“In this place I would like to listen to your cries and remedy all your miseries, pains and sufferings….Hear me and understand well… that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who am your Mother?”
“Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything.”
The Immaculate Conception is, according to Roman Catholic Dogma, the conception of the Virgin Mary without any stain (macula in Latin) of original sin. It is one of the four dogmas in Roman Catholic Mariology. Under this aspect Mary is sometimes called the Immaculata (the Immaculate One), particularly in artistic contexts.
The dogma states that, from the first moment of her existence, she was preserved by God from the lack of sanctifying grace that afflicts mankind, and that she was instead filled with divinegrace. It is further believed by Catholics that she lived a life completely free from sin. Her immaculate conception in the womb of her mother, through sexual intercourse, should not be confused with the doctrine of the virginal conception of her son Jesus, known as the Virgin Birth. [Source]
You’re never too old to learn. That appears to be a fundamental truth of life. I thought I had mastered the meaning of the Advent candles quite some time ago, but the bulletin at the Church where I attended Mass on Sunday alerted me to some residual ignorance.
“What do Advent wreath candles signify? Why are the candles in the Advent wreath different colors? And why do some wreaths have five candles and some have four?”
I might have put the bulletin aside at that point but the bit about five candles, and the fact that the accompanying graphic did show a white candle among the usual, piqued my interest. I continued reading:
Most Advent wreaths have three purple candles and one rose to echo the liturgical colors of the Church’s Advent celebrations.
Whether the wreath is being used at home or in a church, the lighting of the candles should follow the pattern established by the Sundays of Advent.
Just as the vestments at Mass are purple during the first two weeks of Advent, the first two candles of the wreath to be lit (one for each week) should be purple. On the third Sunday of Advent, the Church celebrates Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday, named after the first word of the day’s traditional entrance verse (Philippians 4: 4-5). The priest wears rose vestments at Mass as a sign of our brightening hope and joy. At that point, at home or at church, we light the rose candle in our wreath to reflect the action in the liturgy. The fourth week of Advent sees the lighting of the last purple candle.
Some churches and families have begun to add a fifth candle to their Advent practices, placing a white candle in the center of their wreath. They light this at Christmas, again echoing the Church’s liturgical color for the season and rejoicing in Christ our Lord, whose birth brings light and our life to our world.
Matthew Allman, C.Ss.R.
With a Christmas candle, is it technically an Advent wreath? Or is this something we are going to have raging internecine liturgical debates about in time to come? The kind that will make divisions over the merits of the Second Vatican Council or the Extraordinary Form of the Mass versus the Novus Ordo sound like baby babble? .
This morning, I got out of bed at the wonderful time of 11 a.m. Actually, I woke up an hour earlier, but managed to linger and laze in bed thinking of nothing in particular until a glance at the clock struck the terror of sin in my soul. Now, before I give the wrong impression about my sleeping habits, let me hasten to add that I was able to enjoy the luxury of a rare Saturday sleep in, only because I went to bed at 4:00 a.m. I was up writing something semi-urgent — not blog related — and could not tear myself away from it before I was done.
So out of bed in a jolt and into my usual routine of wanting to give the first fruits of my day to, well, Him. When I got to the Fourth Joyful Mystery of the rosary, the Presentation, I suddenly remembered that last Saturday was the Feast of the Presentation of Mary. For very real reasons, I have a great attachment to Mary and Marian devotions, therefore this is a feast day I would not have allowed to pass me by without a blog mention. My mea culpa leads to this week-late mention and public confession that I forgot to remember, an extra recitation of the Presentation decade of the rosary, the picture up top, a YouTube video of the Fourth Joyful Mystery, and an edifying Litany to the Immaculate Heart of Mary that I prayed as well.
It was also good that my prayer hour ended at midday; I got to go right into praying the noontime Angelus. Saturday, praying the Joyful Mysteries and the Angelus all made me remember Advent. That beautiful, grace-filled, anticipatory and other penitential season for Catholics and like-minded Christians, begins tomorrow. So I added the Magnificat to my prayers. I was happy that I had planned to go to confession this afternoon in any event.
Lovely little tales that always seems to argue for the truth of the Nativity stories and the assertion that nothing is impossible with God. Similar pregnancy and baby stories have been featured before. Click here and here for previous posts with a summary of these.
