THE CROSS AND THE HOST                                                                                     "To know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge."

THE love of Jesus Christ which surpasses all knowledge is shown to us best in the Holy Eucharist, which is the sacrament of love.

A teacher in a First Communion class was explaining to the children the difference between the crucifix and the Eucharist. After the explanation she asked one of the children if the lesson was understood. The child gave a beautiful answer that proved she did understand the lesson. The child said, " The difference between the crucifix and the Eucharist is this: When I look at a crucifix I see the body of Jesus, but He is not really there. When I look at the Host, I do not see the body of Jesus but He is really there." That is what makes the Eucharist a sacrament of love. Jesus hides all His glory as God under the appearances of a thin wafer of bread. What we see with the eyes of our body is the appearance of bread. What we see with the eyes of the soul is the Body of Christ.

If we are to be faithful to Jesus Christ, we must be frequent visitors to the altar rail . There are times when we do not feel strong enough to stand up against temptation. It is from the altar that we draw our strength. There are times when we feel troubled and worried. It
is from the altar that we draw peace for our souls. There are times when we want something very badly and need God's help to get it. After Communion is the best time to ask Him, because then He is the guest in our hearts.

When the Emperor Napoleon was captured and imprisoned on the Island of Elba, he had time to think about many things. During that time he returned to the faith of his childhood which he had been neglecting. They asked him one day what he thought to be the greatest
triumph of his life. "Was it your victory at Marengo? At Lodi? At Vienna?" He replied, "None of those. The greatest triumph of my life was the day of my first Communion."

St. Thomas More was the adviser to King Henry VIII of England. One day while St. Thomas was attending Mass, he was told that the king would be angry if he did not come immediately to the throne room. St. Thomas replied, "The king should not be angry at the homage that I show to his King."

The touchstone of a good Catholic is his devotion to our Lord in the Sacrament of the Altar. If we really believe in Christ's presence there we will spend much time with Him and receive Him as often as we can. I want to exhort every child in this parish to take up the practice of daily Communion. Daily Communion is a pledge of our future salvation. Christ loves those who love Him in the sacrament of His love. Daily Communion helps us to "know Christ's love which surpasses knowledge, in order that you may be filled into all the fulness of God."
                            Source:  Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949

                                                         THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY
                       "The flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh."

IN THIS modern day it is difficult to be pure of heart. One of the greatest dangers to purity, especially to growing youngsters, is the cheap immoral literature which fills our bookstands. There is danger to your soul in these books.

How the student died was a mystery. They found him dead, still seated in the reading room of the library, his head fallen forward onto the ancient book that he had been reading. He had died suddenly and without any outcry. The police could find no cause of death and were plainly baffled. They promised the arrest of the criminal in a few days. They caught the criminal, but were not able to arrest him, so they put him to death on the spot. Out of curiosity a detective looked to see what the book was which the student had been reading. He picked it up, but dropped it quickly just in time. From behind the folds of the leather binding of the ancient volume came a black widow spider. The detective put his big foot on it and that was the end of the criminal. The mystery was explained.

The spider had hidden itself behind the leather folds of the binding and had bitten the student as he opened the book. The bite of the black-widow spider means instant death. For that student there was poison in the book.  In many other books there is poison which can kill your soul.

"The flesh lusts against the spirit," and evil books are evil's most evil weapon. Whatever you read becomes anpart of you. Your eye lifts thoughts from the printed page. This thought becomes a picture in the art gallery of your mind. If you keep taking in evil pictures and no good ones, then your mind becomes evil. You have heard of people who are evil minded. That is how they got that way — by not being careful of the thoughts which they allowed to enter their minds. Do not let that happen to you. For the student there was poison in the book. It caused his death. For you there can be poison in books whose sting is more dangerous than the black widow. It can cause the death of your soul.

Your safeguard in all matters of purity is constant prayer to Mary, for she is the Mother most pure. Ask her daily to cast her blue mantle around you and keep you safe from harm. She it is who crushed with her heel the head of the serpent just as the detective crushed the spider. While you ask her to keep you constantly in mind you must also keep her constantly in mind and adopt as your motto,

"I will not do anything which the Mother of God could not watch me doing."
                                                              Source:  Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949

                                                                        "God is one."

WHEN God was giving all the flowers their names, so goes the story, He called them all before Him and told them what names they were to be known by. The rose and the lily and all the other flowers quickly memorized their names and never forgot them. Then off they went to make God's world beautiful. But then in the words of the poet:

                                                   When to the flowers so beautiful
                                                              The Father gave a name,
                                                    Back came a little blue-eyed one
                                                                ( All timidly it came);
                                                      And standing at its Father's feet
                                                               And gazing in His face,
                                                    It said in low and trembling tone,
                                               "Dear God, the name Thou gavest me.
                                                                  Alas I have forgot!"
                                                Kindly the Father looked Him down
                                                          And said, "Forget-me-not."
                                                                                               — Emily Roelofson

That is how the blue forget-me-not got its name. God says the same to us. "Forget Me not."
Someone once asked the Emperor Napoleon whether or not he believed in God. They said to him, " How can you believe in God when you have never seen him?" Napoleon answered, "My victories make you believe in me. But which of my victories can be compared to any of the wonders of creation? What military movement can compare with the movement of the heavenly bodies? My victories made you believe in me. The universe and all its glories make me believe in God." St. Paul tells us that "God is one." That means that He should be the only ruler of our hearts. He should be the only one we worship. When we are dishonest and steal, we are making a god out of money and are worshiping a false god. When we insist on having our own way all the time, then we are making a god out of ourselves and are worshiping a false god. There is no room in our lives for two gods, for God is one. We must worship only the one God. Our Lord said, "He that is not with Me is against Me. . . . No man can serve two masters."

When God sent us into the world He said the same words to us that He said to the little blue-eyed flower in the story. He knew that there would be times when we would be tempted to worship other gods beside Him. He knew that we would be weak at times, and thoughtless and careless. He knew that He would never forget us, and does not want us to forget Him so He whispered to us, "Forget Me not."
                                                                            Source: Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949               

           "God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted beyond your strength."

HERE is a story which will help you to deal with temptation.

A farmer always used to have trouble driving his pigs to the slaughterhouse. Everyone used to laugh at him while he had to chase the pigs all over the street. Then he hit upon an idea. The next time he brought his pigs to slaughter the people were all ready to laugh at him. But instead of having to chase his pigs all over the place, he came marching down the street in front of them. The pigs walked quietly at his heels and followed him right through the gates of the slaughterhouse. He was asked how he did it and he replied, "It was very easy. I brought along a bag of rotten apples and as I walked along I would drop an apple now and then. The pigs followed me without any trouble."

The Devil, when he tempts anyone, always drives a very hard bargain. He takes everything and gives nothing. He is very much like the man in the story who was able to lead the pigs to their destruction simply by giving them rotten apples. All the Devil has to offer you is the rotten apples of sin. Throwing you one every now and then he can lead you to your own destruction. If you remember the words of St. Paul, "God is faithful and will not permit you to be tempted beyond your strength," you can look at things as they really are. When a temptation is presented to you, you have just to say, " I don't want any rotten apples."

"What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul; or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?" Sometimes people place too little
value on their souls. They will exchange them for some trifling pleasure, some small satisfaction that is gone as quickly as it comes. What exchange do they give for their souls? Rotten apples. They think they are being clever but they are just like the stupid pigs in the story.

We must remember that a temptation is not a sin. A temptation means that you are being tried and tested to see how strong you are. Because you are tempted does not mean that you are evil. I t means just the opposite. If you overcome a temptation you are doing a good thing. The difference between the sinner and the saint is that the saint overcomes temptation and the sinner is overcome by it. In time of temptation or trial throw yourself upon the goodness of God and ask Him for strength. See things as they really are and recognize rotten apples as rotten apples.
You need not be afraid because God is with you and
"God is faithful and w i l l not permit you to be tempted
beyond your strength."

               " Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no deceit."

THERE is a story about an Indian hunter who wanted to shoot an eagle. None of the arrows in his quiver would shoot far enough or straight enough to hit an eagle in flight. But the huntsman was clever. He went to the cliff where the eagle lived and shouted, "Come down, Eagle, I want to talk to you." "Oh, no," said the eagle. "You want to shoot an arrow into me." "But I have no arrows with me," answered the hunter. "All I want is that you come down and give me one of your feathers so that I can admire its beauty. Everyone knows that the eagle's feather is the most beautiful on earth." The eagle was so pleased to hear this that he said, " I will not come down, but I will let one of my wing feathers float down to you and you can admire it." The huntsman took the feather home with him and fitted it to his arrow.

The next day he went back and shot the eagle. The arrow went straight to the eagle's heart. He fell down at the huntsman's feet and just before he died, he saw that the arrow had been feathered with the feather from his own wing.

That is the way it is with a lie. It may be just some little thing that we let fall but it can come back and harm us. Once a lie is told it goes wafting out through the world and then we forget about it until it comes back, to us. The trouble with lies is that we seldom are able to tell just one and get away with it. We have to tell more and more to cover up the first one. Before we know it we have done serious harm to our souls.

The Devil is like the wily huntsman. He knows that if he can get us to tell a little lie it will not be long before we will be telling bigger and bigger ones. When we grow up it has become a habit. Then he can laugh at us and call us that horrible name "Liar." Watch out for the first lie. Then the others will not happen. Do not be like the foolish eagle and let fall a feather from your wing, which will come back to you on the shaft of an arrow. "Let him refrain his tongue from evil and his lips that they speak no deceit."

                                 "Into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God."
Geraldine was a goldfish who lived in a fine, big, shiny bowl. She was a beautiful fish. Sometimes when you looked at her she shone bright and gold like a new penny. At other times when the light was dim she seemed to be wearing a purple gown. As she swam her long fins waved like fans and her lacy tail followed her like a bride's train.
Geraldine lived a very easy life. All she had to do was swim around and around in the fish bowl and show how pretty she was. That was Geraldine's day's work. Around and around in the same old circles. Around and around the fish bowl. One day her owner felt sorry for her and said, "What a pity she has to swim in such small circles. She belongs in a lake where she will be free to swim wherever she wants to." He took Geraldine and put her in a lake and waited to see how happy she would be with her new freedom. "Now she can swim in big circles," he said. But not Geraldine. She kept swimming in small circles just as she had done in the fish bowl. She was in a rut. Her owner said, "If she does not want to be free, I might just as well put her back in the fish bowl again." Back into the bowl went Geraldine. She swam around in the same small circles and was very, very contented.
Sometimes God says, "There is a soul that could swim in larger circles. I'll send her the grace to set her free." And He does. But the poor soul, just like the goldfish, around and around. God says, "If the soul does not wish to swim in wider circles, I will take away the grace and give it to someone else." The soul keeps right on the way it was and is very, very contented. Contented? But so is a cow. The whole trouble is she never knows how free she might have been. How friendly. How busy. How kind. How gentle. How brave. That soul never learned that "Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." "The freedom of the glory of the sons of God."
Do not let yourselves get into a rut like Geraldine. Keep looking for the larger circles —more grace, more prayer, more kindness, more learning, more strength—so that your soul may spread itself, like the ripples on a lake when a stone is thrown into it. Let your soul spread wider and wider till it touches the opposite shore where God is waiting for you.
Source: "Heirs of the Kingdom," Imprimatur 1949

"My dear children, let us love not in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and truth."

You all know the saying: actions speak louder than words. This morning's text is just St. Paul's way of saying the same thing. I f we love God we will do more than talk about it. We will do something about it. We will love Him in deed and in action.

