Meeting Christ in the Liturgy

Tuesday, Second Week of Lent: "Make justice your aim"

2012-03-06T00:08:00.003-05:00

The greatest among you must be your servant.
-- Matthew 23:1-12

Jesus is the "Servant", wholly consecrated to the work He will accomplish in the "baptism" of His passion ...
-- CCC 565

Monday, Second week of Lent: "We have sinned."

2012-03-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

Forgive and you will be forgiven.
-- Luke 6, 36-38

The fifth petition begs God's mercy for our offenses, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, with the example and help of Christ.
-- CCC 2862

Disfigured by sin - Transfigured by grace

2012-03-04T16:21:00.004-05:00

Our military archbishop His Excellency Tmothy Broglio began his Lent journey by visiting wounded warriors. These individuals are disfigured by wounds sustained through exposure to the physical evil of violence in war. Though the motives by which they offer their lives in defense of our nation are unassailable they yet bear the marks on their bodies and the effects upon their minds and spirits of manknd's sinfulness.

We, too, are disfigured by sin in ways we often cannot see but the consequences of which are far more terrible: alienaton from the eternal life and love of God.

The Church proposes for our meditation on this Second Sunday of Lent the gospel of the Lord's Transfiguration. His heavenly glory as God is briefly perceptible by the Apostles before a cloud takes it away. The men and women wounded by war cannot hide or escape their physical disfigurements but, rather, often leave family, friends and other visitors astounded by a transfiguration of their spirits by which they focus on, and take encouragement from, what they have rather than what they do not.

We, too, must learn to keep ur eyes fixed upon Christ by faith while the cloud conceals in this world the heavenly glory He promises to share one day forever with us. We take courage from our faith in the One who rose from the dead after He bore Hs cross as we here and now bear our own.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever! Amen.

Wednesday, First Wk of Lent: "an evil generation;"

2012-02-29T00:01:00.000-05:00

no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah.

-- Lk 11:29-32

But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection, though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the "sign of Jonah," the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to death but rise thereafter on the third day.

-- CCC 994

Tuesday, First Wk in Lent: "my word"

2012-02-28T08:55:00.004-05:00

shall not return to me void,but shall do my will,achieving the end for which I sent it.

--Is 55:10-11

The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit, remains present and active in the Church: "God, who spoke in the past, continues to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel rings out in the Church - and through her in the world - leads believers to the full truth, and makes the Word of Christ dwell in them in all its richness."

-- CCC 79

Monday, First Wk in Lent: "Be holy"

2012-02-27T00:01:00.001-05:00

the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'

--Mt 25:31-46

The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them "the acceptable time, . . . the day of salvation." It inspires a holy fear of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the "blessed hope" of the Lord's return, when he will come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed." (CCC 1041)

First Sunday, Lent B. "The days of Noah prefigured baptism, which saves you now": into the desert of sin the Lord bears the covenant waters of Life

2012-02-25T09:57:00.012-05:00

It is the absence of water that makes a desert on the earth and brings death where life should be. The sin of Adam and Eve, and all of their children, made of the world a desert: evil took the presence of God and His life from all of humanity.

When Christ goes to the desert for forty days He brings the water back to the parched earth, for in Him is found the waters that well up, making the dry soul bloom again with grace for sons and daughters of Adam.

In the sacrament of baptism those waters flow abundantly again from the Lord in the Church and, for all who receive them, the soul which was formerly a desert because of the presence of original sin teems again with the life of God through His grace.

Temptation is possible because freedom can always choose to go back to the desert. The reality of temptation can threaten the courage of all who are baptized. Today we begin our forty days of penitence and prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We take up in a more intense way, and together as the Church, the weapons that help us to better defend the life of grace won for us by Christ on the Cross and in His Resurrection and conferred in the sacrament of Baptism.

Why forty days in the desert? It's about life. "Probably because it is forty weeks that a woman carries her developing baby before a new life can come forth from the womb."

Marcellino D'Ambrosio explains further: "And Jesus? What did his forty days mean? The birth of a new Israel liberated from sin, reconciled to God, and governed by the law of the Spirit rather than a law chiseled in stone."

Because the forty days of Christ in the desert are about life, these forty days of our lent here and now are about all life, including yours and mine. God continues to bring to birth through Christ in each of us the new and saving covenant that brings us to this moment, right here and now, together in this church at this holy Mass and leads us forward through forty days of fasting, abstinence, prayer and almsgiving. Our penances are the weapons, reminders of the strength of Baptismal grace, needed for strength in the battle with temptation and sin which we fight together with the Lord.

As Saint Paul says, the waters of the flood, the waters of the Red Sea and the saving waters of life which He brought with Him into the desert of sin, these waters are for all of us, because sin has touched all of us, beginning with the sin which we have by our origin from Adam and Eve, our first parents. And this is why we call it "original sin". God begins our salvation in Christ at the moment of our baptism by forgiving this sin first and by fortifying us against the temptation to sin.

"Holy Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in her mission: 'Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the word.' " (CCC 1213)

Saint Paul tells us that the grace of Baptism "saves you now". Baptism saves us now as we live in faith, depending upon the graces God gives as upon a rock. And that rock is Christ from which flows always for us the abundant waters of new life through grace, welling up to eternal life.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

Saturday after Ash Wednesday: "light shall rise for you"

2012-02-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted

-- Is 58:9b-14

The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world", and "he was revealed to take away sins":

Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be raised up; dead, to rise again. We had lost the possession of the good; it was necessary for it to be given back to us. Closed in the darkness, it was necessary to bring us the light; captives, we awaited a Savior; prisoners, help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor or insignificant? Did they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it, since humanity was in so miserable and unhappy a state?
-- CCC 457

Friday after Ash Wednesday: "tell my people their wickedness"

2012-02-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.

--Is 58:1-9a

Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.

-- CCC 1430

S Polycarp, bishop and martyr: "Wisdom"

2012-02-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

He who holds her fast inherits glory.

-Sirach

"The Church has painstakingly collected the records of those who persevered to the end in witnessing to their faith. These are the acts of the Martyrs. They form the archives of truth written in letters of blood:

"Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be of any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I seek him who died for us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching. . . (St Ignatius of Antioch)

"I bless you for having judged me worthy from this day and this hour to be counted among your martyrs. . . . You have kept your promise, God of faithfulness and truth. For this reason and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, who is with you and the Holy Spirit, may glory be given to you, now and in the ages to come. Amen." (Martyrium Polycarpi 14, 2-3:PG 5, 1040; ACh 10,228.)

-- CCC 2474

MCITL Year-at-a-Glance Reflection Calendar

2012-02-22T10:08:00.006-05:00

Ash Wednesday: "when you fast"

2012-02-22T00:01:00.002-05:00

... anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting, except to your Father who is hidden.

-- Mt 6:1-6, 16-18

The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the "Father who sees in secret," in contrast with the desire to "be seen by men." Its prayer is the Our Father.

-- CCC 1969

-- CCC 1430

(See also CCC 575, 1434, 1755, 2043.)

Mardi Gras: "your passions ... make war within your members"

2012-02-21T00:01:00.002-05:00

So submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

-- Jas 4:1-10

The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Church's penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and almsgiving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).

-- CCC 1438

Blesseds Jacinta and Francisco Marto: "Who among you is wise and understanding?"

2012-02-20T09:53:00.005-05:00

the wisdom from above is first of all pure,then peaceable, gentle, compliant,full of mercy and good fruits,without inconstancy or insincerity.

-- Jas 3:13-18

The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of evoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exaltations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos-which both the child and the scientist discover-"from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "for the author of beauty created them."
[Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. For [wisdom] is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail. I became enamored of her beauty.

-- CCC 2500

Sunday 7B. "I am doing something new!": All things are made new in Jesus Christ, "the Son of Man", who "has authority to forgive sins on earth"

2012-02-18T15:52:00.015-05:00

There are many things that we have seen or experienced so often that we call them "old". And there are times in life when we say "out with the old and in with the new". Some of you may vaguely remember making new resolutions just a short time ago to mark the turning of a new year.

Burdened as we sometimes can feel by the past, we might go through the "old" things in order to lighten our load, to get rid of those items that we no longer need and are tired of moving around in the basement, the attic or the garage.

In the process of winnowing the detritus of a life we might pause and look at an old picture from high school, or from childhood or taken before we got married, and a wave of feeling washes over us both bitter and sweet and we feel intensely the effect of the passage of years. We experience a longing for those days of the past represented by the old photo, postcard, letter or yearbook that stays with us and can even make us somewhat regret the present in a desire to go back and recapture what we feel has been "lost". And we also can become divided about whether we are truly able to get rid of the old in order to make room for the new which is the present day with its commitments and persons and things.

Perhaps we also wonder if it might be necessary to do injury to the present with all of its things in order to recapture the good for which we long, the "newness" of life which we feel perhaps was more fully ours in the past.

There are other ways in which some things we have can seem old and which leave us feeling as though they too need to be traded in or changed in order to get that new and free feeling which we think restores the sense of promise and goodness for which we look in life. Unfortunately sometimes we are tempted to even see the people in our lives as a burden: a parent for whom we must care on a regular basis, a spouse with whom are experiencing a rocky relationship, a child who is experimenting with the wrong friends or activities. How can we find the "new" for which we long within the marriage, the family, the circumstances of our lives to which we are committed before God and before others?

"Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!" Affirmation of our lives and our goodness will not come with an escape, whether to the past or to anywhere else. Only God can restore right now the "joy of our youth" and with it a resolution to the yearning for what is gone and will never come again.

Our faith tells us that it is Jesus Christ that makes all things new for us in body, mind and spirit through the life of grace which opens the horizon of eternity in Him. And even though sometimes our faith seems old and tried and lacking, it is the key to unlocking for us the newness that we are promised by God through grace.

When we were baptized God made all things new for us by forgiving original sin. In the sacrament of Confession he gives us back the newness of our baptismal garment through forgiveness of mortal sins. We are thus able to return to reception of the Body and Blood of the Lord in the Eucharist so that we continue to grow in God's love which is always a new gift, a wonder to be discovered in so many different ways we cannot number them.

This newness God gives in Christ is the power of His Resurrection which we receive in the sacraments and which we celebrate on the Lord's Day, especially in the Mass. God's infinite grace, which cannot be exhausted, is ever present to us because the same Christ offers Himself in the same Sacrifice in each Mass, as He did on Calvary, except in an unbloody manner.

