Behold...behold...behold...behold...Him!...

 "Behold, the everlasting oblation!  Of such power it is, 
that in the whole world no other sacrifice 
remains but this." - St Vincent Ferrer

"Recall that at four important moments during the celebration 

of the Eucharist, the priest elevates the sacred Host and the 

Precious Blood of the Lord. The first moment is the elevation 

during the consecration. The second moment occurs when, at the 

conclusion of the Eucharistic prayer, the priest raises the 

Host and the chalice together just before the recitation of the Lord’s 

Prayer.  Then, before the distribution of Holy Communion, the priest 

presents the sacred Host and the Precious Blood to the 

entire congregation with the words “Behold the  Lamb of God….” 

And finally, in a more personal moment, each communicant is 

invited to behold and adore the sacred Host just before 

receiving the Bread of Life." - Archbishop Augustine Di Noia, OP

 

"At the elevation of the most holy Sacrament, we must strive to 

adore Him with all our heart, then to offer Him to God the 

Father for the remission of our sins and those of all the world, 

then to offer to Him ourselves and all the Church and 

all our relations and friends."- St Francis de Sales

"The whole life and passion of Christ is expressed in the Mass.  
So when the priest raises the sacred host and chalice, 
he represents how Christ was raised high upon the Cross.  
All must humble themselves and bend the knee when the body of Christ is raised up, for the true Christ who is in heaven is in the host."
 - St Vincent Ferrer 

 "For the elevation is done that all present may see and ask 
for whatever will profit unto salvation, according to the words: 
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to 
Myself." - Durandus, Bishop of Mende (France)

"Behold the Sun of holy Church, that scatters the clouds

and renders heaven again serene!  Behold the heavenly Rainbow, 

pacifying the storms of divine justice!" - St Leonard

Following the Lamb...

The Lamb who is at the center of the throne

will lead them to the springs of the waters of life. - Rev 7:17

 

 

Prayer After Communion (Today's Liturgy)

O God, who bestowed on blessed Catherine of Alexandria

a crown among the Saints

for her twofold triumph of virginity and martyrdom,

grant, we pray, through the power of this Sacrament,

that, bravely overcoming evil,

we may attain the glory of heaven.

Through Christ our Lord.

St Catherine of Alexandria

Egyptian princess, scholar ~ 287-305

Convert, Virgin, Martyr

One of the 14 Holy Helpers

At 18 y/o debated 50 pagan philosophers.
All became Christians. All were martyred.

Patron: Students, Christian philosophers, teachers, librarians

Feast Day - Nov 25

 

St. Catherine of Alexandria HD - YouTube (3 mins)

St Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us!

All flows from the altar...

 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, 
and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. - 2 Cor 4:5

Invoked for the healing of throat diseases, St. Blaise wrote:

“Father of mercy and God of all consolation, 

graciously look upon me and impart to me the 
blessing which flows from this Holy Sacrament [the Eucharist].  Overshadow me with Your loving kindness, 

and let this divine Mystery bear fruit in me.”

 St Blaise

Armenia + 316

Physician, Bishop, Martyr

Patron of Throat Diseases

and the Wool Trade

Feast Day – Feb 3

 Image above:  Lamb of God surrounded by the four Evangelists by Fr Raphael Pfisterer, OSB
Detail from mural (1927-1931) at St Anselm College ~ Manchester, New Hampshire - USA

 

At first he was a doctor who … Attended human life … And then he ministered to souls … In spiritual strife … A bishop in Armenia … St. Blaise acquired fame … By many healings he performed … In God’s most holy name … Especially the little child  … Who nearly choked to death … And through St Blaise’s prayers returned  … To free and normal breath … And that is why one day each year … His saintliness we note … And ask his prayers to guard us from … Diseases of the throat … And even more important to … St Blaise’s great renown … Is all the torture he endured … To earn his martyr’s crown. 

Protect our throats, St Blaise, from all … Those sicknesses today … And from the utterance of words … That we should never say … Lend wisdom to our voice, St Blaise … And pray that we may be … Forever steadfast in our faith … For God eternally.

From Poem Portraits of the Saints by James J Metcalfe (1956)

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

Today's blessing:  Through the intercession of Saint Blaise, bishop and martyr, may God deliver you from every disease of the throat and from every other illness: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.

