‘The shortest and safest way to Heaven’

Introducing young children to Eucharistic devotion as well as attendance at Sunday Mass is a wonderful gift that parents can make.  Communities ought to support families and children in facilitating this. After all, schools are known to introduce children to practices of mindfulness (and I have no issue with this). Why should we not also introduce children, in age-appropriate and carefully guided ways, to eucharistic prayer and adoration?

St Pope Pius X (1835-1914) whose feast day is today was instrumental in opening up reception of holy communion to children from the age of around 7.  He is associated with two reforms in particular:

• Frequent reception of holy communion - provided they were in the state of grace and approached with the right intention.
• Restoration of the age for First Communion to the age of reason (about seven years old).

The early Church commonly admitted children to Holy Communion, a practice that continued for many centuries and is still maintained in the Eastern Catholic Churches. Pope Pius rejected the idea that children needed advanced theological knowledge before receiving the Eucharist. He saw the Eucharist as the primary means of union with Christ.

A famous idea associated with Pius X is that the Eucharist is: ‘the shortest and safest way to Heaven.’  His reforms helped overcome lingering attitudes that discouraged frequent Communion due to scruples and fear. He opened his 1910 encyclical, Quam singulari, as follows:

The Eucharistic kiss

St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) did not write a systematic treatise devoted exclusively to the Eucharist in the way that later theologians would do. Bernard’s approach to the Eucharist is contemplative, mystical and unitive.  We can gain some insight into his approach by immersing ourselves in the monastic spirituality of the Benedictine family of which the Cistercians were a new development from the 12^th Century.  For the early Cistercians, and broadly within the Benedictine monastic tradition of Bernard's time, the focus was on a living relationship with Christ through Scripture, the liturgy and the sacrament. 
  In his Sermons on the Song of Songs, he uses the language of desire, intimacy and union between the disciple and Jesus.

For Bernard, Christianity was essentially a relationship with Christ. The Eucharist was not just a sacred object or ritual but a privileged meeting with the Bridegroom of the soul.   In one of his sermons he quotes the Song of Songs:

"Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth.”

Looking to the rock from which we were hewn

Sunday 23 August 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Isaiah 22:19-23 Psalm 138(137) Romans 11:33-36 Matthew16:13-20

(See also Mark 8:27-33 and Luke 9:18-22)

Meditatio:

 ‘Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. (Isaiah 51:1)

Commentary:

Every so often we may stop and wonder; stare and think; appreciate and move on.  The gospels contain one such ‘stop and wonder’ moment when Jesus asks what seems like a very simple question. It ran something like this:

I have been with you some time. We have had great times together and we have had hard times together. I never promised you that it would be easy.  You heard my call and you followed me.  Others did likewise.  News about us spread throughout the country. Some said I was a great prophet – even the greatest, others said I was a trouble maker and a fraud while others, still, said I was from the Evil One.  But, you – what do you think?  Who do you say I am? Why are you still following me? Who am I to you?

For today on this God-given Sunday, we are asked the same question.  ‘Who is Jesus Christ for you?’ ‘What does Jesus Christ mean for you today?’ ‘Does it matter?’ ‘What difference does Jesus make to my life today?’

Hitting rock bottom and meeting the risen Christ in the Eucharist

The venerable, Matt Talbot (1856-1925) came to be known as a holy man after his death in 1925.  (My late mother told me that she remembered, as a child, when her father read out a piece from the daily newspaper that a man had been found dead in a laneway in Dublin with chains on his body).

Matt transitioned from severe alcoholism at a very young age to living a holy life entirely devoted to prayer, daily Mass, long hours before the Blessed Sacrament, frequent confession and work. He admitted that from the time of his early teens to his late twenties, each day revolved around thoughts of how to obtain alcohol.

One account of his turning point at the rock bottom of his life at the age of 28 is as follows (The Eucharistic Devotion of Venerable Matt Talbot):

As Matt lay there, he had hit rock bottom. As he turned to God, he begged for the grace to overcome his addiction. As the faithful began to arrive for the early morning Mass, they were disgusted to see a drunk lying on the church doorsteps. What they did not realize was the miracle of grace taking place.

Bless also my enemies: the witness of Blessed Leisner

Inscription reads: 'Bless also, O Most High, my enemies'

Karl Leisner (1915-1945) was a German priest who died shortly after being held as a prisoner in Dachau concentration camp outside Munich. Dachau was the proto-type concentration camp conceived by the Nazis at the very beginning of their tyrannical reign in 1933.  During his formative years as a young man he was active in the Schoenstatt movement.

I recall visiting Dachau and seeing the cells and barracks where priests were imprisoned. The camp contained a special section, the so-called 'Priests' Block', in which many Catholic clergy were confined.

Leisner was possibly only known to the Nazis as a catholic activist arrested for articulating anti-Nazi views.

Leisner was showed extraordinary leadership and courage in the period leading up to his arrest in 1939.  He encouraged young people to remain faithful to Christ and not to submit to Nazi ideology.

A telling vision at Knock

There have been many reports of apparitions of Mary, the Mother of God, across the world in recent decades and centuries. Some have been recognised and approved by the authorities of the Roman Catholic church while some have not.  A few turned out to be hoaxes.  Most attract the presence and prayers of large numbers of people.  No approved apparition is imposed on the beliefs of Catholics. One is free to accept, reject, doubt or remain indifferent to all such apparitions.  What is required is faith in the truths revealed by God and taught by the Church through Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the Magisterium.

All that said, many holy places associated with claimed apparitions of Our Lady are important sites and, in my view, can be accorded some degree of credibility and importance in one’s spiritual life based on the evidence of the fruits flowing from such a place. ‘You will know them by their fruits.’ says Jesus in Matthew 7:16.

Extraordinary ministers and witnesses

ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY THEN AND NOW: Saint Tarcisius the Acolyte

In my late childhood I was an altar server, as were a great many boys of my age at that time. "Serving Mass" was considered a great honour and required careful attention to the duties, gestures, rules and etiquette of the role. There was to be no whispering, fidgeting or staring out at the congregation. At that time, shortly after the introduction of the vernacular into the liturgy, the paten was still used as communicants received Holy Communion on the tongue while kneeling. One of the altar server's responsibilities was to hold a small metal paten beneath the chin of each communicant.

A decade later, after returning to the practice of my faith, I was commissioned as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, a role often referred to more informally as a Eucharistic Minister. The preparation involved attending a series of talks, obtaining the necessary liturgical booklets for bringing Holy Communion to the sick at home and, as far as I can remember, participating in a simple commissioning rite during Mass.

Where Mary Has Gone, the Eucharist Leads Us

 

Source: Dormition of the Virgin Mary

Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – it remains one of the great feasts of the Christian year – both in the Latin and Eastern Orthodox churches. While formally defined as dogma by the Roman Catholic Church only in 1950, belief in Mary's assumption into heavenly glory has deep roots in Christian tradition. Eastern Christians celebrate the same mystery as the Dormition, the ‘falling asleep’ of the Mother of God.

The Scriptures assigned to this Solemnity are marked by joy and triumph. The Book of Revelation presents the heavenly woman clothed with the sun. Psalm 45 depicts the Queen standing at the king's right hand. St Paul proclaims Christ's victory over death, and in Luke's Gospel Mary sings the Magnificat, praising God's saving power and mercy.

The others

Image: The Canaanite Woman asks for healing for her daughter

Naskh is the caligraphic style for writing in the Arabic alphabet that the biblical text is written in for this manuscript.  The artist, Ilyas Basim Khuri Bazzi Rahib, was most likely a Coptic monk in the late 17th century in Egypt. 1684 from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.

Sunday 16 August 2026

Lectio Divina:*

Isaiah 56:1-7 Psalm 67(66)

Romans 13:13-32 Matthew 15:21-28 (See also Mark 7:24-30)

Meditatio:

‘I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.’ (Isaiah 56:8)

Commentary:

The second part of this Sunday’s Gospel presents us with a challenging encounter. We find Jesus in the region of Tyre and Sidon, territory that would have been considered foreign by many of his fellow Jews. In Matthew’s Gospel, this episode follows immediately after a dispute between Jesus and certain Pharisees and scribes concerning the observance of the Law, particularly ritual practices of purification.

Into this setting comes a Canaanite woman, a foreigner, who approaches Jesus and begins crying out for help. She is not one of the chosen people of Israel, yet she recognises in Jesus a source of hope and salvation. Her plea raises an important question: why should a devout Jew respond to the request of a foreign woman? At first, Jesus appears not to answer her. Then, when he does speak, his words seem surprisingly harsh: 'It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs'.

Greater Love: St Maximilian Kolbe and the Eucharist

Maximilian Kolbe(1894-1941) was a Polish Franciscan priest, missionary as well as martyr at Auschwitz.  Canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1982 he is often invoked as the patron saint of political prisoners, journalists, prisoners and the pro-life movement.  On his day of martyrdom, 14 August 1941, he volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek. He was living proof of the truth of Christ's words ^‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’ (John 15:13).  This was possible for Kolbe only because of the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary, the fruits and effects of which were communicated to St. Maximilian through the sacrament of the Eucharist. For him, Holy Communion means not only receiving the Body and Blood of Christ but also participating in the mystery of self-giving love in our own time and place.

Fr Kolbe was active throughout his life in promoting the veneration of Immaculate Virgin Mary as well as in numerous apostolates and ministries.  In 1917, he founded the

Sunday Mass and the meaning of time

 

Credit: Timothy McIntyre

The Mass is rightly referred to as a ‘Memorial’ of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.  However, this does not mean that the Mass is merely a recall event in which past events are remembered and for which we give thanks.  It is infinitely more than that. Through the Eucharist, the saving events of Christ's passion, death and resurrection are made present in a living and active way here and now, whenever bread is broken, wine is poured and the prayer of consecration is offered.  We are more than just verbally proclaiming our faith in the crucified and risen Christ: we are caught up in the mystery of that death and resurrection in the midst of our turbulent and troubled world.

At a general audience in St Peter’s Basilica, yesterday, Pope Leo XIV spoke of the special place of Sunday Mass in the liturgy of the church. The full text of his address is

The price of Eucharistic faithfulness

The last Catholic martyr executed at Tyburn in London, St Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681) served as Archbishop of Armagh and successor of St Patrick. During a period of anti-Catholic persecution, he risked his life to provide the sacraments, ordain priests and sustain Eucharistic life among the faithful.

Canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1975, St Oliver Plunkett became the first new Irish saint in almost seven hundred years.  After spending many years in Rome while Catholics in Ireland faced severe restrictions, Plunkett returned to Ireland in 1670 following a relaxation in laws against Catholics. 

During the Stuart Restoration, Plunkett dissented from the Test Act.  The Test Act of 1673 required

Not to be taken for granted

Bees at work while the summer lasts     

It occurred to me, while at Mass last Sunday, that the kneelers were in lots of use with people in and out and up and down. In many Roman Catholic churches, the pews are positioned closely enough that people often need to step onto or over the kneelers when passing along a row – this even in spite of churches being far from packed in most places in Ireland, at least. 

Now, kneelers do not clean themselves and neither do aisle passages, seats, access porches, sanctuary carpets, altar covers, chalice palls, purificators, corporals or lavabo towels.  The bills for insurance, heating, light and water do not automatically pay themselves from year to year and church buildings need to be maintained and renovated.  The holding of a Mass necessitates that someone opens the church, puts out the required vestments or other items, lights the altar candles, switches on the microphones,

Of holy things

A chance visit to a parish church in the Loughboy area of Kilkenny City provided an interesting insight for me into church layout and symbolism. The church of St Fiacre is located beside a busy shopping area and access road on the outskirts of the city in the parish of StPatrick’s. The church building is in what might be styled avant-garde design typical of many Catholic churches constructed in the 1970-1980s. It appears, from online sources, that this church was opened around 1991.  It is arranged in a theatre or fan style with the focus on the  light coming from the sanctuary area.  The sanctuary area feels very open and accessible with minimal clutter. Still, some important and holy things are kept there including the Altar, an imposing and very large wooden cross, the Tabernacle, the lectern, the presider’s chair, the baptism font and, unusually, a box (or Ambry) containing three types of holy oil:

Edith Stein: a Eucharistic Witness unto Death

St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross – Edith Stein - died a martyr on this day 84 years ago.  She was among the Catholics of Jewish origin arrested after the Dutch bishops publicly condemned Nazi persecution of the Jews.  They were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they were murdered in the gas chambers.  I recall seeing aghast the remains of that place when I visited there in 2011: it was a ghastly reminder of the industrial scale of evil perpetrated by the Nazi regime and its accomplices.

Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Germany in what is now modern-day Poland.  She was a gifted child - encouraged by her mother to think critically.  During her teen years, she abandoned the Jewish faith of her childhood and described herself as an atheist in her early adulthood.  She was awarded  a doctorate in philosophy at the age of 26.  A reading of the autobiography of St Teresa of Avila in 1921 made such a deep impression on her that she decided to embrace Catholic Christianity in 1922.  She is on record for saying this:

Eucharist without borders

A strange development, in recent times, has been the rise of anti-migrant sentiment among a great many Catholics including many who would describe themselves as devout and loyal members of the church. Usually couched in language of being opposed to ‘uncontrolled mass, ‘illegal immigration’, ‘open borders’, ‘endangering our women and children’ and ‘civilisational erasure’, the view is presented as middle of the road and reasonable unlike that held by ‘woke’ or ‘radical left’.  These views – spoken or half-spoken are sometimes prefaced with ‘while I am not a racist…’

Even among Christians the polarising language around immigration is now commonplace online as well as offline.  Just listen to any conversation, now, in Ireland or elsewhere.  Sometimes, it seems to me that the more devout and the more ‘prolife’ a person is the more likely they are to be exercised about immigrants.

I generalise and, now, I risk jumping to judgmental conclusions

What real Eucharistic worship means in practice

Elevation at a Solemn Tridentine Mass
in Prostějov, Czech Republic

Just over a hundred years ago, Frank Weston (1871–1924), the Anglican Bishop of Zanzibar (now part of Tanzania), delivered a rousing address in the Royal Albert Hall, London, at the conclusion of the Anglo-Catholic Congress in July 1923.

The title of his address was Our Present Duty. Weston pulled no punches: he challenged all present to leave behind their lives of ease and comfort and seek out Jesus in the slums and other places. He directly linked service to Christ in our neighbour, especially the poor, with worship of Christ in the Eucharist.

It is good to be here

Croagh Patrick, County Mayo, Ireland

The story of the Transfiguration, celebrated today throughout the Church, is one of the most dramatic moments in the Gospel. It contains surprise, excitement, fear, bewilderment, joy and even a warning. The scene is steeped in Old Testament imagery, with Moses, the Law-giver, and Elijah, the great prophet, appearing beside the promised Messiah, Jesus.

Peter, overwhelmed by the experience, immediately offers to build three tents, or ‘tabernacles’, as dwelling places for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. Like many of us, he wants to hold on to a moment of light and joy, to keep it safe and permanent. Yet God's purpose is not that we remain fixed in one moment. The disciples must come down from the mountain and continue the journey.

The care of souls

While visiting a church in a nearby parish earlier today, I spotted a little shiny laminated card tucked away in a small corner of a noticeboard with the inscription, “The holiness of a priest is built by his community that prays, loves and supports him”.  The phrase caught my attention.  I am not sure of its prevenance.  The saying is true in a wider sense that all of us travel to God together with others and our growth is helped (or hindered) by the prayers, love and support of those around us.  Of course, this in no way diminishes our own personal responsibility for our decisions and actions.

The idea of praying for our local parish priest is an excellent one. Too often, we take so much for granted: that there will always be a priest to baptise infants (or adults as the  case may be), that a priest is on hand to celebrate mass every Sunday, that a priest is on hand to hear confessions or be a sounding board in times of difficulty and that a priest will be there to accompany us on our final journey. None of this can be taken for granted as the age-profile of priests shifts and as vocations to the priesthood have collapsed over a sustained period of decades.

The Mass that formed a martyr

Not many have heard of Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer, who was martyred for his faith in 1943.  He joined a large cohort of saints who would not sacrifice their conscience and their faith to something or someone else. He refused to take an oath to Adolf Hitler. To do contradicted his faith. He paid the price at the guillotine on 9 August1943. In the Vatican biography of his life (here) it recounts that he stated shortly before his execution:

But I cannot believe that, just because one has a wife and children, a man is free to offend God.

This line very much echoes the witness of St Thomas More who was executed four centuries before.  Throughout the twentieth century many Catholics, including some church leaders, regarded certain right-wing movements and governments as a lesser danger than communism. This sometimes led to accommodation, misjudgement or silence in the face of terrible injustice and atrocities.

Staying focussed in choppy waters

Sunday 9 August 2026

Lectio Divina:*

1 Kings 19:9-13 Psalm 85(84)

Romans 9:1-5 Matthew 14:22-33 Walks With My Father — Matthew 14:22-33. [22] “Immediately Jesus made the...

Meditatio:

‘Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.’ (Matt 14:27)

Commentary:

(See, also, Mark 6:45-52 and John 6:16-21)

In today’s first reading we hear of Elijah meeting God on mount Horeb – not in scenes of thunder, noise and commotion but in the ‘sound of sheer silence’ (1 Kings 19:12) according to one English language translation (NRSVA). Other versions have ‘a still small voice’ (RSV) or ‘a gentle breeze’ (CEV) 

The message that emerges is that God speaks gently and almost silently.  We can hear if we are still and at rest. The idea of a whisper or a gentle breeze evokes memories of a time when the Holy Spirit spoke to us in a delightful way.

Eucharistic spirituality and social justice in the life of St Katharine Drexel

St Katharine Drexel (1858-1955) blazed a trail in the United States of America. Fearlessly moving ahead to provide relief and education for children including the racially excluded she linked devotion to the Blessed Sacrament to work for social justice and relief of poverty.

She came from one of the wealthiest families in America and inherited a substantial fortune. Yet she chose religious life and dedicated her inheritance to missions, schools and works among Nat
ive American and African American communities.

When searching for her vocation she went to Pope Leo XIII seeking more missionaries for Native American missions she was already supporting financially. The Pope responded: ‘Why not, my child, yourself become a missionary?’

Founder of Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament she lived a life entirely ‘poured out for others’. Though there are many parallels to the spirituality of St Peter Julian Emyard, the congregation established by St Katharine is different to that established by St Peter Julian (the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament) as well as to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament established in 1715 by Blessed Peter Vigne. From the same eucharistic sources various congregations of women have undertaken different missions.

A modern need for adoration

St Peter Julian Eymard (1811-1868) born near Grenoble in France – an Apostle of the Eucharist - and founder of the Blessed Sacrament Congregation is especially remembered today.  A strong feature of his life, as with so many saints, were the many trials and tribulations he faced in responding to his vocation from opposition within his family, especially his father, to difficulties in the religious congregation he joined and later in establishing the congregation he founded. His physical health was fragile throughout.  At a young age he felt drawn to the Blessed Sacrament and a vocation to the priesthood. 

The mission of the congregation he founded is to spread knowledge and love of Jesus in the Eucharist everywhere. In practice, many of its communities carry out this mission in the heart of major cities.  By happy coincidence,

An act of spiritual communion

Today is the memorial of St Alphonsus of Liguori (1696-1787), founder of the Redemptorist Order.  He assumed some degree of renewed fame during the Covid epidemic when it was not generally possible for many to attend Mass or receive Holy Communion for months at a time.  As a result, many discovered (or re-discovered) the prayer of ‘spiritual communion’ which is attributed to St Alphonsus. It goes as follows: