Living Stones

The baptized have become 'living stones' to be 'built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood.' [1268] Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself, but to him who died and rose for us. [1269] 'Reborn as sons of God, the baptized must profess before men the faith they have received from God through the Church' and participate in the apostolic and missionary activity of the People of God. [1270]--Cathechism of the Catholic Church.








 
         
          "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness..." (Psalm 132)

Living Waters

 We thank you, Almighty God, for the
gift of water.Over it the Holy Spirit moved
in the beginning of creation.Through it
you led the children of Israel out of their
bondage in Egypt into the land of promise.
In it your Son Jesus received the baptism 
of John and was anointed by the Holy
Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead
us, through his death and resurrection, 
from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
   --Rite of Baptism, Book of Common Prayer

Blessed

"Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

"The Risen One cannot be seen like a piece of wood or stone. He can be seen only by the person to whom he reveals himself....He does not reveal himself to curiosity but to love; love is the indispensable agent if we are to see and apprehend him." (Pope Benedict XVI)

Miracle

"There is nothing that God hath established in a constant course of nature, and which therefore is done every day, but would seeme a Miracle, and exercise our admiration, if it were done but once." --John Donne, sermon for Easter Day, 1627.

Good Friday

"...Christ necessarily had the potentiality for dying, because he was really a man, but...he was nevertheless not subject to the necessitas moriendi; Christ died not because he had to but because he wanted to." (Josef Pieper, Death and Immortality)





"He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised
for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made
us whole, and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5)

Fifth Week of Lent

"If death is in truth punishment, then there is something in it that ought to be...good--it cannot be entirely bad--insofar as punishment 'makes good again' and restores to order something which had been wrong....To be sure, this good is not brought about of its own accord, and not in every case; it is obtained by one who accepts in his heart the malum, the badness and bitterness, the punishment." (Josef Pieper, Death and Immortality)

Fourth Week of Lent

"A loss can be healing; something bad can be good for us for the very reason that it oppresses and torments us. This curious configuration, this association of seeming incompatibles, becomes clear in a single case: in the concept and the reality of just punishment. And just this is expressed by the [Christian] tradition: death has been imposed upon man as punishment." (Josef Pieper, Death and Immortality)