No greater love! (Jn 15:13)

"This is my command,

that you love one another."
(Jesus - John 15:17)

“Gianna was a normal woman;

she enjoyed life, she was happy, she loved her children.”1

These were the words of Pietro Molla when interviewed about his wife, St.Gianna Beretta Molla. They are words which indicate that Gianna was actually a pretty ordinary woman. Others 2 spoke the same of her saying that she was NOT extraordinary at all!

Jesus had said:

“There is no greater love than this,

to give one’s life for one’s friends;

and you are my friends

if you do what I command you.”

(John 15:13,14)

It is without doubt that Gianna had fully comprehended these words! She knew all too well what Jesus had commanded us and, keen on living the Gospel, she was willing to …and hence did… choose the life of others over that of her own. Gianna placed – before her own – the life of her unborn baby, dying that her child may live.

The Church presented Gianna to us as a model not solely because of this final act of love yet furthermore for who she – by God’s Grace – was:

an ordinary woman,

who co-operated with God,

living a normal life in a holy way

…allowing it to end in an extra-ordinary manner.

St. Gianna (1922-1962) was an Italian wife, mother and doctor. She was proclaimed a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2004 and is Patron Saint of mothers, doctors and the unborn. She loved her family and was dedicated to it and hence she is often asked to interceed for families.

...she is my favourite (woman) saint ...along side sta.Maria Goretti and Beata.Madre Teresa... and yesterday was her feast day.

(you can read more about here by clicking HERE :-)

The videos below are clips from the documentary “Love is a Choice” (Ignatius Press) They were originally uploaded by “mysaviourmygod” on “You Tube”.

1 Saint Gianna Molla, p15, Pietro Molla and Elio Guerriero – Ignatius Press.
2 As seen in the documentary “Love is a Choice” – Ignatius Press.

Divine Mercy Sunday

2 Nd Sunday Of Easter (Year B)

View more presentations from Ruth .

Every Sunday i am blessed to be able to prepare a power point to accompany readings during the 9:30am Mass. I am "blessed" BECAUSE whilst doing them i get to think and reflect about what i am reading/will be listening to. I was wanting to share these powerpoints but they are toooooooo big to send via email so i just couldn't yet when there's a will there is a way! ...i actually found a "slide share" site where they can be uploaded and viewed... and they can be embedded in blogs/sites too!

Having "discovered" that and actually managing (after like a dozen times to upload!) i have "embedded" today's powerpoint... It's in Maltese though...

(eventually i hope to do the same in English i guess ...just put the English text when i upload it...)

TODAY IS DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY! LET US PRAY THE DIVINE MERCY CHAPLET! :-)
(the picture at the bottom is a link for the chaplet :-)

He is Risen!!!!!

I cannot believe i actually managed to upload a video onto this blog!!! This is a favourite of mine from you tube: SING IT LOUD (even if you do not know it ;-) CHRIST IS RISEN!!!!!

He was cut off from the land of the living (Is 53:8)

“Who could believe what we have heard,
and to whom has Yahweh revealed his feat?
Like a root out of dry ground,
like a sapling he grew up before us,
with nothing attractive in his appearance,
no beauty, no majesty.

He was despised and rejected,
a man of sorrows familiar with grief,
a man from whom people hide their face,
spurned and considered of no account.
Yet ours were the sorrows he bore,
ours were the sufferings he endured,
although we considered him
as one punished by God,
stricken and brought low.

Destroyed because of our sins,
he was crushed for our wickedness.
Through his punishment we are made whole;
by his wounds we are healed.

Like sheep we had all gone astray,
each following his own way;
but Yahweh laid upon him all our guilt.

He was harshly treated,
but unresisting and silent,

he humbly submitted.
Like a lamb led to the slaughter
or a sheep before the shearer
he did not open his mouth.

He was taken away
to detention and judgement –
what an unthinkable fate!
He was cut off

from the land of the living,
stricken for his people’s sin.
They made his tomb with the wicked,
they put him in the graveyard with the oppressors,
though he had done no violence nor spoken in deceit.

Yet it was the will of Yahweh to crush him with grief.
When he makes himself an offering for sin,
he will have a long life and see his descendants.
Through him

the will of Yahweh is done.

For the anguish he suffered, he will see the light
and obtain perfect knowledge.
My just servant will justify the multitude;
he will bear and take away their guilt.

Therefore I will give him his portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong.

For he surrendered Himself to death
and was even counted among the wicked,
bearing the sins of the multitude
and interceding for sinners.”

(Isaiah Chapter 53)

Jesus sat at table… (Mt 26:20)

As we remember Jesus’ Last Supper we recall God’s Greatest Commandment given to us during the same meal: “Love one another as I have loved you!” (John 15:12) and demonstrated twice - in different ways - during the same meal ie:

> Jesus giving us His Body and Blood in the Most Holy Eucharist (1 Cor 11:23-26 as well as Mt, Mk and Lk)

> Jesus humbling Himself such as to wash his apostles (dirty) feet (John 13:2-17) including by the way Judas Iscariots’ …who was just about to betray Him.

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Jesus had previously spoken of Giving Himself in such a manner:

"I am the living bread

which has come from heaven;

whoever eats of this bread will live forever.

The bread I shall give is my flesh

and I will give it for the life of the world.”

(John 6:51)

And now he does:

“…the Lord Jesus, on the night that He was betrayed, took bread and, after giving thanks, broke it, saying, “This is My Body which is broken for you; do this in memory of Me.” In the same manner, taking the cup after the supper, He said, “This cup is the New Covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do it in memory of Me.” (1 Cor 11:23-25)

After He gives Himself to us in this way, Jesus echoing His previous words:

"My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.

Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood,

live in me and I in them."

(John 6:55),

demands of us:

“do this in memory of me”

(1 Cor 11: 24,25)

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Likewise Jesus had said that He had come to serve:

“ …the Son of Man

has not come to be served

but to serve and to

give His life to redeem many.”

(Mk 10:45)

And now as he continues to do so:

“he got up from table, removed his garment and taking a towel, wrapped it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing." (John 13:4,5)

He demands that we do the same:

“If I, then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet,

you also must wash

one ano­ther’s feet.”

(John 13:14)

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After each of these actions Jesus demands of us that we do the same:

After He gave us His Body and Blood Jesus said:

“DO this in memory of me”

After He washed His Apostles’ feet Jesus said:

“you also MUST wash one anothers feet”

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There is much to read and say. The Church has continued to teach and proclaim these two actions and their meaning. Many saints have spoken and taught yet these same words and actions strike each one of us (even though not saints!) differently.

When I read and hear these lines I too get to think/reflect asking myself:

But what does it mean to “wash” anothers feet? …what does it mean other than be ready to serve another unconditionally? ...even if it requires of me that I get down on my knees and take off my “garment” ie: my pride?

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The Encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia says the following:

“The celebration of the Eucharist … presupposes that communion already exists, a communion which it seeks to consolidate and bring to perfection.” (para 35)

That is also what I have been taught: there can be no Eucharist without communion and there would be no communion without the Eucharist. Likewise there can be no communion unless there is service. Eucharist requires service as service requires Eucharist. The two go hand in hand together. And then I get to think: is that not what Jesus did at the Last Supper?

Is that not what St.Paul also (because st.Paul referred primarily to not recognising the Body of Jesus in the Bread) spoke about when he said: "if anyone eats of the bread or drinks from the cup of the Lord unworthily, he sins against the body and blood of the Lord." (1 Cor 11:27)

And what is it that makes me “unworthy”? ...What is it other than sin?

And what is sin? ...What is it other than my NO to God and YES to Satan?
…NO God I do not want to obey Your Commandment: “Love God” and “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mk 12:29-31). Yes Satan I’m fine with disobeying God …what use is it after all to Love Him and my nieghbour?

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So as the Church reflects on the Gift of the Most Holy Eucharist we also reflect on Christ’s total giving of Himself and I am bothered by a question:

“How can I receive the Body of Christ if I am not willing to serve? Likewise how can I serve unless I am willing to receive the Body of Christ?”

John Paul 2 in the same letter (Ecclesia de Eucharistia) wrote:

"The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift – however precious – among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of Himself, of His person in His Sacred Humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work. (Para 10)

He also wrote:

"The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by Him she is fed and by Him she is enlightened. (Para 6) From this “living bread” she draws her nourishment. (Para 7)

It is for this reason that the Church has called the Eucharist “the source and summit of Christian Life” (Lumen Gentium Para 11)

It is through this Gift that

Jesus remains with us in

His most Real Presence today!

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Mother Teresa, as many other saints, would spend hours before the Jesus in this Most Holy Sacrament. She would serve the people yet only after and as a continuation of her adoration of Jesus in the Eucharist!

For it is His Body which nourishes our souls and it is the same Body which enables us to serve others: we cannot celebrate the Eucharist unless we are in communion. We cannot be in communion unless we serve!

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As the Church thanks God for this Gift she - and hence we as Her Children - also thank God for priests:

“ the Eucharist 'is the principal and central

raison d’être of the Sacrament of Priesthood,

which effectively came into being at the

moment of the Institution of the Eucharist'. ”

(Ecclesia de Eucharistia (para 31)

– the Pope here quotes Dominicae Cenae (para 115) )

It is the priest who by repeating the same words which Jesus said at the Last Supper and through God’s Grace brings to us the Most Holy Eucharist! We cannot have the Blessed Sacrament unless we have priests!

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So here’s for some maths:

We cannot celebrate the Eucharist unless we have communion
There can be no communion unless we have the Eucharist.

There can be no Eucharist unless we have priests!

Eucharist requires communion

which in turn needs service.

Eucharist perfects communion

and hence service!

We need priests to have Eucharist!

May God bless our priests! :-)

The picture above shows us all three:

A priest

– who by God’s choosing happens to be Pope –

obeying Jesus’ command: serving

just before He, with God’s Grace,

brings the Holy Eucharist to God’s people!

Come Hold my Son!

Thirty three years earlier

the same Jesus

had been taken

to the temple.

There His parents

presented Him to God:

Jesus had said:

He also said:

"The Father loves me because

I lay down my life

in order to take it up again.

No one takes it from me,

but I lay it down freely.

It is mine to lay down

and to take up again:

this mission I received

from my Father."

(John 10:17,18)

now three years later as He hangs dying on the cross

"Jesus gave a loud cry,

“Father, into your hands

I commend my spirit.”

And saying that,

He gave up his spirit."
(Luke 23:46)

Thirty three years earlier Mary had presented a beautiful little boy to God the Father yet now she stands beneath the cross of her dying child. This time it is He who presents Himself to the Father and as He does Mary stands sufferring. The lovely child whom she once offered to God the Father now hangs dying on a cross:

"a man from whom people hide their face" (Is 53:3)

Mary had stood beside Jesus all His life. Now she stands beneath the Cross accompanying her Son in these most difficult moments. As His Side is pierced surely Mary understands what Simeon meant!

"a sword shall pierce your heart"

(Luke 2:35)

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In Malta, on this holy day, processions are held all over the country. Thousands of people walk solemnly through our streets, praying that we too may, like Mary, may be obedient and faithful to God. In most of our churches a beautiful hymn, by the name of “Wieqfa taħt is-salib”, (Standing Beneath the Cross) is sung. The following is a translation of the same:

Standing beneath the cross with a sorrowful look
She looks at her Son Crucified as He bleeds dying.

Standing beneath the cross, Mary is in agony
She groans in pain, weeping for her Son Jesus.

I cry though not as much for Him
As I do for you poor sinners
For you and your children
Are so far from God!

Yes I weep when I see you
rejecting my Son Jesus.
You stay away
You do not approach Him!

On this holy day when we remember Mary’s sorrow she invites us:

COME HOLD MY SON!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_ppCQ_iISc

(click link to hear this most beautiful song by "Thirsting")