A Christopher

First of all, I would like to say that a "Christopher" is a "Bearer of Christ".

Here is what Catherine De Heuck has to say about a "Catholic Priest".

1. A Priest is a Lover of God.

2. A Priest is a Lover of Souls.

3. A Priest is a Holy Man because he walks before the Face of the all Holy.

4. A Priest understands all things.

5. A Priest forgives all things.

6. A Priest encompasses all things. The Heart of a Priest like Christ's; is pierced with the lance of love.

7. The Heart of a Priest is open, like Christ's, for the whole world to walk through. The Heart of a Priest is a vessel of compassion. The Heart of a Priest is a chalice of love.

8. A Priest is a man whose goal is to be another Christ.

9.  A Priest is a man who lives to serve. A Priest is a man who has crucified himself, so that he too may be lifted up and draw all things to Christ.

10.  A Priest is a man in love with God.

11. A Priest is the gift of God to man, and of man to God.

12. A Priest is a symbol of the Word made flesh.

13. A Priest is the sword of "God's Justice".

14. A Priest is the hand of God's Mercy.

15. A Priest is the reflection of God's Love.

He teaches God to us. He brings God to us. He represents God to us.

That is what, a Priest must be - that is what a Priest must bring to us of the Lay Apostolate !!

That, and nothing more .............................. Amen.

Credits and References :

"A Christopher"
Don Bosco's Madonna,  Mumbai
November 1986
Page 32

Note :  There are two "Eucharistic - Centred" Priests that I like very much. One of them is Father Robert Altier of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and the other is Father Edmond Kline who has made some guest appearances at E.W.T.N. in the last 10 years.



 

A Change

Dear Friends,

9  more articles will be posted  that I earlier had not thought of in my list in September 2015.

They are as follows :

1) "A Unique Perspective on the Blessed Mother during Lent".

2) A Christopher.

3) Bringing Ex-Catholics back to the Catholic Church.

4) A Reflection for Christmas Day 2015.

5)  Lent 2016- Lenten Spirituality.

6)  Easter Sunday 2016 - Resurrection Joy. 

7)  Saint Jude Thaddeus - Patron of Desperate Cases.

8)  Saint Martin of Tours -- A Soldier of Jesus Christ.

9)  Saint Catherine Laboure - Visionary of the Miraculous Medal.

Note : If you like reading articles on this Blog, Please Bookmark it.

Divine Mercy Sunday 2016 - A Perspective on the Blessed Sacrament will still be the last article on this Blog. This Blog will remain online forever.

ALONE WITH JESUS CHRIST AFTER HOLY COMMUNION

Mass is over. Jesus Christ and I are alone together.

Just "All by Ourselves". If I can, I will always remain after Mass and make a good Thanksgiving.

This maybe my last Communion; I will make it my best. This maybe my last Thanksgiving; I will make it my best.

Thanks to others always, but always thanks to God; and with all my heart- these few are precious moments.

"Jesus Christ, I believe that you are my God. I believe that I have received your Body, your Blood, Your Soul, and Your Divinity.

You are my Creator, My Redeemer, My Sanctifier, My God for all eternity".

"Jesus Christ, I adore you as the Angels and Saints do in Heaven. My Lord, My God, My All !!"

"O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, All Praise and All Thanksgiving be every moment Thine".

"Jesus Christ, I thank you, now in my heart, for all that You have done for me; for all that You have given me.

For the gifts of my body: for my eyes, my ears, my tongue, my hands, my feet. (some cannot speak, see, and hear, as I can).

Thanks for my health. Thanks too, if sickness comes; Your Holy Will be done.

Thanks for the gifts of my soul, my memory, my intellect, my will.

Thanks for my heart; with all my heart I love your "Sacred Heart".

Thanks for this Holy Mass and my Holy Communion.

"Forgive me all my sins. All my sins of the day and all my sins of the night, even the least.

I will try never to sin again.

"Help me in temptation- Give me a quick and a strong will. Help me always to say "No" to Sin. - "No" to the occasions of sin, specially of my past sins. Take out of my heart all desire for any sin. Bring Sinners back. Keep me True".

Important :

"Jesus Christ, Bless me. Make me "just like you" and "just like Mary", pure and kind and prudent and brave. Inspire me to do only what is best.

Give me zeal. "Make me an Apostle". Give me souls and make a saint of me."

"Jesus Christ, I put my heart inside the open wound of your Sacred Heart. At times, I'm discouraged, my heart aches, it is almost broken; Yours ached first and most. It was pierced on the Cross for me.

Jesus Christ, Help me to carry my cross. Give me courage.

Jesus Christ, Bless the Catholic Church; our Holy Father; our Bishops; and all Priests.

Bless all Religious Brothers and Sisters.

Conclusion :

"Jesus Christ, Bless Vocations. Call many to "Follow You". Tell me what you want me to do for you. Bless non- catholics and draw them to Your Sacred Heart.

"Bless the Missions and the Millions of pagans in the world. You died for them as well as for me. I love them for your sake" Amen.

Credits :

Excerpted from "The Secret of Happiness" Prayer Book
                            Pages 67-69 Published by Peace of Christ Center,
                            Denver, Colorado U.S.A.



 

Eucharist-The Presence of Divine Mercy

In his great love for us, Lord Jesus Christ gave us a great miracle of mercy- the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Christ's Resurrection into glory was not the final reason for the Incarnation, when God became Man. The Incarnation looked forward to Jesus Christ remaining with us to the end of time in the Eucharist.

By this greatest miracle of his love, Jesus Christ remains with us under the form of bread and wine, not only for our spiritual nourishment, but to be kept company by us as well.

In the Holy Eucharist, Christ is fully present as he is in Heaven. The Eucharist explains Pope Leo, The 13th contains "in a variety of miracles, all supernatural realities".  ( Encyclical Mirae Caritatis)

The Eucharist is central to the devotion to the Divine Mercy and many of the elements of the devotion are essentially Eucharistic- specially the Image - Jesus, I trust in you, the Chaplet, and the Feast of Divine Mercy (Divine Mercy Sunday). ,

The Image, with its red and pale rays presents the Eucharistic Lord Jesus Christ, whose Heart has been pierced and now pours forth blood and water as a fountain of mercy for us. It is the Image of God's sacrificial gift of mercy made present in every mass.

Several Times in her Diary, Saint Faustina writes of seeing the red and pale rays coming not from the image, but from the Sacred Host; and once as the Priest exposed the Blessed Sacrament, she saw the rays from the Image pierce the Host and spread out from it all over the world.

So, too with eyes of faith we should see in every host the "Merciful Saviour" pouring himself out as a fountain of mercy for us.

This concept of the Eucharist as a fountain of grace and mercy is not only found in the "Divine Mercy Diary" but also in Church Teaching.

The Church clearly teaches that all the other sacraments are directed towards the "Holy Eucharist" and draw their power from it.

Credits and References :

The Divine Mercy Message and Devotion Handbook
Pages 33-35
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number
-93-077440
Nihil Obstat
Archbishop George H. Pearce S.M.
Former Archbishop of Suva, Fiji
Published by Marian Fathers - Stockbridge,  MA

U.S.A.


 

October 7, 2015 Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary

Our Lady of the Holy Rosary - Hope for the World

Introduction :

Our Lady at various times has appeared and requested that her "Rosary" be said for specific causes.

In our own century, she has made it known that her Rosary is a "Power"  for overcoming "Paganism and Materialism".

Many Stories can be told of conversions brought about by the recitation of the Rosary.

A Miracle wrought by the Rosary:

Saint Vincent Ferrer was once called to the sick bed of a dying man to administer the sacraments. The Sick Man would have nothing to do with the Priest and continued to swear and blaspheme.

Saint Vincent tried every remedy he knew to persuade the dying man, but to no avail. He then turned to the bystanders and urged them to recite the Rosary with him. At the conclusion of the Rosary, the sick man begged to go to "Confession" and then died a peaceful death.

October is the month of the Holy Rosary. Make it part of your daily life.

The Rosary has long been a favourite prayer of the Catholic Christian. The Beads tell us all that we need to know what began in childhood - the great scenes of "Christ's Life" and his "Mother Mary".

Pope Paul, the Sixth said it this way : "Do not fail to lay careful stress on the saying of the Rosary, the prayer so dear to "Our Lady" and so highly recommended by the "Supreme Pontiffs" down the ages.

