Pilgrimage in Texas

Fishing - last Sunday.

Dear Friends and Family, especially those of you in Texas!

At long last I will have the joy of coming back for a visit to see you in person this November. It will be so very good to see you all again. You should soon see flyers for a pilgrimage the weekend of Nov. 11 - 12 circulating. But I wanted to already give you the essential information.

Pilgrimage to Shiner Texas

for the

Holy Souls in Purgatory

Holy Sacrifice of the Mass offered by

Fr. Tony Pillari, J.C.L.

The Pilgrimage begins with a rosary novena for repose of the souls of the departed members of your family. The novena is to be prayed in the home, as a family, from Nov. 2^nd – Nov. 10^th.

At 9AM on Nov. 11^th there will be a tour of the historic painted church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, followed by time to prepare for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The 10AM Missa Cantata for the Feast of St. Martin of Tours will be offered by Fr. Pillari for the repose of the souls of the departed members of your family.

Mass will be followed by a talk or presentation by Fr. Pillari. Feel free to bring your own lunch. Water will be provided. Please RSVP for this event. etc…. To RSVP, providing the number of attendees and names of family members to be remembered in the Mass, or for further information, please email oimmaculata@gvtc.com (deadline for registration is Thursday Nov. 9th).

I really hope that many of you can make this offering for the holy souls in purgatory, especially those of your own family. In addition, I will be offering the Holy Sacrifice at St. Mary's Cathedral in Austin, TX, on Sunday Nov. 12th. Information below:

Missa Cantata

Sunday Nov. 12th 3:30PM

 at 

St. Mary's Cathedral

203 East 10th Street

Austin, TX 78701

Extended Reception to Follow

For further information, or to RSVP, please email thebehnkes@gmail.com by Friday Nov. 10th, indicating the number of people who will be attending.  

This past week was full of blessings--the chief one being the first Confessions of two children here. It has been a joy to help prepare them and to then see them make their first holy Confession. Now, on to preparations for First Holy Communion!

Please pray for me this coming week. I will be spending a week of prayer and study in a cabin in Wales. As most of you know, my soul finds refreshment and strength especially from times alone with God. I pray this will be a fruitful week with Him.

May Jesus and Mary guide and you and protect you.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

Fishing or Monopoly?

Hiking to our fishing hole...

Each of us stood on the rocks like this to fish.

James casting...

The ocean.

Dear Friends and Family,

Fishing or Monopoly? This was the question to be decided the afternoon.... Given the hard work the young men have put into serving at the altar at Lanherne I wanted to join them for an afternoon game. They said their favorite game was Monopoly. However they also had a real love for fishing and wanted to take me fishing. So we decided... that it would depend on the weather. Though the day began raining, it cleared up enough for us to go fishing. I think it was the first time in 30 years that I had fished, and had only probably fished twice in my life before that.

Wesley was kind enough to show me how to put the rod together and cast. So I spent a while casting from the rocks into the ocean, and twice had pretty good bites on my line! The pole bent rather forcefully as I tried to reel the fish in... but then lost him. None the less it was quite nice to watch the guys fish (they did catch several), and to simply look at the ocean.

Earlier this week I headed to London for a bit more than 24 hours for a clergy conference. I had the blessing at staying at the Brompton Oratory, a small oasis in the midst of London. A quiet, beautiful, and peaceful place for prayer.

Brompton Oratory at 6AM, when all is quiet and I was able to spend an hour in prayer.

Looking back from the altar.

The clergy conference was, unfortunately, on the topic of the "gender education" being pushed in England's schools. But it was a good conference, and a good opportunity to meet other priests. The rest of the afternoon and evening, and the next morning, was largely spent offering spiritual directions and then the next afternoon I flew back to Newquay.

By now, many of you will probably have seen that I signed the correctio fialis. I think the document speaks for itself, and is very much in line with what St. Thomas indicates for such a situation, so I won't comment on it further here, other than to say I am very much at peace about signing.

This coming Wednesday I'll have the wonderful blessing of hearing the first Confessions of two children I have been preparing. If you have a chance, please say a prayer for Matthew and Trinity!

May Jesus and Mary watch over you.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

23 Years ago on this September 17th...

One of thousands of apples ripening in our orchard.

Various views of the orchard.

Add caption

Dear Friends and Family,

We are abundantly blessed with apples. Around 5,000 of them. Maybe more. If anyone reading this would like to pick some, please let me know! Fr. George Roth, FI did a splendid job developing the orchard in the decade prior to my arrival. Not only that, he and the brothers here developed an annual ritual of making cider--a lot of cider--from the apples. So these past two years I have been faced with a challenge: I'm afraid that making cider is not my forte, and as one priest, as opposed to the previous two priests and a brother living here, it would not be feasible to take the time to do so, even if my skills were up for the challenge. Last year a variety of people were the beneficiaries of the apples, including 79 year-old Fr. George, who will be coming by next week to once again pick apples. Other beneficiaries included local folks who make cider. We have an abundant crop this year. I think they will be put to good use. But there will likely still be many good apples to spare. So if you are in the area and have a good use for some apples, please let us know.

Tomorrow, September 17th, always brings back an important memory for me: the memory of kneeling in one of the chapels at the University of Notre Dame, where I was a student, and making my consecration to Jesus through Mary for the very first time. Why Sept. 17th? Because I was too impatient to wait for a later Marian feast day.

That summer I had been attending weekly young-adult prayer meetings at a friend's home in Bay Village. At some point either I asked about, or someone proposed, a good book that would help me get to know the Virgin Mary better. I had been reading a few books that summer, trying to get to know Her better. Michele said, "True Devotion to Mary by St. Louis de Montfort. You have to read it!" To be honest, my first reaction one was "If the author has this long funny-sounding French name the book probably won't be too appealing." However, I accepted the book and took a look through it and some of the endorsements. It didn't take me long to decide I should read it, and then didn't take me long to decide I needed to do the 33-day preparation recommended by St. Louis (whose book was quite engaging, regardless of his long name!). It was recommended that you start the 33 days so that you end on a feast day. I was two days late to start for the Feast of Our Lady's Sorrowful Heart (Sept. 15th), but I didn't want to put it off and figured it would still be valid, so I went ahead.

I still remember doing the nightly prayers and readings in preparation. One week during August my family went on vacation to Hilton Head. I remember pulling away to the porch, where it was quieter, at night, to do my nightly prayers from St. Louis. And then finally the day came.

To be honest I can't remember at all the details of, or anything memorable about, the consecration itself. What I do know is that just a few weeks later I would discover my vocation to be a priest, through Our Lady's presence and intercession. That book is such an amazing treasure, especially the simple formulation that is at the heart of it:

"Try to do everything by Mary, with Mary, in Mary, and for Mary." St. Louis promised that this was the shortest, safest, and easiest way to arrive at a close union with Jesus. The words are very true! Even though I do an atrocious job of living this out, She has helped me more than I could ever say.

May She watch over each of you--and over me!--tomorrow and each day.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

"Playing before Him all the while..."

Votive candles burning before the Blessed Sacrament altar this evening.

Dear Friends and Family,

This evening we're in the midst of an octave of Masses in honor of the nativity of the Virgin Mary--a beautiful Carmelite tradition. It is beautiful to think of our Lady as a little baby, and then as a little girl.

The Mass for the Feast of Her birth has these words in the first reading: "...I was His delight day by day, playing before Him all the while, playing on the surface of His earth..." There is something truly playful about the birth and life of the Virgin Mary. Of course Her life would also have the most intense suffering that any woman has even known. But at the heart of Her life is something wonderfully "playful": the "playful game" of the exchange of love between the Immaculate Virgin and God Himself. Surely so many moments in Mary's childhood, and then later at Nazareth with Jesus, were full of simple exchanges of love--full of the spontaneity and creativity of those who are deeply in love.

In the spiritual life, growth consists in becoming more and more like a child. So, in one sense, growth in our spiritual life is the opposite of our physical growth. In our spiritual life--that is to say in our Christian life (which is all of our life!)--we are called to grow in virtue, responsibility, sacrifice, etc. And yet at the heart of all of that we are called to become ever smaller, ever more like little children.

There are wonderful graces available in contemplating the tiny Virgin Mary, held in St. Anne's arms, sleeping Her first sleep, then crawling, walking, saying Her first words, playing, praying, so many beautiful moments that God wants to use to draw us to follow in Her footsteps, to become more and more like little children.

May Jesus grant us that grace in this octave in honor of His Mother.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

Chanting the Divine Office

Photo taken as I chanted Lauds in the monastery garden.

I lowered the book so you'd have an "unfunny" view of the background.

The path I walk back and forth, in nice weather, to chant the office.

Dear Family and Friends,

Among the many blessings of this past week--one of which was beautiful weather!--I wanted to share with you two in particular.

One is this week's First Friday Mass. Every month I offer the Holy Sacrifice on the first Friday for all of my benefactors--this includes all of you who are donating financially to make my life, apostolate, and studies, possible, as well as all of you who are making my priestly life and apostolate, and studies possible, and hopefully fruitful! by your prayers and sacrifices. Thank you for all that you are doing for me as a priest. As promised, I offer each First Friday's Mass as a way of saying thank you. But for me it is also a particular joy. So many of you are those I have known for years as a priest, and I have so very much to be thankful for in terms of your faith and love for the Lord, your sense of humor, your courage, and so many other blessings. So on the First Friday it is a real joy to think of you and your families, to bring you in Our Lady's Heart to the foot of Calvary, to ask Jesus to pour out His blessings upon you, and to remember you with gratitude.

Another blessing of this week was to begin once again to chant the Divine Office in the monastic form. The past 18 months were quite intense, and so I had largely backed off from this, not feeling I had the energy. However, the past 10 days I began to chant again Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers. It has been really wonderful to dive into those melodies again! I remember reading that at the monastery of Gethsemane, when the monks abandoned the Gregorian chant in the 60's (or 70's) to chant instead in English, their health declined noticeably. I believe it. There is a genius in the different melodies--in fact in the different "modes"--of the psalms. More than genius, there is something particularly holy and inspired. They bring out something wonderful in the human heart and lift it up to God. In some ways I find that the melodies help the heart to speak to God even more than the words of the psalms.

My chanting is rather rusty and it will take me a while to relearn each of the modes, as well as the antiphons (some of which I never learned in the first place), but it is a joyful work. The monastic office definitely takes longer than the diocesan one, but in the end I think the benefits will be well worth it. So, you see in the above photos the little area I like to chant in when the weather is nice.

Nice weather is not always here, so much of the time I will be chanting in the small chapel in the presbytery that the sisters are kindly preparing. Hopefully it will be completed in a few weeks and I can send you a photo.

Oh, and this is the cover story of the UK's major Catholic weekly magazine. I have to agree! http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/september-1st-2017/the-kids-are-old-rite/

I wish you all a very blessed Sunday. May Jesus and Mary watch over you and guide you.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari