Anima Christi

Anima Christi, sanctifica me.
Corpus Christi, salva me.
Sanguis Christi, inebria me.
Agua lateris Christi, lava me.
Passio Christi, conforta me.
O Bone Iesu, exaudi me.
Intra tua vulnera absconde me.
Ne permittas me separari a te.
Ab hoste maligno defende me.
In hora mortis meae voca me,
et iube me venire ad te,
ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te
in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me.
Within thy wounds hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from thee.
From the malicious enemy defend me.
In the hour of death call me
and bid me come unto thee,
that with thy saints I may praise thee
for ever and ever. Amen.

Bread from Heaven

You have given them bread from heaven.
Containing in itself all delight.

The Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be his Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be his most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be his most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.

Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in his angels and in his saints.

Psalm 137

By the streams of Babylon
   we sat and wept
   when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
   we hung our harps.

Though there our captors asked of us
   the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
   “Sing for us the songs of Zion!”

How could we sing a song of the LORD
   in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
   may my right hand be forgotten!

May my tongue cleave to my palate
   if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
   ahead of my joy.

Rejection

Let us thank God a thousand times if in the sadness which invades us it seems to us as if we are rejected by the world. The depression and suffering, the bitterness with which we seem sometimes to be soaked, were the lot of our Lord on earth.
Blessed Charles de Foucauld

The whole universe trembled for your suffering, O Lord.

by authors of Magnificat

Death and Resurrection

On account of the Lord's resurrection, the whole condition of death has been rendered insignificant.
Saint Peter Chrysologus

Work and Love, by Monsignor Giussani

We must always remind ourselves that our first work does not arise from the capacity to create new structures, but rather it is... a sensibility to the common and singular needs that exist: the use of your intelligence and energy to assist in the creation of a more human environment in the situation where you are. Only if the imagination is awakened can new forms of work be invented. This can only spring forth from an amazement, a devotion, a love for what man is. The factory remains a factory, but it's not like it was before. Wherever a presence -- determined by this passion for man -- expresses a generosity, steadfastness, and imagination, and meets with a certain openness, the work environment is not like it was before. I have heard you tell me a hundred times, "Now I go to work with a passion that I never expected, that before I never even dreamed possible," which means that you don't go to the job you used to go to, but you perform a "new work," a more human work that doesn't leave out any aspect, any particular. Nothing is more concrete than love. Outside of love, concreteness is established by developing a preconceived idea into a program, a program into a preconceived idea. That is, by an ideology that is determined to find its own way and exploits everyone it encounters in the process. Instead, a group of people gathered together who try to keep in mind the true sense of man as a creature of God becomes capable of inventing the truly new. Beyond any scheme, it doesn't remain prisoner of the ordinary programs and always finds a space in which a new flower or new leaf may come to life. In those places where people get together in this way they become truly creative, they become real protagonists in the world. This is why we want to become protagonists in the working world, not as the representatives of categories or roles or interest groups, but representatives of man.

Monsignor Luigi Giussani (died 2005) was a priest from Milan, Italy, who was the founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation.

Those who love and those who labor

Lo, the bread of heaven is broken
In the sacrament of life.

Matthew 13:17

Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Matthew 10:27

What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.

Dealing with the Devil, by Father de Caussade

You should remember all your life that one of the principal causes of the small progress made by certain good people is that the devil continually fills their souls with disquiet, perplexities, and troubles, which render them incapable of serious, gentle, and constant application to the practice of virtue. The great principle of the interior life lies in peace of the heart: it must be preserved with such care that the moment it is in danger everything else should be abandoned for its re-establishment, just as when the house is on fire, one leaves everything in order to extinguish it... This blessed peace of soul is the high road to heaven. And the reason of this is that peace and tranquility of spirit alone give the soul great strength to achieve all that God wills, while trouble and disquiet turn the soul into a weak, languishing invalid. In that state, one feels neither zest nor attraction for virtue, but, contrariwise, disgust and discouragement by which the devil never fails to profit. This is why he makes use of all his ruses to rob us of this peace on a thousand specious pretexts: at one time on pretence of examination of conscience or of sorrow for our sins, at another time on the ground that we are abusing grace and that our total lack of progress is our own fault, in short that God is about to abandon us; and by means of a hundred other dodges against which few are able to defend themselves. This is why the masters of the spiritual life give this great principle for distinguishing the true inspirations of God from those which come from the devil, namely, that the former are always gentle and peaceful and lead us to confidence and humility while the latter are agitating, unquiet, and turbulent, leading to discouragement and suspicion, or even to presumption and the following of our own will. We must, therefore, firmly reject all that does not bear this mark of peace, submission, gentleness, and confidence, the impressions as it were of God's seal; this point is of great importance for the whole of our life.

Father Jean-Pierre de Caussade, S.J., (died 1751) was a French Jesuit, a writer, and a revered spiritual director.

Laborem Exercens #27

The Christian finds in human work a small part of the cross of Christ and accepts it in the same spirit of redemption in which Christ accepted the cross for us. In work, thanks to the light that penetrates us from the resurrection of Christ, we always find a glimmer of new life, of the new good, as if it were an announcement of "the new heavens and the new earth" in which man and the world participate precisely through the toil that goes with work.

Ephesians 4:28

The thief must no longer steal, but rather labor, doing honest work with his [own] hands, so that he may have something to share with one in need.

Keys of the Kingdom: Mercy

"There is one thing we most of us forget. Christ taught it. The Church teaches it . . . though you wouldn't think so to hear a great many of us today. No one in good faith can ever be lost. No one. Buddhists, Mohammedans, Taoists . . . the blackest cannibals who ever devoured a missionary . . . If they are sincere, according to their own lights, they will be saved. That is the splendid mercy of God. So why shouldn't He enjoy confronting a decent agnostic at the Judgement Seat with a twinkle in his eye: ‘I'm here you see, in spite of all they brought you up to believe. Enter the Kingdom which you honestly denied.’"

Keys of the Kingdom: Atheism

"Funny . . . I still can't believe in God."
"Does that matter now?" What was he saying? Francis did not know. He was crying and, in the stupid humiliation of his weakness, the words came from him, in blind confusion. "He believes in you."
"Don't delude yourself. . .I'm not repentant."
"All human suffering is an act of repentance."
There was a silence. The priest said no more. Weakly, Tulloch reached out his hand and let it fall on Francis' arm.
"Man, I've never loved ye so much as I do now . . . for not trying to bully me to heaven. Ye see--" His lids dropped wearily. "I've such an awful headache."

Keys of the Kingdom: Hell

"Is hell any worse than this?"
He answered, through the fog of his fatigue, blundering forward, unheroic, yet undismayed: "Hell is that state where one has ceased to hope."

Revelations 12:10-12

"Now have salvation and power come,
and the Kingdom of our God
and the authority of his Anointed.
For the accuser of our brothers is cast out,
who accuses them before our God day and night.
They conquered him by the Blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony;
love for live did not deter them from death.
Therefore, rejoice, you heavens,
and you who dwell in them."

Psalm 104: 3-4

You walk on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers,
and flashing fire your servants.

Psalm 34:1-11

I will bless the Lord at all times;
   praise shall be ever in my mouth.
My soul will glory in the Lord
   that the poor may hear and be glad.
Magnify the Lord with me;
    let us exalt his name together.

I sought the Lord, who answered me,
   delivered me from all my fears.
Look to God that you may be radiant with joy
   and your faces may not blush for shame.
In my misfortune I called,
   the Lord heard and saved me from all distress.

The angel of the Lord, who encamps with them,
    delivers all who fear God.
Learn to savor how good the Lord is;
   happy are those who take refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you holy ones;
   nothing is lacking to those who fear him.
The powerful grow poor and hungry,
   but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.

On Human Nature

Yesterday, worn our with anxieties, away from others
I was in a shady grove, my soul consumed.
For how I do so love this drug for sufferings,
to speak in quiet, me with my own soul...

But privately, my mind in a whirlpool spinning,
I had this sort of battling round of words:
Who was I? Who am I? What shall I be?
     I don't know clearly.
Nor can I find one better stocked with wisdom.
But, as through thick fog, I wander
every which way, with nothing, not a dream,
     of the things I long for...

What's in fact the good of life? God's light?
     But then hateful and jealous darkness
     keeps me from it.
Nothing's of any use to me.
     And what is there of no use to the wicked?
If only they were equally endowed,
     with troubles especially!
I lie helpless. Divine terror has bowed me.
I'm worn out by worries, night and day...

The ache exists for each one of our race...

Stop. Everything is secondary to God.
     Give in to reason.
God didn't make me in vain. I am turning
my back upon this song: this thing was from our feeblemindedness.

Now's a fog, but afterwards the Word,
     and you'll know all,
whether seeing God, or eaten up by fire.
Now, when the beloved mind had sung for me
     these things, it digested its pain.
And late from the shady grove I headed home,
now laughing at this self-estrangement,
     then once again
heart in anguish smoldering, from a mind at war.

Saint Gregory Nazianzen (died 390) was a monk, a bishop, and a writer of letter, prayers, and poems.

Romans 13:11-14

It is the hour now for you to awake from sleep. [...] The night is advanced, the day is at hand. Let us then throw off the works of darkness [and] put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and licentiousness, not in rivalry and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

The Human Heart

"More torturous than all else is the human heart." What the rich man was looking for in fine garments and sumptuous dining he was meant to find in the beggar on his doorstep. For every person that God puts on our path becomes the way to the fulfillment we seek. Jeremiah warns, "Cursed is the man whose heart turns away from the Lord"--that is, the one who refuses the unexpected ways God makes himself present in our life.

Wisdom 9:13

What man knows God’s counsel,
or who can conceive what our Lord intends?

Romans 11:34

For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?

Isaiah 55:8-9

My thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.

Who can know the mind of God?

O who can know the mind of God,
And who dare call his name,
Whose glory is the rising sun,
Whose ev’ry word is flame?

Who else surrounds in boundless deeps
The island of the mind?
Who else in clouds of silence keeps
Long watch for humankind?

Too high for us, O Lord, your ways,
Too vast your works: through them
We reach with trembling words of praise
To touch your garment’s hem.

To Be a Disciple

As you daily provide food for your bodies to keep them from failing, so let your good works be the daily nourishment of your hearts. The body is fed with food, the spirit sustained with good works. You should not deny to your soul, which will live forever, what you grant to your body which is going to die. If ever a sudden fire destroys a dwelling, and its owner seizes what he values and flees, he counts as gain whatever he takes with him out of the flames. You can see that a fire of calamities is burning up the world, and the end, which is now near, is like a fire, laying waste everything in it that appeared delightful. Therefore, my friend believe it the greatest gain if you carry off anything from it, if you take anything with you as you flee, if, by bestowing it as an everlasting recompense on yourselves, you save what could have perished had it remained. In truth we lose all our earthly possessions if we save them, but we save them by yielding them well. Time is quickly running out. Let us prepare with haste for seeing our Judge soon; our good deeds are impelling us towards him with great urgency.

Saint Gregory the Great (died 604) was one of the most important popes and influential writers of the Middle Ages.

Psalm 25: 14-22

The Lord's friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant.

My eyes are always on the Lord;
for he rescues my feet from the snare.
Turn to me and have mercy
for I am lonely and poor.

Relieve the anguish of my heart
and set me free from my distress.
See my affliction and my toil
and take all my sins away.

See how many are my foes;
how violent their hatred for me.
Preserve my life and rescue me.
Do not disappoint me, you are my refuge.
May innocence and uprightness protect me:
for my hope is in you, O Lord.
Redeem Israel, O God, from all its distress.

Saints Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael

Saint Michael, be our refuge here,
Preserve us from all useless fear;
Through you may God his peace bestow
On all the nations here below.

Saint Gabriel, be with us this day,
Reveal God's will to us, we pray;
As Mary once did answer you,
May our response be firm and true.

Saint Raphael, heal our sinful heart,
May God his grace to us impart,
And may you guide us on the way
That we may never go astray. Amen.

Psalm 31, complete

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
   let me never be put to shame.
In your justice deliver me,
   incline your ear to me; make haste to rescue me!

Be my rock of refuge,
   a stronghold to give me safety.
You are my rock and my fortress;
   for your name's sake lead and guide me.

Free me from the net they have set for me,
   for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
   you will redeem me, Lord, faithful God.

You hate those who serve worthless idols,
  but I trust in the Lord.
I will rejoice and be glad in your love,
   once you have seen my misery, observed my distress.

You will not abandon me into enemy hands,
   but will set my feet in a free and open space.

Have mercy on me, O Lord,
   for I am in distress.
Tears have wasted my eyes,
   my throat and my heart.

For my life is spent with sorrow
   and my years with sighs.
Affliction has broken down my strength
   and my bones waste away.

In the face of all my foes
  I am a reproach,
an object of scorn to my neighbors
   and of fear to my friends.

Those who see me in the street
   run far away from me.
I am forgotten, out of mind like the dead;
   I am like a shattered dish.

I have heard the slander of the crowd,
   fear is all around me,
as they plot against me,
  as they plan to take my life.  

But I trust in you, Lord;
   I say, "You are my God."
My times are in you hands;
   rescue me from my enemies,
   from the hands of my pursuers.

Let your face shine on your servant;
   save me in your kindness.
Do not let me be put to shame,
    for I have called to you, Lord.

Put the wicked to shame;
   reduce them to silence in Sheol.
Strike dumb their lying lips,
   proud lips that attack the just
   in contempt and scorn.

How great is your goodness, O Lord,
   which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
   you show in the sight of the children of men.

You hide them in the shelter of your presence,
   safe from scheming enemies.
You keep them in your abode,
   safe from plotting tongues.

Blessed be the Lord,
   who has shown me wondrous love,
   and been for me a city most secure.

Once I said in my anguish,
   "I am shut out from your sight."
Yet you heard my plea,
   when I cried out to you.

Love the Lord, all you faithful.
   The Lord protects the loyal,
   but repays the arrogant in full.
Be strong and take heart,
   all you who hope in the Lord.

James 4:1-3

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? You covet but do not possess. You kill and envy but you cannot obtain; you fight and wage war. You do no possess because you do not ask. You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

Psalm 39: 8-13

Set me free from all my sins,
do not make me the taunt of the fool.
I was silent, not opening my lips,
because this was all your doing.

Take away your scourge from me.
I am crushed by the blows of your hand.
You punish man's sins and correct him;
like the moth you devour all he treasures.

Mortal man is no more than a breath;
O Lord, hear my prayer.
O Lord, turn your ear to my cry.
Do not be deaf to my tears.

In your house I am a passing guest,
a pilgrim, like all my fathers.
Look away that I may breathe again
before I depart to be no more.

Psalm 12: 4-5

Give light to my eyes, Lord, lest I sleep in death, and my enemy say: I have overcome him.

Psalm 31, pt. 1

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
   let me never be put to shame.
In your justice deliver me,
   incline your ear to me; make haste to rescue me!

Be my rock of refuge,
   a stronghold to give me safety.
You are my rock and my fortress;
   for your name's sake lead and guide me.

Free me from the net they have set for me,
   for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
   you will redeem me, Lord, faithful God.

But my trust is in you, O Lord;
   I say, "You are my God."
In your hands is my destiny; rescue me
   from the clutches of my enemies and my persecutors.

How great is your goodness, O Lord,
   which you have in store for those who fear you,
And which, toward those who take refuge in you,
   you show in the sight of the children of men.

The Holy Name of Mary, St. Bernard of Clairvaux

If the winds of temptations surge, if you run aground on the shoals of troubles, look to this star, call upon Mary! If you are tossed by the winds of pride or ambition or detraction or jealousy, look to this star, call upon Mary! If anger or greed or the allurements of the flesh dash against the boat of your mind, look to Mary! And if you are troubled by the enormity of your sins, confused by the foulness of your conscience, terrified by the horror of the Judgment, so that you begin to be swallowed up by the pit of sadness, the abyss of despair, think of Mary! In dangers, in straits, in perplexity, think of Mary, call upon Mary. Let her name be always in your mouth and in your heart, and, if you would ask for and obtain the help of her prayers, do not forget the example of how she lived. If you follow her, you will not go astray. If you pray to her, you will not despair. If you think of her, you will not be lost. If you cling to her, you will not fall. If she protects you, you will not fear; if she is your guide, you will not tire; if she is favorable to you, you will reach your goal. Thus you will experience personally how rightly it was spoken "And the Virgin's name was Mary."

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (died 1153) is considered the last of the Fathers of the Church and is a Doctor of the Church.

Definition of Christians

From the beginning Christians were clearly conscious of this radical newness which the Eucharist brings to human life. The faithful immediately perceived the profound influence of the eucharistic celebration on their manner of life. Saint Ignatius of Antioch expressed this truth when he called Christians "those who have attained a new hope," and described them as "those living in accordance with the Lord's Day" (iuxta dominicam viventes).

Pope Benedict XVI

Psalm 54

O God, by your name save me,
   and by your might defend my cause.
O God, hear my prayer;
   hearken to the words of my mouth.

For the haughty have risen up against me,
   the ruthless seek my life;
   they set not God before their eyes.

Behold, God is my helper;
   the Lord sustains my life.
Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
I will praise your name, O Lord, for its goodness.

Psalm 38: 10-11, 14-16, 22-23

O Lord, you know all my longing:
my groans are not hidden from you.
My heart throbs, my strength is spent;
the very light has gone from my eyes.

But I am like the deaf who cannot hear,
like the dumb unable to speak.
I am like a man who hears nothing,
in whose mouth is no defense.

I count on you, O Lord:
it is you, Lord God, who will answer.

O Lord, do not forsake me!
My God, do not stay afar off!
Make haste and come to my help,
O Lord, my God, my savior!

Psalm 31, pt. 2

Have mercy on me, O Lord,
for I am in distress.
Tears have wasted my eyes,
my throat and my heart.

For my life is spent with sorrow
and my years with sighs.
Affliction has broken down my strength
and my bones waste away.

In the face of all my foes
I am a reproach,
an object of scorn to my neighbors
and of fear to my friends.

Those who see me in the street
run far away from me.
I am like a dead man, forgotten,
like a thing thrown away.

But as for me, I trust in you, Lord,
I say: "You are my God.
Let your face shine on your servant.
Save me in your love."

Deliver us

Deliver us from evil.

Very significant for me, not only from the Our Father, but from Dr. Dooley.

Responsory for the Holy Cross

We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Isaiah 1:18

Come now, let us set things right,
says the Lord:
Though your sins be like scarlet,
they may become white as snow;
Though they be crimson red,
they may become white as wool.

Where is your victory?

Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Cor 15:55)
Easter

Deuteronomy 7:7-8

It was not because you are the largest of all nations that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you are really the smallest of all nations. It was because the Lord loved you. (Dt 7:7-8)

Psalm 41:2-3

Like a deer that longs for running streams, my soul longs for you, my God. My soul is thirsting for the living God. (Ps 41:2-3)
Sacraments

Mark 7:37

He has done all things well. (Mk 7:37)
Birthdays

Grace abounded

Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.
Feast days, First Confession.

The Virgin shall bear a son

The Virgin shall bear a son, who will save his people from their sins. (Is 7:14; Mt 1:21)

Come and see

Come and see what God has done.
Good line for all Sacrament cards, new babies, big events.

Complete your work

Complete your work, O Lord, and as you have loved me from the beginning, so make me to love you unto the end.