Solemnity of St Peter and St Paul

Peter Paul Rubens, St Peter and St Paul

After Jesus had shown himself to his disciples and eaten with them, he said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?’ He answered, ‘Yes Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He replied, ‘Yes, Lord, you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Look after my sheep.’ Then he said to him a third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter was upset that he asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” and said, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep’(John 21:15-19)

The Saints - they can do everything in Christ, as St Paul said (St Teresa, Collected works, vol 2 p201)

O college of Christ, where St Peter, being a fisherman, had more authority - and the Lord wanted it - than St Bartholomew, who was a king's son (St Teresa, Collected works, vol 2 p139).

Read whole post......

Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus - click to read

The Church invites us today to contemplate the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the source and cause of all His gift to us, the source of His mercy. "Behold this Heart which has so loved men" said Jesus to St Margaret Mary. The Church repeats these words today, teaching us that it is truly "in the Heart of Jesus, wounded by our sins, that God has designed to give us the infinite treasures of His love" (Collect). "Cogitationes cordis ejus" we sing in the Introit meaning that "the thoughts of His Heart are to all generations: to deliver them from the death, to feed them in the time of famine". Indeed, the Heart of Our Lord is always in search of souls to save, to free from the snares of sin, to wash in His Blood, to feed with His Body. The Heart of Jesus is always living in the Eucharist to satisfy the hunger of all who long for Him, to welcome and console all those who, disillusioned by the vicissitudes of life, take refuge in Him, seeking peace and refreshemnt, the world cannot give. Jesus Himself is our support on the hard road of life: "Take up My yoke upon you and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls". We cannot eliminate sorrows from our live; yet if we live for Jesus we can find in His Sacred Heart the repose for our weary soul. We may return our love through devotion to His Sacred Heart, for the principal object of this devotion is the love of Jesus, an uncreated love with which He, as the Word, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, loved us from all eternity, and from all eternity willed to become incarnate for our salvation. It is also the created love with which, as Man, He loved us even to the death of the Cross, meriting for us to love Him in return: "We have learned to recognize the love God has in our regard, to recognize it, and make it our belief"(1 John 4:16). Here we find the most profound significance of devotion to the Sacred Heart. Carmelite Saint, Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart had such a thorough understanding of this meaning that she made this devotion the center of her life. It was revealed in the process of her canonization that she "saw the Heart of Jesus as the center, the source of the love with which the divine Word, in the bosom of the Father, loved us from all eternity, and merited for us in time the power to love Him in return, on earth and in heaven, by our sharing in this love."

Let us pray with St Bonaveture: "O Jesus, by a divine decree, a soldier was permitted to pierce Your sacred side. As the blood and water came forth, the price of our salvation was poured forth, which flowing from the mysterious fountain of Your Heart, gives power to the Sacraments of the Church to bestow the life of grace, and becomes for those who live in You, a saving drink of living waters, bubbling up to life eternal. Arise, my soul, beloved of Christ, watch unceasingly, place your lips there, and quench your thirst in the Saviour's fount...What a joy for me! You and I have but one heart. Heaving found this divine Heart, which is Yours and mine, O Most sweet Jesus, I beseech You, O my God; receive my prayers in that sanctuary where You are attentive to them and, even more, draw me entirely into Your Heart"

Read whole post......

Nativity of St John the Baptist - click to read

The Lord called me from birth, from my mother’s womb he gave me my name. (Isa 49:1)

...the mystery of John is being fulfilled in the world until the present. The spirit and the power of John must first fill the soul of whoever is destined to believe in Christ Jesus, “to prepare for the Lord a people well-disposed” (Lk 1:17) and to “make ready the way of the Lord, [to] clear him a straight path” (Lk 3:5) in the roughness of their heart. Not only at that time were “the windings … made straight and the rough ways smooth”; rather, the spirit and the power of John still go before the Lord and Savior’s coming today. Oh greatness of the Lord’s mystery and of his plan for the world!...(Origen 'Homilies on St. Luke')

..As soon as ever thou hast delivered thyself up to God with thy whole heart, and neither seekest this nor that for thine own pleasure or will, but wholly placest thyself in Him, thou shalt find thyself united to Him, and at peace, for nothing will relish so well, and please thee so much, as the good pleasure of the divine will..(The Imitation of Christ, Bk 4)

Remember, Lord, my resting place

Is in Thy holy Will;

Within the shelter of Thine arms

My soul shall fear no ill.

If Thou shouldst sleep, and sudden storm

Arise, I'll not forsake

My peaceful haven; O prepare

My soul ere Thou awake! (St Therese 'Poems')

Read whole post......

PENTECOST

In the evening of the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, "Peace be with you", and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you". After saying this he breathed on them and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained." (St John 20-19-23)

In the heaven of her soul, the praise of glory has already begun her work of eternity. Her song is uninterrupted, for she is under the action of the Holy Spirit, who effects everything in her; and although she is not always aware of it, for the weakness of nature does not allow her to be established in God without distractions, she always sings, she always adores, for she has so to speak, wholly passed into praise and love in her passion for the glory of her God. In the heaven of our soul let us be praises of love of our Immaculate Mother. One day the veil will fall, we will be introduced into the eternal courts, and there we will sing in the bosom of infinite Love. And God will give us "the new name promised to the Victor." What will it be? 

LAUDEM GLORIAE

(Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity "Heaven in Faith", Tenth Day)

PENTECOST

With your pure and burning flames,

Holy Spirit, deign to enkindle my soul;

Consume it with divine love,

O you whom I invoke each day!

Spirit of God, brilliant light,

You fill me with your favours,

You inundate me with your sweetness

Burn, annihilate me completely!

You give me my vocation,

Oh, lead me then to this intimate,

Interior union, to this life

Wholly in God, which is my desire,

May my hope be in Jesus alone,

And while living in the midst of this world,

May I long for, may I see only Him,

Him, my Love, my divine Friend!

Holy Spirit, Goodness, supreme Beauty!

O you whom I adore, you whom I love!

Consume with your divine flames,

This body and this heart and this soul!

This bride of the Trinity

Who desires only to do your will!

(Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, 'Poems')

O my God, I want to work for Your glory and for that I must be wholly filled with You and You are love. Then I shall be all-powerful. A look, a desire will become a prayer that cannot be resisted and that can obtain everything. Apostle, Carmelite, it is all one! (Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, after Carmelite Meditation, Flemington Carmel)

O Mary, you are the one created being who knew the gift of God, and lost no particle of it; a creature so pure and luminous that you seemed to be the light itself. "Mirror of justice": your life was so simple, so lost in God, that there is but little to say of it; "faithful virgin": who kept all these things...in your heart." You were so lowly, so hidden in God in the seclusion of the temple that you drew upon yourself the complacent regard of the Holy Trinity. "For he regarded the low estate of his handmaid, for behold, henceforth all generation will call me blessed."
The Father, bending down to you, a creature so lovely, so unaware of your own beauty, chose you for the Mother in time of him whose Father he is in eternity. Then the Spirit of love, who presides over all the works of God, overshadowed you, and O Virgin, you uttered your "Fiat": Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word," and the greatest of all mysteries was accomplished. By the descend of the Word into your womb, you became God's own for ever and ever. (Bl Elizabeth of the Trinity, "Heaven in Faith", Tenth Day)

Read whole post......