Apr 2 Thu - What do we celebrate on Holy Thursday?

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eso7w59MImfP_wax95dvgVxKcnm16H6U?usp=sharing 
Apr 2 Thu
What do we celebrate on Holy Thursday?
Today, we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and of the “Ministerial Priesthood.” 

The Lord shares his gifts, his sacrifice, and his priesthood with us.
He is the High Priest through whom we have been reconciled with God,
He is the Sacrifice by which we have been reconciled,
He is the Temple in which we have been reconciled,
He is God with whom we have been reconciled.

He alone is priest, sacrifice, and temple because He is all these things as God in the form of a servant; but He is not alone as God, for He is this with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God.

I am glad to share with you my small composition “Acts of Thanksgiving after Communion”, they are seven prayers, one for each day of the week. I hope this helps you to establish a real dialogue with Our Lord after the Mass. 
You can download it in pdb (for ISilo) and in pdf.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eso7w59MImfP_wax95dvgVxKcnm16H6U?usp=sharing 

Apr 1 Wed - Is Jesus “The Truth”?

 

Apr 1 Wed
Is Jesus “The Truth”?
Søren Kierkegaard compared Socrates and Christ; while Socrates claimed to be a “midwife” of truth, so that his students give birth to the truth inside themselves, Christ is “the Truth.” He has “authority” because He is the Author of all Creation. I merely talk about God; He is God.

But if He is the Author of all Creation, all creation is “sacramental”: it is a symbol and an instrument of God’s love.

So, when a student says, “I hate math,” the teacher should say, “But one of the languages of the universe is mathematics. It is the language God uses to help us understand the order of things.”

Thus, it is time for us Christians to shout from the rooftops that work, in this material world, is a gift from God. For work is a participation in the creative work of God. Moreover, since Christ took it into his hands, work has become for us a redeemed and redemptive reality. It is something to be sanctified and something which sanctifies.

Man ought not to limit himself to material production. Work is born of love; it is a manifestation of love and is directed toward love. We see the hand of God, not only in the wonders of nature, but also in our experience of work and effort. Work thus becomes prayer and thanksgiving, because we know we are placed on earth by God, that we are loved by him, and made heirs to his promises.

The visible things of Creation are like handwritten letters from God. Who among us who has known the love of a beloved would simply toss out a handwritten letter from our beloved? We read it, save it, and read it again and again as if to put the beloved in our presence, if merely in this small, indirect way. We should realize that what looks like the indistinguishable white envelopes of Creation are really letters from our Beloved. And so, we should open them carefully and lovingly so we shall find the communications of love they contain.

And yet, although letters can be wonderful, love is best delivered in person. If letters from your beloved are wonderful, who wouldn’t want to visit the beloved in person? The two aren’t mutually exclusive.

In classes, we talk about God. Or we talk about God’s handiwork in Creation. But in the Eucharist, God comes to us in person, in the person of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen. So, we should take Math students to Mass, not to have a little “religion” before they go back to the “real world” stuff. Rather, we should take students to Mass to encounter their Creator, and His love “incarnate,” in Person. And in that encounter, remind themselves that they are loved, and in all their scientific studies, they are reading love letters from the One who loved them so much He was willing to die for them. 

Mar 31 Tue - Do I always tell the truth with charity?

 

Mar 31 Tue
Do I always tell the truth with charity?
I heard my father say a saying… “The Truth doesn’t offend,” and it was something that stuck with me. However, as my life progressed, I discovered that although this saying was true, it needed to be completed: to live and always tell the truth, but accompanied by charity.

Now, let’s see what the words truth and charity mean. Truth: It is the conformity of things with the concept that the mind forms of them.
Charity: It is the attitude of solidarity that one has with the suffering of others.

Too often, we Christians have debased charity, as if it could be confined to a soulless and cold alms-giving, or we have reduced it to more or less stereotyped “good works”.

From our simplest conversations to the deepest and most difficult ones we have to address, in any area of our life, we must proceed in a clear, direct, and firm way, but with charity.

Now, it is difficult, which is why many of you may tell me: It is one thing to say it and another to do it.
But because it is difficult, we should not avoid it, but, on the contrary, we should continually practice it. Let’s remember that, like any art, practice makes perfection.

To help, I share with you some obstacles that I think we have all faced on a daily basis to always live in the truth…

• False humility: Not recognizing the talents and virtues that I have, because if I do, I must put them at the service of others.

• Boasting: I declare having virtues and merits that I do not have, because I want to look good to others.

• Hypocrisy: Saying one thing and doing another, as the saying goes, “acting double standards.”

• Adulation: It is giving another an exaggerated and interested “compliment.”

Let us cement our relationships, make them lasting over time, and be close to the people who matter to us and who care about us (caring about each other genuinely and generously, applying fraternal correction if necessary). Only then can we always live in the truth with charity.

“Defend the truth with charity and firmness when the things of God are at stake. Practice holy shamelessness in denouncing errors, even though at times they are no more than insinuations; at other times they will be odious utterances of the most blatant ignorance, and, normally, a sign of man’s frustration at not being able to endure the fruitfulness of the word of God."

A poet said, “Life is the art of encounter, although there is so much disagreement about life.”

What do you say? Do you dare? Let’s go against the current, on topics that are not trends or fashion. I assure you that we will leave a better world.

Mar 30 Mon - How can I become more united with God?

 

Mar 30 Mon
How can I become more united with God?

Recently, Pope Leo talked to a group of young priests on the sacrament of penance. 

“The fact that the Sacrament of Reconciliation can be received repeatedly is not always matched by a willingness on the part of the baptized to make use of it: it is as though the infinite treasure of the Church’s mercy remained 'unused’. Some Christians, not infrequently, remain in a state of sin for a long time, rather than approaching the confessional with simplicity of faith and heart to receive the gift of the Risen Lord."

“The law of the Church establishes that every Christian is obliged to make a sacramental confession at least once a year, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, following the Second Vatican Council, confirmed this norm."

“Saint Augustine affirms: One who confesses his sins, and accuses them, begins to work with God. God accuses your sins: and if you also accuse, you are united to God. To recognize our sins means ‘being in harmony’ with God, uniting ourselves with Him.”

“The Sacrament of Reconciliation is thus a 'workshop of unity’: it restores unity with God through the forgiveness of sins and the infusion of sanctifying grace, unity with the Church, and your inner unity."

The Pope expressed the hope the sinner should have since he remains totally dependent on God the Creator; this dependence, when recognized, can open the way to conversion. Sin is turning one’s back on Him. With the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Church, through the priest, restores people’s unity with God. 

The unity restored with God is also unity with the Church, which is the mystical body of Christ: we are members of the “whole Christ”.

“With the sacrament of Confession, the Church is also enriched by the renewed holiness of her repentant and forgiven children. In the confessional, the priest collaborates in the edification of the Church: one, holy, catholic, and apostolic; and in so doing, he also gives new energy to society and to the world."

“Unity with God and with the Church, finally, is the prerequisite for the inner unity of individuals, so necessary today. This inner unity is a genuine desire, especially among the younger generations. The unfulfilled promises of unbridled consumerism and the frustrating experience of a freedom detached from the truth are opportunities for evangelization. They allow us to awaken those existential questions to which only Christ can give a full answer. God became man to save us, and He does so also by nurturing our religious sense, our irrepressible longing for truth and love, so that we may embrace the Mystery in which ‘we live and move and have our being’."

