LENT – Page 25 – AnaStpaul

LENT, MARIAN PRAYERS, MORNING Prayers, SAINT of the DAY, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, The WORD

22 February 2018 Thursday of the First Week of Lent and the Feast of the Chair of St Peter

Posted on February 22, 2018February 22, 2018 by AnaStpaul

22 February 2018 Thursday of the First Week of Lent and the Feast of the Chair of St Peter

1 Peter 5:1-4, Psalms 23, Matthew 16:13-19

1 Peter 5:1-3 – “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory that is to be revealed. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock.”

Matthew 16:14-19 – He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father, who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church and the powers of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven.”

Organisations develop and thrive under enlightened leadership and through the hard work of dedicated members. The Church is not different. She has rendered amazing service to human society, starting with just twelve members, because at every period of history, she has had committed and perceptive leaders to guide her, always, under the main leader, God, the Holy Spirit.

Today, Peter asks his fellow Church-workers, to fulfil their duty with joy, not out of compulsion or for any material advantage. He himself was entrusted with the mission of guiding and caring for the destinies of the early Christian community, in spite of his limitations. One of his great distinctions was that he was the first to confess, before his brethren, that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, this is the source and ground of the whole operation. Many others had seen in Jesus a gifted prophet. But God reveals His Son to those whom He chooses.

Those who are open to God’s ways, not only recognise Him for what He really is but become eager to take His message to the ends of the earth. They listen for His voice! And this is the end result of our Lenten penances, to become those lights in our world, to become those Catholics who truly resemble their Founder, those Catholics who pray, who love, who live charity and thus, by their lives, they preach the Good News to all who meet them! ArchBishop Thomas Menamparampil SCB

Hearing the Voice of God: A man practised in woodcraft, out of a babel of sounds in a tropical forest, will recognise any one. He may hear the calls of a hundred, a thousand, different species of birds, squawking, hooting, whistling, singing but he says, “There! Listen to the note of such and such a bird.” The novice strains his ears but cannot catch the particular sound. “I listen,” says he, “but I cannot recognise it. How can you know it?” And the master says, “I could tell that note if every leaf on every tree had a different voice and all were speaking. I could tell that note in the midst of any tumult.”

So, the man who knows the voice of God, hears it anywhere – in the midst of crowded streets, at an entertainment, on a battle field, in his soul, even when temptation is making pandemonium within. He can recognise the voice of God anywhere…– Father James M Gillis – A Thought a Day for Lent, by Father James M Gillis, C.S.P

O Jesus, living in Mary
By Fr Jean-Jacques Olier, S.S. (1608-1657)

O Jesus, living in Mary,
Come and live in Your servants,
In the spirit of Your sanctity,
In the fullness of Your strength.
In the reality of Your virtues.
In the perfection of Your ways.
In the communion of Your mysteries.
Be lord over every opposing power.
In Your own Spirit, to the glory of the Father.
Amen

Fr Jean-Jacques Olier (20 September 1608 – 2 April 1657) was a French priest and the founder of the Sulpicians. (Prayer a Day for Lent, compiled from approved sources by Father Albert A Murray, C.S.P.)

DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Our Morning Offering – 22 February – Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Posted on February 22, 2018February 22, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 22 February – Thursday of the First Week of Lent

Penitential Prayer
St Jerome (343-420) Father & Doctor of the Church

Show me, O Lord, Your mercy
and delight my heart with it.
Let me find You whom I so longingly seek.
Behold, here is the man
whom the robbers seized, manhandled
and left half dead on the road to Jericho.
Kind-hearted Samaritan,
come to my aid!
I am the sheep who wandered into the wilderness.
Seek after me
and bring me home again to Your fold.
Do with me according to Your Will,
that I may abide with You,
all the days of my life
and praise You with all those
who are with You
in heaven for all eternity.
Amen penintential prayer - st jerome - 22 feb 2018

LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS

21 February 2018 – Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Posted on February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 by AnaStpaul

21 February 2018 – Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Jonah 3:1-10, Psalms 51:3-4, 12-13, 18-19, Luke 11:29-32

Jonah 3:6-10 – Then tidings reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, and covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he made proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, or drink water but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth and let them cry mightily to God; yea, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?” When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God repented of the evil which he had said he would do to them; and he did not do it.
Luke 11:29 – When the crowds were increasing, he began to say, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”

It’s quite a mystery – that Jonah, a mere man and a reluctant prophet was able to bring an entire city back to God. But Jesus, who is God in person, fails. What can we make of this? Maybe we can just settle for the perverseness of fallen human nature – our unwillingness to respond to divine goodness, even when, at times, we recognise it.

Sin itself is a mystery. We know what harm it does to ourselves and to others and yet we deliberately choose to commit it. Would we have been converted by the preaching of Jesus? Does His presence now, in the Gospel, bring us back to Him? Why is it that year after year, we need the preaching, of Jesus, of John the Baptist, of the prophets?

I suspect that part of Jonah’s effectiveness resulted from the kind of motivation he inspired – he SCARED the Ninevites into conversion. Inspired by fear or not, the conversion was genuine and the Lord God “saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way”.

All this throws light on our own Lenten journey, it makes us examine our motives for these Lenten practices. We don’t have to observe a strict fast as in the old days but the Church will never give up telling her people of the serious need for self-discipline in their lives. She knows that if we do not control our appetites, they will control us and deprive us of our humanity and any chance of eternal life.

“With all your heart turn to me” says the Lord, ” for I am tender and compassionate” (Gospel Verse)

And it is noteworthy that the Church has us respond to the story of the Ninevites’ conversion by putting into our hearts and mouths the familiar penitential Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, O God and put a new and righty spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

What are my motives for these Lenten practices?
Have I appetites that tend to overpower me?
What can I do to ‘turn around’ and amend my life?

Fr E Lawrence OSB – Daily Meditations for Lent

I Wish to Clasp Your Hand – Do Not Refuse Me!
Prayer of Eugene de Ferronays

“Dear Lord! It is just when I am in the world
that I have most need of You
because You know it is full of snares
that the devil has set for me.
You must hold my hand, dear Lord,
if You will not abandon me.
A little of the world is not bad for me;
it is even good, for it teaches me how small it is
and I feel the greater happiness
when I come back to You.
But that I may surely do so,
You must only loose Your hold a little,
that it may not try me too far,
You must not entirely leave hold.
Do You see dear Lord?
I wish to clasp Your hand – do not refuse me!”

LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Our Morning Offering – 21 February – Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

Posted on February 21, 2018February 20, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 21 February – Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

The Grace of Thy Love
By Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

O My God,
strengthen me with Thy strength,
console me with Thy everlasting peace,
soothe me with the beauty of Thy countenance,
enlighten me with Thy uncreated holiness.
Bathe me in Thyself
and give me to drink,
as far as mortal man may ask,
of the rivers of grace
which flow from the Father and the Son,
the grace of Thy consubstantial,
co-eternal Love.
Amen the grace of they love - bl john henry newman - 21 feb 2018

LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES on PRAYER, The WORD

20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Posted on February 20, 2018 by AnaStpaul

20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Isaiah 55:10-11, Psalms 34:4-7, 16-19, Matthew 6:7-15

Isaiah 55:10-11 – “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and return not thither but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Matthew 6:7-15 – “And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:
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 debts,
As we also have forgiven our debtors;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

Today we learn another of Lent’s purposes, perhaps the best of all. The Opening Prayer instructs us “Father, look on us, your children. Through the discipline of Lent, help us to grow in our desire for you.” If at Easter, our desire for God is more intense, more demanding, we shall know that our Lent this year, has been a success!

But what nourishes desire for God more than His own word? The more we know about Him, the greater will be our eagerness to possess and be possessed by Him, who is love in person. The desire for God is unlike any other desire. It is its own reward, its own fulfilment but that’s not all. We are satiated but we still yearn for more. Infinite abysses in human hearts demand infinite satisfaction, which is a task that only endless eternity can really gratify. To behold the Face of God!

The prophet Isaiah today provides us with a glorious description of what will happen to us when God’s word becomes our daily nourishment. He compares the word of God to the rain and snow that refresh the land, make it fertile and give life to the seeds planted there. In the same way, God wants His word to refresh our hearts and fertilise the seeds of desire for Him that we so need.

But the best is yet to come. In the Gospel, Jesus tells us that what matters is not the quantity of our responses to God’s words to us, it is the quality. It is not what we say or think when we pray but HOW we say or think what is in our hearts.
Remember how we prayed in the Opening Prayer, ‘Father, look on us your children…..’ He looks at us and we look at Him, with Jesus’ own prayer on our lips and in our hearts! “Our Father, who art in Heaven ……”

It has been said that the Lord’s Prayer is the summary of the Gospel. It is Jesus’ own prayer, so it has to be the perfect prayer. It comes from His heart, it is His personal response to all that the Father is and says to Him.

“In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge. From all eternity, you are God.” (Entrance Antiphon) Fr E Lawrence OSB _ Daily Meditations for Lent

There is a sermon that is always being preached, not by the tongue of man but by the myriad voices of God’s vast universe. Day and night, without ceasing, in every land, among all peoples, in the universal language of nature – the language that is foreign to none of the children of men – God is preaching His sermon. He is whispering it upon every breeze, booming it with every thunderclap, flashing it upon the clouds with the lightnings. His message is trailing its way in a blaze of fire across the sky “from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.” All nature is a panorama created to illustrate the sermon of God, painted in colours gay and sombre by turn to catch the fickle eye of man, the spectator. All the universe is one vast stage for the enacting of the drama that God has written. All human history is a pageant, a never-ending procession passing before the bewildered eyes of mankind and upon every banner in that pageant is written the motto that God would have us read. And yet this obvious lesson is one we never learn. The sermon is one to which we will not listen. The pageant passes in review but we gaze as in a stupor, seeing but not understanding. For the sermon, the lesson, the play, the pageant, the spectacle, is “Life and Death.” Father James M Gillis – A Thought a Day for Lent

LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SUFFERING, STATIONS of the CROSS, The HOLY CROSS, The HOLY FACE, The PASSION

Thought for the Day – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Posted on February 20, 2018February 20, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Excerpt from “Behold the Man”, a Lenten Reflection

By Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)

“I see the figure of a man, whether young or old I cannot tell. He may be fifty, or he may be thirty. Sometimes He looks one, sometimes the other. There is something inexpressible about His face that I cannot solve. Perhaps, as He bears all burdens, He bears that of old age too. But so it is; His face is at once most venerable, yet most childlike, most calm, most sweet, most modest, beaming with sanctity and with loving kindness. His eyes rivet me and move my heart. His breath is all fragrant and transports me out of myself. Oh, I will look upon that face forever and will not cease.

And I see suddenly someone come to Him and raise His hand and sharply strike Him on that heavenly face. It is a hard hand, the hand of a rude man and perhaps has iron upon it. It could not be so sudden as to take by surprise, Him who knows all things past and future and He shows no sign of resentment, remaining calm and grave as before; but the expression of His face is marred; a great welt arises and in a short time that all-gracious face is hidden from me by the effects of this indignity, as if a cloud came over it.

A hand was lifted up against the face of Christ.

Whose hand was that? My conscience tells me: ‘You are the man.’

I trust it is not so with me now. But, O my soul, contemplate the awful fact. Fancy Christ before you and fancy yourself lifting up your hand and striking Him! You will say, ‘It is impossible: I could not do so.’ Yes, you have done so. When you sinned wilfully, then you have done so. He is beyond pain now: still you have struck Him and had it been in the days of His flesh, He would have felt pain. Turn back in memory and recollect the time, the day, the hour, when by wilful mortal sin, by scoffing at sacred things, or by profaneness, or by hard hatred of your brother, or by acts of impurity, or by deliberate rejection of God’s voice, or in any other devilish way known to you, you have struck the All-Holy One.” (to be continued…………….)

