A Royal Priesthood: Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting: Three Critical El...

A Royal Priesthood: Almsgiving, Prayer, and Fasting: Three Critical El...: A wonderful exercise I recommend for  adults and older adolescents is a reading of Romans Chapter 12 each day of Lent. It takes maybe f...

A Note on the Psalms

Hi...How are ya? May God's grace bless each and every person who is drawn to this blog. Today, I would like to offer an insight into the psalms, and hopefully it will be the cause of spiritural growth for us all.

The use of pronouns is everywhere in the psalms. Perphaps the prounoun "I" is used most often as in Psalm 3, begining at verse 4:

But you, LORD, are a shield around me;                         

my glory, you keep my head high.

With my own voice I will call out to the LORD,

and he will answer me from his holy mountain.

I lie down and I fall asleep,

I will wake up, for the LORD sustains me.

I do not fear, then, thousands of people

arrayed against me on every side.

Arise, LORD! Save me, my God!

For you strike the cheekbone of all my foes;

you break the teeth of the wicked.

Salvation is from the LORD!

Yes, these terms apply to me, Josh. In fact the Psalms can be viewed in the first person through the eyes of David, or the Psalmist, through Our Lord's eyes, and through our own perspective (for example, the phrase "I will lie down and I will fall asleep, I will awake up for the LORD sustains me." refers to David's overwhelming doubt that he can beat his enemy in battle, but nonetheless the Lord sees him through to victory. In addition, it refers to Jesus cruxifiction and Ressurection, the paschal actions that opened once and for all the gates of Heaven to humanity. Or these lines can refer tp God's Grace protecting me through out the typical night, and Him allowing me to wake-up in the morning). 

These three significant outcomes of the Psalms occur whether or not we think about them. And they can all happen at the same time. My point in this blog is too put out and fourth signifigant implication of the use of the pronoun "I" or "me." It refers to the Church Herself, and oh how this can add to the greatness of praying the Psalms. For instance, the phrase "Arise, LORD! Save me, my God" is a cry of the Church! of all Her people!

The Holy Spirit unifes the Church and the connection between the pronoun "I" and Holy Mother Church emphises this truth.

God,
Send Your Spirit to pen our ears to hear
Your Word, Your Truth. May the saving acts
of Jesus Christ, Your son, our Lord bring us
to Everlasting Life, where You live and reign with
Him, and the Holy Spirit, One God, forever and ever. Amen

A Prayer for the Living

Father Almighty,

My lips were made to praise you,
and my mind was made to contemplate you.
Today, make these organs function as you intended,
through Christ, Our Lord. Amen. 

Psalm 24: An Advent Hymm

Psalm 24's imagary is almost as striking lyrically as it's content meaningful.  The poet writes, " Lift up your heads, O gates; rise up, you ancient portals, that the king of glory may enter." (Ps. 24:9)  This pslam suggests a fruitful spirtual life requires a continous cleaning of the fog that blocks us from intimacy with God. The gates here are our inward imaturities and self-seeking, worldly goals. A daily fight to open our hearts to Christ's Peace is a necessity, and there is no better time than Advent to recognize this fact. 

Alighty and Merciful God,

May no earthly undertaking hinder those 

who set out in haste to meet your Son. 
But may our learning of Heavenly wisdom

gain us admittance into His company.

Grant this through Christ, Our Lord,

who lives and reigns with You and
the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen.

An Important Theological Note

In both the Eastern and Western Christian tradition, the priest or deacon kisses not only the Altar of God as he enters/exists the sanctuary, but kisses also the Word of God after he finishes reading the Gospel. These actions present a truth that God is present in not only in the Sacrements and the Asembly of the Faithful, but also in Sacred Scripture. May more individuals observe this fact and quicken to life in the Holy Trinity. Amen.

Front page of the Douay-Rheims text

A Royal Priesthood: Draw near to me, Paschal actions of God!

A Royal Priesthood: Draw near to me, Paschal actions of God!: Fr. Jean Corbon, OP  ( Order of Preachers, known also as the Dominican Religious Order) taught me a lot. He helped me understand three very...

Religous Freedom in the United States

Many are using the term "Freedom of Worship" in discussing the HHS Mandate forcing religous hospitals, schools, and food pantries to provide  abortion, abortificants, contraceptive, and sterilization health care coverage to their employees. Individuals who have issued the HHS Mandate ( sadly it is already in the federal book of laws) employ the above-mentioned term  "Freedom of Worship."
  Please pause for a few minutes to reflect on the implications of the phrase "freedom of worship." Freedom of worship is the freedom to worship inside the place of worship; the implication, diagnosed by Aristotealian Logic, of this terminology is that worship is  confined to within the walls of that paticular worship building, and that the affects of that worship ( i.e. potential conversion of hearts toward faith, towards hope) can not be expressed outside the walls of the paticular place of worship.