Remember St. Paul's admonition in Romans 12:20 to heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies, the burning coals of conversion. Let us never miss an opportunity to love our neighbor with both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
O Jesus, meek and humble of heart, make my heart like unto thine.
In this month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I offer this reflection from St. Alphonsus Liguori as a companion piece to my previous post. How often have we despised love and returned ingratitude for the suffering and sacrifices, not only of our Savior Jesus Christ, but of others. How often have we taken for granted the love of Christ and failed to thank Him? Let us get up every morning thanking God for the new day, for everything that will take place in it, for all our blessings and benefits. And let us remember our duty to "love your neighbor as yourself."
Today, the bishops of the United States consecrate our country to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus. May that heart strengthen all our faithful bishops, our good shepherds for whom we are so grateful and convert the hearts of all our unfaithful bishops, the wolves and hirelings, for whose conversion we sacrifice and pray.
Every now and then I write poetry, not especially good poetry, mind you, just flights of fancy. It happens a lot when I'm on five-day silent retreats. Perhaps I'm a bit stir crazy by the fourth day, but I have lots of poems in the back of my retreat journals.
I call you friends because you've touched my life. Some of you with kind comments and promises of prayers I hardly deserve, others with nasty comments that invite me to humility and patience. And then there are the invisible readers some of whom I think also probably pray for me. How much I appreciate you all.
Those who are long-time readers of the blog have seen many articles from my dear friend, Fr. Tom Collins. He contributed numerous guest articles filled with wisdom and Catholic truth. What a gift!
Father had a stroke recently and died of complications on Monday. How much he will be missed.
So here I am since 2:30 a.m. wide awake and wishing I weren't. And yet, so many of the saints spent their nights in prayer. Sad to say, I'm more likely to be doing the cryptogram or sudoku puzzles in the Epoch Times in the middle of the night. And sometimes, I do the worst thing for sleep. I turn on the computer.
This morning my computer search took me to a saint whom I've never studied, Hildegard of Bingen. This 12th century saint, abbess and doctor of the church, intrigues me. Not only that, but I had to laugh when I came across this snippet of information:
While the secular world celebrates June as sodomy month, a sin that cries to heaven for vengeance; Catholics celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus. So here are a few quotes from the saints on which to meditate. The Sacred Heart graphically reveals to us the tremendous love of Jesus Christ for sinful men. May we express our gratitude by offering all our wounds to Him in atonement for our sins.
Every wedding we attend reminds me of our own wedding back in 1969, but family weddings are special. What struck me today during my morning prayer was the memory of the nuptual blessing -- that you might see your children and your children's children.
I've been reflecting for the past few days on the accusations against the rector of the diocesan cathedral, Fr. Patrick Posey. An accuser has come forth claiming abuse over thirty years ago. I don't know Fr. Posey personally, but his reputation from friends who do know him is praiseworthy. So here we have someone come forth with thirty-year-old accusations. No matter how this resolves, Fr. Posey will always be under a cloud. How do you disprove something that supposedly happened thirty years ago, especially in an era of the lie? And what's the quote about a lie traveling around the world before the truth gets out of bed?
