JMJ + OBT
LITURGY IS LIFE
Prayer and Introduction
God Bless You! Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. Therese, St. Rita, St. John the Baptist and all the Holy Angles and
Saints, smile upon you. Welcome to the Lay Formation Program of the Society of Our Lady of the Most
Holy Trinity. My name is Father Zachary of the Mother of God, the Priest Director of Lay Formation.
Today, we will be talking about Liturgy, the worship of God. Liturgy Is Life, and God willing, Our Blessed
Mother will reveal to you how Liturgy unfolds in your life. Liturgy is the revelation of God in the mystery
of your life. All the circumstances and events of your life are orchestrated by God the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit for forming you into another Christ. We begin as always with Prayer.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father who art in Heaven hallowed
it be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen
Our Lady of the most Holy Trinity, pray for us.
Liturgy is Life Overview
This subject (Liturgy is Life) is very important in relationship to Formation for the Lay Faithful and all of
God’s family. The Holy Spirit gives us the Liturgy of the Catholic Church and Liturgy is where our lives
are contained. There is a three year cycle of readings in which we go through all of Sacred Scripture. As
we proceed through Sacred Scripture, we worship God, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and as we live
the Liturgy. We worship God by participating in the sacred Liturgy of the Catholic Church. In the three
year cycle, the life of Christ unfolds in our lives and we deepen our life given to us in Baptism, the life of
the most Holy Trinity. Our Lady helps us look at the face of Christ, just as we do when we pray the Holy
Rosary; we look at the face of Christ in the school of Mary and we contemplate His face and we pour
into the deep mystery of our Life in Christ. Each year we go through the Liturgy and understand more
about Christ, who revels to us the most Holy Trinity, who reveals to us ourselves. That’s the foundation.
The Liturgical Year
The Liturgical Year begins the first Sunday of Advent, as we prepare for the birth of Christ. Advent, from
Latin, means
‘to come’. We are preparing for Christ to come. In a new and profound way each and
every Christmas, Christ is to be born in our lives.
Liturgy is life. Liturgy is living. For example, the birth
of Christ is not just a reality that began over 2000 years ago. Certainly it was an historical event, but God
is God. He is eternal. He is infinite. He is not bound by time and space. He wants to be born in our lives,
in our lives, our hearts, our souls, our spirits, and in our very being. We are baptized into Christ and that
is why we go through the Liturgical Year. To enter into the mystery of Christ who reveals us to
ourselves.
Formation in the Liturgical Cycle
We have already talked of our destiny, the plan that God has for our lives. We have been praying to
respond to that plan in order to receive the Grace to respond to that plan. We know that we are
created in the image and likeness of God and to come into communion. We have talked of the universal
call to holiness and the life of virtue. We have now come to Liturgy where Formation will take place in
our lives each and every moment.
We continue with the Liturgical cycle, where we begin to lay the foundations revealing how your life is
contained in the weekly Liturgy. We have Advent then we come to the birth of Christ, Christmas. We
have an Octave of Christmas. Eight days in which every day we celebrate as Christmas. Christmas
doesn’t come and go in one day. We reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation and birth of Christ, and
the child being born for us. God becomes man. What does the meaning of this child and His birth mean
for me? Each year that mystery unfolds in a new and living way. So the Church gives us the Holy Spirit,
where the soul of the Church gives us eight days that we call an Octave, where we celebrate, each day,
this Christmas gift, to reflect on this mystery, to launch us into the rest of the Liturgical Year.
We have the Christmas season where we enter into such mysteries as the Holy Family. We enter into
such mysteries as the Epiphany and the Baptism of our Lord. The Christmas season is a beautiful, joyful
time of the year which are contained in the joyful mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary. We enter into the
calendar year in that last day of the Octave of Christmas. Every day being celebrated as Christmas on
the feast of Mary, the Mother of God on January 1st.
