There are many ways of “being poor” and in today’s world, the more we have, the poorer we can be. Our Lady of Banneux is a most worthy intercessor to pray on our behalf to our God of such loving mercy, for all the needs of the poor of the world, for so many who are rich in goods but poor in spirit.
As St John Paul said on a visit to Banneux – “The poor today – and there are many ways of being poor! – feel at home in Banneux. They come here to find comfort, courage, hope, union with God in their affliction. I encourage the pilgrims who come here to pray to her, who, always and everywhere in the Church, reflects the face of the Mercy of God.”
Then will I go to the altar of God, the God of my gladness and youth……….Ps 43:4
REFLECTION – “We must strive to place ourselves completely in God’s hands. Then He will cause us to feel the effects of His goodness and protection – which are, at times extraordinary.”………St John Baptist de la Salle
PRAYER – Holy Lord God, let me live constantly in Your presence. Grant that I may possess a spirit of joy and gladness because of the firm knowledge that You are always with me and in You and through You and with You, the extraordinary is commonplace! St Felix of Nola, you did no immense deed but in 1800 years we have not forgotten your extraordinary love. Please pray for us, amen.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not….Prv 3:5
REFLECTION – “In our attempt to penetrate God’s truth, we are held within the bonds of ignorance, by the weakness of our minds.
We comprehend Divine ideas by earnest attention to God’s teaching and by obedience to the faith, which carries us beyond mere human apprehension.”……St Hilary of Poitiers (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – All-knowing God, grant me the grace to come to a better understanding of Your truths. Let me not only believe them but also carry them out daily in my life. St Hilary of Poitiers, Pray for us, amen!
“The privilege of our Church is such that
it is never stronger than when it is attacked,
never better known than when it is accused,
never more powerful than when it appears forsaken.” (Treatise on the Trinity)
“When we are overcome by some evil will,
should we not tremble before the presence
of the choirs of angels that surround us?”
“The perfection of learning is to know God
in such a way that, though you realise
He is knowable, yet you know Him as indescribable.”
“No matter how sinful one may have been,
if he has devotion to Mary,
it is impossible that he be lost.”
Saint of the Day – 13 January – St Hilary of Poitiers (c315-c368) Bishop/Confessor “”Hammer of the Arians” and “Athanasius of the West” – DOCTOR of the CHURCH. His name “Hilary” His name comes from the Latin word for happy or cheerful. His optional memorial in the General Roman Calendar is 13 January. In the past, when this date was occupied by the Octave of the Epiphany, his feast day was moved to 14 January.
Hilary was born to pagan parents of Poitiers, France, in 315. After training in the classics and philosophy, Hilary married. He and his wife had one daughter, Afra. All who knew Hilary said he was a friendly, charitable, gentle man. Hilary’s studies led him to read Scripture. He became convinced that there was only one God, whose Son became man and died and rose to save all people. This led him to be baptised along with his wife and daughter.
This gentle and courteous man, became a staunch defender of the divinity of Christ. He was devoted to writing some of the greatest theology on the Trinity and was, like his Master, in being labeled a “disturber of the peace.” In a very troubled period in the Church, his holiness was lived out in both scholarship and controversy.
The people of Poitiers chose Hilary to be their bishop in 353. As Bishop, he was soon taken up with battling what became the scourge of the fourth century, Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ.
The heresy spread rapidly. Saint Jerome said “The world groaned and marveled to find that it was Arian.” When Emperor Constantius ordered all the bishops of the West to sign a condemnation of Athanasius, the great defender of the faith in the East, Hilary refused and was banished from France to far off Phrygia. There, too, his pastoral solicitude led him to work tirelessly for the re-establishment of the Church’s unity, based on the correct faith, as formulated by the Council of Nicea. To this end, he began writing his most important and most famous dogmatic work: “De Trinitatae” (On the Trinity). Eventually he was called the “Athanasius of the West” and the “Hammer of the Arians.”
During the years of his exile, Hilary also wrote the “Book of the Synod,” in which, for his brother bishops of Gaul, he reproduces and comments on the confessions of faith and other documents of the synods which met in the East around the middle of the 4th century. Always firm in his opposition to radical Arians, St. Hilary showed a conciliatory spirit with those who accepted that the Son was similar to the Father in essence, naturally trying to lead them toward the fullness of faith, which says that there is not only a similarity but a true equality of the Father and the Son in their divinity.
