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SHINING THE LIGHT OF CHRIST

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T UESDAY, TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME 2 Cor 1:18-22; Ps 119:129-133,135; Mt 5:13-16 You are Light of the World With the celebration of the Pentecost, we end the Eastertide and come back to the ordinary time of the Church. We come back to the ordinary with the extraordinary gift we have received from God. We come back to our ordinary daily activities, not to continue in our ordinary life and strength, but to pick up the ordinary tasks with extraordinary vision and enthusiasm, for what we now live is not the ordinary human life but the heavenly life of God. The renewal and deepening of our understanding of the paschal mysteries and the rekindling of our spiritual life by the Holy Spirit transform our daily tasks into a mission for the kingdom of God. If we have the Holy Spirit then we have God’s life within us. If we are unsure of his presence, then we are uncertain of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, who redeemed us and restored us to good standing with God as his child...
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THE MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

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MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH Gen 3:9-15,20; Ps 87; Jn 19:25-34 Behold Your Mother The Church, in her wisdom, celebrates today as the memorial of Mary, the Mother of the Church. It is appropriate to celebrate this memorial after Pentecost, when we believe God formally inaugurated the Church. The celebration highlights the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Pentecost event. The scripture says she was with the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ in the Upper Room, where they were praying for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a mother is evident in the intercessory prayer for the Pentecost. Her maternal intercession to God for the birth of the Church, was the continuation or extension of her loving desire that enabled her to conceive Jesus Christ our Lord. The Holy Spirit, through whom she conceived the Son of Man, the Head of the Church, was already in her to give birth to the mystical body of her Son, Jesus Christ. As Saint Luis de Montfort ...
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THE NEW AND HEAVENLY WINE

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THE PENTECOST SUNDAY Act 2:1-11; Ps 104:1,24,29-31,34; Rom 8:8-17; Jn 20:19-23 The Fresh Wine and Fresh Wineskins We celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit formally on the apostles and disciples of our Lord. According to the Gospel of John, the risen Jesus gave his apostles and disciples gathered in a room out of fear of the Jews the gift of the Holy Spirit. “Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.’ After saying this he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” The Gospel of Luke informs us that as Jesus was ascending, he asked them to remain in Jerusalem until they received the promised gift of the Holy Spirit from the Father. The fulfilment of the promise is what Saint Luke presented in the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. “When Pentec...
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THE SPIRIT OF PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE

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SATURDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 28:16-20, 30-31; Ps 11:4-5,7; Jn 21:20-25 The Holy Spirit of Patience and Perseverance The root of perseverance is patience, for patience in the present suffering or trials gives birth to the virtue of perseverance. Our perseverance bears the fruit of holiness. But both the virtue of patience and perseverance are of the Holy Spirit. Saint Paul puts it this way: “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” The presence of the Holy Spirit gives us hope of sharing God’s glory because himself is the glory of God. So, our confession of faith in Jesus Christ brought the Holy Spirit into our hearts, and being the love of the Father and the Son, he kindled our hearts with the flame of his love. His presence will not achieve the glorious effects...
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SPIRIT DEVOTION TO THE LORD

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FRIDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 25:13-21; Ps 103:1-2,11-12,19-20; Jn 21:15-19 The Holy Spirit of Devotion The Holy Spirit produces devotion to the Son of Man in our hearts, which flows to everything concerning his mission to save souls. Devotion is a relation created by love for the object of our love that exists in our soul. We describe it in the language of physics as a force field established in our hearts by our love attraction to the Son of Man. We draw an analogy from a magnetic field to understand the essence of devotion. The presence of a magnet establishes a force field around it, such that any iron or metal that enters its force field is drawn to it by the force field. The same applies to devotion in our souls. Since the Holy Spirit is the Love of the Father and the Son, his presence in our souls establishes a spiritual and love force field. Spending quality time in our spiritual realm increases our love charge so that we increasingly grow in our love attraction to t...
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THE HOLY SPIRIT CONCEIVES US IN GLORY

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SAINT BONIFACE, BISHOP, MARTYR  Act 22:30,23:6-11; Ps 16:1-2,5,7-11; Jn 17:20-26 The Holy Spirit of Glory The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of glory, for he reveals the glory of the Father and the Son. All who are born of him are sons of glory. Just as the Son of Man is conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, each believer in the Son of Man is also conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the spiritual order. Hence, we experience growth in our spiritual life with true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The visible characteristics of the increase in spiritual life are deeper prayer life and steadfastness in our confession of faith in Jesus Christ. These are the essential features of the glory that the Holy Spirit confers on us, which manifests through our lives. Christian prayer is always a gift from the Holy Spirit, for he joins with our spirits to enable us to cry Abba Father. The essence of Christian prayer is to recognise ...
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THE SPIRIT OF CONSECRATION TO THE TRUTH

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WEDNESDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTER Act 20:28-38; Ps 68:29-30,33-36; Jn 17:11-19 The Holy Spirit of Truth The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, for when we speak of the truth, we mean the word of God that brought all things into existence, and when we are with the word of God, we are with the Father. Hence, to say the Holy Spirit is of the truth is to say that He is the Spirit of the Father and the Son. The coming of the Holy Spirit into our souls is to open the path of truth before us and to make us committed to living the truth. Hence, our spirits, born through him, are nurtured by truth. In other words, our spirits feed on Jesus Christ, who is Eternal Truth. In this sense, Jesus proclaimed himself the way, the truth, and the life. The Holy Spirit makes us in the likeness of the Son of God and leads us into the truth of the word of God. He feeds us on the heavenly pasture that is Jesus Christ. In this sense, it is important what we believe. To believe falsehood is to feed on a ...
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