I belong to Jesus! ...

Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts. - Psalm 33:1

 

"Jesus, for You I live.  

Jesus, for You I die. 

Jesus, I am Yours in life and death."

 From Reflections and Prayers

for Visits with our Eucharistic Lord,

John J. Cardinal Carberry

 

FEAST of the First Roman Martyrs ~ JUNE 30

 The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome were Christians martyred 

in Rome during Nero's persecution in the year 64.

“This dreadful conflagration continued nine days; when Nero, finding that his conduct was greatly blamed, and a severe odium cast upon him, determined to lay the whole upon the Christians, at once to excuse himself and have an opportunity of glutting his sight with new cruelties. This was the occasion of the first persecution ... 

Nero even refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punishments for them that the most infernal imagination could design.  In particular, he had some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then worried by dogs till they expired; and others dressed in shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axle-trees, and set on fire in his gardens in order to illuminate them.  This persecution was general throughout the whole Roman empire; but it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity."

A. Wright

A History of the Principal

and Most Distinguished Martyrs

 

Torches of Nero ~ Henryk Siemiradzki

Holy Martyrs of Rome, pray for us!

Friends of God...

Solemnity of Sts PETER and PAUL*

June 29

"This day has been made holy by the passion of the blessed apostles
Peter and Paul. ... These martyrs realized what they taught: 
they pursued justice, they confessed the truth, they died for it."
- St Augustine, Sermon 295

 We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord,
and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. - 2 Cor 4:5

Entrance Antiphon (Today’s Liturgy)

These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became friends of God.  

Prayer over the Offerings (Today's Liturgy)

May the prayer of the Apostles, O Lord, accompany the sacrificial gift that we present to your name for consecration, and may their intercession make us devoted to you in celebration of the sacrifice.

Through Christ our Lord.

Prayer After Communion (Today’s Liturgy) 

Grant us, O Lord, who have been renewed by this Sacrament, so to live in the Church, that, persevering in the breaking of the Bread and in the teaching of the Apostles, we may be one heart and one soul, made steadfast in your love. 

Through Christ our Lord.

Click here: Discovering our Saints - Sts Peter and Paul - YouTube (3 mins)

Click here: Fr. Barron on Saints Peter and Paul - YouTube (6 mins)

Click here: Feast of Ss Peter & Paul - YouTube (21 mins)

Sts Peter and Paul, pray for us!

*Sts Peter and Paul: the principle pillars of the Church founded by Christ.

St Peter was chosen by Christ to be his first Vicar on earth; he was endowed with powers of the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 16:13-19) and charged with the role of Shepherd of Christ's flock (Jn 21:15-17). In St. Peter and his successors, we have a visible sign of unity and communion in faith and charity. Divine grace led St. Peter to profess Christ's divinity.  St. Peter suffered martyrdom by crucifixion under Nero, in about the year 64 AD. He was buried at the hill of the Vatican; recent excavations have revealed his tomb on the very site of St. Peter's Basilica.
St Paul was chosen to form part of the apostolic college by Christ himself on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16). Selected to bring Christ's name to all peoples (Acts 9:15), he is the greatest missionary of all time, the advocate of pagans, the Apostle of the Gentiles. St. Paul was beheaded in the Tre Fontane along the Via Ostiense and buried nearby, on the site where the basilica bearing his name now stands. Source: Daily Roman Missal, Edited by Rev. James Socías, Midwest Theological Forum, Chicago, Illinois ©2003

Christ declared... Christ established...

"For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God
became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into
communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship,
might become a son of God." - St Irenaeus

"(Christ) has declared the cup, a part of creation,

to be His own Blood, 
from which He causes our blood to flow; 
the bread, a part of creation,

He has established as His own Body,

from which He gives increase to our bodies.”

St. Irenaeus

Nee Smyrna ~ 125-202 AD

Disciple of Polycarp
(Polycarp: disciple of St John the Apostle)

Bishop of Lyons, Father of the Church

Theologian, prolific writer

Masterpiece - Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies)*

*(Detailed refute on teachings of Gnosticism)

Against Heresies is source of the quote above

FEAST DAY - June 28
Stained glass above: St Martha Church, Nuremberg (c. 1390) 

"That in which we have faith is a firm system directed to the salvation of men; and, since it has been received by the Church, we guard it.……..In the Church, God has placed apostles, prophets, and doctors, and all the other means through which the Spirit works; in all of which none have any part who do not conform to the Church.  On the contrary, they defraud themselves of life by their wicked opinion and most wretched behavior. ~ St Irenaeus

Click here: Fr. Barron on The God Who Doesn't Need Us - YouTube (6 mins)

St Irenaeus, pray for us!

Catechism 101...

...grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. - John 1:17b

 

"Since Christ Himself said in reference to the bread: 

"This is My Body," who will dare remain hesitant? 

And since with equal clarity He asserted: "This is My Blood," 

who will dare entertain any doubt and say that this is not His Blood?...

You have been taught these truths. 

Imbued with the certainty of faith, you know that what seems to be bread 

is not bread but the Body of Christ, although it seems to be bread when tasted. 

