The First Saturday in Lent

This is a special day!  The Feast of the Servite Fathers and Lenten Companions Day fall on the same day, very unique!  

At the skete on this day (First Saturday in Lent) we pick our Lenten Companions from the Saints.  We study with these saints throughout Lent.  Reading about them and learning from their lives.  For example Seraphim picks St. Joseph and St. John because St. Joseph was at the first three sorrows with Mary and St. John was at the Last Four Sorrows.  We will specifically say the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, "The Savior's Last Appeal" today! 

It makes it even better knowing this is the Feast Day of the Servite Fathers. The Servite Order is one of the five original Catholic mendicant orders. Its objectives are the sanctification of its members, preaching the Gospel, and the propagation of devotion to the Mother of God, with special reference to her sorrows. 

The Seven Sorrows of Mary are as follows:
1. The Prophecy of Simeon (Luke2: 22-35 /vv34-35/)
2. The massacre of the Innocents and flight into Egypt. (Mt.2:13-21)
3. The loss of the Child Jesus for three days. (Luke 2:41-52)
4. Mary meets Jesus carrying His Cross. (John 19:17; Lk. 23:27; Isa 53:6)
5. The Crucifixion. (John 19:18-30)
6. Mary receives the Body of Jesus from the Cross. (John 19:38; Lam. 1:12)
7. The Body of Jesus is placed in the tomb. (John 19:38- 42; 2Tim. 2:11)

Reparation Resistance

We hear about resistance from people against the government, against religion, against all kinds of things. However, there is a different and necessary resistance, ... these words from one of the NHA Reparation Rosary Retreats two years ago: 

The Resistance is strikingly described in Numbers 23:9 “From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.”  The world’s response to the Resistance is found in the words of Haman to King Xerxes: “There is a certain people dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom who keep themselves separate.  Their customs are different from those of all other people, and they do not obey the king’s laws; it is not in the king’s best interest to tolerate them.” -Esther 3:8.  Hence may we heed the words of Mordecai to Esther: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” - Esther 4:14

The necessity for the Resistance is urgent and evident as we consider the present plight of the world “seated in wickedness” - Jn. 5:9.  May we be pressed with the imperative to take up the Program of Reparation: Repentance, Resolution and Reparation confronting the four evils of our day making 2 Chron. 7:14 our “Oratio Imperata”.

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Reparation - The Holy Face

As we continue on with the Novena to the Holy Face, these words from the NHA Reparation Rosary Booklet:

"The Prayer of Reparation seeks to make whole what is fragmented by putting love where there is none, by gazing with reverence upon Him who men disdain, i.e. “The one from whom men hide their faces” -Isa. 53:3. 

Abortion is an outrageous blasphemy against the Holy Face of Jesus because it prevents a child’s face from seeing another human face (Ex.20:13; 1Cor. 8:12; Mk. 9:42; Mt. 25:40). It also is an offense against the Most Holy Name of Jesus because abortion prevents putting a face to a name. Putting a face to a name has great effect. When the soldiers came to the olive grove in search of Jesus, he met them asking: “Who are you looking for?” and they replied “Jesus of Nazareth” and Jesus responded “Iam he”. When Jesus said, “Iam he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. (John 18:3-6). satan and his co-operatives want to keep separated the Most Holy Name of Jesus from His Holy Face. But when Jesus was named satan was disarmed! Note well, the Face of Jesus is intended to change the face of the earth (Lk.1:31: 2:21; Phil.2:9-11).

To be one who makes repairs is to give our Lord what others deny him. Just recently I was told of a television show that featured various people urinating on the Crucifix of our Lord. Upon hearing this I immediately went to the prayer chapel and placed eleven crucifixes on the altar, lit a candle that I intend to keep burning for 40 days and then offered incense in a deep spirit of reparation. Our Lord said “I thirst” (Jn.19:28). This thirst continues unquenched because it is a thirst for souls, faith, hope, love, thanksgiving, petition and adoration. Our Lord’s thirst will continue until the end of time but so will the call to reparation continue among and in his people.

“Let the priest, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar” - Joel 2:17; Ezek. 22:30
The Face of Jesus, the Name of Jesus and now the Heart of Jesus seen in his Name and of his Face: It wasn’t until the seventeenth century that the organ of the Heart with its crown of thorns and flame of love began to appear. The more ancient images of the Sacred Heart was that of the wound itself in the side of our Lord’s body. The open Wound was in itself an invitation to press beyond it, to cross its threshold, to make one’s dwelling in the inner sanctuary of the Sacred Heart but the Heart remained hidden. We must be careful - in taking the Heart of Jesus and enthroning it by itself, we run the risk of taking the Heart without the Wound. One must be wounded to embrace His woundedness to get to His Heart. The Prophet Joel says “wound your hearts” - Joel 2:13. As you make reparations before image of the Sacred Heart keep in mind the wound in His side (John 19:34; 20:20; 1John 5:6,8). Hence the putting of “a” Face to “a” Name leads to the Wound which leads to the Heart.

