The Holy Sacrifice of The Mass: Climax of The Lenten Journey

It is in assisting at the Liturgy of the Mass, the Holy Sacrifice, that Christians are drawn most closely into the Paschal Mystery: the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the path our Savior has set before his People: that they should be present at his most sacred sacrifice, as was the Virgin Mother of God and the beloved disciple (see Jn 19:26). Yet at Mass we are not simply present at the foot of the cross, for as we walk forward and receive the true body, blood, soul and divinity of the Risen One in Eucharist, we receive infinitely more than those who, standing on Calvary some two-thousand years past, received by use of their sight. In reception of Eucharist, we do not merely watch as a distant onlooker; rather, we truly enter into the Paschal Mystery through Jesus' gift of Himself, and thus are swept up into the supernatural life of the Holy Trinity.

At his Ash Wednesday Audience just weeks ago, Pope Benedict noted that in Liturgy we relive the "events that have led us to salvation; but not as a simple commemoration, a recollection of things past. There is a keyword to indicate this," continued our Holy Father, "which is often repeated in the liturgy: the word 'today,' which must be understood not metaphorically but in its original concrete sense. Today God reveals His law and we have the opportunity to chose between good and evil, between life and death."

The Pope concluded with these words: "On this Lenten journey, let us be attentive to welcoming Christ's invitation to follow Him more decisively and coherently, renewing the grace and commitments of our Baptism, so as to abandon the old man who is in us and clothe ourselves in Christ, thus reaching Easter renewed and being able to say with St. Paul 'it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.'"



Thanks to F. K. Bartels, Catholic Online
See article here.

Holinss is for all of us

Pope Benedict, at his Wednesday Audience on 13 Apr, gave a very timely reminder of our end-goal, not just of Lent, but of our lives. Perhaps, with a week remaining in Lent, it is timely for us to evaluate:

"Holiness is the fullness of the Christian life, a life in Christ; it consists in our being united to Christ, making our own his thoughts and actions, and conforming our lives to his. As such, it is chiefly the work of the Holy Spirit who is poured forth into our hearts through Baptism, making us sharers in the paschal mystery and enabling us to live a new life in union with the Risen Christ. Christian holiness is nothing other than the virtue of charity lived to its fullest.

"In the pursuit of holiness, we allow the seed of God's life and love to be cultivated by hearing his word and putting it into practice, by prayer and the celebration of the sacraments, by sacrifice and service of our brothers and sisters. The lives of the saints encourage us along this great path leading to the fullness of eternal life. By their prayers, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, may each of us live fully our Christian vocation and thus become a stone in that great mosaic of holiness which God is creating in history, so that the glory shining on the face of Christ may be seen in all its splendour."

The joy of peace (a sharing by Matthew Samy)

Well as most of [my friends] have known or now know, I am discerning God's call in my life and to the Priesthood. For me this Lent has been an especially hard one, those who know me well will know how quick and hot tempererd I can be and I still am.

I would sometimes turn to smoking as a way to calm myself down and to recollect my thoughts and feelings. So I've promised myself, (not anyone else, just myself as I am afraid that i am not strong enough to keep it, if I promised God) that this lent I'm going to make a conscious effort to not get angry over silly things and even [if] I did get angry to control myself and not let my anger take control of me in those situations.

Well I've not been perfectly successful in keeping everything at bay, I've fallen a few times, and each time I fell, I would feel a deep sense of disappointment in my life and that i was weak and useless. I asked myself what would Jesus do in this situation. I made the conscious effort to apologise to these people namely my mother and sister. Although I didn't mean the things I said, I said in in anger and out of spite and the words used were very 'cutting'. It also allowed them the opportunity to think back and reflect on the earlier incidents that sparked it off. As I offered my heartlfelt apology to them not only did I feel happy but I also felt free that I was no longer bound by this anger and hurt that it caused and in doing so also freed them from that anger and hurt that they held and i felt so relieved when they were able to let it go as i now felt free.

In all those moments I was tempted to just take a break and have a smoke to recollect myself. But I remembered my promise and turned to prayer instead. And in my prayer I found the most wonderful and comforting words that anyone could ever give me.

There's a saying that goes: "There are more ways than one to skin a cat". I've come to realise that sometimes not so much what I say but rather the way I say may be just too direct for someone else's liking and so they get put off by what I say and when I look back, I have to agree, sometimes.

So I found this clip that really reflects how I feel and appeals in way like no one else can and when I'm angry or sad I turn to it and it gives me a sense of God's comforting love and forgiveness and I've realised that I didn't even need to turn to smoking as a way to deal with that anger.

Since the start of this lent I have not smoked and I don't feel the need to any longer. I feel happy that I have been liberated from this and I hope that God gives me the strength to continue down this path and never let it bother me again more so even after lent is over. Afterall the sacrifices we make are not just something we make for lent and then go back to our sinful ways after but rather to realise that we have sinned against God and to turn back to him and he gives us that opportunity every lent to scrutinise ourselves. (The scrutinies that the Elect go through have a lot of meaning even for us who are cradled Catholics and its gives us a chance to look back on our own lives and see how we can improve).

I'd just like to end saying, alone we can do nothing, but with God in our lives and on our side, there is nothing that we can't do. So in all things turn to God, even if its just to thank him for another day he's given you to live or the food you have to eat to day.

An acceptable time (a sharing my Winifred Ling)

Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 2 Cor 6:2

I was struck by the phrase, “Now is a very acceptable time” in the readings on Ash Wednesday. In most of my years as Catholic, I have always perceived Lent as a period of “suffering” and self-denial. We choose to subtract something that we love from our daily lives, we are invited to pray and care for others more and when we fail, guilt shows itself. And what is so acceptable and wonderful about suffering, self-denial and guilt? It is particularly difficult for me because my birthday always fall in Lent and I often feel terrible when I celebrate it since it's Lent.

This goes to show how shallow and superficial my understanding of this blessed season was. While the three pillars of Lenten program are fasting, prayer and almsgiving, these practices are instituted to enable us to come closer to the Lord by yearning for Him in our lives. They are not an ends in themselves and certainly are not meant to instill guilt and negative feelings in me. This is a season of grace because God is seeking to reestablish a close, personal and intimate relationship with me. As I spend more time in prayer and reflection, this theme repeats itself over and over again and I am touched beyond words as I rediscover the depths of God's love and mercy for me and for each of us.

The truth is distance has crept into my relationship with God. Even though I fulfill my Sunday obligation, pray to God spontaneously and know that He is my personal God, my life was far from living this truth. I was anxious and worried about my future, mostly focused on my ego and I didn't even consider God in the equation. I sought for directions and wisdom in many avenues and left God out of the picture. And yet God has never forgotten me. Neither does He judge me as I would judge myself. About a week before Ash Wednesday the Holy Sprit prompted me to seek God in writing. As I started to journal and recommit myself to Him, it marked my homecoming to my God, the one that I once share a deep and personal relationship with. I realise how much I have missed this intimate relationship with Him and experiencing His presence in my daily life. God is amazing because right about this time, I came to learn about the scripture reflections that Father William Goh writes for Catholic Spirituality Center's website. I would like to share a particular segment that has struck me here.

“The disposition towards Lent is not one of putting on “a gloomy look as the hypocrites do.” Rather, it is a joyful experience of being liberated from our sins and our bondage. The emphasis is not so much of having to make sacrifices and doing penances, but of being liberated for love and compassion.”

A joyful experience of being liberated from our sins and our bondage. How powerful! This couldn't be more true for me. Consequently, this daily reflection has become another source of inspiration and it has helped me tremendously as I continue to learn about God and reconnect with Him. Instead of relying on my own intellect and strength, I turn to God and ask for His guidance and direction in all aspects of my life.

