At the Liturgy of Hours, the following reading from St. Gaspar’s letters was proclaimed. It was chosen because of the import of the words I have placed in bold text:

I suggest three things in particular for our consideration during these days.

First, that we examine ourselves in the light of the question which the Mellifluous Doctor (St. Bernard) was accustomed to ask his monks: Why have you come here? For what purpose are we in the Society? To cooperate with the great designs of divine Providence in the sanctification of ourselves and others; to be united in the bond of charity and to imitate more closely the life of Jesus Christ....

I am in the Society to look after the life of my soul, to offer myself for the glory of God with a holy abandonment in God himself, and to train myself in humility and obedience, all this with the purpose of knowing better his divine Will by being completely reliant upon him as I should.

The second point about which we must examine ourselves is the love that we are to show towards our Society and towards one another. We should always act according to the spirit of the Lord. ? We should act in such a manner that we, too, might have stamped upon our hearts the saying of the great St. Francis Xavier: “May my right hand be forgotten if I should forget you” (Cf. Ps 136 (137):5.) In this matter, may our love be very, very special. Let it be generous and outgoing, patient and longsuffering, judicious and vigorous.

May God grant that in the case of our Society the words following may be verified: “The blossoming vines give out their fragrance.( Song 2:13)” The cultivation of a vineyard requires skill, toil, vigilance and fruitful rain. Likewise, in the cultivation of our communities, we need special graces. These are obtained through prayer, through exerting ourselves in accomplishing good works, in being orderly and in being vigilant to gather the awaited fruit. In a marvelous way, our Prescriptions and our Rule, which cannot be too highly recommended, serve as our support.

Finally, the third point for our meditation is our activity in furthering those objectives which lead towards the glory of the Lord. This we do in seeking to give them permanence through the Associations which our Society promotes, using the means that it designates as well as the practices which it encourages. Here, let the apostle St. Paul speak. In his letters he reveals a very profound ardor for the salvation of souls and their constant perfection. The love of Christ compels us. (2 Cor 5:14) In all our trouble I am filled with consolation and my joy is overflowing.( 2 Cor 7:4)

oddly, with my limited posting I am somewhat surprised to see I still gett 300-400 readers every day. For an odd, unexplained reason, the other day the readers topped 500 for the day, AND they come from all over. The blog tells me they come from:

US Commercial, Japan, US Educational, Canada, Russian Federation, Italy, Thailand, US Government, Australia, Philippines, Ireland, Brazil, France, Romania, Norway, Germany, Greece, Austria, Czech Republic, US Military, Chile, Argentina, China, Pakistan, Poland, Ukraine.

I am curious about the US Government readers. I realize that is probably just computers in Goverment building, but I am still curious.

Stop, read, reflect, pray, live differently.

Here are some helps for the nine days beginning Friday.

May 5th, 1961, I celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time.

May 7th, 1961, I received the Most Holy Eucharist for the first time.

May 8th, 1990, Profession, Incorporation as a member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, Province of the Pacific.

May 7th, 1991, Final Profession, definitive Incorporation.

May 17th, 1991, Ordination to the Order of Deacon

Having received a few rude emails recently questioning my belief, let me be absolutely clear who I am and what I believe:

I, Reverend Jeffrey Robert Keyes, C.PP.S., with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the Symbol of faith: namely:

I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.

I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.

Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.

I, Reverend Jeffrey Robert Keyes, C.PP.S., in assuming the office of Pastor of St. Edward Catholic Church, promise that in my words and in my actions I shall always preserve communion with the Catholic Church.

With great care and fidelity I shall carry out the duties incumbent on me toward the Church, both universal and particular, in which, according to the provisions of the law, I have been called to exercise my service.

In fulfilling the charge entrusted to me in the name of the Church, I shall hold fast to the deposit of faith in its entirety; I shall faithfully hand it on and explain it, and I shall avoid any teachings contrary to it.

I shall follow and foster the common discipline of the entire Church and I shall maintain the observance of all ecclesiastical laws, especially those contained in the Code of Canon Law.
With Christian obedience I shall follow what the Bishops, as authentic doctors and teachers of the faith, declare, or what they, as those who govern the Church, establish.

I shall also faithfully assist the diocesan Bishops, so that the apostolic activity, exercised in the name and by mandate of the Church, may be carried out in communion with the Church.

So help me God, and God's Holy Gospels on which I place my hand.

My favorite post is here.

My article on her is here.

Don Marco's excellent homily in '06 on Catherine is posted on the blog here.

Click here for Catherine and the Church.

And he has even more here.

I long for the day when we all know the difference between doing something at the liturgy or doing the liturgy.

This year, these kids are doing nothing except participating in the liturgy, the liturgy itself. Even the school may have a adopted some attitude of reverence when it comes to the sacred liturgy. We shall see and I shall report later.

At any rate, it starts this weekend. There will be five celebrations over three weekends.

Here is the program for this coming Sunday. It will be very similar to what we do every Sunday at 10:00am. I eliminated a few things for copyright concerns, but you can see the essence of what is in the program, mostly ritual music.

I would be curious to see if there is any other parish in the country that even approached this kind of celebration for first Communion. Let me know.

So, to be clear, I live in Newark, CA where I am Pastor of St. Edward Catholic Church, a large multi-ethnic parish with a large school and Faith Formation program, and a few more than 6000 families. We have two daily Masses and nine weekend Masses in three languages. The Pastoral Team consists of 12 full time members, including two Dominican Sisters and three Precious Blood Priests.

The Rectory has a great deal of office space in the front, but there is a private section which is the residence. The portion of the rectory where I live I have personally named as my own private Rifugio San Gaspare. It consists of a bedroom, a private study, and a garden. It is a place I go to simply to be. It is a little oasis, a place of study, of retreat, of prayer, and of relaxation. The garden is also a place of community. Each Sunday there is a moment of camaraderie when we decide what it is we are going to grill this week, share life and stories, and even argue over everything from what the church does for liturgy, and our favorite baseball teams.

So here is a little tour of the Left Coast version of St. Gaspar’s retreat:

The Study:

We are called to a faithful celebration of the Most Holy Mysteries in the Eucharist, the Sacraments and in the Daily Prayer of the Church.

We seek to be faithful to the charism of St. Gaspar del Bufalo, to the teachings of the Fathers, and all that is handed down in Tradition, which the Church either by a solemn judgment or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.

"Our principle is that of St.Vincent de Paul: apostles out in the field, Carthusians at home." from the letters of St. Gaspar, Letter 1040 to Fr. Luigi Locatelli, January 24, 1825

I had wanted to do more but our tabernacle was inadequate. The cost of a new tabernacle was prohibitive.

But we have some marvelous wood-workers in the parish. Thanks, Ken and Cruz. This is what we now have:

I will be away for awhile, preaching a retreat for some Carmelite Hermits. I must say that this is probably the most unique invitation I have ever received. They have asked that the focus be on the Eucharist. They will probably get a heavy dose of a saint they have never heard of before, St. Gaspar del Bufalo, but I also made a point to include a pit of John of the Cross in the reflections.

The topics for the week will be as follows:

1.John and Cana
2.Paul and Precious Blood
3.Luke, Prodigal Sons and Fatted Calves
4.Matthew, Multiplication of the Loaves
5.Emmaus and the Liturgy
6.Intimacy an the Eucharist, John of the Cross, Song of Songs, Book of Revelation
7.Holy Thursday
8.Good Friday
9.Holy Saturday
10.The Easter Mystery