I am the good
shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his
sheep. The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the
sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he
sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks
and scatters the sheep; he runs away because he is only a
hired man and has no concern for the sheep. I am the good
shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, just as the
Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my
life for my sheep. (Jn
10:11-151)
The Good Shepherd gave His
life so that we may have life and have it in abundance. In
this issue we offer an overview of the life Jesus came to
give. We begin by presenting a brief sketch of the spiritual
life. This will be followed by content which speaks in a
more detailed manner about the various dimensions of the
spiritual life -- our life in Christ.
A Sketch of the
Spiritual Life
The Christian life is
rooted in the great event of the Incarnation. We must
consequently always focus our gaze upon Christ, realizing
that the Father has spoken to us in the life, death,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. It only remains for
us, then, to strive to understand with greater insight the
inexhaustible truth of the Word Incarnate (Heb 1:1-2).
What was the condition of
the human race at the time of Christ’s coming? In some ways,
people were much the same as we are today. There were those
just being born into this world of human drama. There were
those who, in death, were leaving it, some of whom had
grasped but little of life’s meaning. There were those who
were healthy and vigorous. There were those who were sick
and lame. Some especially felt the burdens, the grief, the
suffering of the human condition. Others were ebullient and
desired all the pleasures life could provide. There was some
good being accomplished. Immorality, however, was rampant.
What St. Paul tells us concerning the time that immediately
followed Christ’s existence certainly could also be applied
to the time of His entrance into the world. It is, in short,
an ugly picture that St. Paul depicts for us (Rom 1:22-32).
Into such a depraved
condition Jesus entered, with a full and generous Heart, to
lead the human race from the depths of sinfulness to the
vibrant richness of a new life in Himself. Through His
enfleshment, this Christ became the focal point of all
history. The authentic hopes and dreams of the human family,
now so overshadowed by the ugliness of sin, came converging
upon this Christ. He would gather them up in Himself, give
them a new luster and brilliance and dynamism, and would
lead the human family back to the Father in the Holy Spirit.
Christ was radically to
release us from the dominion of sin and elevate us to a new
level of existence. This life Christ has given us is not a
type of superstructure which is erected atop human
existence. Although nature and grace are distinct, they do
not lie side by side as separate entities. Rather, grace
permeates nature. The Christian is one graced person. The
Christian is one who has been raised up, caught up, into a
deeper form of life in Christ Jesus. Nothing that is
authentically human in the life of the Christian has been
excluded from this new existence. Whatever is really human
in the life of the Christian is meant to be an expression of
the Christ-life. The simple but deep joys of family life,
the wonderment at nature’s beauty, the warm embrace of a
mother for her child, the agony of crucial decision making,
the success or frustration that is experienced in one’s
work, the joy of being well received by others, and the
heartache of being misunderstood—all these experiences are
intended to be caught up in Christ and made more deeply
human because of Him.
Jesus has come, then, not
to destroy anything that is authentically human, but to
perfect it by leading it to a graced fulfillment. The more
God-like we become through Christ, the more human we become.
We, through our
incorporation into Christ which occurs at Baptism, are meant
to relive the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In
doing so, we are not only accomplishing our own salvation,
but we are assisting in the salvation of others also. The
Incarnation continues all the time. Christ, or course, is
the one Who fundamentally continues the Incarnation. But He
enlists our help. The world no longer sees Jesus, no longer
is able to reach out and touch Him. We are the ones who now,
in some way, make Christ visible and tangible. In union with
the invisible, glorified Christ, and depending on Him as our
source of life, we continue the Incarnation in its visible
and temporal dimensions. This is our great privilege. This
is our great responsibility.
The Christian is initiated
into the mystery of Christ, into his or her role in
prolonging the Incarnation, through Baptism (Rom 6:3-4).
It is not sufficient,
however, that we be incorporated into Christ through
Baptism. All forms of life require nourishment. So, too, our
life in Christ must be continually nourished. How can we
continually keep in contact with Christ? There are various
ways as we live our life within the Church. We contact
Christ in a most special way through the liturgy, above all
in the Eucharistic liturgy. Through our most special and
most personal meeting with Jesus in the Mass, we are more
deeply incorporated into Christ. Also, we should remember
that all the sacraments make up part of the Church’s
liturgy.
The reading of Scripture
provides another special opportunity for meeting Jesus. This
is true for both Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament
prefigures the New Testament and leads to it. It is obvious,
however, that we meet Christ especially in the pages of the
New Testament. How true it is to say that not to be familiar
with Scripture is not to know Jesus properly. We should
resolve to read from Scripture daily.
We also meet Jesus in our
interaction with others. Everyone we meet, everyone we
serve, is in the image of Jesus. We have to take the means
to grow in this awareness. If I truly believe that everyone
has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, how should I treat
everyone?
These, then, are some of
the ways we keep in contact with Jesus. Common to the
various ways of meeting Jesus is a certain degree of
prayerful reflection. Our contact with Jesus in the liturgy,
in Scripture, and in our interaction with others, and so
forth, will not be all that it should be unless we are
persons of prayer. The light and strength of prayer enables
us to keep in contact with Jesus as we should.
We live out our
Christ-life in an atmosphere of love. Indeed, the life Jesus
has given us is centered in love. It has its origins in the
mysterious love of God (Jn 3:16).
Our new life in Jesus has
arisen out of God’s fathomless love. Christ, in His descent
into human flesh, has established a milieu of love. The life
He came to give can flourish only in the framework of love.
Indeed, we can summarize the meaning of the Christian life
by stating that it is our loving response to God’s love. The
pierced Heart of Jesus, this Heart which shed its last drop
of blood in the greatest love for each one of us, is the
symbol of God’s tremendous love for us. Christ’s Heart also
calls us to respond by giving ourselves in love to God and
neighbor. Yes, Jesus invites us to respond to God’s love by
giving ourselves in love to Him in an ever closer union. The
more closely we are united to Him, the greater is our
capacity to love God and neighbor. The more closely we are
united with Jesus, the more closely He unites us to the
Father in the Holy Spirit, with Mary our Mother at our side.
The spiritual life, the
life of holiness, begins at Baptism. Archbishop Luis
Martinez says:
"When we are born we are
endowed by God with all we need for our human life, a
complete organism, and a soul with the full range of
faculties. Of course they are not all developed from birth,
but we have them then as the source of everything we are
going to need in life. And thus it is also in the spiritual
order. When someone is baptized, he receives in all its
fullness that supernatural world which the Christian carries
within his soul. He receives grace, which is a participation
of the nature of God; the theological virtues, which put him
in immediate contact with the divine; the moral virtues,
which serve to regulate and order all his life; and the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, the divine, mysterious receivers
for picking up the Spirit’s inspirations and movements."2
Another author states:
"The Three Divine Persons inhabit the sanctuary of our soul,
taking their delight in enriching it with supernatural gifts
and in communicating to us a Godlike life, similar to
theirs, called the life of grace.
"All life, however,
implies a threefold element: a vital principle that
is, so to speak, the source of life itself; faculties
which give the power to elicit vital acts; and lastly, the
acts themselves which are but its development and which
minister to its growth. In the supernatural order, God
living within us produces the same elements. He first
communicates to us habitual grace (the life of
sanctifying grace) which plays the part of a vital
supernatural principle. This principle deifies, as it
were, the very substance of the soul and makes it capable,
though in a remote way, of enjoying the Beatific Vision and
of performing the acts that lead to it.
"Out of this grace spring
the infused virtues and the gifts of the Holy
Spirit which perfect our faculties and endow us with the
immediate power of performing Godlike, supernatural,
meritorious acts.
"In order to stir these
faculties into action, He give us actual graces which
enlighten our mind, strengthen our will, and aid us both to
act supernaturally and to increase the measure of habitual
grace that has been granted to us.
"Although this life of
grace is entirely distinct from our natural life it is not
merely superimposed on the latter. It penetrates it
through and through, transforms it and makes it divine.
It assimilates whatever is good in our nature, our education
and our habits. It perfects and supernaturalizes all these
various elements, directing them toward the last end, that
is toward the possession of God through the Beatific Vision
and its resultant life." 3
Our being in the state of
sanctifying of grace and the special indwelling of the
Persons of the Trinity within us always exist together. We
cannot have the one without the other. Our life of grace,
which is a sharing in Trinitarian life, allows us to know
and love Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in a most intimate
fashion. Through grace we are in the image of the Trinity,
and we enjoy special relationships with the Divine Persons.
Again, we listen to the
words of Archbishop Martinez as he speaks about our
relationships with the Divine Persons:
"Love, we have said, is
the foundation of devotion to the Holy Spirit, as it is also
the foundation of Christian perfection. But love as a
reflection of God, as His own image, is something that
encloses within its simplicity a boundless wealth and a
variety of forms. Who can fathom the depths of love?
"Human love in all its
manifestations is admirably in harmony with the love of
charity; it is confident in filial love, trusting in
friendship, sweet and fruitful in the love of husband and
wife, disinterested and tender in the love of a mother. Our
love of God must include all these forms of human love;
every fiber of our heart must vibrate when the harmonious
and full canticle of love bursts forth from it. But since
God is one in essence and triune in Persons, our love for
Him takes on a particular aspect accordingly as it is
directed to each one of the divine Persons.
"Our love for the Father
is tender and confident like that of children; eager to
glorify Him as His only-begotten Son taught us to do by word
and example. Love for the Father is the intense desire to
have His will fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven. Our
love for the Son, who willed to become flesh for us, is
characterized by the tendency to union with Him and
transformation into Him; by imitation of His example,
participation in His life, and the sharing of His sufferings
and His Cross. The Eucharist, mystery of love, of sorrow,
and of union, reveals the characteristics of this love.
"Love for the Holy Spirit
also has its special character, which we should study in
order completely to understand devotion to Him. We have
explained how the Holy Spirit loves us, how He moves us like
a divine breath that draws us to the bosom of God, like a
sacred fire that transforms us into fire, like a divine
artist who forms Jesus in us. Surely, then, our love for the
Holy Spirit should be marked by loving docility, by full
surrender, and by a constant fidelity that permits us to be
moved, directed, and transformed by His sanctifying action.
"Our love for the Father
tends to glorify Him; our love for the Son, to transform ourselves into Him; our love for the Holy
Spirit, to let ourselves be possessed and moved by Him."4
-
The spiritual life
centers in Christ. Here are words from the Jerusalem
Catecheses: "When we were baptized into Christ and
clothed ourselves in him, we were transformed into the
likeness of the Son of God. Having destined us to be his
adopted sons, God gave us a likeness to Christ in his
glory, and living as we do in communion with Christ,
God’s anointed, we ourselves are rightly called ‘the
anointed ones.’ " 5
-
Msgr. Robert Guste
says: "Ideal Catholics held up to us by the Church are
the saints. As you read their lives, what do you notice?
One after the other, they were men and women who had a
deep, personal relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Their hearts were on fire with love for Him..."
6
-
When we are baptized
we are incorporated into Christ’s paschal mystery of
death and resurrection. St. Paul speaks of this
marvelous union with Jesus: You cannot have forgotten
that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus,
were baptised into his death. So by our baptism into his
death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead by the Father’s glorious power, we
too should begin living a new life. (Rm 6:3-4).
Christ has structured
the Christian life by the way He lived, died, and rose
from the dead. It is obvious, then, as Paul tells us
above, that the pattern of death-resurrection must be at
the heart of the Church’s life. Individually and
collectively, we continually die with Christ so that we
may continually rise with Him. Thus we pass over in a
process of ongoing religious transition to a greater
participation in Christ’s resurrection. It is true that
our participation in Christ’s resurrection will reach
its completion only in eternity. Nevertheless, we begin
the life of resurrection here upon the earth, in the
here and now of human life, in the midst of joy and
pain; in the experience of success and failure, in the
sweat of our brow, in the enjoyment of God’s gifts. As
Christians, we should have a sense of dynamic growth
concerning our here and now life of resurrection.
We cannot maintain the
life of resurrection or grow in it without a willingness
to suffer. This does not mean that we need to feel
overwhelmed and heavily burdened in our lives. The
greater portion of suffering for most Christians seems
to be an accumulation of ordinary hardships,
difficulties, and pains. At times, however, deep
suffering, even suffering of agonizing proportions, can
enter into one’s life. Whether the sufferings one
encounters are of either the more ordinary variety or
the more rare and extreme type, Christians must convince
themselves that to relate properly to the cross is to
grow in resurrection, and growth in resurrection means
we will also have an increased capacity to help give
resurrection to others.
-
The Church invites us to
share deeply in the passion of Christ, in the cross of
Christ. She does so that we might share deeply in His
life of resurrection—here and hereafter. The more we die
with Christ, the more we share in His life of
resurrection—here and hereafter. Our ultimate goal here
below is not the cross, but resurrection—the newness of
life the cross leads to - here below as well as in
eternity.
We are meant to share in
all of the mysteries of Christ here below—we are meant
to relive them in our own lives. And all of these
mysteries are directed to the crowning mystery of Jesus,
His resurrection: "As the Church is ever re-enacting,
during all the ages, the life story of her Divine
Spouse—undergoing in the Mystical Body what He suffered
in His Natural Body, so it must be too, in some measure,
for every individual Christian that lives in real unity
with Christ. It was thus that the saints understood the
life of the Divine Master. They not merely
contemplated it, they lived it. This was the source
of the immense sympathy they were capable of
experiencing for Him in His different states. They felt
in a certain measure what He felt, and what is true of
Our Lord’s life considered as a whole must be true in no
imperfect or limited manner of that which was the
supreme and crowning mystery in that life—namely, the
Resurrection. This must be, not merely a fact in
Christian history, but a phase of Christian experience
…We do not readily perceive that, in God’s plan, not
only the Cross, but the Risen Life that followed it, is
meant to be part of our terrestrial existence. Christ
did not pass from the Cross straight to heaven. The
Christian is not meant to do so either. In the case of
Jesus the Cross preceded, prepared and prefaced a risen
life on earth. In the case of the Christian the Cross is
meant to play a somewhat similar role—that is, to be the
prelude to a risen life, even here below.
"The Cross cannot be
completely understood except it is viewed in the full
light of the Resurrection. It is the latter, not the
former, that is the ultimate mystery for us…The Cross is
a means, not an end; it finds its explanation only in
the empty tomb; it is an entrance into life, not a mode
of death. Any death that enters into God’s plan must
necessarily issue forth in life. If He lays upon us the
necessity of dying it is in order that we may live…In
order that we may live as we ought, our rebellious
nature must be crucified. Crucifixion always remains the
only mode of salvation.
"God sends trials and
crosses simply to deaden in us the activity of the
forces that make for the decay of the spiritual life, in
order that that spiritual life may develop and expand
unimpeded. According as the life of perverse nature ebbs
away from us on our cross united with Christ’s, the
Divine Life that God has placed in all whom He has
called begins to make itself more manifest and to
display increased vigour and vitality…It is to that
Resurrection, that life in death, that God directs all
the circumstances of our life—it is the object He aims
at in His dealing with us." 7
In his above words,
Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.Sp., speaks about a special episode
of our participation in the resurrection of Jesus. He
speaks of our Christ-life, our life of grace, in the
highly developed state. We should all strive for this
state. We must realize, however, that all those who live
in the state of grace are, in an essential way, living
the life of resurrection. They are alive in Christ
Jesus.
"I ask you to consider
that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head and that
you are a member of his body. He belongs to you as the
head belongs to the body. All that is his is yours:
breath, heart, body, soul and all his faculties. All of
these you must use as if they belonged to you, so that
in serving him you may give him praise, love and glory.
You belong to him as a member belongs to the head. This
is why he earnestly desires you to serve and glorify the
Father by using all your faculties as if they were his.
"He belongs to you,
but more than that, he longs to be in you, living and
ruling in you, as the head lives and rules in the body.
He desires that whatever is in him may live and rule in
you: his breath in your breath, his heart in your heart,
all the faculties of his soul in the faculties of your
soul...
"You belong to the Son
of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as
the members are in the head. All that is in you must be
incorporated into him. You must receive life from him
and be ruled by him. There will be no true life for you
except in him, for he is the one source of true life.
Apart from him you will find only death and destruction.
Let him be the only source of your movements, of the
actions and the strength of your life.
"Finally, you are one
with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must,
then, have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one
will, one mind, one heart. And he must be your breath,
heart, love, life, your all. These great gifts in the
follower of Christ originate from baptism. They are
increased and strengthened through confirmation and by
making good use of other graces that are given by God.
Through the holy eucharist they are brought to
perfection." 8
-
St. Ignatius of
Antioch was deeply consumed with love for Jesus: "At
last I am well on the way to being a disciple. May
nothing, seen or unseen, fascinate me, so that I may
happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross,
struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling
of limbs, crunching of the whole body, cruel tortures
inflicted by the devil—let them come upon me, provided
only I make my way to Jesus Christ."9
-
Cardinal Newman tells
us: "Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and
ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission,
has a work. We are not born at random... God sees every
one of us; He creates every soul, He lodges it in a
body, one by one, for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to
need, every one of us."10
Because of the
uniqueness of each Christian's existence, he or she
presents Christ with a unique opportunity. Each
Christian has the vocation to offer Christ his or her
humanity so that Jesus can live in that individual in a
special way. This Jesus is Priest, Prophet and King. To
the extent that an individual Christian offers his or
her humanity to Jesus, that person has an unique
opportunity to help to continue the work of the
redemption--an opportunity that no one else can fulfill.
Likewise, to the extent that an individual fails to
offer his or her humanity to Christ, Jesus loses the
opportunity to continue His redemptive work according to
that person's uniqueness.
-
Concerning the
prophetic or teaching office of Christ, each of us has
the ever-present opportunity of witnessing to the truth
of Christ by the way we live. Mother Teresa gives a
striking example of this. She says: "I received a letter
from a wealthy Brazilian man. He assured me that he had
lost his faith -- not just his faith in God but his
faith in humanity as well. He was fed up with his
situation and everything around him. He only thought
about suicide.
"One day, walking on a
busy street downtown, he saw a television set in a store
window. The program was about our Home for the Dying in
Calcutta, and it showed our Sisters taking care of the
sick and the dying.
"The man confessed
that when he saw that, he felt the urge to kneel and
pray, after many years of not ever kneeling or praying.
"From that day on, he
recovered his faith in God and in humanity, and he was
convinced that God still loves him."11
-
St. Paul, one who
loved Jesus so deeply, has left us these words: "But
we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that
the immensity of the power is God’s and not our own. We
are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never
distressed; we see no way out but we never despair; we
are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still
have some life in us; always we carry with us in our
body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too,
may be visible in our body. Indeed, while we are still
alive, we are continually being handed over to death,
for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too,
may be visible in our mortal flesh." (2 Cor 4:7-11).
You share my burdens,
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.12
-
Pope John Paul II
instructs us: "The Church, as a reconciled and
reconciling community, cannot forget that at the source
of her gift and mission of reconciliation is the
initiative, full of compassionate love and mercy, of
that God who is love (see 1 John 4:8) and who out of
love created human beings (see Wisdom 11:23-26; Genesis
1:27: Psalms 8:4-8)…He created them so that they might
live in friendship with Him and in communion with one
another.
"God is faithful to
His eternal plan even when man, under the impulse of the
evil one (see Wisdom 2:24) and carried away by his own
pride, abuses the freedom given to him in order to love
and generously seek what is good, and (instead) refuses
to obey his Lord and Father. God is faithful even when
man, instead of responding with love to God’s love,
opposes Him and treats Him like a rival, deluding
himself and relying on his own power, with the resulting
break of relationship with the One who created him. In
spite of this transgression on man’s part, God remains
faithful in love.
"It is certainly true
that the story of the Garden of Eden makes us think
about the tragic consequences of rejecting the Father,
which becomes evident in man’s inner disorder and in the
breakdown of harmony between man and woman, brother and
brother (see Genesis 3:12 ff; 4:1-16). Also significant
is the Gospel parable of the two brothers (the parable
of the ‘prodigal son’; see Luke 15:11-32) who, in
different ways, distance themselves from their father
and cause a rift between them. Refusal of God’s fatherly
love and of His loving gifts is always at the root of
humanity’s divisions.
"But we know that
God…like the father in the parable (of the prodigal
son), does not close His heart to any of His children.
He waits for them, looks for them, goes to meet them at
the place where the refusal of communion imprisons them
in isolation and division. He calls them to gather about
His table in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and
reconciliation.
"This initiative on
God’s part is made concrete and manifest in the
redemptive act of Christ, which radiates through the
world by means of the ministry of the Church." 13
-
In the evening of
that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were
closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of
the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to
them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and, after saying this, he
showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were
filled with joy at seeing the Lord, and he said to them
again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am
I sending you.’ (Jn 20:19-21).
The world needs peace.
Individual nations need peace and families need peace.
The Church needs peace. Each of us individually needs
peace. We must work for peace through prayer, fasting,
and other Christ-like activities.
And just what do we
mean by peace? St. Augustine says peace is the
tranquility of order. God has put order into His
creation and this order must be respected and promoted
if peace is to prevail. To the extent that the human
family lives according to God’s will—lives according to
the order or the plan God has established for
creation—to that extent does peace exist in the various
segments of human society. To the extent there are
violations of God’s plan, of His will, to that extent
peace is absent.
If we are to be
instruments of peace, we ourselves must be at peace. Our
personal peace is that tranquility of order which
results from our doing God’s will. The more we are
united through love with God in the doing of His will,
the more we experience peace.
Sometimes the sense of
peace we experience is so strong that we can "feel" it
pulsating throughout our being. These are periods of
what we may call the experience of extraordinary peace.
This type of peace usually is not an everyday
occurrence.
Most of the time we
live immersed in a more subdued kind of peace which
results from our daily attempts to do God’s will in
love. It is that peace which is a welcome and sustaining
companion as we walk the path of everyday life with its
usual assortments of joys and disappointments, successes
and failures, laughter and tears.
Occasionally, very
deep suffering may enter our lives. It is during these
times that we need special determination to preserve
ourselves in a basic peace of spirit despite the very
significant pain. One may wonder how a person can be at
peace amidst the experience of great suffering. St.
Francis de Sales in one of his writings—and I have not
been able to locate the exact place—offers an analogy
which I think is very helpful. He asks us to picture an
ocean body of water at the time of a violent storm. The
surface of the water becomes extremely turbulent.
Francis asks us, as we use our imagination, to descend
beneath the surface of the water into its depth. What do
we find? The more deeply one descends away from the
turbulent surface, the calmer the water becomes.
Likewise, says the saint and doctor of the Church,
should it be with us during times of profound suffering.
Although the surface of the spirit may be very agitated,
one can still maintain basic peace of spirit by going
deep down to one’s center where God is more directly
experienced. Here the person experiences a calm, a basic
peace, although the suffering remains.
If we are trying to do
God’s will in love, God intends us to be at peace. The
more we conform to God’s will, the more we are living
according to the order He intends for us. In turn, the
more our lives are in harmony with the order established
by God, the more we experience peace—peace being the
tranquility of order. The more we ourselves live in this
manner, the more fit instruments we become for promoting
God’s order and consequent peace throughout the various
segments of society.
-
St. Dominic was an
outstanding witness to the peace of the Lord: "Dominic
possessed such great integrity and was so strongly
motivated by divine love, that without doubt he proved
to be a bearer of honor and grace. He was a man of great
equanimity, except when moved to compassion and mercy.
And since a joyful heart animates the face, he displayed
the peaceful composure of a spiritual man in the
kindness he manifested outwardly and by the cheerfulness
of his countenance."14
-
Shortly before he was
to die from cancer, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin left us
these inspiring words about peace: "It is the first day
of November, and fall is giving way to winter. Soon the
trees will lose the vibrant colors of their leaves and
snow will cover the ground. The earth will shut down,
and people will race to and from their destinations
bundled up for warmth. Chicago winters are harsh. It is
a time of dying.
"But we know that
spring will soon come with all its new life and wonder.
"It is quite clear
that I will not be alive in the spring. But I will soon
experience new life in a different way…
"What I would like to
leave behind is a simple prayer that each of you may
find what I have found—God’s special gift to us all: the
gift of peace. When we are at peace, we find the freedom
to be most fully who we are, even in the worst of times.
We let go of what is non-essential and embrace what is
essential. We empty ourselves so that God may more fully
work within us. And we become instruments in the hands
of the Lord."15
"All that the beginner
in prayer has to do -- and you must not forget this, for
it is very important -- is to labor and to be resolute
and prepare himself with all possible diligence to bring
his will in conformity with the will of God. As I shall
say later, you may be quite sure that this comprises the
very greatest perfection which can be attained on the
spiritual road."16
Again she states:
"...love consists ... in the firmness of our
determination to try to please God in everything."
17
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
We live out our spiritual
lives within the Church. The Church is a multi-splendored
reality. Let us reflect upon some of the key ideas connected
with the Church.
