Mother of God

An address by Pope Benedict XVI to the General Audience
Paul VI Audience Hall, 2 January 2008

"Mother of God",Theotokos, is the title that was officially attributed to Mary in the fifth century, to be exact, at the Council of Ephesus in 431, but which had already taken root in the devotion of the Christian people since the third century, in the context of the heated discussions on the Person of Christ in that period. This title highlights the fact that Christ is God and truly was born of Mary as a man: in this way his unity as true God and true man is preserved. Actually, however much the debate might seem to focus on Mary, it essentially concerned the Son. Desiring to safeguard the full humanity of Jesus, several Fathers suggested a weaker term: instead of the title Theotokos, they suggested Christotokos, "Mother of Christ"; however, this was rightly seen as a threat to the doctrine of the full unity of Christ's divinity with his humanity. On the one hand, therefore, after lengthy discussion at the Council of Ephesus in 431, as I said, the unity of the two natures - the divine and the human (cf. DS, n. 250) - in the Person of the Son of God was solemnly confirmed and, on the other, the legitimacy of the attribution of the title Theotokos, Mother of God, to the Virgin (ibid., n. 251).

After this Council a true explosion of Marian devotion was recorded and many churches dedicated to the Mother of God were built. Outstanding among these is the Basilica of St Mary Major here in Rome. The teaching on Mary, Mother of God, received further confirmation at the Council of Chalcedon (451), at which Christ was declared "true God and true man... born for us and for our salvation of Mary, Virgin and Mother of God, in his humanity" (DS, n. 301). As is well known, the Second Vatican Council gathered the teachings on Mary in the eighth chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, reaffirming her divine motherhood. The chapter is entitled "The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the Mystery of Christ and the Church".

Thus, the description "Mother of God", so deeply bound up with the Christmas festivities, is therefore the fundamental name with which the Community of Believers has always honoured the Blessed Virgin. It clearly explains Mary's mission in salvation history. All other titles attributed to Our Lady are based on her vocation to be the Mother of the Redeemer, the human creature chosen by God to bring about the plan of salvation, centred on the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine Word. In these days of festivity we have paused to contemplate the depiction of the Nativity in the crib. At the centre of this scene we find the Virgin Mother, who offers the Baby Jesus for the contemplation of all those who come to adore the Saviour: the shepherds, the poor people of Bethlehem, the Magi from the East. Later, on the Feast of the "Presentation" which we celebrate on 2 February, it will be the elderly Simeon and the prophetess Anna who receive the tiny Infant from the hands of his Mother and worship him. The devotion of the Christian people has always considered the Birth of Jesus and the divine motherhood of Mary as two aspects of the same mystery of the Incarnation of the Divine Word, so it has never thought of the Nativity as a thing of the past. We are "contemporaries" of the shepherds, the Magi, of Simeon and of Anna, and as we go with them we are filled with joy, because God wanted to be the God-with-us and has a mother who is our mother.

All the other titles with which the Church honours Our Lady then derive from the title "Mother of God", but this one is fundamental. Let us think of the privilege of the "Immaculate Conception", that is, of Mary being immune to sin from conception: she was preserved from any stain of sin because she was to be the Mother of the Redeemer. The same applies to the title "Our Lady of the Assumption": the One who had brought forth the Saviour could not be subject to the corruption that derives from original sin. And we know that all these privileges were not granted in order to distance Mary from us but, on the contrary, to bring her close; indeed, since she was totally with God, this woman is very close to us and helps us as a mother and a sister. The unique and unrepeatable position that Mary occupies in the Community of Believers also stems from her fundamental vocation to being Mother of the Redeemer. Precisely as such, Mary is also Mother of the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church. Rightly, therefore, on 21 November 1964 during the Second Vatican Council, Paul VI solemnly attributed to Mary the title "Mother of the Church".

It is because she is Mother of the Church that the Virgin is also the Mother of each one of us, members of the Mystical Body of Christ. From the Cross, Jesus entrusted his Mother to all his disciples and at the same time entrusted all his disciples to the love of his Mother. The Evangelist John concludes the brief and evocative account with these words: "Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!'. And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home" (Jn 19: 27). This is the [English] translation of the Greek text "εiς tά íδια", he welcomed her into his own reality, his own existence. Thus, she is part of his life and the two lives penetrate each other. And this acceptance of her (εiς tά íδια) in his own life is the Lord's testament. Therefore, at the supreme moment of the fulfilment of his messianic mission, Jesus bequeathes as a precious inheritance to each one of his disciples his own Mother, the Virgin Mary.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

You're all familiar with the Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas I think. To most it's a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written. It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.  

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from any practice of their faith by law—private or public. It was a crime to be a Catholic. The Twelve Days of Christmas was written in England as one of the catechism songs to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of the Church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

The True Love one hears in the song is not a smitten boy or girlfriend but Jesus Christ, because the True Love was born on Christmas Day. The partridge in the pear tree also represents Him because that bird is willing to sacrifice its life if necessary to protect its young by feigning injury to draw away predators. According to Ann Ball in her book, Handbook of Catholic Sacramentals:      

• The two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.  

• The three French hens stood for 
  the Theological Virtues
  —faith, hope, and love.

• The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.            

• The five golden rings represented the first five books of the Old Testament—the Pentateuch—which describe man's fall  into sin and the great love of God in sending a Savior.

• The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.    

• Seven swans a-swimming represented the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and the seven sacraments.
  
• The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.         

• Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit—Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience (Forbearance), Goodness (Kindness), Mildness, Fidelity, Modesty, Continency (Chastity). To fit the number scheme, the originator combined the 6 similar fruits to make it into 3. The fruit in each parenthesis is the that was not named separately. There are actually Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost.
  
• The ten lords a-leaping were the Ten Commandments.     

• The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful Apostles.     

• The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve articles of faith in the Apostles' Creed.
  
  
  Sources:Catholic Online/Catholic News Agency

The Gate of the Year

"I once knew someone who spent a year in a plaster cast recovering from an operation on his back. He read a lot, and thought a lot, and felt miserable.

Later, he realised this time of forced retreat from the world had helped him to understand the world more clearly.

We all need to get the balance right between action and reflection. With so many distractions, it is easy to forget to pause and take stock. Be it through contemplation, prayer, or even keeping a diary, many have found the practice of quiet personal reflection surprisingly rewarding, even discovering greater spiritual depth to their lives." - Elizabeth II's Christmas Message, 2013

It is a tradition since 1932 for the reigning monarch in United Kingdom to give her annual Christmas message to all her subjects from her home to the far places of her kingdom's overseas territories. Families would gather around radio, PC and TV sets on Christmas just to hear the Queen giving messages of hope and peace to all the peoples, particularly to those who are in need and those who mourn for the loss of their beloved. She also highlights her family's recent activities and events that gave joy to them and a reason to ponder the importance of it.

For the Queen, it is important for us to have a look on ourselves: whether we have accomplished our plans for this year, whether we overcame our own challenges and were there any changes happened in you based on our experiences we had this year. We in the seminary were required to have our own "journal" and must be submitted to our spiritual director. That is why we need to write our thoughts everyday in our journal, without any leaf unwritten. But because we need to focus on our academic duties and other commitments, not one single leaf was written.

I used to have my own journal, though not really committed to write daily. In your journal, you can write your own personal grievances, you can write your thoughts on this particular thing or an event, your personal prayer for today, your joys and your sorrows. Of all your entries, you can sum up everything that you've written to find an answer to your questions, a solution to your problems and discover something that would become a basis of pursuing for greatness.  It feels good to have one. I hope that I have the zeal to commit myself to write my journal entry everyday and for the rest of your life. 

World events and key events in our life are considered unwritten journals, but in our carefree minds we are very unaware of it. The year 2014 was both worth spending and a year rocked by wars, epidemics and numerous difficult challenges. We celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the founding of the Regional Major Seminary and the opening of the Jubilee Gym. We were very delightful to hear that Pope Francis will visit Philippines and now we are spiritually preparing as well as physically preparing for his arrival in a few days' time. Lastly, we would like to share some events that made us happy, moved us and helped us realize that life is worth living but we are too shy to share the details of it. 

But not everything happened in 2014 was good. The war in Ukraine made us realize that in all things, we must become self-reliant in order to achieve something, to make our lives better and not to rely too much on other foreign powers. They have their own problems, too, to solve. The ISIS problem made us think that it is evil to use religion to achieve the desires of the flesh. The Ebola crisis also made us realize that life is too precious and it cannot be reclaimed once we die.  Lastly, our own problems and bad experiences in life helped us change the way we think and ponder these lessons of not doing it again. 

As we end this year, we pray that the past events happened would become our guide on improving ourselves and another step on pursuing greatness in our own lives by taking uncomfortable risks. We pray to God that may the year 2015 be good to us and may we receive more blessings. 

God knows. His will Is best. 
The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.
- Minnie Louise Haskins

What's In for Christmas? (A liturgical backgrounder)

Well, we all know that Christmas is a very joyous occasion for all of us in the Church. But let us remember that the next days are reminders for us to live out the joy of Christ's birth in our lives.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate the feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr. Following the example of Jesus, let us humble ourselves and make ourselves willing to offer our lives at the service of what we believe.

On the twenty-seventh, we will celebrate the feast of St. John the Apostle/Theologian/Beloved. Just like John, we are loved by the Lord in a special way. We must lift up our eyes and contemplate on the mystery of God present before us: the Word who became flesh and lived among us.

The twenty-eighth is a double feastday for us Christians. On the table of liturgical precedence is the feast of the Holy Family. On the other hand, many also celebrate today the feast of the Holy Innocents, martyrs. On this day, let us remember the dignity and sacrality of the family. The Holy Innocents were victims of the persecution of Herod, who sought for Jesus in order to slay him. Today, many children are victims not only of persecutions, but also of the greed of their own parents for personal benefit. Let us pray for them and for their parents, and let us not also forget to pray for our families.

On the first of January, we will celebrate the feast of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. It is fitting and proper to entrust the beginnings of our year to Mary. Far from our drunken reverie and intensive eat-outs, let us try to follow the example of Mary, who pondered the mysteries of her Son in her heart. As we ask the Lord for peace in our hearts, in our country and in the whole world, let us commit ourselves to be messengers and protectors of peace in our lives as Christians.

On these days of Christmas, let us offer to the newborn Jesus the gifts of an authentic Christian life: a life of witness, of contemplation, of sacrifice and of peace. Our Christmas should be a celebration of joy and happiness, but it should not distract us from our Christian commitment to justice, peace and charity. 

Christmas is a mystery. It is not a celebration that is to be felt with our human senses. It is a feast that primarily speaks to the heart. God speaks to us today in our hearts; let us listen to Him!

A Christmas Greeting from Seminarians' Musings

                        


" God’s sign is simplicity. God’s sign is the baby. God’s sign is that he makes himself small for us. This is how he reigns. 

He does not come with power and outward splendour. He comes as a baby – defenceless and in need of our help. 

