Worth Revisiting - Feast Day of St. Rose of LIma

We thank Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Revisiting Wednesday, each week. It is a privilege to share our work with them and their followers. Stop for a visit now. 

I wanted to share this post:

Feast Day of St. Rose of Lima

(Originally published August 23, 2013)

 (Source:St. Rose of Lima Parish, Safford, AZ)

Today we remember St. Rose of Lima, the first canonized Saint of the Western hemisphere. She was born in Peru in 1586 and died there at the age of thirty-one.

Like many who have felt a call to the Dominican Order over the centuries, Rose initially faced opposition from her family. They refused to let her enter a convent. Rose’s response was to become a Lay Dominican and to live a life of solitude and penance within the confines of her family’s home.

She had a great attraction to St. Catherine of Siena, a great love for the Blessed Sacrament, and limitless compassion for the elderly, homeless and the sick, whom she would eventually care for in one of the rooms in her parents’ residence. “When we serve the poor and the sick,” she tells us, “we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.”

Eucharistic Reflection - Thou Are Not Loved!

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

O Sacred Heart Thou Lovest! Yes, dearest Lord, we have no doubt of this. How ardently Thou didst long to die for us – to remain with us in Thy Sacrament of love. How ardently didst Thou long for the love of Thy poor, suffering, sinful children!

Ah, sweet Jesus, may we satisfy the thirst of Thy sacred Heart by loving Thee with a strong, enthusiastic, faithful love. Oh, let us ever abide by Thy love. O Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thou lovest! Alas! Then comes the unfortunate part, O dear Lord – Thou are not loved! Alas! This is but too true.

Monday Musings - Just Asking

I recently ran across the following quote attributed to St. Peter Canisius, a Jesuit and a Doctor of our Church:

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

"Better that only a few Catholics should be left, staunch and sincere in their religion, than that they should, remaining many, desire as it were to be in collusion with the Church's enemies and in conformity with the open foes of our faith.” 

Nearly five centuries after sharing this opinion, I suspect this good priest would not appreciate the current chaos of doctrinal ambiguity and/or dissent that permeates our Church and, most especially, among some of the contemporary members of his own religious order.

What do you think? 

Book Review - The Diaries of Joseph and Mary

This Book Is A Keeper!

Many of the great spiritual writers suggest we place ourselves in the Scriptural passages we read as if we were actual eyewitnesses to the events being discussed. Author, Dennis P. McGeehan, has followed that advice but with a unique twist – he shares with us the fruits of his study and contemplation on the lives of Mary, Joseph and Jesus through entries of a fictitious diary he envisioned Mary and Joseph wrote.  He uses not only his fertile imagination but the insight shared by saints, mystics and Doctors of our Church to “fill in” what was left out of the recorded words in Scripture.

While the book is a little unpolished around some of its edges, its substance is golden – a treasure trove of immense spiritual wealth. I thoroughly enjoyed Dennis’ effort and hope he follows through on a promised sequel. This is a book one will use over and over. It has enhanced my understanding of the Scripture the author pondered and challenged me toward a greater appreciation for St. Joseph.

This is a book you will want to pull off your shelf regularly. No chance of it collecting dust.

Worth Revisiting - Praying Before The Tabernacle

We thank Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You   and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for hosting Revisiting Wednesday, each week. It is a privilege to share our work with them and their followers. Stop for a visit now.

Here is my contribution:

Monday Musings - Praying Before the Tabernacle

(Originally published on January 14, 2017)

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

"I think there was a certain Bishop Curtis who said that when he prayed before the tabernacle he liked to picture himself as a faithful and devoted dog lying at his master’s feet. Both are glad to have each other; both are silent. It is a rather unusual way of looking at the matter but it strikes home. Prayer is not in words only. It is also in tears and sighs and heartaches."

(From The Way to God by Father Winfrid Herbst, S.D.S.)

Eucharistic Reflection - May We Heed His Words

"There is a particular need to cultivate a lively awareness of Christ's real presence, both in the celebration of Mass and in the worship of the Eucharist outside Mass. Care should be taken to show that awareness through tone of voice, gestures, posture and bearing. 

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

In this regard, liturgical law recalls - and I myself have recently reaffirmed - the importance of moments of silence both in the celebration of Mass and in Eucharistic adoration. The way that the ministers and the faithful treat the Eucharist should be marked by profound respect. The presence of Jesus in the tabernacle must be a kind of magnetic pole attracting an ever greater number of souls enamored of him, ready to wait patiently to hear his voice and, as it were, to sense the beating of his heart. “O taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Ps 34:8)."   

(Oct. 7, 2004 - Mane Nobiscum Domine (Stay With Us Lord) Apostolic Letter)

Monday Musings - As Only A Mother Can

While I was on retreat last week at the Abbey of the Genesee, I paused (as I often do on my visits there) before the statue of our Blessed Mother which welcomes visitors to the monastery. 

It is a simple but beautiful image. I think you will agree.

This day, as I prayerfully gazed into her eyes, these words came to me:

"Come closer my child. Draw near to me. I want to embrace and kiss you as only a Mother can."

What a gift to us "poor banished children of Eve"!