The Holy Spirit, the tiller of hearts

This magnificent parable speaks to us today as it spoke to the listeners of Jesus two thousand years ago. Let us become the fertile ground which receives the Gospel and bears fruit! Bearing in mind that the human soul hesitates to welcome the word of God, let us address the Spirit with this ardent liturgical prayer, Veni Creator Spiritus: “Come, O Creator Spirit,/ Visit the souls of those who belong to you;/ Fill with your grace from on high/ The hearts which you have made.” In this prayer we open our hearts, imploring the Spirit to fill them with light and life. 

Spirit of God, make us ready to receive your visit. Make faith in the word which saves grow in us. Be the living source of the hope which blossoms in our lives. Be in us the breath of love which transforms us, and the fire of charity which impels us to give ourselves to the service of our brothers and sisters. You whom the Father has sent, teach us all things and make us grasp the richness of the word of Christ. Strengthen our inner being, make us pass from fear to confidence, so that the praise of your glory may burst forth from us. Be the light that fills people’s hearts and gives them the courage to seek you unceasingly. 

You, Spirit of truth, lead us to the entire Truth, so that we may firmly proclaim the mystery of the living God who is active in our history. Enlighten us as to the ultimate meaning of this history. Take away the unfaithfulness which separates us from you. Cast out from us all resentment and division…. Help us to discover that love is the most intimate part of divine life, and that we are called to share in it. Teach us how to love one another as the Father has loved us by giving us his Son.

May all peoples know you, God, Father of all, whom your Son Jesus has come to reveal to us, you who have sent us your Spirit in order to give us the fruits of redemption!

Saint John Paul II

Doing God’s will

Of all the signs of a person’s knowledge and wisdom, none is proof of greater wisdom than that one does not cling to his own opinion: Lean not upon your own prudence (Prov 3:5). For those who cling to their own judgment so as to mistrust others and trust in themselves alone, invariably prove themselves fools and are judged as such: You see those who are wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for fools than for them (Prov 26:12). But if a person distrusts his own judgment, that is a proof of his humility, which is why it is said, Where humility is, there also is wisdom (Prov 11:2), whereas the proud are too self-confident. 

Accordingly, we learn from the Holy Spirit (by his gift of knowledge) to do not our own but God’s will, and by virtue of this gift we pray to God that his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. It is in this that the gift of knowledge is proved, so that when we say to God, Thy will be done, it is as when a sick man consults a physician. He takes the medicine not precisely because he wills it himself, but because it is the will of the physician. If he only took what he willed himself, he would be a fool.

Hence we should ask nothing of God but that his will be done in our regard—in other words, that his will be fulfilled in us. For one’s heart is right when it agrees with the divine will. Christ did this: I came down from heaven to do, not my own will, but the will of him that sent me(Jn 6:38)…. For that reason he taught us to ask and pray, Thy will be done. 

Saint Thomas Aquinas

The Kingdom is a Person

To show his debt of gratitude to the Baptist and his strict continuity with him, Jesus chooses as the first words of his public life the phrase that sums up verbatim the essence of the Forerunner’s preaching: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But now the word of preparation becomes the word of fulfillment. John’s message has faithfully been transitive, because he pointed beyond himself to Jesus: “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near…and there you see it approaching in the form of Jesus of Nazareth.” When Jesus himself repeats the same words, however, he speaks them as the Light that has dawned over every people, every individual squatting helplessly in the darkness. Jesus’ words are the auditory component of the real fact that the Son of God is living among men. Verse 13 says literally “he made his home in Capharnaum.” By so doing, the Son of God has reopened the gates of paradise for those who would drink of that light, that water of eternal life. 

Christ Jesus among us is the walking Kingdom of Heaven. The angels who came to serve him after the temptations knew as much: they had no need of metanoia. “Repentance” means, not only to forsake our old sinful ways, since this would be a merely moral change: repentance means to put on a new attitude because we recognize the compellingly royal presence of God before us. This entails a change of vision, a change of home, a change of lover. Our constant prayer to the Father must be: “Teach us to be hungry for this living and true Bread!” Such hunger is the prime fruit of metanoia. Our very heart must churn until all we know is Jesus, whom the Father loves above all things and in adoring whom the angels find their joy.

