The Church in its unity speaks in the language of every nation

Acts 2:1-11

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God."


An exposition of Ecclesiastes by St Gregory of Agrigentum

The disciples spoke in the language of every nation. At Pentecost God chose this means to indicate the presence of the Holy Spirit: whoever had received the Spirit spoke in every kind of tongue. We must realise, dear brothers, that this is the same Holy Spirit by whom love is poured out in our hearts. It was love that was to bring the Church of God together all over the world. And as individual men who received the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.
Therefore if somebody should say to one of us, “You have received the Holy Spirit, why do you not speak in tongues?” his reply should be, “I do indeed speak in the tongues of all men, because I belong to the body of Christ, that is, the Church, and she speaks all languages. What else did the presence of the Holy Spirit indicate at Pentecost, except that God’s Church was to speak in the language of every people?”
This way the way in which the Lord’s promise was fulfilled: No one puts new wine into old wineskins. New wine is put into fresh skins, and so both are preserved. So when the disciples were heard speaking in all kinds of languages, some people were not far wrong in saying: They have been drinking too much new wine. The truth is that the disciples had now become fresh wineskins, renewed and made holy by grace. The new wine of the Holy Spirit filled them, so that their fervour brimmed over and they spoke in manifold tongues. By this spectacular miracle they became a sign of the Catholic Church, which embraces the language of every nation.
Keep this feast, then, as members of the one body of Christ. It will be no empty festival for you if you really become what you are celebrating. For you are the members of that Church which the Lord acknowledges as his own, being himself acknowledged by her, that same Church which he fills with the Holy Spirit as she spreads throughout the world. He is like a bridegroom who never loses sight of his own bride; no one could ever deceive him by substituting some other woman.
To you men of all nations, then who make up the Church of Christ, you the members of Christ, you, the body of Christ, you, the bride of Christ – to all of you the Apostle addresses these words: Bear with one another in love; do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Notice that when Paul urges us to bear with one another, he bases his argument on love, and when he speaks of our hope of unity, he emphasises the bond of peace. This Church is the house of God. It is his delight to dwell here. Take care, then, that he never has the sorrow of seeing it undermined by schism and collapsing in ruins.


St. Gregory of Agrigentum
Gregory was born in the sixth century AD near the town of Agrigentum, in Sicily. He was ordained a deacon while on Pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was later consecrated bishop of Agrigentum in Rome, serving during the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great, who addressed several letters to him. He died around the 594, and is regarded as one of the Early Church Fathers.

It is sad that his words of warning about schism were either forgotten or not heeded a little over 700 years later.

The prayer for Unity

Today's Gospel Reading
Jn 17:20-26

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
"I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.
Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Righteous Father, the world also does not know you,
but I know you, and they know that you sent me.
I made known to them your name and I will make it known,
that the love with which you loved me
may be in them and I in them."

We heard a great homily at daily Mass this morning from Fr Mike. He pointed out that the biggest threat to Catholicism and the unity of the faith is individualism. It began with Adam and Eve. They wanted what they wanted despite what God said. They wanted that fruit, even though they knew the consequences. Today, people want what they want when they want it. Instead of considering the common good, being part of the Body, worshiping God in the unity of the faith, most people want to individualize. "I won't participate, I don't feel like singing or praying or kneeling.... I don't feel like going to Church today..."

We live in the "Me" generation. Everything is directed toward the self. The Gospel reading for today reflects the heart of the Lord, praying for his disciples to be one. We are the body of Christ. Romans 12:5 "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Our fleshly bodies have one focus. All our parts are in concert with one another. It is a marvelous system of checks and balances. Forces are marshalled for the common good. One part of the body doesn't have a different general purpose than another. They may have different functions but the purpose is the same. Survival. Health. Well being. All the parts move in the same direction, with the same purpose. Acting as one.
The body of Christ should be no different. When we gather around the table of the Lord, we come with one purpose, to hear the Word, to worship, to offer thanks, to receive our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Jesus prayed "so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one," ... Jesus prayed that Christians today be one, as He and the Father were one. Jesus said over and over that He came to do the will of His Father. Not His own Will. "Lo, in the volume of the book it is said of me 'I come to do your will, O God'
Jesus said that we would be brought to perfection as one". We will not get there looking after "number one", but we will get there by being at one with one another. Praying together, eating together, fasting together, worshipping together. In Holy Communion together. That is why we do not offer communion to Christians outside the Church. Because, though they have the same Lord, they are not one with us, they do not have the common faith. For 2000 years, the Catholic Church has had One Faith, One Lord, One Baptism. 1 Corinthians 10:17 "For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread"

So when we come together at Mass, let not one of us try to stand out among the crowd. But let us all be one, praying, singing, kneeling in worship. So that, as Jesus promises, that we will be brought to perfection as one.
And let us pray that the Holy Spirit's call for unity this Penetecost be spread over all Christendom. That we be joined in unity one day with our separated brethren. Psalm 133 tells us "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" Lord let us be One!!!
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The Holy Spirit: The New Law of Christians

What is meant by the fact that the Holy Spirit descends on the Church on the very day when Israel commemorated the gift of the law and the covenant?

VATICAN CITY (Zenit) - The Holy Spirit is the new law, working through charity in our hearts to enable us to be faithful to our love for God, says the preacher of the Pontifical Household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said this Friday in his second Lenten sermon for 2009, given to the Curia at the Vatican. The theme of the sermon was " The Law of the Spirit That Gives Life: The Holy Spirit, the New Law of Christians."

Pentecost, he pointed out, was not a new feast for the Jews, who celebrated the gift of the law on Mount Sinai and the covenant, but Jesus came to enrich the day with a new meaning.

The preacher asked, "What is meant by the fact that the Holy Spirit descends on the Church on the very day when Israel commemorated the gift of the law and the covenant?"

He answered that the Spirit descends on the apostles on the day of Pentecost "to point out that he is the new law, the spiritual law that seals the new and eternal covenant and that consecrates the royal and priestly people that are the Church."

Thus, he noted, the "law of the Spirit" is "the law that he inscribes in hearts on Pentecost."

Divine Strength

Father Cantalamessa explained: "If it was enough to just proclaim the new will of God through the Gospel, it wouldn't explain what need there was for Jesus to die and the Holy Spirit to come.

"But the apostles themselves demonstrated that it was not enough; even though they heard everything, for example that we need to turn the cheek to those who strike us, during the passion they did not have the strength to follow any of Jesus' commandments."

He affirmed that this "new law that is the Spirit" works through love. He added, "This love is the love with which God loves us and by which, at the same time, we are made capable of loving him and our neighbor; it is a new capacity for love."

The Holy Spirit, noted the preacher, "specifically love, is a 'law,' a 'commandment'" that "creates a dynamism within the Christian which bring him to do everything God wants, spontaneously, without even needing to think about it, because he has made God's will his own and he loves everything that God loves."

Love, he said, "cannot substitute the law," but it observes" it and fulfills it. "In fact," he added, "it is the only force that makes it be observed."

The priest continued: "If it is in fact true that love takes care of the law, it is also true that the law take care of love. In different ways the law is at the service of love and defends it."

He explained: "The man that loves, the more intensely he loves, the more he can see the dangers that his love is in; it is danger that does not come from others but from within himself.

"If fact, he knows well that he is changeable and that tomorrow, alas, he could grow tired and not love anymore.

"And since now that he is in love he sees clearly what an irreparable loss this would be, he guards against it by 'tying himself' to love with the law. In this way he anchors his act of love, which happens in time, to eternity."

The mission of the Holy Spirit in the church

From the dogmatic constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council

When the Son completed the work with which the Father had entrusted him on earth, the Holy Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost to sanctify the Church unceasingly, and thus enable believers to have access to the Father through Christ in the one Spirit. He is the Spirit of life, the fountain of water welling up to give eternal life. Through him the Father gives life to men, dead because of sin, until he raises up their mortal bodies in Christ.
The Spirit dwells in the Church and in the hearts of the faithful as in a temple. He prays in them and bears witness in them to their adoption as sons. He leads the Church into all truth and gives it unity in communion and in service. He endows it with different hierarchical and charismatic gifts, directs it by their means, and enriches it with his fruits.
By the power of the Gospel he enables the Church to grow young, perpetually renews it, and leads it to complete union with its Bridegroom. For the Spirit and the Bride say to the Lord Jesus: “Come!”
In this way the Church reveals itself as a people whose unity has its source in the unity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The whole company of the faithful, who have an anointing by the Holy Spirit, cannot err in faith. They manifest this distinctive characteristic of theirs in the supernatural instinct of faith (‘sensus fidei’) of the whole people when, from the bishops to the most ordinary lay person among the faithful, they display a universal agreement on matters of faith and morals.
This instinct of faith is awakened and kept in being by the Spirit of truth. Through it the people of God hold indefectibly to the faith once delivered to the saints, penetrate it more deeply by means of right judgement, and apply it more perfectly in their lives. They do all this under the guidance of the sacred teaching office: by faithful obedience to it they receive, not the word of men but in truth the word of God.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit not only sanctifies and guides God’s people by the sacraments and the ministries, and enriches it with virtues, he also distributes special graces among the faithful of every state of life, assigning his gifts to each as he chooses. By means of these special gifts he equips them and makes them eager for various activities and responsibilities that benefit the Church in its renewal or its increase, in accordance with the text: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for a good purpose.
These charisms, the simpler and more widespread as well as the most outstanding, should be accepted with a sense of gratitude and consolation, since in a very special way they answer and serve the needs of the Church.

The Ascension of the Lord

This Sunday we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. Here are the Mass readings and the Office Readings. I have also included one of the songs we sang during Holy Communion.

Mass Readings

Reading 1
Acts 1:1-11

In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with the them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

When they had gathered together they asked him,
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, "Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.

R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

Reading II
Eph 1:17-23

Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

Gospel
Mk 16:15-20

Jesus said to his disciples:
"Go into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

Office of Readings

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop

No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven
Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.
Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food.
Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him? While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.
He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are the sons of God. So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body.
Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.


Now We Remain by David Haas

Refrain
We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus, the Christ.

1. Once we were people afraid,
lost in the night.
Then by your cross we were saved;
dead became living,
life from your giving.

Refrain
We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus, the Christ.

2. Something which we have known,
something we’ve touched,
what we have seen with our eyes:
this we have heard;
life giving Word.

Refrain
We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus, the Christ.

3. He chose to give of himself,
became our bread.
Broken, that we might live.
Love beyond love,
pain for our pain.

Refrain
We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus, the Christ.

4. We are the presence of God;
this is our call.
Now to become bread and wine:
food for the hungry,
life for the weary,
for to live with the Lord,
we must die with the Lord.

Refrain
We hold the death of the Lord deep in our hearts.
Living, now we remain with Jesus, the Christ.


If you have not heard this beautiful song before, you can hear it here

Text: Based on 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; 1 John 1:1; 2 Timothy 2:11-13. Text and music © 1983, GIA Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

The days between....

This week we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. It is truly a solemn and meaningful feast. The Ascension begins the Church Age, a time when Satan is bound and the gospel is preached to the ends of the earth.

The prophet Malachi foretells the last days of the Jewish temple, the end of Jewish sacrifices and the beginning of offering "pure offerings"...The Lord says that "My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," We know that the pure offering is Jesus. The only pure sacrifice offered for sin. At the Feast of the Ascension, we celebrate that Jesus goes to His Father, and our Father. In heaven, John sees Him as the Lamb of God, standing, and looking as if it had been slain. The once and for all sacrifice who is presented to the Father in Heaven and re-presented every hour on every day on altars all over the world as Malachi fortold... pure offerings.. "from the rising to the setting of the sun".

In this sermon by Pope St Leo, he lays out for us the significance of those 40 days between the Resurrection and the Ascension. Jesus spent time with His apostles after His resurrection to impress on them the reality of who He is and what their mission was.

The days between the resurrection and the ascension of the Lord

A sermon of Pope St Leo the Great

Dearly beloved, those days which intervened between the Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension did not pass by in uneventful leisure, but great mysteries were ratified in them and deep truths were revealed.
In those days the fear of death was removed with all its terrors, and the immortality not only of the soul but also of the flesh was established. In those days the Holy Ghost is poured upon all the Apostles through the Lord’s breathing upon them, and to the blessed Apostle Peter, set above the rest, the keys of the kingdom are entrusted and the care of the Lord’s flock.
It was during that time that the Lord joined the two disciples as a companion on the way, and, to sweep away all the clouds of our uncertainty, reproached them for the slowness of their timid and trembling hearts. Their enlightened hearts catch the flame of faith, and lukewarm as they have been, they are made to burn while the Lord unfolds the Scriptures. In the breaking of bread also their eyes are opened as they eat with him. How much more blessed is that opening of their eyes, to the glorification of their nature, than the time when our first parents’ eyes were opened to the disastrous consequences of their transgression.
Dearly beloved, through all this time which elapsed between the Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension, God’s Providence had this in view, to teach his own people and impress upon their eyes and their hearts that the Lord Jesus Christ had risen, risen as truly as he had been born and had suffered and died.
Hence the most blessed Apostles and all the disciples, who had been both bewildered at his death on the cross and backward in believing his Resurrection, were so strengthened by the clearness of the truth that when the Lord entered the heights of heaven, not only were they affected with no sadness, but were even filled with great joy.
Truly it was great and unspeakable, that cause of their joy, when in the sight of the holy multitude the Nature of mankind went up: up above the dignity of all heavenly creatures, to pass above the angels’ ranks and to rise beyond the archangels’ heights, and to have its uplifting limited by no elevation until, received to sit with the Eternal Father, it should be associated on the throne with his glory, to whose Nature it was united in the Son.

