The Blessing and Joy of being Alive

Dear Friends and Family,

God has been so good to me this week.

While there is much that took place that I could write about: the Baptism of two little baby girls: one last Sunday afternoon and another this Friday; the joy of seeing so many volunteers who worked hard to prepare today's Palm Sunday liturgies; conversations with two individuals considering becoming Catholics--please pray for them!; an invitation to celebrate the Mass for a local pilgrimage to the shrine of the Chideock Martyrs--which could be a good occasion to help those who love the Latin Mass in our diocese; hearing how much students learning their catechism had retained--more than I expected!--from a lesson and from the book on St. Martin de Porres that they are reading; so many, many blessings...

But as I sat down to write (and once again have no photo to share because my computer is not cooperating. A technician should have that fixed by a few weeks from now), I was drawn to simply give thanks for the gift of being alive, with all the little blessings that I so easily forget. So many, many blessings...

....to walk out the front door in the morning and see a beautiful sunrise reflecting off some small clouds, with a blue sky in the background, or to feel the rain on my face, or smell the fresh air coming off the sea, or look at the trees, birds, nearby belltower, hills in the beautiful English countryside, or the sheep and their little lambs grazing in the fields.

...or to light the candles next to the tabernacle in the morning and offer the day to Mary, asking Her to use it as She wishes, to have the grace of praying psalms to our Eucharistic Lord, hidden in the tabernacle, to kneel before Him and spend quiet time reading, meditating, or talking to and listening to Him.

...to offer the Holy Mass, something that can't be put into words, or to hear Confessions and have the great joy that fills the angels in Heaven with joy, or to baptize a little baby.

...to prepare sermons, studying about angels, or the action of the God in our souls, or so many other things.

...to be able to speak or sing at all.

...to be able to walk, and even to run.

...to hear beautiful music.

...to taste food.

...to rest in a bed.

...to prepare now for Holy Week.

So many, many blessings.

As you begin this Holy Week when anxiety can sometimes weight on the devout Catholics, may God grant you particular graces of thanksgiving. Please keep me in your prayers. You all will be in mine as I live the sacred mysteries of these days.

Oh, and some of you asked me for the link to the book, which apparently I did not include at first last week. Here it is:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maria-Valtortas-Life-Christ-Treasured/dp/0986115126/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_2?keywords=maria+valtorta%27s+life+of+christ%27&qid=1555270314&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmrnull

A blessed Holy Week!

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

New Book

Our Lady keeping vigil in her grotto just outside Lanherne, as the sun sets.

Dear Friends and Family,

A blessed Passion Sunday to you all! We are now in the home stretch of one of the most grace-filled times of the year. Today I had the wonderful joy of baptizing a little girl, while another young mother went into the hospital this morning to give birth. So hopefully there will be another Baptism before Easter. It is such a joy to baptize little babies, especially when the parents take the Faith and their role as parents so seriously. May God grant their little girl to grow up to be a saint one day.

For those of you who struggle with insomnia, I have just the thing. Click on this link to see it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maria-Valtortas-Life-Christ-Treasured/dp/0986115126/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?keywords=maria+valtorta%27s+life+of+christ&qid=1554663926&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmrnull   . It is my JCL thesis, in a condensed form and with various elements added to make it more accessible to all readers: especially the testimonies of Mother Teresa, Blessed Gabriel Allegra, and Blessed Maria Ines Teresa Arias. I hope it will help many people discover this great treasure.

What a few people have said:

“When in the 1980s I commenced reading The Poem of the Man-God, I was cautioned by overscrupulous well-wishers concerned for my spiritual welfare against reading a book which had been placed on the Index of Forbidden books. Father Anthony Pillari in Maria Valtorta’s Life of Christ has banished for good and all any lingering doubts as to the orthodoxy of her visions and writings.”

—Cardinal Thomas Williams, Archbishop Emeritus of Wellington, New Zealand

“Fr. Anthony Pillari and Stephen Austin deserve to be commended for this precious work which will, God willing, open up for the Church the great treasure that is The Poem of the Man-God. Valtorta’s great work, like St. Louis de Montfort’s priceless True Devotion to Mary, has been a hidden treasure at times despised and rejected even by those in the Church. With the witness of these saints who have profited from Valtorta’s incredible insights into the life of Christ, may the whole Church awaken to the riches of an intimate knowledge of the life and times of Our Lord.”

—John-Henry Westen, Editor in Chief and Co-Founder of LifeSiteNews

"Fr. Pillari and Stephen Austin’s text on The Poem of the Man-God makes clear the canonical legitimacy for all faithful Catholics to read and appreciate this great mystical work.  The positive spiritual discernment of St. Teresa of Calcutta and other recently declared 'Blesseds' of the Church testify to its inspiring and authentic contents. The sublime Mariological theme of Mary as the 'Co-redemptrix' with and under Jesus, the divine Redeemer, accurately embodies the best and richest Mariology of the last millennium. Rather than a threat to Scripture reading, the Poem makes the superior Word of God come alive and move souls to repentance, conversion, and peace.

"The time has come for The Poem of the Man-God to be universally appreciated as the contemporary mystical classic that it is. Thank you, Fr. Pillari and Stephen Austin for this outstanding articulation and defense of the pearls of the Poem for today."

—Dr. Mark Miravalle
St. John Paul II Chair of Mariology
Franciscan University of Steubenville
President, International Marian Association

May Jesus and Mary watch over each of you and grant you a joyful preparation for Holy Week.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

France for a week of Theology

Dear Friends and Family,

I'm heading out the door in a moment for Confessions, Mass, then Plymouth, then a flight to France, so will have to write briefly. I had taken a beautiful photo of Our Lady in our grotto, but due to our network still not working I am unable to upload it for you. Hopefully next week!

This week I will be studying in Toulouse: 1) the virtue of penance according to St. Thomas Aquinas, 2) the relationship between Scripture and Tradition.

A blessed Laetare Sunday to all of you. And for those in England, a blessed Mothering Sunday! I look forward to receiving a young mother for the "Churching of Women" ceremony just after Mass today.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

Lambs, Adoration, and preparing for Holy Week

Upper St. Mawgan with sheep and newborn lambs (hardly visible) in the field.

Dear Friends and Family,

I just came in the door. It was a very full, and blessed Sunday, finishing with dinner with my neighboring pastor. But I have to finish this quickly because I also need to pray compline before the clock strikes midnight!

It is a beautiful time of spring when the sun has been shining and newborn lambs have appeared in the fields. The above photo does not show much but as I've been out for runs I have seen newborn lambs bleating and running to and fro. A beautiful sight that is very evangelical.

I think I neglected to mention that two weeks ago I teamed up with my neighbor, Fr. Anthony O'Gorman of Holy Trinity Parish to offer 40 hours of adoration the first week of Lent between his parish and Lanherne. At Lanherne we had 24 hours of adoration from Friday AM to Saturday morning, with the men taking the all-night shift. It was a wonderful way to begin Lent. I had the blessing of participating in a little of the nocturnal adoration and there is something particularly helpful about adoring the Lord in the middle of the night, by candlelight.

Lastly, I began today practicing the Exultet and some of the other chants for Holy Week which will be here before we know it. It is such a blessed time. I hope to have all my chants learned before Palm Sunday, so that I can rest my voice the first part of Holy Week and sing strongly during the Triduum. May Jesus grant us to follow Him closely those days!

I'd better go now to pray Compline...

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

Baptisms, Babies, and Angels

Dear Friends and Family,

A blessed second Sunday of Lent! Since technology is not cooperating to allow me to share a photo with you, I'll share words:

The past two weekends have had the joy of Baptisms: 3 boys last weekend, one girl this weekend. In addition, one young mother asked for a blessing after Holy Mass this morning because she is due in less than three weeks, and two other young mothers each gave birth this weekend--to two beautiful baby girls. So there are more Baptisms just around the corner!

For those not hearing my sermons here in England (For those of you reading this in England, you can envy those across the sea who no longer have to hear me each Sunday), I thought you might find interesting last Sunday's sermon on the fall of the angels. It briefly looks at the particular sin that caused the angels to fall, and is largely taken from (at times verbatim) Fr. Bonino, O.P.'s book Angels and Demons. For those interested, please find the sermon below.

