Totus Tuus - Totus 2us

3 2us

Short reflections on Feast days and Saints days,
given to us by a fab collection of Catholic priests.

With many, many thanks to all the priests contributing.

_{Also, many thanks to all the musicians who've contributed their music.}

_{You can subscribe to this podcast / download the free mp3s here on itunes or here on Totus2us's podcast feed. Plus, you can download individual mp3 recordings by right clicking where you see this diamond ♦}

on the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"We too are presented to God. Please God each one of us is alive in the life of Christ, what we Catholics call 'in a state of grace', and presented in some way also through the hands of his mother. It was through her, after all, through her yes, that God became man. So we are endlessly in the situation of being held before God in his holy place by Mary and we must pray that the Christ life in us should grow and develop."}

_{Feast Day - 2nd February}

on Saint Thomas Aquinas

by Father Peter Pitre CSJ       ♦

_{"Love for Christ pushed Thomas Aquinas to devote a tremendous amount of energy to the search for truth, to contemplating the truth and to teaching the truth. He consecrated his intellectual gifts to God and so he's a great model for us of the sanctified mind. His aim was to let himself be taught by God and so he was humble enough to be formed at the school of the pagan philosopher, Aristotle, because he understood that everything that's true, whoever may say it, is from the Holy Spirit."}

_{Feast Day - 28th January}

on the Conversion of Saint Paul

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"Now what is important about his conversion? Well this, that he is so vital for the Church. It's very mysterious, Our Lord had chosen 12 apostles to whom he gave authority to teach all nations and guaranteed that they would teach the truth. We look on them as the first bishops; 1 of them was Judas, he had to be replaced, but these people had all known Our Lord in his earthly life. He chose out 12, St Mark says, to be with him. But St Paul was not with him. St Paul, a learned man, learned in Jewish religion, highly intelligent .. persecuted the Church and did it zealously for a long time. Now it was this man who met Jesus in a different way. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians and Jesus appeared to him, he knocked him off his horse, turned him blind, and a voice from heaven... Now that was the man whom Jesus chose. God can do anything and he chose him, as St Paul says, as it were out of due time. He really did meet Jesus but it was in a different way and he realised that God was calling him to preach, to be the apostle, to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. "}

_{Feast Day - 25th January}

on St Francis de Sales

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"He was not only a bishop but he is also a Doctor of the Church, especially for his particularly consoling teaching about prayer, which again especially reflects his spirit of gentleness, as he teaches us not to be troubled by past sins but to have confidence in God and to make our misery into a throne for God's mercy."}

_{Feast Day - 24th January. From France.}

on the Baptism of Our Lord

by Father Augustine Conner CFR       ♦

_{"In Jesus Christ, true man and true God, we discover who we are and why we exist. We discover that we were made through him and for him. We discover that we are made in his image and likeness. That we are his brothers and sisters and beloved sons and daughters of the Father filled with his Holy Spirit and destined to share his glorious resurrection. We discover that each of us is eternally loved and chosen and shares in the very dignity of God."}

_{Feast Day - Sunday after the Epiphany. 1st Luminous Mystery of the Rosary.}

on Mary, Mother of God

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦

_{"The World Day of Peace is about God who works together with us to change the state of the fallen world into the state of the redeemed world of paradise. Mother Teresa in her 80s was asked by a journalist "What have you changed in the world?" She answered "I never wanted to change the world. I only wanted to be a drop of fresh water in which God's love could be reflected into the world." .. I hope that we will be the same - to be little drops of clean water through which the love of God can, unhindered, be let through into the world. And that love of God is done by faith, by prayer, by fasting and by almsgiving. In this way our love for God and for our brothers and sisters will grow, and through that the light of God will start shining into the world. Here in Medjugorje this is precisely the message of Our Lady: faith, to change our way, to believe in God, to fast, to pray and to give alms. This is the classical teaching of the Church throughout all the centuries. Our Lady does not change - she is the same, with her complete dedication, her complete obedience to God: "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word.""}

_{Feast Day - 1st January - also the World Day of Peace}

on St John the Apostle and Evangelist

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"St John was the youngest of the Apostles, 'the beloved disciple', the one whom Jesus loved and the only one of the 12 who remained with his Master all the way to the foot of the Cross. He was the last to write a Gospel and the last of the apostles to die as an old man, still the Bishop of Ephesus, around the year 100. With the wiritings of the last of the apostles, revelation came to a close. We keep his feast day just 2 days after the birth of our Saviour, when we think of the great mystery of the Incarnation, for St John was especially the Evangelist of the Incarnation. He wrote the phrase 'And the Word was made flesh', perhaps the most important sentence ever to have been written in history. I like to think that the reason why St John had a special insight into the mystery of the Incarnation was because he was the disciple to whom Jesus entrusted his mother at the foot of the Cross, "Behold your mother." Thus teaching us all to look to Mary as our mother and the mother of the Church."}

_{Feast Day - 27th December}

on Christmas

by Father David Barnes       ♦

_{"Christmas tells me so much about myself, about being a human being. It tells us that God wants to share his life with us completely. The fact that God became flesh and dwelt among us tells us that God identifies with us in every way except sin. This is an important message for us to take to heart because it tells me that I am infinitely loveable to God."}

_{Christmas Day - 25th December}

on Our Lady of Guadalupe
Patroness of the New Evangelization, Patroness of the Unborn & Patroness of the Americas

by Father Emmanuel Mansford CFR       ♦

_{"Over the years millions, literally millions, of Mexican Indians were converted because the image is such that Our Lady of Guadalupe is clothed with the stars (on her cloak are the stars), behind her is the sun and she is standing on the moon, and so the Indians, who worshipped these pagan gods of the sun, the moon and the stars, knew that she was more powerful than them because she stood on the moon, she was in front of the sun and she was clothed in the stars. But they also knew that she wasn't God because her head was bowed and her hands were joined in prayer, and they saw that round her waist was this sash that meant that she was pregnant and right over her womb was this flower in the shape of a star which was a sign to them of the one true God. So they came to believe that this true God she was in fact pregnant with. Over the years around 9 million Mexican Indians became Catholics. All this happened in 1531 and following years. So while the Reformation in Europe was happening and hundreds of thousands were leaving the Catholic Church, in Central America millions were becoming Catholic due to the advocacy and love for the poor of Our Lady."}

