CAPG's Blog 

Bishop's Letter March 13, 1956

My dear Brethren:

On Thursday of this week there will arrive in Asheville six professed nuns and one postulant of the cloistered Carmelite Nuns of Strict Observance, to make the first foundation of cloistered contemplatives in the Diocese of Raleigh. These good nuns will arrive from the Carmelite Monastery of St. Therese, Little Flower of Jesus, and St. Magdalene de Pazzi of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Through the efforts of Fr. Fred Stanton of New York and Mother Elizabeth of the Trinity of Allentown, a cloistered convent site has been found and purchased on the outskirts of Asheville.
It is fitting that our first contemplative group of sisters should come from a Monastery under the title of St. Therese, Little Flower of Jesus, who is the Patroness of the Missions, and that the sisters should be of the Little Flower's own religious order.
It is also fitting that the first Mother Prioress of the new community should be called "Mother M. Bernadette of Our Lady of Lourdes," one of the special titles of Our Blessed Mother, so near to the heart of Father Price, our pioneer missionary, and also the Little Bernadette to whom he was especially devoted.
It is also fitting that the new monastery be dedicated to "Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus," since the Church is still in its infancy here in the missions, and Saint Joseph is the Patron of the Universal Church, and no doubt Our Blessed Mother, the Patroness of the Diocese of Raleigh, under so many titles, has been instrumental in honoring her Divine Son and her Holy Spouse by the beginning of this good work for God and souls in our midst.
The Rule of the Carmelite cloistered nuns is the Holy Rule of Saint Albert, as given to Saint Brocard, O. Carm., on Mount Carmel in Palestine. It is a penitential life, devoted to Prayer, Mortification, and Self-Denial. The choir religious are bound to the recitation or chanting of the Divine Office, of which Matins and Lauds are said at midnight. These sisters will also enjoy the privilege of Perpetual Adoration when they are sufficiently numerous for that devotion. Day and night one or two sisters will kneel, hour by hour, in Prayer and Adoration before Our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
When not engaged in mental or vocal prayer, the nuns will engage in manual labor, such as making or mending vestments, making altar breads, maintaining mission correspondence, publishing books on the order, pamphlets on prayer, etc. Some nuns do artistic painting on reliquaries and vestments, and the nuns usually tend their own garden of shrubs, fruit trees, and vegetables, etc.
(...)
We are privileged beyond measure in being given a foundation of Carmel in the Missions of North Carolina. Our obligation will be to help these good nuns by our interest, our alms, our prayers, and our support, for they are ours and have been given to us in the Diocese of Raleigh by our Holy Father who is their Major Superior.
I am sure that our good priests and people will welcome these Carmelites with open arms and that this Carmel of "St. Joseph and the Child Jesus" will blossom forth in our mission territory and obtain good contemplative vocations in numbers. By their good prayers and sacrifices the Church in the Diocese will produce fruit a hundredfold.
May I commend, especially, these nuns to our good people in and around Asheville. You are privileged above the rest of the Diocese in getting this first foundation of contemplatives. Though they will pray and sacrifice for all of us, they are closer to you. Please assist them in every way possible in name of Christ and the Church.
Thanking God through His holy Mother for this special sign of His Benevolence to us of the Diocese of Raleigh, and praying His Divine Blessing on the beginning of this good work, I remain sincerely yours in Christ, Bishop Vincent Waters Bishop of Raleigh.

Source: North Carolina Catholic

"The Mass is not the meeting of a committee; nothing is decided; it is not a public forum or public debate—it is an ancient rite instituted by Christ and, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, molded by the Church. What about it requires presiding? The Mass is the perfection of the ancient Judaic sacrifice, the offering up of the Lamb of God rather than an actual lamb. Judaic sacrifice had no presider, no president, only a priest, a consecrated man set aside from the bustle of life—not necessarily a holier person, but one consecrated and set aside for a single glorious purpose: to offer sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people. 

He did not preside, he served—he got his hands dirty. He consecrated the utensils, the altar, and the people by sprinkling them with the blood of the sacrifice! Our priests offer the Eternal Sacrifice, serving us in persona Christi, that is, as representatives of Christ, the servant of all, serving the people by giving up their very lives. Christ did not reinvent Judaism; He perfected it. "

Source: Crisis Magazine, Presiders be gone! Give us Priests! by Jerome German

7. We adore Thee, O source and origin of all sanctity and innocence! And to repair the abominations committed by wicked priests, who consecrate and receive Thee in the state of mortal sin, we offer up to Thee the profound adoration and holiness of the Powers. Eternal praise and thanksgiving be to the Most Holy and Most Divine Sacrament.

