St. Francis of Paola, Confessor, A.D. 1508.
by VP
Posted on Wednesday April 02, 2025 at 12:00AM in Saints
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, St. Francis of Paola
"From his youth he seemed inflamed with the Holy Spirit; for, retiring into a desert, he spent six years in great austerity, with almost continued prayer and divine contemplation. Pray especially for young persons, that God would diminish in them excessive fondness for the world and themselves, and give them a true sense of their eternal state, that they may not admire and adore vanity, but God alone. And if any are under your care, reflect on your obligation both to God and them. See that they want no instruction, keep them to their hours of prayer and reading, teach them to employ themselves, oblige them to order and discipline, examine their company and conversation, study to make them easy in a regular life, allow them innocent diversions, but see that they are not fond of what is vain, extravagant, and foolish. By these degrees you may teach them to love God, to have a true esteem for virtue, and to live as becomes Christians. But by following a contrary method, in giving them liberty to gratify corrupt nature, you will concur to their ruin, and find too late their flattered innocence to end in professed vice.
St. Francis being prevailed upon to leave his solitude, for the encouragement of many who desired to follow his example, procured a church to be built near Faula, in Calabria, the place of his birth, and there laid the first foundation of a religious order. He obliged his followers to perpetual abstinence, to go barefoot, and to lie on the ground. And that they might be ever mindful of that humility, which, above all, he recommended to them as the ground of all Christian virtues, he called them Minims, that is the least and most contemptible of all the servants of God. In this method he lived to the ninety-first year of his age, and made a happy end in the year 1508.
Pray for all of this holy Order, that they may truly practice what they profess; that they may
keep up the spirit of their founder, and be an example to all others of
the true spirit of the Gospel. Learn something of it for yourself. The
corruption of your nature can have no better remedy than in a discreet
abstinence from such things as are too favorable to it, in being either
vicious, or disposing that way. Learn never to despise others, but
judge yourself the least and most contemptible of all." The Catholic Year by Rev. Fr. John Gother
Day 29. Lent with the Cure d'Ars: Catechism on Communion
by VP
Posted on Wednesday April 02, 2025 at 12:00AM in Lenten Sermons
"To sustain the soul in the pilgrimage of life, God looked over creation, and found nothing that was worthy of it. He then turned to Himself, and resolved to give Himself. O my soul, how great thou art, since nothing less than God can satisfy thee! The food of the soul is the Body and Blood of God! Oh, admirable Food! If we considered it, it would make us lose ourselves in that abyss of love for all eternity! How happy are the pure souls that have the happiness of being united to Our Lord by Communion! They will shine like beautiful diamonds in Heaven, because God will be seen in them.
Our Lord has said, Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. We should never have thought of asking of God His own Son. But God has done what man could not have imagined. What man cannot express nor conceive, and what he never would have dared to desire, God in His love has said, has conceived, and has executed. Should we ever have dared to ask of God to put His Son to death for us, to give us His Flesh to eat and His Blood to drink? If all this were not true, then man might have imagined things that God cannot do; he would have gone further than God in inventions of love! That is impossible. Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy. In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river - he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure - he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can no more be separated.
At the Day of Judgment we shall see the Flesh of Our Lord shine through the glorified body of those who have received Him worthily on earth, as we see gold shine in copper, or silver in lead. When we have just communicated, if we were asked, "What are you carrying away to your home?" we might answer, "I am carrying away Heaven. " A saint said that we were Christ-bearers. It is very true; but we have not enough faith. We do not comprehend our dignity. When we leave the holy banquet, we are as happy as the Wise Men would have been, if they could have carried away the Infant Jesus. Take a vessel full of liquor, and cork it well - you will keep the liquor as long as you please. So if you were to keep Our Lord well and recollectedly, after Communion, you would long feel that devouring fire which would inspire your heart with an inclination to good and a repugnance to evil. When we have the good God in our heart, it ought to be very burning. The heart of the disciples of Emmaus burnt within them from merely listening to His voice.
I do not like people to begin to read directly when they come from the holy table. Oh no! what is the use of the words of men when God is speaking? We must do as one who is very curious, and listens at the door. We must listen to all that God says at the door of our heart. When you have received Our Lord, you feel your soul purified, because it bathes itself in the love of God. When we go to Holy Communion, we feel something extraordinary, a comfort which pervades the whole body, and penetrates to the extremities. What is this comfort? It is Our Lord, who communicates Himself to all parts of our bodies, and makes them thrill. We are obliged to say, like St. John, "It is the Lord!" Those who feel absolutely nothing are very much to be pitied."
Source: The Blessed Curé of Ars in His Catechetical Instructions (1951)
Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen
Source: Lent with the Cure d'Ars Compiled by the CAPG