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis

St Paul conversion

This turning point in Paul’s life, this transformation of his whole being was not the fruit of a psychological process, of a maturation or intellectual and moral development. Rather it came from the outside: it was not the fruit of his thought but of his encounter with Jesus Christ. In this sense it was not simply a conversion, a development of his “ego,” but rather a death and a resurrection for Paul himself. One existence died and another new one was born with the Risen Christ. There is no other way in which to explain this renewal of Paul….

In this deeper sense we can and we must speak of conversion. This encounter is a real renewal that changed all his parameters. Now he could say that what had been essential and fundamental for him earlier had become “refuse” for him; it was no longer “gain” but loss, because henceforth the only thing that counted for him was life in Christ…. The Risen Christ is the light of truth, the light of God himself. This expanded his heart and made it open to all. At this moment he did not lose all that was good and true in his life, in his heritage, but he understood wisdom, truth, the depth of the law and of the prophets in a new way, and in a new way made them his own….

Turning now to ourselves, let us ask what this means for us. It means that for us, too, Christianity is not a new philosophy or a new morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ. Of course, he does not show himself to us in this overwhelming, luminous way, as he did to Paul to make him the Apostle to all peoples. But we too can encounter Christ in reading Sacred Scripture, in prayer, in the liturgical life of the Church. We can touch Christ’s Heart and feel him touching ours. Only in this personal relationship with Christ, only in this encounter with the Risen One do we truly become Christians. And in this way our reason opens, all Christ’s wisdom opens as do all the riches of truth. Therefore let us pray the Lord to illumine us, to grant us an encounter with his presence in our world, and thus to grant us a ­lively faith, an open heart, and great love for all, which is ­capable of renewing the world.

Pope Benedict XVI

Summoned and sent

Go forth to do the work for which God has elected you. He will be your right hand so that no difficulty shall move you, he will hold you by his hand so that you may walk in his path. So be of great courage, and may your courage endure. And the way to get it is to keep on asking him who alone can give it to you; he will give it to you if you follow the leading of his grace with a simple heart. May the love, peace, and consolation of the Holy Spirit be in your soul for ever….

I give you my blessing with a father’s love. May God bless you as you set forth and where you are now to live, as you serve him, as you serve your neighbor, as you humble yourself to your very nothingness, as you lift yourself up to your all; and may God always be your all…. Go forth calmly and sweetly in peace to serve God and Our Lady where you have been summoned by their will, and may the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit be with you for ever…. Live calmly and simply in God, always loving your own abjection and being courageous in the service of him who died on the cross to save you.

Saint Francis de Sales

Saint Francis de Sales († 

A reading from 
the holy Gospel according to Mark3:13-19

Jesus went up the mountain and summoned those whom he wanted and they came to him. He appointed Twelve, whom he also named Apostles, that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach and to have authority to drive out demons: He appointed the Twelve: Simon, whom he named Peter; James, son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James, whom he named Boanerges, that is, sons of thunder; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus, Simon the Cananean, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

The fruit of true faith in the Son of God

The fruits of faith in Christ’s divinity possess divine qualities themselves. The first of the fruits is eternal life. Whoever believes in him has eternal life (cf. Jn 3:5; 5:24; 6:40-47). The Gospel itself was written so that people would believe that Jesus is the Son of God and, believing, would have eternal life, [and] eternal life is not just the life that begins after death, but the new life of children of God which already opens up now for the believer. Whoever believes in him has already passed from death to life (Jn 5:24). Faith allows the divine world to irrupt into this our world right now. Believing, therefore, means something very different from believing in a “hereafter,” in life after death; it is to experience the life and glory of God here and now. Whoever believes already sees the glory of God, right now (cf. Jn 11:40)….