-
Henri de Lubac states:
"The Church is a mysterious extension in time of the
Trinity, not only preparing us for the life of unity but
bringing about even now our participation in it. She
comes from and is full of the Trinity. She is for us --
in a favourite phrase of Bossuet -- ‘Jesus Christ …
communicated’. She is ‘the Incarnation continued.’ She
is, as Dietrick Bonhoeffer used to say, ‘the presence of
Christ on earth’ --- she speaks with ‘the authority of
Christ living and present in her.’… St. Paul applies to
her this same word ‘mystery’ which he had first used of
Christ. She is after all, the spouse of Christ and his
body." 19
-
Fr. Bruno Forte tells
us: "The Church comes from the Trinity, reflects in
itself the Trinitarian communion—oneness in
diversity—and journeys toward the Trinity, to the final
handing over of all things to Christ, so that he might
hand them over to the Father and God might be all in
all. As ‘a people gathered in the unity of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,’ the Church is
the Church of the Father. In his universal salvific
plan, God has willed it to be a sign and instrument of
the unity of people among themselves and with him. It is
the Church of the Son, who through his incarnation and
the paschal mystery has placed it in history as His
Body. It is the Church of the Spirit, who makes the
Risen Christ present in human history and enriching the
people of God with charisms and ministries, leads it
toward the promised future goal." 20
-
The fact that the
Church is here on earth a reflection of the Trinitarian
Community easily leads us to reflect upon the Church as
the Body of Christ, since this name given to the Church
also emphasizes the communal aspect of the Church. St.
Paul tells us: For as with the human body which is a
unity although it has many parts -- all the parts of the
body, though many, still making up one single body -- so
it is with Christ. We were baptised into one body in a
single Spirit, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as
free men, and we were all given the same Spirit to
drink. And indeed the body consists not of one member
but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘I am not a hand
and so I do not belong to the body’, it does not belong
to the body any the less for that. Or if the ear were to
say, ‘I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the
body’, that would not stop its belonging to the body. If
the whole body were just an eye, how would there be any
hearing? If the whole body were hearing, how would there
be any smelling?
Now Christ’s body
is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the
whole. And those whom God has appointed in the Church
are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly
teachers; after them, miraculous powers, then gifts of
healing, helpful acts, guidance, various kinds of
tongues. Are all of them apostles? Or all prophets? Or
all teachers? Or all miracle-workers? Do all have the
gifts of healing? Do all of them speak in tongues and
all interpret them? (1 Cor 12:12-17; 27-30)
-
Some two thousand
years ago Christ walked the earth teaching, healing the
sick, forgiving sins, extending His mercy and kindness.
By such a life which culminated in death and
resurrection, Christ redeemed the world. This objective
redemption was accomplished by Christ alone. Through it,
He won for people of all time the necessary graces for
their salvation and sanctification.
However, it is
necessary that such graces be distributed to each
individual as one plays out his or her part in the drama
of human existence. Such a distribution of grace is the
work of subjective redemption.
Jesus still walks the
earth as the work of redemption continues. However, He
now walks the earth according to a different type of
existence. He does not walk the earth in His physical
body, but rather in His Mystical Body, the Church, the
People of God. Through the members of His Church, Christ
continues to be present as He teaches, administers the
sacraments, extends His mercy -- all done through the
members of His Body, the Church. This mystical Christ,
in turn, derives all supernatural power from Christ, the
Head, who reigns gloriously with the Father and the Holy
Spirit.
The Church, therefore,
is the earthly continuation of Christ’s redemptive
Incarnation. This mission which the Church has, although
a great responsibility, is also a great privilege. In
proportion as each Christian offers and commits himself
or herself to Christ, the Church in her entirety more
and more mirrors forth Christ to the world. This Christ,
whom the Church portrays to the world, is the Christ who
is Prophet, King and Priest.
-
We now reflect upon
the Church as Spouse of Christ. Fr. Joseph Murphy, S.J.,
tells us: "John Paul II always quotes the rich doctrinal
and patristic traditions of the Church which refer to
Christ as the Spouse of the Church and the Spouse of
souls, given to both in the Eucharistic mystery. For him
the key to understanding the sacramentality of marriage,
not to mention the nature of humanity, is the spousal
love of Christ for the Church demonstrated in Ephesians
5. Christ is the Head of the Church as Savior of His
Body. The Church is exactly that Body which receives
from Him all that through which it becomes and is His
Body. As Head and Savior of the Church He is also
Bridegroom of His Bride…" 21
"The Church is my
mother because she brought me forth to a new life. She
is my mother because her concern for me never slackens,
any more than do her efforts to deepen that life in me,
however unenthusiastic my cooperation. And though in me
this life may be a fragile and timid growth, I have seen
its full flowering in others...
"Happy those who from
childhood have learnt to look on the Church as a mother!
Happier still those whose experience, in whatever walk
of life, has confirmed its truth! Happy those who one
day were gripped by (and whose appreciation of it ever
grew) the astonishing newness, richness and depth of the
life communicated to them by this mother!" 22
-
Avery Dulles, S.J.,
the well-known theologian who has written much about the
Church, observes: "The Church, as I have already
contended, is essentially a mystery of grace, a
wonderful encounter between the divine and the human.
Even in its visible structures, the Church is not a mere
organization to be judged on grounds of efficiency, but
a sacrament of God’s saving deed in Jesus Christ. From
this it follows, in my judgment, that the Church’s forms
of speech and life, and indeed its entire corporate
existence, must be such as to mediate a vital communion
with Christ the Lord. The Church must be a place of
prayer and worship, praise and witness. Any
institutional change in the Church must be carefully
assessed for its effect on the spiritual life of the
members. Does it intensify their faith, their hope,
their charity? Does it help them to center their lives
on Christ and to ground their existence in the God who
raised him from the dead?"23
"If you live in the
Church and try to use the power of the Church to
increase the life of the Church, then the power of the
Church will make you yourself whole; and in your
wholeness you will help to make your family and make
your world. But you will be building for a more than
earthly beatitude because you will be building the city
which is eternal. Here you build in shadow, you build
for a future which is invisible, and so you can only
build in hope. And often your plans will be wrecked and
your dreams come crashing about your ears, and you will
need the strength of the Rock which is Christ to give
you patience and fortitude...
"And when death has
come to you...the Church will bless you for the life you
have added to it, and there will be men to heed you
better than they did when you were here...
"But you, for your
part, will be no longer in the shadow but in the glory
of the Light inaccessible; you will be in the City that
is yours because you helped to build it; you will see
Him at last as He is, and be wholly with Him; and you
will have no more any mourning or weeping or any other
sorrow, for all these former things will have been
transmuted into happiness and peace, and you will walk
with Him--together with all those you have helped to
bring to Him, even until the end of the world--you will
walk with Him in happiness for ever, in the cool of the
eternal evening." 24
The Church’s existence
centers in her liturgy. Vatican II says: "The liturgy is the
summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed;
at the same time it is the fountain from which all her power
flows." 25 The Church’s liturgical life is
centered in the sacraments and, most especially, in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice. We will briefly consider the
sacraments in general, and then more extensively develop
ideas about the Mass.
The sacraments are special
encounters with Christ. Jesus unites Himself with the
sacramental sign as He offers His grace to the recipient. In
this sense, Christ and His sacraments become one; the
sacrament and its minister are merely instruments that
Christ employs to give Himself anew. The primary sacramental
encounter is between Jesus and the recipient.
Christ offers Himself
through the Church and her sacraments so that we might
become ever more united to Him. This incorporation into
Christ begins at baptism, through which the Christian
becomes a member of both Christ and the Church. What is
more, this incorporation into the life of Christ means being
incorporated into his paschal mystery. Death-resurrection
was the summary mystery of Christ’s redemptive existence.
Death-resurrection was the central mystery whereby Christ
gave us life, and it is the central mystery that the
Christian must relive in Christ.
Each one of the sacraments
deepens our incorporation into Jesus’ death-resurrection;
each one achieves this in a somewhat different manner
according to its primary purpose; finally, and very
importantly, each of the sacraments deepens this
incorporation within an ecclesial framework. The sacraments,
because they are realities of both Christ and his Church,
intensify the Christian’s relationship not only with Jesus,
but also with the members of the Church and, ultimately,
with all others.
-
The death-resurrection
of Jesus, which is encountered in a special way through
the sacraments, is most especially renewed in the
Eucharistic Sacrifice. Consequently, we can see the
logical connection between the sacraments and the Mass.
Indeed, all of the sacraments point to the Eucharistic
Sacrifice.
-
At the Last Supper,
on the night He was betrayed, our Saviour instituted the
Eucharistic Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. He did this
in order to perpetuate the sacrifice of the Cross
throughout the centuries until He should come again, and
so to entrust to His beloved spouse, the Church, a
memorial of His death and resurrection: a sacrament of
love, a sign of unity, a bond of charity, a paschal
banquet in which Christ is consumed, the mind is filled
with grace, and a pledge of future glory is given to us
(Vatican II, Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, No. 17)26
-
The Church,
therefore, earnestly desires that Christ's faithful,
when present at this mystery of faith, should not be
there as strangers or silent spectators. On the
contrary, through a proper appreciation of the rites and
prayers they should participate knowingly, devoutly, and
actively. They should be instructed by God’s word and be
refreshed at the table of the Lord’s body; they should
give thanks to God; by offering the Immaculate Victim,
not only through the hands of the priest, but also with
him, they should learn to offer themselves too. Through
Christ the Mediator, they should be drawn day by day
into ever closer union with God and with each other, so
that finally God may be all in all. (Constitution on
the Sacred Liturgy, No. 48)27
-
Through the
Eucharistic Sacrifice Christ the Lord desired to set
before us in a very special way this remarkable union
whereby we are united one with another and with our
divine Head, a union that no word of praise can ever
sufficiently express. For in this sacrifice the sacred
ministers act not only as the representative of our
Saviour, but as the representative of the whole Mystical
Body and of each one of the faithful. Again, in this act
of sacrifice, the faithful of Christ, united by the
common bond of devotion and prayer, offer to the eternal
Father through the hands of the priest, whose prayer
alone has made it present on the altar, the Immaculate
Lamb, the most acceptable victim of praise and
propitiation for the Church’s universal need. Moreover,
just as the divine Redeemer, while dying on the Cross,
offered Himself to the eternal Father as Head of the
whole human race, so now, ‘in this clean oblation’ He
not only offers Himself as Head of the Church to His
heavenly Father but in Himself His mystical members as
well. He embraces them all, yes, even the weaker and
more ailing members, with the deepest love of His Heart.
(Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis AAS, XXXV, 232-233)28
-
Pope John Paul II
states: "This worship, given therefore to the Trinity of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, above
all accompanies and permeates the celebration of the
Eucharistic Liturgy. But it must fill our churches also
outside the timetable of Masses. Indeed, since the
Eucharistic Mystery was instituted out of love, and
makes Christ sacramentally present, it is worthy of
thanksgiving and worship. And this worship must be
prominent in all our encounters with the Blessed
Sacrament, both when we visit our churches and when the
sacred species are taken to the sick and administered to
them.
"Adoration of Christ
in this sacrament of love must also find expression in various forms of Eucharistic devotion:
personal
prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, Hours of Adoration,
periods of exposition—short, prolonged and annual (Forty
Hours) - Eucharistic benediction, Eucharistic
processions, Eucharistic congresses. A particular
mention should be made at this point of the Solemnity of
the Body and Blood of Christ as an act of public worship
rendered to Christ present in the Eucharist, a feast
instituted by my predecessor Urban IV in memory of the
institution of this great Mystery.
"All this therefore
corresponds to the general principles and particular
norms already long in existence, but newly formulated
during or after the Second Vatican Council.
"…The Church and the
world have a great need of Eucharistic worship. Jesus
waits for us in this sacrament of love. Let us be
generous with our time in going to meet Him in adoration
and in contemplation that is full of faith and ready to
make reparation for the great faults and crimes of the
world. May our adoration never cease."29
-
The following words of
Fr. M. Raymond, O.C.S.O., emphasize the great importance
regarding personal holiness and one’s participation in
the Mass: "Mass, insomuch as it is Christ’s offering, is
not only always acceptable to God, but is of infinite
value as well.
"But, inasmuch as it
is your offering and mine, and that of every other
member of the Mystical Body ... we can limit the
effectiveness of God’s great Act of Love; we finite
beings can set bounds to the veritable flood of God-life
made possible by the Infinite Son of the Infinite
Father." 30
Yes, the effectiveness
of each Mass, which makes the sacrifice of Calvary
sacramentally present, depends in part on the holiness
of the entire Church offering it with Christ to the
Father in the Holy Spirit, including the holiness of the
individual priest offering and the holiness of his
participating congregation.
Yes, the effectiveness of
each Mass, which makes the sacrifice of Calvary
sacramentally present, depends in part on the holiness of
the entire Church offering it with Christ to the Father in
the Holy Spirit, including the holiness of the individual
priest offering and the holiness of his participating
congregation.
-
Fr. Maurice de la
Taille, S.J., formerly professor of theology at the
Pontifical Gregorian University, and a universally
recognized authority on the Mass, also points out the
great importance of personal holiness in the Church
relative to the effectiveness of the Eucharistic
sacrifice: "It is, then, of the greatest importance that
there should be in the Church many holy, many very holy
persons. Devout people, men and women, who should be
urged by every means to higher sanctity, so that through them the value of our Masses may be increased
and the tireless voice of the Blood of Christ, crying
from the earth, may ring with greater clearness and
insistence in the ears of God. His Blood cries on the
altars of the Church, but, since it cries through us, it
follows that the warmer the heart, the purer the lips,
the more clearly will its cry be heard at the Throne of
God. Would you wish to know why for so many years after
the first Pentecost the Gospel was so marvelously
propagated, why there was so much sanctity amongst the
Christian people; why such purity in heart and mind,
such charity, the sum of all perfection? You will find
the answer when you recall that in those times the
Mother of God was still on earth giving her precious aid
in all the Masses celebrated by the Church, and you will
cease to wonder that never since has there been such
expansion of Christianity, and such spiritual progress."
31
If all, then, have a
responsibility to grow in holiness in order to render
the Mass more efficacious, the priest has a special duty
to do so. His goal must always be to grow in holiness --
to grow in union with Christ the Priest, this Christ Who
leads us to the Father in the Holy Spirit with Mary at
our side.
-
The Sacrifice of
Calvary is sacramentally made present in the Mass. When
we pray the Morning Offering Prayer, united to the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, we act as intercessors, pleading
to God that great graces be released all day through our
prayerful actions as we act in love according to the
Father’s will. Whether we are eating, taking care of a
sick parent, enjoying time spent with a friend, working
at our job, we can help bring down great graces for the
world.
When we pray the
Morning Offering Prayer we offer our lives to the
Father, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit, with the
prayerful assistance of Mary, our Mother. Let us pray
together united in our hearts in the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass. There follows a Morning Offering Prayer.
"My dear Father, I
offer You this day all my prayers, works, joys, and
sufferings in union with Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass, in the Holy Spirit.
"I unite with our
Mother, Mary, all the angels and saints, and all the
souls in purgatory to pray to the Father for myself, for
each member of my family, for my friends, for all the
people throughout the world, for all the souls in
purgatory, and for all other intentions of the Sacred
Heart.
"I love You, Jesus,
and I give You my heart. I love you, Mary, and I give
you my heart. Amen."32
-
Fr. Edward Leen, C.S.
Sp., tells us: "Unless we are pleasing to God we cannot
be saved, we cannot realize the purpose of our divine
adoption. We cannot please God unless we resemble Jesus
Christ, and the Blessed Sacrament is instituted for the
very object of perfecting in us this likeness. Bodily
food is transformed into the flesh of him that receives
it; this heavenly food, the food of our souls, which is
the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, has the directly
opposite effect: it changes him who receives it into
Itself. It must not be forgotten that the presence in us
which follows the reception of Holy Communion is a
living active presence. Our Lord is more present with us
than is a person with whom we are speaking. As He
influenced whilst on earth those who allowed themselves
to fall under the charm of His Personality, so He
exercises a profound effect on the soul of the
communicant, if that soul wishes to submit to His
action. We cannot be in the society of one who is good
without being incited to goodness; we cannot be with Our
Lord—and we are as close to Him as our desires
extend—without receiving the effects of His virtue and
without being stirred to become as he was, without being
drawn, in a mystical sense to become one with Him, to
become ‘Christified’."33
-
From a spiritual
journal: "Go to the tabernacle. Jesus will give us our
answers. He is waiting for us to come. We must come and
sit in silence and let Him work in our hearts. We must
not be filled with fear, we should be filled with hope
and joy. We must pray to the Holy Spirit to give us His
wisdom to know the will of the Father. Mary is our
Mother. She will help us with all our trials and all of
our struggles. We must discipline our thoughts and go to
the Heart of Jesus. It is through the Eucharist that we
will be strengthened for our trials.
"This is how I am with
Jesus. I am empty. I want Him to make Himself known to
me. I didn’t have much theological knowledge when I
started sitting in front of the tabernacle. I was
looking for love from Jesus. Nobody loved me the way my
soul wanted to be loved. I craved to be with Jesus. I
wanted my heart filled. I wanted the craving I felt
inside satisfied. I thirsted for love. I sat with Him
present in the tabernacle and He filled me. He revealed
Himself to me. He was the Bridegroom of my soul and I
His bride. As I became more intimately united to Him,
sitting there in silence and going to Him, I cried. I
was so filled with love. I found what I was looking for
all my life. He wrote the knowledge of Himself on my
soul. He wrote this knowledge in the intimate moments I
spent with Him at Mass after Communion and before the
tabernacle.
"I struggle intently
to do His work, and I am weary from running the race. I
am tired, I am truly human, but the unquenchable love I
have for Him in my heart is at the core of my existence.
It is in Him I exist and in Him I love. I love Him so
intently and yet I am so unworthy of His gifts given to
me. I long more for the desire to help souls, and His
desires become mine through my deep union with Him
especially after the reception of the Eucharist. On this
day (Feast of the Assumption), I felt the unquenchable
purity of the Heart of Mary and the joy of dwelling
deeply in His Heart in her pure love. It was a special
gift He gave to me, to be wrapped in Mary’s Heart
despite my faults. He gave Himself so completely to me.
I only long for this, knowing this presence. 34
-
Mother Teresa of
Calcutta shares these thoughts with us: "I make a holy
hour each day in the presence of Jesus in the Blessed
Sacrament. All my sisters of the Missionaries of Charity
make a daily holy hour, as well, because we find that
through our daily holy hour our love for Jesus becomes
more intimate, our love for each other more
understanding, and our love for the poor more
compassionate. Our holy hour is our daily family prayer
where we get together and pray the Rosary before the
exposed Blessed Sacrament for the first half hour, and
the second half hour we pray in silence. Our adoration
has doubled our vocations. In 1963, we were making a
weekly hour together, but it was not until 1973, when we
began our daily holy hour that our community started to
grow and blossom."35
-
St. Peter Julian
Eymard, founder of the Blessed Sacrament Fathers, tells
us: "The Eucharist, behold the Christian's treasure, his
delight on earth. Since Jesus is in the Eucharist for
him personally, his whole life ought to be drawn to it
like a magnet to its center."36
The above thoughts on the
Eucharist easily lead us to thoughts on the priesthood:
"If the service of the
Word is the foundational element of the priestly
ministry, the heart and the vital center of it is
constituted, without a doubt, in the Eucharist, which
is, above all, the real presence in time of the unique
and eternal sacrifice of Christ.
"The sacramental
memorial of the death and Resurrection of Christ, the
true and efficacious representation of the singular
redemptive Sacrifice, source and apex of Christian life
in the whole of evangelization, the Eucharist is the
beginning, means, and end of the priestly ministry,
since ‘all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the
apostolate are bound up with the Eucharist and are
directed towards it.’ Consecrated in order to perpetuate
the Holy Sacrifice, the priest thus manifests, in the
most evident manner, his identity.
"There exists, in
fact, an intimate rapport between the centrality of the
Eucharist, pastoral charity, and the unity of life of
the priest, who finds in this rapport the decisive
indications for the way to the holiness to which he has
been specifically called.
"If the priest lends
to Christ, Most Eternal High Priest, his intelligence,
will, voice and hands so as to offer, through his very
ministry, the sacramental sacrifice of redemption to the
Father, he should make his own the dispositions of the
Master and, like him, live those gifts for his brothers
in faith. He must therefore learn to unite himself
intimately to the offering, placing his entire life upon
the altar of sacrifice as a revealing sign of the
gratuitous and anticipatory love of God."37
-
Vatican II tells us:
"Priestly holiness itself contributes very greatly to a
fruitful fulfillment of the priestly ministry. True, the
grace of God can complete the work of salvation even
through unworthy ministers. Yet ordinarily God desires
to manifest His wonders through those who have been made
particularly docile to the impulse and guidance of the
Holy Spirit...
"This most holy Synod
desires to achieve its pastoral goals of renewal within
the Church, of the spread of the gospel throughout the
world, and of dialogue with the modern world. Therefore
it fervently exhorts all priests to use the appropriate
means endorsed by the Church as they ever strive for
that greater sanctity which will make them increasingly
useful instruments in the service of all of God’s
People." 38
What Vatican II puts
before seminarians regarding spiritual formation can
also obviously be implemented by priests: "Spiritual
formation should be closely linked with doctrinal and
pastoral training. Especially with the help of the
spiritual director, such formation should help
seminarians learn to live in familiar and constant
companionship with the Father, through Jesus Christ His
Son, in the Holy Spirit. By sacred ordination they will
be molded in the likeness of Christ the Priest. As
friends they should be used to loyal association with
Him through a profound identification of their whole
lives with His. They should live His paschal mystery in
such a way that they know how to initiate into it the
people entrusted to them. They should be taught to look
for Christ in many places: in faithful meditation on
God’s word, in active communion with the most holy
mysteries of the Church, especially in the Eucharist and
the divine Office, in the bishop who sends them, and in
the people to whom they are sent, especially the poor,
the young, the sick, the sinful and the unbelieving.
With the trust of a son, they should love and honor the
Blessed Virgin Mary, who was given as a mother to His
disciple by Christ Jesus as He hung dying on the cross."
39
-
Pope John Paul II
builds upon the teaching of Vatican II: "There can be no
doubt that the exercise of the priestly ministry,
especially in the celebration of the sacraments,
receives its saving effects from the action of Christ
himself who becomes present in the sacraments. But so as
to emphasize the gratuitous nature of salvation which
makes a person both ‘saved’ and a ‘savior’ -- always and
only in Christ -- God’s plan has ordained that the
efficacy of the exercise of the ministry is also
conditioned by a greater or lesser human receptivity and
participation. In particular, the greater or lesser
degree of the holiness of the minister has a real effect
on the proclamation of the word, the celebration of the
sacraments and the leadership of the community in
charity." 40
"If every Christian
ought to see himself in the Apostle John, entrusted to
Mary as her son or daughter, how much more ought priests
to recognize themselves as sons of Mary, as the subject
of a ‘double’ entrustment to her. I say ‘double’ because
they are successors of John by a twofold title: as
disciples and as priests. This is beautifully drawn out
by our Holy Father in his "Holy Thursday Letter to
Priests" of 1988: ‘If John at the foot of the Cross
somehow represents every man and woman for whom the
motherhood of the Mother of God is spiritually extended,
how much more does this concern each of us, who are
sacramentally called to the priestly ministry of the
Eucharist in the Church!’…
"Although Jesus had
already entrusted every priest to his Mother from the
height of the Cross and the Pope has done it even
hundreds of times, it is still necessary for the priest
to do so himself if he would truly experience the power
and the protection of the Mother of God in his life as
her Divine Son intends it. Priests who have done so know
the difference it makes".41
-
Fr. Jean Galot, S.J.
gives us these insightful words on the priesthood:
"Christ requires of the Twelve a more complete
consecration, more like his own. He calls upon them to
forsake everything to follow him and thereby associates
them more closely to his own Incarnation…
"Consecration, too,
establishes a special bond between priests and the
redeeming mystery of Christ. Because Jesus brings his
own consecration to fruition through sacrifice, those on
whom he bestows his pastoral power are called upon to
realize in themselves the definition of the good
shepherd who gives his life for his sheep. Priests
cannot limit their sacrificial offering to the ritual
performance of the Eucharist. They are called upon to
commit themselves completely by making that total gift
of their own selves which the Eucharist implies for
their own personal lives. Their commitment to sacrifice
is not just the one required of every Christian by
virtue of the universal priesthood but the one demanded
of them by a consecration that is specifically the
priest’s own.
"As to the mission of
the priest, it is entirely an expression of redemptive
Incarnation in its pastoral aspect. The Incarnation is
revealed in this mission because the powers bestowed on
the priests to be exercised in the name of Christ are
divine powers: the power to hand down revealed truth
authoritatively, the power to offer… Christ’s own
sacrifice in the Eucharist, the power to forgive sins
and to mediate Christ’s holiness, the power to lead the
community and to promote the development of a kingdom
which is God’s own. Thus, the priest emerges as the man
of God, the man in whom God acts with a special power.
"The priestly ministry
brings redemption to fruition also because of the
indissoluble bond which Christ establishes between
service and sacrifice. The Son of Man has come to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for mankind. Prolonging
this service of the Son of Man and making it available
to men in every age and place means prolonging at the
same time the sacrifice that imparts freedom. All the
aspects of the priestly ministry bear the distinctive
mark of sacrifice. The priest cannot impart the truth
and the life of Christ, nor live his pastoral love,
without a profound commitment to the way of the cross."
42
And here are further
words of Fr. Galot: "As a mediator, the priest is a
shepherd in the name of God, or more precisely in the
name of Christ, and through Christ, in the name of the
Father. In the priest is realized the prophetic oracle
of Ezechiel in which Yahweh promises to be the Shepherd
of his people. (Ezek 34).
"Some implications of
this principle must be underlined. The priest does not
draw the inspiration for his pastoral zeal from his own
feelings, from his own personal resolve to create a
better world. He is shepherd on the strength of God’s
pastoral intention and represents specifically Christ
the shepherd. Consequently he is called upon to fulfill
his pastoral mission not according to ideas of his own
and his own personal ambitions, but in keeping with
God’s own dispensation and the design of salvation
devised by the Father and carried out by Christ. Like
Jesus himself, the priest is at the service of the
Father."43
-
Pope John Paul II
speaks to his brother priests: "In a certain way
prayer is the first and last condition for conversion,
spiritual progress and holiness. Perhaps in the recent
years — at least in certain quarters — there has been
too much discussion about the Priesthood, the priest’s
‘identity’, the value of his presence in the modern
world, etc., and on the other hand there has been too
little praying. There has not been enough enthusiasm for
actuating the Priesthood itself through prayer...in
order to confirm the priestly identity. It is prayer
that shows the essential style of the priest; without
prayer this style becomes deformed. Prayer helps us
always to find the light that has led us since the
beginning of our priestly vocation, and which never
ceases to lead us, even though it seems at times to
disappear in the darkness. Prayer enables us to be
converted continually, to remain in a state of
continuous reaching out to God, which is essential if we
wish to lead others to Him. Prayer helps us to believe,
to hope and to love, even when our human weakness
hinders us.
"Prayer likewise
enables us continually to rediscover the dimensions of
that kingdom for whose coming we pray every day, when we
repeat the words that Christ taught us. Then we realize
what our place is in the realization of the petition:
‘Thy kingdom come’, and we see how necessary we are in
its realization."
And here are further
words of John Paul II to priests: "Dear brothers: ...you
who have put your hand to the plough and do not turn
back, and perhaps even more those of you who are
doubtful of the meaning of your vocation or of the value
of your service: think of the places where people
anxiously await a priest, and where for many years,
feeling the lack of such a priest, they do not cease to
hope for his presence. And sometimes it happens that
they meet in an abandoned shrine, and place on the altar
a stole which they still keep, and recite all the
prayers of the Eucharistic Liturgy; and then, at the
moment that corresponds to the transubstantiation a deep
silence comes down upon them, a silence sometimes broken
by a sob... so ardently do they desire to hear the words
that only the lips of a priest can efficaciously
utter... So deeply do they feel the absence of a priest
among them!... Such places are not lacking in the world.
So if one of you doubts the meaning of his Priesthood,
if he thinks it is ‘socially’ fruitless or useless,
reflect on this! 44
-
Here are words for the
priest from Fr. Nicholas Cachia: "This sense of the
belonging of the priest to his community is essential
both for his personal life and for his pastoral work. He
is not a stranger to that community. This is
particularly true of diocesan priests. A group of
diocesan priests in South Africa stated in a document
they published on the spirituality of the diocesan
priest: ‘By virtue of his diocesan vocation... the
diocesan priest belongs in a primary, immediate, and
undifferentiated sense to the people of the diocese, and
to the parish to which he is sent.’
"This being with
others and is made concrete through service. Jesus
presented himself as the Son of Man who came to serve
others (cf. Matt. 20,28; Mark 10,45). John presents
Jesus as laying aside his garments in order to wash the
feet of his disciples, asking them to follow his example
(cf. John 13, 4-16)... As the German Bishops say in a
document on the priestly service: ‘in all these and many
other New Testament texts, there is no trace of either
hierarchical triumphalism or authoritarian arrogance. On
the contrary, these texts speak of a special mission of
devoted and unity-oriented leadership, and of an
assumption of service for the Gospel’
"The note of service
immediately corrects any misunderstandings which could
be connected to the authority aspect which the priest
receives over his community. We have to distinguish
between authority and power. Jesus taught with
authority. But his teachings like his actions were
always aimed at the liberation of persons. The same
should be true of the Christian pastor. He receives
authority with his priestly ministry, but ‘this is
something very different from a license to lord it over
those under his care. Rather his authority always exists
for the sake of service. Christ has given us the
example: his ultimate service was the laying down of his
life for his friends’ ."45
-
Prayer is a special
occasion in which we deepen our awareness of our
relationship with God. In prayer we become especially
aware of God’s loving presence and respond with our
pledge of love. Prayer deepens our desire for God and
deepens our determination to carry out His will. Prayer
unites us more intimately with the Father, through
Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.
-
The best way to pray
is that method which at any particular time seems best
able to put us in contact with God. For one person this
may be meditative reading— for example, a prayerful
reflection on a selected Scripture passage. As many
passages may be prayed over as seems fruitful for a
particular prayer period. For another, the best method
here and now may well be a simple discussion with God
concerning the happenings of one’s life. Another person
may choose reflection on the words of a favorite prayer.
Prayer over a scene of Christ’s life is another popular
method. All the above are some of the common methods
used in making meditative prayer. To have a deepened
sense of God being present to us and we to God, and to
realize that this occurs in the atmosphere of love—this
is the important thing. The prayer method we use at any
particular time should best serve this purpose.
No matter what prayer
method I use, my prayers should always be Trinitarian
and Christocentric. I should always strive to realize
that the Father speaks to me through Christ in the Holy
Spirit, and that I respond to the Father through and
with Jesus in the Holy Spirit.
As prayer develops, it
usually becomes more simplified. Beginners in the life
of prayer often experience numerous ideas and images
regarding God and the things of God together with
various acts of the will. As prayer develops there
usually occurs a simplication process which is
threefold. First, acts of the intellect become fewer,
even to the extent that one idea clearly predominates.
The acts of the will also become fewer, and that of love
more and more emerges and, in summary fashion, contains
all other movements of the will. Finally, prayer’s
simplication process reaches out and touches everything
in the person’s life. The person sees life harmoniously
unified in Christ, and this simplified vision gives a
sense of concentrated purpose and strength to one’s
existence which was previously not present.
Prayer and its growth
process are not void of all difficulties. The path of
prayer, as with the spiritual life in general, is not
always a smooth one. Sometimes we encounter lesser
sufferings along the way; sometimes the pain is more
severe. The sufferings, if properly coped with, are
meant to lead to greater union with God. It is once
again a question of living Christ’s paschal mystery of
death and resurrection.
One of the common
difficulties encountered in prayer is that of coping
with distractions. It is only in higher mystical prayer,
during which God takes special hold of the faculties,
that distractions are completely absent. In the more
ordinary stages of prayer, we will always have to cope
with them. The challenge, then, is to strive to bypass
distractions when they do occur. Essential concentration
on God and the things of God is still possible although
distractions come and go.
Dryness in prayer is
another common suffering. Often God bestows sweet
consolations upon one beginning the life of prayer in
order to help the person become initiated into the
rewarding but arduous life of prayer. Often, as prayer
progresses, the periods of emotionally-felt consolation
may become less frequent. A dryness of the emotions is
noticeably present. The person, grounded in the practice
of prayer, is now strong enough to continue in it even
though times of emotionally-felt consolation may be less
frequent. One is learning to seek God, rather than just
God’s gifts of consolation. In seeking God, the person
will also receive consolations as God chooses to give
them.
Of all the
difficulties encountered during prayer, surely the most
painful is to experience God as seeming to be distant.
This is such a penetrating type of suffering because it
strikes at the very heart of prayer—the fact that prayer
is a special meeting with God in which I strive to be
aware of God with heightened consciousness.
There are two basic
reasons for God seeming to be distant. God can actually
be more distant because the person is at fault. There is
something of considerable significance which the person
is doing and should not be doing, or something which he
or she should be doing and is not. The solution to the
difficulty is obvious. Corrective action should be
taken. If, however, upon examination the person honestly
cannot discover any such significant commission or
omission, he or she can be reasonably assured that this
is a trial associated with prayer’s growth process.
Passing through this trial successfully, the person will
discover that the relative darkness has turned into a
greater light, and a closer love union with God in
Christ is now experienced.
-
We should not be
afraid to look at ourselves in prayerful
self-reflection. Prayerful reflection upon myself in
union with Jesus will give me a growing sense of peace
and security, resulting from an increased prayerful
awareness of how much Jesus loves me as this unique
companion. If there is pain involved in prayerful
self-reflection, the pain soon fades to the background.
In prayer Jesus shows us how lovable we are. He loved us
unto His brutal death. Redeemed by the love of God, how
can we be unlovable? We have been touched by Jesus’
redemptive blood. We are thus beautiful in His sight.
His love for us continues, and the more we surrender to
the boundless love of His magnificent Heart, the more
the truth, the goodness, and the beauty of our persons
shine forth.
-
Fr. John Wright, S.J.,
tells us: "It is frequently said that the prayer of
beginners is more active and that as time goes on and
prayer matures it becomes more passive. But it seems to
me that we must distinguish here our attitudes and
awareness from our actual activities and operations.
Initially, our attitude is more active than passive. We
are more conscious of doing and acting than of
receiving. We are more aware of what we do by way of
response than of what God does in His initiative.
Gradually this changes, so that we become more and more
aware of His action in us, illuminating, inspiring,
strengthening, encouraging, and so forth. This means, of
course, that our attitude becomes more passive. But our
actual activity in operation doesn’t itself become less.
There is indeed a greater dependence on God’s action,
and what we do is done more freely, more simply, more
intensively and spontaneously. Our attention, then, is
more upon God than upon ourselves, but we are actually
more active in the real sense. For we see more clearly,
believe more deeply, love more purely, rejoice more
unselfishly…"46
-
Thomas Merton speaks
to us about the place of love in prayer: "The
instinctive characteristic of religious meditation is
that it is a search for truth which springs from love
and which seeks to pursue the truth not only by
knowledge but also by love. It is, therefore, an
intellectual activity which is inseparable from an
intense consecration of spirit and application of the
will. The presence of love in our meditation intensifies
our thought by giving it a deeply affective quality. Our
meditation becomes charged with a loving appreciation of
the value hidden in the supreme truth which the
intelligence is seeking. The affective drive of the
will…raises the soul above the level of speculation and
makes our quest for truth a prayer full of reverential
love and adoration striving to pierce the dark cloud
which stands between us and the throne of God. We beat
against this cloud with supplication, we lament our
poverty, our helplessness, we adore the mercy of God and
His supreme perfections, we dedicate ourselves entirely
to this worship."47
A great example of
this is seen in the study of the prayer life of
Catherine of Sienna, saint and doctor of the Church. Sr.
Mary O’Driscolll, O.P., tells us:
"Twenty-six of
Catherine of Sienna’s prayers have been preserved for
us. With one possible exception, they are not prayers
that she herself wrote or even dictated to others.
Rather, they were transcribed by her followers who were
present as she prayed aloud. All of these prayers belong
to the last four years of her life. They impress us by
their simplicity, their intense concentration on God,
who is repeatedly praised and thanked, and their
constant desire for the salvation of others…
"As her prayers make
evident, Catherine of Sienna was a great intercessor. In
them we find her pleading with God persistently and
urgently for mercy for all the world, the Church, the
pope, her friends and followers, all in need. It is
obvious that she does not regard intercession as merely
a passing prayer to God on behalf of one or other
persons in time of crisis, but rather as an expression
of her deep, loving, permanent commitment both to God
and to her neighbors. In Catherine’s own life, the
importance and intensity of her intercession increased
according as her union with God and her concern for
others increased. This observation tells us something
very significant about the prayer of intercession in the
Christian life, namely, that it is not, as is sometimes
thought, a type of prayer which one passes on the way to
the heights of mystical prayer, as though intercession
were for beginners and mysticism for those who are
advanced in the spiritual life, but as a type of prayer
which belongs most particularly to the life of
contemplative union with God." 48
-
Pope Paul VI on the
rosary: "As a Gospel prayer, centered in the mystery of
the redemptive Incarnation, the Rosary is therefore a
prayer with a clearly Christological orientation—the
Jesus that each Hail Mary recalls is the same Jesus Whom
the succession of the mysteries proposes to us…By its
nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet
rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to
meditate on the mysteries of the Lord’s life as seen
through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In
this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are
unfolded."49
On May 12, 1982, Pope
John Paul II made a pilgrimage to Fatima. One of his
motives for his visit was to offer thanks for Mary’s
intercession in saving his life relative to the
assassination attempt a year earlier.
Some fifteen years
later in 1997, the Holy Father gave us the following
words regarding Fatima. Lynne Weil, a newspaper
reporter, gives this account: "Pope John Paul said the
series of Marian apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, rank
as one of the most significant events of this century.
"The string of
apparitions that ended 80 years ago was ‘one of the
greatest’ signs of the times, ‘also because it announces
in its message many of the signs that followed and it
invites (us) to follow their call’, the pope said in a
letter to Bishop Serafim de Sousa Ferreire Silva of
Leiria - Fatima, Portugal. The message, dated October 1,
was released at the Vatican October 14 (1997).
