Allocutio (February, 2011)
by
Fr. Lawrence Goode, the Senatus Spiritual Director

"Have a Happy Valentine’s Day, as well as a Happy Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes!  A relic of St. Mary Magdalen, a bone from her arm, will be at St. Thomas More Church on Feb. 19, and also in my own parish of St. Francis of Assisi on Feb. 27 from 9 am to 7 pm.  A recently published book, The Face of God: The Rediscovery of the True Face of Jesus, discusses the Shroud of Manoppello, and surmises that Mary Magdalen provided the precious cloth on which the Holy Face is imprinted.  St. Francis of Assisi is one of two churches in the Archdiocese which displays the images of the Holy Face, and St. Ignatius is the other.  This precious relic is made of filaments from shells living in the Mediterranean Sea.  Only one woman in the world is still able to make this kind of cloth, which she learned from her grandmother, named Magdalen - and, all her ancestors were named Magdalen... Let us pray for the Spanish curia, so that it might become a reality... My parish church is only 2.5 miles from the seminary, which is a blessing, since last weekend, 8 seminarians did door to door visitation with legionaries from St. Francis... 
It is wonderful to hear about St. Gabriel’s praesidium, so faithful after many years, and people come from all over to visit St. Thomas More church.  Legionaries should ask residents in the nearby apartment high rises to invite them in for a visit... Members of the Stockton Comitium should be informed that the president of the seminary praesidium, Jeff Wilson, now a deacon, will be ordained a priest in June.  I am pleased to hear about the work of the Sacramento Comitium -  the best stipend to be given any priest, is for you to go out and do apostolic work.  No organization is doing evangelization - only the Legion. Most Catholics want to sit back and let the Church to do things for them.  Our work is our gift, for example, the Legionaries doing work among the Mormons in Salt Lake City, reaching out with love to all..."
Father gives his blessing to all in the Senatus.