Day: June 23, 2019

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, NOVENAS, SACRED and IMMACULATE HEARTS, The WORD

Novena in honour of the Sacred Heart Day Five – 23 June

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Novena to the Sacred Heart
Day Five – 23 June

Fifth Day – Has no one condemned you?

Today’s Scripture
Jesus straightened up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, sir.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.’...John 8: 10-11

Reflection for the Fifth Day
I read something recently which went like this: ‘You do not have to be good before God will love you; you do not have to repent before you will be absolved by God. It is all the other way around. If you are good, it is because God’s love has already made you so; if you want to be forgiven, that is because God is forgiving you.’

Today’s Prayer
Jesus, as I reflect upon Your Sacred Heart,
help me to have a deep felt knowledge
that You have already forgiven
the sins of which I have repented
and asked Your forgiveness.
Help me to examine my conscience each day,
for I know You long to forgive all my sins,
where Your Sacred Heart
is love made visible.

Daily Invocation
Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.

Novena Prayer
Lord Jesus, the needs of Your people,
open Your Sacred Heart in love for each of us.
You care for us when we are lost,
sympathise with us in loneliness
and comfort us in mourning.
You are closest to us when we are weakest.
You love us most, when we love ourselves least,
You forgive us most, when we forgive ourselves least
and You call us to spread Your love
in whatever way we can.
Lord Jesus, Your Sacred Heart
is moved with compassion
when we are suffering,
when we need Your help
and when we pray for each other.
I ask You to listen to my prayer during this Novena
and grant what I ask.
—————————-
(Mention your intention silently.)
If what I ask is not for my own good
and the good of others,
grant me what is best,
that I may build up Your kingdom
of love in our world.
Amenday-five-novena-to-the-sacred-heart 23 june 2019.jpg

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Posted in CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, DOCTORS of the Church, EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, JESUIT SJ, MORNING Prayers, POETRY, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Thought for the Day – 23 June – Through Our Gazing in Adoration

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Thought for the Day – 23 June – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Through Our Gazing in Adoration

Pope Benedict XVI General Audience, 17 November 2010

Dear friends, fidelity to the encounter with the Eucharistic Christ in Sunday’s Holy Mass is essential for the journey of faith but let us try as well to frequently go to visit the Lord present in the Tabernacle!   Gazing in adoration at the consecrated Host, we discover the gift of the love of God, we discover the passion and the cross of Jesus and also His Resurrection.   Precisely through our gazing in adoration, the Lord draws us to Himself, into His mystery, to transform us as He transforms the bread and wine.

The saints always found strength, consolation and joy in the Eucharistic encounter.   With the words of the Eucharistic hymn “Adoro te devote,” let us repeat before the Lord, present in the Most Blessed Sacrament:  “Make me believe ever more in You, that in You I may have hope, that I may love You!”

Thank you.

Adoro te Devote
By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Doctor of the Church
Trans. Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ (1844-1889)

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows,
shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at Thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God Thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in Thee deceived –
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed,
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do,
Truth Himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.

On the cross Thy godhead made no sign to men,
Here Thy very manhood steals from human ken –
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call Thee Lord and God as he,
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O Thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom He died,
Lend this life to me then – feed and feast my mind,
There be Thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican,
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what Thy bosom ran—
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech Thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on Thee face to face in light
And be blest forever with Thy glory’s sight.
Amenadoro te devote - copus christi 23 june 2019.jpg

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Quote of the Day – 23 June – May our actions give proof of His Presence.

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Quote of the Day – 23 June – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

“When you have received Him,
stir up your heart to do Him homage,
speak to Him about your spiritual life,
gazing upon Him in your soul
where He is present
for your happiness.
Welcome Him as warmly as possible,
and behave outwardly in such a way,
that your actions
may give proof to all,
of His Presence.”

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of the Churchwelcome him as warmly as possible and behave outwardly- st francis de sales 23 june 2019 corpus christi.jpg

Posted in FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, The HOLY EUCHARIST, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 23 June – The Truine Love present in the Eucharist

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One Minute Reflection – 23 June – The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 2019, Gospel: Luke 9:11–17

“…he looked up to heaven and blessed and broke them and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.”…Luke 9:16

REFLECTION – “The mystery of today’s feast has three aspects, as is the case with all the great feasts after Pentecost and Trinity Sunday.
First, the Gospel portrays it through the image of the multiplication of the loaves.   This is no bit of magic on Jesus’ part – to accomplish it He looks toward heaven, toward His Father, with both petition and thanksgiving (eucharistia):  “Father, I thank you for hearing me.” (Jn 11:42)   His lavish giving away of Himself in the loaves, will be a sign of the way the Father’s love utterly lavishes His Son on the world.
Then He blesses the bread, for the Father has left everything to the Son, including the bestowal of heaven’s blessing.
He breaks it, which points both to His own brokenness in the Passion and to the way His gifts will be limitlessly multiplied by the work of the Holy Spirit in every Eucharistic celebration.   Thus, through this visible image, we realise that truine Love itself, becomes present in the Eucharistic self-giving of Jesus.”… Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988)luke 9 16 he looked up to heaven - he breaks it - hans urs von balthasar 23 june 2019 corpus christi

PRAYER – Lord Jesus Christ, You gave Your Church an admirable Sacrament as the abiding memorial of Your Passion.   Teach us so to worship the sacred Mystery of Your Body and Blood, that it’s redeeming power, may sanctify us always.   Who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, God forever and every, amen.corpus christi 23 june 2019 mark 14 22 this is my body

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, SACRAMENTS, SUNDAY REFLECTIONS, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Sunday Reflection – 23 June – O precious and wonderful banquet!

