Jul 2 Thu - How should I receive the sacred Host?

 

Jul 2 Thu

How should I receive the sacred Host?

In the optional rite of Communion in the hand, the communicant should place his cupped left palm upon the right. The minister places the sacred host on the left palm. Stepping aside yet still facing the minister, the communicant conveys the sacred host to his mouth with the right hand. The minister should ascertain that the host is consumed there. 

The Amen that the communicant pronounces upon receiving the sacred host is equivalent to saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe. I love you and hope in you. I know my time of waiting is over, for my hope has become a reality that fulfills the deepest needs of my faith and my charity. You are mine, and I am yours, wholly made one in this sacrament. My soul worships you in silence.” 

It is not the sacrament that changes, as bread and wine would, into our substance; it is we ourselves who are changed, so to speak, into its nature. So that we can very well apply here those words of St Augustine put into the mouth of our Lord: “I am the food of the strong, believe and you will eat me. But you will not change me into you, as you do with the food of your body; it is you who will be changed into me.” 

Nevertheless, there is always the danger of our getting used to it and not paying due respect to our Lord present in the sacrament.

Communion is a gift of God, given to the faithful through the minister appointed for this purpose. Thus, the faithful are not permitted to pick up the consecrated bread and the sacred chalice themselves; still less are they permitted to hand them from one to another.

The faithful, whether religious or lay, who are authorized as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist can distribute Communion when there is no priest, deacon, or acolyte, when the priest is impeded by illness or advanced age, or when the number of the faithful going to Communion is so large as to make the celebration of Mass excessively long. 

This is so because the ordinary ministers for the distribution of Holy Communion are the bishop, the priests, and the deacons. 

The acolyte is an extraordinary minister of Communion who is instituted permanently.

In case of genuine necessity, a simple faithful may be appointed by the bishop (or Vicar) as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion (the so-called lay minister). This appointment is always for a specific occasion or for a time. The “lay minister” should be duly instructed and distinguish himself by his Christian life, faith, and morals. 

These “lay ministers” should not approach the altar before the priest has received Communion, and they are always to receive from the hands of the priest celebrant the vessel containing either species of the Most Holy Eucharist for distribution to the faithful. A “lay minister” does not give Communion to himself; if it is the case, he or she takes Holy Communion from the hands of the priest, like any other lay person. 

Jul 1 Wed - How can I look around and judge with serenity?

 

Jul 1 Wed

How can I look around and judge with serenity?

As radiance of the Light eternal, Christ brings the splendor of Truth to the world, and the clarity of supernatural Light to our minds. As the Sun of justice, He burns with that fire which - as He told his disciples - He longs to spread through the entire world.

Each of us must strive to be light and fire. Our love must be a flame that sets fire to everything it touches, raising the spiritual temperature of our surroundings.

Christ's supernatural light, which instils peace and calm into our hearts, also brings us a superabundance of love: a warmth, a fire, that enkindles our hearts and enables us to love God and other people for his sake.

Moreover, this supernatural life which Christ brings is a participation in his own life: a sharing in his knowledge and love. Faith gives us a truer and more positive view of things. In the radiance of faith, everything takes on a different hue, a meaning totally unsuspected by those accustomed to seeing things from only a human standpoint.

Christ's light enables us to see things and events supernaturally. How different our life then appears! Unexpected occurrences and changes of plan no longer upset us. Whatever happens is seen in its true dimension and meaning. We discover the reality that all things work out well for us. Our outlook becomes more positive; we are no longer tempted to pessimism, since we now discover God's hand in everyone and everything.

“Strive to see God behind every event and circumstance. Then, from everything that happens, you will draw more love for God and greater desires to respond to his grace. He is always waiting for us, and He gives us the chance to renew our spirit of service continually."

The consequence is serenity. Those around us notice our peace, and they try to find the reason for it, to discover where it comes from. God wants us to be calm at all times, because in this way we can lead souls gently but effectively to Him.

Yet that serenity is a result of embracing Christ’s cross: “These are the unmistakable signs of the true Cross of Christ: serenity, a deep feeling of peace, a love which is ready for any sacrifice, a great effectiveness which wells from Christ’s own wounded Side. And always - and evidently - joy: a joy which comes from knowing that those who truly give themselves are beside the Cross, and therefore beside Our Lord."

“I assure you that we will make a great contribution to enlightening the life and work of mankind, through the divine radiance which God has deposited in our souls. But don't forget: To abide in Jesus one must walk in the same way in which He walked, a way that always leads to victory, but that just as surely passes through sacrifice." 

Jun 30 Tue - Why did God place us in an imperfect world?

 

Jun 30 Tue

Why did God place us in an imperfect world?

Some people wonder: Why stick around in this life if the next life is so great? In fact, why has God sent us into this world at all if His ultimate goal for us is union with Him? Why not just get us there?
 
Why send us here, risking the possibility that things might turn out badly? It’s as though God was saying: “I am putting you in this very fragile ethical situation where you’ll be pretty much over your heads, and although I want you to succeed, if you screw up, you’re doomed. Good luck!”

Everything about the Christian faith tells us that is not what God is doing. So why are we in this world when we’re meant for the next? Perhaps it will help to engage in a little thought experiment.

Let’s say there is a loving Creator who freely wants to share that love with some creatures, a God who “created the universe to enter into a history of love with mankind.”

How would He do this?

Love must be received and given freely.  So, God can’t keep these creatures with Him, “under His wing,” so to speak, because that wouldn’t allow them any real freedom, any more than children kept at home, even with very loving parents, have any real freedom to become who they are meant to become.

