Friendships, Prayer, Conscience, Honesty

 

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It’s funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox, full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty, bent old tools – friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty – and said, Do the best you can with these, they will have to do. And mostly, against all odds they’re enough. ~Anne Lamott; Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts On Faith

Prayer to St. Michael the Archangel

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O glorious prince St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the house of the Divine King and our admirable conductor, you who shine with excellence and superhuman virtue: through the power bestowed upon you by Christ your King and ours, deliver us from all evil, who turn to you with confidence and enable us by your gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Amen.

Trashing Our Treasures and Treasuring Our Trash

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I have discovered that many of the things I thought were priceless are as cheap as costume jewelry, and much of what I labeled worthless was, all the time, filled with the kind of beauty that directly nourishes my soul.…Now I think that the vast majority of us “normal” people spend our lives trashing our treasures and treasuring our trash. We bustle around trying to create the impression that we are hip, imperturbable, omniscient, in perfect control, when in fact we are awkward and scared and bewildered. ~Martha Beck; Expecting Adam

Finding Christ in Everyday Events

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“If you always try to be heavenly and spiritually minded, you won’t understand the everyday work God has for you to do. But if you embrace what is to come from God, if you live for Christ’s coming in practical life, you will learn that divine things can be experienced here and now, things quite different from what our human brains can ever imagine.” ~Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt; Action in Waiting

The Tree Is Known By Its Fruit

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“The tree is known by its fruit,” says our Lord in the Gospel (Mt 12:33). If our prayer is genuine, it will bear fruit: it will make us humbler, gentler, more patient, more trusting, etc. It will bring all the “fruits of the Spirit” little by little to flower in our lives. St. Paul gives a list in the letter to the Galatians: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . .” (Gal 5:22-23). Above all, genuine prayer will make us love God and our neighbor more. Charity is the fruit and the ultimate criterion of every prayer life. “If I have not love, I am nothing,” asserts St. Paul forcefully (1 Cor 13:1-3). ~Fr. Jacques Philippe; Thirsting for Prayer

Sept 24: Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham

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Our Lady of Walsingham

 O blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Walsingham, Mother of God and our most gentle Queen and Mother, look down in mercy upon us, our parish, our country, our homes, and our families, and upon all who greatly hope and trust in your prayers, especially Corpus Christi Catholic Community. By you it was that Jesus, our Savior and hope, was given to the world; and he has given you to us that we may hope still more. Plead for us your children, whom you did receive and accept at the foot of the Cross, O sorrowful Mother. Intercede for our separated brethren, that with us in the one true fold they may be united to the Chief Shepherd, the Vicar of your Son. Pray for us all, dear Mother, that by faith fruitful in good works we all may be made worthy to see and praise God, together with you in our heavenly home. Amen.

Sept 23: St. Padre Pio

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“A thousand years of enjoying human glory is not worth even an hour spent sweetly communing with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.” ~St. Padre Pio

The Purpose of the Church

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The purpose of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ, that is, to put skin around Christian doctrine–not that we might be walking theology texts, but that the truth of the gospel, in all its radiant and glorious splendor, in all its life-transforming implications, in all its delightful and fulfilling detail, might come alive in us to the glory of God the Father and his incarnate Son. What individual, having once come alive to that vision, could ever again be content to live for anything else? ~Donald T. Williams; Touchstone Magazine, Sept/Oct 2016