"The priest should attract others to the priesthood by his own personality. He should strive to live a life so truly Christ-like that his character will be manifest as being beautifully and delightfully Catholic. The young love to see realized in themselves an ideal. Hence there is no doubt that the number of those entering the priesthood would be doubled, even trebled, if we who are now living the priestly life would endeavor scrupulously and continually to live before God and man as "other Christs." Then the young would be filled with respect, reverence, and love for the priest and his sacred office; and, drawn by personal attraction, they would feel a yearning desire to become like unto us."

Source: The Sunday-School Director's Guide to Success by Rev. Patrick James Sloan 1909

"How ironic it would be if the “Christian house church” — that concept so dear to the antiquarianizing liturgical revolutionaries who took it as a pretext for their streamlined modern prayer-service — turned out to be the place where the Tridentine Mass in all its medieval and Baroque density, albeit in temporarily humble circumstances, survived the coming persecution of Catholics." New Liturgical Movement.

• Building Home Altar (New Liturgical Movement)
• Private Chapels brought to Light by Social Distancing (Liturgical Art Journal)
• Portable Altars in Malta (Liturgical Art Journal)
• The Domestic Church: The Catholic Home (The Fish Eater)
• A family realizes a longtime dream of a Home Chapel (Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis)

Catholic Persecution and Private Chapels in America

"It was to gain religious liberty that the pioneer Catholics of the old world left their comfortable homes in Europe to brave the unknown hardships of the new Province upon the shores of Maryland; which freedom of conscience they granted to all comers as far as was in their power. But they themselves met with intolerance when English rulers later came into power and sought to enforce the then bigoted laws of Great Britain.

Colonel Bernard U. Campbell in his “Life and Times of Archbishop Carroll” tells us that as late as 1758 an attempt was made to pass a bill to prevent the growth of Popery, by which priests were to be rendered incapable of holding any lands and forbidden to make any proselytes under penalty for high treason; and which further provided that no person educated at foreign Popish seminaries should be qualified to hold land or inherit any estate within the new province.

This bill, which did not pass, seems to have been aimed particularly at John Carroll, who later became the first Catholic Bishop of the New World; Charles Carroll, signer of the Declaration of Independence; and Robert Brent, afterwards, first Mayor of Washington, who were all heirs to large estates in Maryland and at that time were boys being educated abroad at Catholic institutions.

Colonel Campbell further states that though this bill did not pass, the early Catholics were compelled to pay a land tax exactly double that exacted from others; that Catholic places of worship were forbidden and Catholic education not permitted; that Catholics were declared unfit to hold public office and that the Council even granted orders to take children away from the “pernicious contact of their Catholic parents.”

Nor did these days of intolerance pass until the Revolutionary period had broadened the minds of men and united all Americans in a more truly Christian spirit.

“In 1774 when the Reverend John Carroll returned to America, a priest, it is not believed,” says Colonel Campbell, “that there was a public. Catholic Church in all of Maryland.” “St. Peter's in Baltimore had been begun but never finished, being closed by the authorities.” And it was not until 1776 that the ban against public Catholic worship was removed.

It is not to be inferred from this, however, that Catholicity was crushed out, nor Catholic worship abolished. The well-to-do Catholics of that period had private chapels in their own homes upon their large estates and here the family and its many retainers, would gather for service whenever a faithful pastor came that way in the ministry of his duties. Of these early private chapels, in the vicinity of the present city of Washington are known to have been three: Queen's Chapel, a part of the large estate of Richard Queen, Esq., situated amid the wooded hills of Langdon; the Capitol Hill Chapel of Cern Abbey on the Duddington estate; and one in the manor house of Notley Young near the present corner of Tenth and G Streets S. W., where Father Devitt, Professor of History at Georgetown College says public Mass was first said in Washington, after it was permitted.

Father John Carroll finding this condition of catholicity in 1774 began his ministry from his own home near Rock Creek in the vicinity of Forest Glen. Here his zealous mother had maintained a small private chapel for her own family use and this was the nucleus of the present St. John's Church. After 1776, however, when the law against public Catholic worship was abolished, Father Carroll built an humble frame Church near his home, which was without doubt the first public Church in the vicinity of the District of Columbia. Father Carroll was ordained the first Catholic Bishop of the New World and was later made Archbishop. In 1789, Georgetown College was built with a small chapel attached, which in 1792 was superseded for public worship by Trinity Church, served by the same Jesuit Fathers."

