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6th Sunday after Pentecost - Confidence in God

7/20/2019

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WHILE meditating on the different circumstances of this day's Gospel, you shall find... in it the great foundations of Christian confidence, viz., the knowledge of God, His goodness, and His power.

First Point.—The knowledge of God is the first foundation of our confidence in Him. See, by the Gospel of to-day, how all that concerns us is of greatest concern to Jesus, in the past, the present, and the future. For the past: Jesus reminds His disciples that during three days the people followed Him. He therefore knows how long we have served Him, and He has counted all the moments. Our divine Saviour adds: "Some of them have come from afar." Not only does He count the time, but He knows all that it has cost us to come to Him—the temptations we have resisted, the obstacles we have overcome, and the sacrifices we have imposed on ourselves. There is not a step taken for Him that He has not seen and which He does not remember. Ah, how sweet it is to serve a Master who knows so well all that we have done for Him!

For the present: Jesus warns His disciples that the people are in great need and that He has not wherewith to nourish them. Whatsoever may be the situation in which we are, God sees us and knows all our needs; He knows our misery and our poverty, our losses and our misfortunes, our afflictions and our pains, our temptations and our weakness, our spiritual and temporal wants. Men do not know them, and often they wish neither to know them nor to believe them. Why then do you place your confidence in men, and not in God alone? Why do you not seek your consolation in this sweet thought, that God sees everything and knows everything?

For the future, Jesus reminds the apostles of the danger of sending the people away without having given them some nourishment. Ordinarily it is the future which is the cause of our greatest solicitude; it is the future which the demon employs frequently to disturb and discourage us; but why are we disturbed by a future of which we are ignorant? God only knows it; let us leave it to His care. Not only does He see the future, but He sees it in relation to us; He sees what must befall us, whether it be happy or unfortunate, and He knows the means to put away from us whatever may be injurious and to procure for us whatever may be advantageous. Let us therefore place in Him our entire confidence. Then shall we give Him the most glorious worship that is possible for us, and we shall find, for ourselves, the most precious blessing, viz., peace of heart.
 
Second Point.-The goodness of God is the second foundation of our confidence. Jesus, having called His disciples, said to them: - "I have compassion on the people." The knowledge which God has of our needs is not a sterile knowledge. Alas', men, for the most part, when they see us in affliction remain insensible. The fortunate ones of the world hearing of the sufferings of the poor, are but little moved and neglect to bring them assistance. But it is not so with our God. The sight of our miseries excites in Him the sentiments of tenderest compassion: "I have compassion on the multitude because they continue with Me now three days and have not what to eat; and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." What treasures of tenderness are enclosed in the heart of Jesus, since these words escaped from His lips.  O my amiable Saviour, whose heart is sensible to all miseries, shall Thou behold mine and not be moved?

The knowledge which God has of our needs stirs His Sacred Heart with compassion; it does more, it prompts Him to assist us. Jesus, having represented to His apostles that the people who had followed Him for three days had nothing to eat added "I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way." Listen to these words you who follow Christ and who are faithfully attached to Him! Yes, in His service you shall suffer. He will test your fervor and your constancy to a certain point, but He knows how far and how long your strength will last, and He will not allow you to be tried beyond that. Everything seems to be wanting; your condition has become desperate; relatives, friends, protectors, all have abandoned you ; but your God will never abandon you, He will assist you. Where shall this assistance come from ? This is the objection which the apostles raise. "Whence then should we have so many loaves in the desert, as to fill so great a multitude?" 'Whence shall come the assistance? You do not know, nor can you foresee; but should it not suffice to know that God wishes we should have it, and that He does not wish we should be abandoned in our need? Rest assured in the bosom of His infinite goodness, persevere in the sentiments of the fullest confidence, and you shall not be deceived.

Third Point.—The power of God is the third foundation of our confidence in Him. "And taking the seven loaves which His apostles gave Him, He blessed them and distributed them to the people. All did eat and were filled, and they took up that which was left of the fragments, seven baskets. And they that had eaten were about four thousand men, without counting the women and children." What a prodigy ! What abundance ! And yet this prodigy of power God renews every day in favor of His children.

In the general order of nature every year the earth is covered by new riches to provide for all our needs, the plants grow again, the animals are multiplied, the grains and fruits are reproduced. This prodigy as admirable as it is constant; a prodigy which should give us an exalted idea of the power of God and fill our hearts with tenderest gratitude. But, ungrateful and unfaithful as we are, we think only of enjoying the gifts of God, without ever thinking of the omnipotent hand which has lavished them.

This prodigy is renewed every day in the special order of His providence. God has secret resources for those who put their trust in Him. The miracles which He employs are not always shining and sensible miracles, but they are the miracles of a Providence as attentive and as admirable as they are hidden. We find some just and charitable souls who aid the poor, assist the unfortunate, contribute to the decorations of the altars, assist in all good works, and who, however, are never in need themselves. The more they give, the more they have to give, without knowing whence or how the abundance comes. Everything prospers with them, and goods seem to multiply in their hands. Whatever they give is as a seed which produces a hundredfold. It is the consequence of their confidence in Him whose providence governs everything and provides everything.

This prodigy of power is renewed every day in the order of grace. The miracle of the multiplication of loaves is the figure of the Eucharistic bread. In what profusion the Lord has provided for the nourishment of our souls? Not only does He give us His grace, but He gives us Himself, who is the Author of all grace. If we are in need, if we are weak and languishing, the fault is our own. Do we need the bread of the strong, or is the bread of the strong wanting in strength? It is we who need it; we are wanting to ourselves, allowing ourselves to die of hunger in the midst of abundance, either because we refuse to eat of this bread which is offered us, or because we do not partake of it with the necessary dispositions.

O my God, Thou beholdest all my temporal and spiritual needs. Thy goodness is moved by them, and Thou wishest to help me; Thy power is infinite, and nothing can resist Thee. In whom shall I hope if I do not hope in Thee? Ah, Lord, the more pressing my needs shall be, the more my soul shall languish and the greater shall be my confidence in Thee.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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5th Sunday after Pentecost - On Christian Justice

7/6/2019

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JESUS, in the Gospel of today, warns you that if your piety would be agreeable to God, it must excel the justice of the Pharisees. He reproaches these hypocritical men, by declaring that all their justice was most culpable since it was purely exterior, wholly incomplete, and most interested.

First Point—The justice of the Pharisees was wholly exterior. Jesus said to them: "You are careful to cleanse the exterior of the cup regardless of what is within it," and for this reason He calls them "whited sepulchres" St. Luke also speaks of the justice of the Pharisees: "I am not as the rest of men." In what do you excel, vain and proud man ? " I fast twice in the week and I pay the tenth of all I possess." He boasts only of his external works, and they that resemble him are attached only to the external observances. The Pharisee does not abandon or despise the practices of piety, or the ceremonies of religion. Exterior worship is a duty, and the sloth or false shame which makes us neglect it is a sin. But it is quite another thing to be engaged solely in exterior works of piety, and to put aside the virtues which are in the soul; this is really to possess a Pharisaical justice.

If your piety be true, it must be united to virtue. To be pious without being virtuous is to cleanse the outside of the cup without putting in it the perfume which must attract the pleasure of God; it is to resemble those whited sepulchres of which the Saviour spoke, which appeared beautiful in the eyes of men, but which were within full of dead bones and corruption. If, therefore, you wish that your worship may be an act of adoration, and not a falsehood, it must be the expression of your interior sentiments; otherwise you shall merit this reproach of the Saviou: " These people honor me with their
lips, but their hearts are far from me." Yes, says Bossuet, to say prayers, to go to church, assist at the holy sacrifice, to take holy water, and to kneel without having the spirit of all this, is pharisaical justice. It seems to have some exactitude, but it is reprobated by God, who wishes to have, particularly, the homage of the heart. Is this deceitful piety, which was so common in the Mosaic law, very rare in the Church of Jesus Christ ? Alas, how many Christians pride themselves on their regularity, and place all their perfection in the fulfillment of the exterior duties which religion commands, while they neglect what is most imperiously commanded—to restrain their temper, regulate their inclinations, and repress their passions!

How many are considered as devout people because they are assiduous in the temple, and who are vain, sensual, angry, and detractors? They are scrupulous at the slightest neglect in their habits of devotion, but they have no remorse for their numerous defects. The reason of this inversion of principles is not easily understood. The external practices are not so difficult as the exercise of interior virtue the performance of some acts costs less than self reformation. We, therefore, abandon the duties which require combats against ourselves, to indulge in practices which are more to our tastes. Guard well against this deceitful piety, which will hopelessly ruin you because it forms in you a conscience which is truly false.

Second Point.—The justice of the Pharisee, was incomplete. True justice, that which shone in the lives of the saints, is an act of obedience and fidelity to all the commandments: it fulfilled all the law. Jesus has said: "He that loves Me shall keep My commandments." He did not say some of My commandments, nor for some time only, but all the commandments, and always, and at every age. The Pharisees chose, according to their caprice, those commandments which were convenient for them. They practiced certain observances which were to their taste, and neglected the most essential precepts. This is the reproach which Jesus made to them, and with a severity of language which clearly shows the indignation with which this vicious piety inspired Him. "Woe to you, Pharisees, hypocrites, because you are exact in paying tithes, you are faithful in observing certain legal ceremonies, and you forget the essential duties of justice, charity and mercy."

The Pharisees considered it a crime to gather a bundle of straw on the Sabbath day, while on that same day they formed intrigues against Jesus. They took care to wash their hands before their repasts, and charged the apostles with a crime for neglecting this practice ; but at the same time they violated the precept which commanded them to honor father and mother. This is certainly a strange combination of piety and sin which can be explained only with difficulty. If we are unfaithful in little things, and stand firm in greater matters, this would be a consequence of our poor human frailty; but that we should discover a piety whose character is to be exact even to scrupulosity in little things, and to neglect things which are essential, is one of the grossest illusions. But it is so frequent that it cannot be guarded against too much. Look upon it as one of the pitfalls which the demon places for souls which he sees strongly attached to virtue. If he tempted them to commit sin, these souls would reject the temptation with horror. Having no hope to seduce them, he strives to lead them astray. He employs, however, the contrary means. It is through their very taste for piety that he tempts them. He places before their eyes the means of apparent perfection, but not real, and inspires them with an unwise ardor in their exercise. Because these practices are to their taste, they remain faithful to them nevertheless. And one of the scandals of the world, one of the reproaches which irreligion urges against piety, is to behold true obligations, those which the profession of piety imposes and which justice and charity prescribe, sacrificed to false duties.

To avoid all illusion, we must distinguish well between what is only mere counsel and what is of precept; between the things which are of simple perfection and those which are of rigorous obligation. We should be faithful to the first through love, and to the others through duty. To do that which is only a counsel and to neglect that which is a precept is the sign of a false devotion; to do only that which is of precept and to despise what is merely of counsel is a sign of slothfulness; but to faithfully attend to both, the precept and the counsel, is indeed perfection.

Third Point.—The justice of the Pharisees was interested. They sought only the esteem of men, and cared little for the esteem of God. They prayed to be seen, they gave alms to be applauded, and they fasted to earn for themselves the reputation of being just men. Men, charmed by all their external beauty, honored and venerated them; but Jesus, who read their hearts, exclaimed: "Woe to you, hypocrites, who pretend to pray in public, and who sound the trumpet when you distribute alms, you have already received your reward." But is your virtue really exempt from that gross pride which was the only motive of the Pharisee ; is it wholly disinterested? Pride is very subtle, and there are many little winding ways by which it enters our soul. That your piety may be disinterested it is necessary in all you do—prayers, alms, good works, confessions, communions—that you should have but the single intention of pleasing God; every other motive shall be a stain on your soul, if it be not completely effaced. And now, is your piety truly disinterested ? Indeed, it is not a hypocritical piety, but is it truly God, only, you seek in your devotion? Is it He or His consolations? Is it the thought that you wish to honor God which makes you desire to receive holy communion so often, or that prompts your prayer on certain days? Or is it because you find a certain pleasure in the performance of these exercises of devotion? If God should withdraw that sensible pleasure you experience, would you continue to pray and approach the sacraments? Have these exercises of devotion ceased to be agreeable to the heart of God when they ceased to be consoling to you? Then it is not for God that you have been virtuous and faithful; it was for yourself. We should fear the anathema hurled by our divine Saviour against the Pharisees: "They have already received their reward."

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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4th Sunday after Pentecost - On the Church

7/6/2019

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 "THE Gospel of today contains a grand and beautiful instruction. If we reflect upon it well ... we shall find in it all the prerogatives which distinguish the bark of Peter, that is to say, the Holy Roman Catholic Church, and the signs which manifest our love for her.

First Point—"And Jesus, going up into one of the ships, which was Peter's." If Jesus entered the bark of Peter, it was not by chance He did so. He has wished to teach us that if we would find this bark we must seek it in the Church which Peter and his successors conduct and govern. The ship of which Peter is the head is the only one which carries Christ; the others are not with Him nor is He with them. They do not carry His doctrine to the different parts of the world; they carry only the sad inventions of men. Thus the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Greeks, and the Anglicans are not the Church of Jesus, because they are not in the bark of Peter. The true Church is one in its doctrine, in its worship, in its hierarchy, while the others change their morale, their creed, and their worship according to caprice, to climate, and to the passions of men. In their eternal variations and in their multiplied creeds they openly contradict Jesus, who, in praying for His Church, said to His Father: "Keep them, that they may be one, as you and I are one." The Holy Roman Catholic Church, which is your mother, since it is from her bosom you have drawn your Christian life, possesses unity of doctrine, and, although she has countless children scattered over all the countries of the world, she everywhere teaches to all the same doctrine; among the savages as well as in civilized countries, to the children of the king as well as to the children of the poor, and she owes this unity of belief to her hierarchy divinely instituted. The Sovereign Pontiff has received, in the person of the Prince of the apostles, the mission to "confirm his brethren in the faith," and as a vigilant sentinel he watches over the integrity of the faith and repudiates every change in it. Think, for an instant, on this phenomenon of the unity of faith, in the multiplicity of the faithful! Two men cannot be in accord for a quarter of an hour, and yet millions of men during nineteen centuries believe the same truths and without discussion submit their intelligence to the same faith. How can this wonder be explained?

