Divine Mercy Sunday 2016: Mercy of God

Posted on April 3, 2016 by admin

Feast of Divine Mer­cy

divine mercy image

This Sun­day, April 3rd, is the Feast of Divine Mer­cy also known as Divine Mer­cy Sun­day! In our own mod­ern times, Jesus gave St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka of Poland (1905–1938) the mis­sion of mak­ing His Divine Mer­cy bet­ter known on earth. He told St. Fausti­na to have this feast insti­tut­ed in the Church.

Jesus told St. Fausti­na that any­one who receives Holy Com­mu­nion on the Feast of Divine Mer­cy and goes to Con­fes­sion on the Feast of Divine Mer­cy or with­in the 8 days before or after it, will obtain com­plete for­give­ness of sins and remis­sion of all pun­ish­ment asso­ci­at­ed with those sins.

Jesus told St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka:

“When you go to Con­fes­sion know this, that I Myself am wait­ing for you in the Con­fes­sion­al; I am only hid­den by the priest, but I myself act in the soul. Here the mis­ery of the soul meets the God of Mer­cy. Tell souls that from this fount of mer­cy souls draw graces sole­ly with the ves­sel of trust. If their trust is great there is no lim­it to my gen­eros­i­ty” (Diary of St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka, VI, 6–7).

*For infor­ma­tion on how to make a good Con­fes­sion go to our post:                                    The Great Sacra­ment of Con­fes­sion (Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion)

**Addi­tion­al require­ments

(Note: It is nec­es­sary to be detached from all sin includ­ing venial sin.)

1)Pray for the inten­tions of the Pope ( such as 1 Our Father and 1 Hail Mary).

2) Ven­er­ate the Divine Mer­cy of Jesus image (such as devout­ly pray­ing “Mer­ci­ful Jesus, I trust in you” before the Divine Mer­cy of Jesus image).

3)Participate in church or chapel devo­tions in hon­or of Jesus of Divine Mer­cy.

OR

In the pres­ence of the Blessed Sacra­ment, exposed or reserved in the Taber­na­cle, pray 1 Our Father and 1 Apostle’s Creed.

The Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska

In addi­tion, He told her to keep a diary (The Diary of St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka) in which she record­ed her var­i­ous expe­ri­ences, visions, as well as the mes­sages and devo­tions that Jesus want­ed her to share with the world. As record­ed in her diary, Jesus told her to have a paint­ing made in the like­ness of how He appeared to her along with the sig­na­ture  “Jesus I trust in you.”

Jesus of Divine Mercy

The words “Jesus, I Trust in You” are at the bot­tom of the image. Red and blue rays of light are com­ing out from the Sacred Heart of Jesus as one of His pierced Hands offers a bless­ing and the oth­er points to His Sacred Heart.

Jesus told her the mean­ing the image as fol­lows:

“The two rays denote Blood and Water.  The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls right­eous.  The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls.  These two rays issued forth from the depths of My ten­der mer­cy when My ago­nized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross.  Hap­py is the one who will dwell in their shel­ter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him (299).  By means of this image I shall grant many graces to souls.  It is to be a reminder of the demands of My mer­cy, because even the strongest faith is of no avail with­out works (742).”

God loves us with a love that is intense, infi­nite, per­fect, and pure. It is because of His great love that He is mer­ci­ful towards us, His beloved chil­dren.  His Heart is a foun­tain of grace and mer­cy. Out of his love, he pours out His grace and mer­cy upon us espe­cial­ly through the Sacra­ments of Bap­tism, the Most Holy Eucharist, and Holy Con­fes­sion (Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion).

“Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mer­cy endures for­ev­er.” ~Psalm 107:1

“The Lord is gra­cious and full of com­pas­sion, slow to anger and great in mer­cy.” ~Psalm 145:8

“Though your sins are like scar­let,  they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crim­son,  they shall be like wool.”~ Isa­iah 1:18

“Sure­ly good­ness and mer­cy shall fol­low me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”~Psalm 23:6

Divine Mercy and the Holy Eucharist

He pours out His grace and mer­cy chiefly through the Holy Eucharist (The Holy Mass, Holy Com­mu­nion, Ado­ra­tion of the Blessed Sacra­ment) as well as through the oth­er Sacra­ments (i.e. Con­fes­sion). It is impor­tant to note that on one occa­sion, St. Fausti­na saw the blue and red rays com­ing forth from the Most Blessed Sacra­ment. This can help us to rec­og­nize that Jesus is tru­ly present in the Holy Eucharist.

Works of Mercy

Jesus also told St. Fausti­na that, like Him, we should be mer­ci­ful to oth­ers and do works of mer­cy in order to be chan­nels or instru­ments of His Mer­cy towards oth­ers.

Regard­ing works of mer­cy, Jesus told St. Fausti­na,

“I demand from you deeds of mer­cy which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mer­cy to your neigh­bors always and every­where. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse your­self from it (Diary, 742).”

The cor­po­ral and spir­i­tu­al works of mer­cy are as fol­lows:

Cor­po­ral Works of Mer­cy
The Cor­po­ral Works of Mer­cy are these kind acts by which we help our neigh­bors with their mate­r­i­al and phys­i­cal needs.

-Feed the hun­gry
-Give drink to the thirsty
-Clothe the naked
-Shel­ter the home­less
-Vis­it the sick
-Vis­it the impris­oned
-Bury the dead
Spir­i­tu­al Works of Mer­cy
The Spir­i­tu­al Works of Mer­cy are acts of com­pas­sion, as list­ed below, by which we help our neigh­bors with their emo­tion­al and spir­i­tu­al needs.

- Coun­sel the doubt­ful
-Instruct the igno­rant
-Admon­ish sin­ners
-Com­fort the afflict­ed
-For­give offens­es
-Bear wrongs patient­ly
-Pray for the liv­ing and the dead (Holy souls in Pur­ga­to­ry)

Divine Mercy and Jesus’ Second Coming

seccom

 Fur­ther­more, Jesus told St. Fausti­na that His rev­e­la­tions to her would have a spe­cial role in prepar­ing mankind for His Sec­ond Com­ing. The fol­low­ing quotes are from the Diary of St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka.

“Sec­re­tary of My mer­cy, write, tell souls about this great mer­cy of Mine, because the awful day, the day of My jus­tice is near” (965).

“Then I saw the Moth­er of God, who said to me … ‘I gave the Sav­ior to the world; as for you, you have to speak to the world about His great mer­cy and pre­pare the world for the Sec­ond Com­ing of Him who will come, not as a mer­ci­ful Sav­ior, but as a just Judge. Oh how ter­ri­ble is that day! Deter­mined is the day of jus­tice, the day of divine wrath. The angels trem­ble before it. Speak to souls about this great mer­cy while it is still the time for grant­i­ng mer­cy.’ ” (635).

“Write down these words, my daugh­ter. Speak to the world about My mer­cy; let all mankind rec­og­nize My unfath­omable mer­cy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of jus­tice. While there is still time let them have recourse to the fount of My mer­cy … ” (848).

“Write: before I come as just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mer­cy” (1146).

“Today I am send­ing you with My mer­cy to the peo­ple of the whole world. I do not want to pun­ish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, press­ing it to My Mer­ci­ful Heart. I use pun­ish­ment when they them­selves force Me to do so; My hand is reluc­tant to take hold of the sword of jus­tice. Before the Day of Jus­tice I am send­ing the Day of Mer­cy “(1588).

Let us remem­ber to look for­ward to Jesus’ Sec­ond Com­ing with hope and trust and by liv­ing lives of holi­ness. Dur­ing every Mass, after the Our Father prayer, we are remind­ed of this when the priest prays,

“Deliv­er us Lord from every evil and grant us peace in our days, that, by the help of your Mer­cy, we may always be free from sin and safe from all dis­tress, as we await the blessed hope and the com­ing of Our Sav­ior Jesus Christ.”

On this Divine Mer­cy Sun­day, run into the arms of your lov­ing Heav­en­ly Father, who is wait­ing and yearn­ing to embrace you! Then, go out into the world and do deeds of mer­cy to share His Mer­cy with oth­ers! Tell oth­ers of His great mer­cy that they too may return to God.

