I Am

"Christ said, 'I am the Truth;' He did not say, 'I am the custom.' "
(St. Turibius de Mongrovejo)

Divine Mercy Novena - Fourth Day

Intention: Today bring to Me THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE IN GOD AND THOSE WHO DO NOT YET KNOW ME. I was thinking also of them during My bitter Passion, and their future zeal comforted My Heart. Immerse them in the ocean of My mercy.

Novena Prayers: Most compassionate Jesus, You are the Light of the whole world. Receive into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart the souls of those who do not believe in God and of those who as yet do not know You. Let the rays of Your grace enlighten them that they, too, together with us, may extol Your wonderful mercy; and do not let them escape from the abode which is Your Most Compassionate Heart.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the souls of those who do not believe in You, and of those who as yet do not know You, but who are enclosed in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Draw them to the light of the Gospel. These souls do not know what great happiness it is to love You. Grant that they, too, may extol the generosity of Your mercy for endless ages.  Amen.

Divine Mercy Novena - Third Day

Intention: Today bring to Me ALL DEVOUT AND FAITHFUL SOULS, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. The souls brought Me consolation on the Way of the Cross. They were that drop of consolation in the midst of an ocean of bitterness.

Novena Prayers: Most Merciful Jesus, from the treasury of Your mercy, You impart Your graces in great abundance to each and all. Receive us into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart and never let us escape from It. We beg this grace of You by that most wonderous love for the heavenly Father with which Your Heart burns so fiercely.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon faithful souls, as upon the inheritance of Your Son. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, grant them Your blessing and surround them with Your constant protection. Thus may they never fail in love or lose the treasure of the holy faith, but rather, with all the hosts of Angels and Saints, may they glorify Your boundless mercy for endless ages.  Amen.

Divine Mercy Novena - Second Day

Intention: Today bring to Me THE SOULS OF PRIESTS AND RELIGIOUS, and immerse them in My unfathomable mercy. It was they who gave Me strength to endure My bitter Passion. Through them as through channels My mercy flows out upon mankind.

Novena Prayers: Most Merciful Jesus, from whom comes all that is good, increase Your grace in men and women consecrated to Your service, that they may perform worthy works of mercy; and that all who see them may glorify the Father of Mercy who is in heaven.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon the company of chosen ones in Your vineyard–upon the souls of priests and religious; and endow them with the strength of Your blessing. For the love of the Heart of Your Son in which they are enfolded, impart to them Your power and light, that they may be able to guide others in the way of salvation and with one voice sing praise to Your boundless mercy for ages without end.  Amen.

Divine Mercy Novena

The Divine Mercy Novena begins today, Good Friday!  The Novena was written in the diary of a Polish nun, St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, according to specific instructions from Jesus Himself during private revelations to her.  St. Faustina recorded in her diary that she transcribed the words as Jesus Himself dictated them to her, day by day.

You may pray the Divine Mercy Novena for any reason. God’s Mercy is relevant and effective in all parts of our lives, particularly so during this Year of Mercy.  Some specific reasons to pray the novena might include prayers for the dead or dying, for forgiveness and mercy, for conversion or healing, for a specific country or locality, or simply in preparation for Divine Mercy Sunday.

The feast of Divine Mercy Sunday was instituted by St. Pope John Paul II the Great and is the Sunday immediately following Easter.  The Novena concludes on the eve of the feast.  Per St. Faustina:

“The Lord told me to say this chaplet for nine days before the Feast of Mercy. It is to begin on Good Friday. ‘By this novena, I will grant every possible grace to souls.'” (Diary 796)

So, let us join together and beg for Jesus' Divine Mercy together through this novena, specifically from Him, through the diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska!  Jesus, I trust in You!

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DIVINE MERCY NOVENA - FIRST DAY

Intention: Today bring to Me ALL MANKIND, ESPECIALLY ALL SINNERS, and immerse them in the ocean of My mercy. In this way you will console Me in the bitter grief into which the loss of souls plunges Me.

