Last week we reflected on the theological virtue of faith. Today, I would like to reflect on the theological virtue of hope, a virtue by which we desire the Kingdom of Heaven and eternal life as our happiness, it is by putting our trust in Christ.  Hope is conceivably the most challenging of the three theological virtues to understand. It can be depicted as an unwavering trust and assurance that the promises of God will be fulfilled. This trust is centered on Christ who through his Death and Resurrection, has brought us the hope of salvation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the true nature and meaning of the theological virtue of hope.  It states that, “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. ‘Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.’ ‘The Holy Spirit … he poured upon us richly through Jesus Christ Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.’” (CCC, # 1817).

Living in the hope of resurrection is quite instrumental in the healing process during the bereavement. Without the hope of resurrection there is no belief in life after death. There is no immortality. It is the hope of resurrection that gives meaning to the afterlife. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, death is defeated, and eternal life is made sure.  By raising Jesus from the death, God promises all the faithful the same resurrection. In death life is distorted, but in resurrection victory is triumphed. The question St. Paul asks,” O’ death where is your victory? O’ death where is your sting? (I Cor 15: 55). As Christians, sometimes we might ask ourselves same questions especially, when someone close to us, when someone whom we loved so much, when someone who meant so much to us dies, we are deeply hurt, and our heart is troubled, and we begin to question everything. What is life? Why is death? Where is God? 

More than all the avenues, the Church provides wonderful opportunities for healing. This does not mean that all the bereaved families run to Church for comfort and encouragement. On the contrary, most grievers shy away from the Church, feeling at the time that God has betrayed or forsaken them. Where there is hope, there is no despair; where there is despair or hopelessness, there is no hope, but hope in the human life cannot be invaded by despair. Despair can be understood as a momentarily psychological feeling that even affects the spiritual dimension of Christian life. Hope has the last word over despair. With hope, Christians participate to the vision of God, who is eternal life. Stories, such as the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead, for example, make them feel like God has abandoned them, because if He was able to raise Lazarus why can’t He also raise their own. Some of us can think like this. Christ is the only hope of the human person, and he endured the cross, suffered, died, and was raised. This is our Christian hope.  Without hope, our Christian life would become meaningless. What we hope for is everlasting life. Our deceased brothers and sisters have joined whom they have served in their whole life. Now what we cannot see with our corporeal eye, our brothers and sisters are seeing it. This is what Saint John teaches us, “Beloved we are God’s children now, what we shall be has not yet been revealed. we do not know that when it is revealed to us, we shall see him as he is. everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure as he is pure.” (1 Jn 3:2-3).   Finally, I invite you to pray through the intercession of Saint John Paul II never to give up on Hope as he encourages us: “I plead with you, never ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not Afraid” St. John Paul II pray for us.

Feast Day: September 14^th 

This week I draw our reflection directly from St. John Chrysostom (whom I wrote on last year, and who we celebrate on September 13^th, AND being nicknamed golden-tongues, can do a far better job than I on preaching on the Cross of Christ!). Here is one of his homilies, from the 300s, simply entitled “On the Holy Cross”. 

The Cross of the Lord is unpleasant and sorrowful to the ear, but it consists of joy and gladness. It is the originator not so much of suffering as much as of passionlessness. For Jews the Cross is temptation, for pagans it is madness, but for us believers it reminds us of our salvation. When in church one reads about the Cross and one is reminded of the sufferings on the Cross, the faithful are indignant at the Cross and let out a plaintive wail and murmur not at the Cross but at the crucifiers and unbelievers. For the Cross is the salvation of the Church, the Cross is the praise of those who hope on it. The Cross has released us from the evil that possessed us and is the beginning of the blessings received by us. The Cross is the reconcilement of His enemies with God, the promise of sinners to Christ. For by the Cross we were freed from enmity and through the Cross we have become amiable to God. The Cross delivered us from the authority of the devil, the Cross saved us from death and destruction. The Cross changed human nature to the angelic, having released it from all that is corruptible, and have found lives worthy of immortality.

How great is the power of the Cross! How great is the change made by it in the human race! How from the deep darkness it has led us to the boundless light, from death it has restored us to eternal life, from corruption it has transferred us to incorruption. What good is not accomplished for us by means of the Cross? Through the Cross we learned piety and learned the properties of the Divine essence. Through the Cross we learn the truth about God, through the Cross we who were far from Him are united to Christ, and we become worthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Through the Cross we learn the power of love and we are taught to die for others. Through the Cross we are scorned and all what we do is not temporal, we search the blessings of the future and we accept the invisible as if seen. The Cross is preached, and the faith in God is confessed, His truth is spread throughout the universe. The Cross is preached, and the faith in the resurrection, the life and the kingdom of heaven is made without a doubt. What is more precious than the Cross and what is more saving for the soul? The Cross is the triumph over demons, the armor against sin and the sword with which the Lord has struck the snake. The Cross is the will of the Father, the glory of the Only-begotten, the joy of the Holy Spirit, the ornament of angels, the protection of the Church, the praise of St. Paul, the protection of the Saints, the lamp of all the world.

See, however desired and deservedly amiable the Cross is made today, it was the most terrible and shameful sign of the cruelest execution in antiquity! And the Cross makes the best ornament on the imperial crown, the most precious in all the world. The image of the Cross is now found on you, both masters and servants, both wives and husbands, both maidens and married, both slaves and free. All place the sign of the Cross on the noblest part of their body, daily carrying this sign on their forehead, as on a depicted pillar. It shines on a sacred meal, on the clothes of the priest and together with the Lord’s body at the mystical supper. You see it lifted everywhere: on houses, in market-places, in the deserts, on the paths, on mountains and hills, on the sea, on ships, on islands, on boxes, on clothes, on armor, in the halls, on golden and silver vessels, in pictures, on the bodies of sick animals, on the bodies of the demon-possessed, in war, in the world, in the afternoon, at night, in festal assemblies and in the cells of the ascetics. Already no one is ashamed and does not blush at the thought that the Cross is a sign of a shameful death. To the contrary, all of us honor this as an adornment for ourselves, which has surpassed crowns and diadems and precious stones. Let us not run, let us not be frightened, but let us kiss and honor it as an invaluable treasure.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin has been reminded, by this feast and homily, and many other recent moments, that he really needs to get the chain fixed for the cross he wore around his neck. It seems a little thing, but we are either marked with Christ’s cross, or something else, and if it’s anything else, it’s not going to carry us to God.

Last week, I promised that I would continue our reflections on the second Precept of the Church:  Confession of serious sin at least once a year.  I am humbly asking that you wait another week as another topic has come up that I think deserves our attention.  It has to do with three of our previous Parochial Vicars here at the Cathedral and some confusion about what was recently listed in the Catholic Times regarding the assignments of Father Michael Friedel, Father Peter Chineke, and Father Wayne Stock.

Let’s start with our most recent Parochial Vicar – Father Peter Chineke.  As you are aware, the plan we had in place was to have Father Peter begin full-time Canon Law studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.  As we were preparing for this transition, it was brought to our attention that his current immigration status does not really allow us to assign him to full-time studies at this time.  The details are a bit confusing, and if you do not deal with immigration law, I won’t bore you with the details.  We still hope to have Father Peter study Canon Law full-time in the future, but for now, for the purposes of immigration, he needs to be in a parish assignment, thus his being appointed Parochial Administrator at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Decatur, as well as Chaplain of St. Teresa High School and Millikin University, both in Decatur.

