Jul 17 Wed - What about tattoos?

 

Jul 17 Wed
What about tattoos?
In the past, some people disliked tattoos because they viewed them as defacements, a form of body modification that detracted from natural beauty. Aesthetically, I must admit I agree. The prevalence of tattoos, especially among women, is something I find particularly unattractive.

Aesthetics should not dictate ethics. When considering the permanent and real mutilation that individuals undergo, whether through contraceptive sterilization or gender-based genital mutilation, I am less inclined to criticize tattoos.

Yet, there is another type of permanent marking. The three sacraments. Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders imprint a spiritual "character" on the soul that cannot be erased. Consequently, these three sacraments are unrepeatable.

Furthermore, if I were to have something etched into my body, should it not be a well-considered decision rather than something randomly chosen from a tattoo parlor catalog after consuming excessive amounts of alcohol? If I am going to carry a tattoo on my skin for several decades, should it not express something vital about my identity?

This brings me back to the sacramental characters. Though they are not be visible, they are no less real, effective, or permanent.

Yet, how many Catholics take their sacramental characters as seriously as they do a Mandarin character, such as 和平, which they tattoo on their bodies? Sacramental characters, after all, entail a lifelong role within the Body of Christ: being a child of God, a soldier of Christ, and an alter Christus. For instance, the baptismal character is why a Catholic marriage must be a sacrament, and any attempt to marry outside the Church (without dispensation of form) is no marriage.

Maybe we can draw a parallel from that old tattoo. Although I got it without much contemplation, as it was "a dare" or because my friends were doing it, the 和平 no longer holds any meaning for me. Nevertheless, it has not disappeared; the fading and wrinkling ink remains, even if I no longer attribute the same significance to it as I did in my twenties. Is this not often the case with the sacramental character of Confirmation, for example?

The sacrament intended to complete full incorporation into the Church often becomes the last "sacrament" … until the wedding or the baptism of a first child arises. Moreover, I likely spent more time preparing to receive that character than the average person spends considering a Chinese character tattoo.

Or have I superficially regarded both equally?

Our actions and what society deem "beautiful" often reveal more profound underlying assumptions and values. Could the proliferation of tattoos, which often lose meaning over time, even though they continue to increase in popularity, indicate that many individuals are desperately searching for anything that may provide a sense of permanence and meaning of life?

Video:

Jul 16 Tue - Is Mary the “Mother of God”?

 

Jul 16 Tue
Is Mary the “Mother of God”?
This is what early Christians believed; from a letter by Saint Cyril, bishop of Alexandria in Egypt from 412 to 444 A.D. Thus, written more than 300 years before Islam appeared.

"That anyone could doubt the right of the holy Virgin to be called the Mother of God fills me with astonishment. Surely, she must be the Mother of God, if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she gave birth to him!

Our Lord’s disciples may not have used those exact words, but they delivered to us the belief those words enshrine, and this has also been taught to us by the holy fathers.

The distinctive mark of holy Scripture is that it was written to make a double declaration concerning our Savior; namely,
– that he is and has always been God, since he is the Word, Radiance, and Wisdom of the Father; and
– that for our sake in these latter days he took flesh from the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and became man.”

There have been many holy men, free from all sin. Jeremiah was sanctified in his mother’s womb, and John while still in the womb leaped for joy at the voice of Mary, the Mother of God.

The divinely inspired Scriptures affirm that the Word of God was made flesh, that is to say, he was united to a human body endowed with a rational soul. He undertook to help the descendants of Abraham, fashioning a body for himself from a woman and sharing our flesh and blood, to enable us to see in him not only God but also, because of this union, a man like ourselves.

Thus, there are in Him two entities, divinity and humanity. Yet our Lord Jesus Christ is nonetheless one, the one true Son, both God and man; not a deified man on the same footing as those who share the divine nature by grace, but true God who for our sake appeared in human form. We are assured of this by Saint Paul’s declaration: “When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law and to enable us to be adopted as sons."

