Tag: Holy

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Meditation of the Day – Reading Holy Scripture Has Its Benefits

“Reading the holy Scriptures confers two benefits. It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man’s attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God. Two kinds of study are called for here. We must first learn how the Scriptures are to be understood, and then see how to expound them with profit and in a manner worthy of them . . . No one can understand holy Scripture without constant reading . . . The more you devote yourself to the study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest.”— St. Isidore of Seville, p. 201

//Catholic Company//

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Minute Meditation – Mary Assumed Into Heaven

Mary is filled with joy as she lies down more tired than usual.  She closes her eyes, and she is inside the new Jerusalem, it seems, that is beyond her home here in Ephesus. She is in a large field that is inside the new Jerusalem, and she is lying down as in a field of golden ripened wheat.  She tries to keep her eyes closed, but the light of the field floods the room where she was trying to sleep, and she is wide awake. She begins to rise.  Or are her eyes still closed and she is but dreaming that His hand is reaching down to her? She is still in the beautiful field but she can still hear John turning in his sleep in the other room, though the sound grows fainter and the light grows brighter around her. The overshadowing cloud is lifting as is she.  She sees John.  He is sitting up in bed, eyes toward heaven, looking at her. He is smiling.  He is lifting his arms as if lifting her, then releasing her like a feather caught on the breath that is the Holy Spirit. Amen. So be it.

— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary by Murray Bodo, OFM

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Meditation of the Day – Christ is True God and True Man

“Christ is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, true God and true man, eternally united with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Just as there can be no separation within Christ’s human nature, so there can be none within His divine nature. Just as we cannot separate Christ’s body from His blood, or His soul from His body and blood, so we cannot separate Christ from the other persons in the Trinity. Time after time, we hear the priest pray to the Father at the end of the opening prayer of the Mass: We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.”— Vinney Flynn, p. 25

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Meditation of the Day – Unite Yourself to Him in Holy Communion

“Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a pale image and likeness of My love.”— Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, 1447

//Catholic Company//

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An Essential Part of Christian Life

No time to pray? Then pray more. There’s a reason it’s an essential part of Christian life. That’s Father Mark-Mary’s advice, and he’s in good company, in fact he’s in saintly company. He recounts a story when Fr. Benedict Groeschel told St. Mother Teresa that he didn’t have time for a daily holy hour, and Mother Teresa told him then he should make two holy hours a day. She understood that prayer isn’t just a nice thing, prayer is a necessary thing. This advice points to the reality that if we have a busy day, we need to pray more—not less. We want to build great things for the Lord, but they must be built on a solid foundation of prayer and communication with God. In their daily journey to become more holy, this lesson has become vital to Father Mark-Mary and the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.