DEVOTIONAL THOUGHTS FOR APRIL 2007

+Thoughts for the Month in which we contemplate Christ’s Resurrection+

“Man’s craving always has been to see God, to think he is near Him, as far as possible to get into touch with Him; and therefore the aim of religion is to know God, to get upon intimate terms with Him, to see Him in all the ordinary actions of our lives, to live for Him, and to ask His help. This recognition of God is the chief duty of man. It constitutes our supreme happiness – this reaching forth beyond ourselves.

In merciful answer to this demand God, as we know, came upon earth and came in human form and spoke with a human voice. He was truly man. He was loved wherever He went, except by those who, for political or other reasons, were his enemies. His enemies said: “The whole world has gone out after Him.” Yet they who had seen and heard Him could not believe that the Lord of heaven and earth could have come down into our world and have dwelt here, and have hung on the Cross until he was dead, simply through love of them. They disbelieved His love because it was so great! But that same God is in the world still.

Our Risen Lord is in the Tabernacle of every Catholic church; we cannot see His features, but beneath the veil of bread, His Sacred Body is there as truly as it was in Nazareth. He is with us wholly and entirely in His perfect Manhood, in His eternal Divinity. That Body against which the multitudes pressed by the banks of the Jordan, has now become your food: It nourishes you unto Life Everlasting.”

(Father Daniel Considine, S.J.)

Bishop Anthony writes: He came that we may have life – and have it more abundantly. That abundant life was only made possible because Jesus accepted a cruel death on a wooden gibbet. He died as the “representative” man, offering His life to the Father for the sins of us all. But He was also God and His Passion was also an offering of God to God. He rose as man yet with a new, glorified Body because He was (and is) God. His Resurrection is our Joy, our pathway to eternal life, our salvation.

This does not, of course, mean that our lives on earth are without many difficulties! Our destiny is elsewhere and we must remember this every day! CHRIST IS GOD and He wants us to lay down before Him all the troubles and griefs of our daily lives. He created us and He alone understands us completely. Let us go to Jesus who will cure our souls if we only ask. At every Mass and whenever we pray, let us beseech Him to heal us. We come to Jesus as One who has a human heart, yet as One who is True God begotten of True God.

Above all let us go constantly to Jesus in His most Holy Sacrament, bowing before Him in the Tabernacle where he deigns to dwell in silence amongst us sinners. He is with us always! +

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, grant us a living faith in the Good News of the Risen Jesus, Thy Son. Let that faith overcome our troubles and sorrows and become deeper every day of our lives. Through the same Jesus Christ Thy Son, our most sweet Redeemer. Amen

And a passing thought:

Faith is taking the first step – even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

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MAY THE RISEN CHRIST FILL OUR HEARTS WITH EASTER JOY !
MAY HIS SACRED AND EUCHARISTIC HEART NOURISH US EVERY DAY !
MARY IMMACULATE,OUR LADY OF VICTORIES,INTERCEDE FOR US !