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

6/14/2019

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The Maidens for Mary and Crusaders for Christ 2019-2020 Student Planners are now available to purchase.  You may view them by looking at the scribd file below. A printable 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 WILL BE READY TO SHIP JUNE 20TH.
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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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 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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Quote of the Day - March 11th

3/11/2019

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It matters little whether we are rich or poor, prosperous or unfortunate in the world, providing we are minting money for Heaven, by the practice of patience, resignation, honesty and the love of God.
                                                                                                            - Cardinal Vaughan -
Source: Whom the Lord Loveth, Imprimatur 1919
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Quote of the Day - March 10th

3/10/2019

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Think of the crosses with which Jesus has laden you, for they are treasures which He has drawn from the depths of His riches and you must look upon them as wonderful proofs of His love.
                                                                                                                                              - Fenelon -
Source: Whom the Lord Loveth, Imprimatur 1919
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1st Sunday of Lent - The Institution of Lenten Time

3/10/2019

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 THE Church has had two principal reasons in instituting the holy time of Lent: to make us . . . fulfil the duty of penance, and to make us meditate on the sufferings of Christ.

First Point.—The first motive which seems to have influenced the Church in the institution of Lent has been to afford us an opportunity of fulfilling the law of penance. We cannot forget that there is a law which obliges all the children of Adam to do penance. This law has been proclaimed at the moment of the fall, and was again proclaimed by the Gospel, and at the time of our regeneration. This
law is binding on us as men; since we are heirs to the sin of Adam, we are also heirs to the sentence which has condemned him to suffer.

This law is binding on us, also, as Christians, since it is only by fulfilling it we become like to our Model and Master. A great expiation has been consummated on Golgotha! Christians, children of the
cross, fruits conceived amidst the heart rendings and agonies of Calvary; disciples of a God dead on the cross; sons of the King—but of a King crowned by sorrow; born to the purple—but the purple of His blood,—our life should not belie our origin! The sacrifice of the Saviour has been complete in all that regards the person and the merits of the Victim; but this sacrifice should continue in His members, who with Him form but one and the same mystical body. His cross remains forever planted in the midst of His Church, to recall to us the obligation of attaching ourselves to it and of dying on it with Him; and there shall be something wanting to His passion, as St. Paul has understood it, if it is not accomplished, also, in our own body; if the blood of Jesus does not continue, in some way, to flow in the veins of His apostles and martyrs and confessors, and in all those who believe in Him, until the time when the whole Church shall have passed from the state of suffering and of combat to the possession of glory.

The law of penance is binding on us especially as sinners. Let us recall to mind all the transgressions which make us debtors to Divine Justice—and insolvent debtors, too, without any doubt, if God had not deigned to accept our feeble satisfactions in consideration of the superabundant merits of His Son. At this remembrance, does not your conscience tell you the necessity of chastising a rebellious flesh which has been so often the occasion and the instrument of your falls? Now, this penance, whose indispensable necessity you cannot forget, whether to make you " conformable to the image of
the Son" or to expiate your countless prevarications,—do you do it? Alas!—you must admit it—your time is always ready, as the Saviour reproached  the Jews: I mean the time for your business, your pleasures, the time for sin; but the time of Jesus, the time of penance, is never ready or at hand. You put it off, and defer it, and expect every day that the time shall come; but the time never comes. Now, the Church comes to assist us in our weakness and in our cowardice. She strongly reminds you of this precept of penance, which your indifference neglects. From all the pulpits which are erected in the innumerable churches of the Catholic world the resounding voice is heard in unmistakable terms: "Unless you do penance you shall perish"

And, not content with reminding you of this great precept, the Church anticipates your indecision by determining the time when this duty will bind with greater rigor, and by indicating the most suitable manner of penance; thus, by a happy violence, she forces you, so to speak, to enter the way of penance by adding to the authority of God her own authority. In fine, that you may not escape the pursuit of Divine Justice, she, in a way, encloses you in a circle of forty days, and she will not allow you to depart until you shall have given these sacred duties a just satisfaction. Do you love your soul enough to understand and second the merciful intentions of the Church in your regard?

Second Point. —By instituting the Lenten time the Church wishes to make us meditate on the sufferings of Our Saviour. The mortification of the senses is not sufficient for salvation—it must be accompanied by compunction of heart. Now, what is more capable of exciting compunction in us than the meditation of a mystery as tender as it is terrible—-the mystery of our redemption? Unquestionably we can obtain this compunction of heart by other considerations, drawn from the grandeur of God, or His justice, or the heinousness of sin ; but the true source of tears—tears which flow from the heart as well as from the eyes; those tears which are sweet in their bitterness; which have the power to purify the soul, to strengthen it, to transform it, to create in it the new man,—the true source of such tears is in the cross; in the cross which illumines all the divine perfections, but in a manner so well arranged that His goodness dominates and absorbs all the other perfections, and all the rays of this grand glory melt away and are effaced in the single ray of love.

The cross is by excellence the Christian's book. Every one may read it. There, in characters visible to every eye and accessible to every intelligence, you may learn what is most important for every Christian to know. Behold why the Church unfolds its blood-stained pages during the holy exercises of Lent! Not only does she wish that we should recall the grand mystery of our redemption, but she also renders it in a way present and sensible by the vivacity and truth of her pictures, as an action which had passed under our very eyes. She sprinkles her children with ashes, she exchanges her vestments of joy which were worn on festival occasions, and assumes others of a sombre hue; she sings, it is true, but her chants are from a voice broken with sobs and tears ; she seems to fear the solitude, for her children are in such great sorrow; She invites them frequently to assemble in community for prayer, for the sacrifice of the Mass, and for pious reunions. We could say of her children that they are like a family bowed by sorrow, whose members have united to "weep for the loss of an only and well-beloved son." As the end approaches, the representation becomes more striking, and the impression of the death of the Man-God is more vividly felt. The very silence of His tomb seems to reign in the temple during the last days of the great and Holy Week. The stripped altars and the open and empty tabernacles leave nothing to behold except the cross unveiled—the cross which the Church only adores and only salutes in plaintive chants as our one, last, and only hope.

Allow your heart to go out to, and be touched by, these holy impressions if you wish to respond to the intentions of the Church. Let your faith lead you to assist at each of these terrible scenes of which the drama of redemption is composed; gather with love the drops of bloody sweat falling from Jesus in the Garden of Olives; place your lips on each imprint of that precious blood which has reddened the road to Calvary; also to each of those sacred wounds from which spring the running waters of life eternal. Accompany by your sighs and tears, and with the daughters of Jerusalem, this new Isaac up to the hill-top of Calvary, and do not descend from the holy mountain where the greatest of sacrifices has been accomplished until you have struck your breast with the centurion; or, rather, do not quit the holy mountain, but remain there, crucified with Jesus; nail to the cross, not your feet and hands, but your sins and defects and desires, for which the Saviour has died; it shall be in vain that He died for your sins if you also do not die to them, to arise with Him to a new life.
 
Source: Short Instructions on the Feasts of the Year, Imprimatur 1897
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Quote of the Day - March 9th

3/9/2019

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Be assured that you have entered into God's service only to be chiseled, polished and perfected each day by the hands of those with whom you live. Look upon them as so many individuals sent to you by God to sanctify you by training you, each one in his own way.
                                                                                                              - St. John of the Cross -
Source: Whom the Lord Loveth, Imprimatur 1919
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Quote of the Day - March 7th

3/7/2019

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Let this dear Jesus be your nearest and dearest friend. Confide your trials to Him. Take everything as coming from His fatherly hand.
                                                                                                                         - Mother Aloysia Hardy -
Source: Whom the Lord Loveth, Imprimatur 1919
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Quote of the Day - March 6th

3/6/2019

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Each suffering is a new flower added to the crown which is prepared for us in eternity.
                                                                                                                     St. Alphonsus Liguori
Source: Whom the Lord Loveth,  Imprimatur 1919
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