If you read Father Peter’s appointment carefully, you will see that it includes information about Father Michael Friedel, and this is where many have been confused.  Due to some unforeseen challenges with another assignment (see below) in Decatur, it became no longer possible for Father Friedel to serve both of his parishes by himself (Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Thomas the Apostle).  Up until July 1, Father Friedel had a second priest to assist him, but after July 1, he was left by himself, as I will explain below.   The solution was for Father Friedel to request a Leave of Absence from his role as Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle so as to focus his efforts on Our Lady of Lourdes, thus making room for the diocese to assign a priest to take care of the pastoral care of St. Thomas the Apostle temporarily.  The diocese therefore assigned a priest for a month at St. Thomas, then when the situation with Father Peter arose, it made good sense for him to take care of St. Thomas.  Where people have grown concerned with Father Friedel is the mention in the appointment for Father Peter that Father Friedel’s Leave of Absence was necessitated by his Parochial Vicar’s Medical Leave of Absence.  Several people saw “Medical Leave of Absence” and the closest name to that phrase was Father Friedel, so many assumed he was on a Medical Leave of Absence, when in reality, it was his Parochial Vicar.

That brings us to our final priest – Father Wayne Stock, and his situation brings clarity to the last point.  Father Wayne Stock was initially scheduled to take a new assignment on July 1 as Parochial Vicar of Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Thomas the Apostle in Decatur, as well as Chaplain of St. Teresa High School.  Unfortunately, Father Wayne has requested and received a Medical Leave of Absence for the time being.  Since this happened after all of the assignments had been made, we needed to pivot to address the situation in Decatur while trying to avoid upsetting other assignments that were already set.

I hope this explanation helps to clear things up.  I know that Father Friedel has been pretty surprised at how many people have been asking about him, if he is okay.  I assure you, Father Friedel is doing great in Decatur.  Nevertheless, I am sure he still very much appreciates your prayers!  The same goes for Father Peter as he settles into his new assignment.  Finally, I invite you to keep Father Wayne in your daily prayers.  Many of you came to know and love him during his time here, and I know he will very much appreciate your prayers during this time in which he is attending to his well-being.

Father Alford

Feast Day: September 9^th | Patron of Slaves, Race Relations, Seafarers, Colombia

Pere Claver i Corberó had just finished his bachelor’s degree in humanities at the University of Barcelona. The 22-year-old had done his father, Pedro (the mayor of his hometown) proud, getting good grades and becoming a leader of his peers. Peter had lost his mother just before going to the university, but he now fondly recalled her injunction that “nothing should come between him and the love of God.” She had prayed constantly for her son’s vocation, asking Hannah and our Mother Mary to lead and protect him. Now her, and their, prayers were being answered because as Pere thought of his future, the thought of becoming a priest continued to flicker through his soul. He had met priests of the new religious order calling itself the Society of Jesus, a gutsy title that fired the heart of the young man.  He had finally written to the Order, putting words on his deep desire to “become a saint, and … save many souls.” God loved that prayer.

The superior general of the Jesuits, Cludio Aquaviva, accepted Pere into the novitiate and he was sent to Tarragona for two years of learning about the order and giving time for God’s grace to deeply enter his heart. As a novice, he kept a notebook with meditations from the various times of prayer, many of them rather ordinary, some too sublime to describe, and some articulating desires that he had not placed in the depths of his heart. On one occasion he penned this line: “I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave, wholly occupied in the service of his master and in the endeavor to please and content him in all and in every way with his whole soul, body, and mind.” The year was 1602. He returned often to those words in the years to come.

Brother Peter did his philosophical studies at the College of Montesión on the lovely island of Majorca. There he became friends with the lay brother who manned the door to the college, Alphonsus Rodríguez. Rodríguez did not know it, but he was one of the many holy porters that the Church would produce in the years to come. This humble man would be canonized along with St. Nuno de Braganza of Portugal (+1431), St. John Masias (+1645) and St. Martin de Porres (+1639) of Peru, St. Padre Pio in Italy (+1968), and their group now includes Bl. André Bessette of Montreal (+1937) and Bl. Solanus Casey (+1957) of Michigan as well. The 80-year-old Alphonsus would entrust to Peter much of the spiritual wisdom he had received in the simple work of meeting and greeting, passing onto him a profound love for those who need it the most, and encouraging him to go as a missionary to the New World. 

God, in his providence, placed another person in Peter’s life to guide his steps into the future. This was Fr. Alonso de Sandoval, himself a missionary in Colombia who had spent 40 years ministering on the plantations there. Slavery had been made legal there some 70 years before, and ever since that wretched day, the number of Africans being bought, imported, and forced to work had kept growing. Once again, Peter, now a newly ordained Jesuit priest, found his heart fired by the love at work in this man. Fr. Claver had felt that interior-fire in Barcelona after the death of his mother, in Tarragona in the silence of prayer, on Majorca chatting with Br. Alphonsus, and now in Cartagena, assisting Fr. Sandoval to publish his rich knowledge of the customs, languages, and religions he had come to know working with those enslaved in Colombia. He would need that fire every day on the docks of Cartegena. Here are his own words describing the scene:

Yesterday, May 30, 1627, numerous blacks … disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we hurried toward them. … We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on the wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. … they were naked, without any clothing to protect them. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. … they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see. This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with wine. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick. … we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.

Peter went into those ships almost every day for four decades. He saw almost a million slaves arrive on those docks. He baptized a third of them. One spark of divine love can carry you far.

– Fr. Dominic Rankin has never been given the assignment of porter, but it might be a great way to become a saint!

Last Sunday the Lord Jesus reminded us about the virtue of humility and in order to understand all this is for us to turn our eyes to the Lord himself. Today let us turn on the theological virtues, the virtues of faith, hope, and charity have God as their direct object. By faith we know God, by Hope we trust His promises and goodness, and by Charity, we love Him. Many times, in our prayer, we ask for many things, both for ourselves and others. This week we begin reflecting on the theological virtue of faith and how the Catechism of Catholic Church defines it.  Faith is foundational in our Christian life, because it helps us believe, hope, and love God. As I was reflecting on the theological virtue of faith. I remembered my early years attending Catechetical classes and the teaching was based on Baltimore Catechism; I do recall answering this question why God created us? God created us to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world and at the end we return back to Him. God is our ultimate end. The definition of faith does matter. What matters is the place that faith hold in our daily life. Faith is a gift to see the presence of God in everything; it a new way of looking at myself, others, the event of life. Therefore, the Catechism of Catholic Church state: “The theological virtue of faith is a virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he us truth itself. By faith man freely commits his entire self to God, for this reason the believer seeks to know and do God’s will” (CCC, 1814).  The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes further to defines Faith as the supernatural virtue, which is necessary for salvation. The Catechism adds that Faith is a divine gift and human act; God moves this act to the contemplation of his very truth (CCC, #. 153-184).  

Furthermore, the Second Vatican Council describes Faith as a personal response to God’s revelation of love. God comes toward humanity and condescends to open up to human beings the secrets of his intimate life, looking for a reciprocal love. Human beings, for their part, turn to God through Faith and open up to him in friendship. The council says explicitly that by faith “man entrusts his whole self freely to God, offering ‘the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals,’ and freely assenting to the truth revealed by him” (Dei Verbum, 5).

Our Faith comes true through the visible God in Christ. The whole Trinity has been revealed in the Person of Christ. We cannot claim, as Christians, that we have Faith in God when we reject whom he has sent to us. Whoever sees me (Christ) sees the one who sent me (God the Father) (Jn 12:45). This is one of the foundational acts of the Christian faith. So as Christians faithful we need to: “turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who in hope …believed against hope; to the virgin Mary, who, in her pilgrimage of faith, walked into the night of faith in sharing the darkness of hers son’s suffering and death; and to so many others: ‘ therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith”(CCC, Paragraph 165 on profession of faith). As we reflected on theological virtue of faith. Are we ready, like the Apostles, to ask for the gift of faith?  “Lord increase our faith” (Lk 17:5).

We continue our reflections on the Five Precepts of the Church, having looked at the first and fifth precepts: 1) obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, and 5) providing for the needs to the Church. This week, we will jump back to the second precept: Confession of serious sin at least once a year.