Those who allow themselves to be continually renewed by God’s forgiveness become agents of reconciliation in everyday life. In him or her are fulfilled the words attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”.

Dear friends, never neglect to approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation with constancy, so that you may always be the first to benefit from divine Mercy.

Mar 29 Sun - Am I committed to Jesus?

 

Mar 29 Sun
Am I committed to Jesus?
Jesus makes his entry into Jerusalem as the Messiah upon a donkey, just as had been prophesied many centuries before. The people also acclaim him in a clearly messianic fashion. The Pharisees knew these prophecies very well, but so also did the common people, and they were visibly overjoyed.

The triumph of Jesus is a simple affair; He makes do with a poor animal for a throne. “I don’t know about you, but I am not humiliated to acknowledge that in the Lord’s eyes I am a beast of burden: ‘I am like a donkey in your presence, but I am continually with you. You hold my right hand,’ you take me by the bridle" (St. Josemaría).

Jesus also wants to enter triumphantly into the lives of men today, riding upon a humble animal; he would like us to bear witness to him in the simplicity of our work done well, showing forth our cheerfulness, our serenity, and our sincere concern for others.

The story of each man is the story of God’s continual watchfulness over him. Each man is the object of the Lord’s special love. Jesus was ready to do everything for Jerusalem, but the city was not willing to open up its gates to his mercy. This is the deep mystery of human freedom, which always retains that sad possibility of rejecting the grace of God. “Free man, subject yourself to a voluntary servitude, so that Jesus won’t have to say of you what He is said to have told Saint Teresa about others: ‘Teresa, I was willing. But men were not’."

How indeed are we responding to the countless promptings of the Holy Spirit, who seeks to make us holy in the midst of our ordinary duties and surroundings? Each day, how often do we say ‘yes’ to God and ‘no’ to our selfishness, to our laziness, and to everything that amounts to a lack of love, even if it is only something small?

St Bernard comments, “How different the cries, ‘Away with him, away with him, crucify him,’ and then ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest!’ How different the cries are that now are calling him ‘King of Israel’ and then, in a few days, will be saying, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’ What a contrast between the green branches and the cross, between the flowers and the thorns! Before they were offering their own clothes for him to walk upon, and so soon afterwards they are stripping him of his, and casting lots upon them."

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem asks for loyalty and perseverance from each one of us; it calls us to deepen in our faithfulness, and for our resolutions to be more than just bright lights that sparkle for a moment and then fade away. Thus, we will be following Our Lord unto the Cross.
Excerpts from F. Fernández Carvajal 

Mar 28 Sat - What is the role of the lay people in the Church?

 

Mar 28 Sat
What is the role of the lay people 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 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; rather, it is a specific participation in the mission of the Church.

Mar 27 Fri - Why should Our Mother Mary suffer?

 

Mar 27 Fri
Why should Our Mother Mary suffer?
Today, we consider the sorrows of Our Mother. The Virgin Mary is the teacher of hidden and silent sacrifice.

Our Lady meditated on the mission she was called to carry out at Christ's side! “But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. Let us try to imitate her, talking to our Lord, conversing like two people in love about everything that happens to us, even the most insignificant incidents." St. Josemaría.

That is the way Mary lived during the thirty years of Jesus' hidden life: years of simple, ordinary life, just like that of any other home in a small village in Galilee, but years filled with ever-increasing fervor as she carried out God's will, and waited vigilantly for the moment in which her soul would be pierced with the sword foretold by Simeon.

One day, when Jesus was about thirty, he said goodbye to his Mother and left the house in Nazareth. He was beginning his public life. Perhaps Mary thought that the moment had come for her to play her part in what she had been waiting for so ardently, and so we see her with Christ at Cana. But Jesus said to her: “My hour has not yet come." From then on, until the moment of the Passion, our Lady practically disappears from the Gospel scenes.

We must learn from our Mother how to suffer and sacrifice ourselves gladly and without attracting attention, filled with supernatural hope. “What a contrast between our Lady's hope and our own impatience! So often we call upon God to reward us at once for any little good we have done. No sooner does the first difficulty appear than we start to complain. Often, we are incapable of sustaining our efforts, of keeping our hope alive.”

“Contemplating Mary's life will help us to rectify our outlook and make it more supernatural. The great heroines of the Old Testament - Judith, Esther, Deborah - were acclaimed and exalted by the people. Mary's throne, by contrast, like that of her Son, is the Cross. During the rest of her life, until she was taken body and soul into heaven, what most impresses us about her is her quiet presence. St Luke, who knew her well, describes her as being close to the first disciples in prayer. This was the way she lived to the end of her days on earth, she who was to be praised by all creatures for all eternity."

Tell her: “Mother, my Mother - yours, because you are hers on many counts - may your love bind me to your Son's Cross; may I not lack the faith, nor the courage, nor the daring, to carry out the will of our Jesus." This is how we want to live always, and especially in these coming days of Holy Week: closely united to our Blessed Mother, for “we do not wish to, we cannot, leave her alone."

Mar 26 Thu - What is the Communion Rite of the Mass?

 

Mar 26 Thu
What is the Communion Rite of the Mass?
We all stand even as the Great Amen, uniting us to the sacred action, still echoes in the church.

The ancient sacrificial custom required that part of the victim be given back to the person offering the sacrifice. Thus, he became, symbolically, God’s guest. That which was merely a symbol in the pagan rites and a figure in the Jewish offerings is a reality in the Holy Mass. After we have offered to God his Son Jesus Christ in sacrifice, God offers him to us as spiritual food. 

Once they were set free from the oppression of the Egyptians, the Jews had to travel across the desert. Their confidence in God began to dwindle. They began to complain against Moses. But God’s patience was greater than the nasty complaints of the Israelites. He sent them manna, “bread from heavens.” Each morning for forty years, until they entered the Promised Land, the people went out and gathered the day’s portion of manna. 

Jesus himself pointed out the manna as a prefiguration of the Eucharist, “Your fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they are dead; but this is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die.” 

The Christians are strengthened by the body of Christ, the true “Bread from heaven.” If the manna was a token of God’s tender care for the chosen people whom He delivered from slavery, more so does the Eucharist reveal God’s paternal love for us. Those who nourish their soul with the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ, can be sure of reaching the end of the road that leads to eternal life. 

In the synagogue of Capernaum, Jesus said, 

I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they are dead...I am the living bread that has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.

These words perplexed those who heard Christ. The Lord did not take back his assertions; He even went further on: 

I tell you most solemnly, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
After this, St John notes, many left him and stopped going with him.

During the Last Supper, Jesus redeemed his promise, making it a reality, to the amazement of the apostles. “What we cannot do, our Lord can do. Jesus Christ, perfect God and perfect man, leaves us not a symbol, but a reality. He himself stays with us. He will go to the Father, but He will also remain among men. He will leave us, not simply a gift that will make us remember him, not an image that becomes blurred with time, like a photograph that soon fades and yellows, and has no meaning except for those who were contemporaries. Under the appearances of bread and wine, He is really present, with his body and blood, with his soul and divinity.” 

Mar 25 Wed - Why do we say that the Church is the People of God?

 

Mar 25 Wed
Why do we say that the Church is the People of God?

