CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: SUN. MAY 30, 2010: HEADLINES-
VATICAN: POPE: MESSAGE FOR FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY-
AMERICA: USA: REMEMBERING ONE OF MANY FALLEN SOLDIERS-
EUROPE: SCOTLAND: COMPOSER MACMILLAN´S MASS SETTING TO BE USED FOR POPE-
AFRICA: NIGERIA: INSTALLATION OF JOHN AFAREHA AS NEW BISHOP-
ASIA: VIETNAM: 1, 300 PRIESTS & BISHOPS GATHER FOR MEETING-
AUSTRALIA: CREATIONISM WILL BE TAUGHT IN NEW NATIONAL CURRICULUM-
VATICAN
POPE: MESSAGE FOR FEAST OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
Asia News report: After months in which priests are only spoken of in reference to paedophilia, Benedict XVI recalls the value of priests in initiating the faithful and helping them to grow in their Christian life. A new beatification. A request for prayers for his trip to Cyprus where he will present the Instrumentum laboris for the Synod of Middle East Churches. A book by Card. Celso Costantini.
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "The divine Trinity .. dwells in us the day of Baptism: 'I baptize you - says the minister - in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit'. " On Holy Trinity Sunday, the theme of his Angelus reflection today in St. Peter's Square, Benedict XVI did not seek to explain the mystery of God with theological or philosophical reflections, but like the Church Fathers, he indicated its presence in Christian life. "The mind and language of the human - said the Pope - are inadequate to explain the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit."
Every time we make the sign of the cross, he added, we remember "the name of God in whom we were baptized." The Pope then quoted the theologian Romano Guardini, who speaking about the sign of the cross, observes: "we do it before prayer, so ... it brings us spiritually to order, to focus our thoughts, heart and will o God; we do it after prayer, so that what God has gifted us may remain in us ... It embraces the whole being, body and soul ... and everything becomes consecrated in the name of the triune God "( Lo spirito della liturgia. I santi segni, Brescia 2000, 125-126).
Consciousness and experience of the Trinity is deepened by the priest. After months in which the media limits itself to exclusively discussing the problem of paedophile priests, the pontiff offers some positive points of the work of priests in the Church. Referring to today's Gospel, where Jesus promised the Apostles that "when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (Jn 16:13), the Pope added: "This is what happens in the Sunday liturgy, when priests dispense from week to week, the bread of the Word and the Eucharist. Even the holy Cure d'Ars reminded the faithful: 'Who welcomed your soul – he would say - when you first entered life? The priest. Who feeds your soul and gives it the strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, bathing it for the last time in the blood of Jesus Christ? Always the priest ... '(Letter Proclaiming a Year for Priests).
After the Marian prayer, Benedict XVI recalled that today, in the basilica of St. Maria Maggiore in Rome the beatification ceremony took place of Maria Pierina De Micheli, religious sister of the Institute of the Daughters of the Immaculate Conception in Buenos Aires: " Giuseppina - this her baptismal name - was born in 1890 in Milan, to a deeply religious family, where different vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life flourished. At 23 she started down this road devoting her time to educational service in Argentina and Italy. The Lord gave her an extraordinary devotion to his Holy Face, which always sustained her during times of trial and illness. She died in 1945 and her remains were laid to rest in the Institute of the Holy Spirit in Rome. " Greeting pilgrims in French he then asked their prayers for his apostolic visit to Cyprus June 4 to 6 next, where he will present the working guidelines (Instrumentum laboris) in preparation for the Synod of the Churches of the Middle East in October.
Finally, in greetings to the Italian-speaking pilgrims, he mentioned a group of faithful from Pordenone, who came to Rome to honour the memory Card. Celso Costantini, a volume of whose Diary was submitted two days ago in Rome, entitled On the edge of war (1938-1947). "This publication - explained the Pope - is of great historical interest. Cardinal Costantini, very close to Pope Pius XII, wrote it when he was Secretary of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide. His diary bears witness to the immense work accomplished by the Holy See during those dramatic years to promote peace and help all the needy. " Card. Costantini was nuncio in China from 1922 to 1934.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope:-The-Trinity-dwells-in-us-from-the-day-of-baptism,-with-the-help-of-priests-18545.html
IMAGE SOURCE: http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/index.asp
AMERICA
USA: REMEMBERING 1 OF MANY FALLEN SOLDIERS
Catholic Online report: Petty Officer Second Class Mosoor is just one of the many brave men and women - and families - we remember on Memorial Day. 'By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country.'
WASHINGTON, DC (Catholics in the Military) - US Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor was 25 years old the day an insurgent's grenade hit him in the chest and landed on the ground in front of him, effectively blocking the only exit for him and eleven others on mission in the Ma'laab district of Ramadi, Iraq.
With the grenade's fuse too short to toss out, Monsoor chose to give his life so that others might live. The only one who could have saved himself, Petty Officer Second Class Monsoor instead shielded the others- three US Navy Seals and eight Iraqi soldiers- by throwing himself on the explosive. He was two weeks shy of rotating out to go home.
Born in 1981, Michael was of Christian Arab descent and a devout practicing Catholic. The son of a Marine, Michael was drawn to the special operations elite force of US Navy SEALs (SEa, Air, and Land) and ultimately assigned to Delta Platoon, SEAL Team Three. Upon reporting for duty in Ramadi, Petty Officer Second Class Monsoor immediately sought out the Catholic chaplain and went to Confession. Prior to each of Monsoor's eleven missions, he attended Mass.
He lived another thirty minutes after his body bore the brunt of the explosion, just long enough to be evacuated to the battalion aid station and die in the presence of his confessor, US Army chaplain Capt. Fr. Paul Anthony Halladay. Fr. Halladay knew Monsoor as "a man with a depth of courage and spirituality."All this transpired September 29th, 2006, the Feast of the Archangels St. Michael, St. Raphael, and St. Gabriel.
Having previously earned the Bronze Star and Silver Star, MA2 Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He is survived by his parents, George and Sally, and three siblings, James, Sara and Joseph.
At the invitation of CatholicMil, public intellectual and theologian George Weigel wrote an article for his syndicated column entitled "Michael Monsoor: Martyr of Charity?" In it, the author considered similarities between the sacrifice of MA2 Monsoor and the sacrifice St. Maximilian Kolbe.
Petty Officer Second Class Mosoor is just one of many souls- and families- we Americans remember on Memorial Day, and with the mind and heart of John Paul II, prayerfully acknowledge:
"Where did they find the strength necessary to do their duty to the full, other than in total adherence to the professed ideals? Many of them believed in Christ, and his words illumined their existence and gave an exemplary value to their sacrifice."
CITATION:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Automatic Weapons Gunner for Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 29 September 2006.
As a member of a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army sniper overwatch element, tasked with providing early warning and stand-off protection from a rooftop in an insurgent-held sector of Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by his exceptional bravery in the face of grave danger.
In the early morning, insurgents prepared to execute a coordinated attack by reconnoitering the area around the element's position. Element snipers thwarted the enemy's initial attempt by eliminating two insurgents. The enemy continued to assault the element, engaging them with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire.
As enemy activity increased, Petty Officer Monsoor took position with his machine gun between two teammates on an outcropping of the roof. While the SEALs vigilantly watched for enemy activity, an insurgent threw a hand grenade from an unseen location, which bounced off Petty Officer Monsoor's chest and landed in front of him.
Although only he could have escaped the blast, Petty Officer Monsoor chose instead to protect his teammates. Instantly and without regard for his own safety, he threw himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body, saving the lives of his two teammates.
By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service."
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=36753
EUROPE
SCOTLAND: COMPOSER MACMILLAN´S MASS SETTING TO BE USED FOR POPE
Catholic Herald report: Scottish composer James MacMillan's new setting of the Mass will be sung in both Coventry and Glasgow when Pope Benedict visits Britain in September, it has emerged.
Originally it was though that his new setting for the new English translation of the Mass would only be performed at the huge open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow on September 16. Some 150,000 people are expected to attend the all-ticket event, half the number who saw Pope John Paul II in the same park in 1982 due to tighter health and safety regulations.
At the beatification Mass for Cardinal John Henry Newman at Coventry Airport on September 19 it had previously been suggested that the music would be by a variety of modern composers.
Reports originally said that the music for the Coventry Mass would be predominantly by composers from the Birmingham archdiocese. The Eucharistic acclamations would be by Fr Peter Jones, who wrote the music for the Coventry Gloria, used at Pope John Paul II's 1982 visit.
Other composers and compositions for the papal Mass included "Christ be our Light" by Bernadette Farrell and the "Salisbury Alleluia" by Christopher Walker. The Gloria was to be composed by Alan Smith and the psalm set to music by Paul Wellicome.
Mr MacMillan's Mass setting will now be used at both Masses, and the composer is also said to be working on a setting for the three Eucharistic acclamations.
A spokesman for the bishops said that no final decisions had been made yet, and that the music at the two Masses "will not be confirmed for a month or two".
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/articles/a0000831.shtml
AFRICA
NIGERIA: INSTALLATION OF JOHN AFAREHA AS NEW BISHOP
All Africa report: THE Catholic Diocese of Warri, Delta State, will today celebrate the canonical installation of Most Rev. John Afareha as the new Bishop of the diocese.
Chancellor of the church, Very Rev. Bernard Olagba, who briefed newsmen in Warri said, "what we are preparing for is the public celebration of the appointment and installation of Most Rev. Afareha as Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Warri.
"It is a big thanksgiving day with Catholics and non-Catholics, government functionaries, civil society, traditional rulers, family, friends and well wishers coming together to celebrate this God-given grace."
He, however, said the office of the Bishop is usually a very challenging one and called for assistance in the forms of prayers and finance for Afareha to meet the challenges ahead.
Rev. Olagba, who said the church was expecting the Governor of the state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, his deputy, Prof. Amos Utuama and Catholic Bishops across the country to grace the occasion, pointed out that the Warri diocese was lacking in infrastructural development and would want men of goodwill, within and outside the diocese, "to come to our aid in any means to help build the diocese."
"We have no functional Bishop's Court, secretariat/chancery office, pastoral centre, and priests' retirement centre", he lamented, adding, "apart from infrastructural issues, the bishop is also challenged with the issues of training of seminarians, further training for priests and taking care of retired priests", he added.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201005280249.html
ASIA
VIETNAM: 1, 300 PRIESTS & BISHOPS GATHER FOR MEETING
UCAN REPORT: Special meetings held for 1,300 priests and bishops in southern Vietnam provided them with much needed support and an occasion to share pastoral and personal experiences, say participants.
Clergy from 10 southern dioceses attended meetings in two groups from May 26-28 to mark the Year for Priests that will conclude in Rome with an international gathering of priests with the pope from June 9-11.
“The gathering is an opportunity for us to meet and share our pastoral experiences so as to be able to serve Catholics better in the future,” said Father Joachim Nguyen Van Hinh from Long Xuyen diocese.
Father Hinh, 60, said he also learnt how to teach catechism more effectively to non-Catholics who wish to marry Catholics.
Salesian Father Joseph Doan Hai Dang said the gathering is a great encouragement to him personally. “We need to support one another spiritually (and) to overcome materialism and consumerism because we are also men full of weaknesses,” he added.
Coadjutor Bishop Stephen Tri Buu Thien of Can Tho said he urged his priests to pray that they would live a good life. “Laypeople pray for us a lot. Why don’t we pray for ourselves?” he asked.
The gatherings aim to create opportunities for priests to build fellowship among themselves so that they can serve the Church better, said Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City.
http://www.ucanews.com/2010/05/28/year-for-priests-meetings-foster-fellowship
AUSTRALIA
CREATIONISM WILL BE TAUGHT IN NEW NATIONAL CURRICULUM
Courier Mail report: CREATIONISM and intelligent design will be taught in Queensland state schools for the first time as part of the new national curriculum.
Creationists dismiss the science of evolution, instead believing that living things are best explained by an intelligent being or God, rather than an undirected process such as natural selection.
The issue of creationism being taught in schools has caused huge controversy in the US, where some fundamentalist religious schools teach it as a science subject instead of Darwin's theory of evolution.
In Queensland schools, creationism will be offered for discussion in the subject of ancient history, under the topic of "controversies".
Don't miss The Courier-Mail on Tuesday for the 2010 High School Report, an eight-page liftout containing Year 12 results, including OPs, from every school across the state
Teachers are still formulating a response to the draft national curriculum, scheduled to be introduced next year.
Queensland History Teachers' Association head Kay Bishop said the curriculum asked students to develop their historical skills in an "investigation of a controversial issue" such as "human origins (eg, Darwin's theory of evolution and its critics").
"It's opening up opportunities for debate and discussion, not to push a particular view," Ms Bishop said. Classroom debate about issues encouraged critical thinking – an important tool, she said.
Associated Christian Schools executive officer Lynne Doneley welcomed the draft curriculum, saying it cemented the position of a faith-based approach to teaching.
"We talk to students from a faith science basis, but we're not biased in the delivery of curriculum," Mrs Doneley said. "We say, 'This is where we're coming from' but allow students to make up their own minds."But Griffith University humanities lecturer Paul Williams said it was important to be cautious about such content.
"It's important that education authorities are vigilant that this is not a blank cheque to push theological barrows," Mr Williams said.
"I would be loath to see it taught as theory.
"It's up there with the world being occupied by aliens since Roswell."
Ms Bishop said there were bigger problems with the national curriculum.
History teachers are planning to object to repetitive subject matter, such as World War I being a major part of the Year 10 course and repeated in Year 11.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/intelligent-design-to-be-taught-in-queensland-schools-under-national-curriculum/story-e6freoof-1225872896736
TODAY´S SAINT
St. Joan of Arc
PATRON SAINT OF FRANCE
Feast: May 30
Information: Feast Day: May 30
Born: 6 January c. 1412, Domrémy, France
Died: May 30, 1431, Rouen, France
Patron of: France; martyrs; captives; militants; people ridiculed for their piety; prisoners; soldiers; Women Appointed for Voluntary Emergency Service; Women's Army Corps
Savior of France and the national heroine of that country, Joan of Arc lives on in the imagination of the world as a symbol of that integrity of purpose that makes one die for what one believes. Jeanne la Pucelle, the Maid, is the shining example of what a brave spirit can accomplish in the world of men and events. The saint was born on the feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 1412, at Domremy, a village in the rich province of Champagne, on the Meuse River in northeast France. She came of sound peasant stock. Her father, Jacques d'Arc, was a good man, though rather morose; his wife was a gentle, affectionate mother to their five children. From her the two daughters of the family received careful training in all household duties. "In sewing and spinning," Joan declared towards the end of her short life, "I fear no woman." She whose destiny it was to save France was a well-brought-up country girl who, in common with most people of the time, never had an opportunity to learn to read or write. The little we know of her childhood is contained in the impressive and often touching testimony to her piety and dutiful conduct in the depositions presented during the process for her rehabilitation in I456, twenty-five years after her death. Priests and former playmates then recalled her love of prayer and faithful attendance at church, her frequent use of the Sacraments, kindness to sick people, and sympathy for poor wayfarers, to whom she sometimes gave up her own bed. "She was so good," the neighbors said, "that all the village loved her."
Joan's early life, however, must have been disturbed by the confusion of the period and the disasters befalling her beloved land. The Hundred Years War between England and France was still running its dismal course. Whole provinces were being lost to the English and the Burgundians, while the weak and irresolute government of France offered no real resistance. A frontier village like Domremy, bordering on Lorraine, was especially exposed to the invaders. On one occasion, at least, Joan fled with her parents to Neufchatel, eight miles distant, to escape a raid of Burgundians who sacked Domremy and set fire to the church, which was near Joan's home.The child had been three years old when in 1415 King Henry V of England had started the latest chain of troubles by invading Normandy and claiming the crown of the insane king, Charles VI. France, already in the throes of civil war between the supporters of the Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans, had been in no condition to resist, and when the Duke of Burgundy was treacherously killed by the Dauphin's servants, most of his faction joined the British forces. King Henry and King Charles both died in 1422, but the war continued. The Duke of Bedford, as regent for the infant king of England, pushed the campaign vigorously, one town after another falling to him or to his Burgundian allies. Most of the country north of the Loire was in English hands. Charles VII, the Dauphin, as he was still called, considered his position hopeless, for the enemy even occupied the city of Rheims, where he should have been crowned. He spent his time away from the fighting lines in frivolous pastimes with his court.
