Capuchin Franciscan Renewal

Over at Catholic Fire I found this little video of the Frati Minori Rinnovati, a renewal of strict Capuchin Franciscanism in Naples and Sicily, Italy. Myself and two of my brothers met one of these guys in Assisi and unlike some English-speaking 'reformati' he was very warm and welcoming to us but alas we had no common language but the Rule of St. Francis. May this effort bear fruit in holiness.

What Comes First? Good Laws or Good Families? Zenit interviews Fr. Rainero Cantalamessa OFM Cap

A number of posts on the web lately have focused on social changes affecting family life (see here for one tragic story). Thanks to Kate over at At Home in My Father's House I can refer you to Fr. Rainero Cantalamessa's (image left) interview with Zenit. Needless to say Fr. Rainero, the Papal preacher, is a Capuchin Franciscan like yours truly, and a very humble man too. It makes some important points but what stands out for me is his argument that we stand viz a viz society as the early Christians did. We cannot depend on the law of the land to defend and shape society we must instead engage with society by our lives and actions above all and challenge the gospel of death with the Gospel of Life. The world needs a real radical alternative to the empty posturings and easy, heartless greed of our modern world. Only when we are a radical engaged alternative will we see society swing away from the abyss. That or we will be persecuted like never before. The Lord Jesus never said it would be easy.

Lifting of the SSPX excommunications

There has been much comment on the lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. They got excommunicated by co-operating in their episcopal ordination by Archbishop Lefevre. Since this was against the will of the Holy Father and in defiance of him the automatic penalty was excommunication. The present Holy Father's act is not an approval of their actions but a response to their expressed wish for reconciliation and the Holy Father's own desire to heal the rift and restore the seamlessness of Christ's tunic (see Jn 19:23-24). There remains a lot to be done. Others have said this better than I (see here and here) My only observation is a statement of hope: that this society will now seek to have true dialogue with the Church's teaching as it has unfolded over the last forty years and that it will have the courage to turn away from understandings (e.g. as regards the Jewish faith) which can seem to be little more than thin intellectual camouflage for racism. Many changes wrought after the Council can be legitimately questioned but if the authority of a Council can be so easily set aside where will the Church end up? When a seamless garment has been torn who can restore its seamlessness?

Myrrh-weeping Icon

Byzantine Ramblings reports that Russian media such as Interfax and Vesti TV are saying an icon, 'The Softener of Evil Hearts' Mother of God Icon at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow has begun to weep myrrh. Coming at the moment Kirill II is elected Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church let us pray that it is a sign that Our Lady's Protecting Veil is still wrapped around Russia and that her favour and God's are with this development. May her intercession gain him wisdom and courage in his tasks. At right is a version of the icon.

New Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church

I found this image of the Holy Father with Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningradhere. It is surely a sign of Divine blessing that shortly after we finish the week of Prayer for Christian Unity the Russian Orthodox Church (it is claimed) elects Metropolitan Kirill, 62, to succeed Patriarch Alexi II who died recently. Metropolitan Kirill favours co-operation with the Catholic Church so hopefully, with God's blessing, he will help usher in a new era of renewal and unity and perhaps the Churches of East and West will begin to breath with both lungs. Voting began on Sunday. I say 'claimed' because my only source is a report on the blog 'New Liturgical Movement'. Their source was Inside the Vatican. Let us pray that the news is true.

Third Sunday of the Church's Year and the Conversion of St. Paul

The icon on the left is from the Protaton Church (dedicated to the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary), Karyes, Mt. Athos.
There's a connection between the Gospel (Mk 1:16-20)for today's Mass and the Conversion of St. Paul. As I see it the Lord comes to us in the ordinary events of the day, in the midst of our work, our play, our relationships. Although Saul is knocked to the ground by a blinding white light (Acts 9:3) this is unusual in the life of the Christian. Normally the Lord comes quietly, gently, even unobtrusively. So gentle, so kind and compassionate is our God that He will not exert the least force save to prevent us from the gravest evil. His one desire is that all be saved. It is His love that drove Him to the Cross and He does not change. His love drives Him to reach out to us, to call us to repent of our self-centeredness, self-obsessiveness, our illusion that we are the centre of the Universe. He loves us so much He calls us to follow Him, to discover Him, to let Him dwell within us and illuminate us from within with His 'uncreated Light'. Christ the Light walked into the lives of the fishermen and the fanatical Paul and they were never the same again. May He walk into our lives and lead us to heaven too!

Irish Capuchin Cartoons

The above image comes from our website (link at upper left) where our webmaster has collected some of the works of Fr. Gerard McCann OFM Cap. I never knew him but I knew his brother Cuthbert. They were printed in the Capuchin Annual. Some are ink drawings in black in white (some colour - very rare) while others are cut-outs. Always they are comments, often whimsical, on Capuchin life and frequently using portraits of actual friars of the time. They're delightful. We had to claim our copyright on them as they were being used all over the place without any acknowledgement. I have actually held a few in my hands and generally they are quite small, often postcard size or a lot less. Look them up!Note the use of the collot if that's how one spells it, the skullcap once worn by friars over the tonsure but now abandoned. I have a few somewhere, handy in winter as an extra layer under a cap.