In conclusion, even though my Lenten observances have not been perfect I know categorically that my relationship with my personal God has been restored. Like the prodigal son I have been homesick and finally I got my act together and return to my source of love and God has welcomed me with arms wide open. How appropriate that it should occur during this blessed season of Lent. For that I am truly grateful and I pray that this experience will give me the courage to respond to God's love by exercising the same love, compassion and mercy towards myself and others.

True disciples

"If you live according to my teaching, you are truly my disciples." (John 8:31)


O Eternal Truth, true love and beloved eternity. You are my God. To You do I sigh day and night. When I first came to know You, you drew me to yourself so that I might see that there were things for me to see, but that I myself was not yet ready to see them. Meanwhile you overcame the weakness of my vision, sending forth most strongly the beams of your light, and I trembled at once with love and dread.

I sought a way to gain the strength which I needed to enjoy you. But I did not find it until I embraced "the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who is above all, God blessed for ever." He was calling me and saying: "I am the way of truth, I am the life."

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed you fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

- St Augustine

Keep the coming feast of the Lord through deeds, not words

The Word who became all things for us is close to us, our Lord Jesus Christ who promises to remain with us always. He cries out, saying: “See, I am with you all the days of this age.” He is himself the shepherd, the high priest, the way and the door, and has become all things at once for us. In the same way, he has come among us as our feast and holy day as well. The blessed Apostle says of him who was awaited: “Christ has been sacrificed as our Passover.” It was Christ who shed his light on the psalmist as he prayed: “You are my joy, deliver me from those surrounding me.” True joy, genuine festival, means the casting out of wickedness. To achieve this one must live a life of perfect goodness and, in the serenity of the fear of God, practise contemplation in one’s heart.

This was the way of the saints, who in their lifetime and at every stage of life rejoiced as at a feast. Blessed David, for example, not once but seven times rose at night to win God’s favour through prayer. The great Moses was full of joy as he sang God’s praises in hymns of victory for the defeat of Pharaoh and the oppressors of the Hebrew people. Others had hearts filled always with gladness as they performed their sacred duty of worship, like the great Samuel and the blessed Elijah. Because of their holy lives they gained freedom, and now keep festival in heaven. They rejoice after their pilgrimage in shadows, and now distinguish the reality from the promise.

When we celebrate the feast in our own day, what path are we to take? As we draw near to this feast, who is to be our guide? Beloved, it must be none other than the one whom you will address with me as our Lord Jesus Christ. He says: “I am the way.” As blessed John tells us: it is Christ “who takes away the sin of the world.” It is he who purifies our souls, as the prophet Jeremiah says: “Stand upon the ways; look and see which is the good path, and you will find in it the way of amendment for your souls.”

In former times the blood of goats and the ashes of a calf were sprinkled on those who were unclean, but they were able to purify only the body. Now through the grace of God’s Word everyone is made abundantly clean. If we follow Christ closely we shall be allowed, even on this earth, to stand as it were on the threshold of the heavenly Jerusalem, and enjoy the contemplation of that everlasting feast, like the blessed apostles, who in following the Saviour as their leader, showed, and still show, the way to obtain the same gift from God. They said: “See, we have left all things and followed you.” We too follow the Lord, and we keep his feast by deeds rather than by words.



- St Athanasius, bishop

You shall love your neighbor as yourself

Here's a portion of Fr Raniero Cantalamessa's third Lenten homily to the Papal household, preached on Apr 8:

"You shall love your neighbor as yourself" was an ancient commandment, written in the law of Moses (Leviticus 19:18) and Jesus himself quotes it as such (Luke 10:27) How than does Jesus call it "his" commandment and the "new" commandment? The answer is that, with him, the object, the subject and the reason for loving one's neighbor have all changed.

