Participate

In our culture today we participate in numerous activities. Whether it be sports, games, a common meal, or singing in the choir, we always find our place. Yet, often times when we are at Mass, we find ourselves quiet, tentative, or more worried about what everyone else may be thinking of us. It is interesting that with our usual activities we rarely become self-conscious of our surroundings but in a pew at mass we become more aware of how our voice sounds in the echo of others' voices.

In the Gospel we are reminded that God makes His presence known whenever two or more are gathered in His name. When we gather for Mass, Jesus becomes ever present to us in the Most Blessed Sacrament. In it, He offers His whole life to the Father for our sakes and asks us to share in that mystery as one body of faith. I think we often forget the immanence of God in our daily living, but more especially when He is given to us in holy Communion. Jesus offers us Himself as our Head, Chief Shepherd and Guide. He was the first to offer Himself, and asked us to participate with

From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop

Him in the context of the Mass.

"Listen to the Lord’s appeal: In me, I want you to see your own body, your members, your heart, your bones, your blood."

Speaking about the love of Jesus, consummated on the cross and presented to us in the Mass, St. Chrysologus tells us that we are called to participate in the very life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In the Mass we are called to do our part. We are asked to share in the life, death and resurrection; we do not forfeit our lives but are given life anew by our participation.

Best said by St. Chrysologus, "Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will."

Our participation in life should not be limited to sports, music, or gaming, but in the Eternal, the One Who offered Himself on the cross for our redemption. And while the memory of the passion, death, and resurrection are fresh on our minds, let us do what we can to participate in this sacrifice with our whole hearts. If we do this, I can assure you everlasting rewards both in this life and in the life to come!

Silence

(picture taken from elephantjournal.com)

Recently I rediscovered the necessity for silence in our lives. Noise in today's world is almost unavoidable, and it is this noise that we have created that inhibits our awareness of God's work in this world. Often times we are the source of all the chaos that noise creates in our lives. Think how it would feel to turn off the radio when you enter your car, or cover the T.V. and leave it off for the week. These things create a static noise that effects us at our core it is this noise that really closes off an intimate relationship with God.

God is the one who created out of the silence. Before anything was ever created, God existed in silence. God broke the silence with His Word and spoke things into being. In the Psalms God calls us to recognize this reality reminding us to "be still and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10). God is calling us into silence, because he desires to recreate us, to refashion us from the moldings of the world, and in silence we can begin to hear the whispers of the Creator, Whose Word shaped the world.

How can we enter into this silence? We enter into the silence by realizing that we have created much of the noise. Spend time allowing your mind re-collect itself, breath deeply, speak to God from the heart, and then listen. Often times it can be hard to stay quiet with God - our minds love to wander to the many things the world has placed before us. We need to open our hearts to God and invite Him to work and begin to enjoy His presence with us.

My prayer for my generation is that we may grow in God's awareness by communing with Him in silence, and breaking off from the many obligations that keep us from Him.

"Love is indeed Ecstasy"

Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est speaks of Love as ecstasy. Indeed love is ecstasy. It must be, otherwise we would not be so infatuated with the idea of it. Love is intoxicating, it is ominous, it is mysterious, and unapproachable, and most of all, it is accessible to all peoples and times. For, as St. John the evangelist proclaims, God is LOVE! Love then, must be that thing which entices all to desire it, and hope for it. Love too must drive us to better understand it. For in fact "it" is not a thing, but rather a person, God Himself! Love and God become interchangeable because love is in fact the essence of God. We must not confuse however a common perversion of what I just stated. God is not every feeling, desire, or emotion, but rather an avid seeking of the source of that Love which is actively seeking the face of our Creator. Love is the constant motivating force by which we can accomplish all things.

On the other hand, love in our society has become perverted in more numerous ways to mention. Even the term love has become so overused that in ordinary language we forget the depth of it's meaning. Even more so, the term "love" is so commonplace that we forget it's sacred roots namely, the primordial love that God has given to us. That it is by love that we are able to live, and move, and have our being. Only when we consider what love truly is will be configured to the person of Love, Jesus. Pope Benedict writes, "Love is indeed 'ecstasy,'... an ongoing exodus... toward its liberation through self-giving, and thus toward authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God"(section 6 of Deus Caritas Est). By looking at "love" in it's raw essence, we can do nothing but be in awe of what Love is. Benedict describes love perfectly as an expression of oneself outward for relationship, and modeling after Jesus Christ who sacrificed Himself out of love for us.

Defeated by Christ: The Victory of the Resurrection!

There are days in our lives when we can feel defeated, frustrated, upset, and vulnerable; days when everything seems to be overwhelming us, when nothing goes our way, and when we seem to be looking up at the ground. These days are the days when we truly feel defeated by the weight of this world. The other day I was praying about these things. I prayed about defeat and I came to the wonderful realization that I was defeated. Jesus defeated me on the cross: God defeated all, all of my disorder, my will to be my own person, to live for myself; all of me was defeated on the cross. Jesus took me into His hands and stole my heart. He replaced my stony heart with a natural heart. A heart that was hardened by my concupiscence, my sin, and pride, was replaced with a new heart, completely my own, that was ready to praise God. This new heart was ready for love, God’s love. The wonderful part about it is that it came about through suffering. Suffering was defeated through suffering, pain, anguish, and love. To be defeated by Christ requires only one thing; trust. Suffering provided for me the vulnerability and humility to realize that I can do nothing without God’s grace, and that living outside of God is living against the natural order of God's intentions. “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You, O God” (St Augustine). To follow God's will we have to learn to rely on Him, trust in Him, and hope in Him.

I think that sometimes sufferings and trials can be a vehicle for God’s grace. It provides us with the realization that we need to rely on Him, that living for ourselves is counterintuitive when we believe in Heaven. Are there times when we feel defeated? What do we do when we are faced with struggles? Do we turn to God, or do we turn inward? Jesus says, “knock and the door will be opened to you”, so why aren’t we knocking. This is the question I was faced with.

In many ways Jesus breaks us, breaks into us, and shatters our glass houses. Then Jesus mends, and recreates us, reforms us, and makes us a new creation. This is what happened on the cross, and was proved in Jesus’ resurrection. God the Father allowed His Son to be defeated on the cross, and then raised Him on the third day. Jesus allows us to be defeated by our own devices, but then brings us to new life, we just have to be willing to accept Him. We have to be willing to live and lean on the cross of Jesus. Jesus said, “take up your cross and follow me”, a cross that lead to Jesus’ earthly destruction, but to eternal life, to a newness. This is what we are called to. Let us then always be defeated, let us always become broken, so that we can always take the hand of Jesus and be raised anew.

My Jesus,

You are my hope, my life, my joy, and my help. You are my victory, my fortress, my rock, and my life. Fill me with the understanding, the grace, and the hope that resides in Your victory over sin and death.

You are the life! By your cross you have brought life. Let the cross put a mark on my heart. Let it be cast into the image of my soul so that in times of trial, suffering, temptation, and weakness I may remember You, and find victory in You. During the Mass, pour out your graces upon me. May the Mass break my heart wide open and share with You the cross of victory where death is the door to life and suffering is the key to that door.

Enlighten my heart and renew a spirit of fervor within it, so that my soul may rejoice without reservation in my suffering. Allow my spirit to rest totally with You!

Let my faith be simple, hopeful, and humble. Only then can I wander into the depth of Your love. Help me to walk in blindness with complete reliance on Your grace and comfort. Help me to be transparent to the world so that Your image may show through me. Never let me become an obstacle in another person’s journey to salvation but rather, a carpet that leads them more gently to the foot of the cross, where You show the greatness of Your love. Let my heart be trampled on so that it never blooms in pride or self-righteousness. MAKE ME A SAINT: holy, humble, contrite, simple, and utterly obedient to You!

Easter and Divine Mercy!

Living in Easter:

This Easter season is the greatest season of the Christian life. God shows us the depth of His love for us. Jesus who gave up His earthly life on the Cross, is Resurrected, brought to new life and broke the chains of sin and death and by his wounds we are healed. This upcoming weekend we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday. As it was revealed to us by God, and accomplished on the cross, Jesus has great love and mercy for us. The resurrection of Jesus on the third day proves to us Jesus’ Divine authority. This Divine authority is the Commanding Word of God Who “though He was in the form of God did not deem equality with God something to be grasped…emptied Himself and took the form of a slave”(Phil. 2:6-8). He broke the chains of death and sin and opened for us the way to redemption. All he asks of us is that we receive Him. Receive HIS LOVE! Be open to His grace and love Him with your whole heart.
One of the worst offenses against God is His refusal, and yet as Christians, we refuse God all the time! Every time we sin, every time we think, “God can’t forgive me!” or when we see things as impossible and forget to appeal to the power of God for grace and mercy. How is it that we can believe that God had enough love for us that He gave His life for us, and yet still doubt that He can forgive us, even for our greatest offenses? Jesus came to heal us, to free us, to make us whole. Our challenge should be living in His presence and relying on His grace.
We should make this Easter-tide a season of thankfulness and awe at the mercy of God. We should open our hearts, minds, and lives to the Holy Spirit as we celebrate Jesus going to the Father and sending us His Holy Spirit! Jesus is truly Risen! Alleluia, alleluia!

Eucharistic Devotion

This post is intended to become the foundation for a series of other posts. I hope to show through the following posts what the Catholic understanding of Jesus' presence in the Eucharist is; moreover, the profound effect it has and should have in our life. As a man discerning the priesthood, I believe the Eucharist to be central to one's life, and more importantly to how one should view the life of the priest. I believe that the priesthood is Eucharistic. The Eucharist provides for us the context by which we understand the life of Jesus Himself, Who, "for us and our salvation, came down from Heaven" and was crucified on a cross. Jesus became a slave, like us in all things but sin, and ransomed for us, life. Not only did Jesus again and again say, that "He is the Life", but continually shows us the limitlessness of His life! The very life that created and creates all things, and the life we are called to share in as creatures. St. John says this of Jesus in his Prologue to the fourth Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". This quote provides for us the understanding of Jesus' infinite love and power.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation! Today, if you have the opportunity to go to Mass, GO! Today we have the distinct privelege of participating in all of the beautiful events that happened to Mary 2000 years ago at the Annunciation. We share in the graces that Mary recieved. She heard the message from the Angel, a message given from God, and then received most profoundly God Himself in her womb.
Today we share in those very same graces. In the Mass we hear the Word of God speak to us through the readings, and then celebrate the very Gift and Mystery of His redemptive life! We receive Jesus Himself, and He becomes present in us so that we can more deeply become aware of His presence! The words of Psalm 46 echo in my mind, "Be still and know that I am God"! How beautiful it must have been for Mary to ponder (as we find often in Luke's Gospel) the presence of God within her, in her marriage to the Holy Spirit! This gift was made present in Mary at the Annunciation, and for 9 months she carried Jesus within her. We can imagine how beautiful it is that Jesus gives Himself to us in the Eucharist in the very same way that Mary recieved Him. The Eucharist is the Incarnation! We should celebrate this gift with awe and wonder, and ponder the mystery as Mary did the day that Gabriel brought her the message!

A Reflection on The Stations of the Cross

The stations of the cross are a long-standing devotion for Catholics during lent. We fondly remember the beauty and depth of Jesus' love for us as we walk with Him to Calvary. We try to commit ourselves more fully to Him by recollecting the areas and times in our lives where we contributed to the pain of His passion. The times we have struggled, the times we have failed, and the times when we need Jesus' strength within us in our daily lives. All of this should make this devotion come alive for us, and make us realize how it is that God loves us: completely. He gave us His life on the cross, and it is this love that we celebrate every time we participate in the Mass.
Today, I prayed the stations of the cross with my brother seminarians and I want to share with you a very moving moment of contemplation and prayer. The station when Simon helps Jesus carry His cross was this moment of great contemplation. We can often imagine ourselves walking with Jesus, sometimes even taking the place of some of the characters. Today, I became Simon, meeting Jesus for the first time, and being driven to carry His cross out of fear of the soldiers. Yet, I (simon) realized that although I may have physically helped Jesus carry the burden of the cross, it was Jesus who carried for me the cross of my life. It was Jesus who carried the weight of sin, a cross I could never bear. While I helped Jesus on the way to Calvary, it was ultimately Jesus who helped me on the way to His Father, and my own salvation. I came to realize that the weight of the cross was never alleviated by Simon, but rather it was Jesus who helped Simon carry his own cross. If only we can lean on Jesus more often to help us with our burdens!
The other point of reflection I would like to mention is the encounter that must have occured between Simon and Jesus. Simon, considered by all accounts a just man by Jewish standards, was ordered to help the burden of a man condemned to death. A passerby encountered Christ in the most beautiful way, on His way to merit our redemption. To look into the eyes of the Savior of the world, who at that moment was accomplishing the very act of Divine love. To imagine what it must have been like to encounter Jesus at this very moment! What grace!
Wait... We do!!! We encounter this very Jesus at every Mass! It is this same Jesus Who looks at us with the gaze of Love everytime we come to Mass, and more importantly, we are given the epitome of all graces; to recieve Him in our very bodies, so that He can transform and possess us!
Lord Jesus, have Mercy on us!