Our Lady of Hope Blog

My Dear Friends,

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops explains the role of a deacon in the Catholic Church. He is an ordained minister, hence a man who receives the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

My Dear Friends,

This Tuesday is the feast day of Pope St. John Paul II. We know that St. John Paul worked and preached tirelessly on the issue of life, which is why I am asking our parish to pray for 24 hours in our participation in the Forty Days for Life that Catholic parishes and dioceses promote every October.

My Dear Friends,

I will wrap up the first Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon) with a few more examples of why this canon is venerable and worthy to be prayed at every Mass. Besides being the one Eucharistic prayer in our Roman Missal that is unabashedly sacrificial, it is also the most Catholic of all Eucharistic prayers for the reasons I have been writing these last few weeks.

My Dear Friends,

Last week we mentioned the list of 26 saints (Mary and Joseph, 12 apostles, and 12 martyrs) in the first section of the Roman Canon. Today we talk about the second list of fifteen names, beginning with St. John the Baptist. In the traditional Mass, John the Baptist is mentioned nine times (the same is for Saints Peter and Paul, who are also mentioned nine times).

My Dear Friends,

As we continue through the Roman Canon (the first Eucharistic prayer), we first must see that the Roman Canon is poetic, one of the great poetic compositions in Western Civilization. Since it is written in Latin, we don’t experience the richness of the poetry so much in the translation of the Canon into English.

My Dear Friends,

We begin with the first Eucharistic prayer, the Roman Canon. At the time of the Reformation, many who left behind the Catholic faith and joined with Martin Luther or John Calvin or Queen Elizabeth, or Ulrich Zwingli did all they could to rid their new liturgies of this venerable Roman Canon that was composed before the reign of Pope St. Gregory the Great and remained unchanged until the reforms of the post Second Vatican Council.

My Dear Friends,

For over 1,500 years the Catholic Church of the Roman Rite used exclusively only one Eucharistic prayer, which is the prayer the priest prays while you are kneeling and the prayer that brings forth the transubstantiation of the bread and wine which will become our Lord’s Body and Blood. It is called the Roman Canon, or Eucharistic Prayer I in our new Mass since 1970. It is a very ancient canon and is closely associated with the city of Rome itself as the Catholic Church was in the early centuries forming itself as the center of the Catholic world.

My Dear Friends,

We have three Marian feast days in the next eight days. Today, September 8th, we celebrate her birthday. Thursday, September 12th, is the Holy Name of Mary. And next Sunday, September 15th, is Our Lady of Sorrows. Three opportunities to honor our Blessed Mother, although liturgically this year, we only celebrate the Holy Name of Mary since her birthday and Our Lady of Sorrows fall on a Sunday.

My Dear Friends,

September 3rd is the feast day of Pope St. Gregory the Great. He reigned as pope from 590 to 604 AD. He was a nobleman destined for a career in civil government in Rome but soon became disillusioned with Rome and entered the Benedictine order. He wasn't to be in the monastery for long, though, as Pope Pelagius II sent him to Constantinople as a papal legate.

My Dear Friends,

This week, August 29th, we celebrate the Passion of St. John the Baptist. He is one of the three birthdays that we celebrate, along with our Blessed Mother and our Lord Himself. But because of his importance, we also celebrate his martyrdom and entrance into heaven. He is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments. He is the precursor of the Lord, preparing the way of the Lord and pointing out to anyone who would listen that Jesus is the Lamb of God. He reminds those who were his own disciples that must decrease so that our Lord may increase.

Last week we celebrated the Solemnity of the Assumption. This week, on the octave day of the Assumption, we celebrate the Queenship of Mary. These are the fourth and fifth Glorious Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. We rightly honor the Blessed Mother and we with joy call her Queen of Heaven and Earth. As Scott Hahn reminds us in his book, Hail, Holy Queen, and Brant Pitre writes in his book, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, the title of queen mother goes back to Solomon and was handed down through the line of kings.

My Dear Friends,

This Thursday, August 15th, we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, assumed body and soul into Heaven. It is one of our Holy Days of Obligation in the United States.

My Dear Friends,

Today is the feast day of St. John Vianney, also known as the Cure of Ars. He was born in 1786, immediately before the French Revolution, and lived until 1859. He is also the patron saint of parish priests, due to his remarkable career as a pastor in Ars, France. St. John Vianney was also a friend of the early Marists (the Society of Mary) and became a member of the Third Order of Mary.