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Pentecost Sunday
Fifty Days After
the Resurrection of Christ
"And when the days of Pentecost were drawing to a close, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, which settled upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign tongues, even as the Holy Spirit prompted them to speak"
(Acts 2, 1-4).
Pentecost, with Christmas and Easter, ranks among the great feasts of Christianity. It commemorates not only the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Disciples, but also the fruits and effects of that event: the completion of the work of redemption, the fullness of grace for the Church and its children, and the gift of faith for all nations.
After Jesus had ascended to heaven from Mt. Olivet, the apostles and disciples returned to the Holy City. They remained together in the Upper Room or Cenacle, the place where Jesus had appeared to them and which may well be called the first Christian church. About a hundred and twenty persons were assembled there. They chose Matthias as an apostle in place of the Judas; they prayed and waited for the Paraclete.
Ten days had passed, it was Sunday
...Read More
A Gospel of Suffering by Msgr. Bernard Powers
Pope John Paul II
says that there is a Gospel of Suffering.... a Gospel to be
proclaimed..... to be believed...,to be lived.
Jesus revealed this
Gospel. Jesus lived this Gospel. Jesus placed this Gospel of Suffering
in the hearts and hands of his disciples.
The first among these disciples was His
Mother, Mary, the Virgin of Nazareth and the Woman of Calvary. The Virgin of
Nazareth knew this Gospel of Suffering. She shared fully in its fruits .... she
is “full of Grace”
The Woman of Calvary knew this Gospel of Suffering. “It was
on Calvary that Mary’s suffering reached an intensity which can hardly be
imagined from a human point of view but which was mysteriously and
supernaturally fruitful for the redemption of the world.”(Pope John Paul II AL suffering # 25)
Mary supplemented the Sufferings of Jesus.
Mary, then, is a Herald of the Gospel of suffering. We listen to her proclamation...... and believe.
We see her example.....and follow.
The Blessed Virgin Mary....being the first disciple of
Jesus....heard the Gospel of Suffering and lived
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REFLECTIONS ON
THE “MEMORIA PASSIONIS”
"Above all else, I rejoice in
the Lord that you often find yourself plunged and immersed in the Sacred
Passion of Jesus and in the great furnace of His Eucharistic
Presence....”.”
(St. Paul of the Cross)
Today, we reflect on how God’s Agape love is revealed in the death and
resurrection of Jesus, and how this love is made present to us in the
Holy Eucharist in order to transform our hearts and lives.
St. Paul of
the Cross had an infused understanding of the Passion and death of Jesus
as the work of God’s infinitely powerful love for us. To proclaim the
Word of the Cross, to help people enter the mystery of the Wisdom of the
Cross in their lives and to live in union with the One who died on the
Cross--- this was the great motivating energy of his life and work. He
wrote: “The Passion of Jesus is the greatest and most stupendous work of
divine love.” This event is meant to become more and more real to us and
transformative for us as it was for Paul.
Since
the Holy Eucharist makes the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus
intimately present to us,
....Read
More.
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