Franciscan at Home

This liturgical meditation is take from Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

We long for union with God, and we must so long, for it is our inmost need. Our soul points out two ways of obtaining this: they are different ways, but both reach the same goal.

The first way to union goes by knowledge and love.

Knowledge is a union: by knowing things we penetrate them and draw them into ourselves; they become our own, a part of our life. So also all love is union – not a mere striving, but in itself a union. So far as a man loves something, so far doe it already belong to him.

This union is, however, of a special kind: we express this by saying that it is ‘spiritual.’

Yet this word does not fully say all, for the other union, of which we shall speak later, is also spiritual. What we mean is that this union is one not of being, but of motion; of consciousness and frame of mind.

Is there any outward form for this – a likeness? Certainly, and a very wonderful one – light and heat.

Why is it that we invoke God as ‘Our’ Father? What does the word ‘Our’ entail? When we say those two words, ‘Our Father’, there are two relationships we are denoting. Before he became Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger summed up both relationships when he wrote, ‘The fatherhood of God gives Christian brotherhood its firm foundation.’[i] The first relationship is that we are brothers and sisters. This is expressed in the word ‘Our’. The second, expressed in ‘Father’, is that we are sons and daughters. In Baptism, we enter into this life of the Blessed Trinity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, ‘There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of him by water and spirit.’[ii] By the power of the Holy Spirit and through Baptism, we are reborn as brother and sisters to Jesus and sons and daughters to the Father.

The Lord’s Prayer can be very helpfully used as a prayerful focus for catechising in morality. One of the advantages of this is that those we teach will gain the vital perspective that how we live and act flows from our prayer and is an expression of it. One on the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between faith professed and the practice of lives.[ii] It will help all of us to remember, as well, that the commandments begin with God and our relationship with him.

When teaching morality, it is important to present our final ‘end’, or goal, very clearly. Then we need to present how to reach that goal, cooperating with God’s grace. Finally, we explain and discuss how to behave towards others in the light of these convictions. The structure of the Our Father lends itself very well to this approach. Our true fulfilment is to draw close to God, whom we call Abba, Father. The ‘how’ is reflected in the central part of the prayer; and the prayer closes with an appeal for help in relationships with others and in remaining faithful to the life he has in mind for us.

We cry out to our Father in heaven revering his name; life in its fullest sense consists in a loving relationship with him. We are created in his image and he has placed in us a desire for him.[iii] So in teaching morality the focus is to be on the Father, his kingdom,[iv] and our eternal destiny. When we adopt this perspective, challenges in daily life can be seen to help lead us to the very place where we learn to be our true selves, the heart of the Father.

Jesus’ disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Lk. 11:1). Those who asked understood, even before St. Paul wrote, that “we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom. 8:26). The response, commonly known as the Our Father, is the “fundamental Christian prayer” (CCC 2759). It contains every element of a perfect prayer. Yet, in its beauty and simplicity, one essential aspect of the Our Father’s foundation is often overlooked: the virtue of humility.

Holy Mother Church announces that “humility is the foundation of prayer” (CCC 2559). If humility is the virtue on which all prayer is founded, it is reasonable to conclude that humility is the very root and foundation of the Our Father. If people are able to make this connection, they will be able to identify the presence of humility in every line of the prayer; and they will also gain a fuller understanding of this seminal virtue.

Humility is present in the first exclamation, “Our Father,” which is an admission that “no one knows the Father except the son…” (Mt. 11:27; cf. CCC 2779). Further, humility is present in the recognition that the Father is “in Heaven,” which means that He is “majestic” and His dwelling “transcends everything we can conceive” (CCC 2794). The seven petitions that follow are imbued with humility because that virtue is at the heart of these first two statements.

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

The church space within speaks of God. It belongs to the Lord and is quite filled with His holy presence. For it is God’s House, separated off from the world, enclosed in walls and vaulted roof. This space is turned inwards, towards the hidden God. It speaks of the mystery of God.

But what of the space without? The great wide space over the plain, which extends endlessly on all sides? The space on the hills, spread out into the infinite? In the valleys, deep lying, surrounded by mountains? Is all this not connected with sanctity?

Most certainly this also. From the House of God the tower grows up into the free air and, as it were, takes possession of it in God’s name. In the tower, in the belfry hang the bells of heavy brass.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the last Wenesday's Catechesis we reflected on the opening words of the Creed: “I believe in one God”. But the profession of faith specifies this affirmation: God is the almighty Father, Creator of heaven and earth. Thus I would like to reflect with you now on the first and fundamental definition of God which the Creed presents to us: he is Father.

He only can bless who has power; he only can bless who can create: God alone can bless.

God looks upon His creature and blesses him.

This liturgical mediation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

He calls him by name: His almighty love turns towards the heart and life-centre of His creature, and from God’s hand flows the power which gives growth, which gives fertility, health, and goodness: “I will have regard to you, and make you to grow.”

Only God can bless: for a blessing is a decree on what is, and what acts; blessing is a word of power from the Lord of creation, it is a promise and a prophecy from the Lord of providence; blessing is good fortune.

At the recent Synod in Rome on New Evangelisation and the Transmission of the Christian Faith, the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity made this Intervention, which illustrates how the work of love united to an exposure to the Christian faith is the first step of evangelization.

Your Holiness, Dear Synod Fathers, my dear fathers, brothers and sisters,

Our Mother Teresa is known for the work done for the poor. Not all are immediately aware of the aim of our work that is ‘to bring souls to God and God to souls’. When asked by the Minister of Social Work about the difference between his work and her work, she responded: ‘You do it for something, we do it for Someone’.

Deacon Mike Knuth helps us to understand the meaning of vocation and how to foster a vocational environment.

St. Paul admonishes in Ephesians 4:1, ‘I…urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received…’ Here St. Paul shows us a profound and intimate relationship that exists between catechesis and vocations. In the great tapestry of our faith, two important threads are the call God has placed within us, and the life we live in response to it. How can we live a life worthy of the call if we don’t understand both the call and the kind of life that the call elicits?

The word vocation comes from the Latin word vocare, which means ‘to call’. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) defines vocation in its glossary as, ‘The calling or destiny we have in this life and hereafter.’ Vocation is really a way of life – a living in communion with God now that prepares us for eternal communion.

As we know, catechesis prepares a Christian to live in a community, and to participate actively in the life and mission of the Church. Christian community does not spontaneously happen. It comes about through the careful education of its members. Presenting the Christian message, catechesis not only shows who God is and what His saving plan is, catechesis must also reveal man to himself and make him more aware of his sublime vocation.[i] The General Directory for Catechesis (GDC) speaks of the role the Catechism is to play in demonstrating to man his highest vocation.[ii] Using the Catechism, let’s examine this whole area of God’s call.

This liturgical meditation is taken from Romano Guardini's book, Sacred Signs.

We men have become gross; of many profound and delicate things we now know nothing. The word is one of those things: we think of it as superficial, for we no longer realise its inwardness; we think of it as transitory, for we no longer feel its force – it does not hit, it does not strike; it is only a light structure of sounds. But it is a fine body for something spiritual. The essence of some object before us, and what is awakened in our own soul on seeing it – these two meet and find expression in the word.

That is how it should be, and how it surely was with the first man.

In the earliest pages of Holy Writ we are told that God “brought the animals to Adam, to see what he would call them.” With open mind and seeing soul, man looked through the form of the animal and spoke its name, and his soul responded to the creature. Something stirred in him which stood in special relationship to that creature, for man is the summary and union of all creation.

And this essence of the thing outside, and this response within man himself, both in living union, were the twofold source of the name spoken by man.