-- by Barbara Shea
SUNDAY, 6TH MAY
Catholics on Campus invite: all Monash students, staff and friends to join us in a day of prayer and adoration in the Religious Centre from 10a.m. – Mass at 5.10p.m. (There will be no 9p.m. Mass at Mannix on that day). Share with us even for a short time!
SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE DAY…
THE SERRA MONSTRANCE has been blessed by Pope Benedict XV1 as a focus of Adoration and prayers for vocations. God has a plan for each person, a vocation or calling for each individual. During this day of prayer we ask the Lord of the Harvest to send labourers into the harvest. In particular we pray for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, but also for the strength and fidelity of married life and single life. In this University setting we pray particularly for students at this stage of life that all may follow Christ and hear Christ speaking in their everyday life.
For those who share the Catholic faith we believe we are in the presence of Christ, true God and true Man present here in the Monstrance under the appearance of the Eucharistic bread. For those not of our faith, this is a time for prayer and reflection however you conceive God to be.
“Whenever we think of Christ, let us always bear in mind that love of his which drove him to bestow upon us so many gifts and graces. Let us bear in mind too how great is the love God has shown us, since he has given us in Christ such a pledge of that love which he has for us; for love calls for a return of love. Let us therefore try to keep this pledge always before our minds, and in this way stir up our love for him. For if God once granted us the grace that his love be deeply imprinted upon our hearts, then all things will be easy for us, and quickly and without difficulty we will do great things for him”.
St. Teresa of Avila
“We wish to see Jesus” (John 12:21). This request addressed to the Apostle Philip by some Greeks who had made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem echoes spiritually in our ears too. Like those pilgrims of two thousand years ago, the men and women of our own day – often perhaps unconsciously – ask believers not only to “speak” of Christ, but in a certain sense to “show” him to them.
Our witness, however, would be hopelessly inadequate if we ourselves had not first “contemplated his face”.
“The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20).
It is only in silence and prayer that we can enter into seeing the face of the Lord. In silence and prayer we ask the Lord for ourselves “to see the face of the Lord”.
Adapted from John Paul 11.
“Your face O Lord I seek” (Psalm 27:8).
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“Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us this sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us “to the end” even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself for us”.
(Catechism of the Catholic Church 1380).
“Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the Saviour in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie”. St. Cyril of Alexandria
“The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time to go to meet him in adoration, in contemplation full of faith, and open to making amends for the serious offences and crimes of the world. Let our adoration never cease”.
John Paul 11
“Godhead here in hiding, whom I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? that shall be believed;
What God’s Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly or there’s nothing true”.
St.Thomas Aquinas
“During this visit my Saviour, I want
To centre myself on You,
To think only of You,
To love no one but You,
My mind, my senses silent,
Contact with the hustle and bustle
Of the world left behind for a moment.
Silent before You, my Lord,
Let me honour You with all my heart,
All my soul, all my mind,
All my strength.
Grant me the ability to relax and be calm
In the thought of Your love
To find rest in the assurance that
You are with me and that You love me”
Adapted from The Sentinel of the Blessed Sacrament
Labels: prayer, vocations
