Christ is the Light of the World

Christ is the true Light. He called His disciples the light of the world. Since we have been enlightened by His disciples, we are lights for the Gospel as well. We must therefore never fail to live in the light. If we do, we deprive others of the light that many so desperately need. The light that is Christ should always shine in us.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Following the Lord

The prophet says: "The Lord is my light and my salvation." Those who are privileged to know this light cease to sin or offend God in any way. If we truly walk in the light of Christ as spiritual creatures we possess the courage to withstand all things. We are able to bear trials and sufferings because we find our strength in God. We are capable of enduring all things with patience and humility.

The spiritual person, when faced with temptation, acknowledges that Christ is his light. Temptation may come upon him, but he can always overcome it. Evil desires may come over him, but he is never conquered by them. God is his strength.

Let us pray today that we may give ourselves more completely to God. He is our strength and our salvation.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Eucharistic Adoration

There is absolutely no substitute for prayer before the Blessed Sacrament exposed. Eucharistic adoration is an immeasurable treasure that the Church offers so that we may place ourselves literally at the feet of Jesus Christ. We have the opportunity every day to choose the "better part" as Mary did in order to be with our Lord and Savior. Few things are more pleasing to our Lord. I do not know of any better way to draw from a treasure of infinite graces than Eucharistic adoration.

Is Eucharistic adoration a regular part of our spriritual discipline? Do we allow ourselves to accept the invitation from Christ Himself to come before him humbly and place ourselves at His feet? Do we strive to calm our hearts and minds and listen to our Creator Who desires ardently to communicate His graces and mysteries to us?

We should take every opportunity possible to pray in this manner. The most active and productive saints were always among the most contemplative because they availed themselves to allow the grace of Jesus Christ their Lord to take over their lives.

Have we yet taken this step?

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Christ's Presence in His Church

Christ is present to His Church in several ways. Christ is truly present when the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is offered. He is present in the person of His priest. He is present in all the sacraments such that when a priest baptizes it is truly Christ who baptizes. Christ is also present in His word. It is in fact Christ who speaks when the holy Scriptures are proclaimed. Christ is present in His assembly since He Himself has said: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst." Above all, Christ is present in the Eucharist. He comes to us Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Host. What reverence we should have at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! What reverence we should have when we receive our Lord! What confidence we should have that He will give us absolutely everything we need!

The constitution on the sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council reminds us that every liturgical celebration is a sacred action of a preeminent kind. "No other action of the Church equals its title to power or its degree of effectiveness." The liturgy is an exercise of the priestly office of Jesus Christ Himself. We should therefore strive to be more effective worshipers in order to give glory to God.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Whole-Hearted Love for God

We must constantly battle against our natural desire for self-love. We must always seek God's glory and what He offers in His true and eternal home, not our own glory. In order to win God's favor, we must learn humility. We should always echo the words of Saint John the Baptist: "He must increase, I must decrease."

If people praise us for our accomplishments or good works, we should never have any feelings of self-importance. We must humble ourselves and never think of our own dignity. We must simply always think of ourselves as useless servants. It must be our aim to run from all honor and glory in this life and seek only that glory and honor that God promises us in our true and heavenly home.

The more we become aware of how mush God really loves us, the more we learn to love God. We must strive to allow ourselves to be transformed by the love of God. This is the grace we pray for in the first luminous mystery of the Holy Rosary. Our love of God must ultimately take away our self-love.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Vocations to the Priesthood

God is ultimately in charge of His Church. He chooses whom He wills to invite to active ministry in the Priesthood of Jesus Christ. Many in fact are called, but few are chosen because of their unwillingness to submit to God wholeheartedly. God will always provide for His Church. However, we also have a responsibility to do our part to foster vocations. We must teach our children to pray through our own example. We must teach them the value and great dignity associated with ordained ministry in God's Church. Vocations to the priesthood begin in the family. We must foster docile spirits toward God and His plan for each one of us.

Today let us pray for vocations.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Wedding Feast at Cana

The Wedding Feast at Cana in Galilee is the second luminous mystery in the life of Jesus Christ. In this great mystery we acknowledge the need to rely on the Blessed Virgin Mary for absolutely all our needs. Mary has compassion on the couple whose chief steward for the wedding finds himself with no more wine. The Blessed Virgin pleads with her Son to come to their aid. Christ's response is appropriate. He asks the question how does this affair concern Him? And yet Christ performs His first public miracle simply because His mother asks it of Him.

It works the very same way when we approach our Lord through the Blessed Virgin Mary. Christ can never refuse anything His mother asks of Him. What confidence we should have that our prayers will be answered when we rely on the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary!

Let us renew our devotion to Mary and our confidence in the power of her intercessory prayer.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Baptism of the Lord

Today is the Commemoration of the Baptism of the Lord. Through Christ's baptism we are cleansed and made holy. God wants more than anything the conversion and salvation of men. This is the very reason that Christ became man. God wills that each and every one of us become lights for the rest of the world. Christ is the true light, and we are part of that light who is the light of heaven!

Today let us honor Christ our Lord. Let us allow Him to use us as His instruments in bringing His light to the world.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Holiness II

We may often here others or even ourselves refer to certain people as being "holy." What does it mean to be holy? We know that the Church invites us all to embrace holiness. In fact there is a universal "call" to holiness for every single member. Do we think of ourselves as holy? Do we strive for holiness?

Holiness begins with our own personal relationship with Jesus Christ. As we begin a new year it is a perfect time to renew our dedication and fideltiy to our Lord. We do this initially by deepening our prayer life. We must continue to beg our Lord for the grace of prayer. Christ longs for our attention. He wants us to place ourselves at His feet and simply remain in His presence. Christ will communicate with us intimately when we make it a regular habit to calm our minds and clear our heads in order to listen to Him speak to us.

We must develop a disciplined, well-ordered, daily life of prayer as a creature of God. After we have established a well-ordered spirituality with Christ, we must in turn use this foundation to serve one another. Without a spirit of charity we cannot expect to be holy. How do you plan to serve Christ today? What have you done for God and His Church lately? What have you done for your brothers?

We pray for the strength to answer God's call to prayer. We pray that we will respond to the needs of others by our good works. If we pray and love, we fulfull our twofold duty toward our Creator.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Trust in God alone and not in men

Our ultimate goal is of course God. He is the source alone of all that is good and holy. Faith in God is among our greatest gifts. God wants our faith to be strengthened. Christ demanded faith from all those for whom He worked His miracles. In order to hear our prayers, our Lord wishes us to experience poverty, distress, abandonment and even persecution. In His wisdom, this is how God shows us we are included among His beloved friends. However, we must remain faithful to Him in all such circumstances.

God wants us to always grow in our confidence in Him alone and in nobody else. God refuses to work in and through those who refuse to place all their confidence in Him alone. On the other hand, if we have a lively faith and hope in Him He will do great things for us. God always raises up the lowly.

Finally, God wishes to test His faithful servants like gold in the furnace. We must remain unshaken and steadfast in times of distress. God will in turn always raise us up. This is the way God has always dealt with His saints. If we remain faithful in the face of trials, God will give us true peace in this world and life forever in the next.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Holy Family

The Gospel passage for Mass today depicts one of the more significant events in the life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Christ if found by His parents, the Blessed Virgin Mary and His foster father Saint Joseph after three days in the temple. Jesus is found to be asking and answering questions in a manner well beyond His young years. The Finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple, along with all of the other mysteries in the life of Christ provide us with the opportunity not only to meditate on the significant events that help to unfold the life of Christ, but also to ask for particular graces as we do so.

We see in the Gospel today the holiness of Christ Jesus. As we meditate upon this particular mystery we ask God for the grace of conversion. Conversion is something we are all in need of. It is a life-long process. As we celebrate this Feast day in honor of the Holy Family we ask for an increase in holiness and for conversion. We want to strive to be closer to Christ. We want to be converted from our old ways of sin and thus grow in holiness.

Today let us ask through the intercession of the Holy Family Jesus, Mary and Joseph to grow in holiness and be converted from our sinful ways.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Christian's Life

All who endeavor to follow Christ and speak His truth will suffer persecution. If all we ever experience is peace and a world free from cares, chances are that we are not counted among Christ's favorites. In fact, scripture tells us that the Lord chastises those whom He approves of.

We must live pure lives. We must also be willing to continue to be purified by frequent rebukes. The cross of Christ consists in experiencing conflict and fears. Satan will constantly attempt to entice and tempt us. We must battle against him. We must also battle those forces within the Church herself. Often we will find ourselves persecuted by the very members of our same body.

Have no fear because the Lord Jesus Himself suffered at the hands of those who were His own. He was counted among the wicked though He committed no sin. We must give thanks to the Lord as we drink His cup of suffering!

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Epiphany

God chooses to manifest Himself as He sees fit. We recognize during Christmas that the eternal plan of salvation has been made manifest in the person of Christ. There is no other name in heaven or on earth or under the earth by which we are saved except through Jesus Christ. He comes in the flesh and one day He will come as our judge. However, we also recognize that He comes to us whenever we allow Him to through grace. When we open up our hearts to the grace of Jesus Christ we truly experience a peace and joy that only He can give.

Christ desires ardently to communicate His grace to us at all times. We see this in His establishment of His Catholic Church and the Sacraments available to us therin. We must re-dedicate ourselves to a disciplined, well ordered life of prayer as we begin a new year. This will help to more effectively dispose ourselves for the reception of the grace of Jesus Christ.

God has made Himself know to us. How much we allow ourselves to know Him is up to us.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

The Missionary Activity of the Church

From the decree on the missionary activity of the Church of the Second Vatican Council:

The Lord Jesus, from the very beginning, called to Himself those whom He wanted; He arranged for twelve to be with Him, and to be sent by Him to preach. Thus the apostles were the first beginnings of the new Israel, and at the same time the origin of the sacred hierarchy.

He commanded them: Go then and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

From then onward there is a duty laid on the Church of spreading the faith and the salvation that come from Christ. This duty is in virtue of the express command inherited from the apostles by the college of bishops, assisted by the priests, in communion with Peter's successor, the chief shepherd of the Church; it is in virtue also of the life that Christ causes to flow into His members.

The mission of the Church is therefore fulfilled by that activity by which the Church, in obedience to Christ's command and under the impulse of the grace and love of the Holy Spirit, becomes fully and actively present to all men and to all peoples, to lead them by the example of its life, by its preaching, by the sacraments and other means of grace, to the faith, freedom and peace of Christ, so that there lies open before them a free and firm path to a full sharing in the mystery of Christ.

Let us pray for the hierarchy of the Church. Let us fulfill our own responsibility to build up Christ's body.

In Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

Mary, Mother of God

From a homily of Blessed Simon of Cascia, priest:

Imagine how reverently the angel stood before this glorious village girl, knowing that she was to be the mother of the Son of God! See and contemplate how humbly and modestly she listened and gave answer to the angel who had come as ambassador and was awaiting her reply.

What would you have done if you had been at the door of this room or cell and had heard this holy, pleasing dialogue between this blessed girl and the angel? Would not your heart have been sweetly riven by great joy and boundless consolation? Harder than stone and steel is the heart that is not riven as it reads or hears or thinks about the words the virgin spoke to the angel and the angel to the virgin. Would you not have cried aloud, humbly but very fervently and from a full heart: "Sweet Madonna, kindest of women, I beg you, agree quickly to what the angel says, so that your Son may deliver us from the damnation in which our first mother has put us!"

What would you have said and done, Christian soul, when you heard the Virgin Mary say to the angel: "I am the servant and handmaiden of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word?" At that moment, the power of the Holy Spirit immediately formed and generated the body of Christ form the pure blood of the Virgin, infused and newly created soul into that body, and united the divinity inseparably with that soul and body. We must therefore firmly believe that Christ is true God and true man, the Son of Mary who was a virgin before, during, and after his birth. Those who do not belive this will be damned, unless they are converted to the true faith.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching