Posted in "Follow Me", CHARITY - Fr Richard Clarke SJ, CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, GOD ALONE!, LOVE of NEIGHBOUR, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES on CHARITY, QUOTES on ETERNAL LIFE, QUOTES on LOVE of GOD, QUOTES on UNITY/with GOD, THEOLOGICAL

Thought for the Day – 13 July – The Definition of Charity ‘What is Charity?’

Thought for the Day – 13 July – Meditations with Fr Richard Frederick Clarke SJ (1839-1900)
Today we begin a new seriest with Fr Clarke having completed “Patience.” I believe we still have a week or so of “Humility” to complete.

CHARITY
Meditations for a Month

The Definition of Charity
What is Charity?

Charity is an infused virtue, by which we love God for His own sake and above all things and our neighbour as ourselves, for the love of God.
It is the best gift which God Himself can give, the gift compared to which, all other gifts are insignificant and worthless. It is the end and aim, the perfection and the crown of the Christian life. If we possess it, we have all things; if we possess it not, we have nothing; we are miserable and wretched and poor and blind and naked before God.
Pray that God may teach you to know and to love His Divine gift.

Charity is called an infused virtue, because we can only obtain it, if God shall please to pour it into our soul. No amount of practice can make it ours. No natural benevolence will develop into charity, unless God adds that supernatural character which alone can render it pleasing in His sight and meritorious of eternal life.
We must carefully distinguish natural from supernatural charity and we must beware of being satisfied with the former.

Charity is one of the virtues called “Christian virtues,” inasmuch, as their model and type, is the Life of Christ upon earth because, they unite us to Christ and make us like unto Him.
It is true that charity is, in itself, pre-eminently the Christian virtue and when Saint Paul says, “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14), he refers alone to the virtue of charity, with which we must be clothed, if we are to be the servants and followers of our Lord. Can I say I am clothed with charity, so all around me see it? Do they not too often detect in me, a lamentable want of this virtue?

Posted in CATECHESIS, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, GOD ALONE!, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on FEAR, QUOTES on the ANTI-christ, QUOTES on the CHURCH, QUOTES on the DEVIL/EVIL, QUOTES on TRUST and complete CONFIDENCE in GOD, St Francis de Sales, The APOSTLES & EVANGELISTS, The SECOND COMING, The WORD

Quote/s of the Day – 13 July – My Church

Quote/s of the Day – 13 July – “The Month of the Most Precious Blood” – St Anacletus (c25-c89) 3rd Bishop of Rome and Martyr – 1 Petet 5:1-4; 5:10-11: Matthew 16:13-19 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

And I say to thee: That thou art Peter
and upon this rock, I will build My Church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

“… About the fourth watch of the night,
He came towards them, walking upon the sea …

Mark 6:48

In the expression “fourth watch of the night”
we find the number corresponding
to the signs of His care.
Thus, the first watch was that of the Law;
the second, that of the Prophets;
the third, that of His coming in the flesh;
the fourth is situated in His return in glory.
But He will find the Church declining
and hemmed in by the spirit of the Antichrist
and all the distresses of this world.
He will come when anxieties and afflictions
are at their height …
The disciples will be terrified
even by the coming of the Lord,
fearing the images of a reality distorted by Antichrist and by the deceitful imaginations infiltrating their sight.
But our good Lord will speak to them directly,
casting out their fear and saying:
“It is I”, dispersing their fear of imminent shipwreck
by faith in His coming!

St Hilary (315-368)
Bishop of Poitiers,
Father & Doctor of the Church

We, as Catholics,
are not permitted to believe
anything of our own will,
nor to choose, what someone has believed,
of his [own will].
We have God’s Apostles as authorities,
who did not themselves, of their own wills,
choose anything of what they wanted to believe
but faithfully transmitted,
to the nations,
the teachings of Christ.

St Isidore of Seville (c560-636)
Father & Doctor of the Church

Let us trust in Him. Who has
placed this burden upon us.
What we ourselves cannot bear,
let us bear, with the help of Christ.
For He is All-powerful
and He tells us:
‘My yoke is easy and my burden light.’

St Boniface (c672-754) Martyr

Thus we do not say that the Pope
cannot err in his private opinions,
as did John XXII;
or be altogether a heretic,
as perhaps Honorius was.
Now, when he, [the Pope],
is explicitly a heretic,
he falls ipso facto, from his dignity
and OUT of the Church!

St Francis de Sales (1567-1622)
Doctor of the Church

Posted in "Follow Me", AUGUSTINIANS OSA, JANUARY month of THE MOST HOLY NAME of JESUS, ONE Minute REFLECTION, QUOTES on the CHURCH, St PETER!, The HOLY NAME, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 13 July – ‘… Yes, the Apostle chosen to be his co-worker merited to share the same Name as Christ. …’

One Minute Reflection –13 July – “The Month of the Most Precious Blood” – St Anacletus (c25-c89) 3rd Bishop of Rome and Martyr – 1 Petet 5:1-4; 5:10-11: Matthew 16:13-19 – Scripture search here: https://www.drbo.org/

“And I say to thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I sgall build My Church …” – Matthew 16:18

REFLECTION – “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build My Church.” He was given this name of ‘Peter’ because he was the first to set the foundations of the faith among the nations and because, he is the indestructible rock on which rests the judgement seat and the whole edifice, belonging to Christ Jesus. It was on account of his faithfulness that he was called Peter, whereas our Lord receives the same Name on account of His power according to Saint Paul’s words: “They drank from a spiritual Rock which followed them and that Rock ,was the Christ” (1 Cor 10:4). Yes, the Apostle chosen to be His co-worker merited to share the same Name as Christ. They built the same building together – Peter does the planting, the Lord gives the increase and it is the Lord, too, Who sends those who will do the watering (cf 1 Cor 3:6).

