Tag Archives: Religion

Mother Angelica & Deacon Bill Steltemier Receive Papal Honor

by

The best validation EWTN could hope for this side of Heaven!

H/T  Whispers in the Loggia:

Arguably the most significant force in shaping today’s American Catholic landscape, the celebrated, controversial foundress of Catholic media’s most prominent outlet was honored by Rome over the weekend as Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham conferred the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross on Mother Angelica and her longtime top aide in overseeing the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), Deacon Bill Steltemier . Awarded by Pope Benedict, the gong comes at the close of a decade, by turns tumultuous and triumphant, that began with 1999’s dedication of a majestic new monastery for Mother’s growing fold of cloistered Poor Clares and an apostolic visitation of the Alabama-based enterprise which led the feisty, fearless Franciscan to place her garage-born apostolate under lay oversight. Along the way, the network’s third decade saw its impact on the US church’s life and practice became ever more sizable, touching everything from priestly and religious vocations and parish liturgies to the influence of its roster of “stars” on the nation’s Catholic orbit — a clout which rivals, if not bests, all but a handful of the Stateside hierarchy — and, to top it all, the success of her authoritative 2005 biography, written by EWTN news director Raymond Arroyo, which cracked the New York Times best-seller list and was quickly followed-up by a sequel of Angelica’s words of wisdom. Now 86 and mostly confined to bed following a 2001 stroke, the unlikeliest of media moguls couldn’t attend the St Francis’ Day Vespers at which the award for her faithful and distinguished service “to the church and the pontiff” was presented. Instituted in 1889 by Pope Leo XIII, the Pro Ecclesia is the Vatican’s highest honor for religious men and women and permanent deacons. Though layfolk who’ve rendered exemplary devotion to church and community may also receive the bronze Cross suspended from a gold and white ribbon, the higher accolade of papal knighthood is reserved to the laity alone.

On Jesus Christ’s Descent into Hell

by

From the Dolorous Passion of Jesus – Visions of Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich.

Our Lord, by descending into Hell, planted (if I may thus express myself), in the spiritual garden of the Church, a mysterious tree, the fruits of which—namely, his merits—are destined for the constant relief of the poor souls in Purgatory. The Church militant must cultivate the tree, and gather its fruits, in order to present them to that suffering portion of the Church which can do nothing for itself. Thus it is with all the merits of Christ; we must labour with him if we wish to obtain our share of them; we must gain our bread by the sweat of our brow. Everything which our Lord has done for us in time must produce fruit for eternity; but we must gather these fruits in time, without which we cannot possess them in eternity. The Church is the most prudent and thoughtful of mothers; the ecclesiastical year is an immense and magnificent garden, in which all those fruits for eternity are gathered together, that we may make use of them in time. Each year contains sufficient to supply the wants of all; but woe be to that careless or dishonest gardener who allows any of the fruit committed to his care to perish; if he fails to turn to a proper account those graces which would restore health to the sick, strength to the weak, or furnish food to the hungry! When the Day of Judgment arrives, the Master of the garden will demand a strict account, not only of every tree, but also of all the fruit produced in the garden.

On Dying Today

by
crucificionicon

icon by the hand of Joann Nelander

A note from the Anchoress on retreat:

Just found this scrawled, uncharacteristically, in the back of a book –

When we meet God face-to-face, it is always a moment of grace,
but too it is a moment of judgment for us.
Judgment day, then, can be any day, any time, any particular
moment of an hour.
And so our death can happen many times,
a process of conversion, a process of turning to.
We die to ourselves, die to a particular sin or attachment,
and begin again, turning toward.
We no sooner die to one thing that we immediately
attach and live to another,
and judgment will come to that, too.
Sacrament of confession
hastens our dying and our rising,
the dying to the old self,
the rising to the new,
always, always, toward Christ.
Toward oneness, completion.
The Whole.
Life is a process of Incarnation.
Our reality, our wholeness, our completeness
in this world comes
through repeated offerings which we receive or refuse.
The Eucharistic Christ contributes to this formation, this process.
He enters us, we welcome Him.
One flesh.
Incarnation.
My whole woeful life just begun, again.

Articles by Cardinal Ratzinger

by

Collected articles by Cardinal Ratzinger here

“Fish” and the Heart of God

by

H/T Catholic Exchange for “Fish”

Episcopal Nuns Come Home to Roman Catholicism

by

H/T to Susan G. in Nebraska who said this article from the Baltimore Sun would make me happy:

Photo by Owen Sweeney III / Catholic Review photo

In a move that religious scholars say is unprecedented, 10 of the 12 nuns at an Episcopal convent in Catonsville left their church Thursday to become Roman Catholics, the latest defectors from a denomination divided over the ordination of gay men and women.

………

The sisters said they converted for the orthodoxy, unity and leadership they said they could no longer find in their own faith.

“We know our beliefs and where we are,” said Mother Christina Christie, superior of the order that came to Baltimore in 1872. “We were drifting farther apart from the more liberal road the Episcopal Church is traveling. We are now more at home in the Roman Catholic Church.”

Also joining the church was the Rev. Warren Tanghe, the sisters’ chaplain. In a statement, Episcopal Bishop Eugene Taylor Sutton wished them God’s blessings.

“Despite the sadness we feel in having to say farewell, our mutual joy is that we remain as one spiritual family of faith, one body in Christ,” he said.