Posted in CHRIST, the WAY,TRUTH,LIFE, DOCTORS of the Church, FATHERS of the Church, I BELIEVE!, LENT 2020, LENTEN PRAYERS & NOVENAS, LENTEN THOUGHTS, MARIAN PRAYERS, PRAYERS for SEASONS, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, QUOTES for CHRIST, QUOTES of the SAINTS, The HOLY CROSS, The PASSION, The RESURRECTION, The WORD, To JESUS through MARY

Lenten Reflection – 28 March – “This is the Christ.”

Lenten Reflection – 28 March – Saturday of the Fourth week of Lent, Readings: Jeremiah 11:18-20, Psalm 7:2-3, 9-12, John 7:40-53

“Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall declare your praise.”

Others said, “This is the Christ.” ... John 7:41

Daily Meditation:
Apart from You we can do nothing.

“In Christ we encounter such human characteristics that they have nothing to distinguish them from the weakness common to us mortals.   At the same time, we encounter characteristics so divine, that they can only be appropriate to the sovereign and ineffable divine nature.   Too small to comprehend this, the human mind is so dumbfounded, that it does not know what to take its stand on, nor which path to follow. Is it aware of God in Christ?   Yet it sees Him die.   Does it take Him to be a man?   But see Him coming back from the dead with the prize of His victory, having destroyed the reign of death.   In the same way our contemplation needs to be practised with such reverence and fear that, in the same Jesus, it considers the truth of the two natures, avoiding attributing to the divine essence those things that are not worthy of it or do not belong to it but also avoiding seeing only an illusory appearance in historical events.

In truth, causing such things as these to be heard by human ears, trying to express them in words considerably surpasses our ability, talent and language.   I even think it surpasses the capability of the apostles.   More still, the explanation of this mystery probably transcends the entire order of angelic powers.” … Origen (c 185-253) Father, Priest and Theologian

My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
Psalm 7:10

but-see-him-coming-back-from-the-dead-6-april-2019-origen and 28 march 2020

Intercessions:
Let us always and everywhere give thanks to Christ our Saviour
and ask Him with confidence:
Lord, help us with Your grace.

May we keep our bodies pure,
– as temples of the Holy Spirit.
May we offer ourselves this day to the service of others
– and do Your will in all things throughout the day.
Teach us to seek the bread of everlasting life,
– the bread that is Your gift.
May Your Mother, the refuge of sinners, pray for us,
– and gain for us your loving forgiveness.

john-7-44-and-7-41-satfourthweeklent-6-april-2019 and 28 march 2020

Closing Prayer:

O Jesus, Mary’s Son!
By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Doctor Angelicus, Doctor communis

Hail to Thee! True body sprung
From the Virgin Mary’s womb!
The same that on the cross was hung
And bore for man the bitter doom.
Thou Whose side was pierced and flowed
Both with water and with blood.
Suffer us to taste of Thee
In our life’s last agony.
O kind, O loving One!
O Jesus, Mary’s Son!
Ameno jesus mary's son st thomas aquinas 28 march 2020

Advertisement
Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, Our MORNING Offering, PRACTISING CATHOLIC, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Our Morning Offering – 17 January – Grant Me, O Lord My God

Our Morning Offering – 17 January – Friday of the First week in Ordinary Time, Year A

Grant Me, O Lord My God
By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
Doctor angelicus
Doctor communis

Grant me, O Lord my God,
a mind to know Thee,
a heart to seek Thee,
wisdom to find Thee,
conduct pleasing to Thee,
faithful perseverance
in waiting for Thee,
and a hope of finally
embracing Thee.
Amengrant me o lord my god - st thomas aquinas 17 jan 2020

Posted in CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, DOCTORS of the Church, DOMINICAN OP, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, FRANCISCAN OFM, MORNING Prayers, ON the SAINTS, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, QUOTES of the SAINTS, SAINT of the DAY, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Sunday Reflection – 3 June 2018 – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Sunday Reflection – 3 June 2018 – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi

There is a claim that the Adoro Te Devote, our morning offering today, was the prayer that St Thomas Aquinas addressed to Christ as he was dying.   The claim remains doubtful, (in the sense that it is a highly intricate prayer and it would be difficult to write whilst very ill) but the account that his biographer, William of Tocco, gives of the holy Doctor’s last moments of life is, in itself, an extraordinary testimony of Eucharistic devotion and reveals the source of the doctrine that, directly or indirectly, inspired the most beautiful Eucharistic texts of the Latin Church, including the Adoro Te Devote.

“Feeling his strength failing and sensing the nearness of his departure from this world, the holy Doctor, with great devotion, requested the viaticum of the Christian pilgrimage, the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
After the abbot and the monks had brought the Eucharist to him, he prostrated himself on the ground, weak in body but strong in spirit and went, with tears, to meet his Lord.
Then, in the presence of the Sacrament of the Body of Christ, as is the custom with every Christian at the moment of death, he was asked if he believed that in that consecrated host was the true Son of God, born of the womb of the Virgin, suspended from the scaffold of the Cross, who died and rose for us on the third day. With a free voice and great devotion, mingled with tears, he replied:
“I truly believe and hold as certain that He is true God and true man, Son of God and of the Virgin Mother and I believe with my heart and profess with my lips, that which the priest has asked me of this most Holy Sacrament.”
And after some words of devotion (at this point it is believed St Thomas quoted the Adoro), receiving the Sacrament, he exclaimed:
“I receive You, price of the Redemption of my soul, for love of which I have studied, watched and worked, I have preached and taught You, I have said nothing against You nor am I obstinate in my opinion, if in some part I have spoken poorly of this Sacrament, I submit all to the correction of the Holy Roman Church, in who obedience, I pass from this life.”

