The Little Things Done With Love, are Great!

In the Gospel according to Luke 9:51-62...

This passage speaks of Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, headed to His rejection, persecution, and ultimately, His death…  On the way He continues to show us how to treat those who reject us.  As with the Samaritans who turn Him away when looking for a place to stay... The Apostles ask of Him if they should call fire down upon them to smite them.  Jesus simply rebukes the Apostles as He turns in the direction of the next villiage.  Do not repay injury w/ injury…  just continue on the path, upon which we will carry our crosses that lead to ultimate salvation, through Him, with Him.

Then, on His journey, as He calls people to follow Him, they all have excuses (bury my Father, say good bye to family, etc.), and Jesus says “your duty is to go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God.”  That’s it, in a nutshell…  Our duty is to go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God.  Period…  in whatever vocation God has called us. 

 

I have been listening to the lives of saints with my children, a lot lately…and this reallllly resonates with me… each of us is called to spread the good news, but it looks different for each of us.  And when (not if, but when) we are called, we will know… that is if we give Him time in prayer and silence to listen… not even hours of silence… but with a true, faith-filled, open heart… if we ask for His wisdom, He will, and ALWAYS does provide an answer, whether we find it in scripture, or through His messengers (priest, spouse, children, even the radio)…  He always answers our prayers… 

We should not expect to be called to great things…  because fulfilling the duty and vocation to which we are called, with love is, indeed, GREAT!  As in the life of St. Teresa of Avila that we watched last night, sometimes, simply fulfilling, in obedience and love, our duty can be far more difficult that doing big things… so, it is, in doing our duty, out of obedience and love, we are doing great things and this spreads love, which is the Kingdom of God… the good news.  Jesus is love.

Our vocation, our duty is hard… and on trying days, we may just not feel up to the challenge.  We can get tired because at times our children are more trying than others.  They act their age... We may actually look up to heaven and say “I don’t feel like being a Mom today”…  However, we can say it with a contrite heart, because, we are sorry for feeling that way and know that we need Heaven’s help… but we cannot change how we feel.  We can only look to the one true source of comfort, knowing that we will be heard, and with faith in our prayers, we can be assured help will come.  Heaven is always near.

God may be asking us to flex our spiritual muscles and grow in holiness, through the fires of sanctification, but we must stand firm, as patiently as seemingly possible, and stay true to our family standards and house rules.  Oh how easy it would be to turn a blind eye.  That is not what God is asking of us.  Our duty is to raise saints, and God-willing… become one in the process…  

As Blessed Mother Teresa says:

"Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do... but how much love we put in that action."

 

Therefore, truly, the little things done with love, are great.

O Come Let Us Adore Him - The True Presence

Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist:

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation." CCC1376

It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us "to the end," even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love:

The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease. CCC 1380

"The Holy Eucharist is the highest expression of our life in Christ, for it unites us sacramentally to Christ in the Sacrifice of the Cross, which is made always new in the celebration of the Holy Mass."3


St. Paul tells us, the Eucharist is no ordinary food.  It is actually the Body and Blood of Christ according to the “tradition which I handed on to you, that came to me from the Lord Himself.”

St. Alphonsus Liguori tells us, know also that you will probably gain more by praying fifteen minutes before the Blessed Sacrament than by all the other spiritual exercises of the day. True, Our Lord hears our prayers anywhere, for He has made the promise, 'Ask, and you shall receive,' but He has revealed to His servants that those who visit Him in the Blessed Sacrament will obtain a more abundant measure of grace.“

John Paul II told us "this is the wonderful truth, my dear friends: the Word, which became flesh two thousand years ago, is present today in the Eucharist." 
"I encourage Christians regularly to visit Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament, for we are all called to abide in the presence of God.“



Eucharistic Miracles -

There are over 140 documented Eucharistic Miracles. 

Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano – Italy 750 A.D
These images are of the Monstrance containing the Sacred Relics.

