Worship as Prayer and Instruction

Today is a good day for the first Mass of a group stressing worship and prayer.  The texts assigned in the Missal speak beautifully of calling on God from the depths of our being, of praising God, and of instructing one another in worship.

Introit

 (Jer 29:11; 29:12; 29:14; ) The Lord says: I think thoughts of peace, and not of affliction. You shall call upon Me, and I will hear you; and I will bring back your captivity from all places. (Ps 84:2) You have favored, O Lord, Your land; You have restored the well-being of Jacob. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Lesson

(Colossians 3:12-17) Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, and sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Gradual

(Ps 43:8-9) You saved us, O Lord, from our foes: and those who hated us, you put to shame. In God we gloried day by day; Your name we praised always.

Offertory   
(Ps 129:1-2) Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord: Lord, hear my prayer! Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord.

Communion Verse

(Mark 11:24) Amen I say to you, all things, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive, and it shall be done to you.

Mass for the Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

7:00 p.m., Sunday November 11

St. Martin's Chapel

814 W. Maple Street

Fayetteville, AR 

saintrafes.com.

St. Charles Borromeo on Prayer and Meditation

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Charles Borromeo.  This year, it gets passed over since it falls on a Sunday, but I thought this piece on the necessity of prayer and meditation was worth passing along.  The advice below was given to priests at the last synod the great Archbishop of Milan attended, but it speaks to all of us who try to balance the life of prayer with life in a busy world.  You may find that it sounds surprisingly modern for a text from 425 years ago.

St. Charles Borromeo by Crespi (source).

Would you like me to teach you how to grow from virtue to virtue and how, if you are already recollected at prayer, you can be even more attentive next time, and so give God more pleasing worship? Listen, and I will tell you. If a tiny spark of God's love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out. Keep the stove tightly shut so that it will not lose its heat and grow cold. In other words, avoid distractions as well as you can. Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter.

If teaching and preaching is your job, then study diligently and apply yourself to whatever is necessary for doing the job well. Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head.

Are you in charge of a parish? If so, do not neglect the parish of your own soul, do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself. You have to be mindful of your people without becoming forgetful of yourself.

My brothers, you must realize that for us churchmen nothing is more necessary than meditation. We must meditate before, during and after everything we do. The prophet says: I will pray, and then I will understand. When you administer the sacraments, meditate on what you are doing. When you celebrate Mass, reflect on the sacrifice you are offering. When you pray the office, think about the words you are saying and the Lord to whom you are speaking. When you take care of your people, meditate on the Lord's blood that has washed them clean. In this way, all that you do becomes a work of love.

This is the way we can easily overcome the countless difficulties we have to face day after day, which, after all, are part of our work: in meditation we find the strength to bring Christ to birth in ourselves and in other men.

St. Michael: Heaven's Enforcer

Two Prayers to St. Michael the Archangel

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits, who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

O glorious prince St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the house of the Divine King, and our admirable conductor, you who shine with excellence and superhuman virtue deliver us from all evil, who turn to you with confidence and enable us by your gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Amen.

Te splendor et virtus Patris

O Jesu, lifespring of the soul,

The Father’s power, and glory bright!

Thee with the angels we extol;

From Thee they draw their life and light.

Thy thousand thousand hosts are spread

Embattled o‘er the azure sky;

But Michael bears Thy standard dread,

And lifts the mighty cries on high.

He in that sign the rebel powers

Did with their dragon prince expel;

And hurl’d them from the heaven’s high towers

Down like a thunderbolt to hell.

Grant us with Michael still,

O Lord, Against the Prince of Pride to fight;

So may a crown be our reward,

Before the Lamb’s pure throne of light.

To God the Father glory be,

And to his sole-begotten Son; The same,

O Holy Ghost, to Thee,

While everlasting ages run.

Ant. Most glorious Prince, Michael the Archangel, be thou mindful of us; here, and in all places, pray for us to the Son of God most high.

V. I will sing praises to Thee, my God, before the Angels.

R. I will adore Thee in Thy holy temple, and praise Thy Name.

Let us pray.

O God, who in the dispensation of Thy providence dost admirably dispose the ministry of angels and of men; mercifully grant that the Holy Angels, who ever minister before Thy throne in heaven, may be the protectors also of our life on earth. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

St. Waltheof of Melrose: Forgiveness and Prayer

Melrose Abbey. (Source.)

My friends know that I have a great devotion to the saints, especially those off the beaten path, who may not have much of a public cultus.  In my years in the monastery, the evening reading from a bound, typescript translation of the Cistercian Menology was one of my favorite times of the day.  In addition to giving a bit more detail about the day’s Cistercian heavy hitters, who would also be mentioned in the Martyrology, the Menology, gave blurbs for those I liked to think of as God’s also-rans—the servants of God, venerables, and blesseds, who might have languished in relative obscurity for centuries.

Today’s entry in the modern Cistercian Menology for St. Waltheof, Abbot of Melrose, is just such a case.  Also known as Walden, Waldef, etc., he died in 1160.  His life is recorded as follows:

After his father's death, his mother married King David of Scotland and Waltheof was brought up at court where St Aelred became his close friend. Unlike Aelred, however, Waltheof was not attracted by court life and cultured society. He became a canon of St Augustine and was made prior of their house at Kirkham.

Monday Roundup: St. Ignatius, Thank You, and New Articles

The Altar of St. Ignatius Loyola at the Gesu in Rome, one of the Eternal City's more serious pieces of ecclesiastical bling.

The Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola

Today is the Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola.  I do not have a particularly deep devotion to St. Ignatius, but this prayer has been a favorite since the time I used to say a version of it each day as an associate of an Anglican religious order:

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess, You have given me: I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will. Give me only Your love and Your grace; with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

Thank You

I also wanted to take a moment this morning to say thank you to all of those who have sent along words of encouragement or recommended St. Rafe’s to others, especially the bloggers at Bože!, Rumney Marsh Ruminations, Thoughts at Large from a Bishop at Large, Priestcraft, and all of those who’ve shared links on Facebook.

New Articles

A few new pieces have come online over the last few days that seemed worth passing along.  Putting up a link here isn't necessarily a statement of whole-hearted agreement or endorsement--I'll tell you if it is. Instead, these are the things I've run across that seemed to me as if they might be of wider interest to the ISM community.

At Rumney Marsh Ruminations, there is a new Statement on Membership, providing a very thoughtful piece on one jurisdiction's self-understanding that may be of interest to others in thinking about how we define our communities.

At Finding Grace in Ordinary Time, there is an excellent meditation entitled Creedally Orthodox: The Freedom to Live Faith with Deep Intentionality, reflecting on doctrine, authority, and personal responsibility in the ISM in general and the Independent Catholic Christian Church (ICCC) in particular.

Also from the ICCC at Thoughts at Large from a Bishop at Large comes Welcoming All Baptized Christians to Communion, a thought-provoking short piece on communion and the Real Presence.

Finally, at the Vagrant Vicar, who never pulls his punches, there is a new piece titled Validity: When the Holy Spirit Stays Home, addressing the historically vexing question of “valid” holy orders in the ISM.

The interior of the dome at the Gesu.