CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

FEAST OF IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

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FEAST OF IMMACULATE CONCEPTION HOLY DAY OF OBLIGATION DECEMBER 8

Immaculate Mary, Your praises we sing,

You reign now in heaven, With Jesus our king

Ave, Ave, Ave Maria.

 BACKGROUND

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in its oldest form, goes back to the seventh century, when churches in the East began celebrating the Feast of Saint Anne, the mother of Mary.

The feast arrived in the West probably no earlier than the 11th century with a developing theological controversy between the West and East.  In the East they believe every human being is born with original sin including Mary mother of God.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was officially defined as dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854. Dogma means that a definitive article of faith has been solemnly promulgated and is necessary for the belief of all Catholic faithful.

 Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 promulgated,

“We declare, the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”

 Four years after the dogma of the Immaculate Conception was promulgated Mary appeared to a young woman in Lourdes, France 1858, Bernadette Soubirous, and announced that she is the Immaculate Conception”

I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 

LOURDES 1858

 COMMENTARY

 According to St. Thomas Aquinas, God had sanctified Mary at the moment of her conception in His foreknowledge that the Blessed Virgin would consent to bear Christ.

In other words, she too had been redeemed—her redemption had simply been accomplished at the moment of her conception in anticipation of her Redeemer rather than as with all other Christians, in Baptism.

Mary’s soul was created in a state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice.  neither stained by Original Sin, nor by consequences of that sin…clouded intellect and weakened will.

It’s important to understand what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is and what it is not. Some people think the term refers to Christ’s conception in Mary’s womb without the intervention of a human father; but that is called the Virgin Birth.

Others think the Immaculate Conception means Mary was conceived “by the power of the Holy Spirit,” in the way Jesus was, but that, too, is incorrect. Mary did have a human father.  The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, whose conception was brought about the normal way, was conceived without original sin.

At the Annunciation, The angel Gabriel greets Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” This greeting “full of grace was not a result of the angel’s visit but rather, an acknowledgement that Mary, preserved from original sin, is already sanctified.

REFLECTION

 The Immaculate Conception is the concrete expression of God’s love for Mary, who gave herself fully, completely, and without hesitation to His service. 

 Mary is exactly the human being that God meant each of us to be from the very beginning of creation. It was man’s fall that brought about sin and death.

 God isn’t finished with us yet, thanks be to God. He remains patient and merciful as He calls each one of us to be the person He had in mind when He created us in our mother’s womb.

MARY IMMACULATE

PATRONESS OF UNITED STATES

John Carroll, the first bishop in the United States, had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1792, he placed the diocese of Baltimore which encompassed the thirteen colonies of the young republic under her protection. U.S. bishops unanimously named Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the nation in 1846, during the Sixth Provincial Council of Baltimore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING NOVEMBER 24, 2024

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

CHRISTUS VINCIT, CHRISTUS REGNAT, CHRISTUS IMPERAT

CHRIST CONQUERS, CHRIST REIGNS, CHRIST RULES. 

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW

 INTRODUCTION

 We have been on a journey the past twelve months as we traveled through the Christian Church Year. The Liturgical year begins on the First Sunday of Advent, and ends today with the Feast of Christ the King.

During the Liturgical year, we re-live the life of Christ. We follow in His footsteps as he walked the dusty trails of Galilee, gathered disciples, opened blind eyes, made the lame to walk, taught the multitudes, was crucified, rose again and ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.

 The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to assert the sovereignty of Christ and His Church over all forms of government, to remind Christians of the fidelity and loyalty they owe to Christ, who by his Incarnation and sacrificial death on the cross makes us adopted children of God and future citizens and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven

The title “Christ the King” has its roots both in the Old Testament and New Testament. In most of the Messianic prophecies given in the Old Testament books of Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel, the Messiah is represented as a King.

 From the very beginning of the New Testament at the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel says to Mary, “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,* and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:32-33

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy Kingdom come . . .” immediately followed by “Thy will be done.” And so, the definition of the Kingdom is “a community of people who do God’s will on earth as perfectly as it is done in heaven.”

