Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from Christ's side, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within Thy wounds hide me
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee
From the malicious enemy defend me
In the hour of my death call me
And bid me come unto Thee
That I may praise Thee with Thy saints
and with Thy angels
Forever and ever
Amen

Our Lady of Chestochowa

Maryjo, Królowo Polski,
Jestem przy Tobie, pamiętam,
Jestem przy Tobie, czuwam, czuwam.



Mother, with a face black as the earth of Poland
Our Queen, defending shield, pray for us

Live Webcam from the icon chapel at Jasna Gora
CLICK HERE!

New Roman Missal Coming Soon

The USCCB just put up the text of the newest Roman Mass translation. Now it just needs approval from the Holy See.

I'm so glad to see changes that bring it closer to the Latin original. Having been in the Antiochian Orthodox (Eastern & Western Rite), I was accustomed to replying "And with your Spirit" when the priest says "The Lord be with You".

It's also great to see "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault" restored to the Confiteor. Now I can strike my chest three times in pious contrition--one time just doesn't seem enough.

I can again profess "I believe..." at the Creed.

I'm glad I get to say: "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed." I always liked that wording better, as it is the prayer of the centurion from the Gospel (mostly).

The only change I'm not happy about is the new wording for the Embolism, the part the priest says at the Lord's Prayer. I liked the old wording "protect us from all anxiety". Now it asks to keep us "safe from all distress". I can live with the change, but being bipolar and prone to panic attacks, the old wording pulled me through some tough times.

Overall, kudos to the U.S. Bishops for improving the English Mass. Be gone liturgical minimalism!

Here's the complete text of the revised Mass.
Here are the changes.

None of Your Beeswax?

In the News...
Candle use linked to cancer risk

South Carolina State University experts found that paraffin wax candles give off harmful fumes linked to lung cancer and asthma. They did, however, admit that it would take many years use to risk health.

The scientists suggested switching to candles made from beeswax or soy, which do not release significant levels of the chemicals.

I light the candles in my icon corner when I pray at night. Guess I'll be spending the extra money for beeswax from now on. No more bulk votives from Big Lots for me!

Hail Holy Queen Enthroned Above

Hail holy queen enthroned above,
Oh Maria.
Hail mother of mercy and of love,
Oh Maria.
Triumph all ye cherubim,
Sing with us ye seraphim.
Heaven and earth resound the hymn.
Salve, salve, salve regina. :|

Bogurodzica

Oh Mother of God, Oh Virgin,
Maria, blessed by God,
Your son, our Lord,
Maria, chosen Mother,
Return to us, bestow upon us.
May the Lord have mercy.

This poem is the earliest known original literary composition in the Polish language

Dormition of the Theotokos

O marvellous wonder! the source of life is laid in the tomb, and the tomb itself becomes a ladder to heaven. Make glad, O Gethsemane, thou sacred abode of the Mother of God. Come, O ye faithful, and with Gabriel to lead us let us cry: "Hail, thou who art full of grace: the Lord is with thee, granting the world through thee great mercy".

Glorious are thy mysteries, O pure Lady. Thou wast made the Throne of the Most High, and today thou art translated from earth to heaven. Thy glory is full of majesty, shining with grace in divine brightness. O ye virgins, ascend on high with the Mother of the King. Hail, thou who art full of grace: the Lord is with thee, granting the world through thee great mercy.

The dominions and the thrones, the rulers, the principalities, and the powers, the cherubim and the fearful seraphim glorify thy Dormition: and those who dwell on the earth rejoice, adorned by thy divine glory. Kings fall down and sing with the archangels and angels : "Hail, thou who art full of grace: the Lord is with thee, granting the world through thee great mercy".

~Stichera from Dormition Vespers (Tone 1)

The Church is One

The separation of Churches or, better said, the schism of Christianity is the greatest failure of the Christendom in history. This failure testifies, how much freedom the Providence of God has given to man, and how much man has misused this freedom.

In the Church there cannot be separation, because the Church is One, and it is homogeneous. Its oneness is determined through the fact that Christ is living in it, that it is mediating the gifts of Grace, and that in it are administered the sacraments.

