Good and holy places...

  I rejoiced with those who said to me, 

"Let us go to the house of the LORD."

Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. 

Psalm 122:1-2

Non enim pro locis res, 

sed pro bonis rebus loca amanda sunt –

"Things are not to be loved 

for the sake of a place,

but places are to be loved

for the sake of their good things."

 Pope St Gregory the Great

Italy ~ 540-604

Doctor of the Church

Prolific writer, untiring servant for Christ

Compiled Antiphony (chants of Church used for Liturgy)

Established Schola Cantorum 

(Rome's training school for choristers)

Patron:  Popes, Teachers, Choirboys, Musicians, Singers

Feast Day - September 3 

Photo credit: Church Kneeling, Lawrence, OP

“It is not by faith that you will come 

to know [God] but by love;

not by mere conviction, but by action.”

 St Gregory the Great

"The sacred Scriptures grow with
the one who reads them."

St Gregory the Great

"You don't climb a mountain in leaps and bounds, 
but by taking it slowly."- St Gregory the Great

TOP 25 QUOTES BY POPE GREGORY I | A-Z Quotes

St Gregory the Great, pray for us!

Caught up into a rhythm...

 "The grace flowing from this wellspring (Eucharist)

renews mankind, life and history."

 St John Paul II, Dies Domini, Pentecost Sunday, 31 May 1998

"The Blessed Sacrament is the 

Sacrament of Unity; and when you receive it, it 

does not merely produce in you more charity toward 

your neighbor, more loyalty toward the Church,

more unselfishness in your human attachments.

It makes you more at unity with yourself;

it catches up our life into a rhythm 

that echoes the heavenly music...

It comes to you... full of that unifying love

which is the bond of the Blessed Trinity."

Msgr Ronald Knox

Painting above: Memoir Writing ~ August Muller

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
_____________
"The Hail Mary will take us to heaven." 

 St Jeanne Jugan
_____________________________

"Little, very little. Be very little before God." 

 St Jeanne Jugan

_______________________

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.

_____________________

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)

________________________

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
____________________________________

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!

Let it be said - of you and of me...

 My heart is steadfast, O God ... - Psalm 108, 1a

 

St Augustine has left us this praise of his mother, St Monica:

"She did not let a day pass

without being present

at the Divine Sacrifice

before Your altar, O Lord."

St Monica

North Africa ~ 333-387

Mother of St Augustine

Patroness of Married women and Mothers

Feast Day - August 27

"Nothing is far from God." - St Monica

________________________________

As recounted by Augustine... 

before his mother died she told him...

"There was indeed one thing for which I wished 

to tarry a little in this life, and that was 

that I might see you a Catholic before I died. 

My God hath answered this more than 

abundantly, so that I see you are now made 

His servant and spurning all earthly happiness. 

What more am I to do here?"

   Click here: St. Monica - YouTube (2 mins)

 

Prayer for St Monica's intercession

Exemplary mother of the great Augustine, you perseveringly 

pursued your wayward son not with wild threats but with 

prayerful cries to heaven. Intercede for all mothers in our day so 

that they may learn to draw their children to God. Teach them 

how to remain close to their children, even the prodigal 

sons and daughters who have sadly gone astray. Amen.

St Monica, pray for us!

Co-workers of Christ...

  “I know I would not be able to work one week 

if it were not for that continual force coming from 
Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.” 

 St Teresa of Calcutta

"Each one of us is a co-worker of Christ 

- we must labor hard to carry Him to the hearts 

where He has not yet been known and loved... But, 

unless we have Jesus, we cannot give Him; 
that is why we need the Eucharist. 

Spend as much time as possible in front 

of the Blessed Sacrament and He will 

fill you with His strength and power." 

St Teresa of Calcutta

nee Albania 

 Anniversary of birth 08/26/1910
Foundress - Missionaries of Charity

Painting:  Young Woman Praying in Church - Jules Breton

"Joy is prayer -

Joy is strength  - Joy is love - 

Joy is a net of love by

which you can catch souls."

St Teresa of Calcutta

St Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!