O Queen of heaven and earth, hope of mankind, who adores thy Divine Son incessantly! We entreat thee, that, since we have the honor to be of the number of thy children, thou would interest thyself in our behalf and make satisfaction for us, and in our name, to our Eternal Judge, by rendering to Him the duties which we ourselves are incapable of performing. Amen

Source: CAPG

The Revolt of the Intellect Against God by Cardinal Manning

"But yet the Son of Man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, faith on earth? St. Luke, 28.8.

By this question our Divine Lord intends us to understand that, when He comes, He shall find many who do not believe, many who have fallen from the faith. It foretells that there shall be apostasies; and if apostasies, therefore that He shall still find the truth; but He will find also those that have fallen from it. And this is what the Holy Ghost, speaking by the Apostle, has distinctly prophesied. St. Paul says, "Now the Spirit manifestly saith that, in the last times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils." And again, St. John says, "Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heart that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour." The meaning therefore of our Lord is this: not that when He comes He will not find the Church He founded in all the plenitude of its power, and the faith He revealed in all the fullness of its doctrine. "The city seated upon the hill cannot be hid." The Holy Catholic Church is the "light of the world," and so shall be to the end. It can never be separated from its Divine Head in heaven. The Spirit of Truth, who came on the day of Pentecost, according to our Divine Lord's promise, will abide with it forever: therefore when the Son of God shall come at the end of the world, there shall be His Church as in the beginning, in the amplitude of its Divine authority, in the fullness of its Divine faith, and the immutability of its teaching. He will find then the light shining in vain in the midst of many who will be willingly blind; the teacher in the midst of multitudes, of whom many will be willingly deaf: they will have eyes, and see not; and ears, and hear not; and hearts that will not understand. As it was at His first coming, so shall it be at His second. This, then is the plain meaning of our Lord's words."

Source: Catholic Oratory: A Compilation of Sacred and Sublime Orations by Card. James Gibbons

"On the feast of St. Mark rogations take place, which are called the major rogations or Litanies. The word Rogation is of Latin derivation, and means a petition, a prayer. A litany, originally meant a common, alternately spoken prayer. In the course of time this word was transferred to rogation, so that, in the language of the Church, Litany and rogation are synonymous. The rogations of St. Mark?s day are called the major rogations or Litanies, because from the beginning they were held with greater solemnity than the rogations in Rogation Week. These rogations on the feast of St. Mark are of very ancient date, for they can be traced back to St. Gregory the Great, who introduced them in the year 590. Thy have for their object to beg God in the spirit of humility and penance, that He may graciously protect us from all those evils with which natures threatens us. For, on account of the sins by which we have desecrated it, nature is in opposition to us, and causes us many damages. God being the Lord of nature, we supplicate Him by united prayers, that He may avert from us everything dangerous to our person and property." (The Pulpit Orator, page 147, By Rev. John Evangelist Zollner, 1884.)
"The object of these days? devotions is to ask of God, from whom every good and perfect gift proceeds, that He would be pleased to give and preserve the fruits of the earth, and bestow upon His creatures all those temporal blessings that are necessary for them in the course of their mortal pilgrimage. Besides the actual graces received by the devotions of the Rogations Days, the fact itself of being reminded to have recourse to Almighty God for temporal blessings is of great advantage in this material age, when the all-sufficiency of man has become one of the leading dogmas of misguided persons." (The Litanies, The Sacramentals of the Holy Catholic Church Page 197.)

Source: Cure d'Ars Prayer Group

"Oh, how sad would be the state of society were the Popes, the bishops and priests to be banished from the earth! The bonds that unite the husband and wife, the child and the parent, the friend and the friend would be broken. Peace and justice would flee from the earth. Robbery, murder, hatred, lust, and all the other crimes condemned by the Gospel, would prevail. Faith would no longer elevate the souls of men to heaven. Hope, the sweet consoler of the afflicted, of the widow and the orphan, would flee away, and in he stead would reign black despair, terror, and suicide. Where would we find the sweet virtue of charity, if the Popes, the bishops and priests were to disappear forever? Where would we find that charity which consoles the poor and forsaken, which lovingly dies the tears of the widow and the orphan; that charity which soothes the sick man in his sufferings, and binds up the wounds of the bleeding defender of his country? Where would we find that charity which casts a spark of divine fire into the hearts of so many religious, bidding them abandon home, friends, and everything that is near and dear to them in this world , to go among strangers, among savage tribes, and gain there, in return for their heroism, nothing but outrage, suffering and death?

