In Truth, Jesus is the Son of God

Jesus was nailed to the cross at 9 a.m.

From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. there was darkness all over the land.  Jesus was on the cross not for 3 hours, but for 6 hours, after being brutally scourged, and after being beaten and abused by the Temple guards, leaders, and people before being handed over to the Romans.

Some meditations say that from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. was when Jesus experienced the soul torments of hell that come from sin.  

These meditations teach us to flee from sin as all sin contributed to the suffering and death of Christ from the original sin to the sins before the Incarnation, to the sins of all those living with the knowledge and understanding of Salvation History.  These meditations also teach us to flee from hell by not turning our eyes, understanding and hearts to the right or to the left, but instead everyday, under the guidance, sanctifying grace, and coaching of the Holy Spirit, remaining faithful in prayer, reading and studying the Bible, and taking God's and Jesus's commandments as musts, not guidelines or recommendations for how to live our lives.

Why did Jesus yell out "My God, My God, why have you deserted me?"

I have heard this explained as similar to when a father needs to hold down a son for a necessary but painful medical treatment.  He keeps his son from moving through act of will, because he knows it is for his good, but he tends to avert his eyes from looking at the face of his child, because it is more than his father's heart can take.

Maybe God the Father, who did not spare his Son for our salvation, averted his inward gaze away from his Son during this time because while he willed for this atoning sacrifice of his beloved Son so that we might have eternal life, joy, love, and communion with him forever, in this moment where his son was nailed to the cross, abandoning his divine power to escape the agony, and suffering the internal soul torment due to our sins, he looked away as his Father's heart was so pained to see the one he loved so much suffering internally, in addition to his external torments, what no one before or since has suffered.  Jesus had never experienced this before, and now here in his worst suffering he doesn't feel the gaze of his father.

It was also Jesus invoking the prophetic words of Psalm 22 written 1000 years earlier by King David.

"But Jesus gave out a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, 'In truth, this man was the Son of God.'" Mark 15:37-39

Fr. John Bartunek in The Better Part in meditations on Mark 15:21-29 reminds us, 

The souls of those faithful men and women who had trusted in God, and in God's promise during the centuries before the Incarnation were not yet in heaven.  They had died in friendship with God, but the gates of heaven were still closed, because no one had yet atoned for the sin of mankind that had closed them in the first place.  Now Jesus comes and achieves the atonement.  And the first thing he does is go and announce the good news to the souls who were waiting their redemption. . . . Now the mystery of God's saving love is revealed to them in the piercing, loving gaze of their Savior.  Now they can experience what they longed for with vibrant faith and faithful hope, the full presence of God as they await the resurrection of their bodies and the final judgment. . . . 

Christ's self-sacrifice on the cross reveals that God's love for weak and selfish sinners has absolutely no limit. . . . Love is self-giving for the good of the beloved. . . . His love has no limits . . . . 

Paraphrasing Fr. Bartunek . . . Jesus loved us so much that He:

• Left the Heavenly Glory to become one of us
• He lived among us
• He worked and suffered the grind of ordinary life
• He taught and healed and revealed God's heart
• He founded the Church to extend his presence and grace throughout all time
• He let himself be betrayed, humiliated, condemned, mocked
• He subjected himself to excruciating physical torments
• He hung helpless on the cross in our place
• He took upon himself our sins, suffering internal torments, also in our place
• He the Creator and Lord of all, did not have his life taken from him, he laid it down for us his friends
• His love was completely self-giving
• His love has no bounds

Truly, Jesus is the the Son of God.  Truly, Jesus is one of the three persons in one God, one of the Glorious and Holy Trinity.  As God, He knows:

• Jesus is always with you
• Jesus understands you completely
• Jesus's compassion toward you is more perfect than you can imagine
• Jesus knows that you don't know this
• Jesus longs for you to know this because . . . 

Jesus yearns for you to trust him.  He knows this isn't easy for you.  It may be easy in a given moment, but how constant are we in this trust?

He has done so much for us.  Lord, please give us the grace to more faithfully pray:

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.  

Jesus, Son of God, I trust in you.  

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

"You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same." (Colossians 3:12-13)

I am losing my Faith.

Thank you Colleen @ ID for suggesting that I link to my post HERE.

God bless.

Melting Down Our Idols

The following is an excerpt from a post I wrote this morning. It is based on the passage from Exodus 32:7~8. You can read the rest by clicking the "read more" link. 

                                     

When I read and heard that passage from Exodus last week at Mass, it was one of those times when it seemed strike right where I live, so to speak. It would be very easy for us to stand back and say: "Those crazy foolish Israelites, a golden calf? Really?" However, looking at the world around us today in the 21st century, we see that as a culture, we have not come that far from where those crazy Israelites were. We have formed our own golden calves, perhaps even more dangerous than that statue they came up with. Our golden calves are in the form of money, power, sex, drugs, or whatever gets in the way of God in our lives. Take a look at a list of the seven deadly sins, and you will see that they are alive and well in our society today.

Read more...

Quick Byte # ZERO - Imitation

Michael is a great contributor to this site and his Quick Bytes posts make us all think seriously about what he has to say.

So with great respects to his writings I shall attempt just one post in imitation.

The subject of my post is ... the devil !!!

It was CS Lewis who I think said that the devil's biggest trick is to make us believe he doesn't exist. And you can quite understand why.

Imagine if the devil suddenly appeared to you in all his horrendous horrible evilness? You'd probably be so frightened that he'd scare the socks off you. I know I'd probably fall off my chair if I saw him.

In fact, if he appeared like as I describe, the chances are that he'd immediately convert people to Christianity through total fear of him. Which would be counter-productive from his perspective.

So instead, he appears in disguise as nice, cuddly, harmless, no sin implied temptations. And slowly, surely, many are attracted to him and hand in hand walk with him almost somnambulistically into hell.

Perhaps we should give the devil our 100% attention and ensure he has Zero% influence on our lives.

Make Hay

I am tempted to start with the song--There was an old lady who swallowed a fly...Because the song goes through all of the silly steps taken by the old lady....And that is sort of the saga of the grass at our house.  The hay, you see in the title.

We had an old mower, older-ish, and the spark plug had never been changed.  My hubby had a new spark plug, but we couldn't find the wrench thing to tighten it with.  I looked and looked. He looked and looked.  Finally on a beautiful spring day in March (and who cuts their grass in March?  This weather has been crazy!) I decided just to go to the hardware store 5 minutes from our house and get a wrench, take care of the spark plug and mow the lawn.

I watched the YouTube video on how to change the spark plug and followed the directions, but when I tried to start it, the spark plug shot out and the threads were stripped and that mower was of no use.  My hubby wasn't home for that little show.  He has a tendency to get upset about things like that and so the thought of telling him about it really made me upset.  Not to mention that the grass was just getting longer and longer.

We had talked about getting somebody to cut the grass anyway, so I called the number on a flyer that was delivered to our door.  I left a message.  There was nothing but to tell my hubby.  He was upset, but we got past it somewhat.  And the grass kept growing. It is March!

The professional mower called, and said our gates were too narrow, he couldn't do our grass. I priced mowers.  Hubby got the name of a mower repair.  We took the mower to the place. The man didn't say how long it would be to fix the mower.  And the grass kept growing.  It is March!  March!

I was praying all along about the situation. Who was the patron saint of lawn mowing? The grass has been a source of ongoing trouble since we moved to this house on the hill.  The boy across the street bought our truck last year.  As hubby and I were discussing our hay situation, we thought of the boy across the street.  We asked and he came and mowed.  He would be willing to do it on a regular basis. Problem solved.

This may not seem like a very spiritual story, but for me it is a reminder that God is good--all the time!  It is up to us to wait for His answer to our prayers and not to despair in times of trouble. (And I know that getting the grass cut is a small trouble, but a trouble.)

And I have decided that given the name of our mower young man, that the patron saint of mowers must be St. Nicholas.

A Call to Prayer

An Urgent Appeal From Mother Regina Marie, OCD
  To All of Our Friends,

Praised be Jesus Christ!

This special e-mail is a Call to Prayer.  It concerns the recent HHS health insurance mandate. By now you have certainly heard about it. This mandate cannot be taken lightly. It violates our deepest ethical, moral values. We Catholics cannot in good conscience follow this mandate. Because of the seriousness of this threat to our religious freedom, the time has come to join together – all of us – in prayer. That is exactly what our Catholic Bishops of the United States are asking us to do.


FROM THE U.S. CATHOLIC BISHOPS:
“We call upon the Catholic faithful, and all people of faith, throughout our country to join us in prayer and penance for our leaders and for the complete protection of our First Freedom—religious liberty—which is not only protected in the laws and customs of our great nation, but rooted in the teachings of our great Tradition. Prayer is the ultimate source of our strength—for without God, we can do nothing; but with God, all things are possible.” (United for Religious Freedom, A Statement of the Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, March 14, 2012).

