His beloved

December 21, 2013 9:49 am

“Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Lk 1:45)

God’s word.

Whom do I believe: God? and His promises? what He said to me in the Bible? or … All this Bible is a nice story, but not about me.

If you have thoughts like this it is high time to ask immediately Our Lady for intervention. She is not only the First and Most Powerful Believer, but also Our Mother and our Guide in our pilgrimage of faith.

When She met Archangel Gabriel and accepted Her mission, She – only on the basis of God’s word – went to visit Her relative. “Elisabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said… blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord”. (Lk 1:41-42.45).

Today the reading from the Song of the Songs reminds you, how important you are. You are His beloved, “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come. Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely” (Song 2:10.14).
These are His words to you. When you are entering the church for the Mass or just for a short prayer, He is telling you this: “Let me see you, let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely” (Song, 14).

You are in His eyes. Always. He loves you when you are sinner, when you are tired and have no strength to pray, when you are busy with preparing Christmas, and when you are praying. Always. There is no exception. No bad mood, no busy time with God. He is Our Father, The Savior, and the Paraclete.

Only three days left to His coming. And every day, with greater passion we call:
“O Emmanuel, our King and Giver of Law: come to save us, Lord our God” (Alleluia)

Our Friends forever

December 20, 2013 7:36 pm

“…The angel Gabriel was sent from God …to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph…and the virgin’s name was Mary” (Lk 1:26).

I love the Angels. The first persons created by God. Beautiful creatures, totally spiritual, and after passing the trial, totally devoted to God and to His service.

Messengers like Gabriel, warriors like Michael, healers like Rafael. To say nothing about our Guardian Angels.

Just before your conception God asked the Angels in a very similar way, like in the vision of Isaiah: “I then heard the voice of the Lord saying: ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I, send me’” (Is 6:8)  answered one of the angels and become your Guardian Angel forever. And from this moment on your Guardian Angel is always with you.

Angels are present during the Mass with their prayer “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and mentioned at the end of each Preface and in the first Eucharistic prayer, Angels are also present in Angelus Domini prayer and in the Rosary so happy to serve Our Lady, Angels protect our countries, cities, parishes and individuals. We owe them so much.

Sometimes people restrict prayer to Guardian Angels only to childhood and only to children, but they are our friends forever.

Can we imagine how happy was Gabriel to announce Zachariah the good news about Elisabeth’s pregnancy, and to proclaim Our Lady to be the Mother of God? We call him the Guardian Angel of the Holy Family, but he is always there to spread the good news to every family.

Remember to speak with your Guardian Angel every day, remember to say “thank you” for his daily help, remember to ask him in a special need. He is your friend. Always. And you can count on him. Please, refresh your friendship with him during this Advent. This is the time of the Angels. They brought Good News to Zachariah and Elisabeth, to Mary, St. Josef and to shepherds. Today they also serve to protect God’s life in our hearts.

O Key of David, opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom: come and free the prisoners of darkness. (Alleluia)

Civilization of Life

December 19, 2013 4:51 pm

Good News for mankind comes through announcing a new life – “You will be with child and will bear a son”. It was a message to the mother of Samson (Judges 13,7) and the mother of John the Baptist (Lk 1,13). Tomorrow the Virgin Mother will receive the same message.

God is a Father who loves life. He is the Creator of life because He is Love and He lives in a communion of persons. God is never alone. He is the Holy Trinity.

He shared with us the most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator- the transmission of human life (HV 1).

The great joy for parents, the future for this world. Any couple who become parents understand Advent – the time of expectation, the time, when the joy of birth is present before birth. We enjoy this coming time, we would like to have Christmas as soon as possible, even today, so decorations are ready and gifts already bought, but we know that we should wait. The Child will come when time comes. Not earlier, not later, just on time.
To prepare ourselves better for this time, we can pray for expecting mothers, for women suffering from infertility, for civilization of life. We can give today a smile to expecting mothers, maybe a small sign of help.

“O Root of Jesse’s stem, sign of God’s love for all his people: come to save us without delay!” (from Alleluia) 

Her works

December 13, 2013 10:24 am

“Wisdom is vindicated by her works” Mt 11:19

It is so difficult after yesterday Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe just to come back to normal, Advent time. Especially for me. I am from the country that loves Our Lady so much. Like You, Mexicans. Celebrating Her Feast with You, in our Parish of Immaculate  Conception and in Tepeyac, was so important and emotional.

Fortunately in today’s readings I’ve found  a reason not to leave the atmosphere of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but to stay in it a little bit longer.

