2012
Super Bowl XLVI-And the Rosary
When Tom Brady leads the Patriots and Eli Manning leads the Giants onto the playing field for Super Bowl XLVI this Sunday hundreds of millions of viewers will be glued to their TV’s. These two teams, led by these two quarterbacks and their coaches, did not get to Indianapolis by accident. They played high school and college football. They were drafted by the elite athletic programs of the NFL and then they competed against some of the best athletes in the world. Finally, they surpassed all others because they played together as teams of highly talented athletes. In Brady’s case, he is here because his grandmother prays the Rosary for him constantly during the games of the regular season, and certainly during the playoffs. This is no joke. I think she prays for his safety not for a win. Not sure about that.
The link between playing in the Super Bowl and praying the Rosary is this. Players in the Superbowl keep themselves in great shape, practice, practice, practice over and over again until it is second nature to drill that football 40 yards downfield into the waiting mitts of a receiver before an opponent knows what’s up. Repetition of drills, plays and exercises make teams great and can lead to the Super Bowl.
Praying the Rosary means repeating over and over again the Our Fathers and the Hail Marys while letting the powerful moments in the life of Jesus Christ take flight before your mind’s eye. You can pray it alone as so many athletes exercise alone. However, when practice takes place as a team, so much more energy and dynamism are present that a bond is forged that makes a unit out of many individuals. The Super Bowl teams are there because they have become strong units all working together toward a single goal. Praying the Rosary together creates an even more powerful bond, a spiritual and dynamic one, among the individuals and the the Living God, with Mother Mary thrown in.
When you watch the Super Bowl this weekend, remember that these teams earned their way by repeating over and over again the same exercises and plays. Remember also that great grace and holiness can come to your family, your friends, your parish by praying the Rosary as a team over and over again. The peace, the joy, the heavenly delight of experiencing God’s presence and the serene comfort of Mother Mary far outweigh the passing joy of winning the Super Bowl trophy.
So watch the Super Bowl and Pray the Rosary. I plan to.
2012
What if What I want is in Conflict with What God wants for me.
- With tender love, God fashions each of us.
I hear this question often, especially from young people. I always answer, listen and pray.
Pay attention to the depths of your heart, not to surface attractions or passing fancies, fads or infatuations. If we truly knew what would offer a life of meaning, peace, love and joy, we would know the will of God. That knowledge is not based on what others want from us or what culture holds as the standard for a good life.
Trust. God will not ask you to become something you truly are not meant to be. When we try to be something we are not, that is the true suffering in life. If we stray from being our true self, through the persistence of God, we will always be drawn back, called, seduced, enticed, chastised, not because God want us to suffer but rather because he wants us to love and thrive.
This is what Pope Benedict XVI said in his weekly address this week:
When we pray the Our Father “we ask the Lord that ‘your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’. In other words, we recognize that God has a will for us and with us, that God has a will for our lives and, each day, this must increasingly become the reference point for our desires and our existence. We also recognize that … ‘earth’ becomes ‘heaven’ – the place where love, goodness, truth and divine beauty are present – only if the will of God is done.
2012
Freedom of Religion, not Freedom from Religion
I am the Immaculate Conception.
The United States of America is under he Patronage of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This week the President of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of New York, raised an alarm concerning assaults by the federal governmet on religious liberty. He is asking citizens to contact congressional delegations to register their concern about the violation of the right of conscience for health care workers and Catholic colleges and universities. Why the uproar and what does Mary have to do with responding to the problem?
First, the uproar is over a directive from the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, that health care and educational institutions have one year to begin making available their their employees coverage of contraceptives, sterilizations and other procedures that are contrary to Catholic moral teaching. This directive sould be taken seriously by the 70 million American Catholics and all other citizens whose First Amendment rights seem to be in jeopardy.
In recent years, Catholic providers of adoption services have had to abandon their ministry to infants and families in Massachusetts and Illinois because Catholic agencies will not allow same-sex couples to adopt children in the agencies’ s care. Catholic health care services and Catholic educational institutions may also be in jeopardy because of the federal government’s overreaching. Most important of all, religion may be removed from all public activity and discourse by this attack on our First Amendment Rights.