Represent to yourself a man seated on a rock in the midst of the ocean, and insisting that the waves should observe a uniform motion. You would exclaim: "This is truly a wonder." Well, there is a man who, from his seat on the rock on which Jesus has built His Church, commands disturbed minds and insists on a uniform method of thinking, and that man is the Pope. At his feet he beholds the rise and flow of human opinions which disturb and overthrow everything in the world, while he does not change, and by his authority he maintains unity in the Church. Is it possible not to see the finger of God in all this?

Jesus in the bark of Peter confirms the truth of His words in the wonder of the miraculous fishing. Thus He has granted to His Church, and to her only, the grace of working miracles in all ages and in all countries. This is the divine mark by which we recognize the bark of Peter. The flight of demons, the resurrection of the dead, the gift of prophecy, and the healing of those who were hopelessly sick—this is what you shall find on every page of the Church's history. While the apostolic men proclaimed God's truths, He confirmed their preaching by miracles. A miracle is a palpable, invincible proof; it is the seal of God placed on the divine word sent from heaven to earth. By the gift of miracles God tells us: It is I who have sent these men, and the proof of it is that I have clothed them with My power, and if they had not been sent by Me would nature obey them? "God," says Bossuet, "has the right to make Himself believed, and also the means to make Himself heard. As soon as an affirmation is signed by these two words, "I the Lord" and as soon as that signature is legalized by His inimitable seal—the miracle—it is He who speaks, it is He who commands, and we have only to believe and obey! Jesus commanded Peter to launch his bark out into the deep. What does this mean ? It indicates the exalted life, wholly supernatural and heavenly, to which the Church, by her doctrine, by her morale, and by the omnipotent power of her sacraments, leads us. In her fold, and there only, we behold the divine virtues brightly shining and men rising to the highest degree of sanctity and perfection. Is this character of sanctity found among the dissenting sects? No, in this regard God has struck them with an eternal sterility, and you shall never find among them a single man who, by his heroic virtues, has won the admiration of the world, as a St. Francis de Sales, a Vincent de Paul, a St. Charles Borromeo, and others.

The deep waters to which Peter was commanded to go represent those regions of the world which are most distant. The Saviour seemed to say to Peter: "I shall place under your shepherd's staff all the nations of the earth. You shall preach the Gospel to every creature, you shall guide the sinners back to the fold, you shall convert the pagans, and of all the people you shall make but one sheepfold, one flock, of which you shall be the only shepherd." And so Catholic Rome extends her activity over the whole world—in the islands of America and Oceania, among the most uncivilized people of Africa as well as among the polished cities of Europe, everywhere Peter baptizes, preaches, and converts souls, and, whatever may be the obstacles, he shall always continue until he shall have landed in the haven of safety the last soul that shall ever live on earth.

It is recorded in the Gospel that the bark of Peter was almost submerged. The Church also has been exposed from time to time by tempests so formidable that her enemies have said: "It is all over for the Church," and her friends trembled while expecting to see her engulfed by the flood of human passions. But they who hoped and they who feared for the ruin of the Church did not know the extent
of the promises which Jesus had made to His Church when He said: "The gates of hell shall not prevail against her." Relying on this promise, true Catholics entertain no fear for the Church; they know that Jesus is with her, that He conducts her, He prays for her, and that sooner or later she shall come forth triumphant from all her trials. The past gives assurance for the future. A brutal and barbarous persecution passed over the Church during three hundred years, and the Church triumphed in the conversion of her executioners. Heresies then followed; they were reduced to helplessness, while she remains full of life and prosperous, and the branches which have separated from her' languish and ultimately die. The war of passions, pride, pleasure, and impiety arises in every age; the attacks are so violent that the bark of Peter is rudely shaken, but she is never submerged. The enemies of the Church die penitent or impenitent, and silence promptly falls about their tombs, and the Church stands erect on the ruins of her oppressors. This perpetuity of the Church, in the midst of the instability of human things, is one of the most striking proofs of the divinity of her origin.

O Church of God, my mother, I am devoted to you from the depths of my heart, I wish to love you and obey you, and to remain faithful to you until death. Guide me, enlighten me, and conduct me to the haven of salvation.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897


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2019 - 2020 Maidens for Mary and Crusaders for Christ  Student Planners

7/6/2019

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The printed copies of the Maidens for Mary and Crusaders for Christ 2019-2020 Student Planners are now available to purchase.  These planners begin with August of 2019 and end with June of 2020. You may view them by looking at the scribd file below. A print your own PDF file can be found here. They are copyrighted, so please abide by the copyright laws.

You can purchase a printed and bound version by clicking here: Bellas Little Shoppe. THEY ARE PRINTED AND READY TO SHIP.
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Spiritual Communion

7/1/2019

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                                                  CHAPTER XV
                                    SPIRITUAL COMMUNION
"If any man shall hear My voice, and open lo Me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him,and he with Me."—Apocal. iii, 20.
THESE talks on communion would not be complete if nothing were said of spiritual communion.
Now, the catechism of the Council of Trent, called also the Roman Catechism, because it is the official formulary of the Roman doctrine, uses the following words: "The shepherds of souls should teach their flock that there is not one manner only of receiving the admirable fruits of the sacrament of the Eucharist, but that there are two: sacramental communion and spiritual communion."

Spiritual communion is little known, and still less practiced; and yet it is a special and incomparable source of graces. "It is, by itself," says Father Faber, " one of the greatest powers of the world." "By it," writes St. Leonard of Port-Maurice, " many souls have attained a high perfection."

To derive from this inestimable treasury all the wealth which it contains it must be understood:
(1) in what spiritual communion consists;
(2) what graces it confers; and
(3) in what manner it may be practiced.

In what does spiritual communion consist? It is, in the first place, a communion; the Council of Trent states this expressly. It is therefore an actual participation in the graces of the Eucharist, although distinct from the sacramental participation properly so called. We have already seen what graces flow into souls from the Eucharist; so that it is enough, in order to estimate the value of spiritual communion, to know that it does truly confer upon us a considerable proportion of those graces. We shall presently see in what measure and to what extent. This communion is effected not externally, as in sacramental communion, but spiritually; that is, internally and mentally, without any material and corporal action; spiritually, that is, again, supernaturally or divinely. It is also called "interior communion," communion of the heart, invisible or mystical communion, because it unites us with Jesus in a secret and mysterious manner, without a visible sign as in sacramental communion. It is also called "virtual communion," because it has the power of making us participate in the fruits of the Eucharist.

What must one do in order to communicate spiritually? Is it enough to make acts of faith and love toward Jesus present in the Eucharist? No. We must expressly formulate the desire to communicate; and in order that this desire may be sincere we must be so disposed that we could communicate sacramentally, if it were possible. On the other hand, a simple desire, if deep and sincere, no matter how brief and rapid, is sufficient to constitute spiritual communion. Obviously, the longer the desire is prolonged the more fruitful is the communion. But by a simple impulse of the heart toward Jesus present in the Eucharist we communicate spiritually, we participate in the graces of sacramental communion. How can this be ? I will explain.

Our Lord is in the Eucharist for us; and His desire to come into us, to be wholly ours, to possess us, to live in us, is a supreme desire that asks only that it may satisfy itself. "I am consumed with the desire to give Myself to thee," said our Lord to the venerable Jeanne Marie of the Cross; " and the more I give Myself the more I desire to give Myself anew. After each of thy communions I am like the pilgrim devoured with thirst, to whom a drop of water is given, and who is thereby made to thirst yet more. It is thus that I aspire continually to give Myself to thee." Jesus addresses these very words to each of you. Jesus wishes to enter your heart every day by sacramental communion; yet even that does not suffice Him; He would come again and again, without ceasing. This divine desire is realised by spiritual communion. "Every time thou desirest Me," He said to St. Mechtilde, "thou dost draw Me to thee. A desire, a sigh, is enough to make thee possess Me."

Our Lord has often revealed to saintly souls, and in different ways. His ardent desire to unite Himself with us. To the blessed Margaret Mary He said: "Thy desire to receive Me has so sweetly touched My heart, that if I had not already instituted this sacrament I should have done so at this moment, in order to give Myself to thee." Our Lord charged St. Margaret of Cortona to remind a monk of the word of St. Augustine: "Believe, and thou wilt have eaten;" that is to say, make an act of faith and desire towards the Eucharist, and you will be nourished by that divine food.

To the blessed Ida of Louvain, during a mass at which she could not communicate, Jesus said: "Call Me, and I will come!" "Come, O Jesus I" she cried at once, and felt herself filled with happiness as though she had really communicated. And after a spiritual communion of which she tasted the full delight, St. Catherine of Siena heard our Lord say to her: "In such manner and place as may please Me I can, I will, I am able marvellously to satisfy the holy ardours of a soul that desires Me."

This desire of Jesus to unite Himself to us is infinite and all-powerful; it knows no other obstacle than our liberty. Jesus has multiplied miracles in order to enclose Himself in the host that He may give Himself to us. What does it cost Him to work one miracle the more, to give Himself to us directly without the intervention of the sacrament? Is He not master of Himself, of all His graces, of His divinity? And if, being called by a few words, He descends from heaven into the host between the hands and at the will of the priest, will He not descend directly from heaven into our hearts if He is called by the ardour of our desire ?

O marvellous power of the human soul! O power of a sincere desire, inspired by love! Power which allows each one of you to realize for herself, in a certain manner, what the priest accomplishes for all the faithful! Hagar, flying to the desert and seeing that her child was dying of thirst, sent up a despairing cry to heaven, and a spring of pure water welled forth immediately to save mother and child. Cry, therefore, to God, telling Him your desire, and God will reply to you in causing a spring of eternal life to well forth from His heart to sanctify your soul!

A poor savage has no priest to baptize him, but he sends the voice of his desire up to God: behold him baptized ! A poor sinner turns to God. In the midst of her confusion she lifts her eyes towards the infinite Goodness; she thirsts for love and forgiveness: behold, she is forgiven ! You cannot approach the holy table; either you have already communicated or some obstacle prevents you. Gaze upon the host in the tabernacle with eyes of longing; declare your hunger and thirst to Jesus. Say to Him: "Jesus, come; I die without Thee!" Jesus will hasten: you will have communicated.

During mass the priest takes the host between his hands; he recollects himself, he bows himself, and he speaks a few words. Immediately the heavens open; Jesus hastens, at the voice of His friend who calls Him: behold Him between the hands of the priest! And you, pious soul ! Meditate profoundly; shape an ardent wish within your heart. Touched and urged by this desire, Jesus will hasten to His well-beloved: behold Him in your heart!

O ineffable Goodness, O infinite generosity, O unbounded munificence, O bewildering love! It is no longer God who is sovereign Master; and the creature is no longer servant. The creature becomes the sovereign mistress of God; and God makes Himself the eager andobedient servant of the creature. "I come not among you," said Jesus, "to be served, but to serve." Spiritual communion is truly an infinite power given to the creature over the Creator, to the pious soul over Jesus ! Father Faber is right: "Spiritual communion is one of the mightiest powers in the world!" * How express the innumerable fruits which spiritual communion brings us ? All is summed up when we say that it is a communion; that is, a participation in the Eucharist and the graces of sacramental communion. The Council of Trent, speaking of the usage of the admirable sacrament of the Eucharist, distinctly states that ** some receive it spiritually: these are those who, partaking in desire of the celestial bread which is set before them, taste the fruits and the benefit of the sacrament." Thus, according to the Council of
Trent, and according to all theology, spiritual communion is a spiritual manducation of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore all that we have said of the fruits of sacramental communion is also true of this, although in a different manner and in a less degree.**

The first effect of spiritual communion is therefore to increase our union with the humanity and the divinity of the Word made flesh. This is its principal effect, its essential advantage; all other graces received proceed from this. Briefly they are as follows: Fervour is revived. "Spiritual communion," says the Cure d'Ars, "revives the soul as a bellows does the fire which is covered with ashes and about to die. When we feel the love of God growing cold, let us make hastily a spiritual communion !" Poor heart ! it so easily loses its heat, so soon becomes covered with ashes ! Spiritual communion revives the fire and makes the flames of fervour break forth anew. In the midst of our trials during this pilgrimage here below sadness is forever taking possession of us; and our hearts become filled with heavy mists. Spiritual communion dissipates this mist like the morning sun; it brings joy back to the heart and sets the soul at peace. It also keeps us in a state of recollection; it is the best means we have to preserve us from the dissipation of our thoughts, from frivolity and all the wanderings of the spirit and imagination. It accustoms us to keep our regard fixed upon Jesus, to preserve a sweet and constant intimacy with Him, to live always heart to heart with Him.

It detaches us from all that is merely sensible and earthly; it makes us disdain passing vanities, the pleasures of this world, which are only for a time. "It is the bread of the heart !" said St. Augustine. "It is the healing of the heart !" It keeps the heart from all that is impure and imperfect, it transforms it and unites it closely to the heart of Jesus. It renders our relations with Jesus more tender and familiar. It makes our devotion to Him warmer and deeper. It enables us to taste more fully the charm and sweetness of His presence.

"When I make the sign of the cross," writes St. Angela of Foligno, "and place my hand on my heart, in saying "The Son ". . . I experience a rush of love and a great tenderness, because I feel that Jesus is there."

Spiritual communion places Jesus there, in the very centre of our heart; His presence is permanent and brings us infinite happiness. Spiritual communion has also a wonderful efficacy in effacing venial faults and remitting the penalties of sin. Pious souls who communicate spiritually often and well will be exempt from the flames of purgatory. Jesus will bear them straight from earth to heaven, as He did
the soul of Joan of Arc, which was seen at the moment of her death to mount directly to paradise in the form of a pure white dove.

Spiritual communion will give to those souls which have communicated well a surprising glory in heaven. Our Lord told St. Gertrude that every time we regard the sacred host with devotion we augment our eternal happiness, preparing for ourselves blessings above in proportion as we have multiplied our desires full of love and longing for the Holy Eucharist here on earth. Souls that have often communicated in spirit will shine in heaven with peculiar splendour, and will taste especial joys, sweeter and more holy than those known to others.

