Mission to Rome

Well, I am on my way to the Logan Airport. I fly out this evening for Rome. Our general chapter begins on Tuesday morning with two day retreat, and then the chapter begins deliberations on matters concerning our order. On the eve of Pentecost the Minister General and his vicar will be elected.

Please pray for our order, the Franciscans of the Immaculate and for the chapter fathers, that we will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit.

I will try to post, if I can. I am bringing a camera. I hope to visit a few places that would be interesting to anyone with the spirit of chivalry. I will be back on May 14. I leave you with a section from the legislation of the friars concerning our Marian Vow. It is the spirit of chivalry:

The constitutive element most specific to the Marian Vow is the “unlimited” character of the consecration to the Immaculate.

In its most obvious and fundamental meaning, “unlimitedness” is the completeness of dedication to and possession by the Immaculate, excluding any limit and reservation, condition and regret of any kind. Gradually, in accord with the original inspiration of the Founder, there takes shape that resemblance to Her who in the Coredemption realized the most perfect unlimited love.

From this it follows that unlimited consecration to the Immaculate includes all other possible offerings and excludes none, nor can it exclude any, in virtue of the very nature of unlimitedness, which does not admit limits of any kind.

Because of this the Marian Vow entails “heroic action and unlimited striving for perfection”. It includes in itself an offer to be a “victim”, even beyond the furthest limit, namely, the immolation that is “martyrdom”. In the Marian Vow is found the most complete and radical offer of self to the Immaculate: She may demand “everything” from Her consecrated, ask any sacrifice and heroism, even that of being consumed as a victim of sacrifice and of immolating one’s life with the violent death of a martyr (cf. Const. 26), after the example of the death of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe.

That is the ideal. Please pray that we live it.

Ave Maria! Hopefully, I you will hear from me again soon.

Blast of an Encampment!

The following video was cut together from footage captured last October for the Fall Encampment. Doug Barry runs his Radix Boot Camp for kids of all ages.

The weekend was challenging, but as you will see everyone had a great time. Don’t be put off by the challenges. Doug is great with kids and had everyone encouraging each other. I didn’t matter how athletic or advanced the kids were in their catechism everyone was treated with respect and support.

This Spring Encampment the Knights of Lepanto will be running the Boot Camp, but we hope to have Doug back for the Fall Encampment.




Spring Encampment Is Coming!

The Spring Encampment page is up. The even will take place on the weekend of May 23-25. The Advertising Flyer and Registration and Release Forms are available, plus all the details can be found there as well.

Please print out the Advertising Flyer and post it where you can. Let’s get the word out!

The linked thumbnail below will remain in the side bar, so it will always be visible on the site.

Click on the thumbnail:

MaryVictrix News: Holy Hour, Catholic Action and KL Formation

Several things or going on this week. First of all, I am on my way up to our friary in Maine NY, Mount St. Francis to visit our friars there before my trip to Rome during the first part of May. I will be there for our general chapter, which will conclude on Pentecost. Please pray for our community during this important time.

I will be back for the Third Thursday Night Holy Hour for the Fathers of our Families (program). This will be the third holy hour of the novena which will conclude in October just before the presidential election.

I have long encouraged the Knights of Lepanto to engage in Catholic action and our Third Thursday Meetings have been oriented in that direction. It is, however, far more important to pray and I have not wanted to neglect this. Hence the novena.

This particular month, I have invited Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut to speak following the holy. I will be putting up a post shortly on the work of Peter at FIC. I am inviting all local men to come and learn more about how you can help to protect marriage and family life in Connecticut.

Thirdly, on Saturday, April 19 I will be directing a day of recollection at the friary for the Knights of Lepanto, specifically for all the first year members who are in need of their basic formation. This is open to all those who are formal MIM members and who attend the Knights’ meetings, including those who have already finished the first year formation and would like to review or just attend for their spiritual benefit.

