The Dominican Friars of the Dominican House of Studies invite you to join them for the celebration of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:

CHRISTMAS EVE

5:30 pm - First Vespers of Christmas
11:00 pm - Solemn Liturgy of the Office of Vigils and Midnight Mass

CHRISTMAS DAY

10:30 am - Lauds of Christmas Day (Morning Prayer)
11:15 am - Mass of Christmas Day
7:00 pm - Solemn Second Vespers of Christmas

It is a Dominican tradition to Chant the Litany of Loretto to the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturdays and Marian feasts after Compline. The Order even has a special (and quite beautiful) tone for chanting the litany. At the House of Studies, we keep this tradition alive by chanting the Litany once a month.

Listen to the brothers chant the litany.

Below is the text of the prayer:

Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us
Holy Mother of God, pray for us
Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us
Mother of Christ, pray for us
Mother of divine grace, pray for us
Mother most pure, pray for us
Mother most chaste, pray for us
Mother inviolate, pray for us
Mother undefiled, pray for us
Mother most amiable, pray for us
Mother most admirable, pray for us
Mother of good counsel, pray for us
Mother of our Creator, pray for us
Mother of our Redeemer, pray for us
Virgin most prudent, pray for us
Virgin most venerable, pray for us
Virgin most renowned, pray for us
Virgin most powerful, pray for us
Virgin most merciful, pray for us
Virgin most faithful, pray for us
Mirror of justice, pray for us
Seat of wisdom, pray for us
Cause of our joy, pray for us
Spritual vessel, pray for us
Vessel of honor, pray for us
Singular vessel of devotion, pray for us
Mystical rose, pray for us
Tower of David, pray for us
Tower of ivory, pray for us
House of gold, pray for us
Ark of the covenant, pray for us
Gate of Heaven, pray for us
Morning Star, pray for us
Health of the sick, pray for us
Refuge of sinners, pray for us
Comforter of the afflicted, pray for us
Help of Christians, pray for us
Queen of Angels, pray for us
Queen of Patriarchs, pray for us
Queen of Prophets, pray for us
Queen of Apostles, pray for us
Queen of Martyrs, pray for us
Queen of Confessors, pray for us
Queen of Virgins, pray for us
Queen of all Saints, pray for us
Queen conceived without original sin, pray for us
Queen of the most holy Rosary, pray for us
Queen of peace, pray for us

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world: Spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world: Graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world: Have mercy on us.

What follows is from a a letter Tolkein wrote to his son Christopher on April 24, 1944:

“But as for sermons!  They are bad, aren’t they!  Most of them from any point of view. The answer to the mystery is prob. not simple; but part of it is that ‘rhetoric’ (of which preaching is a dept.) is an art, which requires (a) some native talent and (b) learning and practice. The instrument used is v. much more complex than a piano, yet most performers are in the position of a man who sits down to a piano and expects to move his audience without any knowledge of the notes at all.  The art can be learned (granted some modicum of aptitude) and can then be effective, in a way, when wholly unconnected with sincerity, sanctity, etc.  But preaching is complicated by the fact that we expect in it not only a performance, but truth and sincerity, and also at least no word, tone, or note that suggests the possession of vices (such as hypocrisy, vanity) or defects (such as folly, ignorance) in the preacher.

“Good sermons require some art, some virtue, some knowledge. Real sermons require some special grace which does not transcend art but arrives at it by instinct or ‘inspiration’; indeed the Holy Spirit seems sometimes to speak through a human mouth providing art, virtue and insight he does not himself possess: but the occasions are rare. In other times I don’t think an educated person is required to suppress the critical faculty, but it should be kept in order by a constant endeavour to apply the truth (if any), even in cliché form, to oneself exclusively! A difficult exercise . . .”

Amen!

Click below to hear this week’s edition of “Word to Life.

Joining me on the program today to discuss the readings for Gaudete Sunday were Curtis Mitch, a trustee of the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and co-author of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, and Fr. Gabriel Gillen, O.P., a parochial vicar at the University Parish of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village.

“Word to Life” airs live every Friday at 1:00 PM EST on The Catholic Channel, Sirius 159 and XM 117.

The Angelic Warfare Confraternity is an official association of the Dominican Order dedicated to the preservation of chastity and the pursuit of truth under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas. It finds its inspiration in St. Thomas’ victory in his battle against sexual temptation as a teenager in the prison tower, and his being girded by the angels with the cord of chastity.  

The Angelic Warfare Confraternity has existed in the Order since the sixteenth century, but due to the widespread need for spiritual assistance in the pursuit of chastity in our society today, membership in the Angelic Warfare Confraternity is currently undergoing a notable revival in the Province of St. Joseph. A new website explaining the Confraternity (available by clicking on any of the links), and a newly established newsletter are just two signs of this revival. Furthermore, there are many new members of the Confraternity among college students, young adults, and married men and women. For today living the virtue of chastity faces great challenges in all states of life, and men and women of all states of life want to draw upon the benefits of membership in the Confraternity. 

Members of the Confraternity share in the graces obtained through the combined prayers of all the members. Members pledge (but not under pain of sin) daily to pray fifteen Hail Mary’s, as well as St. Thomas Aquinas’s prayer for purity and chastity, and to offer these prayers not for themselves alone but for all the members. In addition, there is a cord or medal that one wears. The Confraternity is therefore a rather massive prayer group dedicated to praying for purity and chastity for all its members. Many people who have joined the Confraternity testify to a decrease of sexual temptations or an increase of strength in resisting them or both.

For more information on the history, meaning, and benefits of membership in the Confraternity, as well as instructions on how to join, go to the Angelic Warfare Confraternity website. 

Click below to hear this week’s edition of “Word to Life.”

Joining me on the program today to discuss the reading for the Second Sunday of Advent was Fr. Pius Pietrzyk, O.P., the parochial vicar of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Zanesville, OH.

“Word to Life” airs live every Friday at 1:00 PM EST on The Catholic Channel, Sirius 159 and XM 117.

The photos show some striking details of the newly-renovated Pauline chapel in the Vatican.  In the first photo, you can see two of our brothers in the front row of concelebrating priests (note the Dominican cowl peeking out from their chasubles): Fr. Morerod, and Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP, of the Toulouse province.  The fourth photo is a striking view of the Holy Father celebrating Mass ad orientem — in the context of this beautiful chapel with its beautiful crucifix and images, it is a good illustration of what Pope Benedict’s invitation to re-examine the position of the celebrant at Mass is aiming at: the turning of the whole liturgical assembly ad Deum as the priest offers the Eucharistic sacrifice to the Father on behalf of and with the whole people.

Many thanks to L’Osservatore Romano for their kind permission to post these photos here!

The Virgin Mary, during the Season of Advent, sees what others have not seen. And she hears what others have not heard. She sees and hears the promise of the Archangel, Gabriel, who speaks to her the word of God, “Behold you are to conceive a Son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God is with us.” Mary lives the mystery of faith, this time of advent, as a time of expectation, a time of waiting for the birth of her Son. But she also lives this time as a time of the presence of God, of a new presence of God, in the womb of Mary.

We have all had the occasion by a moment to sense more intensely the presence of Christ in the Eucharist during the celebration of the Mass, during Eucharistic adoration, or even in the Tabernacle, when we walk into a Church. There is Christ. He is there whether we sense or experience his presence.  But precisely because this is the case, we are sometimes given to experience that he is present. Such experience is not the source of faith, but in some way it is its consequence.

But what about the experience of the blessed Virgin Mary during Advent? It is reasonable, like the Fathers of the Church, to see Mary as the original tabernacle. The word became flesh and dwells among us.  This being hidden but present among us is first of all realized during the time of advent in the home of Nazareth, in the womb of Mary, under the protection of saint Joseph.  Mary meditated upon all these things and kept them in her heart. We can reasonably speculate that she read scripture during this time, in silence, most likely the words of Isaiah, his prophesies, and found in them a sense of the meaning of what was happening to her.

St. Augustine says that she conceived the Word in her heart before she conceived the Word in her flesh. So that her maternity was accompanied by an intensification and growth in faith, in contemplation, in the intelligent perception of mystery. The second Vatican Council says that during the time of her pregnancy the heart of the Incarnate Word beat gently below the heart of Mary, her immaculate heart. Two immaculate hearts, beating silently and prayerfully in the night of this world.

And during this time, Mary grew in faith and in love, in expectation and in quite joy. Such should be also our advent, a time to accept the silence of mystery and expectation, of quiet penance and joy, waiting for the dawn of Christmas, and the light of Christ that is to illumine the world.

Today, the Holy Father celebrated Mass with the International Theological Commission in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican.  (For more on what else is interesting about this particular papal Mass, see here.)  As a Dominican, it is always a thrill to see images like this one, because proclaiming the Gospel at the Holy Father’s Mass is our brother, Fr. Charles Morerod, OP.  Fr. Morerod, a Swiss Dominican who is the Secretary General of the ITC (a Commission that aids the Holy Father by examining difficult contemporary theological questions), is also the Rector Magnificus of the Angelicum in Rome, and no stranger to the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.  (The audio of his 2006 lecture at the Dominican House on ecumenical dialogue can be found here.  If you’d like to see an interview with Fr. Morerod, see here.)

Two other prominent Dominicans also serve on the ITC: Fr. Gilles Emery, OP (professor of dogmatic theology at the Albertinum in Fribourg, Switzerland), and Fr. Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP (dean of the Toulouse province’s studium and professor at the Institute Catholique of Toulouse, France).  We see in them an excellent example that a strong Dominican and Thomistic formation is a great gift to the universal Church!