Where, I ask, would we find this charity, if the Popes, the bishops and priests were to disappear forever?

Leave a parish for many years without a priest, and the people thereof will become the blind victims of error, of superstition, and of all kinds of vices.

Show me an age, a country, a nation without priests, and I will show you an age, a country, a nation without morals, without virtue. Yes, if "Religion, Science, Liberty, and Justice, Principle and Right, " are not empty sounds - if they have a meaning, they owe their energetic existence in the world to the "salt of the earth" to the Popes, bishops and priests."

Source: The Catholic Priest, Rev. Michael Muller C.S.S.R

Prayer for Zealous Priests

Sanctify to Thyself, O my Lord, the hearts of Thy priests, that, by the merits of Thy sacred humanity, they may become living images of Thee, children of Mary, and full of the fire of the Holy Ghost, that they may guard Thy house, and defend Thy glory, and that through their ministry the face of the earth may be renewed, and they may save those souls which have costs Thee all Thy blood. Amen

Queen of the Apostles, pray thy Son, the Lord of the Harvest, to send laborers into His harvest, and to spare His people. Amen.

The Prayer Book. Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch Archbishop of Chicago, May 10, 1954.

here

Prayer for the Bishops

O Jesus, Prince of Pastors, Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, give our bishops  all those virtues, which they need for their sanctification! May they watch over themselves and the entire flock, with which the Holy Spirit has entrusted them! Fill their hearts with Thine own Spirit! Give them faith, charity, wisdom and strength! Send them faithful co-laborers in the great work of saving and guiding souls! Make them shepherds after Thine own heart, living only for their holy office, fearing nobody but Thee, and hoping for nothing but Thee, in order that when Thou shalt come, to judge shepherds and flocks, they may obtain the unfading reward of eternal life! Amen Imprimatur: Most Rev. Vincent S. Waters, D.D. Raleigh, N.C. March 25, 1956

Prayers to St. Dominic

My Lord Jesus Christ, Who didst found the Church with Thy precious blood, and by the preaching of the apostles didst establish, propagate, and extend it throughout the whole world, and thereafter didst commission the holy patriarch Dominic to adorn, illustrate, and defend it with the splendor of this merits and doctrine; graciously hear the prayers which this apostolic man incessantly offers to Thee for the increase of her treasures, both spiritual and temporal.
Pater, Ave, Gloria

Most merciful Redeemer, Who didst choose as Thy fellow-laborer for the salvation of souls, St. Dominic, who by his zeal, aided by Thy grace, gained over to the Church so many heretics who had been lost to her, and so many sinners who had grieved her by their obstinacy; send, O my God, ever fresh laborers into Thy vineyard to work for Thy glory, and gather in the fruits of eternal life.
Pater, Ave, Gloria.

O Good Jesus, Who didst delight to see St. Dominic prostrate every night before Thy altar, adoring Thee hidden in the most holy sacrament with most lively faith, and offering up, now groans, now prayers, now penances on behalf of the Church, at that time persecuted by her enemies and profaned by her servants; defend this Thy Spouse through the intercession of St. Dominic from the outrages and plots of the infernal enemy of mankind.
Pater, Ave, Gloria.

V. Pray for us, St. Dominic.
R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that we who are weighted down by the burden of our sins may be raised up by the patronage of Thy blessed confessor Dominic. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.

Pope Leo XIII, July 21, 1883

Source: With God: A Book of Prayers and Reflexions by Rev. Francis Xavier Lasance.

I.  The  order  of  its  fulfillment.
II.  The  mode  of  its  fulfillment.
III.  Its  final  accomplishment.


"  He  said :  It  is  consummated :  and  bowing  His  head.  He  gave  up  the ghost." — St.  John  xix.  30.

