I have decided to change the title of my blog to the year of being a deacon. I originally thought I would try to change the blog registration from deacon2be to 2010deacon, the year of my ordination.
I chose the deacon2be name as I was still in formation and thought "I'll just change to 2010 deacon after ordination as I will, finally, be an ordained deacon in the Catholic Church."
However, I have decided to go with the year of being a deacon as I am not the same deacon I was at ordination and all of 2011 and I am still a deacon2be. I'll always be a deacon2be and each year I will be a little different than the previous year.
I have grown and hopefully in a very positive way.
So, from now on, every December 30/31 I will change the title to the current year. So, in 2012 I am the 2012 Deacon.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Beautiful reasons for Praying the Rosary
This from father Gabriel Amorth, Chief exorcist of the Vatican. If one needed a little extra incentive to pray the Rosary, here is some help!
Beautiful Reasons for
Praying the Rosary Even More Often
Father Gabriel Amorth,
Chief Exorcist of the Vatican writes: One day a
colleague of mine heard the
devil say during an exorcism, "Every Hail Mary
is like a blow on my
head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was,
it would be my end."
The secret that makes
this prayer so effective is that
the Rosary is both prayer and meditation.
It is addressed to the Father,
to the Blessed Virgin, and to the Holy Trinity,
and is a meditation centered
on Christ.
I write in addition to
the above: Please enunciate each word of
the Rosary clearly and distinctly. Do
not trample on the heels of the words
of anyone with your words.
Do not speak over the
leader if you are following
or the respondent if you are leading the Rosary.
Remember that they
also are
having a conversation with Mary Our Mother and it is not polite to
speak
when someone else is speaking.
In the case of the
public Rosary there are only two people speaking: the
Leader and the
respondents. Each is speaking to the Blessed Mother and
listening carefully to
her response within their hearts as they meditate on
the scene before them in
their consideration of the mystery being spoken of
and interpreted and
translated into their lives.
Spread this powerful
prayer
of exorcism, the Rosary, which contains the Our Father, the Perfect
Prayer,
prayed five times in the recitation of each set of the Rosary's
Mysteries,
backed up by the powerful prayers of Our Mother who prays with us as
we pray
53 Hail Mary's.
The Eternal Father described to a group of us, through a Visionary
Friend of
mine, what happens when we pray the Rosary, saying, "When you
pray Holy Mary
Mother of God, pray for us sinners now....., the Blessed Mother
comes
instantly to your side to pray with you.
And she does not come alone.
She
brings angels with her. And not just one or two for she is the
Queen of
Angels, so choirs of angels come with her.
And she and Jesus are joined at
the heart and cannot be separated
so she brings Jesus with her.
And Jesus
cannot be separated from the Trinity so He brings
the Father and the Holy
Spirit with Him.
And where the Holy Trinity is, all of creation is, and you
are
surrounded by such beauty and light as you cannot imagine in this life.
Your Mother comes as Our Lady of Grace with her hands outstretched.
Rays of
light emit from her hands piercing your body, healing you
and filling you
with graces.
This is your inheritance which was poured out from the heart
of
Jesus on the Cross, when the centurion pierced His Heart with the
spear,
into the only pure vessel ready to receive such graces at that time,
Your
Mother.
Now as you pray the Rosary, or even just recite one Hail Mary,
you
receive your portion of these graces.
He also said at this time, "Anyone who
goes to Mary and prays
the Rosary cannot be touched by Satan."
Is it any
wonder that anyone who prays the Rosary from the heart is
so blessed and
protected and powerful in their prayers for others?
Friday, November 4, 2011
Noise vs. Silence: Where will You Find God?
This is very good and something I think we are all guilty of: too much noise in our life!
Monday, October 31, 2011 "Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life" (from "Extreme Makeover")
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Teresa Tomeo's book, Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture (also available in electronic book format): Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life | Teresa Tomeo
On the cover of my first book, Noise: How Our Media-Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families (mentioned in chapter 1), I have a thought-provoking quote from Pope Benedict XVI: “We are no longer able to hear God. There are too many different frequencies filling our ears.”
