SH Novena Day 7 of 9: Encouragement

John 16:33 - I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.

Dear Lord,

I look around and the sense I get is that you didn't conquer the World. The wars, the poverty, the chaos, that surrounds us seems to hem us in on all sides. How is it that we are winning a fight? As Christians and believers in a better World aren't we losing? But I know that at heart you continue on making a difference in my life - and if that be the case - then I can also go out make a difference in this World - . Let your encouragement resonate in my heart and let the hope from your Resurrection live strong in my life. Amen.

SH Novena Day 6 of 9: Holiness

Jesus offering us His Heart of Love

John 17:17-19 I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.

Dear Lord,

You gave me the Father's Word. The Father's Word of Mercy and Love, the same words with which you desire me to be Holy, a Saint. "The World hated us, hates us and will always hate us to some degree because we are different. We live with a distant goal, a crystalline fountain. Your Father's Word, Lord, is that fountain from which our lives flow and despite our personal and difficult failings it continues to flow. Let your Father's Word, the Words of the Prodigal Father be those that resound in our hearts and minds:

"My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours." (Lk 15:31)

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Eucharist - the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord - may we encounter in Him that everything and may we encounter our Heaven on Earth as we are made one as participants in the Eternal Life of the Father's House. Amen.

SH Novena Day 4 of 9: Wholeness

Jesus Heals

John 11: 23-27Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” 24Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” 25Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

Dear Lord,

You are my Resurrection and my Life. "To whom shall we go? You have the Words of Eternal Life", Peter said (Jn 6:68). You are the Divine Healer and from your Heart our wounds find new lifeblood, new life. When you found Lazarus dead and his Sisters, Martha and Mary heartbroken you responded with a merciful Heart and wept. Pour out upon us the healing and the strength to come back anew from our broken weakness. Let your healing balm fill and strengthen us. You asked the blind man, "What do you want from me?" and he answered, "to be well". I wish to be well in you, Lord. Jesus, I trust in you!

Sacred Heart Novena Day 3 of 9: Growth

Apse Mosaic of St. Clement Church - Rome, Italy

John 15: 1-5 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower." He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

Dear Lord,

At the heart of your Gospel is a call to growth, both personal and spiritual. You ask us to be part of a Kingdom that as a "mustard seed that grows and puts out its branches for the birds" (cf. Lk 13:19). Let your Holy Spirit be purpose of growth for my life. Let my union with you, the branch be what breathes life into me and do not let me be afraid of the Father of Mercies who cuts away the excess so that I bear more fruit. 

Lord, you sought from the very depths of your heart to incorporate me into your new Life. Let my every heartbeat be yours and do not let me be parted from you. Amen.

Sacred Heart Novena Day 2 of 9: Friendship

Jesus Friend

John 15:15-17  I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.

Dear Lord,

On the night before your death you called us friends and you commanded us to love one another. What does it mean to be your friend? What a special vocation and calling. Did you ever even call me a slave? You opened yourself and and held no secret back. You let us in on the secret of life, summed up in one word, Love.

Thank you, Lord, for the grace to be your friend. Thank you for opening up. Thank you for sharing with us what it means to live. Love, bear fruit, be friends - in particular with You - and stay united with God. Amen.

Sacred Heart Novena: Day 1 of 9 - Service

John 13:1-5 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. 2 The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper, 3 fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God, 4 he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.

Dear Lord,

At the heart of this Devotion is your Love. I want to be a part of it. While the rest of the Evangelists wrote of your Eucharistic Love, John, "The Beloved Disciple", spoke of your humble love, the love you showed by serving your disciples and your friends. Teach us to walk the same humble path of service by putting our neighbors first. Don't let us love less than we are called to love. Let your Last Supper Standard fly high so that we can walk with you despite our daily struggles. Lead us in service, show us how to love. Make us more worthy participants in your Banquet of Love, mirror-image of Heaven. Amen. 

Why I want to go to the Israel this Summer (Part 3 of 3)

Continued on from Part 2

How can I Encounter Jesus in the Here and Now?

After Jesus stepped foot on Earth He changed everything. Jesus isn't just a Game-changer. He is the Author of the sport. He makes it what it is. The Mystery of Jesus' Incarnation changed the nature of our approach to encounter God. Pioneer and explorer He made way onto Earth so that we could literally meet God here and ever since nothing has remained the same.

The Annunciation of the Lord (Philippe de Champaigne, 1644)

Though Jesus expressed to the Woman at the Well (Jn 4) that it was not upon this mountain nor in Jerusalem that God was to be worshiped soon after it is fact that even Jesus worshiped upon that particular mountain and in Jerusalem. Jesus joined the human community of those worshiping God and worshiped here on Earth. 

"Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”

Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem." (John 4:20-21

While our worship is not tied down to a place here and now our every worship embraces a location, a place and a time. We pray from the heart yet that heart beats within a body in motion. We are not 'condemned' or "entombed in our bodies" as Plato and the Ancient Greeks spoke of. We are gifted with our bodies, made as one, in body and spirit.

Jesus also was Body and Spirit. His every movement was measured by duration and he took on the full measure of the human experience. He, though God, knew what it was to be a human being yet retaining every measure of His Divinity. This mystery is one that we'll never plumb. It will allude us to the Gates of Heaven.

So why Israel? To gain ground, to get one inch closer. To get to know Jesus better and to know His World, His Life, His People, and to fall in Love with Him ever more. That is my reason to travel there, experience His Mercy, and get to know the environs in which He became Him.

Sea of Galilee, 1900

View of Mount Tabor, Nazareth, Israel

Jerusalem Today