Ordination to the Diaconate of Shaun Morrison

http://www.ordinariate.org.uk/news/OrdinariateNews.php?Ordination-to-the-Diaconate-of-Shaun-Morrison-360

On Saturday 4th July 2015, Shaun Morrison was Ordained  to the Permanent Diaconate by the Right Revd Alan Hopes,  Bishop of East Anglia.   Mgr Keith Newton preached at the Ordination Mass which  included these words to Shaun "The ordained person is a  servant of both Christ and his Church and the Deacon  particularly symbolises in his life and ministry that calling  of the whole church to service. In that service he is to follow  the pattern of Christ the Good shepherd spending himself  in the care of those committed to his charge" Shaun was joined by many clergy and friends for what was  a wonderful celebration.  Hymns included 'Christ is made the  sure foundation' and 'Stand up for Jesus'.  This was the first  ever Ordination to take place in the Parish of Kings Lynn,  at the Church of Our Lady of the Annunciation, where there  is the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham restored  by Pope Leo XIII in 1897 Shaun is part of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of  Walsingham and will serve for both the Ordinariate and the  East Anglia Diocese.

Regina Virginum

Regina Virginum is formed of a group of female members of the Heralds of the Gospel living stably in community for over ten years in order to better carry out their program of evangelization, as is indicated in their statutes (article 1)

“Regina Virginum is a Society of Apostolic Life (…) formed by a group of members of the women’s branch of the Heralds of the Gospel – an international Private Association of Christ’s Faithful founded by Monsignor João Scognamiglio Clá Dias and recognized February 22, 2001 by the Pontifical Council for the Laity – who want to live in community seeking to ‘follow Christ with greater freedom and imitate Him more closely’ (Perfectae Caritatis 1) in order to better devote their lives to the service of the church.”

Although the origin of the group is much earlier, it was only in 1996 that dozens of young women took the decisive step to establish an institute of perfection by expressing demonstrating the desire to preserve their virginity for love of Jesus and to live in community.

Under the constant guidance of Monsignor João Dias Clá, then still a laymen, a life in community began to take form with the election of superiors for the different houses. Everyone involved freely made the ​​commitment to follow, with the appropriate adaptations, the rule of life of the male branch of the Heralds of the Gospel. The statutes express this in the following manner: “The society is born out of the expression of the charism of the Heralds of the Gospel as specifically applied to the consecrated life of women, in the manifestation of the will to work in common with the methods and for the goals of the aforementioned association, and by seeking to express the characteristics of proper of virginity and of the dignity of women in special way in a secularized world (Mulieris dignitatem 10, 20) , and ‘[b]y virtue of their dedication lived in fullness and in joy, consecrated women are called in a very special way to be signs of God’s tender love towards the human race and to be special witnesses to the mystery of the Church, Virgin, Bride and Mother’ (Vita Consecrata57).“

By Christmas of 1998, twelve houses had been established with communities of young women living under a common rule in Brazil, Colombia, Canada and Guatemala.

In a solemn Mass celebrated in the Church of Our Lady of Brazil in São Paulo on August 15, 2002, the first group of nineteen young women renewed their consecration of love to Jesus through Mary according to the method of St. Louis de Montfort and they were ceremoniously vested with the habit at the hands of the founder of the Heralds of the Gospel.On December 25, 2005, the Bishop of Campo Limpo, Brazil, the Most Reverend Emilio Pignoli, canonically erected Regina Virginum as a public association within the Church with the goal of eventually allowing it to develop into a society of apostolic life. Its purpose, drawn from decades of experience in community life, is defined in the constitutions:

“Inspired by the luminous teaching of Vatican II and collaborate in the mission of the Church, the society seeks ‘to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel’ (Apostolicam Actuositatem 5), transmitting ‘the message of the Incarnate Word in terms which the world is able to understand’ (Evangelica Testificatio 9), particularly by the clear and attractive presentation of beauty – the splendor of truth and goodness – and by helping humanity to rediscover the sacrality of every creature, and, in a particular way, of every person, as the visible reflection of the invisible God (Romans 1:20), with the ardent desire to see realized this mission of the Church as mandated by Jesus Christ, and still repeated twenty centuries later: Adveniat regnum tuum! So that, in the words of the founder, ‘mankind fully obtains the effects of the shedding of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ’ (October 9, 2000), by ‘a change in ways of living, in mentality and in hearts’ (Evangelica Testificatio 52). Their ‘first duty… is to make visible the marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity of those who are called… [and to] bear witness to these marvels not so much in words as by the eloquent language of a transfigured life, capable of amazing the world’ (Vita Consecrata 20). Thus the search for the beauty of the Creator ‘impels [them] to care for the deformed image of God on the faces of their brothers and sisters…’ (Vita Consecrata 75), humiliated, frightened, anguished and tired by the influence of ‘contemporary culture, which is often very secularized and yet sensitive to the language of signs’ (Vita Consecrata 25).”

