Participation in the divine fire...

    "The words of Christ, since they are divine,

are efficacious, and can produce nothing other 

than what they command.  For they are eternal.

Heaven and earth shall pass,

but My words shall not pass." - St Paschasius

 

    “The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself:  for the Lord has said, “This is My body,” not, this is a figure of My body: and “My blood,” not, a figure of My blood.  ... 

    Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing. ...

    Let us draw near to it with ardent desire, and with our hands held in the form of the cross let us receive the body of the Crucified One: and let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal, in order that the fire of the longing that is in us, with the additional heat, derived from the coal may utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts, and that we may be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire.”

 

St John Damascene

aka St John of Damascus
Syria ~ 676 - 749
DOCTOR of the CHURCH
Monk, prolific writer, poet
Defender of icons/images
Feast Day - Dec 4

Image title:  The Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist is like a consuming fire, 2003 -

Artist: Elizabeth Wang



"Show me the icons that you venerate,

that I may be able to understand

your faith." - St John of Damascus

 Click here: St. John of Damascus - YouTube (2 mins) 
Click here: St. John of Damascus (Holy Repentance) - YouTube (4 mins)

St John Damascene, pray for us!

First week of Advent:  HOPE

A witness worthy of heaven...

   “Sanctify yourself and 

    you will sanctify society.” 

- St Francis of Assisi

Charity and Purity are the most beautiful ornaments of the heart.  

St. Francis Xavier often spent whole hours during the day and into the night before Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament, Who gave Him the grace and the strength to lead so many souls to Christ. His devotion to Our Eucharistic Lord was so great that Fr. Stefano Manelli, O.F.M. writes in his book, Jesus, Our Eucharistic Lord:  

"What shall we say of St. Francis Xavier who at times when distributing Holy Communion felt so carried away by a sense of adoration toward Our Lord Who was in his hands, that he got on his knees and in that position continued giving Holy Communion? Did that not present a witness of faith and love worthy of heaven?"

St. Francis Xavier

Spain ~ 1506-1552

One of seven founders of Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Considered "greatest missionary 

since the time of the Apostles"

Incredible zeal, baptized thousands, miracle worker

Patron of mission fields

Known as "Apostle to the Far East"

Incorrupt

Feast Day - December 3

"St Francis Xavier sailed the seas ... To spread the word of God ... Among the unenlightened souls ... On strange and distant sod ... From Spain and Portugal he went ... To heathen Hindustan ... To Travancore and to Ceylon ... Malacca and Japan ... He preached the gospel fervently ... And thousands were baptized ... And though his task was perilous ... He never compromised ... He hoped to teach in China too ... But when he reached that shore ... His strength was ebbed by fever, and ... He could go on no more ... And there in 1552 ... St. Francis passed away ... And many are the miracles  ... Ascribed to him today." 

- James J Metcalfe, Poem Portraits of the Saints (1956) 

Click here: St. Francis Xavier - YouTube (2 mins - Apostleship of Prayer)

Click here: Life of Saint Francis Xavier - YouTube (4 mins)

 St Francis Xavier, pray for us!

First week of Advent:  HOPE

Letting ourselves be found...

 All which I took from thee I did but take,

Not for thy harms,

But just that thou might'st seek it in My arms. 

All which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home: 

 'Rise, clasp My hand, and come!'

- Excerpt from The Hound of Heaven, Francis Thompson 

"As we are searching for God, the good news is that God is searching for us.  Better yet, He has found us.  The great question is not whether we have found God but whether we have found ourselves being found by God.  God is not lost.  We were, or, as the case may be, we are. ... 

Here is what St. Paul says: “It is full time now for you to wake from sleep.”  He is telling us to wake up the gift already given.  This season of the Church’s calendar is called Advent, which means “coming”.  Christ came, Christ comes, Christ will come again.  There is no time–past, present, or future–in which Jesus the Christ is not God with us.  He was with you yesterday, is with you today, and will be with you tomorrow. 
So we are invited to give up our searching and let ourselves be found by the One who wants to be with us, and to have us with Him, forever." - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, God With Us

First week of Advent:  HOPE

The goal of every human life...

   "Our entire existence, our whole being must 

shout the Gospel from the rooftops. Our entire 

person must breathe Jesus, all our actions. 

 Our whole life must cry out that we belong to Jesus, 

reflect a Gospel way of living. Our whole being 

must be a living proclamation, a reflection of Jesus." 

 St Charles de Foucauld

"The goal of every human life 

should be the 

adoration 

of the Blessed Sacrament."

St Charles de Foucauld

Priest, Martyr ~ 1858-1916
nee France ~ Missionary in the Sahara of Algeria

Inspiration and writings led to the founding

of the Little Brothers of Jesus congregation

Feast Day – December 1

 

Charles returned to the Faith, after living an immoral life.  

Regarding his conversion, Charles said,
"The moment I realized that God existed, I knew I could not do otherwise than to live for Him alone.  …My religious vocation dates from the same moment as my faith:  God is so great.  There is such a difference between God and everything that is not."

______________________

Prayer of St Charles de Foucauld: both prayed and lived...

Father, I abandon myself into Your hands; do with me what You will. Whatever You do I thank You. I am ready for all, I accept all. Let only Your will be done in me, as in all Your creatures, I ask no more than this, my Lord. Into Your hands I commend my soul; I offer it to You, O Lord, with all the love of my heart, for I love You, my God, and so need to give myself - to surrender myself into Your hands, without reserve and with total confidence, for You are my Father.

______________________

Click here: Charles de Foucauld - YouTube (4:40 mins)

Click here: Fr Michael Shields - Follower of Bl Charles de Foucauld in Siberia - YouTube  (8:40 mins)

A Saint For Sinners: Charles De Foucauld - Good Catholic

Legacy of Charles de Foucauld – The life story and work of Blessed Charles de Foucauld

St Charles de Foucauld, pray for us! 

First week of Advent:  HOPE

First Sunday of Advent: Renewing the HOPE...

 First Sunday of Advent

Renewing the HOPE

In Advent, Christians relive a dual impulse of the spirit:  on the one hand, they raise their eyes towards the final destination of their pilgrimage through history, which is the glorious return of the Lord Jesus; on the other, remembering with emotion His birth in Bethlehem, they kneel before the Crib. The hope of Christians is turned to the future but remains firmly rooted in an event of the past. In the fullness of time, the Son of God was born of the Virgin Mary:  "Born of a woman, born under the law", as the Apostle Paul writes (Gal 4: 4). - Pope Benedict XVI, 27 November 2005

"Therefore, stay awake.  For you do not

 know on which day your Lord will come."

Matthew 24:42 (Jesus' words in Today's Gospel) 

Rorate Mass:  a dawn Mass said only by candlelight - to welcome the Advent season

"It is the beautiful task of Advent 

to awaken in all of us 

memories of goodness 

and thus open doors of hope."

Pope Benedict XVI

Singing Angels – Relief from the Cantoria by Luca Della Robbia (c. 1435)

"Hills of the North, rejoice: 

Rivers and mountain-spring, 

Hark to the advent voice!

Valley and lowland, sing!"

Charles Edward Oakley, Hymnist

________________________________

"Let us approach Christmas with an expectant hush, 

rather than a last-minute rush." 

Anonymous
______________________

"We journey as if on a bridge that connects 

earth to Heaven, a bridge that the Lord has built for us.  

Let us always keep our eyes fixed on both shores, so 

that we may love God and our brothers and sisters

with all our hearts in order to journey together and find 

ourselves one day united in the house of the Father."

Pope Leo XIV

Homily, First Sunday of Advent 2025

_______________________

The Lord's Day is the lord of days...but

ALSO remembering today... 

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

Feast Day:  December 30

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. 

_______________

Advent season resources

Advent: Catholic News Agency 

Click here: Advent in 2 Minutes - YouTube 
Click here: Making Advent a more holy season - YouTube (4:30 mins)

Click here: Fish Eaters Advent Overview

__________________________

Learn more about the saints of Advent, including 

St Edmund Campion (Dec 1), the Blessed Virgin Mary 

(Dec. 8 - IC celebrated on 9th this year; also feasts on 10 and 12), 

St. John the Baptist, St Francis Xavier (Dec 3), 

St John Damascene (Dec 4), St. Nicholas (Dec. 6), 

St Ambrose (Dec 7), St. Juan Diego (Dec. 9), 

St. Lucy (Dec. 13), St John of the Cross (Dec 14), 

St Peter Canisius (Dec 21), St Stephen (Dec 26), 

St John of Kanty (Dec 23), the Holy Innocents (28th) and

St Thomas Becket (Dec 29th).  All you holy ones, pray for us!

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 plainly and 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)

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Wear the medal - plainly, simply!

St Catherine Laboure, pray for us!