The Carmelite Sisters invite all persons of good will to join with us in praying a novena beginning on March 25 and ending on April 2, 2012 in response to the Obama Insurance mandate which seriously threatens the religious freedom and conscience rights of United States citizens.  Together with many others throughout our country, the Carmelite Sisters are observing these nine days of prayer and fasting during the month of March, asking Our Lady to intercede for our country. We are asking Mary, Patroness of the United States of America, to implore God’s loving mercy on us at this critical time.  We ask you to join us in saying the following prayer every day for the nine days, together with some form of personal fasting. Thank you and God bless you.

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Act of Consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
      Most Holy Trinity: Our Father in heaven, who chose Mary as the fairest of your daughters; Holy Spirit, who chose Mary as your spouse; God the Son, who chose Mary as your Mother; in union with Mary, we adore your majesty and acknowledge your supreme, eternal dominion and authority.
      Most Holy Trinity, we put the United States of America into the hands of Mary Immaculate in order that she may present the country to you. Through her we wish to thank you for the great resources of this land and for the freedom, which has been its heritage. Through the intercession of Mary, have mercy on the Catholic Church in America. Grant us peace. Have mercy on our president and on all the officers of our government. Grant us a fruitful economy born of justice and charity. Have mercy on capital and industry and labor. Protect the family life of the nation. Guard the precious gift of many religious vocations. Through the intercession of our Mother, have mercy on the sick, the poor, the tempted, sinners - on all who are in need.
      Mary, Immaculate Virgin, our Mother, Patroness of our land, we praise you and honor you and give our country and ourselves to your sorrowful and Immaculate Heart. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pierced by the sword of sorrow prophesied by Simeon, save us from degeneration, disaster and war. Protect us from all harm. O Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, you who bore the sufferings of your Son in the depths of your heart, be our advocate. Pray for us, that acting always according to your will and the will of your divine Son, we may live and die pleasing to God. Amen.

(Imprimatur, Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle, Archbishop of Washington, 1959, for public consecration of the United States to the Immaculate Heart of Mary; renewed by U.S. Bishops, November 11, 2006)

Quick Bytes #21: The Only Correct Answer

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Fr. Larry once left a comment on one of my posts that I have never forgotten.

He said:

"If we get to the pearly gates and God asks you why He should let you into Heaven, the only correct answer is 'Because Jesus, Your Son, died for me'."

I'm very thankful he reminded me of that, because my whole time-spent-with-Him argument wasn't working so well ...

God Bless (and thank you Fr. Larry!)

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Comfort for the Tough Times

Have you ever experienced a time of trial/suffering/testing of faith that is so troubling, so worrisome, so difficult and grave that you cease to be able to pray?

You know you should, you wish you could...but, you can't? The words won't come. One of those times when we are told that the Holy Spirit understands the gutteral moanings of our soul?


Recently, I was reading the writings of Blessed Mother of Teresa of Calcutta. If you are familiar with her story, then you know that she experienced what amounts to 2 decades of "a dark night of the soul"...dryness...emptiness...loneliness...feeling as Our Lord did upon His cross when He cried out,
"My God! My God! Why have You abandoned me?!"


I was immensely comforted (and thus, wanted to share this post with you so as to offer that same comfort) to read Mother's beautiful sentiments.

She said, that in those times, when all feels dark and lonely...when prayers with or without words won't come...it is then that JESUS goes before His Father, on bended knee, and prays FOR us.

Our sweet and loving Savior, does the praying that we CAN'T do.

This is not to say that He merely "prays for us" as in "Dear Father, please help Judy" in an intercessory way...

No.

He DOES do that, of course.

But, what Mother Teresa was talking about is something MUCH MUCH deeper....much more profound...much more unfathomable....

Jesus prays FOR us...meaning He "does the praying" that we should be and want to be doing but can't.


I spent the week pondering this amazing gift.

Kind and gentle Jesus...prays to His father for me...AS me...when I am unable to pray.

This led me to think of other times...such as when a marriage is in crisis...when one wants to love the spouse, but can't...or when one desires SO MUCH to BE loved by the spouse, but isn't.

Surely, if Jesus prays to His Father in our place...so too, does He LOVE OUR SPOUSE FOR US...when we are unable...and so, too, does He love US...when our spouse can not/will not.


The profound reality of these things is incomprehensible to me.

It means that there is NEVER and absence of prayer or love because for every person who ever lived, is living now, or will live...JESUS is praying for each when they can't and loving for each when they can't and loving each when they are unloved.

Mother Teresa's reflections overwhelmed me. Humbled me.

Comforted me beyond words.

May this also bring you, my brothers and sisters, in Christ, a bit of Lenten Comfort.