Spiritual communions, day by day increasing our desire to receive Jesus, urge us to sacramental communion, prevent us from missing it by our own fault or negligence, send us to communion more frequently, and dispose us to communicate better and to receive more abundant fruits therefrom.

Spiritual communion is, according to the testimony of all the saints, the best preparation for sacramental communion. Remember, too, that spiritual communion may be offered for the sake of our neighbour; either on behalf of the living or the dead. St. Margaret Mary recommended spiritual communion on behalf of the souls in purgatory. "You will greatly comfort these poor afflicted souls," said she, "by offering spiritual communions on their behalf, in order to redeem the bad use they have made of sacramental communions."

Finally, you must understand that you receive all these benefits and graces which flow from spiritual communion according to your dispositions; that is, according to the value of your desires. The more intense your desire to communicate, the purer, the more prolonged, the more fully will you participate in the fruits of the Eucharist and all the favours which we have enumerated; and this without other limits than the ardour, extent, and keenness of your desires.
 
The saints are unanimous in exalting the marvels of spiritual communion. They go so far as to say, with the venerable Jeanne Marie of the Cross, "that God by this means often fills us with the same graces as in sacramental communion"; and with St. Gertrude and Father Rodriguez, that "sometimes the graces are still greater, for," says the latter, "although sacramental communion is in itself of a greater efficacy, yet the fervour of desire may compensate for this inequality."

What more precious encouragement to spiritual communion could be given? How can one urge you further to make such communions frequently .'' When will you make them ? You will do so always during mass, when you attend without being able to communicate sacramentally. "You must," says Rodriguez, "devour the divine food with the eyes of the spirit. You must open the mouth of the soul, with an ardent desire to receive the celestial manna, and to savour its sweetness slowly in the heart."

You will make a spiritual communion, according to the advice of St. Alphonsus Liguori, at the beginning and the end of your visits to the blessed sacrament. What a wonderful manner of employing this precious time! Jesus is really there, a few paces distant, filled with the desire to come to you. Long for Him with the same ardent desire, and He will come and unite Himself to you in a consoling intimacy. You will leave the church inflamed with love. You will make a spiritual communion in the morning, as soon as you have awakened from sleep. "At your awakening," said our Lord to St. Mechtilde, "long for Me with all your heart. Draw Me to you by a sigh of love, and I will come, I will perform in you all your works, and I will suffer in you all your pains."

You will communicate in spirit after your prayer, or at the end of your meditation, on finishing your spiritual reading, before or after reciting the rosary, and at night as you fall asleep. You may communicate spiritually ten times, twenty times a day, as often as you will; for a few short moments suffice, a few words of prayer directed to Jesus present in the Eucharist imploring Him to come to you. It is not the time that signifies; it is the ardour, the vehemence of the desire, the hunger and thirst of the soul, the eagerness of the heart.

As for the formula, the best will be that which comes most spontaneously, most sincerely from the inmost recesses of your being. That in which you put the most love, and above all the most tender, pure, generous, and disinterested love; that in which you feel most sure of making Jesus feel that you love Him for Himself. You will say to Him:
"O Jesus, come; oh, come ! I have need of Thee; my soul sighs and languishes apart from Thee; I hunger and thirst after Thee; all is dreary when Thou art not here! "O Jesus, I cannot live far from Thee; I die without Thee. O Father, Friend, O Well beloved, come, I beg Thee, come! O Love, Love, instill into my heart all the ardour of the seraphim and all the most radiant feelings of Thy divine Mother !

"O infinite Love, come Thou Thyself and love in me; come, and kindle in my heart all the most ardent desires that have consumed Thine own! "Above all, O Love, may I love Thee for Thyself! May I forget myself, lose sight of myself, lose myself in Thee ! Enter into me, that I may live no longer, that Thou alone mayst live in me ! " As Thy Father is glorified in Thee, so be Thou glorified in me ! Take all that is in me to make it Thine forever!" Enter into me to continue Thy works. Thy prayers, Thy virtues, Thy sufferings. Thine expiations. Thy merits ! "O Jesus, O Well-beloved, nothing for me, but all for Thee, and forever ! Enter into me, live in me, that we may be consummated in one!"

Thus you will make your spiritual communions, or in other terms still warmer, with expressions yet more ardent. Often even you will say nothing, you will remain silent, for the lips become incapable of formulating the desires of the heart when the heart is carried away and ravished by divine love ! Then it is unspeakable suffering not to be able to express what one feels. But Jesus sees this inner suffering, and to Him it is perfect homage; it fills Him with joy, for it reveals more love than all the words and cries of the most impassioned heart. And all these desires, all these impulses, all these feelings that Jesus Himself awakens within you, and which He feels more than you—I leave you to think whether He will not reward them.

By the ardour of their desires for spiritual communion, the saints have often obtained miracles. Hosts have left the hands of the priest and given themselves spontaneously to them. Angels, sometimes the Blessed Virgin, or St. John, or our Lord Himself, have appeared to them and given them the sacrament. You will not be granted such miracles. No matter, if you do really, though invisibly, obtain the same graces. And these graces you will receive, if you consider, on the one hand, the worth and value, the excellence and the nature of spiritual communion; and if, on the other hand, you will remember with what ease you can effect it, at any hour of the day or night. How ungrateful then you would be, how culpable and inexcusable, if, understanding spiritual communion and the incalculable riches which it contains, you were not to resort to it, at least once a day, and much oftener still!

For of all the means of sanctification is there one which is more within your reach, more efficacious, and more marvellous ?

* However, spiritual communion must not be confounded with sacramental communion; still less must the latter be dispensed with on the pretext that the former will take its place. communion is also true of this, although in a different manner and in a less degree.*
**Our Lord one day showed the pious Paula Maresca a golden ciborium containing her sacramental communions and a silver ciborium containing her spiritual communions; He thus marked their relative value.



Source: HOLY COMMUNION by MONSEIGNEUR DE GIBERGUES, Imprimatur 1923
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3rd Sunday after Pentecost - Devotion to the Sacred Heart

6/30/2019

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WE celebrate today the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Let us enter into the senti-ments of the Church by meditating on the object of this feast land the duties which it imposes.
First Point.—-By instituting the feast of the Sacred Heart, the Church has wished to honor the immense love with which the heart of God has burned for us, and to eternalize the memory of it. In fact, the heart is the seat of the affections and the principle of generous devotion. To establish a feast in honor of the heart of Jesus is, therefore, to erect a monument which shall recall the sacrifices which the love of Jesus for men has imposed on Him. And what is more natural than such an institution? To console herself for the loss of her cherished child, a mother retains a part of his clothing. A child, to solace his sorrow, erects a suitable monument to the memory of the mother whom he has lost; a people set free from slavery wish to preserve the generous heart of the liberator whom death has removed from their gratitude; in fact, it seems that while these precious pledges keep their regrets alive, they still sweeten their bitterness.

The feast of the Sacred Heart is a monument which must constantly recall the love and the blessings of our divine Saviour. In the Eucharist we adore not only His divine nature, but also His body and blood; by a particular feast we venerate His adorable wounds and the very thorns with which His sacred brow was crowned, the nails which pierced His hands and feet, and the cross on which He expired. How then shall we refuse our homages to this Sacred Heart, the noblest and tenderest portion of His sacred humanity? All blessings have come to us from this divine Heart. By the mouth of Jesus it has published those evangelical truths which teach us the way to heaven. It was the heart of Jesus that wept over Lazarus in the tomb, and over the ill-fated city of Jerusalem—sad figures of a soul stained by sin. It was His heart which prompted Him to heal the sick and call the children to Him, and to pardon sinners and raise the dead to life. It was His heart which poured out its bloody sweat from every part of His body in the Garden of Olives. If it is true that one deserves to be loved in proportion as they love, what love does not our adorable Saviour merit? Open the Gospel and judge of it for yourself. How amiable He is when He compares Himself to a Father who weeps for very joy at seeing His prodigal son return; when He depicts Himself to us under the image of the Good Shepherd who seeks for His lost sheep; when He pardons the woman taken in the commission of sin, and when He allows the vilest sinners to approach Him. Whom do you see at His feet? Magdalene, a public sinner. And on whom does He bestow His tenderness and mildness? On the poor children whom He caresses. He meets with a widow who mourns the loss of her only son, and His heart is touched with pity and He commands death to give back its victim. Behold Him at Jacob's well, conversing with the Samaritan woman and revealing to her the secret of His divinity. Is it possible to manifest more merciful tenderness? But behold the masterpiece of His love ! Before the Good Shepherd had given His life for His flock, He had given them His heart, by instituting the Blessed Eucharist. Other shepherds provide food for themselves from their flock, but Jesus gives Himself to His sheep to be their nourishment: "Eat, this is My body, drink, this is My blood." And He shall remain with them till the end of time to sustain and console them. " Come to Me, all you who are heavily laden, all you that suffer, come to Me whosoever you may be, and I shall refresh you." Where shall you find love more constant, words that are sweeter, or invitation more pressing? You are worthy of pity if these thoughts do not reach your heart.

Second Point.—To suitably honor the heart of Jesus, three conditions are necessary: We should invoke it with confidence, imitate it with fidelity, and love it generously. Invoke it with confidence. It is the heart of a friend, and you could not doubt it for a moment, especially after reflecting on what has just been told you. You shall seek in vain to find a heart that loves you with more devotion. But besides, it is the heart of a God. You may doubt the constancy of some mortal friend and you may suspect his fidelity; you may exhaust his kindness, for every human love is inconstant and all human goodness has limits; but the heart of a God! ah, no. When human friendship fails, His friendship shall never fail and is the only one worth striving for. How often does mistrust and suspicion invade our hearts and wound the Sacred Heart of Jesus! We think that we shall never acquire piety, or overcome certain defects, or conquer certain temptations; we think, therefore, that Jesus does not love us sufficiently to help us, or that He is not powerful enough to defend us against the demon! Be on your guard against such despairing thoughts. They are one of the most dangerous temptations, especially in certain circumstances, when a great confidence can alone give us the strength to overcome every obstacle. You should imitate the heart of Jesus if you wish to honor it worthily. To imitate the heart of Jesus is to copy it. Now, when you wish to copy a picture, you must first study it. To copy the heart of Jesus, the first thing to do is to strive to know it well. The god of philosophers is known by the prodigies and wonders which come from his hands, but the God of the humble Christian is known especially by His blessings.

The dove selects the rocks of the deserts in which to build her dwelling, but the faithful soul chooses the heart of Jesus, in which she retires and there reflects in secret. In the heart of Jesus she beholds her own; she contrasts the thoughts, the affections, and the desires of Jesus with her own desires, affections, and thoughts. In the heart of Jesus she finds humility, chastity, charity, patience, love of the cross, and zeal for souls; but in her own heart she finds pride, sensuality, jealousy, love of pleasures, and inconstancy; she strives to dispel all these vicious dispositions and exemplify the virtues of her divine Model. Jesus smiles on her efforts, and sustains them by His grace. You should love the heart of Jesus. The only request which Jesus makes, the only gift that He would receive from us, is the possession of our heart. "My son," He says to you, "give Me thy heart." And here let us ask, what is our heart, that Jesus asks for it so earnestly? What treasure is concealed there? It is because the most precious of all gifts is the heart, and it renders every other gift precious. But is it not something more ? Yes, since to possess the heart is the glorious triumph. Everywhere the victory for Jesus was easy. He walked on the waters, He healed the sick, He commanded the elements; in a word, nothing could resist His power. It was only in the heart He found resistance, and now He considers it His glory to conquer it. Thus, all His efforts tend to gain the hearts of men. In the crib, His tears; on the cross, His sufferings; in the Eucharist, His humiliations—everything to win human hearts to Himself.

Christian, God asks your love, shall you dare to refuse it to Him? It is absolutely necessary that your heart should be given to some one, since it cannot live without loving, nor can it love without bestowing itself on the object of its love. If your heart is to be given or sold, who can better purchase it than He who made it? If it is to be given away, who deserves it better than He who is its happiness and its end ? Give your heart to Jesus, and ask Him to accept it and to watch over it, today and forever.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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2nd Sunday after Pentecost -          The Real Presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament

6/23/2019

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"THE Church has fixed the feast of the Blessed Sacrament for the first Thursday after Trinity. . . Sunday, and thus she affords her children every facility of testifying their gratitude to the God of the Eucharist. During eight days this adorable Master shall come from His tabernacle and shall be exposed to your gaze, as if He would come closer and closer to you. Oh, how poorly you understand your soul's best interest if you fail to respond to this lovable condescension! Today reanimate your faith by meditating on the proofs which demonstrate the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist. These proofs are of two kinds: proofs of reason and theological proofs.

First Point.—The proofs of reason which demonstrate the real presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament are taken from the absurd consequences of the contrary doctrine. If the Protestants are right in declaring that Jesus is in figure and not in reality in the Holy Eucharist, then Christianity—this religion so pure in its moral and so sublime in its dogma, and having all the characters of divinity-- was, from the beginning, the most monstrous and most extravagant religion. It merits justly all the reproaches of superstition, idolatry, and foolishness lavished on paganism. See all the disciples of Christ, foolish victims of error, having at their head their doctors, their venerable prelates, lights of the world by their science and by their virtue, prostrating themselves before bread, which is only a vain image, and adoring it as the Egyptians formerly adored the fruits of their gardens. Calvin, who had come to undeceive the world, merited divine honors much more than Jesus; he should be regarded as the benefactor of humanity, while Jesus would be only an impostor. In fact, either Jesus foresaw the false interpretation which would be given to His words, "This is My body, this is My blood," or He did not foresee it. If He foresaw it, He should have hindered it otherwise He has deceived His apostles, His friends, and His Church. He has left her in error during fifteen centuries, and He has failed in His promises of being with her to the end of time. If He did not foresee those false interpretations, He is not God; He is only a cheat and an impostor. And thus the denial of the Real Presence carries with it the denial of all religion. These monstrous consequences should suffice to make us reject as false and impious the doctrine which begets them. But these are not all. By the interpretation of Protestants, St. Paul is convicted of absurdity. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians he formally declares that he is guilty of outrage against the body of Jesus who should dare to receive the eucharistic bread unworthily. Are these words, which are so true in a Catholic sense, anything else than an absurdity in the Protestant sense? If Jesus is not really in the Eucharist, or if He is there only in figure, or if the bread is eaten only in faith, can he who participates in this mystery unworthily be wanting in respect for Jesus. Does he abuse His goodness ? How are we to understand that such a one outrages the body of Christ? Besides, if it is faith which attracts Jesus in the Eucharist, to the Jew or an unbeliever not having faith the Eucharist is only a piece of ordinary bread; and how can a piece of bread be profaned ?