We must understand our Blessed Mother as Mother of God to understand Christ. You cannot
understand Christ unless you have a relationship with the Mother. You cannot understand Him in His
fullness unless you have a relationship with our Blessed Mother Mary. On the Octave day of Christmas
the gift of Jesus is that we celebrate Mary the Mother of God which is also now World Peace day. Some
will call it New Years on the calendar, the calendar of the World, but in God’s eyes it is the Octave day of
Christmas. We go forward in the Christmas season in a joyful spirit.
We come then to Ordinary Time. We usually celebrate four or five weeks of Ordinary Time before the
Holy Season of Lent. Ordinary Time, however, is not ordinary. Nothing about our life is ordinary. Our
life is extraordinary. We do ordinary things with extraordinary love. This is the spiritual doctrine of St.
Therese of Liseuix. If you notice, at the beginning of the teaching; we invoked the intercession of St.
Therese. Therese is a friend. You want to become a friend of the Saints. The Saints will help you
through the Liturgical Year and help you understand the mystery of Christ. The Saints lived the Liturgy,
the mystery of Christ. Make friends with the communion of Saints. When their feast days come along,
join them in prayer.
The Holy Season of Ordinary Time
We go onto Ordinary Time which comes from the Latin words that relate to ordered, like ordinal
numbers or the word ordained; this time was ordained to enter into the fullness of the mystery of
Christ. You see, there are holy seasons, such as the Holy Season of Advent the Christmas season; we
refer to the Holy Season of Lent and the following Holy Season of Easter. During those periods of time,
we focus on certain aspects of the mystery of Christ. They are so profound, rich and deep that they
reveal mysteries of Christ and, therefore, reveal us to ourselves. They are worthy of our reflection, and
there are special Graces during those periods that are available to us. We are going to teach you to
respond to those Graces, how to find them and respond to the Graces. This is Formation. This is life.
During Ordinary Time, we don’t just take an attitude that every day is just ordinary. We do everything
with great love, extraordinary love. What we do is enter into the mystery of Christ in His fullness during
Ordinary Time and we proceed in the Gospels that reveal to us Jesus Christ. In the Gospels of St.
Matthew, St. Luke, St. Mark and St. John, the mystery of Christ is unfolded to us each and every week.
Christ the King
The final week of Ordinary Time is Christ the King; it’s not ordinary, because He is our destiny. Christ will
become the King of our lives, God willing, for all eternity. That is where we are moving, to Christ the
King. After the celebration of Christ the King we examine, have we really let Christ be our King? Is He
really the King of our minds, our hearts, our souls, our spirits, our bodies, our marriages, our families,
everything we are involved in? We also ask: Is the Blessed Mother truly our Queen? She is the Queen of
Heaven, earth and our hearts. When we live under the reign of Jesus and Mary then we are happy,
blessed people. We are in the Kingdom of God. So the Liturgical Year proceeds from the first Sunday of
Advent all the way to Christ the King. As we are proceeding along, we have four to six weeks of Ordinary
Time that follow the Christmas season moving into the Holy Season of Lent. There are Graces available
during the Holy season of Lent. We are lead by the Holy Spirit out into the desert with Jesus to conquer
our temptations, to learn to claim to His victories over sin, Satan, death, the flesh and the world. We
learn to knock them out. Our Blessed Mother trains us to keep our vision fixed on Christ. To claim His
victories to overcome our temptations before we enter into our public ministry. All of us have
vocations, calls by God, calls that came from the heart of the Trinity before creation. During the
Liturgical Year you learn to live your generous response to this call. You learn to live the life of Christ, to
be Holy, to fulfill your vocation.
Lent and the Easter Triduum
During the holy season of Lent, we go through some beautiful Formation. After Lent we move into Holy
Week and into the Easter Triduum. The Triduum are the holiest days of the Liturgical Year.
Holy Thursday
First, Holy Thursday, where we celebrate the Mass of the Last Supper in which Jesus instituted the gift of
the Holy Eucharist and the Holy Priesthood. The first Mass was celebrated – the Eternal Mass. There is
only one Mass. One Mass consummated on Calvary, re-presented everyday all over the world in the
Catholic Church.