Think about that.
The first thing we should be doing when we awaken is get down on our knees or bow our heads in a prayer of thanksgiving for another day.
Instead, most of us hop out of bed and turn on the TV, the radio, or both.
Many also hop on the Internet to check email and turn on their cell phones to start calling or texting a friend or a coworker about this, that or the other thing.
Given the fact that, as we discussed in Chapter 2, children are using media on average 53 hours a week, it’s not a stretch to say that your son or daughter is probably online or in front of the television set before leaving for school.
So now you have all the noise from the media plus the inherent noise of one of the busiest parts of the day coming at you full speed ahead – noise, noise and more noise.
We rush to work and to school with the radio blaring and the cell phone ringing; and before we know it, the day is well under way and we haven’t even taken time to hear what God has to say to us. Then we get angry with God or frustrated when life doesn’t go our way.
We have to silence the noise in our lives if we want to hear from God and live a more peaceful and less stressful life.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said that God cannot be found in noise and restlessness: “God is the friend of silence…. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence…. We need this silence in order to touch souls.”
This is where our “media reality check” enters the picture.
Silencing some of the noise in your life will help you in your prayer life and allow you, as well as your family, to have some beneficial quiet time.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just walk into the house and not have to shout over the television? When was the last time you ate dinner with your family without some interference from modern media technology?
This media reality check, if you’re honest with yourself, will help you and your loved ones assess just how much time you spend watching TV or “friending” people on Facebook.
It will help you detox in terms of learning to limit the amount of time spent with media. The media is a great tool for evangelization, communication, and faith education; unfortunately, most Catholics are not spending their media time listening to Catholic radio or visiting Catholic websites.
That’s why most of us can benefit from applying a media reality check:
• Build a “media-free zone” into your daily routine at home or at work. Silence the noise and allow yourself quiet time (start with 15-30 minutes) with God.
• Take control of the media outlets in your home by taking TVs and computers out of the bedrooms (including yours) and putting them in a central area that allows regular monitoring.
• Set and keep media guidelines in terms of time limits. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours a day of TV for children in grade school and high school, and no TV for children younger than two years of age.
• Keep Family meals completely media free. Turn off the TV and the cell phones. Let voice mail handle your calls.
• Don’t make the TV or the computer the main focal point of your home.
• Think WWJW, or what would Jesus watch?
Spending time soaking up movies or TV programs loaded with sexual or violent content is offensive to God and offensive to your spirit.
What we take from the media on a regular basis can impact our thoughts and behavior. Garbage in, garbage out, is the best way to put it.
That means that our media habits, if they’re more negative than positive, could lead to our not taking our faith or our time with God as seriously.
Conducting a media reality check at least once or twice a year can really boost that spiritual makeover and make it last for a long time to come.
Advent and Lent are great liturgical seasons to do this.
If you have children, why not make the media reality check a family event?
This will help instill solid habits in your children, habits that just might prevent them from needing a major spiritual makeover later in life.
(© 2011 Ignatius Press, San Francisco – All rights reserved. This excerpt can be downloaded as a PDF file from the book's website.)
Posted by Carl Olson on Monday, October 31, 2011 at 12:01 AM | Permalink Digg This | Save to del.icio.us
Monday, October 31, 2011 "Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life" (from "Extreme Makeover")
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7 of Teresa Tomeo's book, Extreme Makeover: Women Transformed by Christ, Not Conformed to the Culture (also available in electronic book format): Make a Concerted Effort to Silence the Noise in Your Life | Teresa Tomeo
On the cover of my first book, Noise: How Our Media-Saturated Culture Dominates Lives and Dismantles Families (mentioned in chapter 1), I have a thought-provoking quote from Pope Benedict XVI: “We are no longer able to hear God. There are too many different frequencies filling our ears.”
Think about that.