Notice two key words in this precept: “at least”, which is consistent with the Church’s definition of the
precepts, that they constitute “the very necessary minimum” of the Christian life. Serious sin is also known
as mortal sin. It is mortal because it kills our relationship with the Lord, and we are the ones responsible for that mortal blow. A serious, or mortal sin, requires that we have full knowledge of what we are doing, that we know it is wrong, and that we do it anyway. The classic example is intentionally skipping Mass without a serious reason (ie being in the hospital, or physically incapacitated by illness or injury).There are many other things in the moral life as well, perhaps most commonly sins against chastity (ie sexual activity outside of marriage, artificial contraception, use of pornography). There are other examples that can be given, but to list them all would take more space than I have.

One of the reasons this precept is worded this way is connected to the third precept: Reception of Holy Communion at least once a year during the Easter season. One must be in the state of grace (having any serious sins absolved through Confession) in order to receive Holy Communion. So if the very minimum is receiving Holy Communion once a year, it makes sense that we confess serious sins prior to doing that. The Church has rightly encouraged us to receive Holy Communion much more frequently because of how important it is for us to receive the graces that come from this gift. So if we receive more frequently, which most of us do every Sunday, then we need to make sure our use of Confessions roughly matches that. In other words, if we plan to go to Holy Communion regularly, we should probably be going to confession more regularly. We must never approach Holy Communion with unforgiven, serious sin on our soul. To do so is to commit an additional serious sin of sacrilege. So if we are aware of committing a serious sin, make it a point to get to confession as soon as possible for two reasons: 1) so that we can receive Holy Communion the next time we are at Mass 2) to avoid being separated from God for eternity. As Jesus reminded us a few Sundays ago, “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.” (Luke 12:40) The choice is always up to us. We use our free will to either follow or not follow God. We choose to ask His forgiveness for our serious sins in the way He intended it (ie Confession), or we choose not to. And in the end, we either choose to be with Him in Heaven, or we choose not to. Jesus does not condemn us to eternal separation, we choose that ourselves by choosing contrary to His will and not turning back in repentance.

A clarification on this topic is necessary, because it is often misunderstood. Divine law is to keep holy the Sabbath, which as Christians is to keep holy the Lord’s Day. The way we do this is by going to Mass (the first precept of the Church). That obligation is always there, so even if we are not in the position to receive Holy Communion due to unconfessed serious sin, we still need to go to Mass. We are not obliged to receive Holy Communion at each Mass, though we are encouraged to do so, but only if we are aware that we are not guilty of any unconfessed mortal sins.

Since this is such an important and sometimes sensitive topic, I plan to return to it next week, especially since I basically addressed two precepts in this article. In the meantime, ask yourself if it might be time for you to get back to confession.

Father Alford is the Rector of the Cathedral and serves in the diocesan curia as the Vicar for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations.

Recently I was reminded of the need to both prepare ourselves to receive Communion and
say a prayer of thanksgiving after Mass. This practice helps us to receive the graces that God
desires to give us during Communion. The back of our missalette has several prayers to this
end, and I encourage you to make use of them both before and after Mass. Many saints have
written prayers for this same purpose. I share here two prayers written by St. Thomas

Aquinas as a lesson in how to prepare and give thanks for the Eucharist. The language in this prayer is certainly not how we usually speak today, but these prayers are worth at least reading through, to learn a lesson in how the saints pray!

Prayer Before Mass
Almighty and everlasting God, behold I come to the Sacrament of Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: I come as one infirm to the physician of life, as one unclean to the fountain of mercy, as one blind to the light of everlasting brightness, as one poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth. Therefore I implore the abundance of Thy measureless bounty that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to heal my infirmity, wash my uncleanness, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty and clothe my nakedness, that I may receive the Bread of Angels, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, with such reverence and humility, with such sorrow and devotion, with such purity and faith, with such purpose and intention as may be profitable to my soul’s salvation. Grant unto me, I pray, the grace of receiving not only the Sacrament of our Lord’s Body and Blood, but also the grace and power of the Sacrament. O most gracious God, grant me so to receive the Body of Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, which He took from the Virgin Mary, as to merit to be incorporated into His mystical Body, and to be numbered amongst His members. O most loving Father, give me grace to behold forever Thy beloved Son with His face at last unveiled, whom I now purpose to receive under the sacramental veil here below. Amen.

