Matthew 11: 25-30

The good news revealed to the simple
The Father and the Son

At that time Jesus exclaimed, ‘I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do. Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

The gentle mastery of Christ

‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’

 

This is Father Carter delivering a homily

Fr. Carter's homily:

    In words from today's Gospel, Jesus tells us, "Shoulder my yoke and learn from 

me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." (Mt 11:29) Yes, He bids us, come to His heart to learn all the lessons of the spiritual life. Going to His Heart we certainly learn about love, love of the Father, love of our neighbor in Christ, this magnificent Heart of Jesus which loved His Father even to a brutal death on the Cross for the love of us for our salvation.

    We certainly learn about suffering, how to suffer, from the pierced Heart of Jesus. We also certainly learn that even in the midst of deepest suffering, Jesus wants us to have a spiritual joy and a peace, because He says, "My yoke is easy and my burden light if you unite yourself to Me." He certainly teaches us how to be spiritually sensitive and kind and gentle, and of course – humility. All these and other lessons of the spiritual life, Jesus will teach us if only we come to His Heart.

    An outstanding example of one who I'm sure went constantly to the Heart of Christ was one of the greatest apostles of Jesus' Heart, Claude, St. Claude de la Columbière; and in words which I'm about now to read to you from Claude, you see his complete dedication to Christ, his trust in Christ, his love of Christ, you see his sensitivity of heart. Claude tells us:
 

"You share my burdens,

(He is speaking to Jesus)

You take them upon yourself.
You listen to me fondly when I tell you my troubles.
You never fail to lighten them.
I find You at all times and in all places.
You never leave me.
I will always find You wherever I go.

Old age or misfortune will not cause You to abandon me.
You will never be closer to me than
When all seems to go against me.
No matter how miserable I may be,
You will never cease to be my friend.

You tolerate my faults with admirable patience.
You are always ready to come to me, if I so desire it.

Jesus, may I die praising you!
May I die loving you!
May I die for the love of you."¹
 

Note:

1. St. Claude de la Columbiere, as published by Apostleship of Prayer, Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus.

             March 27, 2022

Joyful Mysteries in Thanksgiving 

The Annunciation

1. Matthew 1: 18-25

Joseph adopts Jesus as his son

This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:

Look! the virgin is with child
    and will give birth to a son
whom they will call Immanuel,

a name which means ‘God–is–with–us’. When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home; he had not had intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.

2. Mary loved the Father’s will.

3. Mary is the New Eve, she always did the Father’s will.

4. Eve disobeyed God.

Genesis 3: 9-13

But Yahweh God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked. 'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.' 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?' The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.' Then Yahweh God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'

5. The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.

6. Sing song: The Angel Gabriel

7. Mary was conceived without sin.

8. Mary is the Immaculate Heart.

9. Mary conceived Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

10. From the Priestly Newsletter Book III by Fr. Edward Carter, S.J.

The Holy Spirit And Mary

The late Archbishop Luis M. Martinez of Mexico strikingly speaks of the ongoing cooperation of Mary with the Holy Spirit regarding the reproduction of Jesus within us: "Christian life is the reproduction of Jesus in souls…

"Now, how will this mystical reproduction be brought about in souls? In the same way in which Jesus was brought into the world, for God gives a wonderful mark of unity to all His works. Divine acts have a wealth of variety because they are the work of omnipotence; nevertheless, a most perfect unity always shines forth from them because they are the fruit of wisdom; and this divine contrast of unity and variety stamps the works of God with sublime and unutterable beauty.

"In His miraculous birth, Jesus was the fruit of heaven and earth…The Holy Spirit conveyed the divine fruitfulness of the Father to Mary, and the virginal soil brought forth in an ineffable manner our most loving Savior, the divine Seed, as the prophets called Him…

"That is the way He is reproduced in souls. He is always the fruit of heaven and earth.

"Two artisans must concur in the work that is at once God’s masterpiece and humanity’s supreme product: the Holy Spirit and the most holy Virgin Mary. Two sanctifiers are necessary to souls, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, for they are the only ones who can reproduce Christ.

"Undoubtedly, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary sanctify us in different ways. The first is the Sanctifier by essence; because He is God, who is infinite sanctity; because He is the personal Love that completes, so to speak, the sanctity of God, consummating His life and His unity, and it belongs to Him to communicate to souls the mystery of that sanctity. The Virgin Mary, for her part, is the co-operator, the indispensable instrument in and by God’s design. From Mary’s maternal relation to the human body of Christ is derived her relation to His Mystical Body which is being formed through all the centuries until the end of time, when it will be lifted up to the heavens, beautiful, splendid, complete, and glorious.

"These two, then, the Holy Spirit and Mary, are the indispensable artificers of Jesus, the indispensable sanctifiers of souls. Any saint in heaven can co-operate in the sanctification of a soul, but his co-operation is not necessary, not profound, not constant: while the co-operation of these two artisans of Jesus of whom we have just been speaking is so necessary that without it souls are not sanctified (and this by the actual design of Providence), and so intimate that it reaches to the very depths of our soul. For the Holy Spirit pours charity into our heart, makes a habitation of our soul, and directs our spiritual life by means of His gifts. The Virgin Mary has the efficacious influence of Mediatrix in the most profound and delicate operations of grace in our souls. And, finally, the action of the Holy Spirit and the co-operation of the most holy Virgin Mary are constant; without them, not one single character of Jesus would be traced on our souls, no virtue grow, no gift be developed, no grace increased, no bond of union with God be strengthened in the rich flowering of the spiritual life.

"Such is the place that the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary have in the order of sanctification. Therefore, Christian piety should put these two artisans of Christ in their true place, making devotion to them something necessary, profound, and constant." ¹⁸

18. Archbishop Luis M. Martinez, The Sanctifier, op. cit. pp. 5-7.

 

The Visitation

1. Luke 1: 39-45

Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah. She went into Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a loud cry and said, ‘Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord? Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy. Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.’ 

2. Elizabeth had conceived in her old age, for nothing is impossible with God.

3. When Mary arrived with Jesus in her womb the babe in Elizabeth’s womb, leapt for joy at the sight of Mary.

4. Mary cried out the Magnificat.

5. “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”

6. Sing song: See the Eyes That Look at Mary

7. Sing Song: God’s Love

8. Sing Song: Hail Mary, Gentle Woman

9. Sing: The Rosary Song

10. Sing: Ave, Ave, Ave, Maria

 

 

The Birth of Jesus

1. Luke 2:1-7

Now it happened that at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be made of the whole inhabited world. This census—the first—took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee for Judaea, to David’s town called Bethlehem, since he was of David’s House and line, in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. Now it happened that, while they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to a son, her first–born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living–space. 
 

2. The heavenly Father allowed Mary to appear at Fatima, and she told us what we must do. She told us that in order to have peace in the world we must give our hearts to her and give our hearts to her Son, Jesus.

She said that if we did not pay attention to her there would be a great war. Man ignored the pleading of Our Lady at Fatima, and there was World War II. Many, many, many people were killed. They suffered a brutal death.

3. At Fatima, she showed the three young children the fires of hell. They were very young, and they said they would have died of fright had Our Lady not assured them that they would not go to hell.

4. Why would Our Lady appear to children and show children the souls suffering in the fires in hell?

5. Mary appears at Fatima, and she is ignored. To this very day we do not do what Mary told us to do at Fatima. At Fatima she promised in the end the Sacred Heart of Jesus will reign, and her heart will triumph.

 6. Jesus Christ came into the world in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He came as the Light of the World. He will be, in this great era of peace to come, the King and the center of all hearts.

7. He came in poverty. He was born in a stable. He came to show us that the great riches are not found in the riches of the world, that they are found in Him. He is the King, but He comes into this world in poverty.

8. The greatest riches are found in the Heart of Christ.

9. It is so simple. Why do we not love God, why do we not love one another?

10. Why does man think that he can ignore God, that he is in control, that he can do his own will?

 

 

The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

1. The old man Simeon said in the Temple that "Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed-" (Lk. 2:34)

2. And he said to Mary, "and a sword will pierce your soul too-so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare." (Lk. 2:35)

3. Mary is the Mother of all the children of the world, and look how she is treated by so many of her children. Many abuse her name. They abuse her images. They do not love her. She is their Mother, and they do not love her.

4. Mary told us at Fatima what we must do in order to have peace in this world. The fourth commandment tells us we must obey our earthly mother. What makes us think that we do not have to obey our heavenly Mother?

5. She said that man was sinful and that he was offending God. She said to Jacinta before she died, "I can no longer restrain the hand of my Divine Son from striking the world with just punishment for its many crimes." 29

6. Here it is 80 years after Fatima and we have disobeyed our heavenly Mother and the wishes that she gave to us when she appeared at Fatima. After World War II you would think that everyone would have heeded her message of Fatima.

7. Satan goes about the earth as a roaring lion, searching for souls to devour. When Mary showed the children at Fatima the fires of hell, she was telling them that hell was a reality and that we must go about the world and try to lead others to her Son.

8. What if you were one of the children at Fatima and our Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to you, in her light, and in her beauty? What if she said, "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go...If my requests are granted, Russia will be converted and there will be peace. If not, she will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be destroyed..." 30  What if she showed you the fires of hell and the souls suffering? Would you help?

9. Would your life change if Mary appeared to you and told you these things? Would you go and spend your life trying to tell others about the vision that she gave to you? Would you take this with the utmost urgency? If Mary was appearing to you, would you do something to heed her warnings?

10. Remember Noah and the Ark? The people were sinning up to the time that Noah entered the Ark.

 

 

 

The Finding of Jesus in the Temple

1. They were warned. They were warned over and over again of their sinfulness. They were told that they must change, but they would not obey and so God told Noah to build an Ark.

2. And all men were destroyed, but those men on Noah's Ark.

3. Mary searched for the Child Jesus in the Temple. Today, there are many searching for those things that will make them happy. We will not be happy if our lives are not rooted in God.

4. We must go to Mary in order to be close to God. As Noah went into the Ark for his refuge, we to must go to the heart of Mary. She is the Ark that will lead us to the Heart of her Son.

5. So many this day are sinning. They must go to the temple. Mary is the temple that we go to, in order to find God. We go to her spiritual womb, to her heart, and we find God. We must do as Our Lady told us at Fatima, and give Mary our hearts. All through the day we give Mary our hearts and Jesus our hearts.

6. This is our job, to spread the Fatima message, to do what Mary has told us to do at Fatima, to give Jesus our hearts, and to tell all the other youth that we must do what Mary said at Fatima. We must give Mary and Jesus our hearts, pray the rosary, go to church on first Saturday, and tell Jesus and Mary we are sorry for the sins in this world.

7. Mary's peace plan is so simple to follow. We have disobeyed our heavenly Mother at Fatima. Mary appeared on July 13, 1917 to the three children. Mary showed the three children a vision of hell. She told them,

 "You have seen Hell, where the souls of poor sinners go. To save them, God wishes to establish, in the world, devotion to my Immaculate Heart. If people do what I tell you, many souls will be saved and there will be peace."31

We must obey Mary. The plan is the same plan today. We must reach the youth of this world with the consecration We must tell them to give their hearts to Jesus and Mary.

8. Mary is the temple. We will find Jesus if we go to Mary.

Song: "Oh Holy Dwelling Place of God..."

9. We have been given great gifts from Our Lord and from Our Lady. We want to be leaders, to lead other young people to Jesus and to Mary. We must thank them for the gifts we are given, for what we do with our lives will make the difference to so many souls. She showed the children the souls in hell. Visualize this as clearly as possible in your mind. What you do to help to spread the message of His love will make the difference to so many souls.

10. Can we truly look at our Mother, Mary? See her before us, adorned in the greatest light. See her glistening? Look into her beautiful face, into her eyes. Tell her we must help to lead her children to the Heart of her Son, that you will help her to help others so they will not be lost to the fires of hell forever.

NOTES:

27. Our Lady of Fatima's Peace Plan from Heaven [Rockford: TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., 1983], pp. 9-10.
28. Rev. Edward Carter, S.J., Spirituality of Fatima and Medjugorje, [Milford: Faith Publishing Co., 1994], p. 18.
29. Our Lady's Peace Plan, op. cit., pp. 9-10.
30. Ibid., pp. 4-5.
31. Ibid., p. 4.