Thoughts on the Last Supper

Holy Thursday marks the beginning of the sacred Triduum, or "three days."  There is so much taking place in this one event, the Last Supper. 

We see Jesus in the role of Servant as he humbles himself and washes the feet of his disciples.  I, personally, have a lot to learn from this one act.  Here is the King of the Universe bending down to do a most untasteful act of love and servanthood.   If he can lower himself in such a way, then who am I to complain about scrubbing a toilet or turning a dirty sock right side out to wash it?  And yet, these daily tasks do often send me into resentful rants.  Jesus, help me to remember how you willingly offered yourself for your disciples in this way, and help me to get over myself and know my true place as, not a queen, but a servant in my house.

And then he gave us himself in the Eucharist.  This is the greatest gift.  This was the first Mass and Holy Eucharist.  He shared his body and blood with his disciples, and then, through them, now down to us today.  He said, in John 6:54, "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up on the last day."  Yes, this teaching is so difficult to understand.  Especially for a former Evangelical like myself.  It takes great faith to believe that the bread I eat and the wine I drink at mass are really his body, his blood,  that you he physically there, but I do believe it.  And I pray that I will remain faithful so that I will be raised up on the last day.  Only with your help, dear Father.  Please let your graces rain down upon me.

And after the supper, after Judas left to betray, he spoke some final thoughts to his disciples.  We remember and thank God for his gift of the ministerial priesthood.  He lovingly instructed them, prepared them for his absence, promised them the arrival of the Holy Spirit to lead them in the truth, and prayed for them.  These were our first priests, with Peter as our first Pope.  He had taught them and prayed for them, and now he was leaving them in the hands of the Holy Spirit.  He prayed that they and we would all be one.  (John 17:20-21)

After supper, they all went to the garden and Jesus prayed and was arrested, and thus began his Passion.

How Women Can Rule the World

This is a great blog post!  Had to share it.

http://www.ncregister.com/blog/how-women-can-rule-the-world/

Joy Unlimited

"If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.  Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.  We are halfhearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased."  C.S. Lewis  Mere Christianity

On Prayer

"To pray does not mean to think about God in contrast to thinking about other things or to spend time with God in contrast to spending time with our family and friends.  Rather, to pray means to think and live our entire life in the presence of God."  Father Steven Peter Tsichlis

Jesus Prayer:  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

"We pray as we live because we live as we pray.  If we do not want to act habitually according to the Spirit of Christ, neither can we pray habitually in his name."

"Our Father knows what we need before we ask him, but he awaits our petition because the dignity of his children lies in their freedom."

On the Practice of Silence

From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

"All writers on the spiritual life uniformly recommend, nay, command under penalty of total failure, the practice of silence. And yet, despite this there is perhaps no rule for spiritual advancement more inveighed against, by those who have not even mastered its rudiments, than that of silence. Even under the old Dispensation its value was known, taught, and practised. Holy Scripture warns us of the perils of the tongue, as "Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Proverbs 18:21). Nor is this advice less insisted on in the New Testament; witness: "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man" (St. James 3:2 sq.). The same doctrine is inculcated in innumerable other places of the inspired writings. The pagans themselves understood the dangers arising from unguarded speech. Pythagoras imposed a strict rule of silence on his disciples; the vestal virgins also were bound to severe silence for long years. Many similar examples could be quoted.

Silence may be viewed from a threefold standpoint:

• As an aid to the practice of good, for we keep silence with man, in order the better to speak with God, because an unguarded tongue dissipates the soul, rendering the mind almost, if not quite, incapable of prayer. The mere abstaining from speech, without this purpose, would be that "idle silence" which St. Ambrose so strongly condemns.
• As a preventative of evil. Senica, quoted by Thomas à Kempis complains that "As often as I have been amongst men, I have returned less a man" (Imitation, Book I, c. 20).
• The practice of silence involves much self-denial and restraint, and is therefore a wholesome penance, and as such is needed by all."

I Cannot Lead Myself to Holiness

"So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall."  1 Corinthians 10:1

"The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self -- all your wishes and precautions -- to Christ.  But it is far easier than what we are all trying to do instead.  For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call 'ourselves,' to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be 'good.'  We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way -- centered on money or pleasure or ambition -- and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly.  And that is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do.  As He said, a thistle cannot produce figs.  If I am a field that contains nothing but grass-seed, I cannot produce wheat.  Cutting the grass may keep it short:  but I shall still produce grass and no wheat.  If I want to produce wheat, the change must go deeper than the surface.  I must be plowed up and re-sown."  C.S. Lewis  Mere Christianity

Pressure

Now that I have my own blog, I feel all this pressure to have brilliant thoughts, and put them down for the world to see.  So far...nothing.  Sorry.