Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Saturday, April 28, 2018
Monday, January 15, 2018
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Greeting the Beatification of a Simple Priest--Blessed Solanus Casey
"Barney" Solanus Casey is being beatified in a ceremony in Detroit, Michigan on November 18, 2017. Casey will be the second American born male to be beatified. Cardinal Angelo Amato, the head of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints will celebrate the Beatification Mass. Among the 70,000 in attendance at Ford Field will be four Cardinals and 218 Capuchin Friars.
The beatification of Fr. Solanus Casey is remarkable for a Wisconsin farm boy born in 1870. When Casey was called to the priesthood, he academically struggled at the seminary since instruction was in German. Thus, Casey was just ordained just a sacredos simplex and served in the early and mid-Twentieth Century as a lowly porter for the Capuchins friaries in Yonkers, Harlem, Manhattan and for 21 years in Detroit.
Despite not being able to give homilies or hear confessions, Fr. Casey had a remarkable impact. His reputation grew as a compassionate holy man who founded a soup kitchen in Detroit in 1929. Casey became well known as a priest who could relate with people. Fr. Casey was also known as an ordinary Detroiter who enjoyed Coney Island hot dogs and the Detroit Tigers.
Yet Fr. Casey drew people to him from his holy reputation and as a miracle worker who had a knack at helping get prayers answered. In his vocation as porter, Fr. Casey lent a listening ear and a caring heart to those who came to him. Fr. Casey would also offer visitors an opportunity to join a Capuchin Mass Memorial Society, in which he scrupulously wrote down their petitions and updated the log with how prayers were answered.
In 1954, Fr. Casey suffered a severe case of eczema over his entire body and was transfered back to Detroit to receive better medical case. Alas, complications set in and he died of untreatable psoriasis. It was estimated that 20,000 people showed up to mourn Fr. Casey's passing from this world. But when Fr. Casey's remains were exhumed in 1987, his corpse was incorrupted, save for a little decomposition around the elbows.
After Fr. Casey's death, lay friends of the Capuchins sought permission to create a Father Solanus Guild. As early as 1966, there were 24 reports of cures attributable to Fr. Solanus. Fr. Casey was named Venerable in 1995.
Normally, the Catholic beatification process involves the recognition of a miracle associated with a Servant of God. The Miracle which was recognized by the responsible Vatican dicastry is from 2012 when a Panamanian woman who visited Fr. Casey's tomb who suffered from an incurable skin disease but was healed by praying for Solanus Casey's intercession.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Pope St. John Paul II on Praying for Life
The sanctity of life issue has risen to the forefront of the American polity.
The Supreme Court is deciding a religious liberty case on whether the Little Sisters of the Poor should be forced to violate their consciences by passive compliance with the Obamacare Contraception Mandate.
Republican Presidential front runner Donald Trump took myriad alleged pro life positions, including the modest proposal of legally punishing aborting mothers. Then Trump lapsed into allowing the status quo. However, in a Today Show Townhall, Trump vowed to change the GOP pro life platform to allow exceptions which Planned Parenthood would endorse.
Congress continues to investigate how Planned Parenthood was selling baby body parts and altering abortion procedures to maximize the harvest. But these hearings received scant coverage in the Lamestream Media.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards took an aggressive advocacy position for Democrat Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton who has emphasized Abortion on Demand. Moreover, Cecile Richards managed to hold a Pro-Choice rally at Georgetown University, a Jesuit purportedly Catholic college.
With all this in mind, Father Frank Pavone and the Priests for Life are engaged in a campaign of prayer and fasting to end abortion in the United States along with the evils perpetrated by Planned Parenthood.
Some may wonder, why pray to end abortion, especially as the Lord's Prayer includes the intention "Thy will be done".
Father, you have created us in body and soul
To honor you and our neighbor
And to receive honor and respect in return.
Our bodies are sacred.
They reflect you, our Creator.
And we hold sacred
The bodies of all the children in the womb.
Lord, we are saddened
That these children are being killed,
And saddened again
That their body parts are being harvested and sold.
Have mercy on our nation.
Have mercy on those who are perpetrating these evils.
As more and more people become aware of this,
Turn their hearts towards you,
The Fountain of life and love.
Give consolation to all who have had abortions,
And give wisdom to our public officials
That they may respond adequately
To the corruption found in the abortion industry.
Grant that we,
The People of Life and the People of Mercy,
May recommit ourselves to building a nation
Without abortion and without the many evils that flow from it.
May we choose life;
May we choose mercy;
May we choose your Kingdom!
Through Christ our Lord. Amen
Perhaps the point is that is is our invitation to participate in building the Kingdom of God even through the power of prayer. Such sentiments echo Pope St. John Paul II's exhortation in Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life, 1995).
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Friday, June 5, 2015
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Thea Bowman on Life
In 1987, Sister Thea Bowman helped develop Lead Me, Guide Me: The African American Catholic Hymnal, which was the first hymnal developed for Black Catholic worship. Bowman believed that "Black sacred music is soulful music" which is holistic, participatory, concrete, engrossing and life-giving.
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Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Monday, January 27, 2014
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Monday, October 7, 2013
Sunday, September 8, 2013
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