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Sunday, June 26, 2011

CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD: SUN. JUNE 26, 2011











VATICAN: POPE: CORPUS CHRISTI- MOST PRECIOUS TREASURE OF THE CHURCH

AMERICA: USA: 1ST ANNUAL CHILDREN'S CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION

TODAY'S MASS READINGS: SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI/ YEAR A


VATICAN: POPE: CORPUS CHRISTI- MOST PRECIOUS TREASURE OF THE CHURCH

RADIO VATICANA REPORT: In today's individualistic culture, the Eucharist is an "antidote", which operates in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them the logic of the communion, service, sharing, in other words, the logic of the Gospel. Those were Pope Benedict XVI’s words speaking to the faithful in St Peter’s Square at Sunday’s Angelus.

He was referring to the feast of Corpus Christi which is celebrated in many countries this Sunday.

“In many places today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. May our hearts rejoice in the great gift of Jesus, the Bread of Life, who has given himself for us and has come to nourish us.”

Without the Eucharist, Pope Benedict said the Church does not exist because it “constitutes the Church’s most precious treasure”.

It is he added, “like the beating heart that gives life to the whole mystical body of the Church, a social organism based on the spiritual but real tie to Christ.”

The Pope then recalled the way life of the early Christians in Jerusalem which he said was the sign of a new style of life, and always, he added, in the history of the Church, the communion with the Body of Christ is the remedy of mind and will, to find taste for truth and the common good.

The Pope also recalled the proclamation of several new Blesseds over the weekend, among whom were three German priests killed by the Nazis in 1943, and a nun and two priests Beatified in Milan

AMERICA: USA: 1ST ANNUAL CHILDREN'S CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION

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AUSTIN CATHOLIC REPORT: On Sunday June 26, 2011, the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of Corpus Christi universally around the world. This year Saint Mary Cathedral plans to have the 1st Annual Children’s Corpus Christi Procession. It will be geared toward children and Catholic youth so that they will come to give witness to the world of their faith in the Eucharistic Presence of Jesus among us. During the procession we will praise and adore the Lamb of God in song and prayer all the way to the State Capitol. Street spectators and participants of the procession will encounter the Jesus who 2,000 years said to apostles and disciples, “Come Follow Me,” – “Sigueme.”

The feast’s official name is the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The feast and procession were given to the Universal Church by Pope Urban in 1264. Its origins go back to the beginning of 13 century when a 16-year old teenager named Juliana of Cornilion/Liege, had a vision, which was then to be repeated many times in her Eucharistic adorations.

In the vision St. Juliana saw the moon in its entire splendor, but with a dark strip that went across the diameter. Jesus made her understand that the moon symbolized the life of the Church on earth; but the solid line represented the absence of a liturgical feast in which believers would be able to adore the Eucharist to increase their faith, advance in the practice of virtue and make reparation for the offenses to Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament.

clip_image002750 years later, Jesus is still speaking to young people and children through Eucharistic adoration. The latest 2011 Survey says that 65% of seminarians took part in adoration before entering the seminary, and that by the age of 16 they had begun to consider the priesthood.

Consider what Pope Benedict XVI said last year when writing about the Feast of Corpus Christi and St. Juliana, “I would like to affirm with joy that today in the Church there is a “Eucharistic springtime.” It is consoling to know …that young people have rediscovered the beauty of praying in adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament… I pray that this Eucharistic “springtime” will spread to every parish.”

Closer to home, consider the example of Saint Mary Cathedral altar server Daniel Henderson who took it upon himself to initiate the very first St. Michael’s Catholic Academy Holy Hour. He showed such zeal that when it was discovered that the school had no monstrance he went as far as placing calls until he found one he could borrow. “It was amazing to see how the students who had never been to adoration reacted…I believe that some students saw God’s love for the first time,” stated the high school junior.

clip_image003The question of whether young people or children actually comprehend the value and importance of adoration is best demonstrated every First Friday of the month when the Cathedral School has monthly adoration, every First Thursday when homeschoolers have adoration, but most especially on Divine Mercy Sunday when students Pre-K -12th grade from the Cathedral School and the RE program filled the Cathedral to standing room only during a special Divine Mercy Holy Hour. They presented anonymous heartfelt intentions to Jesus such as, “Please help my father find work,” “Keep my father and mother together this is the only thing I ask,” “Help my father to stop drinking,” “Help my parents to stop fighting.” Cathedral RE Confirmation student Laura Ramsey from Regina Mater School said “I always feel better after adoration,” and another student said “I feel close to Jesus during adoration.”

These comments and intentions could be moments of evangelization between the parent and child as Pope Benedict XVI said in 2008 when addressing pastors, “It is only Jesus who can fan the ‘flame of faith’ in the Hearts of the children of the world! When we gather the children of the world before Jesus who is truly Present in all the Tabernacles of the world, our faith tells us, that in His great Love and Mercy He will certainly ‘fan the flame of faith’ in the hearts of our children thus reaching into the Heart of every Family, through their littlest members, the children. And a little child will lead them…”

At times young people may struggle thinking nothing is happening and that they are wasting their time in adoration. “CCC 2732 When we begin to pray, a thousand thoughts vie for priority.” They start thinking that they could be doing other more important things like texting! If this is the case consider what Blessed Pope John Paul II said in 1996 on the Feast of Corpus Christi, “Through adoration, the Christian mysteriously contributes to the “radical transformation” of the world and the sowing of the Gospel. Anyone who prays to the Savior draws the whole world with him and raises it to God. Those who stand before the Lord are therefore fulfilling an eminent service. They are presenting to Christ all those who do not know him or are far from him; they keep watch in his presence on their behalf.”

On June 26 at 10:45 A.M., we begin at the Cathedral with Exposition followed by the Eucharistic procession to the State Capitol, worshipping at two altars along the way, and then back to the Cathedral for Benediction. Everyone is invited young and old but we especially invite Catholic schools, parish religious education students, homeschoolers, university groups, and young adults groups to come and bring their group and parish banners. In doing so we are reminded of what Pope Benedict XVI said in 2008 on the Feast of Corpus Christi, “The procession of Corpus Christi teaches us that the Eucharist wants to free us from all distress and discomfort…so that we can resume the journey with the strength of God gives us in Jesus Christ. Without the God-with-us, the God Who is near, how can we sustain the pilgrimage of life…? The Eucharist is the Sacrament of the God Who does not leave us to journey alone, but puts Himself at our side and shows us the way.”

http://www.austincnm.com/index.php/2011/06/1st-annual-childrens-corpus-christi-procession/

EUROPE: POLAND: CELEBRATION OF HOLIDAY CORPUS CHRISTI WITH PROCESSION

THENEWS.PL REPORT: Processions across the country are taking place to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, one of the most important dates in the Catholic Church.

The
The Corpus Christi procession in the south-eastern town of Przemysl. Photo: PAP/Darek Delmanowicz

In Warsaw, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz is leading the ceremony, which saw a procession run through the streets of the capital’s Old Town to St. Anne’s Church.

During his homily, Nycz said that family affairs should be one of the most important items on the agenda for Poland’s upcoming presidency of the EU Council starting 1 July.

“Matters concerning European religious identity comprise a programme for those who will be leading Europe for the next six months – for Poland,” Nycz said.

Corpus Christi is one of the major feasts of the Catholic Church, and is also a national holiday in Poland as well as a number of other countries in Europe and the world.

