You're My God!

Lord, be merciful to us sinners! As another day draws to a close, accept this song as our gift to You.

(Credit to Michael W. Smith)

Holding On To Anything? Brief Reflection on Matthew 14:13-21

The little that we have – be it in material goods, time  or talents – is sufficient for God’s work if, when He asks, we would just give whatever that is to Him. See in today’s Gospel what He did with five loaves of bread and two fish! On the surface, it looked like Jesus was asking His Apostles to do the impossible – feed thousands of  people. He wasn’t. He was asking them to give Him what they had and He would make the impossible possible. God will never give us a task, no matter how daunting it may first appear, without giving us all that we need to complete it.

The first step is our total surrender to, and trust in, His will for us.

So let’s ask ourselves: Is there anything I am still holding on to and unwilling to give Him?

Are You Lost Without Him?

The source, center and summit of our Catholic Faith is and must be the Eucharist! No one and nothing else can satiate our need to be loved and to love! Everything we need flows from Him! Nothing else matters!

Is  the Eucharist the air you breathe?

Take a few moments to read and reflect on what the Happy Priest - Father James Farfaglia has to say about the Eucharist and our attitude towards this greatest of Gifts.

(With gratitude to Michael W. Smith, Catholic Online and Father Farfaglia)

Eucharistic Reflection for the Day

Imagine kneeling before a tabernacle and hearing Jesus say to you:

I reside in tabernacles all over the world. I do this because I desire My children to have a living Christ in their midst. Such holiness is available to souls who visit and venerate Me in the Eucharist. I am the cure for every ill. I am the calm for every storm. I am the comfort for every sorrow. Because I intend to lead My children in a more enhanced way, I am going to show you the Life that is enclosed in each tabernacle. My dear ones, if you but knew the value of each and every visit that is made to Me here, there would be crowds all through every day and every night...

…I wish to teach you. Most of all, I wish to love you. Have you ever loved someone passionately, but been rejected? Was your love ever tossed casually back at you? If this has ever happened to you, then you understand how I feel. I am rejected by the majority of humanity. I gave My very life for this humanity, so that their sins would be overlooked and forgotten. Humanity, poor foolish humanity, flings this gift back at My feet, as if to say, “Your gift is worthless. It has no value anymore.” Dearest children, this is ignorance in some cases. Many of these children do not understand that the gift they toss aside is their eternity, their salvation.

(Excerpts from entries dated 8/12/2003 and 8/13/2003, Directions for Our Times (Vol. 2) Conversations with the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, http://www.directionforourtimes.org  Used with permission)

God In The Streets of Syracuse, New York

For the first time in at least 32 years (and probably much longer than that) the Bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse, New York, assisted by a few of his brother priests,  carried our Eucharistic Lord in procession through the streets of that city on Corpus Christi Sunday. What an awesome and blessed experience for all those privileged to be present!

Several hundred faithful Catholics prayerfully and reverently accompanied their Lord and Bishop Robert J. Cunningham during the nearly mile and a half procession from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to the Franciscan Church of the Assumption.

Thank you Bishop Cunningham and all those who worked so hard to bring this gift to fruition!

No doubt, our Lord was immensely pleased by this public display of belief in His Real Presence. Only He knows how many hearts of onlookers were touched as their eyes glanced at the King of Kings, majestically encased and held aloft in His Monstrance.

May this public profession of our Faith and of our belief in the Eucharistic Lord forever remain a permanent fixture in this Diocese.

Hopefully, these few pictures will give you a sense of this memorable day. 

End The Silence

A flawed and imperfect man once reminded his audience that we were all responsible for the scourge of abortion through our silence! Yikes! The stark reality of being exposed as a coward smarts! It should!  "For evil to prevail," Edmund Burke is reported to have said, "good men need do nothing." 

Remaining silent about this massacre of innocent life can longer be an option for any of us. But what can we do?

