Friday, March 31, 2017

A Prayer of Offering for Lent ...

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"The world is content with setting right
the surface of things;
the church aims at regenerating
the very depths of the heart."

Bl John Henry Cardinal Newman
The Idea of a University (1852)

 
A Prayer of Offering for Lent

My God, I know well, you could have saved us at Your word,
without Yourself suffering; but You did choose to purchase us at the
price of Your Blood.  I look on You, the Victim lifted up on Calvaryand
I know that Your death was an expiation for the sins of the whole world. 
My Lord, I offer You myself in turn as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. 
You have died for me, and I in turn make myself over to You.  My wish
is to be separated from everything of this world; to cleanse myself
simply from sin.  Enable me to carry out what I profess.

Source: A Newman Prayer Book
Editor: VF Blehl, SJ (1990)

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Housing Our Lord...

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house 
to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices 
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. - I Peter 2:5  

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"By our little acts of charity 
practiced in the shade
we convert souls far away, 
we help missionaries,
we win for them abundant alms;
and by that means
build actual dwellings 
spiritual and material 
for our Eucharistic Lord."

St Therese of Lisieux

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Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Together ... toward holiness...


"Feed on this Bread of Angels from which you will 
draw the strength to fight inner struggles." - Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati

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"Ask Jesus to make you a saint.
After all, only He can do that.
Go to confession regularly
and to Communion as often as you can."

St. Dominic Savio

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"This world is filled with many vulgar and dishonorable things 
that will claw and tear at your Christian purity if you allow them to. 
Don't let them! Seek instead the things of God. He will 
purify you and free you from your slavery to profane 
and inconsequential things." - Patrick Madrid



“There is no shame so great that God’s mercy cannot shine forth from its midst. … Jesus is not afraid to go to the core of our shame to heal us.  Sins and secrets do not scare Him.  The serpent causes shame and hiding; 
Jesus invites us to mercy and communion.” Fr Richard Veras

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"I think one of the central elements of my own discipleship so far has been my pastors’ focus on the Cross. The way of Jesus is the way of the cross. It is terribly painful to give up one’s sins and self-will, 
to allow one’s old self to be crucified along with Jesus … 
and I have been very grateful to my pastors who acknowledge how hard 
and painful it can be along this Christian journey. But the way of the cross is also the way of life and peace.” Dr Holly Ordway (excerpt - Former Atheist: Christianity Really Does Make Sense)


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"One of the most admirable effects of Holy Communion
is to preserve the soul from sin, and to help those who fall
through weakness to rise again." - St Ignatius of Loyola

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Love has no sunset...

"Love is never finished."- Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

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"The presence of Jesus in the Eucharist is proof that his love for us has no sunset. He is the Desired of the everlasting hills, and he puts into our hearts the desire to live close to him.
The stresses and hurts and partings of life often bear down on us, and we may tend to feel alone as when the sun has gone down. The words of St. Augustine can lift us "He neither rises nor sets because he abides always." So our lives do not have to go down into the shadows.
It was at evening time that the risen Lord restored the desolate spirits of two disciples by revealing his presence to them "in the breaking of the bread." They pleaded with him "Stay with us, for it is towards evening." (Lk 24,29). We too can plead with him, "Lord, be with us, both at sunrise and at sunset..."
In the Holy Eucharist the only Son of God, Jesus Christ, fulfills his promise to be with us always. What consolation, how could we be lonely?  From all the sunsets to all the sunrises "He neither rises nor sets because he abides always." (St. Augustine)."

- from the writings of Msgr. John Moloney, P.P. 
Dublin, Ireland (+2014)

“Every day has been a great day as a priest."
As quoted on the celebration of his
70th Anniversary of priesthood Ordination


Above: Chalice and host painting: Craig Gallagher

Monday, March 27, 2017

Lights, please! ...

"God has placed us all in a dark room, hoping that we will have
sense enough to turn the light on... " - Mother Angelica

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"There are two things I want you to do -  
keep close to Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist
... (and) stay close to His Mother.
With those two loves, you will always have the light
to see what is right and what is wrong."

Mother Angelica
Poor Clare Nun
Founder of EWTN
(Eternal Word Television Network)
Anniversary of Death - 03/27/16
Requiescat in pace

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"We are called to be great saints,

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Rejoice!... Be encouraged! ...

Fourth Sunday of Lent

The fourth Sunday of Lent is called " Lætare Sunday", taking its name from the opening words of the Mass, the Introit's "Lætare,Jerusalem"— "Rejoice, O Jerusalem".  In celebration, the priests wear rose-colored vestments.  The point is to provide us encouragement as we progress toward the end of the penitential season.  The day is a day of relaxation from normal Lenten rigors; a day of hope with Easter being at last within sight. Instrumental music is permitted, and the altar may be decorated with flowers.

Lætare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, qui in tristitia fuistis: ut exsultetis, et satiemini ab uberibus consolationis vestrae. (Psalm) Laetatus sum in his, quae dicta sunt mihi: in domum Domini ibimus. Gloria Patri.

Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, you that have been in sorrow: that you may exult, and be filled from the breasts of your consolation. (Psalm) I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord.
Glory be to the Father.


  Prayer over the Offerings (Today's Liturgy)

 We place before You with joy these offerings,
which bring eternal remedy, O Lord,
praying that we may both faithfully revere them
and present them to You, as is fitting,
for the salvation of all the world.
Through Christ our Lord.

   


A bit more on Lætare Sunday:

Lætare Sunday is also called Mothering Sunday in Europe, which is similar to the celebration of Mother's Day in the United States. The name Mothering Sunday came about after the Epistle of the day from Galatians 4:26, which states, "But Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all." The Epistle calls Jerusalem the mother of us all and this Sunday all mothers, the Blessed Virgin Mary and especially “mother church” are honored. People frequently try to attend Mass at the nearest cathedral, their mother church. 