The First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States enshrined the God-given right of all US citizens to the free practice of the religion of their choice or of no religion. The Founders were clear that a nation needs responsible citizens to be strong and that responsible citizens need the moral formation which only religion can provide. The gradual removal of religion and moral/character formation from public schools and public property and the present assault on freedom of conscience mean this country is following a sure path to destruction.
Contacting our representatives and even the President is necessary acton. Even more important is praying the Rosary that the patron of the United States will help this country become once more a home that welcomes freedom for religion not freedom from religion. May God Bless America and may Mary, the Immaculate Conception, work overtme in response to our prayers to save this nation. The Rosary is a powerful tool for freedom and human rights in our hands.
2012
2012
The Hound of Heaven
You might recognize this as a photo of the Cristo Branco, the ¨White Christ¨ that presides high over Rio de Janeiro. However I took this photo on a very well travelled corridor of Terminal 3 of Heathrow Airport in London. I usually find myself passing by and stopping to pray by it when I am returning home from a mission trip to Europe, Africa or Asia, as I did this morning.
At first glance maybe it seem like simply a tourist pitch for Rio… But I see that something else is going on. Heathrow may be about as secular and ¨modern¨ a place as there is in the World but there HE is.
As hard as the secularist world might like to try to get rid of HIM, they can´t. More so, Jesus isn´t letting go of the world: of you and me who want to follow Him and especially of the lost sheep who don´t seem to want to.
I´ve been on the road two months now and maybe only the Lord and Our Lady know how many miles I´ve travelled. Yet, as always, this image with outstretched arms and open heart helps to open my heart to His and to renew my longing to help him find His lost sheep.
2012
The Angelus
Every Day at noon in Rome and many parishes around the world the Angelus is prayed. When
Pope is home he offers an Angelus reflection along with the prayer. In some countries, people stop in their tracks when they hear the Angelus Bells and pray the following:
“The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceive of the Holy Spirit. Hail Mary…..http://youtu.be/g7BbncHyw9E
Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to your Word. Hail Mary…..
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Hail Mary full of Grace……
Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Let us Pray: Pour forth we beseech thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts that we to whom the Incarnation of Christ Thy Son was known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection through the Same Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Through the Prayer of the Angelus, millions of people for hundreds of years have consecrated the ordinary days and activities of their lives to the Living God through the intercession of the Mother of God. There is a famous painting called the Angelus that shows a man and a woman pausing in the middle of a field, in the middle of the day, with heads bowed in prayer, to recognize the beauty of God’s presence in the ordinariness of life. Whether you pray the Angelus or the Rosary, always include Mary in the picture for she was entrusted to all of us by her Divine Son during his final moments on this earth before his death. She is a great blessing to each one of us and always leads us to her Son.http://youtu.be/g7BbncHyw9E
2012
The hopeful cross in the Philippines
Philippines
The late Cardinal Sin praying with children at left
“The Filipinos’ faith has been tested by many crosses and trials in a way that seems to strengthen them and their devotion to Mary such that even their overseas workers are first rate evangelizers! They know the cross of hope!” (Fr. Roque D’Costa CSC)
In the last century more than twice as many natural disasters occurred in the Philippines than anywhere else in the world! With typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and floods, catastrophes accumulate yearly in the archipelago of 7,000 islands. After the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, masked homeless people tried to keep the fine lahar dust from contaminating their lungs. One Church looked rather normal at first but was literally half full of the volcanic dust, which had hardened into what looked like a new cement floor. The Filipinos had dug down and raised up the altar with its reredos and provided new pews. The window in the choir loft was converted to a door and the Filipinos continued to pray as always, except now they were in the upper half of the original Church. What faith, strengthened by the cross! What resilience!
Holy Cross men and women had survived imprisonment all during World War II there, relying on their prayer life to see them through the crisis. This was a people in love with Our Lady. It seemed that with every new calamity, the Filipinos renewed their confidence in “Mama Mary” and their complete dependence upon God. They came to love the “Rosary priest,” Father Patrick Peyton, and encouraged him to hold Rosary rallies for families attended by millions and to deepen their faith and devotion through media. Today Family Rosary Crusade units are common in Filipino parishes. Essentially Rosary prayer groups, they also reach out in service to the needy, motivated by their prayer and encouraged by Family Rosary television programs.
Holy Cross men and women are in Manila for training at pastoral institutes, and to earn higher degrees at its excellent Catholic universities. The first religious house for Holy Cross members was recently established in the hopes of consolidating the Holy Cross charism throughout the country. A Marian prayerful devotion that leads to action on behalf of justice is at its core. “The cross, our only hope” is a theme lived out prayerfully in the Philippines.
2012
The Kingdom is in Your Midst- Finding God in Troubled Times
You have to let it rest to see clearly what is really there.
Jesus came in troubled times and yet he preached a message that “The Kingdom of God is among you.” We live in troubled times, but this teaching is as true today as then. The Kingdom of God is in our midst.
It is easy to get caught up in the frustrations and challenges such times, imagining that everything and all of life is misery but with eyes of faith, we can live life fully, acknowledging the good and the bad with hope. Christ did not promise to take away all burden and hardship, but he did offer to help us bear the load, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy burdened.”
- *Live in the moment- They feel sorrow or joy, attending to the opportunities and needs of each time and place.
- *Trust in Providence of God- God is at work in everything and can find a way for grace to come through any situation.
- *Forgive- They let go of grudges, resentments and the need to avenge, accepting what cannot be changed commending it to God.
To help us have these qualities, especially today we need to include in our daily, weekly and monthly routines
- Rest- Note how many articles there have been in recent years about the healing and nourishing power of adequate physical sleep. The soul needs rest too, Sabbath time to open ourselves to God. Think a snow globe, one of those glass bulbs with a scene in side an swirling stuff that looks like snow. If it is always shaken you never really see what is inside.
- Perspective- We need to seek insight and connect to wisdom and knowledge that will help shape our feelings and actions. Someone recently complained about the crazy Los Angeles drivers who always cut her off in traffic. I asked how many cars cut her off that morning in rush hour, she thought and said three. That means she was on the road with about 55,000 responsible, cooperative LA drivers. We need to check our perspectives on what constitutes success or failure, what is of value and what we are called to be and do. Art, literature and music may open us to seeing life and the kingdom in a new way. Mediation on scripture, spiritual reading help, as do conversations with spiritual directors, confessors, soul friends. Prayer that truly opens our minds and hearts to God will give us perspective. The Rosary with its mediation on the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious events of Christ’s life is for mean especially helpful.
- Connecting to a bigger Purpose- When we lose touch with the values and meaning of our work or life, we open ourselves to burnout and disillusion. We need to regularly pray about how what we do leads us in a path toward God, toward being who we were created to be.
The great John Henry Cardinal Newman wrote this Poem, when we can pray this as our own we are on our way toward living in the Kingdom here and now:
God knows me and calls me by my name.
God has created me to do Him some definite service;
He has committed some work to me
which He has not committed to another.
I have my mission I never may know it in this life,
but I shall be told it in the next.
Somehow I am necessary for His purposes.
I have a part in this great work;
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection
between persons.
He has not created me for naught. I shall do good,
I shall do His work;
I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth
in my own place, while not intending it,
if I do but keep His commandments
and serve Him in my calling.
Therefore I will trust Him.
Whatever, wherever I am,
I can never be thrown away.
With purpose and hope may we strive in troubled times to perceive the Kingdom and share it with others.
2012
IHOP is isn’t but IHOHC it is.
International Student Gathering at IHOHC
The local mall recently opened an IHOP, an International House of Pancakes. I live in IHOHC, the International House of Holy Cross, a name given by other men in my religious community since my residence is open to receiving visiting religious from Peru, Haiti, India, Bangladesh who come to study here.
I’m asked if it is an imposition and I reply it is a privilege. They bear unique gifts much like the Magi at the Epiphany, but not gold etc rather, humility, laughter, fidelity to community prayer, their network of friends who share their ethnicity and their foods, the Cerviche, a fish preparation unique to Peru, the Dahl or lentil preparation that Bangladeshis love, the Kallappan, a bread that Indians from South India like. Then of course there is the rice. The Irish like their potatoes, the Italians their pasta and the Asians and South Americans their rice.
