Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The First Tabernacle

FEAST of the VISITATION
May 31 
"O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all, O Ark of the Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which Divinity resides." ~ St Athanasius
 


“Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the Incarnation,
the Church’s Eucharistic faith.  When, at the Visitation, she bore
in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way
a ‘tabernacle’ – the first ‘tabernacle’ in history
in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze,
allowed Himself to be adored by Elizabeth radiating His light
as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary.

And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary
that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us
every time we receive Eucharistic communion?”


Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 55


“Is it not this also the joy of the Church, which receives Christ
incessantly in the holy Eucharist and takes Him to the world
with the testimony of active charity, full of faith and hope?

Yes, to receive Jesus and to take Him to others is the true joy of the Christian!
Let us follow and imitate Mary’s profoundly Eucharistic
soul, and our whole life will become a Magnificat.”


Pope Benedict XVI
May 31, 2005

Blessed Mother Mary and St Elizabeth, pray for us!

Monday, May 30, 2011

An earthly heaven


 
  Raphael

“In order that our exile might be more endurable, that we might enjoy already on earth the inebriating perfume of the purity of paradise, that we might begin even in this place of trial to taste the happiness to be found in the possession of God, to satisfy His love and be our consolation, He created an earthly heaven:  the Eucharist.

It is a veiled heaven, because we still are walking in the obscurities of faith; a transient heaven, like a flash of lightning in the night, or like the echo of a far off harmony; yet even so, a true heaven.

There, hidden beneath the white appearances of the Sacred Host, Jesus is truly and personally present, the lovely Child of Bethlehem, the humble Carpenter of Nazareth, the gentle Wonder-Worker of Galilee, the Victim of Calvary. There is Jesus, the Man-God, in whom is the fullness of the Godhead, because He is the Word of God, and with the Word are always the Father and the Holy Spirit.

What more shall we possess in heaven? The manner of the possession will be different, but its object is essentially the same. The Eucharist is the essence of heaven on earth. "

- from The Holy Eucharist, by Jose Guadalupe Trevino


 


 MEMORIAL DAY - May 30 
Eternal gratitude for the millions of generous, courageous, self-
sacrificing and heroic acts of service - seen and unseen.

May all the souls of the faithful departed
through the mercy of God rest in peace. AMEN

 

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Work hard? Eat well. Live fully!

 
 
  
"When we work hard, we must eat well.
What a joy, that you can
receive Holy Communion often!
It's our life and support in this life --
Receive Communion often,
and Jesus will change you into Himself."
 
 
St Peter Julian Eymard

Saturday, May 28, 2011

A priest forever...




“A priest who says the Mass in this way – adoring,
atoning, pleading, giving thanks, identifying himself
with Christ – and who teaches others to make the
Sacrifice of the altar the centre and root of the
Christian life really will show the incomparable value
of his vocation, the value of that character which
he has been stamped and which he will never lose. … 

And when the moment comes for them to enter
God’s presence, Jesus will go out to meet them. 
He will glorify forever those who have acted on earth
in His Person and in His Name.  He will shower them
with that grace of which they have been ministers.”

St. Josemaría Escrivá


PLEASE PRAY for these SIX MEN who will
TODAY be ORDAINED to the holy PRIESTHOOD



Deacon Jon Kelly - Cathedral of St Paul - Diocese of Mpls-St Paul
Deacon Jim Lannan - Cathedral of St Paul - Diocese of Mpls-St Paul
Deacon Tony O-Neill - Cathedral of St Paul - Diocese of Mpls-St Paul
Deacon Cole Kracke - Cathedral of St Paul - Diocese of Mpls-St Paul
Deacon Nate LaLiberte - Cathedral of St Paul - Diocese of Mpls-St Paul
Deacon Jeff Paule - St. Michael Parish  - Diocese of Balanga, Philippines



  "The Eucharist is the principal reason for the ordained priesthood... through our ordination we priests are united in a singular exceptional way
to the Eucharist.  In a certain way we derive from it and exist for it...
The celebration of the Eucharist is the way that we best serve our brothers
and sisters in the world...How crucial it is, then, for our happiness
and for a fruitful ministry that we cultivate a deep love for the Eucharist -
a deep love for the Eucharist."

 Pope Bl John Paul II

Friday, May 27, 2011

Restoring our gaze

  
 
 
"It is necessary to sit at table with the Lord, to share
the banquet with Him, so that His humble presence in the Sacrament
of His Body and Blood may restore to us the gaze of faith,
in order to see everything and everyone with God’s eyes,
in the light of His love.
 
Staying with Jesus who has stayed with us, assimilating His lifestyle, 
choosing with Him the logic of communion with each other,
of solidarity and of sharing.  The Eucharist is the maximum expression
of the gift which Jesus makes of Himself and is a constant invitation
to live our lives in the Eucharistic logic, as a gift to God and to others."
 
 
Pope Benedict XVI
May 8, 2011-homily

Thursday, May 26, 2011

He has left Himself



 "Our Sweet Jesus,
through the excess of His love,
has left Himself to us
in the Most Holy Sacrament."

 

St Philip Neri
Italy ~ 1515 - 1595
Priest, bears title "Second Apostle of Rome"
Founder ~ Congregation of the Oratory
Counter-reformer
FEAST DAY - May 26

 

"Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere
in a good life. Therefore the servant of God ought always
to be in good spirits." - St Philip Neri


Ste Philip Neri, ora pro nobis!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Triple Feast day, triple blessings!

Eucharistic thoughts from three 'family members' 
on their FEAST DAY today...

Saints are like the light of the stars, which still
reaches the earth long after being extinguished.
Saints touch us by radiating the light of Christ
to us through their life and deeds.  (Anonymous)

 
 
"If you could only understand
the value of one Holy Communion! 
A single Communion
should make us other Christs!"

St Madeleine Sophie Barat
Foundress of Society of the Sacred Heart
France ~ 1779-1865
FEAST DAY - May 25

Sta Madeleine Sophie, ora pro nobis!





"All graces are contained in you, O Jesus,
in the Eucharist, our celestial Food
What more can a soul wish when it has within itself
the One who contains everything?...Because I have
and possess this great wonder, I do not
long for, want, or desire any other!"

  St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi
Carmelite nun
Italy ~ 1566-1607
FEAST DAY - May 25

Sta Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, ora pro nobis!



 

"I have devoted my energies to the study of the Scriptures, observing monastic discipline,
and singing the daily services in church; study, teaching, and writing have always been my delight."

Venerable Bede
Monk, scholar, teacher
Doctor of the Church
England ~ 672-735
FEAST DAY - May 25

Ste Bede, ora pro nobis!



OF INTEREST:  Bede was the greatest scholar of his time in the Western Church. He regarded his theological writings as his most important work (especially Biblical commentaries), but his fame in later centuries rests primarily on his writings about history.  St Bede was one of the first to propose a calendar that would reckon the years backward  and forward from the "birth of Christ" (BC and AD).

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Light and love

 

"Lord Jesus, you instituted the sacrament of
Holy Communion to give us the light we need to see
You in everyone whom you place into our lives.
 You gave us this sacrament to provide us with
the strength to do what is humanly impossible,
to love those who not only do not love us
but positively hate us, oppose us.

Lord Jesus, deepen our faith in Your Real Presence
so that receiving You here on earth we may love
as You want us to this side of heaven.  So that we
may join those who have learned the meaning of love
from You in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Amen.

Mary, mother of the Holy Eucharist, pray for us."

Fr. John Hardon, S.J.

Monday, May 23, 2011

The gift of ten minutes

 

“Do not leave the church almost immediately
after receiving the Sacrament.  Surely you have
nothing so important that you cannot give
Our Lord ten minutes to say thanks. 
Let’s not be mean.  Love is repaid with love.”

St. Josemaría Escrivá

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Satisfied!

