Our Lady's Lamp

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 ...

Recently, Holy Week has become my favorite of all weeks because I finally understood the reason we celebrate Christmas, Easter, and the different events of the Lord's human life. It is so that we might walk through his life with Him and understand our lives in relation to His. When I began to understand this, I began to appreciate holidays a bit more, and I have made it a point to try to actually understand what happened and join myself with the events happening. Last year, the reality of it being my sin that scourged my Lover's precious flesh, crowned my Lord with a thorny mockery, and nailed my God to a horrible cross became very real to me - more real than it had been for years. When I watched The Passion of the Christ , I saw my sins blackening his eyes, riping his skin, pushing him down, and nailing him up. It was my sin that did each of those things. And it was my helping hand that was Simon carrying the cross, it was my serving heart that was Veronica wiping his face, an...

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...

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...