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Category Archives: The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

🌺🌸 The Little Flower’s Tidbits on Holy Communion 🌺🌸

13 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by Leanevdp in Special Websites, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

≈ 1 Comment

The following tidbits are taken from this lovely, old “Little Flower Prayer Book” of my mother’s…..

This was Mom’s beautiful (and much used) Little Flower Prayer Book that she had for many years.
It has all sorts of notes throughout, post-it notes, holy cards, etc. As you can see by this page at the back Mom wrote some of the novenas she had done for her family. One of the novenas she said a Hail Mary for 240 days….and she did that one for each of her siblings, her children and grandchildren.
It was a fluke I found this book. And when I did, I was happy to find this note in the front.

St. Therese:

How sweet it was, the first kiss of Jesus to my soul! Yes, it was a kiss of Love. I felt I was loved, and I too said: “I love Thee, I give myself to Thee forever!”

Jesus asked nothing of me, demanded no sacrifice. Already for a long time past, He and the little Therese had watched and understood one another . . .

That day our meeting was no longer a simple look but a fusion. No longer were we two: Therese had disappeared as the drop of water which loses itself in the depths of the ocean, Jesus alone remained; the Master, the King!

Had not Therese begged Him to take away from her, her liberty? That liberty made her afraid; so weak, so fragile did she feel herself that she longed to be united for ever to Divine Strength.

I had taken as my rule of conduct, to receive most faithfully Holy Communion as often as my confessor permitted, without ever asking that it might be more frequent.

I would act differently now; for I am quite sure that a soul ought to make known to her director the attraction that she feels to receive her God.

It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes his delight.

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What shall I say of my thanksgivings after Holy Communion? There are no moments in which I feel less consolation. And is not this very natural, seeing that my desire is to receive our Lord’s visit, not for my own satisfaction, but solely for His pleasure.

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I imagine my soul to be as a plot of waste ground and beg the Blessed Virgin to remove from it all the rubbish—meaning its imperfections; then I beseech her to erect thereon a vast canopy worthy of Heaven and to decorate it with her own treasures, and I invite all the Angels and Saints to come and sing canticles of love.

It seems to me then that Jesus is pleased to see Himself so magnificently received; and I, I share His joy. All this does not hinder distractions and sleep from molesting me; therefore it not rarely happens that I resolve to continue my thanksgiving all the day long, since I have made it so badly in the Choir.

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At the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under the figure of a little child of three or four years, who at play has got its hair tossed and its clothes soiled.—

These misfortunes have befallen me in battling with souls.—But very soon the Blessed Virgin hastens to my aid: quickly she takes off my little dirty pinafore, smooths my hair and adorns it with a pretty ribbon or simply with a little flower . . . and this suffices to render me pleasing and enables me to sit at the Banquet of Angels without blushing.

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The demon, traitor that he is, knows well, that he cannot make a soul who wills to belong wholly to the good God, commit sin; therefore he endeavors only to persuade her that she sins. That is a great deal gained, but it is not yet enough to satisfy his rage; he aims at something further, he wants to deprive Jesus of a loved tabernacle.

Not being able himself to enter into this sanctuary he wishes that it may at least remain empty and without its Lord.

Alas! what will become of this poor heart? . . . When the devil has succeeded in driving away a soul from Holy Communion he has gained his ends, and Jesus weeps . . .

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A novice relates that she wanted to deprive herself of Holy Communion because of some lack of fidelity.

She wrote her determination to Sister Therese of the Child Jesus who thus replied: “Little flower cherished by Jesus, it is amply sufficient that by the humiliation of your soul, your roots eat of the earth . . . You must open a little, or rather raise on high your corolla so that the Bread of Angels may come as a divine dew to strengthen you, and to give you all that is wanting to you.”

Goodnight, poor little floweret; ask of Jesus that all the prayers offered for my recovery may serve to augment the fire which must consume me.”

“Love and sacrifice is thus as closely connected as the sun and the light. You can’t love without suffering and suffer without loving. It is with sacrifice that so confirms love “. – Santa Gianna Beretta Molla
Painting by Hermann Kaulbach (1846 – 1909, German)

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Excellent sermon! Lukewarmness is the enemy of fervent souls. ” Being lukewarm is a spiritual disease, where one gradually slips from fervor due to a lessening of effort in prayer and other crucial acts of piety. If he doesn’t correct this, he will prepare himself for mortal sin. The best remedy against lukewarmness is (i) devotion to Blessed Mary, (ii) obey a good spiritual director and (iii) recommit to the duties of ones state of life.”

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is border-287.pngAre you Catholic? Have an altar boy? You are going to want to grab this beautiful set!

Based on the beautiful prayer poem by Saint John Berchmans here is a 26 page set with copy work in both print and cursive as well as notebooking pages, coloring pages, and color bookmarks. Designed for grades 3-8. 26 pages total… Available here.


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Jesus On Our Altars ~ Stirring the Hearts of Men

10 Sunday Jul 2022

Posted by Leanevdp in Spiritual Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

≈ 1 Comment

An Easy Way to Become a Saint by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan

JESUS ON OUR ALTARS

Jesus remains on the Altar, waiting for our visits, ready to console and comfort us, ready to pardon the most depraved sinner, even as He pardoned the Publican in the Temple, to give help and strength to the weak, to comfort the sad, to console the sorrowful.

This Sacrament is indeed a Sacrament of peace and love. Here Our Lord is on a throne of Mercy, continuing the work of His life on Earth, but—dare we say it—in a more merciful way.

When on Earth, He was in one land; only the people of that land could hope to approach Him. In the Blessed Eucharist, He is in all lands, in all cities and towns, even in the deserts, wherever a Catholic missionary is found.

He is really and truly present; He sees us distinctly; He hears us; He loves us. He is waiting, longing for our visits.

A few incidents of recent occurrence will show us how really Our Lord is on the Altar.

A Protestant Minister in England was taking a walk with his little daughter, six years old. They entered a Catholic Church, where the minister explained to his little girl the meaning of the Way of the Cross and other objects of note in the church.

The little one, attracted by the red lamp burning before the Tabernacle, asked what that meant. Her father replied that it was to show that Jesus was in the Tabernacle.

“Jesus!” she exclaimed. “Our Jesus, the Son of God?”

“Yes, dear.”

The child was deeply impressed. Even after, when walking with her father or mother, she insisted on going into a Catholic church to see the lamp and to visit Jesus.

Wonderful visits! Our Lord was speaking to their hearts. After six months the child with her father and mother became fervent Catholics.

In London, two girlfriends, one a Catholic and the other a Protestant, went shopping. Passing a church, the Catholic said goodbye to her friend, as she wished to assist at Benediction. The Protestant, however, entered the church to wait.

She remained standing, looking about. It was the first time she had been in a Catholic church. When, however, the priest placed the Monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament on the Altar, she instinctively fell on her knees and folded her hands on her breast, gazing at the Sacred Host.

On leaving the church, to the surprise of her friend, she asked to be introduced to the priest. She wished to become a Catholic, though never before had she thought of it.

A Protestant young man fell in love with a Catholic girl, but after some time, as he refused to become a Catholic, she declared that she could not marry him, though she loved and respected him very much.

She begged him to consider the affair ended and asked him not to write to her again. Broken-hearted, the young man took his annual holiday and went off to a country village to try to forget his grief.

The hotel in which he stayed was near the Catholic church, and he could see from his room the Tabernacle lamp. The lamp became a fascination for him; sitting at his table, his eyes invariably turned toward it. It became an obsession.

