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03-27-2022Weekly Reflection

O Most Holy Trinity dwelling in my soul through Your grace, I adore You. O Most Holy Trinity dwelling through Your grace in my soul, grant that I may love You more and more. O Most Holy Trinity dwelling through Your grace in my soul more and more make me holy. Remain with me Lord. Be my true joy. Another Prayer All-powerful Father, help my weakness and snatch me from the depth of my distress. Wisdom of the Son, direct all my thoughts, words, and actions. Love of the Holy Spirit be the beginning of all the activity of my understanding and free will ever conformed to what pleases the Lord God.

Doctrinal Point: Through Baptism we are made to share the very life of God the Blessed Trinity through sanctifying grace. All the sacraments exist to nourish this life of God within us which makes us a temple because of our union with the One Temple the humanity of Jesus Christ. Through an increase of sanctifying grace we become more like God. All the sacraments of the Church exist to give us this continuing relationship with God the beginning of the life of heaven.

Only mortal sin destroys that life. Mortal sin is thought, action, or omission which is seriously wrong, and done with deliberation and full consent of our wills. All mortal sins must be confessed by number and kind in ordinary circumstances in order for God’s life to be restored to us. If we commit a mortal sin we should make a perfect act of contrition and get to Confession ASAP. A perfect act of contrition is an act of sorrow for sin where the primary motivation is the goodness and love of God rather than fear of punishment. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

Doctrinal Point: What is true joy? Joy results in the possession of what is good. Joy is a fruit of the Holy Spirit which comes from an interior life with the Blessed Trinity through sanctifying grace and cooperating with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, Counsel, Piety, Fortitude, and Fear of the Lord. The fear here means a perfect fear: that of a son or daughter who reverences and loves their Father and is concerned not to do anything which would interfere with that love. Christian Joy: In essence, Christian joy is the spiritual sharing in the unfathomable joy, both divine and human, which is in the Heart of Jesus Christ glorified. (Pope Paul VI)

All Saints and All Souls: These feast days illustrate a point of Catholic Faith called “the communion of saints” which we profess in the Apostles Creed. There is a law which says the law of how we pray is the law of what we believe. This law is expressed through the Mass, Sacraments, and rites of the Church.

The Communion of Saints means that the entire Church embraces us on earth the Church Militant, fighting Satan, the world, and our own weaknesses from the Seven Deadly Sins; it embraces our beloved deceased being purified in the next life called the Church Suffering. Their love of God and neighbor is being purified and brought t full capacity. They rely on our prayers especially the Mass to help them in the purification. This is profound love of neighbor; it embraces the angels and saints in heaven, the Church Triumphant. The angels and saints surround us with their love and are constantly praying to God for us. This entire Church, the communion of saints is present at every Mass!!

The greatest gift and foundation of the Catholic Faith is the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Body and Blood of the Lord. Before approaching the Body and Blood of the Lord, we should be free from mortal sin; prepare ourselves by fasting for the hour from food and drink; and reverently bowing before receiving the Lord or kneeling while receiving. If you receive in your hand, make a throne with your left hand over your right hand, step aside and reverently consume the Eucharist. THERE SHOULD BE NO SNATCHING OR WALKING AWAY IN THE ACT OF RECEIVING.

Sometimes Catholics are in a situation where they are divorced and have entered a second union in a civil or other ceremony. Catholics in this situation may not receive the Eucharist. They are encouraged to come to Mass and have their situation looked at by the Church. NO PRIEST HAS AUTHORITY TO GRANT ANNULMENTS IN CONFESSION EVEN IF A PERSON IS CONVINCED THAT THEIR FIRST MARRIAGE WAS NOT VALID. THEY MUST SUBMIT THEIR SITUATION TO THE JUDGMENT OF CHRIST’S CHURCH AND SHOULD DISCUSS THIS WITH THE PARISH PRIEST.

Jesus Christ is a Divine Person the Son of God Second Person of the Blessed Trinity with two natures that of God and that of Man. We are human persons with one nature: man/woman. The nature of something answers the question “what?” Person answers the question “who.” Person is also referred to as the subject. As God the Son exists from all eternity, that is why it is erroneous to call Jesus a human person.

The Divine Person is always the Son, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, Who at the moment of the Incarnation took to Himself a second nature, that of man. His Personhood is rooted in the Blessed Trinity. Jesus Christ is present Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in both forms of the Eucharist.

Spiritual Reading: The Invisible World by Blessed John Henry Newman. Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Mysterium Fidei, (The Mystery of Faith)

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

9. What is the full and definitive stage of God's Revelation? The full and definitive stage of God’s revelation is accomplished in his Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, the mediator and fullness of Revelation. He, being the only-begotten Son of God made man, is the perfect and definitive Word of the Father. In the sending of the Son and the gift of the Spirit, Revelation is now fully complete, although the faith of the Church must gradually grasp its full significance over the course of centuries. “In giving us his Son, his only and definitive Word, God spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word, and he has no more to say.” (Saint John of the Cross)

10. What is the value of private revelations? While not belonging to the deposit of faith, private revelations may help a person to live the faith as long as they lead us to Christ. The Magisterium of the Church, which has the duty of evaluating such private revelations, cannot accept those which claim to surpass or correct that definitive Revelation which is Christ.

12. What is Apostolic Tradition? Apostolic Tradition is the transmission of the message of Christ, brought about from the very beginnings of Christianity by means of preaching, bearing witness, institutions, worship, and inspired writings. The apostles transmitted all they received from Christ and learned from the Holy Spirit to their successors, the bishops, and through them to all generations until the end of the world.

13. In what ways does Apostolic Tradition occur? Apostolic Tradition occurs in two ways: through the living transmission of the word of God (also simply called Tradition) and through Sacred Scripture which is the same proclamation of salvation in written form.

14. What is the relationship between Tradition and Sacred Scripture? Tradition and Sacred Scripture are bound closely together and communicate one with the other. Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ. They flow out of the same divine well-spring and together make up one sacred deposit of faith from which the Church derives her certainty about revelation.

15. To whom is the deposit of faith entrusted? The Apostles entrusted the deposit of faith to the whole of the Church. Thanks to its supernatural sense of faith the people of God as a whole, assisted by the Holy Spirit and guided by the Magisterium of the Church, never ceases to welcome, to penetrate more deeply and to live more fully from the gift of divine revelation.

16. To whom is given the task of authentically interpreting the deposit of faith?The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the deposit of faith has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone, that is, to the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome, and to the bishops in communion with him. To this Magisterium, which in the service of the Word of God enjoys the certain charism of truth, belongs also the task of defining dogmas which are formulations of the truths contained in divine Revelation. This authority of the Magisterium also extends to those truths necessarily connected with Revelation.

17. What is the relationship between Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium? Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium are so closely united with each other that one of them cannot stand without the others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy Spirit, they all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.

We sometimes hear the term: “traditionalist.”The word “traditionalist” appeared in an authoritative teaching document for the first time in St. Pius X’s Letter sur le Sillon (Notre Charge Apostolique) in 1910. There the pope wrote: “The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries, nor innovators: they are traditionalists.”

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