The Stefaneschi Triptych: Martyrdom of Peter
Giotto di Bondone
c. 1330
Tempera on panel
Pinacoteca, Vatican
Posted on 03/05/2014 9:35:29 PM PST by Salvation
March 6, 2014
Reading 1 Dt 30:15-20
Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom.
If you obey the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin on you today,
loving him, and walking in his ways,
and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees,
you will live and grow numerous,
and the LORD, your God,
will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy.
If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen,
but are led astray and adore and serve other gods,
I tell you now that you will certainly perish;
you will not have a long life
on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy.
I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:
I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live, by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.
For that will mean life for you,
a long life for you to live on the land that the LORD swore
he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. (40:5a) Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Gospel Lk 9:22-25
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected
by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.”
Then he said to all,
“If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit himself?”
St. Colette
Feast Day: March 06
Born: 1380 : : Died: 1447
Nicollete Boilet was born at Corbie, Picardy, in France and was named in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra. Her loving parents, who were almost sixty years old when she was born, nicknamed her Colette from the time she was a baby.
Colette's father was a carpenter at an abbey in Picardy. Quiet and hard-working, Colette was a big help to her mother with the housework. Her parents noticed how their daughter liked to pray and her sensitive, loving nature.
When Colette was seventeen, both her parents died and the young woman was placed under the care of the abbot at the monastery where her father had worked. She asked for and received a hut built next to the abbey church, where she lived.
She spent her time praying and sacrificing for Jesus' Church. More and more people found out about this holy young woman. They went to see her and asked her advice about important problems. They knew that she was wise because she lived close to God. She received everybody with gentle kindness. After each visit, she would pray that her visitors would find peace of soul.
Colette was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis called the Secular Franciscan Order. She knew that the religious order of women who followed St. Francis' lifestyle are the Poor Clares. They are named after St. Clare, who as a follower of St. Francis started the order. During Colette's time, the Poor Clares strayed from their mission and needed to go back to the original purpose of their order.
St. Francis of Assisi appeared to Colette and asked her to make the necessary changes. She was surprised and afraid of such a difficult task. When she hesitated, she was struck blind for three days and mute for three more; she saw this as a sign, and trusting in God's grace traveled to the Poor Clare convents. As an example, she walked barefoot to Nice, dressed in a habit (gown worn by nuns) that was all patched up. She helped the nuns become more poor and prayerful.
The Poor Clares were inspired by St. Colette's life. She had a great devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. She also spent time frequently fasting and meditating on the passion and death of Jesus. She loved Jesus and her religious life very much.
Her prayer was, "We must faithfully keep what we have promised. If through human weakness we fail, we must always without delay arise again by means of holy penance, and give our attention to leading a good life and to dying a holy death. May the Father of all mercy, the Son by his holy passion, and the Holy Spirit, source of peace, sweetness and love, fill us with their consolation. Amen."
She was very fond of animals and took good care of them. Colette knew exactly when and where she was going to die. She died in one of her convents in Ghent, Flanders, in 1447 at the age of sixty-seven.
What does it mean to say that the Holy Spirit has "spoken through the prophets"?
Already in the Old Covenant God filled men and women with the Spirit, so that they lifted up their voices for God, spoke in his name, and prepared the people for the coming of the Messiah.
In the Old Covenant God sought out men and women who were willing to let him use them to console, lead, and admonish his people. It was the Spirit of God who spoke through the mouth of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets. John the Baptist, the last of these prophets, not only foresaw the coming of the Messiah. He also met him and proclaimed him as the liberator from the power of sin.
How could the Holy Spirit work with in, with and through Mary?
Mary was totally responsive and open to God (Lk 1:38). Thus she was able to become the "Mother of God" through the working of the Holy Spirit and as Christ's Mother to become also the Mother of Christians, indeed, the Mother of all mankind.
Mary made it possible for the Holy Spirit to work the miracle of all miracles: the Incarnation of God. She gave God her Yes: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word" (Lk 1:38). Strengthened by the Holy Spirit, she went with Jesus through thick and thin, even to the foot of the Cross. There Jesus gave her to us all as our Mother (Jn 19:25-27). (YOUCAT questions 116-117)
Dig Deeper: CCC section (683 - 726) and other references here.
Part 1: The Profession of Faith (26 - 1065)
Section 2: The Profession of the Christian Faith (185 - 1065)
Chapter 3: I Believe in the Holy Spirit (683 - 1065)
"No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit."1 "God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!"'2 This knowledge of faith is possible only in the Holy Spirit: to be in touch with Christ, we must first have been touched by the Holy Spirit. He comes to meet us and kindles faith in us. By virtue of our Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, the Holy Spirit in the Church communicates to us, intimately and personally, the life that originates in the Father and is offered to us in the Son. Baptism gives us the grace of new birth in God the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. For those who bear God's Spirit are led to the Word, that is, to the Son, and the Son presents them to the Father, and the Father confers incorruptibility on them. And it is impossible to see God's Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, for the knowledge of the Father is the Son, and the knowledge of God's Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit.3
1.
2.
3.
St. Irenaeus, Dem. ap. 7: SCh 62,41-42.
Through his grace, the Holy Spirit is the first to awaken faith in us and to communicate to us the new life, which is to "know the Father and the one whom he has sent, Jesus Christ."4 But the Spirit is the last of the persons of the Holy Trinity to be revealed. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, the Theologian, explains this progression in terms of the pedagogy of divine "condescension": The Old Testament proclaimed the Father clearly, but the Son more obscurely. The New Testament revealed the Son and gave us a glimpse of the divinity of the Spirit. Now the Spirit dwells among us and grants us a clearer vision of himself. It was not prudent, when the divinity of the Father had not yet been confessed, to proclaim the Son openly and, when the divinity of the Son was not yet admitted, to add the Holy Spirit as an extra burden, to speak somewhat daringly. ... By advancing and progressing "from glory to glory," the light of the Trinity will shine in ever more brilliant rays.5
4.
5.
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio theol.,5,26 (= Oratio 31,26):PG 36,161-163.
To believe in the Holy Spirit is to profess that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, consubstantial with the Father and the Son: "with the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified."6 For this reason, the divine mystery of the Holy Spirit was already treated in the context of Trinitarian "theology." Here, however, we have to do with the Holy Spirit only in the divine "economy."
6.
Nicene Creed; see above, par. 465.
The Holy Spirit is at work with the Father and the Son from the beginning to the completion of the plan for our salvation. But in these "end times," ushered in by the Son's redeeming Incarnation, the Spirit is revealed and given, recognized and welcomed as a person. Now can this divine plan, accomplished in Christ, the firstborn and head of the new creation, be embodied in mankind by the outpouring of the Spirit: as the Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
Article 8: "I believe in the Holy Spirit" (687 - 747)
"No one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God."7 Now God's Spirit, who reveals God, makes known to us Christ, his Word, his living Utterance, but the Spirit does not speak of himself. The Spirit who "has spoken through the prophets" makes us hear the Father's Word, but we do not hear the Spirit himself. We know him only in the movement by which he reveals the Word to us and disposes us to welcome him in faith. The Spirit of truth who "unveils" Christ to us "will not speak on his own."8 Such properly divine self-effacement explains why "the world cannot receive [him], because it neither sees him nor knows him," while those who believe in Christ know the Spirit because he dwells with them.9
7.
8.
9.
The Church, a communion living in the faith of the apostles which she transmits, is the place where we know the Holy Spirit:
I. THE JOINT MISSION OF THE SON AND THE SPIRIT ⇡
The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly God.10 Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world. In adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the Church's faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen, the visible image of the invisible God, but it is the Spirit who reveals him.
10.
Cf. Gal 4:6.
Jesus is Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that occurs from the Incarnation on derives from this fullness.11 When Christ is finally glorified,12 he can in turn send the Spirit from his place with the Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory,13 that is, the Holy Spirit who glorifies him.14 From that time on, this joint mission will be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live in him: The notion of anointing suggests ... that there is no distance between the Son and the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the confession of the Son's Lordship is made in the Holy Spirit by those who receive him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.15
11.
Cf. Jn 3:34.
12.
13.
Cf. Jn 17:22.
14.
Cf. Jn 16:14.
15.
St. Gregory of Nyssa, De Spiritu Sancto, 16:PG 45,1321A-B.
II. THE NAME, TITLES, AND SYMBOLS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ⇡
The proper name of the Holy Spirit ⇡
"Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father and the Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in the Baptism of her new children.16 The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah, which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of him who is personally God's breath, the divine Spirit.17 On the other hand, "Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designate the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy."
16.
Cf. Mt 28:19.
17.
Titles of the Holy Spirit ⇡
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the "Paraclete," literally, "he who is called to one's side," ad-vocatus.18 "Paraclete" is commonly translated by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler.19 The Lord also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth."20
18.
Jn 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7.
19.
Cf. 1 Jn 2:1.
20.
Besides the proper name of "Holy Spirit," which is most frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, we also find in St. Paul the titles: the Spirit of the promise,21 the Spirit of adoption,22 the Spirit of Christ,23 the Spirit of the Lord,24 and the Spirit of God25 — and, in St. Peter, the Spirit of glory.26
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
Rom 8:9, 14; 15:19; 1 Cor 6:11; 7:40.
26.
Symbols of the Holy Spirit ⇡
Water. The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit's action in Baptism, since after the invocation of the Holy Spirit it becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all baptized," so we are also "made to drink of one Spirit."27 Thus the Spirit is also personally the living water welling up from Christ crucified28 as its source and welling up in us to eternal life.29
27.
28.
29.
Cf. Jn 4:10-14; 7:38; Ex 17:1-6; Isa 55:1; Zech 14:8; 1 Cor 10:4; Rev 21:6; 22:17.
Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit,30 to the point of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "chrismation" in the Churches of the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew "messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David.31 But Jesus is God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ."32 The Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel, proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the temple to see the Christ of the Lord.33 The Spirit filled Christ and the power of the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving.34 Finally, it was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.35 Now, fully established as "Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit abundantly until "the saints" constitute — in their union with the humanity of the Son of God — that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ":36 "the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's expression.
30.
Cf. 1 Jn 2:20,27; 2 Cor 1:21.
31.
Cf. Ex 30:22-32; 1 Sam 16:13.
32.
Cf. Lk 4:18-19; Isa 61:1.
33.
Cf. Lk 2:11,26-27.
34.
Cf. Lk 4:1; 6:19; 8:46.
35.
Cf. Rom 1:4; 8:11.
36.
Fire. While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who "arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch," brought down fire from heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel.37 This event was a "figure" of the fire of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes "before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims Christ as the one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."38 Jesus will say of the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!"39 In the form of tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself40 The spiritual tradition has retained this symbolism of fire as one of the most expressive images of the Holy Spirit's actions.41 "Do not quench the Spirit."42
37.
Sir 48:1; cf. 1 Kings 18:38-39.
38.
39.
40.
41.
Cf. St. John of the Cross, The Living Flame of Love, in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. K. Kavanaugh, OCD, and O. Rodriguez, OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1979), 577 ff.
42.
Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of his glory — with Moses on Mount Sinai,43 at the tent of meeting,44 and during the wandering in the desert,45 and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple.46 In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes upon the Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to Jesus.47 On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came out of the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!'"48 Finally, the cloud took Jesus out of the sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension and will reveal him as Son of man in glory on the day of his final coming.49
43.
Cf. Ex 24:15-18.
44.
Cf. Ex 33:9-10.
45.
Cf. Ex 40:36-38; 1 Cor 10:1-2.
46.
Cf. 1 Kings 8:10-12.
47.
48.
49.
The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on Christ and also seals us in him.50 Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has been used in some theological traditions to express the indelible "character" imprinted by these three unrepeatable sacraments.
50.
Jn 6:27; cf. 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:3.
The hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them.51 In his name the apostles will do the same.52 Even more pointedly, it is by the Apostles' imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given.53 The Letter to the Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its teaching.54 The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit in its sacramental epicleses.
51.
Cf. Mk 6:5; 8:23; 10:16.
52.
Cf. Mk 16:18; Acts 5:12; 14:3.
53.
54.
Cf. Heb 6:2.
The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons."55 If God's law was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts."56 The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's right hand."57
55.
56.
57.
LH, Easter Season after Ascension, Hymn at Vespers: digitus paternae dexterae.
The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign that the earth was again habitable.58 When Christ comes up from the water of his baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, comes down upon him and remains with him.59 The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a metal receptacle in the form of a dove (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian iconography traditionally uses a dove to suggest the Spirit.
58.
Cf. Gen 8:8-12.
59.
Cf. Mt 3:16 and parallels.
III. GOD'S SPIRIT AND WORD IN THE TIME OF THE PROMISES ⇡
From the beginning until "the fullness of time,"60 the joint mission of the Father's Word and Spirit remains hidden, but it is at work. God's Spirit prepares for the time of the Messiah. Neither is fully revealed but both are already promised, to be watched for and welcomed at their manifestation. So, for this reason, when the Church reads the Old Testament, she searches there for what the Spirit, "who has spoken through the prophets," wants to tell us about Christ.61 By "prophets" the faith of the Church here understands all whom the Holy Spirit inspired in living proclamation and the composition of the sacred books, both of the Old and the New Testaments. Jewish tradition distinguishes first the Law (the five first books or Pentateuch), then the Prophets (our historical and prophetic books) and finally the Writings (especially the wisdom literature, in particular the Psalms).62
60.
61.
Cf. 2 Cor 3:14; Jn 5:39,46.
62.
Cf. Lk 24:44.
Thursday, March 6
Liturgical Color: Violet
Today the Church honors St. Sylvester
of Assisi. St. Sylvester was the first
priest ordained in the Franciscan order.
Feeling guilty about overcharging St.
Francis for stone to rebuild a church, he
repented and became a very holy priest.
| Luke | |||
| English: Douay-Rheims | Latin: Vulgata Clementina | Greek NT: Byzantine/Majority Text (2000) | |
| Luke 9 |
|||
| 22. | Saying: The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the ancients and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day rise again. | dicens : Quia oportet Filium hominis multa pati, et reprobari a senioribus, et principibus sacerdotum, et scribis, et occidi, et tertia die resurgere. | ειπων οτι δει τον υιον του ανθρωπου πολλα παθειν και αποδοκιμασθηναι απο των πρεσβυτερων και αρχιερεων και γραμματεων και αποκτανθηναι και τη τριτη ημερα αναστηναι |
| 23. | And he said to all: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. | Dicebat autem ad omnes : Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam quotidie, et sequatur me. | ελεγεν δε προς παντας ει τις θελει οπισω μου ελθειν απαρνησασθω εαυτον και αρατω τον σταυρον αυτου και ακολουθειτω μοι |
| 24. | For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it. | Qui enim voluerit animam suam salvam facere, perdet illam : nam qui perdiderit animam suam propter me, salvam faciet illam. | ος γαρ εαν θελη την ψυχην αυτου σωσαι απολεσει αυτην ος δ αν απολεση την ψυχην αυτου ενεκεν εμου ουτος σωσει αυτην |
| 25. | For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, and cast away himself? | Quid enim proficit homo, si lucretur universum mundum, se autem ipsum perdat, et detrimentum sui faciat ? | τι γαρ ωφελειται ανθρωπος κερδησας τον κοσμον ολον εαυτον δε απολεσας η ζημιωθεις |
Daily Readings for:March 06, 2014
(Readings on USCCB website)
Collect: Prompt our actions with your inspiration, we pray, O Lord, and further them with your constant help, that all we do may always begin from you and by you be brought to completion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
RECIPES
ACTIVITIES
o Lenten Practices for Children
o Precious Coins: Mortification and Self-Denial
PRAYERS
o Prayer from Ash Wednesday to Saturday
· Lent: March 6th
· Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Old Calendar: Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas, martyrs; St. Colette, virgin & religious (Hist)
"If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20)." The need to make reparation is a vital, inescapable urge of a free person. His very nature cries out for order and peace. His reason tells him that where an order has been violated, the order must be repaired; and the higher the order, the greater must be the reparation. To be free at all, is to accept the responsibility for atonement. Sin is a violation of God's order. Sin demands reparation — the reparation of personal penance, personal prayer, personal charity to all. Part of our atonement to God is made by serving our fellow men. — Daily Missal of the Mystical Body
According to the 1962 Missal of Bl. John XXIII the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite, today is the feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas. Their feast in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite is celebrated on March 7. Historically today is the feast of St. Colette, who revived the Franciscan spirit among the Poor Clares. Her reform spread throughout France, Savoy, Germany and Flanders, many convents being restored and seventeen new ones founded by her. She helped St. Vincent Ferrer in the work of healing the papal schism.
