Happy Days

God is good to me.

I say this not just because the Geogetown Hoyas are 5-0, having trounced the Mount last night, even more thoroughly than they did a year ago.

I say it not just because He makes the sun rise in the morning and the moon at night.

I say it not just because maybe some day I will be able to go to jail for refusing to let two grooms use our church hall for their “reception.”

(By the by, our old friend had the guts to vote against the madness today).

No. The reason I praise God is that He has brought together two events in my life in such a way that I could never have asked for something so wonderful.

For me, there are two kinds of days on the calendar. There is December 8, and then there are all the other days.

December 8 is the day when the Garden of Eden was restored to the earth, the day when the flower of mankind bloomed again.

I am the happy slave of the Lady conceived on December 8.

For me, the days leading up to December 8 are special holy days of prayer and closeness to the Immaculata.

It just so happens that during the Immaculate Conception Novena this year, Archbishop Wuerl is going to come to my church and renew my consecration as a priest, when he installs me as the parish pastor this Sunday.

I am unworthy of such good timing–to be able to give myself again to the priesthood during the days when I first gave myself to the Blessed Mother as a slave.

May our Lady make good use of me. She is a gentle mistress.

Red-Rose-City Memory & All-Star Week

Across the street from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., there is a seminary.

My mother grew up with a beloved pastor at her hometown church. When he died in 1997, we went to Lancaster for the funeral.

The pastor’s best friend taught at the seminary across from F&M. He preached the funeral. One of the things he said was:

“Wallace loved his enemies. But to love your enemies, you have to have the courage to make some.”

…We are in the middle of another all-star week of saints:

Pius V in Santa Maria Maggiore

On Tuesday, we kept the Memorial of St. Louis de Montfort, author of True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

Wednesday was the Memorial of St. Catharine of Siena.

Yesterday (April 30) we kept the Memorial of Pope St. Pius V, who gave us the Missal upon which our current Missal is based.

Today we keep the Memorial of St. Joseph the Worker.

Pretty soon I will get around to giving you a summary of In Tune with the World by Josef Pieper. He wrote the book in the 1960’s to explain why Communist May-Day celebrations are not truly festive.

(This is also the Pope’s name day. In a week, he will be going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.)

Tomorrow is the Memorial of St. Athanasius, the hero of the Council of Nicea, the champion of our Creed.

And May 3 is the Feast of the Apostles Philip and James the Less (though we do not keep the feast this year, because it falls on Sunday).

…Here is a beautiful place to go to Mass in the “Red Rose City,” St. Mary of the Assumption:

…Three years ago today, we buried my dear dad…

…Another question we have to get to the bottom of: Did our Lord carry His cross through the “Genath Gate” in the ancient wall of Jerusalem?

St. Catharine of Siena

St. Athanasius

Saints Philip and James parish on N. Charles St., Baltimore

Dateline: Lancaster

Buildings, Lancaster by Charles Demuth

Reflection for Memorial of St. Louis de Montfort

(beamed at you from Lancaster, Pa., where my mom and I are on pilgrimage to visit some family graves…)

Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” —Acts 7:56

St. Stephen was given a vision of the Lord Jesus in heaven. When the first martyr saw Christ at the right hand of the Father, why did he not also see our Lady up there?

Statue of St. Louis de Montfort in St. Peter's

Come on, numbskulls: Our Lady was still on earth when St. Stephen was martyred. She had not yet been taken up to heaven. She was still living with St. John.

As Pope John Paul II reminded us in his encyclical on the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Mother had a period in her life when she stayed close to her Son in the same way we do: through the Blessed Sacrament of the altar.

Our Lady grew closer to Christ every day of her life, including during the years when He was in heaven and she was still on earth. She did it by going to Holy Mass.

…CAPITALS!!!! Historic seventh-game comback to dispatch the Rangers!