Jesus Speaks Not Only to St. Catherine of Siena But To Us

This is the feast day of the great Dominican Saint, Lay Dominican, Doctor of the Catholic Church, and mystic, St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380). 

Many have heard of Dialogue of Divine Providence, the spiritual jewel she left our Church, but few have taken the time to really study it. I am still working on it. It is a priceless treasure worth mining.

Here is an excerpt that should provide you with sufficient food for contemplation:

Jesus to St. Catherine of Siena:

"I require that you should love Me with the same love with which I love you. This indeed you cannot do, because I loved you without being loved. All the love which you have for Me you owe to Me, so that it is not of grace that you love Me, but because you ought to do so, while I love you of grace, and not because I owe you my love. Therefore to Me, in person you cannot repay the love which I require of you, and I have placed you in the midst of your fellows, that you may do to them that which you cannot do to Me, that is to say, that you may love your neighbor of free grace, without expecting any return from him, and what you do to him, I count as done to Me."

Eucharistic Reflection - Saint Michael - Guardian Angel of the Eucharist

 

(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Dear Saint Michael:

What sweet delight it is to call upon you as the Guardian Angel of the Eucharist. Dear and faithful sentinel, we believe that you always attend to our Eucharistic King Jesus, wherever He is pleased to dwell among us. Please help us grow in imitation of your boundless love for Jesus in this Sacrament of His Divine Love. Confirm and strengthen our faith and His Real Presence. Obtain for us the grace of receiving the Holy Eucharist worthily, mindfully and reverently each time we are blessed to approach His Sacred Altar Amen.

(Carol Puschaver from Lovingly Do I Call to You - Prayers to Saint Michael the Archangel. Used with permission.)

Monday Musings - Remember Who Sows Fear

 

"The evil one sows fear; the angels of God dispel it."

Father Jose Gonzalez

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - April 24, 2025

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. Peter Kreeft, Ph.D.  "The object of faith is not feelings but truth, and the subject and agent of faith is will, not feelings. The will is like the ocean, and the feelings are like the waves. The ocean is always reliably there even though the waves are high one day and low the next."

 (From his book Calvinist to Catholic)

St. Catherine of Siena   "I've appointed the Devil to tempt and to trouble My creatures in this life [St. Catherine of Siena reports that Our Lord said to her]. I've done this, not so that My creatures will be overcome, but so that they may overcome, proving their virtue and receiving from Me the glory of victory. And no one should fear any battle or temptation of the Devil that may come to him, because I've made My creatures strong, and I've given them strength of will, fortified in the Blood of My Son.  Neither the Devil nor any other creature can control this free will, because it's yours, given to you by Me. By your own choice, then, you hold it or let it go if you please. It's a weapon, and if you place it in the hands of the Devil, it right away becomes a knife that he'll use to stab and kill you. On the other hand, if you don't place this knife that is your will into the hands of the Devil—that is, if you don't consent to his temptations and harassments—you will never be injured by the guilt of sin in any temptation. Instead, you'll actually be strengthened by the temptation, as long as you open the eyes of your mind to see My love, and to understand why I allowed you to be tempted: so you could develop virtue by having it proved. My love permits these temptations, for the Devil is weak. He can do nothing by himself unless I allow him. So I let him tempt you because I love you, not because I hate you. I want you to conquer, not to be conquered, and to come to a perfect knowledge of yourself and of Me."   (An excerpt from Manual for Spiritual Warfare)   Patrick Madrid "Like an hourglass with a certain number of grains of sand within it, God has appointed your life to last only a certain number of days, and you have absolutely no idea how many there are. ... In God’s presence, consider: I have no idea when my life will end. All I know is that death will come for me eventually. Am I doing anything to prepare for the real possibility that God may call me, sooner rather than later? If he called me into eternity today, would I be ready?" (An excerpt from A Year with the Bible)

 

Eucharistic Reflection - Give Him Your Heart

"Imagine now that you hear these sweet words from your Savior: 'It is because you are poor that I come into you; it is because you are sick that I come to heal you; it was to give you My life and let you share My sanctity that I made Myself Sacrament; come then with confidence and give Me Your heart; that is all I desire from you'." 

St. Peter Julian Eymard from Holy Communion)

 

 

Monday Musings - Place Yourself Entirely In HIs Hands

 

Eucharistic Reflection - We Have Time for Everything But God

"Why (as St. Peter Julian Eymard observed more than 100 years ago) do we have time for everything except for visits to our Lord and God, Who is waiting and longing for us in the Blessed Sacrament?"

Why do so few visit You? Why are those who try to do so often locked out? Why are Your Church and its members so timid and so silent about this great mystery and gift? Why have we lost reverence for and belief in Your Real Presence?

