March 30th to April 5th

Saturday 4th April
Bundoora Park Farmers' Market
Daylesford Farmers' Market
East Gippsland Farmers' Market
Echuca Farmers' Market
Healesville Organic Farmers' Market
Hume-Murray Farmers' Market
Kingston Farmers' Market
Murrabit Country Market
Myrtleford Community Produce Market
South Gippsland Farmers' Market
Tatong Farmers' Market
Veg Out St. Kilda Farmers' Market


Sunday 5th April

Hurtsbridge Farmers' Markets (new market)
When: 1st Sunday
Time: 8.30am - 1pm
Where: Fergusons Paddock, Hurtsbridge - Arthurs Creek Rd, Hurtsbridge

Castlemaine Famers' Market
Gisborne Olde Time Market
Heathmont Farmers' Market

Memento Mori

If you were now on the point of death, already in your agony and almost breathing your last, and about to appear before the Divine Tribunal, what would you not wish to have done for God? And what would you not give for a little more time to make your salvation more secure. Woe to me, if I did not make use of the light that is now given to me, and amend my life! He hath called against me the time (Lamentations 1:15).

The time which is now granted to me by the mercy of God will be a great torment and a subject of bitter remorse to me at the hour of death, when time shall be for me no more.
O Jesus, Thou didst spend Thy whole life for my salvation, and I have been many years in the world, and yet what have I hitherto done for Thee? Alas! all that I have done gives me only pain and remorse of conscience.

O my God, I will no longer abuse the time and the light Thou affordest me, but which I have hitherto so much abused. I thank Thee for this fresh admonition which may be the last Thou wilt ever give me. But since at present Thou thus enlightenest me, it is a mark that Thou hast not yet abandoned me, and art desirous of showing me mercy. My beloved Saviour, I am sorry above all things for having so often despised Thy graces and neglected Thy calls and inspirations. I promise with Thy help nevermore to offend Thee.

Child of God,

the Lord now gives you time;

be then resolved.

In what way will you spend it?

What do you wait for?

Memento Mori!

Remember Death!

Vale, O valde decora!

The last image to be veiled.

The Mother of God of Perpetual Succour remained unveiled

for Her Novena of Prayers this evening.

After Night Prayers the veil came down

and with all the other sacred images

She will remain enpurpled

and, as it were, mourning

until Resurrection night,

now fourteen days away.

Lent has ended.

Tonight we enter

Passiontide.

Vale o valde decora,

Et pro nobis Christum exora.

Farewell, O most comely!

Prevail upon Christ to pity us.

Time for Spiritual Sunday Sharing

Boy does the time fly by. I was just sitting and wondering if Ginger had started the Spiritual Sundays for this week when it dawned on me. It's not Ginger's turn, it's mine. (We take turns each week as you probably have noticed.)So without further adieu, let's get started. If you are new to this blog, you can click here for more information on how to participate. We always encourage new people to

Vespers

Vespers

Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary

Denton, Nebraska

Coped Assistants at Solemn Vespers

- Carmelite Monks of Wyoming -

Coped Assistants at Solemn Vespers
- Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer -

Ordinations to the Subdiaconate in Nebraska

Photographs of the Ordinations to the Subdiaconate

celebrated for the Fraternity of St. Peter in Nebraska

by

Bishop Perry, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago.

The five seminarian Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer

either assisted or sang in the choir;

two can be seen, one on either side of the aisle in the second pews.

#156 -- Aging

Well, we're all as old as we have ever been, and we're all at different stages of considering the aging process. What thoughts do you have on the subject? 

5 years ago -A Basilica for the Immaculate

In the spirit of “Friend lost never was”

I recall a happy event of five years ago. Five years ago today, I was in France with Fr. Anthony for the Enthronment of the statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the Basilica that had been built by Fr. Raffali, father and founder of the Oeuvre de l’Etoile (The Work of the Star) near Nimes in France.

How about that frying pan?

It was a quiet occasion but not without its own splendour. For many years Father Raffali had been building a Basilica “for Our Lady.” That in itself is a wonderful project and its completion after many years was worthy of celebration. We had watched the progress of the building wondering if it could be more than its basement where until five years ago, Mass had always been offered.

It was a touching moment when Father carried the beloved statue of the basement to its new place of entronement over the High Altar.

Consecration before the Immaculate Heart of Mary
Those who participated in the ceremony
A majestic and fervent preacher of Her Glories

Fr. Raffali is a priest of the diocese of Nimes. His many years of priesthood have been centered on his small school for boys in a work called ‘l’Oeuvre de l’Etoile’ referring to Our Lady who is given the title ‘Star of the Sea.’ Father is a man of books and since the day is taken up with running every aspect of his school, he spends many hours at night studying and reading (including the Fathers in Greek).

I ask you to please pray for Father Maurice Raffali. He is a convinced ‘hard’ when it comes to all that concerns the crisis in the Church but we know that his great love after God is She who is all powerful in Heaven by Her intercession. Please offer your rosaries for this hard working priest that the Queen of Heaven whom he so willed to honour by building Her a basilica will enlighten his mind and turn him to recognise the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for Him

March 23rd to March 29th

Saturday March 28th

Ballarat Lakeside Farmers' Market
Casey/Berwick Farmers' Market
Churchill Island Farmers' Market
Healesville Organic Farmers' Market
Lancefield District Farmers' Market
Slow Food Farmers' Market
Traralgon Farmers' Market
Yarraville Farmers' Market


Sunday March 29th
Steels Creek Revival Farmers' Market
Yileena Park Winery
271 Steels Creek Road
Open: 9am to 3pm

The myth of my solitude

Aboard the flight to Africa Pope Benedict was asked:
"Many newspapers speak of the 'solitude' of the Pope.
What is your view on this?
Do you really feel alone?"

Pope Benedict XVI replied:

"To tell the truth

this myth of my solitude makes me laugh.

I do not feel alone at all.

Every day I hold meetings with my closest collaborators, first among them the secretary of State. I see all heads of the dicasteries regularly, each day I receive bishops on their ad limina visits: lately all the visits have been bishops, one after another, from Nigeria and from Argentina. We had two plenary assemblies --one of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the other of the Congregation for Clergy. We had some friendly discussions, we are a network of friends. Besides, my Mass companions from Germany came recently for a day to talk to me."
"Truly, I am surrounded by friends in a marvelous collaboration with bishops, with my collaborators, and with lay people, and I am grateful for this."

Welcome Back

This is the first weekend of Spring, it's such a beautiful time of year the Lord is so good! I always look forward to our Sunday's together and we always look forward to meeting new people that have just found us. If you would like to read more about Spiritual Sunday please click HERE . God Bless,Ginger1. Charlotte 2.

#155 - "I come from..."

The prompt this week is, "I come from..." or if you like you could try, "I came from..." This is all about your perspective. Where did you start? Where do you start? How did it all begin? Where do you stand right now? Where exactly do you come from?

March 16th to March 22nd

Saturday 21st March
Booroondara Farmers' Market
Buninyong Farmers' Market
Carlton Gardens Farmer's Market
Central Murray Farmers' Market
Drouin Farmers' Market
Echuca Farmers' Market
Gasworks Farmers' Market
Hume Murray Farmers' Market
Moyhu Farmers' Market
Pearcedale Farmers' Market
Port Fairy Farmers' Market
Riddells Creek Farmers' Market
Sunraysia Farmers' Market
Wellington Farmers' Market
Wheelers Hill Farmers' Market

Sunday 22nd March
Templestowe Rotary Farmers' Market

Papa Stronsay Texts

Feast of St. Clement Hofbauer

We are delighted to make known to you our new blogspot called:

"Papa Stronsay Texts

- Redemptorist Necrologies that are too good to be lost."

Reference:

http://www.papastronsaytexts.blogspot.com/

We have linked to this blog on the left hand side under our 'References.'

This site will specialise in reproducing

necrologies or lives of

Redemptorists and Redemptoristines;

not necessarily the ones who will be canonised,

but all the same great people

who have served God

by the gift of their lives.

The record of their lives

serve to inspire us

to likewise give ourselves to God.

These lives have been described as being "too good to be lost!" They are all recorded from old pages, pamphlets or bits of books; images too are in danger of being lost, one is here from a Memento card. Some were machine typed others were handwritten, many have only been published privately; all were in danger of being lost forever. We do not want that to happen.

At this stage there are only three such necrologies to hand. More, and many more we hope, will be added as the Necrologist finds moments of spare time to occupy himself with his labour of love. Little by little the site will grow.

The text on "The Servant of God, Father Pampalon, C.SS.R." was a machine typed translation from French that had been discarded from a monastery library. The translation was poor, but the story had been typed onto bits of note book paper and it had then been sewn together by hand; it was probably a work of poverty and devotion by an admirer of the holy priest. Now the endangered work is in cyberspace and the typed pages are available everywhere thanks to the person who worked on the text for us. The life of Father Villanacci, C.SS.R. has been translated from Latin by a friend. What a wonderful photo! He made himself look very poor to save the poor embarrasment when he visited them. A real saint who was loved by all in Pagani (where the body of St. Alphonsus lies). He had thousands of people at his funeral. The interesting life of Father Van Der Straeten, C.SS.R. has been typed from an old book in French. Perhaps somebody will translate it and send us an English text. For the time being it remains in French.

WELCOME

It is so nice to have new people joining us almost every week to share their Spiritual Sundays post with us. We appreciate all the lovely comments so many of you have made to us. We have met many wonderful people out there in blogland because of this blog. We are happy that even non-bloggers come here to go to the links  to be uplifted. If you are not sharing a post on your blog you do not need

#154 -- Dear Past Me, Dear Future Me

This week's prompt is a suggestion from Sunday Scribblings participant Karen Turnbull. Thanks, Karen! (Feel free to email Laini and Meg prompt suggestions!)

March 9th to March 15th

Saturday 14th March

Ballarat Lakeside Farmers' Market
Cardinia Ranges Farmers' Market
Caulfield Farmers' Market
Central Geelong Farmers' Market
Collingwood Farmers' Market
Croydon Farmers' Market
Healesville Organic Farmers' Market
Kyneton Farmers' Market
Metung Farmers' Market
Mont de Lancey Farmers' Market
Mornington Farmers' Market
Myrtleford Community Produce Market
Violet Town Community Market

Sunday 15th March

Inverloch Farmers' Market
Seaford Farmers' Market
Talbot Farmers' Market
Yarra Valley Farmers' Market

Letter of Pope Benedict XVI

LETTER

OF HIS HOLINESS

POPE BENEDICT XVI
TO THE BISHOPS

OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
concerning

the remission of the excommunication
of the four Bishops

consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre

Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry!

The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and was difficult to view positively in the light of the issues and tasks facing the Church today. Even though many Bishops and members of the faithful were disposed in principle to take a positive view of the Pope’s concern for reconciliation, the question remained whether such a gesture was fitting in view of the genuinely urgent demands of the life of faith in our time. Some groups, on the other hand, openly accused the Pope of wanting to turn back the clock to before the Council: as a result, an avalanche of protests was unleashed, whose bitterness laid bare wounds deeper than those of the present moment. I therefore feel obliged to offer you, dear Brothers, a word of clarification, which ought to help you understand the concerns which led me and the competent offices of the Holy See to take this step. In this way I hope to contribute to peace in the Church.

An unforeseen mishap for me was the fact that the Williamson case came on top of the remission of the excommunication. The discreet gesture of mercy towards four Bishops ordained validly but not legitimately suddenly appeared as something completely different: as the repudiation of reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and thus as the reversal of what the Council had laid down in this regard to guide the Church’s path. A gesture of reconciliation with an ecclesial group engaged in a process of separation thus turned into its very antithesis: an apparent step backwards with regard to all the steps of reconciliation between Christians and Jews taken since the Council – steps which my own work as a theologian had sought from the beginning to take part in and support. That this overlapping of two opposed processes took place and momentarily upset peace between Christians and Jews, as well as peace within the Church, is something which I can only deeply deplore. I have been told that consulting the information available on the internet would have made it possible to perceive the problem early on. I have learned the lesson that in the future in the Holy See we will have to pay greater attention to that source of news. I was saddened by the fact that even Catholics who, after all, might have had a better knowledge of the situation, thought they had to attack me with open hostility. Precisely for this reason I thank all the more our Jewish friends, who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust which – as in the days of Pope John Paul II – has also existed throughout my pontificate and, thank God, continues to exist.

