Eucharistic Reflection

 

 

If souls but understood the Treasure they possess in the Divine Eucharist, it would be necessary to encircle the tabernacles with the strongest ramparts for, in the delirium of a devouring and holy hunger, they would press forward themselves to feed on the Bread of Angels. The Churches would overflow with adorers consumed with love for the Divine prisoner no less by night than by day.

(Blessed Dina Belanger)

Never Fear Sharing The Truth

A Bishop who has the courage to speak the Truth - unwlecomed as it may be:



Think and pray about your vote in upcoming election from Diocese of Springfield in IL on Vimeo.

In Thanksgiving to Our Loving, Merciful and Mysterious Lord

First of all I need to publicly praise and thank God for His unending and undeserved mercies, graces and blessings!

 

For those of you who have been folowing recent entries here, my twin sister has been fighting cancer since May. When the doctor’s examined her scan and x-ray last week following the end of initial chemotherapy and radiation treaments, they found none of the 3 tumors that had previously resided in her lungs! – Oh, the power of prayer and the great mercy of our God!

Since the small cell cancer Jane had in her lungs tends to travel to the brain, the doctors have initiated another round of radiation in an attempt to thwart its arrival there. She has begun a round of radiation of her brain. This will require 10 sessions. She began this treatment on Tuesday. She is expected to be very fatigued during this process and will likely have some permanent short term memory loss.

We continue to place Jane’s physical and spiritual well-being in our good Lord’s hands and welcome your on-going intercession.

While we are understandably appreciative of Jane’s progress, we are mindful of the many others whose treatment has not been so positive. Would you please lift all those individuals in prayer as well?

With eternal gratitude to our God and to all you wonderful prayer warriors!

May God bless each of you!

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - September 27, 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. John Eudes

“Our wish, our object, our chief preoccupation must be to form Jesus in ourselves, to make His spirit, His devotion, His affections, His desires and His disposition live and reign there. All our religious exercises should be directed to this end. It is the work which God has given us to do unceasingly.” 
                      (The Life and Reign of Jesus in Christian Souls)



From Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen


"Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even 'if everybody' is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right."

From Thomas Dubay, S.M.

 

In the view of St. Teresa of Avila and of St. John of the Cross, many think they are “listening to the Spirit”, whereas in fact they are hearing nothing other than their own ideas and desires. They baptize their own preferences and somehow convince themselves, at times others as well, that they enjoy a privileged access to the divine.

 

(From Fire Within)

 

Eucharistic Reflection

            What is Meant by Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ…

The particular object of this devotion is the immense love of the Son of God, which has induced Him to die for us, and to give Himself wholly to us in the Adorable Sacrament of the Altar, and this, although He foresaw all the ingratitude and outrages which He was to meet within this state of a victim immolated till the end of ages; preferring rather to expose himself daily to the insults and contempt of mankind, than to fail in showing us, by the greatest of all wonders, to what an excess He loves us. 

This is what has enkindled the piety and zeal of many. Reflecting on the little gratitude that is shown for such an excess of love, the little love that is felt for Jesus Christ, and the little value that is set upon His love for us, they have been unable to endure to see Him daily so ill-treated, without protesting to Him their just grief and their excessive desire to repair, as far as they can, so much ingratitude and contempt, by their ardent love, by their profound respect, and by every sort of homage in their power. It is with this intention that certain days in the year have been chosen in order to make a more special recognition of the excessive love of Jesus Christ for us in the adorable Sacrament; and at the same time, to make Him some reparation of honor for all the indignities and all the contempt which He has received, and still receives daily, in this mystery of love. And certainly, this grief at the sight of the little love shown to Jesus Christ in this adorable mystery, this intense sorrow at seeing Him so ill-treated, these practices of devotion which are suggested by love alone, and which have no other aim but to repair, as far as possible, the outrages He there endures, are, without doubt, real proofs of an ardent love for Jesus Christ, and visible signs of a just gratitude. 

It is easy to see that the object and principal motive of this devotion is, as we have already said, the immense love which Jesus Christ has for men, whilst they for the most part feel only contempt, or at least indifference, for Him. 

