Serve With Love

"Serve with love" is only three words but explaining them has taken countless more over the millennia.  Let me join in, as if I have not already on this blog, and add to the hours that have already been wasted on the topic.

If words alone are not enough, I can think of two people who had demonstrated it by how they lived.  The first is the Blessed Virgin Mary Who served God with unreserved love by accepting the Holy Spirit and giving birth to the Son of God so that we can learn from Him.  The second is the Son of God Who served His Father with unconditional love by suffering the manifestations of Evil and giving up His life in order that ours can be saved.

Sadly, man has not learned from the combined lives of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.  If man cannot learn by example, then what good will more words do?  Perhaps that they could serve as a reminder of the ways the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus served with love.

A reminder, however feeble its effectiveness in changing a man's heart, is perhaps enough if it only acts to remind man just once to examine whether his actions arises purely out of love or the semblance of love for he would then have at least acted with a degree of compunction, even though the completed action was in part, the greater or the lesser, self-serving, and not served humbly with selfless love without guise.

After writing four paragraphs, I have yet to explain what "serve with love" means.  Which operative word should be used to explain "serve with love"?  I thought of using the word "motive" or "intent" in describing the impetus for one to serve another with love.  Then the word "energy" came to mind.  Immediately it felt right.

"Energy" is an internally driven force.  That force comes much closer in revealing the underlying truth that propels one to act.  I do not think that one's focus and energy can be deceived whereas both motive and intent can easily be intellectually manipulated to conceal the truth and are therefore concepts useful in the practice of law but not so in a discourse to reveal it.

Man can rationalize all he wants and conclude that he is serving with selfless love, but he cannot escape the fact that his energy or his drive is instead focused upon and directed at something else, something that results in, for example, an advantage, a potential gain, a certain recognition, an alleviation of guilt, an exercise of power or an elevation of status over others.  If indeed that is the case, then however seemingly humanitarian the act, he is serving himself with love rather than God with love.

Since we are sinners, having had the origin of our energy sourced in Purity and Goodness irrevocably contaminated by Satan in the Garden of Eden, we act often in our own selfish interests.  That may not be holy but that is the reality.  I believe that we have to acknowledge that we are sinners, and that our acts are usually not selfless.  That ought to be fine, as long as we do not delude ourselves into believing otherwise, and on the condition that we continually try to act truly selflessly from time to time in the service of God and others.  Although fulfilling this condition is not a recompense or a cure for our misguided steps, it nonetheless, I believe, dilutes ever so slightly our energy contaminated by Original Sin.  Perhaps such a dilution would be enough for a chance at salvation whereas no dilution would mean no chance at all.  An energy consumed by pure Evil without any sense of compunction forever repels Divine Energy that is Pure and all Good. [1]  Based on this hypothesis, we by our Free Will choose our ultimate destination by the source of our focus and the direction of our drive in our earthly lives. [2]

Our earthly lives are our realities which can consist of difficult people who are judgmental, vengeful, spiteful, envious or the like, who are often dissatisfied and critical.  That quite likely could be us, in addition to a parent or a close relative, a beloved friend or a spouse, a child or a senior, the sick or the handicapped, the mendicant or the drug addict.  Even though people so afflicted  may not possess the positive energy needed for entry into Heaven, holiness requires the forgiveness and the selfless serving of someone who expects a lot and complains often.  With repeated doses of positive energy delivered on a plate served with the kind of love the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus have for God and us, I believe everyone whose energy has been corrupted by Satan will eventually yield to the energy of Purity and Goodness.

When we serve others with pure love, [3] we would bring an energy of Purity and Goodness to those who have lost it and put back in front of them the path to Heaven; at the same time, we would benefit from the same positive energy that we have given to others.  If, at times, we ourselves need a dose of Purity and Goodness because our energy is so warped but no one is around to serve us selflessly with love, then we must turn to prayer.  When we supplicate, the impossible is possible.


[1] Unlike magnets, these polar opposites do not attract.
[2] In other words, the theory of energy is based on Free Will, a gift to us from God until the very end -- a gift of  freedom to choose Heaven or Hell by where and how we focus our energy in our earthly lives.
[3] Today is 11/11/13 and the following is added:
Today I caught the last part of Joel Osteen's sermon.  He talked about four types of people, ones who lifts you and makes you feel good about yourself, ones who thrusts you and inspires you to reach your goals and I might add, to realize your dreams, ones who weighs you down and with their problems, expecting you to fix them, holding you down with them and ones who drags you along with them with their negativity, draining your energy, using you as a trash can to dump all their problems.  The operative words, lift, thrust, weight and drag are terms Joel Osteen borrowed from his pilot friend who said in order to fly a plane, all of those factors have to be taken into account.  Joel Osteen said that the person who weighs you down or drags you along could be your spouse but you would have to let your spouse live the life in negativity if so desired but you ought not to feel responsible and be a co-dependent, that you must break free of the bondage that ties you down so that you could realize the potential God has given you.  However, he added that you must continue to respect that person whose negativity you feel responsible for and pray for that person, and that you could allow yourself to be part of the negative drama with that person, but only for a season, not a lifetime.
When I said we ought to serve others with pure love, it was not about living the life of a complainer afflicted with constant dissatisfaction or becoming a part of their lives, allowing yourself to absorb all of their negativity and shoulder all of their burdens.  What I meant by serving the negative folks with love is by approaching them with patience, understanding and compassion, detached from the emotional aspects that drain away the energy of Purity and Goodness.  This service is not just for a season but for a lifetime.  How can one serve with love a parent, a child or a loved one for one season and not the next?  As difficult as serving with love is, one must do it again and again, and do it for as long as it takes for Purity and Goodness to make an entry into the darkness of negativity that belongs to Satan so that the Light of God can pierce through and shine forth from within which is when healing starts to take place.  For the love of God, one cannot abandon the afflicted.  Patience is key.  If one is not living under the same roof with the afflicted, one must depart by leaving the afflicted with an assurance that love with return and love will be served again soon.  This assurance is a promise that cannot and must not be broken: the expectation created by this promise is equivalent to the expectation of salvation promised by Christ.
Those who are blessed by God have the responsibility to reveal the gift of blessedness to others so that they, too, can follow the path to God and receive their own blessedness and live in the humble  hope of salvation, of pure joy and eternal fulfillment.  Dissatisfaction would have faded away into nothingness and all the complaints would be a fully forgotten past.
Let us all take the first and the last step, and take as many as possible in between, with pure love propelled by the energy of Purity and Goodness.
To end, I thank Joel Osteen for lifting me up, inspiring me to write this footnote, and confirm that I agree totally with Joel Osteen that we must respect and pray for those afflicted with unshakable negative energy, that God would heal them.  A prayer that I would recommend we, and they, say is the prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel, in Latin (see http://www.thesacredheart.com/latpray.htm#stmich):

Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio; contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperat illi Deus; supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae c[a]elestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute in infernum detrude. Amen

Canto VII - Paradiso - The Divine Comedy (Continued)

While other tercets in Dante's Paradiso's Canto VII are also powerful and edifying, I quote only the tercets in the Canto on Original Sin and redemption, as translated by John Ciardi [1], [2], [3], [4]:

Sin is the one power that can take away
    its freedom and its likeness to True Good,        80
    whereby it shines less brightly in Its ray.

Its innate worth, so lost, it can regain
    only by pouring back what guilt has spilled,
    repaying evil pleasure with just pain.

Your nature, when it took sin to its seed,               85
    sinned totally.  It lost this innate worth,
    and it lost Paradise by the same deed.

Nor could they be regained (if you heed my words
    with scrupulous attention) by any road
    that does not lead to one of these two fords:   90

either that God, by courtesy alone,
    forgive his sin; or that the man himself,
    by his own penitence and pain, atone.

Now fix your eye, unmoving, on the abyss
    of the Eternal Wisdom, and your mind               95
    on every word I say concerning this!

Limited man, by subsequent obedience,
    could never make amends; he could not go
    as low in his humility as once,

rebellious, he had sought to rise in pride.               100
    Thus was he shut from every means himself
    to meet God's claim that He be satisfied.

