Bishops: Supreme Among Men

The mitre of the late Emmet Cardinal Carter.  photo credit

But, dear reader, I reply with Saint Denis that the task of leading souls towards perfection appertains above all others to Bishops, and that because their Order is supreme among men, as the Seraphim among Angels,  therefore their leisure cannot be better spent. 

                          – St. Francis de Sales

Mother Mary: An Abiding Anchor

An anchor in a stained glass window in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral.

We fasten our souls to Your hope, as to an abiding anchor. It is to Her that the saints who have saved themselves have been the most attached and have done their best to attach others, in order to persevere in virtue. Happy, then, a thousand times happy, are the Christians who are now fastened faithfully and entirely to Her, as to a firm anchor! 

                       – St. Louis Marie de Montfort

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

Inflamed

A burning candle hangs before the Marian shrine in St. Michael's Cathedral.

 My Lord Jesus Christ, I pray You to grant me two graces before I die: the first is that during my life I may feel in my soul and in my body, as much as possible, that pain which You, dear Jesus, sustained in the hour of Your most bitter Passion. The second is that I may feel in my heart, as much as possible, that excessive love with which You, O Son of God, were inflamed in willingly enduring such suffering for us sinners.  – St. Francis of Assisi

On Repentance

A print of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son hangs in the hall on the way from the Sanctuary to the Sacristy in St. Michael's Cathedral.

Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; make me as one of thy hired servants. - Luke 15:18-19.

The very best that can be said of the fallen and redeemed race of Adam is, that they confess their fall, and condemn themselves for it, and try to recover themselves. And this state of mind, which is in fact the only possible religion left to sinners, is represented to us in the parable of the Prodigal Son, who is described as receiving, then abusing, and then losing God's blessings, suffering from their loss, and brought to himself by the experience of suffering. A poor service indeed to offer, but the best we can offer, to make obedience our second choice when the world deserts us, when that is dead and lost to us wherein we were held!   – Bl. John Henry Newman

Obedience to Bishops

The likeness of Archbishop Denis T. O'Conner C.S.B. (1841-1908) hangs in the Sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Bishops are the successors of the apostles and are owed obedience (CCC 861-2). Want to stick it to the Devil? 

The Devil doesn’t fear austerity but holy obedience.
  – St. Francis de Sales

The Reality of Death

The grave of Eliza Boulton, wife of Henry John Boulton, in the crypt of St. Michael's Cathedral.

St. Jerome used to visit the catacombs weekly to remind himself of the reality of death:

Often I would find myself entering those crypts, deep dug in the earth, with their walls on either side lined with the bodies of the dead, where everything was so dark that almost it seemed as though the Psalmist’s words were fulfilled, “Let them go down quick into Hell”. Here and there the light, not entering in through windows, but filtering down from above through shafts, relieved the horror of the darkness. But again, as soon as you found yourself cautiously moving forward, the black night closed around and there came to my mind the line of Vergil, “Horror unique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent”.  

An Endorsement

Statue of St. Joseph and infant Jesus in St. John's Chapel at St. Michael's Cathedral.

I do not remember that I ever asked St. Joseph at any time for anything which he did not obtain for me.  – St. Teresa of Avila

Sacred Heart

Jesus reveals his Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary in a stained glass window at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Behold this Heart which has so loved man.

 - Our Lord to St. Margaret Mary

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

Red Mass

The Red Mass is held today in St. Michael's Cathedral.

I die the King’s faithful servant, but God’s first. – St. Thomas More's last words before his execution.

St. Thomas More, you heavenly patron of statesmen and lawyers, pray for us.

The Fire

Fire alarm in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral.

After communion if you do not feel some spiritual nourishment, this is a sign of spiritual infirmity or spiritual death. The fire has been put in your breast, but you have not felt the heat. The honey has been placed in your mouth, but you have not tasted the sweetness.

But if you do feel some consolation, it is no credit to you, but to His immense goodness, which reaches out to the bad and consoles the ungrateful, and so you say in your heart: I have detested your mercy and cursed your gifts. If God has done such good to me, a sinner, what would He do, if I were to correct my life? Thus of all people I want to change myself and come close to You forever.  

                                       – St. Bonaventure

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

Origen on Baptism

A scallop shell (a common symbol of our Christian baptism) in the moulding in St. John's Chapel at St. Michael's Cathedral.

If you transgress, you write unto yourself the handwriting of sin. But, behold, when you have once approached to the cross of Christ and to the grace of baptism, your handwriting is affixed to the cross and blotted out in the font of baptism.  

                         - Origen

St. Paul on the Love of God

Statue of St. Paul in St. Michael's Cathedral.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

                           – Romans 8:38-9

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

    

Exaltation of the Holy Cross

A processional cross at St. Michael's Cathedral.  photo credit

O Crux, splendidior cunctis astris, mundo celebris, hominibus multum amabilis, sanctior universis: quae sola fuisti digna portare talentum mundi, dulce lignum, dulces clavos, dulcia ferens pondera!

St. John Chrysostom on Chit-Chat in the Church

The altar of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Michael's Cathedral with the Tabernacle lamp hanging in front.

When you are before the altar where Christ reposes, you ought no longer to think that you are amongst men; but believe that there are troops of angels and archangels standing by you, and trembling with respect before the sovereign Master of Heaven and earth. Therefore, when you are in church, be there in silence, fear, and veneration. 

                - St. John Chrysostom

Flowering of the Soul

A planter outside St. Michael's Cathedral in bloom.  Face of St. Edwin of Northumbria visible in background.

The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self.  There is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain.           

                          – St. Padre Pio

A Thought for September 11th

A marker for the Murray family burials in the basement crypt of St. Michael's Cathedral.

If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. Therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day for conversion. 

                               – St. Gregory the Great

Proverbs 22:6

The junior boys' choir from the nearby St. Michael's Choir School.

Give me a boy until the age of seven and I shall show you the man.  

                         – St. Francis Xavier

Send your son to learn Gregorian chant and Catholic manhood in a school affiliated with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome.  Then just sit back in your pew and swell with pride when he sings with the angels at Holy Mass in St. Michael's Cathedral.

The Price

A cash register in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral is used for the sale of religious items for restoration of the organ.

Servant of God Elisabeth Leseur married a non-practicing Catholic (Felix Leseur) who became increasingly hostile to her Catholicism. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1912 she told her husband:

I am absolutely certain that when you return to God, you will not stop on the way because you never do things by halves…You will someday become a priest.

To this he responded: “Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I’ve sworn hatred of God, I shall live in that hatred and I shall die in it.”  After she died in 1914, her husband discovered a note written to him among her papers:

In 1905, I asked Almighty God to send me sufficient sufferings to purchase your soul. On the day that I die, the price will have been paid. Greater love than this no woman has than she who lay down her life for her husband.

In 1923, at the age of 62, Felix Leseur was ordained a priest.

An Urgent Reminder

Statue of Mary and Jesus in a niche at the Lady altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.

It’s your mother’s birthday.

Nativitas gloriosæ Virginis Mariæ ex semine Abrahæ, ortæ de tribu Juda, clara ex stirpe David. Nativitas est hodie sanctæ Mariæ Virginis, cujus vita inclyta cunctas illustrat ecclesias.

Him Who Is the Light

A charming decorative light fixture in the tiny narthex of St. John's Chapel at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Our lives must be woven around the Eucharist … fix your eyes on Him Who is the light; bring your hearts close to His Divine Heart; ask Him to grant you the grace of knowing Him, the love of loving Him, the courage to serve Him. Seek Him fervently. 

                  – Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Admirable Heights

A dormer window at St. Michael's Cathedral adds height and light.

O admirable heights and sublime lowliness! O sublime humility! O humble sublimity! That the Lord of the universe, God and the Son of God, so humbles Himself that for our salvation He hides Himself under the little form of bread! Look, brothers, at the humility of God and pour out your hearts before Him! Humble yourselves, as well, that you may be exalted by Him. Therefore, hold back nothing of yourselves for yourselves so that He Who gives Himself totally to you may receive you totally...

                               – St. Francis of Assisi

Suffering

A set of crutches leans against  a column in the nave of St. Michael's Cathedral.

From here on earth, love cannot live without suffering. It is through loving the cross that we discover His Heart, for divine Love never lives without suffering. I want my whole life to be inspired by love. He who loves, does all things easily, or, if he suffers, he suffers bravely. Why is suffering necessary? Because on earth, pure love cannot exist without suffering. O Jesus, Jesus, I no longer feel my cross when I think of yours! 

          - St. Bernadette Soubirous

Cup of Salvation

Detail of chalice at St. Michael's Cathedral.  photo credit

Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.

Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.

The Duty of the Moment

A garbage can in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral has been shined like new by some dutiful person.

The duty of the moment is what you should be doing at any given time, in whatever place God has put you...There are all kinds of good Catholic things you can do, but whatever they are, you have to realize that there is always the duty of the moment to be done. And it must be done, because the duty of the moment is the duty of God.  

             – Servant of God Catherine Doherty 

The Door We Have to Pass Through

A door at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Humble yourselves...We cannot pass through the low door with our head held high unless we want to crack it.  And the door we have to pass through is Christ crucified, who humbled Himself down to the level of us witless fools.       

                 – St. Catherine of Siena


By the by, Dear Hearts, I am back from Rome.

How to Bring Souls to God and His Church

St. Michael's Cathedral reaches up toward heaven.

Pray and weep for their conversion like St. Monica because...

Nothing is far from God. – Saint Monica

Students

A poster in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral reminds Catholic Ryerson students about the upcoming Annual Mass and BBQ at St. John's Chapel.

Do you wish to study to your advantage?
Let devotion accompany all your studies.
Consult God more than your books.
Ask Him to make you understand what you read.
Never begin or end your study except by prayer.
Science is a gift of God.
Do not consider it merely the work of your own mind and effort. 

                          – St. Vincent Ferrer, OP

For Frequent Use

Holy water in the sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral.

I know by frequent experience that there 

is nothing which puts the devils to flight like Holy water. 

– St. Teresa of Avila

What Joy

A Deacon greets parishioners outside St. Michael's Cathedral with evident joy.

Would that mortal men might know how wonderful is divine grace, how beautiful, how precious; what riches are hidden therein, what treasures, what joys, what delights. If they but knew, surely they would direct their energy with all care and diligence to procuring sufferings and afflictions for themselves. Instead of good fortune all men everywhere would seek out troubles, illness and suffering that they might obtain the inestimable treasure of grace...No one would complain about the cross or about hardships coming seemingly by chance upon him, if he realized in what balance they are weighed before being distributed to men. 

                                    – St. Rose of Lima

On Christian Modesty

Women wearing mantillas at St. Michael's Cathedral.

Photo from internet.

The mantilla is not an obligation but it is a traditional way for women to do honour to the Blessed Sacrament. These veiled heads are also a powerful answer to the androgyny and immodesty of our age:

One cannot sufficiently deplore the blindness of so many women of every age and station. Made foolish by a desire to please, they do not see to what degree the indecency of their clothing shocks every honest man and offends God. Most of them would formerly have blushed for such apparel as for a grave fault against Christian modesty. Now it does not suffice to exhibit themselves on public thoroughfares; they do not fear to cross the threshold of churches, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and even to bear the seducing food of shameful passions to the Eucharistic Table, where one receives the Heavenly Author of Purity.  

                    - Pope Benedict XV, 1921.

Memento Mori

The funerary marker of Rev. P.F. Cummins in the basement crypt of St. Michael's Cathedral.

REV. P. F. CUMMINS

DIED July 17, 1862.

AGED

26

YEARS.

Father died young. One summer day was his last day on this earth. 

Memento mori.

Crosses

A cross in a stained glass window in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Thanks be to God I am having my share of these crosses in my life. I live, but my life is that of Christ’s, and in possessing me, my poor Lord possesses a nothing, and I, in possessing Him, possess everything.  

                           – St. Anthony Mary Claret

On Worrying about Every Detail

Detail of stained glass window at St. Michael's Cathedral.
photo credit

[The Lord] does not tell us that we must not work, must not plan ahead. He does not tell us that everything will be done for us. But He does tell us that we must not be always worrying and fretting and making a great commotion, as though we, and not He, were responsible for the universe. 

                                     – Fr. Gerald Vann, OP

On Obedience

A single pious soul stands with the angels (not pictured) before the altar of the Blessed Sacrament in St. Michael's Cathedral.  Photo from internet.

Obedience unites us so closely to God that in a way it transforms us into Him, so that we have no other will but His. If obedience is lacking, even prayer cannot be pleasing to God.
  

                    – St. Thomas Aquinas

Ite ad Joseph

A stained glass window dedicated to St. Joseph in St. John's chapel at St. Michael's Cathedral. Note the S.J. for Saint Joseph,  the tools of his trade, the lilies for his chastity, and the directive "ite ad Joseph".

There is a need of living well, but there is even more need of dying well. A good death is everything. – Blessed Louis Guanella

You want to die in God’s friendship? Me too. Let's go to St. Joseph whose singularly privileged death (in the presence of Jesus and Mary) makes him the patron of a happy death.  

St. Padre Pio on the Storms of Life

A storm drain in the front courtyard of St. Michael's Cathedral.

It is very easy to guide a boat when it is not troubled by the winds, and to go through life without any accident whatsoever. But in the middle of the obstacles or trials, as through the winds, it is very difficult to continue the journey.

Behold the necessity to always watch and to look after one’s self, of one’s own actions, of one’s intentions and to show that the heart is good and just, sweet, humble and generous. To such an end, often place your heart in the state of an absolute confidence in Him who has called you into the bosom of His affection.                                        – St. Padre Pio

The Gift of Himself on the Cross

A cross in the moulding around a window in the narthex of St. Michael's Cathedral.

I dare say that God

in His omnipotence could not give more;

in His wisdom, He knew not how to give more;

in His riches He had not more to give. 

– St. Augustine

Nature Liberated From its Dross

Mosaic flowers in the Altar to the Sacred Heart in St. Michael's Cathedral.

Only by the power of grace can nature be liberated from its dross, restored to its purity, and made free to receive divine life. And this divine life itself is the inner driving power from which acts of love come forth. Whoever wants to preserve this life continually within herself must nourish it constantly from the source whence it flows without end: from the holy sacraments, above all from the sacrament of love. To have divine love as its inner form, a woman’s life must be a Eucharistic life. 

                 – St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

What to Ask of the Blessed Virgin

Detail of the Marian altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.

I will ask the Blessed Virgin for an all-embracing charity and perfect union with God, a most profound humility, and the desire for contempt from others. I will greatly esteem virtues in others.  I will look on everybody as my superior, judging well of all his works, reprehending, cen­suring, and judging only myself.   

                    – St. Anthony Mary Claret

Verbum Sapienti

***UPDATE***

I had occasion last week to be in the sacristy of Santa Maria Maggiore (Rome) and saw there the following sign:

CELEBRA MISSAM

UT PRIMAM

UT UNICAM

UT ULTIMAM

This word of advice hangs in the sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral where it will be seen before every Holy Mass.

The priest or layperson looking for more advice on the Holy Mass and matters Catholic would find it convenient to look to Father Z whose simple directive to priests (Say the Black, Do the Red) is now famous.

On Confession

The top of a confessional (the wood was once part of the reredos) in St. Michael's Cathedral.

My children, we cannot comprehend the goodness of God towards us in instituting this great Sacrament of Penance. If we had had a favour to ask of Our Lord, we should never have thought of asking Him that. But He foresaw our frailty and our inconstancy in well-doing, and His love induced Him to do what we should not have dared to ask.   

                              – St. Jean Vianney

Sing To The Lord

The prophetess Mary, sister of Aaron, leads the women with timbrel in hand in a stained glass window of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Let us sing to the Lord: for He is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider He hath thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my praise, and He is become salvation to me: He is my God and I will glorify Him: the God of my father, and I will exalt Him.                                – Exodus 15:1-3

Want To Stand Out In A Crowd?

A smartly uniformed Police Officer departs after Holy Mass at St. Michael's Cathedral.

SERVE.

Fourth Ordinary of Toronto

A painting of Archbishop John Walsh (d.1898) hangs in the sacristy of St. Michael's Cathedral.

Inside St. Michael’s Cathedral Walsh was ordained a priest, consecrated a bishop, seated as archbishop, and buried. In so far as we Christians have a home in this vale of tears, St. Michael’s Cathedral must have been his.

Lourdes

Detail of mural by Vaclav Vaca at the Lady altar in St. Michael's Cathedral.

Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest yourself shining with light, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child Saint Bernadette: "I am the Immaculate Conception!"

O Mary Immaculate, inflame our hearts with one ray of the burning love of your pure heart. Let them be consumed with love for Jesus and for you, in order that we may merit one day to enjoy your glorious eternity...