JMJ + OBT
PURPOSE & MEANING OF LIFE
God Bless you and Our Lady, St. Joseph all the Holy Angels and Saints smile upon
you. Welcome to the Lay Formation Program of the Society of Our Lady of the Most
Holy Trinity.
My name is Fr. Zachary of the Mother of God, Priest Director of Formation for the
Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. We are rejoiced that you’ve responded
to the grace to come to this program. Our Lady has called you into her heart to
come to know the love that God has for you. During this program we are going to
enter into Our Lady’s heart to come to an understanding of the Meaning of Life;
the Purpose and Meaning of Life. All of us want to know the purpose and meaning
of life and respond in generous ways so that we may be happy, holy, and reach our
destiny in heaven. We begin with the sign of our faith in prayer.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity, pray for
us.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Relationships & Formation
All of our hearts, our souls, our minds, our spirits are uplifted when we pray that
perfect prayer of Jesus, the God Man- who taught us to address God as our Father.
We want to come to know God as our Father, to know the love of the Father, manifested
in Jesus Christ and His Church. The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church where
He gives us Himself in the Word and the Sacraments, the Most Holy Eucharist, giving
us the strength to live our Baptism. We thank God for giving us the Holy Spirit
that permits us to cry out, “Abba Father”… to cry out that “Jesus is Lord!”
We know that the Holy Spirit dwells in us and He moves us and He animates us. We
have been given this gift to guide our lives. You have come to this Lay Formation
Program of Our Blessed Mother who is the daughter of God the Father; who is the
Mother and first and perfect disciple of Jesus Christ. Our Lady is the Spouse and
Sanctuary of the Holy Spirit, and we gift all of her relationships, her Trinitarian
relationships, to you. Receive them now. Claim them. You will need them to arrive
at your destiny.
Our Blessed Mother holds you by the hand and she will lead you, as her child, right
into the life of the Trinity for which you were created. You have come to this Lay
Formation Program to learn how to live your Baptism, how to be fruitful in your
Baptism, how to be nourished in the Eucharist- to come to the Trinitarian life in
the communion of God’s love for which you were created.
Formation – Not just “Information”
You have come to a formation program.
This program is
not just about information, it’s about formation. God Himself, your Father,
our Father, is going to form us into Jesus Christ so that He can look upon us with
love and smile upon us and bless us. For in Jesus our Father gives us every spiritual
blessing in the heavens.
Divine Way of Love
Our Father’s desire is to see Jesus Christ come alive
in our lives. Jesus reveals the meaning of life to us. He came all the way from
heaven to reveal the meaning of life to us. Jesus Christ reveals man to himself.
We’re mysteries to ourselves. Jesus came to unfold that mystery, to let us know
that we are loved, and to empower us so we can return this love. This
is just a merely human love. We are invited to a Divine way of love.
Would you like to receive this Divine Way of Love? Would you like to be formed into
this Divine Way of Love? Our heavenly Father every moment of our lives is forming
us into Jesus Christ. What a blessed life, we are all invited to embrace, if only
we can accept it.
I know that this gift is so great that there are many out there who may hesitate
at the call to greatness- but you are created for greatness in God’s Love. No matter
what has happened in your life, know that God loves you, and that God has a plan
for your life. He will form you into His beloved son Jesus Christ. You will participate
in the life of God. We all need help though, and all have to begin somewhere. Today
if you hear His voice- harden not your hearts. Respond to this invitation.
You are all invited by God Himself to know that He has a plan for your life, to
respond to this plan, and to come to this plan as our Blessed Mother Mary responds
to this plan. Our Blessed Mother, a human person, one of us, responds perfectly
with every beat of her heart and with every breath that she takes. Every moment
of her life she said “yes” to God’s plan and, we honor and venerate her.
We worship God. Only God is the One to be worshiped. Yet clearly, Our Blessed Mother
deserves to be honored and venerated above all human persons because of her generous
response to God.
As a Mother to us, Mary wants to train us and help us
be formed. Training… formation… they are very similar and they go hand in hand.
Mary wants to form us into another Christ as well; because as a Mother she loves
to bring forth life. Jesus came all the way from heaven to give us life; abundant
life; eternal life. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts to receive this
life. No matter what’s happened in your life, today is a new day. We are a redeemed
people. Jesus Christ is our Savior, He redeemed us. Just as the sun rises
everyday to remind us of the new life, the fresh start that He won for us, make
the decision to let our Lady, Our Blessed Mother, lead you to her son, Jesus Christ.
Let Our Father draw you to His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Let the Holy Spirit guide
you. Let Him form you. Let Him breathe upon you. Let him embrace you. God loves
you.
As we go through this Formation Program we will continue to develop what formation
entails. In the events and circumstances in your lives, God will be working to train
you to help you grow in wisdom, age and grace to come to the full measure of the
mature Christ. We will teach you how God is working in your life. We will teach
you a relationship with God so that you can see His loving hand in everything that
has happened in your life. We will teach you how our Blessed Mother cares for you
with a tender affection and a loving concern- as only a mother can- to form you
into Jesus.
Everything in your life has purpose and meaning; if
only your eyes are opened. Remember we walk by faith and not by sight. We want to
put on the mind of Christ and have our heart respond generously, just as Christ
responds to the will of God.
The program of formation is life-long. In the Society
of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity we have a three year program as a foundation
for your life. You can learn how God worked in the life of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity; a human person, like one of us.
To learn how our Lady said ‘yes’ to God’s plan at all moments of her life. We will
follow our Lady’s life and parallel it to your life.
Too many people separate themselves from Our Blessed
Mother because of her holiness. Her holiness should draw you. Jesus gave her to
us at the foot of the cross- His last gift before He commended His Spirit into the
hands of the Father. This gift of Our Lady is a great gift. We learn from her life
how God cares for our life. We will follow her life for three years to learn how
to follow her life all the days of our life. Seeing how God’s hand is involved in
the life of Our Blessed Mother and our life, is what formation is all about. Then
in the circumstances of life, your daily life, that’s where you will live out this
formation. This formation is personal. It’s also communal.
Following each teaching, you will have the opportunity each week to integrate the
teaching into your life through facilitation guides. Remember it’s not just about
formation, it’s about a relationship that blossoms from this formation. It’s a living
and active reality. It’s your destiny. Thus, we begin this program.
Purpose & Meaning of Life/ 3 Questions/Happiness & Holiness
Today’s teaching will be on the purpose and meaning
of life. Everyone, every thinking person, has three questions that they
ask. Why am I here? Where am I from? Where am I going? The answer to all three questions
is God. The most Holy Trinity- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The purpose and meaning of life is God. In His infinite love and goodness God created
all of us out of nothing. What a gift life is, and God has a plan. You see it in
all of creation. God has got a plan for everything. You see His goodness, His fingerprints
in everything. We order our lives to God, and we will find our happiness.
God wants you to be happy. Do you know that? God wants you to be happy. I want you
to recognize that happiness and holiness are the same reality. Because holiness
is basically doing God’s will and loving God for Himself above all things. Knowing
God and doing His will makes you happy. Happiness and holiness are the same thing.
Happiness is not in: getting drunk, using drugs, (list others) or the other things
the world holds out there as happiness. Anyone who has ever drank too much knows
the next morning, drinking too much does not make you happy. In fact, it only leaves
you emptier.
On the other hand, when you do know God’s will and that you are loved by Almighty
God; that He’s got a purpose and a plan for your life; that you have a destiny,
then you can truly live life in a purpose driven way.
God provides all the graces you need to fulfill His will. God wants you to be happy.
This is reality. We need to break free from the illusions that many people in the
world have been caught up into as a trap. In fact, many of you who are viewing this
teaching might have been drawn here because you found that everything the world
offers leads to emptiness.
Today, God has called you, in His love, to break you
free from the fears and the worries and the anxieties and the confusion that this
world causes; to break you free so that you know that you are willed, loved and
necessary. Do you know that? You are willed, loved and necessary. God before all
of creation, in His minds eye, in His infinite goodness, in His infinite wisdom,
Our Father looked across billions of possibilities and chose to create you. He loves
you. Your were created in His love. You were willed by God to exist and to know
Him, love Him and serve Him and be happy with Him forever. That’s what the Baltimore
Catechism teaches. We have these basic questions addressed in the Baltimore Catechism
of the Catholic Church. Who created everything? God. Who created me? God. Who created
you? God. Why did He create us? To know, love and serve Him and be happy with Him
forever.
You have to recognize that to know God means to be intimate with God in biblical
terms. We love the Word- the living Word of God, Jesus Christ in this Word your
life is present in this Word. All of our lives are compenetrated in the Word. It
means all of our lives are penetrated right here in the word of God. Our lives are
spelled out in this word. We won’t understand the fullness of the Word until everyone’s
been born. That’s why we pray that everybody have a chance to come to life. Life
is sacred from conception to natural death.
We need
to protect life, because each life is a unique, precious and unrepeatable manifestation
of God’s love- just like you are, just like I am.
As we live out our lives in the Word, empowered by the Sacraments in the Catholic
Church, there is more understanding of God’s love. More understanding, in fact,
of who God is. We are all unique, precious and unrepeatable manifestations of God.
We need you to live your life in Jesus Christ.
Don’t be deceived by the enemy, the devil. Don’t be deceived by the world. Don’t
be drawn away from God through your flesh. You have a purpose and a plan to fulfill
in God’s love. God wants you to know Him. That’s why Jesus came all the way from
heaven. To reveal God’s love and God’s plan right here in the Word; right here in
the teachings of the Catholic Church; in the Sacred Tradition and the Sacred Scripture
and the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. We will get to that in this Lay Formation
Program.
Overview of Formation Program
For now, understand that God willed that you exist.
That He loves you. You are necessary because He willed you. None of us is necessary
by our own existence. We cannot make ourselves necessary. But by virtue of the fact
that God willed that we exist, we are necessary in God’s plan.
We are not accidents. We did not evolve from some slime of the earth. God created
us in His image and likeness so we can have communion with Him. We will talk about
that in the third teaching of this Lay Formation Program.
Next month, you will be invited to a teaching on prayer. Prayer is going to help
you know God, love God, serve God and be happy with Him forever. Prayer will help
you find this plan of God in every moment of your life. We will move from understanding
that God has a purpose and plan for your life (the purpose and meaning and life)
into prayer.
Then we will move into the Image and Likeness of God. Why you were created in His
image and Likeness. What that means. How it brings you to communion. Then we will
move into the Universal Call to Holiness and Virtue. A virtuous life is a beautiful
way of life.
We will have other teachings including, how Liturgy is Life, we will teach you about
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Word, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium
of the Church. Then we will teach about the Eucharist- the gift of Jesus’ Body,
Blood, Soul and Divinity, really, truly and substantially present. Our Lord is given
to us to strengthen us to fulfill our destiny- fulfill this purpose and plan.
Consecration & ‘Fiat!’
We will move into Consecration to Our Blessed Mother. Over time we are going to
show you how Our Lady understood that she was created in God’s love. That she was
willed, loved and necessary. That she was fulfilling a purpose and plan in her life
to be the Mother of Christ, who is God, so she is the Mother of God. Remember, God
is God alone. Our Blessed Mother Mary is a human person. A human person who understood
that God had a purpose and plan for her life and so she said, “Yes! be it done unto
me according to Thy Word.” These should be the words which flow from our heart every
moment of our lives. “Fiat. Yes, God.”
Jesus tells us, let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ be ‘no.’ Let us say ‘Yes’ to
God and our ‘No’ to the enemy, the devil, our ‘No’ to the world, our ‘No’ to the
flesh. Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no.’ When your ‘yes’ is to God,
you will be happy, holy, and God willing you will reach heaven-which is eternal
happiness. This is your destiny.
The Word of God is Living & Effective
As we talked about earlier, the Word of God is living and active. It penetrates
more surely than a sharp two-edged sword. It comes right into our lives and reveals
to us the meaning of life. Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict the XVI speaking about
the Word says, “It is the Word of God Himself who declares, ‘Everyone who listens
to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man.’ We are to let
the Word of God penetrate our lives and in this way to know the fundamental truth
of who we are, where we come from, where we must go and what path we must take in
life.”
Do you want to know who you are as God sees you? Do you want to know where you come
from? Do you want to know where you must go? What path you must take in life?
Our Blessed Mother will help you understand the Word of
God because she said ”Yes” to the plan of God. Our Lady had the Word of God in her
heart before she conceived in her womb, thus she was disposed to say ‘yes’ to the
plan of God announced by the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. You read
this in the Word of God. The angel Gabriel was sent from heaven announcing the plan
of God and Our Lady says, “Fiat.” Therefore, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us.”
Humility, Intimacy with God & Union
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, seeing the humility of Mary, leapt out
of heaven into her womb. When God sees humility He is moved. Let us be humble enough
to bow down before God and thank Him for His love of us. We are to know, love and
serve God and be happy with Him forever. As I said, to know God is to be intimate
with Him. In biblical terms, when we’re talking about knowledge about someone, we’re
talking about intimacy with them. Let’s get past the fleshly thoughts of intimacy.
Can you come to the highest level of intimacy? It’s true union that makes you happy;
union with God.
The Meaning of Communion
In all of your relationships this union should flow. In your marriages, with your
children, your relatives, your friends, the people you work with, and in school,
and even with your enemies.
We are created for communion.
Communion means “with union.” Intimacy with God, knowledge of God and
you love God. You recognize that He loves you infinitely. “For God so loved the
world that He sent His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him will not
die but will have eternal life.” [John 3:16]
“Believes in Him” means believes in everything He revealed. Not just that He exists.
The devil believes He exists. But God’s not going to do anything for the devil.
(Pray you don’t do anything for the devil.) God sent His Son to reveal the Divine
Way of Life for which we were created. We believe everything that Jesus teaches
us, that he revealed to us for our belief, and He reveals to us in the One, Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church. To believe in Jesus Christ, means to believe in everything
that He has revealed and proposed for our belief in the Holy Catholic Church. This
is essentially the theological virtue of faith. Let us ask for this grace of faith.
Knowing Christ through Mary
We live a life of faith in God’s goodness. We know God and then we love Him. Why
does it follow in that order to know, love and serve God and be happy with Him forever?
Because you can’t love what you don’t know. You know that from your own experience,
right? When someone gives you their name they’re open to a relationship. You can
start to know them better.
Sometimes, the knowledge of someone comes through a friend of that person. One way
to really know Jesus Christ- the sure, short, perfect, easy, beautiful way to know
Jesus Christ- is through Our Lady, Our Blessed Mother. The Mother of God knows Jesus
intimately. She knows the Father and she knows the Holy Spirit intimately. And as
your mother, she will share what she knows about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
with you and the more you come to know God, under our Lady’s mantle, under our mother’s
care, the more you will love God.
For no human person loved God more than our Blessed Mother. She will teach you how
to love God: to know, love and then to serve God. No one served God more perfectly
than our Blessed Mother. Our Blessed Mother was responding to a plan. She can help
you respond to God’s plan for your life; God’s plan. Our Lady will teach you, she
will love you, and she will show you how to know, love and serve God and then be
happy with him forever in heaven. This is God’s plan for you.
St. Ignatius & Meaning of Life
I want to turn to a very important point in understanding the purpose and meaning
of life. Let us turn to the teaching of one of the great Saints of the Church, St.
Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatian Spirituality was given by God through Our Lady to St.
Ignatius. St. Ignatius loves Our Lady.
We are to love
Our Lady.
St. Ignatius is a witness to when someone loves Our Lady, they come to know and
serve God and be happy with him forever. The first principle and foundation of Ignatian
spirituality is: the human person is created to praise, reverence and serve God,
Our Lord and by doing so to save his or her soul.
All other things on the face of the earth are created for human beings in order
to help them to pursue the end for which they are created. It only makes sense that
we should order our lives to the purpose and proper end of our lives right? You
don’t want to end up at the end of your life and find you took the road that was
the wrong road. You want to take the Way who is Jesus Christ to the Father. And
then have the Truth of your existence revealed to you in the life of God .
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and Life. Our Blessed Mother always brings you to Jesus
who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
So continuing with this first principle and foundation, St. Ignatius, inspired by
the Holy Spirit, shares what he means. It flows from the fact that everything on
the face of the earth was created for human beings in order to help us to pursue
the end for which we were created. It follows from this that one must use other
created things in so far as they help towards one’s end, and free oneself from them
insofar they are obstacles to one’s end . Bottom line, if things help you arrive
at your end, then we praise God. But, if they are obstacles to you reaching your
end, then you must be rid of them, be free of them. Our Lady will teach you how.
St. Augustine & Confessions
To order your life well St. Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, taught from
his own experience that, “ Our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” Our
hearts are restless until they rest in God. I urge you to read the Confessions of
St. Augustine if any of you have had a rough life. If you’ve lost your way, read
the life of St. Augustine in the Confessions. He has a confession of his infidelity-
then his fidelity, and then the beauty of the way of the life of God. He is a great
Doctor of the Church. His conversion came after 30 plus years of prayer from his
Mother, St. Monica.
The Three H’s
Mothers never give up on your children. God’s got a plan for them all. Our hearts
are restless until they rest in God.
St. Augustine taught
that we are to enjoy the enjoyable and use the useful. Enjoy the enjoyable and use
the useful. But then he points out that the only thing enjoyable isn’t
a thing it’s the Divine persons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The One who is enjoyable is God. He wants you to be happy, He loves you.
He’s got a plan for your life for happiness and holiness and heaven.
I want you to remember those three H’s- happiness, holiness and heaven. Keep them
before you and keep them united. We are to enjoy the enjoyable and use
the useful.
St. Ignatius & Proper Use
As St. Ignatius points out if something is useful to arriving at our end, it is
proper to use.
Remember: we don’t use people ever. People
are created in the image and likeness of God, we never use them. We respect them.
All persons have a dignity; an inherent dignity because they are created in the
image and likeness of God. All people are our brothers and sisters.
Remember as Catholics, as Christians, as men and women
of good will, our only enemies are the devil and sin, and what sin does to our brothers
and sisters. We love the sinner, we hate the sin.
We don’t use people, but yet, in this idea of enjoy the enjoyable, use the useful;
we must remember that God alone is the one who’s enjoyable.
The problem is so many people try to use the enjoyable; they try to use God, because
they’ve been used. Or, they use others and so they don’t know how to
relate to God. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
Do you want to be happy? Turn to our Blessed Mother.
Have her hold your hand and teach you how to enjoy God and then to use everything
else that God has provided you to come to build up the kingdom of God. God has a
plan of communion with God and with others.
St. Ignatius continues his first principle to do this: to use created things in
so far as they help us to our end, or free ourselves from them insofar as they are
obstacles to our end.
To do this we need to make ourselves indifferent to
all created things. Provided the matter is subject to our free choice
and there is no other prohibition; thus as far as we are concerned we should not
want health more than illness, wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace,
a long life more than a short one; and similarly for all the rest.
We should desire and choose only what helps us more
towards the end for which we are created. We should not want health more than illness,
wealth more than poverty, fame more than disgrace, a long life more than a short
one. We should only desire and choose what helps us toward our end.
Speaking this way 500 years or so after the time of St. Ignatius, in this world,
many people would call us crazy following this way. But what I can share with you
is this- it is anything but crazy. The way of the world is crazy. You’ve experienced
it. The way of God is well ordered. And yes, there is discipline that is necessary.
The word discipline relates to the word disciple. You’re called to be disciples
of Jesus and Mary. You need discipline in your lives. The people I know who are
disciplined in their lives are successful. We will help you with that. We are here
to help you.
Our Lady & the Way of the Cross
As a matter of fact, let me point out that as we share with you God’s purpose and
plan today, we’re here in Trinity Studios and under Our Lady’s Mantle. Everything’s
been provided for by God and Our Blessed Mother. We stand between two of the stations
of the Way of the Cross. Right here we have the fourth station of the Way of the
Cross where Jesus meets His Blessed Mother and in their love they strengthen each
other.
In this work of redemption, in this work of God’s love, if only you could enter
into the union of their hearts. That’s what Our Lady is going to teach you in this
Lay Formation Program, and she is going to help you go all the way to the cross.
Let me share that with you now.
Don’t worry, don’t run from the cross. It’s the only way to heaven. We’re going
to give you some formation. God is going to form you and strengthen you just like
He did with His disciples to help you go to the cross but follow through to the
Resurrection and Ascension. What we know is the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ,
we’ll unfold that. We don’t want to get too technical or overly theological at the
beginning. Theology helps us, but what we really need is a relationship with Jesus
Christ.
I know so many people that come and say do you have a personal relationship with
Jesus Christ? Oh yes, I do; the most personal. Our Lady taught me how to relate
to Jesus Christ and in the Catholic Church, I receive the Eucharist that strengthens
me. I have intimate communion with Jesus Christ because I receive His Body, Blood,
Soul and Divinity, really, truly and substantially. I have an intimacy with God
that He makes possible on this way of the cross.
I stand here between the fourth station and the sixth station where Veronica wipes
the face of Jesus. Veronica, her name means “true image.” Vera icona: true image.
Veronica the virtuous woman. We’ll talk about virtue during this Lay Formation Program
and how it helps you fulfill God’s plan for your life. Veronica comes forth and
wipes the face of Jesus, and Jesus imprints His face miraculously on this cloth
to show us that He came to restore us to His image and likeness.
I stand between these two stations, knowing Simon in the fifth station helps Jesus
carry His cross.
We are here to help you carry your
cross. Jesus, the God man, accepted help. Let us humble ourselves to accept help.
I thank God for all the people who were sent into my life to help me.
Lay Formation & A Way of Life
This Lay Formation Program is all about God sharing His way of life. It is about
sharing our Blessed Mother and her way of life. And God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit
and Our Blessed Mother are here to help us. All of us are members of God’s family
by His design. The question is, do we accept that call?
Over the next month we are going to go into a way of
life, and its essence can be described as: Imitate Mary, Become Like Jesus, Live
for the Triune God.
Eternal Council and Rublev’s Icon
We are going to help you see that God from all eternity, before He created anything,
at the Eternal Council of the Most Holy Trinity decreed that Our Blessed Mother
and each and every one of us would exist.
We will help you to relate to God. To relate to the plan of God that Jesus Christ
the Second Person of the Trinity, the Eternal Word, would become flesh and dwell
among us and go to the cross and suffer and die and rise and ascend; and establish
a Church before ascending- the Catholic Church.
This Council of the Trinity you can see well depicted in the icon by Rublev, the
famous iconographer. In this icon, this beautiful icon, you see the Three Persons
of the Trinity. You see them in a circular form, representing eternity and representing
the union that they have with each other.
You see the Father looking at Jesus and giving Him a blessing to come and assume
our humanity. You see Jesus in the center receiving this blessing. Even though God
is One. Even though Jesus is co-eternal with the Father. Remember, you cannot have
an eternal Father without an eternal Son. That’s one of the simplest ways to explain
the eternal reality of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. You never separate a God
in terms of time and space. There’s one God for all eternity.
Jesus at the Eternal Council of the Trinity, agreed to become man for our sake to
save us. Because God saw all across time and space that He created. He saw each
and every one of us and He loves us and He wants us to be with Him forever. Again,
God the Father gives His blessing to Jesus, Jesus receives the blessing. Jesus is
pointing to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, in the plan of God is to be sent forth
and to help us know God’s love and to respond to God’s love.
You see in this icon a chalice right in the center. When you look at it closely,
you see a chalice reminding us that the Mass is the center of our lives; that the
Eucharist is the source, the summit, the center of our lives. That this saving act
of God in Jesus Christ, who came all the way from heaven and suffered and died on
the cross for us and rose and ascended: this is the center of our lives.
You see right in the center of this icon a roasted lamb upon which we are to feed
in the Eucharist. The Mass is the center of our lives. You see in this icon so much
imagery that helps us understand our lives.
God’s Plan & Our Response
I know most people don’t think this way, but if you
open yourselves to this truth it will help you. At the Eternal Council of the Trinity
(that was before God created anything) in the mind of God- who’s infinite, all knowing,
all loving, all powerful- God looked across eternity and saw you!
God loves you, and He has a plan for your life. He decreed
that plan before you ever came into existence. Therefore, you’re life should be
a response to this plan.
Over this icon, over the Holy Spirit you see a mountain because this mountain is
where you go to pray.
In prayer you find the plan of
God. Then, you see over Jesus, the tree of life. We know that the cross
is the tree of life. But now it blossoms and we are called to live under its shade.
We’re called to paradise and as you follow Jesus Christ, as Mary, the first perfect
disciple of Jesus, as she shares her life with the Trinity, then you come to the
mansion of God the Father. The destiny of our life. Over time we’ll teach you more
about this icon. We will teach you more about your life.
And so, the three most important points of this teaching are:
- God has created you in His love to live a life of communion with Him and with the
rest of His family. There’s an order to our lives. You keep God first.
- You follow the plan of God and say “yes” to the plan of God at all times in your
life as the Blessed Mother said “yes” at all times in her life.
- You learn from our Blessed Mother that you are beloved- which means you know who
you belong to… that you belong to God. Everything else in life is incidental.
God wants you to be happy, God wants you to be holy, He wants you to come to heaven.
And so the challenges of this month coming up are basically to embrace this call
to greatness.
I want you to reflect on: “Why am I here? Where am I from? Where am I going?”
God wants you to know, love and serve Him and be happy with Him forever. We want
you to start to develop a relationship with our Blessed Mother. The fruit and grace
of this teaching is that you come to know Mary, Our Mother, Our Lady of the Most
Holy Trinity. We will take you by the hand and share her relationships with the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit with you. It’s a beautiful way of life.
We will have facilitations next week and each week, same time, same place. Come
to the Community of our Lady’s Family near you regularly. One hour a week. You will
find your life to be blessed indeed. This program is designed for you. It was born
of God’s perfect love for you. We call you to respond generously to this call of
love under our Lady’s mantle.
I give you a blessing and encourage you to be faithful to the graces you’ve received.
We will see you next month.
The Lord be with you. May Almighty God bless you, The Father, and the Son and the
Holy Spirit. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.