Life's focal point...

    "The greatest tragedy would be to 

come to the end of our lives and 

realize that the Lord was so near, 

and yet we were so far away."

 - Ven. Fulton J. Sheen (Beatification 24 Sept 2026)

The Eucharist God Among Us 

Retreat on the Priesthood

"It is most important that the holy Eucharist

becomes life's focal point: that the 

Eucharistic Savior is the center of existence; 

that every day is received from His hand 

and laid back therein; that the 

day's happenings are deliberated with Him.

In this way, God is given the best opportunity

to be heard in the heart, to form the soul, 

and to make its faculties clear-sighted 

and alert for the supernatural."

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

in Essays on Woman 

Image above:  Artist unknown

Sharing in that saving joy...

    For I came not to call the righteous, 

but sinners, says the Lord. - Matthew 9:13

Prayer after Communion (Today’s Liturgy)

Sharing in that saving joy, O Lord,

with which Saint Matthew welcomed the Savior

as a guest in his home, we pray: 

grant that we may always be renewed 

by the food we receive from Christ, who came 

to call not the just, but sinners to salvation. 

Who lives and reigns forever and ever.

Saint 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)
Symbols associated w/St Matthew:
 Gospel, human/angel, sword (in re: martyrdom)

Feast Day - September 21

Painting above: The Calling of Matthew - Caravaggio (detail)

 

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)

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Click here: Web Gallery of Art, searchable fine arts image database

(see Calling of St Matthew - Caravaggio)

Discovering our Saints - St. Matthew the Apostle - YouTube

St. Matthew - YouTube (Apostleship of Prayer)

 St Matthew, pray for us! 

Woven round like a robe...

   "Always remain close to the Catholic Church. 

because it alone can give you true peace,

since it alone possesses Jesus in the

Blessed Sacrament, the true Prince of Peace." 

St Padre Pio

"It is not sufficient to say that 
the Eucharist is at the center of the Church, 
because actually, the Eucharist makes the Church!  

It builds it from within 
and weaves it round itself like a robe.

It is said that two sacraments in particular 
"make" the Church:  Baptism and the Eucharist.  

But whereas Baptism makes the Church grow 

quantitatively, as it were, in size and number, 
the Eucharist makes her grow qualitatively, 
in strength, because it transforms her ever more 

deeply into the image of Christ, her Head."

Raniero Cantalamessa

The Eucharist, Our Sanctification

Christ at Last Supper - Tapestry - Virginia Museum of Fine Arts ~ Richmond, VA

____________________________

The Lord's Day is the lord of days... 

but TODAY also remembering 

these Korean martyrs...

11 priests and 92 laypersons

(farmers, merchants, wives, widows,

scholars and court officials)

Feast Day - September 20

St. Andrew Kim Taegon - YouTube

The blood of the holy Martyrs was poured out 

for Christ upon the earth:  therefore, they have 

gained everlasting rewards. (Today's Entrance Antiphon)

Sts Andrew Kim Tae-gon, 
Paul Chong Ha-Sang 
and Companions, pray for us!

Prospering the day...

 I rejoiced with those who said to me,

"Let us go to the House of the LORD."- Psalm 122:1

 

"Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day.

All your duties will be performed the better for it,

and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross.

The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you 

can do nothing that can give greater glory to God

or be more profitable for your soul than 

to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly.

It is the favorite devotion of the saints."  

St Peter Julian Eymard

 

Invite someone to pray the Mass with you -

and together reap both daily and eternal benefits!

Also remembering...

St Januarius

Feast Day:  September 19th

St Januarius, pray for us!

In His light we see light...

    For with you is the fountain of life; 

in your light we see light.

 Psalm 36:9

 

 

“If the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus all for us,

is it not the most legitimate of conclusions 

that we should be all for Him?

We should be all for Jesus, if Jesus is our all.

And what does this mean? Surely, among other things, 

that the Blessed Sacrament should be to us just

the single overpowering fact of the world.

 

Our hands hold Him; 

our words make Him;

our tongue rests Him;

our body compasses Him;

our souls feel Him;

our flesh feeds upon Him,

Him, the Infinite, the Incomprehensible,

the Immense, the Eternal.

 

Must not all life be looked at in this light,

just as the whole Church lies in this light

and has no other?"

Fr. Frederick W Faber

 

ABOVE: Photo image credit - Michael McGlothlen - Irelan

Be ablaze with enthusiasm...

 Celebrating TWO Saints & Doctors of the Church!

Truly a double blessing!!

"All living creatures are sparks 

from the radiation of God's brilliance, 

emerging from God like the rays of the sun."

St Hildegard von Bingen

"Be not lax in celebrating.

Be not lazy in the festive service of God. 

Be ablaze with enthusiasm. 

Let us be an alive, burning offering 

before the altar of God."

St Hildegard von Bingen

Germany -- 1098-1179

Benedictine Abbess

Writer, composer, philosopher, mystic,

visionary, medical writer and practitioner

Patron of musicians and writers

Canonized and declared Doctor of the Church 

in 2012 (Pope Benedict XVI)

"Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God."

Feast Day: Sept 17

"Even in a world that's being shipwrecked, 

remain brave and strong." 

St Hildgard von Bingen

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Hildegard von Bingen - Gregorian chant: O Euchari in Leta Via. {w/ medieval Manuscript.} - YouTube (5:48 mins)

TOP 25 QUOTES BY HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (of 64) | A-Z Quote

St Hildegard von Bingen, pray for us!

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  "The school of Christ is the school of charity.  

On the last day, when the general examination takes place, 
there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the 

aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian.  
Charity will be the whole syllabus." - 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 Bellarmine in 

“Comments on Aquinas’ O Sacrum Convivium”

St Robert Bellarmine

 Italy ~ 1542-1621

Jesuit theologian, writer, and cardinal

Key voice and action in Counter-Reformation

Dubbed: "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: Fr. Hardon Archives - St. Robert Bellarmine,

St Robert Bellarmine, pray for us!

_________________

ALSO remembering on this day (in 1224) ...

upon the craggy slopes of Mount La Verna, St Francis received

 in his own flesh the sacred marks of Our Lord's Passion.  

He became a living Crucifix, conformed so fully to Christ through love 

that His holy wounds became visible in the world.

St Bonaventure writes that it was not merely physical suffering, 

but the fire of divine love that impressed the stigmata upon Francis. 

17 September 1224

Discovering love, discovering oneself...

  "Christ is the only way to the Father,

and those who see Christ see the Father also.

Those who are nourished by Christ's body 

are at the same time extending the graces 

that flow from the indwelling

of the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

 

The Blessed Sacrament is not a mystery that 

separates itself from the Trinity in Heaven

and comes down to earth for the love of man. 

The Blessed Sacrament is Christ,

and Christ is God, and God is undivided.

It is when a man discovers Christ that

he discovers the Father and the Holy Spirit.

It is also then that he discovers love and 

discovers himself."- Dom Hubert van Zellar