Bethlehem ---- The House of Bread

Dear Friends in Jesus and Mary,

I would like to wish all Readers of my Blog a Blessed, Joyful, Happy, and Holy Christmas 2016 and a Blessed and Holy New Year 2017.

Bethlehem is the House of Bread that gives us vitality to face Life's ups and downs.

Bethlehem is the House of Bread that nourishes us Body and Soul and makes us yearn for the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ who was born in a lowly manger 2000 years ago.

Bethlehem is the House of Bread that was first nourished in Mary's Womb and makes us spiritually invigorated in the climate of the "Holy Eucharist".

Bethlehem is the House of Bread that keeps us going in a secular world that wishes to take the Christ out of Christmas and all facets of Christianity from this joyful and giving season.

Finally, Bethlehem is the House of Bread that is truly, really, and substantially present among us as it was present among the shepherds 2000 years ago.

Note : See You In 2017.
 

Feast of the Presentation of Mother Mary 21st November 2016

This Feast, apart from its Biblical Content presents lofty and exemplary values and carries on a venerable tradition.

Mother Mary, is called "Temple of the Holy Spirit" an expression that emphasizes the Sacred Character of the Blessed Mother, now the permanent dwelling of the Holy Spirit of God.

The Oriental Liturgy has a most genial expression on this Feast : "The Temple is brought to the Temple".

Mother Mary is truly God's Temple because she is full of grace and because she bore in Her Sacred Womb Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word.

Thus, On this Great Feast Day We exult with great rejoicing in seeing this "Daughter of Sion" consecrated to the Lord. We sing with joy Her very expression : I fully rejoice in the Lord; my soul exults in my God, because He has clothed me with the robe of salvation, exactly as a Bride adorned with Her Jewels.

We look to Mother Mary and imitate her, making of our lives an act of worship of God, and making our worship a commitment of our lives.

Credits and References :

The Presentation
By Father Peter Gatti S.D.B.
Pages 4-5
Don Bosco's Madonna, Mumbai
November 1986

 

A Red Letter Day

Dear Friends in Jesus and Mary,

Today, the 5th of November 2016 is a Red Letter Day for Me in more ways than one. It was on the 5th of November 2013 that I started blogging about the Catholic Faith.

 

In these past 3 years, I have written and posted articles now and then about Known and Unknown Catholic Books, but specially about Known and Unknown Catholic Feast Days and Solemnities as well as about Known and Unknown Catholic Personalities from the 1200's to the 20th Century.

 

I thank everyone who has appreciated my Blog in more ways than one specially those who have visited it again and again.

 

Please visit my Blog as often as you can.

Our Lady of the Golden Heart

Beauraing is a quiet little village in the country of Belgium on the border with France.

It was there that on the evening of November 29, 1932 the Blessed Mother appeared to 3 Brothers -- Albert, Gilbert, and Ferdinanda Voisin and to two sisters Andreina and Gilberta.

It is difficult to attribute a particular message to the apparitions of Beauraing.

It could be said that the messages at Beauraing are a continuation of the messages given at Lourdes and Fatima.

The Blessed Mother, when she appeared in Beauraing showed her golden heart from which radiated rays of light.

She called upon people to come there in pilgrimage so that sinners could be converted.

In 1943, the Bishop of Namur permitted the cult of Our Lady of Beauraing. In 1945, He Blessed a Statue of the Madonna and in 1949 he recognized the supernatural character of the Apparitions.

In 1947, the construction of a Chapel commenced which led to the garden of the apparitions with specific Marian Motifs.

In 1968, a Huge Church was constructed which accommodates 5,000 people preserving the ambience of the place of the apparitions.

Beauraing, in recent years like nearby Banneux was established as one of the most important shrines in  Belgium, a place of pilgrimage for people from all over the world.

It has prayerful and sober celebrations allowing pilgrims to reflect deeply and pray fervently.

Credits and References :

The Virgin of the Golden Heart
By Don Mario Morra
Pages 28-29
Don Bosco's Madonna, Mumbai
November 2015
Vol- 17, N0-7 




 

Feast of Christ the King 20th November 2016

This is an excellent in depth article on the Feast of Christ the King.

Christ is truly Our King in more ways than one even though we treat him shabbily sometimes.

This article is excellent in the sense that it explores the History and Development of Devotion to Christ the King from 1925 onwards.

Here is a snippet of the article.

THE Encyclical of our Holy Father, Pius XI., on the Institution of the Feast of Christ Our King is a fitting crown to the devotion and the vast spiritual awakening which marked the Holy Year, 1925.

In fulfilment of the commission of Our Lord to St. Peter, and aided by the light and grace that are given to every man according to his need, the Vicar of Christ addresses words of timely guidance and help to the Catholic world. We need that guidance today. In their greed for wealth, the senseless hurry of business, and the rush for pleasure men forget, then reject, Divine things. Our superficial education, the shallow science and the sensationalism of the newspapers bewilder men's minds. They cannot think steadily and soundly; they are 'tossed about by every wind of doctrine.' They lose Christ not from rebellion, but from indifference.

 

Man-made religions and scientific theories come and go like the leaves from spring to winter, and as they pass they leave men more and more confused. Outside the Catholic Church there is no centre of spiritual authority, no institution that can claim to possess that body of truths which was the legacy of Christ to His Apostles, to be guarded by them for men through all time. There is no other infallible teacher.

 

Man's life must be reasonable, founded on true philosophy. For very many of those who do not recognise the Divine claims of Christ there is a philosophy of life-but it is a destructive philosophy. Its authority is unstable and uncertain, that of a learning which imposes itself on the less learned. It changes as new theories are born, but always leaves greater uncertainty, as it saps the foundations of faith and drives men to religious indifference or to scepticism.

 

Truth is put farther and farther away. Religion, then, and philosophy for such men come to be no more than a collection of words, of hazy definitions, of vague counsels of morality, with no firm foundation. Consequently, the law of sacrifice and the Christian moral code, so clearly stated in the teaching of Our Lord, are rejected, and men accept gladly those theories of conduct only which demand no moral effort and impose no burden of sacrifice. The God of the new philosophies is not real: He is not personal; He does not command. Christ for them is not the Divine Christ, who knew Himself to be God, who loved men, and lived and taught in Galilee with an authority which He claimed as Divine; who confirmed the Divine law and made laws as His own; whose praise and blame are for eternity; whose Kingdom we must enter by the way which He has appointed, through faith, baptism, sacrifice and good works.

 

The Pope, then, calls back the world to Christ Our Lord. In Him alone can man find light and peace. Christ is a Divine Fact. He made a demand on the free will of men, and no proof of a claim to authority was so clear as His. Men are free to accept or reject Him, but if they reject Him the loss is theirs-the law is inexorable. As the death of the body is a fact to which men must submit, and all the thought and all the science of men cannot stop its approach, so Christ is a fact. He must reign. He is the touchstone of the world. If men trust Him, He will be their friend; if they resist Him, they must be broken.

Read the whole article here :

http://www.ecatholic2000.com/cts/untitled-94.shtml#_Toc349935759

Our Sacramental Life

This is an excellent article on the Blessed Sacrament.

Here is a snippet of the article.

THE FOOD OF OUR SOULS

 

THE sacraments, as we know, are outward signs; and they give the grace which they signify. The Blessed Eucharist is received under the outward form of eating and drinking, and this signifies that the effect produced in our souls is like that produced in our bodies and in our natural life by the food and drink which we take. Through the sacrament of Baptism we received supernatural life.

 

Confirmation ratified the consecration given to our souls in Baptism, brought us into closer union with God, and called us to higher responsibilities in the supernatural order. Now every living being needs food, and the more active it is the more its energy needs to be restored and maintained by regular and suitable nourishment. This is none the less true of the supernatural life of the soul. We must grow in grace; we must have strength to practise high and difficult virtues; we must be able to resist those evil influences which are within us and all around us; and we must counteract what we may call the ordinary wear and tear to which we are subject-even spiritually-so long as we are on trial in this world.

 

We may, in a true sense, say that all sanctifying grace which we receive from God is food for our souls, because. by it our souls are strengthened and our supernatural life intensified. But God has given us one particular sacrament which is in a special sense the food of our souls, and the food which we receive in this sacrament is really and truly God Himself. Suppose that we had been allowed to plan for ourselves, and arrange the spiritual helps that were to be given to us to enable us to lead a holy life. Could we ever have dreamt that it would be possible for us to have our souls nourished by the very substance of Jesus Christ Himself' And even if the possibility of such a thing had crossed our minds, could we have dared to hope or expect that God would give us such a gift? Even though His infinite goodness and love were known to us, could we have imagined that God, Who had taken our nature in order to be more closely united with us, would go still further and give Himself to each of us, individually, under the appearance of corporal food?

Read the whole article here :

http://www.ecatholic2000.com/cts/untitled-330.shtml#_Toc349935995

The Gift Divine -- All About the Doctrine of the Real Presence

I strongly believe that it is necessary for Catholics living in Metro Cities all across the world to develop an appreciation for the "Doctrine of the Real Presence".

This is the need of the Hour right now.

The Doctrine of the Real Presence is a "Heavenly Gift" in more ways than one.

Only the Catholic Church has the Unique Distinction of possessing it.

This article, is magnificent in more ways than one as it extols the Beauty and Depth of the Doctrine of the Real Presence.

Here is a snippet of the article.

THE BREAD OF LIFE :

 

ONE day more than nineteen centuries ago a man was preaching to an attentive group in the Jewish synagogue at Capharnaum, a city situated near the Lake of Genesareth in Palestine. He was Jesus, well known to the people of that region as a prophet who taught sublime doctrines and a lofty code of morality, proclaiming them to be the revelations of God Himself. To support His claim, He performed wondrous deeds which evidently could be accomplished only with the miraculous assistance of the Almighty. Even now, as He was speaking, His listeners recalled that two days previously He had fed a multitude of five thousand persons with five barley loaves and two fishes, and some even knew that afterwards He had walked upon the waters of the storm-tossed sea to meet His disciples struggling in their tiny boat. With these thoughts in mind to persuade them that when a man exercised such extraordinary power it must be that the God of truth was attesting the correctness of His statements, the people listened to an astounding promise from the lips of Him whom Catholics acknowledge as the Son of God made man.

 

'I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst. . . . I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, for the life of the world. . . . Amen, amen, I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up in the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him (John vi. 35-57).

Read the whole article here :

http://www.ecatholic2000.com/cts/untitled-173.shtml#_Toc349935838