Mystic Monk Coffee

I recently tried this coffee, made by the Carmelite Monks of Wyoming. It's great, and it supports them in their project to build a new monastery. They make many types of coffee and tea. Order it here!

New Nephew!

Welcome to Matthew Thomas Johnson!

Venerable Conchita Cabrera de Armida

You don't have to be a consecrated priest or Religious to be holy. Venerable Conchita Cabrera de Armida knew from an early age that she wanted to be a wife and mother to many children. As a child she often prayed in front of the Blessed Sacrament, and often felt incapable of loving God how He deserved to be loved. This was behind her wish to have many children - to give birth to more "voices" to praise God.

Conchita picked out her future husband at age 13, Pancho Armida. She considered herself engaged to him and never considered anyone else. She married at age 22 and went on to have nine children. She attended Mass every day and prayed constantly.

She said that God told her that she was to suffer and write. That was her charism. She never claimed visions, but often spoke as if Jesus had conversed with her.

Her book A Mother's Letters reflects the fact that she was not a cloistered mystic but a busy mother with nine children and a widow during a turbulent time in Mexico's political history (The Mexican Civil War). The letters provide a glimpse of her warm, human side as she communicates with her family.

Of herself she wrote: "I carry within me three lives, all very strong: family life with its multiple sorrows of a thousand kinds, that is, the life of a mother; the life of the Works of the Cross with all its sorrows and weight, which at times crushes me until I have no strength left; and the life of the spirit or interior life, which is the heaviest of all, with its highs and lows, its tempests and struggles, its light and darkness. Blessed be God for everything!"

Her canonization process was started in 1959 by the Archbishop of Mexico City, at which time about 200 volumes of her writings were submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Pope John Paul II declared her venerable on December 20, 1999 and she is currently in the process of beatification.

Medical Update, and Request for Prayers

My MRI last week showed that my tumor has remained stable, thanks be to God. I will complete chemotherapy in October or November, and then the doctors will watch the tumor as my body recovers from 3 years of constant chemo. If the tumor starts to grow again, I will resume treatment immediately.

On a similar note, please pray for the repose of the soul of Jennifer Robbins, who died of brain cancer last week. She was diagnosed about 18 months before I was, and she became a good friend and example over the three years that we knew each other. Priest friends, please remember her in your Masses:

A Gem from "Vultus Christi"

This interesting post is taken from Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby's great blog, Vultus Christi. Here he reflects on the Collect (Opening Prayer) for the feast of St. Jean-Marie Vianney, as found in both the 1962 and 1970 Roman Missals. Fr. Mark has some very interesting concerns regarding the revised Missal, which are found below. For the sake of length, only the English translation is posted below for comparison. The original Latin can be found on Fr. Mark's blog:

Did Anyone Else Notice This?

by Fr. Mark Daniel Kirby, OSB

The Modification of a Collect

A few days ago, on the feast of Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, the holy Curé of Ars, I preached on the splendid Collect of the day as given in the 1962 Missale Romanum:

Almighty and merciful God,
who didst make Saint John Mary wonderful
in his pastoral zeal
and constant prayer and penance,
grant, we beseech Thee,
that by his example and intercession,
we may be able to win the souls of our brethren for Christ,
and together with them attain to glory everlasting.

Later in the day, I had occasion to look at the Collect as it appears in the reformed Missale Romanum, Editio Typica Tertia (2008). In the New English Translation, this same Collect will, as far as I know, appear as:

Almighty and merciful God,
who made the Priest Saint John Vianney
wonderful in his pastoral zeal,
grant, we pray,
that through his intercession and example
we may in charity win brothers and sisters for Christ
and attain with them eternal glory.

Constant Prayer and Penance Deleted

The revised prayer of the 1970 Missal retains only one of the three priestly attributes mentioned in the older prayer, that of pastoral zeal. Constant prayer and penance, the two attributes that sustained Saint John Mary Vianney's pastoral zeal, are deleted from the 1970 version of the prayer. On the other hand, the phrase in caritate [with charity] was added to the penultimate phrase of the text.

Pastoral Zeal

If one ascribes to the axiom, "Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi" it is clear that this manipulation of the Collect has far reaching consequences for one's understanding of how the priesthood is to be lived out. If what matters is "pastoral zeal" above all else, one risks becoming, and rather quickly, "as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." Constant prayer obtains an inpouring of divine charity; penance makes room for it in the heart. Constant prayer and penance are the context of a pastoral zeal that is supernaturally motivated and not a exercise in clerical narcissism.

Burnout

The post-Conciliar model of the priesthood placed the emphasis on pastoral zeal, while downplaying the importance of constant prayer and penance. These latter attributes were often dismissed as monastic and, as everyone knows, following the much-quoted worm-eaten old chestnut, "parish priests are not monks!" The difficulty is that pastoral zeal without constant prayer and penance leads to clerical burnout. This is something that I have seen all too often.

The Chicken or the Egg?

I'm left with a question. Did the model of diocesan priesthood change following the liturgical reforms because of the deletions and amendments made to liturgical texts such as the one looked at here? Or were the deletions and amendments to liturgical texts designed to reflect an activistic pastoral vision that had made inroads in the post-war period well before the Second Vatican Council?

A Revision of the Revised Texts?

I have already suggested elsewhere on Vultus Christi that the New English Translation of the Roman Missal, while a small step in the right direction, is far from being the solution to deeper underlying issues. One must be prudent, lest the popular canonization of the euchological texts in the New English Translation of the Roman Missal, appear to suggest that the said translation, and the Editio Typica from which it was made, are, in some way, flawless vehicles of the continuity of Tradition. Perhaps the Editio Typica Tertia itself needs to be revised and brought into a more generous textual conformity with the 1962 Missale Romanum.

Final days in Lourdes and Rome

I'm afraid I did not take many photos this year in Lourdes (posts from the past two Summers show Lourdes in detail), but overall it was a great experience, as Spanish Seminarian Jorge expressed one morning outside of the Seminarian residence:

I celebrated my 27th birthday my last day in Lourdes, and my friend Father Hugues Beaugrand from the Institute of the Good Shepherd (a French Priestly Society of Apostolic Life) came to visit. He celebrated Mass next to the relics of Saint Bernadette, and we made a visit to the grotto:

I made a quick visit to Rome since I was already so close:

My friend John Paul Sonnen of Orbis Catholicus gave my family a tour of the Vatican:

Papal carriages:

The Jeep that was carrying Pope John Paul II when he was shot:

One evening, John and his wife invited me to dinner at their apartment in the resort town of Santa Marinella, right outside of Rome:

Lunch the next day with my friend Msgr. Soseman from the Congregation for the Clergy:

On Wednesday, I went to the Papal Angelus at the Holy Father's Summer residence, Castel Gandolfo:

The beautiful view in the town:

Swiss Guard guarding the entrance:

I was able to sit in the "sick" section, which was in the front row underneath the Holy Father:

I spoke with the Pope's private secretary, Msgr. Georg Ganswein. He is one of the nicest people I have ever met: