Really. So many of us seek God’s will above all–even above
God.
We use him as a Magic 8-Ball, going to prayer only to figure
things out and not to worship. We treat his will like a scavenger hunt set up
by a sadistic leprechaun who sends us signs and then laughs (or rages) when we
miss them. We obsess over ourselves and our skills and our desires and our
future and call it prayer.
Stop seeking God’s will and start seeking God. Because if
you run after the Lord you will find yourself in his will.
I spend a lot of time making decisions–with no home and no
steady employment, there are a lot of decisions to be made. Want to know how I
do it?
I spend serious time in silent prayer every day. Then I live
my life.
I trust that God is either going to form my heart to desire
what he desires, or he’s going to stop me before I do something dumb, or he’s
going to fix it afterward. I try not to lose peace over confusion or
uncertainty, because I know that God delights in me. If I’m earnestly trying to
live in his will, he’s not going to punish me for getting it wrong.
It’s entirely possible that I’m going to go to my judgment
and find God standing baffled before me, wondering why on earth I thought I
ought to be homeless and unemployed for the sake of the kingdom. There’s a
reason people don’t live this way, and perhaps I’ve gotten it totally wrong and
I was really supposed to be an accountant in Idaho or something.
Still, I expect to see pleasure mixed in with the
bafflement. “Oh, but honey, well done! It was a weird life you chose, but you
tried so hard. You got it wrong, but you sure were seeking me.”
I think he delights in my efforts, however ridiculous they
might be, and I find great peace in that. I can’t mess up discernment so badly
that I ruin his plan for me, because ultimately his plan is for my holiness. If
I’m seeking him, he’ll accomplish that, whatever odd paths it might take.
So if you find yourself stressing out about figuring out
God’s will, stop seeking God’s will and start seeking God. Spend serious time
in silent prayer every day and trust that he loves you. He’ll do the rest.
Meg Hunter-Kilmer – Meg is a hobo missionary. After 2 Theology degrees from Notre Dame and 5 years as a high school religion teacher, she quit her job in 2012 to live out of her car and preach the Gospel to anyone who would listen. 50 states and 25 countries later, this seems to have been a less ridiculous decision than it initially seemed. She blogs at www.piercedhands.com
On August 22nd, the eighth day after the
Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church celebrates
the feast of the Queenship of Mary. From
the earliest days of the Church, these two events were seen as linked
together. When Mary was given the
special gift of being assumed bodily in to heaven, it was to take her place as
Queen of Heaven. For us today, in a
world where Kings and Queens are part of fairy tales or mostly exist for
ceremonial purposes, it is hard for us to understand why the Church would
recognize Mary as the Queen of Heaven.
In order to understand it better, we must look back in to our Jewish
roots, scriptures and the early Church fathers.
Mary exists as Queen only because Jesus exists as “King of
the Jews”. The first time we hear Jesus
referred to as King is in the Gospel of St. Matthew in his nativity
accounts. St. Matthew writes with a
great knowledge of Judaism and its history.
His nativity account is flowing with references to Jesus as King of the
Jews as related to the Davidic Kingdom.
He has the Magi, the eastern kings, come and worship the new King of
Kings. This is set in David’s city,
Bethlehem. It is the Magi who kneel
down before the baby Jesus, and before Mary and call Jesus the King of the
Jews. Joseph isn’t even mentioned when
the Magi adore the new babe. The
emphasis is placed upon Jesus and Mary.
To understand this we need to look at the Jewish role of the Queen
Mother.
The Jews, like most of the other people of the Middle East,
gave special emphasis to the mother of the King as the Queen Mother. This was quite practical as most of the Kings
had numerous wives, but only one mother.
Scripture tells us that King Solomon, David’s son, had 700 wives and 300
concubines. In Jewish history the Queen
Mother had her throne right next to her son, the King. She helped him in caring for the
Kingdom. She was always especially
known as an advocate for her people. She
very often interceded for her people. In
1 Kings 2: 13-21 we hear the story of Adonijah who comes to see the Queen
Mother saying, “I have something to ask to you.” She replied, “Say
it.” So he said, “There is one favor I would ask of you. Do not refuse
me.” And she said, “Speak on.” He said, “Please ask King
Solomon, who will not refuse you, to give me Abishag the Shunamite for my
wife.” “Very well,” replied Bathsheba, “I will speak to the
king for you.” Then Bathsheba went
to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah, and the king stood up to meet her
and paid her homage. Then he sat down upon his throne, and a throne was
provided for the king’s mother, who sat at his right. “There is one small
favor l would ask of you,” she said. “Do not refuse me.”
“Ask it, my mother,” the king said to her, “for I will not
refuse you. So she said, “Let
Abishag the Shunamite be given to your brother Adonijah for his wife.” Of course, the King did what his mother
asked. This was the common practice for
Queen Mothers; to sit on a throne next to their son and bring him
intercessions. This is what our Queen
Mother, Mary does today for us.
There is no doubt that the Kingship of Jesus differs from
the Kingship of David or Solomon or any of the Jewish Kings. His Kingship is founded on his death and
resurrection. It is at the cross that we
read “Jesus, the Nazorean, King of the Jews.
It was on the cross, with Mary at his foot, that Jesus shows us that His
Kingdom is based upon Mercy and pure Love.
The Queenship of Mary follows this same example, Love and Mercy. Now Jesus is enthroned in Heaven with Mary,
the Queen Mother, at His side. Together
they are dispensers of God’s Mercy and Love.
Mary, the Immaculate daughter of the Father and spouse of the Holy
Spirit sits with her son and her God, Jesus.
The book of Revelation, Chapter 12 verses 1 though 5 gives
us an apocalyptic vision of Mary as Queen of Heaven. It says, “And a great sign appeared in
heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on
her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried
travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered. And there was seen
another sign in heaven: and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads, and
ten horns: and on his head seven diadems: And his tail drew the third part of
the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before
the woman who was ready to be delivered; that, when she should be delivered, he
might devour her son. And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all
nations with an iron rod: and her son was taken up to God, and to his throne.” I find it interesting that she has a crown
with twelve stars. Those twelve stars
remind us of both the twelve tribes of Israel who relied upon the Queen Mother
as their intercessor before the King and of the twelve Apostles who regarded
her as the mother of Jesus and their mother.
The red dragon reminds us of how Mary, our mother and our Queen, has
always resisted the attacks of the devil and is the promise of the New Eve who
stamps her foot upon the devil’s head.
When we see Mary as the Queen of Heaven we honor her place
in God’s plan as being the mother of His son Jesus, who is fully human and
fully God. Her resounding YES and her
flesh gave flesh to the Word. She was
the new Ark of the Covenant in which the very presence of God resided. It was
because of her that our Lord and Savior were brought in to this world. She is, most definitely, BLESSED among women.
St. Pope John Paul II in his letter, Rosarium Virginis
Mariae, tells us, “Christ was raised in glory to the right hand of the Father,
while Mary herself would be raised to that same glory in the Assumption, enjoying beforehand, by a unique privilege,
the destiny reserved for all the just at the resurrection of the dead. Crowned
in glory – as she appears in the last glorious mystery – Mary shines forth
as Queen of the Angels and Saints, the anticipation and the supreme
realization of the eschatological state of the Church.”
Hopefully, some day we too, like Mary, will receive our
glorified bodies and worship God and honor Mary in heaven. Until we do, we can honor her as Queen of
Heaven and bring before her our cares and concerns so that she can intercede
for us before her son, Jesus, the King of Kings.
August 4th is the Memorial day of St. John Vianney the Cure of Ars. He was a great priest who serves as the patron Saint of all priest. In view of that, I would like to share an article from my friend Apologist Luke Haskell about the priesthood. Check it out below – Deacon Marty McIndoe
If there is a New Testament priesthood established by God, then this is one of the most important aspects of faith in our world. It would mean that there is a sacrifice that is needed for the world. This affects every human who has ever lived and all who will live in the future. The main purpose for a priest is to offer sacrifice. This may sound archaic but we must consider the fact that God does not change. If people come to the awareness that God established a New Testament priesthood, then this should have a profound effect on their faith.
As far back as you go, even to the beginning of Christianity, there is a priesthood and the Holy Mass. The early Christians were adamant about keeping a true understanding of faith. If the priesthood were a later invention, then you would see the pages of history scream out over the heresy. The Arian heresy that almost destroyed the church would have paled in comparison. The pages of history are silent because from the beginning, there was a priesthood and a Holy Mass as there still is today, 2000 years later. That in itself is a sustained miracle. “To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations.” (Eph 3:21)
It is an interesting fact that the reformer Tyndale’s translation of the Bible was condemned in England and it was burned by other Protestants. Thomas More charged Tyndale with falsely translating scripture in order to remove references to the priestly office. He was calling Tyndale out as a heretic for doing so. In Tyndale’s Bible, the word priest became senior and was changed to elder in his revised 1534 edition. The word “church” became congregation. The word “penance” became repent and the word “charity” became love. Words are powerful. Changes in words have a huge impact over time. This is the main reason why the church outlawed many protestant Bibles. There appears to have been an active process to manipulate history in order to remove the image of the priesthood God established.
The New Testament priesthood developed out of the bishopric during apostolic times. When it comes to the structure of the church, everything was not put in place as soon as Pentecost. The church had to grow in knowledge of itself and of its purpose; a mustard seed that would grow into the biggest tree. The apostles at different times, were Bishop, Deacon, and Priest. “For it is written in the book of Psalms: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell therein. And his bishopric let another take.” (Acts 1:20)
“Diakonos” means “servant” or “minister”. “Who also hath made us fit ministers of the new testament.” (2 Corinthians 3:6) In the beginning, these terms were fluid. The New Testament was the Holy Mass for 360 years before it was a book. The apostles were ministers of the sacraments and the Holy Mass. Paul tells us, “Let a man so account of us as of ministers of Christ, and dispensers of the mysteries of God.” (1 Cor 4:1) From the word mystery we get the word mysterion, sacramentum, sacrament. Paul being a priest is a minister of the sacraments of God.
Paul tells us, ‘For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also.” (Hb 7:12) There was both a change in priesthood that occurred in the New Covenant between God and man, and there was a change in law.
The New Testament, scripture contains both an image of a universal priesthood and the priesthood of the ordained. The universal priesthood consists of all who enter the church through a Trinitarian baptism. This is understood as the mystical body. The mystical body of Christ as a royal priesthood, is shown in scripture to be called in the Greek text, hiereus. Christ is the head of the body. “And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy:” (Colossians 1:18) Those who have past on in a state of grace have not left the mystical body, but celebrate the Holy Mass with the hosts of heaven on the other side of the veil.
From Strong’s Greek concordance we define hiereús (from word 2413 /hierós, “sacred because belonging to the Temple”) – a priest. Word 2409 /hiereús(“priest”) is used in the NT: Christ is the true Temple. Those belonging to the Temple are sacred. The New Covenant sees the hiereus sacred, and belonging to the Temple.
“Priest is defined as Old English preost probably shortened from the older Germanic form represented by Old Saxon and Old High German prestar, Old Frisian prestere, all from Vulgar Latin *prester “priest,” from Late Latin presbyter “presbyter, elder,” from Greek presbyteros (see Presbyterian). An alternative theory (to account for the -eo- of the Old English word) makes it cognate with Old High German priast, prest, from Vulgar Latin *prevost “one put over others,” from Latin praepositus “person placed in charge,” from past participle of praeponere (see provost). In Old Testament sense, a translation of Hebrew kohen, Greek hiereus, Latin sacerdos.”
Hiereus is priest, presbyter is priest. The English word priest is different from hiereus. It is not derived phonetically nor etymologically from the word hiereus. It is derived from “Presbyteros”. From the beginning the elders, or presbyters in the church structure, were the respected and ordained leaders within the royal hiereus, or, within the body priest. The apostles assigned the leaders of the church to the presbytery. They were the ordained through the process of laying on of the hands of the bishop, starting with those who received the spirit in the upper room at Pentecost. This is the process of apostolic succession. This image fulfilled what the priesthood of Aaron and Moses did before. “Impose not hands lightly upon any man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins. Keep thyself chaste.” (1Timothy 5:22) “Then he laid his hands on him and commissioned him, as the LORD instructed through Moses.” (Numbers 27:23) There is no true atonement for sins in the sacrificing of bulls and goats in the Old Testament. The images are to show us the mystery of sacrament and how the priesthood of Christ is fulfilled in the New Testament. The types in the old, become the truth in the new. The New Testament priests are those that administer the sacraments.
Timothy was an elder in the church of one doctrine, yet he was very young. Historical documentation tells us he was a bishop of Ephesus in Turkey. Bishops are both bishops and priests who perform the sacramental office. When one is ordained, his ministry becomes sacramental. It is ordained by God through the laying on of hands of the bishop, and given special graces by the Holy Spirit.
John in Revelation tells us, “He has made us a Kingdom of priests.” Priest as in Hiereus. This is the entire mystical body inside the high Priest Jesus Christ. Peter says, “You are a chosen people a Holy Nation a Royal Priesthood.” Paul says: “That I should be the minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles; sanctifying the gospel of God, that the oblation of the Gentiles may be made acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Ghost. (Romans 15:16) In Paul writing to the Romans, he is writing as a priest of the church who in the sacramental office, through the Holy Spirit, sanctifies the oblation of bread and wine. Paul is describing his own ministry which he was called to by God. In the Greek, he is using a variant of the word “hiereus”.
He explains, “of the grace from God that makes him a “minister of Christ to the Gentiles in a priestly service (hierougounta=priestly work.) The bread that becomes the Eucharist through the Holy Spirit is sanctified. Paul tells us, “Is not the bread that we break, participation in the body of Christ?
Webster’s defines the word “sanctify” as to, set apart to a sacred purpose or to religious use consecrate, to free from sin : purify to impart or impute sacredness, inviolability, or respect to… to make productive of holiness or piety.
An oblation is an unbloody sacrifice. In the Old Testament the unbloody sacrifices are of bread and wine. Paul offers a consecrated, holy, unbloody, oblation through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, for the Gentiles. Through the Holy Spirit, the priest of the mystical body, sanctified bread and wine, therefore setting it apart, consecrating it, making it holy for a holy purpose. An offering to God through Jesus Christ our high priest and mediator in the Holy of Holies, for the sins of the entire world. The holy of holies in the meeting tent represents heaven. The holies is the church. This is a prophecy of Malachy fulfilled.
“For from the rising of the sun even to the going down, my name is great among the Gentiles, and in every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation: for my name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Malachi 1:11)
The Gentiles were not baptized into the church until after the cross, so this clean oblation is offered from where the sun rises to where it sets, after the cross. The Old Covenant is fulfilled in the new. In the old, God told Moses that the bread of the presence must always be placed before Him. This bread was to be eaten every Sabbath by the priests in a holy place. Three times a year the sacred bread along with consecrated wine, was brought out of the holies to the Jews. The table containing the bread and wine was raised and the priests would say, “behold God’s love for you.”
The types are fulfilled in the heavenly realities. “This is my body”. Behold Gods love for you. Christ raised this image to the covenant memorial of the cross where His glorified essence that does not conform to time, space, and matter, in the Eucharist, is present before the Father before the Father sees the sins of the world. This is called a covenant memorial. It is a covenant memorial of the crucifixion of Christ. Christ at the last supper told the first priests of His church to, “do this in memory of me.” He was saying, keep the covenant memorial of the cross before the Father for the sins of the world, like the bread of the presence was in type. Without the Holy Mass, the crucifixion is only an execution. This priesthood that was established by the apostles through God, was passed on to their disciples, and continues into our present day.
The word covenant comes from the Semitic word “berit”. It means to cut a covenant. It means an oath secured by a shedding of blood. “This is my blood of the New Covenant”…
We can see the priesthood in scripture and we can confirm it with history. St. Hegesippus (A.D. 180) records that the Apostle, St. James the Less, wore Temple vestments; and St. Polycrates of Ephesus ( A.D. 196) records that St. John the Beloved Apostle, wore a primitive Bishop’s mitre, in which he was buried. The Holy Mass is indigenous to Christianity. There is no Holy Mass without apostolic succession of the priesthood.
“The oriental liturgy, or mass, which bears the name of this apostle (James the just) is mentioned by Proclus, Patriarch of Constantinople, and by the council in Trullo, and is of venerable antiquity. St Basil, indeed, testifies that the words of the sacred invocation, in the consecration of the bread and the cup, were not committed to writing, but learned and preserved by tradition, down to the fourth century.” (Butlers Lives of The Fathers, Martyrs and Other Saints.” )
Irenaeus (died about 202) a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the apostle tells us, “For David had been appointed a priest by God, although Saul persecuted him. For all the righteous possess the sacerdotal rank. And all the apostles of the Lord are priests, who do inherit here neither lands nor houses, but serve God and the altar continually.” (Irenaeus Against Heresies Book IV, Chapter 8)
From the book titled Clement of Rome Recognitions book 6 ch 15. The author is talking about Peter and his priestly office. “and baptized them; and celebrating the Eucharist with them, he appointed, as bishop over them, Maro, who had entertained him in his house, and who was now perfect in all things; and with him he ordained twelve presbyters and deacons at the same time. He also instituted the order of widows, and arranged all the services of the Church; and charged them all to obey their bishop in all things that he should command them.”
Hippolytus of Rome (170 – 235 AD) When a deacon is to be ordained, he is chosen after the fashion of those things said above, the bishop alone in like manner imposing his hands upon him as we have prescribed. In the ordaining of a deacon, this is the reason why the bishop alone is to impose his hands upon him: he is not ordained to the priesthood, but to serve the bishop and to fulfill the bishop’s command. He has no part in the council of the clergy, but is to attend to his own duties and is to acquaint the bishop with such matters as are needful. . . .On a presbyter, however, let the presbyters impose their hands because of the common and like Spirit of the clergy. Even so, the presbyter has only the power to receive [the Spirit], and not the power to give [the Spirit]. That is why a presbyter does not ordain the clergy; for at the ordaining of a presbyter, he but seals while the bishop ordains (The Apostolic Tradition 9 [A.D. 215]).
We must not deny facts. We must build on facts in order to establish a clearer image of truth that has been lost to most of our world. Scripture through proper exegesis shows us a Priesthood established by God through the apostles. If there is a priesthood established by God then there is a sacrifice that is worthy of God that the priesthood has been ordained to offer. The early history of the church confirms this priesthood and shows us the growth of the priesthood established. All those who have been given a Trinitarian baptism are part of the Royal Priesthood who are called to the wedding feast of the Lamb in the Holy Mass. Many modern Christians have received a valid Trinitarian baptism, but do not participate in what that baptism calls us to. It will always come down to faith though. The great doctor of the church Thomas Aquinas said, “with faith, no explanation is necessary. Without faith, no explanation is possible.”
“Christ our true pasch (Passover Lamb) has been sacrificed. Let us keep the feast. (1 Cor 5:7)
Every Holy Mass, heard with devotion, produces in our souls marvelous effects, abundant spiritual and material graces which we, ourselves, do not know…It is easier for the earth to exist without the sun than without the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass!” St. Padre Pio
Luke Haskell is a Catholic Apologist and can be found on Facebook and LinkedIn
