August 28: Feast of St. Augustine

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“The bread is Christ’s body; the cup is Christ’s blood. If you, therefore, are Christ’s body and members, it is your own mystery that is placed on the Lord’s table! It is your own mystery that you are receiving! Be a member of Christ’s body, then, so that your ‘Amen’ may ring true! Be what you see; receive what you are.” ~St. Augustine

For What Do We Hunger?

HungryFor-Fish

“One of the most fundamental problems in the spiritual order is that we sense within ourselves the hunger for God, but we attempt to satisfy it with some created good that is less than God. Thomas Aquinas said that the four typical substitutes for God are wealth, pleasure, power, and honor. Sensing the void within, we attempt to fill it up with some combination of these four things, but only by emptying out the self in love can we make the space for God to fill us.” ~Father Robert Barron

The Miracle of Everlasting Coincidence

“Progress is Providence without God. That is, it is a theory that everything has always perpetually gone right by accident. It is a sort of atheistic optimism, based on an everlasting coincidence far more miraculous than a miracle.” ~ G. K. Chesterton, Wells and the World State, What I Saw in America

Making Progress May Mean Turning Back

Turn Back

“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” ~C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Having Sincere, Genuine (but not perfect) Faith

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Bubble Rock, Acadia National Park, Maine

“Brothers and sisters, what happened in a unique way in Saint Peter, also takes place in every Christian who develops a sincere faith in Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God. Today’s Gospel challenges each of us: How is your faith? Let each of us answer in our heart. How is your faith? How is it? What does the Lord find in our hearts: a firm heart, like a rock? Or a heart like sand, that is, doubtful, mistrustful, unbelieving? It would do us good to think about this throughout the day. If the Lord finds in our hearts a faith – I won’t say perfect, but sincere, genuine, then He will see in us, too, the living rocks on which He builds His community. For this community, the foundation stone is Christ, the unique cornerstone. For his part, Peter is the rock, as the visible foundation of the unity of the Church; but every baptized person is called to offer to Jesus his or her own faith, poor but sincere, so that He can continue to build His Church, today, in every part of the world.” ~From Pope Francis’ Angelus Address for Sunday, August 24, 2014

This is my godson. He has Down’s Syndrome.

THEO

The photo above is of one of my godsons. He has Down’s Syndrome.

The quote below is from Richard Dawkins.

“Given a free choice of having an early abortion or deliberately bringing a Down child into the world, I think the moral and sensible choice would be to abort. And, indeed, that is what the great majority of women, in America and especially in Europe, actually do.

“I personally would go further and say that, if your morality is based, as mine is, on a desire to increase the sum of happiness and reduce suffering, the decision to deliberately give birth to a Down baby, when you have the choice to abort it early in the pregnancy, might actually be immoral from the point of view of the child’s own welfare.”

My prayer is that by God’s incredible mercy Dawkins will enter purgatory after death. There, please God, he will spend a million or so years in the company of hundreds and hundreds of men, women and children with Down’s Syndrome who will hug and love, laugh and sing, dance and play the darkness from Dawkins’ cold black heart.

Wider Than Ourselves

WIDE LOAD

Grace us, O God,
with the desire to be humble.
We acknowledge you as our source,
the fountainhead of our intrinsic worth.

 

Without you we are selfish,
self-absorbed people
who seek our own comforts and security.

 

By your grace we can rise out of our preoccupations
and grow in compassion for others,
especially the poor and forgotten.

 

Enliven us to live wider than ourselves.
Amen

Go Forth In Peace

Go forth in peace
Don’t fear the darkness,
Your life and ours
Are one in the Lord.
Though you don’t know this road
He walks before you
And waits ahead with open arms
To welcome you.
So lift your eyes
Set down your burden
Make your step light
And greet this day with joy.

When we are weary
And cannot face the morning
He carries us safely
Within His loving arms.
Wherever we go now
We’re never alone.
Wherever we go now
We’re only going home.

~Vicki Armour-Hileman

(Reprinted with permission of the author)

 

Christ stands at the door and knocks… (updated: link beneath icon fixed)

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Christ Knocking At The Door

“Christ is knocking at the door of your heart, of my heart. He calls you and me to rise, to be wide awake and alert, and to see the things in life that really matter. What is more, he is asking you and me to go out on the highways and byways of this world, knocking on the doors of other people’s hearts, inviting them to welcome him into their lives.”                 ~Pope Francis, August 15, 2014