ChristianTales.com
  • Home
  • Spiritual Blog
  • Contact Me
  • The Ghost Driver
  • A Scandalous Education

On Gnats & Daily Mass

4/28/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Through the example of others the Holy Spirit can move us to make great decisions!
For many years it never occurred to me to go to daily Mass.

After my parish priest told his congregation that we should all do something to help our community. I realized that included me and I began volunteering locally. 

While working there, I was struck by the positive attitude of one particular Catholic volunteer. Despite home-schooling five sons of varying ages, she still found time to go to Mass every morning!

She showed no reproach towards those of us who had plenty of time to attend daily Mass, yet didn’t go.  

I felt ashamed of myself.

Picture
Some of us take longer than others to 'get' it!
The Last Straw

However, this still didn’t prod me into following her example. She became pregnant with her sixth child and left our organization for one year. 

Her replacement was a Catholic lady who'd worked for decades in D.C. Before driving into the city, she went to daily Mass, and maintained the habit after retiring.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.

I'd attended Mass every day during the past few Lents and considered myself very wonderful for such heroic effort. But the year this lady joined our organization, I continued to go daily once Easter was over.


The unassuming example of my fellow Catholics had had its effect.

Picture
O.K. purists - I know this is a mosquito. But I couldn't find a photo of a gnat, and I'm sure mosquitoes have short attention spans, too!
The Gnat Needs Reminding

The benefits of daily Mass cannot be overstated.

Our attention spans are becoming ever shorter these days, and this is especially true of anything to do with God. He is so unwelcome in this secular world that there are few, if any, reminders of His existence beyond the church walls. Out of sight, out of mind, once we exit our pews on Sunday.

Attending Mass every morning begins each day with our Creator. His Word supports and encourages us, after leaving the Church building, to carry God to the particular part of the world in which we move and have our being.

That half hour of daily Mass is the most valuable time of day. The priest explains the reading and Gospel message from Scripture, and gives us a message to treasure in our hearts and share with others during the next twenty-four hours.

But our gnat-like attention spans need another boost at Mass the following morning!

I find it helpful to write down in a note book every sermon as it’s being preached – a habit begun with urging from my parish priest. That way I stay focused on what’s being said, as well as producing a useful record of it to look over later.  

Picture
Daily Mass Brings Phenomenal Graces! 

So many graces and other goodness from God are derived from participating at daily Mass. I think if all Catholics were aware of them, those that could, would attend Mass every day for the rest of their lives.

All 77 graces are listed in Graces Derived from Participating at Daily Mass but here are some of them:

1) The Mass is Calvary continued.

2) Every Mass is worth as much as the Sacrifice of Our Lord's Life, suffering and death.

3) Holy Mass is the most powerful atonement for your sins.

4) At the hour of death the Masses you have heard will be your greatest consolation.

5) Every Mass will go with you to Judgement and plead for pardon.

6) At Mass you can diminish more or less temporal punishment due to your sins, according to your fervor.

7) Assisting devoutly at Holy Mass, you render to the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord the greatest homage.

8) He supplies for many of your negligences and omissions.

9) He forgives the venial sins which you have not confessed. The power of satan over you is diminished.

10) You afford the Souls in Purgatory the greatest possible relief.

11) One Mass heard during life will be of more benefit to you than many heard for you after your death.

12) You are preserved from dangers and misfortunes which otherwise might have befallen you.

13) You shorten your stay in Purgatory.

14) Every Mass wins for you a higher degree of glory in Heaven.

15) You receive the Priest's blessing which Our Lord ratifies in Heaven.

16) You kneel amidst a multitude of holy angels, who are present at the adorable Sacrifice with reverential awe.

17) You are blessed in your temporal goods and affairs.

18) For you Christ offers Himself as the all-powerful Victim, reconciling you to the GOD that you have offended.

19) He pardons you all your venial sins, provided you are firmly resolved to forsake them.

20) He also makes reparation for many of your sins of omission, when you did leave undone the good that you might have done.

21) He removes many of the imperfections attached to your good deeds.

22) He forgives you the sins, unknown or forgotten which you have never mentioned in confession.

23) He offers Himself as a Victim to make satisfaction at least of your debts and transgressions.

24) Each time you hear Mass you can do more to pay the penalty due to your sins than by the work of the severest penance.

You see why this precious opportunity should not be wasted!

Picture
For Those Who Can’t Go to Daily Mass

Not everyone can get to Mass every day and for those who can’t, there is the Spiritual Communion Prayer, which also carries a partial indulgence if said three times (according to the Pieta Prayer Book):

“Oh Jesus, I turn toward the holy tabernacle where You live hidden for love of me. I love you, O my God. I cannot receive you in Holy Communion. Come, nevertheless, and visit me with Your grace. Come spiritually into my heart. Purify it. Sanctify it. Render it like unto Your own. Amen.

“Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

Here is the other Spiritual Communion Prayer (to be found on the same website):

“My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You have already come, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.”

Satan, the prince of this world, is trying his hardest to drive God out of our lives. We must work our absolute hardest against him to keep God firmly in our whole hearts, minds and souls.


Picture
If you can attend daily Mass, you'll begin every day in Christ's peace
0 Comments

Who Needs Mercy? Not I! Said the Little Red Hen

4/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
The waters are beginning to rise
I am currently reading the Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska. It is the fascinating and intensely holy journey of the Polish nun whom Christ commissioned with the task of spreading devotion to His Divine Mercy.

She records the words spoken to her by Jesus, in which He reveals an unfathomable love for mankind.

Jesus’ Frustration

He also tells her of how deeply saddened He is when we don’t come to Him with pure, childlike trust.

“This distrust of My goodness hurts me very much. If My death has not convinced you of My love, what will?....There are souls who despise My graces as well as all the proofs of My love. They do not wish to hear My call, but proceed into the abyss of hell. The loss of these souls plunges Me into deadly sorrow… I cannot help such a soul because it scorns Me; having a free will, it can spurn Me or love Me.” (580) (My italics)

Last Friday we commemorated the death of Christ, following the horrible scourging with lead-tipped whips and being forced to carry the heavy wooden cross before having His hands and feet nailed to it.

He did all that to prove how much He loves each one of us – regardless of our past. 

In doing so He conquered death and Satan, and urgently wants us to ask for His mercy and forgiveness, so that we can be with Him in Heaven when our life here on earth is over.

It doesn't take a genius to understand Christ’s frustration when we still refuse to believe in Him, despite everything He’s done for us!

Picture
Mercy isn't just reserved for Catholics!
Our Free Choice to Descend Into Hell 

Modern man has decided that he’s too smart for God and is happier without Him. 

All around us is clear evidence that this is not so. Yet we’re such ‘a stiff-necked people’ that we persist in our self-delusion. Do we really prefer our culture of death, the direct result of scorning God’s Ten Commandments? Do we really believe that we live in a better world now? Do you believe that?

As has already been noted, God is such a gentleman that when we say we don’t want Him, He leaves. And then we complain about the state of the world and wonder ‘how God can let it happen.’

Don’t we understand that we let it happen? We’re only getting what we asked for! And so we ‘do not wish to hear (His) call, but proceed into the abyss of hell.’

It’s our choice and an exercise of our free will. (Which, by the way, we wouldn’t have if God hadn’t given it to us….)

Picture
Simple forgiveness is all Jesus asks us to request from Him
Sin & Satan: Myth or Reality?

We have to turn our backs on the secular culture that tells us there is no such thing as sin. The world and its very real prince, Satan, is having a wonderful time right now.

Satan knows that if we acknowledge sin, we’ll stop wasting our money on frivolous things and give more to the poor and needy. We'll spend less time watching television and more on praying and going to church. We’ll then be in real danger of getting out of his grasp and go to Heaven.

He hates us, and wants us to forget about God and sin.

Deep down we know that sin is real, even though we try to ignore it. Everyone one of us understands that murder is a sin, lying is a sin, theft, envy, etc.

All the things the Ten Commandments tell us not to do we are innately aware are wrong. God put that moral code into our hearts. But we don’t want to do the right thing because it ‘impinges on our freedom.’

As I mentioned earlier, where has that version of ‘freedom’ got us?

Those who have been through wars remind us that freedom doesn’t come for free. How much truer that is with God! We have to battle to keep our freedom.

Picture
The light is always on for us
Complete Forgiveness

Divine Mercy Sunday is this weekend.

‘No soul will be justified until it turns with confidence to My mercy, and this is why the first Sunday after Easter is to be the Feast of Mercy. On that day, priests are to tell everyone about My great and unfathomable mercy.’ (570)

Jesus is hurt that we don't understand how true freedom is a release from our sins. He reassures us that absolutely no one has reason to shrink from going to Confession. ‘Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet.’ (699)

Christ rejoices when those who have been away from the Sacraments come back to the Church. His parable of the Prodigal Son wasn’t simply a moving story: He told it so that we could understand God's joy when one of His lost sheep comes back to the fold.

For non-Catholics, it is also a call to ask for forgiveness as well as an opportunity to see the many ways the Catholic Church can help its members draw closer to God and to Heaven.

‘I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment… Mankind will not have peace until it returns to the fount of My mercy.’ (699)



Jesus' call for our repentance is just as valid today as it was when Noah was told to build the Ark, when Jonah was sent to save Nineveh, when John the Baptist preached in the desert or Peter converted over 3,000 people at Pentecost.

This Sunday,let’s take advantage of God’s fathomless ability to forgive.


Picture
It is never too late to return to God and His Commandments while we are in this life.
0 Comments

Did Judas Have to Hang?

4/1/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Judas is synonymous with Satan for us
So accustomed to condemning Judas as the bad guy, we forget that Jesus died for our sins, too, not just those committed by Judas or our neighbor.

Peter Is the ‘Good Guy’

It’s far less painful to identify with Peter, because even when we recognize his faults in ourselves they somehow seem more forgivable.

He opened his mouth so often without thinking, and once Christ had to severely rebuke him: “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23). Peter promised never to desert his Master, shortly before denying Him three times with loud curses.

We secretly suspect we’d have reacted just like Peter in the same situation. Peter is the guy with a good heart who sometimes gets it wrong.

Picture
But Judas Is a Weasel of the Worst Kind

The Loner

We don’t hear much about Judas during Jesus’ ministry. He never engaged with Jesus or the apostles, possibly because of his stealing. We discover this about him when Lazarus’ sister Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with extremely expensive oil.

Judas pretends to be outraged, saying that the ‘genuine aromatic nard’ should have been sold to give money to the poor. However ‘he said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions’ (John 12:6).

Such behavior would not have made him popular with his fellow apostles. So he was an outsider who didn’t belong to the group.

Ripe for Satan

If only he had asked Jesus for forgiveness and healing, Jesus would have freely given them. But Judas had no humility, unlike Peter, and kept sinning at a proud distance from Jesus’ Merciful Heart.

He did not love Our Lord or his neighbor. Instead of feeling a reverence for the Eucharist when he received Christ’s Body at the Last Supper, he was apathetic towards Jesus.

Satan has a field day with us when we are lukewarm about our faith and filled Judas’ heart so effortlessly: ‘After Judas took the morsel, Satan entered him’ (John 13:27).

Judas then rose, leaving the very first Mass early in order to betray Jesus. How often have we done the same thing to Our Lord?

Picture
Remorse Is Not Enough

When Judas realizes that Jesus is being condemned to death, he is “filled with remorse” (Matthew 27:3). He understands that he has “betrayed an innocent man” (Matthew 27:4) and tries to return the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. But they laugh in his face.

All he needed to do was ask Jesus for forgiveness. But he continued to separate himself from Christ’s love, too proud and steeped in the habit of sinning to see his way out of the darkness towards the light of Christ.

He’d seen so many sinners be forgiven, yet remained blind to the truth that such forgiveness was available to him, too! An eye witness to so many miracles, he still had no faith.

Instead, he despaired – the ultimate sin – and committed suicide by hanging himself.

Picture
How the Story Should Have Ended

Imagine the different ending to this story if he had asked Jesus to forgive him! Judas would have been the greatest example in history of God’s mercy. What a wasted opportunity!

If the man who betrayed Jesus had only asked his crucified Lord for forgiveness, Judas would have been the greatest saint who ever repented and reformed.

But Judas’ years of estrangement from Our Lord and habitual sin had made him too proud to ask God for mercy. He allowed Satan to discourage him from believing that he could be forgiven.

We must always believe that we can be forgiven – no matter what we’ve done.

Picture
Peter Takes a Different Path

Peter also wept with bitter remorse, when his eyes met Jesus’ as the cock crowed immediately after his three denials of Christ.

But he didn’t go off alone and hang himself. Instead he felt very humbled when he saw himself for the sinner he was. 

Christ met Peter in private after his resurrection (Luke 24:34). We don’t know what was said, but we can imagine that Peter begged Jesus for forgiveness. He would have instantly received it.

Then Jesus publicly restored Peter's standing. He asked him three times if he loved Him and gave Peter the chance to say he did. Here is a great commentary on this Bible passage: Simon Peter, Do You Love Me?  

Peter was restored to life in Christ because he didn’t despair, and believed in His Infinite Mercy.


This Easter we need to ask ourselves - are we Peter or Judas? Do we understand that Christ died a horrible death to save all of us? Or do we believe that we're so special that God’s mercy doesn’t apply to us, which is a form of pride?

Rather than despair when we fall, we must believe in Christ’s Mercy at all times.

Jesus, I Trust in You!

Picture
Have a Blessed Easter!
0 Comments
    Tweet

    Hilary Walker

    A fanatic horse rider and writer of Christian Inspirational Fiction, who's beginning to understand that making it to Heaven is a tad more important than winning at horse shows.

    Archives

    April 2022
    March 2021
    December 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    October 2018
    March 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    August 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    Categories

    All
    Absolute Relativism
    Acknowledging Christ
    Acts Of Heroism
    Agony In The Garden
    A Happy Christmas
    Air Travel
    Alternative To Cow's Milk
    Anger
    Baby Jesus
    Baby Jesus
    Bad Horse Show
    Battling Relativism
    Battling Ulcerative Colitis
    Believing In The Invisible
    Blasphemy Against The Holy Spirit
    Blessings
    Blind Faith
    Body And Blood Of Christ
    Body And Blood Of Jesus
    Body And Blood Of Jesus Christ
    Canonization
    Carrying The Cross
    Catholicism
    Chaplet Of Divine Mercy
    Chicago
    Chicago River
    Choosing Absolute Truth Over Absolute Relativism
    Choosing Christianity Over Relativism
    Christ
    Christ Crucified
    Christian Faith
    Christian Faith
    Christian Hero
    Christian Heroism
    Christianity
    Christianity And Tim Tebow
    Christian Response
    Christians
    Christmas
    Christmas Fall
    Christmas Stars
    Christmas Thanks
    Christmas Thanks
    Christ's Passion
    Confession
    Constellations
    Cross
    Cross Of Christ
    Crucifixion
    Daily Commute
    Daily Mass
    Dairy-free Product
    Definition Of Grace
    Despair
    Devil
    Disowning God
    Divine Mercy Sunday
    Dogs And Ulcerative Colitis
    Donkey Work
    Driving
    Easter
    Easter Monday
    Evangelizing
    Evil
    Extraordinary Graces
    Faith In The Unseen
    Falling Over
    Fasting
    Father Gerald Vann
    Father Jean C.J. D’Elbée
    Fear Of Flying
    Feast Of The Assumption
    Feeding Horses
    Feeling An Idiot
    Fighting For The Bride Of Christ
    Forgiveness Of Sins
    Funeral
    Gaudete
    Getting Children To Go To Mass
    Getting Young Adults To Go To Mass
    Give And You Shall Receive
    Giving Thanks
    Giving Thanks
    God
    God And Horses
    Golgotha
    Good Deeds
    Good Friday
    Good Habits
    Grace
    Green Chicago River
    Happiness
    Happy News For Easter
    Heaven
    Hematidrosis
    Holistic Approach To Ulcerative Colitis
    Holistic Bee Nutrition & Welness
    Holistic Healing
    Holy Communion
    Holy Spirit
    Home
    Hope
    Horses
    Horses And Heaven
    How To Get Your Child To Go To Mass
    Humility
    Hurt
    Husbands
    I Believe In Love
    Is Heaven Boring
    Jesus
    Joy
    Judas
    Judas' Betrayal Of Christ
    Judas The Weasel
    Keeping Faith Through Adversity
    Lent
    Lenten Mass
    Love
    Love Is An Act Of Will
    Loving Our Neighbor
    Mary Our Mother
    Mary The Mother Of God
    Mass
    Medjugorje
    Men
    Merciful Savior
    Mercy
    Merry Christmas
    Merry Christmas
    Miracles
    Mother's Day
    Mother Therese Of Jesus
    Nature Of Love Of God
    Nature Of Sin
    Novena
    Old Priests
    Our Lady
    Overcoming Doubts In God
    Overcoming Sin
    Parish Priest
    Patience
    Peace On Earth
    Peter
    Pope Francis
    Power Of Prayer
    Prayer
    Praying For Enemies
    Praying For Suicides
    Praying For Those Who
    Priests
    Reconciliation
    Redemption
    Rejecting Evil
    Rejection Of Christ
    Relativism
    Relic
    Relocating
    Repentance
    Resentment
    Rosary
    Sacrament Of Absolution
    Sacrament Of Confession
    Sacrament Of Reconciliation
    Satan
    Seven Daily Habits For Faithful Catholics.
    Sign Of The Cross
    Sins
    Son Of Man
    Spirituality Of Small Jobs
    Spiritual Lollipops
    Spiritual Oasis
    State Of Grace
    St Bridget's Prayers
    St Bridget's Promises
    St Faustina
    St. Jude
    Stroke
    Struggling Christians
    Suffering
    Sweating Blood
    The Agony In The Garden
    The Chaplet Of Mercy
    The Divine Mercy Chaplet
    The Gospel
    The Greatest Sin
    The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge
    The Power Of Setting The Example
    The Real Presence
    The Road To Destruction
    The Road To Perdition
    The Road To Ruin
    The True Presence
    Tim Tebow
    Tony Dungy
    Transubstantiation
    Treadmill
    Trust In Jesus
    Ttruth Not Relativism
    Ulcerative Colitis
    Voting Against Evil
    Weekday Mass
    Widow
    Young Adults And The Catholic Church

    RSS Feed