Four Words Every Catholic Should Remember
Mysteries Of God Discovered!
Photo By: Flickr/Lawrence OP
In a recent series of articles I wrote of the way Catholic Christians live their faith here on this earth. It is all about saying YE-S-S-S! – to the God who brings us to be sanctified, allows for us to serve God and neighbor and receive the material as well as the spiritual blessings for faith, and finally to take all the ‘good’ that we are about to the altar and sacrifice our good self (without nary a drop of our blood being shed) in unity with THE supreme sacrifice of God’s only Son, who did shed His blood that we come to have an eternal life ‘in Him.’
Simple isn’t it? No fuss, no muss . . . no needing to get into long debates with others ‘in the world’ of what is the ‘thou shalt’ and ‘shalt not do’s.’ No need for lengthy ‘preaching’ or bible ‘thumping.’ As I wrote in the article, Four Words Every Catholic Should Remember, a lot of words spoken will sometimes only serve to bring futility to our spirit generated humility. Remember His words from the cross: ‘Forgive them, Father — they KNOW NOT what they do.’ MYSTERY those words are to we, who do know good and from bad actions, (sin) and to do what is good.
Our knowledge of good and bad actions comes from the God given gift of FAITH. To have the gift of faith gives us the God given gift of HOPE for a life beyond what we see by natural sight, and to have hope in ‘the light’ at the end of a dark ‘earthly tomb’ of flesh — is to be able to LOVE in proper order: God first, and then to love and serve neighbor, as we love ourselves, convenient or inconvenient. The sanctification (holiness) received from God can now be lived out in that ‘know not’ world — shudder … shiver . . . tremble, by reason of these three God given virtues called theological virtues. Attaining these virtues will take a prayer life! For Catholics, there is not a more powerful prayer than the prayer of the Holy Rosary! It’s been known to convert sinners in ‘the world’ and to reveal the mystery that is our Christian faith. The Rosary meditations help us to know the Lord God more fully and how we are to be as He is out in that shudder … shiver . . . tremble world where the devil does roam. In fact, that devil hates the Rosary for the very reason that when we are focusing on the life of Christ, we come out of that shudder … shiver . . . tremble world of ‘know nots’ that Jesus had asked the Father to forgive.
This powerful prayer goes back a long way, to the 14th and 15th century and credit is given to Saint Dominic who ‘heard’ through prayer from our Blessed Spiritual Mother that in focusing on the mysteries of her Son’s life and asking for her intercession to her Divine Son for our trials and struggles out in that shudder … shiver . . . tremble world of ‘know nots’ we would not go unaided. Logically, who better to ask to pray for us than the one who is closest to Jesus’ ear and, of course, heart. His own mother! Never was it said that anyone who asked for Mary’s intercession to her Son was left unaided! Before Saint Dominic brought out the need for the meditations upon the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Rosary prayer meditation is cited as being the Jesus prayer of first century monks! Indeed this type of prayer goes back a long way in Church history. Prayerful contemplation of the four mysteries of Christ’s life: the Joyful, the Sorrowful, the Glorious, and Luminous will grow us in our faith in God received at Baptism and aid us in perfecting our life in Christ,
God’s only Son.
The personal insights revealed through this meditative prayer should never take us away from the objective truths of the One, Holy, Apostolic Church that Jesus formed but will help us to understand those truths better. In subsequent articles I will be writing of each of the four mysteries of the Holy Rosary.
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About the Author
Born and baptized in infancy into the Catholic Church, I have always been a practicing Catholic, living the gift of faith in God, with wisdom now understanding such living does take ‘lots of practice.’ For me, over 45 years worth of practice -- and that is as much as I will say about my chronological age. Please note by this introduction that I do enjoy lighthearted humor, which led to my 'call' to pursue the vocation of cartoon illustration. Such vocation is a very competitive field yet I do feel God directed my steps to both earning my daily bread and honing the illustration ability via the field of pre-press print production in such areas as community newspapers, retail advertising print production, and small print shop laying out text and image to be visually appealing.
From the repetitively doing of the graphic artwork of pre-press production, I came to realize that I can not only write with a picture (cartoon) but I can draw with words. What also came to be through the daily, dutiful, and disciplined service work for a living was the ever growing knowledge of my Catholic faith, as I persevered in 'offering up,' best I understood that, at each stage and age of my life, as I attended Catholic Mass weekly, and later in life daily Mass. Indeed the work-a-day world takes a lot of endurance and I found that attending daily Mass before going to the daily job in a print shop gave me an amazing 'strength' and 'endurance.'
I hope the articles I write for Catholic365.com are down-to-earth and fun, and that I have helped others to understand how special the Catholic faith practice is, and the grace that comes through the Catholic Church.
