Fed and enlightened...

 "My mission in heaven will be to draw souls, helping them to go out of

themselves to cling to God, with a spontaneous, love-filled action,

and to keep them in that great interior silence

which enables God to make His mark on them,

to transform them to Himself." - St Elizabeth of the Trinity

 

 

"To contemplate Christ

involves being able to recognize Him

whenever He manifests Himself,

in His many forms of presence,

but above all in the living sacrament

of His body and His blood.

The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist;

by Him she is fed and by Him she is enlightened.

The Eucharist is both a mystery of faith

and a 'mystery of light.'"

 

Pope St John Paul II

Let us increase our knowledge and love of

the Most Precious Blood of Jesus ...

July: month of the Most Precious Blood

"It is in this Blood that He has laid up His blessings for us,

as in a storehouse.  This is true, not only of spiritual blessings,

but of all blessings whatsoever." - Fr Frederick Faber in The Precious Blood

I belong to Jesus...

Ring out your joy to the Lord, O you just;
for praise is fitting for loyal hearts. - Psalm 33:1

 

 

"Jesus, for You I live. 

Jesus, for You I die. 
 Jesus, I am Yours in life and death."

 From Reflections and Prayers

for Visits with our Eucharistic Lord,

John J. Cardinal Carberry

 

FEAST of the First Roman Martyrs ~ JUNE 30

 

 The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome were Christians martyred

in Rome during Nero's persecution in the year 64.

“This dreadful conflagration continued nine days; when Nero, finding that his conduct was greatly blamed, and a severe odium cast upon him, determined to lay the whole upon the Christians, at once to excuse himself and have an opportunity of glutting his sight with new cruelties. This was the occasion of the first persecution ...

Nero even refined upon cruelty, and contrived all manner of punishments for them that the most infernal imagination could design.  In particular, he had some sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and then worried by dogs till they expired; and others dressed in shirts made stiff with wax, fixed to axle-trees, and set on fire in his gardens in order to illuminate them.  This persecution was general throughout the whole Roman empire; but it rather increased than diminished the spirit of Christianity."

A. Wright

A History of the Principal

and Most Distinguished Martyrs

The First Holy Martyrs of the Roman Church - YouTube

 

Torches of Nero ~ Henryk Siemiradzki

Holy Martyrs of Rome, pray for us!

Friends of God...

Solemnity of Sts PETER and PAUL

June 29

"This day has been made holy by the passion of the blessed apostles
Peter and Paul. ... These martyrs realized what they taught: 
they pursued justice, they confessed the truth, they died for it."
- St Augustine, Sermon 295

 We do not preach ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord,
and ourselves as your slaves for the sake of Jesus. - 2 Cor 4:5

Entrance Antiphon (Today’s Liturgy)

These are the ones who, living in the flesh, planted the Church with their blood; they drank the chalice of the Lord and became friends of God. 

Prayer over the Offerings (Today's Liturgy)

May the prayer of the Apostles, O Lord, accompany the sacrificial gift that we present to your name for consecration, and may their intercession make us devoted to you in celebration of the sacrifice.

Through Christ our Lord.

Prayer After Communion (Today’s Liturgy)

Grant us, O Lord, who have been renewed by this Sacrament, so to live in the Church, that, persevering in the breaking of the Bread and in the teaching of the Apostles, we may be one heart and one soul, made steadfast in your love.

Through Christ our Lord.

Click here: Discovering our Saints - Sts Peter and Paul - YouTube (3 mins)
Click here: Fr. Barron on Saints Peter and Paul - YouTube (6 mins)

Click here: Feast of Ss Peter & Paul - YouTube (21 mins)

Sts Peter and Paul, pray for us!

*Sts Peter and Paul: the principal pillars of the Church founded by Christ.

St Peter was chosen by Christ to be his first Vicar on earth; he was endowed with powers of the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Mt 16:13-19) and charged with the role of Shepherd of Christ's flock (Jn 21:15-17). In St. Peter and his successors, we have a visible sign of unity and communion in faith and charity. Divine grace led St. Peter to profess Christ's divinity.  St. Peter suffered martyrdom by crucifixion under Nero, in about the year 64 AD. He was buried at the hill of the Vatican; recent excavations have revealed his tomb on the very site of St. Peter's Basilica.
St Paul was chosen to form part of the apostolic college by Christ himself on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-16). Selected to bring Christ's name to all peoples (Acts 9:15), he is the greatest missionary of all time, the advocate of pagans, the Apostle of the Gentiles. St. Paul was beheaded in the Tre Fontane along the Via Ostiense and buried nearby, on the site where the basilica bearing his name now stands. Source: Daily Roman Missal, Edited by Rev. James Socías, Midwest Theological Forum, Chicago, Illinois ©2003