Posted in Catholicism, Christianity, Holidays, Other, Religion, Spirituality, tagged Christmas, Patience, Prayer on December 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Another great article from Catholic Lane. Not sure who’s going to read this on Christmas Eve…but hey, no harm no foul.
Here’s the link, if you want to read it — it’s short and, in this blogger’s humble opinion, well worth your time:
“Long Lines and Other Christmas Hardships: Gifts from Above?”
Image from Wikipedia
Posted in Catholicism, Christianity, God, Jesus Christ, Religion, Spirituality, Video, tagged Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prayer on February 1, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Prayer is hard. No matter where we are, we are all beginners.
The following video features Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Some of what he says pertains to specifically Catholic worship, but I think the principles he articulates can be used by non-Catholics in their prayer lives as well. Enjoy!
Posted in Catholicism, Christianity, Humor, Religion, Spirituality, tagged Bishop Fulton Sheen, Coffee, Funny, Prayer on January 30, 2013| Leave a Comment »
I’ve been working on my first official “Game of Thrones” post. Of course, I had meant to have it up by tonight, but it undoubtedly needs more work. I hope there are some fellow perfectionists out there who understand how hard it can be to craft a truly good post. Please be patient as I give it a little more time to “breathe.”
In the meantime, as we reach the middle of the work week and continue to plow through, here is a great quote from the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen that I think everyone can agree with:
The average American is physically, biologically, psychologically and neurologically unable to do anything worthwhile before he has a cup of coffee. And that goes for prayer too. Even sisters in convents whose rules were written before electric percolators were developed would do well to update their procedures. Let them have coffee before meditation.
-From the book “The Priest is Not His Own”
Photo from http://www.wikipedia.org.
Posted in Catholicism, Christianity, God, Religion, Spirituality, tagged Christmas, Jesus Christ, Prayer on December 25, 2012| 1 Comment »
Some of you may remember my post on the Advent Season, which I described as a season of hope and expectation, a couple weeks ago.
Well, now the wait is over.
Today, we celebrate the Daybreak. The “Dawn from on High,” the eternal Beloved, the Light of lights, has come into the darkness of the world, born into poverty and cradled among animals within the earth.
The One Who rested on the seventh day has come to hallow creation with His holy Presence. He has taken the fullness of our human nature and made it His own.
Indeed, the Incarnation was the greatest event in human history. In fact, it completely and unalterably changed the course of history. God is with us (“Emmanuel”). He became a human being so that we could see him, speak with him, hear him, touch him…and, ultimately, taste him in the Eucharist.
As we approach midnight, many people will be sad. Confusing Advent with the commercialism of the secularized Christmas Season, they believe that Christmas ends on December 25.
Good news: You are mistaken! Today, the real celebration begins.
For those of you who wish to know the presence of God in your lives — or if you already know it, perhaps you want to deepen that knowledge — know that God is closer to you than your very deepest self, and that He wants more than anything to be with you and talk to you. He has a wonderful and unimaginable plan for each person’s life, if only we trust His love.
So talk to God. Make room for silence so that you can know His presence. Keep an open mind and an open heart. If you are Catholic, take some time in the near future, if possible, to visit the Blessed Sacrament.
One thing I learned after praying before Our Lord in the Sacrament is this: What most distinguishes man* from the animals is not that he builds skyscrapers, writes great poems and symphonies, soars into outer space, tames wild animals, or performs any other such marvelous feat. Rather, what most distinguishes man is that of all creatures on this earth, he is the only one who is most exalted in his knees.
Everything else, I think, flows out of that.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May all of us experience peace and joy this Christmas Season, and may we come to know beyond all doubt that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
*Just a reminder: I am here using the term’s “man” and “he” in the generic sense. Women and men are equally included in this statement.
The top image was crafted by a Polish metal smith artist. It can be purchased here: http://www.polandbymail.com/i/5940/silver-plated-icon-the-holy-family-1-9×12.htm
Posted in Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Current Events, Religion, tagged Coming Home, Dr. Gerard M. Nadal, Newtown CT, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary on December 24, 2012| Leave a Comment »
So sorry for forgetting to post this yesterday! I’m sure those of you who would like to pray along may still do so, though.
From http://www.gerardnadal.com:
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY NINE
O glorious Mother of God, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the benign Heart of Jesus all the graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare, particularly for the grace of a happy death. O Mother of our Divine Lord, as we conclude this novena for the special favor we seek at this time.
That your beloved Son send His Holy Sprit upon this nation in its hour of despair, to enlighten every heart, showing the sacredness of all human life from the moment of conception until natural death; that through this tragedy the scales will fall from the nation’s eyes and all will see the seamless garment of human life and dignity.
We feel animated with confidence that your prayers in our behalf will be graciously heard. O Mother of My Lord, through the love you bear to Jesus Christ and for the glory of His Name, hear our prayers and obtain our petitions.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/lourdes.htm#day9#ixzz2FvVPwYJd
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
To leave an encouraging comment for those affected by this tragedy, go to http://gerardnadal.com/2012/12/23/novena-to-our-lady-of-lourdes-for-healing-the-wounds-of-newtown-and-sandy-hook-day-9/
Photo also from Dr. Nadal’s blog.
Posted in Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Current Events, Religion, tagged Coming Home, Dr. Gerard M. Nadal, Newtown CT, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary on December 23, 2012| Leave a Comment »
From http://www.gerardnadal.com:
As we continue our nine days of prayer, please leave your supportive messages for the folks in Newtown and Sandy Hook in the comments section here on the blog. They’ll be seeing them, I assure you. Each night as we pray for the entire community, we’ll lift up in a special way different groups within that population. Thanks for joining in. God Bless you and your loved ones.
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY EIGHT
O Immaculate Mother of God, from heaven itself you came to appear to the little Bernadette in the rough Grotto of Lourdes! And as Bernadette knelt at your feet and the miraculous spring burst forth and as multitudes have knelt ever since before your shrine, O Mother of God, we kneel before you today to ask that in your mercy you plead with your Divine Son to grant the special favor we seek in this novena.
We pray tonight for all of the citizens of Sandy Hook and Newtown, that Christmas brings a reprieve from the trauma of these past eight days. We pray, too, for eternal rest for all 28 people who died in the madness of that day, especially for those most in need of your Son’s mercy.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
To leave an encouraging comment for those affected by this tragedy, go to http://gerardnadal.com/2012/12/22/novena-to-our-lady-of-lourdes-for-healing-the-wounds-of-newtown-and-sandy-hook-day-8/
Posted in Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Current Events, Religion, tagged Coming Home, Dr. Gerard M. Nadal, Newtown CT, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary on December 22, 2012| Leave a Comment »
From http://www.gerardnadal.com:
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY SEVEN
O Almighty God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary did prepare a worthy dwelling place for your Son, we humbly beseech you that as we contemplate the apparition of Our Lady in the Grotto of Lourdes, we may be blessed with health of mind and body. O most gracious Mother Mary, beloved Mother of Our Lord and Redeemer, look with favor upon us as you did that day on Bernadette and intercede with him for us that the favor we now so earnestly seek may be granted to us.
Once again, we lift up to you the parents, and grandparents, and godparents of those who were killed. We beg your beloved Son’s special blessings on them, for healing in heart, mind, body and soul. We lift up too, the family of Adam Lanza, who tonight bear a very different and unimaginable burden of not only loss, but shame and guilt for something of which they had no culpability. We beg your Son’s healing touch that all may find peace and reconciliation, through your loving intercession.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
To leave an encouraging comment for those affected by this tragedy, go to http://gerardnadal.com/2012/12/21/novena-to-our-lady-of-lourdes-for-healing-the-wounds-of-newtown-and-sandy-hook-day-7/
Photo also from Dr. Nadal’s website.
