Loreto: A Place and a Grace

Monday, 10 December 2018

Pope Benedict XVI preached at Loreto on 4 October 2012. On this feast of the Holy House of the Incarnation, Pope Benedict’s words invite us to make a spiritual Advent pilgrimage to Loreto. The grace of Loreto is not far away:

It is not above thy reach, it is not beyond thy compass . . . . It is not a secret laid up in heaven, that thou must needs find someone to scale heaven and bring it down to thee before thou canst hear what it is, and obey it. It is not an art, practised far overseas, that thou must wait for some one to go voyaging and bring it back to thee before thou canst learn to live by it. No, this message of mine is close to thy side; it rises to thy lips, it is printed on thy memory (Deuteronomy 30:11–14)

Homily of Pope Benedict XVI
Loreto
4 October 2012

Attend the School of Mary
It is precisely here at Loreto that we have the opportunity to attend

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A Wellspring of Pure Light

Saturday, 8 December 2018
Stella Maris icon belong to the Apostleship of the Sea in Great Britain. Written in the Coptic style by the hand of Dr Stephane Rene.

Stella Maris icon belonging to the Apostleship of the Sea in Great Britain. Written in the Coptic style by the hand of Dr Stephane Rene.

These are days of grace for the Church and for the world because the mystery of my Mother’s Immaculate Conception is a wellspring of pure light for all who dwell in the shadows of this earthly exile where the Church, my Church, my precious Bride, makes her way as a pilgrim amidst great sorrows, persecutions, and attacks from below.

All who fix their gaze on my Mother, the all–lovely, the Immaculate, will find themselves inwardly illumined and warmed. My Mother communicates something of the fulness of grace that is hers to all who call upon her name, and even to those who do no more than glance at her image with affection and with hope.

My Mother is present to my Church in this world. Her glorious Assumption has

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The Mother, the Child, and the Serpent

Friday, 7 December 2018

48palafThe New Adam
Caravaggio’s Madonna dei Palafrenieri, first exhibited in Saint Peter’s Basilica in 1606, is wonderfully disturbing. While Grandmother Saint Anne looks on, the Virgin Mother Mary allows the Child Jesus to place His little foot on top of hers; together the Mother and the Child crush the head of the serpent under their feet. The nakedness of the Child Jesus suggests that He is indeed the New Adam who, by His innocence, inaugurates a new creation: the Kingdom of God where only little children are allowed to enter.

Sexual Abuse: The Dark Sin
The darkness of this painting, so typical of Caravaggio, and the sinister writhing of the serpent combine with the purity of the Infant Christ to speak poignantly to the tragic drama of the sexual abuse of children. Adults who were sexually abused as children never really recover from the serpent’s venomous bite. The poison has a delayed release. Its effects are experienced over time, triggering emotional chaos, spiritual distress, and even chronic physical illness. The serpent, moreover, hides in the darkness, biding its time in anticipation of new attacks.

Therapy
While therapy or

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Gaudens gaudebo in Domino

Friday, 7 December 2018

1208maria-eva.gif
A Meditation on the Mass of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
[Originally posted in 2006]
Look at this extraordinary medieval painting that shows the Tree of Life with Mary on one side and Eve on the other. Eve, completely naked, is giving the bitter fruit of her sin to her own communicants in evil. From her side of the tree a skull looks out, grimacing in death. On the other side of the tree is Mary, crowned and clothed in grace and beauty. She takes pure white hosts from among the branches of the tree and, like a priest distributing Holy Communion, places them in the mouths of her own communicants in eternal life. In the branches of Mary’s side of the tree there is a crucifix. The Face of the Crucified is turned toward those who partake of the fruit of the Cross.

A Song From the Womb
“Rejoicing, I will rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God. He has clothed me with the garment of

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Praying in the rain at Lourdes

Friday, 7 December 2018

vierge-marie-lourdesA Holy Priest
Born at Annecy-le-Vieux in 1914, Monsieur le Chanoine Louis François CROSET was ordained to the priesthood in the Cathedral of Annecy on 7 June 1941. He exercised the sacred ministry in the diocese of Annecy from 1941 until 1952, and in the diocese of Bayonne from 1952-1990. He died on the Vigil of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 7 December 1990.

A Father to Many Souls
Père Croset’s priestly life was marked by great suffering, by an extraordinary love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and by a wonderful spiritual fruitfulness. I was privileged to be numbered among the many souls touched by his priesthood. At the end of his life Père Croset lived in a residence for elderly priests in Pau, not far from Lourdes.

At Lourdes
A number of years ago he drove me to Lourdes where, together in the February rain, we stood before the grotto and prayed this Act of Abandonment to the Blessed Virgin. Père Croset composed it in 1952, in a moment of intense moral suffering and darkness.

Père Croset’s Act of Abandonment

O Marie, ma Reine

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Support the monks of Silverstream Priory:

Situated amidst pasture land and forest in the eastern reaches of County Meath, Silverstream Priory was founded in 2012 at the invitation of the Most Reverend Michael Smith, Bishop of Meath, and canonically erected as an autonomous monastery of diocesan right on 25 February 2017. The property belonged, from the early 15th century, to the Preston family, premier Viscounts of Ireland and Lords of Gormanston. In 1843 Thomas Preston (1817-1903), son of Jenico Preston, the 12th Viscount (1775-1860), built what today is Silverstream Priory.

Silverstream Priory is a providential realisation of the cherished project of Abbot Celestino Maria Colombo, O.S.B. (1874–1935), who, following the impetus given by Catherine–Mectilde de Bar in the 17th century, sought to establish a house of Benedictine monks committed to ceaseless prayer before the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar in a spirit of reparation. The community of Silverstream Priory holding to the use of Latin and Gregorian Chant, celebrate the Divine Office in its traditional Benedictine form and Holy Mass in the “Usus Antiquior” of the Roman Rite. Praying and working in the enclosure of the monastery, the monks of Silverstream keep at heart the sanctification of priests labouring in the vineyard of the Lord. They undertake various works compatible with their monastic vocation, notably the development of the land and gardens, hospitality to the clergy in need of a spiritual respite, scholarly work, and publishing.

Donations for Silverstream Priory

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