SPEAKER_01 0:00

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. And dear God, our Father, we ask for special blessings across our parish and in a particular way for Father Luke, who just celebrated his three-year anniversary of priesthood. We give thanks for his yes to you, your call to him to be a holy priest. We give thanks for Father Thompson's 20 years of priesthood coming up, and also for Father Harris, I believe, 24 years of priesthood. So we're really grateful for the way that you've invited him to be fathers for us and to bring us the Eucharist in particular, your son. And then also we pray for Father Mulaney. We miss Father Mullaney, and today is the anniversary of his ordination. So he was ordained this very day, I don't remember the year, but several years back. And so we pray, Father, that you would bless those four priests and all priests as we're celebrating Corpus Christi today. Father, you give us the Son, and our Father is the priests, give us Jesus in the Eucharist. So we give thanks and we praise your name. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Okay, so um we will use the book uh today. So if you've got it, please do open up to page 110. Um my understanding from the last lesson uh with Father Thompson, which I suppose is the last lesson you will have with Father Thompson, unless he comes back as a guest speaker. Um so we're praying for him, going to the Sacred Heart Parish in Manassas. And um that's a theme I want to have today, the Sacred Heart. Of course, that's we're in the midst of a novena to the sacred heart. Uh you see on the bottom of one ten in big blue, bold, the incarnation, right? So, of course, the Lord has a heart for us long before he takes on flesh, but in a real particular way, he has a human heart that is on fire with the love of God, because he's God, even though he became a man. He has the love of God burning for us. That's how much he loves us. He's on fire to save us, to protect us, to provide for us, just as the Father does, right? Because the Son is the image of the Father. So the Father's love is made incarnate in the Son, we could say, um, in time. But in eternity, it's there in the Son for us. So the Sacred Heart, um, I I looked uh in my office this morning and I saw this prayer card for the Diastan Golden Jubilee, the renew prayer to the Heavenly Father. Uh, you might have seen this in the last year or so. Hopefully, we've been praying that renewal prayer. Uh, but of course, it's an image of the sacred heart of Jesus. There's so many different ones. Today, of course, we've moved uh last Thursday's Feast of Corpus Christi to Sunday so that more people will be celebrating it. That's common even throughout history. It's not just something in the last few years, uh, and I'm not not just even the last few decades, but it's it's common throughout the church's history to extend that uh wonderful feast of Corpus Christi to today from Thursday. Um we have um so the idea of the body and blood of Christ, and here we are. I didn't choose the topic, but we're coming in to the book itself and looking at the incarnation. So God is always providing, right? We talk about providence, and so so often our our reading material aligns with the church's liturgical calendar. That's that's really important for us to consider that our catechesis should be liturgical. Uh that's that's where we know for certain that the uh the expression lexorani, lex uh credendi, lex vivendi. So the way or the law of prayer, the way that we pray, uh affects how we what we believe, and what we believe affects how we live, right? So from the heart, we we want to be like Christ, who has become incarnate to show us what man looks like. Um we're able to pray properly because our our hearts are united to Christ. We say, uh, most sacred heart of Jesus, make our hearts like unto thine, right? We want to be like Christ in our heart, and that's gonna help us to pray from the heart sincerely, right? And then we'll know properly how what to believe, because our our heart will be united to Christ's heart. And then, of course, it's a heart and mind connection, so it's not just intellectual, right? It's not just academic, but our hearts are informing the way we think about things, the way we see the world, uh, and we see the way Christ sees, because we're we're by baptism made another Christ. Right? We're becoming Jesus. That's our goal every day to be Jesus. Um He's become incarnate so that we know how to live properly. Because the way that we pray, the way that we it affects the way we believe, affects the way we live. So we'll be living like Christ the more that we pray like Christ and and believe. Um so keep please please uh realize uh the book is just one of many sources to consider how we live our faith. And that's what matters the most, the way that we live it. So um I'll pause there. Any any comments, questions right off the bat. Okay. Now that we've paused, I want to make sure that I announce we've got Father Thompson's um wonderful reception in here right after our class. So I would ask, we only put away two tables, so we've got eight tables out right now. We need to keep six here for Father Thompson to celebrate well. Uh so if you are quick to serve, uh maybe maybe just identify the two tables we're gonna take, probably the back ones, and we'll put those two away. We'll try to remember at the end too, but uh want to make sure we say early. So with that, uh back to the incarnation. Again, we're in the midst of Corpus Christi, which has uh generally speaking been an octave or an eight-day feast. We can think of Christmas being the octave, right, that leads um to New Year's or the Mother of God. Uh so these octaves used to be way more octaves, and now in a way we're still celebrating the octave because Thursday night we began uh Corpus Christi, we're celebrating today, and we're also in the midst of that novena where our our bishops are going to lead us in consecrating the United States of America to the most sacred heart of Jesus, right? Uh which we've never done before. There's never been a consecration of the nation to the sacred heart, but that will take place Friday. So we're really it's it's amazing how aligned the textbook is and our our course of reading with what's going on in the world and especially in our church. Okay. Um so the incarnation, as it says at the bottom of 110, is one of the key mysteries of the faith, one of the key mysteries. And I've mentioned before, mystery is not something we can't figure out. It's not a riddle, it's not a problem. What if you maybe you have notes, maybe you have just uh your memory, or maybe you already know this, but what's uh a better way of understanding mystery than something we is just beyond what we can know? What does the word mystery actually mean? In in the sense of Christianity. Like it's not uh Sherlock Holmes Sacrament. Sacrament? Okay, right. So we we had mentioned mysterium in Greek. Uh we'll get translated into uh Latin in the New Testament as sacramentum, the sacrament. And specifically in Ephesians chapter 5, where St. Paul is talking about the the mystery, the great mystery, manuum in uh in Greek. Um mysterium. It's a great mystery, marriage. And that marriage that Paul's talking about is the marriage between Christ and the church. That's how much he loves us, right? So the incarnation coming willing to be limited, um, the infinite becomes finite, right? That's the incarnation. The infinite God, who is outside of time, comes into time in a particular moment in time, right? About 2,000 years ago. And that that makes him uh bound by what it's like to be human, to suffer, to be misunderstood, to um to need to learn and grow, which he does, right? The Bible tells us Jesus grew in wisdom and knowledge under the direction of his parents, right? We're always emphasizing here at St. Louis, it's not just the St. Louis thing, but we thankfully, Father O'Hara leads us in thinking that the parents have a huge role in teaching and forming their kids. We have a school, we're in a school right now, right? So we pay people to do it, but but the parents are the primary ones. And Christ limits himself to Mary and Joseph, right? That interior hidden life where he is giving himself to his mother, to his father, to be formed, to be shaped into a good man, because that's how we are. So he wants to show us possible to become uh, and not that he was ever a sinner, right? We're not saying that, not that he was ever dumb or you know, stupid, but that he does increase in the knowledge that humans need. So he knows things on the eternal level or the divine level because of his nature as a human as a divine person, but he takes on that human nature. So uh I'll pause there. Other thoughts on mystery or the incarnation from from you, having having read or having lived the faith. What comes to mind so far? Nicole. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and only recently did we start bowing. It was uh you know, full genuflection. We would get down on our knees for the uh at Incarnatu Cest, right? And and was made man. And so, and you'll still see that sometimes. And in fact, on two two days in particular, can we think of the feast days? This is great, I'm glad that you brought in uh sense of prayer, right? And uh liturgy, because that's what shapes our belief, right? The way we pray shapes what we believe and how we live. So you can see all there, we've decided to move our body because of what we pray, because of how we pray and and what we believe, that shapes our bodily movements, the our actions, our way of living. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he comes down, right? So we do that too. We go down because God was willing to humble himself and come down to our level so we can drop and take a knee. We can bow our bodies. But what are the two in the current mass that we have here at St. Louis? There are two days a year when we have we are instructed by the liturgy's rules or the rubrics, uh, the red writing in the book, that we need to not bow down those days, but to kneel down during the Creed itself. During Mass. When what are those two feast days when we take a knee during the Creed? Not Good Friday, not Good Friday. We do we do end up kneeling during Good Friday, but not during the Creed itself. East not Easter, no? Not Palm Sunday? No. Christmas is one, yes. Why would we do it on Christmas? What's it? Yeah, okay, so he became he became visible to regular people for the first time on Christmas. Um and so he's visibly known to be here on earth at Christmas. Um at Incarnatus Est, right? And he he took on flesh and dwelt among us. We can think of John chapter 1, the prologue. Um if you if you go to the old mass, that was said at the end of every Mass, the last gospel, and you kneeled down at Verbum Caro Fachemest, right? So and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. We would we would physically go down when we hear that part of the gospel. Uh but in the creed, yeah, Christmas, you take a knee because we want to live out our faith. Yeah, absolutely. So that and what's another name for the Feast of the Annunciation? So we've got the 25th of December, so we're looking at liturgically, that's the beginning of the year, right? Because Advent is the start of the new liturgical year. So even though it sounds like it's that's the end, what's the one before that? But but really, uh, liturgically speaking, Christmas is the beginning of the new liturgical year. And so later in the liturgical year, we're celebrating something back in time, earlier than Christmas, the Annunciation, which is has a couple there are several names for these feasts, thankfully. We we have like Christmas, Nativity, you know, the birth of Jesus, they're all correct terms. Uh but what's another name for the feast of the Annunciation?

unknown 13:09

Happy Incarnation.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Say it again? Yeah, it's it's an incarnation day, the the feast of the incarnation. And in fact, the uh the day before, March 24th, is the feast of St. Gabriel. Um, that that got moved to uh 29th September, so they paired all the archangels together. But historically, the feast of the Archangel Gabriel was March 24th, which is fitting because you would say, but the day before we celebrate the incarnation, when the angel Gabriel came unto Mary and announced this great joy, right? Um, of you know, if you will to it, if you accept God's invitation, and she does by her fiat, you know, the incarnation happens the 25th. Okay, so we have our our prayers, our beliefs, our our actions with the incarnation. So thanking Nicole with the uh the bending of the knee or the bowing of the body, absolutely, during the creed. So those are the two will still, even the current mass, we'll still take a knee during the creed for those two feasts. Other other things that come to mind. Essentially, are only Catholics looking at Mary as the mother of God? Might not be the exact question, but we'll phrase it that way. And then why is it that Mormons, as an example of not Catholics, um, why don't they believe in the divinity of Jesus? So I'm not gonna speak to why others do not believe in the divinity of Jesus. What we what we're called to is to live in such a way and to even speak the name of Jesus as He is our Lord, uh He's the one who saves us, the only one. Um so we're called to make them Catholic, right? But not by force, by invitation and example. Um so I'll I will leave it to you all to creatively figure that out, to be godly, right? God is the creator. So the more we're like God, we have really creative ways, awesome ways of inviting people to know Jesus. Um but in terms of the mother of God or the Theotokos, so you can look ahead to page, this is from the attributes of Mary, page 114. The top one there, the Theotokos or the God-bearer, right? So Christians have always believed that, but unfortunately, there are Christians who don't believe everything Christians believe, right? Just as there are Christians right here, two hands up, pointing right here, you know, two fingers pointed at myself, who don't live out what we believe. You know, we need to keep praying so that we will believe properly and live it properly. So unfortunately, so many of us, you know, pointing at me, we don't pray enough, or pray maybe sincerely enough, or pray in the right ways, and so then we end up we don't end up living it out. But the Mary, she obviously carved out time for hearing God. Right, for hearing God, so that she could uh not just speak to God, but listen. That's a huge part of prayer, right? To hear God speak and then to believe what he says, and then ultimately to live it out. So the all Christians believe Mary is the mother of God in this sense. If they are if they're Christians, they believe that Jesus is God, right? Unlike the Mormons and other people that don't believe Jesus is God, all Christians believe Jesus is God. And that's why we call Mary the Theotokos, Theos, in Greek, you know, God, uh, takos uh in other forms. Um you have the the verb to or toko, to bear or to give birth. You can think of the pharaoh, that's another word that means to bear. Uh so like a leader will bear the burden for the people he's providing for, right? So Mary is the bearer of God. But the confusing part can be what that means. Are we saying that Mary is originating God? Like she's before God? No, obviously not. But we're saying Jesus is God and Jesus came from her womb. She's a mother, he's a real person. He's, you know, by the incarnation, we know Jesus is man. He's fully God, and he's fully man. So the Theotokos is a term where the mother of God means that Mary's son is God, not that Mary's God, right? And that's where so many Christians have rejected the term without maybe rejecting the belief. Because I don't know any Christians that don't believe Jesus is God, right? They're not really Christians. Or they're they're super confused Christians. Maybe they got baptized, but they don't understand their faith, right? Um, all of us included don't understand the faith perfectly, but we don't just push it off as a mystery. Oh, okay, figure it out. That's that's not the word mystery, sacraments, and really to go back to that word, that which is hidden is revealed. It's meant to be shared. So we said mysterion begins with the the Greek word or letter moo, right? So you begin with your mouth closed and open it up. It's it's something that's inside that's meant to be pushed out. Sacraments, an inward reality, uh an exterior sign of an inward reality, right? It's meant something that's deep inside, it's meant to be brought out. So that's the mystery. So with Jesus, he's God, but that's not obvious because he's walking around earth as a man. Mary, it's not obvious that she's the mother of God because she's a she's a normal woman, right? Obviously, not a typical woman, but but she's a real, fully woman, fully human woman. Um so, mother of God, absolutely. We want we want to convince people, just like we want to convince Mormons that Jesus is the Lord, the only God, and that he is God by persuasion, right? By encouragement, by accompanying them where they are right now and leading them closer to the truth. And then with a lot of Protestants, let's say, have an issue with the term mother of God. But it's it's not that difficult to overcome if we're humbly, you know, like I said, with Jesus, we want to be like his heart, meek and humble. If we can meekly convince people that that's the way, not by force. Um I know no one here is thinking force is the way, but I want to make sure I've said that. Uh okay, so great question. Did I kind of I know I went way beyond it and maybe I didn't answer it. Does that help at all? Okay, and I and I do want to make sure, like, for instance, the Orthodox, they fully believe this, maybe sometimes better than we do, on the Theotokus. They love the mother of God, right? They they are always singing to Mary as the mother of God.

