Prepare your heart

September 13

“The assembly should prepare itself to encounter its Lord and to become ‘a people well disposed.’ The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father’s will. These dispositions are the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward.”

-Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1098

 

Today’s Reflection:

What is the role of the Holy Spirit in preparing us to encounter the Lord through the Sacred Liturgy?

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Spanish Bishops Warn Catholics About Mindfulness

The Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith for Spain’s Bishops Conference has issued a document warning Catholics that they risk abandoning the faith by using mindfulness and other methods of meditation that do not originate in Christianity.

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Season 3 of “13 Reasons Why” Markets Abortion to Teens

As if the controversial Netflix series, 13 Reasons Why, which focuses on teen suicide, sexual assault, rape and violence isn’t bad enough, the show is now incorporating a pro-abortion subplot that whitewashes abortion and makes the pro-life movement look like a bunch of “crazies.”

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Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed

September 12

“O fortunate witnesses to whom the Blessed God, to confound my disbelief, has wished to reveal Himself in this Most Blessed Sacrament and to render Himself visible to our eyes. Come, brethren, and marvel at our God so close to us. Behold the Flesh and Blood of our most beloved Christ.”

-Brasilian Monk in 700 A.D. who witnessed the miracle of Lanciano

 

Today’s Reflection:

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” -John 20:29

Most of us will never witness something like the miracle of Lanciano, when the accidents of bread and wine were transformed into real, physical flesh and blood. But at every mass, we witness the hidden miracle of transubstantiation, when the bread and wine is transformed into the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. Submit your questions and doubts to the Lord and pray for the gift of a deep and abiding faith that lacks nothing.

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New 9/11 Memorial Reminds That the Death Toll is Still Rising

Hundreds of people who rushed to the scene of the 9/11 terrorist attack have died from the effects of the toxins present at the site. The new memorial remembers their sacrifice.

Nearly 3,000 people died in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Towers 18 years ago today, but a newly installed memorial on the Ground Zero site remembers the first responders, survivors, and their families who continue to suffer and die as a result of the attack.

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Divine Love

September 11

“The Blessed Sacrament is the first and supreme object of our worship.
We must preserve in the depths of our hearts a constant uninterrupted adoration of this precious pledge of Divine Love.'”

-St. Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

 

Today’s Reflection:

One way to preserve constant uninterrupted adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is by making spiritual communions throughout the day, turning our hearts and minds toward the Presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. One favorite prayer for spiritual communion is as follows:

An Act of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus,
I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things,
and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment
receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.

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Bahamian Catholics Struggle to Cope After Hurricane Dorian

In the wake of Hurricane Dorian, which devastated the tiny island nation of the Bahamas, Catholics are struggling to cope with the massive destruction of their property and lifestyle, but are relying on their faith to carry them through this dark time.

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Courageous Young Doctor Offers New Age-Free Health Care

Dr. Lisa Marino

Lisa Marino is a young doctor of physical therapy and devout Catholic woman, wife and mother who is using her feminine genius to transform the health of families – body and soul – in an authentically Catholic way. In the following blog, she tells the poignant story of how Our Lady laid out her mission in life to be a wife, a mother, and a faithful Catholic healthcare provider.

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Be vivified by the body of Christ

September 10

“Our sensible appetites, inclined to sensuality and to sloth, need to be vivified by contact with the virginal body of Christ, who endured most frightful sufferings for love of us. We, who are always inclined to pride, to lack of consideration, to forgetfulness of the greatest truths, to spiritual folly, need to be illumined by contact with the sovereignty luminous intellect of the Savior, who is ‘the way, the truth, and the life.'”

-Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life

 

Today’s Reflection:

What do we do if our faith in the Eucharist isn’t very alive? Make one resolution today that you will carry through this week to increase your love and devotion.

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