Chapel of Divine Mercy

CHAPEL OF DIVINE MERCY

Monastery of Friars Minor

Since 29th June A.D. 2014 all the services in Saint Francis of Assisi Virtual Diocese in Second Life are held in the Chapel of Divine Mercy, which is located in the Monastery of Friars Minor (Curia's building a front of Cathedral).

Masses are performed in both forms - Novus Ordo (Ordinary Form of Roman Rite - English language) and Tridentine Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form of Roman Rite - Latin language). About all the details we inform on group notices in-world.

In this moment we can not offer regular services. All the Masses and devotions are organized spontaneously - when RL allows our priest to do it. Please carefully follow our group notices to keep in touch.

You are all most welcome in Christ!

Fifth Sunday of Easter

Sunday, 18th May A.D. 2014

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

St. Venantius, Martyr

SAINT VENANTIUS

Martyr 

(+ 250)

        St. Venantius was born at Camerino in Italy, and at the age of fifteen was seized as a Christian and carried before a judge. As it was found impossible to shake his constancy either by threats or promises, he was condemned to be scourged, but was miraculously saved by an angel. He was then burnt with torches and hung over a low fire that he might be suffocated by the smoke. The judge's secretary, admiring the steadfastness of the Saint, and seeing an angel robed in white, who trampled out the fire and again set free the youthful martyr, proclaimed his faith in Christ, was baptized with his whole family, and shortly after won the martyr's crown himself.

        Venantius was then carried before the governor, who, unable to make him renounce his faith, cast him into prison with an apostate, who vainly strove to tempt him. The governor then ordered his teeth and jaws to be broken, and had him thrown into a furnace, from which the angel once more delivered him. The Saint was again led before the judge, who at sight of him fell headlong from his seat and expired, crying, "The God of Venantius is the true God; let us destroy our idols." This circumstance being told to the governor, he ordered Venantius to be thrown to the lions; but these brutes, forgetting their natural ferocity, crouched at the feet of the Saint. Then, by order of the tyrant, the young martyr was dragged through a heap of brambles and thorns, but again God manifested the glory of His servant; the soldiers suffering from thirst, the Saint knelt on a rock and signed it with a cross, when immediately a jet of clear, cool water spurted up from the spot.

        This miracle converted many of those who beheld it, whereupon the governor had Venantius and his converts beheaded together in the year 250. The bodies of these martyrs are kept in the church at Camerino which bears the Saint's name.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14:1-12

Jesus said to his disciples: «Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.
Where (I) am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him, "Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him, "Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father. 

Commentary by Saint John Paul II

"Master, show us the Father"

The Church... shares the uneasiness of so many of the people of our time. Moreover, one cannot fail to be worried by the decline of many fundamental values, which constitute an unquestionable good not only for Christian morality but simply for human morality, for moral culture... In connection with this picture of our generation, a picture which cannot fail to cause profound anxiety, there come to mind once more those words which, by reason of the Incarnation of the Son of God, resounded in Mary's Magnificat, and which sing of "mercy from generation to generation" (Lk 1,50)... The Church must bear witness to the mercy of God revealed in Christ, in the whole of His mission as Messiah...

Some theologians affirm that mercy is the greatest of the attributes and perfections of God, and the Bible, Tradition and the whole faith life of the People of God provide particular proofs of this. It is not a question here of the perfection of the inscrutable essence of God in the mystery of the divinity itself, but of the perfection and attribute whereby man, in the intimate truth of his existence, encounters the living God particularly closely and particularly often. In harmony with Christ's words to Philip, the "vision of the Father"-a vision of God through faith finds precisely in the encounter with His mercy a unique moment of interior simplicity and truth, similar to that which we discover in the parable of the prodigal son (Lk 15,11).

"He who has seen me has seen the Father." The Church professes the mercy of God, the Church lives by it in her wide experience of faith and also in her teaching, constantly contemplating Christ, concentrating on Him, on His life and on His Gospel, on His cross and resurrection, on His whole mystery. Everything that forms the "vision" of Christ in the Church's living faith and teaching brings us nearer to the "vision of the Father" in the holiness of His mercy.

The Mass will be celebrated by bishop c. Raphael Zimer at 

12:00 PM SLT in Saint Francis Cathedral

TELEPORT 

Bishop nomination

16th May A.D. 2014

THE CURIA, Lionheart Kiara

Second Life

BISHOP ANNOUNCEMENT

Our Diocese has the honor to announce that on Tuesday, 20th May Anno Domini 2014, at 01:00 PM SLT, in Saint Francis Cathedral will be held Episcopal Consecration of Father Francisco Cucci, bishop-elect of Archdiocese of Mantova. The bishop-elect will also automatically receive the Cardinal nomination.We are welcome all interested  clergy and faithful. Second Life welcomes new Catholic Episcopal member. Let's welcome new Second Life bishop all together in common prayer, let's please for real strength in one, huge, beautiful sacrifice.

