He does in the homily what all priests and bishops are called to do: organize and order their people against the forces of evil so that the love of Christ may reign in the hearts of men throughout the entire world. But, as St. Paul says, “how can men preach if they are not sent?” Our blessed Lord may be calling some of those who read this very blog to be an outspoken priest like bishop Jenky. Consider the Bishop’s call to win men for Christ. Consider his call to reign over nations for Christ. Consider his call to command the whole universe for Christ.

First prayerfully read and reflect on the first reading from Acts of the Apostles. Reflect on the situation of the Apostles after the Ascension of Jesus: the brutal persecution of the Church, the command of the authorities to obey, and the great power of the Holy spirit moving the Apostles to heroic martyrdom.Then listen or read this powerful homily by Bishop Jenky. In part, it reads:

“Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.

In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

Now things have come to such a pass in America that this is a battle that we could lose, but before the awesome judgement seat of Almighty God this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.

This fall, every practicing Catholic must vote, and must vote their Catholic consciences, or by the following fall our Catholic schools, our Catholic hospitals, our Catholic Newman Centers, all our public ministries — only excepting our church buildings – could easily be shut down. Because no Catholic institution, under any circumstance, can ever cooperate with the intrinsic evil of killing innocent human life in the womb.”

In the end, he says so poignantly and truly:

Christus Vincit. Christus Regnat. Christus Imperat.

Christ wins. Christ reigns. Christ commands.

May our hearts, through our vocations, continue to enthrone Christ as king. May more priests and religious men and women be sent to serve our beloved Lord.

He just celebrated Solemn Vespers in the Cathedral of Leon dedicated to Our Lady of Light. In his homily, within his theme of encouraging his brother bishops, he also pointed out the need for them to encourage their priests and for the priests to work in communion with their lay co-workers. It’s a beautiful reminder that in the battle for souls, no one is in it alone. ———————————————

Here’s a segment of Pope Benedict’s Homily for Vespers of the Fifth Sunday of Lent:

Dear Brother Bishops, amid the challenges now facing us in our pastoral care and our preaching of the Gospel, it is essential to show great concern for your seminarians, encouraging them humbly “to know nothing … except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). No less fundamental is the need to remain close to your priests; they must never lack the understanding and encouragement of their Bishop, nor, if necessary, his paternal admonition in response to improper attitudes. Priests are your first co-workers in the sacramental communion of the priesthood, and you ought to show them a constant and privileged attention. The same should be said for the different forms of consecrated life, whose charisms need to be gratefully esteemed and responsibly encouraged, in a way respectful of the gift received. Greater attention is due to the members of the lay faithful most engaged in the fields of catechesis, liturgical animation, charitable activity and social commitment. Their faith formation is critical if the Gospel is to become present and fruitful in contemporary society. It is not right for them to feel treated like second-class citizens in the Church, despite the committed work which they carry out in accordance with their proper vocation, and the great sacrifice which this dedication at times demands of them. In all of this, it is particularly important for Pastors to ensure that a spirit of communion reigns among priests, religious and the lay faithful, and that sterile divisions, criticism and unhealthy mistrust are avoided.

Needless to say, there is no patron saint of parish closings.

The closing of a parish is a tragedy. A parish church is more than just a building. It is a repository of memories: of the children baptized there, the happy couples married, the parents mourned and buried. It is a testimony to the faith of the Catholic families who scrimped and saved and sacrificed to build a suitable house of worship for their community. It is a place of prayer, sanctified by the fervent pleas of people in trouble and the exultant joy of those to whom favors had been granted, the innocent praise of young children and the anxious worries of their parents and grandparents. Above all it is a house of God, where our Eucharistic Lord has reigned from his humble throne in the tabernacle. To close such a building– to turn it over to secular use—to let condos and boutiques grow up in the space where the faith once flowered—is unspeakably sad.

The closing of a parish is an admission of defeat. If the faithful could support a parish on this site at one time, why can they not support a parish today?

————————–

Find the rest of the article here.

“But does that mean I’m called to be a priest?”

There’s a popular saying about many experiences: “there’s only one way to find out.” I don’t think that’s true of the diocesan priesthood. There isn’t only one way to discern God’s call. But my own experience has shown that just by hanging out and talking with other guys who feel similarly, the clouds of discernment can start to clear. It’s just one way that’s proven very helpful. What God is asking each man to be and to do starts to make more sense.

Project Andrew is an evening for young men to discern the priesthood. Together with Bishop DiMarzio, some priests, seminarians, and other discerners, we’ll have Eucharistic Adoration, Evening Prayer, dinner, and conversation centered around the life of the priest.

This Sunday, March 5th another Project Andrew evening is being held at 5PM in the Blessed Pope John Paul II House of Discernment at 341 Highland Boulevard. Come and see.

For those who can’t attend, keep the discerners in prayer. May the grace of the Blessed Trinity uncloud the vocation of each man that he may be and do the will of the Father, following Jesus the Lord, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thankfully, as the March in Washington proved, more and more people are waking up to the injustice of abortion, the indignity of contraception, and the tragedy of assisted suicide. More and more young people are waking up to the insurgencies waged against the Catholic Church from every side.

On a recent retreat I had the pleasure of reading St. John-Marie Baptiste Vianney’s

biography by Abbe Francois Trochu. St. Jean-Marie grew up under the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution when the Faith was persecuted if it did not conform to the secularist views of the revolutionaries. Priest were murdered and families terrorized for remaining faithful. One passage from Trochu’s book is harrowing:

“From that moment the Vianneys ceased to attend the parish church, though it held for them so many tender associations…In point of fact, the sacred edifice was soon closed altogether. A cruel persecution was now raging. Priests who refused the oath ran the risk of arrest and

execution, without the possibility of an appeal–within twenty-four hours. A reward of 100 livres (100 francs) was paid to anyone denouncing the proscribed, whereas deportation was the punishment of all persons harboring a priest.”

Father Carl Subler, Cpt. celebrates Mass in Afghanistan.

Why such harsh treatment of the priest among all other professions? Because the priesthood is not a profession. It is a vocation –a call to speak the Truth, that Truth who is Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for the salvation of the world, that Truth who calls men after Himself to be crucified (by the media, by their enemies, by Satan himself) in order to be united with Christ in saving the world from absolute certain catastrophe, that Truth who refuses to be compromised despite opinion polls and electoral results. The priesthood is a vocation to love as Christ loves: compassionate yet also firm, consoling yet also corrective.

The present administration will force priests and Catholics altogether to examine whether they are willing to be crucified for Christ for the faith we have received for two thousand years.

This summer’s World Youth Day theme was “Firm in the Faith,” a reference to St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In full, St. Paul writes “So, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of the world and not according to Christ” Col 2:6-8.

How appropriate that passage is to these times!
Thankfully we have bold and insightful bishops molding their priests and training their people for the coming conflicts. Free from all parties to criticize all parties, our bishops tackle every issue where humanity is concerned because Christ is the center and saviour of humanity. this means that He is the saviour of every aspect of humanity: of economics, of immigration, of sexuality, of conscience,  of life’s beginning and of life’s end.

Our own Bishop DiMarzio had continued to share his opinion on poignant and pressing issues. This passed week, Archbishop Dolan (who is soon to be Cardinal Dolan) had articles in the Daily News and the Wall Street Journal. And Cardinal O’Malley of Boston faces the challenge of a terrible ballot referendum in Massachusetts.

Even our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has weighed in on the threats facing Catholics in America. Click on the links above for powerful opinions, critiques, correctives, and even castigation from some of our country’s shepherds, the bishops. Inform yourself, your family, and even your priest (if he is unaware) about the present and coming battles.

Seminarians of the England and Wales with Pope Benedict.

And, as always, continue to pray for more priests who, under the zeal and teaching of our bishops, will spur our efforts to win the battle for souls to the glory of the Lord of Life. May the Blessed Virgin, Mother of priests, intercede for her men at the foot of the Cross.

It’s an awesome privilege considering that today is the feast of St. Anthony the Great. He is the father of all monks, being the first to go as deeply into the Egyptian desert to be alone with God.

He responded to the Lord’s call to “come and follow” quite literally. Upon hearing the words read in the Gospel at Church, he left to follow in the Lord’s footsteps.

You can read this snippet of his vocation at SouthwarkVocations. Or you can read the entire story of his remarkable life on the Internet History Sourcebook. Those looking for a pleasant recording of Anthony’s life can find Maria Lectrix‘s version on Archive.org.

Here Comes Fr. Everyone

by Simcha Fisher Thursday, January 05, 2012

When I say “Mormon Elder,” an image pops into your head, right? Or if I say “Lutheran pastor” or “Orthodox rabbi” or “womynpriest of a Unitarian faith community fellowship co-op”—you know who we’re talking about. Fair or not, you can picture the type right away, down to the tone of their voice and the cut and color of their hair. There may be some exceptions, but there is definitely a type.

But what about when I say “Catholic priest?”

I recently had the opportunity to edit the short autobiographies of twenty seminarians. It was a strange job, and I felt a little monstrous as I cut the stories down drastically to fit the required word count: “Hm, best friend in a coma? Sorry, no room. Gave dad the news while he was serving in Iraq? Touching, but too long—that’s gotta go. ‘May the peace of Christ be with you’? Sonny, we don’t have time for that!” and so on.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio flanked by the new transitional deacons. (Courtesy of Gregory A. Shemitz of LICatholic.org)

But as I gave the edited bios a final once-over, something struck me: there was no pattern. Other than that all twenty seminarians were men, they had nothing else in common that I could see. Some were teenagers, one was a widowed Navy vet. Some had been pious children with make-believe altars in their bedrooms, others had been atheists. They had been high school jocks, or engineers, or had considered a career in politics, or just drifted aimlessly until God came and smacked them with a vocation. Some of their mothers had pushed them into considering the priesthood; other mothers (quite a few, actually) laughed when their sons first mentioned the idea.

Nothing in common that I could see, other than some mention that they had each reached a point where they could no longer deny where God was leading them.”

Find the rest of the article on National Catholic Register’s blog by Simcha Fisher

Pray daily for our seminarians, priests, and bishops. Support and encourage them daily. On the website, Fr. Eduardo Montemayor says beautifully: “Encouragement is a gift of the Holy Spirit that empowers a Christian to be a effective channel of God’s love to an individual through their presence, their love and their counsel.”

In the same breath, let us remember in our prayer the seven brave men who laid their lives down for Christ on December 8th at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception. Becoming deacons, these men to one more great step froward to the altar of sacrifice, the throne of our Lord in the Blessed Eucharist.

Last month I read an article rightly described by another blogger as a 3,000 word hit-piece against Catholic bishops and priests. Laura Bassett claims that bishops are super-powerful in the pro-life movement such that it calls the The Men behind the War on Women. Bassett is absolutely wrong about the enemy against which the Bishops fight. Bassett, however, is correct that a war is being waged. The war is truly against Satan and those he lures into a culture which allows an innocent child to be dispatched in her mother’s womb.

With the entire body of faithful Catholics as Christ’s army on earth (often called the Church militant) is lead by her bishops in obedience to Christ and his teachings. If the war against Satan is to be won, it is on account of the graced leadership of our bishops. Thanks be to God that even secular sources like the Huffington Post recognize how crucial the bishops are. Unfortunately such sources believe that the bishops stand as a group alone, a lobbying group with a particular religious slant.

With the bishops as our generals, priests as field commanders, and all the laity as loyal foot soldiers ready to do or die, however, the Church of Christ is more than particular group “hung up” on an out-dated cause. She is an unstoppable force (Mt 16:18) bent on saving as many as she can from the pain and sadness of sin, despair, death and Hell.

While we are on the front-lines everyday facing challenges from co-workers, friends, and even family who don’t understand or hate Christ and His Church, we are mindful to pray for our priests who instruct us and guide us to win their souls for Jesus (by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit). Let us also remember to pray for our bishops to whom our priests themselves look for instruction and guidance. On the feast of St. Nicholas, yesterday, so many of the faithful offered prayers, petitions, sacrifices, and Masses for the intentions of Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, our shepherd. Let us continue to intercede for his intentions (and of all bishops) for they intend nothing else than that most blessed desire of our Lord, the salvation of souls. May the blessed Mother, Mary, assist our efforts through her prayer for the sake of the glory of Jesus and the Church, His beloved.

The Vigil of All Saints at the Little Sisters’ is a beautiful alternative to a merely secular Halloween of blood, guts, and horror. The Sisters connect Halloween to its proper expression in All Saints’ Day: when the Church celebrates all the blessed and glorious souls our Lord has accepted into Heaven. We celebrate those canonized saints as well as those who are not yet recognized as such. If you’re Grandmother, for example, has died and is in heaven but hasn’t been declared a saint…well, all Saints’ Day is her special day.

The Sisters anticipate the great Feast of All Saints with Compline (night prayer), Eucharistic Adoration, and a solemn candlelight procession to their many reliquaries of saints. Their convent, never devoid of laughter and fun will also welcome guests to enjoy sweet treats baked by the novices and fellowship in their refectory. The convent chapel is located at 110-39 Springfield Blvd. in Queens Village.

Call 718.464.4920 for more info.