Catholic Fire

Today's Mass Readings Today's Meditation We understand the suffering of Jesus' heart, His sadness over one of His disciples, one of those He had chosen and therefore one of those whom He loves: "One of you will betray me." Here we see the two extremes: the disciple whom Jesus loves, John close to Jesus' heart, and Judas, who draws further and further away, who turns in on himself and closes himself in on his evil will. A division arose among those whom Jesus had chosen and loved and the cause of this division is Judas' jealousy towards John. Judas did not directly will Jesus' death, but he could not stand Jesus' love for John. Judas did not go to the end in his first love and he rejected this first love because he saw that another was first passing ahead of him. Let us ask Jesus for the grace to be faithful to the end in our love for Him and that nothing, absolutely nothing, make us stray from Him. May He always be the one we love above all things....

John 11: 1 - 45 - Today's Gospel Reading We must love considering the Church in the light of glory, and this is how we should consider her. Just as Jesus lived the entire mystery of the Cross and even His entire apostolic life in the light of this great assertion, "I am the Resurrection", so should we consider the mystery of the Church, and our own lives as well, in the light of the Resurrection. This is what will give us an ever greater hope, since hope already lives the victory of love. The Sacrament of Reconciliation should be understood in this light, as something connected to the Resurrection. Each time the priest gives absolution, each time he makes this gesture of God's forgiveness, his action is directly connected to Jesus' Resurrection, and it thereby prepares us for the mystery of our own Resurrection. Return to Me ... Daily Meditations for Lent by Fr. Philippe, O.P. By Fr. Philippe, O.P., Priest, Philosopher, and Founder of the Community of St. Jo...

Luke 10: 21 - 24 Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I give you praise, Father, Lord, and heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him." Turning to the disciples in private he said, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I say to you, many profits and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it." Reflection: Evangelical littleness, which Therese of the Child Jesus loved so much was a great light for her: to understand that it is not all about searching to perform great actions but that, on the contrary, it is to joyfully accept all that God asks of us and to do it with the gre...