Eucharistic Reflection

FOR ONE WHO LOVES

(From Father Mark)

 

When you come into My presence to adore Me, and prefer Me to the other things that solicit your attention and make claims upon your time, I am consoled and glorified.

 

The proof of friendship is the choice of one's friend over all else. I want you to prefer Me, to give Me time that could be given to other persons and things. In so doing, you will show Me your love and offer Me the consolation of a true friendship.

 

I would ask this preferential love of all My priests. Friendship, if it is to thrive, must be practiced. This is as true of friendship with Me as it is of human friendships. I wait for the companionship of My priests.

 

With them I hold My priesthood in common -- and My victimhood. This is what makes the friendship of My priests so precious to My Sacred Heart.

 

With them too I share the purest joy of living in the presence of My Immaculate Mother and of experiencing her maternal care in all the circumstances of priestly life.

Given that friendship is based on treasured things held in common, My friendship with My priests is unlike that with other souls. The more My priests come to Me and linger in My presence, the more can I share with them the secrets and the treasures reserved for them in My Sacred Heart.

 

 

Priests, yes, even My priests, are sometimes fearful of finding themselves silent and alone in My presence. When they come to adore Me and to offer Me the consolation of their company, I do not require that they speak to Me; it is enough that they remain in the radiance of My Eucharistic Face, allowing their hearts to reach out to My Eucharistic Heart.

 

Those who have experienced this movement of the heart to My Eucharistic Heart will know of what I speak. Words are not always necessary. The engagement of the heart, on the other hand, is indispensable.

 

Weariness and fatigue are no obstacle to a fruitful time of adoration. They are incidental; what matters is the desire to seek My Eucharistic Face and to abide in My company.

 

For one who loves, the time in My presence passes quickly, storing up immense treasures of merit for souls. The merits of your adoration I consider as belonging to the neediest and most broken of My priests.

 

You will not see in this life the good done to the souls of My beloved priests by your fidelity to adoration, but in heaven it will be revealed to you, and this revelation will cause you an immense increase of delight in My presence.

 

(From In Sinu Iesu, The Journal of a Priest)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - Week of August 30, 2012

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.




From St. Thomas Aquinas

“Man should not consider his material possessions his own, but as common to all, so as to share them without hesitation when others are in need.”

From St. Claude de la Colombiere, S.J.

“Imagine the anguish and tears of a mother who is present at a painful operation her child has to undergo. Can anyone doubt on seeing her that she consents to allow the child to suffer only because she expects it to get well and be spared further suffering by means of this violent remedy?

Reason in the same manner when adversity befalls you. You complain that you are ill-treated, insulted, slandered, robbed. Your redeemer (the name is a tenderer one than that of father or mother), your Redeemer is a witness to all you are suffering. He who loves you and has emphatically declared that whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye, nevertheless allows you to be stricken though He could easily prevent it. Do you hesitate to believe that this passing trial is necessary for the health of your soul?”

From Scripture (Luke 6:46)

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and not put into practice what I teach you?

Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! and Its Author Are Subject of This Month's Profile in the CWG Newsletter

Pardon the self-promotion but there is only one way to sell a book - let as many people and groups know about it!

I was privileged to be profiled in  this month's issue of the Catholic Writers' Guild (CWG) Member Newsletter. In the event you have not seen it or are not yet a CWG member, the Profile follows:

(Excerpted from CWG Member Newsletter Issue #52- July 2012)

MEMBER PROFILE – MICHAEL SEAGRIFF
Author and Lay Dominican

Maria: Michael, you recently had a book published “Forgotten Truths to Set Faith Afire: Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct.” Congratulations! When did you feel receive God’s inspiration to write this book? How did it “come to you,” as they say?

Michael: Over the past fifteen years, God placed a tremendous hunger in my heart to study the Truths of our Catholic Faith. During that time, I highlighted and made photocopies of thousands of passages from various articles and books that had opened my eyes, stirred my soul and spoke to my heart. Much of what I have read, I had written on index cards and stored them in my desk drawer.

