Below are some highlights of our last prayer group talk. ‌

St. Juliana of Cornillon was born in Belgium between 1191 and 1192. She became an orphan at the age of five and was entrusted with her sister Agnes to the care of the Augustinian nuns. Eventually, Juliana became an Augustinian nun.

Juliana made rapid progress in both learning and spirituality. She read the writings of Church Fathers and had a great love for Our Lady, the Passion of Christ, and especially the Holy Eucharist. She frequently meditated on Jesus’ words: “And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).

Pope Benedict XVI said, “When Juliana was 16 she had her first vision which recurred subsequently several times during her Eucharistic adoration. Her vision presented the moon in its full splendour, crossed diametrically by a dark stripe. The Lord made her understand the meaning of what had appeared to her. The moon symbolized the life of the Church on earth, the opaque line, on the other hand, represented the absence of a liturgical feast for whose institution Juliana was asked to plead effectively: namely, a feast in which believers would be able to adore the Eucharist so as to increase in faith, to advance in the practice of the virtues and to make reparation for offences to the Most Holy Sacrament.”

Juliana kept the private revelation to herself for about 20 years, then she shared it with two women devoted to the Holy Eucharist—Blessed Eva and Isabella. Pope Benedict said, “The three women established a sort of ‘spiritual alliance’ for the purpose of glorifying the Most Holy Sacrament.” Due to their efforts, the Feast of Corpus Christi was celebrated in some dioceses during the lifetime of St. Juliana. The saint died on April 5, 1258. Pope Urban IV instituted the Solemnity of Corpus Christi for the whole Church in 1264. He asked St. Thomas Aquinas to write the liturgical texts for the feast. As a result, the saint composed some famous hymns: Pange lingua, Tantum ergo, and Panis Angelicus. Pope Benedict XVI said, “They are masterpieces, still in use in the Church today, in which theology and poetry are fuse.”

St. John Paul II wrote, “In many places, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament is also an important daily practice and becomes an inexhaustible source of holiness.”

Venerable Fulton John Sheen said that on the day of his Ordination, he made the resolution to spend a continuous Holy Hour every day in the presence of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

In his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, Bishop Sheen listed the reasons for daily Holy Hour:

“First, the Holy Hour is not a devotion; it is a sharing in the work of redemption... In the Garden, Our Lord contrasted two ‘hours’—one was the evil hour ‘this is your hour’—with which Judas could turn out the lights of the world. In contrast, Our Lord asked: ‘Could you not watch one hour with Me?’ In other words, He asked for an hour of reparation to combat the hour of evil; an hour of victimal union with the Cross to overcome the anti-love of sin.”‌

“Secondly, the only time Our Lord asked the Apostles for anything was the night He went into His agony... As often in the history of the Church since that time, evil was awake, but the disciples were asleep. That is why there came out of His anguished and lonely Heart the sigh: ‘Could you not watch one hour with Me?’ Not for an hour of activity did He plead, but for an hour of companionship.”

“The third reason I keep up the Holy Hour is to grow more and more into His likeness. As Paul puts it: ‘We are transfigured into His likeness, from splendor to splendor.’ We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour transforms the heart in a mysterious way as the face of Moses was transformed after his companionship with God on the mountain.”

Pope Benedict XVI said, “It is comforting to know that many groups of young people have rediscovered the beauty of praying in adoration before the Most Blessed Sacrament.”

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God bless,

Father Anthony‌

Below are some highlights of our last prayer group talk. ‌

St. Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231) and St. Angela of Foligno (1248-1309) are Secular Franciscan saints of the 13th century. Both were widows who did charitable works. Elizabeth was very pious since childhood, whereas Angela was converted to a devout way of life later.

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God bless,

Father Anthony

Below are some highlights of our last prayer group talk. 

St. Clare was born in 1193 of an aristocratic family. Moved by the example and preaching of St. Francis of Assisi, she decided in 1211 to follow his way of life. On Palm Sunday, March 17th, 1212, Clare escaped to the Church of the Portiuncula for a ceremony of dedicating herself to God and received from Francis a rough penitential habit.

Clare lived her religious life in an old house near the Church of San Damiano near Assisi. She was soon joined by her 14 years old sister Agnes, and then her mother and other noble ladies. In 1215, Francis appointed Clare superior of the community.

Pope Benedict XVI said, “Especially at the beginning of her religious experience, Francis of Assisi was not only a teacher to Clare whose teachings she was to follow but also a brotherly friend. The friendship between these two Saints is a very beautiful and important aspect. Indeed, when two pure souls on fire with the same love for God meet, they find in their friendship with each other a powerful incentive to advance on the path of perfection. Friendship is one of the noblest and loftiest human sentiments which divine Grace purifies and transfigures. Like St Francis and St Clare, other Saints too experienced profound friendship on the journey towards Christian perfection. Examples are St Francis de Sales and St Jane Frances de Chantal. And St Francis de Sales himself wrote: ‘It is a blessed thing to love on earth as we hope to love in Heaven, and to begin that friendship here which is to endure for ever there. I am not now speaking of simple charity, a love due to all mankind, but of that spiritual friendship which binds souls together, leading them to share devotions and spiritual interests, so as to have but one mind between them’ (The Introduction to a Devout Life, III, 19).”

Father Augustine Kalberer described the life of St. Clare’s community: “The nuns observed a continual fast, ate no meat, spoke only when charity or necessity required, wore nothing on their feet, observed the night and day rhythm of choir office, and lived within the enclosure. While spared the rigours of the friars’ apostolate, the nuns would make their contribution by a more penitential way of life. Though the gaiety of the Poor Clares is proverbial, they remain the most penitential of the large orders of nuns.”

Benedict XVI pointed out that with great determination Clare obtained from Pope Gregory IX the “Privilege of Poverty”. On the basis of this privilege Clare and her companions at San Damiano could not possess any material property. Also, Clare was the first woman who composed a written Rule submitted for the Pope’s approval.

In the Rule, St. Clare wrote the following regarding the manner of working: “The sisters to whom the Lord has given the grace of working are to work faithfully and devotedly, [beginning] after the Hour of Terce, at work which pertains to a virtuous life and to the common good. They must do this in such a way that, while they banish idleness, the enemy of the soul, they do not extinguish the Spirit of holy prayer and devotion to which all other things of our earthly existence must contribute.”

Clare had a great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. When a group of Saracen mercenaries advanced to assault the saint’s convent, Clare caused the Blessed Sacrament to be placed facing the mercenaries and prayed: “Deliver not to beasts, O Lord, the souls of those who confess to Thee.” A voice from the Host replied, “My protection will never fail you.” A sudden panic seized the mercenaries and they took to flight.

From about 1225 until her death, Clare was almost constantly ill. On one Christmas Eve, Clare was too sick to attend Mass. The Holy Spirit projected the images and sounds of Mass on the wall of her room, and Clare was able to “attend” Mass in her room. Because of this miracle, Pope Pius XII named St. Clare the patroness of television in 1957.

Clare died on August 11, 1253, and was canonized two years later, on August 15, 1255, by Pope Alexander IV. 

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God bless,

Father Anthony

Below are some highlights of our last prayer group talk. 

St Matilda of Hackeborn was the sister of Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn. When Matilda was seven, her mother brought her to visit her elder sister Gertrude, who was then a nun in the monastery of Rodardsdorf. Matilda was attracted to the monastic life and entered the monastery as a schoolgirl. In 1258 Matilda became a nun at the convent, which in the meantime had moved to Helfta.

Pope Benedict XVI said that when Matilda was still very young “she became the principal of the convent’s school, choir mistress and novice mistress, offices that she fulfilled with talent and unflagging zeal, not only for the benefit of the nuns but for anyone who wanted to draw on her wisdom and goodness.”

In 1261 the five year old St. Gertrude the Great was entrusted to the convent. The young saint was under the care of Matilda, who was 20 years of age. In 1271 or 1272, Matilda of Magdeburg also entered the convent. Pope Benedict XVI commented: “So it was that this place took in four great women two Gertrudes and two Matildas the glory of German monasticism.”

At the age of 50, Matilda experienced both spiritual and physical suffering. She confided to St. Gertrude the Great and another religious sister the special graces and private revelations she received from God since childhood. However, Matilda did not know that they were writing it all down.

When she found out that Gertrude the Great had almost completed a book of her revelations she was deeply troubled until she had a vision of Christ holding in His hand the book and said, “All this has been committed to writing by my will and inspiration; and, therefore you have no cause to be troubled about it.” Our Lord let her know that those revelations would cause many to increase in His love. He wished the book to be called “The Book of Special Grace.”

Regarding the spirituality of Matilda, Pope Benedict XVI said, “Her visions, her teachings, the events of her life are described in words reminiscent of liturgical and biblical language. In this way it is possible to comprehend her deep knowledge of Sacred Scripture, which was her daily bread. She had constant recourse to the Scriptures, making the most of the biblical texts read in the Liturgy, and drawing from them symbols, terms, countryside, images and famous figures.”

Matilda had a special love for the Gospel. Our Lord said to her: “Consider the immensity of my love: if you want to know it well, nowhere will you find it more clearly expressed than in the Gospel. No one has ever heard expressed stronger or more tender sentiments than these: ‘As my father has loved me, so I have loved you (Jn 15:9)’”.

At the age of 25, St. Gertrude the Great had a vision of Christ (January 27, 1281). She referred this mystical experience as her “conversion”. Pope Benedict XVI said, “Her biographer points out two directions of what we might describe as her own particular ‘conversion’: in study, with the radical passage from profane, humanistic studies to the study of theology, and in monastic observance, with the passage from a life that she describes as negligent, to the life of intense, mystical prayer, with exceptional missionary zeal.... She filled her heart with the most useful and sweet sayings of Sacred Scripture. Thus she was always ready with some inspired and edifying word to satisfy those who came to consult her while having at her fingertips the most suitable scriptural texts to refute any erroneous opinion and silence her opponents”

The life of St. Gertrude the Great was full of extraordinary mystical experiences. These experiences were recorded, over an eight-year period, in her Revelations. She was one of the first to promote devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She died on November 17, 1301 or 1302. The saint said, “Bodily and spiritual affliction are the surest sign of Divine predilection. Gratitude for suffering is a precious jewel for our heavenly crown... Man should always firmly believe that God sends just that trial which is most beneficial for him.”

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God bless,

Father Anthony