He does not want to overwhelm us with his strength. He takes away our fear of his greatness. 

He asks for our love: so he makes himself a child. He wants nothing other from us than our love, through which we spontaneously learn to enter into his feelings, his thoughts and his will – we learn to live with him and to practise with him that humility of renunciation that belongs to the very essence of love. 

God made himself small so that we could understand him, welcome him, and love him."   



 (Pope Benedict XVI, Homily on the Solemnity of the Lord's Nativity-Mass at Midnight, December 2006).

_______________________________________________________________ 

Tonight, we would like to greet everyone: our dear readers, Facebook followers, brother seminarians, beloved Fathers, and most especially our families a blessed, solemn and peaceful celebration of the Solemnity of our Lord's Nativity.

And with our greetings, is this simple but elegant prayer written by Fra Giovanni in the late 1500's, hoping and praying that we will all experience the abundance of God's love this Christmas.

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A MONK'S CHRISTMAS PRAYER

"I am your friend and my love for you goes very deep.                                       

There is nothing really that I can give you this Christmas that you do not already have. 

But there is much, very much that you can discover for yourself this Christmas, even if I am not the one to give it to you.  

So I pray that you will find peace, which is in the hidden places around us today. The gloom of our world is really only a shadow.  Beyond that gloom, yet still within our reach, is happiness. 

I pray that you will discover happiness in your heart this year.  There is light and glory in the darkness around us, if we only could see it.  To see the light in the darkness we only have to look. 

I pray that you will look for the light this Christmas.  Life is actually a very generous giver, but because we judge the gifts by their covering, we cast them away as ugly, or heavy, or hard.  Remove the covering from the gifts of life and you will find beneath it a living splendor that is woven of love.  Life is full of meaning and purpose. It is full of beauty beneath the covering. 

I pray that this Christmas you will discover that earth is only a cloak for heaven.  

This Christmas, I send you greetings. They are not exactly the kind of greetings that the world sends.  But I send them to you with great love and with a prayer that, for you and for all those you love, this Christmas and forever, the dawn will break and the shadows of night will flee away."

Merry Christmas from all of us in Seminarians' Musings! We wish you all the best today and for the upcoming year 2015! God bless you!

Adam, Eve & the Paradise Tree

Elaine Jordan

What is the origin of the delightful custom of the Christmas tree? 

I am happy to state definitively that it had nothing to do with the heresiarch Martin Luther, who is often reported to have set up the first Christmas tree. There is absolutely no scholarly basis for this legend. It is just another Protestant attempt to steal from the Catholics and deny the enormous legacy of good that came from the Middle Ages.

The Paradiese Tree was one of the most popular medieval mystery plays

For the roots of the Christmas tree are medieval, and it is the Germans, with their innate sense of the innocence of Christmas, who spread the custom. Let me tell the true story. 

Christmas Eve is the feast day of our first parents, Adam and Eve, who are commemorated as Saints in the calendars of the Catholic churches of Eastern rites. Their veneration spread also to the West and became very popular toward the end of the first millennium. Although the Latin rite of the Catholic Church never officially introduced their feast, it did not oppose their popular veneration. In many old churches of Europe their statues may still be seen among the images of the Saints. 

Around the 12th century the custom began of celebrating this feast on December 24 with the Paradise Play, which became one of the most popular medieval mystery plays. The Paradise Play depicted the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, their sin and their banishment from Paradise. The play ended with the promise of the coming Savior and His incarnation. 

One of the few props in the play was a large evergreen tree called a Paradise Tree, its branches laden with red apples. 

The Germans enter the picture 

With the rise of Humanism, Renaissance and Protestant Revolution the customs of perform the Paradise Play vanished. In fact, Germany had no theater for several centuries. But the German Catholics did not abandon the Paradise tree. 

There, it became the custom to put up a “paradise tree” in the home to honor the first parents. This was a fir tree laden with apples, the symbol of Adam’s fall. They also decorated the tree with white wafers, representing the Eucharist, the symbol of man’s redemption and salvation. It was customary as early as the 16th century in Germany to ring the tree with candles because the Paradise Play was enacted in such a ring. (1)

Christmas in Germany, 1881

In fact, we find first mention of the Christmas tree as early as 1419 at the Freiburg Fraternity Baker’s Apprentices of the German Alsace. We also have a letter written by a Strasbourg resident in 1605 who describes the established custom, "At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlors at Strasburg and hang thereon roses cut of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold-foil, sweets.” (2) 

Until the 19th century, mostly edible items were used as tree decorations. Then, in 1880 glassmakers in Thuringia, Germany, discovered how to make blown glass balls and bells, and these soon replaced the apples. 

The custom spread naturally. From the Alsace the tree made its way to other regions of Germany and France. German settlers and soldiers brought the Christmas tree to America in the colonial period. The German born Queen Victoria formally introduced the Christmas tree in England in 1841 where it was warmly received, and soon the English were pretending that it was their idea, as is their habit. 

Thus, we find the roots of our modern Christmas tree: It is actually the medieval Paradise tree, a reminder of the fall of our first parents and the promise of the coming of a Savior. 

Other Adam tidbits 

In addition to our Christmas tree, we owe many expressions in our language to Adam. 

When we speak of "the old Adam" in us, we mean that part of us that tends to yield to temptation. 

When St. Paul speaks of "the last Adam" (1 Cor 15:45) he means Christ, who by his obedience repaired the disobedience of the first Adam. 

Since God ordered Adam to till the ground after his expulsion from Eden, gardening is called "Adam's profession," and in fact Adam became a Patron Saint of gardeners. 

