Blessing our enemies is non negotiable

Blessing our enemies is non negotiable. 

Many of you I am sure have seen the horrible news about knife attack against Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney Australia. One of his priests was also injured, as well as some of the congregation. But Praise God no one was killed. 

It is normal and natural to have experienced anger and/or outrage over what happened. No one should ever have to fear being able to attend a place of worship, wondering if they’ll be attacked or killed. What happened was evil and inexcusable. Full stop. It does most matter what religion or denomination they belonged to, people have the right to feel safe in a place of worship. 

However, what many of us forget as Christians is we are called to not just be normal. We are called to be abnormal, called to live a life of supernatural grace. Our righteousness needs to be above and beyond that of others (Matthew 5:20). We are in the world but not of this world (John  25:19? Romans 12:2), we have been called and set apart from the world by Jesus himself to be his witnesses in the world, sanctified in truth (John 15:16-21). But this also means we are called to respond differently than the norm as well…. 

We are told to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for them and even BLESS them (Luke 6:27-28, Matthew 5:43-48, Romans 12:14,). This is something that we have heard so often that it’s easy to take for granted, or dismiss. But when we are confronted in our real life and it personally affects that - then we easily forget these teachings of Jesus and want revenge. This is where prayer and grace are essential. Because it is natural and normal to want revenge for theo who have deliberately hurt us or our family and loves ones. But to be able to resist our nature, and pray for them, to bless our enemies … this is beyond our human capacity! This requires grace and the strength of the Holy Spirit living within us (Romans 8:11). 

But what does it mean to bless? It means to wish then well, to wish them happiness and peace. It can hard to do this on the best of days for our own family members who stress us out and annoy us, let alone our enemies! But this is what Jesus teaches us to do, tells us we have to do as his disciples. It is a non negotiable. 

Now if we struggle so much with bitterness and anger against family members, or people at work we dislike, politicians or even the random person who walks slow in front of us at the shops! How will we be able to respond if we are ever in a situation like what happened in Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney? If someone attacked you with a knife and stabbed you, could you honestly say you could bless them and forgive them? What about if they attacked your husband or wife or children? Could you still say you could forgive them and bless them? 

If we are honest, most of us would answer with a loud NO. 

It would be an act of heroic virtue to be able to forgive and bless someone who physically attacks us or our loved ones. Yet this is what Jesus expects of us all, and has given us the power to do through the gift of the Gospel and His Holy Spirit. He did not put limitations on who we don’t have to forgive. We do not have any excuses, we are commanded to live eachother, love others, bless those who curse and persecute or attack us. This is real Christianity! This is the harsh reality of our faith put into action in real life. 

This is why a defining characteristic of Christianity has always been the witness of the martyrs. In their death, they became living witnesses to all the world of the love of Christ that means more to them than anything in this world. The history of our martyrs is that they died either praising God, praying for their persecutors or blessing them. But they did not try to curse them or call upon God for vengeance. Nor did the pray to God to kill their enemies - instead they submitted themselves into God’s hands and thanked him for counting them worthy to die for the Gospel. 

So please take time to consider this recent terrible event and reflect upon how you are reacting to the news… 

- Are you instinctively wanting to write angry posts online about extemist terrorists? Or are you praying for the conversion of the attacker? 

- Are you asking for justice and vengeance for the victims? Or are you praying for them during this time of need for healing and consolation? 

- Are you instinctively responding by thinking “yep typical, another attack from these people from certain ethnic groups and/or religions, they’re all evil and we need to get rid of them”. Or are you praying to God to take away the bitterness and judgement in your heart, and asking God for the grace to pray for the repentance of the perpetrator and also for those who will be blamed for his actions and considered guilty by association? 

It does not matter the circumstance or situation. We are always called as Christians to pray for all, to seek after peace, do good (not just talk about it online), and to be a blessing to all in the world so corrupted by evil and sin. 

It is disappointing and disheartening to see people respond to this tragic event by saying “oh well, but he’s not a true bishop is he? Isn’t he a Nestorian or something?”. 

My response to that is “so what? If even a Nestorian behaves more Christlike than you do, then what does it say about you spiritually?”.  

I urge you all my fellow believers, not to let injustice and evil take away your joy and peace of heart. Yes it is normal to be angry and upset at unjust things, absolutely. But we also need ti understand that we cannot remain angry and bitter - because it makes us self righteous and hard heartened, eventually destroying us spiritually because we no longer have charity within us. Without love we are not Christian’s. Anyone can be angry, but true Christians forgive and bless and have love. Without love, everything we say or do is just empty and meaningless (1 Corinthians 13:2). 

