Good Shepherd Sunday

Dom Gueranger writes, “After saying to him, ‘Thou art Peter,’ (that is, ‘thou art the rock’), he added: ‘And upon this rock I will build My Church.’ Let us weigh the force of these words of the Son of God: ‘I will build my Church.’ He has then a project in view — he intends to ‘build a Church.’ It is not now that He will build it but at some future period…’And the gates of hell shall not prevail against My Church.’ …The foundation that Jesus gives to it shall be one that no power can shake.” And whether we can see that this is the case or not, this is what we must believe; because as St. Paul tells us, faith itself is belief in those things we cannot see. It is no coincidence that for this Sunday, Rev. Goffine in his “The Ecclesiastical Year,” stresses the virtue of hope “especially in time of tribulation and temptation against this virtue,” and encourages us “to bear in patience crosses, adversities, and even unjust persecutions. How otherwise could we be true sheep of this Good Shepherd, if at the least suffering, at the scoffs and mockeries which men cast at us, we should become angry and revengeful, and seek to retaliate with the like?” In his commentary on the Gospel for this Sunday, Dom Gueranger continues:

“Be thou blessed O divine Shepherd! for Thy having thus provided for the necessities of Thy fold, which could not be one were it to have many shepherds without one supreme shepherd. In obedience to thy command, we bow down before Peter with love and submission; we respectfully kiss his sacred feet; for it is by him that we are thy sheep. Preserve us O Jesus, in the fold of Peter which is Thine. Keep us far from the hireling, who usurps the place and rights of the shepherd. He has intruded himself or has been intruded by violence into the fold, and would have us take him as the Master; but he knows not the sheep and the sheep do not know him. Led not by zeal, but by avarice and ambition, he flieth at the approach of danger. He that governs through worldly motives is not a man to lay down his life for others. The schismatic pastor loves himself; he does not love Thy sheep; how could he give his life for them?

“Protect us O Jesus from this hireling! He would separate us from thee by separating us from Peter, whom Thou hast appointed Thy vicar; and we are determined to recognize no other. ANATHEMA TO HIM WHO WOULD COMMAND US IN THY NAME, AND YET NOT BE SENT BY PETER! And yet such a pastor could be but an impostor; he would not rest on the foundation; he would not have the keys of the kingdom of heaven; to follow him would be our ruin. Grant then Good Shepherd Jesus! that we may ever keep close to Thee and St. Peter; that as he rests upon thee we may rest upon him; and thus we may defy every tempest, for Thou, dear Lord, has said: ‘A wise man built his house upon a rock; and the rains fell, and the flood came and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house and it fell not; for it was founded on a ROCK.”

So, the Church has been built; the chief shepherd is told to feed His lambs and His sheep, which I take as being people of His Church and His Bishops and Priests. The gates of hell will NOT prevail against it, even though they never give up trying. Only now, they are within the Church itself! God, help us! Let us ask St. Michael the Archangel this following prayer:

“Guardian Angel of Holy Church! Now is the time for thee to exert all the might of thine arm. Satan is furious in his efforts against the noble Spouse of thy Master; brandish thou bright sword and give battle to this implacable enemy. The kingdom of Christ is shaken to its very foundations. Is it that the reign of the Man of Sin is about to be proclaimed on earth? Are we near that last day when this guilty world is to be destroyed by fire and thou art to exercise, in the name of the Solemn Judge, the terrible office of separating the goats from the sheep? If this earth is still to exist; if the mission of the Church is not yet completed; is it not time for thee O Michael! to show the dragon of hell that he may not, with impunity, insult on this earth the God who created it, who redeemed it, and whose name is King of kings, and Lord of lords? The forces of error and crime are increasingly dragging world to the brink of the precipice; save it, O glorious Archangel, by confounding the dark plots which are laid for its destruction!

“Watch over us O holy Archangel, lest [at the hour of our death] we should not then deserve thy protection. The dragon is ever threatening us; he makes no secret of his wish to devour us. Teach us, O Michael, to repeat thy beautiful words, ‘Who is like unto God?’ God’s honor, the rights He has over us, our obligation to be faithful to Him, and serve Him, and confess to Him as our Lord in all times and in all places — yes! These thoughts must be our shield in danger and the armour wherewith we must fight, like thee, and win the battle. But we need the sturdy courage which resulted from the love thou hadst within thee. Oh! Pray for us, that we, too, may love our common Lord and Master; then shall we be invincible. Satan cannot make head against a creature that is filled with the love of the great God…Strengthen this love in our hearts, and since we are fighting under thy leadership, guide us, inspirit us; let thy look give us courage; ward off from us the blows of the enemy’s sword.”

Quasimodo Sunday

"Blessed are they who have not seen, and have believed"! These are the words we contemplate today. There are so many who think that they have to see something to believe in it. Jesus refutes this with His words.

We now have the words of our blessed Abbot Gueranger:
'Jesus says to Thomas: 'Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed!' Such is the great truth, spoken by the lips of the God-Man: it is a most important counsel, given, not only to Thomas, but to all who would serve God and secure their salvation. What is it that Jesus asks of his disciple? Has he not heard him make profession that now, at last, he firmly believes? After all, was there any great fault in Thomas's insisting on having experimental evidence before believing in so extraordinary a miracle as the Resurrection? Was he obliged to trust to the testimony of Peter and the others, under penalty of offending his divine Master? Did he not evince his prudence, by withholding his assent until he had additional proofs of the truth of what his brethren told him? Yes, Thomas was a circumspect and prudent man, and one that was slow to believe what he had heard; he was worthy to be taken as a model by those Christians who reason and sit in judgment upon matters of faith. And yet, listen to the reproach made him by Jesus. It is merciful, and withal so severe! Jesus has so far condescended to the weakness of his disciple as to accept the condition on which alone he declares that he will believe: now that the disciple stands trembling before his risen Lord, and exclaims, in the earnestness of faith, `My Lord and my God!' oh! see how Jesus chides him! This stubbornness, this incredulity, deserves a punishment: the punishment is, to have these words said to him: `Thomas! thou hast believed, because thou hast seen!'

Then was Thomas obliged to believe before having seen? Yes, undoubtedly. Not only Thomas, but all the Apostles were in duty bound to believe the Resurrection of Jesus even before he showed himself to them. Had they not lived three years with him? Had they not seen him prove himself to be the Messias and the Son of God by the most undeniable miracles? Had he not foretold them that he would rise again on the third day? As to the humiliations and cruelties of his Passion, had he not told them, a short time previous to it, that he was to be seized by the Jews in Jerusalem, and be delivered to the gentiles? that he was to be scourged, spit upon, and put to death?

After all this, they ought to have believed in his triumphant Resurrection, the very first moment they heard of his Body having disappeared. As soon as John had entered the sepulchre, and seen the winding-sheet, he at once ceased to doubt; he believed. But it is seldom that man is so honest as this; he hesitates, and God must make still further advances, if he would have us give our faith! Jesus condescended even to this: he made further advances. He showed himself to Magdalen and her companions, who were not incredulous, but only carried away by natural feeling, though the feeling was one of love for their Master. When the Apostles heard their account of what had happened, they treated them as women whose imagination had got the better of their judgment. Jesus had to come in person: he showed himself to these obstinate men, whose pride made them forget all that he had said and done, sufficient indeed to make them believe in his Resurrection. Yes, it was pride; for faith has no other obstacle than this. If man were humble, he would have faith enough to move mountains.

To return to our Apostle. Thomas had heard Magdalen, and he despised her testimony; he had heard Peter, and he objected to his authority; he had heard the rest of his fellow-Apostles and the two disciples of Emmaus, and no, he would not give up his own opinion. How many there are among us who are like him in this! We never think of doubting what is told us by a truthful and disinterested witness, unless the subject touch upon the supernatural; and then we have a hundred difficulties. It is one of the sad consequences left in us by original sin. Like Thomas, we would see the thing ourselves: and that alone is enough to keep us from the fulness of the truth. We comfort ourselves with the reflection that, after all, we are disciples of Christ; as did Thomas, who kept in union with his brother-Apostles, only he shared not their happiness. He saw their happiness, but he considered it to be a weakness of mind, and was glad that he was free from it!

