Go Out!

Eric Pangilinan: Peace and Love of Christ

The New Pope: Pope Francis I

Rejoice in the Measure that You Share in Christ's Suffering

Seventy-Seven

Adoration: Meeting and Pleasing God

Evangelization in the Cities

Youth - Target of the New Evangelization

A Call to Love by Bishop Carlito J Cenzon

Pope Benedict XVI and Ash Wednesday

St. Paul Miki and Companions

Paul Miki, a Japanese Jesuit, and his twenty-five companions were martyred in Nagasaki, Japan. They were the first martyrs of East Asia to be canonized. They were killed simultaneouly by being raised on crosses and then stabbed with spears. Their executioners were astounded upon seeing their joy at being associated to the Passion of Christ.

According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of St. Titus, whose feast in the Ordinary Form is combined with St. Timothy on January 26. It is also the feast of St. Dorothy, virgin and martyr, in the Extraordinary Form.


St. Paul Miki and Companions
Nagasaki, Japan, is familiar to Americans as the city on which the second atomic bomb was dropped, killing hundreds of thousands. Three and a half centuries before, twenty-six martyrs of Japan were crucified on a hill, now known as the Holy Mountain, overlooking Nagasaki. Among them were priests, brothers and laymen, Franciscans, Jesuits and members of the Secular Franciscan Order; there were catechists, doctors, simple artisans and servants, old men and innocent children—all united in a common faith and love for Jesus and his church.

Brother Paul Miki, a Jesuit and a native of Japan, has become the best known among the martyrs of Japan. While hanging upon a cross Paul Miki preached to the people gathered for the execution: "The sentence of judgment says these men came to Japan from the Philippines, but I did not come from any other country. I am a true Japanese. The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I certainly did teach the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason I die. I believe that I am telling only the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you to become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ's example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain."

When missionaries returned to Japan in the 1860s, at first they found no trace of Christianity. But after establishing themselves they found that thousands of Christians lived around Nagasaki and that they had secretly preserved the faith. Beatified in 1627, the martyrs of Japan were finally canonized in 1862.

— Excerpted from Saint of the Day, Leonard Foley, O.F.M.

SOURCE:  http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2013-02-06

Saint Aloysius de Gonzaga by Isah Barlis

Introduction to the Life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga:

St. Aloysius Gonzaga was born in Northern Italy, between Brescia and Mantova. His father was a famous condottiere, a mercenary soldier. Saint Aloysius received military training, but his father also provided him with an excellent classical education, sending him and his brother Ridolfo to Florence to study while serving at the court of Francesco I de Medici.
Quick Facts:

Feast Day: June 21
Type of Feast: Memorial
Readings: Sirach 48:1-14; Psalm 97:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7; Matthew 6:7-15 (full text here)
Dates: March 9, 1568 (Castiglione delle Stiviere, Italy)-June 21, 1591 (Rome)
Birth Name: Luigi Gonzaga
Patron of: Youth; students; Jesuit novices; AIDS patients; AIDS caregivers; sufferers of pestilence
Beatification: October 19, 1605, by Pope Paul V
Canonization: December 31, 1726, by Pope Benedict XIII
Prayers: Prayer Commending Oneself to Mary;Prayer to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, Patron of Youth; A Prayer To Be Said by Young Men
The Life of St. Aloysius Gonzaga:


In Florence, Saint Aloysius became ill with a kidney disease, and, during his recovery, he devoted himself to prayer and the study of the lives of the saints. At the age of 12, he returned to his father's castle, where he met the great saint and cardinal Charles Borromeo. Aloysius had not yet received his First Communion, so the cardinal administered it to him. Shortly thereafter, Saint Aloysius conceived of the idea of joining the Jesuits and becoming a missionary.


His father was adamantly opposed to the idea, both because he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps as a condottiere, and because, by becoming a Jesuit, Aloysius would give up all rights to inheritance. When it became clear that the boy was intent on being a priest, his family tried to convince him to become a secular priest and, later, a bishop, so that he could receive his inheritance. Saint Aloysius, however, was not to be swayed, and his father finally relented. At the age of 17, he was accepted into the Jesuit novitiate in Rome; at the age of 19, he took vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. While he was ordained a deacon at the age of 20, he never became a priest.


In 1590, Saint Aloysius, suffering from his kidney problems and other ailments, received a vision of the Archangel Gabriel, who told him that he would die within a year. When a plague broke out in Rome in 1591, Saint Aloysius volunteered to work with plague victims, and he contracted the disease in March. He received the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and recovered, but, in another vision, he was told that would die on June 21, the octave day of the Feast of Corpus Christi that year. His confessor, St. Robert Cardinal Bellarmine, administered Last Rites, and Saint Aloysius died shortly before midnight.


Pious legend has it that Saint Aloysius's first words were the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and his last word was the Holy Name of Jesus.


SOURCE: http://catholicism.about.com/od/thesaints/p/Saint_Aloysius.htm

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Presentation of Our Lord

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Presentation of Our Lord

Saint John Bosco

Feastday: January 31
1815 - 1888

What do dreams have to with prayer? Aren't they just random images of our mind?

In 1867 Pope Pius IX was upset with John Bosco because he wouldn't take his dreams seriously enough. Nine years earlier when Pope Pius IX met with the future saint who worked with neglected boys, he learned of the dreams that John had been having since the age of nine, dreams that had revealed God'swill for John's life. So Pius IX had made a request, "Write down these dreams and everything else you have told me, minutely and in their natural sense." Pius IX saw John's dreams as a legacy for those John worked with and as aninspiration for those he ministered to.

Despite Scripture evidence and Church tradition respecting dreams, John had encountered skepticism when he had his first dream at the age of nine. The young Bosco dreamed that he was in a field with a crowd of children. The childrenstarted cursing and misbehaving. John jumped into the crowd to try to stop them -- by fighting and shouting. Suddenly a man with a face filled with light appeared dressed in a white flowing mantle. The man called John over and made him leader of the boys. John was stunned at being put in charge of these unruly gang. The man said, "You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows but with gentleness and kindness." As adults, most of us would be reluctant to take on such a mission -- and nine year old Johnwas even less pleased. "I'm just a boy," he argued, "how can you order me to do something that looks impossible." Theman answered, "What seems so impossible you must achieve by being obedient and acquiring knowledge." Thenthe boys turned into the wild animals they had been acting like. The man told John that this is the field of John'slife work. Once John changed and grew in humility, faithfulness, and strength, he would see a change in the children -- a change that the man now demonstrated. The wild animals suddenly turned into gentle lambs.

When John told his family about his dream, his brothers just laughed at him. Everyone had a different interpretation of what it meant: he would become a shepherd, a priest, a gang leader. His own grandmother echoed the sage advice we have heard through the years, "You mustn't pay any attention to dreams." John said, "I felt the same way about it, yet I could never get that dream out of my head."

Eventually that first dream led him to minister to poor and neglected boys, to use the love and guidance that seemed so impossible at age nine to lead them to faithful and fulfilled lives. He started out by learning how to juggle and do tricks to catch the attention of the children. Once he had their attention he would teach them and take them to Mass. It wasn't always easy -- few people wanted a crowd of loud, bedraggled boys hanging around. And he had so little money and help that people thought he was crazy. Priests who promised to help would get frustrated and leave.

Two "friends" even tried to commit him to an institution for the mentally ill. They brought a carriage and were planning to trick him into coming with him. But instead of getting in, John said, "After you" and politely let them go ahead. When his friends were in the carriage he slammed the door and told the drive to take off as fast as he could go!

