Jesus--A Prisoner of Love

     In this Sacrament, then, under the appearance of bread, Our Lord and Savior gives us His Flesh and Blood for food for our souls. It was not enough for Him that He should become one of ourselves by adopting a human nature like our own. It was not enough that He should share the hardships of a life like our own – that He should suffer and die and atone for our sins, in our name. He loved us, and He would not rest until He should be completely united to us. And in His love, He devised the most extraordinary method of union, in which He Himself becomes our food! Truly a tremendous lover!” Dom Mary Eugene Boylan

     Our dear sweet Jesus is madly in love with us and has gone to extraordinary lengths to prove His love to us, yet many make a halfhearted effort to get to Mass, while others have walked away from their Catholic faith. 

The Assumption of Mary

 Oh, my Dear Sweet Glorious Mother

You who were not God

Followed His will so completely and generously

As no human had done before and none since.

You who were so wrapped up in God

And not in self

Became Eucharist and gave all

So that He who was All

Could become Eucharist for us.

You surrendered yourself to God

So He in turn

Could surrender Himself to us.

You gave us your Son and we killed Him….

And still you stood by us

Giving birth to us to new life.

Help me my Mother!

Help me to let go of self as you did.

Help me to surrender my will

So I may resemble you and your Son Jesus.

Help me not to fear the dying I must do

In order to live fully in Christ.

As you imitated Father, Son and Spirit in their self giving

Help me to do the same

In all the big and small ways that come into my daily life.

Help me to abandon myself

And become so wrapped up in God as you were

That I, like you, forget myself.

O Sweet Mother of Humility

God could not resist sweeping you up to heaven to Himself

To be the Bride

Pure and spotless and radiant in beauty

The perfect honor of our race.

Help me, your daughter,

To resemble, even slightly, the Mother,

So that God cannot resist me also.

Mary, Queen of Heaven,

Pray for me!

Ocean of Love

     “The Divine Heart is an ocean full of all good things, wherein poor souls can cast all their needs; it is an ocean full of joy to drown all our sadness, an ocean of humility to drown our folly, and ocean of mercy to those in distress, and ocean of love in which to submerge our poverty.”                                                                                                             Saint Margaret Mary


     Jesus Christ, true God and true man -- the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, has a human heart! He loves each and every one of us, as no human person ever has or will. He loves us so much that He became man, lived on this earth, suffered a cruel death, and allowed His heart to be pierced.

Explore the Treasures -- Part 4

     At this point in our series, I would like to make a clarification: I am not giving a thorough teaching on the Mass. My aim is to try to convey the necessity of parents to teach their children about the Catholic faith – most especially the fact that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.  
 
     Having explored the liturgy of the Word, we will now penetrate the liturgy of the Eucharist. We begin with the Offertory, when the priest offers the bread and wine for the sacrifice. This is the time that we join with the priest in offering to God all that we are – our strengths and weaknesses, our joys and struggles; all we have done – our successes and failures; who we are and who we hope to be. We ask that God will take us and transform us by the power of His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will change the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Explore the Treasures - Part 3

     In this segment of our series, we will focus on the Eucharist.

     The Eucharist is called the Sacrament of the Presence of Christ, Who gives Himself to us completely. The word Eucharist means Thanks – giving. Jesus is truly Present – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – the same Jesus who was born in Nazareth, walked the streets of our world, suffered and died for us and rose from the dead and  now sits at the right hand of the Father.

Explore the Treasures - Part 1

     This past Sunday we celebrated the Feast of Corpus Christi. It is a Solemnity that was established in the thirteenth Century. The purpose was to recognize and celebrate the fact that Jesus Christ is truly present in the Eucharist – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. Christ’s presence is not symbolic but real. This is something that has always been believed and taught in the Catholic Church from the time of the Apostles and continues to this day.

     During a homily at Mass on Corpus Christi, my parish priest made a startling statement: Of the 50% of the Catholics who attend Mass, half of them do not believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist!

Balm for the Soul

     “To learn from the Heart of Jesus the secret love for souls and deep knowledge of them: how to touch their hurts without making them smart and to dress their wounds without reopening them; to disclose Truth in its entirety and yet make it known according to the degree of light each soul can bear. The knowledge required for the apostolate can be had only from Jesus Christ, in the Eucharist, and in prayer.”                                                                                                                                                                               Elizabeth Leseur, Servant of God


     Our world is full of wounded souls; each longing to be listened to and loved. It is not evident to the naked eye; they hide their pain quite well! Life has brought happiness and joy, but also many disappointments and hurts that scream, deep within our hearts, and go unheard.

Be Active ~ Embrace Him

     “Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is a pale image and likeness of My love.”                                                       Jesus to St. Faustina


     On the night before He died, Jesus, in His great love for us instituted the sacraments of Eucharist and Holy Orders. He loved us so very much, that He could not bear to leave us alone. He wanted to be with us until the end of time in this great Sacrament of Love. He wanted to nurture us with His very life and be one with us in Holy Communion. Jesus has poured Himself out to us completely – holding nothing back. Actions speak louder than words and Christ’s actions speak love. Let us examine ourselves and see what we are telling our Lord.