St. Colette
Born in 1380, Nicolette was named in honor of St. Nicholas of Myra. Her loving parents nicknamed her Colette from the time she was a baby. Colette's father was a carpenter at an abbey in Picardy. Quiet and hard-working, Colette was a big help to her mother with the housework. Her parents noticed the child's liking for prayer and her sensitive, loving nature.
When Colette was seventeen, both her parents died. The young woman was placed under the care of the abbot at the monastery where her father had worked. She asked for and received a hut built next to the abbey church. Colette lived there. She spent her time praying and sacrificing for Jesus' Church. More and more people found out about this holy young woman. They went to see her and asked her advice about important problems. They knew that she was wise because she lived close to God. She received everybody with gentle kindness. After each visit, she would pray that her visitors would find peace of soul. Colette was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis. She knew that the religious order of women who followed St. Francis' lifestyle are the Poor Clares. They are named after St. Clare, their foundress, who was a follower of St. Francis. During Colette's time, the Poor Clares needed to go back to the original purpose of their order. St. Francis of Assisi appeared to Colette and asked her to reform the Poor Clares. She must have been surprised and afraid of such a difficult task. But she trusted in God's grace. Colette traveled to the Poor Clare convents. She helped the nuns become more poor and prayerful.
The Poor Clares were inspired by St. Colette's life. She had a great devotion to Jesus in the Eucharist. She also spent time frequently meditating on the passion and death of Jesus. She loved Jesus and her religious vocation very much.
Colette knew exactly when and where she was going to die. She died in one of her convents in Ghent, Flanders, in 1447. She was sixty-seven. Colette was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius VI in 1807.
Excerpted from Holy Spirit Interactive
Things to Do:
Today's station is at St. George's. Pope St. Gregory established a diaconia, an institution that cared for the poor, at the site of this church. The area has a special place in the history of Rome, as an ancient tradition claims that it was here that Romulus killed his brother Remus before founding the city.
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. (Deuteronomy 30:19)
A man and woman say, “I do” on their wedding day. A new president “solemnly swears” to uphold the nation’s constitution on Inauguration Day. A young woman vows to “never do harm” on the day she takes the Hippocratic Oath and becomes a doctor. All of these are pivotal moments in a person’s life, moments when an important choice is made and a new path opens up.
The Israelites faced a similar moment when Moses called them to embrace their covenant with God as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. It was a life-and-death choice, and Moses urged them to choose wisely.
Scripture has countless other examples of people facing important choices: Adam and Eve in the garden; Mary deciding whether to accept the angel’s invitation to be Mother of the Redeemer; Matthew’s choice to leave his tax collection table and follow Jesus. The list goes on and on!
All of these initial, life-altering choices need to be “fleshed out” in everyday life. The newlyweds have to choose every day to uphold their vows, “for better or worse.” Matthew had to reaffirm his choice to follow Jesus, even on those days when he missed his comfortable life back home. And Mary must have prayed, “May it be done to me according to your word” on a regular basis (Luke 1:38).
Especially during the season of Lent, we might want to focus on all the choices we have to make. What should we give up? How much time should we spend praying? What about fasting? But this year, let’s shift the focus to see what God wants to do for us. Day in and day out, we face choices—this is true. But it’s just as true that our heavenly Father is with us day in and day out, offering us grace upon grace so that we can choose life every time.
God wants to bless you. He wants to do everything he can to keep you on the path of life. That’s why he is so merciful and forgiving. So don’t give up. Choose life every day!
“Heavenly Father, thank you for your desire to bless me! I choose you today. I choose to receive the grace that comes from following you.”
Psalm 1:1-4, 6; Luke 9:22-25
Daily Marriage Tip for March 6, 2014:
It’s natural for couples to have different strengths. This division of labor can save time. Sometimes, however, it’s fun to teach each other a personal skill – like how to sew on a button or play a musical instrument. Teach each other something new today, and be patient!
For My Oblates . . . and Others
Wednesday, 05 March 2014 14:35
Saint Benedict the Practical
When it comes to the observance of Lent, Saint Benedict is very practical, very concrete. He doesn’t spend a lot of time telling us what we ought to think. He doesn’t tell us what to say. Thoughts about penitence are not penitence. Talking about penitence is not doing it. The patterns of our life are changed, in the end, by what we do. Thoughts are necessary, it is true; but a thought of penitence never translated into action is perfectly useless. Words are helpful — sometimes — but words that come out of our mouths to float in the air and disappear do nothing to advance our conversion. Deeds change our lives; deeds re-orient our hearts. They need not be big deeds. Very little ones are surprisingly effective, especially when one little deed follows another and another and another, creating a pattern of conversion.
The Moses of Monks
Saint Benedict, our law-giver, the “Moses of monks” as the tradition calls him, shows us how to carry out the choice for life that Moses, the law-giver of Israel, presents in Deuteronomy. “Choose life, that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice,and cleaving to him” (Dt 30:19-20). Holy Father Benedict’s presentation of Lenten observance can be summed up in two little words: more and less.
More
More: “At this season let us increase in some way the normal standard of our service, as for example, by special prayers, or by a diminution in food and drink.” He insists on our doing something. More prayer. Thinking about doing more prayer is not more prayer. Get up five minutes early to make more time for prayer and you are doing something. Give up five minutes of looking at the newspaper and give it to God in prayer. That is doing something.
Lectio Divina
In Chapter 48 Saint Benedict is explicit about more lectio divina. He even rearranges the daily schedule in order to provide more time for reading during Lent. Do you see how very concrete he is? It is not enough to think about doing more lectio, not enough to talk about doing more lectio. He goes about it very concretely by changing the order of the day. He commissions one or two seniors to go about the monastery to see that the brethren are not wasting the time aside for more lectio by engaging in more of what they should be doing less: talking, wasting time, and distracting others.
Less
Less: less food, less drink, less sleep, less talkativeness, less looseness in speech (cf. RB 49:7). Many folks are put off by Saint Benedict’s proposals, but that may be because they read them without taking them in reflectively. He says “less”; he doesn’t say how much less. This is where Holy Father Benedict meets Saint Thérèse, the Doctor of the “Little Way.” The “less” of Saint Benedict is the very little thing of Thérèse: the word saved for recreation, the second or third cup of coffee, the unkind judgment nipped in the bud.
Do Something
The choice for life remains, all too easily, something that floats in the mist of pious aspirations without taking shape in deeds. Moses teaches that the choice for life comes down to three things: “Love the Lord your God, heed his voice, and cling to him” (Dt 30:20). Even these three things risk being formless and vague. Translate, “love the Lord your God,” into one concrete act of love — today. Don’t think about loving God, do something to make it real. Translate, “heed his voice,” into one concrete act of obedience, of silence — today. Translate, “cling to him,” into a choice for prayer that will cut into your routine and affect your management of time — today. It need not be long. Pure prayer is often brief.
A Eucharistic Oblation
For Saint Benedict all of these little deeds have immense Eucharistic potential. In speaking of our Lenten deeds of “more” and “less,” he uses terms that evoke the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: ” . . . cum gaudio Sancti Spiritus offerat Deo” (RB 49:6)” — “let each one make offering to God in the joy of the Holy Spirit.” The “shapes and forms” of Lenten deeds are joined to the “shapes and forms” of the bread and wine placed on the altar.
An Offertory Procession
Lest there be in our offering any impurity of pride, presumption, or vainglory, Saint Benedict would have both our “more” and our “less” submitted to the Abbot for blessing and approval. The line of monks going to the office of the Abbot, each one asking for blessing and approval of his Lenten “more” and “less,” is the offertory procession of Lent, making each deed worthy of oblation in the joy of the Holy Spirit. Lent is just this: a procession to the altar, a movement into the mystery of the Cross. How could it be anything but joy?
The Desert of the Most Holy Sacrament
Wednesday, 05 March 2014 19:39
This painting of Christ in the wilderness is the work of Alessandro Bonvicino (1498–1554), know as the Moretto da Brescia. It is found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Christ is depicted here as The New Adam around whom the beasts and the birds of the air assemble in reverent homage. Notice how all the beasts and birds are inclined in an attitude of adoration. They recognise the Lord, their Lord, whose Name is wonderful in all the earth. Above the head of Christ are two angels, one ascending and one descending, to signify His divine mediatorship during His time of prayer and fasting in the wilderness.
Mectilde de Bar on Lent
Mother Mectilde de Bar preached this exhortation to her community assembled in Chapter one Ash Wednesday. A true Benedictine, she puts her finger on pride, identifying it as “the source of all our faults and even of all our misfortunes.” Pride is the satanic sin par excellence because the prideful man claims for himself the sovereign lordship that belongs to God alone. The only remedy for pride is to have one’s heart broken and humbled. Fortunately for us, God so arranges our lives that we are given opportunities to suffer broken hearts and to be humbled, and this over and over again, until at last we concede that God is God and we are not.