Lastly, that prominent cartilage in the human throat, especially the male throat, is called "Adam's apple" on the theory that one piece of the forbidden apple stuck in Adam's throat and we have all inherited a visible mark of his sin. 

1. Tristam Potter Coffin, The Illustrated Book of Christmas Folklore, Seabury Press, 1974, pp.18-19
2. B. Brunner, Inventing the Christmas Tree, Yale University Press, p. 3

Posted December 17, 2014

Source: http://traditioninaction.org/religious/f031_Tree.htm

"O" Antiphons: December 17-23

“From December 17 onwards, the liturgical texts of Advent are more directly concerned with the immediate preparation for the Christmas feast. The mystery of God’s love, the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God (Eph 3:9), is the foreground. God realized it in the Lord’s ancestors and proximately in the infancy of John the Baptist and in the persons of Our Lady and St. Joseph” (Ordo 2015).

Thus December 17 marks the start of the “O” antiphons where it is recited or sung before the Magnificat during Vespers. “These moving ‘O Antiphons’ were apparently composed in the seventh or eighth century when monks put together texts from the Old Testament, particularly from the prophet Isaiah, which looked forward to the coming of our salvation. They form a rich, interlocking mosaic of scriptural images. The great ‘O Antiphons’ became very popular in the Middle Ages when it became traditional to ring the great bells of the church each evening as they were being sung” (D’Ambrosio, The Great "O" Antiphons of Advent).

Every antiphons give highlights on the different titles of the Messiah. “In the first, O Sapientia or O Wisdom, takes us to a backward flight into the recesses of eternity to address Wisdom, the Word of God. In the second, O Adonai or O Sacred Lord, we leap from eternity to the time of Moses and the Law of Moses. In the third, O Radix Jesse or O Flower of Jesse’s Stem, we come to the time when God was preparing the line of David. In the fourth, O Clavis David or O Key of David, we come to the prophecy of Isaiah: ‘I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open’ (Isaiah 22:22) In the fifth, O Oriens or O Radiant Dawn, we see that the line of David is elevated so that the peoples may look on a rising star in the east, and hence in the sixth, O Rex Gentium or O King of all the Nations, we come to know that He is the king of all the world of. This brings us to the evening before the vigil, and before coming to the town limits of Bethlehem, we salute Him with the last Great O, O Emmanuel” (J.G. Miller, Catholic Activity: O Antiphons - December 17 - 24).

There is also a particularly fascinating feature of the “O” Antiphons on the first letter of each invocation. According to Fr. William Saunders, the Benedictine monks arranged these antiphons with a definite purpose. If one starts with the last title and takes the first letter of each one—Emmanuel, Rex, Oriens, Clavis, Radix, Adonai, Sapientia—the Latin words Ero Cras are formed, meaning, "Tomorrow, I will come". Therefore Jesus, whose coming Christians have prepared for in Advent and whom they have addressed in these seven Messianic titles, now speaks to them: "Tomorrow, I will come." So the "O Antiphons" not only bring intensity to their Advent preparation, but bring it to a joyful conclusion. However, the way that these antiphons were arranged to form Ero Cras is somewhat dubitable. It is because Ero Cras actually meant “Tomorrow, I will be.” “There is little or no evidence in the sources that this is anything more than a coincidence” (Martin Connell, Eternity Today: On the Liturgical Year).

Misa de Gallo Reflections: December 17

Liturgically, the Church today emphasizes its intense longing and waiting for the coming of Christ. The collects and the readings of the day note the imminence of his Coming, of which we must intensely prepare ourselves for.

Today's readings then speaks of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the "family tree" from which Christ came forth. With this, allow me then to share two points of reflection.

1. We all must belong- Jesus was no exemption. Even if he was not conceived by human design, he still placed a lot of respect for the members of his family. Families aren't really that perfect a bunch of people, but let us see that our families are indeed circles of love, which flows directly from God's love for each one of us.

2. We must see God's hand in everything that happens- Note that the number of each generation who lived in a particular epoch of Jewish history- fourteen. Fourteen is seven doubled, which according to Jewish tradition is perfection. God always works in perfect timing, and this is well manifested in his sending of Jesus in the 'fullness of time".

God is immensely good. He not only makes sure that we belong and are guided by his love, he puts us first on his list- of whom to love, care and save. He knows what we want and what we need in the right moment. Thus, we should ask ourselves in this second day of the Misa de Gallo: Do we prioritize God in this season of Advent? Do we try to make an effort to take care of God's special ones; the poor, needy and oppressed? Do we make them feel that they belong and that they have our special concern?

A post-semestral break musing...

"I like my choices, I hope she likes hers." 

 (Augustus Waters in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars)

Well, this is the time when we will go home and leave behind a colorful world to face our own Tabor: the mount of the experience of God.

We will leave behind our memories, our stories and our joys and sorrows, our business, as we go back to the nitty-gritty of community life and of being formed in the intense fire of God's love.

We will leave regular posting for a while and only post every Saturday, which leaves us quite uneasy about the beautiful start of this blog: we kinda have a short and heavy pause on our happy musings.


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I posted the quote above which is really an expression of what I feel especially for the people who made me extremely happy during this three-week "heaven" called a semestral break. During this break, I experienced a lot which probably made a mark on my heart. I like my choices in this break, whether bad or good, and I hope people like the choices they made, which made me either happy or sad.

Before I finally finish packing up and go back to familiar waters, I would like to say a big THANK YOU for the people that made this break too memorable for a dry and "inanimate" person like me.

