Thought for the Day – 15 December
In her love of the crucified Christ, St Maria Crocifissa di Rosa, saw her mission in the suffering members of His Mystical Body. She made their suffering her own and became the servant of all. How often do we see Christ in others, especially those who are sick and suffering? Perhaps this Advent I may pray that my eyes be opened to the suffering around me.
St Maria di Rosa, Pray for us!
Quote of the Day – 15 December
“Those who refuse to be humble cannot be saved.”
~~~ St Bede
One Minute Reflection – 15 December
Live on in me, as I do in you………..Jn 15:4
REFLECTION – Unfurl the sails, and let God steer us where He will……………(For) All the ways of this world are as fickle and unstable as a sudden storm at sea……St Bede
PRAYER – Lord God, grant me the grace to see all human beings as potential persons in whom You dwell. And let me respect them because of You my God. Let me see the Face of Your Son in all. Teach me to follow Christ who is my Lord and Redeemer and see His presence in all, as St Maria di Rosa did, for love of You. St Maria di Rosa, Pray for us. Amen
Our Morning Offering – 15 December
Grant us Your light O Lord
so that the darkness of our hearts
ay wholly pass away
and we may come at last to the light of Christ.
For Christ is that Morning Star
who when the night of this world has passed
brings to His saints the promised light of life
and opens to them everlasting day.
Amen
by St Bede from “On the Apocalypse”
Thought for the Day – 14 December
John, in his life and writings, has a crucial word for us today. We tend to be rich, soft, comfortable. We shrink even from words like self-denial, mortification, purification, asceticism, discipline. We run from the cross. John’s message—like the gospel—is loud and clear: Don’t—if you really want to live!
“O you souls who wish to go on with so much safety and consolation, if you knew how pleasing to God is suffering and how much it helps in acquiring other good things, you would never seek consolation in anything; but you would rather look upon it as a great happiness to bear the Cross of the Lord.” – Saint John of the Cross
St John of the Cross Pray for Us!
Quotes of the Day – 14 December
“In giving us His Son, His only Word,
He spoke everything to us at once
in this sole Word – and He has no more to say…
because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts,
He has now spoken all at once by giving us
the ALL Who is His Son.”
“If a man wishes to be sure of the road
he treads on, he must close his eyes
and walk in the dark.”
“Those who trust in themselves
are worse than the devil!”
“At the end of your life,
you will be judged by your love.”
~~~ ST JOHN OF THE CROSS (Saint of the Day)
One Minute Reflection – 14 December
Lead a life worthy of the Lord
and pleasing to him in every way….
Multiply good works of every sort…..
.Col 1:10
REFLECTION – Strive uneasingly to be pleasing to God and ask Him to accomplish His will in you.
Love Him with all your might; you owe Him a great deal!………….St John of the Cross (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – God of power and might, let me do always the things that are pleasing to You. For You are my Greatest Benefactor and my Sole Good. St John of the Cross Pray for us that we may achieve total commitment and love for God. Amen
Our Morning Offering – 14 December
PRAYER OF PEACE
BY SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS.
O blessed Jesus,
give me stillness of soul in You.
Let Your mighty calmness reign in me.
Rule me, O King of Gentleness,
King of Peace.
Thought for the Day – 13 December
Lucy’s feast comes during Advent, when we wait for the coming of Christ, the Light of the World. It is said that our eyes are the windows into our souls. There is physical blindness and there is also inner blindness. I often wonder how many opportunities I have missed or have been blind to when it comes to being an instrument of Christ’s light for others. In a world filled with the darkness of greed, selfishness and individualism, light is needed and we have been given the wonderful challenge to be that light for others. Stamping out the darkness that surrounds and envelops our world by courageously standing up for our faith would result in a world of brilliant Christ-light!
St Lucy is a genuine, authentic heroine, first class, an abiding inspiration for all Christians. The moral courage of the young Sicilian martyr shines forth as a guiding light, just as bright for today’s youth as it was in A.D. 304.
St Lucy Pray for us!
Quote of the Day – 13 December
“The more we are afflicted in this world,
the greater is our assurance in the next;
the more we sorrow in the present,
the greater will be our joy in the future.”
~~~ St Isidore of Seville
One Minute Reflection – 13 December
Be on your guard,
stand firm in the faith,
be courageous, be strong…..1 Cor 16:13
REFLECTION – “If you were to lift my hand to your idol and so make me offer against my will, I would still be guiltless in the sight of the true God, who judges according to the will and knows all things. If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. You cannot bend my will to your purpose; whatever you do to my body, that cannot happen to me.”……….St Lucy (Saint of the Day)
PRAYER – Father in heaven, teach me to store up a treasury of merits for eternity. Grant that I may use this earthly life to be person You want me to be. St Lucy, pray for us that we too may chieve courage and true love for God, that we may become lights of love in this world and thus obtain the crown of glory for all eternity. Amen
Our Morning Offering – 13 December
Lord Jesus Christ,
by Your patience in suffering
You made holy earthly pain
and gave us the example
of obedience to Your Father’s will:
Be near me
in the trials of my day
and in time of weakness;
sustain me by Your grace,
that my strength and courage
may not fail;
bless me according to Your will;
and help me always to believe
that what happens to me here
is of little account
if You hold me in eternal life,
my Lord and my God. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer, 1979, adapted
Mary’s appearance to St Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary and the God who sent her accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for Native Americans. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God’s preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God’s love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.
Mary’s visit to Guadalupe is a reminder that God will remember his mercy for all people. In Mary’s song of joy, the Magnificat, she praised God because he has put down the mighty, exalted the lowly, filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Pray for us!
Quote of the Day – 12 December
“Am I not here, I, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, the crossing of my arms? Am I not the source of all your joy? What more do you need? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”
– The Virgin Mary, to St. Juan Diego at Tepeyac Hill
One Minute Reflection – 12 December
Who is this that comes like the dawn ….. as awe-inspiring as bannered troops?…..Song 6:10
REFLECTION – Mary is an arsenal of graces and she comes to the aid of her clients. She sustains, strengthens and revives us by the heavenly favours that she heaps on us…..St Paulinus
PRAYER – Lord Jesus Christ my Lord, help me to become a devoted client of Your holy Mother Mary. Through Your grace, may I receive the spiritual strength she has promised to all her clients. May I, in simplicity, like St Juan Diego, become her vessel to share Your Light of Love throughout my world. Our Lady of Gaudulupe Pray for us! Amen
Our Morning Offering – 12 December
MORNING OFFERING TO OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE
O Immaculate Heart of Mary, Heart of my Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe, I unite to your purity, your sanctity, your zeal and your love, all my thoughts, words, acts and sufferings this day, that there may be nothing in me that does not become through you, a pleasure to Jesus, a gain to souls and an act of reparation for the offenses against your Heart. I offer this in union with the Holy Sacrifice of your Son throughout the world today. Amen
Our Morning Offering – 11 December
SUSCIPE PRAYER of Ven Catherine McAuley
My God, I am Yours for time and eternity.
Teach me to cast myself entirely
into the arms of Your loving Providence
with a lively, unlimited confidence
in Your compassionate, tender pity.
Grant, O most merciful Redeemer,
That whatever You ordain or permit
may be acceptable to me.
Take from my heart all painful anxiety;
let nothing sadden me but sin,
nothing delight me
but the hope of coming
to the possession of You
my God and my all,
in your everlasting kingdom.
Amen.
One Minute Reflection – 11 December
Blest are they who have not seen and yet have believed……….Jn 20:29
REFLECTION – “He who walking on the sea could calm the bitter waves, who gives life to the dying seeds of the earth; He who was able to loose the mortal chains of death and after three days’ darkness could bring again to the upper world the brother for sister Martha: He, I believe, will make Damasus rise again from the dust.”……………St Pope Damasus I
PRAYER – Jesus my Lord and my God, help me to believe in You with all my might. And let me translate that belief into practice by obeying Your commands every day. St Pope Damasus Pray for us. Amen
Thought for the Day – 11 December
To his secretary Saint Jerome, Damasus was “an incomparable person, learned in the Scriptures, a virgin doctor of the virgin Church, who loved chastity and heard its praises with pleasure.” Damasus seldom heard such unrestrained praise. Internal political struggles, doctrinal heresies, uneasy relations with his fellow bishops and those of the Eastern Church marred the peace of his pontificate.
The history of the papacy and the Church is inextricably mixed with the personal biography of Damasus. In a troubled and pivotal period of Church history, he stands forth as a zealous defender of the faith who knew when to be progressive and when to entrench.
St Damasus Pray for us!
Quote of the Day – 11 December
“It is our part to seek,
His to grant what we ask;
ours to make a beginning,
His to bring it to completion;
ours to offer what we can,
His to finish what we cannot.”
