Ave Maria!

Stations of the Cross from Cardinal Wojtyla, Pope St. John Paul II

1. Jesus is condemned to death – Pilate was trying to remain uninvolved and on the sidelines. We should be with him and be engaged with Him be being conserved with our neighbor
2. Jesus carries His cross – Ecce Homo behold the man. Look what you have done to your God. Do we drive God out?
3. Jesus falls the first time – Falls under the weight of the cross not using the help from the angels or his Father. Fr. Garrigou Lagrange on St Thomas how Christ chose be vulnerable and week in face of persecution.
4. Jesus meets His mother – amount of suffering becomes clear when it is shared with others. When we suffer unite our sufferings with Christ.
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross – How long did he resent this. St Mark remarks that Simon’s sons became Christians. Bear the cross by bearing the difficulties of the poor even if we are doing it imperfectly like Simon did.
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus – Veronica does and act of charity and Jesus leaves the imprint of his face on all acts of charity. Christ kisses all monuments of charity.
7. Jesus falls the second time – I am a worm an no man, Psalm 22:6 Appreciate the love of God even in suffering.
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem – Do not weep for me, weep for yourselves and for your children. An invitation to an examination of conscience, weep for oursins, to receive more thorough grace
9. Jesus falls the third time – Christ can atone for our sins because his perfect sacrifice
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments – Mary’s great suffering at seeing Jesus’ body mocked
11. Crucifixion – Jesus is nailed to the cross – as if a thing, subhuman. If we teat someone with less that human dignity then we too sin
12. Jesus dies on the cross –  verticality of body vs arms are horizontal. Vertical is His Divinity and horizontal is His Humanity. We must embrace both.
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross – You will conceive in you womb  and his reign will never end. Birth and death Jesus is laid in her arms. Her hope in His resurrection helped her through.
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb – Jesus conquered death with death. So many tombs in the world but this one is the death of death.

Reflection on the reading for Holy Saturday in the Liturgy of the Hours, Christ and death do battle.

Christ comes to us each day, Adam had to wait thousands of years

Awake sleeper come forth from your tomb which is sin.

+++

The post Video – St John Paul II and Lent – CONF 316 first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

In the second talk for our Lenten day of reflection Fr. Hollowell gives meditation on the Stations of the Cross from Pope Benedict XVI:

1. Jesus is condemned by Pilate – Those involved in Crucifixion are not utterly evil but caught up in the crowd. Evil comes from indecision, lack of conviction, going along with crowd, shouting. Need to have silent prayer.
2. Jesus takes up his cross – Need to foster the common good. Who is our God, who do we crown?
3. Jesus falls the first time – Beneath weight of Cross the meaning of his whole life is seen in his voluntary suffering and humility. We must stop our pride and let Him lift us up rather than rely on ourselves. On other hand need to be people of action. We need to strike a balance.
4. Jesus meets his mother – Will the son of man find faith, yes because of his Mother.
5. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross – Initially inconvenienced came to see it was a grace, seeing Jesus’ silence in suffering.
6. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus – Veronica symbolizes the universal desire to see the face of Christ. Are we giving everything we can to seek the face of God, to come to him.
7. Jesus falls the second time – Three fold fall, lust of the world…. worse paganism that is trying so hard to forget about God that he leaves mankind lying in the dust.
8. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem – A reproach against a devotion that is purely sentimental. We need to change our lives. Evil should not be trivialized.
9. Jesus falls the third time – How often do we give Christ reason for grief? How are we evangelizing to bring joy to Christ.
10. Jesus is stripped of his garments – reminds us of the expulsion from paradise. Jesus redeems us from within our humanity, as one of us.
11. Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross – Let us look at him in times of tribulations. Lent is a good time to meditate on what is most important. Let us nail ourselves to Him to never be apart from Him.
12. Jesus dies on the cross –  Cosmic event the sky is darkened and the earth quakes. His divinity is manifested even in his death. World still survives this “death of God”.
13. Jesus is taken down from the cross – and given to His mother. Joseph of Arimathea comes as well and so the family of Christ begins to form.
14. Jesus is laid in the tomb – Nicodemus brings great quantities of Aloes and spices. Can we love God too much? We can get exaggerated and strange. But, these are due to imperfection in that love, we cannot love him too much.

+++

The post Video – Pope Benedict and Lent – CONF 317 first appeared on AirMaria.com.

Ave Maria!

Fr. John Hollowell gives the final talk for the 2016 Lenten Day of Reflection here at the Mother of the Redeemer Retreat Center. He continues on his first two talks on the Stations of the Cross from St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI and now how these can be lived in our everyday lives by seeing how two great Catholics authors, J. R. R. Tolkien and G. K. Chesterton, integrated them in the epic books they wrote and specifically how God can make good out of evil.

• J. R. R. Tolkien – how we are co-creators with God especially in regard to raising children but also to raising people’s spirits in times of difficulty.
• G. K. Chesterton – Influence of Catholicism on a joyous, inspired culture, contrary to idea that a penitential life is repressive.
• Fenced in playgrounds let children play without restraint.
• JPII – Phenomenology, start with observation and move to discovering what is true.
• Chesterton – there is nothing more dramatic than orthodoxy.
• It is sane to look for an explanation of suffering and even celebrate it.
• Need contrasting darkness to see the brightness.
• Fasting builds the appetite.
• In Catholicism fasting leads to feasting.
• Need to have balance, be a billboard for balance.
• Catholicism has crusty outside but is filled with joy.
• World is the opposite, feast without the fast. Does not work
• What are you creating or sub-creating in the world?
• What will we be looking back on as a legacy at the end of our lives?
• The world encourages us to become like machines, efficiency is considered all important
• Are we able to enjoy Sunday, too relax?
• Only the strong are able to be idle the weak and the sick can not do that.
• Movies Protestants have made many that are force fitting preaching into art.
• Fanatical and even suicidal element to most protestant movements, fasting without the feasting
• Modern world is without contrast and bland, every day is the same
• Fridays are for suffering that leads the feast of Sunday, We must celebrate and embrace both and invite others to do so.
• See the suffering in Christ on Good Friday to appreciate the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

+++

The post Video – Tolkien, Chesterton and Lent – CONF 318 first appeared on AirMaria.com.