Eucharist

Mass reflection

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, and grant us peace in our day. In your mercy keep us free from sin and protect us from all anxiety as we wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

From friary days, Father David Mary stressed that I must own this part of the mass. It was for me. His words embraced my affliction of alcoholism. The words follow the Lord’s Prayer, occuring after we rose from kneeling in reverence of the bread and wine being transfigured into the Body and Blood, in preparation to receive communion, before communally praising the omnipotence and omnipresence of Our Lord and the exchanging of charity with our neighbors. It is the time, even to a greater degree than the opening penitential rites, that I center myself deeply in humility and gratitude, forgetting myself, enraptured in smallness, moving past self-consciousness, enveloped in love, eager with hope, quieted through faith. The only way I can truly own anything is through weakness and surrender, through faith and hope, supplicating the Lord, trusting His love will provide what I need.

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Eucharist

No place
No one.
Nothing.
Provides the peace of Presence.
Faith, hope, charity darkening.
No place.
No one.
Nothing.
Means anything,
While everything demands,
Calling forth accountability,
Chores must be complete.
Moral integrity grounded.
Before passion pursuing ensues fruitfully.
No place.
No one.
Nothing.
Possesses priority ownership.
I am Yours.
Melting before You.
Aggressively passive.
Like a bride benumbed in splendor.
Waiting silently and blessedly dumb.
Rapture rewarding stillness.
Adoring the proper negation.
Avoiding imagination.
Tears of joy.
Tears of not knowing.
Tears of brokenness mending.
Your penetrating love pains.
Wounding to the core.
How can I serve You?
“Prayers for all in purgatory”.
“Prayers for all in purgatory”.
“Prayers for all in purgatory”.
Allow me to slay my fears
This is not a flight of fancy
Sharpening acuteness,
All efforts providing grace.
Lord it is all upon You.
Obedient,
Abstinent,
Acquiesced,
I am an infant in Your arms.
Allow my love of contemplation,
The fulfilling of a mission,
To serve a greater purpose.
Love longing,
I have nowhere else to go.

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Ecce Panis Angelorum

1. Ecce Panis Angelorum,            1. Behold the Bread of Angels
Factus cibus viatorum                     made the Food of wayfarers,
Vere panis filiorum,                         Truly the bread of children,
Non mittendus canibus.                   not to be given to the dogs.

2. In figuris praesignatur,             2. Presignified by figure,
Cum Isaac immolatur,                    When Isaac was immolated,
Agnus Paschae deputatur,              the Paschal Lamb was commanded,
Datur manna patribus.                    Manna was given to the fathers.

3. Bone pastor, panis vere,         3. Good shepherd, true Bread,
Jesu, nostri miserere:                     Jesus, have mercy on us:
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,                Feed us, protect us,
Tu nos bona fac videre                   Make us to see good things
In terra viventium.                          in the land of the living.

4. Tu qui cuncta scis et vales,    4. Thou who knowest and willest all things,
Qui nos pascis hic mortales:          Who feeds us mortals by This:
Tuos ibi commensales,                  Make thine own to be partakers of,
Coheredes et sodales                    coheirs and citizens in
Fac sanctorum civium.                  that holy City of Saints.
Amen.                                         Amen.

“Behold the Bread of Angels” – this is often used as a Benediction hymn, for obvious reasons. It recalls how the mystery of the Eucharist was signified by many events in the Old Testament – the immolation of Isaac, the Paschal Lamb, the manna given to the fathers in the desert. It then proceeds to ask Jesus for the grace to save our souls, so that we can join the citizens of Heaven, seeing Him forever in “the land of the living”.

This is only the last 4 stanzas of the famous hymn, “Lauda Sion”, written by St. Thomas Aquinas before the year 1274. It is the sequence for Corpus Christi, the great feast of the Body of Christ when the Church turns our attention to the great Gift of the Eucharist. Jesus gave us this precious Gift of Himself so that He might always be with us.

–Special attention Ann Marie

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Build Your Secret Slowly

A beautiful St Clare, as she was always witnessed to be, sheds tears in Brother Sun, Sister Moon.

If you want your dream to be
Take your time go slowly
Do few things
But do them well
Heartfelt work grows purely
If you want to live life free
Take your time go slowly
Do few things but do them well
Heartfelt work grows purely
Day by day
Stone by stone
Build your secret slowly
Day by day
You’ll grow to
You’ll know heaven’s glory
If you want your dream to be
Take your time go slowly
If you want to live life free
Take your time go slowly
Small beginnings, bigger ends
Heartfelt work grows purely
Do few things but do them well
Heartfelt joys are holy

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St Clare words

“Gaze upon Him, consider Him, contemplate Him, as you desire to imitate Him”.

“Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.”

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Succinct

Expressing gratitude
Absent words
Through
With
In
My Lord
Adoring
A gaze

Adoration II

Inspired by Contemplative in the Mud. An authentic approach shared by an admirable individual.

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