The Eucharist is the Lord's Passover

A treatise by St Gaudentius of Brescia

One man has died for all, and now in every church in the mystery of bread and wine he heals those for whom he is offered in sacrifice, giving life to those who believe and holiness to those who consecrate the offering. This is the flesh of the Lamb; this is his blood. The bread that came down from heaven declared: The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world. It is significant, too, that his blood should be given to us in the form of wine, for his own words in the gospel, I am the true vine, imply clearly enough that whenever wine is offered as a representation of Christ's passion, it is his blood. This means that it was of Christ that the blessed patriarch Jacob prophesied when he said: He will wash his tunic in wine and his cloak in the blood of the grape. The tunic was our flesh, which Christ was to put on like a garment and which he was to wash in his own blood.
Creator and Lord of all things, whatever their nature, he brought forth bread from the earth and changed it into his own body. Not only had he the power to do this, but he had promised it; and, as he had changed water into wine, he also changed wine into his own blood. It is the Lord's passover, Scripture tells us, that is, the Lord's passing. We are no longer to look upon the bread and wine as earthly substances. They have become heavenly, because Christ has passed into them and changed them into his body and blood. What you receive is the body of him who is the heavenly bread, and the blood of him who is the sacred vine; for when he offered his disciples the consecrated bread and wine, he said: This is my body, this is my blood. We have put our trust in him. I urge you to have faith in him; truth can never deceive.
When Christ told the crowds that they must eat his flesh and drink his blood, they were horrified and began to murmur among themselves: This teaching is too hard; who can be expected to listen to it? As I have already told you, thoughts such as these must be banished. The Lord himself used heavenly fire to drive them away be going on to declare: It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Saint Gaudentius of Brescia (d. 410) was a native of Brescia, Italy, and studied under Saint Philastrius there. He went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem and then became a monk at Caesarea in Cappadocia. He was elected to succeed Philastrius as bishop of Brescia, despite his own objections, and was consecrated by St. Ambrose about 387. Gaudentius wrote many pastoral letters, and ten of his sermons have come down to us. They show his desire to educate his listeners, and present them with good examples for living.
He was one of three bishops sent by Pope Innocent I and Emperor Honorius to Constantinople to defend St. John Chrysostom before Emperor Arcadius in 405. The bishops were imprisoned in Thrace and were offered bribes in an unsuccessful attempt to get them to denounce Chrysostom. Eventually, they were freed and forced to return to Italy. They were put on a ship but their ship sank near Lampsacus. They eventually reached home safely. Gaudentius brought back many precious relics of St. John Baptist. of the Apostles and of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. These he received at Caesarea in Cappadocia from nieces of St. Basil. Gaudentius was known for his oratory and exemplary life. He died of natural causes in Italy in 410.

Both Priest and Victim

Today's Office is an exhortation for us all to imitate the Lord Jesus, in His life and in His death. To take up our cross and follow Him. For didn't Jesus say "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal."? Take Him at His Word.... you only have this world to lose and heaven to gain.

From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, bishop

Each one of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest

I appeal to you by the mercy of God. This appeal is made by Paul, or rather, it is made by God through Paul, because of God’s desire to be loved rather than feared, to be a father rather than a Lord. God appeals to us in his mercy to avoid having to punish us in his severity.
Listen to the Lord’s appeal: In me, I want you to see your own body, your members, your heart, your bones, your blood. You may fear what is divine, but why not love what is human? You may run away from me as the Lord, but why not run to me as your father? Perhaps you are filled with shame for causing my bitter passion. Do not be afraid. This cross inflicts a mortal injury, not on me, but on death. These nails no longer pain me, but only deepen your love for me. I do not cry out because of these wounds, but through them I draw you into my heart. My body was stretched on the cross as a symbol, not of how much I suffered, but of my all-embracing love. I count it no less to shed my blood: it is the price I have paid for your ransom. Come, then, return to me and learn to know me as your father, who repays good for evil, love for injury, and boundless charity for piercing wounds.
Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do. I appeal to you, he says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status.
How marvellous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf, and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God: with himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself. The victim remains and the priest remains, always one and the same. Immolated, the victim still lives: the priest who immolates cannot kill. Truly it is an amazing sacrifice in which a body is offered without being slain and blood is offered without being shed.
The Apostle says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Brethren, this sacrifice follows the pattern of Christ’s sacrifice by which he gave his body as a living immolation for the life of the world. He really made his body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, he continues to live. In such a victim death receives its ransom, but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is actually a birth, and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life, and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven.
Paul says: I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that he himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith; God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender; God is appeased not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will.

Lord, who shall we go to?

This chapter shows the first time that some of the disciples left Jesus over doctrinal differences. Some people today think that Jesus was really only talking
about spiritual food and drink, that Christ was speaking metaphorically. For an answer to that kind of interpretation go here
Our natural judgment and understanding, if not endued with the grace of God, is unreliable; but God’s judgment is always true.

John 6: 52-69

The Jews started arguing with one another: ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ they said. Jesus replied:

‘I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food
and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
lives in me
and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me.
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate:
they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.’

He taught this doctrine at Capernaum, in the synagogue
After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

‘It is the spirit that gives life,
the flesh has nothing to offer.
The words I have spoken to you are spirit
and they are life.
‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’

For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.

Then Jesus said to the Twelve,

‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’

Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

St Joseph the Worker

This is a great preface I found on Universalis.com about today's feast of St Joseph. Christ has sanctified our work, just as he has sanctified the waters of Baptism as long as it is done in the name of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Today we celebrate the feast of St Joseph the Worker, step-father and guardian of our Lord and the chaste husband of the Virgin Mary. We celebrate the worker, offering the work of his hands to God. No matter what we do, whether cook or carpenter, banker or baker, if we offer our work to God, He will sanctify it. We can all strive for sainthood in our work day.

I have long admired St Josemaria Escriva and his life's passion Opus Dei (The Work of God). I have included a message from the Prelate at the end of this post.


The feast of Saint Joseph the Worker is not a mere Catholic copying of the Communist First of May – any more than Christmas is a mere copy of the pagan feast of Saturnalia.

The Christian view of work is diametrically opposed to the materialist view. A worker such as St Joseph is not a mere lump of labour – “1.00 human work units.” He is a person. He is created in God’s own image, and just as creation is an activity of God, so creation is an activity of the worker. The work we do echoes the glorious work that God has done. It may not be wasted; or abused; or improperly paid; or directed to wrong or pointless ends. To do any of these things is not oppression, it is sacrilege. The glory of the present economic system is when it gives so many, of whatever class, the chance to build and create something worthwhile, whether from their own resources, or in collaboration with others, or by attracting investment from others. But its shame is when that does not happen: when people are coerced, by greed or by poverty, into being “lumps of labour.” Whether the labour is arduous or not makes no difference; whether it is richly paid or not makes no difference.

Because she must combat the anti-humanist Communist heresy the Church is sometimes thought to be on the side of capital. Reading the successive Papal encyclicals on labour and society, from Rerum Novarum (1891) onwards, will soon dispel that illusion. The enemies of the Church have no reason to read them; all too often we feel too comfortable in our present economic state and refrain from reading them also.

MESSAGE OF THE DAY - From Opus Dei
“Your human vocation is a part of your divine vocation”

As Jesus, who is our Lord and Model, grows in and lives as one of us, he reveals to us that human life - your life - and its humdrum, ordinary business, have a meaning which is divine, which belongs to eternity. (The Forge, 688)

Christian faith and calling affect our whole existence, not just a part of it. Our relations with God necessarily demand giving ourselves, giving ourselves completely. The man of faith sees life, in all its dimensions, from a new perspective: that which is given us by God.

You, who celebrate with me today this feast of St Joseph, are men who work in different human professions; you have your own homes, you belong to so many different countries and have different languages. You have been educated in lecture halls or in factories and offices. You have worked in your profession for years, established professional and personal friendships with your colleagues, helped to solve the problems of your companies and your communities.

Well then: I remind you once again that all this is not foreign to God’s plan. Your human vocation is a part — and an important part — of your divine vocation. That is the reason why you must strive for holiness, giving a particular character to your human personality, a style to your life; contributing at the same time to the sanctification of others, your fellow men; sanctifying your work and your environment: the profession or job that fills your day, your home and family and the country where you were born and which you love. (Christ is passing by, 46)