May Jesus and Mary be especially close to you as we enter into the heart of Lent.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,
Fr. Pillari

Srm Catechism 053 The Fall of the Angels

Sermon Notes[1]

Matt. 4:1-11
At that time, Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become loaves of bread. But He answered and said, It is written, ‘Not by bread alone does man live, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.’ Then the devil took Him into the holy city and set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, ‘He has given His angels charge concerning You; and upon their hands they shall bear You up, lest You dash Your foot against a stone.’ Jesus said to him, It is written further, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. And he said to Him, All these things will I give You, if You will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, ‘The Lord your God shall you worship and Him only shall you serve.’ Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

            Before the world began, God created Satan, and all of the other angels, out of pure love. He gave each angel a perfect nature, with tremendous capacities, an awareness of God’s goodness, and an invitation to receive an even greater happiness and fullness of life. Each angel was invited to receive this incredible gift. But some, the fallen angels with Satan at their head, chose otherwise and fell. What happened after their fall? Saint Peter tell us, “…God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment…”^[2]And in the letter of St. Jude, “And the angels did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling and have been kept by [God] in eternal chains in the deepest darkness until the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 1: 6). 

            What was the first sin of the fallen angels? How could they, created perfect and at a time where absolutely no evil or suffering was present in all of creation, have chosen to turn away from God? Recall that when God created the angels, He gave them each a tremendous natural happiness and invited them to embrace a far greater supernatural happiness. Because each angel was created with a certain fullness of knowledge, he knew, from the first moment of his existence, something of the immense goodness of God who had created Him, and was aware of his great capacities as an angel, of the incredible life that God had given him. Satan was created as the highest of the angels, the one with the greatest natural capacities, with the greatest intellect. But, like all the other angels, he was not yet aware of the fullness of who God was. He could not yet see God face to face and have the intimate knowledge and friendship with Him that only comes about when we cooperate with God’s grace.

So, what did Satan do? In the very first instantof his creation, he, just like all the other angels, looked toward God, not yet in a supernatural way, but in a natural way, marveling at His goodness as his creator. In the second instant, each angel made the choice to either look toward God in faith, hope, and above all in charity, in true love, or made a choice to do something else. For those who chose in that instant to love God, to surrender themselves to His loving plan for their lives, they were granted straight away the full knowledge of and participation in God’s life such as the saints have in Heaven—the joy of seeing God face-to-face and participating in His divine life.

If in that second instant, Satan turned toward something other than God, what did he turn toward? What was his sinful choice? Nothing evil existed, so he could not have turned toward anything evil. Nor could he have had a sinful desire for excessive food, drink, or other material pleasures, since he had no body and no need or desire for such things. The first sin of Satan was a sin of pride, of disordered love of his own excellence, of love of self to the point of contempt of God; of an unwillingness to be dependent on God out of an unbridled love for his own excellence and his own will.

Satan wanted to be like God. He was too smart to think that He could actually be identical to God in his nature. He knew he was an angel and would have to remain an angel. But he wanted to be treated like God, to be treated as the first, the most excellent, the most important, as the one to whom everything else was ordered. He knew that God was offering him a happiness, a beatitude beyond anything he had yet experienced. But he also knew that to accept this gift he would have to accept God’s two conditions:

1)   This happiness could not be attained by any angel’s natural gifts, abilities, and work. It would have to be received as a grace by abandoning himself to God in the obscurity of faith, trusting in God.

2)   This gift was being proposed to everyone, even those far inferior to Satan in their natural abilities. The acceptance of this gift would relativize the differences in their natural abilities, greatly diminishing the importance of Satan’s natural superiority to every other creature.

Satan rejects these conditions and chooses to cling to the possession of his natural perfection because it 1) distinguishes him from others and 2) belongs to him by a natural right (as though he were the master thereof). He prefers to remain first in an inferior order—the order of nature—rather than become one among others in a superior order: the order of grace. He decides to determine for himself the goal of his life, and chooses as a goal one that he can attain by his own natural resources: a full living out of his angelic powers and abilities, but without the help of grace, thereby showing contempt for the divine offer of a supernatural happiness. He prefers to cling to what he controls rather than to be open to the divine call to “put out into the deep”—in other words to let go of his destiny so as to receive from his destiny from another, and to be dependent on another for its fulfillment.

And ever since, he has tried to lead men to make the same choice. He hates men and is envious of the fact that they might rise to a higher order than him. Envy consists in seeing another’s good as a threat to my good. Satan considers his own good to be his superiority over others. Anything that threatens that superiority—and a man rising to the order of supernatural grace and glory, a higher order than Satan’s natural abilities and life, certainly threatens his superiority. So, he strives to get men to embrace his selfish choice. 

Does his sin sound familiar? To prefer to stay at the purely natural order, to try to decide what will make us happy and to try to achieve that goal by our own strength and resources, to refuse to allow your life to be dependent on God, to refuse to abandon yourself to Him, to refuse to accept and follow His plans for your life, to refuse to surrender to your heavenly Father. Our society cries out, “you can be whoever youwant to be. Nothing is off limits to you. If we work together, everything is possible for us. Don’t turn to God. Look to man and to this earth for the fulfillment of all that your heart desires.”

And even if we do not give in to the voice of the world, there is a more subtle temptation that Satan proposes to Christians: the temptation to stop at a particular stage in their spiritual journey, in their growth in holiness. To say, “That’s enough. I now have a handle on how to live as a Catholic, or know how to do certain acts of charity or piety. I’m content with this. I can control it. I can guide my life now—a life directed toward serving God, but with me being the one running my life.” When we fall prey to this temptation, we refuse to let the Holy Ghost guide us further, to follow the calls of grace, to follow the obscure path of purification and growth in holiness. The devil presents this temptation frequently and subtly, for he hates holiness; he fears holiness because he fears God and those who are united to Him.

When Satan chose to remain first in an inferior order—the order of nature—rather than become one among others in a superior order: the order of grace; when he decided to determine for himself the goal of his life and showed contempt for the divine offer of supernatural happiness, Satan fell and suffered, and suffers still. He falls far below all the good angels because he loses all knowledge that comes from grace. The good angels see clearly God and His designs and have the wisdom that comes from a deep friendship with God. The fallen angels, on the other hand (because many other angels, seeing Satan’s example, decided to imitate him); the fallen angels, while far more intelligent than we are, do not see very well into God’s designs.

The fallen angels suffer because of their perverse will. Though they regret suffering they do not regret not loving God. They vehemently desire to be themselves the source of their own happiness, to have all things be ordered to them, to not depend on God for anything. And they are therefore in great pain seeing that creation is not at all as they want: that God continues to lead men to the supernatural happiness of Heaven, to a very sharing in His own life; that so many angels and saints have already attained this; that God makes everything in the world—even their own demonic action in tempting or harassing men—work, in the end, for the accomplishment of God’s loving designs; that God continues to be supremely happy in the blessed life of the Holy Trinity. You could say that the fallen angels’ perverse will is allergic to reality. Just as a man who was allergic to oxygen would constantly suffer, so the fallen angels constantly suffer because reality is not as they wish it were. They are torn by the discrepancy between a world that would suit them and the real world.

Such is the sad state of the fallen angels. Such is the sad state of so many men and women alive today. But unlike the fallen angels, whose choice will never change because they chose in full knowledge of what they were choosing, we can, as long as we are on the earth, still change. There is always hope for the conversion of sinners. May the Blessed Virgin Mary help you to pray this Holy Mass well, to intercede for sinners through your adoration of Our Blessed Lord, Jesus Christ Himself, as the holy sacrifice of Calvary is rendered present.

---

[1]Note: these sermons are based largely, and sometimes are taken verbatim from, the book by Fr. Serge-Thomas Boninio, OP: Angels and Demons

^[2](2 Pe 2:4). New York: National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.

Standing Outside the Big Green Door

Entrance Door to Lanherne Convent

Dear Friends and Family,

Last night, I returned from a jog at 6:30 PM, and stepped inside the main door--the green door pictured above--into the entryway to the presbytery and convent. It had been a joy to spend 45 minutes running through the woods, up and down hills, at times looking out over the fields, giving thanks for the pretty English countryside. I had finished Sunday's sermon before the run. All that remained was to tie up a few loose ends, print the sermon and prepare various other little things for Sunday, eat dinner, pray Compline, and then turn in for the night. 

Since the run had been muddy, I slipped off my running shoes and stepped outside a moment to brush shake the mud off of my shoes and.... the door closed behind me and... locked. And I was without a key.... 

Now, this posed a problem because there is currently no other way for me to enter the presbytery. Nor is there currently any other way for me to contact the Nuns from outside. They don't usually pick up their phone, so even if I walked down to the local pub and called them that would probably not work. So, I had to come up with another solution.

