189- Prayer To The Blessed Trinity by St. Elisabeth of the Trinity

Prayer To The Blessed Trinity

O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity.

May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my Unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your Mystery.

Give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place.

May I never leave You there alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative Action.

O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I wish to be a bride for Your Heart; I wish to cover You with glory; I wish to love You… even unto death!

But I feel my weakness, and I ask You to “clothe me with Yourself,” to identify my soul with all the movements of Your Soul, to overwhelm me, to possess me, to substitute Yourself for me that my life may be but a radiance of Your Life.

Come into me as Adorer, as Restorer, as Saviour.  O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life in listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You.

Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light.

O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may not withdraw from Your radiance.

O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, “come upon me,” and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole Mystery.

And You, O Father, bend lovingly over  Your poor little creature; “cover her with Your shadow,” seeing in her only the “Beloved in whom You are well pleased.”

O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to You as Your prey.

Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You until I depart to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your greatness. AMEN.

St Elisabeth of the Trinity OCD

St Elisabeth of the Trinity

Prayer

O Lord, the desire to listen to Your divine Word , the need to be silent is sometimes so strong that I wish not to know how to do anything else save to remain at Your feet like the Magdalen, in order to penetrate ever more deeply into that mystery of love which You came to reveal to us.

O Lord, what does it matter, when I can retire within myself, enlightened by faith, whether I feel or don’t feel, whether I am in light or darkness, enjoy or do not enjoy?  I am struck by a kind of shame at making any distinction between such things and, despising myself utterly for such want of love, I turn at once to You …above the sweetness and consolations which flow from You, because I have resolved to pass by all else in order to be united with You.

O Jesus, even though I fall at every moment, in trustful faith I shall pray to You to raise me up, and I know that You will forgive me, and will blot out everything with care. More than that: You will deliver me from my miseries, from everything that is an obstacle to Your divine action; and will draw all my powers to Yourself, and make them Your captive…Then I shall have passed completely into You and shall be able to say: It is no longer I that live ; my Master lives in me.

Lord, how I long to labour for Your glory! I long to give myself entirely to You, to be pervaded by Your divine life; be the life of my life, the soul of my soul, and grant that I may always remain under the influence of Your divine action.

O, Jesus…I no longer wish to live by my own life, but be transformed in You, so that my life may be more divine than human, and that, inclining unto me, the Father may recognize Your image, the image of His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased.

I am praying fervently for you, that God may invade all the powers of your soul, that He may make you live in communion with His whole mystery, that everything in you may be divine and marked with His seal, so that you may be another Christ working for the glory of the Father! …I want to work for the glory of God, and for that I must be wholly filled with Him; then I will be all-powerful: one look, one desire [will] become an irresistible prayer than can obtain everything, since it is, so to speak, God whom we are offering to God.  May our souls be one in Him, and while you bring Him to souls, I will remain like Mary Magdalene, silent and adoring, close to the Master, asking Him to make your word fruitful in souls.

O faithful Virgin, when you uttered your “fiat”, the greatest of all mysteries was accomplished in you.  In what peace and recollection did you live and act! Teach me to sanctify my most trivial actions and to spend myself for others when charity requires it, yet all the while to remain like you the constant adorer of God within me.

O my Guiding Star, the fair light of faith enlightens me to see You.  What does it matter if I feel or do not feel, if I am in the light or darkness, if I enjoy or do not enjoy.  Only let me so fix my gaze on You, that I may never wander from Your light…

O my God, I ask You to make us genuine in our love, that is, men and women of sacrifice.  It is our mission to prepare the way of the Lord by our union with Him.  In contact with Him our soul will become like a flame of love, spreading through all the members of the body of Christ which is the Church.

More texts from Elisabeth of the Trinity click here.

A Day With Elisabeth of the Trinity (5 Videos):

148: How Can We Enter Into The Sacred Heart?

The Son Reveals the Trinity

The love of the Father for each one of us was so great that He sent his Eternal Son to us (John 3:26), caused Him to become incarnate and, in Him and through Him, the Father opened wide the Gate of the Trinity to each one of us. The Trinity is in fact our true Home.

What, then, is the process through which we enter into the Trinity? God accomplishes this process in a very specific way: through Baptism we are grafted onto the Son, invited into the presence and the embrace of the Father, and become part of their everlasting reciprocal Love which is the Holy Spirit. The Son Incarnate, in fact, is our true Temple, where we can meet the Father in the Holy Spirit.

