Kathryn Lopez
1.
Today is 'Spy Wednesday' when Judas agreed to betrayed the Lord: this window illustrates today's Gospel reading https://t.co/VdlB5jq4VW
— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) March 23, 2016
2. That long Holy Week Confession line? It’s totally work waiting on!
With how much love Jesus looks at us! With how much love He heals our sinful heart! Our sins never scare Him.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 23, 2016
3. Why did Judas betray Jesus? It wasn’t the money ….
4.
Pray through #HolyWeek: Wed = Day of Aloneness. "There's an aloneness that sin brings to us" https://t.co/DgKjHOj5G4 pic.twitter.com/SayBt3cjR7
— St. Paul Youth Group (@StPYG) March 23, 2016
6.
— FrSteveGrunow (@FrSteveGrunow) March 23, 2016
7.
In the Liturgy of the Hours today: From a treatise on John by Saint Augustine:
Dear brethren, the Lord has marked out for us the fullness of love that we ought to have for each other. He tells us: No one has greater love than the man who lays down his life for his friends. In these words, the Lord tells us what the perfect love we should have for one another involves. John, the evangelist who recorded them, draws the conclusion in one of his letters: As Christ laid down his life for us, so we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. We should indeed love one another as he loved us, he who laid down his life for us.
This is surely what we read in the Proverbs of Solomon: If you sit down to eat at the table of a ruler, observe carefully what is set before you; then stretch out your hand, knowing that you must provide the same kind of meal yourself. What is this ruler’s table if not the one at which we receive the body and blood of him who laid down his life for us? What does it mean to sit at this table if not to approach it with humility? What does it mean to observe carefully what is set before you if not to meditate devoutly on so great a gift? What does it mean to stretch out one’s hand, knowing that one must provide the same kind of meal oneself, if not what I have just said: as Christ laid down his life for us, so we in our turn ought to lay down our lives for our brothers? This is what the apostle Paul said: Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we might follow in his footsteps.
This is what is meant by providing “the same kind of meal.” This is what the blessed martyrs did with such burning love. If we are to give true meaning to our celebration of their memorials, to our approaching the Lord’s table in the very banquet at which they were fed, we must, like them, provide “the same kind of meal.”
At this table of the Lord we do not commemorate the martyrs in the same way as we commemorate others who rest in peace. We do not pray for the martyrs as we pray for those others, rather, they pray for us, that we may follow in his footsteps. They practiced the perfect love of which the Lord said there could be none greater. They provided “the same kind of meal” as they had themselves received at the Lord’s table.
This must not be understood as saying that we can be the Lord’s equals by bearing witness to him to the extent of shedding our blood. He had the power of laying down his life; we by contrast cannot choose the length of our lives, and we die even if it is against our will. He, by dying, destroyed death in himself; we are freed from death only in his death. His body did not see corruption; our body will see corruption and only then be clothed through him in incorruption at the end of the world. He needed no help from us in saving us; without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot have life.
Finally, even if brothers die for brothers, yet no martyr by shedding his blood brings forgiveness for the sins of his brothers, as Christ brought forgiveness to us. In this he gave us, not an example to imitate but a reason for rejoicing. Inasmuch, then, as they shed their blood for their brothers, the martyrs provided “the same kind of meal” as they had received at the Lord’s table. Let us then love one another as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us.
8.
Today: Boost someone's spirits. #lent2016 pic.twitter.com/TQT1yfCZVB
— Saint Pauls Outreach (@SPO_National) March 23, 2016
9. Today doubled as a vocations commercial for women religious outside the Supreme Court:
Today #CUA stands with #LittleSistersOfThePoor, @WashArchdiocese and others at #SCOTUS for #religiousfreedom pic.twitter.com/aHeEKqnGRl
— Catholic University (@CatholicUniv) March 23, 2016
Sr. Loraine with #LittleSisters at #SCOTUS steps post oral argument #LetThemServe pic.twitter.com/I4fnZIjUNq
— BECKET (@TheBecketFund) March 23, 2016
"God Bless America!" Religious sisters peacefully protest outside the Supreme Court #LetThemServe https://t.co/SEBFqFOWnG
— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) March 23, 2016
Praying through the intercession of the Queen of Heaven, Mary. #SalveRegina #LetThemServe pic.twitter.com/9iPRbysPcv
— DC Archdiocese (@WashArchdiocese) March 23, 2016
10.
"The end of every rational creature is to arrive at beatitude, and this cannot be except in the kingdom of God.” St. Thomas Aquinas
— Chad Pecknold (@ccpecknold) March 22, 2016
PLUS:
We should indeed love one another as he loved us, he who laid down his life for us. — Saint Augustine pic.twitter.com/b6hCnKySyP
— Kathryn Jean Lopez (@kathrynlopez) March 23, 2016
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