Thus it was up to God, to him alone
    in His own ways--by one or both, I say--
    to give man back his whole life and perfection.      105

But since a deed done is more prized the more
    it manifests within itself the mark
    of the loving heart and goodness of the doer,

the Everlasting Love, whose seal is plain
    on all the wax of the world was pleased to move    110
    in all His ways to raise you up again.

There was not, nor will be, from the first day
    to the last night, an act so glorious
    and so magnificent, on either way.

For God, in giving Himself that man might be         115
    able to raise himself, gave even more
    than if he had forgiven him in mercy.

All other means would have been short, I say,
    of perfect justice, but that God's own Son
    humbled Himself to take on mortal clay.             120

[1] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.651-2.
[2] The tercets quoted are indicated by lines 79-120. 
[3] The other tercets that are powerful and edifying in Paradiso's Canto VII, indicated by lines 25-51, have not been quoted except for the tercet indicated by lines 46-48 which was quoted in my last entry.  However, I will quote the notes written by John Ciardi for these lines:

THE CRUCIFIXION. Beatrice argues that the death of Christ was just because [H]e had taken upon Himself both the nature and guilt of mankind.  His expiation was just because the sin of His human nature was great.  But since He was also a God, the pain suffered upon His divinity was a sacrilege and demanded punishment.

See  Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.654.
[4] The notes written by John Ciardi  on line 81, lines 85-86, lines 97, lines 104-105 and line 114 follow:
Line 81:  "it shines less brightly in Its ray:  Since God's fire rays forth most brightly in that which is most like God, and since sin makes man less like God, sin makes man shine less brightly in God's ray."  Emphasis original
Lines 85-86:  "seed . . . totally:  The seed of Adam.  By his sin, all mankind fell from its first innate worth and lost Paradise."  Emphasis original.
Line 97:  "Limited man:  Man is limited by his mortal means.  Within them, no depth of humility to which he could descend could be proportionate to the height he had sought in his rebellious sin.  For man's sin was in seeking to become God, and there is no equivalent depth to which he could sink in recompense, for in sinning he had already damned himself to Hell." Emphasis original.
Lines 105-105:  "by one (way):  Mercy or both:  Mercy and Justice.  Since man could not save himself, God could have forgiven him outright as an act of mercy.  Or [H]e could have created a man so perfect that he was capable of just expiation (that would have been the way of Justice).  But in giving Himself through His own Son, He chose the double way that was both divine mercy and human justice."  Emphasis original.
Line 114:  "on either way:  On the way of mercy or the way of justice."  Emphasis original.
See Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.654-5.

Canto VII - Paradiso - The Divine Comedy

Line 47 (the middle line) in Canto VII of Paradiso is for me the most powerful stanza in Dante's Divine Comedy: [1]

In Italian by author Dante Alighieri:

Però d’un atto uscir cose diverse:
ch’a Dio e a’ Giudei piacque una morte;
per lei tremò la terra e ‘l ciel s’aperse.  [2]

 Translated by John Ciardi:

Thus, various sequels flow from one event:
    God and the Jews concurred in the same death;
    for it the earth shook and the heavens were rent.  [3]

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

From one act therefore issued things diverse;
  To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing;
  Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened. [4]

Anyone interested in reading The Divine Comedy in its entirety, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, can go here:  http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/dante/dante-longfellow.pdf  [5]


[1] The tercet quoted (as originally written and two translations) is from Dante's Paradiso, Canto VII, lines 46-48.  Other stanzas in this Canto are also edifying and I plan to quote them too in a later entry.  I actually have not finished reading Dante's Paradiso, but I cannot imagine the author coming up with a line that more loaded than this line 47, by placing God (the "Chooser") on one side and the Jews (the "Chosen") on another that is diametrically opposed to God's, caused by a disagreement as to why Christ had to die, and simultaneously bringing them together in agreement by their sharing of a common solution, namely, the death of Christ, with just nine words.
[2] http://divinacommedia.weebly.com/paradiso-canto-vii.html
[3] Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy. The Paradiso. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: New American Library, 2003, p.650.
[4] http://www.thefinalclub.org/view-work.php?work_id=12&section_id=296
[5] I prefer John Ciardi's translation but I think it is at present available in print only.

