Eternal Father, I offer Thee the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with all its Love, all its Sufferings and all its Merits.
First - To expiate all the sins that I have committed this day and during all my life. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Second - To purify the good that I have done badly this day and during all my life. Glory be to the Father . . .
Third - To supply for the good that I ought to have done, and that I have neglected, this day and during all my life. Glory Be to the Father . . .
Amen.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
End of the Day Prayer
Friday, June 12, 2009
Earthen Vessels
These are the words of Saint Paul in his second Letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 4:7) and were the first words of the First Reading today at Mass.
"Earthen vessels..."
Sometimes, I think we expect too much of the "earthen vessels" around us. Too often, we expect more than frail humanity can give. We are human. We sin and we fail constantly. So much so that sanctity should be what surprises, not sin.
"We hold this treasure in earthen vessels."
Yet, despite our sinfulness, God wills that we -- frail and fallen men and women -- are to be the ones that hold the treasure of His truth and proclaim that truth to the nations.
Why would God will that "earthen vessels" would hold such "treasure"? Saint Paul immediately gives us the answer: "[so] that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us." (2 Cor 4:7). In other words, the wonders of Christ steadfastly proclaimed by fallen men and women throughout the ages, despite their individual frailty, is a profound testament to the Truth.
Yes, we hold the treasure in earthen vessels, but by the grace of God, we are able to proclaim that Truth and pass that Truth to others. Despite our imperfections, despite our frailties, despite our flaws . . . "we are ambassadors for Christ." (2 Cor 4:20) (emphasis mine).
Praise God!!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thoughts on the Eucharist
Often while attending Mass, I find myself thinking about something my third grade teacher, Mrs. Elmes, told me when I was goofing around with some friends during a school liturgy some twenty-five years ago. Just before the start of the Eucharistic Prayer, Mrs. Elmes noticed me acting up and came over and said something that I have never forgotten. After the obligatory “be quiet or else,” she said that if I was to give my full attention to the Priest at any time during the Mass, now was the time to do it, because nothing in the Mass was more important than the Consecration.
Over the years, I have come to realize how profound a point my teacher was making. Certainly, there can be little argument regarding the centrality and importance of the Eucharist in the life of the Church. Given this significance, it stands to reason that our utmost attention is required during the Consecration, and that nothing should distract us from the miracle of Christ present during Mass.
Theologian Regis Martin captures this truth in his wonderful 2003 book What is the Church?: Confessions of a Cradle Catholic, where he proclaims:
Let’s face it, here is the most fearful and holy of all mysteries in which our lives as baptized children of God are centered. It is the only mystery, moreover, in which the unseen Lord of the universe — the ineffably transcendent Other — freely consents to become wholly present in an act of perfect, unsurpassed self-donation. Who among us is equal to an event as august as this?
This critical insight, which invokes the Eucharistic heart of the Church, is one that the Church itself has been making for many years. For example, at the Council of Trent (1542-1563), the Church insisted that Christ is present in the Eucharist in an absolutely singular way (i.e., a presence par excellance) and did not waiver from that stance in the face of multiple protestant teachings regarding a lesser presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Thus, the Tridentine Fathers were aware that Christ’s unique presence in the Eucharist was at the center of the Church’s existence.
The Bishops present at the Second Vatican Council were likewise aware of the Eucharistic heart of the Church, and declared in Lumen Gentium that the Eucharistic sacrifice is the “fount and apex of the whole Christian life.” In this regard, Lumen Gentium echoed the prophetic statements of Henri Cardinal de Lubac, a French theologian, who (nearly a decade before the Second Vatican Council in his book The Splendor of the Church) acknowledged that the Eucharist is “the sacrament of sacraments” and stated that “[w]hen we get down to bedrock, ‘there is contained the whole mystery of our salvation.’”
In this regard, I recall a wise theology professor once stating that “[t]he fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” I do not recall exactly what he was talking about (oops!), but I have always remembered the phrase. Used in this context, the Eucharist, which is the true presence of Christ, is “the one big thing” that we as Catholic “hedgehogs” must know. The Eucharist is Christ Himself, in all his glory and beautiful self-sacrificing love, ceaselessly present in our midst. The Church, as the Bride and Body of Christ, in all its levels of membership — Militant, Suffering and Triumphant — is unified and continuously fed and strengthened by that presence.
The bottom line is that the centrality and importance of the Eucharist in the life of the Church cannot be overstated. Borrowing again from Regis Martin’s What Is the Church?, the Eucharist is the “irreducibly unique symbol of our faith” and “forms the whole basis of Catholic identity, igniting the spark of that divine conflagration Christ came into this world to set.” Or as another brilliant theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar, put it in his short but powerful book Razing the Bastions, “No Holy Communion is like another.” Rather, each communion, each Mass, is a singular event, and one that is super-charged with the Holy Spirit, filling each individual Christian with the grace required to go out and be Christ to the world.
Thus, the Eucharist is indeed the heart of the Church, and, as Mrs. Elmes suggested, we best pay close attention.
Friday, June 5, 2009
Grace That Sustains
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The Imitation of Christ
Recently, I discovered Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ, which is certainly among the all-time great Catholic works. It is a timeless work and one that can be read over and over, bit by bit, each time producing great fruit.
Today, in Book 2, Chapter 11, paragraphs 1-3, I came across the following passage, which truly spoke to me:
Jesus today has many who love his heavenly kingdom, but few who carry his cross; many who yearn for comfort, few who long for distress. Plenty of people he finds to share his banquet, few to share his fast. Everyone desires to take part in his rejoicing, but few are willing to suffer anything for his sake. There are many that follow Jesus as far as the breaking of the bread, few as far as drinking the cup of suffering; many that revere his miracles, few that follow him in the indignity of his cross; many that love Jesus as long as nothing runs counter to them; many that praise and bless him, as long as they receive some comfort from him; but should Jesus hide from them and leave them for a while, they fall to complaining or become deeply depressed.
In this regard, we must always remember that Our Lord's invitation to discipleship explicitly contains the cross. Suffering, in one form or another, is part and parcel of being a Christian. For example, in Mark 8:34-35, Jesus said:
Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.
Too often, it seems, we Christians forget that part of the equation. We forget (perhaps all too conveniently) that there is no Easter Sunday, no glorious Resurrection morn, without the dreadful cruelty and suffering of Good Friday.
In short, to follow Christ-- to "imitate" him -- is to make our own march to Calvary. I humbly pray that God grant will grant us all the strength, courage and wisdom to embrace the cross in our lives and to follow Him in all things.
Praise God!!