At the moment of the Consecration, the priest was tormented by strong doubts as to whether the Body and Blood of Jesus were truly present in the consecrated Host.   After Consecration he noticed that the Host had been transformed into Flesh and the Wine into Blood.
On March 4, 1971, a Professor presented a detailed summary of the various studies carried on the relics. Here are the basic conclusions:
The “miraculous Flesh” is truly flesh, made up of striated muscle tissue of the myocardium (heart).
The “miraculous Blood” is truly blood: the (color) analysis proves this with absolute and irrefutable certainty.
The immunological study shows that the Flesh and the Blood are definitely those of human being the test allows us to affirm that both belong to the same blood group AB, the same group as that of the man of the Shroud (of Turin) and the blood group typical of the populations in the Middle East.

There were no traces of the salts or other preservative substances used in antiquity to mummify corpses.
World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), published in December of 1976 in New York and Geneva, it was declared that “science, aware of its limitations, is forced to admit the impossibility of giving an explanation.”




1263 Bolsena-Orvieto
Perhaps the best known miracle in which there was a lack of faith in the Real Presence was the miracle of Bolsena-Orvieto. In 1263 A Bohemian priest by the name of Peter of Prague was tempted into questioning the Real Presence. When he broke the Host after the Consecration he was stunned to see blood flowing from it and dripping onto the corporal (the square piece of linen on which the Host and chalice are placed during Mass). The bloodstained corporal was taken to the Cathedral of Orvieto where it is preserved to this day.

Jesus wants to help you, just ask Him:
“Jesus in the Eucharist, remains with us sacramentally to travel with us along our ways, so that with His power, we can cope with our problems, our toil, our suffering.
 – International Eucharistic Congress 1980, John Paul II

“He is in our midst, He dwells with us, full of grace and truth...he restores morality, nourishes virtues, consoles afflicted and strengthens the weak.” Pope Paul

Though we cannot see or touch the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, in reality, He is there.
Pray for faith to believe!


Jesus is Here:

Jesus is here, ADORABLE AND ENTREATABLE
There are MANY things to be curious about… be curious about this.  Many curiosities will lead you into trouble…  This one won’t. 

What to do when you adore?
Visit Him in the Tabernacle or at your Adoration Chapel".  You can pray before the very presence of Our Lord.
• Recite your favorite prayers
• Read the bible
• Contemplate acts of faith, hope, charity, thanksgiving, reparation
• Pray a rosary
• Whatever type of prayerful devotion that suits you before Our Lord
• You can just sit and say nothing simply keeping Him company, just as you would with a dear friend 1

For more information about Eucharistic Adoration, miracles, etc.  Please visit here.

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References
1 - Bishop Jerome J. Hastrich  Gallup, New Mexico, U.S.A. EWTN
2 - Talk: "Jesus, True Presence in the Eucharist" Song: "Trust In Me“ CD: Our Catholic Faith http://www.donnacorigibson.com/OurCatholicFaith.html
3 - Real Presence Eucharistic Education and Adoration Association.

Applying the Cardinal Virtues to Motherhood, Cont...

Applying the Cardinal Virtues to Motherhood, Part III
A Thesis by Jacquelyn Barten, Guest Blogger

On the Cardinal Virtues

The theological virtues are the foundation of the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance which are also known as the moral, human, or hinge virtues because all other virtues are necessarily related to them.[1]  The cardinal virtues themselves are necessarily related to each other; they are so interconnected that one can not exist without the others.  For example, temperance needs fortitude, fortitude works for justice, and all the cardinal virtues rely on prudence.  In The Catholic Catechism, John A. Hardon, S.J. discussed the relationship of the cardinal virtues: “they are treated as special virtues, each occupied with its own proper type of situation, without denying that they overlap, or that one flows into the other.  Thus fortitude is temperate and brave, for a man who can contain his lusts can well control himself in danger of death; and if he can face death unflinchingly, he can also withstand allurements.”[2]

Although the cardinal virtues can be infused as a gift from God, the nature of this gift is limited to what is necessary for salvation.  However, Jesus called all human beings to perfection in His Proclamation of the Kingdom, and this perfection requires acquiring virtue through experience, time, repetition, and habit.  A virtue of this nature allows the mind to govern and train emotions.  Paralleling the differences between mothers with varying temperaments and natures, there are a variety of ways mothers can become accomplished in the virtues.  The journey through motherhood must be embraced, whatever it may entail, for it is sinful if a person does not acquire the virtues when they could have or should have.[3]  The Catechism states: “Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by divine grace.”[4]  To attain and maintain the cardinal virtues, mothers need to freely cooperate with the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Understanding and embracing the cardinal virtues is so important that they were the topic of Pope John Paul II’s first four General Audiences.  He was continuing the plan of the late Pope John Paul I who had first discussed the theological virtues in his General Audiences, and the primacy of the virtues in the prevalent talks of two vicars of Christ in the modern day should not be left unnoticed.  All the faithful, and most fundamentally mothers, who can claim the title of the first teachers of love to the tiny lives in their wombs, should take note of the importance the popes gave to learning and applying these virtues.  Mothers everywhere need firm attitudes, stable dispositions, and habitual perfections of intellect and will, especially in the heat of a parenting moment, and the key to this kind of self-mastery is acquiring the moral virtues. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Catechism, 1805.
[2] John A. Hardon, S.J., The Catholic Catechism, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1975), 198.
[3] Christopher Kaczor and Thomas Sherman, S.J., Thomas Aquinas on the Cardinal Virtues, (Ave Maria, FL: Sapientia Press at Ave Maria University), 2009, 39.
[4] Catechism, 1810.

The Power of Prayer

True, God answers our prayers daily,  but each of us has at least one moment in which God really showed up for us; where His faithfulness to us moved our soul in a powerful way, where we felt His Divine Hand move in our lives.  To enter to win the books, I am asking that you share one answered prayer on this post. 

God has been faithful to me in so many ways and He brings tears of joy to my eyes when I think of all the prayers of mine he has heard, and answered.   Here is my most powerful one:  

I had a personal struggle before our 4th child was born…  I had worked outside the home up till that point.  After this child was to be born (Charlie), Nate and I agreed that I would no longer work outside the home and be a stay-at-home Mom.  I was afraid that I would not do a good job…  I stopped in at the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, on my way to my contract, and wept.  Entreating Jesus… I told Him, “I can’t do this, I am scared I will not do a good job with these precious gifts you have given me.”
Jesus approached me and He laid his hands on my head and gently spoke.  He said “You are right, you cannot do it alone, but with Me you can.”  He continues to prove His His faithfulness to me, daily. I can do nothing without Him and any good I do, comes from Him.

In the Sculptor's Hands

Inspired to pick up one of my favorite books,Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence: The Secret of Peace and Happiness, last night, I read the following:

“Do not let ourselves be troubled when we are sometimes beset by adversity, for we know that it is meant for our spiritual welfare and carefully proportioned to our needs, and that a limit has been set to it by the wisdom of the same God who has set a bound to the ocean.  Sometimes it might seem as if the sea in its fury would overflow and flood the land, but it respects the limits of its shore and its waves break upon the yielding sand.  There is no tribulation or temptation whose limits God has not appointed so as to serve not for our destruction be for our salvation.  God is faithful, says the Apostle, and will not permit you to be tempted (or afflicted) beyond your strength, but it is necessary for you to be so, since through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God in the steps of the redeemer, who said of Himself, Did not the Christ have to suffer all these things before entering into His Glory.”  If you refused to accept these tribulations you would be acting against your best interest.  You are like a block of marble in the hands of the sculptor.  The sculptor musts chip, hew and smooth it to make it into a statue that is a work of art.  God wishes to make us the living image of Himself.  All we need to think of is to keep still in His hands while He works on us, and we can rest assured that the chisel will never strike the slightest blow that is not needed for His purposes and our sanctification; for, as St. Paul says, the will of God is your sanctification.”

God has been so faithful in sending me trials... Yesterday I hit the knees of my heart!  My disposition was terrible and my behavior was FAR from Marion.  I pray to endure the trials He sends me by relying on Him and not myself.  When I try to do it myself, I am never met with success.  

When God speaks to me through 2 or more channels, I pay attention.  He, over the course of the most trying days (the last 3) spoke to me through my husband, my parish priest, and spiritual / devotional reading (Trustful Surrender to Divine Providence)...  I came to understand, through His grace, that trials are just that...  they are trials, they are not supposed to be easy; we suffer through them.  They have done their job, if at the end, we are better for it and see God’s hand during them and praise Him after for His faithfulness to us.  We are to grow from them and be better off in the end.

God be praised for His faithfulness to us!  I also read, this morning of His faithfulness, in times of trials in Micah 7:20, “You will show your faithfulness and constant love to your people.”