Lectio Divina - Pronunciation

How is Lectio Divina pronounced?  Is it Lek-SEE-Oh or LECK-Tee-Oh Dih-VEE-Nah [1]?

I like LECK-Tee-Oh and found support for it at http://community.beliefnet.com/go/thread/view/44071/13162179/Lectio_Divina_Questions?pg=2, #16, posted by Mostyn32 on November 4, 2007, 12:16 a.m.  Quoted:

Lectio is Latin for "I read", and I've never heard it pronounced any other way than LECK-TEE-OH, with the emphasis on the first syllable. If it was to be pronounced LEK-SEE-OH, it would be spelled LEXIO. (I learned Latin long before I began the daily practice of Lectio Divina).

[1] One, without any reference to knowledge or experience, said "Divina" is pronounced as Dah-veen-ah.  I suppose if it were pronounced that way, taking a cue from Mostyn32, it would be spelled DAVINA.  I also suppose this person would also pronounce "divine" (hear the proper pronunciation at http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/divine?s=t) as DAH-VINE which to me is the opposite of heavenly.  Maybe Satan's serpent is called DaVine.

The Immaculate Conception - Common Misperceptions

Thirteen weeks ago on August 4, I quoted Noel Muscat OFM's article on Blessed John Duns Scotus' arguments in defense of the Immaculate Conception. [1] Today I found two sources explaining the Immaculate Conception, differing only in how the doctrine operates. [2], [3], [4]  Regardless of how scholars analyze the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, here I address only what I believe to be another misperception: that the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Jewish mother.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the universal mother.  She was conceived without Sin. [5]  Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without Sin, She was like no other descendant of Adam and Eve that exists or ever existed.  Original Sin, an invisible, non-removable genetic code that attaches to all defines all people of all origins by their common predisposition to Sin and its variations.  Since the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without Sin, She is other-worldly, not belonging to this world's human race and simultaneously belonging to all and is connected by love to all peoples of this world just as all peoples of this world belong to God Who is love and are made in the image of God in one way or another.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is, therefore conclusively, not Jewish, even though she followed certain Jewish customs since both Mother and Child were, after all, in the land of the Jews, [6] and to respect Joseph, who is Jewish.

For similar reasons, and other reasons beyond the scope of this entry, God is not Jewish, and neither is Jesus Christ nor the Holy Spirit. [7]


[1] http://lemomentdepaix.blogspot.com/2013/08/the-immaculate-conception.html
[2] Both sources agree that the most common mistake believers and non-believers alike incorrectly think that the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit.  They also agree that the Immaculate Conception refers to the Sinless conception of Mary herself.
[3] http://christianity.about.com/od/christiandoctrines/qt/marymisconcepts.htm
[4] http://catholicism.about.com/od/beliefsteachings/f/Imm_Concept_FAQ.htm
[5] Whether the Blessed Virgin was redeemed from Original Sin the moment before conception or simultaneous with conception is a discussion for biblical scholars and is beyond the scope of this blog.  However, whether the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived by the seed of Joachim biologically and whether the ovum in the barren Anne that bore Her was tainted by the Sin of Eve could be a subjects of discussion in the future but that remains to be decided.  For general information on Saint Anne, see http://www.saintanne.webhero.com/
[6] As the saying goes: when in Rome do as the Romans do.  Accordingly, Jesus was presented at the Temple (Luke 2:22-40) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A22-40&version=NIV and the Holy Family went yearly to Jerusalem for Passover (Luke 2:41-52)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A41-52&version=NIV
[7] Since Sin is also universal, the Master of Sin and all its variations, Satan, is therefore, not Jewish. 

An Article By Mark Doherty

The following was written by Mark Doherty [1]:

    The ancients knew something about it. Both
the “Odyssey” and the “Aeneid” tell stories of
men confronting terrific hazards in their quest
for home. The “Odyssey” recounts Odysseus’
danger-filled journey to Ithaca after the siege
of Troy. On the journey back he loses all of his
companions, and upon his return to Ithaca he
has to vanquish all of his wife’s suitors in order
to win her back. In his “Aeneid” Virgil tells us of
Aeneas’ flight from Troy and his quest to found
the city of Rome, his new home. Both Homer and
Virgil understood that at its heart the human
story is all about the journey home. This intu
ition is confirmed and filled-out all throughout
the narrative of the Scriptures. From beginning
to end they tell the story of a loving, heavenly
father calling his children home to the kingdom.
At the narrative’s climax, recounted in the Gos-
pels, we learn that our father’s desire to bring us
home is so intense that he has gone so far as to
send us his beloved son to extend to us the final,
definitive invitation.
    Any discussion of ‘vocations’ must take place
within this context. As a stand-alone entity the
concept makes no sense. At its core, each vocation
is a particular, unique instantiation of the fa-
ther’s summons to the true homeland of the king-
dom. The etymological root of the word ‘vocation’
points in this direction. The word is derived from
the Latin verb “vocare” – “to call.” Thus, through
the son the father calls each one of us home.
    But why does the summons take on such a
personal texture? Why isn’t it a generic call to
order? Because the kingdom is a communion of
love, and love is never generic. It is personal to
the core. A lover’s affection is always directed
to a specific beloved, and so the father’s address
to each of us through the son has the character
of a personal summons, a personal encounter.
It is here, at the point where the father’s sum-
mons meets us, that the drama of human life
takes place. This encounter is dramatic precisely
because genuinely loving exchanges only take
place within the context of freedom. The father
beckons us home but he cannot compel us to heed
his call. We must choose.
    Our sketch is still incomplete. What does it
mean to accept the summons and set out for the
journey home? The Scriptures show us that the
summons always has the character of a mission,
a task to be accomplished. To say yes to the sum-
mons means to say yes to a mission. I can gauge
the quality of my “yes” to God’s invitation by
examining how thoroughly I have taken on the
task entrusted to me. At its base the mission is
the same for all of us. To accept the summons
requires that I accept the mission of setting out
for the journey home. I am not brought into the
Father’s house by a simple, uncorroborated “yes.”
For my “yes” to truly mean “yes” I have to give
my life to it. I say “yes” by actually setting out on
the journey. We find an early, outstanding exam-
ple of this in Abraham.
    The Lord Jesus shows us that, because the
house of the father is the house of love, to set
out on the journey home means to progressively
conform our lives to the standard of love. But
there is more. He also makes known that, as the
father has invited him to cooperate in building
the house, so he now turns and invites us to share
in the work also. God dignifies us by inviting us
to labor alongside him in building the kingdom.
Each summons therefore contains a unique mis-
sion ordered to sharing in the building. This ex-
plains the multiplicity of vocations in the church.
Some are called to help in the work through
marriage and family life; others through the
ministerial priesthood; others still to some form
of consecrated life; others still in a whole array
of missions too numerous to count. To each one
is entrusted a mission that is irreplaceable and
not reproducible. No one is left out; no mission
is inconsequential. Here then is the center of the
dramatic scene. God has summoned us home by
entrusting each of us with a unique mission: How
have we responded? How are we responding now?
How will we respond from here on out?

According to the newspaper, Mark Doherty is a fourth-year student of theology at St. Patrick's Seminary and University in formation for the priesthood for the San Francisco Archdiocese.  His article is deeply thoughtful, broadly encompassing and spiritually stirring, not to mention that it was succinctly and brilliantly composed.  A priest who thinks and writes like this will rise in the ranks quickly.  I hope he continues to publish so I can continue to be inspired by him and to quote him.

I love reading it.  He hits on all the major themes that I find important.  First, he talks about going home.  We are from God and to God our soul yearns to return.  Second, he talks about a father, our Father, sending his beloved son to "extend to us the final, definitive invitation" to return home.  That is the new and everlasting covenant. [2]  Third, he talks about God's unique love for each of us and that "[i]t is here, that the drama of human life takes place."  All of us are created in the image of God and each of us has been imparted a part of God with differing talents and abilities.  In God's eyes all talents and abilities are cherished but not in Satan's.  Satan wants to sow the seeds of envy and greed, bitterness and vengeance and in my interpretation of the author's thoughts, the tension between seeing the good in all and unfairness and injustice in everything is the human drama.  Fourth, he mentions that "[w]e must choose."  In order to choose, we must have Free Will, an oft-repeated theme in this blog.  The choices we encounter daily between good and evil defines our lives.  They represent clashes between God and Satan and are always dramatic.  Fifth, he tells us how we must choose, how to respond to the "final, definitive invitation," to the most important and critical R.S.V.P. in our lives, and that is by saying yes, corroborated by an action to serve God.  To serve God properly, one must follow the will of God so that one can enter the house of God.  Sixth, he says that "the house of the Father is the house of love."  This is unconditional love, a love that is born out of humility.  Finally, he tells us that loving and serving God unconditionally is just the beginning of our journey home.  To actually reach home, we must participate in the work of God, by employing the gifts God has given to us individually. [3]  He ends this thought with these beautiful words: "To each one is entrusted a mission that is irreplaceable and not reproducible.  No one is left out; no mission is inconsequential."

