Tag Archives: Spiritual Things

My Imitation of Christ

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The Voice of Christ:

“COME to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.

The bread which I will give is My Flesh, for the life of the world.

Take you and eat: this is My Body, which shall be delivered for you. Do this for the commemoration of Me.

He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me, and I in him.

The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”


The Offering of Christ on the Cross; Our Offering

The Voice of Christ:

AS I offered Myself willingly to God the Father for your sins with hands outstretched and body naked on the cross, so that nothing remained in Me that had not become a complete sacrifice to appease the divine wrath, so ought you to be willing to offer yourself to Me day by day in the Mass as a pure and holy oblation, together with all your faculties and affections, with as much inward devotion as you can. What more do I ask than that you give yourself entirely to Me? I care not for anything else you may give Me, for I seek not your gift but you. Just as it would not be enough for you to have everything if you did not have Me, so whatever you give cannot please Me if you do not give yourself. Offer yourself to Me, therefore, and give yourself entirely for God — your offering will be accepted. Behold, I offered Myself wholly to the Father for you, I even gave My whole Body and Blood for food that I might be all yours, and you Mine forever. But if you rely upon self, and do not offer your free will to Mine, your offering will be incomplete and the union between us imperfect. Hence, if you desire to attain grace and freedom of heart, let the free offering of yourself into the hands of God precede your every action. This is why so few are inwardly free and enlightened — they know not how to renounce themselves entirely. My word stands:”Everyone of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth, cannot be My disciple.” If, therefore, you wish to be My disciple, offer yourself to Me with all your heart.



All Chatter

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How can I be an emptiness that beckons You enter,

if all I am is chatter?

Give my Your silence, Your “Be still,”

that You may come to me.

Cause for Joy

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Bishop Alphonse Gallegos Member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, whose cause for beatification and canonization was introduced to the Vatican in Rome in November, 2006.

Prayer

God our Father in Bishop Alphonse, you gave a light to your faithful people.  You made him a pastor of the Church to feed your sheep with his word and to teach them by his example.  We pray that his life of holiness and service to the People of God be acknowledged and that this loyal son of Our Lady of Guadalupe be counted among the saints of your Kingdom.  We ask this blessing through Christ our Lord.  Amen

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be

Update on Cause

To communicate favors received at the intercession of Bishop Gallegos and contribute to his Cause of Canonization please contact:

Augustinian Recollects

Provincial Residence

29 Ridgeway Avenue

West Orange, NJ 07052

augustinianrecollects.org

Who Holds Their History?

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In “Keepers of History,” Joanna Lotta  asks the question: Who holds your history?  Lotta describes the “griots” who have amazing memories and whose role it is within their West African society to recite long histories and genealogies as well as songs of praise.

We can ask this question of our own lives.  When we came into this world, we already possessed a history; one going back in time to all our fore-bearers.  We held recorded in our genes, if not our memories, our mother and our father, our grandparents and great grand-parents; add to that as many greats as it takes to take us back to the very beginning of human beginnings. Even for one so small as each of us was in our zygotic beginnings, that’s a weighty argument for the worth of our being.  From the beginning, you and I are not a nothing, nor a nobody, nor a blob of substance.  Each of us is one in the line of the order of Adam called into existence by the breathe of God and cooperation of our human nature.

So now, for the unborn, I ask, “Who holds their history?” Further, I ask, “Who holds their destiny?”  Will industries such as Planned Parenthood, abortion mills, research institutes, and unethical fertilization plants, manipulate the Present and the Future by abrogating our mortal and moral Past. Our souls, as well as our genes, tell a story; one that will be sung one day before our Creator as a song of praise or profanation. Eternity waits on an answer.



Reluctant Prophet

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I’m thinking about Jonah, the reluctant prophet.  He usually pops up in the readings of the Liturgy of the Word during Lent.  He made his appearance yesterday and has been wondering in the back of my mind giving his prophetic word, “Repent!”

Jonah needed to be hurled into the sea (a place of chaos) before he realized there was no escaping his responsibility before God.  Jonah needed a second chance to get it right. Fortunately, for the people of Nineveh (the worldly city of sinners), having gotten Jonah’s attention, God called the prophet a second time.  God was not going to fix things without his servant’s cooperation.

How like Jonah I am.  I need to be carried kicking and screaming to the Lord’s will.  How slow I am to remember that the only sign I’m going to get is the Now of my life.  I do want Resurrection without the Crucifixion.  So, here I sit in the belly of the whale,  my only sign, the sign of the Cross.  As Jonah spent three days in the belly of the great fish (a sign for Christ ) so Jesus spent three days in the tomb, and I must be there with Him waiting with faith.  Maybe, my Now says I have to do something.  Maybe it says I have to change.  Three days with Jesus in the tomb will prepare me for both mission and mercy.

“Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath,
so that we shall not perish.”
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out. Jonah 3: 10

Light up the World!

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These are days that pull me in directions I don’t want to go.  My day starts with prayer and reflection.  That sets a tone I want to preserve. You probably know how things go from there. The world tries to be the boss of me.

The best I can come up with as an image to sustain my wholeness is that of an oil lamp, full and lit, sitting on a stand.  The world changes around it, winds blow, it’s light burns brightly at times;  at other times it’s flame flickers and it needs it’s wick lengthened or trimmed; depending.   What I see is that there’s no confusion about it’s being.  It is not the world and it is not the turmoil.  It is a light on a lamp stand.  If it could feel, it might feel threatened, inflamed, dampened.  The reality is,  it remains a lamp on a stand with one reason for being.

So here I sit on my stand (pc at hand),  resolute and responsive to the day, unconquered and unyielding.  Whether darkness prevails around me,  in some small way, does depend on me and others like me.

So everybody, how about it?  In chorus now!  “This little light of mine…..”

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