_{Feast Day - 12th December.}

on the Immaculate Conception of Mary

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"It took a long time for the Church to work out how the Immaculate Conception could have happened. (After all, Our Lady was redeemed like all of us, but how could Jesus have redeemed her before as man he existed?) Heaven took a hand in nudging the Church towards the right conclusion, especially when it was given the “Miraculous Medal” in 1831 (“Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”) At last in 1854 the Church was clear enough in its mind to define the doctrine, and to say that rightly understood you could work it out from Scripture. And then heaven intervened again. At Lourdes in 1858 Our Lady said “I AM the Immaculate Conception.” To the credit, one must say, of the Jesuits – who, with the Franciscans – always backed the doctrine, this church was called by that title even before the definition.}

_{Let’s honour Our Lady, and praise her beauty, and thank God that we welcome the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and its consequence, the Redemption, and accept the fact of original sin; and are grateful that the Church which teaches us the truth with Christ’s authority clarifies what is obscure in Scripture."}

_{Feast Day - 8th December.}

on Saint Ambrose of Milan

by Father Emmanuel Mansford CFR       ♦

_{"This man, this bishop, this shepherd, clearly in his life was reproduced the life of Christ. I think in our times when there's increasingly greater confrontation between the Church and the secular authorities of civil society, that we need the courage of St Ambrose and we need shepherds who have his gift of prayer and humility and fortitude to stand firm. And if we look at how God chose him, it's a reminder to all of us that we never know what God has in store for us, but once we submit to His plan, simply to put ourselves into the hands of God, and to allow His grace but also the gifts that He has given us to be used for his glory. So, Saint Ambrose, pray for us."}

_{Feast Day - 7th December. From Italy}

on Saint Francis Xavier

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"St Francis Xavier is one of the patrons of the missions .. when he turned to Jesus, he was ambitious for Jesus. The thing is he was totally unselfish which is the vital thing. Unselfishness is really almost what we mean by charity, by love: not having self first. Incredible journeys in those 10 years in the East, massive responsibility, India, Malaysia, islands of the East Indies, Japan, very nearly China; greatest hardship and through it all immense prayer life, immense charity, immense love."}

_{Feast Day - 3rd December. From Spain}

on Saint Catherine Labouré

by Father Nathan Cromly CSJ       ♦

_{"St Catherine Labouré was a woman to whom Mary revealed the desire of God to give grace. In a special way therefore in celebrating this feast day, we need to celebrate this saint who allowed herself to receive that message: the humility of her heart to enable herself to be so loved by God that she could even receive Mary as a mother, mediatrix (which means channel) of His gift of Himself to her; to allow oneself to be loved in a way that we can't even understand. For example to think about those graces for which we haven't even asked - what must those graces be like? That's what Our Lady told St Catherine: God wants to give even more than what you ask for. It's like plunging St Catherine on a spiritual path of desire, saying 'Do you really want to cooperate with God?' then desire for the rest of your life."}

_{Feast Day - 27th November}

on Advent

by Father Anthony Doe       ♦

_{"Advent is the time when we pray that the Holy Spirit will move deeply and mysteriously in the hearts of all of us; will prepare that place where Jesus can be born deep within our own lives, our own spirits, our own hearts, as he was born in the life of his mother Mary."}

_{This year, Advent begins on Sunday, 27th November.}

on St Albert the Great, Patron Saint of Scientists

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"The relevance of St Albert for our own time can hardly be over-estimated. Surely the Patron of Scientists deserves to be better known today than he is and to be properly honoured. For the main attack on Christianity today comes from materialists who are much influenced by the scientific outlook. We need to pray to St Albert the Great, so that the study of natural science does not lead people away from God but can open their eyes and minds to Him, for they are studying the wonders of His creation. St Albert also reminds us that a knowledge of natural science needs to be a part of Christian learning today if we are to be able to hold a dialogue with non-believing scientists. For this purpose the Pope now has a Pontifical Institute of the Sciences. In our time we especially need to know how to apply our scientific knowledge and to use the invetions of technology with wisdom: this is, in a way that is truly beneficial for our way of life and is not destructive of human life nor diminishes a fully human life but respects God's design of nature. As St Albert wrote: 'There is in us an imprint as though a stamp of the divine wisdom .. Because of this more is acquired by prayer and devotion than by study.'"}

_{Feast Day - 15th November}

on the Holy Souls

by Father Marcus Holden       ♦

_{"The Lord desires us to share eternal life with Him but this comes about through grace and it is not cheap grace. It was brought at a price, the Precious Blood of the Lamb and we have to co-operate with that grace in life."}

_{Feast Day - 2nd November}

on Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"It's 1673 in France. A nun aged 26 has been 2 years in the convent, she's pale, she's thin, she's ill, big eyes, nervous, it's dark, she's praying. What's she doing? She's talking to Jesus who will reveal to her in 4 visions over the next 2 years the mystery of His Sacred Heart. This woman, St Margaret Mary Alacoque, is terribly important, massively important. What she sees and hears will alter nearly every Catholic church to be built and the devotional life of every good Catholic. It will restore the Church after the blight of Jansenism, it will give rise to religious orders and devotional practices. Until the devotion to the Divine Mercy in the late 20th century, it will do more than anything else to assure us that God loves us - loves us humanly as well as divinely, that God thinks we're worth dying for."}

_{Feast Day - 16th October}

on Saint Teresa of Avila

by Father Iain Matthew OCD       ♦

_{"Her manifesto for the Church is that prayer, as friendship with Christ, changes you; that prayer in which the one whom we know loves us is given access to our heart."}

_{Feast Day - 15th October}

on Our Lady of the Rosary

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦

_{"We pray the rosary because we want to unite in prayer so that the Holy Spirit can come upon us, overshadow us and bear fruit, the fruit of love, the fruit of the Kingdom of God."}