Good Friday
Then Good Friday, where Jesus goes through His sacred Passion carrying His cross on His way to the
Cross. I stand here between two stations of the Ways of the Cross, the Fourth Station where our
Blessed Mother meets Jesus on the way to the cross. She is there to help us on our way to the cross as
well. I also stand beside the sixth station where Veronica wipes the face of Jesus. God will provide
people to wipe our face as we go along faithful to His will. Jesus, as a gift, imprints His Sacred face on
that veil of Veronica that we still honor and venerate today. We look at the face of Jesus, contemplating
His face, recognizing that He suffered for us in order to restore His image and likeness upon our souls.
We learn to see the face of Christ in others when we contemplate the face of Christ. St. Therese is
known as St. Therese of the Child of Jesus and St. Therese of the Holy Face of Jesus. She loved the holy
face of Jesus and contemplated the face of Jesus. She learned to see Jesus in others. That is what our
life is about. Liturgy is Life. Jesus goes forward on the Way of the Cross to Calvary; He is nailed to the
Cross and lifted up. Our Blessed Mother is at the foot of the cross. Jesus is our Redeemer. Our Blessed
Mother is Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocatrix of all Graces, at the foot of the throne of God.
The Last Words of Jesus and the Gospels of Good Friday
Jesus gives us a summary of all the Gospels on Good Friday as He prays His seven last words.
- Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.
- This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.
- Woman, behold your Son, Son behold your Mother. (The great gift of our Blessed Mother to
us.)
- My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?
- I thirst. (He thirsts for souls. He thirsts for your soul. He thirsts for my soul. He wants us to
be instruments to gather other souls and we must learn to live the Liturgy to do this.)
- It is consummated.
- Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.
Those seven last words that we pray every Good Friday, in a very special way, allow us to go into Jesus’
Passion.
Holy Saturday
On Holy Saturday we reflect on the meaning of Jesus’ Passion, death and burial, with faith that He will
rise as He told us He will rise. With our Blessed Mother we stand outside of the tomb, where our Lord
was buried, reflecting on the meaning of Christ’s Sacred Passion. If you want to become a Saint, you
need to reflect on Jesus’ Passion every day. One of the surest ways to become a Saint is to reflect on
Jesus’ Sacred humanity. Reflect on the fullness of His Sacred humanity and the meaning of His Sacred
Passion and death. On Holy Saturday we are also preparing for His resurrection.
The Octave of Easter
On Easter, He rises and comes forth from the tomb with a smile on His face. We contemplate His face as
He comes forth and hands us a new life. He gives us a new light that guides our lives, this light of faith.
He makes it possible to love with His Love. We enter into the Octave of Easter. Eight days where we
reflect on the meaning of Jesus rising from the dead. Death has no more power over us. Claim the
victories! We learn to claim the victories of Jesus. He is risen! Christ has died, Christ IS risen, Christ will
come again, we proclaim in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. He IS risen. We have eight days, given by the
Church to reflect on the meaning of His resurrection. The resurrection should change our lives, just as
the birth of Christ changes our lives. Remember, we have an Octave of Christmas, eight days where we
reflect on the meaning of the birth of the Divine Child. Now we have eight days to reflect on the
meaning of the resurrection. It is a profound and essential mystery of our faith, our life in Christ. Easter
does not end just on that Sunday. In fact our life should begin when we start to learn to live the Liturgy.
Eight days into the Octave, we come to the Octave day, the following Sunday, Divine mercy Sunday.
With Divine Mercy we see the rays that flow from the heart of Jesus. Those red and white rays come to
you. The gift of the Eucharist, the gift of Baptism, the gift of the Sacrament of Peace and Reconciliation
come from the side of Christ. The Church comes forth from the side of Christ.
The 50 Days of Easter
We move into the 50 days of Easter. 50 days! Most people don’t even recognize that there are 50 days
of Easter. They have some notion of the 40 days of the Holy Season of Lent. They know of the Easter
Triduum, God willing, as the most sacred time of the year. But then we move into 50 days of Easter to
reflect on the meaning of Christ’s resurrection and to be consumed and transformed in the fires of
divine love, in the Holy Spirit, to learn to live in oneness with the risen Christ, to witness Divine Love. 50
days.
Ascension Thursday
40 days after His resurrection is His Ascension, Ascension Thursday. Jesus, on His own power, goes up to
Heaven. Before He goes up to Heaven, our Blessed Mother comes forth and asks for a blessing from our
Lord. Our Blessed Mother bows before the mystery of Christ and teaches us to bow before the mystery
of Christ and receive a blessing. She asks for a blessing on the Church, she asks for a blessing for you,
and for me, so that we can continue the mystery of Christ, because the Ascension is really a missionary
reality. Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach them all that I have taught you. It is that mystery of the
Ascension, where hope is the fruit. The Grace of the mystery of the Rosary, the Ascension, is hope; we
are hope filled people.
Pentecost
We continue then into the Upper Room with our Blessed Mother praying with the Apostles for a new
outpouring of the Holy Spirit – a Pentecost that takes place 50 days after Easter. The Holy Spirit comes
forth upon all of us and we have to learn how to claim the Holy Spirit. Again, this is not just some
historical event of some 2000 years ago, this is our life. We want a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit,
each and every day of our life. Come, Holy Spirit come. Come by the means of the powerful
intercession of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, your well beloved spouse. Come Holy Spirit; renew the
face of the earth. Holy Spirit, you are the soul of the Church, the soul of my soul, move me. We see the
Holy Spirit moving in the Acts of the Apostles. On every page you see how the Catholic Church is
growing, even through persecution. That’s how we learn to keep moving through persecution. We have
this blessed time of the year of Pentecost.
Trinity Sunday
Then we go into Trinity Sunday. Our community (SOLT) is all about being a member of Our Lady of the
Most Holy Trinity, living Our Lady’s relationships with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What does it mean
to receive the Trinity in our baptism? How do we live this Trinitarian life? All of this is contained in
Liturgy.
The Feast of Corpus Christi
Then you move to the Feast of Corpus Christi, the body of Christ, the Eucharist, and the Eucharistic
mystery of Christ. His Passion, death, burial, resurrection and the ascension, the Paschal Mystery of
Christ, is all contained in the Eucharist. Christ crucified and risen is in the Eucharist. We learn how to
live Liturgy in the power of the Eucharist. We are going to be talking of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass –
the Eucharist that empowers us to live the Word proclaimed at the Mass. That is some of the Formation
that will be coming.
Ordinary Time After Easter
We move back into Ordinary Time that, again, is not ordinary. Proceeding in the mystery of Christ, week
to week being formed from Sunday to Sunday, we hear how God is going to work in our lives. He is
telling us where the Graces will be. Each and every Sunday is a compass point in our life. We proceed
through the year to come to Christ the King and then we begin the Liturgical Year again. That is the
overview. We have these seasons where we go through the life of Christ year after year because we are
baptized into Christ and we need to learn to live the mystery of our baptism. God Graces us with
Liturgical times and seasons and he forms us in Liturgy.
How God Works in Your Life Within The Liturgy
Let’s look at that a little more deeply. In the Facilitation Guides, you will see an outline of the Liturgical
Year, the overview that I just gave you. You will also find a chart that outlines how the Liturgy unfolds.
From the introductory antiphon to the opening prayer to the first reading to the responsorial psalm to
the second reading to the Gospel acclamation to the proclamation of the Gospel to the prayer over the
gifts to the antiphon that follows communion to the closing prayer. All of these have meaning. All of
these reveal to us where God is going to be working in our lives, each and every week.
