Saturday, Advent I: "he summoned his Twelve disciples"

and gave them authority

-- Mt 9:35–10:1, 5a, 6-8

Jesus entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The "power of the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is the Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his Resurrection: "Feed my sheep." The power to "bind and loose" connotes the authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgements, and to make disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the Church through the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of the kingdom.

-- CCC 553

Celebrating vocations to priesthood and consecrated life: Monsignor Mark Seitz is a kidney donor. Read more here.

Wednesday, Advent I: “My heart is moved with pity"

Physical healing is a promise of the power of God's love to heal our nature wounded by sin. Physical wholeness is a powerful sign in this world of God's promise for each of us of life completed because an eternal gift. The light which symbolizes the advent of Jesus Christ during this season promises healing for hearts which have known the darkness of sin. The "lame, the deformed, the mute" all are signs for us of our own present need for healing which can come only from God through Christ with us. Great crowds came to him, having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute, and many others. They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.

-- Mt 15:29-37

"Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession." There are profound reasons for this. Christ is at work in each of the sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: "My son, your sins are forgiven." He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure them. He raises them up and reintegrates them into fraternal communion. Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God and with the Church.

-- CCC 1484

Photo source: Vatican Radio.

Tuesday, Advent I: "he shall judge the poor with justice"

He shall strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Justice shall be the band around his waist,
and faithfulness a belt upon his hips.

-- Is 11:1-10

Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the prophets, was to bring all men the definitive order of justice, love and peace. According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a time of waiting and watching.

-- CCC 672

Photo source: Sacred Destinations. More views of Lausanne Cathedral here.

Friday, First Wk Advent: “Do you believe that I can do this?”

“Yes, Lord,” they said to him.
Then he touched their eyes and said, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”
And their eyes were opened.

-- Mt 9:27-31

Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the leper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman). The urgent request of the blind men, "Have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" has-been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus Prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!" Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."

St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus' prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us acknowledge our voice in him and his in us."

-- CCC 2616