Bishop Kevin Farrell

The Chief Shepherd of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas

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God Bless America on Independence Day 2016

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God Bless America

As we prepare to celebrate Independence Day, let us take time to pray in gratitude for our freedom, and for blessings and guidance of our country’s leaders and citizens.

I’d like to share with you a prayer composed by Archbishop John Carroll, who was named the first bishop of the United States in 1789 by Pope Pius VI. Archbishop Carroll wrote this prayer on November 10, 1791.

We pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name.

We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our Holy Father, the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.

We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty.

We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability.

We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.

To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.

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Image Credit: Presidio of Monterey on Flickr

 

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

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Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

When we think of Good Friday the image that immediately comes to mind is the cross, which is the most common Christian symbol. There was a time when Catholics in America were called “cross backs.” We begin our prayers with the Sign of the Cross, which not only professes Jesus crucified but the Holy Trinity.

In the Roman Missal, Good Friday is called Friday of the Passion of the Lord, and the liturgy, like all the Triduum liturgies, recalls the events that culminated in the Resurrection. Good Friday is the only day of the year when no Mass is celebrated and the only other sacraments that may be celebrated are Penance of the Sacrament of the Sick.

St. Ambrose referred to Good Friday as a “Day of Bitterness.” The desolation felt by Christians on this day is represented by the barren altar and open tabernacle – the altar having been stripped after the conclusion of the Holy Thursday. There is no cross, there are no candles and no altar cloths, and no music or bells may be used.

The Liturgy of the Word consists of Isaiah’s account of the Suffering Servant, who “was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins.”It is followed by Psalm 31, a penitential psalm with the antiphon from Psalm 23, which Christ spoke from the cross, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” The second reading is the passage on Christ the High Priest from Hebrews, Chapter 4, “Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” John’s Passion narrative is preceded by a short verse from the Letter to Philemon, emphasizing that were saved by Jesus’ obedience, “Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Following a number of intersessions, the cross is unveiled in procession and public adoration begins after the priest and the ministers have reverenced the cross. When the adoration has been completed, the priest chants the ancient reproaches of God speaking to us for our commissions and omissions.

Although there is no Eucharistic liturgy, the Eucharist that has been reserved on Holy Thursday is distributed at the Good Friday liturgy, which used to be called the Mass of the Pre-sanctified. Distribution of Holy Communion is preceded by the Lord’s Prayer.

The liturgy concludes in silence as the priest and ministers leave and we are left to reflect prayerfully on Jesus in the tomb.

Image Credit: Parish Church of St. Barbara (Ramersbach), stained glass windows depicting the Man of Sorrows, Wikimedia Commons

Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper

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Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord's Supper

 

On Holy Thursday, as Lent ends and the Sacred Triduum begins, we celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. During this Mass, the Church commemorates the Lord’s Passover: the institution of the Holy Eucharist that continues his sacramental presence among us, the institution of the priesthood by which Jesus mission and sacrifice are perpetuated in the world, and the institution of His unconditional love.

In the first reading from Exodus (12:1-8, 11-14), we are reminded in the Old Testament of the origin of the Passover Supper, which the Lord shares with His Apostles, and of Jesus’ identification with the Paschal (Passover) lamb whose blood saved the Hebrew children from death.

St. Paul, in his First Letter to the Church at Corinth (11:23-26), gives us the only narrative of the Lord’s Supper outside the gospels. The passage not only describes the institution of the Eucharist but also Jesus’ command to continue it, for which he instituted the priesthood. This passage from Paul also attests to the beginning of Sacred Tradition where Paul notes that he had received “from the Lord” the account of the Last Supper. This is the earliest description of that event in the New Testament, as the First Letter to the Corinthians was written before any of the synoptic gospels.

John’s gospel, which contains no record of the institution of the Eucharist in his narrative of the Last Supper, rather demonstrates Jesus’ witness of unconditional love when he washes the feet of the disciples. While the passage is understood as a mandate of service to others, it is primarily a reminder that service to others is done out of love and not out of duty or obligation. Jesus’ response to Peter’s reluctance to have his feet washed by the Lord is a reminder that we not only should give loving service to others but to accept the loving service of others with humility.