A man who was visiting a cancer hospital watched a nun as she moved from bed to bed taking care of the patients. She moved like an angel of mercy, treating the patients as if she loved them — and she did. The more ugly and repulsive the patients were, the kinder the nun was to them. The man said to her, " I would not do that for a million dollars." "Neither would I," answered the Sister. "I do it for the love of God." She was loving God in deed and in action.

Another man said to another nun as he watched her in another hospital performing the same tasks of mercy to other patients —he said to her,

"What unpleasant things you have to do." She replied,

"I do not have to do them. I am allowed to do them. I do them for the love of God."

She was loving God in deed and in action.

A young boy was given two dimes by his mother on a Sunday morning. One was for the collection in church and the other was for candy. On his way to church he dropped one of the dimes. It rolled and fell down the sewer. He said to himself, "I wonder which dime I lost? Was it God's dime or mine?" He came to the right conclusion, and proved that he could love God in deed and in action as well as in word.

People know that if we really love God as we should our actions will show it, and if we do not our actions will show that also. A priest once went to pay a man one of the parish bills. When the bill was paid the man went to make out a receipt. The priest said,

"God saw me pay you. I don't need a receipt." The man replied,

"I do not believe in God." "Then," said the priest,

"I think you had better give me a receipt.":

Take time out during this week and check up on yourselves. Is your love for God just something that means a lot of empty words or is it something that carries itself over into your actions? You say the Our Father every day, yet if you do not forgive others their trespasses, then it is just a lot of empty words for you. You say in the Hail Mary "Now and at the hour of our death." If you are not ready for death then they are just empty words without any meaning for you. Check up on yourselves and see whether your lives are guided by the text, "Let us love not in word, neither with the tongue, but in deed and truth."
Source:  Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949

                                   "From Him, through Him, and unto Him are all things."

As you know, rivers can wear away rock. There is a river in Canada which has cut a deep ravine between two rocks. For thousands of years the river has been winding and eating its way through the stone. Now it flows through a deep and dark chasm and on either side two rocks send their towering peaks into the sky. The pious Canadians who live there have given names to these two rocks, names which remind them of the two greatest truths in life.

They call the rocks Trinity and Eternity.

There are two great truths in our lives which we cannot escape — Trinity and Eternity. There are three Persons in one God and they have made us to live with them for all eternity. You learned these things from the first page of your first catechism. Do not forget them until you close the book of life.

On this day which is sacred to the Trinity, we should recall what we owe the three Divine Persons. We owe them adoration. We should adore the great God who made us out of nothing and yet is willing to dwell within our puny hearts. Praise the Trinity. Begin and end your every action by carefully and reverently making the sign of the cross.

We owe them love. God is an all-loving Father and we are His children. He says to us, "Son, give me your heart." Give Him your hearts because He loves the hearts of children best of all.

We owe them imitation. Christ told us, "Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect" We are the children of the King and we should act like the children of the King.

Now let us look at the other twin peak, Eternity. God has made us to know Him, love Him, and be happy with Him for all eternity. Have you any idea of how long eternity is? You have probably all heard the old example of the bird trying to empty the seashore by taking a grain of sand in his beak once every thousand years. That will give you some idea of how slowly things move in eternity.

Let us take another example which is based on how quickly things move. Light travels 186,000 miles per second. We think 60 miles an hour in a car is fast. Just think of light going 186,000 miles in one second. A little problem in arithmetic which you can do when you go home is to try to figure out how far light will travel in a year. Multiply 186,000 by 60 to find its speed per minute, then by 60 for its speed per hour, by 24 for its speed per day, and by 365 for its speed per year. Then remember that while light has traveled all that way, eternity has not yet begun to begin. And this eternity we are to spend with God, from Whom and through Whom and unto Whom are all things.
                                                           Source: Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949

                                           "Be prudent therefore and watchful in prayers."

ST. PAUL gives us this warning because he knows that it is very easy for us to become careless about our prayers. We say them so often that they can become mere routine. Every now and then we have to stop and ask ourselves, Am I really trying to pray well?"

