Renowned Dominican Scholar Reviews “The Mass in Sacred Scripture”

One of the world’s foremost Dominican theologians, a prolific author and host of numerous Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) series, Father Brian Mullady, O.P., S.T.D., has published the following review of my new booklet, The Mass in Sacred Scripture:

“The little book is a gold mine of scriptural verses applied to the ritual of the Mass.  The new ICEL English translation is used so that this book is of great practical aid for anyone interested in seeing the intimate relationship of Scripture to the sacramental ritual of the Church.  A helpful introduction together with a simple question and answer section at the end are of special importance to someone who does not see the need to attend Mass or who does not understand the depth and power of this attendance.  This is heartily recommended for clerics and laity alike who want to increase their devotion and appreciation for the Mass.”

– Fr. Brian Mullady, O.P., S.T.D.,  Author, Both Servant and Free     

Father Mullady is a regular columnist for Homiletic and Pastoral Review and teaches at Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell, CT.  A highly respected and engaging preacher, he travels extensively lecturing and speaking at parish missions, retreats, and institutes throughout the United States.  Find out all about him HERE.

©2012 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

The Mass in Sacred Scripture

The Mass in Sacred Scripture

Throughout the history of the Church, the liturgy has been revised and updated so that the expression of the Church’s worship may reflect the Spirit-filled vitality and dynamism of the Church herself.  The liturgical reforms of Vatican II are intended to be instruments of catechesis and evangelization. The Council is clear that it “earnestly desires that all the faithful be led to that full, conscious, and active participation in the liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy … for it is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 14).

Blessed John Paul II, in reflecting on the liturgical reforms of Vatican II, challenged us to “enter more deeply into the contemplative dimension of worship, which includes a sense of awe, reverence, and adoration which are fundamental attitudes in our relationship with God”  (Pope John Paul II, “Authentic Liturgical Renewal”, 130). The Second Vatican Council, in instituting legitimate changes and revisions to the Eucharistic liturgy that are in harmony with Sacred Tradition, endeavored to make the Mass more open to full and active participation by the lay faithful, through which the People of God, “inspired by faith, hope, and love, offers to the Father, in, with, and through Christ in the Holy Spirit, a sacrifice of praise and self-giving” (Johannes H. Emminghaus, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, 97).

This movement of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church led to the Roman Missal revision of 2000.  The revised Missal received recognitio (official approval from the Vatican) for use in English-speaking counties on March 25, 2010 (and in the United States on June 23, 2010 for implementation on November 27, 2011).

The Mass in Sacred Scripture was inspired by the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and its desire that “the treasures of the bible be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s word” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 51). The Mass in Sacred Scripture walks the reader through a brief history of the liturgical changes at Vatican II that led to the 2010 Roman Missal revision in English, presents the approved English texts of the Roman Missal alongside some of the Scripture passages from which the Mass texts were derived, and shows the intimate connection between the Mass and the Bible.  The booklet ends with a short question and answer section designed to root what happens at Mass within the fertile soil of our every day lived experience.

The Mass in Sacred Scripture clearly shows that, without a doubt, the Catholic Church fosters great reverence and respect for the Word of God, and recognizes the vital role Sacred Scripture plays in the lives of the Church and her children.

Order the E-Booklet for your Kindle HERE from Amazon.com for only $2.99!

Order the print version HERE for only $2.99!

©2012 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

Discovering God’s Mercy and Will

Earlier this week, I received an email from a woman who recently broke-up with her fiancé.  She wrote, “I was accepting it as God’s will.  However, a friend told me that God doesn’t micromanage the world … He just wants me to be happy with whatever that may be.  That confused me so much … it’s almost easier for me to think that my breakup was God’s will.  Can you give me any insight to what it means to do God’s will? What is God’s will?”

I replied, “Ultimately, God’s will is not about a single person or a moment in time but our entire life.  God seeks intimate, personal, loving and life-giving communion with us, and the fulfillment of His will comes when we unreservedly seek the same kind of relationship with Him.  This is not about emotion or feelings but the mysterious encounter with the Living God in everyday life, even in the midst of pain and suffering.  When you pray, ask God that His holy will be done in your life always and at all times, and let His will unfold.  Don’t try to find God’s will under every rock.  If you are patient, His Will will become clear.”

