Opening the eyes of the soul...

   ...those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. - Ps 34:10b

"After having received the Lord, since you have the 
Person Himself present, strive to close the eyes of the body 
and open those of the soul and look into your heart.
For I tell you again, and would like to tell you many 

times that you should acquire the habit of doing this 

every time you receive Communion 

and strive to have such a conscience that you 
will be allowed to enjoy this blessing frequently.

Though He comes disguised, the disguise as I have said, 
does not prevent Him from being recognized 
in many ways, in conformity with the desire we have 
to see Him. And you can desire to see Him so much 
that He will reveal Himself to you entirely." 

St. Teresa of Avila: Way of Perfection 34:12.

  St Teresa of Avila

 Spain ~ 1515-1582

Carmelite Contemplative, Reformer, Mystic,

Prolific Writer*

*Way of Perfection, Interior Castle,

The Life of Teresa of Jesus (Autobiography)

DOCTOR of the CHURCH

Feast Day - October 15

Painting: St Teresa of Avila Receiving Communion - Claudio Coello

"Trust God that you are exactly 
where you are meant to be." 
St Teresa of Avila

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Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. 
All things are passing.  God does not change. 
Patience wins all things.  For God alone suffices.
St Teresa of Avila's Bookmark

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"Accustom yourself continually to make many 
acts of love for they enkindle and melt the soul." 
St Teresa of Avila

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Click here: St. Teresa of Avila - YouTube (2 mins)

St Teresa of Avila, pray for us!

Saintward bound...

  "God would never inspire me 

with desires which cannot be realised; 

so in spite of my littleness I can 

hope to be a saint." - St Therese of Lisieux

"As believers, all of us are called to 

live our lives for and from the Eucharist 

because then we will be 

living our lives for and from Jesus. 

These graces, these principles, 

were and are the building blocks we see 

in the lives of all the saints.  They can 

be found in every single biography 

of every single saint." 

Fr Barry Braum 

That I May See:  Journeying from 

Spiritual Confusion and Blindness

to the Radiance of the Eucharist

Artist: Ellen Busselli

Longing fulfilled...

  As a deer pants for streams of water, so my soul

pants for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God,

for the living God. ... Deep calls to deep. - Psalm 42:1,2,7a

 

 

 

"The house of my soul is narrow.

O let it be enlarged by You!

It is very ruinous;

be pleased to repair it."

St Augustine

 

Image: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Triumph of the Eucharist

We are expected in heaven...

 "Our goal must be infinite, not the finite. 

The infinite is our homeland.

 We have always been expected in heaven."
St Carlo Acutis

 

"The more Eucharist we receive,

the more we will become like Jesus,

so that on this earth we will

have a foretaste of Heaven."

St Carlo Acutis

1991-2006/Death from Leukemia

Computer genius/Eucharistic passion

Carlo Acutis Eucharistic Miracles Exhibition

Beatified: 10/10/20 in Assisi

Canonized: 09/07/25 in Roma

Feast Day - Oct 12

 

 

"When we face the sun we get a tan...

but when we stand before Jesus 

in the Eucharist we become saints." 

 St Carlo Acutis

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Beatification Carlo Acutis: Computer whiz first millennial declared Blessed

17 Things Every Catholic Should Know About Carlo Acutis

St Carlo Acutis, pray for us!

Solution to our troubles...

 The Lord's Day is the lord of days... but also remembering today>>> 

Pope St John XIII  

"My life seems destined to be spent in 

the light irradiating from the Blessed Sacrament, 

and it is the heart of Jesus that I must look to 

for the solution of all my troubles." - St John XXIII

"In the Blessed Sacrament

a heavenly school is open to you,

with the best teacher

one can possibly imagine,
Jesus Christ Himself."

Pope St John XXIII

Italy ~ 1881-1963

Pope ~ 1958-1963

Always close to the suffering and the poor

Dubbed by media as "the good Pope"

Feast Day - Oct 11*

*Opening day of Vatican II (1962)

Click here: List of encyclicals of Pope John XXIII 

Click here: John XXIII: key points in the life of 'The Good Pope' - YouTube

Click here: TOP 25 QUOTES BY POPE JOHN XXIII (of 57)
Click here: WMF: St. John XXIII - Pope of Innocence and Goodness - YouTube (5 mins)
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Perhaps the testimony of the world 

at the death of Pope John XXIII 

was best expressed by a newspaper drawing of the earth

shrouded in mourning with the simple caption, 

"A Death in the Family."

St John XXIII, pray for us!

Simplicity - of word and faith...

  In the beginning was the Word, 

and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God. – John 1:1

"O Lord, how clear, how precise, how strong, how powerful 

are Your words.  Hardly are the words pronounced: 

'Woman, you are cured' - and she is cured immediately. 

'This is My Body' - and it is His Body. 

'This is My Blood' - and it is His Blood.

Who can speak in that manner if not the One 

Who holds everything in His hand?

Who can be trusted if not the One for Whom 

doing and speaking are one and the same thing?

My soul, accept these words without reservation: 

believe as firmly as the Lord spoke.

Believe with as much humility as He shows authority and power.

The Lord wants to find in your faith 

the same simplicity which He put in His words."