I.  He  said:  It  is  consummated.  St.  Thomas  says,  that  Jesus Christ  hung  upon  the  Cross  between  heaven  and  earth,  in  order to  shew  His  quality  of  Priest  and  Mediator  between  God  and man ;  and  St.  Augustine  says  that  He  then  completed  that Sacrifice  of  reconciliation,  in  which  He  was  one  with  God,  to Whom  it  was  offered, — one  with  men,  for  whom  it  was  offered,— and  Himself  at  once  both  the  offerer  and  the  offered.  He Himself  announced  that  "  all  was  consummated,"  for  it  became Him  alone,  to  Whom  were  present  both  past  and  future,  to declare  it.  All  the  prophecies,  all  the  figures  contained  in  the sacred  Scriptures,  were  "consummated,"  as  He  had  already promised  :  "all  things  shall  be  accomplished  which  were  written "(St.  Luke  xviii.  31);  and  abundant  price  had  been  offered,  efficacious means  had  been  merited,  to  "consummate"  all  transgression,  and to  put  an  end  to  every  sin :  "that  transgression  may  be  finished, and  sin  may  have  an  end  "  (Dan.  ix.  24).  By  "one  oblation  He perfected  for  ever  them  that  are  sanctified"  (Heb.  x.  14).  He, therefore,  being  thus  "consummated,  became  to  all  that  obey Him,  the  cause  of  eternal  salvation"  (Heb.  v.  9).  Let  us  then meditate  on  the  admirable  order  with  which  Jesus  fulfilled  " the days  of  His  flesh,"  and  let  us  pray  to  Him  by  His  most  holy death,  that,  at  the  hour  of  our  death,  we  may  be  found  to  have "fulfilled  the  Divine  law"  (Rom.  ii.  27),  and  to  "have  finished" well  "the  course"  of  our  Priesthood  (2  Tim.  iv.  7).

2.  And  bowing  His  head.  The  manner  in  which  Christ  willed to  die,  was  to  bow  His  adorable  head,  in  token  of  perfect  obedience to  the  command  of  His  Father,  to  Whom  He  became "  obedient  unto  death,  even  to  the  death  of  the  Cross  "  (Phil.  ii.  8). He  proclaimed  to  the  world,  that,  as  He  had  fulfilled  His  Father's will  through  life,  so  also  He  rendered  Him  obedience  in  His  death  : "That  the  world  may  know  that  I  love  the  Father,  and  as  the Father  hath  given  Me  commandment,  so  do  I "  (St.  John  xiv.  31). Thus  was  it  the  fire  of  love, — that  is,  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  hypostatic Love  of  the  Father  and  the  Son, — "Who  immolated  the  Divine  holocaust :  " Who  by  the  Holy  Ghost  offered  Himself  unspotted  to God"  (Heb.  ix.  14).  in  bowing  His  Head,  Jesus  declared  to earth,  that  His  Sacrifice  had  had  the  desired  effect ;  that  is  to  say, "  into  the  face  of  man,"  once  dead  in  sin,  "  was  breathed  the breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a  living  soul "  (Gen.  ii.  7).  To the  sinner,  once  an  enemy,  was  given  the  kiss  of  reconciliation and  of  peace;  when  the  Savior  turned  His  Face  to  him,  as though  to  give  him  the  kiss  of  peace  (says  St.  Bonaventure).  O great  High  Priest,  who  can  thank  Thee  for  all  these  inventions  of Thy  mercy  !  When  shall  I  begin  to  love  Thee  with  the  fervor which  befits  one  who  is  Thy minister,  and  who  is  acquainted  with these  august  mysteries  ?  Bow  down  Thy  head  to  me,  and  breathe into  me  Thy  love.