Here’s one historic black figure that does not usually turn up among the biographies at February celebrations of Black History Month. However, he features prominently in Black Catholic History month, so the previous post reminded me of a good intention I had at the start of November to do a write-up on St. Martin de Porres.
November 3 is the feast day (memorial) for St. Martin de Porres, who was born in Lima, Peru on December 9, 1579. He died November 3, 1639, hence that date for his feast day. He was a Dominican lay brother (tertiary or cooperator brother) who was beatified in 1837 by Pope Gregory XVI and canonized on May 6, 1962, by Pope John XXIII.
Being of Spanish and African descent, this mixed race saint should have much appeal to black people in the United States at this time in America’s history. The father of St. Martin de Porres was a Spanish gentleman (soldier) and his mother a black freed-woman from Panama who had been a slave of a Spaniard in South America. From AmericanCatholic.org we get this titbit:
“Father unknown” is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. “Half-breed” or “war souvenir” is the cruel name inflicted by those of “pure” blood. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that even as a child he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised.
He was the illegitimate son of a freed woman of Panama, probably black … and a Spanish grandee of Lima, Peru. Martin inherited the features and dark complexion of his mother. That irked his father, who finally acknowledged his son after eight years. After the birth of a sister, the father abandoned the family. Martin was reared in poverty, locked into a low level of Lima’s society.
When he was 12, his mother apprenticed him to a barber-surgeon. He learned how to cut hair and also how to draw blood (a standard medical treatment then), care for wounds and prepare and administer medicines.
After a few years in this medical apostolate, Martin applied to the Dominicans to be a “lay helper,” not feeling himself worthy to be a religious brother. After nine years, the example of his prayer and penance, charity and humility led the community to request him to make full religious profession. Many of his nights were spent in prayer and penitential practices; his days were filled with nursing the sick and caring for the poor. It was particularly impressive that he treated all people regardless of their colour, race or status. (Click here to read more).
St. Martin de Porres, the patron saint of barbers, is often regarded as the first black canonized saint in the Western Hemisphere. He is also known also as St. Martin of Charity because of his work among the poor, and “the Saint of the broom” because of his devotion to work. His tireless work on behalf of the poor of Peru was well noted with him establishing an orphanage and a children’s hospital. He even maintained a cats and dogs hospital at his sister’s house. He was a close friend of St. Rose of Lima, the first canonized saint of the Western Hemisphere, who is very popular in some Caribbean Islands. Like her, St. Martin de Porres maintained an austere lifestyle, which included fasting, abstaining from meat and a devotion to prayer that was notable even by the pious standards of the age.
Some people lambaste Christianity as “a white man’s religion.” Worse yet, there have been Christians, Black and White, Protestant and even Catholic, who regard Catholicism as a “white church.” Amazingly enough, these myths and misconceptions remain entrenched in some people’s minds.
On July 24, 1990, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus of the United States designated November as Black Catholic History Month to celebrate the long history and proud heritage of Black Catholics. Two commemorative dates fall within this month, Saint Augustine’s Birthday (November 13) and Saint Martin de Porres’ Feast Day (November 3). More importantly, November not only marks a time when we pray for all saints and souls in loving remembrance, but also a time to recall the saints and souls of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Some people forget that Christianity did not originate in Europe and even express surprise when they learn that Black Catholic History began in the Acts of the Apostles (8: 26-40) with the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Philip the Deacon. This text is important for several reasons. First, it chronicles the conversion of the first Black African in recorded Christian history. Second, the text suggests that the man was a wealthy, literate, and powerful emissary of the Nubian Queen and also a faithful, practicing Jew prior to his baptism. Clearly, he was not an ignorant heathen. Third, the Ethiopian Eunuch’s conversion predates the conversions of Saints Paul and Cornelius. Most significantly, many cite this conversion as the very moment when the church changed from a Hebrew and Hellenist community to the truly Universal and Catholic Church.
Never one to get giddy in the celebratory dance of having “the first black” this or that (much prefer to cheer the “first good” ones), I post this as a conversation point for a Caribbean reader. North Africa, where the three African popes to date are reported to have come from, is now almost entirely Muslim. Many Caribbean and black youth, especially men, continue to be pushed into the arms of Islam, Rastafarianism and other dubious sects.
