1 Sep Fri - Simplicity and Sincerity

 

1 Sep Fri
Spreading God's light. Why have the weeds grown so much in this world of ours, God's field? We can reply without hesitation: “ignorance is the greatest enemy of our faith and at the same time the greatest obstacle to the Redemption of souls being carried through, since, as Tertullian wrote, they cease to hate when they cease to be ignorant - ignorant of the truths of faith and of our situation as children of God. This ignorance has been sown to a large extent by the enemy of God and of souls, making use of human resources while we Christians forgot our duty to acquire formation and to teach and spread doctrine.”

“We cannot remain inactive. Because we are Christians, and Christians who have a special divine vocation to sanctify temporal affairs, we have the great responsibility of bringing the leaven of Christ to all environments.”

The awareness that there are a lot of weeds in God's field should compel us to carry out an intense doctrinal apostolate. “We want to bring people to Christ. We want all human beings to love him. But, How are they to call upon him if they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?”

“It is our mission to give doctrine, to spread God's light, to wage this marvelous war of peace and love; to bring it to all peoples, without exception of race, or tongue, or social circumstances.

“A campaign of manliness and purity will be waged to counteract and undo the savage work of those who think that man is a beast. Relations among peoples will be filled with charity; and hatreds, fratricidal struggles and divisions will all be stilled.

“Don't be afraid, then, of the present situation, or think it can't be remedied. Don't be frightened by the waves stirred up by the storms in the ocean of the world. Don't be tempted to run away, because this world is ours: it is God's work and he has given it to us as an inheritance.

“With faith like this, we can work away calmly without being frightened by the difficulties: the waters - living waters, the grace of Christ - will pass through the mountains. The more evil we encounter, the greater our sense of responsibility should be. The more drawbacks we meet, the greater should be our determination to overcome them, the greater our effort to cultivate the field and root out the weeds that smother the good seed.” St Josemaría
Image: Our Lady of Altagracia, Patroness of Rep. Dominicana. 

 

 

31 Aug Thu - Adoro Te Devote (IV): How well do we attend Holy Mass?

 

31 Aug Thu

Adoro Te Devote (IV): How well do we attend Holy Mass?

Jesus, whom now veiled I see,
Bestow on me what I so thirst for;
That I may see your countenance,
Blessed forever in your glory.”

If the Mass were only a meal, then Calvary would be no more than an execution.
Jesus’ priestly offering at the Last Supper transformed his crucifixion at Calvary from an execution into a sacrifice. And thus, God’s ancient promises were brought to fulfillment.

“Having in our souls the same sentiments as Christ on the Cross, we will make our entire life into one ceaseless act of atonement; it will be a constant petition and a permanent sacrifice on behalf of all mankind. Our Lord will make it instinctive for you –supernaturally instinctive– to purify all your actions, raise them up to the order of grace, and turn them into instruments of apostolate. Only thus can we become contemplative souls in the middle of the world, as our Christian vocation requires, and be truly priestly souls, so that everything in us becomes a continuous act of praise of God.”

We must love the Holy Mass and make it the center of our day, uniting to it all our resolutions, our concerns and our joys. “My son, my daughter, St Josemaría writes, think about the Holy Mass: how we should celebrate or attend it. Consider how the Angels are there. Consider that what you are doing or taking part in is something divine. Think how, on the altar, Christ is offering himself once more for you and for me. And you will earnestly desire to imitate him in his humility, in the way he empties himself completely in the Host; and you will be filled with thanksgiving and adoration, desires of reparation, and petitions. You will offer yourself up, your arms outstretched, as another Christ, ipse Christus (Christ himself), ready to be nailed to the sweet wood of the Cross for love of souls.”

We want to love Jesus for those who do not love him; for those who desecrate the sacred Hosts; for those who unnecessarily place them in plastic containers. We want to atone for all the indignities they foist against the Blessed Sacrament.

In union with our Blessed Mother, we learn to enter more deeply into the mystery of the Altar so that “our whole life may be a continuation of our last Mass and a preparation for the next one,” until one day it merges into the praise and thanksgiving of the blessed in heaven. 

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Aug 30 - Divine Law and Human Choices

 

Aug 30 Wed
Conscience is the judgment of the intellect on the goodness or evil of an act performed or about to be performed. We are free to choose what we are to do, but we are not free to make what we have chosen, good or evil, right or wrong. Our choices are good or bad insofar they conform to God’s divine and eternal law and its “imperatives,” which are made known to us through the mediation of the conscience. Through it, we participate in God’s divine and eternal law.

“No one can be relieved of the duty of forming his conscience,” said my interlocutor, who was a bit surprised when I said that no one can do that on his own; and no one should attempt it, since man’s capacity for self-deception is boundless.

“Other people and institutions can be deceived, too.”  He seemed to be well-read, yet it is all too comfortable for men to remain in a perpetual underage, to have a spiritual advisor be their conscience, and governors to remind them, all the time, of the terrible dangers they run if they think for themselves.

The axiom, that “in moral matters you must decide for yourself what kinds of things are good and evil,” has been so deeply embedded in the modern Western mind, that few doubt it at all.

Ambition makes the world go round, and hypocrisy is its prophet.  Thus, we have the contradiction, a free-thinking man who is obsessed with the desire to make the right impression on people he despises, in a world of malicious imaginations and scandal-spreading tongues.  It is, I might say, a perpetual middle school gone very bad.

If, however, we trust the words of Jesus, and if we permit our minds and hearts to be directed by the teaching of the Church we believe He founded, we will be like those little children who find it easy to enter the kingdom of Heaven. But we will also be wise, as free as possible from the chances and changes of the stage-play all around us, with its time-bound obsessions.  And this is something that I fear my interlocutor did not understand.

A man may aspire to be his own moral Napoleon, and he will end up imprisoned on the Saint Helena of public opinion and passing fads.

Thus, in our time, for example, the rainbow flag is a trumpet on the street corner, announcing to all how virtuous we are –actually, what slaves we are.  But because I want to be free, I turn to Him who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” the beating heart of the only real world there is and shall be.

Image: Christ Escapes the Pharisees by Johann Friedrich Overbeck, 1866 [Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp]

 

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Aug 30 - Divine Law and Human Choices

 Aug 30 Wed
Conscience is the judgment of the intellect on the goodness or evil of an act performed or about to be performed. We are free to choose what we are to do, but we are not free to make what we have chosen, good or evil, right or wrong. Our choices are good or bad insofar they conform to God’s divine and eternal law and its “imperatives,” which are made known to us through the mediation of the conscience. Through it, we participate in God’s divine and eternal law.

“No one can be relieved of the duty of forming his conscience,” said my interlocutor, who was a bit surprised when I said that no one can do that on his own; and no one should attempt it, since man’s capacity for self-deception is boundless.

“Other people and institutions can be deceived, too.”  He seemed to be well-read, yet it is all too comfortable for men to remain in a perpetual underage, to have a spiritual advisor be their conscience, and governors to remind them, all the time, of the terrible dangers they run if they think for themselves.

The axiom, that “in moral matters you must decide for yourself what kinds of things are good and evil,” has been so deeply embedded in the modern Western mind, that few doubt it at all.

Ambition makes the world go round, and hypocrisy is its prophet.  Thus, we have the contradiction, a free-thinking man who is obsessed with the desire to make the right impression on people he despises, in a world of malicious imaginations and scandal-spreading tongues.  It is, I might say, a perpetual middle school gone very bad.

If, however, we trust the words of Jesus, and if we permit our minds and hearts to be directed by the teaching of the Church we believe He founded, we will be like those little children who find it easy to enter the kingdom of Heaven. But we will also be wise, as free as possible from the chances and changes of the stage-play all around us, with its time-bound obsessions.  And this is something that I fear my interlocutor did not understand.

A man may aspire to be his own moral Napoleon, and he will end up imprisoned on the Saint Helena of public opinion and passing fads.

Thus, in our time, for example, the rainbow flag is a trumpet on the street corner, announcing to all how virtuous we are –actually, what slaves we are.  But because I want to be free, I turn to Him who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” the beating heart of the only real world there is and shall be.

Image: Christ Escapes the Pharisees by Johann Friedrich Overbeck, 1866 [Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp]

 

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Aug 29 Tue - Rigidity or Firmness?

 

Aug 29 Tue
Rigidity or Firmness?
Recently, the Pope remarked: “Is there some rigidity in my heart? Which is not firmness; rigidity is awful, firmness is good.” It would seem, that the Pope is praising firmness while denouncing rigidity. How, then, are we to perceive the difference?

There are many people who suffer from what we would normally call “inflexibility”, which is bad “rigidity,” wanting things to be how we want them to be, which also entails a difficulty in adjusting rapidly to contradictions or changes of plan.

Some automatically judge those who react in “conservative” ways to be rigid, while automatically regarding those who react in “liberal” or “progressive” to be charming or with spiritual flexibility.

We can easily identify psychological rigidity in ourselves and others: The priest who insists that everything must be done his way; the parent who confines his family to behavior patterns which allow little room for growth; and each one of us when we become upset and angry and perhaps a bit self-righteous about the insufferable behavior of those who contradict us or interfere with our precious plans.

Moreover, most of us tend to identify our own spiritual preferences (among many acceptable to Christ and His Church) with sweetness and light, while denigrating the preferences of others as immature, foolish, dark, or evil. Consider the liturgy wars; this example helps us to recognize that rigidity can affect all in any given question.

We should also notice that rigidity can affect “liberals” as well as “conservatives”, each simply tend to be rigid about different things.

Right now, the worldly way of assessing rigidity is that those who defend what is now “not cool” culturally are routinely condemned as inflexible or rigid (in other words, “closed”); while those who change their spots with every cultural shift are praised as flexible or responsive (in other words, “open”).

The question is, Should we approve each new fashionable moral trend, no matter what? Don’t we show a more authentic flexibility when we reject the rigid slavery of sin, and remain open (“flexible”) to whatever God expects from us? This is, precisely, the freedom of the children of God.

Moral flexibility is a virtue only when it is exercised in the service of God and the Good. Human rigidity, in the deepest sense, consists in the inability or refusal to respond promptly to God’s will. This is, I believe, what Pope Francis means when he uses “flexibility”, together with “firmness” in learning, upholding and adhering to whatever is God’s will. 

 

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Aug 28 Mon - Rejoice in the Lord

 

Aug 28 Mon
The Apostle commands us to rejoice, but in the Lord, not in the world. For, as Scripture says, whoever wishes to be a friend of this world will be counted as God’s enemy. Just as a man cannot serve two masters, so too no-one can rejoice both in the world and in the Lord.

Let joy in the Lord win, and go on winning, until we rely no more on finding joy in the world. Let joy in the Lord always go on growing, and joy in the world always go on shrinking, until it is reduced to nothing. I do not mean that we should not rejoice as long as we are in this world, but that even while we do find ourselves in this world, we should already be rejoicing in the Lord.

Someone may argue, “I am in the world; so obviously, if I rejoice, I rejoice where I am.” What of it?
Because you are in the world, does it mean that you are not in the Lord?... Listen to the Apostle in the Acts of the Apostles, speaking to the Athenians, and saying about God and about the Lord, our Creator, “In him we live, and move, and are.” Since he is everywhere, there is nowhere that he is not. Is it not precisely this that he is emphasizing to encourage us? The Lord is very near; do not be anxious about anything.

This is something tremendous, that he ascended above all the heavens but is still very near to us, to sustain our joy in the struggle.

“So then, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord, not in the world; that is, rejoice in faithfulness and not in iniquity; rejoice in the hope of eternity, and not the brief flower of vanity. Rejoice thus, and wherever you are here, as long as you are here, the Lord is very near: do not be anxious about anything.” St Augustine

Let us make one point, that we meet each other, each time, with a smile; especially when it is difficult to smile. Let’s smile at each other… and make time for those in your family. 

 

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Aug 27 - Obeying the Church's Magisterium

 

Aug 27 Sun
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answers him: I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my Church.” All who wish to belong to the People of God will have to obey Peter’s voice.

The First Vatican Council stated that “by divine and Catholic faith everything must be believed which is contained in the written word of God or in Tradition, and which is proposed by the Church as a divinely revealed object of belief, either in a solemn decree or in her ordinary, universal teaching.”

If we want to possess the fullness of Christ's doctrine, it is absolutely essential to follow the Church's Magisterium. The absence of this communion leads to darkness and sterility.

“In the Church of Christ, everyone is obliged to make a tenacious effort to remain loyal to the teaching of Christ.” Saint Josemaría warned us to be on our guard against the dangers of doctrinal deviation.

St Augustine says that Christ himself “wished to forewarn us against those who, as he himself had predicted, would arise throughout history saying, ‘Lo, here is the Christ, or there he is.’ He instructed us not to give them any credence. We have no excuse at all if we disregard the Shepherd's voice; it is so clear, so open, so evident, that not even the most shortsighted and stupid of individuals could say: ‘I didn't understand’."

Moreover, when the Church, drawing on her authority in matters of faith, clarifies their exact meaning for us, she helps us not to make mistakes; she frees our minds from the danger of error, and makes it possible for us to yield supernatural fruit.

Can the Pope be wrong? The Pope possesses infallibility in teaching when he proclaims a doctrine of faith or morals to be held. This infallibility is a gift of the Holy Spirit and is exercised in his role as the supreme pastor and teacher of all the Christian faithful. However, this infallibility is exercised within certain parameters and is closely connected to the deposit of divine Revelation. The Pope's infallibility may also be exercised in union with the College of Bishops, and the Pope’s agreement is necessary for the exercise of their authority

Saint Josemaría: “We can be that good wheat by obeying the Church's Magisterium, especially today, when all the old heresies are being renewed. Our times seem just like those of the French Revolution, or those of Protestantism, which rent the Church's garment, or even like those more distant times of which St Augustine wrote: ‘Many contradictory voices ring out; different heresies and schisms appear, and many voices contradict the true doctrine. Run to the tabernacle of God, be in the Catholic Church, do not deviate from the rule of truth’.” 

 

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Aug 26 Sat - Role of the Laity in the Church

 

Aug 26 Sat

Role of the Laity in the Church

Before the Second Vatican Council, some thought that the term “the Church” referred to “the priests.” Some laypeople could also be a part of her, but mostly as second fiddles, organizing the choir, removing the dust from the images, and similar tasks.

 

When Saint Josemaría preached that all were called to sanctity, precisely in the midst of common activities, he was often misjudged. Soon after, the universal call to sanctity became one of the brightest reminders of the Council.

 

With the universal Church as the means of salvation established by God, all the faithful are called, each according to his or her particular condition, to exercise the mission which God entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world. [CIC, 204; cf. CCC, 871–873]

 

Because of this radical unity of God’s people, ALL the faithful share in Christ’s priesthood: the BAPTISMAL (common, or royal) priesthood of all the faithful. And baptism is equal to all (no class A, B, or platinum).

 

“The laity are … the faithful who by Baptism are incorporated into Christ; …in their personal manner carry on the mission of the whole Christian people in the Church and in the world.…”

“By reason of their special vocation, it belongs to the laity to seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and directing them according to God’s will. They live in the world, that is, they are engaged in each and every work and business of the earth and in the ordinary circumstances of social and family life, which, as it were, constitute their very existence.” [Vat II, Lumen Gentium, 31; cf. LG, 30–38].

 

Moreover, Christ wanted for the Church to have a HIERARCHY –to teach, rule, and sanctify–with the power and mission to teach doctrine, guard the deposit of the faith, govern the life of the Church, and administer the sacraments. This is the MINISTERIAL or hierarchical priesthood of those who have received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. The ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood to develop the baptismal grace of all Christians.

 

Thus, in the Church, there is both a radical equality of dignity (a unity of mission), and a diversity of function among the faithful. Priests and laity are both equally “Christian.” The lay people are not simply “assistants” of the priests; rather, both, priests and lay people, are called to serve Christ and the Church.

 

The mission of the entire Church and that of the hierarchy are not identical, just as the words Church and hierarchy are not synonymous.

 

The Church’s mission falls squarely on the shoulders of all her members, while the mission of the hierarchy –a particular aspect of the mission of the Church– is carried out by the members of the hierarchy.

The mission of the laity is not merely a participation in the mission of the hierarchy, but it is a specific participation in the mission of the Church.

 

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Aug 25 Fri - Poverty. Interview with Mother Teresa of Calcutta

 

Aug 25 Fri

Poverty was not created by God. We have caused it, you and I through our egotism.

 

Being unwanted, being unloved, being uncared for, being forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than that of the person who has nothing to eat.

 

[Interview with Mother Teresa of Calcutta:]

Q. What did you do this morning?

            - Pray.

 

Q. When did you start?

            - Half past four.

 

Q. And after prayer?

            - We try to pray through our work by doing it with Jesus, for Jesus, to Jesus. That helps us put our whole heart and soul into doing it. The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved –they are Jesus in disguise.

 

Q. Does the fact that you are a woman make your message more understandable?

            - I never think like that.

 

Q. Humble as you are, it must be an extraordinary thing to be a vehicle of God’s grace in the world.

            - But it is his work. I think God wants to show his greatness by using nothingness.

 

Q. You feel you have no special qualities?

            - I don’t think so. I don’t claim anything of the work. It is God’s work. I am like a little pencil in his hand. That is all. He does the thinking. He does the writing. The pencil has nothing to do with it. The pencil has only to be allowed to be used. In human terms, the success of our work should not have happened, no?

 

Q. What is God’s greatest gift to you?

            - The poor people.

 

Q. How are they a gift to you?

            - I have an opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus.

 

Q. What are your plans for the future?

            - I just take one day. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not come. We have only today to love Jesus.

 

Q. And the future of the order?

            - It is His concern. (Time, December 4, 1989, pp. 48-49)

 

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