Posted in CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, MEDITATIONS - ANTONIO CARD BACCI, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, QUOTES on PRAYER, The COMMUNION of SAINTS, The LORD'S PRAYER

Thought for the Day – 17 June – The “Our Father”

Thought for the Day – 17 Juner– Meditations with Antonio Cardinal Bacci (1881-1971)

The “Our Father”

“Our Lord exhorted His disciples on many occasions to pray often and with confidence, if they wished to be heard.
Everything which they asked His heavenly Father, in His name, He said, they would obtain.
Ask, He said and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.
Finally, He insisted that we ought to pray and never to give up.
In other words, life can be a continuous prayer if we offer to God all our thoughts, words and actions.

The ideal Christian prayer is to do the will of God at all times from the motive of pure love.
The Apostles, however, who had not made that much progress in the spiritual life, asked Jesus to teach them how to pray (Lk 11:1).
It was then that Our Lord composed the most beautiful of prayer, the “Our Father” (Mt 6:9-13).
When we recite it, we speak to God, in the words of Jesus Christ Himself and unite our weak voices, with the powerful voice of the Son of God!
We address the Eternal God, moreover, by the name of Father.
Even in the Old Testament, God is often referred to in this way.
Then, however, He figured as the Father of the chosen people, whereas now, He is the Father of all.
He is our Father, the Father of all mankind and of all races, whom He has willed to redeem from the slavery of sin.
The term “Our Father” has taken on a new and fuller meaning.
Our weak prayer becomes united to that of Jesus, our first-born Brother and to the prayers of the Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins and Confessors, who form and have formed, throughout the centuries, the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Church.
We need no longer feel that we are on our own, for through the Communion of Saints, our entreaties are joined to those of the entire Church, militant, suffering and triumphant.
We can be confident, therefore, that our prayer will be heard!”

Antonio Cardinal Bacci

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Posted in "Follow Me", DOCTORS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, QUOTES on LOVE, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on PRAYER, QUOTES on SUFFERING, QUOTES on the CROSS of CHRIST, The HOLY CROSS, The KINGDOM of GOD, The LORD'S PRAYER, The WILL of GOD, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 17 June – “Thy will be done”

Quote/s of the Day – 17 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

“Thy will be done
on earth as it is
in heaven.”

Matthew 6:10

“I want to advise you and remind you, what His will is.
Do not fear that it means He will give you riches,
or delights, or honours, or all these earthly things.
His love for you is not that small!
and He esteems highly what you give Him.
He wants to repay you well,
for He gives you His kingdom
while you are still on earth …
See … what He gave to the One He loved most.
By that we understand what His will is.
For these are His gifts in this world.”

“He gives according to the love He bears us …,
according to the courage He sees in each
and the love each has for His Majesty.
He will see, that whoever loves Him much,
will be able to suffer much for Him;
whoever loves Him little,
will be capable of little.
I myself hold,
that the measure for being able to bear,
a large or small cross, is love …”

St Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)
Doctor of Prayer of the Church

Way of Perfection, Ch 32

If you wish to charm the loving Heart of your God,
set yourself to talk to Him,
as often as you can
and, after a fashion,
continually, together with the fullest
and most confident liberty.
He will not hold aloof from answering you
and participating in the conversation on His part.”

St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787)
Most Zealous Doctor

What should one converse about with God?

Posted in "Follow Me", CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, FATHERS of the Church, ONE Minute REFLECTION, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, The LORD'S PRAYER, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 17 June – “This is how you are to pray.” – Matthew 6:9

One Minute Reflection – 17 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart” – Readings: Second Corinthians 11: 1-11. Psalms 111: 1b-2, 3-4, 7-8, Gospel: Matthew 6: 7-15

“This is how you are to pray.” – Matthew 6:9

REFLECTION – “So, my brothers, let us pray as God our master has taught us.
To ask the Father in words His Son has given us, to let Him hear the prayer of Christ ringing in His ears, is to make our prayer one of friendship, a family prayer. Let the Father recognise the words of His Son. Let the Son who lives in our hearts, be also on our lips. We have Him as an Advocate for sinners, before the Father, when we ask for forgiveness for ours sins, let us use the words given by our Advocate. He tells us – Whatever you ask the Father in my name, He will give you. What more effective prayer could we then make, in the name of Christ, than in the words of His own prayer? …

As the Lord’s Prayer continues, we ask: Give us this day our daily bread.
We can understand this petition in a spiritual and in a literal sense. For in the divine plan both senses may help toward our salvation. For Christ is the Bread of Life; this Bread does not belong to everyone but is ours alone.
When we say, our Father, we understand that He is the Father of those who know Him and believe in Him. In the same way, we speak of our daily bread because Christ is the Bread of those who touch His body.” – St Cyprian of Carthage (c 200- c 258) Bishop, Father of the Church and Martyr – An excerpt from his “On the Lord’s Prayer”

PRAYER – Our Father Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
but deliver us from evil.
Amen

Posted in JUNE-THE SACRED HEART, Our MORNING Offering, SACRED HEART PRAYERS

Our Morning Offering – 17 June – Seal Your Image on My Heart

Our Morning Offering – 17 June – “Month of the Sacred Heart”

Seal Your Image on My Heart
By Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury (c 1125-1190)

O Lord, take away my heart of stone,
my hardened heart,
my uncircumcised heart
and grant to me a new heart,
a heart of flesh,
a clean heart.
Come, You who cleanse the heart
and love the pure of heart,
possess my heart and dwell in it,
containing it and filling it,
higher than my highest
and more intimate
than my most intimate thoughts.
You are the image of all beauty
and the seal of all holiness,
seal Your image on my heart
and seal my heart in Your mercy,
O God, the strength of my heart
and my portion forever,
amen.

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 17 June – St Botolph of Ikanhoe (Died 680)

Saint of the Day – 17 June – St Botolph of Ikanhoe (Died 680) Abbot, Missionary, Founder of the Monastery of Ikanhoe, Spiritual Director. Born in c 610 in East Anglia, England and died on 17 June 680 of natural causes following a lengthy illness. Also known as – Botolph, Botulf, Botwulf. , Patronages – agricultural workers, farm workers, farmers, sailors, mariners, watermen, travellers. 7 cities. Additional Memorial – 1 December – translation of his relics.

Little is known about Botolphf’s life, other than details in an account written four hundred years after his death by the 11th-century Monk Folcard. Botulph, a seventh century Saxon from an aristocratic Christian family is the brother of Saint Adolph of Utrecht. He was educated with his brother, at the Monastery of Cnobersburg (Burgh Castle), Suffolk under the direction of its Founder, Saint Fursey. When Mercian forces under King Penda invaded the region, the boys were sent to study at the Monastery at Bosanham, Sussex.

He became a Benedictine Monk at Farmoutiere-en-Brie, Gaul (modern northeastern France) and was sent back to the British Isles in 647 to establish the Benedictine Order there.

With the support of Saint Syre, Saint Aubierge and their brother, King Anna of East Anglia, Botulph founded the Monastery of Ikanhoe in East Anglia, declining the offer of a part of the Royal estate and settling for a wild, barren site that was removed from people, reported to be haunted by demons and which would require endless work to sustain the Monks.

For many years it was believed that the area that grew up around it came to be called Botulph’s Town, contracted to Botulphston and later contracted to Boston in Lincolnshire but recent research has shown, that the original site is another location. The Saxon Chronicle indicates, that by 654, Botulph had attracted enough brother Monks and hermits that work began on the Monastery. Through hard work and faith, the Monastery grew in population; the Monks built several structures, turned large areas of marsh and scrub into productive farming and grazing lands and dispelled the people’s fears of demons.

Botulph served as Spiritual Director for Saint Ceolfrith and worked as a travelling missionary through rough, bandit-plagued areas of East Anglia, Kent and Sussex.

His legacy continued for centuries in the strength of the Benedictine movement in the Isles and in the dozens of Churches named for him, many of them built at City gates to serve as safe-haven for travellers in times when robbers roamed the roads and many in port or river towns.

He died while being carried to Chapel for compline services and was buried at Ikanhoe. His relics were moved in 870 to keep them from being destroyed by invading Danes and then transferred to Grundisburgh in 983. They were later distributed to Monasteries at Thornery, Westminster, and Edmundsburg, Suffolk. Tradition says that for safety, the cask of relics destined for Edmundsburg were taken there in the middle of the night but the travellers were guided by a light that hovered above the relics’ new Shrine. In our times too, processions of the relics through Edmundsburgh has ended droughts there by the intercession of St Botolph.

