Our True Country is Paradise

And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country (Matthew 2:12).

We should seek the wisdom of the Church Fathers as part of a regular spiritual reading agenda. They have a way of explaining Scripture so that it is useful for all generations and times. They get to the heart of Scripture passages so that it is not just a bible story, but something that is very real right where we are in the here and now. For the above Scripture verse, for example, Saint Gregory has passed this along through the centuries: "In returning to their own land by another way, the Magi intimate something to us of great importance. Our true country is Paradise, to which, having now come to the knowledge of Jesus, we are forbidden to return by the path we left it. For we left our land by the path of pride, of disobedience, by following after wealth, by eating forbidden food. And so we must return another way: by the way of tears, by the way of obedience, by contempt of the world, by restraining the desires of the flesh" (Homily X in Evang.).

We live in a culture today that has flooded our homes with immorality through the television, the computer and magazines to name only a few. Parents today even have to screen the cartoons their kids watch. It's commonplace to turn on the televsion and see a show with scenes of two unmarried people sharing a bed, or scenes of violence, adultery -- you name it, it's there. But these examples have lost their shock value and reached an alarming degree of acceptance. Our culture now has a high level of desensitization to such things. The human will has been severely weakened.

As Catholic Christians, a way to get off this ill-advised path and to strenghten the will comes through conformity to the will of God, id est, self-abandonment. Don't feel like praying? Pray anyway! Feel like skipping Mass this Sunday? Don't! Well, it's raining, maybe I'll pass on going to Confession. No! Go! These are only a few examples of the temptations we face and how we can conform to God's will doing what we know He would want us to do. And such acts are acts of love, how we show our love for Him.

Every time we pray, every time we make a holy hour, every time we read Scripture, every time we go to Confession, every time we receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament should be occurrences that change us. If we are determined to do God's will, then these are also weapons needed to fight the battle, and the armor to resist the enemy's attacks.

We know that Jesus is Lord, thus, as Saint Gregory tells us, we are forbidden to journey on the unsafe roads. Our Lord tells us that the road to Life is narrow and the wide road leads to destruction (cf. Matthew 7:13-14). The road to Paradise is narrow but straight; and turning off on to the side streets is either a Dead End or like a wintry road, Slippery.

Saint Gregory tells us that these side streets contain pride and disobedience. We see such examples in the Church today by not believing or accepting all Church teachings and by not going to Confession. Oddly enough, not going to Confession leads to another of Saint Gregory's examples: forbidden food. The Eucharist is forbidden Food if one has avoided Confession and has mortal sin on the soul. Saint Jean-Marie Vianney certainly didn't mince words when he wrote: "How many have the temerity to approach the holy table with sins hidden and disguised in confession. How many have not that sorrow which the good God wants from them, and preserve a secret willingness to fall back into sin, and do not put forth all their exertions to amend. How many do not avoid the occasions of sin when they can, or preserve enmity in their hearts even at the holy table. If you have ever been in these dispositions in approaching Holy Communion, you have committed a sacrilege. It attacks the Person of Jesus Christ Himself instead of scorning only His Commandments, like other mortal sins." And anyone with a conscience would not be pleased to hear from this great saint that by receiving Communion unworthily he "crucifies Jesus Christ in his heart."

This is a tough spiritual battle that is being fought and conforming to God's will is the way to stay close to Him so that eventually those destructive side streets will have road blocks.

Epiphany of the Lord

Even from amid the obscurity in which Christ chose to be born, there could not but flash out upon the world, of which He was the Master, some gleam to light up the birth of the Infant Savior, and to show that, Child though He was, with all the touching helplessness of infancy, yet He was something different from any child of Adam, that God had ever given into the arms of a human mother. He came weak and helpless, an Infant and a Pauper – not even sheltered from the blasts of winter – but nevertheless, He was the Son of God. Accordingly, it is in no way wonderful that many a strange movement and unwonted stir should take place around His very cradle.

God’s power, as it were, burst forth irrepressibly, and flooded that holy eastern land with wonders and with signs. Heaven and earth seemed to be brought closer together than they had ever been since that brief bright day, when God walked with Adam and Eve through the fresh flowers of Paradise. Angels left the calm beatitude of heaven to busy themselves, at God’s behest, about the affairs of men. There had be a song of jubilee, that made the moonlit stillness of the shepherd’s night-watch, tremble with the melodies of angelic choirs.

The mercy of God was wider than the world, however sinful the world was. Though men had forgotten God, God had not forgotten them; and this Jewish Child Who was born to be a Savior, was to be the Savior of not Jew alone, but of Gentile, of every race, and tribe, and tongue, under the broad canopy of the merciful heaven.

