Tuesday in the Fourth Week of Easter

We pray through the Easter season and offer our whole day to Jesus through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We hear Saint Peter Chrysologus call us back from fear to love and Saint Paul urge us to become a living sacrifice with Christ. • opening prayers and the Morning Offering in union with the Mass • God’s mercy as an appeal to love Him as Father • the Cross as victory over death and a sign of all-embracing love • presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice and sharing in a priestly vocation • martyrdom as birth and the doorway to life • putting on holiness through chastity, knowledge of God and continual prayer • God desiring faith and self-surrender rather than blood and slaughter If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Cristeros and purchasing our publications, now available on Amazon.com. The Cristeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristeros can be found at theCristeros.org. 

Transcript

God Appeals As Father

A Living Sacrifice With Paul

The Christian Priesthood And Martyrs

Spiritual Armor And Daily Prayer

Closing Prayers And Final Blessing

Join The Christeros Resources

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Tuesday, in the fourth week of Easter. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day, in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world, for the remission of my sins, for the intentions of my family and friends, and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father. Amen. From a sermon by Saint Peter Chrysologus, Bishop, I appeal to you by the mercy of God. This appeal is made by Paul, or rather, it is made by God through Paul, because of God's desire to be loved rather than feared, to be a father rather than a Lord. God appeals to us in his mercy to avoid having to punish us in his severity. Listen to the Lord's appeal. In me I want you to see your own body, your members your heart, your bones your blood. You may fear what is divine, but why not love what is human? You may run away from me as the Lord, but why not run to me as your father? Perhaps you are filled with shame for causing my bitter passion. Do not be afraid. This cross inflicts a mortal injury, not on me, but on death. These nails no longer pain me, but only deepen your love for me. I do not cry out because of these wounds, but through them I draw you into my heart. My body was stretched on the cross as a symbol not of how much I suffered, but of my all-embracing love. I count it no loss to shed my blood. It is the price I have paid for your ransom. Come then, return to me and learn to know me as your Father, who repays good for evil, love for injury, and boundless charity for piercing wounds. Listen now to what the Apostle urges us to do. I appeal to you, he says, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. By this exhortation of his, Paul has raised all men to priestly status. How marvelous is the priesthood of the Christian, for he is both the victim that is offered on his own behalf and the priest who makes the offering. He does not need to go beyond himself to seek what he is to immolate to God. With himself and in himself he brings the sacrifice he is to offer God for himself. The victim remains and the priest remains, always one and the same. Immolated, the victim still lives. The priest who immolates it cannot kill. Truly, it is an amazing sacrifice in which a body is offered without being slain, and blood is offered without being shed. The Apostle says, I appeal to you, by the mercy of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice. Brethren, this sacrifice follows the pattern of Christ's sacrifice, by which he gave his body as a living immolation for the life of the world. He really made his body a living sacrifice, because, though slain, he continues to live. In such a victim, death receives its ransom, but the victim remains alive. Death itself suffers the punishment. This is why death for the martyrs is actually a birth, and their end a beginning. Their execution is the door to life, and those who were thought to have been blotted out from the earth shine brilliantly in heaven. Paul says, I appeal to you by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living and holy. The prophet said the same thing: sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but you have prepared a body for me. Each of us is called to be both a sacrifice to God and his priest. Do not forfeit what divine authority confers on you. Put on the garment of holiness, gird yourself with the belt of chastity. Let Christ be your helmet, let the cross on your forehead be your unfailing protection. Your breastplate should be the knowledge of God that He Himself has given you. Keep burning continually the sweet smelling incense of prayer. Take up the sword of the Spirit, let your heart be an altar. Then, with full confidence in God, present your body for sacrifice. God desires not death, but faith. God thirsts not for blood, but for self-surrender. God is appeased, not by slaughter, but by the offering of your free will. Worthy are you, Lord, to take the book and open its seals, for you were slain for us. With your blood you have purchased us for God. You have made us a kingdom of priests to serve our God. With your blood you have purchased us for God. Grant we pray, Almighty God, that celebrating the mysteries of the Lord's resurrection, we may merit to receive the joy of our redemption, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Let us praise the Lord and give him thanks. All that I have and all that I am, I give to your hands, Jesus, through the heart of Mary, your blessed mother. Amen. Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us. Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. If you found this time of prayer and reflection fruitful and would like more opportunities to grow in your faith, consider joining the Christeros and purchasing our publications, now available on Amazon.com. The Christeros app is available on the Apple app and Google Play Store. More information on the Cristuros can be found at theCristuros.org.