July 2023
Inviolate| 11th century prayer
Inviolate, spotless and pure art thou, O Mary Who wast made the radiant gate of the King. Holy mother of Christ most dear, receive our devout hymn and praise. Our hearts and tongues now ask of thee that our souls and bodies may be pure. By thy sweet sounding prayers obtain for us forgiveness forever. O gracious queen, O Mary, who alone among women art inviolate. Inviolata, integra, et casta es Maria, quae es effecta fulgida caeli porta. O Mater alma Christi carissima, suscipe pia laudum praeconia. Te nunc flagitant devota corda et ora, nostra ut pura pectora sint et corpora. Tu per precata dulcisona, nobis concedas veniam per saecula. O benigna! O Regina! O Maria, quae sola inviolata permansisti.
“Attention, humans! Check out ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’”
By Aleteia The large-screen Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in theaters 44 years ago to much anticipation. Unfortunately, the critical reception and box office numbers were lukewarm. It would take Star Trek II a few years later to bring the franchise back to life. The first film has largely been forgotten, watched only by hardcore Trekkies like me. But it is well worth watching. At the film’s heart is a timeless question: What’s the purpose of all this learning we’ve been doing as a species? What do we really need in order to lead meaningful lives? A film saved by friendshipCritics are not wrong about ST:TMP’s faults. It relies too much on special effects that now seem dated. Long sequences of ship movement weigh the film down. The uniforms and the color palette make this sci-fi movie look hopelessly stuck in the 70s. All that said, the creative team — including director Robert Wise and producer Gene Roddenberry, who created Trek — understood that the key to the TV series’ success was the interplay among Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), science officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). Their reunion sets up the story’s main theme of friendship and relationship. “Bones, I need you,” Kirk says when McCoy objects to being drafted back into service. Hearing the desperation in his friend’s voice is enough to make the doctor relent and assume his post. Kirk, now an admiral, has no idea how to be himself without a ship to command. When an unknown alien entity is spotted moving towards Earth, destroying everything in its path, a newly refitted Enterprise is the only ship close enough to intercept it. Kirk seizes the chance to get back in the captain’s chair, creating major tension between himself and the ship’s new captain, Will Decker (Stephen Collins), who is forced to cede command. Captain Kirk is antagonistic toward Decker throughout the film, seeing in him the threat of being replaced. Decker becomes the voice of Kirk’s conscience, challenging him to recognize his self-centered motivations. This forces Kirk to rely more deeply on his friendship with Spock and McCoy as he tries to figure out how to be a captain again. Star Trek: The Search for ConnectionThe alien entity, V’Ger, is also interested in connection and relationship, though it does not know why or how to achieve it. After Spock briefly unites his mind with V’Ger, he discovers that it is a living computer, having spent most of its existence cataloging the wonders of the universe and now searching for its “creator” so that it can become one with him and finally find a purpose for all the information it has learned. In many ways, V’Ger is superior to humans. It has greater power and far greater knowledge. But it is cold and hollow. It has no one to share itself with and therefore no sense of purpose. “It knows only that it needs,” says Spock, “but, like so many of us, it does not know what.” Love is more than something we long for as humans. It is our humanity. If asked who we are, we usually start by describing our relationships — I am a father or mother, husband or wife, sibling, friend, professional, etc. I understand myself by looking at you, just as you understand yourself by looking at me. When we are babies, we look intently at the face of whoever is holding us. We try to recognize ourselves by seeing in someone else’s face how he or she sees us. We are who we are because of our relationships with other people, and ultimately because of our relationship with God. Read more…
A new eucharistic miracle in Latin America?
By CNA The first bishop of the Diocese of Gracias in Honduras, Walter Guillén Soto, has recognized a new eucharistic miracle that occurred a year ago in a rural parish in the small town of San Juan. Gracias, in the department of Lempira, is a town and “municipio” of just over 57,000 inhabitants in western Honduras. Its foundation dates back to 1536, and its original name was “Gracias a Dios” (Thanks Be to God). Instead of states and counties, the administrative districts in Honduras are called departments and “municipios.” Just 22 miles south of Gracias is the town of San Juan, in the neighboring department of Intibucá. There in the chapel of the El Espinal community is where the eucharistic miracle declared by the prelate occurred: a blood stain on a corporal. The moment of the miracle On the afternoon of June 9, 2022, when the Catholic Church was celebrating the liturgical feast of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest (celebrated the Thursday after Pentecost), José Elmer Benítez Machado arrived before anyone else at the chapel of the El Espinal community to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word and distribute to the faithful the hosts previously consecrated by the priests of the diocese. About 60 families live in El Espinal, spread throughout the mountainous region, dedicated mainly to agriculture and raising cattle, pigs, and poultry. Barely 15 families attend the Liturgy of the Word every Thursday conducted by laypeople, since they don’t have a priest based in the town. Benítez was appointed an extraordinary minister of holy Communion two years ago to attend to the pastoral needs of the chapel dedicated to the Apostle James. At about 5 p.m. local time, the Liturgy of the Word began. When it was time to distribute the Eucharist, Benítez opened the tabernacle and noticed that the corporal (sacred linen cloth), under and folded over the wooden ciborium and on a white satin cushion, showed large stains that seemed to be of human blood. Read more…
Maker of All, Eternal King |from the Roman Breviary, by St. Ambrose
Maker of all, eternal King, who day and night about dost bring: who weary mortals to relieve, dost in their times the seasons give: Now the shrill cock proclaims the day, and calls the sun’s awakening ray, the wandering pilgrim’ guiding light, that marks the watches night by night. Roused at the note, the morning star heaven’s dusky veil uplifts afar: night’s vagrant bands no longer roam, but from their dark ways hie them home. The encouraged sailor’s fears are o’er, the foaming billows rage no more: Lo! e’en the very Church’s Rock melts at the crowing of the cock. O let us then like men arise; the cock rebukes our slumbering eyes, bestirs who still in sleep would lie, and shames who would their Lord deny. New hope his clarion note awakes, sickness the feeble frame forsakes, the robber sheathes his lawless sword, faith to fallen is restored. Look in us, Jesu, when we fall, and with Thy look our souls recall: if Thou but look, our sins are gone, and with due tears our pardon won. Shed through our hearts Thy piercing ray, our soul’s dull slumber drive away: Thy Name be first on every tongue, to Thee our earliest praises sung. All laud to God the Father be; all praise, Eternal Son, to Thee; all glory, as is ever meet, to God the Holy Paraclete. Amen. Aeterne rerum conditor, noctem diemque qui regis, et temporum das tempora, ut alleves fastidium; Praeco diei iam sonat, noctis profundae pervigil, nocturna lux viantibus a nocte noctem segregans. Hoc excitatus lucifer solvit polum caligine, hoc omnis erronum chorus vias nocendi deserit. Hoc nauta vires colligit pontique mitescunt freta, hoc ipsa petra ecclesiae canente culpam diluit. Surgamus ergo strenue! Gallus iacentes excitat, et somnolentos increpat, Gallus negantes arguit. Gallo canente spes redit, aegris salus refunditur, mucro latronis conditur, lapsis fides revertitur. Iesu, labantes respice, et nos videndo corrige, si respicis, lapsus cadunt, fletuque culpa solvitur. Tu lux refulge sensibus, mentisque somnum discute, te nostra vox primum sonet et ore psallamus tibi. Sit, Christe, Rex piissime, tibi Patrique gloria cum Spiritu Paraclito, in sempiterna saecula. Amen.
The Devil Inside| Fr Gabriele Amorth
A modern day look at Exorcism through the eyes of the Vatican’s Chief Exorcist and U.S. fundamentalism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGxXhSFnWVA&list=LL&index=101
Pieta of the Apocalypse: Essential End Time Prayers and Promises
We are well aware of the lateness of the hour, and we would like to equip you for this time of tribulation, with this little book of treasures from heaven. The prayers in this book have been given to Catholic end time seers and mystics over the last century or more. Our Lord Jesus and his Blessed Mother Mary have warned us of the apocalyptic times that we are now facing. They have also blessed us with an abundance of grace filled devotions to assist us through this valley of tears. Therefore, all the prayers in this book have been directly given to us by heaven for our help and assistance in these end times. We pray that this book of prayers may be with its faithful owner throughout these difficult times and be a tool to aid the reader in lifting his or her soul up to heaven and reaching his or her soul’s desired end which is intimate unity with Christ, Our Lord. We ask the Lord that this book of end time prayers be for you a means of reaching the spiritual refuge of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and Sacred Heart of Jesus. As we behold the body of Our Lord Jesus in the arms of his loving Mother, in the Pieta, today, we also reflect upon the lifeless body of Christ, the Church, in the arms of our Blessed Mother Mary. Our Lady holds the church close to her Immaculate Heart as it journeys through its own way of the cross. In the arms of Our Lady, we too hold firm hope that the Church, The Mystical Body of Christ, will soon experience its rebirth and resurrection like its Master. As the Church experiences its painful and sorrowful Calvary, we close to the Our Blessed Mother, are eagerly awaiting a promised Era of Peace and the triumph of the Eucharistic Jesus in a united and renewed Church that imitates the Lord in all things. Order your copy here
This is how miracles are approved by the Church
By USC Dornsife Albino Luciano, better known to the world as Pope John Paul I, reigned as pope for only 34 days before his death in September 1978. But he will soon join the ranks of 20th-century popes who the Catholic Church has canonized. This literally means they have been entered on the “canon,” or list, of people formally declared to be in heaven and have been granted the title “Blessed” or “Saint.” The process requires a rigorous examination of the life and holiness of a candidate and involves several stages that can last years or even centuries. After someone with a reputation for exceptional holiness dies, a bishop can open an investigation into their life. At this stage, the person can be granted the title “Servant of God.” Further details and research are needed for them to be recognized as “Venerable,” the next stage in canonization. The following step is beatification, when someone is declared “Blessed.” This usually requires that the Vatican confirm that the person performed a “miracle” by interceding with God. Two miracles are required before a “Blessed” can be declared a saint. What, then, is a miracle? More than medicine The word is used widely in nonreligious ways. However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which sums up the church’s teachings, defines it as “a sign or wonder such as a healing, or control of nature, which can only be attributed to divine power.” In the canonization process, a miracle almost always refers to the spontaneous and lasting remission of a serious, life-threatening medical condition. The healing must have taken place in ways that the best-informed scientific knowledge cannot account for and follow prayers to the holy person. Pope John Paul I’s beatification was greenlighted by the sudden healing of an 11-year-old girl in Buenos Aires who had been suffering severe acute brain inflammation, severe epilepsy and septic shock. She had been approaching what doctors considered almost-certain death in 2011 when her mother, nursing staff and a priest began praying desperately to the former pope. The bigger picture Catholic belief in miracles is long-standing and rooted in what the church believes about the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospels portray Jesus as a teacher, but also as a wonder-worker who turned water into wine, walked on water and fed a large crowd with minimal food. As a Catholic theologian and professor, I have written about saints, especially the Virgin Mary, and taught university courses on hagiography, or writing about saints’ lives. In Catholic tradition, miracles represent more than physical healing. They also confirm what Jesus preached: that God is willing to intervene in people’s lives and can take away their suffering. For Christians, then, Jesus’ miracles suggest strongly that he is Son of God. They point to what Jesus called “the reign of God,” in which Christians hope to be reunited with God in a world restored to its original perfection. Devil’s advocate? Naturally, thoughtful people can object to the claimed supernatural origin of such events. And the development of medical science means that some healing processes can indeed now be explained purely as the work of nature, without needing to claim that divine intervention has been at work. Some Christian writers, notably the Protestant theologian Rudolf Bultmann, have also interpreted Jesus’ miracles as having a purely symbolic meaning and rejected them as being necessarily historical, literal truth. The Catholic Church has for centuries held that science and faith are not sworn enemies but rather different ways of knowing which complement each other. That understanding guides investigations of supposed miracles, which are undertaken by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which has about two dozen staff and more than 100 clerical members and counselors. Theologians working for the Congregation assess all aspects of the life of a candidate for canonization. These include the “Promoter of the Faith” (sometimes called “the Devil’s advocate”), whose role was changed in 1983 from finding arguments against canonization to supervising the process. Separately, a medical board of independent scientific experts is appointed to investigate a claimed miracle. They begin by looking for purely natural explanations as they review the medical history. Read more…
PRAYER AGAINST MALEFICE FROM THE GREEK RITUAL
Kyrie eleison. God, our Lord, King of ages, All-powerful and All-mighty, You Who made everything and Who transform everything simply by Your will. You Who in Babylon changed into dew the flames of the ‘seven-times hotter’ furnace and protected and saved the three holy children. You are the doctor and the physician of our soul. You are the salvation of those who turn to You. We beseech You to make powerless, banish, and drive out every diabolic power, presence, and machination; every evil influence, malefice, or evil eye and all evil actions aimed against Your servant [name of person/s]. Where there is envy and malice, give us an abundance of goodness, endurance, victory, and charity. O Lord, You Who love man, we beg You to reach out Your powerful hands and Your most high and mighty arms and send the angel of peace over us, to protect us, body and soul. May he keep at bay and vanquish every evil power, every poison or malice invoked against us by corrupt and envious people. Then, under the protection of Your authority may we sing, in gratitude, ‘The Lord is my salvation; whom should I fear? I will not fear evil because You are with me, my God, my strength, my powerful Lord, Lord of peace, Father of all ages.” Yes, Lord our God, be merciful to us, Your image, and save your servant [name of person/s] from every threat or harm from the evil one, and protect him/her by raising him/her above all evil. We ask You this through the intercession of our Most Blessed, glorious Lady, Mary ever Virgin, Mother of God, of the most splendid archangels and all Your saints. Amen!
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