So, God’s creatures cannot remain always and only with and in Him; they must go out to develop in a place and in circumstances where they can learn to love freely.

It would have to be in a place vast enough to keep their minds always expanding, preparing, bit by bit, for union with their transcendent Source. It would need sufficient resources to support these creatures, but not be perfect in every way. If it were, people might choose God only as a source of pleasant things, as though He were simply the divine “caretaker.”

That’s not love; it’s dependency.  To learn to love like adults, they can’t be treated like children forever. 

So, this Creator would have to put us out and away from Him, in some sense. And He can’t make Himself visible at every moment lest we simply depend on Him constantly to mend our troubles and pains and to provide for us and others. If He did, we wouldn’t grow in love. We just existed, like spoiled children.

To learn to be selfless lovers (which is the only real kind), these creatures would need to learn to put the needs of others ahead of their own.  
But how would they do that if they were in a world with no needs?  So too, without struggle, there can be no real virtue.  To develop virtue, people must be tested, “like gold tested in fire.”

“To be faithful to God requires a constant battle. Hand-to-hand combat, man to man — the old man against the man of God — in one small thing after another, without giving in."
“Each day, be conscious of your duty to be a saint. — A saint! And that doesn’t mean doing strange things. It means a daily struggle in the interior life and in heroically fulfilling your duty right through to the end." St. Josemaría

Some excerpts from Randall Smith 

Jun 29 Mon - Is the dark night of frustration the end?

 

Jun 29 Mon

Is the dark night of frustration the end?

Pope Leo explains: Nicodemus went to talk to Jesus at night. Like him, we too are pilgrims in the night, on our journey of life. 

We are beggars for love; we are truly hungry and thirsty. We seek a deeper meaning that will sustain us, inspire us, and help us understand the mystery of our lives. 

As we slowly move forward, one small step at a time, we are called to engage with the shadows of our own human condition: we lack the full truth; we do not fully fathom the mystery of ourselves or the true identity of others; we do not always succeed in understanding the hidden truth of the reality that surrounds us and the events unfolding before our eyes. 
We seek a light to illumine the path. 

But Nicodemus also speaks to us about the path of faith. It is not a path that runs separately, parallel to that of our human existence. Rather, these two paths are always intertwined. 

Jesus is always with the Father and with us. Thus, every time the mystery of our life unfolds in the light of a new day, in all that we are and do, we are in God’s presence and held in his eternal embrace: our life “is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). 

Yet, at times we experience the night of faith, the weariness of believing, the fatigue of the spirit, a sense of inadequacy in the face of the Gospel’s call, the bitterness of our failures, and the fear of not measuring up. 

Nicodemus teaches us that these nights — which accompany our lives, our journey of faith, and the history in which we live — are a time of blessing, a place for rebirth.

These nights strip us bare and return us to what is essential. They remove the human and religious masks we wear by day to keep ourselves from being recognized or to present ourselves differently than we are. 

They expose us, revealing our lights and our shadows. These nights restore us to the humility of knowing how to look at ourselves in truth, beyond the presumption of thinking that our journey is already complete and that we can move forward as if we had a clear understanding of everything, everyone, and even God. 

Suffering or dissatisfaction, or disillusionment or unbelief, can be an opportunity to receive new life, to change and be renewed, to be “born again from above,” as Jesus tells Nicodemus. In fact, God did not come to judge the world in its sin and the night of its unfaithfulness, but sent his Son to save it, to give the world eternal life. 

For this reason, we too are called not to judge the “nights” — neither the nights of our own lives, those of the Church, nor those of the society around us. 

In the night, we must instead set out on a journey as Nicodemus did, opening ourselves to the wind of the Spirit. We must welcome the night no longer as a sign of failure, but as the beginning of a new life. 

Jun 28 Sun - Why should I love God above everything?

 

Jun 28 Sun

Why should I love God above everything?

Jesus teaches us that God must be the principal object of our love. We must love creatures in a secondary, subordinate way. “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me...”

All other earthly loves are enriched, purified, and encouraged to grow when we love God. Our heart expands, and our capacity for loving increases.

To love God the way He wants us to love him, we have to die to those disordered tendencies which incline and induce us to sin. We must die to that egocentricity which leads man to seek himself in everything he does. 

Yet God wants us to preserve all that is healthy and upright and truly human in our nature, all that is good and humanly characteristic in each unique individual. Nothing genuinely human, of the positive, of the perfectible, will be lost. The more a man dies to his selfish ego, the more truly human he becomes, and so much the better is he prepared for supernatural life.

The Christian who struggles to deny himself finds he is living a new life, the life of Jesus. Grace fills us with the same desires as Christ: our one objective becomes that of fulfilling the will of the Father. That, then, is the real expression of love and its clearest manifestation.

Love of God is nourished in prayer and in the reception of the sacraments, in the constant struggle against our defects, in the unceasing effort to maintain a living presence of God throughout the whole of our working day, in our relations with others, in our times of rest... The Eucharist above all must be the spring at which our love of God is perpetually refreshed and strengthened. In a way, to love thus is already to possess Heaven on earth.

Our love of God is merely a response to His love. He loved us first. That is why we ask him, Lord, give me the love with which you want me to love you.

We correspond with the love of God when we love others; when we see in them the dignity proper to the human person, made as it has been in the image and likeness of God, created with an immortal soul and called to give glory to God for all eternity. 

Love is to approach that wounded man we come across on our journey each day; it is to bind up his wounds, restore him to health, and take care of him in all things. We must exert ourselves on his behalf, making a serious effort to bring him to God. Separation from God is always the greatest of evils, and those thus separated from him need our help and our urgent attention. Apostolate is a wonderful sign of our love for God, and is the way to love him more.

Our whole life has to become this constant seeking after Jesus, in good times and in those that seem bad, in our work and in our leisure, in the street and in the bosom of the family. This quest is the only one that can give meaning to our lives. 

Jun 27 Sat - Must every family be formed by a man and a woman?

 

Jun 27 Sat
Must every family be formed by a man and a woman?

The Pope affirmed this in a message to a symposium on the family in Brazil. Pope Leo XIV described the family as a “unique community of persons formed by a man and a woman.”

It was the second such statement from Pope Leo in recent days. On May 25, Pope Leo told European lawmakers that the family is “founded on marriage between a man and a woman.”

Both remarks follow the Pontiff’s assurance to the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, on the “non-blessing” of same-sex couples.

“The Church teaches that the family is the ‘primary and essential cell of society’ and, for this reason, must be protected and promoted. Called to proclaim God’s love in today’s world, this unique community of persons formed by a man and a woman is so united in love that they become “one flesh.” 

“Let us therefore look to the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The small yet fundamental virtues of the home in which Jesus was born and grew up, learning from Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, must serve as an inspiration and model for all our homes and be the source from which true peace is sought. Indeed, as Benedict XVI pointed out, the family plays a primary and indispensable role as a ‘teacher of peace’.”

God's strategic plan is straightforward: Restore all creation in Christ, the King of the Universe. Matrimony, and the fruitfulness of the marital embrace, are indispensable to the survival of the species and the continuance of His New Creation. In the mystery of heaven, the more, the merrier.

“A Christian marriage is not just a social institution, much less a mere remedy for human weakness. It is a real supernatural calling. A great sacrament, in Christ and in the Church, says St Paul. At the same time, it is a permanent contract between a man and a woman. Whether we like it or not, the sacrament of matrimony, instituted by Christ, cannot be dissolved. It is a permanent contract that sanctifies in cooperation with Jesus Christ. He fills the souls of husband and wife and invites them to follow him. He transforms their whole married life into an occasion for God's presence on earth."

“Husband and wife are called to sanctify their married life and to sanctify themselves in it. It would be a serious mistake if they were to exclude family life from their spiritual development. The marriage union, the care and education of children, the effort to provide for the needs of the family as well as for its security and development, the relationships with other persons who make up the community, all these are among the ordinary human situations that Christian couples are called upon to sanctify." St. Josemaría

The family and the priesthood are linchpins of authentic Catholic doctrine and life. The strategic objective of the Devil’s rebellion is to destroy these tangible lifelines to the New Creation. The diabolical game plan is all too familiar: Undermine marriage and the family—and destroy the priesthood.

Let’s make God’s strategic plan our plan. Love God, love neighbor, love marriage, love life, and love the apostolic priesthood. And expect eternal happiness. 

Jun 26 Fri - What are the most essential virtues of a Christian professional?

 

Jun 26 Fri
 

What are the most essential virtues of a Christian professional?

For anyone to live a fully Christian life, we need a keenness to take God seriously. Sanctity is not only possible but necessary in the midst of our social and professional tasks.

“Look how gently the Lord invites us. His words have human warmth; they are the words of a person in love: ‘I have called you by your name. You are mine.’”

St. Josemaría ceaselessly reminded all professionals that their mission in life, in the middle of the world, was “to contribute to there, being in the midst of the world, men and women of every race and social condition who try to love and serve God and their fellow man in and through their everyday work.”
“Sanctity is not reserved for a privileged few. All the ways of the earth, every state in life, every profession, every honest task can be divine.”

To accomplish the aim of Christian vocation, what could be the most important virtues for an entrepreneur or employee?

Honesty

Honesty is being true to yourself, without self-deception.  This is something others will perceive. An honest professional will thrive much more.

Coherence

Consistency means aligning your thoughts and words with your actions and feelings.  Being consistent means adhering to your company’s values and principles, even in difficult or controversial situations. Consistent people are reliable.

Patience

When we put a lot of effort into a project and have to wait for results, it’s difficult to stay idle. Even so, it’s necessary to be patient, and not only with the projects themselves, but also with your team, investors…

Commitment

You must be committed to your own project, and that commitment must be evident to others, especially during difficult times. Yet don’t go down with the ship. You must know when to stop.

Generosity

Be generous, help other projects when asked, and try to share your experience.

Modesty

While it’s important to believe in your project, it’s equally important to acknowledge your own mistakes and accept criticism. Perfection doesn’t exist, and you can learn a lot from others.

Courage

Sometimes you’ll have to defend your project against all odds and have the courage to innovate or to take very risky actions. Fortune favors the bold, so go for it!

Responsibility

You must take responsibility for your actions, ideas, and emotions. If you systematically blame the intern when something goes wrong, no one will take you seriously or trust you. 

Being responsible is tough because it means accepting failures, but remember that even then, you can learn from your mistakes.

Moreover, is it possible to acquire these values, or are we born with them? 

I firmly believe that anyone can improve if they set their mind to it and have the right tools and support. So, I encourage you to examine yourself and work on those values you feel you lack to become the best entrepreneur you can be.

“May each one of us joyfully honor the Lord by carrying out his own duties, those which are properly his; each one of us, in his job or profession, and fulfilling the obligations of his state in life.”

Some excerpts from Angel Maria Herrera, Exaudi. 

Jun 25 Thu - Who decides what the gospel truth is?

 

Jun 25 Thu

Who decides what the gospel truth is? 

The Church, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, which is the Catholic Church, decides what the gospel truth is.

In Catholicism, neither “the Church” nor “the Bible” holds primacy over the other. The Church and Scripture have a mutual relationship: the Magisterium is the servant of the Word, not its rival, while Scripture is the written Word of God that the Church faithfully receives and guards. 

Still, Catholic teaching insists that Scripture is genuinely the Word of God and that it must be read in the Church’s faith. 
Catholic teaching also explicitly warns against interpretations that treat Scripture as if it were to be interpreted by merely human methods to the exclusion of the Church’s mind. 

The authors of the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the authors of the Gospels especially so. But it was the Church—the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ—that decided which books are legitimate and form part of the Bible, and which are apocryphal and should be set separately. The apocryphal books might contain truths, but they're not the absolute gospel truth.

Also, Vatican II presents Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium as inseparably connected, working together toward salvation, so Scripture is not treated as secondary material. 

Thus, the Church (through her Magisterium) has the authority to interpret the Word of God authentically.

“Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant… it listens… guards… and expounds it faithfully.” 

Thus, the Magisterium does not judge God’s Word, but the correctness of its own interpretation—and it is “at its service.” 

In Catholicism, Church teaching authority (the Magisterium) and Sacred Scripture are not rivals. They are inseparably linked parts of one divine “deposit of the Word of God”, entrusted to the Church, and the Church’s authority exists to interpret the Word authentically for the sake of salvation. 

Scripture is truly God’s Word—but it is not self-interpreting.

The Church teaches that Sacred Scripture is God’s speech written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it is the “supreme rule of faith” in the sense that it is God’s Word and must nourish and regulate preaching. 

But Scripture is not treated as a text whose meaning is guaranteed by private reading alone. Scripture is meant to be read and interpreted “in the Church,” in the “sacred spirit” in which it was written, with serious attention to the whole Scripture and its living ecclesial context, and reading it with the eyes of Christ.

In sum:
- Primacy of Scripture: Scripture is the Word of God and the primary content the Church hands on and interprets. 
- Primacy of authority (in interpretation): the Church’s Magisterium has the authoritative role to ensure the meaning of Scripture is interpreted authentically within the living faith of the Church. 
- Not “either/or”: one cannot rightly set them up as “Bible vs Church.” Catholicism insists the three (Scripture, Tradition, Magisterium) belong together. 

Scripture has primacy as God’s Word; the Church has primacy of authoritative interpretation—but only as servant of that Word, not as something above it.

True Catholic and Christian identity is defined by adherence to the truth of Church doctrine rather than selective belief. 

Jun 24 Wed - My heart, should I let it go wild or guide it?

 

Jun 24 Wed

My heart, should I let it go wild or guide it?

God has the right to ask for our heart, our love and affection, because He created us, He keeps us in being, He has redeemed us from sin at the cost of His Son's blood, and He watches over us constantly. He has called us by our name, and "He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children." Because of all this, He wants us to give Him our body with all its senses; our soul, with all its faculties; He asks for our very intimacy, our heart.

Surrendering the heart is difficult, but it ends the miserable search for compensations.

We must turn our eyes to Jesus Christ, our Love, and tell Him that, despite our weakness, we do want to be His, and only His. “Don't you have a feeling that greater peace and closer union will come to you when you have responded to that extraordinary grace that is asking you for total detachment? - Struggle for His sake, to please Him; but strengthen your hope."

When the longing for compensations grows stronger, when the temptation to human consolation tries to enchain our heart and turn it away from God's love, we need to think about heaven, the endless happiness that God our Lord has in store for us. “Why stoop to drink in the puddles of worldly consolations when you can quench your thirst in waters that spring up into life everlasting?"

“How clear the way is!... How obvious the obstacles! What good weapons to overcome them! -And yet... how much going astray and how much stumbling! That is so, isn't it?"
“-It's that fine thread - a chain: a chain of wrought iron - which you and I know about, and which you aren't willing to break, and it is causing you to stray from the path, and making you stumble and even fall."
“-What are you waiting for to cut it... and go forward?"
“When you put into practice all this doctrine, says St. Josemaría, there will be times when you find that words are just not enough: you'll want to break into song, like the young men who go and sing love-songs to their sweethearts."

We must surrender our hearts to live in universal fraternal charity, without distinctions.

“If you belong to Christ - entirely to Christ! - you will have for everyone - from Christ himself - fire, light, and warmth." The total surrender of our hearts actually helps us in our fraternal charity, because it eliminates the danger of self-seeking and prevents our love for one another from being based simply on human reasons. 

If our heart is set on God alone, and on family and friends, and all souls for His sake, we will readily be able to follow St Augustine's advice: “Love, and do what you like. If you keep quiet, keep quiet out of love ...; if you correct, correct out of love; if you forgive, forgive out of love. Make sure this root of charity is there in your soul, for nothing but good can come of it." 

Jun 23 Tue - Is it good to be rebellious?

 

Jun 23 Tue

Is it good to be rebellious?

Being rebellious isn’t just mindless teenage rebellion. It’s a mature rebellion: refusing to let the world ensnare you with its invisible tentacles of consumerism.

It’s a radical commitment to making your life exactly what God has envisioned for you, not what society, social media, or trends push you to be.