Divine Mercy Devotion

*For more infor­ma­tion on St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka, Jesus’ Divine Mer­cy mes­sages , the Chap­let of Divine Mer­cy, and the Divine Mer­cy image go to:

The Divine Mer­cy Devo­tion

*For more infor­ma­tion about Divine Mer­cy Sun­day go to:

Divine Mer­cy Sun­day

*Holy Mass at the Vat­i­can on Divine Mer­cy Sun­day April 3rd 2016

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Easter 2016~ The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Posted on March 30, 2016 by admin

Chris­tus res­ur­rex­it! Vere res­ur­rex­it!

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is risen!

“After the sab­bath, as the first day of the week was dawn­ing, Mary Mag­da­lene and the oth­er Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And sud­den­ly there was a great earth­quake; for an angel of the Lord, descend­ing from heav­en, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appear­ance was like light­ning, and his cloth­ing white as snow. 4 For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.

5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; I know that you are look­ing for Jesus who was cru­ci­fied. 6 He is not here; for He has been raised, as He said. Come, see the place where He lay. 7 Then go quick­ly and tell His dis­ci­ples, ‘He has been raised from the dead, and indeed He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him.’ This is my mes­sage for you.” ~Matthew 28:1–10

Resurrection of Our Saviour Jesus Christ

Through His death and res­ur­rec­tion, He has shown that He is tru­ly the Son of God. Fur­ther­more, Jesus has con­quered death and sin.

To the Apos­tle John, writer of the Book of Rev­e­la­tion, Jesus said,

“18 I am the Liv­ing One. I was dead. But now look! I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys to Death and Hell.” ~Rev­e­la­tion 1:18

He had to die as the ulti­mate sac­ri­fice for the sins of mankind.  In Wednesday’s Mass read­ings for the Octave of East­er, the risen Jesus appears to the dis­ci­ples on the road to Emmaus and tells them,

“Was it not nec­es­sary that the Christ should suf­fer these things
and enter into His glo­ry?”
Then begin­ning with Moses and all the prophets,
He inter­pret­ed to them what referred to Him
in all the Scriptures.”~Luke 24: 26–27

By His cru­ci­fix­ion, death, and Res­ur­rec­tion, Jesus has opened way for all peo­ple to come back to God  and have eter­nal life. Each per­son has to make the choice to turn from sin, receive God’s Mer­cy, and per­se­vere in holi­ness in order to obtain the eter­nal life that Jesus has made avail­able to us.

The Res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus, Evan­ge­liza­tion, and Jesus’ Sec­ond Coming

Excerpt from First Read­ing of the East­er Sun­day Mass:

“You know what has hap­pened all over Judea …We are wit­ness­es of all that He did both in the coun­try of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put Him to death by hang­ing Him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and grant­ed that He be vis­i­ble,
not to all the peo­ple, but to us,
the wit­ness­es cho­sen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.
He com­mis­sioned us to preach to the peo­ple
and tes­ti­fy that he is the one appoint­ed by God
as judge of the liv­ing and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear wit­ness,
that every­one who believes in Him
will receive for­give­ness of sins through His Name.” ~Acts 10

As fol­low­ers of Jesus Christ, we have been com­mis­sioned to spread the word about Our Risen Lord. Regard­less of life cir­cum­stances, we are all called to be wit­ness­es who tes­ti­fy to the truth that Jesus came into the world for the sal­va­tion of mankind. Only through Him can one receive for­give­ness of sins and only through Him can one obtain eter­nal sal­va­tion. The fol­low­ers of Christ are called to evan­ge­lize and spread the Word of God until the end of time when Jesus Christ returns in glo­ry as the Just Judge.

19 My brethren, if any one among you wan­ders from the truth and some one brings him back, 20 let him know that who­ev­er brings back a sin­ner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cov­er a mul­ti­tude of sins.” ~James 5: 19–20

Last­ly, the Res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus Christ is a fore­taste of God’s ulti­mate defeat of evil at the end of time. When Jesus returns at the end of time, He will destroy evil  “with the breath of His mouth” and “by the splen­dor of His com­ing.” (2 Thessalonians2:8)

East­er Sea­son

The Church cel­e­brates the Res­ur­rec­tion of Jesus  in a spe­cial way dur­ing the Octave of East­er (the 8 days after East­er Sun­day). In addi­tion, the East­er Sea­son extends more gen­er­al­ly for 50 days from East­er Sun­day! For the next 50 days, let us reflect upon the Res­ur­rec­tion of Christ and be renewed in faith, hope, and love. Fur­ther­more, let us be faith­ful wit­ness­es to the Risen Christ who will soon come again in glo­ry!

Chris­tus res­ur­rex­it! Vere res­ur­rex­it! Christ is Risen! Indeed He is risen!

East­er hymn: Sequence “Vic­ti­mae Paschali Laudes”

 

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Holy Week 2016

Posted on March 24, 2016 by admin

This past Sun­day was Palm Sun­day also known as Pas­sion Sun­day. Palm Sun­day com­mem­o­rates when Jesus entered Jerusalem tri­umphant­ly and was praised by the peo­ple includ­ing lit­tle chil­dren. His tri­umphal entry into Jerusalem ful­filled the Old Tes­ta­ment scrip­tures about the Mes­si­ah.

Excerpt from the Palm Sun­day Mass read­ings

Jesus pro­ceed­ed on His jour­ney up to Jerusalem.
… As He rode along,
the peo­ple were spread­ing their cloaks on the road;
and now as He was approach­ing the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole mul­ti­tude of His dis­ci­ples
began to praise God aloud with joy
for all the mighty deeds they had seen.
They pro­claimed:
“Blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Peace in heav­en
and glo­ry in the high­est.”
Some of the Phar­isees in the crowd said to Him,
‘Teacher, rebuke your dis­ci­ples.’
He said in reply,
‘I tell you, if they keep silent,
the stones will cry out!’ “~Luke 19: 28–40

Holy week is the week pre­ced­ing East­er which begins with Palm Sun­day and ends with Holy Sat­ur­day. Dur­ing Holy Week, the Church com­mem­o­rates the events lead­ing up to Jesus’ cru­ci­fix­ion, com­mem­o­rates His cru­ci­fix­ion and death, and eager­ly awaits His Res­ur­rec­tion to be cel­e­brat­ed on East­er Sun­day.

Holy Thurs­day and The Tridu­um

 

Holy Thurs­day

On Holy Thurs­day, we recall the Last Sup­per dur­ing which Jesus offered the first Mass. Dur­ing the Last Sup­per, Jesus insti­tut­ed the Holy Eucharist and the Sacra­ment of Holy Orders (the priest­hood).

“26 Now as they were eat­ing,[d] Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the dis­ci­ples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” 27 And He took a cup, and when He had giv­en thanks He gave it to them, say­ing, “Drink of it, all of you; 28 for this is My blood of the[e] covenant, which is poured out for many for the for­give­ness of sins.”~Matthew 26:26–28

After recall­ing the first Mass (the insti­tu­tion of the Holy Eucharist), we recall Jesus’ agony in the Gar­den of Geth­se­mane, His betray­al by Judas, and all that hap­pened the day before Jesus was cru­ci­fied. Jesus insti­tu­tion of the Holy Eucharist on Holy Thurs­day is con­nect­ed with His cru­ci­fix­ion and death on Good Fri­day.

The three days fol­low­ing Holy Thurs­day are: Good Fri­day, Holy Sat­ur­day, and East­er Sun­day. These three days are referred to as the Tridu­um.

Good Fri­day

On Good Fri­day, we recall Jesus’ Cru­ci­fix­ion and death espe­cial­ly from 12 noon- 3pm. Jesus died on the cross as a sac­ri­fice for our sins in order to rec­on­cile human­i­ty with God.

“Yet it was our infir­mi­ties that He bore, our suf­fer­ings that He endured, While we thought of Him as strick­en, as one smit­ten by God and afflict­ed. But He was pierced for our offens­es, crushed for our sins, Upon Him was the chas­tise­ment that makes us whole by His stripes we were healed.” ~Isa­iah 53:4–5

Fur­ther­more, through each Holy Mass, Jesus offers His same sac­ri­fice of death on the cross to God the Father. Jesus’ sac­ri­fice of death on the cross is made present dur­ing every Mass. For this rea­son the Mass as also referred to as the Holy Sac­ri­fice of the Mass.

Holy Sat­ur­day

Then like the first apos­tles, we await East­er Sun­day on which we will cel­e­brate His glo­ri­ous Res­ur­rec­tion!

