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- 123
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

One day a lady complained to Monsignor De la Motta, Bishop of Amiens of the excessive length of the Mass; and the holy prelate replied: "You find the Mass excessively long because your devotion is excessively short."

We are most often more patient with things of the world than we are of things of God. We must learn to give God at least "equal time."

DEVOTION - Growth in love- 3rd stage 
DEVOTIONALS- MEDITATION-SACRAMENTALS-THE ROSARY-50 
The Mysteries of the Rosary-8 THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES: The Third Sorrowful Mystery 

Jesus is crowned by a crown of thorns: Matt: 27:28-30  
"They stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head, and a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, 'Hail, King of the Jews!' They spat on him and took the reed and kept striking him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his own clothes, and led him off to crucify him."

Suffering is an experience with evil. When Christ suffered, He entered into evil. He took evil into His sinless body and overcame it by suffering. He lived His kingship through suffering to demonstrate to us the meaningfulness of human suffering. We are aware that only by the shedding of blood can sins be forgiven (Hebrews 9:22). Through the shedding of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, he began the redemption of our sins. He continued this redemption in the scourging at the pillar. In this meditation, we see Him shedding blood through the crown of thorns. Each shedding representing another step toward the redemption of all sin.

Receiving the crown of thorns, He makes whole the Alzheimer patient, the mentally depressed, the insane. Reaching into the souls of all mankind through the ages he makes righteous all mental disorders. As the thorns pierced his scalp, He took upon Himself the suffering of the family members who care for those with mental illness. In His solidarity with each of us, He enters into our migraines, our anxieties and headache pains, and brings healing to our souls. The blood that flows down His face redeems the sins of despair. In His union with us in these conditions we are assured that human suffering is not wasted. Jesus has already taken all suffering to the cross of His death and there continues throughout time to prepare souls for heaven.

When Jesus suffered the crown of thorns, the reed and the mocking, "Hail, King of the Jews!", He allowed the truth of His kingship to be affirmed. He had told Pilate that His kingship is not of this world. In His incarnation, He brought His heavenly kingship into this world. He is the eternal King, descended from His great throne of light. His crown of thorns is one in which through His physical, mental and psychological suffering, He united Himself with all those who suffer the sins of those who use the knowledge of the world to enslave them. His union reaches into the minds of man and brings solace to the vulnerability of the lost job, the grief of a lost loved one, the emptiness of an unfulfilled life.

ROYAL KINGSHIP 
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

His kingship is not of this world 
But on the cross it was unfurled 
With scourge-torn flesh in purple tatters 
Satan's power is brought to shatters

With crown of thorns to pierce His brow 
And scepter of reeds as His endow 
His face marked clear with derisive spittle 
All suffered to serve our sins acquittal

Clothing Him in a scarlet cloak 
Unknowingly His kingship they did invoke 
Not one of distant, regal splendor 
But of suffering for our pardon's render

NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM 
ARTICLE NO. 1119 
Forming "as it were, one mystical person" with Christ the head, the Church acts in the sacraments as "an organically structured priestly community." (Vatican II documents; Lumen Gentium, No. 11) Through Baptism and Confirmation the priestly people is enabled to celebrate the liturgy, while those of the faithful "who have received Holy Orders, are appointed to nourish the Church with the word an grace of God in the name of Christ." (Lumen Gentium No. 11)

MYSTICAL BODY CELEBRATES
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

With Risen Christ as invisible Head 
The mystical body on earth is led 
In all its sacramental actions 
To unite all earthly factions

The Church acts as communal priest 
With Holy Spirit serving as yeast 
To permeate and to unite 
And to yield sacramental delight

Through Baptismal certification 
Members are led to celebration 
In Confirmation we are commissioned 
To overcome all interior division

The Church united through Holy Orders 
Provides community without borders 
Nourishing it through the word of God 
And with Grace to thwart Satan's rod.

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