There are several reasons for this, which I hope to explore in the future. For now, to this reader, I say ponder this. At present, the Catholic Church is vibrant in Africa but disoriented in Europe, where it is feebly attempting to regather. Was it Catholicism per se, or a strand of Europeanism that led to the Trans Atlantic slave trade, and to the chaos in the Western Church post Vatican II?
Today is a good day for telling a tale about kings and judges. It is the Feast of Christ the King: celebrating the authority of Jesus as King of the cosmos. This feast (solemnity) was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, to combat a growing secularism.
Much of the world today, even and especially in the West where governments are democratically elected, is ruled by judges. In a convoluted sort of way, this state of affairs seems to predict history repeating itself.
As that history goes, there once lived a people, whom we know as Israel. For a long time, Israel was not ruled by kings, in the manner that some pagan nations were. A common belief exists that the first king of Israel was a man called Saul, but experts more versed in theology and Bible history will tell you the first king of Israel was a supreme being known as God.
However, from about 1400 BC to about 1050 BC, there were intermediaries – sort of – between God and the people of Israel. While the people still regarded God as their King, they were led by judges who settled disputes. These Judges, as written about in the Old Testament, are the men and one woman who ruled Israel between the time of Joshua and King Saul. The first judge was Othniel, the last one Samuel.
During the time between Joshua and King Saul when Israel had no human king, God wanted his people to follow his instructions through the law and prophets. But they often lapse into disobedience, followed by punishment — sometimes in the form of subjugation to foreign powers, followed by repentance and a turning back to God who gave them a leader-deliverer Judge, before the cycle started again. For example, after forty years of oppression by the Philistines, Samson was raised up to be Judge of Israel.
The story eventually winds its way to the last Judge, Samuel. More can be learnt about him and the time of the Judges in the Bible, first book of Samuel, chapters 7 and 8. When Samuel was growing old and tired, in an act looking rather like nepotism — not authorized by God, he delegated much of the Judge functions to his sons. The sons turned out to be dishonest, corrupt, slackers, you name it – all the traits required to be your average politician today.
So the people of Israel resented the shenanigans of the judges. Driven by this, and a spot of pagan-envy, they demanded a king from God. Their elders went to Samuel and said, “Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Samuel was rather dismayed by this ungodly request, so he took it up to God in prayer. But God said to him, give the people what they want, “for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”
As equal capacity human beings and inter-connected residents of the global village, it is near impossible to be shielded from happenings in any or every far-flung corner of the universe. It is also becoming increasingly difficult to steady our emotional balance from the jolt of pain — however momentary – and the traumatic aftermath of some recent news stories of adult brutality against children.
Two child-murder stories of this past week that have burned our common humanity, and illuminated the dark side of man as higher animals, are prime examples.
Shaniya Davis, RIP
First, the tragic story of Shaniya Davis, of North Carolina, USA. Her dad, Bradley Lockhart, says she was conceived after a one-night stand. She lived with her mom for her first year, before her dad took her into his care.
Apparently, he was her primary caregiver until about three weeks before her disappearance and death. In an account that leaves a number of nagging questions, he says the mom convinced him she had found a job and a stable home, had turned her life around and deserved a shot at raising her child. Dad, by his account, did not want his daughter to grow up not knowing her mother, so he handed the child over to mommy.
About three weeks after she took custody, the mother, Antoinette Davis, 25 — who also has a seven-year-old son and is reportedly pregnant – called police on the morning of Tuesday, November 10, to report that Shaniya had gone missing about 5:30 a.m. from her trailer home. Before the end of that week, surveillance video at a hotel some 40 miles away showed a man carrying Shaniya into a hotel room.
That outcome of it all is that Shaniya’s mother is in police custody, charged with allowing her child be used as a prostitute, selling her daughter into sex slavery to the man charged with the little girl’s murder — to pay off a drug debt, according to what Shaniya’s father says he’s heard — filing a false report to the police, child abuse, lying, etc. etc. Sleaze and more dumbfounding sleaze.
The fear and pain of that child must be a raw sensation in the minds of any sane person, even those on the periphery of Shaniya’s short life. After he had savaged her little body — or perhaps during the vile act, all with the knowledge and consent of her mother, the man charged with the rape and murder of Shaniya Davis, Mario Andretti McNeill, 29, asphyxiated her. He then, police say, proceeded to dump her body along a North Carolina highway.
To recap, this is Shaniya Davis:
This is her mother, Antoinette Davis:
This is the man, Mario Andretti McNeill, charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of Shaniya:
Moving now to the second, heartbreaking child murder story, we have a father, Jamar Pinkney, accused of shooting to death his son over a confession by the boy of improper sexual contact with a three-year old girl.
This is Jamar Pinkey Sr.
This, according to a Daily Mailphoto, is Jamar Pinkey Jr, the 15-year-old boy murdered by his furious, same-named father.
Is this for real? Well not the salsa dancing dog part, but that PETA has not sent a Pamela Anderson in birthday suit to storm YouTube and have the video taken down. Wonder what the take on this would be if it featured as an animal abuse story in the Daily Mail.
This accusation, by most accounts, was the event that begun the unraveling of Michael Jackson. The Telegraph says:
Evan Chandler, 65, was found dead in his apartment in New Jersey after shooting himself in the head. Police said there was no suicide note.
In 1993, Mr. Chandler, a former dentist, accused Jackson on behalf of his then-13-year-old son.
Mr. Chandler and his son brought a civil lawsuit against Jackson who reportedly settled the case out of court for $20 million (£12 million,) although he always denied wrongdoing.
Perhaps the media will remember the 2006 court case of Jordan Chandler against his father Evan Chandler. Foxnews.com gave this account of what provoked this action:
According to court papers obtained by this column, the young man who, in 1994, settled with Michael Jackson for $20 million was allegedly physically assaulted last year by his own father.
Jordan Chandler, now 26, filed a request for a restraining order against his father on August 5, 2005. The reason for the order was that Evan Chandler, formerly a dentist and an aspiring screenwriter, had allegedly hit Jordan over the head from behind with a twelve and a half pound weight. He’d also allegedly sprayed him in the face with mace and tried to choke him.
Serving up further proof that money can’t buy happiness, the Daily Mail’s account of the senior Chandler’s November 5 suicide reveals:
[A] family source told the New York Post that Chandler had undergone plastic surgery and regularly administered Botox injections in his face that made him virtually unrecognisable from the time he first accused Jackson sixteen years ago.
And:
Jordan, now 29 and living under an assumed name in Long Island, New York, has never spoken publicly about the allegation.
I pray that God will have mercy on the soul of Evan Chandler.
I pray that we will not be reading anytime soon about the suicides of Martin Bashir, Nancy Grace, Diana Dimond and other such names.
I do not really know what drove Evan Chandler’s despair, or what the inside story of the Chandlers and Michael Jackson really is. However, I cannot forget one of Michael Jackson’s quotes (adapted from the Bible ) during his second — Gavin Arvizo — child sex molestation travails: “Lies run sprints but the truth runs marathons.” Now that Michael Jackson is dead and Evan Chandler is dead, we may never know the truth from the lie. Then again, maybe Jordon Chandler will write a truthful tell all book.
So what can I say? Save a reminder that whosoever digs a pit with malicious intent shall not only fall in it, but in all likelihood will break his/her neck. I have recent experience of this with a band of workplace degenerates who contrived a false accusation against me. I post this story, really, to say to those who are falsely accused, persecuted and maligned without cause to pray without ceasing.
I can’t pretend I am versed in the inner workings of search engines, so I won’t hid my befuddlement over how or why, at certain times, what seem the most unlikely of terms end up being among the top routes by which people find this blog. Over the last few days, a lot of visitors have made their way here via the search term “Monty Python.”
I wholeheartedly agree … but I also think it is not the genuine poor, or ex-poor who do so. Rather, it is those rabidly “anti-poverty” professionals — the activists, the NGOs, the managers of the economy, the liberal politicians, left-tilt media, social justice religious types seeking cover for their moral malleability, community organizers – who benefit most from the mega-bucks poverty industry.
