God's Greatest Gift

Happy Feast of Corpus Christi, the beautiful feast of the Most Blessed Sacrament! Here is a photo of the precious hosts on the Hill of Slane in Ireland, before the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

"Even that privileged Apostle, that beloved Disciple, that heavenly Evangelist, though holding a pen or quill that was vibrant with the breath of the Holy Ghost, found it impossible to express adequately for mortal readers the Love that flooded the Heart of Jesus as He instituted the adorable Eucharist; and all that St. John could write of this sweet mystery was: 'Jesus, having loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end.'"
 ~ Fr. M.D. Forrest, MSC,  Heart Afire: Devotion to the Sacred Heart

Father Forrest goes on to say that not only did Our Lord love us to the end of His mortal life, but He loved us to the furthest degree, as it were, the end, of His infinite Love, by giving us the incredible miracle of the Mass. To think that He loved us so much, worthless miserable creatures that we are, that He couldn't bear to leave us alone and helpless. St. John records His beautiful Words: "I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you."

On Saturday the 25th, please celebrate with me the 33rd anniversary of my First Holy Communion! May the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus forgive my many failures, and strengthen me to do His Will for the rest of my days!

Live in the Moment

"In our personal life there are two important times, the present moment and the moment of our death, and gradually the two are drawing together. Closer and closer they come until someday they shall meet, and then the moment of our death will be now." ~ Fr. James J. McNally, Make Way for Mary

(The death of St. Malachy in the arms of St. Bernard at Clairvaux, as depicted in St. Peter's Church in Drogheda, Eire. St. Malachy fervently prayed for the grace to die at Clairvaux (meaning he wanted to retire there), and on a visit to his friend St. Bernard, he became ill and died. We never know the day nor the hour!)

I love how the Catholic Church teaches us to look at death. Since everyone has to face it sooner or later (nothing is sure in life except death and taxes), how awful it would be to go through life in constant fear of something that is going to happen no matter what we do. It reminds me of how we view labor and childbirth. It's frightening and painful, but everyone looks to the result - a beautiful new baby in the world. As Catholics, we look to death; we know it will be frightening and painful, but we know that in the end we will find God -- the One we have been seeking since our creation.

I'm consoled by something a priest told us on an Ignatian retreat when talking about death and judgement. Our personal judgement will take place at the very moment of our death, in the very place of our death. So if we die in a car crash in the middle of Baseline and Central (Phoenix) or Smoky Hill and Buckley (Denver), or Routes 25 and 59 (Monroe, Connecticut), Our Lord Jesus Christ will appear to us right there at that exact moment and judge our eternity.

Somehow that comforts me. I won't be flown up to some huge tribunal somewhere, which I can't even picture, before a whole bunch of angels and saints I haven't met yet, at that first moment when I enter eternity. No, the same Lord Jesus Who comes to me in Holy Communion, and Whose Month of the Sacred Heart we're celebrating, will meet me at that infinitesimal second when my soul leaves my body. I pray that His Mother will come with Him too, to plead my cause....

Jesus, Mary, Joseph, we love Thee, save our souls!
From a sudden and unprovided death, O Lord deliver us!