Of course, the Triduum recalls Jesus’ greatest gift of unconditional love, the giving of himself even unto death for our redemption.

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Image Credit: The Last Supper by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834–1890), Wikimedia Commons

The Sacred Triduum

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The Sacred Triduum

Our Lenten Journey comes to an end on Thursday evening when the Sacred Triduum (Three Days) begins. The Triduum is the summit of the liturgical year. It begins with the Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday evening and ends with Evening Prayer on Easter. It commemorates the heart of the Gospel, Jesus’ Passion, Death and Resurrection.

Christians as early as the Second Century marked the Lord’s Passion and death with an all-night Easter Vigil, culminating with the celebration of His resurrection at dawn. Over the years, the observance was spread over three days. When persecutions by the Roman Empire ended and the Christians could worship openly, more feast days were added to the calendar and the important night of the Easter Vigil faded and for some Christians was overshadowed by the celebration of the Nativity. The liturgical celebrations of Holy Week virtually became private affairs for the priests, ministers and a handful of parishioners, with the Triduum eclipsed by Lent and Easter.

Restoration of the Triduum began with Pope Pius XII in 1955 and was completed by the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The liturgies of the Lord’s Supper and Easter Vigil were to be celebrated in the evening when more people could participate. The center of the Good Friday became the Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, de-emphasizing private devotions and emphasizing the Crucifixion.

Because of the council’s reforms, there is more active and fruitful participation on the part of parishioners and the Triduum has been restored to its rightful place as the high point of the Church’s liturgical year.

It is my hope that you will enrich your Lenten journey by participating in the Triduum at your parish and taking advantage of the extra times being made available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Message of Pope Francis for Lent 2015 (Part II)

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Pope Francis leaves St. Peter's Basilica

Pope Francis’ Message for Lent is a prophetic call to the Church and the world to excise the cancer of indifference from the Church and society and replace it with the compassion and mercy of Christ. Perhaps, to keep us from viewing his message as a pleasant platitude intended only to motivate politicians and “leadership,” the Holy Father quickly applies his message to our parishes, and each of us individually.

“All that we have been saying about the universal Church,” the Pope makes clear, “must now be applied to the life of our parishes and communities.” He asks “Do these ecclesial structures enable us to experience being part of one body, a body which receives and shares what God wishes to give, a body which acknowledges and cares for its weakest, poorest and most insignificant members?”

The Holy Father cautions against professing a “universal love that would embrace the whole world while failing to see the beggar on our doorstep.” He calls for every Christian community “to go out of itself and be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part especially with the poor and those who are far away. And, the Pope reminds us that “the Church is missionary by her very nature,” not self-centered but sent to the world.

Calling on parishes to “become islands of mercy in a sea of indifference,” Pope Francis charges us “to bring all to a love that cannot remain silent.” He warns individuals to guard against being tempted by indifference or becoming discouraged or overwhelmed when “flooded with news reports and troubling images of human suffering.”

We cannot turn away from this seemingly overpowering challenge. The Holy Father calls us to prayer in communion with the whole Church on earth and in heaven, to acts of charity “reaching out to those near and far…showing concern for others by small but concrete signs.” And, he encourages us to experience personal conversion by recognizing our “total dependence on God and our brothers and sisters,” and avoiding the diabolical temptation that we can save the world by ourselves.

In his Lenten Message, Pope Francis has thrown down the gauntlet challenging us to make a difference, to overcome apathy and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness to become an instrument of God’s mercy and compassion.

How will we respond?

Also See:

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Image Credit: Pope Francis leaves after celebrating a Mass marking the feast of the Presentation of the Lord Feb. 2. The Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican also marked the World Day for Consecrated Life. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Message of Pope Francis for Lent 2015 (Part I)

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Pope Francis - February 2015

Pope Francis’s Message for Lent  is not a spiritual reflection on preparing for Easter, but a prophetic call to recognize that the fact that millions of our brothers and sisters are locked in poverty, stripped of their human dignity and live without hope is an unacceptable difference that cannot be ignored or tolerated. The message might well have been titled What’s the Difference because it expands on his previous criticism of global indifference and apathy.

“Usually,” the Pope observes, “when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does). We are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure.” He notes that, “Today this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can now speak of a globalization of indifference.”

A “whatever” attitude of disinterest or acceptance of such poverty as inevitable is not acceptable. “Indifference to our neighbor and to God. …. represents a real temptation for us Christians,” the Holy Father continues, ” a problem which we, as Christians need to confront.” We must not “become indifferent and withdraw into ourselves.”

“Christians,” Pope Francis emphasizes “are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become like Christ, servants of God and others.” God’s love breaks that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. “God is not indifferent to our world.”

St. Paul reminds us as the Body of Christ, “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it.” (1 Cor.12:26) It is the same with humanity for, in the words of John Donne, “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

“In the Body of Christ,” the Holy Father reminds us, “there is no room for the indifference which so often seems to possess our hearts. For whoever is of Christ, belongs to one body, and in him we cannot be indifferent to one another.”

In my next blog I will write more on the Pope’s Lenten message in which he sets out a plan for parishes.

Image Credit: Pope Francis smiles as he leaves his general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Feb. 11. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Be an Epiphany

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Epiphany, which we celebrated today has been traditionally celebrated on January 6 by the Roman Catholic Church in the West. On the following Sunday the Commemoration of the Baptism of the Lord is observed. The two are closely related because they both are epiphanies, which comes from the Greek and means made manifest, usually made manifest as divine.

Both feasts celebrate the manifestation of Jesus as God’s Son and Messiah and at one time they were both celebrated on the same day, a custom still maintained by the Armenian Church. Celebration of the Epiphany as a feast commemorating the entire Christmas cycle is a very ancient custom, probably before Christmas became a separate feast. St. Luke tells of the divinity of Jesus being manifested to the gentile world in the persons of the wise men.

The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord recalls His divinity and messiahship being manifested and revealed to the Jewish world, when at His baptism by John the Baptist “a voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’.”(Matt 3:17) The Baptism of the Lord has always been a major feast in the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but it was not instituted as a separate feast by the Catholic Church until 1955.

Manifestations of Jesus’ Divinity and messiahship exist today in the Church through the witness of individual Christians whose discipleship manifests to the world the continuing presence of Jesus’ healing and forgiving love. I believe this is what Pope Francis is trying to do; make the Church a shining light that reveals Jesus’ continuing presence in the world.

In a general audience last November Pope Francis reminded us that: “To be holy it is not necessary to be bishops, priests or religious. … We are all called to be holy! … It is by offering one’s own Christian witness in our everyday occupations that we are called to become holy; and each person in the condition and in the state of life in which he finds himself: consecrated persons, married couples, unmarried baptized persons, parents, grandparents, catechists, educators and volunteers…. Every state of life leads to sanctity, if lived in communion with the Lord and in the service of one’s brethren.”

Each of us is called to be an epiphany by witnessing Jesus’ compassion and mercy in our daily lives.

Image Credit: ‘Adoration of the Magi’ by Andrea Mantegna (Getty Open Content Program)

The future is ours, but we must forge it together

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New Years 2015

There is something magic about the word “new.” It conveys the idea of a fresh start; in life; in a job; in a relationship…a new beginning with a blank slate…like the clean-scrubbed feeling after we’ve made a good confession. It is not just the thought of beginning again, but also of leaving the old behind; hail and farewell.

The farewell part is important. We must learn from the past, but we cannot live there. We have to embrace the future. There is no choice. I like to repeat the old maxim that you cannot hold back the sunrise. The dawning of 2015 will offer each of us a new slate begging to be written upon.

What will you write on your slate? Will it recognize not only your hopes and dreams, but those of our brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution, hunger, despair, homelessness and hopelessness; who bear the burdens of war and fear?

New Year’s Day is also World Day of Peace. In his letter marking the occasion Pope Francis calls on us to “forge a new worldwide solidarity and fraternity capable of giving (our burdened brothers and sisters) new hope and helping them advance with courage amid the problems of our time and the new horizons which they disclose and which God places in our hands.”

The future is ours, but we must forge it together.

I pray that God blesses us all with hope and compassion in the New Year.