At Lourdes, even Mary has stepped aside to make way for Christ. There is no place in the world where Christ in the Eucharist is more glorified. The procession of the Eucharist by candlelight is the high point of each day. Here the pilgrims are joined in faith, and all the countries of the world are united as the procession winds from the grotto to show that Jesus is the Gift of the Virgin Mary. Now she stands at the side of her Son so that He may console.

The Eucharist in our churc...

Mass Readings: August 30

BODY BUILD

"Build one another up." –1 Thessalonians 5:11, RSV-CE

I am attending morning Mass in an older church building. Laborers are repairing the roof, and the steady pounding of their hammers makes it difficult to hear the lector as he proclaims today's first reading. Then the lector proclaimed the phrase "build one another up" (see 1 Thes 5:11, RSV-CE...

Private time spent in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is one of the most effective ways of drawing closer to Jesus. The world is filled with noise. We all need quiet time to gather our thoughts, to speak to God and to listen to Him. If we can do this in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, we are very fortunate. Our visits should include acts of adoration, thanksgiving, reparation and petition. These can also be times for devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Sacred Hear...

Mass Readings: August 29

HEAD-LINES

"Stand up and tell them all that I command you." –Jeremiah 1:17

John the Baptizer called the religious leaders of his time a "brood...

BEIJENG, China (Catholic Online) - I have been regularly writing about the horrid persecution of faithful Catholics by the Communist Regime currently ruling mainland China. Sadly, because these Maoist Atheists now wear business suits, smile a lot, and hold commercial paper which represents a substantial amount of American I.O.U.'s, few politicians in either major political party have the courage to call them out for their egregious human rights abuses.

For example, the Vice President o...

Your light shone upon me in its brilliance, and I thrilled with love and dread alike. I realized that I was far away from you. It was as though I were in a land where all is different from your own and I heard your voice calling from on high saying, "I am the food of full-grown men. Grow and you shall feed on me. But you shall not change me into your own substance, as you do with the food of your body. Instead, you shall be changed into me." (Confessions)

Mass Readings: August 28

SUPER DUPER

"You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped." –Jeremiah 20:7

God doesn't really dupe us. It just seem...

"Adoration has a valid and solid motive. The Eucharist, in fact, ... differs from the other Sacraments in that it not only produces grace, but permanently contains the very author of grace. When therefore the Church commands us to worship Christ hidden beneath the Eucharistic veils, and to ask him for supernatural and earthly gifts, which we always need, she manifests the living faith wherewith she believes in the presence of her Divine Spouse beneath those veils, shows forth her gr...

Mass Readings: August 27

TOTAL STEWARDSHIP

" 'Well done! You are an industrious and reliable servant.' " –Matthew 25:21

On Judgment Day, we will be held account...

On the First Friday of each month, the above-mentioned grace connected with the pain in my side was renewed in the following manner: The Sacred Heart was represented to me as a resplendent sun, the burning rays of which fell vertically upon my heart, which was inflamed with a fire so fervid that it seemed as if it would reduce me to ashes. It was at these times especially that my Divine Master taught me what He required of me and disclosed to me the secrets of His loving Heart. On o...

Mass Readings: August 26

YOU'RE FIRED

"The foolish ones said to the sensible, 'Give us some of your oil. Our torches are going out.' But the sensible ones re...

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The American celebration of Labor Day usually signals the real beginning of the Presidential campaign. However, this year, people are paying attention a lot earlier. The economy is in a free fall and the sense of fear in the United States is palpable. A majority of people have lost confidence in our elected leaders.  

At the Iowa Republican presidential debate Thursday, August 11, 2011, Presidential candidate Rick Santorum experienced one more effort ...

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (Catholic Online) - After returning from Madrid where Two  Million young people gathered with him to be instructed in the faith and enlisted into the mission of the Church, Pope  Benedict XVI gathered his former doctoral students together in Castel Gandolfo to reflect on the theme of the New Evangelization.

The first meeting of the "Schulerkreis" or "student circle" of doctoral candidates advised by Professor Joseph Ratzinger occurred in 1977. Back then, Fr. Jose...

In the person of St. Louis IX were the qualities which form a great king, a hero of romance, and a saint! With his death, the century of knights ended. One day a messenger, breathless with haste, burst in upon the king with surprising and exciting news. "Your majesty," he cried, "hasten to the Church! A great miracle is occurring there. A priest is saying holy Mass, and after the consecration, instead of the host there is visible on the altar Jesus Himself in His human figure. Everyb...

Mass Readings: August 25

THE LAST WORD

"Who is the faithful, farsighted servant whom the Master has put in charge of His household to dispense food at need...

But anyone who would approach this gracious sacrament while guilty of deadly sin would receive no grace from it, even though such a person would really be receiving me as I am, wholly God, wholly human. But do you know the situation of the soul who receives the sacrament unworthily? She is like a candle that has been doused with water and only hisses when it is brought near the fire. The flame no more than touches it but it goes out and nothing remains but smoke. Just so, this soul ...

Mass Readings: August 24

KNOW BODY

"Do you believe just because..." –John 1:50

"When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, He remarked: 'This man is a true Israelite. There is no guile in him' " (Jn 1:47). Nathanael asked Jesus, "How do You know me?" (Jn 1:48) This is a revealing response. The typical response to a total stranger would be to ask: "How do you know this information abou...

St. Bonaventure tells how Francis of Assisi "burned with love for the Sacrament of our Lord's Body with all his heart, and was lost in wonder at the thought of such condescending love, such loving condescension. He received Holy Communion often and so devoutly that he roused others to devotion too. The presence of the Immaculate Lamb used to take him out of himself, so that he was often lost in ecstasy."

Of this continuing condescension Francis says, "Every day he humbles himself j...

Mass Readings: August 23

GULP!

"You strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!" –Matthew 23:24

The Pharisees have long been gone, but many still swallow camels today. You may be a modern-day Pharisee if:

• You lead the fight to have kneelers in your church but continue to vote for pro-abortion politicians.
• You often hint that you want your spouse to lose weight but neglect for months at a...

One of the great apparitions of Our Lady was in the Irish village of Knock. On August 21, 1879, surrounded by light, wearing a brilliant golden crown, and a long white gown covered by a dazzling white cloak, she appeared. On her right appeared St. Joseph inclining reverently towards her; on her left St. John the Evangelist, attired as a bishop and holding a book, his hand raised as if preaching. To St. John's left was an altar on which stood a lamb, surrounded by angels' wings, a sy...

Mass Readings: August 22

THE PROOF IS IN THE FAITH

"We constantly are mindful before our God and Father of the way you are proving your faith, and laboring in love." –1 Thessalonians 1:3

The Christians of Thessalonica were proving their faith so well that their proven faith was celebrated "not only in Macedonia and Achaia" but "throughout every region" (1 Thes 1:8). Could your faith be accurately ca...

Pope St. Pius X had extensive pastoral experience before being elevated to the papacy. The most glorious actions were his decrees urging the frequent reception of Holy Communion and lowering the age for First Holy Communion.

O Most sweet Jesus, who came into this world to give to all souls the life of Your grace, and who, to preserve and increase it in them, willed to be the daily Remedy of their weakness and Food for each day, we humbly beseech You, by Your Heart so burning with l...

Mass Readings: August 21

THE KEYS

"I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." –Matthew 16:19

Eliakim was given "the key of th...

During Mass today, I saw the Lord Jesus, who said to me, "Be at peace, My daughter; I see your efforts, which are very pleasing to Me." And the Lord disappeared, and it was time for Holy Communion. After I received Holy Communion, I suddenly saw the Cenacle and in it Jesus and the Apostles. I saw the institution of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Jesus allowed me to penetrate His interior, and I came to know the greatness of His majesty and, at the same time, His great humbling of Himsel...

Mass Readings: August 20

GLEANER-GOD

"Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, but whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." –Matthew 23:12

The Lord will event...

