Are We Shining As We Ought?

Rosary Reflection - It's One or the Other - Not Both

(Art Work of Marge Hendry-

Photo©Michael Seagriff)

 “No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary.”

          (Bishop Hugh Doyle)

Go Fly A Kite!

How can we let the month of May draw to a close without sharing yet another masterful narrative image of our Blessed Mother? We can't!

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

"She [Mary] holds all the great Truths of Christianity together;

as a piece of wood holds a kite. Children wrap the string of

a kite around a stick and release the string as the kite climbs

 to the heavens.

Mary is like that piece of wood. Around her we wrap all the

precious strings of the great 'Truths of our holy Faith—for example,

the Incarnation, the Eucharist, the Church.

No matter how far we get above the earth, as the kite may, we

always have need of Mary to hold the doctrines of the Creed together.

If we threw away, the stick, we would no longer have the kite;

If we threw away Mary, we would never have Our Lord.

He would be lost in the Heavens, like our runaway kite,

and  that would be terrible, indeed, for us on earth."

   (From The World’s First Love by Venerable Fulton J Sheen)

It's "Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - The Eucharist and the Rosary - Our Spiritual Armament

Grotto at Notre Dame

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.

Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in your Faith journey.

During the rest of each week. visit Allison at  Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb. You will be pleased with what they share.

I share the following with you this week::

The Eucharist and the Rosary - Our Spiritual Armament

[What follows is a modification of an article I posted nearly two years ago. It seemed appropriate and timely to share it again.]

There are two devotions close to my heart and vital for the future of our Church and for the salvation of our souls - The Eucharist and the Rosary. May we rediscover each day a deeper and more abiding reverence and love for the Blessed Sacrament. May we also use this month - one which the Church dedicates each year to the Blessed Mother - to experience and/or re-experience the power and efficacy of this most beautiful prayer, for as Saint John Paul II taught us: "To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ."

(Perpetual Adoration Chapel at Our Lady of the Holy Spirit Center, Norwod,,OH)

One would be hard pressed to find a better example of the life-changing power of these two devotions than through the following story of one man's love for both.

From the inception of the Adoration Chapel in our parish and without interruption for nearly five years until a few days before his death, this gentleman came every Saturday morning... He learned to pray the Rosary there.  Oh, how he enjoyed praying the Rosary before the Blessed Sacrament!...He spent his last hour before the Blessed Sacrament with his wife five days before he passed away.  He died at home surrounded by his loving family and on the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary... 

God does not promise those who love him a life here free of trials and tribulations.  Time before Him in the Blessed Sacrament or praying the Rosary do not guaranty a struggle free life. But He does promise sufficient graces to carry our daily crosses and eternity with Him for those who love Him.

Visits before the Blessed Sacrament and frequent contemplative recitation of the Rosary are joyful preludes to our face to face encounter with Our Lord and His Blessed Mother in heaven.  They are vehicles through which we make reparation to Him, His Sacred Heart, His Mother and her Immaculate Heart, for all those who have rejected Him, do not love Him and who have mocked His most beloved Mother. Through these devotions, He will transform us and use us to transform others.  

Through Adoration we will gain a greater appreciation and love for the Mass, for the reception of His Body and His Blood, and a clearer recognition of our need for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Through the daily recitation of the mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary and the assistance of our heavenly Mother, we will draw closer to her Son.

May I ask you the same question Father Francis Hudson, S.C.J. once posed to his parishioners in a one sentence homily he gave:  “What if God loved you only as much as you loved Him?”  Or maybe we should reflect on a challenge issued by Leon Bloy, a French novelist, essayist and poet:  “If you will look into your own heart in utter honesty, you must admit that there is one and only one reason why you are not, even now, as saintly as the primitive Christians: you do not wholly want to be.”

We are each called to be saints. Only saints get into heaven. Don’t panic! God will mold us into saints if we desire it.  All things are possible for Him. Start or restart the journey. Use and love the tools He has given us – the Eucharist and the Rosary.

Eucharistic Reflection - Tranquility of Heart

Let us imagine that the Communion, for which we are

preparing, is to be the last in our lives. Let us prepare,

every time, as though, on quitting the holy table, we

had to pass from this life to eternity.

If we desire that the sacrament of the Eucharist should

produce in us sentiments of the love of God, let us think

of the immense love which God has shown us in instituting

this mystery, and of His design to oblige us thereby to love

Him perfectly.

Have You Noticed?

What tears our Blessed Mother must shed  and how tormented she must be since so many of her children have not listened to her.

The Power of Our Blessed Mother's Intercession

Rosary Reflection - Have You Enlisted Yet?

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - May 21, 2015

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.

Monsignor Ronald A. Knox

“Why did the Lord include so many fishermen among his Apostles? ... What were the good points that He saw in them? I think there was one thing which He specially appreciated in those who were to be his Apostles: an unshakeable patience ... They had worked all night and had caught nothing; long hours of waiting after which the grey light of dawn was to bring them their reward; but there was none.

What a lot of waiting the Church of Christ has had to endure throughout the centuries ... patiently extending her invitation and leaving grace to do its work! ... What does it matter if she has worked very hard in one place or another and reaped very little for her Master? On the basis of his word; in spite of everything, she will launch her nets again until such time as His grace, the limits of which are in no way proportioned to human efforts, brings her again a new catch of fish.”

(Sermon preached on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, 1947)

It's "Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - I Don't Get It! I Will Never Get It!

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on the site they host: “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.

Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in your Faith journey.

Here is my contribution:

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

I Don't Get It! I Will Never Get It!

[I will admit it - I am an appeaser, a  coward, failing more often than not,  to stand up for the Truth for fear of offending others. May God be merciful to me a sinner. But today, there is a kernel of gumption that has popped through this fearful man's being, so I will yield to its prompting.

While I have been criticized before and no doubt will be attacked again, silence is not an option. Misguided contemporary thought notwithstanding, the supreme law of the Catholic Church - and its primary mission - is, has been, and always must be - the sanctification and salvation of souls - not such secular and nebulous concepts as social justice, universal health care, immigration reform, income or marriage equality, global warming, etc.  - eternal souls - yours and mine.

I will not apologize if that forgotten Truth and this post makes anyone uncomfortable]

I understand that in a democratic society, the Catholic Church and its members must try to shape social and political policies and to have their voices heard on the pressing moral issues of the day. There is no doubt that an increasing number of recent actions (beyond the HHS contraception and sterilization mandates) taken by the current administration pose real and imminent threats to our God given and constitutionally recognized fundamental right - freedom of religion. Freedom loving people of all religious persuasions and those of no religious affiliation must stand up and defend this fundamental principle – one which no man, no government, no nation has the right to restrict.

Eucharistic Reflection – Approaching the Eucharist With The Proper Dispositions

“Were we to communicate only once in our life, our whole life, however long it might be, would 

not be too long to prepare ourselves worthily for receiving so holy and so awful a mystery. This 

should not, however, keep us from it. It should only urge us to approach it with the requisite 

dispositions. We are wrong, then, when we say: '' I will not communicate, because I feel I am 

unworthy." We should say, on the contrary: “I will endeavor, as far as possible, by the innocence 

and regularity of my life, to make myself worthy to communicate."  

To approach worthily, is to believe ourselves unworthy; while, at the same time, we do what we

can to make ourselves less unworthy. A single good Communion is enough to make a Saint. Not

much more is necessary than a good will, and a few reflections, in order to make a good

Communion. 

Those who communicate often without becoming more devout, more mortified, more recollected, 

without loving Jesus Christ more and more, are in a more dangerous state than they think. What 

would have been said, if those who often conversed with Jesus Christ, and usually ate at His table,

had not become daily more virtuous? What further hope would there have been for those sick 

persons who were presented to Jesus Christ, if Jesus Christ had not cured them? 

What Happens To This Nation When Our Churches Are Empty? - Clay Christensen on Religious Freedom

The Tears of My Servants

How Do You Treat His Mother?

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

“As one cannot go to a statue of a mother holding a child

and cut away the mother without destroying the child, so

neither can one have Jesus without his Mother.

Could you claim as a friend one who, every time he came

into your home, refused to speak to your mother or treated

her with cold indifference?

Jesus cannot feel pleased with those who never give recognition

to or show respect for his mother. Coldness to his mother is certainly

not the best way to keep warm a friendship with him.

The unkindest cut of all would be to say that she who is the mother

of our Lord is unworthy of being our mother."

                                                (Venerable Fulton J. Sheen)

                  

Rosary Reflection -The Efficacy of the Rosary

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”

(Sister Lucia dos Santos)

Be Bold When Praying for God's Mercy!

St. Catherine of Siena was not timid in her prayer:

It's "Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - Two Truths - Two Questions

Thank you, Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, for hosting It’s "Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Go there now (and every Wednesday) and enjoy the posts of some very talented Catholic bloggers.

 

During the rest of each week. visit Allison at  Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb.. You will be pleased with what they share.

This is my contribution:

Two Truths - Two Questions

At least two essential truths flow from Luke's Gospel (Lk 1:26-38): “Nothing is impossible with God!” and “Let it be it done to me according to His will!” It is upon these foundational stones that we must live our earthly lives. 

What intellectual, emotional and spiritual maturity Mary displayed! She was, after all, just a teenager, one whom some believe at an earlier age had vowed her virginity to God. What courage she had to ask the angel Gabriel, "How can that be? I know not man." What grace God showered on her that she might have the faith to step forward and do what He was asking of her, something which from the eyes of the world was impossible, made little sense and would, in fact, place her at risk of being stoned. To have such faith in God is to be His fearless and trusting servant.

How many times have we disappointed God by scoffing at what He was prompting us to do, believing that it was impossible to do what He asked of us, or that we were not worthy or talented enough to do so or that we were afraid of what others might think of us or do to us if we obeyed His directions? When God asks us to do something, we should do it – immediately, without hesitation and with full confidence that He will achieve His will through us – no matter how improbable or impossible or difficult or counter cultural His request may appear. How often has that been our response?

It had been widely popular a few years back to suggest that before taking any action, we should ask ourselves: “What would Jesus do?” Fair enough. Today’s readings suggest another worthwhile question: “What is Jesus asking me to do?”

Bet our lives and the lives of those around us would be substantially different if we got into the habit of asking ourselves both of these questions. What do you think?

Eucharistic Reflection - Do You Feel That Devouring Fire?

"A saint said that we were Christ-bearers. It is very true; but we have not enough faith. We do not comprehend our dignity. When we leave the holy banquet, we are as happy as the Wise Men would have been, if they could have carried away the Infant Jesus. Take a vessel full of liquor, and cork it well -- you will keep the liquor as long as you please. So if you were to keep Our Lord well and recollectedly after Communion, you would long feel that devouring fire which would inspire your heart with an inclination to good and a repugnance to evil.”

(St. John Vianney on the Holy Eucharist)

Have You Given God Enough or Have You Just Thrown A Few Crumbs His Way?

As we strive toward a more intimate relationship with the God we love, we will not only have to ask ourselves some tough questions (like the one above) but we must answer those queries truthfully  and change our lives accordingly:

A Special Mother's Day Prayer

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

 "By the remembrance of Mary Immaculate, by the tears You shed in seeing her weep over Your absence and over the ignominy of Your sorrowful Passion, we  pray You, Jesus, to listen to the supplication of mothers who help You to save souls by suffering for them at the foot of the Cross.  See with what ardent faith they implore the salvation of their families.  Hearken to those who acclaim You their beloved King at their children's cradle and their husband's tomb.  By those tears and prayers they ask You for the decisive victory of Your Sacred Heart.  They confide to that divine Ark all the treasures of their love…”

    "Good Jesus, You have confided to them the souls of their husbands and children; they have laid them with trusting love on the altar of Your Sacred Heart.  King of Mercy, during this Holy Hour remember Your Blessed Mother as You certainly remembered her in the Garden of Gethsemane, and in gratitude for her tenderness, as a reward for her sublime virtues, and as compensation for her sorrows, save the home.  Yes!  Save the Christian family!”

    "Lord, if the prayer of a single mother had the power to touch Your Heart and obtain the resurrection of her child, may the supplications of so many sorrowing mothers obtain during this hour of exceptional grace the salvation, still more, the sanctification of the family sanctuary which You Yourself claimed as Your throne, O King of Love."

(From Holy Hours by Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, SS. CC.)

Rosary Reflection – The Rosary Will Bring Back A Harvest of Holiness

(Image Source: Marge Hendry

Photo©Michael Seagriff)

[Another prophetic but ignored excerpt and plea from the Apostolic Letter On The  Rosary of The Virgin Mary]

The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, which gradually took form in the second millennium under the guidance of the Spirit of God, is a prayer loved by countless Saints and encouraged by the Magisterium. Simple yet profound, it still remains, at the dawn of this third millennium, a prayer of great significance, destined to bring forth a harvest of holiness. It blends easily into the spiritual journey of the Christian life, which, after two thousand years, has lost none of the freshness of its beginnings and feels drawn by the Spirit of God to “set out into the deep” (duc in altum!) in order once more to proclaim, and even cry out, before the world that Jesus Christ is Lord and Saviour, “the way, and the truth and the life” (Jn 14:6), “the goal of human history and the point on which the desires of history and civilization turn”.

Open Our Eyes and Ears Dear Lord! Stir Our Souls Dear Lord! Change Our Hearts Dear Lord!

One of my Lay Dominican brothers, Louis Puzutti, posted this video of Jonathan Cahn's compelling presentation at last year's National Day of Prayer. 

I am sure you probably have not heard it.  You have to prayerfully watch and ponder the Truths he so clearly and courageously shares. Pass it on.

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - May 7, 2015

(Image 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.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

“It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens ...lt is the role of the laity "to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice."

(CCC 2442)

Monsignor Romano Guardini

"No one has ever died like Jesus Christ, because He was Life itself. No one has expiated for sin like Him, for He was purity itself."

(From Our Lord)

Second Vatican Council

"...when religious education is neglected or shortcomings made evident in the religious, moral and social life of believers, then we must admit that the true face of God and or religion is veiled rather than revealed."

(Guadium et Spes)

"It's Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - Who Is St. Claude de la Colombiere?

Thanks to the generosity and encouragement of Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan, an ever-expanding group of Catholic bloggers take the time each week to re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.

Do yourself a favor- go there now (and every Wednesday) and let these authors bless and challenge you in your Faith journey.

During the rest of each week. visit Allison at  Reconciled To You and Elizabeth at Theology Is A Verb.  You will be pleased with what they share.

I offer this post for your consideration:

Who Is St. Claude de la Colombiere?

St. Claude de la Colombiere was a 17th century Jesuit. He believed that one of "the most firmly established and consoling of the truths that have been revealed to us" is "that (apart from sin) nothing happens to us in life unless God wills it so."

St. Claude became the spiritual director of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. He encouraged, supported and promoted her call to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The saint was also a gifted spiritual writer, who has left a number of gems, including one of my favorite books, Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence (TSTDP). Blessed John Paul II canonized him in 1992.

Read and ponder what he has to say about earthly happiness and prayer:

Let me show you a good way to ask for happiness, even in this world. It is a way that will oblige God to listen to you. Say to Him earnestly: either give me so much money that my heart will be satisfied, or inspire me with such contempt for it that I no longer want it. Either free me from poverty, or make it so pleasant for me that I would not exchange it for all the wealth in the world. Either take away my suffering, or – which would be to Your greater glory – change it into delight for me, and instead of causing me affliction, let it become a source of joy. You can take away the burden of my cross, or You can leave it with me without my feeling its weight. You can extinguish the fire that burns me, or You can let it burn in such a way that it refreshes me as it did the three youths in the fiery furnace. I ask for either one thing or the other. What does it matter in what way I am happy? If I am happy through the possession of worldly goods, it is You I have to thank. If I am happy when deprived of them, it gives You greater glory and my thanks are all the greater.

This is the kind of prayer worthy of being offered to God by a true Christian. When you pray in this way, do you know what the effect of your prayers will be? First, you will be satisfied, whatever happens; and what else do those who most desire this world's goods want except to be satisfied? Secondly, you will not only obtain without fail, one of the two things you have asked for, but, as a rule, you will obtain both of them. – TSTDP (122-124)

[You will find more of his wisdom and that of countless Popes, Bishops, priests, saints and regular folk in my book, Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire! Words to Challenge, Inspire and Instruct, about which EWTN hostess and well-known, author Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, had this to say: "I am very impressed with this book and the author's commitment to writing about the Catholic Faith in a very informational and inspirational manner. I have no doubt that this book will help others on their Faith journeys."]

How Many Times Must We Hear This Truth?

Until it sinks in. Probably until our last breath...

Eucharistic Reflection – God Is Near Us

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

"Of course, all the other sacraments and also the Eucharist involve great care for souls. We have to care for people but above all -- this is our mandate -- for their souls. We must think of the many illnesses and moral and spiritual needs that exist today and that we must face, guiding people to the encounter with Christ in the sacrament, helping them to discover prayer and meditation, being silently recollected in church with this presence of God. And then, preaching. What do we preach? We proclaim the Kingdom of God. But the Kingdom of God is not a distant utopia in a better world which may be achieved in 50 years' time, or who knows when. The Kingdom of God is God Himself, God close to us who became very close in Christ.  This is the Kingdom of God: God Himself is near to us and we must draw close to this God who is close for He was made man, remains man and is always with us in His Word, in the Most Holy Eucharist and in all believers. Therefore, proclaiming the Kingdom of God means speaking of God today, making present God's words, the Gospel which is God's presence and, of course, making present the God who made Himself present in the Holy Eucharist"

(Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, July 24, 2007,Meeting with Clergy)

Time To Ask A Difficult But Necessary Question

For too long there has been a hesitancy, if not a fear, to ask difficult but necessary questions. What follows is certainly one of them.


Would our Church and world look substantially different today had all our priests followed this shepherd's example? 

It is never too late to begin! Pray for all our shepherds.

Rosary Reflection – Contemplating the Face of Christ While Praying For Peace

God willing, every Saturday in the month of May, I will share some short reflection on the Rosary.

I begin with this insightful and prophetic excerpt from St. John Paul II’s 2002 Apostolic Letter on The Rosary of the Virgin Mary:

“The Rosary is a way of contemplating the face of Christ seeing him – we may say – with the eyes of Mary. For this reason, it is a prayer that drawing upon the core of the Gospel is in full accord with the inspiration of the Second Vatican Council and very much in keeping with the direction I gave in the Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio ineunte: the Church has to launch out "into the deep" in the new millennium beginning with the contemplation of the face of Christ…

A Dog At The Master's Door

What a shame that so few of us really appreciate the Gift of having our loving Lord ever in our midst.