He asked the servant who had charge of his room what that red lamp meant. Smiling, she answered, “It is the red lamp that burns before the Blessed Sacrament.”

The obsession continued, and finally he resolved to enter the church and see it for himself. On entering the church, great was his surprise to come face to face with the girl whom he had so wished to marry.

“What has brought you here?” he exclaimed.

“I came,” she answered, “to nurse my aunt, who is ill.”

“And what,” she asked in turn, “brought you into this Catholic Church, you who refused to think of becoming a Catholic?”

He told her simply that the red lamp, which he could see from his room in the hotel, fascinated him and he had to come to see it.

“Then continue,” she said, “Our Lord Himself is calling you.” He did so and gradually his doubts and dislikes for the Church cleared away and he became a fervent Catholic and the happy husband of the girl he loved.

STILL ANOTHER INCIDENT

A gentleman and his wife, both staunch Protestants, had a business transaction with the priest in whose parish they lived. Unfortunately the settlement of this affair caused annoyance to both parties, and the Protestants became more embittered than ever against the Catholic Church.

Some time elapsed, and the lady happened to be passing the church. Feeling tired, she went in to rest. She remained for twenty minutes, enjoying the calm and silence and looking at the High Altar.

This visit was repeated frequently, at first merely with the wish to rest, but gradually this gave way to a feeling of pleasure and peace.

A few months passed and both husband and wife became Catholics!

If then Our Sweet Lord works so wonderfully on those souls who did not even pray to Him, what will He not do for those who pray fervently to Him?

As we get warmth and comfort when we approach a blazing fire in the wintertime, even so, our poor cold hearts are filled with the fire of love when we kneel lovingly before Jesus in the Sacrament of the Altar.

He is the same God who in Heaven fills the Angels with love. Here in the Blessed Sacrament He is on a throne of mercy and wishes to fill our poor souls with peace and joy.

We are in the midst of Angels, who stand around the Altar praying with us and for us. Our Lord has many times shown Himself in the Blessed Sacrament to help our faith.

We will mention just one fact. Thomas of Cantimbre, the celebrated Dominican Bishop, famed for his profound learning and deep piety, describes a miracle which he himself witnessed in company with many others.

Having heard that Our Lord had appeared visibly in a consecrated Host in the Church of St. Amand in Douay, he immediately hastened thither and begged the priest to open the Tabernacle and expose the Sacred Particle.

Many persons flocked to the church on learning of the Bishop’s arrival and were privileged to see the miracle once more.

The Bishop tells us what he himself saw: “I saw my Lord face to face. His eyes were clear and had an expression of wondrous love.

His hair was abundant and floated on His shoulders; His beard was long, His forehead broad and high; His cheeks were pale, and His head slightly inclined.

At the sight of my loving Lord, my heart well-nigh burst with joy and love. ”

After a little time Our Lord’s face assumed an expression of profound sadness, such as it must have worn in the Passion. He was crowned with thorns and His face bathed in blood.

“On looking on the countenance of my Sweet Savior thus changed, my heart was pierced with bitter grief; tears flowed from my eyes, and I seemed to feel the points of the thorns enter my head.”

Though we do not see Our Dear Lord as the Bishop did, He is there on the Altar, the same loving Lord.

“We’re terribly in danger all the time of taking God’s goodness too much for granted; of bouncing up to Communion as if it were the most natural thing in the world, instead of being a supernatural thing belonging to another world.” – Msgr. Ronald Knox, 1948

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Painting by Gennaro Befanio

 

Develop the Spirit of Communion ~ St. Peter Julian Eymard

03 Sunday Jul 2022

Posted by Leanevdp in Spiritual Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

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by St. Peter Julian Eymard, How to Get More Out of Holy Communion

The love of Jesus Christ reaches its highest perfection and produces the richest harvest of graces in the ineffable union He contracts with the soul in Holy Communion. Therefore, by every desire for goodness, holiness, and perfection that piety, the virtues, and love can inspire in us, we are bound to direct our course toward this union, toward frequent and even daily Communion.

Since we have in Holy Communion the grace, the model, and the practice of all the virtues, all of them finding their exercise in this divine action, we shall profit more by Communion than by all other means of sanctification.

But to that end, Holy Communion must become the thought that dominates mind and heart. It must be the aim of all study, of piety, of the virtues.

The receiving of Jesus must be the goal as well as the law of life. All our works must converge toward Communion as toward their end and flow from it as from their source.

Let us so live that we may be admitted with profit to frequent and even daily Communion. In a word, let us perfect ourselves in order to receive Communion worthily, and let us live with a constant view to Communion.

But perhaps you will say that your nothingness is overwhelmed by the majesty of God. Ah, but no! That majesty, the celestial and divine majesty which reigns in Heaven, is not present in Holy Communion.

Do you not see that Jesus has veiled Himself in order not to frighten you, in order to embolden you to look upon Him and come near to Him?

Or perhaps the sense of your unworthiness keeps you away from this God of all sanctity. It is true that the greatest saint or even the purest of the Cherubim is unworthy to receive the divine Host.

But do you not see that Jesus is hiding His virtues, is hiding His very sanctity, to show you His goodness simply and solely? Do you not hear that sweet voice inviting you: “Come unto me”? Do you not feel the nearness of that divine love like a magnet drawing you?

After all, it is not your merits that give you your rights, nor is it your virtues that open to you the doors of the Cenacle; it is the love of Jesus.

“But I have so little piety, so little love; how can my soul receive our Lord when it is so lukewarm and therefore so repulsive and so undeserving of His notice?”

Lukewarm? That is but one more reason why you should plunge again and again into this burning furnace.

Repulsive? Oh, never, to this good Shepherd, this tender Father, fatherly above all fathers, motherly above all mothers! The more weak and ill you are, the more you need His help. Is not bread the sustenance of both strong and weak?

“But if I have sins on my conscience?” If, after examination, you are not morally certain or positively conscious of any mortal sin, you may go to Holy Communion.

If you forgive all who have offended you, already your own offenses are forgiven you. And as for your daily negligences, your distractions during prayer, your first movements of impatience, of vanity, of self-love, as likewise for your failure, in your sloth, to put away from you immediately the fire of temptation — bind together all these shoots of Adam’s sin and cast them into the furnace of divine love.

What love forgives is forgiven indeed.  Ah, do not let yourself be turned away from the Holy Table by vain pretexts!

If you will not communicate for your own sake, then communicate instead for Jesus Christ. To communicate for Jesus Christ is to console Him for the neglect to which the majority of men have abandoned Him.

It is to confirm His wisdom in instituting this Sacrament of spiritual sustenance. It is to open the riches of the treasures of grace that Jesus Christ has stored up in the Eucharist, only so that He may bestow them upon mankind.

Nay, more, it is to give to His sacramental love the overflowing life it desires, to His goodness the happiness of doing good, and to His majesty the glory of bestowing His gifts.

By receiving Communion, therefore, you fulfill the glorious purpose of the Holy Eucharist, for if there were no communicants, this fountain would flow in vain, this furnace of love would inflame no hearts, and this King would reign without subjects.

Holy Communion not only gives to the sacramental Jesus the opportunity to satisfy His love; it gives Him a new life that He will consecrate to the glory of His Father.

In His state of glory, He can no longer honor the Father with a love free and meritorious. But in Communion, He will enter into man, associate with him, and unite with him.

