"CUM GRANDE HUMILITATE!"

"Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words."

A special "Thank you!"
Goes out to
John Michael Talbot
for giving us permission
to use his song on our
"Come to the Quiet"
You Tube Video
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Showing posts with label Bishop R. Daniel Conlon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bishop R. Daniel Conlon. Show all posts

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Don't Stifle The Spirit


Francis would never let any call of the Spirit go unanswered; when he experienced it, he would make the most of it and enjoy the consolation afforded him in this way for as long as God permitted it.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Bonaventure, Major Life
Chapter X

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Speak No Honeyed Words


Francis spoke no honeyed words of flattery or blandishment; what he preached to others he had already put into practice himself and his teaching of truth was full of assurance.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Legend of the Three Companions
Chapter XIII

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Monday, October 11, 2010

Find Time Alone

Dr. Tom Ringenberg at the Portiuncula Hermitage in Jerusalem, Ohio

If you wish to grow in your spiritual life, you must not allow yourself to be caught up in the workings of the world; you must find time alone, away from noise and confusion, away from the allure of power and wealth.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Thomas A. Kempis
Chapter 44

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Saturday, October 09, 2010

October 10, 2010 - ECCLESIASTES 9:9


Willoughby-Eastlake North High School Senior Prom 1966

Karen M. Lloyd and Christopher L. Dickson were married on October 10, 1970 at the United States Army Security Agency Field Station in Rothwesten, Germany.

Happy 40th Anniversary Principessa!


"Enjoy life with the woman whom you love all the days of your fleeting life which He has given to you under the sun; for this is your reward in life, and in your toil in which you have labored under the sun."

Ecclesiastes 9:9

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Take Nothing With You But Christ Crucified


Because St. Francis and his companions had been called by God and chosen to bear the Cross of Christ in their hearts and in their actions and to preach it by their words, they appeared to be and they were crucified men, both in their habit and their austere life and their deeds and their actions. Therefore, they had a greater desire to receive shame and insults for the love of Christ than the vain honors or respect or praise of the world. On the contrary, they rejoiced in being insulted, and they were made sad by being honored. And so they went through the world as pilgrims and strangers, taking with them nothing but Christ Crucified.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Little Flowers of St. Francis - 5

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Friday, October 08, 2010

Please Help the Portiuncula Hermitage at "Goodshop"

Please remember
The Portiuncula Franciscan Hermitage
Tithes 10% of their income to
Birthright
(a loving alternative to Abortion)






Simply Type In:
Portiuncula Franciscan Hermitage



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Deep Union


In the inner wine cellar
I drank of my Beloved, when I went abroad
Through all this valley
I no longer know anything,
And lost the herd that I was following.

Now I occupy my soul
And all my energy in his service;
I no longer tend to the herd,
Nor have I any work
Now that my every act is LOVE.

Saint John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle

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Thursday, October 07, 2010

San Benedetto Monastery in Subiaco, Italy



A magnificent full-length fresco portrait of St. Francis of Assisi, protected under glass in St. Gregory's Chapel. It is labeled Fr. Franciscus and the saint is shown without the stigmata or a halo, indicating it was painted during his lifetime and before 1224.

The eastern influence of the chapel's Roman painters can especially be seen in this portrait - Francis is shown facing front and with one eye larger than the other, recalling the famous icon of Christ at St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai.



A magnificent portrait of St. Francis of Assisi, painted during his lifetime.


Consecration of St. Gregory's Chapel, with St. Francis looking on.


View of St. Benedict's Monastery at Subiaco, clinging to a mountain cliff.
Click to enlarge and see our Subiaco Photo Gallery for many more views


View of St. Benedict's Monastery at Subiaco, clinging to a mountain cliff.
Click to enlarge and see our Subiaco Photo Gallery for many more views

St. Gregory's Chapel

A spiral stairway leads from just outside the Cave Chapel up to St. Gregory's Chapel, which contains some of the oldest frescoes at San Benedetto. The frescoes date from the early 13th century and were done by Byzantine-influenced Roman painters.

Protected under glass in the corner is a magnificent full-length fresco portrait of St. Francis of Assisi. It is labeled Fr. Franciscus and the saint is shown without the stigmata or a halo, indicating it was painted during his lifetime, before 1224. The eastern influence of the chapel's painters can especially be seen in this portrait - Francis is shown facing front and with one eye larger than the other, recalling the famous icon of Christ at St. Catherine's Monastery, Sinai.

A fresco to the left of the window shows Cardinal Ugolino (later Pope Gregory IX) consecrating this chapel. A friar is standing behind him, who appears also to be St. Francis; if so, this means he was present at the consecration.

Other frescoes in the chapel depict the Apparition of the Angel to Fr. Oddone; St. Michael the Archangel; the Crucifixion with Longinus, the sponge-bearer, the Virgin and St. John; the Savior Blessing; St. Peter and St. Paul; and the head of St. Onufrius. The vault is decorated with the Symbols of the Four Evangelists and Four Cherubim. The mural of the wounded Christ to the right of the window is an ex-voto of the 15th century. Outside the entrance is a fresco of St. Gregory the Great and Job, by the same school as the interior of the chapel. The vault in the entrance hall is decorated with peacocks and white swans.

