Recta Ratio

Those who have lost their lives, loved ones, or homes in the terrible devastation caused by the hurricane in Florida.

Continuing my occasional reproduction of chapters from Book IV of St. Thomas a Kempis' My Imitation of Christ, here is part 8 (Chapter 8 of Book IV):

Of the Oblation of Christ Upon the Cross, and of Resignation of Self
The Voice of the Beloved
As I of my own will offered myself unto God the Father on the Cross for thy sins with outstretched hands and body, so that nothing remained in Me that did not become altogether a sacrifice for the Divine propitiation; so also oughtest thou every day to offer thyself willingly unto Me for a pure and holy oblation with all thy strength and affections, even to the utmost of thine heart. What more do I require of thee than thou study to resign thyself altogether to Me? Whatsoever thou givest besides thyself, I nothing care for, for I ask not thy gift, but thee.

As it would not be sufficient for thee if thou hadst all things except Me, even so whatsoever thou shalt give Me, if thou give Me not thyself, it cannot please Me. Offer thyself to Me, and give thyself altogether for God, so shall thy offering be accepted. Behold I offered Myself altogether to the Father for thee, I give also My whole body and for food, that thou mightest remain altogether Mine and I thine. But if thou stand in thyself, and offer not thyself freely to My will, thy offering is not perfect, neither shall the union betwixt us be complete. Therefore ought the freewill offering of thyself into the hands of God to go before all thy works, if thou wilt attain liberty and grace. For this is the cause that so few are inwardly enlightened and made free, that they know not how to deny themselves entirely. My word standeth sure, Except a man forsake all, he cannot be My disciple. Thou therefore, if thou wilt be My disciple, offer thyself to Me with all thy affections.

The Holy Day of Obligation falls on a Sunday this year, so there is no excuse for missing Mass.
Over at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group, St. Maximilian Kolbe is off the front page (I put him up on Thursday), and an image of the Assumption is up now.

The Assumption has always been dear to me, in part because my parish for 30 years was Our Lady of the Assumption in Lynnfield. Also we have not had an important feast of the Blessed Mother since July 16th, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

And I relish the Assumption in part because it is a seasonal signpost, a reminder that summer is winding down, that back-to-school shopping should kick into high gear, that sweet corn is available in New England now, and that the apples are ripening on the trees (which means fresh cider in about a month!). The days are noticably growing shorter now. You can see that the leaves of some sickly trees are turning yellow already, a month or more before everything else turns.

I recommend a daily holy hour of Eucharistic Adoration to everyone who can spare the time. It is good, if the Blessed Sacrament is not available for adoration (beyond presence in the Tabernacle) to spend an hour or so with the Blessed Mother, either in a church or chapel with a large representation of her, or at home in private (with or without an icon). I am blessed to be spending much of my time near St. Francis Chapel at the Prudential Center, which has Adoration every weekday afternoon, and has a large round bas relief of the Blessed Mother (with candles in front of it, no less).

I have been working on a prayer book recently, and in the last week completed my chapter on an hour with the Blessed Virgin. In fact, as I'm typing this, I have just completed such an hour (hour and 15 minutes actually) using my prayer book chapter.

Here are some prayers that will allow you to spend some time praising the Blessed Mother and asking for her intercession.

The Salve, Regina
The Hail, Mary
The Memorare
Ave, Regina Caelorum
Alma Redemptoris Mater
The Regina Caeli
The Obsecro Te
The O Intemerata
Flos Carmeli
Stabat Mater Dolorosa

The text of all of them can be found at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group under Files/Catholic Prayers/Marian Prayers

The Blessed Mother is a wonderful source of grace, our own foster mother (especially needful for those of us who have lost their earthly mothers), and a very powerful advocate and intercessor. My late pastor Father Dan Flaherty used to, in necessity, take his prayers to her.

If you are not making progress with the Son directly, try Mom, His Mother, and ours.

The saintly martyr of Auschwitz. And founder of a monastery at Nagasaki, Japan that survived the nuclear ing.

Julia Child, whose cooking shows I grew up with on Boston's Channel 2, died today at the age of 91. I don't recall any "must duplicate" recipes of hers, but she set a tone that made me receptive to cooking shows, like the Frugal Gourmet, Justin Wilson, and others. And I gained many favorite recipes from them. So, indirectly I owe to Julia Child my apple omelette with cream sherry, my veal and ham pate, my rabbit pie, and my Black Forest trifle, among many others. Requiescat in pace.

Your Democrat Party at work, again.

Not that it never happens to Republicans ( I recall some guy from Maryland in the early '80s) , but Massachusetts had two openly gay Democrat congressmen at one point (out of only a dozen districts at that time), and there is one whose ual identity seems rather murky even now. And given that their ideology is in favor of things like gay "marriage" and ual liberation generally, it is hardly surprising.

This particular governor has had various scandals that have never quite seemed to stick. And he infamously conspired in that immoral (and only "legal" because of the all-Democrat or liberal state Supreme Court) swindle that deprived the GOP of a US Senate seat it should legitimately have picked up in 2002.

Matt Drudge has all the sordid details.

Good riddance.

Early August is just packed with the feasts of important saints.

An image of her is now on the front page of Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group.

But George Will nailed John Kerry to the wall last week (sadly only in print, not in person).

You have to love a martyr who, when being roasted on a griddle, has the sense of humor to say, "You should turn me over, I'm quite done on that side."

The front page image at Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group, features a holy card image of St. Lawrence today. It is not great sacred art, but it does depict his griddle very clearly. During my holy hour at the chapel today, I noticed that the altar was adorned with a red cloth for this martyr's feast day.

This is the feast day of the great Carmelite Saint who will probably be better known by her given name, Edith Stein.

August 8th is his feast. His image, a detail from Bl. Fra Angelico's The Mocking of Christ, is on the front page of Recta Ratio: The Yahoo Group.