May we also, at the end of life, be able to say the same as St Thomas Aquinas!

Let us be transported to the same climate of expectation and joyful hope as we feel in the Adoro Te Devote with these last words of the Lauda Sion, the Eucharistic hymn/sequence also written by St Thomas Aquinas. (Fr Raneiro Cantalamessa O.F.M. “This is My Body”)

Source of all we have or know,
feed and lead us here below.
Grant that with Your saints above,
Sitting at the feast of love,
We may see You face to face.

Amen Alleluia!

Lord Jesus Christ, in the Most Blessed Sacrament, we Adore and Love You!lauda sion - lord jesus christ in the most blessed sacrament - corpus christi - 3 june 2018 - sunday reflection

St Thomas Aquinas, Pray for us!st thomas aquinas pray for us - corpus christi - 3 june 2018

Posted in CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, DOCTORS of the Church, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, HYMNS, JESUIT SJ, MORNING Prayers, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PRAYERS of the SAINTS, The HOLY EUCHARIST

Our Morning Offering – 3 June 2018 – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Our Morning Offering – 3 June 2018 – The Solemnity of Corpus Christi

Adoro te devote
By St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Doctor of the Church
Trans. Fr Gerard Manley Hopkins S.J. (1844-1889)

Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore,
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.

Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived:
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true.

On the cross thy godhead made no sign to men,
Here thy very manhood steals from human ken:
Both are my confession, both are my belief,
And I pray the prayer of the dying thief.

I am not like Thomas, wounds I cannot see,
But can plainly call thee Lord and God as he;
Let me to a deeper faith daily nearer move,
Daily make me harder hope and dearer love.

O thou our reminder of Christ crucified,
Living Bread, the life of us for whom he died,
Lend this life to me then: feed and feast my mind,
There be thou the sweetness man was meant to find.

Bring the tender tale true of the Pelican;
Bathe me, Jesu Lord, in what thy bosom ran—
Blood whereof a single drop has power to win
All the world forgiveness of its world of sin.

Jesu, whom I look at shrouded here below,
I beseech thee send me what I thirst for so,
Some day to gaze on thee face to face in light
And be blest for ever with thy glory’s sight.
Amenadoro te devote - st thomas aquinas - corpus christi - 3 june 2018.jpg

Original Latin

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas,
Quæ sub his figuris vere latitas;
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit,
Quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur,
Sed auditu solo tuto creditur.
Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius;
Nil hoc verbo veritátis verius.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas,
At hic latet simul et Humanitas,
Ambo tamen credens atque confitens,
Peto quod petivit latro pœnitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor:
Deum tamen meum te confiteor.
Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
In te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini,
Panis vivus, vitam præstans homini,
Præsta meæ menti de te vívere,
Et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie Pelicane, Jesu Domine,
Me immundum munda tuo sanguine:
Cujus una stilla salvum facere
Totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,
Oro, fiat illud quod tam sitio:
Ut te revelata cernens facie,
Visu sim beátus tuæ gloriæ.
Amen

Posted in CATHOLIC DEVOTIONS of the Month, CATHOLIC-PRAYERS OF THE CHURCH, DOCTORS of the Church, EUCHARISTIC Adoration, FEASTS and SOLEMNITIES, HYMNS, JESUIT SJ, MORNING Prayers, POETRY, PRAYERS of the CHURCH, PRAYERS of the SAINTS

Our Morning Offering – 18 June 2017 – The Feast of Copus Christi

Our Morning Offering – 18 June 2017 – The Feast of Copus Christi

ADORO te DEVOTE – HIDDEN GOD
St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Doctor
and its most famous English translation
by Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ (1844-1889)

Hidden God, devoutly I adore Thee,
Truly present underneath these veils:
All my heart subdues itself before Thee,
Since it all before Thee faints and fails.

Not to sight, or taste, or touch be credit,
Hearing only do we trust secure;
I believe, for God the Son hath said it–
Word of Truth that ever shall endure.

On the Cross was veiled Thy Godhead’s splendour,
Here Thy manhood lieth hidden too;
Unto both alike my faith I render,
And, as sued the contrite thief, I sue.

Though I look not on Thy wounds with Thomas,
Thee, my Lord, and Thee, my God, I call:
Make me more and more believe Thy promise,
Hope in Thee, and love Thee over all.

O Memorial of my Saviour dying,
Living Bread that givest life to man;
May my soul, its life from Thee supplying,
Taste Thy sweetness, as on earth it can.

Deign, O Jesus, pelican* of heaven,
Me, a sinner, in Thy Blood to lave,
To a single drop of which is given
All the world from all its sin to save.

Contemplating Lord, Thy hidden presence,
Grant me what I thirst for and implore,
In the revelation of Thine essence
To behold Thy glory evermore.

ADORO te DEVOTE - ST THOMAS AQUINAS TRANSLATE G M HOPKINS SJ

Posted in DOCTORS of the Church, MORNING Prayers, QUOTES of the SAINTS, SAINT of the DAY, The WORD

One Minute Reflection – 13 February

One Minute Reflection – 13 February

Find your delight in the LORD
who will give you your heart’s desire………….Psalm 37:4

REFLECTION – “Happiness is secured through virtue;
it is a good attained by man’s own will.” ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, St Thomas Aquinas

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.   Blessed Jordan of Saxony, you were filled with love for your fellowman and through your virtue you assisted many to achieve holiness and happiness.  Pray for us that we may too be filled with virtue, love and the true happiness of God which is joy, amen.

psalm-37-4happiness-is-secured-through-virtue-stthomasaquinasblessed-jordan-of-saxony-pray-for-us