Posted on September 24, 2017 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus! Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
Please don’t forget that this coming Tuesday our weekly Catechism classes resume. If you would like your child enrolled, please find the registration forms near the Church doors. To participate, every child must be registered. Any adult is always welcome to join us in Fr. Felten Hall for adult catechism. The first part of the year will be dedicated to the Counter Reformation Saints. Please join us!
Also, on October 7, please remember Peter Sammons and Rebecca Monnin in your prayers as they prepare for Confirmation at Holy Family in Dayton at 10:30 a.m. On October 11, please remember Thaddy Sieverding, Tristan Menninger, Sam Conteras, and Jean Ann Meyer as they prepare for Confirmation at Guardian Angels in Mt. Washington at 7:00 p.m.
It is easy in the midst of life to forget the purpose for our existence, and how noble our soul is. St. Francis de Sales addresses this very question towards the end of the Introduction to the Devout Life. We are called to focus our whole being and energy on seeking out God. May we seek him with all our heart, never allowing anything to get in the way of our pursuit. Our eternal salvation depends on it!
“Consider how noble and excellent a thing your soul is, endowed with understanding, capable of knowing, not merely this visible world around us, but Angels and Paradise, of knowing that there is an All-Mighty, All-Merciful, Ineffable God; of knowing that eternity lies before you, and of knowing what is necessary in order so to live in this visible world as to attain to fellowship with those Angels in Paradise, and the eternal fruition of God.
Yet more;—your soul is possessed of a noble will, capable of loving God, irresistibly drawn to that love; your heart is full of generous enthusiasm, and can no more find rest in any earthly creation, or in aught save God, than the bee can find honey on a dunghill, or in aught save flowers. Let your mind boldly review the wild earthly pleasures which once filled your heart, and see whether they did not abound in uneasiness and doubts, in painful thoughts and uncomfortable cares, amid which your troubled heart was miserable.
When the heart of man seeks the creature, it goes to work eagerly, expecting to satisfy its cravings; but directly it obtains what it sought, it finds a blank, and dissatisfied, begins to seek anew; for God will not suffer our hearts to find any rest, like the dove going forth from Noah’s ark, until it returns to God, whence it came. Surely this is a most striking natural beauty in our heart;–why should we constrain it against its will to seek creature love?
In some such wise might you address your soul: “You are capable of realizing a longing after God, why should you trifle with anything lower? you can live for eternity, why should you stop short in time? One of the sorrows of the prodigal son was, that, when he might have been living in plenty at his father’s table, he had brought himself to share the swine’s husks. My soul, you are made for God, woe be to you if you stop short in anything short of Him!” Lift up your soul with thoughts such as these, convince it that it is eternal, and worthy of eternity; fill it with courage in this pursuit.” – St. Francis de Sales