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May 20
The month of Mary: A Marian Month
Saint of the day:
Saint Bernardine of Siena
Patron Saint of Advertisers; advertising; Aquila, Italy; chest problems; Italy; Diocese of San Bernardino, California;
gambling addicts; public relations personnel; public relations work; Bernalda, Italy
Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
WHIT MONDAY
Genesis, Chapter 3, verse 8-10:
8 When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 The LORD God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? 10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was AFRAID, because I was naked, so I hid.”
The Law of Influence[1]
Eve had no leadership role; no title yet she had influence. Everyone regardless of their roles is important and generates influence either positive or negative. Eve demonstrated the impact of negative influence. Although God commissioned Adam as her spiritual leader, Eve usurped the role of Adam, who followed his wife rather than God and together they led humankind into sin.
Blessed
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church[2]
The Fathers of the Church, holy and studious bishops of the first
centuries, often spoke of Mary as the New Eve. Just as the Woman Eve was “the
mother of all the living” (Gen. 3:20), the Woman Mary was mother of all those
living in Christ. In Revelation 12:17, St. John says that this Woman’s
offspring are “those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to
Jesus.”
Is the title “Mother of the Church” found in the Bible?
The title “Mother of the Church” is not found in
Sacred Scripture, but Pope St. John Paul II covered several ways that the Bible
alludes to this title: Although the title “Mother of the Church” was only
recently attributed to Mary, it expresses the Blessed Virgin’s maternal
relationship with the Church as shown already in several New Testament texts. Since
the Annunciation, Mary was called, to give her consent to the coming of the
messianic kingdom, which would take place with the formation of the Church. When
at Cana Mary asked the Son to exercise his messianic power, she made a
fundamental contribution to implanting the faith in the first community of
disciples, and she co-operated in initiating God’s kingdom, which has its
“seed” and “beginning” in the Church (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 5). On Calvary,
Mary united herself to the sacrifice of her Son and made her own maternal
contribution to the work of salvation, which took the form of labor pains, the
birth of the new humanity. In addressing the words “Woman, behold your son” to
Mary, the Crucified One proclaims her motherhood not only in relation to the
Apostle John but also to every disciple. The Evangelist himself, by saying that
Jesus had to die “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad”
(Jn 11:52), indicates the Church’s birth as the fruit of the redemptive
sacrifice with which Mary is maternally associated. The Evangelist St Luke
mentions the presence of Jesus’ Mother in the first community of Jerusalem
(Acts 1:14). In this way he stresses Mary’s maternal role in the newborn
Church, comparing it to her role in the Redeemer’s birth. The maternal
dimension thus becomes a fundamental element of Mary’s relationship with the
new People of the redeemed. (General Audience, September 17, 1997)
How did Mary become the Mother of the Church?
The Father chose Mary from among all women to be the
mother, according to human nature, of His Divine Son. As she is Mother of
Christ in the natural order, she is also the Mother of His Mystical Body, the
Church, of which He is the Head in the order of grace. In the Book of Hebrews
2:9-13, the author makes it clear that Jesus is our brother:
[W]e see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels,
crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the
grace of God he might taste death for every one. For it was fitting that he,
for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should
make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who
sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, “I will proclaim thy name to my
brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.” And again, “I
will put my trust in him.” And again, “Here am I, and the children God has
given me.” (emphasis added)
Since Jesus is our brother, and Mary is His mother, it follows that Mary
is our mother as well. Finally, when Jesus was on the cross, we see the tender
moment when He gave Mary to the Apostle John. In the Gospel of John 19:26-27,
we read:
When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near,
he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple,
“Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own
home.
Thus, the Tradition of the Church, coming from the Apostles, teaches us
to understand that the Lord was entrusting all of His disciples to Mary, in the
person of St. John.