REFLECTION

 IS CHRIST THE KING, KING OF MY LIFE?

 The Kingdom of God is a space. It exists in every home where parents and children love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak and vulnerable. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the needy. It exists in every work place where one is kind and patient with their fellow workers.

The Kingdom of God is a time. It happens whenever someone feeds a hungry person, shelters a homeless person, or shows care to a neglected person. It happens whenever we overturn an unjust law, or make peace instead of war

Jesus Christ is king!  We belong to his Kingdom when we try to walk with him, when we try to live our lives fully in the spirit of the Gospel and when that Gospel spirit penetrates every facet of our living.

“The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve.” Matthew 20:28 We too are called to service We too are called to be a people of service who reach out to embrace the enemy and the stranger, a people who will endlessly forgive, a people who will reach out in compassion to the poor and to the marginalized….

 PRAYER

To Jesus Christ our Sovereign King

who is the world’s salvation,

All praise and homage do we bring

and thanks and adoration

 Your reign extend O King benign,

to every land and nation;

For in your kingdom Lord divine

Alone do we find salvation

 To you and to your Church, great King

We pledge our heart’s oblation;

Until before your throne we sing

In endless jubilation

 Christ Jesus, Victor!

Christ Jesus, Ruler!

Christ Jesus, Lord and Redeemer

COME FOLLOW ME, YOUR SOVEREIGN KING

 

 

 

 

 

saint francis of assisi

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

FRANCIS OF ASSISI

SAINT FRANCIS OF ASSISI FEAST DAY OCTOBER 4

INTRODUCTION

Thursday October 4 is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi.  Most of us know in general about Francis love for God’s creation, the animals, BROTHER sun, SISTER moon, and all that God has made.  Many parishes will be blessing pets today.  Pets are gifts from God to lift our spirits on our journey. Thank God for our pets!

 

BACKGROUND

 

In 1182, Francis was born to a wealthy cloth merchant of Assisi, Pietro Bernardone, and his French wife, the Lady Pica.  Francis was a young man of charm and wit with a consuming desire to be a knight after the fashion of his heroes, the legendary knights’ errant of the court of King Arthur and the court of Charlemagne.

 

In his twentieth year, Francis rides off to battle against the neighboring city of Perugia.  Assisi is routed and Francis is taken prisoner.   While in prison, Francis becomes ill. Francis is ransomed by his Father and released from prison.

 

After imprisonment and ill health, the world had lost some of its splendor for Francis.  It is in this desperate desolation that Francis begins to hear new voices within his old voices of vain glory and legendary tales of courtly love.  God’s voice became louder and clearer.

 

One day Francis hears God’s voice, “Francis! if you wish to know my will…  all that now seems sweet and lovely to you will become intolerable and bitter… but all that you used to avoid will turn itself to great sweetness and exceeding joy.”

 

Another time while praying in the chapel of San Damiano, Francis hears, “Francis repair my house which is falling into ruin.”  Francis begins selling his Father’s goods to raise money for repairs then resorts to begging for stones of the townspeople. Enraged at his son’s begging, Pietro drags his son before the Bishop.

 

Francis strips himself of his clothes before the Bishop and lays them at his father’s feet and utters the most dramatic words of his life,

 

“Listen to me everybody!  Until now I have called Pietro Bernardone my father.  But now that I am determined to serve God, I return not only his money but all the clothes I have from him.  From now on, I can walk naked before the Lord, no longer saying “my father,” Pietro Bernardone, but, ‘our Father who art in heaven!‘

 

Thus begins the journey of Francis from his father’s house to the house of his heavenly Father.  For Francis the Heavenly Father is fully revealed in Jesus Christ and thus the journey home is in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. .

 

Francis began to understand better God’s call to “rebuild his Church”  was more specific vocation to rebuild the spiritual life of the Church by bearing witness in imitation of Christ to the saving power of the Gospel

FRANCIS EMBRACES LEPER

 

One day Francis was riding across the plains of Assisi, he perceived a leper coming straight towards him.  In Francis’ day a leper had to ring a bell and shout, “Unclean.”  Society had embedded in Francis an incomparable loathing for all persons afflicted with this illness.

 

As Francis saw the leper approach his first reaction was horror then he remembered the resolve he made to attain perfection and to be a soldier of Christ meant victory over one self.  Francis dismounted his horse, kissed the leper, and gave him alms.

 

In this decisive moment of illumination Francis suddenly perceived in this leper the embodiment of God’s beauty, a human being to be loved and cared for tenderly.

 

By embracing the leper, the Saint learned to embrace all people just as Jesus did. For Francis the meaning of Creation is found in the person of Jesus Christ.  It is in and through Jesus Christ that we discover the meaning of our own humanity and that of every other creature.

 

ST FRANCIS ASSISI PEACE PRAYER

 

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

FEAST OF THE EXHALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS SEPTEMBER 14

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

WE ADORE YOU O CHRIST, AND WE BLESS YOU

BECAUSE BY YOUR HOLY CROSS YOU HAVE REDEEMED THE WORLD!

 BACKGROUND

 The Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross is celebrated every year on September 14. This feast recalls two historical events: the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena, mother of emperor Constantine, and the dedication of churches built by Constantine (335) on the site of the Holy Sepulcher and Mount Calvary.

After the death and resurrection of Christ, both the Jewish and Roman authorities in Jerusalem made efforts to obscure the Holy Sepulcher, Christ’s tomb, in a garden near the site of His crucifixion. According to tradition, Saint Helena, Mother of Emperor, Constantine, nearing the end of her life, decided under divine inspiration to travel to Jerusalem in 326 to excavate the Holy Sepulcher in an attempt to locate the True Cross.

In celebration of the discovery of the Holy Cross, Constantine ordered the construction of churches at the site of the Holy Sepulcher and on Mount Calvary. Those churches were dedicated on September 13 and 14, 335, and shortly thereafter the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross began to be celebrated on September 14.

 REFLECTION

The cross reminds us of many things: atonement, forgiveness, love, mercy, redemption, salvation, and hope.  This instrument of torture, designed to disgrace and dismiss the worst of criminals, became the life-giving tree that reversed Adam’s Original Sin when he ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. God loves us even to death on the cross. LOVE is what the crucifixion is all about,

Christians display the cross in their homes.  They wear it on their person.  They make the sign of the cross before prayer and on entering Church with the waters of Baptism. With the sign of the cross we remind ourselves and witness to others that we have set ourselves apart from worldly rule and pledge our very selves to God’s reign in heaven.

At Mass, the same sacrifice offered on Calvary is offered in an “unbloody manner.” We offer ourselves with the priest to the Father in sacrificial atonement for our sins.  When we receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we do not simply unite ourselves to Christ; we nail ourselves to the Cross, dying with Christ so that we might truly rise with Him.  “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23).

God did not spare His own Son from suffering.  God takes upon Himself all the hate, bitterness, resentment, violence, and sins of this world.  God has promised in the end, there will be redemption, vindication, immunity from suffering, and eternal life.

Suffering in this world is inevitable.  God did not promise us a “rose garden” without thorns.  But He did promise to nurture, feed, and prune that rose garden as He brings it to the fullness of glory in heaven.

At Jesus’ death, the Temple veil before the “holy of holies” was split in two from top to bottom revealing the inner heart of God.  There is no longer a veil between us and God’s heart.  The cross of Jesus fully reveals what God looks like!

The cross of Jesus doesn’t just reveal God’s unconditional love for us; but also reveals that vulnerability is the path to intimacy with God.

God is not about condemnation and crushing every evil by force.  “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn* the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” John 3:17   God is like a gentle mother coaxing her child to take that next step in learning to walk.

J

ESUS CHRIST SAVIOR OF THE WORLD

O HAPPY FAULT THAT EARNED FOR US SO GREAT, SO GLORIOUS A REDEEMER!

SAINT AMBROSE

EASTER VIGIL PROCLAMATION

 

 

 

 

 

SAINT (MOTHER) TERESA OF CALCUTTA

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

FEAST DAY SEPTEMBER 5

 INTRODUCTION

Mother Teresa is one of my favorite saints.  Years ago, she inspired our whole family, teenage girls included, to spend time in the poorest of poor nations, Haiti, to work with the poor and dying.  One of the places was a hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity the order Mother Teresa founded.

Our family has never been the same since. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 16:25

BACKGROUND

Born in Skopje (North Macedonia) in 1910, MOTHER TERESA joined the Sisters of Loreto in Dublin in 1928 and was sent to India, where she began her novitiate. She taught at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta from 1931 to 1948, until leaving the Loreto order to begin the Missionaries of Charity.

In 1946, Mother Teresa had a mystical encounter with Christ on a train to Darjeeling September 26, 1946 in which He asked her to take her love for Him a large step further.

He asked her to leave the convent of Loreto and begin an order which would serve the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.

During the time of her mystical experiences leading to the founding of the new order, she experienced deep spiritual union and the sensible awareness of God’s Presence in her life.

Here is a small sample of Jesus’ words to Mother Teresa during this time: “My little one – come – carry Me into the holes of the poor. –  Come be My light – I cannot go alone – they don’t know Me – in your love for Me – they will see Me, know Me, want Me…. For them I long –”

During her lifelong service to the poorest of the poor, Mother Teresa became an icon of compassion to people of all religions; her extraordinary contributions to the care of the sick, the dying, and thousands of others nobody else was prepared to look after, has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world.

REFLECTION

 GOOD NEWS QUOTES OF MOTHER TERESA

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Each person is Jesus in disguise. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This one has leprosy.  I must wash him and tend to him….

 It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us…Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.

 People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway…. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.  The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

 Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. At the hour of death when we come face-to-face with God, we are going to be judged on love; not how much we have done, but how much love we put into the doing….

Mother Teresa’s 1979 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Lord, make me a channel of Thy peace that, where there is hatred, I may bring love; that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness; that, where there is discord, I may bring harmony; that, where there is error, I may bring truth; that, where there is doubt, I may bring faith; that, where there is despair, I may bring hope; that, where there are shadows, I may bring light; that, where there is sadness, I may bring joy. Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to love than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is forgiving that one is forgiven; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

CONCLUSION

We are each called and equipped by God to not only survive our personal Calcutta, but to contribute to those around us whose individual Calcutta intersects our own.   There is no need, then, to travel to far-off lands to contribute… Wherever we are, with whatever talents and relationships God has entrusted us, we are each called not to do what Mother Teresa did, but– to love as she loved in the Calcutta of our own life. 

 Made in the very image and likeness of God, We, on earth, are God’s love, God’s compassion, God’s will, God’s caregivers, His smile, His tears.  We must show the presence of God in this world until He comes again at the end of time

 

 

 

MARY QUEEN OF HEAVEN FEAST DAY AUGUST 22

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS, MARY MOTHER OF GOD

                                                              MARY CROWNED QUEEN OF HEAVEN AND EARTH

INTRODUCTION

 Centuries before the birth of Christ, Isaiah foretold the coming of the Messiah-King: “A child is born to us [he said], a son is given to us; upon his shoulder dominion rests. They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace”… This Messiah would be in the royal line of David, and his reign would have no end Isaiah. 9:6-7.

Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of David who came to fulfill the Davidic Kingdom. The whole point of the genealogy in the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel is to show Jesus is royalty; he is the heir to David’s throne. Matthew 1:1

When the angel Gabriel appears to Mary, he explicitly links the birth of the child to the fulfillment of God’s promise to King David:

The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Luke 1:26-33

 First century Jews would have known, under the reign of David’s royal family, the kingdom was ruled by both a King and a Queen. Unlike in modern-day kingdoms, however, the queen of Israel was not the king’s wife but his mother. She was known as the “Queen Mother.”