In return, by this wonderful union, the Christian will give members, living and sentient faculties, to the glorified Jesus; he will give Him the liberty that constitutes the merit of virtue.

Thus, through Communion, the Christian will be transformed into Jesus Himself, and Jesus will live again in him.

Something divine will then come to pass in the one who communicates; man will labor, and Jesus will give the grace of labor; man will keep the merit, but to Jesus will be the glory.

Jesus will be able to say to His Father: “I love Thee, I adore Thee, and I still suffer, living anew in my members.”  This is what gives Communion its highest power: it is a second and perpetual incarnation of Jesus Christ.

“Never forget that it is God’s will that the parents should be the ones to teach the child to pray, as Mary and Joseph helped the boy Jesus to advance in wisdom and grace.” -A Dominican Nun, 1954

 

Lecture on protecting your family from the neo pagan society that we live in today. How to do that? Music, books, stories, liturgy, etc are answers.

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Painting by KOWALSKY Léopold-Francois

The Mass ~ From the Ends of the Earth & For All Time

20 Sunday Feb 2022

Posted by Leanevdp in The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

≈ 1 Comment

We are part of a big picture….a living, beautiful reality. In spite of the upheaval in the Church and in our world, there are good priests offering the Holy Mass throughout the world. We have much to be thankful for. Teach your kids about the Mass…teach them that it is what their lives should revolve around. And when times get tough, it is the Mass that will have us grounded so we can endure and not go astray….

A beautiful meditation today….

From Prisoner of Love by Father Lasance

The following pen-picture will help us to realize more vividly the truth of the prophecy contained in the first chapter of Malachias—”From the rising of the sun, even to the going down, My name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation; for My name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of Hosts”.

 It is not an exaggeration to say that the Mass is offered somewhere in the world at every moment of the twenty-four hours of the day. The offering of the Mass travels with the sun, and seems like one continuous and uninterrupted act of worship, which the devout Catholic at any moment by day or by night can join in spirit.

When it is midnight in New York, Masses are beginning in the churches of Italy. There, ancient altars, at which saints have knelt, are lit up with tapers, and the Vicar of Christ and thousands of priests are lifting holy hands up to heaven in the sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation, and supplication.

A little later and the bells of a thousand towers in France begin to fill the air with holy sounds, and in every city, town, and hamlet kneeling crowds adore the chastening hand of God and pray for sinners who despise His ordinances.

Chivalric and religious Spain catches the echoes, and, when it is one o’clock in New York, offers the great sacrifice in countless splendid churches.

And then Catholic Ireland, the Island of Saints, which during centuries has suffered for the Faith, rallies anew around the altars it would never forsake, despite the most cruel persecutions.

At two o’clock and after, the priests of the islands of the Atlantic — perhaps the Cape Verde — white-robed and stoled and wearing the great cross on their shoulders, bend before the tabernacle. An hour later a courageous missionary lifts up the chalice of salvation on the ice-bound coast of Greenland.

 At half-past four the sacred lamps twinkle through the fogs of Newfoundland, and at five Nova Scotia’s industrious population begins the day by attending Mass. And now all the Canadian churches and chapels grow radiant as the faithful people — the habitant of the country, the devout citizen, the consecrated nun, and the innocent — hasten to unite their prayers around the sanctuary where the priest is awaiting them.

At six how many souls are flocking to the churches of New York, eager to begin the day of labor with the holiest act of religion! Many young people, too, gather around the altar at a later how, just as the fresh flowers open with the morning, and offer their dewy fragrance to heaven.

An hour later, the bells of Missouri and Louisiana are ringing, and at eight Mexico, true to her faith, bends before her glittering altars. At nine the devout tribes of Oregon follow their beloved black-gown to their poor but gayly-decorated chapels, and California awhile loosens its grasp on its gold to think of the treasure that rust doth not corrupt.

And when the Angelus-bell is ringing at noon in New York, the unbloody sacrifice is being offered in the islands of the Pacific, where there are generous souls laboring for our dear Lord; and so the bells are ringing on, on over the waters, and one taper after another catches the light of faith, making glad all the isles of the sea.

At two o’clock the zealous missionaries of Australia are hastening to the altar, and whispering in their eagerness for the coming of Our Lord, Introibo ad altare Dei. And all the spicy islands of the East catch the sweet sounds one after another, till at four in the afternoon China proves there are many souls who are worthy of the name of celestial by their rapt devotion at the early rite.

Then in Tibet there is many a modest chapel where the missionary distributes the Bread of Life to a crowd of hungry souls. At six the altars of Hindustan, where St. Francis Xavier ministered, are arrayed with their flowers and lamps and the sacred vessels, and unwearied priests are hastening to fortify their souls before Him Who is their life and their strength.

At nine in Siberia, many a poor Catholic exile from Poland has no other solace from his woes but the foot of the altar and the bread of heaven.

During the hours when New York is gay with parties and balls and theatrical amusements the holiest of rites is going on in the Indian Ocean and among the sable tribes of Africa, whose souls are so dear to the Savior Who once died for all.

At eleven in Jerusalem, the Holy City over which Jesus wept, where He wrought so many miracles, where He suffered and offered Himself a sacrifice for the whole world, the Holy Mass is offered.  

When midnight sounds again in New York the silver bells are tinkling again in every chancel in Rome. And so it goes on; the divine host is constantly rising like the sun in its course around the earth. Thus are fulfilled the words of the prophet Malachias: From the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof, My name is great among the Gentiles; and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to My name a clean oblation.

All day long — at any hour — we can assist at Mass spiritually; let us frequently unite ourselves to the Masses going on in some part of the world, thus adding new brightness to God’s glory, atoning for the neglect of others, making reparation for our offences, in thanksgiving for our blessings, and thus effectually promoting our sanctification.

“Oh, what a gift is the holy Mass!” exclaims Father Baker, C.S.P., in his stirring sermon on “The Mass, the Highest Worship.”

“How full an utterance has humanity found therein for all its woes, its aspirations, its hopes, its affections! How completely is the distance bridged over that separated the creature and the Creator!

The Mass supplies the want of the human soul for an adequate mode of approaching God. As a creature before its Creator, you are oppressed with your own inability to worship Him worthily.

Do you want a better worship than that which His eternal Son offers? In the Mass the Son of God in His human nature worships the Father for us. He prays for us; asks pardon for us; gives thanks for us; adores for us.

As He is perfect man, He expresses every human feeling; as He is perfect God, His utterances have a complete perfection, an infinite acceptableness. Thus, when we offer Mass, we worship the Father with Christ’s worship.

It seems to me that the Catholic can have a certain kind of pride in this. He may say, I know I am weak and as nothing before God, yet I possess a treasure that is worthy to offer to Him. I have a prayer to present to Him all perfect and all powerful, the prayer of His only-begotten Son, in Whom He is well pleased.”

“Come, then,” continues the eloquent Paulist, “Come, children, come to Mass, and bring your merry hearts with you. Come, you that are young and happy, and rejoice before the Lord. Come, you that are old and weary, and tell your loneliness to God. Come, you that are sorely tempted, and ask the help of Heaven.

Come, you that have sinned, and weep between the porch and the altar. Come, you that are bereaved, and pour out here your tears. Come, you that are sick, or anxious, or unhappy, and complain to God. Come, you that are prosperous and successful, and give thanks.

Christ will sympathize with you. He will rejoice with you, and He will mourn with you. He will gather up your prayers. He will join to them His own almighty supplications, and that concert of prayer shall enter heaven, louder than the music of angelic choirs, sweeter than the voice of those who sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, more piercing than the cry of the living creatures who rest not day or night, and more powerful and prevailing than the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and all the saints of paradise together.

