Full of Grace

Luke records Gabriel's greeting of Mary as "Χαίρε, κεχαριτομένη"




On “Hail, Full of Grace”


The Greek is Χαίρε, κεχαριτομένη.


κεχαριτομένη is the feminine, passive perfect participle of χαριτόω.
The root of χαριτόω is χάρις, grace, the genitive of which is χάριτος.


-οω: chiefly derived from from o-stems. Verbs in –οω are usually factitive, denoting to cause or to make. (Greek Grammer for Colleges, Herbert Weyr Smyth)
Per Strong’s concordance, χαριτόω means to endowed with grace.
Passive indicates that the subject is the recipient of the action.
Perfect indicates that the action is completed.
Participle indicates that it is adjectival in meaning (in this particular case, used substantively)


κεχαριτομένη, therefore means “female for whom the reception of grace has been completed”.


χαίρε is a greeting, literally meaning “rejoice!”


Therefore, contrary to protestant translations, κεχαριτομένη is not best translated “highly favored one”, but, as Jerome translated it, gratia plena, or “full of grace”

The New World Order

The New World Order

For Our Priests!

   A Reflection On The Priesthood

“To live in the midst of the world without wishing its pleasures; to be a member of each family, yet belonging to none; to share all sufferings, to penetrate all secrets; to heal all wounds; to go from men to God and offer Him their prayers; to return from God to men bring pardon and hope; to have a heart of fire for charity and a heart of bronze for chastity; to teach and to pardon, console and bless always –what a glori-ous life! And it is yours, O Priest of Jesus Christ!”

(Father Jean Baptiste Henri-Dominque Lacordaire, O.P.)

Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian

From the Byzantine Rite:

Prayer of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, which is recited by the clergy and faithful at the weekday services in the Church's fasts, including the Great Fast:

Lord and Master of my life,
spare me from the spirit of indifference, despair,
lust for power, and idle chatter.

Instead, bestow on me, your servant,
the spirit of integrity, humility, patience, and love.

Yes, O Lord and King, let me see my own sins
and not judge my brothers and sisters;
for you are blessed forever and ever. Amen.

A Lenten Reminder

Some nourishment for our minds and souls:

"...the Gospel of today's Mass reminds us that if we are to follow Christ we have to carry our own Cross...There is no such thing as a Christianity without the Cross, designed for soft and pusillanimous Christians with no sense of sacrifice...One of the clearest symptoms of lukewarmness having entered into a soul is...an abandonment of the Cross, a contempt for little mortifications, a scorning of anything that in some way involves sacrifice and self-denial...The Christian who goes through life systematically avoiding sacrifice will not find God, will not find happiness. What he will have been taking care to avoid is his own sanctity."

Quotes from From In Conversation With God

(Vol. 2: 2.1 and 2.3 by Francis Fernandez)

Visual Food For Our Contemplation - Fra Angelcio

Some of us employ words to fuel our contemplation. Others like early Renaissance painter, Fra Angelico (Blessed John of Fiesole 1395-1455), whose feast day Dominicans celebrated on February 18, 2012, used paint brushes to nourish hungry souls.

1- (The Nativity)

2-(The Crucifixion)

3 - (The Christ Crucified)

                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                           
                                                          

4- (Lamentation)

                                                            
                        
His depiction of our Father Dominic in many of these scenes is a reminder of where we should also fruitfully place ourselves during times of meditation and contemplation.

And of course, we need to spend time with our Blessed Mother:

5- (The Madonna and Child)

                                                     
Fra Angelico pray for us!

(Sources: 1 and 2: Convent of San Marco, Florence; Images 3 and 4:Wikimedia Commons; and Image 5:Staatliche Museen, Berlin)

Cardinal Dolan's 7-point evanglization

The original article by His Eminence is here.
But I thought I'd document the list for easy reference

1. We must work to keep the quest for God alive by always remembering that even those who boast of their secularism have an innate longing for the divine.
2. “Be not afraid.”  We should be confident in our message, which comes from Jesus Christ, but without giving way to triumphalism, which is the belief that our work is done and we have triumphed.
3. We need to know that the new evangelization is not about presenting a doctrine or belief-system, but a Person, whose name is Jesus
4. Because Jesus is the Truth, evangelization is linked to catechesis.
5. We need to be joyful evangelizers.
6. The New Evangelization is about love.
7. The new Evangelization is about martryrdom.