We should express amazement at the wonders God has worked. Filled with immense joy, we must exclaim with the Church: ‘Mary gave birth to the King whose name is eternal; she united the joy as a Mother with the honor as a Virgin; such as this has never happened before, nor will it happen again.

Mary's divine motherhood is a dogma of our Catholic faith. It was solemnly defined early in the Church's history at the Council of Ephesus, in AD 431.

Video:

Jul 15 Mon - What is spiritual childhood?

 

Jul 15 Mon
What is spiritual childhood?
Simplicity characterizes spiritual childhood. Abandonment, confidence, determination, daring, and happiness are all characteristics of a child's life. There is one characteristic that stands out among all others, one that should never be absent: simplicity.

Simplicity comes naturally to children because they don't know the meaning of mistrust. They know that everything is of interest to their father. They know their father notices everything that concerns them and is sure to make up for their limitations. Therefore, children talk about everything. As St. Jerome says, "A little child doesn't think one thing and say another, and we should be the same; if you didn't have the same innocence and the same purity of intention, you could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Sincerity is necessary to achieve this kind of simplicity.

Simplicity is the complete opposite of affectation. It is evident in the way we accept our rightful place: if that place happens to be a high position socially, we don't make ourselves feel important, and if it happens to be a modest position, we don't feel humiliated. Our Lord's entire life was one of simplicity, as we see in His years in Nazareth and His journeys with the Apostles.

He once said to the paralytic, "Rise, take up your bed and go home," and the paralytic immediately rose and went home. We must be like children in order to react in such a way: to show our faults to our Lord and allow ourselves to be healed by obeying whatever we are told, promptly.

Simplicity is the transparency of very young children who don't hide anything. "Be small, very small. No older than two years old, three at most. Older children are little rascals who are already trying to deceive their parents with improbable lies. It is because they have the wickedness, the inclination to sin, but they lack the experience of evil, which will teach them the science of sinning, so they can cover up the falsehood of their deceits with an appearance of truth.

“They have lost their simplicity, and simplicity is indispensable to be children before God." St. Josemaría

Simplicity is the natural consequence of a balanced personality, a soul that is not distorted by any unhealthy peculiarities. People are simple when they are fully aware of their faults and don't try to justify themselves with false excuses. They are affected by their shortcomings but don't become excessively upset or scrupulous about them. They also don't overlook them, no matter how small, but rely on the help of grace. Only very young children can act as naturally as this, admitting when they have misbehaved and crying with sorrow when they are scolded, without trying to hide their misdeeds.

“You must feel the urgent necessity to see yourself as small, weak, and bereft of everything. You will then clamber onto the lap of our heavenly Mother, with heartfelt aspirations and loving glances, Marian devotions... which are such a vital part of your filial spirit.
She will watch over you."

Video:

Jul 14 Sun - What is the priest’s identity?

 

Jul 14 Sun
What is the priest’s identity?
All baptized persons can say, “God chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." Through Baptism and Confirmation all the Christian faithful belong to a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people. By this baptismal priesthood, a sharing in the priesthood of Christ, the faithful take an active part in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Altar. They sanctify the world through their secular tasks, sharing in the one mission of the Church by means of the different vocations they have received from God. Housewives, for example, sanctify the various aspects of motherhood and related duties; sick people are called to offer up their suffering lovingly to God; each one makes a pleasing offering to God of his daily tasks and circumstances.

From among the faithful, some are called by God, through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, to exercise the ministerial priesthood. This second priesthood builds upon the first one, but they are essentially different. By means of the consecration received in Holy Orders, the priest becomes an instrument of Jesus Christ, to whom he offers his entire being, in order to bring the grace of Redemption to all mankind. He is a man chosen from among men and appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

What then is the priest’s identity? That of Christ. Each one of us Christians can and should be not just any other Christ, but Christ himself. But in the priest, this happens in a direct way, through Holy Orders.

Our Lord, who is present among us in many ways, is so particularly in the person of the priest. Every priest is a great gift of God to the world. He is Jesus who goes about doing good; he brings peace and joy to men’s minds; he is the living instrument of Christ in the world. He offers Our Lord his voice, his hands, his whale being. At Mass, he renews ‘in persona Christi’ the redemptive Sacrifice of Calvary itself.

Jesus identifies himself with the priest in such a way, that it is as if our personality disappears before his, since it is He himself who acts through us. It is Christ that changes the substance of bread and wine into his Body and Blood at Mass. And it is Jesus himself who, in the sacrament of Penance, utters fatherly the words ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ ‘It is He who speaks when the priest when he announces the Word of God. It is Christ himself who cares for the sick, for children and sinners, when he enfolds them with the love and pastoral care of the sacred ministries.

A priest is of more value to mankind than the entire material universe. We must pray constantly for the holiness of priests, helping them and sustaining them with our prayer and our affection. We must see Christ himself in them.

Video:

Jul 13 Sat - Is Mary Co-redeemer?

 

Jul 13 Sat
Is Mary Co-redeemer? We begin with two fundamental ideas. The first is that only God can redeem and save us. Redemption involves the forgiveness of sins and also a relationship with the Blessed Trinity - a grace through which God gives himself to humanity.

The second idea is that God accomplishes our redemption through the Incarnation, specifically through the life of Christ (his passion, death, and resurrection). However, there is room for human cooperation, as Mary demonstrated. "Thus, Mary, the daughter of Adam, Mary, consenting to the word of God, became the Mother of Jesus. Committing herself wholeheartedly and impeded by no sin to God's saving will, she devoted herself totally, as a handmaid of the Lord, to the person and work of her Son" (LG 56).

Mary accompanied her Son at the foot of the cross: "the Blessed Virgin advanced in her journey of faith and faithfully remained united with her Son until the cross, following “the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood (cf. Lk. 2:19; 51), in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim which was born of her” (LG 58).

Furthermore, "in a completely unique way, she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning charity in the work of the Savior in restoring supernatural life to souls" (LG 61). Is it legitimate, thus, to say, that Mary is Co-redeemer? In certain contexts, this may be understood well by everyone, but that may not always be the case.

An analogy with the Eucharist can help us grasp the point. The presence of the priest is necessary for the celebration of Holy Mass, and without the priest, the sacramental actualization of Christ's sacrifice cannot take place. However, this does not mean that we cannot also say that the celebration belongs in some way to the entire liturgical assembly and to the Christian people present at the Eucharist, as all those present, by virtue of their common priesthood, collaborate with the ministerial action of the priest.

Similarly, we can say that Christ alone is the Redeemer, while the Church, united with Jesus in the Redemption, also collaborates in this task: the Church is thus co-redeemer. The disciples, too, collaborated with Christ in spreading the Gospel. They not only preached, but also performed miracles in his name. As St. Paul says, they were "God's collaborators" (1 Cor 3:9). This kind of collaboration can be attributed to the Church and rightly to Mary as well.

However, some may misinterpret the use of the title Co-redeemer, thinking that the prefix "co" implies that the Redemption is a joint work of Jesus and Mary. We believe that the Redemption is the work of Christ alone, as only He can accomplish it. In this sense, we should not say that Mary is co-redeemer, as she is not the source or origin from which the Redemption arises.
Some excerpts from Antonio Ducay

Video:

Jul 11 Thu - God took the initiative

 

Jul 11 Thu
God took the initiative.
The Blessed Trinity is the mystery of God himself.
God the Father begets God the Son, and gives him everything He is; God the Father is totally “being for.”
God the Son is totally “being from” the Father.
God the Holy Spirit is essentially the mutual love between the Father and the Son.

God the Father wanted to share his divine life and happiness with men; for this purpose, God the Son became man. During his whole earthly life, Jesus worked to establish a permanent relationship –a covenant– between God and mankind, translating into human terms –as if he were reproducing in a mirror– the Son’s filial relationship with the Father in the Holy Spirit.

In Jesus, we become sons of God through the Holy Spirit; and brothers and sisters among ourselves, in Jesus, through the Holy Spirit.
For these reasons, God took the initiative and created his Church, the family of men enriched with –really sharing in– the love, goodness and beauty of the Blessed Trinity.

The passion, death and resurrection of our Lord constitute what we call the Paschal Mystery, the climax of Jesus’ earthly life. In and through this Paschal Mystery, life in the Holy Spirit is made communicable to us; this Mystery is our entry point into the life of the Trinity as it was established in the covenant.

The fruit of the Paschal Mystery is Pentecost, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us to join us together in the Church and to unite us to God. The Paschal Mystery is perpetuated in time and space in and through the life, doctrine and worship of the Church.

The Church communicates to us life in the Spirit.
The Church proclaims the Word of God as handed down by the Apostles, making the Paschal Mystery present as “saving word.”
The Church makes the Paschal Mystery present as “saving action” through the sacraments but more especially through the Eucharist which makes present the Paschal Mystery in the sacrament.

During the Last Super, our Lord anticipated the bloody sacrifice he would accomplish the following day, on the cross, once and for all for the world’s redemption.
A sacrifice is the highest form of adoration. It should have two elements:
– The offering (oblation) of a victim to God in acknowledgment of God’s supreme dominion as the Beginning and End of our entire lives.
– The victim or gift should be destroyed (immolation), or at least partially removed from human use, as an act of submission to the divine majesty. A sacrifice is not only an oblation. While an oblation only offers something to God (as in the case of alms for the cult), a sacrifice also immolates, or somehow destroys, what is offered.

Video:

Jul 10 Wed - How can I have a conversation with God?

 

Jul 10 Wed:
How can I have a conversation with God?
The spiritual formation we receive fosters our personal friendship with Jesus Christ. We must truly be souls of prayer. "Prayer is the basis for all supernatural work. With prayer, we are all-powerful. And if we tried to do without it, we would get nowhere at all." Any mental or vocal prayer, done with love, puts us in direct contact with our God and helps us know Him better and love Him more.

Vocal prayer is one way to connect with God. When we speak to God aloud, using words, we show Him our respect and offer ourselves to Him completely—both our soul and body, spirit and matter. The true meaning of vocal prayer is realized within the context of our personal, one-on-one relationship with God. Our vocal prayer is an outward expression of adoration, an overflow of love.

When we pray aloud, our minds and senses come together. Words and phrases proclaim the glory of our God. Words of praise and supplication ascend to the throne of the Most High. As St. John Chrysostom preached, "you become a member of the angelic choir, a companion to the archangels, singing together with the seraphim... It is not men you are praying to, but God."

We should cherish the set prayers used by the Church. What better prayers could we offer to God than the ones He taught us?

Furthermore, in the unity of Christ's Mystical Body, liturgical prayer becomes the inner prayer of a soul in love. "Your prayer should be liturgical—I would like to see you grow fond of reciting the psalms and prayers from the missal, rather than private or special prayers."

We must pay attention to our vocal prayers. "Slowly. Consider what you are saying, who is saying it, and to whom. For hurried talk, without time for reflection, is just noise, the clatter of tin cans."

Attention is the most crucial aspect of our effort to pray our vocal prayers well.
Let us, therefore, close the doors of our hearts to the enemy and open them only to God. The adversary often slips in using subtle images and distracts our prayers away from God. Then, we have one thing in our heart and another on our lips. It is an insult to allow ourselves to be distracted by profane thoughts when we are praying to God, so that what we are thinking differs from what we are telling God! How can we dare to ask God to hear our prayer if we ourselves are not attentive to what we are saying?