St. Paul has said that the glory of the Old Law was nothing when compared with the sublimity of the Gospel. By the interpretation of Protestants these words are false. In fact, if the body of the Saviour is not in the Eucharist, all the excellence and advantage are on the side of the manna. This bread falls from heaven; it is prepared by angel hands, wholly miraculous and diversified in an infinity of tastes; it is a figure of Jesus far more worthy and more noble than the material bread made by the hands of men, if this bread even after consecration was only a figure. We must say the same of the ancient sacrifices, and in particular of the paschal lamb, whose blood was an image of the blood of Jesus more natural than wine, and especially a more lively and touching image. Contrary to the words of St. Paul, the Gospel, in this matter, would be inferior to the Old Law and the Church inferior to the synagogue. Reason rejects such a consequence, and it forces us to recognize the Real Presence or to accept the most monstrous absurdities.

Second Point.—The theological proofs are taken from the very words which Jesus employed in the institution of the Blessed Eucharist: "This is My body, this is My blood." Reflect on these words, and say if the Saviour could employ expressions more precise to affirm His real presence. The Protestants who deny it pretend that here the language of Jesus is figurative and that His words must be taken in a metaphorical sense. As if the Saviour had said: "This is the figure of My body; this is the figure of My blood." The falsity of such an interpretation is evident from the very circumstances in which the words were pronounced. Jesus was about to die ; at that solemn moment one shall hardly employ language which is figurative and almost unintelligible, and especially when one speaks to friends who are the depositaries of his last will. The Saviour of the world was making His last will and testament, and He bequeathed to the Church His body and His blood—all that He possessed. The very essence of a last will and testament is that it shall be expressed in clearest terms and exempt from all ambiguity; the law requires that the words of such a testament should be accepted in their natural and literal sense. Has it ever been heard of that the terms of a last will should be interpreted in a figurative sense? But what is the evident meaning of these words: "This is My body, this is My blood"? Is it the meaning which the Church gives them by taking them in their literal sense? Is it the meaning which heretics give them when they assert that they signify, This is the figure of My body ? But how can this last interpretation be justified ? There are in the world two kinds of signs, viz., natural signs and signs of convention. New, a piece of bread has never been the natural sign of a body; on the other hand, there is not in the Gospel a single word which ever fell from the lips of Jesus which has made it a conventional sign. Jesus had warned His disciples that He would speak to them no longer in parables. His words should therefore be accepted in their natural sense, and every other interpretation is purely arbitrary and finds no foundation anywhere. Behold the last will and testament of the Saviour, and the things He has bequeathed us. They are all contained in these words, which assure to the Catholic priesthood the power of renewing, to the end of the world, what He Himself did the first time. "Do this in commemoration of Me." The priest, in virtue of these words pronounced over the bread and the wine, "This is My body, this is My blood," operates this mystery, the substance of the bread and wine disappears, and they become the body and blood of Jesus.

What simplicity, as Bossuet remarks, and what omnipotent power in these few words ! After such assurance on the part of the Saviour, what remains for us to do if not to believe, and adore, and love? He says that it is His body, therefore it is His body; He says that it is His blood, therefore it is His blood ! My Saviour, be forever blessed for this favor! Thou hast wished to be Thyself the inheritance of Thy children, and Thy love knows how to survive death, in discovering the secret of eternalizing Thy presence in the midst of them.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897


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Trinity Sunday - Our Duties Toward the Trinity

6/16/2019

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 First Point.—You owe to the Holy Trinity the homage of your faith. There is not in Holy. . . Writ anything more strongly established than the mystery of one God in three persons. You
shall find it expressed in the Gospel most clearly and most precise. At the moment when the Saviour received Baptism in the Jordan a voice from heaven is heard saying: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. " At the same time the Holy Spirit, under the form of a dove, rested on the head of Jesus. Behold, the three adorable persons of the Blessed Trinity, perfectly distinct. Later on, when Jesus commanded His apostles to go and preach His Gospel throughout the world, He said to them: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." These words again reveal the existence of the Holy Trinity. In fact, the design of Our Lord and Saviour was certainly not to baptize the faithful in any other name than that of God, and He indicates three persons in whose name He wishes Baptism to be given. Each of these three persons must, therefore, be truly God, and that could not be unless they were really and absolutely equal among themselves.

There is but one God; this is the foundation of our faith. But this same faith teaches you that the unity of God is fruitful; that the divine nature, without ceasing to be one, is communicated by the Father to the Son, and by the Father and the Son, to the Holy Spirit. Adore, with a respect wholly filial, the mysterious shadow under which God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—unveils His majesty to mortal eyes. Be faithful, and a day shall come when you shall contemplate Him without veil or shadow.

Second Point.—-You owe to the Trinity the homage of your respect. " The Holy Trinity is truly God, who reigns in the highest heavens and who fills the whole earth with His majesty. A Being infinitely perfect, to whom all honor, all praise, all glory is due for ever and ever." Strive, therefore, to mingle your voice in the concert of blessed spirits who in the heavenly city sing with unspeakable joy and in profoundest abasement: "Holy, holy, thrice holy is the God of armies!" With them adore the eternal Father, the principle of everything which exists; the eternal Son, equal to His Father; the Holy Spirit, equally eternal, and whom we cannot separate from the two other persons. To the three persons give the same worship, the same adoration; and when in God's temple you shall hear resounding these triumphant words, "Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," unite your voice to the voice of the Church, and sing with enthusiasm to the glory of the august Trinity.

Third Point.—You owe to the Holy Trinity the homage of your love. Everything, in the Church, is done in the name of the Trinity. It is in this name that the august sacrifice of the New Law is offered. The priest at the foot of the altar makes the sign of the cross while pronouncing the names of the three adorable Persons of the Holy Trinity. It is in this name that you have been regenerated at the sacred font of Baptism, and it is in this name that the priest restores you to grace in the Sacrament of Penance. The Church puts this sacred name on your lips at the beginning of all your prayers and all your acts, by these august words: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." How often, perhaps, it has happened that you pronounced these words without thinking of what you said! Accustom yourself, therefore, to pronounce them henceforth with sentiments which should arise in every Christian heart. "In the name of the Father." He it is who has created us; by a single word He could reduce this world to the nothingness from which He has drawn it. With what respect should we be filled when pronouncing a name which recalls such grandeur and so many blessings? "In the name of the Son." This name recalls all that is tenderest in love, most generous in devotion and most lovable in virtue. While pronouncing this ever-blessed name, you place your hand on your heart, as if you would say to the Son that you love Him. Oh, may this sign be the expression of truth and not a vain ceremony "In the name of the Holy Ghost." It is the Holy Ghost who has sanctified the world; it is in Him, as the source, that grace dwells, or, rather, grace is nothing else than the Holy Spirit Himself. He resides in you as the pledge of your divine adoption He prays for you in terms which no human tongue can express. When you speak His name, ask of Him the grace never to sadden His heart by resisting His holy inspirations.

Fourth Point.— You owe it to the Holy Trinity to retrace their image in yourself. This image God Himself has deigned to engrave in your soul, since Holy Scripture tells you that God made man to His
own image and likeness. If, by imposing silence on your senses, you consider yourself intimately for a few moments, you will easily find the traits of this glorious resemblance. Our soul is simple; God is one, and still there are in Him three things really distinct. As the Father, our soul has being; as the Son, it has intelligence; as the Holy Ghost, it has love. Like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, our souls have in their being, in their intelligence, in their love the same happiness and the same life (Bossuet). This likeness, which is only commenced in us, must be perfected by retracing in our soul and in our conduct, as far as the weakness of our poor nature shall allow, the divine perfections. It is to perform this glorious work that Jesus calls us in these words: "Be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." And thus the Christian, on his way to perfection, can find no resting- place: he must "grow constantly from virtue to virtue," until he arrives, as St. Paul says, to " the plenitude of the perfect man, which is in Christ Jesus."

O my God, I love to contemplate Thee in the unity of Thy nature and in the Trinity of Thy persons. No mystery reveals to me better than this one Thy grandeur and my nothingness. The less I understand Thee, the more I adore Thee. The most worthy use I can make of my reason is to annihilate myself before Thee. It is the joy of my mind, the charm of my weakness to feel myself overwhelmed by Thy greatness. May I, O my God, by my fidelity in adoring Thee in the shadows of faith, merit to contemplate Thee face to face, and without veil or shadow, in the city of the elect.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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Catholic Homeschool Planner Survey

6/14/2019

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Dear Readers I've been thinking of putting together a Catholic Homeschool Teachers Planner.  If you would be interested in one could you please leave me comments on this post as to what kind of things you would like in it?  Such as: Curriculum to use, to-do lists, year at a glance calendar, monthly calendars, chore charts, menu planner, etc.....


I look forward to your comments, thank you for your time! 
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Corpus Christi - The Institution of the Feast and Our Duties

6/12/2019

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 WE celebrate today one of the most beautiful feasts of the Catholic Church. Let us meditateon the motives which have induced the Church to institute it, and the duties it imposes on us. . . .

First Point.—Motives of the Church in instituting the feast of Corpus Christi. The principal motive of the Church in instituting a feast in which she surrounds the God of the Eucharist with so much magnificence, when she commands her ministers to carry Him in triumph about the streets of cities and villages, is to make Him reparation for all the outrages that He receives in the august sacrament of His love on the part of bad Christians. Jesus, having wished to constitute Himself a prisoner of love in the holy tabernacles; Jesus, having given us the sacrament of His body and blood for our nourishment, our support, and our consolation here below, should only receive the homage of our adoration and the tribute of our gratitude. Instead of this He is often the object of outrages which are most painful to His heart, by profanations, sacrileges, and the irreverences of which we make ourselves guilty. In consequence of these profanations, the Holy Eucharist, instituted essentially to honor the body of the Saviour, becomes for this very body a mystery of humiliation and ignominy.

Yes, the body of the Saviour suffers from us in the Eucharist a thousand times more than it suffered on the part of the Jews in His Passion In the Passion He only suffered for a time, but here He is exposed to suffer to the end of time. In His Passion He suffered only as much as Jesus wished it, and because He wished it, but here He suffers, so to speak, by violence and by force. If He suffered in His passion, He was in a state of suffering and mortal nature, but here He suffers in a state of impassibility. What He suffered in His Passion was glorious to God and salutary for man, but here what He suffers is injurious to man and to God. What a powerful motive to awaken and excite all your piety for this great mystery? This feast is one of gratitude for the voluntary humiliations of Jesus in the Eucharist. Place yourself for a moment at the foot of the tabernacle which contains your God, and strive to understand to what humiliations He has devoted Himself for love of you. Humiliations in the solitude to which He is condemned. When He was born at Bethlehem He had the two cherubim of the manger to adore Him, Mary and Joseph, then the shepherds, and, finally, the Wise Men; here almost always He is alone, His temples are deserted, a solitary lamp which swings before the tabernacle is only too often the only homage He receives. Humiliations in the obscurity of His Eucharistic life. He is concealed in the tabernacle; He lives there unknown to the world, as He once lived in the house of Joseph. Humiliations in His state of dependence. Even as formerly He was submissive to Joseph and Mary, so in the Eucharist He is submissive to the commands of the priest. The priest calls Him from heaven and causes Him to descend; he encloses Him in the tabernacle and makes Him come out from it; he takes Him in his hands, lifts Him up, puts Him down, carries Him to the sick; distributes Him to the people, gives Him to children and even to sinners. Jesus obeys, and always obeys. Humiliations in His state of annihilation. Was there ever one more complete? At Bethlehem, He was born in a state of complete indigence. The humanity veiled the divinity, but a miraculous star revealed His presence; if He leads in the midst of the people a painful and laborious life, in contempt and contradictions, all His steps are marked by prodigies and His humiliations do not conceal the Master of the world, since He is recognized by His miracles.

If He dies on the cross, His last sigh makes the world tremble, and countless prodigies reveal in the dying man the Son of the Most High. But how shall we recognize a God in the God of our temples? In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus not only conceals His divinity, but His very humanity has disappeared, and we see realized the words of the apostle with especial energy: "He is annihilated." On today the Church strives to efface many humiliations; she does not wish that the God of the Eucharist should be an unknown God; she withdraws Him from the sanctuary where He reposes, from the enclosure of the temples which contain Him; she carries Him through the streets of the cities, she adores and avows Him as her God. In fine, to set off the display of triumph destined to her King, she puts forth all that is majestic in her august ceremonies, the most sumptuous in her treasures; she strips the earth of its flowers; she borrows from profane vanity its luxury and its pomp, happy to testify to her heavenly Spouse her love and her gratitude.

Second Point.—Our duties on this blessed day. The occupation of a Christian soul on this solemnity
should be to enter into the sentiments of the Church, and with her to honor the body of the Saviour. And what is it to honor the body of the Saviour? It is to give Him all the worship which it can receive from us in the Sacrament of the Altar. It is to imitate Magdalene, who had a particular zeal for this sacred body, watering it with her tears, wiping it with her hair, and spreading on it sweetest perfumes. After her example, you should often prostrate yourself in the presence of this sacred body,
and there offer to it a thousand sacrifices of praise, a thousand interior adorations, a thousand homages, and a thousand acts of thanksgiving. You should say to it sometimes, with a lively faith and with ardent devotion: "Divine Body, Thou hast been the price of my salvation; what should I not do to glorify Thee ? The heretic despises Thee, the impious outrage Thee, but as for me, O my God, I am happy to offer to Thee the incense of my prayer and the homage of my love." Such are the sentiments which should animate you; and because the body of Jesus shall be today carried in triumph, your duty is to contribute to the pomp of this triumph, and to all the extent of your power. You are so fond of a thousand superfluities which serve only for luxury and vanity; there it is that you can sanctify them, by consecrating them to the body of your God, by employing them to enrich the vessels which contain Him and to embellish the tabernacles where He is enclosed, and to adorn His oratories where He remains. You are so careful of your bodies; you love so much to adorn them and to clothe them, and for this purpose you spare no expense ! But your body, that body infected by sin, that body which shall soon be only dust and corruption should it be dearer to you than the body of Christ?