Christ willed to found his Church on nothing else than faith in him as Son of God. Peter becomes Cephas, Rock, the moment when, by revelation from the Father, he believes in the divine origin of Jesus. “On this rock,” Saint Augustine comments, “I shall build the faith which you have professed. On the fact that you have said: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, I shall build my Church.” The Church was founded on the first act of faith, in the temporal order, in Christ’s divinity. This remains her basis, this allows her to overcome the world and the gates of hell. How different the works of God are from those of human beings! The whole immense edifice of the Church set on something invisible, very fragile yet invincible: on faith in Christ the Son of God and on the promise made in response to this faith. The Church is, in herself, the tangible proof of the truth of those words: Whoever believes that Jesus is the Son of God overcomes the world.

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, o.f.m. cap.

God’s love for human life

The human community is God’s dream even from before the creation of the world (Eph 1:3-14). In it, the eternal Son begotten of God the Father has taken flesh and blood, heart and emotions. Through the mystery of giving life, the great family of humanity is enabled to discover its true meaning…. All of us ought to grow in the awareness of our common origin in God’s love and creative act. Christian Faith confesses the begetting of the Son as the ineffable mystery of the eternal unity within the life of the Triune God. A renewed proclamation of this often overlooked revelation can open a new chapter in the history of human community and culture, which today cries out, groaning as if in labor pains (Rom 8:22), for rebirth in the Spirit. God’s ­tenderness and his will to redeem all those who feel lost, abandoned, discarded, or hopelessly condemned, is revealed in the Only Begotten Son. The mystery of the eternal Son who became one of us is the definitive witness to this “passion” of God. The mystery of Christ’s cross and resurrection—as the firstborn of many ­brothers (Rom 8:29)—tells us the extent to which God’s passion is directed to the redemption and full ­flourishing of human beings.

We need to renew a lively awareness of God’s passion for humanity and its world. Human beings were made by God in his image, male and female (Gn 1:27)…. The relationship between man and woman is the ­primary place where all creation speaks with God and bears ­witness to his love. This world is the place where we are brought to life; it is the place and time in which we gain a foretaste of the heavenly home that is our ­destiny (2 Cor 5:1) and where we will live fully our communion with God and with all others. The human family is a community with a common origin and a common goal, whose attainment is hidden, with Christ, in God (Col 3:3). In our time, the Church is called once more to propose the humanism of the life that bursts forth from God’s passion for human beings. Our commitment to valuing, supporting, and defending the life of every human being is ultimately motivated by God’s unconditional love. Such is the beauty and the allure of the Gospel, which does not reduce love of neighbor to criteria of economic or political convenience.

Pope Francis 

His Holiness Pope Francis was elected to the See of Saint Peter in 2013. 

The true meaning of Sabbath worship

The True Meaning of Sabbath Worship

Only the God-man, Jesus Christ, can truly offer adoration and love to God. He alone is entirely holy, he alone truly glorifies God through his holiness, and he alone can truly praise God. The final, supernatural vocation of every person is, therefore, transformation in Christ. Only from Christ, with him, and in him, can we offer true adoring love to God and praise him; and we can become holy only to the extent that we cease to live, and Christ lives in us; that is to say, to the extent that the divine life implanted in us in baptism is fully developed. Our transformation in Christ is the essence of sanctity. 

This transformation of a person into Christ includes not only the loving adoration of the Father with Christ and in Christ, but also the participation in the sacrifice of Christ and in the uttering of the “Word,” the only true praise and glorification, addressed by Christ to his heavenly Father. Even now, in spite of our imperfection and infirmity, we are permitted to join in the praise of the angels, because as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we pray with the Head. And the more fully we participate in this expressed glorification of the Father in the laudare, the more we shall be transformed into Christ. We are drawn increasingly into the adoring love of Christ for the Father in that very action by which we consciously present to the Father the fruit of that adoring love.

Dietrich von Hildebrand

Jesus is the one

“He is the one”

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whom lies all our hope of eternal salvation, though he was God became man for this reason, that man, having put himself far away from God, should not think he had been left far off and deserted. So he became our mediator, and thus after a fashion brought to an end the time of the distance which separated us from God, so that through him we might not remain far off, but could even draw near. 