3.  He  gave  up  the  ghost.  The  Eternal  Word,  Who  had  united His  Soul  to  His  Body,  and  assumed  both,  alone  had  power  to  separate them,  and  so  to  fulfill  the  supreme  act  of  Priesthood  (says  St. John  Damascene).  Therefore  He  "  gave  up  "  His  "  spirit "  into the  hands  of  His  Father,  to  shew  that  He  had  that  power  of which  He  had  formerly  spoken  to  His  enemies  (St  John  x.  18). Then  He  immolated  the  Victim,  and  offered  the  Sacrifice  decreed from  all  eternity,  promised  from  the  beginning shadowed  by  innumerable  types,  predicted  by  so  many  prophets, begun  in  Mary's  womb,  and  continued  throughout  His  whole  life. Then  was  homage  and  thanksgiving,  worthy  of  the  Divine  Majesty, rendered  to  God ;  and  pardon,  and  every  other  grace,  obtained for  all  mankind.  Christ  died  and  subjected  Himself  to  the  punishment of  sin,  in  order  to  free  us  from  the  fear  of  death,  which held  men  in  slavery  all  their  life ;  to  teach  us  to  die  to  sin,  as  He died  to  the  penalty  of  sin ;  and  to  fill  us  with  all  good  things.  Let us  then,  on  this  day,  honor  His  death,  which  has  been  the  means of  salvation  both  to  our  soul  and  body.  Our  Savior's  single death  (says  St  Augustine)  saved  us  from  the  double  death  which was  our  due.  With  the  same  holy  Father,  let  us  bless  God  for having  given  us  so  holy  a  Priest, — "a  Victim  taken  from  among  ourselves, yet  without  sin,  to  cleanse  us  from  our  sins  ;  so  that  the flesh  of  our  Sacrifice  is  the  Body  of  our  Priest  Let  us  thank  our Lord  Jesus  Christ,  Who  has  loved  us  so  greatly,  Who  has given  Himself  for  us,  as  if  for  each  one  of  us  alone  (Gal.  ii. 20).  Let  us  thank  Him  that,  through  the  merits  of  His  death. He  has  engrafted  us  into  His  Priesthood,  to  continue  the  offering of  this  same  Sacrifice.  Let  us  pray  to  Him  that  we  may  die mystically  with  Him,  in  order  that  we  may  live  in  Him  in  this life,  and  after  the  death  of  our  body  may  dwell  with  Him  for ever.

"Into Thy hands I commend my spirit; Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth." Ps. xxx.6

"O great High Priest, who wast made the death of death and the sting of hell, redeem our soul from the hand of hell." From Ps. XlVIII. 16.

Source: Meditations for the use of the clergy, for every day in the year ..., Volume 1 By Angelo Agostino Scotti (abp. of Thessalonica.)

Prayer for Priests (Fr. Lasance)

My God, I believe in the sublime dignity of the priesthood-a dignity which St. Denis calls divine; a dignity which surpasses that of kings and angels, as St. Ambrose says. O My God! Thy priests are the leaders of Thy people, the guardians of Thy Church, the light of the world, (Matt. v. 14), the dispensers of the sacraments, the vicars of Jesus Christ, and His coadjutors in the work of salvation (1 Cor. III. 9). Grant, then, O Lord, to me and to all the faithful to have the same respect and submission toward the person, words, and counsels of Thy ministers as toward Thine own, since Thou Thyself didst say to them: “He that heareth you Heareth Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me"

I ask of Thee, my God, for all the priests in the world and specially for those who have done any good to my soul, by seeking to sanctify it, the grace of loving Thee much and making Thee to be loved by others, so that by their piety, their virtues, and the ardor of their zeal they may merit a place with Thy apostles and most faithful servants.

Divine Spirit! Influence all their thoughts, words, and deeds; take complete possession of their minds and hearts, so that they may live in Thee and Thou in them. Jesus, meek and gentle Lamb of God, let their lives resemble the life Thou Thyself didst lead upon earth!

Holy Mary, Mother of Jesus, do thou by thy intercession sanctify the souls of all our priests and second their efforts in the work of saving souls; shield them, and defend them as thine own. Pray for them that the peace of God may be always with them, and that they may attain to the everlasting blessedness of heaven. Amen.

Blessed Sacrament Prayer Book

The Office of Holy Week, 1870

"It is now uncommon to hear Maundy Thursday referred to as Holy Thursday. This is a mistake. Holy Thursday is a name belonging absolutely from time immemorial to the Feast of the Ascension. Maundy is a significant name and ought therefore to be jealously guarded. Enough of that element of religion which serves to make it popular has been lost in the course of past centuries.

The word Maundy is derived, through the French maundier, from the Latin mandatum: "Mandatum novum do vobis," (a new commandment I give unto you) John, 13:34. The Mandatum or Maundy was the ceremony of the washing of the feet and almsgiving observed on this day, both of which were performed as a token of that brotherly love which Christ so earnestly inculcated at the last supper.

The ceremony of the washing of the feet was and is part of the liturgy. It was performed by Pope, Bishop, and priest, and kings, nobles and peasants, imitated their example. Twelve poor men were selected to be the recipients of the dignitaries' favor.

The Maundy is observed in the ceremonies of the church, and in may religious communities even at the present time.

Visiting the repositories is a custom as popular of old as it is today. It is indeed edifying to Catholic and non-Catholic alike to witness the spontaneous demonstration of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and deeper than we are aware of is the impression produced on the multitude of unbelievers around us by this and similar acts of faith."

Source: Maine Catholic Historical Magazine