Sometimes it’s not easy to know and to do God’s will.  We know that we need to pray but so often struggle to maintain an active and fruitful prayer life amidst the busyness and chaos of the world around us.  We know that God calls us to live according to His law and His truth, yet we struggle every day to say “yes” to God: to end bad habits and vices, to break the cycle of physical and emotional abuse, to control addiction and sinful desires.  Sometimes our weakness overwhelms us and the Cross feels so heavy that we buckle under its weight.  Yet, it is when we are down that the Lord lifts us up, it is when we’re not looking that the Lord seeks and finds us, it is when we are weak that Christ is strong!

This joyous season of Easter, when we celebrate Christ’s triumph over death and the outpouring of the Heavenly Father’s limitless mercy, is a time to seek forgiveness, a time for strengthening our relationship with Christ, a time to be open to the Holy Spirit, a time to reflect on the meaning and purpose of our lives.  Prayer—particularly the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy—as well as fasting opens our eyes and urges us to peer into the darkness of our spiritual poverty and pain—to come face-to-face with those desires within us that seek to separate us from Christ and His Church.  This is the time when we build up the courage to kick Satan to the curb and turn toward the voice of the Lord who calls us to life!

In order to hear the Lord calling us, we must do what the devil does not want us to do: acknowledge that we have turned away from God, then turn ourselves toward Him once more—to experience a deep conversion and a profound transformation of our hearts.  The Lord God—speaking His Word through the prophet Joel—shows us exactly how to do this: “Return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God.  For gracious and merciful is He, slow to anger, rich in kindness, and relenting in punishment” (Joel 2:13).

The psalms give us the example of David who sought God’s mercy and forgiveness through his own conversion after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba, “My offenses, truly I know them.  My sin is always before me.  Against you, you alone have I sinned.  What is evil in your sight I have done” (Psalm 51:5-6).  Armed with the weapons of prayer and the sacraments, we “rend our hearts” turning back to our gracious and merciful God.  Yet we do not repent in order to be rewarded by God but to show our love and dedication to His Son; to show the world that our faith is a gift to be given and shared.

Our Lord told Saint Faustina of the mercy He wants to give to the world, if only we will believe in His love.  If we’re honest with ourselves, we realize that we are often lukewarm at best.  Sunday after Sunday we hear the Word of God and receive our Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist and yet we walk away, for the most part, unchanged knowing full well that Christ is calling us to change our lives, to become one with Him, which means we must reject popular opinion and the ways of the world.  We allow ourselves just enough faith to be comfortable until that faith calls us to stand-up for the truth that makes us uncomfortable.  Then, like the Apostles, we lock the doors of our minds and hearts, cowering in the fear of being rejected and unpopular.

This is the depth of the love and mercy that God the Father has for us: His Son endured the cross, carrying the weight of our sins on his shoulders.  In His tremendous suffering, He was allowed to experience alienation from God and endured death, the ultimate consequence of sin.  But by His resurrection, Christ has conquered sin; He has triumphed over death and has shattered the gates of Hell.  To be one with Him, we must be willing to enter into and share in the sufferings of Christ, to become living witnesses of the Eucharistic Lord; to truly become what we receive.

Here is the bottom line: God’s love is so immense, its power so limitless, and its embrace so tender and intimate, that Love Himself brings forth life.  God has created us in His image and likeness, has written His law of love and life into our very being, and has allowed us to share in His very life.  God invites us through His Only Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to draw deeply from the wellspring of salvation.  He invites us in the sacraments, most especially in Reconciliation and the Eucharist, to unite ourselves to Him in the deepest and greatest possible way.  He calls us to works of mercy to show that we love Him as much as He loves us.

Living in the heart of God’s divine mercy and will unites us with the Cross of Christ where we offer everything we have and everything we are in loving sacrifice to our heavenly Father in fulfillment of His Will.  As we carry our Cross along the way—as our shoulders bear the burdens of this life—let us cry out to God without fear and say, “Save me, O God, for the waters have risen to my neck.  I have entered the waters of the deep and the waves overwhelm me” (Psalm 69:1-2).  Yet we know that God, in His great love, will turn toward us with compassion—that He will open His heart and redeem us.  And when the day of rejoicing comes, let us praise God with the angels and saints, and sing with joy: “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His love endures forever” (Psalm 118:29).

©2012 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

New Year’s Resolutions … From a Mother’s Perspective

On this first day of the New Year, at a time when we remember the past with a sense of thankfulness (or relief!) and look forward to the future with renewed joy and hope, the Church, in her wisdom, draws our attention to Mary, the Blessed Mother of God and the perfect symbol of our relationship with Christ—past, present, and future.

