Just wanted to let folks know that the transcript of show 032 is now available.
It deals with whether God hates sinners and how to use the Internet without violating canon law (specifically: in terms of imprimaturs).
To read the transcript, just click the big, friendly red button.
Or, if you’d like to you listen to the show, JUST CLICK HERE.
Enjoy!
Today is Monday of the 6th week of Easter. The liturgical color is red.
In the Extraordinary Form, the liturgical color for today is white.
In the Extraordinary Form, it is a rogation day.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 14, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate St. Matthias, apostle. It is a feast.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Boniface, martyred at Tarsus, who died in A.D. 307. It is a commemoration.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Matthias, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Boniface, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
197. The Rosary, or Psalter of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is one of the most excellent prayers to the Mother of God. Thus, “the Roman Pontiffs have repeatedly exhorted the faithful to the frequent recitation of this biblically inspired prayer which is centred on contemplation of the salvific events of Christ’s life, and their close association with the his Virgin Mother. The value and efficacy of this prayer have often been attested by saintly Bishops and those advanced in holiness of life.”
The Rosary is essentially a contemplative prayer, which requires “tranquillity of rhythm or even a mental lingering which encourages the faithful to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life.” Its use is expressly recommended in the formation and spiritual life of clerics and religious.
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This version of The Weekly Benedict covers material released in the last week from 14 April – 10 May 2012 (subscribe here; get as an eBook version for your Kindle, iPod, iPad, Nook, or other eBook reader):
Regina Caeli
General Audience
Letters
Speeches
Notes:
Today is the 6th Sunday of Easter. The liturgical color is white.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 13, in the Ordinary Form, we celebrate Our Lady of Fatima. It is an optional memorial.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Robert Bellarmine, SJ, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church, who died in A.D. 1621. It is a Class III day.
If you’d like to learn more about Our Lady of Fatima, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Robert Bellarmine, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
196. By disposition of Benedict XIV (2 April 1742), the Angelus is replaced with the antiphon Regina Coeli during paschaltide. This antiphon, probably dating from the tenth or eleventh century, happily conjoins the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word (quem meruisti portare) with the Paschal event (resurrexit sicut dixit). The ecclesial community addresses this antiphon to Mary for the Resurrection of her Son. It adverts to, and depends on, the invitation to joy addressed by Gabriel to the Lord’s humble servant who was called to become the Mother of the saving Messiah (Ave, gratia plena).
As with the Angelus, the recitation of the Regina Coeli could sometimes take a solemn form by singing the antiphon and proclaiming the Gospel of the resurrection.
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Today is Saturday of the 5th week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.
In the Extraordinary Form, the liturgical color for today is red.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 12, in both the Ordinary and the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St.s Nereus and Achilleus Flavia Domitilla, and St. Pancras, martyrs, who died in A.D. 98 and 304. In the Ordinary Form, it is an optional memorial, and in the Extraordinary Form, it is a Class III day.
If you’d like to learn more about St.s Nereus, Achilleus, Flavia Domitilla and St. Pancras, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
195. The Angelus Domini [Angelus, “The Angel of the Lord”] is the traditional form used by the faithful to commemorate the holy annunciation of the angel Gabriel to Mary. It is used three times daily: at dawn, mid-day and at dusk. It is a recollection of the salvific event in which the Word became flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary, through the power of the Holy Spirit in accordance with the salvific plan of the Father.
The recitation of the Angelus is deeply rooted in the piety of the Christian faithful, and strengthened by the example of the Roman Pontiffs. In some places changed social conditions hinder its recitation, but in many other parts every effort should be made to maintain and promote this pious custom and at least the recitation of three Aves. The Angelus“over the centuries has conserved its value and freshness with its simple structure, biblical character […] quasi liturgical rhythm by which the various time of the day are sanctified, and by its openness to the Paschal Mystery.”
It is therefore “desirable that on some occasions, especially in religious communities, in shrines dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and at meetings or conventions, the Angelus be solemnly recited by singing the Ave Maria, proclaiming the Gospel of the Annunciation” and by the ringing of bells.
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This Sunday’s readings deal with one of the most important events in Christian history.
Although the majority of Christians have little or no knowledge of the event, a pivotal moment in the history of the Church is recorded in Acts 10.
This event is the conversion of the household of the Roman centurion Cornelius, and it is important because, when this event occurred, it became clear that one did not have to become a Jew in order to become a Christian. This opened the door to a wave of conversions from people of all nations and kept Christianity from being a purely Jewish phenomenon, ethnically speaking.
But the conversion of Cornelius is controversial. It was in its own day, and it is in ours as well.
Some try to draw lessons from it like everyone should speak in tongues upon their conversion to Christ . . . or that baptism is merely a symbol that does not convey God’s grace.
How can one respond to these claims, and what are the *true* lessons that one can learn from this turning point in the history of Christianity?
In this video episode of the Jimmy Akin Podcast, Jimmy discusses the arguments and reveals both surprising and reassuring facts about the conversion of Cornelius.
This must-see video will prove eye-opening for Christians of all persuasions.
You can watch it here . . .
. . . or DOWNLOAD IT BY RIGHT-CLICKING HERE.
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Today is Friday of the 5th week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.
In the Extraordinary Form, the liturgical color for today is red.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 11, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St.s Philip and James, apostles, who died in A.D. 87 and 93. It is a Class II day.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Philip, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about St. James, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
194. “Celebrations of the Word, because of their thematic and structural content, offer many elements of worship which are at the same time genuine expressions of devotion and opportunities for a systematic catechesis on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Experience, however, proves that celebrations of the Word should not assume a predominantly intellectual or didactic character. Through hymns, prayers, and participation of the faithful they should allow for simple and familiar expressions of popular piety which speak directly to the hearts of the faithful.”
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Today is Thursday of the 5th week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 10, in the Ordinary Form in the United States, we celebrate St. Damien de Veuster, priest. It is an optional memorial.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Antonius, OP, bishop, and confessor, who died in A.D. 1459. It is a Class III day.
In the Extraordinary Form, we also celebrate St.s Gordian and Epimachus, martyrs, who died in A.D. 360 and 250. This celebration is a commemoration.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Damien de Veuster, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Antonius, you can click here.
If you’d like to learn more about St.s Gordian and Epimachus, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
192. This is not the place to reproduce the list of Marian exercises approved by the Magisterium. Some, however, should be mentioned, especially the more important ones, so as to make a few suggestions about their practice and emendation.
Prayerfully Hearing the Word of God
193. The Council’s call for the “sacred celebration of the word of God” at significant moments throughout the Liturgical Year, can easily find useful application in devotional exercises made in honor of the Mother of the Word Incarnate. This corresponds perfectly with the orientation of Christian piety and reflects the conviction that it is already a worthy way to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, since it involves acting as she did in relation to the Word of God. She lovingly accepted the Word and treasured it in her heart, meditated on it in her mind and spread it with her lips. She faithfully put it into practice and modeled her life on it.
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Today is Wednesday of the 5th week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 9, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.
In the Extraordinary Form, we celebrate St. Gregory Nazianzen, bishop, confessor, and doctor of the Church, who died in A.D. 389. It is a Class III day.
If you’d like to learn more about St. Gregory Nazianzen, you can click here.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
191. In relation to the western custom of observing a “Marian month” during the month of May (or in November in some parts of the Southern hemisphere), it would seem opportune to take into account the demands of the Liturgy, the expectations of the faithful, their maturity in the faith, in an eventual study of the problems deriving from the “Marian months” in the overall pastoral activity of the local Church, as might happen, for example, with any suggestion of abolishing the Marian observances during the month of May.
In many cases, the solution for such problems would seem to lay in harmonizing the content of the “Marian months” with the concomitant season of the Liturgical Year. For example, since the month of May largely corresponds with the fifty days of Easter, the pious exercises practised at this time could emphasize Our Lady’s participation in the Paschal mystery (cf. John 19, 25-27), and the Pentecost event (cf, Acts 1, 14) with which the Church begins: Our Lady journeys with the Church having shared in the novum of the Resurrection, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The fifty days are also a time for the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation and of the mystagogy. The pious exercises connected with the month of May could easily highlight the earthly role played by the glorified Queen of Heaven, here and now, in the celebration of the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Eucharist.
The directives of Sacrosanctum Concilium on the need to orient the “minds of the faithful…firstly to the feasts of the Lord, in which, the mysteries of salvation are celebrated during the year”, and with which the Blessed Virgin Mary is certainly associated, should be closely followed.
Opportune catechesis should remind the faithful that the weekly Sunday memorial of the Paschal Mystery is “the primordial feast day.” Bearing in mind that the four weeks of Advent are an example of a Marian time that has been incorporated harmoniously into the Liturgical Year, the faithful should be assisted in coming to a full appreciation of the numerous references to the Mother of our Savior during this particular period.
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Today is Tuesday of the 5th week of Easter. The liturgical color is white.
Saints & Celebrations:
On May 8, there is no special fixed liturgical day in the Ordinary Form.
There is no special fixed liturgical day in the Extraordinary Form.
For information about other saints, blesseds, and feasts celebrated today, you can click here.
Readings:
To see today’s readings in the Ordinary Form, you can click here.
Or you can click play to listen to them:
Devotional Information:
We continue our series on the Blessed Virgin Mary. According to the Holy See’s Directory on Popular Piety:
190. With regard to the observance of “Marian months”, which is widespread in the Latin and Oriental Churches, a number of essential points can be mentioned.
In the West, the practise of observing months dedicated to the Blessed Virgin emerged from a context in which the Liturgy was not always regarded as the normative form of Christian worship. This caused, and continues to cause, some difficulties at a liturgico-pastoral level that should be carefully examined.
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