3 June 2013 The Most Holy Eucharist, the Sacrifice of Humanity By extending the application of the work of redemption to humanity, the Eucharistic sacrifice contributes to the building ‘of the Church’. On Calvary, Christ merited salvation not only for every single man but also for the whole community. His oblation obtained the grace of reunification of mankind in the Body of the Church. The Eucharist tends to realize this objective by daily building up the ecclesial community. The sacrifice of the altar reinforces the Church’s holiness and favoring her expansion in the world. In this sense the Eucharistic celebration is always a missionary act. It invisibly obtains a greater force of penetration for the Church into all human environments. Building up the Church means, in addition, consolidating unity more and more. It was no accident that, at the last Supper Jesus prayed for his disciples to be united. So we can understand how, in every Eucharistic celebration, the Church follows the example of the Master by praying that unity may be evermore real and perfect. In this way, the Eucharist causes ecumenical rapprochement among all Christians to make progress and, within the Catholic Church, tends to tighten the bonds uniting the faithful, above and beyond legitimate differences existing among them. By cooperating responsibly in such a unifying dynamics, Christians will show the world that their Master did not suffer in vain for the unity of mankind. Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, p236-7 The effects of Communion on the soul Communion sustains the life of the soul as food sustains the body. The reception of the Holy Eucharist keeps Catholics in God’s grace, since the soul recovers its energies from the continual ‘wear and tear’ it suffers through the wounds of original sin and of personal sins. It maintains the life of God in the soul, freeing it from lukewarmness; and it helps us to avoid mortal sin and struggle effectively against venial sins. It makes supernatural life grow and develop. Finally, the grace we receive in each Communion delights the person who receives with good dispositions. Nothing can be compared to the joy of the Holy Eucharist, to the friendship and nearness of Jesus, present within us. Among all the practices of piety there is none whose sanctifying effectiveness can be compared to the worthy reception of this sacrament. In it, not only do we receive grace, but the Source and Fountainhead from which all grace flows. All the sacraments are ordained towards the Holy Eucharist: it is the pivotal sacrament. (St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, III, q65, a3) We ask Our Lady to help us go to Communion every day with better dispositions. Ref: Cf F Fernandez, “In Conversation with God”, 2:409-10 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 Christian’s relations with God the Son A Christian has many special relationships with God the Incarnate Son. He is Jesus Christ’s brother by his very nature; and by baptism, a member of his mystical body. “Now you are the body of Christ”, says St Paul, “and member of member” (1 Cor 12:27). But this is not all. In Holy Communion we become incorporated with him, in his own words: “He that eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:57) Living with his life, we are, says St Peter, “made partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4). What can be more blessed and glorious! What must we do in return for these great privileges? St John tells us in very memorable words: “He that said he abides in him, ought himself also to walk even as he walked.” (Jn 6:57) Thus, we shall live St Cyprian’s meaningful words: ‘The Christian is another Christ.’ Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, pp311-2 ‘The Father revealed by the Son’ Many religions invoke God as ‘Father’. The deity is often considered the ‘father of gods and of men’. In Israel, God is called Father since he is Creator of the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, ‘his first-born son’. God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is ‘the Father of the poor’, of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection. Jesus revealed that God is Father in a novel sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Mt 11:27) Thus the apostles confess Jesus to be the ‘Word’: In the beginning was the ‘Word’, and the ‘Word’ was with God, and the ‘Word’ was God; as the image of the invisible God; as the radiance of the glory of God, the very stamp of his nature (Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3). Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is ‘consubstantial’ with the Father, that is, only one God with him. The second ecumenical council, held at Constantinople in 381, kept this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed ‘the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten not made, consubstantial with the Father’. ‘The Incarnation of God’s Son reveals that God is the eternal Father and that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, which means that, in the Father and with the Father, the Son is one and the same God.’ Henceforth, Christ is “seated at the right hand of the Father: By ‘the Father’s right hand’ we understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified.” Being seated at the Father’s right hand signifies inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom, fulfillment of prophet Daniel’s vision concerning the Son of Man: “To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is everlasting, which will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be destroyed. After this event the apostles became witnesses of the kingdom [that] will have no end.” Ref: “Catechism of the Catholic Church”, Nos. 238, 240, 241, 242, 262, 663, 664 Solitude and Silence Nourish Spiritual Life Jesus, before beginning his public life, prayed for forty days in the desert. You, too try to bring a little silence into your lives, so as to be able to think, to reflect, to pray with greater fervor and make more decisive resolutions. It is difficult to create “zones of desert and silence” these days. You are continually being overcome by complications of work, the uproar of events, attraction of the communications media. It is difficult, but possible and important to know how to succeed in it. Jesus also inculcated the necessity for ‘commitment to overcome evil’. He willed to suffer temptation in order to lay emphasis on its reality and to teach the strategy for fighting it and winning. Being Christian means accepting the reality of life and undertaking the necessary struggle against evil. Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, 1984, pp260-61 First Communion of Bernadette Soubiros On this day in 1858, Bernadette made her First Communion in the Hospice chapel, Lourdes. (G Menotti, “Lourdes”, p15) • Our Lady of “Sosopoli”, in Pisidia. This image distilled a miraculous oil as is testified by Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople, in a letter read at the second council of Nice, assembled for the defence of holy images. — Art. 4, of the Council of Nice. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of Sosopoli. Pisidia, Italy 14th century. (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html) ; (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (http://mariedenazareth.com) • “Madonna della Sosopoli / Sasopoli”. Italy. 14th Century. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of the Star, at Aquileia, in Italy. This church is so-called, because it is affirmed that a star was seen in open day on the head of St Bernardine of Siena, when, preaching at Aquileia, he applied to the Blessed Virgin that passage of the Apocalypse where it is said that there were twelve stars on her head. — See his life in Surius. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com) • Our Lady of the Star. Aquiles / Aquileia, Italy. 15th Century. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm); (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.htm); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html) • Our Lady of Grace (Montreal, Canada) (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html) • “Notre Dame de Grace”. Montreal, Canada. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady of the Holy Letter. (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm) • Our Lady, Health of the Sick (Kevelær, Germany). (www.starharbor.com/santiago/m feasts.html); (www.marylinks.org/Mary-Calendar.htm)