Do you want to know how God is going to work in your life? I want to share with you from my heart
one of the first things I grabbed a hold of in my formation. I should say, I received, most generously
from Our Lady this gift of understanding the Liturgy, how God works in our lives. My eyes were opened
to see that God is announcing in the Liturgy what He is going to do in our lives. You have to understand
the Liturgical season, and in the context of the Liturgical season, you understand that God has certain
objectives. He wants to form you into Christ. Our Lady will help you understand these times and
seasons in the working of God in your life, because our Blessed Mother Mary wants to bring forth Christ
in your life. As a good Father He wants to form you, His children, into Christ, because His joy as a Father
is to give life. That is what the Father does. God the Father’s joy is to bring forth Christ in your life and
the Holy Spirit works in the Liturgy.
The Mass and Your Life
Now this is not just some class, some theological class on memorizing the Liturgical Seasons. . This is
about your life, and if you want to know how your life unfolds, how God works in your life, you need to
understand the Liturgy. You need to understand the context of the Liturgical season that we went
through. There is the way that the Mass is presented by the Holy Spirit. Every part of the Holy Sacrifice
of the Mass has deep meaning for us.
Introductory Antiphon and Opening Prayer
The Introductory Antiphon for example introduces us into the Mystery of our life. That is what it means.
Invitatory—you are invited. Introductory— you are introduced. That first antiphon, you want to see
from God’s perspective what that means. You are being invited into the Mystery of your life, that is
Christ. Then there is the opening prayer that is so rich. Unfortunately, in it seems that many people are
tuned out at the time that the opening prayer is said. But if you listen to the prayer, it is so rich. It is a
petition by Christ the Priest, to the Father in the Holy Spirit for you and for me. The words proclaim
what we are asking God the Father to give us. Our Good Father will respond to the prayer of Christ. You
ought to look at the opening prayer.
The Readings
Then you move right into the readings. The readings all have specific meaning within the Liturgy. The
Holy Spirit did not just put them together haphazardly. Everything has an order and purpose. We have
talked of that in the Lay Formation program. God has a plan. We are supposed to be responding to
God’s plan. He wants to bring forth Christ in our lives. The readings unfold this Mystery of Christ. The
First Reading is proclaimed and then followed by a Responsorial Psalm. It is called a Responsorial Psalm
because that response is supposed to be our response to the First Reading. Our hearts and spirits are
supposed to be moved to respond in a certain way to the First Reading. We don’t just say, “well I sort of
like that one, I like this part of the reading.” God has a purpose and plan for giving us certain readings.
The Responsorial Psalm is telling us how we are supposed to respond. You move deeper into the
Second Reading. The Second Reading usually will identify in very special ways where your trials,
temptations, persecutions and struggles will happen during that week. What I call your TTPS; trials,
temptations, persecutions and struggles. These TTPS are going to happen in your life, but don’t get
caught up in them because they all point to Grace. You see, Grace is invisible. Grace is little, like the
mustard seed, but it is powerful, because it gives life. It is the life of God. We are used to seeing visible
things in our existence. So we can see a trial, temptation, persecution or struggle. I can identify those
very easily, so can you, all of us can. Do not get caught up in them. They all point to Grace. They say,
“the Grace is here, the Grace is here.” They are like red flags alerting us that Grace is available. You ask
our Blessed Mother, who is full of Grace, how to see grace. Hail Mary, full of Grace the Lord is with you.
Ask our Blessed Mother how to find the Grace and respond to the Grace. This Grace is like a pearl of
great price in your life. When you learn to grab hold of the Grace in all circumstances, your life will be
blessed indeed. The Second Reading takes us deeper into the mystery of Christ that is unfolding.
The Gospel Acclamation and the Living Encounter with Christ
The Gospel Acclamation, acclaims where we are going. The Gospel is an encounter with Christ, the living
encounter with Jesus Christ. Again, Scripture is not just a historical book. Yes there are historical
realities in Sacred Scripture, but it is not written as an historical book. Jesus is living and we want a living
encounter with Jesus Christ. One living encounter with Jesus Christ can transform your life as it did with
St. Mary Madeleine, as it did with St. Zacheius, as it did with St. Paul, and as it should with us. One living
encounter with Christ leads to the path of conversion, communion and solidarity. Conversion,
communion and solidarity. Read Ecclesia in America, John Paul the Great’s letter to America, to one
America. There is not North America, Central America, South America, but one America under the
Mantle of Our Lady, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Star of Evangelization.
Part of this Lay Formation program is to teach people how to evangelize. That is where we are going in
a couple of years; we are going to give you some Formation. God is the Formator. Remember that God
is the Formator. There are instruments of Formation, such as myself, but God is the formator. He is
forming us in the Liturgy. We need to have a living encounter with Christ and follow the path of
conversion, communion and solidarity, and then help others have a living encounter with Christ so that
everybody can become a Saint. The Saint they were created to be. You can become a Saint. One
encounter with Jesus Christ, a living encounter with Jesus Christ will change your life. That is what
happens in the Liturgy.
Homily – Insights Into the Mystery
The homily should give you insight into the Mystery of Christ. You have the prayer over the gifts; you
have the celebration of the Holy Eucharist that empowers us to live this mystery of Christ. This Mystery
of Christ challenges us to do things that are supernatural because Christ is Divine. That is our life. We
receive the power of the Most Holy Eucharist to help us live that week IN Christ, to become another
Christ and to live our baptism. That is where we will be formed, and where we will be challenged. The
Graces are identified in the Liturgy. We proceed to the Antiphon after Communion, Holy Communion
then the Closing Prayer. All of these identify where God will be working. We will help you start to get
into this rhythm of your life. Liturgy preparation is very important. Before going to the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass please, I beg you, as your spiritual father, I beg you to prepare before you go to the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, because all of these Graces are available to you. All of these riches are available to
you and if you prepare you will be tuned in. Your heart will be touched, you will be enriched. You will
be ready for the next week of life as God forms you.
Sunday to Sunday – The Compass Points of Your Life
Now I want to give you a little insight into how this Formation takes place. You see, each Sunday –
Sunday to Sunday are the compass points of your life. Compass points, because we need a direction.
Our direction is Heaven, right? Our Lady will help us go in the right direction when you understand that
Liturgy is life, it is life. You have prepared well, you have come to the Mass, and you have listened. You
recognize that your life is contained in the Liturgy, the entire Liturgy. It bothers me sometimes when
people say, “I don’t know why the second reading was included in the Liturgy. I see how the first
reading connects to the Gospel but I don’t see how the second reading fits in?” Do you think the Holy
Spirit just haphazardly gave us a Second Reading? I find that the ones that are most difficult to
understand, how they come together are the richest ones. It is the Mystery of life. Treasures are
contained in there. Do not give up on yourself. Spend extra time in prayer asking, what does this mean?
How does this all fit together? How is God going to work in my life in these compass points from Sunday
to Sunday? Find what God does as the great Teacher. Our Father in Heaven, Jesus the Teacher and the
Holy Spirit, teach us on Sunday and give us the lessons of life for the week. Like any good teacher, God
tells us what He is going to do. He is going to reinforce the lessons, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, to the next Sunday which is the next compass point.
God’s Lessons and Tests
Any good teacher knows that you cannot give a test to your student until you have given the lesson.
God does test His children. His testing has to be understood properly. He tests us to prove us. The
word to prove, is used in the Old Testament,
he is proving us. God knows the quality of gold before it
goes into the fire; He is testing to prove the quality of the gold during the way of the cross. You are His
children, He knows you are His children, He calls all of Heaven together and says look at my child. They
are all looking at you, supporting you, cheering you on. Our Father wants you to come to the full
measure of the mature Christ.
He gives us our Blessed Mother to help us understand the mystery of Christ. She is the surest, easy, and
perfect way to Christ. She helps us understand Liturgy, this gift of the Holy Spirit. Our Father is going to
form us during the week. As a Teacher He teaches the lesson on Sunday and then He re-enforces the
lesson during the week. He proves us during the week. He says, "There is my child, watch when this
circumstance in his life comes. Watch how he responds as he was instructed by Christ."
For example, if the Gospel on Sunday is
The Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says, “Love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who persecute
you.” These are four challenging realities where you will be formed. Under our own strength we cannot
do it. However, with God, everything is possible. We receive the Eucharist when we are in a state of
grace in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Jesus gives us Himself so we can die to ourselves, and rise in
Him, so that we can love our enemies. This is challenging. Jesus on the cross loves His enemies. We
were His enemies because we were caught up in sin, but He loves us so much that he freed us. God the
Father looks at us as His children because Christ laid down His life for us. Let us accept this life. Learn
how to love your enemies. We do not just isolate the teaching of the week to the Gospel because all of
the parts of the Liturgy; all the prayers, the antiphons, all the readings, point to how you are going to be
formed. I can guarantee when the Sermon on the Mount is Gospel of the week, one of your enemies
will be sent to you. That is how Formation works. Now we remember as Catholics that our only enemy
is Satan and sin. Our enemy is what sin does to our brothers and sisters. We don’t look at people as our
enemies. We recognize that sin affects people and they do things that they should not be doing many
times. So we love them. We are given the strength to love them even though they are persecuting us
and we pray for them. The experience may appear as a trial, temptation, persecution or struggle, but
the Grace is, to love them.
Our Blessed Mother will help you love them. She reminds you that you are baptized into Christ. Christ
loved right on the cross. On the cross, Jesus Christ with His arms spread said, “I love you. You may
crucify me world, but these nails don’t hold me here, I am here to give glory to my Father and to win
salvation for all. Yes world, you may nail me here, you may crucify me, but the one thing you cannot do
is make me stop loving you. I am free.” Well, how are we going to learn? How are we going to be
formed to come to that type of freedom? It is in the Liturgy. Liturgy is life. When the Gospel proclaims
this, the next week you will have opportunities to grow into Christ. You can look at things as problems
in life or you can look at them as opportunities. I prefer to look at things as opportunities. I have the
strength of the Eucharist. I know that I belong to God. I am one of Our Lady’s sons. What else do I
need? Actually when people persecute me, all they are saying is, “pray for me, pray for me.” They may
not know how to pray and the Gospel says, pray for your persecutors. So what does God do? He
permits them to come to me because they don’t know how to pray. So they come and persecute me. I
do not see them persecuting me, I see them saying, “pray for me.” You know it is similar to times when
people come to me and they want to challenge me about the Catholic faith. I just pray to be in
communion with the Trinity and I listen to them and I hear them say, “I want to be Catholic, I want to be
Catholic, I want to be Catholic.” When you hear with God’s ears and God’s eyes, life is beautiful, but you
have to learn to respond to the Grace. Liturgy is life; Liturgy will show you the Graces.
The Reinforcement of the Lessons of Christ – Day to Day
Now here is even a more exciting part of the program. You have the Sunday teaching then, each day,
the lessons are going to be reinforced, you are going to come close to Christ under Our Lady’s mantle,
living the Eucharist, but we know that the next Sunday is the next compass point, so if you start to read
the Liturgy for the next Sunday, you start to see where God is going to form you the next week. So as he
is reinforcing the lessons from the previous compass point (the previous Sunday) He is also preparing
you for this lesson. God is amazing and if you understand these compass points you will understand
what is going to happen in your life. In fact, it even gets richer.
If you pray the Liturgy of the Hours, which continue the sacrifice of the Mass, then each hour, by hour,
by hour, morning prayer to daytime prayer to evening prayer, all the other hours of the day, you will
know how God is going to be working in life during that time period of the day, because you know the
main compass points. You know the daily Liturgy. I also need to mention that if you stay up on the daily
Liturgy you get a refinement of what is going to happen in that day in the context of these compass
points in the context of the Liturgical season, you get daily lessons, refined and perfected for you.
Prepare, Live and Pray the Liturgy
I urge you to prepare daily the Liturgy. There are many, many resources out there. You can get ahold of
the Roman Missal or the
Magnificat, where in one little book you find the Liturgy. The
Magnificat even
has reflections and prayers that help the Lay Faithful. It is a great gift from God. Daily, you reflect on
your lives, this Liturgy is your life. I am just trying to share you my joy so that your joy may be complete.
That is what this is about; in fact this whole Lay Formation program is about sharing Our Lady’s joy.
Our Lady lived the Liturgy and we are paralleling her life. This is how this whole Lay Formation came
about; we are just sharing Our Lady’s life. Through prayer, it was revealed to us that the Trinity wanted
everybody to know about Our Lady’s life, the way that she responds to the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit. She responded so perfectly living this plan of communion that God bestows great honors on her.
Our Lady wants to share her life with all of us and she shares in Our Lady’s Society. She helps us have
these Trinitarian relationships; she helps us have her heart, a heart for the Liturgy, a heart for other
people. We want the whole world to know about the gift of the Liturgy, to see as God sees, to be
formed in Christ. You have a whole plan for your life unfold for you in the Liturgy, you have the Liturgical
seasons, where there are these objectives that God has for you. There is a context and then there are
the compass points Sunday to Sunday. Then there are the teachings reinforced each day preparing you
for the teachings that will come the next Sunday. There is the daily Liturgy that gives you refinements
on the Formation. There is the hourly Liturgy in the Liturgy of the Hours. Your whole life is in the
Liturgy. It is going to take a little practice and training to understand this, but when you understand, you
will understand that this is the key to your life.
Embrace the Gift of the Liturgy
We will be giving you facilitation guides to help you throughout this Formation. I urge you to embrace
this great gift. This is a special gift from Our Lady. Accept this gift; it will enrich your life. The three
most important points of this teaching are…
- The Liturgical Year contains the life of Christ. We recognize that we are baptized into Christ
so we need to be formed into Christ. The Liturgical Year helps us go through the life of
Christ forming us into Christ. In the Liturgy, the Graces that the Trinity has prepared for us
from all of eternity are ready for us. The Trinity looks out across time before time existed
and prepared Graces for us in our life. There are Graces available. The trials, temptations,
persecutions and struggles of your life all point to these Graces, but you must understand
the Liturgy in order to understand and respond to these Graces.
- Prepare well for the Holy Sacrifice of Mass. Use The Magnificat or the Roman Missal. Do
Liturgy preparation so that these Graces will be made present and visible to you. You will
recognize them if you prepare well, but you must recognize that Grace is received based on
the disposition of the receiver. God wants to bestow infinite Graces on you. He has a
Formation program for you in the Liturgy, but you must respond to the Graces. Turn to Our
Lady, go to Our Lady, our Mother, she will help you open your heart, mind and whole being
to these Graces. She is full of Grace, she lived the Liturgy, she lives the Liturgy and she
wants you as her child to live the Liturgy. She wants you to be formed into another Christ;
God the Father wants you to be formed into another Christ. Your Father wants to bless you
abundantly. Liturgy is life. The challenge of this month is to prepare before each Sunday
Mass. Try to see how the whole Mass including the antiphons, prayers and readings are all
tied together. Look for how your life is contained in the Liturgy. Then try to pay attention
the next week and how it starts to play out, how it starts to unfold, once you get one taste
of this I guarantee you will never be the same again. Your life will be so rich, you will start to
see the plan unfold and your life will be filled with the awe and wonder of this great gift.
This is where Formation takes place. The fruit, the Grace is that you will become who you
were created to be, you will live your baptism because you will see that God’s plan is
unfolding in your life. You will have an excitement, an enthusiasm, richness to your life,
happiness, joy and peace because now your life has meaning and you see it right there in
the Liturgy.
- Remember to continue to pray. Pray the rosary, contemplate the face of Christ. All the
things we have talked of in this Formation program are connected. It is all about enriching
you. You see, we want you to become a Saint, because God wants you to become a Saint,
Our Lady wants you to become a Saint. The world is moved by the Saints and you are
created to be a Saint. Your life is contained in the Liturgy, the worship of God. Please, know
who you are and respond to the gift of God’s love expressed in the Liturgy that is your life.
The Lord be with you. May Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. Go
in peace to love and serve the Lord.