Below is a quote from St. Francis de Sales. Here he takes a quote from the beautiful Song of Songs and interprets it for us – he sees the Unborn Christ Child in this verse:
The divine lover like a shepherd, and indeed he is one, prepared a sumptuous banquet according to the country fashion for his sacred spouse, which he so described that mystically it represented all the mysteries of man’s redemption.
‘I am come into my garden, said he, O my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh, with aromatical spices; I have eaten the honey-comb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk; eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my dearly beloved!’ (Song of Songs 5:1)
Ah! when was it, I pray you, that our Saviour came into his garden, if not when he came into his mother’s purest, humblest and sweetest womb, replenished with all the flourishing plants of holy virtues? And what is meant by our Saviour’s gathering his myrrh with his perfumes, except that he joined suffering to suffering until death, even the death of the cross, heaping by that means merit upon merit and treasures upon treasures, to enrich his spiritual children? And how did he eat his honey-comb with his honey, but when he lived a new life, reuniting his soul, more sweet than honey, to his pierced and wounded body, with more holes than a honeycomb? And when ascending into heaven he took possession of all the surroundings and dependencies of his divine glory, what other thing did he if not mix the exhilarating wine of the essential glory of his soul, with the delightful milk of the perfect felicity of his body, in a more excellent manner than hitherto he had done?
Treatise on the Love of God by St. Francis de Sales, (1567-1622).
Filed under: Pope Benedict XVI
On September 2, Pope Benedict celebrated the Eucharist in Loreto, Italy with about half million young people.
In his homily Benedict XVI affirmed that “Jesus Christ, God made man, in Mary assumed our own flesh, took part in our lives and wished to share in our history. In order to accomplish this Covenant, God sought a young heart and found it in Mary.”
“Even today God continues to seek young hearts, He seeks young people with great hearts who are capable of making space for Him in their lives in order to become protagonists of the New Covenant.” …
In Loreto, said the Pope, “our thoughts naturally go to the Holy House of Nazareth which is the shrine of humility: the humility of God Who became flesh and the humility of Mary who accepted Him in her womb; the humility of the Creator and the humility of the creature.”
Today, he continued, “the humble are seen as resigned and defeated, as people who have nothing to say to the world. Yet the truth is that humility is the best way, and not only because it is a great human virtue but also, and primarily, because it is God’s own way of acting.”
Today is the 10th anniversary of Blessed Teresa’s death. (August 26, 1910 -Sept 5, 1997) Here is a Vatican website link offering a short biography on her life.
Mother Teresa was known for her great love of the poor, including unwanted unborn and newborn babies. She spoke out often against abortion. See our previous post, Peace Begins in the Womb. The following is a quote from her about the Unborn Christ Child:
As John the Baptist recognized Jesus hidden in the womb of Mary, the first tabernacle of the Lord, so now we recognize Jesus hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, the mystery of our faith. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and John leaped for joy in His Presence then, as we rejoice in His Presence now, for here Jesus pours out His Spirit upon us in this sacrament of infinite love.
From Rosary Meditations by Blessed Teresa of Calcutta
As many of you already know Amnesty International recently abandoned its neutral stance on abortion and thereby abandoned the most vulnerable members of our society, the unborn.
On May 18, 2007 Fr Chris Middleton SJ, Principal at St Aloysius College (a Catholic independent day school, for boys from grade 3 to grade 12), Milson’s Point, in Sydney, Australia who has been an active member of Amnesty for many years made this statement:
As a Catholic priest and the Principal of a school with an active Amnesty group, such a change in policy places me in the unwanted position of contemplating the closing down of Amnesty’s presence in the school.
Recently, after Amnesty International reaffirmed its decision to endorse abortion on August 18, Fr. Chris did just that – severed his school’s ties with Amnesty and started a new group called The Benenson Society. Here is a statement that Father Chris sent out to announce his decision.
The society will be called the Benenson Society, after Peter Benenson, the Catholic lawyer who founded Amnesty, and will hopefully embody something of the spirituality, as well as idealism, that led to the formation of Amnesty. The Benenson Society will have as its symbol a stylised white rose. This symbol draws inspiration from the White Rose Society, a group of Catholic and Protestant students and teachers at Munich University, who opposed Nazism with letters and pamphlets, with nine paying the ultimate price of being guillotined for their stand for human rights. A film about one of its members, Sophie Scholl, was released recently. Over the next few months we will work on a charter for the group with Mrs Connolly and the boys. Already schools from Sydney and Melbourne have expressed interest in the project, and it may well be a model that many school groups could follow.
