The Heart of Jesus bids us

We have this solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus today. A tradition of delving more deeply into the whole Christ: humanity and divinity, mercy, love and judgment, deepest longings and the tenderness of our own heart in the face of the heart of the Lord’s.

Today is a day to spend time in Eucharistic adoration, because in this event we see in the Blessed Sacrament the Risen Jesus truly present offering each one of us His heart, His tender, merciful Love. At adoration we come to Him to adore Him; the Church proposes to us that this is the best expression of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus which Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque said: “Behold the Heart which so loved mankind”!

Benedict XVI illuminates for us this mystery: “The heart that resembles that of Christ more than any other is without a doubt the Heart of Mary, his Immaculate Mother, and for this very reason the liturgy holds them up together for our veneration. Responding to the Virgin’s invitation at Fatima, let us entrust the whole world to her Immaculate Heart, which we contemplated yesterday in a special way, so that it may experience the merciful love of God and know true peace” (Benedict XVI, Angelus, 5 June 2005).

The pure heart finds room

On this solemn feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we need to reflect on the nature of the heart, and the truth of the reality.

The purer the heart is, the larger it is, and the more able it is to find room within it for the a greater number of beloved ones; while the more sinful it is the more contracted it becomes, and the fewer number of beloved can it find room for, because it is limited by self-love, and that love is a false one.

St John of Kronstadt

St Norbert and the spider

“Sometime later he was wearing himself out by severe fasting and abstinence, pushing himself day and night with vigils and prayer. While he was celebrating Mass as customary in a certain crypt, a spider fell into the already consecrated chalice.[6-2] When the priest saw it he was shocked. Life and death hovered before his eyes. The spider was large. What should the man do whose faith[6-3] was now deeply rooted in the Lord? Lest the sacrifice suffer any loss he chose rather to undergo the danger and consumed whatever was in the chalice.

When the sacrifice was finished he expected to die immediately. While he remained at his place before the altar he commended his awaited end to the Lord in prayer. When he was disturbed by an itching in his nose he scratched it and suddenly he sneezed expelling the whole spider. Once again God did not want the death[6-4] but the faith of his priest who he knew would be useful to him.”

-Life of Norbert B (Vita Norberti B)

St Boniface preaches God’s plan

“Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ’s flock. Let us preach the whole of God’s plan.” -St. Boniface

The saint’s exhortation is key here for the serious Christian. But I have to wonder how often we hear about God’s plan preached by the clergy (bishops and priests) and the witness of our lives. Is this whole plan preached by the catechists and lay leaders in our parish, schools, hospitals and soup kitchens? Do we actually believe there is a divine plan to be preached, lived and taught? Do we believe in Divine Providence and it’s revelation in history?

If so, then let’s live as though we mean it. Seek the face of God!

Sacred Heart and Pope’s prayer intention for June 2018

Today, as we begin the month of June, a month dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we think of, we relish in, we abide in the great love Our Lord has for us. Having just finished the Paschal Cycle of our Faith, here is another opportunity to move more deeply into a familiarity with Jesus Christ.

“In biblical language, “heart” indicates the centre of the person where his sentiments and intentions dwell. In the Heart of the Redeemer we adore God’s love for humanity, his will for universal salvation, his infinite mercy. Practising devotion to the Sacred Heart of Christ therefore means adoring that Heart which, after having loved us to the end, was pierced by a spear and from high on the Cross poured out blood and water, an inexhaustible source of new life” (Benedict XVI, Angelus 5 June 2005).

Also in June, we have this prayer intention of Pope Francis: “That social networks may work towards that inclusiveness which respects other for their differences.”

The Visitation, God’s in-breaking

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is the in-breaking of God’s joy in history.

The theological explanation of the Vistiation reminds us that at the annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel informs Mary that her cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant. A startling divine gift.

Then we see Mary hurrying to visit Elizabeth. An interior in-breaking extroverting itself.

I think the key here is Mary’s selflessness and her sharing in the joy of God. Containing the joy she feels is impossible. In her visitation Mary brings the joy of God to both Elizabeth and to John the Baptist who moves in Elizabeth’s womb. 

As we know, this second of the joyful mysteries of the Rosary is about Joy who desires to expand into our heart and abide there. Let’s pray for the movement of joy in our life today.

Trinity Sunday

In the Western Church, the Sunday following Pentecost is Trinity Sunday. As point of comparison the Byzantine Church today is the Sunday of All Saints.

There are plenty of things to say about the Holy Trinity but I think this hymn attributed to St. Jacob of Sarug found today in the Syriac Maronite at the Third Hour of Sunday, says all of what we believe.

Glory be to the Father Who chose the prophets and they foreshadowed His Only-Begotten Son. Worship be to the Son Whose Gospel the apostles proclaimed in the world. Thanks be to the Spirit Who strengthened the martyrs and they died in His hope, and may mercy be upon us sinners through their prayers.

Today, I am also reminded of the life and writings of Saint Elizabeth of the Trinity and Blessed Itala Mela (Maria of the Trinity). The first a Discalced Carmelite and the second a Benedictine Oblate. Both devoted their lives to make this piece of dogma, this beautiful mystery, known and lived.

Blessed Itala said, “The will of Christ, which I feel in the depths of my soul, is to drag me, to immerse myself with Himself in the abysses of the Holy Trinity … It is useless to look for other ways: this is what He has chosen for my sanctification.”

First priest ordained in the USA

Fr. Stephen Theodore Badin, was the first priest to be ordained in the United States on this day in 1793. He fled his home in France to escape the persecutions of the French Revolution, ordained by Bishop John Carroll.

Father Badin was known as the “Apostle of Kentucky”.

These weeks we see many of the seminarians ordained priest. Let us pray for them and beg God to send more good men to serve the Church.

Peter Maurin’s anniversary of death

Today is the anniversary of Peter Maurin’s death. Dorothy credited Peter with being the real founder of the Catholic Worker, in fact, she insisted, that he was the real founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in 1933.

Peter Maurin (May 9, 1877 – May 15, 1949) was a theologian, former DeLaSalle Christian Brother and social activist. He had a devotion to St Francis of Assisi while Dorothy Day was devoted to  St Benedict.

Dorothy Day said, “He has shown us the way, with his poverty and his works of mercy, and that way is Christ.” “Without him I never would have been able to find a way of working that would have satisfied my conscience.”

The photo was taken by Mary Humphrey, Peter Maurin, St. Isidore’s Farm, Aitkin, MN, 1941.

May Magnificat

MAY MAGNIFICAT
Gerard Manley Hopkins

MAY is Mary’s month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Candlemas, Lady Day;
But the Lady Month, May,
Why fasten that upon her,
With a feasting in her honour?

Is it only its being brighter
Than the most are must delight her?
Is it opportunest
And flowers finds soonest?

Ask of her, the mighty mother:
Her reply puts this other
Question: What is Spring?—
Growth in every thing—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above her nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary sees, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature’s motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring’s universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfèd cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ’s birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.