A Gift for Each Day

Sunday, 4 June 2017

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The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost
What are the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost? The Catechism names them: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. It is customary to associate each day of the Octave of Pentecost with one of the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost:

Pentecost Sunday: Wisdom
Monday: Understanding
Tuesday: Counsel
Wednesday: Fortitude
Thursday: Knowledge
Friday: Piety
Saturday: Fear of the Lord

The seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost are rooted in the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity. The three theological virtues come directly from God and are ordered directly to union with God; they give us the capacity to live as children of the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Ghost, that is, in a state of grace. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost allow us to express the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity in daily life; they make us docile in following divine inspirations. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost flower in the faithful soul and mature into the Holy Ghost’s Twelve Fruits: love, joy, peace, patience,

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Spiritus Domini replevit orbem terrarum.

Saturday, 3 June 2017

There is no place on earth where the Holy Ghost is not present. There is no place so high that He cannot go there; no place so low that He cannot penetrate it; no place so vast that He cannot fill it:
no place so remote that He is not present there.

Where can I go, then, to take refuge from thy spirit, to hide from thy view? If I should climb up to heaven, thou art there; if I sink down to the world beneath, thou art present still.
If I could wing my way eastwards, or find a dwelling beyond the western sea, still would I find thee beckoning to me, thy right hand upholding me.
Or perhaps I would think to bury myself in darkness; night should surround me, friendlier than day; but no, darkness is no hiding-place from thee, with thee the night shines clear as day itself; light and dark are one. (Psalm 138: 7–12)

Wheresoever the Holy Ghost is present, there He acts:
—holding all things in being;
—hearing every

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Eyes Only for Thy Face

Sunday, 28 May 2017

comunione_degli_apostoli_ocrida_xi_sec-thumb-450x340-11716A Longing to See Him Again
Blessed John Henry Newman wrote somewhere that the Ascension of the Lord is “at once a source of sorrow, because it involves His absence; and of joy, because it involves His presence.” For Our Blessed Lady and the Apostles, standing on the Mount of Olives with their eyes riveted to the heavens, the Ascension was the last glimpse of the Face of Christ on earth. The disappearance of the beloved Face of Christ leaves in the heart of the Church a longing to see Him again, a burning desire for His return.

I Seek Thy Face
This is the grace offered us in Exaudi, Domine, today’s incomparable Introit: “Listen to my voice, Lord, when I cry to Thee, alleluia. True to my heart’s promise I have eyes only for Thy Face; I seek Thy Face, O Lord! Turn not Thy Face away from me, alleluia, alleluia” (Psalm 26: 7-9). The desire to contemplate the Face of Christ becomes a persistent longing; this is the experience of all the saints. The vitality of one’s interior life

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Our Lady of the Cenacle in Armenian Iconography

Sunday, 28 May 2017

After his brilliant latest essays on Julien Green, and on Saints Benedict and Philip Neri, Mr Rick Yoder, only recently graduated from The University of Virginia, offers this one on Our Lady of the Cenacle in Armenian Iconography. Do read the whole essay at The Amish Catholic.

Throughout the Latin Church, Saturday in the Ascension Octave is kept as the Feast of Our Lady of the Cenacle. On this holy day, we remember the Mother of God keeping vigil with the Apostles in the Upper Room, or “Cenacle.” The place is significant. Here, Christ gathered the Twelve on the night of his betrayal, Maundy Thursday. At that time, He instituted the priesthood and the Eucharist. Later, on Pentecost, the Holy Spirit will descend upon the congregation and truly constitute the Church as such, confirming its sacramental essence and mission in the world of time.

Mary’s position in this unique place at this unique time is captured in the title, “Our Lady of the Cenacle.” But that name conceals a much deeper mystery. What, precisely, was she doing in the Cenacle?

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Saint Philip and Saint Benedict

Friday, 26 May 2017

At The Amish Catholic, Rick Yoder has a brilliant essay on the Benedictine qualities of the life of Saint Philip Neri. A must read today! Mr Yoder writes:

Many writers have found in St. Philip Neri the likeness of other saints, including those predecessors whom he admired, the contemporaries whom he loved, and the innumerable great saints who followed in the generations since he went on to immortal glory.

Yet is any resemblance so striking, and so Trinitarian, as that between the Father of the Oratory and the Father of Monks? In both, we find the very image of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In both, we can see the marks of stability, obedience, and conversion of manners. And in both, we detect the surpassing heat, song, and sweetness which Richard Rolle describes as indicative of a true encounter with God.

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Founded in 2012 in Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland, and canonically erected in 2017, Silverstream Priory is a house of monks living under the Rule of Saint Benedict. The monastery is under the patronage of Our Lady of the Cenacle. The monks of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the “Opus Dei” (Work of God, the sacred Liturgy) in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the “Usus Antiquior” (Extraordinary Form) of the Roman Rite. As Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration, they aspire to assure ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream offer their life for the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, and a publishing house, the Cenacle Press.

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