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Monday 26 June 2017

Sacred Heart of Jesus Meditation

Sacred Heart of Jesus



Sacred Heart of Jesus

Meditation

Devotion to the Sacred Heart, as we know it, began about the year 1672.  On repeated occasions, Jesus appeared to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, a Visitation nun, in France, and during these apparitions He explained to her the devotion to His Sacred Heart as He wanted people to practice it.  He asked to be honored in the symbol of His Heart of flesh; he asked for acts of reparation, for frequent Communion, Communion on the First Friday of the month, and the keeping of the Holy Hour.

Jesus Sacred Heart St. Margaret Mary Alacoque
When the Catholic Church approved the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she did not base her action only on the visions of St. Margaret Mary.  The Church approved the devotion on its own merits.

There is only one Person in Jesus, and that Person was at the same time God and Man.  His Heart, too, is Divine—it is the Heart of God.

There are two things that must always be found together in the devotion to the Sacred Heart:  Christ’s Heart of flesh and Christ’s love for us.  True devotion to the Sacred Heart means devotion to the Divine Heart of Christ in so far as His Heart represents and recalls His love for us.

In honoring the Heart of Christ, our homage lingers on the Person of Jesus in the fullness of His Love.  

This love of Christ for us was the moving force of all He did and suffered for us—in Nazareth, on the Cross, in giving Himself in the Blessed Sacrament,  in His teaching and healing, in His praying and working.  When we speak of the Sacred Heart, we mean Jesus showing us His Heart, Jesus all love for us and all lovable.

The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Jesus Christ is the incarnation of God’s infinite love.  The Human Nature which the Son of God took upon Himself was filled with love and kindness that has never found an equal.  He is the perfect model of love of God and neighbor.

Every day of His life was filled with repeated proofs of  “Christ’s love which surpasses all knowledge” (Eph 3:19).  Jesus handed down for all times the fundamental feature of His character:  “Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of Heart.” (Mt 11:29).  He invited all, refusing none, surprising friends and rivals by His unconditional generosity.  He called out, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and find life burdensome, and I will refresh you.” (Mt 11:28).

The meaning of love in the life of Jesus was especially evident in His sufferings.  Out of love for His Father He willed to undergo the death of the Cross.  “The world must know what I love the Father and do as the Father has commanded Me” (Jn 14:31).

The love that Jesus bore toward us also urged Him to undergo the death of the Cross.  As the Last Supper, He said, “There is no greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (Jn 15:13).

What enhances Christ’s love is the sovereign liberty with which He offered Himself.  He said, “The Father loves Me for this: that I lay down My life to take it up again.  No one takes it from Me; I lay it down freely.  I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again.  This command I received from My Father” (Jn 10:17-18).

Christ praying at the Last Supper
Jesus loved people because they belonged to His Father.  Before He died He prayed, “For these I pray—not for the world but for these You have given Me, for they are really Yours” (Jn 17:9).  He did mankind much good for God’s sake, seeing in every person a child of God and the image of His Father.

He loved people for His own sake, because they were really so much in need of help, and because He wished to win them over to  His teaching by His innumerable favors.

When we see Jesus lavishly offering inexhaustible treasures of compassion and mercy, we are able to conceive something of the immensity of that ocean of Divine kindness and love from which the Sacred Heart of draws these treasures for us.

The Heart of Jesus never ceases to love us in heaven.  He sanctifies us through the sacraments.  These are inexhaustible fountains of grace and holiness which have their source in the boundless ocean of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated on the Friday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost.

The Word of God

“This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.  I will place My law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”  -- Jeremiah 31:33

“Take My yoke upon your shoulders and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of Heart.” – Matthew 1:28

“I have come to light a fire on the earth.  How I wish the blaze were ignited!” – Luke 12:49

Christ pierced by a lance


“When they came to Jesus and saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs.  One of the soldiers thrust a lance into His side, and immediately blood flowed out.” – John 19:34




Taken from Treasury of Novenas,  by Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, SVD, Catholic Book Publishing Company, New York USA

Saturday 17 June 2017

Educate Yourself -- These Videos will Help!! Watch them!!

St. Bernard of Clairvaux


The anti-Church has come. But, don't be afraid: Fr. Linus Clovis

Fatima foretold ‘diabolical forces’ that would enter Church in our time: Cardinal Burke

Fatima Reveals Hell is for Real: Cardinal Arinze


Fr. Corapi ~ FATIMA TODAY (6pts) ~ Pt.1: The Angels: Messengers & the Message

Fr. Corapi ~ FATIMA TODAY (6pts) ~ Pt.2: Rosary & Brown Scapular

FATIMA TODAY (6 Pts) ~ Pt.3 : Reality, Sin , Grace, Heaven or Hell ... Fr.J. Corapi


Father John Corapi ~ FATIMA TODAY ~ Pt. 4: Penance, Penance, Penance!

FATIMA TODAY ~ Pt.5: The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary..

FATIMA TODAY ~ Pt. 6: The Eucharist:Life For A Dying World..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYdefIGTQz8


AS A HOLY PRIEST SAID
"WAKE UP AND SMELL THE SULPHUR!!"




Friday 16 June 2017

Corpus Christi - Body and Blood of Christ

Body and Blood of Christ

O precious 
and wonderful banquet!

From the work by Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods.  Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation.  He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice  for our reconciliation.  He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin.  But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.

O precious and wonderful  banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness!  Could anything be of more intrinsic value?  Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food.  What could be more wonderful than this.  

No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift.  

It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all.  

Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.


It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper.  

As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion.  

It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, which for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure,  it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

Prayer of St. Ambrose 


Preparing to Receive 
Christ in the Eucharist

Lord Jesus Christ, I approach Thy banquet table in fear and trembling, for I am a sinner, and dare not rely on my own worth, but only on Thy goodness and mercy.  

I am defiled by my many sins in body and soul, and by my unguarded thoughts and words. 

Gracious God of majesty and awe, I seek Thy protection, I look for Thy healing.  Poor troubled sinner that I am, I appeal to Thee, the fountain of all mercy.  I cannot bear Thy judgment, but I trust in Thy salvation.  

Lord, I show my wounds to Thee and uncover my shame before Thee.  I know my sins are many and great, and they fill me with fear, but I hope in Thy mercies, for they cannot be numbered.  

Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal King, God and man, crucified for mankind, look upon me with mercy and hear my prayer, for I trust in Thee.  Have mercy on me, full of sorrow and sin, for the depth of Thy compassion never ends.  

Praise to Thee, Saving Sacrifice, offered on the wood of the cross for me and for all mankind!

Praise to the noble and precious Blood, flowing from the wounds of my crucified Lord Jesus Christ and washing away the sins of the whole world!

Remember, Lord, Thy creature, whom Thou has redeemed with Thy Blood; I repent my sins, and I long to put right what I have done. 

Merciful Father, take away all my offenses and sins; purify me in body and soul, and make me worthy to taste the Holy of Holies.  

May Thy Body and Blood, which I intend to receive, although I am unworthy, be for me the remission of my sins, the washing away of my guilt, the end of my evil thoughts, and the rebirth of my better instincts.  

May it incite me to do the works pleasing to Thee and profitable to my health in body and soul, and be a firm defense against the wiles of my enemies.  

Amen.

Prepare your Soul to receive Christ in the Eucharist

Explanations of the Psalms by St. Ambrose

From the Explanations of the Psalms 
by St. Ambrose, bishop


The Appeal of the Book of Psalms

Though all Scripture is fragrant with God’s grace, the Book of Psalms has a special attractiveness.

Moses and the parting of the Red Sea
Moses wrote the history of Israel’s forefathers in prose, but after leading the people through the Red Sea—a wonder that remained in their memory—he broke into song of triumph in praise of God when he saw King Pharaoh drowned along with his forces.  His genius soared to a higher level, to match an accomplishment beyond his own powers.

Miriam too raised her timbrel and sang encouragement for the rest of the women, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; he has cast horse and rider into the sea.

Miriam praising God
In the Book of Psalms there is profit for all, with healing power for our salvation.  There is instruction from history, teaching from the law, prediction form prophecy, chastisement from denunciation, persuasion from moral preaching.  All who read it may find the cure for their own individual failings.  

All with eyes to see can discover in it a complete gymnasium for the soul, a stadium for all the virtues, equipped for every kind of exercise; it is for each to choose the kind he judges best to help him gain the prize.

King David
If you wish to read and imitate the deeds of the past, you will find the whole history of the Israelites in a single psalm; in one short reading you can amass a treasure for the memory.  

If you want to study the power of the law, which is summed up in the bond of charity (Whoever loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law), you may read in the psalms of the great love with which one man faced serious dangers single-handedly in order to remove the shame of the whole people.  You will find the glory of charity more than a match for the parade of power.

Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God
What I am to say of the grace of prophecy?  We see that what others hinted at in riddles was promised openly and clearly to the psalmist alone: the Lord Jesus was to be born of his seed, according to the word of the Lord, I will place upon your throne one who is the fruit of your flesh.

In the psalms, then, not only is Jesus born for us, he also undergoes his saving passion in his body, he lies in death, he rises again, he ascends into heaven, he sits at the right and of the Father.  

What no man would have dared to say was foretold by the psalmist alone, and afterward proclaimed by the Lord himself in the Gospel.

St. Ambrose, 4th Century Church Father


 Taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for Friday, 10th Week in Ordinary Times