My New Blog Devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Greetings! I started a new blog called The Ever Blessed this past Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Check out its latest post. I will no longer be blogging @ Shmuelson. Godspeed and Ave Maria!

 

The Germs of Christ, Amen?

Happy Maundy Thursday! This evening, the Church celebrates the first liturgy of Holy Triduum—the Last Supper of our Lord. The primary focus of tonight’s liturgy is Christ’s perfecting of the Old Testament Passover sacrifice and meal by His establishing of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. He did this so that the Passover, which for thousands of years pointed to His sacrifice by remembering the exodus of the Israelites from the bonds of Egypt, can now point to His coming again by remembering the exodus of the world from the bonds of sin as effect of His sacrifice. Additionally, we also celebrate it as the beginning of the priesthood of the Church.

Those of you who subscribe to this blog may have noticed that I haven’t written anything in a while. This is because I haven’t really made the time to. Yep, I’ve got no other excuse really. On that note, I have wanted to set aside the time to write about something that I’ve noticed ever since I converted to Catholicism, and it has to do with communicants avoiding the cup of Christ’s Most Precious Blood during Holy Communion.

Now, let’s get some things straight here out of the gate. There are cases where the Blood of Christ may not be available to some communicants due to health concerns (alcoholics, people with allergies, etc.) or simply because the Eucharistic ministers may run out of the Body or Blood during Communion. Because of this the Church teaches,

Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species, communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the fruit of Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving communion has been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin rite. But “the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds, since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly.” (General Instruction of the Roman Missal 240) This is the usual form of receiving communion in the Eastern rites. (1390, Catechism of the Catholic Church)

So, when you receive the Body or the Blood, you receive both the Body and the Blood, as well as His soul and divinity. Christ cannot be divided. If someone is allergic to gluten, they may receive the Blood of Christ and thereby receive the whole Eucharist. If someone is an alcoholic or allergic to wine, they may receive only the Body of Christ and thereby receive the whole Eucharist. If someone is allergic to gluten and is also an alcoholic, they may request gluten-free bread to be used at their parish as well as mustum in place of wine. If the two are not available, the faithful may make a spiritual communion, or in an act of faith and self-denial, receive communion anyways. Christ is wholly present in the Eucharist. If you receive Him worthily, you will not be condemned (1 Corinthians 11:27-29).

All of that being said, I’d like to discuss another reason that keeps people from receiving the Blood of Christ… germs. I’ve often seen/heard about the practice of not receiving the Blood of Christ as result of the fear of contracting germs or disease from other communicants that came to Mass sick. IMHO this sentiment seems very inconsistent with the Catholic faith.

Let’s imagine for a moment that you have been translated to the time of Christ and are one of His disciples—following Him through the lands of Judea and Samaria, hearing His teaching and seeing His Miracles, and all the while increasing in love for Him. Now imagine that a group of lepers start approaching and call out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13) and “if you will it, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40). First of all, if you were aware of the reality that leprosy is and what it does to both the leper and people in proximity to the leper, you would probably run screaming. Leprosy is one of the most contagious and one of the most deadly diseases of all time. With this common understanding of leprosy, you now look to Christ who isn’t running away screaming. Instead, he is looking at the lepers with complete compassion, and it shows in the most sincere smile you have ever seen on His Holy Face, or on any face for that matter. Then you see Him approach the Lepers, and reaching out His hand He touches them and says, “I will it. Be clean!” (Mark 1:41). To your amazement, the lepers are healed, and our Master goes His way (which is incidentally your way now, as your faith has been encouraged by this miracle to continue to follow Him).

Now imagine that you are walking with our Master side-by-side and He motions to embrace you or bless you in some way by the laying on of His hands. What would you do? This man has just touched a very contagious person. Anti-bacterial/viral soap has not been invented yet, nor would it be completely preventative of stopping the spread of the disease. Would that even be on your mind? Would you stop Him out of disgust or fear of becoming a leper too? Would you quarantine Him? The answer is no. You would not. You would not stop Him because He is the Divine Physician and He is God. He knows what residual contagions He may or may not have contracted from the lepers, and even if it were possible that disease could cling to His holy and ever-healing hands, He would not transfer them to you. And, even if, by some act of His Divine Will He did wish to pass the disease to you, it is because He wills it! And we must obey His will because it is what’s best for us. But I tell you the truth, NONE of this would be on your mind because you have been offered an intimate encounter with Almighty God and you would not pass that up, even if your life were at stake.

Now, let’s come back to our present day. Presuppose something for me. Presuppose that when a Catholic Priest or Bishop says the words of consecration, “this is my body” and “this is my blood” that the whole Christ is present there in the bread and the wine and that they transform into His Body and Blood. Suppose that Jesus Christ Himself is there amongst us fully and completely just as He was to the people in the Gospel accounts—and in an intimate way. Yet this mode is more intimate than His human life on earth. He becomes the guest of our tabernacles, that is, of our bodies, and gives Himself to us as food for our souls. Presuppose you believe all of this, and in walks a leper—who is right in front of you in the communion line. Is your mind on the leper, or on the Christ of God? Well you don’t need to presuppose anything because Christ is truly and completely present in the Eucharist.  He won’t let any germs get you, just as He didn’t cause a massive outbreak of leprosy in Judea during the last three years of His earthly life. So, if you are capable, receive both His Body and His Blood tonight and your communion will be more complete.

Blessed be Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar!

 

Happy Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: 

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

492 The “splendor of an entirely unique holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception” comes wholly from Christ: she is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son“. The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” and chose her “in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love”.

-Catechism of the Catholic Church

 

The ‘Gloria Patri’ and St. John of Damascus

I came across this lovely variation of the Gloria Patri penned by St. John of Damascus and I thought I’d share it…

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

Be my soul’s Defender, O God, for I step over many snares. Deliver me from them and save me, O Good One, in Thy love for man.

Now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Let us not silently hymn the most glorious Mother of God, holiest of holy Angels, but confess her with heart and mouth to be the Mother of God, for she truly bore God incarnate for us, and prays without ceasing for our souls. Amen.

 

Venerate My Sanctuary

Venerate my sanctuary, says the Lord our God (Leviticus 19:30). Why should we? Well, first off, because He says so. It is His will. And it is our duty as His people, to follow His will. Yet, for those of us that need to understand why we need to obey Him before we obey Him (Lord, have mercy), in venerating God’s sanctuary, we worship Him. Honor given to a type passes to the prototype.

As tactile beings with senses, we need to have this sort of dynamic in worshipping the invisible God. In the Mosaic covenant, the people of God fulfilled this commandment by building and adorning the tabernacle and temple, by carrying before them in a worshipful procession the ark of the covenant (which was also richly adorned), and by praying towards Jerusalem—each of these forms of veneration being appropriate to worshipping God’s particular presence in the Holy of Holies. In the new and everlasting covenant, the people of God fulfill this commandment in ways that are appropriate to God’s particular presence in His Incarnate and  Eternal Word, Jesus Christ. We venerate His virgin mother whose womb became His tabernacle; whose flesh became His flesh—the means by which He dwelt among us and accomplished our salvation. We venerate His saints in Heaven, who attained salvation through the infused dwelling of the Holy Spirit within each of them (being therefore temples of that same Holy Spirit). And, we venerate His tabernacles in the Churches and Cathedrals where He now dwells among us “to the end of the age” in the Most Holy Eucharist. We venerate His sanctuary, and therefore offer Him worship that is pleasing to Him

We will go into his tabernacle: we will adore in the place where his feet stood. Arise, O Lord, into your resting place: you and the ark, which you have sanctified. Let your priests be clothed with justice: and let your saints rejoice.

Psalm 132