Attentive prayer means keeping our minds focused on the person we are talking to. Then our prayer can be confident, intimate, and filled with the Spirit of sonship, as we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

Video:

Jul 9 Tue - Is Jesus free?

 

Jul 9 Tue
Is Jesus free?
The Gospel (cf. Mk 3:20-35) tells us that Jesus, after beginning His public ministry, faced a twofold reaction: that of his relatives, who were worried and feared He had gone a little mad, and that of the religious authorities, who accused Him of acting under the influence of an evil spirit. In reality, Jesus preached and healed the sick by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And precisely the Spirit made him divinely free, capable of loving and serving without measure or conditioning. Jesus, free. Jesus was free concerning WEALTH: therefore, He left the security of His village, Nazareth, to embrace a poor life full of uncertainties (cf. Mt 6:25-34), freely taking care of the sick and whoever came to ask Him for help, without ever asking for anything in exchange (cf. Mt 10:8).

The gratuitousness of Jesus’ ministry is this. And it is also the gratuitousness of every ministry. He was free concerning POWER: indeed, despite calling many to follow Him, He never obliged anyone to do so, nor did He ever seek out the support of the powerful, but always took the side of the last, teaching His disciples to do likewise, as He had done (cf. Lk 22:25-27).

Finally, Jesus was free of the PURSUIT OF FAME and approval, and so, He never gave up speaking the truth, even at the cost of not being understood (cf. Mk 3:21), of becoming unpopular, even to the point of dying on the cross, not allowing Himself to be intimidated, nor bought, nor corrupted by anything or anyone (cf. Mt 10:28). Jesus was a free man.

He was free in the face of wealth, free in the face of power, free in the face of the pursuit of fame. And this is important for us too. Indeed, if we let ourselves be conditioned by the quest for pleasure, power, money, or consensus, we become slaves to these things. If instead we allow God’s freely-given love to fill us and expand our heart, and if we let it overflow spontaneously, by giving it back to others, with our whole selves, without fear, calculation, or conditioning, then we grow in freedom, and spread its good fragrance around us too.

So, we can ask ourselves: am I a free person? Or do I let myself be imprisoned by the myths of money, power, and success, sacrificing my serenity, and peace, and that of others, to these things? In the places where I live and work, do I spread the fresh air of freedom, sincerity, and simplicity? May the Virgin Mary help us live and love as Jesus taught us, in the freedom of the children of God (cf. Rom 8:15,20-23).
Excerpts from Pope Francis.

Video:

Jul 8 Mon - Can I have a personal relationship with Jesus?

 

Jul 8 Mon
Can I have a personal relationship with Jesus?
Jesus wishes us to pray to God in such a way as to call him Father and to call ourselves sons of God, just as Christ is the Son of God. No one would have dared to claim such a name in prayer, unless he had permitted us to pray this. And so, we must behave as children of God, so that whatever pleasure we take in having God for our Father, He may take the same pleasure in having us as his children.

Thus, we develop a “personal relationship” with Jesus, our Elder brother. But if we limit that relationship between us and Him only to what we’re willing to agree to, we’re not in a personal relationship with Jesus. We’re in a toxic relationship with our own egos, a cocoon we create for our own comfort.

The whole problem can be seen by asking a simple question: Which Jesus are we supposed to have that relationship with, anyway? The Jesus of the Scriptures and Early Church Fathers? The Enlightenment rationalist Jesus (miracles optional)?

We must choose the “todos, todos, todos” of the Faith. Jesus doesn’t (formally) change His teachings, but can discover for us far-reaching implications about the teaching at some future date.

That completeness of the true faith has a parallel in the charity we must live. “Thus, we must love all souls without exception: that is the first conclusion to be drawn when you start reflecting on this virtue.

You must have the right kind of understanding for other people's defects, failings, mistakes and weaknesses. And this understanding will enable you to live together in harmony. Can you see how you are to love all Catholics? Like this! ‘I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.’ This commandment is still new for lots of people, after all these years. So new, they haven't tried it out yet!"

“It's a pity, but it's absolutely true. How often people who claim to be serving Christ try to get rid of others who are also serving him! They resort to lies, malicious gossip, ambiguity and innuendo, in order to sow confusion ...”

A commandment, yes, “Come all unto me…,” but also, “Strait is the gate.” A Jesus both demanding – leave everything and follow me – and tender, as none of us ever are.

We can think of faith as a precious diamond with many facets. No one of them is one too much. And all the facets are needed to complete the precious stone.

Christianity is not a do-it-yourself hobby. We need to know the real Jesus that the tradition preserves and “take to heart” what he said and did to work out and make it real in our lives.

You and I: Sent. Preaching. Mission. Not merely “walking together,” but going out bearing the Truth, to all nations. That is the Church, her primary reason for being, the full embodiment of the “personal relationship.”

Video:

Jul 7 Sun - How can I persevere in the faith?

Jul 7 Sun
How can I persevere in the faith?
Jesus is the prophet; he reveals the truth to those with whom he speaks and who are willing to listen. His townspeople, in large part, rejected him. They began to demand miracles from him.

We can lose our faith by doing evil. As St. Paul puts it, “By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their faith.” By conscience, St. Paul means “a right good conscience.”

Today, many lose their faith in God, not because it is difficult to believe in Him, but because they do not live the virtue of chastity.
Recall that the conversion of the heart precedes the enlightenment of the mind. This is because when we sin, we tell ourselves, “It’s not a sin" or “I didn’t sin" or “It was justified." That is a hardness of the heart that causes hardness of the head!

Thus, we must nourish our faith “with the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith; our faith must be ‘working through charity,’ abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.”

We can guard our faith and make it grow by constant spirit of prayer, by reading the Sacred Scriptures; asking God to increase our faith; offering sacrifices and doing good for others; making acts of hope rather than giving into sadness; and by holding to all the doctrines of faith and morals that the Church teaches.

Jesus Christ is the supreme prophet. We share in Christ’s prophetic office because of our baptismal vocation. So, we, too, have the call to witness to the truth by our words and lives.
However, when we begin to embrace our vocation as witnesses to the truth, we will find obstacles. The obstacles are our participation in God’s seeming inability to reach people who are indifferent to him or who reject him.
Christ did not force his townsmen to have faith in him.

Our faith, together with our weakness, reveal to us the mysterious ways of God’s almighty power. This seemingly imperfect faith, lived with humility, moves Jesus to lend us his power. The Virgin Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that ‘nothing will be impossible with God,’ and was able to magnify the Lord: ‘For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
Our inability makes room for Christ’s ability.

There is also a hidden bonus in our weakness. As St. Paul heard from the Lord, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ The sufferings he had to endure meant that in his flesh he had to complete what was lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His Body, that is, the Church. Thus, our inability and limitations are what make us co-redeemers with Christ. This is why St. Paul was content with “weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints.”

Jul 6 Sat - The 80th birthday of the extraordinarily famous film “Casablanca”

 

Jul 6 Sat
The 80th birthday of the extraordinarily famous film “Casablanca,” starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

“Casablanca" is set in the 1940s, at the height of the war. As a result of World War II, the Moroccan city of Casablanca is an enclave to which people arrive from all over the world fleeing Nazism. While arriving was easy, leaving was much more complicated, especially if the fugitive's name appeared on the Gestapo lists, which put pressure on the French authorities under the command of the corrupt Inspector Renault. In this case, the target of the German secret police is the Czech leader and resistance hero Victor Laszlo, whose only hope is Rick Blaine, owner of Rick's Café and who years earlier had been romantically involved with his now wife, Ilsa Lund. Rick and Ilsa had met in Paris, but the entry of German troops into the French capital separated them.

The solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord seems a curious feast. On the one hand, it is clear that, if Christ rose from the dead, he had to leave us at some point. But should we celebrate Jesus going away and leaving us here alone? Shouldn't it rather be a sad event?

The power of men is limited, but not that of God. That is why the Lord can leave and stay at the same time, as he had already promised that, and now accompanies us in the Eucharist. God does not make vain promises; he goes where man does not succeed despite of his desire.

On July 17, 1942, five days behind schedule, the film crew moved to Warner's Studio No. 1 to shoot the final sequence of the film: the farewell of the main characters, Rick and Ilsa. The problem, incredible as it may seem, is that no one knew at the time what the outcome was going to be.

Four alternative outcomes were thought of: Rick leaves with Ilsa for Lisbon; Ilsa stays with Rick in Casablanca; Rick is killed while helping Laszlo escape; or Laszlo dies at the airport and the two lovers leave together. None of these endings convinced anyone. Then a fifth alternative emerged: Rick sends Ilsa to Laszlo, not out of weakness, but because he understood that her life was with Laszlo; her work with the leader of the Resistance, in need of support and affection, was too important to be sacrificed for a selfish love: the magical idea of detachment for the sake of duty.

Just as Rick sacrifices his preferences, and convinces Ilsa to leave, with the famous phrase: “we will always have Paris." The Lord leaves this earth reminding us that we will always have the Holy Spirit close by, who helps us to fulfill our duty, our vocation. And he remains, invisible, with us in the Blessed Eucharist.  In heaven the Virgin Mary was waiting for her Son to meet Him again, just as she is now waiting for you and me.

Video:

July 5 Fri - The 12 promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary

 

July 5 Fri
The 12 promises of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.


1. "I will bring peace to your families." Jesus' Heart must reign in the household.

2. "I will console you in your sorrows." Those devoted to the Sacred Heart will find solace, intimately connected to Jesus' heart. It is comforting to know that Jesus is with me.

3. "I will be your safe refuge throughout your life, especially at the hour of death." Jesus encourages us to trust and surrender ourselves to God the Father, even in our final moments. Just as in the Gospel when Jesus said, "It is finished. Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," it is a great lesson in surrendering ourselves to the Father.

4. "I will pour abundant blessings on your endeavors." Those devoted to the Heart of Jesus seek to do things for God's glory rather than their own.

5. "Sinners will find in my Heart the fountain of Mercy." The devil wants people to despair and not hope for forgiveness or a chance to change their lives. However, the Sacred Heart of Jesus assures every person, "I have thought of you for all eternity. I desire your holiness. Today is a day of grace, a day of salvation. Mercy is available for you!"

6. "Lukewarm souls will become fervent." Tepidity, or mediocrity, is a cancer, and we are called to have a strong desire for holiness and to trust that God will guide us on the path to holiness that began with our baptism.

7. "Fervent souls will reach great perfection." We must continue purifying our intentions.

8. "I will grant priests the grace to touch hardened hearts." This is a tremendous gift for priests who, through preaching and their own example, strive to reach the hearts of those who are distant from God. The Sacred Heart assists in presenting the Gospel to the world in an appealing manner.

9. "I will bless the homes where an image of my Heart is exposed and honored." "Enthroning" the Sacred Heart in a home signifies that Christ and His Heart reign over that family. Such an image should not be hidden but displayed prominently where the family gathers.

10. "Those who spread this devotion will have their names written in my Heart, and they will never be erased."

11. "To the souls consecrated to my Heart, I will bestow the necessary graces for their state of life." God desires to assist each person, regardless of who they are.

12. "Through my almighty love, I will grant the grace of final perseverance to all who receive Holy Communion on nine consecutive Fridays. They will not die without my grace." How bold of the Lord to make such a specific and daring promise! Jesus wishes to express gratitude to those who accompany Him on these Fridays as an act of reparation for His suffering in Gethsemane, when He asked His disciples to "stay awake and pray" and found them asleep.

Video: