Exploring the depth of our prayers
Today is a powerful event – simultaneous prayers across the country organized by Rosary Coast to Coast. I hope you’re planning to take advantage of this at:
In 1889, Pope Leo XIII asked all the faithful to add the Prayer to St. Joseph to the end of our Rosary during the month of October.
Our holy Mother Mary is the paragon of human holiness, of course, and worthy of our eternal devotion. But I have to confess that her spouse, Joseph, is easier for me to relate to.
It’s partially because he seems to just be a quiet guy doing the best he can in the background.
I’ve been taught three forms of the translation for et dimitte nobis debita nostra in the Lord’s Prayer:
It’s struck me that these seem to be three distinctly different concepts, perhaps not even related to each other. But hang on a second!
Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me — Mark 9:37
Our Blessed Mother Mary received her child, Jesus. And she is the one who helps us to know Him and join our will with His.
The way I originally read Hail Holy Queen is that we ask Mary to do this after our death, after our “exile.” But …
Jesus often healed with the words, “your faith has healed you.”
Which I find fascinating. Didn’t Jesus heal?
Is it just that Jesus was modest? Hardly, not when He repeatedly declared Himself the Son of God and Son of Man.
Today’s readings contain powerful messages of people being healed. By Jesus, by God, by the Apostles.
Because all of us are broken. Whether it’s visible or not.
Our mother Mary is most amazing because of her purity of heart. The image I have is that, for her, saying “yes” to God was not really a hard decision at all.
Because her heart was focused on her Lord.
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” — Luke 1:38
Our thoughts today are on serving the Lord:
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” — Joshua 24:15
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” — John 6:67-68
When we confess that we want God’s will to be done, this is exactly what it means. We will serve God, and we will serve others because that’s God’s will.
Today is a powerfully Catholic celebration: The Crowning of Our Queen.
Being raised Protestant, this kind of thing struck me as extremely weird. Also, as an American, we have mixed feelings about using titles of royalty. A king or queen is fine … but not here.
But this concept is more Biblically based than I thought, even though a specific event is never mentioned. Continue reading “The Coronation of Mary”
Today we’re ending the readings called the “bread of life discourse” from the book of John. The Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, and we’ll spend an entire lifetime learning what this means.
God’s only Son, the ever-eternal Christ, came to us as Jesus of Nazareth. He gave His body, His entire life, to have us join with God.
As an analytic engineer type, my natural question is: So how does THAT work? Well, I’ve decided this is the wrong question.