Abbey-Roads2

A note of caution to bloggers.

We all know about MySpace.com and how predators prey on unsuspecting kids. What about adults?

I have a friend, not religious at all, who responded to an ad for a horoscope. (Why? I have no idea - but people do look for spirituality in the strangest places.) He of course had to give out his birthday, place of birth, full name and current address. He did. Now he is being billed for multiple readings that he never requested and is fighting it out with a collection agency. Nevertheless, he gave out very personal information - information that could easily lead to identity theft.

I also got an email from a suspicious person - with whom I am only acquainted - in the form of a ‘meme’. Bloggers know all about this stuff, right? This particular ‘meme’ wanted to know things like, “Name five places you have lived before this address.” Along with other leading questions. A red flag went up. What if this person was trying to get personal information about me, or worse, trying to steal my identity? (Lest I sound totally nuts I should explain this person in question has a reputation of dishonesty - or so I am told. He also does not blog - he sent the ‘meme’ via email. It was wierd.)

I thought about my blogging as well as my profile on the blog - do I reveal too much? (I might sometimes about others.)

Perhaps it is paranoid to worry about such things, yet in our day and age, one cannot be too careful. I think it best to err on the side of caution- or at least be aware. Be careful about how much personal information you give away, there may be an identity thief lurking. I’m told all it takes is a full name, birth date, and current or past address.

Today is the feast day of one of my favorite saints, Joseph of Cupertino, Franciscan priest and mystic.

When I lived in Assisi I was permitted to make an 8 day retreat in the solitude of his newly renovated apartments at the Sacred Convent. It was in these apartments that St. Joseph had been ‘imprisoned’ because of the extraordinary mystical phenomena that surrounded him. He was kept in solitude to keep him away from the curious who flocked to him because of the gift of levitation, for which he is best known. I had a friar who acted as my ‘Martha” in the solitude of my retreat, bringing me food and drink and celebrating Mass for me in the saint’s oratory. It was a memorable experience for my life. Immediately afterwards, on the feast of the Stigmata, I was professed in the third order of St. Francis at the tomb of our Holy Father in the crypt of the Basilica.

Presented is a brief biography of St. Joseph:

“St. Joseph of Cupertino in prayer, he was called “the Flying Friar” because of his frequent levitations St. Joseph of Cupertino (1603-1668) was an Italian mystic whose life is a wonderful combination of a complete lack of natural capacity and an extraordinary supernatural efficiency.

He lacked every natural gift. He was incapable of passing a test, maintaining a conversation, taking care of a house, or even touching a dish without breaking it. He was called Brother Ass by his companions in the monastery.

He was born on June 17, 1603 into a family of poor artisans. Because of his father?s debts, he was born in a shed behind the house, which was in the hands of bailiffs. He was sickly and often at death?s door during his childhood, and at age seven he developed a gangrenous ulcer which was later cured by a religious man. He was always despised by his companions who called him a fool. Even his mother wearied of him and repudiated him for his lack of any human value. Later, when he entered the religious life, he faced worse difficulties. The Capuchins received him as a lay brother but his ineptitude and abstraction made him unbearable for the other religious. Often he was taken in ecstasy and, oblivious of what he was doing, he would drop the food or break the dishes and trays. As a penance, bits of broken plates were fastened to his habit as a humiliation and reminder not to do the same again. But he could not change. He could not even be trusted with serving the bread because he would forget the difference between the white and brown breads. Finally, considering that he was good for nothing, the religious took his habit and expelled him from the monastery.

Later, he declared that having the habit taken from him was the greatest suffering of his life and that it was as if his skin had been torn from his body. When he left the monastery he had lost part of his lay clothes. He was without a hat, boots, or stockings, and his coat was moth-eaten and worn. He presented such a sorry sight that when he passed a stable down the lane, dogs rushed out on him and tore his apparel to worse tatters. He escaped and continued along the road, but soon came upon some shepherds, who thought he was a miscreant and were about to give him a beating, when one of their number had pity on him and persuaded them to let him go free.” [snip] Read the conclusion here.

St. Joseph of Cupertino pray for me for the grace of conversion; and pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

And no ’spin’.

Today Holy Father did indeed apologize for offending Muslim sensibilities; that after the Vatican and every other intelligent source clearly stated his speech was in opposition to violence, especially religiously motivated violence, or jihad, and not against Islam.

He humbly apologized without taking back what he said, which ought to be considered within the context of his speech.

This was clear from the beginning, although media and Muslim leaders exploited the one sensational comment in his speech, rather, I should say, it was not at all sensational, albeit sensationalized. Resulting in this distorted image of the Holy Father, churches burned, a nun killed, the Holy Father burned in effigy, and demands for the Pope’s death, as well as calling for attacks upon the Vatican. All by the people of the religion of peace, so misunderstood by the western world.

This is the translation of the writing on the profaned image of the Pope:

The script in red calls for the Pope’s beheading. The rest of the translation:

“Swine and servant of the cross, worships a monkey on a cross, hateful evil man, stoned Satan, may Allah curse him, blood-sucking vampire.” (Thanks to Z)

Islam denies that Jesus is God, they say he was a prophet, like Mohamed - yet they venerate Mohamed as greater than Jesus Christ. The ‘religion’ is anti-Christian in its very essence. From the time of Mohamed they have won converts by the sword, those they did not kill became slaves. Today In Darfur Christians are being killed and deprived of their homeland by an Islamic government. Christians around the Muslim world have been consistently persecuted up to our own day. Bin Laden and his thugs want the west, the entire world, to convert to Islam. In WWII Islam was an ally to Hitler. Where do they get off claiming to be offended while insisting they are a religion of peace?