“Wisdom in vindicated by her works”. Our liturgical tradition very often uses readings from Ecclesiastes (Eclesiastico) to present the role of Our Lady in THE history of Redemption. She is God’s Wisdom. So, what kind of works did She show us yesterday? An outstanding devotion to the Holy Mass. We celebrated yesterday so many Masses to glorify the Holy Trinity. All Her honor and glory is to bring us closer to Her beloved Son, to meet Him and receive all His mercy, forgiveness and  love from Him.

Wisdom is not knowledge, education level or scientific titles. Wisdom is to offer all our love, trust and adoration to Him, “your Redeemer, the Holy One” (Is 48, 17). He will “teach you what is your good, and lead you on the way you should go”(Is, 48, 17). And – the most important – Our “name is never cut off or blotted out from” (Is 48, 19) His presence.

This is a special gift of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She always brings us closer to Him.

Wisdom in vindicated by her works.

Fr Jay

From slave to God’s child

December 12, 2013 12:04 pm

When Our Lady accepted the invitation to be a Mother of God, she became a first tabernacle. Invisible God was with us. At that time only Elisabeth received a great grace to recognize His presence in Mary – “blessed is the fruit of your womb. How does happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

That was the beginning of a new history of mankind. God again came to us. … God, who wonderfully created human nature and still more wonderfully redeemed it. God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. (Gal 4:6-7).

Our Lady, whenever she comes, she brings the same Good News all the time. We are Children of God. That was Her first message to Juan Diego:

“I want very much to have a little house built here for me, in which I will show Him, I will exalt Him and make Him manifest. I will give Him to the people in all my personal love, in my compassion, in my help, in my protection: because I am truly your merciful Mother, yours and all the people who live united in this land and of all the other people of different ancestries, my lovers, who love me, those who seek me, those who trust in me. Here I will hear their weeping, their complaints and heal all their sorrows, hardships and sufferings.”

And later: “ Am I not here, I, who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Do you need anything more? Let nothing else worry you, disturb you.”

You remember Her words perfectly. The only reason to remind it is… our nature. Like in a family every child loves to listen again and again how special it is and how much it is loved, so also we love to hear Her message not only every year, when we celebrate Her Feast, but every day.

Listen to Her today how she is calling you by your name, in a very special way, like Juan Diego: Juanito, dearest Juan Diego, my dearest and youngest son, daughter. We are Her children. Her “soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord” (Lu 1:47). From slaves to children.

Immaculate Conception

December 8, 2013 10:48 pm

When St. John of the Cross was a little boy, he was drwoining in a swamp. At that moment He saw a beautiful Lady who held out her hand to save him. He refused, because his hand was dirty.

It was Our Lady. She is the Immaculate Concepcion. And we have no idea how beautiful She is. And Her beauty and immaculacy let Her recognize how much sin is against God and our dignity. We are God’s children, and even when we fall, we are still His children. And She is our Mother. She is among us every day and if she sees our sin, She holds out Her hand to help us.

When we sin, we want to hide from God in our guilt and shame, but the moment we turn to go away, we fall straight into God’s arms. Because when we sin, we need His grace most, and this is where He meets us with His love to lift us up. The same with Mary: She’s there to restore beauty in us when we’re hurt by sin.

Little John didn’t want to make Her dirty, because of Her beauty.  So she sent him someone who helped him. And She also, as a Mother of Church is here to help us through the Church. Of course I am thinking about Liturgy and sacraments, with the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the first place, but also about you. What you can do to imitate Our Lady and Her great concern about other people’s relation with Christ and His Church. 

St. Paul reminds us today: “think in harmony with one another…Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.” You won’t save anybody by becoming judgemental and taking place of God to judge the others. Espaecially because God doesn’t judge, but welcomes His beloved children with mercy and lifts them up from sin.

Our Lady is so happy when she sees us praying for one another, helping each other and welcoming each other. We can help so many people when we pray for them, when we fast and  share what we have with the others.

Our Lady of Immaculate Concepcion, pray for us sinners and help us be example for others how to be close to You and Your Son. Amen.

Fr. Jay

Happy New Year!

December 1, 2013 12:13 pm

We’re beginning a New Year.

Advent is the time of waiting.

This is the time of Our Lady. She accepted Jesus first in her heart and then in her womb. Looking at Her we can see how we should change when we invite Lord Jesus into our hearts. To czas Matki Bożej.

When a new life begins in a woman, everything slowly changes in her. She walks, wakes up and lays down differently. She is aware of a new life that other may not yet see. But this new life shapes her and turns her into a Mum.

Likewise, we during the Advent invite Jesus into our hearts so that He can change them and all our ways completely, so that we are full of His presence.

I pray for this for us all in this first day of the Advent and on the third day of our novena before the celebration of the Immaculate Conception. Let she ask for the grace for us so that we are full of Jesus’presence in our lives.

With my prayer

Padre J.+

The Basilica – the Sanctuary of Our Lady

November 19, 2013 9:17 pm

It is an extraordinary place. Every time I come here I am deeply impressed. It is so much alike our Jasna Gora but is also very unique. Maybe this is because it is so diversified and full of Indians coming from various tribes and wearing their tribal clothes.

There are 12 million pilgrims coming here every year, three times as many as to Czestochowa. People come here all the time. When a baby is born, it is brought here to be presented to Our Lady and flowers are brought to her in big heaps.

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Candles and water is brought to be consecrated and people come to dance before Our Lady.

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IMG_1146Today I didn’t take lunch (partly because I was not entitled to a common lunch and I didn’t want to lose… time on individual lunch) and I went to visit Our Lady. I didn’t quite succeed because here when a priest is around, people approach him to ask for a blessing for a child or wife or mother. When I sat in a bench, one family came for a blessing and then a whole queue was formed, so I had to leave – not because I didn’t want to bless but because The Holy Mass began.

But I wish all priests could have such experiences – a queue of people asking to be prayed for and blessed. I had do refuse when asked for confession in Spanish. It is so sad but I need some more time, this is what I say to myself but so far I have had too little time to do it and there are people around who speak English. I keep promising myself that this will change and will probably change soon because Bishop Carlos is planning for me a new place to stay in a parish where no-one speaks English.

And coming back to the Congress: it’s been very interesting and today we’re having a presentation of all group work. I keep learning new things. The most interesting thing today was a comment of one of the participants: Jesus said: GO! and we say COME! Perhaps we should go back to the roots? maybe that’s why Pope Francis says we must be on the way and if we’re not on the way, it is not good.

In the evening we had a beautiful celebration for Our Lady when a rose offered by Pope Francis was presented. Just like Our Lady asked Juan Diego to offer her roses, She is offered roses today. It’s difficult to hold back tears.IMG_1151

Greetings on the way to the last day of the Congress

Padre J.

 

 

 

Mexican piety

November 12, 2013 8:59 am

I went for a few days to the Mexican countryside and I stayed for a while in Malinalco – Puebla Magica. It is a place worth visiting. Perhaps one day I shall relate my impressions but today I’d like to share a few images from the visit to the Divino Salvador  church and the Transfiguracion convent, founded by the augustins in 1540. The place is worth visiting not only because of archeological artefacts of the Aztec culture but also to see the black and white frescos made by Indians on all the walls of the viridary.

But I was more attracted to the signs of piety; it is good to entrust the child or someone from the family to Mary, it is worth making a request to San Charbel Makhlouf, the much revered maronite,but it’s also good to make sure that they will remember.

I must say it has touched me deeply. They must have a lot of intentions to attend to so a small mind-jogger will be helpful. I wonder if there is some cleaning done from time to time – there must be room for new intentions.

Remembering you all

Padre J.

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Rosary prayer in the evening

November 5, 2013 3:11 pm

I have mentioned before that waiting for a place in Bishop Carlos’ parish I stay in the family of Beatriz and Pepe. I participate in family life full of rituals like children going to school in the morning and their return, family dinner when we wait for Pepe to come back from work, plays and trips, doing homework and other duties.

I know this all so well from other homes that I visited during our meetings or programmes. But normally it was for 2-3 days and now it’s a bit longer. Ten days have passed since I landed in Mexico and there are another ten to go.

My favourite ritual has become the evening rosary. Of course, when we go somewhere, for example to a sanctuary of Mary, we pray on the way but if we are all at home, we meet together, preferably in the children’s room, when the kids are in pyjamas and ready to sleep. .

I remember all these homes where rosary is prayed with the whole family, every day. In the beginning it will always be difficult but slowly it becomes a wonderful part of the day that you look forward to. Can you imagine something more beautiful than a family that meet for rosary? It is so good to see a small daughter that falls asleep on her father’s lap during the prayer. We can lose so many grudges, purify so many desires. Perhaps we could continue with the rosary, even though October has come to an end?

With my prayers for you,

Padre J.