_{Feast Day - 7th October}

on St Mary Faustina Kowalska

by Monsignor Keith Barltrop      ♦

_{"It's a message that although we have so much to distrust in ourselves, we can have an absolute complete confidence in God's mercy towards us. St Faustina was not only the 'secretary', the mouthpiece of this message, but she lived it herself in the convent, through many ups and downs, as did Saint Thérèse. She had to learn to trust the message of mercy, she had to learn to detach herself, as we all do, from doing what she wanted, she had to experience many, many trials, disbelief, people thinking that she was deluded. Even after her death for many years the message of Divine Mercy was suspect. .. Eventually, thanks to the very providential appointment of John Paul II as Pope, these messages became known and accepted, and with them obviously it was only right to honour St Faustina, the very unknown, humble saint."}

_{Feast Day - 5th October}

on St Francis of Assisi

by Father Emmanuel Mansford CFR      ♦

_{"St Francis had everything - from a very wealthy family, properous father, very popular young man, bit of a party boy, went off to be a knight when he was about 20 (which was sort of the equivalent of being the winner of the X-Factor), very respected and loved by his friends, the one who was at the centre of the life in Assisi - and yet when Jesus came into his life, it was like a revolution for him and he simply responded whole-heartedly. Just as he had given himself totally to partying, totally to fighting in the war, suddenly when Christ comes into his life he's changed and the encouraging thing for all of us is that it wasn't just overnight. Sometimes we think with the saints they're bad and then they become good but for Francis it was probably over a period of 5 years where Jesus is taking more and more of his heart captive."}

_{Feast Day - 4th October}

on St Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face

by Father Anthony Doe      ♦

_{"St Thérèse of Lisieux embodies an extremely important truth that Jesus clearly enunciated to his disciples many times. Thérèse, with that transparency of faith, that openness of heart, that childlike trust in the power, the mercy and love of the Lord, embodies for us this message so profound of Jesus: unless we become like little children, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. To become a little child, not to become childish but childlike: open, receptive, willing to receive what God wishes to give us, just as a child so desires the gifts that the parents wish to give, the gifts of their love, of their strength. And Thérèse above all embodies that spirit of openness, childlike willingness to receive from God. And in her teachings she very clearly enunciated a pattern of life, what she called her 'Little Way', a way of surrender to the person of Jesus in the minutest details of daily life, but particularly when she and we are confronted by our weakness, our failure, our human frailty, our vulnerability, all those things that we cannot change in ourselves. Thérèse had that wonderful insight to see that these were moments not to deplore but in fact to rejoice in because they were opportunities to give herself, give ourselves, to the person of Jesus and to recognise that it's His power, His strength, His love, His wisdom that in the end is meant to empower us. And she encourages us constantly to see our daily life in terms of moving more deeply into this bond of love with the person of Jesus who can only give himself to us when we are open and receptive to His gifts like children."}

_{Feast Day - 1st October}

on Our Lady of Walsingham

by Father Ed Tomlinson      ♦

_{"Today's the feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, calling us to prayer for Christian unity. Why this connection between Mary's appearance in Britain and Christian unity? Because Our Lady's appearance was not accidental but a moment of grace and the start of a chain of events connected to England's conversion which involves, I believe, the implementation of the ordinariate in our day. To better understand, let us travel back together to the day it all started. The year is 1061 and, under a Catholic banner, England is known as Our Lady's dowry and its flourishing like never before. This was a great golden era, a time of renewal: cathedrals are built, churches are erected and they're going to define the landscape for so many different generations. Catholic devotion suits the English people and it leads to a great cultural flowering, producing in my opinion the greatest art, music and architecture that this land has ever seen. And in a tiny Norfolk village we find a noblewoman, Richeldis de Faverches, deep in prayer. To her amazement, the Blessed Virgin appears to her in a vision 3 times, instructing Richeldis to build a replica of the Holy House of Nazareth. Richeldis undertakes this work with obedience and soon a spring of living water is unearthed. Once built, the priory shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham became the beating heart of Catholic England. From all over Europe people flocked, to be healed, to pray, to receive the sacraments, to give devotion to the Lord. Peasants and kings were equal here, in this place of profound grace, miracle and favour."}

_{Feast Day - 24th September}

on Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina

by Father Emmanuel Mansford CFR       ♦

_{"He was truly a priest. As Pope John Paul said, 'A man for others'.. He was a man truly configured to Christ."}

_{Feast Day - 23rd September}

on the Exultation of the Cross

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦  

_{Fr Leo: "Jesus redeemed us because he accepted all that suffering without hating us. Because the normal human reaction if we are hurt, if we're offended, if we suffer, is at least resentment, if not hatred. And Christ did not hate us for a single second (had he hated us for a single second we would not be here). So in that moment on the Cross, instead of reacting humanly, he reacted divinely. He said 'Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.' And maybe the young people of our day have understood that there is suffering in the world - there is no life without suffering, we cannot avoid, we cannot flee suffering; so suffering is part of our human condition. But the answer, our reaction to suffering, is a revelation either of our human state or of our divine state. And I believe that this celebration of the Exultation of the Cross is for us a question mark: where are you standing? How are you reacting to suffering? Are you so close to Christ that you say "His example, his suffering on the Cross will give me the strength to at least attempt not to hit back, not to hate, not to have resentments, but to say 'Father help me to  the will of forgiveness and please forgive.'""}

_{Feast Day - 14th September.}

on Blessed Mother Teresa

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦  
_{with 2 quotes by Mother Teresa of Calcutta}

_{Mother Teresa - “The young people, especially in their application, write: ‘I want a life of poverty, prayer and sacrifice that will lead me to a service of the poor."
"The lonely, the unwanted, the unloved – we try to bring Jesus to them, by involving them in the service of the poor, by our presence among them, they must be able to look up and see Jesus in us. And also I believe in helping them to come in touch with the poor, because the poor give us much more than we give to the poor.”}

_{Fr Leo: "John Paul II said ‘In Mother Teresa we meet one of the most important personalities in history’ .. Hers is the sanctity which shows the whole mystery of the redemption, sin and redemption. And I believe that we can pray to and venerate Mother Teresa precisely for this, to help us to collaborate in the redemption of the world. On her feast day this is the biggest wish I want to express. When we celebrate the memory of her death on 5th September, we can even liturgically invoke that favour from her: to be able to collaborate for the redemption of the world."}

_{Feast Day - 5th September. This was recorded on 26th August 2010, the centenary of Mother Teresa's birth.}

Blessed Mother Teresa: "Sanctity is not the luxury of the few.
It is a simple duty, for you and for me."

on Saint Gregory the Great

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"In 590 he became Pope; he was Pope for 13 years and what a lot he did. He was only Pope for 2 years before he had to make treaties with the invading Lombards. He reformed the administration of Church lands, managed to devote an awful lot to charity, he kept the Church free from civil power. He had to deal with barbarian Franks and Visigoths, as well as the Lombards. A busy man, a very able man and, of course, he did something about the Anglo-Saxons. In the slave market in Rome he saw these 3 handsome young men and he said 'Where do they come from?' and they told him 'They're Angli' and he said 'Non Angli sed angeli' - 'Not Angles but angels.' And he realised that here was a country that needed evangelizing and so in 597 he sent St Augustine to evangelise the Anglo-Saxons."}

_{Feast Day - 3rd September}

on Saint Augustine of Hippo

by Father Anthony Meredith SJ       ♦

_{"One of the most vital and important elements of St Augustine's spiritual vision is his stress on the importance of the heart; he is not simply a mental thinker or a mental prayer. He believes the heart is important and he has famous sentence in the opening of The Confessions when he says 'Thou has created O Lord for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.' The word heart occurs on many, many occasions. The inner truest self .. the heart directing itself always inwards and upwards, upwards and outwards to God.'}

_{Feast Day - 28th August}

on the Coronation of Our Lady

by Father Anthony Doe       ♦

_{"This is really the meaning of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven: Queen of Mercy, Queen of the compassionate outreach of the Father's love in her Son. And so she stands as the greatest gift to the human race. She is one of us, somebody who is now living her humanity to the full, and who is living it for us, for our salvation, and is there always with that power and authority that comes from God, to take every single human being by the hand and lead them into His merciful presence. So we really do thank the Father for this greatest of gifts, this wonderful friend, this wonderful mother, this wonderful person, who embodies the fullness of God's merciful compassion for the human race. We turn to her and ask her always to be with us, especially in moments of greatest need. Mary, Queen of Peace, pray for us.'}

_{Feast Day - 22nd August}

on Saint Maximilian Maria Kolbe

by Father Emmanuel Mansford CFR       ♦

_{"The words of Jesus, quoted by Pope John Paul II at his canonisation, are what come to mind "Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends." St Maximilian, aided by the prayers and his love for Our Lady, gave himself completely, totally, as she did, up to the point of the Cross, so that another man may live, may go home and look after his wife and his family. This man, this priest, St Maximilian Kolbe, was called by Pope John Paul II 'the Patron Saint of our difficult century'. Where so much innocent life was taken through communism and nazism, he stood for the Gospel, for the gospel of life, as a witness. In our age, we, especially men, should be challenged by his life of commitment, of sacrifice, of saying yes to God totally, of being a man for others.'}

_{Feast Day - 14th August}

on Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"Although Edtih Stein became intellectually convinced of the truth of the Catholic faith, what moved her to become a Catholic was the example of the serenity of a friend in accepting the death of her young husband. One night when she was guarding the house for some friends, she found a copy of St Teresa of Avila's 'Life of Herself' on the bookshelves. She took it down and read it right through that night. In it St Teresa of Avila talks about 'the Truth that underlies all truth'. Edith wanted to possess what St Teresa of Avila had. Thus Edith Stein's conversion to Catholicism was a the same time her vocation to be a Carmelite. She was baptised in 1922, aged 31, but it wasn't until 1933 that she entered the Carmelite Order in Cologne. .. After a time her superiors asked her to continue her writing, this time in the form of a commentary and summary of the works of St John of the Cross, which she called 'The Science of the Cross'. St John of the Cross tells us that the highest wisdom is to meditate on the mysteries of Christ and we only reach this wisdom by entering into suffering. .. When the Gestapo called in the early hours one morning in 1942 at the convent for Edith Stein, she turned to her sister, Rosa, and said "Let us go for our people." After a stop at Westerbrook, she was transported with Sr Rosa by train in cattle trucks to Auschwitz where they were gassed on arrival and offered up their lives as a sacrifice for their people, the Jews."}

_{Feast Day - 9th August}

on Saint Dominic Guzmán

by Father John Edwards SJ       ♦

_{"Dominic was a very lovable, a very compassionate man and of course he loved God, and that, as with every saint, was the main thing about him. The order that he founded, the Dominicans, the Order of Preachers, has as its main note love of truth and approaching God through the intellect. And the greatest theologian of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas, was a Dominican. So a man very compassionate, very far-seeing, moved with love of sinners, eager for the truth, ready to spend himself for the Word of God. Very good with women ... But of all the things we might remember him for, perhaps the main thing is the rosary. St Dominic it is who is associated with it above all, the great saint of the rosary. And if we want to please him in heaven, we've only got to say the rosary."}

_{Feast Day - 8th August}

on the Transfiguration of Our Lord

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦

_{"I believe this is a little bit what Jesus wanted to tell his apostles: the big storms of our life are coming but do not forget I am with you. I am not only with you as a human person, as your friend, as your brother, your counsellor, I am also with you as the Son of God, because your vocation, every person's vocation, is not just to be a good human person, an anthropologically good person, but we are all called to be beyond that saints, beyond that we are called to be simply children of God, children of God who are the first born of Our Lord. And we have to learn in the whole of our life to come into a relationship, to God, to the Most Holy Trinity, to each other, exactly in the way the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father.}

_{There is a new communion coming up and that communion comes through the mystery, and for many the scandal, of the Cross. And this is precisely what Jesus wanted to prepare his apostles for. Never to cease loving, never to cease to be in friendship with one another, never to blame others, never to put the guilt which we all carry, the whole human race carries on one or the other's particular shoulder but to carry the Cross, our small crosses, the crosses of our life, each one, knowing that we are part of a much bigger mystery, of a mystery between heaven and earth, of a love story between God and man, between God and his creatures."}

_{Feast Day - 6th August}

on Saint John Vianney, the Curé d'Ars

by Father David Barnes       ♦

_{"For St John Vianney, prayer - lifting up our mind and heart to God each day - enables us to find our true home, where we really belong, deep in the heart of Jesus. John Vianney writes 'In prayer, which is union with God, the soul and God are like two pieces of wax molded into one.' What a wonderful image for us to pray with. One of the most famous stories about the Curé d'Ars is about someone who came to him as he sat at the back of the Church before the Blessed Sacrament, Our Lord fully present among us, and when this person asked "What are you doing all day with this?" he answered, "Nothing. I just look at Him and He looks at me." John Vianney knew the beauty of true friendship - just to be with the beloved was all he asked. This enabled him to see everything in a different light and so he writes for us 'In prayer well made, troubles vanish like snow in the rays of the sun.'}

_{Feast Day - 4th August}

on Saint Ignatius of Loyola

by Father William Pearsall SJ       ♦

_{"Ignatius gave us ways of prayer that deepen our union with Christ and our commitment, the call of Christ and our response. And he gave us also the idea that we needn't be afraid of the world around us, we should engage in the culture, take part in the great events of our time, be a part of the life because God is active in the world, just as He is active in our lives. And so we discern our way, to decide the best way of serving the Gospel in the world, and this begins from a vision of finding God in all things. God is present and active in His creation."}

_{Feast Day - 31st July}

on Saint James the Apostle & Santiago

by Father Javier Igea       ♦

_{"After Christ sent his apostles to the end of the world, St James came to the end of the world which was thought in those times to be in North Western coast of Spain. The city of Santiago where his tomb now is is one of the main sanctuaries of Christianity, a place of pilgrimage .. Pope John Paul said that Santiago and the Camino was a prominent part in the construction of Europe .. To say Santiago is the same as to say to become a pilgrim, to pilgrimage .. Life is a pilgrimage, a pilgrim has to travel with a very light backpack .. somebody who goes through, who is weak, who goes through dangers .. All these symbols are symbols for life. We cannot carry many things in our life, we have to love God above every other thing. . A true pilgrim in life has to be poor, has only to put what is needed in his life which is the love of God our Saviour, a pilgrim should always be moving, in spiritual life we say that a pilgrim cannot stop growing, cannot say 'It is enough, I am not going to continue walking, I have loved enough, I do not need to grow in love' ..that is not going to the goal of our pilgrimage which is the greater Love."}

_{Feast Day - 25th July}

on Our Lady of Mount Carmel

by Father Matt Blake OCD       ♦
_{plus 'Ave Maria, gratia plena' sung by Anna Johnstone}

_{"When people meditated upon Mary they saw that Mount Carmel was such a fitting meditation. Mary is the one who reveals to the world the true God, Mary is the one who gives the world her Son. What Elijah did on Mount Carmel, showing the world who the true God is, is brought to completion in Mary; and the reins, the new life, the waters of baptism, all the symbols of that episode, become associated with Mary. So Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a devotion that has grown through the faith of people, through people's meditation upon Mary and what she means to them. It is through Mary that the world knows the true God, it is through Mary's son that we have been given new life through baptiism, it is through Mary's son that the abundant generosity of God is so visible, so well seen."}  

_{Feast Day - 16th July}

on Saint Bonaventure

by Father Anthony Meredith SJ       ♦

_{"St Bonaventure had the enormous power of having both a spiritual approach to life, which was not something which was divorced from a clearly articulated way of dealing with the subject. It wasn't simply a question of having a funny inside feeling, it was something connected very closely with very clearly articulated ideas and structures, some of which he inherited from his ancestors in the spiritual life. There are 2 particular works of his which call for our attention - one is called The Threefold Way and the other is The Journey of the Mind into God. The Threefold Way outlines 3 basic stages through which the human spirit has to go if it wishes to arrive at the knowledge and love of God. And these 3 are: purgartio - freeing ourselves from sin, illuminatio - the knowledge of God which is the consequence of our purification, & perfectio - finally enjoying God, which takes place most perfectly in the life to come. ..This work has been called a masterpiece of the spiritual psychology - it's not simply a question of knowledge, or learning or understanding, or even of moral purity but it is a psychological introduction to the depth of the nature of God and that is something extremely important for us - the demand for the upward journey."}

_{Feast Day - 15th July}

on Saint Benedict

by Abbot Kevin Taggart OSB       ♦

_{"When St Benedict fled to Subiaco many wanted to come and lead the life he was embarking on and they wanted him as their leader and so he wrote his rule. It's a wonderful document well known for its humanity and its simplicity of living, much of it going into considerable detail about how to pray what is called the Divine Office in Church, but preceded and followed by some wonderful spiritual advice to people who wanted to lead the monastic life. I suppose his most famous chapters are on obedience and humility. The other thing St Benedict stresses is stability within the community. So for a Benedictine, a monk takes 3 vows - obedience, stability and a third vow called 'conversatio morum' which is really conversion of life. For me, that's a wonderful vow because it gives one the whole of one's life to convert into a better way of life and that ties in so much with St Benedict's idea of a monk never despairing of the love and the mercy of God, and that continues right through one's life."}

_{Feast Day - 11th July}

on Saint Maria Goretti

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"The example of St Maria Goretti strengthens us to hold fast to the virtues of courage and chastity, which alone can bring us happiness, joy in life, and peace in our relationships."}

_{Feast Day - 6th July}

on the Immaculate Heart of Mary

by Father Emmanuel Mansford CFR       ♦
_{plus track 'Learn Me Love' by Fr Stan Fortuna CFR}

_{"The wonderful thing about the heart of Mary is that it was a human heart and so she loved Jesus with this human heart. She loved him as we love people, she felt sad when he went away, she didn't always understand some of the things he said or did, but because she didn't have sin she trusted in the word that was revealed to her. So when we struggle to understand the work of Jesus in our life, the plan of God for us, we can say "Mary, lend me your heart that trusts so fully."}  

_{And so as we prepare to honour Our Lady in the purity of her heart, this heart that was so filled with joy because it didn't know sin (so often it's sin that robs us of the joy that God wants for us), let us ask her a simple prayer: "Mary, lend me your heart, so pure and clean, that I may love Jesus as you did, trust in Jesus like you did, follow Jesus as you did, even to the Cross, that I may be a witness to the resurrection. Amen."}

_{Feast day - 2nd July 2011 - the day after the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus}

on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

by Father Stan Fortuna CFR       ♦   
_{plus track 'Loved by You' by Fr Stan Fortuna CFR}

_{"As we're closing the Year for Priests and celebrating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, there's a big connection there and not just for the ordained ministry but for the priesthood of the baptised. Because, as St Jean-Marie Vianney has said, and as Pope Benedict has made him the Patron Saint of Priests, "Love of the heart of Jesus is the priesthood." And I don't think he is just referring to us loving the heart, but the love of the heart of Jesus, the burning love that is in the heart of Jesus, is itself the priesthood. And when he was speaking last year about this, Pope Benedict said the first thing we need to learn from St John Vianney is the complete identification of the man with his ministry, and this ministry is nothing less than love. So on this great Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus it's really all about love. That's why St Margaret Mary Alacoque said "Set up your heart in this loving heart of Jesus. Place in this heart all your suffering and difficulties. He changes everything into love." That's the key - He changes everything into love."}

_{Feast day - 1st July - Friday, week after Corpus Christi. This 3 2us reflection was recorded in 2010.}

on Saints Peter and Paul

by Father Anthony Meredith SJ       ♦

_{"St Peter is the person who stands, as it were, by his very name for stability, for endurance, for strength, whereas St Paul was always on the go, going all over the place, doing his best to teach the gospel of Christ to others, which he also supplemented by his wonderful letters, many of which still survive, arranged in order of length in the New Testament, from the longest - the Letter to the Romans, to the shortest - the Letter to Philemon. .. Both of them ended their lives as martyrs in Rome during the persecution of the Emperor Nero, which took place in 65 AD when he was able to accuse the Christians of the great fire in Rome."}

_{Feast Day - 29th June}

on Our Lady of Medjugorje, Queen of Peace

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦

_{"Our Lady takes us to the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, and she comes to us, inviting us to open our hearts to the Lord. Our Lady is the expression of the highest dignity which God has bestowed on men and that dignity which makes him a real child of God. St John says 'Now we are children of God. What we are going to be, we do not know, but we will see Him as He is.' So let's get rid of false glitters and idols, that our eyes become clear and that we can collaborate with Our Lady, to bring not only ourselves to conversion, fasting, prayer, to the Lord, but to take many with us; to be co-redeemers, to be collaborators in the redemptive work of God; that we too one day can say 'Our Lady, your visit was not in vain. You have stayed so long with us but thank you because you have convinced us, that through your humility, through your simplicity, through your tender love, you have convinced us that we can follow you, that we can open our hearts to you and that you can lead us into the open heart of your son."}

_{1st apparition of Our Lady in Medjugorje was on 24th June 1981, the Feast of the Birth of John the Baptist; she first spoke to the 6 children the next day, telling them she was the Queen of Peace.}

on Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ)

by Father Anthony Doe       ♦
_{plus track 'Holy Eucharist' by Zealous (feat. Fr. Stan Fortuna CFR)}

_{"And in this union with Jesus and the Father, something amazing begins to take place in our humanity: our flesh and our spirit find a new relationship; we discover a new capacity to love selflessly like Jesus has loved us, loving each other with a new quality of self-gift, we're able to give ourselves in total freedom for the good of others, we are able to open our hearts out to the wonder of the world around us, but in such a way that we are constantly aware of God's loving presence within us. And this is really what the meaning of the Eucharist is - being brought alive first of all by the intimate love that Jesus has for our humanity, uniting himself to us in our woundedness but also our great capacity to be free and to love like He loves. And then, through the presence of Jesus within us, mysteriously He opens our spirit up to the love of the Father."}

_{Feast day - Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Some countries have transferred to following Sunday}

on the Trinity

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦

_{"Our heart is built according to the Trinity, our love is built according to the Trinitarian love. All nature has a trinitarian character, one could say a genetic character of the Trinity, a fingerprint of the Trinity - from the nuclear structure to heaven and earth, from man and woman to all the laws of the universe. We can ask the Lord to make us see his presence in creation, in nature, in our human society, in the light of this mystery of the most Holy Trinity. And we can pray for those who haven't got the grace, the revelation which Jesus brought us of the secret of the inner trinitarian life.}

_{It's so sad if people cannot see the core, the heart, the beauty of what God is doing with us. Because if we recognise it, if we see it, it may change the way we look at things, it may change our concrete action in day to day life, from the way we approach other people, whether we take it seriously what Jesus says 'Where 2 or 3 are gathered in my name, I am amongst them' - another fingerprint of the Trinity."}

_{Feast day - Sunday after Pentecost - eg 19th June 2011
Music - Glory Be - sung by the Poor Clare Sisters TMD}

on Saint Anthony of Padua

by Father Anthony Meredith SJ       ♦

_{"So marvellous was St Anthony's preaching that the churches in Northern Italy weren't large enough to contain the crowds that wanted to hear him preach. He did preach remarkably and this fact is recorded. Not only did he write out many of his sermons, which are still preserved, but the animals also wanted to hear him preaching and apparently even the fish poked up their heads out of the water to hear him.. One of the extraordinary things about him is that the rest of his body corrupted very quickly except for one particular part, the tongue. The fact the tongue alone remains now reflects something of his power as a speaker, that he was able to attract so many people and perhaps even the animal world to hear him, and that brings home to us the importance of preaching, of bringing home to other people the message of the Gospel."}

_{Feast day - 13th June}

on the Ascension of Jesus

by Father Iain Matthew OCD       ♦

_{"The ascension of Christ means the passage of Christ into the dimension of eternal love. He paid the price for that, on the Cross, He loved to the end, even when they were crucifying Him, even when I was crucifying Him. So now He truly can live love to the end. In His sacred humanity He can enter into that dimension of being which is pure love, pure hospitality, pure welcome. He can fill the universe with His presence because there is nothing in the universe that He has not loved and redeemed. So when I celebrate the ascension, which at first sight can seem like the departure of Christ, I am celebrating the nearness of Christ, the welcome of Christ; that my loneliness, there's an answer to that; that there's a place in His heart which only I can fill, and that he means me to fulfill. Also there's a mission in this, that the hospitable Christ sends us to be hospitable, to be that place of welcome."}

_{Feast day - Thursday, 40 days after Easter Sunday, eg 2nd June 2011. A few (dull) countries have transferred this solemnity to the following Sunday.}

on the Visitation

by Father Matt Blake OCD       ♦
_{Magnificat sung by the Poor Clare Sisters TMD}

_{"Jesus has just been conceived in the womb of Mary; it's probably only days, weeks at the very most, time when most women would not even know that they are pregnant, Jesus is a living human being but in the most hidden place any human being can be. Yet we remember that Jesus is hidden within us, within every person, in what St John of the Cross calls our deepest centre. That's where we first meet Him in the Gospels and that's where He is with us always. John the Baptist is also a child in the womb. We're told by his mother Elizabeth that he leapt with joy. John, in the womb, could receive Jesus, could receive the grace of Jesus's presence. A reminder to us that not only is a child in the womb a living human being, but a child in the womb has the capacity to receive God's grace, has a spiritual life, is in relationship with God."}

_{Feast Day - 31st May}

on Our Lady of Fatima

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦
_{Ave Maria sung by Anna Johnstone}

_{"The angel asked the children in Fatima if they were ready to go out and they say yes, we are ready to face the sufferings of this world which nobody can avoid. On 13th May 1981 another great person had to suffer and that was Blessed John Paul II. And I happened to be at St Peter's Square when, in the evening, hundreds and thousands of people gathered just to pray. There were candles on the ground where he had been shot and he was in hospital. We were praying the rosary there. Suddenly you could hear a strong clicking noise and the loud speakers were switched on in St Peter's Square. And after a long time, maybe 10 minutes, you could hear a very heavy breathing, very slowly, and already the word spread that this was a broadcast from the room of the Holy Father in hospital. And then a very, very slow, a real suffering voice came across "Totus tuus ego sum." A long silence; it took him I guess at least 3 minutes to pronounce these words. And then he said "I have forgiven the man who made an attempt on my life." I believe this is exactly what the message of Fatima wants to tell us: are we ready to offer our lives, are we ready to offer our sufferings, in order to be able to forgive?"}

_{Feast Day - 13th May - 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on Blessed John Paul II}

on Divine Mercy Sunday

by Father Piotr Prusakiewicz CSMA       ♦
_{plus track 'Divine Mercy' by Burke Ingraffia}

_{"Mercy is the second name of love; it is love which gives itself, love in action. We celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy, we worship the mercy of the Father who gave His Only Son; the mercy of the Son Jesus who is Mercy Incarnate Himself, who gave His life for us; and the mercy of the Holy Spirit because God's love is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. This Sunday is called Divine Mercy Sunday and, according to the diary of St Faustina, this is the day when God pours out a whole ocean of graces on those who approach the fount of His Mercy."}

_{Feast day - the Sunday after Easter Sunday}

on Saint Catherine of Siena

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"What can we learn from this brief outline of St Catherine's life? 1st, she knew how to find all the time and space she needed for prayer in the busy household of her family. 2nd, prayer was not so much something that Catherine went to, as we do in moments snatched from our work, but she went from to her activity. 3rd, she knew how to combine inner peace with political activity.. 4th, the Eucharist was the centre of her daily life. And lastly, her life was focused on the Trinity, the source of all love, and on Christ who, by his Incarnation, is the bridge by which we cross over from earth to heaven."}

_{Feast day - 29th April}

on Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort

by Monsignor Keith Barltrop       ♦

_{"What St Louis is most known for is this marvellous teaching on the way we can consecrate ourselves to Our Lady. He called this in one of his books the 'secret of Mary'. It's a very instructive title .. it's just something that not many people know and, he says, if we all knew it, our lives would be much more truly what they're meant to be as Christians and it is simply in handing everything over to Jesus through the hands of Mary. His understanding is that Mary, being immaculate, has no trace of that hidden selfishness that so easily effects all our actions."}

_{Feast day - 28th April}

on the Resurrection

by Father Martin Sabathé CSJ       ♦

_{"The Holy Spirit guided John so that he could see beyond the visible, so that he could see the invisible. That is the mystery of Jesus, the Son of God, the Word of God. And the risen Jesus is in a way the Son of God fully expressed in his humanity and to reach the Son of God, the mystery of the Word of God made flesh, John needed the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gave him this light, so that he could see, and helped him to believe. And that is for us. We need the Holy Spirit to make this act of faith in the risen Christ. To meet Jesus in our faith, we do have to call on the Holy Spirit - please, Holy Spirit, come. Come into my heart, pour your light and your love into my heart so that I am able to make an act of faith which is to discern the presence of Jesus, whereas I do not see him.'}

on the Passion of Jesus Christ

by Father William Pearsall SJ       ♦

_{"Christ washes the feet of his disciples and on the day that follows he will wash the world in his own blood. So the bread which is broken is his own body which will be offered for us and the cup which he blesses and gives to his disciples is the cup of his blood which will be shed for us. And for this reason the Last Supper can never be separated from the Cross. They belong together. And the Cross itself is the reason Christ came - it is so that we can be reconciled with God through this gift of love whereby the Son of God offers himself on behalf of humanity and in his human nature is crucified to the wood of the cross, with his arms outstretched in an embrace nailed to that wood and an embrace that will include the whole universe and he bares the wounds of that suffering, even in his risen body. They remain the marks of that love in His glory in heaven so that God's own life is inseparable now from this moment of death, the death of Christ on the Cross and the Gospels speak of that as his hour of glory."}

