Calendar

Leader's School
Thur June 6, 7:00pm
St. Benedict's, BA
RE classroom #8

Ultreya-Tulsa
Fri June 7, 7:00pm
St. Mary's, Tulsa

Ultreya-BA
Fri June 21, 7:00pm
St. Benedict's, BA

Leader's School
Thur July 11, 7:00pm
St. Benedict's, BA
RE classroom #8

Ultreya-Tulsa
Fri July 5, 7:00pm
St. Mary's, Tulsa

Ultreya-BA
Fri July 19, 7:00pm
St. Benedict's, BA

Men's Weekend #31
Sept 26-29, 2002
St. John's, McAlester

Women's Weekend #31
Oct 10-13, 2002
St. John's, McAlester

SPIRITUALITY 101
SPIRITUAL REFLECTION- 120
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

SPIRITUALITY 101
SPIRITUAL REFLECTION- 126
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.
In the laboratory of Faraday, the English physicist and chemist, a silver cup slipped out of the hand of a pupil and landed in a jar of nitric acid. The cup was dissolved in minutes. Faraday however, reassured the student that he could recover the cup. He added a reagent that formed a precipitate in the form of silver granules in the bottom of the jar.  He recovered the silver and made a new cup.  It was same cup because it contained the same silver as the original. It was, however, much more shiny than the cup that had been dissolved.

So it will be with our resurrected bodies. They will be the same bodies, but not in the same manner, because they will contain our eternal glorified soul the bodies will be flawlessly resplendent with God's glory.

DEVOTION - Growth in love- 3rd stage
DEVOTIONALS- MEDITATION-SACRAMENTALS-THE ROSARY-53
The Mysteries of the Rosary-11
THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES: The First Glorious Mystery
The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead: Luke 24:1-6a
"But at daybreak on the first day of the week they took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzled over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them. They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, "Why do you seek the  living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised."

Throughout the Old testament on can follow a crimson cord of salvation. There is a repeating image in which God does something, it involves the shedding of blood and it is vicarious, i.e. the person or persons who were to die do not die, but another death occurs on their behalf.  This is first seen in the Garden of Eden, where given the commandment, "You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die." (Genesis 2:16b-17) Adam and Eve ate and did not die.  In their place, God clothed their shame with the skins of animals. (Genesis 3:21) An animals death took their place and they were allowed to live. Such an image occurs when God provides a ram caught in the briars to die in the place of Isaac. (Genesis 22:13) In the Passover of Israel, a lamb was slaughtered and its blood was placed on the lintels of their homes, so that the avenging angel passed over the Israelites and slew all the first born of Egypt. (Exodus 12:21-30)  The crimson cord extends throughout the Old Testament, to end at the Cross. At the Cross, Christ sheds His blood, and we who were to die in our sins are saved by His death. Jesus is our Passover from death into life.

On the third day, however, Jesus rises from the dead. That which appeared to be corruptible was made incorruptible by His holiness.  His perfection was so full that the earth, cursed by the sin of Adam could not hold Him.  He who is the eternal principle of life, Who identified Himself as the resurrection and the life (Jn 11:25), could not die. Because no one could anticipate that the Lord would love us so much that He would choose residence in a human body like ours except for sin.  His rising from the dead was beyond all expectations for a Messiah.  Even the apostles, who had heard him say on several occasions that He would rise from the dead, could not comprehend that something so magnanimous would actually happen.  When the soil from which God fashioned our bodies, through Adam was cursed by original sin, life for man became incomplete.  Death entered the world, and eternal life with God was not a part of man's hope.  The resurrection of Christ brought surity to that hope, which is faith (Heb 11:1).  Man is no longer a slave of the fear of  death.  With the resurrection of Jesus, death became simply another stage of life.

  Paul, in his letter to the Colossians explores the wonder of the resurrection and its meaning in the life of every Christian. In Col. 2:12, Paul explains that in our baptism, we have joined in the death of Christ.  This implies that we have died to the senses of our flesh, the fantasies of our imagination and the lusts of the world, so that we have died to sin.  No longer do we, like Eve, listen to the arguments of Satan that we can be God, but we listen to our Lord and share His divinity. Paul emphasizes this idea when he writes that we have risen with Christ, to live in union with Him in His glory.  In chapter 2:14 - 15, he emphases that the Cross of Christ obliterated death and despoiled the things of death to our soul.

As Baptized Christians, we are members of His resurrected, glorified Body, that brings order into a world of chaos.  Although we live in the world, we are no longer a part of the world, but are commissioned to act in His place during our lifetime to assist the coming of His Kingdom on earth. Meditation on His resurrection reveals a personal mission for each of us.  We no longer live each moment of our lives in time. Through constant prayer, we live our lives on earth in eternity with Him.

NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM
ARTICLE NO. 1122
Christ sent his apostles so that "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations." (Lk. 24:47) "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." (Mt. 28:19) The mission to baptize, and so the sacramental mission, is implied in the mission to evangelize, because the sacrament is prepared for by the word of God and by the faith which is assent to this word:

The People of God is formed into one in the first place by the Word of the Living God....the preaching of the Word is required for the sacramental ministry itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith, drawing their origin and nourishment from the Word. (Presbyterorum ordinus 4:1,2)
SACRAMENTAL MINISTRY
Deacon Jim Breazile ocds

The Apostolic mission
And preaching's fruition
Is Holy Spirits deposition
By word of God's rendition
To assent and submission
And Baptismal transmission
International exposition
Of consecrated condition
Is the sacramental ministry of the Church

Forgiveness and repentance
By the Father's resplendence
Through the Son's indulgence
And the Holy Spirits refulgence
It is the Church's adherence
Through evangelizing indifference
To the faith of acquiescence 
Is the sacramental ministry of the Church

Ó2002 DR. JAMES E. BREAZILE, deacon 
JOHN PAUL EVANGELIST OCDS