Mystery of Light, Mystery of Life, Mystery of Love

J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R.*

Mystery of Light, Mystery of Life, Mystery of Love

Mystery of Light, Mystery of Life, Mystery of Love

Mystery of Light, Mystery of Life, Mystery of Love

On Holy Thursday we celebrate the Institution

of the Holy Eucharist that begins the Sacred Triduum.

Pondering the three days—Christ's Passion, Death and Resurrection,

we see numerous points of Mystery; we see His Light, Life and Love;
we see the corresponding negations (Darkness, Death, and Hate)
at every turn in the compelling narrative.

Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa
(the preacher of the Papal Household) 

offers this advice—Contemplate the Trinity...

The symbol that best sums up this vision of the sacrifice of Christ is that of the Lamb of God. The New Testament prefers it to “scapegoat” precisely because it expresses perfectly the meekness of the victim. A lamb can only receive evil, it can never inflict it.

The resurrection of Christ is for the spiritual universe what the Big Bang, according to a recent theory, was for the physical cosmos: a cataclysmic explosion of energy starting the whole movement of expansion of the universe that is still going on after billions of years. In fact, everything that exists and moves in the Church, the sacraments, doctrine, institutions draws its strength from Christ's resurrection. It is the new creation as the liturgy inculcates by choosing the story of creation, in Genesis 1, as the first reading for the Easter vigil. It is the new fiat lux!, Let there be light!, said by God.

There is a profound similarity between that which occurred in the resurrection and that which occurs in the Eucharist: there, the Father, through his Spirit, gave life to Christ’s body lying in the sepulchre; here, with the same Spirit, he gives life to the bread and transforms it into his Son’s body.

The cry “Behold the Lamb!”, which resounds at every Mass ... is therefore an invitation addressed to all believers in Christ not to let themselves be contaminated by the violence of our world, but to respond to it with the meekness and the strength of love. It is a constant reminder of the words of Jesus: “Look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves” (Mt 10,16).

http://www.cantalamessa.org/en/articoloView.php?id=66

Jesus Christ—the Lamp, Lamb and Lord
of the New and Everlasting Covenant

A prayer, stemming from the Gelasian Sacramentary of the 7th century is still in use in the Easter Vigil; it proclaims solemnly: "Let the whole world see and recognize that all that is destroyed is reconstructed, all that is old is renewed, and everything returns to its integrity, through Christ who is the principle of all things." http://www.cantalamessa.org/en/predicheView.php?id=276

1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given

Sincerely yours in Jesus and Mary,

Mike Rizzio, SOLT

Imitate Mary
Become like Jesus
Live for the Triune God

Seek the Light of Our Lord Jesus Christ
See you on the High Ground!

* - J.M.J. + O.B.T. + M.G.R. stands for: Jesus, Mary and Joseph;
O Beata Trinitas; St. Michael, St. Gabriel and St. Raphael