Nothing, you see, is so closely joined together as the Word and God; again, nothing is so closely joined together as flesh and humanity. So, since the Word and God were a long way away from flesh and humanity, the Word became flesh, and joined humanity to God. So this Lord and Savior of ours, the Son of God, the Word of God who became flesh, taught those who believe in him how to live, taught them how to die; to live without greed, to die without fear. He taught us how to live, so that we might not die forever; he taught us how to die, so that we might live forever.

Saint Augustine

Who but God alone can forgive

“Who but God alone can forgive sins?”

The Creator saw that our wound was grown great, and needed the care of a physician—and Jesus himself is our Creator, and himself heals us—and he sent forerunners before his face…. None among the creatures was able to heal that great wound, but only the bounty of God, that is to say his Only Begotten, whom he sent to be the Savior of all the world; for he is the great physician, who is able to heal the great wound…. And of his bounty the Father of creatures spared not his Only Begotten for our salvation, but delivered him up for us all and for our iniquities (Rom 8:32). And he humbled himself, and by his stripes we all were healed (Phil 2:8; Is 53:5). And by the word of his power he gathered us out of all lands, from one end of the world to the other end of the world, and raised up our hearts from the earth, and taught us that we are members one of another.

I beseech you, dearly beloved in the Lord: understand that this Scripture is the command of God. For it is a great thing for us to understand the form that Jesus accepted for us: for he became in all things like unto us, apart from sin (Heb 4:15). Now therefore it is right that we also should set ourselves free by his advent, that by his foolishness he may make us wise, and by his poverty may enrich us, and by his weakness strengthen us, and confer resurrection upon us all, destroying him that had the power of death (Heb 2:14)…. The advent of Jesus helps us to do what is good, until we have destroyed all our vices. Then Jesus will say to us, Henceforth I call you not servants, but brethren (Jn 15:15). When therefore the Apostles attained to receiving the Spirit of adoption, then the Holy Spirit taught them to worship the Father as they ought.

Saint Anthony of the Desert

His purpose, our purpose

His Purpose, Our Purpose

I am resolved to put no limit to my trust and to extend it to everything. It seems to me that I ought to make use of our Lord as an armor which covers me all about, by means of which I shall resist every device of my enemies. You, then, shall be my strength, O my God! You shall be my guide, my director, my counselor, my patience, my knowledge, my peace, my justice, and my prudence. I will have recourse to you in my temptations, in my dryness, in my repugnances, in my weariness, in my fears; or rather I will no longer fear either the illusions or the tricks of the demon, nor my own weakness, my indiscretions, nor even my mistrust of myself. For you must be my strength in all my crosses. 

You promise me that this you will be in proportion to my confidence. And wonderful indeed it is, O my God, that at the same time that you impose this condition, it seems to me that you give me the confidence wherewith to fulfill it. May you be eternally loved and praised by all creatures. O my very loving Lord! If you were not my strength, alas, what should I do? But since you are, and since you do assure me that you are, what shall I not do for your glory? I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me (Phil 4:13).

You are everywhere in me and I in you; therefore in whatever situation I may find myself, in whatever peril, whatever enemy may rise up against me, I have my support always with me. This thought alone can, in a moment, scatter all my trials.

Saint Claude la Colombière

Following the Lord

Following the Lord in Every Way

The plan of the heavenly mystery is portrayed in Christ. After he was baptized, the entrance of heaven was opened, the Holy Spirit came forth and is visibly recognized in the form of a dove…. Then a voice from heaven spoke the following words: You are my Son, today I have begotten you. He is revealed as the Son of God by sound and sight [and] we should likewise know that following the waters of baptism, the Holy Spirit comes upon us from the gates of heaven, imbuing us with the anointing of heavenly glory. We become the sons of God by the adoption expressed through the Father’s voice. These actual events prefigured an image of the mysteries established for us….