There appeared like some strange vision in the streets of Jerusalem three men, whose garb and bearing betokened that they came from some far eastern land. They bore upon them the marks of long travel, but there was something in their bearing that, travel-stained and toil-worn though they were, proclaimed them chiefs of men – and the Scripture gives them the name of kings and they told a wonderful tale: that, in the bosom of their people, had lain for many a century a tradition that One would be born a Savior, and that a star would rise in heaven to announce His coming. And at length the Hand of God sent the long-looked-for star flashing in their eastern skies; and at once, drawn by the inspiring grace of God, they left their homes, and journeyed through many a wild waste place; and the star went before them always till it led them to Jerusalem; and there the one question they had to ask was this: “Where is He that is born,” etc. And the news was brought to Herod; and Herod was troubled in mind. He was king of the Jews, and here was a rumor of some Child he knew not, Who would wrench the scepter from his hand, and leave him crownless. And from this trouble sprang a wicked and crafty design. He would find out this Child, and having found Him, he would, without pity, cut off the young life that threatened to destroy his power. The chief priests and scribes were called together, and the sacred books were opened, and with certain voice they proclaimed that Bethlehem was the place to seek the newly-born King.

And so, three wise kings hastened forward to Bethlehem, and found the Child; and their eyes, lit by faith, pierced beneath the surface, and they recognized in Him the King Who was to rule, the God Who was to be adored, and the Man Who was in the after-time to suffer and to die. The kings have gone to their rest many a long year: we are in their place today. And shall we let the occasion pass without making to the Infant Jesus the offerings for which He stretches out His Hands?

Gold – shall we give gold? Ah! Gold is perishable, and Jesus has chosen to be poor; earthly gold He does not need nor care for. But there is gold He wants. He wants the gold of our heart’s best love. This is a treasure that God has put into every human heart. And the noblest heart that ever beat in human breast, has nothing greater to give man or God than the priceless gold of its affection. And what incense shall we offer to Him Who is our God? What, think you, is the most grateful incense that goes up from this earth to the Throne of God? It is the incense of the prayers of the hearts that love Him. Offer Him this – the prayer of adoration, by which we acknowledge Him as our God, the prayer of petition, by which to supply our wants, the prayer of thanksgiving, by which we show our gratitude for the countless favors He has lavished upon us.

These two gifts shall be offered to God by His elect, both for time and eternity. Love and prayer will be the eternal business of the saints of God.

But here on earth another gift is needed to make us saints: for we have not only a soul, but a body, and a body that, with its depraved senses, makes war against the soul; the body that first corrupts itself, and then extends its corruption to the soul. That body we must save from corruption by the third offering of myrrh, the myrrh of mortification; denying ourselves first what is unlawful, and even in many things denying ourselves what is lawful, that we may keep a firmer hold upon the passions which, unless kept in check, would overrun and lay waste our whole spiritual life.

~Excerpted from a homily by Father Joseph Farrell, ordained a priest in 1865, a Professor in Carlow College, Ireland, where he remained until 1868. He died in the year 1885 at the age of 44~

Being Bread

Jesus, gentle and humble of Heart,

You are the Bread of Life;

help me to live my life hidden in Your Eucharistic Heart

in the Presence of our Father

united in the love and power of Your Holy Spirit.

Give me a listening heart,

a heart to love You for Your own Sake,

to love You in myself,

and to love You in my brothers and sisters as You have loved.

Consume me in the fire of Your love.

Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word and my Mother,

you are the first "house of bread."

Help me to live in perfect love by being:

the bread of Humility and Abandonment to the Father's will;

the bread of Sincerity and Truth,

the bread of Purity of Heart;

the bread of Word and Eucharist;

the bread of Simplicity, Poverty and Littleness;

the bread of Silence and Solitude;

the bread of Prayer and Contemplation;

the bread of Reconciliation and Peace;

the bread of Interior and Joyful Suffering;

the bread of Charity and Desert Hospitality,

broken and offered with Jesus to the merciful Father

and shared for the salvation of the world.

Holy Mary, Lady of Bethlehem, Queen of the Desert,

guide me in the journey of the Spirit that,

together with you,

I may participate in the wedding feast of the Risen Lamb

until at last I may sing an eternal Magnificat of Love and Praise,

face to Face,

before our All-Holy Triune God. Amen.

~A Way of Desert Spirituality, The Plan of Life of the Hermits of Bethlehem

by Father Eugene L. Romano, Founder of the Hermits of Bethlehem, Chester, New Jersey~

SANCTISSIMI NOMINIS IESU

You shall call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

It is the Name which Saint Paul tells us is above all names – JESUS – and at His Name every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord (cf. Philippians 2:9-11). Also from Sacred Scripture are these words: “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and magnify Your Name?” (Revelation 15:4).

I’ve just had the great pleasure of praying First Vespers from the Roman Breviary for the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, which includes Saint Bernard of Clairvaux’s exquisite hymn, “Iesu Dulcis Memoria”. Rather than provide a translation of that hymn here, Vultus Christi has provided a beautiful translation by Gerard Manley Hopkins, so please check that out.

The Name of “Jesus” alone is a great source for prayer. Quite popular in Eastern Christianity is the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” There are variations to this prayer including just simply saying the Name of “Jesus”.

But words aren’t even necessary. In Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s Epistle to the Ephesians, he wrote: “It is better for a man to be silent and be [a Christian] than to talk and not be one. He who possesses the word of Jesus, is truly able to hear even his very silence, that he may be perfect and be recognized by his silence” (Chapter 15).

A great promoter of the Holy Name devotion was Saint Bernardine of Siena. Excerpted from one of his homilies, are these words: “The Name of Jesus is the glory of preachers, because the shining splendor of that Name causes his word to be proclaimed and heard. This Name must be proclaimed, that it may shine out and never be suppressed. And how do you think such an immense, sudden and dazzling light of faith came into the world, if not because Jesus was preached? Was it not through the brilliance and sweet savor of this Name that God called us into His marvelous light? When we have been enlightened, and in that same light behold the light of heaven, rightly may the apostle Paul say to us: Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light” (Sermo 49, De Glorioso Nomine Iesu Christi).

Cheating a little bit and taking a quick peak ahead to the hour of Matins I read the edifying words of Saint Bernard saying that the Name of Jesus is: mel in ore (honey in the mouth), in aure melos (a melody in the ear), and in corde iubilus (joyfulness in the heart).

SANCTÆ MARIÆ IN SABBATO

Mary is God's garden of Paradise, His own unspeakable world, into which His Son entered to do wonderful things, to tend it and to take His delight in it. He created a world for the wayfarer, that is, the one we are living in. He created a second world -- Paradise -- for the Blessed. He created a third for Himself, which He named Mary. She is a world unknown to most mortals here on earth. Even the angels and saints in heaven find her incomprehensible, and are lost in admiration of a God who is so exalted and so far above them, so distant from them, and so enclosed in Mary, His chosen world, that they exclaim: "Holy, holy, holy" unceasingly.

Happy, indeed sublimely happy, is the person to whom the Holy Spirit reveals the secret of Mary, thus imparting to him true knowledge of her. Happy the person to whom the Holy Spirit opens this enclosed garden for him to enter, and to whom the Holy Spirit gives access to this sealed fountain where he can draw water and drink deep draughts of the living waters of grace. That person will find only God and no creature in the most lovable Virgin Mary. But he will find that the infinitely holy and exalted God is at the same time infinitely solicitous for him and understands his weaknesses. There is no place where God can be more present to His creature and more sympathetic to human weakness than in Mary. It was indeed for this very purpose that He came down from heaven. Everywhere else He is the Bread of the strong and the Bread of angels, but living in Mary He is the Bread of children.

Mary was created only for God, and it is unthinkable that she should reserve even one soul for herself. On the contrary she leads every soul straight to God and to union with Him. The more a person joins himself to her, the more effectively she unites him to God. When we say "Mary," she re-echoes "God."

If we wish to go to Him, seeking union with Him, we must use the same means He used in coming down from heaven to assume our human nature and to impart His graces to us. That means was a complete dependence on Mary His Mother, which is true devotion to her.

~"Secret of Mary" by Saint Louis Marie de Montfort~

SIGNUM CRUCIS

For the word of the cross, to those indeed that perish, is foolishness; but to those that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). With Christ I am nailed to the cross. And I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me. And that I live now in the flesh, I live in the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and delivered Himself for me (Galatians 2:20). God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

As Catholics, the Sign of the Cross is something we make often. Perhaps it is so repetitious that it is often a robotic gesture, something that is done without much thought or personal attention. But the Sign of the Cross is also a prayer and should be made with the same care as the most urgent petitions that approach the Throne of grace. The Sign of the Cross expresses the belief in our redemption and our belief in the Most Holy Trinity.

Tertullian, an early Church Father, wrote: "In all our travels and movements, in all our comings and goings, in putting on our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever employment occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the Sign of the Cross" (Liber De Corona Militis). And from Saint Cyril of Jerusalem are these words: "Let us not be ashamed of the cross of our Savior, but rather glory in it. For it was not a mere man who died for us, but the Son of God, God made man. Many have been crucified throughout the world, but by none of these are the devils scared; but when they see even the Sign of the Cross of Christ, Who was crucified for us, they shudder (Catechesis XIII).

There is more than one way that the Sign of the Cross can be made. In her book, "An Infinity of Little Hours" the author, Nancy Klein Macguire, writes: "They [the Carthusian monks] have their own Carthusian Sign of the Cross: to honor the Trinity, they make the Sign of the Cross with their first two fingers and thumb held together, their gesture describing a uniquely large cross, with their hands brushing the outside of each shoulder." Eastern rite Catholics and Orthodox Christians make the Sign of the Cross similar to the Carthusians only the direction is different. In the East they touch the right shoulder first and then the left.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous had the great pleasure of being taught by our Blessed Mother how to make the Sign of the Cross. Father Robert F. McNamara, author of Saints Alive wrote: "Whether in the rosary or at any other time, from the days of the Lourdes apparitions on, Bernadette was noted for the wonderful way she made the Sign of the Cross. One observer at the grotto later wrote, 'If the Sign of the Cross is made in heaven, it can only be made in this manner.' Everybody marveled at the way she crossed herself -- slowly, reverently, 'with majesty.' 'It is important to make it well,' she told one of her fellow novices in the convent. The sisters respected the way she blessed herself, because they knew who had taught her. It was Our Lady herself, during the Lourdes apparitions."

It has also been said that there are those, after witnessing Saint Bernadette make the Sign of the Cross, had a conversion experience. Regardless of what style or tradition one follows, the Sign of the Cross should be made with great reverence, because like genuflecting and bowing, it is yet another way that we pray with the physical body.

The Glorious and ever Blessed Mother of God

It is certain that if we look around on earth for a type and representation of the best and purest possible affection; if we look for love in its utmost intensity, in its most unselfish simplicity, in its sweetest tenderness, there at once arises to our minds that natural affection which binds the mother to her child. For that pledge of God's love she is ready to sacrifice herself, forgetting every consideration; not only will she sacrifice health and all the pleasures of life, but life itself, if necessary; and we cannot imagine a being more ready to give her existence for another than the mother who sees her child in danger and resolves at once to make herself an oblation for its safety. So remarkable is this affection, that God has beautifully chosen it as the representation of His own love for man. He could not give us any image more complete to show the tenderness of His love for us, than by comparing Himself, not to a father, but to a mother: "Can a mother forget the child of her womb? And even if she should forget it, yet will I not forget thee" (Isaiah 49:15).

This love of the mother, however beautiful, however natural, however commended, and again and again inculcated by the law of God, may become a dangerous affection, inasmuch as it may know no bounds, and possibly absorb all that divine love due to the Creator and Giver of all things. This danger is illustrative of the force and power of the mother's affection for the child.

To only one being on earth -- to only one of God's creatures has it ever been, or ever will be, granted that this love could not be misplaced -- could not become excessive. For, by virtue of the maternity of Mary, she was constituted the Mother of God; and there was no possible danger of her ever carrying the maternal affections, I will not say into excess, but even to the nearest approach of anything that was not pure and perfect, holy and most acceptable. The caresses she lavished upon her Child she lavished upon God. Exercising the right of the mother, she embraced her Child, and it was God she embraced. Every time she administered to Him the nourishment which His infancy was pleased to require, she was giving to the Incarnate God a part of herself, bestowing upon God a gift which no other being was entitled or permitted to confer. Taking the highest, the most pure and perfect standard of human love, she was privileged to exercise it toward her God, so that it was impossible by any effort of her virginal heart to love too much, for she was loving God with all the power of a mother's affection for her child, and was, at the same time, rendering the love which others could only direct to the creature, to her Creator.

Surely, then, my brethren, we have here, referable to the maternity of our dear and blessed Lady, all that constitutes at once, in this earthly love of the mother for her child and divine love of the creature for her God, saintliness in its highest possible perfection.

Her love is perfect, her conformity is rendered eternal and her cooperation with Jesus continual in that constant flow of her kindness to us, in that perpetual representing of our wants to her Divine Son, in her faithful intercession for us all, consistently with her singular prerogative as the Mother of God. Then, beloved brethren, cease not in your affection to her. Mind not more than you do the winds that fly past you, words which you may hear in disparagement of this most beautiful devotion, as if the worship of our Divine Lord suffered from devotion to her. Pray frequently in your necessities to her, in your wants, in your trials, personal or domestic, and feel sure that she will attend to your petitions. Be assured that link that bound Him to her on earth, and continues to unite Him to her in heaven, also binds us to her, so that in Jesus and Mary we have our confidence, our hope, and , in the end, eternal bliss.

~Excerpted from a homily given at Dublin Cathedral by Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Wiseman (1802-1865), first Archbishop of Westminster~