Too Late have I loved you, O beauty so old and yet so new: Too late have I loved you. You were always within but I was out there in the world and sought you there. I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, but I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you, though if they did not have their existence in you, they had no existence at all. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.”
St. Augustine.
These are words of St. Augustine, late in life, as he reflected on wasted years, regretting that he had not loved the Lord sooner.
May we love the Lord today, so that we never regretfully say,
“To Late have I Loved You, O Lord.”
St. Monica
St. Monica had a wayward child, named Augustine.
He left the church in which he was baptized
And went off to a life of pleasure
Following one cult after another.
And what did she do?
She did not preach or scold or admonish her son.
Rather she wept tears for him.
Tears that God saw.
And through those tears
Her son came back to the Church and became St. Augustine.
Perhaps the greatest theologian in the history of the Church.
So never underestimate the power of tears.
For there is a power in tears.
Stay Awake! Mt. 24:42-51
Jesus tells his disciples to Stay Awake because they do not know the day on which the Lord will return.
There are two reasons to Stay Awake;
Fear or Love.
Those who Fear the Lord, stay awake because
They Are afraid of what He will say and do when He returns.
That they might be punished or worse yet go to hell.
So they wait in fear.
While those Who love the Lord,
Are not afraid,
Because they are waiting for Him with all their heart.
As a lover waits for the return of their beloved.
“As it truly is, the Word of God” 1 Thes. 2:13
When St. Paul preached, he had a lot of competition,
As there were many different philosophies and religions at the time.
What made the Thessalonians different was that when they heard Paul preach,
They knew it was the word God and not of Man.
And so they believed.
We are inundated with information nowadays.
Are we able to distinguish what comes from the mouth of God and what comes from the mouth men?
St. Bartholomew
Bartholmew was born in Cana,
And he brought his His best friend Philip to Jesus
And their lives were never the same.
As they both became Apostles.
This is what best friends do.
They bring their friends to Jesus,
Knowing that their lives too will never be the same,
Once they get to know Jesus.
The Early Church in Thessaloniki 1 Thes 1:1-10
The early Thessaloniki in Greece was very small.
They were the first to receive a letter from St. Paul.
And in that letter he gives thanks to God for
Their work of Faith;
Their labor of love;
And their endurance of Hope.
If St. Paul were to write a letter to your parish church what would he say?
Pope St. Pius X
The motto of the Papacy of Pope Pius X was
“To Restore all things in Christ!”
We must Restore ALL things, not just somethings.
How can we restore ourselves?
How can we restore our families?
How can we restore our Church?
St. Bernard of Clairvaux
St. Bernard once said,
“A saint is not someone who never sins, but one who sins less and less frequently and gets up more and more quickly.”
The path to holiness if full of pitfalls and ditches.
Do not be afraid of falling.
Merely, keep your eye and your heart on Jesus,
And you will find that you,
Miss those pitfalls and ditches,
And fall less frequently as time goes by.
Here I Am Lord; I come to do Your Will Ps. 40
Here I am Lord, I come to do Your Will!
Is that the first thing we say in the morning?
Or do we come up with a list of things we want to do?
Here I am Lord I come to do Your Will!
We say this when we come to Mass,
But when Mass is over and we walk out the door,
Do we return to doing our own will?
Here I am Lord, I did Your Will!
Is this what we say,
When we put our head on the pillow before we fall asleep?
Are you envious because I am generous? Mt. 20:1-16
The definition of Generosity is the willingness to give to others.
No one is more generous than God.
For in the parable God gives generously to every worker no matter when they came;
At morning, noon, afternoon, even the last hour.
Do we limit our generosity?
Do we give only to those deserving and not to the undeserving?
Yet who of us deserves God’s Mercy and Grace.
When we give to to the Undeserving,
Is when we most imitate the Generosity of God!
Easier to Pass through the Eye of a needle! Mt. 19:23-30
Jesus warns us that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.
It is not so much the riches that are the problem as clinging to them.
The eye of a needle is very small,
And if we want to enter the Kingdom of heaven,
Then we must rid ourselves of our possessions.
For the only thing that will fit through the eye of the needle that we can take with us into the Kingdom of Heaven is,
LOVE!
Wherever Christ goes Mary Goes
At the moment her life on earth ended,
Mary was Assumed body and soul into Heaven.
Just as Jesus rose from the dead and ascended Body and Soul into Heaven,
So all those who believe in Him,
Will rise to Eternal Life,
Body and Soul!
Mary is the first, to be Assumed Body and Soul into Heaven.
We will come later,
If like her we follow Jesus.
At the Annunciation when Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary,
The two became so close, so united,
That nothing could ever separate them.
That wherever Jesus went, she went.
From Bethlehem, to Egypt to Nazareth they were always together.
Always Together in joy and sorrow and in exile.
Together for breakfast, lunch and dinner at Nazareth.
Together at their Home in Nazareth when Jesus went to bed,
And together with Jesus when He woke up in the morning.
They were together for everything for 30 years.
She was always with Jesus.
She went with Him to Cana at the wedding feast.
She went with Him as He preached,
She went with Him as He carried His cross,
She went with Him as He died on it.
She went with Him as she laid Him in the tomb.
So since since Christ went to Heaven, in the Ascension.
It only follows
That Mary would go with Him, in the Assumption;
body and soul into Heaven with Him.
If we imitate Mary,
And follow Jesus wherever He goes
From the Crib, to the Cross to Heaven.
Then we too one day will be Assumed into Heaven,
Body and Soul as He promised all those who follow Him.
Feast of St. Maximilian Kolbe OFM Conv.
The Martyr of Auschwitz
No one just walks into Auschwitz unprepared and decides to be a martyr.
The hatred, the suffering, and the horror of Auschwitz tests a person's Faith in God beyond anything he or she could possibly imagine.
Martyrdom is not a single Act such as beheading or crucifixion.
Martyrdom is not a single Choice such as when Maximilian stepped out of line in Auschwitz to take the place of another prisoner in the starvation bunker.
Rather Martyrdom is something that flows from the many Acts and Choices of embracing the Cross throughout one's life that culminates in the eventual laying down of one's life for Christ.
Martyrdom therefore is a culmination of accepting the daily crosses and sufferings that come along everyday in life with Faith and thus prepares one for the Ultimate Martyrdom.
Faith is tested when one has a bad day or when one sees something on the news or when one experiences suffering or sickness.
Faith is tested when one is rejected or persecuted or when one's prayer life is dry and difficult.
For some these daily trials and tribulations strengthen and prepare the Person of Faith to be able to accept the Cross of Martyrdom from the Lord.
As was the case for Maximilian Kolbe.
Kolbe's Faith however was not just "tested" in Auschwitz but beaten, starved, gassed and cremated in the ovens that burned day and night.
Kolbe's preparation for martyrdom in Auschwitz therefore had to begin at an early age, with daily trials and tribulations which he Lovingly accepted with Faith and endured with Hope.
