A Sunday Thought After a Great Run

We've just had a great run of glorious feast days after the conclusion of the Easter Season: Ascension Thursday, Pentecost, the Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi. All of these packed together week up on week. It's almost too much to grasp and fully appreciate. 

Whether we managed to recollect ourselves and engage with each of these as would be appropriate, today we at the very least recognize what Holy Mother Church provides for us year in and year out. If we do, the Liturgical Calendar should hold a more prominent place in our lives, don't you think?

We can, indeed, refer to the Liturgical Calendar every day. Why not? Of course, these days, there are two versions: the traditional and the newfangled. But either way, they're easily accessible online. Maybe you keep them bookmarked, or simply have them open in one of your browsers as you fire up whatever device gloms your attention first thing in the morning. (That's the method I use, for what it's worth.)

We'll reserve any further comments about daily observance of the Church's Liturgical Calendar for some future musing. 

For now, no matter if or how we observed these recent glorious feasts, here's something I came across that seemed to capture the essence of why we should do so always. The words focus on our love of God in a most personal and quite intense manner. They come from one of our favorite spiritual guides, Father William Doyle, known to his contemporaries as "Willie." His words come up in these posts frequently. In addition, we've referenced a website devoted to him: www.williedoyle.org. The site promotes the cause of this incredible Catholic priest who died while in the service of his "boys" at the front during World War I. Given the facts of his life, if you take the trouble to learn about him, you'll see why he is the perfect saint (Yes, I think he is that already) for our troubled times. The world and our souls need his intercession.

It would be well worth your time to learn more about Father Willie's life and mission. As I said, you can find out much about him at that website. For now, let's turn to something Father Willie wrote that appeared on the website recently. (He is quoted almost every day. I check in regularly. You might consider doing so as well. You won't be sorry.) These words capture a love of God I can't even begin to describe. (How could I? They're written by a saint!)

Jesus is the most loving of lovable friends there never was a friend like Him before, there never can be one to equal Him, because there is only one Jesus in the whole wide world and the vast expanse of Heaven; and that sweet and loving friend, that true lover of the holiest and purest love is my Jesus, mine alone and all mine. Every fibre of His divine nature is thrilling with love for me, every beat of His gentle Heart is a throb of intense affection for me, His sacred arms are round me, He draws me to His breast, He bends down with infinite tenderness over me, His child, for He knows I am all His and He is all mine. 

O Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! who would not love You, who would not give their heart’s blood for You, if only once they realised the depth and the breadth and the realness of Your burning love? Why not then make every human heart a burning furnace of love for You, so that sin would become an impossibility, sacrifice a pleasure and a joy, virtue the longing of every soul, so that we should live for love, dream of love, breathe Your love, and at last die of a broken heart of love, pierced through and through with the shaft of love, the sweetest gift of God to man.

Read these words again. I don't know about you, but my head spins 360 each time I do. Circling back to all those feast days, they, and all the days of the Liturgical Calendar, can carry us to where Father Willie was when he wrote these words. We only have to make them an integral part of our daily lives.

Of course, coming from this sinner, perhaps that's rather bold advice. But, ignoring the source, shouldn't we have the confidence in God's grace to believe this? If we cooperate with His grace each day, shouldn't something like Father Willie's love, expressed here, reflect our own, even if only as we take our last breath?

Since God's grace alone can change our hearts, melt them sufficiently until we can love as He would have us love, there's hope. We know He generously, even urgently, wants to pour out His grace upon us. Knowing this, doesn't it behoove us to open our stale, hardened hearts to let His grace flow deep within?

At least it's a thought, something to consider - a Sunday thought after a great run of glorious feast days.

Happy Sunday!