The pre-eminence of the king’s mother may seem odd from our modern Western perspective, In the Near East, however, most ancient Near-Eastern kings practiced polygamy. King Solomon had seven hundred wives 1 Kings.11:3

Imagine the chaos in the royal court if all seven hundred were awarded the Queen-ship! But since each king had only one mother, one can see the practical wisdom in bestowing the Queen-ship upon her. In the historical books of the Old Testament, the Queen mother holds a position of great honor.

According to the Old Testament, the Queen mother was also a powerful intercessor with her son, the king.  In Hebrew tradition, Mary is Queen Mother. Mary’s royal office is made even more explicit in Luke’s account of the Visitation. Elizabeth greets Mary with the title “the mother of my Lord” Luke 1:43. Elizabeth is recognizing the great dignity of Mary’s role as the royal mother of the king, Jesus

In the royal court language of the ancient Near East, the title “Mother of my Lord” was used to address the Queen mother of the reigning king (who himself was addressed as “my Lord”  2 Sam. 24:21.

In the last book of the Bible, Book of Revelation, we have the confirmation of what prophets and evangelists have been writing for centuries. a woman clothed with the sun and wearing a crown of stars is standing above the moon and the stars “in heaven.” Revelation 12:1

 Just as Jesus is a heavenly King who reigns over a heavenly kingdom, so Mary, Jesus’ mother, can rightly be described as Queen of the kingdom of heaven.

REFLECTION

 What God has accomplished in Mother Mary, He also wants to accomplish in us. From Heaven, Mary encourages each of us to say Yes to God’s plan for our lives just as she did so long ago.

Understanding Mary as Queen mother sheds light on her important intercessory role with Jesus, her Son. Just like the queen mother of the Davidic kingdom, Mary serves as advocate for the people in the Kingdom of God today.

Mary helps us to share in the Lord’s victory over sin. Rising above those sins, we begin to acquire self-mastery, true purity of heart, and a newfound ability to give ourselves to others in love and in service. All of this is who Mary is and why she reigns in Heaven.  There is no better intercessor than the Queen Mother! Mary awaits us! Bring us safely home, Mary! Amen!

Regina Caeli – Queen of Heaven

Queen of heaven, rejoice. Alleluia.  Pray to God for us, Alleluia.

O God, it was by the Resurrection of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, that you brought joy to the world.

Grant through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, his Mother, we may attain the joy of eternal life.

Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

FEAST OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY ASSUMPTION INTO HEAVEN

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS, MARY MOTHER OF GOD

DORMITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

BACKGROUND

 The Feast of the Assumption is the oldest Marian feast of the Catholic Church, celebrated universally by the sixth century. The feast was originally celebrated in the East, where it was known as the Feast of the Dormition, a word which means “the falling asleep.”

For two centuries after the death of Christ, under pagan rule, every memory of Jesus was obliterated from the city of Jerusalem. The sites made holy by His life, death and Resurrection became pagan temples. It wasn’t until the time of Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 285-337) that Jerusalem began to be restored as a sacred city.

One of the memories about his Mother Mary centered around the “Tomb of Mary,” where she was buried, close to Mount Zion, the highest point in ancient Jerusalem.

Also on the Mount was the “Place of Dormition,” the spot of Mary’s “falling asleep,” (where she had “died.) These two sites do suggest in tradition that Mary apparently died and was buried,

At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem that “Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later, was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven.”

Did Mary actually die or was she assumed into heaven alive?  We don’t have a definitive answer to that question but as Catholics we are free to believe either.

What we must believe according to the teaching authority of the Church (Magisterium) is: Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven, without seeing corruption.

 CATHOLIC CHURCH TEACHING

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which we celebrate on August 15, is a defined Church dogma. In 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption ex cathedra—that is, an authoritative teaching “from the chair” of Peter.

Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma in these words, “The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heaven, without seeing corruption.

REFLECTION

Mary did not ascend into heaven like her Son did under His own power, but was taken up to heaven by God.  The Assumption completes God’s work in Mary since it was not fitting that the flesh that had given life to God himself should ever undergo corruption.

On this feast of Assumption, we celebrate Mary’s entrance into heaven, body and soul. Though our bodies are corrupted in death unlike Mary, one day our bodies will be restored. Our bodies, created by God, are sacred and are essential to our human nature. “….

In The Feast of the Assumption, we look to eternity.  This life on earth is temporal and for the most part filled with suffering and grief. We look forward to life after death. Thank God that this is not all there is! This feast gives us hope that we, too will follow Our Lady when our life here on earth ends.

Wherever there is an out-stretched hand in labor for others we are participating in the grace and mystery of Mary’s Assumption.  As God lifted Mary up, God awaits those we lift in our labors. and we, the lifters as well.  Our heavenly home awaits!

 At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. I Corinthians 13:9-13 We have made it home!

Mary’s assumption is proof of how we will be rewarded for the sacrifices we make here on earth- By giving up now on earth what we like but what is sinful, and enduring what is painful to us but pleasing to God, we shall enjoy Heaven with Jesus and Mary – body and soul – in the world to come.

PRAYER

“All-powerful and ever-living God:

You raised the sinless Virgin Mary, mother of your Son, body and soul, to the glory of heaven.

May we see heaven as our final goal and come to share her glory.”

In Jesus’ name we pray.

The Immaculate Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary,

 having completed the course of her earthly life,

was assumed body and soul into heaven,

without seeing corruption.

POPE PIUS XII

 

 

FEAST OF ST, MARY MAGDALENE JULY 22

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

 

MARY MAGDALENE WASHES JESUS FEET

“Your faith has saved you; go in peace!” Luke 7:44-50

 In the 6th Century, Saint Pope Gregory the Great identified St. Mary Magdalen as the woman who anointed Christ’s feet with perfume in the home of Simon the Pharisee

Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give me water for my feet, but she has bathed them with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

You did not give me a kiss, but she has not ceased kissing my feet since the time I entered. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she anointed my feet with ointment;….He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” But he said to the woman, your faith has saved you; go in peace!” Luke 7:44-50

 REFLECTION

 Instead of addressing His critics, Jesus addresses the repentant woman and praises her for her great love and faith and sends her on her way sanctified and redeemed.  From that moment, Mary Magdalen became a faithful disciple and witness all the way to Calvary.

REPENTANCE AND REDEMPTION

Her Faith has saved her not on her own but through the grace of God.  Pray for that faith.

Jesus asks Simon, “Do you see this woman? Jesus has told us “they have eyes but do not see and ears yet they do not hear” Mark 8:18

Pray for a discerning heart to see the world as Jesus sees it.

THE CRUCIFIXON

 …by the cross of Jesus were his mother and Mary of Magdala.

John 19:25

Mary Magdalene remained faithful all the way through the Passion of Jesus.  Can I remain faithful through pain and suffering?

 Do I embrace Jesus on the cross or avert my eyes from His passion and death?

PRAYER:

 We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world. Be you imitators of Christ and walk in love, as Christ loved us and delivered himself up for us. May God have pity on us and bless us, may he let his face to shine upon us.

Mary Magdalene followed the burial of Jesus to the tomb and saw where He was buried, and came on Sunday to anoint Him. She was rewarded with His appearance and commissioned to go evangelize and spread the Good News that He is Risen! 

DO NOT CLING TO ME

John 20:17

 Jesus said to her, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary then went and announced to the apostles, “I have seen the Lord, and what he told her”. John 20: 15-18

 REFLECTION

 When Jesus speaks to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, “Do not cling to me.” John 20:17.  Jesus invites us along with Mary Magdalene to enter into the experience of faith which goes beyond what can be discovered by our “senses.”

  “Blessed are those who have not seen and believe.”  John 20:29

Mary Magdalene was the first witness to the Resurrection, and is the one who announced the event to the Apostles. “Saint Mary Magdalene is an example of true and authentic evangelization; she is an evangelist who announces the joyful central message of Easter,” He is Risen!

Do I evangelize?

Our first parents, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden spread death where there was life.  Mary Magdalene    in the garden of the Resurrection announced life from the Holy Sepulchre, a place of death. The first spread death where there was life; the second announced life from a sepulchre, the place of death.

 

FEAST OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL JULY 16

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS, MARY MOTHER OF GOD

 

OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL

PRAY FOR US!

 What does Mary, the Mother of God have to do with Carmel and why a feast day?  Good question.  When Jesus saw his mother* and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son, Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” John 19:17 From all eternity God chose Mary as the means to bring Christ into the world. Through the maternal care of Mary, her children grow in love and the zeal for the salvation of souls. Love is the “heart” of Carmel. 

Eve, through her disobedience, brought sin into the world. Mary, through her obedience brought salvation.  On July 16, 1251, Mary appeared to St. Simon Stock, Prior of the Carmelite order. St. Simon Stock had prayed fervently to the Blessed Mother for assistance as the Order of Carmel was enduring difficulties.  Our Lady appeared to him, holding the Brown Scapular in her hands, saying to him,, “This will be the sign of the privilege that I have obtained for thee and for the children of Carmel; whoever dies clothed with this habit will be preserved from the eternal flames”

  BACKGROUND

 Mt. Carmel is located in Palestine between Tyre and Caesarea about 20 miles from Nazareth, home of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.  The prophet Elijah witnessed God’s triumph over the pagan gods of Ba’aal.  In the Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, it was the Prophet Elijah and the lawmaker, Moses who appeared with Jesus who is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets.  Carmel is the place where not only prophets, Elijah and Elisha, lived and prayed but many hermits after them lived lives of prayer and sacrifice.

 

MOUNT CARMEL

ELIJAH

In the Old Testament Elijah is first mentioned in 1 Kings 17:1 and is last seen in 2 Kings 2:13 when he is taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. Elijah was the prophet and instrument of God to preserve the true religion of Israel.  Elijah preached conversion and repentance and turning away from pagan gods.

The people of Israel had apparently become comfortable worshiping both the pagan god Baal and the Lord, perhaps assigning mutually exclusive spheres of influence to each. By claiming authority over the rain 1 Kings 17:1; 18:1, the Lord was challenging Baal’s power in Baal’s own domain. The entire drought story becomes explicit in 18:21–40 This is a struggle between the Lord and Baal for the loyalties of the people of Israel.

Ahab summoned all the Israelites and had the prophets 0f Baal together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word. So Elijah said to the people, “I am the only remaining prophet of the LORD, and there are four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.

Elijah prayed to the Lord

 Answer me, LORD! that this people may know that you, LORD, are God and that you have turned their hearts back to you.”The LORD’s fire came down and devoured the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and lapped up the water in the trench. Seeing this, all the people fell prostrate and said, “The LORD is God! The LORD is God! Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Let none of them escape!

SEIZE PROPHETS OF BAAL

1 KINGS 18-20

 

Elijah is the founder patriarch of the Order of Carmel. His charism reveals a singular devotion and love for Our Lord, zeal for the salvation of souls and a deep life of prayer.  St. John the Baptist bridged the Old to the New Testament, as he lived the spirit of Carmel in the desert as a hermit.

In silence and solitude, John the Baptist prepared the way for the Lord. The Spirit of Carmel allows the love of God to increase in us, so that like St. John the Baptist, we too can say, “He must increase, I must decrease” John 3:30

 CARMELITE SPIRITUALITY

 Humility and dependence on God is central to Carmelite Spirituality. The first rule of the Carmelites was written by St. Albert Avogadro between the years 1206 – 1214. In the 16th century, St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila) and St. John of the Cross (both from Spain) inaugurated a reform of the Carmelite Order, aimed at returning to the original observance of the primitive Carmelite rule established by St. Albert.

