Giving free rein to the heart...

"Prayer is the oxygen of the soul." - St Padre Pio 

"Kneel down and render the tribute
of your presence and devotion to Jesus 

in the Blessed Sacrament. 

Confide all your needs to Him, 

along with those of others.

Speak to Him with filial abandonment, 

give free rein to your heart, 

and give Him complete freedom 

to work in you as He thinks best."

St Padre Pio of Pietrelcino

Priest, Stigmatist, Mystic

Italy ~ 1887-1968

Patron of Eucharistic Adorers

Feast Day - Sept 23

"When I am close to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, 

I feel as if my heart is bursting out of my chest." - St Padre Pio

Click here: St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina - YouTube (2:30 mins)

Click here: St. Padre Pio - YouTube (2 mins)

Click here: 12 Quotes from the Great Saint of Pietrelcina | TOM PERNA

St Padre Pio, pray for us!

Food that sustains...

"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, “Comments on Aquinas’ O Sacrum Convivum”

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!

To love as we ought...

"Blessed is the influence of one 
truly loving human soul on another." - George Eliot

"To love God as He ought to be loved,

we must be detached from all temporal love.

We must love nothing but Him,

or if we love anything else,

we must love it only for His sake."

St Peter Claver
Native of Spain ~ 1581–1654
Jesuit, missionary to South America

Apostolate to Africans on slave ships,
sailors and traders 
Estimated to have baptized 300,000 +

Feast Day - Sept 9

 Peter Claver understood that concrete service like the distributing
of medicine, food or brandy to his black brothers and sisters
could be as effective a communication of the word of God as mere verbal preaching.

Peter said of the slaves, "We must speak to them with

our hands by giving, before we try to speak to them with our lips."

Click here: Saint Peter Claver - YouTube (2 mins)

Click here: St Peter Claver - YouTube (CCTNtv - 3:30 mins)

St Peter Claver, pray for us!

Belonging entirely ... to Jesus...

For every living soul belongs to me, 
the father as well as the son -

 both alike belong to me.  - Ezekiel 18:4a

"Our Hours of adoration

will be special hours 
of reparation for sins, and intercession 

for the needs of the whole world, 

exposing the sin-sick and suffering humanity 

to the healing, sustaining 
and transforming rays of Jesus, 

radiating from the Eucharist."

St Mother Teresa of Calcutta
nee Albania ~ 1910-1997

Foundress - Missionaries of Charity
Co-patron of India

August 26, 1910 ~ September 5, 1997
Click here: Mother Teresa: How to Love God - YouTube
(in her words...)

 

"By blood, I am Albanian.  By citizenship, an Indian. 
By faith, I am a Catholic nun.  
As to my calling, I belong to the world.  
As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus."
 ~ St Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) Biography
Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Peacemaker, Pioneer, Legend

Click here: Holy Eucharist in the Life of Bl. Teresa of Calcutta (Fr Sebastian)

St Mother Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!

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. - Ps 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

Click here: St Gregory the Great - YouTube (3 mins)
TOP 25 QUOTES BY POPE GREGORY I | A-Z Quotes

St Gregory the Great, pray for us!

"Come to my help"...

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

Today is Sunday ("the Lord's Day is the lord of days") 
but also remembering... 
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

______________________________________

Click here: St. Jeanne Jugan - YouTube (2 mins)

Sayings of Jeanne Jugan - Little Sisters of the Poor

St Jeanne Jugan, pray for us!

May 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!