We must all pray at all times (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We need to pray for those who annoy us, those who hurt us, and even those who trigger hatred within us. Those who we disagree with theologically or philosophically or politically. We don’t have to like them, but we must love risk and pray for them. We must never dehumanise those who are against us, because in the process we dehumanise ourselves by allowing hatred to rule in our heart and thus grieving the Holy Spirit within us (Ephesians 4:30-32)

Fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12), do good works for your enemies (Romans 12:21), bless those who curse you (Romans 12:14) - this is the way of the Cross. This is way of Jesus and his beloved disciples. May the world always know we are disciples of Christ (John 13:35), living as the true Sons of God (1 John 3:1-3).

In our current days, all us Christian’s are united by the bond of the “ecumenism of blood” as Pope Francis has stated. The outside world does not understand the internal historical, theological and doctrinal divisions between all the different denominations. It just sees us as follows of Christ, and so somehow we are “different” to them. Now is the time to unite in our prayers together, supporting eachother as fellow believers in a world becoming increasingly more hostile towards us. Death, persecution and attacks are always a possibility for us merely for believing in Christ. This was true for the martyrs in ever generation of the church, and it is still true for us today in 2024. 

You have inviolable dignity

You have inviolable dignity. You are loved and worthy of love, you were made for love. Jesus restores our dignity to us no matter how often we trample upon it and misuse it. Jesus always offers his hand out to us in love to free us from the dominion and slavery of sin that tries to disfigure and destroy us. 

Many of you may be currently inundated with news articles, stories, and online stories regarding the new document from the Dicastry for the Doctrine of Faith on human dignity. As always, people will try to cherry pick only one or two points out of context and misinterpret or misrepresent what it says. Many of you might feel overwhelmed with all the media responses and not had the chance to read the document for yourselves. 

Without getting into the specific content that easily falls into debates around topics in the current culture wars - I wanted to highlight for you some of the passages that really stood out for me. Overall it’s a very good document and it beautifully puts the dignity of the human person within the historical theological context of the Church, whilst engaging with modern terminology as well. 

I have created these quotes for you all to help highlight the particularly important and beautiful parts of this document. Understanding our own dignity and the dignity of others is vital for is to live the power of the Gospel in our life and to share that with all those around us. 

The reality of sin is that no only is it an offends against God, but it is also an offence against our own dignity as given to us by God.  The misuse of our freedom when we sin is ultimately a perversion of our dignity given to us by the Holy Trinity. The deeper I come to understand this truth, the more I begin to understand my struggles with habitual sins and my woundedness. But Christ restores to us our dignity that we have disfigured through sin, he washes us and cleanses us, he restores and elevates us, enlightening us and glorifying us as he transforms us into his likeness. 

If you get the chance, I recommend as always that you read the full documents of the church yourself. Never let other people’s opinions or the media “interpret” the doctrine of the Church for you. You have a responsibility to learn your faith so that you can live it out and teach others the saving power of the Gospel. 

Blessed Divine Mercy Sunday

Wishing you all a very blessed Divine Mercy Sunday! 🙏 

I wanted to share with you all a recent experience of mine with the amazing mercy and love of God. I forgot how it is connected to the promises of the Divine Mercy devotion, and so thought it appropriate today to share it with you. 

On Christmas Day 2023 my uncle passed away from cancer. He had been baptised Catholic and had his First Holy Communion as a boy, but was not practicing and more or less an atheist. He had been the driver of a car in an accident when he was younger that killed his sister - and so all his life he blamed himself for her death and believed he would go to hell. 

2 weeks before he died, my Aunty (his wife) called me and asked me to come pray with him as they didn’t think he had long to live. This surprised me as he often mocked my faith in a semi sarcastic loving way. He would say to me “just remember lad where you come from, don’t think your sh@? doesn’t stink”. To which I would reply back to him “even the most beautiful flowers have to grow out of sh@?!”. It was how we bonded with eachother. 

During his last two weeks I tried to visit him most days and would sit in the loungeroom with him while he was asleep. I’d pray the Divine Mercy chaplet and Rosary for him, praying for his soul. He let me pray the prayers for the dying with him and I blessed him with Holy Water. Then the next day, through a miracle - he agreed for my parish priest to visit him and hear his Confession, receive Anointing of the Sick and Holy Communion. The next day, he agreed to me bringing him Holy Communion again as well. 

Praise God for his loving mercy! 

To appreciate the miraculous nature of this you had to know my uncle. He had been a drug dealer as long as I can remember and a regular drug user. He mocked religious people as being “do gooders” and hypocrites. Plus all his life he genuinely believed he deserved to go to hell because of the car accident that killed his sister. I don’t think he would have received any of the Sacraments for at least 40 years or more. So you can understand my shock when not only did he let me pray with him and for him, but then to agree to have a random priest come for his Confession! I would never have thought that would happen in my wildest dreams. 

Then after his death I was asked by the family to do the funeral service. They are all non Christian atheists. 3 out of his 5 children have been in and out jail, and have drug addiction issues. Another one of our cousins was in jail and so at the funeral he attended with two prison officers and in handcuffs. Yet there I am at the cemetery in my habit and wearing a surplice - praying the Final Commitment prayers and incensing my uncles body as it lay in the coffin. 

One of my uncles best friends was shocked and said to my mum “how did you manage to get a priest to agree to do the funeral??”. She laughed and responded “That’s not a priest. That’s my son, he’s a hermit monk!”. She then had to convince him that it was not a joke and she was being serious. That’s how unconverted and far from God my uncle and all those around him were. Yet through a miracle he repented on his deathbed, died in a state of grace and had a Catholic funeral! Praise God for his mercies! 🙌

I never preach to my family or try to convert them in the sense of debating with them. I pray for them all and try to live my faith by example. Over time, the graces from my flawed example is bearing fruit, and even if I never saw any fruit again - I would still be in awe and thankful for the grace of my uncle’s conversion before he died! 

I believe this all happened due to the graces from the Divine Mercy. One of the promises of the devotion is that those who are dying with receive Mercy and conversion.

Jesus I trust in you! 

Evangelise by the witness of your life

This is one of the truest and simplest statements I have seen. It completely sums up my approach to the faith. We can spend hours and hours online debating with atheists, debating apologetics and theological nuances - but majority of the time it is a waste of a lifetime. Usually these are fuelled by pride and turn into frustrating when we depersonalise our ideological “opponent” and we become uncharitable. 

When we truly live our faith, when people see us living out the Beatitudes, when people see the transformation in us that the love of Christ continuously does to us everyday - that is when we “convert” others through the witness of our live. We becoming a living witness to the power of grace and the Holy Spirit transforming us. People will naturally start to approach you with questions or with requests for prayer even when years ago they may have mocked you or attacked you. That is when the Holy Spirit is at work behind the scenes! 

I know this to be true from my own experience. Don’t get caught up in online theological debates or semantics. Instead share the truth with people when and if they ask for it (1 Peter 3:15-16), pray for them and always be a person of prayer yourself. Everything else is secondary. Without the love of God poured into our hearts (Romans 5:5) and sharing the overflow with others - it is all just empty and pointless (1 Corinthians 13).

Pope Benedict XVI beautifully highlighted this in a Message for World Youth Day 2012: 

“Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth. Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy side of faith. The Gospel is the “good news” that God loves us and that each of us is important to him. Show the world that this is true!
Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God’s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master’s joy” (Mt 25:21).”

Lenten observance as sharing in the victory of Christ

In the Office of Readings for today the 1st Sunday of Lent, we have a wonderful reminder from St Augustine that opens up the Gospel reading for us today (Mk 1:12-15). Our union with Christ in baptism has configured us to Christ and joined us to him, so then through him we participate in his life. He allowed himself to be tempted in the desert so as to give us an example of spiritual warefar and show us how to share in his victory over the dominion of sin and the devil. 

This is the mystery that we are led into each year through the Holy Season of Lent. We enter into the desert, into the aridity of denial united in imitation of Christ so that we can truly celebrate the power of his Resurrection - not just as a historical even or something distant in the past. But as the new life we all already share in through baptism, so that in Christ (1 Peter 3:2-2) and with Christ we are more than conquerors, we are victorious in him (Romans :31-38) through the salvation he has won for us and offers to us every moment we are alive. 

So rather than temptations, struggles and trials as times of difficulty and failure - St Augustine teaches us that these are moments of grace, moments of deeper conformity to Christ so that with him we can share in his victory over sin. 

How often have we seen our temptations and trials as good things? This is something we need to retrain our mind to understand, this is part of the training and discipline of Lenten observance which is the real meaning of asceticism. Training with, and for Christ - united to him in his victory over sin.

Lent as preparation for the Victory of Love

As we enter into the Holy season of Lent, I wanted to remind you all as I also remind myself - anything we do during Lent (prayer, fasting, almsgiving) need to be in love. Without love it is all empty and we risk becoming the hypocrites that Jesus specifically warms us not to be in the Gospel for Ash Wednesday (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18). 

We fast so that we can learn self control. We do extra prayers or penances so that we can grow closer to God and remember He is always with us, whilst we so often get caught up in the distractions and responsibilities of life that stress us out. We give alms, perform acts of charity and mercy so that our hardened hearts are softened by the Holy Spirit, so that we love others as Jesus commanded us to and that our charity to others is done as if it was done for Jesus himself. Ultimately all of the spiritual practices, asceticism and prayers are about transformation. The transformation of our hearts so that in our union with Christ, He may shine out through us to others and so that they can encounter the love and mercy of God. 

So this Ash Wednesday and this Lent, don’t get caught up on arguments about types of fasting. Don’t get caught up in discussions on fasting only on bread and water, or about modern rules for fasting being far less strict than in the past etc… but instead remember that whatever we do this Lent, needs to be done out of love. Love for God, love for our neighbour and ultimately love for ourselves because it is Christ who loves us and has redeemed us. The love of Christ for us should be what urges us and compels us in everything we do or say (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). 

