God the source of all activity throughout creation

Today is the memorial of St Irenaeus of Lyon. He is a very important Father of the Church. He was a disciple of St Polycarp who was a disciple of St John the Apostoe himself. He is a witness in the early Church to Apostolic Succession, the importance of the Church in Rome, the Eucharist, Our Lady and the universal acceptance of only 4 Gospels. 

He specifically wrote against the heresy of Gnosticism and his writings are highly beneficial to us today as the two biggest challenges we have in the Church today (as identified by Popes Benedict & Francis) were also issues in the early Church - Pelagianism and Gnosticism. 

He had a beautiful image to describe the Word of God & the Holy Spirit as the two hands of the Father who shape us according to the Divine Plan. 

Here is a great reflection by him taken from the Office of Readings 

——— 

The glory of God gives life; those who see God receive life. For this reason God, who cannot be grasped, comprehended or seen, allows himself to be seen, comprehended and grasped by men, that he may give life to those who see and receive him. It is impossible to live without life, and the actualization of life comes from participation in God, while participation in God is to see God and enjoy his goodness.
Men will therefore see God if they are to live; through the vision of God they will become immortal and attain to God himself. As I have said, this was shown in symbols by the prophets: God will be seen by men who bear his Spirit and are always waiting for his coming. As Moses said in the Book of Deuteronomy: On that day we shall see, for God will speak to man, and man will live.
God is the source of all activity throughout creation. He cannot be seen or described in his own nature and in all his greatness by any of his creatures. Yet he is certainly not unknown. Through his Word the whole creation learns that there is one God the Father, who holds all things together and gives them their being. As it is written in the Gospel: No man has ever seen God, except the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father; he has revealed him.
From the beginning the Son is the one who teaches us about the Father; he is with the Father from the beginning. He was to reveal to the human race visions of prophecy, the diversity of spiritual gifts, his own ways of ministry, the glorification of the Father, all in due order and harmony, at the appointed time and for our instruction. Where there is order, there is also harmony; where there is harmony, there is also correct timing; where there is correct timing, there is also advantage.
The Word became the steward of the Father’s grace for the advantage of men, for whose benefit he made such wonderful arrangements. He revealed God to men and presented men to God. He safeguarded the invisibility of the Father to prevent man from treating God with contempt and to set before him a constant goal toward which to make progress. On the other hand, he revealed God to men and made him visible in many ways to prevent man from being totally separated from God and so cease to be. Life in man is the glory of God; the life of man is the vision of God. If the revelation of God through creation gives life to all who live upon the earth, much more does the manifestation of the Father through the Word give life to those who see God.

Jesus Christ - the echo of history & Lord of the Universe

Here is a homily by Pope St Paul VI that was in the Office of readings yesterday. 

It is just too good not to share! 

If you feel you need to reignite your passion for Jesus, this will help. All of us who are baptised and have the name “Christian” are called to preach, evangelise and witness to Jesus and His Kingdom. 

Not to preach the Gospel would be my undoing, for Christ himself sent me as his apostle and witness. The more remote, the more difficult the assignment, the more my love of God spurs me on. I am bound to proclaim that Jesus is Christ, the Son of the living God. Because of him we come to know the God we cannot see. He is the firstborn of all creation; in him all things find their being. Man’s teacher and redeemer, he was born for us, died for us, and for us he rose from the dead.

All things, all history converges in Christ. A man of sorrow and hope, he knows us and loves us. As our friend he stays by us throughout our lives; at the end of time he will come to be our judge; but we also know that he will be the complete fulfillment of our lives and our great happiness for all eternity.

I can never cease to speak of Christ for he is our truth and our light; he is the way, the truth and the life. He is our bread, our source of living water who allays our hunger and satisfies our thirst. He is our shepherd, our leader, our ideal, our comforter and our brother.

He is like us but more perfectly human, simple, poor, humble, and yet, while burdened with work, he is more patient. He spoke on our behalf; he worked miracles; and he founded a new kingdom: in it the poor are happy; peace is the foundation of a life in common; where the pure of heart and those who mourn are uplifted and comforted; the hungry find justice; sinners are forgiven; and all discover that they are brothers.

The image I present to you is the image of Jesus Christ. As Christians you share his name; he has already made most of you his own. So once again I repeat his name to you Christians and I proclaim to all men: Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega, Lord of the new universe, the great hidden key to human history and the part we play in it. He is the mediator — the bridge, if you will — between heaven and earth. Above all he is the Son of man, more perfect than any man, being also the Son of God, eternal and infinite. He is the son of Mary his mother on earth, more blessed than any woman. She is also our mother in the spiritual communion of the mystical body.

Remember: |it| is Jesus Christ I preach day in and day out. His name I would see echo and re-echo for all time even to the ends of the earth.

St Josemaria - my blunt spiritual companion

Today is the feast day of one of my favourite Saints - St Josemaria Escriva 

Personally I have found his short, encouraging and often blunt sayings very helpful in my spiritual life. He really has become a great spiritual friend and patron for me. 

He specifically promoted the universal call to holiness for all people before Vatican 2. He focused on a spirituality of holiness for lay people that they could make their everyday mundane life, into their personal path of holiness and sanctification for the world. 

——————- 

From the opening prayer for his feast day : 

O God,
who raised up your priest Saint Josemaria in the Church
to proclaim the universal call to holiness and the apostolate, grant that by his intercession and example
we may, through our daily work,
be formed in the likeness of Jesus your Son
and serve the work of redemption with burning love. 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.

Christ - the purity of our heart

This beautiful quote is from the 2nd reading in the Office of Readings this morning from St Gregory of Nyssa. He is a Church Father and was a highly influential theologian together with Sts Basil & Gregory of Nazianzen, they are known as the “Cappadocian Fathers”. 

It is a wonderful reflection on how we as Christians need to be imitating and reflecting Christ in all that we say and do, to be worthy of being named after Him. 

What then must we do, we who have been found worthy of the name of Christ? Each of us must examine his thoughts, words and deeds, to see whether they are directed toward Christ or are turned away from him. This examination is carried out in various ways. Our deeds or our thoughts or our words are not in harmony with Christ if they issue from passion. They then bear the mark of the enemy who smears the pearl of the heart with the slime of passion, dimming and even destroying the luster of the precious stone.

On the other hand, if they are free from and untainted by every passionate inclination, they are directed toward Christ, the author and source of peace. He is like a pure, untainted stream. If you draw from him the thoughts in your mind and the inclinations of your heart, you will show a likeness to Christ, your source and origin, as the gleaming water in a jar resembles the flowing water from which it was obtained.

For the purity of Christ and the purity that is manifest in our hearts are identical. Christ’s purity, however, is the fountainhead; ours has its source in him and flows out of him. Our life is stamped with the beauty of his thought. The inner and the outer man are harmonized in a kind of music. The mind of Christ is the controlling influence that inspires us to moderation and goodness in our behavior. As I see it, Christian perfection consists in this: sharing the titles which express the meaning of Christ’s name, we bring out this meaning in our minds, our prayers and our way of life.

Even when we sin we belong to Him

This quote is from the Midday reading for the Divine Office

I don’t know about any of you, but when I have sinned or struggled with sin, I have fallen into the false idea that I somehow no longer belong to God. However scripture teaches us that we still belong to him even when we sin. The Holy Spirit gives us the power and conviction to repent, to turn back to the Father and ask forgiveness because we belong to him through Jesus. 

Our righteousness comes from Christ and in being in Christ, not from ourselves. Knowing Jesus and the One True God he has revealed to us is eternal life (John 17:3) for us who are called the Children of God and coheirs with Christ. 

If you are struggling today, just remember that our loving Father rules all things in mercy. Come back to him and renew your commitment to him through the precious blood of our Saviour.

Baptism - the basis of our life as Christians

At Bible study on my parish tonight we were going through different verses and this one from Ezekiel 16:9 struck me, regarding the beauty and power of baptism. 

In the Catechism (CCC #1213) it refers to Baptism as the basis of the whole Christian life. Often many of you may have been baptised as infants/children so don’t remember your baptism, or the adult converts among us like myself may have been baptised but not had proper catechesis to understand it properly. It is something we often take for granted without realising the dignity and power it gives us. 

In baptism we are washed clean from Original/Ancestral sin and any personal sins too. According to the Catechism #1279 

“The fruit of Baptism, or baptismal grace, is a rich reality that includes forgiveness of original sin and all personal sins, birth into the new life by which man becomes an adoptive son of the Father, a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit. By this very fact the person baptized is incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ, and made a sharer in the priesthood of Christ”. 