Prayer After Mass
Lord, Father all-powerful and ever-living God, I thank You, for even though I am a sinner, your unprofitable servant, not because of my worth but in the kindness of your mercy, You have fed me with the Precious Body & Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
I pray that this Holy Communion may not bring me condemnation and punishment but forgiveness and salvation. May it be a helmet of faith and a shield of good will.
May it purify me from evil ways and put an end to my evil passions.
May it bring me charity and patience, humility and obedience, and growth in the power to do good. May it be my strong defense against all my enemies, visible and invisible, and the perfect calming of all my evil impulses, bodily and spiritual.
May it unite me more closely to you, the One true God, and lead me safely through death to everlasting happiness with You.
And I pray that You will lead me, a sinner, to the banquet where you, with Your Son and holy Spirit, are true and perfect light, total fulfillment, everlasting joy, gladness without end, and perfect happiness to your saints.
Grant this through Christ our Lord, Amen.

St. Thomas Aquinas
Prayers taken from catholic.com

Fr. Dominic Vahling serves as a teacher and chaplain at
Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in Springfield.

Feast Day: August 16th | Patron of Hungary, Kings, Stonemasons/Bricklayers, Protector against the Death of Children

To continue our remarkable story from last week for a final time, it was there right at the end of the year 1000 AD, that a pagan prince surrounded by only recently settled barbarians, received his blessing, anointing, and crown from Pope Sylvester II. Historians argue whether the crown Stephen received that day was the same famed 4 lb, gold and enamel, circlet once protected in Fort Knox, now housed in the Hungarian Parliament, and universally known as the “Crown of St. Stephen”. Certainly, we can trace it back almost that far, and perhaps things are muddled because only part of Saint Stephen I, King of Hungary Feast Day: August 16th | Patron of Hungary, Kings, Stonemasons/Bricklayers, Protector against the Death of Children the crown came from the Pope and it has been embellished in the centuries since. In any case, we can trace what that crown symbolizes from St. Stephen all the way to today. Already, when Stephen wore it at his coronation, that gold crown, topped with a cross, with its images of Christ the King reigning over the angels, it seemed to those who could see him then that already he was crowned with the halo of a saint. His sanctity, of course, would have to be won over the intervening years – as he worked to evangelize his people, suffered the loss of all his children, and slowly learned that the greatest good he could do as a king was to serve the poorest of his constituents and pray for them.

But those years, with all their crosses, did turn him into a saint! On his deathbed, having lost much, and gained much, in a dramatic moment never forgotten by the Christian people that came after him, St. Stephen lifted the crown from his head and offered it to Christ, and Our Lady. Ever since that day, his gold crown remains a symbol of Hungary’s true King: Christ, and Queen: Mary. All the 50 kings of Hungary since crowned with those jewels, have known that they are truly only deputies of their country’s true king, and that their highest goal is to join the first of their line in offering their kingship to His reign. Stephen’s right arm, perhaps at first a somewhat macabre relic, is housed with honor in the Cathedral of Budapest because it was his hand that entrusted that kingdom into the hand of Christ.

Amazingly, something of that truth was communicated as the United States returned Stephen’s crown to Hungary in 1978. We did not give it to the Communist dictator in charge of Hungary. In fact, János Kádár (said dictator) was not invited to the handing-over ceremony! Rather, Cardinal Lekai, the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary, was there to welcome the crown home, as part of the group receiving it back for the Hungarian People, from the American People. That crown, symbolizing the autonomy, and Christianity, of Hungary, was not fit to crown an authority contrary to Christ, but was a fitting treasure to return to the many faithful people who had endured so many attacks against their faith during the prior two decades.

Cd. Lekai, to add a final amazing twist to this whole story, was the immediate successor to Cd. Mindszenty, the embattled Catholic leader of Hungary who had endured torture and had been sentenced to life imprisonment for being a traitor to the Communist State. His show-trial in 1948 was lambasted for its injustice around the globe. Beaten by rubber truncheons, the cardinal was coerced into admitting that he had schemed to overthrow the Party, start World War III, become the supreme power after said war, … oh, and also stealing the Hungarian Crown Jewels. The Cardinal actually took asylum in the American Embassy in Budapest for 16 years to avoid being killed or exiled by the communists (staying there from 1956 to 1971!) Three black communist cars waited outside of the gate of our embassy in Budapest for the entirety of that decade and a half waiting for a chance to scuttle him off to a soviet prison, or worse. The Vatican actually paid $50 each day to the Americans who agreed to stay overnight in the embassy so that he wouldn’t be kidnapped! Perhaps none of them knew that the crown jewels so desired by his communist persecutors were actually safe and sound in the country where under whom he had found protection! Cd. Mindszenty was declared venerable by Pope Francis in 2019. He was a fitting successor to the first saint of Hungary, whose crown has taught us an awful good story, and been the epicenter of an amazing amount of grace down through the centuries.

Fr. Dominic Rankin got to know some of this story in 2016 when he had the chance to visit Budapest, and the relics of St. Stephen. One other memory of that trip, amongst many, was the incredibly deep metro system under Budapest. Only now to I know that it was placed so deep underground precisely because of the threat of bombing, nuclear or otherwise, during the Cold War.

In last week’s bulletin, I wrote about the Precepts of the Church, focusing on the first precept of the obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation.  I was pleased to see a good number of people in attendance for our masses on the Solemnity of the Assumption this past week, even though it was not a day of obligation this year due to its falling on a Monday.

Given that the concept of the Precepts of the Church may be new for some of you, or at least something you may have not considered in a while, I thought it might be a good idea to address the other precepts over the next few weeks.  For our review, the Catechism states the following about these precepts (emphasis added):

The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor. (CCC 2041)

Instead of just going from one precept to the next, I would like to jump to the fifth precept for our consideration this week: Providing for the needs of the Church.

In our Fourth Diocesan Synod, held in 2017, a prominent theme was that of stewardship.  The tenth declaration from the Synod summarizes what we mean by stewardship:

As a Diocese committed to discipleship and stewardship, the community of Catholic faithful recognizes that everything we have comes from God and that He has given us gifts not just to use them for ourselves but also to share them with others. As faithful and generous stewards of God’s abundant gifts, those committed to discipleship and stewardship as a way of life pledge to share their talents, give of their time and contribute proportionately from their financial resources for the good of the Church and those in need.

You will have noticed in last weekend’s bulletin a summary of our financial position which offers some insight into the good financial stewardship in our parish.  In most parishes, unfortunately, a large majority of the financial support comes from a relatively small number of parishioners.  In other words, let us not be too comfortable with where we are, but heed the invitation to prayerfully reflect on how the Lord is inviting us to be more generous in sharing from our abundance for the good of the Church – locally here at the Cathedral, and beyond.  In that regard, you will see some information in the bulletin about our mission appeal that will be taking place next weekend.  Supporting the good work of the sisters who will come to speak with us is an excellent way for us to live our stewardship for the good of the Universal Church.

Lest you think stewardship is only about money, notice how the definition also includes being stewards of our time and talent.  In that regard, we have noticed some disappointing declines in the number of liturgical ministers at our masses.  It is becoming more and more difficult to fill some of the slots we need in order to make for a good experience at each Mass.  In particular, we have a great need for greeters and ushers, especially at our 5:00 PM Sunday Mass, and for people to do the livestreaming at our 10:00 AM Sunday Mass.  Please contact Vicki Compton if you are willing to exercise your stewardship of time and talent in these or any liturgical role.  

Father Alford

Feast Day: August 16^th | Patron of Hungary, Kings, Stonemasons/Bricklayers, Protector against the Death of Children

This week we begin 1500 years before Stephen’s crown was returned to Hungary from Fort Knox, with the calendar now standing at about 440 AD. If you were unfortunate enough to be on the shore of the Danube river (so, modern-day Hungary) at that time, you would find yourself on the run from Attila the Hun, who was sacking Roman outposts as he swept down the river pillaging the entire Balkan peninsula with his army of horse archers. Attila would, a decade later, be stopped from sacking Rome by a word from Pope St. Leo I, but during this campaign he and his brother Bleda burned and pillaged pretty much every settlement except for Constantinople itself. Thankfully, if you survived their onslaught, the barbarian brothers would be long in the historical rearview-mirror 500 years later when the only reminder of their presence was perhaps a shadow of “Bleda” carried down in the name of the city of “Buda”.  In any case, ironically, all this means that if we were to stand along the Danube in 1945, or 445, or 945, we would have found ourselves each time surrounded by bloodthirsty pagan hordes, though different ones each time. 