First of all the object has changed. In other words: who is the neighbor who must be loved? It is no longer only one's fellow countrymen, or at most the guest who dwells among the people, but every person, including the foreigner (the Samaritan!), even one's enemy. It is true that the second part of the phrase "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy" (Mt 5:43) is not found literally in the Old Testament, but it does sum up the general approach expressed in the law of retaliation: "eye for eye, tooth for tooth" (Leviticus 24:20), especially if we compare it with what Jesus expects from his disciples:

"But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain on the upright and the wicked alike. For if you love those who love you, what reward can you expect? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Do not even the gentiles do as much?" - Matthew 5:44-47

The subject of the love of neighbor has also changed: the word neighbor now means something else. It is not another person; it is I, it is not the person who is next to me, but the one who comes close. In the parable of the Good Samaritan Jesus shows that there is no need to wait passively for my neighbor to turn up on my path, with lights flashing and sirens blaring. There is no such thing as a ready-made neighbor; there is a neighbor when you decide to come close to that person.

And most of all, the model or measure of the love of neighbor has changed. Until Jesus came, the model was love of self: "as yourself." It has been said that God could not have chosen a more secure peg than this on which to fasten the love of neighbor. He would not have achieved the same result even if he had said: "You shall love your neighbor as you love your God!" because, when it comes to loving God, and understanding what it means to love God, a man can still cheat -- but not where love of self is concerned. We know full well what it means to love ourselves, whatever the circumstances. It is a mirror that is always before us, there is no escape.

And yet there is still an escape, which is why Jesus replaces it with another model and another measure. "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you" (John 15:12). A person can love himself or herself in the wrong way, can desire evil, not good, can love vice, not virtue. If such a person loves others "as himself" and wants others to have the things he wants for himself, pity the person who is loved in that way! We know, instead, where the love of Jesus leads us: to virtue, to the good, to the Father. Whoever follows him "does not walk in darkness." He has loved us by giving his life for us, while we were still sinners, in other words, enemies (Romans 5:6 ff).

We can now understand what the evangelist John means by his apparently contradictory statement: "My dear friends, this is not a new commandment I am writing to you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message which you have heard. Yet in another way I am writing a new commandment for you" (1 John 2:7-8). The commandment of the love of neighbor is "old" in the letter, but "new" with the novelty of the Gospel itself -- because it is no longer just a "law" but also and first of all a "grace." It is founded on communion with Christ, made possible by the gift of the Spirit.

With Jesus there is a move from a two-person relationship: "What the other person does to you, do the same to him," to a three-person relationship: "What God has done to you, do the same to the other person," or, starting from the opposite direction: "What you have done to others is what God will do to you." There are countless sayings of Jesus and the Apostles which repeat this concept: “As God has forgiven you, so you are to forgive one another": "If you do not forgive your enemies from the heart, neither will your Father forgive you." Our excuse is cut off at the root: “But he does not love me, he offends me." That's his business, not yours. The only thing that concerns you is what you do to others and how you behave in face of what others do to you.

But the main question still remains to be answered: why this singular diversion of love from God to one's neighbor? Wouldn't it be more logical to expect: "As I have loved you, so you must love me," rather than: "As I have loved you, so must you love one another"? Here is the difference between love that is purely eros and love which is eros and agape together. Purely erotic love is a closed circle: "Love me, Alfredo, love me as much as I love you": thus sings Violetta in Verdi's Traviata: I love you, you love me. The love of agape is an open circle: it comes from God and returns to Him, but passes through one’s neighbor. Jesus himself inaugurated this new kind of love: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you" (John 15:9).

St. Catherine of Siena gave the simplest and most convincing explanation of the reason for this. She puts these words into God's mouth:

"I ask you to love me with the same love with which I love you. But this you cannot do for me, because I have loved you without being loved. All the love you have for me is a love of debt, not of grace, in as much as you are obliged to do it, while I love you with the love of grace, not of debt. Hence, you cannot give me the love that I require. Because of this I have placed your neighbor alongside you: so that you may do to him what you cannot do for me, that is, love him without considering whether he deserves it, and without expecting anything in return. And I consider as done to me what you did to him."