Recently, Pope Leo XIV described the Church as the People of God—a People that everyone is called to enter.

“God, who created the world and humanity, and who wishes to save every man, carries out his work of salvation in history, choosing a real People and dwelling among them.” 

As Israel, according to the flesh, which wandered in the desert, was already called the Church of God, so too, the new Israel, which advances in this present era in search of a future and permanent city, is called also the Church of Christ. 

This is the new and perfect Covenant, ratified in Christ, proclaiming the fuller revelation given through the Word of God Himself made flesh.

“Indeed, it is Christ who, in giving His Body and His Blood, unites this People in Himself and in a definitive way. 
It is a People now made up of members of every nation; it is united by faith in Him, by adherence to Him, by living the same life as Him, animated by the Spirit of the Risen One. 
This is the Church: the People of God who draw their existence from the body of Christ and who are themselves the body of Christ; not a people like any other, but the People of God, called together by Him and made up of women and men from all the peoples of the earth. Her unifying principle is not a language, a culture, an ethnicity, but faith in Christ."

“The Church, then, is a messianic People, precisely because it has Christ, the Messiah, as her Head. Above any task or function, therefore, what really matters in the Church is to be grafted onto Christ, to be children of God by grace ... 
We are in the Church to receive life from the Father unceasingly and to live as His children and brethren among ourselves. Consequently, the law that animates relationships in the Church is love, as we receive and experience it in Jesus; and her goal is the Kingdom of God, towards which she walks together with all humanity.”

The identity of the People of God is the dignity and freedom of the children of God, in whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as in a temple. All her members have the same dignity, since all have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and called to holiness. This dignity is compatible with a diversity of roles among different members.

“Even those who have not yet received the Gospel are, therefore, in some way, oriented towards the People of God, and the Church, cooperating in Christ’s mission, is called upon to spread the Gospel everywhere and to everyone, so that every person may enter into contact with Christ."

“Thus, every Christian is called to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness in every environment in which one lives and works. This People shows its catholicity, welcoming the wealth and resources of different cultures and, at the same time, offering them the newness of the Gospel to purify them and to raise them up." 

Mar 24 Tue - What kind of alms should I give to the poor?

 

Mar 24 Tue
What kind of alms should I give to the poor?

“Giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God.” Charity toward the poor comes in many forms: we can give them fish for a day or teach them to fish.

What constitutes “the poor” encompasses a broad range, from destitution to struggling to make ends meet. Charity to the former may include money and clothing; to the latter, it could include scholarships for school or free training for a profession. The point for the giver is to meet the need, whatever that may be, in order both to ease the recipient’s suffering and to enable him to feel God’s love through our compassion. In doing so, we show “a preferential love” for the poor that is a hallmark of a true disciple of Christ.

'May God give you health.' - Doesn't this wish for mere physical well-being, with which some beggars demand or acknowledge alms, leave a bad taste in your mouth?

One should not be “reductionist.” What about the “spiritually poor?” In our day, sad to say, real spiritually poor people exist in droves: first, the lonely, depressed, addicted, and suicidal are some of them. Of course, these have nothing to do with the “poor in spirit,” who are the humble before God.

Then, those who live without God in their lives are also spiritually poor.

As with material poverty, spiritual poverty has a range: those who do not know God or have forsaken Him are the most destitute; those who have God but not Christ are a rung up; those who have Christ but not the Catholic Church are less poor but still suffer from not having their needs completely met; those who are Catholic but do not attend Mass are blind to their poverty.

The spiritually poor surely need to receive charity too. Should we exclude them from among “the poor”? What should this charity be?

Some think, from a materialistic worldview, that faith is relative, and secondary to persons’ “real”— that is, material — needs. Holders of this view may well believe in Christ, but they do not think, contrary to our Lord’s repeated warnings and the continuous teaching of the Church, that what they believe matters or has anything to do with salvation.

Yet Saint Josemaría told us, Agreed: your concern ought to be for 'them.’ But your first concern must be yourself, your own interior life. Otherwise, you will not be able to serve them.

"You need interior life and doctrinal formation." Be demanding of yourself! As a Christian person, you have to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, for you are obliged to give a good example with holy shamelessness.

Don’t place obstacles in the way of grace. You need to be convinced that to be leaven, you must become a saint and must struggle to identify yourself with Him.

Your interior life and your formation include the piety and the principles a child of God must have, to give flavor to everything by his active presence there. 

Mar 23 Mon - Am I a good instrument in the hands of God?

 

Mar 23 Mon
Am I a good instrument in the hands of God?

A pencil used to be a very useful instrument when there were no computers. 

Here, the seven qualities of a pencil🖍️, which, if you manage to adopt them, will make you a happy person, always at peace with God and the world.

❤️ First quality: You must never forget that there is a hand guiding you. That hand is God, and He always guides us to fulfill His Will.

❤️Second quality: Now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, it is much sharper.
You, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

❤️Third quality: The pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes, turning it upside down.
This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the right path.

❤️ Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside.
So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

❤️Fifth quality: It always leaves a mark.
In just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that the trail you leave is right.

❤️Sixth quality: It gets shorter and shorter with use.... so too is life.
Put it aright while it lasts.

❤️Seventh quality: It writes till the very end. Be useful and productive till the end.

The saints are examples of good instruments in the hands of God. In the pic, St John Paul II praying before Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. 

Mar 22 Sun - After death, should I hope for my own resurrection?

 

Mar 22 Sun
After death, should I hope for my own resurrection?

Even though all living things on earth die, as a consequence of original sin, man must suffer bodily death. 

By death, the soul is separated from the body, but in the resurrection, God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul. Just as Christ is risen and lives forever, so all of us are called to rise at the last day to live with Him.

In the raising of Lazarus, Christ reunited this poor man’s body and soul and regenerated him to corruptible life, the natural life we live now.

But Christ raises us from an incorruptible body to a ‘spiritual body’.

Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: ‘I am the Resurrection and the life.’ It is Jesus himself who, on the last day, will raise those who have believed in him. Already now in this present life, He gave a sign and pledge of this by restoring Lazarus to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection.

We are on our earthly pilgrimage. This is our time of grace and mercy in which we work out our earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and thus decide our ultimate destiny. With Gods’ helping and healing graces, our task is to do good and avoid evil. Our work is to love God and neighbor properly. We prepare for heaven by doing good. We prepare for hell by sinning.

The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death, the end of this pilgrimage. In the ancient litany of the saints, we prayed: ‘From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord’.

As Thomas a Kempis wrote:

Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience …. Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you are not ready to face death today, it’s very unlikely you will be tomorrow.

As St. Francis put it:
Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister, bodily Death,
from whom no living man can escape.
Woe on those who will die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they who will be found
in your most holy will,
for the second death will not harm them.

And St. Josemaría: “A true Christian is always ready to appear before God. Because if he is fighting to live as a man of Christ, he is ready at every moment to fulfill his duty."

“A son of God fears neither life nor death, because his spiritual life is founded on a sense of divine filiation. God is my Father, he thinks, and He is the Author of all good; He is all Goodness."

“But, you and I, do we really act as sons of God?"

Let us ask the Mother of God to intercede for us ‘now, and at the hour of our death’ and entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death. 

Mar 21 Sat - 6 Elements to make a good spiritual retreat

 

Mar 21 Sat
6 Elements to make a good spiritual retreat.