"Pope John Paul said
the event at Fatima ‘helps us to see the hand of God’
even in the 20th century, with its wars and other mass
tragedies. And it showed that despite having ‘removed
itself from God’, humanity was offered God’s protection,
the pontiff said.
"Pope John Paul
recalled that in Gospel accounts of Jesus’ death, he
invoked clemency on his captors even as he was being
crucified and entrusted humanity to the care of his
mother, Mary.
"The pope repeated the
exhortation stemming from the Marian apparitions at
Fatima that the faithful recite the rosary every day. He
asked pastors to recite the rosary, and to teach others
to recite it, daily. —CNS"
-
Growth in the
Christ-life gives us an increased awareness of our
relationships with others. That is to say, the true
Christian is keenly aware that, to a great degree, God
intends each of us to press on toward maturity in the
spiritual life through proper relationships with our
fellow human beings. Indeed, the Christian imperative
reminds us that we are to walk life’s path, not in
isolation, but hand in hand with our brothers and
sisters of the human family.
To authentically
relate to others, we must be aware of who they really
are. We must be able to penetrate beyond surface
appearances, which may or may not be appealing to us,
and contact others in their core existence. When we are
truly in touch with others at the core of their beings,
we are aware of their awesome dignity. We are conscious
that these persons are created and redeemed by God in
His overwhelming love for them. Fortified with this
proper awareness, we are then in a position to relate to
others as we should.
In order to be in
touch with the inner self of others, we must be aware of
or in touch with our own inner or true self. This
awareness, in turn, is also an awareness that our self
is in the image of God, that we have been divinized in
Christ, that we are oriented toward love of God and
neighbor. Here, then, we see the profound interaction
between the three awarenesses and loves: awareness and
love of God, self and neighbor.
As Christians,
consequently, we should have a maturing sense of how our
existence is, in varied ways, profoundly interlinked
with the existence of others. This reality of union with
others is not limited to those we directly meet but
includes all members of the human family.
In rarer moments of
heroic reflection, we perhaps have dreamed of
sensational ways through which we may be called to lay
down our lives for our neighbor. For most of us,
however, such opportunities will probably never occur,
and this is just as well. Our courage could well be far
less in a real situation than it is in the inflated
proportions of dreamlike musings. Most people perform
much better in the less heroic atmosphere of everyday
sameness. Yet each day, so ordinarily similar to both
the one which has preceded and the one which will
follow, offers constant opportunities for the laying
down of one’s life for others. If these daily
opportunities are less sensational than the more heroic
occasions, they are much more numerous and therefore
much more consistently present as possibilities for
serving others.
Dying daily for others
means many things. It means curbing those persistent,
selfish tendencies which, if left unchecked, gradually
narrow our vision so that we hardly think of anyone but
ourselves. Dying daily for others means working at being
kind and patient—seemingly little things, but immensely
important in maintaining a spirit of harmony in the
course of human affairs. Dying daily for others means
fidelity to our work, even though this fidelity must be
expressed amid temptations such as discouragement,
laziness, and disinterest. Dying daily for our neighbor
means these and many other things, some of which we all
share in common, some of which are peculiar to each
person’s uniqueness. One of these common elements is
this: dying for others in daily and varied fashion is an
expression of our present concern while at the same time
it increases our capacity for future love.
Jesus, of course, is
our great exemplar regarding the service of others: But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that
among the gentiles the rulers lord it over them, and
great men make their authority felt. Among you this is
not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great
among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to
be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son
of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give
his life as a ransom for many. (Mt 20:25-28).
God calls us to share His
love for His creation. Growth in Christ develops our
awareness of this truth. The Christian should have a deeper
love for the world than the non-believer. All that is good
and true and beautiful, all that we humans reach out for in
hope, all the possibilities for our true earthly progress,
all the worthwhile and enthusiastic dreams of the human
heart for a better world—yes, the Christian should yearn
more deeply for all this than the non-believer. Why? Because
the Christian knows that the world belongs to Christ. The
Christian knows that the human race’s pursuit of the true,
the good, and the beautiful is ultimately a pursuit of
Christ. The Christian knows that any authentic step forward
that the human family takes marks a deepening of the
Christic evolutionary process whereby mankind and this world
are more fully united to the center and the crown of the
universe—Christ Himself.
Obviously, we do not love
and embrace the world’s sinful dimension. A holy sadness
should touch us when we reflect upon the sinful depravity
that defiles the world’s Christic image. We do not refuse
secular involvement, however, because of the world’s
sinfulness. We must behave in a way that is different from
the way much of the world thinks and acts, yet we must be
different in a way that does not make us shirk our
responsibility towards the secular. All of us, whether we
live within monastery walls or within the explosiveness of
the inner city, have this responsibility—each in his or her
own way.
Growth in the spiritual life
entails an ongoing and progressive purification. This
purification enables us to grow in union with God as it
allows God to increasingly possess us through the
Christ-life of grace.
The process of
purification takes many forms. It comprises everything which
cleanses us more and more of the false self -- the self
which operates outside of God’s will -- and which allows the
true self, the Christ-like self, to increasingly emerge.
One of the forms of
purification is what has traditionally been called
asceticism. Asceticism is that active self-purification
aimed at helping the divine image in us to be more manifest
and operative. Asceticism helps us to become more like the
persons God wants us to be.
The Christian must
experience an ongoing conversion away from the non-authentic
self to a greater Christ-likeness, to greater development of
the authentic self. Asceticism is the graced control, the
active self-purification, of one’s total being.
Christian asceticism is at
the service of freedom, of life. In aiding us to be more
Christ-like, it helps us be more alive. Far from confining
our capacity to live and to enjoy life, asceticism
contributes to the ongoing process of our being persons
capable of deeper love, and, therefore, capable of greater
life. One who practices a reasonable asceticism is not one
who is less interested in love and life. Such a person is
rather one who is willing to bear with the hardships
involved in a reasonable, graced control of one’s being with
all its various dimensions -- intellect, will, memory,
emotions, and so forth -- so that one may be more alive,
more capable of authentic love.
"The remedy which must
be applied to atheism, however, is to be sought in a
proper presentation of the Church’s teaching as well as
in the integral life of the Church and her members. For
it is the function of the Church, led by the Holy Spirit
who renews and purifies her ceaselessly, to make God the
Father and His Incarnate Son present and in a sense
visible.
"The result is
achieved chiefly by the witness of a living and mature
faith, namely, one trained to see difficulties clearly
and to master them. Very many martyrs have given
luminous witness to this faith and continue to do so.
This faith needs to prove its fruitfulness by
penetrating the believer’s entire life, including its
worldly dimensions, and by activating him toward justice
and love, especially regarding the needy. What does the
most to reveal God’s presence, however, is the brotherly
charity of the faithful who are united in spirit as they
work together for the faith of the gospel and who prove
themselves a sign of unity." 50
-
As the virtue of
infused love assimilates us to God’s loving activity,
and this gives us a special, God-like capacity for the
exercise of love, so the infused virtue of faith, as St.
Thomas Aquinas tells us, assimilates us to the divine
knowing (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, In Boeth de
Trinitate, q. 3, a.1)
Through faith we share
in God’s knowing activity in a special way, and we are
able to know God and creation in relationship to God in
a supernatural, God-like fashion.
If we are to properly
progress in the spiritual life, we must allow this
vision of faith to more and more penetrate our
activities. Increasingly, we should become
contemplatives in action: we should view reality in a
way that is similar to God’s view of reality.
Increasingly, everything we see should remind us of God
because everything that is really good and true and
beautiful does reflect God. The beauties of nature, for
example, manifest this beauty; the raging storm at sea
reflects his power; and the goodness, the kindness, and
the love that we observe in others around us tell us
that God is infinitely good and kind and loving.
The vision of faith
allows us to see the human family and the world in a
manner that differs from the nonbeliever’s view. As
contemplatives in action, we should act upon this
vision. Every man, woman, and child is marked with the
blood of Christ. If Jesus loved them so much--indeed, if
he now loves them so much--can we be indifferent to
their needs, both spiritual and material? Can we be
indifferent to all the problems that burden modern men
and women? If we are Christians of living faith, we
know that we cannot be indifferent. This vision of faith
should inspire us to action according to our vocation,
talents, opportunity, time, and energy. We should be
laboring to make the human family and the world more
reflective of Christ’s image.
The virtue of trust is
extremely important for growth in the spiritual life. Here
are words on confidence, on trust, in God from St. Claude La
Colombière, one of the great apostles of devotion to the
Heart of Christ.
"My God, I am so convinced
that you keep watch over those who hope in You, and that we
can want for nothing when we look for all from You, that I
am resolved in the future to live free from every care, and
to turn all my anxieties over to You…
"Men may deprive me of
possessions and of honor, sickness may strip me of strength
and the means of serving you…but I shall never lose my hope.
I shall keep it till the last moment of my life; and at that
moment all the demons in Hell shall strive to tear it from
me in vain…
"Others may look for
happiness from their wealth or their talents; others may
rest on the innocence of their life, or the severity of
their penance, or the amount of their alms, or the fervor of
their prayers. As for me, Lord, all my confidence is my
confidence itself. This confidence has never deceived
anyone. No one, no one has hoped in the Lord and has been
confounded.
I know, alas!, I know only
too well, that I am weak and unstable. I know what
temptation can do against the strongest virtue. I have seen
the stars of heaven fall, and the pillars of the firmament;
but that cannot frighten me. So long as I continue to hope,
I shall be sheltered from all misfortune; and I am sure of
hoping always, since I hope also for this unwavering
hopefulness.
"Finally, I am sure I
cannot hope too much in You, and that I cannot receive less
than I hoped for from You. So I hope that you will hold me
safe on the steepest slopes, that You will sustain me
against the most furious assaults, and that You will make my
weakness triumph over my most fearful enemies. I hope that
You will love me always, and that I too shall love You
without ceasing. To carry my hope once for all as far as it
can go, I hope from You to possess You, O my Creator, in
time and in eternity. Amen."51
Humility is a very
important virtue given to us for the spiritual journey.
Humility is both the
realization of what we are as creatures of God and the
concrete implementation of this realization in our Christian
lives. Humility, therefore, is not an exercise in
self-depreciation; it is not telling yourself that you are
no good, that you really have nothing of any significance to
contribute to the service of God. Humility is based on
truth. It is compatible with the recognition that God has
given a person certain gifts, even great gifts, of nature
and grace. If we do not recognize our God-given gifts, we do
not thank God for them as we should, nor properly develop
these gifts according to His will. God wants us not only to
recognize the good that is in us, but also to realize the
source of this goodness. Although we have a responsibility
to cooperate with His graces, God is the One Who is chiefly
responsible for what we are. If one person has advanced to a
level in the Christian life that is beyond the level of
another, it is ultimately because God has given that person
greater graces.
If humility is based on
truth and, consequently, allows us to properly recognize our
gifts, it also necessitates that we admit to the evil within
us, which is also part of the truth and must be acted upon.
Humility not only bids us to admit that there is evil in us,
but also tells us that, as creatures of God, we should
conform to His will and work against this evil side of our
persons. In summary, humility allows us to properly evaluate
both the good and evil within ourselves.
Here is a quotation from
St. Paul which helps us to preserve, and grow in, humility:
Who made you so important? What have you got that was not
given to you? And if it was given to you, why are you
boasting as though it were your own? (1 Cor 4:7).
And in the Letter of
James we read: Humble yourselves before the Lord and
he will lift you up. (Jm 4:10)
"and that is why I am
glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and
distress for Christ’s sake. For it is when I am weak that I
am strong. (2 Cor 12:10)
According to the wisdom of
the world, it is often thought to be a sign of weakness if
one feels a sense of powerlessness and admits the same.
According to the wisdom of Christ, it is of paramount
importance that one admits weakness and powerlessness and
builds upon this realization.
If we do not admit our
weakness and our helplessness, then we are living a lie.
Jesus has told us that without Him we can do nothing. It is
a sign of Christian maturity if we not only admit to our
weakness theoretically, but consistently live this
realization. It is not a question of giving in to this
weakness, of capitulating to it in an evil way. It is rather
a question of realizing our helplessness and throwing
ourselves into the arms of Christ. Then we become strong
with his strength; then his grace more and more strengthens
us and we actually are surprised at the depth of our
Christian existence.
At certain rather rare
points along the path of life, we become overwhelmed, for
various reasons, with the burden of life. We feel adrift
upon the turbulent waters of worry and anxiety; fear
gradually strengthens its paralyzing grip. Life temporarily
seems to be too much, and we feel ourselves deluged, barely
capable of coping with the harshness of the human condition.
Such episodes, painful as they are, are magnificent
opportunities for Christian growth. If we act as we should
at such times -- abandon ourselves anew to Jesus -- then our
Christian life takes on a new depth and vitality; for we
have become so much more closely united to Jesus Who is our
nourishment, our life, our happiness.
Of course, it is not only
at times of special trial and anxiety that, realizing our
helplessness, we should turn to Jesus. If we are spiritually
sensitive, we will always be aware of our weakness. But,
very importantly, this realization of our powerlessness is
not meant in any sense to make us feel depressed or
discouraged. If we build properly upon the understanding of
our weakness, we will experience deeper peace, and love, and
security -- because Jesus is very near.
I suggest that one of the
most difficult acts of self-discipline in the spiritual
journey is to concentrate on the present moment. We have a
very strong tendency to often disregard the importance of
the present moment by focusing in a wrong way on the past or
in a wrong way on the future. When we give in to this
tendency we suffer a significant spiritual loss. There are
proper occasions for thinking of the past and the future.
For example, we have to learn from the past and we have to
prepare for the future, but our great emphasis has to be
upon the present. There is a Latin axiom which says, age
quod agis, which means: do what you are doing,
concentrate on the present. And, of course, we are familiar
with the term in the history of spirituality: the sacrament
of the present moment. Growth in self-discipline should
include a greater determination to get as much as we can out
of the present moment. People with a terminal illness have
an opportunity, as they prepare for death, for increased
prayer, contrition, love of God. For those who have this
opportunity of knowing with some certainty the time of their
death, I’m sure as they look back on their lives, they are
saddened by the times they did not use time and
opportunities for the service of the Lord properly, and are
overjoyed at those times in which they did use the present
opportunity properly. A great means we have of living in the
present properly is a greater focus upon our Lord. For if I
have that awareness of the fact I am united with Jesus here
and now, why should I be concerned so much about the future
or the past? Yes, a great help in living in the present and
deriving all the good we can from it for ourselves and
others is an ever greater focus on Jesus, because the more I
focus upon Jesus and the more I live with Him in the present
moment, the more I am satisfied with the present moment. And
so let us resolve to grow in that self-discipline which is
required to really live in the present with the fullness of
our being as much as is possible, with the help of God’s
grace. To do so is extremely important for proper growth in
the spiritual life.
Now is the time. Now is
the time to live and to love. Now is the time to become more
united to Christ, to be more one with Him. Now is not
yesterday; now is not tomorrow; now is today, and today is a
gift from the Lord.
God gives ultimate meaning
to our lives. God reveals to us how the laughter and the
tears, the work and the play, the pain and the joy, all fit
together. As we live in God, God gathers up what would
otherwise be the fragmented pieces of our lives, and
arranges them into harmonious unity. This unity emanates
from our living according to God’s plan, a plan embodying a
way of existence that leads to an ever greater experience of
the true, the good, and the beautiful.
We can put obstacles in
the way of God’s transforming designs, of God’s plan for us.
We can at times say "no" to God’s initiative. We can refuse
to be open to God’s tender, loving touch. We can engage in a
process of self-enclosure. We can determine to map out our
own path to supposed happiness, forgetting that plans for
happiness which exclude God are ultimately plans for
experiencing frustration and emptiness. Briefly, we can act
in an obstinate fashion regarding God’s offer of
Self-communication.
At other times, it is not
so much stubbornness which leads us to say "no" to God; it
is fear. We realize that the closer we come to God, the more
God will ask of us, gently but firmly. We fear the white
heat of God’s love. Such episodes along the spiritual
journey are crucial. If we keep pulling back from the
intensity of God’s love, if we keep refusing what this love
wants to accomplish in us and through us, then we will live
on a rather superficial level.
We must strive to overcome
whatever attitude prevents us from increasingly giving
ourselves over to God. We must realize that progress in the
spiritual life is measured by the degree to which we abandon
ourselves to God. We must realize that, if we hope to grow
spiritually, we must increasingly allow God to direct our
lives.
Let us pray, then, for an
increase in the spirit of abandonment to God. As we live
more according to this attitude, we will experience in
greater measure the warmth and security of God’s love, this
God Who is the ground of our being, the goal of our
existence, the source of our happiness.
-
Mother Mary Francis,
P.C.C., astutely observes: "There is an appalling dearth
of thinking in our times even in the theological domain,
where the strangest conclusions are sometimes drawn from
the most tortured syllogisms. However, there is also
what may be simply and accurately described as a lack of
heart. When the powers of the mind have gone as far as
they can go and concluded as much of truth as lies
within their possibilities, then those powers must give
humble heed to the heart. Is not, in fact, a humble mind
one that has energetically exhausted all its potential
in order to recognize its limitations?
" ‘All that I have
written seems to me as a little straw,’ concluded St.
Thomas Aquinas toward the end of his life. His humble
assessment of himself and his works was accurate. For is
not indeed everything that the mind can achieve really
only ‘straw’ before the greatness of God and his
incredible designs? He is a God, however, who is
glorified by our gathering all the ‘straw’ we can for
his service and the directing of our own free willed
lives, while vigorously routing a temptation toward
torpor of intellect.
"Yes, a mind is for
using. Its sound conclusions call for the most serious
pondering. And for the heart to claim absolute
sovereignty whether over life itself or the decisions
that make for life’s unfolding pattern is clearly an
unjustified and perilous assumption. Yet, for the mind
to insist on its supreme authority in decision making,
including the decision to disregard the evidence of the
heart, is a counter insistence fraught, if not always
with peril, at least with frequent and sometimes very
serious loss to the proprietors of mind and heart.
Indeed, it is the mind that delivers to the will the
evidence on which the will pronounces. Nonetheless,
cerebral conclusions need enfleshing with what only the
heart can contribute: the finding of love that can
never, if the love is real and true, be at enmity with
the mind but which can sometimes unseat the mind’s best
justified decisions or even topple them.." 52
-
Mother Mary Francis
further writes: "The foundress of the Poor Clare nuns,
St. Clare of Assisi, was a woman who quite noticeably
and even notably used her mind. Just the fact of her
being the first woman in history herself to write a Rule
of Life for nuns indicates a mind well occupied with the
proper business of a mind. The complementary fact that
she trailed beauty after her, shed loveliness about her,
took ladyhood as a continual manner of living gives
evidence that her heart was in good partnership with her
mind. It was the same with...her mentor, St. Francis of
Assisi, whose great mind was enlightened by God and used
by himself to initiate a whole new way of religious life
in the Church, while his heart made of him a poet, a
singer, and sometimes a dancer, on occasion, while
delivering his sermons." 53
-
The following words
are from a paper prepared by Fr. Stephen J. Rossetti for
the United States National Conference of Catholic
Bishop’s Committee on Priestly Life and Ministry. This
paper was later published in the quarterly Human
Development, from which we quote. Fr. Rossetti is
president and chief executive officer of Saint Luke
Institute in Silver Spring, Maryland.
"At our Institute, we
recently ran a study that found that the average
intelligence quotient of our priest patients is 122,
which is well above the societal norm of 100. This
places our men in the upper 7 percent of their peers.
Priests, as a group, are very bright men.
"Also in their education
and training, they have developed their intellectual
skills well. Catholic priests are verbal men who engage
regularly in public speaking. They can debate ideas and
abstract concepts easily. Indeed, these qualities are
important to the successful ministry of a priest.
"Nevertheless, having a
personal relationship with Jesus also means praying from
the heart, the place within which he dwells. Yet so many
of the men who wither in priesthood cannot find the
‘heart’ because they are stuck in their ‘heads’…
"Developing a personal
relationship with God, or anyone else, involves the
important task of moving our prayer and dialogue out of
the head and into the heart. In this case, the term
heart, used in a metaphorical sense, does not refer only
to one’s affective life; it primarily indicates ‘the
locus of vital forces in a person, to quote from Xavier
Leon-Dufour in the Dictionary of the New Testament.
It is one’s most ‘hidden place’, the place where ‘the
spirit of the Son dwells.’ 54
Gustave Thils gives a very
good description of some of the key elements of the mystical
life: "It has been said, quite accurately, that Christianity
is basically mystical. As we have explained, to live as a
Christian is to participate in the very life of God and to
perform our temporal task according to the indications of
His divine will. Every Christian will understand, without
difficulty, that this participation in the divine life is,
of its very nature, the mystical life in germ. What could be
more mystical than the very life of God? What other
foundation for mysticism could we desire? What other source
of mysticism could we expect? And, on the other hand, how
could a Christian say that he is in the state of grace and
deny that he is on the way to the Christian mystical life?
Certainly, there is mysticism and mysticism. But the
essential will always be incontestably the participation in
the life of God. Every Christian is, consequently, rich with
the very foundation of all mysticism.
"This divine foundation
can be found in a Christian who is still physically and
morally a child. In this case, one cannot yet speak of
Christian mysticism. Mysticism requires, in a general way,
the realization of the ... presence of God. First of all,
the mystical life implies a certain form of consciousness: a
realization of presence, an intimate connection, a deep
certitude, an interior evidence, an intuition ...
experience, which are employed with all the nuances and all
the precisions given by the spiritual authors, and the
object of this consciousness: the Transcendent Being, the
Lord and Master of the supernatural order, the God Who is
love.
"This realization of ...
presence manifests itself in the ... life of faith, hope and
charity. Many of the faithful have been able to live it at
certain moments of their existence, in very brief fashion,
but really; some after they have gone to Holy Communion;
others in the course of a visit to Our Lord in the Blessed
Sacrament; others on the occasion of a liturgical ceremony,
an ordination, a consecration; still others in the solitude
of their home, in joy, in suffering, in mourning. If we must
avoid speaking lightly of mysticism, it is also important
not to underestimate certain minor transitory forms of true
and authentic mysticism. In order that one might be able to
speak of the mystical life, it is necessary that this
realization of the presence of God become habitual. It must
be customary, easily found again, met within the course of
one’s daily existence, taken up again as soon as the mind is
active, and easily enlivened in joy, even during periods of
darkness or of aridity in faith.
"In order that the
Christian life reach the mystical level, this habitual
realization of the...presence of God must be predominant
...
"The realization of the
... presence of God, which is habitual and predominant: this
is what we will henceforth call the mystical level of the
Christian life. We dare not say that many Christians are at
this point. But certain persons are at this point ..."
55
Between the occasional
realization of God’s presence and the habitual and
predominant realization of His presence there are all the
stages and all the degrees.
The mystical process is
one in which God more and more takes possession of the soul.
The person becomes increasingly docile to the workings of
the Holy Spirit. The predominant realization of God’s
presence leads to a deepened desire to do the Father’s will
in all things, thorough Christ, in the Holy Spirit, with the
maternal assistance of Mary.
The mystical process is very
much Christ-centered. The person becomes increasingly
transformed in Christ. When the mystical experience becomes
consistent and predominant, the person can say with the
deepest meaning: I have been crucified with Christ and
yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in
me. The life that I am now living, subject to the limitation
of human nature, I am living in faith, faith in the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me. (Ga 2:19-20)
Pope John Paul II speaks
to us movingly concerning the Heart of Christ: "The Heart of
the Redeemer enlivens the whole Church and draws men who
have opened their hearts ‘to the inscrutable wealth’ of this
unique Heart....
"I desire in a special way
to join spiritually with all those who inspire their
human hearts from this Divine Heart. It is a numerous
family. Not a few congregations, associations and
communities live and develop in the Church, taking their
vital energy in a programmed way from the Heart of Christ.
This spiritual bond always leads to a great reawakening of
apostolic zeal. Adorers of the Divine Heart become people
with sensitive consciences. And when it is given to them to
have a relationship with the Heart of our Lord and Master,
the need also reawakens in them to do reparation for the
sins of the world, for the indifference of so many hearts,
for their negligence.
"How necessary these ranks
of vigilant hearts are in the Church, so that the love of
the Divine Heart shall not remain isolated and without
response! In these ranks, special mention deserves to be
made of all those who offer up their sufferings as living
victims in union with the Heart of Christ pierced on the
cross. Transformed in that way by love, human suffering
becomes a particular leaven of Christ’s saving work in the
Church…
"The Most Sacred Heart of
Jesus reminds us, above all, of those moments when this
Heart was ‘pierced by the lance,’ and, thereby, opened in a
visible manner to man and the world. By reciting the litany
and venerating the Divine Heart in general, we learn the
mystery of the Redemption in all its divine and human
profundity."
And the Pope also speaks
to us about the heart of Mary: "The Immaculate Heart of Mary
was open to the word, ‘Woman, there is your son.’ It went to
meet spiritually the Heart of the Son opened by the
soldier’s lance. The heart of Mary was opened by the same
love for man and for the world with which Christ loved man
and the world, offering up himself on the cross, even to
that lance stroke from the soldier.
"Consecrating the world to
the Immaculate heart of Mary means approaching the same
Source of Life, through the Mother’s Intercession, that life
which flowed forth from Golgatha, the source which gushes
out ceaselessly with redemption and grace. Reparation for
the sins of the world is continually being accomplished in
it. It is ceaselessly the font of new life and holiness.
"Consecrating the world to
the Immaculate Heart of the Mother means returning under the
Cross of the Son. More: it means consecration of this world
to the pierced Heart of the Savior, by bringing the world
back to the very source of its Redemption. Redemption is
always greater than man’s sin and ‘the sin of the world.’
The power of Redemption infinitely surpasses the whole range
of evil in man and in the world.
"The Heart of the Mother
is aware of it, more than anyone in the whole cosmos,
visible and invisible. This is why she calls. She does not
call only to conversion; she also calls upon us to let
ourselves be helped by her, the Mother, to return to the
source of the Redemption."56
A. Boussard gives an
extremely fine and concise sketch of the theology of
consecration:
"By the Incarnation, in
and of itself, the Humanity of Jesus is consecrated, so that
in becoming Man, Jesus is ipso facto constituted Savior,
Prophet, King, Priest, and Victim of the One Sacrifice that
was to save the world. He is the ‘Anointed’, par excellence,
the ‘Christ’ totally belonging to God, His Humanity being
that of the Word and indwelled by the Holy Spirit. When, by
a free act of His human will, He accepts what He is, doing
what He was sent to do, He can say that He consecrates
‘Himself’. In Christ, therefore, what might be called His
‘subjective’ consecration is a perfect response to the
‘objective’ consecration produced in His Humanity through
the Incarnation.
"And what Christ does
brings with it a ‘consecration’ for His disciples, a very
special belonging to God, since He imparts to them His own
life precisely by making them participate in His own
consecration.
"Through Baptism
Christians also are consecrated and ‘anointed’ by the power
of the Spirit. They share, in their measure, in the
essential consecration of Christ, in His character of King,
Priest, and Prophet (cf. 1 Peter 2:9; 7 Peter 1:3-4; Rev.
5:9, etc.). With Christ and through Christ, they are
‘ordered’ to the glory of God and the salvation of the
world. They do not belong to themselves. They belong to
Christ the Lord, who imparts His own life to them…
"The vocation of those who
have been baptized is to ‘live’ this consecration by a
voluntary adherence—and one that is as perfect as
possible—to what it has made of them. Living as ‘children of
God’, they fulfill subjectively their objective
consecration; like Jesus, they consecrate themselves. This
is the deeper meaning of vows and baptismal promises,
together with the actual way of life corresponding to them.
The baptismal consecration is the fundamental one,
constitutive of the Christian. All consecrations which come
after it presuppose and are rooted in it…"57
"Jesus, You show us Your
Heart as symbol of Your life of love in all its aspects,
including Your most special love for each of us as unique
individuals. Out of Your great love for us, You died a
brutal death, nailed to the wood of the cross. Out of Your
great love for us, You rose gloriously from the dead.
"From Your pierced Heart
the Church with her life-giving Sacraments was born. In the
Eucharist, Crown and Center of the Church’s life, You
continue to give Yourself to us with the deepest, most
tender, most on-fire, most complete love.
"Jesus, since in Your
great love You give Yourself so completely to us, it is only
fitting that we make a gift to You in return. It is entirely
fitting that we give ourselves completely to You. Yes, we
consecrate ourselves to Your most loving Heart. Each of us
says to You, O Lord, our Savior and our Friend: ‘Jesus, take
me wholly, take me completely to Your magnificent Heart. Out
of love I give myself to You. Live in and through me. In
love You give Yourself completely to me. In love and in a
spirit of reparation, I want to give myself, with the help
of Your grace, entirely to You. Take me, Jesus, to an ever
closer union with the Father, in the Holy Spirit, with Mary
my Mother at my side. Pierced, Glorified, Eucharistic Heart
of Jesus I place my trust in You.’ "
"Dear Blessed Virgin Mary, I
consecrate myself to your maternal and Immaculate Heart,
this Heart which is symbol of your life of love, including
your most special love for me as this unique individual. You
are the Mother of my Savior. You are also my Mother. In a
return of love, I give myself entirely to your motherly love
and protection. You followed Jesus perfectly. You are His
first and perfect disciple. Teach me to imitate you in the
putting on of Christ. Be my motherly intercessor so that,
through your Immaculate Heart, I may be guided to an ever
closer union with the Pierced, Glorified, Eucharistic Heart
of Jesus, Chief Shepherd of the flock."
Many of the laity pray for
us priests, and consistently so. Is it not also fitting that
we priests pray for all our brothers in the priesthood, and
consistently so? There follows a prayer that can aid us in
this endeavor.
"Lord Jesus, Chief
Shepherd of the Flock, we pray that in the great love
and mercy of Your Sacred Heart that You attend to all
the needs of Your priest-shepherds throughout the world.
We ask that You draw back to Your Heart all those
priests who have seriously strayed from Your path, that
You rekindle the desire for holiness in the hearts of
those priests who have become lukewarm, and that You
continue to give Your fervent priests the desire for the
highest holiness. United with Your Heart and Mary’s
Heart, we ask that You take this petition to Your
heavenly Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen".
The above prayer is taken
from the prayer manual of Shepherds of Christ Associates, a
facet of Shepherds of Christ Ministries. The associates are
members of prayer groups which meet regularly to pray for
all the needs of the entire human family, but most
especially for priests. If you would like a copy, or copies,
of this prayer manual, and further, if you would like
information on how to begin a Shepherds of Christ prayer
chapter, contact us at:
Shepherds of Christ
P.O.
Box 627
China, Indiana 47250
Phone (toll free): 1-888-211-3041,
Phone: 1-812-273-8405
Fax: 1-812-273-3182
I have been reading
the newsletter book Shepherds of Christ
meditatively since it came. All the articles are deep
theology and spirituality. If only priests read it
properly and prayerfully, a change towards Christ cannot
but come. All my Diocesan priests got the book and are
reading it. I have sent a few copies to the seminary
rector in South India whom I know, asking him to read it
and also order the newsletter. I am sure they will
profit by it.
Bishop S.A. Aruliah
Cuddapah
India
Gerard Joubert, O.P.
Houston, Texas
Compliments of the
Easter Season to you! After reading your recent
newsletter Shepherds of Christ, I found it very
profitable and thought of making a request for
subsequent copies as the one I read was given to me by
one of our priests.
I shall, therefore, be
very thankful if you do me the favour of sending me
copies of the newsletter in the future. May God bless
your apostolate most abundantly.
In union of prayers in
the Lord’s Vineyard, I remain,
Sincerely yours in the
Lord
Rev. Fr. Charles Anemelu
Berkeley Heights, New Jersey
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Scripture quotations
are taken from The New Jerusalem Bible,
Doubleday.
-
Archbishop Luis M.
Martinez, The Sanctifier, Pauline Books and
Media, pp. 124-125.
-
Adolphe Janquery,
S.S., The Spiritual Life, Desclee & Co., p. 18
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Archbishop Martinez,
op. cit., pp. 67-68,
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Jerusalem
Catecheses, as in The Liturgy of the Hours,
Catholic Book Publishing Co., Vol. II, p. 608.
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Msgr. Robert Guste, The Gift of the Church, Queenship Publications, pp.
22-23.
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Edward Leen, In the
Likeness of Christ, Sheed and Ward, pp. 290-300.
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St. John Eudes, from a
treatise on the Admirable Heart of Jesus, as in The
Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book Publishing Co.,
Vol. IV, pp. 1331-32.
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St. Ignatius of
Antioch, "Ignatius to the Romans," as in The Treasury
of Catholic Wisdom, Ignatius Press., p. 14.
-
John Henry Cardinal
Newman, Discourses Addressed to Mixed Congregations,
Longmans, Green and Co., pp. 111-112.
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Mother Teresa, In
My Own Words, Liguori Publications, p. 44.
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St. Claude de la
Columbiere, as published by Apostleship of Prayer,
Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus.
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Pope John Paul II, as
in Celebrate 2000!, Servant Publications, pp.
140-141.
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"From the Various
Writings of the History of the Order of Preachers," as
in The Liturgy of the Hours, Catholic Book
Publishing Co., Vol lV, p. 1302.
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Joseph Cardinal
Bernardin, The Gift of Peace, Loyola University
Press, pp. 151-153.
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St Teresa of Avila, Interior Castle, translated by E. Allison Peers,
Doubleday and Co., "Second Mansions", p. 51.
-
Ibid., "Fourth
Mansions", p. 76.
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Archbishop Luis M.
Martinez, The Sanctifier, op. cit. pp. 5-7.
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Henri de Lubac, S. J., The Church: Paradox and Mystery, translated by
James R. Dunne, Alba House, p. 24.
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Fr. Bruno Forte, He
Loved Them to the End, St. Paul Books & Media, p.
74-75.
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The Thoughts of
Pope John Paul II: A Collection of Essays and Studies,
John M. McDermott, S. J., Editor, Editrice Pontificia
Universita Gregoriana, p. 135.
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Henri de Lubac, S.J., The Church: Paradox and Mystery, op. cit., pp.
2-4.
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Avery Dulles, S.J., The Resilient Church, Doubleday & Company, p. 39.
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Gerald Vann, O.P., The Heart of Man, Longmans, Green and Co., pp.
151-152.
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The Documents of
Vatican II, "Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy",
America Press Edition, No. 10.
-
Ibid, No. 17
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Ibid, No. 48.
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Pope Pius XII,
Encyclical Letter, Mystici Corporis, AAS XXXV,
pp. 232-233.
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Letter of Pope John
Paul II, The Mystery and Worship of the Eucharist,
Pauline Books and Media, No. 3
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M. Raymond, O.C.S.O. This Is Love, Bruce, p. 106.
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Maurice de la Taille,
S. J., The Mystery of Faith, Book 2, "The
Sacrifice of the Church", translated by Joseph Carroll
and P. J. Dalton, Sheed and Ward, p. 240.
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Rita Ring,
Rosary Meditations for
Parents and Children,
Shepherds of Christ
Ministries, p. 189.
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Fr. Edward Leen,
C.S..Sp., In the Likeness of Christ, Sheed and
Ward, pp. 250-252.
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Rita Ring,
Mass Book - A Journey
Into the Heart of Jesus,
Shepherds of Christ
Ministries, p. 101.
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Mother Teresa, Rosary Meditations from Mother Teresa, contact
Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament, PO Box 1701,
Plattsburgh, New York.
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St. Peter Julian
Eymard, Eucharistic Handbook, Emmanuel
Publications, as in Adoration, Ignatius Press, p.97.
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Directory on the
Ministry and Life of Priests, as in special
supplement, Inside the Vatican, No. 48
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The Documents of
Vatican II, "Decree on the Ministry and Life of
Priests", America Press Edition, No. 12.
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The Documents of
Vatican II, "Decree on Priestly Formation", No. 8.
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Pope John Paul II,
Apostolic Exhortation, I Will Give You Shepherds,
St. Paul Books and Media, No. 25.
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Arthur Culkins, Soul Magazine Jan-Feb, 1995, p. 30.
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Jean Galot, S.J., Theology of the Priesthood, Ignatius Press, pp.
124-125.
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Ibid., p. 144.
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Pope John Paul II, Holy Thursday Letters to My Brother Priests, edited
by James P. Socias, Scepter Publications and Midwestern
Theological Forum, pp. 38-40.
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Nicholas Cachia, The Image of the Good Shepherd As A Source for the
Spirituality of the Ministereal Priesthood, Editrice
Pontificia Universita Gregoriana.
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Fr. John Wright, S.J., A Theology of Christian Prayer, Pueblo Pub., p.
101.
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Thomas Merton, A
Thomas Merton Reader, Thomas P. McDonnell, editor,
Doubleday, p. 325.
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Catherine of
Sienna, Selective Writings, ed, Mary O’Driscoll, O.P.,
New City Press, p. 50.
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Pope Paul VI,
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary (Marialis Cultus),
United States Catholic Conference, Nos. 46-47.
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The Documents of
Vatican II, op. cit., "The Church in the Modern
World", no. 21.
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St. Claude de la
Columbière, An Act of Confidence in God, Apostleship of Prayer,
Chicago Regional Office.
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Mother Mary Francis,
P.C.C., Forth and Abroad, Ignatius Press, pp.
121-123.
-
Ibid., pp.
120-121.
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Fr. Stephen J.
Rossetti, "Spirituality of the Priesthood" as in
Human Development, Vol 18. No. 1, Spring, 1997, pp.
26-32.
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Gustave Thils, Christian Holiness, Lunnoo Publishers, pp. 556-558.
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Pope John Paul II. Prayers and Devotions, edited by Bishop Peter Canuis
Johannes Van Lierde, Viking, pp. 449-451.
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A. Boussard in Dictionary of Mary, Catholic Book Publishing Co.,
pp. 54-55.
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of Christ.