Beloved, just two weeks following our truly wonderful move to Tyler, Texas, I had the great honor and happiness to be part of LifeSiteNews’ 25th Anniversary Gala in Naples, Florida.
Here is LifeSite’s own brief video of the history and highlights of this most worthy apostolate. The entire article with photos from the Gala can be seen at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/look-all-the-best-moments-from-lifesites-25th-anniversary-gala/.
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Beloved, we wrote the article below 9 years ago! I still love it because it shows how Catholicism is indeed the fulfillment of Judaism. I pray you will enjoy it and wish you and your loved ones a most blessed and glorious Shavuot/Pentecost.
Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B. and Sisters
Dear Mother Miriam, I know that Pentecost celebrates the birth of the Church, but I was taught also that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ on Calvary. Can it be both?
Perhaps in a sense, dear Zelda. Just as with human birth, life begins at the moment of conception in the mother’s womb. Yet the fullness of its manifestation, so to speak, takes place nine months later at the birth of that child from its mother’s womb.
In his encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christi (the Mystical Body of Christ), Pope Pius XII, quoting Leo XIII, writes:
“The Church which, already conceived, came forth from the side of the second Adam in His sleep on the Cross, first showed Herself before the eyes of men on the great day of Pentecost.”
Saint John Chrysostom, in his teaching on the power of Christ’s blood, writes:
“There flowed from His side water and blood . . . symboliz(ing) baptism and the Holy Eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit, and from the Holy Eucharist.” (Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. II, p. 474)
In his homily on the Solemnity of Pentecost, (Sunday, June 12, 2011), our beloved Pope emeritus Benedict XVI said:
In the liturgy of Pentecost Psalm 104[103], which we have heard, corresponds with the account in the Acts of the Apostles of the birth of the Church (cf. Acts 2:1-11, emphasis mine): a hymn of praise of the whole creation which exalts the Creator Spirit who has made all things with wisdom . . . This is what the Church wants to tell us: the Spirit Creator of all things and the Holy Spirit whom the Lord caused to come down from the Father upon the community of the disciples are one and the same. Creation and redemption belong to each other and constitute, in depth, one mystery of love and of salvation. The Holy Spirit is first and foremost a Creator Spirit, hence Pentecost is also a feast of creation.
“If I am lifted up,”said our Lord, “I will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). God, through His Son’s death on the Cross, rescued humanity from sin and death. But it was the coming of the Spirit into human hearts and minds on the Day of Pentecost that would enable and empower the People Israel to become a new people in Christ – a new Israel – an Israel of the Spirit (Galatians 6:16) that would include Jews and Gentiles alike.
Pope Emeritus Benedict’s homily goes on to say:
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We may be sure that a season so sacred as this of Lent is rich in mysteries. The Church has made it a time of recollection and penance, in preparation for the greatest of all her feasts; she would, therefore, bring into it everything that could excite the faith of her children, and encourage them to go through the arduous work of atonement for their sins. During Septuagesima, we had the number “seventy”, which reminds us of those seventy years of captivity in Babylon, after which God’s chosen people, being purified from idolatry, was to return to Jerusalem and celebrate the Pasch. It is the number “forty” that the Church now brings before us: a number, as St. Jerome observes, which denotes punishment and affliction.
Let us remember the forty days and forty nights of the deluge sent by God in His anger, when He repented that He had made man, and destroyed the whole human race with the exception of one family. Let us consider how the Hebrew people, in punishment for their ingratitude, wandered forty years in the desert, before they were permitted to enter the promised land. Let us listen to our God commanding the Prophet Ezechiel to lie forty days on his right side, as a figure of the siege which was to bring destruction on Jerusalem.
There are two persons in the old Testament who represent the two manifestations of God: Moses, who typifies the Law; and Elias, who is the figure of the Prophets. Both of these are permitted to approach God: the first on Sinai, the second on Horeb; but both of them have to prepare for the great favour by an expiatory fast of forty days.
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by Matthew Plese, February 10, 2022 – from https://onepeterfive.com/forgotten-customs-of-septuagesima/
Brethren: Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize. So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway (1 Cor. 9:24-27 as taken from the Epistle on Septuagesima Sunday).
Septuagesima is the ancient period of time observed for two and a half weeks before the start of Lent. Celebrated on the Third Sunday before the First Sunday in Lent, Septuagesima is both the name of this third Sunday before Lent’s beginning as well as the season itself that runs from this day up until Ash Wednesday. The season of Septuagesima comprises the Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. The Fourth Council of Orleans in 541 AD documents the existence of this season.
This time, informally called “Pre-Lent,” is a time for us to focus on the need for a Savior. It is a time to prepare a Lenten prayer schedule so that we can determine which extra devotions and Masses we will go to in Lent. It is a time to begin weaning ourselves from food so that we may more easily observe the strictest fast during Lent.
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Beloved, I just now watched Raymond Arroyo’s interview with Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke on The World Over, aired January 20, 2022. To my mind, there is no higher and more authoritative voice of Canon Law and authentic Catholic teaching in the Church today than this holy son of the Church. Regarding the future of the Latin Mass and several recent restrictions that have come from the Vatican and from various cardinals and bishops of the Church, Cardinal Burke gives us what is to me, “healing clarity” – simply to know what is correct and what our response is to be to the confusion in the Church today.
God bless you all with our prayers for a blessed, holy, courageous and steadfast adherence to “THE Faith once delivered to the saints” (cf. Jude 3-4; see below for St. Jude’s complete letter).
Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B.
Letter of St. Jude to the first century believers in our Lord Jesus Christ (bolded emphasis mine):
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What a wonderful way and encouragement it would be for us to help this dear saint of a man to continue to feed and help these unwanted children. You can do so here: https://www.lifefunder.com/jesusmenino through an end-of-year gift or blessed gift of the New Year – either way you will be saving the lives of those whom very few would care for or about. What a cherished opportunity to support such a God-blessed cause in the midst of this ever-increasing evil world.
God bless you, reward you, and grant you a most blessed and holy New Year.
Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B. and Sisters
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 From THE LITURGICAL YEARBook 1, Advent LORETO PUBLISHING Dom Guéranger OSB First Translation: 1867 |
(If this Sunday should fall on December 24, it is omitted, and in its place is said the Office of Christmas Eve, which is not provided here.)
WE have now entered into the week which immediately precedes the birth of the Messias. That long-desired coming might be even tomorrow; and at furthest, that is, when Advent is as long as it can be, the beautiful feast is only seven days from us. So that the Church now counts the hours; she watches day and night, and since December 17 her Offices have assumed an unusual solemnity. At Lauds, she varies the antiphons each day; and at Vespers, in order to express the impatience of her desires for her Jesus, she makes use of the most vehement exclamations to the Messias, in which she each day gives Him a magnificent title, borrowed from the language of the prophets.
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