Through it all he found encouragement and support through his dreams. In one dream, Mary led him into a beautiful garden. There were roses everywhere, crowding the ground with their blooms and the air with their scent. He was told to take off his shoes and walk along a path through a rose arbor. Before he had walked more than a few steps, his naked feet were cut and bleeding from the thorns. When he said he would have to wear shoes or turn back, Mary told him to put on sturdy shoes. As he stepped forward a second time, he was followed by helpers. But the walls of the arbor closed on him, the roof sank lower and the roses crept onto the path. Thorns caught at him from all around. When he pushed them aside he only got more cuts, until he was tangled in thorns. Yet those who watched said, "How lucky Don John is! His path is forever strewn with roses! He hasn't a worry in the world. No troubles at all!" Many of the helpers, who had been expecting an easy journey, turned back, but some stayed with him. Finally he climbed through the roses and thorns to find another incredible garden. A cool breeze soothed his torn skin and healed his wounds.

In his interpretation, the path was his mission, the roses were his charity to the boys, and the thorns were the distractions, the obstacles, and frustrations that would stand in his way. The message of the dream was clear to John: he must keep going, not lose faith in God or his mission, and he would come through to the place he belonged.

Often John acted on his dreams simply by sharing them, sometimes repeating them to several different individuals or groups he thought would be affected by the dream. "Let me tell you about a dream that has absorbed my mind," he would say.

The groups he most often shared with were the boys he helped -- because so many of the dreams involved them. For example, he used several dreams to remind the boys to keep to a good and moral life. In one dream he saw the boys eating bread of four kinds -- tasty rolls, ordinary bread, coarse bread, and moldy bread, which represented the state of the boys' souls. He said he would be glad to talk to any boys who wanted to know which bread they were eating and then proceeded to use the occasion to give them moral guidance.

He died in 1888, at the age of seventy-two. His work lives on in the Salesian order he founded.

In His Footsteps:

John Bosco found God's message in his dreams. If you have some question or problem in your life, askGod to send you an answer or help in a dream. Then write down your dreams. Ask God to help you remember and interpret the dreams that come from God.

Prayer:

Saint John Bosco, you reached out to children whom no one cared for despite ridicule and insults. Help us to care less about the laughter of the world and care more about the joy of the Lord. Amen

Copyright 1996-2000 by Terry Matz. All Rights Reserved.

SOURCE:  http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=63

Rev. Fr. Raymond Ancheta on Don Bosco

We are not Perfect

Bishop Carlito J Cenzon on Spirituality of Stewardship

The Breviary

Conversion of Saint Paul

St. Francis de Sales and Our Missionary Calling

Grace on Being In Love

Saint Agnes

Saint Agnes was a member of the Roman nobility born c. 291 and raised in a Christian family. She suffered martyrdom at the age of 12 during the reign of the Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian, on January 21, 304. Agnes' parents were pagans, but she had learned about Jesus and the Gospel from her nurse-slave, with whom she was very close. Phocus, the son of the prefect Roman governor Sempronius, was one of several rich young men who fell in love with Agnes. He brought her rich gifts of jewels, but she rejected his courtship, saying, “I am already the spouse of a Lover much more noble and powerful than you.”

The dejected Phocus later learned that Agnes was a Christian and denounced her to his father. Sempronius questioned her officially, and she freely admitted her faith inJesus. He ordered her to go the temple of Vesta—the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family—to offer her a sacrifice, or even to devote herself as one of the Vestal Virgins, but Agnes steadfastly refused any compromise with pagan practice.

Threats of death also did not sway her (some sources indicate that Roman law did not permit the execution of virgins), so the judge threatened her chastity instead. Even this did not frighten her into submission, and Agnes was thus stripped naked and dragged through the streets to a brothel. On the way, as the saint prayed, her hair miraculously grew and covered her body to protect her modesty. At the brothel, she was protected by an angel when several men attempted to have their way with her by force (some versions name Phocus as her attacker). All of those who attempted to rape her were immediately struck blind and/or paralyzed.

Although Agnes remained a virgin, she was now condemned as a witch and led out tied to a stake to be burned. However, the bundle of wood would not burn, whereupon the officer in charge drew his sword and struck off her head (or stabbed her in the throat). The execution reportedly shocked even the bloodthirsty pagan crowd, since Agnes was so young and pure. Thus, her death created a new wave of sympathy for the Christians and brought many to the faith.

