Bread of Life

BREAD OF LIFE
this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. (john 6: 50)
The miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him. Jesus Christ celebrated the first Mass with His disciples at the Last Supper, the night before He died. He commanded His disciples, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). The celebration of the Mass then became the main form of worship in the early Church, as a reenactment of the Last Supper, as Christ had commanded. Each and every Mass since commemorates Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross through the Holy Eucharist. Because the Mass “re-presents” (makes present) the sacrifice on Calvary, Catholics all around the world join together to be made present in Christ’s timeless sacrifice for our sins. There is something fascinating about continuing to celebrate the same Mass—instituted by Christ and practiced by the early Church—with the whole community of Catholics around the world…and in heaven.

THE REAL PRESENCE

Why does the Catholic Church believe Christ is really present in the Eucharist?
The Catholic doctrine of the Real Presence is the belief that Jesus Christ is literally, not symbolically, present in the Holy Eucharist—body, blood, soul and divinity. Catholics believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist because Jesus tells us this is true in the Bible:

“I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh." The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them,

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him” - John 6:48-56
Furthermore, the early Church Fathers either imply or directly state that the bread and wine offered in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper is really the body and blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, the doctrine of the Real Presence that Catholics believe today was believed by the earliest Christians 2,000 years ago!

This miracle of God’s physical presence to us at every Mass is the truest testament to Christ’s love for us and His desire for each of us to have a personal relationship with Him.

Saturday, August 1, 2015

THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Fr. Larry Richards

“You will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit comes upon you then you shall be my witnesses!” (Acts 1:8).

Gentlemen, the key to the growth in the spiritual life is surrender to the Holy Spirit! Too often we try to live a life of holiness under our own power – THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE! It will make you a Pharisee, but not holy.

To be holy, you need to surrender your life fully and completely to God the Holy Spirit. Jesus knew this – that is why after His resurrection He commanded His Apostles to wait for the promised Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4).

Before the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles they were afraid and huddled together in a place that was safe. When the Holy Spirit came upon them, “they began to make bold proclamation as the Spirit prompted them” (Acts 2:4). They did not have the power – or the guts – to do this before the Holy Spirit came upon them! You NEED that same Holy Spirit if you are going to have a life of power and be the man God created you to be.

St. Paul had to challenge St. Timothy, who was a priest and bishop: “For this reason I remind you to stir into a flame the gift of God bestowed on you when our hands were laid upon you” (2 Timothy 1:6). St. Paul reminded this bishop that he has been given the Holy Spirit and must now surrender to the Spirit of the living God. How much more do we need to be reminded! If we do not experience this daily surrender to God’s Spirit, then our flesh can overtake us… way too easily. We’ve got to be surrendered to God’s Spirit.

The Word of God tells us, “But you are not in the flesh you are in the spirit” (Romans 8:5). This means that God’s Spirit is INSIDE of you. To illustrate this, let’s say I have a glass of milk and I take a bunch of Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup and I pour it into the glass of milk, what happens? It stays in the bottom of the glass!

This is where the Holy Spirit remains in most men – at the bottom of their soul! They have received the Spirit and the Spirit is inside of them, but the Spirit is just abiding there. So what do you have to do? Stir it up! That is what Paul is saying to Timothy. That Spirit, that maybe sitting at the bottom of your soul; it is time to surrender and stir Him up. Surrender to Him!

We must be reminded that God dwells within us and we have been given a great gift. “If anyone doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ” (See Roman’s 8:9). So, you are not a Christian if you do not have the Holy Spirit, simple as that. “But if Christ is in you” (Verse 10), “the body is dead because of sin, while the Spirit lives because of justice. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells inside of you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will bring your mortal bodies to life also to the spirit dwelling inside of you.”

So what is he saying? Because of that Spirit, we will live forever. We will never die. That is a great message of hope. Because the Spirit of God resides in me, the Spirit of God, which by definition is life, will keep me alive forever. “We are debtors then my brothers not of the flesh so that we live according to the flesh.

If you live according to the flesh you are going to die. But if we live by the Spirit, you put to death the evil deeds of the body and you will live” (Romans 8:12). This means we have got to have a disciplined life.

The gift God gave us is His grace, but just like a good athlete, we have to work with those gifts and make them strong. It is the same with the spiritual life. God has given us great gifts, but we have got to work and discipline

It takes discipline. In (Proverbs 5:23) , God tells us: “My people die because of lack of discipline.” Brothers, if you want to be a man, you are going to have to discipline yourself. That means you are going to have to discipline yourself by surrendering to the Holy Spirit every day.

A great example of a man who daily surrendered to the Holy Spirit is Bl. John Paul II. George Weigel tells the story of the future Pope John Paul and how his father, whom he called “The Captain”, told him to pray a prayer to the Holy Spirit everyday – and he did! I believe this is how Bl. John Paul II changed the world! The same CAN happen to YOU!

So what is necessary to surrender to His Spirit? I challenge you to say a prayer of surrender to the Holy Spirit every day for the rest of your life. Now of course this is not magic, nor is it superstition, you need to mean and live what you pray! You do not need to pray the exact one that I am going to give you, but it this is the one I say every morning. It is written by Cardinal Mercier who died in 1926:

O, Holy Spirit, beloved of my soul, I adore You. Enlighten me, guide me, strengthen me, console me. Tell me what I should do. Give me your orders. I promise to submit myself to all that You desire of me and to accept all that you permit to happen to me. Let me only know Your will. Amen.
Then Cardinal Mercier says, “If you do this, your life will flow along happily, serenely and full of consolation. This submission to the Holy Spirit is the secret of sanctity.” It is the Spirit of God that makes us holy. It is the Spirit of God that makes us men.

It isn’t what we do, it is what the Holy Spirit, who is God, does within us. That is so important. When we surrender our lives daily to the Holy Spirit, His strength can take over. Submission to God’s Spirit is the key to manhood!

So the challenge is laid before you: be a man and start living a disciplined life of daily surrender, or be a wimp and do nothing!

Be a man!

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