Archdiocese of Manila Oratio Imperata / Intercessory Prayers for Rain

TO: ALL PARISH PRIESTS/SHRINE RECTORS/CHAPLAINS AND SCHOOL DIRECTORS

SUBJECT: ORATIO IMPERATA/INTERCESSORY PRAYERS FOR RAIN


People tasked with managing our water/power resources have warned that we face drought and shortage of water because of El Niño phenomenon. Our relief will come from nature. And so we implore the Master of all creation, God, our Father, at whose command the winds and the seas obey, to send us rain and ease the drought.

We are sending you the intentions to be inserted into the Daily and Sunday Prayers of the Faithful of the Mass:

Lord, hasten to send the rain we badly need so the damage to crops and other livelihood and impending power shortage may be averted, we pray…

Lord, inspire us in this time of crisis to share in the name of Jesus what we have and to take responsibility for one another and for the environment and resources that you have generously provided us, we pray...

The Oratio Imperata ad Petendam Pluviam is to be prayed after Communion before the Post Communion Prayer:

God our loving Father, creator of our earth and of the universe, and all the wondrous elements of nature that sustain your living creatures, we humbly ask you to send us the rain that our country needs so badly at this time, to irrigate our fields, to stave off a power shortage, to provide water for our bodily health, and to refresh our parched lands. At you command the wind and the seas obey, raise your hand Almighty God to send us so that crisis may be averted.

Merciful and generous God, open our eyes to the richness and beauty of your creation and instill in us a deep love for this earth and all that is in and around it. Teach us to be wise stewards of your creation so that we may always use them responsibly and protect them from abuse and exploitation. At this time of crisis, dear Lord, move us to share more and to love more.

Loving God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, you entrusted the Filipino people to the special care of Mary our Mother, listen to the prayers that we bring up to her, our Blessed Mother, to intercede for us, for the protection of our land and our people, whom she loves.

Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God forever and ever. Amen.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.

Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, pray for us.

February 28, 2010 is the Second Sunday of Lent and we start with these prayers on this day, the day of our intensified journey of Lent.

Let us together storm heavens with our supplication, that God's mercy be upon us and send us the rain we need.

God Bless!

+ GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES, D.D.
Archbishop of Manila

On Receiving Holy Communion

Father Anscar Chupungco OSB in his speech entitled: Liturgical Studies and Liturgical Renewal given 21 January 2010, Sydney Australia:

"Is receiving Holy Communion on one’s knees and on the tongue more reverent than receiving it standing and in the hand?"

Compare this:

with this:

Isn't it obvious???

[Thanks to Rorate Caeli for the video link.]

Important Clarifications from the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei

From the New Liturgical Movement:

The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei has recently answered some important questions regarding the application of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum submitted by the moderator for the faithful attached to the Extraordinary Form of the diocese of Rzeszów, Poland. The answers, however, are applicable generally. The original questions (in German) and answers (in Italian), published by Nowy Ruch Liturgiczny are reproduced below. Here is an NLM summary; questions 2 and 3 have easily the biggest impact:

1. If there is no other possibility, because for instance in all churches of a diocese the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum are already being celebrated in the Ordinary Form, the liturgies of the Sacred Triduum may, in the same church in which they are already celebrated in the Ordinary Form, be additionally celebrated in the Extraordinary Form, if the local ordinary allows.

2. A Mass in the usus antiquior may replace a regularly scheduled Mass in the Ordinary Form. The question contextualizes that in many churches Sunday Masses are more or less scheduled continually, leaving free only very incovenient mid afternoon slots, but this is merely context, the question posed being general. The answer leaves the matter to the prudent judgement of the parish priest, and emphasises the right of a stable group to assist at Mass in the Extraordinary Form.

3. A parish priest may schedule a public Mass in the Extraordinary Form on his own accord (i.e. without the request of a group of faithful) for the benefit of the faithful including those unfamiliar with the usus antiquior. The response of the Commission here is identical to no. 2.

4. The calendar, readings or prefaces of the 1970 Missale Romanum may not be substituted for those of the 1962 Missale Romanum in Masses in the Extraordinary Form.

5. While the liturgical readings (Epistle and Gospel) themselves have to be read by
the priest (or deacon/subdeacon) as foreseen by the rubrics, a translation to the vernacular may afterwards be read also by a layman.

