But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Beautiful on the Cross from St. Thomas Aquinas, commentary on Galatians 6: 14-15, Dominican House of Studies, Priory of the Immaculate Conception website, translated by F.R. Larcher, O.P. 

CHAPTER 6
Lecture 4  

14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but a new creature.

After unmasking the sinister intention of the seducers, the Apostle here insinuates his own intention. First, he states his intention; Secondly, he gives a sign of this intention (v. 14); Thirdly, the reason for this intention (v. 15).

He says therefore: The intention of the seducers is obvious, for they glory in the flesh; but I seek my glory elsewhere, namely, in the Cross. And this is what he says: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that where the worldly philosopher felt shame, there the Apostle found his treasure: what the former regarded as foolish became for the Apostle wisdom and glory, as Augustine says. For each person glories in that through which he is considered great. Thus a person who regards himself as great in his riches, glories in them; and so on for other things. For one who regards himself to be great in nothing but Christ glories in Christ alone. But the Apostle was such a one; hence he says: I live now not I; but Christ liveth in me (2:20).

 

Accordingly he glories in nothing but Christ and particularly in the Cross of Christ; and this because in it are found all the things about which men usually glory. For some glory in the friendship of the great, such as of kings and princes; and this friendship the Apostle found most of all in the Cross, because there an obvious sign of divine friendship is shown: “But God commendeth his charity towards us; because when as yet we were sinners according to the time, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). For nothing shows His mercy to us as much as the death of Christ. Hence Gregory: “O inestimable love of charity! To redeem the servant, He delivered His Son.”
 

Again, some glory in knowledge; and of this the Apostle found a more excellent one in the cross: “For I judged not myself to know anything among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). For in the Cross is the perfection of all law and the whole art of living well. Again, some glory in power; and of this the Apostle found the highest form through the Cross: “The word of the cross to them, indeed, that perish is foolishness; but to them that are saved, that is, to us, it is the power of God” (1 Cor 1:18). Again, some glory in newly-found freedom; and this the Apostle obtained through the Cross: “Our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer” (Rom 6:6).
 

Again, some glory in being accepted into some famous fellowship; but by the Cross of Christ, we are accepted into the heavenly ranks: “Making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven” (Col 1:20). Again, some glory in the triumphal banners of conquest; but the Cross is the triumphal ensign of Christ’s conquest over the demons: “And despoiling the principalities and powers, he hath exposed them confidently in open show, triumphing over them in himself” (Col 2:15); “Blessed is the wood by which justice cometh” (Wis 14:7).
 

The sign of his own intention he shows, saying by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. But since this which he says, But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, is an exceptive proposition which includes one affirmative and one negative statement, he is really giving two signs that prove both statements. First, he proves the negative one, namely, that he does not glory save in the cross. He does this when he says, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. For that in which a person glories is not dead in his heart, but rather that which he scorns: I am forgotten as one dead, from the heart” (Ps 30:13). But it is plain that the world and all things in it were dead in the heart of Paul: “I count all things as dung, that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8). Therefore he does not glory in the world or in the things that are in the world. And this is what he says: Verily, I glory in nothing save in the cross of Christ, by whom, namely, Christ crucified, the world is crucified to me, i.e., is dead in my heart, so that I covet nothing in it.

 

Secondly, he proves the affirmative, namely, that he glories in the Cross of Christ, saying that he is crucified to the World. For a person who glories in something treasures it and desires to make it known; but the Apostle treasures nothing or desires to make nothing known except what pertains to the Cross of Christ; therefore, he glories in it alone. And this is what he says: and I to the world, namely, I am crucified. As if to say: I carry the marks of the Cross and I am considered as dead. Therefore, as the world abhors the Cross of Christ, so it abhors me: “For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).
 

The reason why he glories in nothing else is given when he says, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. Indeed, he glories mainly in that which avails and helps in joining him to Christ; for it is this the Apostle desires, namely, to be with Christ. And because the Jewish rite and the observances of the Gentiles are of no avail in this regard, but only the Cross of Christ, therefore he glories in it alone. And this is what he says: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision, i.e., the Jewish rite, nor uncircumcision, i.e., Gentile observances, availeth any thing, i.e., to justify us and join us to Christ, but a new creature availeth for us. This, indeed, is obvious from what was said above, in almost the same words: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision; but faith that worketh by charity (5:6). Therefore, faith informed by charity is the new creature. For we have been created and made to exist in our nature through Adam, but that creature is already old. Therefore, the Lord in producing us and establishing us in the existence of grace has made a new creature: “That we might be some beginning of his creature” (Jam 1:18). And it is called “new,” because by it we are reborn into a new life by the Holy Spirit”—Thou shalt send forth thy spirit and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face I the earth” (Ps 103:30)—and by the Cross of Christ: “If then any be in Christ a new creature, the old things are passed away, behold all things are made new” (2 Cor 5:17). In this way, then, by a new creature, i.e., by the faith of Christ and the charity of God which has been poured out in our hearts, we are made new and are joined to Christ.

Jesús, Maestro Divino

Found this beautiful prayer on a holy card I received at a retreat this past spring.  Love the intimacy of this prayer:

Jesús, Maestro Divino,

que descendiste del cielo

para darnos gracia, en abundancia

auméntala dentro de nosotros y conviértala

en río que fluya hacia la vida eterna.

 

Te ofreciste a sufrir

la agonía de tu pasión y muerte; y

te entregas en la Eucaristía

como, alimento para todos.

Ayúdanos a comprender

la grandeza de tal ejemplo.

 

Haz que el fuego de tu amor queme

las impurezas de nuestra debilidad humana

y dadnos la fuerza para seguir tu invitación

a la perfección infinita del Padre.

 

Por Fé, dadnos firmeza,

Por Caridad, dadnos fervor,

Por Esperenza, confianza infalible.

 

Dadnos la fuerza de ser héroes en cada virtud

y la confianza de alcanzar la santidad

con la ayuda de María,

tu Madre y nuestra Madre. Amen.

 

+Siervo de Dios, Obispo Guglielmo Giaquinta

But the believing soul...

Such beautiful contemplation by St. Bernard of Clairvaux On Loving God, excerpt from Chapter 4- Of Those Who Find Comfort in the Recollection of God:

In that day those who set not their hearts aright will feel, too late, how easy is Christ’s yoke, to which they would not bend their necks and how light His burden, in comparison with the pains they must then endure. O wretched slaves of Mammon, you cannot glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ while you trust in treasures laid up on earth: you cannot taste and see how gracious the Lord is, while you are hungering for gold. If you have not rejoiced at the thought of His coming, that day will be indeed a day of wrath to you.

But the believing soul longs and faints for God; she rests sweetly in the contemplation of Him. She glories in the reproach of the Cross, until the glory of His face shall be revealed. Like the Bride, the dove of Christ, that is covered with silver wings (Psalm 68:13), white with innocence and purity, she reposes in the thought of Thine abundant kindness, Lord Jesus; and above all she longs for that day when in the joyful splendor of thy saints, gleaming with the radiance of the Beatific Vision, her feathers shall be like gold, resplendent with the joy of Thy countenance.

Rightly then may she exult, “His left hand is under my head and His right hand doth embrace me.” The left hand signifies the memory of that matchless love, which moved Him to lay down His life for His friends; and the right hand is the Beatific Vision which He hath promised to His own, and the delight they have in His presence. The Psalmist sings rapturously, “At Thy right hand there is pleasure for evermore” (Psalm 16:11): so we are warranted in explaining the right hand as that divine and deifying joy of His presence.

Rightly too is that wondrous and ever-memorable love symbolized as His left hand, upon which the Bride rests her head until iniquity be done away: for He sustains the purpose of her mind, lest it should be turned aside to earthly, carnal desires. For the flesh wars against the spirit: “The corruptible body presseth down the soul and the earthly tabernacle weighteth down the mind that museth upon many things” (Wisdom 9:15). What could result from the contemplation of compassion so marvelous and so undeserved, favor so free and so well attested, kindness so unexpected, clemency so unconquerable, grace so amazing except that the soul should withdraw from all sinful affections, reject all that is inconsistent with God’s love, and yield herself wholly to heavenly things? No wonder is it that the Bride, moved by the perfume of these unctions, runs swiftly, all on fire with love, yet reckons herself as loving all too little in return for the Bridegroom’s love.

And rightly, since it is not great matter that a little dust should be all consumed with love of that Majesty which loved her first and which revealed itself as wholly bent on saving her. For “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

This sets forth the Father’s love. But “He hath poured out His soul unto death,” was written of the Son (Isaiah 53:12). And of the Holy Spirit it is said, “The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).

It is plain, therefore, that God loves us, and loves us with all His heart; for the Holy Trinity altogether loves us, if we may venture so to speak of the infinite and incomprehensible Godhead who is essentially one.

"Where love is, there is freedom..."

"Love exists only where there is freedom. To be forced to love is hell; to be free in love is heaven. Where love is, there is freedom.  Since the child is the flower of love, it is earth's sacrament of  freedom. As the cradles come back into the world, freedom will  come back. This freedom will consist not in throwing off restraint,  which is license, but in the increase of new centers of freedom. In  each child God whispers a new secret to the world; adds a new  dimension of immortality to creation; and makes the clinging  hearts of husband and wife feel a little freer, as they look into that  strange and mutual hope which has come to them from God."

+Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Three to Get Married

The scent of a flower...

The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things—the beauty, the memory of our own past—are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.  -C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

The Church Loves us as a Mother

"Think of what a good mother does.  A good mother sets high standards for her children, standards of behavior, standards of cleanliness, standards of respect, standards of work.  And she expects her children to meet them, and that's love.  And that's the way the Church loves you, as a mother, setting those expectations, setting those standards.

"Where is mercy? Mercy is not to lower a standard. Mercy is to love you and help you when you have earnestly tried, and failed, to live the standard. The Church always could be and always should be more merciful in that way, to reach out, to seek out, like a shepherd, those who struggle to live that standard, and to love them in their struggle."

Homily from Fr. Andrew, Good Shepherd Sunday

Listen to all here. 

An Act of Reparation

This morning I read of horrible sacrilege and blaspheme of Our Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist.  An Act of Reparation from Vultus Christi:

How are we to respond to crimes of this sort against the adorable Body of Christ? First, we must pray for the perpetrators of the sacrilege.

Father, forgive them,
for they know not what they do.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
turn their hearts to Thee in sorrow and in love.
Holy Ghost, Living Flame of Love,
pierce their hearts with true repentance.
Amen.
 
Then we must pray in reparation:

Beloved Lord Jesus Christ,
hidden in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar;
silent, humble, defenseless,
and motionless in the Sacred Species;
handled by the faithless
and, alas, even by those
who having received the faith,
have fallen into darkness and spiritual perversion;
we offer ourselves to Thee in adoration,
to make reparation
for every sin of irreverence, sacrilege,
blasphemy, and hatred of Thy Divine Person
in the Sacrament of Thy Love.
We further offer ourselves to Thee in adoration,
believing for those who do not believe in Thee,
hoping for those who have lost hope in Thee,
loving for those who do not love Thee.
Avenge this act of sacrilege, we pray Thee,
by a triumph of Thy merciful love
in the hearts of those who have so offended Thee,
and, by sending forth Thy Holy Angels,
restore the Sacred and Adorable Species
into the hands of Thy priests,
and into guardianship of Thy grieving Church.
Amen.

Love's Companions: Patience, Obedience, Humility

Love never stands alone but has her companions all the true solid virtues, because all the virtues have life from charity's love...And among love’s companions is patience, the very marrow of love and the clear sign of whether the soul is in grace and is loving in truth or not. This is why charity, the mother, has given obedience patience as a sister and has so joined the two together that the one can never be lost without the other. Either you have both or you have neither.
 
Obedience has a wet nurse, true humility, and the soul is as obedient as she is humble, and as humble as she is obedient.

St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue

Silverstream Priory: An Urgent Appeal

An urgent appeal this Saint Patrick's Day from Silverstream Priory in Stamullen, Co. Meath, Ireland, Dom Mark at Vultus Christi writes: 

The Monastic Tension

I am not the first nor will I be the last monk to feel torn between remaining silent and speaking, between disappearing and appearing. I would not, for minute, want to compare myself in any way to Saint Gregory the Great, or to Saint Bernard, or to Blessed Columba Marmion, all of whom suffered the tension of feeling pulled into silence and out of it, into the enclosure of the monastery and out of it. Monks are not, by vocation, preachers, and yet some monks have always preached. Monks are not, by vocation, writers, and yet some monks have always written, and written well and much. Monks are not, by vocation, missionaries, and yet some monks have always carried the pure light of the Gospel into places of darkness.

Survival
Over the past few days,  I have listened to my community and to our friends; we have discussed the extreme precariousness of our foundation. People whom I trust are urging me to make appeals, to seek out benefactors, to accept invitations to preach, to speak about our urgent need and to write about it. It is a question of survival. What am I going to do? We are preparing the second issue of our newsletter; it will feature an appeal for support. I am going to work at making Silverstream Priory known; I am going to ask for help wherever and whenever possible.

Risk
We do not yet own Silverstream Priory nor any of the surrounding land. While our community is established canonically here in the Diocese of Meath, we cannot yet call Silverstream our own, nor can we administer it freely, and develop it. Until we have purchased Silverstream’s buildings and property, there remains an element of risk in what we are doing. The men who have joined our monastery are conscious of the risk involved and, in the face of the risk, have laid their lives on the line.

Read the entire appeal here.

Prayerfully consider how to help.  My own heart is eternally grateful for the prayers of the monks at Silverstream Priory and for the spiritual writing of Dom Mark Kirby at Vultus Christi.  What a beautiful gift their prayers and their work are to our Holy Church.  Let us support with our prayers and gifts these ‘Men Who Hold Their Gaze Directly Towards God'.

St. Patrick, pray for us! St. Joseph, pray for us! St. Benedict, pray for us!


 

Fruit of praying St. Thomas' Prayer for Ordering a Life Wisely

So, I had this wonderful grace today. As I looked around seeing all that needs to be done, which usually overwhelms me, I realized something. Paradoxically, I think it's the fruit of praying St. Thomas Aquinas' prayer for ordering a life wisely. It's a paradox because my life feels very far from ordered right now. But God revealed to me that He loves me and is pouring out His grace on all of us right in the middle, and really through our messy life (in a physical and spiritual sense). When I looked around, suddenly all of this:

-legos built and unbuilt (not fun to step on)
-A pile of toy nerf guns confiscated yesterday on which I stubbed my toe really bad in the dark this morning (ouch!)
-dust (lots and lots of it)
-a hot wheels race car set at the bottom of the stairs (why there?)
-train set somewhere, or so I've heard
-dirty kleenex (I know! gross, it's not me)
-food on the floor (we don't have a dog, working on Chris in this matter)
-dirty (and also clean, unfolded) laundry taking over (literally overflowing)
-piles of papers with printed out prayers/articles I like
-prayer books
-piles of kids' school projects, homework, forms that need to be filled out
-childrens' books on the nightstands, on the floors, on the beds, on the counters, on the stairs (not fun to slip on), on the kitchen counters
-my books in all the same places as the childrens' books
-unsent Christmas cards that I didn't have an address for (I give up on this one)
-unsent school pictures (working on that one too!)
-dirty dishes
-coats, blankets, socks, shoes, mittens, etc...
-Christmas tree still up
-Nativity sets still out
-Superhero birthday decorations still hanging up
-Pink flower birthday decorations still hanging up
-wonderful school books laying around haphazardly in the living room that when used teach God's beauty in all parts of our life and studies
-a violin with music scattered around
-a very dusty piano that needs tuning
-unmade beds
-and much much more believe it or not

made me realize something beautiful. My messy life, and that of my family, is the evidence that there are 7 beautiful souls living in this house, learning to love God and each other, and that despite the fact that it feels and looks so "disordered", it is in fact ordered. Ordered to the love of God, the love He has for each one of us, and the love we have for Him.

Thank You Jesus! Amen.