Everyone Of Us Is A Temple of God [St Caesarius]

My fellow Christians, today is the birthday of this church, an occasion for celebration and rejoicing. We, however, ought to be the true and living temple of God. Nevertheless, Christians rightly commemorate this feast of the church, their mother, for they know that through her they were reborn in the spirit. At our first birth, we were vessels of God’s wrath; reborn, we became vessels of his mercy. Our first birth brought death to us, but our second restored us to life.

Feast of St Paul of the Cross

"Everything is contained in the Passion of Jesus. Do your best to stay hidden in the wounds of Jesus. In this way you will become rich in everything that is good and filled with God’s true light, so that you will be able to fly to perfect holiness. Be as simple as a child: always see the best in everyone and, with good intention, excuse the one who hurts you, seeing whatever harm he does as the result of some temptation. What destroys community is judging other people’s actions while losing sight of one’s own." - In the Heart of God, the Spiritual Teaching of St. Paul of the Cross

I Am God's Wheat [St Ignatius of Antioch]

I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way. I plead with you: show me no untimely kindness. Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God. I am God’s wheat and shall be ground by their teeth so that I may become Christ’s pure bread. Pray to Christ for me that the animals will be the means of making me a sacrificial victim for God.

The Bad Are Many And The Good Few [St Gregory the Great]

"In the Church, the bad are many and the good few"

From the Gospel for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost according the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite - Matthew 22:11-14: And the king went in to see the guests and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment, and he saith to him: "Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment?" But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: "Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." For many are called, but few are chosen.

The Sufferings Of This Present Time [St Cyprian]

The sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us. Who would not strive wholeheartedly to attain to such glory, to become a friend of God and straightway rejoice with Christ, receiving heavenly rewards after earth's torment and suffering?

Many Kinds of Martyrdom [St Ambrose]

As there are many kinds of persecution, so there are many kinds of martyrdom. Every day you are witnesses to Christ. You were tempted by the spirit of fornication, but feared the coming judgment of Christ and did not want your purity of mind and body to be defiled: you are a martyr of Christ. You were tempted by the spirit of avarice to seize the property of a child and violate the rights of a defenseless widow, but remembered God’s law and saw your duty to give help, not act unjustly: you are a witness to Christ. Christ wants witnesses like this to stand ready, as Scripture says: Do justice for the orphan and defend the widow. You were tempted by the spirit of pride but saw the poor and needy and looked with loving compassion on them, and loved humility rather than arrogance: you are a witness to Christ. What is more, your witness was not in word only but also in deed.

Feast of St Bruno

St. Bruno was born in 1030 in Cologne, Germany. He became a priest and achieved fame as a professor of theology at Rheims. He decided to leave the world and pursue a life of complete solitude and prayer. He established his hermitage in Chartreuse, near Grenoble, France. Soon he attracted disciples and he established the first monastery of Carthusian monks. Pope Urban II called him to Rome, but later Bruno was able to establish a second monastery in Italy. He died in 1101 at Calabria. This feast is celebrated today both in the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

The Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi & Oblates of the Last Martyrdom

Dear Members & Friends of Transitus,

Today is an exciting day for Transitus Oblates of the Last Martyrdom, as this evening we celebrate the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi - the passing of his soul from this life to eternity - on the eve of the feastday of our patron (October 4). It is also the occasion on which certain members are admitted into Transitus as well as an opportunity for all members to recommit themselves to the life of monks according the Transitus Rule and "School of Perfection" either as a Postulant, Novice, Guest, or fully admitted Oblate.

In the Heart Of The Church I Will Be Love

Ah! my Jesus, pardon me if I am unreasonable in wishing to express my desires and longings which reach even unto infinity. Pardon me and heal my soul by giving her what she longs for so much!

To be Your Spouse, to be a Carmelite, and by my union with You to be the Mother of souls, should not this suffice me? And yet it is not so. No doubt, these three privileges sum up my true vocation: Carmelite, Spouse, Mother, and yet I feel within me other vocations. I feel the vocation of THE WARRIOR, THE PRIEST, THE APOSTLE, THE DOCTOR, THE MARTYR. Finally, I feel the need and the desire of carrying out the most heroic deeds for You, 0 Jesus.

Feast of St Matthew

Because he saw him
through the eyes of mercy...

Jesus saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him: Follow me. Jesus saw Matthew, not merely in the usual sense, but more significantly with his merciful understanding of men.

He saw the tax collector and, because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him, he said to him: Follow me. This following meant imitating the pattern of his life – not just walking after him. St. John tells us: Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Transitus Oblates & The Stigmata

LETTER FROM THE SUPERIOR GENERAL #1
“Transitus has gone public!”
September 17, 2007 Original >>

“Two years before his death, while at prayer on Mount Alverna, the Seraphic Patriarch St. Francis of Assisi, was rapt in contemplation, and received in his own body the impression of the sacred wounds of Christ. Pope Benedict XI ordered the Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis to be observed on September 17. Pope Paul V extended it to the whole Catholic world.” (Roman Missal)                                 

Life Is Christ, Death Is Gain [Chrysostom]

The waters have risen and severe storms are upon us, but we do not fear drowning, for we stand firmly upon a rock. Let the sea rage, it cannot break the rock. Let the waves rise, they cannot sink the boat of Jesus. What are we to fear? Death? Life to me means Christ, and death is gain. Exile? ‘The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord. The confiscation of goods? We brought nothing into this world, and we shall surely take nothing from it. I have only contempt for the world’s threats, I find its blessings laughable. I have no fear of poverty, no desire for wealth. I am not afraid of death nor do I long to live, except for your good. I concentrate therefore on the present situation, and I urge you, my friends, to have confidence.

The Most Unlikely Person

Today's First Reading: 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 12 -14

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true child in faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry. I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief. Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.