This also seems characteristic: His conciliatory spirit tries to understand those who still have not yet arrived to the fullness of the truth and helps them, with great theological intelligence to reach the fullness of faith in the true divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In 360 or 361, Hilary was finally able to return from exile to his homeland and immediately resumed the pastoral work in his Church but the influence of his teaching extended, in fact, well beyond its borders. A synod celebrated in Paris in 360 or 361 took up again the language used by the Council of Nicea. Some ancient authors think that this anti-Arian development of the bishops of Gaul was due, in large part, to the strength and meekness of the bishop of Poitiers.
During the last years of his life, he wrote “Treatises on the Psalms,” a commentary on 58 psalms, interpreted according to the principle highlighted in the introduction to the work: “There is no doubt that all the things said in the Psalms must be understood according to the Gospel proclamation, so that, independently of the voice with which the prophetic spirit has spoken, everything refers to the knowledge of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, incarnation, passion and kingdom, and the glory and power of our resurrection” (“Instructio Psalmorum,” 5).
In all of the Psalms, he sees this transparency of Christ’s mystery and of his body, which is the Church. On various occasions, Hilary met with St. Martin, the future bishop of Tours founded a monastery near Poitiers, which still exists today. Hilary died in 367. His feast day is celebrated on Jan. 13. In 1851, Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him a doctor of the Church.
St Hilary confers minor Orders on St Martin of Tours
May the Lord ….make you overflow with love for one another and for all……..1 Thes 3:12
REFLECTION – “It seems to me that we do not pay enough attention to prayer, for unless it arises from the heart which ought to be its centre, it is no more than a fruitless dream. Prayer ought to carry over into our thoughts, our words and our actions…..It is true that all I have ever desired most deeply and what I still most ardently wish is that the great precept of the love of God above all things and of the neighbour as oneself be written in every heart.”……..St Marguerite Bourgeoys (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – Loving Father, grant me the grace to strive after perfect love. Help me to bring forth frequent acts of love for my neighbour and in this, to grow each day in love for You.St Marguerite Bourgeoys Pray for us, amen.
If you lavish your food on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom shall become like midday; then the LORD will guide you always and satisfy your thirst in parched places, HE will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never fail…….Isaiah 58:10-11
REFLECTION – “Love is the bond of life, the mother of the poor and the teacher of the rich.
It is the nurse of orphans, the attendant of the elderly, the treasure of the indigent and the common port of all the afflicted.”……..St Gregory of Nyssa.
PRAYER – O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through His poverty might be rich, deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired, by the devotion of Your servant St Theodosius the Cenobiarch, may serve You with singleness of heart and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. St Theodosius the Cenobiarch. Pray for us! Amen
Goodbye Christmastide: 9 January 2017 The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
“Dearly Beloved, each word and deed of Our Saviour Jesus Christ is for us a lesson in virtue and piety. For this end also did He assumed our nature, so that every man and every woman, contemplating as in a picture the practice of all virtue and piety, might strive with all their hearts to imitate His example. For this He bore our body, so that as far as we could we might repeat within us the manner of His life. And so, therefore, when you hear mention of some word or deed of His, take care not to receive it simply as something that incidentally happened but raise your mind upwards towards the sublimity of what He is teaching and strive to see what has been mystically handed down to us”
The same Spirit, that descended on the water of the River Jordan wafted over the waters during the first creation (Gen 1:2). Therefore, the Baptism in the Jordan presents yet another truth: that Jesus has started a new creation. He is the second man (1 Cor 15:47) or the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45), that comes to repair the first Adam’s guilt. He does this as the Lamb of God that takes away our sins.
‘Looking at the events in light of the Cross and Resurrection, the Christian people realised what happened: Jesus loaded the burden of all mankind’s guilt upon His shoulders; He bore it down into the depths of the Jordan. He inaugurated His public activity by stepping into the place of sinners’ (Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, Bloomsbury 2007, p 18).
“O Lord, wishing to fulfill all things
that You ordained before the ages,
You received the servants of Your mystery,
from among the Angels, Gabriel,
from among Men, the Virgin,
from among the Heavens, the Star
and from among the Waters, the Jordan,
in which You washed away the sin of the world,
O our Saviour, glory to You.”
REFLECTION – “Jesus entered into contact with the Father, Heaven opened above Him. At this moment we can think that Heaven has also opened here, above these children of ours who, through the Sacrament of Baptism, come into contact with Jesus. Heaven opens above us in the Sacrament. The more we live in contact with Jesus in the reality of our Baptism, the more Heaven will open above us.”.Pope Benedict XVI (Feast of the Baptism of the Lord – 7 January 2007)
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, I pray to live each day in Your shadow, living out my Baptismal Vows and following Your Son on my journey home to You. Mary, Help of Christians, pray for us, that we may faithfully live as true Christians each moment of our lives, amen.
“These men who set out towards the unknown were, in any event, men with a restless heart. Men driven by a restless quest for God and the salvation of the world. They were filled with expectation, not satisfied with their secure income and their respectable place in society. They were looking for something greater. They were no doubt learned men, quite knowledgeable about the heavens and probably possessed of a fine philosophical formation. But they desired more than simply knowledge about things. They wanted above all else to know what is essential. They wanted to know how we succeed in being human. And therefore they wanted to know if God exists and where and how he exists. Whether he is concerned about us and how we can encounter him. Nor did they want just to know. They wanted to understand the truth about ourselves and about God and the world. Their outward pilgrimage was an expression of their inward journey, the inner pilgrimage of their hearts. They were men who sought God and were ultimately on the way towards him. They were seekers after God.
The Wise Men followed the star and thus came to Jesus, to the great Light which enlightens everyone coming into this world (cf. Jn 1:9). As pilgrims of faith, the Wise Men themselves became stars shining in the firmament of history and they show us the way. The saints are God’s true constellations, which light up the nights of this world, serving as our guides. Saint Paul, in his Letter to the Philippians, told his faithful that they must shine like stars in the world (cf. 2:15).”
Extract from the HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI – Vatican Basilica
Sunday, 6 January 2013
…..and on entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother. They prostrated themselves and did him homage. …………..Mt 2:11
REFLECTION – If we approach with faith, we too will see Jesus….; for the Eucharistic table takes the place of the crib.
Here the Body of the Lord is present, wrapped not in swaddling clothes but in the rays of the Holy Spirit……………..St John Chrysostum
PRAYER – Lord, God, teach me to see the living presence of Your Divine Son in the Eucharist. Make my faith so vivid that I will gladly come to encounter Jesus in every Mass.
Holy Christ Child, intercede for us, amen.
“The preacher of God’s truth has told us that all who want to live righteously in Christ will suffer persecution. . . . the only exception to this general statement is, I think, the person who either neglects, or does not know how, to live temperately, justly and righteously in this world. May you never be numbered among those whose house is peaceful, quiet and free from care; those on whom the Lord’s chastisement does not descend; those who live out their days in prosperity and in the twinkling of an eye will go down to hell. Your purity of life, your devotion, deserve and call for a reward; because you are acceptable and pleasing to God your purity of life must be made purer still, by frequent buffetings, until you attain perfect sincerity of heart. If from time to time you feel the sword falling on you with double or treble force, this also should be seen as sheer joy and the mark of love. The two-edged sword consists in conflict without, fears within. It falls with double or treble force within, when the cunning spirit troubles the depths of your heart with guile and enticements. . . .The sword falls with double and treble force externally when, without cause, persecution breaks out from within the church, where wounds are more serious, especially when inflicted by friends. This is that enviable and blessed cross of Christ . . . the cross in which alone we must make our boast, as Paul, God’s chosen instrument, has told us.”
…….while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of our faith.
For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame
and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God………..Heb 12:2
REFLECTION – “Look then on Jesus, the author and preserver of faith: in complete sinlessness He suffered, and at the hands of those who were His own, and was numbered among the wicked. As you drink the cup of the Lord Jesus (how glorious it is!), give thanks to the Lord, the iver of all blessings.”………….St Raymond of Peñafort
PRAYER – O Lord, help me always to keep my eyes on You. Teach me too to endure and offer You all the sufferings and hardships of this earthly life, for Your greater Glory. St Raymond, your life is an example to us all of the practise of keeping our eyes on the Lord. Please pray for us, amen!
When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home…..Mt 1:24
REFLECTION – “When you invoke St Joseph, you don’t have to say much.
Say, “if you were in my place, St Joseph, what would you do? Well, pray for this on my behalf.”……..St André Bessette
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, You constantly provide us with examples of holy life. St André Bessette is a wonderful example of service, as was his hero, the foster Father of Your Divine Son, St Joseph. May both be intercessors and examples to me, to give to You my all. St André Bessette, Pray for us, amen!
“Everyone who breathes, high and low,
educated and ignorant, young and old,
man and woman, has a mission, has a work.
We are not sent into this world for nothing;
we are not born at random;
we are not here, that we may go to bed at night
and get up in the morning, toil for our bread,
eat and drink, laugh and joke,
sin when we have a mind
and reform when we are tired of sinning,
rear a family and die.
God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, . . .
FOR A PURPOSE.
He needs, He deigns to need, every one of us.
He has an end for each of us;
we are all equal in His sight and we are placed
in our different ranks and stations,
not to get what we can out of them for ourselves
but to labour in them for Him.
As Christ has His work, we too have ours;
as He rejoiced to do His work, we must rejoice in ours also.”
“God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him……1 John 4:16
REFLECTION – “0 my God, I thank Thee for the love Thou hast planted in my heart. I will cultivate this precious flower. I will guard it night and day that nothing may injure it. Do Thou, 0 Lord, water it with the dew of Thy grace.”……..St John Neumann (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, pour forth Your love into my heart and help me always to act in accord with it. Let me be ruled by Your love in all things so that I may experience it completely with You in heaven. St John Neumann, Pray for us, amen!
My God, how great Thou art,
how wonderful in all Thy works!
Teach me Thy will that I may begin
and end all my actions for Thy greater glory.
Speak to me, 0 my God, let me know Thy will,
for behold I am ready to fulfill Thy
every command. The difficult, the irksome,
I will patiently endure for love of Thee.
When the Shepherd appears
you will win for yourselves
the unfading crown of glory………1 Pt 5:4
REFLECTION – You are children of eternity. Your immortal crown awaits you and the best of Fathers waits there to reward your duty and love. You may indeed sow here in tears but you may be sure there to reap in joy……St Elizabeth Ann Seton (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, thank You for making me a child of eternity. Help me to live each day in such a way that I may deserve to be a child of Yours forever. St Elizabeth Ann Seton Pray for us, amen.
“The Jesuits have a vow to obey the pope but if the pope is a Jesuit, maybe he should have a vow to obey the superior general… I feel like I’m still a Jesuit in terms of my spirituality, what I have in my heart.”
I planted the seed and Apollos watered it but God made it grow…………1 Cor 3:6
REFLECTION – We must work as if success depended upon us alone.
At the same time, we must be wholeheartedly convinced that we are doing nothing – it is God Who is doing everything………St Ignatius Loyola
PRAYER – All-powerful God, let me realise that no matter what I do, it is only through You that I do it. Help me to work as if all depended on me and pray as if all depended on You. St Genevieve you were a sure example of working as if all dependd on you, please pray for us. St Ignatius and all the great saints of the Society of Jesus, pray for us unceasingly, amen!
“The hairsplitting difference between
formed and unformed makes no difference to us.
Whoever deliberately commits abortion
is subject to the penalty for homicide.”
“A tree is known by its fruit;
a man by his deeds.
A good deed is never lost;
he who sows courtesy reaps friendship
and he who plants kindness gathers love.”
St Basil (329-379) Doctor of the Church
“Give something, however small,
to the one in need.
For it is not small to one who has nothing.
Neither is it small to God, if we have given what we could.”
“If anyone does not believe that Holy Mary
is the Mother of God, such a one is a stranger
to the Godhead.”
St Gregory of Nazianzen (330-390) Doctor of the Church
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