I’ve put in a standing request (should I be suddenly called from this world) for the priestly ministry and intercession of Saint Padre Pio, who is “a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech” (Hebrews 5:8) and is known for managing to get around pretty well, during even the toughest of times.
I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Saint Pio. He actually scares the Hell out of me.
But, God willing, that’s precisely what I’m looking for, when it’s my time to go!
“Father, I’m waiting for absolution.”
“Oh. Okay. Jesus forgives you. Go in peace.”
“Would you please give me absolution Father?”
“I just did.”
“No. I’m sorry you didn’t. Maybe I’m being a bit fussy Father, but I really would like to hear you say the words of absolution.”
“Okay, if you insist, Go in peace and be forgiven.”
“I’m sorry Father, but those weren’t the words of absolution.”
He’s annoyed with me now. “Well what do you want me to say?”
“You could say the full words from the rite, but if you want you could just say, ‘I absolve you from your sins.”
Now much annoyed he said, “I absolve you of your sins.”
Has this happened to you? I’m curious because some friends of mine say the same thing happens to them. They are given a great long piece of advice which they don’t’ really want because they have a spiritual director for that, but then the priest doesn’t give them absolution.
Editor’s note: Catholics who rarely go to confession are unlikely to even know about such sloppy practices.
But even good, thorough, well-intentioned priests may get a bit “loopy” after hearing an hour or two of confessions.
Know the words of absolution and before you leave the confessional, make sure you hear the priest say them:
“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his son has reconciled the world to himself and poured out (currently, sent) the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the church may God grant (currently, give) you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, (+) and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
was know to be a frequent “sufferer”
The Sunday homily as an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word, can only be renewed and energized by the Holy Spirit.
Kerygma or the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery should lead to metanoia, a progressive (or radical) conversion of the heart to the Gospel. But, it is the Holy Spirit who is the great “Converter” waiting to be “stirred up” or “fanned into flame” in the hearts of the faithful, through the preaching of Christ crucified.
As Pope Paul VI said in his very powerful apostolic exhortation “On Evangelisation”: “…the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization. It is he who inspires each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is he who causes the word of salvation to be understood and accepted.
It was not by chance that the inauguration of evangelization took place on the morning of Pentecost under the inspiration of the Spirit”. 7 It is noteworthy that the greatest aspect of the renewal of the Eucharistic Liturgy that Vatican II has brought is the introduction of the epiclesis, 8 right before the words of consecration of the bread and wine.
That is why preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit is essential. Hopefully, this kerygmatic preaching will elicit conversion which in turn awakens the desire in the believer for a deeper knowledge and understanding of the faith, which is catechesis.
However, what is sorely needed in our parishes, before faith formation or catechesis, which is, in itself, very important, is boldness in the kerygma, the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen.
On the trip across the Channel to France, Chaplain Lacy told the men:
“When you land on the beach and you get in there, I don’t want to see anybody kneeling down and praying. If I do I’m gonna come up and boot you in the tail. You leave the praying to me and you do the fighting.”
A few of the men began to think that maybe this priest was tougher than he looked.
This is not the type of teaching which can change. The minister of the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick has been and will always be priests and only priests (including, of course, bishops). Still, we ask, Why is it so?
By Thomas Reeves
When Sheen went on television in February 1952, his “Life Is Worth Living” programs became extremely popular, competing effectively against shows starring “Mr. Television,” Milton Berle, and singer-actor Frank Sinatra.
As 1999 ended, there was speculation about who had been the greatest, most popular, most significant, or most influential Catholic of the preceding 100 years.
When it came to the world, Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa scored high on virtually every list. In the United States, names such as Francis Cardinal Spellman, Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Al Smith, and John F. Kennedy received considerable attention. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen received little notice.
It is my contention that Sheen was the most influential Catholic of 20th-century America. Indeed, it could be argued that his impact was far superior to others receiving more attention in polls and in the media.
In the first place, he was the most popular public speaker in the Church, and arguably the best. Millions listened to his Catholic Hour radio programs from 1928 to 1952. Millions also received printed copies of these talks.
In 1949, Gladys Baker, a noted journalist, observed that Sheen was “the name priest in America.” She added, “By members of all faiths, Monsignor Sheen is conceded to be the most electric orator of our times.”
A television critic exclaimed, “Bishop Sheen can’t sing, can’t dance, and can’t act. All he is…is sensational.”
In his first year on television, Sheen won the Emmy for Most Outstanding Television Personality, winning over media giants Lucille Ball, Arthur Godfrey, Edward R. Murrow, and Jimmy Durante.
After winning, he was featured on the covers of Time, TV Guide, Colliers, and Look. The journalist James Conniff stated, “No Catholic bishop has burst on the world with such power as Sheen wields, since long before the Protestant Reformation.”
By early 1955, his programs were reaching 5.5 million households a week.
Like a mongoose playing a cobra, the priest will attempt to work the demon into a position first of disadvantage, then of vulnerability. He begins by demanding, with the authority of prayer, to know its name.
The demons, says Father Martin, are not always willing to play this game. They lie silent, sullen and hidden. When this happens, the exorcist must provoke them into breaking cover. “You have to tease them out,” he says.
“The demon does not physically inhabit the body; it possesses the person’s will. We have to compel the thing to reveal itself and its purpose. It can be slow and difficult, with the demon taunting, scorning, abusing you – speaking through the mouth of the possessed, but not in his or her Voice.
In the end, though, it does come out – and when that happens you experience the sensation we call ‘presence’. At that moment you know you are in the company of the purest evil. I have felt the claws of invisible animals tearing at my face. I have been knocked off my feet, blinded and winded.
But it is then, when you’ve sensed the ‘presence’, that the real attack on the demon can begin.”
The theory of exorcism holds that once the demon has been drawn out of the body it can be vanquished by the power of prayer. “The whole nature of the thing changes,” says Father Martin. “The demon knows it’s losing. Instead of screaming abuse, it begins to plead for mercy. It says it’s sorry, it begs to be spared. It promises to go home.
But the Bible says that only on the last day can the followers of Satan return to Hell. Where they go, I do not know. We do not destroy them, we drive them out. Sometime I encounter the same ones again. As the demon disappears, the person it has possessed is ‘cleared’, and a wondrous wave of peace comes over them.”
With the seeming impossibility (short of a miracle) of getting a priest to come out, for Anointing of the Sick and Last Sacraments, I’ve put in a standing request (should I be suddenly called from this world) for the priestly ministry and intercession of Saint Padre Pio, who is “a priest forever, according to the order of Melchisedech” (Hebrews 5:8) and is known for managing to get around pretty well, during even the toughest of times.
I’ve always had a great deal of respect for Saint Pio. He actually scares the Hell out of me. But, God willing, that’s precisely what I’m looking for, when it’s my time to go!
He is rounding up ancient manuscripts and relics and hiding them in secure locations around Kurdistan, hoping to save them from the iconoclastic fury of the terror insurgency.
“If Daesh burns down a church we can rebuild it, but the manuscripts are our history. They trace back our roots, they are part of our civilization,” he said, using the Arabic acronym for the group. “If they get destroyed, then we are lost, and our culture will be forgotten.”
“Father, I’m waiting for absolution.”
“Oh. Okay. Jesus forgives you. Go in peace.”
“Would you please give me absolution Father?”
“I just did.”
“No. I’m sorry you didn’t. Maybe I’m being a bit fussy Father, but I really would like to hear you say the words of absolution.”
“Okay, if you insist, Go in peace and be forgiven.”
“I’m sorry Father, but those weren’t the words of absolution.”
He’s annoyed with me now. “Well what do you want me to say?”
“You could say the full words from the rite, but if you want you could just say, ‘I absolve you from your sins.”
Now much annoyed he said, “I absolve you of your sins.”
Has this happened to you? I’m curious because some friends of mine say the same thing happens to them. They are given a great long piece of advice which they don’t’ really want because they have a spiritual director for that, but then the priest doesn’t give them absolution.
Editor’s note: Catholics who rarely go to confession are unlikely to even know about such sloppy practices. Even good, thorough, well-intentioned priests may get a bit “loopy” after hearing an hour or two of confessions.
Know the words of absolution and before you leave the confessional, make sure you hear the priest say them:
“I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
One of the sweet things about being a priest is being able to minister at a person’s deathbed. The veil between this world and the next is very thin at that point, and you can see so much. When I say you can “see” so much what I mean is that so much is revealed. At that point the person who is dying is usually very vulnerable and open. Their worldly facade is fading. Their accomplishments and pride are forgotten. They realize that all the stuff of this world will soon be left behind.
Often the person is quietly sleeping. The family is gathered around and there is no response as the last rites are given. On the other hand, sometimes the process is very conscious. More than once I’ve been called to visit a man or woman who has called the parish office specifically because they know they are dying and they want to see a Catholic priest.
So I once made my way to a small apartment in a not so good part of town. I was admitted to find a man in his sixties with a haggard expression gasping for air. Call him Ralph.
The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
was know to be a frequent “sufferer”
The Sunday homily as an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word, can only be renewed and energized by the Holy Spirit.
Kerygma or the proclamation of the Paschal Mystery should lead to metanoia 5, a progressive (or radical) conversion of the heart to the Gospel. But, it is the Holy Spirit who is the great “Converter” waiting to be “stirred up” or “fanned into flame” 6 in the hearts of the faithful, through the preaching of Christ crucified.
As Pope Paul VI said in his very powerful apostolic exhortation “On Evangelisation”: “…the Holy Spirit is the principal agent of evangelization. It is he who inspires each individual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is he who causes the word of salvation to be understood and accepted.