“My heart says to you, ‘Seek His Face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek! -Ps. 27:8
Finally, reparation is the unceasing effort to bear witness before endless crosses on which our Lord continues to be crucified.
Experiential Reparation makes present in the history of humanity the force of redemption. -Seraphim

Reparation Returning

Christianity is a middle eastern religion, in intimate familial relationship with Judaism.  Reparation is needed for returning.  The sights and sounds of this returning should be mystical, Semitic and ancient, hovering in an incense shrouded air. The climate of this Reparation Returning is one of changelessness (Heb.13:8; Ex. 3:14; 2Cor.1:19-20; Jude 25).  Western rites are sanitized versions of this mysterious drama.  In this Returning, time vanishes and with bare feet* we approach the eerie secrets of an antiquity of which we are repaired. Here we have the impression of being sourced from Christian civiilzation.  This is an interior state externalized in observable rite of reparative prayer.  At this point the Theologian takes over from the anthropologist and the Remnant Reparator from the theologian. 

“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise (16) Redeeming (Repairing) the time, because the days are evil. (17) Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” -Eph. 5:15-17 

“The Rosary is, for me, making the past better so the present and future are better than they would have been.” -Seraphim 

*Ex. 3:5

Reparation Reform

OFFENSES

1. Invoking the Name while other than He is in your heart. - James 1:8; Mt. 6:24; Lk. 9:62; Ecc. 7:29
2. Un-Christian behavior. - Rom 2:24
3. Not reverencing the Name. - Mt. 6:9
4. Taking the Name without giving up material attachments.  Those who still want material pleasures won’t enjoy invoking the Name.  Bottom line, if you are not invoking with dependence on the Name, you are clinging to material attachments. - Phil. 2:9; Lk. 12:33-34; 1Jn.2:16; Mt. 6:33.
5. Giving the Name to unqualified people. Mt. 7:6; 13:11; Ps.25:14; 1Cor. 2:9-14
6. Professing God’s Name but not living answerable to it -Mt. 12:36; Rom 1:21-22; 14:12
7. In invoking avoid the three lines of distraction: 1) daily concerns; 2) memories; 3) the “what ifs” of the future. -Mt. 6:33;Phil 2:5; 2Cor. 10:3-5; Eph. 6:10-18
8. The action of an offense is that gradually attraction to the Holy Name is destroyed and one begins to regard the spiritual as material. - 1John 2:15-17.

REFORM

1. If you make offense to the Holy Name, then it’s to the Holy Name you must go for relief and restoration.  You can’t receive forgiveness for offenses to the Holy Name except from the Holy Name. - Heb 4:16.  When I say “Jesus” there is mercy for my sins. -Mt. 11:28; Mk. 10:46 -52; Jn. 1:29
2. We can get out of the offenses of the vast intermediate zone by being sorry for being there. -Rev.3:16
3. Arrange your life so that you can invoke with attentiveness. Give up all bad associations and data exposure. 2 Cor. 6:14-18.
4. Invocation is especially weakened by material desires. - Josh. 24:15; Mt. 6:24; 1Kings 18:21
5. What is the use of controlling the mind? Simply invoke the Name and hear. - Lk. 1:31; Rev. 3:22
6. When others show up simply say: “I love you, invoke! I have to finish my strands.” -Rev. 2:5; 1Cor. 7:20; Eph. 4:1-7; Acts 26:19.
7. To achieve success in devotion to the Name one must practice three forms: invoking, hearing, and remembering.- 1Cor. 14:40
8. Embrace the “Essential Teaching” and then taste. Ps. 34:8; Zeph. 3:12. Invoking the Name frees one from any desire other than the named. 

CONCLUSION

When will that day be when with a steady mind, sitting in a secluded place, I will invoke the Holy Name of Jesus.  The lamentable bondage of worldly existence will no longer echo in my ears and the deterring body will not disturb me.  If a non-prayer sees me invoke, I feel world’s apart - how much I value the Prayer Rope and invocation.  With this wealth I have the very real hope to improve and not worsen. 

One of the saddest verses in the Bible: “to whom He said, ‘This (Invocation/Prayer Rope) is the resting place, let the weary rest,” and ‘this is the place of repose’ but they would not listen.” -Isa. 28:12 -Seraphim

So God said: “I shall leave but a humble and lowly people among you whose refuge will be the Name of the Lord.” -Zeph. 3:12