St. Joe's Consecration Day 34 - The Resurrection

The moment of the tomb opening up, when Jesus Christ conquered death, is the moment that changes everything for all time. Because of the moment Adam and Eve chose sin, and then the moment when Mary and Joseph said "Yes," we are led to this moment. 

The stone was rolled away, and Jesus was not there. The man who loved so insanely that he suffered torture and death for the sake of his beloved plummetted to the depths of death and came out alive. This moment is so important because it validates all the other moments that came before it. 

. . . We forget all too readily that Jesus is KING. Jesus is LORD. We bend a knee and fall to the ground in the presence of our king and lord. Do we know what that means? 

. . . (Jesus) said so many things that people thought were crazy when they heard it, that they walked away from despite the miracles that he was working in their very sight. 

Our God is madly in love with us. Oh how much He loves us! Despite how silly and adolescent we are in our pride, balking at his rightful authority, going against his will over and over again, he pursues us to the end of the earth. 

What are you holding onto in your life that goes against the teaching of Jesus?

Any subtle attachments I have to political affiliations. 

What commandments do you have the most difficulty with?

The 6th and 9th. 

Where does the authority of the church challenge you the most?

In calls to political action on life issues when I worry about how the wider society will perceive me or when I expect conflict and disagreement from people I care about? 

Open it all up to Him today. Sing Alleluia with all the saints and angels of Heaven, proclaiming that you are in need of a Savior--and you have One!

St. Joe's Consecration Day 33 - Trustful Surrender

 Jesus himself knew what to do within this strange silent stillness (of Holy Saturday). It was the stillness of the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the torment of his heart, deeper than words, that expressed itself in blood sweat through his pores. It was the shocking, total, and utter acceptance of his human nature ("Let this cup pass!") and then the acceptance of his divine Father ("Not my will but yours be done."). He must have learned those words from his human father, who taught him how to sit in silence and encounter God in the prayer of the deep. 

"I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were in created in my image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you. Together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

. . . I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place."

 -from an ancient homily in the Office of the Readings for Holy Saturday

What doubt do we hold onto in our lives that we don't think God will take care of?

It is easy to say we trust God, but do we act like it?

What do we ruminate about?

• Conflicts and disagreements with other people, especially those who are close to me.

What do we stress about?

• Not having fulfilled a vocation. Whether I will always be alone. 

What situations bring out the worst in us because we begin to feel the loss of control or worry that all will not be well?

• At work, feeling overwhelmed with too many assignments to do in a short time or feeling misunderstood or undervalued
• Succumbing once again to some habitual sin, feeling that there's no way out or that I am perpetually defective or deficient
• Interactions with my parents or siblings in which I feel there is some unbridgeable chasm between us

St. Joe's Consecration Day 32 - The Crucifixion

 Jesus tells us "not to be anxious about your life" (Mathew 6:25). St. Paul tells us "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ."

When we experience pain, we immediately want it to go away. . . and the thought that God, who can make it go away but doesn't, can be too difficult to bear. Therefore our minds come up with all sorts of arguments against God: against his goodness, his power, his love, or his very existence.  

Instead of asking "Why, God?" we might ask "Where are you God?" Crying out "Why have you abandoned me?" returns us to the faint echo of our words repeated in the mouth of Jesus who suffered with us. He felt it, too.

Jesus, who did not have to suffer, chose to suffer because we suffer. He looked at us upon our crosses in life, and said to himself, "If that's where you are, that's where I want to be." 

Mary held her dead son in her arms and still trusted God's goodness and plan. Joseph also had a share in this as he anticipated the suffering that lay ahead for his beloved wife and son.

"On the Cross, God's Eros is made manifest for us. Eros is indeed that force which does not allow the lover to remain in himself, but moves him to become one with the beloved." (Pope Benedict XVI, Deus Caritas Est)

What hidden pain is holding you back?

The pain of not believing I can be loved for my own sake.