The Mass a formalism! The Mass an unmeaning service! Why, it is the most beautiful, the most spiritual, the most sublime, the most satisfying worship which the heart of man can even conceive.  

And here, too, in this idea of the Mass, we have the answer to another perplexity of Protestants. They cannot understand why we make such a point of attending Mass. They see us go to Mass in all weathers. They see us so particular not to be late at Mass, and they ask what it all means!

Is it not superstition? Do we not, like the Pharisees, give an undue value to outward observances? May we not worship God at home just as well? Ah, if it were really only an outward observance!

But there is just the difference. There stands one among us Whom you know not. We believe that the Savior is with us, and you do not. We believe this with a certain, simple faith. Come to our churches and look at our people — the poorest and most ignorant — and see if we do not. It is written on their faces. They may not know how to express themselves, but this is in their hearts.

You think we come to Mass because the Church is so strict in requiring us to do so; but the true state of the case is that the law of the Church is so strict because Christ is present in the Mass.

You think it is the pomp and glitter of our altars that draws the crowds. Little you know of human nature if you think it can long be held by such things alone. No; we adorn our altars because we believe Christ is present. This is our faith. It is no new thing with us. It is as old as Christianity.

It was the comfort of the Christians in the Catacombs. It was the glory of St. Basil and St. Ambrose and St. Augustine. It was the meaning of all the glory and magnificence of the Middle Ages. And it is our stay and support in this century of knowledge, labor, and disquiet.

Yes; strip our altars; leave us only the Corn and the Vine, and a rock for our altar, and we will worship with posture as lowly and hearts as loving as in the grandest cathedral.

Let persecution rise; let us be driven from our churches; we will say Mass in the woods and caverns, as the early Christians did. We know that God is everywhere. We know that Nature is His temple, wherein pure hearts can find Him and adore Him; but we know that it is in the Holy Mass alone that He offers Himself to His Father as the Lamb that was slain.

How can we forego that sweet and solemn action? How can we deprive ourselves of that heavenly consolation? The sparrow hath found her an house and the turtle a nest where she may lay her young, even Thy altars, 0 Lord of hosts, my king and my God! Man’s heart has found a home and resting-place in this vale of tears. To us the altar is the vestibule of heaven, and the Host its open door.

It is our delight now to think that, as the sun in its course brings daylight to each successive spot on earth, it ever finds some priest girding himself to go up to the holy altar; that thus the earth is belted, from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, with a chain of Masses; that as the din of the world commences each day, the groan of the oppressed, the cry of the fearful and troubled, the boast of sin and pride, the wail of sorrow — the voice of Christ ascends at the same time to heaven, supplicating for pardon and peace  

Such be our thoughts about the holy Mass. Come to Mass, and come to pray. When the Lord drew near to Elias on the mount, the prophet wrapped his face in his mantle; so, when we come to Mass, let us wrap our souls in a holy recollection of spirit. Remember what is going on.

Now pray; now praise; now ask forgiveness; now rest before God in quiet love.

The truly religious wife finds God at Mass and from Him receives the strength to become the ideal helpmate to her husband. She does not leave God at church but keeps Him with her every minute of the day in every nook and cranny of her home. Each menial, repetitious task she must perform is a work of love for her husband and children, and through them, a work of love for her Creator. – Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. 1950’s

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Thanksgiving After Holy Communion ~ The Five Simple Prayers

12 Friday Nov 2021

Posted by Leanevdp in Prayers, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

≈ 2 Comments

THANKSGIVING ~ The Five Simple Prayers.

Daniel A. Lord, S.J., Thanksgiving After Holy Communion, 1950’s

The following prayers are suggested as simple forms of prayer that are modeled on direct conversations with the Eucharistic Christ. Basically, they are acts by which the one who has received Holy Communion:

1. Thanks the Savior for three things.

2. Expresses sorrow for three things.

3. Asks Him for three things.

4. Talks three things over with Him.

5. Promises Him three things.

The form of the prayers is unimportant. The important thing is the calling of the Savior’s attention to matters of deep concern to us and hence to Him.

The number three is purely arbitrary and can be reduced or increased according to the wishes of the one making the prayer.

No words are necessary. A simple consideration of these points will lead easily and naturally into the conversational prayers suited to the thoughts aroused.

Example…

  1. “I Thank You.”

Lord Jesus Christ, present in my heart, I thank You for all You have done for me. Surely I am, almost beyond all others, Your favorite child. My life has been a succession of gifts from Your loving hands: my birth in a Catholic home and a Christian country; my adoption in Baptism as the child of Your Heavenly Father and as Your brother (sister); the care and protection and love that surrounded my infancy; the health and training and soundness of mind and body that marked my growing years.

You gave me yourself in the joy of my first Communion, as You gave me the Holy Spirit to be my strength and light in Confirmation. And when I sinned against You, You forgave me in Confession and took me back into Your love and grace. I have been fortunate in my friends, happy in my associations.

Catholic education and training have been mine. And to my natural life You have added the far more important supernatural life of my soul. This moment I am part of Your Mystical Body. For all this I am grateful from my heart. But this morning I thank You especially for these favors:

1. [Mention some favor recently received.]

  1. [Mention a favor that came to your family, to some close friend or relative.]
  2. [Mention some favor lately given to the world, the Church, or some group of people.]

2. “I Am Sorry.”

Yet, in spite of your great generosity to me, I am deeply conscious of the fact that I have been ungrateful, cruel, ungracious, mortally sinful. By my sins I have used Your gifts of mind and heart and tongue and hands to offend You. Through my fault Your kingdom upon earth has been retarded and kept back in its advance.

I know very well that I have deserved the endless pains of hell. Surely I never deserved the eternal joys of heaven. Because of my sins I should spend long years in Purgatory and merit punishment on earth. But not for any of these reasons do I now tell you my sorrow for sin.

I am sorry because Your gifts have failed to win my heart. I am sorry, because You have been so good and I so ungrateful and criminal. I am sorry because my sins have crucified You, my best friend and most generous benefactor.

My sins of the flesh have scourged Your back; my sins of the mind have crowned You with thorns; my sins of tongue have cried aloud for Your crucifixion; my sins of pride have put a red rag upon Your shoulders and a reed into Your hand; my sinful loves have driven the lance into Your side; my dishonesty has nailed Your hands to the cross. Forgive me for what I have done to You, Who are so good and merciful. But this morning I am especially sorry for the following:

1. [Beg pardon for some recent sin of your own commission.]

2. [Beg pardon for some one sin of your past life.]

  1. [Beg pardon for some sin common throughout the world to-day, or for some sin committed by a member of your own family who does not repent.]

3. “I Ask You.”

Never during Your life on earth, Blessed Savior, did You refuse any request. Your goodness to me personally is just another guarantee that that generosity is as true today as it was then.

Largely through my own fault, and because I have neglected the graces You gave me and because I have sinned, I am weak and poor and needy in soul and body. But You are infinitely rich and powerful, and You love me.

May I ask again? Your generosity is bounded only by our willingness to accept and use Your favors. Dear and generous Savior, You know better than I the things that I most need and that are for my good. In Your wisdom grant me these.

You know, too, the things I desire for myself, for others, for the Church, for the sinful world. If they are for our good, grant them, O Lord.