Nevertheless, they have a long memory - I believe they are out to reclaim whatever they lost in medieval times - they will use the Pope’s words as a battle cry for years to come. They will exploit every irrational angle they can to retaliate and yet justify their crimes by blaming it on some Dutch cartoons, and the innocent words of an intellectual Pope.

One blogger suggested that people are over-reacting, feeding paranoia and dissension by speculating that further, and perhaps more disastrous violence will occur as a result of what the Holy Father said and how Islam will distort his words and use them to their advantage. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable assumption to expect escalation of violence and terror as a result. What must be made clear however, the Holy Father did not start it - Islamic leaders are simply ‘cashing in’ if you will.

Some of us who are ‘older’ remember the chant from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, as well as Kent State, “The whole world is watching!” That is happening today, the whole world is watching this cultural idiocy of Islamic over-reaction, unreasonableness, and hyper-sensitivity. It’s absolutely incredible to behold.

Changes

After a rough, tiring week at work I was actually able to resume my Sunday schedule of vigils and attending the 1st Mass at 6:30AM at St. Agnes. Not that it has been so long that I attend this Mass, but I have been sleeping in until 4:30AM and not spending enough time in prayer before my trek over there. (The main reason I don’t go to St. Augustine’s for the trid Mass is because it is so late in the day, 11:30AM.)

Anyway, Fr. Ubel wrote a nice farewell of sorts, in today’s bulletin, to Fr. Welzbacher. Surprising to most who know me, he was the real draw for me to St. Agnes. His homilies were fantastic, and his Pastor’s Page brilliant, and he is a great confessor. He’s a very sophisticated man, intellectual, and even rather suave, always dapper in his hats and hunter green plaid lined outerwear. Yet he is deeply spiritual and charitable as well, always a priest, often a mentor to others. Not me of course, I only have made his acquaintance. Nevertheless, I shall miss him. He will be at St. John’s on the Eastside of St. Paul after a couple of weeks off. That was my parish when I was little - I made my first Communion there when Fr. Decourcey was pastor, and his assistant was a Fr. Roach - not the Roach however. I don’t want to go back there - I have never liked the Eastside.

So there are just small changes appearing at St. Agnes. They will come in bits and drabs, slowly and reasonably, as is normal for a parish in transition. The first I noticed is that the bells are not tolled in the wee hours on Sunday, although I heard them on Saturday at 8AM, so they work. The second, Fr. Ubel announced the cancellation of the 5:15PM Mass on Tuesdays and Thursdays because there is now only two resident priests at the church. However they will continue to have the evening Mass on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, while retaining the daily 6AM and 8AM every day. That is good.

The other thing I noticed is that the Masses are not as long. I like it because it affords me a longer period of thanksgiving after Mass.

The only thing I don’t like is the priests are younger than me now. I don’t like being an old man. Monsignor made everyone feel young. Oh well.

Today’s feast, once celebrated universally as an optional memorial, is now observed primarily by Franciscans. This feast had been permitted to enliven the hearts of men with the flame of love and devotion, as the prayer of the Mass for the day says;

Lord Jesus Christ,who reproduced in the flesh of the most blessed Francis, the sacred marks of your own sufferings, so that in a world grown cold our hearts might be filled with burning love of you, graciously enable us by his merits and prayers to bear the cross without faltering and to bring forth worthy fruits of penitence: You who are God, living and reigning with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen

Here is an account of the event in the life of St. Francis.

From the Legenda Minor of St. Bonaventure (de Stigmatibus sacris, 1-4; ed. Quaracchi, 1941; pgg. 202-204)

Externally, however, it left marks on his body like those of the Crucified as if the impression of a seal had been left on heated wax. The figures of the nails appeared immediately on his hands and feet. The heads of the nails were inside his hands but on top of his feet with their points extending through to the opposite side. His right side too showed a blood-red wound as if it had been pierced by a lance, and blood flowed frequently from it.” [snip]

St. Francis of Assisi is the first recorded individual to have received the gift of the stigmata. Since his time other saints have received similar graces, one, St. Catherine of Siena prayed that her stigmata would remain invisible, which it did almost immediately.

God alone is the source of authentic stigmata, which is an external manifestation of the most ardent love and longing for God resulting in the spiritual wound of love in the heart. Teresa of Avila discusses this in her writing, Interior Castle; Sixth Mansion. This wound of love, that many believe St. Therese of Lisieux also experienced, effects an intense love for the cross, penetrating to an intimate degree the spiritual will, hence it can emanate from God alone. It is a source of ecstatic joy, simultaneously delightful while excruciatingly painful. (Free-base quote from Garrigou-Lagrange)

Francis de Sales, a third order Franciscan, defends the veracity of St. Francis’ stigmata as something altogether spiritual in these words;

“Love has wonderful power to sharpen the imagination, so that it may penetrate even to the exterior. Yet the love which was within St. Francis of Assisi simply could not produce the openings in the flesh on the exterior. That is why the burning seraphim, coming to its help, darted at the saint rays of such penetrating light that it actually pierced the flesh with the exterior wounds of the Crucified which love had interiorly imprinted upon the soul.” (Treatise On the Love of God.)

In The Living Flame of Love, John of the Cross says such signs of God’s love and lofty graces are often given to founders of religious orders in proportion to their legacy and to carry on the original charism. He writes;

“Few persons have reached such heights. some have, however; especially those whose virtue and spirit was to be diffused among their children. For God accords to founders, with respect to the first fruits of the spirit, wealth and value commensurate with the greater or lesser following they will have in their doctrine and spirituality.” (Living Flame)

May the entire Franciscan order, even unfaithful third order members such as myself, be inflamed today with a double portion of the spirit of our holy father St. Francis of Assisi.