Homily #080318 ( 13min) Play – “It was night.” Judas went out into the darkness to do his deed of darkness. He did this after receiving communion sacrilegiously, the darkest deed of them all, and Satan entered his heart. Today, in the face of so many sacrilegious Communions, we must do many acts of reparation to dispel the growing darkness.
Ave Maria! Mass readings
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There is no better preparation for Holy Com?munion than to entrust it all to the Immaculata:? She knows best how to prepare our hearts, and thus we may be certain that we afford Jesus the great?est pleasure, that we show him the greatest love. Even without this actual oblation we are hers, because we have dedicated ourselves to her and never revoked our dedication.

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The Immaculata suggests a thousand ways to her children. For example, someone may desire to give her the greatest joy of which he is capable. What does he do? He borrows the most Sacred Heart of Jesus, and then he is sure that he has infi?nitely outrun all men and angels taken together in his love of the Immaculata. In turn, he loves Jesus with her heart, or rather she in him and through him loves Jesus, for example, in Holy Commun?ion.

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Prayer, prayer above all, is an effective weapon in the fight for freedom and happiness of souls.

Only supernatural means lead to a supernatural end. Heaven, or, if I may say so, the divinization of the soul, is something supernatural in the full sense of the word. With natural powers one is in?capable of reaching it. One needs a supernatural means, the grace of God. One gains this grace by humble and confident prayer. Grace, and only grace, illuminating the intellect and strengthening the will, is the reason for conversion, or freeing the soul from the fetters of evil.

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The saints claim that whoever prays to the Mother of God during a temptation will surely not sin. Whoever turns to her throughout life with con?fidence will surely be saved. Much patience and confidence in the Immaculata is necessary, and much prayer in dif?ficulties, or the invocation of the sweetest name of Mary, or “Hail Mary.” In more difficult and more important situations, five decades of the Rosary will not be out of the way. Yes, every difficulty or suffering will change itself into a source of merit.

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My dear brothers, let us remember and often recall that a single turning to the Immaculata will suffice, either by word or glance or only a thought, so that she would repair all that we have ruined both in ourselves and those around us. She will guide us at the present moment and take our fu?ture and the results of our future work under her care. For that reason let us often have recourse to her. ?The entire fruit of our activity in the direction of converting and sanctifying souls depends upon prayer.

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Without regard for what kind of sins we have on our conscience, we can rise from them if only we turn with all confidence to the Immaculata. ?The cause of the Immaculata is to be our ac?tivity. We cannot permit that other purposes displace our main purpose: to win the whole world for the most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Immaculata. Every?thing must measure up to that purpose, because these are divine affairs. Here we need to get on our knees, with the attitude that all prayer, ejaculations, all our imperfections are to be burned for her, so that we love her, draw near to her, throw out from ourselves what is not hers. ?One who cannot bend his knees and beg her in humble prayer to know who she is, let him not expect to learn anything more intimate about her. You know the story of the prayer of Duns Scotus: “Permit me to praise you, 0 Most Holy Virgin; give me strength against your enemies.” ?We see how the first part of this prayer is humble: “Permit me to praise you.” But in the sec?ond part we see how strong and resolute it is: “give me strength against your enemies.” Hence the sec?ond part of the prayer is strength and manliness, strength against one’s enemies.

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Prayer is not for prayer’s own sake, but to help us unite our will with the will of God. Al?ways and everywhere prayer is necessary, but as a means, not an end. ?We are to win the whole world for the Immaculata; therefore we must strongly support ourselves by prayer. If anyone is physically weak, he must nour?ish himself better and more often. In the same way those spiritually sick need more of the nourishment of grace, which can be obtained through prayer. Let us always remember that we will know the Immaculata more in humble prayer and in the loving experiences of daily life, than from learned definitions, distinctions and arguments, even though we are not allowed to ignore these. ?A soul without the spirit of prayer may be convinced that it does much, but it is like a ship that sails very rapidly in order to break itself on a rock.

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I have experienced that only prayer obtains the grace of conversion.

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St Ignatius of Loyola, Founder of the Jesuits

(1491-1556) Feast Day is July 31st

Some Prayers Attributed to Him:

A favorite prayer for after Holy Communion, the Anima Christi:

(“The Soul of Christ” composed by St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O good Jesus, hear me.

Within Thy wounds hide me.

Suffer me not to be separated from Thee.

From the malignant enemy, defend me.

In the hour of my death, call me.

And bid me come to Thee.

That with Thy saints I may praise Thee.

For all eternity. Amen.

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Anima Christi, sanctifica me.Corpus Christi, salve me.Sanguis Christi, inebria me.Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.Passio Christi, conforta me.O bone Iesu, exaudi me.Intra tua vulnera absconde me.Ne permittas me separari a te.Ab hoste maligno defende me.In hora mortis meae voca me.Et iube me venire ad te,ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Surrender (Suscipe)

Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty,

my memory, my understanding and my whole will.

