His Boundless Love

"The Second Vatican Council rightly proclaimed that the Eucharistic Sacrifice is “the source and summit of the Christian life”.¹ “For the most Holy Eucharist contains the Church's entire spiritual wealth: Christ himself, our passover and living bread. Through his own flesh, now made living and life-giving by the Holy Spirit, he offers life to men”.² Consequently the gaze of the Church is constantly turned to her Lord, present in the Sacrament of the Altar, in which she discovers the full manifestation of HIS BOUNDLESS LOVE." Supreme Pontiff John Paul II (2003) Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia.  Libreria Editrice Vaticana

JMJ

 

Manifested by His Divine Grace, Christ the Beloved knows full well the desires of His BRIDE!  For in the circumstance of our eternal age, the defined moment of every existence is brought forward in the CROSS!  Where, O Christ, shall I find You, but near and before me in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar.  As I GAZE upon You hidden in the form of BREAD, You reveal to me the manifestation of a GOD so HUMBLE and YET so POWERFUL in the Hands of a Merciful and Providential Plan.  A Plan defined by this very moment in time when in the creation of Your own being as the Incarnate Word made Flesh, You reveal to us the GRANDEUR of a God who manifests His Infinite Goodness through the littleness and humility of a child that comes to us in the form of bread for all the world to know that the AWESOMENESS of Your Splendour is not to be feared, but to be embraced with the TRUST of a child towards his Eternal Father.  How may I approach the THRONE of Your Divine Majesty, except through the humble acceptance of my daily trials and circumstances!  I kneel before You, adoring You in Your GOODNESS towards me, and I request Your Divine Majesty to hear the plea of my HEART!  I wish to manifest to the whole of CREATION of How WONDERFUL You are and How GREAT YOU are in the Most Holy Eucharist, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity!  You promise me Your continued PRESENCE and reveal to me that although at times the manifestation of GOODNESS is a sign of the CROSS, it is there that I am ever more UNITED to YOU as my BELOVED SPOUSE and DIVINE SAVIOR!  REJOICE heartily, O Christ, for you have found Your Bride that will forever know and bring to You the humble existence of my HEART that will be ever united to You in the CROSS!  Purity, O Beloved, is the sign of His Infinite Goodness to those He has chosen to be His own.  GRACE upon GRACE, O INFINITE and Divine Savior, is the fullness of Your Generosity that places before You a humble request to preserve what has been given as GIFT for ALL ETERNITY!  BOUNDLESS Love, Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit bring FORTH a GREATER MANIFESTATION of Your ETERNAL GOODNESS so that ALL may bring to the THRONE a HEART Contrite and humble towards FULL UNION with You, O Infinite and TRIUNE GOD!

Mother of the Divine Word, the BOUNDLESS LOVE of Your Eternal Son comes to us time and again in the Most Holy Eucharist!  Protect and guard the purity of our PRIESTS so that the HOLINESS and SANCTITY of these CHOSEN MEN may ever more be RENEWED in the CHURCH his Bride!  Mother of the Eucharist, through the HANDS of PRIEST you bring to us Your Son, the Only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father so that His Bride the CHURCH may REACH the UNION of the SAINTS of HEAVEN!  Your ETERNAL KINGDOM, Divine Savior, calls forth a NEW HORIZON of HOPE for those who have been strayed so that the Good Shepherd may REJOICE once again for the one that was lost is now FOUND!  Your Manifestation of Divine Love so BOUNDLESS and so INFINITE can bring forth a BLESSING of GRACE upon GRACE towards a HOPE that is ever ANEW in the souls that TRUST in Your Divine Mercy!  YES!  My Divine Mother, Your ETERNAL SON, is in LOVE with His BRIDE and LONGS FOR HER to come to HIM!  He is Present and ever ALIVE and REVEALS a Manifestation of His Divine Heart to her, concealing nothing from her as she adores Him with the Humility of your Immaculate Heart!  He is in LOVE with an INFINITE MEASURE that the Merits of Eternity will only reveal until the END of TIME!  Mother of the Divine Word, I love You, teach me to Love Your Son with your purity and humility.  Mediatrix of all GRACES, conform my heart to thine and grant to me the GRACES necessary for a FULL FIAT to the Divine Word.  Amen.

