The Mysterious Sacrament

As a convert to the Catholic faith, I could not understand the Sacrament of Reconcilation (the Confessional). I had always just asked Jesus directly to forgive me of my sins and felt that was enough. It wasn't until I had read many articles and books and listened to the reasons for this sacrament that I finally was convinced that I needed to go. It wasn't easy. I didn't want to do it and felt extreme dread every time I sat in front of the priest to give an account of my actions that were considered sins by God. Finally, after much prayer and more reading, I realized that what God wanted from me was "Humility". It is pleasing to God for us to come to His representatives on earth, the Priests, and open up our hearts and minds and acknowledge that we have sinned - in all humility. Anyway...I read this article today, Bring Back the Box, by Jerome German about this very topic and felt that the article was so well written that I want to share it with others and save it. Here it is: The year was 1961. The confessional was dark, as it should be. A recalcitrant fifth-grade sinner, I had just poured my soul out to a family friend, the parish pastor. As he finished absolving me for what I was sure were the worst sins ever, he added, “Tell your mother that…” I can’t recall the rest of the message; I only remember my deep mortification. The whole purpose of the box was anonymity. How was this okay? It was perhaps borderline prideful on my part to think my sins that exceptional. And, as a frequent Mass server, he probably just recognized my voice. Still, I felt violated. What was routine for him was a very big deal for me. And still, I was compelled to seek the sacrament. In the end, it always seemed a journey from shadow to light. I was a repeat offender. My sins were monotonous, petty, and yet they oppressed me. Absolution was the light at the end of the tunnel. The confessional was repulsive yet enticing. A few short years later, face-to-face Confession was to become the norm—one might say, the preferred mode. I can’t help but wonder how many souls have been discouraged in the process. Confession is easily the most intimate spiritual thing imaginable. Is confidentiality really enough? Clearly, the creators of the box did not think so. Wouldn’t anonymity help the cause of confidentiality? How is it that in the age of psychology we have forgotten so much psychology? Surely, there are those among us who prefer a face-to-face encounter. Good for us. But personality differences alone will tell us that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to something so intimate. To be certain, the Saturday morning lineup for the confessional is not what it was a generation ago. I seriously doubt that the reason is that the current generation is less sinful; it is much more likely that fewer of us actually believe that sin is a thing. When face-to-face confessing was introduced, there was an effort to make sure that maintaining anonymity was still an option. But now that seems to be less and less the case. I say, bring back the box. The face-to-face experiment has been a noble effort to make the Faith more engaging, more personable—no scary black box. It hasn’t worked. The black box is not scary, except maybe to second graders, but I didn’t find it so. The lack of anonymity is plenty scary for many. My non-Catholic readers may, of course, find no necessity, no utility whatsoever in this discussion because they have embraced a direct avenue to forgiveness. Of course, we Catholics understand that it is God who forgives in the confessional just as surely as He forgives us when we go to Him directly. That being said, Christ’s command to the apostles concerning sin—“Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain they are retained”—is entirely devoid of context without confession, unless we are attributing to all of the apostles the ability to read souls, something that neither Scripture nor Tradition has ever claimed. And if the Church assigns no necessity to the process of confessing, then Christ was wasting words. The Word doesn’t waste words. It is one thing to confess your sins to God, it is another to receive counseling and an objective perspective of the weaknesses in your life in Christ, a perspective that serves to assist a soul in embracing another of Christ’s commands: “Go and sin no more.” Though the Sacrament of Reconciliation is probably the least popular of the seven sacraments, there is nonetheless a human obsession with confession. It requires humility, something perennially in short supply, and yet there is something in the human psyche, some craving, some absolute need to unload, as witnessed by police officers who record statements from the accused that go something like this: “Why am I telling you this? I don’t know. I just had to tell somebody—anybody!” Face-to-face confession began at the local precinct. If you’ve offended your spouse, God will forgive your sin; but that forgiveness will not heal the relationship with your spouse. Similarly, a need to confess to another human being, one of the many we offend nearly every day, is a dimension of spiritual healing that cannot be ignored. Our sins offend both God and humanity; the priest is there as the representative of both. What’s that? You don’t offend people? Immaculately conceived, eh? God knows us and our nature much better than any of us ever will, and that’s why he instituted this terrifyingly wonderful sacrament. When the non-Catholic sects abandoned the sacrament, it left a void, a wound that has only deepened