As I write these few lines there are unique smells drifting through the house as four college students from Northeast India are preparing a meal for Fr. Pinto Paul’s birthday. Fr. Pinto is himself a resident of our IHOHC and from Northeast India as well. This year Brother Subal is also in residence with me. He is from Bangladesh and serves in the general administration of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
As I write I am reminded of the words a classmate of mine used when he described his missionary activity in Peru. He wrote, “over the years I have come to meet and bond with people whom I never would have met had my life circumstances been different. Religious life and priesthood in the Congregation of Holy Cross has been a wonderful source of ongoing friendships with brothers with whom I share values, concerns, interests and faith”.
You ask me if living in IHOHC is an imposition. I tell you it is a privilege, a gift!
2012
Uganda: Forming Christian Family
- At a Fr. Peyton Guild Meeting, Fort Portal, Uganda
Saturday afternoon in a farming village outside of Jinja, Uganda: our host was pleading with his wife to give up her ancestor worship and sacrifices to evil spirits so as to truly embrace the Christian faith. Our Family Rosary team was translating from the Lisoga language enough of what was being said for me to understand as I did my part, praying the Rosary for this family while Father Fred Jenga, CSC and our team talked with the family.
I was meditating the First Joyful Mystery, the Annunciation, calling on Our Lady to help this woman to conquer her fears and to say her ¨Yes¨ to God. By the end of an afternoon of prayer, concluding with the celebration of the Eucharist, our hostess was visibly changed, coming to an inner peace that I could see on her face. Christianity is still relatively young in Central Africa so traditional animist and spiritist practice is still widespread. As I have come to see it up close I can´t simply dismiss it as some silly superstition that psychology can explain away. There is much more to reality that we don´t see than what we do see, including spiritual forces much bigger than ourselves. Confronted with this reality I begin to comprehend more dimensions of the power of the Rosary!
This world of Africa can seem so far from the more controlled environments of America and Europe. But on the other hand, what was going on today was essentially the struggle to follow Christ as a Christian family so as to live united, strong and happily in faith. Some of the particular challenges are different in Uganda than in New York, but everywhere the desire for love and happiness is the same.
Everywhere family prayer is key. Our Lady and her Rosary can help so much.
2012
People of the Book?
Has anyone ever said to you, “That’s not in the Bible” or “That’s not biblical?” The Eucharistic sacrifice, the Holy Rosary, the Holy Father, all of these are often called unbiblical along with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, praying for the dead, incense, vestments, statues, etc. Along with this, historians of religion and others usually refer to Jews, Christians and Muslims as “People of the Book,” because we all share the Hebrews Scriptures of the “Old Testament.” In addition, Christians and Muslims share the New Testament and Muslims have the Koran with additional books which the Prophet Muhammed claimed to have received from God in the late 6th and early 7th centuries. To make this even more complicated, Catholics use the Vulgate Bible from the 4th and 5th century,or the Douay-Rheims Bible from the 1600’s while most Protestants use the King James Bible from from 1611.
In Verbum Domini by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 he says: “…While in the Church we greatly venerate the sacred Scriptures, the Christian faith is not ‘a religion of the book’, ‘not of a written and mute word, but of the incarnate and living Word.’ Consequently the Scripture is to be proclaimed, heard, read, received and experienced as the word of God, in the stream of the apostolic Tradition from which it is inseparable.”
As the new translation of the Eucharist in English reminds us over and over again, the Mass is derived from Scripture. The “Glory to God in the highest,’Holy, Holy, Holy.., the Lamb of God, The Face of God, Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, etc.”
Pope Benedict quotes the famous line from Saint Jerome, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ and ignorance of the Eucharist is of Scripture.
So Three big suggestions to grow closer to Our Lord: 
- Read the Scriptures daily, especially the Gospels;
- Go to Mass, the Eucharist every week, daily if possible;
- Pray the Rosary daily.
There are no better ways to come to know Christ personally and then to recognize him in all the brothers and sisters we live with and meet every day. And if we know the Bible, the Mass and the Rosary we know that the Mass and the Rosary are both very scriptural. So are Praying for the dead, Incense, Anointing of the Sick, Forgiveness of sins by Jesus and presbyters. Only the uninformed or the willfully blind would not recognize the scriptural basis of all of the above. So read the Bible, Pray the Rosary and delight in the Blessing of the Holy Eucharist, heaven on earth. 