WOW 

Let’s unpack this a bit more… 

We understand that baptism frees us from sin (although we still suffer the effects of sin and can still commit sins), but what about being children of the Father, temples of the Holy Spirit and sharers in the priesthood of Christ? In the Old Testament, annointing with oil was only done for PRIESTS or KINGS - and yet in baptism we are annointed, why’s that? Because by becoming one with Christ we become heirs to the Kingdom, children of the Father and are made priests! This is called the “common priesthood of all believers” ref CCC 1268

All of us who have been baptised have been washed by God and reborn as His children, and annointed as His priests and royalty. This is the dignity we possess as Baptised Christians! We can offer prayers on behalf of other people, and unite our prayers with the Sacrifice of the Eucharist on behalf of others too. Baptism is what gives us access or the rights to the other sacraments as well. 

The importance of Catholics understanding their baptism is something that has really been on my mind lately. Too often we see it as our ticket to being part of the Church, but we forget it’s so much more than just that. Baptism is what sets us apart from others, it is what makes us Children of God. It is also what makes us Temples of the Holy Spirit. 

In the Old Testament the Jews and Samaritan’s disagreed over where God should be worshipped and in what Temple. But as Christians we are all individually and collectively the Temple of the Holy Spirit! This would have been mind blowing to the first Christians. This is why Jesus spoke about those who will worship the Father in “spirit and in truth” John 5:23-24, because as Christians who have the full revelation of who God is (the Holy Trinity) we are able to have true worship in “spirit and truth”. 

Worship is ultimately about union, and what closer union can you have with God than to physically be His Temple and be able to eat the Eucharist? Through baptism we are washed clean and given the wedding garment (Matt 22:1-14) and invited to the Wedding of the Lamb for eternity (Revelation 19:6-9) which we already partake of now in the Eucharist. 

At my baptism I remember reading the following passage from 1 Peter 2:9-10, may we always mediate on and remember these words!  

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.”

Spending time with the Beloved

I wasn’t able to make it to Sunday Mass today due to being unwell with a cold/sinus infection past 4 days now. So this evening I felt the Holy Spirit calling me to go spend some time in adoration. Thankfully my parish has a 24 hour adoration chapel. 

So I went to go pray, spend time with Jesus and see what God was trying to tell me. When I got there I just sat silently and said to Jesus “I missed you today” and then just silently kept repeating “I love you Jesus”. It made me think about people in relationships who miss their beloved and just like to be in their presence, not necessarily doing anything but just miss being with them. 

It was a nice reminder of the intimacy that Jesus is calling me to in the eremitic life. A life of union and intimacy, learning to be with Him, rest in Him and just BE. 

I wasn’t able to receive Jesus in Holy Communion today because of being unwell and not attending Mass, but it was a good reminder that I am still called to Eucharistic intimacy in other ways. 

Immaculate Heart of Mary - our refuge to lead us to God

Today is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary 

The pure, Immaculate Heart of Our Lady is a devotion related to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our Lady who was obedient to God, has the purity of heart that she was able to conceive the Word of God made flesh. 

The Church teaches that the doctrines about Our Lady also relate to us - the pure Immaculate Heart of hers is one that we need to imitate. Here is an excerpt from St Lawrence Justinian in the Office of Readings : 

Imitate her, O faithful soul. Enter into the deep recesses of your heart so that you may be purified spiritually and cleansed from your sins. God places more value on good will in all we do than on the works themselves.

Therefore, whether we give ourselves to God in the work of contemplation or whether we serve the needs of our neighbor by good works, we accomplish these things because the love of Christ urges us on. The acceptable offering of the spiritual purification is accomplished not in a man-made temple but in the recesses of the heart where the Lord Jesus freely enters.

———-

*Preface of The Immaculate Heart of Mary*

The Heart of Mary Is the Heart of One Who Lives by the New Law.

V. The Lord be with you.

R. And with your spirit.

V. Lift up your hearts.

R. We lift them up to the Lord.

V. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

R. It is right and just.

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,

always and everywhere to give you thanks,

Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,

through Christ our Lord.

For you gave the Blessed Virgin Mary

a wise and obedient heart,

that she might perfectly carry out your will,

a new and gentle heart,

in which you were well pleased

and on which you inscribed

the law of the New Covenant.

