Cristy Li

“Friends: No matter how far someone has fallen from God,
God is rich in mercy and He is waiting for sinners to come home, to repent.” –Archbishop Jose Gomez

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

Interior Penance

1430: Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the Prophets before Him, does not aim first at outward works ‘sackcloth and ashes,’ fasting and mortification but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.

1431: Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of His grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Father called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit)  and compuncito cordis (repentance of heart).

1432: The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to Him. “Restore us to Thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored.” (Lamentations 5:21) God gives us the strength to begin a new. It is in discovering the greatness of God’s love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from Him. The human heart is converted by looking upon Him whom our sins have pierced. (John 19:37; Zechariah 12:10)

Prayer to Jesus — Act of Contrition

O My God,

I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee

and I detest all my sins because I dread

the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell

but most of all because they offend Thee,

my God, Who are all good and deserving

of all my love.

I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace,

to confess my sins, to do penance

and to amend my life.  Amen!

Related: Additional Prayers to Jesus -EWTN

You May Know the JOY of Salvation and ETERNAL LIFE Today Through THE GOOD NEWS of Christ Jesus!

Our Lady of Lourdes, Please Pray for a Christian Revival
& Renewal of Our Nation!
Image Courtesy: EWTN

Prayer

Be Blessed, O Most pure Virgin, for having vouchsafed to manifest your shining with life, sweetness and beauty, in the Grotto of Lourdes, saying to the child St. Bernadette Soubirous: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” A thousand times we congratulate you upon your Immaculate Conception and now, O Ever Immaculate Virgin Mother of Mercy, health of the sick, refuge of sinners, comforter of the afflicted, you know our wants, our troubles, our sufferings deign to cast upon us a look of mercy.

By appearing in the Grotto of Lourdes, you were pleased to make it a privileged sanctuary, whence you dispense your favors and already many have obtained the cure of their infirmities, both spiritual and physical. I come therefore with the most unbounded confidence to implore your maternal intercession. Obtain for us, O loving Mother, the granting of my request.

• Christian Revival & Renewal of Our Nation

Through gratitude for your favors, I will endeavor to imitate your virtues, that I may one day share your glory. Our Lady of Lourdes, Mother of Christ Jesus, you had influence with your Divine Son while upon earth. You have the same influence now in Heaven. Pray for us! Obtain for us from your Divine Son this special request. Amen!

Our Lady of Lourdes, Please Pray For Us!

St. Bernadette, Teach Us to Serve — Please Pray For Us!

Related: Novena To Our Lady of Lourdes

Jesus proclaimed, “I am the Bread of Life…
I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven.
Whoever eats of this Bread will live forever
and the Bread that I will give for the Life of the world is My Flesh.”
–John 6:48; 51
Image Courtesy: EWTN

Brothers and Sisters: The Cup of Blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the Body of Christ? Because there is One Bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the One Bread.

1 Corinthians 10:16-17

Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless drawn by the Father who sent Me and I will raise that person up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘They shall all be taught by God.’

(See: Isaiah 54:13;  Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 4:2) Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. Not that anyone has seen the Father except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father. Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the Bread that comes down from Heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the Living Bread that came down from Heaven. Whoever eats of this Bread will live forever and the Bread that I will give for the life of the world is My Flesh.”

The Jews then disputed among themselves saying, ‘How can this Man give His Flesh to eat? Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood have eternal life and I will raise them up on the last day; For My Flesh is true food and My Blood is true drink.

Those who eat My Flesh and drink My Blood abide in Me and I in them. Just as the Living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats Me will live because of Me.

This is the Bread that came down from Heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate and they died but the one who eats this Bread will live forever.” –John 6:44-58

Related: For Today’s Holy Scripture Readings on the Solemnity of the Holy Body & Blood of Christ, Visit: -USCCB