Endless Flow of God's Grace

 Time Well Spent - Endless Flow of Grace

St Alphonsus Liguori reminds us that among all devotions after that of receiving the Sacraments, that of adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament holds first place, is the most pleasing to God and the most useful to ourselves.  He encourages us to spend some time as often as possible in the presence of Jesus Christ under the sacramental species.

St Alhonsus assures us that the time spent in devotion before this divine Sacrament will be the most profitable to us in life and the source of our greatest consolation in death and in eternity.

We must be aware that in a quarter hour of prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament gains for us more than all the other spiritual exercises of the day.  It is true that in every place God graciously hears the petitions of those who pray to Him, having promised to do so: Ask, and you shall receive (John 16:24); yet the disciple tells us that Jesus dispenses His graces in greater abundance to those who visit Him in the Most Holy Sacrament.

Join your fellow parishioners as they take advantage of this continuous flow of God’s grace by spending time in His presence.  Sign up for a regular Adoration hour on the web site:

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi

“A Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament is worth more than a thousand years of human glory.”  (St Padre Pio”)

Jesus, Let’s Get Together!

Jesus, Let’s Get Together!

If one of your goals for 2023 is to improve your relationship with Jesus, it’s important to realize any serious attempt requires time and patience.  It’s impossible to experience significant progress in prayer without a daily commitment to meet with God.  It doesn’t have to be a lot of time - but daily dedicated ‘time’ is a requirement.  Set aside a small amount (as little as 10 minutes) every day to simply sit in silence and mentally ask Jesus to help you improve your relationship with him.  He not only will help because he answers every prayer, and he sees the effort you’re willing to put into improving the relationship.  God rewards effort.

As you become more familiar with this practice you naturally will add more time to each prayer session because you realize that Jesus is speaking directly to your heart and you want to get the most you can from the encounter.  It is he who is the true answer of life that we all seek.  We begin to fully appreciate that he is God with us, and we should be seeking him without tiring, welcoming him without reserve, and loving him without interruption: today, tomorrow, forever.

As we continue to build our relationship and to improve from the inside out, we realize the next step in satisfying our desire is to experience his True Presence.  The only way to do that is at Mass or in Eucharistic Adoration.  If you’re serious to get closer then it’s time to commit to an hour of chapel time every week. 

Five Reasons Your Resolution For 2023 Should Include Adoration

Five Reasons Your Resolution Should Include Adoration

1. To spend time in Adoration is answering a personal invitation from Jesus to you!  Pope John Paul II in the Encyclical Letter ‘Redeemer of Man’ says “Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love.” Knowing that, how could you keep Jesus waiting?
2. Jesus wants us to do more than go to Mass on Sunday!  Our communal worship at Mass must go together with our personal worship of Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration in order that our love may be complete. (1)
3. In Adoration by way of transforming mercy, Jesus makes our heart one with His.  “Jesus teaches those who come to Him to be like Himself, gentle and humble of heart, and to seek not their own will, but the will of God.” (2)
4. Jesus is infinitely deserving of our unceasing thanksgiving and adoration for all He has done for our salvation.  “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive honor, glory and praise.” (Rev 5:12)  
5. The best time spent on earth is with your Best Friend, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  Pope Paul VI in his Apostolic Letter ‘Credo of the People of God’ says, “How great is the value of converse with Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, for there in nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road to holiness.”

    1 Encyclical Letter - Pope John Paul II - Redeemer of Man

         2 Apostolic Letter - Pope Paul VI - Credo of the People of God

Begin this year by resolving to take your relationship with Jesus to the next level.  You will find that an hour of weekly Adoration gets easier and more rewarding with each passing week.  Don’t under estimate the heavenly rewards, God’s gifts and graces are endless, and you begin to enjoy them simply by spending time in His Presence.

Happy Birthday Jesus

 Happy Birthday Jesus! 

When you look upon the Sacred Host after the consecration at Mass, or you kneel in front of the Sacred Host displayed in the Monstrance in the chapel, you look upon Jesus Himself, the Son of God.  We believe the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine, as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.

During this season of gift giving please take a few minutes to find a quiet place to sit and free your mind of all the clutter of secular Christmas; sincerely thank Our God for the priceless gift of His Divine Son.  It’s a gift the true value of which cannot be fully appreciated this side of Heaven.

So if you’re asked ‘What did you get for Christmas?’; I hope you would respond ‘I received the gift of greatest value anyone on earth could hope for!’

Where's Your Treasure

 Where’s Your Treasure?

Day and night Jesus dwells in the Blessed Sacrament BECAUSE OF HIS INFINITE LOVE FOR US!  “Behold I will be with you always even to the end of the world,” because “I have loved you with an everlasting love, and constant is my affection for you.” (Mt 28:20; Jer 31:3)

The specific way Jesus asks us to love Him in return is to spend ONE QUIET HOUR WITH HIM EACH WEEK in the Blessed Sacrament.  “Where your treasure is, there is your heart …”  “Could you not watch one hour with Me?”  (Mt 6:21; 26:40)

Advent is a wonderful time to reevaluate where your treasure is; if not in the right place you have time to make it right.

How Can You Say NO To Jesus?

How Can You Say NO To Jesus?

Is Jesus important enough to you to set aside one special hour each week to be with Him?  Just one hour once a week is all He is asking.  It’s a simple matter of putting first things first.  “In everything you do, put God first, and He will direct you and crown your efforts with success” (Prov 3:6)

Because we can’t see Jesus, we often take His love and Presence in the Blessed Sacrament for granted.  Many people are hesitant in making a commitment for a specific hour because they let everything else in their lives come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  An hour with Jesus could be the most important thing you do this week.

This concept of importance is reenforced in the book In Sinu Jesu where Jesus is quoted telling a Benedictine Monk “Nothing in your life is more important than the time you spend in adoration before My Eucharistic Face.  Your energy and your capacity to do other things efficiently and in due order will grow in proportion to the time you consecrate to Me alone.”

Don’t wait until you’re out of ‘time’; we will all be there at some point.  Prioritize now and heed the words of Jesus when He said “Could you not keep watch for one hour?” (Mk 14:37)

Let Advent be your starting point - commit to one hour of Adoration in the chapel each week.  If you’re already a committed adorer say a prayer to the Holy Spirit the next time you’re in the chapel that more people will take to heart Jesus’ request to spend an hour with Him.  Better yet - don’t wait until you are in the chapel .. say that prayer now!

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi

"I do believe ... but"

 “Help My Unbelief”

Three weeks ago we quoted Fr John Hardon SJ saying “the simplest way to express what Christ asks us to believe about the Real Presence is that the Eucharist is really HE.  The Real Presence is the real Jesus”.  Two weeks ago we reminded everyone that the Council of Trent in 1551 declared that Jesus Christ is really and truly present in the Eucharist, and the Council declared this a Dogma of Faith.

‘Dogma’ is defined as that part of doctrine which has been divinely revealed and which the Church has formally defined and declared to be believed as revealed.  So this is not what the Church is telling us to believe; this is what God Himself is telling us to believe.  Recently a Pew Survey reported that 69% of declared Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence.  Imagine … 2 out of 3 Catholics don’t believe what God Himself tells us is true.

If you’re one of the non or half hearted believers it may be time to commit to praying during this Advent period asking the Holy Spirit for the grace to increase your belief in the Real Presence.  You’re encouraged to visit the chapel; kneel before the Holy Eucharist and pray the prayer the father of the son harboring the demon prayed before Jesus as told in Mark 9:21-24; “I do believe; help my unbelief”.

Jesus told that father “All things are possible to him who believes”.  Your belief in the Real Presence won’t go from cold to hot over night … you won’t hear thunder or feel the earth shake … but know every prayer is answered.  If you want to succeed you have to show God you’re sincere, and don’t quit asking until you get what you want.

www.adorationpro.org/ihmmi