Category Archives: chewy chunks

The Easter Alleluia

Posted on April 27, 2008 | Leave a comment

For the last couple of weeks or so the first reading (in the Office of the Readings from the Liturgy of the Hours) have been an intense tour through Revelations.

What an awesome treat.

With that as a background, yesterday’s second reading is known as The Easter Alleluia, and it is from a discourse on the psalms by St. Augustine of Hippo. I think I’ll just share it in its entirety, & let St. Augustine speak directly to your heart.


The Easter Alleluia
Saint_Augustine_of_Hippo_Early_Church_Father_Doctor_of_the_Church.jpg Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised, and yearning is over; then praise alone will remain.

Because there are these two periods of time–the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy–we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after.The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.

Both these periods are represented and demonstrated for us in Christ our head. The Lord’s passion depicts for us our present life of trial–shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.

Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbor, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what eac h of us urges the others to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.

We are praise God now, assembled as we are in church; but when we go our various ways again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not cease to live a good life, we shall always be praising God. You cease to praise God only when you swerve from justice and from what is pleasing to God. If you never turn aside from the good life, your tongue may be silent but your actions will cry aloud, and God will perceive yoru intentions; for as our ears hear each other’s voies, so do God’s ears hear our thoughts.

- St. Augustine of Hippo

Btw, in thanksgiving for spring I’ve posted a new blog header, a recent photo of flowers blooming in our yard.

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Posted in chewy chunks

Tim Staples – The Passover Connection

Posted on February 23, 2008 | Leave a comment

How could Jesus have been any more plain in declaring the Eucharist is, in fact, Himself?

Historically (the early church fathers) clearly taught the Real Presence.

The Sacrificial Nature of the Mass
Pope Leo the GreatLeo the Great.jpg produced the Tome of Leo, the greatest Christological work ever produced in the Church.

The Lutherans accept the Real Presence, but they deny the sacrificial nature of the Mass.

However, the Church understands the Mass as the one sacrifice of the Mass represented to us in our time, in our space.

If you want to receive the Eucharist well, you must kneel with Mary at the foot of the cross. – St. Padre Pio.

Any spirituality that attempts to bypass the Crucifixion to get to the Resurrection, is a sign of the demonic. – Bishop Fulton Sheen (reference to Matthew 16:21-23)

This is why we must strive for holiness daily … no exceptions whatsoever.

In the holy sacrifice of the Mass we experience not only the real presence of our Lord, but his passion. Then it becomes our passion, we experience what we see and learn, and that powers our transformation, or transformation, or increase in holiness.

Exodus 12 (where the Lord proscribes the original Passover) is the antecedent to the Mass. Note that it was the father who took charge in preparing the Passover.

The husband is the head of the family, and holds the chief place in authority. The wife is the heart of the family, and holds the chief place in love. – Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum Divinae.

We (men) need to take headship in this battle against evil. For example, check out Catechism 2354 we as men have allowed this to happen.

Exodus 12:14, This day shall be a memorial feast for you, which all your generations shall celebrate with pilgrimage to the LORD, as a perpetual institution. Exodus 12:26 When your children ask you, ‘What does this rite of yours mean?’ you shall reply, ‘This is the Passover sacrifice of the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt; when he struck down the Egyptians, he spared our houses.‘”

Check it out: in perpetuity, and absolute reality. This is a type of the Mass.

While we are celebrating Mass, people outside are dying. THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE THE ORIGINAL PASSOVER.

THIS IS WHY WE MUST EVANGELIZE.

The Ordinary Path to Holiness
Sacraments are the ordinary means of our sanctification – that is, how we become holy.

Mark 14 we have the passover connection. Check out Matthew 14:22-26. THIS IS THE MASS.

Almost every scripture scholar now understands that this is a precise fulfillment of the Passover liturgy.

For centuries and centuries, Moms would get the Passover kicked off by lighting a candle – this is a type of Mary, whose assent is what kicked off the whole Incarnation, which enables the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and of course the Eucharist.

Check out B16′s Holy Thursday homily from 2007.

The Fourth Cup
The Passover is not over at the end of the first day. It continues for another seven days, and is then re-enacted every year. Again, a type of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

The fourth cup of this original Passover is actually the Crucifixion, beginning with his discourse in Matthew 14:32. As in Hebrews 5:7. He experienced the pain of all our sins for all time at that moment … he became joined to us and our sin to such an extent that he could that he could plead with the Father, “if this be possible let this cup pass, but not my will but your will be done”.

In this Jesus became perfected – through his suffering. Perfected in the sense that he transcended the limits of his humanity, and exploded the grace of the Father throughout the world, through all time and space.

This empowered him to go to the cross, where he prays and fulfills the fourth cup.

We are now in the seven days of unleavened bread … the un-bloody days of sacrifice. At Mass we receive the third cup, the cup of blessing. But since we are in the seven un-bloody days of Passover, each Mass is still a sacrifice, albeit un-bloody.

The fourth cup is at the hour of our death – viaticum – the last sacrament in our lives. We consummate this life in preparation for the next.


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Posted in apologetics, chewy chunks, Lent

Let us then joyfully celebrate …

Posted on December 25, 2007 | Leave a comment

Just settling down after a beautiful Midnight Mass, with Bishop Robert Hermann of the Archdiocese of St. Louis (and our former pastor!) as the celebrant. Quietly savoring the gift of our Lord, visible and made present in so many ways, through so many circumstances and people.

Christmas Eve began with some meaty readings in the liturgy of the hours. In particular, two short paragraphs from yesterday’s office of the readings really jumped out at me this year:

200px-Sandro_Botticelli_050.jpg

Let us then joyfully celebrate the coming of our salvation and redemption. Let us celebrate the festive day on which he who is the great and eternal day came from the great and endless day of eternity into our own short day of time.

…

For what greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become son of God?

These chewy chunks of wisdom come to us from the indomitable St. Augustine of Hippo, bishop and doctor of the Church.

Merry, joyful, awesome Christmas to you and your family!

- Bob

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Posted in chewy chunks, Saints