This past Sunday, as you know, we celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity. The true God is not an isolated Being but a Trinity of Divine Persons so intimately and perfectly united in Love that they are One God. And we, each one of us, are called to share in this intimate union of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity; we are called to unity, to communion, to be one with God and one another in Love through grace.
And what is the source of this Grace? The answer to this question brings us to today’s great Solemnity. The source is Jesus Christ, truly and physically present in the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. It is the source of all grace, because the Holy Eucharist is Jesus, along with His Sacred Heart pierced for love of us. It is from this pierce Heart that flows the Sacramental Graces, the living waters needed for the healing and salvation of the world. It is through this pierce Heart, therefore, that God calls all men to Himself.
God, the Most Blessed Trinity, is by His Nature inaccessible to us and to our sinful human nature. And so the Father—the first Person of the Blessed Trinity, in His infinite Mercy and love for us sent His Son, Jesus—the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, to take on our Human Nature, in order to redeem it, to heal it of its sinfulness, to save it and then elevate it to God through the Power of the Holy Spirit--the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity. It is through the Holy Eucharist then that our love is elevated and united to Divine Love so that we can live and love with Charity—God’s love and life alive in our hearts, our heart one with His. The Holy Eucharist is the Doorway to the Blessed Trinity.
And so, today’s Feast reminds us of our core belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist makes the incarnation of Jesus truly present in our time and in midst because it makes Jesus present in the flesh, Jesus in His human Nature, God as man truly present in our midst. This Presence is the “presence par excellence,” of Jesus Christ to the Catholic Church (The Mystery of Faith no. 39 Paul VI).
Jesus as God, in His divine nature is truly present everywhere, it is true. But Jesus as man, Jesus in His corporal body and blood, Jesus in His human nature, the human nature by, through and with which we are truly saved, is only present in the Holy Eucharist. And this true Presence occurs at the Holy Mass and only at the Holy Mass through the words of consecration, “This is my body,” “This is my blood,”.
At these words said by a priest (and only by a priest), by the power of the Holy Spirit, the miracle of Transubstantiation takes place. In this Miracle of all miracles, “… the physical host is changed into the “physical reality” of Jesus Christ, which is “bodily present”—“whole and entire God and man.” There is a physical change—i.e., Christ Himself replaces the physical bread, which no longer exists (no 46).
“This a true miracle—awesome and unexplainable in human terms. It is the most complete manifestation of God’s love for the world. It is God saying to us, ‘I love you! I will not leave you alone. I will be with you until the end of time, yes, even in my physical body!’ (Fr. Regis Scanlon O.F.M. Cap).” I think it was Blessed Theresa of Calcutta who said, “When we look at the crucifix we see the love that God had for us, when we look at the Holy Eucharist we see the love God has for us.”
A few weeks ago, on May 13th, we celebrated the 99th anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Mother to the three shepherd Children of Fatima. The message of Our Lady of Fatima to these three children—Lucia, Francesco and Jacinta is more relevant today than ever before. Why? Well because our Lady warned that if mankind did not turn away from sin and back to God the world would face a dire crisis resulting from a loss of faith. This crisis would lead to a “great chastisement on the world; it would be a punish of man’s own making which would be in scope, “greater than the flood.”
But this “loss of faith,” would be not just a loss of faith in the existence of God, but more particularly a loss of faith in Holy Eucharist as the true and living God in the flesh, in His human nature among us. This would be the great apostasy of John 6:66, seen on a world wide level…(Jn6:66; when the 5,000 men left him after the teaching of the Holy Eucharist). The majority of men and woman would lose faith in Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and so follow Him no more…this loss of faith in the Holy Eucharist as the true and living God in our midst would be proceeded by a loss of a faith by many members of the clergy (as foretold by Our Lady at LaSalette France).
To prevent this from our occurring out Lady told the world through these little Children that our Lord wished to promote devotion to the Mary’s Immaculate heart. By devotion to her Immaculate Heart she would lead those who consecrated themselves to Jesus through Her to offer themselves fully to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist so that they would enter more and more into a loving union with God and with one another.
By this loving union, these “little ones,” of hers would be transformed through adoration of the Eucharist into living images of Jesus thus becoming in their daily lives instruments of mercy for their families, friends, communities and for the world. Through these instruments of Divine Mercy God would transform the world. Pope Emeritus Benedict put it this way when discussing adoration of the Eucharist in relation to changing the world: “Without adoration there is no transformation.”
