Eucharistic Reflection - Look Up and See

What if the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was always and everywhere offered in accordance with the dignity, reverence and obedience our God merits? If we truly worshiped Him as He deserves, do you think more Catholics would willingly and lovingly come to Mass and give their Lord the worship and adoration He ought to receive?

May the following reflection help move us in that direction wherever there may be a need to do so.

(Image Source: Hands at Mass)

When the Host is held on high and a chalice lifted…look up! Look up and see what Mary saw.  See a naked man squirming as He bleeds against a blackened sky; see a battered human body, writhing on a tree, prisoned there by savage spikes that have torn through Sacred hands and feet; see thorn-tortured head tossing from side to side as anguished torso labors, lifts and strains; see the eyes of God roll towards heaven beseeching, as broken lips blurt out that soul piercing cry: “My God, My God, Why has Thou forsaken Me?”

What is this?  This is the Mass.  This is Crucifixion.  This is what Mary saw at the elevation of Christianity’s first Mass.  This is what you should see at the Elevation of every Mass!” 

(Father M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. from God, A Woman and the Way)

  

Worth Revisiting - Monday Musings - Stop Blaming God

We thank Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb once again for  hosting Catholic bloggers at Worth Revisiting. It is a privilege for us to share our work with them and their readers.

 

Monday Musings - Stop Blaming God 

(Originally posted on July 31, 2017)

What follows are simple declarative sentences excerpted from God, A Woman and the Way, a book written more than sixty years ago by Rev. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., a Trappist monk. They set forth fundamental Truths which today are routinely denied and denounced: 

(Photo©Michael Seagriff)

“We need God. Without Him we can do nothing. But God also needs us. He needs us to bear witness to the fact that He exists; that God became man; that God died; that God rose again; that men can become like God. God needs us to be animated Gospels and give the world the almost unbelievable ‘Good News’ that God is our Father and we are heirs to all that almighty God possesses.” 

Do you suppose there is any connection between the denial and denunciation of these Truths and the chaos that exists in our world today?

Sad that I even have to ask such a question. 

It’s time to start blaming ourselves and not God for the messes we have created.

Our Priests, The Eucharist and The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass

[What follows is a post from March 28, 2013]

When Jesus told His followers that unless they ate His Body and drank His Blood, they could not have eternal life, large numbers left and never returned. Their initial repulsion to this direction was understandable: who would want to eat the flesh and drink the blood of another living human being?

Yet, many had come to believe that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. They had either heard of or actually witnessed countless miracles evidencing His Divine nature.  Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Why did they not realize that He would never ask the impossible of them or fail to provide them the means with which to fulfill His command?

His apostles had no greater understanding of, or fondness, for what Jesus was commanding them to do. But when Jesus asked them if they too would leave, Peter, answering for himself and for the other apostles save for Judas, replied: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

So they stepped out in faith, accepting this “difficult” teaching without fully understanding it. Their faith was rewarded at the Last Supper when Jesus, using the basic elements of a common meal - bread and wine – transformed the substance (but not the outward appearance of those items), into His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, gave them to His apostles to eat and to drink, and empowered His newly ordained priests and their legitimate successors to do likewise.  This world has never been the same.

Worth Revisiting - What Do We Need To Be Told Again and Again?

Thank you Allison Gingras at Reconciled To You  and Elizabeth Riordan at Theology Is A Verb  for  hosting Catholic bloggers at Worth Revisiting.

 

It is a privilege for us to share our work with you and your readers each week. Stop by for a visit now. 

 

A picture and a few words:


What Do  We Need To Be Told Again and Again?

(Originally posted June 22, 2017)

Monday Musings - Podcast - We Have Forgotten

When we become forgetful of earthly things, we can experience embarrassment, inconvenience and even ridicule. 

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

But if we become forgetful of fundamental spiritual truths, we jeopardize our soul. You may want to listen to this timely reminder from Father M.Raymond, O.C.S.O.

Worth Revisiting - We Have Forgotten

Be sure to visit Allison Gingras  (Reconciled To You) and Elizabeth Riordan (Theology Is A Verb) each week for Revisiting Wednesday, a place for Catholic writers to share their wares and stir your souls. Stop for a visit now (and every Wednesday).

Here is something to ponder and chew on:

Monday Musings - We Have Forgotten

(Originally published May 15, 2017)

When we lose the sense of sin, when we fail to appreciate the eternal value of embracing suffering, when we no longer give any thought to making reparation for our sins and the sins of the world, evil triumphs and souls are lost:

“We moderns shrink from pain; we shun all that can afflict body or mind. We have forgotten that we were saved by the Body’s agony and the Mind’s torture. We have forgotten that the problem of evil was solved by ropes, whips and thorns, by nails that were pounded through the flesh of God and by three hours of anguish such as no other human has or ever will know. 

We have forgotten that pain has a sacred purpose; that all suffering can be and should be sublimated into Sacrifice – His Sacrifice. We have forgotten that we are Christians – members of a Body whose Head is thorn-crowned! We have forgotten that since there is sin, there must be suffering that will atone.”

(From God, A Woman and the Way by Father M. Raymond, O.C.S.O.)

Pondering Tidbits of Truth - July 13, 2017

Pondering Tidbits of Truth is my simple and inadequate way of providing nuggets of spiritual wisdom for you to chew on from time to time.

Pope Pius XI

"Christ must reign in our minds – which must assent firmly and submissively to all revealed truth and to Christ’s teachings. He must reign in our wills – which should bow in obedience to God’s laws and precepts. He must reign in our hearts - which, turning aside from all natural desires, should love God above all things and cling to Him alone. He should reign in our bodies and members, which should serve as instruments of our soul’s sanctification."

(From Encyclical Quas Primas)

So You Are Ready To Be A Witness?

Eucharistic Reflection - More Than A Ciborium and More Than a Monstrance

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

[Would not our world today be much different] “if all of us Catholics had acted always on the conviction that we are His members; that consequently our actions are Christ’s actions?...

(Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

You are more than a ciborium carrying the Christ within you; you are more than a monstrance whence His whiteness might shine out; you have been made Christ – you are much more like the Host which the ciborium and monstrance hold! ‘Your shining is to make known His Glory as He has revealed it in the features of Jesus Christ’."

 (From God, A Woman and the Way by Rev. M. Raymond, OCSO)