Seek His Face

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A small note to all who read this little blog. His Eminence Cardinal Justin Rigali has decided to send me to Rome for further studies in the area of Spirituality, therefore, it seems best that at this time I cease posting reflections on this blog. It would be most appropriate for me to be totally dedicated to my studies. I will leave the blog online as long as it seems proper. As I leave this little online apostolate, I entrust everything, and all of you, to the care of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Knowing that Our Lady is all good and all loving, I am confident that when we entrust everything to Her, that everything in turn will be entrusted to Our Blessed Lord. The purpose of this blog was to offer daily spiritual reflections and occasional catecheses that would hopefully serve to draw all of us closer to God. It was my hope that this webpage would be an extension of what the Good God has already called me to do in His service as a parish priest. Above all, it was my hope that this little work would bring greater glory to God (Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam)! A sincere note of gratitude to all who have faithfully read these reflections and even contributed their own thoughts and reflections. Let us now pray for each other in the hope that God will bless us and give us holiness of life, so that we might persevere in our vocations until death.

May God bless and keep you!

Sincerely in Christ,

Father Check

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Prayer of Protection

Virgin Most Holy, Mother of the Word Incarnate,

treasurer of graces, and refuge of us, poor sinners!

We have recourse to thy maternal love with lively faith,

and we beseech thee

for the grace ever to do the holy will of God.

We give our hearts into thy most holy hands,

begging thee for health of soul and body.

We firmly hope that thou,

our most loving Mother, wilt hear us.

Wherefore with lively faith, we say: Hail Mary, etc. (three times).

Amen.

The Ascension of Our Lord

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The Solemnity

of the

Ascension of Our Lord

After Our Lord's Resurrection, He remained for forty days with His Apostles, and this is a wonderful and beautiful reminder of Our Lord's love and mercy. The last time that Christ had been with the Apostles as a whole was in the Upper Room for the Last Supper. He was with a smaller group during His Agony in the Garden. And when He went to the Cross still an even smaller group, which included His Mother Mary, Saint Mary Magdalen and Saint John the Beloved Apostle. The Apostles fled in fear and they were hiding, and yet when Our Lord appears to them and stands in their midst, even though the doors where locked, He does not condemn them but gives them the gift of His peace. He does not give peace as the world gives it, He gives the peace of heaven, which is not like any other in this world. And then He remains with them for forty days, teaching them all things necessary for the proclamation of the Gospel and for building up of His Church. Our Lord's earthly mission would now pass to His Apostles and His priestly powers would be given to them, His first priests, and His work of sanctifying the world given to all the Church. On this day, we commemorate the day when Our Lord returned to the bosom of His Father, so that the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, might come from the Father, and this Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son, would remain with the Church until the end of time and guide her into all truth. Our Lord's saving work, which began visibly at the Incarnation and which culminated in the Crucifixion and Resurrection, now finds its fulfillment as the Son is received into the glory of the Father. His Sacrifice has been received and now Christ will reign forever over the entire universe as Christ the King. His triumph is also the triumph of the whole Mystical Body, the Church, which at the last day, Christ will present in all its beauty and perfection to Our Father. We can all contribute in some way to that beauty and that final perfection by allowing the garce of God to transform the whorld through us. We can give glory to God and help to save souls by fulfilling our vocations. We can make the world a better place by allowing the peace of Christ to descend into our hearts and then we can bring that peace, the peace of Heaven, that which only Christ can give, to all the world. There is much that we can do, if only we cooperate with God's grace! May the grace of God sustain us and make us strong. May the grace of God purify us and make us clean. May the grace of God keep us faithful until the very end. And may the Ascension of Our Lord inspire us sanctify the world by living only for heaven. Amen.

Holy Martyrs

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Today the Church is celebrating the memorial of the martyrs Saints Nereus, Achilleus, Domitilla and Pancras. Nereus and Achilleus were both baptized by Saint Peter and and are mentioned in the Gospel. They were servants of Flavia, who was the niece of the Roman Emperor. Domitilla was the granddaughter of Flavia and she had vowed her virginity to Christ. All three suffered martyrdom around the year 100 A.D. Pancras was martyred in Rome at the age of fourteen. he was martyred in the year 304 for refusing to sacrifice to idols. While little is know about the lives of these saints, what we do know is that they gave their lives for Our Lord and held nothing back in giving over to Him everything that he had given to them. The Scriptures remind us that those who seek to save their lives will lose them and those who freely lose their lives for the sake of Christ and His name will save them. Let us follow the example of the holy martyrs and give everything to God who has given everything to us! Amen.

Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

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Today I simply offer this passage

from today's First Reading at Mass for your reflection.

From the Acts of the Apostles 16:22-34

The crowd in Philippi joined in the attack on Paul and Silas,
and the magistrates had them stripped
and ordered them to be beaten with rods.
After inflicting many blows on them,
they threw them into prison
and instructed the jailer to guard them securely.
When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell
and secured their feet to a stake.

About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying
and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened,
there was suddenly such a severe earthquake
that the foundations of the jail shook;
all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose.
When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open,
he drew his sword and was about to kill himself,
thinking that the prisoners had escaped.
But Paul shouted out in a loud voice,
“Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.”
He asked for a light and rushed in and,
trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them out and said,
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you and your household will be saved.”
So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house.
He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds;
then he and all his family were baptized at once.
He brought them up into his house and provided a meal
and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God.

Convocation

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His Eminence, Cardinal Justin Rigali, is gathering together all the active diocesan priests of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for a special convocation as part of the Church's Year for Priests. The Keynote Speaker will be Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, and there will also be a talk given by Bishop Louis DeSimone, Retired Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia. The convocation begins today and will go until Wednesday. Please continue to keep all priests in your prayers and especially during these three days as we gather with our Archbishop and Shepherd and ask God to enrich, sustain and renew us with His Sacred Presence.

In order to view this video it is best to stop the music that is playing in the background. Scroll down to the music player near the bottom and hit the pause button, that will stop the music so that the video can be viewed without hindrance.

God Bless you!

The above video comes from: www.catholictv.com

Happy Mother's Day

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Happy Mother's day to all Mothers!

May Our Blessed Mother watch over you and protect you!




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Next to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Monica is one of the best examples of Christian motherhood. For years, she prayed for the conversion of her only son. Her persistence was answered with abundant grace: Her son, Augustine, became a saint and a doctor of the Church.

Saint Monica faced a culture in which Christianity had not yet fully taken hold; we live in a culture in which Christianity is increasingly marginalized and children are pulled from the Faith. This prayer for her intercession, therefore, is particularly appropriate today.

Prayer to St. Monica
Exemplary Mother of the great Augustine,
you perseveringly pursued your wayward son
not with wild threats
but with prayerful cries to heaven.
Intercede for all mothers in our day
so that they may learn to draw their children to God.
Teach them how to remain close to their children,
even the prodigal sons and daughters
who have sadly gone astray.
Amen

Mary, Our Mother

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"The lives of the saints are not limited to their earthly biographies but also include their being and working in God after death. In the saints one thing becomes clear: those who draw near to God do not withdraw from men, but rather become truly close to them. In no one do we see this more clearly than in Mary. The words addressed by the crucified Lord to his disciple - to John and through him to all disciples of Jesus: 'Behold, your mother!' (John 19:27) - are fulfilled anew in every generation. Mary has truly become the Mother of all believers. Men and women of every time and place have recourse to her motherly kindness and her virginal purity and grace, in all their needs and aspirations, their joys and sorrows, their moments of loneliness and their common endeavors."

--Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love), no. 42.

25 December 2005.

Friday's Special Feature

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Friday is our day when we have a special feature in order to spotlight one of our Seminarians. Each Friday we try to learn something about the men preparing for the Priesthood in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. After having listed our Deacons who will be ordained this year, and recognizing that this will be our last Friday with a post, it seems fitting not to continue this Special Feature. In its place I offer you this wonderful link to a list of Vocations Resources, which can be used for families, schools and parishes.

http://www.heedthecall.org/resources.html

Prayer For Vocations
Father of wisdom and love, fill our youth with an openness to Your Holy Will. Help them to discern their vocation and give them the courage to respond with a heart full of generosity and love. Guide their ways, protect their purity and strengthen them to trust Your plan. With the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may they discover their calling and enter the vineyard of Your service with confidence in Your never failing mercy and unconditional love. We ask this dear Father, through your Son and Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen.

Our Day of the Blessed Sacrament

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Each Thursday we celebrate

and honor the Most Blessed Sacrament!

O Sacrament Most Holy!
O Sacrament Divine!
All Praise and All Thanksgiving,
Be every moment Thine!

"Were it not for the constant presence of our divine Master in our humble chapel, I would not have found it possible to persevere in sharing the lot of the lepers in Molokai...The Eucharist is the bread that gives strength... It is at once the most eloquent proof of His love and the most powerful means of fostering His love in us. He gives Himself every day so that our hearts as burning coals may set afire the hearts of the faithful,"

- Saint Damien, Apostle of the Lepers

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"Before the coming of Jesus Christ, men fled away from God and, being attached to the earth, refused to unite themselves to their Creator. But the loving God has drawn them to Himself by the bonds of love, as He promised by the prophet Osee [Hosea]: "I will draw them with the cords of Adam, with the bonds of love" (11:4). These bonds are the benefits, the lights, the calls to His love, the promises of Paradise which He makes to us, but above all, the gift which He has bestowed upon us of Jesus Christ in the Sacrifice of the Cross and in the Sacrament of the Altar..."

- St. Alphonsus Maria Ligouri

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Prayer of St. Faustina before the Eucharist

I adore You, Lord and Creator, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. I adore You for all the works of Your hands, that reveal to me so much wisdom, goodness and mercy, O Lord. You have spread so much beauty over the earth and it tells me about Your beauty, even though these beautiful things are but a faint reflection of You, incomprehensible Beauty. And although You have hidden Yourself and concealed Your beauty, my eye, enlightened by faith, reaches You and my soul recognizes its Creator, its Highest Good, and my heart is completely immersed in prayer of adoration.

My Lord and Creator, Your goodness encourages me to converse with You. Your mercy abolishes the chasm which separates the Creator from the creature. To converse with You, O Lord, is the delight of my heart. In You I find everything that my heart could desire. Here You light illumines my mind, enabling it to know You more and more deeply. Here streams of graces flow down upon my heart. Here my soul draws eternal life. O my Lord and Creator, You alone, beyond all these gifts, give Your own self to me and unite Yourself intimately with Your miserable creature.

O Christ, let my greatest delight be to see You loved and Your praise and glory proclaimed, especially the honor of Your mercy. O Christ, let me glorify Your goodness and mercy to the last moment of my life, with every drop of my blood and every beat of my heart. Would that I be transformed into a hymn of adoration of You. When I find myself on my deathbed, may the last beat of my heart be a loving hymn glorifying Your unfathomable mercy. Amen.

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May is the Month of Mary! It is a wonderful time for all of us to consider the Church's beautiful theology concerning the Ever-Virgin Mother of God and it is also an ideal time for all of us to recommit ourselves to God through His Mother and ours. Below are three short excerpts from the Introductory section of the Treatise on True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis Marie DeMontfort. To read more, please follow the link at the bottom
of today's post.

"It was through the Blessed Virgin Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it is also through her that he must reign in the world."

"Mary is the supreme masterpiece of Almighty God and he has reserved the knowledge and possession of her for himself. She is the glorious Mother of God the Son who chose to humble and conceal her during her lifetime in order to foster her humility. He called her "Woman" as if she were a stranger, although in his heart he esteemed and loved her above all men and angels. Mary is the sealed fountain and the faithful spouse of the Holy Spirit where only he may enter. She is the sanctuary and resting-place of the Blessed Trinity where God dwells in greater and more divine splendour than anywhere else in the universe, not excluding his dwelling above the cherubim and seraphim. No creature, however pure, may enter there without being specially privileged."

"I declare with the saints: Mary is the earthly paradise of Jesus Christ the new Adam, where he became man by the power of the Holy Spirit, in order to accomplish in her wonders beyond our understanding. She is the vast and divine world of God where unutterable marvels and beauties are to be found. She is the magnificence of the Almighty where he hid his only Son, as in his own bosom, and with him everything that is most excellent and precious. What great and hidden things the all-powerful God has done for this wonderful creature, as she herself had to confess in spite of her great humility, "The Almighty has done great things for me." The world does not know these things because it is incapable and unworthy of knowing them."


TREATISE ON TRUE DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN
St. Louis de Montfort
http://www.ewtn.com/library/montfort/truedevo.htm

Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter

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The Power of Jesus Christ



In today's Gospel we have these beautiful words of Our Lord, "Jesus said to his disciples: 'Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.'" (John 14:27-31a)

Two lines stand out: "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid," and "For the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father." Dear friends, often times we are struggling with temptations and with crosses in this life, but we let them get us down and discourage us. Discouragement is one of the greatest tools of the devil. He uses it to make us loose our fervor for doing good, such that we don't even try anymore. Be very careful about discouragement because it can either weaken our will for pursuing a good and holy life, or it can distract us. Discouragement is something that we all struggle with from time to time, but let us remember that our real power comes when we recognize our weakness and that it is ultimately by the grace of God that we can do all that is good. It does not depend on our power, but on the power of God. And when we realize that we only have to cooperate with God's grace and allow His power to work through us, than our hearts will truly not be troubled or afraid! And we will know, with great conviction in our hearts, that even though evil exists in the world and even though the ruler of this world is coming it will have no power over us, because Christ is alive within us and the ruler of this world has no power over Him. Amen.

Saints Philip and James

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Saint Philip and Saint James the Lesser

Saint James, was the Son of Alphaeus. We don't know much about him. We do know that he is not the James of Acts, the son of Clopas, “brother” of Jesus and later bishop of Jerusalem and the traditional author of the Letter of James. James, son of Alphaeus, is also known as James the Lesser to avoid confusing him with James the son of Zebedee, also an apostle and who is known as James the Greater. Saint Philip came from the same town as Peter and Andrew, Bethsaida in Galilee.

We know that Jesus chose them to be among the 12 Apostles, two of the 12 pillars of the New Israel, his Church. Like the other Apostles James and Philip were human men who became foundation stones of the Church. They were regular men, with weakness and imperfections and even with sins. But just as the Father is seen in the Son, so the Son was seen in these men. They allowed the grace of God to transform their lives, to set them on fire. Whenever we are burdened by our weaknesses and our sins and even our limitations, the example of the Apostles and of all the saints reminds us that it is by the grace of God that we are able to do good and holy things. No human power, even the greatest, is nothing compared to the grace of God! Holiness and its fruits are entirely the gift of God's grace, and not a matter of human achievement. Saints Philip and James, pray for us!