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One Minute Meditation

St. Bonaventure, 1217-1274. Seraphic Doctor, Feast July 15th.

It is said that St. Bonaventure was healed from a childhood disease through the prayers of Saint Francis of Assisi. He later joined the Order of Friars Minor at age 22 and studied theology and philosophy in Paris. This saint was a friend of Saint Thomas Aquinas. St. Bonaventure became General of the Franciscan Order at the age of 35 and later was named Bishop of Albano, Italy.  When he was named a Cardinal, the story is that when the red hat of a cardinal was delivered to him, he was washing dishes at the time and told the courier to just hang it on a nearby tree! He spoke at the Council of Lyons, but died before its close. He has been declared one of the 33 Doctors of the Church.

A CANTICLE LIKE THAT OF MARY: Let us sing to Our Lady, the glorious Virgin Mary: let us bless her in hymns and praises. The name of Our Lady is omnipotent after that of God: she hath cast the chariot of Pharaoh and his army into the sea. Thy right hand, O Lady, is magnified in strength: because in the multitude of thy mercies thou hast prostrated mine adversaries. Thou hast delivered me, O Lady, from the mouth of the lion: and as the mother her new-born infant hast thou received me. O my most dear Lady: like the hen, cover me with thy wonderful protection. I am all thine: and all my things are thine, Virgin blessed above all. I will place thee as a seal upon my heart: because thy love is strong as death.

Glory be to the Father, etc.

Mary seeks for those who approach her devoutly and with reverence, for such she loves, nourishes, and adopts as her children.

– Saint Bonaventure

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Let us love, then, because he first loved us. (1Jn4:19)

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Blessed Junipero Serra

Also known as the Apostle of California

One Minute Meditation

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Ave Maria Meditations

In his 1986 Holy Thursday Letter to Priests, Pope John Paul II wrote:

The Mass was for John Mary Vianney the great joy and comfort of his priestly life. He took great care, despite the crowds of penitents, to spend more than a quarter of an hour in silent preparation. He celebrated with recollection, clearly expressing his adoration at the consecration and communion. He accurately remarked: “The cause of priestly laxity is not paying attention to the Mass!”

The Curé of Ars was particularly mindful of the permanence of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. It was generally before the tabernacle that he spent long hours in adoration, before daybreak or in the evening; it was towards the tabernacle that he often turned during his homilies, saying with emotion: “He is there!”

It was also for this reason that he, so poor in his presbytery, did not hesitate to spend large sums on embellishing his church. The appreciable result was that his parishioners quickly took up the habit of coming to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, discovering, through the attitude of their pastor, the grandeur of the mystery of faith.

Dear brother priests, the example of the Curé of Ars invites us to a serious examination of conscience: what place do we give to the Mass in our daily lives? Is it, as on the day of our Ordination — it was our first act as priests! — the principle of our apostolic work and personal sanctification? What care do we take in preparing for it? And in celebrating it? In prayng before the Blessed Sacrament? In encouraging our faithful people to do the same? In making our churches the House of God to which the divine presence attracts the people of our time who too often have the impression of a a world empty of God.

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Ave Maria Mediations

Jesus, our Savior, true God and true man, must be the ultimate end of all our other devotions; otherwise they would be false and misleading. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and end of every­thing. ‘We labor,” says Saint Paul, “only to make all men perfect in Jesus Christ.”

For in him alone dwells the entire fullness of the divinity and the complete fullness of grace, virtue, and perfection. In him alone we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing; he is the only teacher from whom we must learn; the only Lord on whom we should depend; the only Head to whom we should be united and the only model that we should imitate. He is the only Physician that can heal us; the only Shepherd that can feed us; the only Way that can lead us; the only Truth that we can believe; the only Life that can animate us. He alone is everything to us and he alone can satisfy all our desires.

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Ave Maria Meditations

The Blessed Trinity and Our Lady’s Heart

It was the morning of the feast of the Annunciation and the Hail Mary was of course being sung in Saint Gertrude’s monastery. During the singing she had a vision in which three streams gushed forth from the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and gently flowed into Mary’s virginal Heart. The minute they reached Her Heart they bounded back to the source from where they had come.

From this Saint Gertrude learned that the Blessed Trinity has allowed Our Lady to be most powerful next to God the Father, the wis­est after God the Son, and the most loving after God the Holy Ghost.

She also learned that every time the Angelic Salutation is said by the faithful the three mysterious streams surround Our Lady in a mighty, swirling current and rush into Her Heart. After they have completely bathed Her in happiness they gush back into the bosom of Almighty God. The Saints and Angels share in this abundance of joy as do the faithful on earth, who say this prayer.

(St. Gertrude: Revelations Book IV, Chapter II)

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