I thought for a few moments about finding some way to jiggle the lock open. No luck... Then I managed to push open the little door with bars (made so you can peer out to see who is there). Could I reach the handle from there to open the door?... No. So I started banging on the door, hoping the Sisters would hear my knocking. No luck... Then tried calling out as loudly as I could. Still no response... 

After perhaps 10 minutes of this, I decided to try the bell with the chain outside the door. I had tried it earlier but it had refused to budge, perhaps stuck in place due to the new paint. This time I reached up and pulled higher on the chain, hard, and it gave way. Wonderful! So I started pulling on the chain every 15 seconds or so, for a while, hoping to get their attention. Then the chain broke.... (as can be seen in the photo above), but there was still a little bit at the top that I could pull on. So I continued to pull this, alternating with calling out for the Sisters and banging on the door. 

During all of this, it was beginning to rain. I was contemplating what I would do if locked out for the night. My climbing over their wall and throwing rocks at their windows might give them such a fright that it was likely not worth the risk trying. Could I go down to the Falcon (local pub across the street from the Convent) and phone someone to stay at their house for the night? Sure. But there would still be the problem of how to get into the presbytery early enough the next morning to get things ready for the Mass, because the Nuns wouldn't know I wasn't there until it was time for Mass to begin.

In the midst of such thoughts... the inner door to the convent opened and Mother Superior came out to let me in. Providentially, they had come walking by that part of the monastery and heard the bell, banging, and shouting. A happy ending. Though one that made me sit down straight away to write our foreman an email asking about a good, secure place to have a secure "key box" outside the building!

It's amazing how many little things we can take for granted until they don't work. Such as opening a door or being able to sleep in our own bed at night. As Lent begins, may we give thanks to God for so many, many blessings, perhaps especially some of those little daily ones that often go unnoticed. 

May Jesus and Mary watch over you and guide you.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,

Fr. Pillari

Jogging Along the Clifftops

Chapel prepared for Lent.

Dear Friends and Family,

After 12 months of renovations in the presbytery, I once again have the great blessing and privilege of  reserving the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel of St. Thomas More, where I am able to spend time adoring Him and chanting the Divine Office. The good sisters kindly cleaned the chapel and removed the flowers in preparation for Lent. May St. Thomas More and Cardinal Newman intercede for me and all priests to make a good Lent!

There were many blessings of this past week. As in any week, much of what took place I cannot write in a blog because it involves people's personal lives. I will simply ask you to pray for some non-Catholics or Catholics away from the practice of their faith, that they might fully surrender themselves to Christ, to living according to the "obedience of faith." 

This past Wednesday and Saturday I gave talks to families--gathered in a home on each occasion--on the next virtue from St. Alphonsus Liguori's Twelve Steps to Holiness and Salvation. The virtue for this month is mortification... not an easy virtue but one that is extremely helpful and particularly fitting for Lent. Saint Alphonsus teaches about both interior and exterior mortification, emphasizing that both are necessary. It is always good to be able to pray with the families, crowded into a dining room or other space in a home, to present dicusss a virtue, and then to have some fellowship. There is a particular blessing that God grants when a congregation makes the effort, outside of Mass, to gather together for prayer. 

Another blessing from this week was a clifftop run. We have had some unusually warm (high in the 50's) and sunny days recently. So on Friday afternoon I drove to Bedruthan steps and jogged along the clifftops, overlooking the ocean, for 40 minutes. It was quite beautiful. The open see, with the sun reflecting off the waves. Since I didn't bring my camera to capture the beautiful ocean, I settled for this photo of my running shoes. That stretch of coast has some nice rock formations and little coves and beaches, and is quite pretty. And the sea air is fresh and invigorating. It was a wonderful place to run.

This week will of course have the particular blessing of Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent, but it will also have 24 hours of adoration here at Lanherne from Mass Friday morning through Mass Saturday morning, with a team of men covering the nighttime slots. I look forward to joining them and adoring the Lord in the quiet of the night. My neighbor, Fr. Anthony O'Gorman, and I, decided to increase adoration hours together during this first week of Lent, attempting to gain over 40, to pray for God's blessing upon our flocks, in paricular for vocations. May God's face shine upon us.

In Cordibus Iesu et Mariae,

Fr. Pillari