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One Minute Meditation

THE CROWNING WITH THORNS

• Pilate asks, “Are You a king?” Jesus answers: “I am a King, but My kingdom is not of this world.”
• In the praetorium, the soldiers place an old purple robe on Jesus in mockery of His claim to be a king.
• They fashion a crown out of thorns, and forcefully press it down upon His head.
• In His bound hands they place a reed, as a sceptre, in mockery of His kingship.
• Kneeling before Him in derision, they spit on Him, and cry out: “Hail, King of the Jews!”
• Taking the reed from His hand they strike Him on the head, driving the thorns more deeply into His scalp.
• Pilate brings Jesus before the people, hoping His pitiful sight will soften them: “Behold the man!”
• Their response: “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”
• Our Blessed Lord submitted to this terrible humiliation to make reparation for our pride.
• Father, by the merits of this painful humiliation, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Ave Maria Meditations

After the meeting in the Temple, Jesus returns to Galilee with Mary and Joseph. He went down with them on their journey to Nazareth and lived there in subjection to them.  The Holy Spirit wanted to leave this fact clearly stated in the Gospel. Its source can only be Mary who, time and time again, saw the silent obedience of her Son. It is one of the few pieces of information we have from those years of hidden life: that Jesus obeyed them. St Augustine comments that Christ, to whom the universe is subject, was subject to them. To obey His Father, Jesus subjected himself to those who, in his earthly life, were invested with authority; in the first place, his parents.

Our Lady must have reflected very often about Jesus’ obedience, which was extremely refined and, at the same time, very natural. St Luke tells us immediately that His Mother kept in her heart the memory of all this. The whole of Jesus’ life was an act of obedience to the will of the Father.  What I do is always what pleases Him, he will tell us later; and on another occasion he said clearly to his disciples: “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me; and to accomplish the task he gave me”. Food is what gives energy for life. And Jesus tells us that obedience to the will of God – manifested in so many different ways – should be what nourishes and gives meaning to our lives. Without obedience there is no growth in the interior life, nor true development of the human person. Obedience, far from lowering the dignity of the human person, leads it to maturity by extending the freedom of the sons of God. (more…)

One Minute Meditation

THE SCOURGING AT THE PILLAR

• Jesus is taken before the High Priest where He is falsely accused, buffeted and insulted.
• The Jewish leaders take Jesus before Pilate, for only he can impose the death penalty.
• The robber, Barabbas, is preferred to Jesus.
• Pilate can “find no cause in Him”, yet to appease the Jews, he orders Jesus to be scourged.
• The scourge is made of leather thongs to which are attached small sharp bones.
• Jesus is bound to a pillar and cruelly scourged until His whole body is covered with deep wounds.
• The Lamb of God offers His suffering for the sins of mankind.
• Jesus suffers so much in His sacred flesh to satisfy, especially, for sins of the flesh.
• The prophesy of Isiah is fulfilled: “He was wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins.”
• Father, by the merits of Jesus in this painful scourging, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Ave Maria Mediations  

One more point, so that we may have a perfectly clear idea of Saint Therese’s self-denial. Generally speaking we have a too material, too external idea of self-denial; we almost always picture self-denial under the form of privation, as the sacrifice of something material, or again as some external mortification. And so we tire ourselves out looking for something to give up instead of denying ourselves always and in everything.   

Self-denial is primarily and often solely something interior and spiritual; it is in no way synonymous with mortification, with privation. Even when there is no mortification, there ought always to be self-denial. Self-­denial is simply the disposition of the soul to live for self in nothing, a sincere and constant disposition, a fixed determination to turn the soul from its natural tendency to make self the centre of its life, a fixed determination not to think of self, to put self on one side.  (more…)

For nearly two thousand years, Catholics have read, re-read and reflected upon the great passage in the sixth chapter of the gospel of Matthew in which Jesus lays out the three essential practices of Christian life: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

When Ash Wednesday Mass is finished, the next forty days – all of Lent- is observed in the context of this passage. This happens every year without fail. These three essential practices of Christian life are brought to our attention and emphasized. You would think that we Catholics would get the point. (more…)

One Minute Meditation

One Minute Meditation

Ave Maria Meditations

MEDITATION:

Unless our life is one of intimacy with God and His Son Jesus, we cannot be His collaborators, docile instruments in His hands; unless we have an intense interior life, we cannot have the mind of Christ and be associated with His love and His work for the salvation of souls.

By means of prayer and the struggle against sin, by self-renunciation, and the practice of the virtues, the interior life progressively rids the soul of all that is defective, thus favoring in it the growth of grace and love, that is to say it vivifies the soul with divine life, since grace and love are a participation in the very life of God. It follows, therefore, that the more a soul cultivates the interior life, the nearer it will come to God and having become like Him by grace and love, will be able to live in intimacy with Him, enjoy His friendship, penetrate His mysteries and participate in them. Who, then, will be better able to understand the great mystery of the Redemption and contri­bute his share to it, than one who by means of a fervent interior life, lives in intimate friendship with God?

The first degree of friendship with God, which consists in the absence of serious sin, does not suffice to fulfill the purposes of the apostolate. A deeper friendship is required, one which creates such uniformity of will, desire and affection that the apostle is enabled to act according to God’s Heart; he is moved not by his own impulses, but by the impulse of grace, by God’s will, and the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. It is a very significant fact that Jesus made His apostles live for three years in intimacy with Him, treating them like dear friends, before sending them out to convert the world : ” I will not now call you servants … but I have called you friends” (Jn. 15:15)

In a single moment, the moment of our justification, God infused charity into us without any cooperation on our part, but He does not preserve this gift, much less increase it, unless we remain united to Him by living an interior life. The purpose of the struggle against our passions, the practice of the virtues, recollection, prayer, the practice of the presence of God, and frequent reception of the Sacraments, is to foster union with God and the growth of charity. The interior life is a secret hearth where a soul in contact with God is inflamed with His love, and precisely because it is inflamed and forged by love, it becomes a docile instrument which God can use to diffuse love into the hearts of others.

Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene OCD

One Minute Meditation

Laborers for the Harvest

O Jesus, Good Shepherd, raise up in all parish commu­nities, priests and deacons, religious, consecrated lay people and missionaries according to the needs of the whole world, which You love and want to save.

We entrust toYou in a particular way our parish community; create in it the spiritual atmosphere of the first Christians in order that it may be a cenacle of prayer where we lovingly receive the Holy Spirit and His gifts.

Assist our pastors and all consecrated souls. Guide the steps of those who have generously welcomed Your call and prepared themselves for Holy Orders or the profession of the evangelical counsels. Direct Your loving gaze to the many well-disposed young people and invite them to follow You. Help them to understand that only in You they can achieve their fulfillment.

We entrust these great desires of Your Heart to the powerful intercession of Mary, Mother and model of all vocations, and beg You to sustain our faith in the certainty that the Father will listen to what You Yourself have instructed us to ask for. Amen.

~Venerable Pope John Paul II

One Minute Meditation

It is a great thing to realize that in order to be saints we have only to be what God made us to be, and to do what God made us to do. If we are clever, then to be clever; if we are not clever, then not to be clever; if we are successful, then to be successful; if not successful, then not to succeed; if in good health, then to be healthy; if sickly, then to be sickly; and so on. Perfect simplicity with regard to ourselves; perfect contentment with everything that comes our way; perfect peace of mind in utter self-forgetfulness.

This becomes easier the more we realize the utter greatness and goodness and allness of God. Then we realize our own utter insignificance and worthlessness and nothingness; a mere squeak of a mouse in the infin­ity of God. If we see the whole, we shall easily despise the trifles; if we lose ourselves in God, how puny the rest appears!

This is the cure for making too much of little things whether they go right, or whether they go wrong, which is the cause of all our loss of peace of mind. This is the real test of sanctity, that simplicity of trust in God, which is the perfection of human nature. In the end, when life is done and all is over, such a soul is found more precious than one that has shone in many deeds.

Therefore:

First make a great deal of God, forgetting, if we can, at times everything else in His presence. Secondly, make nothing at all of ourselves, whether we are clever or whether we are not, whether we are loved or whether we are not, whether we succeed or whether we do not, whether we get what we desire or do not.

In the midst of all we can rejoice: (a) that we are what He has made us; (b) that those things happen which He wants to happen, (c) that if all the world were to collapse and the very heavens were to fall, there would be still the great, living, loving God.

So, if we want to be saints:

(1) Sit still often in the presence of God, lost in acts of faith, and love, and hope, in acts of praise, and adoration, and thanksgiving.

(2) When the thought of ourselves with our own petty worries creeps in, sit still again in His presence, with acts of humility, and contrition, and oblation, telling Him how small we are, how sorry we are for ourselves, how we would like to be and do better.

(3) When the human heart is hungry, as at times it must be, come again to the feet of God, and fill it with acts of longing for Him and His love and His glory, rather than with the little husks of self-satisfaction; fill it with acts of rejoicing in Him and in His tremendous almighti­ness, such that nothing in the world really matters any­thing at all.

PRAY LIKE THIS, and we shall lay the foundation on which sanctity is built.

LIVE LIKE THIS, and sanctity will build itself.

DIE LIKE THIS, and we shall die “good and faithful servants.”

+Archbishop Alban Goodier, S.J.

One Minute Meditation

For Holy Church and for Priests

O my Jesus, I beg You on behalf of the whole Church, grant it love and the light of Your Spirit and give power to the words of priests so that hardened hearts might be brought to repentance and return to You, O Lord.

Lord, give us holy priests. You Yourself maintain them in holiness.  O Divine and Great High Priest, may the power of Your mercy accompany them everywhere and protect them from the devil’s traps and snares which are continually being set for the souls of priests.

May the power of Your mercy, O Lord, shatter and bring to naught all that might tarnish the sanctity of priests, for You can do all things. I ask You, Jesus, for a special blessing and for light for the priests before whom I will make my confessions throughout my lifetime. Amen.

~ St. Faustina