Our Lady of Grace Parish

Friends, in today’s Gospel, the chief priests and elders question Jesus: By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority? The Gr...eek word used for authority is most enlightening: exousia. It means, literally, from the being of. Jesus speaks with the very exousia of God, and therefore, his words effect what they say. He says, Lazarus, come out! and the dead man comes out of the tomb. He rebukes the wind and says to the sea, Be still! and there is calm. And the night before he dies, he takes bread and says, This is my body. And what he says is. Friends, this is the authority of the Church. If we are simply the guardians of one interesting philosophical perspective among many, then we are powerless. If we rely on our own cleverness in argumentation, then we will fail. Our power comesand this remains a great mysteryonly when we speak with the authority of Jesus Christ. Reflect: How and why does Christ pass his authority to the Church? https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121420.cfm

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus compares himself to a mother hen who longs to gather her chicks under her wing. As the theologian N.T. Wright points out, this... is much more than a sentimental image. It refers to the gesture of a hen when fire is sweeping through the barn. In order to protect her chicks, she will sacrifice herself, gathering them under her wing and using her own body as a shield. On the cross, Jesus used, as it were, his own sacrificed body as a shield, taking the full force of the world’s hatred and violence. He entered into close quarters with sin (because that’s where we sinners are found) and allowed the heat and fury of sin to overwhelm him, even as he protected us. With this metaphor in mind, we can see, with special clarity, why the first Christians associated the crucified Jesus with the suffering servant of Isaiah. By enduring the pain of the cross, Jesus did indeed bear our sins; by his stripes we were indeed healed. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102920.cfm

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus chooses the Twelve, whom he names Apostles. In the apse of the church of San Clemente in Rome, there is a gorgeous twelfth-cen...tury mosaic, which gives visual expression to the call of the Twelve. At the center of the composition is the crucified Jesus. Surrounding the cross are twelve doves, symbolizing the Apostles who would fly around the world with the message of salvation. No biblical figure is ever given an experience of God without receiving, at the same time, a commission. Moses spies the burning bush, hears the sacred name of Yahweh, and is then told to go back to Egypt to liberate his people; Isaiah enjoys an encounter with God amidst the splendor of the temple liturgy and is then sent to preach; Saul is overwhelmed by the luminosity of the risen Jesus and is subsequently called to apostleship. Now the Apostles are not simply a distant memory; rather, they live on through what we call the apostolic succession. Therefore, the apostolicity of the Church is our guarantee that we are, despite many developments and changes across the centuries, still preserving the faith that was first kindled in that company of Jesus’ friends. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102820.cfm

Today is the Third Sunday of Advent. We joyfully await the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ! Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exu...lt with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! (Zephaniah 3:14) https://www.ewtn.com/advent/reflection.aspx?ndx=14 #EWTN #Catholic #Advent

Jesus gives Himself to us in the #Eucharist. Let us give our whole selves to Him! A Short Act of Consecration to the Sacred Heart: Sacred Heart of Jesus, fille...d with infinite love, broken by my ingratitude, pierced by my sins, yet loving me still, accept the consecration that I make to You, of all that I am and all that I have. Take every faculty of my soul and body, and draw me, day by day, nearer and nearer to Your Sacred Side, and there, as I can bear the lesson, teach me Your blessed ways. Amen. https://www.ewtn.com//short-act-of-consecration-to-the-sac #EWTN #Catholic #RealPresence

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole ...batch of dough was leavened. What’s the kingdom of heaven? It is God’s way of ordering things. How often the Bible contrasts it to the world, which is the way of ordering things that is born of sin. When self-interest, rivalry, egotism, violence, and fear are fundamental, things will get ordered in a certain wayeconomically, politically, socially. But the Kingdom of God is the way of ordering things born of lovelove for God and love for neighbor. Generosity, peace, nonviolence, and trust will give rise to a new way of ordering things. This is true of a family, a school, a parish, a community, a nation state. Now how in the world does one get this project off the ground? As should be clear, this never happens all at once overnight. Rather, in small ways, people begin living according to the kingdom. And then, in God’s time, this new community begins to have a leavening effect on the wider society. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102720.cfm

Rosary from Lourdes - 26/10/2020