There is a Longing

  "Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song." St. John Paul II

John 20:19-31                   After Christ’s Passion and Death, the disciples went into hiding, fearing the Jews who were still eager to remove the mark Jesus had left on the world. Surely by this time too, they had begun to realize their mistake in abandoning Him. Whether they truly felt sorrow for having offended their beloved teacher, or if they were more focused on the punishment and disappointment induced by such an act, the disciples most likely had come to some sort of acknowledgment of their deserting Christ. Having left everything to follow Him, they gained everything. Then, having abandoned Him, they lost everything.                       Imagine the disciples' astonishment, when the Risen Christ appeared before them. The doors had been locked, but just as no tomb could contain Him, no lock could prevent Jesus. Perhaps they were still trying to comprehend t...

Blessed Easter! Christ has risen! On this most joyous day we celebrate that glorious Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! Today we lift our heads and gaze upon the wonders of our great King and the boundless love He has for us. Through the sacrifice of His own life, Christ has redeemed us, who were dead in sin, and has proven that nothing can subdue His infinite love for us, not even death.  By this extraordinary event in history, Jesus proved every word He spoke and every claim He made in doing the impossible. While man oversteps his bounds and takes it into his own hands to end a life, only God can give it. In rising, Jesus revealed Himself as the Life , just as He had declared: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (Jn. 14:6) Breaking the bonds of death, He has opened to us the door to heaven, to the Father! Now, having reconciled us to His Father, our Savior offers us true and everlasting life.   ...

"We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to You who put on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other mortal man." (St. Ephrem of Edessa) 

"On this Good Friday may we never forget the true meaning of Easter -- 'For when He was on the cross, I was on His mind.'"  (Anonymous) *************** "Unless there is a Good Friday in your life, there can be no Easter Sunday." (Ven. Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)

"The washing of the feet and the sacrament of the Eucharist: two expressions of one and the same mystery of love entrusted to the disciples, so that, Jesus says, 'as I have done...so also must you do.' (John 13:15)" (Pope St. John Paul II)

"Living Holy Week following Jesus means learning how to come out of ourselves to reach out to others, to go to the outskirts of existence, to be the first to move towards our brothers and sisters, especially those who are most distant, those who are forgotten, those who are most in need of understanding, consolation and help. There is so much need to bring the living presence of Jesus, merciful and full of love!" (Pope Francis)

                 As a child, the Gospel reading on Palm Sunday was one of my least favorites. My distracted mind much rather preferred to focus on things completely irrelevant to the drama of our Lord’s Passion unfolding before me. As the years have gone by, it can still be difficult to fully understand and follow, as there is so much there. This is the climax of the Gospels, of the story of our salvation. So, as a child, even if I had tried to pay attention, the depth of it all still probably would have gone over my head. I would not have been able to grasp the meaning, or at least, the meaning that is comprehensible to us, insofar as our natural human understanding will permit. But as we mature in age, do we begin to understand what our Lord was doing? Will the significance of His sacrifice become clear? I do not think that age is the determining factor. We can be just as distracted at ninety as we were at nine.    ...

Luke 22:14--23:56                In today’s Gospel, we hear the dramatic unfolding of our Lord’s Passion and Death. There is far too much to be condensed into one reflection. A thousand reflections could never be enough to cover this great sacrifice that Jesus offered on our behalf. Thus, I will focus on just one part for now, one verse in particular: “When he arose from prayer and returned to his disciples, he found them sleeping from grief.”             For three years now, the apostles have been following Christ. They gave up everything to become His disciples: their jobs, their families, their whole livelihood. While Jesus called them, it was a twofold choice. While He chose them to be His most intimate friends, they also had to choose Him as He would not have forced them into anything. In those three years, every moment they spent with Christ was a result of their continuous choic...

An Italian mystic, St. Gemma Galgani was born in Italy on March 12, 1978. She developed a great love of prayer early in life, inspired by her mother who died when Gemma was only eight years old. At her school, run by the Sisters of St. Zita, her teachers & fellow students loved her. Unfortunately, chronic illness caused her to quit her schooling & return home to her family.  When she was 19, her father died & she was left to care for her siblings until they were able to take on some of the responsibilities as well. She refused several marriage proposals, preferring to live a life of silence & deep prayer.   She fell deathly ill with meningitis & felt much temptation from the devil. After praying for the intercession of the Venerable Passionist, Gabriel Possenti, she was miraculously cured. Poor health, however, kept her from become a nun as she desired. She did become a Passionist Tertiary (a lay associate within the Passionist order). In 1899, she rec...

This is Part Three of our posts on the Three Theological Virtues - Faith, Hope, & Love. You can read part one  HERE  and part two HERE .      The third and greatest of the theological virtues is charity, often referred to as love. The Catechism tells us that charity “is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.” As virtue is a means to this end-namely, loving God-charity orders all other virtues, as they derive their source and proceed from it. Charity is “the goal of…Christian practice.” It is what Christ seeks in all of us and what He Himself practiced perfectly during His life on earth.      While we can avoid truth, we can never escape it. One of the substantial facts is that we are made by God, Who is the Supreme Being, the Source of Life, and in Whom only we will find our joy. To practice charity is the natural response to the acknowledgement of thi...

Today, we decided to share a few quotes on Palm Sunday since it is just a few short days away. "On Palm Sunday Jesus had the bigger picture in mind. He looked beyond the present and thought about the world's future."  - Anonymous "No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown." - William Penn "But Palm Sunday tells us that it is the cross that is the true tree of life." - Pope Benedict XVI

John 8:1-11                As March has just come to a close and April is opening up before us, the signs of new life are bursting forth as spring awakens, and bids farewell to the last touches of winter. Gray skies turn bright blue; cold grounds grow soft and green; flowers pop up to welcome the warm sunshine. Our armor of winter wear can finally be removed, for we no longer have any need of it. Moods are light and spirits are lifted. With the anticipation of something new and the freedom of forgetting the bitter cold, it is easy to feel at peace.             Sin has much of the same effects on our souls as winter has on our bodies. As the cold numbs are limbs, sin numbs our conscience. But, just as spring brings new life and arouses what winter puts to sleep, so too does forgiveness awaken in our souls what sin had killed. This is the effect of God’s mercy on us, in our wounded and si...

St. Vincent Ferrer was born in Valencia, Spain on January 23, 1350. He was the fourth child of a knight, William Ferrer, & Constantia Miguel, whose family was also of nobility. He completed courses in philosophy at the age of 14. He entered the Dominican order in 1367 & was sent to Barcelona, where he stayed until 1370 when he taught philosophy in Lerida, a famous university city in Catalonia. He received his doctorate here as well. After three years, he returned to Barcelona. It was during this time that a severe famine occurred. St. Vincent was a compassionate priest towards those who suffered. One day, while preaching, he predicted that a ship full of wheat was approaching. Indeed it was. He briefly accompanied Cardinal Pedro de Luca to France, but was called back home to lecture & preach. Cardinal de Luca later became Pope Benedict XIII & appointed St. Vincent as confessor and Apostolic penitentiary. In this position, he became a missionary priest traveling the Span...