I wish you all a blessed and fruitful Lent as we enter the desert with Jesus and led by the Holy Spirit - to prepare our hearts to celebrate with joy the wonder of the Resurrection.  God bless you all and please keep me in your prayers 🙏 

As the Collect for Ash Wednesday says : 

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting

this campaign of Christian service,

so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils,

we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

God, for ever and ever.

Advent and liturgical formation to prepare for Christ

Today is the First Sunday of Advent. As we enter into the Liturgical Season of Advent, we can easily lose sight of what the Church teaches us during this time - because it is so overshadowed by the celebration of commercialism in the world as well as other Christians celebrating Christmas early. 

But what is Advent and why do we even have it? The Liturgical year is based on the premise that each year we are formed liturgically to live and experience the Paschal Mystery. Each of us is called to live the Life of Christ in our own life as we conform ourselves to Him. So the two hinges of this are Advebt and Lent - because they prepare us for the Birth of Christ in the flesh, and for His death and resurrection. 

So Advent is so much more than a kitsch sentimental time filled with decorations and food and Christmas carols. The reality we are entering into as we celebrate it is a stark sober reminder for us Catholics to stay awake! Be vigilant! Be prepared for the Coming of Jesus. This is what the Sunday Gospels the last few weeks were preparing us for, and what the Gospel for today instructs us “what I say to you I say to all: stay awake!”  (Mark 13:37). 

Why are we told to stay awake by Jesus? Why is Advent focused on the Judgment Day of Christ and His Second Return? Aren’t we supposed to be enjoying family time together and singing carols and preparing nativity scenes? The answer is yes to both. Yes to the questions, and yes to Jesus command to stay awake, alert, and vigilant. Ultimately it is about saying YES to Jesus Himself. 

St Cyril of Jerusalem beautifully highlights and explains to us what the meaning of Advent is. Advent is the remembrance of the Coming of Christ. But it is not just about the Coming of Christ in the past as a one time event, we also prepare for the future Coming of Christ in glory. This is what Advent teaches us about, instructs us and forms us. This is why we are given the liturgical season of Advent. It is the counterpart of the season of Lent. The mystery we are preparing to celebrate annually is too important to only be done in one day. It requires preparation, a period of formation and instruction that allows us to to savour, to taste and to appreciate what we are going to celebrate. The annual celebrations of Christmas and Easter are not just events of the past, they are realities that we Christians are called to live on our own lives everyday. 

The Coming of Christ is what we all pray for every day in the Lord’s Prayer - Adveniat regnum tuum “thy Kingdom come”. You can see the Latin word Adveniat is where we get our word for Advent - the Coming. 

The Coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh, born in Bethlehem as a helpless little child. This mystery requires time to ponder and meditate on to truly appreciate it with the awe it deserves. Like Our Lady, we should keep and meditate on all these things in our heart (Luke 2:19), treasuring them and pondering them. If we do not do this, we can easily forget what Advent is all about. We can become sleepy and intoxicated by all the noise around us that we lose the ability to remain sober, awake and vigilant as commanded by Jesus (Mark 13:37).  If we are not vigilant and prepared, then we risk missing Him just like the foolish virgins did in the parable from the Sunday Gospel as few weeks ago (Matthew 25:1-13). 

Let us then always be prepared for the Coming of Jesus. We are warned multiple times in scripture that the Day of the Lord will come like a “thief in the night” - when we least expect it. That is why we must always be ready and prepared. That is what Advent reminds us to do, to prepare for His Coming so that we are awake and vigilant. When we are spiritually awake, we are then able to see the presence of Christ. We can behold Him with wonder as the little child in the manger at Bethlehem. We can behold him with wonder as the Bread of Life for us and the world in the Eucharist, never abandoning us but always with us. We can behold Him with wonder and awe when He returns in glory with all the angels as the King and Judge of the world. 

This gift of vigilance, being alert and awake is what is called by St Paul as the spiritual gift (1 Corinthians 1:6-7). In monastic literature this has a special term in Greek, called Nepsis. May we be reawakened this Advent so we can be alert to the Presence of Christ in our lives. At the moment His Presence is hidden, but when He returns in glory then it will all be revealed and manifested to us. This manifestation of God, this revelation and theophany is what we hear in the first reading today from Isaiah (Isaiah 64:1-4). This same Presence is what became flesh for us as a helpless little child, and who will return in all His powerful awe inspiring glory in his Coming at the end of time. 

May we be awake when He comes (Mark 13:35-36) so that we can look upon Him with joy and greet him with thanksgiving, as He gathers is into His Kingdom. This is what the Liturgy of Advent refers to in the Collect for today 

Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever

Nothingness, grace and vulnerability in the Little Way

Pope Francis has recently released his awaited Apostolic Exhortation on St Therese of Liseux. It is very beautifully written and is worth taking the time to read. 