As we loose our emphasis on the Real Presence in our day, as so many lose the faith in this fundamental truth of our Catholic Christian faith—the reality of Jesus Christ, truly in our midst—we lose the very Light that illuminates our world, the light that illuminates the way we must go in this world, because we lose faith in the He who is the Truth in our midst, Jesus Christ truly and physically present in the Holy Eucharist.
Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the light of humanity…which shines out visible from the Catholic Church (Dogmatic Constitution of the Church no.1). Jesus is the Son of the Father and so the Son of the Living God. Jesus—God, light from light, true God from True God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father…The Holy Eucharist is this Jesus-the Holy Eucharist is God! And so the Holy Eucharist is the center of everything; He holds all things together; He is our source and He is our goal; He is our beginning and our end…An it is only through Jesus that anyone can come to the Father; and so, it is only through the Holy Eucharist that anyone, anyone can go to the Father.
Mankind was made for the Son, by the Son and through the Son. All men and woman whether they know it or not were made for relationship and communion with Jesus and through Jesus with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit; it is a communion of love with Love Itself—the Blessed Trinity. And this communion with the Blessed Trinity is brought about through, with and in Jesus truly present in the Holy Eucharist the most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. But we for our part must have a true and living faith, we must take Him and His word (see John 6) and believe that He is really there.”
One little know fact about the apparitions of our Lady of Fatima is that a year before our lady appeared to the little Children (100 year anniversary of which is this year), a Angel of God appear to the children first. In fact the angel appear three times, each time emphasizing the real presence of God in the Holy Eucharist. During one of these apparitions the Angel suspended in mid air a consecrated Host over a chalice containing the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.
The Angel then, did not bowed, did not kneeled but prostrated Himself before Jesus, the God-Man truly and physically present before Him. And then the angel cried out three times the following prayer, a prayer which the Children heard in the depths of their soul: “o My God I believe in Thee, I adore in Thee, I hope in Thee and I love Thee and I beg pardon for all of those who do not Believe in Thee, do not adore Thee do not hope in Thee and to not Love Thee.
IN this prayer we make an act of faith that the Holy Eucharist is Our Lord and our God truly present, We adore Him as the true and living God, trusting Him completely by offering ourselves, our lives, all that we have and possess in and oblation of love. And at the same time, making an act of atonement for all of those who (including our own lack of) faith, adoration, trust and love. This prayer is the essential action of the Holy Mass in which we are to offer our total self to God in union with the once and for all sacrifice of Jesus offered on our behalf to His heavenly Father.
Until enough souls, until you and I, become little children of our Lady, taking her hand and letting her lead us to offering ourselves total Her Son in the Holy Eucharist, our world will continue its downward spiral into disunity, darkness and despair. St. Peter Julian Eymard, who is known as the “Apostle of the Holy Eucharist” said, “Let us never forget that an age prospers or dwindles in proportion to its devotion to the Holy Eucharist.”
Our Lady of Fatima continues to speak to our hearts today, and through her Divine spouse, the Holy Spirit, she points us to the Truth, that her Son Jesus in the Holy Eucharist is the only answer to the world’s problems; especially the problems in the family, which is at the heart of our world’s problems. In the end her Immaculate will Triumph and the world will be converted to the Holy Eucharist. Let this conversion begin with us. Let us adore, hope and love Jesus in the Holy Eucharist so that He can change our hearts like unto His own, so that He can transform out lives in order that we may live them in imitation of His, thus becoming His instruments of Divine Mercy on the world. Then on only then will our world be changed.
Sunday, May 29, 2016
Saturday, May 21, 2016
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity...
Solemnity of the Most Blessed Trinity. May 22nd, 2016
Today, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, is the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Great Fifty Days of Easter. We are back to what is called “Ordinary Time” in the Church’s calendar. But there really is no “ordinary time” in the life of the Church, because a single Holy Mass offered anytime of the year is of infinite value. The Holy Mass is the primary source of the Living Waters of God’s Love, of His Mercy and Grace.
Every Mass brings down upon us the infinite treasures of grace won for us by Jesus’ sacrificial offering of Himself on Calvary; every Holy Mass allows us to adore and receive Jesus in His human resurrected, ascended, glorified, body, blood, soul and divinity; and every Holy Mass gives us the opportunity to come in intimate contact with the entire Blessed and Holy Trinity so that we can become more perfectly united to the Son and through the Son to the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Our Final Goal in this life is in fact, the Blessed Trinity. We have come from the Trinity, everything we have including our loved ones have come from the Trinity. The Blessed Trinity has brought us into being and keeps us in existence; and we are called to return to the Holy Trinity, now through grace, and forever in the life to come—In the Holy Trinity alone do we truly live and move and have our being.
And this is the reason why the truth of the Holy Trinity is the key pillar of the Christian faith and why we celebrate today’s great Solemnity. However, from what we just said, let us never forget that every single Holy Mass on Sunday or even on a weekday is a celebration of the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
It took a few centuries for Church to try to discuss and explain the Trinity in ways that are true to the mystery. As a result, we say correctly that the Trinity consists of Three Divine Persons with one Divine Nature, united in perfect unity—Three Persons in One God.
Personally, we can have a great deal of trouble trying to contemplate this Mystery of all mysteries and so it is very easy to just say, “it is a mystery,” and want to leave it at that; however, this is not what God desires. He, the Trinitarian God, wants us to begin now to grow in our understanding of His Divine Nature so that we can grow in our love for Him, and in loving Him that we can serve Him, in order to be happy with Him in this life and fully in the life to come; and be used by Him for others to do the same.
Perhaps the best way to begin to contemplate the Mystery of the Holy Trinity Family is by contemplating marriage and the Human family; that is, the marriage and human family as God has created it and ordained it to be. Marriage and the Human family are meant to actually be a reflection of the Blessed Trinity and a witness to the Love between the members of the Holy Trinity themselves.
But before we begin, we must state from the onset, that God is not like a family--God is THE Family and so the source of all families. And our families are called to be, as much as possible, like God’s Family. God has actually given us our human families on earth so that we might learn to love as the Trinity of Divine Person love amongst themselves. It is in the family that we are to learn agape love, sacrificial and selfless love for another person and to grown closer to God. And it is by the Trinity that we can receive God’s own love alive in our hearts in order to love our family with a divine Love known as Charity—human and divine love united.
So, try to think of the Father and the Son’s love for each other being absolutely perfect (we may never experienced perfect love but we long for it and can contemplate the ideal of Perfect Love which is God Himself). In this perfect divine love, the Father gives all He is and has to the Son and the Son gives all He is and has to the Father and this love between the two of them is so perfect so complete it is actually another person, a divine person who is the Love between the Father and the Son. And these Three Persons are so totally united in perfect love that they are one (the Trinity can only begun to be understood through love, not through mathematics).
Now let us look at a man who truly loves a woman. They so love each other that they unite themselves together in sacred bond called marriage. In this love for one another they give of themselves totally (dare I say sacrificially) to each other in a vow, a sacred oath before God and His Church, in which the two become one. This oneness is shown not only in sacred words at the Altar, but also by the two becoming one flesh on their wedding night through the marital act. In this holy act the two literally become one flesh, and in this one flesh with God’s cooperation they can become one flesh in another person, a child that is the fruit of their love for one another, a child who is in a sense the image of the father and the mother. Now there is a trinity of persons, but still one family.
The family actually reveals to us THE Family that is God. And it is within the human family that the Blessed Trinity desires that we learn to love as He does within His Divine Family; it is in the family that we are to perfect our love for God and one another.
A week ago from this past Friday we celebrated the feast day of our Lady of Fatima and the 99th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to the three shepherd children of Fatima. The Blessed Mother warned the world at Fatima that a great battle was beginning to be waged on earth such as never before in the history of mankind. She said that this battle would be primarily waged against the family. She called for families to pray the rosary daily and wear the brown scapular always as a sign of our personal and our family’s consecration to Jesus through Her Immaculate heart. She called for us to regularly participate in the Sacraments, to remain in the state for grace and to be faithful in our daily duties, among other things, all in order to be able to victorious over the forces of evil, which threatened to divide and so destroy our families.
Can anyone deny that we are indeed truly living this time of a great attack on the family—we are truly living during an all out demonic onslaught on the very nature of the family, which is meant to be lived in the image and likeness of THE FAMILY the Most Blessed Trinity. The attack on the family seeks to create a utopia on earth without God and His plan-will for us. This is really what is at the heart of the gender ideological war which denies and seeks to destroys in our culture and in our minds the very essence of man as God has created man to be, that is, “as man and woman, as male and female He created them.”
Cardinal Sarah, who is the Prefect for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament, recently reminded us that,
“..every human being, like the Persons of the Trinity, has the capacity to be united with other persons in communion through the…bond of charity of the Holy Spirit. The family is a natural preparation and anticipation of the communion that is possible when we are united with God…this is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. IF the family is destroyed, we lose our-God given anthropological foundations and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving good news of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.”
In other words, the Cardinal is reminding us that if the family is destroyed we lose what it means to be human, lose what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, lose what it means to truly love and live to the full in this life and in the life to come in and through communion with God and with one another, this communion which begins in the family itself; in reality if the family is destroyed we begin to lose ourselves.
Cardinal Sarah went on to say that, “the rupture of the foundational relationships of someone’s life—through separation, divorce or distorted impositions of the family, such as cohabitation or same-sex unions—is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love (unto) death, and even leads to cynicism and despair.” He continued, “These situations cause damage to little children through inflicting upon them a deep existential doubt about love. They are a scandal—a stumbling block—that prevents the most vulnerable from believing in such love, and a crushing burden that can prevent them from opening to the healing power of the Gospel.
The cardinal characterized the family as “a natural preparation and anticipation for the communion that is possible when we are united with God. To combat the attacks on the family and Christianity for that matter, Cardinal Sarah offered “three humble suggestions” he urged Catholics to be “be prophetic; be faithful and pray; and do not be afraid to proclaim the truth with love, especially about marriage according to God’s plan. With a voice of resounding hope, the cardinal said, “Perhaps only the beauty of the family can re-awaken the longing for God…and heal the wounds inflicted on our humanity by sin.”
As Christians we know that it is through baptism that God invites us into His own family of love. At Baptism we are baptized into the very mystery of the Holy Trinity. When the Priest pours Holy water over the head, he does it in the name of the Trinity--that is in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is by the grace of baptism that we actually begin to share in communion, share in the Divine family life of the Blessed Trinity.
But then we must cooperate with this baptismal grace and be faithful to it. We are called to participate and grow in that Trinitarian love through our faithfulness to God, to His commandments and by following the teachings of Jesus found in the Scriptures and in the Church. In other words, we must live our belief and love for the Trinity. Daily and intimately, we must pray each of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity and through our love of Them, assisted by the grace we receive in the Sacraments, we can grow ever deeper in Their love, sharing that love with others, beginning with the members of our family and going out from our families to others.
The Church places today’s Solemnity after Pentecost in order to show how much we need the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds ever deeper into the great mystery of the Blessed Trinity. We need His divine help to understand that God is a Divine Family of persons so totally united in love that they are one. Assisted by His divine power, the more we worship and adore this great mystery the more we will learn to love in order to share in the love between the Divine Persons who make up this Divine Family. Then, we will be able to love one another as God loves us. Our families will become holier and stronger families, families that are in love with most Blessed Trinity and as a result are in love with one another.
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.
Today, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, is the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Great Fifty Days of Easter. We are back to what is called “Ordinary Time” in the Church’s calendar. But there really is no “ordinary time” in the life of the Church, because a single Holy Mass offered anytime of the year is of infinite value. The Holy Mass is the primary source of the Living Waters of God’s Love, of His Mercy and Grace.
Every Mass brings down upon us the infinite treasures of grace won for us by Jesus’ sacrificial offering of Himself on Calvary; every Holy Mass allows us to adore and receive Jesus in His human resurrected, ascended, glorified, body, blood, soul and divinity; and every Holy Mass gives us the opportunity to come in intimate contact with the entire Blessed and Holy Trinity so that we can become more perfectly united to the Son and through the Son to the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Our Final Goal in this life is in fact, the Blessed Trinity. We have come from the Trinity, everything we have including our loved ones have come from the Trinity. The Blessed Trinity has brought us into being and keeps us in existence; and we are called to return to the Holy Trinity, now through grace, and forever in the life to come—In the Holy Trinity alone do we truly live and move and have our being.
And this is the reason why the truth of the Holy Trinity is the key pillar of the Christian faith and why we celebrate today’s great Solemnity. However, from what we just said, let us never forget that every single Holy Mass on Sunday or even on a weekday is a celebration of the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.
It took a few centuries for Church to try to discuss and explain the Trinity in ways that are true to the mystery. As a result, we say correctly that the Trinity consists of Three Divine Persons with one Divine Nature, united in perfect unity—Three Persons in One God.
Personally, we can have a great deal of trouble trying to contemplate this Mystery of all mysteries and so it is very easy to just say, “it is a mystery,” and want to leave it at that; however, this is not what God desires. He, the Trinitarian God, wants us to begin now to grow in our understanding of His Divine Nature so that we can grow in our love for Him, and in loving Him that we can serve Him, in order to be happy with Him in this life and fully in the life to come; and be used by Him for others to do the same.
