Sunday, November 27, 2011

Reflecting on the Past Liturgical Year on the Last Day of It


Today is the last day of the Church's Liturgical Year.  I find this is a good day to reflect on how God has been acting and how I have or have not cooperated with the Holy Spirit who is the memory of the Church and who quickens the Liturgical Prayer of the Church giving it life and holiness.

Listen to my homily for today:



If you have trouble listening, click here.

In the Mass reading for today, we get a description from the prophet Daniel of the Antichrist.  Shouldn't be too cryptic, we know this spirit well.  It is the one which, as St John points out, 
"that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist" (1 John 4:3)
This is the spirit with which we war against in the holy battle of the Sacred Liturgy, which, if we enter into with faith, will both proclaim to us the supreme majesty of God, and also the presence of God almighty in the Incarnation of the Word, to whom we offer all praise, worship, honor, blessing, and adoration in his Eucharistic presence.  It is good to reflect in the past year if we have allowed this spirit to impede our liturgical drinking-in of the inebriating Spirit of the Living God.

This kind of annual examination of conscience is good to help us, as Jesus says in the Gospe, "Stay awake!" for when we reflect on our actions it is almost natural to want to set goals and realign our sights on the next year to open our hearts more to the presence and action of God in our midst through the sacred words and gestures of the Divine Liturgy of heaven which we enter into every time we approach God in the prayers and sacraments of Holy Mother Church.

To help us do this we have Our Lady, whom we pray with in a special way on every Saturday.  May Mary, Queen of the Roman Liturgy, and Mother of the Church, come to our aid and help us aspire to the divine knowledge of the Love of God manifested in his sacred rites.

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