Including 40 Days for Life, Consecration, Litany of Trust
Good Afternoon,
Tomorrow, we will celebrate with all the world the great Solemnity of the Annunciation, in which we remember and celebrate the great gift of God to all of us who are longing for His presence. In the heart of this extraordinary Lenten season, we pause to recall that March 25, nine months before Christmas, is when Jesus, our hope for salvation silently, humbly, imperceptibly, came to earth. All because Mary said "yes."
At Mass tomorrow morning at 8:15 and tonight, at the Vigil Mass at 6:30, when we celebrate the Mass, the saving sacrifice of Christ, which was made possible by the consent of a young maiden, will, by the Holy Spirit and our prayer, be made present for us all. Mary's son, our Lord, Jesus, came among us through the power of the Holy Spirit, and it is by that same Holy Spirit that He comes to us today.
Mary said, “Be it done to me according to your word.” And it was. She conceived by the Holy Spirit, and became the Mother of Hope, the Mother of Mercy, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God! What a great gift it is to remember the joy of the Incarnation as we anticipate the culmination of Christ’s life on earth, his Passion, Death, and Resurrection.
Consecration to Jesus Through MaryTomorrow morning after the homily, I will invite all those who are making (or renewing) their Consecration to the Jesus through Mary to join in the consecration prayer. I will pray the prayer that is included in 33 Days to Morning Glory. Here is the Consecration Prayer for your reference. We will also add it to the Mass Livestream and Prayer Resources Page. Tomorrow morning, you will be able to find a pdf worship aid for the music for tomorrow morning’s Mass.
Litany of Trust
One of the amazing things right now is the extent to which so many of us are looking for ways to encourage one another and to find ways to see all of this from the perspective of the Lord. One email I received today included this Litany of Trust which came from Sisters for Life. May it be a great gift to you, as you and all of us continue to remind ourselves that the Lord is with us, and He invites us to trust Him.
40 Days for Life
Even though we are bound by the governor’s decree to remain home, we can still do our part to pray for the end of abortion. The Vigil in Lansing continues, but we are invited to join the prayer vigil by committing to pray at home. Here’s a link to sign up for times to pray. May the Lord hear our prayers and the prayers of countless men and women, boys and girls, to end the scourge of abortion in our land and world. Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and Mother of all the Redeemed, pray for us!
“The Weight of Glory”
More than a few times in the past few years, I have had occasion to reference a powerful sermon C.S. Lewis originally gave in Oxford in June 1941. It is included in a collection of essays and sermons entitled, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses. During this long Lent, when so many of us are deprived of the Blessed Sacrament and when many of us are crowded with family, perhaps even to the point of exasperation, this essay might be helpful. I offer it to you for your prayerful reflection:
Meanwhile the cross comes before the crown and tomorrow is a Monday morning. A cleft has opened in the pitiless walls of the world, and we are invited to follow our great Captain inside. The following Him is, of course, the essential point. That being so, it may be asked what practical use there is in the speculations which I have been indulging. I can think of at least one such use. It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilisations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.
In this time of absence from the Eucharist, may we indeed see Him in each other (and ourselves), as we strive to love as Jesus taught us.
With profound gratitude for Mary’s “Yes,”
Father Steve
