Our Lady's Lamp

March 25, nine months before December 25, is the Feast of the Assumption. Christ did not begin his time on earth as a human at Christmas but when he entered the womb of Mary. It was then that “the Word became Flesh” (John 1:14), for life does not start at birth but at conception. One of the great geniuses of the way the Church Calender is set up is that this falls just before Passion week and Easter. To truly understand the upcoming events, the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord, we must understand – at least in part – the Incarnation. This was prophesied by Isaiah and heralded by an angel (Luke 2:26-38). God, the creator of all things, of the world, the animals, the plants, the angels, and us humans, to redeem us from our own sins and failures, left his glory and took up his residence in the womb of a young girl. This would have been very poignant to the Jews. For the first time since the losing of the Ark, the physical presence of God was with them. Without

Loving someone or something and Being in Love with someone or something are totally different. I love many people and things. I love my family, my friends, my ornery cat, and Italian food. Granted, I love each to a different degree. My family is closest to my heart, dearest to me in part because I have seen what happens when it is gone and malfunctioning, but also because I have spent the most time with them. And while I don't always enjoy spending time with them, anyone who knows me knows better than to even look wrong at any one of them unless they wish to suffer my wrath. My friends have varying levels of “love,” but I care deeply for each of them, and I try to show this by spending some time with them, praying for them, texting them randomly. Again, if someone attacks my friends, my claws come out, and I get defensive. I think we all know about the ornery cats that keep you up all night that you still feel guilty for not petting as you walk out the door when they want to cudd

I have always loved the Stations of the Cross, a devotion wherin we meditate upon the 14 scenes from the Condemnation of Jesus to His burial. This year, I got the Way of the Cross devotional by Fulton Sheen. And I LOVE it. I may share some of the prayers or meditations from it from time to time. This is the opening prayer. O Lord Jesus, the curtain is now about to go up on the awful and abiding drama of your redemptive love. And as I hear your words, "Take up your cross daily and follow me," I stand affrightened, lest its burden be too great and its shame too bitter. If I could but see that your command to follow you to Calvary was not just an iron law of cruel fate, but a condition of everlasting happiness, perhaps I could better make the jouney. But I fear, dear Jesus, that in having You I must have nothing else besides. Let my fear be dispelled in seeing death as the condition of life. for through your apostle Paul, you have told us

Very often, I hear people talking about how “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and while that is true, I think we very often let this be a crutch for our lives. We justify our weaknesses by saying, “Oh, well, 'all have sinned.' Jesus 'came to save the sinners,'” and we go on with our lives, never stopping to think of the effect that sin has – or if we should be permitting ourselves to feel little to no remorse. True, 1 John says, “If we say 'we have not sinned,' we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” However, he also says “If we say 'we have fellowship with Him,' while we continue to walk in darkness, we lie and do not act in truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of His Son Jesus cleanses us from every wrongdoing.” 1 John 1:6-7. He follows this by saying that his sole purpose for writing is that we may not sin. See that? Not sin. God has called u