~~~ St Jerome
LORETO enshrines the original home of the holiest persons who walked the earth: the God-Man Jesus Christ, His mother Mary and the virginal father, St. Joseph. Therefore, it should not be surprising that this sanctuary should attract Saints. There is a marble plaque in the basilica on which are carved the names of thirty-nine saints and twenty-two other holy persons who came on pilgrimage to Loreto. In 1846, there were one hundred and sixty names. One hundred and fifty years later that number must have easily doubled.
Among the more famous and well-known saints are SS. Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, John Berchmans, Stanislaus Kostka, Francis Borgia, Charles Borromeo, Francis of Paula, Francis de Sales, Bernardine of Siena, John of Capistrano, Lawrence of Brindisi, Philip Neri, Camillus de Lellis, Louis Guanella, Robert Bellarmine, Gabriel Possenti, Clement Hofbauer, Brigit of Sweden, Madaleine Sophie Barat, Alphonsus Liguori, Louis Grignon de Montfort, Aloysius Gonzaga, John Bosco and Therese of Lisieux. Blessed Anthony Grassi came to the shrine fifty times. The Holy Spirit obviously is the archenemy of the devil, the father of lies. The favoured friends of the Holy Spirit, the Saints, in whom He took up His abode in a very special way, loved the truth and were rarely taken in by the father of lies. So when we see a vast array of these intimate friends of God visiting the Holy House of Loreto to pay their homage and pray at the very place where the Word was made flesh, we cannot help but be further impressed at its authenticity. No other Marian shrine in the world can boast of such an array of Saints and holy souls visiting its sacred precincts.
If one were to single out a Saint who was particularly attached to Loreto, it would seem that the pilgrim saint, Benedict Joseph Labre, would have first place. After finding out that his vocation was to be a rather exceptional one—–literally a pilgrim beggar—–Benedict left his home in France in 1770 for Rome at age twenty-two. On this first journey, he stopped on his way at Loreto and Assisi. He stayed in Rome for nine months visiting all the holy places but was back in Loreto in September of the following year. In June 1772, he was back again at Loreto. He then extended his pilgrimages to all the famous shrines in Europe. At the end of 1776, he settled down in Rome, leaving only to make an occasional pilgrimage to his favorite shrine, the Holy House. He continued this each year until his death in 1783 at the age of 35.
The people of Loreto came to know him well. He was that beggar who lived on the charity of others, refusing to take any more than necessary to fill his immediate needs. When compassionate friends offered him a room closer to the shrine, he turned it down when he found it contained a bed. Surely the poverty and utter detachment of the Holy Family of Nazareth was reflected in a most outstanding way in this Saint who spent many long vigils of prayer in the Holy House.
St Benedict Joseph Labre Pray for us!
“I went to Loreto with a simple faith, believing what I still believe, even more so after having seen. Now I no longer have any doubts. If you ask me why I believe it, it is because everyone believes it in Rome—–cautious and skeptical as they are in many other things. I believe it as I believe that there is a planet called Neptune, or that chloroform destroys the sense of pain. I have no prior difficulties on this point.”
“It was thought that St. Maximilian Kolbe never visited Loreto. Our Lady, however, always manages to bring to what was her home while on earth those who revere and venerate her in a special way. It comes as no surprise, then, to learn from the Mass register of the Basilica that he participated in a Mass along with thirty priests from Yugoslavia on July 13,1919. The following day, the feast of the Franciscan theologian St. Bonaventure, he celebrated Mass within the Holy house itself. And so another name, a modem day Saint, has been added to the list of Saints and holy persons who have visited the shrine of Loreto. Undoubtedly there will be many more as time goes on, paying their respects and drawing inspiration from the holiest House in this world. ”
Blessed Cardinal Henry John Newman – written in 1848 and 1884
The Popes on Loreto – http://www.catholictradition.org/Mary/loreto3b.htm
One Minute Reflection – 10 December
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind………..Lk 10:27
REFLECTION – Love for Christ pierced Mary’s heart in such a way that no part of it was left unkindled.
Mary thus fulfilled the first commandment of love in all its fullness and without the slightest imperfection…………..St Bernard
PRAYER – O Mother! You, who carried the Divine Saviour in your immaculate womb and lived with Him in the Holy House that we venerate on the Loreto Hill, grant us the grace to seek Him and imitate His example, He who leads us to salvation. Our Lady of Loreto work miracles in us all! Amen
Our Morning Offering – 10 December
PRAYER OF POPE BENEDICT XVI – VISIT TO THE SHRINE OF LORETO
Mary, Mother of the “Yes”, you listened to Jesus,
and know the tone of His voice and the beating of His heart.
Morning Star, speak to us of Him,
and tell us about your journey of following Him on the path of faith.
Mary, who dwelt with Jesus in Nazareth,
impress on our lives your sentiments,
your docility, your attentive silence,
and make the Word flourish in genuinely free choices.
Mary, speak to us of Jesus, so that the freshness of our faith
shines in our eyes and warms the heart of those we meet,
as you did when visiting Elizabeth,
who in her old age rejoiced with you for the gift of life.
Mary, Virgin of the Magnificat
help us to bring joy to the world and as at Cana,
lead every person involved in service of others
to do only what Jesus will tell them.
Mary, look upon the youth,
so that the soil of the Church will be fertile.
Pray that Jesus, dead and Risen, is reborn in us,
and transforms us into a night full of light, full of Him.
Mary, Our Lady of Loreto, Gate of Heaven,
help us to lift our eyes on high.
We want to see Jesus, to speak with Him,
to proclaim His love to all.
Amen
Thought for the Day – 8 December
In Luke 1:28 the angel Gabriel, speaking on God’s behalf, addresses Mary as “full of grace” (or “highly favoured”). In that context, this phrase means that Mary is receiving all the special divine help necessary for the task ahead. However, the Church grows in understanding with the help of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit led the Church, especially non-theologians, to the insight that Mary had to be the most perfect work of God next to the Incarnation. Or rather, Mary’s intimate association with the Incarnation called for the special involvement of God in Mary’s whole life.
The logic of piety helped God’s people to believe that Mary was full of grace and free of sin from the first moment of her existence. Moreover, this great privilege of Mary is the highlight of all that God has done in Jesus. Rightly understood, the incomparable holiness of Mary shows forth the incomparable goodness of God and the role of Mary in our salvation. And never forget, at Lourdes when Bernadette asked of the beautiful Lady ‘who shall I say you are’ she replied “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Mary Immaculate Pray for us!
Quote of the Day – 8 December
The Apostolic Constitution «Ineffabilis Deus», published on 8th December 1854, more 150 years ago, by Blessed Pope Pius IX on the theology regarding the privilege of the Immaculate Conception, in the following solemn proclamation of this Dogma of Catholic faith:
“To the honour of the holy and undivided Trinity, to the worthiness and splendid beauty of the Virgin Mother of God, to the upholding of the Catholic faith and to the furthering of the Christian religion, with the authority of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with that of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul and with Our own authority, we declare, we pronounce and we define the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the very first moments of her Conception, through the singular grace of Almighty God and through the foresight of the merits of Christ Jesus, Saviour of the human race, was preserved immune from all stains of original sin. We furthermore declare, pronounce and define that this doctrine has been revealed by God, and therefore has to be strongly and always believed by all the faithful.”
Image 1 – El Greco; Image 2 – Tiepolo
One Minute Reflection – 8 December
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul,
with all your strength and with all your mind ………………Lk 10:22
REFLECTION – Love for Christ pierced Mary’s heart in such a way that no part
of it was left unkindled.
Mary thus fulfilled the first commandment of love in all its fullness and without the
slightest imperfection…………St Bernard
PRAYER – Heavenly Father, help me to imitate Your Immaculate Daughter Mary in her love
for You. Grant me the grace to love You as much as I can all my life. O Mary Immaculate,
Pray for us!
Our Morning Offering – 8 December
Father,
You prepared the Virgin Mary
to be the worthy mother of Your Son.
You let her share beforehand
in the salvation
Christ would bring by His death,
and kept her sinless
from the first moment of her conception.
Help us by her prayers
to live in Your presence without sin.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
who lives and reigns
with You and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen
Thought for the Day
St Ambrose exemplifies for us the truly catholic character of Christianity.
He is a man steeped in the learning, law and culture of the ancients and of his contemporaries. Yet, in the midst of active involvement in this world, this thought runs through Ambrose’ life and preaching:- the hidden meaning of the Scriptures calls our spirit to rise to another world.
It is all for HIM, all for the WORD made flesh, all for GOD that we live!
St Ambrose Pray for us!
Quote/s of the Day – St Ambrose (Saint of the Day)
“The Church of the Lord is built upon the rock of the apostles among so many dangers in the world; it therefore remains unmoved. The Church’s foundation is unshakable and firm against assaults of the raging sea. Waves lash at the Church but do not shatter it. Although the elements of this world constantly beat upon the Church with crashing sounds, the Church possesses the safest harbour of salvation for all in distress.”
“Our own evil inclinations are far more dangerous than any external enemies.”
“Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the everlasting light.”
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