When you love someone with all your heart, with the depths of your soul and with all your being, when you love someone with a love that is selfless and pure, you are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of the other.  This is what the Father has done for us through the Blessed Virgin Mary: God has given us the gift of Himself in and through His Word, Jesus Christ, someone who would give his life so that we may have life in Him.

God has shown both the depth of his love and his abiding respect for the dignity of our human nature by becoming one of us.  By becoming enfleshed in the womb of Mary, God wants us to know that He understands what it’s like to live in the depths of poverty.  God wants us know that He understands what it’s like to experience great sadness and humiliation, unbelievable pain and suffering, and even the darkness of death itself.  God wants us to know we are not alone and shows us through the Blessed Mother that when we humble ourselves before our Loving God, open our hearts to His holy will, and devote ourselves completely to discipleship in Christ, then we too, by Mary’s perfect example of what it means to be fully human, can share in the divine life of the Trinity and participate in God’s saving plan for the destiny of all humanity.

Both men and women are made in God’s image and likeness (see Genesis 1:26-27) but, as Pope John Paul the Great stated so beautifully, women are more capable than men of paying attention to another person and that the man—even though he shares in the parenting relationship—always remains “outside” the process of pregnancy and the baby’s birth and in many ways he has to learn his own fatherhood from the mother (see Mulieris Dignitatem, 18).  It is in Mary’s fiat, in her “Yes” to the gift of motherhood—to the gift of life in cooperation with the Holy Spirit—that makes possible the sincere gift of fatherhood in Christ (see Ephesians 5:22-32).

A man, in his way of imaging God, points to God’s “otherness” and transcendence, whereas a woman, in her way of imaging God, points to God’s immanence and “withinness” since motherhood involves a special communion with the mystery of life as it develops in a woman’s womb.  In general, a woman’s sexual and personal identity are more interior, intimately linked to her being and “bodiliness,” whereas a man’s sexual and personal identity are more exterior, more closely associated with his actions and how he understands himself in relation to the external world.

The relationship, then, of “motherhood” in God is analogously related to the interior “withinness” of the Divine Persons, the intimate relationship and exchange of love and life between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  The Blessed Virgin Mary participated in an intimate, life-giving relationship with God in an interior, bodily way that only a woman could.  In becoming one with the child in her womb, she became one with God Himself.  Like the Mother of God, the Church herself becomes “pregnant” with the Word Made Flesh each time we receive Jesus Christ Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.

“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  Having received the Eucharist, how do we give birth to God’s love and truth through this great gift of His Son?  How well do we bear the labor pains of ridicule from a society that mocks us because of our Catholic faith?  How do we give life and meaning to our faith amidst a culture of sin and death?  Mary shows us the way.  The Blessed Mother not only gave birth to God in her body but also through her example of quiet prayerfulness, deep humility, patient obedience, unwavering trust and enduring love.  She is, in a real sense, Mother of the Church and epitomizes for her sons and daughters the virtues we must make part of our own lives if we are to become the persons who God created us to be.

Therefore, it is with the heart and mind of the Virgin Mary, in completed obedience to the Father’s will, that we make resolutions for the New Year.  This way of thinking and being goes beyond resolving to lose weight, getting a new job, or going back to school (which are all very good things!)  The deeper question is: How is my life going to be a blessing to Christ this year?  Here are six suggestions:

1. Get to know Jesus more intimately: Read the Gospels for 15 minutes a day every day this year.

2. Spend personal time with Jesus: Spend one hour per week in the classroom of silence, that is, in Eucharistic Adoration.

3. Help Jesus with His work in the Church: Increase tithing by 5%.

4. Overcome the power of sin in your life: Monthly Reconciliation; daily Rosary; prayer and fasting!

5. Promote and foster vocations: Are we encouraging our children to consider vocations to the priesthood and religious life?  The most important question we can ask is not, “What do you want to be when you grow-up?” but rather “How did God speak to you today?” or “How did God use you today?”  By creating a prayerful atmosphere at home where we display holy objects and pictures, and actually pray with our children, we encourage them to cooperate with the grace of the Holy Spirit they have received in Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist.

6. Understand the teachings of Christ more deeply: Take time to learn what the Church teaches and why.  To assist you in making a deeper connection between the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and your every day life, I have written an e-book (along with a brand new CD and DVD) entitled, The Mass in Sacred Scripture.

The Mass in Sacred Scripture was inspired by the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and its desire that “the treasures of the bible be opened up more lavishly, so that richer fare may be provided for the faithful at the table of God’s word” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 51).  The Mass in Sacred Scripture walks the reader through a brief history of the liturgical changes at Vatican II that led to the 2010 Roman Missal revision in English, provides the approved English text of the Roman Missal alongside the Scripture passages from which the Mass texts were derived, and shows the intimate connection between the Mass and the Bible.  The book ends with a short question and answer section designed to root what happens at Mass within the fertile soil of our every day lived experience.  The Mass in Sacred Scripture clearly shows that, without a doubt, the Catholic Church fosters great reverence and respect for the Word of God, and recognizes the vital role Sacred Scripture plays in the lives of the Church and her children.

How is my life going to be a blessing to Christ this year?  In short, by becoming more like Mary, “the woman through whom was born the Son and who acquired divine sonship for us by His suffering.  But because we are God’s sons and daughters, ‘God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls Abba! (Father!)’  If we did not have the Spirit and the attitude of the Son, we would not be children of the Father.  It is this Spirit who permits us to shout to the Father gratefully and enthusiastically: ‘Yes, you really are our Father.’

“But let us not forget that this Spirit was first sent to the Mother and overshadowed her.  […]  Her rejoicing at this event, a joy that never ceases throughout the history of the Church, rings forth in Mary’s Magnificat: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’” (Light of the Word, 32).

Mary’s prayer of praise is exactly how we can be a blessing to the Lord this year.

©2012 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers

Thanksgiving

Psalm 138

I thank you, Lord, with all my heart,
you have heard the words of my mouth.
In the presence of the angels I will bless you.
I will adore before your holy temple.

I thank you for your faithfulness and love
which excel all we ever knew of you.
On the day I called, you answered;
you increased the strength of my soul.

All earth’s kings shall thank you
when they hear the words of your mouth.
They shall sing of the Lord’s ways:
“How great is the glory of the Lord!”

The Lord is high yet he looks on the lowly
and the haughty he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of affliction
you give me life and frustrate my foes.

You stretch out your hand and save me,
your hand will do all things for me.
Your love, O Lord, is eternal,
discard not the work of your hands.

After you’ve been married or in religious life for a while, there’s a tendency to start taking the relationship for granted.  It’s not that you love your spouse or the members of your community any less.  Over time, you just become so at ease with them that comfort begets complacency.

Thanksgiving is a time for us to focus on the great gift the Lord has been in our life and in the lives of those we love.  It’s about sharing the gift of ourselves with others.

Thanksgiving is a special time to be grateful for what the Lord has granted us both materially and spiritually, but it does not mean dwelling in comfort and abundance.  Rather, it implies a personal response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who calls us to be His courageous servants of all that is true, good and beautiful, and to make a connection between the faith that we learn and the lived experience of that faith.

In the Gospel of Luke, nine of the ten lepers are so comfortable in their relationship with the Lord that they fail to “bless the God of all who has done wondrous things on earth.”  Only one of them came back to give thanks to the Lord and, through his physical healing and restoration, received an even greater gift of spiritual renewal and salvation.  The lesson for us is that God has ways of rewarding those who are generous with what they have received from Him.

 Every Sunday we come together in the ultimate act of giving thanks: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass where we receive the Holy Eucharist, which literally means “thanksgiving” (the Greek word “eucharistein” means “to give thanks”).  The Eucharist strengthens and nourishes us in the middle of the desert of our lives–on our journey of faith–so that we can be faithful witnesses to the goodness, beauty, and fidelity of Jesus Christ in the hope that we may be a Eucharistic presence in the lives of others amidst a culture that constantly nourishes itself on the food of this world–food that fails to satisfy the human heart’s hunger and thirst for truth.

We thank God the Father for the grace He has bestowed on us in Christ Jesus; for the sacrifice of his only-begotten Son by which we are sanctified and saved, and that this sacrifice is made present to us in its fullness of grace and love and spiritual fruitfulness every time we dare to approach this holy altar to receive Jesus.  This is a gift for which mere thanks is not enough.  So we fall down in worship before the Lord and we recognize in gratitude our responsibility to live what we receive, to become “other Christs” in the world, to live the Gospel and to allow the grace of the Holy Eucharist to refashion us in the image and likeness of God, which we had lost through sin, and that continues to be obscured by our attachment to sin.

So on this Thanksgiving Day, let us be faithful stewards of the natural and supernatural gifts of God: our homes, families, and work as well as the grace of the sacraments, prayer, and the hope of eternal life.  Let us also be thankful for the crosses as well as for the resurrection experiences in our lives.  Let us receive all of these gifts in a spirit of humility and an attitude of gratitude.  Let us “give thanks to the Lord for He is good; for His love endures forever.”

©2011 Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers