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 touch your heart and stir your soul. Take a
few minutes and visit!
Here is what I posted this week:
(Photo ©Father Lawrence Lew, O.P. Used with Permission)
Thanking Him Who Is Mad With Love
This Thanksgiving Day take some time to ponder He Who created you from nothing, He Who suffered and died for you, He Who watches over you, He Who longs to hold you in His loving arms for all eternity.
If you have not contemplated these Truths in a while, now would be a great time to spend a few silent moments doing so. May the following words of St. Teresa of the Andes fuel your reflection.
Thank our Lord for all that He has given you and
especially for loving you, even during those times when you may not have
loved Him as you ought.
Eucharistic Reflection - With A Heart Humbled and Broken With Grief
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(Photo©Michael Seagriff)
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Most adorable and most amiable Jesus! Ever full
of love for us, ever touched with compassion for our
miseries, ever actuated by the desire of making us
partakers of Thy treasures, and of giving Thyself
wholly to us: Jesus, my Savior and my God, Who,
through an excess of the most ardent and most won-
derful love, hast placed Thyself in the condition of a
victim, in the Adorable Eucharist, where Thou offers
Thyself for us in sacrifice so many times every day,
what must be Thy sentiments in this state, at finding
no return for all this, in the hearts of the greater part
of men, but hardness, forgetfulness, ingratitude and
contempt!
Was it not enough. Oh my God, to have taken the most
painful means of saving us, when Thou could
have shown us Thy excessive love at much less cost ?
Making Charity Concrete and Unambiguous
No generalities here. No mistaking what is expected of us. No wiggle room for misunderstanding.
Monday Musings - Are You A Scoundrel?
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| (Image Source) |
I have been working my way through a second reading of Finding God’s Will For You by St. Francis de Sales. His explanations of fundamental Truths always challenge his readers to reassess their relationship with the God they claim to love and serve. This gifted spiritual adviser always provides much fruit for contemplation.
God has a plan for each of us – one that will lead to eternal happiness. He provides us with the graces sufficient to discover, accept and live out that plan. At the same time, He gave us free will and allows us to reject the path He sets before us.
Many in our contemporary world (even among some clergy and members of our Church) ridicule and reject that which He calls us to believe and live. “Dogma” and “Doctrine” have become dirty words and those who dare treasure and teach God’s Truths are often ridiculed and attacked for doing so.
Sunday Snippets - November 23, 2014
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(Photo©Michael Seagriff)
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This is what I shared:
Eucharistic Reflection - Why Do We Limit God's Power?
Have You Accepted His Invitation?
Pondering Tidbits of Truth-November 20, 2014
Have You Accepted His Invitation?
Pondering Tidbits of Truth-November 20, 2014
Pondering Tidbits of Truth-November 20, 2014
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(Photo©Michael Seagriff)
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St. Pius X
"When vice runs wild, when persecution hangs heavy, when error is so cunning that it threatens her destruction by snatching many children from her bosom (and plunges them into the whirlpool of sin and impiety) - then, more than ever, the Church is strengthened from above. Whether the wicked will it or not, God makes even error aid in the triumph of Truth whose guardian and defender is the Church. He puts corruption in the service of sanctity, whose mother and nurse is the Church. Out of persecution He brings a more wondrous 'freedom from our enemies.' For these reasons, when worldly men think they see the Church buffeted and almost capsized in the raging storm, then she really comes forth fairer, stronger, purer, and brighter with the luster of distinguished virtues."
(From Encyclical Editae Saepe)
Have You Accepted His Invitation?
During the course of our lifetimes we receive countless invitations. Some we accept; others we decline. Many we simply ignore, even those with a R.S.V.P.
Some of us give little or no thought to how our response or failure to respond to those invitations impacts the person who thought enough of us to invite us in the first place.
God is constantly inviting us to a more intimate relationship with Him. Does He not deserve an affirmative response?
Eucharistic Reflection - Why Do We Limit God's Power?
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(Photo©Michael Seagriff)
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“Is there any
real difference between Jesus in heaven and Jesus in the Eucharist? No, it is
the same Jesus. The only difference is in us. We now on earth cannot see or
touch Him with our senses. But that is not a limitation in Him; it is a
limitation in us.
We speak
correctly of believing in the Real Presence. But we should grow in our
understanding of what this implies.
The living,
breathing Jesus Christ is in the Blessed Sacrament. This is the reality. When
we speak of presence, however, we are saying something more.
Two people may
be really near each other physically, but not present to each other
spiritually. To be present to someone means to have another person in mind by
being mentally aware of their existence, and to have them in one's heart by
loving that other person...
Jesus is on
earth in the Blessed Sacrament. Why? In order that we might come to Him now no
less than His contemporaries did in first century Palestine. If we thus approach Him in loving
faith, there is no limit to the astounding things He will do. Why not? In the
Eucharist ,He has the same human lips that told the raging storm, "Be
still!" and commanded the dead man, "Lazarus, come forth!"
There are no
limitations to Christ's power, as God, which He exercises through His humanity
in the Eucharist. The only limitation is our own weakness of faith or lack of
confidence in His almighty love.”
(From Soul Magazine by Servant of God, Father John
A. Hardon, SJ)
Don't Miss This Opportunity - Get Your Copy of "Daddy, Come & Get Me"
Sunday Snippets - November 16, 2014
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(Photo©Michael Seagriff)
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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 touch your heart and stir your soul. Take a
few minutes and visit!
Here is what I shared this week:
Patti McGuire Armstrong had this to say about "Fleeting Glimpses of the Silly, Sentimental and Sublime"
Every author writes in hopes that others will read, enjoy and be touched by the story or stories one shares.
What a privilege and awesome responsibility it is to write and how humbling it is when someone takes the time to read and share their reaction to your work.
Patti McGuire Armstrong took the time to do both, for which I am most grateful.
If you want to read what she had to say, click here.
If you want to be inspired on a regular basis visit her website often.
Pondering Tidbits of Truth - November 13, 2014
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| (Source: Wikimedia Commons) |
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.
M. Eugene Boylan, O.C.R.
“We have our own plans for our
happiness, and too often we look upon God as someone who will help us to carry
them out. The true state of affairs is invariably the reverse of this. God has
his own perfect plans for our happiness, and is waiting for us to help him
carry them out. And let it be clear that we can in no way improve on God's
plans.”
(From This Tremendous Lover)
Eucharistic Reflection - Are We All For Him?
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| (St. Joseph's Parish, Oneida, NY) |
"If the Blessed Sacrament is Jesus all for us, is it not the most legitimate of conclusions that we should be all for Him? We should be all for Jesus, if Jesus is our all. And what does this mean? Surely, among other things, that the Blessed Sacrament should be to us just the single overpowering fact of the world. Our hands hold Him; our words make Him; our tongue rests Him; our body compasses Him; our souls feel Him; our flesh feeds upon Him, Him, the Infinite, the Incomprehensible, the Immense, the Eternal. Must not all life be looked at in this light, just as the whole Church lies in this light and has no other?"
(The Blessed Sacrament, by Fr. Frederick Faber)
Monday Musings - What Are The Most Important Works of Charity?
Certainly we need to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and visit the imprisoned. These are all vital and necessary acts of charity. They are not, however, the end all of our obligations.
There are other works of charity that are more difficult to do than those listed above and, in the view of a forgotten Dominican Friar, who authored one of the most widely read spiritual books of all time, The Sinner's Guide, more important.
His words deserve our attention, contemplation and response:
Sunday Snippets - November 9, 2014
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| (Someone has his eye on you!) |
Here is what I posted this week:
St. Martin de Porres and My Sister
Mary of Nazareth - The Life of Our Lady In Pictures
Eucharistic Reflection - The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist
Where is Your Center?
Got Joy?
Where Is Your Center?
Why do so many who profess being Catholic minimize, ignore or even reject the following essential and fundamental Truth of our Catholic Faith?
Eucharistic Reflection - The Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Eucharist
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| (Sacred Heart Chapel-St. Vincent Ferrer Parish, NYC) |
"Devotion to the Sacred Heart should bring us to
a life of intimate union with Jesus who, we know, is truly present and living
in the Eucharist. The two devotions — to the Sacred Heart and to the Eucharist
— are closely connected. They call upon one another and, we may even say, they
require one another. The Sacred Heart explains the mystery of the love of Jesus
by which He becomes bread in order to nourish us with His substance, while in
the Eucharist we have the real presence of this same Heart, living in our
midst.
Mary of Nazareth - The Life of Our Lady In Pictures
Today, November 4, 2014, Ignatius
Press released Mary of Nazareth: The Life of Our
Lady in Pictures - a pictorial
memorial of its epic film, Mary of
Nazareth.
This book serves as a powerful visual
and contemplative tool through which one can readily relive the significant
events in the lives of Our Lord and His Blessed Mother – the poignant and majestic
moments portrayed in the movie - one image at a time.
St. Martin de Porres and My Sister
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| (Statue of St. Martin de Porres at St. Vicnert Ferrer Parish, NYC) |
Today we Dominicans celebrate the memorial of St. Martin de Porres (1579-1639) – one of three Dominican saints who walked the streets of Lima, Peru in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries - St. Rose of Lima and St. John Macias being the other two.
St. John XXIII canonized St. Martin on May 6, 1962.
There are a number of reasons why I have a great fondness for St. Martin de Porres.
He was a simple, humble and holy layman who initially refused the Dominican habit, not feeling worthy to wear it. After serving his Dominican brothers for nine years, as an act of obedience, he made his Solemn vows as a lay Dominican brother.
Sunday Snippets - November 2, 2014
It's Sunday and
time to join an interesting group of Catholic bloggers at RAnn's place. Come visit. Find something there that will touch your heart and stir your soul.
The question of the week: Who is your favorite saint?
It is an impossible question to answer accurately without saying all of them. There are so many who have inspired and molded me.
After our Blessed Mother, I would have to include St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Francis de Sales. Truth be told, as a Lay Dominican, I would not want to exclude any of the many other Dominican Saints and Blesseds - all of whom have much to teach us.
The question of the week: Who is your favorite saint?
It is an impossible question to answer accurately without saying all of them. There are so many who have inspired and molded me.
After our Blessed Mother, I would have to include St. Dominic, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Francis de Sales. Truth be told, as a Lay Dominican, I would not want to exclude any of the many other Dominican Saints and Blesseds - all of whom have much to teach us.
Here is what I shared this week:
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Eucharistic Reflection - Would A Stranger Know?
"The Eucharist is alive. If a stranger who knew nothing about the Eucharist were to watch the way we receive, would he know...
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Thank you Father Darr Schoenhofen: Palm Sunday without Palms This day, the beginning of an extraordinary Holy Week of unpre... -
(Source: Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament) "Mary devoted herself exclusively to the Eucharistic Glory of Jesus. She knew t... -
" You envy the opportunity of the woman who touched the vestments of Jesus, of the sinful woman who washed His feet with her tears, of ... -
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. F... -
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"When you have received Holy Communion, rise up reverently, return to your place and kneel down; do not at once take your book or your ... -
What if the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was always and everywhere offered in accordance with the dignity, reverence and obedience our God mer...