with fewer and fewer Catholics availing themselves of the graces of the sacrament. Substitutes have been sought, but such are largely an exercise in self-deception: most often, absolution by blame. I’m talking, of course, about clinical psychology. Now, I fully recognize the potential good of that soft science, but the couch, as a replacement for the confessional, is often devoid of ample consideration of two irreplaceable elements: personal culpability and divine forgiveness. The blame game unleashes a spiritual and emotional tempest. If one is driven, by hatred of one’s own guilt, to confess sins, an obvious alternate approach is to hate the things or persons on which that guilt can be blamed: one’s virtual scapegoat—one’s sin offering. Father, mother, spouse, friend, sibling, teacher, supervisor, boss, lover—the scapegoats are legion. And that’s only the human ones. There’s another interesting blame vehicle; that is, a set of scapegoats that are not hated; they are embraced because they are ownable—ownable without guilt. They are one’s own genetics and life circumstances. Oh, and did I mention genetics? We instinctively know that we are different from the animals, and yet, as a race, we continue to think that we can play both sides of the court; that is, to be nothing more than animals when it’s convenient and to be the ordained custodians of the planet when it serves our purposes. That is to say that, on a personal level, people will dismiss their humanity to placate their guilt. We know instinctively that animals do not sin; they simply follow their nature, a nature easily coveted by some of us in an effort to alleviate a guilty conscience. It is a delusion that becomes a get-out-of-jail-free card. We think, “Yes, I did that; but my behavior is only the result of my genetics and environment.” Mysteriously, the same people who claim such are often the ones who play the opposite side of the court when they claim that humans are destroying the planet and the human population needs to be reduced. Does not such moralizing differentiate us from the animals? What animal moralizes? Or are we an invasive species? The amelioration of guilt wrought by such delusional mind games is, by its very nature, insufficient. Sinners still have a need to talk about their sins to someone. Self-justification never sufficiently quells the conscience, a reality that is brilliantly explored in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. To explore this subject further, I defer to Fulton J. Sheen. In a talk titled “Sin is in the Blood,” the good Archbishop starts by saying that, We are living in about the only period in the world’s history that there is a universal denial of guilt. This was foretold by Dostoevsky who wrote; “The time is coming where men will say that there is no sin, there is no guilt, only hunger. And they will come crying and fawning to our feet saying, “Give us bread.” It used to be that we Catholics were the only ones who believed in the Immaculate Conception. Now everybody believes that he is immaculately conceived. And concerning Macbeth, he goes on to say: …we have many complexes that are produced by sin without ever tracing the true cause, which is guilt. Take for example Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Shakespeare was born in 1554 as I recall, and died in 1616, long before there was any such thing as psychiatry; and yet in this tragedy Macbeth has a psychosis and Lady Macbeth has a neurosis. Both of them contrived to murder the King in order to seize the throne. Macbeth thinks that he sees the dagger before him, the instrument of murder, with the handle toward his hand. Lady Macbeth had the neurosis; she thought that she saw blood on her hands, spots. As anyone who has read or seen this brilliant play knows, Macbeth—though a seemingly moral character at the beginning of the play—once he has committed his first murder to gain power, rather than seeking divine forgiveness, launches a personal crusade of guilt abatement, each more horrifyingly murderous act intended to quell the psychosis produced by the former. In short, at every turn more tormented, he becomes a despicable tyrant. Who are the ones among us with heavily placated guilt? Observe them well, and watch them carefully, for they are tyrants in waiting. What they are already doing is tyrannical, but perhaps not in a way that directly effects our daily lives. That will change. Quiet tyranny never remains quiet. This is because guilt, if not forgiven from above, festers and festers until society drowns in its putrid puss. And what are these quiet tyrannies? They are mortal sins of lust and greed against the next generation, nature, neighbor, and God: pornography, fornication, adultery, contraception, abortion, infanticide, divorce, sodomy, pederasty, euthanasia, assisted suicide. They are sins against parent and progeny, nature and the supernatural, natural law and sacred tradition. The guilt load of our current culture is staggering, beyond the comprehension of the dulled minds of the guilty. In the short term, it will not end well. Thankfully, God will have the last word, for He is the first and the last Word. There is, of course, no evil that cannot be forgiven other than the proud refusal to accept forgiveness. We must dedicate our lives to prayer and penitence to obtain for ourselves and all other tyrants-in-waiting the gift of humility—especially for those who possess not the grace to see their own deep need for it. Bring back that dark, creepy, forsaken (but not God-forsaken!), magnificently enticing box.

Why we need Heroes and good role models

Most people are employed for what they do. Others find jobs for what they know; however, few people find their function exclusively in what they are.

Of the three jobs, the latter is by far the most important and difficult. The other two involve situations where individuals can rest from their occupations. The third job calls for persons to represent what they are at all times and places. They must live up to specific standards that define them and for which they are known. Such was the case of Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who once lived as part of England’s royal family. Their role was to be the almost fairy-tale models for a world in need of them. They were called to embody all that is excellent in the British nation so that others might strive to imitate them. Everyone now knows their tragic story. In the recent interview on Oprah Winfrey’s show, the couple tried to justify the abandonment of their role as models. They expressed instead the desire to live a contradiction. They want to lead an ordinary life while enjoying and cashing in on the notoriety that comes from their extraordinary role. Many looked upon the interview with distaste. It was an exercise of woke victimhood as the couple accused the royal family of racism, elitism and other maladies. They railed against the monarchical system that demanded service and restraint. The two royals reveled in the freedom of defining who they wished to be. Many might be tempted to write off the whole episode as proof of the rottenness of all elites. They might reason the world would be better off without them. Such a conclusion is at odds with the real world. People need heroic figures who can embody the best of humanity. There need to be people who set the standard. Such figures are capable of great deeds and actions. However, their main role is to unite, harmonize and elevate society by the power of their presence. Take them away, and society decays into mediocrity and sloth. Indeed, sociologists recognize this innate need, and some identify these figures as what are called “representative characters.” As scholar Alasdair MacIntyre writes, such characters “are, so to speak, the moral representatives of their culture and they are so because of the way in which moral and metaphysical ideas and theories assume through them an embodied existence in the social world.” “A representative character is a kind of symbol,” writes Robert N. Bellah. “It is a way by which we can bring together in one concentrated image the way people in a given social environment organize and give meaning and direction to their lives.” Thus, Harry and Meghan are meant to be representative characters. They should take upon themselves the sacrifice of being models for society. The privilege of being part of royalty is merely a platform from which they can better offer their disinterested service to all. The role of true elites is to be representative characters that engage, encourage, coax and interpret all that is most excellent out of society. As for royals, they aim at such high standards that many often take them to be the stuff of fairy tales. That is why all levels of society find fulfillment in representative characters. Far from causing class struggle, these figures serve to unify society around sublime ideals. Their role is to sacrifice themselves for the common good of the nation. Thus, the Queen commands the respect of everyone—even the two errant royals. Despite her shortcomings, she endures well into her nineties, representing the British nation with grace and dignity. She is a living symbol of stability, self-sacrifice and decorum in a cold, cruel and volatile world. Postmodern society destroys the narratives that support representative characters. It encourages self-aggrandizement and success with no duties attached. The Oprah interview demonstrated this well. It presented the model of false elites that holds a selfish and individualistic outlook where there are no objective standards of excellence. Everything is subjective and directed inward. The most important matters are emotional and passionate. It is all about self, not the serving of others. When events eventually turn against these false elites, the protagonists turn against the system with resentment and bitterness. False elites no longer direct heroic actions. They whine about the injustice of the same system, which affords them so many privileges. The extreme effort of the hero is replaced by the easy sloth of the victim who demands everything. Thus, many people find cause to denounce the swamp of false elites destroying society by the horribleness of their bad examples. These unrepresentative characters inspire and fool no one. Quite the contrary, false elites are like the Gospel salt that loses its savor. It is good for nothing but to be trodden underfoot, which is what the scorning multitudes do.

