Blog Post 6/30/2023 A Thought on Prayer

A Thought on Prayer

“Prayer brings our mind into the brightness of divine light and exposes our will to the warmth of divine love. Nothing else can so purge our mind from its ignorance, and our will from its depraved affections.

 

It is a blessed fountain which, as it flows, revives our good desires and causes them to bring forth fruit, washes away the stains of infirmity from our soul, and calms the passions of our hearts.”  [St. Francis de Sales, An Introduction to the Devout Life, p. 61]

 

Today when you pray may you be warmed by the Divine Love offered to you.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/29/2023 - The Way direct or indirect?

The Way direct or indirect?

“The great architect Frank Lloyd Wright was fond of an incident that may have seemed insignificant at the time but had a profound influence on the rest of his life.  The winter he was 9, he went walking across a snow-covered field with his reserved, no-nonsense uncle. As the two of them reached the far end of the field, his uncle stopped him.

He pointed out his own tracks in the snow, straight and true as an arrow's flight, and then young Frank's tracks meandering all over the field. ‘Notice how your tracks wander aimlessly from the fence to the cattle to the woods and back again,’ his uncle said. ‘And see how my tracks aim directly to my goal. There is an important lesson in that.’

Years later the world-famous architect liked to tell how the experience had contributed to his philosophy in life. ‘I determined right then,’ he'd say with a twinkle in his eye, ‘not to miss the things in life, that my uncle had missed.  Frank Lloyd Wright saw in those tracks what his uncle could not: It is easy to let the demands of life keep us from the joys of living.”  [Sermons.com]

 Jesus offers us “tracks” “a Way” that wanders, it is up to use to follow His “Way”, His “Path” and we will find after we wander following it when we look back it will be a straight line.

I wonder as I wander.  I will remember the words of the Lord.  I will recall his wonders of old.

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 6/28/2023 – What God Wants!

 

What God Wants!

“I want a loving heart more than sacrifice, knowledge of my ways ….”  [Antiphon 3 Office of Readings 6/19/2023]

 

 

What God wants is both easy and difficult, but we are at peace when we cultivate a loving heart for the Lord.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/27/2023 - What is your #1 Goal in life? Don’t forget your special helper!

What is your #1 Goal in life?  Don’t forget your special helper!

 

St. Aloysius Gonzaga wrote, "It is better to be a child of God than king of the whole world!"

 

“Our own guardian angel [is] for each of us like a trustworthy captain commissioned to defend a stronghold against its enemies. Our guardian angel remains alert and watchful lest any foes should capture and occupy the fort of our soul.

 

These angels are the faithful guards whom the Lord has located on the walls of Jerusalem to keep watch over His flock throughout the night lest the ferocious wolf of hell, who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking for someone to devour, should seize upon our poor souls!”   

[St. Aloysius Gonzaga, p.65, Meditations on the Holy Angels]

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/26/2023 - Being a Christian

 

Being a Christian

 

Saint Ignatius of Antioch said, Let me not only be called a Christian, but prove to be one.

 

May the light of Christ shine through each of us today and everyday that we may be Christians.

 

May God be Praised.

 

Blog Post 6/25/2023 – Prayers Answered

 

Prayers Answered

 

“God hears our heart not our voice. He sees our thoughts …. Anna maintained this rule; in her observance of it she is an image of the Church.

In the First Book of Kings, we are told that she prayed quietly and modestly to God in the recesses of her heart. Her prayer was secret, but her faith was evident.

She did not pray with her voice, but with her heart, for she knew that in this way the Lord would hear her. ”  [From a treatise on the Lord’s Prayer by Saint Cyprian, bishop and martyr]

A  prayer come from a humble heart is heard and answered.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/24/2023 - Temptation

 

Temptation

Thomas á Kempis wrote, “We will never be free of trials and temptations as long as our earthly life lasts. For Job has said: ‘Is not the life of human beings on earth a drudgery?’ (Job 7:1).

 

Therefore, we should always be on our guard against temptations, always praying that our enemy, the devil, ‘who never sleeps but constantly looks for someone to devour.’ (1 Pet 5:8), will not catch us off guard.

No one in this world is so perfect or holy as not to have temptations sometimes. We can never be entirely free from them. Sometimes these temptations can be very severe and troublesome, but if we resist them, they will be very useful to us; for by experiencing them we are humbled, cleansed, and instructed.

All the Saints endured tribulations and temptations and profited by them, while those who did not resist and overcome them fell away and were lost. There is no place so holy or remote where you will not meet with temptation, nor is there anyone completely free from it in this life; for in our body, we bear the wounds of sin—the weakness of our human nature in which we are born.”  [Thomas á Kempis, Imitation of Christ, p. 31]

Pray every day for grace and strength to deal with temptation and follow Jesus more closely.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/23/2023 - God’s Blessing

God’s Blessing

“God blesses me when sit and when I stand.

God blesses me when I sleep and when I wake.

God blesses me each moment and each hour.

May we allow God’s blessings to fill us and mold us.”

 

My God Be Praised.

 

 

Blog Post 6/22/2023 – Meister Eckhart

“You must bring God everything – your dreams, your successes, your rejoicing.

And if you have little to rejoice over, bring God that little.

And if your life seems only like a heap of fragments, bring God the fragments.

And if you have only empty hands, bring God your empty hands.

Shattered hopes are God’s material; in God’s hands all is made good.

You must bring God everything!” [Meister Eckhart]

 

 

Bringing God, everything frees you to love God for everything.  God is crazy over you, go to God in love, remain in God in love and when you depart take Gods’ love to each person you meet.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/19/2023 - A Pause for Retreat

A Pause for Retreat

Over the next three days I will be on retreat, and I ask you to pray for me and know that I will be praying for you.  A Daily Dose of God will resume on Thursday, June 22.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/18/2023 - Homily Cycle A – Offered at OLPH

Homily Cycle A – Offered at OLPH

Readings: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061823.cfm

Today we resume Ordinary time in the Church.  But today is really anything but ordinary, it is the only day we have yesterday is gone, tomorrow is not here, so today is it.

In our Gospel Jesus summons the twelve to help announce the Kingdom, the Good News.  Upon seeing the crowd Jesus’ heart is moved with pity.  Not pity like oh what a shame, but a visceral, painful pity – Jesus identifies with the crowd, with the people at the deepest part of His.

Jesus is announcing the Kingdom, which is here, on the way and not yet fulfilled.  As you know today is Father’s Day a time in our secular life when our society, pauses to thank fathers.  At their best fathers show us a glimpse of God Our Father: loving, kind, life-giving.

Listen to his story about a father who reflects God the Father: “A Father’s Love.”  Philip Yancey in his book Disappointment with God, described a visit his widowed mother; they looked through a box of old photos.  A picture of an eight-month-old baby caught his eye.

Tattered and bent, the picture looked too banged up to be worth keeping, so he asked her why, she had kept this one.  “… she had kept the photo as a memento, because during my father’s illness it had been fastened to his iron lung.”

During the last four months of his life, Yancey’s father lay on his back, completely paralyzed by polio at the age of twenty-four, encased from the neck down in a huge, cylindrical breathing unit.  He had asked his wife for pictures their two boys.  The photos had to be jammed between metal knobs so that he could see them, and last four months of his life were spent looking at that photo.  [Connections]  An ordinary thing, done extraordinarily well.

In our 1^st reading from Exodus, we heard, “I bore you up on eagle wings and brought you here to myself.  Therefore, if you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession ….”  We are special to God.

In Psalm [100], we learned “Know that the LORD is God; he made us, his we are his people, the flock he tends.”  One of my favorite prophets is the prophet Micah [6:8] teaches us what the Lord expects of us, to do what is right, to love goodness, and walk humbly with our God.

These two stories may help us.

Simple . . .

It began five years ago when a retired computer technician met a young clerk at a 7-Eleven [store].  He complimented her on the way she deftly handled a complaining customer.

During their conversation, he learned that the young woman had dropped out of college because someone had stolen her laptop when she was taking online classes.   Wanting to help her, he refurbished a laptop he had and gave it to her — for free.  She was able to go on and complete her associate’s degree in business.

That was the beginning of his work as the “Tech Fairy.”  He collects broken laptops and computers, repairs them and gives them to those in need.  Over the last five years he’s given away more than 300 computers.  These computers often changes the lives of those he helps, the 76-year-old retiree benefits, as well: “It keeps me busy, keeps me challenged . . . I’ve got the skill; I’ve got the time; I’ve got the resources. So, who wouldn’t do it?

Simple . . .

She runs a small restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch.  The place is her life, and her regulars are like family.  During the pandemic she struggled but was able to keep her restaurant going; she also saw many families struggle to put food on their tables.

So, an hour after closing each day, she gathers up leftover soup and fresh bread and drives it over to a local soup kitchen for the evening meal.  Thanks to the community, she’s doing OK, so she’s happy to give back.  [Connections, June 2023] Building the Kingdom of God as it unfolds is a privilege we receive at our Baptism.   

It’s that simple and that hard to follow Jesus, to be His disciple.   

In silence, reflect on how you are announcing The Kingdom of God?”

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/17/2023 – Pope Francis asks and answers 2 questions about The Ascension

Pope Francis asks and answers 2 questions about The Ascension

 

The first question: Why celebrate Jesus’s departure from the earth? It would seem that his departure would be a sad moment, not exactly something to rejoice over! Why celebrate a departure? Second question: What does Jesus do now in heaven?

 

First question: Why celebrate?

 

The Pope went on to propose the answers to these questions. We celebrate, he said, because with the Ascension “something new and beautiful happened: Jesus brought our humanity, our flesh, into heaven – this is the first time – that is, he brought it in God. That humanity that he had assumed on earth did not remain here. The risen Jesus was not a spirit, no. He had his human body, flesh and bones, everything. He will be there in God.”

 

Second question: What does Jesus do in heaven?

 

He is there for us before the Father, continually showing our humanity to him – showing him his wounds. I like to think that Jesus, prays like this in front of the Father – making him see his wounds. “This is what I suffered for humanity: Do something!”

