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11/17/2024

🙏November is dedicated as the Month of the Holy Souls, a time to remember those who have come before us, especially in observance of Veterans Day, in gratitude for the gift of freedom we enjoy.🇺🇸The land of the free, because of the brave. Let us all pray for world peace and an end to all armed conflicts as the season of autumn reminds us to prepare for rebirth when it seems everything is passing away. 🍁🍂 🪁

07/05/2023

You are a beloved child of God. That is who you are. You are adopted into the divine life of the Holy Trinity through Jesus. Just keep looking off and away up to Him. Anything else is a distraction. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life. It’s all Jesus.

07/05/2023

12/25/2022

The Giver has become the Gift, as all gifts are meant to be given away. The best gift we can give to Jesus, the gift He truly desires, is the gift of our hearts, our very selves. The poinsettia is the “flower of the holy night” because it blooms during the Christmas season and resembles a shining Star of Bethlehem, which was first used by Franciscan priests to decorate nativity scenes in the 1600’s in southern Mexico. God shows we can trust Him and have no need to run from a God who became incarnate as a defenseless yet divine infant. Unassuming, the mighty hand of God is outstretched from the manger, to later be outstretched on the cross in love to ransom us. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

12/24/2022

How many things I do when the soul, in so much spiritual and material need, turns to Me, looks at Me and says to Me; “You take care of it”, then closes its eyes and rests. In pain you pray for Me to act, but that I act in the way you want. You do not turn to Me, instead, you want Me to adapt your ideas. You are not sick people who ask the doctor to cure you, but rather sick people who tell the doctor how to. So do not act this way, but pray as I taught you in the Our Father: “Hallowed be thy Name”, that is, be glorified in my need. “Thy kingdom come”, that is, let all that is in us and in the world be in accord with Your kingdom. “Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven”, that is, in our need, decide as You see fit for our temporal and eternal life. If you say to Me truly: “Thy will be done”, which is the same as saying: “You take care of it”, I will intervene with all my omnipotence, and I will resolve the most difficult situations.

~O Jesus, I surrender myself to You, take care of everything.~

Mother, I am yours now and forever. Through you and with you I always want to belong completely to Jesus.

Amen.

12/22/2022

Light and darkness, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever. -Daniel 3:72

12/14/2022

“When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly … we are not disciples of the Lord.”

~Pope Francis

12/12/2022

The most visited Catholic shrine in the world is the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. In the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mary stands on an upturned crescent moon. A sunburst of gold rays also surrounds her. Saints insist we can never love Mary too much, since none of us are capable of loving the Mother of God as much as Jesus, her Divine Son.

12/09/2022

Come, Holy Spirit. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Save us, Jesus, son of David, have pity on us.

12/09/2022

“God who made the sun, also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. All its light is reflected from the sun. The Blessed Mother reflects her Divine Son; without Him, she is nothing. With Him, she is the Mother of men.” -Archbishop Fulton Sheen

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne [Revelation 12:1, 5]

12/07/2022

Today is the feast day of Ambrose of Milan, a bishop whose preaching was a catalyst for the conversion of surpassing sinner and eloquent orator, Augustine of Hippo.

“One of the duties of fortitude is to keep the weak from receiving injury; another, to check the wrong motions of our own souls; a third, both to disregard humiliations, and to do what is right with an even mind. All these clearly ought to be fulfilled by all Christians…” -Ambrose of Milan

“It is not enough just to wish well; we must also do well.” -Ambrose of Milan

“It is a better thing to save souls for the Lord than to save treasures. He who sent forth his apostles without gold had not need of gold to form his Church. The Church possesses gold, not to hoard, but to scatter abroad and come to the aid of the unfortunate.” -Ambrose of Milan

“Nothing escapes God's knowledge. This is proved by the witness of the Scriptures and the analogy of the sun, which, although created, yet by its light or heat enters into all things.” -Ambrose of Milan

“Where a man's heart is, there is his treasure also.” -Ambrose of Milan

12/04/2022

When John the Baptist criticizes the Pharisees as a “brood of vipers”, he’s giving them an opportunity to humbly reflect on the disconnect between their preaching and lofty ideals alongside the daily actions stemming from their hearts. It’s a stern but poignant warning to all of us. We need to eat the locusts in our lives and humbly wait on the raw honey the LORD provides with His presence in word and sacrament.

“It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”
Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility