Monthly Archives: July 2022

Saint Mary Magdalene

On the Feast Day of St Mary Magdalene

When Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and did not find the Lord’s body, she thought it had been taken away and so informed the disciples. After they came and saw the tomb, they too believed what Mary had told them. The text then says: The disciples went back home, and it adds: but Mary wept and remained standing outside the tomb.

We should reflect on Mary’s attitude and the great love she felt for Jesus; for though the disciples had left the tomb, she remained. She was still seeking the one she had not found, and while she sought she wept; burning with the fire of love, she longed for him who she thought had been taken away. And so it happened that the woman who stayed behind to seek Christ was the only one to see him. For perseverance is essential to any good deed, as the voice of truth tells us: Whoever perseveres to the end will be saved.

When our desires are not satisfied, they grow stronger, and becoming stronger they take hold of their object. Holy desires likewise grow with anticipation. As David says: My soul has thirsted for the living God; when shall I come and appear before the face of God?

Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek? She is asked why she is sorrowing so that her desire might be strengthened; for when she mentions whom she is seeking, her love is kindled all the more ardently.

from a Homily of Gregory the Great

When you pray .. Miracles happen

Prayer is the best weapon we have; it is the key to God’s heart. You must speak to Jesus not only with your lips, but with your heart. In fact on certain occasions you should only speak to Him with your heart.

– Padre Pio

This Beloved of ours is merciful and good. Besides, he so deeply longs for our love that he keeps calling us to come closer … For now, his voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us. Through a truth glimpsed fleetingly in a state of prayer he calls to us. No matter how halfhearted such insights may be, God rejoices whenever we learn what he is trying to teach us.

– St Teresa of Avila

Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts … I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness.

– Mother Teresa

our Lady of Mount Carmel

Thy Kingdom Come

Eternal Wisdom ! Between you and your Father this was quite sufficient. This is how you made your request of him in the garden of Gethsemane. You showed him what you wished for and what you feared, but left it all in his hands. But you know us, my Lord, and you know that we have not given ourselves up to the will of your Father as completely as you did.

Now the good Jesus bids us say these words, in which we pray that the Kingdom may come in us: Hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come. See how great our Master’s wisdom is!

Now, then. The greatest joy in the kingdom of heaven (the greatest among many) seems to me to be that we will no longer be tied up with earthly concerns but will have rest and glory within us – rejoicing that gives joy to everyone, peace that lasts for ever – satisfaction in ourselves, a satisfaction that comes from seeing how everyone is praising the Lord and blessing and hallowing his name.

“Truth suffers, but never dies.”

“Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love
for they enkindle and melt the soul.”

“Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.”

St Teresa of Avila

Solemnity of Saint Benedict of Nursia

Along with listening to God’s Word there is the commitment to prayer. The Benedictine monastery is above all a place of prayer, in the sense that everything in it is organized to make the monks attentive and responsive to the voice of the Spirit. This is why the complete celebration of the Divine Office, whose center is the Eucharist and which structures the monastic day, is the “opus Dei” in which “dum cantamus iter facimus ut ad nostrum cor veniat et sui nos amoris gratia accendat”.

The Word of Sacred Scripture inspires the Benedictine monk’s dialogue with God; in this he is helped by the austere beauty of the Roman liturgy in which this Word, proclaimed with solemnity or sung in plainchant .. The primacy of the Word is thus affirmed in life .. Once it has been accepted, the Word searches and discerns, imposes clear choices and thus brings the monk, through obedience, into the historia Salutis summed up in the Passover of Christ, who was obedient to the Father (cf. Heb 5:7-10)

It is this prayer, memoria Dei, which makes unity of life possible in practice, despite multiple activities: as Cassian teaches, these are not demeaned but are continually brought back to their centre. By extending liturgical prayer to the whole day through the free and silent personal prayer of the brothers, an atmosphere of recollection is created in the monastery in which the actual times of celebration find their full truth. In this way the monastery becomes a “school of prayer”, that is, a place where the community, by deeply encountering God in the liturgy and at various moments of the day, introduces those who seek the face of the living God to the wonders of Trinitarian life.

Pope St John Paul II

the Holy Eucharist

Spiritual Communion Prayer

I wish O Lord to receive You
with the purity, humility and devotion
with which Your most Holy Mother
received You, in the spirit and fervor
of all the saints. Amen

.

Gaze upon him, consider him, contemplate him
as you desire to imitate him.

– St Clare of Assisi

We must visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
a hundred thousand times a day.

– St Francis de Sales

When you look at the crucifix, you understand how much Jesus
loved you then. When you look at the Sacred Host, you understand
how much Jesus loves you now.

– St Teresa of Calcutta

In the Eucharist, “unlike any other sacrament, the mystery (of communion) is so perfect that it brings us to the heights of every good thing: Here is the ultimate goal of every human desire, because here we attain God and God joins himself to us in the most perfect union.” Precisely for this reason it is good to cultivate in our hearts a constant desire for the sacrament of the Eucharist. This was the origin of the practice of “spiritual communion,” which has happily been established in the Church for centuries and recommended by saints who were masters of the spiritual life. St. Teresa of Jesus wrote: “When you do not receive communion and you do not attend Mass, you can make a spiritual communion, which is a most beneficial practice; by it the love of God will be greatly impressed on you”

– Pope John Paul II in his encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia