Episcopal Boyishness

Bishops share a laugh outside St. Michael's Cathedral last May.

It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes. 

                    – St. Thomas Aquinas

Requiem Aeternam...

The area around St. Michael's Cathedral was filled with Police and media vehicles today, following the injury and subsequent death of Toronto Police Sergeant Ryan Russell 

at nearby St. Michael's Hospital. 

 ...dona ei, Domine et lux perpetua luceat ei. Requiescat in pace.

Behold Thy Mother

Statue for the Marian Year outside St. Michael's Cathedral.

The Lord wills to let his face shine upon us through the face of the Mother of God. We serve a Mother who seems to grow more beautiful as new generations rise up and call her blessed.

                    - G.K. Chesterton

The Feast of St. Eugenia

St. Michael's Cathedral

St. Michael’s Cathedral is open daily, offering Masses and Eucharistic Adoration, at various hours all day.  Think that’s no big deal?  On 31 May, 1863 Eugenia stopped into a church on her way and heard a priest say:

Is there no one out there who feels called to dedicate themselves to doing good for love of the Heart of Jesus?

Eugenia decided to live in abandonment to God and in the hands of Mary Immaculate, founded a religious institute, and became a saint. 

What might you hear if you stopped in today?

Across the Boundaries of Time

His Holiness Pope John Paul II outside St. Michael's Cathedral, 1984.

The goal and target of our life is He, the Christ who awaits us - each one singly and altogether - to lead us across the boundaries of time to the eternal embrace of the God who loves us. 

                     - Pope John Paul II

Annoying Craftsmen

The work of craftsmen on the south side of St. Michael's Cathedral.

...you are like the stone that must be chiseled and fashioned before being set in the building.

Thus you should understand that those who are in the monastery are craftsmen placed there by God to mortify you by working and chiseling at you. Some will chisel with words, telling you what you would rather not hear; others by deed, doing against you what you would rather not endure; others by temperament, being in their person and in their actions a bother and annoyance; and others by their thoughts, neither esteeming nor feeling love for you. 

- St. John of the Cross speaks here of annoyances in monastery life but I suppose that it must apply to family life too. I wouldn't know, I never annoy my family.

Go to a Chapel

The handrail at an entrance to St. Michael's Cathedral.

Jesus is waiting for you in the chapel. Go and find Him when your strength and patience are giving out, when you feel lonely and helpless. Say to Him: ‘You know well what is happening, my dear Jesus. I have only You. Come to my aid ...’ And then go your way. And don’t worry about knowing how you are going to manage. It is enough to have told our good Lord. He has an excellent memory. 

                   – St. Jeanne Jugan

Make the Earth Resound

A speaker outside St. Michael's Cathedral.

A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who piously recite the Act of Dedication of the Human Race to Jesus Christ King on the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ King:

Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the human race, look down upon us humbly prostrate before you. We are yours, and yours we wish to be; but to be more surely united with you, behold each one of us freely consecrates himself today to your Most Sacred Heart. Many indeed have never known you; many, too, despising your precepts, have rejected you. Have mercy on them all, most merciful Jesus, and draw them to your Sacred Heart. Be King, O Lord, not only of the faithful who have never forsaken you, but also of the prodigal children who have abandoned you; grant that they may quickly return to their Father's house, lest they die of wretchedness and hunger. Be King of those who are deceived by erroneous opinions, or whom discord keeps aloof, and call them back to the harbor of truth and the unity of faith, so that soon there may be but one flock and one Shepherd. Grant, O Lord, to your Church assurance of freedom and immunity from harm; give tranquility of order to all nations; make the earth resound from pole to pole with one cry: Praise to the divine Heart that wrought our salvation; to it be glory and honor for ever. Amen.

History and Providence

Historic photo of St. Michael's Cathedral and Metropolitan United.

How plainly visible is Providence in the history of my soul and of my life! It must be the same for all, if one knows how to discern its beneficent action; when I look back, in spite of misfortunes and tears, I can only bless and adore. I begin this new period of life – long or short, calm or sorrowful, according to God’s will – with these words from the depths of my soul: I believe, I adore, I hope. 

