Loving the Bride, vol. 20

Something old....

Lenten Prayer from St. Ephraim the Syrian (died June, 373):

O Lord and Master of my life
take from me the spirit of sloth,
faintheartedness,
lust of power,
and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to thy servant.

Yes, O Lord and King

grant me to see my own faults

and not to judge my brother;

for Your are blessed from all ages to all ages.

Something new....

This came out a few weeks ago, so I'm a bit behind, but don't miss Benedict XVI's latest apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist as the source and summit of our faith. Read it here.

Don't have a lot of time to read Benedict? Try this shorter article "If We Knew the Value of the Mass."


Something borrowed....

Can we take back the Catholic culture?

Something to nibble on besides not eating meat on Fridays in Lent.



Something blue....
March 25th is the Feast of the Annuciation... the Incarnation, Word-made-flesh in Mary. Here's a brief reflection from Bishop Fulton J. Sheen's The World's First Love, p. 19:

If you were an artist, would you allow someone to prepare your canvas with daubs? Then why should God be exprected to act differently when He prepares to unite to Himself a human nature like ours, in all things, save sin? By having lifted up one woman by preserving her from sin, and then having her freely ratify that gift at the Annunciation, God gave hope to our disturbed, neurotic, gauche, and weak humanity. Oh yes! He is our Model, but He is also the Person of God! There ought to be, on the human level, Someone who could lead us to Christ, Someone who would mediate between us and Christ as He mediates between us and the the Father. One look at her, and we know that a human who is not good can become better; one prayer to her, and we know that, because she is without sin, we can become less sinful.