Bearing good news...

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings 
glad tidings of peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation! 
- Isaiah 52:7  Entrance Antiphon - Feast of St Luke

Prayer over the Offerings (Today's Liturgy)

Grant through your heavenly gifts that we may

serve you in freedom of heart, we pray, O Lord,

so that the offerings we make on the feast day of

Saint Luke may bring us healing and give us glory.

Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Communion Antiphon

The Lord sent out disciples to proclaim throughout

the towns: The kingdom of God is at hand for you.

(See Lk 10:1,9)

Prayer after Communion

Grant, we pray, almighty God,

that what we have received from your holy altar

may sanctify us and make us strong in the faith

of the Gospel which Saint Luke proclaimed.

Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Saint Luke

Evangelist, Martyr

Wrote Gospel and Acts of the Apostles

In Dives in Misericordia, St JPII calls Luke: "Gospel of Mercy"

Greek, Physician, Painter
Convert, then fellow -Worker of St Paul

Symbol: winged ox

Patron:  Artists, Physicians and Surgeons

Feast Day – October 18

St Luke, thank you for enlivening our love of Jesus as FRIEND 
through the holy Gospel!

This is a Friend who will not terrify you, who will not abandon you.

Hope in Him, and Heaven is yours! ~ St Joseph Cafasso

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

Saint Luke, pray for us!

Embracing the summit...

"Let us not be satisfied with a mediocre life." - Pope Francis

   

"The Eucharist is the summit of God's saving action: 
 the Lord Jesus, by becoming bread broken for us,

pours upon us all of His mercy and His love,

so as to renew our hearts, our lives,

and our way of relating with Him and with the brethren. 

It is for this reason that commonly, when we approach this Sacrament,

we speak of 'receiving Communion,' of 'taking Communion':

this means that by the power of the Holy Spirit, participation in

Holy Communion conforms us in a singular and profound way to Christ,

giving us a foretaste already now of the full communion with the Father

that characterizes the heavenly banquet, where together with all the Saints

we will have the joy of contemplating God face to face."

Pope Francis

Painting above: artist Nikolai Petrovich

A most blessed FATHER'S DAY 
to all FATHERS!

St John Paul II, in a March 19, 1981, homily, asked,“Where, dear father, will you be able to draw the energy necessary to assume in various circumstances the right attitude that your children, 
even without knowing it, expect from you?” 

He strongly advised against smothering their spontaneity or abandoning them to a state of insecurity or loneliness. 

“St. Joseph is the answer to this,” he proclaimed.

"St Joseph was an ordinary sort of man 

on whom God relied to do great things.  

He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, 

in each and every event that went to make up his life." 

- St Josemaria Escriva

Click here: 16 Father's Day Thoughts You'll Never Find in a Greeting Card 

St Joseph, pray for all fathers!

Earnetly desiring stillness...

"There is no place on earth where God is more present than in the 
human heart.  This heart truly is God's abode, the temple of silence... 
The Father waits for his children in their own heart" (23) . 
- Robert Cardinal Sirah
Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise (2016)

"When Holy Mass is properly celebrated 

there are moments in which the voices 

of both priest and faithful become silent. ...

That stillness proper to the most beautiful things 

in existence dominates, a quiet area of attentiveness 

in which the beautiful and truly important reign.  

We must earnestly desire stillness 

and be willing to give something for it; then it will be ours.  

Once we have experienced it, we will be astounded 

that we were able to live without it. ...

If someone were to ask me 

what the liturgical life begins with, 

I should answer:  with learning stillness.  

Without it, everything remains superficial, vain."

Romano Guardini

Preparing Yourself for Mass*

*32 holy meditations guaranteed to help you pray better, pay closer attention,and grow more reverent during Mass... no matter where, when or how it is celebrated...
(Excerpt from Chapter 1)

IMAGE:  Maiden Meditation, Charles West Cope (1847)

Verso l'alto - "To the heights!"...

...everlasting joy will crown their heads. 
Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee away. - Isaiah 35: 10

When Pier Giorgio Frassati  was only 22 years old

he wrote in a letter to the Catholic Action group to...

"...approach the Eucharist Table as often as possible. 

When you become totally consumed with the

Eucharistic Fire you will be able to taste that happiness 

which people of the world have never tasted."

Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati
Italy ~ 1901-1925
"Man of the Eight Beatitudes"
Patron of World Youth Days
Incorrupt
Motto:  Verso l'alto - "To the heights!"
Feast  Day – July 4

Painting above: La Ultima Cine - Francisco Ribalta

“To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend,
without a steady struggle for truth, that is not living,

but merely existing; we must never just "exist". - Bl Pier-Giorgio

*To this day, Frassati's body remains incorrupt:   "When they opened 
Pier Giorgio´s tomb in 1981, his body was perfectly preserved,"

recalled one witness. "He had a smile on his face and a rosary in his hands.

It was like meeting him for the first time."

Click here: OFFICIAL USA WEBSITE  BL PIER GIORGIO FRASSATI

Click here: Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati (July 4) - YouTube (6 mins)

Click here: Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - YouTube (2 mins)

Click here: The Prayer of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati - YouTube (4 mins)

Click here: Pier Giorgio Frassati: A commentary by Fr. Barron - YouTube

Bl Pier Giorgio Frassati, pray for us!

4th of July: Blessed Independence Day:

Let freedom ring !

 

Today we make again our own

The hope which Christ, our life, has sown:

In fertile fields and streets of stone,

Let freedom ring!

Where Justice works amid the weed

Of rampart want and choking greed,

To loose the voice of human need,

Let freedom ring!

Where Mercy's fingers, slashed and torn,

Untangle love from twisted thorn

Of anger, disbelief and scorn,

Let freedom ring!

Where hearts imprisoned toil and weep,

Our founders' dreams still trouble sleep

With harvests we have yet to reap:

Let freedom ring!

In Christ, we tend what God has planned,

With justice, mercy, truth in hand

Till joy sings out through all the land:

Let freedom ring!

Embrace of God...

"Every heart seeks a happiness outside it, and since perfect love is God,

then the heart of man and the heart of Christ must,

in some way, fuse... This aspiration of the soul for its ecstasy

is fulfilled in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. - Ven Fulton Sheen

"With the Eucharist

the intimacy becomes total;

the embrace

between God and man

reaches its apex."

St John Paul II

Planning ahead... in liturgical complementarity ...

Remember to wear RED to Mass for PALM SUNDAY!