From Pride to Contrition
Pride is the source of all our faults and even of all our misfortunes. So as to destroy it, today the Holy Church reminds us that we are but dust and ashes. Without doubt we will receive from this holy ceremony wonderful effects for our souls, if we bring to it the necessary dispositions and believe that it is God who is saying to us that are but dust and ashes, an abominable nullity of sin; that by pride we have raised ourselves up and put ourselves on the very throne of God; that we have made His graces useless and ourselves, with our sins, abominable in His presence. All of this must make us enter into a disposition of true penitence, which really consists in having a contrite and humbled heart.
Again, being a true Benedictine, Mother Mectilde does not go in for major corporal penances and exploits of asceticism. In most souls such things do little more than foment spiritual pride and rash judgment of others. Far better to ask God to break and humble one’s heart.
Useless Penitential Exploits
Even if they may contribute something, fasting, disciplines, and instruments of penance do not really make us penitent. It very often happens that in practicing these things without the requisite dispositions they are worth nothing to us. It is necessary then to present a heart that is truly contrite and humbled to God.
Here Mother Mectilde has one of her astonishing insights into the Eucharistic Christ. In this world, the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar is His desert. He is the Divine Solitary of the tabernacle. Of course, Our Lord does not suffer a material solitude because under the form of the Sacred Species He is locked in the tabernacle. He suffers rather the solitude of the Lamb charged with the weight of the sins of the world, the solitude of the Expiatory Victim who enters more deeply into the abyss of evil than any other man in history, and who, out of the horror of that abyss, shows the Father His Face: the Face of Obedient Love, the Face of the New Adam. Mother Mectilde would have her Benedictines join Christ there, in the frightful solitude of His priestly mediation. She calls them to a double identification: first, identification with sinners, and second, identification with the sinless Lamb.
Christ in the Desert of the Most Holy Sacrament
We must flee from creatures, withdraw into solitude, and keep a profound silence, and, through these things, enter into the dispositions of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not necessary that we should go looking for Him in the deserts of Palestine, where once He withdrew and fasted for forty days. He is solitary in the desert of the Most Holy Sacrament: there He has taken upon Himself the sins of all men, becoming (for our sakes) the penitent of the Eternal Father.
All sin is serious. The sins of consecrated souls, even if, objectively, the matter may be of a lesser gravity, lacerate the Heart of Jesus, which remains, even in glory, divinely, exquisitely sensitive to the coldness, indifference, and cheap betrayals of those whom He has chosen to live in intimacy with Him.
Call to Reparation
Whatever do you think He suffers in this divine Sacrament? My friends, if God granted me the capacity to explain His sufferings, I would show you that He suffers not only from the crimes of sinners, but also that the very smallest imperfection of souls consecrated to Him wounds His Heart. Consider what our obligation is: we must make reparation for so many outrages and become victims (hosties) immolated for all the sins of men.
Humility, says Mother Mectilde, is the remedy for everything. For everything. Humility goes hand in hand with contrition, and both are found in identification and in communion with the Lamb of God who, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, remains the pure Victim, the holy Victim, the spotless Victim. Some people, misunderstanding the notion of victimhood, think that it is a rare and unusual grace conceded to a few privileged souls. Such is not the teaching of the Church in the Sacred Liturgy. Any one who participates in Holy Mass fully, consciously, and actually, and receives Holy Communion, becomes by that very fact a victim soul. This is, in fact, the object of the Secret of the Votive Mass of Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest: “O Lord, may Jesus Christ, our Mediator render these offerings acceptable to Thee, and may He present us with Himself as victims agreeable to Thee.”
The Dispositions of Christ in the Most Holy Sacrament
Humility is the remedy for everything and, to my mind, one who has a true contrition will never fall again into sin. This is among God’s rarest and greatest gifts. It is true that we feel a fleeting sorrow, but to have a true contrition it is needful to give oneself profoundly to Jesus Christ and enter into His dispositions in the Most Holy Sacrament, where are contained wonders capable of occupying our whole life. It is shameful that we live days and hours without being entirely absorbed by it.>
Between the porch and the altar
Thursday, 06 March 2014 14:16
The priests shall pray, with fasting and with weeping, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare Thy people, and give not Thine heritage to destruction.
V. The priests shall weep between the porch and the altar, and shall say: Spare, O Lord, spare Thy people, and give not Thine heritage to destruction (Joel 2:17).
Intercessors and Reparators
In the First Lesson at Mass on Ash Wednesday (Joel 2:12-18), as well as in one of the magnificent Lenten responsories at Matins, the Prophet Joel emphasizes the role of the priests who serve in the temple, the ministers of the Lord. Taking their place as mediators between the porch and the altar, they represent sinful men before the Face of the All-Holy God, and the Mercy of God before sinful men. Theirs is, in effect, a mediatorship of intercession and reparation.