2012
Life’s Challenges
Family
Scripture, however, gives a truly realistic look at the human side of the Holy Family, the side that endured the same struggles and trials that families do today. These very human challenges include not having a place for shelter, having to flee to Egypt for the safety of their infant son, and years later leaving Jesus behind in Jerusalem only to find him already moving toward the mission he would have in this world.
These examples of life’s challenges for the Holy family offer comfort and solace for those families that feel they are less than “holy:” In the midst of their joys and sorrows, Mary, Joseph and Jesus offer us examples of a family that prays together, listens to one another, offers patience and compassion to each other and entrusts the entire life circumstances of their marriage and family to God’s will and care.
“May the Holy Family, who had to overcome many painful trials, watch over all the families in the world, especially those who are experiencing difficult situations. May the Holy Family also help men and women of culture and political leaders so that they may defend the institution of the family, based on marriage, and so that they may sustain the family as it confronts the grave challenges of the modern age!” (Pope John Paul II – Prayer from Angelus Message for the Feast of the Holy Family 2004)
2012
A Prayer for Healing to St. Andre Bessette
St. Andre Bessette Holy Cross Community - Easton, MA
My congregation, the Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross,( http://www.holycrossusa.org ) experienced a special joy this past year when Pope Benedict, XVI declared Blessed Brother Andre, CSC to be a Saint. Known as a healer and the “Miracle Man of Montreal,” Brother Andre founded the incredibly beautiful St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal. He served humbly as a doorkeeper at a school, yet one million people paid their respects at his funeral in 1937 and two million pilgrims continue to visit his remains and the Oratory every year.
This Prayer for Healing to St. Andre Bessette was used at a healing Mass on his feast day January 6, 2012, in the chapel of The Father Peyton Center (http://www.familyrosary.org/en/AroundTheWorld/United%20States.aspx ) where I serve as chaplain.
May Saint Andre be a source of comfort to all in need especially those who are suffering. “People who suffer have something to offer to God. When they succeed in enduring their suffering, that is a daily miracle.”
Brother Andre,
I come to you in prayer for healing.
(state your need)
You were no stranger to illness.
Plagued by stomach problems,
you knew suffering on a daily basis,
but you never lost faith in God.
Thousands of people have sought your healing touch
as I do today.
Pray that I might be restored to health
In body, soul and mind.
With St. Joseph as my loving Protector,
strengthen my faith and give me peace
that I might accept God’s will for me
no matter what the outcome. Amen
A special thank you to the Brothers of Holy Cross (holycrossbrothers.org) for making this prayer available to us.
2012
Catholicism
Dear Friend,
This Epiphany Sunday, January 8, 2012, we celebrate the Pure Light of Christ bursting upon the world scene in an Explosion of Joy and Glory to be shared with all races and all peoples of the earth. Epiphany smells of Divine Incense and Perfumed Oil of Anointing and Gleams Golden as the Magi, representing all nations come to Bethlehem to do homage to the new born King. This Feast is so wonderful, so tangible, so down to earth and so Catholic that it is irresistible. That is why The Three Kings, The Wise Men or the Magi, or as the Eastern Orthodox Catholics present them 12 Magi, is celebrated around the world this Sunday. They remind us that God has come to Man; that heaven has married earth and that God is alive among us.
Pope Benedict has said: “…While in the Church we greatly venerate the sacred Scriptures, the Christian faith is not a “religion of the book,” Christianity is the “religion of the word of God,” not of a written and mute word, but of the incarnate and living Word.” Consequently the Scripture is to be proclaimed, heard, read, received and experienced as the word of God, in the stream of the apostolic Tradition from which it is inseparable.” {Verbum Domini 7}
Now, also bursting onto the scene, is a ten-hour documentary by Father Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Ministry called Catholicism. At Family Theater in Hollywood, we will spend ten weeks, beginning January 17,2012, experiencing the richness of Catholicism, the unique Church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Community of Disciples that was inaugurated by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and is sustained down arches of the years by the same Spirit. You can view the Trailer introducing the program at the head of this Blog Message.
Would you do a special favor this year and pray the Rosary for the success of this program and the work of Evangelization for which Christ founded the Church?
The Glory of your people, Israel.
2012
Awakening the Faith Through the Cross
The Scriptures say that God can make all things work out for good, but it did not seem possible to Soledad, whose companion was killed when a train demolished his car. She was left with three young children and a very weak faith. When she contacted the local parish in South Carolina, the Pastor asked Annie to accompany Soledad in her mourning. Annie, a faithful follower of Servant of God Fr. Peyton CSC, turned to the Rosary to pray for the deceased and the mourners. The family had to read the prayers. They asked Annie to teach the Rosary to them and pray it with them monthly.
Family gathered for the Rosary
Annie Quiringdongo leads the Rosary
The family was consoled by the praying of the Rosary. It gave them something to say at a time of great grief. Now, a year later, the family attends Mass every Sunday and they look forward to their monthly Rosary with Annie, their relatives and friends. The Rosary is offered in memory of their deceased loved one.
2012
Resolve to be Transformed, Not Perfect
Imagine God singing this video to you.
Years ago, when I was studying to be a priest in Holy Cross, I had a period of intense, critical discontent. For some reason I was keenly aware of the ways that people and institutions around me did not measure up to my expectations and standards. My religious community was the focus of much of that. As I was was grumbling to one of the priests in my order about all my complaints, he responded, “David, if you can find the perfect religious community, by all means leave us and join it, but realise that by you joining it it will cease to be perfect.”
I was humbled, because most of all I was critical toward my own imperfections and need for transformation. With help from confessors, friends and spiritual directors, I have come to appreciate more the graces present even as people strive for personal and communal transformation. I have also come to see the corrosive power of a strident perfectionism, which masquerades as something good, but in reality poisons the spirit. I see it in:
- -People who leave every mass angry because it was not done correctly according to their tastes and theology.
- -People who berate their spouses for frustrating flaws, that I suspect were there long before the marriage took place.
- -People who feel awful about their own lives, comparing the worst of their circumstances to the best of what they see in someone else.
- -People who literally starve themselves; seek dangerous,painful body altering surgeries or spend fortunes on the latest cosmetics and cremes.
Only Jesus was perfect yet put to death by perfectionists of his time. God does not withhold grace, peace and love until we are perfect, but invites us at all times to see the grace of the moment and its possibilities for transformation. We are called to see the horizon where we feel called to be, but also to appreciate the wonder of the next step forward, all the while beloved of God.
2012
Year in Review: The Father Peyton Center
Often in my blogs I make mention of the Father Peyton Center where I serve as chaplain so today as 2011 comes to an end I thought I would share with you just what is the Father Peyton Center and what goes on here. 
They come as families, youth, couples, and children, all with one purpose in mind, to pray. During December 2011, eleven different groups shared our facilities and if we factor in the daily Mass attendees over 1000 people passed through our doors during December.
The Father Peyton Center shares a building with the World Headquarters of Holy Cross Family Ministries and has rooms when not divided that can accommodate 125 people, a chapel that seats forty and where Mass is celebrated at noon from Monday through Friday, a cafeteria that can seat 50 people comfortably, a gift shop, and outdoor Rosary Walk. 
Some groups that come provide their own programs while others avail themselves of programming offered by the chaplain or a staff member. The center has welcomed Confirmation groups for retreats, parish sodality groups for Days of Prayer, school children for rosary presentations and activities, retreats for parish ministers, teachers, residents from health care facilities to name a few. The center continues to be a major draw for ethnic groups which include the Brazilians, Haitians and Cape Verdeans.
Rosary Prayer takes place at 9:00 am weekdays and on Sunday evenings when all twenty mysteries are prayed. The Chaplain is available Monday through Friday for walk-ins, pastoral needs and also manages the gift store.
2012
The Twelve Days of Christmas
Dear Friends,
Beginning on the day of Christmas and stretching to January 5 there are 12 days that are celebrated in many Christian homes to keep alive the Festive Spirit of the season until Epiphany on January 6. The tradition has been that Jesuits or other recusant Englishmen dreamed up the lyrics of the Christmas Carol by that name as part of an underground catechesis. When your life might be at risk in England for being Catholic, it seemed a clever way to teach children the faith without giving away the secret that your family remained in communion with the Universal Catholic Church.
There seems to be no solid proof either that this is the truth or that it is not. In any case, the lyrics are fun to sing together and you can find a delightful, juvenile version of the the “12 Days of Christmas” on You Tube at the head of this mesage.
A couple of notes about the meaning of the lyrics:
- The True Love is God.
