416 N 2nd St, Albemarle, NC, 28001 | (704) 982-2910
Many of the things we’d like to know about Jesus’ life we don’t know, but remember, as Fr. Mike has told us, a Christian mystery is not “a case to be solved.” It’s a beauty to bathe in. The Catechism explains the three characteristics common to each of Christ’s mysteries: revelation, redemption, and recapitulation. Fr. Mike shows how we are to participate in the mysteries of Christ. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 512-521.
Click on link to play video: https://youtu.be/7mHQi3rGwCg
In our Catechism reading today we learn how out of love, God has fully revealed himself by sending his Son, Jesus Christ who established God’s covenant forever. We also learn that the Son is the Father’s definitive Word, but this Word has not yet been made completely explicit. Fr. Mike explains how private revelations may not claim to add to the Faith and must not contradict the Faith. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 65-73.
Click on the link to play video: https://youtu.be/v14auCZgM90
One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life. That’s opposed to God holding out for the pure, the spiritual, the right idea or the ideal anything. This is why Jesus turns religion on its head! That is why I say it is our experiences that transform us if we are willing to experience our experiences all the way through. But it is also why we have to go through these seemingly laborious and boring books of Kings, Chronicles, Leviticus, Numbers, and Revelation. Those books, documenting the life of real communities, of concrete, ordinary people, are telling us that “God comes to us disguised as our life” (a wonderful line I learned from my dear friend and colleague, Paula D’Arcy).
— from the book Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality by Richard Rohr, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
One day is much like another in the search for God. But from time to time there is a sudden, unexpected revelation, or shining forth of God. You’re startled that you realize God is everywhere, in everything and everyone. Call it insight, epiphany, baptism in the spirit, or any other name, it is the same experience: The God within you is revealed fleetingly, and all the rest of your days are changed permanently. Something happens that you did not merit and that you cannot explain or communicate. But it is more real than any communicable experience, and you cannot formulate it or capture it in words; for to do so would be to have some hold on God, who cannot be captured in a phrase or formula. Nor can you, by remembering it, recapture the experience. It is gift; it is grace. The spirit blows where it will.
— from the book Song of the Sparrow: New Poems and Meditations by Murray Bodo, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
John realizes she is not just a tool, a means for God to become human. She is herself a feminine force in the cosmos of his visions, a complementarity whose presence will reveal itself more and more once Mary lies down with her forefathers and foremothers in death. She, like her son, will not die to die; she will die to live forever in the Trinity of Persons who chose her to bear Christ in time. She will merge with the Word and its eternal speaking. She will be God’s eternal choosing of male and female together, willed by the Father, embraced by God’s Spirit, birthing mother of the Son throughout eternity, revealing the humanity of God to humanity. She herself will appear again and again in time. In and out of eternity. She will be the new ark of the covenant, the eternal enfleshing of the Son of God.
— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM
//Franciscan Media//
St. Julian/Juliana of Norwich (1342–1416) is a Benedictine nun who lived as a recluse in Norwich, England. Little is known of her life with certainty. At the age of 30 she was suddenly struck by a severe illness which almost took her life. During this illness she received a series of visions of Jesus Christ in sixteen separate revelations. When she recovered from her illness the visions stopped. Fifteen years later, Our Lord appeared to her to give her the meaning of her visions. St. Julian wrote her visions down in a book called Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. After these revelations she began to live a solitary life as an anchoress in a little cell built into the wall at the church of St. Julian in Norwich, not far from London. During her life the Church was in schism, and England was caught in a long war with France. The book contains a message of optimism based on the certainty of being loved by God and of being protected by his Providence. She received visitors to her cell and gave them guidance on the spiritual life, becoming a spiritual mother to many. St. Julian is an important medieval mystic whose response to the problem of evil is cited in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Her feast day is May 13th.
//The Catholic Company//
Have you ever doubted the existence of Purgatory because you’ve been told it’s not in Scripture? Well, Purgatory is in the Bible, and here’s where to find it.
“How can Catholics believe in Purgatory? Is that even in the Bible?”
Like the word “Trinity,” the word “Purgatory” is not in the Bible. However, the Bible emphasizes that we need to be perfectly pure, without a single blemish, to enter God’s kingdom.
Revelation 21:27 states, “But nothing unclean shall enter Heaven.” In 1 Corinthians 3:15, St. Paul writes, “If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but as only through fire.”
According to Dr. Gerard Verschuuren in his book, Forty Anti-Catholic Lies, “For most of us, the transition from a life on earth to a life in Heaven would be… so shocking that we would need some extra preparation time, as nothing unclean can enter the presence of God.”
Indeed, Scripture supports the existence of Purgatory and the fact that we need to go to Purgatory before we enter Heaven.
As we begin reading from Revelation, Fr. Mike makes us aware of the symbolism found throughout this apocalyptic book and highlights its goal of strengthening the Church through the worship that happens at Mass. He also encourages us to find strength in God when facing challenges, just as Paul did. Today’s readings are Revelation 1-3, 2 Timothy 3-4, and Proverbs 31:8-9.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/cLKNkdyrb94
Fr. Mike discusses the heavenly throne room seen in our reading from Revelation and our opportunity to be brought into this throne room during every Mass. He also focuses on our ability to glorify God and exalt him into eternity through the righteous deeds we perform on earth. Today’s readings are Revelation 4-7, Titus 1-3, and Proverbs 31:10-15.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/rnn_VeSKdTQ
Fr. Mike summarizes and contextualizes the book of Philemon, addressing the tension of slavery addressed in the Bible. He provides an explanation on the continued destruction depicted in Revelation as the visions of the apostle John, holding it up to the light of the Gospel. Today’s readings are Revelation 8-11, Philemon, and Proverbs 31:16-18.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/LCEln1heqP8
