The parting words of Jesus are known as The Great Commission. Before He returns to the Father, Jesus gives his apostles this directive: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son…
“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” (1 Cor 15:55). The Lamb of God defeats death by death, to the eternal confusion of the powers of darkness and the eternal splendor of the children of light. What looked like an abysmal failure is the…
We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You. Because, by Your holy Cross, You have redeemed the world. “Carrying the cross” and “being crucified with Jesus” are two overlapping metaphors that apply to the whole of the Christian life. Still, in terms of the intensity of suffering, one could make a distinction between carrying…
Some of the words of Jesus are easier for us to hear than others. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” is soothing balm for the troubled heart (Matt 11:28). The next verse, however, points to one of the most challenging aspects of the Christian life:…
Last month, in the second sorrowful mystery, we contemplated Jesus’ lacerated body. Now, in the third sorrowful mystery, our focus shifts to His lacerated heart. Our Saviour is clothed in a purple garment and a crown of thorns is cruelly pressed into His head – a mock king for the jeering pleasure of an obnoxious…
The scourging of Jesus at the pillar is a heartrending scene. The most innocent Lamb of God delivers His body over to one of the cruelest and most barbaric of punishments – a Roman scourging – to show us the depth of His love for us in our human weakness. Ever since the Fall of…
Soon after solid spiritual reading became a part of my daily life, I was struck by the emphasis the saints place upon the Passion of Jesus. The saints are unanimous in telling us to meditate on the Passion, if holiness is the desire of our hearts. In view of their wisdom, I was surprised that…
I remember looking up at the crucifix hanging in little St. Augustine’s church as a ten-year-old, thinking to myself, “I really like looking at Jesus on the Cross… but am I going to wake up one day and get bored of it? Or get bored of the Mass? It’s always the same.” Clearly, I didn’t…
When St. Thomas Aquinas’ sister asked him how to become a saint, he answered her in two words: “Desire it.” To be human is to be a creature of desire – a hunger in the flesh. I think we sometimes underestimate the power of desire in our spiritual lives. It’s easy to overcomplicate holiness, identifying…
The fruit of the third luminous mystery is the spiritual program of our entire lives as Catholic Christians: to repent and be converted, one day at a time. As Fr. Thomas Dubay pointed out in his treasure-of-a-book, Deep Conversion/Deep Prayer, the first recorded words of Christ’s public ministry were a call to conversion: “Be converted,…