Tuesday, Week 8: "We have given up everything and followed you."

"Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions

-- Mk 10:28-31

"The Church . . . will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecutions and God's consolations." Here below she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'from Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' . . . be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence."

-- CCC 769

Memorial Day: "an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading"

kept in heaven for you
who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith,
to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials

--1 Pt 1:3-9

Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. "The Lord is my strength and my song." "In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

-- CCC 1808

A prayer for Memorial Day

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for the men and women who protect us and preserve Your gifts of life, country, and freedom at home and abroad, even at the sacrifice of their own lives. They and their families are the true heroes among us.

Today we remember all those who have laid down their lives so that we can continue to enjoy the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Let Your perpetual light shine upon them, and grant them eternal rest.

Please send out Your angels to protect all who serve our country, and keep us free from injustice and harm. Through Jesus Christ, Your Son, Our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.

Memorial Day was first observed on May 30, 1868, when flowers were placed at the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers. On this day we honor all who have died in service of our nation.

Take a Moment to Reflect and Pray:

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in December 2000 asking all Americans at 3 p.m. local time "to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps'."

Other Ways to Observe This Day:

• Visit cemeteries and place flags or flowers on the graves of our fallen heroes.
• Visit local memorials.
• Fly the U.S. Flag at half-staff until noon.
• Fly the POW/MIA Flag
• Pledge to aid the widows, widowers, and orphans of our fallen soldiers, and to aid the disabled veterans.

Best wishes for a Blessed Memorial Day especially to our deployed Military and their families at home!

Pentecost: The forgiveness of sins through the Holy Spirit is the "new" thing which overcomes division through love

"If now, while they are one people,
all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do.
Let us then go down there and confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says."

We are not free in order to do whatever we want to do, to love our pride or our desires. We are free in order to love the God who gave us our freedom in creating us. The story of Babel is told in order to explain the truth about our need for God and for His love. Only God has the power to bring unity, for God is authentic love and only His love brings authentic oneness.

"This state of division into many nations is at once cosmic, social and religious. It is intended to limit the pride of fallen humanity united only in its perverse ambition to forge its own unity as at Babel. But, because of sin, both polytheism and the idolatry of the nation and of its rulers constantly threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of paganism." (CCC 57)

Pride is a lie, convincing us we can have love, that we can "make" unity, without God. Sin, whether of pride or another source, divides mankind and paves the way for false worship.

"Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth." God's Spirit is the "new" reality upon the face of the earth. Each day we awake we find nearly everything is almost exactly like it was the day before. But there is one thing that can grow and become "different" each day: our love for God and our ability to receive His love, His gifts which come to us in their fullness through the Holy Spirit.

I will soon celebrate my twenty year anniversary as a priest. It would be very easy for me to approach my duties as a priest, whether to celebrate holy Mass and the other sacraments, to teach and preach and otherwise sanctify God's holy people, as the same each time and to lose my fervor and joy. So that this misfortune will not befall me I must always keep in mind Who it is that I serve, Who has called me and the purpose of my vocation: the salvation of every one of you here present and, by extension together with Our Holy Father, our bishops and all priests, that of the world.

Here is a reminder of the charge I was given on the day of my ordination:

"The spiritual gift conferred by presbyteral ordination is expressed by this prayer of the Byzantine Rite. The bishop, while laying on his hand, says among other things:

"Lord, fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit
him whom you have deigned to raise to the rank of the priesthood,
that he may be worthy to stand without reproach before your altar
to proclaim the Gospel of your kingdom,
to fulfill the ministry of your word of truth,
to offer you spiritual gifts and sacrifices,
to renew your people by the bath of rebirth;
so that he may go out to meet
our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, your only Son,
on the day of his second coming,
and may receive from your vast goodness
the recompense for a faithful administration of his order." (CCC 1587)

What our Byzantine brothers proclaim is true also for us: the Holy Spirit "renews", makes new again, each day of life through the growth and grace He brings as the third Person of the Trinity. The "bath of rebirth" which is baptism and by which sins are forgiven for the human person for the very first time is meant to be renewed after subsequent sins over and over again through the Spirit's gift of forgiveness which comes to us through our ordained priests in the sacrament of Confession. In particular we need the Sacrament after grave sins before we can again approach the altar for Communion.

"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."

A most wonderful gift was given to me on the day of my ordination that I have shared with countless members of the faithful through the years: the ability to absolve from sin through the sacrament of Confession.

Forgiveness from the grave danger and mortal peril of sin which can separate us forever from God and His love is given to the Church through the Holy Spirit, beginning at the first Pentecost. This is the one new thing in the world, new every day, the Person of Jesus in His priests forgiving the sins of the whole world and thus bringing the renewal of the Spirit over the face of the Earth!

((((,,))))

Friday, Easter Week VII: "do you love me more? "

you know that I love you

-- Jn 21:15-19

One can sin against God's love in various ways:

- indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.

- ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return him love for love.

- lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.

- acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.

- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.

-- CCC 2094

Thursday, Easter Week VII: "I have given them the glory you gave me"

that they may be one

-- Jn 17:20-26

We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God's eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for "all men to be saved." She longs to be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven:

Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.

-- CCC 1821

Wednesday, Easter Week VII: "Keep watch over yourselves"

and over the whole flock

-- Acts 20:28-38

The Church is apostolic because she is founded on the apostles, in three ways:

- she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," the witnesses chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;

- with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on the teaching, the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the apostles;

- she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the Church's supreme pastor":

You are the eternal Shepherd
who never leaves his flock untended.
Through the apostles
you watch over us and protect us always.
You made them shepherds of the flock
to share in the work of your Son. . . .

-- CCC 857