He provides, we trust

"Catch, then, O catch the transient hour;

Improve each moment as it flies!" - St. Jerome

 

 

"If Christ did not want to dismiss the Jews

without food in the desert for fear

that they would collapse on the way,

it was to teach us that it is

dangerous to try to get to heaven

without the Bread of Heaven." ~ St Jerome

 

 

 

St Jerome

c. 331- 420

Early Church Father, Doctor of the Church

Brilliant and thorough scholar and writer

Translated Scripture into Latin (Vulgate)

Consultant to Popes and Bishops

FEAST DAY - September 30

 

Cavarozzi

 

 "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." - St Jerome

St Jerome, pray for us!

Guardians of power and love

Feast of Archangels

St Michael~St Gabriel~St Raphael

September 29

 

 

 

"O, angelic spirits, who guard our tabernacles, wherein

lies the adorable treasure of the Holy Eucharist,

defend it from profanation and preserve it for our love."

 

St Josemaria Escriva 

 

   

"Michael and his Angels battled against the dragon...

Satan, the seducer of the whole world, was driven out."

Revelation 12:7, 9

 

 

A Sermon of Pope Saint Gregory
From the Third Nocturne of Matins of the feast of Saint Michael the Archangel

We speak of nine orders of Angels, because we know, by the testimony of Holy Scripture, that there are the following: Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. It must be realized that "Angel" is the name of their office, not of their nature. For the holy Spirits of the heavenly homeland are always Spirits, but they cannot always be called Angels; they are Angels only when they are announcing something. Those who announce less important things are called Angels, and those who announce the highest things are called Archangels. And so not any Angel but the Archangel Gabriel was sent to Mary; for this ministry, it was fitting to have the highest Angel, since he was to announce the greatest news of all. These Archangels are also given special names to describe their particular virtue. For Michael means "Who is like to God?" Gabriel means "Strength of God," and Raphael "Medicine of God."

Whenever something is to be done needing great power, Michael is sent forth so that from his action and his name we may understand that no one can do what God can do. Hence that old enemy who through pride desired to be like God is shown at the end of the world, left to his own strength and about to undergo the final punishment, as destined to fight with Michael the Archangel, as John says, "There was a battle with Michael the Archangel." Similarly, Gabriel was sent to Mary; he who is called "Strength of God" came to announce Him who deigned to appear in humility to conquer the powers of the air. And Raphael is interpreted, as we said, "Medicine of God," for when he touched the eyes of Tobias to do the work of healing, he dispelled the "night of his blindness."

Click here: The Archangels - YouTube (1:30 mins)

 

 

St Michael, St Gabriel, St Raphael, pray for us

and defend us in battle!

Confession Before the Blessed Sacrament

Confession Before the Blessed Sacrament

Grain of God,

I was the stone that ground You.

Holocaust of Heaven,

I was the flame that consumed You.

Lamb on the altar,

I was the knife across Your throat.

Crucified One,
I was the nail in Your hand.

Have mercy, Jesus.

Reshape this guilty soul to make

a stone in your altar,

a flame in Your lamp,

a knife for Your bread,

a nail in Your table

where the world sits down

to feast.

Paul Thigpen

From Jesus, We Adore You

Prayers Before the Blessed Sacrament

IMAGE: Adoration, National Shrine of Maximilian Kolbe, Marytown, IL ~ USA

Going to Jesus from Jesus

St Vincent de Paul was praying before the Eucharist one time and,

after a man told him about a poor person on the street needing help,

Vincent said:

 

"I am going to Jesus from Jesus."

 

 

St Vincent de Paul

1580-1660 ~ France

Priest, Co-Founder of Daughters of Charity

Founder - Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians)

Patron - Charitable societies*

*Society of St. Vincent de Paul, founded 1833

by a devotee, Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

Incorrupt

FEAST DAY - September 27

 

"We should take as a maxim never to be surprised at current difficulties, 

no more than at a passing breeze, because with a little patience 

we shall see them disappear. Time changes everything." -  St. Vincent de Paul

Click here: St. Vincent de Paul YouTube (6:45 mins)

 

St Vincent de Paul, pray for us!

The King Of Love My Shepherd Is

The King Of Love My Shepherd Is 

(St. Columba)

The King of Love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness fails me never;
I nothing lack if I am His,
and He is mine forever.

Where streams of living water flow
With gentle care He leads me,
And where the verdant pastures grow
With Heav'nly food He feeds me.

Perverse and foolish I have strayed
But yet in love He sought me,
and on His shoulder gently laid,
and home, rejoicing brought me.

In death's dark vale I fear no ill
With You, dear Lord, beside me, 

Your rod and staff my comfort still,
Your Cross before to guide me.

You spread a table in my sight,
Your saving grace bestowing;
And O what joy and true delight
From Your pure chalice flowing!

And so through all the length of days
Your goodness fails me never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Your praise
Within Your house forever.

Participating fully!

 "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, pg 24

Fruitful remedy

"God did not tell us to follow Him because He needed our help, but because He knew that loving Him would make us whole."

Irenaeus of Lyons  

    

 

"When the Sisters are exhausted,

up to their eyes in work;

when all seems to go awry,

they spend an hour in prayer

before the Blessed Sacrament.

 

This practice has never failed to bear fruit.

They experience peace and strength."

 

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 

Perfumes of Strength

  "Protected, covered and defended by the Presence of this dear Lord,

let us stand before Him in the Holy Eucharist

and pray with the humility of the creature

and the confidence and freedom of the child." - St Padre Pio

"We must always have courage,

and if some spiritual languor comes upon us,

let us run to the feet of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,

and let us place ourselves

in the midst of the heavenly perfumes,

and we will undoubtedly regain our strength."

St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

Priest, Stigmatist, Mystic

Italy  ~ 1887-1968

Patron of Eucharistic Adorers

Feast Day - Sept. 23

When I am close to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament,

I feel as if my heart is bursting out of my chest.” ~ St Padre Pio

 

Click here: St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina - YouTube (2:30 mins)

Click here: St. Padre Pio - YouTube (2 mins)

St Padre Pio, pray for us!

Savoring sweetness...

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;

in you I trust, O my God. - Psalm 25:1, 2a

 

"What great sweetness there is,

O Jesus,

in Holy Communion. 

I want to live in Thy embrace 

and die in Thy embrace!"

St Gemma Galgani (+1903)

IMAGE: Woman giving thanks after Communion ~ Alphonse Legros

Redemption: in mystery, in manner of life!

The LORD is near to all who call upon him,

to all who call upon him in truth. - Psalm 145:18

 

 

Prayer after Communion (Today’s Liturgy)

Graciously raise up, O Lord,

those you renew with this Sacrament,

that we may come to possess your redemption

both in mystery and in the manner of our life. 

Through Christ our Lord.

 

Remembering... St Matthew

Nee - Capernaum

"And he got up and followed Him" (Mt 9:9b) ...

"leaving everything behind" (Lk 5:28)

Apostle and Evangelist

"the son of Alphaeus" (Mk 2:14)

FEAST DAY - September 21

 

 

 

Imitate St Matthew - get up and follow Jesus.

Then invite sinners to meet Him.

"What reason can the Teacher have for eating with tax collectors

and those who disregard the law?" —Matthew 9:11

Cause heaven to rejoice (Luke 15:7).

 

 

 

His life is somewhat shrouded, and  ... There are not many facts ... But Matthew was a publican ... Who gathered in the tax ... Until that wondrous moment in ... His native Galilee ... When Jesus came upon him, and ... He told him, "Follow me" ... And Matthew followed Jesus then  ... Wherever Jesus went ... Ignoring Pharisees and all ... The Roman government ... With eloquent sincerity ... This good apostle preached ... In distant lands wherever there ... Were souls that could be reached ... And he composed the gospel that ... Inspires us today ... To follow Jesus Christ and live ... According to His way.