You also know that what seems to be wine is not wine 

but the Blood of Christ although it does taste like wine."

- From a catechetical instruction given by St Cyril for his successor, John - 4th c

St Cyril of Alexandria

370-444

Bishop, Doctor of the Church

Preeminent role at Council of Ephesus

This Council defined the inseparable unity

of the divine and human natures of Christ,

and thus the appropriateness of invoking the Blessed Virgin Mary

under the title of "Theotokos" or Mother of God.

FEAST DAY - June 27

 

"In Cana of Galilee Christ changed water into wine,

and shall we think Him less worthy of credit
when He changes wine into His Blood? - St Cyril of Alexandria

Click here: St. Cyril of Alexandria - YouTube (2 mins)

St Cyril of Alexandria, pray for us!

Seek, find, love...

Today is Sunday and as a 4th c homily reminds: 
the Lord's Day is the lord of days...
yet let us today also remember ... St Josemaría Escrivá

"I am asked for very little compared to 
how much I am being given." - St Josemaría Escrivá

 

"... Jesus hides in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar 

because He wants us to dare to approach Him. 

He wants to nourish us so we become one single thing with Him.

When He said, Apart from Me you can do nothing, 

He was not condemning Christians to ineffectiveness 

or obliging them to seek Him by a difficult and arduous route. 

On the contrary... He has stayed here with us, 

He is totally available to us."

St Josemaría Escrivá

Spain ~ 1902-1975

Priest, Founder of Opus Dei

 FEAST DAY - June 26

Click here: josemariaescriva - YouTube (7 mins)

Click here: St. Josemaría Escrivá: Saint of Ordinary Life - Crisis Magazine

St Josemaría Escrivá, pray for us!

Greatest of Marys, pray for us! ...

 "The Eucharist has been given to us so that our life

like that of Mary, can completely become a Magnificat."

- Pope Francis (as Cardinal Bergoglio)

 

 

Irish Litany of Mary

(11th century)

 

Great Mary, pray for us

Greatest of Marys, pray for us

Greatest of Women, pray for us

 

Mother of Eternal Glory, pray for us

Mother of the Golden Light, pray for us

 

Honor of the Sky, pray for us

Temple of the Divinity, pray for us

Fountain of the Gardens, pray for us

Serene as the Moon, pray for us

Bright as the Sun, pray for us

Garden Enclosed, pray for us

Temple of the Living God, pray for us

Light of Nazareth, pray for us

Beauty of the World, pray for us

Queen of Life, pray for us

Ladder of Heaven, pray for us

 

Mother of God, pray for us

 

 

"If you ever feel distressed during your day, call upon Our Lady.

Say simply: "Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.' 

This prayer has never failed me." - Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Celebrating the birth of the herald...

Solemnity of the Birth 
of St John the Baptist - June 24

Today's Entrance Antiphon - Jn 1:6-7; Lk 1:17

 A man was sent from God, whose name was John.  He came 

to testify to the light, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.

  

Today's Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia! You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High,

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.  Alleluia, alleluia!

"Happy birthday of John the Baptist. His birth is the culmination of an age, an era, a Covenant. He is the last of the Old Testament Prophets. His birth signals an end and a beginning. The Book of Hebrews says By calling this covenant “new,” [God] has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear (Hebrews 8:13). 

Hence John would later say, “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase; I must decrease. (Jn 3:29-30).  Today John the Baptist is born who will usher in the new by answering the most significant question ever posed:  "But where is the Lamb?'"

Msgr Charles Pope

Pastor ~ Holy Comforter - St Cyprian Parish ~ Washington, DC

 

“Behold the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world.”

(St John the Baptist is quoted at every Mass)

Prayer after Communion (Today's Mass)

Having feasted at the banquet of the heavenly Lamb,

we pray, O Lord,

that, finding joy in the nativity of Saint John the Baptist,

your Church may know as the author of her rebirth

the Christ whose coming John foretold.

Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

 

“I want to show you a sun that shone more brightly than all these, a soul that was truly free and detached, cleaving only to the will of God. I have often wondered who is the most mortified of the saints I know, and after some reflection I have come to the conclusion that it was Saint John the Baptist. He went into the desert when he was five years old and knew that our Savior and his came on earth in a place quite close by, one or two days' journey perhaps. How his heart, touched with love of his Savior from the time He was in His Mother's womb, must have longed to enjoy His presence! Yet he spends twenty-five years in the desert without coming to see our Lord even once; and leaving the desert he stays to catechize without visiting Him but waiting till our Lord comes to seek him out. Then when he has baptized Him he does not follow Him but stays behind to do his appointed task. How truly mortified was his spirit! To be so near his Savior and not see Him, to have Him so close and not enjoy His presence! Is this not a completely detached spirit, detached even from God Himself so as to do His will and serve Him, to leave God for God, and not to love God in order to love Him better? The example of this great saint overwhelms me with its grandeur.”  ~  St Francis de Sales

Click here: St. John the Baptist - YouTube 
Click here: Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist - Catholic Culture 
Click here: The Catholic Witness of St. J the B : The Integrated Catholic Life™

St John the Baptist, pray for us!

