On Living for ‘something greater”: But if you wish to know how these things come about, ask for grace not instruction; desire not understanding; the groaning of prayer, not diligent reading; the Spouse not the teacher; God not man; darkness not clarity; not light but the fire that totally inflames and carries us into God by ecstatic unctions and burning affections.

This fire is God, and his furnace is in Jerusalem and Christ enkindles it in the heat of his burning passion, which only he truly perceives who says: My soul chooses hanging and my bones death. Whoever loves this death can see God because it is true beyond doubt that man will not see Him and live. 

Let us, then, die and enter into the darkness; let us impose silence upon our cares, our desires and our imaginings. With Christ crucified let us pass out of this world to the Father   so that when the Father is shown to us, we may say with Philip:     It is enough for us. Let us hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you. Let us rejoice with David saying: My flesh and my heart have grown faint; You are the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever.

Blessed be the Lord forever and all the people will say: Let it be; let it be... Amen.

+St. Bonaventure

“Dear Jesus, today I’m going out and I’m going to my nuns to tell them I want to make my First Communion…Jesus, come soon into my heart and I’ll hug you very tight and kiss you. O Jesus, I want you to stay for ever in my heart” …  

“Dear Jesus, I love you so much, I want to tell you again I love you so much. I give you my heart. Our dear Lady, you are so good, take my heart and carry it to Jesus” …

“My good Jesus, give me souls, give me a lot of them, I ask you willingly, I ask you so that you make them become good and so that they can come to you in Paradise” …

“Dear Jesus Eucharist, I am so very, very happy that you have come into my heart. Never leave my heart, stay for ever and ever with me. Jesus, I love you so, I want to let myself go in your arms and do what you will with me … 0 loving Jesus, give me souls, give me a great many!. .. ”

“Today I was a bit naughty but you, good Jesus, take your child in your arms …but help me, because without your grace I can do nothing…help me with your grace, help me, for without your grace I can do nothing…I beg you, good Jesus, keep for me always grace of soul” … 

“Dear crucified Jesus, I love you and am so fond of you! I want to be with you on Calvary. Dear Jesus, tell God the Father that I love him, too. Dear Jesus, give me your strength for I need it to bear this pain that I offer for sinners.”

“Dear Jesus, tell the Holy Spirit to enlighten me with love and to fill me with his seven gifts. Dear Jesus, tell our Lady that I love her and want to be near her. Dear Jesus I want to tell you again how much I love you.”

Antonietta Meo (+1937), affectionately known as Nennolina, was six and a half years old when she died in Rome, Italy. Her reputation for sanctity spread immediately. Her cause for canonization is underway.

January 31st: Feast of St. John Bosco

For sixty years St. John Bosco received remarkable dreams which were almost visions. Probably his best-known dream-vision was that of the Church like a ship taking refuge between two pillars in the sea. In May 1862 he shared his experience of this dream. He could see a very big ship in the sea which he understood as the Church. There were many smaller ships drawn up to do battle against the big ship, they were the enemies of the Church and persecutions. Two pillars or columns were protruding from the sea a little distant from each other. On the top of one was a statue of Our Lady with Help of Christians written beneath. On top of the other pillar was a host beneath which was written Salvation of the Faithful. The commander of the ship was the Pope. He was directing all his energies to steering the ship between those two columns or pillars.

All the enemy ships moved to attack. Sometimes the large ship, the Church, got large, deep holes in its sides, but no sooner was the harm done than a gentle breeze blew from the two columns and the cracks closed up and the gaps were stopped immediately. In a battle the Pope fell gravely wounded. Immediately those who were with him helped him up. A second time the Pope was struck, this time he fell and died. The new Pope was so promptly chosen that the enemies begin to lose courage. The new Pope overcame all obstacles and enemies and guided the ship right between the two columns. He fastened a chain from the bow of the ship to the column on which stands the host, and fastened a chain from the ship’s stern to the column on which stands a statue of Our Lady. All the ships which had fought against the Pope’s ship were scattered and broken to pieces and other smaller ships which had fought for the Pope’s ship now bound themselves to the same two columns. 

We can identify with so many elements of that dream-vision. We remember Pope John Paul II falling wounded and rising again. The Church is undergoing trials at this time in the western world and elsewhere the Church is also suffering. A book I purchased recently gives an account of Catholics all over the world who were martyred during the twentieth century, more than in any previous century. In this remarkable dream-vision experienced by St. John Bosco the Church has two means to save itself in the midst of her persecutions; devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist and devotion to Our Lady. On this Solemnity of Corpus Christi, the Body and Blood of Jesus, we highlight one of those two pillars, devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist.

I ask you to think again about the importance of Jesus in the Eucharist in your life. Make Jesus in the Eucharist the center of your life once again. In moments from now the bread and wine will become the Body and Blood of Jesus during the consecration of the Mass. The bread and wine will not be symbols but will be changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus. Jesus will be really present although under the form of bread and wine. That is why we talk about the “Real Presence” of Jesus in the Eucharist. Because we love Jesus in the Eucharist so much, we have Perpetual Eucharist Adoration in most of the towns of this diocese, and most other parishes have a period of adoration of the Eucharist sometime each week or month. We all know how popular healing Masses are. Almost always during those healing Masses the healing occurs when people are blessed with Jesus in the monstrance. So let us place Jesus in the Eucharist at the center of our lives.

A most special moment of Eucharistic Adoration for all of us is when we receive Jesus in Holy Communion. Then as Jesus said in the Gospel today (Year A), “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.” (John 6:56) There are no words to describe that most precious moment when you return to your seat to spend quiet moments with Jesus. You are one with Jesus and he is one with you. It is a moment of intimacy with Jesus, when you and Jesus are “all wrapped up in each other”, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.” (John 6:56) During healing Masses the healings have also occurred during this moment after receiving Jesus in Holy Communion. Treasure these personal intimate moments between yourself and Jesus, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.” One of the pillars to save the Church in St. John Bosco’s dream was the Eucharist. May Jesus in the Eucharist be the center of the lives of each of us, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him.”

Fr. Tommy Lane (used with permission)

Almighty and ever-living God, I approach the sacrament of Your only-begotten Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, I come sick to the doctor of life, unclean to the fountain of mercy, blind to the radiance of eternal light, and poor and needy to the Lord of heaven and earth.

Lord, in your great generosity, heal my sickness, wash away my defilement, enlighten my blindness, enrich my poverty, and clothe my nakedness. May I receive the bread of angels, the King of kings and Lord of lords, with humble reverence, with the purity and faith, the repentance and love, and the determined purpose that will help to bring me to salvation. May I receive the sacrament of the Lord’s Body and Blood, and its reality and power.

Kind God, may I receive the Body of Your only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, born from the womb of the Virgin Mary, and so be received into His mystical body and numbered among His members.

Loving Father, as on my earthly pilgrimage I now receive Your beloved Son under the veil of a sacrament, may I one day see him face to face in glory, who lives and reigns with You forever.  Amen.

- Saint Thomas Aquinas

Did you ever wonder about this passage: “Every one who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven” (Lk12:10)?  St Mark, too, reports the Lord as saying that this blasphemy never has forgiveness and that one who offends in this way is guilty of an eternal sin.

St Matthew in his turn quotes these solemn words of Christ in a context that allows for a better understanding of their import. He relates that the people were astonished at Christ’s miracles, so much so that they wondered: Can this be the Son of David? Yet the Pharisees would not submit to the evidence of the many miracles performed before their very eyes. Their only explanation was to attribute Christ’s amazing signs, his divine works, to the agency of the devil. Such was the hardness of their hearts that they would not accept the obvious. It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, they said, that this man casts out demons. Precisely here do we find the unpardonable nature of the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. They exclude the sources of pardon itself. 

All sins can be forgiven, no matter how grave they might be. This is because God’s mercy is infinite. What is required that they be forgiven, of course, is that the sinner recog­nize his sin as sin and believe in the mercy of the Lord The hardness of the Pharisee’s hearts would certainly impede the powerful effect of divine grace. Jesus designates this attitude as sin against the Holy Spirit. It is unpardonable not because of its gravity and malice but for the closed disposition of the will against God. He who sins in this way deliberately places himself outside the scope of divine pardon. 

Pope John Paul II warns of the seriousness of this attitude towards grace. Blasphemy  against the Holy Spirit, then, is the sin committed by the person who claims to have a ‘right’ to persist in evil – in ~ sin at all – and. who thus rejects Redemption. One closes oneself up in sin, thus making impossible one’s conversion, and consequently the rem­ission of sins, which one considers not essential or not important for one’s life.

Today let us ask the Lord for a radical sincerity and true humility so that we may face up to our faults and sins. We pray that we may not become accustomed to our fail­ings, even in the area of venial sin. We should go to Jesus right away for pardon and for the life-giving action of the Holy Spirit. We should ask Our Lady for that holy fear of God so that we never lose our sense of sin and the neces­sary awareness of our weaknesses. When our vision is clouded, when our eyes have lost their clarity, we need to go to the light And Jesus Christ has told us that he is the Light of the world and that he has come to heal the sick. 

^{Fr. Francis Fernandez}

Eternal Father, Source of Life, open our hearts to see and desire the beauty of Your plan for life and love. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit so that our love will be generous and self-giving and we may be blessed with joy.

Grant us great trust in Your mercy. Forgive us for not receiving your gift of life and heal us from the effects of the culture of death. Instill in us and in all people a sense of the sacredness of every human life.  Inspire our efforts to protect and care for the most vulnerable, especially women who are pregnant and their unborn children, the sick and the elderly.

Strengthen us in the hope that with You nothing is impossible. We ask this in the Name of Jesus who by His Cross makes all things new. Amen.

From the Sisters of Life

Are you at peace in the midst of the painful chal­lenges of life and of suffering? I am talking about sub­stantial, deep peace, compatible with agitation, with all our daily upsets. May God grant you that grace, may he make you see in his pure light what he wants for you and what you can do for his glory and for those who are so dear to him.

This dear, good God is a marvelous artist; he knows how to knead us, to work us in view of the work that he wants to do in us and through us. Everything is good to him: suffering, illnesses, the events of our lives, the joy even, when he wishes it, although that is not the usual way. He detaches us from the world, from ourselves, from spiritual consolations, and leads us to loving him alone and into the happiness of which he is the principle, without any searching for his gifts. When you have left everything for him, you are sure of find­ing him, aren’t you? .. Let us unite our sufferings, our self-denial, our sacrifices; let us pray a lot; let us act in complete union with our Lord; and let us ask him to use our poor gifts for those we love and for his Church.

Elisabeth Leseur

It is a great thing to realize that in order to be saints we have only to be what God made us to be, and to do what God made us to do. If we are clever, then to be clever; if we are not clever, then not to be clever; if we are successful, then to be successful; if not successful, then not to succeed; if in good health, then to be healthy; if sickly, then to be sickly; and so on. Perfect simplicity with regard to ourselves; perfect contentment with everything that comes our way; perfect peace of mind in utter self-forgetfulness. 

This becomes easier the more we realize the utter greatness and goodness and allness of God. Then we realize our own utter insignificance and worthlessness and nothingness; a mere squeak of a mouse in the infin­ity of God. If we see the whole, we shall easily despise the trifles; if we lose ourselves in God, how puny the rest appears!  

This is the cure for making too much of little things whether they go right, or whether they go wrong, which is the cause of all our loss of peace of mind. This is the real test of sanctity, that simplicity of trust in God, which is the perfection of human nature. In the end, when life is done and all is over, such a soul is found more precious than one that has shone in many deeds.

 Therefore:

First make a great deal of God, forgetting, if we can, at times everything else in His presence. Secondly, make nothing at all of ourselves, whether we are clever or whether we are not, whether we are loved or whether we are not, whether we succeed or whether we do not, whether we get what we desire or do not.  

In the midst of all we can rejoice: (a) that we are what He has made us; (b) that those things happen which He wants to happen, (c) that if all the world were to collapse and the very heavens were to fall, there would be still the great, living, loving God.  

So, if we want to be saints:

(1) Sit still often in the presence of God, lost in acts of faith, and love, and hope, in acts of praise, and adoration, and thanksgiving.

(2) When the thought of ourselves with our own petty worries creeps in, sit still again in His presence, with acts of humility, and contrition, and oblation, telling Him how small we are, how sorry we are for ourselves, how we would like to be and do better.

(3) When the human heart is hungry, as at times it must be, come again to the feet of God, and fill it with acts of longing for Him and His love and His glory, rather than with the little husks of self-satisfaction; fill it with acts of rejoicing in Him and in His tremendous almighti­ness, such that nothing in the world really matters any­thing at all.

PRAY LIKE THIS, and we shall lay the foundation on which sanctity is built.

LIVE LIKE THIS, and sanctity will build itself.

DIE LIKE THIS, and we shall die “good and faithful servants.”

By Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.

I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. The die has been cast. The decision has been made. I have stepped over the line. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. 

My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is in God’s hands. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, the bare mini­mum, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, mundane talking, frivolous living, selfish giving, and dwarfed goals. 

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, applause, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, the best, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith. I lean on Christ’s presence. I love with patience, live by prayer, and labor with the power of God’s grace. 

My face is set. My gait is fast, my goal is heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, my Guide is reliable, and my mission is clear.  I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, pon­der at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity. 

I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or slow up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, and spoken up for the cause of Christ.  I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give until I drop, speak out until all know, and work until he stops me. And when he returns for his own, he will have no dif­ficulty recognizing me. My banner is clear: I am a part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.

Patrick Madrid

Ave Maria Meditations

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives forever. Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine. In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offence to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord. The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him.”

What does prepare the way mean, if not “pray well” What does prepare the way mean, if not “be humble in your thoughts” We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.

If he had said, “I am the Christ,” you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself. He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

St. Augustine