By choosing fishermen, the role of their future service is made clear from their profession: just as they drew fish from the sea, so they would draw men one by one from this age to a higher place, that is, into the light of a heavenly dwelling. By their abandonment of their profession, their country, and homes, we who will follow Christ are taught not to be bound by concern for life in this world or by attachment to our family’s home. In the choice of the first four Apostles, apart from the evident veracity of the facts (for this is how it happened), the number of the future evangelists is prefigured. Christ went around Galilee preaching in the synagogues about the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing the infirmities of all the sick. He revealed himself by these deeds so that he would be recognized as the one whom the Jews had long read about in the books of the prophets.

Saint Hilary of Poitiers

Baptism of the Lord

The Glories of Baptism

The more we contemplate in the light of faith the great gifts of baptism, the more we are astounded by the munificence of God’s bounty. Moreover, it would be a mistake to regard the effects of this initial grace as passing phenomena. The Trinity of baptism is with us all the days of our life. The Father is always present, providentially watching day and night over his adopted children. The Word is always present, keeping them from all evil. The Holy Spirit is always present, guiding them through the cares and hardships of this life, toward their eternal destiny. All three divine Persons of the Trinity unceasingly watch over us with their all-powerful protection.

Here, in the indwelling of the Blessed Trinity, lies a truth that ought never to be overlooked. Perhaps we are too much accustomed to weighing only the personal efforts of the soul in the quest for perfection. Such personal effort is certainly necessary, but we should not forget the unceasing impulse and direction of the Holy Spirit, or the primordial and precursive action on the part of God. Jesus has said: If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. It is clear, then, that not only the Word comes to the soul. How, as a matter of fact, could the Father and the Son be separated from their Spirit of love? And if all the Trinity come to dwell in the Christian soul, it is not to abide inactive. My Father, said Jesus, works even until now, and I work. This continuous action of the Trinity is what keeps the physical world from falling into nothingness, and it operates all the more in the supernatural world of souls. The course of divine life which proceeds from the Father to the Son and binds them together in the Holy Spirit, is continued externally in those ­mysterious and invisible missions that transform souls to the image of the Trinity. All holiness is but allowing oneself to be made Godlike. It is God that leads to God.

Father M.M. Philipon, o.p.

Living by His Gracious Words

Living by His Gracious Words

Heavenly words of mercy, of justice, of sublime charity and of holy love fell from the divine lips of Jesus as gentle dew falling upon a parched earth. His words were—and continue to be—the great splendor, the great light for all mankind. His lips always spoke piety, sweetness, and confidence. He was and is Goodness, Mercy, and Kindness personified. If we were to allow his words to penetrate our hearts, how rapidly we would begin our transformation into him, and the truth is that by our good fortune, Jesus lives in our souls and suffers in us.

Who has ever said that the presence of God—in his actions and his words—has to be felt? Sometimes God grants that sensation. At other times, he doesn’t. But having or not having that disposition does not necessarily mean that we are far from God. When one comes to understand this, one receives desolation—the inability to hear Jesus’ voice interiorly—as a precious grace from God and one accepts it in peace.

There will be periods of dryness, lack of consolation, fatigue, and struggles. But in the midst of this, just as when we feel fervor, the same love must continue burning: a love that adapts itself to all circumstances and is never extinguished. This love comes from God and that which is divine is also immortal.

The words of Jesus enthrall us and fill us with love. In them we find all that is pure, luminous, and beautiful and they take the soul beyond one’s possible dreams of holiness. Those words of Jesus are food, light, perfume, life, delight, strength, and love!

Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida

Food to Satisfy

Food to Satisfy

Jesus Christ is really present as Man and as God in the Holy Eucharist, consecrated during every Mass and reserved in the tabernacles of Catholic Churches. His Body is there, his Blood is there, his Soul is there, his Godhead is there—the God who lived in endless ages alone before any creature was made, the God who created the angels, men, and all the material universe…. He, that same God, is present with his human nature, really, truly and substantially under the appearances of bread and wine.

The child who lay on Mary’s breast at Bethlehem, the boy who played in the fields of Nazareth, the youth who stood by Joseph to learn his trade, the working man who supported his Mother by his daily toil, the preacher and the wonder-worker of Galilee and Judea, the Redeemer who suffered and died for us, he is the Holy Eucharist, the Sacrament of Sacraments, the very heart of Catholicism….