 
 
  "At the Eucharist Christ feeds our hunger with Himself.
In truth, we do receive Him who is our Beloved and
the Lover of our souls.  We receive Him in His
immense fullness, body, blood, soul, and divinity. 
 
This is the greatest moment of union,
the greatest union on earth. 
 
It is, therefore, the greatest moment of joy;
we possess and are possessed.  The All is with us
and we are in the All, one with Him and with
each other in Him.  This is our greatest joy on earth. 
We thirst for love and Love has come to us." 
 
Fr. Emile Briere
 

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Companion at Mass




“Let us bring Mary with us to Mass.  She will kneel
beside us at the Consecration and we shall feel
her intense devotion, admire her heroic courage,
and yearn for her spirit of self-sacrifice.  Mary knows
that the more a soul gives itself into His hands,
the more perfectly does He work for its sanctity.”

Fr John T McMahon
Live the Mass

Friday, May 20, 2011

Without reserve!

 
 
 
"But what hast Thou, O my Jesus,
left us, when quitting this world,
in memory of Thy love? 
 
Not, indeed, a garment or a ring, but
Thine own body, Thy blood,
Thy soul, Thy divinity,
Thy whole self, without reserve." 
 
 
St Bernardine of Siena
Franciscan priest, tireless preacher
Italy ~ 1380-1444
FEAST DAY - May 20
 
 
 
Especially known for his devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus,
Bernardine devised a symbol—IHS, the first three letters
of the name of Jesus in Greek, in Gothic letters on a blazing sun.
 
"Jesus, Name full of glory, grace, love and strength! You are the refuge
of those who repent, our banner of warfare in this life, the medicine
of souls, the comfort of those who morn, the delight of those who believe,
the light of those who preach the true faith, the wages of those who toil,
the healing of the sick." - St Bernardine
 
 
Ste Bernardine, ora pro nobis!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Provision!

 
 
“Jesus Christ is in heaven for the elect;
He is in the Most Blessed Sacrament
for journeying man.”
 
 
St. Peter Julian Eymard
 
 
 

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Daily visit

 
"As for myself, on whom our Lord has always bestowed
the grace of a lively sense of the love which He manifests
toward us in this sacrament [of the Holy Eucharist],
who has also so often been heard according to His promises
when I have knocked at the door of His mercy,
I will not imitate those who from Mass time are
never again seen in the temple of the living God. 
 
I will not allow a day to pass
without kneeling at the foot of the holy altar
to pour out my heart before Him who loves me."
 
 
St. Eugene de Mazenod

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Holy disposition

 
“Smile at Jesus who you approach at Mass,
in Holy Communion
and in Eucharistic Adoration.”
 
 
St. Gianna Molla
 

Monday, May 16, 2011

Gradual revelation

 
 
 
O Wealth of the poor,
how wonderfully can you sustain souls,
revealing Your great riches to them gradually
and not permitting them to see them all at once!
 ... I have never seen such great Majesty,
hidden in a thing so small as the Host,
without marveling at Your great wisdom."
 

St Teresa of Avila

Sunday, May 15, 2011

World Day of Prayer for Vocations

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
INCREASES VOCATIONS



 
 
 
"Bishops are testifying to the clear relationship between Eucharistic devotion and an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life," 
 
Archbishop Justin Rigali of St. Louis, Missouri.
 
"Recently I learned that a chapel for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has been inaugurated in one of our parishes. Particularly encouraging was the spirit of collaboration which has characterized this initiative which includes more than 600 people from six parishes, all of whom have committed themselves to one hour of prayer in the chapel each week.
 
"There are already a number of parishes in the Archdiocese which have offered the opportunity for perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament...
 
"Young people, the sick, mothers and fathers of families and many other categories of God’s people have discovered anew in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament a wonderful opportunity for ‘praying to the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.’ For this reason I have asked that every parish participate . . ." ("Signs of the Times", Archbishop Justin Rigali, St. Louis Review, December 15, 1995, p.6).


Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
INSPIRES VOCATIONS

Stanley Joseph Ott, Bishop of Baton Rouge, Louisiana writes that he was given the inspiration to begin Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration over dinner with "Bishops Flynn of Lafayette. Jacobs of Alexandria, and Speyrer of Lake Charles." In their dioceses priests were inviting Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament to begin Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in their parishes. Among the many blessings which encouraged Bishop Ott was that of vocations.

 

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
MULTIPLIES VOCATIONS

When his excellency, Bishop Ott, spoke to Mother Teresa of Calcutta, he asked her "how she got so many women to join her religious order". She explained: "We were just like other religious congregations with few vocations. Then at our chapter in the 1970s we made a decision to have a holy hour in all our convents each evening. Many blessings resulted from this Holy Hour the Bishop witnessed, for Mother Teresa continued, "We began to see more clearly our mission to serve the poor in Christ’s name. We began to live a more fruitful family life among ourselves. We experienced double the number of vocations in our congregation. And we grew personally in our intimacy with the Lord present in the Eucharist." The Bishop is "confident" that this will occur in his diocese too ("Bishop’s Notebook", Stanley Joseph Ott, Bishop of Baton Rouge, The Catholic Commentator, August 5, 1992, p. 4).
"It was not until 1973, when we began our daily Holy Hour that our community started to grow and blossom...," Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta


Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
DOUBLES VOCATIONS

At St. John Fisher Seminary in Stamford, Connecticut there is a Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration chapel. According to the rector, Rev. Stephen M. DiGiovanni, the reason for beginning Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration was to "encourage young men of the community to find a vocation to the priesthood." The enrollment at the seminary rose 50 percent within the first year that the chapel was founded ("Worshipers find solace in perpetual chapel", Robin Denaro, Connecticut Post, Saturday, January 6, 1998, C2).

 

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
TRIPLES VOCATIONS

Bishop John Magee of Cloyne in Eire, Ireland reports that vocations to the priesthood in his diocese have tripled since he started Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration.In 1990 there were 16 seminarians and by 1993 the number had risen to 45 (‘By Your Fruits", Dr. J. F. Boyle. The Link, January 1996).

 

Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration
CULTIVATES VOCATIONS

Allentown Bishop Thomas Welsh lauded St. Joseph’s PEA program for its large number of adorers. Msgr. Anthony Wassel of St. Joseph’s Parish in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania believes that a late vocation to the priesthood and a contemplative order of nuns are the result of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in his parish. He says, "the power is in the Eucharist" ("God’s Work!":Perpetual Adoration, John Haut, Soul Magazine, January-February, 1998, p. 16).
Bishop Seamus Hegarty of Derry, Ireland says that when he was Bishop of Raphoe, there were 20 vocations in 1990, and 19 came from parishes that had Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration. He believes that PEA is the greatest contribution he made as Bishop ("By Your Fruits", Dr. J. F. Boyle, The Link, January 1996).

"Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is the solution to our problems of declining vocations," Ricardo J. Cardinal Vidal, Archbishop - Cebu, Philippines.

St. Peter Julian Eymard made a similar and more far reaching statement: "Let us never forget that an age prospers or dwindles in proportion to its devotion to the Holy Eucharist. This is the measure of its spiritual life and its faith, of its charity and its virtue".

(Reprinted from Serra Club Newsletter) 

Saturday, May 14, 2011

See and believe firmly

“The choice fell on Matthias, who
was added to the eleven apostles.”  - Acts 1:26 


 

“And just as He appeared before the holy Apostles in true flesh, so now He has us see Him in the Sacred Bread.  Looking at Him with the eyes of their flesh, they saw only His flesh, but regarding Him with the eyes of the spirit, they believed that He was God. 

In like manner, as we see bread and wine with
our bodily eyes, let us see and believe firmly
that it is His Most Holy Body and Blood, True and Living. 

For in this way our Lord is ever present among those who believe in Him, according to what He said:  'Behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world'  (Mt 28:20)."