Source: Records, Volume 23,Columbia Historical Society (Washington, D.C.)

Archbishop Lynch of Toronto used to say: " The average priest secures the salvation of five thousand souls." The more thoroughly and minutely this statement is examined, the more manifest becomes its truthfulness. Hence the priest who secures but one successor to his sacred office has a perennial source of hope and consolation during his declining years, such as is particularly inspiring at the moment of death. But, why should any priest rest content with having secured one? The more the better. It is related of an aged and venerable priest of Orleans, France, that when about to die he gave expression to this beautiful thought: "I am eighty-three and shall soon die. I have not done all the good I would, but one thing consoles me - I leave after me thirty-three priests whom I have formed to the ecclesiastical state; they will do better than I have done."

Some years later, one of these thirty-three, on the occasion of his silver jubilee to the priesthood, had gathered around him twenty-five other priests, whose vocations to the religious state he in turn had fostered. To him his pastor had said on the day of ordination: "Always have pupils in your presbytery; you will be their angel, and they will be yours." (Quest on Vocations.) Would that God might inspire more to emulate the zeal of such priests as these.

Comparatively few dioceses can be found which are not in actual need of more religious workers who have consecrated their lives to the service of Christ. Pastors are petitioning the various religious communities for Sisters and Brothers to teach in the parish schools. Bishops, especially those of the West and South, as also of our newly acquired possessions in the Orient, are appealing for priests to take charge of missionary work. "Send us priests, wise zealous, holy priests," comes as a cry almost universal. Vast multitudes in every land are groping amid the darkness of error and in the shadows of death, seeking for some one to lead them forth into the light of truth and unto the life of Christ. This need is both instant and imperative, and unless there are found some followers of Christ, ardently devoted to His Church and nobly obedient to His call, who will voluntarily offer themselves for this service and consecrate their lives to this endeavor, these benighted ones, so unfortunate in their error, so well disposed for the right, so precious in the sight of God, will continue, in all probability, to search in vain for the way of salvation; and at least many of them, will be lost.

"The harvest indeed is great but the laborers are few." The work to be done is the work of Christ. He is present all days, directing an assisting and blessing. He calls for help. He chooses some favored ones from among His followers and commands them to go forth into the highways and byways and search our laborers and bring them into His vineyard. Some are found who leave this command practically unheeded, not from malice, but rather because they do not thoroughly realize how intense is the desire of Christ for additional laborers in His work and how dire is the need of the Church at the present time for their consecrated service. Thrice blessed, therefore, and well assured of eternal happiness is the priest who can truthfully say at the hour of death: "I shall soon die; I have not done all the good I would, but one thing consoles me - I leave after me others whom I have formed to the priestly life; they will do better than I have done. "

Source: The Sunday-School Director's Guide to Success by Rev. Patrick James Sloan 1909

"Man being such," Says the Council of Trent, "that, without the help of sensible signs, he can only with difficulty rise to the consideration of divine things, the Church, like a tender mother, has establish certain rites, has ordered that certain parts of the Mass should be said in a low and other in a loud voice. She has also instituted ceremonies: such are mysterious blessings, lights, incense, vestments, and many other things, in accordance with discipline and apostolic tradition. " The end of all this is to add to the majesty of the Adorable Sacrifice, and to lead the minds of the Faithful, by means of these visible signs of piety and religion, to the contemplation of the great mysteries hidden in Christianity.

On this point, the impious agree perfectly in their words and deeds with us. Religion reduced to pure spirituality, says one of them, is very soon banished to the regions of the moon. Another adds that dogmas disappeared with the external signs bearing witness to them. When, at the close of the last century, the disciples of these men, who could argue so well, were pleased to destroy religion among us, with what did they begin? With external worship. They first turned ceremonies into ridicule. They then pulled downs temples, crosses, and altars.

But in vain does man wage war against nature. These pitiless enemies of external worship had scarcely taken the reins of government into their own hands, when they felt all the necessity for public and solemn rites. In order to convert people to their ideas of morality, they hastened to practice what they had condemned, by calling to their aid external worship. They only changed its immortal object, and referred it altogether to human virtues, which are but pompous nonentities when separated from their Author.

They scoffed in their writings and in their lyceums at the worship of the Saints, and substituted for it the worship of heroes, after the manner of the pagans, who rendered the honors of apotheosis only to persons remarkable for extraordinary feats, most generally the ravagers of nations. They jeered at the piety of Catholics towards the precious remains of the just man, and they rendered honors almost divine to their own great men. In fine, is there a single part of Catholic worship that they did not employ to win favor and credit for their lessons with the multitude? Hymns, canticles, altars, the tables of the law, the ark of the constitution, candelabra, sacred fire, holidays, statues of liberty and equality, tutelary genii, and other emblems of the revolution: did they not offer us a collection of religious ceremonies as extensive as that of any other worship?"

Source: Catechism of perseverance, Msgr. Gaume

Our Lady of North Carolina, Memorial to Bishop Hafey First Bishop of the Diocese Sacred Heart Downtown Raleigh

Our Lady of North Carolina:

"Raleigh. The Catholic Daughters of America are giving Bishop Waters a statue of Our Lady in memory of the late Bishop Hafey. Called "Our Lady of North Carolina," the marble statue will stand in the niche on the facade of the Cathedral school here, facing Hillsboro Street. Bishop Hafey was Bishop Watersʼ predecessor as national chaplain to the Catholic Daughters. At their 25th biennial convention, following Bishop Hafeyʼs death, the CDA gave $5,000.00 for a fitting memorial to their former chaplain. Professor Enrico Del Bono, of lʼArte del Marmo in Florence, Italy, is the sculptor. It was Professor Del Bono, who executed the marble altars in Our Lady of Grace Church, Greensboro. (...)" Our Lady of North Carolina: Bishop Hafey Memorial. NC Catholic Jan.14 1955

Bishop Vincent Waters, December 8th 1945 (The Bulletin):

"On coming to the Diocese a little over five months ago, I discovered that the Diocese of Raleigh had no diocesan patron. After talking the matter over with the Right Reverend and Very Reverend Consultors, as well as with a number of the Diocesan clergy, I petitioned His Holiness Pope Pius XII to declare, by Apostolic Brief, Our Blessed Mother, under the title of her Immaculate Conception, as the patron of this diocese. I have just received a cablegram from Monsignor Alfonso Carinci, Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, advising that His Holiness has granted our request.

Although the eighth of December is a day for general rejoicing in America, since our country is dedicated to our heavenly Mother under this title there is an especial reason this year, and every year thereafter, for rejoicing on the eighth of December in the Diocese of Raleigh, for we have God’s own Mother under the title of her Immaculate Conception as our heavenly patron. In each church of the Diocese this day should be a day of general Communion of the faithful, especially of the children, and following the last Mass, or in the evening, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament should be given, during which the enclosed Act of Consecration should be recited. I ask all to pray fervently to Our Heavenly Mother for the gift of faith for those outside the Church."  --

The Feast of Corpus Christi by Rev. John W. Sullivan

"The most splendid part of the office of Corpus Christi, that which most distinguishes it from other festivals, is the solemn procession. Unlike the procession for the Forty Hours, it has no penitential element; unlike that of Holy Hours, it has no shadow of the Cross. Today the Church gives full freedom to the transports of love which fill her heart for her divine Spouse, who resides with her in the Sacrament of love. Enthroned in the glittering Ostensorium, borne in the veiled hands of His servant beneath the silken canopy, accompanied by lighted tapers, hymned with canticles of joy and exaltation, adored and worshiped by the faithful, Jesus is borne along triumphantly with all the pomp and magnificence possible, borne among His loved ones to bless them and to receive the homage of their hearts. Does not His presence speak to the heart and ask its gratitude? Do not the flowers scattered along the way tell us of the beauty and brightness and abundance of His gifts and prompt us to a spirit of sacrifice? Do not the clouds of incense rising to the sky invite us to a return of love? Do not the holy hymns that resound through the church tell us of the great mystery we celebrate, of the stupendous gift we have received, of the stupendous truth, that God is with us? and shall our heart be cold, our lips dumb, our soul unmoved? Is it not our virtues that He would see carpeting His way? Is it not our prayers that He would have ascending like clouds of incense and myrrh and filling the heavens? He is not replaced in the tabernacle after the procession, but high and exalted upon His throne, that for eight days the faithful may keep devout and adoring watch.", A Pulpit Commentary on Catholic Teaching 1910

Prayer to the Sacred Heart for Priests:
Remember, O most loving Heart of Jesus, that they for whom I pray are those for whom You prayed so earnestly the night before Your death. These are they to whom You look to continue with You in Your sorrows when others forsake You, who share Your griefs and have inherited your persecutions, according to Your word: That the servant is not greater than his Lord.
Remember, O Heart of Jesus, that they are the objects of the worldʼs hatred and Satanʼs deadliest snares. Keep them then, O Jesus, in the safe citadel of Your Sacred Heart and there let them be sanctified in truth. May they be one with you and one among themselves, and grant that multitudes may be brought through their word to believe in You and love You. Amen.