Especially I beg virtue for my soul, strength against temptation, a closer union with You through grace, more faith and hope, firmer strength. And watch over my life, that it may be lived in accord with Your wishes and Your law. But this morning I am asking especially for these things:

1. [Ask for some favor for yourself.]

2. [Ask for some favor for those dear to you or connected with you through friendship or dependency.]

  1. [Ask some important favor for the Church, or for the world.]

4. “May I Talk It Over With You?”

Blessed Savior, life is full of problems, and difficulties. There are temptations to be met, decisions to be made, work to be done. There are the difficulties that arise from association with people, from misunderstanding, neglect, unpleasant dispositions.

There is the need of walking through the attractive world without falling in love with it. In all these things I need Your wise counsel and direction, Your strength, Your constant help and support.

Unaided, I make recurring mistakes. I decide unwisely and with unfortunate results.My work is spoiled or half done because of my limitations of mind and heart and body.

So I come to you as to my wisest friend and best counselor, asking You what I am to do and how I am to do it. I know You are interested in my life, its problems and successes. You are concerned with my doing well the things You have entrusted to me.

You want my conduct to be a help and not a hindrance to others. And in your life upon earth You met and solved all the problems that ever could be mine. You see just how I can overcome temptation and what decisions I should make. Give me Your guidance and light.

And give it, too, to the world’s leaders, to those who hold the destiny of the Church in their keeping, to my friends and associates. Especially this morning I wish to consult You about the following things

l. [Discuss some temptation or trouble and how to overcome it.]

2. [Discuss some problem or decision connected with family, friends, associates.]

3. [Discuss some problem connected with your work.]

5. “I Promise.”

Lord Jesus Christ, my life in the past has been continuously disappointing and unsatisfactory. I have failed again and again, seen my best resolutions dissipated, my best plans collapse.

But the strength and light gained from this Holy Communion gives me hope for the future. Give me greater hope for what lies ahead. I have drawn my strength from You, the source of all strength; I shall not fail again.

You have given me new light and courage: I cannot but do better. It is my hope to live my life worthy of Your gifts and Your love. I want to go back to my daily life carrying You with me in my heart. Let me take You with me to my work and play, my home and occupation, among my friends and associates, everywhere and with whomever I go.

My work shall be done for You; my friends shall be loved for You; my amusements shall be worthy of You. I promise You I shall first of all avoid the occasions of sin. I promise to make my morning offering faithfully, so that the day, with all its actions, may belong to You.

I promise to make my life more like Yours. In this I cannot fail, since I have held You in my heart. And in my association with people I shall try to live so perfectly that through me they will be drawn to You, to the Faith, to goodness. Especially this morning I promise You these things:

1. [Promise something regarding sin and its occasions.]

2. [Promise something regarding your attitude toward home or friends.]

3. [Promise something regarding your work or casual associates.]

First Communion.In the 1940’s.

The truly religious wife finds God at Mass and from Him receives the strength to become the ideal helpmate to her husband. She does not leave God at church but keeps Him with her every minute of the day in every nook and cranny of her home. Each menial, repetitious task she must perform is a work of love for her husband and children, and through them, a work of love for her Creator. – Fr. Raoul Plus, S.J. 1950’s

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Reflections on Purgatory By Rev. F.X. Lasance. A Complete Prayer-book Including Special Prayers and Devotions in Behalf of the Poor Souls in Purgatory Imprimatur, 1922, 442 page book. Originally printed by The Benziger Brothers. A Rare and Unusual Book! It is hoped that this book will cultivate a special devotion to the holy souls in Purgatory. This devotion, while it solaces the Holy Souls, in whose behalf it is directly exercised, is eminently pleasing to God, and beneficial to ourselves. It is hoped that the “Reflections” contained in the first part of this little book will stimulate the pious reader to make frequent use of the prayers and devotions which are found in the second part for the solace of the suffering souls in Purgatory.

This is an excellent prayer book.

Originally published in 1908 by the venerable Benziger Bros., this book has everything–all the basic prayers, litanies and Order (now known as Extraordinary Form) of the Mass. It also has excellent meditations for Eucharistic meditation and prayers for reception of Holy Communion.

The distinguishing feature of this prayer book, however, is that it is chock-full with helpful meditations and inspiring quotes for living the full Christian life. Father Lasance was obviously a very wise man and a holy priest. -T. Berry

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The Holy Mass for Tradesmen & Artisans ~ The Hidden Treasure

17 Sunday Oct 2021

Posted by Leanevdp in Spiritual Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

≈ 3 Comments

A strong reminder of the efficacy of the Mass…and not to take lightly our duty to attend on Sundays and Holydays of Obligation…

FOR TRADESMEN AND ARTISANS

The idol of our times is self-interest, and, alas, how many prostrate themselves before it offering to it at all times and in all places their undivided homage!

And thence it comes that, pursuing this idol, they forget the true God, and so come to plunge themselves into an abyss of evil, and a perpetual destitution of all true good; whereas, the holy Royal Prophet declares that all who in the first place seek God shall not encounter any evil, but shall abound in all good. Inquirentes Dominum non deficient omni bono (Ps. 33:11).

This is amply verified in those who, before applying to their business, manage first to assist at holy Mass, as the adventure which is told of certain traders of Gubbio well illustrates.

They had gone to a public fair held in the town of Cisternino, and having made a clearance of their wares, two of them began to speak of going, and fixed to start the next day at dawn, so as to arrive by evening in their own neighborhood.

But the third would not consent to start then, and protested that, next day being Sunday, he could never think of commencing a journey without having first heard holy Mass; that then, after a little food, they might take their departure more to their satisfaction, and that, should they not succeed in getting to Gubbio that evening, there was no want of comfortable inns on the road.

His companions did not yield to this wise and salutary counsel, but, bent on arriving at home next night, they answered that Almighty God would have compassion on them if they lost Mass for once.

So on Sunday morning before dawn, without ever entering church, they took their way on horseback toward home. They arrived near the river Corfuone.

By the violent rain which had fallen during the night it was now excessively swollen, and the current beating strongly against the wooden bridge had somewhat shaken and weakened it. They advanced upon it with their horses, and no sooner had they reached the middle than a still further rise and furious rush of the flood broke down and swept away the whole structure.

The two unhappy traders were, of course, plunged with their horses into the river and drowned, losing at once their money, their goods, their lives.

At the sound of the crash, and sight of the havoc, the peasants ran to the spot, and contrived with hooks to draw the corpses out, which they then left stretched out on the bank, in order that, if possible, they might be recognized and obtain burial.

Soon after, the third trader, who had been detained by his wish to satisfy the precept of attending Mass, and who had then taken to the road with joyful alacrity, came up to the river and beheld the two bodies on the bank.

Drawing up to observe them, he instantly recognized his two companions, and heard from the bystanders all the miserable catastrophe with the utmost agitation of spirit.

Then he lifted his hands to Heaven, returning thanks to the Most High, Who had so mercifully preserved him; and he blessed a thousand times the hour in which he assisted at the Holy Sacrifice, clearly recognizing the source of his safety.

When again at home, he announced the sad intelligence, got the relations to procure proper interment for the departed, and stirred up among all a lively desire of daily attendance at holy Mass. (Lohner. tom. 2, tit. 64.)

O accursed avarice!—let me give vent to what I feel— accursed passion, that cuttest off the heart from God, and takest away, as it were, from us the very faculty of free will, so far as regards the power of attending to the great business of eternal salvation!

That the avaricious may enter into themselves, I will illustrate my meaning by an example from Holy Scripture.

