The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22^nd   Mt. 25:31-46 Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

 CHRIST AS KING… by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

Jesus of Nazareth is so intrinsically king that the title “King” has actually become His name. By calling ourselves Christians, we label ourselves as followers of the King.

God did not intend Israel to have a kingdom. The kingdom was a result of Israel’s rebellion against God. The law was to be Israel’s king, and, through the law, God Himself.

God yielded to Israel’s obstinacy and so devised a new kind of kingship for them. The King is Jesus; in Him God entered humanity and espoused it to Himself. This is the usual form of the divine activity in relation to mankind. God does not have a fixed plan that He must carry out; on the contrary, He has many different ways of finding man and even of turning his wrong ways into right ways.

The feast of Christ the King is therefore not a feast of those who are subjugated, but a feast of those who know that they are in the hands of the one who writes straight on crooked lines.

• Christ the King has a very specific calling for each and every one of us, expressed in our Profession and Vocation; living this calling out as God intended puts us on the right path to holiness and our eternal salvation!
• Ed enlightens and invigorates our path!

PROFESSIONAL/VOCATIONAL PLAN OF LIFE: PURITY OF INTENTION by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV (Excerpt from Roadmap to Heaven, Tan Books)

Call to Purity of Intention: Do the ordinary with extraordinary love!

Variety is the spice of life.  This saying can be applied to the variety of ways that we can compose our Plan of Life.  We have already proposed the Chronological Plan of Life in which we presented breaking down our spiritual life into blocks of time, then writing or composing certain acts of piety, penance, or specific prayers that we could incorporate into our lives yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, even down to using our minutes so as to order the disorder in our lives.

PLAN OF LIFE: MY PROFESSION AND VOCATION.  Now we would like to introduce you to another form, manner, or angle that you can use to compose your Plan of Life.  We can title this Plan of life: Professional/Vocational.  Our sanctification, our growth in holiness, and the realization of God’s Plan for us, depends in large part on our being faithful to our own specific profession and vocation.  Then we must strive to carry out our daily duties or obligations with purity of intention, and this combined with energy and exertion!

CARRY OUT THE ORDINARY WITH EXTRAORDINARY LOVE.  One of the most famous modern saints is Saint Therese of Lisieux, known commonly as The Little Flower.  In her short life, which lasted only 24 years, this contemplative and cloistered Carmelite nun did nothing out of the ordinary.  No miracles were attributed to her during the course of her life.  Her exterior actions did not seem to be stupendous, sparkling, or even outside the course of the normal and mundane actions of convent life.  However, there was indeed something in her life that she excelled in, more than most of us, and it was this: she did the ordinary tasks of her daily life with extraordinary love!  That was the key and the secret to her Little Way that has become a modern model for arriving at true holiness.  Saint Paul reminds us of this with these simple but profound words: Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)

GOD AND OUR ACTIONS.  On one occasion Jesus was in the entrance of the Temple of Jerusalem observing people deposit their money in the metallic collections box.  Some threw in huge sums of coins that would resound throughout the Temple so that all would be aware of the quantity by the loudness of the dropping of the offering.  Jesus did not pay too much attention to these rich, vain, and pompous individuals.  Then a poor widow entered the Temple.  Being poor, she could offer nothing more than two copper coins—a few pennies and not much more.  This was the person that Jesus exalted and praised among the givers.  Why?  The others gave out of their abundance; whereas, this poor widow gave of her livelihood, all that she had.  And for all time and eternity, this poor widow will be praised.  This can be applied to us!  We may not have too much to give economically.  We may not be millionaires.  We may not have huge bank accounts which we can delve into and dole out in the thousands!  However, there is something that we can do in imitation of the poor widow, and that is we can give generously from what we do have as a gift from God.

BLESSED CARDINAL JOHN HENRY NEWMAN’S RECIPE FOR HOLINESS.  On one occasion, the great saintly English scholar, Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman, was asked how to be holy, if you like, a recipe for holiness!  Surprisingly, these were the practical daily points to grow in holiness given by this convert to Catholicism and great man of God.

1. Get to bed on time!!!  Importance of a good night’s rest!
2. Upon rising offer your first thoughts to God—The Morning Offering!
3, Eat and drink to the honor and glory of God.  Sounds like Saint Paul: Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:31)
4. Banish bad thoughts immediately!  Keep the enemy outside!
5. Make a good visit to the Blessed Sacrament.  Love Jesus in the Eucharist!
6. ROSARY!  Honor the Blessed Virgin Mary by praying the prayer that she loves most—the Most Holy Rosary.
7. FINALLY, AND OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE:  Do the ordinary things of your daily life with extraordinary love.

Here you have it, a very simple daily plan of life from a convert to Catholicism, a scholar, a lover of truth, and a practical lover of God. His suggestions are not beyond comprehension or beyond our ability.  On the contrary, these suggestions and advice can be followed by almost all of us!

GOD READS THE HEART.  The essence of the message of this chapter is to arrive at the humble recognition that God does not pay so much attention to exterior actions and the applause one might receive, or the recognition and praise that others may give.  Rather, God reads the heart.  We pay keen attention to appearances; God, on the contrary, pays attention to the heart, and even the most secret intentions of the heart.  Remember how God sent the Prophet Samuel to the house of Jesse and his sons?  The strong, tall, handsome and impressive sons were discarded.  It was the last in line, the humble shepherd of the sheep in the fields, David, who was called, chosen by God and anointed by Samuel to be God’s King.  What man considers great, God despises; what man considers of little or no value, God esteems most highly!

GIVING GENEROUSLY OF ALL WE ARE AND ALL WE HAVE.  So it is with us!  We may not have much to give, but God receives most willingly from a pure heart, a generous heart, a detached heart, a humble heart. God can multiply beyond our wildest imagination the small things that we give with great love. Call to mind how the little boy offered Jesus all he had—five loaves and two fish.  Jesus was so pleased by this small offering given with such great generosity, that He multiplied the loaves and the fishes so that thousands could be fed!  Now it is up to us to look into our lives and see what we can do to change and give more generously to God, with a pure heart, and with nobility of intention.

Having set the stage by emphasizing the primary importance of purity of heart and purity of intention in all of our actions, even if they seem to be most insignificant, let us proceed in the next chapters to learn how in concrete we can compose a Professional/Vocational Plan of Life by living out our profession and our vocation to the fullest extent possible.

Editor’s Notes:
1) This is just one of 25 Chapters – each chapter highlighting various areas, ways, and means to grow in holiness. There is also a special Chapter dedicated to a Plan of Life for Teens.
2) Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonized in Rome on Sunday, October 13, 2019.

Copyright 2020 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA

Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Friday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20^TH Lk. 19: 45-48   “My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

Part 1: Our Soul is a House of Prayer – A Guided Meditation
Part 2: JESUS: OUR MODEL PRAYER-WARRIOR! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

PART 1: Our Soul is a House of Prayer…

• Today Jesus invites you to renew or restart your commitment to your daily Holy Hour, the time you spend each day talking with Jesus, your Savior and Best Friend. He thirsts that you thirst for Him! Perhaps you are flagging in prayer, praying for less time and less often. “But I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” (Rev. 2:4)  Now is the time to renew and deepen your love for Jesus by talking with Him daily in your holy hour. Like anything else worthwhile in life, you have to fight for it! You have to fight for your time alone with Jesus.
• Your Soul is meant to be a House of Prayer. Prayer is spending time with the One who loves you – even to death on the cross. Prayer is reading the Word of God and thinking about how it speaks to you. Prayer is sometimes conversing with Jesus, sometimes sitting quietly together, sometimes fighting off distractions, temptations and dryness. Prayer is turning to Jesus in your need, in your sorrow, in your joy! Give Jesus one hour a day, and He will bless the other 23 hours.  
• When you are tired… struggling through your job, your studies, your apostolic work, or the mundane duties of each day. Seek your rest in Jesus who sat down to rest at the well and talked with the Samaritan woman, resulting in her conversion. Jesus, who was so exhausted from preaching to the crowds that He fell asleep in the boat during a raging storm until the Apostles finally woke Him to calm the winds.
• When you are suffering material or spiritual poverty… Seek relief from Jesus who was born in a stable because there was no room in the inn… whose parents had to flee with Him to Egypt in the middle of the night because Herod wanted to kill Him… who had nowhere to lay His head during His three years of public ministry… who thirsted on the cross. He thirsts that you thirst for Him!
• When you are weighed down by life’s burdens and your own failures… Be comforted and lifted up by Jesus, who was sorrowful unto death in the Garden of Gethsemane… who sweat huge drops of blood as the sins of all mankind rained down upon Him… who willed to drink the chalice of suffering to the dregs, knowing that for some, His sacrifice would be in vain… who prayed to the Father not once, but three times, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Mt. 26: 39-44)
• When you are humiliated, rejected, unjustly accused, ignored, forgotten… Hide in the wounds of Jesus, who was beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns, spat upon, mocked, cursed, stripped, nailed to a cross to die as a common criminal, and finally lanced with a sword that pierced His side and Heart causing blood and water to gush forth. All of this He willing suffered in His great love for you!
• When you are in need of God’s mercy and forgiveness… and when you need to show mercy and forgiveness to others… Receive Jesus’ Infinite Mercy in Confession, then beg for the grace to give to those who have offended you the Mercy of Jesus … the Mercy that saved the woman caught in adultery, “Let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone.” (Jn. 8:7)… the Mercy that granted eternal salvation to the repentant thief on the cross, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Lk. 23-43)
• When you are lonely and long for the joy of loving and being loved… Turn your eyes to Jesus who wept at the death of Lazarus, then turned the sorrow of Mary and Martha into joy by raising him from the dead… who spoke Mary Magdalene’s name after the Resurrection, changing her inconsolable grief into boundless joy as she recognized her beloved… who at the foot of the cross gave Mary, His Mother to be your own dear Mother of Mercy – your life, your sweetness, and your hope!
• “Behold I am with you always, until the very end of the world.” (Mt. 28:20) Jesus’ last words to you! Rejoice and be glad! This is the day the Lord has made! This day and every day, He calls you to Himself – to live in Him, with Him, and through Him.
• I am with you in your daily hour of prayer so I can sanctify you, and sanctify the rest of your daily activities and dealings with others! I am with you in the healing grace of Confession. I am with you as nourishment for your soul in Holy Communion. I am with you in Eucharistic adoration. Truly, you are My most beloved child!

Part 2: JESUS: OUR MODEL PRAYER-WARRIOR! By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. In all—His words, actions, silence, miracles—Jesus serves as the best Model for us to study, meditate, contemplate, and of course imitate.

JESUS AT PRAYER. A good part of His private life, which lasted a good thirty years as the son of a carpenter at Nazareth, were absorbed in prayer. At the moment of His Baptism, Saint Luke presents Jesus absorbed in prayer. Before choosing the 12 Apostles who would carry out His mission, Jesus spent the whole night in communion with the heavenly Father, once again, in prayer.  

JESUS AS MODEL OF PRAYER IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE. The essence of this short essay will be to show Jesus’ deep filial, fervent, humble, and you might even say heart-rending prayer that Holy Thursday night, shortly after the Last Supper, in the Garden of Olives. Let us step back and calmly contemplate all of the elements of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Olives, also called the Garden of Gethsemane. May this be an inspiring lesson for us so that we will strive with all the fiber of our being to upgrade, improve, and motivate our own personal prayer life.

1. PRAYER—PLACE. Jesus habitually would go to the Garden of Olives where He would dedicate prolonged periods of silence to prayer and immerse Himself in a profound dialogue with Abba—Father! Likewise, we should have some specific place that is propitious for prayer, a place that fosters deep recollection and union with our Heavenly Father and with Jesus, our Redeemer and closest friend. Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen found his prayer-abode in Church in front of the Blessed Sacrament. If this is not possible for you, at least find a place where there is silence. Why? God speaks most eloquently when we are not bombarded by noise-pollution. With the young Samuel we can listen and respond: Speak O Lord, for your servant is listening!

2. PROSTRATION. In the Garden, Jesus prostrated Himself on the ground. Abram did this and God spoke to him. The Magi prostrated themselves before the Infant King Jesus and gave Him their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Finally, at Fatima in 1916, the Angels taught the children—Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta—to kneel and prostrate themselves, and then address their prayers to God. The bodily posture of prostration is very deep in symbolism. It means humility, subjection to God, and penance in recognition of our nature as sinners. God loves a humble heart. He wants us to submit our will to His will, and He wants us to humbly beg pardon for our many sins!

3. FILIAL PRAYER. By filial we mean a prayer of loving trust and confidence between Father and Son. Jesus calls His Father Abba—which loosely translated is Daddy! Like Jesus, our prayer must be one of loving trust in our Heavenly Father who loves us infinitely and cares for us so much that He even knows how many hairs we have on our head and even when one hair falls to the ground.

4. SUBMISSION TO GOD. In this heart-rending prayer, Jesus knows that His Passion, suffering and death is looming before Him and He asks God to remove the chalice of suffering from Him, but He ends with a total submission to the will of His Heavenly Father: “Father, not my will, but your will be done!” (Mt. 26:39) Our growth in holiness, sanctification, and perseverance depends in large part on assuming this attitude of Jesus—submitting our will to the will of our Heavenly Father. We reiterate this same interior disposition of heart in the Our Father: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

5. PERSEVERANCE IN PRAYER. A very interesting highlight of the model-prayer of Jesus in the Garden is that Jesus says this prayer three times: “Father, if it be possible remove this chalice from me; nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. (Mt. 25:39) The lesson? We must persevere in our prayer life to the very end. The message of the insistent widow clamoring for justice to the unjust judge is simply this: we must keep praying and never give up. Saint Teresa of Avila expressed it in these words: We must have a determined determination to never give up prayer.

6. PRAYER COMPANIONSHIP AND FRIENDSHIP. In His humanity, Jesus desired His friends to stay with Him and pray with Him in this critical moment. For this reason, Jesus took with Him His three best friends—Peter, James and John. However, this companionship in prayer proved to be a total failure as His three chosen friends fell asleep, and more than once, when Jesus needed them the most! Consequently, they failed Him. There is a key lesson for all of us. If we do not propose to pray well, fervently, and with trust, then like the Apostles, it is more than likely that we will succumb to temptation and give in to sin. Jesus left us with these poignant words: “Stay awake and pray because the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt. 26: 41) May we propose to be faithful to the Lord in good times and bad, health and sickness, riches and poverty until the end of our lives! Spouses promise faithfulness to each other; so should we promise faithfulness to Jesus!

7. JESUS SWEATS BLOOD. According to Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the suffering of Jesus was so intense that He sweat His Precious Blood and for these reasons. All of the sins of humanity were descending upon Him like a torrential downpour—from the sins of Adam and Eve, your sins and mine, and all sins, even up to the last generation and last person in the world. However, that which caused Jesus to suffer most was the cruel reality that many people, despite the intense suffering of Jesus, would willfully decide to reject His redemptive act, and choose to live and die in their sin totally unrepentant. Due to this, they would willfully lose their soul and be eternally damned. This reality of Jesus’ loving sacrifice rejected, was what caused Jesus to suffer most and to sweat large drops of His Precious Blood. For our part, this bloody and anguished prayer of Jesus should motivate us to recognize our sins, but to make a firm purpose to renounce them and all that leads to sin in any size, form, or type!

8. PRAYER OF REPARATION. Of course, the shedding of the Blood of Jesus and His anguish of Heart should challenge us to offer frequent reparation for our sins and those of the whole world. In the words of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy: “Have mercy on us and on the whole world.”

9. THE ANGEL OF CONSOLATION. Immersed in the most profound state of desolation, God the Father consoles Jesus by sending an angel to Him, The Angel of Consolation. Exactly what went on in this encounter, we will know only in eternity. However, the most immediate interpretation and application should be the transference of the Angel of Consolation in the Garden to our own relationship with Jesus. Yes! You and I are called to be the present and active Angel of Consolation in the life of Jesus and His Mystical Body that we call the Catholic Church. Why not try to make an effort to console the Wounded Sacred Heart of Jesus with your prayers of consolation and reparation? There are so many sins that need to be repaired for today, and today more than ever! Abortions, the practice of homosexuality, contraception, euthanasia, despair, and an overall religious indifference that is downright appalling! These sins and countless others need to be objects of our fervent prayer of reparation so as to be the modern Angel of Consolation in the life of Jesus!

10. OUR LADY OF SORROWS. In all of our meditations on the Passion of Jesus, most specifically the Agony in the Garden, which is the First Sorrowful Mystery of the Holy Rosary, we want to ask Our Lady of Sorrows to pray with us and to pray for us so that our prayer might be transformed into a fragrant aroma of incense that ascends on high to the heavenly heights! May Our Lady of Sorrows’ fervent prayers, with our prayers, result in consoling the wounded Heart of Jesus and result in the salvation of countless souls!

Copyright 2020 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA

Thursday of the Thirty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

“For greater things you were born.” (Ven. Mother Luisita)

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19^TH Lk. 19: 41-44   “As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.’”

• Gratitude makes for peace within one’s own heart and with others.

“The deadliest sin is ingratitude – the cause, beginning, and origin of all evils and sins.”
+St. Ignatius of Loyola

 “No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
+ St. Ambrose

“The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for what He is sending us every day in His goodness.”
+St. Ambrose

“Thank God ahead of time.”
+ Bl. Solanus Casey

THE GRATITUDE OF THE ONE – OUT OF THE TEN (LUKE 17: 11-19) By Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

What a horrible physical condition, that of being afflicted with leprosy! Eyebrows disappearing, on one hand three fingers, a swollen eye with the vision totally lost, dark spots up and down the spine, and the coarse, shrill sound of a voice impaired through eroded vocal cords. All of these could be possible symptoms of the disease of leprosy.

Not only was this disease contagious, like the Corona Virus pandemic, but it basically had no vaccine, no possible way that Doctors or medicine could provide any sure remedy.

Adding to the gravity of the plight of the leper was the social stigma that magnified the problem. According to the Levitical Law, the lepers were forced to live isolated in what might be called Leper Colonies. Indeed they were social outcasts.

Perhaps the worst of all the sufferings of the person of the leper was a prevalent theological belief that the leper suffered this incurable disease because God was angry at him for something that he did or possibly something that a relative or ancestor did, and he was paying the consequences of this with the disease of leprosy.

Therefore, to contract the disease of leprosy at the time of Jesus was considered to be one of the worst sufferings that any individual could undergo. As mentioned, the suffering was experienced at various levels: physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, theologically, spiritually and morally.  The last person that anybody wanted to see was a leper; worse yet, the last suffering anybody wanted to have to endure was the sickness, disease, and suffering of the plight of the leper. Indeed, it truly could be said, the leper was among the class of the living dead.

With this in mind, picture the scene of ten lepers in view of Jesus crying out with all of their strength: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!” (Read and meditate on Luke 17:11-19)  Moved to the very depths of his tender Heart, Jesus desires earnestly to heal their disease. He tells them to go to the priest and on the way they are healed, all ten lepers healed! This manifests with utmost clarity the infinite compassion, mercy, tenderness and kindness of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In this group of ten lepers only one returns, and with the most noble heart he expresses overflowing gratitude for the loving concern and miraculous cure of Jesus the Divine Physician. Jesus willingly accepted this gratitude, but remarked: “Were there not ten that were healed, where are the other nine?” This one who was healed and profusely thanked Jesus was a foreigner, a Samaritan.

The ungrateful nine who never returned to render thanks to Jesus could easily be our situation. How many times have we been recipients of gifts, blessings, graces and we have failed to thank God and even to thank others? How many times have we simply failed to say those two words: Thank you!

True, Thanksgiving Day comes and goes every year at the tail end of November. However, as followers of the Lord Jesus, who so generously healed the ten lepers, thanksgiving should be all the days of our lives. Let us get into the habit of cultivating an attitude of gratitude. Let us form the habit of saying thanks for these gifts bestowed upon us. The following are ten concrete ways that we can cultivate an attitude of gratitude and live constantly thanking God. “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His mercy endures forever.” (107:1)

 TEN WAYS THAT WE CAN RENDER THANKS TO OUR LOVING SAVIOR…

1. A NEW DAY: A NEW SUNRISE. Every day that we rise from sleep after a good night’s rest, we should thank God for His protection during the night and the gift of another day.

2. A NOURISHING MEAL. Many will go to bed hungry this night; some will even die from malnutrition and starvation. We should always bless the meal that God has provided for us through the hands and hard work of others. A child said this prayer during the Thanksgiving holiday: “God, I thank you that I can choose the food I eat!” How many people throughout the world have never even seen a Refrigerator? Or a sumptuous meal with multiple, delicious foods to choose from?

3. FRIENDLY AND SMALL WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT. Desolation is part and parcel of human existence and we all know of it from personal experience. How often has it happened that the Good Lord has rescued us from a state of desolation by sending some Good Samaritan along our path to give us a shining smile of friendship and encourage us by kind words? For these uplifting experiences we should express our gratitude to God.

 4. SUFFICIENT HEALTH TO MOVE ON. As the years transpire, so health declines, but God intervenes with His powerful Presence and lifts us up and helps us move on despite our weakening frame and creaking structure. Never forget the words of the poet: “I complained because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet!” We will always bump into people who are worse off than us. Count your blessings!

5. TIME, TALENT, AND TREASURE. Render a heartfelt Thank You to God for the time, talent, and treasure that God has given to you right now. Show your gratitude in a concrete way by imitating the two servants in the Parable of the Talents who doubled their talents and returned them with interest to the Master. (Mt. 25: 14-28) May we never show ingratitude to God by laziness; rather, let us show our gratitude by hard work and diligent effort!

6. JOY! We must be constantly grateful for the many times that God has filled our hearts and minds with joy! This is a fruit of the Holy Spirit that becomes manifest when we correspond to the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Remember the acronym J.O.Y. = Jesus, Others, You!

7. The thought of HEAVEN that awaits God’s faithful followers should fill us with both joy and gratitude. Jesus expressed these most consoling words: “I am going to prepare a place for you now, so that where I am, you also might be. In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” (Jn. 14: 1-3) Constantly we should thank Jesus that He has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us. Let us live in such a way that when we die, we are prepared to go to Heaven to be with Jesus!

8. ANGELS AND SAINTS. Today in many parts of the world, many people suffer a constant, crushing loneliness. They have an overriding feeling that nobody cares for them, nobody loves them. For followers of Jesus, this is never the case because we belong to a warm and loving family –the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Other important members of our family are the angels and the saints. They are the best of friends to us. We should form a constant habit of talking to them and thanking them for their friendship and assistance, for they are eager to help us whenever we ask them!

9. GOD’S MERCY AND PROVIDENCE. How can we ever go through a day without thanking God for His Divine Providence and His Infinite Mercy? By Providence we mean the simple fact that God provides for us, defends us, protects us, nourishes us, and simply cares for us as a loving Father—let us render thanks for His Divine Providence! Even though we are weak, fragile, and prone to fall many times a day, God is a loving and merciful Father who, when we ask for mercy, forgives us in a heartbeat. “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His mercy endures forever.” (Ps. 107:1)

10. MARY MOST HOLY: OUR LIFE, OUR SWEETNESS, AND OUR HOPE. Finally, let us never let a day go by in which we fail to talk to Mary as our loving Mother, as “our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” (Hail Holy Queen)  How grateful we really should be that Mary is our Mother—she loves us, she prays for us, she cares for us, she protects us, and she will help us to pass from this life to the next in the state of grace. Then with our Mother Mary, we will thank God and praise God for all eternity!

 Copyright 2020 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA

Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18^TH   Lk. 19: 11-28  “I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

Part 1: Introductory Commentary
Part 2: IMITATE THE VIRTUES OF MARY – THE BIG TEN by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

• Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters.” (Mt. 6:24) This is the Two Standards of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. We either serve Satan, the prince of this world, or we serve Christ the King. How are we to serve Christ?
• Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, unless you are converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 18:3)
• Saint Paul says, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” (1 Cor 13:11)
• Is Paul contradicting Christ? As adults, we have responsibilities that children do not have. We are to provide for our children and protect our children from the modern wolves that seek to devour them – such as pornography and the LGBT agenda.
• How do we reconcile this? The answer lies in who God is and who we are. God is the Eternal Being who always was and always will be; He is without beginning or end. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He is the Creator and we are His creatures.
• By the merits of Christ’s crucifixion and death on the cross, we become children of God through Baptism, sharing in His Divine life through sanctifying grace. Sharing in His Divine life also means sharing in His Divine work – the salvation of souls.
• This explains Christ’s command to become as little children and Paul’s assertion that we must give up childish things. We are to do a “man’s” work with the obedience of a little child – a child of God! Saint Teresa of Avila told her nuns to pray con pantalones (with pants) – like a man! I can imagine she also told them to work con pantalones!
• This is a list of Paul’s trials and sufferings, penned by his own hand, that he willingly endured under obedience to the Will of God!  “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” (2 Cor 1: 23-28)
• For Saint Ignatius, obedience was the sine qua non – without which nothing, or the essential virtue. He says, “Obedience is the source and protection of all other virtues.”… “Obedience is nothing less than a holocaust. It is there that we offer ourselves completely, without excluding any part of ourselves, in the fire of our love to our Creator and Lord at the hands of his ministers. By obedience one puts aside all that one is, one dispossesses oneself of all that one has, in order to be possessed and governed by Divine Providence.” He expressed this in the following prayer:

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. I surrender it all to you. Dispose of it according to your will. Give me your love and your grace that is enough for me.

• One person in all history was perfectly obedient to the Will of God – the Blessed Virgin Mary, known as the Immaculate One! We have prayed with this article before. Let us ask ourselves today if we have grown in these virtues of Mary, particularly the quintessential virtue of Blind Obedience!

PART 2: IMITATE THE VIRTUES OF MARY – THE BIG TEN by Fr. Ed Broom, OMV

From the cross, Jesus gave the person He loved most on earth, His Blessed Mother Mary, to Saint John and to us as our Mother most holy! May we strive to know Mary, to love Mary, and to imitate Mary a little more every day. In his Marian Spiritual Masterpiece, True Devotion to Mary, Saint Louis de Montfort highlights ten of the most important virtues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us put forth this list of Mary’s principal virtues.

We read in the text of True Devotion to Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort (# 108):  Third, true devotion to our Lady is holy, that is, it leads us to avoid sin and to imitate the virtues of Mary. Her ten principal virtues are: deep humility, lively faith, blind obedience, unceasing prayer, constant self-denial, surpassing purity, ardent love, heroic patience, angelic kindness, and heavenly wisdom.

Let us humbly beg our Blessed Mother Mary for the grace to understand these ten virtues that she practiced always to a heroic degree of perfection, but also let us beg for the grace to be able to put these virtues into practice in our daily walk of life!

1. DEEP HUMILITY. A humble person recognizes that all the good they have done, and can do, is a result of the Presence of God in their life. Mary was most humble, calling herself the servant or the handmaid of the Lord. Also, in her magnificent canticle of praise that we call The Magnificat (Lk. 1:46-55), Mary states that God has looked with favor upon the humility of His handmaid. Let us beg Mary for a meek and humble heart so that like her, we will attribute our successes to God and our failures to ourselves.

2. LIVELY FAITH. Faith is one of the three theological virtues—faith, hope, and charity. Faith is believing in God and His Word without seeing with our eyes. Jesus gently reproved the doubting Thomas with these words: “Blessed are those who believe without seeing.” (Jn. 20:29) Mary is the woman of faith par excellence. Even though Mary witnessed the Passion, suffering, and death of Jesus, she believed that He would conquer death. Therefore, when we are tempted to doubt, let us turn to Mary, the woman of faith, and beg for her most powerful intercession.

3. BLIND OBEDIENCE. By giving her consent in the Annunciation—“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word.” (Lk. 1:38)—Mary displayed an admirable attitude of obedience to the Word of God and trust in His holy will. When we are tempted to rebel and turn against God, let us, through Mary’s prayers and example, obey God like Mary, and like Jesus who “was obedient to death, even death on the cross.” (Phil. 2:8)

4. UNCEASING PRAYER. Prayer can be defined as communication with God. There is no better example in the world, aside from Jesus, with respect to a life of constant prayer then that of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Scripture tells us, “Mary pondered these things in her heart.” (Lk. 2:19) Continually she thought of God in her mind and loved God with all of her heart; she maintained constant communication with the Blessed Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The devil of laziness can attack all of us. May Our Lady inspire us to be constant, fervent, and faithful in prayer! Indeed, prayer is the key to our salvation. What air is to the lungs, prayer is to the soul!

5. CONSTANT SELF-DENIAL. Another way of wording this is mortification—the ascetical life which leads to the mystical life of union with God. Mary denied and sacrificed herself in all times and places. By doing so, she gave full reign for God to work in the entirety of her life. In Mary’s approved Apparitions, both in Lourdes and Fatima, she strongly encouraged the practice of prayer, but also that of sacrifice. By making sacrifices we are imitating Mary in the art of self-denial. Self-denial turns us towards God and away from self. Mary was always God-centered and never self-centered. May this be our style of life!

6. SURPASSING PURITY. One of the most sublime virtues that characterizes the most Blessed Virgin Mary is that of her spotless purity; Mary is known as the Immaculate One. In Fatima, Our Lady sadly expressed that most souls are lost to the eternal fires of hell due to sins against the virtue of holy purity. Mary is the Perpetual Virgin. She was virgin before the birth of Jesus, during the birth of Jesus, and after the birth of Jesus. True devotion to Mary can help us maintain our purity, and if we have lost it, to seek restoration through Sacramental Confession. Contemplating a beautiful picture, painting, or statue of Our Lady can instill in us noble aspirations for purity.

7. ARDENT LOVE. Of all the virtues that we are called to practice, that of ardent love, sometimes called charity, is the greatest. Read the beautiful hymn of love of Saint Paul: I Corinthians 13. Our Lady practiced love to a sublime degree and in two ways, for love or charity has two dimensions. Mary at all times and in all places loved God first and foremost. However, Mary expressed concretely her love for God by ardent love for her neighbor. Examples of this. In the Annunciation, through her unconditional Yes Mary showed her total and unreserved love for God. However, moving in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Mary manifested great love for her neighbor. In imitation of Mary, may we say in the words of Saint Paul, “The love of God compels me.” (2 Cor 5:14) May we learn this double commandment—love of God and love of neighbor—and strive to live it out on a daily basis. Saint John of the Cross states: “In the twilight of our existence, we will be judged on love.”

8. HEROIC PATIENCE. Not one of us can say that we are patient at all times, in all places, and in all circumstances. Unlike Mary, who manifested remarkable patience! Consider Mary in her pregnancy traveling the long trek to Bethlehem and then being rejected—what great patience! Losing the Child Jesus when He was twelve years of age for three long days before finding Him in the Temple—another manifestation of heroic patience! Most especially, in accompanying Jesus in His Passion leading up to His brutal Crucifixion and death, Mary manifested an unequaled patience! When our patience is put to the test, let us call out to Mary for her assistance. She will never fail us!

9. ANGELIC KINDNESS. The opposite of kindness is rudeness. Just try to imagine the way and manner in which Mary must have treated her neighbor! A warm welcome, a kind and winning smile, courtesy to the maximum, an attentive ear to listen—all of these are clear manifestations of kindness, angelic kindness. Mary did all this to the highest degree! Saint Frances de Sales on this virtue commented: One can attract more flies with a spoonful of honey then with a barrel full of vinegar. In other words, kindness attracts others to Christ while rude and drastic measures repel them. May Our Lady teach us what it means to be kind and may we put it into practice!!!

10. HEAVENLY WISDOM. One of the sublime titles given to Mary in her glorious Litany is that of SEAT OF WISDOM. A wise person knows what is most important in life. Dynamic love for God and ardent desire for the salvation of immortal souls are hallmarks of true wisdom. Our Lady had a burning love for God and an ardent desire for the conversion of sinners and their eternal salvation. “The Blessed Virgin persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross… joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart.” (Vat II, Lumen Gentium) King Solomon was once wise, but he gave into his weakness—that of lustful desires—and ended his life a fool. We beg the intercession of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom to attain for us not only wisdom now, but perseverance in this sublime virtue until the very end!

In conclusion, may we ardently desire to know, love, and imitate our Blessed Mother Mary! May we be motivated with a firm decision to meditate frequently and fervently on the virtues of Mary most holy and then strive to live them out all the days of our life! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Copyright 2020 Oblates of the Virgin Mary
St. Peter Chanel Church, Hawaiian Gardens, CA