We should pray (i.e. Rosary, Sta­tions of the Cross) in prepa­ra­tion for the Holy Tridu­um. It is also impor­tant to go to Con­fes­sion to puri­fy our souls and resolve to amend our lives. It is also impor­tant to make time to take part in the Church ser­vices dur­ing the Holy Tridu­um.

“We adore you O Christ and we bless You, for by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world.”

May you all have a blessed Good Fri­day, Holy Sat­ur­day and East­er Sun­day!

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Scripture Reflection: First Week of Lent 2016

Posted on February 19, 2016 by admin

“Seek the Lord while He may be found,
call Him while He is near.
Let the scoundrel for­sake his way,
and the wicked man his thoughts;
Let him turn to the Lord for mer­cy;
to our God, who is gen­er­ous in for­giv­ing.” ~Isa­iah 55:6–7

Dur­ing this first week of Lent, let us resolve to turn away from sin and grow clos­er to God.

The first step is to care­ful­ly exam­ine our lives to find out in what ways we have sinned. The sec­ond step is to be sor­ry for those sins and make a good Con­fes­sion. (Click on this link for more infor­ma­tion about the Holy Sacra­ment of Con­fes­sion.)

The third step is to amend our lives through God’s grace. We must coop­er­ate with God’s grace and make an effort not to sin. For exam­ple, we must avoid peo­ple, places and things which lead us to sin. Fur­ther­more, when tempt­ed to sin, we must pray for strength to resist temp­ta­tion and not com­mit sin.

Let us strive with each day of Lent to grow in holi­ness!

 

 

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Lent 2016: The Meaning of Lent

Posted on February 11, 2016 by admin

images

The sea­son of Lent lasts 40 days begin­ning today, Ash Wednes­day,  and ends on Holy Thurs­day (the Thurs­day of Holy Week).  In terms of Bib­li­cal sig­nif­i­cance, the sea­son of Lent is sim­i­lar to the forty days that Jesus was tempt­ed in the wilder­ness.

The Sea­son of Lent has four com­po­nents:

  • Repen­tance and Con­ver­sion
  • Prayer and Penance
  • Fast­ing
  • Alms­giv­ing

Repen­tance and Con­ver­sion:

” ‘Even now,’ declares the LORD, ‘return to Me with all your heart, with fast­ing and weep­ing and mourn­ing.’ ” ~Joel 2:12

We are all called to repent and be con­vert­ed every day of the year, but espe­cial­ly dur­ing the Sea­son of Lent.

The ash­es we receive on Ash Wednes­day are a sign of repen­tance. Ash­es have been a sign of repen­tance since the Old Tes­ta­ment times. In the Old Tes­ta­ment, Jon­ah preached in Nin­eveh for the peo­ple to repent of their evil ways.

“Then word came to the king of Nin­eveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, cov­ered him­self with sack­cloth and sat in ash­es.  7 And he caused it to be pro­claimed and pub­lished through­out Nin­eveh …

‘Let nei­ther man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any­thing; do not let them eat, or drink water. 8 But let man and beast be cov­ered with sack­cloth, and cry might­i­ly to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the vio­lence that is in his hands.’ “~Jon­ah 3: 6–8

We must thor­ough­ly exam­ine our lives–our thoughts, our actions, and our words to see in what ways we have sinned. After rec­og­niz­ing our sins, we must be sor­ry for hav­ing com­mit­ted them, and then resolve not to sin. God our Father loves us and is wait­ing for us to turn to Him. He wants to for­give us of our sins and shed his love and mer­cy upon our souls.

In the Sacra­ment of Con­fes­sion, God Him­self for­gives us all our sins.  That is why Con­fes­sion is known as the Sacra­ment of Rec­on­cil­i­a­tion (or the Sacra­ment of Penance).

Jesus told St. Fausti­na Kowal­s­ka:

“When you go to Con­fes­sion know this, that I Myself am wait­ing for you in the Con­fes­sion­al; I am only hid­den by the priest, but I myself act in the soul. Here the mis­ery of the soul meets the God of Mercy.Tell souls that from this fount of mer­cy souls draw graces sole­ly with the ves­sel of trust. If their trust is great there is no lim­it to my gen­eros­i­ty (VI, 6–7)”

Please, dur­ing this sea­son and dur­ing the whole year, go to Con­fes­sion as often as you can that you may be for­giv­en your sins and grow clos­er to God. (Note: Accord­ing to the pre­cepts of the Church, all Catholics must go to Con­fes­sion at least one time per year. How­ev­er, going to Con­fes­sion once a month or once a week is bet­ter for the soul.)

For more on Con­fes­sion, see the our blog post: “The Great Sacra­ment of Con­fes­sion”

Repen­tance means that we have to resolve to amend our lives so that we can con­tin­ue to grow in holi­ness. Con­ver­sion is the dai­ly process by which we grow in holi­ness and grow clos­er to God.  The obser­vances of Lent are meant to help our hearts and souls to be con­vert­ed so that we can be trans­formed into holi­er peo­ple. Fur­ther­more, repen­tance and con­ver­sion are nec­es­sary so that we may be always spir­i­tu­al­ly pre­pared to meet Jesus when we die or at His Sec­ond Com­ing. The time will come when we will all have to stand before God and give and an account of our lives.

Prayer and Penance:

Resolve to pray more dur­ing this sea­son. For exam­ple, some peo­ple make the Way of the Cross, pray the Holy Rosary, and make time for Ado­ra­tion of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacra­ment (Eucharis­tic Ado­ra­tion).

In prayer, we com­mu­ni­cate with God our lov­ing Father. Con­se­quent­ly, the more we pray, the clos­er we come to God. This sea­son is an oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a deep prayer life for the whole year.

As penance, peo­ple often give up some­thing or per­form more works of char­i­ty dur­ing Lent.

*For exam­ple, this Lent, try to reduce the amount of time you spend watch­ing TV or brows­ing the inter­net. Spend the extra time in prayer or read­ing Chris­t­ian books (i.e Holy Bible, Lives of the Saints, etc.)

Anoth­er aspect of Penance is to recall the suf­fer­ings that Jesus Christ endured for our sake in order to pay for the sins of mankind and rec­on­cile human­i­ty with God. For this is the rea­son that He allowed Him­self to suf­fer death on the Cross.  Fore­shad­ow­ing His death on the Cross, Jesus said,

“And I, when I am lift­ed up from the earth, will draw all peo­ple to Myself.” (John 12:32)

It is impor­tant to rec­og­nize that Jesus Christ suf­fered death on the Cross to bring human­i­ty back to God–to make it pos­si­ble for us to come back to God.

Fast­ing:

On the Fri­days of Lent, Catholics ages 14 and old­er are not to eat meat (absti­nence).

On Ash Wednes­day and Good Fri­day, Catholics ages 18 to 59 are sup­posed to fast and abstain from eat­ing meat. When fast­ing, a per­son can eat one full meal. Two small­er meals may also be tak­en, but not to equal a full meal.

*Note: There may be some vari­a­tion in fast­ing and absti­nence require­ments in dif­fer­ent coun­tries.

The pur­pose of fast­ing is first­ly to imi­tate Christ, prac­tice self-denial and dis­ci­pline, as well as to focus on God.

Alms­giv­ing:

We are also called to help those in need in a spe­cial way dur­ing this sea­son. Con­se­quent­ly, many church­es often have giv­ing projects dur­ing Lent to help the needy. It is impor­tant to remem­ber that holi­ness leads to the per­fec­tion of love and char­i­ty.

Prayer, penance, fast­ing, and alms­giv­ing enable us to break free from attach­ments to earth­ly things. These attach­ments dis­tract us and pre­vent us from grow­ing clos­er to God.

Dur­ing the Lenten sea­son, let our hearts, souls, and minds be drawn back to God and may we renew our efforts to love our neigh­bor.

‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. … ‘Love your neigh­bor as your­self. ’ “~Mark 12: 29–31

May we all have a blessed and holy Lent!

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Preparing for Lent 2016

Posted on February 7, 2016 by admin

Today is the 5th Sun­day in Ordi­nary Time. This is the last Sun­day before the begin­ning of Lent. This upcom­ing Wednes­day is Ash Wednes­day, the first day of the 40 day Sea­son of Lent.