Perhaps the best way to begin to contemplate the Mystery of the Holy Trinity Family is by contemplating marriage and the Human family; that is, the marriage and human family as God has created it and ordained it to be. Marriage and the Human family are meant to actually be a reflection of the Blessed Trinity and a witness to the Love between the members of the Holy Trinity themselves.
But before we begin, we must state from the onset, that God is not like a family--God is THE Family and so the source of all families. And our families are called to be, as much as possible, like God’s Family. God has actually given us our human families on earth so that we might learn to love as the Trinity of Divine Person love amongst themselves. It is in the family that we are to learn agape love, sacrificial and selfless love for another person and to grown closer to God. And it is by the Trinity that we can receive God’s own love alive in our hearts in order to love our family with a divine Love known as Charity—human and divine love united.
So, try to think of the Father and the Son’s love for each other being absolutely perfect (we may never experienced perfect love but we long for it and can contemplate the ideal of Perfect Love which is God Himself). In this perfect divine love, the Father gives all He is and has to the Son and the Son gives all He is and has to the Father and this love between the two of them is so perfect so complete it is actually another person, a divine person who is the Love between the Father and the Son. And these Three Persons are so totally united in perfect love that they are one (the Trinity can only begun to be understood through love, not through mathematics).
Now let us look at a man who truly loves a woman. They so love each other that they unite themselves together in sacred bond called marriage. In this love for one another they give of themselves totally (dare I say sacrificially) to each other in a vow, a sacred oath before God and His Church, in which the two become one. This oneness is shown not only in sacred words at the Altar, but also by the two becoming one flesh on their wedding night through the marital act. In this holy act the two literally become one flesh, and in this one flesh with God’s cooperation they can become one flesh in another person, a child that is the fruit of their love for one another, a child who is in a sense the image of the father and the mother. Now there is a trinity of persons, but still one family.
The family actually reveals to us THE Family that is God. And it is within the human family that the Blessed Trinity desires that we learn to love as He does within His Divine Family; it is in the family that we are to perfect our love for God and one another.
A week ago from this past Friday we celebrated the feast day of our Lady of Fatima and the 99th anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to the three shepherd children of Fatima. The Blessed Mother warned the world at Fatima that a great battle was beginning to be waged on earth such as never before in the history of mankind. She said that this battle would be primarily waged against the family. She called for families to pray the rosary daily and wear the brown scapular always as a sign of our personal and our family’s consecration to Jesus through Her Immaculate heart. She called for us to regularly participate in the Sacraments, to remain in the state for grace and to be faithful in our daily duties, among other things, all in order to be able to victorious over the forces of evil, which threatened to divide and so destroy our families.
Can anyone deny that we are indeed truly living this time of a great attack on the family—we are truly living during an all out demonic onslaught on the very nature of the family, which is meant to be lived in the image and likeness of THE FAMILY the Most Blessed Trinity. The attack on the family seeks to create a utopia on earth without God and His plan-will for us. This is really what is at the heart of the gender ideological war which denies and seeks to destroys in our culture and in our minds the very essence of man as God has created man to be, that is, “as man and woman, as male and female He created them.”
Cardinal Sarah, who is the Prefect for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament, recently reminded us that,
“..every human being, like the Persons of the Trinity, has the capacity to be united with other persons in communion through the…bond of charity of the Holy Spirit. The family is a natural preparation and anticipation of the communion that is possible when we are united with God…this is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. IF the family is destroyed, we lose our-God given anthropological foundations and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving good news of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.”
In other words, the Cardinal is reminding us that if the family is destroyed we lose what it means to be human, lose what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God, lose what it means to truly love and live to the full in this life and in the life to come in and through communion with God and with one another, this communion which begins in the family itself; in reality if the family is destroyed we begin to lose ourselves.
Cardinal Sarah went on to say that, “the rupture of the foundational relationships of someone’s life—through separation, divorce or distorted impositions of the family, such as cohabitation or same-sex unions—is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love (unto) death, and even leads to cynicism and despair.” He continued, “These situations cause damage to little children through inflicting upon them a deep existential doubt about love. They are a scandal—a stumbling block—that prevents the most vulnerable from believing in such love, and a crushing burden that can prevent them from opening to the healing power of the Gospel.
The cardinal characterized the family as “a natural preparation and anticipation for the communion that is possible when we are united with God. To combat the attacks on the family and Christianity for that matter, Cardinal Sarah offered “three humble suggestions” he urged Catholics to be “be prophetic; be faithful and pray; and do not be afraid to proclaim the truth with love, especially about marriage according to God’s plan. With a voice of resounding hope, the cardinal said, “Perhaps only the beauty of the family can re-awaken the longing for God…and heal the wounds inflicted on our humanity by sin.”
