Day: May 30, 2024

Posted in GOD ALONE!, HUMILITY-Fr Richard Clarke, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on PRIDE

Thought for the Day – 30 May – The Deeper Foundations of Humility

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 30 May – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)

HUMILITY
Meditations for a Month

Chapter Four
The Deeper Foundations of Humility

The consciousness of past sin will not, of itself, give us the perfection of humility. It necessarily fixes the eye of the soul upon ourselves and our own doings, whereas perfect humility means the annihilation of self. We have a deeper and more solid foundation for this virtue in our own nothingness and the absence of any sort of good, save that which God has given us. Every gift of nature is simply a free gift from Him. All that is from ourselves is the marring and injuring of what we have received; the misuse of talents, money, position, influence. What folly, then, to pride ourselves on what belongs to God!

Regarding supernatural gifts, we are still mere nothing and less than nothing. Our natural gifts are put into our hands, they remain with us and are in some sense ours but, a supernatural gift requires a fresh giving immediately from the hand of God each time it is given us! We
cannot begin any supernatural work without His preventing grace; we cannot move a step in it without fresh grace to carry on; we cannot bring it to a successful issue, without the grace necessary to complete it. Do I realise, as I ought, this nothingness of myself and my absolute
and continual dependence upon God, for each thought or act, pleasing to Him?

If this is so, how can I be anything but humble? To pride myself on that which God does in me, would be ridiculous; to pride myself on what I can do of myself, would be to pride myself on all which mars and spoils the work of God.
“What hast thou that thou hast not received?” asks St Paul.
Yes, O Lord, I have only one thing that I have not received and that is my vileness, misery, sin.
Can I boast of these!?

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, DOMINICAN OP, EUCHARISTIC, EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, HOLY COMMUNION, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Quote/s of the Day – 30 May – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – 30 May – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

“Receive the Body and Blood of Christ
very frequently. The sight of a Christian’s lips
red with the Blood of Christ terrifies the enemy.
He immediately recognises the sign of his own ruin.
He cannot stand the Instrument of Divine Victory,
by which he was taken captive and cast down.”

St Peter Damian (1007-1072)
Doctor of the Church

“Everything in us which is strong, steadfast,
firm, happy and joyful to carry out God’s commands,
bear with misfortune, act obediently, stand up for justice –
all these things come from this Bread’s strength,
this Wine’s gladness.
Happy are they whose deeds are strong and joyful!
And since no-one can do it of themselves,
happy are they who have an eager desire
to cleave to what is just and right
and to be strengthened in everything
and rejoice through Him … ”

Baldwin of Canterbury (c1125-1190)
Cistercian Abbot of Forde Monastery and
Archbishop of Canterbury

Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium
Sing, My Tongue
By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Eng trans – Fr Edward Caswell CO (1814-1878)
(Excerpt on the image – the 4 last stanzas)

Sing, my tongue, the Saviour’s glory,
Of His Flesh, the Mystery sing;
Of the Blood, all price exceeding,
Shed by our Immortal King,
Destined, for the world’s redemption,
From a noble Womb to spring.

Of a pure and spotless Virgin
Born for us on earth below,
He, as Man, with man conversing,
Stayed, the seeds of truth to sow;
Then He closed in solemn order
Wondrously His Life of woe.

On the night of that Last Supper,
Seated with His chosen band,
He, the Paschal Victim eating,
First fulfils the Law’s command;
Then as Food to all His brethren
Gives Himself with His own Hand.

Word-made-Flesh, the bread of nature
By His Word to Flesh He turns;
Wine into His Blood He changes,
What though sense no change discerns.
Only be the heart in earnest,
Faith her lesson quickly learns.

Down in adoration falling,
Lo, the Sacred Host we hail,
Lo, o’er ancient forms departing
Newer rites of grace prevail,
Faith for all defects supplying,
When the feeble senses fail.

To the Everlasting Father
And the Son Who comes on high
With the Holy Ghost proceeding
Forth from each eternally,
Be salvation, honour, blessing,
Might and endless majesty.
Amen. Alleluia.

Written by St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) the Angelic and Common Doctor of the Church, for the very first Solemnity of Corpus Christi, this Hymn is considered the most beautiful of Aquinas’ Hymns and one of the seven great Hymns of the Church.

The last two stanzas make up the Tantum Ergo (Down in Adoration Falling) which is used at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Hymn is also used on Maundy Thursday during the procession from the Sanctuary to the Altar of Repose, where the Blessed Sacrament is kept until Good Friday.

“As mountain hares become white in winter
because they neither see. nor eat
anything but snow,
so, by adoring and feeding on
beauty, purity and goodness itself
in the Eucharist,
you will become altogether
beautiful, pure and good.”

“Nowhere do we find our Saviour
more tender or more loving,
than here [in Adoration]
where He, so to speak,
annihilates Himself and reduces Himself
to Food, in order to penetrate our souls
and to unite Himself
to the hearts of His friends.”

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor Caritatis

O Divine Jesus!
Lonely in So Many Tabernacles
By St Pope Pius X (1835-1914)
“Pope of the Blessed Sacrament”

O Divine Jesus!
Lonely today in so many Tabernacles,
without visitor or worshipper,
I offer Thee my lonely heart.
May it’s every beat be a prayer of love to Thee.
Thou are ever watching under the Sacramental Veils,
in Thou love, Thou never sleeps
and Thou are never weary of Thy vigils for sinners.
O Loving Jesus!
O Lonely Jesus!
may my heart be a lamp,
the light of which shall burn and beam
for Thee alone.
Watch, Sacramental Sentinel!
Watch for the weary world,
for the erring soul
and for Thy poor lonely child.

O Jesus, my God, I adore Thee,
here present in the Sacrament of Thy love.
Amen

Indulgences:
100 days each time before the Tabernacle
300 days each time before the Blessed Sacrament Exposed
(St Pope Pius X – 3 July 1908)
Prayers to the Sacred Heart
15th Ed 1936

MORE:
https://anastpaul.com/2023/06/11/quote-s-of-the-day-11-june-he-left-his-body-and-his-blood/

Posted in EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, HOLY COMMUNION, ONE Minute REFLECTION, The HOLY EUCHARIST / The HOLY MASS

One Minute Reflection – 30 May – ‘ …Christ the Lord, for Whom we should ceaselessly hunger! …’St Columban

Posted on by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 30 May – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ – 1 Corinthians 23-29; John 6:56-59– Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“For My Flesh is food indeed and My Blood is drink indeed.” – John 6:56

REFLECTION – “Beloved brethren, quench your thirst at the waters of that Divine Spring we want to tell you about – quench it but do not extinguish it; drink but do not become satisfied. The Living Spring, the Source of Life, calls us and says: “Let anyone who thirsts come to Me and drink” (Jn 7:37). Understand what it is you are drinking. Let the Prophet tell you and let the Source Itself tell you: “Listen to the word of the Lord, they have forsaken Me the Source of Living Water” (Jer 2:13). So the Lord our God Himself, Jesus Christ, is He Who is that Source of Life and that is why He invites us to come to Him so that we might drink Him. Whoever loves Him, drinks Him; whoever feeds on the Word of God, drinks Him. … Drink, therefore, from this Source that others have forsaken!

That we might eat of this Bread and drink from this Spring … He refers to Himself as “the Living Bread which gives life to the world” (cf. Jn 6:51) which we are to eat. … See from where this Spring flows! see from where this Bread comes down! For one and the same person is both Bread and Spring, the Only-begotten Son, our God, Christ the Lord, for Whom we should ceaselessly hunger!

It is our love which gives Him as food to us, our desire which makes us eat Him and when we have been satisfied, we desire Him still. Let us go to Him as to a fountain and drink of Him in our overflowing love, let us drink Him always with ever-new desire, finding our joy in the sweetness of His Love. The Lord is gentle and good. We eat and drink Him without ceasing to hunger and thirst for Him, for we cannot exhaust this Food and Drink. We eat of this Bread yet do not run out of it; we drink at this Spring, yet it does not run dry. This Bread is eternal; this Stream flows without end!” – St Columban (543-615) Father of the Church, Monk, Irish Missionary, Abbot, Writer, Reformer, Teacher, Miracle-worker, Founder of numerous Nonateries. (Spiritual instructions 12, 2, 3).

PRAYER – O God, Thou Who in this wondrous Sacrament has left us a memorial of Thy Passion, grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the Sacred Mysteries of Thine Body and Blood that we may ever experience within ourselves, the effect of Thy redemption. Who lives and reignest with God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in CONSECRATION Prayers, EUCHARISTIC, HOLY COMMUNION, MARIAN PRAYERS, Our MORNING Offering

Our Morning Offering – 30 May – On the Feast of Corpus Christi – Consecration to Our Lady of the Eucharist After Holy Communion

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Our Morning Offering – 30 May – “The Month of the Blessed Virgin Mother” – Corpus Christi!

Consecration to Our Lady of the Eucharist
After Holy Communion
By the Claretian Fathers Teaching Ministr
Order founded by St Anthony Mary Claret (1807-1870)

Mary is called Our Lady of the Eucharist, because
without her, there would be no physical Body of Jesus
to be present in the Eucharist. (See John 6:51)

Most kind Mother,
we consecrate to thee, our bodies,
which have just been
honoured and sanctified,
by the presence of thy Divine Son,
our souls which have
conversed with Him
and our hearts which have loved Him.
O dearest Mother,
may the words which we have spoken, be made
acceptable to Him. through thy intercession.
Tell Him the things which we should have said
but were unable to express.
Love Him and beseech Him for us,
thy poor children.
Receive and keep us in thine heart.
Warn us, protect us
and guide us during this day
that we may faithfully serve thy Divine Son
and please Him
in all our thoughts, desires and actions.
Amen

Posted in DOMINICAN OP, SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 30 May – Blessed Elisabeth Stagel OP (c1300-1360) Virgin

Posted on by AnaStpaul

Saint of the Day – 30 May – Blessed Elisabeth Stagel OP (c1300-1360) Virgin, Prioress of the Order of Preachers, writer, friend and spiritual student of Blessed Henry Suso OP (1290-1365). Born in c1300 in Zurich, Switzerland and died in c1360 of natural causes at Töss Convent in Winterthur in Switzerland, where she was the Prioress. Also known as – Elisabeth Staglin, Elisabeth Steiglin, Elsbeth…

Bl Elisabeth Stagel depicted in a copy of Lives of the Nuns of Töss.

Elisabeth was born into a noble family of Zurich, the daughter of a City Councilor, Rudolf Stagel.

In 1336 she came into contact with the Blessed mystic Henry Suso and from that moment she was his pupil and soulmate. She developed a deep friendship with him and the two remained in active correspondence for the remainder of their lives. Bl Henry considered Elisabeth as his spiritual daughter.

de Zurbaran, Francisco; The Blessed Henry Suso

During their conversations, Elisabeth asked Bl Henry to help her understand the pathway to God by sharing with her his own experiences. However, Suso did not know that the well-educated nun was keeping the letters he sent her and recording all that Suso told her, concerning both theological matters and his extreme practices of personal penance. When he learned of her undertaking, he requested the texts and proceeded to burn them, saving only the second installment of manuscripts for the sake of educating other religious. Bl Henry thereafter forbade Elisabeth to imitate him by engaging in extreme asceticism, fearing for her health.

Elisabeth then authored the Lives of the Nuns of Töss, a work containing biographies of 39 nuns and providing a comprehensive picture of mysticism in the Töss Convent. Blessed Elisabeth of Hungary may have been one of the Nuns whose life Elisabeth described.

Elisabeth died in Töss in 1360 and was probsbly buried there.

Blessed Elisabeth’s book is integral to understanding mysticism and monastic life in medieval Germany.

The former Töss Monastery in a drawing by the Historian, Heinrich Murer (17th Century)
Posted in DOMINICAN OP, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, MARIAN TITLES, MARTYRS, SAINT of the DAY

The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Dedication of the Church of MonteVergine, near Naples, Italy (1126) and the Saints for 30 May

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The Solemnity of Corpus Christi, The Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ:
Corpus Christi
The Feast is liturgically celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday
https://anastpaul.com/2022/06/16/the-festival-of-corpus-christi/

Dedication of the Church of MonteVergine, near Naples, Italy (1126) – 30 May:
https://anastpaul.com/2022/05/30/dedication-of-the-church-of-montevergine-near-naples-italy-1126-and-memorials-of-the-saints-30-may/
AND – The story of Our Lady of MonteVergine here:
https://anastpaul.com/2018/09/01/1-septem

St Pope Felix I (Died 274) Martyr, the 26th Bishop of Rome from 5 January 269 to his death in 274.
The Roman Martyrology reads: “At Rome on the Aurelian road, the birthday of St Felix, Pope and Martyr, who was crowned with Martyrdom under the Emperor Aurelian.”
His Life and Death:
https://anastpaul.com/2022/05/30/saint-of-the-day-30-may-saint-felix-i-died-274-pope-martyr/

St Ferdinand III of Castile (1199-1252) King of Castile and Toledo, Knight, a man of great virtue and goodness who sought sanctity in all things, a man of great justice who sought to elevate even those he conquered, a man who was a great father, bringing his children up in the fear and love of God alone, a diplomatic genius because of his great goodness, a unifier of all, he had a great devotion to Our Lady – born in 1198 near Salamanca, Spain and died on 30 May 1252 at Seville, Spain of natural causes. Patronages – authorities, governors, rulers, engineers, large families, magistrates, parenthood, paupers, poor people, prisoners, Spanish monarchy, tertiaries, Seville, Spain
The Life of the Holy St Ferdinand:
https://anastpaul.com/2020/05/30/saint-of-the-day-30-may-st-ferdinand-iii-of-castile-1199-1252/

St Joan of Arc (1412-1431) “The Maid of Orléans” Holy Virgin. The Church officially remembers Joan of Arc not as a Martyr but as a Virgin—the Maid of Orleans. Of course, Joan was a Martyr, but not in the technical sense. Yes, she died because she did what she thought God wanted her to do. But she was killed for her politics, not for her faith. Pagans did not execute her for refusing to worship their gods. Infidels did not slay her for defying them. Political enemies burned her at the stake for defeating them at war.
St Joan!
https://anastpaul.com/2018/05/30/saint-of-the-day-30-may-st-joan-of-arc-1412-1431/
AND:
https://anastpaul.com/2017/05/30/saint-of-the-day-30-may-st-joan-of-arc/

St Anastasius II of Pavia
St Basil the Elder
St Crispulus of Sardinia
Blessed Elisabeth Stagel OP (c1300-1360) Virgin, Prioress of the Order of Preachers
St Emmelia
St Euplius
St Exuperantius of Ravenna
St Gamo of Brittany
St Gavino of Sardinia
St Isaac of Constantinople
Bl Lawrence Richardson
St Luke Kirby
St Madelgisilus
St Reinhildis of Riesenbeck
St Restitutus of Cagliari
Bl Richard Newport

Blessed Thomas Cottam SJ (1549-1582) Priest of the Society of Jesus, Martyr
His Life and Death:
https://anastpaul.com/2023/05/30/saint-of-the-day-30-may-blessed-thomas-cottam-sj-1549-1582-priest-martyr/

St Venantius of Lérins
St Walstan of Bawburgh
Bl William Filby
Bl Willilam Scott

Martyrs of Aquileia – 3 Saints: Three Christians Martyred together. We have no other details than their names – Cantianus, Euthymius and Eutychius. Aquileia, Italy.