In fine, because the body of the Son of God is taken out of its temples and carried in triumph, what does the Christian soul do? She follows Him in His triumph and gives herself as an escort. This is what the Spirit of God divinely expresses in the spouse of the canticles. She says she has sought her well-beloved in the place where he is accustomed to take his repose; but, she adds, not having found him, she has taken the resolution to go out, to go into the streets and places of the city to seek him. The guards and the officers of the city have met her; she perceives him in their midst, and at once she runs to him and she does not leave him until she has led him to the house of her mother. This spouse is the faithful soul. Today she seeks the Saviour of the world in His tabernacle, and she does not find Him there. She then goes through the streets and public places to see if He shall be there. He is there; in fact, she meets Him surrounded by guards and ministers who carry Him with honor, and the whole people make His countless court. She casts herself at His feet, she adores Him, she follows Him with her eyes, she does not leave Him until He enters the temple, which is really the house of her mother. Imitate her, and strive to pay to your adorable King the just tribute of your love and your gratitude.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897




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Pentecost Sunday - On the Mystery

6/12/2019

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TODAY the Church commemorates the descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles. There can ... be nothing more interesting for us to know than the dispositions which are required to receive Him and the effects which He produces in those who receive Him.

First Point.—Dispositions required to receive the Holy Spirit. The first is recollection. The Holy Spirit Himself tells us that He leads into solitude the soul with whom He wishes to speak. God cannot communicate Himself to a disturbed or agitated soul. The apostles were in retreat when the Holy Spirit descended upon them. And hence we conclude that everything which disturbs the soul preoccupies the heart, and consequently is an obstacle to the communications of the Holy Spirit and to the support and strength of the Christian life. The reading of romances, the frequentation of worldly assemblies, a love for plays are, therefore, incompatible with a spirit of piety. And it is for this reason that Jesus in His Gospel condemns all these diversions. The world is astounded at this reprobation, and accuses the Gospel of too great severity. Perhaps you yourself have thought and spoken as the world of this matter; but think of the levity and injustice of this language, in comparing the disturbance produced by romances, balls, and spectacles with the recollection required for the holy and sweet communications of the Divine Spirit.

Vigilance is the second disposition required to receive the Holy Spirit. When the days of Pentecost were accomplished, says the Sacred Text, "a sound from heaven was heard, as of a mighty wind coming." It is in a sudden and unlooked-for way that grace knocks at the door of our heart, and that the Holy Spirit communicates Himself to a soul. He does not consult our time, but we should await His time of coming. St. Paul was suddenly stricken to the earth while on his way to Damascus. It was suddenly that the mysterious star appeared to the Wise Men. We should, therefore, be attentive to the
movements of the Holy Spirit; want of vigilance would cause us to lose a multitude of graces which would sanctify us. It is this want of vigilance in studying the secret movements of grace that each day permits us to miss a thousand happy occasions of performing acts of virtue; our resolutions remain sterile, and our most sacred promises are never realized. But do we not make them in good faith? Unquestionably our desire is sincere, but it is inefficacious because we forget them at the moment when we should keep them. If we are exposed to humiliation, this would be an occasion for us to make an act of humility. If an injury be done us, this would offer an opportunity for making an act of love. Perhaps we may meet with a disappointment, some opposition, or some suffering; this should be the moment for making an act of patience. Unfortunately, natural impressions precede reflection, and we become unfaithful when, with greater vigilance, we should have acquired a new merit for heaven.

The third condition for receiving the Holy Spirit is to ask it by fervent prayer. "He will give the good spirit to them that ask Him." Grace comes from heaven; therefore we should seek it there, since it is from there we must expect it. Attract the Holy Spirit to you by the profound conviction of your misery and your weakness, by the earnestness of your desires, and by the knowledge which you have of the need of His gifts. Let your soul be before Him as the parched earth, which, by its very dryness, seems to implore the dews of heaven. The apostles were engaged in prayer when they received the Holy Spirit. Then imitate them, pray with fervor, and in asking for the Holy Spirit you ask for the source of all gifts.

Second Point.—The effects of the Holy Spirit. The principal effects of the Holy Spirit are indicated in the Epistle of today. He comes like a mighty wind. As the wind drives before it straw and dust and renews the corrupted air, so the Holy Spirit drives away all carnal -affections, earthly desires, worldly thoughts, and every evil from the heart. He overthrows all idols and breaks every bond; He purifies the atmosphere of the soul and expels the miasms of sin. He filled the whole house. He filled the cenacle in which the apostles were assembled. These expressions should make us understand with what abundance the Holy Spirit communicates His gifts. He fills the Church with them, and enriches her with every virtue and every grace. He showers His gifts on the faithful soul and with as great a liberality as He finds perfect dispositions. Therefore open to Him all the avenues of your soul, widen and extend all her faculties, that He may enrich her with all His gifts.

The Holy Spirit rested on the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. This circumstance reveals to you two principal effects of the Holy Spirit, viz. : He enlightens and gives warmth at the same time. What is more worthy of admiration than the lights which He caused to shine on the intelligence of the apostles? What knowledge of the Holy Scriptures? What intelligence concerning the highest mysteries Jesus had said to them: "I have much more to communicate to you, but you are not capable of understanding now; but when the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall reveal everything to you. " His words were verified to the letter. Men so slow to believe and so densely ignorant have hardly received the Holy Spirit, than they astonish the most learned by their profound science; at length they understand what another Teacher had said to them when they could not comprehend His teachings:
"Blessed are they that mourn, blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice." These truths, which are so opposed to all the sentiments of nature and to all the prejudices of the world, are now believed and accepted, from the first day, by three thousand persons.

Oh how great is the power of the Holy Spirit He whom the Holy Scriptures call the most beautiful among the children of men, He "who went about doing good," in spite of His virtues and benefits could only win to Himself a small number of disciples; but at the first preaching of St. Peter three thousand men became Christians! This is what the Holy Spirit has done for the world. And while He enlightens the intelligence, the Holy Spirit warms and inflames the heart. He is the Spirit of love as well as the Spirit of truth. Of all the sentiments which agitate the human heart, love is the most powerful. Read the lives of the saints. What self-abnegation we see in their lives! What zeal for the glory of their heavenly Father! What charity for their brethren! With what energy did they repress temptations, and with what contempt did they trample under foot all the seductions of the world! What devotion in the apostles, what patience in the martyrs, and what purity in the virgins! Where shall we look for the principle of all these wonders? We shall find it in the divine love with which the Holy Spirit filled their hearts. But you, oh, how weak you are, and how cowardly ! And whence comes it? Either you do not love at all or you do not love enough. Conjure the Holy Spirit, therefore, to come into your heart and to bless you ask of Him to plant His grace deeply in your heart, that He may make known to you all those titles which God has for your gratitude, and may that gratitude lead you to love.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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The Ascension - On the Mystery

6/12/2019

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FORTY days after His resurrection, Jesus gathered His disciples together. St. Paul assures us. . . that they numbered fully five hundred. Then Jesus led them to the mountain of Olives, and after blessing them He disappeared from them, rising majestically to heaven. If we seek to know why Jesus returned to Heaven, we shall find He returned for Himself and for us.

First Point.—It is for Himself and for His own glory that Jesus triumphantly ascended to heaven. Bossuet says: "As a prince who has on hand a great war against a foreign nation quits his kingdom for a time to go forth and combat his enemies in their own country, and when the expedition shall have ended he shall return with superb display into the capital city of his own country, his followers and his chariots adorned by the spoils from the conquered people; so the Son of God, our King, wishing
to overthrow the reign of the demon who by an insolent usurpation was boldly declared the prince of the world, has Himself descended from heaven to earth to conquer this irreconcilable enemy. Having deposed him from his throne by arms of the weakest kind were they in other hands than His, there was nothing else to do than to return triumphantly to heaven, which is the place of His origin and the principal seat of His royalty." It is, then, Jesus marching royally to the throne of His glory whom you are now considering. What a grand and magnificent spectacle! How different He is on this day, the high and powerful Lord, from what you have hitherto seen Him? His departure from the earth is very different from His entrance into the world. Then He manifested Himself in His infirmity; He was little; He was born as the children of men are born; He, the King of heaven and earth, descended into a stable. We see Him weak, and His mother Mary carrying Him in her arms; He was subject to the needs of our body, and experienced hunger, thirst, fatigue, and sufferings. He was a man—not the primitive man, ruling the earth, happy, immortal; but, apart from sin, a man like to fallen man: that is to say, a man of sorrows, despised, beaten, outraged; a mortal man obliged to submit to an ignominious death, the death of the cross. Many of those who saw Him in that degradation did not know Him. Jerusalem remained indifferent when the Wise Men came to speak to Him; Samaria closed her gates against Him; Nazareth wished to cast Him from the high hills on which she was built, and the doctors of the law laughed at Him when He answered them. The Pharisees calumniated Him, the synagogues expelled Him, and the whole people cried out, "Crucify Him!" But today Jesus avenges His sacred humanity on all their degradations, all their outrages, and He manifests Himself glorious and triumphant in the eyes of the whole universe.

The cross of Jesus has ceased to be a scandal for the Jews. They wished for a glorious Messias. Is He, then, without glory—He who conquered death, and, having accomplished His mission on earth, returns to heaven in magnificence? He is more splendid than Solomon in all his glory, stronger than David in battles, more beautiful than Absalom in the flower of his youth, more holy than Enoch and Elias, who were taken up from earth. His body, which had been placed and sealed in a sepulchre, had undergone a glorious transformation; His face shone as the sun; His vestments were white as snow; His reed sceptre is changed to a sceptre of command; His crown of thorns is replaced by an aureola of light; at His feet are His disciples, and above His head legions of angels are descending: the earth is silent before Him, and the elements await His command; a docile cloud lowers about His feet, and He ascends—ascends into the heavens, leaving Judea, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Calvary, and to take in exchange possession of the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of Sion, the kingdom of His Father! Arise, then, Lord, above the heavens, and let Thy glory shine throughout the whole earth. As for me, Lord Jesus, my King and my Master, I am proud of my name of Christian; on this day, especially, when Thou coverest all the humiliations of man with the strength and the omnipotence of God.

Second Point.—Jesus returns to heaven in our interest. It is, first, to prepare a place for us. The gates of heaven had been closed by the sin of Adam and no one could enter there, before the divine Mediator. Even the just of the Old Law, the Abels, the Abrahams, and the Jacobs, these men so famous in our sacred books for the splendor of their virtues and their lively faith, awaited in Limbo for the day of their deliverance; and it is today that they enter heaven with Jesus. Henceforth the gates of the Holy City are open to us: let immortal thanks be given to our blessed Saviour! He has marked out the way for us by His lessons, by His precepts, and by His examples while He lived on earth; to-day He has thrown the gates wide open for us. He is there our Precursor. From His sojourn of glory, He extends His hands to us and calls us to Him. He said to His apostles: "I go to prepare a place for you." But this place shall not be for us, except we merit it.

Jesus ascends to heaven, and there occupies a throne at the right hand of His Father, to serve us as Advocate and Intercessor before God. And so He quits the earth, but does not abandon us. In the sojourn of His glory He loves us still, and His blood pleads for us. As the always-living Mediator, He intercedes in our behalf. It is through Him we have access to the heavenly Father. By His prayers He gives to our prayers a value; by His thanksgiving, our gratitude is acceptable; by His oblations, our sacrifices are made worthy; by His sorrows, our penance is valuable; by His sufferings, our mortifications are efficacious; and by His expiations, our satisfaction is complete. It is in union with His merits that our feeble works become meritorious. The eternal Mediator between God and man continues in heaven the ministry which He exercised on the cross. It is He who has prompted St. John to say: "Be consoled, my children, and do not despair; if you have sinned, remember that you have in heaven an Advocate, who is all-powerful and who shall plead your cause before God."

Jesus has ascended to heaven to send us the Holy Ghost, whose mission it shall be to complete the work of redemption. The effusion of the Holy Spirit on earth, His visible descent on the apostles, are the recompense of the Passion of Jesus on the cross. He could not be given, therefore, until the Sovereign Priest had consummated His sacrifice in heaven. "For as yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet given" (John vii.). Moreover, Jesus had formally declared that, "if I do not go, the Holy Spirit shall not come, but if I go, I shall send Him to you."

O my amiable Master, since Thy entrance into heaven must have such precious results, then quit this earth : enter heaven to fulfill there the ministry of Mediator; appease divine justice, which I have so often angered by my crimes, and grant me the grace of imitating Thee on earth, that I may possess Thee and contemplate Thee eternally in heaven.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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6th Sunday after Easter - The Holy Ghost

6/12/2019

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 TO appreciate fully how great is the love which Jesus manifests for us in promising us the . . . Holy Ghost, it is necessary to know what is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful.

First Point.—The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Our divine Saviour attributes to Him three principal functions. He is the Consoler, and the Church calls Him "the best Consoler." Never has any one merited this title more than He. There is not among men a single one who has not fallen into misfortune. Where shall man turn for consolation? His very friends fly from him, even as the birds of passage depart at the approach of winter. If some should strive to console him, they can only exhort him to patience and speak of the necessity of suffering. This necessity is incontestible, without doubt, but it is truly disheartening when suffering is separated from religion; for then sufferings have neither principle, nor end, nor recompense. But, on the contrary, we find greatest consolation in suffering when it is viewed in the light of the Holy Spirit. And how does this happen? Because the Holy Spirit reveals to the unfortunate sufferers that the true cause of sorrow is in the sins which have been committed; because He makes sufferings glorious, since they give to him who suffers a trait of resemblance to Jesus; because sufferings may become a means of expiation for sin and, consequently, a means of attaining the happiness of heaven. It is the special office of the Holy Spirit to accord us these sublime consolations, and He only has the power to make us taste them.

The Holy Spirit is called by Jesus the Spirit of Truth. He merits this title because it is He who is the Author of all truth; it is He who propagates and spreads it; it is He who convinces the intelligence of man and makes him receive it. The law of Moses clearly pointed out the duty, but it did not afford strength to put this duty in practice. The world proclaims the eulogy of virtue, but this sterile admiration gives no aid to the heart, which is left to its own weakness. It belongs to the Holy Spirit only to reveal to us all truth, and to render it lovable and easy for us. See the apostles; think of their ignorance with regard to the mystery of the cross. It was for them an "unintelligible word," but hardly had they received the Holy Spirit than they understood the happiness of sufferings. They considered themselves happy to have endured ignominy for the name of Jesus. Had not Jesus already said: "Blessed are they who suffer persecutions for justice's sake"? These were new sentiments, which had
hitherto been unknown. This truth was too deep for the apostles—" You cannot bear it now." The Holy Spirit was necessary. It was His mission to enlighten their intelligence, and to make them taste the maxims which take away all the repugnances of nature. The same ignorance still exists. Carnal minds revolt at the obscurity of our mysteries; sinners do not see the abyss open at their feet; even many pious people do not understand Christian life. They all need the light of the Holy Spirit. If you wish to receive Him, correct in yourself every disposition which would render you unworthy of His holy communications. The Holy Spirit must give testimony to Jesus. He gives this testimony in a most splendid manner, in manifesting His divinity by countless prodigies.

On the very day when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles they were transformed into other men. St. Peter preached his Master and his God before multitudes of different peoples whom the solemnity of the day had assembled at Jerusalem, and all heard him speak in their own native tongue. The most splendid miracles attest the divine mission of the apostles and the divinity of Him who sent them. These poof "fishermen, without the study of human sciences, without credit, without the art of eloquence, undertook the conversion of the world; and in spite of prejudices and persecutions, in spite of obstacles humanly insurmountable, the greatest success crowned their efforts. Legions of virgins triumphed over the corruption of the pagan world by their purity; millions of martyrs died in testimony of the divinity of the Christian faith. In spite of all the efforts of the mighty ones, all the resources of genius, all the artifices of sophistry, all the revolts of passion, the Church was established and developed, and continued her triumphant march along the ages. Behold how the Holy Spirit has rendered, and still renders, testimony to Jesus, the Saviour of the world.

Second Point.—The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of the faithful. He exercises three principal functions in us: He brings us forth to Christian life, He sanctifies us, and He gives us the pledge of our divine affiliation. He brings us forth to Christian life. At the beginning, God the Father called the world from nothingness; on the cross, the Incarnate Word reformed man by His blood; in the Church, the Holy Spirit creates this supernatural life, which absorbs in the Christian all that there
is there of the old Adam, even to his name of man, and makes of him a creature wholly new. The Church proclaims these admirable effects of the Holy Spirit by her enthusiastic chants: "Come, Spirit Creator—send Thy Holy Spirit and renew the face of the earth." But where is this new creation wrought? At first in Baptism, and then, if we should lose this precious life, in the Sacrament of Penance, when the Holy Spirit returns it to us by His grace. The Holy Spirit sanctifies us. He is the love which unites the Father and the Son; He personifies, in a manner, the love of God for us. He it is who is the Source of all graces, or, rather, He is grace itself. In the same manner as the just man who rejoices in grace is the living temple of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells in him as a lovable guest
-- dulcis hospes animce. It is from Him good inspirations come which prompt us to good works, and those holy inspirations which keep us from evil. It is His strength which sustains us in combats, and His light which removes our doubts. It is His charity which encourages the Christian to practice the most heroic virtues, and it is by Him that the just attain the most sublime perfection.

The sanctification of man is attributed to the Holy Spirit particularly, as the creation is attributed to the Father, and the redemption to the Son. And thus it is that the august Trinity is wholly engaged in procuring our happiness. The Holy Spirit gives us a pledge of our divine affiliation. This is the very teaching of St. Paul. Listen to his admirable words, and then you can comprehend the nobility which your vocation to the faith gives you. He writes to the faithful at Ephesus: "You have been marked by the Holy Spirit, who is the seal of the promise and the pledge of the heavenly inheritance. Never forget that you are the temples of God and that the Holy Spirit dwells in you" (Acts). And read what he writes to the Romans: "You have not received the spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, My Father. For the Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are the sons of God." And if we are sons, we are also heirs, yes, heirs of God and co-heirs of Jesus. See, therefore, what magnificent destinies await us. Pray to the Holy Spirit that He may render you worthy, not only to see Him, but to realize Him fully.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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5th Sunday after Easter - On Prayer

6/12/2019

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 THE reproach which Jesus makes to His disciples, in the Gospel of today, for not having prayed. . . in His name, must reveal to us the reason that the prayers of so many Christians, and yours in particular, are fruitless. The reason is, they do not pray, and you do not pray, in the name of Jesus. Strive, therefore, to understand how you should pray, and to pray in the name of the adorable Master.

First Point.—To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray in virtue of His merits and in union with Him. We are, after all, only sinful men, and we only merit the anger of Heaven; so that when God deigns to hear us it is not through any merit of ours, but it is solely in consideration of Jesus His Son. He is the powerful Mediator between God and man, He is the eternal Intercessor before His Father, He constantly offers our prayers to Him, and thus secures for them a favorable acceptance. Nothing is agreeable to God except what comes to Him through His divine Son. When our prayers are presented by Him, when they are united and, as it were, incorporated with His, they then become, in a manner, divine prayers. It is not we, properly speaking, whom God hears, but Jesus who prays for us and with us, and hence the efficacy of prayer offered in His name. God, who owes us nothing, can refuse nothing to His Son.

And so at every instant the benefits of redemption are applied to each of our actions. Jesus on earth was our Redeemer; in heaven He is our Intercessor, and, on His heavenly throne He consummates the grand work which He began on the cross. He has not ceased to shed His blood for us, except to offer it continually in our behalf. This teaching, which is at once consoling and encouraging, shows us our blessed Saviour standing between His Father and us; in one hand He offers Him our prayers and in the other He brings us His graces. He is all-powerful before God because of His merits, and over our hearts, to make us acquire them. The apostles did not yet know this consoling dogma of the mediatorship of Jesus. Hitherto they had prayed, as all the other Jews had prayed, in their faith in the Messias. By commanding them to pray, henceforth, in His name, the divine Master began to reveal to them His character of Mediator. But you, who know this truth so well, approach your heavenly Father; clothed by the merits of your Saviour, pray in His name, being fully assured that you shall be heard. The promise of Jesus is most formal: "Everything that you shall ask the Father in My name shall be given you."

Second Point.—To pray in the name of Jesus is to ask what He wishes we should ask. As there are two kinds of goods, spiritual and temporal, there are also two kinds of legitimate objects which we may request, but the rules of prayer are not the same for both. Certainly we are not forbidden to ask God for temporal goods. In the prayer which Jesus Himself has dictated to us He makes us ask for our daily bread, and the Church, enlightened by His spirit, implores fruitfulness for the earth, regularity of the seasons, the health of the atmosphere, the prosperity of States, and universal peace. Let us also ask, with her, all these blessings, but let us ask them as she does. We should observe in our
prayers the order the Church follows and the end she proposes.

The order which the Church follows is according to the precept of her divine Founder. She begins her prayer by asking for the kingdom of God and His justice; her petitions for earthly things are only secondary.

The end which the Church proposes in her prayers. She does not ask the goods of the present life, except in so far as they may be conducive to salvation. These are the only prayers in the temporal order which may be made in the name of Jesus. The mission of our divine Saviour, His labors, His sufferings, and His pains were only for our sanctification. It would, then, be a gross error to think of applying to objects which are foreign to salvation those merits of Jesus which have only our salvation for their object and aim. As for prayers in the spiritual order, they can be general or particular. We may ask in general for our salvation and the graces which shall be conducive for it, or we may solicit a special and distinct grace. The first kind of prayer is at all times and under every circumstance assured of its effect. The promise of Jesus applies to it in all its extent and without restriction or reserve of any kind. God wishes our salvation as much and more than we do so that when we ask of Him, in the name of Jesus, that which enables us to gain our salvation we are certain to obtain it. Sometimes the request of a special grace, as the conversion of a parent, thenreformation of a defect, is not heard; it is because God knows best what is advantageous for us. That which we desire as our greatest good may be perhaps opposed to a greater good, of which we are ignorant, or may be prejudicial to us in a way we do not perceive. Again, it is the infinite goodness of God which refuses us. In vain did the great St. Paul ask of God three times to be delivered from the angel of Satan, who tormented him. This trial was useful for him, since the magnificent revelations with which he was favored were not occasions of pride and destruction for him. God Himself assured him that His grace was sufficient, and that his virtue should be perfected by temptations.

Third Point.—To pray in the name of Jesus is to ask as He wishes us to ask, viz., with purity of heart, humility, confidence, perseverance, and attention. Prayer should come from a heart which is pure and exempt from sin. The sinner has lost all the rights which the merits of Jesus had acquired for him to the grace of salvation. One prayer only can serve him, and it is the prayer of penance; there remains but one grace to implore, arid that is pardon. Every other shall be useless for him and shall be refused. If, then, you have had the misfortune to sin, beg before everything, by your most ardent supplications, the grace of your pardon, and that only shall render you worthy to receive other graces.

The second condition of prayer is humility. " The prayer of the humble man shall penetrate the clouds." The impious Achab at last humbled himself before God, and by this act alone he obtained that the thunders of the heavenly anger, already suspended above his head, should be turned away. Is it possible for us to have an idea of prayer and be ignorant of this fundamental rule? Why, arrogance in prayer is not only a vice—it is contradiction, it is a madness! Would some great one of the earth receive a request which should be asked with pride? The very need which leads us to the feet of the King of kings should make us also feel our dependence on Him.

Confidence is the third condition of prayer. A man would feel injured if you should doubt his word. Your doubts are then an outrage against God. And of what are you uncertain? Is it of His fidelity, or is it of His power? Put no limit to your hopes; He has placed none to His engagements. You will never please Him by reserved or timid requests. Fearlessly ask the most excellent gifts. If it is a virtue you need, ask that it be perfect; if it is a victory, ask that it may be complete ; if it is the pardon of your sins, then ask for the entire remission of them. Divine munificence is the contrary of human liberality: the more you ask, the more you have a right to obtain.

The fourth quality of prayer is perseverance. Jesus promises that prayer made in His name shall be heard, but He has not designated the time. He engages Himself to grant every request, but not as soon as you have formulated your demands. Often, on the contrary, He seems not to hear you, but this is precisely to test your faith, your patience, your humility, and your fervor. And, after all, are not
the graces of God sufficiently precious and worthy of being asked for long and often?

Attention is the fifth condition of prayer. Without attention there can be no prayer. The most necessary act of religion cannot be a purely exterior practice. Can we, in good faith, persuade ourselves that we love God, and implore Him, and return Him thanks, and yet without thinking of Him? That which essentially constitutes prayer, the prayer which God hears, is not a mere sound which comes from the mouth and is lost in the air, but it is the sentiment of the heart which arises to Him. Let us reflect on these different conditions of prayer, and see if we have hitherto prayed in the name of Jesus.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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4th Sunday after Easter - Our Love for Jesus

5/18/2019

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"THE affliction which the apostles experienced at the departure of their Master proves that. . . they loved Him with a love which was too human. Our blessed Saviour reproached them for this, kindly, however, and at the same time He affords us an occasion to examine the nature of the love which we have for Him. Father Lacordaire says that "nothing is more simple than love, and still it contains three acts in the unity of its movement, viz., preference, devotion, and unity."

First Point.—"Man, however vast his heart may be, cannot attach himself to everything with the same ardor. Surrounded by objects which, in different degrees, have the impress of beauty, he shall find shades of difference in the attractions which hold him. Very often we cannot give a reason for our preference ; but what is certain is that we have our preferences and that love begins in us at the first moment the selection of the object is made." At the moment when we make our entrance into the life of affections we naturally love those whose age or studies or position are similar to our own; and still our heart has already made its preferences. Almost without knowing it, a choice is quickly made of one who shall be for us more than fellow-student; he shall be our friend, the confidant of our sorrows and our joys, our fears and our hopes; his memory shall not be effaced, but shall remain with us during our whole life.

Later, on our entrance into the world, a thousand objects armed with all the attractions which seduce and captivate come to knock at- the door of our heart and to ask for our preference. Jesus, on His part, with His cross in one hand and His Gospel in the other, calls us by the voice of conscience, and by the voice of His priests, by all that He has done for us, and by His titles to our love and gratitude. We must make our choice. On this choice our earthly future depends and also our eternal destiny. If the heart of man always inclines towards the most worthy object of its choice, our preference shall not be doubtful. What being is more lovable than the Saviour? But, unfortunately, instead of permitting ourselves to be guided by reason and by faith, we allow ourselves to be influenced 'by the passions, and we choose blindly. Shall you be fortunate enough to be proof, against such sad influence?

Second Point.—"But love is not satisfied by the mere act of choice, it demands devotion from the one chosen. To choose is to prefer one before all others; but to be devoted is to prefer the object of devotion even to yourself. Devotion is immolation of self to the object loved, and whoever does not go thus far does not love. We find this condition in all the affections in which virtue mingles the divine balm of her presence. It is that which inspires the mother, bending day and night over the cradle of her child; it is that which fills the heart of the soldier and prompts him to face death boldly for his country; it is that which strengthens the martyr against the threats of tyrants and gives him greatest solace in all his punishments. These are the traits of love which the world, all corrupted as it is, recognizes and admires. And if love has not had at all times an opportunity to manifest itself by noblest sacrifices, it constantly shows, however, by lesser sacrifices that it carries within it the germs which make it as strong as death, as the Sacred Scriptures attest" (Pere Lacordaire).

Is it thus that you have loved Jesus ? After having chosen you to make you His child of predilection, He has recalled you to His admirable light. He has devoted Himself to you, and as a proof of it He vowed Himself to death, and to an ignominy more frightful than death, to redeem your soul and to open heaven for you. Hence St. Paul says: "Jesus has loved me, He has delivered Himself up for me." And thus it is that all the saints have loved, by responding to His devotion with their own devotion. Listen to St. Paul: "What shall separate us from the charity of Christ? Shall it be tribulation,sufferings, hunger, or thirst? Shall it be danger, persecution, or the sword? But we are stronger than all these fears, for the sake of Him who has loved us. Yes, I am certain that neither life nor death, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, neither strength, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature, can separate us from the charity of God, which is in Christ Our Lord." Behold what St. Paul thought and spoke, and what all the saints thought and spoke as well as he. Can you hurl the same defiance to every creature? Consult your own heart, and then answer.

Third Point.—"There still remains the third act which crowns the marvellous drama, and in which our soul is at once the theatre and the actress. After we have chosen the object of our preference, and after we have given ourselves in fullest devotion, there still remains something to be done" (Piere Lacordaire).

Union is necessary. This is the end and the limit of love in the heart of God and in the heart of the Christian. Not content with having chosen us as His well-beloved creature, with having given us grace, life, heaven, and happiness by the complete sacrifice of Himself, Jesus has wished to unite Himself to us in the closest manner. And what has He done to accomplish this? O marvellous love of a God for His creature! He began by uniting Himself to our miserable nature; He became man, as one of us; He lived our life; He has wished to dwell with us, and to find His delights in remaining with us. But this sojourn was necessarily transitory; this union of the Word in the Incarnation was His union with human nature in general. The heart of Jesus wished more, and He has done more. He has instituted the Holy Eucharist, and thereby has found the secret of eternalizing His presence among men, whom He has loved so much. He has wished to give Himself and to unite Himself to each one in particular. What love ! Can you ever be sufficiently grateful?

If you love Jesus truly, it is not enough to have chosen Him for your Friend and your King; it is not enough to be prepared for entire devotion and even to immolate yourself for Him. You should earnestly aspire to be united to Him. This union, the object of delight to the heart that loves, consists in the complete fusion of your heart with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, by the same thoughts, the same desires, and the same wishes. You should regard the things of the world—its pleasures, its honors—as He regarded them. It is necessary that you should love and desire what He has desired and loved. What union could ever exist between two hearts whose sentiments and affections were quite contrary? But because it is in the Holy Eucharist that the union with Jesus is closest and most intimate, it is necessary that you should be most anxious to be nourished by it. Indifference for this sacrament would testify your want of love. How, can you think that you love Jesus, when you have so little desire to be united to Him?

Adorable Master, Thou hast chosen me for Thy child when I was so unworthy; Thou hast devoted Thyself to my salvation in spite of the abuse I have made of Thy grace. Thou desirest to be united to me, to lift me up to Thee. I wish also to take Thee for my only inheritance, to sacrifice myself for Thee, and to remain faithful to Thee; and, by uniting myself often with Thee in the sacrament of Thy love, may I merit to be eternally united with Thee in the Kingdom of Thy glory.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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3rd Sunday after Easter - On Afflictions

5/11/2019

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 OUR blessed Saviour has announced to His apostles, in the Gospel of today, that their destiny... on this earth is to endure afflictions, but that these afflictions shall be changed into joy. We shall therefore consider the conditions required that the afflictions of the Christian shall become for him a subject of joy.

First Point.—The first condition required to change our sufferings to joy is to suffer for the faith. Even as Jesus must attain to glory and triumph by sufferings and humiliations, so also it was in the designs of God that the Church could not be established, nor could she be developed, except by persecutions. If the great ones of the earth had extended to the Church their powerful assistance, we might believe that her establishment on earth was a work purely human, and her existence was accounted for in the ordinary way; but by refusing all human aid, in founding His religion in spite of armed opposition and the ever active human powers, God has clearly declared that religion owed her origin and development to Him.

And it is precisely to show that she owes to Him her preservation, also, that God still permits, and shall permit to the end of time, His religion to be the object of attack from heresy, incredulity, and all the passions. If, therefore, you wish to be a Christian, if you wish especially to practice your duties, you must expect persecutions from the world. True, indeed, you have no need to fear persecution from the sword; the modern methods on which our civilization prides itself seem to shield us from this danger. However, if God preserved you from these fearful trials, if Satan should rouse again among you the persecutions which disturbed the first days of the Church, then recall the virtues which triumphed over them. Children of the martyrs, imitate the courage of your fathers, and dare as they did to resist even to blood; do not hesitate to follow them even that far, and prefer a glorious death to a life dishonored by apostasy.

Second Point.--A second condition required to change our sufferings into joy is that they should be the consequence of our fidelity in the service of God. In addition to the violent persecution to which Christianity is sometimes exposed, the Christian is liable to particular tribulations, less terrifying, unquestionably, but more difficult to endure, perhaps, by reason of their continuance. Besides, the world in which you live pursues you with its contradictions, its railleries, and its seductions. You must resist inclinations which attack you from within and passions which lead you away. The edifice of salvation is not erected as were the ramparts of Jerusalem, by employing one hand to construct and the other to defend them. If you have entered upon the ways of justice, you have already traversed a part of the narrow and painful pathway which conducts to heaven; but do not stop in your laborious career, and, after having surmounted the greatest obstacles, do not allow yourself to be cast down by the difficulties which yet remain to be overcome. On the contrary, at the sight of new difficulties take courage, for these are the very obstacles in your way which shall win the recompense. Every effort shall merit a new reward for you, and every victory shall add another jewel to the crown which is prepared for you.

But if you have hitherto walked in the ways of iniquity, your return to God will meet with special obstacles in your inveterate habits, in your passions, strengthened by long service in sin. Still, be not cast down. The difficulties you shall meet with shall be the most meritorious part of your penance. The more that the practice of virtues opposed to your vices shall cost the greater shall be the benedictions which you shall receive. If the sight of the barriers which obstruct the path of penance for you shall frighten you, then lift up your eyes to the hand which guides you and which shall help you to surmount them. The most difficult step is the first, and in proportion as you advance you shall feel the pathway grow smooth under your feet.

Third Point.—The third condition required to change your sufferings into joy is to suffer in a spirit of faith. When affliction falls on you, think that it is God who sends it to you, and that you must receive it with submission. Reflect that it is a law of our nature, then you shall accept it in patience; that it is the punishment of sin, and you shall receive it with resignation; that it is a chastisement, and then you shall accept it with gratitude; that it is a trial to which Providence subjects you and you shall accept it with courage; that it is the crucible in which Divine Goodness purifies you to make you more worthy, then you shall accept it with joy.

Jesus has spoken this word, which has ever been a subject of astonishment for the worldly and a consolation for the Christian: "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. "When, therefore, afflictions fall on you, think that you have one consolation—they come from God. Go then, not to your worldly friends—you would but weary them without any profit to yourself—but go to your divine Consoler; present Him your tears, and He will wipe them away; present Him your sorrows, and He shall sweeten them and give to you the sure hope that every sorrow you experience shall be compensated by His graces.

Fourth Point.—The fourth condition required to change sufferings into joy is voluntarily to accept them as an expiation for your past offenses. We cannot hope to enter heaven except by the pathway which our divine Saviour Himself has trod. It is He who has declared this truth to us, that we must carry the cross. He has wished to suffer, the apostle tells us, in order to be not only our Redeemer but our Model. Think of all the saints who have gone before you on earth and who have preceded you in the blessed country, and you shall not find a single one who has been exalted except after a life of mortification. All have attained to glory through humiliations, to the supreme good by self-abnegation, to happiness by sufferings. Look about, on every side, and you will not find another way. Ask from heaven some precepts and ask from earth some examples, but they shall have none others to give you. Mortification of the body, by retrenching its pleasures, of the soul, bya subjugation of the passions, are the true means, the absolutely necessary means of sanctification; and, unhappily, we must add, the means but little known among men and rarely put in practice. Nothing is more common, even among those who believe themselves faithful, than a soft and sensual life, which is so opposed to the maxims and precepts and example of Jesus Christ. Because there are few mortifications especially commanded us, there are those who believe that mortification is commanded only in some general manner, and even the few practices of self-denial which the laws of the Church make binding on us are not observed. We are wont to moderate them rather than to observe them. The secret of this so-called Christian conduct appears to be to conciliate the commands of God with the pleasures and dissipations of the world: and we strive to content ourselves in the belief that we have conformed to the precepts when, although not violating them openly, we have had the unhappy facility of evading them. Never do this, but regard the law of penance not as a burden, but as a blessing, since its observance shall secure for you your best and most sacred interests.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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2019-2020 Student Planners

5/11/2019

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I've had quite a few readers ask me if I was making the student planners this year.  I am, I'm actually working on them now.  They will be available by the end of June but hopefully before then.  I will keep you updated.
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Saint Catherine's Academy Gazette - Issue 53 - May 2019

5/1/2019

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 The newest issue of our family Gazette is now available to view and download here. You can view it below. 
 
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Easter Sunday - The Resurrection

4/21/2019

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 THE Resurrection of Jesus from the tomb is the model of that new life which every Christian. . . should live who has returned to grace. Let us study the sacred characters of the Saviour's Resurrection, and learn on what conditions we also can arise with Him.

First Point.—The Resurrection of Jesus presents three principal characters; viz., it is true, it is all for God, and it is forever. Such should be the qualities of our return to God. Our return to God should be sincere. The Resurrection of Jesus is not a fiction, but a reality. The proofs of it are: His absence from the tomb; His winding-sheet and garments are left behind; and His apparition to Simon. Behold by what marks we may recognize if our resurrection to grace is sincere. Virtuous men and true Christians must be able to say of us what the angels said of Jesus, "He is not here." You may seek for this person in his old habits, in parties of pleasure, at the plays, and among the worldly; but he is no longer there. " Why do you seek a living soul among the dead?" Behold the pledges of his conversion—the winding-sheet and the relics of his worldliness. Hitherto vanity was evident in his dress, but now modesty and decency are his most beautiful ornaments. This change should be apparent to every eye. Christians shall rejoice at
this conversion, because it shall be their most beautiful eulogy. The worldly will laugh; so much the better—their railleries shall be our first atonement.

The second character of the Resurrection of Jesus is that it is all for God. Before His death Jesus lived in the world, and He lived a human life. But once that He has arisen, He lives a life wholly celestial, He lives for God. His body even is spiritualized. It is on the heights of Galilee that His apostles must go to find Him. Behold our Model. "Even as Jesus has arisen" says the apostle, "we must also arise to a new life." He adds: " When I was a child, I thought as a child, I acted as a child; but having become a man, I have thought and acted as a man." Let us apply these words to ourselves. When we were sinners, worldlings, slaves to our passions, we thought and acted as sinners and as worldlings; if we have truly become Christians, we should act and love and think as Christians.

According to the terms of the theology of St. Paul, there are in us two men—the old and the new. The old man is concupiscence, self, and pride. The new man is grace, Jesus, and faith. Now what is it to arise with Christ? It is to live His life. And what is it to live the life of Christ? To understand it well (for here is all the mystery and the foundation of Christian life), we must know that life consists especially in two functions of the soul, viz. , to think and to love. To live the life of Jesus, to live the life of faith, is to think of the world, of pleasures, of salvation, and of sufferings what Jesus thought of them; to live the life of Jesus is to love what He loved. But what has He loved? What has He thought of the pleasures of the world, of riches, and of sufferings? Think of His birth, His life and His death, think of His teachings, and then answer.

The third character of the Resurrection is its duration. Jesus once arisen dies no more. Never again shall we see Him assume His earthly garb or re-enter the tomb from which He came; never shall He become a victim to death, even for an instant. Hence St. Paul says: "Death has no longer empire over Him. " And so our resurrection to grace should be constant. No one should behold us resuming' our old guilty habits, or falling again into sin. We have arisen from our tomb, be careful not to reenter it. St. Paul says : " Know that grace has crucified in us the old man, that the reign of sin may be destroyed, and that we may serve sin no longer." What a crime, if, after having returned to God, after having tasted the sweetness of His love, we should go, as the unclean animal, to our former sinfulness. Let us ask of our risen Saviour to keep us far from such a misfortune, and that He may bind us so strongly to Himself that we shall never be separated from Him.

Second Point.—The conditions to arise with Jesus. The first condition is to die; in fact, only the dead can arise. Our soul cannot live at once the natural life which it has from the old Adam and the supernatural life which it must draw from the new Adam. These two lives are incompatible in their principles and in their effects. The principles of one are: nature, passions, pride, the senses; it has for its effects: pleasure, love of ease, and fear of sufferings. The principles of the supernatural life are: grace, faith, the promptings of the Holy Spirit its effects are: humility, a spirit of sacrifice, and a love of suffering. We must, therefore, necessarily choose. Hence the maxim in the language of the Christian, so common and so true: " We must die to live. " The vile insect which crawls under the grass does not become a beautiful butterfly except by leaving its first form and its first life. And so the
Christian must arise from his ashes; he must cease to be a man and become a Christian. St. Paul says " I die every day." This saying is full of consolation; it teaches us that spiritual death comes slowly; it is a daily work to be accomplished. Let us labor without relaxation, but let us labor without discouragement. And here let us ask how this spiritual death happens. It comes only after the agony. There is no death without sorrow. Jesus replied to the disciples, who were frightened at the remembrance of His Passion: "It is necessary that Christ should suffer, and thus enter into His glory." It is the necessary condition.. And this transformation which is made in a Christian man is called mortification. "If any one wishes to come after Me"—that is to say, to live My life— "let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me." This is the daily "I die" of St. Paul. Mortification, then, is the path which leads to death, as death is the path which leads to resurrection. And then to suffer, or, rather, to wish to suffer. " If any one wishes to come after Me." Do you know why there are so few Christians truly worthy of the name? So few who live the life of faith? It is because there are so few who consent to suffer. What a strange thing! We wish to live the supernatural life, we wish to arise with Christ, but we do not wish mortification! We might just as well wish to die without suffering. Let us reform our erroneous ideas and walk after Jesus daily. He is laden with His cross, He ascends the hill of Calvary ; He is crucified and He dies. We must also ascend the Calvary of humiliation, and embrace the cross, and allow ourselves to be crucified with Jesus to merit to arise as He did, to live with Him always.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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- He is Risen, Alleluia -

4/21/2019

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He is risen, Alleluia! May you all have a very
Blessed and Joyous Easter !
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Palm Sunday - The Cenacle

4/14/2019

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PALM SUNDAY opens the great week, or, as it is called by excellence, the Holy Week. It is so . . . called because it is in this week the grandest mysteries of our holy religion are accomplished. You cannot better enter into the spirit of the Church than by meditating each day on one of the circumstances of the Passion of our blessed Lord. Today let us enter the cenacle and consider the different circumstances associated with the institution of the most lovable and the most august of all the sacraments.