Humility And Respectful Obedience

Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, Diocese of Steubenville, Ohio

"You must first convert the prelates by your humility and your respectful obedience. When they see the holy life that you lead and the respect you show them, they themselves will ask you to preach and convert the people; they will bring you your audience better than the privileges for which you clamor and which will lead you into pride."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Legend of Perugia - 115

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Friday, September 24, 2010

Please Support The Portiuncula Every Time You Search The Internet Or Shop On Line


Please help us duplicate this Portiuncula Chapel
found on the campus of the Franciscan University of Steubenville


What if the Portiuncula Hermitage earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or what if a percentage of every purchase you made on-line went to support our cause? Well, now it can!

GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half of its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up!

Although this may not sound like a lot of money, if only 1000 of our supporters use GoodSearch.com just 5 times per day for the year, the Portiuncula Hermitage would receive over $18,000 towards its mission of spreading God's love!

It's easy. Just download the GoodSearch – Portiuncula Franciscan Hermitage and Retreat Center toolbar at:

Website owners can also help by adding a customizable badge to their homepage or blog.

So please, make a commitment to browsing the Internet with GoodSearch.com with the Portiuncula Hermitage as your designated charity. Set it as your homepage, or bookmark it so using it becomes a habit.

As well, you can earn money for the Portiuncula Hermitage by doing your online shopping through GoodShop.com. It is a new online shopping mall which will donate up to 37 percent of each purchase to the Portiuncula Hermitage. Hundreds of popular stores, including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, Macy's and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop.com and every time you place an order, you'll be supporting our valuable mission.

By simply surfing the web with GoodSearch.com and shopping with GoodShop.com you can raise much-needed funds for the Portiuncula Hermitage!

PLEASE FORWARD THIS PRAYER REQUEST TO
EVERYONE IN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BOOK!

Pax Et Bonum!


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Monday, August 30, 2010

Mocking The Poor


Once blessed Francis had gone to the hermitage of the brothers near Roccabrizia to preach to the people of that region. Now, on the day of the sermon, a poor, miserable and sick man came in search of him. Blessed Francis was moved by his distress and spoke to his companion of his poverty and sickness. His companion answered him: "Brother, it is true, he is very poor, but perhaps there in no other man richer in desire in all providence than he." The saint chided him for having spoken so uncharitably, and the brother admitted his sin. Blessed Francis then said to him: "Are you willing to perform a penance I shall give you?" "Gladly," he said. "Well, take off your tunic and go throw yourself half clothed at the feet of the poor man; tell him how you have sinned against him, and ask him to pray that God may forgive you." The brother went and did what blessed Francis had prescribed...

Saint Francis of Assisi
Legend of Perugia - 89

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Friday, August 27, 2010

Suffer To Be Ruled


"The horse is a noble and useful creature; for in his swiftest course he suffers himself to be ruled, and turned hither and thither, backwards and forwards, according to the will of the rider; so likewise should it be with the servant of God, who should suffer himself to be ruled, guided, turned and bent, according to the will of his superior; nay, of all others, for the love of Christ.

Little Flowers of St. Francis
PART FOUR
Chapter V
Of Holy Patience

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Thursday, August 26, 2010

Catholic Church vs. Liberation Theology


by Chris Dickson



I am appalled by the naivete of our Church being duped into anti-Christian communism. Liberation theology is a threat to free society by its undermining of the Church and its Magisterium through attempting to redefine moral issues (changing the Gospel to support theology opposed to shaping theology as a result of the Gospel.)

Ignorance is not bliss and unless we familiarize ourselves with the dangers, then future generations will demand answers as to why we threw away our freedom in lieu of communism.

To quote Gustavo Gutierrez (the "father" of liberation theology,) "There is no evil in being subversive, struggling against the capitalist system...Liberation leads to reinterpreting the Gospel...As I have witnessed the power of Marxism to provide motivation for a life of service where none existed before, I have come to a new appreciation of this part of my own history. I cannot settle for any story of America that fails to give a central place to this vision."

Again, Roger Garaudy (one of France's foremost Marxist intellectuals) wrote, "Socialism is a traditional stage in the passage from capitalism to communism." Also, "When the established order involves such injustice that millions of men are exploited, oppressed, mutilated, and humiliated by this order, a revolution, even armed revolution, can be less costly and in the long run less 'violent' than this established disorder, which has become pure violence. Of this, incidentally, many Christians are today becoming conscious, including, for example, even priests and bishops in Latin America."

Charles E. Curran, no longer permitted by the Church to teach moral theology at Catholic universities, has stated,"Questions arise in the light of both the importance and the limitations of Scriptures. In the light of the most striking development has been the emergence of dissent within the Roman Catholic theological community from the teachings of the hierarchical magisterium on specific moral issues."

