Worth Revisiting - St. Albert the Great - A Great Day To Give Thanks to Our Ever-Present Lord and St. Albert the Great

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A Great Day To Give Thanks To Our Ever-Present Lord and St. Albert the Great!

(Originally posted November 15, 2015)

November 15 is the feast day of St. Albert the Great (1206-1280). Who was this noted Dominican friar?

The following brief summary from the Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic (St. Joseph’s Province) highlights some of his accomplishments:

“German Bishop, theologian of renown, philosopher, scientist, diplomat, inventor, teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas…crisscrossed his diocese on foot and so nicknamed “Doctor Boots by his contemporaries. “Universal Doctor’ of the Church…”

He was also the teacher of St. Thomas Aquinas!

Today also marks the beginning of the nineteenth year of Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at St. Agatha's parish! Praise God for such a inestimable Gift!

May I suggest we commemorate both of these great occasions by taking a look at what St. Albert the Great had to say about the Eucharist:

“This Sacrament [the Eucharist] is profitable because it grants remissions of sins; it is most useful because it bestows the fullness of grace on us in this life...Nor can we do anything more pleasant. For what is better than God manifesting his whole sweetness to us…He could not have commanded anything more beneficial, for this Sacrament is the fruit of the tree of life. Anyone who receives this Sacrament with the devotion of sincere faith will never taste death…Nor could he have commanded anything more lovable, for this Sacrament produces love and union. It is characteristic of the greatest love to give itself as food…There is no more intimate or more natural means for them to be united to me and I to them. Nor could he have commanded anything which is more like eternal life. Eternal life flows from this Sacrament because God with all sweetness pours Himself out upon the blessed.”

(Excerpted from Commentary on the Gospel of Luke by St. Albert the Great as set forth in today’s Office of Readings)

Eucharistic Reflection - The Meekness, The Kindness, The Patience and The Mercy of God

What shall we say about the Eucharistic meekness of Jesus? How to express in words His kindness in receiving everybody; His affability in stooping to the level of everybody, the poor and the ignorant; His patience in listening to what everybody has to say and lending ear to the tale of all our troubles; His kindness in Communion in which He gives Himself according to the disposition of each one, and comes to all with joy, provided He finds in them the life of grace and some little feeling of devotion, or a few good desires, and at least a minimum of respect! How express His generosity in giving every communicant the amount of grace he can carry and in paying for the soul's hospitality with His peace and love.

And what patient and merciful meekness towards those who forget Him! He waits for them.

He prays for those who spurn and offend Him; but He does not complain, nor does He threaten them. He does not punish at once those who outrage Him sacrilegiously, but tries to win them over to repentance by His meekness and kindness.

The Eucharist is the triumph of the meekness of Jesus Christ.

(From The Real Presence by St. Peter Julian Eymard)

Monday Musings - Without Reverent Silence, Nothing Else We Do Will Be of Any Value

A Forgotten Truth: "The Blessed Sacrament is that Presence which makes a Catholic Church different from every other place in the world; which makes it, as no other place can be, holy." - St. John Henry Cardinal Newman:

A Catholic Church must be unlike any other building in the world because God resides there. A Catholic Church is holy ground. All who enter must conduct themselves in a manner consistent with being in the Presence of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We must enter, remain and exit it in reverent and total silence. God deserves nothing less.

In far too many of our Catholic parishes we have lost the sense of the sacred and an appreciation for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that are both essential for fostering and maintaining a belief in the Real Presence. We have forgotten how to pray.

We have forgotten how to act while we are in Church and no one teaches or corrects us. Many ignore He Who is Love to engage in inane chatter on topics more appropriately discussed at social and sporting events. The actions and demeanor of so many souls are inconsistent with one who professes to believe that Jesus Christ is really and truly present on the altar and in their hands.


(Image Source: Wikimedia Commons)

We proclaim that the sanctuary and naves of our Churches are holy ground but we seldom act in a manner consistent with such a belief. We allow them to be used for non-sacred purposes – secular movies, concerts of non-liturgical music, and slide shows highlighting various life events in our high school graduates. We permit non-Catholics to use our Churches without instructing them and having them respect the reverent silence to be maintained in the presence of our Lord. Now, most egregiously, we allow raucous, disrespectful and blasphemous wakes to be held in our Church prior to Funeral Masses, just feet from our Lord imprisoned in His tabernacle. Bedlam, not reverence. reigns supreme. This is no way to treat our God.

"This irreverence and lack of sacred silence is not of God."

As James Monti noted in his recent column entitled Reverence as A Way of Life In Church and Beyond: “Satan is the father of irreverence. He hates the sacred, and so he seeks to hurl against the sacred all that can desecrate it. Art that makes the human face and form hideous, music that make life and love ugly, immodest clothing that blaspheme against the Temple of the Holy Spirit, architecture that makes man crawl on his belly rather than raise his eyes to Heaven all suit Satan’s purposes quite well.” (The Wanderer, March 21, 2019).

We state that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith but act like “social justice” (whatever that is) is the be all and end all. We welcome the suggestion of a Catholic author that “we become the best version of ourselves that we can be,” instead of challenging Catholics to strive toward their authentic calling – to become more Christ-like so as to lead many more souls into the eternal embrace of our Triune God. We rarely encourage daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament. We lock our Church doors denying access to any soul who might wish to do so. Rarely do we offer Benediction and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament or encourage prolonged periods of Eucharistic Adoration.

This has got to change. It is time for action.

“We all have in him [St. Joseph] a model and a protector. As adorers of the Sacramental Jesus, we continue near the Blessed Sacrament his service, his adoration and his love. He will watch over us and give us his spirit and virtues. Leading us to Jesus, he will say to Him: ‘I cannot be on earth any longer to watch over You and serve You, but bless these adorers who are replacing me; give them the graces You gave me, so that their service may recall and replace mine.’ How happy St. Joseph is to see us crowding about Jesus in His Sacrament, feeble, abandoned, persecuted, more in need of defenders and servants than in His Infancy…”

(St. Peter Julian Eymard)

Monday Musings - The Painful and Shameful Truth

Let us have an adult conversation:

Our God does not need any of us, not even for a millisecond. Yet, as Jesus hung from the cross more than 2000 years ago, He let us know He was thirsty – not a physical thirst - but an unquenchable spiritual thirst as our Lord, Savior and Redeemer to be loved by those He created and for whose eternal benefit He died.

In the ensuing centuries, not enough of us have made sufficient effort to quench His thirst. For the most part, many of us ignore His plea to love Him as He loves us. He still thirsts for our love. He is still waiting for us to love Him! Has He not waited long enough? Why have so many of us been unwilling to quench His thirst?

There is only one credible and honest answer to that question - one that should make each of us uncomfortable but spur us to action:

If we really believed Jesus Christ was truly here with us, we would go visit Him. Nothing would prevent us from doing so. We would not permit anyone or anything to take precedence over Him. But we do not come as we ought because not enough of us believe He is here! We are the only ones who can quench His thirst. All we have to do is come into His Presence and tell Him we love Him! That’s it! But most of us don’t and won’t.

He remains not only thirsty but heartbroken!

Shame on us for denying Him what He deserves, what He has asked of us and that which would be so very easy to give Him!...

To have such a great gift, to have a God so easily accessible and not to reverence and appreciate that Gift, is the greatest of all human failings.

Love Him! Reverence Him! Visit Him! Quench His thirst!

(Excerpted from the Introduction to I Thirst For Your Love)

Harvesting The Fruits of Contemplation