#theholyeucharist

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"The Eucharist is the supreme proof of the love of Jesus. After this, there is nothing more but Heaven itself." - #SaintPeterJulianEymard

📷 Eucharist Symbols/© vetrestudio via #GettyImages. #CanvaPro #Catholic_Priest #CatholicPriestMedia #TheHolyEucharist

[anastpaul]

Quote/s of the Day - 7 December - Our 'Daily Bread'

Quote/s of the Day – 7 December – Our ‘Daily Bread’

Quote/s of the Day – 7 December – The Memorial of St Ambrose (c 340-397) Father and Doctor of the Church and St Maria Giuseppa Rosello FdM (1811-1880)

“Let your door stand open to receive Him, unlock your soul to Him, offer Him a welcome in your mind and then you will see the riches of simplicity, the treasures of peace, the joy of grace. Throw wide the gate of your heart, stand before the sun of the…

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[catholicpriestmedia]

"Christ held Himself in His hands when He gave His Body to His disciples, saying: 'This is My Body.' No one partakes of this Flesh before he has adored it." - #SaintAugustineofHippo #CorpusChristi

📷 Catholic Prayer Life/© Zolnierek via #GettyImages and #Canva. #Catholic_Priest #CatholicPriestMedia #TheHolyEucharist 

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"...My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink..." - #GospelofJohn 6:51-58 #CorpusChristi

📷 Holy Eucharist / © Avalon_Studio / #GettyImages. #CanvaPro #Catholic_Priest #CatholicPriestMedia #TheHolyEucharist

[anastpaul]

Sunday Reflection – 6 January – The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

“What other people are so fortunate as the Christian people?   What creature under heaven is so beloved as a devout soul into whom God comes, in order to feed him with His own glorious Body and Blood?   O grace unspeakable, O marvellous condescension, O love without measure, bestowed only on human beings!

There is nothing I can give to the Lord for this grace – this supreme love;  nothing acceptable I can offer Him but my heart entirely given to God and closely united to Him. Then, all that is within me will be filled with joy, when my soul is perfectly one with God.

Then He will say to me:  “If you will be with Me, I will be with you.”  And I will answer Him and say: “Stay with me, Lord, I implore You, for my desire is to be with You.”

This is my whole desire – that my heart be united to You.”

Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471)

Book 4-Chapter 13 #3 Blessed Sacrament

(via Sunday Reflection - 6 January - The Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord)

[anastpaul]

Thought for the day – 19 January – The Memorial of Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, Cardinal-Priest (1835-1906)

Blessed Marcelo was a pious man, of intense prayer and mortification, extremely sensitive to the needs and suffering of his faithful and an untiring apostle.   Homes, workers’ societies, centres where food was given to those who needed it, orphanages, night schools, creation of the faculty of theology of Seville, etc., were all part of his mark. He toured all the dioceses in which he exercised his ministry, travelling on a mule, he fought against the attempt to displace the teaching of religion from public centres as a senator from Granada, consoled the afflicted and took the gospel to every corner, preaching and confessing.

And at the centre of the heart of Blessed Marcelo was the Holy Eucharist.   He wrote:

“The masterpiece of Jesus Christ’s love for humanity is the Eucharist. The Eucharist is within our reach. We can all get close to Christ the guest and talk with Him and perceive the warmth of His word. The word!   How it inflames the spirits! How will the word of Christ inflame them! We can all get to the altar when He immolates Himself and shouts at us: Look how much I have loved and loved you! And we can all sit at His table and eat the bread and drink the intoxicating wine of charity. “

Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, Pray for Us!

(via Thought for the day – 19 January – The Memorial of Blessed Marcelo Spínola y Maestre, Cardinal-Priest (1835-1906))

[anastpaul]

Sunday Reflection – 28 October – Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Recognise in the bread, that same body that hung on the cross and in the chalice, that same blood that gushed from His side.

Saint Augustine (354-430)

Transubstantiation In the offering that Jesus makes of Himself we find all the novelty of Christian worship. In ancient times men offered in sacrifice to the divinity the animals or first fruits of the earth.   Jesus, instead, offers Himself, His body and His whole existence – He Himself, in person, becomes the sacrifice that the liturgy offers in the Holy Mass. In fact, with the consecration of the bread and wine they become His true body and blood. Saint Augustine invited his faithful, not to pause on what appeared to their sight but to go beyond:  “Recognise in the bread — he said — that same body that hung on the cross and in the chalice that same blood that gushed from His side” (Disc. 228 B, 2). To explain this transformation, theology has coined the word “transubstantiation,” a word that resounded for the first time in this Basilica during the IV Lateran Council, of which in five years will be the 8th centenary.   On that occasion the following expressions were inserted in the profession of faith:  “his body and his blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar, under the species of bread and wine, because the bread is transubstantiated into the body and the wine into the blood by divine power” (DS, 802). Therefore, it is essential to stress, in the itineraries of education of children in the faith, of adolescents and of young people, as well as in “centres of listening” to the Word of God, that in the sacrament of the Eucharist, Christ is truly, really and substantially present.

Sunday And let us also keep present that the Eucharist, joined to the cross and resurrection of the Lord, has dictated a new structure to our time.

The Risen One was manifested the day after Saturday, the first day of the week, day of the sun and of creation.   From the beginning, Christians have celebrated their encounter with the Risen One, the Eucharist, on this first day, on this new day of the true sun of history, the Risen Christ.

And thus time always begins again with the encounter with the Risen One and this encounter gives content and strength to everyday life.   Because of this, it is very important for us Christians, to follow this new rhythm of time, to meet with the Risen One on Sunday and thus “to take” with us His presence, which transforms us and transforms our time.

Pope Benedict XVI – 17 June 2010

(via Sunday Reflection - 28 October - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B)

[anastpaul]

Sunday Reflection – 20 January – Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

“…Let him first strive to cleanse his conscience”

St Caesarius of Arles (470-542) Bishop of Arles, Father of the Church

And so, dearly beloved brethren, let us each examine his conscience and when he sees that he has been wounded by some sin, let him first strive to cleanse his conscience by prayer, fasting, almsgiving and so dare to approach the Eucharist.   If he recognises his guilt and is reluctant to approach the holy altar, he will be quickly pardoned by the Divine Mercy, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Mt 23:12).   If then, as I have said, a man conscious of his sins, humbly decides to stay away from the altar until he reforms his life, he will not be afraid of being completely excluded from the eternal banquet of heaven.

I ask you then, brethren, to pay careful attention.   If no-one dares approach an influential man’s table in tattered, soiled garments, how much more should one refrain in reverance and humility from the banquet of the Eternal King, that is, from the altar of the Lord, if one is smitten with poisonous envy, or anger, or is full of rage and fury?   For it is written, “Go first and be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:24).   And again, “Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?” And when he kept silent, that man said to the attendants, ‘bind his hands and feet and cast him forth into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” (Mt 22:12,13).   The same sentence awaits the man who dares present himself at the wedding feast, that is at the Lord’s table, if he is guilty of drunkenness, or adultery, or retains hatred in his heart.

St Caesarius of Arles (470-542) Bishop of Arles, was the foremost ecclesiastic of his generation in Merovingian Gaul. Caesarius is considered to be of the last generation of church leaders of Gaul that worked to promote large-scale ascetic elements into the Western Christian tradition.   Caesarius was a “popular preacher of great fervour and enduring influence”.   Among those who exercised the greatest influence on Caesarius were Augustine of Hippo, Julianus Pomerius and John Cassian.

(via Sunday Reflection - 20 January - "...Let him first strive to cleanse his conscience")