Our Hearts Are Restless

"Desiring to seek his God with all his heart, he did and prospered."  ~ 2 Chronicles 31, 21 I've been worrying this summer about all the stress that comes with college.  Don't get me wrong - I truly love my college and I love the experience I am having there!  However, if you put 450 young people in a close environment, things happen.  Having been through four semesters, I've given up on hoping that this semester will be somehow easier and less stressful than the last.  I know that my junior year will bring the same challenges I've had in the past years, and its own new challenges, drama and stress.  I'm worrying about accomplishing all the tasks that are set before me - from being a good friend and girlfriend, to leading the Legion of Mary as the president of the praesidium, to writing papers and facing a tough theology class.  I finally realized this summer that there is only one way I'll be able to make it through next semester.  The Scripture verse...

From  Divine Intimacy by Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene. O.C.D. 9th Sunday after Pentecost "Do you know how to recognize the moments in which Our Lord visits your soul?  A word read or heard, perhaps even by chance, an edifying example, an interior inspiration, a new light which makes you see your faults more clearly and opens new horizons of virtue and of good - all are visits from Jesus.  And you, how do you correspond?  Is your soul sensitive to these lights, to these admonitions?  Do you not sometimes turn your gaze away, fearing that the light you have glimpsed may ask you for sacrifices which are too painful for your self-love?"

From the Vatican comes the following decree !  Note especially the paragraphs I have emphasized in red and bold . D E C R E E OF THE APOSTOLIC PENITENTIARY according to which Special Indulgences are granted to the faithful on the occasion of the 28th World Youth Day [Rio de Janeiro, 22-29 July 2013] RIO DE JANEIRO DECREE   The Plenary Indulgence is granted on the occasion of the 28th World Youth Day to be celebrated in Rio de Janeiro during the Year of Faith. The Holy Father Francis, desiring that young people, in union with the spiritual aims of the Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, might obtain the hoped-for fruits of holiness from the 28th World Youth Day to be celebrated from 22 to 29 of the coming month of July in Rio de Janeiro, whose theme is: “ Go and make disciples of all nations (cf. Mt 28:19)”, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Major Penitentiary on 3 June, expressing the maternal heart of the Church, from the Treasury of the rewards of Our Lo...

I've started to recite the Lorica or Breastplate of St. Patrick every morning.  It is the best morning prayer for me, since it pretty much covers anything that can happen in a day and asks for the blessing of God on every aspect of our lives.  It also involves Acts of Faith, Hope and Charity, filling the traditional elements of morning prayer.  The imagery and wordplay of the prayer are beautiful - sometimes a phrase will catch my eye afresh and make me meditate on it a little bit.  I needed something that caught my attention in the haze of morning enough to help me concentrate!  Here it is below, as I wanted to share it.  Thanks are merited by Dr. O'Donnell for giving us a copy of the prayer at summer program and then in History 101.  I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, Through a belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness Of the Creator of creation. I arise today Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism, Thr...

II. The Mysteries of Jesus’ Infancy and Hidden Life The preparations 522       The coming of God’s Son to earth is an event of such immensity that God willed to prepare for it over centuries. He makes everything converge on Christ: all the rituals and sacrifices, figures and symbols of the “First Covenant.” 195 He announces him through the mouths of the prophets who succeeded one another in Israel. Moreover, he awakens in the hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of this coming. (711, 762) 523       St. John the Baptist is the Lord’s immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to prepare his way. 196 “Prophet of the Most High,” John surpasses all the prophets, of whom he is the last. 197 He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother’s womb welcomes the coming of Christ, and rejoices in being “the friend of the bridegroom,” whom he points out as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” 198 Going before Jesus “in the spirit and power of Elijah,” John bears witness t...

II. The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit The proper name of the Holy Spirit 691    “Holy Spirit” is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father and the Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in the Baptism of her new children. 16 The term “Spirit” translates the Hebrew word  ruah,  which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God’s breath, the divine Spirit. 17  On the other hand, “Spirit” and “Holy” are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms “spirit” and “holy.” Titles of the Holy Spirit 692    When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the “Paraclete,” l...

III. The Christian Name 2156 The sacrament of Baptism is conferred “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  In Baptism, the Lord’s name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint, that is, of a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord. The patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intercession. The “baptismal name” can also express a Christian mystery or Christian virtue. “Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to see that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment.”  (232, 1267) 2157 The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior’s grace which lets him act in the Spirit as a child of the Father. The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations an...

Paragraph 1. Christ Descended into Hell 632    The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was “raised from the dead” presuppose that the crucified one sojourned in the realm of the dead prior to his resurrection. 478 This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to Christ’s descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits imprisoned there. 479 633    Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, “hell” — Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek—because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. 480 Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or righteous, while they await the redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was received into “Abraham’s bosom”: 481 “It is precisely these holy souls, who a...

I. “In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” 232       Christians are baptized “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” 53 Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the Son, and the Spirit: “I do.” “The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity.” 54 (189, 1223) 233       Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: not in their names, 55 for there is only one God, the almighty Father, his only Son, and the Holy Spirit: the Most Holy Trinity. 234       The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith.” 56 The whole history of salvation is identical with the history o...

My new goal is over the next months, (as soon as I am done with my current spiritual reading, Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen) to read the entire Catechism of the Catholic Church .  For a start, I figured I would post a little bit on this blog as often as I can.  Today, I present a paragraph from the CCC on a topic picked somewhat at random - here's the paragraph on the Angels.  I. The Angels The existence of angels—a truth of faith 328       The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls “angels” is a truth of faith. The witness of Scripture is as clear as the unanimity of Tradition. (150) Who are they? 329       St. Augustine says: “’Angel’ is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit,’ from what they do, ‘angel.’” 188 With their whole beings the angels are servants and messengers of God. Because th...