Thanks to my family, especially to our aunt (who moved in just recently), for being too understanding and supportive of my decisions and work. I know it is hard for you to see me only during breakfast and dinner just because I spent it with different kinds of people and while doing other activities... Sorry if I had hurt you,

Thanks to our parochial community, to our beloved Cures, and to my fellow seminarians for giving me a heavy schedule during the break. I am happy that I exercised what I am supposed to be, at the time where I am supposed to be. (By the way, thanks so much for treating me to Vikings and for coming to my birthday.)

Thanks to the various people I talked with, spent time with, worked with and enjoyed time with. Thank you for being good companions, close friends and best buddies even if we do not know each other that well.

And of note here is a beloved friend.... I hope you're happy with your decisions to move on... Fly free, dear, like the birds and the bees, and in freedom you will see what it is to love deeply again. Enjoy muna ang ating mga moments na tayo ay bata pa, do enjoy it... And I thank you for being a companion in my own journey of moving on.... and discovering myself.... Stay beautiful ha... and when we'll be back, ice cream awaits all of us!

Thanks to my beloved laptop and phone which kept me company in lonely moments, and for the tons of novels I read... (Thank you also to the people who passed them along for me to read).

And to others, named and unnamed, thank you very much! Indeed, the world is too colorful, and all I just experienced was just a single page in a beautiful book called the world... (taking from St. Augustine)...

One month isn't that long, and I hope to be a good companion to all of you the next time around. God has been so good in sending all of you to me and me to all of you... All of you strengthened me and in some way made me listen to the various stories of a beautiful web called life.

"Laters, babies!" 

Hahahahahaahahaha... Fifty shades isn't too bad for us though!

Life is changed, not taken away

It is the time of the year, November 2, where it is an obligation for all Catholics to visit their deceased loved ones in the cemeteries and pray for them. On the All Souls' Day, we gather around the tomb of our loved one and offered prayers with solemnity and reverence to our ancestors.

For us, it is the time where we can rest from the nerve-racking days of work in our offices and in schools and have time to spend for ourselves and for friends and relatives. We go on vacation, and sometimes some opted to travel earlier to avoid long hours of waiting for a bus or a van to take us out of town. It is also the time where we spend together on celebrating the eve of All Saints' Day wearing spooky costumes, scary Halloween makeups and wearing superhero costumes and costumes of your favorite cartoon and movie characters regardless of your weight and your age.

It is also the time where shops and malls are lavishly decorated with scary paraphernalia. Skulls and crosses adorned with fake cob webs and pumpkins create fear to those who have phobias on it. When I was very young, every time I look at a picture of pumpkin in a page of a book, I would shudder in fear and skip the page. Most scary are the witches making witchcraft concoction on a big cauldron in the dead of the night.

Now I am not directly criticizing those who are celebrating Halloween. In fact, its really amusing to see their costumes in real life and things we see on 9gag and Imgur. It is really sad for some "religious" and "traditional" Catholics to just rabidly criticize and accuse those who are celebrating Halloween of twisting the true message of All Saints' Day and also All Souls' Day and celebrating the glory of Satan on the Holy days of obligation when in fact we aren't probably catechized on the celebration of All Saints' Day and even All Souls' Day. Remember, the Second Plenary Council in 1991 said that the "Filipinos are sacramentalised, but aren't evangelized." If they are very obsessed in criticizing the celebration of this "satanic" Halloween, why I rarely see them criticizing the people who went to the cemeteries just to have merry making, tons of garbage left in memorial parks, noise pollution, and even couples doing their own "holy things" in front of the tombs of their loved ones?

But it is very sad that the symbols of the reality of death and evil in our Christian life were misunderstood and distorted by fiction horror stories, TV shows and commercialism. They are wearing devilish costumes because its fun. They go to cemeteries and haunted spots to find ghosts and talk to them rather than praying for their souls and exorcising the place. We are more entertained by TV shows during Halloween about horror stories. Stories of "white lady" and "zombies" while ignoring the reality of war, misery and death that may invite us to question the immense goodness of God if He "permits" these events to happen.


Even the Latin language itself isn't safe. Quack doctors and mediums in Filipino scary movies chant broken Latin words to summon spirit entities, heal the sick and Filipinos wear amulet shirts with Latin inscriptions on it.  There was this Catholic Charismatic preacher who told us not to adhere anything that is Latin because quack doctors use it in their medicinal practice and we are now in the post-Vatican II and we must get in with the times. Let me clarify this: Latin is the liturgical language of the Latin Rite which is the Mass. Vatican II allowed us to translate the form of the Mass in Latin into the vernacular. There were many poems and great works that were written in Latin. Majority of saints attended or even said the Mass in Latin. Ecclesiastical documents are primarily written in Latin. Latin is the origin of different Romance languages and many English words originated from Latin. The Filipino pagan practices have included Latin into their rituals and thus giving them a bad impression to ordinary Filipinos like us.

The skull and bones is not a mere decoration to spice up the celebration of Halloween. It is a Christian symbol of death. Everything will turn into dust, skull and bones once you die.  It is a simple reminder that his life is limited and therefore he must do good, follow the will of God that when the time comes, he would be prepared for to receive his verdict from his Master who is in Heaven.

The cross is the symbol of Christ conquering Death. In the past, God took away our immortality because of our parents Adam and Eve committing the sin of disobeying Him and punished us through the painful stings of Death.  With Christ's death on the Cross, death has become a passageway to the eternal life Christ has promised to those who are baptised. Death is a transition to new life, which is eternal life. The life where there is no pain and we experience eternal happiness.