+ Raphael Cardinal Zimer

Bishop of Saint Francis Diocese

Bishop decree about the liturgy arrangement

15th May A.D. 2014

THE CURIA

Lionhear Kiara

Second Life

EPISCOPAL DECREE

                    Dear Beloved in Jesus Christ Brothers and Sisters!

         Since day 10th April A.D. 2014 in our Cathedral has been present Novus Ordo Mass in "Ad-Orientem". It means that celebrant has been face to the East (to the Tabernacle).
         According to your calls, dear Faithful, for improve our unity in Jesus Christ I decided to change the liturgy arragment for normal, Ordinary Form of Roman Rite, as standard rite of the liturgy in our Cathedral and Saint Francis of Assisi virtual Diocese. It means that Mass of Pope Paul VI, called "Novus Ordo" will be celebrated at altar which is faced to the people, not to the East. It means that celebrant will be faced to the gathered attendants. Language of the liturgy stays unchaned - all services in Ordinary Form of Roman Rite are celebrated in English language.
       Additionally, to remind all of the Faithful that real body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ are present in Real Life, and to improve our mission to teach how the liturgy looks, we decided to use liturgical tools as decorations on the altar during Masses. It means that all liturgical tools, which are present in real Mass, are also present on our virtual Mass with difference - our tools are only decorations.
      We hope this fresh wind of Holy Spirit will help us to grow up in Jesus Christ.

The decree is valid from the time of publication.

Your bishop

+ Raphael Cardinal Zimer

Saint Matthias, apostle - Feast

14th May A.D. 2014

SAINT MATTHIAS

Apostole, Feast

ST. MATTHIAS

Apostle

After our blessed Lord's Ascension his disciples met together, with Mary his mother and the eleven apostles, in an upper room at Jerusalem.

The little company numbered no more than one hundred and twenty souls. They were waiting for the promised coining of the Holy Spirit, and they persevered in prayer. Meanwhile there was a solemn act to be performed on the part of the Church, which could not be postponed. The place of the fallen Judas must be filled up, that the elect number of the apostles might be complete.

St. Peter, therefore, as Vicar of Christ, arose to announce the divine decree. That which the Holy Spirit had spoken by the mouth of David concerning Judas, he said, must be fulfilled. Of him it had been written, "His bishopric let another take." A choice, therefore, was to be made of one among those who had been their companions from the beginning, who could bear witness to the Resurrection of Jesus.

Two were named of equal merit, Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias. Then, after praying to God, who knows the hearts of all men, to show which of these he had chosen, they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, who was forthwith numbered with the apostles.

It is recorded of the Saint, thus wonderfully elected to so high a vocation, that he was above all remarkable for his mortification of the flesh. It was thus that he made his election sure.

Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15:9-17. 

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another. 

Commentary by His Holiness Pope Francis

"It was  I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain"

Personal encounter with the saving love of Jesus: The primary reason for evangelizing is the love of Jesus which we have received, the experience of salvation which urges us to ever greater love of him. What kind of love would not feel the need to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him known? If we do not feel an intense desire to share this love, we need to pray insistently that he will once more touch our hearts. We need to implore his grace daily, asking him to open our cold hearts and shake up our lukewarm and superficial existence. 

Standing before him with open hearts, letting him look at us, we see that gaze of love which Nathaniel glimpsed on the day when Jesus said to him: “I saw you under the fig tree” (Jn 1,48). How good it is to stand before a crucifix, or on our knees before the Blessed Sacrament, and simply to be in his presence! How much good it does us when he once more touches our lives and impels us to share his new life! What then happens is that “we speak of what we have seen and heard” (1 Jn 1,3). 

The best incentive for sharing the Gospel comes from contemplating it with love, lingering over its pages and reading it with the heart. If we approach it in this way, its beauty will amaze and constantly excite us. But if this is to come about, we need to recover a contemplative spirit which can help us to realize ever anew that we have been entrusted with a treasure which makes us more human and helps us to lead a new life. There is nothing more precious which we can give to others.

The Mass will be celebrated by bishop c. Raphael Zimer at 

02:00 PM SLT in Saint Francis Cathedral

TELEPORT 

Low Mass by Eminence Byers - pictures

His Eminence Stephen Cardinal Byers, Archbishop of Woraksan, celebrated Low Mass in the Chapel of Saint Anthony, Saint Francis Cathedral. Eminence Raphael Cardinal Zimer invited His Eminence to celebrate this Mass at 10th May A.D. 2014. We would like to thank you all for coming, chapel was full.

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Sunday, 11th May A.D 2014

FORTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Good Shepherd Sunday

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 10:1-10. 

Jesus said: «Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."  Although Jesus used this figure of speech, they did not realize what he was trying to tell them. So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came (before me) are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy; I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly. 

The Mass will be celebrated by bishop c. Raphael Zimer at 

02:00 PM SLT in Saint Francis Cathedral

TELEPORT