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Showing posts from July, 2015

Podcast - Letter To A Friend

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(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I am excited to post my first podcast - one that I hope you will enjoy and which will lead to my posting others in the future. What do you tell a friend who has stopped attending Mass? Write him a letter. You can listen to it here.

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - July 30, 2015

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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. Gregory the Great There are some who wish to be humble, but without being despised, who wish to be happy with their lot, but without being needy, who wish to be chaste without mortifying the body, to be patient without suffering. They want both to acquire virtues and to avoid the sacrifices those virtues involve; they are like soldiers who flee the battlefield an try to win the war from the comfort of the city.” (From Moralia ) St. Maria Faustina Kowalska “I will thank the Lord Jesus for every humiliation and will pray specially for the person who has given me the chance to be humiliated. I will immolate myself for the benefit of souls. I will not count the cost of any sacrifice, I will cast myself beneath the feet of the sisters, like a carpet on which they can not only tread, but also wipe their feet. My place is

"It's Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - This Is No Time to Water Down the Truths and Precepts of Jesus Christ

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Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.   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 enjoy your time there. I offer the following post : This Is No Time to Water Down The Truths and Precepts of Jesus Christ (Source: Wikimedia Commons ) I enjoy using In Conversations with God as a resource and tool to facilitate my understanding of, and reflection on, the daily Scriptures. Rarely is there a day that I do not gain something of value from this work. Today was no exception. In our current culture, we are urged to extraordinary (and often absurd) extremes not to offend anyone with our words - verbal or written. "Better not to offend someone's feelings," the monito

Eucharistic Reflection - To Be Like You

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"In order to be like You, who are always alone in the Blessed Sacrament, I shall love solitude and try to converse with You as much as possible. Grant that my mind may not seek to know anything but You, that my heart may have no longings or desires but to love You. When I am obliged to take some comfort, I shall take care to see that it be pleasing to Your Heart.  In my conversations, O divine Word, I shall consecrate all my words to You so that You will not permit me to pronounce a single one which is not for Your glory.... When I am thirsty, I shall endure it in honor of the thirst You endured for the salvation of souls.... If by chance, I commit some fault, I shall humble myself, and then take the opposite virtue from Your Heart, offering it to the eternal Father in expiation for my failure. All this I intend to do, O Eucharistic Jesus, to unite myself to You in every action of the day."  (St. Margaret Mary from Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament )

Monday Musings - Holding On To Anything?

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(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) [Yesterday's Gospel (John 6:1-15) prompted me to re-read and re-post a brief reflection I had previously shared on a similar passage in Matthew (14:13-21)} The little that we have – be it in material goods, time  or talents – is sufficient for God’s work if, when He asks, we would just give whatever that is to Him. Take notice in today’s Gospel what He did with five loaves of bread and two fish! On the surface, it looked like Jesus was asking His Apostles to do the impossible – feed thousands of  people. He wasn’t. He was asking them to give Him what they had and He would make the impossible possible. God will never give us a task, no matter how daunting it may first appear, without giving us all that we need to complete it. The first step is our total surrender to, and trust in, His will for us. So let’s ask ourselves: Is there anything I am still holding on to and unwilling to give Him?

To Be Like Bees - More Wisdom from St. Francis de Sales

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Have You Set The Correct Goal?

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Are We Catholics Also Missing The Point?

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It's "Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - Where Is He?

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Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.   Do yourself a favor and   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 enjoy your time there. Where Is He? It happened again I don't want to play hide and seek! (IMage Source: Wikimedia Commons ) We arrived early to the only Catholic Church in the town we were passing through on our way to be with family. We were looking forward for a few minutes to adore our waiting Lord, to spend time in His Presence, and to silently pray and prepare for the holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Little in this mammoth structure would lead anyone to sense they were entering a sacred place and holy ground. Two thirds of this structure had nothing to do

Eucharistic Reflection - Communion of Reparation

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“When Christ manifested Himself to Margaret Mary, and declared to her the infinitude of His love, at the same time, in the manner of a mourner, He complained that so many and such great injuries were done to Him by ungrateful men — and we would that these words in which He made this complaint were fixed in the minds of the faithful, and were never blotted out by oblivion: ‘Behold this Heart’ — He said — ‘which has loved men so much and has loaded them with all benefits, and for this boundless love has had no return but neglect, and contumely, and this often from those who were bound by a debt and duty of more special love.’ (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) In order that these faults might be washed away, He then recommended several things to be done, and in particular the following as most pleasing to Himself, namely that men should approach the Altar with this purpose of expiating sin, making what is called a Communion of Reparation — and that they should like

Monday Musings - Are We Joyful, Humble, Fleshly Ciboria?

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Remember how the Israelites grumbled during their desert journey - there being no bread? And how they later rejoiced when they received manna from heaven to satisfy their physical desires?? (Image Sourc e: Wikimedia Commons ) Recall that it wasn’t too long after this food was showered upon them that they complained about seeing “nothing before us but this manna” and longing to have the food they enjoyed while in Egypt - meat, cucumbers, melons, leeks onions and garlic they enjoyed in Egypt? (Numbers 11:4-6) The Jews began to take this manna for granted. Instead of its arrival reminding them of the magnificence of the God who provided it to them and Who was delivering them from their Egyptian slave masters, they complained about what food they did not have. They preferred nourishment for their stomachs, rather than their physical and spiritual freedom. Are we Catholics much different from our Jewish ancestors in the way we treat and respond to the Eucharistic manna

Treasuring Our Priests and The Priesthood

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What better day than a Sunday to acknowledge this fundamental Truth: Next to the Eucharist, the greatest gift God has left us is His priests.  Were there no priests, there would be no Eucharist. (Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) How many of us treat our priests as the treasures they are? Do we pray for them and encourage them to live courageously and fully their priestly vocation? What are we waiting for? May the following observation of Father Suarez spur us to do both and also serve to inspire the priests who serve us:

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - July 16, 2015

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(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. Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O . “Do we believe that when we sin we are Pilate ordering the cross and the nails; we are Judas taking the thirty pieces of silver and kissing the Christ; we are Annas and Caiphas and the rest of the Sanhedrin urg­ing the people on to cry "Away with this Man; give unto us Barabbas!" Do we really believe that when we sin we take hammer and use it on a nail that goes through the flesh of God? Or have we, too, lost our sense of sin? (From God, A Woman and the Way )

It's "Worth Revisiting" Wednesday - And A Little Child Will Lead Them

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Thank you Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays.   Do yourself a favor and   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 enjoy your time there. I thought I would share the following post: And A Little Child Will Lead Them... I joined more than a hundred others individuals in Syracuse, New York [today] in the annual March For Life. It was cold - an insignificant inconvenience in comparison to the innocent ones in our community and throughout this nation and the world who have lost their lives at the hands of an abortionist. May our physical witness there today be a source of consolation to them and encouragement for more Catholics to become engaged in this essential battle to protect and save l

Eucharistic Reflection - The Devotion Which Surpasses All Others

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(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons ) "So immense are its spiritual benefits that Pope St. Pius X hailed perpetual adoration as the devotion which surpasses all others. And Paul VI had it mainly in mind when he echoed the hope generated by Vatican II that a new era of Eucharistic piety would pervade the whole Church. "As we would expect, an outstanding spiritual growth and impetus tend to spring from perpetual adoration. It brings heaven's choice blessings in the first place on those generous souls that keep their hour-long tryst with the Lord. But, being such a powerhouse of grace, the devotion extends its influence far beyond the individual adorers, touching their homes and families and reaching out to the parish community and beyond." (Father Richard Foley, S. J.)

The Ultimate Foolishness

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Sufferng For The Love of Christ

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Will You Join Jesus and Mary?

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It's "Worth Revisiting Wednesday" - Praying With Your Eyes

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We thank Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Do yourself a favor and   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 enjoy your visits. Here is my contribution: Praying with Your Eyes Sometimes as you drive around, you simply have to get out of your car and allow the beauty of God's creation stir your imagination and capture your heart  On those occasions, let your eyes prayerfully process the images God has placed before you. Be still! Gaze upon the work of His Hands! Be filled with awe, amazement and gratitude! Or Or

Eucharistic Reflection - Make Him Grow In You

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(Image Source : Wikimedia Commons )  "Get to know our Lord better. Study His life, His sacrifices, and His virtues in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Study His love. Instead of always remaining within ourselves, let us go up to Him; it is all very well to see ourselves in Him, but to see Him in us is better. Instead of attending to yourself, attend to our Lord and make Him grow in you. Think of Him; study Him in Himself; penetrate into Him. You will find the food of your life in Him; for He is great and infinite. That is the broad and royal road to holiness and the way to the ennobling of our lives."  (Saint  Peter Julian Eymard)

In These Trying Times - Seeking the Intercession of Our Blessed Mother

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As common sense, rational discourse, moral standards, respect for life from conception to natural death, and an unswerving  belief in, and filial fear of, God are no longer the prevailing principles that unite our society or motivate the personal conduct of so many of its citizens, it is incumbent upon those who still hold firmly to these truths, to practice, share and defend them. 

Hidden God

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Our duty and primary mission as Catholics is to make Him known by the way we live our lives. Guess we have a bit more work to do!

Book Review - Echoes of the Divine

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Short, sassy, searching, silly, sensitive, strong, satisfying sample of a series of stimulating stories about being a Mom. Can't wait to read the full length version, One Breath at a Time , when it is published. In the meanwhile, come experience the joy and wonder of a Mom in love with the little bundles of joy God placed in her life.  You can get your copy here .

Book Review - Trusting God with St. Therese

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I have too long delayed in writing a few words about this outstanding book. Oh, it is easy to mouth the words "I Trust God" but far more difficult to actually do so. Connie has given us the tools to help turn our words into action. How does she manage to do this? - by drawing upon her own spiritual journey, life experiences, challenges and crosses, and the teachings of the Little Flower. I particularly enjoyed the way in which she weaved her personal story with the teachings and life of St. Therese. She provides the reader with penetrating, potentially life changing questions at the end of each chapter - some of which force a painful but necessary self-examination. The reader would be wise to take much time to ponder the issues she raises. This book is not a one-time read - it can be, and should be, a lifetime resource which one frequently takes off the shelf from time to time to re-read, to re-ponder and to become spiritually re-invigorated. I am about read

It's "Worth Revisiting Wednesday" - Have We Forgotten

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We thank Allison Gingras and Elizabeth Riordan for inviting Catholic bloggers re-post their favorite articles on “It’s Worth Revisiting” Wednesdays. Do yourself a favor and   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 enjoy your visits. I hope you find the following post worthwhile: Have We Forgotten? We marvel at the physical miracles, big and small, that Jesus performed during His time here on earth – for example raising Lazarus from the dead and healing St. Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever. And well we should. (Image Sourc e: Ralph Hammann and Wikimedia Commons ) But what we often overlook is the frequency with which Jesus spoke to and expelled demons – as is mentioned in so many places in the Gospel (for example, Mark 1:34, Mt 8:16 and 24-34, Luke 11:41 and 11:14)  Isn’

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - July 2, 2015

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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 “0 blind humanity, to have so lost sight of your dignity! You who were so great have become so small! You who were in command have' sold yourselves into servitude to the vilest power there is, for you have become the servants and slaves of sin. Yes, you have become a nothing, since you become like what you serve, and sin is nothingness. It has taken life from you and given you death in its place.” (From The Dialogue )   St. Augustine "I ask you, Christian soul: if you were told, as was that rich man, 'You also, go, sell all that you possess and you will have treasure in heaven, and come and follow Christ, would you go away sad as he did?" (From Sermon ) Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. “We moderns shrink from pain; we shun all that can afflict body or mind. We have forgotten