The first thing we should be doing when we awaken is get down on our knees or bow our heads in a prayer of thanksgiving for another day.
Instead, most of us hop out of bed and turn on the TV, the radio, or both.
Many also hop on the Internet to check email and turn on their cell phones to start calling or texting a friend or a coworker about this, that or the other thing.
Given the fact that, as we discussed in Chapter 2, children are using media on average 53 hours a week, it’s not a stretch to say that your son or daughter is probably online or in front of the television set before leaving for school.
So now you have all the noise from the media plus the inherent noise of one of the busiest parts of the day coming at you full speed ahead – noise, noise and more noise.
We rush to work and to school with the radio blaring and the cell phone ringing; and before we know it, the day is well under way and we haven’t even taken time to hear what God has to say to us. Then we get angry with God or frustrated when life doesn’t go our way.
We have to silence the noise in our lives if we want to hear from God and live a more peaceful and less stressful life.
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta said that God cannot be found in noise and restlessness: “God is the friend of silence…. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence…. We need this silence in order to touch souls.”
This is where our “media reality check” enters the picture.
Silencing some of the noise in your life will help you in your prayer life and allow you, as well as your family, to have some beneficial quiet time.
Wouldn’t it be nice to just walk into the house and not have to shout over the television? When was the last time you ate dinner with your family without some interference from modern media technology?
This media reality check, if you’re honest with yourself, will help you and your loved ones assess just how much time you spend watching TV or “friending” people on Facebook.
It will help you detox in terms of learning to limit the amount of time spent with media. The media is a great tool for evangelization, communication, and faith education; unfortunately, most Catholics are not spending their media time listening to Catholic radio or visiting Catholic websites.
That’s why most of us can benefit from applying a media reality check:
• Build a “media-free zone” into your daily routine at home or at work. Silence the noise and allow yourself quiet time (start with 15-30 minutes) with God.
• Take control of the media outlets in your home by taking TVs and computers out of the bedrooms (including yours) and putting them in a central area that allows regular monitoring.
• Set and keep media guidelines in terms of time limits. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours a day of TV for children in grade school and high school, and no TV for children younger than two years of age.
• Keep Family meals completely media free. Turn off the TV and the cell phones. Let voice mail handle your calls.
• Don’t make the TV or the computer the main focal point of your home.
• Think WWJW, or what would Jesus watch?
Spending time soaking up movies or TV programs loaded with sexual or violent content is offensive to God and offensive to your spirit.
What we take from the media on a regular basis can impact our thoughts and behavior. Garbage in, garbage out, is the best way to put it.
That means that our media habits, if they’re more negative than positive, could lead to our not taking our faith or our time with God as seriously.
Conducting a media reality check at least once or twice a year can really boost that spiritual makeover and make it last for a long time to come.
Advent and Lent are great liturgical seasons to do this.
If you have children, why not make the media reality check a family event?
This will help instill solid habits in your children, habits that just might prevent them from needing a major spiritual makeover later in life.
(© 2011 Ignatius Press, San Francisco – All rights reserved. This excerpt can be downloaded as a PDF file from the book's website.)
Posted by Carl Olson on Monday, October 31, 2011 at 12:01 AM | Permalink Digg This | Save to del.icio.us
Monday, October 17, 2011
Knights Stab Their brother Knights and the Church
This is a sad day when my brother Knights openly defy Church teaching (and without them the oxymoron of homosexual marriage would not have passed in New York).
Check out this link from Catholic Exchange.
http://catholicexchange.com/2011/10/17/135758/
Check out this link from Catholic Exchange.
http://catholicexchange.com/2011/10/17/135758/
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
New Media, Same Old Bias
This is not what the "new media" is supposed to be about!
New Media, Same Old Bias
Chuck Colson, Columnists
New Media, Same Old Bias
September 26th, 2011 by Charles Colson Print This Article ·ShareThis
Back in the old days — say, 10 years ago — Christians used to complain about liberal media bias. The newspapers and networks had a stranglehold on what was considered news. And because most members of the national media were part of the liberal cultural elite, polite indifference was usually the best we could expect.
Now, of course, all that has changed, right? The mainstream media monopoly has been broken up. You don’t have to rely on ABC, NBC, CBS, or The New York Times to get your news — or to air your views. Technological advances have opened up amazing communication opportunities through outlets like the Web, Facebook, Twitter, smart phones, and more.
But as encouraging as this democratization of communication has been, we’re still facing viewpoint discrimination, and in some ways it’s harder than ever to root out.
The National Religious Broadcasters, the respected evangelical trade group, has issued a new report warning that religious content faces a “clear and present danger of censorship” from Facebook, iTunes, and other new media platforms. The NRB’s Craig Parshall says, “With the single exception of Twitter, all the new media platforms and services that we examined have issued written policies governing citizen users that are clearly inconsistent with the free speech values of the U.S. Constitution.”
Strong words, but proof isn’t hard to find. Remember how Apple dropped our Manhattan Declaration iPhone app because gay-rights activists had complained about the Declaration’s support of traditional marriage? That was not an unfortunate aberration. The NRB report notes, “Of the 425,000 apps available on Apple’s iPhone, the only ones censored by Apple for expressing otherwise lawful viewpoints have been apps with Christian content.”
Then there is the discriminatory policy that Google has just introduced. The Internet search giant has excluded churches and other so-called “proselytizing groups” from free or discounted access to several of its tools, including e-mail, that other nonprofits receive.
Meanwhile, the report says, Facebook has partnered with gay-rights advocates to halt content on its social networking site deemed to be “anti-homosexual.” Friends, that means that traditional Christian teaching about homosexuality and marriage may soon be off limits on Facebook
That’s censorship. The NRB report says all this is not just a question of protecting religious liberty. It’s also an issue of free speech, which is supposedly what the new media are all about.
That’s why the NRB isn’t looking to sue anyone or pass a new law. No, it’s hoping to convince the new media companies to live up to their best ideals and change these injustices voluntarily.
But the NRB could use our help. First, please get a copy of the report, “True Liberty in a New Media Age,” and share it with your friends. You can get a link on our website. Then contact your Internet service provider and other new media platforms and let them know you support free speech and religious liberty.
Ask them what their policies regarding religious speech are. Then let them know, politely and firmly, what you expect. And share your free-speech views with other users. Let’s encourage members of the new media to practice what they preach, and of course, we’ll do the same.
This update courtesy of BreakPoint.
New Media, Same Old Bias
Chuck Colson, Columnists
New Media, Same Old Bias
September 26th, 2011 by Charles Colson Print This Article ·ShareThis
Back in the old days — say, 10 years ago — Christians used to complain about liberal media bias. The newspapers and networks had a stranglehold on what was considered news. And because most members of the national media were part of the liberal cultural elite, polite indifference was usually the best we could expect.
Now, of course, all that has changed, right? The mainstream media monopoly has been broken up. You don’t have to rely on ABC, NBC, CBS, or The New York Times to get your news — or to air your views. Technological advances have opened up amazing communication opportunities through outlets like the Web, Facebook, Twitter, smart phones, and more.
But as encouraging as this democratization of communication has been, we’re still facing viewpoint discrimination, and in some ways it’s harder than ever to root out.
The National Religious Broadcasters, the respected evangelical trade group, has issued a new report warning that religious content faces a “clear and present danger of censorship” from Facebook, iTunes, and other new media platforms. The NRB’s Craig Parshall says, “With the single exception of Twitter, all the new media platforms and services that we examined have issued written policies governing citizen users that are clearly inconsistent with the free speech values of the U.S. Constitution.”
Strong words, but proof isn’t hard to find. Remember how Apple dropped our Manhattan Declaration iPhone app because gay-rights activists had complained about the Declaration’s support of traditional marriage? That was not an unfortunate aberration. The NRB report notes, “Of the 425,000 apps available on Apple’s iPhone, the only ones censored by Apple for expressing otherwise lawful viewpoints have been apps with Christian content.”
Then there is the discriminatory policy that Google has just introduced. The Internet search giant has excluded churches and other so-called “proselytizing groups” from free or discounted access to several of its tools, including e-mail, that other nonprofits receive.
Meanwhile, the report says, Facebook has partnered with gay-rights advocates to halt content on its social networking site deemed to be “anti-homosexual.” Friends, that means that traditional Christian teaching about homosexuality and marriage may soon be off limits on Facebook
That’s censorship. The NRB report says all this is not just a question of protecting religious liberty. It’s also an issue of free speech, which is supposedly what the new media are all about.
That’s why the NRB isn’t looking to sue anyone or pass a new law. No, it’s hoping to convince the new media companies to live up to their best ideals and change these injustices voluntarily.
But the NRB could use our help. First, please get a copy of the report, “True Liberty in a New Media Age,” and share it with your friends. You can get a link on our website. Then contact your Internet service provider and other new media platforms and let them know you support free speech and religious liberty.
Ask them what their policies regarding religious speech are. Then let them know, politely and firmly, what you expect. And share your free-speech views with other users. Let’s encourage members of the new media to practice what they preach, and of course, we’ll do the same.
This update courtesy of BreakPoint.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Divine Mercy Sunday Homily
1 May 2011
I would like to tell you a story for you of a mother and daughter: the daughter (15 years old) ran away from home to seek what the bright lights of the city had to offer and Mom went looking for her. Mom posted a picture of herself everywhere she went with a note on the back. She never found her daughter and went back home after her money ran out. A month later, her daughter, after finding that her new life was miserable and a trap, she saw a picture of her mother taped to a mirror. On the back was a note that said: "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home."
We all have a similar story. One in which we think we know best and take off and then find out how little we actually know. Then our pride gets in the way and we think we’re stuck. No one will take us back because of what we have done: we are unforgiveable.
As God’s people we are called to trust in the mercy of Jesus.
In today’s Gospel we are told that when Jesus appeared in the upper room to the 10 his first words were: “Peace be with you.” He said this not once but twice. Why?
He wanted those 10 to have his peace. They were probably as shocked as they could be to see him standing in their midst, behind closed and locked doors. Then, upon recovering somewhat, they probably started remembering the details of the events of the past Thursday and Friday. How they all ran away and abandoned him in his worst hour or his hour of most need of human friendship. Peter even denied he knew him. Some friends! So, I would imagine there was some guilt upon seeing Jesus. When our human limitations are confronted by divine presence we sense just how imperfect we really are and then we understand our need for mercy.
How do we react when we realize we have sinned? Do we have peace, Christ’s peace? I don’t think so. There is guilt and remorse and maybe a question for ourselves from our self: “Why did I do that? I am a jerk!” Or, a conditional, “I must be a jerk!”
So, the 10 are standing there in their jerkiness and Jesus says “peace.” Our translation says “Peace be with you.” The Greek says “peace to you.” Peace is already among them – Jesus, just as he is among us. We have him here in the tabernacle and Father will soon make Divine Mercy himself present on the altar. In a few minutes we will receive him: body, blood, soul and divinity. We will receive Divine Mercy himself. The Eucharist is not a reward for those who are holy; it is the real bread of life for all of us who are on the journey. In this receiving Divine Mercy all of our venial sins are forgiven (CCC 1394-1395). Our unconfessed mortal sins are not and, if we have any mortal sins, we shouldn’t be receiving him anyway without having confessed those sins.
Then Jesus tells them “as the Father has sent me, I send you” and breathes on them. Is this not the Trinitarian breath of Divine Mercy?
This breathing is reminiscent of the creation story in Genesis where God breathed into the clay of Adam and made him alive. Jesus breathes on the 11 and makes them new and he gives the Holy Spirit. This is John’s version of Pentecost (footnote on 20:22 NAB).
