Are You Listening
Father Albert Powers S. J.
Irish Messenger - 1925
This, then, is a wonderful secret which the Catholic Church has to communicate―namely, God's hunger for your soul.
But there is a secret more startling still which Holy Mother Church whispers as you nestle confidingly in her arms―namely, that the love-story must be told you personally and individually by the Divine Lover Himself.
You, too, must pause to catch His words; they will rivet your attention also as they have riveted the attention of so many others: of Mary the sinner, as she stood enraptured by the spell of His presence in the streets of Magdala; of Saul of Tarsus, when riding to Damascus he heard the whispered reproach, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"; of Augustine of Hippo as he sat in the garden of Alypius at Milan and read a few verses of St. Paul's Epistle; of Ignatius Loyola as he lay dreaming on a bed of sickness; of Thérèse of Lisieux as she knelt in humble adoration before Our Lady of Victories at Paris. All these and a million others stopped spellbound as they caught the accents of the divine whisper and realized, what you, too, will realize―that the whisper was a confession of Love from the God who made them.
You, too, must pause to catch His words; they will rivet your attention also as they have riveted the attention of so many others: of Mary the sinner, as she stood enraptured by the spell of His presence in the streets of Magdala; of Saul of Tarsus, when riding to Damascus he heard the whispered reproach, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"; of Augustine of Hippo as he sat in the garden of Alypius at Milan and read a few verses of St. Paul's Epistle; of Ignatius Loyola as he lay dreaming on a bed of sickness; of Thérèse of Lisieux as she knelt in humble adoration before Our Lady of Victories at Paris. All these and a million others stopped spellbound as they caught the accents of the divine whisper and realized, what you, too, will realize―that the whisper was a confession of Love from the God who made them.
I repeat, this story of God's love for your souls must be told you by the Divine Lover Himself, else the tale will fall on cold, incredulous ears. Hence interviews are necessary. And see how He has arranged to make them possible! How He has thought out a scheme whereby, if you accept it, you may come into daily contact with Him and learn from Himself the Divine secrets of which His Soul is a treasure house.
And what is the trysting place He has assigned? You know its name―we call it the Eucharist. And the Eucharist is the very heart and essence of the Catholic Faith; it means Jesus living sacramentally in our midst.
Panis Angelcus by Jackie Evanko
Panis Angelicas fit panis hominum
(The Angel's bread becomes the bread of men)
Dat panis coelicus figuris terminum
(The heavenly bread ends all symbols)
O res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum
(O, miraculous thing! The body of the Lord will nourish)
Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis
(The poor, poor, and humble servant)
Pauper, pauper, servus et humilis
(The poor, poor, and humble servant)
1,449,822
No comments:
Post a Comment