A Victim Unspotted
The priestly mediatorship of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of the men with whom He shares His priesthood through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, fulfils and perfects the priestly mediatorship of the Old Dispensation. The Servant of God Pope Pius XII writes in Mediator Dei, his monumental 1947 encyclical on the Sacred Liturgy:
Mediator between God and men and High Priest who has gone before us into heaven, Jesus the Son of God quite clearly had one aim in view when He undertook the mission of mercy which was to endow mankind with the rich blessings of supernatural grace. Sin had disturbed the right relationship between man and his Creator; the Son of God would restore it. The children of Adam were wretched heirs to the infection of original sin; He would bring them back to their heavenly Father, the primal source and final destiny of all things. For this reason He was not content, while He dwelt with us on earth, merely to give notice that redemption had begun, and to proclaim the long-awaited Kingdom of God, but gave Himself besides in prayer and sacrifice to the task of saving souls, even to the point of offering Himself, as He hung from the cross, a Victim unspotted unto God, to purify our conscience of dead works, to serve the living God.[3] Thus happily were all men summoned back from the byways leading them down to ruin and disaster, to be set squarely once again upon the path that leads to God. Thanks to the shedding of the blood of the Immaculate Lamb, now each might set about the personal task of achieving his own sanctification, so rendering to God the glory due to Him.
For Priests
In the life of adoration and reparation that we try to live at Silverstream Priory, there is a compelling awareness of the call to participate in Our Lord’s priestly mediation by abiding “between the porch and the altar,” that is, between those of our brother priests on mission to the world; those whom circumstances have, in some way or another, separated from the altar; and those who, being alienated from the altar, have lost sight of the wellspring and summit of their priestly service.
The word “altar” represents not only the place of sacrifice, but also the one offered upon it, and the fire from heaven that ratifies and consumes the oblation. Pope Pius XII writes, “The Church prolongs the priestly mission of Jesus Christ mainly by means of the sacred liturgy. She does this in the first place at the altar, where constantly the sacrifice of the cross is represented and with a single difference in the manner of its offering, renewed.” As Benedictine Monks of Perpetual Adoration, we are called to place our own bodies in the breach and, in some way, by the oblation of ourselves, to close the gap between “the porch and the altar.” Listen again to Pope Pius XII:
The divine Redeemer has so willed it that the priestly life begun with the supplication and sacrifice of His mortal body should continue without intermission down the ages in His Mystical Body which is the Church. That is why He established a visible priesthood to offer everywhere the clean oblation[4] which would enable men from East to West, freed from the shackles of sin, to offer God that unconstrained and voluntary homage which their conscience dictates.
Present Your Bodies as a Living Sacrifice
The priestly life of the Redeemer — one of supplication and of sacrifice, or victimhood — is prolonged not only in the priesthood of the ordained, but also in the oblation of the lay faithful who take to heart the exhortation of the Apostle:
I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service (Rom 12:1).
One of the singular graces of this Lent will be, it seems to me, a more profound awareness of what it means to abide in a state of adoration and victimal oblation “between the porch and the altar,” before the Eucharistic Face of Jesus, for the sake His beloved priests, and of His Spouse, the Church.
The saints determine the dates that count
Thursday, 06 March 2014 19:47
Every Lent I choose — or rather ask Our Lord to choose for me — a saint or saints to be my Lenten companions. From Ash Wednesday until Holy Pascha I journey with them, converse with them, seek their intercession, and marvel at their friendship. Some years ago I re–read, as if for the first time, Dom Bonaventure Sodar’s introduction to a book published in 1925 by the Abbey of Maredsous as part of the wonderful old monastic collection Pax. A particularly compelling passage on the saints moved me deeply; I translated it and offer it again today, having certain dear friends in mind (J.H., A.B.C., J.H., and P.K). In a few places I was obliged to lighten or rework Dom Sodar’s gloriously subtle tournures de phrase. I hope that, in reading it, you will find the text as stimulating as I did in translating it.
The Exigencies of the Divine Majesty
After the sacraments, which introduce us into the circulation of the very life of God, the great blessing that He gives us is contact with the saints. No one can approach the saints without rather quickly feeling a salutary uneasiness: the uncomfortable memory of a past that is lost to us and of a present that is more or less off course. The saints have a way of affirming that the exigencies of the Divine Majesty have a bearing on them; this casts low our prideful pretensions and throws us into a state of amazement. The saints have a certain way of thinking of God, of silencing themselves before Him, and of pronouncing His Name, which compels us to groan with them . . . and to say as they did, trembling all the while, “Where then is our awe?”
For Those Caught in Life’s Wreckage
The saints also have a way of thinking of an other, of listening to an other, of speaking to an other; they stretch forth their hands to those caught in life’s wreckage, they make every poverty their own poverty, they restore dignity to those who have fallen. The saints have a certain way of not thinking of themselves and of emptying their souls of themselves. Doing this, they open within their souls an abyss of detachment capable of holding whatever miseries we care to hurl into it.
Right Into the Arms of Christ
The saints act upon us less by their exhortations than by their examples, and less by what they do than by what they are. It is the radiance of their charity that presses us right into the arms of Christ. The saints are irresistible, as the Almighty is irresistible, because, in the image of God, they have become pure love.
Their Sympathy Opens Our Souls
One who has not kept company with the saints passes his time on earth in a cold isolation. One who has not been charmed by them knows nothing of the price of friendship. One who would know oneself, and move beyond the wisdom of the world’s philosophers, must yield to the attraction of the saints. More than analysis and more than study, their sympathy opens our souls. When an unfulfilled heart yearns for the mysterious joys of a noble love with its battles and its triumphs, it need only recall that never has love been sung, or wept over, or lived as by these heroes. The saints stand ready at every moment to intone with accents that are ever new the canticle of eternity: Unus uni. “My Beloved is mine and I am His. Mine eyes have dried up with weeping as I wait for my Beloved.”
The Hand of An Other
Seeing the saints so full of courage, so uncompromisingly given to God alone, who of us would not say, “And I, am I not Christian too?” — and then — Quod isti et quod istae, cur non ego? “If they succeeded, why in my place should I not try ?” A noble ambition, but it is not prudent to set out unaccompanied on a path so perilous and harsh. So as not to slip and fall, one needs the hand of an other. Lest one grow faint and succumb to weariness, one needs the example of their enthusiasm. Lest one lose one’s way, one needs the brightness of their torches. In the chaos and obscurity of this vain and empty world –inanis et vacua – it is their light that makes life’s great avenues places of security and order, even unto salvation.
The Dates That Count
It is the saints who make history’s epochs what they are. More than captains, and academics, more than politicians, and artists, and philosophers, it is the saints who confer distinction on the centuries. The saints determine the dates that count. Should one want to reduce the events of world history to their true proportions, it would be enough to mark the passage of the saints. They alone signal the days and hours of the coming Kingdom, and the unfolding drama of the Divine Warrior, and of His conquest of souls.
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Luke 9:22-25 Jesus said to his disciples, "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." Then he said to all, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? Introductory Prayer: Lord Jesus, you did not flee before suffering, but did what your love for us told you to do. I trust in you. Lord Jesus, you went towards Jerusalem in the hope that we would return to the Father’s home. I hope in you, for you did not put a limit on your love. Even when you were rejected and put to death by your enemies, you prayed for them. Lord, I love you. Petition: Lord, help me to see the redeeming power of the cross you have laid on my shoulders and embrace it. 1. An Opportunity to be Relished: Suffering is present at every turn of life. Our tendency is to flee from it, to avoid it. This holds true from the small scratch we get when we first fall off our bicycle to the profound sorrow we feel when a friend betrays us. When we feel pain, we take every means in our power to get rid of it. In today’s society, there is a medicine to alleviate any pain or suffering we might feel. Yet, in every suffering there is a lesson, and we remember the lesson better when we have suffered to learn it. Christ foresaw his rejection, suffering, and death, yet did not flee them. He embraced them as a way of showing his most profound love: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). It is what parents do when they give their children their time and attention. It is what real friends do when they serve without counting the cost. It is what we do when we help someone in need. 2. Taking Comfort Even When I Fall:Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed. With the passing of time we may tire of our defects and their effects. The constant, on-going battle to follow Christ may slowly wear us down. The path to perfection in the virtues is surely full of rewards, but it has its share of wear-and-tear. We should not become discouraged even if we fall a thousand times, as long as we love the fight and not the fall. It therefore makes no sense to despair, especially when we fight with Christ on our side. The effort of a prolonged battle can please Christ more than an easy and comfortable victory. Christ reminds us: He will suffer greatly, be rejected and killed, and everyone who wants to be his disciple must take up his cross and follow him. 3. When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong:With the coming of Christ on the earth, suffering took on a new meaning. He gave us the possibility to give to suffering, illness and pain—the consequences of sin—the redemptive and salvific meaning of love. When the apostles asked our Lord who was responsible for the misfortune of a man blind from birth, Christ answered: “Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him” (John 9:3). Misfortune and weaknesses made St. Paul exclaim: “Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). It is through denial of self, through the recognition of our weakness, through willfully embracing our trials and sufferings, that we can show the strength of God and the wonders of God in our life. Conversation with Christ: Lord, help me to see all that happens to me, even pain, suffering and illness, as an opportunity to love, grow in love and offer you my love. Resolution: Before doing something today I will pause to examine the motives for which I do it: is it for me or for God? If it is only for me, I will rectify my intentions or leave the deed aside, especially if I have the opportunity to do something else for God or to serve God in my neighbor |
March 6, 2014
Suffering is part of being alive. We are called in life to love. But to love is also to suffer. Knowing our human tendency to avoid pain and suffering, our Lord reminded his followers of the inevitability of suffering in life and the relationship between love and pain. The ancient Chinese in some way understood this reality. That is why like the Greeks of old, they have more than one word for love. One such word could also be translated as pain. Even if pain and suffering are essential elements in the reality of living and loving, joy and contentment are as much part of loving and living. However, the meaning of carrying one’s cross is not just bearing our burdens or sufferings, it has a mission part. Loving is very much the mission of the cross. We learn the value of being human beings created to love and be loved and that makes sharing Christ’s yoke light because as we participate in that mission we are being redeemed from our sinful inclinations.
As our Lord Jesus had said the Son of Man must suffer and die but on the third day will be raised to life. This is a great consolation for all of us who are suffering one way or another. Our Lenten practices are reminders for us that to be able to live and love as followers of our Lord, we have to die to our selfish desires. But we can all look forward with hope for we all know that the resurrection of our Lord follows after his passion and death. Even so, when we are faced with setbacks and various forms of suffering in our lives, can we still have the joy and hope of Easter in our hearts? On the other hand, given a choice, shall we choose the rough and difficult road which is the way God wants us to take to be able to reach him? Or shall we choose the easy and smooth road leading us away from the Lord?
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