“Days on retreat. Recollection to know God, to know yourself, and thus to make progress. A necessary time for discovering where and how you should change your life. - What should I do? What should I avoid?"

There are many types of retreats, and many Church organizations offer retreats. They may follow a traditional format, with a priest serving as retreat master, offering spiritual conferences or daily meditations.

Prudent pastoral experience suggests that the following elements are most helpful for a good retreat: 

1. Silence. Look for a retreat location that fosters an atmosphere of silence, not as penance, but as a means to listen to the Holy Spirit and get to know Jesus while getting to know yourself.

When you go on retreat, turn off your cell phone and disconnect from all cyber communication. God wants your attention. Others can wait.

2. The Holy Eucharist. Since the Holy Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ, you should attend Mass and receive Holy Communion daily during the retreat. It is also helpful to spend time in silent conversation before the Blessed Sacrament and to participate in the Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament during the retreat.

3. Confession. The annual retreat provides special graces for a deeper examination of conscience, which impels the soul to deeper contrition. As you spend time in silent reflection and examination of conscience, the Holy Spirit will prompt you to confess your sins to the priest.

4. Meditation, directed or personal, and spiritual Reading. What a joy to read the Gospels slowly and silently! How much good does it do to the soul!

Priority should be given to the New Testament, and first and foremost to the Gospels. The soul benefits greatly from reading and reflecting on the words and actions of our blessed Savior.

It is not a matter of “learning” new things, but of listening to something that challenges you and leads you to repent and make resolutions to rectify.

Classics like «The Three Ages of Interior Life» of Reginald Garrigou-LaGrange, «Imitation of Christ» of Thomas á Kempis, the books of St. Josemaría, or «In Conversation with God» of Francis Fernandez Carvajal are good choices for your ‘extra’ reading.

5. Closeness to the Blessed Mother. After Our Lord's ascension into heaven, the apostles gathered around Our Lady and accompanied her in prayer. Ten days later, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit poured out His grace on each of those present in the Upper Room, and thus the Church was born.

During your retreat, take time to pray the rosary daily and meditate deeply on each mystery. By reflecting on the example of the Blessed Mother, you will draw closer to Our Lord.

As your retreat draws to a close, be sure to make some practical and generous resolutions (no more than three) to improve in prayer, apostolate service, and sacrifice. Write these resolutions in your notebook or save them on your phone.

With God's grace and your humble contrition, you will make progress. 

Mar 20 Fri - Am I absorbed in thinking too much about the past?

 

Mar 20 Fri

Am I absorbed in thinking too much about the past?

The tale of the 3 MONKS AND THE DEVIL.
The demon appeared to three monks, and he told them, “If I gave you power to change something from the past, what would you change?”

The first of them, with great apostolic fervor, replied: "I would prevent you from making Adam and Eve fall into sin, so that humanity could not turn away from God."

The second, a man full of mercy, said to him: "I would prevent you from tempting, and you will condemn yourself eternally".

The third of them was the simplest and, instead of responding to the Tempter, he got on his knees, made the sign of the cross, and prayed saying: "Lord, free me from the temptation of what could be, and was not".

The devil, giving a raucous cry and shuddering with pain, vanished.

The other two, surprised, said to him: "Brother, why have you reacted like this?"
He replied: "First: we must NEVER dialogue with the enemy.

Second: NOBODY in the world has the power to change the past.

Third: Satan's INTEREST was not to prove our virtue, but to trap us in the past, so that we neglect the present, the only time in which God gives us His grace and we can cooperate with it to fulfill His will."

Of all the demons, the one that catches the most men and prevents them from being happy is wishful thinking, that of "What could have been and was not". The past should be left to the mercy of God, and the future to his Providence. Just the present is in our hands. "Love what is lovable, Pray, Live here and now."

Mar 19 Thu - How did St. Joseph pray?

 

Mar 19 Thu
How did St. Joseph pray?

The serene and strong figure of St. Joseph surprises us: the Gospels do not convey any of his words, and his actions were simple, without much drama.

Although his life was not marked by significant external actions, it was full of internal activity. We see a man who knew how to respond to challenges through the silence of prayer and, as a result, was able to carry out his work with the freedom that comes from true love.

The Gospels speak of what Joseph "did," but not of his life of deep contemplation. St. John Paul II told us that his whole life was true prayer. St. Joseph was attentive to the voice of God behind all events and people. This enabled him to hear God even in the faint images of dreams.

While he slept, he discovered his vocation, which would fill all his days with a sense of mission: to care for Jesus and Mary.

An angel visited him by night to reveal God's plan. Even then, we do not hear Joseph's response to the angelic message; he simply did what God asked him to do.

Between St. Joseph's interior life and his external actions, we see no discontinuity because he transformed his life into a path of prayer. He turned God's dream into his own.

Our life of prayer leads us, like St. Joseph, to always seek refuge in the Lord. The Holy Patriarch was able to endure everything, because he knew how to put his heart in Jesus: with Him, every situation becomes pleasant. He never saw his vocation as a set of obligations but as the undeserved gift of being able to live at all times with the Son of God.

We too can live in the hidden life of Christ. The lives of Joseph and Mary developed in constant dialogue with Jesus: they lived to see the Lord grow, but they were the ones who grew in the eyes of God. They cared for Jesus in a humble house in Nazareth while God protected them in His love.

True prayer, when it is an open dialogue with God, gives us the possibility of viewing the world, in some way, from His perspective. Then our life acquires a different, unsuspected dimension, like that of St. Joseph, who knew how to place faith and love in the hope of the great mission that God was initiating in the world: the redemption of mankind. And God did so by using him—a carpenter from Galilee.

Joseph never put himself at the center. He knew how to be out of the limelight, placing Mary and Jesus at the center of his life.

Prayer makes us truly free because it allows us to enter into the logic of self-giving, which makes us lighter and helps us give the right weight to each event.

When we live in constant dialogue with God, our lives are no longer chained to our likes or dislikes, although these do not cease to exist. Nor do our miseries worry us too much, because we know that He comes to help us and turn them into a source of grace, as were Christ's wounded hands and open side.

Mar 18 Wed - Why is the Amen at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer?

 

Mar 18 Wed
Why is the Amen at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer?

The Eucharistic Prayer ends with the Final Doxology. It is a song of praise to God that began from the Preface. The priest takes the chalice and the paten with the host and, lifting them, sings or says,

Through him, and with him, and in him,
O God, almighty Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor is yours, for ever and ever.

Through him: Through Jesus’ mediation, we have access to God. “No one can come to the Father except through me.” The Father hears us favorably, forgives us, and loves us.

With him: We are children of God, through the adoption Christ merited for us, and, as a consequence, we are made his co-heirs. “Without me, you can do nothing,” He says. With him, our lives will glorify God on the earth. On the altar, Jesus unites us to his perfect obedience. He wants us, throughout the whole day, to be with him in work and in prayer; He wants us to be his companions, in penance and in apostolate.

In him: There is the same life in him and in us. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I live in him,” Christ says. So, his life flows out into ours; from the Head to us as members of his Mystical Body. Our nothingness, our sins, our miseries are, as it were, absorbed by Christ, and they disappear in his infinite perfection. In him, too, we love our brothers and devote ourselves to their service.