unknown 19:48

Nicole?

SPEAKER_03 20:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 20:25

Not just from wrestling.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

That's right. Uh so persuasion, not manipulation, um, by example, but really by words. We've got to use words. Sometimes we hear that it's falsely attributed, and I I don't know who came up with it, but this whole preach always and when necessary use words, that's madness. Uh St. Paul VI, the Pope from you know, who oversaw most of Vatican II in um Evangeli Nunciandum, uh Nunciandi. I'm gonna mispronounce the Latin, uh, but the uh the text that he gave on the um the need, the call for the evangelization, which was the the background for Pope Francis's Evangelicaldium or the joy of the gospel, he says in there we need witnesses, not teachers, but witnesses, but that it's necessary to say the name of Jesus. Right? It's it's unacceptable for Christians to think we could we wouldn't talk to our friends, neighbors, even enemies about Jesus. We need to be confident because we've been praying right, so we're able to be transformed in our prayers, to be humble, right, to be meek, to be lowly and not arrogant and not uh puffed up, and certainly not run around with anger, um, but to to be on fire, to be transformed into Jesus who came and he sought out the lost, right? That that's our goal. Seek those who are lost that are very confused about the incarnation or about the uh the divine motherhood of Mary. Uh absolutely. Other other thoughts? This chapter covers a whole lot. Um I do want to pause for the titles of Mary till next week. I'll be I'll be teaching next week, and I've I think we can unpack those uh more then. It's 1020, so we've got some more time, but I think there's so much to be said about the incarnation, and even previously, uh although there's there's Behold Your Mother on page 111, there's the terms consubstantial, uh hypostatic union. Um I really love on page 112 under the purple section where it says Christ has both a human intellect and will and a divine intellect and will. Okay, so first off, we can think of the intellect and will. Previous chapter, we were talking about what does that mean? Image and likeness, right? The image and likeness, that's what we hold as humans. And so we're able, Jesus shows us all humans have a human intellect and a human will, because Jesus is made in the image and likeness of God. He's a human. The incarnation is real, he really is human. Uh but he, being a divine person, not a human person, but a divine person, has a divine intellect and a divine will. And then two lines down from that Christ has both a human heart. It says trying to conform. Do you see that on page 112? Trying to conform. So I'll read the whole sentence, but that's that's like the key right here on this section. Christ has both a human intellect and will, and a divine intellect and will, period. Christ's human intellect and will are directed by his divine intellect and will. So it's not like he abandons his divinity. A perfect fulfillment of the holiness we seek, so we're seeking holiness. A perfect fulfillment of the holiness that we seek, we see in Jesus, so we're seeking holiness how? By trying, making effort, daily striving after, making a real concerted effort to conform our own intellects and wills to the intellect and will of God. So Jesus didn't have to struggle with that. He did, over the lifetime, conform his human intellect and will perfectly, right? It was perfect, but St. Luke tells us he grew in wisdom and knowledge and understanding. So if we're gonna be humble, meek and lowly, our hearts like unto thine, Jesus, then we've got to make an effort to daily conform our intellect, our human, we only have a human intellect, we only have a human will to conform it to the divine will, to the divine intellect. So what are we how do we do that? It's telling us right there we've got to be trying to conform our our own intellects and our own wills to that of God. How do we do that? By prayer, absolutely. What are some methods of prayer, or I don't want to say methods, what are some techniques or prayer practices uh that would help us to know what God thinks and how God acts? The rosary, absolutely. So daily m why why would daily mass help my day? Absolutely beautiful. So I I can't say it back, uh, and I certainly because it's there's a lot there to memorize, but but also because you said it better, then I'll be able to say it. So uh but uh to summarize um going to daily mass, we have a daily opportunity to be receptive to what's being offered, right? That's what's really important, to be receptive, open hearts, open our hands out to what's being offered, especially by the priests with the sacraments, uh, by maybe the lector who's proclaiming the word of God, because that's that's one of the things that takes place at Mass, right? The Bible's read. We can trust it's not like just a fairy tale or a story, it's the inspired word of God. It's inerrant, uh, written, that is. Obviously, there's more word of God than what's in the Bible, but it's the written word of God without error. So when you and what what does either the deacon or the priest read from before the Eucharistic part? What during during the liturgy of the word or the liturgy of the catechumens, the mass of the catechumens, what what are they hearing from when the priest or the deacon is reading? Do they tend to read from the Old Testament or maybe the letters of St. Paul? At Mass, what does the priest or the deacon read from? The gospel, absolutely. I know you know that. Maybe I didn't phrase my question wrong. Yeah. So they're reading from the gospel. And that's where we find out what Jesus thinks, does, says, right? His words and his works are right there for us. So daily meditation on the gospel, which is the life of Christ, how do you want to conform your intellect and your will to Jesus, to God the Father? We've got a tremendous resource, the Bible, and specifically the New Testament, and then even more specifically the gospel. So daily reading of the Gospels, what's a prayerful way of reading that that we've talked about in our class? Lucy? Lectio divina, absolutely. You think of the lecture, the reader, hopefully that lecture is living really holy, right? And certainly, I know I've been a lecture sometimes and I've proclaimed or read something aloud, and I said, Whoa, you know, I didn't say it to the people, but I was thinking inside I fall so short of this. Uh, especially if it's St. Paul who's like saying, Um, I've won the race, or I've, you know, uh so many things in St. Paul. He almost seems like he's prideful, but we know he's holy because he's a saint. But he's talking about overcoming and being beaten and shipwreck and all these things. I'm like, I don't do that. But over time, the grace is like water, you know, and it erodes the hardness of our heart, it penetrates us. And then we're able to have our, because we're striving, right? We're we're really trying hard to conform our own intellects and wills over time, a lifetime, we're getting that grace that is sufficient to transform us, uh, to make us holy, to be meek and humble like Jesus, to the point where you know we can be like he is up there, to pour out our blood to save others. Um and that's an important part of this chapter is the idea of uh being a co-redeemer in a way, right? Being a mediator for others. Jesus is the one mediator, but we're we're other Jesus now, right? Because of our baptism. We're Jesus for the world. So we can mediate. If I sneeze, somebody says, God bless you, you've just mediated for me, right? Um if I tell you, my uncle died recently, you say, I will pray for his repose. You just mediated. You're trying to help save him. So there's nothing uh strange or unchristian about that. That's that's what Jesus does. He comes and prays for us, right? Jesus prays. Jesus prayed for Peter. So our prayer needs to be in such a way that it's leading our minds to think the way Jesus thinks, to see how Jesus sees, to love like Jesus loves. And the Mass, the rosary, those are perfect things to be doing, hopefully daily or often, at least often. But but we want to strive for a daily rosary and maybe even daily mass. But obviously there's no obligation, there's no sin if you fail to go to Mass on Tuesday or something, right? Unless it's a holy day of obligation. Okay, great. Other thoughts on this section? Yes, ma'am. Yes. So daily reception of the Eucharist um is going to give us a an opportunity, an atmosphere uh for intimacy with Christ, right? And so what I see for some people when they receive the Eucharist, they go back to their pew and they cover their face in some way, because it's distracting a mass, right? If you're like me, you can struggle with the noises or the movements. Uh the phones, unfortunately, that go off, right? Uh we had Corpus Christi Mass at St. Rebus Thursday night, and right behind me in the pew, there was a person whose phone went off, and then they got a second call, or the person got a second call, answered the phone, said, I'm in the middle of mass. This was during the consecration. I was like, on all of all days, Corpus Christi. You know, and you know, this happens. Uh we've all been there. And I've been there when my own phone went off, so I try to just leave it away. But this happens, this sort of thing happens, it's the world we live in, but we can do our best to create a time and a space to just rest with God, to hear his voice. Because God hears us throughout the day, but we need to take the time to listen to him. And so I'll pose a question for you: what is the greatest commandment, according to Jesus? What's the greatest commandment? Okay, so that is definitely part of it. I'm really glad to hear that. How does Jesus begin when he's asked that question? How does he open up his answer? Which is what we often forget. And I'm really pointing at myself. I've just recently been rediscovering this part of the greatest commandment. And so I was hoping to share it today. Um, so so there's neighbor as yourself in the world. The love is really important. We definitely think of Christianity, what is it water down to, or like um uh compact, what's the at the core of the love, of course. So love God and love neighbor. But that's Jesus is asked the question um and he responds first by quoting from the Old Testament. And of course, his whole answer is from the Old Testament, Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but and he puts it into one. So he seems to really know the law. What is what's the beginning? There's a prayer that uh see it? The Shema? Yeah, the Shema. Uh and um so though that's the opening word from the Hebrew, right? What does that word mean? Shema Israel, right? Yeah, and uh to listen or hear, right? Absolutely. Um so hear, O Israel. That's how it begins when he's asked, what are the what's the greatest commandment? To hear. That's important. And you think of Saint Benedict, he wrote the rule of Benedict, right? Which is still being lived out today, about 1500 years later, um, to hear, O son. That's how he begins the rule, Saint Benedict. And it's interesting because that's that's implying what comes next is instructions for living well, uh to love well, because that's what it comes down to, to living our love. Um, not just feeling it, but to, you know, love is a verb, we might say, right? It's also an emotion, but it's we want it to be a verb to love. Um and so here, O Israel, the Lord is one. Absolutely. So if you hear that, it's not saying, look, you better only believe in one God, and you better believe that Jesus is God, right? You Mormons. Right, we're not saying that. Uh we're saying, hear, have a receptivity. Uh close the mouth for a minute, listen up. You know, we got some really important instructions. Hear, O Israel, um, the Lord is one. So if you're like me, you've treated other things like God, right? Or we've put things that we know are not God in place of God, above God, in our priority. Uh and so we want to stop that uh because it's not good for us, not because God gets angry, but because it's not good for us. So here, open your ears to what's coming next. Love God, that's gonna make you happy, and love your neighbor as yourself, that's gonna make you happy. These are instructions for happiness, for fulfillment. Um there's only one God that can do that, and that's that's the God, right, who becomes incarnate for us in Jesus Christ. So we're living it the more that we pray the rosary, because that repetitive prayer, it doesn't take that much to memorize the rosary. You're thinking without uh white knuckling it, right? You're not like, what do I say next? I don't know what to say to God. You're it you're um put in a posture in a place that's receptive to where God might whisper something like, I love you, keep it up. Uh I love you, but cut that out, right? It's always I love you. God never stops loving us, but it's on us where we are in life. If it's more of encouragement or you can do better, words of words of improvement. So we have to hear, right? And Jesus is uh the second person of the Trinity. What do we call? What's his title?

unknown 35:23

Son.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

There is the sun, and uh what's one that starts with a W or an L in Greek? The Lagos and the Word, right? The word, so he's the Word. We want to hear the Word. All right. Written Bibles came much later. Most people were hearing it proclaimed at Mass. Uh now we now we have our own copies to read, or maybe we listen to maybe Father Mike Schmidt with his number one podcast, The Bible in the Ear. Maybe we're listening to the Bible again. Um, but we're definitely at Mass hearing the Bible. We want to hear. We need space to calm down, hear the word of God, um, and believe it. That's the takeaway to believe it. You hear it, it will change us in our hearts, and then we'll be believing it, and that's going to shape how we live. So the Eucharist, if we are not opening our ears to hear God, and instead we're hearing the noise of the Mass, and I don't mean the Mass is noisy, but like the things that happen during Mass, those distractions can prevent us from hearing. So we need to pray the rosary to get in a meditative state, a receptive, docile state. We need to go to Mass and be receptive to God's grace. We need to receive the Eucharist and then quiet ourselves. And what's a what's a time that you know is going to be uh ideal? Is it when everybody's getting out of the pews, maybe singing a song that you like or don't like? So during Mass itself might be difficult to hear God, unfortunately. That sounds weird, right? But we've probably all been there when we're during Mass distracted from prayer. But the church has always encouraged us to stay behind and make a thanksgiving. It's really important that we stay behind after Mass and make a Thanksgiving, and that can be just sitting with your face at your heart saying, God, I love you. Thank you. Um to just block out the distractions. But if we don't do that, we're very quickly back in the world. And I'm not saying the world is all bad. God created the world, it's good, right? But the world has it's fallen. So we can get into gossip right after mass. We can leave the parking lot and honk at somebody, right? Somebody can honk at us for not going fast enough. Immediately after mass, our world can be turned upside down, and we lost the opportunity to just be with God who loves us. So the rosary after mass might be a thing. Maybe the rosary before mass, getting to Mass, receiving the Eucharist, and then carving out space to be alone with God. And why? Because Jesus, right? If we look at the Bible itself, daily Jesus was going off to a quiet place. And some of you have been to Israel, I've mentioned before that I've been to Israel. There is a quiet place, a little cave, where you can go right off the Sea of Galilee, the lake of Gennesaret, right? And that's believed to be one of the places Jesus, during his three years of public ministry, would go and just be alone overnight to pray with God. And the blood of uh the bread of life discourse, he was doing that overnight, right? He was he was praying overnight, and then all of a sudden, boom, he's talking about the future of the Eucharist. So that's we want to we want to live this out. Uh not just read it in the Bible like Jesus did that.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Okay, to the parking lot. No. We want to sit with that, rest with that, meditate on that, and then live it out. What's our quiet place? And Father O'Hare always talks about the domestic church, home altars. Are we doing that? Do we have one? Do we have a crucifix in our rooms? Do we have an icon of the Blessed Virgin in our rooms at home? Do we take a minute, a second, to go to that prayer niche and just rest? And maybe turn and face the uh the cross? And with the eyes of thanks and gratitude and love, say, thank you, God, for becoming incarnate. Wow, what a mystery. And it's not a Sherlock Holmes mystery. This is one that's been revealed to us. We know what it is. Jesus became fully God, uh fully man, right? And to take that in with wonder. You know, kids they come with, oh, I got a bug, or I got a stick bug, you know, they're like amazed by these little things. We've got more than a stick, right? That's the cross with the Son of God who became incarnate for us, to have some eyes of wonder with that and to take it in. Okay, enough from me. I'll stop again. Other thoughts.

SPEAKER_04 39:43

Just to be kind of uh with what you're talking about, one of the main ways we can work with a life is to just be through like individual meditation and contemplation, which is like kind of along with what you're saying, going to a quiet place, and also taking advantage of being in church after mass and those kinds of things.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Yeah, absolutely. So we want to have um lots of prayer practices. Obviously, the rosary involves vocal prayer, saying aloud, the Hail Mary, saying aloud, the Our Father, etc. Uh, maybe saying aloud, the virtue for this mystery is, right? So vocalizing it, meditating um to means to think. So if I'm reading the book, I'm meditating. Because I'm thinking, well, actually, reading, that's that's the first step, to read, but to think about what you just read. That's what meditation means. To think about something. So if I'm reading a science textbook with my child uh because she wants help, I've got to read it a few times and think about what is this asking again? This is not my normal, right? It's not my everyday experience, seventh grade science or whatever, right? So it's to think through it. And unfortunately for most of us, the the gospel, and even if we're, you know, St. Padre Pio, the gospel is still gonna be beyond us, so we're gonna have to think about what we just read, and then contemplation, uh, not to think hard, that's meditation. What is contemplation? Yeah, so um I want to use the word, so you've said to have a void, maybe empty our minds a bit, and I think if help me out if this is maybe what you're saying, with a sunset, you're not trying to figure it out. You're taking it in. You're not like, well, this ray's going to that angle and this particular brightness. No. You're just enjoying it. You can rest with something beautiful and gaze at that, and that's what I'm saying with terms of looking at the cross, to take that in. We don't have to think too hard about it, think briefly, but then just delight in God's love for us. God so loved the world, right?

unknown 41:56

We have the adoration chapel that we can maintain and pray and be impressed anytime.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

That's right. So we want to come to adoration. These are all the perfect answers. Thanks for being here. Uh really great session. So absolutely wanna pray in an adoration chapel, maybe if we can. Um and if we can't make it uh a priority, right? To to carve that onto the calendar and do it. And not to be hard on ourselves when we fail, but to to get back up daily when we've when we've maybe not made our our good effort, right? Because we it says we're trying to conform our intellects and wills. So we are we trying. You know, each of us has to wrestle with that one. And if you're like me, from time to time, forgive me, Father, or bless me, Father, for I have sin, right? So because if we're not making an effort, that that's that's falling short, right? It's missing the mark. Uh, we really got to be trying. And it doesn't mean everything's like immortal saying I'm not saying that. But like if we're if we're being negligible in our in our efforts to conform our intellect and will to God, like that that's not that's not a good thing. So are we trying and how can we try in a way that's effective and fruitful? Absolutely. So the Blessed Sacrament Chapel is a wonderful place. Yes, ma'am. Could you say that Mary's contemplation?

unknown 43:21

Mary and contemplate.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah, absolutely. So, what are some ways to think of the Blessed Virgin Mary as contemplation? What are some practical ways to do that? The incarnation? Absolutely. So, what is something that's in our rhythm? Uh, I'm thinking over at Locke in particular, what is uh an incarnation prayer prayer that in our office we do every day?

unknown 43:45

Angelus.