One cannot help but feel an air of approval when local archdiocesan newspapers print articles written by these people. Already we have seen a swing by our priests and educators away from the Church's doctrine of "norma normans non normata"(the Scriptures being the norm above all other norms by which all norms are taken) and are thus shown to question the Scripture's relevance in our daily lives.

Perhaps we need to seek the definition of a couple terms which seem to have taken on good and bad connotations in complete reversal of their intended meanings:

First of all, the term orthodoxy means "right praise," or consistency with the faith of the Church as embodied in Sacred Scripture, the Fathers, official teachings and the liturgy.

Libertaion theology, on the other hand, is defined as a new type of theology which emphasizes the motif of liberation in both Old and New Testaments and which reinterprets all doctrines in terms of that motif. Forms of liberation theology include Latin American, black and feminist.

Jesus "liberated" all of us from the bonds of oppression. Rather than reinterpreting the Gospel, perhaps we would be better served to "live it." This idea may not be popular with some in the Church today, but by returning to the basics of our faith, we will be truly liberated through the instruction of Sacred Scriptures if only we would accept Jesus as the catalyst of our lives.

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Bearing The Cross Of Christ In Our Hearts



God called St. Francis and his companions and chose them to bear the cross of Christ in their hearts and to preach it in word and action. That is why they looked like and were in fact crucified men in their comportment and in their austere life, in their deeds and actions. And that is why they wanted more to receive shame and insults for the love of Christ than the world's vain honors and respect or praise; and that is why they were saddened when they were honored. And so they went through the world as pilgrims and strangers, with Christ crucified as their only baggage.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Little Flowers of St. Francis - 5

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

A Small, Insignificant Man

Little Poor Friar V.V. of Jesus and Mary

Before Francis appeared before him, the Pope had had a vision that the church of Saint John Lateran was only saved from falling by being upheld on the shoulder of a small, insignificant man. He had awakened depressed and surprised, and, being wise and discreet, he had pondered long on the meaning of the vision. A few days later blessed Francis and the brothers came to him...Then when the Pope looked at Francis he compared his vision of the Lateran and began to say: "This is surely the holy and religious man by whom the church of God will be supported and upheld."

Saint Francis of Assisi
Legend of the Three Companions
Chapter XII

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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Father Tom Forrest Coming to Sunman, Indiana November 13, 2010



Fr. Gregory Bramlage & “Word of God” Prayer Ministry
invite you to spend a day with

Father Tom Forrest

November 13, 2010
East Central High School

St. Leon, Indiana


Father Forrest is a redemptorist priest who was ordained in New York in 1954 by Cardinal Spellman. For the first 23 years of his priesthood, he worked among the poor of the Caribbean. In 1978 he was elected director of the International Office for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. He served in this capacity for six years, first in Brussels and then in Rome.

Father Forrest has traveled to, and spoken in, 104 different countries and his articles and books have been translated into a number of languages. He has met and spoken with Pope John Paul II many times and on numerous occasions has attended breakfast, lunch and supper meetings with the Holy Father.

Father Forrest has organized two Worldwide Retreats for Priests, one in 1984 and the other in 1990. At present, he is the International Director of Evangelization 2000, a Catholic effort to promote Church renewal through prayer, proclamation of the Word and the formation of a more evangelistically activated people of God. He resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.


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Gossip




Blessed that religious who finds all his joy and happiness in the words and deeds of our Lord and uses them to make people love God gladly. Woe to the religious who amuses himself with silly gossip, trying to make people laugh.

Saint Francis of Assisi
The Admonitions
Admonition XXI

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Monday, August 23, 2010

Sublime Humility


In their pride, the demons take flight at the sight of the sublime virtue practices by those who are truly humble.

Saint Francis of Assisi
Bonaventure, Major Life
CHAPTER VI - 10

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

First Draw From Secret Prayers



"The preacher must first draw from secret prayers what he will later pour out in holy sermons; he must first grow hot within before he speaks words that are in themselves cold."

Saint Francis of Assisi

Celano, Second Life

Chapter CXXII



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Franciscus Christificatus



FRANCIS THOMPSON

Thief that has leaped Heaven's star-spiked wall!
Christ's exultant bacchanal!

Wine-smears on thy hand and foot

Of the Vine that struck its root
Deep in Virgin soul, and was

Trained against the reared Cross:

Nay, thy very side its stain

Hath, to make it redly plain

How in the wassail quaffed full part

That flown vintager, thy heart.

Christ in blood stamps Himself afresh

On thy Veronical-veil of flesh.


Lovers, looking with amaze on

Each other, would be that they gaze on:
So for man's love God would be

Man, and man for His love He:
What God in Christ, man has in thee.

God gazed on man and grew embodied,

Thou, on Him gazing, turn'st engodded!

But though he held thy brow-spread tent
His little Heaven above Him bent,
Thy scept'ring reed suffices thee,

Which smote Him into sovereignty.

Thou who thoughtest thee too low

For His priest, thou shalt not so

'Scape Him and unpriested go!
In thy hand thou wouldst not hold Him,

In thy flesh thou shalt enfold Him;

Bread wouldst not change into Him...ah see!
How He doth change Himself to thee!



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