Off the Shelf 025 with Pat Gohn

Last updated on: June 10, 2017 at 3:26 pm By Pete Socks

If you do not know Pat Gohn, she is a Catholic writer, retreat leader, conference speaker, catechist, and author of All In, and the award-winning book Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious. Host of the Among Women podcast, she also is a frequent guest on Catholic radio and television. Her writing has appeared in a number of Catholic publications and blogs, including Catholic Digest, Catechist, CatholicMom.com, Patheos, and Amazing Catechists. Pat also has contributed to eight books in recent years, including Walk in... Read more

The company of heaven is with us on earth; Angels: Day 322

Last updated on: June 4, 2017 at 9:59 am By Pete Socks

St. Basil shows us a way to imitate the angels in the midst of our ordinary work. Pious exercises nourish the soul with divine thoughts. What state can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the choruses of angels? To begin the day with prayer, and honor our Maker with hymns and songs? As the day brightens, to accompany our labor with prayer, and to season our work with hymns as if with salt? Soothing hymns compose the mind to... Read more

Give thanks for the food of the angels; Angels: Day 321

Last updated on: June 4, 2017 at 9:41 am By Pete Socks

God became man, says St. Augustine, so we could eat the food of angels— which is truth, wisdom, and the goodness of God. We should give thanks at least as readily as we do when someone gives us something good to eat. So I have said, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for he is sweet. He is Mediator, and is sweet for that reason. What is sweeter than angels’ food? How can God not... Read more

Feast like Moses, fast like Daniel; Angels: Day 320

Last updated on: June 4, 2017 at 6:27 am By Pete Socks

When we approach the Eucharist, says St. Athanasius, we should remember that we’re joining the angels in the feast. Let us not act like people who keep the feast on earth. Let us act as if we knew we were celebrating it with angels. Let us glorify the Lord by temperance, righteousness, and all the other virtues. And let us rejoice in the Lord, not in ourselves, so that we may also inherit with the saints. Let us keep the feast... Read more

Timely strategies for dealing with suffering

Last updated on: June 7, 2017 at 7:12 am By Pete Socks

One thing is certain in this life. We are going to suffer. Sometimes the suffering can be physical, and at others it is spiritual. A thousand questions will cross our minds. Why me? How can you allow this to happen God? What is the purpose of this? How we handle these situations are a reflection of ourselves and our spiritual maturity. Mother Angelica provides readers with the keys to handling suffering in a way that teaches how to make effective... Read more

Christ became man so we could feast with the angels; Angels: Day 319

Last updated on: June 4, 2017 at 6:17 am By Pete Socks

The angels feed on the vision of the Word, says St. Augustine. We can’t see the whole vision yet—only the angels can do that. But Christ became man, taking on weak human flesh, so that we could have that angelic food in a way we could comprehend. He who was born of a virgin brought you a temporal miracle: he was not born of a father—not of a man for his father, I mean—yet he was born of the flesh. But it... Read more

Remember where you are, and mind your manners!; Angels: Day 318

Last updated on: June 4, 2017 at 6:11 am By Pete Socks

When we’re at Mass, St. John Chrysostom reminds us, we’re standing right there with the choirs of angels, singing “Holy, holy, holy” along with them. Are you singing that heavenly hymn with the same mouth you just used to insult your neighbor? Think who you’re standing with at the time of the mysteries: with the Cherubim and the Seraphim! The Seraphim are never insulting. No, their mouths have only one duty: to sing the hymn of praise—to glorify God. How can... Read more

The angels’ holiday; Angels: Day 317

Last updated on: May 29, 2017 at 8:35 pm By Pete Socks

St. Athanasius reminds us that the heavenly feast, where we share the Bread of Life with the angels, is not for the impure. Who will lead us to such a company of angels as this? Who will come with a desire for the heavenly feast and the angels’ holiday, and will say like the prophet, “I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival”... Read more

We share in the praise of the Seraphim; Angels: Day 316

Last updated on: May 29, 2017 at 8:15 pm By Pete Socks

Explaining the Christian liturgy to his students, St. Cyril of Jerusalem tells them that the “Sanctus”—the “Holy, Holy, Holy” hymn that we still sing in our liturgy—is our way of sharing in the eternal praise of the Seraphim who surround the throne of God. After this, we mention heaven, earth, and sea; the sun and the moon; the stars and all creation, rational and irrational, visible and invisible; Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Dominions, Principalities, Powers, Thrones; the Cherubim with many faces. In... Read more

Fire to eat and Spirit to drink; Angels: Day 315

Last updated on: May 29, 2017 at 8:08 pm By Pete Socks

St. Ephrem the Syrian is deeply aware of the miraculous power of the Eucharist. It’s a new miracle, he says: we’re being given the very substance of the angels to eat and drink. When the Lord came down to earth among mortals, he made them a new creation. Just as in the angels, he mingled fire and spirit, so that they might be made of fire and spirit in a hidden way. The Seraph did not bring the living coal... Read more