†Quote of the Day "The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love. The Eucharist is the consummation of the whole spiritual life."
–St. Thomas Aquinas Today's Meditation No one can fail to understand that the Divine Eucharist bestows upon the Christian people an incomparable dignity. Not only while the Sacrifice is offered and the Sacrament is received, but as long as the Eucharist is kept in our churches and oratories, Christ is truly Emmanuel, that is, 'God with us'. Day and night He is in our midst, He dwells with us, full of grace and truth. He restores morality, nourishes virtues, consoles the afflicted, strengthens the weak. He proposes His own example to those who come to Him that all may learn to be, like Himself, meek and humble of heart and to seek not their own interests but those of God. Anyone who approaches this august Sacrament with special devotion and endeavors to return generous love for Christ's own infinite love, will experience and fully understand—not without spiritual joy and fruit—how precious is the life hidden with Christ in God and how great is the value of converse with Christ, for there is nothing more consoling on earth, nothing more efficacious for advancing along the road of holiness."
—Bl. Pope Paul VI, p.52 Daily Verse "Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever."
–John 6:53-58 | Holy Thursday On Thursday of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) the Church celebrates the three pillars of the Catholic Church instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper: the priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist. This is the traditional day for priests to gather with their bishop at the Chrism Mass, to receive oils blessed by the bishop and to publicly renew their priestly promises. In the evening the Church celebrates the Mass of the Lord's Supper. After this Mass the altar is stripped bare and the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the Tabernacle and processed to a separate altar of repose. Here the Blessed Sacrament is adored until late in the night to commemorate the time Jesus spent in Garden of Gethsemane in agonizing prayer, the start of his Passion. The Blessed Sacrament is then taken away and hidden until the Easter Vigil in memory of Our Lord's death and burial. | St. Conon of Naso St. Conon of Naso (1139–1236) was a wealthy nobleman, the son of a Count, from Naso, Italy. He was a devout young man, and at the age of 15 become a monk. He lived as a hermit until being called to serve the local monastery as its abbot. Upon the death of his parents he distributed his inheritance to the poor. While on pilgrimage to Jerusalem he had a vision of a priest he knew being choked by a snake. Conan raced to the priest to warn him of the danger. The priest's heart was convicted by the truth of the vision and confessed that he was hoarding money and neglecting the poor. Under Conan's direction the priest gave his excessive savings to the poor and recommitted his life to serving others. After his death, Conon was hailed as a miracle worker. The city of Naso experienced a series of terrible storms which destroyed crops and disrupted the shipping trade, and the city ran out of grain and other food supplies. When the famine became severe, St. Conon appeared in a vision to a ship captain who was preparing to transport a load of grain. Conon told the captain to change course and take the grain to Naso. The captain obeyed the vision and arrived in Naso with food to relieve the famine. St. Conon's feast day is March 28th. | Holy Thursday -Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper Lectionary: 39
Reading I Ex 12:1-8, 11-14 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,
"This month shall stand at the head of your calendar;
you shall reckon it the first month of the year.
Tell the whole community of Israel:
On the tenth of this month every one of your families
must procure for itself a lamb, one apiece for each household.
If a family is too small for a whole lamb,
it shall join the nearest household in procuring one
and shall share in the lamb
in proportion to the number of persons who partake of it.
The lamb must be a year-old male and without blemish.
You may take it from either the sheep or the goats.
You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month,
and then, with the whole assembly of Israel present,
it shall be slaughtered during the evening twilight.
They shall take some of its blood
and apply it to the two doorposts and the lintel
of every house in which they partake of the lamb.
That same night they shall eat its roasted flesh
with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. "This is how you are to eat it:
with your loins girt, sandals on your feet and your staff in hand,
you shall eat like those who are in flight.
It is the Passover of the LORD.
For on this same night I will go through Egypt,
striking down every firstborn of the land, both man and beast,
and executing judgment on all the gods of Egypt—I, the LORD!
But the blood will mark the houses where you are.
Seeing the blood, I will pass over you;
thus, when I strike the land of Egypt,
no destructive blow will come upon you. "This day shall be a memorial feast for you,
which all your generations shall celebrate
with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution." Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16bc, 17-18. R. (cf. 1 Cor 10:16) Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid; you have loosed my bonds.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay in the presence of all his people.
R. Our blessing-cup is a communion with the Blood of Christ. Reading II 1 Cor 11:23-26 Brothers and sisters:
I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you,
that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over,
took bread, and, after he had given thanks,
broke it and said, "This is my body that is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me."
In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying,
"This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Verse Before the Gospel Jn 13:34 I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you. Gospel Jn 13:1-15 Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come
to pass from this world to the Father.
He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.
He came to Simon Peter, who said to him,
"Master, are you going to wash my feet?"
Jesus answered and said to him,
"What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later."
Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."
Jesus answered him,
"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."
Simon Peter said to him,
"Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well."
Jesus said to him,
"Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over;
so you are clean, but not all."
For he knew who would betray him;
for this reason, he said, "Not all of you are clean." So when he had washed their feet
and put his garments back on and reclined at table again,
he said to them, "Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me 'teacher' and 'master,' and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet,
you ought to wash one another's feet.
I have given you a model to follow,
so that as I have done for you, you should also do." | Daily Meditation: John 13:1-15 I have given you a model to follow. (John 13:15) This evening Catholics around the world will gather to celebrate the moment when Jesus instituted the Eucharist. Of course, we do that at every Mass, but tonight we will do it in a way that happens only once a year. We will relive Jesus' act of washing the feet of his disciples. At first glance, it might seem that the only thing these two actions have in common is that Jesus performed them both at the Last Supper. But his words to his disciples that night reveal that he was in fact creating an inseparable bond between them. First, when he washed his disciples' feet, Jesus told them, "I have given you a model to follow" (John 13:15, emphasis added). That "model" wasn't just the foot washing; it was Jesus' entire life. It was the model of a servant who washed people's feet throughout his ministry. Every time Jesus healed someone, forgave someone, or welcomed someone, he was humbling himself to lift them up. So to follow Jesus' model means to bend down and serve. It means to put the needs of someone else ahead of our own. It means obeying his command to "love one another" as he has loved us (John 13:34). Then, when he instituted the Eucharist, Jesus pointed his disciples to his greatest act of self-sacrificial love: the cross. Just as he had poured himself out during his entire ministry, now he would pour himself out completely—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—to rescue us from sin. So when he said, "Do this in remembrance of me" (1 Corinthians 11:24), he was telling us not only to share the Eucharist together but also to be Eucharist to each other. He was telling us to offer our lives in love and service—to wash each other's feet. So when you come to Mass tonight, fix your eyes on Jesus, who has given himself as a model for you. Watch him pour himself out as he washes feet and offers his Body and Blood. Let the depth of his love captivate you. Then go and do likewise. "Jesus, thank you for your Body and Blood! As I receive you today, may I become more like you!" Exodus 12:1-8, 11-14
Psalm 116:12-13, 15-18
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 |  click to hear 2cents | Reflections with Brother Adrian:
Audio English | In the Gospel today we heard:
"What I am doing, you do not understand now,
but you will understand later."
Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet."
Jesus answered him,
"Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me."....." end quote. | From Bishop Barron:
"Friends, in today's Gospel, Jesus washes the disciples' feet. He is giving them a visual proclamation of his new commandment: "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another."
When we accept this commandment, we walk the path of joy. When we internalize this law, we become happy. And so the paradox: happiness is never a function of filling oneself up; it is a wonderful function of giving oneself away.
When the divine grace enters one's life (and everything we have is the result of divine grace), the task is to contrive a way to make it a gift. In a sense, the divine life—which exists only in gift form—can be "had" only on the fly.
Notice please that we are to love with a properly divine love: "I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." Radical, radical, radical. Complete, excessive, over-the-top. " end quote.
It is Holy Thursday. Lent has passed very fast. Did you fast, pray, and give? The culmination is at hand on the Holy Triduum, the 3 days we will celebrate in Holy week starting today.
Our Lord says He will wash us, or else we will have no inheritance with Him, meaning, no life eternal with him, and the inverse would be a life without Him....an eternal death to self and damnation.
He washes us with His blood, the perfect lamb, sacrificed on Good Friday, but He is already giving Himself in the Holy Eucharist first, as the blood and body, before the evil one takes the fleshly body. Today is that day. Why these days are not of Holy Obligation baffle me, I can only surmise that it is because of Mercy once again. More mercy than we can fathom. We are hard on ourselves, but some of us are not hard on ourselves. We've played with sin, like a snake, and let it be "normal" among us, causing havoc in our families and our church.
And so lent is to have gone into the desert of ourselves with our Lord and encounter evil and in the end of Lent, come out victorious with our Savior, especially on Easter where the bread turned body becomes forever the living body. Who can fathom such a feat? Who is worthy? Apparently our Lord says we are worthy when all you hear around you in darkness is that you are not worthy. We are worthy to serve God. And this is a high honor nobody sees or treasures. You don't HAVE to go to Mass, you GET to go to Mass, a privilege, an honor like no other where God is serving His heart on a platter, a golden platter, literally, physically, not just spiritually.
I remember serving in a prison retreat, and we as a team were going to wash the prisoners' feet. To me, it was an honor. And this after one of the prisoners seemed to be threatening to attack me for truths I had said. But I got on my hands and knees, washed the feet and kissed them for a few on my table. I don't know if they were moved, but I was touched as I touched the feet of the forgotten ones, the ones Jesus came to touch through the Eucharist in me. And guess what? The Eucharist was there too, in a tabernacle they had brought.
You see, this day is a day of service when priests renew their vows, but we are all baptized priests. This is the day to renew as in every Mass our vows, our very love for God Himself on earth....as it is in Heaven. Lord, wash me. Cleanse Me with Your blood that I am not worthy to touch but to adore. Tonight You will be taken away, as a prisoner. Who will be with you all night long? Who will dare go to the forgotten one for the next 48 hours in the churches across the world? Give us the strength and love to Love and adore you forever more! |  Click for Audio | Random Bible Verse 1
Psalm 104:1–2 [Psalm 104]
O Lord My God, You Are Very Great 104 Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2 covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. | If one day you don't receive these, just visit Going4th.com
God Bless You! Peace | | |
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