Dur­ing Lent, we will make a renewed effort to turn away from sin and draw clos­er to God. Our sins are for­giv­en through the Holy Sacra­ment of Penance also called Con­fes­sion. We also receive graces through this sacra­ment to help us not to com­mit sin. Con­se­quent­ly, we should go to Con­fes­sion reg­u­lar­ly espe­cial­ly dur­ing the Sea­son of Lent. It is a pre­cept of the Church to go to Con­fes­sion at least once a year, but going to Con­fes­sion once a month or once a week is a great means of grow­ing in holi­ness.

Fur­ther­more, grow­ing in holi­ness helps us to serve God. The first Mass read­ing in today’s Litur­gy is from the Book of Isa­iah. The prophet Isaiah’s expe­ri­ence echoes the need to turn from sin in order to draw clos­er to God and serve Him.

“… I saw the Lord seat­ed on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of His gar­ment fill­ing the tem­ple.
Seraphim were sta­tioned above.

They cried one to the oth­er,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glo­ry!”
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
liv­ing among a peo­ple of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
hold­ing an ember that he had tak­en with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth with it, and said,
‘See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wicked­ness is removed, your sin purged.’ Then I heard the voice of the Lord say­ing,
‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ ‘Here I am,’ I said; ‘send me!’ ” ~Isa­iah 6: 1–2,3–8

The Gospel read­ing from today’s Mass Litur­gy reminds us that grow­ing in holi­ness is con­nect­ed to serv­ing God. In this read­ing, Jesus enables the apos­tles to  catch many fish to fore­shad­ow that they would soon serve Him by bring­ing many peo­ple back to God.

“Get­ting into one of the boats, the one belong­ing to Simon,
He asked him to put out a short dis­tance from the shore.
Then He sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After He had fin­ished speak­ing, He said to Simon,
‘Put out into deep water and low­er your nets for a catch.’
Simon said in reply,
‘Mas­ter, we have worked hard all night and have caught noth­ing, but at your com­mand I will low­er the nets.’
When they had done this, they caught a great num­ber of fish and their nets were tear­ing.
They sig­naled to their part­ners in the oth­er boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in dan­ger of sink­ing.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
‘Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sin­ful man’.
For aston­ish­ment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and like­wise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were part­ners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catch­ing men’.
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left every­thing and fol­lowed Him.”~ Luke 5: 3–11

Simon (the apos­tle Peter) rec­og­nized that Jesus had done some­thing mirac­u­lous to cause them to catch so many fish. Simon knew that he was in the pres­ence of God and called Jesus ‘Lord.’ Fur­ther­more, Jesus had done this to fore­shad­ow that as His fol­low­ers they would bring men from all the nations of the earth back to God .  Just as in the first read­ing when the prophet Isa­iah answered God’s call to ser­vice, the apos­tles answered God’s call. Fur­ther­more, this work of bring­ing peo­ple to sal­va­tion will con­tin­ue through the Church until the end of time when Jesus Christ returns.

May we grow in holi­ness and serve the Lord!

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The Feast of the Epiphany 2016

Posted on January 10, 2016 by admin

The Feast of the Epiphany

250px-WiseMenAdorationMurillo

Last Sun­day was the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord. The word “epiphany” means man­i­fes­ta­tion. The Epiphany cel­e­brates the man­i­fes­ta­tion of the Sav­ior, Jesus Christ, to the gen­tiles (non-Jew­ish peo­ple) in the per­sons of the magi—the three wise men Mel­chior, Balthasar, and Gas­par.

“After Jesus was born in Beth­le­hem in Judea, dur­ing the time of King Herod, Magi  from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, ‘Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw His star when it rose and have come to wor­ship Him.’ 3 When King Herod heard this he was dis­turbed, and all Jerusalem with him. … After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were over­joyed. 11 On com­ing to the house, they saw the Child with His moth­er Mary, and they bowed down and wor­shiped Him. Then they opened their trea­sures and pre­sented Him with gifts of gold, frank­in­cense and myrrh.” (Matthew 2 :1–3,9–11)

God began His work of the redemp­tion of mankind with the Jew­ish peo­ple as seen in the Old Tes­ta­ment. For exam­ple, He gave the Jew­ish peo­ple the Ten Com­mand­ments through the prophet Moses. He also spoke of the Savior’s com­ing through the Old Tes­ta­ment prophets until final­ly Jesus came into the world. The man­i­fes­ta­tion of Jesus to the three kings sym­bol­izes that Jesus’ com­ing into the world has made rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with God now open to the gen­tiles as well.

“All the nations you have made will come and wor­ship before You, Lord;  they will bring glo­ry to Your name. 10 For You are great and do mar­velous deeds; You alone are God.” Psalms 86:9–10

“All the ends of the earth will remem­ber and turn to the Lord, and all the fam­i­lies of the nations will bow down before Him … .” Psalms 22:27

The gifts of the three kings: gold, frank­in­cense, and myrrh also have spe­cial sig­nif­i­cance. The gift of gold sig­ni­fies that Jesus is a King. In the Book of Rev­e­la­tion, Jesus is referred to as “the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” The gift of frank­in­cense sig­ni­fies that Jesus is the High Priest and also God. In the Jew­ish tra­di­tion through­out the Old Tes­ta­ment, the high priest would offer incense to God in wor­ship. For the same rea­son, the priest incens­es the altar dur­ing the Holy Mass to hon­or the pres­ence of God. The last gift, myrrh, seems at first, a strange gift for a new­born baby because myrrh was used as part of Jew­ish embalm­ing and bur­ial cus­toms. This last gift sig­ni­fies that Jesus has come into the world to die as the ulti­mate sac­ri­fice for the sins of mankind in order to rec­on­cile mankind with God.

How does the Epiphany apply to us today?

First of all, we can be thank­ful for our knowl­edge of the One True God, the lov­ing Cre­ator of all mankind who loves us so much that He sent His Son to rec­on­cile us with Him­self. Fur­ther­more, because of this knowl­edge, we must make time and effort to wor­ship God each day by attend­ing the Holy Mass and receiv­ing Holy Com­mu­nion every Sun­day and as much as we can dur­ing the week, mak­ing time to adore Christ like the magi through Ado­ra­tion of the Most Blessed Sacra­ment, as well as dai­ly prayers such as the Most Holy Rosary.

Sec­ondly, we must resolve to man­i­fest Christ to others—to bring Christ to whomev­er we encounter by our words and actions.  The light and love of Christ must shine through us, so that all those with whom we come into con­tact may be drawn to Jesus for the sal­va­tion of their eter­nal souls.

 “A new com­mand I give you: Love one anoth­er. As I have loved you, so you must love one anoth­er. 35 By this every­one will know that you are My dis­ci­ples, if you love one anoth­er.” John 13:34–35

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can­not be hid­den. Nei­ther do peo­ple light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to every­one in the house. In the same way, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heav­en.” Matthew 5:14–16

In Chap­ter 4 of the Gospel of John is the beau­ti­ful account of the Samar­i­tan woman who met Jesus and was so moved by the expe­ri­ence that she told every­one in her town.

“Then, leav­ing her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the peo­ple, ‘Come, see a man who told me every­thing I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward Him. … Many of the Samar­i­tans from that town believed in Him because of the woman’s tes­ti­mony … and because of His words many more became believ­ers.” (John 4: 28, 29, 39–41)

The vision of Saint John in the Book of Rev­e­la­tion gives us a hope­ful and tri­umphant image of a redeemed mankind.

“9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great mul­ti­tude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, peo­ple and lan­guage, stand­ing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wear­ing white robes and were hold­ing palm branch­es in their hands.” Rev­e­la­tion 7:9

Like the three kings, may we earnest­ly seek Christ and His King­dom! Like the Blessed Vir­gin Mary, may we man­i­fest Him to oth­ers!

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An Advent Prayer (Advent 2015)

Posted on December 15, 2015 by admin

 

Sweet Infant Jesus,

I bring to you this day, and all the days of Advent, my heart, my love, my very life, togeth­er with those lit­tle acts of self denial and sac­ri­fice, made in your hon­or, and of which you alone know.  Let me, I beg of you, heap these gifts around your crib that they may on Christ­mas morn­ing prove my love for you, and may love and ado­ra­tion serve to warm your poor sta­ble and make bright, and hap­py your birth­day, sweet Jesus!

*These final days before Christ­mas, let us con­tin­ue to pre­pare our hearts and souls to receive Jesus anew by puri­fy­ing our­selves through fre­quent­ly attend­ing Mass (even dai­ly Mass) and receiv­ing Holy Com­mu­nion, fre­quent use of the Sacra­ments (i.e.  Con­fes­sion) and dai­ly prayer.