Clear vision...

"We shall not be purified by looking at our miseries,

but by gazing on Him who is all purity and holiness."

- Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

 

 

"I ask to be buried next to a Tabernacle,

so that my bones, after death,

as my tongue and my pen in life,

are saying to those who pass:

There is Jesus! There it is!

Do not let Him abandoned!

Immaculate mother, San Juan, Santas Marias,

take my soul to eternal with the heart of Jesus in heaven." 

Blessed Manuel Gonzalez Garcia

aka the "Bishop of the Tabernacle"

 

 

On Sunday, October 16, 2016, both Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity and

Bl Manuel Gonzalez Garcia will be canonized along with

Bl Salomone LeClercq, Bl Lodovico Pavoni and Bl Alfonso Maria Fusco

Oh, happy day in heaven and on earth!

Click here: Pope Francis to Canonize Five New Saints - Saints - Aleteia.org

Curagio! ...

Therefore , my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you. 

Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because

you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. - I Cor 15:58

"When Thomas More was Chancellor of England some of his friends reproached him for going to Communion so often.  With all his duties and responsibilities they thought that this piety took up too much of his time.  He answered their objections with these words: 

'Your reasons for wanting me to stay away from Holy Communion are exactly the ones which cause me to go so often.  My distractions are great, but it is in Communion that I recollect myself.  I have temptations many times a day; by daily Communion I get the strength to overcome them.  I have much very important business to handle and I need light and wisdom; it is for this very reason that I go to Holy Communion every day to consult Jesus about them.' " 

John M Haffert

Excerpt from The World's Greatest Saints

St Thomas More

Husband, Father, Lawyer, Knight,

Lord Chancellor of England, Author, Martyr 
Steadfastly refused to approve Henry VIII’s divorce/remarriage

and establishment of the Church of England
Patron of Lawyers
England ~ 1478-1535 

FEAST DAY - June 22

  

 On July 7, 1535, the 57-year-old More

came before the executioner to be beheaded.

“I die the king's good servant,” he told the onlookers, “but God's first.”

Click here: St. Thomas More - YouTube (2 mins)
Click here: Discovering our Saints - Saints John Fisher and Thomas More - YouTube

St Thomas More, pray for us!

ANOTHER FEAST CELEBRATED TODAY:

Of all the English bishops, only Bishop John Fisher of Rochester publicly opposed Henry VIII's mandatory Oath of Allegiance, which unlawfully declared King Henry the head of the Church of England. The bishop's stand ultimately cost him his life. May his example inspire all Catholics today, especially the bishops on whose courageous leadership the Church depends.

On the scaffold he said to the people assembled:

"Christian people, I am come hither to die for the faith of Christ's Holy Catholic Church, and I thank God hitherto my stomach hath served me very well thereunto, so that yet I have not feared death. Wherefore I do desire you all to help and assist me with your prayers, that at the very point and instant of death's stroke, I may in that very moment stand steadfast without fainting in any one point of the Catholic faith free from any fear; and I beseech Almighty God of His infinite goodness to save the king and this Realm, and that it may please Him to hold His holy hand over it, and send the king good Counsel."

He then knelt, said the Te Deum and submitted to the axe.

Erasmus said: "He is the one man at this time who is incomparable for uprightness of life, for learning and for greatness of soul."

St. John Fisher
Bishop, Martyr
England ~ 1469-1535
FEAST DAY - June 22

 St. John wrote to someone who left the Church: “Had you but tasted one

drop of the sweetness which inebriates the souls of those religious from

their worship of this Sacrament, you would never have written as you have,

nor have apostatized from the faith that you formerly professed.”

St John Fisher, pray for us!

Purity of heart...

 For Christ's love compels us... II Cor 5:14a

"It is said of St Aloysius Gonzaga that he used to receive Communion once a week and that he was accustomed to spend three days in preparation before it and three days in thanksgiving after it.  ... By this means, the angelic youth was enabled to walk continually with God; one Communion was the preparation for another; thus, he constantly advanced in purity of heart and in love for Jesus Christ."

Fr Michael Muller, CSSR

The Blessed Eucharist, Our Greatest Treasure

 St Aloysius Gonzaga

Italy ~ 1568-1591

Jesuit seminarian, Patron of Youth

FEAST DAY - June 21 

"I confess that I am bewildered and lose myself at the thought of Divine Goodness, a sea without shore and fathomless, of God who calls me to an eternal rest after such short and tiny labors - summons and calls me to heaven, to that supreme Good..."  ~ St Aloysius

St. Aloysius spent a lot of time in prayer especially before the
Blessed Sacrament.  So much so that when it came time to make a 
painting of him it was decided to make it of him kneeling in adoration 
before of our Lord Jesus since this reflected best of who he was. 

Click here: St. Aloysius Gonzaga - YouTube (2 mins)

St Aloysius, pray for us!

Partners in praise! ...

All you have made will praise you, O LORD... ~ Psalm 145:10a

"With what humility should we assist at Mass,

if we realized that our guardian angel

was kneeling beside us,

prostrate before the majesty of God!"

St. John Mary Vianney