St Pio, Capuchin priest

 

ST PIO, great Capuchin priest

Known to have directed countless souls to our Lord

Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation

ST PIO, wonderful Sufferer for Christ

Known to have been tested and tried

Doubted and suspected of being a fraud

Perseverance was given you

ST PIO, loved by so many

Thanks be to God for the grace to suffer

Indeed this is the way of the true follower of Christ

The genuine Disciple of our Saviour

ST PIO, loved by those who love our Lord Jesus, and I choose to be counted, how can I ever say THANKS for showing us the way to the Heart of our Master and Teacher ?

 

 

St Pio speaks to us about confession

“Confession is the soul’s bath. You must go at least once a week. I do not want souls to stay away from confession more than a week. Even a clean and unoccupied room gathers dust; return after a week and you will see that it needs dusting again!”

Be reconciled

 

With joy do I go for my regular confession

Always mindful that to be reconciled is the best thing ever

For with the Lord there is always mercy and fullness of redemption

So too do the little ones go when the time comes

My little god son made his on 7 October his first confession

Such innocence! Such simplicity!

Truly we can be grateful

Always lift up both confessors and penitents daily

Regular confession makes one more conscious of one’s vulnerability

One’s need to be prepared for the unexpected

Death that comes knocking when least expected

If one knew, one would not need to be prepared

So it makes sense, does it not?

Praise the Lord for HIs goodness and kindness!

p.s. this is an acrylic which I did way back in 2005; and to me it looks rather incomplete – like the penitent who needs regular confession, right?

 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

O how very blessed, how very blessed the church is

Jesus says whose sins you forgive they are forgiven

and so we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation

And I am grateful to be able to go regularly

and to be able to receive the grace

so freely

so joyfully

so hopefully

so confidently

What would happen if there was a limit to one’s confession?

What would happen indeed?

I shudder to think that it can  be so

No, it cannot and that  is why it is so easy

to take things for granted

to grow careless of the Sacrament

Come next weekend the little ones aged around nine

will have to make their first Holy Reconciliation

May God bless them to receive the grace

of always leaning on the Lord

Counting on his mercy and abundant goodness

being faithful to the end

 

 

The beautiful hands of a priest

It is common knowledge that the hands of a priest are very important. With his hands he holds up to us the Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist, and with his hands raised high, he absolves us from our sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation; the hands of a priest are indeed beautiful for the work that they do. Here the saint Padre Pio is known for the wounds of Christ on his hands. See the brown mittens. More than a decade ago, in one of my very first retreats an overseas visiting priest placed a mitten of St Pio over my head and prayed for me. He did the same for the other ladies present. We had been commissioned to be mothers of our priests and our main duty was to intercede for all of them. Praise God!

Church of the Holy Family, Jingbian in Xian

Fidelity and commitment

We had for our session today the topic of Marriage. . . yes, the Sacrament of Matrimony. Then at the homily, Fr preached wonderfully on the need to be faithful to one’s commitment; in particular, the vows made. Later in the evening, a few of us shared on our views of long term commitment. It was a rich sharing – to hear of the fidelity of a couple who lived fully till death parted them, and to learn that our young people are fully aware of the need to turn to God for the grace to be faithful, first of all to Him and then to the people and even to the tasks entrusted to us. As I listened, I was reminded of the time when, not long after my conversion to the Catholic Church, I felt like giving up. There were many challenges and I was tempted to throw in my towel and say ‘I have had enough!’

Indeed, I did speak to a priest in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. What did I get? The Word of God to meditate on. Ready? I shared with my friends this evening: Luke Chapter 9 verses 57 to the end of the chapter, verse 62.

This happened almost 18 years ago, but I cannot forget God’s call to discipleship.

“NO ONE, HAVING PUT HIS HAND TO THE PLOW AND LOOKING BACK, IS FIT FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

It seemed appropriate this evening to bring this matter up for I have committed my life into the hands of our Lord and just as He will be faithful to seeing me through my pilgrimage on earth, He expects me to be faithful too. As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta has put it so  beautifully –  God has not called us to be successful but to be FAITHFUL.

May we be faithful to the end . . . and may our journey on this earthly pilgrimage be done with the body of Christ, committed to the Lord and also to one another.  Thank God His grace is sufficient for us. On our own, we will never be able to make it. But in Him who strengthens us, we can do all things and that includes, being faithful to our calling as disciples of the Lord. Amen.