All Souls Day at the Cathedral

Four celebrations of the Mass marked All Souls Day at the Cathedral. The Children of the Choir School assisted with the Mass at 12:00 Noon, while the Cathedral Choir and El Coro Hispano de la Catedral assisted with the 600 PM and 8:00 PM Masses respectively. The Cathedral Choir performed Ildebrando Pizzetti's setting of the Requiem Mass, in addition to motets of Alonso Lobo and William Byrd. Bishop Scanlan's tomb, the only tomb in the Cathedral Church was prayed before at the 600 PM Mass, honoring our first Bishop and builder of the Cathedral in this our Centennial Year.

The Shrine of the Holy Souls will remain in place throughout the month of November.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.

We feebly struggle, they in glory shine...

Today at the Cathedral, one mark of the celebration of All Saints Day is the singing of hymn "For All the Saints". With the text by William How and the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, this hymn never fails to awaken and rouse. Thoughts of so many men and women come to mind: St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, St. Damien of Molokai, St. Katherine Drexel, St. Benedict, and countless others.

Sometimes I am at fault in dehumanizing these men and women, as if they existed in some extra-terrestrial ether or a sanctified shielding that protected them from the frightful passions, disappointments and annoyances that plague us each day. We so easily fall prey to cynicism, negativity and selfishness with impenetrable swollen hearts. As the hymn puts it, we feebly struggle, they in glory shine.

The west tower bells are pealing, calling us to the celebration of the Mass. At Mass, we will hear again the strange words of Jesus about happiness proclaimed each year on this day: Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, the peacemakers and more.

Our Holy Father Pope Benedict summarizes the life consistent with the Beatitudes as the "... loving of Christ without reserve, a love expressed in the total gift of oneself to God and one's brothers and sisters. This spiritual measure, to which all the baptized are called, is accomplished in following the way of the evangelical beatitudes, that the liturgy offers to us on today's solemnity. It's the same path traced by Jesus and that the saints pushed themselves to follow, always aware of their human limits. In their earthly existence, in fact, they were poor in spirit, pained by their sins, starved of and thirsting for justice, merciful, pure of heart, peacemakers, persecuted for righteousness' sake. And God himself gave them a share in his own happiness: previewed in this world and, in the hereafter, enjoyed in its fullness."

And so we pick up, begin another day, aware of the deceitful happiness beckoning us all around, resolved to continue the feeble struggle fully confident in the grace that is ours at the asking.

Saints of God, come to our aid.

The prayer of the church today

Father,
you restored your people to eternal life
by raising Christ your Son from death.
Make our faith strong and our hope sure.
May we never doubt that you will fulfill
the promises you have made.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mysteries of light

The Luminous mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary:

Baptism in the Jordan Matthew 3:13-17



Miracle at the Wedding at Cana John 2:1-11

The Proclamation of the Kingdom Mark 1:14-15

The Transfiguration Luke 9:28-36

Institution of the Eucharist Mark 14:22-26

"Moving on from the infancy and the hidden life in Nazareth to the public life of Jesus, our contemplation brings us to those mysteries which may be called in a special way 'mysteries of light'. Certainly the whole mystery of Christ is a mystery of light. He is the 'light of the world' (John 8:12). Yet this truth emerges in a special way during the years of his public life, when he proclaims the Gospel of the Kingdom.... Each of these mysteries is a revelation of the Kingdom now present in the very person of Jesus." Pope John Paul II.

Still more proof of "Mother Church's fruitfulness"

Those who entered the church at the Easter Vigil

Neophytes:

Tim Doubt
Michele Rendon Doubt
Nissa Elkington
Tracy Heaps
Elizabeth Hoopiiaina
Hollie Keith
Alan Troung

Received & Confirmed:

Michael Ausderan
Daniel Mappa
Sharon Palm
Suzanne Marie Rodriguez

Completing initiation:

Henry Rodriguez, III

Thursday evening we had our mission and ministry RCIA mystagogia session; it's time to leverage some of that baptismal grace!

May is the month of Mary

While 1 May is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, it is also the first day of the month during which we honor the Blessed Virgin. It is the month of May crownings and other truly lovely traditions. We encourage one and all to pray five decades of the rosary everyday, that is, one complete set of mysteries each day of this month. This year, with Pentecost falling on 31 May, the entire month falls during the season of Easter. So, there should be a special emphasis on the Glorious mysteries, which we always pray on Sunday.



Prayer is a discipline, the foundation of all the other spiritual disciplines, which means that it requires effort in order to make it a habitus. As defined by the great scholatics, like Duns Scotus and Thomas Aquinas, a habitus is a behavioral manifestation of the essential nature of a thing or a person. Therefore, prayer is not only the habitus of a Christian, it is the behavioral manifestation of the essential nature of the human person.

By way of suggestion, consider praying the Sorrowful mysteries only on Fridays, praying the Glorious mysteries on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. This means praying the Joyful mysteries on Monday and the Luminous Mysteries on Thursday. The reason for this suggestion is to assist you should you be faced with a conundrum of the kind commonly experienced when someone makes a renewed commitment to pray, or to intensify prayer in a particular way. C.S. Lewis captures this dynamic masterfully in The Screwtape Letters. Begin today with the Sorrowful mysteries, through which we contemplate the depths of God's love for us.

Also, try to memorize the Memorare:

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.

Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.

Amen.

Lift up specific intentions to our Blessed Mother during these days. In other words, pray with purpose and trust. Let's pray in a special way for our parish, that during this centennial year, we may grow together, becoming a truly eucharistic community, a community, like earliest Christian communities, united in heart, mind, and purpose, bearing witness to God's love in our worship and ministry to our community. I also suggest praying for a greater respect and protection of human life from conception to death, especially nascent, unborn human life, the threat to which seems renewed these days. Let us also continue to pray for Bishop Wester and, indeed, for all who suffer from various forms of cancer. Lastly, for the Holy Father, as he makes his apostolic journey this month Holy Land, that he may be an agent of peace and reconciliation and that his visit will reinvigorate efforts to seek a just and lasting peace.

Placing your trust in her maternal care is a way of truly experiencing Christ's love for us, knowing what it means that, as he hung on the cross, he gave us his mother as our mother; she who is Mater Ecclesiae.

More on 1 John 2

We turn to Christ in the recognition that we are missing something, namely the good that we not only seek, but want to be. Hence, we recognize that we are sinful. Christ is expiation for our sins (1 John 2:2). To expiate means to make good. So, Jesus, in his own person, makes good the bad we freely choose. What an exchange! This is the good news in which we believe, trust, thankfully accept, and give witness to by lives that are changed. This change brought about by Christ we call conversion. To be converted is to be transformed. Sounds great, right? The working out of this often hidden dynamic is a mysterious phenomenon. This is why mercy towards sinners is so crucial. Perhaps what those who call themselves Christians, but who persist in serious sin and wrong-doing, are hoping for is a magical fix to their troubles. Nonetheless, the fix comes when their behavior catches up to them. Here is where the healing can begin, when what is done in the dark is brought into the light, but only if handled in a Christian way. On my reading of the Gospels, the only people Jesus seems to get really frustrated with are those who refuse mercy, preferring instead to cast stones (see John 7:53-8:11- While some manuscripts of St. John's Gospel do not include this pericope and some place the narrative after John 7:36 or after 21:25, with some even locating it in Luke's Gospel after 21:38, with variations in the text, it is of apostolic origin and an authentic part of the Tradition. In other words, it is nobody except the Lord forgiving and teaching mercy).