"In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning. When the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ's Passover, and it is made present the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains ever present. "As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which 'Christ our Pasch has been sacrificed' is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried out." (CCC 1364)

This Lent let us rededicate ourselves anew to seeking the newness of God, whose love is ever ancient and ever new, through the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

"The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the "Father who sees in secret," in contrast with the desire to "be seen by men." Its prayer is the Our Father." (CCC 1969)

"See, I make all things new". In God's mercy the past is restored and carried forward to eternity. God heals the wounds of the past through mercy without doing injury to what, though passed, still belongs to us while restoring courage for the future in His love ever new in Christ Jesus who lives now for us through mercy.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

Photo source: Movie "The Passion of the Christ".

The Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites: "What will there be for us?"

2012-02-17T00:01:00.006-05:00

... we have given up everything and followed you.

-- Matthew 19:27-29

"The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels:

"Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to the obedient Christ."
-- CCC 2103

God created man in his image and established him in his friendship. A spiritual creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The prohibition against eating "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" spells this out: "for in the day that you eat of it, you shall die." The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil"symbolically evokes the insurmountable limits that man, being a creature, must freely recognize and respect with trust. Man is dependent on his Creator, and subject to the laws of creation and to the moral norms that govern the use of freedom.

-- CCC 396

Thursday, Week 6: "show no partiality"

2012-02-16T07:38:00.001-05:00

have you not made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil designs?

--Jas 2:1-9

The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to "preach good news to the poor"; he declares them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To them - the "little ones" the Father is pleased to reveal what remains hidden from the wise and the learned. Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom.

-- CCC 544

Wednesday, Week 6: "put away all filth and evil excess"

2012-02-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.

-- Jas 1:19-27

The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.

-- CCC 2290

Ss Cyril and Methodius: "my brother’s keeper"

2012-02-14T00:01:00.001-05:00

... offer to God a sacrifice of praise.

-- Ps 50:1 and 8, 16bc-17, 20-21

From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of heart: reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.

-- CCC 2608

Monday, Week 6: "when you encounter various trials"

2012-02-13T00:01:00.002-05:00

Consider it all joy.

-- Jas 1:1-11

The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death.

God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings. . . . There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.

-- CCC 2847

Sixth Sunday B: ""I do will it. Be made clean." Rescinding the HHS mandate "the only complete solution to this religious liberty problem"

2012-02-11T11:00:00.005-05:00

"If you wish, you can make me clean." "I do will it. Be made clean."
-- Mark 1, 40-45

"First, we objected to the rule forcing private health plans — nationwide, by the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen—to cover sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion. All the other mandated 'preventive services' prevent disease, and pregnancy is not a disease. Moreover, forcing plans to cover abortifacients violates existing federal conscience laws. Therefore, we called for the rescission of the mandate altogether." (US Bishops' statement on HHS mandate and so-called compromise of 10 Feb 2012)

"Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: 'Your faith has made you well; go in peace.' "
--CCC 2616

"The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:

"-the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own moral and religious convictions;

"-the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;

"-the freedom to profess one's faith, to hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;

"-the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;

"-in keeping with the country's institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;

"- the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;

"- the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.
-- CCC 2211

"Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good, between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on.

"St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: 'He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us.'"
-- CCC 1908

Our Lady of Lourdes: "be glad because of her"

2012-02-11T00:01:00.001-05:00

... all you who love her."

-- Isaiah 66:10-14c

This twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a privileged expression in the Ave Maria:

Hail Mary [or Rejoice, Mary]: the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as intermediary, greets Mary. Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had for the lowliness of his humble servant and to exult in the joy he finds in her.

Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel's greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice . . . O Daughter of Jerusalem . . . the Lord your God is in your midst." Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God . . . with men." Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.

Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. After the angel's greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting our own. "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Elizabeth is the first in the long succession of generations who have called Mary "blessed." "Blessed is she who believed. . . . " Mary is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord's word. Abraham. because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith, became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God's own blessing: Jesus, the "fruit of thy womb."

-- CCC 2676

S Scholastica: "“It is not good for the man to be alone.”

2012-02-10T00:01:00.001-05:00

this one shall be called ‘woman,’

-- Gn 2:18-25

God created man and woman together and willed each for the other. The Word of God gives us to understand this through various features of the sacred text. "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him." None of the animals can be man's partner. The woman God "fashions" from the man's rib and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an exclamation of love and communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Man discovers woman as another "I", sharing the same humanity.

-- CCC 371

The virtue of chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate him who has chosen us as his friends, who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a promise of immortality. Chastity is expressed notably in friendship with one's neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual communion.

-- CCC 2347

Thursday, Week 5: "Let the children be fed first"

2012-02-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

"Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps."

--Mk 7:24-30

"First Holy Communion. Having become a child of God clothed with the wedding garment, the neophyte is admitted 'to the marriage supper of the Lamb' and receives the food of the new life, the body and blood of Christ. The Eastern Churches maintain a lively awareness of the unity of Christian initiation by giving Holy Communion to all the newly baptized and confirmed, even little children, recalling the Lord's words: 'Let the children come to me, do not hinder them.' The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who have attained the age of reason, expresses the orientation of Baptism to the Eucharist by having the newly baptized child brought to the altar for the praying of the Our Father."

-- CCC 1244

Saint Josephine Bakhita: "God created man in his image"

2012-02-08T00:01:00.004-05:00

in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them.

-- Gn 1:20-2:4a

But above all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from the slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by Baptism:

You freed the children of Abraham from the slavery of Pharaoh,
bringing them dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea,
to be an image of the people set free in Baptism.
-- CCC 1221

S Jerome Emiliani: "what comes out of the man ... defiles"

2012-02-08T00:01:00.002-05:00

From within the man, from his heart,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”

-- Mk 7:14-23

Sins can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or according to the commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. The root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will, according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a man." But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds.

-- CCC 1853

Tuesday, Week 5: "Can it indeed be that God dwells on earth?"

2012-02-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

May your eyes watch night and day over this temple, the place where you have decreed you shall be honored; may you heed the prayer which I, your servant, offer in this place.

--1 Kgs 8:22-23, 27-30

The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be located in an especially worthy place in the church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.

-- CCC 1379

S. Paul Miki and companions, martyrs: "Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart"

2012-02-06T00:01:00.001-05:00

... to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.

-- 1 Kgs 3:4-13

In the Roman Rite the bishop extends his hands over the whole group of the confirmands. Since the time of the apostles this gesture has signified the gift of the Spirit. The bishop invokes the outpouring of the Spirit in these words:

All-powerful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,by water and the Holy Spirit you freed your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

-- CCC 1299

Sunday 5B: "they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons": the work of Christ in the Church to battle evils of body and spirit

2012-02-04T14:49:00.011-05:00

"Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?"

In some philosophies the view of the human person is rather bleak, and life is thought to be nasty and brutish, even when not short. Considering the many ills that flesh is heir to, and the long record of man's inhumanity to man, it is sometimes tempting to side with those who think very little, if at all, of man's dignity or destiny.

Saint Paul comes into the picture compelled to preach because he has met Someone who has changed his life. And not just anyone, but the only One who can change life on earth by revealing there is a life in heaven to come. Saint Paul has met and loves Jesus Christ. And this love consumes him and urges him in charity to reach as many others with the Gospel as time and effort afford.

"I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible."

This mission of preaching and teaching the truths of Jesus Christ and giving access to him in the sacramental life for the salvation of the world has been entrusted to Saint Paul and to everyone in the Church, according to the vocation of each.

The Church casts out evil in Christ, both of spirit because of sin, but also the physical evils that afflict the body and the mind such as illness, poverty and the lack of other means to human dignity such as shelter, food, clothing, education, employment and and health care. These formed an everyday part of the mission that consumed the life of Saint Paul in imitation of Christ who "drove out many demons" and restored bodily health to Saint Peter's mother-in-law as we see in our readings today.

" 'Heal the sick!' The Church has received this charge from the Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul suggests is connected with bodily health." (CCC 1509)

"Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.

"Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance." (CCC 2288)

We as Catholics have a vested interest in helping every human person have access to health care. The HHS mandate that proposes to require that Catholics purchase abortifacient and other forms of contraception and sterilization through health insurance plans violates the God-given mandate to respect and defend all life from the moment of conception until natural death in all its stages and conditions. Abortion is not health care because pregnancy is not a disease. Man and woman do not need "protection" from each because the marital act is a beautiful part of the love that man and woman share in holy matrimony. This is why it is a mortal sin to procure an abortion whether through the use or purchase of contraception or by direct surgical means or by mutilating the human body through surgical or other means of sterilization.

"The regulation of births represents one of the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception)." (CCC 2399)

Buying means to abortion, sterilization and contraception through health insurance plans is cooperation in a moral evil: a violation of the law of God and mortally sinful. It is just as sinful as voting into office someone who has promised to use that office to promote abortion as we saw with the votes of 54% of Catholics in the previous presidential election.

We, as was Paul, are called by Christ to bring to Him all who are in need of healing whether in body or in spirit so that they too may receive the gift of salvation. We cooperate together in the Church, the Body of Christ on earth, in doing this and every good also for the sake of our own eternal life.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

Saturday, Week 4: "Come away"

2012-02-04T00:01:00.001-05:00

"to a deserted place and rest a while."

-- Mk 6:30-34

Just as God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done," human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of the Lord's Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives.

-- CCC 2184

S Blaise, martyr: "anointed with oil"

2012-02-03T00:01:00.001-05:00

... many who were sick and cured them.

-- Mk 6:7-13

The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing so as to make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul must learn from the Lord that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," and that the sufferings to be endured can mean that "in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church."

-- CCC 1508

Feast of the Presentation of the Lord: "suddenly there will come to the temple the Lord whom you seek"

2012-02-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

"my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in the sight of all the peoples:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel.”

-- Lk 2:22-40

The presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the firstborn Son who belongs to the Lord. With Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with the Savior-the name given to this event in the Byzantine tradition. Jesus is recognized as the long-expected Messiah, the "light to the nations" and the "glory of Israel", but also "a sign that is spoken against". The sword of sorrow predicted for Mary announces Christ's perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will impart the salvation God had "prepared in the presence of all peoples".

-- CCC 529

Art: Giotto ca. 1267 – 1337, Presentation in the Temple, Fresco — 1304-06. Cappella degli Scrovegni, Padova.

Wednesday, Week 4: "And they took offense at him"

2012-02-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

He was amazed at their lack of faith.

-- Mk 6:1-6

The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared incredulity than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is? Sometimes we enlist the Lord as an ally, but our heart remains presumptuous. In each case, our lack of faith reveals that we do not yet share in the disposition of a humble heart: "Apart from me, you can do nothing."

-- CCC 2732

S John Bosco: "great is the goodness"

2012-01-31T00:01:00.001-05:00

which, toward those who take refuge in you, you show in the sight of the children of men.

-- Ps 31:20, 21, 22, 23, 24

From the very beginning Christians have brought, along with the bread and wine for the Eucharist, gifts to share with those in need. This custom of the collection, ever appropriate, is inspired by the example of Christ who became poor to make us rich:

Those who are well off, and who are also willing, give as each chooses. What is gathered is given to him who presides to assist orphans and widows, those whom illness or any other cause has deprived of resources, prisoners, immigrants and, in a word, all who are in need.
-- CCC 1351

The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."

-- CCC 2208

Monday, Wk 4: "Legion is my name. There are many of us."

2012-01-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

"Unclean spirit, come out of the man!"

--Mk 5:1-20

Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God.

-- CCC 414

Sunday 4B: "A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you": Jesus Christ speaks in His Church as prophet for the salvation of the world

2012-01-28T12:58:00.012-05:00

"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own kin."

I don't know about prophets, but from my "kin" God has raised up some of my best critics. Let me tell you what I mean. I have a sibling, name withheld to protect the innocent, who is very good at detecting when I am not listening to her. Sometimes she will stop talking in mid-sentence in order to call me to account, or tell me that she will stop talking to me until I decide to be present to her and truly listen willingly to her, forcing me to examine my behavior. I sometimes don't react well to her honesty, and get irritated sometimes that she forces me to look with such clarity at myself and the ways in which I need to work harder at being "present" to her and others.

Perhaps you have such honest people in your life, too. And though they sometimes get under your skin, in your more reflective moments you probably, as I often do, give thanks for such people who demand your best self. And as I do, you are probably thankful that they speak in truth and love. And because of this, they have "authority", we trust them to tell us what we really need to hear, to help us see ourselves as we really are. Because of such persons we are able to gain the hope that comes from knowing what we must change about ourselves to be real, to be whole, to be good.

Now, as for raising up prophets from among our "kin": it turns out that God in fact does this. A prophet is not someone who, in the first case, predicts the future like a soothsayer or a fortune teller but, in fact, is someone who is willing even to sacrifice himself in order to speak the harsh truth to those to whom he is sent. So, it turns out the sibling I described is, in fact, a prophet: he or she stands as a mirror before others in unflinching honesty to speak the truth that the other needs to hear without regard for self.

God has sent prophets to speak the truth for Him before the people throughout salvation history just as we hear in our first reading. God promises He will provide such truth tellers in order to serve the good of the people. And these prophets did irritate and sometimes anger the people as sometimes do those who do us the service of speaking the truth in our own lives. At times this anger reaches such a crescendo that it results in the death of the prophet.

"Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit and established as priest, prophet, and king. The whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them." (CCC 783)

Christ is the "prophet" God has raised up to speak in the Church until the end of world. And He is sometimes attacked just as He was when He died on the Cross. Those who are sent today by Him are the Holy Father in Rome and the bishops who speak the truth with His voice to the great and the small, to the powerful and the little ones of the earth as He promised: "Go, and teach all nations" and "I give you the Holy Spirit to lead you into all the truth". And for this gift the bishops and the Church sometimes earn the hatred and vituperation of the world.

The Lord's role of prophecy, of speaking the inconvenient and unwanted truth, is being carried out right here and now by our bishops who decry and vow to fight the latest attacks by our government upon our God-given right to religious freedom. I urge you to read Cardinal Wuerl's letter in which he, as a prophet of God, stands before the Church and the world to proclaim the truth that "There can no longer be any doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy."

Let us listen to the voice of Christ who speaks here and now through the Church shedding the harsh glare of honesty born of love with His Divine authority to save us from sin. We go forward to share His voice by speaking the truth in union with our bishop and the Holy Father, sharers in the prophetic mission of the Church for the salvation of the world in Jesus Christ.

"What is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."

S. Thomas Aquinas: "after you had been enlightened"

2012-01-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

you endured a great contest of suffering.

-- Heb 10:32-39

Faith in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil. But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe".

-- CCC 272
"Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come" (St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol. 1, 2).

-- CCC 184

Art: The Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1631, Francisco de Zurbaran, Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville, Spain.

Saint Angela Merici. "We should not stay away from our assembly"

2012-01-27T00:01:00.001-05:00

... as is the custom of some, but encourage one another,
and this all the more as you see the day drawing near.

-- Heb 10:19-25

The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to "call out of") means a convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people, usually for a religious purpose. Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God as his holy people. By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is "calling together" his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent Greek term Kyriake, from which the English word Church and the German Kirche are derived, means "what belongs to the Lord."

-- CCC 751

Ss. Timothy and Titus: "to Timothy, my dear child"

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

stir into flame
the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands.

-- 2 Tm 1:1-8

Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them his power of sanctifying: they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted this power to their successors. This "apostolic succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders.

-- CCC 1087

Art: St. Timothy, 5th century, Fresco, Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Roma

Saint Francis de Sales, bishop and doctor of the Church: "to preach"

2012-01-24T00:01:00.002-05:00

I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father

-- John 15: 9-17

The Roman Pontiff and the bishops, as authentic teachers, preach to the People of God the faith which is to be believed and applied in moral life. It is also incumbent on them to pronounce on moral questions that fall within the natural law and reason.

-- CCC 2050

St Francis de Sales in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

"The evangelical counsels manifest the living fullness of charity, which is never satisfied with not giving more. They attest its vitality and call forth our spiritual readiness. The perfection of the New Law consists essentially in the precepts of love of God and neighbor. The counsels point out the more direct ways, the readier means, and are to be practiced in keeping with the vocation of each:

'[God] does not want each person to keep all the counsels, but only those appropriate to the diversity of persons, times, opportunities, and strengths, as charity requires; for it is charity, as queen of all virtues, all commandments, all counsels, and, in short, of all laws and all Christian actions that gives to all of them their rank, order, time, and value. (St Francis de Sales, Love of God 8,6)' "

-- CCC 1974

Day of Penance for Violations to the Dignity of the Human Person: "Choose Life"

2012-01-22T14:31:00.008-05:00

January 23, 2012, is a national day of penance for violations to the dignity of the human person committed through acts of abortion, and of prayer for the full restoration of the legal guarantee of the right to life.

“I am the way and the truth* and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

-- John, Chapter 14

Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.

-- CCC 1430

Photo source: Jill Stanek

Patronal Feast of Saint Francis de Sales: Sanctity in Christ fulfills the gift of human life

2012-01-21T11:22:00.010-05:00

With every breath we take we enjoy the gift of life. With every breath He bestows, God invites us to the fulness of life in heaven through personal holiness in Christ. "This poor life is only a journey to the happy life to come" as Saint Francis de Sales, our parish patron reminds us.

On this occasion we celebrate the way in which our patron, Saint Francis, used his gift of life to the fullest by pursuing his vocation to holiness as we observe his memorial on the Sunday closest to his feast day of January 24th. We also look ahead to the upcoming March for Life on Monday, January 23rd, when Catholics, other Christians and men and women of good will witness together by marching in Washington and numerous other places all over this nation on the anniversary of the legalization of murder of the unborn through the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973.

Respect and love for the right to life of every human being is a requirement of the law of Christ and necessary for our salvation.

"Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.

'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.'

'My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.' " (CCC2270)

These themes come together for us as we ponder the gift of human life, acknowledge God as the Giver, and seek through Christ to understand the beauty of this gift and the ways in which we grow in the life and love of Christ through holiness of life.

Our parish "is named for a man who lived more than 400 years ago, but whose lessons are still timely and practical for today's world. St. Francis de Sales is admired throughout the Church for his great sanctity, learning, missionary zeal, gentleness, and understanding of the human heart. Scholar, writer, pastor, spiritual guide for souls, diplomat, bishop, and Doctor of the Church, he is best described as a Christian Humanist, a potent spiritual force for creating a spirituality admirably suited to those in every walk of life, especially the laity, the common person. No one could have imagined at the time of his death that the wisdom and teachings of this amazing human being would live on to touch the lives of countless people today. Known as "The Gentleman Saint," his spirit of optimism, hope, freedom and confidence in God's love prompts others to please God by doing everything - big or small enthusiastically and well." (Source: DeSales University)

The human heart, emblematic of the gift of life, beats in the chest of every human person. The ways of the heart, then, can teach us love and compassion for every human person. Understanding that heart gave Saint Francis de Sales a wisdom which enabled him to live his vocation as priest and bishop to a heroic degree. He gave of himself for others as he sought to understand them in order to both love them and serve their salvation by preaching the Faith and helping others to love it and live it in all walks of life.

Many of us locally will March for Life in Washington, DC, on Monday for others who cannot yet do anything for themselves because their hearts still beat within the wombs of their mothers. These unborn boys and girls have no one to speak for them and depend entirely upon us, we who walk in the footsteps of Saint Francis de Sales and all the saints, those who loved and served the least among us according to the teachings of Christ. And there is no one who can better be described as "least" among us than the unborn boy or girl.

With the recent "imperial edict" handed down from Washington, which gives Catholics a year to prepare to violate their consciences in regard to funding abortion, contraception and sterilization in health insurance plans, the cause for human life affects us all in a more urgent way. Our religious freedom, the God-given right to do what is right and good at all times according to our consciences formed by the truth, is under attack like never before.

As we walk the path of our life let us pray and fast for and serve the cause of all who are the last and least or our brethren whatever our vocation in Christ. In this way the breath we take and the actions we make will both serve our vocation to holiness and our salvation in imitation of Saint Francis de Sales, our holy patron, and the good of all of our brothers and sisters, both those known and unknown to us.

Praise be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

S. Agnes. "I will forgive their evildoing"

2012-01-21T00:01:00.001-05:00

... and remember their sins no more.

-- Heb 8:6-13

After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's redemption at the first Passover. Christ's whole life expresses his mission: "to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

-- CCC 608

Photo: Tomb of Saint Agnes, Basilica of Saint Agnes outside the Walls, Roma. For more info, click here.

Ss Fabian and Sebastian: "Jesus is always able to save"

2012-01-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

those who approach God through him

-- Heb 7:25—8:6

Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude. "Let me become the food of the beasts, through whom it will be given me to reach God."

-- CCC 2473

Thursday, Week 2: "the LORD brought about a great victory"

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

whenever unclean spirits saw him they would fall down before him and shout, "You are the Son of God."

-- Mk 3:7-12

Victory over the "prince of this world" was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out." "He pursued the woman" but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). "Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring." Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One.

-- CCC 2853

Wednesday, Week 2: "Stretch out your hand."

2012-01-18T11:18:00.001-05:00

to save life

-- Mk 3:1-6

Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works and hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right by his cross. The Father has given "all judgment to the Son". Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.

-- CCC 679

Saint Anthony, Abbot: "beset by weakness"

2012-01-17T00:01:00.001-05:00

he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears

-- Heb 5:1-10

"The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words." The Holy Spirit, the artisan of God's works, is the master of prayer. (This will be the topic of Part Four.)

-- CCC 741

Art: Agostino Caracci, The Temptation of Saint Anthony, Abbot.

Monday Week 2: "Obedience is better than sacrifice"

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

"they will fast"

--Mk 2:18-22

The fourth precept ("You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church") ensures the times of ascesis and penance which prepare us for the liturgical feasts and help us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.

-- CCC 2043

Sunday 2B: The Church is the place of Faith where God reveals Himself in Christ so that we may be familiar with Him and transformed by His love

2012-01-14T11:34:00.017-05:00

"At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD, because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet."

I had a boss in the Navy who would invite me out to have lunch with him every once in a while. I realized that he did this because he felt we were becoming "unfamiliar" to each other, that we were drifting apart somewhat in our daily routine at the military chapel, that our communication was suffering, and that our working relationship might also become weakened or harmed as a result and the people whose lives of Faith we served together might be the worse for it.

As we would sit together over a meal, doing the very humble and basic task of satisfying our hunger and taking in the physical nourishment that keeps us alive, we would at the same time rediscover the humanity in each other and begin again to communicate in the words that reveal the self and the interior life.

We became more familiar with each other because we engaged in an activity that enabled us to better and more fully "reveal" ourselves to one another. In order to accomplish this, however, it was necessary that we leave other things aside in order to "be with" one another at the table for a meal.

Within the family, too, relationships can become distant because of travel for work or other reasons, because of a schedule that places increasing demands for time and attention upon the spouses and the children, or because of other factors such as computer and internet use or video gaming that consumes more and more of one's time. In light of these factors the "familiar", which should be characteristic of the family and their shared life and the primary focus within the home, can diminish and suffer. When the relationships suffer, the love that should nourish and grow within the family can wither and can die.

The word "familiar" and the word "family" share a common root, both denoting the intimacy proper to that constellation of particular relationships which flow from the privileged way in which man and woman within marriage are called to "reveal" themselves to one another in the most intimate marital act from which can result the new life of a child.

Marriage and the family reveal for us in the most dramatic and compelling way how "becoming familiar" with another results from the choice for one person to "reveal" himself or herself to another. At the heart of this revealing of selves between two persons there must be love. But love to remain true to itself must be nourished so that it might grow. Thus, the "revealing" which lies at the heart of intimacy and makes two different people "familiar" in a physical and spiritual oneness and the source of a family, demands daily attention and effort so that its promise might be fulfilled.

One must continually make choices to reach out and reveal oneself through words and deeds in order to remain familiar: a phone call, a visit or a meal made possible by saying no to other choices that may be good or interesting or compelling but that cannot nourish the interpersonal relationships that are necessary with those whom come first in our lives.

In the Gospel two men are curious about Jesus. The like what He says, want to know Him and hear more of what He has to say. In respect for His wisdom and goodness they confer the title "Rabbi" upon him as they ask: "where are you staying?" They know that they must spend time with Him if He is to reveal more about Himself and if they are to become more familiar with Him. And they receive an invitation: "Come and see". Come and see where I am staying and decide for yourselves if you will choose to remain, to be with Me and to come to know Me.

These men, already students or disciples of the Lord by desire, have heard what He has to say and are ready for the next step: they want to become familiar with Jesus, but for in order for this to happen they must allow Him to reveal Himself; they must be with Him. And He invites: "Come and see."

You and I must hear the words of Christ, His teachings and His wisdom, as light and truth for our lives and direction for our steps, and we do so above all in the liturgy of the Word at every holy Mass.

And we, like the disciples in the Gospel reading, must also seek more: to not only hear Christ but also to be with Him, to live with Him and to make room in our lives so that He can live with us. This begins for us in the Sacraments, above all in the Eucharist. It is in sacramental encounter that we enjoy true intimacy with our Divine Lord and Savior, dwelling with Him in the familiarity of a love nourished by His self-revealing.

It is in the gift of His Body and Blood that Christ continually provides for us, as He did for the first disciples, the opportunity to "come and see" Him and to remain with Him. And it is through His self-giving that we are transformed as was Simon, a fisherman, into Peter, the first Pope and the rock upon which Jesus has built the Church, that place of faith where God reveals Himself in Christ so that we may be always with Him in the familiarity of love, now and forever.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday: "Follow me."

2012-01-14T11:31:00.001-05:00

there were many who followed him.

--Mk 2:13-17

Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their cross in their turn. By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them."

-- CCC 1506

Throughout her life and until her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.

-- CCC 149

Saint Hilary of Poitiers: “Harden not your hearts"

2012-01-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

Take care, brothers and sisters,
that none of you may have an evil and unfaithful heart,
so as to forsake the living God.

-- Heb 3:7-14

Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in the Son and "walk in newness of life":

Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him. (St Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio. 40, 9: PG 36, 369.)
Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God. (St Hilary of Poitiers, In Matth. 2,5: PL 9, 927.)
-- CCC 537

Thursday, Week 1: "make me clean."

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"I do will it. Be made clean."

--Mk 1:40-45

"When we made our first profession of faith while receiving the holy Baptism that cleansed us, the forgiveness we received then was so full and complete that there remained in us absolutely nothing left to efface, neither original sin nor offenses committed by our own will, nor was there left any penalty to suffer in order to expiate them. . . . Yet the grace of Baptism delivers no one from all the weakness of nature. On the contrary, we must still combat the movements of concupiscence that never cease leading us into evil "

-- CCC 978

Wednesday, Week 1: "that I may preach"

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For this purpose have I come.

--Mk 1:29-39

-- CCC 2050

Tuesday, Week 1: "he taught them as one having authority"

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The people were astonished

-- Mk 1:14-20

The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.

-- CCC 2035

Baptism of the Lord: "This is My Beloved Son...

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...My favor rests on Him." (Matthew 3:13-17) The waters of Haditha Dam in Iraq are a crushing power that might strike fear in the heart of man. But in Christ the abundant waters of baptism become for we who are faithful instead the source of Life eternal.

The Father reveals for us that Christ is His Son: "Here is my Servant whom I uphold, my Chosen One in whom My soul delights". (Isaiah 42) Thus we follow in trust the voice of the Lord our Shepherd in the truth sounding in His Church for the salvation of the world.

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Epiphany of the Lord: With infinite power and unmatched humility Christ is manifested as Savior of all nations and peoples

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Isaiah 60, 1-6; Psalm 72; Ephesians 3, 2-3.5-6; Matthew 2, 1-12

Revealed as infinite in power and majesty as He transforms water into wine at Cana, unmatched in humility as he undergoes baptism at the hands of John the Baptist in the Jordan, Jesus Christ is manifested as the Savior of all nations and peoples.

But we must use our freedom in cooperation with His grace to receive this most humble and all-powerful Savior.

Jesus Christ appears to those who seek Him: this is true wisdom, to cooperate with God in His plan for our salvation by using our freedom to seek and to know God.

What is the “epiphany”? The manifestation or appearing of Christ for all of us and for the whole world following upon His birth, so that we might come to know and love the Savior, accepting the gift of His saving grace of mercy for sinners.

In fact, there are three epiphanies in the Holy Scriptures:

“The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of Jesus by the wise men (magi) from the East, together with his baptism in the Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. In the magi, representatives of the neighboring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the first-fruits of the nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through the Incarnation. The magi's coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to the king of the Jews shows that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light of the star of David, the one who will be king of the nations. Their coming means that pagans can discover Jesus and worship him as Son of God and Savior of the world only by turning towards the Jews and receiving from them the messianic promise as contained in the Old Testament. The Epiphany shows that "the full number of the nations" now takes its "place in the family of the patriarchs", and acquires Israelitica dignitas (is made "worthy of the heritage of Israel").” (CCC 528)

To “seek” is to make the effort to know God in a deeper and more satisfying way: to use one’s freedom so as to cooperate, act with, God’s grace for good and holiness, experiencing the justification from God which answers our need for dignity and self-worth.

Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent:When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight.”

(CCC 1993)

Means of cooperating with God’s grace

- prayer based on reading and meditation upon the Scriptures,

- in particular the prayer of the celebration of holy Mass and adoration of the Eucharist

- worthy reception of Communion, that is, having confessed all grave or mortal sins committed since one’s last confession prior to receiving communion

- in other words, living in a state of grace and seeking the daily means in Christ to remain in a state of grace and to grow in grace

We also seek to obey God in keeping His commandments:

"The Commandments properly so-called come in the second place: they express the implications of belonging to God through the establishment of the covenant. Moral existence is a response to the Lord's loving initiative. It is the acknowledgement and homage given to God and a worship of thanksgiving. It is cooperation with the plan God pursues in history." (CCC 2062)

By living in and persevering in a morally upright life we cooperate in the grace of God appearing among us in the Christ who makes Himself known in His vulnerability as a child in the manger, in His humble and exemplary baptism in the Jordan and in the wedding at Cana where He makes water into wine.

Christ’s humanity makes manifest for us His divinity as He cooperates with the will of His heavenly Father for our salvation. We accept the gift of saving love as we exercise the highest wisdom in seeking Christ where He gives Himself through His Church, in the Word proclaimed and in the sacramental life.

What better way could there be to joyfully accept the beautiful gift of this new year of life than to resolve to regularly and effectively make use of God’s grace in Christ the Savior who has really and truly come to live among us? There is no higher use to which we can put our intellect and will than to seek and adore the Lord and receive Him with love.

Art: Adoration of the Magi, Albrecht Durer.

"he hears us"

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We have this confidence in God

-- 1 Jn 5:14-21

Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children": for it is to "little children" that the Father is revealed.
[The prayer is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love, through which the soul, molded and directed to love him, speaks very familiarly to God as to its own Father with special devotion.
Our Father: at this name love is aroused in us . . . and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask. . . . What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?

-- CCC 2785

Epiphany: "the mystery was made known"

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... to me by revelation.

-- Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians

"Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you."(Is 60:1) Isaiah the prophet describes the glory of Jesus Christ, who is "full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father"(Jn 1:14), our Messiah. The prophet also foretells the reality of those first three wise men, who represent the kings and the peoples of the whole earth, all of whom are called to realize their full dignity as sons and daughters of God in worship and praise of him for his glory and goodness. "Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness." (Is 60:2-3)

"The Father's only Son, conceived as man in the womb of the Virgin Mary, is 'Christ,' that is to say, anointed by the Holy Spirit, from the beginning of his human existence, though the manifestation of this fact takes place only progressively: to the shepherds, to the magi, to John the Baptist, to the disciples. Thus the whole life of Jesus Christ will make manifest 'how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.' (Acts 10:38)" (Catechism of the Catholic Church 486)

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Feast of the Epiphany.

Art: Fra Angelico and Fra Filippo Lippi,The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1440/1460. Samuel H. Kress Collection 1952.2.

Saint John Neumann: "Love is of God"

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everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God

-- 1 Jn 4:7-10

But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love": God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.

-- CCC 221

S. Elizabeth Ann Seton: "Beloved"

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We receive from him whatever we ask, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

-- 1 Jn 3:22–4:6

The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable: "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" It is a prerequisite for righteous and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion between the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that "we receive from him whatever we ask." Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.

-- CCC 2631

Image: S. Elizabeth Ann Seton

The Most Holy Name of Jesus: "Behold, the Lamb of God"

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he is the Son of God

--Jn 1:29-34

The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.

-- CCC 2668

Ss. Basil and Gregory: "this is the promise that he made us"

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... eternal life.
I write you these things about those who would deceive you.
As for you, the anointing that you received from him remains in you,
so that you do not need anyone to teach you.
But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him.

-- 1 Jn 2:22-28

The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.
-- CCC 690

Art: Icon of Saint Basil. Source OrthodoxWiki.

Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God: "God sent his Son, born of a woman"

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... born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

-- Gal 4:4-7

Mary is truly "Mother of God" since she is the mother of the eternal Son of God made man, who is God himself.

-- CCC 509

Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: "Let it be to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."

Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us, we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now, in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, in paradise.
-- CCC 2677

Icon: The Theotokos (God-bearer) of Vladimir.

Jesus, Mary and Joseph: "your own issue shall be your heir."

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The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.

-- CCC 2207

Prayer

Lord, Jesus Christ, being subject to Mary and Joseph You sanctified family life by your beautiful virtues. Grant that we, with the help of Mary and Joseph, may be taught by the example of Your holy Family, and may after death enjoy its everlasting companionship.

Lord Jesus, help us ever to follow the example of Your holy Family, that in the hour of our death Your glorious Virgin Mother, together with Saint Joseph, may come to meet us. And may we be worthy to be received by You into the everlasting joys of heaven. You live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

Find the Holy Family novena prayer here.

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy offers a reflection for the Feast of the Holy Family.

(Photo: Doni Tondo by Michelangelo.)

Saint Thomas Becket, martyr: "Whoever hates his brother is in darkness"

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the darkness has blinded his eyes.

-- 1 Jn 2:3-11

Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."

-- CCC 2303

Holy Innocents, martyrs: "I lay down my life"

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if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the Blood of his Son Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

-- 1 Jn 1:5—2:2

The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do [his] own will, but the will of him who sent [him]", said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." From the first moment of his Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work." The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world" expresses his loving communion with the Father. "The Father loves me, because I lay down my life", said the Lord, "[for] I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father."

-- CCC 606

Art: Giotto, Slaughter of the Holy Innocents

Feast of Saint John, Apostle and evangelist: "we have seen"

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and testify to it
and proclaim to you the eternal life
that was with the Father and was made visible to us

--1 Jn 1:1-4

Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. He includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them. It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.

-- CCC 2602

Saint Stephen, first martyr: "You will be hated by all"

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... because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved.

-- Mt 10:17-22

Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for obtaining that salvation. "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]" and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the end.'"

-- CCC 161

Homily for Nativity of the Lord. "Christmas every Sunday": the Lord seeks to be born into our lives through the Eucharist at Sunday Mass each week

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Merry Christmas!

I must begin my remarks by sharing a confession with all of you: our church does not look this beautiful every Sunday! I do not speak of the decorations which beautifully announce our joy on this occasion when we celebrate the birth of the Child Jesus at Bethlehem. I am speaking about all of you, the people of God who fill and make beautiful the Lord's house which exists for your sakes, for the purpose of providing for your own meeting with Jesus at Christmas and every Sunday.

You are God's people through the grace of Baptism and your presence here which glorifies God beautifully praises His goodness and love and is a true Christmas gift to me, your priest, for which I thank and praise Him.

In our Mass this evening we also keep the Lord's Day holy together because Christmas falls on a Sunday this year. Here we are, together on a Sunday, perhaps to realize also as God's gift that we can indeed overcome the many things of daily life that sometimes seem to prevent us from making room for God here at Mass and in other ways!

We began our Mass for this vigil of Christmas which anticipates the birth of the Lord during the night in procession with our children, carrying the image of the Baby to the crib where he now lies with Mary and Joseph who show us well what it means to love and adore Him.

This Baby will, as must all of us whose birth into this world he shares, one day also die. But His death will not be as beautiful as is His birth this night. The wood of His crib foretells the wood of the Cross upon which He will freely give His life for you and for me. And His death will be truly for our sakes because His life which begins this night and shares in our lives is never to end: His Life Divine triumphs over the grave in order to share that victory with all flesh, with every human being who was ever born.

Each of us must make the connection in our own lives between the crib and the cross, between the beauty of Christmas and the joy of Easter, and it is accomplished by means of God's Christmas gift to each of us in Jesus Christ. Yes, this Jesus whose image is before us in the crib becomes truly present, the same Jesus Christ born at Bethlehem and risen in Jerusalem, in the Holy Eucharist at each holy Mass under the signs of bread and wine.

The idea of neglecting or hurting any child, whose very innocence calls out to each of us for protecting and nurturing love, is repugnant to all of us. Perhaps that is why Christmas, the celebration of the birth of a Baby named Jesus, holds such great attraction for us and for so many: so many people return to Church and many Catholics return to holy Mass on this day every year because it is so difficult to be indifferent to this beautiful child truly born of Mary 2,000 years ago in Bethlehem.

Yes, we would be truly lacking in the basic good of humanity to turn away from this child with the indifference which shows the lack of a loving heart. But this child is not human in the same way as are all other babies: he is the Divine child though born very much the same as every child before and after Him. This child invites our love by his humanity which calls out for a response from the human nature that each of us share with Him. God is love, and because this Child is Divine he teaches us the truth about love so that we might conform our lives to Him and have true love. Do not be afraid: what God commands with His authority is love! Jesus Christ is born today to teach us the truth about love, which itself is a response to His own life and death.

The love that God commands, the love He teaches us, does not neglect or fall into indifference in regard to His holy day of Sunday, the day of His Resurrection, which He calls us to keep holy with Him. For this reason the Church, speaking only with His voice in His Holy Spirit, teaches that attendance at Sunday Mass is a grave obligation.

Our indifference to, or neglect of, the celebration of holy Mass on Sunday with His people the Church, is indifference to Him, the Resurrected One, for which we must seek forgiveness. The Church also teaches that God's forgiveness in Confession is necessary before receiving Jesus in the Eucharist, born as He is in another "Christmas" at every Mass under the signs of bread and wine on our altar, after omitting to attend Sunday Mass or any other grave sin. In His love which knows no bounds Christ is "born" again in us as He gives us this forgiveness when we need it in the sacrament of Confession.

Should we not also say that mercy is born this night with the Holy Child who makes of Himself a gift to each of us through His forgiveness of our sins?

"To become a child in relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For this, we must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become "children of God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God". Only when Christ is formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the mystery of this "marvelous exchange": 'O marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity.' "(CCC 526)

Christmas every Sunday, a birth in the Eucharist on our altar which makes of this church another Bethlehem, is the gift this divine Child offers to each of us this holy night.

Let us pray, asking Him to make His love enter into our hearts and lives by grace so that we may never neglect the eternal Life which He offers us through His Body and Blood, laid in the crib and hung on the Cross, and then risen again so that we might rise with Him.

"Lord Jesus, truly born for us at Christmas, give us true Faith by which we are drawn in real love to always desire to be near you as we are this night. Help us to grow in our love of your Presence in the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist by which your death on the Cross for us and your Resurrection may bring your power as God into our lives, at Christmas and each Sunday, with Your mercy which brings us life by destroying death. Amen."

Merry Christmas, everyone! Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

December 24: “Blessed be the Lord"

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... the God of Israel; for he has come to his people and set them free.

-- Lk 1:67-79

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John." John was "filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb" by Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had just conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary's visitation to Elizabeth thus became a visit from God to his people.

-- CCC 717

December 23: O Emmanuel

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DECEMBER 23

The Church sings this antiphon in to-day’s Lauds:

SEVENTH ANTIPHON

ANT. Ecce completa sunt omnia quæ dicta sunt per angelum, de Virgine Maria.

ANT. Lo! all things are accomplished that were said by the angel, of the Virgin Mary.

O Emmanuel, Rex et Legifer foster, exspectatio gentium, et salvator earum; veni ad salvandum nos, Domine Deus noster.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expectation and Saviour of the nations! come and save us, O Lord our God!

"O Emmanuel ! King of peace! Thou enterest today the city of Thy predilection, the city in which Thou hast placed Thy temple—Jerusalem. A few years hence the same city will give Thee Thy cross and Thy sepulchre: nay, the day will come on which Thou wilt set up Thy judgement-seat within sight of her walls. But to-day Thou enterest the city of David and Solomon unnoticed and unknown. It lies on Thy road to Bethlehem. Thy blessed Mother and Joseph her spouse would not lose the opportunity of visiting the temple, there to offer to the Lord their prayers and adoration. They enter; and then, for the first time, is accomplished the prophecy of Aggeus, that great shall be the glory of this last house more than of the first ; for this second temple has now standing within it an ark of the Covenant more precious than was that which Moses built; and within this ark, which is Mary, is contained the God whose presence makes her the holiest of sanctuaries. The Lawgiver Himself is in this blessed ark, and not merely, as in that of old, the tablet of stone on which the Law was graven. The visit paid, our living ark descends the steps of the temple, and sets out once more for Bethlehem, where other prophecies are to be fulfilled. We adore Thee, O Emmanuel ! in this Thy journey, and we reverence the fidelity wherewith Thou fulfillest all that the prophets have written of Thee; for Thou wouldst give to Thy people the certainty of Thy being the Messias, by showing them that all the marks, whereby He was to be known, are to be found in Thee. And now, the hour is near; all is ready for Thy birth; come then, and save us; come, that Thou mayst not only be called our Emmanuel, but our Jesus, that is, He that saves us."