We are planning on an early day, so that the whole Saturday is not shot for the guys who have stuff to do around the house. WE BEGIN AT 8:30 AM.

Here are the topics I will be covering on Saturday:

1. What is the group, The Knights of Lepanto? (Article 1 and 2, KL Directory)

• History
• The Name
• Nature and Purpose

2. Is there such a Thing as Catholic Masculinity?

• The Problem within the Family and the Church
• The Fatherhood of God
• Reclaiming Masculinity and Fatherhood

3. Do Grown Men Need Our Lady?

• The Imitation of Christ
• Mary and the Church
• Motherhood and Femininity

Where were the Catholic Knights?

It is easy to criticize, I know, but look at all the people and no one grabbed him by his belt loops and threw him out. Amazing!

There is certainly time for prayer, but that kind of sacrilege requires direct action.

Hat tip to The Black Cordelias. BTW, for the name check out the about page–a scene from Brideshead Revisited. I always loved Cordelia.

Divine Mercy and the Eternal Dawn

The Divine Mercy festivities were well attended on Sunday at Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer in Jamaica, Vermont. I spoke to about 120 people on the mystery of Easter and Divine Mercy.

One thing I pointed out is how revelations of Our Lord to Saint Faustina about the Feast of Mercy utilizes time. We all know about the chaplet and the Hour of Mercy. Well, the Novena to the Divine Mercy leading up to the Feast begins on Good Friday, the historical Hour of Mercy, which in turn is part of the Easter Triduum that culminates the Season of Lent and begins the Season of Easter. The Feast itself comes on the Octave Day of Easter as a kind of grand finale of the Paschal mysteries as they are liturgically celebrated. All of these periods of time are pointing the the eternal Easter of paradise and solemnize our participation in the Redemptive and Eucharistic Sacrifices. Our hope is Easter, even as now we are more often in Lent and in the Hour of Mercy, the Hour of Suffering.

Our Lord points out to Saint Faustina that now is the Time of Mercy–now, as we continue to breathe. Beyond the veil of death, where time will end, there is no mercy, only justice. for God is a just judge, who will render to every man according to his works (Romans 2:6). The Message of Divine Mercy is supposed to instill confidence in all of us, but we need to understand the dimensions and character of Divine Mercy.

One day the sun will set on time for all of us. We continue to repeat the cycles of time, not only every year, but every week and day. The seven day cycle of the week beginning on Sunday, repeats over and over. The Day of the Lord where we give to God the first fruits of our lives looks foward to Our Lord’s second coming, when the seven day cycle of time will come to an end, and a new day will dawn, an Eighth Day that will never end. The ancient roman baptismal fonts were all octagonal, calling to mind our birth into new life, a life which looks forward to the bliss of eternity.

Each evening when the sun sets, we all lay down to sleep in a dress rehearsal for death and the Church prays: May the all powerful Lord, grant us a restful night and a peaceful death. Our sleep looks forward to the dawn and our hearts yearn for the final dawn of the Eternal Day.

Lord, for the sake of your sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Here is a group shot with yours truly on the left, and then Don and Mary Tarinelli, the founders of the House of Prayer, with Father Marco Hurtado, priest of the Diocese of Newark, NJ, and Fra Solanus in the front and Fra Didacus all the way on the right.

It was a great grace to be invited by Don and Mary to preach. I highly recommend a visit to Our Lady’s House, you won’t be disappointed. It was also a pleasure to meet Fr. Marco and spend some time with him.

Here are couple of great photographs that Fra Didacus took. (He really is a camera bug!) The first is the replica of Our Lady’s House in Ephesus and the second is the lighted Cross on the House of Prayer property. Click on the thumbnail. I uploaded a larger file, since it is such and awesome photo.

Father Angelo Against the World

That’s me on the pillar! Off to Vermont to stay at Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer. At the end of my retreat there back in November, Mary Tarinelli invited me to preach at the yearly Divine Mercy Day that Her and her husband Don sponsor. I plan to get in a little day of recollection in on Monday. Be back soon.

