A CHRISTIANITY THAT DOESN'T PAY

"No, when you have a reception, invite beggars and the crippled, the lame and the blind. You should be pleased that they cannot repay you." –Luke 14:13-14

How many begging, crippled, lame, or blind people have you had over for supper lately? Most people would probably answer: very few or none. Most Christians in Western culture don't take Jesus' command literally. However, considering the historical and Biblical context of this passage, it is very l...

The founder of the MI (Militia Immaculata) was convinced, as he declared, on December 8, 1937, on Polish National Radio in a broadcast to all Poland, that, "when the spirit of Niepokalanow, the spirit of the MI, penetrates our country and the entire world, when the Immaculate will have become Queen of every heart beating under the sun, then paradise will come on earth, not the paradise of communists and socialists, but–in so far as it is possible on earth–the true paradise. The ...

In one instance it was possible to confirm the presence, entirely intact at 7 o'clock in the evening, of the small particle of the Host which Resl had received in the morning. Another phenomenon connected with this phase of the stigmatist's life is that as soon as the Sacred Species have dissolved within her, she feels an interior physical pain and her body begins to grow weaker. Her yearning for Holy Communion grows more intense, and she even breaks into loud complaints, saying: "O...

THE MESSAGE, NOT THE MESSENGER

"We thank God constantly that in receiving His message from us you took it, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God." –1 Thessalonians 2:13

As a teenager, I attended daily Masses said by Father O'Hare (not his real name). His style rubbed me the wrong way; it was hard for me to concentrate on his homilies. God used him to teach me to concentrate on the message, not the messenger (1 Thes 2:13). Here are some words of God from vario...

It was so when more than four thousand followed Him and forgot to eat for three days. As at the wedding feast of Cana, there was in the feeding of the multitude an important message. These kinds of miracles were performed by Jesus to impress upon the minds of the crowd that His power was the power of God. These particular gestures of compassion were wrought as a symbol of something greater to come. Their hearts were prepared to accept a greater mystery that He would reveal before His...

A "KNOW IT ALL"

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery." –Romans 11:25

Sometimes we feel like despairing because life seems to make no sense. We wonder if God is there or if He knows what He's doing. NevertFcheless, despite severe disruptions due to our sins, the Lord has everything under control. For instance, He knows that large numbers of Jewish people will be saved after the full number of Gentiles has entered into God's kingdom (Rm 11:25-26). This will mean "riches ...

ASSISI, Italy (Catholic Online) -For months preceding the global gathering of religious leaders convened by Pope Benedict XVI on October 27, 2011 in Assisi, some questioned the entire event. Twenty five years ago, Benedict's predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, called religious leaders to Assisi to promote peace and this was the anniversary. Some within the traditionalist community ( in full communion and outside of full communion) and others, strongly and publicly criticized the Pope.

S...

Before the Blessed Sacrament the devout pilgrim on the journey finds comfort and consolation, for the Savior whispers his secrets to them. They know what the busy people of this world, rushing around, never know; they know Christ better than the busy clergy rushing from meeting to meeting.

With Jesus life makes sense. They are happy of heart; without friendship with him, life is insane and not worth living. They know that he is the gateway to heaven. So the thought of death makes t...

"A CHOSEN RACE" (1 Pt 2:9)

"He called His disciples and selected twelve of them to be His apostles." –Luke 6:13

Jesus called a number of disciples together and chose twelve of them to be His apostles (Lk 6:13), the ones He would specially form and mold to be the foundation of His Church (Eph 2:20; Rv 21:14). The entire basis for the Church rests on the fact that Jesus selected some for special leadership. This means that the Church is not a democracy, nor did Jesus intend for it to...

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Catholic Online) - I have followed the multi-year legal battle between  and the Internal Revenue for several reasons. First, because I applaud Catholic Answers and its founder Karl Keating for the work they have done for decades. Their mission statement explains, "Catholic Answers is an apostolate dedicated to serving Christ by bringing the fullness of Catholic truth to the world. We help good Catholics become better Catholics, bring former Catholics "h...