A few days after Agnes' death, a girl named Emerentiana was found praying by her tomb. She identified herself as the daughter of Agnes' wet nurse, and was stoned to death after refusing to leave the place and for reprimanding the pagans for killing her foster sister. Emerentiana, too, was later canonized as a saint.

source:  http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Agnes_of_Rome

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Feast of the Sto. Nino

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Feast of the Sto. Nino

Les Miserables

Bishop Cenzon: St. Anthony of Egypt

St. Anthony was born at Heracleus in Egypt. When he was twenty years old, his parents died. They left him a large estate and placed him in charge of the care of his young sister. Anthony felt overwhelmed and turned to God in prayer.

He soon became more and more aware of the power of God in his life. About six months later, he heard this quotation of Jesus from the Gospel: "Go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven" (Mark 10:21).

He took the words as a personal message in answer to his prayer for guidance. He made sure that his sister completed her education, then sold his house, furniture, and the land he owned and gave the money to the poor and to the people who needed it.

Anthony's sister joined a group of women living a life of prayer and contemplation. Anthony decided to become a hermit. He begged an elderly hermit to teach him the spiritual life. Anthony also visited other hermits so he could learn each one's most outstanding virtue.

Then at the age of thirty-five he moved alone to the desert, living in an abandoned fort and began his own life of prayer and penance alone with God.

By the time he was fifty-five, people found out where he was and began coming to him for healing and for spiritual counseling. Finally, Anthony built two monasteries on the Nile, one at Pispir and one at Arsinoe. The monks and people who lived around him supported themselves by making and selling baskets and brushes.

Many people heard of him and came to him looking for advice. He would give them practical advice such as: "The devil is afraid of us when we pray and make sacrifices. He is also afraid when we are humble and good. He is especially afraid when we love Jesus very much. He runs away when we make the Sign of the Cross."

St. Anthony visited Paul the hermit shortly before he died and helped dig a grave to bury him. He felt enriched by the example of Paul's holy life.

Anthony died after a long, prayerful life in 356. He was 105. St. Athanasius wrote a well known biography of St. Anthony of Egypt.

SOURCE:  http://www.holyspiritinteractive.net/kids/saints/0117.asp

Faith Without Prayer is a Lie

Pope Benedict XVI continued his series on the Christian school of prayer this Wednesday with a reflection on the importance of prayer and works of charity in the life of the Church. Speaking in Italian he said the Church has the "primary need" to proclaim the Word of God, but it also has "the duty of charity and justice": between the two there is no opposition, because charity "must be permeated by the spirit of contemplation of God", "without daily prayer our action is empty, it looses its deep soul, resulting in a simple activism that eventually leaves unsatisfied".

The Pope was inspired by the Gospel of Luke where it is said that the number of disciples were increasing, but those of the Greek language were complaining because their widows were being neglected compared to those of Jewish origin. “Faced with this urgency that involved a fundamental aspect in the life of the community, charity towards the weak, the poor, the powerless, and justice, the Apostles summoned the entire group of disciples. In this time of pastoral emergency the Apostles discernment stands out. They are faced with the primary need to proclaim the Word of God according to the mandate of the Lord, but even if this is the primary need of the Church, they considered with equally seriousness the duty of charity and justice, that is their duty to assist widows, the poor, with love to respond to situations of need in which their brothers and sisters find themselves, to respond to Jesus' commandment: love one another as I have loved you (cf. Jn 15,12.17) . So the two realities that have to live in the Church - preaching the Word, the primacy of God, and practical charity, justice - are creating difficulties and a solution must be found so that both can have its place, its necessary relationship . And the reflection of the Apostles is very clear. They say, as we have heard: "It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word"(Acts 6.2 to 4). Two things appear: first from that moment a ministry of charity exists in the Church. The Church must not only proclaim the Word, but also realize that the word is love and truth. And the second point: these men must not only enjoy a good reputation, but they must be men filled with the Holy Ghost and wisdom. That is, they can not just be organizers who know what they are doing, but they must do so in the spirit of faith, with the light of God, in the wisdom of the heart and therefore their function, although mainly practical, however, is a spiritual function. Charity and justice are not only social actions, but they are spiritual actions made in light of the Holy Spirit.

“This decision, made after prayer and discernment, provided for the needs of the poor while freeing the Apostles to devote themselves primarily to the word of God. It is significant that the Apostles acknowledge the importance of both prayer and works of charity, yet clearly give priority to prayer and the proclamation of the Gospel”. 

“So we can say that this situation is addressed, with great responsibility on the part of the Apostles, who make this a decision: seven men of good reputation are chosen, the apostles pray to ask for the strength of the Holy Spirit and then impose their own hands so that they devote themselves especially to the service of charity. Thus, in the life of the Church, in the first steps it takes, is reflected in a certain way, what happened during Jesus' public life, at the house of Martha and Mary of Bethany. Martha was distracted by offering hospitality to Jesus and his disciples, Mary, however, is devoted to listening to the Word of the Lord (cf. Lk 10:38-42). In both cases, the moments of prayer or and listening to God and daily activities, the exercise of charity are not opposing. The call of Jesus: " Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her" (Lk 10.41 - 42), as well as the reflection of the Apostles: "... we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6.4), show, the priority that we must give to God. I do not want interpret this Martha-Maria pericope now: however, activity for another should not be condemned, but it must be stressed that even inwardly it must be penetrated by the spirit of contemplation. 

On the other hand, St. Augustine says Mary’s reality is a vision of our situation in heaven, which we can never have completely here on earth, rather a little anticipation that contemplation of God must be present in all our activities. We must not lose ourselves in pure activism, but always allow ourselves and our activities to be penetrated by the Word of God and thus learn true charity, true service to others which does not need many things: it certainly needs necessary things, but above all it also needs the affection of our heart, the light of God”.

“In every age the saints have stressed the deep vital unity between contemplation and activity. Prayer, nourished by faith and enlightened by God’s word, enables us to see things in a new way and to respond to new situations with the wisdom and insight bestowed by the Holy Spirit”." "Every step of our lives – he said - every action, even of the Church, must be made before God in prayer, in the light of his word" "prayer to defend themselves from the dangers of a hectic life which, says St. Bernard, is likely to harden the heart”.

"When the prayer is nourished by the Word of God, we can see reality with new eyes, the eyes of faith and the Lord who speaks to the mind and heart, gives new light to our path at all times and in every situation."

"Only through an intimate relationship with God cultivated every day is the answer to the choice of the Lord born and is entrusted to every ministry in the Church." And the choice of the seven deacons by the apostles "indicates to us the primacy of prayer and the Word of God."“In our own daily lives and decisions, may we always draw fresh spiritual breath from the two lungs of prayer and the word of God; in this way, we will respond to every challenge and situation with wisdom, understanding and fidelity to God’s will”.

"If the lungs of prayer and the Word of God does not feed the breath of our spiritual life, we risk suffocating in the midst of a thousand every day things: prayer is the breath of the soul and of life". And even when "we are in the silence of a church or in our room," we are united in the Lord and the many brothers and sisters in faith.

SOURCE:  http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-prayer-the-breath-of-the-soul

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Baptism of Our Lord Jesus

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Baptism of Our Lord Jesus

How Beautiful It is for Brothers to Live Together

Strengthen Christian Principles

Intolerant Agnosticism

“Anyone who lives and proclaims the faith of the Church is on many points out of step with the prevalent way of thinking. The approval of the prevailing wisdom, however, is not the criterion to which we submit.” - Pope Benedict XVI

Nova et Vetera (Asia): The Solemnity of the Epiphany

Nova et Vetera (Asia): The Solemnity of the Epiphany

Faithful Servant

Keep the Law in Mind

Pearl of Great Price

Happy New Year 2013 by Bishop Carlito J Cenzon

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Year of Faith - Happy New Year 2013

Nova et Vetera (Asia): Year of Faith - Happy New Year 2013