It was not by chance that the inauguration of evangelization took place on the morning of Pentecost under the inspiration of the Spirit”. 7 It is noteworthy that the greatest aspect of the renewal of the Eucharistic Liturgy that Vatican II has brought is the introduction of the epiclesis, 8 right before the words of consecration of the bread and wine.
That is why preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit is essential. Hopefully, this kerygmatic preaching will elicit conversion which in turn awakens the desire in the believer for a deeper knowledge and understanding of the faith, which is catechesis.
However, what is sorely needed in our parishes, before faith formation or catechesis, which is, in itself, very important, is boldness in the kerygma, the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen.
On the trip across the Channel to France, Chaplain Lacy told the men: “When you land on the beach and you get in there, I don’t want to see anybody kneeling down and praying. If I do I’m gonna come up and boot you in the tail. You leave the praying to me and you do the fighting.”
A few of the men began to think that maybe this priest was tougher than he looked.
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Father Andrew M. Greeley, an outspoken Roman Catholic priest who wrote more than 50 novels and publicly feuded with his superior John Cardinal Cody, died at the age of 85 in his Chicago home, a spokeswoman said Thursday.
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – The Catholic Church has excommunicated a Brazilian priest after he defended homosexuality, open marriage and other practices counter to Church teaching in online videos.
In a statement released late on Monday, the priest’s diocese saidFather Roberto Francisco Daniel, known to local parishioners as Padre Beto, had “in the name of ‘freedom of expression’ betrayed the promise of fealty to the Church.”
The priest “injured the Church with grave statements counter to the dogma of Catholic faith and morality.” The actions amount to “heresy and schism,” the statement said, the penalty for which isexcommunication, or expulsion from the Church.
by Doug Lawrence
The nation of Israel managed to kill every prophet God sent to them. Jesus, the prophesied Messiah, and a prophet in his own right, would be treated similarly. So the gift of myrrh … typically used to prepare the dead for burial … was indeed both practical and prophetic.
Since the time of Moses and Aaron, the burning of incense in the Tabernacle/Temple had always been a priestly function, and it remains so, even today. Jesus was and is our heavenly high priest, so the gift of frankincense was indeed both practical and prophetic.
Gold was a gift fit for a king. According to 1st Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14 and 19:16, Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Besides, the gold would come in handy for expenses, during the Holy Family’s subsequent flight to Egypt. So, the gift of gold was indeed both practical and prophetic.
The concept of the promised Messiah as the God-man who was also priest, prophet and king is now widely understood, but that certainly was not the case in the Middle East, around the beginning of the 1st century. Yet, on the Feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate the fact that the Magi somehow managed to get it right.
Practical and prophetic, indeed!
On June 28, Pope Benedict officially recognized Archbishop Sheen as someone who had lived a life of “heroic virtue,” and declared him “Venerable.” The devout priest from Peoria who became the first televangelist, commanded a weekly audience of 30 million, and appeared on the cover of Time, is now just one step away from beatification, and a second from sainthood, pending two respective miracles. The Vatican is already studying the case of a stillborn child who—having shown no vital signs for 60 minutes—astonishingly came back to life, after his mother prayed for the Archbishop’s intercession.
The advance of Sheen’s cause has elated his many supporters, especially three priests who’ve had a special devotion to it.
Monsignor Hilary Franco, who served as the Archbishop’s assistant when he headed the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in America—and is the only surviving member of his New York household—told me how thankful he was for the announcement: “I am a living witness to Archbishop Sheen’s holiness.”
Doe claims she was sexually abused repeatedly by her “exorcist,” Thomas J. Euteneur, who was president of Human Life International and the HLI Endowment; Euteneur, however, is not named as an individual defendant.
Doe claims that Euteneur, a Roman Catholic priest, offers “‘spiritual deliverance’ and the performance of the rite of exorcism,” and did it “with the knowledge and consent of the Diocese and the Most Rev. Paul S. Loverde. … On at least one previous occasion, the Diocese and Bishop Loverde gave permission to Euteneur to conduct an exorcism within the Diocese.”
Doe claims that the defendants know that exorcism could be “potentially dangerous to the participants.” She says: “The defendants knew that a basic principle in the administration of an exorcism is that the priest should never act alone, and that he should always be accompanied by a support team who have been duly prepared to assist him.”
Doe says that her relationship with Euteneur began on Feb. 28, 2008, when she signed “a document entitled ‘Agreement for spiritual help.’
Belfast, Northern Ireland (CNN)— The Catholic Church in Ireland has launched an investigation into claims that a priest accidentally showed gay pornography pictures during a presentation to parents.
The incident happened at a grade school in Pomeroy, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.
Parents said images were projected onto a screen during the meeting, held as part of preparations for First Holy Communion by schoolchildren.
Editor’s note: There’s no way to comment on this without offending! Let this be a lesson to all: Watch where you’re storing that gay porn!
Doug Lawrence's Catholic Site 