UNSTOPPABLE

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" –Romans 8:31

St. Paul asks: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Trial, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?" (Rm 8:35) This was no mere rhetorical question for Paul. He had experienced firsthand all of these dangers and more (see 2 Cor 11:23ff). He knew for "certain" that nothing could separate him from the love of God (Rm 8:38, 39). This certain knowledge of God's personal l...

Q I am afraid of "failing" in my prayer for family healing, since I experience a kind of "spiritual emptiness." I envy those who seem to be bursting with spiritual life.

A No one is on a constant spiritual "high." And many devout souls are seldom "high." God often serves the cake without the "frosting." But feeling isn't as important as filling–filling yourself with God's goodness, not yours.

At Communion time we are in the closest union with Jesus. "He who eats my flesh and dr...

Tranquil peace and gratitude filled Josefa's heart, and so she went to Mass, then to Holy Communion. On returning to her place, she at once renewed the complete offering of her whole person to her good and beloved Master, definitely abandoning herself into His hands for ever. Jesus ratified the offering:

"It is on account of your nothingness and utter misery that you must let Me kindle your heart's fire, consume and destroy it. You surely know that 'nothing' and 'misery' cannot res...

Reflections from the Saints

THE PRAYER OF A LIFETIME

"The Spirit intercedes for the saints as God Himself wills." –Romans 8:27

For more than twenty-five years, Pope John Paul II called us to great, growing, and intense prayer (The Redeemer of Man, 22). The Pope taught: "A great prayer for life is urgently needed, a prayer which will rise up throughout the world. Through special initiatives and in daily prayer, may an impassioned plea rise to God, the Creator and Lover of life, from every Christian community, fr...

Q. I am afraid of "failing" in my prayer for family healing, since I experience a kind of "spiritual emptiness." I envy those who seem to be bursting with spiritual life.

A. No one is on a constant spiritual "high." And many devout souls are seldom "high." God often serves the cake without the "frosting." But feeling isn't as important as filling–filling yourself with God's goodness, not yours.

At Communion time we are in the closest union with Jesus. "He who eats my flesh and ...

GROANERS

"Yes, we know that all creation groans and is in agony even until now." –Romans 8:22

After the first sin was committed, a groan was heard for the first time. Adam groaned in his labors; Eve groaned in her labor pains (see Gn 3:16, 19). Both groaned when they saw the first dead body ever; the body of their son Abel, murdered by his brother Cain (Gn 4:8). These groanings grew increasingly worse until the whole world groaned.

Eventually, there came a Man Who groaned like the r...

Now, I am going to let you in on a secret--the secret of my spiritual life. When I travel on the train, I say, ten, twenty "Masses of St. John" -- Masses in honor of the Blessed Trinity. There is no prayer like that. I have but three devotions: My Mass, my breviary, my Rosary. The breviary is beautiful, but you cannot compare it with the Mass. There is no prayer like the Mass. As I travel, I offer my Mass on the altar of the holy Will of God, offering it in union with the thousands ...

REPENTANCE OR FEAR?

"You did not receive a spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but a spirit of adoption through which we cry out 'Abba!' (that is, 'Father')." –Romans 8:15

Because we inherited a fallen nature, we were in fear from the first moment of our conception. We lived in fear (see Lk 12:32) no matter how hard we tried to be free. We would have lived in fear our whole lives (Heb 2:15), but we were set free when we received a new nature by being baptized into Jesus....

A "WHOLE" IN MY HEART

"You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart." –Matthew 22:37

We disciples are called to holiness. We are also called to "whole-liness." We are to love God with our whole heart, our whole soul, and our whole mind (Mt 22:37).

It all begins with God's love for us. "The love of God [is] poured out in our hearts" (Rm 5:5). God's poured-out love fills our hearts with love for Him and for others (Mt 22:37). So "we, for our part, love because He first love...

What greater way can a man demonstrate his love than to lay down his life for another? When a woman is pregnant she gives the child in her womb everything she has... In a greater way the Lord gives us His very self in the Mass, saying, "I gave my life for you. All I have is available to nourish you and make you healthy and strong..."

A powerful story came out in the newspapers about the 1988 Armenian earthquake that killed 50,000 people. In the collapse of an apartment building, Su...

I'M EXHAUSTED FOR HIM

"Why should it exhaust the soil?" –Luke 13:7, RNAB

Most plants pull nutrients out of the soil. Repeated growing of certain crops can literally exhaust the soil over a period of time (see Lk 13:7, RNAB). Every few years, farmers rotate a crop of leguminous plants, which replenish the soil with nutrients, to make the soil more fertile.

Jesus calls us to be good soil, bearing thirty-, sixty-, or a hundredfold for Him (Mk 4:20). Part of being good soil for Jesus ...

Just at the turn of the century, there was a woman married in Paris, just a good, ordinary Catholic girl to an athiest doctor, Dr. Felix LaSeur. He attempted to break down the faith of his wife who reacted by studying her faith. In 1905 she was taken ill and tossed on a bed of constant pain until August, 1914. When she was dying, she said to her husband, "Felix, when I am dead, you will become a Catholic and a Dominican priest."

"Elizabeth, you know my sentiments. I've sworn hatred...

SETTLERS

"When you are going with your opponent to appear before a magistrate, try to settle with him on the way." –Luke 12:58

If we can know the time when it will rain or get hot, we can know the time to settle with our opponent (Lk 12:54-58). The verses which immediately follow this passage indicate that we settle with our opponent by repenting of not bearing fruit, that is, of not leading people to Jesus (Lk 13:3, 5, 6). We either repent of not leading people to Christ or be han...

CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - No matter where you look these days there is a news report, commentary, study or conference on the growing National epidemic of bullying.  One television network recently aired a multi-platform series on bullying. The National Education Association released statistics in 2010 indicating that every day 160,000 children miss school out of fear of some form of bullying, verbal, physical or cyber-bullying.

Bullying is a real problem, but it is not a new ...

Let us examine more closely the culminating point of Gemma's devotion–Holy Communion–in which precisely the Mystery of the Love of Jesus is accomplished. Would that she who so often disclosed to me the secrets of her soul on this subject would now enable me to relate adequately and exactly what she then told me of the fire that the Divine Spouse enkindled in her heart at the Holy Table. It was her hunger and thirst for Holy Communion that made this young girl hover like a butter...

Covenants, treaties, major contracts are celebrated with exchange of gifts, with banqueting. God, conforming to our nature as He created it, chooses to approach us in accord with our social and business procedures and our psychological makeup. Meeting with Abraham our father in faith, God acted as one head of state approaching another, made a treaty of friendship with him, promising favors beyond Abraham's expectations, asking only that "he keep the way of the Lord by doing righteou...

DIVIDE AND CONQUER

"I have come for division." –Luke 12:51

Jesus came to divide families, "three against two and two against three" (Lk 12:52). These divisions are tragic because they are due to the refusal by family members to give their lives to Jesus and love Him.

However, divisions are not all bad. "There may even have to be factions among you for the tried and true to stand out clearly" (1 Cor 11:19). Through divisions, those who are lukewarm in their faith turn cold. And Jes...

NO LIMITS

"More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted." –Luke 12:48

Jesus has come that we might have abundant life, life to the full (Jn 10:10). He plans to fill our cup to overflowing (Ps 23:5) and lavish the Holy Spirit upon us without measure (Jn 3:34; Ti 3:6), just as He changed water into a huge amount of wine (Jn 2:6ff). God will open the floodgates of heaven to bless us with a superabundance if we obey Him in generous trust (see Mal 3:10).

In view of God's ...

St. Peter of Alcantara experienced visions of the Blessed Mother during his childhood and was known for his devotion to the cross of Christ. After his ordination as a Franciscan priest he served for a time as a confessor of St. Teresa of Avila. From the time of his first Holy Mass, he was often found in ecstasy before the tabernacle. When approaching the divine mysteries, the saint lost all consciousness of things about him and prayed as though only he and Jesus existed. On account ...