Meanwhile, persons like me who grew up in conditions that, by today’s measures of crippling poverty, should have made me a disabled victim, have a different perspective. Our “poverty” was to us a case of “just enough.” When we look back and reminisce on the times of challenge and trial, it is with a generous measure of fondness and appreciation for the lessons learnt in resourcefulness and resilience. Lessons in what it means to be human that did not imprint a culture of victimhood or entitlement.
Today’s world and all its victims, genuine and contrived, are just too knotted up. Thinking this made me remember this classic Monty Python clip. Have a good laugh.
I love churches, as in the physical buildings, any and everywhere they are to be found, of the Christian variety. I also luv the Caribbean, in the only place it is to be found.
Catholics in The Bahamas makes up about 19% of the population. Here are a few photos of where they worship and Catholics schools that many Bahamians; both Catholics and non-Catholics go to school.
Sacred Heart Church, New Providence, Bahamas
Click here for more photos from the original post. Click on the Caribbean Catholic category in the sidebar for more posts on Catholicism in the Caribbean.
“With God on our side, who can be against us? … When God acquits, could anyone condemn?…
Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food or clothes, or being threatened or even attacked. … These are the trials through which we triumph, by the power of him who loved us.
For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, no angel, no prince, nothing that exists, nothing still to come, not any power, or height or depth, nor any created thing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
(Source: The full “hymn to God’s love, from which the above lines have been extracted, can be found in a Bible near you, at Romans 8: 31-39)
And so, I leave this song, for my friend who asked for prayers, bowed over and hurting as she is at the moment under the weight of an unpleasant family situation.
1. By counsel
2. By command
3. By consent
4. By provocation
5. By praise or flattery
6. By concealment
7. By partaking
8. By silence
9. By defense of the ill done
Catholic students having a public rosary recitation in Trinidad
A very encouraging short story from the November 1/09 edition of Catholic News, the weekly of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain in Trinidad, illustrated by the above Raymond Syms photo.
Members of the Catholic Students’ Movement (CSM) at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus [in Trinidad] – led by president Denzil Williams (left) – give public witness to their faith as they pray the rosary last Wednesday. Wednesday Marian devotions are usually held by “the rocks” near the Learning Resource Centre.
Last week CSM hosted “Catholic Week” on campus. Among their activities were a vocations workshop, a panel discussion on “Being Catholic within secular culture”, a talk on Mary, a prayer walk to the Chaplaincy followed by Eucharistic adoration, and midday Masses. There are close to 60 active members with an outreach to Catholics on campus via the social networking site Facebook.
No matter how you look at it, Christianity in its authentic form, especially its most complete strain — Catholicism, is the best remedy for those who disdain it. Such persons generally object to the moral code of Christianity and the authority structure of Catholicism. A cherished belief of that set is, “It’s my right to do what I want with my body” while they at the same time embrace a culture of blame and an ideology of victimhood, where taking personal responsibility for one’s actions and its consequences is as ancient as the telegram. You know, the IT’S-NOT-MY-FAULT syndrome: ‘I was driven to this abomination because my mother yelled at me in childhood because her father beat her because his grandfather’s mother ran off with the …”
Of course, there is some validity to sociological and other academic explanations for various psychological disorders. For sure, the defence for the USA’s latest serial killer, Anthony Sowell, will be claiming diminished responsibility on some such grounds. In arguing for the Truth of Catholic teaching, we can trace a line going back through social conditions, cultural traits, genetic factors and spiritual matters in families all the way up to … Original Sin! Yep, our human behaviours suggest we are all possessed to varying degrees. Authentic Christian teaching gives professional victim mongers a perfect cop-out for failings and wrongdoings. The Devil made us do it!
Of course, the rigors of genuine Christianity also give the means to disable the Devil’s remote control. The following “Prayer for Inner Healing” is copied from An Exorcist Tells His Story, written by an Exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, Father Gabriele Amorth. (Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1999).
Prayer for Inner Healing
Lord Jesus, You came to heal our wounded and troubled hearts. I beg You to heal the torments that cause anxiety in my heart. I beg You, in a particular way, to heal all who are the cause of sin. I beg You to come into my life and heal me of the psychological harms that struck me in my early years and from the injuries that they caused throughout my life.
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