Tradition also holds that on Lætare Sunday, English children who lived away from home returned to visit the church in which they were baptized or raised. Children also visited their mothers, bringing flowers or a type of fruit cake. The occasion led to the old saying, "He who goes a-mothering finds violets in the lane."

Saturday, March 25, 2017

That generous word, "Be it done" ...

The ANNUNCIATION of the LORD
Solemnity

 "The Virgin Mary uttered that generous word, "Be it done" 
... Immediately the Heart of Jesus, ever to be adored, 
has begun to pulsate with love, divine and human."
Pius XII, On Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, 63



"The Wisdom of God creates poets. How evidently this is so can be seen by considering Mary of Nazareth. When she had given to the Lord of Hosts the Flesh that would become our Bread, Wisdom caused her to break into a poem of praise, a song repeated by more people than probably any other ever composed. The Presence within stirred her to exult and proclaim the One 'who has filled the hungry with good things'. And the praise owed to the Presence of embodied Wisdom among us has never ceased in the Church from that day until this."
James T. O'Connor
The Hidden Manna


When the Divine Child was conceived, Mary’s humanity gave Him hands and feet, eyes and ears, and a body with which to suffer. Just as the petals of a rose after a dew close on the dew as if to absorb its energies, so too Mary as the Mystical Rose closed upon Him Whom the Old Testament had described as a dew descending upon the earth. When finally she did give Him birth, it was as if a great ciborium had opened, and she was holding in her fingers the Guest Who was also the Host of the world, as if to say, ‘Look, this is the Lamb of God; look, this is He Who takes away the sins of the world.’”

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Life of Christ

Top Image: The Annunciation,  Adolphe-William Bouguereau (1888)
Bottom Image: Mystical Rose - Sr Marie Pierre Semlar, M.M.

More on the ANNUNCIATION,
incl liturgical readings, history and family activities



Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, 
that we may be made worthy of the promises of  Christ!

Friday, March 24, 2017

Encountering Jesus...

...at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy: 
I will sing and make music to the LORD.
...Your face, LORD, will I seek. - Psalm 27:6b, 8b

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“Dear brothers and sisters,
Now let us remember the two phrases: 
every encounter with Jesus changes our life and 
every encounter with Jesus fills us with joy. 
Should we say them together?
Every encounter with Jesus changes our life;
 every encounter with Jesus fills us with   joy. 
This is true.”
 
Pope Francis
Excerpt: 03/23/14, Angelus 
St Peter’s Square, Roma 

Remembering ...

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Traditional Feast of St Gabriel the Archangel,
patron of telecommunications and diplomats
March 24

A day in history:  March 24, 2011
Adoration Chapel, Cathedral of St Paul (Minnesota)
Inspiration Day
Seven Sisters Apostolate...
committed to praying for priests.

A Seven Sister: one holy hour/one priest/
each week/one heart of prayer


Visit the Apostolate website… leave a comment!   www.sevensistersapostolate.org
Please like our Facebook page! www.facebook.com/sevensistersapostolate

Thursday, March 23, 2017

To be content always...

But you are a shield around me, O LORD; 
you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. - Psalm 3:3

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"The only One necessary to have
to be content
always
is to have our Lord."

 
 St Turibius de Mogrovejo
Nee Spain ~ 1538 - 1606
Layman to ordained Archbishop of Lima! (see YouTube below)
Started First Seminary in the Americas
Patron: Peru, Latin Am. Bishops, Native Rights
Incorrupt
Feast Day - March 23
IMAGE above:  At Prayer ~ F Schurig, circa 1890

When Turibius undertook the reform of the clergy as well as unjust officials, he naturally suffered opposition. Some tried, in human fashion, to explain God's law in such a way as to sanction their accustomed way of life.  He answered them in the words of Tertullian, "Christ said, 'I am the truth'; he did not say, 'I am the custom.'"



St Turibius, pray for us!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Bearing Christ... fully ! ...

O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you...  Psalm 63:1

  

 "Bear Christ in heart, mind, and will.
Bear Him in your mind by His teaching.
Bear Him in your will by your observance of the Law.
Bear Him in your heart by the Holy Eucharist."

Pope Pius XII

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The Clinic is OPEN...

"The Eucharist is the medicine of immortality, and the antidote
to prevent us from dying, but which causes that
we should live forever in Jesus Christ."- St Ignatius of Antioch

Dom Pius Parsch in The Church's Year of Grace invites us to look courageously into the Lord's Face and say: "Thou art my Physician. Cut away, cauterize, work Thy healing art on me . . . only make me well for everlasting life." He presents the Church as a sanatorium for sin-sick souls. 

"Before leaving the world our Saviour established a clinic, the Church, whose main task was to heal sick souls. The Church is a great spiritual sanatorium. All the practices and ordinances of the Church have as their ultimate purpose to heal men and keep them healthy. Think of the sacraments: baptism, penance, extreme unction. Think in particular of the medicinal power of the Holy Eucharist. Yes, the twofold purpose of the Eucharist is to nourish and to heal. Nourishment to build divine life, medicine to overcome the diseases ravaging the soul.

To our great detriment we have practically forgotten the latter significance of the Eucharist. We keep believing that Communion is only for saints, a reward for virtue. The time of Mass is the heavenly Physician's normal office hours. . .

We have a Healer who wishes to heal our infirmities; we have a clinic providing all the means needed to restore our health; we have a medicine which infallibly produces its effect if we use it as prescribed."