At once, they followed...

   "Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

At once they (Simon Peter and Andrew) left their nets

and followed Him.  - Matt 4: 19 (Today's Gospel)

 

Following Our Lord's example... 

Invite someone... 

to Mass or Adoration 

this Advent Season.

___________________

Today's Liturgy: Preface II of the Apostles 

Eucharistic Prayers

For You have built Your Church

to stand firm on apostolic foundations,

to be a lasting sign of Your holiness on earth

and offer all humanity Your heavenly teaching.

Therefore, now and for ages unending,

with all the host of Angels,

we sing to You with all our hearts, crying out as 

we acclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy ...

St Andrew

Apostle, Priest, Martyr

Younger brother of St Peter

Patron:  Greece, Russia, Scotland, fishermen

 Name "Andrew" (Greek: manly, brave)

Feast day  - November 30

Click here: Animated story of St Andrew - YouTube (1:45 mins)

St Andrew, pray for us!

Christmas Anticipation Prayer

Beginning on St. Andrew's Feast Day, November 30, the following prayer is traditionally recited fifteen times a day until Christmas. This is a beautifully meditative prayer that helps us increase our awareness of the real focus of Christmas and helps us prepare ourselves spiritually for His coming. 

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee, O my God, to hear my prayer and grant my desires, [here mention your request] through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother.  Amen.

Hunger and thirst: satisfied...

And God is able to provide you 

with every blessing in abundance, so that 

you may always have enough of everything 

and may provide in abundance 

for every good work. - II Cor 9:8 

 

"How sweet is the moment 

in which poor humanity, wearied and afflicted, 

may remain alone, with Jesus alone, 

in the Sacrament of Love; 

for there the Lord, 

with His flaming heart open, 

calls unto all, 

'You that are burdened and heavy laden, 

come unto Me and I will refresh you.' 

Happy are those hearts that know how to 

satisfy the unquenchable hunger and thirst 

in this heavenly banquet!" 

 Fr. M.J. Corcoran, O.S.A.

Approaching Him - plainly, simply...

 ...and that you may love the LORD your God, 

listen to His voice, 

and hold fast to Him.  

For the LORD is your life...  Deut 30:20

"Whenever I go to the chapel, 

I put myself in the presence of our good Lord, 

and I say to Him, Lord, I am here.  

Tell me what you would have me to do’ ...

... I tell God everything that is in my heart.  

I tell Him about my pains and my joys, 

and then I listen.  

If you listen, God will also speak to you, for with 

the good Lord, you have to both speak and listen. 

God always speaks to you when you 

approach Him plainly and simply."  

St Catherine Labouré

France~ 1806 -1876

Daughters of Charity nun (Nursing order)

Marian Visionary

Incorrupt body 
(Motherhouse of Dgtrs of Charity: 
140 Rue du Bac, Paris)

Feast Day - November 28

The Listening Woman - Godfried Shalcken

In her second apparition, on November 27, 1830, Our Lady revealed her desire for the Miraculous Medal.  Over the course of the apparitions, which always occurred near the Blessed Sacrament, Our Mother gave St Catherine this message, as if giving a remedy, for the world:  “Come to the foot of the altar.  Here graces will be showered on all, great and little, who ask for them.  Graces will especially be showered upon those who ask for them.”

Click here: St. Catherine Labouré - YouTube (2 mins)

AMM-Request Free Medals and Bookmarks

Wear the medal - plainly, simply!

St Catherine Laboure, pray for us!

In the silence of the heart...

 "It seems to me that I have found my heaven on earth, 

because my heaven is you, my God, 

and you are in my soul. 

You in me, and I in you - may this be my motto." 

 St Elizabeth of the Trinity

"When one has just received communion,

of what use are the words of men

when it is God who is speaking?

We must listen to what the 

good Lord says to our heart."

St John Vianney

Photo: La Purisima Concepcion Catholic School students pray during Mass (Los Angeles, California, 2011)

Christ is King!...

  Solemnity of 

Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
King of the Universe

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King celebrates the all-embracing authority of Christ as King and Lord of the cosmos.  It is celebrated on the final Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Sunday before Advent. "O Lord our God, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power" (Rev 4:11). 

“The Lord will sit on His royal throne for ever; 
the Lord will bless His people in peace.” - Psalm 29: 10b,11b 

Sacristy ~ Basilica of St Mary's ~ Minneapolis, Minnesota ~ USA

 “O king of Glory, though You hide Your beauty,

yet the eye of my soul rends the veil." - St. Faustina

 

"There He is:

King of Kings and Lord of Lords,

hidden in the bread.