            – Servant of God, Elisabeth Leseur

Daily Mass

Parishioners leaving St. Michael's Cathedral after Mass.

But the chief aim of our efforts must be that the frequent reception of the Eucharist may be everywhere revived among Catholic peoples. . . For the soul, like the body, needs frequent nourishment; and the Holy Eucharist provides that food which is best adapted to the support of its life. 

               – St. Pius X

Garbage

A garbage can in the front courtyard of St. Michael's Cathedral.

One hears an awful lot of blasphemous garbage these days, on the subway, on tv, in casual conversation... What to do?

Make a little cell in your heart for Jesus of the Agony; take refuge there, when you hear Him outraged by men, try to make reparation; you, at least, love Him and keep your heart quite pure for Him. Oh! If you only knew how the good God loves pure hearts! It is there that He loves to reign. 

          – Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

The Pinnacle of Love

The architects' drawings for the completion of the pinnacles of St. Michael's Cathedral, dated December 28th, 1865.  credit

We see the free will of Christ Who in obedience to the will of the Father offered Himself for love. It is in this obedience to the Father that Jesus fulfils His own freedom, as an informed choice motivated by love...It may seem a paradox, but the high point of the Lord's freedom was on the cross: the pinnacle of love. On Calvary they cried: 'If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!' Yet He demonstrated His freedom...by remaining on that scaffold to fulfill the Father's merciful will. 

                  – Pope Benedict XVI

Feast of St. Luke

A window of St. Michael's Cathedral through which the dawn light streams at morning Mass.

In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us. To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. 

                          – Luke 1:78-9

The Ugliness of Sin

A delightfully ugly little gargoyle on the side of St. Michael's Cathedral.

My soul will grind under the weight of its infidelities towards the Author of life. I know that no one is clean before the Lord, but my uncleanness has no limits in front of Him. In the present state in which the merciful God, in His wisdom and justice, is deigning to lift the veil and manifest to me the hidden faults, in all their maliciousness and ugliness, I see myself so deformed that my very same vestments seem to me to have the horror of my filth. 

                  – St. Padre Pio

Getting to Mass

A parishioner's bicycle outside St. Michael's Cathedral.

Blessed Charles the Good (d. 1127) used to walk to Mass barefoot every day as a penance; So did St. Hedwig (d. 1243) and through the snow!  Get to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, Dear Hearts, however you get there.  It’s the joyful obligation of every Catholic under canon law.

The Stormy World

Storm clouds gathering behind St. Michael's Cathedral.

Rejoice, my dearest brothers, because you are blessed and because of the bountiful hand of God's grace upon you. Rejoice, because you have escaped the various dangers and shipwrecks of the stormy world. Rejoice because you have reached the quiet and safe anchorage of a secret harbor. Many wish to come into this port, and many make great efforts to do so, yet do not achieve it. Indeed many, after reaching it, have been thrust out, since it was not granted them from above. By your work you show what you love and what you know. When you observe true obedience with prudence and enthusiasm, it is clear that you wisely pick the most delightful and nourishing fruit of divine Scripture. 

                        – St. Bruno to Carthusians

The Gates

The bars of a gate at St. Michael's Cathedral.

The gates of Heaven are open for all creatures (who repent). 

Remember Mary Magdalene.  

 – St. Padre Pio

Darkness

St. Michael's Cathedral in crepuscular light.

Lord my God, You who have formed and reformed me, tell my desiring soul what You are besides what it has seen so that it may see clearly that which it desires. It strives so that it may see more, and it sees nothing beyond what it has seen save darkness. Or rather it does not see darkness, which is not in You in any way; but it sees that it cannot see more because of its own darkness. Why is this, Lord, why is this? Is its eye darkened by its weakness, or is it dazzled by Your splendour? In truth it is both darkened in itself and dazzled by You.

                                     - St. Anselm

Treasures

A squirrel enjoys a nut in the side garden of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  

                           – Luke 12:33-4

Motherhood and Cathedrals

smart-mouthed photo source : )

A mother is the most important person on earth. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any Cathedral – a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection of her baby’s body. 

                 – Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty