Third Sunday After Easter
26 April 2015
“Amen,
amen, I say to you, that you shall weep
and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be sorrowful, but your
sorrow shall be turned to joy.” Jn. 16:20
In this time after Easter the Church prepares us for Jesus’
Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. “Pentecost, like Christmas and Easter, is a milestone in
the liturgical cycle, but one which has no fixed penitential preparation, such
as Advent and Lent. The wisdom of the Church has made up for this in the
liturgy of these Sundays after Easter.” The Preacher’s Encyclopaedia:
Lent and Eastertide,
p. 556 We see how Christ himself prepares us
for Pentecost in today’s Gospel
(Jn.16:16-22), which takes place at the Last Supper and is Jesus’ last
will and testament to His apostles. He says, “A little
while and you shall see me no longer; and again a little while and you shall
see me, because I go to the Father”
(Jn. 16: 16). Uncomprehending, the
Apostles ask: “What is this little while of
which he speaks? We do not know what he is saying.” Jn. 16:18. It will only become clear after His
Resurrection and Ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They will “weep and lament” and “the world will rejoice” over His
death, but then their “sorrow shall be turned to joy”
(Jn.16:20) at His Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. In today’s Epistle (I Pet. 2:11-19), St.
Peter, instructs us to live our lives on earth as strangers and pilgrims
because we are destined for heaven where we will be filled with joy: “Beloved, I exhort you as strangers and
pilgrims to abstain from carnal desires which war against the soul.” I
Pt. 2:11
The
Coming of the Holy Spirit and Eternal Life
The Liturgical prayers and the
epistle outline what is required for the Christian to prepare for the coming of
the Holy Spirit. “The Collect sums it up. In it the Church reminds us of the sublimity
of the Christian vocation and of the high degree of sanctity required of us who
profess the name of Christ, while
the Secret reminds us of one of the most important effects of Holy Communion,
which extinguishes within us all worldly desires and inflames the heart with a
love of heavenly things, a longing for the true joys of heaven.” Ibid., p.556 In the Postcommunion prayer, we pray
again for help in our pilgrimage on earth to heaven.”.: “May the Sacraments which we have received, we beseech Thee, O Lord, renew us with spiritual
refreshment and defend us with bodily help...” While St. Peter in today’s Epistle is
admonishing the faithful to live good lives so that by their good example they
will win over the pagans, the underlying reason for living good lives is
because it is necessary to obey legitimate authority in order to gain eternal
life: “Behave yourselves honourably
among the pagans; that, whereas they slander you as evildoers, they may,
through observing you, by reason of your
good works glorify God in the day of visitation.” I Pt.2:12
“I will see you again...”
Venerable Bede tells us: “These words of the Lord apply to all the
faithful, who strive amid tears and pain of this present life to reach eternal
joy. With good reason they lament and weep with sorrow in this present life,
for they are not able to see him whom they love. They know that, as long as
they are in this mortal body, wanderers from their true country, they must be,
and form their own people. They doubt not that it is through hard work and
struggle that they must reach their crown. Their sorrow shall be turned to joy
when, once the contest of this life is ended, they receive the reward of
eternal life of which the Psalmist sings: ‘They that sow in tears shall reap
in joy.’ Ps. 125:5
No Joy for the Wicked
“But while the
faithful weep the world rejoices; for rightly it is only in this present life
that the worldlings will have any joy at all, those who place no hope in the
joys of another life or who are without hope that they can attain them. This
can be understood especially of the persecutors of the Christian faith; for
having tormented and slain the martyrs, they rejoiced that they had conquered.
But not for long, because while the martyrs were crowned in secret, these
others suffered eternal punishment both for their unbelief and for their murders. To these it was said by the mouth of
the prophets: ‘Behold my servants shall
rejoice, while you shall be confounded; Behold my servants shall praise for
joyfulness of the heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl
for grief of spirit.’ Is. 65:14
Our Birth to Eternal Life
“She remembers no
more, he says, the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. As the
woman rejoices because a man-child is
born into the world, so the Church is
filled with exultation at the birth of the Christian peoples into life eternal;
because of whose birth she now grieves
and is in labour, as a woman who gives birth in this present life. Nor should it seem strange to anyone that he
is said to be born who leaves this present life. For just as he is said to be
born who comes from his mother’s womb into light, so also may he truly be said
to be born who is delivered of the bonds of the flesh and lifted up to life
eternal. For this reason it is the custom of the Church to call those days on
which the death of the martyrs and saints of the Church is commemorated their
birth or Natalitia.
Crowned as Victors by Christ
“When
he says, ‘I will see you again and your heart shall rejoice,’ he meant: I will
see you; I will snatch you from the jaws of your enemies; I will crown you as
victors; I will prove to you that I was ever with you as you fought, like a
witness. For when would he not see his own in the midst of their trials, since
he has promised that he will be with them always, even to the end of the
world? When the faithful died in the
midst of their tortures their adversaries
thought that they were without aid, saying; ‘Where is their God?’ One
such as these, surrounded with torments may well cry out: ‘Behold, O Lord, my afflictions; because the enemy is exalted’ (Lam.
1:9), which means to say: ‘Since the enemy who torments me raises his hand
against the lowly ones of thine in pride, sustain us by thy help, O Triumphant
Creator; prove to us that thou has seen our struggles when our enemies are
driven off and defeated, and that those struggles are pleasing to thee....’
The Lord will see us again
“If then,
brethren, we are afflicted by salutary sufferings... if with due sorrow we weep for our own sins and for the miseries
of our neighbours, the Lord will see us again, that is, he will show himself to
us in the future who once deigned to see us and bestow on us the knowledge of
his faith. He will see us that he may crown us who once saw us that he might
call us. He will see us and our heart will rejoice, and our joy no man shall
take from us; for this is the sole reward of those who suffer for God’s sake,
to rejoice forever in his sight.” The Preacher’s Encylopaedia, p.
565-66
May is the Month of Mary:
Our Holy Father Pope St. John Paul II: “The
Christian family finds and consolidates it’s identity
in prayer. Make the daily effort to find
a time to pray together, to talk with Our Lord and listen to his voice. How
beautiful it is when the family prays in the evening, even though it be only a
part of the Rosary. The family that
prays together stays together; a family that prays is a family that is
saved. Act in such a way that your home
may be a place of Christian faith and virtue through
your praying together.” (Address to families, 24 March 1984)
May
Crowning and Consecration
Next Sunday,
3 May 2015, we will have a May Crowning of Our
Lady and a Consecration to Immaculate (according to St. Maximilian Kolbe) both
in the Church (for the Sisters) and in the Lourdes grotto outside on the
grounds. This is a most important
devotion as it honours Our Holy Mother during her special Month of May, and
it binds us to her as her special “possession
and property.” St. Maximilian Kolbe
spoke of all those who are consecrated to the Immaculate “She penetrates our soul and directs its faculties with unlimited
power. We truly belong to Her. Therefore, we are with Her always and
everywhere...”(SK 461)
And further
still: “We are Hers, of the Immaculate,
unlimitedly Hers, perfectly Hers, we are, as it were, Her very self. She, by
means of us, loves the good God. She, with our poor heart, loves Her divine Son. We become the means by which the Immaculate
loves Jesus, and Jesus, seeing that we are Her property, a part, as it were, of
His most loving Mother, loves Her in and through us. What beautiful mysteries!” Sk 508
St. Maximilian declared that those who are
consecrated to the Immaculate would be a means of holiness and grace to others
(especially their own family): “She needs to be brought into all hearts,’
so that She,
upon entering into these hearts,
may give birth there to the sweet Jesus, to God, and bring Him up even
to that perfect
age. What a beautiful mission!”
SK508
St.
Louis de Montfort tells us of Total Consecration to Mary: “This devotion consists, therefore, in giving ourselves entirely to the
Most Blessed Virgin that, through her we may belong entirely to Jesus Christ.
We must give her: (1) our body with all its senses and members; (2) our soul
with its powers; (3) our material possessions and all that we may acquire; (4)
our interior and spiritual possessions—our merits, our virtues and our good
works, past, present, and future; in short, all that we possess in the order of
nature, in the order of grace …” St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, p. 88-9
First Friday: 1 May 2015
Now is a good time to continue (or
begin) the devotion to the “Nine
First Fridays” of the Month.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus promised to St. Margaret Mary: "I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My Heart
that My all-powerful love will grant to all those
who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months, the
grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without
receiving the Sacraments; My Divine heart shall be their safe refuge in this
last moment."
Mission of the Immaculate Mediatrix
(MIM) 2 May 2015
On the First Saturday of every month, we will have
our monthly formation program for those who interested in affiliating
themselves with the Marian Spirituality of the Franciscan Friars of the
Immaculate. The day begins at 9:30 AM and goes until 4 PM and includes two
conferences, Holy Mass, adoration and the rosary. (see flyer on door)
This spirituality is Marian and Franciscan and includes the teachings of
St. Francis of Assisi, St. Maximilian
Kolbe and other Franciscan saints. “The
fundamental aim of the MIM is the fulfilment of God’s plan for the salvation
and sanctification of all souls through the maternal mediation of the
Immaculate to the supreme glory of the Most Holy Trinity.” (Article 2: Statute)
It is most important at this time in
our world to come together and learn about Our Lady and her messages especially
Fatima.
Pope John Paul II: On November 9, 1976 said in the USA as Karol
Cardinal Wojtyla: “We are now standing in face of the greatest
historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that the wide circles of
American society or the wide circles of
the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation
between the Church and the Anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-gospel.”
We
hope that all of you will consider joining the MIM and work for your own
sanctification and the sanctification of
so many souls who are in danger of being lost for all eternity in hell
as Our Lady said at Fatima.
The First Saturday: 2 May 2015
Our Lady told
Sr. Lucia in 1925 “…I promise to
assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation,
all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession
and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me
company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the
Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me." If only we would do what Our Lady asks,
we would be assured of eternal salvation.
Our Lady promises us all the graces necessary for our salvation if we
keep The
Five
First Saturdays!
Why
the Rosary is so important!
“Give me an
army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” Pope
Blessed Pius IX
“If you persevere in reciting the Rosary, this will be a most probable sign of your eternal salvation.” Blessed Alan de la Roche
“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” Saint Francis de Sales
“If you persevere in reciting the Rosary, this will be a most probable sign of your eternal salvation.” Blessed Alan de la Roche
“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” Saint Francis de Sales
“When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.”
Saint Louis de Montfort
“The Holy Rosary is the storehouse of countless blessing.” Blessed Alan de la Roche
“One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, Our Lady will save the world.” Saint Dominic
“If you say the Rosary faithfully unto death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, ‘you will receive a never-fading crown of glory’ (1 St. Peter 5:4).” Saint Louis de Montfort
“You must know
that when you say ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she
is one of those rude women of whom there are so many—on the contrary, she is
utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right
away and converse with you!” Saint Bernardine of Siena