That is just what happened to Johnny. He used to say his night prayers every night, but he became careless. Every night he raced through his prayers just a little faster. Then one night he knelt down by the bed and set a new speed record for night prayers. He was the fastest night-prayer-sayer in the world. He hopped into bed and was just beginning to dream when a storm broke. First came the rain and the wind. Then came flashes of lightning like golden arrows through the dark. After each flash came the angry grumbling of the thunder. That was enough for Johnny. He was afraid of lightning. He jumped out of bed and said to himself, "I'll say my prayers all over again, but I had better say them more carefully this time."

We can prevent carelessness if we keep in mind how important prayer is. It is the raising up of the heart and mind to God. In other words we are talking with God, face to face and heart to heart. We talk with Him as with a trusted friend and there should be no carelessness. Prayer brings us before the throne of God Almighty, Who made us out of nothing and keeps us from falling back into nothingness by His power. Prayer brings us into the presence of the King who holds the world in the palm of His hand the way a boy would hold a bird's egg. In the presence of the King, carelessness would be impolite. Pray always, then, and pray without ceasing. God is always ready to listen to us anytime we are willing to talk with Him. A sailor was once shipwrecked off the coast of South America. He drifted for days on a raft. When his water supply ran out he suffered dreadfully from thirst in the tropical heat. Finally, he was rescued. The captain of the ship which saved him said, "You did not know it but you were on fresh water, not salt water, all the time. We are in the mouth of the Amazon river, which is such a large river that it makes the ocean fresh  for hundreds of miles as it empties into it. All you had! to do was cast your bucket where you were and drink to your heart's content." Make that our motto in prayer.

"Cast the bucket where you are."
Pray always and pray without ceasing. There are about; (three hundred) children here in this church this morning. I can tell you exactly how many of you will get to heaven — those of you who say your prayers regularly and; carefully.
                                                                Source: Heirs of the Kingdom, Imprimatur 1949

 "If  anyone thinks himself to be religious, not restraining his tongue but deceiving his own heart, that man's religion is vain."

Snappo was a snapping turtle who lived in a muddy pond. Baldy was an eagle who came down to the pond to catch fish. Snappo was sitting in the mud one day when his friend Baldy came down for lunch. He would not eat Snappo because his shell was too hard. Snappo said to Baldy, "Aren't you the lucky one to be able to fly wherever you wish! I have to stay here stuck in the mud. What is it like above the clouds?" Baldy felt sorry for his poor
friend Snappo and said, "If you really want to see what it is like above the clouds, I can take you up there. But on one condition. You must not say a word for the whole trip."

"I'll do anything you say," said Snappo, "because I want to see what it is like above the clouds."

Baldy went off and flew back with a branch from a tree from which he had plucked off all the leaves with his claws. He told Snappo, "You snap onto this with your strong jaws and I will hold the other end with my strong claws and carry you above the clouds." Snap went Snappo. Grab went Baldy. And off they went flying high in the air. It was wonderful. Snappo could look down on the pond with all the mud in it and all the other turtles watching him from the mud. Then he said, "What dopes they are, to stay in the mud." As soon as he opened his mouth to say this, he lost his grip on the stick and began to fall. Baldy was flying along with a stick with no turtle on the end of it. Snappo landed with a plop right in the middle of the mud. When he got his breath back, he looked up to where Baldy was flying and said, "I'd still be up there if I had kept my mouth shut."

St. James in this morning's Epistle gives us a warning. "If anyone thinking himself to be religious, not restraining his tongue but deceiving his own heart, that man's religion is vain."
The tongue can be the source of great evil. That is why God has placed two gates in front of it. A red gate and a white one. The lips and the teeth. Both of these gates have to be opened before the tongue can speak.

Think twice, then, before you open these gates and let any word of yours harm someone's good name. Think twice before you open the gates and let the tongue tell a falsehood. Think twice before you open the gates and let the tongue take the sacred Name of Jesus in vain. Why fall into the mud from above the clouds as Snappo did and have to say, as he did, "I'd still be up there if I had kept my mouth shut"?
                                                          - "Heirs to the Kingdom," Imprimatur 1949 -