Thus, contrary to the populist spirit of the times, society needs good elites who can be those representative characters that sociologists claim are essential. Society needs models, and youth need heroes. People are tired of ideological and partisan political agendas. There must be those who sacrifice for the common good. Above all, this kind of society presupposes the help of God’s grace to overcome the weakness of fallen human nature. That is why true elites are naturally Christian. The supreme figure is Our Lord Jesus Christ, Who embraced the Cross and died on it to provide a divinely heroic model for all ages to come.(credit: TFP.org)

St. Faustina's Visions of the Afterlife

Acts of Mercy and Justice

St. Basil the Great said:"The bread you do not use is the bread of the hungry. The garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of the person who is naked. The shoes you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot. The money you keep locked away is the money of the poor. The acts of charity you do not perform are the injustices you commit." Lent is the perfect time to ask ourselves what we’re holding onto — and who truly needs it.

The Salesian Option

This paragraph from the article "The Salesian Option" really resonated with me and I think will go far to heal our people:" It is because of St. Francis’ ingenious and zealous use of the communication technologies of his time that the Church has for 54 years now celebrated the World Day of Communication on his feast day, the 24th of January. Pope Francis has delivered some incisive addresses for this day the past few years, especially in 2018, where he discussed fake news and the need for truth as the bedrock for societal peace; indeed, we can see how that warning continues woefully to unfold in current events. The need for communicators—and journalists especially—to see their job as a vocation in service of the truth and in service of people, is so much more necessary today. The goal of a communicator, to borrow from Fred Rogers’ exceptional speech when he was induced into the TV Hall of Fame in 1999 (bring your tissues), is to “make goodness attractive” and to teach people, and especially youth, “to cherish life”." (The Catholic World Report)

The Cloistered Heart

I just discovered that the blogger Nancy Shuman of the Cloistered Heart died in 2017. Her blog is still worth visiting. There is so much wisdom and spiritual direction to be found:

A new Priest embraces his mother

Painting: A priest embraces his mother after his first Mass, José Alcázar Tejedor

After ordination, a priest's hands are consecrated with holy chrism and a manutergium is used to wipe the sacred oil from his hands. Since the chrism has been blessed by a bishop, it cannot be thrown in the trash or washed by normal means. Instead, an ancient and pious tradition continues by the priest giving his mother the manutergium. Tradition states:

When she arrives to the gates of heaven she is escorted directly to our Lord. Our Lord says to the woman – “I have given you life, what have you given to me?'” She hands him the manutergium and responds, “I have given you my son as a priest.” At this, Jesus grants her entry into paradise.

For the father, a recent tradition states that a priest will give his father his stole that was used for his first confession, indicating that fathers are instrumental in forming good men before they become priests.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the family is indeed the foundation of society and is rightfully called, "the Domestic Church" where vocations are born and cultivated through the pursuit of holiness.

In Sinu Jesu

In Christianity, the central core is the revelation that ‘The Infinite’, the ‘Wholly Other’; ‘That which cannot be named’; is revealed to us as a deeply personal loving God, In Jesus Christ. Many prefer Deism, an impersonal force who made the Universe, then left it alone. A relationship does not enter into the equation, nor any concept of love, obedience and humble service to the creator.

Christians often forget the depth of God’s love as presented to us in Jesus Christ. He told his Apostles, and tells us today, “That to see me, is to see the Father”. It is a hard reality to grasp. It is for me. All the years as a monk I have struggled with this central mystery of Christ Jesus’s revelation of the Father’s love for each of us. It is because my heart is protected. I fear the pain that love brings, yet I seek to dive more deeply into it. So there is an inner contradiction that I experience that can only be healed by the grace of the Father’s burning love. There is a standing invitation to allow ourselves to be drawn into the eternal dance of the ‘Holy Trinity’, which will never be withdrawn from God’s side.

The paradox to this is that in order to fully allow God’s love to embrace me, I have to grow in the understanding of my inner-self and the often not so beautiful aspect of that. I can be fearful, that leads to anger, which at bottom, anxiety is feeding it all. I am 69 years old and at this stage of my life, finally starting to open up and to trust in God love for me. It has taken many self-inflicted wounds, the experiencing of my own self-hatred, and alienation, that has slowly healed me.