Posted in Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Current Events, Religion, tagged Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal, Newtown CT, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary on December 21, 2012| Leave a Comment »
My apologies for being late — got to bed before this was published on “Coming Home” last night.
From http://www.gerardnadal.com:
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY SIX
O glorious Mother of God, so powerful under your special title of Our Lady of Lourdes, to you we raise our hearts and hands to implore your powerful intercession in obtaining from the gracious Heart of Jesus all the helps and graces necessary for our spiritual and temporal welfare and for the special favor we so earnestly seek in this novena.
We lift up today our shaken political leaders who are under pressure to act. We ask your intercession with your beloved Son, that He heal the shock and horror in our leaders, that they may act with prudence, wisdom, and calm deliberation for the common good.
O Lady of Bernadette, with the stars of heaven in your hair and the roses of earth at your feet, look with compassion upon us today as you did so long ago on Bernadette in the Grotto of Lourdes.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
Posted in Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Current Events, Evil, Religion, tagged Coming Home, Dr. Gerard Nadal, Newtown CT, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary on December 20, 2012| Leave a Comment »
From http://www.gerardnadal.com:
As we continue our nine days of prayer, please leave your supportive messages for the folks in Newtown and Sandy Hook in the comments section here on the blog. They’ll be seeing them, I assure you. Each night as we pray for the entire community, we’ll lift up in a special way different groups within that population. Thanks for joining in. God Bless you and your loved ones.
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY FIVE
O Mary Immaculate, Mother of God and our mother, from the heights of your dignity look down mercifully upon us while we, full of confidence in your unbounded goodness and confident that your Divine Son will look favorably upon any request you make of Him in our behalf, we beseech you to come to our aid and secure for us the favor we seek in this novena.
That the families of the slain teachers and staff be comforted this day that has seen the burial of their loved ones who showed that greatest of love, having laid down their lives for the children. We beseech Heaven’s greatest comfort for these family, and for the surviving faculty, staff, and their families.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
Photo also from Dr. Nadal’s blog.
Posted in Beauty, Catholicism, Christianity, Current Events, Religion, tagged Newtown CT, Prayer, Sandy Hook Elementary on December 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »
From http://www.gerardnadal.com:
As we continue our nine days of prayer, please leave your supportive messages for the folks in Newtown and Sandy Hook in the comments section here on the blog. They’ll be seeing them, I assure you. Each night as we pray for the entire community, we’ll lift up in a special way different groups within that population. Thanks for joining in. God Bless you and your loved ones.
Prayer
Be blessed, O most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child, St. Bernadette: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception. And now, O ever Immaculate Virgin, Mother of mercy, Health of the sick, Refuge of sinners, Comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.
DAY FOUR
O Immaculate Queen of Heaven, we your wayward, erring children, join our unworthy prayers of praise and thanksgiving to those of the angels and saints and your own-the One, Holy, and Undivided Trinity may be glorified in heaven and on earth. Our Lady of Lourdes, as you looked down with love and mercy upon Bernadette as she prayed her rosary in the grotto, look down now, we beseech you, with love and mercy upon us. From the abundance of graces granted you by your Divine Son, sweet Mother of God, give to each of us all that your motherly heart sees we need and at this moment look with special favor on the grace we seek in this novena.
Tonight we lift up the priests and all other clergy whose solemn and tragic duty it is to comfort all those who have been traumatized. We ask your intercession, that your Son will fill their hearts with the solace and joy of the Resurrection, that they be filled with His Peace and channel that peace to a community and nation riven with trauma.
O Brilliant star of purity, Mary Immaculate, Our Lady of Lourdes, glorious in your assumption, triumphant in your coronation, show unto us the mercy of the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, Queen and Mother, be our comfort, hope, strength, and consolation. Amen.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Saint Bernadette, pray for us.
Read more: http://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/novena/lourdes.htm#day4#ixzz2FSOot1E5