At 15, the now-Bishop Munilla, during a retreat, didn't know what pledge to offer to Jesus to be written on a piece of paper and then burned in a brazier. He signed only his name: José Ignacio, adding, "Lord, I have signed it; you write whatever you want."

Bishop Munilla clearly outlines the cultural journey we are experiencing:

- First, the dictatorship of relativism: One is no longer allowed to think what one wants; there are "politically correct" censors.

- Then came the profound crisis: Man no longer knows who he is.

- From this proud modernism, we have moved to the postmodern Narcissus: constantly looking at oneself in the mirror of social media, comparing, envying, and thus becoming fragile.

The result is massive emotional wounds: dysfunctional families, narcissism, anxiety, addiction to immediate gratification (reels, Amazon, likes), inability to postpone pleasure, and a self-esteem built on the gaze of others instead of on the gaze of God. 

Our biggest problem on social media is that we are replacing the presence of God with the opinions of others. 

The big trap: not feeling good enough.

Some young people (and not so young) confess: "I don't feel valued, I'm not worth it, I've thought about taking my own life." The solution isn't cheap self-help, but recovering one's identity as a child of God: "I am what I am to God; a child of God."

Fraternity, personal commitment, and asking for help are the keys. The “mute” demon isolates; the Church unites and heals.

In the face of wounds (one’s own or those received):

- Pray for the one who hurt us (even if it’s difficult at first).
- Surrender our wounds to God and refuse to let them define us.
- Abandon victimhood (a toxic form of narcissism).
- Approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is not merely a "stain remover," but a healing and uplifting grace that forgives you and offers you a deeper friendship with Christ. It is being "born again" from the Heart of Jesus.

Have devotion to the Sacred Heart: He loved us first. Trusting in that love precedes our merits.

When you understand that there are not two paths—human happiness or holiness—but only one, your worldview changes.

God wants you to be holy because He wants you to be happy. And He wants you to be happy because He wants you to be holy. The saints were the happiest people in the world.

Final message: Where there is no mother, there is chaos. Return to the Immaculate Conception; let yourself be cared for by Her.

To each one of you: Pay attention. God has a plan for you and will reveal it to you step by step. Sign the blank check. Renew your calling daily. Do not be afraid. Trust.

And above all: God loves you and wants you to be happy. 

Jun 22 Mon - Was the resurrection of our Lord real or illusory?

 

Jun 22 Mon

Was the resurrection of our Lord real or illusory? 

In the Upper Room, what the apostles saw was so extraordinary that they felt they could not trust their own eyes. It was the same Jesus as always, the man whom they had followed since Galilee, and who now had shown them his wounds from the crucifixion. “It is I myself,” He repeated with a smile on his face. “Handle me and see.” He was telling them He was not a ghost. It was as if He was saying, “It is me, the same as always, your Master.”

Given all these testimonies, Christ's resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and must be acknowledged as a historical fact. 

The disciples' faith was drastically tested by the Master's Passion and Death on the Cross, which He had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection.

Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with demoralized disciples, looking sad and frightened, for they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb, and had regarded their words as an idle tale. 

When Jesus revealed Himself to the eleven on Easter evening, He upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. 

It was Jesus, but with a body now glorified. The resurrection of the Lord was not a return to life, as happened with Lazarus or the son of the widow of Nain. Now Jesus had the fullness of human life, freed from the limitations of time and space. So, He could enter the house where the doors were shut. 

Jesus was no longer subject to physical laws, yet He had a human body that could be recognized by sight and touch. The Lord made a point of ensuring that everyone would recognize him as a real, visible person who spoke to them.

His body was the same as the body in the tomb and the body that hung on the cross. He asked, “Have you anything here to eat?” He did this because spirits do not eat. It was evident that the risen Jesus had no need to eat, but that He really could eat.

The disciples did not have bountiful provisions, but they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them. 

Peter would later claim this as another proof of the truth of the resurrection when speaking to the centurion Cornelius, telling him how they ate and drank with Jesus after He rose from the dead. They saw Jesus and Jesus saw them, and they perceived one another with all their human senses.

Jesus was not there before them in a static way as He is sometimes portrayed in paintings. On the contrary, He moved, talked, the sweep of his gaze took them all in, and He occupied space among them in a completely easy and natural way. Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He showed them that it was necessary that in Him all that had been written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms be fulfilled.
Excerpts from Francisco Fernandez-Carvajal 

Jun 21 Sun - Should I manifest my faith before my friends?

 Jun 21 Sun

Should I manifest my faith before my friends?

We must manifest our faith in Christ with deeds, aware that, even if our miseries are abundant, even greater is God's grace.

Yet the Lord warned the apostles that when they carry out Christ’s mission to spread the Gospel, they will find opposition.

Christ instructed them not to be afraid of anyone. The most persecutors can do is kill the body; they “cannot kill the soul.”

“The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph."
God the Father and the Son greatly love us, Christian apostles. This gives us reason to be courageous.

Thus, we should never be afraid of “acknowledging” Christ before others, that is, proclaiming the truth, especially the truth of the Gospel.

However, we should be very afraid of denying Christ before others, because that could mean the death of both the body and the soul in hell. We have an obligation in justice to bear witness to the truth, come what may.

Just as Christ came into the world to “bear witness to the truth,” we too must profess the truth directly and clearly, “without equivocation.”

This witness to the Gospel must be given “in words and deeds.” Witness is an act of justice that makes the truth known.

When we testify to the truth, either through our words or our actions, others respond not just because of our testimony but because the truth resounds within them. This double testimony arouses in them either their acceptance or rejection. The rejection of the truth may arouse their wrath.

“You want to follow in Christ’s footsteps, to wear his insignia, to identify yourself with Jesus. Well then, make your faith a living faith, full of sacrifice and deeds of service, and get rid of everything that stands in the way."

Look at our culture and environment and ask yourself, “Are people demanding that I deny or at least keep silent about some aspect of truth?”

Each of us must answer this question ourselves, because the answers may vary in different places.

It is also important that we discern when to be silent and when to speak.

We are entering a time in which enemies of God and of humanity are demanding complete agreement with their twisted notions. Their catchy phrase “silence is violence” is a way either to force people’s agreement through fear of the dire consequences they can inflict or to expose and punish those who disagree with them.

The fact that we are children of God, that God is our Father, must be the solid foundation of our spiritual life and our apostolic action.

“To transmit the faith, people need to meet a friend who expresses the joy of the Christian faith and the coherence of a Gospel manifested in his way of life.
Pope Leo said. “It is certainly not by watering down the content or softening the demands that Christianity can be made attractive, but by bearing witness with humility and courage to ‘the way, the truth and the life’ that has converted and sanctified so many people.”

Jun 20 Sat - Should I be optimistic in my Christian life?

 

Jun 20 Sat

Should I be optimistic in my Christian life?

On the road, going up to Jerusalem, Jesus said to the sons of Zebedee, "Are you able to drink the chalice that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" And they said to him, "We can!"

We can! “We should feel encouraged at the sight of the many weaknesses and defects of the Apostles. Like them, we tend to be very human in our outlook; like them, we can be selfish and lukewarm; and like them, we also need to be corrected and purified." 

When we experience any weakness in ourselves or in others, we shouldn't be surprised. Let us remember all those who, despite their undeniable failings, persevered and carried the word of God to all nations and became saints, and let us resolve to keep on fighting. What counts is our perseverance.

By relying on God's power, we can overcome all our weaknesses.
Along the road of our life, a journey of love, we are often confronted with the stark reality of our weakness. 

The path to God is not a succession of effortless steps, nor is it ordinarily a straight line of uniform progress. To scale a mountain, a straight line is not usually the best route. In the interior life, God often prefers to lead souls along winding paths, trails that lead up and down, and at times even seem to go backwards, although in reality they are taking us nearer the summit. So, we shouldn't be surprised to find, with the passing years, that defects we thought we had overcome start cropping up again, or that there are new fronts to fight on.

St. Josemaría: “I am already old, and I still have many failings; so, you have the right to have a few failings as well. What matters is that we struggle to overcome them. At times, it's good for us to notice them. If we didn't, we would become proud, and pride separates us from God. But if we face up to them, we will have no other recourse than to be humble.” 

“If your faults make you more humble, they are a road to sanctity. In a Christian's life, everything must be for God, even personal weaknesses; our Lord understands them."

We can always surmount our weaknesses because God himself is fighting at our side. He only asks us to be courageous and determined, never being satisfied with what we have achieved, and going to him again and again, confidently. If we cooperate, we will win, since we are assured of God's strength.

This reliance on God's strength gives us confidence and the certainty that we will achieve our goal of holiness. 

And so, we go forward, with more affection, with more joy, more confidence, and more strength - the strength God gives us. We should never lose heart, but rather start anew, again and again, always relying on God's might. 

If we rest on Christ's Heart, as St John did at the Last Supper, there will be no weakness that can make us waver. 

Jun 19 Fri - Can our human dignity be re-defined?

 

Jun 19 Fri
Can our human dignity be re-defined?

Human dignity, in Catholic teaching, is the essential, irreducible worth of every human person, grounded in the fact that each person is created in the image of God and called to communion with Him—so that a person is a “someone,” not merely a “something.”

Ontological dignity is that which corresponds to the person "by the mere fact of existing", and "subsists beyond all circumstances". Beyond all circumstances: it can also be assumed, beyond the criteria of our time. Rome wrote an entire document to prevent dignity from being redefined, and two years later, some propose to redefine it in a journalistic after-dinner conversation, as if recommending updating the furniture.

Hopefully, "redefining dignity with the criteria of our time" may mean only finding new words for an old truth, translating into the language of the present a content that is not touched, refreshing pastoral intervention without altering dogma. 
I would subscribe to this hypothesis. 

Contemporary anthropological relativism dissolves the family, renames abortion as a right, and euthanasia as compassion, and decrees that sex is a feeling.

They disguise their intentions with a whole rhetoric of concord: to overcome polarization, to bet on the common good, to seek common ground, to speak better of ourselves. Who could oppose it? 

And yet it is precisely under that music of good feelings that smuggling travels safely, because no one searches the luggage of those who smile. We are invited not to tense, and those who notice the problem are automatically aligned with the tense. We are asked to meet, and to point out a doctrinal imprecision suddenly seems an act of hostility. 

This is how the device works: an uncomfortable truth is reclassified as bad manners, and a theological objection as a lack of the spirit of dialogue. Chesterton, who saw all this coming when he was still a child, wrote that there would come a time when we would have to draw the sword to prove that trees are green. We are in that time, except that now drawing the sword is considered, in itself, a form of tension.

Raise your gaze: the motto of the Pope’s trip to Spain. A good motto; I hope it does not become, for some, an invitation never to go into the details, which is where the devil dwells, and also, sometimes, the truth. 

Human dignity is not better contemplated from above, in the abstract, redefined according to the taste of the century. We must recognize human dignity down below, in the concrete migrant person, in the concrete unborn, and in the concrete elderly, whom human dignity protects, not because public opinion has decided it, but because it was already there, though the world, our world, as usual, has arrived late to the truth.