-- Source: Abbott Prosper Louis Paschal Guéranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Vol. 1, Advent. Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1948, pp. 5O4-5. Translation by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

Photo: Cameo with Christ Emmanuel, ca. 1200–1400
Byzantine
Inscribed in Greek: Jesus Christ, Emmanuel
Steatite; 1 1/8 x 7/8 in. (2.9 x 2.2 cm)
Purchase, William Kelly Simpson Gift, 1987 (1987.23)

This delicately carved steatite icon displays a frontal bust of the youthful Christ Emmanuel, the incarnate Word, identified by the inscription in Greek flanking his shoulders. Christ's head is silhouetted against a large cruciform nimbus; he holds a scroll in his left hand and makes a preaching gesture with his right. The pendant retains its finely carved surface and highly polished back and sides, although details of Christ's facial features are worn away, probably from the constant touching and kissing of the icon in veneration.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON TO JERUSALEM

O Hierusalem ! civitas Dei summi, leva in circuitu oculos tuos; et vide Dominum tuum, quia jam veniet solvere te a vinculis.

O Jerusalem! city of the great God: lift up thine eyes round about, and see thy Lord, for he is coming to loose thee from thy chains.

December 22: "O Rex Gentium"

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O KING OF THE GENTILES and their desired One, the Cornerstone that makes both one: COME, and deliver man, whom you formed out of the dust of the earth.

Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said:
“Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord,
I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the LORD. I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request. Now I, in turn, give him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the LORD.”

-- 1 Sm 1:24-28

Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women prepared for that of Mary. At the very beginning there was Eve; despite her disobedience, she receives the promise of a posterity that will be victorious over the evil one, as well as the promise that she will be the mother of all the living. By virtue of this promise, Sarah conceives a son in spite of her old age. Against all human expectation God chooses those who were considered powerless and weak to show forth his faithfulness to his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah; Ruth; Judith and Esther; and many other women. Mary "stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion, and the new plan of salvation is established."

-- CCC 489

December 21: "O Oriens"

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O DAWN OF THE EAST, brightness of light eternal, and Sun of Justice: COME, and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!

-- Zep 3:14-18a

Full of grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel's greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice . . . O Daughter of Jerusalem . . . the Lord your God is in your midst." Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God . . . with men." Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.

-- CCC 2676

December 20: "O Clavis David"

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O KEY OF DAVID, and Sceptre of the House of Israel, who opens and no man shuts, who shuts and no man opens: COME, and bring forth the captive from his prison, he who sits in darkness and in the shadow of death.

December 19: "O radix Jesse"

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DECEMBER 19

THIRD ANTIPHON
O radix Jesse, qui stas in signum populorum, super quem continebunt reges os suum, quem gentes deprecabuntur: veni ad liberandum nos, jam noli tardare.

O Root of Jesse, who standest as the ensign of the people; before whom kings shall not open their lips; to whom the nations shall pray: come and deliver us; tarry now no more.

"AT length, O Son of Jesse! Thou art approaching the city of Thy ancestors. The Ark of the Lord has risen, and journeys, with the God that is in her, to the place of her rest. ‘ How beautiful are thy steps, O thou daughter of the Prince,’ 1 now that thou art bringing to the cities of Juda their salvation.! The angels escort thee, thy faithful Joseph lavishes his love upon thee, heaven delights in thee, and our earth thrills with joy to bear thus upon itself its Creator and its Queen. Go forward, O Mother of God and Mother of men! Speed thee, thou propitiatory that holdest within thee the divine Manna which gives us life! Our hearts are with thee, and count thy steps. Like thy royal ancestor David, ‘we will not enter into the dwelling of our house, nor go up into the bed whereon we lie, nor give sleep to our eyes, nor rest to our temples, until we have found a place in our hearts for the Lord whom thou bearest, a tabernacle for this God of Jacob.’ 2 Come, then, O Root of Jesse ! thus hidden in this Ark of purity; Thou wilt soon appear before Thy people as the standard round which all that would conquer must rally. Then their enemies, the kings of the world, will be silenced, and the nations will offer Thee their prayers. Hasten Thy coming, dear Jesus! come and conquer all our enemies, and deliver us."

-- Abbott Prosper Louis Paschal Guéranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Vol. 1, Advent. Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1948, pp. 484-6. Translation by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

A RESPONSORY OF ADVENT

(Ambrosian breviary, sixth Sunday of Advent)
R. Beatus uterus Mariæ Virginis qui portavit invisibilem: quem septem throni capere non possunt in eo habitare dignatus est: * Et portabat levem in sinu suo.

V. Dedit illi Dominus sedem David patris sui, et regnabit in domo Jacob in æternum, cujus regni non erit finis: * Et portabat levem in sinu suo.

Translation:
R. Blessed is the womb of the Virgin Mary, which bore the invisible God: there did he deign to dwell, whom seven thrones cannot hold: * And she bore him as a light weight in her womb.

V. The Lord hath given him the throne of David his father, and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end: * And she bore him as a light weight in her womb.

(Photo: Thanks to Rorate Caeli for posting this lovely illumination of the Tree of Jesse from an antique manuscript.)

Fourth Sunday of Advent B: "Should you build me a house to dwell in?": God Himself builds His house the Church through the Body and Blood of Christ

2011-12-17T12:24:00.024-05:00

This morning I had the pleasure of talking with some of our young people who came to church to practice for the Christmas pageant they will perform at 5 p.m. here next Saturday, Christmas Eve, between our Christmas vigil Masses scheduled for 4 and 5:30 pm.

I took a moment to lead them in making a visit to the Blessed Sacrament prior to the pageant practice and saying a prayer together with them, which is a longstanding custom handed down in our Catholic Faith for those who happen by a church and are able to enter and pray.

The children and I also practiced "genuflecting", translated from the Latin into English as "bowing the knee". I asked them if they had heard of "Tebowing", made famous by football player Tim Tebow who "takes a knee" frequently during games, becoming famous for his unapologetic demonstrations of Christian faith on and off the field. I suspect that Tim does not share our Catholic Faith in the real presence of Jesus Christ under the signs of bread and wine in the Eucharist but he already understands very well how to reverence and worship God, Faith in whom he already shares in great part with us. Although our children were too young to know much about football, or "Tebowing", they are very ready to learn about God and the most marvelous gift which enables him to dwell, or "pitch his tent", among us.

In the Old Testament reading we hear about man's need for a place on earth that is to be designated for God, a place where His people might go to do just what the children and I were able to do this morning: to show together as His people the love proper to God which we call "worship" or "adoration", those attitudes reserved for God as above and holier than everything he has created. King David believes that God should have something far greater than even his own royal palace in which to dwell:

"Here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"

God's tent, or "tabernacle" was his dwelling among the chosen people and a sign of his holiness. Because of his belief in God's holiness, however, King David felt that God should have a new and better house, something more permanent and grand as befitting a people now beginning to settle down in the Promised Land and no longer as much in need of the original "mobile home" of the tent.

As wonderful as was King David's instinct to honor God with a worthy dwelling, the prophet Nathan indicated that God Himself had other plans: "Should you build me a house to dwell in?" God revealed that it must be Himself who will build the house if it is to be worthy of his divinity, of his Godliness.

That dwelling, in fact, was not only built by God, that dwelling was and is God: the Lord Jesus Christ truly born into this world as a baby 2,000 years ago. Today, on the fourth Sunday of Advent, we look expectantly to our forthcoming celebration of God's dwelling built on earth, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, whose anniversary of birth we will joyfully celebrate as His Body the Church at Christmas.

Here in our "tent", or tabernacle on God's altar, we have present with us the very One who does the work of building us up into His Body the Church on earth. Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist, is the house that God built because in this most blessed Sacrament is really, truly and substantially present the selfsame God-man who was truly born of Mary. And it is Jesus Christ by His divine power present under the signs of bread and wine who "makes" the universal Church which is the true dwelling of God on earth.

" the Eucharist makes the Church. Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body - the Church. Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the Church, already achieved by Baptism. In Baptism we have been called to form but one body. The Eucharist fulfills this call: 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread:'

"If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you receive. To that which you are you respond 'Amen' ('yes, it is true!') and by responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words, 'the Body of Christ' and respond 'Amen.' Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true." (CCC 1396)

The tabernacle on the altar, usually made of metal or other worthy and durable material, is the "tent" of our own day, the dwelling which God pitches among us here and now within the house of the church building, and a suitable place to reverence and worship Jesus Christ truly present.

"The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those absent outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this reason that the tabernacle should be located in an especially worthy place in the church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament." (CCC 1379)

This morning, when I made a visit with the children to the tabernacle we opened the door. They opened their mouths in wonder to make sounds of surprise as they saw God dwelling within. "Should you build me a house to dwell in?" No, we cannot build the house, only if God builds the house will it survive the reasons for despair and hopelessness which sometimes seem to abound in this world.

"Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain."

When we gather at the crib in our celebration of Christmas we will see represented once again the very first "tabernacle", or tent of the Lord: the Blessed Virgin Mary who carried the incarnate God our Lord Jesus Christ for nine months in her womb. We will see her, her work done, happily adoring the infant Lord Jesus. And we will rejoice and adore with her, because in the gift of Himself truly present in every Eucharist it is the Lord who comes again, as He did that first Christmas, to build our "house" and guard our "city" through the gift of the forgiveness of our sins and the grace of eternal life.

Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.

((((..))))

St John of the Cross: "I will leave as a remnant in your midst"

2011-12-14T00:10:00.001-05:00

a people humble and lowly, Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD

-- Zep 3:1-2, 9-13

The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer (spiritual direction). Men and women so endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer.

According to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should "take care into whose hands he entrusts himself, for as the master is, so will the disciple be, and as the father is so will be the son." And further: "In addition to being learned and discreet a director should be experienced. . . . If the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life, he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it, and he will not even understand them.
-- CCC 2690

Santa Lucia / Saint Lucy: "one who sees what the Almighty sees,"

2011-12-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

... enraptured, and with eyes unveiled

-- Nm 24:2-7, 15-17a

"The beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes and subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God." (St. John Damascene) Similarly, the contemplation of sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of liturgical hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that the mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart's memory and is then expressed in the new life of the faithful.

-- CCC 1162

"Faith seeks understanding": it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts" to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood." In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to believe."

-- CCC 158

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Protectress of the Unborn

2011-12-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

A Prayer for Abortion Victims

Prayer for all victims of abortion. May those involved in abortions be reconciled to God and may the innocent dead be saved.