St Francis of Assisi


St Matthias
Apostle, Martyr (beheaded)
+ 80 AD
FEAST DAY - May 14



Statue at St. Matthias Abbey in Trier, where relics of the Apostle are kept




Ste Matthias, ora pro nobis!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Heaven's Peace Plan


FEAST of Our Lady of Fatima and
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament
May 13

The Fatima apparitions are a call to reparation through
Mass, Eucharistic Adoration and praying the Rosary
for the conversion of sinners.
Again and again, Our Lady reminds us: this is Heaven’s Peace Plan!



"A great crisis today around the Eucharist is not just a crisis of faith, but a crisis of love - of a love rooted in obedience to the love revealed to us by our God.  Some people want to have the Eucharist without conversion; yet that is not the way of the Lord. 

Some people may miss Mass on Sunday, they may be taking money illegitimately, they may be engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage, they may vocally support abortion, euthanasia, homosexual activity and homosexual unions, they may fail in the just treatment of their neighbor by gossip or prejudice, or they may commit some other serious sin and go to Communion. ... Others perceive that they "do not get anything out of Mass" and simply view it as one more event in a busy weekend, sometimes leaving it as the last thing to fit into a full schedule of activities. Others complain that Mass is too long or simply do not come. ...

This is a tragedy because the Eucharist is about Jesus Christ and His saving works on our behalf. In the Mass we share in the feast that the Lord Himself has prepared for us." ---- Bishop Samuel Aquila - 10.14.05



"The message of Fatima is an appeal to conversion. In her motherly solicitude, the Blessed Virgin came here, to Fatima, to ask men not to offend God any more. It was a mother's sorrow that obliged her to speak."   ~ Pope Bl John Paul II




"To her, consequently, it belongs to make Jesus in the Sacrament known and loved; to her it belongs to spread the Eucharist throughout the world, to multiply churches, to raise them in infidel lands, and to defend faith in the Eucharist against heretics and the impious; to her it belongs to prepare souls for Communion, to rouse them to make frequent visits to Jesus, and to assist zealously at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass."  ~ St. Peter Julian Eymard

Our Lady of Fatima,
Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament,
Ora pro nobis!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Prayer after Holy Communion

 
 


Dear Jesus,

help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly
that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me and be so in me that every soul
I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. 

Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I will begin to shine as You shine,
so to shine as to be a light to others.

The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.
It will be You, shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You in the way which You love best,
by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by example, by the catching force, the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears for You. Amen.

Prayer of Bl John Henry Cardinal Newman 
 



In this prayer - let us generously remember the
myriads of young First Communicants this month.



My anniversary of receiving First Holy Communion
is May 8 (many, many years ago)!
When is yours??

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

See far, then farther

  

 

"Go as far as you can see;

when you get there

you'll be able to see farther."

  

Thomas Carlyle

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The tenderest of friends


 "I find my consolation in the one and only companion who will
never leave me, that is, our Divine Saviour in the Holy Eucharist.
. . . It is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength necessary
in this isolation of ours. Without the Blessed Sacrament a position
like mine would be unbearable. But, having Our Lord at my side,
I continue always to be happy and content. . . .

Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the most tender of friends with
souls who seek to please Him. His goodness knows how to proportion itself to the smallest of His creatures as to the greatest of them.Be not afraid then in your solitary conversations, to tell Him of your miseries, your fears, your worries, of those who are dear to you, of your projects, and of your hopes. Do so with confidence and with an open heart.”

St Damien of Molokai
Belgian by birth (Jozef Damien de Vuester)
1840-1889
Priest, Missionary to Hawaii
Known as: Apostle to the Lepers
FEAST DAY - May 10 

 More on St Damien (including UTube):
 

“Jesus Christ treats missionaries in a very special manner,
for it is He who guides their footsteps
and preserves them from all danger." - St Damien

Ste Damien of Molokai, ora pro nobis!