Sunday

Excerpts from Catholic English Bishop Challoner’s ‘Garden of the Soul’ that is applicable to all true Christians…

  1. Every Christian must believe that   there is one God, and no more than one God : that this God is a pure Spirit, the Lord and maker of heaven and earth, who has neither beginning nor end, but is always the same ; is every where present, knows and sees all things, can do all things whatever he pleases, and is infinite in all perfections.
  1. Every Christian is bound to believe, that in this one God there are three several persons, perfectly equal, and of the same substance : The Father, who proceeds from no one; the Sony who is born of the Father before all ages ; and the Holy Ghost, who proceeds  eternally from the Father and the Son. And that these three persons have all the same age, the same power, the same wisdom, and are all three one and the same Lord, one and the same God.3 We must all believe, that this God created the angels to be with him for ever, and that one part of them fell from God by sin, and became devils. That God also created Adam and Eve, the first parents of all mankind, and placed them in the earthly paradise ; from whence they were justly banished for the sin they committed in eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree : and that by this transgression of Adam we are all born in sin, and must have been lost for ever, if God had not sent us a Saviour.

Prayer:
Glory to God in the Highest and on earth peace good will among men.

Monday

We are bound to believe in this Saviour of all mankind, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, true God, and true man ; perfect God from all eternity, equal to his Father in all things ; and perfect man, from the time of his coming down from heaven for us, having a body and soul like us.

5 We must believe, that this Jesus Christ our Saviour, who had long been foretold by the prophets, was at God’s appointed time conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Ghost, without having any man for his father, and was born of her, she still remaining a pure virgin. That during the time of his mortal life, he founded the Christian religion by his heavenly doctrine and wonderful miracles, and then offered  himself a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, by dying upon a cross, to purchase mercy, grace and salvation for us. And that neither mercy, nor grace, nor salvation, either can, or ever could, since Adam’s fall, be obtained any otherwise, than through this death and Passion of the Son of God.

Prayer:   May the Strength of God guide us. May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us. May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us. May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Angels of God guard us. – Against the snares of the evil one.
Prayer for the Faithful of St. Patrick Part 1

Tuesday

  1. We must believe, that Jesus Christ, after he had been dead and buried for part of three days, rose again on the third day from death to life, never to die any more; and that, for the space of forty days, he was pleased at different times to manifest himself to his disciples, and then ascended into heaven in their sight; where as mar he continually intercedes for us. From thence he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his disciples, to abide with them for ever, as he had promised, and to guide them and their successors into all truth.

We must believe the Catholic or universal church of Christ, of which he is the perpetual head, and his spirit the perpetual director; which is founded upon a rock, and is ever victorious over all the powers of death and hell. This church is always one, by all its members professing one faith, in one communion, under one chief pastor succeeding St. Peter, to whom Christ committed his whole flock,, St. John xxi. 15, 16, 17. This same church is always holy, by teaching a holy doctrine, by inviting all to a holy life, and by the eminent holiness of many of her children. She is Catholic or universal,  by subsisting in all ages, by teaching all nations, and maintaining all truths ; she is apostolical, by deriving her doctrine, her communion, her orders, and her mission, by an uninterrupted succession, from the apostles of Christ.

Prayer:
May Christ be with us! May Christ be before us! May Christ be in us, Christ be over all!
May Thy Grace, Lord, Always be ours, This day, O Lord, and forevermore. Amen.
Prayer for the Faithful of St. Patrick  Part 2

 

Wednesday

  1. With this Catholic Church the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament were deposited by the apostles : she is, in her pastors, the guardian and interpreter of them, and the judge of all controversies relating to them. These scriptures, thus interpreted, together with the traditions of the apostles, are to be received and admitted by all Christians for the rule of their faith and practice.

We must believe that Jesus Christ has instituted in his church seven sacraments, or mysterious signs and instrumental causes of divine grace in our souls. Baptism, by way of a new birth, by which we are made children of God, and washed from sin. Confirmation, by which we receive the Holy Ghost by the imposition of the hands of the successors of the apostles . The Blessed Eucharist, which feeds and nourishes our souls with the1 body and blood of Christ, really present under the forms of bread and wine, or under either of them. Penance, by which penitent sinners are absolved from their sins, by virtue of the commission given by Christ to his ministers. Extreme Unction, which wipes away the relics of sin, and arms the soul with the grace of God in  the time of sickness, St. James v. Holy Orders, by which the ministers of God are consecrated. And Matrimony, which, as a sacred sign of the indissoluble union of Christ and his church, unites the married couple in a holy band, and imparts a grace to them suitable to that state.

Prayer:
Glory to Jesus Christ – Glory forever!
Thursday

  1. We must believe, that Jesus Christ has also instituted the great Eucharistic Sacrifice of his body and blood, in remembrance of his death and Passion. In this sacrifice he is mystically immolated every day upon our altars, being himself both priest and victim. This sacrifice is the principal worship of the new law, in which, and by which, we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, and with him, and through him, we adore God in spirit and truth, give him thanks for all his blessings, obtain his grace for ourselves and the whole world, and pardon for all our sins, and those of the living and the dead.

We must believe that there is, in the Catholic or universal Church of God, a communion of saints, by means of which we communicate with all holy ones, and in all holy things. We communicate with the saints in heaven, as our fellow-members under the same head Christ Jesus; we give thanks to God for his gifts to them, and we beg a share in their prayers. We communicate with all the saints upon earth, in the same sacraments and sacrifice, and in a holy union of faith and charity. And we communicate with the faithful (who have departed this life in a more imperfect state, and who, by the law of God’s justice, are for a while in a place of suffering) by offering prayers and alms and sacrifice to God for them.

Prayer:
For as many have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ…Alleluia

Friday

  1. We must believe also the necessity of divine gracey without which we cannot make so much as one step towards heaven. And that all our good, and all our merits, are the gifts of God. That Christ died for all men. That God is not the author of sin ; and that his grace does not take away our free-will.
  2. We must believe that Jesus Christ will come from heaven at the last day to judge us all. That all the dead, both good and bad, shall arise from their graves at the sound of the last trumpet, and shall be judged by him according to their works. That the good shall go to heaven with him, body and soul, to be happy for all eternity, in the enjoyment of the sovereign good; and that the wicked shall be condemned, both body and soul, to the torments of hell, which are most grievous and everlasting.

Prayer:
Christ is in our midst – He is and always shall be

Saturday
Meditation from Anonymous:   In modern society it is always accepted that it is smarter to buy a home than rent.  When paying a mortgage, while interested eats up a lot of it, you at least get something to keep after the process is finally over.   With rent, your payments are gone and regardless of how long you pay at the end you receive nothing for it.

Living without Christ outside of the Church is like paying rent.  Every trial and hardship we go through are things God allows to prompt us to the Truth of His Church to gain our salvation.  When we finally come to that point and because a part of His Body that cycle is ended but like rent there is nothing to ‘keep’.   It was all spend getting you to the starting point.

Life and its trials and lessonz after we are a part of the Church is like a mortgage:  good deeds merit eternal rewards,  prayer and devotion earn us Grace, accepting trials and problems in the ‘right way’ earns us ‘treasure in heaven’.

Now, we should not love Christ or join His Church just to ‘get something’…we should do it out of gratitude for His love a sacrifice on the cross for us.  But, the ‘icing on the cake’ are the eternal rewards we receive as part of His Body.

So, after our life, there is ‘something left’ for us to take to eternity if we have a mortgage on a heavenly mansion as part of the Church.

Prayer:
Preserve O Lord while waking and guard us while sleeping that awake we may watch with Christ and asleep we may rest in peace.