Meditations

Read more about the article The Two Become One

The Two Become One

This past year Covid has really taken its toll on many marriages.  Without warning, couples were placed in 24/7 togetherness that usually comes only in post-retirement after many years of marriage and the wisdom of many years of experience.  This has left many young couples without the wisdom of experience to guide them.  Remembering first and foremost that Catholic marriage is a sacrament and that Christ is present in all Christian marriages is the first place to turn. Each of us is given a unique mission to serve God and He gives us helpers along the way.  Many of us fulfill our missions through the vocation of service in the Sacrament of Marriage.  Marriage is a unique gift for each couple because God intertwines our missions in such a way that serving each other also serves the community. In a Christian marriage, there are three people present: the couple and Christ.  It is no coincidence that the spiritual world can be better understood by reflecting on our natural world.  In architecture, the triangle is the strongest shape.  Modern buildings in earthquake country use this fact in designing stronger buildings.  Watch an office building going up and you will see the diagonals adding support to exterior walls.  In order to sit on a stool, it needs three legs.  When there are only two in a relationship, however, it is like a seesaw going up and down because that is what we humans do.  It is the third person in the relationship, Jesus, that builds the bonds between us and stabilizes us.  It is by God’s design that the three persons in a marriage mirror the relationship of the Blessed Trinity.  Inviting Jesus to be an active participant in our marriages strengthens us. We can’t go any further without discussing the elephant in the room: if we all were engaged to perfect fiancés, where did these imperfect spouses come from?  I know each of us has set about fulfilling the mission of our marriage: to improve our spouse.  How’s that working for you?  Probably as well as it worked for me, and no wonder – if I have extreme difficulty improving myself, how did I think changing my spouse was going to go?  As it turns out, we assumed the wrong information.  Our real mission is to get our spouse to Heaven.  To do this, we must be willing to sacrifice our own selfish desires in order to serve our marriage.  This may not sound appealing, but paradoxically, getting what I want may make me satisfied in the moment, but it does not lead to lasting happiness.  Focusing on self isolates us from our spouse and leads to the contest of wills that always leaves one person feeling trampled and resentful.  Real love is not a satisfied feeling; it is a decision to will the good of the other.  Love is an action word.  We find true happiness here because our sacrifice reflects the sacrifice of love Jesus performed on the cross.…

Continue ReadingThe Two Become One
Read more about the article Resurrection

Resurrection

As Seen Through the Eyes of Mary Three Days.  Three days You told me.  I have spent three days in such sorrow I have neither eaten nor slept.  Anna had told me at the Temple what You were to suffer, but nothing prepared me for seeing Your face on the road to Calvary.  From the time You were conceived, I felt Your heartbeat along with mine and delighted in continual interior conversations.  Since You handed over Your spirit, I have neither felt Your heartbeat nor heard Your voice.  The silence is deafening.  Every breath I take is a strangled gasp of pain; if it were not for the presence of my guardian angel beside me ceaselessly praying I know I would not survive this sorrow from one breath to the next. It is almost dawn now and suddenly I feel Your heart beating inside me again.  The entire room is bathed in brilliant light, the warmth of the air itself caresses my cheek and You are there, more impossibly beautiful than my eyes can drink in.  Immediately I am in Your embrace; You kiss the top of my head. My entire being is infused with Your love as I take my first breath in the new world, the redeemed world You have gifted to humanity. Oh the sweetness of knowing that nothing is the same! Oh the sweetness of oneness with You! My joy is so complete that I taste eternity. You tell me about Joseph, my beloved spouse.  Joseph, who loved you with his entire, heart, mind, and soul -- the most faithful and humble of all Your people -- He is the first to enter heaven with you.  As you describe the exquisite place you have prepared for him and all the glories he continually experiences in Your eternal presence, my heart rejoices.  How good Our Father is to those who love Him! You reveal Your plan for my new motherhood.  Just as I gave birth to You in Bethlehem, I gave birth to Your mystical body -- The Church -- at Calvary.  The entirety of humanity are now my spiritual children.  My heart jubilates in Your beautiful plan. I will nurture the mystical Body of Christ,  just as I nurtured you.  I will pray for them, watch over them, and give them my hand to lead them to You. With this mission You shower graces upon me that are like raindrops sparkling their sunlit jeweled tones, falling as soft as rose petals into my soul.  With each passing moment I love you more and more as I immerse myself ever deeper into Your infinite love. Praise to You Lord Jesus Christ, King of Endless Glory! Praise to You, now and forever! As a special gift to all my readers, accomplished concert Pianist, composer, and adjunct professor of piano at Benedictine College, Laura Goehner-Moreno is sharing Ave Maria/ Tanti Anni Prima by Astor Piazzolla.   For more of Laura’s beautiful music, visit her YouTube Channel here.

Continue ReadingResurrection
Read more about the article Good Friday

Good Friday

A non-religious friend of mine asked me, “What’s so good about Good Friday?  What’s so good about Jesus being tortured and dying?” It got me thinking about how lazy we have become in our language.  In Shakespeare’s time the average person used about 30,000 different words; we use about 5,000.  We substitute one word to mean so many things that the word loses its real meaning.  We use the word “good” when we mean “tasty” (a good meal), “entertaining” (a good movie), “pleasant” (good weather), “loyal” (a good friend), and let’s not forget “nice” (good manners). “It is good” spoken by God at Creation, gives us insight into what goodness really means.  At this moment there is perfect order in the universe.  All of nature is in harmony with God.  The “good” accomplished on Good Friday is that Jesus has completed the work to restore the universe to perfect order.  We have the opportunity to be restored to the state of grace that had been lost and can choose to live in harmony with God. What is good about Good Friday?  The price for our sin had finally been paid – one time for all eternity.  Every time God entered into a covenant with humankind, we broke the covenant.  He finally made a covenant with the one person who could and would keep it – His Son – and God became Man for us to make and keep the covenant as a Man for all humanity.  It is His fulfilling of the covenant perfectly that is “good.”  The word “good” is a reflection of God Himself in His glory, in His mercy, and in His love. It is this love which we seek to understand better and why Good Friday calls every Catholic home – even those who have been away for a while.  To contemplate His suffering is to enter into the mystery of His profound love for us.  We cannot grow in our love for Him without entering into mystery of His suffering.  It is this willingness to “compassionate” Jesus, to enter into His suffering with Him, placing ourselves at the foot of the cross next to Blessed Mother, that brings so many graces into our lives, enabling us to break the chains of habitual sin and free our souls to love Him more deeply and become the best version of ourselves. I have written 15 meditations of The Passion below.  They can be used for a 15 decade Rosary, a 15 decade Chaplet of Divine Mercy, or Stations of the Cross.  The tone in these meditations is unlike my regular posts.  They are very graphic, so sensitive people may find them disturbing.  If you don’t want to read them, stop reading here. 1st Decade:  Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, but he was more interested in keeping power. He knew that once he gave Jesus over to be scourged, the soldiers would be merciless to Jesus.  He had seen it before many times.  Many people never made it…

Continue ReadingGood Friday
Read more about the article The 4th Station

The 4th Station

“To what can I compare you, O daughter Jerusalem?  What example can I show you for your comfort, virgin daughter Sion?  For great as the sea is your distress; who can heal you?" (Lam 2: 13) We often reflect on the Old Testament prophesies of Our Lord, but there are also prophesies of His Mother that tell us more about the Blessed Virgin Mary and all that She suffered.  It is of Her that the words of Lamentation were written. From the time She said yes to the Archangel Gabriel, She consented to be a part of salvation history.  Even if She had not known in that moment that Lamentations prophesied Her suffering, She certainly knew it at the Presentation when Simeon and Anna of Phanuel told Her what the Messiah would suffer and that a sword would pierce Her own heart. For the rest of Her life She carried the burden of knowing what Her Son would suffer.  As His time grew near, Her continued prayers to God to allow Her to suffer in His place were intensified.  She is the only one among us without original sin who lived in a state of grace who could be that spotless lamb of sacrifice.  But this was not in God’s plan.  Mary accepted that and then asked Our Heavenly Father that She be permitted to suffer with Him -- and She did. This is the mother Jesus gave us from the cross.  A woman who loves so much that She was willing to suffer for our salvation and willingly gave up Her Beloved Son.  This is our spiritual mother who offers us no reproach but only an invitation to adore Her Son.

Continue ReadingThe 4th Station

End of content

No more pages to load

Newer Posts
Older Posts