Layers-A Catholic Mom's Musings: November 2011

Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness

Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.

The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48

What I Believe

Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Religion

The virtue of religion is part of the virtue of justice, to give each his due. Source-St. Thomas Aquinas

Acts of religion are prayer, adoration and sacrifice.

Does God need our prayers, our adoration, our sacrifice (Jesus on the Cross)? No. Then, what is the purpose of religion if it is to give God what He is due, but He doesn’t need it? The virtue of religion (and justice) is rather for our need. Our need is to redirect focus from ourselves to the other. Love is willing the good of the other for the sake of the other. We cannot do that if our focus is on ourselves. In focusing on giving God ‘His due” in prayer, adoration and sacrifice we are forced to see that we are not the source of our creation, the source of Love, and the source of salvation.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

God's kitchen

How are the sacraments like a kitchen? God gives us all the graces and gifts we need for our salvation through Baptism and Confirmation. It is like having a fully stocked pantry and all the cookware in a kitchen allowing us to have nourishing meals.

We cannot do that though if our hands are filthy. What we make would be unhealthy and disgusting. We need to be clean. God needs us to co-operate with his grace and gifts. Our spritual soap is repentance and confession. Deeper examination of the 10 Commandments reveal even the most microscopic dirt on our souls which keeps us from fully utilizing God's graces and gifts. God desires us to be as full of His Love as we could be and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments we can receive that Love.

Adoration Chapel-Visitation Church

+JESUS, THE EUCHARIST+ “I AM THE LIVING BREAD THAT CAME DOWN FROM HEAVEN; WHOEVER EATS THIS BREAD WILL LIVE FOREVER; AND THE BREAD THAT I WILL GIVE IS MY FLESH FOR THE LIFE OF THE WORLD." John 6:51 ++++++++++++++++++ "The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time you will spend on earth. Each moment you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in Heaven, and will help bring everlasting peace on earth." Mother Teresa

The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist

When I walk into the chapel and go down on bended knees, what do I see? What do I recognize? My eyes tell my mind that upon the altar is a white piece of unleavened bread. Faith tells my mind that what my eyes see as bread is really Jesus. The mind struggles with the incongruity. It does not want to accept a different reality than what the eye sees and experience has taught. It cannot expand to intellectually understand how it could be possible. Jesus’ real presence in the Eucharist is not rational. It goes against what the senses tell us and what the mind says is possible. The human mind tries to understand God. There are those who say that it cannot be possible and thus put limits on what God can do. If we can, however, say that it is possible for Jesus to assume human form in the Incarnation, then can we say that He cannot transform bread into Himself? It is really a smaller step to accept Jesus in the Eucharist than the Incarnation. The mind struggles. It is easier to accept the Incarnation because Jesus took a form the mind can accept. God looking like a man, being a man is something the mind through the senses can accept, because the mind can understand Jesus in His humanity even if it cannot comprehend all that is God. Jesus being the Eucharist eliminates what the senses can comprehend. Our senses cannot tell us that this is Jesus whether in His divinity or His humanity. Where the apostles saw the human Jesus and in faith needed to recognize His divinity, we are asked to recognize in faith both His humanity and divinity in the Eucharist. “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Mark 9:24