Daily Holiness

[ Estimated read time: 9 minutes ]

Cotidiana Sanctitatis

There are many reminders available to help believers grow in wisdom and holiness, including the writings of holy people, sermons about the spiritual life, and accounts about the saints and how they lived their lives.  The loving action of the Holy Spirit drawing men, women and children into communion with Jesus and His Church is highly evident in the lives of the saints.

Discipleship

First and foremost, we have the Holy Eucharist and Holy Scripture to support us in our walk with God.  The Daily Office is a particularly satisfying treasury of wisdom.  The Rosary, especially prayed daily, certainly deserves mention as a vehicle through which the believer can receive, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, many graces from the Lord to help one grow in holiness and virtue.

What does the spiritual life entail for the Catholic?  The Church affirms with good reason that the Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1324-1327).  Without the Mass, the Catholic is like a fish out of water. 

Therein the sacred precincts of the Mass we listen to Jesus speaking to us through Holy Scripture.  We see Jesus reaching out to us through the actions of the Mass.  We witness the communion of the saints, the Church Militant, gathered together with the angels and the Church Triumphant to worship God: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Illumination

Let's look at three areas or attitudes that might enhance the Catholic's focus or sense of priority in the spiritual life, the life of faith in Jesus Christ.

Honesty

• truth
• charity
• reason

Without a commitment to honesty, there can be little hope that a Catholic can begin and maintain the spiritual discipline proper to the Christian life. Honesty grafts us to truth - the truth found only in Christ - and to charity - for God is love. The Word, i.e., Jesus Christ, is the Eternal Logos. Another word for Logos is reason.  Without charity, faith becomes coarse and brittle.  Without reason, faith can become trite and superstitious.

St John 14:15 | If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

St John 14:21 | He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”

St John 15:10 | If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.

An attitude of honesty reminds us to trust continually in Jesus. Trust is the window through which God shines His life into our lives.  God loves us more than we can imagine, more than we can love anyone else.  If our love priorities descend onto lesser gods, we will collapse under the weight of our unfulfillable desires.  With Christ first in our lives, all our loves - for wife or husband, for children and for friends and neighbors - are rich, real, creative and lifegiving.

Prayer

• intention, consistency and perseverance
• supports: location; timing; fasting and abstinence
• communion

Without regular prayer, man turns into a parody of himself, and faith withers into stale platitudes. One's goals in prayer could reflect how he views God. A person with shallow intents may be avoiding God out of a fear of fully committing to God's presence and activity. Knowing the fulfillment of God's faith in you is what it means to be boldly vulnerable to Him. To be vulnerable to God, ask for the grace to be so. Then, like Mary, accept God's invitation, let Him into your life, and let Him be born in you every day.

Though the path is plain and smooth for men of goodwill, he who walks it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty, if he does not have good feet: that is, courage and a persevering spirit. | St John of the Cross 

By the intercession of St. Michael and the celestial Choir of Archangels may the Lord give us perseverance in faith and in all good works in order that we may attain the glory of Heaven. Amen. | Chaplet of St. Michael

The principal act of courage is to endure and withstand dangers doggedly rather than to attack them. | St Thomas Aquinas 

To begin is easy; to persevere is sanctity. Le t your perseverance not be a blind consequence of the first impulse, the work of inertia: let it be a reflective perseverance. | St Josemaria Escriva, The Way 983).

It's crucial to reserve a space and time for prayer.  There may be opportunities to talk and listen to God while tossing and turning during a restless night, delayed in traffic, or in a long line at the airport.  Having said that, let's review what God has told us in Holy Scripture.

St Matthew 6:9-13 | Pray then like this: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our debts, As we also have forgiven our debtors; And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil.

For Catholics, we know this prayer for daily bread occurs at the heart of the Mass during the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

The Greek word for daily is epiousios which occurs nowhere else in the Greek Bible except in the Our Father passage, St Luke 11:3, and the Didache. In fact, epiousios is found nowhere else in Greek literature except in the Lord’s Prayer. Our daily (epiousios) bread is one translation of a word that goes far beyond our basic needs for sustenance and invokes our supernatural needs.

St Jerome, in the Latin Vulgate Bible, St Luke 11:3, translated epiousios as “daily”. Yet in St Matthew 6:11, he translated epiousios as “supersubstantial”.  The root words are epi, meaning “above” or “super” and ousia meaning “being” “essence” or “substance”.  When they are read together, the possible translations of “supersubstantial” are “above essence” or, in effect “supernatural” bread.  Taken literally, our supersubstantial bread is the Eucharist (CCC 2837).

Jesus said "I am the bread of life".

St John 6:35 | Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.

St John 6:48 | I am the bread of life.

St John 6:51 | I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

Catholics believe—have always believed—that when Jesus says, "We must eat His flesh and drink His blood" (St John 6), we know that Jesus is giving Himself—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—in Holy Communion during the Mass. This belief was shared by the Apostles, our first bishops, and the disciples of the Apostles, including Linus, an early pope (Second Epistle to Timothy 4:21).  We hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. This "everywhere and always" faith has been supported by the gestures we observe in the Mass. Genuflecting in the Presence of the Lord at the consecration engages the body and mind, heart and soul, in adoration.  Where the body goes the mind tends to follow; where the heart goes, so too the body.  Without living practices to incorporate or incarnate the Faith, it is easy to understand why people lose a right orientation to the Holy Eucharist, even with the Bible witness in hand.  Those without the Mass might read in Scripture the teaching of the Lord about His Eucharistic Presence and yet remain blind to the reality of Jesus' Presence.

According to St. John 6:60–70, Jesus is not using metaphors or figurative language. When Jesus gave his instruction, several of his disciples fled the Lord's presence. Jesus could have lessened the impact of His teaching, but instead He chose not to, and many who were unable to accept the teaching on the Holy Eucharist turned away from the Lord.

Why is the orthodox teaching on the Holy Eucharist so important? Would Jesus abandon us in our need? Jesus remains present to us in the Holy Eucharist.  He invites us into a communion with Him in His Holy Eucharist.  Magnificent!

St Matthew 6:6 | But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

That room is the hidden home of God in your heart, as the saints remind us.  One might very well use such space as their living room or bedroom.  Find a peaceful spot and dedicate yourself to that space set aside for God.  Wherever and whenever you take a moment to rest in God's presence, He will find you. The truth is that God is constantly chasing you, waiting for you to turn to Him and give Him your embrace. God is good.

Meditation

• confession
• contrition
• clarity
• suffering

An examination of conscience, aided by the light of the Holy Ghost, disposes us to change.  Strengthened with the graces received in and through the Sacrament of Penance, we approach the mystery of the cross. Jesus, knowing His actions would lead to Calvary, shows us the way.

St Matthew 16:24-26 | Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?  Or what shall a man give in return for his life?

Suffering is a window through which God enters into our loves.  Our wounds provide God with an opportunity to reach into every crevice of this life - our values, priorities, loves, and our likes.  When we embrace our wounds and invite God into every sorrow, God takes on our suffering. We enter into the wounds of Jesus. United to Jesus, our suffering is transformed and the divine makes a home in our lives.

St Matthew 22:36-40 | “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

All for God, all with God.  Have you given priority to examining your conscience on a daily basis?  Are you aware that God knows you better than you know yourself?  God knows us and allows us to freely choose him or lesser gods.  Lesser gods do not deserve worship or adoration.  God alone can deliver us from the obstacles that we place in the way of Him giving us peace.  So, what are those obstacles we place between us and God?  Are we sorry for our sins, the times when we act against God's will for us? Are willing to deliver to God our hearts and minds with unencumbered enthusiasm so that God can inform our lives with His love and truth, His joy and peace?  When we confess we renew our openness to living God's priorities.  God's mercy is that He forgets our sins once confessed.  There is no need to hang on to doubt by punishing ourselves over and over again because of sinful desires and actions or inactions when we, with sincere sorrow, expose our failings and submit those sins to the furnace of God's mercy.

Further Reading | https://kmitalibrary.substack.com/p/what-is-christian-meditation

Know this if (when!) you find yourself before God's priest for confession: you wouldn't be there unless there was a part of you that longed for and knew that you would find relief and healing from [insert subject here].  So, confess your sins.  Immersed in the Sacrament of Penance, the contrite follower of the Lord Jesus Christ gains the clarity he needs to proceed in truth and charity.

Amen.

1. The basic meaning of the Semitic root from which the word 'amen' is derived is “firm,” “fixed,” or “sure,” and the related Hebrew verb also means “to be reliable” and “to be trusted.” | Britannica
2. Old English, from Late Latin amen, from Ecclesiastical Greek amen, from Hebrew amen "truth," used adverbially as an expression of agreement (as in Deuteronomy xxvii.26, I Kings i.36), from Semitic root a-m-n "to be trustworthy, confirm, support." | Online Etymological Dictionary
3. The basic triconsonantal root א-מ-נ, from which the word is derived, is common to a number of languages in the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages, including biblical Aramaic. Meanings of the root in Hebrew include to be firm or confirmed, to be reliable or dependable, to be faithful, to have faith, to believe. | Thurston, Herbert (1907). "Amen", in Herbermann, Charles (ed.), Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1; Jewish Encyclopedia.