Father’s Column 7/23/2017

Posted on July 23, 2017 View all news

Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!

A quick reminder, that contrary to the printed parish calendar, there is no parish picnic today. Also, I will close reservations for the Parish Pilgrimage to Italy at the end of August. So if you are on the fence, your time to make a decision is quickly coming to a close. If you are in need of some financial help, please contact me in the office. This week, find a meditation from St. Francis de Sales on morning prayers.  I hope that you find these helpful, and can implement them into your own spiritual lives. These exercises will help you to have a more fruitful and efficacious day to prepare yourself for the blessings and challenges ahead. Our faith is one of the most important gifts that has been given to us by God. We should foster that gift everyday in our prayers, especially as we begin each day. Have a blessed week ahead!

 

 

“Besides your systematic meditation and your other vocal prayers, there are five shorter kinds of prayer, which are as aids and assistants to the great devotion, and foremost among these is your morning prayer, as a general preparation for all the day’s work. It should be made in this wise.

1. Thank God, and adore Him for His Grace which has kept you safely through the night, and if in anything you have offended against Him, ask forgiveness.

2. Call to mind that the day now beginning is given you in order that you may work for Eternity, and make a stedfast resolution to use this day for that end.

3. Consider beforehand what occupations, duties and occasions are likely this day to enable you to serve God; what temptations to offend Him, either by vanity, anger, etc., may arise; and make a fervent resolution to use all means of serving Him and confirming your own piety; as also to avoid and resist whatever might hinder your salvation and God’s Glory. Nor is it enough to make such a resolution,–you must also prepare to carry it into effect. Thus, if you foresee having to meet some one who is hot tempered and irritable, you must not merely resolve to guard your own temper, but you must consider by what gentle words to conciliate him. If you know you will see some sick person, consider how best to minister comfort to him, and so on.

4. Next, humble yourself before God, confessing that of yourself you could carry out nothing that you have planned, either in avoiding evil or seeking good. Then, so to say, take your heart in your hands, and offer it and all your good intentions to God’s Gracious Majesty, entreating Him to accept them, and strengthen you in His Service, which you may do in some such words as these: “Lord, I lay before Thee my weak heart, which Thou dost fill with good desires. Thou knowest that I am unable to bring the same to good effect, unless Thou dost bless and prosper them, and therefore, O Loving Father, I entreat of Thee to help me by the Merits and Passion of Thy Dear Son, to Whose Honour I would devote this day and my whole life.”

All these acts should be made briefly and heartily, before you leave your room if possible, so that all the coming work of the day may be prospered with God’s blessing; but anyhow, my child, I entreat you never to omit them.” – St. Francis de Sales