As Christians we know that it is through baptism that God invites us into His own family of love. At Baptism we are baptized into the very mystery of the Holy Trinity. When the Priest pours Holy water over the head, he does it in the name of the Trinity--that is in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It is by the grace of baptism that we actually begin to share in communion, share in the Divine family life of the Blessed Trinity.
But then we must cooperate with this baptismal grace and be faithful to it. We are called to participate and grow in that Trinitarian love through our faithfulness to God, to His commandments and by following the teachings of Jesus found in the Scriptures and in the Church. In other words, we must live our belief and love for the Trinity. Daily and intimately, we must pray each of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity and through our love of Them, assisted by the grace we receive in the Sacraments, we can grow ever deeper in Their love, sharing that love with others, beginning with the members of our family and going out from our families to others.
The Church places today’s Solemnity after Pentecost in order to show how much we need the help of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds ever deeper into the great mystery of the Blessed Trinity. We need His divine help to understand that God is a Divine Family of persons so totally united in love that they are one. Assisted by His divine power, the more we worship and adore this great mystery the more we will learn to love in order to share in the love between the Divine Persons who make up this Divine Family. Then, we will be able to love one another as God loves us. Our families will become holier and stronger families, families that are in love with most Blessed Trinity and as a result are in love with one another.
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Come Holy Spirit come by means of the powerful intercession of the Sorrowful and Immaculate heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Thy well beloved spouse.
Pentecost Sunday. May 15th, 2016
In the Season of Easter the Gospels have been concentrating on the Great commandment of Jesus, that is the commandment to love one another as He has loved us, with an agape love, a sacrificial love. To love this way we must keep His Word. In other words we must accept His truth, which comes to us in the teachings of the Church and then strive to live it out in our lives with the help of His grace, which comes to us through the Same Church. If we do this then we can love one another, not only with our own human love, but also with His divine love alive in us known as Charity, which goes beyond even agape love.
In this One Great Command of Jesus, we can quickly realize that being a faithful follower of Jesus is demanding. Christianity—Catholic Christianity in particular, is a hard religion; in fact, it is the hardest religion in the world, by far; that is, if it is lived correctly and fully. Christianity is the only religion that calls us to love, not just our friends but our enemies as well.
And we are not just to love our enemies as we love our friends, but we are to be willing to lay down our life for them as well, to sacrifice our self for love of even them. Even more, we are to love of enemies with our human hearts elevated to and filled with the very love of Jesus himself. As Jesus says, “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…(Luke 6;27). For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them...(Luke 6;32) This is what it means to, “… be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful.” (cf. Luke 6;36). I ask you, what other religion is there that places any such demands on its disciples, to demand that its disciples love with their human love elevated to the divine level?
And so, where can we, you and I, find the strength to love not only our friends, but also even our enemies and to do so with a human-divine love? Well before we give love, we must receive love. One can not give what one does not posses. In his great encyclical Deus Caritas Est-God is love, Pope Emeritus Benedict reminded us of this.,
“Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God.” (¶#7).
So how do we do this? How do we go to the source and receive the love of God as the Holy Father says? In and through the Sacraments received with proper disposition; that is with faith and in a state of grace.
It is in the Sacraments that we are able to enter into the very Heart of Jesus and literally come in contact with the living waters of His love and so be transformed in order to become ourselves a source of this living water of his love to others. In fact, the Holy Eucharist is indeed this pieced human and divine heart of Jesus from which flows the love of God, the Love of God Who is the Holy Spirit. Or as the Benedict put it, the Holy Spirit is the living water that flows from the heart of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is therefore the source of the strength we need to love even our enemies and to give our self in sacrifice for love of God and love of neighbor and to do it all with the love of God alive in our hearts, which is Jesus loving others in us, through us and with us…which is Jesus saving souls through us. So it goes with out saying we have to come before the Holy Eucharist in faith whenever we can to receive, and be filled to overflowing with the Love of Jesus (if you look at the divine mercy picture you see the rays of God’s mercy and love flowing from the heart of Jesus…the Divine mercy image is a picture of the Holy Eucharist. When you are in the presence of the Holy Eucharist those same rays come forth from the Eucharist and they penetrate hearts that believe, adore, hope and love.
At our Holy Baptism, we received the Capacity to receive the Holy Spirit of God into our Souls, to become living temples of the Holy Spirit, temples not made by human hands but by the hand of God. At our confirmation we confirmed in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us at our baptism and we were thus given the power to use these same gifts of the Holy Spirit fully in our daily lives. At our first Holy Communion (and all our Holy Communions since) Jesus gave (and gives) Himself to us Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in order to bring us the Holy Spirit to perfect us in Love and so to become one with God in a unity of love.
At every Holy Communion Jesus comes for a little while sacramentally and then He says to us, “it is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, I can not send you the promised advocate, that is the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Holy Spirit, if we listen to His promptings, He then gently, but firmly, convicts of our failures to love, namely our sins, and He leads us to the Sacrament of Forgiveness. In Confession, the Sacrament of God’s Mercy, Jesus forgives us these same sins in the Person of the Priest who has receive this divine power, as did the Apostles, from the Holy Spirit (see Jn 20;20). And by removing our sins makes way for a deeper and fuller indwelling of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, Who is the Love between the Father and the Son.
Notice in our Gospel today that the first Pentecost occurred on the first day of the week, that is on Sunday. In other words, Pentecost occurred at Holy Mass. If as the Church teaches us, every Sunday Mass is Easter, so too, every Holy Mass is a Pentecost. However to receive this power from on high which comes to us anew at every Holy Mass, we must through a deeper faith open our hearts to this Divine Guest of our souls. We must ask Him to help us repent more fully of our sins, especially our hidden ones, and we must ask for His help to offer ourselves fully to God on this altar of Sacrifice. Then as the Holy Spirit descends from heaven by the prompting of the priest, He will also transformed our hearts as he transforms the bread and the wine into the Heart of Christ, so that we may live only for Jesus, through Jesus and with Jesus, loving every soul we meet, friend or enemy, with the very love of God alive in us.
So today at this Mass let us ask the Holy Spirit to inflame our heart in the love of God, so that we can truly love as Jesus Himself loves. The Advocate will help us to worship and adore God in Spirit and in truth in order to come in contact with the very source of the living waters of Love. He will help us to “lift up our hearts” that is to offer them fully to God in complete trust and so draw closer and develop an more intimate relationship with the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
When Karol Wyvotiva, the future St John Paul the Second was still living at home with his father, his father said to the future pope, “you do not pray enough to the Holy Spirit.” John Paul’s father then directed the young John Paul to pray daily to the Holy Spirit. To help him, John Paul’s father gave him the following prayer, which St. John Paul prayed every day for the rest of his life:
Holy Spirit, I ask you for the gift of Wisdom to better know You and your Divine perfections; for the gift of Understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy Faith; for the gift of Counsel that I may live according to the principles of this Faith; for the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You; for the gift of Fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from You; for the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love; for the gift of the Fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends you, O my God. Amen.
Come Holy Spirit come by means of the powerful intercession of the Sorrowful and Immaculate heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary Thy well beloved spouse. (3x).
In the Season of Easter the Gospels have been concentrating on the Great commandment of Jesus, that is the commandment to love one another as He has loved us, with an agape love, a sacrificial love. To love this way we must keep His Word. In other words we must accept His truth, which comes to us in the teachings of the Church and then strive to live it out in our lives with the help of His grace, which comes to us through the Same Church. If we do this then we can love one another, not only with our own human love, but also with His divine love alive in us known as Charity, which goes beyond even agape love.
In this One Great Command of Jesus, we can quickly realize that being a faithful follower of Jesus is demanding. Christianity—Catholic Christianity in particular, is a hard religion; in fact, it is the hardest religion in the world, by far; that is, if it is lived correctly and fully. Christianity is the only religion that calls us to love, not just our friends but our enemies as well.
And we are not just to love our enemies as we love our friends, but we are to be willing to lay down our life for them as well, to sacrifice our self for love of even them. Even more, we are to love of enemies with our human hearts elevated to and filled with the very love of Jesus himself. As Jesus says, “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you…(Luke 6;27). For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them...(Luke 6;32) This is what it means to, “… be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful.” (cf. Luke 6;36). I ask you, what other religion is there that places any such demands on its disciples, to demand that its disciples love with their human love elevated to the divine level?
And so, where can we, you and I, find the strength to love not only our friends, but also even our enemies and to do so with a human-divine love? Well before we give love, we must receive love. One can not give what one does not posses. In his great encyclical Deus Caritas Est-God is love, Pope Emeritus Benedict reminded us of this.,
“Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. Jn 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God.” (¶#7).
So how do we do this? How do we go to the source and receive the love of God as the Holy Father says? In and through the Sacraments received with proper disposition; that is with faith and in a state of grace.
It is in the Sacraments that we are able to enter into the very Heart of Jesus and literally come in contact with the living waters of His love and so be transformed in order to become ourselves a source of this living water of his love to others. In fact, the Holy Eucharist is indeed this pieced human and divine heart of Jesus from which flows the love of God, the Love of God Who is the Holy Spirit. Or as the Benedict put it, the Holy Spirit is the living water that flows from the heart of Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is therefore the source of the strength we need to love even our enemies and to give our self in sacrifice for love of God and love of neighbor and to do it all with the love of God alive in our hearts, which is Jesus loving others in us, through us and with us…which is Jesus saving souls through us. So it goes with out saying we have to come before the Holy Eucharist in faith whenever we can to receive, and be filled to overflowing with the Love of Jesus (if you look at the divine mercy picture you see the rays of God’s mercy and love flowing from the heart of Jesus…the Divine mercy image is a picture of the Holy Eucharist. When you are in the presence of the Holy Eucharist those same rays come forth from the Eucharist and they penetrate hearts that believe, adore, hope and love.
At our Holy Baptism, we received the Capacity to receive the Holy Spirit of God into our Souls, to become living temples of the Holy Spirit, temples not made by human hands but by the hand of God. At our confirmation we confirmed in the Gifts of the Holy Spirit given to us at our baptism and we were thus given the power to use these same gifts of the Holy Spirit fully in our daily lives. At our first Holy Communion (and all our Holy Communions since) Jesus gave (and gives) Himself to us Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in order to bring us the Holy Spirit to perfect us in Love and so to become one with God in a unity of love.
At every Holy Communion Jesus comes for a little while sacramentally and then He says to us, “it is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, I can not send you the promised advocate, that is the Holy Spirit. Receiving the Holy Spirit, if we listen to His promptings, He then gently, but firmly, convicts of our failures to love, namely our sins, and He leads us to the Sacrament of Forgiveness. In Confession, the Sacrament of God’s Mercy, Jesus forgives us these same sins in the Person of the Priest who has receive this divine power, as did the Apostles, from the Holy Spirit (see Jn 20;20). And by removing our sins makes way for a deeper and fuller indwelling of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, Who is the Love between the Father and the Son.
Notice in our Gospel today that the first Pentecost occurred on the first day of the week, that is on Sunday. In other words, Pentecost occurred at Holy Mass. If as the Church teaches us, every Sunday Mass is Easter, so too, every Holy Mass is a Pentecost. However to receive this power from on high which comes to us anew at every Holy Mass, we must through a deeper faith open our hearts to this Divine Guest of our souls. We must ask Him to help us repent more fully of our sins, especially our hidden ones, and we must ask for His help to offer ourselves fully to God on this altar of Sacrifice. Then as the Holy Spirit descends from heaven by the prompting of the priest, He will also transformed our hearts as he transforms the bread and the wine into the Heart of Christ, so that we may live only for Jesus, through Jesus and with Jesus, loving every soul we meet, friend or enemy, with the very love of God alive in us.
So today at this Mass let us ask the Holy Spirit to inflame our heart in the love of God, so that we can truly love as Jesus Himself loves. The Advocate will help us to worship and adore God in Spirit and in truth in order to come in contact with the very source of the living waters of Love. He will help us to “lift up our hearts” that is to offer them fully to God in complete trust and so draw closer and develop an more intimate relationship with the Father, through the Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
When Karol Wyvotiva, the future St John Paul the Second was still living at home with his father, his father said to the future pope, “you do not pray enough to the Holy Spirit.” John Paul’s father then directed the young John Paul to pray daily to the Holy Spirit. To help him, John Paul’s father gave him the following prayer, which St. John Paul prayed every day for the rest of his life:
Holy Spirit, I ask you for the gift of Wisdom to better know You and your Divine perfections; for the gift of Understanding to clearly discern the spirit of the mysteries of the holy Faith; for the gift of Counsel that I may live according to the principles of this Faith; for the gift of Knowledge that I may look for counsel in You and that I may always find it in You; for the gift of Fortitude that no fear or earthly preoccupations would ever separate me from You; for the gift of Piety that I may always serve Your Majesty with a filial love; for the gift of the Fear of the Lord that I may dread sin, which offends you, O my God. Amen.
Come Holy Spirit come by means of the powerful intercession of the Sorrowful and Immaculate heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary Thy well beloved spouse. (3x).
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