The Rose of Sharon

The Rose of Sharon

by Anonymous. Arranged by Barney E. Warren (pub. 1911)

Lord Jesus, my sweet Rose of Sharon,

My Prophet, my Priest, and my King—

To Thee I will sing all my praises,

For blessings Thy mercy doth bring.

All glory and honor to Jesus,

Who offered His life on the cross,

To open a fountain for sinners,

And purchase a world that was lost.

For the Adoro Te Devote By St. Thomas Aquinas

-Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Today we celebrate the Body of Christ. St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a chant that is beautiful in Latin, and beautifully translated into English by Gerald Manly Hopkins, S.J. (poet extraordinaire).

To Pray for the Christians in the Middle East-UPDATED

Thanks to having low friends in high places, I can share this with you. You used to have to be an operative of the CIA, or MI-5, to be able to pull up stuff like this on your computer screen. Nowadays, you can do so from your investment house's Bloomberg machines. By doing so, you can even pretend that having this kind of knowledge at your finger tips will give you an investing edge. It won't, but that is another story.

Because Life Doesn't Come With Odometers

Our family van is in the shop this week and I've been driving our sedan 40-plus miles to work. The car is as old as our marriage: 17 years. My husband works close to home and so he drives the sedan to work and back, logging less than five miles a day.

For years, the gas gauge hasn't worked, but we've adapted by relying on the trip odometer.

Because We Are His Folk: Reflections on Matthew 5:44

—Feast of Blessed Jacinta & Francisco Marto 

Last night, a wild wind deposited me and our 11 year old at the door of a Catholic church. Once inside, we participated in Mass and heard the words of the gospel. Christ asks so much from us; we are to love our enemies. As the young priest celebrating the Mass pointed out in his homily, our enemies include our next-door neighbor who throws garbage on our side of the property line and the terrorists who travel halfway around the world to attack our way of life.

For All the Saints: The Martyrs of Douai College

-Feast of the Blessed Martyrs of Douai College

It's dangerous business being a Catholic. Dangerous, that is, if your idea of being thought well of is to be looked on with favor by such worldly paragons as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the San Francisco Chronicle. If by becoming a Catholic you hope to curry favor with the world, here is a little news flash: that ain't a gonna happen. It never has, and never will. And in the end, it may cost you your life.

It is the Feast of the Blessed Martyrs of Douai College, and as All Hallows Eve rapidly approaches, what better way to celebrate then to read of some of the bravest souls ever to march in our ranks? Here is the snippet that the editors at Universalis give us,

Rerum Creator optime (A Few Words For Wednesday)

—Feast of St. Frumentius 

From todays Office of Readings, this hymn attributed to Pope St. Gregory the Great. I also found a little more information about this particular hymn at Thesaurus Precum Latinarum, a neat little website that you may want to bookmark. There, Michael Martin writes,

This traditional Matins hymn is used in the Liturgia Horarum for the Office of the Readings for Wednesdays of the 1st and 3rd weeks of the Psalter during Ordinary Time. Likewise it is found as the Matins hymn for Wednesdays in the Roman Breviary.

There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy (A Few Words for Wednesday)

Back in June, I shared a poem by Frederick Faber in this space.  This week, I share the words of a hymn he wrote. You can find the music, too, and sing along if you like.  But I actually prefer these words without the music.

I first read read them in my favorite book about my favorite Old Testament book. Faber wrote lots of hymns, Faith of Our Fathers being one of the better known ones. This hymn is a gift that reminds me of the passage that St. Paul writes to the Corinthians: