Tag Archives: Jesus

The Mass: A Life-Changing Encounter with Jesus – Part II

11 Sunday Mar 2018

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Last Supper_Juan de Juanes

Jesus with the Eucharist at the Last Supper, Juan de Juanes, Mid-Late 16th Century

To be a contagious Catholic, it is imperative to understand the Mass. If understood, the Mass is transformative. Your life will never be the same. Your family will be a beacon of light in a society that is broken and without hope.

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of the Archdiocese of Detroit in his recent pastoral letter Unleash the Gospel, offered the following vision for families:

Families who, having embraced their role as the domestic church and in connection with other families and single persons, actively seek the spiritual and social renewal of their neighborhoods, schools and places of work. Such families…would display a strikingly counter-cultural way of living: grounded in prayer, Sacraments and attention to Scripture; unusually gracious hospitality; a capacity to include those on the margins of society; and joyful confidence in the providence of God even in difficult and stressful times. Unleash the Gospel, p. 32

To this end, we offer you the second blog post in a series based on the Parish Mission at Our Lady of Good Counsel in Plymouth, Michigan given by Abbot Jeremy Driscoll, OSB, “The Mass: Supreme Encounter with God in Jesus.”

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The Mass: A Life-Changing Encounter with Jesus

03 Saturday Mar 2018

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St. Paul The Apostle Parish, Westerville, Ohio

In previous blogs, we have discussed Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron’s pastoral letter, Unleash the Gospel. This letter is the game plan for the transformation of the Archdiocese of Detroit into a “joyful band of missionary disciples.”

Archbishop Vigneron states that families are “the very heart of our archdiocesan efforts to unleash the Gospel, because they are the first and most important setting in which evangelization takes place.”

He offers an action plan for families to reclaim their identity with God (Unleash the Gospel, p. 33). The first and most important action he recommends is attending Sunday Mass as a family.

Those who find the Mass boring or view it as nothing more than an obligation to fulfill may be surprised by that recommendation. However, the “Mass is about love. It is not an idea about love but the supreme encounter with love.”[1] During the next three weeks, we will briefly explain the Mass to provide a better understanding of what happens.

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How to Live Out the Four Goods in Your Marriage

04 Sunday Feb 2018

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BXVI_04

Last week we learned about the four goods of marriage and how they are woven into the very fabric of the vows that are part of the Marriage Rite of the Catholic Church. The wedding vows speak of: partnership, permanence, fidelity, and fruitfulness.

This week, we will show you how to live out the four goods in your marriage.

In marriage there are two people wounded by Original Sin with a natural bent to selfishness, who join their lives together for life. There will be struggles, hardships, disagreements, strife, and heartache. But the good news is that Jesus died on the cross to save us from sin and give us the grace we need to live out the four goods of marriage.

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Families: Pray Together

21 Sunday Jan 2018

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Fr Patrick Peyton

Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “The family that prays together stays together.” Did you know the phrase was coined in the 1940s by Father Patrick Peyton a Catholic media pioneer? Known as “The Rosary Priest,” Father Peyton used radio, television, and billboards to promote family prayer, especially praying the Holy Rosary.

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Manifestation of the Lord

07 Sunday Jan 2018

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'ADORATION OF THE MAGI'

Adoration of the Magi

Basilica of the Immaculate Conception

Conception Abbey, Conception, Missouri

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and have come to worship him.”…and lo, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy; and going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11 (emphasis added)

“The Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and Savior of the world” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 528). The joy of the Magi upon seeing the Child is the joy of the Gospel. It is “the joy of one whose heart has received a ray of God’s light and who can now see that his hope has been realized—the joy of one who has found what he sought, and has himself been found” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, 106). The Magi find “crying in a manger, the one they have followed as he shone in the sky…in swaddling clothes, the one they have long awaited as he lay hidden among the stars” (St. Peter Chrysologus, Sermon 150).

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The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph

31 Sunday Dec 2017

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The-Two-Trinities-MURILLO-Bartolomé-Esteban

The Two Trinities, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, c. 1675-82

Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Holy Family. Through the Incarnation, the Divine Word assumed a human body, entering into every aspect of human life, including family life, sanctifying it and making it a path to holiness.

Teacher and author Scott Hahn says,

The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key to Christianity…When God came to save us, he made salvation inseparable from family life, manifest in family life. Since the family is the ordinary setting of human life, he came to share it, redeem it and perfect it. He made it an image and sacrament of a divine mystery. Salvation itself finds meaning only in familial relations.[1]

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Receive Great Joy

17 Sunday Dec 2017

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advent-wreath-03

Today is the third Sunday of Advent. Did you notice that the color of the third candle of the Advent wreath lit today was rose? The rose candle is a combination of the purple of the liturgical season mixed with white, which symbolizes joy. At the midpoint of the season of Advent, the Church pauses to celebrate and rejoice with joy at the coming of Christ.

Joy? JOY?! How can we have joy? Our life is a whirlwind of activity: the bills are past due, there are presents still to buy, we are behind on making costumes and set scenery for the kid’s Christmas pageant, the house still needs to be decorated, there are cookies to be baked…and Christmas is right around the corner! We are so glad that Christmas only comes once a year!

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More Precious than Silver or Gold

10 Sunday Dec 2017

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advent-wreath-02

Today is the second Sunday in Advent. In a society that has lost sight of the true meaning of Christmas, many are already suffering burnout from all the pre-Christmas activities. The secular “Holiday” season kicks into gear earlier and earlier with each passing year. The reality of the materialistic Christmas is that people have forgotten the Christ Child. Christmas is not about buying the latest high tech gifts or winning the subdivision’s “Holiday Lights” competition. The four weeks leading up to Christmas are called Advent – from the Latin word Adventus – which means “coming.” This is a time not for the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and office parties, but is a period of waiting in joyful expectation for the coming of the Messiah. Christmas has been hijacked by commercialism and the secular society; we have forgotten to wait in darkness for the coming of the Light into the world.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. John 1:1-5, 14

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Jesus Is Coming

03 Sunday Dec 2017

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1

This is the first week in Advent. Are you spending time every day contemplating the coming of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? Or are you frantically buying gifts, making plans, caught up in the whirlwind of activity that surrounds what our culture now calls “the holiday season?” In our neighborhood, Christmas decorations were up on some houses days before Thanksgiving.

Is this what Advent is all about? What exactly are we supposed to be doing during these four weeks set aside by the Church prior to Christmas? We are to be preparing for Christmas. Our activities however, should not be centered on the busyness of the season. Rather, we should be preparing for the coming of the Lord.

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Knowing God’s Providence in Times of Trouble

29 Friday Sep 2017

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Field of Lilies

To be in family, is to encounter times of struggles and strife. As parents, we are sure to experience fear and worry over the well-being of our children. Many parents are grieved and fear for the eternal salvation of their children who make poor life-choices. Spouses may be in a troubled marriage and fear the breakup of the family. No one is immune from struggles in life. How you deal with these struggles can positively affect the outcome and your own sense of well-being. Jesus speaks to these situations in the Gospels.

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