Meanwhile here is the AirMaria interview with Mary about the House of Prayer.

Actually, my habit is not that ragged.

The Real St. Patrick

Lough Derg

From the Golden Legend:

On a time as Saint Patrick preached in Ireland the faith of Jesu Christ, and did but little profit by his predication, for he could not convert the evil, rude and wild people, he prayed to our Lord Jesu Christ that he would show them some sign openly, fearful and ghastful, by which they might be converted and be repentant of their sins. Then, by the commandment of God, Saint Patrick made in the earth a great circle with his staff, and anon the earth after the quantity of the circle opened and there appeared a great pit and a deep, and Saint Patrick by the revelation of God understood that there was a place of purgatory, in to which whomsoever entered therein he should never have other penance ne feel none other pain, and there was showed to him that many should enter which should never return ne come again. And they that should return should abide but from one morn to another, and no more, and many entered that came not again. As touching this pit or hole which is named Saint Patrick’s purgatory, some hold opinion that the second Patrick, which was an abbot and no bishop, that God showed to him this place of purgatory; but certainly such a place there is in Ireland wherein many men have been, and yet daily go in and come again, and some have had there marvellous visions and seen grisly and horrible pains, of whom there be books made as of Tundale and others.

Every Lord and Lady of Lepanto should have the guts to make a real retreat:

Did Tolkien Object to Narnia on Doctrinal Grounds?

Steve found this article some time ago and asked me to comment. It’s an extremely interesting topic to me, so I’ll give it a go.

If you are really interested in this topic you can also follow this thread on Mark Shea’s blog from last month. (I have a terrible time getting a link to Shea’s blog to work permanently . Follow the link provided above and then scroll down the page to An Interesting (and Pretty Persuasive) Essay on the Anti-Catholicism of C.S. Lewis and Why It Bugged Tolkien. There are about thirty comments.)

The article, by Eric Seddon, is entitled Letters to Malcolm and the Trouble with Narnia: C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Their 1949 Crisis. Anyone who is familiar at all with the friendship of these two literary giants knows that while they both shared an appreciation for mythic literature and for much of each other’s literary work, Tolkien had no use whatsoever for The Chronicles of Narnia, and he made Lewis acutely aware of his distaste for it. In fact, Tolkien’s frankness on the matter seems to have put somewhat of a damper on their relationship, or at least was a contributing factor to its cooling.

Kings in Disguise

With all the work I am doing with the friars here in Australia, and with the men’s retreat I gave over the weekend, I have not been able to do much blogging, but I thought I would begin again with some reflections that I made during the retreat. The theme was “The Return of the Church Militant,” which of course is a play on Tolkien’s The Return of the King.

Fourteen men attended the retreat over the weekend. Unfortunately, we Yanks were not aware that there were national elections across Australia on Saturday, for which voting is mandatory by law, so the men had to work around their voting obligation to attend the retreat. All in all, it was very successful.

During the retreat, I mentioned something Chesterton had once written about, namely, that all of us are “kings in disguise.” The idea is that all of us have a kingly destiny through Baptism; however, we are fallen from that dignity and are fighting to recover it. I would seem that Tolkien may have been influenced by this notion in his development of Aragorn’s character. On Saturday night I gave a little talk on Tolkien and developed the following ideas. We then sat down and watched the extended version of Peter Jackson’s The Return of the King.

Strider’s Secret

In The Lord of the Rings, Middle Earth finds itself in a time of great need. The shadow of Mordor lengthens. The elves are leaving Middle Earth for the Western Shores, and men have become weak and leaderless. Aragorn is one of the Dúnedain, a man of the West from the Northern Kingdom and the lost heir to the throne of Gondor. Few know his true identity, though. He is a ragged and grim wanderer, more a vagabond than a king, as far as the eye could discern.