Thought for the Day – 6 August – Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)
How to Remain Aware of the Presence of God
“It is useful to consider the ways in which we can develop a constant and effective awareness of the Presence of God.
The first way in which we can do this, is by cultivating a lively faith, which will help us to see God everywhere.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?” (Jer 23:24).
This kind of faith should deepen our sense of God’s Presence and inspire in us sentiments of love and gratitude, which will guide us in all our actions.
We cannot expect that we shall be able to remain in a state of constant contemplation of God, for this is the privilege enjoyed by the blessed in Heaven, for whom faith has been replaced by the Beatific Vision.
We must be satisfied with exciting in ourselves, as often as possible, the active awareness of God’s Presence.
This should be a quiet and peaceful process, not involving undue mental effort or anxiety.
We should be able to attend quite naturally to our work and other obligations and, we should be helped and consoled in this, by directing our thoughts to God from time to time, in order to offer ourselves to Him.
This can easily be done by means of frequent ejaculatory prayer, by renewing, at regular intervals, our intention of doing everything for the love of God and by being prepared to endure, in complete acceptance of the Divine Will, all the hardships and trials of the day.
Whenever it is possible moreover, we should escape from the care and confusion of the world into a quiet Church.
Here we can kneel in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist and express, in intimate prayer, our love for Him and our desire to serve Him.”
Relaxed at home after spending 5 hours before the Blessed Sacrament of our Lord. Truly a blessing to body and soul especially hours 3 & 4. For me, the Adoration takes so much energy that when finished I am mentally and physically exhausted. We have so few adorers that it is shameful. Most hours only the minimum of two people. Which is why the extra hours must be done. Thursday is Sacred Thursday and very important to me so I shall continue but I am tired and with no one to give me a head, neck,and shoulder massage. Poor, poor pitiful me. 😢
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Wow Hugh that is way too long. How do you not fall asleep? My longest was 3 hours and on Holy Thursday night when no-one came to relieve me a bit longer.
You are actually blessed with 2 Adorers for most hours – I struggled to get one!
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Father claims there should be two minimum. I hope that more people will want to come and spend some with Jesus present in body and blood. Amen. So I hope, so may it be.
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Hmmm – in all the many years I have attended and run Perpetual Adoration – we always only had ONE present.
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Me also.
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I wonder why your Priest wants 2 at least?
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? Safety in numbers; ‘wherever two or more are gathered; or, I have no idea. ? There is a lot of apathy in our parish [before the Chinese Virus] and the 20K+ university students are absent. Many were very active in the church. Some might think a hour is too long?
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Oh how sad is the state of the Church Hugh – there is little commitment, just apathy and lukewarmness. I wonder what Rome thinks is to blame for this?????????😪
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They should as this gets worse each year but these days even regular attendees are staying home. This old country boy thinks- WE NEED A GOD FEARING HOLY GHOST REVIVAL, SHOUT AMEN!
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We have a small room between the outer doors and inner doors at the entrance. It is set up for Adoration and was used for that purpose until Father moved to the sanctuary for a more formal display of the precious host. There is, also, safety, break-ins, satanic cults, and crazies too consider.
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All the above are rife – again a particular result of the state of the Church today!
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Hope you one my comments above. We need a tent and a revival.I pray we could have a Baptist convert.I mean a Bible thumping holy who names our sins screams for our damnation if we get on our knees and repent and change our evil ways. Amen, brother, they shout back at the preacher.That’s how a Holy Ghost Revival is . Used scare the be’jesus out of me. Does now also.
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whew I typed so fast I skipped a few words but a Holy Man like that can sure convict one of their sins and get them on their knees screaming and praising God to forgive them. No private confessional for them. I wonder as I wander be’neth the sky.
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