Most Pure Heart of Mary - Topeka, Ks

Here are some photos from a Recent Trip to Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic Church In Topeka Kansas

Catholic

I have been busy with work as of late, and have not had time to really put up some good Posts-

Next weekend we will be attending the Midwest Catholic Family Conference, (Official Website here) while I'm there I plan to meet with various Catholic's from the Midwest including some Clergy / Religious, and I hope to help submit their information to the Lumen Gentleman Motu Proprio Database for those that are interested.

Please pray for a good turnout.

Family Affairs call my duty this weekend but I promise to return with some new Church pictures...

Until then enjoy this tidbit:

The term Catholic was defined by the Roman Emperor Theodosius on February 27 AD 380 in the Theodosian Code XVI.i.2:

"It is our desire that all the various nations which are subject to our clemency and moderation, should continue the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the Pontiff Damasus and by Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the apostolic teaching and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe in the one Deity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in a holy Trinity. We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title Catholic Christians; but as for the others, since in our judgment they are foolish madmen, we decree that they shall be branded with the ignominious name of heretics, and shall not presume to give their conventicles the name of churches. They will suffer in the first place the chastisement of divine condemnation and the second the punishment of our authority, in accordance with the will of heaven shall decide to inflict."

Assumption Parish Edgerton KS

Here are some Photos from a Recent Visit to Assumption Parish in Edgerton, KS

Summorum Pontificum response worth repeating

The Bishop of Bridgeport has issued a statement to his Diocese regarding the newly release motu proprio. Some of his comments are below but I HIGHLY reccomend reading the whole thing...
Diocese of Bridgeport

and if your up for it here is the statemnt with Fr.Zuhlsdorf's  comments:
WDTPRS

THE MOST REVEREND WILLIAM E. LORI, S.T.D., BISHOP OF BRIDGEPORT:

...I want to speak about the enduring value of the extraordinary form of the Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962. This Missal, though issued relatively recently, recapitulates centuries of liturgical development. In thinking back to my own youthful experience of the liturgy, I am reminded not only of its antiquity but also of the formative role it played in the lives of almost everyone I knew, including my parents. The Mass and the Sacraments in this form nurtured the faith of great saints, Catholic intellectuals, and untold millions of ordinary Catholics....

...Far from rejecting the renewed liturgy, the Holy Father is making an important point: the ordinary form of the liturgy (that of Pope Paul VI) is in continuity with the older usage; thus there are two forms (ordinary and extraordinary) in the one Roman Rite. This is not just a technical point. It means that you and I stand in communion, in a continuity of faith and prayer, with those who have gone before us. We are one with those who for centuries worshipped in liturgical forms which in the West gradually took shape until they were more or less standardized by Pope Pius V following the conclusion of the Council of Trent in 1563....

...An ancient adage tells us that "the law of praying is the law of believing." This means, among other things, that the liturgy is to reflect in beauty and simplicity the faith of the Church. The first job of a bishop is to teach the faith - primarily through the preaching and instruction which he delivers or that which is delivered on his behalf by pastors and parish priests. For the vast majority of Catholics, however, this occurs within the liturgy. The Holy Father has provided the bishops of the world with an opportunity to teach about the nature and role of the liturgy in the lives of all the faithful...

Tragedy hits close to home.....

For those in the Kansas City area you may or may not have heard of the death of the young woman on Friday on I-435, This young woman was a killed in her pickup truck Friday when she veered off the road and hit a pole, upon impact the truck burst into flames and despite good intended pedestrians efforts to extinguish the flames there was nothing they could do.

Cecile Hernandez, 21 died yesterday from the fire that consumed her truck, the exact cause of her accident is still unknown, Cecile was my sisters best friend, she would come over to our home often, while my interaction with her was mostly kept to a friendly "Hello!", her untimely death was very hard on her family, add to that the questions that are left, as state troopers are desperate for clues as to what actually went on.



From the Introit to the Requiem Mass:

Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem. Exaudi orationem meam; ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis.

(“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. A hymn becometh thee, O God, in Zion, and unto thee a vow shall be repaid in Jerusalem. Hear my prayer; unto thee all flesh shall come. Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.”)

Please keep Cecile and her family in your prayers.

The Mass of Christian Burial:
Wednesday July 18th, 10:00 a.m.
Prince Of Peace Catholic Church
Olathe KS

Small Talk

Sorry for the Long delay, with all the overtime I have been putting in at work its been a rough week, but I would like to share with you some bits and pieces of a conversation that I had with a friend of mine regarding The Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum.

Father is a Roman Catholic Priest who had been ordained after Vatician II and was never instructed in the Extraordinary form. Father is an Diocesan Priest in the southern United States. I have been having discussions with him since I was in about 8th Grade and he has even come to visit me once here in KC.

