Sunday Meditation: Baking Bread and Reflecting on the Bread of Life

One of my sisters (I have five) has sourdough mania. (That's actually the name of a book.) She came for a visit and brought us a loaf of her sourdough bread, which we enjoyed - delicious and beautiful. She experiments with making all kinds of recipes with both the sourdough starter and the sourdough discard.

If you are like me, you never heard of sourdough discard and perhaps have never experimented with making sourdough bread, so let me explain. When you first make the starter, you simply combine unbleached flour and filtered water in equal parts. You add the same amount every twelve hours for seven days leaving the mixture covered with a napkin or towel in a warm place. (I put it in the oven with the light on.) Each time you add the flour and water, you mix vigorously to add air. The starter picks up natural yeast from the air and ferments. On day seven your starter should be bubbly, doubled in bulk, with a sour smell. You "discard" all but half a cup and continue adding more flour and water once a day.

Sunday Meditation: Prepare for Holy Communion and Receive with Joy and Reverence!

In Chapter 12 of The Catholic Mass, Bishop Athanasius Schneider offers a long quote from St. Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist. One could meditate on this passage every Sunday before Mass without exhausting its richness.

The Eucharist, according to the Council of Trent, is a divine antidote that delivers us from common faults and preserves us from mortal sin....Jesus comes to us to destroy the vestiges of our sins, to counteract our evil tendencies, and to prevent the Devil from re-establishing his power over us. 

Of course, we have an obligation to approach the table of the Lord with a proper disposition, ensuring to the degree possible that we are in the state of grace so as not to commit a sacrilege by inviting the immaculate Lord into a literal cesspool. But when we are properly disposed, the Eucharist diminishes all the temptations that plague us and helps us overcome those venial sins that often become habitual and hard to root out.

Some Things Are Worth Repeating: Embrace the Eucharist and Make Frequent Holy Hours

I wrote this article in 2016, long before COVID or the disaster of the Biden administration, or the BLM/Antifa riots, etc. It remains in my opinion the most import thing any of us can do to fight the growing darkness and diabolical evil engulfing us and our children. It also represents the greatest prescription for hope. How can we fear, when we embrace Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. "Fear not, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you a kingdom." Luke 12:32

The Answer to All Our Problems? Jesus and Mary

Does This Help Explain Sacrilegious Communions?

I'm reading Peter Kwasniewski's book, The Holy Bread of Eternal Life: Restoring Eucharistic Reverence in an Age of Impiety. I read several pages each day and reflect, savoring the information and the wisdom. Yesterday I came across something of which I was unaware that exploded like fireworks in my brain! Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi: "the law of prayer is the law of belief," immediately came to mind. Let's see if you have the same reaction. 

I was reading Chapter 13, The Omission that Haunts the Church. Since Vatican II there've been beaucoup omissions, but this seemed especially explosive in view of loss of belief in the Real Presence. Speaking of the expanded Lectionary devised after Vatican II with the three-year cycle of readings, Kwasniewski writes that one would expect that the expanded Lectionary would have:

I Confess It...I'm an Unapologetic Book Censor.

I have a large library of Catholic books. Some of them are terrible! In fact, I have an entire shelf of books for research with a note on the inside covers saying, "Beware, this book is filled with heresy." I also have many post Vatican II books that, while free of heresy, are filled with...mmm...how shall I put this? Nonsense? Or a little less polite...bull manure!

Recently I picked up a book called The New Question Box: Catholic Life in the 80s by Fr. John J. Dietzen, a priest from Peoria (RIP) who wrote a regular column that appeared in many diocesan newspapers and was distributed by Catholic News Service for about 35 years. He died in 2011. After browsing the book I'm less than impressed. No wonder so many post Vatican II Catholics are so ill informed.

Pacino di Bonaguida (1303-1347)

Fr. Tom Collins: "Through Him and with Him and in Him" - The Great Forfeiture

Editor's note: A forfeiture is "the loss or giving up of something as a penalty for wrongdoing." Reflect on that definition as you read Father's column on the "Great Forfeiture." 

Our Lord and Savior gave Himself up as a holocaust on the altar of sacrifice as a penalty for OUR sins, the innocent Lamb of God. And yet, as Father points out, we do not lose Him in the giving up. In His gracious mercy He abides with us still in all the tabernacles of the world even til the end of time. 

Even during this time of pain and suffering and loss of the Mass, when so many churches are actually closed and locked, He remains with us. If they lock us out of our local church (as they've done to churches in Pittsburgh where my daughter lives) I will be kneeling on the steps outside gazing at the tabernacle through the glass doors and praying. May God have mercy on us in this time when the faith of many is wavering as they put their trust in the CDC rather than in Almighty God. Prudence is one thing; fear and panic is quite another.
                             

