Keep
your eyes open!...
April 28, 2017
(Joh 14:27) Peace
I leave with you: my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do
I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled: nor let it be afraid.
ST. PIO: Peace
is the simplicity of spirit, the serenity of conscience, the
tranquility of the soul and the bond of love. Peace is order, it
is the harmony in each one of us, it is a continual joy that is born in
witnessing a clear conscience, it is the holy joy of a heart wherein
God reigns.
Peace is the way to perfection, or,
even better, in peace dwells perfection. And the devil, who knows all
this very well, does everything possible to cause us to lose our peace.
VIDEO MISSION: The Peace of God
FROM THE MAILBAG
VIA MT: Cardinal Mercier’s Secret of Sanctity
I am going to reveal to you the secret of sanctity and happiness.
Every day for five minutes control your imagination and close your eyes
to the things of sense and your ears to all the noises of the world, in
order to enter into yourself. Then, in the sanctity of your baptized
soul (which is the temple of the Holy Spirit), speak to that Divine
Spirit, saying to Him:
O Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me,
strengthen me, console me. Tell me what I should do. Give me your
orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and
accept all that You permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your Will.
If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely, and full
of consolation, even in the midst of trials. Grace will be proportioned
to the trial, giving you strength to carry it, and you will arrive at
the Gate of Paradise laden with merit. This submission to the Holy
Spirit is the secret of sanctity.
VIA Ronald Rolheiser, OMI: THE RESURRECTION AS VINDICATING HUMAN FIDELITY AND GOD'S SILENCE
Jesus died in silence, inside God's silence and inside the
world's incomprehension. We can let ourselves be humbly scandalized by
that silence, just as we can let ourselves be perpetually scandalized
by the seeming triumph of evil, pain, and suffering in our world.
God's silence can forever scandalize us: in the Jewish holocaust, in
ethnic genocides, in brutal and senseless wars, in the earthquakes and
tsunamis which kill thousands of people and devastate whole countries,
in the deaths of countless people taken out of this life by cancer and
by violence, in how unfair life can be sometimes, and in the casual
manner that those without conscience can rape whole areas of life
seemingly without consequence. Where is God in all of this? What's
God's answer?
God's answer is in the resurrection, in the resurrection of Jesus and
in the perennial resurrection of goodness within life itself. But
resurrection is not necessarily rescue. God doesn't necessarily rescue
us from the effects of evil, or even from death. Evil does what it
does, natural disasters are what they are, and those without conscience
can rape even as they feed off life's sacred fire.
God doesn't intervene. The parting of the Red Sea isn't a weekly
occurrence. God lets his loved ones suffer and die, just as Jesus let
his dear friend, Lazarus, die and God let Jesus die.
God redeems, raises us up afterwards, in a deeper more lasting
vindication. The resurrection, most forcibly, makes that point. God has
the last word. The resurrection of Jesus is that last word. From the
ashes of shame, of seeming defeat, failure, and death, a new, deeper,
and eternal life perennially bursts forth.
Our faith begins at the very point where it seems it might end, in God's seeming silence at Jesus' death.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 12- "On lying"
2. A lie is the destruction of love, and a false
oath is a denial of God.
April 26, 2017
(Rev 6:9-11) And
when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of
them that were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which
they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord
(Holy and True), dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that
dwell on the earth? And white robes were given to every one of them
one; And it was said to them that they should rest for a little time
till their fellow servants and their brethren, who are to be slain even
as they, should be filled up.
POPE FRANCIS: “Jesus
chose us and redeemed us as a free gift of His love. With His death and
resurrection He redeemed us from the power of the world, from the power
of the devil, from the power of the prince of this world. And the
origin of hatred is this: since we are saved by Jesus, and the prince
of the world does not want that, he hates us and encourages
persecution, which from the time of Jesus and the birth of the Church
continues to this day. How many Christian communities are being
persecuted today! Why? Because of the hatred of the spirit of this
world.”
“Today what does our Church need?"
Martyrs, witnesses, that is, everyday saints of ordinary life, lives
lived coherently; but we also need those who have the courage to accept
the grace to be witnesses until the end, until death. All these are the
living blood of the Church. They are the witnesses who carry forward
the Church; those who witness to the fact that Jesus is risen, that
Jesus is alive, who witness to Him with coherent lives and with the
strength of the Holy Spirit they have received as a gift.”
CNA: Christians are the most widely targeted religious group in the world
CATHOLICCITIZENS.ORG: Archbishop of Washington: Nearly One Christian Killed Every Hour for Practicing Faith
Nearly one Christian is killed every hour around the world for practicing their faith, said the Archbishop of the U.S. capital.
Cardinal Donald Wuerl made those comments on Thursday while delivering
the keynote address during the one-day symposium at the National Press
Club focused on Christian prosecution.
The event featured the release of a report by the University of Notre
Dame’s Under Caesar’s Sword project titled, “In Response to
Persecution.”
Christian persecution is a worldwide phenomenon, noted the Washington archbishop.
“Reports suggest that about 200 million Christians around the world are
at risk of physical violence, arrest, torture, even death simply
because they live and practice a faith that is not acceptable to the
rulers in that part of the world,” he pointed out.
“The journalist John Allen recently estimated that, this is a quote,
the number of Christians killed for religious reasons is ‘roughly one
every hour, 365 days a year,’” added the cardinal.
That amounts to about 9,000 Christians killed per year, which is
consistent with a study by the Turin-based Center for Studies on New
Religions (CESNUR).
According to the study, about 9,000 Christians were killed worldwide
for practicing their faith last year. The estimate marks a nearly
20-percent increase from the 7,100 Christians whom Open Doors USA said
lost their lives for religious reasons in 2015.
Analysts, including Open Doors, have deemed Christians the most persecuted group in the world.
ACN NEWS: Witness to the persecution of Christians in North Korea
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 12- "On lying"
1. The offspring of flint and steel is fire; and
the offspring of chatter and joking is lying.
April 24, 2017
(Mat 26:26-28) And
whilst they were at supper, Jesus took bread and blessed and broke and
gave to his disciples and said: Take ye and eat. This is my body. And
taking the chalice, he gave thanks and gave to them, saying: Drink ye
all of this. For this is my blood of the new testament, which shall be
shed for many unto remission of sins.
LOVE MADE VISIBLE: A Pastoral Letter on Adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist by Bishop James Conley
CNA: Bishop Conley: Eucharistic adoration can transform our Church
Eucharistic adoration
offers a powerful chance to encounter Christ’s love in silence and
humility, and that experience can transform our hearts, both
individually and as a Church, said Bishop James D. Conley of Lincoln,
Neb. in a new pastoral letter.
“Love is selfless sacrifice, and
sacrifice is the language of love. Love is the gift of ourselves to our
beloved. And Christ made a gift of himself – he gave us his body and
blood – poured himself out for our salvation, when he conquered death
by dying and rising again,” Bishop Conley said. “Christ gave us his
body and blood, as an act of love, so that we could know the love of
God.”
“Before he conquered death forever,
in a sacrifice of love, Jesus gave himself to the Church in the gift of
the Eucharist,” the bishop reflected.
His pastoral letter “Love Made
Visible” was released for Holy Thursday, when the Catholic liturgy
marks the Last Supper. The letter reflects upon the Gospel accounts of
the Last Supper and draws on the writings of Popes John Paul II and
Benedict XVI on the Eucharist.
“In the Eucharist, the apostles
received a share in Christ’s own identity: they became a part of his
passion and death, and they became a part of his Resurrection,” Bishop
Conley said. “The Eucharist unified the apostles to Jesus Christ in the
bonds of his sacrificial love.”
MORE VIA CNA: Argentine priest in railway accident attributes life to Eucharist
SPIRIT DAILY: Amazing Santarem
VIA UNIVERSALIS: From the Jerusalem Catecheses
The bread of Heaven and the cup of salvation
On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when
he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said:
“Take, eat: this is my body.” He took the cup, gave thanks and said:
“Take, drink: this is my blood.” Since Christ himself has declared the
bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt? Since he himself
has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to
question it and say that it is not his blood?
Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive
the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given
to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the
symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and
blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become
bearers of Christ and sharers, as Saint Peter says, in the divine
nature.
Once, when speaking to the Jews, Christ said: Unless you
eat my flesh and drink my blood you shall have no life in you. This
horrified them and they left him. Not understanding his words in a
spiritual way, they thought the Saviour wished them to practise
cannibalism.
Under the old covenant there was showbread, but it came to
an end with the old dispensation to which it belonged. Under the new
covenant there is bread from heaven and the cup of salvation. These
sanctify both soul and body, the bread being adapted to the
sanctification of the body, the Word, to the sanctification of the soul.
Do not, then, regard the eucharistic elements as ordinary
bread and wine: they are in fact the body and blood of the Lord, as he
himself has declared. Whatever your senses may tell you, be strong in
faith.
You have been taught and you are firmly convinced that what
looks and tastes like bread and wine is not bread and wine but the body
and the blood of Christ. You know also how David referred to this long
ago when he sang: Bread gives strength to man’s heart and makes his
face shine with the oil of gladness. Strengthen your heart, then, by
receiving this bread as spiritual bread, and bring joy to the face of
your soul.
May purity of conscience remove the veil from the face of
your soul so that by contemplating the glory of the Lord, as in a
mirror, you may be transformed from glory to glory in Christ Jesus our
Lord. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Ladder
of Divine Ascent excerpt: Step 11- "On talkativeness and silence"
5. The friend of silence draws near to God and,
by secretly conversing with Him, is enlightened by God.
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