Philippine Government mocks St. Valentine

The Philippine Government has mocked what is supposed to be a Catholic day of commemorating one of its saints, St. Valentine, by promoting promiscuity on the guise of protection against sexually transmitted diseases. The Department of Health handed out leaflets promoting safe sex with a "Be Safe Always, Valentine" packs of condoms to men buying flowers at Manila's Dangwa wholesale flower market.

Read more here:
Gov't hands out free condoms with Valentine's Flowers



St. Valentine was a holy priest in Rome who never renounced his faith despite the beatings by club he had receive from the Roman authorities led by Emperor Claudius II. Eventually he was beheaded on February 14 at about the year 270. He is the Patron Saint of affianced couples, bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers and young people.

Second National Congress of the Clergy

Tomorrow will be the opening day of the Second National Congress of the Clergy that will be held in the World Trade Center, Pasay City until Friday, 29th of January.

The Congress "...intends to respond to the needs of the clergy in the Philippines as well as 'to surface the needs and realities concerning the ongoing formation and renewal of priests."

It is described by Msgr. Jose Bernardo Jr., the Executive Secretary of the National Organizing Committee as "...basically a retreat, a call to interior renewal, a call to holiness."

It is also intended, according to Msgr. Gerardo Santos, to provide the priests a deep and religious experience that will hopefully lead to spiritual conversion and greater commitment.

The Congress will have Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, Preacher of the Papal Household as retreat master and Imus Bishop Luis Chito Tagle "...will provide the challenge for the pastoral aspect of the call to holiness."

For the whole duration of the Congress, the bishops and priests will be accompanied by the relics of St. John Marie Vianney, the Patron Saint of Priests, that recently arrived in Manila. Among the relics that was brought here in Manila are the priestly stole and breviary of the beloved Saint.

Source: Second National Congress of the Clergy



Let us pray for our beloved priests:

"O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church:
Grant it love and the light of Your Spirit,
and give power to the words of Priests
so that hardened hearts might be brought
to repentance and return to You, O Lord.

Lord, give us holy Priests;
You yourself maintain them in holiness.
O Divine and Great High Priest,
may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere
and protect them from the devil's traps and snares
which are continually being set for the soul of Priests.

May the power of Your mercy, O Lord,
shatter and bring to naught
all that might tarnish the sanctity of Priests,
for You can do all things."

- St. Faustina's Diary #1052 -

Schedule of Exposition of the Relics of St. John Marie Vianney

From an Email:

January 23 - Arrival at NAIA at 9:30 a.m., National Shrine of the Sacred Heart at 11 am

January 24 - EDSA Shrine at 12 noon

January 25 to 29 - 2nd National Congress of the Clergy at the World Trade Center

January 29 - Sto. Niño de Tondo Parish at 12 noon

January 30 - Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene at 12 noon

January 31 - St. John Mary Vianney Parish at 12 noon

February 1 - Departure at NAIA at 11:30 a.m.

Thanks to Miguel Madarang Ramirez for the info.

The example of St. John the Baptist

Father Michell Joe Zerrudo on his blog, Sense of the Sacred, made a relevant relation between the priest and St. John the Baptist: The priest should never keep attention to himself, he should, like St. John the Baptist, directs all attention to the Bridesgroom, the Christ..."He must increase; I must decrease!"

By following the example of St. John the Baptist, the priest truly becomes Alter Christus in the Liturgy. The priest by not allowing his personality, ad libitum, to interfere (decrease), draws and directs all attention to the Action of Christ (increase) by following faithfully the words and actions prescribed in the Liturgy. It is therefore necessary that we, the congregation, together with the priests regain consciousness that Liturgy is a sacred and precious gift we have received and not something that we create, it is an act of prayer and not of entertainment.

Bishop stops singing of love songs in liturgy

“Secular love songs, even if they have religious themes, do not have any place in the divine liturgy,” - Archbishop Socrates Villegas, Lingayen-Dagupan

Full Story.

Photo Credits: John Glenn Lopez and @ your SiRVis.

Merry Christmas!

We commemorate the Lord's birth today to prepare ourselves for His Second Coming!


A Blessed Christmas to everyone!

