Ah, a long post for today.
It's been quite a while since I last blogged, the vacation's been good, I'm resting well, I think I need to rest more (haha) and I thank God for everything so far. =D
I love this picture! It's one of my favourites on the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It says so much, I feel. The true priest, in imitation of the only Eternal High Priest, Jesus, offering the most holy sacrifice, Jesus's arms outstretched on the Cross, waiting, waiting to enter the hearts of those who believe in Him. His love, so infinite, willing to come down from heaven into golden vessels, Jesus, present body, soul, divinity, in the Most Holy Eucharist, waiting to enter the hearts, souls, minds of those whom He has chosen, for many. The whole mass, is Calvary repeated, the whole sacrifice, so wholly divine. The pains, the tortures, the scourgings, the nailings, the crucifixion, the crowning with thorns, the wounds of love, the whole sacrifice, so lovingly presented in the mass, with all its rubrics and actions. Consummatum est! The immense love, the everything. Deus caritas est. One word sums up the whole sacrifice, caritas - love! and the Only woman who first understood what it all meant, who understood and even partook of His pains, sufferings and joys, ever since Her Immaculate Conception, dearest Mother Mary, her existence, is also proof of God's great and infinite love for us all. As my patron, Saint Thérèse exemplified here. Love Him in order to find Thyself!
And this is dear Sancte Pio, the stigmatist of our times, the one who exemplified that the sacrifice of the mass is most wholly divine, truly the sacrifice. God sends us different people, different saints to aid us all in our brief sojourn to heaven, here on this temporary world, all of our sufferings, all our joys, all our 'immensities' all our pains, worries, He knows them all and He sends us different people to show us how true He is. He uses different means, different ways to aid every single one of us to Heaven. With what love and what mercy Jesus presents us to himself in the Most Holy and Blessed Sacrament! What immense love and mercy, He opens Himself out to us, the Love, to die for each one of us, to suffer just for each one of us. To show us the Only way to heaven, the only way to the Father. For He says, after His Last Supper, the First Mass, with the first communicant, the Most Blessed Virgin, I am the way, and the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. - John 14:6 (dicit ei Iesus ego sum via et veritas et vita nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me )
This loving discourse, I'll paste it here, also shows us the immense care and love, caritas, that He shows us all:
The Gospel according to St. John
Christ's discourse after his last supper.
1 Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be. 4 And whither I go you know, and the way you know. 5 Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?
6 Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. 7 If you had known me, you would without doubt have known my Father also: and from henceforth you shall know him, and you have seen him. 8 Philip saith to him: Lord, shew us the Father, and it is enough for us. 9 Jesus saith to him: Have I been so long a time with you; and have you not known me? Philip, he that seeth me seeth the Father also. How sayest thou, Shew us the Father? 10 Do you not believe, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not of myself. But the Father who abideth in me, he doth the works.
11 Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? 12 Otherwise believe for the very works' sake. Amen, amen I say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do. 13 Because I go to the Father: and whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, that will I do: that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you shall ask me any thing in my name, that I will do. 15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever. 17 The spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, nor knoweth him: but you shall know him; because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while: and the world seeth me no more. But you see me: because I live, and you shall live. 20 In that day you shall know, that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
16 "Paraclete"... That is, a comforter: or also an advocate; inasmuch as by inspiring prayer, he prays, as it were, in us, and pleads for us. 16 "For ever"... Hence it is evident that this Spirit of Truth was not only promised to the persons of the apostles, but also to their successors through all generations.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22 Judas saith to him, not the Iscariot: Lord, how is it, that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world? 23 Jesus answered, and said to him: If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. 24 He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words. And the word which you have heard, is not mine; but the Father's who sent me.
25 These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you.
26 But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, do I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid. 28 You have heard that I said to you: I go away, and I come unto you. If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it comes to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe. 30 I will not now speak many things with you. For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not any thing.
26 "Teach you all things"... Here the Holy Ghost is promised to the apostles and their successors, particularly, in order to teach them all truth, and to preserve them from error. 28 "For the Father is greater than I"... It is evident, that Christ our Lord speaks here of himself as he is made man: for as God he is equal to the Father. (See Phil. 2.) Any difficulty of understanding the meaning of these words will vanish, when the relative circumstances of the text here are considered: for Christ being at this time shortly to suffer death, signified to his apostles his human nature by these very words: for as God he could not die. And therefore as he was both God and man, it must follow that according to his humanity he was to die, which the apostles were soon to see and believe, as he expresses, ver. 29. And now I have told you before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe.
31 But that the world may know, that I love the Father: and as the Father hath given me commandment, so do I: Arise, let us go hence.
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and here's also something from St. Alphonsus Maria de Ligouri (Doctor of the Church) on the Crucifixion and the Love of Jesus the Christ.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to Myself. But this He said, signifying what death He should die. – John xii. 32
Jesus Christ said that when He should have been lifted up upon the Cross, He would, by His merits, by His example, and by the power of His love, have drawn towards Himself the affection of all souls: “He drew all the nations of the world to His love, by the merit of His blood, by His example, and by His love.” Such is the commentary of Cornelius a Lapide. St. Peter Damian tells us the same: “The Lord, as soon as he was suspended upon the cross, drew all men to Himself through a loving desire.” And who is there, Cornelius goes on to say, that will not love Jesus, who dies for love of us? “For who will not reciprocate the love of Christ, who dies out of love for us?” Behold, O redeemed souls (as Holy Church exhorts us), behold your Redeemer upon that Cross, where His whole form breathes love, and invites you to love Him: His head bent downwards to give us the kiss of peace, His arms stretched our to embrace us, His heart open to love us: “His whole figure” (as St. Augustine says) “breathes love, and challenges to love Him in return: His head bent downwards to kiss us, His hands stretched out to embrace us, His bosom open to love us.”
Ah, my beloved Jesus, how could my soul have been so dear in Thy sight, beholding, as Thou didst, the wrongs that Thou wouldst have to receive at my hands! Thou, in order to captivate my affections, wert willing to give me the extremist proofs of love. Come, ye scourges, ye thorns, nails and cross, which tortured the sacred flesh of my Lord, come ye, and wound my heart; be ever reminding me that all the good that I have received, and all that I hope for, comes to me through the merits of his Passion. O Thou master of love, others teach by word of mouth, but Thou upon this bed of death dost teach by suffering; others teach from interested motives, Thou from affection, asking no recompense excepting my salvation. Save me, O my love, and let my salvation be the bestowal of the grace ever to love and please Thee; the love of Thee is my salvation.
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Thou art my only True Friend, Dearest Jesus,
The True Friend Prayer (by Saint Claude de la Colombiere)
Jesus, Thou art the only and the true friend.
Thou knowest my difficulties. Thou takest them upon Thyself. Thou knowest how to transform them for my good. Thou hearest me with goodness when I speak of my afflictions and never dost Thou fail to lighten them.
I find Thee always and everywhere; Thou dost never leave me and, if I am obliged to move, I never fail to find Thee where I go.
Thou dost not tire of listening to me; Thou dost never cease to do me good. I am assured of being loved if I love Thee. Thou dost not need my goods, and Thou dost not become poorer in giving me Thine own.
However wretched I may be, someone more noble, more intelligent, even holier will not steal from me Thy friendship. Death, which tears us away from all our other friends, will serve only to reunite me to Thee. All the disfrace of age, or fortune cannot detach Thee from me. On the contrary, I will never enjoy Thee more fully, Thou wilt never be closer than when everything will seem to fail me.
Thou sufferest my imperfections with admirable patience, even my infidelities. My ingratitude does not hurt Thee, so much so that Thou art always willing to come back, if I desire it.
O Jesus, grant that I may desire it, so that I be all Thine, in time and eternity!
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Jesus, Mary, I love Thee, Save Souls!
Labels: Deus caritas est, Gospel according to Saint John, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Crucifixion, The Most Holy Sacrifice, The only True Friend