Angele Dei

ANGELE DEI
Lyrics and Music Composition by Meryl Bravo

“He will put you in His angels’ charge to guard you wherever you go.”
Psalm 91:11


Angele Dei
O Angel of God
Angele Dei
O Angel of God

1. Guarding my soul
Direct my will
Virtue Most High
And Only GOAL!

Angele Dei
O Angel of God
Angele Dei
O Angel of God

2. Beside me and Guide me
O Friend at my side
Beholding His FACE
Both Day and Night

Angele Dei
O Angel of God
Angele Dei
O Angel of God

3. Illuminate my will
Towards God’s Holy WILL!
Protect me from harm,
And the near occasion of sin.

Angele Dei
O Angel of God
Angele Dei
O Angel of God

4. Messenger from Heaven
Glory and Praise
God’s Holy Angel
And PROTECTOR OF MY SOUL!

Angele Dei
O Angel of God
Angele Dei
O Angel of GOD!

The Feminine Genius

https://soundcloud.com/romancatholicmeditations/the-feminine-genius?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=facebook

“St. Paul had taught that the “more excellent way” and the greatest of the theological virtues was love (1 Cor.12.31).  John Paul suggests that what he terms the “feminine genius” is the “place” of this more excellent way in the world and the Church.  “In God’s eternal plan,” he writes, “woman is the one in whom the order of love in the created world of persons first takes root.”  Because love is the inner dynamic of the life of God, women’s experience has a unique dignity, and that dignity is to be measured not by the dominating and male order of power, but “by the order of love, which is essentially the order of justice and charity.”  That dignity gives rise to a vocation to love, which can be discerned in the fact that “the human being is entrusted by God to women in a particular way.”  Here was a basic issue with untold, profound implications for humanity.”  Witness to Hope by George Weigel

JMJ

The order of justice and charity gives the human being the essential vocation of love lived in every person made in the image and likeness of God.  Woman, in her unique dignity is the first to form and take root this order of love in the creation of being.  She, in God’s eternal plan, carries within her womb the beginning of life, from the moment a human person is conceived into existence.  The very calling of woman brings forth the vocation of love, as God entrusts to her a human being hidden within the very womb of her human body.  The feminine genius brings forth the virtue of love as she carries the child within her womb with care and diligent love as she awaits the coming of his birth.  The sacrifice she portrays in this beholds to man the “more excellent way” and the greatest of the theological virtues of charity towards the dignity of life entrusted to her by God.  It is in woman alone that God in His eternal plan has allowed this work of creation and has begun a new life that is awaited to begin from the moment of conception to natural death.  How great are the depths and the heights of God!  How inscrutable His judgment, that He in His awesome wonder has bestowed on woman the gift and entrustment of human life hidden within her very womb.  No greater love hath he than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.  The mystery of life is entrusted to her in the gift of her motherhood and femininity. 

What interior disposition is there in a woman, who denies the life within her womb to continue as she is given the choice of abortion?  The very thought and consideration of such an evil, has already destroyed the heart of the child within her.  The very vocation of motherhood, engrained into her whole being, is torn from her in an action that eliminates the very dignity of her calling.  Her blood runs through his blood, her thoughts run through his thoughts, indeed every form of nourishment she receives comes through the heart of the child hidden within her womb.   God, in His infinite goodness, created him and brought him into existence and invokes woman to embrace him until he is ready to behold the world. 

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.  Reveal to Man the abomination found in the act of abortion.  Restore to woman the dignity of life that she is destined to fulfill in the gift of her femininity through the grace of her motherhood.  You have bestowed on woman alone the gift of humanity as she carries life hidden within her womb.  May she hold this entrustment You confidently give her, as a treasure to defend and protect against the deceits of a culture that is blind to the truth of the value of life from the moment of conception.  May she not be deceived by the works of a law system that legalizes the right to deny her very vocation and calling as mother through the destruction of abortion.  Raise up holy men and women who defend the life of the unborn, in all its truth and all its reality so that the confusion that is reigning in our world today will not degrade the dignity and vocation of woman any longer.  O Mary, my Dearest Mother, You who are most blessed among women, pray for us who have recourse to thee.  Amen. 

 

 

LOVE REDEEMS!

“The image of the disciples on the way to Emmaus can serve as a fitting guide for a Year when the Church will be particularly engaged in living out the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. Amid our questions and difficulties, and even our BITTER disappointments, the DIVINE Wayfarer continues to walk at our side, opening to us the Scriptures and leading us to a DEEPER understanding of the MYSTERIES of God. When we meet him fully, we will pass from the light of the Word to the light streaming from the “Bread of life”, the supreme fulfilment of his PROMISE to “be with us always, to the end of the age” (cf. Mt 28:20). Supreme Pontiff John Paul II (October 2004- October 2005) Apostolic Letter Mane Nobiscum Domine.  Libreria Editrice Vaticana.

 

JMJ

The VERY DEPTHS of God’s Redeeming Love comes forth from the Heart of Christ Himself.  For it is in His very image as Beloved Son that we learn of the INTIMATE ENCOUNTER of Love Himself.  When faced with our own difficulties and questions, and even our BITTER disappointments, LOVE REDEEMS!  The Divine Wayfarer listens to our broken hearts and walks at our side hidden in the darkness of FAITH.  Our HEARTS BURN for love of Him, seeking Him and knowing Him in the light of the WORD, the Eternal WORD and we are renewed once again in a Hope that knows no bound.  The supreme fulfillment of His PROMISE comes alive in us and His DIVINE and INTIMATE PRESENCE comes streaming into our Hearts as a living water of Divine Grace.  “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mt 28:20).  The MYSTERY of the HOLY EUCHARIST is the PROMISE!  We are no longer alone.  God is with us.  No longer is the presence of darkness consuming, for the LIGHT of the WORLD has overcome all bitterness and all sorrow.  He is the LIFEGIVING BREAD that comes down from Heaven.  He is the ONE and the ONLY LOVER of SOULS that continues to walk at our side opening to us the LIVING FLAME of DIVINE LOVE spoken through the WORD, the ETERNAL WORD who dwelt among us. 

O Heart of my Heart, all consumed by the FIRE of Your Divine Love, I am never alone amidst the many trials that come forth in this Vale of Tears.  For Your PROMISE is ETERNAL and Your REDEEMING LOVE fulfills all the desires of my heart.  For what God would be so gracious as to come to me in the form of BREAD, so that I may LIVE and LIVE to the FULLEST!  I tell you, ONLY the ONE TRUE GOD would bring forth such a MYSTERY of UNION.  God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God would bring forth His INCARNATE WORD to live among us and remain with us forever in the PROMISE, the PROMISE fulfilled in the Most Holy EUCHARIST! 

Christ, Redeemer and Love of my Soul, guard and protect Your Sacred Priests and LIVE among them as their ONLY LOVE!  For it is through their ANNOINTED HANDS that You come ALIVE in us again and again through the Holy EUCHARIST!  O Mother of Priests, pray for us and embrace all who have answered the CALL to the Sacral Vocation of Holy Orders.  Amen. 

 

Catholic Sexual Morality

“The Curran affair also illustrated a serious problem in post-conciliar moral theology that John Paul II would, at some point, have to address in detail.  Father Curran believed that lowering the bar of Catholic sexual morality was the pastorally appropriate response to the tangled lives of human beings, who had been struggling with chastity since Moses had been given the Ten Commandments.  For John Paul, whose pastoral experience was at least as extensive as that of most moral theologians, defining sin down was not, in the final analysis, pastorally sensitive, because it took the dramatic tension out of life and denied human beings the opportunity for moral heroism.  Repentance and forgiveness, not preemptive absolution, was the truer humanism.”  Witness to Hope by George Weigel

JMJ

 Compromising our human existence lowers the dignity of man as it lowers the opportunity for moral heroism.  The true reality and existence of man must be lived in its fullness with no hesitation to what is good and upright as beings made in the image and likeness of God.  The sexual morality that is lowered in its true definition creates in man a lowering of his very own existence in living.  He becomes ruled by his own passions and the true freedom that he is destined to have is led astray by those who preach against the true dignity of man.  The true man lives according to the real and authentic life where morality is not defined down but raised to a degree that draws man to his ultimate truth; a truth that clothes him with the character of moral heroism; a heroism that reflects the very life of Christ in repentance, forgiveness and the life of the Gospel.  A true humanism brings forth in man the occasion to rise against the culture of compromise and live according to the reality of truth where indeed tension will be accustomed in a world that questions the essence of good and evil in its existence.  Until man realizes and faces this reality, the dimension of true moral heroism in himself will not be fully realized and his life is but a grain that will not come to its fullness.  Unless a grain of wheat fall to the ground and die, it remains but a single grain, but if it die it will bring forth much fruit.  The fruition of man comes forth from truth itself and must be preached from the pulpits to every man and woman of the capacity and dignity he and she holds as children of the Most High God.  A man of no guile must be reflected in the priest, truly another Christ proclaiming to man the truth of what we are ultimately called to and destined to fulfill.  As Christians we must challenge ourselves towards a greater goal of high moral character that draws us to a heroic degree of charity towards the human body and towards the soul that lives within him.  In this challenge, compromise deadens the soul and lowers mans capacity towards the greatness he has been called to live as a follower of Christ.

 O Christ, Redeemer and Savior You reveal to Man Your own Eternal goodness by coming to us in the form of man to redeem us from our own wretched nature and raise us to a degree of sanctity that reflects the unity and charity of the Most Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  O Eternal Word made Flesh, You have sanctified the human body by coming to us in humility and share Your divinity with us by giving us your Mother.  Create in man the will to live according to Your Divine Plan, as Your Mother did in her humility and fiat.  May our lives be another fiat that heroicly responds to the consequences and circumstances that is placed before us so that the moral character of heroic virtue may come to its true reality.  May we challenge each other to live according to Your Divine Plan.  Sanctify your priests and protect them from compromise and a life that could lead to indifference and fear of the reality of truth.  Grant them the support they need from Your Holy Angels and the Mother of God so that they may be guarded from heresy and live according to the true dignity of the Gospel.  May our Holy Father, Your Vicar here on Earth, be protected and fortified with the strength of the Saints so that as he shepherds the flock, those who hear and those who see may truly live the life of the Gospel in all its truth and fullness and dignity.  O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not our petitions but in your mercy hear answer me.  Amen. 

Spiritual Motherhood Sodality

http://www.spiritualmaternity.org/

"The Spiritual Motherhood Sodality (SMS) educates women regarding the importance of Spiritual Maternity and its connection with the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood. The Blessed Virgin Mary is esteemed as the ultimate model to help inform women about answering their call to holiness, their dignity and vocation and also, their love for Christ’s Ministerial Priesthood."  Spiritual Motherhood Sodality

 

A Priestly Vocation

“And often…I hear the answer it was these times, times of GREAT STRUGGLE between good and evil, times of the great struggle between Mary and Satan that draw many…into the priesthood, so that they might participate in this great battle fully, decisively, in a defined manner…

I will say even more:  this battle runs through the HEART of each of us.  A priestly ordination, a PRIESTLY VOCATION, does not free us from the BATTLE.” Saint Pope John Paul II

Weigel, G. (2010) The End and the Beginning.  New York:  Doubleday Religion

 

JMJ

The mystery of every VOCATION is spurred by the INTENSITY of LOVE created and immersed by the SIGNIFICANT REALITY of a STRUGGLE against all the PRINCIPALITIES and POWERS that divide Man from who He is made in the Image and Likeness of God; created in His image there is a BATTLE that reflects and consumes the Heart of Man towards what is GREATER!  GREATER than what the world can offer in its allurements of a FALSE LOVE that divides and brings to destruction His own GREATNESS!  In this GREAT STRUGGLE, the inner conscience of Man is brought to light and He is asked the question, “Whom do you seek?”  The very HEART responds, “CHRIST!”  Christ then responds, “Come, Follow me.”  Where?  To the CROSS!  A DEFINED MANNER of following He who shared in our HUMANITY leads towards His GREAT PASSION!  Passion that allows Man to participate in this GREAT BATTLE FULLY!  There in the HEART of every VOCATION is the full capacity of Man to respond as Christ, “There is no greater LOVE than to lay down ones’ life for ones’ FRIENDS!”  I would lay down my life for you!   Peter, Peter truly, truly I say to you before the cock crows you will deny that you know me three times.  THREE TIMES!  THREE TIMES!  THREE TIMES!  The WAR BEGINS!  The STRUGGLE!  THE BATTLE! 

MARY!

My MOTHER!

TOTUS TUUS!

We are brought to the FULL CAPACITY to RUN to CHRIST in the midst of the struggle between Good and Evil, between Mary and Satan!  Where will you go?  Who will you TRUST!?  I have denied Him three times, Him whom I promised I would lay down my life and die for……the BITTERNESS of GRIEF overwhelms my HEART!

He is CRUCIFIED and DIED on a CROSS for me and for you!  The STRUGGLE, the BATTLE!  I am overwhelmed and my Heart calls out to Him!  TRUST!  TRUST!  TRUST! 

Mary, my Mother!  LOVE has BEEN CRUCIFIED!  LOVE NOW REDEEMS!  THREE DAYS!  THREE DAYS!  THREE DAYS!  THE TOMB is NOW EMPTY!  Where is HE!?!

On the SHORE!  “My CHILDREN, have you caught anything?”  Nothing, my Lord!  Bring down the NETS for a CATCH!  153 FISH!

DOMINUS EST!  IT IS THE LORD!

Run to Him!  Embrace HIM!  FOLLOW HIM!

Look at Him, Gaze at Him…..He is HERE!  He is LOOKING at ME! 

Yes, my CHILD, you have denied me three times, but now I come to you and offer you my MERCY! 

“Do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord You know that I love you.” 

“Feed my sheep.”

"Peter, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Lord You know that I love you.”

“Feed my sheep.”

“Peter, the ROCK, do you love me more than these?”

“YES, LORD, YOU KNOW EVERYTHING YOU KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU!”

“FEED MY LAMBS!”

Thrice I have denied Him, and THRICE I have RENEWED my LOVE for HIM whom my Heart loves!  Christ, my REDEEMER has ARISEN!  CHRIST, my REDEEMER has ARISEN!  CHRIST, MY REDEEMER HAS ARISEN!  ALLELUIA!  ALLELUIA!  HE IS NO LONGER DEAD, HE IS ALIVE!  ALIVE, I SAY!  ALIVE!

My Friend, my LOVE, my CHILD, now that you know what it means to follow me, STRENGTHEN YOUR BRETHREN!

Christ, my REDEEMER LIVES!  Christ, my REDEEMER LIVES!  Christ, my REDEEMER LIVES!  Christ TRIUMPHS and we share in the BATTLE that is ALREADY VICTORIOUS!  ALLELUIA!  ALLELUIA!  CHRIST IS ARISEN!