After formal canonical consultation with the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Regina Virginum was erected as a society of apostolic life of diocesan right by the same Bishop of Campo Limpo, the Most Reverend Emilio Pignoli on December 25, 2006.

For further information on the Society of Apostolic Life Regina Virginum, please visit:www.reginavirginum.org.br

Christopher Lee Warning on the Occult: ‘You’ll Lose Your Soul’

From:  http://www.churchpop.com/2015/06/13/christopher-lee-on-the-occult-i-warn-all-of-you-never-never-never/ 

Prolific actor Christopher Lee recently passed away at the age of 93. His acting career spanned eight decades (his first film acting job was in 1947), and included important roles in both the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Star Wars prequels.

Apparently, there had been a rumor that he was involved in the occult and personally had a 20,000 volume library dedicated to it. In 2011, during the Q&A after giving a speech at University College Dublin, he set the record straight.

He said he had never been involved in the occult and warned anyone else of ever getting involved:

I have met people who claimed to be Satanists, who claimed to be involved with black magic, who claimed that they not only knew a lot about it… But as I said, I certainly haven’t been involved and I warn all of you: never, never, never. You will not only lose your mind, you lose your soul.

Monks Ask Prayers for Priest Kidnapped in Syria

http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/monks-ask-prayers-for-priest- kidnapped-in-syria

Syria, May 28, 2015 (ZENIT.org) Staff

This article is contributed by John Newton, with reporting by Oliver Maksan, from Aid to the Church in Need.

Priests in Syria have appealed for prayers for kidnapped priest Father Jacques Mourad and his colleague as uncertainty about their fate mounts.  Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need a week after the abduction, Fr Jacques’s confrere, Fr Jihad Youssef, said: “Please pray for Fr Jacques and his companion, as well as for our community.

“Armed masked men took both of them away. We don’t know who it was and where our brothers are at this moment. We’re totally in the dark.”

Fr Youssef is a priest of the order of Mar Musa, a Syriac- Catholic monastic community, of which Fr Jacques is also a member. The Syrian priest paid tribute to Fr Mourad’s work with the displaced who have been driven out of their homes.

He said: “In the monastery of Mar Elian in Qaryatayn Fr Jacques dedicated himself to the people suffering from the consequences of the Syrian war.

“In particular he set great store by renovation projects to enable people to live again in their houses, which had been destroyed.

“But the psychological care of people in the war and other emergency humanitarian aid were also important to him. For years he had cared for war refugees.”

Fr Youssef stressed that everyone was being helped by the Church, regardless of their religion.

He said: “Fr Jacques made no distinction between Christians or Muslims. He helped anyone in distress.”

Aid to the Church in Need has been supporting the work helping displaced Syrians at the monastery of Mar Elian, with more £71,000 (100,000 euros) in help.

Giving back hope.

Before Fr Jacques was abducted last week, he emailed Aid to the Church in Need to thank the charity for its support and described the ongoing work.

He said: “We have received many who were asking a shelter in our safe monastery. When there was a possibility for these families to go back we tried to help them in the restoration of their houses.”

He added: “The situation of these families is hard considering the fact that they were obliged out of the surrounding danger to leave their houses without bringing away any kind of the essential needs.

“The difficulty [is] that there is a continuous increase of the prices of elementary needs. We were actually able in the year 2014 to help 50 refugee families. Poverty is expanding as there are no possibilities of work.

“All kinds of work stopped and even the wages of the employees are not enough to live in a good way.

“According to the statistics of the Syrian Arab Red Cross, there are 638 refugee families that came to Qaryatayn.

“We are trying to help some of these families offering children’s clothes and some presents especially in the occasions of the feasts.

“We hope by this to give back some hope of life for these children considered as victims of this violent war.”

Aid to the Church in Need has provided more than £8.5 million (12 million euros) helping the Church in Syria and Iraq since the end of 2011.

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Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy See, providing assistance to the suffering and persecuted Church in more than 140 countries. www.churchinneed.org (USA); www.acnuk.org (UK); www.aidtochurch.org (AUS); www.acnireland.org (IRL); www.acn-aed-ca.org (CAN)

(May 28, 2015) © Innovative Media Inc.