To this extreme

has He humbled Himself
for love of you." 
St Josemaria Escriva 

Excerpt: Quas Primas, Encyclical of Pope Pius XI 

Promulgated on December 11, 1925, Quas Primas introduced the Feast of Christ the King. The encyclical summarizes both the Old Testament and the New Testament teaching on the kingship of Christ. Invoking an earlier encyclical Annum Sacrum of Pope Leo XIII, Pius XI connotes that the kingdom of Christ embraces the whole mankind. He connected the denial of Christ as king to the rise of secularism. At the time of Quas Primas, secularism was on the rise, and many Christians, even Catholics, were doubting Christ’s authority, as well as the Church’s, and even doubting Christ’s very existence.   

Hail King Jesus, King of Peace! 

20. If the kingdom of Christ, then, receives, as it should, all nations under its way, there seems no reason why we should despair of seeing that peace which the King of Peace came to bring on earth -- he who came to reconcile all things, who came not to be ministered unto but to minister, who, though Lord of all, gave himself to us as a model of humility, and with his principal law united the precept of charity; who said also: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." Oh, what happiness would be ours if all men, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ!  "Then at length," to use the words addressed by our predecessor, Pope Leo XIII, twenty-five years ago to the bishops of the Universal Church, "then at length will many evils be cured; then will the law regain its former authority; peace with all its blessings be restored. Men will sheathe their swords and lay down their arms when all freely acknowledge and obey the authority of Christ, and every tongue confesses that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."
21. That these blessings may be abundant and lasting in Christian society, it is necessary that the kingship of our Savior should be as widely as possible recognized and understood, and to the end nothing would serve better than the institution of a special feast in honor of the Kingship of Christ. For people are instructed in the truths of faith, and brought to appreciate the inner joys of religion far more effectually by the annual celebration of our sacred mysteries than by any official pronouncement of the teaching of the Church. Such pronouncements usually reach only a few and the more learned among the faithful; feasts reach them all; the former speak but once, the latter speak every year -- in fact, forever. The church's teaching affects the mind primarily; her feasts affect both mind and heart, and have a salutary effect upon the whole of man's nature. Man is composed of body and soul, and he needs these external festivities so that the sacred rites, in all their beauty and variety, may stimulate him to drink more deeply of the fountain of God's teaching, that he may make it a part of himself, and use it with profit for his spiritual life.

To Jesus Christ, our Sov'reign King,
Who is the world's salvation,
All praise and homage do we bring, 

And thanks and adoration.

Refrain:

Christ Jesus Victor, Christ Jesus Ruler!

Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer!

 

The way to 'enter' into God's Kingdom does not permit shortcuts; rather, every person must freely welcome the truth of the love of God. He is Love and Truth and both love and truth never impose themselves: they knock at the door of the heart and mind and, 

wherever they may enter, they bring peace and joy. 

This is God's way of reigning; this is His project of salvation,

 a 'mystery' in the biblical sense of the word, which is a plan that is revealed little by little throughout history."- Pope Benedict XVI

"While nations insult the beloved name 

of our Redeemer by suppressing all mention of it 

in their conferences and parliaments,

we must all the more loudly proclaim
His kingly dignity and power,

(and) all the more universally affirm His rights. ... 

When once men recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, 

society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, 

well ordered discipline, peace and harmony." - Pope Pius XI

Toward springs of water...

   The Lamb who is at the center of the throne

will lead them to the

springs of the waters of life. - Rev 7:17

 

 

Prayer After Communion (Today's Liturgy)

O God, who bestowed on 

blessed Catherine of Alexandria a crown 

among the Saints for her twofold triumph 

of virginity and martyrdom, grant, we pray, 

through the power of this Sacrament,

that, bravely overcoming evil,

we may attain the glory of heaven.

Through Christ our Lord.

 

St Catherine of Alexandria

Egyptian princess, scholar ~ 287-305

Convert, Virgin, Martyr

One of the 14 Holy Helpers

At 18 y/o debated 50 pagan philosophers.
All became Christians. All were martyred.

Patron: Students, Christian philosophers, 

teachers, librarians

Feast Day - Nov 25

 

 

St. Catherine of Alexandria HD - YouTube (3 mins)

 

St Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us!