The demons people usually portray during Halloween do not appear as grumpy-faced, red-skinned gargoyles with pointy horns, ugly wings and carrying pitchforks. They are not even tattooed with pentagrams with 666 stuff all over them. The demons are usually disguised as the one who tempts you to commit sin in your daily life. The demons, in spite of lofty promises of "fun", flowery words, and innocent yet beautiful looks, prepares and waits for its cue to destroy your life and your relationship with God.  The demons simply remind us of the existence of evil, the existence of Hell and the existence of sin and damnation. The only we do is to fight them, with our prayers and our works. 

Ghosts are paranormal entities that may be in the form of our loved ones, or in the form of the evil entities. Discernment and prayers are ways to deal with these spirits. Pumpkins, cobwebs, bats, and other Halloween symbols originate from the West. They do not have spiritual significance in our Catholic life. 

The Church has established this Feast of All Souls' Day because the Church prays for the universal suffrage of souls who were in purgatory, especially those who were forgotten. We give honor, reverence and comfort with our prayers to our dearly departed. But it is also our chance to reflect on the reality of death. Death will come to everyone. Death will also come to me. But we do not know when. Death would only take away our material possessions and worldly achievements and even separate us from our loved ones, but death would not take away our soul. It would serve as a transition to a newborn life in Heaven. If we only commit ourselves to God this will be possible. 

Life is changed, not taken away. 

Vita mutatur, non tollitur

Choosing your Patron Saint

In the Catholic tradition, the faithful often invoke certain Saints/Blessed as their heavenly helper in certain times of need, or for their entire lives as Christians on the road to holiness. These Saints/Blessed are called Patrons/Patron Saints. Seriously, we do not need them just as much as we need Jesus Christ as our model, teacher and guide to holiness; but it does not hurt to invoke our "forefathers in faith" to give us a "shove" upwards on our road to the Father's House.

As Catholics, we believe in the intercession of saints as a vital part of the communion of the Mystical Body of Christ (refer to CCC 960-962). We do believe that they help all of us in a special way since they intercede for us before the throne of God, and see him constantly in the Beatific Vision.

Pope Leo XIII

"...it has been the custom in the Church to plead with special fervor and perseverance to God, her author and protector, by recourse to the intercession of the saints - and chiefly of the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God. The fruit of these pious prayers and of the confidence reposed in the Divine goodness, has always, sooner or later, been made apparent." (Leo XIII, Encyclical Quamquam Pluries on devotion to St. Joseph, 15 Aug. 1889)

And for this particular reason, stated above, Catholics choose Patron Saints as their heavenly helpers in various circumstances in life.

Allow me then to help you choose your Patron Saint, if you do not have one yet.

1. Think seriously.

Choosing a patron saint is not an easy matter. This saint will be an important person in your life as your inspiration, companion and dear friend. I know that there are countless men and women declared as saints by the Catholic Church, that represent various walks of life and that successfully completed the good fight of the faith. Choose wisely!

2. Choose one or more basing on your particular favorites. (Or other biases, perhaps)

You can choose one based on:

-Your name

For example, I am Neil. I think that name comes from Nathaniel, who is one of the Holy Apostles, so I think I will take him as a patron saint.

-Your occupations/ interest/state of life 

I am a seminarian, so I think I will choose St. Aloysius or Blessed Rolando Rivi for that.

But wait, I am also a writer and a "journalist-wannabe", so I think Blessed James Alberione or some other Saint known for writing could be a good patron.

Also, I like making rosaries, so I think Ss. Dominic, Louis de Monfort or Blessed Alan de Roche might be a good one.

Young people often take St. John Paul II as their patron saint, since he was especially close to them, and is known to help young people who try to live their Christian life.

-Your sicknesses/diseases/ailments or other things peculiar to you.

Some breast cancer patients take St. Agatha as their patron, others with tuberculosis choose St. Therese or St. Bernadette... like that.

-Your birthday/special day.

In a given month, the Roman Martyrology or Calendar,
 gives a lot names of Saints or Blessed to be observed for a particular day.
Photo credits: Work of the Saints Movement/Apostolate

In the Roman Calendar (found in every Missal or Breviary) or in the Roman Martyrology (the official list of saints whose memorials are observed in the Catholic Church), books issued by the Vatican for daily liturgical celebrations, especially for feasts, memorials and solemnities, there are usually a lot of saints for a particular day, and especially on your birthday. Choose one from them.

For me, I have two favorite saints on my birthday, Sts. Gaetano Errico (see my October 29 post about him) and Blessed Chiara 'Luce" Badano.

Or it might be your special day, like the day of your Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination or even as simple as the day you met your girlfriend or so... it does not matter really, except that you can choose one based on the day you prefer.

3. Research and Learn about your chosen saint

After you choose your Patron Saint based on whatever things you have based upon, research about them and learn about their particular virtues, characteristics and how they became a saint. Allow yourself to be placed way back in time when they lived, experience their struggles and difficulties (and even look at their sins), but reflect on how they extraordinarily lived their Christian life to become the Saint that you look upon to.

Especially if your saint is quite popular, you can always read their stories online or by a book from a Catholic store near you. For those who are quite bent on reading saints' lives, I particularly recommend Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints (published and revised a lot of times by different editors) or Enzo Lodi's Saints of the Roman Calendar (published by St. Pauls Philippines).