 

From Poem Portraits of the Saints - James J Metcalfe (1956), pg 6

 

 St Matthew, pray for us!

Bound gently to God - les petits moyens

"We begin to pray, believing that it is our own initiative that compels us to do so.  Instead, we learn that it is always God’s initiative within us …"

St John Paul II

The Humble Prayer of Repetition

Dom Mark Kirby, O.S.B. (12/06) - http://vultus.stblogs.org/

"Today a God–seeking soul shared with me that she used to think of the prayer of repetition as second rate. Her ideal was to remain perfectly still, empty, and receptive before God. Unable to attain her ideal, she fell to the humble prayer of repetition, and now has come to recognize its value. She often prays the Chaplet of the Eucharistic Face of Christ (see below). Like others, she has found that this humble prayer of seeking, desire, supplication, and praise anchors her in the presence of Our Lord. The repetition of its invocations (like the prayers of the Rosary) binds her gently, but effectively, to God. This soul's experience corresponds to my own.

The prayer of repetition is pleasing to God because it is intrinsically humble. One accepts one's inability to be perfectly still, entirely receptive, and totally absorbed in adoration, and then one accepts to make use of the poor man's prayer: the same well–loved phrases burnished by repetition.  As the heart is enkindled by the Holy Spirit, each repeated prayer becomes like a grain of incense thrown on an incandescent charcoal. Its fragrance is for God alone.

Folks who see themselves as theologically sophisticated and enlightened often disdain what I call les petits moyens, "the little means." They sniff condescendingly at people who pray rosaries, chaplets, and litanies. Better to pray that way, I say, than to abandon prayer altogether.

The humble prayer of repetition bears sweet fruits. One fine day — or in the middle of the night — one wakes to discover that the heart is praying by itself. Deep within, a spring has begun to flow, irrigating one's secret parts. Thus does the grace of Christ begin to heal what is wounded, to refresh what is weary, to make new what is old."  

Chaplet of the Eucharistic Face of Christ.

Pray it on ordinary rosary beads. Apart from the opening antiphon, which was composed by Saint Thomas Aquinas for the Office of Corpus Christi, it is entirely drawn from Sacred Scripture. It incorporates all four steps of lectio divina: lectio (the Word heard); meditatio (the Word repeated); oratio (the Word prayed), and contemplatio (the Word's embrace).

O Sacred Banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of His passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given us, (alleluia).

Before each decade:

My soul is thirsting for God, the strong and living God;
when shall I enter and see the Face of God? (Ps 41:3).

On the Hail Mary beads:

It is Thy Eucharistic Face, O Lord, that I seek;
hide not Thy Face from me (cf. Ps 26:8-9).

After each decade:

Behold, O God our protector,
and look upon the Face of Thy Christ (Ps 83:10).

In conclusion, three times:

Father, glorify the Eucharistic Face of Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee (cf. Jn 17:1).

Strike one and two...

  

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.  - Matthew 16:18

 

 

 

"Wherever heresy has arisen it has first attacked

the worship of the Blessed Sacrament

and devotion to our Blessed Lady,

wishing to begin its work of destruction

by closing these two sources of divine grace."

 

St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

Co-foundress Sisters of the Good Shepherd

 

 

IMAGE:  Dream of two pillars - St John Bosco

http://www.miraclerosarymission.org/bosco.html

Preparation par excellence

 For you, LORD, have never foresaken those who seek you. - Psalm 9:10 b

 

“How do I prepare myself to receive the Host?  I draw near with my soul, from the moment when I wake up.  I call out for it with my lips, I attract it with my sighs, I long for it, I love it, and with a thousand acts of discipline, I prepare… for it.

