Happy Advent

It is the first week of Advent. I have a copy of The Word Among Us Advent meditations. Last night I read the Mass readings and the meditation to Matt over the phone. I don’t know if he found it interesting, but I did.

Coronation of Mary

The Assumption of Mary

If you review the Rosary and the corresponding Scripture from the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious to this point, I’m pretty sure that you’ll be satisfied with what you find. It seems to be a pretty direct one to one correlation and easily accessible. I have to admit that the Scripture for the Assumption of Mary is… a little less understandable.  Usually, it’s from Revelation so it doesn’t explicitly state that “Mary was taken bodily into Heaven because she was born without sin and bodily death is a consequence of sin.”

I’ve been doing a bit of research and one of the things that I’ve found that made sense was “Hey they didn’t make a tomb of Mary Mother of God, so early Christians took it for granted that Mary was taken bodily into Heaven.”  (So there was no reason to look for her tomb and build a church over it.)

Pentecost

When I think of Pentecost I think of the Charismatic movement within the Catholic Church.  It was how I became Catholic.  I am Charismatic.  I know I am a quieter Charismatic than  I was when I entered the Church.  I am going to go out on a limb and tell you that I can pray in tongues.  I have been “slain in the Spirit” – yep fell over and came to on the floor of the Church.  I have been to many healing retreats, healing masses, healing prayer services.  I have prayed with many folks.  I have been given (and received) Word of Knowledge.  I believe in the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and have seen them in action in the world TODAY.

God wants us to participate fully – this includes all the old time miracles that we read about in Scriptures.  He wants to talk to us if we will only listen!!!

All of this spiritual beauty comes with guidelines.  Find a prayer group.  Seek spiritual direction.  Seek confirmation.  Continue to grow in Holiness through conventional methods – confession, communion, Mass, reading Scripture, prayer, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  There are tough situations in life that come up.  I usually ask folks to pray about – or if they’ve prayed about.  When I come to one of these situations, I pray.  I pray with folks.  I ask people to pray for me.  I ask for my desires to be put aside so I can hear what God really want me to do.  I know that there are dark forces out there and they will direct me down the wrong path.  I know that I can listen to my own desires which will lead me down a path that is NOT the one God intended for me.  My goal in life is to follow God’s path.  It may seem dark and scary sometimes, but in the end it will be better than anything that I could have imaged for myself.  The Holy Spirit given to us during Pentecost is how we can hear God’s voice.  The Novena to the Holy Spirit is, to the best of my knowledge, is the only novena officially endorsed by the Church.  (The other ones are just “not going to send you to hell if you participate.

The Ascension

I just read the part in the Catechism about the Ascension.  This is where the first bit of humanity is brought into heaven – it’s the bit of humanity that is the Incarnation.  So Jesus is man and God, so when he heads to heaven to be with God the Father it is opening the door for the rest of us to follow him.

One of my favorite aspirations or intentions for the Ascension is “May we follow Christ to Heaven, bringing others with us.”  I really do hope that I can be part of at least one person getting to Heaven – one person other than myself.

The Resurrection

I couldn’t help myself. I saw this when I was looking for inspirational pictures to post on the Resurrection. I have to admit that I have been sick this week, busy at work, and didn’t get around to putting together a thought on today’s mystery until evening.

After Christ died, he didn’t just sit in a dark tomb for three days. He descended into Hell. There are some folks in the world today that don’t believe in Hell. They’ll say that Hell is the misery we experience on earth. They may say that as long as we live a good life we won’t go to Hell. Without Hell, Heaven makes no sense, Salvation makes no sense, Redemption, and the suffering of Jesus was pointless. If you’ve seen the movie “The Usual Suspects” Kevin Spacey’s character says something to the effect, “The greatest trick the Devil ever played was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” I think that it is true. It is a huge trick and a huge victory for the dark side. If there is no dark, we don’t need the light.

My little mind has decided that the pain of Hell comes from knowing that there is a God and knowing that we have given up being with the Eternal Love and the pain associated with that loss. Perhaps that is the greatest pain. Perhaps this is the great pain that Jesus experienced while in Hell – the loss of God the Father. I’m willing to bet that most folks reading this have experienced at least a distance from God at some point in their life. This is the Mystery that is the reunion. After being away from God, Jesus was brought back to Earth and back to the presence of God the Father. What Joy! What Bliss!

The Crucifixion

I wish that I had something amazing to write, some amazing insight to share.  I was wondering if this is the beginning of Salvation or just a part.  My guess is that theologians have already determined when is the exact moment we were Redeemed.  I don’t have the energy to look into it right now.  All I have to know is that it worked.  I believe and now I have a chance at Eternal Life.

Carrying the Cross

I just want to share this with you.  I first found it many years ago in the basement of a odd little church in the midwest.  When I read it and sat and thought about it I was really touched by the beauty of it.  I konw that there are folks that don’t believe that God takes an interested in the lives of individual people.  This is a comfort to me that God knows the pain in my life and is with me even in the darkest moments.

Your Cross – St. Francis De Sales

The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart.

This cross He now sends you He has
considered with His all-knowing eyes,
understood with His divine mind,
tested with His wise justice, warmed with
loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.

He has blessed it with His holy Name,
anointed it with His consolation,
taken one last glance at you and your courage,
and then sent it to you from heaven,
a special greeting from God to you,
an alms of the all-merciful love of God. Amen!

Crowning With Thorns

This retablo is really Veronica’s Veil.  It does show Jesus crowned with thorns.  I had a beautiful post about being ridiculed because of our Christian faith.  I lost it.  I apparently I didn’t save it before turning my computer off last night.  While we might have to take some verbal abuse from friends, family and the like, we are fortunate because our lives are rarely in danger because of what we believe.  I live in the United States and have gotten some harassment because of being Christian, of being Catholic.  There have been uncomfortable, sometimes heated, conversations with strangers, co-workers, friends and family.

Jesus was verbally ridiculed.  He has already endured far worse than we have.  This is not to minimize what we have gone through, but to remind us that Christ knows about our hurts.  He has been through them and can relate.  We can bring our hurts to Jesus and he can heal them.

The Scourging at the Pillars

Did you know that there are volunteers in Israel who, after a bombing or the like, go to the scene to collect as much of the remains as possible so that the persons involved can have a proper burial?  I remember the scene in The Passion where Mary is soaking up the blood of Jesus from the stone floor.  She does this knowing that it must be buried with him.  She is waiting for her son to die.  wow.

Years before the movie, the description of scourging in a book on the Rosary was the most vivid and disturbing descriptions I have ever read.  Humans have a way of being brutal.  Scourging isn’t just whipping.  It is tearing strips of flesh off the body.  This is when I realized the cruelty Jesus endured for me.  It wasn’t just words.  It was a human being undergoing torture.  This is why folks got animated about the Blood of Christ.