Jan 29 Thu - What is the Sanctus of the Mass?

 

Jan 29 Thu
What is the Sanctus of the Mass?
The Sanctus is an Acclamation of the Triune God.

Isaiah testified, I saw the Lord Yahweh seated on a high throne; his train filled the sanctuary, and above him stood seraphs... And they cried out one to another in this way, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth. His glory fills the whole earth.”

The Eucharistic Prayer that began with the Preface is now interrupted to allow us to intervene with the Sanctus. We sing with the entire creation that mysterious passage in Isaiah, wherein the prophet tells us of his vision of God. The seraphim were gathered around the throne, extolling the thrice Holy Lord of all creation, when God revealed his mission to the prophet. We add to this acclamation the psalms and hosannas that resounded in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. 

This hymn contains three praises and two petitions:

• We admire the holiness, power, and supreme dominion of God when we say, “Holy, Holy, Holy God of power and might.”

• We praise his glory which shines forth in all creatures, when we say, “Heaven and earth are full of your glory.”

• Then, we exalt Christ by saying, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” While saying this, we invite him to come to our souls with the same affection and devotion with which his Blessed Mother received him at the annunciation.

• The two petitions are: “Hosanna in the highest”; we say it twice, asking for our salvation and everything that leads to it. The first petition is addressed to God, and the second to Christ.

This hymn is placed at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer so that we realize we are involved in a very important business. We are before the throne of His Divine Majesty, entering the Holy of Holies. If until now it was convenient for us to be pure and devout, after this, we should be inflamed with a more ardent love. 

Among the Greeks, the hymn is called the Trisagion: “Holy God, Holy Almighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us.” 

Now, let us consider him who triumphed. After the hosannas were silent, Jesus shed tears over Jerusalem. He wept over the lot of people who were to reject the cross and repudiate their vocation. His disciples did not understand, either, the nature of his unending rule. A few branches torn from palms still lay in the streets and were not yet withered when the King was raised up, nailed to the murderers’ cross. “Scandal and madness,” some say; for us, the mystery of the cross is “the power and wisdom of God.”

Is it not true that as soon as you cease to be afraid of the cross, of what people call the cross, when you set your will to accept the will of God, then you find happiness, and all your worries, all your sufferings, physical or moral, pass away?

Truly, the cross of Jesus is gentle and lovable. There, sorrows cease to count; there is only the joy of knowing that He has called us to be co-redeemers with him.

Jan 28 Wed - How can I take better responsibility for my sins?

 

Jan 28 Wed
How can I take better responsibility for my sins? 
God gives each of us a job description, and He requires a nominal rate of return in response to the gifts He lavishes upon us. So, with God’s grace, we till the soil of our souls by confessing our sins and receiving God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. Repentance paves the way to virtue. God sends us forth from Mass, and we proclaim the Gospel with lives of virtue.

We need the Gospel to remind us that God punishes us for our unrepentant sins: “That servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.” We fear the pains of hell, as we should.

Jesus, through the Church, gives us the Sacrament of Penance and facilitates repentance. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Identifying and articulating our sins isn’t easy. Our date with the confessional helps us manifest our repentance with integrity. Distinguishing between perfectly benign emotions, sinful inclinations, and sinful actions takes time and effort. But the confessional, echo chamber of verbal articulation, helps.

The five steps to a good Confession are:

- Examination of Conscience: Recall your sins since your last confession, asking for the grace to see them clearly.
- Sorrow for Sin: Fear of punishment is good, but sorrow motivated by love of God is best.
- Resolve to Avoid Sin: And to avoid the near occasions of sin.
- Confession of Sins: Honestly, without hiding or excusing them.
- Act of Penance: Expression of the desire to repair the harm caused by sin.

We often hear, “I don’t need to go to a priest for Confession because I confess my sins directly to God.” 
Good for you! Many make this claim. But most of us play psychological mind games when it comes to taking responsibility for our sins, and dismiss them with platitudes such as “I had no choice” or “God understands.”

Even Catholics who frequent Confession struggle to develop the habit of identifying and taking responsibility for their sins in the privacy of their hearts. A daily examination of conscience helps, even for those who frequent Confession.

