Blog Post 1/31/2022 - Ask Mary to Intercede for your Intentions

 

 

Ask Mary to Intercede for your Intentions

 

Fulton J. Sheen said, “Mary is like the moon, for her light is always the reflection of a higher light.”

 

 

We know she reflects the light of her Son, Our Lord.

 

And so today we pray: REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided.

Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother.  

To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.

O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 1/30/2022 – Some Thoughts on Prayer

 

Some Thoughts on Prayer

 

 

During our COVID Pandemic we should take the sometime to focus on Prayer.  

Below are Three Pillars to help us deepen our life in God:

 

o   Silence

 

o   Listening

 

o   Putting our Heart into our Hands for God

The Our Father has two essential elements in it, 1. “Thy will be done” and 2. “Your Kingdom come.”  Are those two elements central to your spiritual life, central to each decision you make?

 

Thomas Merton wrote in Thoughts in Solitude, “I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” (Thoughts in Solitude, p. 81) 

There may be no better time to pray the Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr:

“God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next.”  Amen

A lot to ponder as we journey through the pandemic, take a little time to ponder?

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 1/29/2022 – A Thought on the Parable of the Seed and the Sower

A Thought on the Parable of the Seed and the Sower

A sower goes out to sow, some of the seed fell on the path, where the birds ate it up; some fell on rocky ground, where it was scorched in the sun; some fell among thorns, where its life choked it off; and some fell on rich soil, where it produced —thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.   

 

Consider this analogy of the parable of the seed, the sower, and the soil.

 

God the Father is the sower.

God the Son [Jesus] is the seed.

God the Holy Spirit is the soil.

 

God wants to take root in us, though The Word and the Sacraments.  Our job is to tend to the soil with the water and the sun of love and dedication, through every action we take. 

God wants us to let His Logos be woven deeply into the soil of our being, where it can produce and build His Kingdom.

 

 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

 

Blog Post 1/28/2022 - Wisdom

Wisdom

“… Wisdom … is an unfailing treasure; those who gain this treasure win the friendship of God, to whom the gifts they have from discipline commend them.”  [Book of Wisdom 7:13-14]

 

Wisdom is knowledge of self, compassion for others and friendship with God.  [Celtic Wisdom]

 

The time you “waste” with God pays eternal dividends, wisdom worth pursuing.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post – 1/27/2022 - Why are we here?

Why are we here?

 We are here on earth to know, love and find joy in serving God.  when we do that, we are on  the path to eternal life.    

What is that path, Believing that the one true God: Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is revealed definitively in Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.

 

St. Paul said, “we walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Thank God for your gift of faith, no matter how strong or how fragile your it is, the gift is yours from the Creator to guide you home.  St. Francis de Sales taught us, “Be who you are and be that well, to give honor to the Master Craftsman whose handiwork you are.”

 

We are here to prepare our minds, our hearts and our souls to be with God in heaven for all eternity.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 1/26/2022 – Advice for dealing with a bad day(s)

 Advice for dealing with a bad day(s)

"Resist anything that leads to moodiness.  Our prayer each day should be, ‘Let the joy of the Lord be my strength’.  Cheerfulness and joy were Our Lady’s strength.  This made her a willing handmade of God.

 Only joy could have given her the strength to go in haste over the hills of Judea to her cousin Elizabeth, there to do the work of a handmaid.  If we are to be true handmaids of the Lord, then we too, each day, must go cheerfully in haste over the hills of difficulties."  [St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Thirsting for God, p. 45]

 

“Do not seek to have your trials removed, ask rather for the grace to bear them well.”  [ST. ANDRÉ BESSETTE]

 

Terrific Advice, pray for the grace to follow it.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

Blog Post 1/25/2022 – How to live.

 

 

 

How to live.

 

St. Anselm of Canterbury said, "I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand."

Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by your belief in Jesus Christ, then do what is God’s will, for God’s will is good, pleasing and perfect.

 

As tensions continue to rise in Europe, Let us join with Isaiah and pray for that day when, “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 1/24/2022 – Faith and the Art of Loving God

Faith and the Art of Loving God

Today is the feast day of DeSales University’s patron, St. Francis de Sales, his gentleness and optimism are greatly need in out time.

Faith is the willingness to accept the grace God gives us to believe, Jesus [true God & true man] dwelt among us to offer us a glimpse of the Father, an awareness of the Holy Spirit and to show us how God wants us to live.

St. Francis de Sales taught us that, “Our confidence in God must be founded on His infinite goodness and on the merits of the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, with this condition on our part: that we should preserve and recognize in ourselves an entire and firm resolution to belong wholly to God, and to abandon ourselves in all things, and without any reserve, to His Providence.

Observe that I do not say that we must feel this resolution to belong wholly to God, but only that we must have it and recognize it in ourselves; we must not concern ourselves with what we feel or do not feel, since the greater part of our feelings and satisfactions are only the movements of self-love. Neither must it be supposed that in all this practice of abandonment and indifference, we shall never have desires contrary to the will of God, or that nature will never shrink with repugnance from the dispositions of His good pleasure, for these will often occur.

The virtues of abandonment and indifference reside in the higher region of our soul….”  

[St. Francis deSales, The Art of Loving God, p. 22-23]

Strive for the virtues of abandonment and indifference they will serve you well.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

 

Blog Post 1/23/2022 – A Prayer Insight

 

A Prayer Insight

St. Francis de Sales recommends “If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in its Master's presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back and place it again in Our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed."

                                                      

                                                       Wise Advice remember to use it.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

 

Blog Post 1/22/2022 – God Does Love Each One of Us.

 

God Does Love Each One of Us.

 

“When the Word became flesh and lived among us, mercy and truth were revealed; justice and peace kissed.”  [Deacon George Kelly]

 

Reflect on God’s love for you.

 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 1/21/2022 – Praising God

 

Praising God

“To praise God in our lives means all we do must be for his glory.” (Arnobius)

“My soul, give praise to the Lord; I will praise the Lord all my days, make music to my God while I live.”

Today take five minutes to praise the Lord our God.

 

 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed

 

Blog Post 1/20/2022 – Important Questions, your answers will give your life true meaning.

 

 

Important Questions, your answers will give your life true meaning.

When will I come to the end of my pilgrimage and enter the presence of God?  Do you long for the Lord’s presence in his Temple? 

In the Book of Revelation (22:17) we read: “Let all who thirst come; let all who desire it, drink from the life-giving water.”

“O God, bend my heart to follow Your will and allow my voice to praise Your Holy Name, cleanse me from any worthless, evil, or distracting thoughts.  Grant me Your grace to pray today with reverence, awe and love.  Listen to my supplication, hear my prayer, and answer me.  Guide me with Your Spirit that I may shine forth Your Radiance to the world.”  [Dcn. George Kelly]

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life; the Eucharist is the nourishment for the journey.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

 

 

Blog Post 1/19/2022 - What our heart truly desires.

 

                                                            What our heart truly desires.

 

“I will walk in the presence of the Lord in the land of the living.”  (Psalm16)

On that day every tear will be wiped away.

 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post – 1/18/2022 – An Insight into Relationships

 

An Insight into Relationships

 

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said, "The most empowering relationships are those in which each partner lifts the other to a higher possession of their own being."

 

What is the foundation of your most important relationships?

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

 

Blog Post 1/17/2022 – Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr

 

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr

“Darkness cannot drive our darkness; only light can do that.  Hate cannot drive our hate; only love can do that.”  [Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]. Today in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. each one of us should bring the light & love of Jesus to each person we meet.

Martin Luther King, also, said, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”   

 

Let’s place on our prayer list racial justice in the United States and that these six Black Americans six become Saints. https://www.usccb.org/committees/african-american-affairs/road-sainthood-leaders-african-descent:

Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853)

Henriette Delille, S.S.F. (1812-62)

Augustus Tolton (1854-97)

Mary Elizabeth Lange, O.S.P. (circa 1784-1882)

Julia Greeley (between 1833 and 1848-1918)

Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A. (1937-90)

 

America Magazine offers several articles on the canonization efforts on behalf of these candidates for sainthood.  And for an excellent introduction to the experience of Black American Catholics read: The Church and the Racial Divide: Reflections of an African American Catholic Bishop by Bishop Edward Braxton.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.

 

Blog Post 1/16/2022 – Hear, O Israel!

 

 

 

Hear, O Israel, the L-rd is our G‑d, the L-rd is One.

 

Victor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning, is a brilliant work, it dealt with Frankl’s experience as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II.  When he arrived at the concentration camp, he tried to hide the book he was writing, but all his possession were confiscated.

Frankl wrote: “I had to surrender my clothes and in turn inherited the worn-out rags of an inmate who had been sent to a gas chamber immediately after his arrival at the Auschwitz railway station. Instead, I found in the pocket of my newly acquired coat one single page torn out of a Hebrew prayer book, containing the most important Jewish prayer, Shema Israel.”

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!  Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.”  Deuteronomy 6:4

Frankl learned that no matter what happens to you nobody can take away your attitude and your soul or your spiritual essence.  

 

Today pray the Shema and let God be your boss.

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us.

May God Be Praised and your day be Blessed.