. “Then the LORD said to Elijah: Go out and stand on the mountain before the LORD;* the LORD will pass by. There was a strong and violent wind rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the LORD—but the LORD was not in the wind; after the wind, an earthquake—but the LORD was not in the earthquake; after the earthquake, fire—but the LORD was not in the fire; after the fire, a light silent sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.”

I Kings:19: 11-13

Both Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross teach us that God, the Blessed Trinity, dwells within the human person. Hence, one need not go out of self in search for God but enter progressively ever deeper within oneself to be with God who dwells at the very center of our being.  Carmelite spirituality proposes silence and solitude as necessary pre-requisites for prayer and contemplation. Silence refers not only to external noise but also to the stilling of one’s internal noises. Silence is the condition for listening attentively to the still small voice of God

 REFLECTIONS

In order to approach God more intimately, we must humbly approach Him, detached from other attachments that act as a barrier to God filling us with Himself.

What barriers do we have standing in the way of God?

Silence and special places can assist us in our prayer time to deepen our relationship with Jesus and His Father.

Do we have that silent place reserved for God and me?

Carmelite Spirituality also focuses on austerity as a means of freeing one-self from the tyranny of self-will, simplifying one’s life, and preserving all of one’s energy for journeying to God. Not my will but thy will be done! Luke 22:42

How am I imitating Jesus with his father at Gethsemane?

Carmelite spirituality is not just about self-salvation but the salvation of others as their prayers include all of us that all may be one in the Spirit and homeward bound.

I am called to evangelize.  How am I doing?

God must increase and I must decrease.

How is that happening?

Listen to that small quiet voice of the Spirit and pray for discernment.

What is that voice really telling me?   It may not be what I wanted to hear or expected.  Sometimes it even says wait awhile.

Mary is our maternal mother. Mary gave us the brown scapular that we might be clothed with Jesus as we were at our Baptisms.

Have I looked into obtaining a brown scapular?

 

 

 

 

MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS MONTH OF JULY

CATHOLIC FEAST DAYS

 

BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD

WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD

JOHN 1:29

BACKGROUND

The next day John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God,* who takes away the sin of the world.  John 1:29 John points to Jesus as the one who has come to be sacrificed for our salvation.

Devotion to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus is as old as Christianity. The early Fathers say that the Church was born from the pierced side of Christ, and that the sacraments were brought forth through His Blood.

Just as Eve, the mother of all life, was taken from the side of Adam, the Church and all the life-giving sacraments flow from the pierced side of Jesus.

In the first century, Pope St. Clement I wrote “Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious it is; it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world. This sacrifice is repeated in every Eucharistic celebration.

 REFLECTION

 The Bible regards blood as the symbol and source of life. “For the life of every creature is its blood: its blood is its life. Leviticus 17:14  The lifeblood of a sacrificial animal offered in sacrifice represented the life of the individual making atonement.

In the book of Leviticus chapter 16 we are told the story of the scapegoat. Two goats are brought to the temple high-priest for sacrifice. He sends one off into wilderness with the sins of the people to die alone and the other goat, without blemish, he will sacrifice and sprinkle its blood on the temple and on the worshippers.

God’s holiness and justice demands atonement. Atonement for our offense against God requires a perfect, spotless sacrifice.  Jesus Christ is that perfect sacrifice, human and divine… he was pierced for our sins, crushed for our iniquity. He bore the punishment that makes us whole, by his wounds we were healed. Isaiah 53:5

This is My blood, the blood of the covenant,

which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” 

Matthew 26:28

PRAYER 

Lord Jesus, You became Man that you might suffer your Passion and Death

even to the draining of your most precious blood so you might prove to us your love for us. 

 Protect us, dear Jesus.  Strengthen our weak human wills so that we will not run away from the cross,

but welcome every opportunity to shed our blood in spirit in union with your Precious Blood,

so that, dying to ourselves in time, we might live with You in Eternity  Amen