The Heralds of the Gospel reunite every Sunday to sing the Liturgy of the Hours or the Divine Office.  It takes place in the church of the Seminary, Our Lady of the Rosary church.

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

        

…continued from previous post

Man is both body and soul. The angels shine contemplating God and singing His praises in pure spirit, but man with his body as well. His actions, every beat of his heart should give glory to God.

Man in Paradise had a perfect nature. All he did was orderly and pleasant to God.  But with original sin, the situation changed …with labor and toil shall you eat thereof all the days of your life… (Genesis 3:17)

No longer are all things in man subject to God’s will.  Man is burdened by disorderly passions. He must fight against inclinations towards evil, as he was cursed to a fallen nature.

“For you are dust, And to dust you shall return. …”

Oh how we are subject to that just sentence! At every instant our flesh calls us despise the law written in the bronze of our souls! Even worst, not only the flesh, but the Devil and the World conspire against our salvation, against our union with God! How can we maintain our minds in Heaven when our feet are dragging?

Of course, for man that is impossible. Only with God’s grace can man stably practice the 10 commandments.  St. Thomas teaches us that while a man is capable of doing some ethical or moral good, supernatural good is only with His Grace.

But graces come in many forms.  To simplify,  we’ll use an example used a lot demonstrate the difference between  sufficient grace (gratia mere sufficiens) and  efficacious grace (gratia efficax).

Sufficient graces are those that give the person the possibility to do good.

A man who wants to cross a river needs a boat, oars and the strength to do so.

It is analogous to a man who wants to practice good. He needs grace. God gives it.

But when the current is stronger than normal?  When the task at hand is so much more difficult than the common situation? More help is needed.

There God not only gives you oars, but He shall push the boat towards the goal.

Of course, man always has free will, but isn’t it hard to row against a hurricane of graces?

When God sends His winds, at most you need to open the sails to reach the goal. Sometimes not even that.  How many wonderful stories about mystics could we tell? They saw the most sublime things, as if ascended into Heaven. But not only they, but every person, at one point in their lives, was subject such a grace, in a greater or lesser degree.

But the journeys of a Catholic are not always full of winds that push towards the Heavens. How many times have we found ourselves in a dark night, and the boat slipping from our control?

Does God abandon us? No, absolutely not! Does the mother abandon the child when she puts the child down from her arms and gives it her hand as it may walk on its own feet? No, God helps us in the same way, as we may be strengthened. He shall always be there.  Even St. Paul begged God to take Him in His arms as the mother takes child the child and carries it where she wishes and protect it. But the Lord told him, as we read in 2 Corinthians 12:    My grace is sufficient for you: for power is made perfect in infirmity.

This is where discipline comes in. Our small contribution to the action of grace. A man must put order into his life in so that he may triumph over his worst enemy: himself.  To defeat all his evil inclinations he needs both grace and a bit of effort (Or sometimes a lot!) . “Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you.” – St. Augustine.
He needs to make efforts to strengthen his will.  Waking up early and having schedules to follow make a Herald use his time wisely and efficiently.  Practicing ceremonials, be it for mass or the muster of the Credo before classes or even the cortege from dinner to Complines,  helps the body discipline its movements to make them dignified movements yet leaving the mind open to reach the highest contemplations that grace proportions when we are properly disposed for them. If angels had bodies… imagine it…we want to imitate them!

Discipline is not only work! Everything helps a young herald be always with enthusiasm to love, know and serve Our Blessed Mother and Her Divine Son!

Washing dishes,  cleaning, exercise, silence, early wake-up, lights out, drills, music practice, Marian missions (will be the subject of future posts), parish duties, community admonishments, chapters of faults, studies, strong reading habits and being expected to always do everything with a love for perfection creates habits that end up forming ideas, that then forms mentalities and finally forms saints.   All this next to an intense spiritual life make a seminarian ready for anything and willing to go and do anything that Holy Church needs of him. At a young age, obedience already becomes way of life, making him capable of things others aren’t. Living in community, having to follow an Ordo of Customs (again, we hope to write on it later) and constantly having to dominate their will and put it the hands of another make a seminarian be ready for those times that God hands us “just an oar” to give us merits.  These habits end up being connatural to the person, allowing him to fly when life weights down. Without discipline, when aridness begins to ail a soul, it succumbs and is incapable of elevating the minds to God. When God sends His winds to push us towards  great things and great horizons to “Put out into deep water” (Luke 5:4 ) it is easy to elevate your mind towards Him.  But when He wants us to suffer the apparent abandonment as He Himself suffered to make us grow, we need to be ready for it. An athlete who wants to win a race can’t rely on having a “good day” . He has to train for it. The path towards sanctity is not always full of  bright skies and and soothing winds.  Sometimes it goes through dark knights and heavy storms. With discipline, overcoming those trials, always with God’s grace, becomes possible, being able to always keep the celestial objective in sight and on the path towards it.

Let us  all discipline ourselves, above all in our prayer life, so we can one day with great joy say:  I have fought a good fight: I have finished my course: I have kept the faith!

Working

Making pizza on Sundays!

Working with wood with our Master Carpenter!

Always seeking Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, be it with the greatest consolations or the most challenging aridity

        

With Bishop Joe S. Vasquez

With Bishop Joe S. Vasquez – Bishop elect of Austin: Thanksgiving mass at the Catholic Charismatic Center in Houston Texas. Feb. 18, 2010

        

May 07, 08 & 09, 2010

Preacher: Fr. François Bandet, EP.

Program

Friday, May 07

7:00 am  Departure from 365 QUEEN ST S. Mississauga, ON

7:30 am Stop at 10 Cartwright St, Toronto, ON

4:00 pm Arrival and Registration at Madonna Hotel.

5:30 pm  First Meeting

6:00 pm Dinner

7:00 pm Opening Mass – End of the Day

Saturday, May 08

7:00 am Breakfast

8:00 am Mass

9:00 am First Meeting

9:45 am Time for Meditation

10:45 am Second meeting

11:45 am Time for Meditation and confessions

1:00 pm Lunch and free time

4:00 pm third Meeting

4:45 pm Time for Meditation and Confessions

5:45 pm Prayers

6:30 pm Dinner

7:30 pm Mass and Confessions

9:00 pm – End of the Day

Sunday, May 09

7:00 am Breakfast

8:00 am Closing Mass

9:00 am Departure to Toronto – End of the Retreat

Costs

(Dead line for inscriptions: April 23rd)

One Person:               $300.00 (private room)

Double Room:           $440.00 (sharing room)

Triple Room:             $655.00 (sharing room)

Four people room:     $795.00 (four people sharing a room).

Price includes Transportation by bus,  Lodging at Cap-de-la-Madeleine and breakfast, Lunch, Dinner during the Retreat;  meals  during the trip are not included.

Family Coolers are welcomed.

For more information

Please call (905) 939-8226 or (647) 283 0310

        

“Caprice leads to bitterness and the spirit of criticism”

Msgr.  John S. Clá Dias   02.12.2010

A father teaches his children

“O capricho leva à amargura e ao espírito de crítica!”

Msgr. João S. Clá Dias (12/02/2010).

        

For the Heralds it marked the last day of exams. For some… the canon law students are still in exams!

For all of us a gift from Santa Maria ad nives on the Eternal City

Here are some pictures we took:

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February 11 – Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

Bernadette: the greatest miracle of Lourdes.

On February 11, 1858, in the French village of Lourdes, on the bank of the Gave river, our holy mother, Mary, manifested in a direct and close manner her love for us. She appeared to a young girl of only 14 whose name was Bernadette Soubirous.

At that moment, Bernadette experienced the most beautiful moment of her life: “I felt a strong wind which compelled me to raise my head. Looking around, I noticed that the branches of the thorn bushes that grow around the cave of Masabielle were moving. At once there appeared, a beautiful Lady, so lovely, that seeing her, one wished to die, such is the desire to see her again.”

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!

St. Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us!

        

A nice picture we received from the Heralds in Ponta Grossa

A view of the hall of Mater Divinae Gratiae in the house of the Heralds in Ponta Grossa

        

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE 44th WORLD COMMUNICATIONS DAY

“The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World:
New Media at the Service of the Word”

[Sunday, 16 May 2010]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The theme of this year’s World Communications Day – The Priest and Pastoral Ministry in a Digital World: New Media at the Service of the Word – is meant to coincide with the Church’s celebration of the Year for Priests. It focuses attention on the important and sensitive pastoral area of digital communications, in which priests can discover new possibilities for carrying out their ministry to and for the Word of God. Church communities have always used the modern media for fostering communication, engagement with society, and, increasingly, for encouraging dialogue at a wider level. Yet the recent, explosive growth and greater social impact of these media make them all the more important for a fruitful priestly ministry.

All priests have as their primary duty the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, and the communication of his saving grace in the sacraments. Gathered and called by the Word, the Church is the sign and instrument of the communion that God creates with all people, and every priest is called to build up this communion, in Christ and with Christ. Such is the lofty dignity and beauty of the mission of the priest, which responds in a special way to the challenge raised by the Apostle Paul: “The Scripture says, ‘No one who believes in him will be put to shame … everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ But how can they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to preach? And how can people preach unless they are sent? (Rom 10:11, 13-15).

Responding adequately to this challenge amid today’s cultural shifts, to which young people are especially sensitive, necessarily involves using new communications technologies. The world of digital communication, with its almost limitless expressive capacity, makes us appreciate all the more Saint Paul’s exclamation: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16) The increased availability of the new technologies demands greater responsibility on the part of those called to proclaim the Word, but it also requires them to become become more focused, efficient and compelling in their efforts. Priests stand at the threshold of a new era: as new technologies create deeper forms of relationship across greater distances, they are called to respond pastorally by putting the media ever more effectively at the service of the Word.

The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.

Using new communication technologies, priests can introduce people to the life of the Church and help our contemporaries to discover the face of Christ. They will best achieve this aim if they learn, from the time of their formation, how to use these technologies in a competent and appropriate way, shaped by sound theological insights and reflecting a strong priestly spirituality grounded in constant dialogue with the Lord. Yet priests present in the world of digital communications should be less notable for their media savvy than for their priestly heart, their closeness to Christ. This will not only enliven their pastoral outreach, but also will give a “soul” to the fabric of communications that makes up the “Web”.

God’s loving care for all people in Christ must be expressed in the digital world not simply as an artifact from the past, or a learned theory, but as something concrete, present and engaging. Our pastoral presence in that world must thus serve to show our contemporaries, especially the many people in our day who experience uncertainty and confusion, “that God is near; that in Christ we all belong to one another” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, 21 December 2009).

Who better than a priest, as a man of God, can develop and put into practice, by his competence in current digital technology, a pastoral outreach capable of making God concretely present in today’s world and presenting the religious wisdom of the past as a treasure which can inspire our efforts to live in the present with dignity while building a better future? Consecrated men and women working in the media have a special responsibility for opening the door to new forms of encounter, maintaining the quality of human interaction, and showing concern for individuals and their genuine spiritual needs. They can thus help the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord’s presence, to grow in expectation and hope, and to draw near to the Word of God which offers salvation and fosters an integral human development. In this way the Word can traverse the many crossroads created by the intersection of all the different “highways” that form “cyberspace”, and show that God has his rightful place in every age, including our own. Thanks to the new communications media, the Lord can walk the streets of our cities and, stopping before the threshold of our homes and our hearts, say once more: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me” (Rev 3:20).

In my Message last year, I encouraged leaders in the world of communications to promote a culture of respect for the dignity and value of the human person. This is one of the ways in which the Church is called to exercise a “diaconia of culture” on today’s “digital continent”. With the Gospels in our hands and in our hearts, we must reaffirm the need to continue preparing ways that lead to the Word of God, while being at the same time constantly attentive to those who continue to seek; indeed, we should encourage their seeking as a first step of evangelization. A pastoral presence in the world of digital communications, precisely because it brings us into contact with the followers of other religions, non-believers and people of every culture, requires sensitivity to those who do not believe, the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute. Just as the prophet Isaiah envisioned a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Is 56:7), can we not see the web as also offering a space – like the “Court of the Gentiles” of the Temple of Jerusalem – for those who have not yet come to know God?

The development of the new technologies and the larger digital world represents a great resource for humanity as a whole and for every individual, and it can act as a stimulus to encounter and dialogue. But this development likewise represents a great opportunity for believers. No door can or should be closed to those who, in the name of the risen Christ, are committed to drawing near to others. To priests in particular the new media offer ever new and far-reaching pastoral possibilities, encouraging them to embody the universality of the Church’s mission, to build a vast and real fellowship, and to testify in today’s world to the new life which comes from hearing the Gospel of Jesus, the eternal Son who came among us for our salvation. At the same time, priests must always bear in mind that the ultimate fruitfulness of their ministry comes from Christ himself, encountered and listened to in prayer; proclaimed in preaching and lived witness; and known, loved and celebrated in the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist and Reconciliation.

To my dear brother priests, then, I renew the invitation to make astute use of the unique possibilities offered by modern communications. May the Lord make all of you enthusiastic heralds of the Gospel in the new “agorà” which the current media are opening up.

With this confidence, I invoke upon you the protection of the Mother of God and of the Holy Curè of Ars and, with affection, I impart to each of you my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 24 January 2010, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales.

BENEDICTUS XVI