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It’s Day 102!!
Paragraphs 721-726 are ALL ABOUT MARY!!
We have been following the working of the Holy Spirit in the Economy of Salvation
We are going to talk about the working of the Holy Spirit with regard to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Then we will talk about Jesus in Paragraphs 727-731
How does the Holy Spirit interact with Our Lady
How do Jesus and the Holy Spirit…
(Squirrel!! 😉)
Fr. Mike is going off on a story here that I’m not going to type out…just listen 😉
OOH WAIT!!! He’s talking about BATMAN AND SUPERMAN TEAMING UP!!
COOL!!!
Ok this is not the same as that…
IT’S BETTER!!
Paragraph 727 says, “The entire mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of time, is contained in this: that the Son is the one anointed by the Father’s Spirit since his Incarnation-Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Everything in the second chapter of the Creed is to be read in this light. Christ’s whole work is in fact a joint mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
Have you ever thought about that?
It’s a critical paragraph
You might think we covered that already
We kinda did
BUT…
The Catechism is underscoring and highlighting that Christ’s WHOLE WORK is a JOINT MISSION of the Son and the Holy Spirit
Paragraph 727 continues, “Here, we shall mention only what has to do with Jesus’ promise of the Holy Spirit and the gift of him by the glorified Lord.”
There are other ways the Son and the Holy Spirit have worked together
When you have an Eternal God there are many many ways in which they have interacted with this world
We are specifically going to mention only what has to do with Jesus’ Promise of the Holy Spirit and the Gift of the Holy Spirit by the Glorified Lord
The first 6 paragraphs are about Mary and how the Holy Spirit prepared a dwelling place for the Son
Then we will talk about how the Holy Spirit prepared Mary herself by His Grace
THIS IS THE DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION!!
Ahead of time, the Holy Spirit prepared Mary at the MOMENT OF HER CONCEPTION
We will also talk about how the Holy Spirit FULFILLS GOD’S PLAN OF LOVING GOODNESS in Mary
We will also talk about how the Holy Spirit MANIFESTS IN MARY the Son of the Father bringing Him into the world
We will also talk about how through Mary the Holy Spirit brings to human beings the object of God’s merciful love into communion with Christ
THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!
So…
The Holy Spirit prepares a dwelling place in Mary
The Holy Spirit prepares Mary
The Holy Spirit fulfills God’s plan through Mary
The Holy Spirit manifests the Son through Mary
The Holy Spirit brings us into communion with Jesus through Mary
It’s a little big exciting
As we are getting further and further into this teaching of how the Holy Spirit has been working
Here Fr. Mike is recapping what we read a couple of days ago…not going to write it down
And now Fr. Mike is recapping what he’s told us so far today etc.
So let’s say a prayer and ask that same Holy Spirit that prepared Mary etc….
Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, in the name of your Son Jesus Christ we ask you to please hear our prayer, receive our prayer, and send your Holy Spirit upon our lives, into our lives right now. Send your Holy Spirit to illumine our minds so that we can see clearly. Send your Holy Spirit to inflame our hearts, so that we can love in truth and we can love in spirit, that we can worship you in truth, that we can worship you in spirit. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen”
There we have it!!
Here is the remarkable way in which the Holy Spirit was preparing the Prophets
Here is Isaiah writing about Jesus
Here is the Holy Spirit preparing John the Baptist as the PRECURSOR, PROPHET, BAPTIST
AND YET…
Here is Mary
The Spouse of the Holy Spirit
And the way the Holy Spirit interacted with humanity in the person of Mary
THIS IS REMARKABLE!!
Paragraph 722 says, “The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by his grace…”
(SQUIRREL!! 😉)
We believe that Mary was conceived WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN
By the merits of her Son’s Life, Death, and Resurrection Mary was PRESERVED FROM ALL STAIN OF ORIGINAL SIN
Paragraph 722 continues, “It was fitting that the mother of him in whom ‘the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily’ should herself be ‘full of grace.’”
Mary is the NEW EVE
Remember the old Eve without sin and the old Adam without sin?
The devil spoke words to her, the woman without sin, that caused her to disbelieve and disobey
She hands on the disbelief and disobedience to the man who hands it on to the whole world
In the New Covenant Jesus is the NEW ADAM
AND YET…
We also have an angel announcing
We also have a WOMAN
The New Adam, Jesus, is without sin
And since the First Adam and First Eve were at first without sin…
It is FITTING that Mary, the New Eve, would also be without sin
Is it NECESSARY that Mary be without sin?
Who knows?
BUT…
The Church says IT IS FITTING
IT MAKES SENSE!!
Paragraph 722 continues, “She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty.”
THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!
Sometimes people think we are elevating Mary to a place that is beyond needing God
THAT IS NOT TRUE!!
IT IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE!!
BY THE COMPLETE GIFT OF GOD SHE WAS CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN!!
GRACE is the MERCY that we DO NOT DESERVE
GRACE is the LOVE that we DO NOT DESERVE
GRACE is the GIFT that we NEVER DESERVE
The Catechism makes it ABSOLUTELY CLEAR
Before she even existed she had done NOTHING to merit her existence nor to merit God’s particular favor
IT IS REMARKABLE!!
The more GRACE God gives to a person, the more HUMBLE they are called to be
Why?
Humility is NOT thinking less of oneself
It’s not thinking, “I’m no good. I’m superbad. Aw shucks, I’m nothing.”
Humility is THINKING OF ONESELF LESS
It’s not being preoccupied with one’s own virtue, beauty, gits, or self
It is recognizing that EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME
EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE IS A GIFT
The proud person has NO ONE TO THANK
The proud person are “self sufficient”
The humble person is ALWAYS THANKFUL
The humble person is ALWAYS REJOICING
The humble person is ALWAYS GIVING GLORY TO GOD
Because they realize that EVERYTHING THEY HAVE COMES FROM THE LORD
So Mary is more capable than ANYONE to welcome the inexpressible gift of God
The inexpressible gift of Christ in her womb
The inexpressible gift of Jesus in this world
Why?
Because as the most HUMBLE she is the most GRATEFUL and the most THANKFUL
The last 4 paragraphs talk about Jesus and the Spirit
So as the Holy Spirit prepared and worked through Mary in all these ways…
This massive and important reality is in Paragraph 727, “The entire mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of time, is contained in this: that the Son is the one anointed by the Father’s Spirit since his Incarnation-Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.”
Christ’s whole work is in fact a JOINT MISSION of the Son and the Holy Spirit
We can see this all the way through the Gospels
Paragraphs 728-730 are about all the ways Jesus is giving hints about the Holy Spirit’s work and then fully revealing the fact that the Holy Spirit is promised to the disciples and the Church
Paragraph 730 says, “At last Jesus’ hour arrives: he commends his spirit into the Father’s hands at the very moment when by his death he conquers death, so that, ‘raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,’ he might immediately give the Holy Spirit by ‘breathing’ on his disciples.”
Keep this in mind…
All through the Gospels we have HINTS of the Holy Spirit
At the end of the Gospels we have the PROMISE of the Holy Spirit
At the very end we have the GIVING of the Holy Spirit
HINTS
PROMISES
GIVING
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!!
Paragraph 730 continues, “From this hour onward, the mission of Christ and the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church.”
THIS IS SO HUGE!!
God SHARES with us now
He has now ENTRUSTED TO US, in the power of the Holy Spirit, His mission
“Oh my goodness! Lord, Jesus, while you were on this earth your mission was to redeem to the world. Your mission was to glorify the Father. Your mission was all these things to bring all those scattered people of Israel and all the scattered of the world, and all the Gentiles into ONE.”
Now that mission is the mission of the Church
We will talk about that for a number of days
What is it?
People will discount the Church
“Well, did Jesus say it? Or did the Church say it? Was that in the Bible? Or is it something the Church teaches?”
With Pentecost, Jesus Christ has shared HIS ENTIRE MISSION and the Holy Spirit’s ENTIRE MISSION with the Church
Right now you and I are PART OF THAT MISSION
WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!!
To be part of this mission WE NEED THE HOLY SPIRIT’S HELP
Without Him we can do NOTHING
Without Jesus we can do NOTHING
SO WE NEED TO PRAY!!
Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!
Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!
I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!
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