The First Annual Soul of the Apostolate Online Conference will make its debut this coming weekend – July 24-27, 2020. Some of the major speakers at this conference will be Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Joseph Strickland, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Dom Alcuin Reid, Sam Guzman, and Dr. Ralph Martin.

This conference is being run by a new organization called Souls of the Christian Apostolate (SOCA – https://socapostolate.org), whose  goal is to help form the laity both young and old in the constant teaching of the Church regarding the Interior Life and the Call to Holiness as taught by the saints, doctors, and mystics.

Only saints can sanctify the Church and convert the world. The goal of this conference is to provide practical instruction for the faithful:

• Prepare For Judgment
• Become A Saint
• Sanctify the Church
• Convert the World

Register now for The Soul of the Apostolate free online conference and free formation repository opening July 24^th 2020: https://soca.mykajabi.com/a/30485/bhC5Qwqb

Sermon by Father Richard Cipolla

“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves”  (Matthew 7:15)

These words of Jesus come at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus teaches us what it means to live a life centered on the will of God.  These words are preceded by our Lord’s description of the narrow gate:  “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and whose who find it are few.”  It is a shame that this gospel passage was eliminated in the 1970 Lectionary for Mass.  For Jesus’ words in this passage are exactly what we need to hear in these times.

Who are these wolves in sheep’s clothing who are ravenous for the blood of the sheep, seeking their destruction?  They are precisely those who deny the narrowness of the gate to eternal life and thereby cause many sheep to go astray.  They wear sheep’s clothing not only so that they look like one of the flock, the chosen ones of the Pastor who loves his sheep.  They wear sheep’s clothing to give the appearance of being warm and cuddly, concerned for the welfare of the sheep, skipping along, humming catchy tunes, leading them into wide open spaces where they can pretty much do whatever they want.

And the sheep respond positively, because it is easier to believe that freedom consists in doing whatever you want to do than what Jesus the Good Shepherd tells us what we should do to gain eternal life.  It is easier to believe that the gate to eternal life is not only wide but in fact has no barriers at all, so that everyone goes to heaven, rather than to believe what Jesus says: that the gate is narrow and few find the entrance.  It is easier to believe that living my life by a rote faith which never impacts the deepest parts of my being will get me through the gate of life rather than living my life in fear and trembling knowing that I am a sinner in need of God’s mercy who constantly needs to ask for forgiveness.  It is easier to believe that piling up deeds of charity is like money in the bank, so that when the final trumpet calls me to my judgment I can say to Jesus:  Lord, Lord!  Look what I have done, look at how good I was, this is what I did and I did it with your name on my lips.  It is easier to believe this than to accept the truth of my own mixed motives for any good I may have done, my religiosity masking what is really pride.

What Jesus tells us today is so important.  He says:  Stop believing those who tell  you that to be a Catholic in the deepest sense is an easy matter, that there is little need for penitence, ascetism, prayer, hiddenness and hard love.  Stop believing those who tell you to just go natural, do what you instincts tell you to do, be nice to everyone, follow the path that gives you the greatest personal freedom without encroaching on the freedom of others: set your goals, and all will be well.

But what the ground produces when left on its own, naturally, are weeds and thorns and thistles. They need no pruning, no care. They spring up in shallow soil, need little water or nutrients.  This is what happens when the ground is left on its own to produce.  And this is what so many of us are, despite our religious pretensions:  weeds, thistles, thorn bushes. But we think of ourselves as fruit trees laden with beautiful and good fruit waiting to be picked.  Why do we not see ourselves as we really are?  Because we have chosen the wide path, we have chosen to follow those who are in disguise, those who blind us to the truth, those who have persuaded us that wolves are sheep.

So what are we to do?  We must return. We must return to that path that leads to the narrow gate, that path that demands repentance and confession.  And we must remain on that path, refusing the siren song of the easy, happy way to eternal life.  We must allow Jesus to whet our interior appetite for fruit of the finest sort.  We must recognize him in the depths of our being and allow him to be that hidden seed that will enable us to grow, engrafted on the Tree of Life, and to allow him to prune our branches when needed, knowing that the pain of this pruning is evidence of his love for us, and that we are on the right path.  We must allow the beauty of the goodness of Christ to take such a firm hold within us that when we hear the strumming pleasantries of the song of comfort and sentimentality and easy love, we will recognize it for what it really is:  the howl of the wolves determined to destroy us.

Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has announced the appointment of Bishop James Massa as the rector of St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, effective July 16. Bishop Massa is an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn and a former member of the faculty of the seminary, 2012-2015. SOURCE

We know Bishop Massa well – for example, as the celebrant of the February 2019 Lepanto conference Mass. We wish him luck and great success in his new misssion!

Fr John Wachowicz will be coming back to St. Francis of Assisi Church in Greenlawn (on Long Island) for an evening of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and a traditional sung Latin Mass for the  feast of St. Mary Magdalene, the prototype of the repentant adorer of Jesus.

On Wednesday, July 22, from 6:30 to 7:30, there will be a Holy Hour of Reparation to the Sacred Heart, with Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Fr. John will be available for confession during the Holy Hour. Mass will follow at about 7:40. The miraculous Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe will be present and will stay for veneration after Mass. She is also available for events in or outside your churches, Rosary walks, home and hospital visits, etc. Please text Jane Schiano Wigatow at 631-827-2510 if you are interested or have an idea for her.

St. Francis Church has reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus every Wednesday from 630-730 pm. Sadly, attendance at this, which has been going on for about 40 years, has dwindled just at the time when we need it the most! The Blessed Sacrament is usually exposed, and beautiful prayers of reparation for sin are offered.

St. Rocco, Glen Cove: Missa Solemnis for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Thursday, July 16th at 5:30pm, Consecration and distribution of the brown scapular will precede Mass at 5:00pm

St. Matthew, Dix Hills, From the bulletin: “The former regular Sunday celebration of the Extraordinary Form Latin Mass in the Chapel is simply not doable as things are now. However, the last Sunday of the month the 12:30pm Mass in the church will be celebrated in the Extraordinary Form.”

St. Rosalie, Hampton Bays: The Latin Mass will continue to be held at the Hampton Bays location (not East Quogue) at 12:45pm on the first, third, and fourth Sundays. 

Please check with individual churches for more information. God bless!

Such columns are a familiar sight in Cenral Europe: Bohemia, Austria, South Germany, etc. One of the earliest and perhaps most famous stands in the main square of Munich. They were set up, particularly in the 17th century, in gratitude for help in times of plague and warfare – especially struggles against the enemies of the faith. The column in Prague, for example, erected in 1650, commemorated the defense of the city in 1648 against the Protestant Swedes. At that time Prague was the second capital of the Hapsburg domains – and of the Holy Roman Empire. Statues like that of Prague marked the triumphant reemergence of the Catholic Holy Roman empire from the challenges of religious conflict, Turkish invasions and economic crisis. They are also examples of that baroque art and religious expression that would so completely transform the customs and face of these regions. Their “triumphant” message became anathema to subsequent revolutionaries, unbelievers – and progressive Catholics.

In 1918 the Austrian empire, the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, disintegrated after a failed war. The coalition led by Woodrow Wilson (whose (virtual) statue has in this year been thrown down by his alma mater of Princeton)sponsored the creation of secular, petty nationalist states throughout Central Europe. In Prague a mob, in a paroxysm of anti-Catholic, anti-German and anti-Habsburg rage threw the Marian column down. (Not far from the column, a monstrous monument to Jan Hus had been erected by Czech nationalists a few years earlier.) Subsequent governments of Prague, Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic – secular liberal, Nazi, communist and secular liberal again – directly or indirectly stood by this action. Until June of this year. A movement to re-erect the statue, started in 1990, finally saw the project endorsed by the city government. The statue of Mary, a copy of the artistically significant baroque original, stands once more high above the city of Prague.

We read that the co-founder of  the Society for the Restoration of the Marian Column will be writing an account of the 30-year struggle for restoration. Hopefully it will be translated – we look forward to reading it! It should have important lessons for us in America today . In the United States at this moment, Catholic cathedrals are being vandalized, Catholic churches burned, images of Catholic saints thrown down, covered with obscenities and destroyed and, most recently, a statue of Mary burned. Perhaps the Czech example can show us how to organize to restore the public face of
Catholicism in the face of inveterate opposition. And teach us once more about the need to maintain and defend such a public presence in the first place.

CNA Article on the Prague statue.

The relevant Czech wikipedia entry has many more pictures of the Prague column, of its history and restoration and of similar statues of the Virgin Mary in the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

“I think of Hagia Sophia”, said Pope Francis, “and I am very saddened.”

(Remark at the Angelus today)

July 6, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — An online conference focusing on the importance of receiving Holy Communion on the tongue has been announced by Voice of the Family.

The conference, “Love and reverence to Our Lord: Let’s always receive Holy Communion on the tongue” will begin at 12:00 p.m. noon EST and run until 2:30 p.m. EST on Thursday, July 16, 2020. 

It can be viewed for free on LifeSite’s YouTube channel and on the LifeSiteNews Catholic Facebook page. To visit the LifeSite YouTube channel, click here.

The event schedule is (tentatively) as follows:

• 12:00 p.m. – John Smeaton: welcome and introduction 
• 12:15 p.m. – VIDEO: Let’s always receive Holy Communion on the tongue (part 1)
• 12:30 p.m. – Fr. Serafino Lanzetta: Theological reasons for always receiving Holy Communion on the tongue
• 1:00 p.m. – Dr. Peter Kwasniewski interviewed by John-Henry Westen
• 1:30 p.m. – Alexander Tschugguel and Theresa Habsburg interviewed by John-Henry Westen
• 2:00 p.m. – John Smeaton: Closing remarks and call to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in reparation for the sins against Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist
• 2:10 p.m. – VIDEO: Let’s always receive Holy Communion on the tongue (part 2)
• 2:25 p.m. – Plea to always receive Holy Communion on the tongue and Fatima prayer
• 2:30 p.m. – Conclusion