The end we have in view is, first, to acknowledge and honor, as far as we are able, by our frequent adorations, by a return of love, by our thanksgivings, and by every sort of homage, the sentiments of love and tenderness which Jesus Christ has for us, in the adorable Eucharist, where He is so little known to men, or at least, so little loved, even by those who do know Him. 

 

In the second place, we aim at repairing, by every means possible, the insults and outrages to which His love exposed Him, in the course of His mortal life, and to which the same love exposes Him still every day, in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar. So that this devotion wholly consists, properly speaking, in an ardent love of Jesus Christ, constantly residing amongst us in the adorable Eucharist, and in testifying to this ardent love by our grief at seeing Him so little loved and so little honored, and by the means we take to repair this contempt and this want of love. 

  (From Devotion To The  Sacred Heart Of Jesus by Father John Croiset, S.J.) 

 

 

Give Me Jesus

It has been some time since I last ended a Sunday by sharing some musical comfort and inspiration. Thanks to Catholic Online and Fernando Ortega I will tonight.

Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival

Please join me and other Catholic bloggers at RAnn’s Place for Sunday Snippets - A Catholic Carnival where we share posts from the previous week.

Here are my posts:

What Is Impossible For One Man To Accomplish By Himself Becomes Entirely Possible With Your Help

Eucharistic Reflection

Pondering Tidbits Of Truth

 

While you are at it why not take a peek at the trailer for my book, Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! - Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct:

What Is Impossible For One Man to Accomplish By Himself Becomes Entirely Possible With Your Help!

Monday Musings

If God used Balaam’s donkey to get that prophet’s attention, I guess he can use me to get yours. May these periodic Monday Musings generate fruitful discussion and faithful change.

 [Question: Why are you posting the first installment of “Monday Musings” on Saturday? Answer: I won’t have internet access on Monday as my wife and I are leaving for a trip tomorrow. This needs to be acted on now)

YOU HAVE GOT TO DO SOMETHING VITALLY IMPORTANT!

At the end of this post, I am going to ask you to help get the poignant reflection of Father Mark set forth below into the hands of every Bishop and priest in this country. We can do it!

But first I want to share a few thoughts that have long been embedded in my heart.

That which is most essential for our sanctification and salvation is that which we most frequently ignore  – The Eucharist. 

The late Apostle of the Eucharist, Father John Hardon, S.J., realized “that everything, everything, quote EVERTHING of our faith (indeed the virtue of faith itself) depends on our faith in God being really present with us today in both His human and Divine nature, united in His Divine Person in the Holy Eucharist”.

The time for mincing words is over. Current polls, as well as what we observe with our own eyes, make it clear that a majority (an overwhelming majority of those identifying themselves as Catholic, perhaps as much as 80 percent, including 80 percent of those few Catholics who bother attending Sunday Mass) no longer believe that our Lord is really, truly and substantially present Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament. The sad but truthful reality is that in far too many of our churches we have lost the sense of the sacred and an appreciation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that are essential for fostering and maintaining a belief in the Real Presence.

“The sanctity of the Christian people,” Pope Pius X wrote, “depends in large measure on the holiness of their priests.”  Neither we nor our priests can ever be holy if we fail to make the Eucharist the center of our daily lives. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen so candidly observed: “The moral rot of the priesthood starts with a want of lively faith in the Divine Presence, and the sanctity of the priesthood starts there too.”

We do not need any more study groups or committees or commissions in the Catholic Church. All lukewarmness toward or outright opposition to the promotion of Eucharistic adoration and spirituality must cease. We need Bishops, priests religious and laypeople to get on their knees before their Eucharistic Lord. It is He, not any of them, Who will gift us with a deep, abiding, life-changing, sanctifying belief in His Real Human and Divine Presence here among us. Everything else we need or think we need individually or as Church will flow from Him.  

Any notion that the answer to solving the myriad social and financial ills of our nation and world rests on political activity, social justice programs and governmental largesse must be jettisoned. The long-standing pattern of many Church leaders remaining deafeningly silent while increasing numbers of “self-proclaimed Catholics” publicly misrepresent what it means to be Catholic must change. The hesitancy and fear to clearly inform Catholics that they will lose their eternal souls if they persist in advocating, engaging in, supporting or voting for any one who supports such intrinsic evils as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, fetal stem cell research, human cloning, and homosexual marriage, has to end.