"If we are to continue to be the land of the free, no government official, no governor, no bureaucrat, no judge, and no legislator must be allowed to decree what is orthodox in matters of religion or to require religious believers to violate their consciences.(...) A society without religion cannot prosper. A nation without faith cannot endure — because justice, goodness, and peace cannot prevail without the grace of God." (White House, President Donald J. Trump, Dec. 29, 2020  Proclamation on 850th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket)



 The Martyrdom of St. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury

"All the strength of the Pontiffs and Pastors of the Church consists in their imitation of Jesus. It is not enough that they have in them the character of His Priesthood. They must also be ready, like Him, to lay down their lives for their sheep. The Shepherd who thinks more of his own life than of the salvation of his flock, is a hireling. He is not a shepherd: he loves himself, and not his sheep. His flock has a claim upon his shedding his blood for them and if he will not, he is no longer an image of the Good Shepherd, Jesus. See how calmly Saint Thomas lays down his life! He bows down his head to receive the blows of his executioners, as though he were simply acquitting himself of a duty, or paying a debt. After the example of Jesus, he gives his blood for the deliverance of his people, and no sooner has the sword done its work than the Church over which God had him, is set free: his blood has brought peace (Colossians i. 20). He withstood the wolf that threatened destruction to his flock. He vanquished him. The wolf himself was turned into a lamb, for the king visited the tomb of his victim and sought in prostrate supplication the Martyr’s blessing. (...)  

Speak for us to the Infant Jesus — to Him that is to bear the Cross on His shoulders, as the insignia of His government (Isaias ix. 6) — and tell Him that we are resolved, by the assistance of His grace, never to be ashamed of His cause or its defenders: that, full of filial simple love for the Holy Church which He has given us to be our Mother, we will ever put her interests above all others for she alone has the words of eternal life, she alone has the power and the authority to lead men to that better world, which is our last end, and passes not away, as do the things of this world: for everything in this world is but vanity, illusion and, more frequently than not, obstacles to the only real happiness of mankind.

    But, in order that this Holy Church of God may fulfill her mission and avoid the snares which are being laid for her along the whole road of her earthly pilgrimage has need, above all things else, of Pastors like you, O Holy Martyr of Chris ! Pray, therefore, the Lord of the vineyard, that He send her labourers who will not only plant and water what they plant, but will also defend her from those enemies that are at all times seeking to enter in and lay waste, and whose character is marked by the Sacred Scripture, where she calls them, the wild boar (Psalm lxxix. 14) and the fox (Canticles ii. 15). May the voice of your blood cry out more suppliantly than ever to God, for, in these days of anarchy, the Church of Christ is treated in many lands as the creature and slave of the State." (Dom Prosper Guéranger: In Lumine de Fidei).

Sacred Heart Raleigh, NC

"And for as much as Almighty God gave express commandment to the Priests of the ancient law, that they should not approach to His altar to offer unto Him, but first to be washed and invested, not with their profane, but with their holy ornaments, is it not, then, most convenient that the Priest of the new law should be peculiarly adorned, and thereby dispose themselves with much more reverence to handle and touch the most precious Body of our Redeemer and Savior Jesus, than the old Priests and Prophets did, the flesh of sheep and oxen or the body of a brute beast?

Our Priests, therefore, going to the altar thus appareled, do set before our eyes our Savior Jesus as He was at His Passion, and consequently those that scoff at the Priest, thus representing Christ unto us, do nothing else than, with the wicked Jews, scoff and deride at Christ Himself; and even as those Jews put all these ornaments upon our Savior for despite, and the more to dishonor Him, yet Christ's holy Mother and His blessed Apostles did both love Him and reverence Him so much the more entirely, for enduring such reproaches and shame for our sakes; so these men, now-a-days, whose minds are wholly set against the Catholic Church, will mock, perhaps, at the Priest standing at the altar in such apparel, but, contrariwise, the true Christian and Catholic people do esteem and honor him so much the more, who is, by the ordinance of God, exalted to so high a dignity as the present unto us so great a mystery.

