He waits...

I lie down and sleep; I wake again,

for the LORD sustains me - Ps 3:5

"Practically speaking, Advent is a time to enter

resolutely, generously, and deeply

into adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

Hidden in the tabernacle or exposed in the monstrance, Jesus waits for the arrival of His adorers and of His friends. 

To those who throw themselves into the embrace of His humanity,

He communicates the fire of His divinity;

and to those who cast themselves into the fire of His divinity,

He opens the embrace of His  humanity."

Dom Mark Daniel Kirby

 Prior of Silverstream Priory under the patronage of

Our Lady of the Cenacle ~ Stamullen, County Meath, Ireland

Click here: Vultus Christi

Participating in 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 Sunday of Advent: Renewing 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

Jesus said to His disciples: "Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when 

the time will come. ... May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.  

What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"  - Mark 13: 33, 36, 37 (Today's Gospel) 

Fr Orr ~ St John Neumann Catholic Church  ~ Knoxville, TN ~ USA

"Jesus, … the Eucharist is the sacramental testimony of Your first coming, with which the words of the prophets were reconfirmed and expectations were fulfilled.  You have left us, O Lord, Your Body and Blood under the species of bread and wine that they may bear witness to the fact that the world has been redeemed  - that through them Your paschal mystery may reach all men as the Sacrament of life and salvation.  

The Eucharist is at the same time  a constant announcement of Your second coming and the sign of the definitive Advent and also of the expectation of the whole Church. 

When we eat this bread and drink this cup,

we proclaim Your death, Lord Jesus, until You come in glory. 

Every day and every hour we wish to adore You, stripped under the species of bread and wine, to renew the hope of the call to glory. Amen."

St John Paul II
 Quoted in Jesus, We Adore You
Paul Thigpen

Advent season resources

"Prepare your hearts to receive Jesus the Savior." - Pope Francis
 

Vatican Advent page 
Click here: US Bishops - Advent (with daily family activities)

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: 10 Advent Songs to Remind It's Not Yet Christmas - FOCUS Blog
Click here: EWTN Global Catholic Television Network: Advent, Advent Calendar, Christmas, Christmas Holidays

Click here: Women for Faith and Family Advent Season Calendar

Click here: Fish Eaters Advent Overview
Click here: Our Sunday Visitor: Advent

Saints.SQPN.com: Learn more about the saints of Advent, 
including the Blessed Virgin Mary (Dec. 8, 10 and 12), St. John the Baptist, 
St Francis Xavier (Dec 3), 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),
and St John of Kanty (Dec 23)

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

Our existence,our goal...

"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." - Bl Charles de Foucauld

"The goal of every human life should be

the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament."

Bl. 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 Bl 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)

Click here: Quotes by Charles de Foucauld | Jesus Caritas

Bl Charles de Foucauld, pray for us!