October 31, 2011 With Blessed Father Alberione and With Father Tom

Monday, October 31
OF THE DAY
Rom 11: 29-36
Lk 14: 12-14
1999 Dedication of the Divine Master Church in Rome
In a few years we will be in one of the two eternities. Which will be ours? The one we are preparing for ourselves just now (VMC 913).

Father Tom: And on this note we end Octyober…forever! Sobering thought. But not, let’s prepare for November, ready to help our brothers and sisters on their way to Paradise!


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Fr. Renato Magnani SSP (1962)—Sr. M. Addolorata Saracco FSP (1970)—Sr. Bernarda Lagrutta FSP (1973)—Sr. M. Edvige Bronska PD (1984)—Sr. Esterina Degni FSP (1994)—Fr. Enzo Quaglia IJP (1999)—Fr. Paolo Gilli SSP (2004)—Sr. Lidia Minnig FSP (2006)—Giovanna Corigliano HFI (2006)—Natalina Fortini IAM (2008)—Antonio Valdes (1950)

Our Special Devotion

A thought for October 30



OUR SPECIAL DEVOTION


As our century was beginning, the great Pope.Leo XIII, concerned about the future of humanity, wrote an Encyclical for the whole Church inviting people to " view all things in Christ, Way, Truth and Life".

The seed he sowed in the Encyclical ("Tametsi futura" - "On Jesus Christ our Redeemer" ) fell on the heart of Fr. Alberione and, under the action of the Spirit,he
conceived it as the " charism " proper to the Pauline Family.

Later he would write: "We were born in the Church to give people Jesus Master who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Only in this way will the Father's design be carried out: ' To restore all things in Christ.

"We cannot give a greater richness to this poor and proud world than Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life".

And so the first invocation which all of us learned as soon as we crossed the threshold of a Pauline house was: "O Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life, have mercy on us!"

This invocation embraces the spirituality and the mission proper to the Pauline Congregations which were born of the Host; a spirituality which enlivens and directs all their Work of sanctification and of apostolate.

We should all recall Fr. Alberione's words: "I have neither silver nor gold, but what I have I give you: Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life.


"A truth revealed to us by our Heavenly Father.


When we say: "Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life", we know well that we are announcing a truth coming from Heaven, solemnly proclaimed and desired by God the Father: " This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!

Thus devotion to Jesus Master is born in the bosom of the Trinity.

It is a devotion ratified by Jesus himself: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (Jn. 14). "You call me Master and you are right. That is what I am".

It is a devotion confirmed by Mary, Mother, of Jesus and our mother. The last words of hers registered in the Gospel are: "Do whatever he tells you." (Jn 2,5).

And so " Jesus Master, Way, Truth and Life " is not a devotional dreamed up by Fr. Alberione but a truth of faith; it is not an invocation which we repeat because we have got in the habit of doing so but is instead our most authentic reality. It is what we have to be, to do and to live if we are to give a meaning to our daily life and transform our "daytime face" into the face of someone "transfigured by grace" that is "divinized".

Yes! Divinized! Because since God In Jesus Christ assumed the appearance of a human being, human beings in Jesus Christ have assumed the appearance of God!

Our Year

In his Apostolic Letter, "Tertio Millennio Adveniente" Pope John Paul outlined a broad but precise path of preparation for the great Jubilee. And this not just for Christians but for all of humanity.

We should remember that Christianity is not a composite of theological, moral and social doctrines, one more religion among many. Christianity is essentially a Person and that Person is Jesus Christ. So we are not talking of studying a doctrine or of going in depth Into the history of religions, but rather of knowing in his fullness the Person we call Jesus.

Only Jesus Master who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, can respond to humanity's three profound questions:

From where do I come?
What is the meaning of my life?
What will happen after my life ends with death?

His first coming - Christmas

1) - Christ is the Way through whom the divine Trinity, the Three Divine Persons come to us;

2)- Christ is the Way through whom man ascends to God and enters into the Trinity, as a son of the Father: " My father and your father";
as a brother of Christ: " Go to my brothers and tell them..."
as a new creature, generated and sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Christ is the Way who brings the Truth to us and leads us to the Truth."
Nobody has ever seen God, but the only-begotten Son who is in the Father has revealed Him to us".

3)- Christ is the Truth, the whole created and uncreated truth, the eternal, infinite Truth who reveals the mysteries of God for eternity.