 

He shows the Father the price of our redemption. The Father is moved. This is something I like to think about. But think about it yourselves. This is how Jesus prays.[…]. In a word, Jesus intercedes. He is in a better “place,” before his Father and ours, to intercede on our behalf.

 

The Pope said that prayer of intercession “is fundamental” and that knowing in faith that Jesus is there “helps us, too – not to lose hope, not to get discouraged. Before the Father, there is someone who makes him see his wounds and intercedes.”

 

Spend some time reflecting on the questions and the Pope’s answers.

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/16/2023 Litany of the Sacred Heart

 

Litany of the Sacred Heart

 

Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy

Christ, have mercy Christ, have mercy

Lord, have mercy Lord, have mercy

God our Father in heaven have mercy on us

God the Son, Redeemer of the world have mercy on us

God the Holy Spirit have mercy on us

Holy Trinity, one God have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, Son of the eternal Father have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, formed by the Holy Spirit

in the womb of the Virgin Mother have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, one with the eternal Word have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, infinite in majesty have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, holy temple of God have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, tabernacle of the Most High have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, house of God and gate of heaven have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, aflame with love for us have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, source of justice and love have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, full of goodness and love have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, well-spring of all virtue have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, patient and full of mercy have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, generous to all who turn to you have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, fountain of life and holiness have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, source of healing have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, sharer in our sorrow have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, safe-guarder of the vulnerable have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, friend of the betrayed have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, companion of the ignored have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, face of the misjudged have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, memory of the disbelieved have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, true voice in the silence have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, wounded by our failings have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, bearer of our sufferings have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, acquainted with grief have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, atonement for our sins have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, overwhelmed with insults have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, broken for our sins have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, obedient even to death have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, pierced by a lance have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, source of all consolation have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, our peace and reconciliation have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, victim for our sins have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, salvation of all who trust in you have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, hope of all who die in you have mercy on us

Heart of Jesus, delight of all the saints have mercy on us

Lamb of God, you take away

the sins of the world have mercy on us

Lamb of God, you take away

the sins of the world have mercy on us

Lamb of God, you take away

the sins of the world have mercy on us

 

Jesus, gentle and humble of heart.

 

Touch our hearts and make them like your own.

 

 

Let us pray.

Father, we honor the heart of your Son broken by man’s cruelty, yet symbol of love’s triumph, pledge of all that man is called to be.

Teach us to see Christ in the lives we touch, to offer him living worship by love-filled service to our brothers and sisters.  We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord

 

Amen

 

Blog Post 6/15/2023 - The Way and the Goal

 

The Way and the Goal

The way to come to true life - From the Exposition on John by Saint Thomas Aquinas

“Christ himself is the way, and therefore he says: I am the way. This certainly is eminently right for through him we have access to the Father.

 

Since this way is not separate from its end, but joined to it, he adds the truth and the life; thus, he is himself at once both the way and the goal. In his human nature he is the way, and in his divine nature he is the goal.”

Seek the Way and find the Goal.

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/14/2023 - Pie Jesu

 

Pie Jesu

 

Listen to this breath taking rendition of Pie Jesu song by 13 year old Malakai

 

https://aleteia.org/2023/05/26/child-sings-pie-jesu-thrills-britains-got-talent/?utm_campaign=EM-EN-Newsletter-Daily-&utm_content=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sendgrid&utm_term=20230526

 

 

 

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 6/13/2023 – Today’s Culture

Today’s Culture

 

Cardinal O’Malley of Boston said, “As we go forward with the work of the church in the 21^st century.…. We must ask ourselves, What does it mean to live in a culture of unbelief…?

The mission of the church is about making disciples ….  Discipleship is about striving to follow his teaching & example, & then to pass on the faith.” (Origins, May 22, 2014)

 

Reflect on your discipleship?

 

May God Be Praised.

Blog Post 6/12/2023 - The Lord has told you ...

 

Blog Post 6/12/2023 - The Lord has told you ...

 

The prophet Micah [6:8] instructs us, “The Lord has told you, O man, what is good, — and this is what he expects of you: to do what is right, to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.”

 

No matter had bleak things appear don’t hide your “light” share God’s love and care, the world needs it.

 

 

 

May God Be Praised.

 

Blog Post 6/11/2023 Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

 

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

 

Thoughts on the Eucharist

Here is what we Catholics believe about the Eucharist, “we believe that Jesus is really, truly and substantially present under the appearances of bread and wine.”

Many years ago, St. Ambrose shared this reflection on the Eucharist, “This bread is bread before the words of the Sacrament. But when the words of Christ come to it, it is the body of Christ ... Before the words of Christ it is a cup full of wine and water. When the words of Christ become operative, the blood which has redeemed the people is caused to be there."

 

Today at Mass the priest prays these words of consecration over the bread and wine:

Take this, all of you, and eat of it,
for this is my Body,
which will be given up for you.

Take this, all of you, and drink from it,
for this is the chalice of my Blood,
the Blood of the new and eternal covenant,
which will be poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.
Do this in memory of me.

 

And with those Words’ heaven meets earth on the altar, and we participate in the source and summit of our Faith.

 

Take some time today to thank Jesus for the Gift of the Eucharist.

May God Be Praised and Adored.