For in my darkest hour, when filled with my own misery and isolation, the light of God’s love has always broken through. I have accepted the fact that I am pursued by God, and that God will never let me go. Yet I am free and have had to make a choice to trust even when drowning in my own misery. For it is all lies, that I am beyond help, or healing, or mercy. We are all vessels of God’s love and each of us is called to allow Christ Jesus to incarnate in each of us. Our capacity to receive God’s love grows as we continue to grow in love and trust. When I pray I now feel my connection to every human being who are on their journey towards healing and deeper intimacy with God, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.

In the book “In Sinu Jesu”, Jesus speaks to a Benedictine Monk of his love for each of us, and in a special way, for the priest, and how that love is manifested in his abiding presence in the Holy Eucharist. As a Catholic, I can take the reality of Christ Jesus’s Eucharistic presence for granted. This book can open up anyone’s heart to the infinite depth of God’s love for each of us, without exception.

Karl Rahner stated that ‘private revelations’, are given to the church at different points in time because it is needed. It is not a new revelation but stated in terms that can be understood by people in certain eras. Today, love has seemed to have grown cold, or colder. So we need to be reminded of the Fathers infinite love for each of us.

On Tuesday, January 26th, 20 10 (pg. 139) Jesus relayed this message to the Benedictine monk:

“Do you not see how much I have been calling you to trust in me? Trust is the key that opens all the treasures of My merciful and infinitely loving Heart. I am touched by a single act of trust in My merciful love more than by a multitude of good works. The soul who trusts in Me allows Me to work freely in her life. The soul who trust Me, by that very fact removes the obstacles of pride and self-determination that impede My freedom of action. There is nothing I will not do for the soul who abandons herself to me in a simple act of trust”.

Either ‘fear’ or ‘trust’ is growing in the soul. The more we love, fear will lessen. The opposite is also true. The more we believe ‘fear’, then ‘trust’ will weaken. Fear is a form of self-absorption, trust is letting go of being overly concerned about one’s self and seeking to grow deeper in intimacy with the beloved.

As Christian we are called to be lovers, to show forth Christ infinite love for all. When that is forgotten, then fear, and anxiety, and anger will come to the fore. That is how we protect ourselves from others, we place barriers. It is only by the healing of our inner defenses, which we receive through Jesus Christ, that we can let go of fear. It is not something we can do on our own, yet we can make a free choice to trust and in that God’s healing love will flow through us.

There is nothing that can stop God loving us, yet we can choose to turn our backs on that reality. Each day is a new beginning. Each moment even. For no matter where we find ourselves, there is always a way out through the merciful love of Christ Jesus. We stop being victims and can step forward in hope and faith and love. –Br.MD (Mark Dohle)

O Sovereign and true leader...

O Sovereign and true leader, O Christ, my King,
I kneel before Thee here like a vassal in the old feudal times
to take my oath of fealty.
I place my joined hands within Thy wounded hands and promise Thee inviolable loyalty.
I dedicate to Thee all the powers of my soul,
all the senses of my body,
and all the affections of my heart.
Take, O Lord, all my liberty.
Receive my memory, my understanding, and my whole will.
All that I am, all that I have, Thou hast given me, and
I restore it all to Thee, to be disposed of according to Thy good pleasure.
Give me only Thy love and Thy grace;
with these I am rich enough, and desire nothing more. Fr. Lasance Missal

I will kneel before the altar of God.
I will receive my King upon my tongue.
I will offer my oath of fealty in coin
and candleflame...
(Stefanie Nicholas)

Look down upon me....

"Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus." "Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before your face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech you to fix deep in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment, while I contemplate with great love and tender pity your five wounds, pondering over them within me, calling to mind the words which David, your prophet, said of you, my good Jesus: "They have pierced my hands and my feet; they have numbered all my bones." PLENARY INDULGENCE when recited on a Friday in Lent and Passiontide, when recited after Communion before an image of Christ crucified. On any other day the indulgence is partial.

THE CROWN OF THORNS

MEDITATIONS FOR LENT FROM ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY: THE CROWN OF THORNS

Go forth, ye daughters of Sion, and see king Solomon in the diadem, wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the joy of his heart. (Cant 3:5).

This is the voice of the Church inviting the souls of the faithful to behold the marvellous beauty of her Spouse. For the daughters of Sion, who are they but the daughters of Jerusalem, holy souls, the citizens of that city which is above, who with the angels enjoy the peace that knows no end, and, in consequence, look upon the glory of the Lord?

1. Go forth, shake off the disturbing commerce of this world so that, with minds set free, you may be able to contemplate Him whom you love. And see king Solomon, the true peacemaker, that is to say, Christ Our Lord.

In the diadem wherewith His mother crowned Him, as though the Church said, "Look on Christ garbed with flesh for us, the flesh He took from the flesh of His mother." For it is His flesh that is here called a diadem, the flesh which Christ assumed for us, the flesh in which He died and destroyed the reign of death, the flesh in which, rising once again, He brought to us the hope of resurrection.

This is the diadem of which St. Paul speaks, We see Jesus for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour (Heb 2:9). His mother is spoken of as crowning Him because Mary the Virgin it was who from her own flesh gave Him flesh.

In the day of His espousals, that is, in the hour of His Incarnation, when He took to Himself the Church not having spot or wrinkle (Eph 5:27), the hour again when God was joined with man. And in the day of the joy of His heart. For the joy and the gaiety of Christ is for the human race salvation and redemption. And coming home, He calls together His friends and neighbours saying to them, Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost (Luke 15:6).

2. We can however refer the whole of this text simply and literally to the Passion of Christ. For Solomon, foreseeing through the centuries the Passion of Christ, was uttering a warning for the daughters of Sion, that is, for the Jewish people.

Go forth and see king Solomon, that is, Christ, in His diadem, that is to say, the crown of thorns with which His mother the Synagogue has crowned him; in the day of His espousals, the day when He joined to Himself the Church; and in the day of the joy of His heart, the day in which He rejoiced that by His Passion He was delivering the world from the power of the devil. Go forth, therefore, and leave behind the darkness of unbelief, and see, understand with your minds that He who suffers as man is really God.

Go forth, beyond the gates of your city, that you may see Him, on Mount Calvary, crucified.

Lectio Divina

Here is the method:

* Choose a quiet spot alone to pray.
* Focus your mind and heart on God.
* Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to you through the Scriptures.
* Begin prayerfully reading your chosen passage.
* When anything moves you, pause. Ponder. Talk to God about what you have read, praise Him, or silently lift your heart to Him in love–whichever
you feel moved to do.
* When your conversation with God dries up, return to your passage.
* Repeat steps 5 and 6 until your time is almost ended.
* End with the Our Father, another vocal prayer of your choice, or a brief word of thanksgiving.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus

For the Help of the Sacred Heart

Take away, O my Jesus, the blindness of my heart, that I may know Thee; take away the hardness of my heart, that I may fear Thee; take away the coldness of my heart, that I may resist everything that is contrary to Thy will; take away its heavy, earthly sluggishness and selfishness, that I may be capable of heroic sacrifice for Thy glory, and for the souls whom Thou has redeemed with Thy own most precious blood. Amen.

Eternal Sacrifice

Vintage St. Joseph's Catholic Church

Here are photos of the original St. Joseph's built in 1911. It was a beautiful space. I know the people who "updated" the interior thought they were doing a good thing. But, I love the old space better:

St. Joseph's Catholic Church - stained glass windows

Don't you love stained glass windows in a church? They not only bring beauty and light into the sanctuary, but teach as well. Here are some of the stained glass windows at St. Joseph's in Auburn:

St. Joseph's Catholic Church

I love this little church in the foothills east of Sacramento. Our daughter was married there. We attended catechism classes there and were confirmed in the faith. I would love to see this church restored to its original.

St. Thomas - a little known history

THE APOSTLE ST. THOMAS ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT
by Father P. De Roo, 1899

The belief that ... [the Apostle] St. Thomas penetrated as far as America, in the desire to propagate the teaching of Jesus Christ, is not devoid of foundation. ...[T]he old American traditions, so singularly consistent by their agreement, whilst originating in many different parts of this extensive continent, cannot be [lightly dismissed]. St. Thomas ... had not [here] lasting success..., but other Catholic missionaries followed in the course of time to renew the work, and to teach Catholic doctrine, morality, and worship, of which the Spaniards found so many clear vestiges in South America at the time of its discovery and conquest.
But, you may ask, how did he get to the Americas in order to evangelize them;[We should then by no means rule out the possibility] of a miraculous intervention of God for the purpose of spreading the true Faith.... [Let us consider] some prehistoric vestiges found in America, that would seem to indicate the actual presence of the Apostle St. Thomas on this continent.

It is especially amongst the oldest nations of Brazil that the memory of the Apostle has been religiously kept, ...preserv[ing] the tradition that he preached to them. Nieremberg (Historiae Naturae, l. xiv, c. cxvii) writes: "The East Indians [i.e., those of Brazil] still show a path followed by St. Thomas on his way to the kingdoms of Peru. ... It is related in particular that St. Thomas had gone to Paraguay (See Nieremberg, loc. cit., and Bancroft, Native Races, vol. V, p 26) along the Iguazu River; and afterwards to Parana on the Uruguay, on the bank of which is pointed out a spot where he sat down to rest. According to the ancient reports he foretold the later coming of men who would announce to their descendants the faith of the true God. This tradition is indeed a great consolation and encouragement to the preachers of our holy religion who suffer much in their labors for the faith among those barbarous nations." ... [A]nyone reading the chronicles of Brazil...must be impressed with the fact that in that country, down from ancient times, ...the name of St. Thomas, who preached there, is preserved. ...

[Concerning the above reference] stat[ing] that St. Thomas entered Paraguay and the neighboring provinces..., Sahagun (Historia General, p. iv) relates that the Commissary of the Franciscans, who, with four other religious, had been sent to La Plata, wrote on the first of May, 1533, ...a most remarkable letter, in which he states that the Christians had been received like angels by the natives, from whom he had learned that, four years before, a certain prophet...had announced to them that ere long Christians, brothers of St. Thomas, would come to baptize [them].... [T]he prophet...had [further] enjoined them to keep the Commandments and many other Christian teachings. This report is hardly more surprising than [what we learn] from the History of Paraguay by Charlevoix...: When, in the year 1609, the Fathers Cataldino and Moceta penetrated into the wilderness of America, to convert the Guaranis, [certain] chiefs of the tribe assured them that long ago, according to their ancestral traditions, a learned man, named Pay Zuma or Pay Tuma, had preached in their country the faith of heaven and had made many conversions amongst them. Yet, in leaving he had foretold them that they and their descendants would abandon the worship of the true God, whom he had made known to them; but that, after the lapse of centuries other messengers of the same God would come with a cross, like the one they saw him carrying, and would restore among their posterity the faith he was preaching. Some years later, when Fathers Montoya and Mendoza were in the district of Taiati, in the province of Santa Crux, the Indians, seeing them approach with crosses in their hands, received them with great demonstrations of joy. The missionaries, manifesting their astonishment, were told the same story as was told Cataldino and Moceta. These natives designated their ancient Apostle also by the name of Pay Abara, or the Celibate Father. Pay Zuma seems, however, to have been the more common appellation. In all these regions the first Christian missionaries of the sixteenth century were called Pay-zumas, by the aborigines (cf. Horn, De Originibus Americanis, l. 3, c. 19; and Bastian, Die Culturländer des Alten Amerika, b. II, s. 58-67). ... It will be noticed that [the form Zuma or Tuma] bears a striking resemblance to the Apostle's name. ...

Traditions similar to these are reported in other parts of South America, such as those of the Tupinambas, and along the Uruguay, where is shown still the resting-place of the Apostle during his sojourn among the tribe (Nieremberg, loc. cit.). ...