The first circumstance which presents itself to your meditations is the strange command which Jesus gives to His apostles, viz., to prepare a room which shall be at once large and beautifully appointed. In fact, it is a strange command, since it is the first time that the divine Master shows that He is particular in the choice of a place which He shall honor by His presence. For a palace, He chose a stable; for a cradle, He selected a manger; for a refuge of His infancy, He is content with the house of a poor artisan; to offer His last sacrifice, a wooden cross sufficed. It is only now that He does not wish to appear poor. He wishes to surround His Eucharistic body with honors; and why? These surroundings are intended more for us than for Him. He wishes to give us a lesson. He teaches us that we cannot surround the Blessed Eucharist with too much respect or magnificence. He justifies His Church from the reproach of too much pomp, which unthinking men would make against her, and who would wish to see her offer the holy sacrifice under a roof of straw and in vessels of wood and potter's clay, while they themselves walk on richest tapestry and eat and drink from gold and silver vessels. Ah, if gold and silver were ever legitimately employed, it is certainly when there is question of erecting a throne to the God of the Eucharist and to heighten the splendor of its festivals.

This has been the mind and conduct of all thesaints, and of all who have with David loved the "beauty of God's house." They have all considered it a duty and a joy to contribute to the ornamentation of the place which He has chosen to make His dwelling among men. St. Cajetan wished that the churches and the altars should be decorated with all possible splendor, and, in spite of his love for poverty, he sought for the richest ornaments, saying that nothing was too precious for the Lord of the world. Are these your sentiments? By this command Jesus warns us specially concerning the interior dispositions which we should bring to the reception of the Holy Eucharist. He asks that the room in which the institution of the Blessed Eucharist takes place should be grand and vast and spacious. But that which constitutes the grandeur of the heart are the exalted sentiments and a complete detachment from earthly things.

Our souls ascend or descend with the objects which preoccupy them. If the soul habitually loves and seeks after what is beneath her, the weight of these things compel her to descend. There is nothing so little or contracted as a soul whose intelligence revolves habitually in the narrow circle of purely material interests. The ideas are narrow, the tastes are low, and the mind is frivolous; grand and serious thoughts are too heavy for such a soul to carry. Do you wish to possess a grand and noble heart? Then banish from it every earthly affection. Jesus can be but ill at ease in a heart which is also occupied by creatures. The throne of your heart is by far too beautiful to allow some earthly idol to possess it; He only is worthy to occupy it who has formed it by His own hands, and then can enrich it by His grace from the treasury of His virtues.

When approaching the holy table, offer to your King, Jesus, a heart void of all earthly affection or whatever is purely human. If you would possess a truly great heart, let it be filled with a holy confidence. Confidence dilates the soul, unfolds all her faculties, and opens them to receive the dews of heavenly grace. It is precisely to facilitate this unfolding of the soul when approaching the holy table, that Jesus veils there His majesty under the Eucharistic species, and invites us in words that are full of tenderness : " Come, My well beloved, and eat the bread which I have prepared for you, and drink also of the wine; be inebriated by the delights of My table. Oh, with what ardor I have desired to eat of this Pasch with you!" How then can you be wanting in confidence when Jesus calls you to Him with so much goodness? Not only does Jesus wish a room vast and spacious, but also beautifully adorned. If your soul should be a dwelling-place worthy of God, she should be adorned with many virtues. This is a necessary condition for a worthy and fervent communion. And you know what these virtues should be: you should possess a lively faith, which shall present to you Jesus, true God and true man, under the sacred veils which hide Him from your corporal eyes—even as He was in the crib, when He received the adorations of the shepherds and the wise men; and even as He is in heaven, where He offers to His Father for you the wounds of His sacred humanity, the scars of which are still evident.

While approaching the holy table, let your soul be filled with an ardent charity. The Eucharist is by excellence the sacrament of love. Love begets love. When Jesus opens His heart for you with unspeakable tenderness, should you close yours to Him? What to Him are your protestations, your words of devotion, your sterile assurances? It is your heart that He desires, and it is your love He yearns for. He says to you, with an incomparable sweetness: " My son, give Me thy heart." I ask it of thee, not as the world asks it, to fill it with trouble, agitation, and often remorse; but I ask it that I may bless it, purify it, and enrich it with My graces. "My son, give Me thy heart." What an enemy you shall be to yourself if you refuse to give it!

To a lively faith and an ardent charity add a profound humility. Alas, who are you to merit the distinguished honor which awaits you at the holy table? Moses, while thinking that he was only"dust and ashes," was astonished that God should hear him; St. Elizabeth, on seeing the Blessed Virgin, who had come to visit her, exclaimed: "Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my God should come to me?" The centurion acknowledged he was unworthy to receive Jesus in his house. But it is in your heart that Jesus is going to descend; He is about to unite Himself to you, and you to Him. Even were you an angel, you could not sufficiently merit such a favor. But oh! how far you are from being an angel!

These preparatory dispositions for communion are indicated to us by a circumstance in which Jesus gives us at once the example and the precepts. Before the mysterious repast at which the Blessed Eucharist was instituted, He put aside His garments, and, after having girded Himself as the servants
do, He washed the feet of His apostles. What a lesson for us who are so jealous of our rank and dignity, so particular concerning precedence, and so desirous of honor ! The God of heaven and earth is on His knees before His apostles, washing their feet with those hands which can hurl the thunders, heal the sick, and lavish blessings. And Peter, at the sight of his Master's conduct, is seized with a holy indignation. "What ! Lord, Thou wash my feet! I shall never permit Thee." Peter fully realized the dignity of his Master, says Bossuet, and he only wished to hinder Him because of the lowliness of the ministry which He performed; he did not understand that this was, for him, an indispensable preparation for the Holy Eucharist, and that he could not participate in it unless his body and his feet also were purified ; that is to say, that the least stains, as well as the greatest faults, must be wiped away. But scarcely has Jesus declared to him that without this preparation he should have no part in His kingdom, than he exclaimed with greatest fervor: "Ah, Lord, wash not only my feet, but my hands and my head. Purify me wholly."

From this let us learn with what purity we should approach the holy table. After having effaced our grievous faults, do not neglect those which are venial. You have been purified in the sacred waters of penance, but we have something yet to do. Besides those sins which kill the soul, there are others which disfigure it, and these also must be effaced. Then, before approaching the holy table, repeat with St. Peter: "Lord, my God, wash me, my feet, my head, my hands, that nothing in me shall be displeasing to Thy eyes, that I may be pure and without stain, to receive Thee into my heart, God of purity!"

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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Passion Sunday - The Testimony Which Jesus Gives of Himself

4/7/2019

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Picture
 THE noble assurance with which Jesus defies His enemies to accuse Him of sin furnishes us an . . . occasion of meditating on the beautiful character of the Saviour of men. You shall find in it one of the most striking proofs of His divinity. It shall be sufficient for us to propose these two questions:Is Jesus, as He said, the Son of God? and, is His testimony true?

First Point.—In order to escape from the crushing proof which follows from the testimony of Jesus in favor of His divinity, the infidels pretended that Jesus said He was, indeed, the envoy of God, but that He never affirmed that He was God. To demonstrate the falsity of this assertion, we have only to open the Holy Gospels. Jesus there gives testimony to His divinity at first in presence of His friends and disciples. One day, while speaking with them, He asked: "Whom do men say that I am?" The disciples answered: "Some say that Thou art John the Baptist, others that Thou art Jeremias, others that Thou art Elias, and others still that Thou art one of the prophets." But Jesus again asked: "Whom do you think I am?" Then Peter answered: "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God." Instead of reproving him or correcting Peter's statement as a blasphemy, Jesus replied to
Peter: "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of John, because flesh and blood have not revealed this to thee, but My Father who is in heaven." In another circumstance, Philip said to Jesus: "Lord, show us the Father and that will satisfy us." But Jesus, being indignant at this request, answers him: "What! I am so long with you, and you have not known Me, Philip? He who sees Me, also sees the Father. How then can you say, show us the Father; do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?" On another occasion, always wishing still more to affirm His divine affiliation, He said to one of His disciples: "God has so loved the world that He has sent His only Son, that he who believes in Him shall not be condemned, but he who does not believe in Him shall be condemned, because he does not believe in the name of the only Son of God." Jesus, therefore, proclaimed Himself as the Son of God, and in the strictest sense He claimed that He was in the Father and that the Father was in Him; and that to see Him was to see the Father. The testimony which Jesus gives of His divinity to His friends and to His disciples is evident.

The testimony which He gives of Himself in presence of the people is no less evident and no less explicit. The multitudes which surrounded Him exclaimed: "How long shall you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us clearly and  openly." Jesus answers them: "I speak to you and you do not believe Me. The works which I have done give testimony of Me. My Father and I are one." At this statement, which told everything, the Jews gathered stones to throw at Him. And Jesus said to them: "I have shown you the works of My Father; for which of these works do you cast stones at Me?" The Jews answered: "For none of Thy works, but because of Thy blasphemy; because, being only a man, Thou hast made Thyself God." The language of Jesus before the people had the same signification as the language before the disciples: He clearly and unmistakably declared, "My Father and I are one." But Jesus is cited before the council of the ancients, the priests and magistrates of Judea. After testimony more or less inconsistent, the high priest puts the question squarely; he arises and addresses the accused this solemn adjuration: "I adjure you by the living God, to tell us, if you are the Christ, the Son of God." And Jesus answered him by these two words: "I am." And to confirm His avowal He immediately added: "I am He, and you shall see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven." So that before His friends, before the people, and before the magistrates, Jesus proclaimed Himself the Son of God, the only Son, the Son equal to His Father, one with His Father, and being in His Father and His Father in Him. This is the testimony which Jesus gives of Himself. And what a testimony! Only to think! a man, a being of flesh and blood, who has before Him not only the weakness of life but the weakness of death,-- a mere man,—and He dares to proclaim Himself a God! It is the first time in the history of the world that it has ever happened! It is evident that a mere man is not capable of such bold falsehood.

Second Point.—But is the testimony which Jesus renders of Himself true? To doubt it, we must accept one of these two propositions: either Jesus did not believe what He said, or He believed it without being what He declared Himself to be. In the first supposition, He would be deceitful, since He proclaimed Himself for what He was not; in the second supposition he would be insane, since, being only a man, He believed Himself a God. In both suppositions we are presented with an impossibility. It is impossible to make of Jesus a deceitful man. According to the avowal of all, even of those who do not believe in Him, Jesus is a good and wise man, a man of incomparable character. He has done so many wonderful things, such holy things, that even His very enemies always pay homage to His works and to His person. If the world has seen black and impious spirits who have dared to blaspheme against His innocence and to confound Him with seducers, they have been only some monsters whom the whole human race has held in horror, and whose names, too odious to every nature, have remained buried in the same darkness from which their impiety came. In fact, what man had ever appeared with more incontestable characters of innocence and sanctity than Jesus the Son of the living God?

In what man was ever observed so much love for virtue, so much sincere contempt for the world, so much charity for men, and such indifference for all human glory? Follow in detail His conduct and manners, and see if there has ever appeared on earth a just man more universally exempt from all the weaknesses which are inseparable from humanity. The more you observe Him, the more His sanctity shines out luminously. His disciples, who watch Him closely, are struck by the innocence of His life; while familiarity, which is so dangerous even to heroic virtue, serves only to discover, every day, new wonders in Him. When He speaks it is only the language of heaven, and He responds only when His answers may be useful for the salvation of those who interrogate Him. We never see in Him some intervals when the man asserts himself; but everywhere He appears as the envoy of the Most High. His most ordinary actions are exalted by the sublimity of the dispositions which accompany them; and never does He appear less a divine man than when He eats in the house of a Pharisee and when He calls Lazarus back from death to life. Jesus, therefore, is not and could not be a deceiver. But was He demented? This supposition is such an absurdity that it is revolting; and in; presence of the sublimity of His doctrines, which have won the admiration of every age; in presence of the purity of His moral teaching, which could not be equalled in the most beautiful pages that ever came from the hands of man; in presence of that wisdom which marked all His works, which dictated all His responses, a wisdom which sanctified all His acts and confounded the perfidy of His enemies. No, Jesus was not demented. He was not guilty of a horrible falsehood. He said He was God, and therefore He is God.

O my adorable Master, I love to recognize Thee as the Messias promised to Adam, as the Saviour of the world, and as the immortal King of ages. Thou art more than a great genius, more than Elias, more than a prophet, more than a divine man. Thou art the Son of the living God! Do not permit that anything in the world should ever disturb my faith or take from me Thy love.

Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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Spring Sale at Bellas Little Shoppe

4/1/2019

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We are having a 10% off sale on any of our doll outfits and accessories, now through April 13th!  You can find our shoppe here. We are working on a few more saint outfits for these dolls.  Sister Cabrini, Blessed Imelda, Saint Nicholas, Saint Michael and a new Saint Joan of Arc, complete with armour! We'll give you a couple sneek peeks in another post.  
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St. Catherine's Academy Gazette - Issue 52 - April 2019

3/31/2019

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Our latest edition of the Gazette is now available.  You can view it below and download and print it here.
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Quote of the Day - March 12th

3/12/2019

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Though it may happen that a mother should be so hardened as to forget her own child, yet God promises He will never forget us.
                                                                                                                          - Venerable J. Tauler -
Source: Whom the Lord Loveth, Imprimatur 1919
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