Category Archives: Spiritual Practices

Spiritual Practices

Our Lady of Fatima . Tuesday

on The Psalms

Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised, and yearning is over; then praise alone will remain.

Because there are these two periods of time – the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy – we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.

Both these periods are represented and demonstrated for us in Christ our head. The Lord’s passion depicts for us our present life of trial – shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.

Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.

Saint Augustine

Fourth Week of Easter

Worthy is the Lamb

I, John, looked and heard the voices of many angels
who surrounded the throne
and the living creatures and the elders.
They were countless in number, and they cried out in a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches, wisdom and strength,
honor and glory and blessing.”

Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and in the sea,
everything in the universe, cry out:
“To the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor, glory and might,
forever and ever.” The four living creatures answered, “Amen,”

the Book of Revelation

Praise to the Lord the Almighty

Praise to the Lord . HYMN

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise him, for he is my health and salvation!
Come, all who hear; brothers and sisters draw near,
join in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who in all things so wondrously reigning;
sheltering thee under his wings, and so gently sustaining!
Has thou not seen all that is needful has been
sent by his gracious ordaining?

Praise to the Lord, who will prosper thy work and defend thee;
surely his goodness and mercy shall daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,
if with his love he befriends thee.

Praise to the Lord! O let all that is in me adore him!
All that has life and breath, come now with praises before him.
Let the Amen sound from his people again;
Gladly forever adore him.

Be Joyful Mary Heavenly Queen

Be Joyful Mary . Hymn

Be joyful, Mary, heav’nly Queen,
Be joyful, Mary!/Gaude, Maria!
Your grief is changed to joy serene, Alleluia!
Laetare, O Maria! ( Rejoice, rejoice, O Mary ! )

The Son you bore by heaven’s grace,
Be joyful, Mary!/Gaude, Maria!
Did by his death our guilt erase, Alleluia!
Laetare, O Maria! ( Rejoice, rejoice, O Mary ! )

The Lord has risen from the dead,
Be joyful, Mary!/Gaude, Maria!
He rose in glory as he said, Alleluia!
Laetare, O Maria! ( Rejoice, rejoice, O Mary ! )

St Joseph the Worker

“Don’t worry about being effective.
Just concentrate on being faithful to the truth.”

“You will know your vocation by the joy that it brings you.
You will know. You will know when it’s right.”

“Tradition! We scarcely know the word any more. We are afraid to be either proud of our ancestors or ashamed of them.” .. “Tradition” says GK Chesterton “is democracy extended through time. Tradition means giving the vote to that most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.”

Dorothy Day . Servant of God

You shall put on Immortality

1 Corinthians 15:54-58

When the perishable puts on the imperishable,
and the Mortal puts on Immortality,
then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

“O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

St Catherine of Siena

the Saint . WEB

Born in 1347 a year before the plague would devastate the city of Siena, Catherine’s was an age of extremes. It was Tuscan beauty scarred by violence and the plague. The duality manifested itself in Catherine as well. An uneducated woman and prolific writer. A practical and mystical saint.

When the fame of her holiness spread, she became the protagonist of an intense activity of spiritual guidance for people from every walk of life: nobles and politicians, artists and ordinary people, consecrated men and women and religious, and even the Pope .