_{Music - Adoramus Te by David Bevan; sung by the Holy Redeemer Choir.
Picture - Crucifixion (after Rembrandt) by John Kohan}

on Lent

by Father Francis Selman       ♦

_{"Several of the saints, for example St Augustine and St Catherine of Siena, teach us that the first step to knowing God is to know ourselves. Lent is a time for being truly free and discovering ourselves in the presence of God. .. Lent is a time for reflecting more on the central mysteries of Christ's life and our life - it is by dying to ourselves that we come to new life in Christ."}

_{Ash Wednesday - 9th March 2011}

on Saint David

by Father David Barnes       ♦

_{"Another David, living 500 years after Christ, is the patron saint of Wales. He too wanted to put his whole heart into loving God. As a young priest he defended Catholic teaching, especially about how Christ alone saves us from the power of sin which is destructive of our humanity and how our humanity grows only with the help of God's grace. David lived a very ascetic life, he founded monasteries where a very simple life was promoted, a life stripped of as many material things as possible. It was not that he saw material things as bad, but simply that our attachment to material things, an over-dependence on them blinds us to the love of God. He became known as the waterman because his monks drank only water, a way of wanting to rely totally on God."}

_{Feast Day - 1st March}

on Our Lady of Lourdes

by Father Alexander Sherbrooke       ♦

_{"What happened in Lourdes, as then as today, Our Lady came to those who were suffering greatly because of poverty, illness, brokenness in their lives. Our Lady comes to teach us and to lead us to her Son Jesus. She wants to show us the way to understand that we are loved unconditionally by God."}

_{Feast Day - 11th February}

on the Immaculate Conception of Mary

by Monsignor Leo Maasburg       ♦
_{plus 'Ave Maria' sung by the London Oratory School Schola}

_{"The Immaculate Conception of Mary in the womb of her mother Anna - it starts us off to think: Why is that something so exceptional? Why do we celebrate it in a special feast day? I believe it is because we rejoice in the Lord for the unique holiness He has given to Our Lady. Her unique holiness was not a special gift for her, she was not just a privileged woman whom the Lord has chosen, but He has chosen the whole of humankind in her, she is only you could say the point where He entered that human history. She is the entrance door and also at the same time the symbol and the aim, the fulfilment and the example for that unique holiness to which all humankind is called. God has somehow promised in that vocation which He gave to Our Lady that He will lead the whole of humankind to that holiness. Our Lady in Lourdes calls herself "I am the Immaculate Conception". We know that in baptism, which is symbolised by the waters in Lourdes, we are called to follow her into that holiness, into that complete cleanliness in front of God; and humankind will not find its peace unless it is clean, unless it is holy whole.'}

_{Feast Day - 8th December}

on the Triumph of the Cross

by Father Peter Pitre CSJ       ♦

_{"If we let ourselves be drawn to Jesus, His Cross even now is lifted up within us."}

_{Feast Day - 14th September}

on Saints Peter and Paul

by Father Tekadiomona Nima SJ       ♦

_{"The lives of both saints, Peter and Paul, show that there is nothing which is beyond Christ's redeeming love, for Peter had betrayed Jesus and Paul had persecuted Christians. In their weakness Saint Peter and Saint Paul saw Christ as their strength."}  

_{Feast Day - 29th June}

on Easter Sunday

by Archbishop Vincent Nichols       ♦

_{"This risen Christ is a leader. He's not risen off to some distant place where we can only look at him from afar but he's now an energetic, revitalised leader and he leads us primarily to his Father but asking us, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to make that pathway clear through the time in which we live. So we are, on this day, called to begin to share in his mission. That's what Eastertide is about - we are to understand our call to share in the mission of the risen Christ and the gift we're given to do that is the gift of the Holy Spirit.. Suddenly the parameters of our vision have been blown open and we no longer look on life as just a series of separate todays but we look on it in the perspective of eternity and we know our destiny: He is risen, the first fruits of a new creation, of which we will most certainly share and when we see that, then we know where our true hope lies. And so we sing today "Alleluia, the Lord is risen."  Let us give Him the praise and the glory and be part of His saving work today."}

on the Easter Vigil

by Archbishop Vincent Nichols       ♦

_{"So what we try to do on an Easter Vigil is understand how this light of Christ is calling me, through the ups and downs of my own story, through its twists and turns, maybe my own flight into Egypt, my own imprisonment and slavery, and now this exodus, this coming out, so that we can return to the light of Christ. Because in its light, we can see that He has never left us; we might have left him, but He has never left us."}

on Maundy Thursday

by Archbishop Vincent Nichols       ♦

_{"Today we recall the Last Supper of the Lord with his disciples and there are two things that are prominent, but they're very connected. One is the washing of the disciples' feet and the second is the giving of Himself in the bread and wine of their supper which, in our Mass, becomes His Body and Blood."}

on Saint Joseph

by Father Bryan Storey   ♦

_{"All importance in life comes from making God big and important and that was what St Joseph was all about. Being humble before God, making way for God so that we find in everything that we really look for in life comes about wonderfully, if God is central to the whole thing."}

_{Feast day - 19th March}

on the Transfiguration and Lent

by Father Michael Dunne       ♦

_{"Through the death and resurrection of Jesus we, in being called to and by turning to the brightness of the risen Lord, grow from glory to glory as we are transformed into the image we reflect. The transfiguration, witnessed by Peter, James and John, in fact even prefigures their own transfiguration into all that Christ calls them to be. It prefigures our own transfiguration into all that Christ calls us to be.  Sharing His divine life we can be ready, especially in Lent, to bear even something of His Cross in our daily lives, mindful that as we contemplate the transfigured Christ we see not only His glory but the promise of our own."}

_{2nd Sunday of Lent - 24th February 2010}

on the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

by Father Kevin Taggart OSB       ♦

_{"As Christians we are asked to take the light of the world around with us so that we can spread God's Word and the Gospel, because each of us is a temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore the light of the world."}

_{Feast Day - 2nd February}

on St Thérèse of the Child Jesus

by Father Matthew Blake OCD       ♦

_{"Thérèse lived a quiet, hidden and prayerful life but her holiness, her spirit is reaching the entire world and her spirit is changing the world."}

_{Feast Day - 1st October}