So what can we simple people do about all of this? Listen to the prophets among us. Among those voices resonating in the Church today is Father Mark whose love for our Eucharistic Lord and his brother priests know no bounds. His blog, Vultus Christi, is a must read for any one who loves God and wants to take His call to personal holiness seriously.

With the good Father’s indulgence, I am setting forth one of his more recent reflections, one that I am asking everyone who may read this column to copy and give to your Bishops and priests – every Bishop and every priest in this country. Impractical and impossible goal, you say? You are right unless God wills it!

The simple man writing this blog entry is convinced that there is nothing of more value that any of us can do today than to pass the following reflection on as requested. Let everyone you know on Facebook, Twitter, Google+1, other social media, and all those who visit your blog know of this request. Add a link to this post to all the other blogs you visit. Let’s see God do the impossible because one humble priest has the courage to speak the truth and we simple people responded. God is counting on you!

Love's Invisible Radiance

(By Father Mark - September 1, 2012 |

There are so many tabernacles on earth
where I am, for all intents and purposes,
like one buried, hidden, forgotten, and out of sight.
My divine radiance is diminished
because there are so few adorers
to act as the receptors of My radiant Eucharistic love
and to extend My radiance through space
and into the universe of souls.

Where there is faith in My real presence,
there will be adoration;
and where there is adoration,
there will also be an efficacious radiance of My presence
drawing souls to My Eucharistic Heart
and surrounding them, even at a distance,
with the healing influence of My Eucharistic Face.

Eucharistic Reflection

Contemplate it – the sanctuary lamp in your church…it is the silent friend of Jesus and of all Eucharistic souls.

 

The evening shades have fallen. The church is empty; there is no longer anyone kneeling before the tabernacle; but in God’s dear house that little lamp sheds its mild rays in all directions. Gently it lights up the tiny tabernacle door. It almost seems as if it were pleading for entrance there, in order that thus it might be permitted to say to the Divine Recluse within: “See, You are not alone – I watch with You.”

 

When the faithful, having satisfied their need of prayer and love, leave the sacred edifice and go their various ways, returning to life’s daily cares and struggles, the sanctuary lamp seems to give then this farewell as they cast one last lingering glance back at God’s altar throne: “Go faithful souls, return to your toil, your sweat and perhaps tears await you; I will remain here; and in your name I will keep watch for you.”

 

What is a church, be it large or small, without a sanctuary lamp? Is it not like a body without a soul? When entering a church a Catholic instinctively lets his eyes roam over the sanctuary in search of that tiny flame of light; and if he finds it not, he seems to hear in the depths of his heart a little voice that is cold and disappointing: “Your Savior is not here!” It may be that rare treasures of art are gathered together there; but of what avail are the greatest masterpieces of the painter’s brush or the sculptor’s chisel if the beams of this dear light do not fall upon them? The art of man may indeed cross the threshold of our sacred edifices; it may exert all its skill for the glorification of God and the beautifying of our churches; but if this trembling light does not cast its magic rays upon them, not even the greatest genius can infuse into the marble its proper expression or give true life to the canvas.

 

Little sanctuary lamp, you are for me as the eye of divine love, which penetrates to the very depths of my soul, searches out its every secret, conquers my heart, and awakens its tenderest emotions! You are always, silent, and yet – how eloquent you are!

 

(From Eucharistic Whisperings)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - September 13, 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.


 
St. Catherine of Siena

"We've had enough of exhortations to be silent! Cry out with a hundred thousand tongues. I see that the world is rotten because of silence."

Father Frederick Faber

If we hated sin as we ought to hate it, purely, keenly, manfully, we should do more penance, we should inflict more self-punishment, we should sorrow for our sins more abidingly. Then, again, the crowning disloyalty to God is heresy. It is the sin of sins, the very loathsomest of things which God looks down upon in this malignant world. Yet how little do we understand of its excessive hatefulness! It is the polluting of God's truth, which is the worst of all impurities.

Yet how light we make of it! We look at it and are calm. We touch it and do not shudder. We mix with it and have no fear. We see it touch holy things, and we have no sense of sacrilege. We breathe its odor, and show no signs of detestation or disgust. Some of us affect its friendship; and some even extenuate its guilt. We do not love God enough to be angry for His glory. We do not love men enough to be charitably truthful for their souls.

                                           (From The Precious Blood)

St. Teresa of Avila

"It is quite certain that, when we empty ourselves of all that is creature and rid ourselves of it for the love of God, that same Lord will fill our souls with Himself."

 

(From Interior Castle)

Updating My Corpus Christi Prayer Request

On June 9, 2012, I had asked my readers to pray for the spiritual and physical well-being of my twin sister Jane who was about to begin treatment for an aggressive form of lung cancer. It is long past time for me to let you wonderful people know the results of your prayerful support.

So many have been praying for her and many of you mentioned her by name as Jesus processed past you on Corpus Christi. We are eternally grateful for all your prayers. She just completed five weeks of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation. God in His mercy spared her from the most dire and debilitating side effects she could have experienced from this treatment.

Moreover, some preliminary testing midway through her course of treatment indicated the tumors were shrinking. Our God is great and merciful. Praise God!

Tomorrow she is scheduled to have some scans and x-rays to determine to what extent her treatment has been successful in getting rid of the cancer in her lungs. She will have to wait until September 17^th for the results.

If the treatment has been successful, she will start a two week course of radiation to her brain, the site where her type of cancer tends to gravitate. We remain confident and positive that God will continue the healing process for her.

In the meanwhile, may I selfishly ask this wonderful army of prayer warriors to continue lifting Jane up to our Loving Lord, that she be accepting of His will for her, and that she welcome the Peace and Comfort that only He can give? I would be most appreciative if you would pass this on-going request to your family, friends and fellow parishioners.

How blessed we are, have been, and will be by the gift of your prayers.

Eucharistic Reflection

“I have said that this body of his is a sun. Therefore you could not be given the body without being given the blood as well nor either the body or the blood without the soul of this Word; nor the soul or body without the divinity of me, God eternal. For the one cannot be separated from the other - just as the divine nature can nevermore be separated from the human nature, not by death or by any other being that you receive in that most gracious sacrament under that whiteness of bread.

And just as the sun cannot be divided, so neither can my wholeness as God and as human in this white host. Even if the host is divided, even if you could break it into thousands and thousands of tiny bits, in each one I would be there, wholly God and wholly human. It is just as when a mirror is broken, and yet the image one sees reflected in it remains unbroken. So when this host is divided, I am not divided but remain completely in each piece, wholly God, wholly human.

Nor is the sacrament itself diminished by being divided, any more than fire, to take an example. If you had a burning lamp and all the world came to you for light, the light of your lamp would not be diminished by the sharing, yet each person who shared it would have the whole light. True, each one's light would be more or less intense depending on what sort of material each brought to receive the fire. I give you this example so that you may better understand me. Imagine that many people brought candles, and one person's candle weighed one ounce, another's more than that, and they all came to your lamp to light their candles. Each candle, the smallest as well as the largest, would have the whole light with all its heat and color and brightness. Still, you would think that the person who carried the one-ounce candle would have less than the one whose candle weighed a pound. Well, this is how it goes with those who receive this sacrament. Each one of you brings your own candle, that is, the holy desire with which you receive and eat this sacrament. Your candle by itself is unlit, and it is lighted when you receive this sacrament. I say it is unlit because by yourselves you are nothing at all. It is I who have given you the candle with which you can receive this light and nourish it within you. And your candle is love, because it is for love that I created you, so without love you cannot have life.

It is with this love that you come to receive my gracious light, the light I have given you as food, to be administered to you by my ministers. But even though all of you receive the light, each of you receives it in proportion to the love and burning desire you bring with you. Each of you carries the light whole and undivided, for it cannot be divided by any imperfection in you who receive it or in those who administer it. You share as much of the light (that is, the grace you receive in this sacrament) as your holy desire disposes you to receive.

(From The Dialogue -words of God the Father to St. Catherine of Siena)