Heavely Friends {Holy Day}

  

My best friends, role models, and namesakes are in heaven.  These holy friends are certainly not dead, but living in heaven and stand ready and able to assist me (and you) by their prayers of intercession. 

Today we celebrate and commemorate our heavenly friends on the Solemnity of All Saints.  I wouldn't miss going to Holy Mass today for anything!  I am sad to think of so many Catholic Christians who no longer believe in Holy Days and don't follow the teachings of the Church about the obligation to attend Mass today.  But I get it, for I was once very far from caring one whit about holy days of obligation myself.  Please, God, have mercy.

Today's Divine Office readings included passages from the Book of Revelation (5:1-14) and from a sermon of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor (+1153).  St. Bernard's sermon so eloquently teaches about the reasons why we celebrate this Feast and invoke the saints' intercession in our daily struggles.  I love that this sermon dates back to the 1100's:

Why should our praise and glorification, or even the celebration of this feast day mean anything to the saints? What do they care about earthly honors when their heavenly Father honors them by fulfilling the faithful promise of the Son? What does our commendation mean to them? The saints have no need of honor from us; neither does our devotion add the slightest thing to what is theirs. Clearly, if we venerate their memory, it serves us, not them. But I tell you, when I think of them, I feel myself inflamed by a tremendous yearning.

Calling the saints to mind inspires, or rather arouses in us, above all else, a longing to enjoy their company, so desirable in itself. We long to share in the citizenship of heaven, to dwell with the spirits of the blessed, to join the assembly of patriarchs, the ranks of the prophets, the council of apostles, the great host of martyrs, the noble company of confessors and the choir of virgins. In short, we long to be united in happiness with all the saints. But our dispositions change. The Church of all the first followers of Christ awaits us, but we do nothing about it. The saints want us to be with them, and we are indifferent. The souls of the just await us, and we ignore them.

Come, brothers, let us at length spur ourselves on. We must rise again with Christ, we must seek the world which is above and set our mind on the things of heaven. Let us long for those who are longing for us, hasten to those who are waiting for us, and ask those who look for our coming to intercede for us. We should not only want to be with the saints, we should also hope to possess their happiness. While we desire to be in their company, we must also earnestly seek to share in their glory. Do not imagine that there is anything harmful in such an ambition as this; there is no danger in setting our hearts on such glory.

When we commemorate the saints we are inflamed with another yearning: that Christ our life may also appear to us as he appeared to them and that we may one day share in his glory. Until then we see him, not as he is, but as he became for our sake. He is our head, crowned, not with glory, but with the thorns of our sins. As members of that head, crowned with thorns, we should be ashamed to live in luxury; his purple robes are a mockery rather than an honor. When Christ comes again, his death shall no longer be proclaimed, and we shall know that we also have died, and that our life is hidden with him. The glorious head of the Church will appear and his glorified members will shine in splendor with him, when he forms this lowly body anew into such glory as belongs to himself, its head.

Therefore, we should aim at attaining this glory with a wholehearted and prudent desire. That we may rightly hope and strive for such blessedness, we must above all seek the prayers of the saints. Thus, what is beyond our own powers to obtain will be granted through their intercession.  - St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor +1153

Saint Bernard, and ALL SAINTS: Pray for us!

Ash Wednesday

A frozen lake in Michigan; Zachary sent this image home from his retreat with Notre Dame's Knott Hall.

Catholics line up for ash application today, aware of our need to humble ourselves, repent and return to the Lord.  Some of us return to the Church on Ash Wednesday after lengthy absences and waywardness, and many who don't faithfully attend Mass on Sundays do come to Church on Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation (unlike each and every Sunday), however many Catholics feel called to attend Mass today and receive ashes as an outward sign of a new beginning of inner conversion.  Today is a good day to go to confession.  If for some reason you don't go to confession today, make a sincere confession in your heart, asking God's forgiveness for your sins against His love, and please confess your sins to a priest very soon.

Our Holy Church gives us a short list of Precepts.  These 'non-negotiables' guide our external behavior as faithful Catholics; our obligation to follow the Ten Commandments and all teachings of Christ assumed.  On Ash Wednesday one of these external precepts, or rules, is in effect ~ the requirement to fast and abstain.  Only one other day ~ Good Friday ~ carries this strict requirement to fast and abstain.

Somehow the teaching of these rules, or precepts, fell through the cracks for many of us post Vatican II Catholics.  This partially explains why so many Catholics today do not faithfully attend Sunday Mass, and when they do return, approach Holy Communion without any thought as to their spiritual readiness to receive our Lord.  Just like me, these Catholics either were never properly taught, or they do not really understand the gravity of receiving Holy Communion in a state of mortal (deadly) sin.  These teachings on preparing for Holy Communion come directly from Sacred Scripture:

"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup" (1 Cor. 11:27–28)

Catholics in a state of mortal (deadly) sin should (are obliged to) attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days.  However, receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion while knowingly in this state is a grave offense.  Christian writings from as far back as A.D. 70 make these teachings abundantly clear. Catholics raised without a proper understanding of Church teachings are now raising their children and the cycle of un-knowing continues; or they fall away completely, unaware of the treasure they have abandoned.  Some of us have had the incredible fortune of being taught the faith by our children, and/or by zealous orthodox priests and evangelists, whose hunger for truth and desire to follow and share it have sparked our appetite for the fullness of faith.

Precepts of the Church:

I. To attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, and resting from servile works.

II. To observe the days of abstinence and fasting.

III. To confess our sins to a priest, at least once a year.

IV. To receive Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist at least once a year during Easter Season.

V. To contribute to the support of the Church.

A wise and holy priest once told me that my concern for the souls of my loved ones who no longer attend Mass or confess their sins, would be better directed toward fervent prayers for the healing of their inner dispositions (an increase in faith and a greater Love for God) than simply focused on a change in their outward behavior.  I myself am proof positive that prayers for the conversion of souls are answered!

Pray without ceasing...