Reflection from Friar Nicholas

FRIDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      1 Pet 4:7-13; Ps 96:10-13; Mk 11:11-26 The Special Graces of Service Understanding our new life and spiritual relationships with God reforms our understanding and knowledge of the material and temporal life and realities therein. We have access to temporal and spiritual realities through our natural and spiritual lives. We are accustomed to the former, for we knew no other until we came to know Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. The latter is received, as it were, in the former; It grows only to the extent we give it attention and the required spiritual food. We can afford an unconscious living in the former, carried only by the senses and their attractions to sensible things. But the spiritual life needs our conscious and constant attention. Saint Peter, in order to help us develop this consciousness, reminds us of the temporality of the physical world. “Everything will soon come to an end, so, to pray better, keep a calm ...

THURSDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      1 Pet 2:2-5,9-12; Ps 100:2-5; Mk 10:46-52 The Sacrifices of Royal Priests We continue to follow the Apostle Peter as he leads us deeper into the mysteries we have inherited through our faith in Jesus Christ and in God, who raised him from the dead for our salvation and glorification. As we noted yesterday, the apostles, before they received the Holy Spirit and a new birth in Jesus Christ, were oblivious of the importance of the Son of Man and what they stood to gain in him. In their spiritual blindness and ignorance, they considered him a means to exalted earthly positions and material wealth and well-being. Though Jesus promised them these, as we read earlier in the current chapter, when he said that those who left family and properties for his sake would be repaid a hundred times over. But these are not the core of his promise to us who follow him; they are only attractions for our worldly-oriented interests. A worldly-m...

WEDNESDAY, EIGHTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME      1 Pet 1:18-25; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Mk 10:32-45 Jesus Christ as the Servant of All In today’s passage from the First Letter of Saint Peter, he continues to expound on the importance of our Christian mysteries. The great value and importance of the mysteries we have received ought to make us persevere in our faith with utmost care and attention. According to Peter, the pre-existing Son of God has now been revealed in our days for our salvation. “Who, though known since before the world was made, has been revealed only in our time, the end of the ages, for your sake.” In what sense was Jesus known before the world was made? Certainly not by human beings. The humanity of our Lord was not known by the angel as such, as the apostle intimated to us earlier in the part we read yesterday, when he said that the angels long to catch a glimpse of these mysteries of our salvation. That leaves the Trinity alone. In other words, the hum...

SAINT PHILIP NERI, PRIEST     1 Pet 1:10-16; Ps 98; Mk 10:28-31 Leaving Everything to Follow Christ After the Paschal festivities, we resume the Ordinary Time of the liturgical year. This time has its own importance. Back to our daily activities, with no celebration taking up our interest and time, we have the opportunity to work the mysteries of our salvation we have celebrated through Eastertide into the fabric of our lives, through bringing the light of faith lit in our minds and hearts during the celebrations to bear on our daily works and rests. A deeper understanding of the meaning of the life, passion, death, and resurrection of our Lord gives us a new perspective on the works we do, our rest, and our lives. Indeed, we no longer belong to ourselves, but are now God's through Jesus Christ our Lord. The work we do is no longer for self-satisfaction, but to please the Lord, who has redeemed us with his precious blood. The Holy Spirit he sends into our hearts is ...

MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH    Acts 1:12-14; Ps 87; Jn 19:25-34 Behold Your Mother The Church fittingly celebrates the memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Church, following the Solemnity of Pentecost. For we marked Pentecost as the formal birthday of the Church. The commencement of the public activities of the Holy Spirit through and within the disciples marked the public manifestation of the body of Christ to the world. The celebration of this memorial is the Church’s way of recognising that we owe the spiritual or mystical life to the unique privilege and efforts of the Blessed Virgin Mary. No one understands the privilege of the mother of Jesus Christ and her place in our spiritual life without understanding the mystery of sin and human salvation. We always go back to the beginning, where God promised us salvation after the fall of Adam and Eve. The enmity God promised to create between the woman of our salvation and the ancient serpent, which i...

THE PENTECOST SUNDAY    Acts 2:1-11; Ps 104:1,24,29-31,34; 1 Cor 12:3-7,12-13; Jn 20:19-23 The Holy Spirit and his variety of Gifts We celebrate Pentecost Sunday. On this day, we mark the descent of the Holy Spirit actively on the disciples of our Lord. The coming of the Holy Spirit is the formal birth of the Church as a gathering of the people of God possessing the same Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Blessed Trinity; our possession of him means that God is with us. Just as God was with us in the days of the Son of Man in the flesh, God is now with us in the Person of the Holy Spirit. The specific mission of the Holy Spirit is the application of the saving works of Jesus Christ to the salvation of the human person. What the Son of Man has objectively achieved in his life, death, and resurrection, the Holy Spirit is now to apply to individual persons. This is the specific work of the Holy Spirit among the persons of the Blessed Trinity. He brings to ac...