If only all could understand the wonder of the Eucharist, which brings Jesus as he is, whole and ­entire, human and divine, into the sphere of their present lives. If only they could realize that by this means they could touch him, talk to him, contemplate him, or busy ­themselves about him more closely, more intimately by far than did his dear friends at Bethany! Just as really as the Jews of Nazareth nearly two thousand years ago, people today are living in Jesus’ town. He is in our midst as he was in the midst of those who conversed with him in the flesh and beheld the sweet gentleness of his countenance. We are no less fortunate than those who knelt beside his crib at Bethlehem or heard his youthful voice at Nazareth or accompanied him on the weary journeys of his public life. He is here, with us, just as he was there, with them.

Canon Francis J. Ripley

Epifanía 2020

Los magos son un símbolo de aquellos que busca la verdad, de aquellos que buscan al verdadero Dios.  Son personas  inquietas, que  se dejan atraer por la sugerencia de la salvación. No tienen miedo de salir de sus comodidades, de sus propios conocimientos. No tienen miedo de ponerse en camino para buscar  nuevos horizontes, nuevas rutas. Son buscadores llenos de esperanza que   preguntan analizan, y sobre todo, siguen las intuiciones de su corazón.
Los magos son modelo de todos aquellos que no importa la edad que tengan, son capaces de  mirar la realidad con esperanza. De aquellos que son  capaces de deslumbrarse, de dejarse sorprender por los regalos, lo  gratuito, lo que produce alegría… Son personas con ilusión, que pese a las dificultades que se encuentran siguen adelante, convencidos de que al final del camino  encontrarán lo que buscaban.

La Fiesta que hoy celebramos  nos invita a contemplar una escena; donde un Niño recién nacido  y su madre son los protagonistas… una estrella en lo alto del cielo; orienta, guía y acompaña. Unos sabios, preguntan. Un Rey cruel y despiadado se sobre salta y traza un plan de destrucción. unos “sumos sacerdotes y letrados”, que saben y conocen donde está el recién nacido, no van a su encuentro...   Sin embargo, unos paganos que vienen de lejos, pese a las dificultades. si lo  encuentran.

Hoy  son nuestro modelo; “Ellos  no discuten, sino que caminan; no se quedan mirando, sino que entran en la casa de Jesús; no se ponen en el centro, sino que se postran ante él, que es el centro; no se empecinan en sus planes, sino que se muestran disponibles a tomar otros caminos. En sus gestos hay un contacto estrecho con el Señor, una apertura radical a él, una implicación total con él. Con él utilizan el lenguaje del amor, la misma lengua que Jesús ya habla, siendo todavía un infante. De hecho, los magos van al Señor no para recibir, sino para dar. Papa Francisco.

 Que su ejemplo nos estimule  y que “En este tiempo de Navidad, no perdamos la ocasión de hacer un hermoso regalo a nuestro Rey, que vino por nosotros, no sobre los fastuosos escenarios del mundo, sino sobre la luminosa pobreza de Belén. Si lo hacemos así, su luz brillará sobre nosotros”
¡Feliz día de Reyes!
Rubén Gonzalez, Obispo de Ponce Puerto Rico

Epiphany

Offering Three Gifts

Dearly beloved, the last verse of the Gospel reading, which is still ringing in your ears, is intended for the instruction of believers. It tells how, when they had entered the house in which the blessed Virgin Mother was staying with her child, they opened their treasures, and offered the Lord three gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—thereby acknowledging him as true Lord, true Man, and true King.