Feast of St. Patrick's Day

To celebrate St. Patrick's Day this year, I decided to be a bit more festive than usual.  For my inspiration, I went to Xhonane at Familia Catolica.  She has many great and fun crafting ideas to celebrate this fun feast.

My new camera broke so I brought it back to where I bought it and they've sent it in to be repaired or replaced.  So, I do not have any photos of my creations which turned out pretty good but not as good as the sources where they were found.  I'm going to use their lovely photos and give them the photo credit.  Here they are:

I made the cinnamon shamrock from Jessica of Shower of Roses and Catholic Cuisine Blogs.  It turned out very good.  To work with the cinnamon dough, you need to defrost it in the microwave for about 20 seconds so you can make the shamrock shape and then decrease the overall cooking time.  It should be baked for about 20-25 minutes instead of the 30-35 minutes  the Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls calls for.  If you don't know Jessica, you should.  She is the best at creative ideas for celebrating the feast days during the liturgical year.  She completely amazes me and I feel blessed "to know her" through the blogosphere.  Thank you Jessica!!

photo credit

This one came from Jill at Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons.  Mine did not turn out as neat as Jill's because my shamrock cookie cutter was a tad bit too big.   About half of my tops came apart in 2 pieces. I was able to put them back on top and they still look cute.  Jill has many other very fun and festive ideas for celebrating this day.  Thank you Jill!!

photo credit

This next one came from Lolly Jane Boutique and these twin sisters Kristi & Kelli are crafty geniuses!  I love their use of color in their decorating and they've kindly offered the St. Paddy's printable for free!  Head on over there if you'd like a copy yourself.  While you're there, peak around at their other very cute crafting ideas to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Thank you Krist & Kelli!! 

photo credit

Here are some books that my son and I read over to learn more about St. Patrick the man.  They're all picture books but my son still enjoyed reading them over.  I found them through our local library.  I love that!

St. Patrick Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola:

St. Patrick's Day by Gail Gibbons.

Then, Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert.

The other day, I sent my godchildren and my RE first graders a St. Patrick's card with a couple of chocolate gold coins with an image of St. Patrick  Jessica from Shower of Roses created them and offered them for free!  Thank you Jessica!

This time I had a one inch circle punch which made it much easier!  They are so cute and festive!  Thank you to all the wonderful ladies whose generous hearts bless the rest of us!

St. Patrick, pray for us!

Blessings,
Noreen

Meditation for the 2nd half of Lent

Brooke Fraser - How Can You Refuse Him Now

You'll need to hit the x in the upper right hand corner of the ads' bar to get the ads out of the way.  Beautiful meditation to the powerful images from the Passion of the Christ.  Evokes the sorrow and love that are so helpful when we do the Stations of the Cross or Divine Mercy 3 p.m. hour devotions.

Thank you Jesus!  Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory, honor and power.  Thank you that we have the hope of salvation, to be washed and made clean in your Precious Blood.

Third Week of Lent Daily Prayers

The 1962 liturgical books have propers for every day in Lent at Mass. The collect, or prayer is what the Church asks for all the faithful and is prayed at every hour of the Divine Office except Prime. They are so powerful I wanted to share them with you. Each of these makes for good meditation subjects throughout the day.

Monday:

Pour forth in Thy mercy, O Lord, we beseech Thee, Thy grace into our hearts: that as we abstain from bodily food, so we may also restrain our senses from hurtful excesses. Through our Lord...

Tuesday:

Graciously hear us, O almighty and merciful God: and in Thy loving kindness grant to us the fruits of wholesome temperance. Through our Lord...

Wednesday:

We beseech Thee, O Lord, grant us that taught by wholesome fasting, and abstaining from harmful vices, we may the more easily obtain Thy pardon. Through our Lord...

Thursday:

May the blessed solemnity of Thy Saints Cosmas and Damian glorify Thee, O Lord: whereby Thou hast, in Thine ineffable providence, given to them everlasting glory and to us Thine aid. Through our Lord...

Friday:

We beseech Thee, O Lord, bless our fasts with Thy gracious favor: that as in body we abstain from food, so we may fast from sin in mind. Through our Lord...

Saturday:

Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that Thy household, in mortifying the flesh by fasting from food, may follow after justice by abstaining from sins. Through our Lord...

Each day's prayer reminds us of the season and evokes different images in our minds. Even if I can't make it to daily Mass in the Extraordinary Form (or any other for that matter), I feel united with every Mass offered in the world when I pray these prayers and read all the other propers. The language reminds me of who I am and Who He is.

Quick Bytes #20: Education

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We spend countless hours learning about finance so we don't end up poor.


We spend countless hours learning about our jobs and the skills we need to stay competitive.


We spend countless hours learning the ins and outs of the latest social media craze, touchscreen tablet, or smartphone.


We spend countless hours learning about the intricacies of our hobbies, whatever they may be.




Do we spend the same number of  hours learning about our religion?


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Crafolic Giveaway

Jennifer from Crafolic is a creative mom of 9 children who works diligently to instill the faith in her children.  One way she does so, is to create games or activities to help her children make the connection in a hands-on way.  Recently she sent me her latest game called Journey's End to review.  I did with my family and blogged about it HERE.  This is an active game that involves lessons on sin, grace that comes through confession and eternal destinations.  The players pick a card during each stop and do as the card indicates (i.e. you've committed a venial sin, walk forward with one hand over your eye or you've gone to confession and are now in a state of grace). The last stop is when the player picks the "At Death" card and the player does as the card states and ends up in Heaven, Purgatory or Hell.

This game was a great way for spontaneous conversations to develop about sin and how it affects our souls.  I highly recommend this game for teaching faith formation to children.

You're in luck!  She has offered one game as a giveaway on my blog Rosarymom.  Head on over there and leave me a comment for a chance to win Journey's End.  The winner will be picked on Friday, March 16th.
 
Or if you're interested in getting ideas for creative yet simple Catholic crafts, Jennifer has many of them to check out!  I'm always heading on over to her blog in search of ideas on how to teach the faith to my son as well as my first graders.

Blessings,
Noreen

My subconscious and I

Me: Hmmm … I have a few days free right now and maybe I should …

Subconscious: Oh good … we’re going on holiday!

Me: Holiday? No … of course not …

Sub: But, we haven’t been on holiday for sometime …

Me: Yes we did … we went to the seaside for the weekend two years ago … that was nice …

Sub: Wasn’t it just? OK … what will you do with your free days?

Me: Well, I was intending to plan …

Sub: Oh no … not more plans. You’re always planning something; and writing documents, and filing all sorts of bits of paper. It’s your need to be in control of everything. Always planning! Why can’t you let things be? Surprise yourself. Be instantaneous. Let things happen for a change, without any plans and schedules. What is it you’re planning this time?

Me: Well … my funeral, as it happens.

Sub: What?

Me: My funeral.

Sub: Are you feeling well? No aches and pains I should know about? Apart from your brain that is! What’s brought on the sudden need to plan your funeral?

Me: Well … It helps get things organized … you know … when the time comes. It saves the bother and worry for those left behind to have to sort things out.

Sub: But … the whole purpose of dying is to get others to sort things out. It gives them something to do and stops them moping around with miserable faces.

Me: It would be nice to organize the funeral service in church. My favorite readings … favorite hymns …

Sub: Oh no … not those sad hymns. What is it with people and sad hymns at funerals? Why not sing something cheerful?

Me: Like what?

Sub: Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Maybe people would like to sing those at your funeral rather than your sad hymns.

Me: But people always have mournful songs at funerals.

Sub: Don’t they just? And what is it with that song from the movies? What’s it called? And I will always love you. With that very long elongated … I … which goes on and on before singing will always love you. What’s all that about?

Me: It’s sad. It depicts the love people have for the person who has died.

Sub: What nonsense. If you really love someone you tell them so when they’re alive. When they’re with you. And you show that love through the way you treat them. Not tell them all about it when they’re dead … When it could be too late.

Me: You have a point there …

Sub: I always do. Take my advice. Forget about planning your funeral and go and show your love for somebody.

Me: How well put …

Sub: And another thing … you’re a pain in the neck … working your way South!

Love Him in Them

A prayer from My Other Self, by Clarence Enzler:

Dear Lord, may I always remember:  Whatever I do to them, I do also to You.

May I never forsake Your command, "Love one another as I have loved you."

May my thoughts of others be no longer my thoughts, but Your thoughts.

May my love of others be no longer my love, but Yours.

In my speech with others may my words be no longer my words, but Your words.

May I serve others as You served all men, seeking not to receive but to give.

May I see others no longer, but You in them.

May Your thoughts dwell in my mind, Your love in my heart, Your words on my lips- that I may learn to love all men even as You, dear Lord, love me.

 

 

 

Quick Bytes #19: Deal

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Often times, when a deal is being made, one side has to offer up a token of "goodwill".

Sometimes it is a small one.

"Here, hold my watch as collateral".

Sometimes it is huge.

"If you want this loan you have to give me thousands of dollars as a down payment."

And sometimes it is unimaginable.

"Here is my Son for you to Crucify."


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