CAPG's Blog 

Prayer to Saint Paul

O Glorious Saint Paul, after persecuting the Church you became by Godʼs grace its most zealous Apostle. To carry the knowledge of Jesus, our divine Savior, to the uttermost parts of the earth you joyfully endured prison, scourging, stoning, and shipwreck, as well as all manner of persecutions culminating in the shedding of the last drop of your blood for our Lord Jesus Christ.

May your example inspire our parish priests today to be zealous in their service to Godʼs people. Obtain for our priests the grace to labor strenuously to bring the faith to others and to accept any trials and tribulations that may come their way. Help them to be inspired by your Epistles and to partake of your indomitable love for Jesus, so that after they have finished their course they may join you in praising him in heaven for all eternity. Amen.

Source: CAPG

"And as it is fitting that the Christian should not only be careful for his own salvation, but that of others, I should advise every one to repeat this prayer for the conversion of infidels at the moment the priest consumes the sacred Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in consummating the sacrifice:

O Eternal God, Creator of all things, remember that the souls of infidels have been created by Thee out of nothing, and formed after Thine image and likeness. Behold, Lord, to the dishonor of Thy name, hell is peopled with them. Remember that Jesus Thy Son suffered for their salvation the most cruel death: permit not, I beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thy Son be any longer held in contempt by these infidels; but, appeased by the prayers of Thy chosen Saints of the Church, the most holy Spouse of Thy Son, remember Thy mercy; forget their idolatry and infidelity, and grant that they may at length acknowledge our Lord Jesus our resurrection, by Whom we have been saved and set at liberty, and to Whom be all glory for ever and ever. Amen"

Source: The Life and Letters of St .Francis Xavier, Vol 1, by Rev. Fr. Henry James Coleridge S.J.

"There is only one objective norm for truth, justice, liberty, law-namely, God's eternal Order. (...) Atheistic secularism like atheistic communism, believes in no rights. All legal procedure is a mockery of justice where civil law is cut off from the source of morality: God. When men throw away this external objective, unbiased norm of justice, justice becomes what is expedient for the State and we have a substitute for God in the deification of the State we have arrived back at pagan times of the Roman Empire.

Under such a form of modern negation where truth, where justice, where nature, where liberty, where God, is denied we find no God-given rights of man, no unchangeable code of morality, no freedom under God or man, no will directed toward universal goodness, but instead we find law a caprice, might is right, evil is called good and good, evil, and so the will to evil is employed absolutely by atheistic governments
Now is the time to call a halt to this destruction of man and the world and to set about to rebuild man, society, and the world. Instead of negation, affirmation is necessary.

Men should make a definite and vigorous affirmation of the existence of God and an equally strong affirmation of the existence of God's order visible in the universe and in man. There should also be the affirmation "that man's will, directed to universal goodness or happiness, also participates in God's order. (...)

Then and then only we shall have peace. peace which is the work of justice. Divine justice. Peace which St. Augustine defined as the tranquility of order. Not the order of man, or of nations, or of mere human society, but peace, the tranquility of God's order in the universe."

Source NCWC News Service. Washington, Jan 14, 1952 page 7

"The vastness of Christ's love for the Church is equaled by its constant activity. With the same charity, let us show our devoted, active love for Christ's Mystic al Body. Now, from the first moment of His Incarnation, when He laid the first foundations of the Church, down to His last mortal breath, our Redeemer never ceased for an instant, although He was the Son of God, to labor unto weariness for the establishment and the strengthening of the Church, whether in giving us the bright example of His Holiness, or in preaching, or in conversing, or in gathering and instructing the disciples.  And so We desire that all who claim the Church as their Mother should seriously realize that not only the sacred ministers and those who have consecrated themselves to God in the religious life, but the other members of the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ as well, have the obligation of working hard and constantly for the up-building and the increase of this Body."

Source: Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi, June 29, 1943. The American Ecclesiastical Review.