Whit Monday?[3]
Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday,
also known as Monday of the Holy Spirit, is the holiday celebrated
the day after Pentecost, a moveable feast in
the Christian liturgical calendar. It is moveable because it is determined by the
date of Easter. In
the Catholic Church, it is the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mother of the Church, marking the resumption of Ordinary Time.
Whit Monday gets its English name from "Whitsunday", an English name for Pentecost, one of the three baptismal seasons. The origin of the name "Whit Sunday" is generally attributed to the white garments formerly worn by those newly baptized on this feast.
Whit
Monday[1]
FILLED
with joy over the gracious descent of the Holy Ghost, the Church sings, at the
Introit of the Mass, He fed them with the fat of wheat, alleluia, and filled
them with honey out of the rock, alleluia, alleluia. Rejoice to God, our
helper, sing aloud to the God of Jacob (Ps. Ixxx.).
Prayer. O God, Who didst give the Holy
Spirit to Thy apostles, grant to Thy people the effect of their pious prayers,
that on those to whom Thou hast given grace, Thou mayest also bestow peace.
EPISTLE.
Acts x. 34, 43-48.
In
those days Peter, opening his mouth, said: Men, brethren, the Lord commanded us
to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He Who was appointed by God
to be judge of the living and of the dead. To Him all the prophets give
testimony, that by His name all receive remission of sins, who believe in Him.
While Peter was yet speaking these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them that
heard the word. And the faithful of the circumcision, who came with Peter, were
astonished, for that the grace of the Holy Ghost was poured out upon the
gentiles also. For they heard them speaking with tongues, and magnifying God.
Then Peter answered: Can any man forbid water, that these should not be
baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
And
he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
GOSPEL.
John iii. 16-21.
At that time Jesus said
unto Nicodemus: God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that
whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For
God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may
be saved by Him. He that believeth in Him is not judged. But He that doth not
believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment: because the light is come into
the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were
evil. For everyone that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the
light, that his works may not be reproved. But he that doth truth, cometh to
the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God.
By what has God most
shown the greatness of His love?
By
giving up His only begotten Son to the most painful and ignominious death, that
we, the guilty, might be delivered from eternal death, and have life
everlasting.
If, then, so many are
lost, is it the fault of God?
No:
as the physician gives up only the incurable, so God condemns only those who
believe not in Christ as their Savior and God; who love darkness, that is, the
principles and works which correspond to their corrupt inclinations; who
despise Jesus, the light of the world, and His doctrines; who neglect the
divine service, the public instructions, and the reception of the holy
sacraments; who take this licentious life for wisdom and enlightenment; who
refuse to be taught, and have pronounced their own condemnation, even before
the final judgment.
Why should we love God?
Because
He has loved us from eternity: He loved us when as, yet we were not. If we love
him who does us some good, who helps us in need, or exposes himself to danger
for our sake, how much more should we love Him Who has given us all that we
have: the angels to be our guards, the sun, moon, and stars to be our light;
the earth to be our dwelling-place; the elements, plants, and animals to supply
our necessary wants, and to serve for our advantage and enjoyment; Who
continually preserves us and protects us from countless dangers; Who has
subjected Himself for our sake, not merely to the danger of His life, but to
the most painful and humiliating death; Who for gives all our sins, heals all
our infirmities, redeems our life from destruction, and crowns us with
compassion and mercy.
The Time
After Pentecost[2]
As both the Bible and Church Fathers attest, there are several distinct
periods of sacred history. These periods arise, are given their own set of
dispensations, and then disappear. The age before the Law was replaced by the
age under it, and that age, in turn, was closed during the time that Jesus
Christ walked the face of the earth. Likewise, the age of divine revelation
(which ended at the death of the last Apostle) gave way to a different era, the
era immediately preceding the Second Coming. It is that era in which we now
find ourselves. Despite the expanse of two thousand years and the plethora of
cultural and technological changes that separate us from the Christians who
outlived the Beloved Disciple, we are still living in the same age as they, the
last age of mankind.
The Time After Pentecost is the time that corresponds to this age. Just
as Advent symbolizes life under the Old Law while the Christmas, Lenten, and
Easter seasons recapitulate the thirty-three-year era of Jesus Christ's earthly
sojourn, the Time after Pentecost corresponds to the penultimate chapter of the
story of redemption, the chapter that is currently being written. That story,
as we all know, has been written somewhat out of order. Thanks to the last book
of the Bible, we have a vivid account of history's climax but not of what
happens in between the Apostolic Age and the Final Judgment. In a sense we
should all feel a certain affinity for the Time After Pentecost, since it is
the only liturgical season of the year that corresponds to where we are now.
Where we are is the age of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is often
called the birthday of the Church because even though the Apostles were
transformed by earlier events such as the institution of the Eucharist and
priesthood on Maundy Thursday or their acquiring the power to forgive sins on
Easter afternoon, they - and by extension, the Church - did not really come
into their own until the Paraclete inspired them to burst out of their closed
quarters and spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And just as Pentecost
marks the birthday of the Church in the Holy Spirit, so too does the Time after
Pentecost mark the life of the Church moving through the vicissitudes of
history under the protection and guidance of that same Spirit. It is for this
reason that the epistle readings from this season emphasize the Apostles'
advice to the burgeoning churches of the day while its Gospel readings focus on
the kingdom of heaven and its justice. It is also the reason why the
corresponding lessons from the breviary draw heavily from the history of the
Israelite monarchy in the Old Testament. All are somehow meant to teach us how
to comport ourselves as citizens of the city of God as we pass through the
kingdoms of this world.
The sectoral cycle that concurs with the Time after Pentecost is the part of the year with the most saints' days. Saints are an important component in the Christian landscape not only because of their capacity to intercede for us, but because they are living proof that a holy, Catholic life is possible in every time and place. In fact, the feasts kept during the Time after Pentecost encompass virtually every aspect of Church life. If the saints in general remind us of the goal of holiness, certain saints, such as St. John the Baptist (June 24 & August 29) or Sts. Peter (June 29 & August 1) and Paul (June 29 & 30) remind us of the role that the hierarchy plays in leading the Church towards that goal. Likewise, the feasts of the temporal cycle, such as the Feast of the Holy Trinity, of Corpus Christi, or of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, direct our attention to the explicit dogma, sacramentality, and spirituality of the Church, respectively. Even the physical space is consecrated for sacred use; all feasts for the dedication of churches take place only during the Time after Pentecost. The Time after Pentecost truly is the time of the Church, the liturgical season that corresponds to the spotless Bride's continuous and multifaceted triumph over the world. This is one of the reasons why the liturgical color for this season is green, the symbol of hope and life. It might also be the reason why it is the longest liturgical season, occupying 23 to 28 weeks of the year.
And because the Time after Pentecost is the time of the Church, it is also a profoundly eschatological season. Every believer needs to heed St. Paul's admonitions about the Parousia and to ready himself for the end times, for the Last Judgment and the creation of a new heaven and earth.
That is why, beginning on the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost, the Mass propers begin to take on an apocalyptic tone. Verses from the prophets become much more common and references to the final manifestation of Christ more insistent. This sense of anticipation grows each week until it crescendos with the last Sunday after Pentecost (the last Sunday of the liturgical year), when the Gospel recalls Christ's ominous double prophecy concerning the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the horrific end of the world. An awareness of the eschaton is also salient in the feasts and saints' days that occur at around the same time. The Feast of the Assumption (Aug. 15), for example, reminds us not only of the glorious consummation of the Blessed Virgin's earthly life, but of the reunification of all bodies with their souls on Judgment Day. St. Michael's Day (Sept. 29), the Feast of the Guardian Angels (Oct. 2), the Feast of Christ the King (last Sunday of October), All Saints' Day (Nov. 1), and All Souls' Day (Nov. 2) all have a way of directing our attention to the ultimate completion of the work of redemption. Significantly, these holy days occur mostly during autumn, the season that heralds the end of life. Though it has no formal name, this cluster of Sundays and feasts constitutes a season unto its own that reminds us of the tremendous awe and glory surrounding the Last Things.
The Time after
Pentecost is the period between the age of the Apostles on the one hand and the
Age of ages (saecula saeculorum) on the other. By navigating vis-à-vis these
two coordinates, its liturgical celebrations embody redeemed living in a fallen
world and constant preparedness for the Bridegroom. And in doing so it shows us
- members of the age it ritually represents - how to do the same.
Which are the fruits of the Holy Ghost? They are the twelve following:
1. Charity.
2.
Joy.
3. Peace.
4. Patience.
5. Benignity.
6. Goodness.
7. Longsuffering.
8. Mildness.
9. Faith.
10. Modesty.
11.
Continency.
12.
Chastity.
These fruits
should be visible in the Christian, for thereby men shall know that the Holy
Ghost dwells in him, as the tree is known by its fruit.
Notice I have
placed the Fruits of the Holy Spirit in stairstep fashion so we may
reflect on them seeing that by concentrating on each step of our growth in the
spirit we may progress closer and closer to our heavenly Father. Today we will
be focusing on the first step which is chastity.
When I reflect on chastity, I think of Saint Maximilian Kolbe which is reported to have had a vision of the Virgin Mary as a youth and in the vision, Mary came to him presented him two crowds one crown was white and the other crown was red, and she told him that he must choose a crown. She said the white crown was purity and the red crown blood sacrifice/martyrdom. Consequently, Saint Maximilian Kolbe then asked Mary can I take both to which she said yes. Maximilian Kolbe later became a priest and was chase his entire life and he was a martyr for the cause of Christ during WWII in Auschwitz, the NAZI death camp.
In reflecting on this I have concluded, we too, also must decide whether we want to sacrifice our blood; be pure or do both.
Chastity is the first step to the long road to Holiness and Happiness both in this world and the next. Chastity is the first step and Continency is the next step.
PART FOUR: CHRISTIAN PRAYER
SECTION TWO-THE LORD'S PRAYER
Article 2-"OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN"
II. Abba - "Father!"
2779 Before we make our own
this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts
of certain false images drawn "from this world." Humility makes us
recognize that "no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows
the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal
him," that is, "to little children." The purification of
our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our
personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God
our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own
ideas in this area "upon him" would be to fabricate idols to adore or
pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as
the Son has revealed him to us.
The
expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself
asked God who he was, he heard another name. The Father's name has been
revealed to us in the Son, for the name "Son" implies the new name
"Father."
2780 We can invoke God as
"Father" because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and
because his Spirit makes him known to us. the personal relation of the Son to
the Father is something that man cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even
dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very
relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of
God.
2781 When we pray to the
Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Then
we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of
the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it
is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the
true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift
of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.
2782 We can adore the Father
because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his
children in his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his
Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to the members,
he makes us other "Christs."
God, indeed,
who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has conformed us to the
glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are
appropriately called "Christs."
The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all,
"Father!" because he has now begun to be a son.
2783 Thus the Lord's Prayer
reveals us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us.
O man, you
did not dare to raise your face to heaven, you lowered your eyes to the earth,
and suddenly you have received the grace of Christ all your sins have been
forgiven. From being a wicked servant you have become a good son.... Then raise
your eyes to the Father who has begotten you through Baptism, to the Father who
has redeemed you through his Son, and say: "Our Father.... " But do
not claim any privilege. He is the Father in a special way only of Christ, but
he is the common Father of us all, because while he has begotten only Christ,
he has created us. Then also say by his grace, "Our Father," so that
you may merit being his son.
2784 The free gift of adoption
requires on our part continual conversion and new life. Praying to our Father
should develop in us two fundamental dispositions:
First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are
restored to his likeness by grace; and we must respond to this grace.
We must
remember . . . and know that when we call God "our Father" we ought
to behave as sons of God.
You cannot call the God of all kindness your Father if you preserve a cruel and
inhuman heart; for in this case you no longer have in you the marks of the
heavenly Father's kindness.
We must contemplate the beauty of the Father without ceasing and adorn our own
souls accordingly.
2785 Second, a humble and
trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like
children": for it is to "little children" that the Father
is revealed.
[The prayer
is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love,
through which the soul, molded and directed to love him, speaks very familiarly
to God as to its own Father with special devotion.
Our Father: at this name love is aroused in us . . . and the confidence of
obtaining what we are about to ask.... What would he not give to his children
who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?
Apostolic Exhortation[5]
Veneremur
Cernui – Down in Adoration Falling
of The Most
Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix,
to Priests, Deacons, Religious and the Lay Faithful of the Diocese of Phoenix
on the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist
My beloved Brothers and
Sisters in Christ,
Part I
II. The Mass as the eternal memorial
of Christ’s Sacrifice on the Cross
22. For the title of this
Exhortation, I have chosen the words “Veneremur cernui” which comes from
the hymn Tantum Ergo that we sing at the end of solemn adoration and
benediction. These words composed by Saint Thomas Aquinas can be translated as “may
we adore with body prostrated” or “down in adoration falling”. My
dear sons and daughters, Jesus our Lord and God is present to us in the
Sacrament of the Eucharist in His self-offering to the Father and His merciful
outpouring of love for us. Let us adore Him with ever increasing reverence!
23. Whether we may be weak or
strong, I encourage you to pray for the grace of faith in God’s presence in the
Eucharist as well as the grace to worship as the angels do. This is what the
Church prays when she ends the preface and begins the Eucharistic prayer with
the words, “May our voices, we pray, join with theirs in humble praise, as
we acclaim: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts” (Roman Missal,
Preface of Eucharistic Prayer I).
24. It is in the Eucharist
where Our Lord meets us and becomes our faithful companion along every instance
of our life. After Mass, the remaining consecrated Hosts are reserved in the
tabernacle so that Holy Communion can be brought to the sick and throughout the
week we can come and pray in His presence. He wants to remain with us so that
whenever we need Him, we will find Him there to be our light, strength,
comfort, and guidance.
25. “I will be with
you always until the end of times.” (Mt 28:20). Since that Last Supper
of Holy Thursday until now, Our Lord Jesus has faithfully kept His promise –
wherever there is a tabernacle in the world that contains the Eucharist, there
is Jesus truly present among us. His presence is not like a memory or a symbol
that a person keeps in a photo album. He is truly, really, and substantially
present in the Eucharist. The Catechism affirms: “In the most blessed
sacrament of the Eucharist, the body and blood, together with the soul and
divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly,
really and substantially contained” (CCC 1374). The same Jesus that walked
the countryside of Palestine, the same Jesus that preached, cured the sick and
raised the dead, the same Jesus who suffered, died, and rose is truly present
in the Eucharist. Indeed, our Lord is ever near us, and we might recall with
joy the exultant words of Deuteronomy 4:7: “What great nation is there that
has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us?”.
26. Immeasurable is the value
of every Mass! Unfathomable is the grace made so accessible to us in the Mass,
where Jesus Christ is ever present! It is here that a quality and abundance of
life beyond this world is given to us.
To be continued…
Christopher’s
Corner
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Daily
Devotions
·
Unite in the work of the Porters of St. Joseph by joining them
in fasting: Reparations
for offenses and blasphemies against God and the Blessed Virgin Mary
·
Eat waffles and Pray for the assistance of the Angels
·
Litany of the Most Precious
Blood of Jesus
·
Offering to
the sacred heart of Jesus
·
Monday: Litany of
Humility
·
Rosary
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