Oct 1 Sun - Unity

 

Oct 1 Sun
Unity among us. Nothing is dearer to God than mutual union and concord among men.
Love for unity is one of our ruling passions, since we love the Church with all our heart and wish her the greatest good possible. We want St Paul's appeal to all Christians to be true of Opus Dei forever: "Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call."

This reality is shown in the Prelature's moral, spiritual, and juridical unity. It is God's will that all of us are under the same head, and form a single body. St. Josemaría stressed: "I want you to have a sense of being members of a single body. We, though many, are one body: all of us are but one thing."

Unity between priests and laity too, since we all have "a truly priestly soul and a fully lay outlook ... In the Work we all form a single class… We can truly consider this fact as one of the marvels that God, by his grace and providence, has wrought in our Work, crystallizing it in our Particular Law."

Unity, finally, of all the members with one another, since by God's will every one of us without exception is called to foster the unity of each with the others and of all with Christ.

"Be convinced, my son, that for us disunity is death. Unity is the secret of our effectiveness and one of the greatest blessings God has bestowed on his Work."
We each promote unity when we stay where God wants us, like "those great diamonds that remain wherever they are set, in whatever place they are put, without protesting and without pride."

We must never be a piece or link that is out of place. "To promote unity, which is the guarantee of our effectiveness, we need to ensure first of all that there is order. Each in our own place, not meddling in the affairs of others, and each responsible for our own behavior. It's all the same to us to be hand or foot, tongue or heart, since we are all in every part of the body, because we are one single thing through the charity of Christ that unites us."

We are like the branch our Lord speaks of in the Gospel. "A branch not united to the vine, instead of being a living thing, is a dry stick good only for the fire, or for herding animals, in the best of cases, and to be trodden underfoot by everyone. Be very united to the vine! close to our vine, which is Christ Jesus, through prompt obedience.”

 

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Sep 30 Sat - Holy purity is an action of love.

 

Sep 30 Sat
Holy purity is an action of love.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” St Paul invites us to focus our hope in heaven, where God reigns in glory, and to detach ourselves from material things. For this, chastity is necessary, “in a positive way, as a consequence of our love, our self-giving to God, body and soul, with all our faculties and senses.” Only love can lead us to live our life for God and to be concerned for others. Only love for God is capable of preserving the purity of heart we need for our life of service.

Purity “is not a renunciation, but a joyful affirmation, a free and cheerful self-giving. Your chastity cannot be limited to avoiding falls and occasions of sin..., it cannot in any way be a cold and mathematical denial. Do you realize that chastity is a virtue, and that, as such, it ought to grow and be perfected? It's not enough, then, for you to be continent, according to your state in life: you must be chaste, heroically so. It is an affirmation, a positive act, a response to God's plea: my son, give me your heart, and set your eyes on my ways.”

St Augustine says: “There is a war being waged in our very bodies; our lives are a dangerous battleground. And victory is impossible without the help of the One who loves us ... Do you want your flesh to obey your soul? Then have your soul serve God. In order to govern yourself, you must let yourself be governed by Him.” Here lies the positive struggle in the area of purity which Saint Josemaría showed us to be so necessary.

“Holy purity is given by God when it is asked for with humility. We will advance with the help of God's grace, not like angels - that would be a disorder, since angels have a different nature from ours - but like clean, strong men and women, normal people! What so many people do for the sake of their home, what our parents did through their life of Christian fidelity, let us also do for the sake of the Love of all loves.

Therefore, have a great love for holy purity! Invoke the Virgin Mary, Mother of Fair Love, and we will persevere -cheerful and supernaturally fruitful- along this divine Path God wants for us.”

“If you ever sense that this gift from God is in danger, don't be surprised, since as I've already told you, we are made of clay. Advance, in your commitment to control your imagination, and in so many small but effective details that both safeguard and reflect the quality of your determination.”
And do not forget, modesty and temperance are necessary for purity. 

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Sep 29 Fri - St Michael, give us strength in the battle

 

Sep 29 Fri

St Michael, give us strength in the battle, and preserve us in God's grace. Today we should ask him, our patron, to help us to watch over our brothers and sisters with the same generous vigilance he maintains over the Church.

 

Concern for the happiness, the fidelity and perseverance of the others, is not a task exclusively for the priests. Rather it falls on all of us.

 

St. Josemaría: “None of you is alone, none of you is an isolated verse. We are all verses in the same divine epic poem. And each of you, as I am, is concerned that this unity, this harmony, not be broken, that we be united like a great flock, like a great army, like sheep and soldiers of Christ, on the path of holiness.”

 

“We have to watch and be attentive, my children. It would be a crime; a lack of charity and fraternal justice not being concerned about the physical life of the others. But it would be an even greater crime were we to allow a brother of ours to remain in a state of spiritual weakness, and even to die. I've often said, and now I repeat it, that I don't excuse from sin—which can at times be serious—those who live alongside someone in these sad circumstances, and who don't help that brother of theirs to persevere. And I'm not exaggerating. I'm being objective.”

 

“For wherever you are, scattered throughout the world, you are very close to the wounds of Jesus; and, bathed in his precious Blood, you will hasten to cure the wounds of your brothers”.

 

“You will use the same tone, the same sincerity, the same zeal and fervor you were given; the same Blood of Christ that has come rushing to our wounds to heal them. How quickly our blood flows when we have a wound! This is what you will do, what God and this beautiful Mother of ours will do, when you hasten with your charity and affection to purify the wounds of your brothers.”

 

“You will tell them that they have to love one another, that they have to help one another; that it doesn't matter if they are weak, since they can rely on God's strength. In addition, they will have the strength of humility.”

 

“We have to look at God, and then look at ourselves, acknowledging that we are capable of every wretchedness. Then we’ll find it very easy to understand and forgive the weaknesses of others, and we help them to overcome them, so that they in turn will help us.

Then forward! Forward on this divine path that God, in his goodness, has wanted to mark out for us on earth!”

 

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Sep 28 Thu - Christ instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist

 

Sep 28 Thu
Christ instituted the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity are really, sacramentally present. Every day, the same Jesus comes down to our altars, under the appearance of bread and wine, to nourish us on our earthly pilgrimage.

As a result, St Josemaría speaks of the hidden but effective presence of our Lady in the Mass. “Each day, when he comes down into the hands of the priest, Christ renews his real presence among us, with his Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity: the same Body and Blood that he took on in the womb of the Virgin Mary. During the sacrifice of the Altar, our Lady's participation is similar to her silent reserve when she accompanied him throughout Palestine.

“The Mass is an act of the Blessed Trinity: by the will of the Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, the Son offers himself up in a redeeming sacrifice. And within this unfathomable mystery we can make out, as if veiled, the most pure face of Mary, Daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit.”

“In Jesus’ veins runs the blood of his Mother, the blood that is offered in the sacrifice of the redemption, on Calvary and in the Mass.”

But “when Jesus is present there, defenseless, even more defenseless than when He lay in the crib in Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph do not leave Him alone. Somehow, the Mother of God and the one who was a father to Him on earth are present. They are close to you! Close to us! I thank them for keeping you company! I cannot separate the Host from the Holy Family, the Family of Nazareth, which I love so much, which so moves me, and which is like the heart of our family of Opus Dei.”

We thank our Lady with all our heart and ask her to teach us how to attend Mass and receive her Son each day with the same dispositions with which she received Him in her most pure womb. 

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Sep 27 Wed - Being reborn by God’s grace

 

Sep 27 Wed

Being reborn by God’s grace. How could anyone earn the privilege of being taken up by the Word co-eternal with the Father, into unity of Person, and of being the only-begotten Son of God? What good quality should he have to deserve this? What should he do, to come to this indescribable excellence? Surely it was no action of any man, but the action of the God.

 

Imagine a –hypothetical– human being not yet existing. At the moment he was conceived, this man is assumed by God the Word, in a unique and indescribable way. At that moment, three things happened simultaneously, (a) the hypothetical man was made real by the Holy Spirit from Mary’s flesh and in Mary; (b) a human soul was likewise created and infused; and (c) the Word assumed that human –body and soul– to come into being as the only Son of God!

 

Now, the Word was both, a son of man and the Son of God: man –a son of man– according to the nature that was assumed; the Son of God because of the only-begotten God who assumed him; only One Person.

 

Let us see, God certainly knew beforehand that he was going to make these things happen. So, Jesus was predestined, so that he, who was to be –according to the flesh– a son of David, should nevertheless remain the Son of God because he was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary.

 

We, humans, somehow share in this predestined elevation of human nature. It is so great, so high, so exalted that there is no greater height left to which we could be raised.

 

Moreover, God could not throw itself down lower than he did, for he took on a human nature, with all its weaknesses, and finally he died on a cross. As He, the One, was destined to be our Head, so we, the many, are destined to be his members.

 

Let God’s grace reign, as it does reign: the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the one Son of God, the one Lord. As there were no previous merits in that human nature that was assumed by the Word of God, and was born in Bethlehem, so too all of us, the members of His Body, can be led to rebirth by God’s grace.

St Augustine on the Predestination of the Saints

 

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