Good news coverage of the Church and the Pope in Southwest Florida (Updated)

http://www.nbc-2.com/story/21412017/ave-maria-honors-pope-benedict-xvi-in-his-last-days

Update 2/28/13 16:10:

Also this on the service project the students did:
http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2013-02-28/Students-at-Ave-Maria-University-honor-the-pope

This one also was pretty good, although I didn’t realize H.E. Cardinal Dolan was liberal.
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2013/feb/28/ave-maria-honors-celebrates-service-of-outgoing/

Update 3/1/13 10:14:
One more video:
http://www.nbc-2.com/global/Category.asp?c=170893&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8519596

Update 3/1/13 16:53
http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2013-02-27/Ave-Maria-celebrates-Pope-Benedict-XVI

Call to DEEPER prayer and fasting

Dear friends and readers, presumably because I think only my friends read this blog!

What if for the remainder of the Sede Vacante period during Lent, we increase our fast and prayer for the Conclave and for the next Pope, and in thanksgiving for the Pope Emeritus. I hope that the Conclave is resolved quickly.

Anyone else in?

Time is ticking, please pray for the Pope

V. Let us pray for our Sovereign Pontiff, Benedict XVI.

R. The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.

A new blog found, and Pope Benedict, and Mozart

I found a new blog I really enjoy… or a conglomeration of blogs? Anyway here is the link to “Tolkien, Mozart, Plato, Latin, Phonetics, Music, the Cosmos, and everything else that has to do with Gregorian Chant”

“Everything is in perfect harmony in Mozart, every note, every musical phrase is as it is and could not be otherwise; even those opposed are reconciled; it is called ‘mozart’sche Heiterkeit’ (Mozart’s serenity), which envelops everything, every moment. It is a gift of the Grace of God, but it is also the fruit of Mozart’s lively faith that, especially in sacred music, is able to reflect the luminous response of divine love, which gives hope, even when human life is lacerated by suffering and death.”

What a great thought to have His Holiness leave the Petrine Office.

Colloquium on the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI at Ave Maria University

After discussing how Cardinal Ratzinger prayed the nuptial Mass for he and his wife, Anthony Valle discussed the humility of His Holiness:

“I like to refer to him as Pope Benedict the Little.”

When they were in Umbria for their honeymoon, and received a package from Cardinal Ratzinger: “Truth and Tolerance” In a cloth bound binding, with a simple greeting to the newly married couple.

I wish I had a recording of this wonderful anecdote that Mr. Valle told. It was incredibly beautiful.

The Pope’s final audience

1. I enjoy that the woman said, “hey look, the pope mobile… Or in Italian papa mobilé.”

2. It’s wonderful to see so many people there!

3. I love that the Pope still blessed a baby.

4. Huge banner: “You are Peter and we young people love you.”

5. Even more blessing of babies!

6. The announcer really likes saying papa mobilé.

7. What an ingenious idea that we’d start an international meeting in Latin.

8. The Eastern Bishops look warmer than all the others. But I like all the sunglasses.

9. “I see a church that is alive.” – Pope Benedict XVI

10. “The weight on my shoulders is very great, but if you ask me I will let down the nets.”

11. “But I always knew it was the Lords boat.”

12. “People do not write to me as a prince or someone they do not know,” but as a family. Wow! Just wow!

13. “I am not abandoning the cross, I remain in a new way at the foot of the crucified Lord.”

14. Wow! That crowd!

15. I’m glad that papal blessings can go out through the radio and television. What a great joy!

16. “Thank you, Holy Father.”

17. “Ask each of you to pray for me and for the new Pope.”

18. I love all the Bavarian flags! And also this German Monsignor is cool! Yay Bavarian bands!

19. 150,000 present! And I believe it, or more!

20. I wonder if they are using two different words, or if the translator just wants to have variety of “ship” and “boat.” It reminds me that the ship of Peter is a battleship not a cruise ship, as the wise bishop stated a couple weeks ago.

21. Arabic greeting? I hope there are thousands of Arab pilgrims in the crowd right now! What a wonderful Church we have. I really wish there was a translation! C’mon Vatican radio.

22. Today I start to learn Polish. It promised me I would be able to speak it in 10 days… So next pope I can understand this part of the audience.

23. Wow, the Czech president is leading a pilgrimage to Rome?! Are you kidding me?! Awesome!

24. “I expect a very loud cheer from the Italians in St. Peter’s.” yeah….. Probably!

25. What a great voice the Holy Father sings in!

A different type of Garden: The Pope and Swiss Guard

I saw this quote in the reporting by VIS (Vatican Information Service):

The Sede Vacante will begin at 8:00pm and the Swiss Guards assigned to him at Castel Gandolfo will take their leave, as their corps is dedicated to the safe-guarding of the Roman Pontiff. Instead, the Vatican Gendarmerie will take over the Pope emeritus’ safety detail.

How interesting how the world works. I am immediately brought to the Garden with Christ, being left alone. Of course, the future Pope emeritus, will not be that alone. In his own spiritual journey, the Holy Father is about to leave his public ministry behind (presumably), and enter into a period of prayer and meditation. For the rest of his life on this earth he will be devoted to praying, and I can only imagine the good that will occur through the fruits of his efforts.

May God preserve the Pope, and make him blessed on the earth.

Ave Maria University: Events to Honor His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI

Spread the news across Florida! Sorry about the size!

Just in case you can’t read the font here is the better PDF:

Pope Benedict Flyer.pdf small

Also:

Wednesday, February 27th
Masses of Thanksgiving for the Petrine Ministry of Pope Benedict XVI
7:30 am
12:00 pm Novus Ordo Latin
5:00 pm

Student-organized Panel (Sponsored by Filii in Filio Household)
On the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI and its contributions to the Life of the Church
5:00 pm Demetree Lecture Hall (Academic building on campus)
Dr. Michael Waldstein
Fr. Matthew Lamb
Mr. Anthony Valle

Eucharistic Holy Hour
7:00 pm Oratory
Meditation by Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.

Thursday, February 28th
Student Service Ministry
“Deus Caritas Est” Service Event
11:00am – 2:00pm Student Union Ballroom
Students Preparing Meals for the poor in Immokalee

Board of Truestees Mass
Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
5:00 pm – Oratory
Homily by Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J. will honor the legacy of the Pope Emeritus

Lecture
“The Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI”
7:30 pm Demetree Lecture Hall
Dr. Michael Waldstein

I am worried about our generation, but when hope shines, it shines blindingly bright.

Yesterday, after Mass I ran into an acquaintance outside of the coffee shop. She is a graduate student at Ave Maria University, and instead of having a brief conversation with her, as I had planned, it turned into a four hour dialogue on the state of things in our world. Ranging from sin to courtship, and almost any topic you could imagine. We were joined periodically by our mutual friend, and undergraduate student who has spent many years in the Air Force, and it became incredible. After our long, long discussion, we all decided to grab dinner, and when I sat down to order, I realized I was absolutely exhausted! I don’t think I have had such a strong intellectual conversation with people in a long time… but more importantly, my friends grasped the deeper spiritual aspects of all of our subjects.

This conversation was not simply a superficial overview, but an in depth spiritual struggle over what we as humans actually go through. Its one thing, for instance, to say that this type of sin or that type is “bad,” but what do we as Christians have as a responsibility of forgiveness. If in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes the commandment beyond just the physical, are we to hold people who commit a sin of the mind to the same standard as those who commit a sin with the rest of their body? How do we account for the temporal effects of sin while still allowing for the growth of a person?

Then I was promised the ability to read the thesis this young woman wrote on modesty, incorporating Theology of the Body, and the woman’s perspective. I’m thoroughly looking forward to expanding my understanding on these subjects from outside my own, and fellow men’s, mind!

Dinner was joined with new people, and those turned out to have incredible work in the missions, with their friends, or with their family. All dedicated to God out of love. Absolutely the most incredible student body that I’ve dealt with on the whole.

Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us!

Refutation of Sola Scriptura

Our Protestant friends, in whatever reinvention they prefer to call themselves (non-denom, Christ-followers,etc), generally teach Sola Fides (by faith alone, are they saved) and Sola Scriptura (Only the scriptures “count”). For the Catholic receiving the fullness of faith from the hands of the Apostles, passed down from age to age, it is hard for us to have conversations about where we get Christ’s teachings. We must look first at the fact that our God is a God of the Living, not a God of the dead. Here we generally enter into other arguments regarding the Saints, but let me stay focused for just a little bit.

Despite the obvious statement in John 21:25, how can we help spread the good news of the Gospel if we’re confined to “just” a book. That being said, the “just” a book being Divinely Inspired, WOULD be enough, if we were not offered something greater.

Do you really believe that this divine Truth [Christ, Our Lord] would come to this earth, speak a few words, and allow them to be wafted away by a Galilean breeze. It is absurd to believe that He Who wrote only once in His life, AND THAT WAS IN THE SANDS, and Who never told anyone to write, should have intended that His truth should be available only and exclusively in a few memoranda that were written down by a few followers over twenty years after His death, and were never gathered together in their approved form until three centuries later? Grant that they are inspired and revealed, and I believe it and confess it and read those writings daily; but I still say it is unthinkable that these books which were not written until His Mystical Body was already spread throughout the whole Roman Empire, should be His only way of communicating truth… Come, oh Christ, not with a dead truth, but with a living, breathing, speaking truth which is the truth of God to lead the world from darkness into the light. Come with it, even though Thou hast to use human nature to communicate it now as Thou didn’t then. (Go To Heaven, Archbishop Sheen p. 88-89)

That being said, we have one of two responses. The first: we each should interpret Jesus in our own time and place, and however we feel like it. The second: we should have the Authority given by Christ, the King of the Universe, to His apostles, who taught and teach and have passed on the knowledge of Christ in unbroken line from the time of Pentecost.

While on that subject, let us pray for Benedict, our Pope.