NOTE of Interest: A second miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed John Henry (2016) is still in progress of investigation by the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood and if Vatican theologians and doctors conclude the healing is a divine sign of Newman’s sanctity the Pope will be invited to canonise him as the first English saint since 1970 and the first British saint since 1976. a hand was lifted up against the face of christ - john henry newman - 20 feb 2018

Prayer for the Canonisation of Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

God our Father,
You granted to Your servant,
Blessed John Henry Newman,
wonderful gifts of nature and of grace,
that he should be a spiritual light
in the darkness of this world,
an eloquent herald of the Gospel
and a devoted servant
of the one Church of Christ.
With confidence in
his heavenly intercession,
we make the following petition:
………………………………………….
[here make your petition]
For his insight into
the mysteries of the kingdom,
his zealous defense
of the teachings of the Church
and his priestly love
for each of Your children,
we pray that he may soon
be numbered among the Saints.
We ask this through Christ our Lord,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God forever.
Amen

LENT, MARIAN PRAYERS, MARIAN QUOTES, MARIAN TITLES, MORNING Prayers, PAPAL SERMONS, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on SUFFERING, SAINT of the DAY, The BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent and The First Memorial of Saints Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta (1910-1920)

Posted on February 20, 2018February 19, 2018 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent and The First Memorial of Saints Francisco (1908-1919) and Jacinta (1910-1920)

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit..” …John 12:24

REFLECTION – “In Lucia’s account, the three chosen children found themselves surrounded by God’s light as it radiated from Our Lady. She enveloped them in the mantle of Light that God had given her. According to the belief and experience of many pilgrims, if not of all, Fatima is more than anything this mantle of Light that protects us, here, as in almost no other place on earth. We need but take refuge under the protection of the Virgin Mary and to ask her, as the Salve Regina teaches: “show unto us… Jesus”. the three chosen children - pope francis canonisation homily - 20 feb 2018
“The Lord, who always goes before us, said this and did this (Jn 12:24). Whenever we experience the cross, He has already experienced it before us. We do not mount the cross to find Jesus. Instead it was He who, in His self-abasement, descended even to the cross, in order to find us, to dispel the darkness of evil within us and to bring us back to the light.”…Pope Francis at the Canonisation of Saints Francisco and Jacinta on 14 May 2017

the lord, who always goes before us - pope francis - 20 feb 2017 - sts francisco and jacinta

PRAYER – Heavenly Father, just as the little children, Francisco and Jacinta, were chosen to be bearers of Your message, grant we pray, that by their prayers on our behalf, we too may Your bearers of light. Be with us, holy Mother, during our Lenten journey to the Resurrection of your Son, help us to become like little children and in that new purity, shine with His Light. Through Jesus our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen. sts francisco & jacinta - 20 feb 2018

LENTEN PRAYERS & NOVENAS, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION

Our Morning Offering – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Posted on February 20, 2018February 20, 2020 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 20 February 2018 – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

Thy Grace – a Lenten Prayer
By Blessed John Henry Newman

O my God,
suffer me still,
bear with me in spite of my
waywardness,
perverseness
and ingratitude!
I improve very slowly
but really, I am moving onto heaven,
or at least I wish to move.
Only give me Thy grace
meet me with Thy grace,
I will, through Thy grace, do what I can
and Thou shall perfect it for me.
Then shall I have happy days, in Thy Presence
and in the sight and adoration of
Thy five Sacred Wounds.
Amen thy grace - a lenten prayer - bl john henry newman - 20 feb 2018

CONFESSION/PENANCE, JESUIT SJ, LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, SAINT of the DAY

Our Morning Offering – 19 February – The Memorial of Bl John Sullivan SJ (1861-1933)

Posted on February 19, 2018February 19, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 19 February – The Memorial of Bl John Sullivan SJ (1861-1933) and Monday of the First Week of Lent – a Penitential Prayer from St Ignatius

Pardon Me, O my God
St Ignatius Loyola S.J.
(1491-1556)

Pardon me,
O perfections of my God,
for having preferred imperfect
and evil inclinations to Thee!
Pardon me,
O justice of my God,
for having outraged Thee by my sins.
Pardon me,
O holiness of my God,
for having so long stained
Thy sight’s purity, by my sins.
Pardon me,
O mercy of my God,
for having despised so long
Thy mercy’s voice.
In deep sorrow and contrition,
I cast myself at Thy feet.
Have mercy on me.
Amen pardon me o my god - st iggy - 19 feb 2018

JESUIT SJ, LENT, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, The WORD

18 February – The First Sunday of Lent, Year B

Posted on February 18, 2018February 18, 2018 by AnaStpaul

18 February – The First Sunday of Lent, Year B

Genesis 9:8-15, Psalms 25:4-9, 1 Peter 3:18-22, Mark 1:12-15

Mark 1:15 – “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.”
Psalm 25:4 – Make me to know thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths

Lent is a kind of desert. A time set apart to pray with greater focus and intensity.
A time to fast from what distracts us from what is most important – that good news!
When the outside noise is quietened, we are more in touch with the inner pulls that are going on inside of us.
It is not always a comfortable space to be!
We are used to be anaesthetised to the tugs of the Holy Spirit calling us to something new, something more and often we struggle to be free from the attachment to things, we would prefer them staying just as they are, thank you.

But now we seek to emerge, like Jesus, from our desert time of Lent, strengthened and renewed.
We have a new energy and courage to respond to whatever God is asking of us in this moment of our lives.
Part of that time is to spend true moments, as Jesus did, listening to the Father. We must create some desert space.
Is there a time we can safeguard each day for prayer?
Can we reduce the clutter of too much external stimulation from TV, social media, so that we can tune into what God is saying, what the Holy Spirit is wanting us to notice?

Be sure to find that “desert time and space” each day.
What are those inner concerns, questions, worries with which the Spirit is driving you into that desert this Lent?
Imagine yourself with Jesus in the desert. Enter into conversation with Him.
Fr Nicholas King SJ – Long Journey to the Resurrection

Christus. Behold a matter that is deeply displeasing to Me, namely, how few there are who recognise the value of time, the time that I lend to men for doing penance, for increasing the grace given them, for acquiring heavenly glory. Lo, the acceptable yet irrevocable time, passes and no one is considering it in his heart; the days of salvation are slipping by and no one makes the occasion of their flight a reason for using well what can never return.

But you, as far as you are able, flee the things of time, such as acquaintanceship, speech-making and occupations of small profit and because the days are evil, redeem the time that should be given rather to Me and to your soul than to others. Is My proposition hard and difficult? Observe how much time is given up to the body for food and sleep, to conversation, banquets and the rest, so that you cannot give ever so small a portion to God, to your soul, to eternity! Alas, how prodigal men are of time when it is a question of serving vanity, how sparing of it when it is a case of occupying themselves with His business to whom all time is owed.

Make me to know thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths…Psalm 25:4

Keep me, O God, from pettiness.
Let us be large in thought, word and deed.
Let us be done with fault-finding
and leave off self-seeking.
May we put away all pretense
and meet each other face to face
without self-pity and without prejudice.
May we never be hasty in judgement
and always generous.
Let us take time for all things.
Make us grow calm, serene, gentle.
Teach us to put into action our better impulses
and make us straight-forward and unafraid.
Grant that we may realise
that it is the little things in life that create differences;
that in the big things we are all as one.
And, O Lord God,
Let us not forget to be kind.
Amen

Mary Stuart’s Prayer (Mary Queen of Scots)

keep me o god, from pettiness - mary stuart's prayer - first sun of lent - 18 feb 2018

LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, SUNDAY REFLECTIONS, The HOLY EUCHARIST / The HOLY MASS

Sunday Reflection – 18 February – The First Sunday of Lent Year B

Posted on February 18, 2018February 17, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Sunday Reflection – 18 February – The First Sunday of Lent Year B

Beyond the daily life of the believer, the Eucharist extends its action to the whole cosmos.
As Teilhard de Chardin wrote:
“When He (Christ) says through the priest “This is my body”, His words go well beyond the piece of bread over which they are pronounced: they effect the birth of the whole Mystical Body.
Beyond the transubstantiated Host, the priestly action extends to the cosmos itself.”

Every Eucharist is a “Mass on the world.”

This vision inspired a prayer of Teilhard de Chardin that we can make our own, each time we participate in the Mass and even when we cannot participate:

“On the altar of the whole earth
I offer You, Lord,
the work and the toil of the world….
All that will grow in the world
in the course of this day,
all that will decline in it
and all that will die in it…
Receive, Lord,
this total Host that Creation
presents to You,
drawn and moved by You,
at the dawn of a new day.”

Fr Raneiro Cantalamessa OFM (Preacher to the Papal Household) “This is My Body”

LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on PRAYER, QUOTES on REPENTANCE

Quote of the Day – 18 February – The First Sunday of Lent Year B

Posted on February 18, 2018February 17, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Quote of the Day – 18 February – The First Sunday of Lent Year B

“Lent is like a long ‘retreat’ during
which we can turn back into ourselves
and listen to the voice of God, in order
to defeat the temptations of the Evil One.

It is a period of spiritual ‘combat’
which we must experience alongside
Jesus, not with pride and presumption,
but using the arms of faith: prayer,
listening to the word of God and penance.

In this way we will be able to celebrate
Easter in truth, ready to renew
the promises of our baptism.”

Pope Benedict XVI

CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, DEVOTIO, LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, The HOLY EUCHARIST / The HOLY MASS

Our Morning Offering – 18 February – The First Sunday of Lent, Year B

Posted on February 18, 2018February 17, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 18 February – The First Sunday of Lent, Year B

Act of Oblation before Holy Mass

Eternal Father,
we offer You the sacrifice
wherein your Son Jesus
offered Himself upon the Cross
and which He now renews upon this altar.
We adore You and render to You
that honour which is Your due,
acknowledging Your dominion over all things
and our absolute dependence on You.
You are our first beginning and our last end;
we give You thanks for countless benefits received;
we ask You to forgive our sins
and to offer You worthy satisfaction for the same.
Finally to implore Your grace and mercy
for all of us who will offer this sacrifice today,
for all those who are in tribulation and distress,
for all of us sinners,
for the whole world and for the souls in purgatory.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen. act of oblation before holy mass - prayer of the church - 18 feb 2018 2nd sun of lent year B

LENT, SAINT of the DAY

The First Sunday of Lent 2018 & Memorials of the Saints – 18 February

Posted on February 18, 2018February 17, 2018 by AnaStpaul

The First Sunday of LENT – YEAR B

St Angilbert of Centula
St Colman of Lindisfarne
St Constance of Vercelli
St Esuperia of Vercelli
St Ethelina
Bl John of Fiesole/Fra Angelico O.P. (1387-1455)

St Gertrude Caterina Comensoli
St Helladius of Toledo
St Ioannes Chen Xianheng
St Ioannes Zhang Tianshen
St Jean-François-Régis Clet
St Jean-Pierre Néel
Bl Jerzy Kaszyra
Bl John Pibush – one of the Martyrs of Douai
St Leo of Patera
St Martinus Wu Xuesheng
Bl Matthew Malaventino
St Paregorius of Patara
St Sadoth of Seleucia
St Simeon
St Tarasius of Constantinople
St Theotonius
Bl William Harrington
—
Martyrs of North Africa – 7 saints: Group of Christians who were martyred together, date unknown. We know nothing else but seven of their names – Classicus, Fructulus, Lucius, Maximus, Rutulus, Secundinus and Silvanus.
They were born and martyred in North Africa.

Martyrs of Rome – 5 saints: A group of Christians martyred together in the persecutions of Diocletian. We know nothing else but their names – Alexander, Claudius, Cutias, Maximus and Praepedigna. They were martyred in 295 in Rome, Italy.

DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, JESUIT SJ, LENT, LENTEN PRAYERS & NOVENAS, MORNING Prayers, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, The WORD

Saturday after Ash Wednesday – 17 February 2018

Posted on February 17, 2018February 20, 2020 by AnaStpaul

Saturday after Ash Wednesday – 17 February 2018
Isaiah 58:9-14, Psalms 86:1-6, Luke 5:27-32

Show me Lord, your way, so that I may walk in your truth.

Isaiah 58:9-10: “If you take away from the midst of you the yoke,
the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your darkest hour will be like noon.
Luke 5:32: “I have come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance.”

Isaiah makes it abundantly clear that it is our service to the poor and the weak that wins God’s favour, not lifeless religious practices. The message becomes most meaningful in modern society, marked by unfair distribution of resources, hatred, violence, abuse and mutual accusations. It is only when we strive against such evils that we win God’s approval. “You shall be like the watered garden” the prophet says. The image stands for the possession of every good thing that we desire.

The Gospel speaks of the call of Levi. His joy was so great that he could hardly contain it.
He organised a party for his fellow tax-collectors, which unfailingly earned the criticism of the Pharisees. Jesus’ answer was that His mission was precisely to wrongdoers, to the least and the lost. These words indeed offer us hope when we stray and urge us to reach out to others as Jesus did.
That is the Christian calling, that is the Christian ‘job’!
(Archbishop Thomas Menamparanpil SDB – Gods Word)

Don’t you wonder what it was about Levi that moved Jesus to call him? And what was it that caused Levi to respond?
He must have been a pretty successful man in economic terms but as a tax collector, he was undoubtedly not popular in his own community and was seen as a collaborator with Rome. Perhaps he had a nagging sense of “there must be something more to life”. perhaps a sense of emptiness and sadness. Something touched him so deeply at Jesus call, that he let go of a previous way of life and opened himself instantly to the gift being offered. He was overjoyed, he was filled with joy, he was joyous, he bubbled over and threw a big party in order to share his joy! And Jesus attended the party! He was at the party! He is at our party too when we allow Him entrance to our hearts.

