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MOST
HOLY TRINITY (JUNE 7)
We
call upon our listeners to become At-one-mentists, that
is, those who have entered into the practical possession
of their birthright in Christ, living a life of at-one-ment
with the Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity: the Father,
the Son and the Holy Spirit. Only when we realize experimentally
this glorious status of union with God, so that we are
in God and God in us, can we be filled with a sense of
great joy and thanksgiving, for where God is, there is
heaven, and when we have God within us, the joy of heaven
ought to be there also.
Worldly people, who have no experimental knowledge of
the Atonement, wonder how a young girl of wealth and high
social position can turn her back upon it all and enter
a convent. They pity the poor, deluded thing. But their
pity is all wasted upon the desert air. Men and women
forsake all things as did the Apostles to follow Christ
in the religious life because they know that by so doing
they will more fully and more perfectly realize the words
of St. Paul: “We joy in God through Our Lord Jesus
Christ by Whom we have now received the At-one-ment.”
[Rom. 5:11] That is to say the status of intimate union
with God, in that union enjoying intimate communion not
only with Christ, the Son of God, but also enjoying the
communion of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, the
Three Persons of the Adorable Trinity and finding thereby
more happiness and more real personal joy than the world,
under the most favorable circumstances, could possibly
give to any of its votaries. Therefore, because it will
make you infinitely rich in the possession of God here
on earth and in heaven eternally, we invite you, one and
all, to become AT-ONE-MENTISTS! (Fr. Paul on St. Anthony’s
Hour, July 11, 1937)
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ST.
ANTHONY OF PADUA (JUNE 13)
Prayer
for Presentation of the Industrial Farm, Graymoor, to
St. Anthony:
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We
salute you, St. Anthony, lily of purity, ornament
and glory of Christianity. We salute you, great
Saint, cherub of wisdom and seraph of divine love.
We salute you by your well-deserved titles: Wonder-worker
of Padua, Most Illustrious Son of St. Francis, Glory
of the Friars Minor and of the whole Seraphic Family.
And we, least and last among the spiritual children
of the Patriarch of Assisi, this day present to
you, whom we hail as our big elder brother, our
loving thanks and deepest gratitude for all the
innumerable favors you have secured for us by your
all-prevailing intercession with almightily God,
and more especially we render you this day public
praise and thanks for securing to the Society of
the Atonement the farm on the eastside of our holy
mountain on June 13, 1916, and one year later, viz.,
June 13, 1917, completing the full sum of $6,000.00
in payment for the same.
In the name of all your many clients, who by their
generous self-sacrifice have freely and joyfully
given in small amounts this large sum of money,
that they might have the joy and happiness of presenting
this fertile tract of land to you on your birthday,
to be called after you--St. Anthony's Industrial
Farm--we here and now in St. Anthony's Corner of
St. Francis' Church, make the formal act of presentation
to your glorious and transcendently illustrious
self.
We entreat you to look down with special favor upon
the many hundred clients who have united to give
you this farm and obtain for them of God temporal
and spiritual benefits now and eternal riches in
heaven, "where neither moth nor rust corrupts
nor thieves break through and steal."[Matt.6:20]
We also entreat you to be the special patron of
our Brothers Christopher, and on your new farm provide
not only means for their sustenance and useful labor,
but also provision for their souls, and grant, as
far as you are able to do so in accordance with
the wish of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate
Heart of our gracious Lady of the Atonement, that
none of those men who shall work on this farm will
fail to obtain the rewards of eternal life and a
place among the children of the Atonement in glory
everlasting.
Finally, we entreat you, great son of St. Francis,
pray always for and watch over our Institute, the
Society of the Atonement, that through your mighty
assistance and never-failing intercession, in union
with all our Holy Patrons, it may realize all and
everything that God has willed and planned it to
accomplish, to His own greater glory, the exaltation
of the Atonement of His Son Jesus Christ, the increase
of the Seraphic Family in heaven, the unity of Christendom
and the salvation of souls.
V. Pray for us, O Blessed St. Anthony.
R. That we may be worthy of the promises of Christ.
Almightily and eternal God, Who did glorify your
faithful confessor, Anthony, with the perpetual
gift of working miracles, graciously grant that
what we confidently seek through his merits, we
may surely receive through his intercession through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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(Fr. Paul’s Prayer to St. Anthony at the Presentation
of the Industrial Farm to St. Anthony on June 16, 1917.
The festivity began with a Mass at St. Francis' Chapel,
Graymoor, followed by a formal presentation of the farm
made at the foot of the statue of St. Anthony in the same
chapel. Text in The Lamp July 1917 pp.369-371)
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CORPUS
CHRISTI (JUNE 14)
One of the most marvelous things in connection with our
holy religion is the Blessed Sacrament, the Body and Blood
of Christ. It is our Lord’s gift to us on the night
of his betrayal when he was about to lay down his life
as a victim on the cross for our salvation. “Greater
love has no one than this,” he said, “than to
lay down one’s life for his friends.”[Jn.15:13]
Not
content with dying, Jesus planned that his presence should
always be with his loved ones in the world, and that he
would give himself to be their life through the process
of death. He promised his disciples when he was about
to depart from them, “ I am with you always, even
to the end of the world.” [Matt. 28:20] So, he instituted
the Blessed Sacrament, and commanded the Apostles, and
down through the centuries through them, “Take and
eat; this is my body, drink all of this, this is my blood.”[Matt.
26:27-28]
Where the Blessed Sacrament is, there Christ must be,
not only his body and blood but his soul and divinity.
And so we set up in the church the t abernacle, which
is to contain the consecrated hosts. That church [is]
a little bit of heaven, the court of heaven, brought down
to earth because Christ the King comes down into the tabernacle.
But consider what that involves for Christ. Sometimes
the faithful come to visit him, but oftener they forget
and he is left alone. Think of all the churches through
the world, very few of the faithful come in the course
of a whole day to make a visit. Yet Jesus has remained
there in the tabernacle because where his body is, there
he himself must be, because of the union of his humanity
with the divinity. Others may come and may go but he must
remain, even in loneliness, darkness, the cold of winter,
the heat of summer, oftentimes all sorts of neglects manifested
to him. Often times there is neglect by priests to look
after him: sometimes the linens are torn, soiled and dirty.
Amid the filth he has to abide. What a wonderful penalty
to put upon himself for the love he bore the sons of men.
But as far as ourselves are concerned, how eager we should
be to give him love for love, to express our appreciation
of that abiding presence with us, never to forget that
in the tabernacle is the King of kings, the Lord of glory,
and to show him reverence according to our ability. (Fr.
Paul’s Sermon June 16, 1938)
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ORDINATION
OF FR. PAUL TO THE PRIESTHOOD (JUNE 16)
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The
Most Rev’d Archbishop [John Farley]
Your
Grace:
May I wear my Religious habit when I am ordained?
Ten years ago in obedience to what I have every
reason to believe was the call of GOD, I embraced
that habit as the outward and visible sign of things
of the Atonement and the Holy Rule of St. Francis,
which I had inwardly and orally vowed and professed.
By virtue of the Holy Father’s blessing, taking
the Society of the Atonement under his protection,
I was received into the Catholic Church in the same
habit, admitted to the 3rd Order of St. Francis
vested in it and by Your Grace I was Confirmed in
it.
Your Grace will easily understand, therefore, how
much I desire to receive the exalted dignity of
the Catholic Priesthood, clothed in the humble garb
of a Friar Minor of the Atonement, that when Your
Grace’s hands are imposed, the Unction from
on High may establish me forever not only a Priest,
but as a Priest-Religious, for when Aaron was anointed,
the Holy Oil “ran down to the shirt of his
garment.” [Lev.8:12,30]
Humbly begging of Your Grace this added favor,
I
am your obedient son in the Sacred Heart,
Paul
James Francis, S.A.
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(Handwritten
letter of Fr. Paul to Archbishop John Farley, penned at
St. Joseph’s Seminary, Yonkers, N.Y., June 9, 1901.)
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MOST
SACRED HEART OF JESUS (JUNE 19)
The
Second Person of the Blessed Trinity differs from both
the Father and the Holy Spirit in that he is likewise
man as well as God and has a heart like the rest of humankind.
This heart was broken for us on the cross. From it issued
the stream of blood and water that has given health and
salvation, pardon and peace to the sons and daughters
of men. He, in these latter times, appeared in vision
to holy men and women, as he once appeared long ago to
St. Paul, showing his heart aflame with the fire of love
to the souls he died to save and promising many blessings
to those who are especially devoted to his Sacred Heart.
By devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus we mean uniting
ourselves in thought and desire with his holy heart, loving
what Jesus loves and desiring what he desires, so that
the heart's desire of Jesus becomes our heart's desire
also. The best way to make this devotion practical is
to make the love of Jesus the mainspring of all our conduct.
St. Paul put it all in one short sentence, "the love
of Christ constrains us". [2 Cor. 5:14] The special
habitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the Blessed
Sacrament and, therefore, devotion to the Sacred Heart
should mean to us devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. (Fr.
Paul’s Sermon, Trinity Sunday, May 29, 1904)
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NATIVITY
OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST (JUNE 24)
In
John the Baptist we behold a perfect vessel of sanctification,
made fit for the Master’s use by the Holy Spirit,
while still in his mother’s womb. He was born with
a predestined mission and he fulfilled that mission perfectly.
In the discharge of his prophetic office, as herald of
the Messiah, he did not hesitate to rebuke Herod, the
King, telling him that it was unlawful for him to have
Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife. The infuriated
woman, in revenge, through the solicitation of her daughter,
who danced before Herod, obtained the head of John the
Baptist, for the King at her request sent soldiers to
the prison where John had been incarcerated, and decapitated
the prophet of God. Thus, he was found faithful unto death.
My friends, in addressing you, I am addressing for the
most part the regenerate, those who have been re-born
of the Spirit in holy Baptism, and upon us, to some extent
rests the mantle of John the Baptist, as upon John the
Baptist rested the mantle of Elias. But are you realizing
your vocation and are you proving yourself faithful to
it unto death?
When,
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles first
preached the Gospel, some unbelievers in the crowd, mocking,
said: “These men are full of new wine.” [Acts.2:13]
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his
voice and spoke to them:
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of Judea, and all you that dwell in Jerusalem, be
this known to you and listen to my words. For these
are not drunk, as you suppose, seeing it is but the
third hour of the day. But this is that which was
spoken of by the prophet Joel: |
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it shall come to pass in the last days, (says the
Lord), I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your
young men shall see visions, and your old men shall
dream dreams. And upon my servants indeed, and upon
my handmaids will I pour out in those days my Spirit,
and they shall prophesy. [Acts. 2:14-18 and Joel 2:28-29] |
In
those marvelous first days of the Christian era, commonly
called the “ Pentecostal Age,” it was not only
the Apostles and the priests who were missionaries, but
every man, woman and child who professed Christ and was
incorporated into his Mystical Body in Baptism was a missionary,
and it ought to be so in the 20th century.
Every one of you, my brethren, should be a missionary
to prepare the way for the second coming of Christ by
preaching the Gospel to every creature throughout the
whole world, that all flesh may see the salvation of God,
even those who – a thousand million of them –
still sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.[Lk.1:79]
Realize, my brethren, your vocation! You are called by
God to be missionaries and if you cannot go in person
to labor as so many thousands of missionaries are laboring
in the field afar, at least join the commissary department
of the Great Missionary Army and provide food and equipment
for the missionaries--everything that they need to carry
on the work of evangelization, such, for example, as schools,
churches, hospitals and nurseries, wasting nothing but
using all your talent, substance and opportunity to the
greater glory of God, the good of your neighbor and the
salvation of souls! (Fr. Paul’s Radio Talk, Dec.
20, 1936)
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SAINTS
PETER AND PAUL (JUNE 29)
The Friars of the Atonement are called to be prominent
in religion as to their union with Peter, not only as
promulgators of the word of truth, but also as the voice
of the Good Shepherd.
Let
us not forget that ours is a Pauline foundation: the first
voice the Founder heard was, “That is what you will
do some day, found a preaching order like the Paulists.”
(Fr. Paul’s Meditation on Feast of Sts. Peter and
Paul, June 29, 1938)
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ONE
& TWO LINERS OF FR. PAUL
Holy
Trinity Inside of You:
Are you feeling any better physically? Keep yourself interiorly
united with the Three Persons
of the Adorable Trinity, who abide within you! (Fr. Paul
to Sr. St. Helen of the Cross, s.m., Panola, Ill., July
10, 1937)
On
Salvation and Eternity:
We have only a short time on earth even though we live
to be as old as John D. Rockefeller, but beyond the grave
is eternity and the most important thing is to save one’s
soul so that our future life shall be happy instead of
unutterably wretched. (Fr. Paul to Cora Brook Apr. 4,
1933)
Gratitude to Supporters in the Community:
It is those who have responded to the divine call and
have associated themselves with me in
community life, who have made the Society of the Atonement
possible. Without them, I would have remained a solitary
on the Mount of the Atonement. (Fr. Paul to C.M. Joiner,
Dallas Tex., Feb. 13, 1935)
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