The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

When the Blessed Virgin ended her earthly course in her Dormition, the Apostles thought that she was dead and laid her in the tomb. All the Holy Apostles were present, except for St Thomas.

St Thomas came along, deeply grieved by the death of the Holy Mother. He requested to be brought to the tomb to take a look at the fair countenance of Our Lady for a final time and pay his last respect and homage to his Mistress and Mother.

The Apostles led St Thomas to the tomb of the Blessed Virgin, but to their astonishment, the tomb was opened, and the body of Our Lady disappeared. The tomb was strewn with countless roses of bright colours and stunning beauty, and a heavenly fragrance shrouded the area.

A bewildered St Thomas turned to his brethren, who were also astounded by the mysterious disappearance of Our Lord, "Where is the Holy Virgin Mother?"

There was a silence, no one spoke for a long time. Everyone just stared at the empty tomb. Suddenly, one of the Apostles broke out, "Our Lady... Perhaps she is taken up into Heaven?"

"Well," said St Thomas, "that is the Assumption."

LUMENA PAXTE CUMFI

... rearranged to be PAX TECUM FILUMENA, or 'Peace be with you, Filumena'.

Such are the words on the set of tiles that appear on the tomb of St Philomena, which was discovered in May 1802. Either the person who arranged and placed the tiles on the tomb of the fourth century Virgin Martyr was in such a mad rush - probably to sneak off before the Christian persecutors could find him, roast him, and destroy the Catacombs of St Priscilla - or his Latin was just plain horrid.

St Philomena is known to be a wonder-worker, and even St Jean-Marie Vianney had attributed the miracles he performed during his life to her most powerful intercession in Heaven.

Her short and courageous life, punctuated with tortures, visions and miracles, before concluded by her crowning martyrdom, can be summarised with the Litany St Jean-Marie Vianney composed in honour of this his favourite Saint:

Litany of St Philomena

Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity one God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, Queen of Virgins, pray for us.
St. Philomena, pray for us.
St. Philomena, filled with the most abundantgraces from your very birth, pray for us.
St. Philomena, faithful imitator of Mary, pray for us.
St. Philomena. model of Virgins, pray for us.
St. Philomena, temple of the most perfect humility, pray for us.
St. Philomena, inflamed with zeal for the Glory of God, pray for us.
St. Philomena, victim of the love of Jesus, pray for us.
St. Philomena, example of strength and perseverance, pray for us.
St. Philomena, invincible champion of chastity, pray for us.
St. Philomena, mirror of the most heroic virtues, pray for us.
St. Philomena, firm and intrepid in the face of torments, pray for us.
St. Philomena, scourged like your Divine Spouse, pray for us.
St. Philomena, pierced by a shower of arrows, pray for us.
St. Philomena, consoled by the Mother of God, when in chains, pray for us.
St. Philomena, cured miraculously in prison, pray for us.
St. Philomena, comforted by angels in your torments, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who preferred torments and death to the splendors of a throne, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who converted the witnesses of your martyrdom, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who wore out the fury of your executioners, pray for us.St. Philomena, protectress of the innocent, pray for us.
St. Philomena, patron of youth, pray for us.
St. Philomena, refuge of the unfortunate, pray for us.
St. Philomena, health of the sick and the weak. pray for us.
St. Philomena, new light of the church militant, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who confounds the impiety of the world, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who stimulates the faith and courage of the faithful, pray for us.
St. Philomena, whose name is glorified in Heaven and feared in Hell, pray for us.
St. Philomena, made illustrious by the most striking miracles, pray for us.
St. Philomena, all powerful with God, pray for us.
St. Philomena, who reigns in glory, pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

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

Let us pray,
We implore Thee, O Lord, by the intercession of Saint Philomena, Virgin and Martyr, who was ever most pleasing to Thy eyes by reason of her eminent purity and the practice of all the virtues, pardon us our sins and grant us all the graces we need (and name any special grace you may require). Amen.

