Ad Jesum per Mariam

Audio #3: A 30 Second Audio Outlining Montfort’s View of The Cross Of all the media sets on our website / Podcast, this is likely the shortest of them all! The words come from St. Louis de Montfort and represent an excerpt from the video Jesus Living In Mary (Montfort Productions: 1997).. In Conference #1 we hear about the words St. Louis de Montfort uses in his writings to describe the secret and...

The Mystery of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross! There is Only One Key to Truly Knowing Jesus! We celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (September 14th). It is important we take the word Exaltation seriously! Why? Because in today’s world, the cross appears seemingly everywhere. It appears on buildings, we begin our prayers by making the cross, we bless ourselves by means of it a...

Jesus Watches You Use Your Special Gifts to Build Up His Church: Parable of the Talents In the liturgy, we hear words of finality. Today we hear the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel during weekday Masses. During Ordinary Time throughout the year, we engage the public ministry of Our Lord. We do so in three ways. The Church begins by hearing about His public ministry by reading the Gospel of St. Mark. W...

We Must Examine Our Hearts to See What Is There that God Does Not Like! How Do We Do This? Jesus’ language is very strong within the Gospel. He talks about the inside and outside. Yesterday, we focused on cleaning the outside of the dish and cup. But the inside is important too! In today’s Gospel, Jesus describes those like whitewashed tombs. Beautiful on the outside, but on the inside filthy. Why...

Jesus Tells Us About Cleanliness Before God. Implications for Our Spiritual Life Everywhere we go we are presented with rules, regulations and laws. We must follow these rules or risk getting kicked out or banned. This is true in many circumstances, including sports. There are many rules and regulations. In each of the readings (not included within this audio) and the Gospel, we hear of rules. Isr...

Rejoice! Jesus Knows You! Implications for Our Spiritual Journey! We humans, living within time, experience things with a beginning, a middle and an end. However, God does not work that way. With regard to salvation, the end always comes first. That may sound a little strange when we first hear it. The end is always before the beginning. When we think of life, we should know what that statement me...

Our Lord Outlines How to Achieve Happiness and Holiness Within Today’s Gospel The one desire which gives all humans unity and meaning, force and decision to all desires is happiness. It is the goal of all human activity, the perfect good which satisfies all human desires. The search for happiness is the common ground on which all human yearnings, all human ambitions meet. The child building sand c...

Jesus Tells Us: The First Will Be Last and the Last Will be First. What this Means for Our Own Spirituality! In the Homily, the priest stated he went to Philadelphia, PA for the first time. Being from Africa, and residing on Long Island, it was an opportunity to visit another state. One of the activities of sight-seeing was to take in his first live baseball game. He had watched it on TV but was n...

Jesus Tells Us to Be Detached from Wealth. What Does He Mean by That? Today’s Gospel follows yesterday’s Gospel when a young rich man goes to Jesus and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus answers him plainly. Obey the commandments. The young man tells Jesus he has indeed followed the commandments. The young man continues and asks Jesus what else must he do? Jesus tells the young ma...

Our Life Must Constantly Move Toward God in Repentance and Seeking His Mercy In the first reading we hear from scripture that exiled Israelites believe they are suffering and in exile because of the sins of their parents. They believed they are suffering because of their parents. The blame game is an old game that continues today. Others are the cause of our misery. Adam and Eve played this game a...

Jesus Makes Known His Commandment For Us: Love One Another As I Have Love You There are two components in this commandment. As I Have Love You . . . .Love One Another. After experiencing My Love for you, go and Love One Another. When we hear this commandment, the question is not whether God loves us or even how much God loves us. We know He loves us! God’s love for us is immeasurable. But, . . . H...

Blessing the New Altar and Understanding the Relics: Shrine of Our Lady of the Island During the Blessing of the new altar at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Island, we hear about three relics. The relics include the founder of the Company of Mary, as well as the first martyr, and the first American born saint. Three relics in total placed in the altar on the same day as its blessings during the Fea...

Jesus Gives Us a Command: What Is the Implication for Our Spiritual Life? “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” During the Last Supper, Jesus issues a command to His disciples. That command impacts each of us when we receive the Holy Euchari...

Jesus Tells Us What We Must Do to Obtain Eternal Life In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us what we must do to obtain eternal life. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” For many, this Gospel is beautiful . . . as well as troubling. Within the Homily,...

Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr: A Model of Self-Giving Today the Church celebrates St Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr. St. Lawrence is a model for us all! He is a model of self-giving and approaches life the way we all should! Hear the story of St. Lawrence. Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to: Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr: A Model of Self-Giving ---------------------------- Image: St....

Why Did Jesus Elect to Come to Us Through the Mystery of the Eucharist? Food is important for all humans. Jesus tells us in the Gospel He is the Bread of Life. Why did Jesus elect to come to us through the Eucharist? Listen to this Meditation Media: Listen to: Why Did Jesus Elect to Come to Us Through the Mystery of the Eucharist? ----------------------- Image: Blessed Sacrament ------------------...

Jesus Tells Us What We Feed Will Flourish Within You In the First Reading we hear from Jeremiah lamenting for the sins of Israel. Jeremiah talks about three themes. In the Homily, we hear about these themes. God did much good for the people of Israel. But, Israel repays God with evil. Why should the good live among the evil? Parable of the Sowing of the Seed In the Gospel today, living among the g...

Finding Your Own Treasure and Field. A Spiritual Lesson For All of Us! In the process of Beatification and the process of Canonization there are factors for one to be called Blessed or called a Saint. One of the factors is Joy. If a Blessed or Saint candidate does not have the virtue of Joy, the candidacy is abandoned. Why? Because, within Holiness, we find Joy! Holiness and Joy are connected. Tha...

The Human Life Can Reveal the Divine In today’s Gospel, Jesus is reduced . . . isn’t He the son of the carpenter? The people missed the point! Jesus wants to show us that God can be revealed in the human life. Within each one us the divine can be revealed! How? Hear how God reveals His Wisdom through us. The Human Life Can Reveal the Divine. Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to: The Human Li...

In the Eucharist, We Become the Body of Christ The Gospel continues with the teaching on the Bread of Life. The Eucharist is central to the Church. The Eucharist enables the Church. The Church enables the Eucharist. Without the Church, there is no Eucharist. Without the Eucharist, there is no Church. This is why the Church dedicates five consecutive weeks (Sundays) on the Bread of Life. In the Fir...

He is Here For You and Me! Divine worship is not ordinary and is important. While we gather at Church, our gathering is not the most important thing! The most important thing is Christ is our togetherness. The first reading happens in the later time in the prophet Jeremiah’s ministry. He speaks a word to the people . . . that no one wants to hear. He announces a word of warning . . . that destruct...

Jesus Reveals the Father Only to Those He Wishes. What Are the Implications for Our Spiritual Journey? In today’s Gospel, we are reminded that God reveals Himself to the simple and humble of heart. We hear Jesus praying in the Gospel. Jesus prays to the Father and says You have revealed the secret of your mystery to the child-like. We may then ask: What is this mystery? Jesus tells us the mystery...

Now You Live in Me and I Live in You. I Shall Raise You Up on the Last Day! The Gospel we hear today is the Bread of Life on the Feast of Corpus Christi – The Body and Blood of Christ. In the Homily, a question is asked: Why did God send Jesus into the world? While there may be several answers, the primary reason was Jesus came to bring us salvation. What actually do we mean when we say that? Some...

Come to Me, All You Who Labor and are Burdened, and I Will Give you Rest. What Does That Mean? The first reading (not included within this audio) speaks of the redemptive power of God. In doing so, there is a vital and often overlooked invitation. In the Gospel we hear the Lord say . . . Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. What exactly is that labor and what i...

For the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath The Gospel reading from Matthew ends with this statement. The Gospel begins articulating the situation the disciples were in as they followed Jesus. They were hungry, and pick the grains of wheat as they walked, even on the sabbath. Hunger, in general, can make us do crazy things! The Homily provides an example and further explains. In the Gospel, Jesu...