Precious Jesus

November 23, 2012 by Be Holy

Precious Jesus,
Holy Gem,
Beauty, beyond my knowing,
You are God, hidden,
As diamond in the rough,
A Man, yet God, One.

It is for me
To desire You,
To call You,
To allow You,
God willing.

You will be my tumbler,
Life’s crucible.
The Rock, chipping away
At my clay.
My stoniness,
Yielding its course substance,
While I journey.
Rude being honed
To perfection.

You polish,
And reveal
Light through my layers,
The Father, shining in You,
The Sun of His Being,
Resplendent now in me,
Made glorious
In You,
Precious Jesus,
Holy Gem.

How Poor Am I?

November 23, 2012 by Be Holy

How poor am I?
No one suspects my poverty,
For I hide it
‘Neath empty bravado.

All show,
The fool fooling all
But myself.
Yet, sometimes,
I , too, believe
My haughty claims.
How poor am I?

November 21, 2012 by Be Holy

Mgr Alban’s Notebook

I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation like a bride adorned in her jewels.
Responsory, Office of Readings, Nov. 21.

Today, the Church celebrates the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Today, we remember as St John Damascene says that truly Mary becomes the Lady above all creation in her role as the Mother of the Creator. Born in Joachim’s house near the Probatica, she was presented in the Temple. Thereupon “planted in the house of God” and nurtured by the Holy Spirit, like a fruitful olive tree she flowered forth in all virtues.

In today’s Office of Readings, we read from a sermon by St Augustine, By faith she believed; by faith, conceived, where St Augustine says that

Indeed the blessed Mary certainly did the Father’s will, and so it was for…

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Thanksgiving Thanksgiving – State of the Union

November 20, 2012 by Be Holy

Our country is a miracle. Our freedoms are precious. Our future is uncertain.

” Because power corrupts, societies demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.” – John Adams

“

I thank God this Thanksgiving. I pray that the spirit of our fore-bearers still lives, leading us to take responsibility for our Country in 2012.

State of the Nation 1776

The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this Army—Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect—We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country’s Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions—The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.

Extract from General George Washington’s General Orders, 1776

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.” – John Adams

” Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams

Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival

November 17, 2012 by Be Holy

Hello, and welcome. We are a group of Catholic bloggers who gather weekly to share our best posts with each other. Join us to read and contribute if you like. Make sure that post links back to Sunday Snippets–A Catholic Carnival. Don’t forget to leave a link to your post on our host, at RAnn’s site, This, That and the Other Thing.

Here are my contributions from the past week:

The following meditations will probably rank high among many similar works which the

contemplative love of Jesus has produced; but it is our duty here plainly to affirm that they

have no pretensions whatever to be regarded as history.

They are but intended to take one of

the lowest places among those numerous representations of the Passion which have been

given us by pious writers and artists, and to be considered at the very utmost as the Lenten

meditations of a devout nun, related in all simplicity, and written down in the plainest and

most literal language, from her own dictation. To these meditations, she herself never

attached more than a mere human value, and never related them except through obedience,

and upon the repeated commands of the directors of her conscience.

The writer of the following pages was introduced to this holy religious by Count Leopold

de Stolberg. (The Count de Stolberg is one of the most eminent converts whom the Catholic

Church has made from Protestantism. He died in 1819.)