Out on a Limb

I have, generally, no use for papal prognostication.  Most prognosticators are engaging in wish-fulfillment anyway. Including me, of course.

But…here goes:

Deep breath….

Either Ouellet, Ranjith or Scola.

Name: Gregory or Leo, with more money on Leo.

Watched this tonight.  What a day that was.  Electric. Watching it made me sad (that he resigned) and grateful (for his work, witness and papacy).

Well…onward…Veni Creator Spiritus

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Books…Books…Books

I have some books left from a talk I gave today…if you’re interested, you can find and purchase them here, along with some other random stock. 

What I have:

• Wish You Were Here (special price for bulk orders of 10)
• Loyola Kids’ Book of Saints 
  
• Loyola Kids Book of Heroes
• Prove It: Prayer (it’s the only Prove It I have on hand)
• The How to Book of the Mass
• How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist
• The Pocket Guide to the Mass
• Various Pocket guides by Peter Kreeft, Scott Hahn & Patrick Madrid (a shipping error – and since I never bothered to return them…here you go!)
• The Church’s Most Powerful Novenas.

On other book-related matters:

• Come Meet Jesus is out of print, but I discovered a possible stash today.  A woman came to my talk with a copy she’d recently purchased at the EWTN bookstore.  It’s on their website.  I don’t know how many they have, but they apparently do have some, and at a reduced price (4.99).  And you can get 
  it free, here, of course.
  
• Mary and the Christian Life - available here. 
• Power of the Cross - free, here. 

I don’t have any copies of the Pope Benedict XVI children’s books, but you can follow the links on the right sidebar.  They are really nice, and perfect for First Communion…even now.

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For Friday

This is from a couple of years ago –  pre-K work.

 

 

 

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

What a strange week.  I would say “sad,” but – well, okay, I’ll go ahead and say “sad” – but let me qualify that.     I will miss Pope Benedict.  His resignation is really quite a sobering moment.  This is not a normal transition and I think it says quite a bit about the Church in 2013. I’m really interested to see how the College of Cardinals respond.

So, “sad” on a few different levels, but not a crisis or a tragedy.  It’s not time to wallow, it’s time to listen and look forward.  Eyes on Christ, just as he’s been telling us to do all this time.

THAT SAID – I’m going to fill up most of the rest of this space with a smattering  of some of my favorite quotes.  There are loads, and more to discover as I continue reading his work for years to come, but here are a few:

— 2 —

 But the Lord also knocks with his Cross from the other side:  he knocks at the door of the world, at the doors of our hearts, so many of which are so frequently closed to God. And he says to us something like this:  if the proof that God gives you of his existence in creation does not succeed in opening you to him, if the words of Scripture and the Church’s message leave you indifferent, then look at me – the God who let himself suffer for you, who personally suffers with you – and open yourself to me, your Lord and your God. (source)

— 3 —

To pray is not to step outside history and withdraw to our own private corner of happiness. When we pray properly we undergo a process of inner purification which opens us up to God and thus to our fellow human beings as well. In prayer we must learn what we can truly ask of God—what is worthy of God. We must learn that we cannot pray against others. We must learn that we cannot ask for the superficial and comfortable things that we desire at this moment—that meagre, misplaced hope that leads us away from God. We must learn to purify our desires and our hopes. We must free ourselves from the hidden lies with which we deceive ourselves. God sees through them, and when we come before God, we too are forced to recognize them. “But who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults” prays the Psalmist (Ps 19:12 [18:13]). Failure to recognize my guilt, the illusion of my innocence, does not justify me and does not save me, because I am culpable for the numbness of my conscience and my incapacity to recognize the evil in me for what it is. If God does not exist, perhaps I have to seek refuge in these lies, because there is no one who can forgive me; no one who is the true criterion. Yet my encounter with God awakens my conscience in such a way that it no longer aims at self-justification, and is no longer a mere reflection of me and those of my contemporaries who shape my thinking, but it becomes a capacity for listening to the Good itself. (source)

— 4 —

In the procession we follow this sign and in this way we follow Christ himself. And we ask of him: Guide us on the paths of our history! Show the Church and her Pastors again and again the right path! Look at suffering humanity, cautiously seeking a way through so much doubt; look upon the physical and mental hunger that torments it! Give men and women bread for body and soul! Give them work! Give them light! Give them yourself! Purify and sanctify all of us! Make us understand that only through participation in your Passion, through “yes” to the cross, to self-denial, to the purifications that you impose upon us, our lives can mature and arrive at true fulfilment. Gather us together from all corners of the earth. Unite your Church, unite wounded humanity! Give us your salvation! Amen. (source)

— 5 —

Dear friends, life is not governed by chance; it is not random. Your very existence has been willed by God, blessed and given a purpose  ! Life is not just a succession of events or experiences, helpful though many of them are. It is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this – in truth, in goodness, and in beauty – that we find happiness and joy. Do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.

Christ offers more! Indeed he offers everything! Only he who is the Truth can be the Way and hence also the Life. (source)

— 6 —

Friends, again I ask you, what about today? What are you seeking? What is God whispering to you? The hope which never disappoints is Jesus Christ. (source)

— 7 —

I will simply be a pilgrim who is beginning the last part of his pilgrimage on earth. (source)

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

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Busy Day

So all I have for you is this.  To my mother from her older cousin.

“Say a short prayer for me from time to time…”

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Friday

I thought this was appropriate:

Name at the top indicates that it was my mother’s.  Dates attached to the indulgences on the back indicate post-1934.  What interests me is that this is a photograph – I’ve never seen a card like this.  Is this a famous crucifix? Was it from a particular shrine?  I don’t know.

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Memento

Today’s Vintage Catholic posting is a little booklet commemorating a young woman’s reception of the sacraments.  It says “Juliette” on the back, so I’m thinking it belonged to my great aunt’s – my mother’s mother’s sister.  It’s in English, which is interesting to me because while they were living in the United States by that time (having emigrated from Quebec), almost all of the devotional material I have from that side is in French, they were all French speakers, and I know from my mother that Catholic life was conducted in French (and Latin).  (My mother went to both Catholic and public grammar schools in Maine during the 1930′s – the public school days were all in English, the Catholic, half in French, half in English).

Click on covers for larger views. Feel free to share images. 

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St. Joseph

So, today’s vintage Catholic ephemeral offering:  From the Oratory of St. Joseph in Montreal.  

The cards I’ll post will be those that appeal to me because of imagery and design.  I just love the blues here and the not-quite Art-Noveauishness of it.  The prayer on the back bears an Imprimateur from 1912,  so perhaps the card dates from around that time.

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Grazie

Source – BBC

 

 

 

Source: AP

 

 

 

Source: Vatican Radio English Facebook page – go “like” them!

 

 

 

Source: Vatican Radio English Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

Source

Today we contemplate Christ in the desert, fasting, praying, and being tempted. As we begin our Lenten journey, we join him and we ask him to give us strength to fight our weaknesses. Let me also thank you for the prayers and support you have shown me in these days. May God bless all of you!

By the way – you might have missed it, but on February 8, Pope Benedict spoke to the seminarians of Rome – his topic was Peter.  So his thoughts – on Peter, the Petrine ministry – given when he knew he was resigning, but before the rest of us did – are worth a look. 

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Le Chemin de la Croix

I have a stash of vintage holy cards.  Some were mostly from my maternal grandmother’s cache – she died thirty years ago, in her early 90′s – and some are from an interesting Catholic-heavy estate sale I went to last spring.   There’s no paucity of vintage holy card imagery out here on the Internet, but I’m going to post a few of mine that I particularly like.  Some have English text, but most are either French (my grandmother’s) or German (the estate sale stash).

But this first isn’t a holy card – it’s a Stations of the Cross for children from 1911.   Which is why I intended to post it on Friday, but..well..it’s still Friday in California.

It’s in French, but you can probably get the gist, if you’re interested enough to try.  It evidently belonged to Aline Langlois who would have been my great-aunt – yah, I’m that old (my mother was in her late 30′s when she had me, and her mother was in her early 40′s when she gave birth to my mother).  She died the next year, at the age of 17 – I’ve included images of her memorial card as well,  to make that connection.  It’s poignant.  My mother was named after her.

All images are clickable for a larger view. 

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