Periodically re-reading this collection of timeless truths from Sacred Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as well as from the spiritual insight of Popes, Church Doctors, Saints, bishops, priests, sinners and regular folk has had a significant impact on my life and spiritual journey. Although I did not gather these quotations with the intent of compiling them into a book, I came to realize that many Catholics do not hear, know or live the fundamental truths of their Faith. Others are prompted to learn more but feel they do not have the time to do so. I also knew as a Lay Dominican, that I should not hoard these “Forgotten Truths” in my desk drawer for my exclusive reflection.

God kept after me to share these truths with others, knowing they would be a fruitful source of contemplation. That is the purpose of this book, its twelve hundred quotations, seventeen chapters and one hundred and fifteen topics.

Maria: You are a member of a Lay Dominican order, and a retired lawyer. I mean, it’s like you were meant to write a book! Lawyers are great debaters and Dominicans are known for being great at apologetics. How did your past life experiences help you in writing your book?

Eucharistic Reflection

  

"O inestimable charity! Even as You, true God and true Man, gave Yourself entirely to us, so also You left Yourself entirely for us, to be our food, so that during our earthly pilgrimage we would not faint with weariness, but would be strengthened by You, our celestial Bread. O man, what has your God left you? He has left you Himself, wholly God and wholly Man, concealed under the whiteness of bread. O fire of love! Was it not enough for You to have created us to Your image and likeness, and to have recreated us in grace through the Blood of Your Son, without giving Yourself wholly to us as our Food, O God, Divine Essence? What impelled You to do this? Your charity alone. It was not enough for You to send Your Word to us for our redemption; neither were You content to give Him us as our Food, but in the excess of Your love for Your creature, You gave to man the whole Divine essence . . ." 

(St. Catherine of Siena)

 

(Source of image: Real Presence Association)

 

St. Rose of Lima on Grace from Tribulation

Today our Dominican family celebrates the memorial of St. Rose of Lima (1586-1617). She was the first canonized saint of the Western hemisphere, a contemporary of St. Martin DePorres and Saint John Macias, and “patron saint of Lima, Peru, all the Americas, the Phillippines, India, florists, gardeners, and people ridiculed for their piety”.

 

The Office of Readings today offers this excerpt from her writings for our fruitful meditation and response:

 
Our Lord and Savior lifted up his voice and said with incomparable majesty: “Let all men know that grace comes after tribulation. Let them know that without the burden of afflictions it is impossible to reach the height of grace. Let them know that the gifts of grace increase as the struggles increase. Let men take care not to stray and be deceived. This is the only true stairway to paradise, and without the cross they can find no road to climb to heaven.”

When I heard these words, a strong force came upon me and seemed to place me in the middle of a street, so that I might say in a loud voice to people of every age, sex and status: “Hear, O people; hear, O nations. I am warning you about the commandment of Christ by using words that came from his own lips: We cannot obtain grace unless we suffer afflictions. We must heap trouble upon trouble to attain a deep participation in the divine nature, the glory of the sons of God and perfect happiness of soul.”

That same force strongly urged me to proclaim the beauty of divine grace. It pressed me so that my breath came slow and forced me to sweat and pant. I felt as if my soul could no longer be kept in the prison of the body, but that it had burst its chains and was free and alone and was going very swiftly through the whole world saying:

“If only mortals would learn how great it is to possess divine grace, how beautiful, how noble, how precious. How many riches it hides within itself, how many joys and delights! Without doubt they would devote all their care and concern to winning for themselves pains and afflictions. All men throughout the world would seek trouble, infirmities and torments, instead of good fortune, in order to attain the unfathomable treasure of grace. This is the reward and the final gain of patience. No one would complain about his cross or about troubles that may happen to him, if he would come to know the scales on which they are weighed when they are distributed to men.”

                      (Source of image: St. Rose of Lima Parish, Safford, AZ)

 

Eucharistic Reflection

"Why did Jesus not limit His Eucharistic Presence to the solemn moments of Holy Mass? Why does He not continue it only during those hours when, amid lights and flowers, He receives the adoration and homage of His sons? Why does He remain also during the nights, even in tabernacles where He is abandoned and forgotten and sometimes subjected to sacrilegious profanation?"

"It would seem that this persistent miracle of the Real Presence of Jesus under the appearances of the consecrated bread, even in times of profanation, is an excessive prodigality, both useless and incompatible with the Divine Majesty."

"And yet, this is the very reason why Jesus chose to do so; to love with a love that knows no measure and does not shrink from excess. This was the purpose for which He invented and “instituted the Holy Eucharist as we have it. ‘He loved to the end.’”

(From The Holy Eucharist by Jose Guadalupe Trevino)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - Week of August 16, 2012

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

From Scripture (Hebrews 13:3)

“Be as mindful of prisoners as if you were sharing their imprisonment, and of the ill-treated as of yourselves, for you may yet suffer as they do.

From Saint Edmund Campion

[When asked to save his life by renouncing his Catholic Faith, this saint had this to say;]

“Your Majesty, for the past ten years I have given this matter thought. I thought about it seriously when I left the Church of England and went to the continent to be reconciled with Rome. I thought of it seriously when I entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest. And ever since I have been back in England, how many times I thought that I could indeed save my life if I turned traitor to my Lord Christ and His Church! But He Himself has said to us all: ‘He who would save his life must lose it.’

I remain true to Christ and His Church.”

(From Edmund Campion-Hero of God’s Underground by Harold C. Gardiner, S.J)

From Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O.

“It is impossible to meditate upon the consequences of the dogma of the Real Presence, of the Sacrifice of the Altar, and of Communion without being led to the conclusion that Our Lord wanted to institute this Sacrament in order to make it the center of all action, of all loyal idealism, of every apostolate that could be of any real use to the Church.”

(From The Soul of the Apostolate)

Why? Where? - Some Challenging Thoughts On the Eucharist This Assumption Thursday

Why Lord do I not leap for joy whenever I am in Your Presence as St. John the Baptist did while in the womb of his mother Elizabeth? Why do I sometimes take Your Presence in the Eucharist for granted? Where is the awe and amazement that should overcome me whenever You are placed on my tongue? Where are the tears of joy and gratitude that should freely flow from the eyes of such an unworthy recipient of Love Himself as You penetrate and saturate every cell of this earthen vessel with Your Sacred Blood? Why do I ever allow myself to be distracted by anyone or anything else during these intimate moments with You? Why do I sometimes unconsciously thwart and impede the graces You intend to shower upon me as You and I are physically united? Why am I so often in a rush to leave Church and abruptly end our intimate visit?

Why Lord do I fail to love You and Your Blessed Mother as much as You and she love me?

Why?

The Wisdom St. Maximilian Kolbe

We know this martyr saint, whose feast day we commemorate today, offered his earthly life so that another might physically live.  His writings, although maybe not as well known as the manner of his death, make it clear that it was the preservation of one’s eternal life that was more important to him.

Why not honor this humble, loving priest by spending a few minutes reading and reflecting upon two unchanging spiritual principles he undoubtedly knew would be abandoned by so many after his death.

  

On Truth - No one in the world can change Truth. What we do and should do is seek It and serve It when It is found.

 

On Salvation of Souls - We have no right to rest as long as a single soul is Satan's slave.

I suspect if St. Maximilian Kolbe was still among us, he might ask each of us: “What have you done to serve the Truth and to save souls?”

What would your response be?

Priests at Every Moment

What follows in the link below is another gem from Father Mark - a priest who loves the Eucharist and his brother priests as all of us should. It is relatively brief and well worth the time to read.

                                                Priests at Every Moment

Eucharistic Reflection

        How must we draw inspiration from Our

        Lord, and how obey Him in all that we do?

       By recalling His Presence in the Blessed

       Sacrament and by praying for His guidance.

 

     Do not go to seek Our Lord in heaven, for

     He is nearer to you than that. It is well,

    doubtless, to rise toward His glorious throne

    from time to time, and to desire to see His

   splendor, but in practical life, you should

   have Him nearer to you, and it is in the

   Most Blessed Sacrament that you should

   seek and find Him.

  Our Lord might say to you: "Why do you

  neglect My Presence here? Do you think it

  is of no importance and that you can do

  without it? In heaven I am the God of glory

  for the elect; in My Sacrament I am the God

  of grace for them that struggle.

  "In all your actions, then, draw your inspiration

  from His Eucharistic Presence. How? By

  adoration, by prostrating yourself in spirit at

  His feet, by renouncing your own natural lights,

  and sentiments, in order to ask of Him the how

  of all things. Ask of Him in everything the best

  means, the best thought, the best way by

  acknowledging your blindness and impotence.

  Our Lord performed nothing but by the inspiration

  of His Father. He read in Him how He should

  think, judge, speak, and act.  Do the same with

  regard to Jesus Christ. Then you will act by His

  Spirit. He will send Him to you, for the Spirit

  proceeds from Him, and He will communicate to

  you the thought and intention, supernatural and

  divine, of Jesus Christ.

 

(The Divine Eucharist, extracts from the Writings of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Founder of the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament)

Father Mark: Your Advocate, Your Comforter, Your Refuge

If you love your priests, you will forward Father Mark’s most recent post to them and pray for them daily. You will find his post in its entirety here. Let me share this excerpt:  

 

There is no need for My priests to go through life
isolated, lonely, and friendless.
I want to be the Faithful Companion of their days and of their nights.
I want to be their solace and their rest.
I want to be their Friend, ever ready to listen to them,
to welcome them, to heal them, and renew their hope.
Oh, if only they would seek Me out
in those tabernacles where I wait for them,
in those tabernacles where no one joins Me
in My ceaseless prayer to the Father.

Never miss an opportunity to greet Me,
to adore Me, to remain with Me, even if only for a moment,
in the Sacrament of My Love.
In eternity you will see
the inestimable value of every moment
spent in My Eucharistic presence.

The Eucharist is, has been, and always will be the Answer. Why do we and too many of our priests run away from, instead of embracing and living this Truth?

                                                 

St. Dominic

Tomorrow we celebrate the feast day of our Father, St. Dominic!





(Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, NYC)

 

God has used and continues to use the Order of Preachers to defend His Church and proclaim His Truth. For nearly 800 years, Dominicans have worked untiringly to save souls. Every day, they strive to faithfully live their motto: "To Praise, To Bless, To Preach."

If you want a brief glimpse into the life of St. Dominic and the various ways in which he prayed take a look here and here. The Dominican Province of St. Joseph has a  phenomenal website well worth your time. Want to look into The Dominican Soul?

Maybe God is calling you to a vocation as as Lay Dominican. Check us out!



Why not honor this great saint today by offering the following  prayer attributed to him:

“May God the Father who made us bless us.
May God the Son send his healing among us.
May God the Holy Spirit move within us and

give us eyes to see with, ears to hear with, and

hands that your work might be done. May we

walk and preach the word of God to all. May

the angel of peace watch over us and lead us

at last by God's grace to the Kingdom.”

St. Dominic pray for us!

Book Trailer: Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! Words To Challenge, Inspire and Instruct



The Catholic Writers' Guild has awarded its "Seal of Approval" to Forgotten Truths to Set Faith Afire! - Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct.

Holy Priests and Zeal For Salvation of Souls or Political Activism and Social Justice Programs? What Did St. John Marie Vianney Think?

This feast day for St. John Marie Vianney should garner more attention than it does or will. What a shame! Here is what I wrote last year on this occasion.

I frequently write urging prayers for our priests, prayers for more holy priests, prayers for priests whose lives are truly centered on the Eucharist, and for priests who have an unflinching zeal for the salvation of souls. Why not offer a monthly Novena to St. John Vianney on behalf of your priests?  

Despite the pleas of John Paul II and Benedict XVI that their priests follow this holy man’s example, this patron saint of priests is too often ignored. How can that be? 

To help better appreciate what a gift St. John Vianney is to our Church and to his brother priests, I recommend you take a look at St. John Vianney's Pastoral Plan, a two part article written by Fr. John Cihak, S.T.D. and which appeared at Ignatius Insight. You can find Father’s work here and here. Father Roger J. Landry also wrote a series of articles on the Cure of Ars. St. John’s Vianney’s Greatest Temptation is worth reading.

It is clear from a cursory review of his writings that the Cure’s primary concern was for the    sanctification and salvation of the souls entrusted to him. Here is a sampling of what he had to say:

“Lord, make my people holy. This is one thing I ask of you. And if they are not holy, I know it will be my fault. But make them holy.”

“My God, grant me the conversion of my parish, and I am willing to suffer all my life whatsoever it may please You to lay upon me; yes, even for a hundred years am I prepared to endure the sharpest pains, only let my people be converted.”

“I can’t stop praying for poor sinners who are on the road to hell. If they come to die in that state, they will be lost for all eternity. What a pity! We have to pray for sinners! Praying for sinners is the most beautiful and useful of prayers because the just are on the way to heaven, the souls of purgatory are sure to enter there, but the poor sinners will be lost forever. All devotions are good but there is no better one than such prayer for sinners.”

Today then is a time to be bold. So I must ask: Should any of our present priests have any less concern for the sanctification and salvation of their flock than this humble, holy priest had for his? Not surprisingly, the Cure left an unambiguous answer:

“Woe to the pastor, who remains silent, while God is offended and souls are lost.”

Community organizing, political activism, and social justice programs will not save souls.  Only God working through holy priests will.

Eucharistic Reflection

“The secret for arriving quickly at a life centered in the Eucharist is, during a certain period of time, to make Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament the habitual object of the exercise of the presence of God, the dominant motive of our intentions, the meditation of our spirit, the affection of our heart, the object of all our virtues.

And if the soul is generous enough, one will come at length to this unity of action, to familiarity with the adorable Sacrament, to think of it with as much and even greater ease than of any other object.

Easily and gently one's heart will produce the most tender affections. In a word, the Most Holy Sacrament will become the magnet of devotion in one's life and the centre of perfection of one's love.

 

Eight days would be enough for a simple and fervent soul to acquire this Eucharistic spirit; and even if one should have to put weeks and months to acquire it, can this ever be compared with the peace and the happiness which this soul will enjoy in the Divine Eucharist?”

(Saint Peter Julian Eymard via Father Mark)

Time For A Laugh

We are always in need of a good laugh - all the better when it relates to some pressing public concern.


via Tim Hawkins and Aggie Catholics

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - Week of August 2, 2012

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.


From Venerable Fulton J. Sheen

"...in previous ages men lived in the sense of the Presence of God. As the earth carries its own atmosphere while it revolves around in space, so men carried with them their faith. Today, there is a feeling not of the Presence of God, but rather the absence of God: We have not lost our thirst, but we have denied the existence of water." 

(Radicalism and Sacrifice)

From St. John of the Cross

"Endeavor to be inclined always:

not to the easiest, but to the most difficult;

not to the most delightful, but to the harshest;

not to the most gratifying, but to the less pleasant;

not to what means rest for you, but to hard work;

not the consoling, but to the unconsoling;

not to the most, but to the least;

not to the highest and most precious, but to the lowest and most despised;

not to wanting something, but to wanting nothing;

do not go about looking for the best of temporal things, but for the worst and desire to enter for Christ into complete nudity, emptiness, and poverty in everything in the world.

You should embrace these practices earnestly and try to overcome the repugnance of your will toward them. If you sincerely put them into practice, with order and discretion, you will discover in them, great delight and consolation..."

(Ascent of Mount Carmel)

 From St. Augustine

"Too little does man love You who loves something together with You, loving it not because of You."

(The Confessions of St. Augustine)