My chalice is full to the brim with this lowly blood, drawn and extracted out of love to mingle with His blood on the altar, my Immaculate Lamb, and together they are offered up to God’s throne, asking for grace.

Is it not an undeserved happiness and favor to have an altar within and the freedom to be able to do this for my Jesus without anybody knowing?  My soul’s blood, its life fluid, is also for Jesus.  Power, feelings, and my life, I place them all at the foot of the tabernacle.”

Venerable Conception Cabrera de Armida (+1937)

Excerpt:  Irresistibly Drawn to the Eucharist:  Conchita Cabrera de Armida’s 

Most Beautiful Writings on the Eucharist, Fr Juan Gonzalez Gutierrez, M.Sp.S., 

Society of St Paul, Staten Island, New York, 2002, pg. 12

Food for the journey...

 "Come, my soul, and think over within you, if the created sun makes

all things so happy at its rising, what will the uncreated sun do,

which is incomparably brighter and more beautiful,

when it rises in pure hearts to be seen and contemplated,

not for a short time but forever?" - 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 Bellearmine, “Comments on Aquinas’ O Sacrum Convivum”

 

 

St Robert Bellarmine

 Italy ~ 1542-1621

Jesuit theologian, writer, and cardinal

Key voice and action in Counter-Reformation

"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."

 

Click here: St. Robert Bellarmine - YouTube (2 mins)

Click here: St. Robert Bellarmine

 

St Robert Bellarmine, pray for us!

One - by Our Lord's voice!

It is you who have stood by me in my trials;

and I confer a kingdom on you, says the Lord,

that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom. 

- Luke 22:28-30 (Today's Communion Antiphon)

 

 Photo Credit:  Lawrence Lew, OP

"There is one God, and one Christ, and one Church,

and one chair, by our Lord's voice founded upon Peter.

To set up another altar, or to constitute another priesthood,

besides the one altar and the one priesthood, is impossible.

 

Whosever gathereth elsewhere scattereth.

It is adulterous, it is impious, it is sacrilegious,

whatsoever is instituted by man to the breach of God's disposition.

 

Get ye far from such men:

they are blind, and leaders of the blind..."

 

 St. Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church

 

 

 Sts Cornelius (Pope, Martyr +253)

and Cyprian (Bishop of Carthage, Martyr +258)

FEAST DAY - September 16

 

 

 

“You cannot have God for your Father if you do not have the Church for your mother.... God is one and Christ is one, and his Church is one; one is the faith, and one is the people cemented together by harmony into the strong unity of a body.... If we are the heirs of Christ, let us abide in the peace of Christ; if we are the sons of God, let us be lovers of peace.” ~ St. Cyprian, The Unity of the Catholic Church

 

Click here: Ss. Cyprian & Cornelius - YouTube (2 mins)

 Sts Cornelius and Cyprian, pray for us!

Gift of the Queen of Sorrows

  

“Eucharistic Heart of Jesus,

reign over the afflicted;

become their consolation

through this consecrated Bread,

the gift of the Queen of Sorrows.”

Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey 

 

 Remembering...

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

September 15

 

 "In martyrs, the intensity of their love mitigated their sufferings,

but with Mary it was different; the more she loved, the more she suffered,

and the greater was her martyrdom." - Richard of Saint Victor (+1173)

 

 

The Seven Sorrows of Mary:

* at the prophecy of Simeon (Luke 2:35);
* at the flight into Egypt (Matt 2:13);
* having lost the Holy Child at Jerusalem (Luke 2:48);
* meeting Jesus on His way to Calvary;
* standing at the foot of the Cross (John 19:25);
* Jesus being taken from the Cross;
* at the burial of Christ. 

Litany of Our Lady of Sorrows

Click here: The Seven Sorrows Rosary - YouTube (21:30 mins)

O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above;

Make my heart with thine accord.

Make me feel as thou hast felt;

Make my soul to glow and melt

With the love of Christ our Lord.

(Excerpt: Sabat Mater sequence)