Our Lady's Lamp

Thanksgiving is past, and now, even the most conservative of vendors have decked their halls, doors, and bags with red, green, holly, snowmen, and Jolly Santas. Christmas songs will fill the air on radios, in stores, and in homes. We look forward now to Christmas. But before we get to Christmas, we must journey through Advent, that time of preparation, that time of anticipation. This is the pregnancy before the birth, the quiet before the storm, the shy courtship before the wedding. It is a time of self reflection, of introspection, of getting house, home, and soul ready for the coming of a Glorious Guest. In most households, this change in seasons means people will begin shopping in earnest (or begin shopping period), tickets will be booked, plans will be solidified, fudge will be made, advent wreaths, candles, Christmas lights, and toy soldiers will be laid out. And so, we will whittle away this beautiful season, replacing the peace it is meant to bring with the chaos of preparat...

This summer, I knew over 20 couples getting married, and I made it to several of the weddings. I liked many things about the weddings, and many things I would have changed, but having gone to so many weddings made me more aware of something that I had "known" but never really understood. The Mass is a wedding. "Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, His bride has made herself ready.... Then the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These words are true; they come from God.'" (Revelation 19:7,9) When we go to Mass, Jesus starts out by having His friends read aloud the letters He penned to us across time that profess the greatness of His love for us. He speaks words of love to us publicly, yet intimately. He publicly declares His love for us, but He does not stop at words. No! Rather, He bares His heart for us. ...

In class today, the teacher, Mrs. D, made a comparison that I'd never thought of before. God communicates to us like the old pen pals did. Back in the time of the World Wars, many people wrote long letters to each other, and they fell in love even across the sea. Through these letters, they poured their hearts out and decided that, yes, they were willing to spend their lives together based solely on this interaction. They never met each other, they didn't have several friends in common who could vouch for them, they accepted the words on the pages, and they married.  In many ways, that is how God communicates with us. He gives us glimpses of himself, most especially in the Scriptures and creation. He writes His love for us through the pages and trees. These letters tell us who He is, give us little anecdotes to see His personality, and tell us how serious He is about our relationship. He pours His Heart out upon these pages, begging us to recognize this love and sincerity....

"My Lord and My God!" It's an entreaty, words of adoration, a cry of the heart. But first, it is a title - a name. The first time it is used in the New Testament is when Thomas - Doubting Thomas - drops to his knees before Jesus and recognizes the pierced man before him not just as his Teacher, nt just as the Christ, not just as the Son of God but as "My Lord and My God!" Thomas is usually best known for his refusal to accept Christ's resurrection based on the testimony of all his friends and fellow disciples. He says he has to see proof - the wounds that killed Him. He has a week to ponder their testimony, and then Jesus comes, and instead of saying just "I believe it's you!" He instead becomes a vessel through which the Spirit reveals more about Jesus and becomes a source of revelation, of clarification, of insight: He cries out "My Lord and My God." No longer is Jesus just this Teacher, just their Rabbi, just the Messiah and So...

“Out of the darkness of my life, so much frustrated, I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves upon earth.”  ~J.R.R Tolkien  "Recognize in this bread what hung on the cross, and in this chalice what flowed from His side... whatever was in many and varied ways announced beforehand in the sacrifices of the Old Testament pertains to this one sacrifice which is revealed in the New Testament." ~St. Augustine  “All love craves unity. As the highest peak of love in the human order is the unity of husband and wife in the flesh, so the highest unity in the Divine order is the unity of the soul and Christ in communion.”  ~Ven. Fulton Sheen “The liturgy of the Eucharist is best understood as a journey or procession. It is the journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom. We use the word 'dimension' because it seems the best way to indi...

This is a transcription from my journal from tonight.  As I sit outside in the Rosary Garden tonight, Holy Thursday, I am reminded of Christ's Agony. That is where His Passion started, not before Pilate. Full aware of the horrors about to come, He prayed. And he begged His dearest friends to pray with Him. But they had just eaten a good meal, and they were tired and ready for bed So, they kept dozing off, and Jesus begged them to remain awake, not just for His sake, though I imagine He greatly desired their company and support. When they did not give it, an Angel came and ministered to Him, but it was not the same. Today, tonight, Jesus sits on the eve of His passion in the garden. He will not die again tomorrow, but daily, He offers Himself to the Father on our behalf, and daily He offers Himself for us - to  us . His agony is not that of being flayed to an inch of His life then beaten, bruised, crucified, and mocked. Instead, His agony is watching us commit the sins ...

"Why is this night different from every other night?" the youngest child at a Passover celebration asks. He or she is then answered by being told that this night is the night that God delivered His people from slavery through miraculous deeds. Jews celebrating the Passover did not simply recall what happened all those years ago. Rather, they re-membered themselves to their forefathers, placing themselves back in time. While they were not in Egypt physically, they were in Egypt spiritually. They were partaking of the mystery of their redemption in the format put forth by God through his faithful (and sometimes not so faithful) servant Moses. Is it any wonder then that Jesus chose this week, so rich with meaning, to be the last week He shared with His Apostles before His passion? Is it any wonder that He chose to take the Passover meal and show them how it too was being perfected in the New Covenant? Christ came as the passover lamb , His blood was shed for our sins and co...

This is an article I wrote for my Church's "newsletter" called the Messenger. It had to be really short, so I apologize for how abbreviated it is. I may, at some point, elaborate on one of more of the sections later. ~~~~~ We are all fighting a battle. We are the church militant. We fight against the forces of evil daily. We are in a constant battle, and, on our own, it would be impossible. But we are no more alone than were the Israelites in Exodus 17. Moses realized that while his arms were raised, the favor of the Lord shone upon the Israelites, and they could not be defeated. Likewise, we have the priests who offer – on our behalf and that of the whole world – the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. But, like Moses, our priests tire, as does the army. But like the Israelites, we should not despair, for we are not left alone. We have people to help hold up our priests’ arms so that we can better fight our fight, fueled by the Eucharist – those who consecrate themselve...

The heart is the part of the body that is responsible for spreading life to every other part. Without the heart pumping blood, no other part can survive. It is also the part of the body the soul is personified as. "Heart" implies totality, the core of essense, and so much more. It is the life and love giving portion of the body. If one offers his heart to a person, he is offering everything to that person - his love, his emotions, his sufferings, his joys, his weaknesses, his strengths, and the promise that as long as that heart still beats, he will be true to that person. Every beat of our Lord's Sacred Heart was for us. He only took a physical heart for us, and from the moment in started beating, every beat was for us. The heart beating in the body of the infant Lord is the same heart that beat in the chest of our crucified Lord. It beat for one reason and one purpose - a love for us so deep that he would cover us all with his blood. This love consumed his heart...

Today, we in America celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (the technical feast day was Thursday). Jesus, our Risen Lord, takes his body up to the Father so it can be glorified for all time as the Lamb that was slain upon the altar of Heaven, forever offering himself as restitution for our sins, forever allowing the blood from his hands, his feet, and his heart, wash the sinner's sins away and allowing his earthly body and heavenly spirit nourish and strengthen his body the Church. Forever, this Lamb sends forth the Spirit to those of us still living upon the earth. You might think it's strange to think of our Risen Lord as a slain lamb, and I did too, until I began listening to an amazing CD by Scott Hahn (Title: Understanding the Eucharist), and he talked about Revelation 5 - a chapter I had never really paid much attention to in a book I used only for references (not a great way to use any book of the Bible, much less this most beautiful one that deserves...

Because I have been asked many times, I decided to write a blog post about what the Catholic Church teaches about the Eucharist - Holy Communion. I give this one disclaimer: I am only a human, and some mysteries can never be fully understood by the human mind (The Incarnation, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, to name a few....), and this is definitely one of them. Like the Incarnation, this mystery asks us to take a leap of faith. And as with explaining all mysteries, sometimes difficulties arise in choosing the proper terms. This is also not comprehensive - that would take several volumes! So please, ask questions if you have them! If I can't answer them right off, I will go find the answer. What We Believe As Catholics, we believe and profess to be truth that when we celebrate the mass, the bread and the wine offered become the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. This is a mystery called Transubstantiation. (In English, that just means that two...

Scriptural Evidence From Our Savior's Lips First, we turn to John's gospel, and we see Jesus feeding the five thousand. Here, he took a finite amount and multiplied it exponentially. He fed the people's bodies, then retreated across the Sea of Galilee. The next day, however, they found him, and Jesus said that they followed because they ate of the bread and were filled, but he warns them not to work for bread of the world but the bread of life that fills. The people ask for that bread always and ask for a sign, after all, the Israelites in the desert got manna. Jesus replies by saying, Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to use, it is not Moses who has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is My Father who gives you the true bread out of Heaven. For the Bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven, and gives life to the world.” They said to him, “Lord, always give us this bread.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me w...

Paul's Testament to the True Presence After Jesus ascended into heaven, we see the beginning of organized religion that differs greatly from the Jews. Peter, Paul, James, John and Luke (among others) are called upon to defend and define ideals of the faith, to guide and instruct the new believers. When writing to the Corinthians, Paul uses similar language to that of Christ that allows for little misconception about the nature of the bread and wine used at communion. “ The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body for we will all partake of the one loaf.” - 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 The “cup of blessing” is the blessed cup that is “done in remembrance.” The “cup of blessing” was also one of the cups of wine at the passover meal, the one that corresponds with the cup blessed at the Lord's Supper. Thi...

Tracing the Doctrine Throughout History: The Early Church to Now But how do we know that's actually what the early church taught? How do we know this isn't just a teaching that emerged in the middle ages and has been taught erroneously since then and it wasn't until the Reformation that people began to speak out against this treasonous, blasphemous doctrine? Well, let's take a walk through history and see who preached which doctrines when. The Early Church Ignatius of Antioch wrote in 110 AD to Rome and Smyrna, and his admonitions to both respectively are listed below. "I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of God, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David; and for drink I desire his blood, which is love incorruptible" "Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of ...