Immaculate Heart of Mary help us to adore Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharists

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary time July 28, 2013 Ordinary and Extraordinary Form of the Liturgy

Last we spoke of the importance of prayer; especially contemplative prayer-sitting, like Mary, at the feet of Jesus, looking lovingly at His face and listening attentively to every word He speaks. Both the readings from the Extraordinary and Ordinary Form of the liturgy today continue with the importance of prayer. In the Ordinary from readings we see Abraham praying and interceding to God about the fate of Sodom. And in the Gospel, we read Jesus teaching the apostles how to pray…for we know not how to pray as we ought; and so He gives them the Our Father. In the Extraordinary Form St. Paul tells us that we need the Spirit in order to pray well and to please God in our prayer; and the Gospel from St. Luke tells us about the Pharisees in his prideful prayer and the sinful Publican in his humble prayer.

All these readings remind us that we must approach God as our Father, better yet as our daddy. We are to speak to Him humbly, as a child speaks to its daddy whom the child loves with his whole heart; we are to speak to Him with the simplicity of a child that trusts that the Father always hears him and will answer him in a way and time that is best for the child; and finally, speak to Him with the purity of a child that respects the father so much that the child would never do anything to intentionally to upset the father but only strive to please the father. …”

Purity and childlikeness helps us to make sure that we never say the “Our Father,” or any other prayer to God, without the realization that it is God the Almighty that we are speaking to. Intimacy and reverence must always go together in addressing our prayer to God. And so our prayer must be reverent and said from the heart to a All Holy Father who Loves us so much.

Because God love us so much, Jesus instructs us that our prayer to the Father should also be a trusting prayer, one that realizes that the Father already knows what we need even before we ask, and so will only give us the good things we need; however, not necessarily the things we want. Along with the Father giving us only the good things that we need, He will also give it in a way, and at a time which is best for us. He answers all prayers, but according to His Holy Will, not to our own.

This brings up another point Jesus that teaches about prayer; and that is, for God to listen to our prayer we must, must first be reconciled both with Him and with our neighbor. In other words, for our prayer to be effective, for it to bear fruit in our life, we must be in a right relationship with God by regularly receiving forgiveness for our sins in the Sacrament of Confession; always remembering however, we will only be forgiven to the extent we forgive others. In order to receive forgiveness, we must forgive others who have sinned against us.

We must also never approach God with the heart of the Pharisee but always with the humble heart of the publican…for, “O God a humble heart of Lord you will not despise”…so God be merciful to me a miserable sinner….and have mercy on all mankind for we are all sinners in equal need of God’s mercy. Any good in us is not of ourselves; nor is it given to us because of what we done…it is from the Mercy and goodness of God. For our prayer to be heard we must be humble, “for every one that exalted himself will be humbled and he that humble himself shall be exalted.”

We must humble ourselves. The problem is however, that we can’t humble ourselves for we are naturally prideful; we need God’s grace. And where do we get that…from prayer yes, but also from the Sacraments, in particular frequent confession but most importantly from the Most blessed of all Sacraments the Most Holy Eucharist…not just receiving the Holy Eucharist but coming before the Holy Eucharist as a child, on our knees, adoring the God-Man present there.

And so, it is interesting that in St. Luke chapter 18(which is the Gospel for the Extraordinary Form) if you read the next verses which immediately follow this weeks Gospel verses…you will hear that little children where brought to Jesus, even infants that He might touch them. But when the disciples saw this, they rebuked those who brought the children. But Jesus calling them together said: “Suffer children to come to me and forbid them not; for of such is the Kingdom of God.”

These verses certainly imply that we must be as little children to come before Jesus, for else where Jesus tells us that unless we become as little children we will not enter the Kingdom of God. And how best do come before Jesus? We do so by coming before Him in His true physical presence in the Holy Eucharist. But again, we must do so humbly, trustfully and pure.

Additionally these verses point two other important points. First, that we must help other “children come before Him by praying for all sinners, all of God’s children before His Eucharistic presences asking for the grace of God’s love and mercy to touch them as it has touched us; we must ask this for both those we love and for those who have trespassed against us. We must pray for the whole world.

And second we must bring the little ones, our children even our infants before His Eucharist presence. And to do so not only at Holy Mass, but also during times of Adoration outside of Mass. This is why I continue to push children’s adoration. We must suffer to bring the children before the Eucharist King…and not prevent them in any way….the world can be saved by little children being taught to adore their God truly present in His resurrected and glorified body in the little white Host. We need a Eucharist Crusade of Children. This also implies being open to life so that more children can come into the world in order to adore their God in the Holy Eucharist in order that they can adore him by the way they live their lives.

This brings up an additional point. We can’t live lives of righteousness without the grace that comes from the Eucharist. If we are going to be counted among the ten righteous needed to spare our modern age from God’s promised chastisements then we must spend more time humbly, trustfully and with purity in adoration of the Holy Eucharist begging God’s pardon and mercy on us and on our sinful world. This grace and mercy can transform us into other Christ so that everything we do, everything no matter how small becomes a prayer, a sacrifice, and act of penance, in order to merit grace for the conversion and salvation of souls.

Next week, August 4th, we celebrate the feast day of St. John Vinney, the patron saint of parish priest; St. John Vianney discovered the secret of moving and opening the Father’s heart to our humble prayer. That secret was humble, faithful, persistent and reverential prayer in front of the Blessed Sacrament. St Vianney spent hours on his knees before Jesus in the Eucharist, praying for the conversion of His parishioners and for the whole world.

Thankfully there are many people throughout the world today, both religious and lay faithfully alike, who like St John Vianney, make weekly, even daily Holy Hours before the Blessed Sacrament. "Thank God, there are those who pray each and every day with the faith of Abraham from the heart. It could be their persevering prayer before for the tabernacle that as so far saved our sinful world from God's divine justice. They are the modern day Abraham's dialoging with God, imploring his mercy and forgiveness for the sins of the modern cities of our world.

But are there enough praying before the Eucharist? Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed--there just weren't enough people--ten--reaching out to God. (If we compare the population of Sodom and Gomorrah with the United States, in ratio, we would need 300,000 righteous people). And so, will you also be one of them that will on your knees before the Blessed Sacrament, reach out to the Father through the Son on behalf of others, so that our world may be converted and so souls be saved? Speak to the Father today from your heart. Beg his mercy for our fallen Cities and country while the Father is still preserving in his mercy, beg His mercy for yourself and others. Persistence prayer to Our Father God will begin to end the persistent sin and un-forgiveness in our world and in our own life.

Let us at this Mass and every Mass, as we offer ourselves along with Jesus in loving sacrifice to the Father, ask our Blessed Mother to help us make this offering fully and completely, better yet let us make this offering through her Immaculate Heart so that she herself can place it in the Sacred Heart of her Son…Surely He will accept it from her hands!

Let us ask her to obtain for us the grace to live this offering so that every thing we do in our daily lives can become a sacrifice, an act of penance, for love of God and for love of neighbor. This is what the angel of Fatima meant when he cried out Penance! Penance! Penance! O most holy Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit I adore you profoundly. I offer to Thee the most precious Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, truly present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the sins, sacrileges and indifference for which He is truly offended. And through the intercession of the most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary I beg of thee the conversion of poor sinners. Amen.