The first Tabernacle

FEAST of the VISITATION

May 31

Blessed is she who believed that what the Lord

has said would be fulfilled. ~ Luke 1:45

"O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all, O Ark of the Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which Divinity resides." ~ St Athanasius

 

“Mary also anticipated, in the mystery of the Incarnation,

the Church’s Eucharistic faith.  When, at the Visitation, she bore

in her womb the Word made flesh, she became in some way

a ‘tabernacle’ – the first ‘tabernacle’ in history –

in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze,

allowed Himself to be adored by Elizabeth radiating His light

as it were through the eyes and the voice of Mary.

And is not the enraptured gaze of Mary …

that unparalleled model of love which should inspire us

every time we receive Eucharistic communion?”

Pope Blessed John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 55

“Is it not this also the joy of the Church, which receives Christ

incessantly in the holy Eucharist and takes Him to the world

with the testimony of active charity, full of faith and hope?

Yes, to receive Jesus and to take Him to others

is the true joy of the Christian!

Let us follow and imitate Mary’s profoundly Eucharistic

soul, and our whole life will become a Magnificat.”

Pope Benedict XVI

May 31, 2005

Blessed Mother Mary and St Elizabeth, ora pro nobis!

 



ORDAINED to the Holy Priesthood of Jesus Christ TODAY

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Oh, day of all love excelling! 

Rev. Mr. Kregg Hochhalter ~ Diocese of Bismarck (North Dakota)

Rev. Mr. Jadyn Nelson ~ Diocese of Bismarck

Cathedral of the Holy Spirit - 3 PM

Let us hold them in prayer and offer thanksgiving for their 'YES'! 

“The greatest glory of God on earth is a good priest,
for a good priest is a monstrance for Christ.” ~ Fr Gerald Fitzgerald, s.P.

Keeping vigil

St Josemaria Escriva recommended priests to keep the Blessed Sacrament company as much as they could. He wanted all of them to increase their devotion to the Eucharist, pointing out to them:

 

“Don’t do it for your parishioners to see, but don’t worry if they do see you. If you are centered on our Lord, and people notice how you love Him, they’ll ask you why, and then you can tell them about this love that should fill your whole life.”

The joyous wound

 

 

Pierce my soul, sweet Lord Jesus,

with the most joyous and wholesome wound of Your love,

and with calm, true, and holy love.  

Make my soul to languish and melt with love and longing for You,

yearn for You and for Your courts, longing to be dissolved with You. 

 

May my heart always hunger after and feed on You. 

May it always thirst for You, the fountain of life, of all wisdom

and knowledge, of eternal light, a torrent of pleasure, the house of God. 

 

 

You alone will be my hope, my confidence,

riches, delight, pleasure, joy, rest, peace, sweetness,

food, luxury, refuge, help, wisdom, and treasure. 

 

In You will my soul and heart

ever be fixed and firm, immovable. 

 

Amen.

w

St. Bonaventure

In proper order..

 

  

"We must understand that in order 'to do',

we must first learn 'to be',

that is to say,

in the sweet company of Jesus in adoration."

Pope Blessed John Paul II

 

 MEMORIAL DAY - May 28

Eternal gratitude for the millions of generous, courageous,

self-sacrificing and heroic acts of service – seen and unseen.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.

And let perpetual light shine upon them.

May their souls and the souls of all of the faithful departed

through the mercy of God rest in peace. AMEN

  

PENTECOST - sanctified and transformed

In honor of the Holy Spirit - wear RED to holy Mass today!

 

Today is Pentecost. It is not merely a reminder of a past event, but a continuation of the Spirit renewing the face of the earth (Psalm 104:30). Today's Pentecost will not be a shadow of the first Pentecost, rather the first Pentecost is a shadow of today's Pentecost. God's grace is abounding all the more (Romans 5:20). The Spirit is not diminishing His work in our world, but increasing it. It will not be only thousands who come to Jesus today (Acts 2:41), but millions. The waters of the Spirit become deeper as they flow further around the world and into history (Ezekiel 47:5). 

 

 Come, Holy Spirit, Come!

 

Artist: Juan de Flandes

 

St Cyril of Jerusalem, in his Catecheses, states that we

"call upon God in His mercy

to send His Holy Spirit

upon the offerings before us,

to transform the bread into the Body of Christ

and the wine into the Blood of Christ.

 

Whatever the Holy Spirit touches is

sanctified and completely transformed."

 

 

 

 

Come, Holy Spirit, Come -

touch and renew our hearts!

 

The fragrance of Paradise

“Can you feel the fragrance of Paradise which

diffuses Itself from the Tabernacle?"

St Philip Neri

Italy ~ 1515 - 1595

Priest, bears title "Second Apostle of Rome"

Founder ~ Congregation of the Oratory

Counter-reformer

Advice regarding prayer:  "Be humble and obedient

and the Holy Spirit will teach you."

FEAST DAY - May 26

 

 

 

"Cheerfulness strengthens the heart and makes us persevere

in a good life. Therefore the servant of God ought always

to be in good spirits." - St Philip Neri

 

St Philip Neri, ora pro nobis!

 



ORDAINED to the Holy Priesthood of Jesus Christ TODAY

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Oh, day of all love excelling! 

 

Rev Mr Evan Koop ~ Archdiocese of St Paul/Minneapolis (Minnesota)

Rev Mr Ben Little ~ Archdiocese of St Paul/Minneapolis

Rev Mr Nick VandenBroeke ~ Archdiocese of St Paul/Minneapolis

Cathedral of St Paul ~10 AM Mass

 

Rev Mr Donald Anstoetter ~ Archdiocese of St Louis (Missouri)

Rev Mr Fadi Auro ~ Archdiocese of St Louis

Rev Mr William Dotson ~ Archdiocese of St Louis

Rev Mr Brian Fallon ~ Archdiocese of St Louis

Rev Mr Daniel Shaughnessy ~ Archdiocese of St Louis

Cathedral Basilica of St Louis ~ 10 AM Mass

Rev Mr Oswaldo Sandoval ~ Archdiocese of Kansas City (Kansas)

Cathedral of St Peter ~ 10:30 AM Mass

Rev Mr Joel Phelps ~ Diocese of Peoria (Illinois)

St Mary Cathedral ~ 10:30 AM Mass

Rev Mr Zachary Edgar ~ Diocese of Springfield (Illinois)

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception ~ 10:30 AM Mass

Rev Mr David Voss ~ Diocese of Wichita (Kansas)

Rev Mr Benjamin Green ~ Diocese of Wichita

St Francis of Assisi Church ~ 10:00 AM Mass

Let us hold them in prayer and offer thanksgiving for their 'YES'!

A priest is an ordinary man called by God to "an amazing vocation of service," Fr John Horn said. "Rather than put a priest on a pedestal, it's the opposite. The more a priest serves, the more people are invited to see their own call of holiness, that what God does with our ordinariness is awesome and beautiful." (Fr Horn is president-rector of Kenrick-Glennon Seminary - St Louis, MO)

Many feasts, many graces...

Eucharistic thoughts from four 'family members'

(including a Doctor of the Church and a Pope),

on their FEAST DAY today...

 

Saints are like the light of the stars, which still

reaches the earth long after being extinguished.

Saints touch us by radiating the light of Christ

to us through their life and deeds.  (Anonymous)

 

 

The classic expression of faith in the Real Presence was drafted by Pope Gregory VII in a Eucharistic Creed that leaves no room for compromise.

"I believe in my heart and openly profess that the bread and wine placed upon the altar are, by the mystery of the sacred prayer and the words of the Redeemer, substantially changed into the true and life-giving flesh and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, and that after the consecration there is present the true body of Christ which was born of the Virgin and offered up for the salvation of the world, being hung on the cross and now sits at the right hand of the Father, and there is present the true blood of Christ which flowed from His side. They are present not only by means of a sign and of the efficacy of the sacrament, but also in the very reality and truth of their nature and substance(Council of Rome, February 11,1079)."