For starters,  we can use existing resources to simply point out the absurdity of the language pro-choice groups use. We have the technology that allows us to peer into the womb of any pregnant woman and clearly see the human life within her. How many women would still abort if they were shown this ? I suspect that for some individuals, however, an even more direct and unambiguous approach might be required.

End your silence by passing this on.


(With thanks to SignalHill.com, mistervenable and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life)

Why Don't We? - A Brief Reflection on Ex 33:7-11

The Jewish people knew when Moses entered the Tent and a column of cloud stood at the entrance of that Tent that God was there with him. The burning tabernacle candle, not a column of cloud, signifies our Lord’s Presence among us in our Churches today.

The Jews knew the Tent was a sacred, holy place and acted accordingly. Unable to enter it themselves, they stood at the entrances of their own tents and worshipped their Lord. How we must rediscover the sense of the sacred and holy within our Church buildings where our Lord is as much present as He was in the Tent with Moses and where He beckons us to enter.

God spoke to Moses face to face as one man would speak to another. How we must come to appreciate the fact that we too can sit face to face with our Lord in the tabernacle and converse with Him and, when He is exposed in the Monstrance, gaze upon His Humble Presence.

Just as He gave Moses the Ten Commandments to share with his people, so too He will instruct us in the ways He wishes us to proceed if we would but spend time with Him, adoring Him Who is really and substantially present in the Blessed Sacrament.  

How blessed we are to be able to come into His Presence.  Why don’t we?

Revisiting "Zeal For The Salvation of Souls"

When I asked rhetorically just a few days ago, “What happened to the zeal for the salvation of souls?” I was not intending to revisit that issue so quickly despite the fact that I and every one else reading this blog are sinners. Several recent experiences dictate that I do so.

In 1946, Pope Pius XII warned us that “The sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.” Similar sentiments have been expressed by many, including Fulton J. Sheen, Blessed John Paul II and our current Pope. Their observations are verified by the simple and undisputed fact that relatively few Catholics go to confession anymore.

Current polling data suggests that Catholics are just as likely as their non-Catholic friends to support, among other things, cohabitation, contraception, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, sex between unmarried men and women, and gay or lesbian relationships.

Yet the truth is that there is a hell and those who engage in or support any of these practices would objectively be in a state of mortal sin and subject to the loss of their immortal souls should they die unrepentant and without Sacramental confession.  

Moreover, the majority of those calling themselves Catholic do not attend Sunday Mass and a substantial majority of those that do, no longer believe in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacred Eucharist or in the existence of hell.  Far too many Catholics reject these and other Truths of their Faith. Their eternal souls are in danger.

Years ago, the late Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S. clearly addressed the issue of sin and its eternal consequences when he reminded his readers, “After death comes the particular judgment; and with the judgment comes the sentence that can never be changed.  It will either be heaven or hell…There will be no appeal…”

When have you last heard any of these Truths preached in your parish? Today’s Gospel (Matthew 13:44-52) provided an ideal time to do so since verses 47 through 50 clearly speak to the eternal consequences of sin.  What a great opportunity to discuss these Truths and to encourage regular use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Why then, I must ask, were parishes given the option of not reading those verses?

Were you blessed to hear these words of Scripture today? Did the homily address these Forgotten Truths?

Yes, Our God is a God of infinite Mercy. But He is also a God of Justice. Both of these Truths must be preached and understood.  When we speak of one, we should also discuss the other. "Now," St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us, "is the time of mercy; then, there will be only the time of justice. This is why we have to live in the present moment and transform it into the moment of God."

What happened at your parish today?
To be continued...

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Eucharistic Reflection For The Day

“He is my only thought, my memory, my Paradise, my Heaven on earth! He is my Eucharist, my ideal, my very breath, my good and my drink! He is melodious music to me, sweetness itself, the nectar and scent of my soul, my strength, my delight, my measure, my desire! He calls forth my love in deifying me. He gives me life while taking it away. He sets my heart on fire, inflaming it with his glances . . . his beauty . . . his smiles . . . his love."