Christ is the Truth who introduces us into the mystery of the divine life, of the life beyond time and space which is true life, invulnerable to death and which, will; last forever and ever.

4) - Christ is the Life, the whole life: human and divine, temporal and eternal: " In him was Life . . . and of his fullness we have all received, grace following upon grace"; "He who comes to me will have Life"; " Come to me all you who are weary and heavily burdened and I will refresh you ".

Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life because: "No one goes to the Father but through me". This is an absolute for every human being, every son or daughter of God, every disciple of Jesus Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit.

In this way the mystery of Christ involves our whole life: yesterday, today, tomorrow. It is a mystery of Creation, of Incarnation, of Redemption, of Resurrection, of Glorification. It is a peerless story of love.

And so to be a Christian does not mean just believing in Christ but belonging to Christ, following him as the Way,believing him as the Truth, living him as the Life, and so collaborating with the accomplishment of God's plans for the salvation of humanity.

His second coming

- Easter

To become our Way, Christ had to take our poor and corruptible human nature and become the Man-God. This is the event which dominates history. In fact, without Christ humanity does not have a history. What do we mean? That God, in His Son, took human nature so as to share with it His divine nature.

But, if human beings were to enter into the mystery of the Trinity and become the temple of God, a second coming of Christ - Easter - was required.

And so we have the Eucharist!

1)- The plan of the Father was to give His Son to humanity and so raise it to the Divinity. But how could Christ make a reality of the gift of himself made to us by the Father? Love reaches the supreme divine heights in immolation: "No one has greater love than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends".

With his Blood shed on the Cross Christ makes reparation for all human sin, accepts into himself all human suffering, accepts in love all the deaths of all his brethren so as to obtain pardon, grace and eternal life for all.

Not only was he born as a human being, and lived among people, but he died on a cross and rose again to return to Paradise and so made a reality and an actuality in himself of the Father's gift of him to us through the Eucharist which is sacrifice in Holy Mass and food in Holy Communion: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day".

2)- With the institution of the Eucharist, the real presence of Jesus Christ, body, blood, soul and divinity, the Father in His Son reveals to us the Way to arrive at the whole Truth so as to have the fullness of Life. It transforms us from human persons to human-divine persons and assumes us into His divinity.

There are no other possibilities of seeing God, of knowing Him, of loving Him, of enjoying Him in Paradise except through Christ: "He came into the world and to all who received him he gave power to become sons of God" (Jn 1, 11-12).

And there are no other possibilities of being in Christ, with Christ, through Christ except through the Eucharist. lt is through sacramental Communion that Christ makes us divine and shares with us his life generated by the Holy Spirit.

And it is through our daily response in love to the gratuitous love of Christ that we are saved and become saviors with him, no longer "in hope" but in act. It is in this way that all of humanity enters into the life which is eternal Life.

3) - Through the Eucharist Christ is with us, in our midst, today, tomorrow and forever: he is present in our personal history and in that of the whole of humanity: "I am with you always, until the end of the world".

Our brothers will not discover Christ in his wonderful reality until we Christians meet him authentically,until we can say to them: "I believe in God because I know Him and I know Him because in the Eucharist I know His Son". "The one who receives me, receives the Father, whoever hears me, hears my Father".

Fr. Alberione writes: "Holy Communion must bring the life of Christ into us. It can happen that we receive the Host as the ciborium receives It - it holds Hosts every day but does not grow holy. Be Eucharistic souls and you will be fervent apostles".

The Eucharist and the Trinitarian mystery

In the Eucharist not only is the Father present but also the Holy Spirit Who from all eternity generates the Son whom our Blessed Lady conceived and generated in time - but again through the work of the Holy Spirit. Each of us is, therefore, a son or daughter of the heavenly Father, a brother of Jesus Christ and a child of Mary.

There will be a third " Coming of Christ" at the end of time so as to hand over his Kingdom to His Father.

In this third coming also, he will be our "Way" who will unite us forever to the Father, to Himself and to the Holy Spirit and allow us to share in eternal glory.

And so each of us will reach the fullness of Truth and the fullness of Life.

The whole Gospel reveals that Jesus Christ is the great and unique Way who unites God to us and us to God:

in his "First Coming" through the humiliation of the Incarnation - "he emptied himself, assuming the condition of a slave";

in his "Second Coming" through his immolation on the cross: "And I, when I am raised up, will draw all to me".

In his " Third Coming" when he will come on the clouds of heaven in great power and majesty.

Garden For Daily Living

The image is of the Franciscan University's Portiuncula. I don't know who took the picture, but will gladly give credit if someone does.

A GARDEN FOR DAILY LIVING
Plant three rows of peas:
Peace of mind
Peace of heart
Peace of soul
Plant four rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash indifference
Squash grumbling
Squash selfishness
Plant four rows of lettuce:
Lettuce be faithful
Lettuce be kind
Lettuce be happy
Lettuce really love one another
No garden should be without turnips:
Turnip for service when needed
Turnip to help one another
Turnip the music and dance
Water freely with patience and
Cultivate with love.
There is much fruit in your garden
Because you reap what you sow.
To conclude our garden
We must have thyme:
Thyme for fun
Thyme for rest
Thyme for ourselves
Pretty nice garden, don't you think?

~October 2011 Concord

Like the Apostles, We Have Been Specially Chosen...

Like the apostles, we have been specially-chosen - do we appreciate it?



Oct. 30 - XXXI Sunday in Ordinary Time


Continuing his journey toward Jerusalem (both physically and metaphorically in the sense that the Messiah is destined to die in that city) , the Lord also continues to make himself increasingly unpopular with the religious leaders and all those who think and act like them. He puts his thought very bluntly: "Tell it like it is, lay down the law ... but don't be so extremely foolish as not to practice what you preach."


The First Reading could scarcely be more blunt: " O priests . . . you have turned aside from the way and have made many to falter by your instruction." These were the Old Testament priests but, unfortunately, the words of the Reading could be applied today and with even more force. Malachi is the last of the minor Hebrew prophets and we don't know his real name ("Malachi" means "my messenger") but his writing not only includes strong words of condemnation but also a prophecy that "people from one end of the world to the other will honor me" which we see as a foreshadowing of the Holy sacrifice. (The whole prophecy - less than three pages - is well worth reading)


Psalm 131, the Responsorial, is a beautiful prayer which we can copy out and make our own — "In you, Lord, I have found my peace." And where else, we might ask? It expresses in this context the correct attitude toward God and not the attitude of the Old Testament priests.


The second paragraph of the Second Reading expresses the correct nature of what is to be taught: "not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God at work among you who believe." But St. Paul also makes clear what this effort cost him: "Working night and day in order not to burden any of you, we proclaimed to you the Gospel of God." It is precisely this effort and the intense prayer accompanying it that makes Paul's teaching effective. An exam of conscience: are my efforts to spread the good news of the Institute (or to share any good advice) preceded, accompanied and followed by prayer and sacrifice?


Finally, the Gospel is a species of "second and updated edition" of the first Reading. The Lord continues to make himself unpopular with the Powers that Be and he doubtless takes a side-glance at his own followers who probably have never got over the fact that THEY, of all people, unlettered and uncouth, have been chosen by this marvelous man from Nazareth. This can happen - and has happened - with the modern clergy. I recall my own experiences of being treated as a species of sage when the oils were still damp on my hands and I was far from skilled in theology or anything else. Fortunately I made no rash decisions and hoped the good people would not see just how ignorant I was. God bless all of them, now safe in Paradise forever and I hope I made it a little more pleasant for them!


~Concord October 2011

October 30, 2011 With Blessed Father Alberione and With Father Tom

Sunday, October 30
JESUS CHRIST, DIVINE MASTER
*** FEAST OF THE SISTER DISCIPLES and THE JESUS PRIEST INSTITUTE***
Mal 1: 14b-2: 2b, 8-10
1 Thes 2: 7b-9,13
Mt 23: 1-12

Oh Jesus, guide those responsible for audiovisual technologies to work in charity, respecting human dignity, always sowing the good grain and watching so the enemy may never sow weeds (PPF).

Father Tom: And so say all of us!


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Sr. M. Eugenia Sanchez FSP (1994)—Rosa Esteves Martins IAM (1996)—Sr. M. Irene Kimura FSP (1997)—Sr. M. Rachel Sawal PD (2003)—Sr. Maria Cevolani FSO (2004)—Maria Scarciofalo IAM (2005)

October 28 & 29, 2011 With Blessed Father Alberione and With Father Tom

I will be away from my computer tomorrow so I'm posting today and tomorrow's thoughts this morning. Today's thought is at the bottom of the post, tomorrow's at the top. God bless and have a wonderful weekend.



Saturday, October 29
OF THE DAY
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY on Saturday
Rm 11: 1-29
Lk 14: 1, 7-11

Let there not be only external observances, but our whole being going to God and our whole person grafting itself of Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Only then can we say: “Jesus Christ lives in me.” (APD 84).

Father Tom: Here again we can usefully practice “putting God first” so that He is the main actor in our lives and we have secondary roles. This involves fidelity to our various commitments, spiritual and temporal. Easier said than done—have you sincerely tried it?


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Fr. Giacomo Ricolfi SSP (1982)—Fr. Pietro Mozzanica IJP (1998)—Sr. Lucina Dal Pozzo SGBP (2000)—Sr. M. Editor Martinez PD (2000)—Giovanna Curreri IAM (2005)—Augustine A. Mennella (1978)


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Friday, October 28
SS. SIMON AND JUDE, Apostles
Eph 2: 19-22
Lk 6: 12-19

We have to take up our stance viz a viz the eternal truths. Living by faith means keeping in mind these great truths and living our lives accordingly (VMC 915).

Father Tom: One way in which we can usefully do this is to take another stance: not thinking any more of living for OUR interests (even the eternal ones!) but for the interests of God—putting Him habitually in the first place as we go through our day.


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Fr. Agostino Damonte sSP (2956)—Fr. Aurelio Nosetti SSP (1983)—Franca Lattuca IAM (2994)—Bro Candido Trubiani SSP (1995)—Sr. Clotilde Menno FSP (1997)—Sr. Valentina Borsoi FSP (1998)—Fr. Giuseppe Cricini SSP (2000)—Sr. Clotilde Vedovello FSP (2007)—Mary Wersinger (2003)--

October 27, 2011 With Blessed Father Alberione and With Father Tom

Thursday, October 27
OF THE DAY
Rm 8: 31-39
Lk 13: 31-35

Let us think of “eternity”—the word is easy to say, the reality never ends. Let’s live in the real world…it’s geared to eternity, like it or not (VMC 911).

Father Tom: The problem in thinking of eternity is that we have no way of really understanding it. It’s not just time stretched out to infinity…it’s a situation where there is NO time…and what might that mean? Your guess is as good as mine!


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Sr. Samuella Pattaro FSP (1973)—Bro SalvatoreStagliano SSP (1981)—Sr. M. Maurizia Mancosti PD (1982)—Fr. Alberto Carboni IJP (1983)—Sr. M. Marina Bianchi PD (1995)—Sr. Valeria Iannella FSP (1997)-Agnes Spaniel (1989)—Elizabeth Graff (2005)

October 26, 2011 With Blessed Father Alberione and With Father Tom

Wednesday, October 26
OF THE DAY
Rm 8: 26-30
Lk 13: 22-30

The prudent individual does not concern himself about how pleasing something is but rather if it is better for the glory of God and for his own eternity (VMC 910).

Father Tom: A very simple rule, but anything but simple to apply in practice. Did my recent major choices—outside the daily routine—reflect a concern for eternity or perhaps for my short-term satisfaction?


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Sr. M. Arcangela Petrucci FSP (1943)—Sr. M. Alma Cortez FSP (1974)—Sr. M. Noemi Gatti FSP (1981)—Gr. M. Gemma Maselli PD (1999)—Sr. M. Ines Feretti FSP (2001)—Bro Clement Lachance SSP (2003)—Anthony Mumphrey HFI (2003)—Antonia Costendaro IAM (2006)

October 25, 2011 With Blessed Father Alberione and With Father Tom

Tuesday, October 25
OF THE DAY
Rm 8: 18-25
Lk 13: 18-21

The day of greatest fervor should be the last day of our life. The year of greatest fervor, the last year of our life (VMC 909).

Father Tom: And because we cannot be certain which year this will be… the conclusion is obvious!”


Please Pray for Our Deceased: Sr. M. Saveria Pistamiglio PD (1942)—Sr. M. Chaira Virdis FSP (1956)—Fr. Antonio Brossa SSP (1984)—Bro Jesus Gamez SSP (1989)—Sr. M. Fidelis Di Sciacca FSP (1999)—Fr. Jose Vitor Sousa SSP (2004)—Antonietta Falappi HFI (2007)—Sr. Piergiovanna Dedola FSP (2008)—Bro Marcelino Punto SSP (2009)