Daily Rosary Meditations

Today we meditate on the nature of the Fall and Original Sin Genesis 2:15-17  The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die." The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil signifies the power to determine what is good and what is evil God alone has this power  God created the world; he gave angelic and human persons their design. Something is good for us when it helps us fulfill our design, it is bad for us, it is evil when it frustrates our design.  But we do not have the power to change our God given design, therefore we cannot determine what is good and what is evil We have Intelligence and Freedom – we must use our intelligence to learn what is good and evil and then choose But we cannot make something evil good and good evil.  Even though we make somethin

THE FALL OF THE ANGELS 391 Behind the disobedient choice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called "Satan" or the "devil". The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing." 392 Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels. This "fall" consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign. We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter's words to our first parents: "You will be like God." The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of lies". If Satan was originally created as a good angel, why did he fall, why did he reject God? Teresa of Avila writes: I believe His Majesty desires to bring us along this way (the way of suffering, trials, cross

Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them…‘Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, “My friend, lend me three loaves, because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him”; and the man answers from inside the house, “Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up to give it you.” I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it him for friendship’s sake, persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants. ‘So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him. What father among you would hand his son a stone when he asked f

Responding to the Truth and Motivating Pursuit of the Good We have been meditating on the powers of our soul: the intellect, the free-will and the passions and their purpose. King Solomon had an amazing intellect, may be the smartest guy who ever lived. He also had a strong will – he got a lot accomplished. But his passions were totally out of control. Solomon never harnessed his passions and feelings which led him to be enslaved to his desire for power, wealth and women – 700 wives and 300 concubines. These turned his heart away from God to the worship Satan hidden behind the pagan gods Molech and Ashteroth, to whom he offered child sacrifice and burned his sons. In the end Satan always demands human sacrifice in the form of abortion, infanticide, suicide and war. The point is, Solomon made a train-wreck of his life because the powers of his soul were not integrated. It must not be so for us!  The Intellect is designed to know reality – how things really are. Once the intellect grasps reality it has the tr

Today we reflect on what the soul needs to live. Just as the body needs food, water and oxygen to live, the soul needs reality. Specifically, the intellect needs to be nourished by reality in the form of truth and the will needs reality in the form of goodness. Without food and water, the body will die. Without reality in the form of truth and goodness, the soul begins to die from a sense that life is meaningless.  The intellect receives reality in the form of truth. Therefore, the soul needs to feed on truth to thrive. When the intellect grasps reality accurately – it possesses truth and then the mind is satisfied and can rest. That is why we are restless when we can’t understand something. The intellect rests when it possesses, locks in the truth it wants to understand. The intellect needs to be nourished on reality in the form of truth. We can know reality or truth through our experiences, that is, through science, and we can know reality through reason. But we cant know the answers to the most important

Matthew 20:17-28  Then the mother of James and John came with her sons to make a request of Jesus, and bowed low; and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can.’ ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’ When the other ten heard this, they were indignant with the two brothers.  You may be tempted to accuse James and John of vain ambition, especially since the other Apostles were indignant, but I believe, with St. John Henry Cardinal Newman that this was not vain ambition, rather Noble Ambition, Magnanimity, the virtue to desire and do great things for the love of God and souls.  They asked to reign with Christ.

Yesterday we reflected in the creation of the invisible world and better understanding of the Angels. Today, the visible world and a better understand of who we are as human persons.  CCC 355, 1700, As human persons we were created “in the image of God.” This means we were endowed with a spiritual and immortal soul… To have direction in life we need to know the purpose of the soul To know the purpose of the soul we need to know the purpose of the powers of the soul There are Three Powers of the Soul: intellect, will, and passions. In the beginning, God designed the powers of the soul to work in harmony: The job of the intellect is to know reality and make a judgement – this is good, that is evil. The passions respond to the intellect’s perception of reality and prompt the will to go toward what is good for me or away from what is bad for me. Led by the intellect and propelled by the feelings, the will chooses what is good or rejects what is evil.   Tragically Original Sin damaged the powers of the soul:

In the Creed we profess that we believe in God the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is visible and invisible. Well, what is the invisible? It is the spiritual creatures God has made, the Angels, one third of which rejected God, but that is for another time. These fallen angels became Satan and the demons. They were originally good angels who refused to love and serve God and share in His life. Angles and demons are a whole civilization of persons, pure spirits without bodies, who day in and day out which we ignore. It is a civilization that is far more intelligent, powerful and numerous than the human civilization. One key mission the angels have is to help us make it safely home, while Satan and demons do all in their power to destroy our souls in hell.  We must start tapping into the supernatural power of our Guardian Angels. We are in a spiritual war. We pray to St. Michael, “Defend us in battle…” if you don’t see the battle, that’s the problem. We are in a spiritual battle between

Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people? 309 If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist?... Why did God not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and goodness God freely willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" towards its ultimate perfection…With physical good there exists also physical evil as long as creation has not reached perfection. 311 Angels and men, as intelligent and free creatures, must journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice and preferential love. They can, therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned. And because of the Original Sin of the first two humans, the harmony with creation is broken. Human sin brought sickness, disease, natural disasters and death into our world.  The only way God could change this would be to remove free will from angels, Satan, and human

Heaven is the goal of life. Heaven is transforming union with God. Why wait, why put it off? Nothing less than union with God can satisfy the deep longing of your heart.  Five simple steps to achieve union with God: Do and accept the will of God; flee from sin; develop a deep friendship with Jesus; have a profound interior life; belong to Mary. If we want to be united to God, then we must strive to do His will in everything. But just saying I want to do the will of God is too general, too vague. There are areas in your life you know you are not bringing God into because you are not thinking about it or because you don’t want Him in there. It could be work, relaxation, family, friends, your summer, vacation…You know what you are doing wrong. What are you going to do the make a change? If we want to be united to God then we must flee from every sin, both serious and small sins, and flee from every occasion of sin. Be intentional about identifying and rooting out the deadly vices: pride, envy, anger, sloth, g

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If we respond to the Message of Our Lady we can change world events and save souls Mary is asking for Five things Faith and Conversion A greater faith in Jesus Christ as the one mediator to the Father Conversion flowing from a frequent reception of the Sacrament of reconciliation- at least once a month Consecration to Mary Accept Mary as your spiritual mother, Give yourself to her as her child, so that the Holy Spirit and Mary may form Jesus in you. Live the consecration -live in imitation of Jesus’ relationship with Mary as a little child depending upon his mother, moment to moment, day after day. A greater quality and quantity of prayer Moving from vocal prayer, talking to God and saying prayers, to listening, to meditation through the Rosary and with the Word of God At San Nicolas Mary said: “The weapon that has the greatest influence on evil is to say the Rosary." Penance and Sacrifice by taking up your cross and following Jesus Offer Sacrifice What you did not choose, do not like and cann

In the book the Ascent of Mt Carmel, St John of the Cross says “the ascent to God…lies in keeping the soul empty, naked and purified of every disordered desire. The only desire should be to fulfill the will of God and to carry the Cross of Christ.” The question for us is: are we doing the will of God; and are we carrying the cross? What criteria do we use to judge whether we are doing the will of God? Too often men measure their success or their impact based on their profession and their ability to provide financially for their family alone. This is not universal but often women judge their success or impact based on the health and well-being of their children and their relationships. How do you judge how you are doing in life? Secondly, how would you judge yourself in the sense of doing the will of God? How does God measure our success or impact? Let me suggest eight criteria that reflect whether we are doing the will of God: Am I changing from a life of bad habits, vice, to a life of good habits, virtue; A

CCC 302 Creation has its own goodness and proper perfection, but it did not spring forth complete from the hands of the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it. We call "divine providence" the dispositions by which God guides all his creatures with wisdom and love to their ultimate end. One passage of Scripture captures the reality of Providence: Romans 8:28 All things work for good for those who love God.  CCC 303 The witness of Scripture is unanimous that the care of divine providence is concrete and immediate; God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and its history. The Scriptures powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over the course of events…CCC 304 And so we see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of Sacred Scripture, often attributing actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a "primitive mode of speech", but a profound way of recallin

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. What this is about and what it has to do with our lives is the theme of our meditation today. The Holy Spirit has a maternal mission to form Christ in you. The Holy Spirit carries out this maternal mission through Mary. When you turn to Mary, you are turning to the Holy Spirit that Christ may be formed in you. On July 28, 1935 Kolbe wrote: And what about the Holy Spirit? He is in the Immaculata…as the Son of God is in Jesus, but of course, with this distinction – in Jesus Christ, one divine person, two natures, the divine and the human, are united. In the Immaculata, her nature and person are distinguished from the nature and person of the Holy Spirit. However, the union between the Holy Spirit and the Immaculata is so inexpressibly perfect that He conducts His activity through her only. Therefore, she is the mediatrix of all graces flowing from the Holy Spirit…In honoring the Immaculata, we honor in a special way the Holy Spirit. (p. 473-474 Foster) In this feas

Where do we come from? Where are we going? What is the meaning of life? These are the questions taken up in CCC 282-301, the answers to which we will meditate upon today in the Rosary. The lie the devil has spread is that we do not come from an All-Good, All-Powerful and Loving Father. Instead, all the matter in the universe was smooshed into an incredibly hot, infinitely dense subatomic speck of matter. Then, resulting from random chance, the universe and human sprung into being and developed. This ultimately means, you come from nothing, nothing more than random chaos and there is nothing after death. You come from nothing, you are going toward nothing and your life has no meaning. God’s answers to these questions are quite different. With infinite wisdom, power and love, God created the world and you so that you could share in the very life of God and live with him and your family and friends forever. The truth is so much better than the lie.   Genesis 1:1  "In the beginning God created the heavens and t

CCC 268 Of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence (that He is All-Powefull) is named in the Creed: "I BELIEVE IN GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY, CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH." To profess this power has great bearing on our lives. We believe that his might is universal, for God who created everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving, for he is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it "is made perfect in weakness. " CCC 269 The Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God…If God is almighty "in heaven and on earth", it is because he made them. Nothing is impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his will. He is the Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly subject to him and at his disposal. He is master of history, governing hearts and events in keeping with his will: As Wisdom 11:21 states "It is always in your power to show great strength, and who can withstand the strength of your a

Faith in God should affect the way we think and live in five ways. First, belief in God should lead us to turn to him alone as the first cause and final goal of all things. Everything that happens, God has willed or allowed for our greatest good. Therefore, abandon yourselves unconditionally to God’s Providence, to the way He guides all things for good. Trust him to work out your purification and holiness as He sees fitting. Try not to resist him but to do his will and accept his will in all things since union with God is our goal.   If everything we are and have comes from God and if God works all things for good for those who love him, then we should live in constant thanksgiving. We should begin each day, naming many things for which we are grateful to God. Then, when something wrong or bad happens, pray, ask God what to do and do what you can to change it. If you cannot change it, then thank God for it because God works all things for good for those who love him.   Faith in God means knowing the unity a

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