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Sunday Reflection – 23 June – The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

O precious and wonderful banquet!

Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Priest and Doctor of the Church

An excerpt from On the Feast of the Body of Christ

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in His divinity, He assumed our nature, in order that by becoming man He might make men gods. Moreover, when He took our flesh He dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation.   He offered His body to God the Father, on the altar of the cross, as a sacrifice for our reconciliation.   He shed His blood for our ransom and purification, so that we, might be redeemed, from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin.   But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us forever, He left His body as food and His blood as drink, for the faithful to consume, in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful banquet that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness!  Could anything be of more intrinsic value?   Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered but here Christ Himself, the true God, is set before us as our food.   What could be more wonderful than this?   No other sacrament has greater healing power, through it, sins are purged away, virtues are increased and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift.   It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all, may be for the benefit of all.   Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us, which Christ revealed in His passion.

It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful, that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper.   As He was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with His disciples, He left it as a perpetual memorial of His passion.   It was the fulfilment of ancient figures and the greatest of all His miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of His departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.o precious and wonderful banquet - st thomas aquinas sun reflec corpus christi 23 june 2019.jpg

Posted in EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Our Morning Offering – 23 June – “May We All be Living Monstrances”

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Our Morning Offering – 23 June – The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 2019

“MAY WE ALL BE LIVING MONSTRANCES.”
By St Josemaria Escrivá (1902-1975)

May we be monstrances
wrought of pure gold,
free from all worldly influence,
studded with rubies,
which are like the stains of blood
from our sorrow and our sacrifice;
monstrances adorned with emeralds,
which signify,
our unshakeable hope
and embedded with
many other small stones –
that are barely noticed
but that You behold always,
delighting in their brilliance—
and which are our small mortifications,
our self-denial at every moment.

May these living monstrances
illumine those around them
by their apostolic charity.
Deign, my God,
living in each one of them,
to vivify with the rays of Your Love
all those who come
into contact with us.

Mother of ours,
Mother of Eucharistic Love:
this is our petition today.
Present it, we beseech you,
at your Son’s feet.
Obtain for us a life
imbued with a Eucharistic spirit,
so that love for the Holy Eucharist
fills our heart.
Amenmay we all be living monstrances - st josemaria - 23 june 2019 corpus christi.jpg

Posted in CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Corpus Christi, The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ – 23 June

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Blessed Solemnity of Corpus Christi to you all!

corpus-christi-this-is-my-body-mark-14-22-3-june-2018.jpg

The Feast of Corpus Christi also known in Liturgical Latin as Dies Sanctissimi Corporis et Sanguinis Domini Iesu Christi  – Latin for “Day of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus Christ the Lord” and as Solemnity of the Corpus Christi “Body of Christ” is a Christian liturgical solemnity celebrating the Real Presence of the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the elements of the Eucharist.   Two months earlier, the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is observed on Maundy Thursday in a sombre atmosphere leading to Good Friday.   The liturgy on that day also commemorates Christ’s washing of the disciples’ feet, the institution of the priesthood.

The feast of Corpus Christi was proposed by St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) , Doctor of the Church to Pope Urban IV, in order to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist emphasising the joy of the Eucharist being the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.   Recognised the authenticity of the Eucharistic Miracle of Bolsena on input of St Thomas, in 1264 the pontiff, established the feast of Corpus Christi as a Solemnity and extended it to the universal Catholic Church.corpus-christi-1

The feast is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday or, “where the Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is not a holy day of obligation, it is assigned to the Sunday after the Most Holy Trinity as its proper day”, which is now the case in most countries.    In the liturgical reforms of 1969, under Pope Paul VI, the bishops of each nation have the option to transfer it to the following Sunday.

At the end of Holy Mass, there is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament, generally displayed in a monstrance.   A notable Eucharistic procession is that presided over by the Pope each year in Rome, where it begins at the Archbasilica of St John Lateran and passes to the Basilica of Saint Mary Major, where it concludes with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

The feast of Corpus Christi is one of five occasions in the year on which a diocesan bishop is not to be away from his diocese unless for a grave and urgent reason.Corpus_Christi_Procession_with_Pope_Gregory_XVI_in_the_Vatican

By tradition, Catholics hear Mass then go in procession through the streets of their parish church’s neighbourhood, all whilst praying and singing.   The Eucharist, known as the Blessed Sacrament, is placed in a monstrance and is held aloft by a member of the clergy during the procession.   Usually, there are anything from 3 – 5 stops, where altars have been erected and Benediction takes place.   The final Benediction usually takes place back in the Church.