May God bless us all on our individual journeys home.  Let us not lose focus and stray onto paths leading us farther and farther away.  When we do stray, may God lead us back onto the lighted path.  Amen.



[1] Doherty, Mark. "The human story is all about the journey home." Catholic San Francisco, November 1, 2013.
[2] See http://www.salvationhistory.com/studies/lesson/covenant_the_new_and_everlasting_covenant, Section V, subsection E, paragraphs 20-24 (the paragraphs are not numbered - they are counted)
[3] The more elaborate and the more perfect the gifts, the heavier the burdens; the more modest and the more awkward and imperfect the gifts, the lighter the burdens.  Nobody is given a burden that is heavier that can be carried.  Regardless of the gifts and the attendant burdens, we must be thankful for the greatest gifts of all, our incarnate lives and our freedom to choose.

All Saints Day - November 1, 2013

Quoted from Universalis.com:

Hebrews 12:22-24 ©

What you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads more insistently than Abel’s. [1]

 If I were to re-write the paragraph, this is how it would read:

You have come to the city of the living God where countless angels have gathered for the Festival of All Saints, with the whole Church in which everyone who loves without condition is a "first-born" child and a citizen of Heaven.  You have come to God, the Supreme Judge, and been placed with "the spirits of the just made perfect" [2]; and to Jesus, the Mediator Who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification which pleads for the forgiveness of sins with immediacy; and to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God Who prays and intercedes constantly for the salvation of souls.

I re-wrote it in that way because God's covenant with the original chosen people has been broken and Christ, the Son of God, replaced it with a "new and everlasting covenant."  [3], [4]. This new and everlasting covenant is for everyone everywhere, not just for the original chosen people and not only on Mount Zion and in the city of Jerusalem, and because today is the Feast of All Saints (in my mind all true saints only excluding ones canonized by popes for political reasons and for the sake of evangelical expediency), so I took the liberty to apply the verse specifically to the Festival of All Saints even though it is a verse that applies generally to a "festal gathering." [5]

Even as quoted, the image and concept expressed by the words "where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival, with the whole Church in which everyone is a ‘first-born son’ and a citizen of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and been placed with spirits of the saints who have been made perfect; and to Jesus, the mediator who brings a new covenant and a blood for purification, including these very words, were, I believe, divinely inspired.

Imagine that we are all in Heaven, all children of God, gathered together with all the angels and true saints before God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrating the saintliness of those sinners who lived (and are living) among us, separated only by earthly time and distance, fully vulnerable to the many variations of Sin yet resolutely strong, strong enough to turn away from Satan, leaving behind its tantalizing offers and gestures.


[1] Universalis, "Vespers (Evening Prayer)," Universalis.com, http://universalis.com/-700/vespers.htm (accessed October 31, 2013)  Note:  This quoted paragraph may not appear on the Universalis link because Universalis.com updates daily.
[2] Hebrews 12:23.  The Catholic Study Bible: The New American Bible, Donald Senior, gen. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print. 
[3] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mk+14:22-24

Mark 14:22-24

New International Version (NIV)

²² While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”
²³ Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
²⁴ “This is my blood of the^[a] covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them.Footnotes:

1. Mark 14:24 Some manuscripts the new

[4] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+26%3A26-28&version=NIV
[5]  Hebrews 12:22.  The Catholic Study Bible: The New American Bible, Donald Senior, gen. ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. Print.