You gave her an undivided and pure heart,

that she might be worthy

to be the Virgin Mother of your Son

and to rejoice to see you for ever.

You gave her a steadfast and watchful heart,

so that she could endure without fear the sword of sorrow

and await in faith the Resurrection of her Son.

With the whole company of the Angels

we sing your praises

in their canticle of joy:

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of hosts.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna in the highest.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus - Furnace of Love

Today is the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the source and fountain of all heavenly graces, as it says in the collect for today’s Mass. the Saints often spoke of the Sacred Heart as being the furnace of God’s love, and this powerful image has always stuck with me. 

One of my favourite scripture passages that has gotten me through many years of self isolation from the Church has been Romans 8:39 where St Paul says that nothing can separate us from the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. God loves us so much that he took on human flesh, and allowed his Sacred Heart to be pierced on the tree of the Cross so that by eating its fruit, we can partake of the sacraments of the Church. 

Today let us drink deeply from God’s love. Let us be drawn into the Sacred Heart - the divine furnace burning with love that transforms us. Let us enter into Jesus side, his pierced heart and take refuge there, so that through his humanity we can experience the the inner life of the Trinity. 

“Jesus stood and cried out: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink” - 2nd psalm antiphon from Morning Prayer

St Bernard on excusing the faults of others

Wonderful words of advice! 

In today’s digital age it can be so easy to be negative and critical of everyone. We criticise the Pope, our priests, our coworkers, boss, and even our family. Sometimes we need to remember to give them the benefit of the doubt, pray for them and focus on their positive traits. Build them up instead of tear them down. 

How often have we been hurt or affected by someone judging us or being critical, instead of giving us positive reinforcement? 

Many people react out of weakness, past hurt or negative coping mechanisms. So let’s remember to treat others as we would like to be treated. As I read somewhere the other day: “We all want God to hand out justice, until it comes to us, then we want mercy”

Arrow prayers

Wonderful recommendation by Pope Francis on the Jesus Prayer. 

This is a prayer that is very common among our Eastern Catholic & Orthodox brethren. During the day to constantly be repeating with your breath “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”. 

Often this prayer is said on a knotted prayer rope known as a Komboskini (Greek), Chotki/Lestovka (Russian) or Brojanica (Serbian, Macedonian, Bulgarian). 

The Jesus prayer goes all the way back to the Desert Fathers and earlier monastic authors. Often they would keep a particular short sentence or quote from the Bible that they memorised to say throughout the day when tempted or struggling, this is known as an “Arrow prayer” - evoking the image of shooting arrows up to heaven during the day. 

I have mentioned before that often I like to repeat throughout the day “Jesus I love you” or “Come Holy Spirit, come by the means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary your well beloved spouse”. 

Do any of you have particular short prayers you like to repeat throughout the day? 

Other common Catholic prayers in this same tradition that are also known as “Ejaculatory prayers” can also be : 

* Sacred Heart of Jesus, have Mercy on us 

* Jesus, I trust in you 

* Jesus, Mary & Joseph - save souls 

* Come Holy Spirit 

* God come to my aid

Glorious Feast of Corpus Christi - precious & wonderful banquet

Happy Solemnity of the Body & Blood of Our Lord - or as it is commonly known, Corpus Christi 

Most of the prayers associated with this feast were written by the Angelic Doctor himself, St Thomas Aquinas. The hymns we sing for benediction (Pange Lingua, Tantum ergo) were also written by him. 

I wanted to share with you all the excellent reading from him this morning from the Divine Office, this is the second reading from the Office of Readings. May it help you to understand and love Jesus more and more, him who has left us a memorial of his love in the Blessed Sacrament 

——— 

From a work by Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest
O precious and wonderful banquet!

Since it was the will of God’s only-begotten Son that men should share in his divinity, he assumed our nature in order that by becoming man he might make men gods. Moreover, when he took our flesh he dedicated the whole of its substance to our salvation. He offered his body to God the Father on the altar of the cross as a sacrifice for our reconciliation. He shed his blood for our ransom and purification, so that we might be redeemed from our wretched state of bondage and cleansed from all sin. But to ensure that the memory of so great a gift would abide with us for ever, he left his body as food and his blood as drink for the faithful to consume in the form of bread and wine.
O precious and wonderful banquet, that brings us salvation and contains all sweetness! Could anything be of more intrinsic value? Under the old law it was the flesh of calves and goats that was offered, but here Christ himself, the true God, is set before us as our food. What could be more wonderful than this? No other sacrament has greater healing power; through it sins are purged away, virtues are increased, and the soul is enriched with an abundance of every spiritual gift. It is offered in the Church for the living and the dead, so that what was instituted for the salvation of all may be for the benefit of all. Yet, in the end, no one can fully express the sweetness of this sacrament, in which spiritual delight is tasted at its very source, and in which we renew the memory of that surpassing love for us which Christ revealed in his passion.
It was to impress the vastness of this love more firmly upon the hearts of the faithful that our Lord instituted this sacrament at the Last Supper. As he was on the point of leaving the world to go to the Father, after celebrating the Passover with his disciples, he left it as a perpetual memorial of his passion. It was the fulfillment of ancient figures and the greatest of all his miracles, while for those who were to experience the sorrow of his departure, it was destined to be a unique and abiding consolation.

Since the Second Vatican Council there has been a lot of emphasis by certain theologians and sections in the Church to change the focus of today’s feast into an emphasis on the community, on us as the “Body of Christ”, instead of the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. You may have heard many strange homilies about this. 

So I would like to leave you here with an excerpt of the Creed written by Pope St Paul VI which was written to counteract the emphasis by some theologians on heretical explanations of the Eucharist. It is called the “Credo of the People of God” 

——- 

Sacrifice of Calvary
24. We believe that the Mass, celebrated by the priest representing the person of Christ by virtue of the power received through the Sacrament of Orders, and offered by him in the name of Christ and the members of His Mystical Body, is the sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars. We believe that as the bread and wine consecrated by the Lord at the Last Supper were changed into His body and His blood which were to be offered for us on the cross, likewise the bread and wine consecrated by the priest are changed into the body and blood of Christ enthroned gloriously in heaven, and we believe that the mysterious presence of the Lord, under what continues to appear to our senses as before, is a true, real and substantial presence.(35)
Transubstantiation
25. Christ cannot be thus present in this sacrament except by the change into His body of the reality itself of the bread and the change into His blood of the reality itself of the wine, leaving unchanged only the properties of the bread and wine which our senses perceive. This mysterious change is very appropriately called by the Church transubstantiation. Every theological explanation which seeks some understanding of this mystery must, in order to be in accord with Catholic faith, maintain that in the reality itself, independently of our mind, the bread and wine have ceased to exist after the Consecration, so that it is the adorable body and blood of the Lord Jesus that from then on are really before us under the sacramental species of bread and wine,(36) as the Lord willed it, in order to give Himself to us as food and to associate us with the unity of His Mystical Body.(37)
26. The unique and indivisible existence of the Lord glorious in heaven is not multiplied, but is rendered present by the sacrament in the many places on earth where Mass is celebrated. And this existence remains present, after the sacrifice, in the Blessed Sacrament which is, in the tabernacle, the living heart of each of our churches. And it is our very sweet duty to honor and adore in the blessed Host which our eyes see, the Incarnate Word whom they cannot see, and who, without leaving heaven, is made present before us.

https://www.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/motu_proprio/documents/hf_p-vi_motu-proprio_19680630_credo.html

Sanctification through difficult people

This is so true! How often in our day to day does our work colleague, boss, drivers on the road, spouse or even children frustrate us?! We are weak and get upset, frustrated with them - but ultimately if we try to be objective and realise that they can also be teaching us patience abd humility then we can transform that negative emotion and experience into a spiritual practice to cultivate virtue 

As one of my favourite quotes from St Josemaria says : “don’t say that person gets on my nerves, instead think to yourself this person sanctifies me” 😂

Who is the “thorn” in your side that tests your patience regularly?

The medicine of redemptive suffering

This is so true. The beautiful thing of our faith is the understanding of redemptive suffering. If we humbling accept suffering and injustice, then it can be used for our sanctification and even offered up on behalf of others. 

Suffering can be horrible and brutal, just like Our Lord endured during His Passion and Resurrection. But He chose to suffer for us, not to take away suffering but to transform it, to be with us IN our suffering so that we can become united with him, strengthened in our faith that He who was innocent endured suffering for us who are not innocent. 

What suffering do you have in your life that you sometimes get angry at God about and bitter? 

Can you try to consciously accept it in humility and offer it to God instead?