SPEAKER_01 43:46

The Angelus, absolutely. So, uh and the word was made flesh, right? That's the third of the uh intros to the Hail Mary. So um the angel of the Lord declared unto Mary, and she conceived by the Holy Spirit. So then eventually, you know. Behold the handmaid of the Lord be done unto me according to thy word. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. To say those words with belief, right? To really be praying them so that we're believing that God came down to us. Every day. What's the custom of the church for hundreds and hundreds of years with this angelist? What are the prayer times?

unknown 44:20

6 noon and 6.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

6, noon and 6, absolutely. So hopefully we're up by 6. If not, if we're not up by 6, pray it anyway. Or you can do it at 9.30 if that's when you get up. If you get up at 4.30 and you're like, I'm going to be busy at work at 6, pray at 4.30. Right? It doesn't have to be exactly at 6, but it's an easy thing to just say daily rhythm. Just like hopefully brush your teeth a couple times a day. We're going to pray the angelist a few times a day. Make that a habit. It's super easy. It takes about a minute to two minutes tops. And so we might not have an hour to give God right now in our current condition, but we have 60 seconds for sure to give God. And you can do it silently, you can do it audibly, vocally, you can do it as a family. It's super easy to memorize. And then it just becomes your way of living. Because that's what we're hoping, is that we become incarnational. We're already flesh. That's the carnation part, right? The carne, chili con carne, the meat. We're already flesh. But are we are we config you know um configuring ourselves so that we're becoming divine? We want to be more and more like God, right? Godly people. So the incarnation is going to help us to be godly, because Mary perfectly lives out the will of God. And she couldn't have heard the angel uh come and speak to her if she was distracted and didn't have a prayer life. She shows us what happens when you have a prayer life. It's fruitful. She bore the Son of God. That's the fruit that she produces, Jesus. Okay. Are we maybe good on today? Recommendations for a hymn. One we might know by heart. Immaculate Mary? That's probably a good one. Um I'm I'm for that. I was wondering if with Corpus Christi, are there any Eucharistic hymns that we might know? Uh and we can definitely do it the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Uh immaculate Mary. But the I was thinking in terms of maybe the Tantum Ergo or um, but if we don't know, that's okay. But maybe we sing a line of the Immaculate Mary. You want to stand and we'll we'll conclude that as our prayer. Oh, I do want to make sure uh I brought a few books. The first is called How to Be His, a 33-day dedication to our Eucharistic Jesus. This is gold. Um I'm on page uh nin, which is day 32 of 33. Mary's Immaculate Heart Will Triumph. So there you go. Very providential. Uh that's the title of the Second to Last Day. Uh so this is not a consecration book, although I recommend Mary and Consecration and other consecration books wholeheartedly, full endorsement. Um, but this came out back in 2025 and really right before Christmas. Uh, How to Be His, I'll stick by it for a few minutes if anybody's interested in the book. We've actually got a lot in the office. Um that's a great book to pray with and for OCIA for Mystigi. So after our new Catholics, our new parishioners became Catholic at Easter Vigil, we were reading that out loud with the reflection questions for several weeks in the San Damiano room. So we found that to be fruitful for group prayer and conversation. This came out a few years back, Father Donald Hollow Callaway, uh 30-day Eucharistic revival, a retreat with St. Peter, Julian, and Amard. Uh very user-friendly. Each chapter ends with reflection, questions, resolution, and prayer. And then it says to pray the litany of the Holy Eucharist. There's a couple different litanies that it recommends precious blood. Um, and then finally, the Father's House, Discovering Our Home in the Trinity by Father James Dominic Brent, really gifted preacher over in DC at the Dominican House of Studies. Super approachable book, but rich, very, very deep. So it's uh any the general audience can read it, and also the the greatest theologian will find that it's it's beautiful and profound. So it hits all reading levels. I recommend those three books. Um and then please do continue, Father Harris with Flocknope and Sinanar, Sacred Heart daily consecration prayers. Please do that as a family at home or wherever, um, because Friday's a big day. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:41

Emaculet Mary. Your praises we sing. You reign now in splendor with Jesus our king. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you.