The Assumption of Mary

Oh, my Dear Sweet Glorious Mother

You who were not God

Followed His will so completely and generously

As no human had done before and none since.

You who were so wrapped up in God

And not in self

Became eucharist and gave all

So that He who was All

Could become Eucharist for us.

You surrendered yourself to God

So He in turn

Could surrender Himself to us.

You gave us your Son and we killed Him….

And still you stood by us

Giving birth to us to new life.

Help me my Mother!

Help me to let go of self as you did.

Help me to surrender my will

So I may resemble you and your Son Jesus.

Help me not to fear the dying I must do

In order to live fully in Christ.

As you imitated Father, Son and Spirit in their self giving

Help me to do the same

In all the big and small ways that come into my daily life.

Help me to abandon myself

And become so wrapped up in God as you were

That I, like you, forget myself.

O Sweet Mother of Humility

God could not resist sweeping you up to heaven to Himself

To be the Bride

Pure and spotless and radiant in beauty

The perfect honor of our race.

Help me, your daughter,

To resemble, even slightly, the Mother,

So that God cannot resist me also.

Mary, Queen of Heaven,

Pray for me!

Gratitious Love

     “Since all our love for God is ultimately a response to His love for us, we can never love Him in the same way He loves us, namely, gratuitously. But we can love our neighbor in the same way that He loves us -- gratuitously – not because of anything the neighbor has done for us or because of anything we owe him, but simply because love has been freely given to us by God.”                                         Ralph Martin


 
     God calls us to love one another as He loves us – totally and freely. We are to let go of expectations of “getting something back” for our efforts, while at the same time, not counting the cost. Naturally speaking, this is impossible! Even on our good days, there is a small part of us that does expect to gain something: love, recognition, a feeling of satisfaction and most probably, gratitude from the recipient.

Leaving All In Your Most Capable Hands

Prayer Before The Blessed Sacrament

     Oh, my dear sweet Jesus, truly present in the Blessed Sacrament, I humbly come before You, not only to love and adore You, and give thanks to our Heavenly Father for this great gift of the Eucharist, but to lay my heart before You. My heart is meant to be Your home, but so often it is filled with worries and concerns that leave little room for Your presence. Help me to surrender all my cares and concerns into Your Eucharistic Heart and into the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our Mother, so that I am free to love and adore You as You so deserve.

     Oh, my dear sweet Jesus, I thank You for the opportunity to spend this time with You. You are so generous a God, and must love me very much, to humble Yourself to stay with me in this great Sacrament. Increase my trust in Your ordaining and permissive will that I may know deep in my heart, “that not a hair of my head falls to the ground without You allowing it.” Increase my faith to believe in Your presence in my life, even when life’s circumstances make me feel alone, forgotten, or afraid. Help me to remember that You love and care for me and my loved ones, more than I can possibly fathom.

     When this visit is over and I leave Your Presence, I pray that I will have emptied my heart of all concerns, leaving them in Your most capable hands, so that my heart may be a tabernacle from which I then bring You, my God, to all I meet. Amen.

The Assumption of Mary

Oh, my Dear Sweet Glorious Mother
You who were not God

Followed His will so completely and generously

As no human had done before and none since.
You who were so wrapped up in God

And not in self

Became eucharist and gave all

So that He who was All

Could become Eucharist for us.

You surrendered yourself to God

So He in turn

Could surrender Himself to us.

You gave us your Son and we killed Him….

And still you stood by us

Giving birth to us to new life.

Help me my Mother!

Help me to let go of self as you did.

Help me to surrender my will

So I may resemble you and your Son Jesus.

Help me not to fear the dying I must do

In order to live fully in Christ.

As you imitated Father, Son and Spirit in their self giving

Help me to do the same

In all the big and small ways that come into my daily life.

Help me to abandon myself

And become so wrapped up in God as you were

That I, like you, forget myself.

O Sweet Mother of Humility

God could not resist sweeping you up to heaven to Himself

To be the Bride

Pure and spotless and radiant in beauty

The perfect honor of our race.

Help me, your daughter,

To resemble, even slightly, the Mother,

So that God cannot resist me also.

Mary, Queen of Heaven,

Pray for me!

The way it shapes my life

     I can't even fathom, nor would want to imagine, what my life would be without God and my Catholic faith! The impact they have had, has been all encompassing. . .most especially in my adult years. I don't believe I would be the woman I am today without them.

     I have been shaped, formed, and stretched in ways that I would not have chosen on my own. I have been called to love, when I would have preferred to lash out; to seek forgiveness; when I did not think I was the guilty party; to give, when I just did not feel like it. I am called to love others as God loves me, which will be a challenge until the day I die - it may kill me trying to do that!