Month: July 2011
Think big
Time to stop worrying about the dust mites
and focus on the giants in the sky.
Communal life possible for lay people as well?
Quote below references the priesthood and their need for communal living. Taken from
Address to his Holiness Benedict XVI to the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo
In an address to the Priestly Fraternity of the Missionaries of St. Charles Borromeo on the 25th anniversary of its founding, the Holy Father went on to say that it “may certainly be true” that living in community is “a form of help in the face of the solitude and weakness of man.” Still, he stressed, communal living is about more than this:
“Communal life is in fact an expression of the gift of Christ that is the Church, and it is prefigured in the apostolic community from which the priesthood arose. . . . Communal life thus expresses a help that Christ provides for our life, calling us, through the presence of brothers, to an ever more profound conformity to his person. Living with others means accepting the need of my own continual conversion and above all discovering the beauty of such a journey, the joy of humility, of penance, but also of conversation, of mutual forgiveness, of mutual support.”
This seems like something lay people could use and share in, too.
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” (The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776). We have heard and read these famous words many times. Yet, it should be interesting for us to note that of the three fundamental rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the founding fathers of our nation recognize life as the first of these three unalienable rights.
Life is a gift from God. The first pages of the Holy Bible direct our gaze to the awesome gift of life. “And now, from the clay of the ground, the Lord God formed man, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and made man a living person” (Genesis 2: 7). Life is entrusted to man as a gift. Thus, man has a responsibility to this gift.
Gaze upon the Heart of Jesus
“Jesus Christ is the center of the universe. His pierced Heart, as the symbol of His infinite and divine charity united to his human affections and love, is the focal point of all time. Those who lived during the long period before his incarnation and redemptive death and resurrection waited with yearning for the promised redeemer. Those who witnessed the piercing of his side, as well as all people who will live, are invited to gaze upon and contemplate this mystery. . . As Christians lovingly gaze upon his Heart, they are given the grace to believe in God’s mercy and forgiveness.” – from the book The Secret of the Heart
Stories may save us
Enlightening piece, Piloting Whales, by writer and blogger, Charles McKelvy.
A fascinating story is told about how positive energy, we all possess, can be focused back to restore balance to our planet.
Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus goes back at least to the 11th century, but through the 16th century, it remained a private devotion, often tied to devotion to the Five Wounds of Christ. The first feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated on August 31, 1670, in Rennes, France, through the efforts of Fr. Jean Eudes (1602-1680). From Rennes, the devotion spread, but it took the visions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) for the devotion to become universal.
In all of these visions, in which Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary, the Sacred Heart of Jesus played a central role. The “great apparition,” which took place on June 16, 1675, during the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, is the source of the modern Feast of the Sacred Heart. In that vision, Christ asked St. Margaret Mary to request that the Feast of the Sacred Heart be celebrated on the Friday after the octave (or eighth day) of the Feast of Corpus Christi, in reparation for the ingratitude of men for the sacrifice that Christ had made for them. The Sacred Heart of Jesus represents not simply His physical heart but His love for all mankind.
The devotion became quite popular after St. Margaret Mary’s death in 1690, but, because the Church initially had doubts about the validity of St. Margaret Mary’s visions, it wasn’t until 1765 that the feast was celebrated officially in France. Almost 100 years later, in 1856, Pope Pius IX, at the request of the French bishops, extended the feast to the universal Church. It is celebrated on the day requested by our Lord—the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, or 19 days after Pentecost Sunday.