The most ancient traditions of the Peruvians tell of a white-bearded man, named "Thonapa Arnava," ...who arrived in Peru from a southern direction, clothed with a long violet garment and red mantle. He taught the people to worship ... the Supreme God and Creator, instead of the sun and moon; [he] healed the sick and restored sight to the blind. At his approach, wherever he went, the demons took to flight. ... Horn aptly remarks that proper names frequently undergo slight variations in their passage from language to language, so that Thonapa might easily represent Thoma-Papas. ... [The title Papas, or Father, is] evidently imported, as it is without meaning in the native tongue.... The surname "Arnava" is not unreasonably interpreted from the Peruvian Nechua dialect, in which arma or arna signifies to bathe or pour water, referring probably to the ceremonies of baptism administered by St. Thomas...; [thus the name seems to designate him as Father] Thomas the Baptist. Sahagun tells the curious fact that the Peruvians gave to their missionaries, after the Spanish conquest, the name of ... Padres Tomés.

The Chilians likewise have a tradition of a bearded and shod man, who had appeared to their forefathers, healing the sick and procuring for them, when their land was parched, abundant rains (Bastian, loc.cit.).

[Concerning] the northern half of our continent..., we find in one of [America's] most magnificent ruins, in the temple of the cross of Palenque, artistic relics, which many learned antiquarians have considered as unmistakable records of the early possession of the Catholic faith. ...

Sahagun...assures us that the famous Mexican high priest and civilizer, Quetzalcoatl, was none other than St. Thomas. "Cohuatl," he says, means not serpent, as it is often mistranslated, but "twin," that is, the name of the Apostle, who was called Didumos, which means "twin"; an interpretation confirmed by the fact that in Mexico there was no serpent-worship, and no serpent is represented on any altar. ... Bancroft (Ibid., vol. V, p 200) ... says: "During the Olmec period, that is, the earliest periods of Nahua power, the great Quetzalcoatl appeared. His teachings, according to the traditions, had much in common with those of Christ in the Old World; and most of the Spanish writers firmly believed him to be identical with one of the Christian Apostles, probably St. Thomas."

Thus the belief that ... [the Apostle] St. Thomas penetrated as far as America, in the desire to propagate the teaching of Jesus Christ, is not devoid of foundation. ...[T]he old American traditions, so singularly consistent by their agreement, whilst originating in many different parts of this extensive continent, cannot be [lightly dismissed]. St. Thomas ... had not [here] lasting success..., but other Catholic missionaries followed in the course of time to renew the work, and to teach Catholic doctrine, morality, and worship, of which the Spaniards found so many clear vestiges in South America at the time of its discovery and conquest.

It would not, therefore, have been such an extraordinary matter to have followed these nations in their migrations eastward to Polynesia, and even as far as the Americas. ... But suppose that, for the sake of argument, it be granted that human means of transportation from Palestine or from European coasts to America were unknown during the lifetime of the Apostle....

There are records to indicate that St. Thomas travelled through [regions of the ancient Near East such as] Parthia, Media, Persia, Hircania, and Bactria, and thence proceeded further east to India proper (Roman Breviary, Dec. 21). Greek-speaking Christian congregations still exist at Socotera [the island Socotra, in the Indian Ocean], the place in which the missionary Theophilus was preaching at the time of Emperor Constantine. It is well known that an entire Christian population was found here by Kosmas Indicopleustes in the sixth century, by Arabian freighters in the ninth, and finally by the Portuguese in the year 1507. According to the traditions of the Syrian Christians, the Apostle passed by Socotera and landed at Cranganor, where took place the first conversions of the Indian people. He established Christian communities all over the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, until he shed his blood for the doctrine he was preaching -- in a place, since called Beit-Tuma, or house of Thomas. This tradition is related by St. Gregory of Nazianzen, and by a merchant of Alexandria who found Christians also in Ceylon (Peschel: Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen, S. 5). Nicephorus, of Constantinople, and nearly all the authors referred to by Solorzano, state, moreover, that St. Thomas preached [not only] to the easternmost peoples of India, [but even to] the Chinese.

(Rev. P. De Roo, "The Apostle St. Thomas in America," American Ecclesiastical Review, vol. XX, Jan., 1899)

The Three Hail Mary's

The Angelus