Mary, Mother of the Living Gospel!

From Pope Francis - 

a prayer to Mary 

to help us bring the Gospel to life today....

Mary, Virgin and Mother,
you who, moved by the Holy Spirit,
welcomed the word of life
in the depths of your humble faith:

as you gave yourself completely to the Eternal One,
help us to say our own “yes”
to the urgent call, as pressing as ever,
to proclaim the good news of Jesus.

Filled with Christ’s presence,
you brought joy to John the Baptist,
making him exult in the womb of his mother.

Brimming over with joy,
you sang of the great things done by God.

Standing at the foot of the cross
with unyielding faith,
you received the joyful comfort of the resurrection,
and joined the disciples in awaiting the Spirit
so that the evangelizing Church might be born.

Obtain for us now a new ardor born of the resurrection,
that we may bring to all the Gospel of life
which triumphs over death.

Give us a holy courage to seek new paths,
that the gift of unfading beauty
may reach every man and woman.

Virgin of listening and contemplation,Mother of love, Bride of the eternal wedding feast,

pray for the Church, whose pure icon you are,
that she may never be closed in on herself
or lose her passion for establishing God’s kingdom.

Star of the new evangelization,
help us to bear radiant witness to communion,
service, ardent and generous faith,
justice and love of the poor,
that the joy of the Gospel
may reach to the ends of the earth,
illuminating even the fringes of our world.

Mother of the living Gospel,
wellspring of happiness for God’s little ones,
pray for us.

Amen. Alleluia!
(Evangelii Gaudium, 288)

Our Lady of Sorrows, 15 September

SEPTEMBER 15 - You will hear Our Lady of Sorrows, Our Mother of Sorrows, the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or Mater Dolorosa in reference to this day.  In Luke's Gospel, Simeon predicts that a sword of sorrow would pierce Mary's heart "so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:35)  Sacred images of Mary under this title often show her with a single sword piercing her heart (below) or with seven swords, one for each of the seven biblical sorrows. Deepen your devotion to Mary by meditating on her Seven Sorrows today.

The seven sorrows of Mary are:

1. The prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:25-35)
   
2. The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15)
   
3. Loss of the Child Jesus for three days (Luke 2:41-50)
   
4. Mary meets Jesus on his way to Calvary (Luke 23:27-31; John 19:17)
   
5. Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (John 19:25-30)
   
6. The body of Jesus being taken from the Cross (Psalm 130; Luke 23:50-54; John 19:31-37)
   
7. The burial of Jesus (Isaiah 53:8; Luke 23:50-56; John 19:38-42; Mark 15:40-47)

Here is a link to the Office of Readings (Matins) for the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows - http://bit.ly/Ouexgi  It contains a beautiful Marian sermon by St. Bernard.

The famous Sequence hymn for this day is the Stabat Mater.  The complete Latin/English texts and the history of this beautiful poem are available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stabat_Mater

MUSIC NOTES FOR CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY

       In one of his best-known sermons, Howard Thurman wrote: “When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart.” The message of justice which we heard proclaimed in the scripture and psalms of Advent continues into the liturgies of Christmas in Psalms 96, 97 and 98: “The Lord has made salvation known, his justice revealed to all.” The same theme is taken up in Psalm 72 for Epiphany: “He shall rescue the poor when they cry out, and the afflicted when they have no one to help them. He shall have pity on the lowly and the poor.”

       From Mary’s point of view, the entire story was “the mystery hidden for many ages” which we heard about on the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Romans 16:25). The puzzle emerged piece by piece in her life and her son’s, beginning with Gabriel’s appearance, the visit to Elizabeth, the journey to Bethlehem and the events surround-ing Jesus’ birth. Then the prophecies of Simeon and Anna, the hurried escape into Egypt and eventual return to Nazareth, family life as “the child grew in size and strength, filled with wisdom,” the visit to the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was twelve, and the wedding feast at Cana. 

      The gospel passage for January 1 tells us that Mary “treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Of this passage, Elizabeth O’Connor writes, in The Eighth Day of Creation: “Every child’s life gives forth hints and signs of the way he is to go. The parent that knows how to meditate stores these hints and signs away and ponders over them.  We are to treasure the intimations of the future that the life of every child gives to us so that, instead of unconsciously putting blocks in his way, we help him to fulfill his destiny. This is not an easy way to follow. Instead of telling our children what they should do and become, we must be humble before their wisdom, believing that in them and not in us is the secret that they need to discover.” As church, it is our mission to “listen for the signs and hints in other lives in the very same way that we listen to them in our own,” as we explore the mystery of our own baptism during the Epiphany season.

Holy Mary, Mother of God - 1 January

On January 1st, the Church celebrates Mary under the title "Mother of God." This title is the English translation of the Greek term Θεοτόκος [Theotokos]. 

copy of Mary with Child, 
Frondenberg Altar, c. 1400
gift from our Sister Parish in Germany
Click image for details

Here is an article by Laura Bertone from the 21 December 2012 edition of Catholic San Francisco explaining this ancient solemnity of Mary:

January 1 is the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, one of the oldest feasts in the liturgical calendar and is a holy day of obligation for Catholics ...

Catholics are required to attend Mass on Jan. 1 and the liturgy will celebrate Mary’s role as the mother of God. The day is also World Day for Peace in the Catholic Church.

A celebration commemorating Mary as the mother of God has been on the Catholic Church calendar for more than 1,500 years and is the oldest feast for Mary – celebrated long before feasts such as the Immaculate Conception or Assumption became part of the liturgical year. The feast began to be celebrated following the debates concerning Christ’s divinity. Once the church decreed that Christ was fully God and fully human, and these natures were united in Jesus Christ, Mary’s role as the “theotokos” (God-bearer) as well as the human mother of God, was confirmed and celebrated.

Day devoted to Mary and peace  Around the 16th century, the feast of Mary on Jan. 1 was replaced in the Roman Church with the feast of the circumcision of Christ. Like all Jews, eight days after his birth Jesus underwent circumcision, marking him as a member of the people of God and part of the covenant between God and Abraham. On that day he also would have been named. However, in 1974 after the Second Vatican Council and the reformation of the liturgical calendar, Jan. 1 once again became the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and was declared World Day of Peace by Pope Paul VI. 

“The purpose of the celebration is to honor the role of Mary in the mystery of salvation and at the same time to sing the praises of the unique dignity thus coming to “the Holy Mother...through whom we have been given the gift of the Author of life,” said Pope Paul VI (“Marialis Cultus,” Feb. 2, 1974, No. 5). “This same solemnity also offers an excellent opportunity to renew the adoration rightfully to be shown to the newborn Prince of Peace, as we once again hear the good tidings of great joy and pray to God, through the intercession of the Queen of Peace, for the priceless gift of peace.”

The solemnity falls on New Year’s Day because it is the octave of Christmas and the church celebrates the maternity of Mary eight days after celebrating the birth of Jesus.

In this country, as decided by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Jan. 1 is a holy day of obligation. When Jan. 1 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or Monday, the solemnity is celebrated on the Sunday. ...

Bertone is interim director of worship for the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

From December 21, 2012 issue of Catholic San Francisco.

 ******************************

On icons, it is customary to label those who appear. Mary is almost always labelled as Maria Theotokos. This Russian icon below (modern style Kazanskaya Bogomater) is a typical example. 

Here you see MP on the left side top, and Θς on the right side top. Maria Theotokos - Mary, Mother of God.

No one captures the uniqueness of Mary, the Mother of God, more eloquently than Blessed John Henry Newman when he wrote to an Anglican friend. After a brief pertinent quote from the Council of Ephesus, allow me to quote Bl. Newman at some length:

If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the Mother of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was made flesh”] let him be anathema.

                                                                                     -The Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431

It is then an integral portion of the Faith fixed by Ecumenical Council, a portion of it which you hold as well as I, that the Blessed Virgin is Theotocos, Deipara, or Mother of God; and this word, when thus used, carries with it no admixture of rhetoric, no taint of extravagant affection,—it has nothing else but a well-weighed, grave, dogmatic sense, which corresponds and is adequate to its sound. It intends to express that God is her Son, as truly as any one of us is the son of his own mother.

If this be so, what can be said of any creature whatever, which may not be said of her? what can be said too much, so that it does not compromise the attributes of the Creator? He indeed might have created a being more perfect, more admirable, than she is; He might have endued that being, so created, with a richer grant of grace, of power, of blessedness: but in one respect she surpasses all even possible creations, viz., that she is Mother of her Creator. It is this awful title, which both illustrates and connects together the two prerogatives of Mary, on which I have been lately enlarging, her sanctity and her greatness. It is the issue of her sanctity; it is the origin of her greatness.

What dignity can be too great to attribute to her who is as closely bound up, as intimately one, with the Eternal Word, as a mother is with a son? What outfit of sanctity, what fulness and redundance of grace, what exuberance of merits must have been hers, when once we admit the supposition, which the Fathers justify, that her Maker really did regard those merits, and take them into account, when He condescended "not to abhor the Virgin's womb"?

Is it surprising then that on the one hand she should be immaculate in her Conception? or on the other that she should be honoured with an Assumption, and exalted as a queen with a crown of twelve stars, with the rulers of day and night to do her service? Men sometimes wonder that we call her Mother of life, of mercy, of salvation; what are all these titles compared to that one name, Mother of God?

-Bl. John Henry Newman

http://www.newmanreader.org/works/anglicans/volume2/pusey/section3.html

Here are some recommended Marian practices for the new year; details can easily be found on-line:

1. Read and meditate on the Biblical passages mentioning Mary. Look for the Bible on the US Catholic Bishops' website (USCCB.org.) then search for "Mary" in Matthew, Mark and Luke and for "woman" in John's Gospel.

2. Get in the habit of praying the Angelus. It is prayed when the church bells ring; the Regina Coeli is used in Easter time.  Pope Paul VI reminded the Church to return to this Incarnational prayer.

3. Sing or recite the Akathist Hymn to the Theotokos. The Akathist Hymn is a long, Byzantine collection of praises to Mary.  It is often prayed during Lent by Byzantine Rite Catholics and by our brothers and sisters in the Orthodox Faith. The Akathist Hymn might be a good thing to do on Saturdays, since this day is dedicated to Mary in Roman Catholic tradition.

4. Display an icon or statue of Mary in your home and workplace. Say a short prayer when you pass by.

5. Check out a book about Mary from the parish library.

6. Pray the Rosary with particular attention to the Mysteries. Once in a while, offer the Rosary for a big issue like an end to war, an end to abortion, or for peace between Christians and Muslims. (interestingly, Mary is mentioned in the Qur'an more often than in the Bible, and many Muslims honor her too. nb: Christians do not accept all that is written in the Qur'an about her.)  Expand your view of Mary's intercessory role so that it is not always just a personal favor from Mary, but one that recognizes her immense role in Salvation History.

ADVENT 101 - Preparing for the Birth of our Savior

Catholics in America - survey results

Fifth survey of Catholics in America released

http://ncronline.org/news/fifth-survey-catholics-america-released

The latest version of American Catholics is the fifth in a series of surveys of Catholic attitudes conducted every six years. Taken together, they make up one of the deepest and most consistent portraits ever compiled of the membership of the country's largest religious denomination.

During the last quarter century, Catholic attitudes and practices, as well as the makeup of the church itself, have changed markedly even as Catholics have maintained a steady conviction about certain core beliefs. Stated in simplest terms, Catholics in the past 25 years have become more autonomous when making decisions about important moral issues; less reliant on official teaching in reaching those decisions; and less deferential to the authority of the Vatican and individual bishops.

The full contents of the report and an explanation of how it was done are contained in a special section of the print version of the National Catholic Reporter and is reproduced here [2], a total of 13 essays accompanied by a variety of charts and graphs illustrating the findings.

Some significant points:
Foundational theological convictions and the sacraments remain at the core of belief for most Catholics.For 73 percent of Catholics, belief in the Resurrection is very important while teachings about Mary as the mother of God are very important to 64 percent.Sixty-three percent say that sacraments such as the Eucharist are very important.

Sixty-seven percent rate "helping the poor" as very important, ranking it nearly as essential to their beliefs as the Resurrection.Mass attendance rates remain fairly steady but vary across generations. The attendance rate of the youngest generation of Catholics, known as Millennials, or those coming of age in the 21st century, is lowest of all generations surveyed. But even most Hispanics, whose attendance rate is higher than non-Hispanics, agree that weekly Mass attendance isn't necessary to be considered a good Catholic.

The generation known as the "pre-Vatican II" generation is disappearing. At the same time, the Millenial generation of Catholics is filling the ranks. One of the distinctive characteristics of Millennials is that 45 percent are currently of Hispanic background and that number is expected to grow over the next two decades.

Hispanics and non-Hispanics disagree on a number of issues. One significant difference: 70 percent of Hispanics say helping the poor is important while 56 percent of others say it is. Hispanics also are more traditional in their views of the necessity to agree with church teachings on a range of issues, including remarrying after a divorce and abortion, than non-Hispanics.

According to the survey: "One in five Catholics … says that church leaders such as the pope and bishops are the proper arbiters of right and wrong" in such matters as divorce and remarriage, abortion, sex outside of marriage, homosexuality and contraception, while maintaining that either the individual alone or the individual considering the teaching of church leaders is the proper locus of authority for deciding on such matters.In a sign that religion as well as politics is local, most Catholics give favorable reviews to the leadership of the U.S. bishops as a whole, and particularly of their local bishops.

At the same time, the survey "finds a consensus among American Catholics that the bishops have come up short in their handling of the sex abuse issues," with most Catholics saying the issue has damaged the political credibility of church leaders and impaired the ability of priests "to meet the spiritual and pastoral needs of their parishioners.

"The survey was conducted online among a sample of 1,442 self-identified Catholic adults who are part of the Knowledge Networks' KnowledgePanel. (See "About the survey" in accompanying stories for more detail on the methodology of the study. [3]) The interviews were conducted April 25-May 2. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.The survey's sponsors included an anonymous donor whose contribution was matched by donations from The Rotondaro Family Foundation, the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Sutudies, the Rudolf Family Foundation, the Donegal Foundation and the Luger Family Foundation.William V. D'Antonio, a fellow at the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America, led this fifth survey, as he has all the others. His colleagues this year were Mary Gautier, senior research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, and Michele Dillon, professor of sociology and chair of the department at the University of New Hampshire. 

KEVIN A. KEENAN
Director of Communications
Diocese of Buffalo
795 Main St.
Buffalo, NY  14203
(716) 847-8719
(716) 847-8722 {fax}

Statues of St. Benedict's

St. Benedict - transept
explanation below

We are blessed with many beautiful works of art in our parish. Our windows are truly spectacular, as is the Gothic architecture of our church building.  However, for Catholics, it goes without saying that all art pales in comparison with the glory of God and the glory of His people.  We Catholics surround ourselves with sacred images to remind us of our family. We never worship images; we worship only God. But we never worship alone.

Here is what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about sacred art : 

2502 Sacred art is true and beautiful when its form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and adoration, the transcendent mystery of God - the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily."(Heb 1:3; Col 2:9). This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and to the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.

Our statues of Jesus are the most important of course. Here is the crucifix over our altar. Jesus is the center of our Church and the center of our parish.



Crucifix in natural light

On the right side of the main altar, we have a side altar dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  As you know, the Sacred Heart of Jesus is also shown in the western transept window as well. It is a presentation of Jesus, accenting his humanity, that comes from the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. 

Perhaps the one statue of Jesus that needs explanation is the small Infant of Prague statue in the transept.

Here the Child Jesus is shown crowned and holding a globe surmounted by a Cross. This signifies Christ's Kingship over all. His right hand is shown in the traditional symbolic gesture used on icons and art work of Christ. The two fingers symbolize the hypostatic union (Jesus is BOTH God and man). The three fingers symbolize the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit).

Mary, whose titles include the "Blessed Virgin" and "Theotokos" (Mother of God), is well represented at St. Benedict's.  Here are some photos of our statutes of Mary...

Mary statue with Butterfly plant - Main Street

snake at base of Marian statue - detail
see Genesis 3:15 - the protoevangelion
and Revelation 12 - "the moon under her feet"

face of Mary - side altar statue, detail

Mary with Christ Child - rectory garden

We have a wonderful statue of St. Joseph in our transept.  St. Joseph is the Patron saint of the whole Church and of the Diocese of Buffalo.  That is why Joseph gets a special place opposite our parish patron, Benedict.

St. Joseph - transept



St. Joseph and the Child Jesus - detail



Our patron, Saint Benedict, is also one of the patrons of Europe and of monks.Our transept statue was the first one in this article. He is shown as an abbot carrying a crozier and the Rule of his Benedictine Order (the book he carries).  Benedict is often shown with a dove as well.  He saw the soul of his sister, St. Scholastica (we have a window of her in the sacristy), rise to heaven like a dove.

Here is our outside statue of St. Benedict on the Eggert Road side of the church.

St. Benedict - outside, Eggert Road

St. Francis of Assisi, Il Poverello (the little poor one) also has statues inside and outside of our church. Here is our inside statue of Deacon Francis:

St. Francis - inside

skull from base of St. Francis statue - Sister Death
  

St. Francis, school garden
in remembrance of the Franciscan Sisters who taught in our school


St. Anthony of Padua has a statue in our transept. Here he is shown with the Child Jesus. He is often invoked to help find lost objects.

St. Anthony of Padua - transept statue

The two patron saints of missionaries are represented in St. Benedict's. There is a transept window of the great Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier (who did mission work in Asia).

There is a statue of the great Carmelite, St. Therese of Lisieux (who wanted to be a missionary but could not).  St. Therese is sometimes called the "Little Flower."  Known for her great humility, her statue is an obvious place to end this presentation.

St. Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower - transept