Our Lady Of The Angels Roman Catholic Church

So often I ask someone how they are doing and the answer is: “I’m stressed out”. Here’s some thoughts on stress. Scientists tell us that one of the best ways to relieve stress is to get down on your knees and dig in the soil. I think being down on your knees with your hands in the dirt of the garden is a great way to pray and then stress automatically dissipates.

Stress

A lecturer, when explaining stress management, raised a glass of water and asked: “How heavy is this glass of water?” Answers ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold if for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes and that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry all our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on. Like the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we are refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.

So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can and don’t pick it up until you’ve rested a while.”

Scriptures this weekend have some unique ways of dealing with stress. Take the time to re-read them during the week and find your comfort level rising dramatically and your stress level going waaaaay down.

Here’s some other solutions:

Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.

Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in care you have to eat them.

Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

Drive carefully, it’s not only cars that can be “recalled” by their maker.

If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

Never put both feet in your mouth, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.

When everything is coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

Give a blessing, they always come back a hundred fold.

We are still in the midst of our House of Charity Drive, please make your donation if you have not already done so. Thank you!

DO YOU DOUBT THE REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST?

In 1263, a German priest named Peter of Prague was troubled by doubts he had about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. He decided to make a pilgrimage to Rome and pray for guidance, he came to the town of Bolzena. While celebrating Mass he held a host and said the words of consecration, blood started to seep out of the host onto his hands and then onto the linen cloth. Fr. Peter was stunned and was led to the nearby town of Orvieta where Pope Urban VI was staying. After careful study the Pope concluded that there was no natural explanation but that Jesus was proclaiming His “Real Presence”. Pope Urban instituted the Feast of Corpus Christi the next year. (The linen cloth is still visible in the Cathedral at Orvieta.)

Staying with the Pope at that time was Thomas Aquinas. He was commissioned by the Pope to compose prayers and hymns for the new Feast Day.  Thomas composed OSalutaris and Tanteum Ergo and Pange Lingua for this Feast Day along with most of the prayers that we still use today. As great as a gift as the feast and its beautiful hymns continue to be for us Catholics some 750 years after the wondrous Eucharistic miracle at Bolsena, they are all together simply a reminder to us that Jesus, in the Blessed Sacrament, journeys at our side as we make our pilgrimage through this world to our heavenly homeland.

Just as the Lord fed the people of Israel with manna from heaven so he feeds us with Himself, the Bread of Life, as we are tested by the afflictions of life. We are not alone in our struggles. Jesus is always there with us. There is more than enough strength in the Blessed Sacrament for us to face the worst of troubles that could ever beset us.

This Feast day reminds us that we are never alone because in the Eucharist all believers are brought together as one as the Body of Christ.

If you have doubts take some time to sit in the Chapel and talk to the Lord. The prayers of  our Community of Faith will envelope you along with the very real presence of the Love of Jesus. Sing the hymns that St. Thomas Aquinas composed and you too will understand and be filled with great confidence that Jesus will take our hand and lead us to peace.

As the summer vacation season begins remember: read the Good Book, you will be blessed!