As you know, my beloved, it was following on from his own failure, when our Saviour suffered that blessed Peter was raised up. It was after he had denied the Lord that he became the first next to Him. Rendered more faithful when he wept over the faith he had betrayed, he received a still greater grace than the one he had lost. To him, Christ confided his flock, so that he might guide it like a good shepherd and he, who had been so weak, would now become the support of all. He, who had fallen, when questioned about his faith, must now establish the others on the unshakeable foundations of faith. Hence, he is called the foundation-stone of the piety of the Church.” – St Augustine (354-430) Father and Doctor of Grace (Sermon attributed to Saint Augustine).

PRAYER – Look forgivingly on thy flock, Eternal Shepherd, and keep it in thy constant protection, by the intercession of blessed Anacletus thy Martyr and Sovereign Pontiff, whom thou didst constitute Shepherd of the whole Church.Through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son our Lord, Who lives and reigns with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen (Collect).

Posted in SAINT of the DAY

Saint of the Day – 13 July – Saint Arno of Würzburg (Died 892) Bishop Martyr.

Saint of the Day – 13 July – Saint Arno of Würzburg (Died 892) Bishop Martyr. Born at an unknown location in the 9th Century and died on 13 July 892 at Chemnitz, Saxony (in modern Germany). Also known as – Artno, Arn. His name means ‘the eagle‘ in old high German.

Arno was a student of the Bishop of Würzburg, Gozbald. In 855 he was made Bishop of Würzburg by the King of the East Frankish Empire, Louis the German.

Arno had the Cathedral built there which was then dedicated to St Kilian and was constructed on the site of the the Cathedral of the Saviour which had burned down in 855.

Under Arno’s Episcopal leadership, 9 new Churches were built in 10 years, mostly situate in the east of his Diocese, . He repeatedly took part in Imperial conferences and Imperial Synods and also participated in four of the King’s military campaigns: against the Bohemians , the Moravians , the Normans and against the Sorbs. During the latter campaign he was killed by pagan Sorbs – during the celebration of Holy Mass.

Würzburg Cathedral

Arno died near Chemnitz in Saxony, in the district of Klaffenbach an old Stone Cross marks the possible place of death. Another possible place is Herrenhaide – a district of Burgstädt near Chemnitz – where a Memorial was erected in 2006. According to tradition, his Grave was in the – now demolished – Jacobi Church near the Castle in Colditz. Today his Gravestone is kept in the nearby Church of St Aegidien. Formal recognition of his cult was finally approved in the 18th Century although it had been highly active especially in the Franconia region for centuries.

St Arno’s Stone Cross
Posted in DEVOTIO, DOCTORS of the Church, MARIAN DEVOTIONS, MARIAN HYMNS, MARIAN PRAYERS, Our MORNING Offering, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUEENSHIP of MARY, REDEMPTORISTS CSSR, St Alphonsus de Liguori,, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, The HOLY NAME of MARY

Our Morning Offering – 13 July – Mother Mary, Queen Most Sweet! Attrib. to St Alphonsus

Our Morning Offering – 13 July – Feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary

Mother Mary, Queen Most Sweet!
Attrib. to St Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787)
Most Zealous Doctor

Italian Hymn
Trans. Fr Edmund Vaughan CSSR (1827-1908)

Mother Mary, Queen most sweet!
Joy and love my heart inflame;
Gladly shall my lips repeat
Every moment thy dear name.

Ah! that name, to God so dear,
Has my heart and soul enslaved;
Like a seal it shall appear
Deep on heart and soul engraved.

When the morning gilds the skies,
I will call on Mary’s name;
When at evening twilight dies,
Mary, still will I exclaim.

Sweetest Mary, bend thine ear:
Thou my own dear mother art;
Therefore, shall thy name so dear
Never from my lips depart.

If my soul is sore oppress’d
By a load of anxious care,
Peace once more will fill my breast
When thy name re-echoes there.

Waves of doubt disturb my peace,
And my heart is faint with fear;
At thy name the billows cease,
All my’terrors disappear.

When the demon hosts invade,—
When temptation rages high,
Crying, “Mary, Mother! aid!”
I will make the tempter fly.

This shall be my comfort sweet,
When the hand of death is nigh,
Mary! Mary! to repeat
Once again—and then, to die.

This Hymn is an Anonymous Hymn belonging to the Redemptorist tradition but Hymnary.org attributes it to St Alphonsus Liguori.
“Hymns and Verses on Spiritual Subjects” (1863) notes that this is one of two Hymns, translated in that book, mentioned above, which come from a Neapolitan published collection of Mission Hymns which are attributed to St Alphonsus.

Posted in MARIAN TITLES, SAINT of the DAY

Madonna del Soccorso / Our Lady of Soccorso, Sicily, Italy ( 1718), St Pope Anacletus and Memorials of the Saints – 13 July

Bl Anne-Andrée Minutte
St Arno of Würzburg (Died 892) Bishop Martyr
Bl Berthold of Scheide
St Dogfan
Bl Élisabeth Verchière
St Esdras the Prophet
St Eugene of Carthage
St Giustina of Arzano

St Iosephus Wang Kuiju

Bl Jean of France
St Joel the Prophet
Bl Marie-Anastasie de Roquard
Bl Marie-Anne Depeyre
Bl Marie-Anne Lambert

St Muritta of Carthage
St Myrope
St Salutaris of Carthage
St Sarra of Egypt
St Serapion of Alexandria
Serapion of Macedonia
St Silas (1st Century) Disciple of Sts Paul and Barnabas
Bl Thérèse-Henriette Faurie
Bl Thomas Tunstal