Holy Church also offers these same gifts to her Savior every day without ceasing. She offers him frankincense by acknowledging and believing him to be the true Lord and Creator of all. She offers him myrrh when she affirms that he assumed the substance of our flesh, in which he willed to suffer and to die for our salvation. And she offers him gold by believing without doubt that he reigns eternally with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Alternatively, the offering of these gifts may be taken in a mystical sense. Heavenly wisdom is symbolized by gold, according to the verse of Solomon which says: A priceless treasure lies in the mouth of the sage; and elsewhere Scripture says: The mouth of the just will utter wisdom. By frankincense pure prayer is to be ­understood, as the psalmist says: Let my prayer rise like incense in your sight, O Lord. For when our prayer is pure, it yields a purer fragrance to the Lord than the smoke of burning incense, and just as such smoke rises upward, so does our prayer ascend to the Lord. Myrrh can be taken as the mortification of our flesh.

Thus, we offer the Lord gold when we shine in his sight with the light of heavenly wisdom. We offer him frankincense when we send up pure prayer before him, and myrrh when, mortifying our flesh with its vices and passions by self-control, we carry the cross behind Jesus.

Saint Bruno of Segni

Epifanía 2020

"En tiempos no muy lejanos parecía fácil sentir reverencia y adoración ante la inmensidad"

"Quien adora a Dios lucha contra todo lo que destruye al ser humano"

05.01.2020 José Antonio Pagola

Hoy se habla mucho de crisis de fe, pero apenas se dice algo sobre la crisis del sentimiento religioso. Y, sin embargo, como apunta algún teólogo, el drama del hombre contemporáneo no es, tal vez, su incapacidad para creer, sino su dificultad para sentir a Dios como Dios. Incluso los mismos que se dicen creyentes parecen estar perdiendo capacidad para vivir ciertas actitudes religiosas ante Dios.

Un ejemplo claro es la dificultad para adorarlo. En tiempos no muy lejanos parecía fácil sentir reverencia y adoración ante la inmensidad y el misterio insondable de Dios. Es más difícil hoy adorar a quien hemos reducido a un ser extraño, incómodo y superfluo.

Para adorar a Dios es necesario sentirnos criaturasinfinitamente pequeñas ante él, pero infinitamente amadas por él; admirar su grandeza insondable y gustar su presencia cercana y amorosa que envuelve todo nuestro ser. La adoración es admiración. Es amor y entrega. Es rendir nuestro ser a Dios y quedarnos en silencio agradecido y gozoso ante él, admirando su misterio desde nuestra pequeñez.

Nuestra dificultad para adorar proviene de raíces diversas. Quien vive aturdido interiormente por toda clase de ruidos y zarandeado por mil impresiones pasajeras, sin detenerse nunca ante lo esencial, difícilmente encontrará «el rostro adorable» de Dios.

"El relato de los magos nos ofrece un modelo de auténtica adoración. Estos sabios saben mirar el cosmos hasta el fondo"

Por otra parte, para adorar a Dios es necesario detenerse ante el misterio del mundo y saber mirarlocon amor. Quien mira la vida amorosamente hasta el fondo comenzará a vislumbrar las huellas de Dios antes de lo que sospecha.

Solo Dios es adorable. Ni las cosas más valiosas ni las personas más amadas son dignas de ser adoradas como él. Por eso solo quien es libre interiormente puede adorar a Dios de verdad.

Esta adoración a Dios no aleja del compromiso. Quien adora a Dios lucha contra todo lo que destruye al ser humano, que es su «imagen sagrada». Quien adora al Creador respeta y defiende su creación. Están íntimamente unidas adoración y solidaridad, adoración y ecología. Se entienden las palabras del gran científico y místico Teilhard de Chardin: «Cuanto más hombre se haga el hombre, más experimentará la necesidad de adorar».

El relato de los magos nos ofrece un modelo de auténtica adoración. Estos sabios saben mirar el cosmos hasta el fondo, captar signos, acercarse al Misterio y ofrecer su humilde homenaje a ese Dios encarnado en nuestra existencia.

The Holy Name

The Name of the One Who Takes Away
the Sin of the World

This Name is a refuge of sinners, that is to say, against the evil of sin—for who is the sinner that does not fear this powerful Name? Who is it…that does not tremble when he hears the Name of the God of vengeance? 

