palm sunday
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Palm Sunday: A Preparation

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me” (Ps 22:2)?

These words of Jesus spoken while hanging on the cross are among the most disturbing words in the Gospels.  Jesus’ cry of abandonment from Psalm 22 is troublesome. Did Jesus give up trust in his most dear Father during the crucifixion?  Did Jesus actually yield to despair on the cross? How can we understand this desperate cry?

Vatican Council Two’s document “Church in the Modern World” helps understand the cry.  The document recalls our Christian belief that Jesus’ divinity did not eclipse the full experience of his humanity: “For by his Incarnation the Son of God united himself in some fashion with every man. He worked with human hands, He thought with a human mind, He acted by human choice, and loved with a human heart. Born of the Virgin Mary, He has truly been made one of us, like us in all things except sin”(#22).

As fully human Jesus on the cross tasted the depths of human suffering on every level – physical, psychological and spiritual.

Recall Jesus was undergoing  the most painful and shameful death devised by the Roman authorities. Adding to the shame, He was crucified between two known criminals.

Recall also that Jesus was alone, having  been rejected by everyone:  religious authorities and fellow citizens,  disciples  and friends. It is poignant to recall that of his chosen twelve apostles one betrayed him, another denied him and all abandoned him. Only his mother and the two Marys were at the cross.

And perhaps most painful of all, Jesus was a failure. Jesus failed to accomplish the mission given him by his Father — preaching the Good News of the Kingdom of God. Even his apostles did not understand this message.

And on the cross Jesus felt abandoned — he even felt abandoned by his Father: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”

In Holy Week we seek the special grace of being united to Jesus as we ourselves cope with the suffering in our troubled world and in our personal lives.  Like Jesus we may feel abandoned by God. But like Jesus we are not alone. Just as the Father was with Jesus transforming Jesus through suffering, so Jesus is now with us transforming us!

And don’t we Christian move toward  maturity in our faith as we embrace our crosses and unite them with with Jesus’.  I have learned this truth slowly. As I have brought my sufferings to Jesus and dialogued with him on similar sufferings, I have been transformed, experiencing weakness to strength through faith.

Paul catches the heart of faith for Jesus and for  us: “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend”(Phil 2:8-10).

 

palm sundayDick Hauser a Jesuit priest, born in Milwaukee in 1937.  The oldest of six children, entering the Jesuits in 1955 and teaching in the theology department at Creighton since 1972.  “My primary interest is in contemporary Christian spirituality.  I’ve written three spirituality books:  In His Spirit:  A Guide to Contemporary Spirituality; Moving in the Spirit:  Becoming a Contemplative in Action, both published by Paulist Press and  Finding God in Troubled Times:  The Holy Spirit and Suffering, published by Loyola Press.”

1 day
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Sharing Our Lenten Journey: ODB Films

We’re always looking for great Catholic content to share with you. “Great” certainly describes ODB Films; they take the Faith seriously, but also believe that art is very important. They’ve created a film series, “A Lenten Journey,” that is unique and, we believe, well worth your time. It’s great for discussions from teens through adults, families, small groups or individuals. (If you’d like to follow the entire journey, may we suggest that you go to ODB Films and become a Partner? It’s free.)

On the first Friday of Lent 2017, we are happy to present, That 1 Day. (After you’ve watched this, one of the questions ODB asks us to reflect on is this:  Do you know Christ’s life, His sufferings, and what He did for you out of total love?)

birth Christ
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Advent: Born That Man No More May Die

TODAY’S ADVENT REFLECTION FOR THE 4TH WEDNESDAY OF ADVENT, 2016

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross.—1 Peter 2:24

I arrived at a car accident the other day before the police did. As I walked past the wreckage I fully expected to see someone dead, or nearly. The side of the car was split open, its parts spilled everywhere, the axle exposed and wheel far from the wreck, a pool of gasoline forming on the ground.

Thankfully (and maybe miraculously) the passengers looked like they’d be okay. The driver, a young man, was sitting beside the car bleeding heavily from the head, but he was stable. The girl who had been in the passenger’s seat was okay, too, aside from minor lacerations and obvious shock.

Witnesses said he had been going 80 in a 45, and had almost killed someone in the oncoming lane before he swerved into a wall.

As cops, ambulances, and firemen arrived at the scene, I wondered what caused such recklessness? That kind of driving is usually an expression of something wrong in the heart.

Was he driving like a maniac to impress a girl? Was he in a fight with her? I wondered if he was willing to risk his life that day because he’s angry, or places a cheap price tag on his own life. Maybe because he’s angry at his dad. Maybe he’s angry at his dad because his dad was distant, perhaps because his grandpa was abusive to his dad, perhaps because his great-grandpa was an alcoholic, and maybe that’s because . . .

And it struck me: the generational impact of sin, the web of pain we all weave through our self-centeredness, is staggering. Maybe in two hundred years some young man will end up swerving into oncoming traffic because I yell at my kids too much. No sin is committed in isolation. And anyone who flaunts the fact that they have “no regrets” is either ignorant of their connectedness with humanity or doesn’t care if they hurt others.

So how do we look straight on at the weight of sin, humanity’s sin and our own, and not crumble?

When Jesus was crucified we saw all that is worst about the human condition converging on one man. Political factions, shirking of responsibility, good ol’-fashioned bloodlust, manipulation in the name of religion.

“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.”

Look closer. Look into the center of the wreckage. In midst of the dust and the blood there are open arms. The tenderness of Bethlehem completed in the self-giving love of the cross. The antidote for sin: Mercy. And more, we see the example for how we’re to embrace the brokenness in others, and in ourselves.

Chris Stefanick - Guest AuthorChris Stefanick  is an internationally acclaimed author and speaker, who has devoted his life to inspiring people to live a bold, contagious faith. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap calls Chris, “one of the most engaging young defenders of the Christian faith on the scene today.”  Chris is also the founder of Real Life Catholic, a Denver-based non-profit which operates as the headquarters for Chris’s various initiatives. Above all, Chris is proud to be the husband to his wife Natalie and father to their six children. To learn more about Chris’s work, please visit: www.RealLifeCatholic.com.

ancient antiphons
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Advent: Ancient Antiphons Bring Us Hope

TODAY’S ADVENT REFLECTION FOR THE 4TH TUESDAY OF ADVENT, 2016

Imagine a world without email and the internet, without cameras and books.  How did the early missionaries teach about the Incarnation?

To teach about Christ to many who were illiterate would be a challenge for us in the 21st century, but for those early missionaries who spread the GOOD NEWS, they used stories, visuals such as icons and taught prayers that could be memorized and repeated like the rosary and litanies. The story of Jesus’ birth and life did come to life in ways that stimulated imaginations and the story got passed on from one generation to another. 

In the Liturgy these days before Christmas, we have a treasure, the O Antiphons, which are  images dating back to the 5th century, which look deep into the gift of the Incarnation, Jesus was born and lived fully as a human person, walking this earth and living among a community of disciples.

We are in the midst of praying the O Antiphons in the daily Liturgy of the Hours, which are prayed from the 17th to the 23rd of December.  This tradition began in monasteries in about the 5th century. Each antiphon contains a biblical image drawn from the Messianic hopes of the Old Testament to proclaim the coming of Christ as the fulfillment of the ancient hopes of salvation.

Today, December 20th, we look to Christ as the KEY to our salvation.  We pray with hope in the coming of Jesus to unlock the doors that imprison us.  We pray to be freed from all those things that bind us.

We pray:  O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal realm, come and free the prisoners of darkness!  Free us from fear, Free all held captive, free us from selfishness and open us to believe that nothing is impossible for God. 

This image of a KEY, provides us with the visual of a door being unlocked by Christ.  What is in the need of unlocking on our lives?  What is “locked off” from our attention or “locked off” from our love? In this prayer, let us be mindful of those who are imprisoned and held captive throughout the world.

[Throughout the 2016 Advent season, we will be bringing you posts from a variety of writers. Our hope is that each of these will be a meaningful way for you to slow down, pray well, and prepare for the coming of our Lord. Today’s blogger is Lucianne Siers, OP, currently serving as Councilor on the Leadership Team of the Dominican Sisters~Grand Rapids. Born in Saginaw, Mich. prior to her election as Councilor, she served as director of the Partnership for Global Justice which is an NGO at the United Nations in New York City. She has served in a number of leadership roles, including six years working in Eastern Europe on behalf of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops based in Washington, D.C.]

joy to the world
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Advent: Joy To The World!

Today’s Advent reflection for the 1st Sunday of Advent, 2016

[Throughout the 2016 Advent season, we will be bringing you guest posts from a variety of writers. Our hope is that each of these will be a meaningful way for you to slow down, pray well, and prepare for the coming of our Lord.]

Today’s reflection is from author and speaker Chris Stefanick.

 

There is no better news:

Your deepest hopes aren’t answered by the void, but by the Word.

The story of human existence is a love story.

Death doesn’t get the final word.

Love wins.

You were created for glory.

That “something more” you’re looking for is within reach

and it’s free for the taking.

 

Nothing comes close.

There is no message taught by any philosopher,

no dream dreamt by any child

no book penned by any author

no pleasure offered by the world,

that’s as stunningly beautiful

or able to fill our souls with purpose and peace.

 

And the best part is:

It’s not for someone else.

It’s for you.

Now.

The first Christians summed up the central message of Christianity with a funny word: Kerygma. It’s a word taken up from the ancient Greek world. It means “announcement.” It’s what a keryx (a herald) did.

Before print, the way you got news out to the world was to entrust it to a herald, who spread it from town to town. He’d show up in the city center, unroll a scroll on behalf of a king, and shout, “Hear ye! Hear ye!”

The reason the first Christians used that word to describe the core message of the Gospel is simple: They didn’t see Christianity as an intellectual endeavor reserved for the greatest minds. They didn’t see Christianity as a secret spiritual path only for the most enlightened souls. They didn’t see Christianity as a moral code for the perfect. They saw Christianity as the best news ever.

“I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10).

News so big that the whole story of the universe fits under the headline. News so powerful it rewrites the story of our lives. News so personal it reads like a love letter.

Every Christmas we’re invited to remember what that news is, and what it has to do with our own quest for something more . . .

 

Chris Stefanick - Guest AuthorChris Stefanick  is an internationally acclaimed author and speaker, who has devoted his life to inspiring people to live a bold, contagious faith. Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap calls Chris, “one of the most engaging young defenders of the Christian faith on the scene today.”  Chris is also the founder of Real Life Catholic, a Denver-based non-profit which operates as the headquarters for Chris’s various initiatives. Above all, Chris is proud to be the husband to his wife Natalie and father to their six children. To learn more about Chris’s work, please visit: www.RealLifeCatholic.com.

Our Lady Rosary
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Our Lady Of The Rosary: The Life Of Christ Through A Mother’s Eyes

Today we celebrate Mary as Our Lady of the Rosary. As beloved as the rosary is by some people, others find it challenging or even impossible. One gentleman admits that he just could NOT pray the rosary, until he was challenged by this:

I have NEVER been able to pray the Rosary without either falling sound asleep, veering off the road or falling out of my chair. But [my friend] was right; our nation is in need of prayer, and I sheepishly agreed to join in. I brought the rosary on to the trail with me, and suddenly what had begun as a place of fitness became a place for prayer – the best place, it turns out, at least for me. The repetition, the running. There are no distractions, just the plodding and the prayer.

Praying the rosary can be hard – we fall prey to distractions. Yet, that is the challenge of any prayer – to be truly present before the Lord. The rosary gives us circumstances, images and events from Scripture to help us focus and then, (if we are blessed enough and tenacious enough) the Aves and the Pater Nosters become the background music.

Spiritual tenacity will lead us to a most important perspective: the life of Christ through His mother’s eyes. There was no one on earth who knew Christ better than Mary. Any mother can tell you that she knows what her child is thinking just by a glance at the child’s face or that she too suffers when her child is in pain. From His conception to His final days on Earth, Mary stood as witness to both Christ’s public and private lives. Because of this, the rosary is the prayer allows us into the heart of a mother, whose greatest concern is bringing people closer to her Son.

Devotion to the rosary is one hallmark of sainthood. From St. John Paul II to Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen to Mother Angelica, praying the rosary daily was the most important prayer outside the Mass.

The rosary is actually a very humble prayer. From a simple cord rosary to rare antique rosaries to rosaries designed for athletes, they  are all essentially the same: a crucifix, a cord or chain, and beads. (An Irish mother is wont to say, “Your forgot your rosary? Use your fingers! Why do you think God gave you 10 of them?!”) It takes about 20 minutes or so to say a rosary. Twenty minutes to praise God, to glorify God through His Son, and to glimpse the Son’s life through the eyes of His mother. It takes no special equipment, very little time and can be prayed by anyone, anywhere, any time. Yes, it is a humble prayer, but a prayer of immense grace.

The fact that our Church continues to include the Feast of the Holy Rosary on the liturgical calendar testifies to the importance and goodness of this form of prayer. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, ‘The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.’

Mary’s only desire was to be obedient to God by bringing forth her Son. By praying the rosary and meditating upon each mystery, we are not simply bystanders to the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ, but we become witnesses through the eyes of His mother, our mother. Our Lady – our mother – of the Rosary is eager to bring each of closer, more intimately involved, in the life of her Son. Through dedicated prayer of the rosary, she will gently lead us deeper into the mystery of our salvation through her Son, Jesus Christ. And as Catholics, there is nothing more important for our life on earth than this.

Joyful Mysteries
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The Rosary: The Joyful Mysteries

Yesterday, we began our week-long discussion of the Rosary, the beautiful prayer of the Church that allows us to meditate on the Gospel. Today, we will focus on the Joyful Mysteries, traditionally prayed on Mondays and Saturdays. (Some also pray these on the Sundays of Advent.)

In his apostolic letter, Rosarium Vifginis Mariae (The Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary), St. John Paul II teaches that these mysteries all focus on one incredible event: the Coming of Christ through Mary’s willingness to serve:

The first five decades, the “joyful mysteries”, are marked by the joy radiating from the event of the Incarnation. This is clear from the very first mystery, the Annunciation, where Gabriel’s greeting to the Virgin of Nazareth is linked to an invitation to messianic joy: “Rejoice, Mary”. The whole of salvation history, in some sense the entire history of the world, has led up to this greeting. If it is the Father’s plan to unite all things in Christ (cf. Eph 1:10), then the whole of the universe is in some way touched by the divine favour with which the Father looks upon Mary and makes her the Mother of his Son. The whole of humanity, in turn, is embraced by the fiat with which she readily agrees to the will of God.

The joyful mysteries are:

  • The Annunciation: The angel Gabriel is sent to Mary to ask if she will assent to being the mother of the Savior. Her answer: “Be it done unto me according to the Father’s will.”
  • The Visitation: Mary, upon hearing of her cousin Elizabeth’s unexpected late-in-life pregnancy, rushes to be with her. The baby Elizabeth is carrying is John the Baptist, who will grow up to herald the coming of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Elizabeth’s baby leaps with joy upon Mary’s arrival.
  • The Nativity of the Lord: In the most humble of settings, our Savior is born. The news is announced to lowly shepherds, who are the first to witness the God-made-Man, a baby who sleeps in a manger.
  • The Presentation at the Temple: Like all Jewish parents, Mary and Joseph bring their first born son to the temple in Jerusalem for consecration. There, Simeon (a man known for his holiness) declares that he may now die as he has seen his Savior – in the arms of these two young parents.
  • The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple: As Mary and Joseph return from Jerusalem to Galilee following the Passover, they realize Jesus is not in the crowd they are traveling with. Rushing back to Jerusalem, they find the 12 year old Jesus teaching in the Temple. Despite how distraught they are, Jesus tells them,  “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Lk. 2:50) Despite their joy upon finding Jesus safe, Mary and Joseph do not understand what this means. However, Jesus returns with them to Galilee where He “was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.” (Lk 2;51)

St. John Paul II said, “To meditate upon the ‘joyful’ mysteries, then, is to enter into the ultimate causes and the deepest meaning of Christian joy.” It is the joy of knowing that our Father in Heaven loved us enough to send His Son to save us from sin, to earthly parents who, despite not wholly understanding, were willing to always obey God’s will.

stronger than our scars
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Stronger Than Our Scars

You have bent down over our wounds and have healed us, giving us a medicine stronger than our scars, a mercy greater than our fault. Thus, even in sin, in virtue of your invincible love, served to raise us up to divine life. (Ambrosian Rite prayer)

A medicine stronger than our scars. That is profound. During Lent, many of us take the time to examine our weaknesses and our scars. But do we ponder the wondrous medicine that is the Cross?

Most of us have scars that are hidden, and we prefer it that way. We perceive our scars as weakness and failure. Sometimes they are: we sin. We do evil and fail to do good. We need the Sacrament of Reconciliation to heal our sin.

But some of our scars are ones life has left us with, through no fault of our own. We weep for our dead friends and family; we miss them and their loss is a scar on our heart. Perhaps our scars are borne from the addictions of others; we fear for the health and safety of loved ones who cannot seem to overcome their addictions to drugs or alcohol or pornography. Maybe we are in a marriage where one party is trying so very hard to be faithful and loving, and the other person wants out. And maybe we bear actual scars from disease, illness or accident – scars that cause us significant physical pain.

We think there is no medicine for these scars – no doctor can fix a broken heart or a parent’s tears. But Christ is the Great Physician, one who heals through the medicine of the Cross. Jesus was also a Man who Himself knew pain.

He was spurned and avoided by men,
a man of suffering, knowing pain,
Like one from whom you turn your face,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.
Yet it was our pain that he bore,
our sufferings he endured.
We thought of him as stricken,
struck down by God and afflicted,
But he was pierced for our sins,
crushed for our iniquity.
He bore the punishment that makes us whole,
by his wounds we were healed. – Is. 53:3-5

By his wounds we were healed. That is the radical truth of our faith: God became Man, took our sins and scars upon Himself, and saved us. Yes, we sin and we must acknowledge our sin, but sin no longer means death. Indeed, we are stilled scarred, but Christ provides us a medicine stronger than our scars. There is nothing and no one who is greater than this truth, this Good News, this Christ.

Today, take some time to thank Jesus for the medicine He has provided you. Rejoice in the fact that – despite our afflictions – we are healed through Christ our Lord.