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December 12th -Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Posted on December 12, 2015 by admin

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Actu­al Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Basil­i­ca in Mex­i­co City

On Decem­ber 9th, 10th, and 12th of 1531, the Blessed Vir­gin Mary appeared in Mex­i­co as the preg­nant Moth­er of God to Saint Juan Diego. Saint Juan Diego was an indige­nous man who recent­ly con­vert­ed to Catholi­cism. (The Span­ish had con­quered Mex­i­co only a few decades ear­li­er. Lat­er mis­sion­ar­ies came to bring Chris­tian­i­ty to the indige­nous peo­ple of Mex­i­co.)

Our Lady left a Mirac­u­lous Image of her appear­ance on Saint Juan Diego’s cac­tus fiber cloth (tilma), which still exists today and is on dis­play at the Basil­i­ca of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mex­i­co City. Our Lady came to offer faith, hope and con­so­la­tion to the indige­nous peo­ple of Mex­i­co and to bring peace to the land. Her appear­ance also brought an end to the human sac­ri­fices that were part of the Aztecs’ offer­ings to their false gods. She led them instead to Jesus, her Son, the One True God.

Ear­ly in the morn­ing of Decem­ber 9th, 1531, Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego for the first time. Saint Juan Diego was walk­ing to attend the Holy Mass in the morn­ing as usu­al. (It is said that Saint Juan Diego walked 15 miles every day to attend the Holy Mass!) Our Lady said:

“My dear son, whom I love ten­der­ly, know that I am the Vir­gin Mary, Moth­er of the True God; the Giv­er and main­tain­er of life; Cre­ator of all things; Lord of Heav­en and Earth, Who is in all places. I wish a tem­ple be erect­ed here, where I can man­i­fest the com­pas­sion I have for the natives and for all who solic­it my help.”

She asked him to go to Bish­op Juan Zumar­ra­ga and request to have a church built on the bar­ren hill of Tepey­ac which is now part of Mex­i­co City. Juan Diego went to the Bish­op as Our Lady had asked. The Bish­op asked Juan Diego to ask Our Lady to give him a sign.

San Juan Diego

On Decem­ber 12th, Our Lady appeared to Saint Juan Diego and told him to pick the Castil­lian ros­es (found nat­u­ral­ly in Spain) that mirac­u­lous­ly appeared on Tepey­ac hill, though Tepey­ac hill is a bar­ren area with cac­tus plants and despite the fact that it was win­ter. Saint Juan Diego put the ros­es in his tilma which Our Lady care­ful­ly arranged in his tilma. She told him to bring them to the Bish­op as the sign for him to believe her request. Our Lady told him only to open the tilma full of ros­es in the pres­ence of the Bish­op.

  Saint Juan Diego and Bish­op Zumar­ra­ga

Zumarraga

Saint Juan Diego went to see the Bish­op and then he opened the tilma and the ros­es fell to the floor. To everyone’s amaze­ment, the Image of Our Lady had appeared on the tilma  by the direct pow­er of God! The Bish­op built the church as Our Lady request­ed and with­in the next nine years, nine mil­lion native Mex­i­can peo­ple were con­vert­ed and bap­tized to the one true faith and estab­lished an era of peace!

Mirac­u­lous Phe­nom­e­na relat­ed to the Image

Many sci­en­tists (includ­ing sci­en­tists from NASA) have stud­ied the image and have shown that the mirac­u­lous Image is not a paint­ing! There is no pig­ment and there no brush­strokes on the tilma. Also, since the tilma is made of a sim­ple cac­tus fiber cloth, it should have rot­ted after 20 years, but it has been mirac­u­lous­ly pre­served over the past 471 years! The image was also left unscathed by a bomb blast in 1921 when a bomb was placed direct­ly in front of it by anti-Catholic Mex­i­can peo­ple. Fur­ther­more, dig­i­tal enhance­ment of the eyes of Our Lady in the Image shows the reflec­tion of the faces of Bish­op Zumar­ra­ga and Saint Juan Diego. This phe­nom­e­non is only pos­si­ble for human eyes. Five eye doc­tors who exam­ined Our Lady’s eyes said that what they looked into were human eyes. Dr. Jose Aste Ton­s­mann car­ried out the most famous research stud­ies of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s eyes in the image. No painter would have been able cre­ate such effects.

Even the con­stel­la­tions on her man­tle have been iden­ti­fied to match the con­stel­la­tions in the sky of Mex­i­co on Decem­ber 12th 1531!

Virgin Mary of Guadalupe Janet Barber

All of this con­firms what the faith­ful have always believed—that this tru­ly Mirac­u­lous Image was pro­duced direct­ly by the hand of God.

Under­stand­ing the Sym­bol­ism of the Image

Being in front of the sun and step­ping on the moon shows that She is greater than they are. For the Aztecs’ it meant that She was even greater than their sun and moon gods to whom they offered sac­ri­fices. Fur­ther­more, She is wear­ing the star-filled sky as a cloak. This would have espe­cial­ly impressed the Aztecs who had devot­ed them­selves to study­ing the stars, sun, and moon as part of their wor­ship.

How­ev­er, despite all this, Her hands are clasped in prayer and Her head is bowed in rev­er­ence toward some­one else who is yet greater than She is–the One True God.

Her belt shows she is preg­nant. To the Aztecs, the four petal flower below her belt and the con­stel­la­tion Leo (Lion) at the same spot below her belt would sig­ni­fy that the Child to be born would be divine and all-pow­er­ful. Inter­est­ing­ly, Jesus is referred to in the Bible as the “Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” Through this Image, the Vir­gin Mary com­mu­ni­cates that she is the Moth­er of Jesus, the one True God.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the same woman described in the Book of Rev­e­la­tion.

“There was a great sign in the heav­ens, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.”(Revelation 12:1–2)

The image is full of sym­bol­ism which com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the native peo­ple of Mex­i­co to embrace the Catholic faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ—to turn to the One True God. The mir­a­cles attrib­uted to Our Lady of Guadalupe con­tin­ue to this day. Her image still con­tin­ues to com­mu­ni­cate to us the need to seek Her inter­ces­sion that She might bring us to Her Son Jesus.

Dur­ing one of the appari­tions, when Saint Juan Diego was con­cerned about his dying uncle (who Mary lat­er healed), she said,

“… Do not be afraid of any ill­ness or acci­dent or pain. Am I not here who am your Moth­er? Are you not under my shad­ow and pro­tec­tion? Do you need any­thing else? ”

These words still bring com­fort today and help us remem­ber that Mary is always at our side.

Fur­ther­more, how fit­ting that Mary should appear preg­nant with her Son dur­ing the sea­son of Advent of 1531, hop­ing to bring peo­ple to her Son in time for Christ­mas! May Our Lady of Guadalupe bless us dur­ing Advent, Christ­mas, and always!

For more infor­ma­tion about Our Lady of Guadalupe:

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Catholic Online)

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Feast: Decem­ber 12)

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Wikipedia)

Videos

Appari­tion of Our Lady of Guadalupe(part1)

Appari­tion of Our Lady of Guadalupe(part 2)

Movie

“Guadalupe” made in 2006 by Dos Cora­zones Films

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Advent 2015: A Season of Hope and Conversion

Posted on December 5, 2015 by admin

Tomor­row is the Sec­ond Sun­day of Advent. The Sec­ond Sun­day of Advent starts off the sec­ond week of Advent. The advent sea­son con­sists of four weeks dur­ing which we pre­pare our­selves in a spe­cial way for the com­ing of Jesus.  The word ‘Advent’ means ‘com­ing.’

Advent

First­ly, we pre­pare our­selves to cel­e­brate Christ­mas, the his­tor­i­cal birth of Jesus Christ, His first com­ing into the world. The angel Gabriel told the poor shep­herds who were near­by when Jesus was born, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Sav­ior, who is Christ the Lord. “(Luke 2:11) The Mass read­ings dur­ing Advent remind us how the peo­ple of the Old Tes­ta­ment wait­ed in hope­ful expec­ta­tion for the com­ing of the Mes­si­ah.

baby jesus

 

Sec­ond­ly, in addi­tion to cel­e­brat­ing the his­tor­i­cal event of Jesus’ birth, the most impor­tant event in all human his­to­ry, we pre­pare our­selves spir­i­tu­al­ly to receive Him and His grace in a spe­cial way at Christ­mas. This way, our hearts and souls can become spir­i­tu­al mangers ready to receive the Child Jesus.

How can we pre­pare our­selves dur­ing Advent?

We can pre­pare our­selves this Advent by amend­ing our lives and turn­ing away from sin. Let us resolve to make Christ the cen­ter of our lives through  dai­ly prayer (i.e. the Holy Rosary, Chap­let of Divine Mer­cy), fre­quent par­tic­i­pa­tion at Holy Mass and Holy Com­mu­nion, and fre­quent Con­fes­sion. In order to grow in holi­ness, it is nec­es­sary to go to Con­fes­sion at least once a year, but once a month or once a week is bet­ter.

Third­ly, we call to mind, with a joy­ful hope, the fact that Jesus will come again! Jesus will return! This will be His Sec­ond and Final com­ing. The Mass read­ings dur­ing Advent remind us of Jesus’ Sec­ond Com­ing and the need to be pre­pared at all times to receive Him at His Sec­ond Com­ing, when He comes in the clouds of heav­en with great pow­er and glo­ry to sep­a­rate the wicked from the good.

 

segunda venida de Jesus

“Behold I am com­ing soon! My reward is with me and I will give to every­one accord­ing to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Begin­ning and the End.”(Revelation 22:12–13)

“Let the sea resound, and every­thing in it, the world, and all who live in it. 8Let the rivers clap their hands,let the moun­tains sing togeth­er for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in right­eous­ness and the peo­ples with equi­ty.” (Psalm 98:7–9)

*It is impor­tant to note that although no one know that exact day or hour of Jesus’ return, Jesus did give us warn­ings through­out the Scrip­tures as to the signs that would pre­cede His final com­ing.

“3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the dis­ci­ples came to Him pri­vate­ly, say­ing, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your com­ing, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, say­ing, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not trou­bled; for all[a]these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and king­dom against king­dom. And there will be famines, pesti­lences,[b] and earth­quakes in var­i­ous places. 8 All these are the begin­ning of sor­rows.

9 “Then they will deliv­er you up to tribu­la­tion and kill you, and you will be hat­ed by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offend­ed, will betray one anoth­er, and will hate one anoth­er. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because law­less­ness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the king­dom will be preached in all the world as a wit­ness to all the nations, and then the end will come. …

29 “Imme­di­ate­ly after the tribu­la­tion of those days the sun will be dark­ened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heav­en, and the pow­ers of the heav­ens will be shak­en. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heav­en, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man com­ing on the clouds of heav­en with pow­er and great glo­ry. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trum­pet, and they will gath­er togeth­er His elect from the four winds, from one end of heav­en to the oth­er. Now learn this para­ble from the fig tree: When its branch has already become ten­der and puts forth leaves, you know that sum­mer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it[d] is near—at the doors! ~Matthew 24:3–13,29–33

*One glance at the news head­lines is enough to real­ize that many of these signs are already being ful­filled. Thus, Jesus’ return must be near.

Excerpt from today’s Mass read­ings :

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heav­ens will pass away with a mighty roar
and the ele­ments will be dis­solved by fire,
and the earth and every­thing done on it will be found out.

Since every­thing is to be dis­solved in this way,
what sort of per­sons ought you to be,
con­duct­ing your­selves in holi­ness and devo­tion,
wait­ing for and has­ten­ing the com­ing of the day of God
… But accord­ing to His promise
we await new heav­ens and a new earth
in which right­eous­ness dwells.
There­fore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found with­out spot or blem­ish before Him, at peace.”

~2 Peter 3: 10–14

We must sanc­ti­fy and puri­fy our­selves every day so that we may be ready to receive Him at Christ­mas and when He comes again in glo­ry upon the clouds of heav­en.

Have A Holy and Joy­ous Advent!

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Second Coming of Jesus (33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time)

Posted on November 15, 2015 by admin

Today’s Mass Read­ings remind us of the Sec­ond Com­ing of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came into the world the first time and He will return a sec­ond time. This time He will come as the Just Judge. As we await His return, we must puri­fy our­selves by turn­ing away from sin and amend­ing our lives so that we will be ready when He comes.

We must stay away from peo­ple, places, and things which are occa­sions of sin. We must receive the for­give­ness of our sins by going to Con­fes­sion fre­quent­ly (i.e. once a month or once a week). We need to pray dai­ly (i.e. Holy Rosary) and to attend Mass at least every Sun­day. (**Note: It is also good to try to attend dai­ly Mass as well.)

In addi­tion, we must strive to help oth­ers to turn to God before it is too late.

Fur­ther­more, Jesus told us about the signs that would pre­cede His Sec­ond Com­ing. He said that there would be great dis­tress around the world includ­ing earth­quakes, wars, pesti­lence, etc. Giv­en the cur­rent state of the world, His com­ing must be very near.

First Read­ing from today’s Mass Litur­gy

In those days, I Daniel,
heard this word of the Lord:
“At that time there shall arise
Michael, the great prince,
guardian of your peo­ple;
it shall be a time unsur­passed in dis­tress
since nations began until that time.
At that time your peo­ple shall escape,
every­one who is found writ­ten in the book.

“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;
some shall live for­ev­er,
oth­ers shall be an ever­last­ing hor­ror and dis­grace.

“But the wise shall shine bright­ly
like the splen­dor of the fir­ma­ment,
and those who lead the many to jus­tice
shall be like the stars for­ev­er.” ~Daniel 12: 1–3

Gospel Read­ing from today’s Mass Litur­gy

Jesus said to his dis­ci­ples:
“In those days after that tribu­la­tion
the sun will be dark­ened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the pow­ers in the heav­ens will be shak­en.

“And then they will see ‘the Son of Man com­ing in the clouds’
with great pow­er and glo­ry,
and then He will send out the angels
and gath­er His elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.

“Learn a les­son from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes ten­der and sprouts leaves,
you know that sum­mer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things hap­pen­ing,
know that He is near, at the gates.
Amen, I say to you,
this gen­er­a­tion will not pass away
until all these things have tak­en place.
Heav­en and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.

“But of that day or hour, no one knows,
nei­ther the angels in heav­en, nor the Son, but only the Father.”~Mark 13: 24–32

May we grow in holi­ness each day so that we will be ready for Jesus’ Sec­ond Com­ing!

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November Solemnities: All Saints Day and All Souls Day

Posted on November 1, 2015 by admin

On Novem­ber 1st, the Church cel­e­brates All Saints Day.

all-saints-day-011

All Saints day is the day that the Church cel­e­brates all the saints. This Solem­ni­ty hon­ors all the Saints that have been can­on­ized by the Church as well as all the saints which are known to God alone.

The Saints are the men, women, and even chil­dren who have glo­ri­fied God dur­ing their lives on earth and now enjoy His Pres­ence in Heav­en.  Dur­ing their earth­ly lives, some Saints were reli­gious (priests, broth­ers, nuns/sisters) and some were laypeo­ple (sin­gle or mar­ried). There are Saints from every race, nation­al­i­ty, and lan­guage.

An excerpt from the first read­ing for the Mass of the Solem­ni­ty of All Saints:

“After this I had a vision of a great mul­ti­tude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, peo­ple, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wear­ing white robes and hold­ing palm branch­es in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice:

“Sal­va­tion comes from our God, who is seat­ed on the throne, and from the Lamb.”

All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four liv­ing crea­tures. They pros­trat­ed them­selves before the throne, wor­shiped God, and exclaimed:

“Amen. Bless­ing and glo­ry, wis­dom and thanks­giv­ing, hon­or, pow­er, and might be to our God for­ev­er and ever. Amen.”

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wear­ing white robes, and where did they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me,“These are the ones who have sur­vived the time of great dis­tress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”  ~Rev­e­la­tion 7:9–14

The saints pro­vide a won­der­ful exam­ple for us who are still on earth. They too had strug­gles and dif­fi­cul­ties, but they per­se­vered and by the grace and strength of God they com­plet­ed their mis­sions and now enjoy the per­fect hap­pi­ness and peace of Heav­en. Let us strive to be holy so that one day we too may join the Saints of Heav­en.

On Novem­ber 2nd, the Church cel­e­brates All Souls Day.

All Soul’s Day is  the com­mem­o­ra­tion of all the faith­ful depart­ed, all those who have died in God’s friend­ship. This was insti­tut­ed in the Bene­dic­tine Monastery of Cluny by Abbot Odi­lo in the year 998 and then spread to the whole Church.

Those who have died in God’s friend­ship are either now in Heav­en or in Pur­ga­to­ry.

“Those who have died in the grace of God and have no need of fur­ther purifi­ca­tion are gath­ered around Jesus and Mary, the angels and the saints. They thus form the Church of heav­en where they see God ‘face to face’(1 Corinthi­ans 13:12). They live in a com­mu­nion of love with the Most Blessed Trin­i­ty and they inter­cede for us.” (Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church)

“Pur­ga­to­ry is the state of those who die in God’s friend­ship, assured of their eter­nal sal­va­tion, but who still have need of purifi­ca­tion to enter into the hap­pi­ness of heav­en.” (Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church) These souls are referred to as the Holy Souls in Pur­ga­to­ry.

It is impor­tant to note that accord­ing to var­i­ous Saints of the Church, the suf­fer­ings of Pur­ga­to­ry are like suf­fer­ings that souls suf­fer in hell. The only dif­fer­ence is that the suf­fer­ings a soul endures in Pur­ga­to­ry end when the soul has been puri­fied enough to enter Heav­en. The suf­fer­ing of a soul in hell on the oth­er hand is eter­nal and thus will nev­er end.

We, “the faith­ful who are still pil­grims on earth are able to help the souls in pur­ga­to­ry by offer­ing prayers in suf­frage for them, espe­cial­ly the Eucharis­tic sac­ri­fice. … by alms­giv­ing, indul­gences, and works of penance.” (Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church)

“It is there­fore a holy and whole­some thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins” (2 Mac­cabees 12:46).

*The Eucharis­tic Sac­ri­fice is anoth­er name for the Holy Mass (also The Holy Sac­ri­fice of the Mass). We can have Mass­es offered for them or offer the Mass­es we attend for them. We can also offer to God our recep­tion of Holy Com­mu­nion for the relief of the Holy Souls in Pur­ga­to­ry.

*Prayers: We can offer any prayers for their release from Pur­ga­to­ry, espe­cial­ly the Holy Rosary and St. Gertude’s prayer. Jesus promised St. Gertrude the Great to release 1000 souls in Pur­ga­to­ry each time this prayer is said:

“Eter­nal Father, I offer You the most pre­cious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Mass­es said through­out the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Pur­ga­to­ry, for sin­ners every­where, for sin­ners in the uni­ver­sal church, for those in my own home and in my fam­i­ly. Amen.”

*Works of Penance: An exam­ple is mak­ing The Way of the Cross (Sta­tions of the Cross) specif­i­cal­ly for the souls for the Holy Souls in Pur­ga­to­ry. We can even offer our suf­fer­ings for their relief.

***Indul­gences: “Indul­gences are the remis­sion before God of the tem­po­ral pun­ish­ment due to sins whose guilt has already been for­giv­en. The faith­ful Chris­t­ian who is duly dis­posed gains the indul­gences under pre­scribed con­di­tions for either him­self or for the depart­ed.”(Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church)

**Con­di­tions for gain­ing indul­gences:

One can obtain either a ple­nary (full) or par­tial indul­gence by:

1)  Going to Con­fes­sion

2) Receiv­ing Holy Com­mu­nion

3) Then, recit­ing prayers for the Pope’s Inten­tions (such as 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary and 1 Glo­ry Be)

and last­ly,

4) Com­plet­ing a par­tic­u­lar work to which an indul­gence is attached.

Here are some exam­ples: Ado­ra­tion before the Most Blessed Sacra­ment for at least 30 min­utes, pray­ing at least 5 decades of the Rosary in a Church, pray­ing at least 5 decades of the Rosary as a family/in a Pious Association/in a Reli­gious Con­gre­ga­tion, mak­ing the Way of the Cross, and espe­cial­ly between Nov. 1 — Nov. 8 vis­it­ing a ceme­tery to pray for the Holy Souls in Pur­ga­to­ry, etc.).

More about Indulgences(from Hand­book on Indul­gences)

*The four cri­te­ria men­tioned above for gain­ing an indul­gence should be com­plet­ed with­in days of each oth­er if not all on the same day.

An indul­gence is Ple­nary if one has no attach­ment to sin, but oth­er­wise it is Par­tial.

Why Pur­ga­to­ry?

In God’s infi­nite wis­dom and mer­cy, He made a place for souls to be puri­fied if they die in His friend­ship, but are not yet pure enough to enter Heav­en.

We must remem­ber that God is holy.  Only what is holy can enter into God’s Pres­ence.

“Who can ascend the moun­tain of the LORD?
or who may stand in his holy place?
One whose hands are sin­less, whose heart is clean,
who desires not what is vain.” ~ Psalm 24

When St. John recounts his vision of the heav­en­ly city, the new Jerusalem, he said, “But noth­ing unclean shall enter it.” (Rev­e­la­tion 21:27)

Also in the New tes­ta­ment,  Jesus Him­self said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”(Matthew 5:8)

Both Solem­ni­ties remind us that we need to strive for holi­ness. We need to puri­fy our­selves each day by dai­ly prayer, true repen­tance for our sins, fre­quent Con­fes­sion, fre­quent atten­dance at the Holy Mass, fre­quent recep­tion of Holy Com­mu­nion, and penance. We must grow in holi­ness each day. As we grow in holi­ness, we must strive to do what­ev­er work God has giv­en us in a way that will hon­or, glo­ri­fy, and please Him.

We must remem­ber that each of us will have to ren­der an account of our lives to Jesus either when we die or when Jesus returns in glo­ry at the end of the world.

May we each grow in holi­ness each day, so that when we die or when Jesus returns in glo­ry, we will be ready to meet Him!

More Resources on Pur­ga­to­ry:

  • “Pur­ga­to­ry Explained: By the lives and leg­ends of the Saints”~Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J.
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Seek the Lord

Posted on October 18, 2015 by admin

Sec­ond Read­ing from Mass Litur­gy for Sun­day Octo­ber 18th

Broth­ers and sis­ters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heav­ens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our con­fes­sion.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sym­pa­thize with our weak­ness­es,
but one who has sim­i­lar­ly been test­ed in every way,
yet with­out sin.
So let us con­fi­dent­ly approach the throne of grace
to receive mer­cy and to find grace for time­ly help. ~ Hebrews 4:14–16

Let us turn to God more and more each day by turn­ing away from sin, serv­ing Him more faith­ful­ly, and entrust­ing to Him all of our needs and con­cerns. Fur­ther­more, we must not delay seek­ing God.

“Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked for­sake his way,
And the unright­eous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mer­cy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abun­dant­ly par­don.” ~Isa­iah 55:6–7

May we grow in holi­ness as we seek God more and more each day!

 

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The Coming of Jesus Christ

Posted on September 7, 2015 by admin

“The first read­ing from today’s Mass (Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 6th) is from the Old Tes­ta­ment Book of Isa­iah. The prophet Isa­iah con­soles the peo­ple of Israel by telling them about the com­ing Mes­si­ah.

“Thus says the LORD: Say to those whose hearts are fright­ened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God, He comes with vin­di­ca­tion; with divine rec­om­pense He comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing. Streams will burst forth in the desert, and rivers in the steppe. The burn­ing sands will become pools, and the thirsty ground, springs of water.”~ Isa­iah 35:4 -7

Jesus came as the Sav­ior of the world and ful­filled the prophe­cies made by Isa­iah. The gospel read­ing for today even includes an account of when He healed a deaf-mute man. How­ev­er, Isaiah’s prophe­cies have a two-fold mean­ing. His prophe­cies also refer to Jesus’ Sec­ond Com­ing at the end of the world. At His Sec­ond Com­ing, Jesus will come as the Just Judge “with divine rec­om­pense” to reward each per­son accord­ing to his deeds and to estab­lish a new heav­en and a new earth.

Just as Isaiah’s prophe­cies gave the peo­ple of Israel hope for the com­ing of the Mes­si­ah, today we should find hope in the Sec­ond Com­ing of Jesus. Var­i­ous Old Tes­ta­ment Books of the Bible (i.e. the Book of Daniel) and many New Tes­ta­ment Books (i.e. Book of Rev­e­la­tion) dis­cuss the Sec­ond Com­ing of Jesus.

The Nature of His Sec­ond Com­ing

It is impor­tant to note that although no one knows the exact day or hour of Jesus’ return, Jesus did give us warn­ings through­out the Scrip­tures as to the signs that would pre­cede His final com­ing.

“3 Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the dis­ci­ples came to Him pri­vate­ly, say­ing, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your com­ing, and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, say­ing, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.

6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not trou­bled; for all[a]these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and king­dom against king­dom. And there will be famines, pesti­lences,[b] and earth­quakes in var­i­ous places. 8 All these are the begin­ning of sor­rows. 9 “Then they will deliv­er you up to tribu­la­tion and kill you, and you will be hat­ed by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offend­ed, will betray one anoth­er, and will hate one anoth­er. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because law­less­ness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.

13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the king­dom will be preached in all the world as a wit­ness to all the nations, and then the end will come. … 29 “Imme­di­ate­ly after the tribu­la­tion of those days the sun will be dark­ened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heav­en, and the pow­ers of the heav­ens will be shak­en.

30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heav­en, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man com­ing on the clouds of heav­en with pow­er and great glo­ry. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trum­pet, and they will gath­er togeth­er His elect from the four winds, from one end of heav­en to the oth­er. Now learn this para­ble from the fig tree: When its branch has already become ten­der and puts forth leaves, you know that sum­mer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it[d] is near—at the doors! ~Matthew 24:3–13,29–33  

The Old Tes­ta­ment prophet Daniel wrote about his vision of the Sec­ond Com­ing of Christ at the end of time. St. John, one of the twelve apos­tles and author of the Book of Rev­e­la­tion (New Tes­ta­ment), saw a strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar vision of a redeemed mankind.

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a Son of Man,[a] com­ing with the clouds of heav­en. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His pres­ence. 14 He was giv­en author­i­ty, glo­ry and sov­er­eign pow­er; all nations and peo­ples of every lan­guage wor­shiped him. His domin­ion is an ever­last­ing domin­ion that will not pass away, and His king­dom is one that will nev­er be destroyed.” ~Daniel 7 :13

9 After this I looked, and there was a great mul­ti­tude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peo­ples and lan­guages, stand­ing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branch­es in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice, say­ing,

‘Sal­va­tion belongs to our God who is seat­ed on the throne, and to the Lamb!’ “~Rev­e­la­tion 7:9

What should we do while we await Jesus’ Sec­ond Com­ing?

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heav­ens will pass away with a mighty roar and the ele­ments will be dis­solved by fire, and the earth and every­thing done on it will be found out. Since every­thing is to be dis­solved in this way, what sort of per­sons ought you to be, con­duct­ing your­selves in holi­ness and devo­tion, wait­ing for and has­ten­ing the com­ing of the day of God … But accord­ing to His promise we await new heav­ens and a new earth in which right­eous­ness dwells. There­fore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found with­out spot or blem­ish before Him, at peace.” ~2 Peter 3: 10–14

We must pre­pare our­selves for His Sec­ond Com­ing by sanc­ti­fy­ing our­selves and puri­fy­ing our­selves. We must amend our­selves and turn from sin through dai­ly prayer (i.e. the Holy Rosary, Chap­let of Divine Mer­cy), fre­quent par­tic­i­pa­tion at Holy Mass and Holy Com­mu­nion, and fre­quent Con­fes­sion. Fur­ther­more, we must pray and work for the sal­va­tion of souls.

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The Most Holy Eucharist

Posted on August 16, 2015 by admin

The Most Holy Eucharist: The Holy Mass, Holy Com­mu­nion, Ado­ra­tion of the Blessed Sacra­ment (Eucharis­tic Ado­ra­tion)

What is the Holy Eucharist?

The Most Holy Eucharist is the source and sum­mit of our faith.

“It is God among us. It is the Lord Jesus present in the taber­na­cles of our Church­es with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divin­ity. It is Jesus veiled under the appear­ance of bread, but real­ly and phys­i­cally present in the con­se­crated Host, so that He dwells in our midst, works with­in us and for us, and is at our dis­posal.” (Jesus Our Eucharis­tic Love, p.10).

The read­ings for today (20th Sun­day of Ordi­nary time) and the last three Sun­days have been focus­ing on the Holy Eucharist.  For exam­ple, on the 18th Sun­day of Ordi­nary time (two Sun­days ago~August 2nd), the first read­ing was the Old Tes­ta­ment account of how God pro­vid­ed the Israelites with man­na, bread He sent them from Heav­en, as Moses guid­ed them through the wilder­ness. God send­ing down bread from heav­en to the Israelites fore­shad­owed the com­ing of Jesus into the world and at the same time fore­shad­owed the insti­tu­tion the Holy Eucharist, the means by which Jesus will remain present in a spe­cial way until the end of time.

While Jesus was preach­ing among the peo­ple, some of the peo­ple asked,

“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?                             What can you do?
Our ances­tors ate man­na in the desert, as it is writ­ten:
He gave them bread from heav­en to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heav­en; My Father gives you the true bread from heav­en. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heav­en and gives life to the world.”

So they said to Him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
who­ev­er comes to Me will nev­er hunger,
and who­ev­er believes in Me will nev­er thirst.”~ John 6: 30–35

The Gospel read­ing from today’s Mass con­tin­ues the same theme.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“I am the liv­ing bread that came down from heav­en; who­ev­er eats this bread will live for­ev­er;
and the bread that I will give
is My flesh for the life of the world.”
The Jews quar­reled among them­selves, say­ing,
“How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood,
you do not have life with­in you.
Who­ev­er eats My flesh and drinks My Blood has eter­nal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For My flesh is true food,
and My blood is true drink.
Who­ev­er eats My flesh and drinks My blood
remains in Me and I in him.
Just as the liv­ing Father sent Me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on Me
will have life because of Me.
This is the bread that came down from heav­en.
Unlike your ances­tors who ate and still died,
who­ev­er eats this bread will live for­ev­er.”~ John 6:51–58

The Holy Eucharist is tru­ly the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divin­i­ty of Jesus Christ. Jesus Him­self said so. He insti­tut­ed the Holy Eucharist dur­ing the Last Sup­per.

 

Dur­ing the Holy Mass:

1) We receive the Word of God through the read­ings.

2) Through the priest, Jesus offers His Sac­ri­fice of death on the Cross to God the Father. That is why the Holy Mass is also called the Holy Sac­ri­fice of the Mass.

3) In Holy Com­mu­nion, Jesus comes to our souls to feed us with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divin­i­ty. Each time we receive Holy Com­mu­nion worthi­ly, we receive new strength and new graces to grow in holi­ness. With each Holy Com­mu­nion worthi­ly received, we grow clos­er to God. Fur­ther­more, in Holy Com­mu­nion, Jesus desires to unite us to Him­self. The word ‘union’ is part of the word Com­mu­nion.

Con­se­quent­ly, we must strive to attend Mass every Sunday,try to attend dai­ly Mass, and receive Holy Com­mu­nion fre­quent­ly and rev­er­ent­ly.

**Note: You must be in a state of grace to receive Holy Com­mu­nion. If you are con­scious of hav­ing com­mit­ted mor­tal sin, go to Con­fes­sion first before receiv­ing Holy Com­mu­nion. Con­fes­sion puri­fies our souls to receive Jesus worthi­ly in Holy Com­mu­nion.

Ado­ra­tion of the Most Blessed Sacra­ment (Eucharis­tic Ado­ra­tion)

In Ado­ra­tion of the Most Blessed Sacra­ment, the graces of the Holy Mass and Holy Com­mu­nion are extend­ed because we are in the pres­ence of Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacra­ment. (A Con­se­crat­ed Com­mu­nion Host is placed in a spe­cial con­tain­er called a “mon­strance” for ado­ra­tion.)

 

The Most Holy Eucharist and The Blessed Vir­gin Mary

Jesus chose to come to the world by being born to the Blessed Vir­gin Mary. Jesus, though being eter­nal­ly the Son of God, came into the world through the Blessed Vir­gin Mary.

Sim­i­lar­ly, true devo­tion to Mary, brings one clos­er to the Eucharist. Mary is some­times referred to as Our Lady of the Eucharist or Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacra­ment. Mary always brings peo­ple clos­er to her Son Jesus who is present in the Holy Eucharist. Con­se­quent­ly, the bet­ter our devo­tion to Mary such as (i.e.praying the Holy Rosary dai­ly) will make our devo­tion to Jesus in the Eucharist grow.

Through the inter­ces­sion of the Blessed Vir­gin Mary, may we grow in love for Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist!

For more about the Most Holy Eucharist:

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