Auricular confession, in contrast, is courageous and liberating. There is no other venue on earth that facilitates the identification and articulation of sins with precision while taking responsibility for them than the Sacrament of Penance protected by the inviolable Seal of Confession. Not psychological therapy, not a lie-detector, not the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous program, not even police interrogations—as valuable as these things are.

Every morning, two questions may help us adorn our lives with the beauty of God’s goodness. 
What can I do today that will make the world a better place because I am alive? 
With God’s grace, will I give more today than I take?

Once, I asked a 95-year-old lady those questions. She replied, “Father, I pray three rosaries every day, including one for you.” She may have added, Checkmate.

Jan 27 Tue - What is the “Ordinary Time” of the Liturgy?

 

Jan 27 Tue
What is the “Ordinary Time” of the Liturgy?

With Christmas behind us and as we now proceed through “Ordinary Time,” we have the opportunity to contemplate the full, extraordinary mystery of God’s descent into human life and our ascent into the divine. One of the clearest depictions of this divine condescension is found in the nighttime conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the dark of night. Jesus tells him that he must be “born anew” if he wishes to enter into the kingdom of God. To which Nicodemus asks how it is a man can be born again, “Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus explains: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.” And that this ascent is imaged in the death on the Cross.

In this brief exchange, Baptism and the Cross are juxtaposed. They illustrate both the ascent into Heaven and the taking on of eternal life. The ascending and descending language that Jesus uses here has two bookends: birth and death on the Cross. In these few lines, the full mystery of our own life in Christ is revealed, since our life in Christ is a mirror of the life of Christ.

That the ascending and descending of Christ is the ladder by which we can become “other christs.”

Jesus Christ’s is his Incarnation, the top rung of the ladder. His life and ministry are the middle rung, and his death and resurrection are the bottom rung. The three-runged ladder can be paired with the classic Byzantine cross, which itself has three bars: one for Jesus’s feet, another for his hands, and the third bearing the inscription “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

The ladder of ascent into Heaven is the Cross that we are each called to take up. If the ladder’s bottom step – the lowest bar of the Cross – is his death and resurrection, it’s the first step on our path of ascension into Heaven.

This “death and resurrection” is Baptism and the new birth about which Jesus sought to instruct Nicodemus that night. Thus, St. Paul can say, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”

Having been reborn into Christ, we now must take on the “mind of Christ,” the middle step. By the sacrament of Confirmation, “the Spirit of truth comes,” and He guides us “into all the truth.” By it we live a life of evangelization, doing apostolate, and being witnesses.

The topmost crosspiece in the ascent is the Word’s becoming flesh, and our participation in the body and blood of Christ, our reception and adoration of the Eucharist. Here we are joined to the Head: because it was God’s will “to recapitulate (to put together) all things in Christ.”

Through the sacraments, His life becomes the very principle of ours. The Christian life is not a formula but a participation in a life: the Life of Jesus Christ. And only through that participation can we, as “other christs,” bear witness to the Truth.

With excerpts from Dominic V. Cassella 

Jan 26 Mon - How can I know about God the Father?

 

Jan 26 Mon
How can I know about God the Father?
As the Church teaches, the Son is begotten by the Father. 
God the Father infinitely knows himself.
The action of the intellect produces a concept, which is a likeness of the known thing, in this case, the Word (or Logos). Being the effect of the intellect, it is different from the intellect itself.
Thus, the Word is:
- God, like the Father, because God’s being and understanding are one and the same;
- eternal, because God knows himself eternally; God’s concept of himself is his real self.
- differing from the Father only because He proceeds from him; and He is the only-begotten Son of God.

God knows himself and loves himself. God the Father, upon knowing himself, engenders the Son, who is a perfect image of the Father. When He loves himself as the Ultimate Good, He loves the Son, and the Son necessarily loves the Father. There is a bond between them, an infinite Love, which is the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is a central point of Catholic dogma, solemnly taught by the Church according to the common stance of the Greek and Latin Fathers. Even though the formulas used in the East (a Patre per Filium) and West (ex Patre Filioque) differ, they express the same doctrinal content.

No one can know the Father apart from God’s Word, that is, unless the Son reveals him, and no one can know the Son unless the Father so wills. The Father sends, the Son is sent, and He comes. The Father is beyond our sight and comprehension, but we know him through his Word, who tells us of him. 

In turn, the Father alone knows his Word. And the Lord has revealed both truths. Therefore, the Son reveals the knowledge of the Father by revealing himself. Knowledge of the Father consists in the self-revelation of the Son, for all is revealed through the Word.

The Father’s purpose in revealing the Son was to make himself known to us and so to welcome into eternal rest those who believe in him. To believe in him means to do his will.

Through creation, the Word reveals God the Creator. Through the world, He reveals the Lord who made the world. 

Through the law and the prophets, the Word revealed himself and his Father in the same way, and though all the people equally heard the message, not all equally believed it. Through the Word, made visible and palpable, the Father was revealed, though not all equally believed in him. But all saw the Father in the Son, for the Father of the Son cannot be seen, but the Son of the Father can be seen.

The Son performs everything as a ministry to the Father, from beginning to end, and without the Son, no one can know God. The way to know the Father is the Son.

Thus, there is one God the Father, one Word and Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation for all who believe in him.
With excerpts from the treatise "Against the Heresies" by St Irenaeus

Jan 25 Sun - Did Christ ever call me?

 

Jan 25 Sun
Did Christ ever call me?
As Christians, Christ seeks us out in our work, as He did the Apostles.
Christ could have called his Apostles in other situations, but He sought them out precisely in their work. Opus Dei's spirit “hinges upon ordinary work, professional work carried out in the midst of the world. God's calling gives us a mission: it invites us to share in the unique task of the Church, to bear witness to Christ before our fellow men and so draw all things toward God."

“If you ask me how to discern the Christian call, if you ask me how to recognize it, I will tell you that it is a new vision of life. It is as though a light had been lit within us: a mysterious impulse which drives a person to dedicate his noblest energies to something that, in time, becomes a way of life. This vital force is rather like an avalanche; it is what others call the Christian vocation."

“The calling discloses to us the meaning of our existence. It means being convinced, through faith, of the reason for our life on earth. Our life, the present, past, and future, acquires a new dimension, a depth we did not perceive before. All happenings and events now fall within their true perspective: we understand where God is leading us, and we feel ourselves borne along by this task entrusted to us."

“God draws us from the shadows of our ignorance, our groping through history, and, no matter what our occupation in the world, he calls us with a strong voice, as he once called Peter and Andrew: Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

Thus, we co-redeem with Christ. God gives everything, and He asks for everything. In choosing us as his instruments, He wants to make use of our whole being, our intellect, our will, and all our faculties. When God chooses people for a special job, He prepares them and endows them with the ability to do it.

Our vocation is a sign of God's special love for us. As such, it requires a prompt and generous response on our part, similar to that given by the Apostles. 

“Peter and Andrew were at their jobs, as was Matthew in his tax collector's booth. Jesus calls them at their place of work, while they are fishing. Right away, they left their nets and followed him immediately, without thinking twice. Matters of love are not to be thought over too much. Otherwise, they don't get done. I am sure our parents didn't think too much about whether or not they should get married. Otherwise, they would never have gotten married, and we wouldn't be in the world."

God's call is not restricted to a particular period in our life. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And so, his invitation to come, follow me, is repeated at every moment of our life.

Let us consider carefully whether we have followed Jesus in the same way: immediately, straight away, leaving our nets behind... And if we haven't, there is still time for us to cut any ties and give ourselves once and for all.

Jan 24 Sat - Is Christian life a set of religious practices?

 

Jan 24 Sat
Is Christian life a set of religious practices?

Christ passes through Jericho and heals. He converts Zacchaeus and heals two blind men in the city of palm trees.
Come closer to Him. Your disposition is very important. But don't stop approaching Him, even if your soul is filled with nothing but curiosity.

If you approach Jesus as He passes by, even if it's just to snoop, you will be healed.

Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they began to shout:
“Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

There was no curiosity, only a need for encounter. That is why when people rebuke them to be quiet, they, far from being moved, shout even louder:

Then Jesus stopped, called them, and said,

“What do you want me to do for you?”

“Lord, open our eyes!”

Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, and instantly they regained their sight. And they followed him along the road.

You see? We have to draw close to Him. Why do you think He instituted the Sacraments? Separated from Christ, we achieve nothing.

Christ passes by and heals diseases of the body and ailments of the soul.

In which category would you include yourself? Are you a man with dirty eyes or rotten flesh? Are you blind or a leper? Are you weighed down by misery?
Well, look. That man, “covered with leprosy,” went to the Lord, fell to his knees, and declared: If you want, Jesus, you can cleanse me! And God, merciful, answers him: I want, be clean!

Christ passes by us and heals the foolish fantasies of those who think of eccentric heroics when it comes to living as Christians. You don't need to withdraw from the world. You only need to live interior life, but you should not associate it with the darkness of temples or the rarefied atmosphere of sacristies.
The life of an ordinary man who has received the Christian vocation is found in the open air, in the middle of the street.

The Founder of Opus Dei encourages us to abandon "the mentality of those who see Christianity as a set of practices or acts of piety, without perceiving its relationship to everyday situations, to the urgency of attending to the needs of others and striving to remedy injustices.
Following Christ does not mean taking refuge in the temple, shrugging our shoulders at the development of society, at the successes or aberrations of individuals and peoples."

There is not a single day in the life of an authentic Christian without concern for one's neighbor.
 
Life is not to be made up of individualistic selfishness: “A man or a society that does not react to suffering and injustice and makes no effort to alleviate them is still distant from the love of Christ's Heart.”

We have been established on Earth to enter into communion with God himself. Jesus has promised us neither temporal comfort nor earthly glory, but the house of God the Father, which awaits us at the end of the road.

Jan 23 Fri - Are we all called to form the Church?

 

Jan 23 Fri
Are we all called to form the Church?

The Gospel today tells us that "Jesus went up to the mountain and called to him those whom He wanted, and they came to him."
Every day, Jesus calls us, and He wants us to be his disciples and to continually affirm our desire to follow Him. We must approach him every day. He has a mission for you every day.

The Lord Jesus “called” the twelve disciples to come together. He calls each one individually. This calling or vocation is always personal. God and me. 

The Gospel provides more detail about the vocation of seven of the disciples, but we can be sure that the journey of the others also began with a personal encounter and conversation with the Lord. A vocation has its stages, which can be clearly seen in Simon, who was called to follow Him twice, and later had this choice confirmed and clarified.

However, in Saint Mark's narrative, the tone of the story suggests that this was not merely an employee briefing before the start of a task. 
What was special about this moment? 
Jesus called them together as a group, the Church, which is a community of people, each of whom has said yes to God.

These twelve received a special mission: to be responsible for the transmission of God's grace through the Word and sacraments. 
Equally, we have all been called to the Church. Jesus wants us to become his family. That is the Church.
Of course, she is also a human institution by the will of the Lord Jesus. He did not divide the disciples into the better and the worse but chose the twelve to go and also appointed the leader, Simon Peter.

The Church is and appears to be an organization because, in this world, that is necessary. Above all, she is the family of God’s children.

The initiative belongs exclusively to the Lord Jesus, and the choice does not depend on the disciples. "He called to himself those He wanted." But "they came to him." They came because they wanted to, and certainly with joy and healthy pride. 

The initiative belongs exclusively to the Lord Jesus, and the choice does not depend on the disciples. "He called to himself those He wanted." But "they came to him." They came because they wanted to, and certainly with joy and healthy pride.

Recently, some have been rejecting this divine invitation. They do not want to be in the Church, sometimes claiming that one can be a disciple of Jesus without belonging to the Church. They believe they don't need to be with the other disciples. Yet Jesus, on the mountain, calls the disciples as a group and wants them to form an organized community.

Every day, Jesus calls us. We are already part of his family, and He will never cast us aside. But He wants us to continually affirm our desire to be His disciples each day. He has a mission for you every day.

Jan 22 Thu - What is the Preface of the Mass?

