God our Father has seen fit to grant us, in the heart of his Son, “infinite treasures of love,” mercy and affection.
Today, on the feast of Corpus Christi, we come together to consider the depths of our Lord’s love for us, which has led him to stay with us, hidden under the appearances of the blessed Sacrament.
Let us set the scene. I picture Jesus sitting by the shore of the Sea of Galilee, with Capernaum in the backdrop on a somewhat bitter evening.
The Church is rooted in this fundamental mystery of our Catholic faith: the mystery of God who is one in essence and three in persons.
Having just read in the Acts of the Apostles about Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit came down on the Lord’s disciples, we are conscious of being present at the great display of God’s power with which the Church’s life began to spread among all nations.
On May 2, the Prelature of Opus Dei celebrates the anniversary of the dedication of the Prelatic Church of Our Lady of Peace.
When the Church was going through difficulties, St Josemaria had deep recourse to St Catherine, since she had been a passionate defender of the truth.
St. Josemaria had been suffering from diabetes for about ten years. And it was on the feast of Our Lady of Montserrat, April 27, 1954, that he was cured of diabetes.
All sorts of questions fill the air on Easter morning, on that first morning of our new life: “Who will roll us back the stone?” “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”
“Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:1). The reader of this verse from St John’s Gospel is brought to understand that a great event is about to take place.
This Holy Week, and afterwards every day, has to be a leap of quality for us, asking our Lord to completely fill our lives. We have to communicate to many people the new life that Jesus gained for us by the Redemption.
“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” (Mt 21:9).
As a teenager, St. Josemaria Escriva followed the normal course of a high school student. He aimed to be a good student, get excellent grades, and dreamed of being an architect. Becoming a priest was not what St. Josemaria had originally thought was for him.
When saying Mass a few days ago I paused to reflect on a phrase from the psalms in the Communion Antiphon: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”
We begin Lent with the ultimate reality of human life: we are marked with ashes on our head. And this is meant to stand for who we are…
“The holy Virgin Mary, Mother of Fair Love, will bring relief to your heart, when it makes you feel that it is of flesh, if you turn to her with confidence.”
St. Josemaria Escriva was a pilgrim at Lourdes many times during his life, remarking that: “It would be bad manners to pass by there without dropping in on her.”
We are careful about calorie counting, protein intake, omega supplements, as we try to increase one thing and decrease another. It’s easy to be obsessed with the process: we want to see the results, the fruits, of our discipline. Result seeking in the spiritual life, however, can be misplaced…
In this interview, the St. Josemaria Institute speaks with Holly Rodriguez, artist and author of Loving Christ through St. Josemaria Escriva.
The readings for the Mass of Christmas night highlight several appearances: from Isaiah, a light has shone; in St Paul, The grace of God has appeared; in St Luke’s Gospel, the angel of the Lord appeared, followed by a multitude of the heavenly host.