Upon request, a fellow Catholic friend took a picture of his home altar on the Feast of St Philomena, specially decorated for the occasion.

Feast of Corpus Christi

O Lord, I Am Not Worthy

O Lord, I am not worthy
That Thou should'st come to me,
But speak the words of comfort,
My spirit healed shall be.

O, come, all you who labor
In sorrow and in pain,
Come, eat This Bread from heaven;
Thy peace and strength regain.

O Jesus, we adore Thee,
Our Victim and our Priest,
Whose precious Blood and Body
Become our sacred Feast.

O Sacrament most holy,
O Sacrament divine!
All praise and all thanksgiving
Be ev'ry moment Thine.

The Latin Church celebrates this venerable Feast in honour of Our Blessed Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. We profess that He is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

It is indeed an exceedingly meritorious Act of Faith, when, at the Elevation of the Sacred Host after Consecration, we look at It, and, bending low and prostrating in spirit, we adore the Eucharistic Lord, saying, 'Dominus meus, Deus meus!', following the words of the Doubting, now St Thomas. It is by these our eyes of faith, and not our bodily eyes, that we see and recognise that Our Divine Saviour is there, right there in the Consecrated Bread, and for that, He will bless us abundantly, as He promised: Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. It is on this day of the Feast of Corpus Christi that we renew this faith in Our Lord's Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, professing this truth which the heretics reject.

Protestants deny Our Lord's omnipotence when they refuse to believe that He is truly present in the Consecrated Species. This heresy is not new, and more certainly, it is not unique to these heretics - this same truth had been denied by the faithless Jews during the time of Our Lord Jesus Christ. When Our Lord did proclaim Himself to be the Bread of Life that came down from Heaven, the unbelieving Jews scoffed at Him.

The Jews therefore murmured at him, because he had said: I am the living bread which came down from heaven. And they said: Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then saith he, I came down from heaven?

St John 6:41, 42

Our Divine Lord continued:

Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.

St John 6:54-58

"Our Lord's words are metaphorical!", a Protestant will argue vehemently. Why, then, seeing that a large group of His followers, unable to accept this precious teaching and truth, were leaving Him, He made no effort to clarify Himself, if what He said to the Jews were intended to be in metaphors? He knows full well that those who left Him will not be saved, for we know that Jesus Christ is the only Way to the Father.

It is also important to note that when Our Lord expounded on teachings of particular importance, He would begin by saying, 'Amen, amen, I say unto you.' It calls for special emphasis on the truths He was to expound. In His short public ministry of three years, His Mission is to teach as much as possible and expound the truths most necessary for salvation. When using parables or metaphors, Our Divine Lord would have stated it so clearly and explicitly that it is impossible for anyone to think otherwise. He is God, He is Almighty - He is not the fuzzy-wuzzy street-preacher you would expect standing at the corner of Orchard Road.

If any one shall say that, in the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, there remains the substance of bread and wine together with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; and shall deny that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, the species of bread and wine alone remaining, which conversion the Catholic Church most fittingly calls Transubstantiation, let him be anathema.

Council of Trent - Session 13, Canon 2

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!

咩！

meh! meh! meh!

A friend of mine commented: "Why do you like to meh so much? Is it because God is your Shepherd, and you are His sheep?"

I have never thought of that!

As Catholics, we are the sheep and lambs in His fold. We ourselves are called to give all our heart, mind and soul - to offer our entire being - to our Lord God, Who sent His Only-Begotten Son, the Lamb of God, to be sacrificed for our sake on the Tree of the Cross.

Being the Second Sunday after Easter, or more commonly known as Good Shepherd Sunday, after the theme of the Epistle and Gospel of the Holy Mass celebrated today, Holy Mother Church reminds her children of the importance of true ecumenism - the calling of all men into the Catholic Church, in the flock of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, is His current Vicar on earth.

The shepherd stave, or crosier, borne by the Good Shepherd in the image above, is similar to the ones carried by prelates of the Church. From the Catholic Encyclopedia, the learned Durandus and Barbosa tell us of the significance of these ecclesiastical ornaments conferred on bishops during their consecration:

(They) signify their authority to correct vices, stimulate piety, administer punishment, and thus rule and govern with a gentleness that is tempered with severity. (...) As the rod of Moses was the seal and emblem of his Divine commission as well as the instrument of the miracles he wrought, so is the episcopal staff the symbol of that doctrinal and disciplinary power of bishops in virtue of which they may sustain the weak and faltering, confirm the wavering in faith, and lead back the erring ones into the true fold. (...) The end is sharp and pointed wherewith to prick and goad the slothful, the middle is straight to signify righteous rule, while the head is bent or crooked in order to draw in and attract souls to the ways of God.

Throughout the history of Christianity, holy images or statues of Our Lord as the Good Shepherd can be found in many hallowed grounds, from dark catacombs to glorious Gothic cathedrals. It is indeed one of the most well-loved titles of our Blessed Lord.

Ecce Fidelis Servum et Prudens!

The Feast of St Joseph, the Holy Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is transferred from 19 March, which is Spy Wednesday this year, to today, 1 April. (This is no April Fools' joke!)

King Solomon, in his great wisdom bestowed upon him by God, foretold about St Joseph, the seed of David, in this most apt description of him in the Book of Proverb:

A faithful man shall be greatly praised, and he that is the keeper of the Lord shall be glorified.

Proverbs 28:20, 27:18

He is indeed the servant most faithful, who, despite not having any human explanation for the pregnancy of his Blessed Spouse, accepted and obeyed readily when the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying:

Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a Son, and thou shalt name His name Jesus.

St Matthew 1:20-21

In very truth, he is the keeper of the Lord, for he is appointed by the Most High to be the Foster-Father of the Incarnate Word, of the Only-Begotten Son of God. Even the King of kings, the Lord of lords, our Lord Jesus Christ, is put under his charge before He began His public ministry, as St Luke the Evangelist wrote in the Gospel:

Jesus went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.

St Luke 2:51

On this blessed occasion, I would also like to introduce and promote this wonderful devotion to St Joseph - the wearing of the Cincture or Cord of St Joseph. A white cotton rope with 7 knots on one end blessed by any Priest with a special blessing, St Joseph's Cord is usually girded and worn around the waist. Indulgences may be granted through the wearing of this Cord if the wearer is attached to the Archconfraternity of St Joseph in Rome, but more commonly it is worn for the following reasons:

1. St Joseph's special protection;
2. The grace of chastity;
3. Final perseverance; and
4. St Joseph's particular assistance at the hour of death.

The wearer of St Joseph's Cord is to daily say a Gloria on each of the 7 knots, in honor of and while meditating on each of the 7 Sorrows of St Joseph, and to recite a prayer to St Joseph for the holy virtue of purity. These meditations and prayers, and also more information on St Joseph's Cord, may be obtained from here.

Litany of St Joseph

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.
Holy Mary, pray for us.
St Joseph, pray for us.
Noble scion of David, pray for us.
Light of the Patriarchs, pray for us.
Spouse of the Mother of God, pray for us.
Chaste Guardian of the Virgin, pray for us.
Foster-father of the Son of God, pray for us.
Sedulous Defender of Christ, pray for us.
Head of the Holy Family, pray for us.
Joseph most just, pray for us.
Joseph most chaste, pray for us.
Joseph most prudent, pray for us.
Joseph most valiant, pray for us.
Joseph most obedient, pray for us.
Joseph most faithful, pray for us.
Mirror of patience, pray for us.
Lover of poverty, pray for us.
Model of all who labor, pray for us.
Glory of family life, pray for us.
Protector of virgins, pray for us.
Pillar of families, pray for us.
Consolation of the afflicted, pray for us.
Hope of the sick, pray for us.
Patron of the dying, pray for us.
Terror of the demons, pray for us.
Protector of Holy Church, pray for us.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V: He made him the lord of his household.
R: And prince over all his possessions.

Let us pray.
O God, Who, in Thine ineffable Providence didst vouchsafe to choose blessed Joseph to be the Spouse of Thy most holy Mother; grant, we beseech Thee, that we may be worthy to have him for our intercessor in Heaven whom, on earth, we venearate as our protector. Who livest and reignest world without end. Amen.

St Joseph, Protector of Holy Church, restore Catholic tradition!

Love is in the Air!

Yes, among couples and lovebirds. But how about the love for this holy Priest, possibly Bishop, and Martyr of the Church?

Just when the world celebrates this day with much consumerism and forgets who St Valentine is...

Saint Valentine, pray for us!

The Apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes

... in its 150th anniversary.

Born Marie-Bernarde Soubirous to a humble and devout family in the little town of Lourdes, France, St Bernadette is the eldest of the six children of Monsieur François Soubirous and Madame Louise (née Castérot) Soubirous. The Catholic Faith forms an integral part of their life, and it is the Holy Faith, and their love and support for one another, that sustained them even though they lived in extreme poverty.

St Bernadette, being the eldest of the children in the family, took on the responsibility of herding the sheep. She prays the Rosary each time she brings her sheep to graze.

On 11 February 1858, while the fourteen-year-old Bernadette was gathering firewood with her sister and a friend near the grotto at Massabielle just outside Lourdes, she had a vision of 'a small young Lady' standing at a niche in the rocks. The Lady asked that she returned to the grotto every day for fifteen consecutive days. This was the first of eighteen Apparitions of a Lady that Saint Bernadette had seen in the grotto. No one else could see the beautiful Lady.

On the ninth vision of St Bernadette, the Lady told the young seer to drink the water that flowed under the rock and eat the plants that grew there freely. The ground was hard and dry, and there was no known spring at the reported location. However, St Bernadette did as was instructed, but there was no springwater that came forth. Many people became sceptical of the Apparitions that St Bernadette claimed to have seen - but not for long.

During the sixteenth of the Lady at the grotto, St Bernadette asked the Lady what her name was. The Lady only replied by smiling lovingly back at the young girl. St Bernadette had to ask the same question three times before she got the answer from the Lady: 'Que soi er'immaculada concepcion.' ('I am the Immaculate Conception.' It is in Occitan, the dialect used in Lourdes.) This confirmed the doubts of Saint Bernadette - the Lady she had been seeing in the Apparitions was the Queen of Heaven and Earth, the Blessed Virgin Mary

These apparitions of our Blessed Mother in Lourdes was a sure sign that our Lady is well pleased with the definition and promulgation of the dogma of her Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX just four years ago, on 8 December 1854.

On January 18, 1862, Bishop Laurence, the Bishop of Tarbes, gave the solemn declaration: "We are inspired by the Commission comprising wise, holy, learned and experienced priests who questioned the child, studied the facts, examined everything and weighed all the evidence. We have also called on science, and we remain convinced that the Apparitions are supernatural and divine, and that by consequence, what Bernadette saw was the Most Blessed Virgin. Our convictions are based on the testimony of Bernadette, but above all on the things that have happened, things which can be nothing other than divine intervention".

After the series of Apparitions as seen by St Bernadette was declared to be worthy of belief by the Church, the grotto where the Apparitions took place soon became the largest Marian Shrine in the Roman Catholic Church and a major site for pilgrimage, attracting millions of Catholics each year. A beautiful statue of Our Lady of Lourdes placed in the niche of the rock, marking the sacred site of the Apparitions. When St Bernadette saw the statue, she was, however, utterly disappointed by the representation of the glorious Lady she saw in her visions.

Many people claimed to receive miraculous cure at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, but only 68 have been certified by the Lourdes Medical Bureau and the Catholic Church as medically inexplicable. Some were healed of their illness by drinking from the spring at the grotto, some by merely praying piously at the sanctified spot, and others, during the visits of our Blessed Lord in the Holy Eucharist to the Sanctuary.