 THE GREAT FORFEITURE       by Fr. Tom Collins

Our Lover Comes; How Will You Receive Him?

In 2010 I posted this article by a dear priest, Fr. Robert Lange, who went to his eternal reward in 2015. On this Holy Thursday, I think it is worth repeating. I will be praying for Father at the service this evening. I hope you will too. 

And did you know that The Law of the Church is Communion on the Tongue? Receiving in the hand is an indult, an exception to the law, that was given to the bishops of the United States because of widespread disobedience by the flock, disobedience that many of the bishops encouraged. Sad, isn't it, the damage done by false shepherds acting more like the hireling? May we all pray and fast for our bishops and clergy that they will be able to say with Christ, "Zeal for your house consumes me." (Psalm 69:9, John 2:17)

Respect For Christ In The Eucharist – One Priest’s Perspective

[The picture above is of my home in Fort Valley, Virginia, and the light is coming from my chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. There is not light in the window and there is no sun out on the day of the picture.]

by Rev. Robert Lange

Summer 2016 Newsletter Now On-Line

If you like the blog, visit the website. The Summer 2016 issue of the Les Femmes newsletter is now the website and click on newsletter on the sidebar for the latest on-line issue. Here's a bit from the lead article, The Answer to All Our Problems? Jesus and Mary:
on-line. Just go to

The world faces problems these days on an apocalyptic scale. Wars and terrorist attacks, devastating natural disasters, increasing plagues like AIDS, Zika, Lyme, and antibiotic resistant super-bugs, not to mention the anxiety, stress, and depression that accompany modern living. And, of course, we all have relationship challenges among our families, friends, and acquaintances. I’d like to suggest in this article that the answer to all our challenges is simple – increasing devotion to the Real Presence of our Lord in the Holy Eucharist (and, of course, the rosary) and devotion to Our Lady. But I’m going to focus here on the Eucharist, the bread of angels. 

The Fifth Mystery of Light: Institution of the Holy Eucharist

Prayer to appreciate the Mass: O Lord Jesus, in order that the merits of your sacrifice on the Cross might be applied to every soul of all time, you willed that it should be renewed upon the altar. At the Last Supper, you said: "Do this in remembrance of me." By these words you gave your apostles and their successors the power to consecrate and to the command to do what you yourself did. I believe that the Mass is both a sacrifice and a memorial- reenacting your passion, death and resurrection. Help me to realize that the Mass is the greatest gift of God to us and our greatest gift to God.

Putting Jesus Front and Center Where He Belongs!

Thank you, Bishop Paprocki!

Bishop Paprocki: I Direct the Eucharist be Placed in the Center of the Sanctuary

Reverence for the Eucharist

I was thinking yesterday at Mass about why we need an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at our little church. It might lengthen the Mass five minutes if the priest communicated everyone. Is that really a grave inconvenience? Wouldn't it just give us more time to adore our Lord -- especially if the organist and cantor would forego the Communion performance?

My fellow blogger, Terry Nelson, has a post this morning that really hit home.... Check it out.

Another problem which may affect reverence for the Blessed Sacrament

Feast of Corpus Christi: "Unless you do eat the flesh of the Son of Man...

...and drink his blood, you have no life within you." John 6:53

What a great day to read and meditate on the gospel of St. John, chapter 6. Anyone who reads this chapter with prayerful attention can never again talk about he Eucharist as a "symbol." Jesus makes it very clear that He is talking about the bread of the Eucharist becoming His REAL flesh and blood. "For my flesh is real food and my blood real drink."

Some people accuse Catholics of cannibalism, but cannibals eat their own species and the flesh and blood they eat and drink becomes part of their bodies.

It is not so with the Eucharist.

At the direction of God Himself, we eat the Body and Blood of Christ. But unlike regular food which becomes part of our bodies, the Eucharist makes us part of His Body. The "Body of Christ," as the people of God, is never more graphically illustrated than at Mass after Communion. All of those partaking of the Eucharist are one in Christ's body. Our hearts beat as one and we worship as one in Christ. Which is why our Sunday obligation is so important. We cannot be "one body" in the Church if we do not become one in Christ through the unity of the Eucharist. Read about the history of the Feast of Corpus Christi here.

Anima ChristiSoul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Chirst, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me.
Within thy wounds hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from thee.
From the malicious enemy defend me.
In the hour of my death call me and bid me come unto thee,

That with thy saints I may praise thee forever and ever.

 Amen.

What a Wise Little Boy....

with a great understanding of the Holy Eucharist. Don't you hope you can face death with such peace? Garvan, please pray for us.