Tag: Holy

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Meditation of the Day – God Never Meant Man to Be a Purely Spiritual Creature

“And let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral. When they speak of being ‘in Christ’ or of Christ being ‘in them’, this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him. They mean that Christ is actually operating through them; that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts—that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body. And perhaps that explains one or two things. It explains why this new life is spread not only by purely mental acts like belief, but by bodily acts like baptism and Holy Communion. It is not merely the spreading of an idea; it is more like evolution—a biological or superbiological fact. There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.”— C.S. Lewis, p. 64

//The Catholic Company//

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Today’s Feast Day – April 3rd – Holy Saturday

On Holy Saturday the Church mourns in prayer and fasting, meditating on Christ’s Passion and Death. There is no Mass during the day as Jesus is still in the tomb. On this day Jesus descended triumphantly into Hades (called the “harrowing of hell”) and brought salvation to the righteous souls held captive there who awaited their promised Messiah, as recited in the Apostle’s Creed. On the night of Holy Saturday the Church celebrates the Vigil of Easter Sunday, the celebration of Christ’s resurrection from the tomb, the traditional time when the Sacraments of Initiation are given to new members of the Church.

//The Catholic Company//

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Catholic Snacks – Stripping of the Altars

Stripping of the Altars? Why does the altar at church look different on Holy Thursday? Find out here.
On Holy Thursday, Mass certainly looks different. Often, the church’s statues and icons are covered, and at the end of Mass, the priest leaves the tabernacle empty. This traditional practice is known as the Stripping of the Altars. During this event, the priest also recites Psalm 22, which begins with the same words of Jesus on the cross: “O God, my God…why hast Thou forsaken me?”

Psalm 22 was written before the time of Jesus, but prophesies the events on Holy Thursday and Good Friday. In his book Holy Thursday: The Night That Changed the World, Francois Mauriac writes a devotional connecting Psalm 22 and the Stripping of the Altars.

While the Son of God always knew what would happen to Him, none of the scribes at His passion seemed to draw the connection between this prophecy and what was happening right in front of them. The scribes, chief priests, and rulers ridiculed Jesus, calling to mind the image in Psalm 22:8: “All who see me mock me; they curl their lips and jeer; they shake their heads at me.”

However, Francois Mauriac reminds us about the hope that Jesus’s death and resurrection give us, which is also stated in Psalm 22:And this [twenty-second] Psalm, which begins with a cry of doubt and distress, ends with the promise of a triumph that the Crucified alone was to achieve. “All the ends of the earth shall remember and shall be converted to the Lord; and all the kindred of the Gentiles shall adore in His sight. For the Kingdom is the Lord’s and He shall have dominion over the nations.”

After the Stripping of the Altars, the church looks eerie and sad throughout Holy Thursday and Good Friday. We feel solemn, especially as we reflect on Psalm 22:1-2 during the Mass. At the same time, we rest knowing that on Sunday the church will be redecorated in celebration of Christ’s rising from the grave, just as promised at the end of Psalm 22 and throughout salvation history.
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Today’s Feast Day – Holy Thursday

On Thursday of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) the Church celebrates the three pillars of the Catholic Church instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper: the priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist. This is the traditional day for priests to gather with their bishop at the Chrism Mass, to receive oils blessed by the bishop and to publicly renew their priestly promises. In the evening the Church celebrates the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. After this Mass the altar is stripped bare and the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the Tabernacle and processed to a separate altar of repose. Here the Blessed Sacrament is adored until late in the night to commemorate the time Jesus spent in Garden of Gethsemane in agonizing prayer, the start of his Passion. The Blessed Sacrament is then taken away and hidden until the Easter Vigil in memory of Our Lord’s death and burial.

