I Believe

Plaque outside of Holy Family Catholic Church in Columbus, Ohio:

“I believe in the Holy Spirit…”

- Apostles’ Creed

Veni Sancte Spiritus

Veni Sancte Spiritus is the Sequence to be sung or read at every Mass on Pentecost Sunday in the Roman Rite. In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite the Sequences of Corpus Christi and the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows are optional (and therefore rarely heard). But, those of Easter and Pentecost are always mandatory.

The Sequence, which is optional except on Easter Sunday and on Pentecost Day, is sung before the Alleluia.
General Instruction of the Roman Missal 64

Veni Sancte Spiritus is typically attributed to either Pope Innocent III or to Archbishop Stephen Langton, the man who divided the Bible into chapters.

Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from Thy celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!

Come Father of the poor!
Come source of all our store!
Come within our bosoms shine!

Thou, of comforters the best;
Thou, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;

In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat,
Solace in the midst of woe.

O most blessed Light divine
Shine within these hearts of Thine.
And our inmost being fill!

Where you are not, man has naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour Thy dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.

On the faithful who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;

Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them Thy salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end.
Amen. Alleluia.

Pentecost

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem. At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans? Then how does each of us hear them in his native language? We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”

Acts 2:1-11 NAB

My Spirit Rejoices

This looks very interesting. I plan on being there tomorrow.

My Spirit Rejoices

A Spring bouquet of musical offerings by

Saint Saens, Biebl, Rachmaninoff, Zielenski, Phillips,

Bach, Mozart, Guerrero and Kelly

Sunday, May 31st at 3:00p.m.

St. Francis of Assisi Choir

Admission and parking are free. Donations received for charity.

St. Francis of Assisi, 386 Buttles Ave. in Victorian Village

A Proper Understanding of the Gift of Tongues From the Liturgy of the Church

An exposition of Ecclesiastes by St Gregory of Agrigentum:

The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit: whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue. We must realise, dear brothers, that this is the same Holy Spirit by whom love is poured out in our hearts. It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.

Therefore if somebody should say to one of us, “You have received the Holy Spirit, why do you not speak in tongues?” his reply should be, “I do indeed speak in the tongues of all men, because I belong to the body of Christ, that is, the Church, and she speaks all languages. What else did the presence of the Holy Spirit indicate at Pentecost, except that God’s Church was to speak in the language of every people?”

This way the way in which the Lord’s promise was fulfilled: No one puts new wine into old wineskins. New wine is put into fresh skins, and so both are preserved. So when the disciples were heard speaking in all kinds of languages, some people were not far wrong in saying: They have been drinking too much new wine. The truth is that the disciples had now become fresh wineskins, renewed and made holy by grace. The new wine of the Holy Spirit filled them, so that their fervour brimmed over and they spoke in manifold tongues. By this spectacular miracle they became a sign of the Catholic Church, which embraces the language of every nation.

Keep this feast, then, as members of the one body of Christ. It will be no empty festival for you if you really become what you are celebrating. For you are the members of that Church which the Lord acknowledges as his own, being himself acknowledged by her, that same Church which he fills with the Holy Spirit as she spreads throughout the world. He is like a bridegroom who never loses sight of his own bride; no one could ever deceive him by substituting some other woman.

To you men of all nations, then who make up the Church of Christ, you the members of Christ, you, the body of Christ, you, the bride of Christ – to all of you the Apostle addresses these words: Bear with one another in love; do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Notice that when Paul urges us to bear with one another, he bases his argument on love, and when he speaks of our hope of unity, he emphasises the bond of peace. This Church is the house of God. It is his delight to dwell here. Take care, then, that he never has the sorrow of seeing it undermined by schism and collapsing in ruins.

Saturday of the 7th week of Eastertide, Office of Readings

A Prayer for True Ecumenism on the Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury

O God, Who by the preaching and miracles of blessed Augustine, Thy Confessor and Bishop, didst vouchsafe to shed upon the English people the light of the true faith: grant that, through his intercession, the hearts of the straying may return to the unity of Thy truth, and that we may do Thy will with one accord. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.