Joan was in her fourteenth year when she heard the first of the unearthly voices, which, she felt sure, brought her messages from God. One day while she was at work in the garden, she heard a voice, accompanied by a blaze of light; after this, she vowed to remain a virgin and to lead a godly life. Afterwards, for a period of two years, the voices increased in number, and she was able to see her heavenly visitors, whom she identified as St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Margaret, the three saints whose ages stood in the church at Domremy. Gradually they revealed to her the purpose of their visits: she, an ignorant peasant girl, was given the high mission of saving her country; she was to take Charles to Rheims to be crowned, and then drive out the English! We do not know just when Joan decided to obey the voices; she spoke little of them at home, fearing her stern father's disapproval. But by May, 1428, the voices had become insistent and explicit. Joan, now sixteen, must first go quickly to Robert de Baudricourt, who commanded the Dauphin's forces in the neighboring town of Vaucouleurs and say that she was appointed to lead the Dauphin to his crowning. An uncle accompanied Joan, but the errand proved fruitless; Baudricourt laughed and said that her father should give her a whipping. Thus rebuffed, Joan went back to Domremy, but the voices gave her no rest. When she protested that she was a poor girl who could neither ride nor fight, they answered, "It is God who commands it." At last, she was impelled to return secretly to Baudricourt, whose skepticism was shaken, for news had reached him of just the sort of serious French defeat that Joan had predicted. The military position was now desperate, for Orleans, the last remaining French stronghold on the Loire, was invested by the English and seemed likely to fall. Baudricourt now agreed to send Joan to the Dauphin, and gave her an escort of three soldiers. It was her own idea to put on male attire, as a protection. On March 6, 1429, the party reached Chinon, where the Dauphin was staying, and two days later Joan was admitted to the royal presence. To test her, Charles had disguised himself as one of his courtiers, but she identified him without hesitation and, by a sign which only she and he understood, convinced him that her mission was authentic.
The ministers were less easy to convince. When Joan asked for soldiers to lead to the relief of Orleans, she was opposed by La Tremouille, one of Charles' favorites, and by others, who regarded the girl either as a crazy visionary or a scheming impostor. To settle the question, they sent her to Poitiers, to be questioned by a commission of theologians. After an exhaustive examination lasting for three weeks, the learned ecclesiastics pronounced Joan honest, good, and virtuous; they counseled Charles to make prudent use of her services. Thus vindicated, Joan returned full of courage of Chinon, and plans went forward to equip her with a small force, A banner was made, bearing at her request, the words, "Jesus Maria," along with a figure of God the Father, to whom two kneeling angels were presenting a fleur-de-lis, the royal emblem of France. On April 27 the army left Blois with Joan, now known to her troops as "La Pucelle," the Maid, clad in dazzling white armor Joan was a handsome, healthy, well-built girl, with a smiling face, and dark hair which had been cut short. She had now learned to ride well, but, naturally, she had no knowledge of military tactics. Yet her gallantry and valor kindled the soldiers and with them she broke through the English line and entered Orleans on April 29. Her presence in the city greatly heartened the French garrison. By May 8 the English fort outside Orleans had been captured and the siege raised. Conspicuous in her white armor, Joan had led the attack and had been slightly wounded in the shoulder by an arrow.
Her desire was to follow up these first successes with even more daring assaults, for the voices had told her that she would not live long, but La Tremouille and the archbishop of Rheims were in favor of negotiating. However, the Maid was allowed to join in a short campaign along the Loire with the Duc d'Alencon, one of her devoted supporters. It ended with a victory at Patay, in which the English forces under Sir John Falstolf suffered a crushing defeat. She now urged the immediate coronation of the Dauphin, since the road to Rheims had been practically cleared. The French leaders argued and dallied, and finally consented to follow her to Rheims. There, on July 17, 1429, Charles VII was duly crowned, Joan standing proudly behind him with her banner.
The mission entrusted to her by the heavenly voices was now only half fulfilled, for the English were still in France. Charles, weak and irresolute, did not follow up these auspicious happenings, and an attack on Paris failed, mainly for lack of his promised support and presence. During the action Joan was again wounded and had to be dragged to safety by the Duc d'Alencon. There followed winter's truce, which Joan spent for the most part in the company of the court, where she was regarded with ill-concealed suspicion. When hostilities were renewed in the spring, she hurried off to the relief of Compiegne, which was besieged by the Burgundians. Entering the city at sunrise on May 23, 1430, she led against the enemy later in the day. It failed, and through miscalculation on the part of the governor, the drawbridge over which her forces were retiring was lifted too soon, leaving her and a number of soldiers outside, at the mercy of the enemy. Joan was dragged from her horse and led to the quarters of John of Luxembourg, one of whose soldiers had been her captor. From then until the late autumn she remained the prisoner of the Duke of Burgundy, incarcerated in a high tower of the castle of the Luxembourgs. In a desperate attempt to escape, the girl leapt from the tower, landing on soft turf, stunned and bruised. It was thought a miracle that she had not been killed.