Please keep him in your prayers

Heres the Snippits:

Christopher: Id be interested of your plans of addressing the Motu Proprio in your parish

Father: I'm going to explain what the document means: that it is the Holy Father's way of explaining the role of the Traditional Latin Mass in the modern Church, and that no one need fear in the least that the modern form of the Mass will disappear. I will explain to them that if they don't want to be part of this, all they need to do is stay away from it....that there are actually TWO forms of the Roman Rite, and that the Traditional Latin Mass is one of those forms....equal in dignity with the modern form I will have to work diligently to avoid using the term "rites," as in "former rite" and "modern rite." The proper terminology according to the Holy Father is that there are two FORMS of the one RITE.

Christopher : it Does have that little "extra".. ;-)

Father: Yes it does.

Father: This is the chance for [some] to show their true colors once again. This [M.P.] will do nothing whatsoever to them, but they will still be totally ballistic over the fact that the traditional Catholics are finally being pastorally cared for by their own Church!

Christopher: is that why you are asking those that dont want anything to do with it to stay away?

Father: It will demonstrate.... that they are just bitter....if they object to this, because the point will be that no one has any reasons whatsoever to object. Those who have a kneejerk reaction to anything "pre-Vatican 2" can solve their problem by just staying away from it....They need to...... let the traditional Catholics finally be pastorally cared for.

Father seems to have a good point of view here, he is already preparing for this fight we are going to have to save our traditions, in a religion where Tradition is what sets us apart from the rest of the world those that want to see us falter will attack our Traditions first. If we are so easy to dispense with Tradition almost anything could be done away with just as simply.

Summorum Pontificum, is a great start for the reform of the reform, we must pray for all our Priests to guide us through the turbulent waters.

Msgr. Schmitz reminded us during his magnificent homily of the first mass of Fr. Talarico that the Devil is constantly attacking our priests and for all the trials and tribulations we face in our every day life, nothing will compare to the attacks on the priesthood.

Motu Proprio... the immediate aftermath.....

Tonight I enjoyed a great evening with friends, family, and some great food. Interestingly enough a conversation was started from comments on my brown scapular, positive, innocent remarks that led into discussion of the Catholic faith.

We started talking about our parishes and where we attend. One mutual friend spoke of the near by parish that we sometimes attend ordinary mass, some at the table I had never met before, but turned out to be Catholic as well, she informed us of her "Gospel" parish where ,"the gospel choir was most excellent and the sign of peace lasts 15-20 Minutes where everyone is leaving their pews and and congregating to shake each others hand"- out of prudence I held my tounge. We then mentioned that on Sundays we drive >20 minutes to attend the Extraordinary Mass in Latin, everyone at the table interest perked when I mentioned this, they began to ask questions and reminisce of their few "Old" mass experiences. I then informed them that soon the Holy Father is to allow any priest to say the Extraordinary Mass, and once again- a very positive response.

The most disappointing thing about all of this is they had no clue the Traditional Mass was still happening, and I fear this is the case for most Catholics, I think announcement of the Motu Proprio will immediately fall on mostly deaf ears, most Catholics at first will not be akin to giving up their hand holding sentiments. This Motu Proprio will be noted as the start of a Giant U turn, that we will see to transform the ordinary Latin liturgy as well as establish a concrete place for the Extraordinary form.

As we finished up the conversation, it was clear we planted some sort of seed one friend mentioned how she missed the communion rails, and she felt it was wrong they took them out, I made sure to let her knew where she could experience such a blessing again, and maybe someday, others will never share her sentiment as the period between the 1960's- 2007 will be chalked up to another very strange time in church history.

Midwest Catholic Family Conference

This is an event that will be taking place in August We will try our hardest to be there here are some details:

Now in it's 8th year, the Annual Midwest Catholic Family Conference increases spiritual awareness and better prepares it's attendees to face the challenges of living in an ever more secular world. We are all members of the Body of Christ, all part of this great family called the Catholic Church. The Midwest Catholic Family Conference challenges all Catholics to learn more about their Faith.

http://www.catholicfamilyconference.org/

Weekend Presentations (Schedule subject to change):

*Fr. Benedict Groeschel – Title of talks to be announced

*Charlie Aeschliman – Trick Basketball-Handling and the Catholic Faith • The Power
of Purity • How to be a S.E.A.L. Catholic Style

*Michael Barber – Islam and Christianity • Why Faith is NOT an Emotion

*Brian Barcaro – Making Sense Of A MySpace/Youtube Culture • Why did God Join
MySpace? • Speaker’s Panel Moderator for Singles Program

*Janice Bennett – St. Laurence and the Holy Grail • Sudarium of Oviedo

*Regina Doman – No Matter What Happens, Blessed Be His Name • Evangelizing the
Imagination

*Marybeth Hicks – Bringing Up Geeks: Raising Happily Uncool Kids • Busting the
Myth of the Teenage Monster

*Fr. John Lanzrath – Moderator for the Speaker’s Panel Discussion

*Barbara Nicolosi – How to Watch a Movie • Retaking Hollywood • Why Movies Matter

*Tim Staples – Fighting for the Truth • Are You Tough Enough? • Reclaiming the Culture

*Jim Stenson – How Parents Deal Effectively with Adolescent Children • Family Rules:
The Power of “We” • Taking Charge of Your Life

* Denotes Adult, Jr. High and High School Speakers

Brochure CLICK HERE (PDF)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS (PDF)