Another mistake, which I deeply regret, is the fact that the extent and limits of the provision of 21 January 2009 were not clearly and adequately explained at the moment of its publication. The excommunication affects individuals, not institutions. An episcopal ordination lacking a pontifical mandate raises the danger of a schism, since it jeopardizes the unity of the College of Bishops with the Pope. Consequently the Church must react by employing her most severe punishment – excommunication – with the aim of calling those thus punished to repent and to return to unity. Twenty years after the ordinations, this goal has sadly not yet been attained. The remission of the excommunication has the same aim as that of the punishment: namely, to invite the four Bishops once more to return. This gesture was possible once the interested parties had expressed their recognition in principle of the Pope and his authority as Pastor, albeit with some reservations in the area of obedience to his doctrinal authority and to the authority of the Council. Here I return to the distinction between individuals and institutions. The remission of the excommunication was a measure taken in the field of ecclesiastical discipline: the individuals were freed from the burden of conscience constituted by the most serious of ecclesiastical penalties. This disciplinary level needs to be distinguished from the doctrinal level. The fact that the Society of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical status in the Church is not, in the end, based on disciplinary but on doctrinal reasons. As long as the Society does not have a canonical status in the Church, its ministers do not exercise legitimate ministries in the Church. There needs to be a distinction, then, between the disciplinary level, which deals with individuals as such, and the doctrinal level, at which ministry and institution are involved. In order to make this clear once again: until the doctrinal questions are clarified, the Society has no canonical status in the Church, and its ministers – even though they have been freed of the ecclesiastical penalty – do not legitimately exercise any ministry in the Church.

In light of this situation, it is my intention henceforth to join the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" – the body which has been competent since 1988 for those communities and persons who, coming from the Society of Saint Pius X or from similar groups, wish to return to full communion with the Pope – to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This will make it clear that the problems now to be addressed are essentially doctrinal in nature and concern primarily the acceptance of the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar magisterium of the Popes. The collegial bodies with which the Congregation studies questions which arise (especially the ordinary Wednesday meeting of Cardinals and the annual or biennial Plenary Session) ensure the involvement of the Prefects of the different Roman Congregations and representatives from the world’s Bishops in the process of decision-making. The Church’s teaching authority cannot be frozen in the year 1962 – this must be quite clear to the Society. But some of those who put themselves forward as great defenders of the Council also need to be reminded that Vatican II embraces the entire doctrinal history of the Church. Anyone who wishes to be obedient to the Council has to accept the faith professed over the centuries, and cannot sever the roots from which the tree draws its life.

I hope, dear Brothers, that this serves to clarify the positive significance and also the limits of the provision of 21 January 2009. But the question still remains: Was this measure needed? Was it really a priority? Aren’t other things perhaps more important? Of course there are more important and urgent matters. I believe that I set forth clearly the priorities of my pontificate in the addresses which I gave at its beginning. Everything that I said then continues unchanged as my plan of action. The first priority for the Successor of Peter was laid down by the Lord in the Upper Room in the clearest of terms: "You… strengthen your brothers" (Lk 22:32). Peter himself formulated this priority anew in his first Letter: "Always be prepared to make a defence to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet 3:15). In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses "to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects.

Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time. A logical consequence of this is that we must have at heart the unity of all believers. Their disunity, their disagreement among themselves, calls into question the credibility of their talk of God. Hence the effort to promote a common witness by Christians to their faith – ecumenism – is part of the supreme priority. Added to this is the need for all those who believe in God to join in seeking peace, to attempt to draw closer to one another, and to journey together, even with their differing images of God, towards the source of Light – this is interreligious dialogue. Whoever proclaims that God is Love "to the end" has to bear witness to love: in loving devotion to the suffering, in the rejection of hatred and enmity – this is the social dimension of the Christian faith, of which I spoke in the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

So if the arduous task of working for faith, hope and love in the world is presently (and, in various ways, always) the Church’s real priority, then part of this is also made up of acts of reconciliation, small and not so small. That the quiet gesture of extending a hand gave rise to a huge uproar, and thus became exactly the opposite of a gesture of reconciliation, is a fact which we must accept. But I ask now: Was it, and is it, truly wrong in this case to meet half-way the brother who "has something against you" (cf. Mt 5:23ff.) and to seek reconciliation? Should not civil society also try to forestall forms of extremism and to incorporate their eventual adherents – to the extent possible – in the great currents shaping social life, and thus avoid their being segregated, with all its consequences? Can it be completely mistaken to work to break down obstinacy and narrowness, and to make space for what is positive and retrievable for the whole? I myself saw, in the years after 1988, how the return of communities which had been separated from Rome changed their interior attitudes; I saw how returning to the bigger and broader Church enabled them to move beyond one-sided positions and broke down rigidity so that positive energies could emerge for the whole. Can we be totally indifferent about a community which has 491 priests, 215 seminarians, 6 seminaries, 88 schools, 2 university-level institutes, 117 religious brothers, 164 religious sisters and thousands of lay faithful? Should we casually let them drift farther from the Church? I think for example of the 491 priests. We cannot know how mixed their motives may be. All the same, I do not think that they would have chosen the priesthood if, alongside various distorted and unhealthy elements, they did not have a love for Christ and a desire to proclaim him and, with him, the living God. Can we simply exclude them, as representatives of a radical fringe, from our pursuit of reconciliation and unity? What would then become of them?

Certainly, for some time now, and once again on this specific occasion, we have heard from some representatives of that community many unpleasant things – arrogance and presumptuousness, an obsession with one-sided positions, etc. Yet to tell the truth, I must add that I have also received a number of touching testimonials of gratitude which clearly showed an openness of heart. But should not the great Church also allow herself to be generous in the knowledge of her great breadth, in the knowledge of the promise made to her? Should not we, as good educators, also be capable of overlooking various faults and making every effort to open up broader vistas? And should we not admit that some unpleasant things have also emerged in Church circles? At times one gets the impression that our society needs to have at least one group to which no tolerance may be shown; which one can easily attack and hate. And should someone dare to approach them – in this case the Pope – he too loses any right to tolerance; he too can be treated hatefully, without misgiving or restraint.

Dear Brothers, during the days when I first had the idea of writing this letter, by chance, during a visit to the Roman Seminary, I had to interpret and comment on Galatians 5:13-15. I was surprised at the directness with which that passage speaks to us about the present moment: "Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself’. But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another." I am always tempted to see these words as another of the rhetorical excesses which we occasionally find in Saint Paul. To some extent that may also be the case. But sad to say, this "biting and devouring" also exists in the Church today, as expression of a poorly understood freedom. Should we be surprised that we too are no better than the Galatians? That at the very least we are threatened by the same temptations? That we must always learn anew the proper use of freedom? And that we must always learn anew the supreme priority, which is love? The day I spoke about this at the Major Seminary, the feast of Our Lady of Trust was being celebrated in Rome. And so it is: Mary teaches us trust. She leads us to her Son, in whom all of us can put our trust. He will be our guide – even in turbulent times. And so I would like to offer heartfelt thanks to all the many Bishops who have lately offered me touching tokens of trust and affection, and above all assured me of their prayers. My thanks also go to all the faithful who in these days have given me testimony of their constant fidelity to the Successor of Saint Peter. May the Lord protect all of us and guide our steps along the way of peace. This is the prayer that rises up instinctively from my heart at the beginning of this Lent, a liturgical season particularly suited to interior purification, one which invites all of us to look with renewed hope to the light which awaits us at Easter.

With a special Apostolic Blessing, I remain
Yours in the Lord,

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

From the Vatican, 10 March 2009

A Great Mistake

If it be a great mistake, as has been already said, to converse mistrustfully with God, to be always coming before Him as a slave, full of fear and confusion, comes before his prince, trembling with dread, it would be a greater to think that conversing with God is but weariness and bitterness. No, it is not so: Her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness. Ask those souls who love him with a true love, and they will tell you that in the sorrows of their life they find no greater, no truer relief, than in a loving converse with God.

Now this does not require that you continually apply your mind to it, so as to forget all your employments and recreations. It only requires of you, without putting these aside, to act towards God as you act on occasion towards those who love you and whom you love.

Your God is ever near you, nay, within you: In Him we live, and move, and be. There is no barrier at the door against any who desire to speak with Him; nay, God delights that you should treat with Him confidently.

Treat with Him of your business,

your plans, your griefs,

your fears,

of all that concerns you.

Above all,

do so with confidence,

with an open heart.

For God is not wont to speak to the soul that speaks not to Him ; forasmuch as, if it be not used to converse with Him, it would little understand His voice when He spoke to it. And this is what the Lord complains of: Our sister is little : what shall we do to our sister in the day when she is to be spoken to? Our sister is but a child in my love ; what shall we do to speak to her if she understand Me not ?

God will have Himself esteemed

the Lord of surpassing power and terribleness,

when we despise His grace;

but, on the contrary,

He will have himself treated with

as the most affectionate friend when we love him;

and to this end

He would have us often speak with Him

familiarly and without restraint.
St. Alphonsus, How to Converse Familiarly with God, Part III

Hello Everyone

It is my favorite time of the week. I always look forward to reading what everyone has to say. I also look forward to all the new people who have decided to join in on this spiritual fun. If your new and don't want to make a post but would like to leave a comment please feel free to do so, we look forward in reading your comments as well.God Bless,GingerSpiritual Sundays Participants