Together - toward holiness...

"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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COMMUNION 

  "Feed on this Bread of the Angels

from which you will draw the

strength to fight inner struggles."

 Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati

(Canonization: 3 August 2025)
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CONFESSION

"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

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“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)

Approaching, participating... in life eternal...

"It is impossible to look upon the Divinity and not to love it.

However, here below we do not see it, but only 

have a glimpse of it through the shadows of faith, 

seeing as in a mirror." - St Francis de Sales

Byzantine Hymn 

Sung between Consecration and Communion

“Now the heavenly powers join invisibly

with us in adoration.

Behold, it is the King of Glory

Who is coming in procession.

Behold, that which is carried is 

the mystical sacrifice already completed.

In faith and in awe do we 

approach to participate in life eternal.”

Remembering St John Paul II 
20th Anniversary of death: 2 April 2005

"In that little Host is the solution 

to all the problems of the world."

Bringing Him love...from another...

  I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, 

intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone... 

that we may live peaceful and quiet lives 

in all godliness and holiness. - I Timothy 2: 1, 2b

“Go to the church and

give my love

to the hidden Jesus.”

St Francisco Marto

Fatima, Portugal

A Prayer for Lent...

 "I must become a great saint.  

My Jesus wants it." - St Bernadette 

 

"The world is content with setting right

the surface of things;

the church aims at regenerating

the very depths of the heart."

St John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Idea of a University (1852)

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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 Calvary, and

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)

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."