Co-workers of Christ

 

For we are God's fellow workers;

you are God's field, God's building. - I Cor 3:9

 

"Each one of us is a co-worker of Christ -

we must labor hard to carry Him to the hearts

where He has not yet been known and loved...

But, unless we have Jesus, we cannot give Him;

that is why we need the Eucharist. 

Spend as much time as possible in front of the Blessed Sacrament

and He will fill you with His strength and His power."

Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta

nee Albania ~ 1910-1997

Foundress - Missionaries of Charity

Anniversary of Death - Sept. 5

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." 

~ Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 

Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997) Biography

Mother Teresa of Calcutta: Peacemaker, Pioneer, Legend

 

Bl Mother Teresa of Calcutta, pray for us!

Friends visit often!

 

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

 

 

 

"A friend will visit his friend in the morning to wish him a good day, in the evening, a good night, taking also an opportunity to converse with him during the day.  In like manner make visits to Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, if your duties permit it. 

It is especially at the foot of the altar that one prays well. In all your visits to Our Savior, frequently offer His precious blood to the Eternal Father.  You will find these visits very conducive to increase in you divine love."

St Mary Magdalen de'Pazzi (1607+)

Pleasing sacrifice...

Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy,

to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God -

this is your spiritual act of worship. - Hebrews 12:1

 

Kneeling in prayer, preparing for Mass ~ Clear Creek Abbey, Hulbert, OK ~ USA

 

 

"We must offer unto God the daily sacrifice of tears and the daily sacrifice of His body and blood.  For what right believing Christian can doubt that in the very hour of the sacrifice, at the words of the priest, the heavens be opened, and the choirs of angels be present in that very mystery of Jesus Christ? 

But necessary it is that when we do these things, we should also by contrition of heart sacrifice ourselves unto almighty God.  For when we celebrate the mystery of our Lord's passion, we ought to imitate what we then do:  for then shall it truly be a sacrifice for us unto God, if we offer ourselves also to Him in sacrifice."

 

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:  Teachers

Feast Day - September 3

 

 

“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

 

Click here: St Gregory the Great - YouTube (3 mins)

 

St Gregory the Great, pray for us!

Let us imitate Him!

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain - Philippians 1:21

 

  

 

Humility, obedience, meekness, and love

are the virtues that shine

through the Cross

and the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. 

O my Jesus, help me imitate you!

 

St Anthony Mary Claret

 

 

LABOR DAY

American Federal Holiday

First Monday in September

 

 

"Work is not only good in the sense that it is useful or something to enjoy; it is also good as being something worthy, that is to say, something that corresponds to man's dignity, that expresses this dignity and increases it. ... Work is a good thing for man - a good thing for his humanity  - because through work man not only transforms nature, adapting it to his own needs, but he also achieves fulfillment as a human being and indeed in a sense becomes 'more a human being.'" ~ Bl John Paul II, Laborem Exercens #9

Prayer after Work  ~ composed by Fr Peter John Cameron, O.P.

Most merciful Father, thank you for this day of work with all its achievements as well as its burdens.  Thank you for all the successes, the challenges, and even the difficulties that it brought to me.  Your Son once said to His Apostles, "Come by yourselves to an out-of-the-way place and rest a little." Thank you for this gift of rest.  May this time be a chance for me to renew my gratitude for all your blessings.  In your great compassion and generosity, please be mindful of those who are out of work.  And help me to do a better job tomorrow.  I ask this through Christ our Lord.

 St Joseph, patron of the Worker, pray for us!

Nothing is wasted

Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted. - John 6:13

MORE from Sr Sarah....

Adoration II  By Sr. Sarah Hennessey, FSPA - 8/30/13 (Sacred Heart Parish- St Mary's School ~ Owatonna, Minnesota (USA).  Sr Sarah is a former Quaker.)

In the silent gaze of adoration I experience Christ. I discover I am not alone. Pope Benedict XVI said that in adoration that "it is precisely this personal act of encounter with the Lord that develops the social mission which is contained in the Eucharist and desire to break down barriers, not only the barriers between the Lord and us but also and above all those that separate us from one another."  (Christmas address to the Roman Curia, 2005).

An image from Scripture helps me to understand this aspect of adoration. In John 6 after Jesus feeds the multitudes with the five loaves Jesus has care for the bread left behind.

"When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples, "Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted." So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat." John 6:13-14

With Jesus, we are hungry, then we are filled, and then there are even leftovers! And He cares about every remaining scrap.

Nothing is wasted.

During Mass we break the bread and share in the One Body. We are not the same people as when we entered. We are sent with food for the journey to go and live the gospel. And the consecrated hosts left in the tabernacle are not just the leftovers. They have a purpose. We bring Christ's body to nourish the sick and the dying and include them in our communion. The abundance of the Mass spills over into our lives. We go and feed the hungry and seek the forgotten.

Adoration is part of this abundance. As an extra gift from the Eucharistic action in our lives we see visibly that God has not forgotten us. Nothing is wasted. God holds every moment of our lives in love. He stays with us. And in adoration gazing upon Jesus made real we stay with God.

Pope John Paul II writes in Ecclesia de Eucharistia 6, "To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize him where he manifests himself, in his many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of his body and his blood." Seeing Christ in adoration makes us more able, not less, to see the presence of Christ in our own family and in the neighbors around us.