Holy Mother of God and of the Church, our Lady of Guadalupe, you were chosen by the Father for the Son through the Holy Spirit.

You are the Woman clothed with the sun who labors to give birth to Christ while Satan, the Red Dragon, waits to voraciously devour your child.

So too did Herod seek to destroy your Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and massacred many innocent children in the process.
So today does abortion killing many innocent unborn children and exploiting many mothers in its attack upon human life and upon the Church, the Body of Christ.

Mother of the Innocents, we praise God in you for His gifts to you of your Immaculate Conception, your freedom from actual sin; your fullness of grace, your Motherhood of God and the Church, your Perpetual Virginity and your Assumption in body and soul into heaven.

O Help of Christians, we beg you to protect all mothers of the unborn and the children within their wombs. We plead with you for your help to end the holocaust of abortion. Melt hearts so that life may be revered!

Holy Mother, we pray to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for all mothers and all unborn children that they may have life here on earth and by the most Precious Blood shed by your Son that they may have eternal life with Him in heaven. We also pray to your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart for all abortionists and all abortion supporters that they may be converted and accept your Son, Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Savior. Defend all of your children in the battle against Satan and all of the evil spirits in this present darkness.

We desire that the innocent unborn children who die without Baptism should be baptized and saved. We ask that you obtain this grace for them and repentance, reconciliation and pardon from God for their parents and their killers.

Let there be revealed, once more, in the history of the world the infinite power of merciful love. May it put an end to evil. May it transform consciences. May your Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart reveal for all the light of hope. May Christ the King reign over us, our families, cities, states, nations and the whole of humanity.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, hear our pleas and accept this cry from our hearts!

Our Lady of Guadalupe, Protectress of the Unborn, Pray for us!

Guadete Sunday, 3rd of Advent. "He has sent me to bring glad tidings": Jesus Christ is the Joy of the World

2011-12-10T12:06:00.016-05:00

Today I shared in a joyful event in the life of our parish when I stood together with a man and woman before God so that they could unite themselves in the bond of holy matrimony. I rejoice with them as they begin a new life together as I do every time I am able to help bring the grace of God more deeply and fully into the lives of His people.

Our way of life in the Church as God's chosen people is to be one full of joy. What is joy? Joy is the happiness of God: full to overflowing, complete in satisfaction, eternal in endurance and indestructible in the face of every power in heaven, on earth and under the earth.

We have been created by God for the purpose of sharing His life and light so as to share His joy and love.

But there is one thing necessary before this can become possible for us: Jesus Christ. The incarnate Lord for whose birth into the world we prepare in these days of Advent is the only one who can bring joy into our lives. And for this to happen we must first accept Him for who He is: Jesus is the Savior. We are sinners and He is the sole Savior of the world and thus the only one who can overcome and defeat the power of sin and darkness in our lives. When this happens we are able to share in the power of His joy.

There are, tragically, some for whom the Church is not associated with the joy of the Lord. The lives damaged and wounded by moments of the deep darkness of sin, which brings the opposite of joy into the lives of innocent believers, have been and continue to be cataloged well by the media through such sources as the internet. We mourn for persons so sinned against and we also repent for any part we may have played in alienating anyone from the presence of Christ the Lord in His Church. At the same time we continue to proclaim the truth that only the Lord Himself is the true source of real healing and love which restores Faith and the joy which is its fruit.

All of us know the darkness of sin which destroys the true joy which comes only through the holy freedom restored by Christ's redemption. Practical steps are necessary in order to begin, or to continue, the conversion away from sin which only will enable us to begin to taste the freedom of the Lord which brings authentic joy to every human person.

The first and greatest day for rejoicing is the Lord's Day, the weekly celebration of the Resurrection, fruit of the Savior's Passion and death on the Cross. Jesus Christ comes in Person, through His Church in the celebration of holy Mass, to "bring glad tidings" of Resurrection and the redemption from darkness and sin which it makes possible.

"On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound . . . to abstain from those labors and business concerns which impede the worship to be rendered to God, the joy which is proper to the Lord's Day, or the proper relaxation of mind and body" (CIC, can. 1247). (CCC 2193)

By shunning such work or shopping as we are able we are thus freed to obey the command of God to keep holy the Lord's Day. Only Jesus is holy. Only in the Mass do we have the fullness of the Lord in Word and Sacrament. Thus, only by participation in the liturgy of the Eucharist do we truly keep the Lord's Day holy as commanded by God.

That our joy may be more and more complete, we grow in the habit of shunning any commitments which would hinder us from Sunday worship. In this way we avoid treating God casually, as a mere accessory to life and in a way unworthy of those who in Baptism have committed themselves to worshiping God in Spirit and in truth.

God's desire to share His joy is expressed most powerfully in the self-giving of the Lord really and truly in the sacrament of the Eucharist, the Communion of the Mass. He gives Himself thus to build up the graces of our Baptismal identity, to fill us with His joy to overflowing.

If, as part of our self-examination in preparation for receiving the Lord in this fullest manner in Communion, we become aware that we have consented through our own fault to the sadness of serious or mortal sin we abstain from Communion. We do this so that we may not commit the additional sin of sacrilege by receiving the Lord unworthily. We firmly resolve, rather, to receive the sacrament of Confession at the earliest opportunity so that we might meet and receive Him very soon again with the joy of the heart which knows it runs to meet the Lord whom it loves.

Unfortunately, for many, attendance at holy Mass and reception of Communion have been conflated into one reality: many today automatically go to Communion at Mass on Sunday rather than exercising the discernment which respects the separate consideration they deserve: we attend Mass to keep the Lord's Day holy in obedience to the law of God, but we receive Communion for the increase of the state of grace. If we are not in a state of grace at Mass we cannot return to that state by a mechanical or unthinking reception of Communion while in a state of mortal sin. We, rather, only commit a second mortal sin: that of sacrilege. No, the sacrament of Confession is always necessary under normal circumstances before receiving the Holy Eucharist again after committing a mortal sin, such as omitting to attend holy Mass on Sunday for a less than grave reason.

Jesus Christ is the sole Savior. If we are to be saved He must become more and more the center of our lives. As we grow in this Spirit of ready and generous love, characterized by a self-giving which imitates Him, we share more deeply in the joy of the Lord as His beloved people.

In other practical ways we "put on Christ" so as to receive Him with joy:

"To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures, clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when Christ becomes our guest." (CCC 1387)

By praying, singing and worshiping as one, with His holy Body the Church at Mass, we follow the sure route to greater love for the Lord and authentic joy in Him.

On this "Gaudete", or "Rejoice", Sunday let us ask the Lord for more and more of the gift of joy which only He can give!

((((..))))

S. Juan Diego: "I will give you rest"

2011-12-09T00:01:00.001-05:00

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest

-- Mt 11:28-30

The institution of Sunday helps all "to be allowed sufficient rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives" (GS 67 § 3).

-- CCC 2194

The first precept ("You shall attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor") requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the Mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place, by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered, and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such a sanctification of these days.

-- CCC 2042

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception: “Hail, full of grace!"

2011-12-07T17:00:00.002-05:00

Genesis 3, 9-15. 20; Psalm 98, 1.2-3. 3-4; Ephesians 1, 3-6. 11-12; St. Luke 1, 26-38

The Church celebrates the birth of our Lady on September 8 and today, nine months prior, her Immaculate Conception.

"To become the mother of the Savior, Mary 'was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.' (Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium 56.) The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation saluted her as 'full of grace.' (Lk 1:28) In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace." (CCC 490)

"Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, 'full of grace' through God, (Lk 1:28) was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:

"The most blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. (Pius XI, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854: DS 2803)"

(CCC 491)

"The 'splendor of an entirely unique holiness' by which Mary is 'enriched from the first instant of her conception' comes wholly from Christ: she is 'redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, more than any other created person' in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places' and chose her 'in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love.' (Cf. Eph 1:3-4)" (CCC 492)

"The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God 'the All-Holy' (Panagia) and celebrate her as 'free from any stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature.' (Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium 56.) By the grace of God Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long." (CCC 493)

Meeting Christ in the Liturgy

Art: Inmaculada Concepción o/l. 147x94 cm. Firmada A. Cortina, 1876.

S Ambrose: "run and not grow weary"

2011-12-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength

--Is 40:25-31

Although Confirmation is sometimes called the "sacrament of Christian maturity," we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need "ratification" to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this:

Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood man can attain spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: "For old age is not honored for length of time, or measured by number of years. "Many children, through the strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ even to the shedding of their blood
-- CCC 1308

St Nicholas. That "not...one of these little ones be lost"

2011-12-06T00:01:00.002-05:00

Comfort, give comfort to my people,says your God. Speak tenderly...

-- Mt 18:12-14

At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."

-- CCC 605

Monday, Advent II: "astonishment seized them all"

2011-12-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

they said,"We have seen incredible things today."

-- Lk 5:17-26

"The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as a visible organization through which he communicates truth and grace to all men." The Church is at the same time:
- a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;
- the visible society and the spiritual community;
- the earthly Church and the Church endowed with heavenly riches."
These dimensions together constitute "one complex reality which comes together from a human and a divine element":
The Church is essentially both human and divine, visible but endowed with invisible realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, the object of our quest.
O humility! O sublimity! Both tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; earthly dwelling and celestial palace; house of clay and royal hall; body of death and temple of light; and at last both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ! She is black but beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, for even if the labor and pain of her long exile may have discolored her, yet heaven's beauty has adorned her.

-- CCC 771

Second Sunday of Advent: "Prepare!"

2011-12-04T12:01:00.002-05:00

Baruch 5, 1-9; Psalm 126; Philippians 1, 4- 6. 8-11; St. Luke 3, 1-6

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

John the Baptist is the figure of Advent, this season of the coming of the Lord, for he prepares the path of the Redeemer in the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy:

"The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Isaiah 40. 3-5)

The Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciliating us with God, who "loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins": "the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world," and "he was revealed to take away sins": (1 Jn 4. 10; 4. 14; 3. 5)

The Word became flesh so that thus we might know God's love (CCC 458) to be our model of holiness (CCC 459) and to make us "partakers of the divine nature" (CCC 460)

I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy," Father Cusick (See also paragraphs 535, 719, 720, 1224 in the CCC.)

M eeting Christ in the Liturgy (Publish with permission.)

Art: David Bjorgen

S. Francis Xavier: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom"

2011-12-03T00:01:00.003-05:00

of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

-- Mt 7:21, 24-27

The prayer of faith consists not only in saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with the divine plan.

-- CCC 2611

Friday, Advent I: "the eyes of the blind shall see"

2011-12-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

"Let it be done for you according to your faith." And their eyes were opened.

--Mt 9:27-31

Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."

St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us."
-- CCC 2616

Thursday, Advent I: "the LORD is an eternal Rock"

2011-12-01T12:01:00.001-05:00

"Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

-- Mt 7:21, 24-27

Simon Peter holds the first place in the college of the Twelve; Jesus entrusted a unique mission to him. Through a revelation from the Father, Peter had confessed: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Our Lord then declared to him: "You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." Christ, the "living Stone", thus assures his Church, built on Peter, of victory over the powers of death. Because of the faith he confessed Peter will remain the unshakable rock of the Church. His mission will be to keep this faith from every lapse and to strengthen his brothers in it.

-- CCC 552

Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!"

2011-11-30T00:01:00.004-05:00

Their voice has gone forth to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.-

-- Rom 10:9-18

So that this call should resound throughout the world, Christ sent forth the apostles he had chosen, commissioning them to proclaim the gospel: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age." Strengthened by this mission, the apostles "went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it."

-- CCC 2

Art: Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew.

Tuesday, Advent 1: "The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him"

2011-11-29T00:01:00.005-05:00

:a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,A Spirit of counsel and of strength,a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.

-- Is 11:1-10

Jesus is Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness. When Christ is finally glorified, he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory, that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him:
The notion of anointing suggests . . . that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith-- CCC 690

Monday, Advent 1: "Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof"

2011-11-28T13:58:00.002-05:00

... only say the word and my servant will be healed.

-- Matthew 8, 5-11

Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly and with ardent faith the words of the Centurion: "Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea" ("Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed."). And in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom the faithful pray in the same spirit:
O Son of God, bring me into communion today with your mystical supper. I shall not tell your enemies the secret, nor kiss you with Judas' kiss. But like the good thief I cry, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

-- CCC 1386

"Be watchful! Be alert!": A new translation, a new season keep us devoted and alert in the present and full of hope for a future of faith and love

2011-11-26T12:16:00.013-05:00

"Be watchful! Be alert!"

We must all be very watchful, both the congregation of their misalettes or pew cards and the priest his Missal, so that we can launch this new English translation in a serene and prayerful manner.

But if we should make a mistake we certainly do not draw attention to it or ourselves by reacting but, rather, continue with devotion to participate in the flow of the liturgy, being present to what is taking place. In this way we will grow with practice and patience to internalize the beauty of the liturgy which comes to us through this new English translation so that our spiritual lives of Faith may always benefit.

It is very appropriate that we begin this new "page" as it were in the liturgical life of our beloved Church at the same time that the Church launches a new year in the life of faith with Advent. Both work together to help us become more vigilant, more watchful in Faith for the Lord and his "coming", which is what the word Advent means.

"When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the Church unites herself to his desire: 'He must increase, but I must decrease.' " (CCC 524)

It is authentic Faith which rouses us to be alert through prayer in love for the Lord.

"Pray constantly . . . always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints." For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing." This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightening and life-giving facts of faith about prayer. (CCC CCC 2742)

The gift of a beautiful new translation for the prayers of holy Mass enables us to better keep our loving watch in a Faith both energetic and profound. Because these new prayers are more faithful both to the Scriptural foundations of holy Mass as well as to the entire liturgical tradition handed down in the Holy Spirit from Christ through the Apostles we can confidently entrust ourselves to a wholehearted acceptance of the gift.

"This tireless fervor can come only from love."

At times we grow weary and give in to a worldly fatigue which results from relying upon our own resources, without reference to God and failing to see our everyday potential for receiving and living God's life-giving and merciful love. This Advent we open our minds and hearts with renewed devotion through the gift of the new translation of Mass to this possibility for us and for every human person. It is prayer which opens us to God and gives us a living and loving communion with him:

Prayer which is always possible. (CCC 2743)

Prayer which is a vital necessity. (CCC 2744)

Prayer which is inseparable from our Christian life. (CCC 2745)

Let us turn always anew to the beautiful prayer of holy Mass with hearts alert in Faith evident through a tireless readiness for God and His love. When we accept the Lord with love as He comes to us anew each time through the Church, in the Word and Sacrament of the liturgy of holy Mass and in a life marked by the rhythms of prayer, we are able then to return ourselves to God in life and love.

((((..))))

Thanksgiving Day: "Pray constantly, always and for everything giving thanks"

2011-11-24T00:02:00.000-05:00

I give thanks to my God always on your account for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus, that in him you were enriched in every way, with all discourse and all knowledge, as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

-- 1 Cor 1:3-9

"Pray constantly . . . always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints." For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing." This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightening and life-giving facts of faith about prayer.

-- CCC 2742

Art: Norman Rockwell, Thanksgiving.

St. Andrew Dung Lac and the Martyrs of Vietnam: “You will be hated by all"

2011-11-24T00:01:00.001-05:00

for many will come in my name, saying,

‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’
Do not follow them!

-- Lk 21:5-11

Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.

-- CCC 675

The Antichrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism.

-- CCC 676

Image source: Wikipedia. For more on the Vietnamese Martyrs, click here.

Saint Clement I, pope and martyr and Miguel Pro, priest and martyr: “See that you not be deceived"

2011-11-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

“See that you not be deceived, for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time has come.’ Do not follow them!

-- Lk 21:5-11

In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them: Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.

-- CCC 844

What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived". So "that the submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the mind".

-- CCC 156

Miguel Pro, S.J.: Viva Cristo Rey!

Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude. "Let me become the food of the beasts, through whom it will be given me to reach God."

-- CCC 2473

Saint Cecilia, virgin and martyr: "I heard a sound from heaven"

2011-11-22T00:10:00.001-05:00

... like the sound of rushing water or a loud peal of thunder.
The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.
They were singing what seemed to be a new hymn before the throne,
before the four living creatures and the elders.

-- Rv 14:1-3, 4b-5

"The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or integral part of solemn liturgy." The composition and singing of inspired psalms, often accompanied by musical instruments, were already closely linked to the liturgical celebrations of the Old Covenant. The Church continues and develops this tradition: "Address . . . one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." "He who sings prays twice."

-- CCC 1156

Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary: "they had pulled down the Abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem"

2011-11-21T01:00:00.001-05:00

the armies sent into the land of Judah had been put to flight; that Lysias had gone at first with a strong army and been driven back by the children of Israel; that they had grown strong
by reason of the arms, men, and abundant possessions taken from the armies they had destroyed; that they had pulled down the Abomination which he had built upon the altar in Jerusalem; and that they had surrounded with high walls both the sanctuary, as it had been before, and his city of Beth-zur.

-- 1 Mc 6:1-13

In the New Testament the word "liturgy" refers not only to the celebration of divine worship but also to the proclamation of the Gospel and to active charity. In all of these situations it is a question of the service of God and neighbor. In a liturgical celebration the Church is servant in the image of her Lord, the one "leitourgos"; she shares in Christ's priesthood (worship), which is both prophetic (proclamation) and kingly (service of charity):

The liturgy then is rightly seen as an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ. It involves the presentation of man's sanctification under the guise of signs perceptible by the senses and its accomplishment in ways appropriate to each of these signs. In it full public worship is performed by the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, that is, by the Head and his members. From this it follows that every liturgical celebration, because it is an action of Christ the priest and of his Body which is the Church, is a sacred action surpassing all others. No other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree
-- CCC 1070

Tiziano - Presentazione al Tempio (dettaglio), ca. 1538. Gallerie dall'Accademia a Venezia.

"Occupy" the Kingdom! The King is a Shepherd who promises and delivers food, clothing and shelter. Forever.

2011-11-19T11:32:00.012-05:00

"Are you gonna feed my kids?"

This is the reply of a woman recently invited to join the "occupiers" who we see camped out in major cities all over our country in exercise of free speech to demand more money. We think.

There seems to be more confusion about these roughly organized groups than anything else. In their joblessness, inactivity and helplessness these occupiers are more like lost and scattered sheep, without a shepherd, unable to promise anything to anyone else let alone do anything for themselves.

Whether it is a job, money, food or shelter, we humans seeks these things as a good for today and, perhaps even more so, as a promise of life for tomorrow.

"Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep."

God makes a promise in the first reading that He himself must be the one to shepherd humanity: "shepherding them rightly" with disinterest, justly, that is with love.

How will God do this? Wherever humanity is lost, strayed, injured or sick He Himself must be the one to attend to their needs if they are to have life today and hope for tomorrow.

In the Gospel reading the Divine Word interprets Ezekiel rightly, the prophecy being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. How, you ask, will God Himself shepherd the sheep? How can we hope to be found, to have our wrongs righted, be healed, made whole? The answer to this question is found in you and in me.

Through the grace of our Baptism we have been incorporated into the "royal family" of God. We have inherited heaven and with it a share in the work of Christ which continues now in the world.

God shepherds His people as Christ acts in each and every one of us:

"I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'"

Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe. His kingdom becomes a tangible experience for all mankind when His Body, the Church on earth, fulfills His mandate to feed, give drink to, embrace, clothe, care for and visit any brother or sister in need.

The Kingdom remains closed to those who cannot live in Faith, see with the eyes of Faith, know God through Faith.

"The kingdom of God [is] righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit.

Only a pure soul can boldly say: "Thy kingdom come." One who has heard Paul say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies," and has purified himself in action, thought and word will say to God: "Thy kingdom come!"(CCC 2819)

The power of God's Kingdom is found in the grace of seeing Christ in every human person and responding to the vision of faith. The king identifies Himself with those who seem in a superficial point of view to be the most distant from a kingly court, a royal palace: with the poorest of the poor.

"The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to 'preach good news to the poor'; he declares them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven." To them - the "little ones" the Father is pleased to reveal what remains hidden from the wise and the learned. Jesus shares the life of the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. Jesus identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition for entering his kingdom. (CCC 544)

Only God can promise food, clothing and shelter. Forever. These are the food of His Eucharist, the clothing of grace and the shelter of the place in heaven He has prepared for us. "Occupy" the Kingdom by receiving the Eucharist as a member of His Body the Church and live His life now through service of others.

If we want to enter into the kingdom prepared for us from the foundation of the world, into the eternal joy of the Lord in heaven, we know what we must do. The King Himself has told us:

"Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

((((..))))

Saturday 33: "the dead will rise"

2011-11-19T07:21:00.002-05:00

those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.

--Lk 20:27-40

Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. "The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead; believing this we live."

How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. . . . But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

--CCC 991