Sunday after Pentecost
The Holy Trinity is the greatest of all mysteries. The feast is the complement and gathering up into one all feasts of the ecclesiastical year. A mystery beyond our comprehension, the finite being incapable of understanding the infinite; but we must adore it with deepest humility, most tender love, and most lively gratitude. It is the source of all good to us.
Let us recall all we owe to the love of the Three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity. “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” (‘The Apostle’s Creed’ in “Handbook of Prayers”, Belmonte and Socias [eds], 1988, p65)
Omnipotence, and the work of creation, which implies omnipotence, is the special attribute of the Father, the first principal from which the two other Persons proceed. To him, then, I owe my existence, my preservation, and all that has conduced to my preservation. Without him I should always have remained nothing.
God saw from all eternity, in the nothingness out of which we were created, millions of possible beings, who would have served him better than we have done, and glorified him more.
Why, then, has he created us instead? Out of a gratuitous love of predilection. ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.’ This love has preserved us from so many dangers in which others have perished. We enjoy so many favors both of nature and grace.
Love begets love. What return have we made to so loving and generous a God and Father? Perhaps we have loved him so little and served him grudgingly.
The love of God the Son for us has been manifested in a still more striking manner, ie, by that of ‘redemption’, which has not only ransomed us from slavery and death; but reinstated us in all our primitive rights.
Suppose the son of a king should offer his life for a criminal? This is what the Son of God has done for each one of us. “He debased himself” (cf Phil 2:7-8), taking the form of a slave, becoming obedient unto death, even death of the cross.
St Paul concludes, ‘That they also who live may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them’. Have we given this proof of our love and gratitude to him?
The love of the Holy Spirit manifests itself in our sanctification and adoption. He sanctified us in our Baptism, purifying our soul from all stain, filling it with divine charity, and all prerogatives of sanctifying grace which raise us to the dignity of adopted sons and heirs of God, and co-heirs of Jesus Christ.
“The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.” For the “Spirit himself gives testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God; and if sons, heirs also, heirs indeed of God and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:16-7). He has also sanctified us in our Confirmation, and in partaking of the other Sacraments.
How many undeserved benefits have I received and even despite my great unworthiness! ‘What shall I render to the Lord’, to the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, ‘for all the things that he has rendered to me?’
Ref: cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp308-10
The intercession of Mary
Let us close these thoughts with an old prayer: ‘Hail, Mary, daughter of God the Father; hail, Mary, Mother of God the Son; hail, Mary, Spouse of God the Holy Spirit. Hail, Mary, temple and sanctuary of the Most Holy Trinity, conceived without stain of original sin from the very first instant of your virginal being. Greater than you, only God!’
Through Mary’s intercession and personal relationship with each of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity, we can acquire a deeper knowledge of the richness of this mystery which is understandable only through a life of prayer. Through her we will find the strength to correspond to what God wants to share with us.
Ref: J P Debicki, “The Blessed Trinity”, Scepter Booklets, 18
Sign of Peace
At Mass, the priest asks Jesus not to look upon our sins, but to grant us the Peace He promised to the Apostles: ‘Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.’ We join the priest and respond, ‘Amen’.
St Anthony in a Homily said: “The Resurrection of Christ is the source of lasting peace. His place must always be in the center of our hearts.” “Jesus came and stood in their midst. ‘Peace be with you’, He said. Then He showed His Hands and His Side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.” (cf Jn 20:19-21)
“The Latin for peace is ‘Pax’, a three-letter word that symbolizes the Triune and one God (the Holy Trinity). The letter ‘P’ stands for ‘Pater’, ‘Father’; the letter ‘a’, first letter of the alphabet stands for the first-born, the Son of God; ‘x’, a consonant made up of two sounds ‘k’ and ‘s’, stands for the Holy Spirit [or ‘X’ “The Great Unknown”, in St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 173-87], proceeding from both the Father and the Son.”
Ref: St Anthony’s Sermons, “Seek First His Kingdom”, in Bob and Penny Lord, “Miracles of the Eucharist”, Vol. II:305-6
The Fruit of the Redemption Is the New Creature
The Redemption is a “new creation” because by reason of sin, man fell from his “original justice”. He broke the Alliance with God. Consequently, he suffered incapacity to build communion with others in the truth of self-giving. We must deepen our consciousness of sin, the indispensable starting point for personal participation in the mystery of the Redemption.
The Redemption worked by Christ brought man back to “the dignity of his first origins”. In Christ, the second and true Adam, the new humanity takes its origin. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old order has passed away; now all is new!” (2 Cor 5:17) A change in the very essence of the human person who has been redeemed brings man back to the fulness of his being as ‘God’s image’ (cf Gen 1:27).
Ref: cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, p268
` ` ` MAY DEVOTIONS ` ` `
Mary, Queen of the Apostles
“... if we take Our Lady’s hand, she will make us realize more fully that all men are our brothers; because we are all sons of the God whose daughter, spouse and mother she is. Our neighbors’ problems must be our problems. Christian fraternity should be something very deep in the soul, so that we are indifferent to no one. Mary, who brought up Jesus and accompanied him through his life and is now beside him in heaven, will help us recognize Jesus as he crosses our path and makes himself present to us in the needs of our fellowmen.” (St Josemaria Escrivá, “Christ is passing by”, 145)
Let us offer our Mother: ‘A kind word, a friendly conversation, a helping hand to persons with whom we live or work.’
Ref: Fr Charles Belmonte and Fr James Socias (Eds), “Handbook of Prayers”, 1988, p31
The Rosary, a Gospel Prayer
W J Harrington, OP, in presenting his book, “The Rosary: A Gospel Prayer”, said: “The Rosary is a thoroughly biblical, Gospel prayer. The reason is by no means only because the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ and the greatest part of the ‘Hail, Mary’, come straight from the gospels. It is because almost all the ‘mysteries’ of the Rosary come straight from the gospels.
“The Joyful Mysteries are taken from the first two chapters of St Luke; the Sorrowful Mysteries are based on the passion narrative of the four gospels; and the Glorious Mysteries reflect the close of the gospel and its overflow into the new age of the Spirit and the Church.”
Pope Paul VI, in “Marialis Cultus”, 2 February 1972, said: “The Rosary is a Gospel prayer, as pastors and scholars like to define it ... As a Gospel prayer, centered on the mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary is therefore, a prayer with a clearly Christological orientation.”
“Upon arriving, the angel Gabriel said to Mary: ‘Rejoice, O highly favored daughter! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.’” (Lk 1:28)
“Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out in a loud voice: ‘Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb’.” (Lk 1:41-2)
Ref: Rev Joseph A Viano, SSP, “Two Months with Mary”, 1984, p52
Dedication of the church of ‘Monte Vergine’, near Naples, built in the year 1126 by St William, founder of the order of Monte Vergine; and repaired in 1519. — John Juvenal, lib. vii., de Antiquitatibus, c. 3. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; http://www.bethlehemobserver.com)
Dedication of the Church of the Virgin’s Mountain (1126). (MaryLinks Calendar.htm); (http://www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html)
Dedication: Church of the Virgin's Mountain / ‘Monte Vergine’. Naples, Italy. ~1119. Monastery founded by St William. Home of a Black Madonna. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Mexico. 1966. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html)
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