"Can we love someone we do not even know? Can we love deeply someone we know only vaguely? Why is Jesus, the adorable, eternal and incarnate Wisdom loved so little if not because he is either too little known or not known at all? Hardly anyone studies the supreme science of Jesus, as did St. Paul (Eph. 3:19). And yet this is the most noble, the most consoling, the most useful and the most vital of all sciences and subjects in heaven and on earth.
"First, it is the most noble of all sciences because its subject is the most noble and the most sublime: Wisdom uncreated and incarnate. He possesses in himself the fullness of divinity and humanity alike and all that is great in heaven and on earth, namely, all creatures visible and invisible, spiritual and corporal. St. John Chrysostom says that our Lord is the summary of all God's works, the epitome of all the perfections to be found in God and in his creatures (cf. Col. 1:16; 2:9). "Jesus Christ is everything that you can and should wish for. Long for him, seek for him, because he is that unique and precious pearl for which you should be ready to sell everything you possess" … Unlimited is the effectiveness of the God-Man’s Blood — just as unlimited as the love that impelled him to pour it out for us, first at his circumcision eight days after birth, and more profusely later on in his agony in the garden,[12] in his scourging and crowning with thorns, in his climb to Calvary and crucifixion, and finally from out that great wide wound in his side which symbolizes the divine Blood cascading down into all the Church’s sacraments. Such sur passing love suggests, nay demands, that everyone reborn in the torrents of that Blood adore it with grateful love." - Pope St. John XXIII on Promoting Devotion to the Most Precious Blood
In the cycle of the liturgical year, the Sacred Triduum stands out in a class all its own: Holy Thursday as a day of unparalleled liturgical catharsis, Good Friday as one in which contrition cannot but pour out as tears; all of which reaches its pinnacle on Easter, the Solemnity of Solemnities. Holy Week catches us up into the drama of our redemption and God’s infinite love for Man—and it is this very theme which is the inescapable motif of the entire affair: love.
Vere, tu es Deus Absconditus
And like the deer for running streams How my eyes thirst to see You! At Christmas I beheld You By angel choirs adored, but now Their “Glorias” are gone and with them…my Lord? To the ‘tonus peregrinus’ does my soul sigh, forlorn; Has the Sanhedrin taken Him? Where has my Beloved gone? For even on the Cross, I see Him Shrouded from my gaze; His royal purples hide Him Unto the end of these forty days. I hunger for You, Adonai, And will you hide from me? Come back to me, Beloved, Whose Face I long to see… A Marian Sister of Santa Rosa "The Church draws her life from the Eucharist.
This truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery of the Church. In a variety of ways She joyfully experiences the constant fulfilment of the promise: 'Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age' (Mt 28:20), but in the Holy Eucharist, through the changing of bread and wine into the body and blood of the Lord, she rejoices in this presence with unique intensity." - Pope St. John Paul II: Ecclesia de Eucharistia Said Joseph to Mary,
“I dreamed a dream Of a quaking rock And a maid’s shrill laugh At crow of cock. I saw lost keys As it were, of a realm, Then a fisherman’s boat With an empty helm.” Said Mary to Joseph, “I dreamed too. Thirty coins bled Like a heart in grief While a swart thief fled-- Thirty coins In a barren plot And our little Son crying, ‘Iscariot’.” Sister Mary Immaculate (p. 98 Guardian of God’s Lillies) Fiat! on going with doves
In basket, and God on your arm, Not dreaming of sword-talk or fall And rise of the many. Dismiss Now and forever the hope Of any salvation unsworded. Always there’s shadow on sunlight, Ever surprising’s the sword Held over happiest hour. Thus God takes precaution on error Of heaven confounded with earth. Poised on each hour’s some sword. Mother Mary Francis, PCC (The Mysteries of the Rosary, IV. The Presentation in the Temple, p. 150, “Summon Spirit’s Cry”, Ignatius Press) Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and St. Joseph, we love Thee, save souls! "For every believer, and especially for Christian families, the humble dwelling place in Nazareth is an authentic school of the Gospel. Here we admire, put into practice, the divine plan to make the family an intimate community of life and love; here we learn that every Christian family is called to be a small “domestic church” that must shine with the Gospel virtues. Recollection and prayer, mutual understanding and respect, personal discipline and community asceticism and a spirit of sacrifice, work and solidarity are typical features that make the family of Nazareth a model for every home." – St. John Paul II, Angelus, December 30, 2001 Litany of the Holy FamilyLord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us. God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us. Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us. O Lord our Lord: how admirable is Thy Name in the whole earth! - Psalm 8:2 As the month of the Most Holy Name of Jesus comes to a close, we revisit the Mass of the Holy Name in a spirit of contemplation.
The Introit of the Mass opens with David's cry praise: “O Lord our Lord: how admirable is Thy Name in the whole earth!” Ps. 8.2. The Collect reminds us that David's praise is to become our own as we promise the Holy Name of Jesus our veneration, for He is the Savior of mankind. St. Peter proclaims the healing and saving power of the Name, "for there is no other Name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." The Gradual and Offertory praise the Holy Name with joy and ask the Heavenly Father to gather all nations together, so that we may with one voice praise His Everlasting Name. Throughout the Holy Mass glory and grandeur resound. The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power and divinity and wisdom and strength and honor; to Him be glory and empire for ever and ever. - Introit: Solemnity of Christ the King "It has long been a common custom to give to Christ the metaphorical title of "King," because of the high degree of perfection whereby He excels all creatures. So He is said to reign "in the hearts of men," both by reason of the keenness of His intellect and the extent of His knowledge, and also because He is very truth, and it is from Him that truth must be obediently received by all mankind. He reigns, too, in the wills of men, for in Him the human will was perfectly and entirely obedient to the Holy Will of God, and further by His grace and inspiration He so subjects our free-will as to incite us to the most noble endeavors."
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