Novena Prayers: Most Merciful Jesus, whose very nature it is to have compassion on us and to forgive us, do not look upon our sins but upon our trust which we place in Your infinite goodness. Receive us all into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart, and never let us escape from It. We beg this of You by Your love which unites You to the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon all mankind and especially upon poor sinners, all enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. For the sake of His sorrowful Passion show us Your mercy, that we may praise the omnipotence of Your mercy for ever and ever.  Amen.

(The Divine Mercy Novena Prayers are from The Diary of St. Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine  Mercy  in My Soul © 1987 Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, Stockbridge, MA 01263)

The Historical Jesus

As we celebrate the remembrance of The Last Supper and Christ's passion, death, and resurrection during the Easter Triduum, I wanted to share with you this good (brief!) article about the Bible as an accurate historical source on the life of Jesus and our Catholic beliefs and traditions, which date from the earliest times of Christianity.

(....okay.  Admittedly, I probably also was inspired to share it thanks to the Jehovah's Witnesses who were kind enough to appear on my front porch today.  I hope I didn't scare them too much...)

Here's the link:

http://biblestudyforcatholics.com/reasons-confident-historical-jesus/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=reasons-confident-historical-jesus&utm_source=The+Great+Adventure&utm_campaign=125984f4a3-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f7c841a160-125984f4a3-350637321&mc_cid=125984f4a3&mc_eid=03f1b1fb95#disqus_thread

May the conclusion of Lent bring you humble blessings, the Triduum bring you closer to Jesus in His suffering, and the Easter season bring you the hope and joy of His having died and risen....for YOU!

Jesus Is the Living Water

We've just been through a spell during which, due to a widespread power outage from a winter storm, we were without electricity for a few days.  After pondering our (comparatively minor) difficulties, it was clear to me:

Electricity wasn't the problem -- we had daylight all day, and candles, flashlights, and lanterns all night.

Heat wasn't the problem -- we had two woodstoves within four fireplaces and cords of seasoned wood stacked up.

Modern technological connectivity wasn't the problem -- we had chargers for all our devices that could be re-charged in our vehicles.

Food preservation wasn't the problem -- we had a small generator to periodically give our refrigerator/freezer a shot in the arm for continued freshness.

Water wasn't the problem -- we had fresh snow blanketing the ground, water bottles stored in the garage, and a lake on the other side of the woods.

However, running water was the problem.  You can only wash so many dirty dishes, dirty clothes, dirty shoes/boots, dirty rags, dirty cars, and dirty people in buckets of water before the bucket quickly becomes soiled and the water within it fouled.  I could see our accustomed level of sanitation rapidly deteriorating.

Running water was the problem.  Cool, clear, fresh, continuously flowing, running water.

In the Bible, Jesus speaks to the woman at the well and refers to Himself as the "living water":

Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [The woman] said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the cistern is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this cistern and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?” Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:10-15)

The woman didn't initially understand that Jesus Himself was the living water of which He spoke, the wellspring of eternal life.

No matter how many other things we are juggling in life, and no matter how well we think we are juggling them, eventually we will face a need for cool, clear, fresh, continuously flowing, running water.  Running water not only will cleanse whatever is dirty, but it will cleanse it continuously and repeatedly, as well as carry away all the dirt and grime.

Isn't Jesus just like this?

Isn't His Sacrament of Reconciliation (which Bishop Victor B. Galeone refers to as, "the Sacrament of Peace") just like this?

No matter what we are managing to multi-task in our own lives, we will need at some point (whether we initially are willing to admit it or not) to stop and turn to Jesus for a true, thorough, and complete cleansing.  Of our lives.  Of our souls.  Only He can provide the endlessly fresh deep cleaning that we need.  Continuously.  Repeatedly.  Honestly.  And thoroughly.  For free!