What have you suffered in your life that blocks you from the deepest levels of trust and abandonment to God?  

Being abandoned, neglected and misunderstood by my parents. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 31 - The Eucharist

 The Eucharist is the manifestation of (the Divine Person’s) desire to remain with us until the end of the world. It is His infinite love that stretches beyond what is reasonable.

. . . St. Therese’s thoughts (from The Story of a Soul) are like the private journal of a bride waiting for her wedding day. It is no surprise then that the great mystic Pope St. John Paul II saw so clearly the marital embrace as the image of God’s love for us.

. . . We must prepare our hearts and minds to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament properly, just as St. Joseph was prepared to receive Jesus in the humble and hidden circumstances of Bethlehem. Mary was the tabernacle . . . Joseph was the first communicant.

(The Incarnation) struck holy fear into Joseph’s heart and holy abandonment as he said “Yes” despite that fear. Can you imagine the awesome anticipation Mary and Joseph felt before the Nativity?

Joseph held that baby knowing he was holding God.

What distortions of love in your past make it difficult to accept the fullness of God’s plan for loving you?

Parental love – love with strings attached. Shame-driven. Abandonment

How can you prepare yourself to receive Him in the Eucharist more faithfully, holding back nothing of yourself for yourself, so that He who gives himself completely to you may receive you completely?

Ascetisms. Prayer. Purgative practices. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 30 - The Sacred Heart

 This is the Sacred Heart. The heart of one man with true human nature inflamed with the infinite love of a Divine Person. 

"Consider that the Sacred Heart of Jesus was no sooner formed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin than It was inflamed with an immense love for all men . . . He puts himself daily in a humble and obscure state on our altars in order to satisfy the excess of this tender love, thus fulfilling what was spoken by the Prophet: 'My delights are to be with the children of men. (Prov. 8:31)'"

-Fr. John Croiset

The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

How much of your relationship with God is based on your experience of the passionate love Jesus feels for you?

A growing proportion. I started with a cultural, habitual relationship with God the grew from my family's practice of the faith, my religious education, retreats, and Christian friendship. When I knew that I could rely on God even when (or especially when) there was no one else to turn to, I better understood the passionate love of Jesus. I began to understand his own suffering for me in the smaller sufferings and trials I endured. 

How much of your practice of religion is based on your experience of this love?

Nearly all of it. I go to Jesus, I practice my faith out of the knowledge of his love.

What might be getting in the way of receiving this love? 

My attachments to sin and the esteem of others.

St. Joe's Consecration Day 29 - Incarnation

 The human person is the satisfaction of God's infinite longing. God is the satisfaction of every person's infinite longing. Infinite longing itself was created in us to draw us back to the Infinite.

. . . It is too easy to dismiss uncomfortable or negative experiences as "bad" or "wrong," and many of us were raised to ignore, downplay, or repress certain facets of the human experience. Joseph and Mary taught Jesus how to grow into his full humanity. They affirmed him for who he was, a human boy, and raised him into a human man. 

What part of your humanity do you believe can't be from God?

Sin is the misuse of our humanity, but what specific elements native to your humanity itself, maybe something in your personality, do you reject or find it hard to believe was willed by God to exist in your identity as a human person? 

My sometimes infinite need for social connection and bondedness to others. The flip side of this desire often comes with loneliness or sorrow when I feel distance from others. 

St. Joe's Consecration Day 28 - Purity

 Joseph began the same as all of us in concupiscence, but he represents the fullness of what we are called to. 

By his sacrifice . . . eternal divinity entered into time and space. The virginal marriage of Joseph and Mary provided the foundation and context for the marriage of heaven and earth. 

What is your heart holding onto that is not of God?

The sense that I'm deficient because I'm not in a relationship.

What do you need Joseph's help most to let go of?

The coping mechanisms I respond with singleness as a rationalization.

The inability to ask for and accept help.