- Jesus is the Partidge in the Pear Tree.
- The Two Turledoves are the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
- The Three French Hens are the Three Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity or the Three Divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity.
- The Four Calling Birds are the Four Canonical Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
- The Five Golden Rings are the Five first Books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy; The Torah.
- The Six Geese-a-laying are the six days of Creation, or the six Precepts of the Church.
- The Seven Swans-a-Swimming are the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit or the Seven Sacraments.
- The Eight Maids-a-Milking are the eight Beatitudes.
- The Nine Ladies Dancing are the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
- the Ten Lords -a-Leaping are the Ten Commandments.
- The Eleven Pipers Piping are the Eleven Faithful Apostles.
- The Twelve Drummers Drumming are the 12 point of doctrine contained in the Apostles’ Creed.
So, fun and games but also delightfully serious and a beautiful mnemonic device to teach children about the faith.
Merry Christmas, Happy Feast of the Holy Family, Blessed and Holy New Year and a brilliant, star-studded Epiphany to you and yours.
2011
Making a Difference
(L to R) John Pelose, David Shaw (of the American Legion), Maurice Harvey and Ed Radovich
I’m a proud member of the Knights of Columbus, the largest Catholic Fraternity of men in the world. My Council is #1462 in Braintree, Massachusetts. Many are unaware of all that the Knights do in this country and around the world. A good example is what happened on December 11th in Brockton.
The Knights of my Council joined with the American Legion Post 86 to present large bags filled with various gifts to each of the veterans of the Spinal Cord Injury Unit (Building 8) at the Brockton VA Hospital. The members also assisted in serving the Christmas lunch. This is an annual event of Post 86 and the Braintree Council 1462 under the leadership of Sir Knight Ed Radovich.
The Brockton VA Hospital is also assisted by the Cardinal O’Connell Fourth Degree Assembly of the Knights as members help veterans arrive in wheelchairs for the Sunday Mass at 10:00 AM. This weekly activity is directed by Sir Knight Ed Puttkonen. This reaching out to those who have served their country is typical of the Knights of Columbus. The group is responsible for proposing the phrase, “under God” in our pledge of allegiance in the United States and then defending it against the forces of secularism.
Knights of Columbus reach out as well to those with disabilities, supplying hearing aids and wheelchairs to those in need. They are a group any Pastor can certainly rely upon, since they share great loyalty to the Church and support of priests. They are very helpful in the building up of the parish. The Knights have sacrificed to supply a memorial stone to the unborn which will be blessed and dedicated on January 22nd, 2012 in front of the Father Peyton Center in North Easton, Massachusetts at 2:00 PM. We are indebted to them for calling attention to the plight of the unborn. The Knights of Columbus are a group that puts the Gospel into action!
2011
The Miracle of Christmas – in Dhaka
Christmas Eve with the D´Costas
The celebration of Christmas is itself a great miracle! Because of my mission pilgrimages I have celebrated Christmas in a different place each year since 2006, yet I always perceive the same thing. An uncanny sense of peace and grace comes over the world for one brief moment and it seems that the Lord is saying, ¨Now I am born as a man. The Light has come. PLEASE, RECEIVE IT!¨ It is up to us whether we will let him enter our hearts and our homes – and let him stay, through our prayer and our relationships with others.
This year I am in Bangladesh! It is about as different a place as you might imagine: a Muslim country on the other side of the world. Yet among Christians, it is like Christmas at home in so many ways: Midnight Mass, carols, family, friends and great food – PEACE, JOY AND LOVE.
Christmas Eve Father Anol D´Costa, CSC, brought me to celebrate with his family in a rural village outside Dhaka and his mother was filled with love as all mothers are as their kids and grandkids arrive. In Bengali Christmas is called ¨Borodin¨ which means, simply ¨The Big Day¨!
The day before, Father Elias Palma, CSC, our new Director of Family Rosary Bangladesh, took me to visit a home of Blessed Mother Theresa´s Missionaries of Charity in the heart of Dhaka that serves about 150 orphans, many of them severely handicapped. I knew it was not I bringing the Light of Christ to them. Rather, Christ´s light could not have been shining more brightly for me than through them.
Christmas blessings to all!
Father Elias and friends, Missionaries of Charity Home, Dhaka
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