You should adore our Lord Jesus Christ, who makes himself present to us on the altar, so that we might offer him the homage and adoration we owe. Pray that just as he changes the lower earthly nature of bread and wine into his body and blood he might change and transform also the sluggishness, coldness and dryness of our earthly and arid heat into the fire, tenderness and agility of the holy divine affections and dispositions of his divine and heavenly heart. Then you should remember...

Mass Readings: August 19

THE PRICE OF FAITHFULNESS

"Ruth said, 'Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! For wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will l...

The Blessed Sacrament is God. Devotion to the Blessed Sacrament is simply divine worship. Turn it which way we will, throw the light of love and knowledge now on one side of it, now on another, still the result is the same, the one inexhaustible sweet fact of the Real Presence. In the hands of the priest, behind the crystal of the monstrance, on the tongue of the communicant, now, and for a thousand times, and almost at our will and pleasure, there are the Hands and Feet, the Eyes a...

Mass Readings: August 18

BAPTISMAL, EUCHARISTIC VICTORY

"Jephthah made a vow to the Lord. 'If You deliver the Ammonites into my power,' he said, 'whoever comes out of th...

In the desert of Sinai, God's caring love supplied the only means of survival for the Chosen People; likewise, through the Holy Eucharist, Jesus has supplied us with all our needs for our journey. Like the Israelites, we need food for our journey. Each day Jesus invites us to the inexhaustible fount of nourishment in the eucharistic banquet.

Each day as we come to join our eternal High priest in celebrating the Eucharist, we are assured that we are not journeying alone, but that Je...

Mass Readings: August 17

MERCY WATCH

"Begin with the last group and end with the first." –Matthew 20:8

Let's look at the parable of the laborers through the lens of discipl...

"I do not know," the pastor had said, "whether she will see the Saviour today." This occurs only when she has passed the night in expiatory suffering. Then she can receive an entire host, although ordinarily she swallows a small part with difficulty. The parish Mass was over now and the pastor took his time, even though his little lamb was almost passing away with longing for the sacred food. I almost felt like begging him in sympathy to hurry. First the children were dismissed in o...

Mass Readings: August 16

"SUNDAY OBLIGATION"

"While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to save it from the Midianites, the angel of the Lord appeared ...

Saint Tarcisius, the boy martyr of the Holy Eucharist, is called the Patron Saint of First Communicants.

It was to young Tarcisius that the Blessed Sacrament was entrusted to be carried, as inconspicuously as possible, as Holy Viaticum to imprisoned Christians who had been condemned to death.

One day when Tarcisius refused to show them what he was carrying, a band of pagan Roman ruffians attacked him and beat him with sticks before stoning him to death.

When his assailants turned...

Mass Readings: August 15

"IN JOYFUL HOPE"

"He has deposed the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly to high places." �...

Saint Maximilian desired to write a book on the teaching of the Church with a chapter entitled "Dogma: The Most Blessed Sacrament", perhaps eventually to be published as a booklet. He wished to write of dogma "in a popular, lively style, illustrating the doctrine with miracles attested by competent witnesses (for example, bearing on the Eucharist)". The constant demands of the apostolate did not permit him to write such a work. But in the material for a book on the Immaculate, we fi...

Mass Readings: August 14

IS YOUR CATHOLIC CHURCH CATHOLIC?

"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." –Isaiah 56:7

Is your church filled with members who are young and old, black and white, male and female, poor and rich, U.S. citizens and internationals? Many Catholic churches in the USA are filled with old, white, upper-middle class, Amer...

On 16th September, 1903, the Bishop, Monsignor Dubillard, was carrying the ostensorium. Amongst the last stretchers of the sick was one on which lay the daughter of General Clement. For seventeen years she had suffered most severe pains, and her leg, reduced to a state of inflexibility, had lesions even to the bone. Her doctor and friends said it was folly to expect a cure. Yet she would go to Lourdes. The journey was a real martyrdom. She fainted three times while being conveyed fro...

Mass Readings: August 13

WITNESS STAND

"This stone shall be our witness." –Joshua 24:27

One of the most important words in the Bible is "witness." Joshua said t...

If My dear people truly recognized Me in the host, they would not be so quick to leave, and wander in their thoughts after receiving My Precious Body and Blood. It is only confirmation on how many of My people go through habitual motions and routine actions, instead of true devotion and dedication! Where is their commitment? I am committed to them. I respect them. Cannot they be loyal to true friendship? I wish to assist them and help them in their times of need. They must allow Me, ...

Mass Readings: August 12

MY DIVORCE

"Because of your stubbornness Moses let you divorce your wives." –Matthew 19:8

Jesus considered a culture that permitted...

During those troubled times which afflicted the Church during the reign of the Emperor Frederick... bands of mercenaries paid by the Emperor as well as bands of Saracen archers swarmed like bees into the region. They destroyed castles and looted the cities.

... The infamous tribe of Saracens, thirsting for Christian blood, was ready to commit any crime or act of audacity and had already penetrated the outer wall of San Damiano and had entered the cloister. The poor ladies were over...

Mass Readings: August 11

A PITY PARTY

"Moved with pity, the master let the official go and wrote off the debt." –Matthew 18:27

The Lord God is "moved with pity" when we humbly beg Him to have mercy on us (Mt 18:27). He is so moved when someone asks Him for forgiveness that He celebrates (Lk 15:23) and rejoices (Lk 15:10). Father Al Lauer, longtime author of One Bread, One Body, was fon...

Father Hunolt, of the Society of Jesus, relates that two students were once discoursing together about the hour of their death. They agreed that if God would allow it, he who should die first should appear to the other to tell him how he fared in the other world. Shortly afterwards, one of them died and appeared soon after his death to his fellow-student, all shining with heavenly brightness and glory, and in answer to his inquiries, told him that by the mercy of God he was saved an...

Mass Readings: August 10

"HE MUST INCREASE" (Jn 3:30)

"Increase your generous yield." –2 Corinthians 9:10

The Church has been fiercely attacked in the last decade...

Had you the purity of the Angels and the holiness of Saint John the Baptist, you would still be unworthy to receive or touch this Sacrament. For it is not due to any merit of his own that a man is allowed to consecrate and handle the Sacrament of Christ, and receive the Bread of Angels (Ps 78: 26) as his food. High the office, and great the dignity of a priest, to whom is granted what is not granted to Angels; for only a rightly ordained priest has power to celebrate the Eucharist an...

Mass Readings: August 9

A DIPLOMA IN THE SCHOOL OF MERCY

"If he succeeds in finding it, believe Me he is happier about this one than about the ninety...

St. Dominic was once saying Mass in London, England, in the presence of the King and Queen and 300 other persons. As he was making the Memento for the living, he suddenly became enraptured, remaining motionless for the space of a whole hour. All present were greatly astonished, and did not know what to think or to make of it. The King ordered the server to pull the priest's robe, that he might go on with his Mass. But on attempting to do so, the server became so terribly frightened ...

Mass Readings: August 8

PUT ON YOUR THINKING CAP

"Think!" –Deuteronomy 10:14

One of the shortest sentences in the Bible is: "Think!" We are to think about how the L...

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - "Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him..." (Matt 17)

The Feast we celebrate in the Liturgical calendar of the Church on this day is an ancient one. The early Christians viewed its implications in their own lives much differentl...

The center of the spiritual life of Padre Pio was the Eucharistic Jesus. His devotion polarized around the tabernacle. Jesus, the Word Incarnate, was not distant in time and space to Padre Pio, but very close to him, living with him under the same roof, hidden under the eucharistic Species.

Hour by hour, day and night, he would linger in conversation with the Divine Inhabitant of the tabernacle. When asked where he could be found if he was not in his cell or in the confessional, he ...

Mass Readings: August 7

THE "WANT-TO"

"My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that there is great grief and constant pain in my heart." �...

Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) was born into a French aristocratic family and after a rather dissipated life as a cavalry officer with the rank of lieutenant was filled with a sense of spiritual unrest. This led him back to the faith after his conversion by the Abbe Huvelin, an experienced spiritual director, at the church of St. Augustin in Paris. His attempts to follow a religious vocation with the Trappists proved futile. He left the order in 1897 because he sought a life of grea...

Mass Readings: August 6

A LUMINOUS FIGURE

"He was transfigured before their eyes. His face became as dazzling as the sun, His clothes as rad...

CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - On the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time I proclaim the account of this miraculous multiplication which is taken from the Gospel of St. Matthew at Holy Mass. (Mt 14:13-21)  The miracle is recorded in all four gospels, emphasizing its significance.

As is often the case, each of the four evangelists focuses on a particular aspect of the miracle in order to emphasize for the reader the significance and implication of the event in their own lives. St. ...

The lay faithful "consecrate the world to the Father!" The people of God really are a priestly people. The ordained, ministerial priest consecrates the bread and wine to be the Body and Blood of Christ and the lay faithful, by means of the presence of the Eucharistic body and Blood of Christ, now consecrate the world–and their lives, their families, their works and possessions. The lay faithful transform the world, that all may be divinized in Christ.

The lay faithful are charged...

Mass Readings: August 5

ON THE VERGE

"You led Your people like a flock." –Psalm 77:21

In today's first eucharistic reading, Moses has led the Israelites throug...

When St. John Mary Vianney arrived at the obscure little village of Ars, someone said to him with bitterness, "Here there is nothing to do." "Therefore, there is everything to do," replied the Saint.

And he began immediately to act. What did he do? He arose at 2:00 A.M. in the morning and went to pray near the altar in the dark church. He recited the Divine Office, he made his meditation and he prepared himself for Holy Mass. After the Holy Sacrifice, he made his thanksgiving; then...

Mass Readings: August 4

ROCK OF AGES

"Order the rock to yield its waters." –Numbers 20:8

The Israelites complained about not having water. Then "Moses struck the roc...

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) -The Daily Kos is a secularist weblog which purports to present the "state of the Nation". On Friday, July 30, 2011, it decided to pontificate. In a post entitled  they offered their spin on the recent budgeting debates in the US Congress opining that, "John Boehner, Catholic, is displeasing the US Conference of Catholic Bishops."

The Daily Kos, by selectively quoting one paragraph from a July 26, 2011...

At the age of twelve St. Peter Julian Eymard was already making night adoration in his home from eleven to midnight on Thursday, thus fulfilling the Sacred Heart's request to St. Margaret Mary and exemplifying the truth that night adoration in the home leads to Holy Hours in church. Peter Julian's mother, we are told, was so edified when she thus discovered her boy in adoration that she did not have the heart to scold or disturb him.

"It was devotion to the Sacred Heart that saved ...

Mass Readings: August 3

FAITH-CRIMES

"Forty years shall you suffer for your crimes." –Numbers 14:34

Today's eucharistic readings strongly ...

Mass Readings: August 2

GOD HATES JEALOUSY

"Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses." –Numbers 12:1

Moses, Aaron, and Miriam were the t...

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - This Sunday's gospel passage reminds us once again of God's unconditional love for us. "When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, and he cured their sick" (Matthew 14: 14). In essence, Christianity is an on-going love story. It is a love story about God's unconditional love for you and me.

"Taking the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he said the blessing, broke the loaves, and gave th...

No consideration of the Eucharist of this type could omit St. Alphonsus de Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorist congregation. He wrote his well-known Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament in 1745. They immediately inflamed the hearts of men with a love of the Eucharist. No finer work is there to prepare us for the reception of Communion, to help us in the thanksgiving, and to provide prayerful helps for those who visit the Eucharistic God each day.

St. Alphonsus tells of a Spani...

Mass Readings: August 1

DISGUSTED WITH YOUR PARISH?

"Moses asked the Lord, 'Why are You so displeased with me that You burden me with all this people?' " –Numbers 11:11...