How like this is to our modern rationalistic Catholic! He believes, but it is because his reason almost forces him to believe; he believes with his mind, rather than from his heart. His faith is a scientific deduction, and not a generous longing after God and supernatural truth. Hence how cold and powerless is this faith! how cramped and ashamed! how afraid of believing too much l Unlike the generous unstinted faith of the saints, it is satisfied with fragments of truth, with what the Scripture terms diminished truths. It seems ashamed of itself. It speaks in a whisper, lest it should be criticized; and when it does venture to make itself heard, it adopts a phraseology which may take off the sound of the divine. As to those miracles which it wishes had never taken place, and which it would have advised God not to work, they are a forbidden subject. The very mention of a miracle, particularly if it have happened in our own times, puts it into a state of nervousness. The lives of the saints, their heroic virtues, their sublime sacrifice -- it has a repugnance to the whole thing! It talks gravely about those who are not of the true religion being unjustly dealt with by the Church in Catholic countries; it asserts that the same liberty ought to be granted to error as to truth; it has very serious doubts whether the world has been a great loser by the secularization of society.

Now it was for the instruction of persons of this class that our Lord spoke those words to Thomas: `Blessed are they who havenot seen, and have believed.' Thomas sinned in not having the readiness of mind to believe. Like him, we also are in danger of sinning, unless our faith have a certain expansiveness, which makes us see everything with the eye of faith, and gives our faith that progress which God recompenses with a super-abundance of light and joy. Yes, having once become members of the Church, it is our duty to look upon all things from a supernatural point of view. There is no danger of going too far, for we have the teachings of an infallible authority to guide us. `The just man liveth by faith.' Faith is his daily bread. His mere natural life becomes transformed for good and all, if only he be faithful to his Baptism. Could we suppose that the Church, after all her instructions to her neophytes, and after all those sacred rites of their Baptism which are so expressive of the supernatural life, would be satisfied to see them straightway adopt that dangerous system which drives faith into a nook of the heart and understanding and conduct, leaving all the rest to natural principles or instinct? No, it could not be so. Let us therefore imitate St Thomas in his confession, and acknowledge that hitherto our faith has not been perfect. Let us go to our Jesus, and say to him: `Thou art my Lord and my God! But alas! I have many times thought and acted as though thou wert my Lord and my God in some things, and not in others. Henceforth I will believe without seeing; for I would be of the number of those whom thou callest blessed!'

This Sunday, commonly called with us Low Sunday, has two names assigned to it in the Liturgy: Quasimodo, from the first word of the Introit; and Sunday in albis (or, more explicitly, in albis depositis), because on this day the neophytes assisted at the Church services attired in their ordinary dress. In the Middle Ages it was called Close-Pasch, no doubt in allusion to its being the last day of the Easter Octave. Such is the solemnity of this Sunday that not only is it of Greater Double rite, but no feast, however great, can ever be kept upon it.'

NOTICE! It states that NO feast, however great, can be kept upon it! My question is this: Why do we have 'Mercy Sunday' on this day?! I used to do this novena, but have not done it for a while now. All the groups that are prayed for during the novena are prayed for on Good Friday. I still, however, think that these groups should be prayed for always, not just during this novena. Just another way that the new-church has taken away the Greatest of all Holy days. We are in the celebrating mode, and we are to not go through suffering as we were during Lent. It is a good thing that this 'novena' has people going to Confession anyway. I was told, when converting, that when saying the 'Lord, I am not worthy' clause during Mass, that this was my confession. What a pantload! I have changed my ways, thank God!

Let us believe, not like Thomas then, but without seeing to make it so.

Lord, help my unbelief.

Easter Monday

I thought this, from 'The Liturgical Year', was appropriate for today. It explained a lot for me, and I hope it does the same for you.

'In the very beginning of the world, the just Abel drew down upon himself the mercy of God, by offering on a sod-made altar the fairest lamb of his flock: he himself was sacrificed, as a lamb, by the murderous hand of his brother, and thus became a type of our divine Lamb, Jesus, who was slain by his own Israelite brethren. When Abraham ascended the mountain to make the sacrifice commanded him by God, he immolated, on the altar prepared for Isaac, the ram he found amidst the thorns. Later on, God spoke to Moses, and revealed to him the Pasch: it consisted of a lamb that was to be slain and eaten. A few days back, we had read to us the passage from the Book of Exodus where God gives this rite to his people. The Paschal Lamb was to be without blemish; its blood was to be sprinkled as a protection against the destroying angel, and its flesh was to be eaten. This was the first Pasch. It was most expressive as a figure, but void of reality. For fifteen hundred years was it celebrated by God's people, and the spiritual-minded among the Jews knew it to be the type of a future Lamb.

In the age of the great prophets, Isaias prayed God to fulfill the promise he made at the beginning of the world. We united in this his sublime and inspired prayer, when, during Advent, the Church read to us his magnificent prophecies. How fervently did we repeat those words: 'Send forth, O Lord, the ruler of the earth!' This Lamb was the long-expected Messias; and we said to ourselves: Oh what a Pasch will that be, wherein such a Lamb is to be victim! What a feast wherein he is to be the food of the feasters!

'When the fulness of time came and God sent his Son' upon our earth, this Word made Flesh, after thirty years of hidden life, manifested himself to men. He came to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing. No sooner did the holy Baptist see him, than he said to his disciples: 'Behold the Lamb of God! Behold him who taketh away the sin of the world!' By these words the saintly Precursor proclaimed the Pasch; for he was virtually telling men that the earth then possessed the true Lamb, the Lamb of God, of whom it had been in expectation four thousand years. Yes, the Lamb who was fairer than the one offered by Abel, richer in mystery than the one slain by Abraham on the mount, and more spotless than the one the Israelites were commanded to sacrifice in Egypt, had come. He was the Lamb so earnestly prayed for by Isaias; the Lamb sent by God Himself; in a word, the Lamb of God. A few years would pass, and then the immolation. But three days ago we assisted at his sacrifice; we witnessed the meek patience wherewith he suffered his executioners to slay him; we have been laved with his precious Blood, and it has cleansed us from all our sins.

We end with the words from the Apostle St. Andrew, when confessing the Name of Christ before the pagan proconsul AEgeas, spoke these sublime words: "I daily offer upon the altar the spotless Lamb, of whose flesh the whole multitude of the faithful eat; the Lamb that is sacrificed remains whole and living."

Man, if that doesn't stir you, your wood is wet.

REJOICE! HE HAS RISEN!

He is risen: He is not here! The Corpse, laid by the hands of them that loved their Lord, on the slab that lies in that cave, is risen; and, without removing the stone that closed the entrance, has gone forth, quickened with a life which can never die. No man has helped Him. No prophet has stood over the dead Body, bidding it return to life. It is Jesus Himself, and by His own power, that has risen. He suffered death, not from necessity, but because He so willed; and again, because He willed, He has delivered Himself from its bondage. 0 Jesus! Thou, that thus mockest death, art the Lord our God! We reverently bend our knee before this empty tomb, which is now for ever sacred, because, for a few hours, it was the place of thy abode. Behold the place where they laid him! Behold the winding sheet and bands, which remain to tell the mystery of thy having once been dead! The angel says to the women: "Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified!" The recollection makes us weep. Yes, it was but the day before yesterday that Hid Body was carried hither, mangled, wounded, bleeding. Here, in this cave, from which the has now rolled back the stone--in this cave, which his presence fills with a more than midday brightness--stood the afflicted Mother. It echoed with the sobs of them that were at the burial, John and the two disciples, Magdalen and her companions. The sun sank beneath the horizon, and the first day of Jesus's burial began. But the prophet had said: 'In the evening weeping shall have place; and in the morning gladness.' This glorious, happy morning has come, O Jesus! and great indeed is our gladness at seeing that aching hearts, is now but the trophy of thy victory! Thy precious wounds are healed! It was we that caused them; permit us to kiss them. Thou art now living, more glorious than ever, and immortal. And because we resolved to die to our sins, when thou wast dying in order to expiate them, thou willed that we, too, should live eternally with thee; that thy victory over death should be ours; that death should be for us, as it was for thee, a mere passage to immortality, and should one day give back, uninjured and glorified, these bodies which ae to be lent for a while to the tomb. Glory, then, and honour, and love, be to thee, O Jesus! who didst deign not only to die, but to rise again for us!

From 'The Liturgical Year'

Praise and glory be to you, both now and forever! And, thank you!

Holy Saturday

Today, we must rejoice in the prophecy of the sleep of peace which this our Saviour is taking in Sion.  A few more hours, and He will rise from His tomb.  His enemies, who boast of having Him in their, will find, on awakening, that they have nothing in their hands.  The earth shall tremble, and our Lord shall arise, an object of terror to His enemies, but a Saviour to the meek, that is, to the humble and faithful ones, who will then praise Him as the God ever faithful to His word.

Holy Saturday

From
The Liturgical Year
by Dom Guéranger, O.S.B.

A night has passed over the tomb, wherein lies buried the Body of the Man-God. Death is triumphant in that silent cave, and holds captive Him that gives life to every creature: but his triumph will soon be at an end. The soldiers may watch, as best they will, over that grave: they cannot hold Jesus prisoner, as soon as the moment fixed for His Resurrection comes. The holy angels are there, profoundly adoring the lifeless Body of Him, whose Blood is to reconcile all things, both on earth, and in heaven. This Body, though for a brief interval separated from the Soul, is still united to the Person of the Son of God; so likewise the Soul, during its separation from the Body, has not for an instant lost its union with the Word. The Divinity remains also united with the Blood which lies sprinkled on Calvary, and which, at the moment of the Resurrection of the Man-God, is to enter once more into His sacred veins.

Let us also return to the sepulcher, and adore the Body of our buried Jesus. Now, at last, we understand what sin has done: by sin, death entered into the world; and it passed upon all men. Though Jesus knew no sin, yet has He permitted death to have dominion over Him, in order that He might make it less bitter to us, and by His Resurrection restore unto us that eternal life, of which we had been deprived by sin. How gratefully we should appreciate this death of our Jesus! By becoming Incarnate, He became a servant; His death was a still deeper humiliation. The sight of this tomb, wherein His Body lies lifeless and cold, teaches us something far more important than the power of death: it reveals to us the immense, the incomprehensible love of God for man. He knew that we were to gain by His humiliations; the greater His humiliations, the greater our exaltations; the greater His humiliations, the greater our exaltation: this was His principle, and it led Him to what seems like an excess! Let us, then, love this sacred sepulcher, which is to give us life. We have thanked Him for died for us upon the cross; let us thank Him, but most feelingly, for having humbled Himself, for our sake, even to the tomb!

And now let us visit the holy Mother, who has passed the night in Jerusalem, going over, in saddest memory, the scenes she has witnessed. Her Jesus has been a victim to every possible insult and cruelty; He has been crucified; His precious Blood has flowed in torrents from those five Wounds; He is dead, and now lies buried in yonder tomb, as though He were but a mere man, yea the most abject of men. How many tears have fallen, during these long hours, from the eyes of the daughter of David! And yet, her Son has not come back to her! Near her is Magdalene; heart-broken by yesterday’s events, she has no words to tell her grief, for Jesus is gone, and, as she thinks, forever. The other women, less loved by Jesus than Magdalene, yet most dear to Him, stand around the disconsolate Mother. They have braved every insult and danger in order to remain on Calvary till all was over, and they intend returning thither with Magdalene, as soon as the Sabbath is over, to honour the tomb and the Body of Jesus.

John, the adopted son of Mary, and the beloved disciple of Jesus, is oppressed with sorrow. Others, also, of the apostles and disciples visit the house of mourning. Peter, penitent and humble, fears not to appear before the Mother of mercy. Among the disciples are Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. We may easily imagine the conversation—it is on the suffering and death of Jesus, and on the ingratitude of the Jews. The Church, in the seventh responsory of today’s Tenebre, represents these men as saying: “Behold! How the Just One dieth, and there is none that taketh it to heart. Iniquity has had its way. He was silent as a lamb under his shearer, and He opened not His mouth. He was taken away from distress and judgment: but His memory shall be in peace.”

Thus speak the men; the women are thinking of their morrow’s visit to the sepulcher. The saintliness of Jesus, His goodness, His power, His sufferings, His death—everything is remembered, except His Resurrection, which they had often heard Him say should certainly and speedily take place. Mary alone lives in expectation of His triumph. In her was verified that expression of the Holy Ghost, where, speaking of the valiant woman, He says: “Her lamp shall not be put out in the night.” Her courage fails not, because she knows that the sepulcher must yield up its Dead, and her Jesus will rise again to life. St. Paul tells us that our religion is vain, unless we have faith in the mystery of our Lord’s Resurrection: where was this faith on the day after our Lord’s death? In one heart only—and that was Mary’s As it was her chaste womb that had held so, on this day, by her firm and unwavering faith, she resumes within her single self the whole Church. How sacred is this Saturday, which, notwithstanding all its sadness, is such a day of glory to the Mother of Jesus! It is on this account that the Church has consecrated to Mary the Saturday of every week.
It is time to repair to the house of God.  The bells are still  silent:  our faith must speak to us, and make us eager to assist at the grand mysteries which the liturgy is about to celebrate.




The following is from the 'Fisheaters' website, and I thought it was pretty good.

Holy Saturday

Let us prepare ourselves to celebrate tomorrow, and the great significance it holds.  Most people don't have a clue, even so-called Christians.  

Good Friday 2012

IF I'M OK AND YOU'RE OK, EXPLAIN THIS!

Holy Thursday 2012

Outside of Easter, this is the most important day of the year for us Catholics. He sends His Apostles Peter and John to get the room and set up for the sacrifice. Christ institutes the Holy Eucharist. And, He tells His Apostles to copy these actions, thus giving them authority and power to do it. He replaces the immolation of a sacrificial lamb for Passover with the Real Sacrifice of Himself, the Real Pascal Lamb, in expiation of our sins, both today and to the end of the earth. Today, the Apostles are taught to do the Holy Eucharist, along with washing feet to show unworthiness and their duty to be the least of the least. At least, this is for the Bishops and priests, who seem to have forgotten, or have given it up, what they are to do to help us save our souls.

Along with these things happening today, I think I have realized why Wednesdays are a day of fasting and abstinence. I think it was because that was the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, thus making it a not so good day. It's just my opinion.

So, today, we have the last Mass for a couple of days. Jesus will be reposed until Easter Sunday, when we again hear the beautiful bells, signifying the greatest event in the history of the world, His Resurrection from the tomb. Let us contemplate on this, and be ready for Sunday morning. Maybe we can make a new start in our lives also.

In today's Mass, and according to our beloved Abbot,'the Church is filled with gratitude for this her Redeemer, who has made Himself our salvation, by dying for us; our life, by the Bread of heaven, He has given us; and our resurrection, by His having risen from the grave.'

Last year, I searched for a Mass for Holy Thursday around our area of Lansing, and found that the only one available was is Detroit. It was so beautiful! So, again this year, we will be making another pilgrimage to St. Josaphat Church in Detroit. I told my wife years ago that, if we wanted a good Mass, we'd have to travel. For anyone interested, it is at 7pm at the junction of I75 and I94, southwest corner.

Lord, have mercy on us. Please?

Cursing of the fig tree

Holy week begins. Jesus is nearing Jerusalem for the last few days of His life. He passes the fig tree, and finds it without any fruit. He curses it, saying that it shall never again bear fruit. This represents the Jewish nation and the temple there. He knows that this religion shall no longer bear any fruit that is acceptable to His Father.

Also, in the Gospel, Mary Magdalene anoints his body with precious spikenard, and tells the Apostles that to allow this, as it prepares Him for His burial. We approach the upcoming scene of His death. Spikenard was, and probably still is, used as a sedative with a calming effect. How prophetic!