"It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian], than to talk and not to be one. It is good to teach, if he who speaks also acts." - St. Ignatius of Antioch
Easter and Christmas are the two times during the
course of the year when many Catholics come to Mass who do not regularly do so.
As Christ's representatives on earth, we need to welcome every one who enters
His Church.
But if we really love our absent brothers and
sisters and care about the salvation of their souls neither we nor our priests would allow them to leave without lovingly challenging them.
What follows is an older post with a new name and introductory sentence that attempts to do
just that.
Imagine entering Church, sitting down in a pew
and in your heart, hearing Jesus say:
"I am always here – 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, 365 days a year - waiting for you. But generally I am
alone, abandoned and ignored.
So when I looked out from behind the
closed doors this morning, I was overjoyed to see you! While there were many familiar faces among those filling the
pews, there were a good number whom I have not seen in some time. If you only
knew the joy I experience when you come!
I take delight in all My people, but
I experience a special joy when those who stay away come to be with Me. I have
so much to give each of you!
How I hunger for your presence here
every Sunday. How I want to be one with you and fill you will My graces. How I
want to give you the spiritual nourishment you need to withstand the weekly
onslaught and temptations that surround you.
I offer you My Word and most
especially My Body, Blood Soul and Divinity!
But if you have not been coming to
Sunday Mass, if you have intentionally ignored or disobeyed My commandments, if
you have unconfessed mortal sin on your soul, then there is something you must
first do before approaching Me at the altar if you are to eternally benefit
from Holy Communion.
See that little box, that little room
off to the side or in the back of the Church? At least once a week, I sit there
in the person of my priest, waiting for you to come, to humble yourself, to
acknowledge your sinfulness, to ask for my forgiveness and to resolve to sin no
more .My mercy is yours for the asking!
It really isn’t that difficult. I
already know where you have failed Me, yourself and others. There is nothing
You could ever tell my priest that he has not heard or that I have not forgiven
through him countless times before. Truth be told, fewer come to see Me in the
confessional each week than visit me in my locked tabernacles!
Pride caused your first parents to
disobey me and the same pride keeps so many of you away from Me! Swallow your
pride! Humble yourself. Come to this place of forgiveness, healing and mercy –
the source of new life. I can not shower you with the graces I have for you in
Holy Communion unless you do so.
I am sure you can understand then why
your absence from Sunday Mass and the confessional saddens Me so! There is
rarely any valid reason for you to miss Sunday Mass or for you to approach Me
in the Blessed Sacrament unworthily.
I love you! I will always love you!
I can only offer you eternal life.
You must choose it!
When Jesus told His followers that unless they ate His Body and drank His Blood, they could not have eternal life, large numbers left and never returned. Their initial repulsion to this direction was understandable: who would want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of another living human being?
Yet, many had come to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. They had either heard of or actually witnessed countless miracles evidencing His Divine nature. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Why did they not realize that He would never ask the impossible of them or fail to provide them the means with which to fulfill His command?
His apostles had no greater understanding of, or fondness, for what Jesus was commanding them to do. But when Jesus asked them if they too would leave, Peter, answering for himself and for the other apostles save for Judas, replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go?You have the words of eternal life.”
So they stepped out in faith, accepting this “difficult” teaching without fully understanding it. Their faith was rewarded at the Last Supper when Jesus, using the basic elements of a common meal - bread and wine – transformed the substance (but not the outward appearance of those items), into His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, gave them to His apostles to eat and to drink, and empowered His newly ordained priests and their legitimate successors to do likewise.This world has never been the same.
This Holy Thursday as we commemorate the institution of the Eucharist, the ordained priesthood and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we would do well to spend a few minutes reviewing and reflecting on the three questions and answers that follow.
What is a priest?
“What is a priest? We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw closer to God to bring Him close to others; be sanctified to sanctify; lead by the hand and counsel prudently. I know whose ministers we are, where we find ourselves and to where we strive. I know God’s greatness and man’s weakness, but also his potential. The priest is the defender of truth, who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise to the altar on high, shares Christ’s priesthood, refashions creation, restores it in God’s image, recreates it for the world on high and, even greater, is divinized and divinizes.” – St. Gregory of Nazianzus
What Is The Eucharist?
“Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him his lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus the effect proper to this sacrament is the conversion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; consequently, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues." – St. Thomas Aquinas
What Is The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
"When the Host is held on high and a chalice lifted…look up! Look up and see what Mary saw. See a naked man squirming as He bleeds against a blackened sky; see a battered human body, writhing on a tree, prisoned there by savage spikes that have torn through Sacred hands and feet; see thorn-tortured head tossing from side to side as anguished torso labors, lifts and strains; see the eyes of God roll towards heaven beseeching, as broken lips blurt out that soul piercing cry: “My God, My God, Why has Thou forsaken Me?” What is this? This is the Mass. This is Crucifixion. This is what Mary saw at the elevation of Christianity’s first Mass. This is what you should see at the Elevation of every Mass!" – Father M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.
May I suggest two additional things for you to do? Right now and several times every day hereafter, pray for all our priests, pray that they will become holy priests whose lives will be centered upon and devoted to the Eucharist, and pray that they will embrace and fully live their call to be “another Christ”.
Lastly, right after you say your evening prayers, find a quiet place free from distractions, dim or turn off the lights, prayerfully listen to words of this heavenly hymn, and thank God for the gift of His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity and for His priests:
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.
Since this is Holy Week, I am posting this a day earlier than I normally would. Let’s ponder some of the things
that Servant of God, Fulton J. Sheen, had to say about Suffering, the Eucharist
and Priests:
Suffering
“All
men are born to live; He (Jesus) was born to do the Father’s business which was
to die and thereby save.”
“God could never
let you suffer a pain or a reversal or experience sadness if it could not in
some way minister to your perfection. If he did not spare his own Son on the
Cross for the redemption of the world, then you may be sure that he will
sometimes not spare your wants that you might be all you need to be: happy and
perfect children of a loving Father. He may even permit us to wage wars as a
result of our selfishness that we may learn there is no peace except in
Goodness and Truth.”
The Eucharist
“Each morning we priests hold in our hands the Christ, who shed
blood from His veins, tears from His eyes, sweat from His body to sanctify us.
How we should be on fire with that love, that we may enkindle it in others!”
“The greatest love story of all time
is contained in a tiny white host.”
Priests
“The pastor’s primary concern should be the tabernacle, not the rectory,
not the ego, but the Lord, not his comfort, but God’s glory.”
“Every worldly priest hinders the
growth of the Church; every saintly priest promotes it. If only all priests
realized how their holiness makes the Church holy, and how the Church begins to
decline as the level of holiness among priests falls below that of the people!”
"My people! What have I done, in what way have I
offended you? Answer me. I gave you the water of salvation which flowed from My
sorrow to drink and you gave Me honey and vinegar. My people what have I done
to you?"
“Contemplate Me in the prison
where I spent the greater part of the night. The soldiers came and, adding
words to injuries, insulted Me, mocked
Me, outraged Me, and gave Me blows on My face and on My whole body.
Tired of their sport, at length
they left Me bound and alone in the dark and noisome place, where, seated on a
stone, My aching body was cramped with cold.
Compare the prison with the
Tabernacle, and especially with the hearts that receive Me. "In the prison I spent only part of
the night…but in the Tabernacle, how many days and nights?
In the prison I was insulted and
ill-treated by soldiers who were my enemies. In the Tabernacle most often it is
they who call Me their Father who treat Me thus, but how unlike that of children
is the treatment!
In the prison I endured cold,
sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, solitude, and desertion. And there passed
before My mind’s eye all the tabernacles where in the course of ages I should
lack the shelter of love. . . the icy-cold hearts that would be as hard and unfeeling as the stones of the prison floor
were to My numbed and wounded body.
And how often should I wait for
this or that other soul to visit Me in the Blessed Sacrament and receive Me
into his heart…how many nights should I spend longing for his corning…but he would
let business or carelessness or anxiety for his health get the better of him. .
. and he would not come!
O! if they would thus unite
themselves to Me, with what peace would they face difficulties…how much fortitude they would win
and how they would gladden My
Heart!"
(Words of Our Lord to Sr.
Josefa Menendez as set forth in The Way
of Divine Love and as quoted by Joan Carter McHughin My Daily Eucharist)
It's Sunday and time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's place where you are sure to find something that will speak to your soul. Take a few minutes and visit!
This stearling example of the power of Truth when expressed through the lips of a child comes via Creative Minority Report. View it HERE, pass it on, and then ask yourself why are our religious and secular leaders unable or unwilling to speak with such clarity?
Just a reminder - today and
tomorrow (March 21 and March 22, 2013) are the last two days to get a free
Kindle copy of Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! Words To Challenge,
Inspire and Instruct by clicking here.
Let your family and friends know of this great offer!
Take a quick look at the back cover:
Help make this the number one Free Kindle Christian Inspiration Book on Amazon this week! Put it on your Kindle, your tablet, your laptop, your android or i-phone. Have spiritual nourishment at your fingertips wherever you may be.
This is not a one-time read. This is a book that you can draw inspriation from for years to come.
Do not pass up this opportunity to let God touch your heart and stir your soul!
My Dad was a Joseph. My deceased
brother was a Joseph. My Confirmation name is Joseph. My only son is a Joseph. And
as a Lay Dominican, I am a member of the St. JosephProvince
of the Order of Preachers.
Guess it is incumbent upon me then to share something about St. Joseph today.
Let me start
with the wisdom offered by our beloved Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI, during an
Address he gave on December 19, 2005:
“Let us allow ourselves to be ‘infected’ by St. Joseph’s silence.We need it greatly, in a world that is often too
noisy, that does not favor meditation or listening to the voice of God.”
What follows are three Scriptural passages involving St. Joseph. Three times an angel told him what God was asking of him. Each time Joseph accepted what he was told. Is there a lesson there for us? Why not take some time before the end of this
day to read, reflect and meditate on these passages? Hopefully that exercise will make
this a special feast day for you.
“Now the birth of
Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to
Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy
Spirit; and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to
shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife,
for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit; she will bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel’ (which
means, God with us).When Joseph woke
from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife,
but knew her not until she had borne a son; and he called his name Jesus.” –
Matthew 1:18-25(RSV)
“Now when they had
departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise,
take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell
you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ And
he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt and remained
there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by
the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt
have I called my son’." – Matthew 2:13-15(RSV)
"But when Herod
died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, 'Rise, take the child and
his mother, and go to the land
of Israel, for those who
sought the child's life are dead.' And he rose and took the child and his
mother, and went to the land
of Israel. But when he
heard that Archelaus reigned over Judea in place
of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he
withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was
spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, 'He shall be called a Nazarene'."
– Matthew 2:19-23(RSV)
What a privilege it
was to serve Mass this morning! It is not something I have had the honor to do
more than 3 or 4 times in my adult life.
For someone who
just recently received his Medicare card, today was both a day for gratitude
and for awe – gratitude for the gift of life and awe for the privilege to be so
close to the holy altar of sacrifice.
Who am I to have
been privileged to unlock Jesus’ cell door this morning in anticipation of Father
carrying Him out to be with those Whom He so dearly loves?
Or to have prayed
with Father in the sacristy before we processed into the sanctuary and after we
returned upon the completion of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
I marvel at the undeserved
honor given me this day to carry the chalice, paten and unconsecrated host to
its altar home prior to Mass.
(Not My Parish But St. Vincent Ferrer, NYC)
How can I ever explain
the overwhelming sense of unworthiness and the simultaneous joyful awareness of
being so privileged to kneel in the sanctuary just feet from the Last Supper and
Calvary, surrounded by our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph, all the saints, the
heavenly angels and the souls of purgatory?
Why did God bless
me with this privilege on this the feast day of St. Joseph – the namesake of my only son and
my deceased father, and the patron Saint of my Dominican province?
What an honor it
was to hold a paten under the hands and mouths of those who came to receive the
Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of their Risen Lord and Savior and to return the purified
chalice, paten and corporal to its table.
I have known
intellectually for some time that the Mass is the greatest event occurring on
the face of this earth each day. Today, I
was privileged to intimately live that Truth, up close and personal.
As I put out the
candles and retrieved the chalice, paten, corporal and cruets from the table
for return to the sacristy, I was prompted to glance over my shoulder. My loving
Lord had yet one more gift for me this day.
There, as he frequently
does, kneeling in the sanctuary, giving public, powerful but silent witness to his
abiding love for the Eucharist, was my pastor – never too busy to spend time
with His beloved Lord.
Thank you Lord for
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! Thank you Lord for Your holy and faithful priests! Thank you for today!
In betweeen bites of corned beef and cabbage, why not join some gifted Catholic bloggers at RAnn's Place and supplement that good physical nourishment with some substantive spiritual sustenance and inspiration?
DON'T MISS OUT ON YOUR FREE KINDLE COPY OF - Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! - Words To Challenge, Inspire and Instruct. GO TO AMAZON.COM BETWEEN MARCH 18 AND MARCH 22, 2013 toget a free Kindle version.It is a perfect companion for this "Year of Faith" and recipient of the Catholic Writers' Guild's Seal of Approval.
If you do not have a Kindle, you can simply download the appropriate and free Kindle Book App and put Forgotten Truths on your desktop, laptop, tablet, android or I-phone - making spiritual inspiration and nourishment instantly available to you any time you can steal a few minutes away from your daily routines.
May God use this book to touch hearts and stir souls!
Please tell you family, friends and fellow parishioners and bloggers of this offer in time for them to obtain their free copy as well.
"Of ourselves, we cannot communicate worthily. We need
the help of the Holy Spirit. Even though we approach the altar free from mortal
sin, He must sharpen our spiritual apprehension and inflame our love to
intense ardor, that Christ may find in us a more beautiful habitation every
time we receive Him.
The sacramental God has a divine right to expect on
our part after each Holy Communion an intensification of our gradual growth
into His likeness. As often as we receive Him, He would have us burn with the
desire for greater progress in virtue that will manifest itself in an
irrevocable detachment from the world and a more unselfish love of Him,
grounded on the conviction of our nothingness and consequent sore need of Him.
With greater joy will He abide in us if He beholds us
by degrees assimilating His life, resembling Him in virtue by more complete
conformity to His will. Christ will unite Himself most intimately with us if
we are constant in our effort to imitate Him.
And all this is the effect of the direct operation of
the Holy Spirit, who beautifies our souls with His holiness, and adorns them
with His invaluable gifts. Being one with Christ, He traces in us the image of
our Savior, for only by His power does the mind that is in Christ become the
mind that is in us. Thus does He unite us with the sacramental God in the bonds
of a common love. And because He is the Spirit of love, He stirs to the depths
the love of the Eucharistic God, and moves us to reciprocate it whenever we
approach the banquet of the Lord.
St. John, speaking of Christ, says, 'Of His fullness we
all ye received.' He who, in the Incarnation, filled the sacred humanity
with the fullness of the Godhead, fills our tainted humanity with the Body,
Blood, Soul, and Divinity of the God of ineffable sanctity.
Reflecting, before Holy Communion, on the essential,
intimate association of the Holy Spirit with the central mystery our Catholic
Faith, we will beg Him to remove far from us whatever would impede our
reception of the fullness of the grace of this sacrament. We will do more. With
an ardor that dilates our hearts with exquisite joy, we will constrain Him to ennoble
our thoughts and desires so that we may embrace Christ with a faith that moves
mountains, and with a love supremely sacrificial. Then will we glorify our
hidden God, and our souls will be His home until the shadows flee away, and we
return with the garnered fruits of infinite, eternal love, to contemplate
forever, the inexhaustible beauty that we adored under the Eucharistic veil."
(Transforming Your Life Through the Eucharist by Father John A.
Kane)
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.
Servant of God Madeleine
Delbrel
“To the extent that our world tries
to break itself away from God, that people believe that they can get by without
God, that they can organize things apart from God, God becomes for the world something
new, and the living God of the Gospel once again becomes news.”
(From We, the Ordinary
People of the Streets)
Benedict XVI
Today…it is particularly important to clarify the criteria
used to distinguish the authentic sensus fidelium from its counterfeits.
In fact, it is not some kind of public opinion of the Church, and it is
unthinkable to mention it in order to challenge the teachings of the
Magisterium, this because the sensus fidei cannot grow authentically in
the believer except to the extent in which he or she fully participates in the
life of the Church, and this requires a responsible adherence to her
Magisterium.
From Address to the International
Theological Commission, December7, 2012)
Dr. Ralph Martin
“How tragic if the promulgation
of a theoretical or practical presumption that almost everyone will be saved
actually became the cause of many people being lost.”
(From“Will Many Be Saved? What Vatican
II Actually Teaches and Its Implications for The New Evangelization”)
It's Sunday and time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's place where you are sure to find something that will speak to your soul. Take a few minutes and visit!
Here are two Eucharistic Reflections - one lengthy and challenging, and the other just as demanding but short and to the point:
God is the creator of all human life. He makes no mistakes.
Who are we to subsitute our judgment for His?
Who are we to so brazenly and illegitimately think we have the right to usurp His authority over the life He creates?
The next time we think we know better than Him as to the quality of life some disabled person may have or mistakenly think we are being compassionate when we are tempted to think or suggest that a less than perfectly formed human being should not be allowed to live, remember Tim.
Look at Tim!
Look at the way he loves!
Look at his joy and love of life!
Doesn't he more closely resembles the God Who created him than many of us able bodied folk do?
Look at Tim and see He Who created this jewel!
Thanks to Barb at Suffering For Joy for sharing this treasure. Visit her often. She has much to offer us in our earthly journey toward our heavenly home.
“If among
those who read these words there be anyone suffering from painful, inexplicable
feelings of which bind the soul, oppressing it and spreading over it
profoundest darkness, if there be any one weighted down by weariness or
dreadful temptations who feel that they are losing everything – Faith, Love,
and Hope – that God Himself seems to be turning from them, that Heaven is closed
to them and that death is in their souls, I implore you come to the Host. Throw
yourself at His feet and cry out to him, “I have none but You, save me by Your
love and by the Wound of your Heart.”
Then abandon yourself
to Him, Leave your soul in His hands, as the Canaanite woman confided to Christ
her daughter who was possessed of an evil spirit…In His name I say to you: “No,
you will not perish…” Never during His mortal life nor in His sacramental state
has Jesus repulsed or abandoned anyone who had recourse to Him.
However, terrible
the state of your soul may seem to you, however unfortunate or even guilty you
may feel, do not shy from Him, do not lose courage but cling to your Jesus even
as a drowning man clings to a rope. Stay near the Host for His Heart is ever
watchful. Who can tear you away if you not wish to leave? Has He not said, that
He himself will be your Defender? Remember His Word has never deceived anyone.
I implore you,
do not listen to satan who wishes to drive you away. Stay with Jesus who is
there in the Sacred Host, for from Him even as in the days of His mortal life,
there will come forth that powerful virtue which heals and saves.
It is for you
that He is there, for you that He offers His Blood, His Wounds, and His Merits.
It is when you are there prostrate at His feet, that His Blood flows over your
soul, that He covers you with His Merits, that He hides you in His Wounds and
in His Heart.
If you but
understood the gift of God, if you but knew Him who waits for you all day long
even as He waited at the well of Jacob for the Samaritan woman, you would
realize that it is there that He has desired to cover you with His protection and
His love, it is there that He wishes to be your Savior and your Friend, it is
from there that He will come to you in your last hour if you have gone to Him during
your life and it is there that He will receive you into His Heart to conduct
you to eternal happiness.”
(From My Eucharistic Day: Rules and Practices Recommen ded by Saint Peter Julian Eymard)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
