"Rejoice in the Lord Always!"

I found great joy in the Agnus Dei today, the Mass setting from the Mass of the Morning Star... The music remains for me a motif, a scent of a profound underlying beauty of the Faith made intensely personal. The very familiar notes remain with me and bind, in a way, my sorrow with His at the Mass. He is the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. We do not make ourselves clean; "by His stripes we are healed." (cf. Isaiah 53:5)

And so this causes me to respond as St. Paul enjoins on us even until today: "Rejoice in the Lord always! Rejoice!" (cf. Philippians 5:4)

Even so, can joy be mixed with sorrow? YES! Because joy does not depend on us. It is a grace, as all good things are, from above. His joy is made complete with our participation; that is why we must participate both in the joy and recall it even when we face sorrow. The Cross did not eliminate sorrow or suffering... His sacrifice has given us a clarion call, a mustering point to which we have a duty and honor to observe—out of pure love of Him. When we make it about us, piousness grows hollow. When we search for joy without service, we become empty tombs of faltering, passing happiness. Love of Him in the Other cannot be ignored; if distraction appears it is an opportunity to deepen our commitment to the radical love of Christ—to go to the root of that love—that bears fruit that remains. Then we become the servants worthy of praise by the Father, for we have not divided against the Son. Rather, we have thus joined with Him in the work of the Vineyard. The Vineyard is the People of God, and we must labor no matter our state with Him if we are to share in His inheritance. Out of love for Him, we serve, and out of this love comes the everlasting joy that gives us hope in the present for a future secure in His love. May He ever deepen this gift to us for the good benefit of others.

Deo gratias!

Recalling the Father's Love

Today I am reminded again of the gifts, the insights He has given me. I recall those discreet moments where I have witnessed both father and son in prayer, at Mass, in active religious activity, and in the world. There were moments, special to me, in Rome at the General Audience across the vehicle path, another outside St. Paul Outside the Walls in the park area, and then recently one evening in Bastrop going to Mass at Ascension Parish. They gave me pause for prayer, joy, and hope. The Lord knows all good timing and of the things suitable and needed for such a vocation.

The importance of a father is not that he should be perfect but that He aims for perfection—that is goodness and selflessness of the One who is his Father—and, when that father falls short of this task, to run to Him so that He may remain in Him and his son may remain also in Him, as the Father is in the Son and the Son in the Father and both dwelling in the ones here below in their mirroring image. We may not be able to do this under our own volition, but, with God, all things are possible.

I continue to have the opportunity, the grace, to be able to approach the altar of our Lord each early Sunday morning and offer my desires, however ennobled, to Him. Today especially.

Today we celebrate Father's Day in the United States. In the Church we also celebrate Trinity Sunday, the Sunday following Pentecost. The beauty of this linked connection is that the Trinity is the sign of the life-giving example of God, in the three-persons which gives us glimpse into His triune love and His nature. We follow His example and love, and we have our beloved... and from so great a love the love that is between the two itself lives in the Holy Spirit.

This past month and from Rome, my heart has continued to contemplate these weighty thoughts and to have refined my desires through them. As it is, we rise to that which we aspire to in example. And my heart burns... What grace it is to have a hope in something unseen but promised. It is the hope given to Abraham and his descendants, even to his servant David.

...And, still, how great it is to call God "Abba! Father!"

To those earthly fathers amongst us, thank you. May God continue to strengthen you as holy men after His own heart and His example. To our spiritual fathers, may God bless you in the nourishment you hand on. And, from me, you who are young fathers, know that you give us great hope in the promise of Our Father in Heaven.

As we know from the words of St. Paul, "hope does not disappoint." Thanks be to God.

Grace Abounds

When dealing with a life bereft with poisonous temptation, as though living in a foggy swamp of noxious fumes, let us not grow weary in prudent combat against despair and malady. This is our great boon. As St. Paul writes: "Where sin is, grace abounds all the more" (cf. Romans 5:20). So it is with us. Grace is not for those who are comfortable; it is for those who are afflicted, bereft, and in need. That is why "the last shall be first" (cf. Mark 10:31).

Grace abounds "all the more" because of need, not because we have earned anything! Our place is with the Lord, no matter if we are the Faithful Son or the Prodigal Son.

Remember this when worried about the appearances of others or oneself. It is better to seek after mercy for oneself or another than it is to be quicker to condemn than our Lord. To "settle on the way" (cf. Matthew 5:25) and, in haste, to return to Him is better than a thousand days of doubt before our Lord. Forgiveness is not first in the judgement but in the asking, and it is in the judgement that, faithful to this command to love one another, we may see not only the grace of Holy Communion in this age, though beset with persecution (cf. Mark 10:30) and temptation to despair, but also Union with him in the Eternal Life to come with Him in the next.

Let us not grow hasty in our understanding of this sublime gift of grace and Holy Communion, and let us not delay in making our holy confession of guilt before Him. Let us not deny His love or refuse to share it fully. This is our "sacrifice of praise" (cf. Psalm 50:23), that He might be glorified in His love for us. Take courage in His love.

"Offer to God praise as your sacrifice
and fulfill your vows to the Most High.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God." - Psalm 50:14, 23

"O God, who provide gifts to be offered to your name
and count our oblation as signs
of our desire to serve you with devotion,
we ask of your mercy
that what you grant as the source of merit
may also help us to attain merit's reward.
Through Christ our Lord."
(Prayer over the Offerings, Tuesday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time)

So much surrounds these words above, which came to me after a weekend at Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston, "the First Week After Pentecost" (in older usage) or, in the more commonplace, the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time. The Responsorial Psalm of daily Mass that Tuesday was that of a frequently used phrase in the the Anglican Use of the Roman Rite, which speaks of vows and devotion. It is used at the end of the period of announcements and blessings (especially birthdays and wedding anniversaries). It speaks so beautifully to the wedding feast that is just then about to commence... that wedding feast where, so beautifully, grace abounds.

Agents of Love

It is because the Beloved is who the Beloved is that one at once becomes more enthralled in the pursuits of the Beloved as it is, in degree, directed towards the One Who Is Infinitely Lovable.

Such a pursuit attaches a portion of the Infinite to the Finite and beauty to what is not yet perfected. Love becomes a journey in the perfection process, not simply for gain of one's self but so also the whole world and all contained therein. It is there that we fill in what was in Christ's afflictions were 'lacking.' (cf. Col. 1:24) His Sacrifice lacks nothing except our participation, as St. Paul says, in the works that the Lord has "prepared for us to enter into." (cf. Eph. 2:10)

One's acceptance of imperfection is one of it being in the past, yet there is a perfection that we are called to in the same Spirit of the One Who Is. We mustn't be discouraged when faced with imperfection or imperfect love but, rather, be patient with the Other as He is patient with us. As the King is to his servant, so must we as his servants be patient to our fellow servants lest we be required to "pay to the last penny." (cf. Mt. 5:26)

This is the secret of love and mercy. We are called to be agents of change in this ineffable love. We are called to be agents of Love; we are called Disciples of Love.

May He be praised.

Faith Exposed

What wave is this? This that shoals the ship upon that bar of disbelief? What is this, that snuffs light from its presence?

Return to that which strengthens and to that which binds... "That I may be humble when face to face with you, but brave toward you when absent."

Are not the words of then, so also now? And what of this indescribable gift to which, ascribed to God and not to man, is not now once made live and present? Speak, O Incarnate Word!

We do not boast beyond measure, in or of the works of others that have so labor'd. But in that which increases what has already been given and takes from whom much already has been taken.

And so what foolishness would it be, that search for Truth and that search for Wisdom, if it were one led by darkness to darkness. Rather, it is Light.

What we battle is not according to the flesh; our weapons for "our battle are not of flesh but are enormously powerful." No, not a fortress could stand, nor an army could fight.

What has been written cannot be unwritten, and what has been given cannot be taken back. The Word has already spoken.

No, as He said: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness."


Cf. 2 Corinthians 9-12