WHO OR WHAT RULES MY HEART?

Pilate said to Jesus,
“‘Are you the King of the Jews?’
Jesus answered, ‘Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?’” Jn 18:33b-37

This Solemn Feast of Christ the King offers each of us the opportunity to understand who it is that we are truly serving. So, let us end this, and every future, Liturgical Year earnestly thinking about and asking ourselves to whom or what are our hearts most attuned?

Why should we ask ourselves this before going on to Advent and to the beginning of a new Liturgical Year of our lives?  Because where our treasure is, there also is our heart (cf. Lk. 12:34). Because we can’t stand together as a parish and pray together with Jesus Christ, our God-become-man, proclaiming our oneness with Him and with each other, if God, through Jesus, is not the one whom each of our hearts is seeking more than anyone or anything else.

Is Jesus the King of my heart, the person toward whom I give my total allegiance?

If He is, then, with His help we can put our lives and our affections in order so that we don’t go where our immediate, short-term desires want to take us, but that we place our hearts where we truly want to go.

Sister Loretta

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END OF LITURGICAL YEAR POINTS TO ETERNITY

“Life is short, death is certain, eternity is long.”  St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

Published by Seattle Washington Archbishop Paul Etienne on October 31, 2017

 

. . . . In the Nicene Creed, we express our belief in Jesus Christ, that he has ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom has no end.

Belief systems (Creed) inform our values, our priorities, our way of life. We do well in this month of November to examine how well we are living our belief in Jesus Christ, and our understanding that there is judgement connected with the Kingdom.

WE LIVE BY FAITH

Because we believe in Jesus Christ, we live by faith.

To live by faith means we must know Jesus Christ and love and serve him.

To live by faith means we need to know our faith – what the Church teaches about God (as Trinity), about the Sacraments, (the Eucharist is the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ) about virtue, morality, sin, mercy, love of God and love of neighbor.

Living by faith means we understand the human person as someone created by God, whose life is sacred, who is deserving of respect and dignity.

How are we striving to live in God’s Kingdom today, so that we may be fully prepared to enter the fullness of the Kingdom at the hour of our death?

Are we growing in love, in holiness, in relationship with Jesus?

Are we learning to live more for others and less for self?

Do we understand that being a member of the Church also involves responsibility for practicing our faith, receiving the sacraments, and passing on our faith to our children?

How well is the faith lived in our homes which we call the Domestic Church? As Church, we strive to offer solid formation programs for our children, both in our Catholic Schools and in our religious education programs. But the reality is this – parents are the first teachers of the faith to their children.

In the Rite of Marriage, the couple is asked:

“Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?”

In the Rite of Baptism, once the parents ask to have their child baptized, the celebrant instructs them:

“You have asked to have your children baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training them in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring them up to keep God’s commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do your clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

AN IMPORTANT END OF THE YEAR QUESTION

This is the great question for the month of November: “Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?”

OUR PARISH AND OUR HOMES: DWELLING PLACES FOR CHRIST, OUR KING

Dear People of God, please join me in prayer, and in concrete resolution, to strive continually to make our parishes vibrant faith communities and the homes of each of our families a place where Christ dwells and faith grows.

Christ promises that he has created an eternal dwelling place for us. Let us use this earthly life well by making our dwelling in Christ here and now.