Archive for April 16, 2017

Personal Reflection 

Posted: April 16, 2017 by CatholicJules in Life's Journeys, Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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This by far has been the most grueling and challenging Holy Tridium for me but also the most wonderful. To see so many touched in one way or another by the Lord. It began with the planning, preparation and execution of the altar of repose by our team followed by the adoration session for our Parish. It was a record breaking attendance of close to 250 I reckon. 
Then having spent a few hours on good Friday preparing hymns for our Dawn Eucharist it was off to church to serve. Beautiful service with an overwhelming response, the loft was full, basement auditorium full, and two classrooms with video feeds full. 
Easter Vigil even though is close to 5 hours long is always a sight to behold and a deep experience of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then it was off to prepare for the dawn Eucharist which was to start at 2am . The Word of God was proclaimed through all 7 readings followed by the epistle and Gospel. Then we renewed our Baptismal vows followed by a probably once in a lifetime experience of being immersed in the Baptismal font in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. I was in awe, it reminded me of my experience of being immersed in the waters of Lourdes but on a heightened level. 
Then we made our way to Mount Tabor for the Holy Eucharist, the hymns on hindsight brought the celebration to a higher plane. Loved how we started at the basement, moved up to the Church hall and ended up on the 5th floor in Mt Tabor. From darkness to the light of normalcy to heavenly sights. Father shared in the early hundreds the Elects would go into a dark room on Maundy Thursday and only see the light of dawn on Easter Sunday.  The Eucharist ended at about 630am. 
Had breakfast, rushed home to sleep then 3 hours later rushed back to the auditorium to help with setting up for our Octave celebration with Adoration. It was a challenge for me during the adoration session because the small light I bought kept going off every two minutes and had to be manually turned on. But as I knelt before the Lord I told Him ‘however many times it took I offer it up for You.’ Then as I was turning it on each time, I came to the realization that He wanted me to do likewise for His flock. To bring the light of His face to as many as I can and rembering my message of commitment to Him, earlier I teared. 
It was a powerful session and I am certain that all who were present felt the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen 

Easter Sunday 

Posted: April 16, 2017 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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They Saw and Believed: Scott Hahn Reflects on Easter Sunday

Readings:

Acts 10:34, 37-43
Psalm 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
Colossians 3:1-4
John 20:1-9

Jesus is nowhere visible. Yet today’s Gospel tells us that Peter and John “saw and believed.”

What did they see? Burial shrouds lying on the floor of an empty tomb. Maybe that convinced them that He hadn’t been carted off by grave robbers, who usually stole the expensive burial linens and left the corpses behind.

But notice the repetition of the word “tomb”—seven times in nine verses. They saw the empty tomb and they believed what He had promised: that God would raise Him on the third day.

Chosen to be His “witnesses,” today’s First Reading tells us, the Apostles were “commissioned…to preach…and testify” to all that they had seen—from His anointing with the Holy Spirit at the Jordan to the empty tomb.

More than their own experience, they were instructed in the mysteries of the divine economy, God’s saving plan—to know how “all the prophets bear witness” to Him (see Luke 24:27,44).

Now they could “understand the Scripture,” could teach us what He had told them—that He was “the Stone which the builders rejected,” whose Resurrection and exaltation today’s Psalm prophesies (see Luke 20:17; Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11).

We are the children of the apostolic witnesses. That is why we still gather early in the morning on the first day of every week to celebrate this feast of the empty tomb, give thanks for “Christ our life,” as today’s Epistle calls Him.

Baptized into His death and Resurrection, we live the heavenly life of the risen Christ, our lives “hidden with Christ in God.” We are now His witnesses, too. But we testify to things we cannot see but only believe; we seek in earthly things what is above.

We live in memory of the Apostles’ witness, like them eating and drinking with the risen Lord at the altar. And we wait in hope for what the Apostles told us would come—the day when we too “will appear with Him in glory.”