Samson, you are aware, was bound in vain even with the sinews of oxen, and with fresh ropes never before used. At last he informed his treacherous wife that the secret of his strength lay hid in the locks of his hair; and so no sooner were they cut off than he lost all his wonderful strength, fell into the power of the Philistines, was made blind by them, and condemned to work a mill.

Now, what was the chief and prime error of Samson? Was it, perhaps, in allowing himself to be so securely bound? That was not his error. The evil lay in telling the secret of his strength, and thus allowing the loss of his mysterious locks, which once gone, he was no longer himself.

Now, a man engaged in trade doubtless permits himself to be bound by a thousand ties of traffic, of accounts, of exchange, and so on. Does the deadly peril of avarice consist in all this? No, not in all this. The danger lies in cutting off the locks of hair. Let me explain.

Suppose a man in trade to have never so great a pressure of business, but hearing betimes every morning the bells that call to Mass, says to himself, “Business, wait a little; have patience; let us get our Mass safely settled”: such a man is Samson bound but not shorn—bound by the thousand cords of business, but not shorn of the secret source of strength.

Another is also caught in a multitude of cords: workmen to pay, accounts to clear, letters to write, correspondents with whom to negotiate: one man expects an answer, another his money. Alas, what a labyrinth of bonds!

No matter, Sunday at last comes  round, or the festival of some saint, his patron perhaps; he breaks loose from all, and goes with devotion to hear some Masses and offer up his prayers. This man also is a Samson bound but not shorn; for, amid all his affairs, he never loses sight of the great business of eternal salvation.

But attend to me now: if you are bound by a thousand ties of interest, without vigor to snap them through, if you fail to come forth at the proper time, and cease firmly to frequent the Sacraments and the Holy Sacrifice, then woe to you; then are you both bound and shorn.

In this case, though your gains be just, yet at such a cost they are sinful; there is within you a coarse and horrid avarice, which will treat you as Samson was treated, until, at last, as with Samson, the roof overhead shall fall in upon you. Then quae parasti cujus erunt?— “whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” (Luke 12:20.)

But you are thinking that the avaricious will never listen except to a tune in their own key. Well, then, be it so. Get rich, gather up, make profit. What is the surest way? I will show you: daily hear holy Mass with thorough devotion.

It is plainly seen in the case of two artisans whom I could point out. Both pursue the same trade; one is burdened with a family: wife, children, grandchildren; the other is alone with his wife. The first has brought up his family in great comfort and even style, and all his transactions turn out wonderfully. Customers at his shop, and sales despatched.

So he has gone on, till he finds himself putting by every year a good round sum, to serve in time for marriage-portions for his daughters. The other, who is without children, at one time got little employment, was half famished, and was, in short, a ruined man.

One day he said confidentially to his neighbor, “How is it you do? In your home there rains down every blessing of God; while I, poor wretch, cannot hold up my head, and all sorts of calamities light on my house.”

“I will tell you,” said his neighbor; “tomorrow morning I shall be with you, and will point out the place from which I draw so much.”

Next morning he took him to church to hear Mass, and then led him back to his workshop; and so two or three different times, till at last the poor man said, “If nothing else is wanted than to go to church to hear Mass, I know the way well enough, without putting you to inconvenience.”

“Just so,” said the other; “hear holy Mass, my friend, with devotion, every day, and you will see a change on the face of your fortune.”

And, in fact, so it was. Beginning to hear holy Mass every morning, he be came well provided with work, shortly paid his debts, and put his house once more in capital condition. (Sar. in Vit. S. Joan. Eleem.)

Trust to the words of the Gospel. And if you do so, how can you doubt the fact? Does it not say clearly, Quaerite primum regnum Dei. . . et haec omnia adjicientur vobis? “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” (Matt. 6:33.)

Make but the trial for a year; hear holy Mass every morning with true earnest devotion for one year, and if your temporal interests do not take a better turn, lay the blame on me. But there is little fear of that; you will rather have many reasons to thank me.

At a certain moment when going to confession to a Capuchin father, she came to understand that it was just the opposite: her “defects did not displease God” and her littleness attracted God’s love, just as a father is moved by the weakness of his children and loves them still more as soon as he sees their good will and sincere love. ~ Fr. Jacques Philippe, The Way of Trust and Love – A Retreat Guided by St. Therese of Lisieux

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Going to the Altar….Msgr. Ronald Knox

10 Sunday Oct 2021

Posted by Leanevdp in Spiritual Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

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A very beautiful meditation about the Mass, the first part of the Mass, Going to the Altar. Father Knox apologizes because of the form in which it is written…to school age girls. I say, “Hurrah! Then I can understand it!” 😉

From The Mass in Slow Motion by Msgr. Ronald A. Knox, 1940’s

Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth to the men that are God’s friends. Luke ii.

We left the priest last Sunday at the foot of the altar; he has told us to get busy praying, and now he strides away from us; purposefully, like a man who knows what he is about; rather like our Lord going up to Judaea for his Passion, when the Gospels tell us that “ his face was set towards Jerusalem “.

I think you will find that most priests are walking rather fast, a. good deal faster than their usual pace, over those two or three steps. Indeed, if you could see inside the priest’s mind, you would almost say he was running up the steps.

It reminds me of some lines in a poem none of you know, a poem called “ David in Heaven.” It says there “His feet trip without a slip, Going to the altar “.

Well, of course it wouldn’t really do to run; it isn’t a bit easy to run upstairs in a cassock, and then there is generally lace on the end of one’s alb, on purpose so that one shall put one’s foot through it if one isn’t careful. And besides, the motion of that dance is meant to be slow all through.

But the priest is mentally running, so to speak; all through that business with the server which we were talking about last Sunday he has been tantalizing himself, as it were, by not going up just yet; very much as some of you would tantalize yourselves, on receiving a really exciting parcel, by insisting on undoing the knots before you looked inside it.

The priest rushes up to the altar and kisses it; he can’t hold himself in any longer. He didn’t kiss it when he went up before, to arrange the things, because he wasn’t really beginning the Mass then. Now he goes up and kisses it. And the meaning of that movement in the dance is obvious, I hope, even to the stupidest of us.

It is meant to express the great desire we ought to have for God, the desire to get closer to Him, get in contact with Him, which is the real reason for our saying any prayers at all.

What he kisses, actually, is the corporal, the big white thing folded in nine squares which he takes out of the large green envelope on the top of the chalice.

Underneath the corporal is-what? Three thicknesses of altar-cloth. Underneath the altar-cloths is-what? A piece of stone all wrapped up in waxed cloth, so as to be waterproof.

That stone has been consecrated long ago, by a bishop; and the bishop in consecrating it fills up some holes in it with-what do you think? Tiny bits of relics of the saints.

People used to use relics of that kind rather freely in the Middle Ages; they used to put them into bridges, for instance, so as to be sure that the bridges held up.

I know a very old bridge on the upper Thames where you can still see, in the masonry at the side, a kind of socket where they obviously used to keep the relics of some saint long ago.

King Henry the Sixth (no, not King Henry the Eighth; King Henry the Sixth, Wars of the Roses) used to be regarded as a saint before the Reformation, and they kept a relic of his on the bridge between Caversham and Reading, and another relic of his, so I’ve been told, on the bridge at Bridgnorth.

Well, that’s all beside the point; nowadays it is only altars that have to have relics in them; but they’ve jolly well got to.