I would like to urge parents and teachers to consider approaching their Catholic and Christian schools to try to get them to sever their Amnesty ties and perhaps follow Father Chris’s courageous example.
Below are links to pages (along with the above links) that you might want to print up to bring to your principal/school:
Press Release United State Conference of Catholic Bishops
Vatican Official Urges Catholic Church to Boycott Amnesty International Over Abortion.
U.S. Bishops Decry Amnesty’s Pro-Abortion Stance
Australia Catholic Church Likely to Cut Amnesty Intl Ties Over Abortion
Cardinal O’Brien resigns from Amnesty International – Press Release
English Catholic bishop quits Amnesty International over abortion rights stance
Amnesty International Comes Under Fire for Taking Pro-Abortion Stance
Comments on AI’s abortion decision from around the web
And finally there is a great blog dedicated to this topic – where you can get more information on this issue.
Norman Rockwell “Doctor and Boy Looking at Thermometer,” 1954
Our last post was on the Hippocratic oath and some modern day “imposter oaths” which are hypocritical. Today let’s focus on the most honorable doctors – Pro-Life doctors who maintain the moral consistency of: cherishing life, serving life and protecting/saving life. This triple test of medical morality is, in the sometimes swirling events of life, a difficult challenge which perhaps every doctor will find at times troublesome or confusing. The times of triage can be moral and emotional as well as medical. Pro-life doctors take the above triple test and add one more key element to it: promoting life!
Pro-Life doctors dedicate themselves to worthy principles and struggle for perfection, not only in their professional lives but also in their personal lives: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48) That is why the rest of us everyday pro-lifers have such admiration for them and for all health care professionals who take their commitment to human life so profoundly.
In February 2007 Pope Benedict XVI gave an important address to the Pontifical Academy for Life about the importance of conscience. He called the “right to life” not only the “first fundamental right of all human rights”, but he also pointed out that “the future of humanity” depends upon us guaranteeing this right. Here are a few striking quotes from Benedict’s address:
When the value of human life is at stake, this harmony between the magisterial function and the committed laity becomes singularly important: life is the first good received from God and is fundamental to all others; to guarantee the right to life for all and in an equal manner for all is the duty upon which the future of humanity depends.
Therefore, I ask the Lord to send among you, dear brothers and sisters, and among those dedicated to science, medicine, law and politics, witnesses endowed with true and upright consciences in order to defend and promote the “splendour of the truth” and to sustain the gift and mystery of life.
I trust in your help dearest professionals, philosophers, theologians, scientists and doctors. In a society at times chaotic and violent, with your cultural qualifications, by teaching and by example, you can contribute to awakening in many hearts the eloquent and clear voice of conscience.
Here are a few of the Pro-life Doctors Organizations around the world:
World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life
Doctors For Life International
Association of Pro-Life Physicians
Association of Pro Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Pro-Life Maternal-Fetal Medicine
British Section of the World Federation of Doctors Who Respect Human Life
MaterCare International
Filed under: Medical/Bioethical Issues
Whatever happened to the Hippocratic Oath written about 400 years before Christ by the “father of modern medicine” Hippocrates? Are the modern replacement oaths more hypocritical than Hippocratic? You be the judge.
Admittedly, translations of Greek from 2400 years ago can offer legitimate variances, but overall various translations seem quite uniform. Below is a standard translation of one of the key tenets of the original Hippocratic Oath followed by a modern version of the corresponding section in a new oath written by Louis Lasagna in 1964:
HIPPOCRATIC OATH
“I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to produce abortion.”
LASAGNA VERSION
“Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given to me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play God.”
It seems quite clear that Lasagna is radically departing from the Hippocratic tradition along the lines of “situation ethics” and relativism. Using the Hippocratic wording as our starting point and relying upon the misguided spirit of Lasagna, below is a new Hypocritical Oath for those doctors devoted to ethical hypocrisy:
HYPOCRITICAL OATH
“I will give no deadly medicine to anyone unless asked by that person, or a relative, legal guardian or state authority. I am free of course to exercise my freedom of speech and may counsel the use of deadly medicines whenever I think it is a good idea. Furthermore, I will not give to a woman an instrument to produce abortion unless she asks, in which case, I will happily do so or give her a referral to an expert abortionist.”
