Acts 17:15,22-18:1; Psalm 148 Heaven and earth are full of your glory; John 16:12-15
St. PAul tell us in the first reading that "God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will judge the world with justice through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead."
This week we are accompanying Pope BEnedict on his pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal. Fatima is the location where the BLessed Mother appeared to three shepherd children 6 times beginning May 13, 1917 until October 13, 1917.
She asked that the world increase its devotion and fervor of faith to bring about conversion and true peace. She asked that the people pray the rosary daily. Meditating on the life of Christ daily would effect a deeper conversion and a more stable life of faith.
Pope Benedict upon his arrival had these words to share:
"Relationship with God is constitutive of the Human Being, who was created and ordered toward God. He must seek truth by means of his cognitive process, tend toward the good in the sphere of volition, be attracted by beauty in the aesthetic dimensions. Consciousness is Christian to the degree it opens itself to the fullness of life and wisdom that we find in Jesus Christ."
In other words: We must seek the truth with our minds, do good with our wills, allow beauty to enter into our hearts and then we shall begin to fully open up to the person of Jesus as the fullness of life.
Every time we say the rosary we seek the truth with our minds as we think about the life of Christ, his ministry, his service, his teaching. He is truth himself. We learn to do as he did as we conform our will to his and truly understand goodness seen in action in the life of Christ. We learn to love what is good for us from goodness himself. We let the beauty of such a life, the God man who brings grace and redemption, to enter into our life and heart and show us what true beauty is all about, "no greater love then to lay down one's life for one's friends." Is there anything more beautiful?
In the Rosary, truth, goodness, and beauty converge in the person of Jesus Christ himself. Perhaps this is why the Blessed Mother in Fatima encouraged us to pray the rosary daily, so that we may open ourselves to fullness of life in Jesus and thus open the world to God himself.
The unknown God is no longer unknown. In the face of Jesus God is made known. Here is the man God has appointed.
Prayer of Pope BEnedict in Fatima upon arrival: click here
No comments:
Post a Comment