(Excerpt from I Thirst For Your Love)

Monday Musings - Boldly Proclaim the Truth

God knows who needs to see this. Trust Him!

 

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - April 10, 2025

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.

Ven. Fulton J. Sheen 

“In silence there is humility of spirit…In such the ear is more important than the tongue. God speaks…a soul learns Wisdom by being responsive to [God’s] will. The scientist does not tell nature its laws; nature tells the scientist. Man does not tell or impose his will on God; in silence, like Mary, he awaits the Annunciation.”

Sheen Institute – Reflection April 8, 2025

 

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J.

"The soul that does not attach itself solely to the will of God will find neither satisfaction nor sanctification in any other means, however excellent by which it may attempt to gain them. If that which God Himself chooses for you does not content you, from whom do you expect to obtain what you desire? ...It is only just, therefore, that the soul that is dissatisfied with the divine action for each present moment should be punished by being unable to find happiness in anything else." (From Abandonment to Divine Providence)

Robert Cardinal Sarah

“The desert is the place of hunger, thirst, and the spiritual combat. It is vitally important to withdraw to the desert in order to combat the dictatorship of a world filled with idols that gorge themselves on technology and material goods, a world dominated and manipulated by the media, a world that flees God by taking refuge in noise.” (From The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise)

 

Eucharistic Reflection - Prayer to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus

"Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, gracious companion of our exile, I adore Thee.

Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, lonely Heart, humiliated Heart, abandoned Heart, forgotten Heart, despised Heart, outraged Heart, Heart ignored by men, Heart which loves our own hearts; Heart pleading for our love, Heart so patient in waiting for us, Heart so eager  to listen to our prayers, Heart so anxious for our requests, Heart, unending source of new graces, Heart so silent, yet desiring to speak to souls, Heart, welcome refuge of the hidden life, Heart, teacher of the secrets of union with God, Heart of Him Who sleeps but watches always, Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Jesus Victim, I desire to comfort Thee; I unite myself to Thee; I offer myself in union with Thee.

I regard myself as nothing in Thy Presence. I long to forget myself in order to think only of Thee, to be despised and forgotten for love of Thee. I have no desire to be understood or loved by anyone but Thee.

I will keep silent in order to listen to Thee, and I will abandon myself in order to lose myself in Thee.

Grant that I may thus satisfy Thy thirst for my salvation, Thy burning thirst for my holiness, and that once purified I may give Thee a sincere and pure love. I am anxious not to tire Thee further with waiting: take me, I hand myself over to Thee. I give Thee all my actions, my mind to be enlightened, my heart to be directed, my will to be stabilized, my wretchedness to be relieved, my soul and body to be nourished by Thee.

Eucharistic Heart of my Savior, Whose Blood is the life of my soul, may I myself cease to live and Thou alone live in me. Amen."

(Indulgence 500 days. Brief, February 6, 1899, Leo XIII; Sacred Penitentiary Apostolic, November 8, 1934. Today the 500 days has been replaced by a partial indulgence, which no longer has a specific time associated with the indulgence).

Monday Musings - Will Your Lie Cost You Your Life?

 

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

If there is one Scripture passage that we defense lawyers should especially appreciate, it has to be today’s first reading (Daniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62).

The case against Susanna was open and shut. All seemed hopeless. There were two eye witnesses – and they were judges and well-known leaders of the community to boot! How could anyone credit the adulteress’ self-serving denial? No one did, save for Daniel.

Do You Really Want To Get Well?

 

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

There is a vital lesson to learn from the paralytic in John's Gospel.

When we fail to listen to, and answer the specific question, God places in our hearts, we may lose the opportunity to receive a great and undeserved gift. Listen here.

Eucharistic Reflection - He Listens to Everything

"[Jesus] He listened to everything. To the petition made in faith and spoken from the heart by the woman with a hemorrhage, to Zacchaeus, to the blasphemous shouts in the Praetorium, to the triumphant Hosanna, and to the false testimony, to the silent weeping of the penitents and to the evil thoughts of His enemies. He listened to everything!

He continues living in this way in the Tabernacle: listening to everyone and to everything. But there's a big difference between His way of listening and the way man listens. Man is wont to listen only with his ear - sometimes, maybe, with his mind. Jesus in the Tabernacle listens with His ear and with his mind, that is, with understanding. He also listens with His heart because He loves us.

And to think that there are tabernacles where there is no one present to talk to Him. He Who is so good! Immaculate Mother, angels of the Tabernacle, speak to the ear of your Jesus in those tabernacles where there is so much painful silence." 

(From The Bishop of the Abandoned Tabernacle)