God save us from the hypocrisy of modern medicine which views an unborn baby as a patient if the mother so directs or as a parasite if that is her “choice”.
Pope Benedict XVI at Auschwitz concentration camp, May 28, 2006
In September 2006, Pope Benedict addressed a conference entitled “Stem cells: what future for therapy?” While Pope Benedict praised and encouraged adult stem cell research – he strongly denounced embryonic stem cell research. Here are a few quotes from his address:
“History itself has condemned such a science in the past and will condemn it in the future, not only because it lacks the light of God but also because it lacks humanity.
I would like to repeat here what I already wrote some time ago: Here there is a problem that we cannot get around; no one can dispose of human life. An insurmountable limit to our possibilities of doing and of experimenting must be established. The human being is not a disposable object, but every single individual represents God’s presence in the world (cf. J. Ratzinger, God and the World, Ignatius Press, 2002).”
“Progress becomes true progress only if it serves the human person and if the human person grows: not only in terms of his or her technical power, but also in his or her moral awareness” (cf. General Audience, 16 August 2006).
Filed under: Papal Quotes
She is a garden enclosed, my sister, my promised bride;
a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain. Song of Songs, 4:12
Here’s an interesting excerpt from Pope Benedict’s new book Jesus of Nazareth. We want to thank PhatCatholic for sending this to us. Following the excerpt I will make an observation.
“The mystery of God’s love is expressed with particular power in the Hebrew word rahamim. Etymologically, this word means “womb,” but it was later used to mean divine compassion for man, God’s mercy. The Old Testament constantly uses the names of organs of the human body to describe basic human attitudes or inner dispositions of God, just as today we use heart or brain when referring to some aspect of our own existence. In this way the Old Testament portrays the basic attitudes of our existence, not with abstract concepts, but in the image language of the body. The womb is the most concrete expression for the intimate interrelatedness of two lives and of loving concern for the dependent, helpless creature whose whole being, body and soul, nestles in the mother’s womb. The image language of the body furnishes us, then, with a deeper understanding of God’s dispositions toward man than any conceptual language could.”
We are shown here the connection between the power of Love and the mystery of Life, between the “womb-like” Heart of God and the “heart-like” womb of Mary (and every mother). In fact, part of the beauty of this intimacy which the Pope is mentioning is that the Heart should be understood as a Life-giving spiritual core of the human person while the womb should be understood as a nurturing sanctuary of embracing Love.
Of course, only the Woman has a womb. If we reflect on ‘the Woman’, that is, the noble woman who dedicates her brain to Truth, her heart to Love and her womb to Life, then ‘the Woman’ bears witness to a hidden spiritual triune mystery: Love-Life-Truth harmonized in her person.
Today is the Feast day of St. Augustine (354 – 430 A.D.), one of the greatest Fathers of the Church. In the following brief quote Augustine reflects on Christ “as servant” within the womb of His mother and at His birth as well.
We have then proved that the birth of the Son was the work of the Father; now let us prove that it was the work of the Son also. Now what is the birth of the Son of the Virgin Mary? Surely it is His assumption of the form of a servant in the Virgin’s womb. Is the birth of the Son ought else, but the taking of the form of a servant in the womb of the Virgin? Now hear how that this was the work of the Son also. “Who when He was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking upon Him the form of a servant.” (Phil 2:6-7) “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman,” (Gal 4:4) who was “made His Son of the seed of David according to the flesh.” (Rom 1:3) In this then we see that the birth of the Son was the work of the Father; but in that the Son Himself “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant,” we see that the birth of the Son was the work also of the Son Himself.
St. Augustine Sermons (51-60) On Selected Lessons of the New Testament/Sermon 2, point 11
Filed under: Pro-life
“St Augustine and Monica” (1846), by Ary Scheffer
Today, August 27, is the feastday of St. Monica. Besides being the mother of St. Augustine, St. Monica is best known for her persistence in prayer. Her unfailing prayer has been credited as the reason for St. Augustine’s conversion.
“St. Monica was born of a Christian family, in Tagaste in Africa in 331. She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua. Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband and his mother to the Catholic faith in 370· He died a year later. Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious Life.
St. Augustine was much more difficult, as she had to pray for him for 17 years, begging the prayers of priests who, for a while, tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did console her by saying, “it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish.” This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received strengthened her. St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387. St. Monica died later that same year, on the way back to Africa from Rome in the Italian town of Ostia.” From Catholic Online
Persistent and urgent prayer is the lesson of St. Monica’s life. We should look to her example as we pray for the unborn. We had a post in May entitled JPII Says Pray Like Crazy . Here is in part what John Paul II said about praying for a culture of life.
“…a great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and lover of life, from every Christian community, from every group and association, from every family and from the heart of every believer.” Evangelium Vitae, 100
To be pregnant is not an easy thing. There is often much suffering for the mother in whom the new life is growing. But, there is also wondrous beauty attached to pregnancy and the pregnant mother becomes a reminder of the greatest good and the strongest hope known to humankind. She is a messenger in a sense. She is called expectant, a term which underscores the reward of patient endurance.
Well, Christians share in something like pregnancy in that they carry a Life within them other than their own – it is the Living God Who has humbled Himself to come into their hearts and dwell there. This Divine Life grows within them and they are called upon to share this Life, to manifest it, to express it, in a sense to give birth to it.
And as the pregnant mother feels the baby stirring within her body, so the Christian feels the Spirit of God stirring within. In a clever twist of imagery, St. Paul tells the Christians of Galatia “…I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!” (Gal. 4.19)
It is simple to see why God has provided us with the pregnant Mother of the Lord as a model. Her nine months of pregnancy were not easy but they were tremendously beneficial. As the Child God formed and grew in her, she was formed by Him and grew closer to Him. We too must allow God to be formed in us and grow in us so that we, like Mary, can likewise be formed by Him and grow closer to Him.
“Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith. Every soul receives the Word of God if only it keeps chaste, remaining pure and free from sin, its modesty undefiled.” St. Ambrose
“Blessed and true is that comfort which is derived inwardly from Truth.
A devout man everywhere carrieth about with him Jesus his Consoler, and saith to Him: Be with me, O Lord, in all places and at all times.” Imitation of Christ, chapter 16
“I kneel at the door of the empty stable and offer Thee my heart…but my body is not fit to be Thy temple and my heart is treacherous and faithless. I am ashamed to have so poor a shelter to offer Thee. If it were not that Thou didst ask for it, I dare not offer it. Oh! Thou Who didst not refuse the manger-bed, come to my heart, look at the contrition and…the aching longing to be what Thou dost want, and forget the faithlessness and the failures and the weakness. Come, my little King, incarnate for me, come and save me, If I were not a sinner I should not need a Saviour.” Mother St. Paul, Ortus Christi
Filed under: Poems
Advent Meditation
Rorate coeli desuper, et nubes pluant Justum
Aperiatur terra, et germinet Salvatorem.
No sudden thing of glory and fear
Was the Lord’s coming; but the dear
Slow Nature’s days followed each other
To form the Saviour from His Mother
—One of the children of the year.
The earth, the rain, received the trust,
—The sun and dews, to frame the Just.
He drew His daily life from these,
According to His own decrees
Who makes man from the fertile dust.
Sweet summer and the winter wild,
These brought him forth, the Undefiled.
The happy Springs renewed again
His daily bread, the growing grain,
The food and raiment of the Child.
Abbey-Roads2 has a great blog on St. Rose of Lima.
(It is her feastday today.)
Filed under: Incarnation
Today, August 22, 2007 is the feast of The Queenship of Mary.
In this age of democracies and wannabe or pretend-to-be democracies, many have forgotten that the New Testament contains numerous references to Christ as “King” (as well as to His Kingdom, His Reign, throne and so on). And again, many dismiss these titles as archaic and irrelevant in a time of such modern sophistication. It’s quite curious that the modern person pretty much disdains the concept of a monarchy.
So when Christians today come across a reference in the Bible to Christ as King many look at it as a mere symbolic concept not a real title connoting Power and Authority. But the personages who appear in the Book of Revelations seem to take His Kingship quite seriously! Christ is King! And we are most fortunate that He is our King!
Enter Mary, the Queen Mother. Does she further complicate the problem or further enhance the sublimity of the reality of Christ the King? The latter I wager. When Martin Luther discussed this briefly in his reflections on the Wedding Feast at Cana he states that the title ‘Queen of Heaven’ “is a true-enough name” but quickly adds that it “does not make her a goddess”. So in this I agree with Luther, the title “Queen of Heaven” is apt and Mary is human not Divine. No argument here. In the Book of Revelations the apostle John shows us Mary pregnant, with a crown of twelve stars upon her head (Rev 11:19-12:17).