 

Jan 22 Thu
What is the Preface of the Mass?

The Preface is the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer. During the early years of Christianity, the term "preface" indicated a solemn prayer of thanksgiving offered before a congregation (proffered); it referred to the entire Eucharistic Prayer.
Later on, it referred only to the introduction, and this varied according to the feast celebrated. The rest of the Eucharistic Prayer, called Canon, became fixed in form.

The Preface is essentially an act of thanksgiving in a literary form between prayer and hymn. It seeks to move the faithful to praise and joy. It is rather brief, but substantial in content.

After the Prayer over the Gifts, the priest greets us, “The Lord be with you.”
We answer, “And also with you.”

Then he invites us to set our thoughts on God alone. He stands with uplifted hands as though he would bear our most pressing desires and expectations.

With one voice, we raise our hearts to acclaim the Lord. The priest exhorts us, “Lift up your hearts.” We answer, “We lift them up to the Lord.”
This response befits us as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, for our Head is in heaven.

A fraternal sharing of personal decisions and aspirations is thus established—as if each one felt the need to be strengthened by everybody else’s optimism and daring to climb the mountain, as Moses did, to meet God.

The priest urges us on: “Let us give thanks to the Lord, our God.” And we answer, “It is right to give him thanks and praise.”
Not one word of this dialogue has changed ever since the third century. Almost without realizing it, we find ourselves affirming that it is right to give thanks to God always and everywhere, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

An offering in the form of thanksgiving was a mode of prayer frequently used by the early Christians. This fundamental attitude of gratefulness to God is evident, for instance, in the letters of St Paul, which almost always begin with an act of thanksgiving.

In turn, the spirit of thanksgiving for the coming of the Lord, for his passion and death, and for his resurrection and ascension gave shape to the Prefaces of the Roman liturgy. “Thank you...,” we repeat, echoing the priest’s words, so that the delicate flower of gratefulness may really bloom in our hearts.

We end the Preface joining our own voices with those of the hosts of angels. St. Josemaría points out:

I adore and praise with the angels; it is not difficult, because I know that, as I celebrate the holy Mass, they surround me, adoring the Blessed Trinity. And I know that in some way the Blessed Virgin is there, because of her intimate relationship with the most Blessed Trinity and because she is the Mother of Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man... In his veins runs the blood of his Mother, the blood that is offered in the sacrifice of redemption, on Calvary and in the Mass.

Jan 21 Wed - Should I follow the eternal Law or Newfangled Things?

 

Jan 21 Wed
Should I follow the eternal Law or Newfangled Things?

Newfangled described a person who was fond of new fashions or ideas. In current usage, the word typically describes anything new, hip, hot, or happening, such as cutting-edge technology or popular slang.

These persons rarely perceive painful happenings as trials sent by God to test our fidelity, and certainly not as chastisement for sin. The New Testament God, they believe, is too loving for that.

St. Augustine argued that God sends trials to the good and the evil alike, not because He is vengeful, but because He has ordained suffering as a means for spiritual growth.

What Newfangled Things (as Any Other Things) do for us, and to us, depend on our attitudes toward them and how we use them. They may well be trials or chastisements – if not for our culture, then for some of us as individuals. A New Thing promised to make our lives better, paradoxically and simultaneously, can destroy them.

To see God is the purpose of our existence. All other things, including the great goods of family, of religious life, of charity, are ordered to this. Self-control, moral correction, and forgiveness are how we are restored to health while on pilgrimage on this earth, as we sigh for our Heavenly Country.

Newfangled Things tend to work in the opposite direction and, therefore, can be dangerous: their shiny allure draws us into them. In our desire for them, we look away from God and His Commandments. So did Adam and Eve before the Tree in Eden.

In pulling us away from God, Newfangled Things do not generate peace, a fruit of the Spirit that allows us to see God. They create anguish in the soul. When anguish reigns, God feels absent, for the anxious, albeit unwittingly, have installed themselves in God’s place.

How can we receive the New Thing of 2026 as a means to grow in faith? We can put Augustine’s Biblical advice into practice.

First, we strictly regulate our exposure to Newfangled Things. When we choose “new things,” we should do so, not merely because they are new, but when they are better. On this, Saint John the Evangelist strikes harder than Augustine: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)

Second, we seek a prudent approach for patiently correcting those in our care who have succumbed to sin. Parents care for children, family members for one another, and friends for friends. These days, unless we have a public role as teacher or pastor, private is the sensible choice.

Third, we practice forgiveness: we forgive those who trespass against us while also asking forgiveness from those whom we have hurt. We need not worry about the world and who has wronged whom: we have no control there. The home and family are what truly matter. For our families to be centers of love, we must forgive our spouses, children, parents, and siblings – and ask for forgiveness, as needed.

With forgiveness comes peace, and with peace we see God. And when we see Him with a heart filled with faith and with love, no Newfangled Thing will be able to drag us from Him.
With excerpts from David G Bonagura, Jr.

Jan 20 Tue - How can I fight anxiety?

 

Jan 20 Tue
How can I fight anxiety?

Voices are telling us that we need something more than how God has created us to be for us to be okay. That is a lie. Our faith tells us that God had us in mind when He created us.

The anxiety that's caused by world relativism and the culture of ‘not enough’ alienates us. It doesn't allow us to live facing what we have in front of us, where God has placed us. Instead, it leads us to seek the next thing that will bring us happiness or joy.

Here are 10 ways to combat anxiety, according to Director Mike Iverson:

1. Begin right where you are
Don’t give in to the falsehood of the ‘if only’ mindset. Do not believe that one must jump through hoops to encounter God. He is always present. If you think that you have to change profession, or buy this thing to find God, you are wrong.

2. Love the one you're with
If you are longing for people who aren’t with you, you’re missing what God has given you in the moment. You may say, ‘I miss everybody. I miss my friends, I miss my parents.’ But by doing that, you're living in a past of regret and not in the blessed present of where God is calling you to work for his glory.

3. Be Grounded
Stop trying to always keep up with the latest trends. Cling to what is sufficient.

4. Realize that God is present here and now
See that God is working with you, and join him here, rather than keeping oneself distracted from his presence.

5. Reduce the voices in your head
There are three main voices in one’s head: God, one’s human internal monologue, and the enemy. Take some dedicated time every day to prayer and then reflect: Is this from God, or is this a suggestion of the enemy? 

6. Live a simple life
In a world filled with numerous gadgets and life hacks, we often rely on the most basic levels of technological complexity to achieve our goals.

7. Reduce financial entanglements
If you don’t have to spend money on stuff, don’t. Do not owe more than you have.

8. Live a life of gratitude
Live a life of gratitude and practice poverty in spirit, recognizing that God is God and that we're creatures called to praise, love, and serve him. By placing our dependence on God as our happiness and practicing gratitude, we will be freer.

9. Slow down
Slow down, and reject the lie in society that the measure of your work output is the measure of your worth. You are a son of God; that is the measure of your worth.

10. Make more time for God
If you're disconnected from the source of happiness and the ultimate remedy for anxiety, which is a relationship with Christ and a relationship with the Trinity, you're going to be more anxious.
Your activity will be truly apostolic only insofar as you permit Christ to work in you, and through you, with his power, with his desire, with his love.

Jan 19 Mon - Do our perceptions shape reality?

 

Jan 19 Mon
Do our perceptions shape reality? or
Do our perceptions help us understand reality?

Let us compare the dogmas of the beer industry with the dogma of Mary, the Mother of God, to help us choose.

In the early 1980s, at the height of Miller Lite's popularity, its slogan—"Less filling! Tastes great!"—was everywhere. The company wasn't just selling beer—it was shaping perceptions, defining social cues, and signaling identity as much as flavor.

Just as marketing shapes our perceptions of beer, it can shape how we understand religion. However, while marketing attempts to shape reality to fit perceptions, authentic religious formation shapes our perceptions to understand reality.

Religious education relies on concise formulations to communicate the precepts of belief. Yet there is a fundamental difference. Their purpose is not to market perceptions, but to understand reality.

It might sound shocking to say that Mary is the Mother of God, Theotokos. From a secular-marketing point of view, it's a terrible optic. Many Protestants instantly assume that Catholics are worshiping Mary as a goddess. That's not true, and the Church does not back down from the dogma. Mary is the mother of Jesus: the Person of Christ, not just His human nature. She gave birth “in the fullness of time” to Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man.

Mary is God's creation, not a goddess, yet she cooperates with the Holy Spirit in bringing the whole Person of Jesus into the world. She is the Mother of God because God chose her for that role, a gift, not a title of divinity.

The dogma allows us to expand the horizons of our faith. At every Mass, Holy Mother Church makes real, sacramentally present Jesus Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. We receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus in Holy Communion. This is not a blurred perception, but an accurate declaration of reality. When author and lapsed Catholic Mary McCarthy once observed that the Eucharist is a nice symbol, Flannery O'Connor immediately responded: "Well, if it's only a symbol, I say to hell with it."

Christianity ultimately resists the marketing logic that places perception before reality. The central message of the faith—the Passion and the Cross—does not appeal to comfort, prestige, or social approval. As St. Paul wrote, "We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” Unlike beer slogans or political dogmas, this message defies prejudice and refuses to be packaged for easy consumption.

Beer loyalty teaches how easily we adopt unquestioned prejudices; yet faith requires attention beyond superficial signals. Faith demands recognition of truths that continue to unfold and provoke intelligent inquiry, a willingness to follow a path that is often countercultural, and a pursuit of depth over convenience. The marketing of beer shows how persuasion shapes perception. But only faith directs the mind and heart beyond appearances, guiding us to the reality of God’s work and His plan for salvation.

We've heard it said, "Perception is reality." Baloney! The Incarnation of Jesus requires that we perceive the reality of heaven and earth as they are. Catholic dogmas are windows to infinite realities. Perception, purified by faith and reason, helps us understand reality. 
Excerpts from Fr. Jerry Pokorsky

Jan 18 Sun - In the fullness of time, there came also the fullness of God.

 

Jan 18 Sun
In the fullness of time, there came also the fullness of God.
And today we can see Him as a little Child. St Bernard tells us: “The kindness and love of God our Savior for mankind were revealed." Thanks be to God, through whom we receive such abundant consolation in this pilgrimage, this exile, this misery.

Before his humanity appeared, his kindness lay concealed. Of course, it was already in existence because the mercy of the Lord is from eternity, but how could men know it was so great? It was promised to us but not yet experienced: thus, many did not believe in it. “At various times and in different ways, God spoke through the prophets, saying I know the plans I have in mind for you: plans for peace, not disaster."

What reply did man make, man who felt pain, and knew nothing of peace?
Now, at last, men believe with their own eyes, because all God’s promises are to be trusted.

Now, peace is no longer promised, but conferred; no longer delayed, but given; no longer predicted, but bestowed. God has sent down to earth a bag bulging with his mercy, a bag that, at his passion, was torn open so that our ransom pours out of it onto us. A small bag, perhaps, but a full one: for it was a small Child that was given to us, but in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead.

For our sake, the Word of God became perishable like the grass. Lord, what is man, that you mind him so much, or pay him so much attention?

Let man infer from this how much God cares for him. Let him know from this what God thinks of him, what he feels about him. Man, do not ask about your own sufferings, but about what God suffered. Learn from what he was made for you, how much he appreciates you, so that his kindness may show itself to you from his humanity.

The smaller He makes himself as man, the greater shows his goodness. The more he humbles himself for me, the more I love him. “The goodness and humanity of God our Savior appeared," says St Paul.

And St. Josemaría adds: “I see God lying in a place where only animals dwell, and I exclaim: Jesus, where is your majesty?
My child, have you seen the greatness of God become a child? For his Father is God, and his ministers are the angels. Yet He is here, in a manger, in swaddling clothes ... Such was the sign the shepherds were given. St Paul describes it very well. He says of Christ: emptied himself, taking the form of a servant. Helpless, He cannot defend himself. He is a baby who looks like any ordinary child."

We are moved, as were the shepherds, by the great lesson of humility our Lord teaches us even from the cradle. He came into the world in the utmost silence, unknown to the wise and powerful of this world.