On Thursday, when I went to my cell, I saw over me the Sacred Host in great brightness. Then I heard a voice that seemed to be coming from above the Host: "In the Host is your power; it will defend you." After these words, the vision disappeared, but a strange power entered my soul, and a strange light as to what our love for God consists in; namely, in doing His will.

During this hour of prayer, Jesus allowed me to enter the Cenacle, and I was a witness to what happened there. How...

WITH IT OR WITH HIM?

"I have no one with me but Luke." –2 Timothy 4:11

St. Luke was a disciple of St. Paul, a missionary, one of the four evangelists, the author of Acts of the Apostles, and a doctor (Col 4:14). On Luke's feast day, however, the Church has not chosen readings to emphasize any of these claims to fame. Our first reading simply notes that Luke was with Paul. That doesn't sound like much until we remember Jesus' last words in Matthew's Gospel: "Know that I am with you ...

Of the apostolic men who heard directly from the disciples the truths of faith and transmitted them to us in their writings, we present, in the first place, St. Ignatius the Martyr. He is said to have been one of the fortunate children whom Jesus embraced (Mark 10: 13 ff.), though the Apostles wished to drive them away. It is certain that he was a disciple of the Apostles, and after Evodius succeeded St. Peter in the See of Antioch. Trajan condemned him to be devoured by wild beasts...

DAILY BREAD IS DAILY LOVE

"Then I will say to myself: You have blessings in reserve for years to come. Relax! Eat heartily, drink well. Enjoy yourself." –Luke 12:19

Jesus didn't encourage the man who had "blessings in reserve for years to come" (Lk 12:19). Instead, He called him a fool (Lk 12:20). Jesus usually calls us to live from "day to day." He taught us to pray: "Give us today our daily bread" (Mt 6:11). Similarly, after the Exodus the Lord commanded His people not to save th...

G.P.

"Grace and peace be yours." –1 Thessalonians 1:1

Paul almost always began his letters by wishing the churches "grace and peace." Grace is the presence and power of God. We need grace because we cannot live for Christ by our natural power. We need God's supernatural power. We accept grace because we have faith in the God of grace, because we have a personal relationship with Him.

Peace in the Bible is not what our culture means by peace. Many people consider peace to be a sens...

For if what I see is an image it is a living image–not a dead man but the living Christ. And He shows me that He is both Man and God–not as He was in the sepulchre, but as He was when He left it after rising from the dead. Sometimes He comes with such majesty that no one can doubt it is the Lord Himself; this is especially so after Communion, for we know that He is there, since the Faith tells us so. He reveals Himself so completely as the Lord of that inn, the soul, that it feel...

Mass Readings: October 15

FAITH-FULL

"All depends on faith, everything is grace." –Romans 4:16

Because all depends on faith, we pray: "Lord, 'increase our faith' " (Lk 17:5). However, Jesus wondered if He would find any faith on the earth when He would return (Lk 18:8). We must either move mountains by faith or be moved and manipulated by the forces of the mass apostasy preceding Jesus' s...

Whenever anyone is unavoidably prevented, then so long as he preserves a goodwill and holy desire for Communion, he will not lose the benefits of the Sacrament. For anyone who sincerely desires it may on any day and at any hour make unhindered a Spiritual Communion with Christ to the health of his soul. Nonetheless, on certain Feasts and at certain Seasons he ought to receive the Body of his Redeemer sacramentally with love and reverence, and seek the honour and praise of God before...

KNOW JESUS; NO FEAR

"Fear nothing, then." –Luke 12:7

Three-hundred and sixty-five times, once for each day of the year, the Lord commands us in the Bible: "Do not be afraid" (Lk 12:4). Pope John Paul II repeatedly proclaimed, prayed, and prophesied: "Do not be afraid." Although Satan tries to use fear to manipulate and even to enslave us (Heb 2:15), we can overcome the t...

Just as in the Old Testament the promises were kept in the Ark of the Covenant, and treated with awe and reverence, so in the New Testament the womb of the Blessed Virgin would be the ark of the New Covenant and the first tabernacle of the Most High. That presence of the Messiah in his sacred humanity would continue in the Church, eventually in the tabernacle. That is why Pope John Paul II in the same Eucharistic Congress referred to the Blessed Sacrament as "the beating heart of th...

Mass Readings: October 13

JUST NOW

"He did so to manifest His own justice." –Romans 3:25

"Just yesterday, I was just just, just as he was." The preceding sentence contains grammatically correct English. It shows the many usages of the word "just." The sentence can be more clearly stated: "As recently as yesterday, I was merely fair, exactly as he was." The English word "just" is just plain confus...

Just suppose that it was announced that Jesus would be at your parish church next Sunday at 9:30 a.m.! People would be coming from all over the country, clamoring to see Jesus or to get a glimpse of Him. People would come days beforehand and find a place to stay and begin reserving seats in the church. There would be so much commotion that you wouldn't be able to get near your church. Police, television crews, and news media would be everywhere! All to see Jesus. Well, He IS there E...

Mass Readings: October 12

DOCILITY, NOT HOSTILITY

"Teacher, in speaking this way You insult us too!" –Luke 11:45

Jesus speaks strongly of lifestyle changes in today's Gospel reading. He gives the Pharisees and lawyers a direct warning of the consequences of their hypocrisy and pride (Lk 11:42ff). The lawyers disregarded Jesus' loving and expert warning and claimed He was insulting them (Lk 11...

At other times, Father Victor and I would say Mass sitting on the edge of our beds across from one another. We pretended to be reading or talking softly as we said the Mass prayers. We could not use the chalice in the barracks, so our cup became a common drinking glass and our host a piece of leavened bread. If people stopped to chat, we tried to break off conversation as pleasantly and as quickly as we could and so recapture our recollection and continue our secret Eucharist. I work...

Mass Readings: October 11

USE AS DIRECTED

"These men...exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator." –Romans 1:25

From the garden of Eden to the present day, man and woman have been captivated by God's good and beautiful creations. He created things to point to Himself (Rm 1:20; Wis 13:5). Many are unable to get past the beauty of creation to f...

St. Francis Borgia, who joined the Jesuit order after the death of his wife, experienced such an ecstatic union of his soul with the Redeemer that frequently he would begin Mass in the morning and conclude it at Vespers (the evening hour of the Divine Office). Because of the length of his Masses, he seldom offered Mass in public.

Mass Readings: October 10

STRIVE FOR HOLINESS (Heb 12:14)

"...called to holiness..." –Romans 1:7

We are "called to holiness" (Rm 1:7). The secular culture cherishes the idea that holiness restricts our desires, implying that holy people are not free to do what they "really" want. However, "God has not called us to immorality but to holiness" (1 Thes 4:7). Only the holy "live in freedom – but not a...

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio (Catholic Online) - I am an alumni of the Franciscan University of Steubenville. Way back then it was called the College of Steubenville. Many of my readers know I am a "revert" to the Catholic Church. I came back to the faith of my childhood after turbulent years searching for truth and meaning. I was a teenage "hippie", caught up in the sixties and early seventies.

My journey culminated in a harrowing hitchhiking journey across the country to California searching f...

This is crucial: as long as we pray only when and how we want to, our life of prayer is bound to be unreal. It will run in fits and starts. The slightest upset–even a toothache–will be enough to destroy the whole edifice of our prayer-life.

"You must strip your prayers," the novice-master told me. You must simplify, deintellectualise. Put yourself in front of Jesus as a poor man: not with any big ideas, but with living faith. Remain motionless in an act of love before the Fathe...

Mass Readings: October 9

THE ULTIMATE FINANCIAL SECURITY

"My God in turn will supply your needs fully, in a way worthy of His magnificent riches in Christ Jesus." –Philippians 4:19

The Philippians had contributed financially to Paul's ministry on several occasions. Paul called their financial contributions a kindness (Phil 4:14), a share in his hardships (Phil 4:1...

Although the precise subject of this book is not the sacrifice of the Mass, it is impossible not to speak of the Mass when we speak of the Eucharist as Sacrament. The Sacrament and Sacrifice of the Eucharist are inseparable. The Real Presence of Christ in the Host is the necessary and immediate consequence of transubstantiation. But the purpose of transubstantiation is first of all to make Christ present on the altar in a state of sacrifice or immolation, by the separate consecratio...

Mass Readings: October 8

BLEST

" 'Rather,' He replied, 'blest are they who hear the word of God and keep it.' " –Luke 11:28

Because you are hearing and living God's Word, you are more blest than Mary was in being the physical mother of God. However, this does not mean you are more blest than Mary. Mary is blest among women (Lk 1:28, 42) and called blest by all ages (Lk 1:48) not primarily b...

I had sought and obtained permission from my superior and spiritual director to make a Holy Hour from eleven PM until midnight every Thursday and Friday night. While I was alone one night, I knelt near the altar rail in the middle of the Chapel, and then prostrate, I prayed the Angel's prayers. (Jacinta and Francisco were in heaven ten years at this date.) Feeling tired, I then stood up and continued to say the prayers with my arms in the form of the Cross. The only light was that o...

Mass Readings: October 7

RE-POSSESS THE RE-POSSESSED

"When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through arid wastes searching for a resting-place; failing to find one, it says, 'I will go back to where I came from.' " –Luke 11:24

Pope John Paul II seemed to be preoccupied with what he called the "new evangelization." This means leading to Christ the people of formerly Christian countri...

"When she was sacristan, she occupied for a time a place in choir from which she could not see the altar, having given hers up to a Sister who was tormented with scruples when she heard Mass without enjoying that consolation. One day as she was watching to ring the bell for the Elevation, she saw the Infant Jesus above the chalice,–O how beautiful! She thought herself in heaven. She was about to leap through the grate to get at the Child when suddenly recollecting herself, she excl...

Mass Readings: October 6

SELF-CLEANING OVEN

"Then you will again see the distinction between the just and the wicked; between him who serves God and him who does not serve Him." –Malachi 3:18

In the prophet Malachi's time, prosperity was considered a sign of divine approval. Malachi lamented that evildoers prospered at the expense of those who were just. Malachi wondered why God would bless evil...

I am the sorrowful Mother of the Eucharist. With the Church, Triumphant and Suffering, which palpitates around the center of love, which is the eucharistic Jesus, the Church Militant should also be gathered together; you should all gather together, my beloved sons, religious and faithful, in order to form, with heaven and purgatory, an unceasing hymn of adoration and praise.

Instead, today, Jesus in the tabernacle is surrounded by much emptiness, much neglect and much ingratitude. ...

Mass Readings: October 5

WORMING OUR WAY OUT

"I would be better off dead than alive." –Jonah 4:8

Jonah was so despondent that he became suicidal because 120,000 Ninevites repented and were spared destruction. Jonah wanted them to get what they deserved.

The next thing that made Jonah despondent was a worm. He seemed to be more upset by the worm than by spending three days in a fish's belly. He wa...

Francis considered it an almost unpardonable sin to miss Mass voluntarily; he received Holy Communion very often "and with such devotion that he enkindled the souls of others... he was as it were spiritually inebriated, and frequently wrapt in ecstasy." One day a rather worldly friend asked him: "Father what do you do during those long hours before the Blessed Sacrament?" "My son in return I ask you what does the poor man do at the rich man's door, the sick man in presence of his ph...

Mass Readings: October 4

BETTERING YOURSELF

"Mary has chosen the better portion and she shall not be deprived of it." –Luke 10:42

In yesterday's Scripture reading, Jesus told us to be good neighbors like the Samaritan who gave hands-on service to the beaten man whom he found on the road (Lk 10:33-36). In today's reading, we meet another good neighbor, Mart...

FREIBURG, Germany (Catholic Online) - Pope Benedict XVI's visit to his native Germany ended after his praying of the Angelus with the faithful gathered at the Frieburg airport. In his closing reflections he called those gathered, along with the faithful throughout the world, to join their yes to the "Yes" of Mary and learn her way of following Jesus Christ:

"Dear Sisters and Brothers! At the end of this solemn celebration of holy Mass we now pray the Angelus together. This prayer consta...

GILAN, Iran (Catholic Online) - The martyrs of the early Church died for their faith in the God who was revealed in Jesus Christ, and for this very reason they also died for freedom of conscience and the freedom to profess one's own faith - a profession that no State can impose but which, instead, can only be claimed with God's grace in freedom of conscience.

A December 2005 address given by Pope Benedict XVI to the Roman Curia states the clear position of the Catholic Church concernin...

As I was preparing this booklet, I began to see how this same word can apply to the faith crisis people experience concerning the Eucharist. Each and every person must ponder this word concerning Eucharist: EITHER JESUS IS TRULY PRESENT OR HE IS NOT. IF HE IS PRESENT, THEN HE REALLY IS. Then in faith affirm this word; I believe that Jesus is really present in the Eucharist. In fact this helped my faith in the Eucharist to grow. It is really a simple matter; we need to ask God to inc...

Mass Readings: October 3

LISTENING TO EVERYBODY BUT...

"This is the word of the Lord that came to Jonah." –Jonah 1:1

Jonah is both strikingly similar and dissimilar to Jesus. Jonah and Jesus are the only two people in the Bible who fell asleep in a boat during a storm (Jon 1:5). Jonah's storm was stopped by "sacrificing" him, throwing him overboard (see Jon 1:14-15). By Jesus' sacrificial death...

St. Basil and St. John Chrysostom testify to having seen at the time of Mass, or when the Blessed Sacrament was exposed, many hosts of Angels in human form, clothed with white garments and standing round the altar as soldiers stand before their king. But what was their attitude and deportment? Their heads were bowed, their faces covered, their hands crossed, and the whole body so profoundly inclined as to express the deepest sense of their own unworthiness to appear before the Divine...

Mass Readings: October 2

REJECTED!

"The Stone Which the builders rejected has become the Keystone of the structure." –Matthew 21:42; Psalm 118:22

It is so easy to reject Jesus. Our lives are like houses (see Mt 7:24). If we have the opportunity to make Jesus the Cornerstone of our lives, but do not do so, then we have rejected Him. If we refuse to provide for an...

Such tremendous graces had to bear fruit and it was abundant. To be good became natural and pleasant for us. At first my face often betrayed the struggle I was having, but gradually spontaneous self-sacrifice came easily. Jesus said: "If ever a man is rich, gifts will be made to him, and his riches will abound." For every grace I made good use of, He gave me many more. He gave Himself to me in Holy Communion far oftener than I should have dared to hope. I had made it a rule to go ver...

Mass Readings: October 1

"SEEK YE FIRST"

"Turn now ten times the more to seek Him." –Baruch 4:28

Our hearts have been disposed to stray from God (Bar 4:28), that is, we have been tempted to sin. Some of these temptations have been very strong. However, the Lord calls us to seek Him with a zeal ten times stronger than our strongest temptations. When we seek the Lord this zealously, we will h...

With first Communion, Zoe put aside the things of a child in piety and devotion. From this time on, she went after her spiritual advancement in dead earnest, with order and system. In spite of the mountain of duties piled upon her young shoulders, she set aside certain fixed times for prayer. The most important of these times was the early morning, and her prayer then the greatest of all, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Zoe began to attend Mass daily and to receive Holy Communion ...

Mass Readings: September 30

VOICE LESSONS

"We have been disobedient to the Lord, our God, and only too ready to disregard His voice." –Baruch 1:19

Jesus commented that His sheep "recognize His voice" and "follow Him" (Jn 10:4). Jesus' followers "will not follow a stranger; such a one they will flee, because they do not recognize a stranger's voice" (Jn 10:5).

Sometimes the Lord's voice is not eas...