Bless the Lord, O My Soul

Psalm 103:

Bless the LORD, my soul;

all my being, bless his holy name!

Bless the LORD, my soul;

and do not forget all his gifts,

Who pardons all your sins,

and heals all your ills,

Who redeems your life from the pit,

and crowns you with mercy and compassion,

Who fills your days with good things,

so your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

II

The LORD does righteous deeds,

brings justice to all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,

to the Israelites his deeds.

Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger, abounding in mercy.

He will not always accuse,

and nurses no lasting anger;

He has not dealt with us as our sins merit,

nor requited us as our wrongs deserve.

III

For as the heavens tower over the earth,

so his mercy towers over those who fear him.

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our sins from us.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

For he knows how we are formed,

remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like the grass;

he blossoms like a flower in the field.

A wind sweeps over it and it is gone;

its place knows it no more.

But the LORD’s mercy is from age to age,

toward those who fear him.

His salvation is for the children’s children

of those who keep his covenant,

and remember to carry out his precepts.

IV

The LORD has set his throne in heaven;

his dominion extends over all.

Bless the LORD, all you his angels,

mighty in strength, acting at his behest,

obedient to his command.

Bless the LORD, all you his hosts,

his ministers who carry out his will.

Bless the LORD, all his creatures,

everywhere in his domain.

Bless the LORD, my soul!

By The Blood That Flowed From Thee

By the Blood that flowed from Thee

In Thy bitter agony

By the scourge so meekly borne

By Thy purple robe of scorn

Jesus Savior hear our cry

Thou wert suffering

Once as we Hear the loving litany

We Thy children sing to Thee

By the Thorns that crown Thy Head

By Thy Scepter of a reed

By Thy footstep faint and slow

Weighed beneath Thy Cross of woe

By the nails and pointed spear

By Thy people's cruel jeer

By Thy dying prayer which rose

Begging mercy for Thy foes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIn2akcQ2uU&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Remember to pray day 2 of your Divine Mercy Novena
www.divinemercy.org

Devotion for today: They shall look on him whom they have pierced

In the book, “God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, The Heart of Life” by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, we receive the following meditation. Let us ponder these words today as we place ourselves at the foot of His cross, and grieve our sins, yet claim the victory over them won by Christ:

St. John’s account of the Lord’s death closes with the words: “They shall look on him whom they have pierced” (John 19:37 = Zech 12:10). He begins his Revelation with these words, which in that place constitute the opening of the Day of Judgment, that day on which the one who was pierced will rise over the world as its judgment and its life. But he commands us to look upon him now, so that the judgment may be turned to salvation.

 “They shall look on him whom they have pierced.” This might be a description of the inner direction of our Christian life, our learning ever more truly to look upon him, to keep the eyes of our heart turned upon him, to see him, and thereby to grow more humble, to recognize our sins, to recognize how we have struck him, how we have wounded our brethren and thereby wounded him; to look upon him and at the same time, to take hope, because he whom we have wounded is he who loves us; to look upon him and to receive the way of life.

 Lord, grant to us to look upon you and, in so doing, to find true life!

O Sacred Head, Surrounded

O sacred head, surrounded
by crown of piercing thorn!
O bleeding head, so wounded,
reviled and put to scorn!
Our sins have marred the glory
of thy most holy face,
yet angel hosts adore thee
and tremble as they gaze

I see thy strength and vigor
all fading in the strife,
and death with cruel rigor,
bereaving thee of life;
O agony and dying!
O love to sinners free!
Jesus, all grace supplying,
O turn thy face on me.

In this thy bitter passion,
Good Shepherd, think of me
with thy most sweet compassion,
unworthy though I be:
beneath thy cross abiding
for ever would I rest,
in thy dear love confiding,
and with thy presence blest.

---

Words: Henry Williams Baker (1821-1877), 1861;
after Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153);
and Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XppXi_jZKWk

Remember to start your Divine Mercy Novena today: http://thedivinemercy.org/

Devotion for today: The Eucharist is for the reconciled

There has been a debate in the Catholic Church for some time between those who feel that the Eucharist should be considered a meal for all, since Jesus often dined with sinners and partook of the” meal of fellowship”, and those who believe the Eucharist is reserved for those who have atoned for their sins and come to the banquet as chosen people, like the apostles chosen to partake in the Last Supper. Let us see what Pope Benedict XVI tells us about this issue in his book, “God Is Near Us, The Eucharist, The Heart of Life” by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Ignatius Press, 2001.

Nowadays New Testament scholars essentially give one of two answers. Some of them say that the Eucharist of the early Church built upon meals that Jesus shared with his disciples day after day. Others say that the Eucharist is the continuation of the meals with sinners that Jesus had held.

 This second idea has become for many people a fascinating notion with far-reaching consequences. For it would mean that the Eucharist is the sinners’ banquet, where Jesus sits at the table; the Eucharist is the public gesture by which he invites everyone without exception. The logic of this is expressed in a far-reaching criticism of the Church’s Eucharist, since it implies that the Eucharist cannot be conditional on anything, not dependent on denomination or even on baptism. It is necessarily an open table to which all may come to encounter the universal God, without any limit or denominational pre-conditions.

But then, again – however tempting the idea may be – it contradicts what we find in the Bible. Jesus’ Last Supper was not one of those meals he held with “publicans and sinners”. He made it subject to the basic form of the Passover, which implies that this meal was held in a family setting.

This he kept it with his new family, with the Twelve; with those whose feet he washed, whom he had prepared, by his Word and by this cleansing of absolution (Jn 13:10), to receive a blood relationship with him, to become one body with him. The Eucharist is not itself the sacrament of reconciliation, but in fact it presupposes that sacrament. It is the sacrament of the reconciled, to which the Lord invites all those who have become one with him; who certainly still remain weak sinners, but yet have given their hand to him and have become part of his family.

 That is why, from the beginning, the Eucharist has been preceded by a discernment. We … heard this, in very dramatic form from Paul: Whoever eats unworthily eats and drinks judgment on himself, because he does not distinguish the Body of the Lord (1 Cor 11:27). The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, one of the oldest writings outside the New Testament, from the beginning of the second century, takes up this apostolic tradition and has the priest, just before distributing the Sacrament, saying: “Whoever is holy, let him approach – whoever is not, let him do penance!”

 The Eucharist is – let us repeat it – the sacrament of those who have let themselves be reconciled by God, who have thus become members of his family and put themselves into his hands. That is why there are conditions for participating in it; it presupposes that we have voluntarily entered into the mystery of Jesus Christ.

Now is a good time to review our attitude toward sin and its relationship to the gift given to us at the Last Supper, the Eucharist. In receiving Christ in the form of the host, do we believe that we should be in the state of grace, that our souls should be clean of mortal sin and that we should have said we are sorry for the venial sins we commit every single day? Do we believe we should present our best selves to Christ? Today is a good time to ask Jesus to place His hand in ours, and lead us to a reconciled life with Him.

O Lord, I Am Not Worthy

1. O Lord, I am not worthy
That Thou should'st come to me,
But speak the words of comfort,
My spirit healed shall be.

2. Oh, come, all you who labor
In sorrow and in pain,
Come, eat This Bread from heaven;
Thy peace and strength regain.

3. O Jesus, we adore Thee,
Our Victim and our Priest,
Whose precious Blood and Body
Become our sacred Feast.

4. O Sacrament most holy,
O Sacrament divine!
All praise and all thanksgiving
Be ev'ry moment Thine.