In the unity of the Holy Spirit: The Church is a unity brought together by the Holy Spirit. He joins us together as believers and gives us the life of grace by which we become children of God. He dwells in us, enabling us to offer the sacrifice of praise to God, together with the entire Church. 

The people’s acclamation Amen is an assent and a conclusion. Our offering, which is Christ’s offering on the cross, calls for a unanimous and enthusiastic Amen.

Already in the third century, the Christian people were granted these privileges: “To hear the Eucharistic Prayer, to acclaim the final Amen, to go to the sacred table, to receive the divine Bread.”
Yet the assembly does not remain passive: it unites itself to the priest in faith and silence and assents in the various interventions in the Eucharistic Prayer.

Let us sing or say the Great Amen with all our hearts united to all our brethren. Let it resound the whole world over, as the Amen of our early brothers in the faith “resounded in heaven, as a celestial thunderclap in the Roman basilicas,” they said.

This is the most important Amen in the Mass. It is for us both a resolution and a prayer. It is a resolution upon which our love for God blooms; a prayer based on the future hope of resurrection.

As the priest holds the paten and chalice, let us remember that Mary also held her Son’s body after the crucifixion. Together with our Mother, Mother of the Church, we unite ourselves to the offering of the Church.

Mar 17 Tue - Did God create human beings as male and female?

 

Mar 17 Tue
Did God create human beings as male and female?

God endowed human beings with souls and sexed bodies.
In the beginning, God created human beings as male and female to reflect His image through their reciprocal complementarity, and to enable their mutual self-giving as a fundamental expression of love and unity.

The statement “Male and female, He created them," is immediately followed by the blessing: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." This dual creation is not arbitrary but essential to humanity's dignity and vocation: both sexes bear God's image equally yet distinctly, called to dominion over creation through their partnership.

Thus, sexual differentiation is not an accident, but a cause for celebration and wonder. We are living beings, dust of the earth and divine breath, body and soul; a substantial unity from which flows the dignity of each person and the dignity of the sexed human body.

This complementarity manifests that all enjoy an equal dignity, while their differences enable mutual support. Masculinity and femininity are two different ways of the human 'being a body’, revealing the body as a ‘nuptial’ sign of the person, oriented to giving oneself.

The Genesis narrative describes human beings with their sexual differences. The incarnation of body and spirit reveals who we are, in such a way that the body makes the spirit visible.

An opposing view is Gnosticism—both past and present—for which the body, matter, is a reality of little consequence, superfluous; the only thing that matters is the spiritual dimension.

The book of Genesis, on the other hand, in contrast to this pernicious Gnostic spiritualism, proposes a healthy Christian materialism that highlights the dignity of the flesh, of the body, understood as a gift of creation.

There is in human beings a reality of body and spirit, and we are called to be connected to what we are.

However, in contrast to this, for the gender theory, there is no Creator; we are free to create ourselves. The body is an object without intrinsic meaning; using technology, we can give it whatever meaning we want. We do not receive meaning from God, nor from our bodies, nor from the world: we impose it. 

We are faced with a mentality steeped in merely emotions: “If I want to be, if I can do it, I will do it.” In this theory, the body becomes a mere object, like clay shaped by drugs or the surgeon’s hands. Transgender anthropology follows these paths.

Being a creature, rather than an accident, establishes the human person as someone in relation to God. We are not alone in the cosmos. 

Once the human person is understood as created, individuality, including sex, becomes a gift that can be accepted, rather than something that must be fabricated.

Reflecting on the goodness of the created order will help us view the gift of our bodies with reverence, practicing the free acceptance of our being, what we are.

Male-female creation images of the Trinitarian communion: through love, God imprints His reality of love and communion on humanity.

With some excerpts from Francisco Bobadilla

Mar 16 Mon - Can I be holy just by my own effort?

 

Mar 16 Mon
Can I be holy just by my own effort?

Only God makes us holy.
We have been called by God to share in the glory of his holiness as his adopted children. “Let us not turn away from our duty to live our whole life - to the last drop - in the service of God and his Church."

Nevertheless, the road is long, like that of the Israelites in the desert, and we often find our strength disappearing and our path becoming steep and difficult. Sometimes, above all, after a period of prolonged interior struggle, a feeling of weariness and indifference could come over us, and open the gates to the temptation to stop fighting. Then we have to react and seek help from Him.

Why do we sometimes feel such tiredness and even discouragement? Perhaps without realizing it, we may have been trying to build up our holiness through our own efforts instead of relying on our Lord. Then He allows a state of interior loneliness to make us understand that holiness without God does not make sense.

“We have a clear guide, which we should not and cannot do without. We are loved by God, and we will let the Holy Spirit act in us and purify us, so that we can embrace the Son of God on the Cross, and rise with him, because the joy of the Resurrection is rooted in the Cross."

Are we still going to place our trust in ourselves, in our own worth, and in the strength of our own will? God has indeed given us some talents. Yet if we try to use them to climb the heights of holiness by ourselves, we will only meet with difficulties, for we would be trying to attain a supernatural goal by human means.

Let us always turn to God our Lord for help. Let us ask him never to allow us to leave him; instead, may we always struggle to be with Him. This is a large part of the inner conversion which God, the Father of goodness, wants to effect in us.

Holiness does not depend on us alone. It depends primarily on God. It is the grace of God which sanctifies us, although our own good will and personal effort must accompany it. 

Christ has given us, as a promise of his victory, together with a command which is also a commitment: "Fight". We, Christians, have an obligation that urges us to fight persistently. We know that we are as weak as other men, but we cannot forget that if we use the means available to us, we will become salt and light and leaven of the world; we will be the consolation of God.

Certainly, there will be difficulties. But our Lord invites us to lift our gaze towards the reward that awaits us. 

We must struggle as if everything depended on us; and then, we must turn to God with the confidence that comes from knowing that our petition will be heard.

Mar 15 Sun - Is joy compatible with suffering?

 

Mar 15 Sun 

Is joy compatible with suffering?

The strictness of the Lenten liturgy is interrupted on this Sunday with words that speak to us of joy. 

The Church wishes to remind us that joy is perfectly compatible with mortification and pain. It is sadness and not penance that is opposed to happiness. 

The mortifications we do during these days should not cast a shadow over our interior joy. Rather, it ought to increase it, because our Redemption is near at hand; the pouring out of love for mankind, which is the Passion, is coming, and the joy of Easter will soon be upon us. 

We therefore feel the need to be very closely united to Our Lord, so that our lives too may reflect once more the suffering He underwent for our sakes, as well as experiencing great happiness in the attainment of the glory and joy of the Resurrection through his Passion and his Cross.

Christians are aware that joy and happiness stem from a heart that knows itself to be loved by God and which, in its turn, is madly in love with Him. 

Suffering and tribulation are inevitably and eventually the lot of everyone on this earth. But suffering of itself alone neither transforms nor purifies. It may even be the cause of rebellion and hatred. Some Christians abandon Our Lord when they meet the Cross, because they seek a purely human happiness, free from pain and accompanied by material wealth.

God asks us to lose our fear of pain and tribulation and unite ourselves to him, as He waits for us on the Cross. Our soul will then be more purified, our love stronger. And we will realize that joy is inseparable from the Cross. Not only that, but we will also understand that we can never be happy if we are not united to Christ on the Cross, and that we will never know how to love if we do not at the same time love sacrifice. 

Those tribulations that appear to our poor human reasoning as unjust and meaningless are necessary for our personal holiness and for the salvation of many souls. Within the mystery of co-redemption, our sufferings united to those of Christ acquire an incomparable value for the entire Church and the whole of mankind. If we humbly have recourse to God, He will make us see that everything, even events and circumstances apparently least likely to do so, work together for the good of those who love him. Suffering, when seen in its true light, when it serves as a means of loving more, produces great peace and deep joy. That is why God often blesses us with the Cross.

“That is how we must travel along the way of self-giving: the Cross on our shoulders, a smile on our lips, and light in our hearts."

If at times we have been afraid of penance and atonement, we will be filled with courage at the thought of how short the time involved is, and how great the reward, a prize entirely disproportionate to our own little efforts. So let us cheerfully follow Jesus to Jerusalem, to Calvary, to the Cross. 

Excerpts from F. Fernandez Carvajal 

Mar 14 Sat - How should I learn to choose ‘with God’?

 

Mar 14 Sat
How should I learn to choose ‘with God’?

Some young people and adults are torn between the desire to follow Christ and the fears that slow their progress.

In the midst of a culture of indecision, where an abundance of options does not always mean knowing how to choose, discernment appears to be one of the most urgent spiritual tasks for contemporary Christians. How do I know what God wants from me? How can I avoid getting caught up in speculation without ever taking action? 
To have the right discernment, or the art of choosing wisely, there is a sure way: to always want what God wants, to choose with Him.

Discernment is not about remaining in thought indefinitely, but about learning to desire what God desires and walking toward it freely.

Discernment does not begin with emotions, but with the use of intelligence and will. Thus, the first obstacle to discernment is the lack of criteria: ways of thinking that do not conform to the Gospel and that lead to interpreting reality through distorted lenses. Without an educated intellect, the soul goes astray into misinterpretations.

The second obstacle concerns the will: there is often internal resistance that prioritizes personal desires over the will of God. Many times, it is not a matter of choosing between good and bad, but between good and better, or between what is comfortable and what is true. When my preferences take precedence over God, desires become disordered, and discernment becomes confused.

Discernment is not an abstract theory but a daily practice. It involves continually asking oneself: "What does God want from me here, now, in this specific circumstance?" This perspective prevents reducing discernment to exceptional moments or dramatic choices and makes it possible to recognize God's will at work, whether in family life or studies.

There is a frequent danger: confusing discernment with perpetual reflection on the same issue. Prolonged indecision results in evading commitment. Like those who look at a path without daring to take the first step, some believers remain at a theoretical level, without moving from idea to action, from truth to charity. Discernment must always lead to decision, even if there is a risk of making mistakes, because grace acts in movement, not in paralysis.

In the vocational realm, there are several common myths among those seeking guidance. Regarding marriage, there is a temptation to build unrealistic expectations, projecting desires and emotions without confronting them with the Gospel. Many ask why there is no "someone destined exclusively for me," when in reality, the Christian is made for God, and only from Him can one avoid falling into distorted dependencies.

The decisive question is not "What do I want?" but "What does God want from me?"

Yet God respects human freedom and never replaces it. Hence, discernment does not mean not making mistakes, but taking risks in following Christ, knowing that He accompanies and corrects us along the way.

Right discernment will bring order to my intelligence, purify my desires, and direct my will toward the greatest good: union with God. 

Mar 13 Fri - Why should I exert effort to live in the presence of God?

 

Mar 13 Fri
Why should I exert effort to live in the presence of God?

Recently, Pope Leo advised seminarians to practice the presence of God, lest they become like the barren fig tree mentioned by Christ (Luke 13:6-9).

Commenting on G. K. Chesterton’s — “Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural”— Pope Leo said that “man is not made to live enclosed on himself, but in a living relationship with God.”

“When that relationship is obscured or weakened, life begins to fall into disorder from within.” 

Some avoid scandalous conduct, and they think it is enough. “The unnatural is not only the scandalous; it is enough to live without God in daily life.”

“A believing outlook on reality needs to be translated every day into concrete choices in life; otherwise, even intrinsically good practices—such as study, prayer, family life—can become empty and distorted, becoming mere fulfillment.” 

“A simple and proven way to safeguard this view is to practice the presence of God, which keeps the heart awake and life constantly focused on Him.”

“It is said that trees ‘die standing’: they remain upright, they retain their appearance, but inside they are already dry and rotten. Something similar can happen in the life of a follower of Christ, when fruitfulness is mistaken for the intensity of activities or with merely external care for appearances.”

“Spiritual life does not bear fruit because of what is visible, but because of what is an interior life deeply rooted in God. When that root is neglected, everything ends up drying up inside, until, silently, it ends up ‘dying standing upright’.”

St. Josemaría advised us to dedicate each day of the week to a solid devotion as a help for our presence of God. “Sunday, for example, is good for praising the Trinity: glory to the Father, glory to the Son, glory to the Holy Spirit.” 

“On Mondays, we can pray for the holy souls in purgatory.” 
“Tuesday? I dedicate it to the Guardian Angels.” 
“And Wednesday? It's St Joseph's day." 
“On Thursdays, many acts to honor the holy Eucharist: spiritual communions, acts of reparation...” 
“On Fridays, ‘Hail, Holy Cross, our only hope!’” 
“And Saturday? We go to our heavenly Mother, our Lady!"

St. Josemaría made it clear that there is no obligation to follow this particular path, but he added: “What no one should do is to neglect presence of God. If a person does not have presence of God, he won't go well: he won't be mortified, won't be spiritual, nor zealous, nor eager to work. On the other hand, by making this effort, we find ourselves conversing with God at every moment of the day: we live as contemplative souls."

St. Josemaría also said: “Place on your desk, [beside the computer], in your room, in your wallet..., a picture of our Lady, and look at it when you begin your work, while you're doing it, and when you finish. She will obtain, I assure you, the strength to turn your task into a loving dialogue with God."

Mar 12 Thu - Why are there intercessions in the Mass?

 

Mar 12 Thu
Why are there intercessions in the Mass?

Since Christ’s sacrifice is the preeminent and eternal act of intercession, the intercessory prayers form part of the Eucharistic Prayer.

In Cana, our Lady interceded for some material need.
At Mass, we not only pray for ourselves, but also join our prayer to that of our brethren. The Intercessions make it clear that we celebrate the Mass in communion with the entire Church in heaven and on earth, and that we make the offering for the Church and for all her members, living and dead.

The Church offers, in accordance with the teaching of our Lord and the apostles, not only to atone for the sins and punishments of the living faithful and to appeal for their other needs, but also to help those who have died in Christ but have not yet been completely purified.

The Intercessions are usually divided into three sections: for living Christians, for the dead, and in relation to the saints in heaven.

The first generations of Christians prayed constantly for the whole Church, following Christ’s command of mutual love.

We pray for the pope and for the bishop of our diocese. This union with them is necessary because “the Church of God is really present in all legitimate organized local groups of faithful, which, insofar as they are united to their pastors, are called churches.”

No one can make himself the Church. A group cannot simply come together, read the New Testament, and say, “Now we are the Church because the Lord is found wherever two or three are gathered in his name.”

Moreover, like the Eucharist, the Church cannot be ‘made’, but can only be ‘received’ by us. To be legitimate, each Mass presupposes union among the faithful, and of the faithful with their bishop, the pope, and the universal Church. Moreover, that solid union is made stronger with the celebration of the Eucharist and is a consequence of it.

Therefore, we feel united now with the pope’s Mass, and with that of our bishop, and pray for both of them by name, and for all who seek God with a sincere heart.

The priest tells God of us, “You know how firmly we believe in you and dedicate ourselves to you.” We want to always be his loyal children and to obey his will.

In the second section, we pray for all the dead whose faith, perhaps hidden to men’s eyes, only God knew.
How can we fail to remember here on earth this or that person so dear to us? Perhaps, during his lifetime, he did not seem to have as much faith as we would have liked to see in him. Hence, we find ourselves a bit concerned about his salvation. 

Finally, the Intercessions have a third section to invoke the help of those brothers of ours now enjoying themselves in the glory of heaven. We manifest also the desire of sharing with them the heavenly inheritance. Thus, we venerate the memory first of all of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, of the blessed Joseph, the blessed apostles and martyrs, and of all the saints.

Mar 11 Wed - Am I a son of God, really?

 

Mar 11 Wed
Am I a son of God, really?

I LOVE THIS ANALOGY:
- When GOD wanted to create fish, He spoke to the sea.
- When GOD wanted to create trees, He spoke to the earth.
- But when GOD wanted to create man, He turned to HIMSELF.
- So, GOD said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness."

Note:
- If you take a fish out of the water, it will die; and when you remove a tree from the ground, it also dies.
- Likewise, when man disconnects himself from GOD, he dies.
- GOD* is our natural environment.  We were created to live in HIS presence.
- We must be connected to HIM because only with HIM does life exist.
- Let us remain connected with GOD.
- Let us remember that water without fish is still water, but fish without water is nothing.
- The soil without the tree is still soil, but the tree without the soil is nothing....
- God without man is still God, but man without GOD is nothing.

God sent us Jesus to suffer and die for us. Our sins and lack of correspondence made our Lord's Passion more painful and harder to bear. We ought to be fully aware of this truth and feel personally responsible for the events that happened two thousand years ago. We cannot hide in the crowd. Instead, we must make reparation and atonement: Love is paid back with love.

We must return to Him at once, quickly, like children, even if the weight of our repeated rebelliousness overwhelms us. “Awareness that God is our Father brings joy to our conversion: it tells us that we are returning to our Father's house."

Appreciate God's unfathomable mercy and compassion. “Our Father God, when we come to him repentant, draws, from our wretchedness, a treasure; from our weakness, strength. What then will He prepare for us, if we don't forsake him, if we go to him daily, if we talk lovingly to him and confirm our love with deeds, if we go to him for everything, trusting in his almighty power and mercy?" 

Our Lord's coming to earth, and his sufferings, are in themselves a sign of his infinite love. How much more love He shows by taking us as his adopted children, and making us share in his divine life, as heirs to his glory! 

See what love God the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. He adopted us as his children - we who were only his servants. He bestows favor upon favor, love upon love. And He expects specific, sincere deeds of penance, and the best penance is to do what Jesus Christ is asking of us every day, at every moment. 

God is YOUR Father. Every day, try to get closer to Him, through the word (read the Gospel) and through the bread (frequent the sacraments).

Mar 10 Tue - Is the Christian apostolate directed to all?

 

Mar 10 Tue
Is the Christian apostolate directed to all?

Our personal apostolate is always part of a universal mission.

Although Christ lived in a small corner of the world, and at a particular time in history, by his death He won salvation for all people of all races and all times.

To imitate Christ, we need a big heart, capable of beating for the salvation of all souls and loving everyone to the point of sacrifice. St. Josemaría writes: “You should feel on your shoulders -remembering the image of the Good Shepherd depicted in the catacombs - the weight of the lost sheep, which represents not just a single soul, but the entire Church, the whole of humanity. Right from the start God wanted his Work to have a catholic, universal heart."

Even though each person in Opus Dei has a particular apostolic task to attend to, we can never shut ourselves up within the limits of our specific situation and our apostolic assignment. We should always remember that our task forms part of a universal mission.

We are enabled to make our universal aspirations a reality through the help of the Holy Spirit, who gives us the authentic love of God's children. “Our love for all mankind is not to be confused with sentimentality or mere good fellowship, nor with that somewhat questionable zeal to help others in order to convince ourselves of our superiority. Rather, it means living in peace with our neighbor, venerating the image of God that is found in each and every man, and doing all we can to get them in their turn to contemplate that image, so that they may learn how to turn to Christ."

The Church's mission, the mission of every Christian, extends to all nations and peoples. A Catholic needs a big heart that transcends the limits of nation, race or group. “Your charity has to be far-reaching, universal. This attitude will lead you to pray for everyone and, to the extent of your possibilities, to help everyone."

God wants universality for his Church. “We have to strive as far as possible for unity among Catholics throughout the whole world, so that there may be a common denominator, and in this way, we can bring about the spreading of Christ's Kingdom."

This common denominator consists of the faith and morals which the Church teaches in God's name. We can never set aside this doctrine, under the false pretense that it does not fit in with the circumstances of a particular country or age. But all other matters, such as customs, fashions, or opinions in temporal matters, form the numerator, and in no way lessen unity among Christians.

“You must be a bearer of God, not because you bear his Name in vain, but because it shows in the way you act: in your faithfulness to Catholic doctrine and morals, in the serious way you carry out your human tasks, in the charity you show towards everyone. That is the way to be good servants of God and the Church."

Mar 9 Mon - Why is there purgatory?

 

Mar 9 Mon
Why is there purgatory?
Purgatory is a state of purification before entering heaven.
God our Father has promised us eternal glory, where we will be able to contemplate him face to face, in total union with him. But the dwelling of the Most High is a holy place. A soul stained by guilt cannot attain the full company of God.

Sins must be atoned. This may be done on this earth, offering the sorrows, misfortunes and trials of this life and, above all, through a holy death. Otherwise, the atonement must be made in the next life through fire and torments or "purifying" punishments. Our choice: “Pay now, or pay later.”

We must consider purgatory as a manifestation of God's paternal love for us. We can compare it to the love of “a mother who takes her little child and puts him in the bath, soaps him all over, washes him and dresses him, so that the baby ends up looking like a perfect angel!”

The Church teaches that the souls in purgatory suffer temporal punishment, with the complete certainty that these sufferings are leading to the full possession of God.

There is suffering over there, because the soul keenly desires to enjoy God but is deprived of the vision of God for a time. There is also pain, for the soul is purified by the punishment of the senses (torment). Yet there is joy too, knowing that the battle is won and the soul is destined to rejoice in God for ever.

God also purifies us during our life on earth. By accepting life's sufferings in penance for our sins, we can in a certain sense have our purgatory here on earth, and thus be prepared to enter heaven quickly. Saint Josemaría wrote: “The great Christian revolution has been to convert pain into fruitful suffering, and to turn a bad thing into something useful. We have deprived the devil of this weapon; and with it we can conquer eternal happiness.”

In this life, our suffering freely accepted and sought for love of God, pain and penance, are instruments of penance: they are our purgatory on earth. “Are you afraid of penance?... Of penance, which helps you to obtain life everlasting? And yet, in order to preserve this poor present life, don't you see how men will submit to the cruel torture of a surgical operation?”

And there is much to purify in ourselves. There are venial sins; there are omissions in love; and concessions to the inclination to sin that our nature inherited from the first fall.

Furthermore, every sin, even after it has been forgiven, leaves a debt outstanding in the soul, which must be paid either in this life or in the next. So, shouldn’t we ask the Lord: Cleanse me in this life and make me such that I do not need to be chastened by fire?

Let us ask our Blessed Lady to foster in us a healthy filial fear of God, and to strengthen us so that we make generous penance, here on earth, for all our sins.

Mar 8 Sun - What is the "living water" Jesus promised?

 

Mar 8 Sun
What is the "living water" Jesus promised?

Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to give him a drink. She was amazed by this. How can He, a Jew, ask a Samaritan woman for anything? For centuries, Jews and Samaritans had lived in implacable enmity. But Jesus showed himself superior to this prejudice. For Him, the distinctions of nation and race do not count, nor does the distinction between man and woman.

"But tired though His body is, Jesus' thirst for souls is even greater. So, when the Samaritan woman -the sinner- arrives, Christ, with His priestly heart, turns eagerly to save the lost sheep, forgetting His tiredness, hunger, and thirst."

From natural water, Jesus elevated the conversation to the higher plane of revelation, the truly living water.

The woman said to Him, "Give me this water, so that I will no longer thirst, nor will I have to come here to draw it."

Then Jesus revealed to the woman that He is, in fact, the very source of living water. This shows that the journey of faith in Him begins with the recognition of His divine mission, sent by God.

Our Lord knows that human beings are thirsting for God, and that the waters of this earth cannot quench that thirst. The things of the earth can only provide temporary satisfaction, and they leave a bitter aftertaste.

Jesus Christ has come to bring us the water of life, grace, happiness, and joy. Thus, He promised her living water.

Water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism. Our birth into the divine life is granted to us through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Spirit is also personally the living water welling up from Christ crucified as its source and rising in us to eternal life.

The woman bursts into an emotional act of faith: "Lord, I see that you are a prophet." She then went and told the inhabitants of her city that she had found the Messiah and invited them to "come unto Jesus."

After the words, "Give me that water," Jesus does not hesitate to indicate the way of conversion and good works. "Go, call your husband." This is an invitation to examine one's conscience, to search the depths of one's heart.

Jesus helped this woman discover her need for salvation and prompted her to ask about the path that leads to it. This is a true and proper "examination of conscience." He helped her name the sins of her life. That is why the Lord urged her: "You are right; you have no husband. You have already had five, and the one whom you have now is not your husband."

The five husbands symbolize the five senses; material or scientific knowledge alone does not lead us to faith. The present husband represents our reason; faith is above reason, but not in contradiction.

Believing in God (faith) means receiving His revelation with full obedience, accepting the plan of God, and allowing ourselves to be guided by His Wisdom.

Mar 7 Sat - Is it good to use one’s freedom?

 

Mar 7 Sat
Is it good to use one’s freedom?

If God didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat of the tree, why did He put it there? Since He is all Wisdom, He must have had a reason to place that forbidden tree in the garden.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil reminds us of the limits that man, as a creature, must freely accept and respect with trust.

Now, to “freely accept and respect with trust” is something the Devil cannot do. He wants all created gifts to have no limits, without a Creator or Giver. He refuses to recognize or respect his limits as a creature. I will not serve; I will not observe limits.

Thus, the Devil always divides us from others and us from ourselves.

Misery loves company, so the Devil wants to reproduce his mindset in others. His first victims were Adam and Eve. He asked, “Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?” 

He’s not asking to get an answer. He’s suggesting that limits are absurd and anyone who sets them is an enemy. 

Adam and Eve took the bait. They reached beyond their boundaries, and in so doing, they fell.

The Devil had the same game plan when he approached Jesus in the desert. If the Devil cannot understand the blessing of being a creature of God, then the limitations of the Incarnation were absolutely incomprehensible to him.
 
Yet we believe that the Incarnation is not a fiction or make-believe. God really did confine and limit Himself to our human nature – to be born of a woman, to experience exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and sorrow, and even to be tempted.

The Devil cannot grasp the eternal Son’s joyful dependence on God the Father. Nor can he understand the Son’s joyful embrace of our created human nature. For Satan, divine power means doing whatever you want – not serving anybody. It certainly doesn’t mean setting limits for yourself through humility.

We live in a culture that rejects limits and embraces the demonic concept of freedom. Some think that to be free, we must break all limitations, even those of our human nature. For these individuals, freedom requires that a husband and wife be released from their union, a mother be liberated from her unborn child, a boy become a girl, and our souls be uploaded into machines.

In the desert, the Incarnate Lord shows us the true path. By humbling – limiting – Himself in our human nature and trusting in His Father, He overcomes the Devil’s temptations. He has done so for us to enjoy the “glorious freedom of the children of God.” 

Why, my Lord, have you granted us freedom, this privilege which we can use to follow in your footsteps but also to offend you? 

We must understand that when we use freedom properly, it directs us towards the good; and when misused, it turns us away from the Love of loves. 

Personal freedom should lead us to ask: 'What do you want from me, Lord, so that I may freely do it?'

With some excerpts from Fr. Paul D. Scalia

Mar 6 Fri - Does love include sacrifice?

 

Mar 6 Fri
Does love include sacrifice?

“Lent should suggest to us these basic questions: Am I advancing in my faithfulness to Christ, in my desire for holiness, in a generous apostolate in my daily life, in my ordinary work among my colleagues?" 

God expects our free response. Each one of us, silently, should answer these questions, and see that we need to change if Christ is to live in us, if Jesus' image is to be reflected in our behavior. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Christ is saying this again to us, whispering it in our ears: the cross each day. Not only in time of persecution or when we have the chance of martyrdom, but in all circumstances.

“Conversion is the task of a moment; sanctification is the work of a lifetime. The divine seed, which God planted in our souls, needs to grow, to yield results which coincide with what God wants. Therefore, we must be ready to begin again, to find again - in new situations - the light of our first conversion. And that is why we must prepare with a deep examination of conscience, asking our Lord for his help, so that we'll know him and ourselves better. If we want to be converted again, there's no other way."

To be transformed into Christ, we must know and love him.
So, let us always pray, seeking a divine dialogue that makes us one with Jesus Christ.

“When you love someone a lot, you want to know things about them. We meditate on the life of our Lord, from his Birth in a manger to his Death on the Cross, and then his Resurrection. And we hold our Lord's life in our memory as if it were a film. So, without needing a book, just by closing our eyes at any moment, we can contemplate him, and live with him and with our Blessed Lady, who is his Mother and ours, and with the holy women, and the Apostles. We call up his image, not as if we were watching a film, but as if we ourselves were actually part of that film, by virtue of our love."

To set out and follow Jesus, we must meditate on all that our Lord has done for us, and fill ourselves with a desire to respond, and follow him without hesitation or indecision. 

Love is paid back with love; we must give our life for Jesus Christ, who came down from heaven by the weight of his Love.

True love leads to joyous sacrifice. “Love is sacrifice; and sacrifice for Love is joy."
Does my love possess these qualities? Do I gladly bear small difficulties for love of Jesus Christ? In times of weariness or suffering, do I trust our Lord? Do I endure small but real sufferings in good spirit? If not, I have yet to fall in love with Christ. I need to speak more with him and prove my good dispositions through small acts of love.