Living Sacrifice: Growing in Faith Through Scripture and the Mass

The Divine Mercy comes to us from the pierced side of Christ.  Out of His side flows blood and water, washing away our sins in the waters of baptism and strengthening us in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.  Thus God provides for us all that we need to make a free and generous return to Him.

Easter is about rediscovering our story-our life in Christ-and announcing it to God in worship and the world in evangelization.

The Church is called, in Holy Week, to accompany Christ on the road to calvary and the Resurrection.  

St. Paul urges us to "put on the whole armor of God."  When we do so we can win the battle for virtue, the battle for prayer and the battle against spiritual apathy.

Christ, in our Gospel this weekend, introduces us to the paradox of the cross.  It is the seed that dies and is buried in the ground that bears much fruit.  How are we called to unite ourselves more completely to His cross and so share in the fullness of His resurrection?

God calls us to a covenant relationship in Christ, giving us His own body and blood in the Eucharist and offering Himself as the new and eternal covenant.   

Jesus Christ gives us Himself in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.  As a meal and a sacrifice, the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian faith.

The Church celebrates the Paschal Mystery-the suffering and death and the resurrection of Christ-as a single and life-giving event.  Wherever we are experiencing the cross in our lives at this time, God is drawing us ever more deeply into the glory of Easter.  

God calls us because He loves us, and by His grace He helps us to become holy. 

God's answer to a broken world is . . . water!  In the waters of Baptism we are regenerated and with Christ living in us we can change the world.

God calls us to an intimate, loving relationship with Him in Christ.   We are invited into friendship with God.   When we strain or even break that friendship, Jesus Christ can restore it and heal us by His mercy and grace.  What a gift, to have friendship with God!

God's response to human misery is to send Jesus Christ, His Son, as the remedy.  Christ founds the Church to continue that healing mission.

In the Gospel this weekend Jesus teaches with great authority and by His own power casts out the unclean spirit.  Christ gives His authority to the Church to teach and drive away evil.  How are we able to grow and thrive in our Christian life through and because of that authority?

Christ is the perfect Messenger, who preaches the total and complete message of the Gospel and offers us the opportunity to encounter God and be transformed.  

God calls all of us to seek Him, know Him and love Him with all of our strength and to be formed in the unity of the Church (CCC, #1), so that He can send us out to renew the face of the earth.  Are we hearing Him?

Christ born in Bethlehem is manifested as the salvation of all nations.  We are called to discover in Him all that we need and desire.  

Our Opening Prayer this week encourages us to imitate the Holy Family in "practicing the virtues of family life."  By practicing faith, hope and charity, we grow closer to God and to each other. 

God made visible in Jesus Christ calls us to become swept up in love of all things invisible and to make His love known in the world.

In this season when we decorate our homes and our Churches, we also seek to decorate our lives with the virtues and grace that will warmly welcome Jesus Christ this Christmas.

To live true humility is to have an accurate assessment of who we are and to live within the limits of the person God has created us to be.  The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist teach us this weekend-in their own words-what it means to be humble and to serve the Lord.

We celebrate with great joy the coming of Christ as a child in Bethlehem so that we may be all the more ardent in our desire for His second coming.  May Christ find us watchful and ready this Advent!

When we place Christ as King of our hearts and King of the nations, He gives us His peace and newness of life. 

St. John Paul II teaches that women are first in the order of love.  Women teach all of humanity what it means to receive the gift of love from God and to express that love in the world around us. 

The Scriptures for this weekend's reading help us to meditate on the four "last things": Death, judgment, heaven and hell.  How is Christ, who calls us to eternal life with Him, asking us to be more mindful of that final end?

God calls us to seek Him in humble prayer to ask for good shepherds and good leaders in the Church.  How are we called, during this Vocations Awareness Week, to ask for an increase of vocations to the priesthood and religious life?