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Ave Maria Meditations

      What is resurrection? It does not form part of our experience, and so the message often remains to some degree beyond our understanding … The Church tries to help us understand it by expressing this mysterious event in the language of symbols in which we can somehow contemplate this astonishing event.

First of all, there is light … Where there is light, life  is born, chaos can be transformed into cosmos. The resurrection of Jesus is an eruption of light. With the resurrection, the Lord’s day enters the nights of history … This Light alone – Jesus Christ – is the true light, something more than the physical phe­nomenon of light. He is pure Light: God himself, who causes a new creation to be born in the midst of the old, transforming chaos into cosmos … Let us pray to the Lord that the fragile flame of the candle he has lit in us, the delicate light of his word and his love amid the confusions of this age, will not be extinguished in us, but will become ever stronger and brighter, so that we, with him, can be people of the day, bright stars lighting up our time. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Ave Maria Meditations

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

R. Amen. 

Lord Jesus Christ, for our sake you became like the grain of wheat that falls to the earth and dies, so that it may bear much fruit (Jn 12:24).  You invited us to follow you along this path when you told us that “the one who loves his life loses it, and the one who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:25). 

Yet we are attached to our life.  We do not want to abandon it; (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Faith in God’s unending love does not take away the struggle for a decent life, but it does liberate men and women from the things of this world and fear of the future, said Pope Benedict XVI from St. Peter’s Square (February 2011)

“He who believes in God … puts the search for his kingdom and his will in the first position,” commented the pontiff, calling this attitude “precisely the opposite of fatalism.”

“Faith in providence, in fact, does not dispense one of the difficult struggle for a decent life, but liberates from the anxiety for things and the fear of tomorrow,” he added. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

Blessed John Paul II’s Prayer to Our Lady of Lourdes:

Hail Mary, poor and humble Woman, Blessed by the Most High! Virgin of hope, dawn of a new era, We join in your song of praise, to celebrate the Lord’s mercy, to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom and the full liberation of humanity.

Hail Mary, lowly handmaid of the Lord, Glorious Mother of Christ! Faithful Virgin, holy dwelling-place of the Word, Teach us to persevere in listening to the Word, and to be docile to the voice of the Spirit, attentive to his promptings in the depths of our conscience and to his manifestations in the events of history.

Hail Mary, Woman of sorrows, Mother of the living! Virgin spouse beneath the Cross, the new Eve, Be our guide along the paths of the world. Teach us to experience and to spread the love of Christ, to stand with you before the innumerable crosses on which your Son is still crucified.

Hail Mary, woman of faith, First of the disciples! Virgin Mother of the Church, help us always to (more…)

Conferences #162 – MIM Conference ( 80min) >>> Play

Ave Maria!

Apostolic Letter “Motu Proprio data” Porta Fidei of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI for the Indiction of the Year of Faith

“I have decided to announce a Year of Faith. It will begin on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and it will end on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013. The starting date of 11 October 2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated by my Predecessor, Blessed John Paul II, with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the power and beauty of the faith. This document, an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council…”

Ave Maria!

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Ave Maria Meditations

The mountain is the place of ascent – not only outward, but also inward ascent; it is a liberation from the burden of everyday life, a breathing in of the pure air of creation; it offers a view of the broad expanse of creation and its beauty; it gives one an inner peak to stand on an intuitive sense of the Creator. 

The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with· his Father: the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light. In his one­ness with the Father, Jesus is himself “light from light.” The reality that he is in the deepest core of his being, which Peter tries to express in his confession ­that reality becomes perceptible to the senses at this moment: Jesus’ being in the light of God, his own being-light as Son.  

At this point Jesus’ relation to the figure of Moses as well as the differences between the two become apparent: “As he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Ex 34: 29­-35). Because Moses has been talking with God, God’s light streams upon him and makes him radiant. But the light that causes him to shine comes upon him from the outside, so to speak. Jesus, however, shines from within; he does not simply receive light, but he himself is light from light. 

On the mountain [the disciples] learn that Jesus himself is the living Torah, the complete Word of God. On the mountain they see the “power” of the Kingdom that is coming in Christ … This “power” … of the coming Kingdom appears to them in the transfigured Jesus, who speaks with the witnesses of the Old Covenant about the necessity of his passion as the way to glory (see Lk 24: 26f). They personally experience the anticipation of the Parousia, and that is how they are slowly initiated into the full depths of the mystery of Jesus. 

Pope Benedict XVI

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The rejection of the truths expressed in Humanae Vitae has had reverberations that have not ceased since. All this to terrible consequences throughout the Church and the whole world. Let us say a Hail Mary now, at this reading, for the greater embracing of the encyclical and for the recognition of the dignity of all life from natural conception to natural death. Hail Mary, full of grace…

To read the encyclical online see http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html

To read the letter of Padre Pio in support of Humane Vitae see the next page: (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

MEDITATION:

Jesus is dead. From his heart, pierced by the lance of the Roman soldier, flow blood and water: a mysterious image of the stream of the sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist by which the Church is constantly reborn from the opened heart of the Lord. Jesus’ legs are not broken like those of the two men crucified with him. He is thus revealed as the true Paschal Lamb, not one of whose bones must be broken (cf Ex 12:46).