Collect, Feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

A Memorial Day Prayer

Eternal God,
Creator of years, of centuries,
Lord of whatever is beyond time,
Maker of all species and master of all history –
How shall we speak to you
from our smallness and inconsequence?
Except that you have called us to worship you
in spirit and in truth;
You have dignified us with loves and loyalties;
You have lifted us up with your lovingkindnesses.
Therefore we are bold to come before you without groveling
[though we sometimes feel that low]
and without fear
[though we are often anxious].
We sing with spirit and pray with courage
because you have dignified us;
You have redeemed us from the aimlessness
of things’ going meaninglessly well.
God, lift the hearts of those
for whom this holiday is not just diversion,
but painful memory and continued deprivation.
Bless those whose dear ones have died
needlessly, wastefully [as it seems]
in accident or misadventure.
We remember with compassion those who have died
serving their countries
in the futility of combat.
There is none of us but must come to bereavement and separation,
when all the answers we are offered
fail the question death asks of each of us.
We believe that you will provide for us
as others have been provided with the fulfillment of
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

by Rev. Dick Kozelka (ret)

Pentecost Novena

Regardless of whether you live in a diocese that celebrates the Ascension of the Lord today, 40 days after Easter just like the original Ascension, or if you live in a diocese that will be transferring the Ascension to this coming Sunday so that you will not be forced to undergo the terrible burden of attending Mass on a day that is not Sunday, the Pentecost Novena begins tomorrow.

Mary and the Apostles spent the 9 days from the Ascension to Pentecost in prayer. And this is the origin of Novenas.

Novena to the Holy Spirit for the Seven Gifts

Clean and Undefiled

I recently came across a quote by Vice President Joe Biden that I found to be quite disturbing. It is something he seems to have said some time ago, all the way back in 2005, and something that apparently every person in the world was aware of but me:

“The next Republican that tells me I’m not religious I’m going to shove my rosary beads down their throat.”

(And it appears that Biden’s actual words may have originally been much worse and “cleaned up” by the media.)

Now, this quote came to mind yesterday as I was meditating on a verse from Scripture:

“Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world.“ (James 1:27 DRB)

This was the Epistle for Mass this past Sunday, the 5th Sunday after Easter, in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. This particular verse is also found in other Forms and Rites of the Church.  In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite it is the 2nd Reading in Year B on the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time and it is the 1st Reading on Wednesday of Year II in the 6th Week of Ordinary Time. In the Byzantine Rite it is used on Thursday of the 31st Week after Pentecost.

When the Church sets a verse before us in the Liturgy it is generally a good sign that this verse is particularly important. And when the Church sets a verse before us multiple times it is time to pay special attention.

It seems popular among Christians nowadays to want distance themselves from being “religious”. It is all too often viewed as a bad thing. One frequently hears such things as “I’m not religious, I’m spiritual” or  “I’m not religious, I have a personal relationship with Christ”.

But, the Apostle James, guided by the Holy Spirit, shows us that being religious is not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact it is intended to be a good thing. We are meant to hold to a religion that is “clean and undefiled” and this religion is an active religion – what Catholics would call performing the corporal works of mercy.

Now, the word “religion” comes from the Latin “religare” which means to “re-bind” or “re-connect“. Our religion is what connects or binds us to our God. And as I began to reflect on what it means to be religious I came to the obvious conclusion that Vice President Biden is indeed a religious person. But, his religion is most certainly not “clean and undefiled”. It is impossible to be “unspotted from this world” when one actively seeks to take the lives of the most helpless of victims – the unborn.

Joe Biden’s pro-abortion views and his support of embryonic stem cell research lie in direct opposition to the Catholic faith he claims to hold. Being pro-choice is actually heresy, the “obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith” (see Code of Canon Law 751 and Catechism of the Catholic Church 2089). Those who fall into heresy actually excommunicate themselves from the Church (see Code of Canon Law 1364) and those who are excommunicated may not receive Communion (see Code of Canon Law 915 and 1332), which Joe Biden does anyway thus committing the additional sin of scandal (see CCC 2285).

So, Joe Biden is right. He is without a doubt a religious person. But, his religion is not the Christian faith. He makes mockery of the sacraments that Christ entrusted to His Church and instead elevates the sacrament of abortion to the position of being the source and summit of his faith and the thing that binds him to his “god”, the power and the fame that he has chosen to embrace instead of Jesus Christ.

I hope that the Vice President appreciates my defense of his assertations that he is in fact religious. And if he has the slightest bit of integrity he will either repent of his evil beliefs or he will stop misleading people into believing that he is still Catholic.

The Ascension of the Lord

In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God. While meeting with the them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”

Acts 1:1-11 NAB