Wilhelm Bousset (+1920)

Image: by artist Giuseppe Crespi

Lead, kindly Light!...

  "Lead, kindly Light!

amid the encircling gloom,

Lead thou me on!"

St John Henry Cardinal Newman

 

"In the Holy Mass that One Sacrifice on the Cross 

once offered is renewed, continued, applied to our benefit. 

He seems to say, My Cross was raised up 1800 years ago, 

and only for a few hours - and very few of my servants 

were present there - but I intend to bring millions into 

my Church. For their sakes then I will perpetuate 

My Sacrifice, that each of them may be as 

though they had severally been present at Calvary.

I will offer Myself up day by day to the Father, 

that every one of my followers may have the opportunity 

to offer up his petitions to Him, sanctified and 

recommended by the all-meritorious virtue of my Passion.

 

Thus I will be a Priest for ever, in the order of Melchizedek  

- My Priests will stand at the Altar - 

but not they, but I rather, will offer.  

I will not let them offer mere bread and wine, but I myself 

will be present on the Altar instead, and I will 

offer myself invisibly, while they perform the outward rite.

And thus the Lamb that was slain once for all, 

though He is ascended on high, ever remains a victim 

from His miraculous presence in Holy Mass  under the 

figure and appearance of mere earthly and visible symbols."

 

 St John Henry Cardinal Newman

England ~ 1801-1890

Convert from Anglicanism in 1845
Doctor of the Church

Teacher (Oxford), eminent theologian, 

writer, poet, popular preacher

Established Oratory of St Philip in England

Founded the Catholic University of Ireland

Feast Day:  Oct 9

Painting above:  Francois-Marius Granet

 

"God knows what is my greatest happiness, 

but I do not. Thus God leads us by strange ways; 

we know He wills our happiness, but we neither 

know what our happiness is, nor the way." 

St John Henry Cardinal Newman

St John Henry Newman, pray for us!

Work hard, eat well, live fully...

  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and 

his grace to me was not without effect.  - I Cor 15:10a

"When we work hard, we must eat well. 
What a joy, that you can

receive Holy Communion often!

It's our life and support in this life --

Receive Communion often, 
and Jesus will change you into Himself." 

St Peter Julian Eymard

Two marvelous fonts of grace...

 Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

October 7

LÃ¥tefossen is unique among Norwegian waterfalls: two streams coming together 

on the side of a mountain just before they merge into another river in the valley below.

 

"Jesus gave Himself as spiritual food 
and True Presence among us in the 

Blessed Sacrament.  In our own century at Fatima,

Mary asked the three children and us to, 
'Pray the Rosary every day.'

Here we see two marvelous fonts of grace 

flowing together.

When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, 

we become united with Him.

Adoring His presence exposed on the altar 

or in the tabernacle we bask in His warmth. 

Meditating on the Rosary, we recall Jesus' life, 

death and resurrection and the union 

of His mother in the work of our salvation.

Through the Eucharist and the Rosary, 

two hearts are joined in love, and 

we, in love, are joined to those two hearts."

From the article, "Mirroring Divine Love," 

by Michael Six

 

 

More on...the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary

 

To commemorate the victory of the Christian Armada over the Turks on Oct 7, 1571, Pope Pius V introduced the Feast of Our Lady of Victory. Christian Europe had been at risk  of being conquered by the Ottoman Empire (Muslim). The year leading up to the battle had been declared the Year of the Rosary.  At the beginning of that year, each mariner of the Holy League was given a rosary and instructed to pray it daily.  The rosary also served to unite the contentious factions of the Holy League during the year of its formation and proved equally important for getting the Holy League to the battle as winning the battle. When faced with unfavorable wind at the onset of the battle, the men picked up their rosaries and began praying.  Miraculously the winds shifted and served to be a key factor in the ensuing victory. 

 

The Feast's name was changed in 1969 to Our Lady of the Rosary and it is now a mandatory memorial.  It is now attached to and starts Respect For Life Month.

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Many complain that the Mass and Rosary are repetitious.  However,  the “repetition” of the Mass and Rosary alike can work a slow but deep transformation of one's heart. One could also point out that repetition is not necessarily a sign of a lack of imagination. It may be sheer exuberant pleasure that makes us repeat an activity.  G. K. Chesterton argued that repetition is a characteristic of the vitality of children.  They like the same stories, the same words, time and time again, not because they are bored and unimaginative but because they delight in life.

 

Chesterton wrote:

“Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead, for grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.  It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes each daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore. Heaven may encore the bird who laid an egg."

 

Pray the Rosary.  Pray the Mass. 

Exult in the monotony. Transform your heart.

By word and example bring others close to Jesus

in the Blessed Sacrament and the Rosary!
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"Love is expressed with few words,
always the same and always repeated."

 St Charles de Foucauld
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Click here: Fatima, Our Lady of the Rosary - YouTube (6:30 mins)
Click here: Our Lady of the Rosary - YouTube (2 mins) 
Click here:The Battle of Lepanto. - YouTube (7 mins)

 

"May the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace, 
intercede for all humanity, so that

hate and death never have the last word!" 
 St John Paul II

 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us!