4TH PROMISE

"They shall find in my heart an assured refuge during life and especially at the hour of death."

Where do you run for shelter?  Where can danger not touch you?

In Old Testament times, cities of refuge were ordered by God; places where people guilty of accidental crimes or sin could not be touched, for example, by the angry owners of an animal unintentionally killed.

Just as a bird seeks an opening in a cliff when the weather is bad, the Heart of Jesus was pierced with a lance, creating an opening, where we can find spiritual refuge.  Our Lord's Heart was stabbed, pierced, broken open.  Jesus gives His all, to the last drop.  All is open, nothing is kept closed.

What pain do we have that He cannot identify with?  What enemy do we face that He hasn't already faced?

We need refuge from three things.  First, from ourselves.  We are our own worst enemies.  We doubt, our faith falters, we shift like sand.  We ought never to trust in ourselves, as we prove unreliable time and time again.  But in His Heart we find a compassionate teacher of constancy and reliability.  Thomas doubted, and was invited by Jesus to find his faith by putting his fingers in the wounds, the openings in the flesh, the proof of Christ's love for us.  What flesh was more torn apart and opened that His pierced Heart?

We need refuge from our worldly enemies; those who seek to harm us, in many ways.  Did not Christ have His enemies?  Did He not defeat them?  To His heart, then, let us flee.

We need refuge from the devil, our enemy.  The devil points to us and says, "Oh sinner!  How often you have foresaken God and obeyed me instead!  You are mine!"  But we run to the Sacred Heart, full of mercy, and say, "I am a sinner, but a repentant one!  His Heart which suffered for love of me is my refuge."

This we find not just in life, but especially at the hour of death, when we will face strong temptations to despair of God's mercy.  We will be crossing over to a world beyond our control; where we will be at the mercy of God's terrible judgment.  But His Heart bled for sinners.  In this we can find reguge as we go to meet our Maker.

FIRST CLASS ON THE CEREMONIES OF MASS

The first session of our classes on the Ceremonies of Holy Mass Explained went well last night.  We covered the vestments, liturgical colors and the use of Latin.  Tonight we proceed with the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar.

CLASS SCHEDULE

June 4 and 5 at 7PM

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Every Tuesday and Wednesday in June at 7PM

FRIARY

Bring a notebook, 1962 Missal and a friend!

3RD PROMISE

"I will console them in all their troubles."

One immediately thinks of Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened...and I will refresh you."

This is a promise backed up by action.  Jesus spent many hours, day and night, even when He was tired, taking care of people in need, who were like "sheep without a shepherd."  He felt pity for the woman of Naim, already a widow, who lost her only child, a son.  He wept at the death of His friend Lazarus, and raised him up.  Even when He was walking to Calvary, His concern was for the weeping women of Jerusalem.  No one can deny the loving concern Jesus has for those who suffer, nor His power to bring them relief.

He knows how to console the suffering, because He Himself suffers.  What did He not suffer?  Physically?  Emotionally?  The betrayal of friends, the hatred of the people He was sent to save?  He suffered not just in the past; He suffers even now in a mysterious way, though He is happiness itself.

Because He is a man of sorrows Himself, we have such a High Priest to whom we can confidently bring our own sorrows of life. 

"For we have not a high priest who can not have compassion on our infirmities, but one tempted in all thing like as we are, without sin."  (Hebrews 4:15)  "Tempted" means also to be "tested."  Our Lord was tried and tested, and proved true.  He suffered all we do, and in a worse way, yet He never sinned.

So He can be our strength and comfort as well, and give us the grace to carry our crosses like He did, without sin.  "Learn from me....and you will find rest."  When we unite our sufferings to His, especially in Mass, our burdens become lighter.  We find rest.

But who seeks Him?  To this day, He waits for us in the Tabernacle, and not everyone comes.  Many prefer to seek comfort in the world, to their own worse end.  In this way, the ignored Heart of Jesus suffers still.  How much He longs to "gather us under his wings like a mother hen."  To give us His peace which the world cannot give.  But there He remains, available to us, but ignored by many.  Let us make up for this by paying a visit to Him in the Tabernacle as many times as possible this month.

2ND PROMISE

"I will give peace in their families."

What is the cause of our lack of peace?  Within ourselves, and between people?

Saint Paul says it is the flesh. 

In Galatians 5:20ff, he says that "enmities, contentions...wraths, quarrels, dissensions" are all works of the flesh.

The flesh is that propensity within us to seek our own limited, secondary, passing good at the expense of the higher good.  It is really the principle of sin; to define what is good for me, and to sacrifice everything else, including God and other people, so that I can obtain what I say is good for me.

So Saint James (James 4:1) rightly says that the reason why we quarrel among ourselves, and therefore lack peace, is because of a war that is inside ourselves; the battle between reason and the passions.  When reason does its job, it directs us to the higher good.  It only makes sense that we should want what more perfectly and more permanently makes us happy.  That can be none other than God.

