The Family Foundation School Catholic Community Bulletin
Pauca Verba – ( A Few Words)
Father John Zharsky, the pastor of Saint John the Baptist Ukrainian Church in Johnson City, joins us for prayer again this weekend, Sunday, May 18. An Akathist to The Mother of God will be prayed at The Family School Chapel – 6:30 P.M. Unction (anointing) will follow the prayer. Everyone is welcome.
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This weekend is Trinity Sunday. Here is the homily text of Hildegard of Bingen regarding the Holy Trinity.
Thus the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit testify that they are in no way disunited in power, even though they are distinguished in persons, because they work together in the unity of the simple and immutable substance. How? The Father creates all things through the Word, who is his Son in the Holy Spirit; the Son is he by whom all things are perfected in the Father and the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit is he by whom all things flourish in the Father and Son, and so these three persons are in the unity of inseparable substance; by they are not indistinct among themselves.
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Almighty God, our help, and our refuge,
the fountain of wisdom and tower of strength.
You know that we can do nothing
without your guidance and help.
Direct us by your divine wisdom and power
so that we may seriously undertake the task
Of living our Christian lives
faithfully and diligently according to your will,
that we may be profitable to ourselves and to others
and to the glory of your holy name.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory
Of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit
now and forever, and unto ages of ages.
Amen.
Antiochian Prayer
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Bishop Hubbard comes to our school for Confirmation this Friday, May 23., and we might prayerfully give thanks for the sacramental gift of Confirmation in our own lives. Confirmation seals and perfects Baptism. It is one of the three Sacraments of Initiation – the other two being Baptism and Eucharist. The Catechism speaks of Confirmation as rooting us and enrolling us more deeply in Christ and as the deepening of our “divine filiation.” That is a particularly beautiful phrase – the deepening of our relationship with God as we are his own dear children. Always!
Up until the 1960’s the young confirmand also understood himself to be a milites Christi – Christ’s soldier. Confirmation being a kind of holy induction: That I have hard work to do for Christ – hard work that requires that I be on the front lines, that I be obedient, resourceful, at the ready, spiritually well-armed, awake….
Confirmation is given by a bishop and the anointing is with Chrism – which is consecrated only by a bishop. This means that I am a member of a Church that is first diocesan and then universal and not just local – in the union of faith and worship all around the world and back in time for 2000 years.
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All across the country there are signs in front of Catholic Churches: “Confession: Call to make an appointment.” There are still scheduled times for the Sacrament of Penance here – Thursdays and Fridays.
A verse of Repentance by Georg Syiridov
O miserable and wretched man!
Thy time is spent
And the end draws near,
While the Dreadful Judgment is readied.
Woe unto you, O wretched soul!
The sun is sinking,
Thy day is at evening,
And the axe has been put to thy root.
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An interesting conversation this week and then a reading in a spiritual book confirming the truth: that we might well come to confession with a deep repentance for ancestral sins – national sins – ecclesial sins.
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Maria!
Totus Tuus sum, Maria.
Mater nostri Redemptoris,
Virgo Dei, Virgo pia,
Mater mundi Salvatoris,
Totus Tuus sum, Maria!
O Mary!
I am wholly Thine, O Mary,
Mother of our Redeemer,
Virgin of God, Virgin holy.
Mother of the Saviour of the world.
I am wholly Thine, O Mary!