Announcement: St. Jerome Emiliani Christmas Midnight Mass

The St. Jerome Emiliani and Sta. Susanna Parish will be celebrating a Traditional Latin Missa Cantata Christmas Midnight Mass on December 24, 2009 at 11pm. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass will be celebrated by the parish priest, Father Grato Germanetto, C.R.S. He will be assisted by the altar servers and Van De Steen choir of the Societas Liturgiae Sacrae Sancti Gregorii. The church is located along Zapote Road, Alabang Town Center, Muntilupa City.

Year of Priests - Clergy Conference 2009

Clergy Conference: January 4 to January 8, 2010

From the website: http://www.yearforpriests-clergyconferencerome2010.org/programme.htm

The programme includes the daily celebration of Holy Mass in the great basilicas, and on some days Vespers and Benediction. Our celebrants will include: His Eminence, Antonio Cardinal Canizares, His Eminence, James Cardinal Stafford, and His Excellency Archbishop Raymond Burke. We hope to be at the Holy Father's Mass on the Solemnity of the Epiphany.

As part of the programme, on January 7 at 5pm, his Eminence, Antonio Cardinal Canizares, will celebrate a Solemn Pontifical High Mass according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite at the Lateran.

Deo Gratias!

Prayers and Volunteers Needed

Prayers are needed for those who have perished in the flood. Prayers are needed as well for those who have survived the ordeal but have lost their loved ones.

Volunteers are also needed to help distribute relief goods and to help rescue those who are still trapped in flooded areas.

Here is a short video on how damaging the flood was.

R.I.P. Mrs. Lourdes Caringal Valencia

Prayers for the repose of the soul of Mrs. Lourdes Caringal Valencia, mother of Kyle, a fellow apologist, TLM devotee and altar server.

Requiem aeternam in nomine Domine.

Emergency Hotlines for Typhoon Ondoy

[Updated 09-27-09 0654hrs]

From NDCC, 42 are confirmed dead and 20 others are missing as the Typhoon Ondoy unleashed his fury over the island of Luzon Saturday. Close to 280,000 families were affected mostly coming from the provinces of Metro Manila, Rizal, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon. Rescue teams are being assembled to rescue people who are stranded on their rooftops.

[Original Post]

Most of Manila are flooded due to a heavy downpour this morning, the worst since the 1960's, lashed by Typhoon Ondoy (International codename Ketsana). Please pray as 42 are already feared dead or missing and more than 1,800 families from different areas in Metro Manila have been affected by this tragic event. A state of calamity has been declared to Metro Manila including 23 provinces.



For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV


Here is a compilation of contact numbers from Hearty's Heaven.

* Red Cross

Please send full address of stranded friends/family to Senator Dick Gordon
+639178897898
+63938444BOYS
Landline: 143

Mobile Phone Load Donations: The Red Cross Rescue & Relief Operations.
Send RED to 2899 (Globe) & 4483 (Smart)

* Metro Manila Development Authority

Landline: 136

* Coast Guard

+63-2-5276136

* For Rubber Boat Requests: NCRPO

+63-2-8383203
+63-2-8383354

* ABS-CBN Typhoon Ondoy Hotline

+63-2-4163641

* National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC)

Emergency Numbers:
+63-2-9125668
+63-2-9111406
+63-2-9122665
+63-2-9115061

Help Hotlines:
+63-2-7342118
+63-2-7342120

Care of Supreme Pontiffs: Stability of Roman Liturgy as God's Gift

By the late Msgr. Moises Andrade, Jr. H.P., at the University of Santo Tomas last January 7, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI offered his care for the Roman Liturgy in his motu proprio letter of July 7, 2007. Here, he conveyed his support for the maintenance of sacredness, reverence for God's presence, and the participant's awareness of sinfulness during the celebration of the Roman Liturgy.

1. Awareness of Sinfulness.

Keeping the hands joined, kneeled and bowing low in prayer, and the striking of the breast are bodily gestures expressing fidelity to God's gift of Sacred Liturgy. They are occuring in various moments of the Holy Mass primarily. They instill to every officiating priest and all participants in Sacred Liturgy the readiness to welcome God's gift of forgiveness and remission of sins.

2. Reverence for God's Presence.

The Divine Presence in the Word of God and in the Mystery of the Eucharist are experienced in the epistles and gospels of a one year cycle of the 1570 Roman Missal and in the Roman Canon, conveniently articulated by the rubrics, when faithfully implemented. Rather than require the ability of so many trained ministers, servers, singers and other assistants, the availability of at least one ordained priest and his acolyte always makes accessible the sacraments in their solemn prayerfulness.