Never, during that period or afterwards, was any effort made to secure Joan's release by King Charles or his ministers. She had been a strange and disturbing ally, and they seemed content to leave her to her fate. But the English were to have her, and on November 21, the Burgundians accepted a large indemnity and gave her into English hands. They could not take her life for defeating them in war, but they could have her condemned as a sorceress and a heretic. Had she not been able to inspire the French with the Devil's own courage? In an age when belief in witchcraft and demons was general, the charge did not seem too preposterous. Already the English and Burgundian soldiers had been attributing their reverses to her spells.
In a cell in the castle of Rouen to which Joan was moved two days before Christmas, she was chained to a plank bed, and watched over night and day. On February 21, 1431, she appeared for the first time before a court of the Inquisition. It was presided over by Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, a ruthless, ambitious man who apparently hoped through English influence to become archbishop of Rouen. The other judges were lawyers and theologians who had been carefully selected by Cauchon. In the course of six public and nine private sessions, covering a period of ten weeks, the prisoner was cross-examined as to her visions and voices, her assumption of male attire, her faith, and her willingness to submit to the Church. Alone and undefended, the nineteen-year-old girl bore herself fearlessly, her shrewd answers, honesty, piety, and accurate memory often proving embarrassing to these severe inquisitors. Through her ignorance of theological terms, on a few occasions she was betrayed into making damaging statements. At the end of the hearings, a set of articles was drawn up by the clerks and submitted to the judges, who thereupon pronounced her revelations the work of the Devil and Joan herself a heretic. The theological faculty of the University of Paris approved the court's verdict.
In final deliberations the tribunal voted to hand Joan over to the secular arm for burning if she still refused to confess she had been a witch and had lied about hearing voices. This she steadfastly refused to do, though physically exhausted and threatened with torture. Only when she was led out into the churchyard of St. Ouen before a great crowd, to hear the sentence committing her to the flames, did she kneel down and admit she had testified falsely. She was then taken back to prison. Under pressure from her jailers, she had some time earlier put off the male attire, which her accusers seemed to find particularly objectionable. Now, either by her own choice or as the result of a trick played upon her by those who wanted her death, she resumed it. When Bishop Cauchon, with some witnesses, visited her in her cell to question her further, she had recovered from her weakness, and once more she claimed that God had truly sent her and that the voices had come from Him. Cauchon was well pleased with this turn of events.
On Tuesday, May 29, 1431, the judges, after hearing Cauchon's report, condemned Joan as a relapsed heretic and delivered her to the English. The next morning at eight o'clock she was led out into the market place of Rouen to be burned at the stake. As the faggots were lighted, a Dominican friar, at her request, held up a cross before her eyes and, while the flames leapt higher and higher, she was heard to call on the name of Jesus. John Tressart, one of King Henry's secretaries, viewed the scene with horror and was probably joined in spirit by others when he exclaimed remorsefully, "We are lost! We have burned a saint!" Joan's ashes were cast into the Seine.
Twenty-five years later, when the English had been driven out, the Pope at Avignon ordered a rehearing of the case. By that time Joan was being hailed as the savior of France. Witnesses were heard and depositions made, and in consequence the trial was pronounced irregular. She was formally rehabilitated as a true and faithful daughter of the Church. From a short time after her death up to the French Revolution, a local festival in honor of the Maid was held at Orleans on May 8, commemorating the day the siege was raised. The festival was reestablished by Napoleon I. In 1920 the French Republic declared May 8 a day of national celebration. Joan was beatified in 1909 and canonized by Benedict XV in 1919.
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/J/stjoanofarc.asp
TODAY´S MASS READINGS
SOLEMNITY OF THE MOST HOLY TRINITY
Proverbs 8: 22 - 31
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23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men.
Psalms 8: 4 - 9
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4 what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
5 Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.
6 Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth!
Romans 5: 1 - 5
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1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
GOSPEL
John 16: 12 - 15
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12 "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