All that I am and all that I possess You have given me:

I surrender it all to You to be disposed of according to Your will.

Give me only Your love and Your grace;

with these I will be rich enough, and will desire nothing more.

Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

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The Lord has shown His great mercy. Enkindle in your hearts ardent desires and burning wishes for Our Lord to come to you in the virtue of His charity, love of the Father, and of every human being. Say with the Royal Prophet, “I opened my mouth and panted.” And your Savior will respond, “Surely I come quickly; you shall see Me very soon.”

Your eyes at the midnight Mass will gaze upon the elevated Host and your lips will utter, “My Lord and my God.” A few minutes more and the little Infant will have come to you. His Immaculate Mother did not hold Him more truly in her arms that first Christmas midnight than you will have Him, Heart to heart. Then all the love of that Infant Redeemer will be poured out upon you. It’s a thirst of the heart of every creature that desires to be loved, and the love which can alone satisfy that craving is the Divine Love.

Let your heart delight in the love your God has for you, personally, individually. No soul ever in ardent fervor desires to unite herself to our Lord in Holy Communion, as our Lord desires to unite Him­self to her. So Holy Communion is a delight to your Infant Savior; because He loves you, oh, how immea­surably! He tells you in His Heart to heart interview that He has become a little Infant so that you may love Him with a human love without fear. He wants you to confide in Him, approach to Him with a con­viction that His Great Majesty is annihilated that you may no longer see in Him but a little Child, with a body and soul just as you have. And the mystery of love is this: that He unites His Body to your body and your soul to His Soul, so that yours may be a member of His very own.

This Christmas Holy Communion will unite you to our Lord, it is my prayer, more intimately than ever before in all your lives so that even the smallest of your actions may by this union be animated with divine Life – and all for the honor of the Father and the salvation of souls. May you participate in His life of charity, and may a divine light illumine you to see the depths and heights of the charity of a God made Man to redeem that which was lost. You participate in the spirit and the immense charity of Christ so as to be born this Christmas to a new life of charity – for “he that abides in charity, abides in God.”

+St. Katherine Drexel

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With each sacramental communion Jesus writes afresh the new law on our hearts. Here we touch upon an important point for the celebra­tion of the Eucharist…To participate in the Eucharist, to communicate with the body and blood of Christ, demands the liturgy of our life, a sharing in the passion of the Servant of God. In this participation our sufferings become “sacrifice” and so we can complete “in [our] flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24).

It seems to me that this aspect of Eucharistic devotion has been somewhat obscured in the liturgical movement and that we ought to recover it. In the communion of suffering, sacra­mental communion is actualized; we enter into the riches of the Lord’s mercy, and from this compassion springs up anew the capacity to be merciful from which come the vocations which make mercy their aim and which are lacking today in the Church.

One final observation. If we have at length interpreted the connection between Supper and Cross, we have in fact all the time been speaking also of the Resurrection. Not only are Supper and Cross inseparable: Supper, Cross and Resurrec­tion form the one indivisible Paschal Mystery. The theology of the Cross is the Resurrection; therefore the Resurrection is the divine response and the divine interpretation of the Cross. The theology of the Cross is a paschal theology, a theology of joyous victory even in this valley of tears. We have shown that the Last Supper was the anticipation of the violent death of Jesus, and that the Cross without the Supper, the Supper without the reality of the Cross, would remain void. Now we have to add that the Last Supper also antic­ipates the Resurrection, the certainty that love is stronger than death. This act of love to the last is the transubstanti­ation of death, its radical transformation, the power of the Resurrection already present in the shadow of death.

The Supper without the Cross, the Cross without the Sup­per, would be void, but the two without the Resurrection would be the wreck of hope. The image of the pierced side, fount of water and blood, is also the image of the Resurrec­tion, of love stronger than death. In the Eucharist we receive this love – we receive the medicine of immortality. The Eu­charist guides us to the fount of true life, of invincible life, and shows us where and how true life is to be found – not in riches, not in having. Only if we follow Jesus on the way of His Cross do we find ourselves on the road to life.

Pope Benedict XVI: Journey to Easter

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Homily #111128 ( 00min) Play – We have the obligation to prepare to receive Him well in Holy Communion – very appropriate for the season of Advent where we prepare for His coming at Christmas.
Ave Maria!
Mass: Ordinary Form – Monday of the 1st Week in Advent
Readings:
1st Reading: Isaiah 4:2-6
Responsorial Psalm: 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Gospel: Matthew 8:5-11

Audio (MP3)

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Homily #120805t ( 07min) Play – Holy Communion is the Bread of Life, it is the food that nourishes our soul. The Bread from Heaven helps us to die to sin. It’s a grace to be in the presence of God.
Ave Maria!
Mass: 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Sunday – Form: OF
Readings: 
1st: exo 16:2-4, 12-15
Resp: psa 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
2nd: eph 4:17, 20-24
Gsp: joh 6:24-35

Audio (MP3)

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