St Blaise, pray for us!

Preparing for the Lamb...

Priest: Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him

who takes away the sins of the world.

Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

 Preparation for Communion prayer (Mass)

 

Prayer before Communion (excerpt): St Ambrose...

 

Most Sweet Bread, heal my heart,

that I may taste the sweetness of Your love.

Heal it from all weakness, that I may enjoy no sweetness but You.

 

Most pure Bread, containing every delight

which ever refreshes us, may my heart consume You

and may my soul be filled with Your sweetness.

 

Holy Bread, living Bread, perfect Bread,

that has come down from heaven to give life to the world,

come into my heart and cleanse me from every stain of body and soul.

 

Enter into my soul; heal and cleanse me completely. 

Be the constant safeguard and salvation of my soul and body.

Guard me from the enemies who lie in wait.

May they flee from the protecting presence of Your power,

so that, armed in soul and body by You,

I may safely reach Your Kingdom.

 Tabernacle above:  Fourveire Basilica ~ Lyon, France

Fruit of friendship...

The martyrdoms of the saints have taught us and do teach us 
how to conquer the world,
with all of its fallacies, fervors, and fears." - St Augustine

"In martyrdom, Agnes also seals the other crucial element of her life, virginity for Christ and for the Church. The total gift of martyrdom is prepared, in fact, by the conscious, free and mature choice of virginity, a witness to the will to belong totally to Christ. If martyrdom is a final heroic act, virginity is the result of a long friendship with Jesus that has matured in the constant hearing of His Word, in the dialogue of prayer, in the Eucharistic encounter."

Pope Benedict XVI

Address at the Almo Collegio Capranica, Roma,

for the Feast of St. Agnes ~ Jan 20, 2012

St Agnes

Rome ~ 291-304 AD 
Virgin, Martyr
Patron: young girls, chastity, engaged couples

FEAST DAY - January 21

 
Whenever a man wished to marry Agnes,
she would always say, "Jesus Christ is my only Spouse."

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

"This is a virgin's birthday; let us follow the example of her chastity. It is a martyr's birthday; let us offer sacrifices; it is the birthday of holy Agnes: let men be filled with wonder, little ones with hope, married woman with awe, and the unmarried with emulation. It seems to me that this child, holy beyond her years and courageous beyond human nature, received the name of Agnes (Greek: pure) not as an earthly designation but as a revelation from God of what she was to be."~ St. Augustine


A Roman maid of tender years … St Agnes died for Christ … Steadfast in faith, and ever chaste … She could not be enticed … Although the pagans tortured her … Their efforts were in vain … As piously and patiently … She gloried in her pain … Not even all their insults and … Humiliating acts … Could cause her vigil of the soul … To lessen or relax … When she was only thirteen years … She died beneath the sword … True to her vow to be a spouse … And virgin of our Lord … And now her soul is honored as … The little lamb of Christ … This Roman maid who kept the faith … And nobly sacrificed. Excerpt from: Poem Portraits of the Saints, James Metcalfe (pg 28)

The lamb, as a symbol of purity, is one of the symbols of St. Agnes. In Rome on this day, the Holy Father will bless two crowned lambs, brought to the Church of St. Agnes in two baskets, decorated in red (martyrdom) and white (purity), by Trappists of the Tre Fontane Monastery. The lambs are blessed and then taken to the Convent of St. Cecilia, where the Sisters care for them and use their wool to weave the palliums worn by the Pope and his Archbishops. The palliums are conferred on new archbishops -- those appointed as archbishops during the preceding year -- on the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul on 29 June. Because of St. Agnes's association with lambs, a lamb-shaped cake would be nice today. Think of using coconut for the wool...

St. Agnes, like St. Valentine, St. Catherine of Alexandria, and St. Anthony of Padua, is invoked by single women in search of a husband -- and today is a good day to pray such a prayer.  In fact, Medieval folklore says that on St. Agnes Eve, girls are often granted visions of their future husbands. Scottish girls would meet in a crop field at midnight, throw grain onto the soil, and pray:

Agnes sweet and Agnes fair, 
Hither, hither, now repair;
Bonny Agnes, let me see, 
The lad who is to marry me.

Source:  www.fisheaters.com

Click here: Pope Francis celebrates St Agnes with blessing of lambs 

St Agnes, pray for us!

Celebrating the birth of the herald!

Solemnity of the Birth of St John the Baptist

June 24

Today's Entrance Antiphon - Jn 1:6-7; Lk 1:17

 A man was sent from God, whose name was John.  He came 

to testify to the light, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.

  

Today's Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia! You, child, will be called prophet of the Most High,

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.  Alleluia, alleluia!

"Happy birthday of John the Baptist. His birth is the culmination of an age, an era, a Covenant. He is the last of the Old Testament Prophets. His birth signals an end and a beginning. The Book of Hebrews says By calling this covenant “new,” [God] has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear (Hebrews 8:13). Hence John would later say, “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase; I must decrease. (Jn 3:29-30).  Today John the Baptist is born who will usher in the new by answering the most significant question ever posed:  "But where is the Lamb?'" 

Msgr Charles Pope

Pastor ~ Holy Comforter - St Cyprian Parish ~ Washington, DC

 

“Behold the Lamb of God

who takes away the sins of the world.”

(St John the Baptist is quoted at every Mass)

Prayer after Communion (Today's Mass)

Having feasted at the banquet of the heavenly Lamb,

we pray, O Lord,

that, finding joy in the nativity of Saint John the Baptist,

your Church may know as the author of her rebirth

the Christ whose coming John foretold.

Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.

 

“I want to show you a sun that shone more brightly than all these, a soul that was truly free and detached, cleaving only to the will of God. I have often wondered who is the most mortified of the saints I know, and after some reflection I have come to the conclusion that it was Saint John the Baptist. He went into the desert when he was five years old and knew that our Savior and his came on earth in a place quite close by, one or two days' journey perhaps. How his heart, touched with love of his Savior from the time He was in His Mother's womb, must have longed to enjoy His presence! Yet he spends twenty-five years in the desert without coming to see our Lord even once; and leaving the desert he stays to catechize without visiting Him but waiting till our Lord comes to seek him out. Then when he has baptized Him he does not follow Him but stays behind to do his appointed task. How truly mortified was his spirit! To be so near his Savior and not see Him, to have Him so close and not enjoy His presence! Is this not a completely detached spirit, detached even from God Himself so as to do His will and serve Him, to leave God for God, and not to love God in order to love Him better? The example of this great saint overwhelms me with its grandeur.”  ~  St Francis de Sales

Click here: St. John the Baptist - YouTube

Click here: Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist - Catholic Culture

Click here: The Catholic Witness of St. J the B : The Integrated Catholic Life™

St John the Baptist, pray for us!

Ecce Agnus Dei

 Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi

Behold the Lamb of God, behold him

who taketh away the sin of the world. - John 1:29

 

"The prayer is made on behalf of those who are about to receive

our Lord's body, that by the mercy of the innocent lamb,

all sinful distractions of word and thought may be driven away, and that

he who once took away sins from all the world may now take them

from the Church, which is to receive Him in the Eucharist." - Amalarius

 

 

 "As well as by prayer, the people are prepared for the communion

by peace, which is conferred by the recitation of the Agnus Dei. 

For this is the sacrament of unity and peace." - St Thomas Aquinas

"Twice we seek mercy, asking that first our soul

and then our body may be freed from misery.  And a third time,

we say Agnus Dei, seeking peace for both. - St Antoninus

"The Lamb who is adored in the glory of heaven is present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar here on earth. If a priest were to preach but one sermon from the day of his Ordination until his death, that one sermon could be this: Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi; Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who taketh away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

The priest is but a herald. He announces the presence of the Immolated Lamb, and then annihilates himself in humble adoration. Adoration leads inexorably to self-effacement. The Lamb is exalted; the herald of the Lamb disappears. The Bridegroom shines forth in all His beauty; the friend of the Bridegroom withdraws, content to listen to the sound of his voice.

The priest who adores does on earth what the angels and saints do in heaven. He is employed on earth in the worship of the Lamb that will be his everlasting employment, his rest, and his glory in heaven.

The priest who is not first an adorer has lost the compass that orients all the rest of his life. The priesthood is ordered to adoration, and the summit of adoration is sacrifice: the immolation of a victim to God. The loss of the spirit of adoration is the ruin of the priesthood." - Dom Mark Kirby, OSB