Concepcion Cabrera de Armida, Servant of God

Man's Best Friends

It's been a while since we laughed together. Take a gander at this !

Why?

Why do so many of us give little or no thought to, or even care, that so many souls, as St. Teresa of Avila observed, are "falling into hell like snowflakes?" What happened to the zeal for the salvation of souls? 

Eucharistic Reflection For The Day

"Ah! if we had the eyes of angels with which to see Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is here present on this altar, and who is looking at us, how we should love Him! We should never more wish to part from Him. We should wish to remain always at His feet; it would be a foretaste of Heaven: all else would become insipid to us. But see, it is faith we want. We are poor blind people; we have a mist before our eyes. Faith alone can dispel this mist. Presently, my children, when I shall hold Our Lord in my hands, when the good God blesses you, ask Him then to open the eyes of your heart; say to Him like the blind man of Jericho, 'O Lord, make me to see!' If you say to Him sincerely, 'Make me to see!' you will certainly obtain what you desire, because He wishes nothing but your happiness. He has His hands full of graces, seeking to whom to distribute them; Alas! and no one will have them. . . . Oh, indifference! Oh, ingratitude! My children, we are most unhappy that we do not understand these things! We shall understand them well one day; but it will then be too late!" 

(St. John Vianney)

May Frank Rest in Peace

As you may recall, on June 29 and again on July 6, I asked all visitors to this blog to pray for my brother-in-law who was in critical condition and on a respirator. Frank fought valiantly for nearly two weeks but passed away Friday afternoon, July 8. He will be missed. His funeral Mass and burial will be on Wednesday. He knew of your prayers, was strengthened by them, and was given the grace of seeing a priest. He died with his wife and other family at his side.

Please pray for the repose of Frank’s soul and for my sister.

Today, a friend sent me this. When he did so, he had no way of knowing that my sister was hoping that "Ave Maria" could be sung at her husband’s funeral Mass. 

Amazing how God works! We have to share the gift of this unique version with all who have prayed for Frank and who continue to pray for the repose of his soul and for the physical and spiritual well-being of my sister. May this song lift your spirit as it did ours!

You will never know this side of heaven, how much your prayers have meant. Thank you.

Let This Be Our Prayer

Let's make this our Prayer:

You are my God, my Lord, my Savior and my Redeemer, my all!


Courtesy of Father Stan Fortuna and the Happy Priest, Father James Farfaglia

Truth Is Unchanging

It is not a blob of tissue that God implants in a women's womb. It is human life, made in the image and likeness of its Creator. Why have so many forgotten this fundamental truth?

On several occasions when I have prayed outside the local abortion mill, I was shocked to see women bring their children with them as they arrange to kill the infant within their womb. 

If we but open our eyes and hearts to the truth, the holocaust of abortion will end.

Viewing and sharing this video and this one with others may restore sight and sanity to those who have been misled.

Eucharistic Reflection for the Day

With thanks to the good sisters at Moniales OP

Bl. Pier Giorgio on the Holy Eucharist:

"I urge you with all the strength of my soul to approach the Eucharistic Table as often as possible. Feed on this Bread of the Angels from which you will draw the strength to fight inner struggles, the struggles against passions and against all adversities, because Jesus Christ has promised to those who feed themselves with the most Holy Eucharist, eternal life and the necessary graces to obtain it.

And when you become totally consumed by this Eucharistic Fire, then you will be able to thank with greater awareness the Lord God who has called you to be part of his flock and you will enjoy that peace which those who are happy according to the world have never tasted. Because true happiness, young people, does not consist in the pleasures of the world and in earthly things, but in peace of conscience which we can have only if we are pure in heart and in mind.”

Your continued prayers for my brother-in-law who awaits his welcoming Lord would be very much appreciated.

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