When asked who he is, Pope Francis responded “I am a sinner, whom the Lord has looked upon.” When we are able to see ourselves as Pope Francis does, as loved sinners, we are open to receive the forgiveness and help God longs to give us. When we are aware of ourselves as sinners, loved and called by God, we respond with a deep sense of repentance, gratitude and joy, we throw that party and invite other sinners to join us. We simply have to share the joy!

Where do I experience my own sinfulness?
How is this awareness a gift?
Spend some time with Jesus today sharing with Him your struggles and Your need of His help.
Have a party with Him!
(excerpt Fr Nicholas King S.J. ‘The Long Journey to the Resurrection’)

My soul, what have you done for God?
Look o’er your misspent years and see;
See first what you have done for God,
And then what God has done for thee!

Daily Lenten Prayer

Today Lord, I choose life,
I choose Your love
and the challenge to live it and share it,
I choose hope, even in moments of darkness,
I choose faith, accepting You as Lord and God,
I choose to let go of some part of my burdens,
day by day handing them over to You,
I choose to take hold of Your strength
and power ever more deeply in my life.
May this truly be for me a time of new life,
of change, challenge and growth.
May I come to Easter with a heart open to dying with You
and rising to Your new life, day by day.
Amen

my soul what have you done for god - daily lenten prayer 17 feb 2018

LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on SUFFERING

Quote/s of the Day – – 17 February – The First Saturday of Lent 2018

Posted on February 17, 2018February 17, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Quote/s of the Day – – 17 February – The First Saturday of Lent 2018

“The statue must be chiselled
with very sharp tools
before it is fit to be placed
in the grand gallery.”

St Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, SAINT of the DAY, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 17 February – The First Saturday of Lent 2018

Posted on February 17, 2018February 16, 2018 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 17 February – The First Saturday of Lent 2018

And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”...Luke 5:31-32 luke 5 31 32

REFLECTION – “I am a sinner, whom the Lord has looked upon.”…Pope Francis

PRAYER – Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight and give Your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend Your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest Your weary ones.
Bless Your dying ones.
Soothe Your suffering ones.
Pity Your afflicted ones.
Shield Your joyous ones.
And all for Your love’s sake. Amen…St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of the Church watch, o lord - st augustine - 17 feb 2017

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Friday after Ash Wednesday – 16 February 2018

Posted on February 16, 2018February 16, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Friday after Ash Wednesday – 16 February 2018
Isaiah 58:1-9, Psalms 51:3-6, 18-19, Matthew 9:14-15

Isaiah 58:3-4 – Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist.
Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high…
Matthew 9:14-15 – 14 – Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Create in me a clean heart, O God and put a new spirit within me.

Genuine faith does not make a believer pretentious.
Dialogue with God is not a business bargain.
External observance of religion wins little favour with God, if it is combined with unfairness to the weak and indifference to the poor.
Openness to the indigent is the door to true religion.
The world itself changes for the better with the widening of human concern for the poor. Good works multiply on the face of the earth and everyones sees the glory of God in action.
The Gospel presents Jesus, as refusing to absolutise ritual fasting.
What He expects from His disciples is that they remain faithful to the mission He is about to give them even at great sacrifice.
It will make evidently greater demands from them than mere ritual fasting.
They should be prepared.
Jesus is introducing a new set of values of immense worth, for which the old order of things must make way.
(Archbishop Thomas Menamparanpil SDB – GodsWord)

Each of us has different talents, material resources and opportunities. Lent is an invitation, not to introspection and penance for its own sake but always to help us to better partner with God in responding to the needs of our world.

Is there a need I feel called to do something about?
Could I ask God to show me where He is inviting me to act?
What one thing might I do today to reach out to someone in need?
(excerpt Fr Nicholas King S.J. ‘The Long Journey to the Resurrection’)

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace,
where there is hatred, let me sow love,
where there is injury, pardon,
where there is doubt, faith,
where there is despair, hope,
where there is darkness, light
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much
seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226)

DOCTORS of the Church, LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on PRAYER, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION

Thought for the Day – – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

Posted on February 16, 2018February 16, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Thought for the Day – – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

Alas, for our dearest Lord! up to this day what have we done for Him?
You see what He has done for us and the end of His doing it was to gain our love!

We look upon a crucifix and it hardly moves us.
We hear of His bittter passion but our eyes are dry and our hearts indifferent.
We kneel down to pray but we can hardly keep our thoughts fixed upon Him for a quarter of an hour together.
We go into His own most holy presence and we hardly bend the knee before the Tabernacle lest it should spoil our clothes.
We see others sin and what is it to us that Jesus is offended, so long as it is not we, who are risking our souls, by offending Him?
These are strange signs of love!
Surely Jesus cannot be much to us if this is the way we feel about Him.
Yet so it is.
We go our own way and do our own will.
The great thing is to please ourselves and to make things easy to ourselves.
Life must be taught to run smooth.

As to penance, it must be kept at arm’s length.
We must have our bodily comforts and worldly conveniences and our spiritual life must be nothing but a sufficiency of those inward consolations without which our souls give us pain, because they are not at rest.

If we worship God it is for self, if we do good to others, it is self we are seeking, even in our charity.

Poor Jesus Christ! as Saint Alphonsus used to say, “Poor Jesus Christ! Who thinks of Him? Who weds His interest?”

Father Faber – Remember Me: Daily Readings for Lent

DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FASTING

Quote of the Day – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

Posted on February 16, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Quote of the Day – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

“Prayer, mercy and fasting:
these three are one and they give life to each other.
Fasting is the soul of prayer,
mercy is the lifeblood of fasting.
Let no one try to separate them, they cannot be separated.
If you have only one of them or not all together, you have nothing.
So if you pray, fast,
if fast, show mercy,
if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others.
When you fast, see the fasting of others.
If you hope for mercy, show mercy.
If you look for kindness, show kindness.
If you want to receive, give.”