3. Find a picture/image/statue of your saint.

Just as easy as you might find your patron's biography, you might find easily an image, statue or medal of your dear Patron Saint. For those who might be fortunate enough, you might be graced from above with a small relic of your patron saint, indeed a piece of your own patron saint's body or clothing, which can serve as an object of your devotion. (I have the relics of my patron saints!)

A NOTE THOUGH: For those who do not know the Church's stand on venerating images, read this short quotation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and maybe do some research about it.

"The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype," and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone." (CCC 2132)

4. Pray to your Patron Saint

With the abundance of online and print information, you can easily find a short prayer to your dear Saint. If you happen to have a Saint whose name is in the Roman Missal/Breviary, you can always pray the "Collect" or prayer to the Saint found in the books. (For a trivia, a partial indulgence is given to anyone who recites the collect of a saint on their feast day. (Enchiridion of Indulgences, 54) ) You can always find one online, or better, compose one yourself! By this, you can pray to your dear Saint and be assured of him/her interceding for you before God. 

A sample prayer to your Patron Saint:

"O Heavenly Patron/s , St. N/ Ss. Nn. , in whose name/s I glory, pray ever to God for me: strengthen me in my faith; establish me in virtue; guard me in the conflict; that I may vanquish the foe malign and attain to glory everlasting.Amen."

Again, another note: "We believe in the communion of all the faithful of Christ, those who are pilgrims on earth, the dead who are being purified, and the blessed in heaven, all together forming one Church; and we believe that in this communion, the merciful love of God and his saints is always [attentive] to our prayers" (CCC 962). Do some small research about why Catholics pray to Saints, and why they can.....

And eventually...

The saint you choose will always be with you. Your saint will intercede for you in Heaven and is similar to having a relative who you look up to and whom you would like to emulate. Your saint will become like extended family to you and will pray to God on your behalf any time you ask. 

Of course, you can pray to whichever saint you like after you choose one, but the saint you choose will always be yours. This is why it's so important to make an informed, meaningful decision.

_____________________________________

I would like to dedicate this quite lengthy article to the special care of my three Patron Saints: my models in following God's special call to the priesthood,  in doing the Christian life, and of giving myself to the 'Opus Dei", the work of God that needs to be done by all of us, especially by me.

Ss. John Paul II, Jean-Marie Vianney and Gaetano Errico, pray for me!

Celebration

The Holy Mother Church firmly believes that the people of God should celebrate the Paschal Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the liturgical year. Through the tradition handed down by the apostles, we celebrate once each week the Paschal Mystery of Christ in which its origin was taken from the very day of Christ’s resurrection—the seventh day or Sunday. The constitution of the Liturgy urges us to gather together on Sunday so that through the word of God and the Eucharist, we may call to mind the passion, the resurrection, and the glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, in some developed countries, Sunday has been characterized by tourism and recreation. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in his Sacramentum Caritatis advises us that we should not be enslaved by our works and leisure in which we may come to a point of finding the ultimate and definitive meaning of life in it.

In the concept of the liturgical year, we can observe a distinction between feasts and ordinary days, and the degree of solemnity proper to the feasts. The term “liturgical year” was coined by Abbot Prosper Guéranger in 1848 where it entered in the active vocabulary of the Roman Church. The liturgical year is an economy of our salvation in which its center is the celebration of the Easter. This celebration of Easter is not just a mere feast among others but the “Feast of feasts” and “Solemnity of solemnities”. Furthermore, we can also see the various aspects of the one Paschal Mystery unfold, Annunciation, Christmas, and Epiphany to name a few. They commemorate the beginning of our salvation which communicates to us the first fruits of the Paschal Mystery.

Throughout the course of the liturgical year, the Holy Mother Church also honors the Blessed Virgin and the saints. We celebrate the Blessed Virgin’s role in our salvation. Pope Paul VI states in his Marianis Cultis: “This is a celebration that offers the church and all humankind an exemplar and a consoling message, teaching us the fulfillment of our highest hopes: our glorification is happily in store for us when Christ has made us his brothers and sisters.” With regards to the saints, we also celebrate them because they help us to grow in the love of God and neighbor whether they are martyrs or non-martyrs.

In the liturgy of the Hours, the mystery of Christ permeates and transfigures in its celebration. In this prayer, we exercise our royal priesthood. The liturgy of the Hours is intended to become a prayer of the whole people of God. In it Christ himself does his priestly office through the Church. With regards to the priests, the breviary—as the liturgy of the Hours is often called—is well-known as the priest’s wife. It should be his companion day and night. However, it does not easily figure in on the priest’s daily routine. That is why there was an attempt before to make the liturgy of the Hours private, but it was later neglected since the liturgy of the Hours is shaped for public prayer.

In every celebration of the liturgy, a suitable place should be used just like the church building since it represents an image of a community that God gathers together. However, other places were used to celebrate the liturgy. Just like the first Christians, the original place of their celebration was just a simple room. It is good to point out that a place is holy not because it has blessed walls, not because it has a sanctuary and an altar, not because it has a cross and sacred images, but because Christ dwells in there. In a word, the presence of Christ in liturgical celebrations explains why there is no space that cannot be considered suitable for worship.

The Father: The Source of All Truth

An Address of Pope Benedict XVI during the Ecumenical Prayer ServiceChurch of the former Augustinian Convent, Erfurt, 23 September 2011

“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through them” (Jn 17:20). These words Jesus addressed to the Father in the Upper Room. He intercedes for coming generations of believers. He looks beyond the Upper Room, towards the future. He also prayed for us. And he prayed for our unity. This prayer of Jesus is not simply something from the past. He stands before the Father, for ever making intercession for us. At this moment he also stands in our midst and he desires to draw us into his own prayer. In the prayer of Jesus we find the very heart of our unity. We will become one if we allow ourselves to be drawn into this prayer. Whenever we gather in prayer as Christians, Jesus’ concern for us, and his prayer to the Father for us, ought to touch our hearts. The more we allow ourselves to be drawn into this event, the more we grow in unity.

Did Jesus’ prayer go unheard? The history of Christianity is in some sense the visible element of this drama in which Christ strives and suffers with us human beings. Ever anew he must endure the rejection of unity, yet ever anew unity takes place with him and thus with the triune God. We need to see both things: the sin of human beings, who reject God and withdraw within themselves, but also the triumphs of God, who upholds the Church despite her weakness, constantly drawing men and women closer to himself and thus to one another.

Our fundamental unity comes from the fact that we believe in God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. And that we confess that he is the triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The highest unity is not the solitude of a monad, but rather a unity born of love. We believe in God – the real God. We believe that God spoke to us and became one of us. To bear witness to this living God is our common task at the present time.

Does man need God, or can we do quite well without him? When, in the first phase of God’s absence, his light continues to illumine and sustain the order of human existence, it appears that things can also function quite well without God. But the more the world withdraws from God, the clearer it becomes that man, in his hubris of power, in his emptiness of heart and in his longing for satisfaction and happiness, increasingly loses his life. A thirst for the infinite is indelibly present in human beings. Man was created to have a relationship with God; we need him. Our primary ecumenical service at this hour must be to bear common witness to the presence of the living God and in this way to give the world the answer which it needs. Naturally, an absolutely central part of this fundamental witness to God is a witness to Jesus Christ, true man and true God, who lived in our midst, suffered and died for us and, in his resurrection, flung open the gates of death.

The Church and the Devil

During the course of Blessed Paul VI’s pontificate there was a timely question raised regarding the greatest need of the Church today. The answer he gave is not that simplistic or superstitious and unreal. The greatest need of the Church today, Blessed Paul VI said, is the defense from the evil that we call the devil. 

St. John Paul II reiterated the same sentiment during his visit to the Sanctuary of St. Michael the Archangel on May 24, 1987. He said, “The battle against the devil, which is the principal task of St. Michael the Archangel, is still being fought today, because the devil is still alive and active in the world.”          

Pope Benedict XVI during the Angelus address on February 17, 2013 talked about the influence of the devil on modern society and on our lives, clearly indicating that the devil is a malign influence behind the ascendancy of secularist atheism and the secularist agendas and policies being pursued. He said, “The tempter is cunning. He does not directly impel us towards evil but rather towards a false good, making us believe that the true realities are power and everything that satisfies our primary needs. In this way God becomes secondary, he is reduced to a means; in short, he becomes unreal, he no longer counts, he disappears.”     

Despite these messages of the previous pontiffs, there is an inconvenient reality happening right now. Many in the Catholic Church either deny the existence of the devil, or tend to see him as someone that cannot interact in a major way in man’s day-to-day living. Lay Catholic preacher Bo Sanchez spoke about his experiences in certain theological schools in our country regarding this unbelief of religious and Church people in the existence of the devil.      

Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, Chief Exorcist of the Archdiocese of Manila, in his book Exorcism: Encounters with the Paranormal and the Occult stresses the grand strategy of Satan in today’s modern world—to make man believe that he does not exist. That somehow explains why Christians never put up a fight or establish any form of defense against him. Many even end up, he said, blaming God for their miseries because of unawareness of the hidden enemy striking them in the many areas of their lives. “Part of the difficulty of resisting demonic attacks is that most of them are not recognized as such even by many Christians,” explained Fr. Benedict Heron, OSB in his book I Saw Satan Fall. He continued, “He [Satan] is normally happier not to be recognized but to work in a hidden and secret way—there is less danger of stirring up opposition if he is unrecognized.”

Because of the wickedness of our times, extraordinary demonic assault cases are on the rise—infestation, oppression, obsession, and possession. Fr. Carl Vogl in his documentary Be Gone Satan!, tells us that “it is precisely through the cooperation of sinners that the devil has such power on earth.” 

The challenge for us now is to wake up to the reality of the existence and malevolent action of the devil in our world and take action against him, our enemy since the time of our first parents. Let us heed Blessed Paul VI’s exhortation: “We must fight against spirits, the spirits that swarm all around us. In other words, we must fight against the demon… this dark and disturbing being truly exists and is still active with predatory cunning. He is the hidden enemy who sows error, misfortune, decadence, and degradation in human history.”   

The Second Vatican Council in the document Gaudium et Spes reminds us all that this battle against the fallen angels will last until the end of time. The Post-conciliar document Christian Faith and Demonology adds that it would indeed be a fatal mistake to act as if history is already finished and redemption had achieved all its effects, and that it would no longer be necessary to engage in the struggle of which the New Testament and the masters of the spiritual life speak.

We, as Catholics, must always be prepared to enter into the midst of this spiritual battle. As Fr. Michael Scanlan, TOR and Randall J. Cirner in their book Deliverance from Evil Spirits would say, "There is no room for compromise, no basis for peaceful coexistence. There  can only struggle and opposition... God calls his people to attack the kingdom of darkness and to further the kingdom of light. Man is born into then midst of this struggle; by its very nature he must fight in it. No one can escape from it. Every man and woman must choose whom they will serve."

I would like to end this one with the words from the Evening Prayer Hymn of Friday Week III in the Liturgy of the Hours, "Choose we now in freedom where we should belong, let us turn to Jesus, let our choice be strong."