Our Lady's Lamp

The Rosary is central to my spirituality because it is an active meditation on the mysteries of Jesus' life - particularly in relationship to ours, and always through the eyes of His mother. Praying these prayers - most straight from scripture - daily and meditating daily on parts of His life, death, and glory has taught me so much about who Jesus is, how He relates to me, and how I am supposed to live in response. Often, when I pray the Rosary, something sticks out. Themes develop, and Jesus reveals Himself through His mother's eyes, letting her tell the story of His life. Mysteries that never struck you suddenly do - I mean really, how often do we sit and just think about the Presentation of Jesus at the temple? Not just the prophesies, but the Presentation itself? Or how about the Finding of Jesus in the Temple? Or Jesus' Transfiguration? Probably not very often unless you are praying the Rosary or just ran into it in your reading. Unfortunately, I have fallen out ...

The Ark of the Covenant has been found! For two and a half thousand years, people have searched for the ark, but it has already been found, and, as Christians, we can take joy in the knowledge our tradition and scriptures pass to us, for Revelation tells us where it is. "Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen in the temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a violent hailstorm. A great sign appeared in the sky: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child...." The new temple, complete with the altar upon which Christ presents himself, slain, yet glorified , to the Father, is in heaven. And the Ark of the Covenant, the dwelling place and vessel the Almighty used to come to His people who were not ready to see His full glory, is also there. But it is not the same as it once was. It has changed forms, th...

Today is the Feast of the Visitation - when Mary, newly gifted with the miracle of the God-child, goes to visit her elderly cousin, Elizabeth who was also miraculously pregnant. From the moment of Mary's Fiat , Jesus was within her, the Word was flesh - growing flesh, true, but flesh. The God that made the universe was living and being fashioned a human body inside of a young Jewish girl.  Mary, filled with joy (and probably a bit scared too), goes to see her cousin and help her through the last trimester, which, for an older woman would be difficult even in our current day of comfort. Mary went and greeted her cousin, and as soon as she did, the Child growing in her womb was made known to the still young John, and he - as David did hundreds of years before - leaped for joy at being in the presence of God. The very first person to ever leap for joy, to worship Jesus (besides His Mother by offering her life) was an unborn child. That unborn child was the first missionary - he to...

Guess what, everone? Jesus is risen! He suffered and subjected himself to a horrible death, He remained with the dead for three days, and now He's risen! And just like He suffered, my Big Brother also rose for me. No more do I have to fear death. Death is not something, as in the Old Testament, to be feared or embraced only reluctantly. I can now look forward to the day I die because it is not, as good Gandalf says, the end but "just the beginning." My time here, in my earthly flesh, will be over, but I will be given a new body, a glorious body, like the one Jesus wore from the grave. What does it mean to, as Paul says, have the hope of the resurrection? Well, if we die to our old selves and become slaves to Christ, then we can join the "Cloud of Witnesses" the author of Hebrews talks about. We will join our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Solomon, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Judah, Simeon, and the other Maccabean Brothers and Martyrs, Simeon and ...

Before Jesus walked that painful road to Calvary, Jesus' body was subjected to scourging. This was not what was required by the Jews, yet he suffered it. He allowed his precious body not just to suffer a painful, humiliating death, but he allowed that perfect flesh to be shredded by a cruel whip. That blood which erased our sins, of which one drop was enough to save the whole world, was spilled from gashes torn into his body. Oh, Jesus , how can I ever praise you enough for the sacrifice you made for me. You allowed your precious body to be mutilated. Men who did not believe in you were allowed to take a harsh whip to your back and rip it open. This was not something the Jews called for, but you knew that this was necessary. Your back was already tender from the agony you experienced in the garden. Your ordeal left your whole body as though it was bruised, so each bite of the whip was even more painful. But you never cried out for the Father to take away this pain. You never b...

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...