Posted on March 8, 2020 View all news
Laudetur Jesus Christus! Gelobt sei Jesus Christus!
Sia lodato Gesù Cristo! Praised be Jesus Christ!
This is just a reminder to be sure to get your reservation in by this Tuesday evening for the diaconate ordination reception. This is an open invitation, but we do need to have an accurate count for planning purposes. There is no need to send anything if you will not be attending, and of course, you can attend the ordination without attending the reception. Please be sure to keep Bro. Brent & Bro. Henry in your prayers over the next ten days.
This coming Tuesday, we will also begin praying the Novena to St. Joseph. We will pray for this for the two ordinands and blessings upon the Oratory and our parishes. Please join us in this Novena, leaflets are found near the bulletins today.
Today we will conclude Forty Hours at Old St. Mary’s. Vespers and closing exercises will begin at 3:30 p.m. A small social will follow, and please bring a dish to share. At the conclusion of Forty Hours, Bro. Brent & Bro. Henry will make their profession of faith and take the oath of fidelity to the Church. This is the final requirement for them before their ordination next week.
Today in our Gospel, we hear the familiar story of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In the Office of Matins, Pope Leo the Great is quoted as saying: “To this proposal (to build three tents) the Lord answered nothing, this signifying, that what Peter wished was not wrong, but out of place, since the world could not be saved but by the death of Christ. And the Lord’s example was to call the faith of believers to this, that albeit we are behoven to have no doubts concerning the promise of eternal blessedness, yet we are to understand that, amid the trials of this life, we are to seek for endurance before glory.”
So often, we are also like Peter, who prefers the glory of Heaven to the trials of the cross. As Pope Leo says, our desires are not wrong, but they are out of place. For there can be no bliss without the cross, as Christ Himself demonstrates for us with His sacrifice. We so often desire purely human solutions and discount divine solutions. We want others to fix problems for us, to make them disappear so that we can have things as we want them and desire them to be. This occurs in our families, in society, and even the Church. We believe that we deserve better than we do and not to have to pick up the cross as Our Lord has done. We are seeking to create earthly paradises and ghettos for ourselves. But places that are ultimately devoid of God because suffering and the cross were rejected.
Today, as we bask in the glory of the Transfiguration, may we not lose sight of the cross! The Lord has given us a consolation on this journey of suffering, but suffer we must purify ourselves, society, and the church from our sins, failings, attachments, and shortcomings. Even as we may long for better days, better leaders, and more faithful times, may we not discount the immense graces and opportunities presented to us today. The greatest of saints are often born in the worst of times. Today is no different if we remain open to doing the will of God!