St Peter Chrysologus (c 406 – c 450) Father & Doctor of the Church

LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FASTING, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

Posted on February 16, 2018 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

‘But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them and then they will fast.’…Matthew 9:15 matthew 9 15

REFLECTION – “The scripture is full of places that prove fasting to be not the invention of man but the institution of God and to have many more profits than one. And that the fasting of one man may do good unto another, our Saviour shows Himself where He says that some kind of devils cannot be cast out of one man by another “without prayer and fasting.” And therefore I marvel that they take this way against fasting and other bodily penance.”…St Thomas More (1478 – 1535) the scripture is full of places - 16 feb 2018 - first friday of lent 2018 on fasting

PRAYER – Give us the grace O Lord, to continue the works of penitence we have begun, so that the Lenten observance we have taken upon ourselves, may be accomplished in sincerety of heart. “A humbled, contrite heart, O God, You will not spurn.” (Ps 51) Through our Lord Jesus Christ, in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen. lent - first friday 16 feb - psalm 51 - a humbled contrite heart - juice font

JESUIT SJ, LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Our Morning Offering – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

Posted on February 16, 2018February 15, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Our Morning Offering – 16 February – The First Friday of Lent 2018

A Prayer to Seek the Consolation of the Cross
By St Alphonsus Rodriguez S.J. (1532-1617)

Jesus, love of my soul,
centre of my heart!
Why am I not more eager to endure pains
and tribulations for love of You,
when You, my God,
have suffered so many for me?
Come, then, every sort of trial in the world,
for this is my delight, to suffer for Jesus.
This is my joy, to follow my Saviour
and to find my consolation
with my Consoler on the Cross.
This is my happiness,
this my pleasure:
to live with Jesus,
to walk with Jesus,
to converse with Jesus,
to suffer with and for Him,
this is my treasure.
Amen a prayer to seek - st alphonsus rodriguez - 16 feb 2018 - lenten prayer

JESUIT SJ, LENT, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS for VARIOUS NEEDS, The HOLY GHOST, The WORD

Thursday after Ash Wednesday – 15 February 2018

Posted on February 15, 2018February 15, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Thursday after Ash Wednesday – 15 February 2018
Deuteronomy 30: 15-30 – See, I set before you life or death, blessing or curse.
Luke 9: 22-25 – ‘if anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me’.

The readings today put the choice for God or against God in stark and dramatic terms. Choose God and follow His ways and you will be happy and live. Choose against God and you will destroy yourself. The Gospel echoes this in the warning that one can win the world but in the process, lose oneself.

We often hear of good and gifted people who were led to compromise their following of Christ. Something hooked them – whether wealth, prestige, sex or power and gradually led them to start making choices which increasingly led them away from their truest selves. When there are things in our lives which we don’t want others we respect to know about, that is often a clue that something is off-key!

Today we are invited to reflect on our choices. The decision to follow Christ and take up our cross each day is a challenging one and one which is gradually consolidated or undermined every day in each of our choices.

When I think over the last week of my life, does it reflect what I would hope someone would be able to say about me at my funeral?

Is there some area of my life which I feel compelled to keep a secret?

What one good daily action could I choose which could deepen my relationship with God and could manifest that “taking up my cross” each day? (excerpt Fr Nicholas King S.J. ‘The Long Journey to the Resurrection’)

O Holy Spirit of God,
take me as Your disciple;
guide me,
illuminate me,
sanctify me.
Bind my hands,
that they may do no evil;
cover my eyes,
that they may see it no more;
sanctify my heart,
that evil may not dwell within me.
Be You my God;
be You my guide.
Wherever You lead me I will go;
whatever You forbid me I will renounce;
whatever You command me, in Your strength, I will do.
Lead me, then,
unto the fullness of Your truth.
Amen
Cardinal Henry Edward Manning (1806-1892)
”Prayer a Day for Lent”

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Ash Wednesday – 14 February 2018

Posted on February 14, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Ash Wednesday – 14 February 2018

Joel 2:12-18, 2 Corinthians 5:20 — 6:2, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

At the beginning of Lent, on Ash Wednesday, ashes are blessed during Mass, after the homily. The blessed ashes are then “imposed” on the faithful as a sign of conversion, penance, fasting and human mortality. The ashes are blessed at least during the first Mass of the day but they may also be imposed during all the Masses of the day, after the homily and even outside the time of Mass to meet the needs of the faithful. Priests or deacons normally impart this sacramental but instituted acolytes, other extraordinary ministers or designated lay people may be delegated to impart ashes, if the bishop judges that this is necessary. The ashes are made from the palms used at the previous Passion Sunday ceremonies. …— Ceremonies of the Liturgical Year, Msgr. Peter J Elliott

The act of putting on ashes symbolises fragility and mortality and the need to be redeemed by the mercy of God. Far from being a merely external act, the Church has retained the use of ashes to symbolise that attitude of internal penance to which all the baptised are called during Lent. — Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

From the very early times the commemoration of the approach of Christ’s passion and death was observed by a period of self-denial. St Athanasius in the year 339 enjoined upon the people of Alexandria the 40 days’ fast he saw practised in Rome and elsewhere, “to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days.” On Ash Wednesday in the early days, the Pope went barefoot to St Sabina’s in Rome “to begin with holy fasts the exercises of Christian warfare, that as we do battle with the spirits of evil, we may be protected by the help of self-denial.

“In the course of this trial of forty days, which our weakness only finds long, we shall not be deprived of our Saviour’s presence. He has preceded and outpaced us on the royal road. He has tried it and accomplished its course before us, in order to answer, by His example, the excuses and arguments our self-indulgence or pride may urge. Let us accept the lesson fully and so arrive at an understanding of the law of expiation. “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is drawing near.” Let us open our heart to this appeal, that the Saviour may not be compelled to awake us from our lethargy by the terrible threat He employed on another occasion: “If you do not repent you shall all perish.”...Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger

“The enormity of the fact that Christ has, on our behalf, already taken the most extreme punishment upon Himself, should move us, not to leave Him isolated. It should also inspire us to rejoice that another has taken our place in representing sin before God – for not to rejoice at that, would be a further enormity. Instead of leaving Him alone, we should be moved to enter into His suffering for us, doing together with Him, what little we can do, to atone for the world’s sin!”…Hans Urs von Balthasar “Light of the World”

ACT OF CONTRITION

Forgive my sins, O my God, forgive my sins:
the sins of youth,
the sins of age;
the sins of my soul
and the sins of my body;
the sins which, through frailty, I have committed;
my deliberate and grievous sins,
the sins I know and the sins I do not know,
the sins I have laboured so long to hide from others,
that now they are hidden from my own memory;
let me be absolved from all these iniquities
and delivered from the bond of all these evils,
by the Life, Passion, and Death
of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen

LENT, MORNING Prayers, PAPAL MESSAGES

Ash Wednesday – 14 February 2018 Message of the Holy Father Francis for Lent 2018 on the theme: “Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24: 12).

Posted on February 14, 2018February 14, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Message of the Holy Father

“Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold” (Mt 24: 12)

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Once again, the Pasch of the Lord draws near! In our preparation for Easter, God in His providence offers us each year the season of Lent as a “sacramental sign of our conversion”. Lent summons us and enables us, to come back to the Lord wholeheartedly and in every aspect of our life.

With this message, I would like again this year to help the entire Church experience this time of grace anew, with joy and in truth. I will take my cue from the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: “Because of the increase of iniquity, the love of many will grow cold” (24:12).

These words appear in Christ’s preaching about the end of time. They were spoken in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives, where the Lord’s passion would begin. In reply to a question of the disciples, Jesus foretells a great tribulation and describes a situation in which the community of believers might well find itself: amid great trials, false prophets would lead people astray and the love that is the core of the Gospel would grow cold in the hearts of many.

False prophets
Let us listen to the Gospel passage and try to understand the guise such false prophets can assume.

They can appear as “snake charmers”, who manipulate human emotions in order to enslave others and lead them where they would have them go. How many of God’s children are mesmerised by momentary pleasures, mistaking them for true happiness! How many men and women live entranced by the dream of wealth, which only makes them slaves to profit and petty interests! How many go through life believing that they are sufficient unto themselves, and end up entrapped by loneliness!

False prophets can also be “charlatans”, who offer easy and immediate solutions to suffering that soon prove utterly useless. How many young people are taken in by the panacea of drugs, of disposable relationships, of easy but dishonest gains! How many more are ensnared in a thoroughly “virtual” existence, in which relationships appear quick and straightforward, only to prove meaningless! These swindlers, in peddling things that have no real value, rob people of all that is most precious: dignity, freedom and the ability to love. They appeal to our vanity, our trust in appearances but in the end they only make fools of us. Nor should we be surprised. In order to confound the human heart, the devil, who is “a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44), has always presented evil as good, falsehood as truth. That is why each of us is called to peer into our heart to see if we are falling prey to the lies of these false prophets. We must learn to look closely, beneath the surface, and to recognise what leaves a good and lasting mark on our hearts, because it comes from God and is truly for our benefit.

A cold heart
In his description of hell, Dante Alighieri pictures the devil seated on a throne of ice, in frozen and loveless isolation. We might well ask ourselves how it happens that charity can turn cold within us. What are the signs that indicate that our love is beginning to cool?

More than anything else, what destroys charity is greed for money, “the root of all evil” (1 Tim 6:10). The rejection of God and his peace soon follows; we prefer our own desolation rather than the comfort found in his word and the sacraments. All this leads to violence against anyone we think is a threat to our own “certainties”: the unborn child, the elderly and infirm, the migrant, the alien among us, or our neighbour who does not live up to our expectations.

Creation itself becomes a silent witness to this cooling of charity. The earth is poisoned by refuse, discarded out of carelessness or for self-interest. The seas, themselves polluted, engulf the remains of countless shipwrecked victims of forced migration. The heavens, which in God’s plan, were created to sing His praises, are rent by engines raining down implements of death.

Love can also grow cold in our own communities. In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I sought to describe the most evident signs of this lack of love: selfishness and spiritual sloth, sterile pessimism, the temptation to self-absorption, constant warring among ourselves and the worldly mentality that makes us concerned only for appearances, and thus lessens our missionary zeal.

What are we to do?
Perhaps we see, deep within ourselves and all about us, the signs I have just described. But the Church, our Mother and Teacher, along with the often bitter medicine of the truth, offers us in the Lenten season the soothing remedy of prayer, almsgiving and fasting.

By devoting more time to prayer, we enable our hearts to root out our secret lies and forms of self-deception and then to find the consolation God offers. He is our Father and he wants us to live life well.

Almsgiving sets us free from greed and helps us to regard our neighbour as a brother or sister. What I possess is never mine alone. How I would like almsgiving to become a genuine style of life for each of us! How I would like us, as Christians, to follow the example of the Apostles and see in the sharing of our possessions a tangible witness of the communion that is ours in the Church! For this reason, I echo Saint Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians to take up a collection for the community of Jerusalem as something from which they themselves would benefit (cf. 2 Cor 8:10). This is all the more fitting during the Lenten season, when many groups take up collections to assist Churches and peoples in need. Yet I would also hope that, even in our daily encounters with those who beg for our assistance, we would see such requests as coming from God Himself. When we give alms, we share in God’s providential care for each of His children. If through me, God helps someone today, will He not tomorrow provide for my own needs? For no one is more generous than God.

Fasting weakens our tendency to violence; it disarms us and becomes an important opportunity for growth. On the one hand, it allows us to experience what the destitute and the starving have to endure. On the other hand, it expresses our own spiritual hunger and thirst for life in God. Fasting wakes us up. It makes us more attentive to God and our neighbour. It revives our desire to obey God, who alone is capable of satisfying our hunger.

I would also like my invitation to extend beyond the bounds of the Catholic Church and to reach all of you, men and women of good will, who are open to hearing God’s voice. Perhaps, like ourselves, you are disturbed by the spread of iniquity in the world, you are concerned about the chill that paralyses hearts and actions and you see a weakening in our sense of being members of the one human family. Join us, then, in raising our plea to God, in fasting and in offering whatever you can to our brothers and sisters in need!

The fire of Easter
Above all, I urge the members of the Church to take up the Lenten journey with enthusiasm, sustained by almsgiving, fasting and prayer. If, at times, the flame of charity seems to die in our own hearts, know that this is never the case in the heart of God! He constantly gives us a chance to begin loving anew.

One such moment of grace will be, again this year, the “24 Hours for the Lord” initiative, which invites the entire Church community to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation in the context of Eucharistic adoration. In 2018, inspired by the words of Psalm 130:4, “With you is forgiveness”, this will take place from Friday, 9 March to Saturday, 10 March. In each diocese, at least one church will remain open for twenty-four consecutive hours, offering an opportunity for both Eucharistic adoration and sacramental confession.

During the Easter Vigil, we will celebrate once more the moving rite of the lighting of the Easter candle. Drawn from the “new fire”, this light will slowly overcome the darkness and illuminate the liturgical assembly. “May the light of Christ rising in glory dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds” and enable all of us to relive the experience of the disciples on the way to Emmaus. By listening to God’s word and drawing nourishment from the table of the Eucharist, may our hearts be ever more ardent in faith, hope and love.

With affection and the promise of my prayers for all of you, I send you my blessing. Please do not forget to pray for me.

From the Vatican

Francis

DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS

Quote of the Day – 14 February 2018 – Ash Wednesday

Posted on February 14, 2018February 13, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Quote of the Day – 14 February 2018 – Ash Wednesday

He need not fear anything,
nor be ashamed of anything,
who bears the sign of the cross
on his brow.

St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of the Church

DOCTORS of the Church, LENT, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FASTING, QUOTES on REPENTANCE, QUOTES on SANCTITY, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 14 February 2018 – Ash Wednesday

Posted on February 14, 2018February 13, 2018 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 14 February 2018 – Ash Wednesday

When you fast …groom your hair and wash your face ….Your father, who sees what is hidden will repay you.…Matthew 6:17-18

Fasting 2

REFLECTION – “Fasting, when rightly practised, lifts the mind to God and mortifies the flesh. It makes virtue easy to attain and increases our merits.”…St Francis de Sales (1567-1622) Doctor of the Church fasting when rightly practised - st francis de sales - ash wed 14 feb 2018

PRAYER – Support us Lord, as with this Lenten fast we begin our Christian warfare, so that in doing battle against the spirit of evil, we may be armed with the weapon of self-denial. Heavenly Father, help us to fast for the right reasons. Teach us to fast to curb illicit desires and to obtain closer union with You. Help us Lord, during this Lenten season to cleave to You alone and grow in sanctity and charity. Create in me a clean heart O Lord! Through our Lord Jesus Christ in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God forever, amen. o that today - ash wednesday 14 feb 2018

LENT, SAINT of the DAY

Ash Wednesday 2018 and Memorials of the Saints 14 February 2018

Posted on February 14, 2018February 13, 2018 by AnaStpaul

Ash Wednesday 2018: The first day of the season of Lent, so called from the custom of marking the foreheads of the faithful with blessed ashes. Its date depends upon that of Easter, and this year it’s on 14 February.

St Cyril (Memorial)
St Methodius (Memorial)

St Valentine of Rome (Optional Memorial)
—
St Abraham of Harran
St Antoninus of Sorrento
St Auxentius of Bithynia
St Conran of Orkney
St Eleuchadius
St Juan García López-Rico
St Nostrianus of Naples
St Theodosius of Vaison
St Valentine of Terni
Bl Vicente Vilar David
St Vitale of Spoleto
—
20 Mercedarians of Palermo
Martyrs of Alexandria – 16 saints
Martyrs of Rome
Felicula
Vitalis
Zeno

Martyrs of Terni: Three Christians who gave proper burial to Saint Valentine of Terni. Martyred in the persecutions of Aurelius.
273 in Terni, Italy – Apollonius, Ephebus, Proculus.

Martyrs of Alexandria: A group of Christians murdered in various ways for their faith in Alexandria, Egypt. We know the names and a few details about 16 of them – Agatho, Agatone, Ammonio, Ammonius, Antonius, Bassiano, Bassianus, Cirione, Cyrio, Dionysius, Dionysius, Lucio, Moses, Moses, Proto and Tonione.

CONFESSION/PENANCE, LENT, MORNING Prayers, NOTES to Followers, PRACTISING CATHOLIC

The meaning of Shrove Tuesday – 13 February 2018

Posted on February 13, 2018March 2, 2019 by AnaStpaul

The meaning of Shrove Tuesday – 13 February 2018

Shrove is the past tense of the word shrive, which means to hear a confession, assign penance and absolve from sin. In the Middle Ages, especially in Northern Europe and England, it became the custom to confess one’s sins on the day before Lent began in order to enter the penitential season in the right spirit. How I wish the Church would bring this practice back NOW and not concentrate on flipping pancakes – entendre intended! Though we, as the “Church” can re-institute this practice ourselves.

From the earliest days of Christianity, Lent, the penitential period before Easter, has always been a time of fasting and abstinence.

While the Lenten fast today is confined to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and abstinence from meat is required only on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and the other Fridays of Lent, in previous times (and not so long away either, ask anyone over 60) the fast was quite severe. Christians abstained from all meat and items that came from animals, including butter, eggs, cheese and fat.

That is why Shrove Tuesday became known as Mardi Gras, the French term for Fat Tuesday. Over time, Mardi Gras extended from a single day to the entire period of Shrovetide, the days from the last Sunday before Lent through Shrove Tuesday.

In the countries that speak Romance language (languages derived primarily from Latin), Shrovetide is also known as Carnivale—literally, “farewell to meat.” In the English-speaking countries, Shrove Tuesday became known as Pancake Day, because Christians used up their eggs, butter and milk to make pancakes and other pastries.

DEVOTIO, LENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on CONVERSION, QUOTES on OBEDIENCE, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on the DEVIL/EVIL, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 13 February – “Shrove Tuesday”

Posted on February 13, 2018 by AnaStpaul

One Minute Reflection – 13 February – “Shrove Tuesday”

“I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.”…John 17:14-15 shrove tuesday 1

REFLECTION – “In this sense, then, the world is everything that is opposed to our Lord Jesus Christ, that refuses to recognise Him and that resists His divine guidance. Those false maxims which tend to weaken the love of God in our souls; which recommended the vanities that fasten our hearts to this present life; which cry down everything that can raise us above our weaknesses or vices; which decoy and gratify our corrupt nature by dangerous pleasures, which, far from helping us to the attainment of our last end, only mislead us-all these are ‘the world.'”…Abbot Dom Prosper Gueranger (The Liturgical Year)

the world is everything - abbott gueranger - 13 feb 2018 shrove tuesday

PRAYER – All-provident Lord, my God, You are my Father and in You is all my hope and trust. Teach me to live according to Your precepts, knowing that through them I will attain virtue and thus be filled with true joy. Help me to love Your Creation but never to succumb to the enticements of the material world which constantly beckon and attempt to seduce my love. Grant us all strength during our Lenten journey to minimise the snares of the ‘world’ around us and to open our hearts only to You. Through our Saviour, who came to teach us and lead us, in unity with the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. the jesus prayer 3 - 13 feb 2018 - shrove tuesday

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Excerpt from “Behold the Man”, a Lenten Reflection

By Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)

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Pope Benedict XVI

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St Paul of the Cross (1694-1775)

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St Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226)

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St Peter Chrysologus (c 406 – c 450) Father & Doctor of the Church

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Message of the Holy Father

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St Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of the Church

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