In his breathing on the 11 Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sin. This power to forgive sin is a continuance of Jesus’ saving and redemptive act of Good Friday. It is a continuance of the Divine Mercy of the Old Testament and today, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, that is, Divine Mercy Sunday, is our day to take advantage of this new Pentecost.
When we go to confession we experience the continuance of the Divine Mercy of Good Friday. We fall: we are helped up. This is the story of the Old Testament. The Israelites constantly are redeemed, forgiven by God and they constantly reject him and then, rediscover his goodness, his mercy. We do the same… and when we partake of the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation we are redeemed and rediscover Divine Mercy. We daily sin, we daily reject God’s love – we substitute our will for his, and we are redeemed and forgiven by God’s mercy, if we but ask. Is it no wonder that in today’s Responsorial Psalm we acclaim, “his mercy endures forever”! Trust in God’s mercy.
As we receive the mercy of God, we are then also commanded to be merciful to others. If we aren’t, we will not receive God’s mercy. In Matthew, chapter 5 verse 7 we are told: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” This means we should be the first to extend mercy to our brothers and sisters. We should be the one to dispense mercy, our mercy. Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). We cannot run from this part of Divine Mercy. Trust in the mercy of Jesus!
“Mercy”, or merciful, appears in the Bible a total of 238 times. One might wonder where I am going with this, but bear with me. I used the Ignatian Bible. I choose that one because it doesn’t have a lot in the way of explanation, footnotes study guides and so on. That bible totals 1,065 pages, plus or minus a few. If we divide the number of times “mercy”, or it’s equivalent appears, into 1,065 we get an answer of 4.47. Amazing! The word “mercy”, or something like it, would, statistically, appear every 4 and a half pages in the Bible. I think God is trying to tell us something here! Mercy is very important for us. Trust in His mercy!
I would like for all of us to try this exercise. It’s called the ABC's of mercy: A = ask for God's mercy through confession, B = be merciful as we are commanded to be and do and C = Completely trust in Jesus and he will give us his grace and send us to be ambassadors of his mercy just as he sent the 11.
So, as in the story of the mother taping her picture everywhere she went in looking for her daughter, Jesus is God's picture taped to the cross, inviting us to come home, come home from whatever we have done, from whatever we have become, it doesn’t matter, please come home so his mercy can save us from the power of sin.
I would like to tell you a story for you of a mother and daughter: the daughter (15 years old) ran away from home to seek what the bright lights of the city had to offer and Mom went looking for her. Mom posted a picture of herself everywhere she went with a note on the back. She never found her daughter and went back home after her money ran out. A month later, her daughter, after finding that her new life was miserable and a trap, she saw a picture of her mother taped to a mirror. On the back was a note that said: "Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. Please come home."
We all have a similar story. One in which we think we know best and take off and then find out how little we actually know. Then our pride gets in the way and we think we’re stuck. No one will take us back because of what we have done: we are unforgiveable.
As God’s people we are called to trust in the mercy of Jesus.
In today’s Gospel we are told that when Jesus appeared in the upper room to the 10 his first words were: “Peace be with you.” He said this not once but twice. Why?
He wanted those 10 to have his peace. They were probably as shocked as they could be to see him standing in their midst, behind closed and locked doors. Then, upon recovering somewhat, they probably started remembering the details of the events of the past Thursday and Friday. How they all ran away and abandoned him in his worst hour or his hour of most need of human friendship. Peter even denied he knew him. Some friends! So, I would imagine there was some guilt upon seeing Jesus. When our human limitations are confronted by divine presence we sense just how imperfect we really are and then we understand our need for mercy.
How do we react when we realize we have sinned? Do we have peace, Christ’s peace? I don’t think so. There is guilt and remorse and maybe a question for ourselves from our self: “Why did I do that? I am a jerk!” Or, a conditional, “I must be a jerk!”
So, the 10 are standing there in their jerkiness and Jesus says “peace.” Our translation says “Peace be with you.” The Greek says “peace to you.” Peace is already among them – Jesus, just as he is among us. We have him here in the tabernacle and Father will soon make Divine Mercy himself present on the altar. In a few minutes we will receive him: body, blood, soul and divinity. We will receive Divine Mercy himself. The Eucharist is not a reward for those who are holy; it is the real bread of life for all of us who are on the journey. In this receiving Divine Mercy all of our venial sins are forgiven (CCC 1394-1395). Our unconfessed mortal sins are not and, if we have any mortal sins, we shouldn’t be receiving him anyway without having confessed those sins.
Then Jesus tells them “as the Father has sent me, I send you” and breathes on them. Is this not the Trinitarian breath of Divine Mercy?
This breathing is reminiscent of the creation story in Genesis where God breathed into the clay of Adam and made him alive. Jesus breathes on the 11 and makes them new and he gives the Holy Spirit. This is John’s version of Pentecost (footnote on 20:22 NAB).
In his breathing on the 11 Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sin. This power to forgive sin is a continuance of Jesus’ saving and redemptive act of Good Friday. It is a continuance of the Divine Mercy of the Old Testament and today, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, that is, Divine Mercy Sunday, is our day to take advantage of this new Pentecost.
When we go to confession we experience the continuance of the Divine Mercy of Good Friday. We fall: we are helped up. This is the story of the Old Testament. The Israelites constantly are redeemed, forgiven by God and they constantly reject him and then, rediscover his goodness, his mercy. We do the same… and when we partake of the grace of the Sacrament of Reconciliation we are redeemed and rediscover Divine Mercy. We daily sin, we daily reject God’s love – we substitute our will for his, and we are redeemed and forgiven by God’s mercy, if we but ask. Is it no wonder that in today’s Responsorial Psalm we acclaim, “his mercy endures forever”! Trust in God’s mercy.
As we receive the mercy of God, we are then also commanded to be merciful to others. If we aren’t, we will not receive God’s mercy. In Matthew, chapter 5 verse 7 we are told: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” This means we should be the first to extend mercy to our brothers and sisters. We should be the one to dispense mercy, our mercy. Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). We cannot run from this part of Divine Mercy. Trust in the mercy of Jesus!
“Mercy”, or merciful, appears in the Bible a total of 238 times. One might wonder where I am going with this, but bear with me. I used the Ignatian Bible. I choose that one because it doesn’t have a lot in the way of explanation, footnotes study guides and so on. That bible totals 1,065 pages, plus or minus a few. If we divide the number of times “mercy”, or it’s equivalent appears, into 1,065 we get an answer of 4.47. Amazing! The word “mercy”, or something like it, would, statistically, appear every 4 and a half pages in the Bible. I think God is trying to tell us something here! Mercy is very important for us. Trust in His mercy!
I would like for all of us to try this exercise. It’s called the ABC's of mercy: A = ask for God's mercy through confession, B = be merciful as we are commanded to be and do and C = Completely trust in Jesus and he will give us his grace and send us to be ambassadors of his mercy just as he sent the 11.
So, as in the story of the mother taping her picture everywhere she went in looking for her daughter, Jesus is God's picture taped to the cross, inviting us to come home, come home from whatever we have done, from whatever we have become, it doesn’t matter, please come home so his mercy can save us from the power of sin.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
The Passion Narrative (3)- Good Friday (Chanted)
The final You Tube video of the Passion Narrative, according to John for Good Friday.
Please get to the nearest church to commemorate this Sacred Event (also, please put your mouse over the title and the link will become active)!
Please get to the nearest church to commemorate this Sacred Event (also, please put your mouse over the title and the link will become active)!
The Passion Narrative (2)- Good Friday (Chanted)
Please put your mouse over the title and the link will become active.
The Passion Narrative (1)- Good Friday (Chanted)
Please put your mouse over the title and the link will become active.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
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