Posted in MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

Heilige Maria im Walde / Holy Maria in the Forest, Dolina, Austria (1849) and Memorials of the Saints – 17 June

Heilige Maria im Walde / Holy Maria in the Forest, Dolina, Grafenstein, Carinthia, Austria (1849) – 17 June:

The Apparitions occurred, as the Immaculate Conception, in a wooded area near Dolina, Grafenstein, Carinthia, Austria on the 17, 18 and 19 June 1849 to three young shepherdesses, prior to the public proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception ion 1854.
Thus began the influx of pilgrims and in the woods, just where she had appeared as the Immaculate Conception, a wooden Chapel was erected.
The Church, begun in 1861 but was never fully completed.
A local artist painted an image called the Madonna del Bosco, inspired by the descriptions of the three shepherdesses. This painting was a picture of grace that inspired faith and devotion of many.

St Adolph of Utrecht
St Agrippinus of Como

St Albert Chmielowski TOSF (1845-1916) The Painter Who Became an Advocate for the Poor and then a Saint! Artist, Founder, Tertiary Franciscan, Apostle of Charity.
His Life:

https://anastpaul.com/2017/06/17/saint-of-the-day-17-june-st-albert-chmielowski-t-o-s-f-the-19th-century-polish-saint-who-was-influenced-by-st-francis-of-assisi-later-influenced-pope-st-john-paul-ii/
AND:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/06/17/saint-of-the-day-17-june-st-albert-chmielowski-t-o-s-f-1845-1916/

St Antidius of Besançon
Bl Arnold of Foligno
St Avitus of Perche
St Blasto of Rome
St Botolph of Ikanhoe (Died 680) Abbot
St Briavel of Gloucestershire
St David of Bourges
St Dignamerita of Brescia
St Diogenes of Rome
St Emily de Vialar
St Gundulphus of Bourges

St Hervé (c 521–c 556) Hermit, Abbot, Musician and singer, miracle-worker, blind from birth.
His Holy Life:

https://anastpaul.com/2020/06/17/saint-of-the-day-17-june-st-herve-c-521-c-556/

St Himerius of Amelia
St Hypatius of Chalcedon
St Molling of Wexford
St Montanus of Gaeta
St Nectan of Hartland
Bl Paul Burali d’Arezzo
Bl Peter Gambacorta
St Phêrô Ða
Bl Philippe Papon

Blessed Joseph-Marie /Pierre-Joseph Cassant OCSO (1878-1903) Died aged 25 – Priest, Trappist Monk.
Biography:

https://anastpaul.com/2019/06/17/saint-of-the-day-17-june-blessed-joseph-marie-cassant-ocso-1878-1903/

St Prior
St Rambold of Ratisbon
Bl Ranieri Scaccero
St Theresa of Portugal

Martyrs of Apollonia – 7 saints: A group of Christians who fled to a cave near Apollonia, Macedonia to escape persecution for his faith, but were caught and executed. The names we know are – Basil, Ermia, Felix, Innocent, Isaurus, Jeremias and Peregrinus. They were beheaded at Apollonia, Macedonia.

Martyrs of Aquileia – 4 saints: Four Christian martyrs memorialised together. No details about them have survived, not even if they died together – Ciria, Maria, Musca and Valerian. c.100 in Aquileia, Italy.

Martyrs of Chalcedon – 3 saints: Three well-educated Christian men who were sent as ambassadors from King Baltan of Persia to the court of emperor Julian the Apostate to negotiate peace between the two states, and an end of Julian’s persecutions of Christians. Instead of negotiating, Julian imprisoned them, ordered them to make a sacrifice to pagan idols and when they refused, had them executed. Their names were Manuel, Sabel and Ismael. They were beheaded in 362 in Chalcedon (part of modern Istanbul, Turkey) and their bodies burned and no relics survive.

Martyrs of Fez – 4 beati: A group of Mercedarians sent to Fez, Morocco to ransom Christians imprisoned and enslaved by Muslims. For being openly Christian they were imprisoned, tortured, mutilated and executed. Martyrs – Egidio, John, Louis and Paul. They were martyred in Fez, Morocco.

Martyrs of Rome – 262 saints: A group of 262 Christians martyred in the persecutions of Diocletian. In c303 in Rome, Italy. They were buried on the old Via Salaria in Rome.

Martyrs of Venafro – 3 saints: Three Christian lay people, two of them imperial Roman soldiers, who were converts to Christianity and were martyred together in the persecutions of Maximian and Diocletian – Daria, Marcian and Nicander. They were beheaded c.303 in Venafro, Italy. By 313 a basilica had been built over their graves which were re-discovered in 1930. They are patrons of Venafro, Italy.