Throw wide the gate of your heart...

   ADVENT assures us that Someone is coming

Who will fill our lives 
with everything we are looking for... 

The LORD is my light and my salvation - whom shall I fear? 
The LORD is the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?
 Psalm 27:1-2

"Let your door stand open to receive Him, 

unlock your soul to Him, 

offer Him a welcome in your mind,

and then you will see the riches of simplicity,

the treasures of peace, the joy of grace.

Throw wide the gate of your heart,

stand before the sun of the everlasting light."

St Ambrose

Italy ~ 340-397

Father* and Doctor of the Church 
*One of four original Doctors of the Latin Church. 
He died on Holy Saturday (April 4) in the year 397 AD. 
His feast day in the Roman calendar is December 7, 
the day he was ordained bishop.

Spiritual father of St Augustine

Bishop of Milan
Model Bishop and eloquent preacher
Credited with composing the "Te Deum" hymn

Feast Day - December 7

"One day after he had celebrated Holy Mass, St Ambrose 

was approached by a woman afflicted with paralysis 

who wanted to kiss his hands. The woman had 

great faith in those hands that had consecrated 

the Eucharist; and she was cured at once."

From Jesus Our Eucharistic Love

Fr Stephano M Manelli

Click here: St. Ambrose - YouTube 
Ambrose of Milan Quotes (Author of On the Mysteries)
___________________

Let us today make this our prayer too:

From a prayer of St Ambrose

"Most Sweet Bread, heal my heart, 

that I may taste the sweetness of Your love.

Heal it from all weakness, that I may

enjoy no sweetness but You."

St Ambrose, pray for us!

Pausing... to grasp a presence ...

  "My heart is Your abode, O King of Eternal Glory.  

Rule in my heart and be my Lord, 
in a palace of splendor untold." 

St Faustina (Diary, 1231)

 

 

"Advent invites us to pause in silence 

to grasp a presence.

It is an invitation to understand that every event of the day is a gesture that God directs to us, a sign of the care He has for each one of us. How many times God makes us perceive something of His love! To have, so to speak, an 'interior diary' of this love would be a beautiful and salutary task for our life! Advent invites and 

stimulates us to contemplate the Lord who is present. 

 

Should not the certainty of His presence help us to see the world with different eyes? Should it not help us to see our whole existence as a 'visit,' as a way in which He can come to us and be close to us, in each situation?" 

 

Pope Benedict XVI 

First Vespers, 28 Nov 2009

_____________________________

 

Happy St Nicholas Day!
December 6

 

 

Trusting you got a few goodies

in your shoes this morning!

Click here: St. Nicholas - Saints & Angels - Catholic Online

includes a short and sweet YouTube by Fr James Kubicki, SJ

 

"The giver of every good and perfect gift 
has called upon us to mimic God's giving, 
by grace, through faith, 

and this is not of ourselves." 

 St Nicholas of Myra (+343)

Bishop

St Nicholas, pray for us! 

His life: an Advent...

"The life of a priest is a continual Advent 

  bringing forth the Incarnation into souls." 

   St Elizabeth of the Trinity

 

PRAYER FOR HOLY PRIESTS
(St Charles Borromeo)

O Holy Mother of God, 
pray for the priests
your Son has chosen to serve the Church.
Help them, by your intercession,
to be holy, zealous and chaste.
Make them models of virtue
in the service of God’s people.
Help them to be prayerful in meditations,
efficacious in preaching,
and zealous in the daily offering of
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Help them administer the sacraments with joy.

Amen 

Let us generously remember our priests in daily prayer -

especially in this holy Advent season.
These special days are filled with many extra duties.

______________________________

Learn of a way to pray for priests 
in the form of one weekly Holy Hour offering:
Seven Sisters Apostolate
sevensistersapostolate.org
Every breath of prayer has merit!

Every sacrifice has worth!

Participating in divine fire...

   "The words of Christ, since they are divine,

are efficacious, and can produce nothing other 

than what they command.  For they are eternal.

Heaven and earth shall pass,

but My words shall not pass." - St Paschasius

 

“The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself:  for the Lord has said, “This is My body,” not, this is a figure of My body: and “My blood,” not, a figure of My blood.  ...

 

Wherefore with all fear and a pure conscience and certain faith let us draw near and it will assuredly be to us as we believe, doubting nothing. ...

Let us draw near to it with ardent desire, and with our hands held in the form of the cross let us receive the body of the Crucified One: and let us apply our eyes and lips and brows and partake of the divine coal, in order that the fire of the longing that is in us, with the additional heat, derived from the coal may utterly consume our sins and illumine our hearts, and that we may be inflamed and deified by the participation in the divine fire.”

 

St John Damascene

aka St John of Damascus
Syria ~ 676 - 749
DOCTOR of the CHURCH
Monk, prolific writer, poet
Defender of icons/images
Feast Day - Dec 4

Image title:  The Presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist is like a consuming fire, 2003 -

Artist: Elizabeth Wang



"Show me the icons that you venerate,

that I may be able to understand

your faith." - St John of Damascus

 Click here: St. John of Damascus - YouTube (2 mins) 
Click here: St. John of Damascus (Holy Repentance) - YouTube (4 mins)

St John Damascene, pray for us!