And now, at the end of his sufferings, it is clear that, for all the dismay that filled people’s hearts, for all the power of hatred and cowardice, he was never alone. There are faithful ones who remain with him. Under the cross stand Mary, his Mother, the sister of his Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the disci­ple whom he loved. A wealthy man, Joseph of Arimathea, appears on the scene: a rich man is able to pass through the eye of a needle, for God has given him the grace. He buries Jesus in his own empty tomb, in a garden. At Jesus’ burial the cemetery becomes a garden, the garden from which Adam was cast out when he aban­doned the fullness of life, his Creator. The garden tomb symbolizes that the dominion of death is about to end. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

We see then in the scene of the washing of the feet that the Evangelist interprets here not only Christology but also Christian anthropology. I should like to discuss three points illustrating this statement:

• First, seen in this way, not only do the life and death Jesus cohere but also the sacraments of baptism and penance which emerge from the font which is the love of Jesus. The life and death of Jesus, and baptism and penance are together the divine font opening the way to freedom and giving access to the table of life.
•  Second, this scene likewise interprets the spiritual content of baptism: the permanent “yes” to love, with faith as the central act of the spiritual life.  
• Third, starting from these two points, an ecclesiology and a Christian ethic develop. To accept the washing of feet means entering into the Lord’s action, sharing in it ourselves, letting ourselves be identified with that action. To receive this washing means to continue with Christ to wash the soiled feet of the world. Jesus says, “If I, then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (13:14). (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

MEDITATION:

On Jesus’ Way of the Cross, we also find Mary, his Mother. During his public life she had to step aside to make place for the birth of Jesus’ new family, the family of his disciples. She also had to hear the words: “Who is my mother and who are my brothers? … Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Mt 12:48-50).

Now we see her as the Mother of Jesus not only physi­cally, but also in her heart. Even before she con­ceived him bodily, through her obedience she conceived him in her heart. It was said to Mary: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. He will be great and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David” (Lk 1:31£f.). And she would hear from the mouth of the elderly Simeon: “A sword will pierce through your own soul” (Lk 2:35). She would then recall the words of the prophets, words like these: “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was like a lamb that is led to slaughter” (Is 54:7).

Now it all takes place. In her heart she had kept the words of the angel, spoken to her in the beginning: “Do not be afraid, Mary” (Lk 1:30). The disciples fled, yet she did not flee. She stayed there, with a mother’s courage, a mother’s fidelity, a mother’s goodness, and a faith that did not waver in the hour of dark­ness: “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45). “Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8). Yes, in this moment Jesus knows he will find faith. In this hour, this is his great consolation. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

MEDITATION:

The tradition that Jesus fell three times beneath the weight of the cross evokes the fall of Adam-the state of fallen humanity-and the mystery of Jesus’ own sharing in our fall. Throughout history the fall of man constantly takes on new forms. In his First Letter, Saint John speaks of a threefold fall: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He thus interprets the fall of man and humanity against the backdrop of the vices of his own time, with all its excesses and perversions. But we can also think, in more recent times, of how a Christianity grown weary of faith has aban­doned the Lord. The great ideologies, and the banal existence of those who, no longer believ­ing in anything, simply drift through life, have built a new and worse paganism, which in its attempt to do away with God once and for all has ended up doing away with man. And so humanity lies fallen in the dust. The Lord bears this burden in order to meet us. He gazes on us; he touches our hearts; he falls in order to raise us up. (more…)

Ave Maria Meditations

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,

His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;

”All hail,” said he, “O lowly maiden Mary.”

“For know a blessed Mother you shall be,

All generations praise continually,

Your Son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold.”

Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head,

“To me be as it pleases God,” she said,

“My soul shall laud and magnify His holy name.”

The salutation to Mary (Lk 1:28-32) is modeled closely on Zephaniah 3: 14- 17: Mary is the daugh­ter Zion addressed there, summoned to “rejoice”, informed that the Lord is coming to her. Her fear is removed, since the Lord is in her midst to save her. One understands why Mary was so frightened by this message (Lk 1:29). Her fear comes not from lack of under­standing nor from that small-hearted anxiety to which some would like to reduce it. It comes from the trepidation of that encounter with God, that immeasurable joy which can make the most hard­ened natures quake.” In the address of the angel, the underlying motif in the Lucan portrait of Mary surfaces: she is in person the true Zion, toward whom hopes have yearned throughout all the devastations of history. She is the true Israel in whom Old and New Covenant, Israel and Church, are indivisibly one. She is the “people of God” bearing fruit through God’s gracious power. (more…)

One Minute Meditation

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