Yet, behold how the Name of Jesus is a sweet refuge into which is poured forth the power and the majesty of God, for it is sweet with piety and shows forth the great mercy of God…. Now it has been tempered in the fountain of mercy and piety, that is to say, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, through our most loving Jesus Christ…. Just as the word filius can be said to be derived from philos—which means love—so also is the immense love of God made clearly manifest to us in the New Testament. Thus it is that the angel said to Mary in Luke 1: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. 

O most loving and most gracious Name! O Holy Name! O Pious Name, full of sweetness, so greatly desired by the ancient fathers, so anxiously awaited and with such prolonged weariness, called on with so much yearning and with so many tears of desire! But at last the time of grace has mercifully arrived.

Saint Bernardine of Siena

How to become worthy again

How to Become Worthy Again

God created the human being according to the image and likeness of God, and made him worthy of knowledge of himself, and equipped him with reason in contrast to the animals, and granted that he take delight in the inconceivable beauties of paradise, and appointed him ruler of all things on earth. Then he was outwitted by the serpent and fell into sin, and through sin into death, and the evils attendant on this, yet God did not overlook him. First he gave the Law as a help, appointed angels to guard and care for him, sent prophets to reprove evil and teach virtue, thwarted the impulse toward evil by threats, awakened eagerness for good things by promises, often revealed the outcome of good and evil in different persons, judging them in advance as a warning for others. God continued in all these and similar benefactions and did not turn away in response to our disobedience. For we were not sent away, dismissed from the goodness of the Master…. Rather, we were recalled from death and given life again by our Lord Jesus Christ himself. In this also the way the gift was bestowed involves a greater wonder: Being in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God as a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave (Phil 2:6-7).

He bore our weaknesses and carried our diseases and was wounded for us, that by his bruises we might be healed (Is 53:4-5); he redeemed us from the curse, ­becoming a curse for us (Gal 3:13), and submitted to the most dishonorable death, that he might bring us back to the glorious life. And he was not satisfied merely to give life to the dead, but he also gave them the honor of divinity, and prepared eternal rest, which surpasses every human thought in the greatness of its joy. What, then, shall we give to the Lord in return for all the good things that have been given to us? He is so good that he does not demand anything in exchange, but it ­suffices him merely to be loved by those to whom he has given gifts.

Saint Basil the Great

Saint Basil the Great († 379) 

The Mother of God

The Mother of God

The divine maternity is the foundation, source, and root of all Mary’s graces and privileges, both those that preceded it as preparation, and those that accompanied it or followed from it as its consequence. It was by way of preparation for the divine maternity that Mary was the Immaculate Conception, preserved from the stain of original sin by the future merits of her Son. He redeemed her as perfectly as was possible; not by healing her, but by preserving her from the original stain before it touched her soul for even an instant. It was because of her maternity that Mary received the initial fullness of grace which ceased not to increase till it reached its consummated plenitude. And because of the same maternity she was exempt from all personal fault, even venial, and from all imperfection, for she never failed in promptitude to obey the divine inspirations…. The dignity of Mary surpasses therefore that of all the saints combined.

Recall, too, that Mary had a mother’s authority over the Word of God made flesh…. The Word made flesh was subject to Mary in most profound sentiments of respect and love. How, then, could we fail to have the same sentiments in regard to the Mother of our God?

In one of the most beautiful books written about Mary, the Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Saint Louis de Montfort says: “God made Man found liberty in being enclosed in her womb; he showed his power by allowing himself to be carried by her, young maiden though she was; he found glory, and his Father found glory too, in hiding his splendor from all creatures of earth, so as to reveal them to Mary alone; he glorified his majesty and his independence by depending on the Virgin in his conception, his birth, his presentation in the temple, his hidden life of thirty years—and even up to the time of his death, for she was present then, and he offered one only sacrifice in union with her, and was immolated to the eternal Father with her consent as once Isaac was immolated to the divine will by the consent of Abraham. It is she who nourished and supported him, who brought him up and then sacrificed him for us. Finally, Our Lord remains as much the Son of Mary in heaven as he was on earth.”

Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, o.p.

Father Garrigou-Lagrange († 1964)