Since the time of Poland’s partitions in the 18th century, the Corpus Christi processions took on the role of a manifestation of national identity. Likewise under communist rule, members of the Party were banned from taking part in the procession. (jb)

http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/46674,Poles-celebrate-Corpus-Christi

AFRICA: EGYPT: CHRISTIAN COPTIC CHURCH ATTACKED BY HUNDREDS OF EXTREMISTS

ASIA NEWS REPORT: Armed with sticks, Islamic extremists besieged in the church of Saint George in Bani Ahmed, in the Archdiocese of Minya, for five hours threatening to kill the pastor. The church had already been attacked on March 23. The violence was provoked by an attempt to restore the building.

Cairo (AsiaNews) - Hundreds of Salafists yesterday attacked the Coptic Church of St. George in the village of Bani Ahmed (Minya - Upper Egypt) and attempted to kill Fr. George Thabet. The news was reported this morning. According to local sources, the extremists turned up outside the building armed with sticks, telling the faithful to deliver the priest who was celebrating mass. The army intervened only after five-hour siege, and the priest was escorted out of the village.

This is the second assault suffered by the community of Bani Ahmed, in a few months. On 23 March, the Salafists stopped the restoration of the church and obtained the expulsion of Fr Thabet from the village.

Fr. Rafic Greich, spokesman for the Egyptian Catholic Church, told AsiaNews that the Salafists are against the restoration of the church and attacked the building when their suspicions were aroused by the removal of some vestments to a parish warehouse and the return of the parish priest. The priest said that the extremists do not tolerate the presence of Christians and find any excuse to destroy the churches.

Today, the Archdiocese of Minya has issued a statement reiterating its concern over the incident and denouncing the "return of the Salafists to the village." The Archdiocese accused the government of the military of not doing enough to protect Christians.

ASIA: KOREA: DEACONS VISIT MOSQUE FOR INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE

UCAN REPORT: Deacons visit local mosque to better understand the Muslim faith
ucanews.com reporter, Seoul
Korea
June 24, 2011
Catholic Church News Image of Deacons attend interfaith dialogue
Lee Ju-hwa, imam of the Korea Muslim Federation, meets yesterday with visiting Catholic deacons.

A delegation of 19 Catholic deacons visited a mosque yesterday in an effort to promote interreligious dialogue in the capital.

The Korean Bishops Conference arranged the meeting to help the deacons better understand the Muslim faith, its culture and history.

“Islam was unfamiliar to me,” said Deacon James Bang Jong-woo, who attended the meeting. “I learned that Islam longs for peace in the world.”

He added that there are about 35,000 Korean Muslims in the country, and another 100,000 foreign-born Muslims.

Lee Ju-hwa, imam of the Korea Muslim Federation, said interest in Islam has risen since the September 11 attacks in the United States, and he welcomed the dialogues as a way of promoting better understanding between faiths.

“Protestants as well as Catholics have visited our mosque recently. I hope that Islam has more opportunity to communicate with other religions and understand each other.”

The deacons attended the Asr, or afternoon worship, after meeting with Lee Ju-hwa.

The delegation had visited the Apostolic Nunciature in Seoul prior to their visit to the mosque.

Delegates were scheduled to visit the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the Anglican Church of Korea and the Orthodox Metropolis of Korea today.

The Korean Bishops Conference has organized the interfaith exchanges since 2008.

http://www.ucanews.com/2011/06/24/deacons-attend-interfaith-dialogue/

AUSTRALIA: TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF LISTENING

DIOCESE OF PARRAMATTA: St Patrick’s Blacktown Parish has recently undergone a process that shows the transformative power of listening.

Working with the Catholic Diocese of Parramatta Social Justice Office and the Sydney Alliance (a coalition of Church, union and community groups committed to the common good) and with the support of their Parish Priest Fr Peter Confeggi, 10 of the parish's leaders were charged with holding a series of ‘conversations’ over six weeks to surface the pressures and issues that were affecting parishioners.

They did this by finding and sharing the diverse stories of the Parish - stories of racism, the lonely isolation of the elderly and the challenge of building community.

The conversations were mutual exchanges, so that relationships were being formed that would help change the parish and the local area for the better.

As Fr Peter noted, it’s no accident that “the Latin roots of conversion and conversation are the same”.

Read full story at the Catholic Outlook Site

TODAY'S SAINT: JUNE 26: ST. JOSEMARIA ESCRIVA

St. Josemaria Escriva

FOUNDER OF OPUS DEI

Feast: June 26



Information:

Feast Day:June 26
Born:

9 January 1902, Barbastro, Aragon, Spain

Died:26 June 1975, Rome, Italy
Canonized:6 October 2002, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II
Major Shrine:Our Lady of Peace, Prelatic Church of Opus Dei, in Rome

EWTN Mini-Site of St. Josemaria Escriva

A bright and cheerful home

Josemaría Escrivá was born in Barbastro, Spain, on 9 January 1902, the second of six children born to José Escrivá and María Dolores Albás. His parents were devout Catholics and he was baptised on 13 January that year and received from them – first through the example of their life – a firm grounding in the faith and the Christian virtues: love for frequent Confession and Holy Communion, a trusting recourse to prayer, devotion to Our Lady, helping those in greatest need.

Blessed Josemaría grew up as a cheerful, lively and straightforward child, fun-loving, good at study, intelligent and with an observing eye. He had a great affection for his mother and a trusting friendship with his father, who encouraged him to feel free to open his heart and tell him his worries, and was always ready to answer his questions with affection and prudence. It was not long before Our Lord began to temper his soul in the forge of sorrow. Between 1910 and 1913 his three younger sisters died and in 1914 his family suffered financial ruin. In 1915 the Escrivás moved to Logroño, a nearby town, where their father found a job with which to keep his family.

In the winter of 1917-18 something happened which was to have a decisive influence on Josemaría Escrivá’s future. The snow fell very heavily that Christmas in Logroño, and one day he saw some frozen footprints in the snow. They had been left by a discalced Carmelite. Josemaría found himself wondering: If others sacrifice so much for God and their neighbour, couldn’t I do something too? This was how God started to speak to his heart: I began to have an inkling of what Love is, to realise that my heart was yearning for something great, for love. He did not yet know what precisely God wanted of him, but he decided to become a priest, thinking that it would make him more available to fulfil God’s will.

Priestly ordination

Having completed his secondary education, he started his priestly studies at the Seminary of Logroño, passing on, in 1920, to the Seminary of Saragossa, at whose Pontifical University he completed his formation prior to ordination. At his father’s suggestion and with the permission of his ecclesiastical superiors, he also studied Law at the University of Saragossa. His generous and cheerful character and his straightforwardness and calm approach to things won him many friends. His life of piety, respect for discipline and endeavour in study were an example to his fellow seminarians and in 1922, when he was but twenty years of age, he was appointed an inspector or prefect in the Seminary by the Archbishop of Saragossa.

During that time he spent many hours praying before the Blessed Sacrament. His spiritual life became deeply rooted in the Eucharist. Each day he would also visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar, asking Mary to request God to show him what He wanted him to do. As he recalled on 2 October 1968: Since I felt those inklings of God's love, I sought to carry out, within the limits of my smallness, what he expected from this poor instrument. (…) And, with those yearnings, I prayed and prayed and prayed, in constant prayer. I kept on repeating: Domine, ut sit!, Domine, ut videam!, like the poor fellow in the Gospel, who shouted out because God can do everything. Lord, that I may see! Lord, that it may come to be! And I also repeated (…) filled with confidence in my heavenly Mother: Domina, ut sit!, Domina, ut videam! The Blessed Virgin has always helped me to discover her Son's desires.

On 27 November 1924 his father, José Escrivá, died suddenly and unexpectedly. On 28 March 1925, Josemaría was ordained a priest by Bishop Díaz Gómara in the church of the Seminary of St Charles in Saragossa. Two days later he celebrated his first Solemn Mass in the Holy Chapel of the Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar and on 31 March he moved to Perdiguera, a small country village, where he had been appointed assistant regent to the parish.

In April 1927, with the consent of his Archbishop, he took up residence in Madrid to study for his doctorate in Civil Law, a degree which at that time was only granted by the Central University in the Spanish capital. In Madrid, his apostolic zeal soon brought him into contact with a wide variety of people: students, artists, workers, academics, priests. He spent many hours caring for children, and for sick and poverty-stricken people in the outer suburbs of the city.

At the same time he taught law to earn a living for himself and his mother and sister and young brother. For a good many years the family were in serious financial difficulties, which they bore with dignity and courage. Our Lord blessed Fr Josemaría with abundant graces, both ordinary and extraordinary. They found a fertile reception in his generous soul and produced much fruit in the service of the Church and souls.

The foundation of Opus Dei

Opus Dei was born on 2 October 1928. Blessed Josemaría was spending some days on retreat and, while doing his meditation on some notes regarding the inner motions he had received from God in the previous years, he suddenly saw – to see was the term he always used to describe the foundational experience – the mission the Lord wanted to entrust to him: to open up in the Church a new vocational path, aimed at spreading the quest for holiness and the practice of apostolate through the sanctification of ordinary work in the middle of the world, without changing one’s place. A few months later, on 14 February 1930, God made him understand that Opus Dei was to spread among women also.

From that moment onward, Blessed Josemaría devoted all his energies to the fulfilment of his foundational mission, fostering among men and women from all areas of society a personal commitment to follow Christ, to love their neighbour and seek holiness in daily life. He did not see himself as an innovator or reformer, for he was convinced that Jesus Christ is eternally new and that the Holy Spirit is constantly rejuvenating the Church, for whose service God has brought Opus Dei into existence. Fully aware that the task entrusted to him was supernatural by nature, he proceeded to dig deep foundations for his work, based on prayer and penance, on a joyous awareness of his being a son of God and on tireless work. People of all sorts began to follow him and, in particular, university students and teachers, among whom he awakened a genuine determination to serve everyone, firing in them a desire to place Christ at the heart of all human activities by means of work that is sanctified, and sanctifies both the doer and those for whom it is done. This was the goal he set for the initiatives of the faithful of Opus Dei: to lift up to God, with the help of grace, each and every created reality, so that Christ may reign in everyone and in everything; to get to know Christ Jesus; to get Him known by others; to take Him everywhere. One can understood why he was able to declare that The divine paths of the earth have been opened up.

Apostolic expansion

In 1933, he started a university Centre, the DYA Academy, because he grasped that the world of human knowledge and culture is a key to the evangelisation of society as a whole. In 1934 he published Spiritual Considerations, the first version of The Way. Since then there have been 372 printings of the book in 44 languages and its circulation has passed the four and a half million mark.

While Opus Dei was thus taking its first steps, the Spanish Civil War broke out. It was 1936. There were serious outbreaks of religious violence in Madrid. To these Fr Josemaría responded heroically with prayer, penance and apostolic endeavour. It was a time of suffering for the whole Church, but also a time of spiritual and apostolic growth, and for strengthening hope. By 1939, with the war over, the Founder of Opus Dei was able to give new vigour to his apostolic work all over the Spanish peninsula. In particular he mobilised many young university students to take Christ to every area of society and discover the greatness of the Christian calling. At the same time, with his reputation for holiness growing, many Bishops invited him to preach to their clergy and to lay people involved in Catholic organisations. Similar petitions came to him from the superiors of religious orders; he always said yes.

In 1941, while he was preaching a retreat to priests in Lerida, in the North of Spain, his mother who had been a great help to him in the apostolates of Opus Dei, died. God also let him become the butt of harsh misunderstandings. The Bishop of Madrid, Bishop Eijo y Garay gave him his fullest backing and granted the first canonical approval to Opus Dei. Blessed Josemaría accepted these difficulties with a prayerful and cheerful attitude, aware that all those desiring to live piously in Christ Jesus will meet persecution (2 Tim 3:12) and he recommended his spiritual children, in the face of these attacks, to forgive ungrudgingly: don’t answer back, but pray, work and smile.

In 1943, through a new foundational grace he received while celebrating Holy Mass, there came to birth – within Opus Dei – the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, in which priests proceeding from the faithful of Opus Dei could be incardinated. The fact of all the faithful of Opus Dei, both laity and priests, belonging fully to Opus Dei, with both laity and priests cooperating organically in its apostolates, is a feature of the foundational charism, which the Church confirmed in 1982, when giving Opus Dei its definitive status in Church Law as a Personal Prelature. On 25 June 1944 three engineers were ordained to the priesthood. One of them was Alvaro del Portillo, who would eventually succeed the Founder as the head of Opus Dei. In the years that followed, close on a thousand laymen of Opus Dei reached the priesthood at the encouragement of Blessed Josemaría.

The Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, which is intrinsically united to the Prelature of Opus Dei, also carries out, in close harmony with the Pastors of the local Churches, activities of spiritual formation for diocesan priests and candidates to the priesthood. Diocesan priests too may belong to the Priestly Society of the Holy Cross, while maintaining unchanged their status as clergy of their respective dioceses.

A Roman and universal spirit

As soon as the end of the world war was in sight, Blessed Josemaría began to prepare apostolic work in other countries, because, as he pointed out, Jesus wants his Work from the outset to have a universal, Catholic heart. In 1946 he moved to Rome, in order to obtain papal recognition for Opus Dei. On 24 February 1947, Pius XII granted Opus Dei the decretum laudis, or decree of praise; and three years later, on 16 June 1950, the Church’s definitive approval. Since then it has been possible to admit as Cooperators of Opus Dei men and women who are not Catholic and not even Christian, but who wish to help its apostolic works, with their work, alms and prayer.

The headquarters of Opus Dei were fixed in Rome, to emphasise even more clearly the aspiration which is the guiding force of all its work, to serve the Church as the Church wishes to be served, in close union with the see of Peter and the hierarchy of the Church. On several occasions, Pius XII and John XXIII sent Blessed Josemaría expressions of their affection and esteem; Paul VI wrote to him in 1964 describing Opus Dei as "a living expression of the perennial youthfulness of the Church".

This stage too of the life of the Founder of Opus Dei was characterised by all kinds of trials. Not only was his health affected by many sufferings (for more than ten years he had a serious form of diabetes, from which he was miraculously cured in 1954), but also there were financial hardships and the difficulties arising from the expansion of the apostolic works worldwide. Nevertheless, he kept smiling throughout, because True virtue is not sad or disagreeable, but pleasantly cheerful. His permanent good humour was a constant witness to his unconditional love for God’s will.

The world is little, when Love is great: his desire to flood the earth with the light of Christ led him to follow up the calls that many Bishops made to him from all over the world, asking Opus Dei to help them in the work of evangelisation with its apostolates. Many varied projects were undertaken: colleges to impart professional training, schools for agricultural workers, universities, primary and secondary schools, hospitals and medical centres, etc. These activities, which he often compared to a shoreless sea, originate at the initiative of ordinary Christians who seek to meet specific local needs with a lay mentality and a professional approach. They are open to people of all races, religions and social backgrounds, because their unmistakably Christian outlook is always matched by a deep respect for the freedom of consciences.

When John XXIII announced his decision to call an Ecumenical Council, Blessed Josemaría began to pray and get others to pray for the happy outcome of this great initiative of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, as he wrote in a letter in 1962. As a result of the deliberations of the Council, the Church’s solemn Magisterium was to confirm fundamental aspects of the spirit of Opus Dei, such as the universal call to holiness; professional work as a means to holiness and apostolate; the value and lawful limits of Christian freedom in temporal affairs; and the Holy Mass as the centre and root of the interior life. Blessed Josemaría met numerous Council Fathers and experts, who saw him as a forerunner of many of the master lines of the Second Vatican Council. Profoundly identified with the Council’s teaching, he diligently fostered its implementation through the formative activities of Opus Dei all over the world.

Holiness in the midst of the world

Heaven and earth seem to merge, far away, on the horizon. But don’t forget that where they really meet is in your heart as a son of God. Blessed Josemaría preached constantly that interior life is more important than organising activities. In The Way he wrote that These world crises are crises of saints. He insisted that holiness always requires prayer, work and apostolate to be intertwined in what he called a unity of life, and practised this himself with cheerful perseverance.

He was utterly convinced that in order to attain sanctity through daily work, one needs to struggle to be a soul of prayer, of deep inner life. When a person lives this way, everything becomes prayer, everything can and ought to lead us to God, feeding our constant contact with Him, from morning till night. Every kind of work can become prayer, and every kind of work, become prayer, turns into apostolate.

The root of the astonishing fruitfulness of his ministry lies precisely in his ardent interior life which made Blessed Josemaría a contemplative in the midst of the world. His interior life fed on prayer and the sacraments, and expressed itself in a passionate love for the Eucharist, in the depth with which he lived the Mass as the centre and root of his own life, in his tender devotion to the Virgin Mary, to St Joseph and the Guardian Angels, and in his faithfulness to the Church and the Pope.

The definitive encounter with the Most Holy Trinity

During the last years of his life, the Founder of Opus Dei undertook a number of catechetical journeys to countries in Europe and Latin America. Wherever he went, there were meetings, which were always simple and familiar in tone, even though often those listening to him were to be counted in thousands. He would speak about God, the sacraments, Christian devotions, the sanctification of work, and his love for the Church and the Pope. On 28 March 1975 he celebrated his priestly Golden Jubilee. His prayer that day was like a summing up of his whole life: Fifty years have gone by, and I am still like a faltering child. I am just beginning, beginning again, as I do each day in my interior life. And it will be so to the end of my days: always beginning anew.

On 26 June 1975, at midday, Blessed Josemaría died in his workroom, of a cardiac arrest, before a picture of Our Lady which received his last glance. At the time, Opus Dei was present in all five continents, with over 60,000 members from 80 nationalities. His books of spirituality (The Way, Holy Rosary, Conversations with Mgr Escrivá, Christ is Passing By, Friends of God, Love for the Church, The Way of the Cross, Furrow, The Forge) have reached millions of copies.

After his death, many people asked the Holy Father for his canonisation. On 17 May 1992, in Rome, His Holiness Pope John Paul II raised Josemaría Escrivá to the altars, in a beatification ceremony before hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. On 21 September 2001, the Ordinary Congregation of Cardinal and Bishop members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, unanimously confirmed the miraculous character of a cure attributed to Blessed Josemaría. The decree regarding this miracle was read before the Holy Father on 20 December. On 26 February 2002, John Paul II presided over an Ordinary Public Consistory of Cardinals and, having heard the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops present, he established that the ceremony for the Canonisation of Blessed Josemaría Escrivá should take place on 6 October 2002.



SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/J/stjosemariaescriva.asp#ixzz1QRFYM2cu

TODAY'S MASS READINGS: SOLEMNITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI/ YEAR A

Deuteronomy 8: 2 - 3, 14 - 16
2And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.
3And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.
14then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
15who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock,
16who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
Psalms 147: 12 - 15, 19 - 20
12Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem! Praise your God, O Zion!
13For he strengthens the bars of your gates; he blesses your sons within you.
14He makes peace in your borders; he fills you with the finest of the wheat.
15He sends forth his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.
19He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel.
20He has not dealt thus with any other nation; they do not know his ordinances. Praise the LORD!
1 Corinthians 10: 16 - 17
16The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
17Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.
John 6: 51 - 58
51I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh."
52The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
53So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
54he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
56He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.
57As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me.
58This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."