Tag Archives: Eucharist

Jan 1 2012

Mary:Real Mother

Homily for the New Year 2012

Friends,  I wish you a  happy, blessed and a fruitful New Year. We come here today not just because we want to welcome  the New year (2012) joyfully and to celebrate this new year with the Lord through this Eucharist. We come here as a Church that celebrates the Motherhood of Mary. It is just fitting that this solemnity is observed a week after the birth of the Son of God. It must really be so because Mary was the one chosen by God to be the mother of his own Son. It is also proper that we celebrate her motherhood not only because she is the Mother of God but also because she is the Mother of us all.

While reflecting on the motherhood of Mary as the Mother of God and our mother, I remember this Jewish proverb that speaks so much on the importance and the dignity of mothers. It says: ‘God could not be everywhere, and therefore, He made mothers.’

‘When God created mothers’, so the story goes, ‘it was well overtime on the sixth day. An angel dropped by and commented, ‘Lord, you are taking your time over this creature!’

God replied, ‘You should see the special requirements in the specification! She has to be easy to maintain, but not made of plastic or have any artificial components. She has one hundred and sixty movable parts, and nerves of steel, with a lap big enough for ten children to sit on it at once, but she herself has to be able to fit into a kiddie’s chair. She has to have a back that can carry everything that is loaded onto it. She has to be able to mend everything, from a grazed knee to a broken heart. And she’s supposed to have six pairs of hands…and three pairs of eyes.’

‘I think you should go to bed now, Lord, and get some sleep,’ said the angel.

‘I can’t do that,’ said God. ‘I’m almost there. I have nearly created a being who heals herself when she’s ill, who can delight thirty children with one little birthday cake, who can persuade a three-year-old not to eat clay, a six-year –old to wash his hands before meals and a nine-year-old to use his feet to walk and not to kick.’

‘Can she think?’ asked the angel.

‘Not only think, but reach wise judgments and essential compromises,’ said God. ‘And she can do more than that. She can forget!’

Friends, this might just be an anecdote but it speaks a grain of truth – that  being a mother demands she be a jack of all trades so to speak.

I have to admit I have never been acting like a mother nor I’m wishing to be. But I understood that being a mother requires she would go beyond herself most of the time if not all the time.

As the mother of God, Mary is no exception.  She also had to go beyond herself. She also had to take the huge and irreplaceable responsibility of a mother to her child. Even before her child was born, Mary had to get out of her comfort zones in order to become that amazing meeting point between the Human and the Divine. ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ she asked the angel when he told her she’s going to be pregnant. Though confused, she kept trusting and believing. So she said in the end: ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word.’ She remained faithful even if she really didn’t understand everything that’s been happening in her. Heavy with child, she took the long trip with Joseph to Bethlehem to follow the order of the Emperor to register. Without prior bookings, she had to give birth in the stable of animals. Without proper clothes for the newly-born child, she had to wrap him with a swaddling clothes. Without proper bed, she had to lay him on the manger. And our gospel today tells us of Mary’s reaction to all that have happened to her: ‘She treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.’

As the baby grows, she had to look after Jesus with Joseph. They would present him to the temple. They would look for him when he was left in Jerusalem. Later on she would tell the servants in the wedding at Cana to do everything that Jesus, her son would tell them to do. Then towards the end of Jesus’ earthly life, she would accompany him on the way of the cross.

As a mother, she walked with Jesus from her womb to the tomb.  She went out of herself to allow God to fulfil his will not only for her but for the salvation of all.

In this she became our mother. She is our mother because through her  our saviour was born. Through her we are able to see in person the face of God. Through her we are able to see what God is like. Through her, we have experienced the graciousness and the unconditional love of God. In Mary, the 3 thousand year old prayer of blessing as we have heard in our first reading today, was definitely answered. In and through  Mary, we have encountered our Lord who let his face shine on us and who is  gracious to us. And through Mary, God has sent his Son, to be born a subject of the law according to St Paul in our Second Reading today, to redeem us as the subjects of the law and to enable us adopted sons of and daughters of God.

We have received abundant graces from God through the intercession of Mary, who went out of herself by saying her ‘yes’ to the will of God, thus making her the Mother of His Son and also the mother of us all.

So as we continue our celebration of the Eucharist today as well as to welcome this New Year, let’s thank Mary for accepting the will of God even if it meant for her going out of herself and to walk an extra mile. Pondering on Mary’s motherhood, let us also pray that God’s graciousness and blessings would be poured upon us all for this New year and that we may learn to listen well and reflect more on the will of God for each and everyone of us. Lastly, let’s ask Mary’s intercession that we may grow in love and we get closer to her son everyday- since Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation.

And my prayer for you this New Year:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace. Amen.

Happy New Year everyone.

Jun 28 2011

The Hour that makes my Day

This is the last part of the meditation of Bishop Fulton Sheen on the HOLY HOUR. Here he talks about the fruits, the benefits that we reap from this beautiful practice of keeping close to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament for an hour everyday.

Sometimes I wished that I had kept a record of the thousands of letters that I have received from priests and laity telling me how they have taken up the practice of the Holy Hour. Every retreat for priests that I ever gave had this as a practical resolution. Too often retreats are like health conferences. There is a general agreement on the need for health, but there is lacking a specific recommendation on how to be healthy. The Holy Hour became a challenge to the priests on retreat, and then when the tapes of my retreats became available to the laity, it was edifying to read of those who responded to grace by watching an hour daily before the Lord. A monsignor who, because of a weakness for alcohol and consequent scandal, was told to leave his parish went into another diocese on a trial basis, where he made my retreat. Responding to the grace of the Lord, he gave up alcohol, was restored to effectiveness in his priesthood, made the Holy Hour everyday and died in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

As an indication of the very wide effect of the Holy Hour, I once received a letter from a priest in England who told me in his own language: “I left the priesthood and fell into a state of degradation.” A priest friend invited him to hear a tape on the Holy Hour from a retreat I had given. Responding to grace, he was restored again to the priesthood and entrusted with the care of a parish. Divine Mercy wrought a change in him…

Many of the laity who have read my books and heard my tapes are also making the Holy Hour.

A state trooper wrote that he had my tapes attached to his motorcycle and would listen to them as he was cruising the highways: “Imagine,” he wrote, “the bewilderment of a speeder being stopped by me while from the tape recorder was coming one of your sermons about the Eucharist.” He found it difficult at first to find a church that was open during the day at a time he could make his Hour. Later on, he found a pastor who was not only willing to open the church, but even willing to make the Hour with him.

Most remarkable of all was the effect the preaching of the Holy Hour had on non-Catholic ministers. I preached three retreats to Protestant ministers-on two occasions to over three hundred in South Carolina and in Florida, and on another occasion to a smaller group at Princeton University. I asked them to make a continuous Holy Hour of prayer in order to combat the forces of evil in the world, because that is what Our Lord asked from the night of His agony. I addressed them:  “You are not blessed with the same Divine Presence in your churches that I believe we possess. But you do have another presence that we do also, and that is the Scripture. At the Vatican Council, we had a solemn procession of the Scriptures into the Council every morning as a form of the Presence of God. You could make the Hour before the Scriptures.” Many came to me later to inquire about the Eucharist, some even asked to join with me in a Holy Hour before the Eucharist.

Most remarkable of all was a telephone call I received early one morning in Los Angeles. The caller announced himself as Reverend Jack McAllister. He was most insistent that he see me. I told him that I was catching a plane for New York at midday and would be glad to see him at the airport before leaving.

A very distinguished Christian gentleman appeared, Mr. Jack McAllister, who told me that he was engaged in a work of world evangelization, sending tapes on the Gospel  to all parts of the world, and also mailing million of copies of sermons and scriptures to every quarter of the globe: “There is one thing that seems to be missing in my world evangelism, and that is a spiritual practice which will make it successful. What would you recommend?” I recounted how much I depended on a daily Holy Hour before the Eucharist, and then suggested that since he was not blessed with the Eucharist, he could ask all of his people to spend one continuous hour with the Scriptures in prayer and reparation for the sins of the world.

One year later I received a pamphlet from him entitles: “Jack McAllister writes to ONE HOUR WATCHERS.” A paragraph from that pamphlet reads: “Please…if you are honestly concerned about making Christ known to literally every creature- give God one hour every day. You are needed in God’s prayer-force to prepare for work in the totally unevangelized areas of the world. Do you love them enough to pray? Will you ‘pay the price’ of spiritual battle for one hour daily?’ Christ asked: ‘What, could you not watch with me one hour?’

At the end of the first year, he wrote and told me that seven hundred ministers had pledged one hour a day…

One of the by-products of the Holy Hour was the sensitiveness to the Eucharistic Presence of Our Divine Lord. I remember once reading in Lacordaire, the famour orator of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris: “Give me the young man who can treasure for days, weeks and years, the gift of a rose or the touch of a hand of a friend.”

Seeing early in my priesthood that marriages break and friends depart when sensitiveness and delicacy are lost, I took  various means to preserve that responsiveness. When first ordained and a student at the Catholic University in Washington, I would never go to class without climbing the few stairs to the Chapel in Caldwell Hall to make a tiny act of love to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Later, at the University of Louvain in Belgium, I would make a visit to our Blessed Lord in every single church I passed on the way to class. When I continued graduate work in Rome and attended the Angelicum and Gregorian, I would visit every Church en route from the Trastevere section where I lived. This is not so easy in Rome, for there are churches on almost every corner. Fred Allen once said that Rome has a church on one corner so that you may pray to get across the street; the church on the other corner is to thank God that you made it.

Later as a teacher as the Catholic University in Washington, I arranged to put a chapel immediately at the entrance of the front door of my home. This was in order that I might never come in or go out without seeing the sanctuary lamp as a summons to adore the Heart of Christ at least for a few seconds. I tried to be faithful to this practice all during my life, and even now in the apartment in New York where I live, the chapel is between my study and my bedroom. This means, that I can never move from one area of my small apartment to another without at least a genuflection and a small ejaculation to our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. Even at night, when I am awakened and arise, I always make it a point to drop into the chapel for a few seconds, recalling the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord, offering a prayer for the priests and religious of the world, and for all who are in spiritual need. Even this autobiography is written in His presence, that He might inspire others when I am gone to make the Hour that makes Life.

Jun 27 2011

‘Holy Hour’- The Hour that makes my Day

Bishop Fulton Sheen‘s exposition on the beauty of the Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament everyday [continued]

The purpose of the Holy Hour is to encourage deep personal encounter with Christ. The holy and glorious God is constantly inviting us to come to Him, to hold converse with Him, to ask for such things as we need and to experience what a blessing there is in fellowship with Him. When we are first ordained it is easy to give self entirely to Christ, for the Lord fills us then with sweetness, just as the mother gives candy to a baby encourage her child to take the first step. The exhilaration, however, does not last long; we quickly learn the cost of discipleship, which means leaving nets and boats and counting tables. The honeymoon soon ends, and so does our self-importance at first hearing that stirring title of “Father.”

Sensitive love or human love declines with time, but divine love does not. The first is concerned with the body which becomes less and less responsive to stimulation, but in the order of grace, the responsiveness of the divine to tiny, human acts of love intensifies.

Neither theological knowledge nor social action alone is enough to keep us in love with Christ unless both are preceded by a personal encounter with Him. When Moses saw the burning bush in the desert, it did not feed on any fuel. The flame, unfed by anything visible, continued to exist without destroying the wood. So personal dedication to Christ does not deform any of our natural gifts, disposition or character; it just renews without killing. As the wood becomes fire and the fire endures, so we become Christ and Christ endures.

I have found that it takes some time to catch fire in prayer. This has been one of the advantages of the  daily Hour. It is not so brief as to prevent the soul from collecting itself and shaking off the multitudinous distractions of the world. Sitting before the Presence is like a body exposing itself before the sun to absorb its rays. Silence in the Hour is a tete-a-tete with the Lord. In those moments, one does not so much pour out written prayers, but listening takes its place. We do not say: “Listen, Lord, for Thy servant speaks,” but “Speak Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

I have often sought some way to explain the fact that we priests know Christ, rather than to know about Christ. Many translations of the Bible  use the word “know” to indicate the unity of two-in-one flesh. For example: “Solomon knew her not,” which meant that he had no carnal relations with her.  The Blessed Mother said to the Angel at the Anunciation: “I know not man.” St Paul urges husbands to possess their wives in knowledge. The word “know” here indicates two-in-one flesh. The closeness of that identity is drawn from the closeness of the mind with any object that it knows. No knife could ever separate my mind from the idea that it has of an apple. The ecstatic union of husband and wife described as “knowing” is to be the foundation of that love which we priests love Christ.

Intimacy is openness which keeps back no secret and which reveals the heart open to Christ. Too often friends are just “two ships that pass in the night.” Carnal love, despite its seeming intimacy, often can become an exchange of egotisms. The ego is projected onto the other person and what is loved is not the other person, but the pleasure the other person gives. I have noticed throughout my life that whenever I shrank from demands that the encounter made on me, I would become busier and more concerned with activities. This gave me an excuse for saying: “I do not have time,” as a husband can become so absorbed in business as to forget the love of his wife.

It is possible for me to explain how helpful the Holy Hour has been in preserving my vocation. Scripture gives considerable evidence to prove that a priest begins to fail his priesthood when he fails in his love of the Eucharist. Too often, it is assumed that Judas fell because he loved money. Avarice is very rarely the beginning of the lapse and the fall of an ambassador. The history of the Church proves there many with money who stayed in it. The beginning of the fall of Judas and the end of Judas both revolved around the Eucharist. The first mention that our Lord knew who it was who would betray Him is at the end of the sixth chapter of John, which is the announcement of the Eucharist. The fall of Judas came the night Our Lord gave the Eucharist, the night of the Last Supper.

The Eucharist is so essential to our one-ness with Christ that as soon as Our Lord announced it in the Gospel, it began to be the test of the fidelity of His followers. First, He lost the masses, for it was too hard a  saying and they no longer followed Him. Secondly, He lost some of His disciples: “They walked with Him no more.” Third, it split His apostolic band, for Judas is here announced as the betrayer.

So the Holy Hour, quite apart from all its positive spiritual benefits, kept my feet from wandering too far. Being tethered to a tabernacle, one’s rope for finding other pastures is not so long. That dim tabernacle lamp, however pale and faint, had some mysterious luminosity to darken the brightness of “bright lights.” The Holy Hour became like an oxygen tank to revive the breath of the Holy Spirit in the midst of the foul and fetid atmosphere of the world. Even when it seemed so unprofitable and lacking in spiritual intimacy, I still had the sensation of being at least like a dog at the master’s door, ready in case he called me.

The Hour too, became a magister and teacher, for although before we love anyone we must have a knowledge of that person, nevertheless, after we know, it is love that increases knowledge. Theological insights are gained not only from the  two covers of a treatise, but from two knees on a pre-dieu before a tabernacle. Finally, making a Holy Hour everyday constituted for me one area of life in which I could preach what I practiced. I very seldom in my life preached fasting in a rigorous kind of way, for I always found fasting extremely difficult; but I could ask others to make the Hour, because I made it.