In 945, to finally get closer to the time of St. Stephen, if we again were standing there on the Danube, we would now be bumping elbows with “the Hungarians”, a conglomeration of Magyar tribes originally from Mongolia, actually descendants of the same people from which Attila and Bleda had come from. These tribes had recently gained control of the Carpathian Basin by defeating and displacing the prior residents here, members of the Kingdoms of Bulgaria, East Francia, and Moravia (who had been weakened by their own internecine conflicts). Many more details could be found if you were to delve into the Church records of that time, for that is where most of this history was recorded.  The “Chronicle by George the Monk” contains the first known reference to the Hungarians. Their first raids are recorded in the “Annals of St. Bertin”. The succession of their kings, who we will now get to know, are given to us in an anonymous monk’s “Gesta Hungarorum”. Archbishop Theotmar, 300 miles west in Salzburg, wrote around 900 of the Moravians and Hungarians allying against the Germans. His diocese has been in existence for 400 years, so Christianity was well established there in Germany, at that time ruled Louis the German, the grandson of Charlemagne. Theotmar, though, would die in battle against the Hungarians in 907, before their conversion to the faith that he championed.

To get back to those seven different Magyar tribes. As they were taking over those lands within the Carpathian peninsula, they had chosen to unite under one of their chieftains, Álmos. Three other Khazar tribes, after an unsuccessful revolt against their Khagan [King] joined those seven, calling themselves together the “Ten Arrows” [“On-Ogur”, probably the origin of the name “Hungarian”], and choosing Álmos as their Grand Prince around 850 AD. They thus definitively left behind their loose obedience to the Khagan further east (and south), and started the Árpád Dynasty, which would last 450 years and would count 8 members of its line as Catholic saints or blesseds, though of course we’re not there just yet! Among the first six successors of Álmos, Christian names are nowhere to be found: Árpád, Zoltán, Fajsz, Taksony, Géza, and Vajk. Each, unfortunately, were in the main cruel pagan chieftains, with Géza, though he was baptized at some point and did allow missionaries into his kingdom, continuing to practice pagan rites and mercilessly murdering relatives who could act as rivals to his power.

But baptism did not leave Géza’s son unconverted. Named Vajk at his birth in Esztergom, 30 miles North of Budapest, the only son of Géza and Sarolt, would take the name Stephen (after that famous deacon-martyr of the early Church) upon his own baptism at the hand of St. Adalbert of Prague. Providentially, his pagan father would arrange Stephen’s marriage to Gisela, a Christian princess of Bavaria (daughter of Henry II, a member of the Ottonian dynasty, who had taken over the Germanic lands after the Carolingians had fallen from power. The Germans and Hungarians were now on better terms and this marriage was one of the acts that solidified that congenial relationship). With the help of Christian Knights from Germany, Stephen would solidify his reign over all the Hungarian tribes, and later, with the support of both Otto III (then Holy Roman Emperor) and the consecration of Pope Sylvester II, would became the first King of a united Hungary and was crowned either on December 25^th, 1000 AD, or January 1^st, 1001. (The records we have speak of his being crowned on the “first day of the second millennium” which could be interpreted by the dating of that time either way).

– Fr. Dominic Rankin was recalling last week a time he dressed up as St. Louis of France for Halloween, important to note was that his homemade crown also incorporated some sort of bucket to maintain its structural integrity.  It also made it far too small, and rather uncomfortable. St. Stephen’s crown is actually far too large to fit a normal human head, so they insert a leather pad between the crown and the king to be crowned, making it fit properly, and far more comfortable than my bucket.