Forgotten Truths To Set Faith Afire!

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons ) Each morning we priests hold in our hands the Christ, who shed blood from His veins, tears from His eyes, sweat from His body to sanctify us.  How we should be on fire with that love, that we may enkindle it in others! Ven. Fulton J. Sheen

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons )                      When the Host is held on high and a chalice lifted…look up! Look up and see what Mary saw.  See a naked man squirming as He bleeds against a blackened sky; see a battered human body, writhing on a tree, prisoned there by savage spikes that have torn through Sacred hands and feet; see thorn-tortured head tossing from side to side as anguished torso labors, lifts and strains; see the eyes of God roll towards heaven beseeching, as broken lips blurt out that soul piercing cry: “My God, My God, Why has Thou forsaken Me?” What is this?  This is the Mass.  This is Crucifixion.  This is what Mary saw at the elevation of Christianity’s first Mass.  This is what you should see at the Elevation of every Mass!  Father M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons) They also are far from being virtuous, who in time of trouble or adversity, give themselves up to despondency and do not place their confidence in Me as they ought.   Thomas a Kempis

(Image osurce: Wikimedia Commons ) Love and fear of God!  These are two strong castles from which we can wage war on the world and on the devils.   St. Teresa of Avila

(Photo©Michael Seagriff) The message of our Lady at Lourdes was: Do penance; the same words were repeated at Fatima: Do penance.   But how often is penance preached?   The current tendency is rather to downgrade the need for penance, to reduce the severity of the fasts and the number of days of obligatory fasting.   To make religion comfortable, however, is enough to make the Angel cry out again to any church like Ephesus: Repent and go back to the old ways (Revelation 2: 5).  (Ven.Fulton J. Sheen)