"The sanctity of the priesthood is truly the first and principal strength of the Church."

Pope John XXIII, 12 June 1959. (Catholic Standart and Times, V. 64; #38)

Prayer for Vocation in our Parish

O God, Eternal High Priest, Who by inspiring others to embrace Thy Holy Priesthood has kept this parish supplied with zealous and devoted priests, we would have Thee know we are grateful. But, dear God, to keep this parish and other parishes of the dioceses supplied with priests, we beg a further manifestation of Thy love – by calling some of our youth to enter the seminary and prepare for ordination to the priesthood. We further implore you, dear God, to bless our family life, the source of our priestly vocations, Amen.

O Mary, Queen of the Clergy help us have priests from this parish.

Bishop Martin M Johnson of Nelson, British Columbia Canada (22 january 1951, Catholic News Service)

Source: CAPG

"Let Catholics listen to the word of God, which the Church, and the Church alone, preserves and teaches entire and incorrupt. Let them not run, like sheep that have no shepherd, where other voices resound and try to drown out the voice of God when they are raised in opposition to the voice of the Church.

We have Sacred Scriptures. We have Tradition. We have the Supreme Pastor, and certainly a greater number of priests near us.

Why then, in the face of those who fight against us and hate us, must we give an exhibition of stupidity or fanaticism? "Christians, be harder to move," wrote Dante in his own time, "don't be like feathers that move with every breeze." He gave the very reasons that are valid today. " You have the Old Testament and the New, and the Pastor of the Church to guide you." And he concluded as we conclude, "This is enough for your salvation."

Source: American Ecclesiastical Review. Msgr. Alfredo Ottaviani

"By the will and ordinance of God, its Founder, it (the Catholic Church) is a society perfect in its kind, whose office and mission it is to school mankind in the precepts and teachings of the Gospel, and by safeguarding the integrity of morals and the exercise of Christian virtue, to lead men to that happiness which is held out to everyone in heaven. And since it is, as We have said, a perfect society, therefore it is endowed with a living power and efficacy which is not derived from any external source, but from the ordinance of God and its own constitution, inherent in its very nature. For the same reason it has an inborn power to make laws, and justice requires that in its exercise it should be dependent on no one. It must also have freedom in other matters pertinent to its rights.

But this freedom is not of a kind to occasion rivalry or envy, for the Church does not covet power, nor is she urged on by any selfish desire. This one thing she wishes, and this only she seeks: to preserve among men the duties which virtue imposes, and by this means and in this way to provide for their everlasting welfare.

Source: Pope Leo XIII, encyclical Praeclara June 20, 1894. The American Ecclesiastical Review

 Catholic bishops approve Communion document aimed at possible rebuke of Biden

"The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted overwhelmingly to draft a formal document on the meaning of the Eucharist after a contentious debate on whether President Biden and other politicians who support abortion policies are worthy of receiving Communion at Mass. 

More than 73% of the U.S. bishops casting ballots at a virtual conference this week supported tasking the USCCB's doctrine committee to draft language on maintaining consistency with the Eucharist. A section of the document is expected to include a specific admonition to Catholic politicians and other public figures who disobey church teaching on abortion and other core doctrinal issues. 

The Eucharist:

“And this food is called among us Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these…but…likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word…is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.” source: Justin's Martyr First Apology, 66)

"Henry VIII: the sole head of the English Church; which, tho’ it shocked many squeamish consciences to swear to, yet we find none of any note that had the courage to refuse the oath, except John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, and Sir Thomas More, late Lord-Chancellor, who both lost their heads for it." Source: The Parliamentary Or Constitutional History of England, from the Earliest Times, to the Restoration of King Charles II. J. and R. Tonson, 1762.

