Jun 14 Sun - How did Jesus empower me?

 

Jun 14 Sun

How did Jesus empower me?

Christ gave the apostles the gospel for free, and they must give it to others for free as well.

However, it was not free for Our Lord. 
YOU cost Him a lot.

Giving the gospel to others was not free for the apostles either. It cost them a lot.

Christ and the apostles gave, and the Christian gives 100% to the gospel. This means we subordinate everything we do to God’s will.

Each of us, apostles, must:
- Like a prophet, tell the truth. Each must live and speak the moral law and adhere to and spread the truths of our Catholic faith.
- Like a priest, offer our lives, our work, our sufferings to God. 
- Like a ruler, with God’s help, rule ourselves, and, with Christ as our model, serve others.  

Thus, once empowered, we must help others to go to heaven by our good example.

“If you learn how to serve others, how well they themselves will learn to serve! How thoughtful you will become, and help others to be so! For you will teach by example, which is how one ought to teach.” 

“Afterwards, when you've helped them with your witness, you can give them the doctrine, the theory. Each of us has to be another Christ, Christ Himself, since Jesus Christ began to do and to teach.”  

“In the wars of old, in moments of danger, it was the general who carried the flag, and the others followed. Give an example!" St. Josemaría.

We will be responsible if we strive to be on the front line, in the thick of things. We should carry out our work with the others in mind, helping them to be effective. 

First of all, we should be careful not to hold up whatever has to pass through our hands. We finish our work as well as possible to help those who will continue it. We leave notes of experience, so that whoever replaces us can begin where we left off; we're glad to see others carry out our work more effectively; we teach those with us how to work well... and countless other details that a responsible person easily discovers.

“The Christian is the salt and light of the world, not because he conquers or triumphs, but because he bears witness to God's love. And he won't be salt if he can't give flavor. Nor will he be light if he doesn't bear witness to Jesus through his example and word, if he loses sight of the purpose of his life."

Let’s examine our conscience to see whether the example of our life is convincing to those alongside us. And as we know that such help depends very directly on the consistency of our whole life, “we must beg our Lord, through his Mother who is our Mother too, to increase his love in us, to grant us a taste of the sweetness of his presence. Only then will we attain the fullest freedom: the freedom of not wanting ever to abandon, for all eternity, the object of our love." 

Jun 13 Sat - Should I foster good sentiments in my heart?

 

Jun 13 Sat

Should I foster good sentiments in my heart?

The Church gives us a particularly lovable feast to celebrate today: the Immaculate Heart of Mary, to encourage us to trust in our Blessed Lady at all times. Let us then, with confidence, come closer to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. 

She is a fount of grace and mercy, a Mother who can give her children the grace they need for their journey at every stage of life.

During his life on earth, our Lord taught us that the good man out of his good treasure brings forth good. Our Lady's heart is filled to overflowing with love for God; it is the home of the Holy Spirit, and is moved by the very sentiments that move Christ's own Heart. 

From her heart, then, comes a flood of mercy and forgiveness. We read, “I am the Mother of Fair Love, of fear, of wisdom, and of holy hope. In me is all grace for the way and the truth, in me is all hope of life and virtue. Come to me, all you who desire me, and fill yourselves with my fruits. For my spirit is sweeter than honey, my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb.”

From Mary’s heart, says St Bernardine of Siena, “as from a furnace, does the Virgin bring forth good words, aflame with divine love, and thoughts of glowing hot charity. From a jar full of good wine, only good wine can be poured; from a furnace, only a raging fire can issue; so too, from Christ's Mother, nothing can come but sentiments of radiant love for God.”

No matter how many of us there are, our Lady loves each of us as a mother loves her only child. And “so if we find there have been times when we failed to be gentle and kind towards this good Mother of ours, we should feel sorry. I ask you now, as I ask myself, how are we honoring her?"

We need to be constantly attentive to keep our hearts free of attachments, but we have learnt not to trust ourselves. Therefore, we run to be with our Lady, close to her Immaculate Heart, so that her love can burn up our hearts and purify us of any disordered affection there may still be in our lives. 

“Get accustomed to entrusting your poor heart to the Sweet and Immaculate Heart of Mary, so that she may purify it from so much dross, and lead it to the most Sacred and Most Merciful Heart of Jesus."

We can resolve now to ask our Lady for help in breaking any shackle, once and for all. Her motherly love will fill our hearts to the point where our affection, wholly placed in our Lord, is the same as hers. We will give up whatever is necessary to make room in our heart for a deep, vibrant love as the fruit of greater self-giving, and we will be filled with peace, serenity, and joy. 

Jun 12 Fri - Does Jesus love me?

 

Jun 12 Fri
Does Jesus love me?

Christ's heart, pierced by a spear, speaks to us of God's immense love for everyone.

St. Josemaría: "Jesus on the Cross, with his heart overflowing with love for us, is such an eloquent testimony of the value of people and things that words are inadequate. Human beings, their happiness and their lives, are so important that the very Son of God gave his life to redeem, cleanse, and raise them up."

"Who will not love this heart so wounded? Who will not return love for love? Who will not embrace a heart so pure? We, who are made of flesh, will repay love with love. We will embrace our wounded one, whose hands and feet ungodly men have nailed; we will cling to his side and to his heart. Let us beg him to keep our heart firmly bound by his love and to wound it with a lance, for it is still hard and impenitent."

"These are thoughts, affections, and conversations that souls in love with Jesus have offered him from the beginning. But if we are to understand this language, if we are to know the truth about the heart of man, Christ's heart, and the love of God, we need both faith and humility. We need the faith and humility that prompted St Augustine to write: You made us for yourself, O Lord, and restless will our hearts be until they rest in you."

“Living in Christ's Heart, closely united with him, means we become a dwelling-place for God. 'He who loves me will be loved by my Father', our Lord told us. And Christ and the Father in the Holy Spirit come to the soul and make their home there."

"Even if we give only a little thought to these basic ideas, our whole attitude will improve. We become hungry for God, and we make the words of the Psalm our own: O God, thou art my God, I seek thee; my soul thirsts for thee. My flesh faints for thee as in a dry and weary land where no water is."

"And Jesus, who has encouraged these desires in us, comes to meet us and says: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He offers us his heart, so that we can find both rest and strength there. If we accept his invitation, we will see that his words are true. And our hunger and thirst will increase to the point where we truly desire God to inhabit our soul and never to withdraw his light and warmth from us."

"I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! We have approached the fire of God's love. Let us allow that fire to burn our lives. Let us feed the desire to spread that divine fire throughout the world by making it known to all those around us. They, too, can experience the peace of Christ and find happiness there. A Christian who lives united to Christ's heart can have no goals but these: peace in society, peace in the Church, peace in his own soul, the peace of God that will reach its climax when his kingdom comes." 

Jun 11 Thu - What is the Liturgy?

 

Jun 11 Thu

What is the Liturgy?

The Pope recently began a new series of catecheses focused on the Liturgy.

“The Council Fathers sought not only to undertake a reform of the rites, but to lead the Church to contemplate and deepen that living bond which constitutes and unites her: the mystery of Christ. Indeed, the liturgy touches the very heart of this mystery: it is at once the space, the time, and the context in which the Church receives her very life from Christ."

Liturgy is the priestly action of Jesus Christ, continued in and by the Church under the direction of the Holy Spirit. In the Liturgy, the Holy Spirit brings about his work of salvation through effective signs, thus giving both a perfect reverence to God and salvation to mankind.

The concept of Liturgy includes:
• The worship of God, blessing him for all his gifts,
• The presence of Christ, He is the Priest in the liturgical action,
• The action of the Holy Spirit in the Church’s Liturgy,
• The history of salvation that is continued and brought about through effective signs in the Liturgy,
• The sanctification of mankind is realized through the liturgical action.

The Liturgy is a work of the Blessed Trinity:
• God the Father is the origin and end of the Liturgy.
• The glorified Christ is present in the earthly Liturgy of the Church of the apostles, which participates in the heavenly Liturgy.
• God the Holy Spirit brings about the mystery of Christ in the Church’s Liturgy.

“In the liturgy, ‘the work of our redemption is accomplished’, which makes us a chosen lineage, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people whom God has acquired for Himself."

“The passion, death, resurrection and glorification of Christ is made sacramentally present to us precisely in the liturgy, so that every time we take part in the assembly gathered ‘in his name’ (cf. Mt 18:20) we are immersed in this Mystery."

“In celebrating the Eucharist, the Church ‘receives the Body of the Lord and becomes what she receives’: she becomes the Body of Christ, ‘a dwelling place of God in the Spirit’ (Eph 2:22). This is the ‘work of our redemption’, which conforms us to Christ and builds us up in communion."

“This also means that it is called to unfold in a tangible way throughout daily life, in an ethical and spiritual dynamic, so that the liturgy celebrated is translated into life and demands a faithful existence, capable of making concrete what has been experienced in the celebration: it is in this way that our life becomes a ‘living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God’, fulfilling our ‘spiritual worship’ (Rom 12:1)."

“In this way, ‘the Liturgy daily builds up those who are within into a holy temple of the Lord’ (SC, 2), and forms an open community, welcoming to all. Indeed, it is inhabited by the Holy Spirit, it introduces us into the life of Christ, it makes us His Body, and, in all its dimensions, it represents a sign of the unity of the entire human race in Christ. As Pope Francis said, ‘the world still does not know it, but everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Rev 19:9)’"

“Dear friends, let us allow ourselves to be shaped inwardly by the rites, symbols, gestures, and above all, the living presence of Christ in the Liturgy."

Illustration: This chalice is a piece of Romanesque art donated by Queen Urraca of Zamora (1033-1101), daughter of the king Fernando of León. 

Jun 10 Wed - Can the heart be a path to reach God?

 

Jun 10 Wed
Can the heart be a path to reach God?

We do not possess a rationality (an intelligence) that must be completed (separately) with sensitivity, but rather our feelings must be intelligent in and of themselves. We must “educate” our feelings.

The real danger is to reduce faith to emotions; this leads many to “become consumers of experiences and insatiable seekers of spiritual gratification.”

As Christians, we need to “rediscover the importance of feelings and to integrate them, without undermining reason, into the Christian life.”

The Church, as a good Mother, teaches us that while emotions and feelings may initially impress a person and lead them to conversion, they can also become an obstacle to spiritual growth. 

The early Christians did not have a method, but they did have a means. It was their way of life that stirred those who approached them. Their authentic witness drew people in and moved the hearts of those who interacted with them.

Feelings are good for evangelization to the extent that they are not a method for evangelizing, but the fruit of a real-life witness. Otherwise, we may think that a “believer” is someone who believes something, just anything.
 
“Some claim that what ultimately matters is not so much what one believes as the fact of believing, and the seriousness and intensity with which one does so… This is not the thinking of the New Testament… Faith lies in its content.” 

We receive our first lessons about love and affection during the first five or six years of our lives, and always within the context of our family. It is there that the image a person forms of a God who is Love is largely shaped. Thus, the family, the domestic Church, is the natural setting for discussing affection on the journey of faith.

We have all been called to love passionately (God, others, the world…), but rather than the intensity, loving passionately is to love with the Passion of Christ as our reference point. And the Passion of Christ, the Cross of Christ, is anything but sentiment. It is a true story of Love, which led Him to die for us. It is sacrifice, not intensity, that is the touchstone of authentic love.

Digital media cannot convey such love. Thus, many young people cannot cope with frustration, for example. And we find the proliferation of addictions, the rise in suicide among young people, the emotional emptiness that pornography causes in many young hearts, the irrational logic of euthanasia…

Feelings alone will not gain us a comprehensive understanding of the Faith.

For Benedict XVI, the greatest freedom of the human being consists in the capacity to make definitive decisions. But few definitive decisions can be made on a foundation as unstable as feelings. One need only think, in the case of marriage, of the fear of commitment or the ease of breaking ties that dominates so many young people.

St. Josemaría clarifies: “What is the secret of perseverance? Love. Fall in love, and you will not leave Him.” 

And Blessed Álvaro del Portillo declares that it can also be read the other way around: “Do not leave Him, and you will fall in love.” 
Quotes from Doctrinal Note ‘Cor ad Cor Loquitur.’ Excerpts from Antonio Schlatter Navarro. 

Jun 9 Tue - Will Jesus forgive my sin?

 

Jun 9 Tue

Will Jesus forgive my sin?

After Jesus’ arrest in the garden, Peter followed him but remained outside the House of Caiaphas.

He had denied knowing his Lord, and in doing so, he set aside the deeper meaning of his life.  

By then, Jesus had already suffered much. A woman once more began to tell the bystanders, "This man is one of them.” Peter again denied it.

Later on, feeling cornered, Peter began to curse and swear. Even though his Galilean accent was giving him away, he said, "I do not know the man."
He was beside himself. In the silence of the night, the cock crowed for the second time.

Probably, Jesus was being led along one of the upper walkways that overlooked the courtyard. The Lord turned and looked at Peter, and Peter almost did not recognize his Master after the blows and mistreatment. 

Then Peter recognized Jesus. He would never forget it. Their eyes met for a moment, and Peter was overwhelmed. At that moment, he understood the seriousness of his sin.

There were many other people in the courtyard, but Jesus looked only at him. As on other occasions, Peter felt drawn by Jesus' look like a magnet of infinite mercy. It was just like that day when he could not resist the authority and charm of Jesus' gaze, which inspired his vocation.

There was another time when Jesus' look made Peter tremble after he had protested against Jesus' path leading to the cross. Yet he had never before seen an expression like the one he now saw on the face of Jesus—those eyes full of sorrow yet tenderness.

Jesus' look seemed to say, "Simon, I have prayed for you." It was an encouraging, merciful look that made Peter feel understood and forgiven.

That brief moment was decisive for Peter's life. He recalled his Master's words, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." The disciple went out and wept bitterly.

Peter's denial was narrated by all four Gospels, instead of leaving it out. But the benefit of Peter's example of repentance and humility for the first Christians and everyone else far outweighed other considerations.

“If one falls, one must get up at once. With God's help, which will never be lacking if the proper means are used, one must seek to arrive at repentance as quickly as possible, to be humbly sincere, and to make amends so that the momentary failure is transformed into a great victory for Jesus Christ."

Contrition gives the soul special strength, restores hope, and brings those who have fallen to forget themselves and approach God anew. In an act of deeper love, contrition tests the determination of the interior life and always draws down upon itself God's mercy.

“When you seek to draw close to our Lord, remember that He is always very close to you, that He is in you: The kingdom of God is within you. You will find Him in your heart."

Our Lord would have no problem building His Church upon a man who denied Him in a moment of weakness. God always uses weak instruments, provided they repent, to carry out his greatest undertaking, which is the salvation of the human race. 

Jun 8 Mon - Which comes first, God loving me, or I fulfilling the Commandments?

 

Jun 8 Mon
Which comes first, God loving me, or I fulfilling the Commandments? 

Does God begin to love me when I fulfill the Commandments?

Pope Leo XIV answers:

In the Gospel, we hear some of the words Jesus addressed to his disciples during the Last Supper. As He turns the bread and wine into a living expression of his love, Christ says: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” 

This statement frees us from the misconception that we are loved because we keep the commandments, as if our uprightness were a prerequisite for God’s love. On the contrary, God’s love came first and is the basis for our uprightness. 

We truly keep the commandments according to God’s will when we recognize his love for us, just as Christ revealed it to the world. Jesus’ words are therefore an invitation to enter into a relationship, not a blackmail or a suspicious ultimatum. 

This is why the Lord commands us to love one another as He has loved us: Jesus’ love begets love within us. Christ himself is the standard, the measure of true love: the love that is faithful forever, pure and unconditional. The love that knows no “buts” or “maybes,” the love that gives of itself without seeking to possess, the love that gives life without taking anything in return. 

Since God loved us first, we too can love, and when we truly love God, we can truly love one another. It is like life itself: just as only those who have received life can live, so too, only those who have been loved can love. The Lord’s commandments are therefore a way of life that heals us from false loves. They are a spiritual lifestyle, the path towards salvation.

Precisely because He loves us, the Lord does not leave us alone in life’s trials; He promises us the Paraclete, that is, the Advocate, the “Spirit of truth.”

“The world cannot receive” the Spirit, as long as it persists in evil, oppressing the poor, excluding the weak, and killing the innocent. 

On the other hand, those who respond to Jesus’ love will find in the Holy Spirit an ally who will never fail them: “You know him,” says Jesus, “for He dwells with you, and will be in you.” We can therefore bear witness to God, who is love, always and everywhere. Love is not an idea of the human mind, but the reality of divine life, through which all things were created out of nothing and redeemed from death. 

By offering us true and eternal love, Jesus shares with us his identity as the beloved Son: “I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” 

This communion of life defeats the Devil — the Paraclete’s adversary. In fact, while the Holy Spirit is the power of truth, the Devil is the “father of lies,” who seeks to set humanity against God and people against one another: the very opposite of what Jesus does by saving us from evil and uniting us as a people of brothers and sisters in the Church. 

Jun 7 Sun - Why do we celebrate this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ?

 

Jun 7 Sun 

Why do we celebrate this feast of the Body and Blood of Christ?

The words of the Entrance Antiphon remind us: God has fed them with the finest wheat and given them their fill of honey from the rock.

God fed manna to the people of Israel as they wandered in the wilderness. This was an image and symbol of the pilgrim Church and of each individual who journeys towards his or her definitive homeland, Heaven. That food given in the desert of Sinai is a figure of the true food, the Holy Eucharist. This is the sacrament of the human pilgrimage. Precisely because of this, the annual feast of the Eucharist that the Church celebrates today contains within its liturgy so many references to the pilgrimage of the people of the Covenant in their wanderings through the wilderness. Moses often reminded the Israelites of this wonderful deed that God had performed for his People: Do not then forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

Today is a day of thanksgiving and of joy because God wants to remain with us to feed us and to strengthen us, so that we may never feel alone. The Holy Eucharist is the food for the long journey of our days on Earth towards the goal of true Life. Jesus accompanies us and strengthens us here in this world, where our life is like a shadow compared to the reality that awaits us. Earthly food is a pale image of the food we receive in Holy Communion; it is a completely new reality.

Although we celebrate this feast only once a year, the Church proclaims this most happy truth every day: Jesus gives Himself to us daily as our food, and He remains in our Tabernacles to be for us the strength and the hope of a new life, a life without end and limit. It is a mystery that is ever alive and ever new.

Thank you, Lord, for remaining with us. What would have become of us without you? Where would we have gone to restore our strength and to ask for consolation? From the Tabernacle, how easy you make the way for us!

The Corpus Christi procession makes Christ present in towns and cities throughout the world. But his presence cannot be limited to only one day, like a sound you hear and then forget. It should remind us that we have to discover Our Lord in our ordinary everyday activities. Side by side with this solemn procession, there is the simple, silent procession of the ordinary life of each Christian. Each Christian is a man among men, who, by a great blessing, has received the faith and the divine commission to act so that he renews the message of Our Lord on earth.

Let us ask Our Lord, then, to make us devoted to the Blessed Eucharist, so that our relationship with him brings forth joy and serenity and a desire for justice. Thus, we will make it easier for others to recognize Christ; we will put Christ at the center of all human activities. And Jesus’ promise will be fulfilled: ‘When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself’ (John 12:32). 

Jun 6 Sat - What should come first, nature or man?

 

Jun 6 Sat
What should come first, nature or man?

One of the most significant aspects of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ lies not only in what it says, but also in what has ceased to occupy the center of the Pope’s discourse. After years in which ecological issues had become almost the overarching framework for interpreting social, economic, cultural, and even spiritual life, Leo XIV’s first encyclical shifts the focus to another, more fundamental concern: the crisis of humanity.

It is not that ecology is disappearing. 
The encyclical retains that concern about technology that has become an autonomous power, about an economy detached from all moral limits, and about a globalization capable of homogenizing peoples, desires, and behaviors. But the symbolic focus has shifted.

The encyclical is centered on the care of the human person. And that change is no small matter.

The ultimate root of the problem no longer lies in humanity’s relationship with the environment, but in humanity’s understanding of itself. The ecological, economic, or technological crisis would be the consequence of a prior crisis: the obscuring of the truth about the human person.
That is where the real shift lies.

The encyclical does not begin by asking what humanity is doing to nature, but rather what humanity is doing to itself. It does not focus primarily on the damage caused to the planet, but on the danger of the human person being reduced to a piece of data, a function, an algorithm, an object of manipulation, or raw material available for technical redesign.

This explains the tone of the document. Instead of the ecological vocabulary that -sustainability, common home, climate debt, energy transition, biodiversity, environmental peripheries- Leo XIV returns to a language that is more directly anthropological and theological: human nature, truth, limits, inner freedom, Incarnation, Babel, grace, vulnerability, technocracy, transhumanism.
The difference is not merely stylistic. It is doctrinal and pastoral.

In recent years, Catholicism spoke of climate, sustainability, integral development, biodiversity, and ecological transition with such intensity that, at times, more distinctly Christian categories were pushed into the background. 
Sin, grace, truth, human nature, redemption, and eternal life were frequently displaced by a moral framework far more recognizable to global elites than to the Church’s doctrinal tradition.
Magnifica Humanitas appears to correct this drift without needing to state it explicitly.

Leo XIV does not abandon concern for creation, but he ceases to make it the narrative axis of everything. The ecological issue is integrated into a broader reflection on man, technology, and civilization. Creation continues to have value, but the focus returns to the human creature, made in the image of God and called not to fabricate itself, but to receive, safeguard, and elevate its own nature.

In the face of that promise, the Pope’s response is not ecological, but Christological. 
Christianity affirms that God himself has entered history by taking on the human condition, not by despising it.

The Church once again reminds us that there can be no true defense of creation unless we first defend humanity. 
And there can be no true defense of humanity if we forget that its greatness does not stem from technology, but from the fact that it was created in the image of God and called to a life of grace. 

Jun 5 Fri - Can a person become a priest just for a couple of years?

 

Jun 5 Fri
Can a person become a priest just for a couple of years?

Christ, we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "holds his priesthood permanently, because He continues forever. Consequently, He is able for all time to save those who draw near to God, since He always lives to make intercession for them."

The priesthood of Christ is one and unique; it becomes present through the ministerial priesthood. Yet “Only Christ is the true priest; the others are his ministers.”

There are two ways of participating in the one priesthood of Christ:
- The common priesthood of the faithful, which is conferred through Baptism and Confirmation.
- The ministerial priesthood of the ordained minister, which is at the service of the common priesthood of the faithful.

Holy Orders is the sacrament that confers the spiritual power and the grace that is needed to fulfill the ecclesiastical functions properly:

- The Eucharist.
- The forgiveness of sins.
- The preaching of the faith, the administration of the sacraments, and government in all that refers to faith and the sacraments. 

In this sacrament, the subject receives a special configuration to Christ, as Head of the Mystical Body, called the character. This enables him to participate in Christ’s priesthood in a unique way. The sacrament imprints an indelible (permanent) sacramental character on the soul.

The character cannot be repeated or conferred temporarily. 

It is true that someone validly ordained can, for a just reason, be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict sense.
This “Forever” also matches the Church’s mission.

What if a priest is unworthy?
- Since it is ultimately Christ who acts and effects salvation through the ordained minister, the unworthiness of the latter does not prevent Christ from acting. Christ’s spiritual power in the sacrament (his grace and other effects) is comparable to light: those to be enlightened receive it in its purity; even if it passes through defiled places, light is not defiled.

In the Latin Church, the sacrament of Holy Orders for the priesthood is normally conferred only on candidates who are ready to embrace celibacy freely, and who publicly manifest their intention of staying celibate for the love of God's kingdom and the service of men.

This measure is particularly convenient, as celibacy allows a greater surrender to Christ, a closer imitation of his example, and greater availability for the service of the Church and all souls. Further, it offers an eschatological witness by showing the reality of eternal life, “for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”

Thus,
“Do not be afraid. Do not be alarmed or surprised. Do not allow yourself to be overcome by false prudence.
The call to fulfil God’s will - this goes for vocation too - is sudden, as it was for the Apostles: a meeting with Christ and his call is followed…
- None of them doubted. Meeting Christ and following him were one and the same." 

Jun 4 Thu - How is the immediate preparation for communion in the Mass Liturgy?

 

 Jun 4 Thu
How is the immediate preparation for communion in the Mass Liturgy?

Our Mother the Church offers us two prayers of preparation for the Lord's coming into our bodies. These prayers date from about the tenth century. They are full of fervor, rather subjective in tone, and suited for private piety, as they are intended for the personal preparation of the priest who recites them.

In the first prayer, the priest begs Christ, Son of the living God, to grant salvation to his servant and to deliver him from all his sins and from every evil.

In the other, the priest declares his own unworthiness and his confidence in Christ's mercy. He asks that the reception of the Eucharist may work not to his condemnation but to his own good.

The priest's personal preparation also allows us to prepare ourselves in silence, not with the noise of words, but with an abundance of acts of love. We feel unworthy as the moment to receive our Lord approaches. But we decide to go on because we know he wants to remain in the consecrated species as our nourishment and the remedy for our weaknesses.

We should never dare to receive the Eucharist in a state of mortal sin. To do so is a sacrilegious abuse of God's mercy. Only a shallow and false love, based on mere sentimentality, can bring us to such a detestable course of action. This mistreatment of the sacrament is a grave offense against God.

St Paul's warning on this issue is quite clear:
"Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be behaving unworthily towards the body and blood of the Lord. Everyone is to recollect himself before eating this bread and drinking this cup, because a person who eats and drinks without recognizing the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation."

And Pope John Paul II warns us:
"Quite frequently, many participating in the Eucharistic assembly go to Communion; sometimes, there has not been due care to approach the sacrament of penance to purify one's conscience. This can mean that those approaching the Lord's table find nothing on their conscience, according to the objective law of God, to keep them from this sublime and joyful act of being sacramentally united with Christ.

Behind this, there could be the mistaken idea that the Mass is only a banquet in which one shares by receiving the body of Christ to manifest, above all else, fraternal communion."

Therefore, we cannot –and should not– receive our Lord with a soul stained by sin. If we realize we have committed a serious sin, even if we feel contrite, we cannot receive the Holy Eucharist without sacramental confession.

It is not only that penance leads to the Eucharist, but that the Eucharist also leads to penance. For when we realize who we receive in Eucharistic Communion, a sense of unworthiness springs up almost spontaneously, along with sorrow for our sins and an interior need for purification.

Jun 3 Wed - Do I owe service and sacrifices to God?

 

Jun 3 Wed
Do I owe service and sacrifices to God?

People have always felt the need to offer sacrifices to God, since man's need to show his reverence towards God in deeds is born of the dictates of natural reason. We are ordained by nature to serve God and worship him with adoration, love, and praise. This is the supernatural virtue of religion that binds us to the one Almighty God.

The Christian has still greater reason to worship God, because, as well as being the all-powerful Lord and Creator, God is our Father, who has wanted to make us sharers in his very life. And as his children, we have to adore him supernaturally, moved by God's own love. We must also seek God's glory in all our actions. Today it is all the more urgent to do so, since “there are people who try to desecrate everything, seeking to convert whatever is in itself sacred, even the very priesthood, into something profane. We want to bring all things to God, each according to its nature: what God has made sacred is sacred."

Ever since Christ died on the Cross for us, our worship should be offered to God through Jesus Christ, mainly in the holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

Saint Josemaría used to comment that, for me, everything seems too little when it is for the Lord. We want to offer him the very best. “Generously give the Lord that young heart you have, that beautiful, splendid life: give your life to him. Make yours the sacrifice of Abel, not that of Cain. Abel gave him the best of his flock." What pleases God most is a clean life, a life entirely dedicated to him, a life of love. “That is why we want to offer our life, our generous dedication, in reparation for our own sins; for the sins of all men, our brothers; for the sins committed at all times, and for those that will be committed until the end of time. Above all, for the Catholics, for God's chosen ones who do not respond, those who betray the special love God our Lord has bestowed on them."

Absolutely everything has to be for God; we offer him the very deepest recesses of our mind and will, our whole being. He receives our offering: it goes up to his throne like incense, united to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. “We each make the consecratio mundi, the consecration of the world, through our personal dedication to the Lord's service and, through him, to the service of all souls without exception, in the practice of our own job or duty, in the middle of the world, which we love, each in our own state."

Let us give up our lives cheerfully. “If you think that your talents, your personality, your qualities are being wasted; that you're not allowed to take full advantage of them. -Meditate well on these words of a spiritual writer: ‘The incense offered to God is not wasted. Our Lord is more honored by the immolation of your talents than by their vain use.’"