Daily Archives: 30 July 2006

Viator for the Shrine

Posted on 30 July 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Over at the Shrine, a question was asked about the term homo viator, which descibes "the wanderer" (which is the name of a paper I write for), the Christian as a pilgrim or "wayfarer" en route. In this life we … Continue reading →

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Chrysostom on today’s 2nd reading from Ephesians

Posted on 30 July 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The second reading for today’s Holy Mass (with the Novus Ordo) is from Ephesians 4:1-6. Let us hear what St. John Chrysostom says about it. Again [Paul] uses the metaphor of bonding. We have lft it behind, and now it … Continue reading →

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16th Sunday of Ordinary Time: POST COMMUNION (2)

Posted on 30 July 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:
Our baptismal character remains forever, on earth, in heaven or in hell. It can never be removed. We are forever changed by this pouring or immersing with water and the Trinitarian formula. Our outward comportment and interior landscape must reflect this deepest of realities. At the moment we hear this Post communionem prayer, the Lord has deigned to allow Himself in the sacred Host to be “dipped” into what should be the pure and clean chalice of our earthly bodies. When the Host is “moistened” by us, our souls are imbued with the grace which it is: a Host does not merely symbolize Christ, it truly is Christ in itself. We must avoid that our baptismal character be, in thought, word and deed, merely “skin deep” as it were, as if the only thing being imbued was the surface of our skin. When a person or plant is parched and dying the surface and skin become terribly dry and cracked. Wetting the surface will momentarily restore it as the moisture imbues the outer part and renews it. It will however quickly dry again. The benefit passes quickly. The surface looks good for a while and then it diminishes in beauty, since the effects were only skin deep. What the organism needs is to be renewed from within so that the outward appearance can be restored and made whole and beautiful again. Our baptism imbues us with grace and makes us temples of the Triune God. This interior and invisible reality must imbue all we do from the inside out so that the dimensions of us most visible to others, and I don’t mean the way we look, are similarly beautiful, reflecting the One within us in whose image and likeness we are made. Continue reading →

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16th Sunday of Ordinary Time: SUPER OBLATA (2)

Posted on 30 July 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

EXCERPT:

In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass we lovingly offer back to the Father in an unbloody way what was accomplished in a bloody way once for all time upon the Cross of our salvation. Christ, at the same time both Victim and Priest, who is the true actor in the Mass is offering Himself to the Father in a sacramental way. Sacramental reality is just as real as historical reality. In the Mass the Lord applies the fruits of His unrepeatable Sacrifice to us who are present and to those for whom Mass is being offered, living or dead. We are not trying to repeat the historic Sacrifice of Christ which took place at a specific moment in time. That is impossible and, in any event, unnecessary. Christ’s work is perfectly accomplished already. What we do now we do because of Christ’s command: we renew His Sacrifice in an unbloody and sacramental way. Holy Mass truly is the one and same Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, no less real than the event of 2000 years ago. Continue reading →

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16th Sunday of Ordinary Time: COLLECT (2)

Posted on 30 July 2006 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

What Does the Prayer Really Say? 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN The Wanderer in 2005 I have received e-mail from DM (edited): “Thank you for your WDTPRS work, which a friend of mine, a high school Latin … Continue reading →

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