It is not the Church that is divided, but rather Christian humanity. The separation happened within the kingdom of Caesar which became interweaved with the Kingdom of God, but it is not in the Kingdom of God, in which there cannot be separation.

~Nikolai Berdyaev

"Unifying Christians of the East and the West" (1926)

There is only one Church, not several Churches. And de facto the schism was not in the Church of Christ, but in sinful humankind, in the kingdom of this world, in the kingdom of Caesar. And the restoration of Christian unity does not consist in unifying the Churches, but rather in reunion of the splintered parts of Christian humankind. All parties are guilty of the schism between Christians.

Even when I am convinced that the dogmatic Truth is with Orthodoxy, I must still however feel the guilt which is on us, Christians of the Orthodox East. Also with us there was a lack of love, self-assertion, aloofness, an aversion to engage a spiritual world which seems to be something strange, also with us there was the ecclesiastical nationalism and particularism, there was the recoursing to the typical confessionalism.

Reunion and union of the Christian world must begin with community and unification of Christians of all Confessions, with mutual respect and love, with an inner universal spiritual attitude. All must begin with spiritual life, with spiritual unity, and it must work from inside outwards.

Unification of the Churches can only be a work of the Holy Spirit. But we can prepare this work spiritually in our human part, we can create a favorable spiritual soil. Christian unity must not begin with negotiation of Church governances, but with a spiritual unification of Christians, with forming a Christian friendly association, which is possible while also remaining true to one's own creed.

~Nicolai Berdyaev
"Orthodoxy & Ecumenism" (1927)

Prayer to the Holy Spirit

O Holy Spirit, most merciful Comforter: You proceed from the Father in a manner beyond our understanding.

Come, I beseech You, and take up your abode in my heart. Purify and cleanse me from all sin, and sanctify my soul. Cleanse it from every impurity, water its dryness, melt its coldness, and save it from sinful ways. Make me truly humble and resigned, that I may be pleasing to You, and that You abide with me forever.

Most blessed Light, most amiable Light, enlighten me. O rapturous Joy of Paradise, Fount of purest delight, my God, give Yourself to me, and kindle in my innermost soul the fire of Your love.

My Lord, instruct, direct, and defend me in all things. Give me strength against all immoderate fears and against despondency. Bestow upon me a true faith, a firm hope, and a sincere and perfect love. Grant that I always do your most gracious will.

Amen.

~St. Antiochus of Lyons (5th c.)

Need for the Holy Spirit

Without the Holy Spirit, God is far away, Christ stays in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter the Church is simply an organization, authority, a matter of domination, mission, a matter of propaganda, the Liturgy no more than an evocation Christian living a slave mentality.

But in the Holy Spirit, the cosmos groans with the birth pangs of the kingdom; the risen Christ is there, the Gospel is the source of life, the Church shows forth the life of the Trinity, authority is a liberating service, mission is a Pentecost, the Liturgy is both memorial and anticipation, human action is deified.

~Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch ATHENAGORAS (1948-1972)

Catholic Without Being Latin

"Dear brothers from Rome, one can be Catholic without being Latin. And we were attacked on two fronts, Catholic-Latin and Orthodox-Byzantine. And we said: No, dear brothers, one can be Ukrainian, one can be Byzantine, one can be at the same time Catholic. These different elements do not contradict one another. So this is why neither the Latin Church nor the Orthodox Church is very happy with us. "

~His Beatitude Lubomyr Husar,
Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Patriarch of Kviv-Halych

Ghetto Mentality: Threat to the Eastern Catholic Mission

In a ghetto life is closed in upon itself, operating only within itself, with its own ethnic and social clichés. And the Parish lives upon the ethnic character of the community; when that character disappears, the community dies and the parish dies with it.

One day all our ethnic traits - language, folklore, customs - will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, primarily for the service of the immigrant or the ethnically oriented, unless we wish to assure the death of our community. Our Churches are not only for our own people but are also for any of our fellow Americans who are attracted to our traditions which show forth the beauty of the universal Church and the variety of its riches.

~Melkite Archbishop Joseph Tawil
"The Courage to be Ourselves" Christmas, 1970