering was held near the boat and Bay a week early to accommodate the schedule of the priest in the family. Thanks, Mom.

Grandma

Daughter and grandson

Cousins

Youngest grandchild contemplating the view of the Bay and the harbor. Despite appearances, she hasn't quite yet graduated to mental prayer; in reality she is suffering the penalty of a "time out" imposed by her parents.

In the garden: "How lovely is thy dwelling place"

How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! * my soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh * have rejoiced in the living God.
For the sparrow hath found herself a house, * and the turtledove a nest for herself where she may lay her young ones:


Thy altars, O Lord of hosts, * my king and my God.
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, O Lord: * they shall praise thee for ever and ever.
Blessed is the man whose help is from thee: * in his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps, in the vale of tears, in the place which he hath set.
For the lawgiver shall give a blessing, they shall go from virtue to virtue: * the God of gods shall be seen in Sion.
O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer: * give ear, O God of Jacob.
Behold, O God our protector: * and look on the face of thy Christ.
For better is one day in thy courts * above thousands.
I have chosen to be an abject in the house of my God, * rather than to dwell in the tabernacles of sinners.
For God loveth mercy and truth: * the Lord will give grace and glory.
He will not deprive of good things them that walk in innocence:


O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

-- Psalm 83

(The garden revealed some pleasant surprises upon the most recent inspection. A robin family has constructed quite a solid nest in the grape vine arbor and the preoccupied parents of these young ones in potens protested my presence loudly and persistently. The vine itself, about three years old, is bearing fruit for the first time this year.)

La Bicicletta

Off to the hospital on my donated Dutch conveyance for the usual Wednesday visit.