But our reasoning powers are dull and slow to learn.  Our minds know ideas, but are not seized by them, directed by them.  Instead, our lower nature, our passions have a greater sway over us. 

Thus Jesus says that He gives peace, but not as the world gives it.  Jesus' peace is unique because only He can reconcile what is at war; our war with God, our war within ourselves and our war with others.  Jesus, being fully God and fully human, reconciles all.  In Jesus, God and man are at peace; in His Blessed Humanity which restored human nature to its original justice, the passions are subject to the rule of reason, resulting in inner peace.  In the love of Jesus who came to forgive all, brother is reconciled with brother.

Peace, then, is a fruit of justice and order; where everyone is in his/her proper place and is given what is rightfully theirs, and gives what is rightfully expected of them.  Saint Augustine said that peace is a product of the correct ordering of things.

In a world of peace, justice and order, God is God and all submit to His loving rule.  Fathers are fathers in the home, ruling with love and providing for the needs of the family.  Mothers are mothers, subject to their husbands who care for their wives, nurturing the children as only mothers can.  Children are children, obediently taking in the education parents give so that the child can one day take his or her place in society as a contributing member in his or her unique vocation.

Our constant enemy to all this is the flesh.  Pride, egotism, lack of mercy, small-mindedness, sensuality....all that points to me; all that pushes God and His rule away.

But the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a heart of human flesh, just like ours.  It feels the same emotions as we feel; yet His emotions were always appropriate and in order.  He had human passions just as we do; He thirsted, hungered; He even shuddered at the knowledge of the physical torment He would undergo!  Let this chalice pass!  Yet in this most human of fleshly hearts reigned the divine principle; God is God, and to Him we owe total obedience.  Not my will, but yours be done.  In the blessed humanity of Jesus, there was no inner war.  All was at peace; all was in harmony.  The Sacred Heart of Jesus is not a divided heart, as ours is; wanting God somewhat, but wanting our own way more.

Reflecting on all this, is it any wonder why Jesus would promise, that if someone took the Sacred Heart of Jesus as their devotion, He would give peace to their families?

TRINITY SUNDAY

This is an icon (theology in painting) believed by many to represent the Holy Trinity.  We're unsure of the iconographer, but it is believed to have been Andrei Rublev, many centuries ago.

The original depiction probably was the three angels who appeared to Abraham at the Terebinth (Oaks) of Mamre, to tell Abraham of Sarah's impending pregnancy (Gen 18:1).

But for centuries people have seen the Trinity depicted in this icon.  Theologically, we can hold on to both ideas.  Three angels visited Abraham, and angels always represent God, for, although God and His angels are completely separate beings, God's angels are His messengers and they say and do only what God commands them to say or do.  To look at an angel and hear his words is tantamount to seeing God and hearing His words.  The three angels could have been sent to represent the Three Divine Persons, relaying their message of joy intended for Abraham and Sarah.

UNITY

Three persons, but one God.  So we must see indications of this unity in essence, in being  -  in this icon.

• all 3 angels look more or less similar in over-all features : physical dimension, facial aspects, hair, halos, wings, clothing (an inner tunic and a cloak). 
• all 3 wear a touch of blue, representing the blue heavens, the place of God
• all three hold a staff, a sign of authority. God again!
• all three form a kind of circle, or triangle, depending on your perspective.  Either way, all 3 make one geometric figure.

THREE

The Father (The Angel on the Left)

• this angel (representing God the Father) holds His staff with both hands; full authority is with the Father.  That's what makes Him Father.  As Father, He is greater than the Son in terms of order and relation, but the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are equal in divinity, power, wisdom and so on.  This is why Jesus always said He obeyed His Father.
• He is the only one of the three who is not touching the table.  The table represents creation.  God the Father never became man (the Son did); He never descended on humans (the Spirit did).  Though He is our creator and sustainer, the Father is above and beyond us.  Of all 3 persons, He is the most mysterious to us, though Christ solves that dilemma as we will see.  That is why the Church has always been cautious and reserved about making images of God the Father.
• His blue is greatly reduced by an unusual, ethereal color in the cloak.  This points to the Father's more mysterious personality.  More of the blue is hidden, to signify the Father's more mysterious personality.
• of the three, He appears the most independent.  He neither bows to the 2nd nor the 3rd angel.  His gaze is in their direction but somehow not strongly focused specifically on either.  This is the grandeur of the Father, who occupies first place as Father even within the Trinity.
• behind Him is a house.  This represents the tent that Abraham built at Mamre, but let us also remember what Jesus said, "In my Father's house, there are many rooms."

The Son (The Middle Angel)

• He wears two colors of equal amount; heavenly blue for His divinity and the reddish brown of the earth - His humanity.  A gold stripe from the shoulder on down represents His kingship.
• He taps the table (creation) with two fingers. In Christ, God became man; He took on the nature of a creature.  But He did not lose His divinity in the process.  Two fingers, two natures : divine and human.  He "touches" the table and becomes one of us.
• His fingers point in the direction of a cup; the chalice which represents His sacrifice.
• Behind Him is a tree, perhaps the Oak of Mamre, but also signifying the cross.  Sin entered the world through eating the forbidden fruit of a tree in the Garden of Eden (Adam and Eve).  Salvation comes from Christ (New Adam) drinking the chalice of sacrifice while hanging on a tree (of the Cross).
• At the Oak of Mamre, Abraham and Sarah were overjoyed upon hearing from the angels that they would have a son.  This son (Isaac) was born partly through nature and partly beyond nature, since Sarah was barren.  Jesus is the Son born partly through nature (He had a human mother) but also in a miraculous way - a virgin birth!  And Jesus is the cause of our joy.
• He bows His head in the direction of the Father.  Christ loves and obeys His Father; He is the revelation of the Father (He who sees Me sees the Father) because Christ is the Word, the Logos of the Father.  Christ also comes from the Father - and thus is Son.  He nods towards the Father as if to say to us, "Look at me, and I will point you in the direction of My Father."

The Spirit (The Angel on the Right)

• He wears divine blue, but is also clothed in green, the color of life.  The Holy Ghost is the life of the Church.  When the soul leaves a body, the body dies.  When the Holy Ghost came upon the Church on Pentecost, the Church came alive!  Pentecost is the birthday of the Church.
• He touches the table with His finger.  The Holy Ghost descended on the Church.  He is the Sanctifier.
• Behind Him is a mountain.  God appears on mountains.  Think of Moses and Mt Sinai.  Our Lord and Mt Tabor (Transfiguration).  Though disguised by blood and spittle, God is nailed to a cross on Mt Calvary.  God is the meeting place of God and man.  It is the Holy Ghost who sanctifies us, who brings us to God.  When Elijah was on a mountain, he did not perceive God in the violent earthquake, howling wind or fierce fire, but only in the gentle breeze.  This is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love and peace.
• He bows His head towards the two figures on the left.  This is because the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son.  He is the love between the Father and the Son.  It can also be said that He points slightly more in the direction of the middle angel.  The Spirit leads us to Christ, who in turn leads us to the Father.

YOU

Notice how the scene, though forming a circle or triangle, also opens up to you, the viewer.  There is an empty space in the middle, towards the bottom.  A place where you or I may sit.

You and me - miserable, sinful creatures!  Made of flesh and blood, which dies and decays.  Burdened with the guilt of so many sins.  Yet, God made us for Him.  To know, love and serve Him, and be somewhat happy in this life and perfectly happy in the next life.

Jesus said, "Those who love Me will keep My word, and My Father will love them; and We will come to them and make Our home with them."  We are being invited to become part of God's divine family, as adopted children of the Father, through the rebirth by water and the Holy Ghost, made possible by the suffering, death and resurrection of God-made-man, Jesus Christ.

THE 1ST PROMISE

sacredheartpeoria.com

"I will give them all the graces necessary for their state of life."

Some graces are necessary for our state of life.

The graces I need to become a better priest will differ from the graces you need to become a better spouse, or parent, or single person in the Church.

Even among priests, the necessary graces sometimes differ.  A teaching priest needs some graces that a pastor may not need as much, and vice versa.

Your specific family situation differs from many others.  You need some very specific graces for your state of life.

God's care for His children, giving them the things they need, is called Providence.

There are two kinds of divine providence.  The first is ordinary providence.  Our normal means of obtaining this is prayer and the sacraments.

But there is also extraordinary providence; special favors, special graces.  As they are more precious gems, Our Lord seeks stronger prayer, more intent supplication concerning them.  This is where Devotion to the Sacred Heart comes in. 

Just as a child who seeks a greater favor from a parent appeals to the mother or father's deepest reserves of love for the child, when we are in need of special graces for our state of life, we go to the Heart that beats with perfect love for us; the Heart that was pierced for us; the Heart that drained Itself of every drop of blood and water on the cross.

Nothing pleases God more than to be approached as the most generous, most sacrificing and most powerful God that He is.  If we treat God as stingy; as uncaring; as inattentive to our plight; we do not knock on the doors of His willing Heart.  Therefore, there is a special promise to those who beg of the Sacred Heart, the reservoir of God's infinite supply of graces.  They will obtain those graces necessary for their state of life.

FIRST FRIDAY

Benedict XVI

Vicar of Christ, Successor of Peter

Every day for the last few days I've been reading sad and depressing news about people betraying the trust of the Holy Father.  They are also letting down Christ and His Church.  So I wanted to dedicate all our prayers, and the Holy Sacrifice, for the Holy Father.  We are still in Pentecost time.  The Holy Ghost is our Comforter.  May He fill the Pope's heart with courage and consolation.  When He was installed as Pope, he asked people to pray that he may not run away when the wolves come.  The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.