Tidying up...

  "Speak for your servant is listening." 

 I Samuel 3:10b

"Above all, we must get to church early 

in order to 'tidy up' inwardly.  

We must have no illusions about our condition when 

we enter the church; we must frankly face our 

restlessness, confusion, disorder. To be exact, 

we do not yet really exist as persons - at least not as 

persons God can address, expecting a fitting response.  

We are bundles of feelings, fancies, thoughts, 

and plans all at cross-purposes with each other. 

The first thing to do, then, is to quiet and 

collect ourselves.  We must be able to say honestly:  

Now I am here.  I have only one thing to do - participate 

with my whole being in the only thing that counts, 

the sacred celebration. I am entirely ready."

Romano Guardini

Preparing Yourself for Mass

(A Must Read! Make it your September book!)

What union can compare?...

   "Our present time and the future of the world

are illuminated by Christ's Eucharistic presence and

are desperate for His action." - Bl James Alberione 

"Jesus is present and 
lives in our midst in the Eucharist. 

Let us listen to Him for He is truth.

Let us look at Him, for He is the face of the Father.

Let us love Him, for He is love giving Himself 

to His creatures. He comes to our soul so that 

it may disappear in Him and become divine.

What union, however great, can compare to this?

St Teresa de Los Andes

(+1920)

Photo: godongphoto | Shutterstock

God has a good memory...

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

but also remembering today... 

St Jeanne Jugan

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 Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.

... I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched.

My eyes fail, looking for my God.  - Psalm 69: 1, 3 

 

"Go and find Him when your patience and strength 

run out and you feel alone and helpless.  
Jesus is waiting for you in the chapel. 

Say to Him, 'Jesus, you know exactly what is going on.

You are all I have, and you know all things. 

Come to my help.' 

And then go, and don’t worry about how you 

are going to manage. That you have told God 

about it is enough.  He has a good memory."

St Jeanne Jugan

Sr Mary of the Cross

France ~ 1792 - 1879

Foundress - Little Sisters of the Poor

Feast Day - Aug 30

“God will help us; the work is His.” 

 St Jeanne Jugan
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"The Hail Mary will take us to heaven." 

 St Jeanne Jugan
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"Little, very little. Be very little before God." 

 St Jeanne Jugan

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Click here: St. Jeanne Jugan - YouTube (2 mins)

Sayings of Jeanne Jugan - Little Sisters of the Poor

St Jeanne Jugan, pray for us!

...the never-ceasing silent appeal of the Tabernacle...

 In him and through faith in him we may approach God

with freedom and confidence. – Ephesians 3:12

J.R.R. Tolkien's personal piety was simple: Confession before Mass, Mass every day and Rosary before bed. The sole ultimate focus of his devotion was the Blessed Sacrament.

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Here is the conclusion of a very moving letter 

he wrote to his son, Michael, in 1941:

''Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament... There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth..." (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, no. 43)

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In another moving letter, written 22 years later 
to the same son, Tolkien writes:

''But I fell in love with the Blessed Sacrament from the beginning - and by the mercy of God never have fallen out again: but alas! I indeed did not live up to it...Out of wickedness and sloth I almost ceased to practice my religion - especially at Leeds, and at 22 Northmoor Road. Not for me the Hound of Heaven, but the never-ceasing silent appeal of the Tabernacle, and the sense of starving hunger. I regret those days bitterly (and suffer for them with such patience as I can be given); most of all because I failed as a father.

Now I pray for you all, unceasingly, that the Healer (the Hælend as the Saviour was usually called in Old English) shall heal my defects, and that none of you shall  ever cease to cry Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.'' (Ibid. no. 250).

He gives His all...

    "To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; 

to seek Him, the greatest adventure;

to find Him, the greatest human achievement."

 St Augustine 

"God in His omnipotence could not give more, 

in His wisdom knew not how to give more,

in His riches had not more to give, 
than the Eucharist."

St Augustine

North Africa ~ 354-430

Bishop, Doctor of the Church

Powerful intellect, stirring orator, prolific writer
Feast Day - August 28
 

“If you believe what you like in the gospel, 
and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel 
you believe, but yourself." - St Augustine of Hippo
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Click here: St. Augustine - YouTube  (2 mins)
33 Powerful Saint Augustine Quotes on Love, Beauty, God, Sin, Time, Wisdom, Hope, Patience, and More | The Unbounded Spirit
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"In 397, or twelve years after his conversion, Augustine wrote his Confessions, the greatest spiritual autobiography ever written. It is the work of a teacher who  explains, a philosopher who thinks, and a theologian who instructs. It is the  work of a poet who achieves chaste beauty in the writing, and a mystic who pours out thanks for having found himself in peace. " - Ven Fulton J. Sheen in his  biographical work,  St Augustine of Hippo

Confessions by Saint Augustine of Hippo (FULL Audio Book)

Excerpt (Confessions 10.27): "Too late have I loved You, O Beauty
so ancient and so new, too late have I loved You. You have called to me,
and have cried out, and have shattered my deafness. 
You have blazed forth with light and have put my blindness to flight!
You have sent forth fragrance, and I have drawn in my breath,
and I pant after You. I have tasted You, and I hunger and thirst after You.
You have touched me, and I have burned for Your peace." 

St Augustine, pray for us!