3. Maintenance of Sacredness

Focus on the salvific grace of Christ's holy cross through ritual gestures and its sacred image at the central place at the altar will yield the harvest of piety and clear signal of the role of the priest - not so much as presider, but as a servant to facilitate the encounter of the living God with the praying people including the priest as well.

Conclusion

The awareness of the Roman Liturgy's sacredness, reverence of God's presence, and the consciousness of human sinfulness yet graced by God's self-giving are constantly transmitted through the various historical periods of the Church's liturgy and are especially expected through the exposure of the faithful to the ritual celebration elaborated extraordinarily in the 1962 Roman Missal (the 7th retouching of the 1570 mass book) and ordinarily, in the 1970 Roman Missal (the 8th retouching of tthe roman liturgical text).

Know The Truth Seminar

Here is the tentative schedule for Defensores Fidei 2009 Apologetics Course:

September 26 Church – Atty Marwil Llasos
October 3 Holy Bible – Chief de Vera
October 10 Papacy – Iboy Pinga
October 17 Sacraments 1 – Digoy Fernandez
October 24 Sacred Tradition/Magisterium – Dr. Dicky Boncan
October 31 Sacraments II – Fr. Abe Arganiosa, CRS (All Saints Day weekend!)
November 7 Church History – Chief de Vera
November 14 Mariology – Atty Marwil Llasos
November 21 Christology and Holy Trinity – Fr. Cayo Estrada
November 28 Sola Fidei/Sola Scriptura – Chief de Vera
December 5 Local Sects – Atty Marwil Llasos
December 12 ‘Bible Christians’ – Foreign Sects – Chief de Vera
December 19 Graduation and Christmas Party

Venue:

Training Room of Amici Greenhills
3rd Floor Missouri Square Bldg
Connecticut corner Missouri Streets
Northeast Greenhills
Please call Lerma at 723-4326 for updates

Anti-Life Catholic Politicians

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/14/09/cebu-archbishop-dismayed-noynoy

Proponents of the RH Bill, like Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, argue that the RH Bill is "pro-life" because the bill aims to save the lives of mothers and children through adequate healthcare methods.

You are Pro Life at the expense of the helpless unborn? Who are you kidding Rep. Hontiveros?

Senator Benigno Cojuangco Aquino III, on the other hand, should make a stand for life, specially that of the unborn, and uphold orthodox Catholic moral teaching.

The Pope speaking to the newly ordained bishops reminds the heirarchy and us laity as well:

"The fidelity of the servant of Jesus Christ also consists precisely in the fact that he does not seek to adjust the faith to the fashions of the time."

Go figure catholic politicians and clergy who have taken an anti-life stance.

The Nativity of Mary

Happy Birthday Mama Mary!

Request for Prayers: Manny Arejola RIP

Received from an email:

Dear Friends,

One of Pro-Life apologists, Manny Arejola passed away this morning. Wake is at Don Bosco Makati.

As a sign of camaraderie, please extend your financial assistance to Manny's family. They are not well off. They need our help. This is the time to do good works!

For our USA/Canada friends, please extend your help. Your $20-100 can go a long way.

If you can go to Don Bosco Makati and pay your last respect to our dear friend, please do so. If logistics is a problem, please ... call (632) 723-4326 and look for Lerma at Totus Bookstore for details.

The Reform of the Reform has begun

Translation From Rorate-Caeli, comments and emphasis are mine:

ROME The document was delivered to the hands of Benedict XVI in the morning of last April 4 by Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. It is the result of a reserved vote, which took place on March 12, in the course of a "plenary" session of the dicastery responsible for the liturgy, and it represents the first concrete step towards that "reform of the reform" often desired by Pope Ratzinger. The Cardinals and Bishops members of the Congregation voted almost unanimously in favor of a greater sacrality of the rite, of the recovery of the sense of eucharistic worship, of the recovery of the Latin language in the celebration, and of the remaking of the introductory parts of the Missal in order to put a stop to abuses, wild experimentations, and inappropriate creativity (These abuses are always justified for pastoral concerns but as a priest friend said, these are not pastoral concerns but concerns of the pastor! Abuses due to the false sense and interpretation of "active participation." MANY Eucharistic celebration has become nothing more than a "worldy", secular celebration devoid of the sense of the sacred. For starters, just say the black and do the red.). They have also declared themselves favorable to reaffirm that the usual way of receiving Communion according to the norms is not on the hand, but in the mouth. (The norm has NEVER been communion by the hand even in the ordinary form.) There is, it is true, and indult which, on request of the [local] episcopates, allows for the distribution of the host [sic] also on the palm of the hand, but this must remain an extraordinary fact. The "Liturgy Minister" of Pope Ratzinger, Cañizares, is also having studies made on the possibility to recover the orientation towards the Orient of the celebrant, at least at the moment of the eucharistic consecration, as it happened in practice before the reform, when both the faithful and the priest faced towards the Cross and the priest therefore turned his back to the assembly. (Another totally forgotten norm. Priests and faithful today are confused as to what is THE center of the celebration. Many of the abuses and wild experimentation began when the priest faced the people as it created a void as to WHO should be the focus of attention. Many priests as they face the people eye to eye try to fill this void by injecting their personality in the Holy Sacrifice, becoming performers, talk show hosts rather than sacred ministers, again all in the name of "pastoral concerns" and "active participation." Who is the center? One should immediately recall the words of sacred scripture "...for whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." As we proclaim the Lord's death on the cross it is imperative that the crucifix should be the center, the focus of the celebration, to remind us that the sacred action unfolding at Mass is a SACRIFICE, the sacrifice and death of our Lord on the cross. Furthermore, the priest facing the people, especially during the Eucharistic Prayer leaves a bad impression that the priest and the faithful are praying to each other. In the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest is not conversing to the people, but it is a prayer to God, it is directed towards God, therefore it is necessary that the priest face God instead of the people to highlight this principle. In the past, liturgy and theology are solidly fused and never separated...Lex Orandi Lex Credendi.)

Those who know Cardinal Cañizares, nicknamed "the small Ratzinger" before his removal to Rome, know that he is disposed to move forward decisively with the project, beginning in fact from what was established by the Second Vatican Council in the liturgical constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, which was, in reality, exceeded by the post-Conciliar reform which came into forceat the end of the Sixties. The porporato, interviewed by monthly 30Days in recent months, had declared regarding this: "At times change was for the mere sake of changing from a past perceived as negative and outdated. (What was sacred then is sacred now! Many in the Philippines think the same way due to the strong influence of liturgists in favor of everything that is new: creative, inculturated and a false sense of "active participation.") Sometimes the reform was regarded as a break and not as an organic development of Tradition."

For this reason, the "propositiones" voted by the Cardinals and Bishops at the March plenary foresee a return to the sense of sacredness and to adoration, but also a recovery of the celebrations in Latin in the dioceses, at least in the main solemnities, as well as the publication of bilingual Missals - a request made at his time by Paul VI - with the Latin text first.

The proposals of the Congregation, which Cañizares delivered to the Pope, obtaining his approval, are perfectly in line with the idea often expressed by Joseph Ratzinger when he was still a Cardinal, as it is made clear his unpublished words on the liturgy, revealed in advanced by Il Giornale yesterday, and which will be published in the book Davanti al Protagonista (Cantagalli [publisher]), presented beforehand at a congress at Rimini. With a significant nota bene: for the accomplishment of the "reform of the reform", many years will be necessary. The Pope is convinced that hasty steps, as well as to simply drop directives from above, serve no good, with the risk that they may later remain a dead letter. The style of Ratzinger is that of comparison and, above all, of example. As the fact that, for more than a year, whoever approaches the Pope for Communion, have had to kneel down on the kneeler especially placed by the cerimonieri.

Perhaps it is high time that the priests study and appreciate liturgy in light of how it was celebrated for centuries and the theology behind it and compare it with how it is celebrated today so that they will discover for themselves what was lost: a beautiful and dignified liturgy that ultimately leads to the SENSE OF THE SACRED. Bishops, priests and faithful shouldn't be intellectual slaves of liturgists whose only orientation is to form new rites...sometimes impromptu, who false sense of "active participation," who have no sense of beauty, who are clueless of what proper rubrics are, especially those that highlight the SENSE OF THE SACRED. Perhaps such liturgists are also confused. This confusion has to END, they should all look towards the crucifix and listen to Rome for the right direction.