To conclude, Priestly habits, so much offensive to the heretics of our age, were so highly respected by Alexander the Great, although a Paynim and idolater, going to Jerusalem with deliberation to ruin it, that he, withholden by the only sight of the Pontifical vestments of the High Priest, and touched instantly with the fear of God, did cast himself from his horse upon the ground, as it were to crave pardon for this sinister designs, and granted to the city and country of Jewry all the privileges, franchises, and immunities, that possibly they could desire, as witnessed Josephus."

Source: A Devout Exposition of the Holy Mass, John Heigham R. Washborne, 1876, p71

"Nikolai Romero Brelinsky, 26, spent his first four years at St. Charles as a seminarian for the Diocese of Raleigh, N.C. He then took a year off for further discernment, working as a Catholic school teacher and Director of Religious Education at his home parish in North Carolina.

It was his close friendship with several Diocese of Allentown seminarians, and his interactions with priests of our Diocese, which prompted him – when he returned to seminary studies at St. Charles Borromeo – to set his goal on being a priest for the Diocese of Allentown.

Brelinsky is the second oldest of eight children. Like several of the men about to become transitional deacons, he was homeschooled during his high school years, a time when his close contact with our faith made it easier, he says, to answer the Lord’s call to the Priesthood.

He is a member of Holy Guardian Angels Parish, Reading, and is a son of Gregory and Tara Brelinsky."

Source: Five Seminarians to Be Ordained Transitional Deacons, the Final Step Before Becoming Priests of the Diocese of Allentown

"Gentleness combined with firmness: St. Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria and doctor of the Church, by his mode of acting, exemplified the enigma formerly proposed by Samson to the Philistines; the sweetness of the honeycomb dwelling in him that had strength for his inheritance.

To the surging waves of Arianism he opposed a wall of brass; though driven forth from his diocese five times by the power and cabals of the heretics, he returned as often inflexible in doctrine, each time of return proving a fresh triumph for the faith. St. Gregory of Nazianzen has traced this sketch of him:

"Being gentle and affable towards all, every one had access to him; his reproofs were unmingled with bitterness; his praises were like so many lessons, for he reprimanded with the kindliness of a father and praised with the authority of a master. He was forbearing without weakness and firm without severity; in short, his conduct was in accordance with his teachings. The enemies of the faith found in him a soul unbending, and his persecutors a victim insensible to their shafts. No human consideration was capable of making him turn aside in favor of injustice." St. Athanasius died in 375.

Moral reflection: Thus does Holy Scripture depict Wisdom to us: "She reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly." (Wisdom. VIII 1)

Source: Little Pictorial of the Saints

Letter 19:

"6. Like these too, are the heretics, who, having fallen from true discernment, dare to invent to themselves atheism. 'For the fool says in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, and become abominable in their doings.' Of such as are fools in their thoughts, the actions are wicked, as He says, 'can you, being evil, speak good things Matthew 12:34;' for they were evil, because they thought wickedness. Or how can those do just acts, whose minds are set upon fraud? Or how shall he love, who is prepared beforehand to hate? How shall he be merciful, who is bent upon the love of money? How shall he be chaste, who looks upon a woman to lust after her? 'For from the heart proceed evil thoughts, fornications, adulteries, murders.' By them the fool is wrecked, as by the waves of the sea, being led away and enticed by his fleshly pleasures; for this stands written, 'All flesh of fools is greatly tempest-tossed.' While he associates with folly, he is tossed by a tempest, and perishes, as Solomon says in the Proverbs, 'The fool and he who lacks understanding shall perish together, and shall leave their wealth to strangers.' Now they suffer such things, because there is not among them one sound of mind to guide them. For where there is sagacity, there the Word, who is the Pilot of souls, is with the vessel; 'for he that has understanding shall possess guidance ;' but they who are without guidance fall like the leaves. Who has so completely fallen away as Hymenæus and Philetus, who held evil opinions respecting the resurrection, and concerning faith in it suffered shipwreck? And Judas being a traitor, fell away from the Pilot, and perished with the Jews. But the disciples since they were wise, and therefore remained with the Lord, although the sea was agitated, and the ship covered with the waves, for there was a storm, and the wind was contrary, yet fell not away. For they awoke the Word, Who was sailing with them , and immediately the sea became smooth at the command of its Lord, and they were saved. They became preachers and teachers at the same time; relating the miracles of our Saviour, and teaching us also to imitate their example. These things were written on our account and for our profit, so that through these signs we may acknowledge the Lord Who wrought them."

Source: New Advent, Letter 19, St. Athanasius