St. John Fisher, Tower of London 1535 :

"Woe to us who have been born in this wretched age, an age - I say it weeping - in which anyone who has any zeal whatever for the glory of God, and casts his eyes on the men and women who now live, will be moved to tears to see everything turned upside down, the beautiful order of virtue overthrown, the bright light of life quenched, and scarce anything left in the Church but open iniquity and feigned sanctity. The light of good example is extinguished in those who ought to shine as luminaries to the whole world, like watch-towers and beacons on the mountains. No light, alas! comes from them, but horrid darkness, and pestilent mischief, by which innumerable souls are falling into destruction."Source: Life of Blessed John Fisher: Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal of the Holy Roman and Martyr Under Henry VIII By Thomas Edward Bridgett, 1890.

Prayer for Holy Bishops

"Lord, according to Your promise that the Gospel should be preached throughout the whole world, raise up men fit for such work. The Apostles were but soft and yielding clay till they were baked hard by the fire of the Holy Ghost.

"So. good Lord, do now in like manner again with Thy Church Militant; change and make the soft and slippery earth into hard stones; set in Thy Church strong and mighty pillars, that may suffer and endure great labors, watching, poverty, thirst, hunger, cold and heat; which also shall not hear the threatenings of princes, persecution, neither death but always persuade and think with themselves to suffer with a good will, slanders, shame, and all kinds of torments, for the glory and laud of Thy Holy Name. By this manner, good Lord, the truth of Thy Gospel shall be preached throughout all the world.

"Therefore, merciful Lord, exercise Thy mercy, show it indeed upon Thy Church."

This prayer was spoken by St. John Fisher in a sermon in 1508. Twenty-seven years later he underwent martyrdom on Tower Hill in London during the reign of Henry VIII.

Source: St. John Fisher Forum

Dearest St. Joseph, be the protector and defender of those priests undergoing persecution for being faithful to their Lord and Sovereign Priest, Jesus Christ. See in them the image of thy beloved child, and cherish them with that tender solicitude which God places in Thy paternal heart.

Obtain for them the good graces of thy Queen and Spouse, for such graces of predilection will surely lighten their burdens and render their crosses sweet. Amen.

Source: Cure d'Ars

" To draw his people more effectually to the holy Eucharist, the Cure d'Ars had endeavoured to communicate to them a taste for all holy things, and his efforts were not in vain. Sunday after Sunday these good people feasted their eyes on beautiful banners and vestments.

("In the minutes of the pastoral visitation held at Ars by the Bishop of Belley, on Monday, June 11, 1838, we read as follows: "After saying Mass and giving confirmation, His Lordship contented himself with giving Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and reciting the prayers for the departed. He deemed it unnecessary to examine the interior of the church, the chapels, vestments and sacred vessels, because everything is so beautiful and so rich that the beholder is filled with admiration" Msgr. Convert. Le Frere Athanase.)

For a long time the saint himself trained the altar boys, and achieved wonderful results. He carried out with gravity, dignity, and the utmost care all the ceremonies of the rite of Lyons, which at that time was likewise in use in the diocese of Belley. Nor was the behaviors of the altar servers less admirable when, in 1849, Frere Athanase undertook the functions of master of ceremony.

He had so fine a liturgical spirit, and he drilled the children with so much precision and good taste, that Mgr. de Langalerie, during a clergy retreat, held him up as a pattern to the clergy of the diocese. "Do you wish to see a church where all the ceremonies are carried out to the letter? Go to Ars; Frere Athanase is a living and unerring ceremonial. His example will show you what you can achieve yourselves if you will only take the means."

There were days when the people of Ars gave special edification to the pilgrims. On Maundy Thursday, in order to commemorate the institution of the Holy Eucharist, M. Vianney insisted on providing a splendid altar of repose, and his heart rejoiced at sight of the decorations which enhanced the majesty of the tabernacle. The whole of the chancel, which had been considerably enlarged in 1845, was draped with banners. Numerous and tastefully arranged lights transfigured the scene. However, he took every precaution lest these decorations should be a hindrance instead of a help to the interior recollection of the people."

Source: The Cure d'Ars, Abbe Trochu