Archive for the ‘Priests & Parishes’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

A Prayer While Driving to Mass

Sunday, April 28th, 2019

Years ago Father Paul Wolfer would remind worshipers of the four purposes of the Mass—Adoration, Reparation, Thanksgiving, and Petition. He has long gone to his eternal reward, and we have thought it good to keep reminding ourselves of these built-in aspects of the Mass. Thus, we pray as follows as we drive to Mass. –John & Sheila K.

Heavenly Father, we (or I) offer You this Mass today in adoration of the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We offer this Mass in reparation for our sins, the sins of our families, and for all the sins committed this day against the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

We offer you this Mass in thanksgiving for the whole work of creation and redemption, for the work of the prophets, for the special work of John the Baptist, for sending your Divine Son to save us, for everything that Jesus said and did and taught us, for all of his miracles, for giving us his own Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist, for suffering and dying for us on the cross, for his glorious Resurrection and Ascension into heaven, for the outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and for the gift of all the Sacraments.

We thank you for all the priests who will celebrate Mass this day, especially those who will celebrate Mass in faith, obedience, reverence and personal chastity. We thank you for the priests who are using our (NFPI) resources to help their couples and to advance the mission of the Church, and we ask you to increase their number. We thank you for our students, and we pray that they will accept the teaching of your Church and be generous in having children.

We offer this Mass in thanksgiving for every blessing You have given us personally, especially for the families we were brought up in, for the educations we received, for our providential meeting and marriage, for the gift of our children and their spouses and their families, and for our grandchildren and any of their friends who are helping them on the narrow road that leads to eternal life.

We offer You this Mass in thanksgiving for excellent health almost all the time, for the health problems you have allowed us to encounter, and for all the healings you have brought about in us and members of our family. We thank you for the freedom to worship at Mass without fear of persecution and for the ease we have in getting to Mass.

We offer this Mass in solemn petition for authentic reform and renewal in the Church, for all the missionary works of the Church, for a rebirth of chastity, for a stop to abortion and contraception and sodomy, and for a culture of purity and life—all throughout the Church, our country and the world.

We offer this Mass for faith and perseverance for all those who are being persecuted for the Faith today; we offer this Mass for a stop to persecution of the Church; and we offer this Mass for a healing of divisions within the Church and for unity of Faith among all Christians.

We offer this Mass in petition for the conversion of Islam, for the conversion of the Jews, and for the conversion of China and North Korea and all other lands under the heavy hand of atheistic communism. We offer this Mass for the conversion of North America, for the re-conversion of Latin America and Europe, and for good government all throughout the world.

We offer this Mass also in solemn petition for all our personal needs and those of our families and friends—for an increase of faith, hope, love, purity and contrition, for a deep and true spirit of religion and discipleship, and for the gifts of wisdom and Christian prudence,

We pray this Mass for the continuation of good health, for the healing of all those for whom we have been asked to pray, for adequate employment throughout the world, and for a true spirit of Christian generosity.

We offer all of this in the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit and through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Amen.

Posted in Priests & Parishes, Spirituality | Comments Off on A Prayer While Driving to Mass

Who are the faithful laity?

Sunday, December 16th, 2018

Cardinal Walter Brandmuller, an esteemed Church historian, has called for a new level of cooperation between bishops and committed lay Catholics to renew and revive the Church.  This is the subject of a full-page editorial by Robert Moynihan in the November issue of Inside the Vatican.  As the Cardinal urges and as Moynihan agrees, this could be very helpful.  “The more the hierarchy, from the Pope down, feel supported by the effective resolve of the faithful to renew and revive the Church, the more a true housecleaning can be performed, he (the Cardinal) says.”

Certainly we agree.  From our experience, however, a question arises.  Where are the bishops going to find these laity resolved to renew and revive the Church?  According to surveys, 95% to 98% of fertile-age Catholics are using unnatural forms of birth control.  As Martin Luther pointed some 500 years ago, unnatural forms of birth control are a form of sodomy.  And the sin of marital sodomy is in the same class as sins of mutually acceptable sodomy by the unmarried, whether lay or priests.  Both marital sodomy and priestly sodomy are violations of their respective covenants, both take apart what God has put together as the norm for human sexuality, and thus both are intrinsically dishonest.

Thus it is important that a screening process takes place before numbers of laity are called upon to work with the bishops for authentic renewal within the Church.  At the very least, all prospective lay cooperators should sign a statement of full acceptance of the teaching of Humanae Vitae.  And, of course, that should be required of all bishops who are engaged in any effort to bring about authentic renewal within the Church.

John F. Kippley

 

Posted in Evangelization, Humanae Vitae, Priests & Parishes | Comments Off on Who are the faithful laity?

Natural Family Planning: Ideal or Norm

Sunday, December 9th, 2018

Occasionally one reads that  “NFP is promoted as an ideal option for couples.”  For 50 years I have seen the use of only natural methods of conception regulation treated as an “ideal” with the inference that such an ideal cannot be attained by normal married couples.  The reality is that chaste NFP is not an “ideal” in the sense of something nice but necessary, anymore than marital fidelity is such an “ideal.” NFP is the norm when couples have a sufficiently serious reason to postpone or avoid pregnancy.

Also, what is usually not taught is Ecological Breastfeeding both for the tremendous benefits for baby and mother and also for its natural spacing of births.  Seminarians, priests and bishops deserve and need to know this reality.  They would do themselves a great favor by obtaining a copy of our NFP manual, “Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach.”  I recommend the coil-bound edition because it lies flat so easily.

Chapter 1 in this manual is an exercise in evangelization.  Chapter 6 is devoted to Ecological Breastfeeding.  I regret to say that no other organization teaches this.  Every year, researchers publish new benefits of breastfeeding, and Ecological Breastfeeding maximizes these benefits because many of them are dose-related.

When we founded the Couple to Couple League at St. Odilia’s parish in the fall of 1971, we included the teaching of Ecological Breastfeeding as part of our standard instruction.  I think that the enthusiasm that many couples had for this contributed greatly to the spread of CCL throughout the 70s.  Unfortunately, in its self-styled “Extreme Makeover” of 2007, the CCL management completely dropped that teaching of ecological breastfeeding along with the teaching of the covenant theology of the marriage act.

Couples cannot choose to practice Ecological Breastfeeding unless they are taught about it.  That’s the simple reality of the first principle of psychology.  That’s why seminarians, priests and bishops need to learn these things so that they can later encourage and teach them. Some couples have learned that they can use ecological breastfeeding alone to space the births of their children. It is God’s plan for families.

John F. Kippley

Posted in CCL, Ecological Breastfeeding, NFP, Priests & Parishes | Comments Off on Natural Family Planning: Ideal or Norm

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »