“I Shall Keep the Silence of My Heart”

Dear Parishioners,

As we prepare to begin our Annual Eucharistic Celebration, Forty Hours, I offer you the following for your personal meditation and reflection.

God bless us all!

Fr. Citino

 

“I Shall Keep the Silence of My Heart”

I don’t think there is anyone who needs God’s help and grace as much as I do. Sometimes I feel so helpless and so weak. I think this is why God uses me. Because I cannot depend on my own strength, I rely on him twenty-four hours a day. All of us must cling to God through prayer. My secret is simple: I pray. Through prayer, I become one in love with Christ. I realize that praying to him is loving him.

We cannot find God in noise or agitation. Nature: trees, flowers and grass grow in silence. The stars, and moon, and the sun move in silence. What is essential is not what we say but what God tells others through us. In silence, He listens to us; in silence He speaks to our souls. In silence, we are granted the privilege of listening to His voice.

 

Silence of our eyes…Silence of our ears…Silence of our minds...In the silence of the heart, God will speak.

Mother Teresa

 

 

 

Archbishop Fulton Sheen constantly promoted meditative prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. “We become like that which we gaze upon. Looking into a sunset, the face takes on a golden glow. Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour, transforms the heart in a mysterious way.” In his autobiography, Archbishop Sheen wrote of

“ The Hour That Makes My Day”:

 

Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is

enough to keep us

In love with Christ unless both are preceded by  a

personal encounter with Hi,.

I have found that it takes some time to catch fire in prayer.

This has been one of the advantages

Of the Holy Hour.

Sitting before the Presence is like a body exposing itself to the

Sun to absorb its rays.

In those moments one does not so much pour out written prayers,

but Listening takes place. The Holy Hour became a teacher for me.

Although before we Love anyone we must have knowledge of that

person, nevertheless, after we know, it is love

That intensifies knowledge. 

Archbishop Fulton Sheen