By the way, all Christians have a little share in Christ’s royalty just as we have a little share in His Priesthood too. St. Peter says of Christians: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation…” (I Pet 2:9). Does my tiny share in the priesthood of Christ diminish His Kingship? No, my humble participation is meant to point heavenward to His greater Glory! Does Mary’s Queenship diminish His Kingship? No. it is, in fact, His idea – see Revelations 11:19 -12:17.
Filed under: Papal Quotes
One hundred years ago St. Pius X, whose feastday it is today, was well aware of the struggle between the Christian and the State and wrote about it in an aptly named encyclical letter entitled Une Fois Encore (Once again). Today his words could be applied to our own struggle between those who want to excise God from state and culture and those who know that God is the author of all that exists. (The Culture of Life vs. The Culture of Death).
“Recourse to God, so infinitely good, is all the more necessary because, far from abating, the struggle grows fiercer and expands unceasingly. It is no longer only the Christian faith that they would uproot at all costs from the hearts of the people; it is any belief which lifting man above the horizon of this world would supernaturally bring back his wearied eyes to heaven. Illusion on the subject is no longer possible. War has been declared against everything supernatural, because behind the supernatural stands God, and because it is God that they want to tear out of the mind and heart of man.
The war will be bitter and without respite on the part of those who wage it. That as it goes on, harder trials than those which you have hitherto known await you is possible and even probable. Common prudence calls on each of you to prepare for them. And this you will do simply, valiantly, and full of confidence, sure that however fiercely the fight may rage, victory will in the end remain in your hands.” Points 4 and 5
St. Pius X, Une Fois Encore, Encyclical letter on the Separation of Church and State in France, January 6, 1907
Filed under: Quotes from Great Christians
August 19th is the Feastday of St. John Eudes.
Here is how most people celebrate their birthdays!
But the great St. John Eudes didn’t look at it quite like that and wrote an extremely lengthy prayer for Christians to recite on their birthdays. Here are a few excerpts:
Prayer to Jesus for the Anniversary of Your Birth
“O Jesus, I adore Thee in Thy eternal birth and Thy divine dwelling for all eternity in the bosom of Thy Father. I also adore Thee in Thy temporal conception, and in Thy presence in the sacred womb of Thy most pure mother, for the space of nine months, and in Thy birth into this world at the end of that time. I adore and revere the great and admirable occurrence of these mysteries…
Again I adore and glorify Thee, O Good Jesus, as performing all these things for Thyself, and for me and for everyone in the world. On this anniversary of my birth I give myself to Thee, O my Dear Jesus, that I may now repeat the acts Thou didst perfect while dwelling from all eternity in the bosom of the Father, and for nine months in the womb of Thy mother…
Such, O my Lord, is the rightful homage I ought to have rendered to Thee, had I been able, at the moment of my birth, and indeed from the first moment of my life, that I now endeavor to render to Thee, although very tardily and imperfectly…
In Thy temporal birth, Thou didst render for me to Thy Father all the rightful homage I should have rendered Him at my own birth, and Thou didst then practice all the acts and exercises of devotion that I should have practiced. Be Thou blessed for ever!”
St. John Eudes, The Life and the Kingdom of Jesus in Christian Souls
Filed under: Pro-life
The Gospel reading at Mass today, August 18, 2007, is from Mt 19:13-15: “…Jesus said, ‘Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”
At the base of the Statue of Liberty, in upper New York Bay at the mouth of the Hudson river, the famous words written by poet Emma Lazarus are inscribed: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
The statue featured in the above photo is called Christ the Redeemer and it overlooks Rio de Janeiro. Last month this statue was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World by the non-profit New Open World Corporation (NOWC). The two attributes associated with this marvelous statue by NOWC are: “welcoming and openness”. The statue, standing 130 feet tall, was completed in 1931.
Today’s Gospel reading epitomizes the “welcoming and openness” of Jesus to children. Perhaps we can link this statue and Gospel in our mind’s eye and even picture this verse engraved at the base of this Rio Wonder of the World:
“Give Me your unborn infants and newborns unwanted,
All those children most rejected and forsaken,
Yearning to be born and welcomed by loving hearts.
Send these, the hidden and lowly ones to Me and Mine,
That they may find true rest and solace upon my Heart.”
UNBORN WORD of the day 
