Sunday, September 20, 2026

Woven round like a robe...

   "Always remain close to the Catholic Church. 
because it alone can give you true peace,
since it alone possesses Jesus in the
Blessed Sacrament, the true Prince of Peace." 
St Padre Pio

"It is not sufficient to say that 
the Eucharist is at the center of the Church, 
because actually, the Eucharist makes the Church!  
It builds it from within 
and weaves it round itself like a robe.

It is said that two sacraments in particular 
"make" the Church:  Baptism and the Eucharist.  
But whereas Baptism makes the Church grow 
quantitatively, as it were, in size and number, 
the Eucharist makes her grow qualitatively, 
in strength, because it transforms her ever more 
deeply into the image of Christ, her Head."
Raniero Cantalamessa
The Eucharist, Our Sanctification

Christ at Last Supper - Tapestry - Virginia Museum of Fine Arts ~ Richmond, VA
____________________________

The Lord's Day is the lord of days... 
but TODAY also remembering 
these Korean martyrs...
11 priests and 92 laypersons
(farmers, merchants, wives, widows,
scholars and court officials)
Feast Day - September 20

The blood of the holy Martyrs was poured out 
for Christ upon the earth:  therefore, they have 
gained everlasting rewards. (Today's Entrance Antiphon)


Sts Andrew Kim Tae-gon, 
Paul Chong Ha-Sang 
and Companions, pray for us!

Saturday, September 19, 2026

Prospering the day...

 I rejoiced with those who said to me,
"Let us go to the House of the LORD."- Psalm 122:1
 

"Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day.
All your duties will be performed the better for it,
and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross.

The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you 
can do nothing that can give greater glory to God
or be more profitable for your soul than 
to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly.
It is the favorite devotion of the saints."  
St Peter Julian Eymard
 

Invite someone to pray the Mass with you -
and together reap both daily and eternal benefits!

Also remembering...
St Januarius
Feast Day:  September 19th


St Januarius, pray for us!

Friday, September 18, 2026

In His light we see light...

    For with you is the fountain of life; 

in your light we see light.

 Psalm 36:9

 

 

“If the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus all for us,

is it not the most legitimate of conclusions 

that we should be all for Him?

We should be all for Jesus, if Jesus is our all.

And what does this mean? Surely, among other things, 

that the Blessed Sacrament should be to us just

the single overpowering fact of the world.

 

Our hands hold Him; 

our words make Him;

our tongue rests Him;

our body compasses Him;

our souls feel Him;

our flesh feeds upon Him,

Him, the Infinite, the Incomprehensible,

the Immense, the Eternal.

 

Must not all life be looked at in this light,

just as the whole Church lies in this light

and has no other?"

Fr. Frederick W Faber

 


ABOVE: Photo image credit - Michael McGlothlen - Irelan

Thursday, September 17, 2026

Be ablaze with enthusiasm...

 Celebrating TWO Saints & Doctors of the Church!
Truly a double blessing!!

"All living creatures are sparks 
from the radiation of God's brilliance, 
emerging from God like the rays of the sun."
St Hildegard von Bingen


"Be not lax in celebrating.
Be not lazy in the festive service of God. 
Be ablaze with enthusiasm. 
Let us be an alive, burning offering 
before the altar of God."

St Hildegard von Bingen
Germany -- 1098-1179
Benedictine Abbess
Writer, composer, philosopher, mystic,
visionary, medical writer and practitioner
Patron of musicians and writers
Canonized and declared Doctor of the Church 
in 2012 (Pope Benedict XVI)
"Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God."
Feast Day: Sept 17


"Even in a world that's being shipwrecked, 
remain brave and strong." 
St Hildgard von Bingen
___________________


St Hildegard von Bingen, pray for us!
_______________________________________________________

  "The school of Christ is the school of charity.  
On the last day, when the general examination takes place, 
there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the 
aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian.  
Charity will be the whole syllabus." - St Robert Bellarmine


"The Holy Eucharist is offered to us 
on our pilgrimage as food so that
we 
do not faint on the path to the fatherland,


especially at the time when, tired by a long journey,
our forces are apt to wane…
The Lord left His Body in the Eucharist
as a pledge of heavenly beatitude."
 St Robert Bellarmine in 
“Comments on Aquinas’ O Sacrum Convivium

St Robert Bellarmine
 Italy ~ 1542-1621
Jesuit theologian, writer, and cardinal
Key voice and action in Counter-Reformation
Dubbed: "Prince of the Apologists"
Doctor of the Church
Patron of Canon lawyers, catechists, students,
those with Down's syndrome
Feast Day - September 17

 

From St Robert Bellarmine's treatise 
On the Ascent of the Mind to God:
  "May you consider truly good 
whatever leads to your goal
and truly evil whatever 
makes you fall away from it."

St Robert Bellarmine, pray for us!
_________________

ALSO remembering on this day (in 1224) ...
upon the craggy slopes of Mount La Verna, St Francis received
 in his own flesh the sacred marks of Our Lord's Passion.  
He became a living Crucifix, conformed so fully to Christ through love 
that His holy wounds became visible in the world.

St Bonaventure writes that it was not merely physical suffering, 
but the fire of divine love that impressed the stigmata upon Francis. 


17 September 1224

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Discovering love, discovering oneself...

  "Christ is the only way to the Father,
and those who see Christ see the Father also.
Those who are nourished by Christ's body 
are at the same time extending the graces 
that flow from the indwelling
of the Father and the Holy Spirit.
 
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The Blessed Sacrament is not a mystery that 
separates itself from the Trinity in Heaven
and comes down to earth for the love of man. 
The Blessed Sacrament is Christ,
and Christ is God, and God is undivided.
It is when a man discovers Christ that
he discovers the Father and the Holy Spirit.
It is also then that he discovers love and 
discovers himself."- Dom Hubert van Zellar