//The Catholic Company//

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Meditation of the Day – Every Good Thing Will Be Yours

“If you wish to explore the Holy Scripture, and you overcome your laziness and apply yourself, thirsting for the knowledge, then every good thing will be yours. You will fill your mind with the divine light. Then, when you apply that light to the doctrines of the Church, you will very easily recognize everything that is true and unadulterated, and lay it up in the hidden treasures of your soul.”— St. Cyril of Alexandria, p. 167

//The Catholic Company//

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Why Do Catholics Use Holy Water?

Ever wonder why holy water is so widely used in parishes around the world? Find out here.

Holy water is so customary for Catholics that we sometimes don’t question why the Church uses it or the significance behind it. We most commonly use holy water when we walk into church and dip our fingers into a font to bless ourselves.

So what does holy water actually do, and why is it important?

Holy water is one of the Church’s most essential sacramentals. It’s blessed by God through a priest, with a rite of blessing that includes prayers of exorcism. This blessing elevates the water to a sacramental that helps us receive God’s grace when used faithfully. Not only is holy water used to give grace to God’s children, it is also used to help defend us in spiritual warfare.

Because of its power, holy water is used in almost every sacrament. For instance, in the Sacrament of Baptism, the priest pours holy water over an infant’s or new convert’s head. Holy water is also used for Anointing of the Sick. In weddings, the priest uses holy water to bless the couple’s rings. At funerals, the priest sprinkles holy water over the deceased person’s coffin.

So how can we truly appreciate holy water and enjoy the benefits of it? By incorporating it into our daily lives.

In addition to using holy water to bless ourselves when we enter a parish, we should also use it to bless our homes, our families, our work spaces, and anything that you use with the goal of glorifying God in your daily life.

//The Catholic Company//

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Feast Day – March 28 – Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, the reliving of the final seven days of Jesus’ earthly ministry. On this day the Church recalls the triumphal entrance of the Messiah into Jerusalem in order to accomplish the Pascal Mystery: His Passion, death, burial, and resurrection for the salvation of all mankind. Jesus rode into the city on a colt as the crowd laid their cloaks and palm branches on the road before him, shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest!”

//The Catholic Company//

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Minute Meditation – Do Not Harden Your Hearts

Jesus tells the crowd, “If you make my word your home, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They respond ‘”We are descendants of Abraham and have never been the slaves to anyone! What do you mean by ‘We will be free?’” Jesus answered them, “I tell you sincerely, anyone who chooses a dead-ended life and stops growing, is in sin, and that is slavery” (see John 8:31–35).

We have all experienced it. When someone wants to dislike us, no matter what we do, it will be interpreted in the worst possible fashion. As we often say, “You can’t win.” When someone’s heart is hardened already, you could be Jesus himself, and they will seriously see you as wrong, inferior, dangerous, and heretical—which is what is about to happen in Holy Week. At that point, no matter what evil a person decides to do to you, it will be deemed virtuous and praiseworthy by hardened or paranoid people in the hostile camp. “He is a terrorist!” they might say. Never having the humility or honesty to admit that to someone else, looking from a different perspective (which is deemed totally wrong), he probably looks like a sacrificial and dedicated freedom fighter. John had to make a clear villain here for the sake of the debate, so he safely chose his own race and people. There are claims and counterclaims of truth, freedom, lineage, tradition, killing, and divine illegitimacy. Jesus fights back well, but he does not have a chance. Their hearts are already hardened in place, which in this archetypal story is really not a statement about Jews as much as it is about all of humanity. “I have my conclusions already, do not bother me with any new information that might make me change my judgment.” Most Christians would probably be slow to admit that by these criteria almost all of us would have opposed Jesus. “This is not our tradition, he is not from our group, and he has no credentials!” 

“God of perfect freedom, open spaces inside of our minds, our hearts, and our memories, so we can just begin to be free. Do not let me be hardened against anyone of your creatures, so that I cannot hear and respect their truth.”

— from the book Wondrous Encounters: Scriptures for Lent

by Richard Rohr, OFM

//Franciscan Media//