Still, people can diminish their dignity by not obeying their conscience. Catholic moral teaching also highlights that people can also flourish in dignity in the practical sense, because dignity is accomplished by seeking truth, obeying conscience, resisting sin, practicing virtue, and repenting.

Pic: Abraham and Isaac. 

Jun 18 Thu - How is the ceremony of Communion in the Mass?

 

Jun 18 Thu

How is the ceremony of Communion in the Mass?

In the Mass, before taking Communion, the priest genuflects. Taking the host, he raises it slightly over the paten, showing it to the faithful. He says aloud,

- Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb.

This invitation to share in the sacred meal contains almost the same words John the Baptist used when he pointed out the presence of the Lord among men to John and Andrew.

Together with the priest, we continue with the same words of the centurion at Capernaum to confess our unworthiness:

-  Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.

With gratitude, we declare our wonder before this great gift of God. With confidence, we ask our Lord to prepare our poor hearts. We desire to have the centurion's faith, humility, and simplicity, at least to make our Lord as happy as he was in that incident.

After taking Communion under both species, the priest takes the paten or ciborium and goes to the communicants, who usually approach in procession. He raises the consecrated host slightly and shows it to each one, saying, "The body of Christ." The communicants reply, "Amen," and, holding the Communion plate under their chin, receive the sacrament either on the tongue or, where this is customary and if the communicant so chooses, in the hand. 

As soon as the communicant receives the host, he or she consumes it entirely. The faithful are not permitted to take the consecrated bread or the sacred chalice themselves, nor to hand them from one to another. The faithful receive Communion kneeling or standing if approved by the Bishops' Conference.

During the priest's and the faithful's reception of the sacrament, the Communion song is sung. Its function is to express the communicants' union in spirit through the unity of their voices, to give evidence of the joy in their hearts, and to make the procession for the reception of Christ's body a more complete act of the community.

The song begins when the priest takes Communion and continues for as long as it seems appropriate while the faithful receive Christ’s body. However, the Communion song should end in good time whenever a hymn follows Communion.

If there is no singing, the Communion Antiphon in the missal is recited either by the people, by some of them, or by a reader. Otherwise, the priest himself says it after receiving Communion and before he gives Communion to the faithful.

The Church has always required the faithful to show respect and reverence for the Eucharist at the moment of receiving it. The Church's prescription and the evidence of the early Fathers make this abundantly clear. St. Cyril of Jerusalem (ca. AD 315 ‑ 386), instructing the newly baptized, writes, "Come forward also to the chalice of his blood, not reaching out with your hands, but bowing and in an attitude of worship and reverence."

And St. Augustine exhorts, "Let not one eat the body of Christ without first adoring it."

Jun 17 Wed - How can I answer a non-Catholic about fundamental questions of the faith?

 

Jun 17 Wed

How can I answer a non-Catholic about fundamental questions of the faith?

We, Catholics, are often asked tough questions about our Catholic faith and its relationship to the Bible. Here are some of the most asked questions and the answers that should help you and your questioner.

1. Are you saved?

Anyone can have some assurance that they are in God’s good graces. The apostle John states that “you may know that you have eternal life” (1 Jn 5:13 – see also Jn 5:24). But this “assurance” has to be understood in the light of John’s other teachings in the same book: “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 Jn 5:3 – see also 1 Jn 2:3-6). Likewise, St. Paul does not regard salvation as a one-time event, but as a lifetime goal to be pursued, one that can be lost: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12 – see also 1 Cor 9:27, 10:12; Gal 5:1, 4; Phil 3:11-14; 1 Tim 4:1, 5:15).

2. If you died tonight, would you go to heaven?

Catholics have an assurance of salvation if they are faithful and keep God’s commandments (1 Jn 2:3).

3. Why do you worship wafers?

Catholics do not worship wafers; they worship Jesus. 
A consecrated host (that looks like a wafer) at a Catholic Mass is the true Body and Blood of Christ, real, sacramentally present. 
In the Gospel of John (6:51-56), Jesus states repeatedly that “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (6:54). St. Paul agrees and writes that those taking Communion “in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord” (1 Cor 11:27 – see also 1 Cor 10:16). 
Moreover, in the Last Supper passages (Mt 26:26-28; Mk 14:22-24; Lk 22:19-20), nothing suggests a metaphorical or symbolic interpretation. The Last Supper was the Jewish feast of Passover. This involved a sacrificial lamb, and Jesus referred to His imminent suffering (Lk 22:15-16, 18, 21-22). John the Baptist had already called Him the “Lamb of God” (Jn 1:29).

4. Why do you worship Mary?

Catholics do not worship Mary; that would be idolatry. We venerate her because she is the Mother of God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

5. Why do you confess your sins to a priest?

Jesus Christ gave to His disciples – and by extension, to priests – the power not only to “release” sins (that is, forgive in God’s name), but also to “bind”: “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatever you loosen on earth shall be loosened in heaven” (Mt 18:18 – see also Mt 16:19). Thus, the Church must know what sins to forgive… or retain. How? The human way: listening to the speaker.

6. Why do you pray for the dead?

The Bible teaches the excellence of prayers for the dead in 2 Maccabees (12:40, 42, 44-45). The apostle Paul also appears to be praying for a dead person, Onesiphorus, in 2 Timothy (1:16-18).

7. Why do you pray to idols (statues)?

No real Catholic has ever worshiped a statue (it is idolatry). If we cherish the memory of mere political heroes with statues, and that of war heroes with monuments, similarly, we may honor and venerate saints, not worship them (1 Pet 2:17 – see also Rom 12:10; Heb 12:22-23). 

Jun 16 Tue - Should I keep on insisting in my prayer of petition?

 

Jun 16 Tue

Should I keep on insisting in my prayer of petition?

We must consider Jesus' final recommendation to his disciples when he left them. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask anything of the Father, he will give it to you in my name. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.

We need to pray, lifting our hearts to God. He is watching us from heaven. We should ask him for everything we need. The Lord is infinite wisdom; He knows exactly what we need to become saints and apostles.
But God wants to be requested. He wants to be coerced. He wants to be won over by a certain persistent begging ... Be diligent, therefore, in prayer. Be constant in petition, and never cease asking.

“Our Lord knows perfectly well what our needs are, yet He wants us to ask with the same persistence as the people in the Gospel: Lord, if you will, you can make me clean; Lord, that I may see. 
Ask the same way they did: they asked him for everything. I won't say that man's life should be spent in nothing but asking, for there are times when one sees the need to abandon oneself and one ceases to ask, but later on one comes back to it."

“I am moved by seeing how trustingly the people closest to our Lord treated him. Do you remember that Gospel passage? Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, Jesus said, and Martha and Mary couldn't forgive him for delaying. They said: Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 
How confidently, how affectionately they talk to him! Prayer leads to that sort of familiarity!"

It is not enough to ask. We must be persevering in our petition, so that the constancy of our petitions obtains what our merits alone cannot. This was the case of the man in the parable who went to a neighbor's house to ask him for bread, with a poor sense of timing but with dogged persistence. Jesus Christ says: Because of his importunity, he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 

“Ask, seek, and call out. Prayer, prayer, prayer! That is the way...
“Everything good comes from our Lord God, whose most loving Providence banks on our asking him time and again, with perseverance, for what we need. Besides, as we pray, we acknowledge how small and insufficient we are: alone, we can't do anything! … We have to pray a lot and abandon ourselves to the arms of our Father God. We have to ask stubbornly and persistently!"

St John Chrysostom writes: If somebody tells me that he has requested once, twice, three times, ten times, twenty times, and still has not received anything, I will answer: do not stop, my brother, until you have received it. Petition ends with the reception of the gift. Stop when you have received it. Rather, do not stop even then, but continue still. And once you have received it, give thanks for it. 

Jun 15 Mon - How can I be serene amid difficulties?

 

Jun 15 Mon
How can I be serene amid difficulties?

We, too, are threatened by the wrong kind of sadness, which can arise from suffering, sickness, setbacks, and especially the weight of our own shortcomings. 

The sense of being children of God gives us serenity.
The serenity that God gives us does not mean closing our eyes to reality. It means viewing it with optimism, trusting in the help of our Father in heaven.

Thus, we will never be stifled by the sadness that kills, which leads the imagination to wander aimlessly, mulling over memories, conjuring up fantasies, seeking after consolations, and perhaps even complaining inwardly about our work, our ascetical struggle, or our dedication.

The sadness that sometimes leads us to neglect one thing after another results in slowness and indolence. It will disappear when the Holy Spirit shows us once and for all that in everything God works for good with those who love him and who are called according to his purpose. 

The Holy Spirit will teach us to put interior zeal into the things we do, without losing our peace of mind and without giving in to the temptation to despair, because “difficulties and setbacks disappear as soon as we go to God in prayer. Let us speak with Jesus humbly and frankly, confidently, and then light will appear, and with it, peace, serenity, and joy."

That is the first gift we hope for from the Holy Spirit: that our personal contribution to the task God asks of us may be joyful. This is the difference between us and those who do not know God; the latter complain and grumble in adversity, whereas for us, adversities do not lead us away from virtue but rather confirm us in it, as St Cyprian says.

Let us meditate on some very consoling words from St. Josemaría: “Everything may collapse and fail. Events may turn out contrary to what is expected, and great misfortune may come. But nothing is gained by being disconcerted. 

Furthermore, remember the confident prayer of the prophet: ‘The Lord is my judge, the Lord gives me his laws, the Lord is my king; it is He who will save me.’ Say it devoutly every day, so that your behavior may align with the designs of Providence, which governs us for our own good."

Omnia in bonum! This certainly will encourage us to redouble our efforts, especially in the task of our sanctification, and the Holy Spirit will help us understand that pride is at the root of every inhibition. Behind an apparently motiveless reluctance to work, we discover human disappointment, the impossibility of asserting our own personality or criteria—in other words, vanity. 

Likewise, when obedience becomes difficult, it is often not the difficulty of what is actually commanded, but the fact of having to yield and being nothing more than God's instrument. Lastly, behind pessimistic sorrow for our own faults, there may lie the humiliation we have suffered over them.

Once we have discovered all this, we will go straight to God to remedy the situation. 

Jun 14 Sun - How did Jesus empower me?

 

Jun 14 Sun

How did Jesus empower me?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Jun 13 Sat

Should I foster good sentiments in my heart?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jun 12 Fri - Does Jesus love me?

 

Jun 12 Fri
Does Jesus love me?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jun 11 Thu - What is the Liturgy?

 

Jun 11 Thu

What is the Liturgy?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jun 9 Tue - Will Jesus forgive my sin?

 

Jun 9 Tue

Will Jesus forgive my sin?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

Pope Leo XIV answers:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Jun 7 Sun 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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