If you haven't been to Confession in a while, start thinking about it now.  Lent is coming next month (Ash Wednesday is March 4th), and it's the perfect time to renew our purification in Christ.  It's the perfect time to clean out the dirt, to "scrape off and fluff up" as my friend Alice likes to say.  Through the priest, Jesus Christ makes Himself available to YOU during the Sacrament of Reconciliation, to absolve you of your sins and, as he advised St. Mary Magdalene, to set your feet on a path toward Him to go and do this sin no more (cf. John 8:11).

We're never going to be perfect.  We're never going to be utterly, sparklingly, heavenly clean.  At least not here on Earth.  But in those few moments of Confession, the Lord will absolve you of your sins, wipe your earthly slate clean, and provide you with the graces you need to move forward in your life, beyond the weight and filth of whatever dirt your soul might be carting around.

So go.  Go.  Go to Confession!  Go!!!  I mean it.

Believe me.  There's absolutely nothing you can confess to the priest that he hasn't heard or heard of already.  He'll keep your secret, then let it go by handing it immediately over to God.

....and if you're still shy, pick a priest you've never met at a different parish and go screen.

But don't miss out.  Don't miss the gift, grace, and blessing of the true cleansing provided Jesus, the Living Water, every time you go to Confession.  Only He can fit your soul for heaven, and that's one power you don't want to be without!

The Tomb Is Empty!

If you've got a green thumb, here's a nice indoor project to do in anticipation of finding the empty tomb on Easter morning!  It takes about seven days to come to fruition, so plan ahead.


http://www.colleenhammond.com/family-life/craft-easter-garden/

Using a shallow dish, potting soil, shade grass seed, rocks, miniature crosses made from twigs, and a tiny buried flower pot, you can create a table-top Easter garden featuring the empty tomb!  Just keep it in a warm, sunny spot, and moisten it with several spritzes a day from a spray water bottle.  It's a fun project for the kids, and a beautiful reminder for us all of the stone being rolled away from the garden tomb.

Keep the flower pot's sepulchre opening closed with a larger rock until Easter Sunday morning!  And then.......

Christ is risen!  Indeed, He is risen!

Padre Pio on The Eucharist

In an earlier post, I mentioned the late Mr. William Carrigan, a major donor to Mount de Sales Academy during a critical time in the school's survival in the 1980s.  Mr. Carrigan happened to be a close associate of St. Padre Pio during World War II, as Mr. Carrigan's service as a Red Cross Field Agent found him in Italy at San Giovanni Rotundo at that time.

As he neared the end of his stay and was preparing to return to the United States, Mr. Carrigan again one day was enjoying lunch with the saint.

"Padre Pio," he asked.  "What do you want me to say?  What should I tell the people of America?"

Padre Pio was silent and thoughtful.  Then, he reached across the table and gently pushed some bread and a small glass of wine toward Mr. Carrigan.

"With these," Padre Pio said, "you will never want."

These.  Bread and wine.  The Eucharist.  ....Him.

"Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3, Mattew 4:4)

Bread.  But, not by bread alone.  By every word.  The Word.  ....Him.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  (John 1:1)

God.  The Word.  The Word was God.  ....Him.

"With these, you will never want."

Him.  The Eucharist.  Bread and wine.  Him.  The Word.  God.

"With these, you will never want."

That hardened piece of bread and the small thick drinking glass still remain on display in a glass case at Mount de Sales Academy, a humble, silent, yet eloquent reminder from a saint for all those who frequent that Catholic school, that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our Faith.

The Eucharist.  ....Him.

Really, what else is there?  Who else is there?

We are put on this earth to know, love, and serve God in this world and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.

To know Him.
To love Him.
To serve Him.
To be happy with Him.

Him.

Him.  HIM.  HIM!  Almighty God.  Yahweh.  Abba.  Father.  Emmanuel.  Wonderful Counselor.  Jesus.  Lord of Light.  Prince of Peace.  The Christ.  Holy One.

One.  The One.  Him.

"The Lord our God, the Lord is One." (Deuteronomy 6:4)

One.  Him.  Jesus.

With Him, you will never want.

Go find Him!  Seek Him!  And see Him in those around you.  Because with Him, you will never want.

Give Up on Homeschooling With Toddlers

Today, this request was posted to one of my homeschool support groups:

Anyone have advice on schooling with pre-k-ers and toddlers around?  It seems whenever we do school, they decide it’s time to start fighting.  They are two and four and we have only been homeschooling for two months with my 2nd and 3rd grader.  Some days I'm in tears and I need some advice, please!

Here was my response:

Dear Friend,

I am in the exact same situation as you, and I share your tears!

My first advice to you is:  Give Up.

1. Give up thinking you will have a complete "homeschool" day every day, or even most days.

2. Give up trying to have EVERY child learn and complete EVERY thing s/he needs to do EVERY day.

3. Give up thinking that this isn't how homeschool is supposed to be.

4. Give up thinking that this day, week, month, or year is a total waste of time.

5. Give up thinking you essentially can run a daycare AND a school without incident, daily.

GIVE UP this entire problem to the Lord!

1. Remember that "homeschooling" isn't just about school.  In fact, frequently the reasons we originally chose it specifically were not just academics!

2. Remember that every child is unique and the Lord has something different planned for each child to learn from Him (through you and his/her siblings) each day.....and it might not necessarily be phonics nor algebra today.

3. Remember there is no definition of how homeschool is "supposed" to be.  Oh, you might have had a vision of it alright.  But remember, God's ways are not our ways, and if you expect to be His pencil, then you just have to go with the flow of how He wants your homeschool to be written out.  Remember why you are doing this and listen for His voice.

4. Remember that NO day is a total waste of time.  The minute you stop saying, "Ugh!  Why!!??  This isn't what I had planned!" whenever you encounter a problem or a deviation from Your Plan, and instead say, "Lord, what on earth are You trying to teach me in this?", that will be the minute you turn your frustrations over to Him and seek His guidance to redirect the time seemingly wasted on Today's Train Wreck to turn it toward His Greater Purposes.  Even breaking up a fight or cleaning up the dog's vomit can be done in His service toward the virtue of humility.  Nothing is wasted if we give it to Him.

5. Remember there are thousands of people in the world who are paid a tidy sum to mind children of only ONE age group at a time.  You are Air Traffic Control for multiple age groups, disciplines, and activities!  So please go directly to your stash of stickers and give yourself a big, fat, gold, star one right now (go! I mean it!), because that is exactly what St. Peter is doing beside your name in The Book Of Life!  Homeschooling isn't the easiest thing to do, but if the Lord is calling you to it, it's the right thing to do.

REMEMBER, be still and know that I am God (Ps. 46:10)!

Now, I can just hear your response:  "Okay.  Thanks, lady.  That's very nice on the spiritual side.  I got it.  But, I still have to send completed tests in to Seton, and make sure my toddlers don't kill each other, and teach the older kids to read before they go to college!  Your thoughts?"

Okay.  So, here’s how it goes down in our household:

- The third grader is able to do much of her work independently, so I can send her off to read/work and report back to me (mostly) reliably.  Occasionally I have to check in on her as a gentle prompt to stay focused, but if I give her one subject at a time, she usually does well.  She may choose the spot in which she works, but most often she stays at her desk in the school room (formerly our dining room), unless it's silent reading.  Then she likes to curl up and retire elsewhere.

- The first grader can't quite read fluently yet, so he requires my hands-on help.  He stays in the school room 100% when he is doing school work.  He's also marvelous with the three year old, so on breaks I send him off so those two boys can play together and get rid of the ants in their pants for a bit.

- The pre-k five year old also requires my hands-on help.  She, too, stays in the school room 100% when she is doing school work.  However, her work is quicker and much more lightweight, and she doesn't necessarily "school" all day every day, so she frequently is in another room playing babydolls or something.

- This means the three and five year olds, when playing, are BANISHED from playing in the school room during school time.  They may come ask me questions or ask for help, but they absolutely may not play in there.  Toys also are banished from the school room (otherwise, it would look like Candyland).  That being said, the school room is open on one side to the living room (where the train table is) and on another side to the kitchen (where all those snacks are!), so it's not as if they're playing unsupervised off in Nebraska somewhere.

- If the three and five year olds are duking it out, I follow the same rules as any professional boxing match -- disengage them and work it out in seconds, or else go to your (figurative) separate corners.  I can't keep taking 20 minute intervals to rationalize conversationally to wee folk why they can't beat the tar out of each other.  "No!  Here's my directive on the item in dispute.  Now git.  We'll discuss this later."  Usually after one or two tiffs (and threats from mom of Solitary Confinement), they decide playing together is more fun than fighting.

Friend, I beg you, PLEEEEEASE give yourself (and the little ones!) more than two months to establish a homeschool habit and settle into your own routine!  I've only been homeschooling a few years and I know moms who have been homeschooling as many as 15 years, and even then we all still have days with tears.  I have days that run like proverbial clockwork ("Wow!  Why doesn't every day run like that?") and days that seem to be a total wash ("Okaaaaay.  That was a real ‘character building’ day!").

Either way REMEMBER -- you are trying to raise children who eventually will grow into decent people and faith-filled Catholics, who will know, love, and serve Him in this world and be happy with Him forever in the next.

That's it.  That's the goal.

Give yourself more time to settle into the rhythm of homeschooling.  Find a good, local, Catholic, homeschool support group to surround your children with good peers (and yourself with other great moms!).  And be assured that in homeschooling, not every day will be perfect, but every day will be blessed!!!  :-D

Buona fortuna!

....but my line always is open for a shoulder to cry on!  ;-)

Christ Is Risen! Indeed, He Is Risen!

Stations of the Cross

Leader:  We adore you, O Christ, and we praise You.
All:  [genuflect] Because by Your holy cross, You have redeemed the world.

Today is Good Friday, the day on which Christians commemorate the death of Jesus on the cross.  For Catholics, it is the only day of the year on which no Mass is celebrated.  The Church instead holds a liturgy, which includes the following: a reading of Christ's Passion from the Gospel of John, Chapters 18 & 19; general intercessions or prayers for special intentions; the distribution of Communion (from hosts consecrated at Mass on Holy Thursday the previous day), and; veneration of the cross, during which the congregation comes forward to kiss a crucifix at the foot of the altar. Altogether, the service is very somber, with no music, periods of silence, and the priest's wearing of purple or black vestments.  In recognition and with respect for Christ's sacrifice, Good Friday is a day of fast and abstinence.

Many people also pray the Stations of the Cross on every Friday of the year, but especially so on Good Friday.

The Stations originated from pilgrims literally walking the actual way that Jesus followed to Calvary through the streets of the city of Jerusalem.  For those Christians not living in Jerusalem, this journey would be an enormously lengthy and expensive undertaking, and often impossible.  Therefore, such a trip only was within the means of the very wealthy.  Thankfully, over centuries, the practice was brought into every local Catholic Church through the placement of images of each Station along the inside walls, thereby allowing even the most infirmed to accompany Christ and console Him in His sacrifice.

The traditional 14 Stations of the Cross are as follows:

1. Jesus Is Condemned to Death
2. Jesus Accepts the Cross
3. Jesus Falls the First Time
4. Jesus Meets His Mother
5. Simon of Cyrene Carries the Cross
6. Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
7. Jesus Falls the Second Time
8. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
9. Jesus Falls the Third Time
10. Jesus Is Stripped of His Garments
11. The Crucifixion: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross
12. Jesus Dies on the Cross
13. Jesus Is Taken Down From the Cross
14. Jesus Is Laid in the Tomb

(Some people also include a fifteenth station of the Resurrection.)

Of the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross, only eight have direct Scriptural references.  In 1991, Blessed Pope John Paul II introduced a Scriptural Way of the Cross on Good Friday, which he celebrated many times at the Colosseum in Rome.  The 14 Scriptural Stations of the Cross are as follows:

1. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane,
2. Jesus is Betrayed by Judas and Arrested
3. Jesus is Condemned by the Sanhedrin
4. Jesus is Denied by Peter
5. Jesus is Judged by Pilate
6. Jesus is Scourged and Crowned with Thorns
7. Jesus Takes Up His Cross
8. Jesus is Helped by Simon to Carry His cross
9. Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
10. Jesus is Crucified
11. Jesus Promises His Kingdom to the Repentant Thief
12. Jesus Entrusts Mary and John to Each Other
13. Jesus Dies on the Cross
14. Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

For your reflection today, I am posting still photos from Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion of the Christ, which follows the course of the Stations of the Cross.

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I.  JESUS IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE


II.  JESUS IS BETRAYED BY JUDAS AND ARRESTED

III.  JESUS IS CONDEMNED BY THE SANHEDRIN

IV.  JESUS IS DENIED BY PETER

V.  JESUS IS JUDGED BY PILATE

 

VI.  JESUS IS SCOURGED AND CROWNED WITH THORNS

VII.  JESUS TAKES UP HIS CROSS

 

VIII.  JESUS IS HELPED BY SIMON TO CARRY HIS CROSS

IX.  JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

X.  JESUS IS CRUCIFIED

 XI.  JESUS PROMISES HIS KINGDOM TO THE REPENTANT THIEF

XII.  JESUS ENTRUSTS MARY AND JOHN TO EACH OTHER

XIII.  JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

XIV.  JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

"You think you make sacrifices.  Look at the sacrifice of Calvary, and compare yours with it."
(St. Elizabeth Ann Seton)

Holy Thursday

Benedict XVI’s Sermon for Holy Thursday Evening

Lord’s Supper Mass

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Holy Thursday is not only the day of the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist, whose splendour bathes all else and in some ways draws it to itself.  To Holy Thursday also belongs the dark night of the Mount of Olives, to which Jesus goes with his disciples; the solitude and abandonment of Jesus, who in prayer goes forth to encounter the darkness of death; the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ arrest and his denial by Peter; his indictment before the Sanhedrin and his being handed over to the Gentiles, to Pilate. Let us try at this hour to understand more deeply something of these events, for in them the mystery of our redemption takes place.

Jesus goes forth into the night. Night signifies lack of communication, a situation where people do not see one another. It is a symbol of incomprehension, of the obscuring of truth.  It is the place where evil, which has to hide before the light, can grow. Jesus himself is light and truth, communication, purity and goodness. He enters into the night. Night is ultimately a symbol of death, the definitive loss of fellowship and life. Jesus enters into the night in order to overcome it and to inaugurate the new Day of God in the history of humanity.

On the way, he sang with his disciples Israel’s psalms of liberation and redemption, which evoked the first Passover in Egypt, the night of liberation. Now he goes, as was his custom, to pray in solitude and, as Son, to speak with the Father. But, unusually, he wants to have close to him three disciples: Peter, James and John. These are the three who had experienced his Transfiguration – when the light of God’s glory shone through his human figure – and had seen him standing between the Law and the Prophets, between Moses and Elijah. They had heard him speaking to both of them about his “exodus” to Jerusalem. Jesus’ exodus to Jerusalem – how mysterious are these words! Israel’s exodus from Egypt had been the event of escape and liberation for God’s People. What would be the form taken by the exodus of Jesus, in whom the meaning of that historic drama was to be definitively fulfilled? The disciples were now witnessing the first stage of that exodus – the utter abasement which was nonetheless the essential step of the going forth to the freedom and new life which was the goal of the exodus. The disciples, whom Jesus wanted to have close to him as an element of human support in that hour of extreme distress, quickly fell asleep. Yet they heard some fragments of the words of Jesus’ prayer and they witnessed his way of acting. Both were deeply impressed on their hearts and they transmitted them to Christians for all time. Jesus called God “Abba“. The word means – as they add – “Father”. Yet it is not the usual form of the word “father”, but rather a children’s word – an affectionate name which one would not have dared to use in speaking to God. It is the language of the one who is truly a “child”, the Son of the Father, the one who is conscious of being in communion with God, in deepest union with him.

If we ask ourselves what is most characteristic of the figure of Jesus in the Gospels, we have to say that it is his relationship with God. He is constantly in communion with God. Being with the Father is the core of his personality. Through Christ we know God truly. “No one has ever seen God”, says Saint John. The one “who is close to the Father’s heart … has made him known” (1:18).  Now we know God as he truly is. He is Father, and this in an absolute goodness to which we can entrust ourselves. The evangelist Mark, who has preserved the memories of Saint Peter, relates that Jesus, after calling God “Abba”, went on to say: “Everything is possible for you. You can do all things” (cf. 14:36). The one who is Goodness is at the same time Power; he is all-powerful. Power is goodness and goodness is power. We can learn this trust from Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives.



Before reflecting on the content of Jesus’ petition, we must still consider what the evangelists tell us about Jesus’ posture during his prayer. Matthew and Mark tell us that he “threw himself on the ground” (Mt 26:39; cf. Mk 14:35), thus assuming a posture of complete submission, as is preserved in the Roman liturgy of Good Friday. Luke, on the other hand, tells us that Jesus prayed on his knees. In the Acts of the Apostles, he speaks of the saints praying on their knees: Stephen during his stoning, Peter at the raising of someone who had died, Paul on his way to martyrdom. In this way Luke has sketched a brief history of prayer on one’s knees in the early Church. Christians, in kneeling, enter into Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives.  When menaced by the power of evil, as they kneel, they are upright before the world, while as sons and daughters, they kneel before the Father. Before God’s glory we Christians kneel and acknowledge his divinity; by that posture we also express our confidence that he will prevail.



Jesus struggles with the Father. He struggles with himself. And he struggles for us. He experiences anguish before the power of death. First and foremost this is simply the dread natural to every living creature in the face of death.  In Jesus, however, something more is at work. His gaze peers deeper, into the nights of evil. He sees the filthy flood of all the lies and all the disgrace which he will encounter in that chalice from which he must drink.  His is the dread of one who is completely pure and holy as he sees the entire flood of this world’s evil bursting upon him.  He also sees me, and he prays for me. This moment of Jesus’ mortal anguish is thus an essential part of the process of redemption. Consequently, the Letter to the Hebrews describes the struggle of Jesus on the Mount of Olives as a priestly event. In this prayer of Jesus, pervaded by mortal anguish, the Lord performs the office of a priest: he takes upon himself the sins of humanity, of us all, and he brings us before the Father.



Lastly, we must also pay attention to the content of Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. Jesus says: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want” (Mk 14:36). The natural will of the man Jesus recoils in fear before the enormity of the matter. He asks to be spared. Yet as the Son, he places this human will into the Father’s will: not I, but you. In this way he transformed the stance of Adam, the primordial human sin, and thus heals humanity. The stance of Adam was: not what you, O God, have desired; rather, I myself want to be a god. This pride is the real essence of sin. We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will. God appears as the opposite of our freedom. We need to be free of him – so we think – and only then will we be free. This is the fundamental rebellion present throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. [Again, I cannot help but think of his Chrism Mass sermon.] When human beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from themselves. We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are united to God. Then we become truly “like God” – not by resisting God, eliminating him, or denying him.



In his anguished prayer on the Mount of Olives, Jesus resolved the false opposition between obedience and freedom, and opened the path to freedom. Let us ask the Lord to draw us into this “yes” to God’s will, and in this way to make us truly free.

Amen.

The Eucharist - Belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ

Kindly pick up your Bible and read the Gospel of John, Chapter 6.  Then click here to watch a half hour video documentary, which teaches the Catholic Church's belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

You'll never be the same!

See you at Perpetual Adoration!