Even a military chaplain carries round with him an altar stone, with relics let into it, and he must never say Mass without having that stone on the soap-box or whatever it is he is using for an altar.

And if you ask why the Church should insist on that rather inconvenient regulation, the simplest answer is this; if he didn’t, he would start the Mass by telling a lie.

I hope you all remember that the Mass proper hasn’t started yet; all that preparation business we were talking about last Sunday was only preparation really.

Now, just as he is going to begin the Mass proper, the priest rushes up to the altar, kisses it, and says, “We beseech thee, O Lord, by the merits of those saints whose relics are here, and of all the saints, to be indulgent towards my sins”.

The saints whose relics are here – why is that so important? Why, because in the very early days, when the Christians at Rome were being persecuted, they used to meet for worship in the catacombs just outside the city.

The catacombs are miles and miles of underground passages, which you can still explore with a guide if you go out to Rome. There the Christians used to bury the poor mangled remains of their friends who had been killed in the persecution; and on the tombstones raised over these bodies of the martyrs the Roman bishop used to say Mass.

And when the priest, saying those words, kisses the tiny relics tucked away in the altar-stone, he reminds himself, if he has any sense of history, that by that action he is putting himself in touch, so to speak, with the Universal Church that is in Communion with Rome.

All altars, all over the world, are one altar really, the mother altar of Christendom; all altars must have relics in them, so as to remind us that we belong to the martyrs of the first century, and they to us.

St. John, in the Apocalypse, says “I saw beneath the altar the souls of all who had been slain for love of God’s Word”; some people think that is a reference to this habit of saying Mass over the martyrs’ tombs – it’s as old as that.

And when you see the priest kissing the altar just then, you may think of Christian history, all through these nineteen centuries, as linked up. The Mass is all one, in A.D. 48 or in A.D.1948; the Mass is all one, in the catacombs at Rome or in the tin chapel.

That altar-stone is a kind of keyhole through which you get a glimpse into the whole of our Christian past.

I would say this – that by far the easiest and least troublesome way of rearing a family of which you can be proud is to institute the family rosary in your home, and keep it up. It knits the family together with bonds 10,000 times stronger than any that can be forged by merely natural means. -Joseph Breig, 1950’s

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The Mass – Active and Fruitful Participation

04 Sunday Jul 2021

Posted by Leanevdp in Spiritual Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

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From Jesus, Our Eucharistic Love

The infinite greatness of the Holy Mass should enable us to understand the need of attentively and devoutly taking part in this Sacrifice of Jesus. Adoration, love and sorrow ought to have undisputed predominance among our sentiments.

In a very moving reflection, Ven. Pope Pius XII described the state of mind with which one should take part in the Holy Mass: it should be “the state of mind that the Divine Redeemer had when He sacrificed Himself—the same humble spirit of submission—that is, of adoration, love, praise and thanksgiving to the great majesty of God, so that we reproduce in ourselves the condition of victimhood, the self-denial that follows the Gospel’s teaching, by which of our own accord we make a willing sacrifice of penance, sorrow and expiation for our sins.”

Let us ask ourselves seriously: is this the state of mind with which we participate at Holy Mass?

The Crucifix and the Candles

True and active participation at Holy Mass is what makes us into sacrificial victims like Jesus. Such participation succeeds in “reproducing in us the pain-shared features of Jesus” (Pius XII), bestowing upon us “a companionship with Christ in His sufferings” and rendering us “conformable to His Death” (Phil. 3:10). All the rest is mere liturgical ceremony, external dress.

St. Gregory the Great taught: “The Sacrifice of the Altar will be truly acceptable as a Victim offered in our behalf to God when we make ourselves into the Victim.”

As a reflection of this doctrine, in early Christian communities, the faithful, wearing penitential garbs and chanting the litany of the saints, went in procession to the altar for the celebration of Holy Mass, with the Pope presiding. If we would go to Mass in this spirit, we should want to make our own the sentiment St. Thomas the Apostle expressed when he said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (Jn. 11:16).

When St. Margaret Mary Alacoque attended Holy Mass and would gaze at the altar, she would never fail to glance at the Crucifix and the lighted candles. Why? It was to impress on her mind and heart two things: that the Crucifix should remind her of what Jesus had done for her; that the lighted candles recall what she must do for Jesus—that is, sacrifice herself and be consumed for Him and for souls.

Every day the King of France, St. Louis IX, would assist at Holy Mass on his knees, on the bare floor. One time a valet offered him a kneeler, but the king told him, “At Mass God offers Himself as a sacrifice, and when God sacrifices Himself, kings should kneel on the floor.”

St. John Bosco recommended that young people participate at Holy Mass by following the method of St. Leonard of Port Maurice, who divided the sacrificial part of the Mass into three parts, whereby one meditates, first upon the Passion of Jesus (from the Offertory to the Elevation); second, upon our sins, the cause of the Passion and Death of Jesus (until Communion); and third, upon the resolution to live a pure and fervent life (from Communion to the end of Mass).

To be able to do this in the simplest and most fruitful way, it is enough to commit oneself to follow attentively the priest at the altar. In this way one overcomes more easily the distractions and boredom. (And on Sundays one should not go in search for—as some do—the shortest Mass, simply because they can hardly wait for Mass to end!)

One day the father of Guido of Fontgalland asked his son how one should occupy himself during Mass. “During Holy Mass,” the holy youth replied, “our single occupation is to follow it. It is enough to read with the priest the prayers that he recites at the altar….”

It is the same reply that Pope St. Pius X gave to whomever wanted to know what prayers to recite during Holy Mass: “Follow the Mass, say the prayers of the Mass!”

Be like Our Lady on Calvary

The best example of participation at the Holy Sacrifice is given us at the foot of the Cross by the most Blessed Virgin Mary, St. John the Evangelist and St. Mary Magdalene with the pious women (Jn. 19:25).

To assist at Mass is very much like being at Calvary. A meeting of love and sorrow with Jesus Crucified—this is participation at Holy Mass.

St. Andrew of Avellino used to be moved to tears as he said, “One cannot separate the most Holy Eucharist from the Passion of Jesus.” One day a spiritual son asked St. Pio of Pietrelcina, “Father, how should we take part at Holy Mass?” St. Pio replied, “As Our Lady, St. John and the pious women did on Calvary—with love and compassion.”

In a missal of one of his spiritual children St. Pio wrote: “In assisting at Holy Mass, concentrate intently on the tremendous Mystery which is taking place before your eyes, which is the Redemption and reconciliation of your soul with God.”

At another time he was asked, “Father, why is it that you weep so much during Mass?”

“My daughter,” replied St. Pio, “what are those few tears compared to what takes place at the altar? There should be torrents of tears!”

Don’t insist on perfection. Expecting perfection from yourself and others is a setup for disappointment. Things won’t go as planned and you won’t be perfectly organized. Let it go. This, too, shall pass. -Charlotte Siems

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The Little Flower’s Tidbits on Holy Communion

10 Saturday Oct 2020

Posted by Leanevdp in FF Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

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The following tidbits are taken from this lovely, old “Little Flower Prayer Book” of my mother’s…..

This was Mom’s beautiful (and much used) Little Flower Prayer Book that she had for many years.
It has all sorts of notes throughout, post-it notes, holy cards, etc. As you can see by this page at the back Mom wrote some of the novenas she had done for her family. One of the novenas she said a Hail Mary for 240 days….and she did that one for each of her siblings, her children and grandchildren.
It was a fluke I found this book. And when I did, I was happy to find this note in the front.

St. Therese:

How sweet it was, the first kiss of Jesus to my soul! Yes, it was a kiss of Love. I felt I was loved, and I too said: “I love Thee, I give myself to Thee forever!”

Jesus asked nothing of me, demanded no sacrifice. Already for a long time past, He and the little Therese had watched and understood one another . . .

That day our meeting was no longer a simple look but a fusion. No longer were we two: Therese had disappeared as the drop of water which loses itself in the depths of the ocean, Jesus alone remained; the Master, the King!

Had not Therese begged Him to take away from her, her liberty? That liberty made her afraid; so weak, so fragile did she feel herself that she longed to be united for ever to Divine Strength.

I had taken as my rule of conduct, to receive most faithfully Holy Communion as often as my confessor permitted, without ever asking that it might be more frequent.

I would act differently now; for I am quite sure that a soul ought to make known to her director the attraction that she feels to receive her God.

It is not to remain in a golden ciborium that He comes down each day from Heaven, but to find another Heaven, the Heaven of our soul in which He takes his delight.

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What shall I say of my thanksgivings after Holy Communion? There are no moments in which I feel less consolation. And is not this very natural, seeing that my desire is to receive our Lord’s visit, not for my own satisfaction, but solely for His pleasure.

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I imagine my soul to be as a plot of waste ground and beg the Blessed Virgin to remove from it all the rubbish—meaning its imperfections; then I beseech her to erect thereon a vast canopy worthy of Heaven and to decorate it with her own treasures, and I invite all the Angels and Saints to come and sing canticles of love.

It seems to me then that Jesus is pleased to see Himself so magnificently received; and I, I share His joy. All this does not hinder distractions and sleep from molesting me; therefore it not rarely happens that I resolve to continue my thanksgiving all the day long, since I have made it so badly in the Choir.

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At the time of Holy Communion I sometimes picture my soul under the figure of a little child of three or four years, who at play has got its hair tossed and its clothes soiled.—

These misfortunes have befallen me in battling with souls.—But very soon the Blessed Virgin hastens to my aid: quickly she takes off my little dirty pinafore, smooths my hair and adorns it with a pretty ribbon or simply with a little flower . . . and this suffices to render me pleasing and enables me to sit at the Banquet of Angels without blushing.

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The demon, traitor that he is, knows well, that he cannot make a soul who wills to belong wholly to the good God, commit sin; therefore he endeavors only to persuade her that she sins. That is a great deal gained, but it is not yet enough to satisfy his rage; he aims at something further, he wants to deprive Jesus of a loved tabernacle.

Not being able himself to enter into this sanctuary he wishes that it may at least remain empty and without its Lord.

Alas! what will become of this poor heart? . . . When the devil has succeeded in driving away a soul from Holy Communion he has gained his ends, and Jesus weeps . . .

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A novice relates that she wanted to deprive herself of Holy Communion because of some lack of fidelity.

She wrote her determination to Sister Therese of the Child Jesus who thus replied: “Little flower cherished by Jesus, it is amply sufficient that by the humiliation of your soul, your roots eat of the earth . . . You must open a little, or rather raise on high your corolla so that the Bread of Angels may come as a divine dew to strengthen you, and to give you all that is wanting to you.”

Goodnight, poor little floweret; ask of Jesus that all the prayers offered for my recovery may serve to augment the fire which must consume me.”

“Love and sacrifice is thus as closely connected as the sun and the light. You can’t love without suffering and suffer without loving. It is with sacrifice that so confirms love “. – Santa Gianna Beretta Molla
Painting by Hermann Kaulbach (1846 – 1909, German)

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Do you need some good reading suggestions? Visit My Book List…

Where There Is No Mass, There Is No Christianity

19 Sunday Jan 2020

Posted by Leanevdp in Spiritual Tidbits, The Mass/The Holy Eucharist

≈ 6 Comments

I was introduced to this book from a dear friend and it has been a source of joy and inspiration! The Holy Mass is there for us, do we take advantage of the multitude of graces it offers? Do we have special intentions, do we have anxieties and fears, do we have sinners to pray for? The Mass is the greatest prayer….life is short! Let’s get to it!

The Hidden Treasure by St. Leonard of Port Maurice

“Where there is no Mass,” writes one of the Fathers of the English Oratory, “there is also no Christianity.”

The reason is plain: Christ’s life was one of sacrifice—not merely of the figurative sacrifice of praise and prayer, but one of outward act, of suffering and of death.

His religion must be like Himself: it must be the continuation of the divine-human life that He led upon earth, representing and perpetuating, by some sacred rite, the sacrifice that began in the womb of Mary and ended upon the Cross of Calvary. That rite is the holy Mass.

Do we always realize it as such? Does the conviction sink deep into us, when offering, or assisting, at the adorable Sacrifice, that Jesus is reenacting, in our presence, the mysteries of His life and death?

The altar of the Mass is the holy house of Nazareth, the crib of Bethlehem, the Egyptian place of exile, the hill of Calvary, the garden-tomb in which Our Savior’s corpse reposed, and the Mount of Olives from which He ascended.

The Passion, it is true, is that which is primarily represented and continued in the holy Mass; yet the prayers and rites of the Sacrifice refer, at times, to other mysteries. Thus the dropping of a part of the sacred Host into the Chalice, before the Agnus Dei, represents the reunion of Christ’s soul with His body and blood on the morning of the Resurrection.

For a description of the many and beautiful analogies between the Eucharistic life of Our Lord and His sacred Infancy, we refer the reader to Father Faber’s Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament.

The Mass is truly a “hidden treasure,” and, alas, our cold, dead faith allows it to remain so. If we valued it as we ought, we would hurry every morning to the church, careless of the snows of winter and the heats of summer, in order to get a share of the riches of this treasure.

The saints knew the value of one Mass: that was a dark day in their calendar on which they were deprived of the happy privilege of saying or hearing Mass.

Although St. Francis de Sales was overburdened with apostolic work on the Mission of the Chablais, he made it a point never to miss his daily Mass. In order to keep his holy resolution, he had frequently to cross the river Drance, to the village of Marin, in which there was a Catholic church.

It happened, in the winter of 1596, that a great freshet carried away a portion of the bridge over the stream, and the passengers were, in consequence, compelled to cross on a plank laid over those arches of the broken structure that had withstood the waters.

Heavy falls of snow, followed by severe frosts, made this board very slippery, so that it became dangerous to attempt passing on it; but St. Francis was not to be deterred, for, despite the remonstrances of his friends, he made the perilous journey every morning, creeping over the icy plank on his hands and feet, thus daily risking his life rather than lose Mass.

Dear Christian reader! Beg this glorious Saint to obtain for you and me some portion of his burning love for the most holy and adorable Sacrifice of the altar.

 If we really have in our hearts good-will to men, we shall not only wish every one well, but we shall seek every opportunity to do good to every one, beginning with those at home. It will make us good wives, good mothers, good neighbors, kind, obliging, ready always to lend a hand, to do another a good turn. -Finer Femininity

A great gift, the Catholic Young Lady’s Maglet is for the young (and not-so-young), Catholic, Feminine Soul. It is a compilation of traditional, valuable Catholic articles on the subjects that touch the hearts of serious-minded Catholic young ladies. There are articles on courtship, purity, singleness, vocation, prayer, confession, friends, tea parties, obedience, etc. This information is solid, written by orthodox Catholic writers (most of them gone to their eternal home) that cared about the proper formation of a young Catholic adult in a confused world.

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