Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Receiving greater grace...

  In quietness and trust is your strength... 
Isaiah 30:15


Praying Woman - Kathe Kollwich

"Your watchful care after Communion is no less 
important than your devout preparation before it.  
When we keep good watch over ourselves after 
Communion, it is the best preparation we can make 
for receiving greater grace.  Beware of much talking: 
stay by yourself in some place apart and 
there rejoice in the company of your God; 
there you have Him within you, and the 
whole world cannot take Him from you."
Thomas a Kempis


We continue in prayers for Pope Francis

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Bread of the strong...

"Embrace the Eucharist, tradition, and the 
apostolic succession. Jesus is our founder
and that 's the most real connection we have. 
Stay strong in faith and draw from the rich heritage 
of our Church." - Jonathan Roumie (actor, "The Chosen")


"Every morning during meditation, I prepare myself
for the whole day's struggle. Holy Communion
assures me that I will win the victory; and so it is.
I fear the day when I do not receive Holy Communion.
 This bread of the Strong gives me all the strength
I need to carry on my mission and the courage 
to do whatever the Lord asks of me. 
The courage and strength that are in me are not of me, 
but of Him Who lives in me - it is the Eucharist." 
St Maria Faustina Kowalska

Painting:  The Eucharist, Alexander Coosemans


Together we continue in prayers for the Holy Father.

Monday, February 24, 2025

Ardent love compels...

 "I will go anywhere and do anything in order 
to communicate the love of Jesus 
to those who do not know Him or have 
forgotten Him."- St. Frances Xavier Cabrini


"The more ardent the love for the Eucharist in the hearts 
of the Christian people, the more clearly will they recognize
the goal of all mission:  to bring Christ to others.

Not just a theory or a way of life inspired by Christ, but the gift of 
His very Person.  Anyone who has not shared the Truth of love
with his brothers and sisters has not yet given enough."
Pope Benedict XVI

Sunday, February 23, 2025

Why do you receive Communion?...

Why do you receive Communion?
St Francis de Sales explains 
in his Introduction to the Devout Life 
that our primary intention should be 
to grow in the love of Jesus Christ:

Heinrich Hofmann


"Your main intention in Communion should be 
to grow, strengthen, and abound in the Love of God; 
for Love's Sake receive that which Love Alone gives you.  
Of a truth there is no more loving or tender aspect 
in which to gaze upon the Savior than this act, 
in which He, so to say, annihilates Himself, and 
gives Himself to us as food, in order to fill our souls, 
and to unite Himself more closely 
to the heart and flesh of His faithful ones. 
______________

This classic, Introduction to the Devout Life 
would be an excellent Lenten read.
Ash Wednesday is March 5th

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Abiding in the truth that liberates...

 Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle
February 22

The feast of the Chair of St Peter commemorates the teaching authority 
of the Vicar of Christ. The Catechism teaches that "it is this Magisterium's task 
to preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee 
them the objective possibility of professing the true faith without error" 
so that "the People of God abides in the truth that liberates" (CCC 890).
 
Jesus

Renata Sedmakova | Shutterstock


Entrance Antiphon
(Today's Liturgy - Lk 22:32)

The Lord says to Simon Peter:  
I have prayed for you 
that your faith may not fail, and, 
once you have turned back, 
strengthen your brothers.
_________________

Let us together now pray...
The Roman Missal, Prayers for the Pope, p. 1243

O God, who in your providential design willed that 
your Church be built upon blessed Peter, whom 
you set over the other Apostles, look with favor, 
we pray, on (name) our Pope and grant that he, 
whom you have made Peter’s successor, 
may be for your people a visible source and 
foundation of unity in faith and of communion. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, 
who lives and reigns with you in the unity 
of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. 
________________________________________

Click here: Of Chairs and Peter | Crisis Magazine

"How blessed is the Church of Rome, 
on which the Apostles poured forth 
all their doctrine along with their blood!" -
Tertullian 


"Perhaps it would be a good thing if every Christian,
certainly every priest, could dream once in his life 
that he were pope, and wake from the nightmare 
in a sweat of agony." - Msgr Ronald Knox
________________

At every holy Mass, the Pope is prayed for.
Do you pray for the Pope every day?