Although I am a Carmelite hermit, I always used to strongly dislike her as a spoilt brat. But then on her feast day last year, the Lord granted me a grace to let go of whatever it was that bothered me and I felt I had an older sister in Carmel. This happened after my affiliation to the Order was granted by the Prior General, and so I believe it to be one of the graces of my spiritual affiliation. Then during a very bad period while recently in hospital, I had some other consolations regarding St Therese and I have now accepted her as my sister in Carmel and my personal patron along with my dear friend St Titus Brandsma. 

We all know she is a wonderful, inspiring and powerful saint. Young and passionate, but sensitive and spoilt. A heart full of love for Jesus, but at the same time an iron will to sacrifice herself in an oblation of love. The recent consolations I have received regarding her, have make me reconsider her Little Way and Spiritual Childhood from a new perspective. Teaching me patience, kindness, charity, and vulnerability - so that the more I experience my own nothingness and sin, then I can truly say with her that “everything is grace”. 

As Pope Francis writes in the Exhortation - 

“At a time of great complexity, she can help us rediscover the importance of simplicity, the absolute primacy of love, trust and abandonment, and thus move beyond a legalistic or moralistic mindset that would fill the Christian life with rules and regulations, and cause the joy of the Gospel to grow cold.”

St Therese of Liseux - pray for us to be love in the heart of the Church, to save souls and do everything for love of Jesus. Teach us to be little children of our living God, full of confidence and trust in his Providence and love for us

Prayer, our human emotions and the importance of the Psalms for prayer and intimacy with God

Recently I have been getting my directees to read one psalm each day, to meditate on it and use it for their mental prayer. This is because the psalms beautifully teach us how to fully pray with all our emotions and to have an intimate boldness with God in prayer that we often forget He wants with us. This is why Jesus himself gives us the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1 - 8, and we see his own intimacy with the Father in prayer in Luke 22:39 - 46 & John 17:1 - 25. 

My directee emailed me to share some new insights on prayer and this was my response to him.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

That is wonderful to hear! Praise God!

Yes that sounds like the typological/allegorical interpretation - this is how you look at the symbolism in the psalms or any part of scripture, and you look for the deeper spiritual/mystical/symbolic meaning. Often these symbolic meanings you will begin to discover recur throughout all of scripture. These themes, imaghes and particular words/terms then foreshadow or are pointers towards their fulfilment in the person and life of Jesus the Messiah, this is what is meant by typology. (CCC# 115-119).

For example... if we look at Psalm 22. The beginning of this Psalm is what Jesus is praying on the cross when he says "My God My god, why have you forsaken me?"  (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). But he is praying it in Aramiac and so the people misunderstood him and thought he was calling for Elijah to help him. This is because in Aramaic he prayed "Eloi Eloi lama sabachthani". So in Hebrew and Aramaic, the name Elijah sounds like "Eloi-ih-yah". This is because the name Elijah (Eliyahu) literally means "Yahweh is God" (El is the generic semitic term for deity/god, this is why in Arabic God is Allah, El and Al are the same word but slightly different due to dialect difference between Hebrew and Arabic, but they have a common origin as a Semitic language)

Elijah fought as a Prophet to restore Israel back to true worship to Yahweh and to stop idolatry to Baal, so his name literally also shows his purpose/mission/vocation and also his identity as a person (1 Kings 18:21, 2 Chronicles 21:12-15, Malachi 4:1-6, Sirach 48:1-10). This is a common theme in scripture, and is why Simon's name is changed to Peter by Jesus, he establishes him and calls him the ":Rock" (Matthew 16:8) who will strengthen the faith of his brethren (John 22:32) and feed the sheep as entrusted to him by our Good Shepherd himself (John 21:15-17). This is the basis for the popes as successors of St Peter and the Petrine ministry in the Catholic Church. (CCC# 881- 883, 891, 895-896, 936-937)

This is why we have salvation in the name of Jesus. Because Jesus is a slightly different version of the name Joshua, this name literally means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation" - this is why in the Gospel of Matthew the Archangel Gabriel says "you will call him Jesus because he shall save his people from his sins" (Matthew 1:21). when you start to understand these things it opens up your eyes spiritually and it is like and explosion in your brain and you go "WOW!! why has no one ever told me this before?"  Then you sit then in awe and amazement - and that is what contemplation is! (CCC# 2709, 2712, 2715, 2717). Just sitting silently in awe, wonder and amazement of God and the awesomeness of the Holy Trinity that made us, knows us, and loves us. So we sit in silence in that love, just like a child held in the hands of their mother or father and we learn to feel peace beyond all understanding.(Philippians 4:6-9, Romans 15:13, 1 Thessalonians 5:23, Coloassians 3:12-16, Psalm 46:10)

Going back to Psalm 22 that Jesus prayed on the cross, so often people tend to only focus on the feeling of abandonment that Jesus experienced on the cross. While this is true in one sense, and especially the surface reading of the text. But when you understand that it is Psalm 22 that he is praying and not words of despair, then you realise that the Psalm ends as a song of praise and victory!! (Psalm 22:19, Psalm 22:19, Psalm 22:24-25). Thus the whole of Psalm 22 now takes on Messianic prophetic meaning, we see it is fulfilled in the New Testament and recorded in the Gospel as evidence for our faith and testimony/witness according to the Spirit, water and the blood of Jesus in his crucifixion (1 John 5:5 - 12, 1 John 19:31 - 35).

So Jesus was still teaching us while on the cross!! He shows us and demonstraytes that even in the worst moments of our life that literally kill us or feel like they are, we can still praise God and trust in his promises and know that he is victorious. Amen Amen! 

When we declare the praises of the Lord before others, He is our strength and we know He listens to us - He will grant us justice for He himself is Just, and promises us eternal life if we are faithful to Him.

Psalm 22: 19 - 28 

19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me.
    You are my strength; come quickly to help me.
20 Deliver me from the sword,
    my precious life from the power of the dogs.
21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
    save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

22 I will declare your name to my people;
    in the assembly I will praise you.
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
    the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
    but has listened to his cry for help.

25 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
    before those who fear you[f] I will fulfill my vows.
26 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
    those who seek the Lord will praise him—
    may your hearts live forever!

27 All the ends of the earth
    will remember and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
    will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the Lord
    and he rules over the nations.

So this is what I hope that you slowly start to understand, enter into, and slowly the Holy Spirit will guide you and take you deeper in your prayer with the psalms and meditation. Plus the psalms teach us how to pray fully and integrate our emotions into prayer (CCC#1767 - 1770) having frank, bold, intimate and even argumentative prayer with God (CCC#2587-2589)!! This boldness in prayer is what I call the "rights" we have with God as his children and citizen's as the Kingdom of God. The same way that in America people always talk about their constitutional rights and uphold them even while getting arrested by the police and will state their rights and argue whilst being put in handcuffs! So the same with us as Catholics, we have formal prayer, liturgy, devotions, mental prayer, praise, singing, spiritual reading - but we also need to pray WITH our emotions, just like David does in the Psalms,(CCC# 2590 -2597) When we are happy or sad or angry or scared or frustrated we need to use these emotions and pray to God in those moments and talk to him, vent to him, complain to him. We need to share these emotions with God and have total honesty and a type of "rawness" with him in prayer - so that like Jacob, we wrestle with God and say "I will not let you go until you bless me" (Genesis 32:22-31). Jacob was then given the new name of Israel which means "he that wrestles/fights with God" or another interpretation is that "he who sees God" - so the Hebraic people descended from Jacob/Israel became known as the ancient kingdom nation of Israel, and now the Catholic Church is the New Israel - the People of God!! (CCC# 781- 782, Lumen Gentium #9, Galatians 6:16, cf St Justin Martyr in his "Dialogue with Trypho" Chapter 11)

 

I am not sure if you had a chance to watch my video of the talk I gave on "Marian Mysticism according to St Titus Brandmsa" but if you haven't had the chance, try to listen to it when you can. Because I discuss his teachings on the importance of our personality and our humanity that should not be separated from prayer and mysticism, Instead the more human we become and fully accept ourselves with our weaknesses and vices (lust, anger, pride, sloth, jealousy etc) - the more that we honestly accept these thorns of the flesh in prayer, humility and trust in Divine Providence (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Romans 8:28), using them in the moments of our weakness as reminders to pray and turn to God for strength and consolation (Matthew 26:41, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Thessalonians 3:3), then our prayer becomes more authentic and real. God then can work in us more freely because in this acceptance of our weakness (this is true humility, and also the "self knowledge" that St Teresa of Avila talks about) then the more that grace can build upon our nature, and so the Holy Spirit will sanctify, vivify us, transform and transfigure us into the image of Christ and we can then gloriously shine with the light of Jesus (1 John 3:2, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 2:10, Colossians 3:9-10, Philippains 3:21) - just like the stained glass window analogy I mentioned to you in our last session. 

As stained glass windows make the light more beautiful as it shines through them in their different shapes, sizes, hues of colour - so too God has created us as unique individuals, and the more we become most fully ourselves and accept our individuality, then the light of Christ shines through us more powerfully, more beautifully and God somehow gets MORE glory through us as we become more alive in him and we become more full of the Holy Spirit as his Temples and as we are conformed to the Image of Christ. But we all remain unique and different even when we are united in the Holy Spirit and the Communion of Saints, as the Mystical Body of Christ in the Church (CCC# 954-959). We remain unique and different even in our unity, because the Holy Spirit brings unity, communion and harmony - not conformity or the destruction of our unique individual personhood (CCC# 356- 372, CCC# 733-741, CCC# 813-14, 845, CCC# 997-1004 CCC# 1934-1937) Just as St Therese of Liseux teaches that all the flowers in the garden of God are beautiful because they are unique and different, so the lily or the violet does not take away the beauty of the rose - instead they all have their own inherent beauty. 

So this is the basis for my analogy of the stained glass window - all the different shapes, colours, sizes, shades and hues together in harmony (while being separate and unique) make the light shining through them somehow more beautiful than if that same light was just shining through a clear pane of glass. Each piece of stained glass with its variations of size and colour, is united together as one singled bigger picture of stained glass and only when united together in order and harmony does each little piece make sense and have purpose - the Holy Spirit unites us and provides this unity in the bond of charity for us in the Church, so that together as the Mystical Body of Christ we all form together the New Jerusalem that we are the building blocks of (Ephesians 2:14 - 22, 1 Corinthians 3:9 - 17, 1 Peter 2:4 - 8, Revelation 21:1 - 4) . This is how we all should be in the Church, united in Christ and conformed to his image - whilst still remaining unique from eachother, different personality, different temperament etc.. and even when we struggle with our sins and weakness, as we humbly accept our nothingness before God, the more we understand our dependency and need for grace, and we ask for grace and we appreciate it. Then the more God can work in us, purifying our memory, intellect and will - and we can more confidently walk in the Freedom of the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians 5:16), living in the Spirit and as Children of the Father we can confidently trust in him that whatever happens he can and will use it for our sanctification and his glory if we confirm to his will (1 thessalonians 4:3) - because of all creation groans in expectation (Romans 8:18-27) for the revealing of us as the Sons/Children of God at the Final Coming of Jesus (Parousia) [CCC#668 - 682]

All of this is what I have been slowly trying to teach you and to help you understand. Even your anxiety and fears can be moments of prayer if you use them to turn towards God and talk to him. But most of the time we give into our fears and anxieties, we run away from God and we turn away from him (Luke 5:8, Psalm 139:7-10, Genesis 3:8-10), and the anxieties, fears and temptations overwhelm us and we fall into sin and choose sin, instead of choosing to turn to God in trust and love. This "self sabotage" behaviour that we all do, then weakens our wills (CCC#1863) and so we then repeat the vicious cycle of choosing sin instead of choosing to love God and to choose the way of virtue and holiness. But until we renew our mind (Romans 12:12) and allow the Holy Spirit to pray in us when we don't know how (Romans 8:26-27), then we will not experience prayer and intimacy with God as rest (Matthew 11:29, Psalm 23:2, Psalm 46:10), and so we will continue to fall for the lies of the devil (John 8:44, Matthew 4:1-11, Genesis 3:1-13, 2 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Timothy 2:13-14 ) and choose sin instead of loving God (love = to will the good of another). So we are our own worst enemy, this is the "sinful/corrupt nature" and the "old adam" that scripture talks about (Ephesians 4:22, Romans 6:6, Colossians 3:9, John 3:6-7, Romans 8:7-8, 1 Corinthians 2:14-15). The more we understand that even our faith is a gift from God, it is also a virtue and so needs to be cultivated and protected (CCC#1812 - 1829, #1841-1844). So little acts of faith throughout the day, strengthen our will and help us to choose God and virtue more and more, so when temptation comes through loneliness of anxiety - we are more able to resist it and rebuke it, because our faith, hope and love have been cultivated and so we can choose to worship with Lord (Joshua 12:15,Matthew 4:8-10, 1 Kings 18:21)  and choose life (Deuteronomy 30:15-20, John 2:17, Hebrews 3:14-19, Psalm 95:1-11) instead of sin and death. This is how we live our baptismal priesthood (CCC#1265 - 1274) and the threefold charism/Office (Christ had this fully, so we as Christians through baptism are shares of this in and with him) of priest, prophet and king (CCC# 787). The less we are bound in slavery to sin and vice (Romans 6:1-7, Romans 6:22, Romans 8:2, 1 Peter 1:13-21), the more freedom we have in the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17), we have fullness of life (John 10:10) and are able to already live in the Kingdom here (Luke 17:20) and now with peace and joy as a Child of God (Ephesians 5:1, Ephesians 8-17, Ephesians 4:32, Matthew 5:45, John 1:12, Romans 8:14-16, John 16:20-33, Romans 14:17). 

This is what it means to be a Catholic, this is what should excite us!! If we all lived like this, then the world would be changed and set alight with the glory of God and set on fire for Christ (Luke 12:49) as St Catherine of Siena says. This is the key to reform and renewal in the Church, it is what all the saints teach and taught, and is the beauty of holiness that brings others to Christ as Pope Benedict XVI used to teach - the reform of holiness.

Learning to Praise God is one of the most important things we can do in our spiritual life. It is the oxygen for our soul, as St Padre Pio defined prayer and St Gregory Nazianzus says something similar. We are told by St Paul to rejoice always in the Lord, as also to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16 - 18), so that our whole life will become a living sacrifice acceptable to him (Romans 12:1). This is a foundational truth that we need to remind ourselves of continuously. Jesus himself gave us this example on the cross (Hebrews 5:7 - 10) by praying Psalm 22. This Psalm that typologically foreshadows the suffering of an innocent man, is also a Christological prophecy - yet this prophecy is not only fulfilled by Jesus on the cross (Matthew 5:17, Matthew 26:56, Luke 24:26-27, John 17:12, Acts 2:23, Acts 3:18, Acts 28:23, Revelation 19:10), but the prophecy itself that was a written in the Book of Psalms in words, now becomes a life giving and living spoken word (2 Corinthians 3:6, John 6:63) by the Eternal Logos himself, the Word made Flesh! (John 1:1-5, John 1:14, Hebrews 1:1-3, Revelation 21:1-7)

This is why I often repeat to myself the words from Psalm 43:5 "why are you cast down my soul, why groan within me? Hope in God and trust him still, my saviour and my God" Then Psalm 22 it mentions the Lord setting a banquet for us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 22:5) which is a prophecy of the Eucharist and the Mass, so then the beauty of the Eucharist is the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb (Revelation 19:1-9. Revelation 22:17) that we look forward to at the end of time, but we already participate in it here and now "in the presence of our enemies" (Psalm 25:5, CCC# 2836 -2837). 

To incorporate all of this within the context of spiritual warfare - we know from personal experience and scripture, that the devil is constantly trying to attack us and wear us down day and night (1 Peter 5:8, Ephesians 6:10-11, Revelation 12:10). This is why the sacraments and prayer are so important, because the sacraments themselves are the power and the victory of the Resurrection being dispensed to us and applied in our life here in the battle of sin and spiritual warefare (John 19:20-23, Luke 24:13 - 35, CCC# 1066 - 1073, CCC# 1087 - 1089, CC# 1099 - 1107, CCC# 1116, CCC# 1127 - 1129, CCC# 1373, CCC# 1468, CCC# 2848 -2854). When we are strengthened by the sanctifying grace of Jesus the Bread of Life (John 6:23-39, John 6: 47-51) in the Eucharist which is the fruit of the Tree of Life which is the Cross (Revelation 2:7, Revelation 22:2, CCC# 2836-2837), we can praise God from the pit of hell or while being tortured like the 3 holy youths; Ananaias, Azarias, Misael in the fire (Daniel 3:16-25, CCC# 2639 - 2643) - and we can fulfill in our own lives the words of Psalm 118:14 -15 "The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. There are shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the just". This is how I was able to continue to pray and sing the Divine Office while in hospital in isolation, while feeling like at times I was going to die, and even when I had a mentally in patient bashing on my door threatening to kill me whilst I was still able to look him in the eye and say "I am not scared or afraid of you, you cannot intimidate me. Nothing will stop me from praising my God". 

So I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work in your mind, heart and soul (John 16:5 - 15, 1 Corinthians 2:10) - taking you deeper into the mystery of Love that is the Holy Trinity (CCC# 234). Revealing to you and allowing you to encounter the inner mysteries, and mutual outpouring of intimate love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Colossians 3:14, Romans 5:5), so that you may be inserted into the mystery of their inner dynamic of mutual relations, and share in their perichoresis as a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) through the union of your weak and fragile humanity with the Sacred Humanity of Jesus Christ who prepares a seat for us with him in heavenly places (John 14:3, Ephesians 2:4 - 7).  

This mysterious reality is precisely the reason why God the Holy Trinity created us, from the overflow of divine goodness (CCC# 1 - 3, CCC# 1718 - 1719, CCC# 1726, CCC# 2086). This is why we have also been predestined, redeemed, justified and saved by Our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29 - 38, CCC# 2014 - 2016), and are being sanctified for by the Holy Spirit who is our pledge of future glory (Ephesians 1:14, 2 Corinthians 1:22).  We as Catholics seek to strive everyday to love God who loved us first (1 John 4:19), to respond to the invitation of eternal life through prayer, repentance and the sacraments as daily commit to abide in Christ (John 15:9 - 17), so that through him the Father and the Holy Spirit make their home in us, dwell in us and amongst us forever in glory (Leviticus 26:12; Jeremiah 32:38; Ezekiel 37:27, Zechariah 8:8, 2 Corinthians 6:16 - 19, John 4:10 - 14,  John 7:37 - 39,  John 14:23, Romans 5:5, Romans 8:9 - 11, Galatians 4:6, Acts 2:22-39, Revelation 3:20 - 21, Revelation 21:3). 

Through the intercession of the Immaculata, may you like Our Lady always say "yes" to the invitation of God and open your heart to him in prayer so you can receive the outpouring of Love (Romans 5:5) you and I were created for.