The Blessed Mother

Our Lady of Grace

Yesterday was September 8th the day Catholics celebrate the birth of Mary. Now we don't know if it's her 'real' birthday but we celebrate the fact that such a faith-filled follower of Christ was born.

Recently a distant relative who is an evangelical christian decided to play the "let's go pepper the family nun with irritating questions about a cherished belief" game.

I say this because I often get stuck at family and other gatherings having to listen to people challenge the beliefs of the Catholic Church. Usually I don't mind and take it as part of the territory.
This recent one kind of got to me because it was at the lunch after the funeral of my oldest brother John.  I was a bit numb and having to listen to a someone telling me that we shouldn't pay so much attention to Mary
and why do we anyhow was to say the least trying.

Well I know some people are so incredibly self centered and lacking in social development they just can't help themselves. Sigh!

Anyhow I offered up a prayer asking for the Blessed Mother's intercession once again and listened.
After a while I gave my simple little summation about her

She believed and trusted in God
She gave her life over to God
She gave up her son to God
She believed in Jesus call as the Son of God
Jesus on the Cross gave her to us as our Mother

He paused about one second, then clearly not having listened, shook his head and started telling me how all these people here we're clueless about the evil in their lives and surely damned, etc. etc. etc.
My response was this was I was putting my money on Jesus the Son of the Living God having overcome all evil. These so-called evil people had been generous enough to come to the Funeral Mass and burial of my brother so I figured they had some link to the goodness of God. At that I excused myself as I could feel my impatience winning out over my numbness. Thanks Blessed Mother for your help once again.
I'm sure glad you're around.

The center and sun of the spiritual life

Today's Saint is St. Pius X. Pope from1903 - 1914 he is known for his advocacy of frequent reception of communion for adults and sacramental preparation for children. The founder of my community Fr. Thomas A. Judge was greatly influenced by the writing of Pius X and taught his followers of the important of frequent reception of Holy Communion and of instructing children regarding the faith.


Being able to go to Mass and receive Communion was a big deal in my family and I can well remember when I was old enough to do so. My Mother told us stories of her Father who was brought up at a time when receiving the Sacrament was reserved to once a year. As an adult he would go to Saturday confession during the Easter Season, then for the rest of the day his kids were forbidden to talk to him or make much noise so they would not cause him to sin before he went to Mass and Communion on Sunday. He regarded his children's practice of confession and communion every two weeks as nearly scandalous.
She always felt that he would have been a happier man if his beliefs had not been so rigid and guilt ridden.

I can't even imagine receiving Communion only once a year. For me trying to live as a follower of Jesus is possible because of the gift of the Eucharist. The real presence of the Christ is at the center of my life.


Here's a link to what some others say about what the Holy Eucharist means to them:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Oct2005/Feature1.asp

The Blessed Sacrament is the center and sun of the spiritual life. It is the food of our starved and
parched souls. Fr. Thomas A. Judge, CM










http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintofDay/

Seek good and not evil, that you may live

Seek good and not evil,that you may live;

Then truly will the LORD, the God of hosts,

be with you as you claim!

Hate evil and love good,

and let justice prevail at the gate;

We were challenged at Mass today as the priest suggested that we are kind of lackadaisical about evil.

Everybody seemed calm at hearing him and I thought, "wow all these women who are regular prayers, have done so much good for others; are doing so much for others all in the name of God, Father, Son and Spirit. Could it be we are accepting of evil?"

 It's true there is so much going on in our world that is touched by evil for example:

abortions

child abuse

trafficking of human beings

corruption in business and government

greed

drugs and all that goes with them

gang activity with all that goes with that

greed

lack of food, shelter, health care for so many, while some are super rich.

I'm not going to belabor this list although there's lots more.

It can seem so overwhelming that it's hard to know where to start.

I can only think that I start right in my own daily life and with my own daily choices.

Evil is not a huge foreign thing out there taking over people's wills and forcing them to do wrong.

"They" are not evil but their actions are.

Hating evil and loving good means being conscious of all the many choices 

to do good, to speak what is good, to hold up the idea of the good.

The temptation to choose the evil action, to say the evil words, to not do the good can be so very strong. We cannot choose the good without God's grace.

Any triumph of good over evil is possible because of Jesus Christ., who gave His life for us on the cross. Jesus by His death on the  cross and His resurrection overcame sin. 

The Cross is our constant reminder. In the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ there is victory over sin and evil, but at great sacrifice. The Cross is our constant reminder that it costs us to make the choice for good. 

The Cross is a sign that provokes us to love, to worship, to gratitude, to thanksgiving, to service. But for the mysteries of that Cross our destiny would be too hideous to think about. The Cross is our hope, our joy, our peace and consolation. It is a blessed pledge of a happy future, a happy eternity. We cannot look upon that Cross without knowing that thereupon was paid the price of our soul's salvation.  Fr. Thomas A. Judge, CM

Mystery of the Trinity

As Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity we, of course, are attuned to all mention of the Trinity. According to our rule of life the first thing we seek to do with our lives is to glorify the Triune God. 

So Trinity Sunday is a big deal for us. 

I came across the following quote while on retreat at our beautiful retreat house in Alabama, aptly named Blessed Trinity Shrine Retreat.

By mystery we do not mean something that is so beyond our knowledge and understanding that we might as well not bother to even think about it.

Rather it a mystery is a truth so profound, so full that it continually must be unfolded,revealed, made known  and even with all that reflection and prayer and study for all the ages, the fullness of what the mystery of the Trinity contains can never be exhausted! - working on finding the source for this-

 We cannot reach the end of God. There is always newness, always another lesson of love to be experienced.  We experience the love of those close to us through their presence and through their actions. So too with the Trinity. When I think of the actions of the Trinity right away three stand out, creation, my existence and the Eucharist. During the Eucharistic prayer there's a beautiful prayer said by the priest, an invocation of the Holy Spirit called the epiclesis.

In the epiclesis, the Church asks the Father to send his Holy Spirit or the power of his blessing on the bread and wine, so that by his power they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit   

Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To me that's a great example of the Trinity in action. The Triune God is amazing, so awesome and beyond my understanding in some ways, but in many ways quite clear.  

Christ is Risen!

It is all about Easter. The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the reason for all the fuss.
" Rejoice, heavenly powers! Sing choirs of angels! Exult, all creation around God's throne! Jesus Christ, our King is risen! Sound the trumpet of salvation!
Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendor, radiant in the brightness of your King! Christ has conquered! Glory fills you! Darkness vanishes for ever!
Rejoice, O Mother Church! Exult in glory! The risen Savior shines upon you! Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God's people!
For Christ has ransomed us with his blood, and paid for us the price of Adam's sin to our eternal Father!
This is night, when Christians everywhere, washed clean of sin and freed from all defilement, are restored to grace and grow together in holiness.
This is the night, when Jesus broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave.
What good would life have been to us, had Christ not come as our Redeemer?
Father, how wonderful your care for us! How boundless your merciful love! To ransom a slave you gave away your Son.
The power of this holy night dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy; it casts out hatred, brings us peace, and humbles earthly pride."
From the Easter vigil exultet, one of my all time favorites!

Devotional Knowledge and the Incarnation

 This past Thursday was the Feast of the Annunciation. It’s always a big day for us as our founder Fr. Thomas A. Judge, CM  cherished the  day in which the  “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us”.
This is the big salvation event when God gives the gift and grace of himself to Mary and to us. Knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation; to know that God is with us and loves us so much that He became a part of us in the Lord Jesus was central to Fr. Judge. He urged that our knowledge of that mystery be a devotional knowledge. Devotional knowledge of the Incarnation means you know and understand the Incarnation (as much is as humanly possible). But it doesn't end there; that knowledge animates, inspires and bears fruit. You try to regularly pray about the Incarnation and put its meaning into practice. There is an end product that shows up in your behavior and actions.

Fr. Judge said, “The answer must be individual and personal. It may work around our
practice, it may bring us out of bed more promptly in the morning. It may make us more zealous in our morning  prayer and meditation, it may make us more alert and Eucharistic in the chapel and at the altar... It may increase fraternal charity in our relations with one another. It may show us more zealous and urge us to strive for a better knowledge of the value of the human soul and make us
forget ourselves that we may think more of God and do more for His honor and glory. In other words, its expression may be a greater piety and zeal or fraternal charity or self-sacrifice.”

Our Blessed Mother Mary, as a young, poor but faithful woman was able to place her trust in God’s gracious gift of love and accept this amazing gift of being the mother of the son of the Most High. She is certainly our model in how to respond wholeheartedly to our Lord.

For the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, the Annunciation is the day we make perpetual profession of vows or final vows. We also renew our vows every year on March 25th. This year the Feast was particularly joyful as our Sr. Christine Ma made Perpetual Profession of Vows and Sr. Janet Santibanez renewed her vows for one year.

Such a day reminds me of the “inexhaustible reservoir of God’s love for us”. It underscores the great graces God showers upon us.

For more on the Annunciation try Creighton University's Catholic Comments podcast at: http://cct.creighton.edu/?cat=16

Open to Transcendance

A few weeks ago I read the article "Open to Transcendance" on the St. Louis University Liturgy site:  http: //liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdC020710/theword_engaged.html   It's been on my mind ever since.

 The other day while flying I sat next to a woman who had lost all her material possessions in Katrina. Her home and her business were destroyed. I had the great grace to hear her journey from  anger and sadness  in the wake of her loss to joy and trust in God. She credits her change to the time she spent in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Over a few weeks the presence of the Lord gave her peace.

Her then temporary home in the city where she moved for refuge after Katrina happened to be very near a Church with 24 hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. She knows this to have been no accident. She recognizes that she is not the one in control and that she is powerless. And that is okay with her as she knows that she can trust in God to lead her everyday.

I hope to continue to keep both the article and "the lady on the plane" in mind during Lent and beyond.  I hope to keep their knowledge that it is only by God's great love and grace that I have life.
As Paul said: "But by the grace of God I am what I am.." 1 Corinthians 15:10.