Bulletin 134

SAINT AGNES CATHEDRAL 533 South Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806

EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS (LATIN)

CELEBRANT Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching

January 6th, 2013 Epiphany of the Lord

Epistle: Is. 60: 1-6; Gospel: Mt. 2: 1-12

Mass schedule January 7th through January 11th

Monday through Friday—Feria of Epiphanytide—NO LATIN MASS

THERE WILL BE NO LATIN MASS THIS WEEK

The Magi come to adore the infant Jesus. Epiphany should remind us of our own responsibility to worship our Lord Jesus Christ, particularly in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. The Christmas season reminds us that the grace of God has appeared on earth in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ has wrought our redemption through His precious blood. We have been purchased at a great price! God wants us to return His love.


We see the infinite humility of Jesus Christ in the Nativity. In fact Christ’s entire life was a perfect example of humility. But He doesn’t stop there. Christ continues to make Himself present on our altars under the appearance of bread and wine. He gives us the opportunity to worship Him whenever we desire. As we begin a New Year let us resolve to visit our Lord more frequently in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. Let us learn to receive His Body and Blood with greater fervor and devotion.

In Christ,

Fr. Jeff Fasching

Glory in Heaven

Jesus promises, “Blest are the single-hearted, for they shall see God” (Mt 5.8); and Paul, in enumerating the gifts that God bestows upon His beloved, speaks of the immediate vision of God as His ultimate gift: “Now we see indistinctly, as in a (dark) mirror; then we shall see face to face. My knowledge is imperfect now; then I shall know even as I am known” (1 Cor 13.12).

Saint John tells us that we cannot imagine what God has in store for us who are His children, but this we know, that we shall see Him as He is: “Dearly beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall later be has not yet come to light. We know that when it comes to light we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as He is” (1Jn 3.2). Notice that John says, “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as he is.” It is because we are made like God, sharing in His divine nature that we shall be able to see God as He sees Himself.

All knowledge that we have, not only of external reality but also of ourselves, is mediated to us by the operation of external and senses reacting to light and sound waves and other sensations, and by internal senses and intellectual faculties which give us some image or idea of the reality experienced. God cannot be adequately known this way, since no finite medium can adequately represent His infinite being. Unlike all other forms of knowledge, in the beatific vision God is not known through any mediated image or concept, but immediately in Himself. Through the light of glory (lumen gloriae) that He will give us we shall see Him immediately as He is in Himself, without any intervening medium of any kind.

We will never exhaust the mystery of God, but shall behold Him precisely as infinite mystery. We shall never tire of this vision, because we shall see God as always new, always greater that we can comprehend.

Sincerely in Christ,

Rev. Jeffery A. Fasching