Let us be transported to the same climate of expectation and joyful hope as we feel in the Adoro Te Devote with these last words of the Lauda Sion, the Eucharistic hymn/sequence also written by St Thomas Aquinas. (Fr Raneiro Cantalamessa O.F.M. “This is My Body”)

Source of all we have or know,
feed and lead us here below.
Grant that with Your saints above,
Sitting at the feast of love,
We may see You face to face.

Amen Alleluia!

Lord Jesus Christ,

in the Most Blessed Sacrament,

we Adore and Love You!lauda-sion-lord-jesus-christ-in-the-most-blessed-sacrament-corpus-christi-3-june-2018-sunday-reflection.jpg

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 23 June – St Etheldreda (c 636-679)

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Saint of the Day – 23 June – St Etheldreda (c 636-679) Abbess and widow, an East Anglian princess, a Fenland and Northumbrian queen and Abbess of Ely – born in c 636 probably n Exning, near Newmarket in Suffolk, England.   She died on 23 June 679 of natural causes.   When her body was re-interred in 694 it was found to be incorrupt and again in 1106 when her relics were transferred to Ely Cathedral where her shrine now remains, her body was incorrupt.   Patronage – throat ailments, widows, neck ailments, th University of Cambridge.SaintEtheldreda.jpg

She was one of the four saintly daughters of Anna of East Anglia, including Wendreda and Seaxburh of Ely, all of whom eventually retired from secular life and founded abbeys.

Born and brought up in the fear of God-her mother and three sisters are numbered among the Saints – Etheldreda had but one aim in life, to devote herself to His service in the religious state.   Her parents, however, had other views for her and, in spite of her tears and prayers, she was compelled to become the wife of Tonbercht, a tributary of the Mercian king.   She lived with him as a virgin for three years and at his death retired to the Isle of Ely, that she might apply herself wholly to heavenly things.st etheltruda

This happiness was but short-live,; for Egfrid, the powerful King of Northumbria, pressed his suit upon her with such eagerness that she was forced into a second marriage.   Her life at his court was that of an ascetic rather than a queen – she lived with him not as a wife but as a sister and, observing a scrupulous regularity of discipline, devoted her time to works of mercy and love.

After twelve years, she retired with her husband’s consent to Coldingham Abbey, which was then under the rule of St Ebba, and received the veil from the hands of St Wilfrid.  As soon as Etheldreda had left the court of her husband, he repented of having consented to her departure and followed her, meaning to bring her back by force.   She took refuge on a headland on the coast near Coldingham and here a miracle took place, for the waters forced themselves a passage round the hill, barring the further advance of Egfrid.st ethelreda icon

The Saint remained on this island refuge for seven days, till the king, recognising the divine will, agreed to leave her in peace.   God, who by a miracle confirmed the Saint’s vocation, will not fail us if, with a single heart, we elect for him.

In 672 she returned to Ely, and founded there a double monastery.   The nunnery she governed herself and was by her example a living rule of perfection to her sisters.

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St Bede the Venerable records many miracles worked by her relics at her Shrine.   Below is her Statue and resting place in Ely Cathedral.

Posted in EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY EUCHARIST

The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ and Memorials of the Saints – 23 June

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The Solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ *23 June 2019
Last Year’s Corpus Christi Post: https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/03/the-solemnity-of-the-body-and-blood-of-christ-corpus-christi-3-june/

St Agrippina of Rome
St Bilio of Vannes
St Etheldreda (c 636-679)
Bl Félix of Cîteaux
St Felix of Sutri
Bl Frances Martel
Bl Francis O’Sullivan
St Hidulphus of Hainault
St James of Toul
St John of Rome
St Joseph Cafasso (1811-1860)
St Joseph Cafasso’s Biography:   https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/23/saint-of-the-day-23-june-st-joseph-cafasso-1811-1860-priest-of-the-gallows/

Bl Lanfranco Beccari
St Lietbert
Bl Lupo de Paredes
Bl Mary of Oignies
St Moeliai of Nendrum
Bl Peter of Juilly
Bl Thomas Corsini of Orvieto
St Thomas Garnet
Bl Walhere of Dinant
St Zenas of Philadelphia
St Zeno of Philadelphia
—
Martyrs of Ancyra: A family of converts who were arrested, tortured and sent in chains to Ancyra, Galatia (modern Ankara, Turkey) where he was tortured more by order of governor Agrippinus during the persecutions of Diocletian. Martyr. They were – Eustochius, Gaius, Lollia, Probus, Urban. They were roasted over a fire and finally beheaded c 300 in Ancyra, Galatia (modern Ankara, Turkey).

Martyrs of Nicomedia: During the persecutions of Diocletian, many Christians fled their homes to live in caves in the area of Nicomedia. In 303 troops descended on the area, systematically hunted them down and murdered all they could find.