His teachings on the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, in response to Berengarius, made Church history and began a Eucharistic Renaissance in the Church which included Eucharistic Adoration. His teaching was so great that it was quoted verbatim in Pope Paul VI’s 1965 Encyclical  “Mysterium Fedei”.

 

Pope St Gregory VII

Medieval Reformer

Italy ~ 1073-1085

Feast Day - May 25

 

 

Though he did not want the office of Pope, his electors praised him as

“a devout man … mighty in human and divine knowledge, a distinguished lover

of equity and justice, a man firm in adversity and temperate in prosperity.”

 

Pope St Gregory VII, ora pro nobis!

 

 

 

"If you could only understand

the value of one Holy Communion! 

A single Communion

should make us other Christs!"

 

 

St Madeleine Sophie Barat

Foundress of Society of the Sacred Heart

France ~ 1779-1865

FEAST DAY - May 25

 

  

St Madeleine Sophie Barat, ora pro nobis!

 

 

"All graces are contained in you, O Jesus,

in the Eucharist, our celestial Food! 

What more can a soul wish when it has within itself

the One who contains everything?...Because I have

and possess this great wonder, I do not

long for, want, or desire any other!"

 

 

  St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

Carmelite nun

Italy ~ 1566-1607

FEAST DAY - May 25

 

 

 

St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, ora pro nobis!

 

 

 

"I have devoted my energies to the study of the Scriptures, observing monastic discipline,

and singing the daily services in church; study,

teaching, and writing have always been my delight."

 

 

Venerable Bede

Monk, scholar, teacher

Doctor of the Church

England ~ 672-735

FEAST DAY - May 25

 

 

 

St Bede, ora pro nobis!

 

OF INTEREST:  Bede was the greatest scholar of his time in the Western Church. He regarded his theological writings as his most important work (especially Biblical commentaries), but his fame in later centuries rests primarily on his writings about history.  St Bede was one of the first to propose a calendar that would reckon the years backward and forward from the "birth of Christ" (BC and AD).

 

Happy are those...

“This is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world.

Happy are those who are called to His supper."

“…I have seen priests pass up breakfast and work hard labor on an empty stomach until noon in order to keep the Eucharistic fast, because the noon break at the work site was the time we could best get together for a hidden Mass… sometimes, when the guards were observing us too closely and we couldn't risk saying Mass at the work site, the crusts of bread I had put in my pocket at breakfast remained there uneaten until I could get back to camp and say Mass at night. … I have seen priests and prisoners deprive their bodies of needed sleep in order to get up before the rising bell for a secret Mass in a quiet barracks. … In some ways, we led a catacomb existence with our Masses.  We would be severely punished if we were discovered saying Mass, and there were always informers.  But the Mass to us was always worth the danger and the sacrifice; we treasured it, we looked forward to it, we would do almost anything in order to say or to attend a Mass.”

Father Walter J Ciszek, S.J.

He Leadeth Me, Pgs 143-146

Making Christ real

 

“Frequent visits

to the Blessed Sacrament

make Christ real to us as

king and lord,

master and friend,

brother and spouse.

Christ must have first place

in the family

as in all things.”

Bl. John Baptist Scalabrini

Christ made her heart His Heart

"Christ Jesus had stolen the heart of Rita –

He alone possessed it.  He made her heart His heart;

and under the white veils of the Eucharist He was for her soul,

as He is for all loving hearts, heaven upon earth.

 

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.' "

Fr M.J. Corcoran, OSA
Our Own St Rita:  A Life of the Saint of the Impossible

St Rita of Cascia

Wife, Mother, Nun

Stigmatist

Patron of Impossible Cases

Italy (1381-1457)

FEAST DAY - May 22

 

The saint of Cascia belongs to the great host of Christian women who "have had a significant impact on the life of the Church as well as of society" (Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem, n. 27). Rita well interpreted the "feminine genius" by living it intensely in both physical and spiritual motherhood. " ~ Pope Blessed John Paul II

 St Rita, ora pro nobis!

MORE ABOUT ST RITA:

From an early age Rita desired to become a nun, but her parents thought it best for her to marry. She suffered through a difficult marriage for 18 years, with an abusive, ill tempered husband. He converted shortly before his political murder. Their twin sons wanted to avenge his death.  When St. Rita learned that her sons planned to avenge their father's murder, she prayed to God to save them from committing such a grievous sin.  Almost immediately, both boys fell ill. She nursed them lovingly, and they both died, reconciled with God.

Now a widow and childless, St. Rita applied for admission to the Augustinian convent in Cascia, but was refused because its rule only permitted virgins. After much prayer and entreaty, an exception was finally granted to her and she was allowed to enter in 1413. The story is told that St. Rita was miraculously transported into the monastery itself, despite its locked doors; when the nuns found her there in the morning, they allowed her to stay, taking it as the will of God.

St Rita had a deep devotion to the passion of Christ and the Holy Eucharist. She spent many hours in Eucharistic Adoration daily. Confined to her bed the last four years of her life, she consumed little more than the Eucharist.  Near the end of her life, she had a visitor from her home town who asked if she'd like anything.  Rita's only request was a rose from her family's estate. The visitor went to the home, but it being January, knew there was no hope of finding a flower; but there, sprouted on an otherwise bare bush, was a single rose blossom.

St Rita was a stigmatist who suffered a wound of Christ on her forehead. Her incorrupt body, which for several centuries gave off a sweet fragrance, is preserved in a shrine in Italy.  It is said that at her beatification, the body of the saint raised itself up and opened its eyes. St. Rita is called "The Saint of the Impossible" and is particularly invoked in cases of matrimonial difficulties.

Life to the full!

Your face, LORD, I will seek. ~ Psalm 27:8b

 

 

"In meditation we find the strength

to bring Christ to birth

in ourselves and in others."

 

St Charles Borromeo

Without reserve!

 

 

"But what hast Thou, O my Jesus, left us,

when quitting this world, in memory of Thy love? 

 

Not, indeed, a garment or a ring, but

Thine own body, Thy blood,

Thy soul, Thy divinity,

Thy whole self, without reserve." 

 

 

St Bernardine of Siena

Franciscan priest, itinerant preacher, theological writer

Italy ~ 1380-1444

Known as "Apostle of Italy"

for efforts to revive faith in 15th century 

Recalling FEAST DAY - May 20*

 *Since today is SUNDAY, it is the fundamental feast to celebrate.

In the words of a fourth century homily, the "the Lord's Day" is "the lord of days".

 

 

 

Especially known for his devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus,

Bernardine devised a symbol—IHS, the first three letters

of the name of Jesus in Greek, in Gothic letters on a blazing sun.

 

 

 

"Jesus, Name full of glory, grace, love and strength! You are the refuge of those who repent, our banner of warfare in this life, the medicine of souls, the comfort of those who morn, the delight of those who believe, the light of those who preach the true faith, the wages of those who toil, the healing of the sick. To You our devotion aspires; by You our prayers are received; we delight in contemplating You. O Name of Jesus, You are the glory of all the saints for eternity. Amen." ~ St Bernardine

 

St Bernardine, ora pro nobis!

Companion at Mass

 

“Let us bring Mary with us to Mass.  She will kneel

beside us at the Consecration and we shall

feel her intense devotion, admire her heroic courage,

and yearn for her spirit of self-sacrifice.  Mary knows

that the more a soul gives itself into His hands,

the more perfectly does He work for its sanctity.”

Fr John T McMahon

Live the Mass

 

“Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much.

You can never love her more than Jesus did.” 

 Saint Maximilian Kolbe



ORDAINED to the Holy Priesthood of Jesus Christ TODAY....

Rev Mr Jacob Strand

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Diocese of Milwaukee, WI

Let us hold him in prayer and offer thanksgiving for his 'YES'!