Processions were held at the famous Marine Shrine of Lourdes each year, with the thousands, nay, millions of pilgrims uniting their voices to pray and sing praises to the Most Holy Virgin.

Immaculate Mary

Immaculate Mary!
Our hearts are on fire,
That title so wondrous
Fills all our desire.

Refrain Ave, ave, ave, Maria!Ave, ave, ave, Maria!

We pray for God's glory,
May His Kingdom come!
We pray for His Vicar,
Our Father, and Rome.

Refrain

We pray for our Mother
The Church upon earth,
And bless, sweetest Lady,
The land of our birth.

Refrain

For poor, sick, afflicted
Thy mercy we crave;
And comfort the dying
Thou light of the grave.

Refrain

There is no need, Mary,
Nor ever has been,
Which thou canst not succour,
Immaculate Queen.

Refrain

In grief and temptation,
In joy or in pain,
We'll ask thee, our Mother,
Nor seek thee in vain.

Refrain

O bless us, dear Lady,
With blessings from heaven.
And to our petitions
Let answer be given.

Refrain

And crown thy sweet mercy
With this special grace,
To behold soon in heaven
God's ravishing face.

Refrain

Now to God be all glory
And worship for aye,
And to God's virgin Mother
An endless Ave.

Refrain

In death's solemn moment,
Our Mother, be nigh;
As children of Mary
O teach us to die.

Refrain

Jésus, Marie, Joseph...

Je vous aime!

Sauvez les âmes!

Hail, Three Kings!

As the Holy Mother Church celebrates the blessed Feast of the Epiphany this day, we also commemorate the arrival of the Three Kings, or Magi, from the Far East, to the humble manger where the Sweet Infant of Bethlehem laid. Here, they bowed down before their Creator, adoring Him, offering Him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

It would be interesting to note that each of these three gifts are symbolic of our disposition and the spiritual gifts that we ought to offer and present to our Lord God this day, nay, daily for all our lives.

Our material possessions in our earthly course ought not to be a hindrance to prevent us from attaining our spiritual perfection, so that we may come at last to the Happy Home where we have, through the sin of our First Parents, denied ourselves. Hence, all our material goods and belongings, which the gold represents, should all help us and direct us to our Last End, that is, the glory and eternal bliss of Heaven, and the beatific vision of God.

The frankincense is a symbol of our prayers. For if our prayers are sincere and truthful, they shall ascend and penetrate, like a sweet odour, through the clouds to reach the Throne of the Most High.

Our Lord did not promise us riches and joy in this our earthly pilgrimage. Instead, He called, and continues to call us, to penance every single day. Myrrh, a bitter substance, is a symbol of the self-denial and mortification of our passions that we must still practised daily, in order for us to attain to the best of our abiliites the spiritual perfection that God requires of us, so that we may deserve to enter His Kingdom.

During the Holy Mass this day, the Church reminds us of the three-fold Epiphany, which is the Greek word for Manifestation, of Christ: to the Magi, that is, to the Gentiles; in His Baptism at Jordan, when the Voice from Heaven declared: This is My Beloved Son; and the first miracle of our Lord, through the intercession of our Blessed Lady, at Cana, where He changed water into wine.

Here is a picture of my very own Crèche I had at home, a gift fresh from France.

The kangaroo thinks it is an Angel and climbs to the top of the roof, using some form of grapple, and sings the Gloria and to get a better view of the Infant King. And there certainly are some unwelcomed guests visiting the manger... See if you spot them.

We Three Kings of Orient Are

We three kings of Orient are;
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Refrain
O star of wonder, star of light,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.

(Gaspard)
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.

Refrain

(Melchior)
Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshipping God on high.

Refrain

(Balthazar)
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.

Refrain

Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.

Refrain

Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ

... and Octave Day of the Christmas.

May the Holy Infant King of Bethlehem continue to bestow upon you abundance of graces and blessings during this season of His Blessed Nativity and Epiphany, and on this Anno Domini 2008!