CAPG's Blog 

"There is a passage in the Following of Christ, II., 11, in which a Kempis insists that nothing we can offer to God is acceptable unless we offer ourselves. "If a man give his whole substance, it is nothing. If he do great penance, it is but little. If he attain to all knowledge, he is far off still. If he have great virtue and very fervent devotion, there is still much wanting to him, the one thing which is supremely necessary to him." What is the one thing necessary? "that having given all things else to God he give himself."

Now, man, recognizing the demand of God that we surrender ourselves to Him, boldly retaliates with a demand that God surrender Himself to us. Man says to God, " Thou mayest multiply Thy favors; Thou mayest overwhelm me with gifts, but though Thy gifts, temporal and spiritual, be piled in mountains before me, my heart remains unsatisfied, my soul is discontent. I want not Thy gifts, I want Thee. Pardon, my God, if I speak boldly, I speak as Thou hast made me. Thou hast made me man, but Thou hast given me the cravings of a god. Thou mayest empty Thy treasure-house before my feet. Still I demand more, that Thou give me Thyself. Thou hast made me for Thyself. My heart remains empty until it be filled with Thee."

The answer is the Incarnation and the Blessed Sacrament."

Source: A Thought a Day for Lent, Rev. James M Gilles, C.P.; Paulist Press, 1923.

" There are many Christians who actually do not know why they came into the world. " Wherefore, my God, didst Thou place me in the world? " That thou mightest be saved. " And wherefore wouldst Thou have me to be saved ? " Because I love thee. " The good God created us and placed us in the world because He loves us; He wishes to save us because He loves us. To be saved we must know, love, and serve God. This is now our business. Oh, what a blessed life ! How blessed it is, how great it is, to know, to love, to serve God ! We have nothing else to do in this world. Every thing else we do besides this is so much time lost. We must act for God alone, and put our works into His hands. When we wake, we must say, I desire today to act for Thee alone, O my God ; I will submit to whatsoever Thou shalt send me, as coming from Thee; I offer myself to Thee in sacrifice. But my God, I can do no thing without Thee. Do thou help me !

"Oh, when we come to die, how bitterly shall we regret the time we have given to pleasure, to useless conversation, to rest, instead of employing it in mortification, in prayer, in good works, in thinking of our misery, in weeping over our poor sins. It is then we find out that we have done nothing for heaven.

"O my children, how sad it is! Three-fourths of the Christian world labour only for the gratification of this miserable carcass, which will soon rot in the earth ; while they think not of their poor soul, which is to be happy or miserable for ever. They want common sense. It is enough to make one tremble.

"Men of the world say that salvation is too difficult a work. Yet there is nothing easier: to keep the commandments of God and of the Church, and to avoid the seven deadly sins, this is all; or, if you like it better, to do good and avoid evil.

"Good Christians, who labor to save their souls and to work out their salvation, are always happy and contented; they have a foretaste of the happiness of heaven ; they will be happy for all eternity: while bad Christians, who are losing tneir souls, are always miserable ; they murmur, they are sad, they are dull as stones, and they will be so to all eternity, what a contrast is here? "Here is a good rule for our conduct: to do nothing but what we can offer to God. Now, we cannot offer Him detraction, calumny, injustice, hatred, revenge, im purity, dances, plays, etc ;and yet the world is full of nothing else. St. Francis of Sales said of dances, that they were like mushrooms, the best of them were good for nothing. Mothers say, "Oh, I watch over my daughters"; they watch over their toilette, but they cannot watch over their hearts. Those who have dancing in their houses incur a terrible responsibility before God ; they are responsible for all the evil which is done, for the bad thoughts, the evil speaking, the jealousy, the hatred, the revenge, which are its consequence. Ah, if they did but understand this responsibility, they would have no dancing. Like the authors of bad books, bad pictures, and bad statues, they are responsible for all the evil which these things shall produce as long as they exist. Oh, it is enough to make one tremble!

" See, my children, we must consider that we have a soul to save, and an eternity awaiting us. The world and its riches and pleasures shall pass away, but heaven and hell shall never pass away. Let us take care, then. The saints did not all begin well, but they all ended well. We have begun ill, let us end well ; and we shall one day go to dwell with them in heaven."

Source: Life of Saint John-Baptist Vianney, Curé d'Ars, Abbe Alfred Monnin

The Lord Preserve thy going out;
The Lord preserve thy coming in;
His angels guard thee round about
To keep thy soul from every sin;
And when thy going out is done;
And when thy coming in is o'er;
When in the dear and hallowed place
Thy feet can come and go no more,
The Lord preserve thy going out
From this fair world, from friends,and kin,
While angels standing round about Sing,
God preserve thy coming in.

Source: Young People, 1916

O Face Divine!

O Face most sorrowful yet so benign!

So beauteous still in grief, towards me incline!

O Sacred Eyes!

On which the weight of dreaded anguish lies,

That look must break the heart which Christ denies.

O Lips so meek!

Unless their all absolving word I seek,

Those lips one day eternal doom will speak.

O Sacred Face!

Which mortal hand has dared with prayer to trace,

Thee on my heart with throbs of awe I place.

O Face Divine!

Give me of love returned some blissful sign;

O Face Divine, in grief towards me incline.

Source: Sister Saint-Pierre and the Work of Reparation, Rev. P. Janvier

The principal object of the devotion to the Holy Face is to offer respectful love and homage to the Adorable Face of Jesus disfigured in the Passion; to make reparation for blasphemy and the neglect of Holy Days, which outrages Him afresh; and, lastly, to obtain of God the conversion of sinners and profaners of the Holy Day,

I salute, adore, and love Thee, O Jesus, my Savior, covered anew with outrages by blasphemers, and I offer Thee, through the heart of Thy blessed Mother, the worship of all the Angels and Saints, as an incense and a perfume of sweet odor, most humbly beseeching Thee, by the virtue of Thy Sacred Face, to repair and renew in me and in all men Thy image disfigured by sin. Amen

Source: Veronica, or the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1871

Source: Sister Saint-Pierre and the work of Reparation, Rev. Janvier 1885

Source: Veronica or the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 1871

Enough the blood of victims flowed of old,
The shadows pass, and legal offerings;
Now higher Ministries, Thou, Lord, dost mold,
On which a holier shade Thy Priesthood flings.

Elias from the Heavens called down the flame;
One Greater than Elias, hid from sight,
Is here, obedient to His awful Name;
Of Him we make the dread memorial Rite.

Great Office, the mysterious Cup to bear,
In which the guilty world’s Salvation lies,
And with our trembling hands, full of deep fear,
To offer up the Bloodless Sacrifice.

Oh, more than all to ancient Prophets given,
More than to Angels, if but understood,
That in our trembling hands the God of Heaven
Doth give Himself to be our Spirits’ Food.

Grant, Christ, that we, fulfilling Thy Commands,
Of Thy blest Presence may approach the Seat,
With hearts by Thee made pure, and holy hands;
May love for Thy dread Altars make us meet.

Son of th’Eternal Father, God above,
May all the world beneath Thy Feet adore,
Who sendest down the Spirit, with Thy Love
Thy Priesthood to anoint for evermore.

Source: Lyra Eucharistica : hymns and verses on the Holy Communion, ancient and modern ; with other poems by Shipley, Orby, 1832-1916