By this means, the faithful can most pleasantly and effectively carry out our "Divine Master's" command :

"Ask and it shall be given you- seek and you shall find - Knock, and it shall be opened".


Conclusion:

In Need ?? Lost ?? Locked Out ?? A Rosary, Your Rosary..... Today and everyday !!

Our Lady of the Rosary, smile on us !!

Credits and References :

"Hope for the World"
 Pages 18-19
October 1975
Don Bosco's Madonna,
Mumbai, India

Note : For a detailed article on the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary 2014, please refer to it at this link.

http://catholicclassics88.blogspot.in/2014/10/october-7-2014-feast-of-our-lady-of.html

TENDER HEART

All of us know, that when you love someone very much you want to be with the one you love. A Mother can hardly wait to hold her newborn infant. A Father's Joy is to be with his children. Friends treasure the moments they spend together. Sweethearts love so deeply they find it painful to part.

We know that the more one loves, the more one wants to be with the object of one's affection. This explains the very mystery of our catholic faith the mystery of the "Real Presence". Jesus Christ stays with us day and night in the Blessed Sacrament simply because he loves each of us so much that he never wants to leave us.

Jesus Christ exclaims, "Behold, I will be with you always even until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20) Why ?? Because "I have loved you with an everlasting love and constant is my affection for you.

Again, "I will restore you and you shall be rebuilt". (Jeremiah 31: 3 )

This is the message of the Sacred Heart. At the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Paray-Le-Monial France, there is a message inscribed on the wall: "If you believe in my love, if you really believe in my love then you shall see miracles of my love. I will reign in every heart and my victory shall be total and complete for I will reign through the omnipotence of my love in the Blessed Sacrament.

This is what Jesus Christ told Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque to tell the world. The key word is "omnipotent" all powerful. His Heart in the Blessed Sacrament is on fire with love for each person.

 He wanted to make it unmistakably clear that devotion to his Sacred Heart is devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. The Blessed Sacrament is the Sacred Heart of Jesus living in our midst today !!

His appeal through Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque is more urgent today than it was then : "I thirst with such a terrible thirst to be loved in this most Blessed Sacrament".

His message is that the Eucharist is not a thing, but a person, the person of Jesus Christ himself.

In the Blessed Sacrament, he said we would find the most loving of all Father's, our very best friend, with the tenderest of all hearts.

Saint John Vianney saw with his very own eyes Jesus Christ cup the face of each person who visited him in the Blessed Sacrament and give each one a tender kiss of gratitude. " I draw them with hands of love ........ I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks". (Hosea 11:4)

This is the tenderness we find in the Blessed Sacrament from a heart which is the most appreciative of our love. Jesus Christ asked "Who touched me referring to a woman who touched the tassel on his cloak. He wanted to know who touched him because "Power has gone out from me". (Luke 8:45)

Power goes out from Jesus Christ with each "Holy Hour" we make. Each Holy Hour touches his heart and releases his healing love upon the earth until one day there will be a new and a second pentecost.

The "Fire" that will destroy the materialistic world will be the fire of "Divine Love". The Fire of his heart will destroy the cold hatred of this world and establish the Kingdom of his Divine Love (Peter 3:10).

"Perpetual Adoration" will be the cause and the catalyst of this cosmic event.

Credits and References:

1) Could you not watch One Hour with me by Monsignor Pepe Newsletter No - 8  June/July 1998 - Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament.

2) "Letters to a Brother Priest" by Father Martin Lucia and Monsignor Josefino Ramirez.

Forthcoming List of Articles

Dear Friends in Jesus and Mary,

Here is a list of forthcoming Blog Posts.

1. Tender Heart

2. Our Lady of the Holy Rosary- Hope for the World

3. Eucharist- The Presence of Divine Mercy

4. Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe - Patroness of the Americas

5. My Penultimate Post - Alone with Jesus Christ after Holy Communion

6. Divine Mercy Sunday 2016 - A Perspective on the Blessed Sacrament

Note : The Above Post will be my last post on my Catholic Blog - "Catholic Classics Unlimited".

The Blog will continue to remain online.