Posted in EUCHARISTIC Adoration, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on HUMILITY, QUOTES on LOVE, QUOTES on PRAYER, QUOTES on SANCTITY, QUOTES on SUFFERING, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY EUCHARIST / The HOLY MASS

Quote/s of the Day – 4 January – The Memorial of St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)

Quote/s of the Day – 4 January – The Memorial of St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)

“Faith lifts the soul,
Hope supports it,
Experience says it must
and Love says…let it be!”faith lifts the soul - st e a seton - 4 jan 2018

“God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe,
yes everywhere
but in His Sacrament of the Altar
He is as present actually and really
as my soul within my body;
in His Sacrifice daily offered
as really as once offered on the Cross!”

“Our Lord Himself I saw in this venerable Sacrament . . .
I felt as if my chains fell, as those of St Peter,
at the touch of the Divine messenger.”

“How sweet, the presence of Jesus
to the longing, harassed soul!
It is instant peace and balm to every wound.”god is everywhere - st e a seton - 4 jan 2018

“We must pray without ceasing,
in every occurrence and employment
of our lives – that prayer which is rather
a habit of lifting up the heart to God
as in a constant communication with Him.”we must pray - seton - 4 jan 2018

“What was the first rule of our dear Saviour’s life?
You know it was to do his Father’s will.
Well, then, the first purpose of our daily work
is to do the will of God;
secondly, to do it in the manner He wills;
and thirdly, to do it because it is His will.
We know certainly that our God
calls us to a holy life.
We know that He gives us every grace,
every abundant grace
and though we are so weak of ourselves,
this grace is able to carry us through
every obstacle and difficulty.”what was the first rule - st e a seton - 4 jan 2018

“Afflictions are the steps to heaven.”

“Can you expect to go to heaven for nothing?
Did not our Saviour track the whole way to it
with His tears and blood?
And yet you stop at every little pain?”

“The gate of heaven is very low;
only the humble can enter it.”

St Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821)AFFLICTIONS ARE THE STEPS TO HEAVEN - ST SETON 4 JAN 2018

Posted in JESUIT SJ, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES on FAITH, SAINT of the DAY

Thought for the Day – 3 January – – The Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus & The celebration of the Titular Feast of the Society of Jesus

Thought for the Day – 3 January – – The Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus & The celebration of the Titular Feast of the Society of Jesus titular-feast-jesuit -3 Jan 2018-NO 2

The Mass for the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, the titular feast day for the Society of Jesus, was offered today by Pope Francis in the Church of Jesus/Gesu Church in Rome, the Home of the Jesuits.   Today the Church reminds us “to let the centre of … [our] heart be occupied by Christ.”

“This is the restlessness that Peter Favre [Faber] had, man of great desires, another Daniel.   Favre was a “modest, sensible man of profound interior life and gifted with the gift of close relations of friendship with persons of all sorts” (Benedict XVI, Address to Jesuits, April 22, 2006).   However, he was also a restless, uncertain and never satisfied spirit.   Under the guidance of Saint Ignatius he learned to unite his restless but also gentle — I would say exquisite – sensibility with the capacity to take decisions.
He was a man of great desires;  he took charge of his desires, he acknowledged them.   In fact for Favre, it was precisely when difficult things were proposed that his true spirit was manifested which moved him to action (cf. Memoriale, 301).

Authentic faith always implies a profound desire to change the world.   Here is the question we should ask ourselves:   do we also have great visions and dash?   Are we also daring?   Does our dream fly high?   Does zeal devour us (cf. Psalm 69:10)?   Or are we mediocre and content with our laboratory apostolic programs?

Let us remember always:  the strength of the Church does not lie in herself and in her organisational capacity but is hidden in the profound waters of God.   And these waters agitate our desires and desires enlarge the heart.   It is what Saint Augustine says:  pray to desire and desire to enlarge the heart.   In fact it was in his desires that Favre could discern God’s voice.   Without desires one goes nowhere and it is because of this that we must offer our desires to the Lord.   Stated in the Constitutions is that “one’s neighbour is helped, with desires presented to God our Lord” (Constitutions, 638). Pope Francis 3 January 2014authentic faith - pope francis

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life.   No one comes to the Father except through me.”…..John 14:6

LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON ME A SINNERthe jesus prayer - 3 jan 2018

Posted in CHRISTMASTIDE!, MORNING Prayers, PAPAL SERMONS, QUOTES - J R R Tolkien and MORE, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on LOVE, SAINT of the DAY

Quote/s of the Day – 26 December – The Memorial of St Stephen the First Martyr and the Second Day in the Octave of Christmas

Quote/s of the Day – 26 December – The Memorial of St Stephen the First Martyr and the Second Day in the Octave of Christmas

“The deep bond which links Christ
to His first martyr Stephen, is divine Charity –
the very Love which impelled the Son of God
to empty Himself and make Himself obedient
unto death on a Cross …It is always necessary
to notice this distinctive feature of Christian martyrdom,
it is exclusively an act of love for God and for man,
including persecutors.”

Pope Benedict XVI – 26 December 2007

” …Like his Master, St Stephen died forgiving his persecutors
and thus makes us realise that the entry into the world
of the Son of God gives rise to a new civilisation,
the civilisation of love that does not yield to evil
and violence and pulls down the barriers
between men and women, making them brothers and sisters
in the great family of God’s children.”

Pope Benedict XVI – 26 December 2009the deep bond - pope benedict - 26 dec 2017

Posted in ADVENT, FATHERS of the Church, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FAITH, QUOTES on LOVE, The HOLY EUCHARIST / The HOLY MASS

Thought for the Day – 18 December – Monday of Gaudete Week and the Memorial of Bl Giulia Nemesia Valle (1847-1916) – Called “the Angel of Charity”

Thought for the Day – 18 December – Monday of Gaudete Week and the Memorial of Bl Giulia Nemesia Valle (1847-1916) – Called “the Angel of Charity”

Try to gather together more frequently to give thanks to God and to praise Him.   For when you come together frequently, Satan’s powers are undermined and the destruction that he threatens is done away with in the unanimity of your faith.   Nothing is better than peace, in which all warfare between heaven and earth is brought to an end.

None of this will escape you if you have perfect faith and love toward Jesus Christ.  These are the beginning and the end of life:  faith the beginning, love the end.  When these two are found together, there is God and everything else concerning right living follows from them.   No one professing faith sins: no one possessing love hates.   A tree is known by its fruit.   So those who profess to belong to Christ will be known by what they do. For the work we are about is not a matter of words here and now but depends on the power of faith and on being found faithful to the end.

…Nothing is hidden from the Lord but even our secrets are close to Him.   Let us then do everything in the knowledge that He is dwelling within us that we may be His temples, and He, God within us.   He is and will reveal Himself, in our sight, according to the love we bear Him in holiness.

St Ignatius of Antioch (35-108)

(excerpt from a letter to the Ephesians by Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop, Martyr, Father of the Church)

Faith means the fundamental response
to the love that has offered itself up for me.
It thus becomes clear that faith is ordered primarily
to the inconceivability of God’s love,
which surpasses us and anticipates us.
Love alone is credible;
nothing else can be believed
and nothing else ought to be believed.
This is the achievement, the ‘work’ of faith:
to recognise this absolute prius,
which nothing else can surpass;
to believe that there is such a thing as love, absolute love
and that there is nothing higher or greater than it.

Cardinal Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1905-1988)faith means - card hans urs von balthasar - 18 dec 2017

Posted in ADVENT, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, QUOTES on FAITH, SAINT of the DAY, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 11 December – The Memorial of St Pope Damasus I (c 305-384)

One Minute Reflection – 11 December – The Memorial of St Pope Damasus I (c 305-384)

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see…Hebrews 11:1hebrews 11 1

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 Ihe who walking on the sea - st pope damasus I - 11 dec 2017

PRAYER – Jesus, my Lord and my God, grant us the grace of faith to believe that all that You have said will be fulfilled.   And fill us with Your Holy Spirit of love so that we may translate that belief into practice, by obeying Your commands every day.   St Pope Damasus, you proved your love for Christ and His Church, please pray that we may always be faithful and filled with a like zeal for the Church and Bride of Christ, amen.st p[ope damasus - pray for us - 11 dec 2017