So true is this that it impacts significantly on worship. This is why we always pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. This is why the Priest summing up all worship says: Through the Son, with the Son and in the Son, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, we give you all Glory and Honour. This also shapes the way we say the “Our Father”: we are in the Son, in the presence of the Father, talking to Him, through the Holy Spirit. It is only because we have been grafted onto the Son that we can say: “Our Father”; this is why the Father then distinguishes/hears in the sound of our prayer the very Voice of his Son and answers our prayers. We are, in a very real sense, in the Son who is God, worshiping, knowing and loving the Father who is God, and praying it in the Holy Spirit who is God, that is, praying it in a divine way. So clearly the Trinity is like a closed circuit. Nobody deals directly with the Father unless he or she is grafted onto the Son. This is an important part of the Revelation which the Son Incarnate came to bring us.

This revelation is stunning if we take an in-depth look. This is the reason for the Son saying to us that through his Passion He is going to prepare for each one of us, in Him our True Temple, a place (John 14:1-3). This is why the Son says that He is the “Gate”. Indeed He is the entrance Gate to the Trinity, our Home, our resting place (our Sabbath). This is why He says that He is the “Way” that leads to the Father.

Entering into the Life of the Trinity

The Lord himself gives us clues about the life of the Trinity, showing us that only God is God, and that one has to be truly “in God” in order to know God and love God. Psalm 36:9 in fact reflects this, saying: “(Father) In your Light (that is, the Son) we see the Light (that is, Yours)”. In the Gospel the Lord mentions this “closed circuit” flow of the Divine Life: “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” (Mt 11:27)

Now, if “only the Father knows the Son”, how then can we ever access the Sacred Heart of the Son and know Him? How can we enter into the Son’s Sacred Heart? The answer to these questions is clear: the Father Himself needs to reveal the Heart of His Son to us. To accomplish this the Father needs to give us a unique gift, an exceptional capacity: enabling us to embrace the Son, in fact, to be at his level. For the new Wine (Jesus’ Heart) we need a new Skin, that is, a new capacity to embrace Him. We need to be lifted up to the Spirit world from the flesh, in order to be at God’s level and worship Him “in Spirit”.

Knowing the Father now becomes possible if the Son reveals Him. The text above says “no one knows the Son except the Father”, and except “… those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”. This certainly applies as well to the knowledge one can have about the Son (since the Son and the Father are one). Moreover, the knowledge acquired concerning the Son is given by the personal free choice of the Son. So it can be said that: Only the Father - and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal himself - do know the Son.

How the Son Reveals Himself

Now, how did the Son reveal himself to us? How did the Father present the Son to us? How did He make the Son known to us? In order to answer these questions in a satisfactory manner we need to explore an important point of our faith: Mary’s place in this process.

Mary is the New Eve

The Scriptures (1 Co 15:45; Romans 5:12-14) and the early Apostolic Fathers (St Irenaeus) see in Jesus the “New Adam”. This means that by the Grace of the Holy Spirit they were able to re-read the first chapters of the book of Genesis, seeing through the text, through the first Adam, to the New Adam, Jesus. So, suddenly, a text that seemed to talk to us only about the first Adam, starts to speak to us about Jesus the New Adam, revealing to us new depths that help us enter very deeply into the Mystery of God, of Jesus and of his relationship with Mary and with the Church.

Reading the Scriptures this way tells us that there is a unique relationship between the Son (the New Adam) and the New Eve. When the New Adam sees the New Eve, He can confidently affirm: “At last, she is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh” (Gn 2). We can also say that He recognises that her heart is born from his Heart on the Cross. In fact Mary is the first Redeemed person. Plus, as we will see it, she is the Mother of all the Redeemed. As all the Redeemed come forth from the side of Jesus on the Cross, it follows that Mary, the Mother of Christ, will be the first to come forth from his Side. She is the Mother of the Church, therefore She takes precedence over everyone and subsequently generates the actual Church.

Eve's creation

When Jesus, the New Adam, contemplates Mary, He states that She is truly the sole and unique “helper” for Him who is “similar to him” (see in Gn 2 the characteristics of Eve).

“And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” (Gn 2:28)

Two characteristics are sought: “an help” and “meet for him”. But nobody, no anima, and for us, no “just man” on earth can be “of a help” and “meet” for Him. We are all sinners, separated from God, after the First Adam’s fall. Just as with the First Adam no “helpmeet” similar to him was found, so too for God no “helpmeet” similar to Him could be found after the Fall other than in the New Eve: “But for man there was not found an help meet for him.” (Gn 2:20)

By contrast Mary knows Him perfectly, She loves Him perfectly because from Him she is taken (Gn 2: she will be called “woman” because she is taken from “man”); she is “bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh”, therefore there is a deep similarity between them stemming from the fact that she is “made of him”, “of one of his ribs”. Her similar flesh can understand his flesh, Her similar bone can understand his bones, “flesh” and “bone” being a concrete image indicating that they are of the same “make”.

As a consequence, only Mary’s Heart can perfectly honour the Heart of Jesus, because this heart is issuing from the Heart of Jesus on the Cross. This very deep Mystery encompasses the fact that Her heart is born from his heart/side, is similar to his heart, and is capable of containing/embracing his heart.

Having Children from God

But Mary is the New Eve, the “mother of the new creation” the mother of the new living in God, the Redeemed, for like Eve “She will be called Eve because she is the mother of the living”. This significant connection between the Old and New Testaments is summed up by “Living” and “Eve” being words of the same root in Hebrew. Thus the heart within her children will resemble Her heart. It will be, in truth, “flesh of her flesh”.

When the Holy Spirit says in Ezekiel: “I will remove the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh” (Ez 36) let us remember that this heart “of flesh” is of the same flesh as Mary, who is of the same flesh as Jesus!

Added to this, when Mary generates in us the Life of God, Jesus’ Life, we can say that, in an indefinable way, we are given a heart like hers, an immaculate heart. Our heart, then, is conceived in her heart, through the workings of the Holy Spirit. If we prefer, however, we can say that “Mary’s Heart is given to us”, so that we can love Jesus with her Heart: “I will remove the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh” that is Mary’s Heart now realised in us.

The deep mystery of the Eucharist now takes up this theme when we hear the words: “Take this and eat it,” “this” being “flesh of my flesh”! He who eats my flesh will have Life (see John 6:53). Significantly the word “flesh” is used here and not “body”.

Thus, when on the Cross the side of Jesus was opened, the Fathers of the Church saw there the birth of the New Eve from the New Adam’s pierced side: “Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” (John 19:34) The First heart that issues forth from the side of Jesus on the Cross is Mary’s Heart.

Then too, when the Fathers of the Church meditated upon the following verses they saw in them a Great Mystery: they saw Jesus, the New Adam, “sleeping” on the Cross, and having his side opened, and the New Eve coming out of it:

“And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: the rib, which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (Gn 2:21-23)

This is a great Mystery, the mystery of the unique relationship that exists between Jesus and Mary. He knows her perfectly and more importantly she knows him perfectly.

God built (Gn 2:22 “built” and not “made”) Mary’s Heart from Jesus’ Heart on the Cross. Only the Father and She perfectly know the heart of Jesus. Her Heart alone, till now, has been capable of containing the One whom the heavens cannot contain (see 1 Kings 8:27). The “New Skin” only can contain the Divine Heart.

Like the Mother she is, Mary then begs Him to share the capacity of the New Skin, the New Eve, with others: “Give me children or I will die” (Gn 30:1), “They don’t have wine” (John 2). She wants to have children who will be capable like Her and with Her to contain His Heart and love Him in the same way she does. Children whose heart is “flesh of her flesh”, true children of hers.

Jesus, in turn, reveals Her to us by calling her “Woman” (John 2), which means: you are the “New Eve”, the Mother of His Children. When Jesus says “Woman” He alludes to that closed Mystery, that “secluded..sealed....locked Garden” (Mary, see Song of Songs 4:12), to “what is between you and me” (John 2)! What is between Him and Her is the central Mystery for us to meditate and ponder upon throughout the entire course of our lives. It is the entrance Gate to that knowledge of the Son that the Father (and Mary) alone have. By saying “Woman” Jesus, the New Adam, reveals the secret between Him and Her, the entrance door to the sealed circulation of Divine Life occurring between them.

The heart of this New Eve, is not only Immaculate, but it is important to recognise that it is also “immaculate” from the first moment of her Conception when she was saved from Original Sin. However, if we really go back to the true place of birth of her Immaculate Heart, we must necessarily go back to the moment when Jesus' heart was pierced on the Cross. She is Redeemed/Saved by Jesus being the first creature to come out of his pierced Side on the Cross. This is her birthplace, as it is ours. Immediately following this, we can affirm that her Heart is the birthplace of our heart. Psalm 87 beautifully sums this deep action up by saying about Mary: “all are born in Sion”... “in you all my fountains”.

The Church can only be the Church of Christ if she reflects the image and likeness of Mary, that is, if she offers her Spouse a pure faith (Virgin) and generates children by God and from God (Mother).

62: The practical use of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception #2

Immaculate Conception

(continuation of previous post)
To me, the historical context of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is very important in order to understand it fully, and we should strive to understand the “political”, practical, thread in it.

Again, being specialised in “Spiritual Theology”, I am essentially interested in the practical spiritual impact of the Proclamation of a Dogma, any Dogma.

First: what is a “Dogma”?

The word “Dogma” we use, is a word inherited from the Greek Philosophers. A dogma for them is a universal principle which founds and justifies a specific practical conduct, and which can be formulated in one or in several propositions. A Dogma (especially amongst the Stoic Philosophers) is like a sentence of practical wisdom that one will meditate, ponder upon, and put into practice: it essentially impacts the daily life.

The use of the word “dogma” crossed from the cultural philosophical use amongst the Greeks to early Christians.

- Was that an error? Would that have meant a deviation of the right understanding of Jesus’ message?

- I am not sure it is the case. Let us have a closer look.

For early Christians (the first centuries), the “dogmas” were something very practical. It appears as well to be the same for the non-Greek christians: the Apostles themselves who were Semites.

A very early example of the implicit use of the idea of a “dogma”

See for instance how saint Matthew in his gospel presents the Trinity as a “Dogma”, i.e. as something to put into practice. The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) is the Great Charter (Carta Magna) of the newly baptised. Remember we are baptised (i.e. immersed) in each Person of the Trinity. In the Sermon of the Mountain, saint Matthew dedicates a section for each person of the Trinity: Mt 5:17-48 is offered to put the Son into practice, Mt 6 is to help us put the Father into practice, and Mt 7 is for us to put the Holy Spirit into practice. Each Person is a “dogmata”, not a sentence thought, but a Person in whom we are supposed to meditate upon, to enter, to be immersed in.

“Being Baptised” meant simply that the Father did Baptise (immerse) us, in the Trinity.

- How would this happen?

- For the first Generation, God the Father was considered to have like two hands: st Irenaeus says that the Son and the Holy Spirit are the Hands of the Father (remember that Irenaeus is disciple of the disciple of saint John). So “Baptism” would be seen as follows:

The Father takes us in His Hands and holds us tight: as a result we shouldn’t escape from His hands. How? But a set of practices that would help us remain immersed (baptised) in the Son, in the Father and in the Holy Spirit (in that order, see 2 Co 13:13).

To “be Baptised” for the first generation of Christians implied to put into practice the Three Divine Persons of the Trinity. The “Dogma” of the Trinity was practical and vital.

Therefore for the Catechesis of the first Christians (i.e. the Sermon of the Mountain), a whole chapter was dedicated to approach each Person of the Trinity in a practical way.

For a mnemonic reason, remember that each hand has 5 fingers, so you’ll find the 5 points (one per finger) to remember about the Son in Mt 5 and the same for the Holy Spirit: five sections in Mt 7.

Easy to count, easy to remember, easy for meditation, easy to put into practise. The whole “Greater Charter” (Carta Magna) of Christianity, i.e. the Dogma of the Trinity, is all comprised in this Sermon, the Sermon of the Mountain.

The historical background of the dogma

- Would dogmas change?

- Obviously: no.

- Would we have new dogmas?

- Obviously: no.

- So why do we have “new” dogmas?

- We don’t. We just proclaim a truth as a “dogma” when we see it, after a long development, under a clearer light. (Theological note: Even if it is the Pope who proclaims a Dogma, the proclamation is an act of all the Church, as you'll see below, the Pope makes a consultation first in order to "sense" the "feeling of the faithful". The infallibility of the Pope draws its principle from the infallibility of the Church and not vice-versa.)

I would ad to that last reply something important to my eye: a Dogma, as we just said, has a direct practical use to it. It is not “one more truth to proclaim”, it is one more thing to put into practise, one more thing we already put into practise but the use of which today is much more urgent, this is why it is underlined by the Faithful, the Church, the Pope.

- So why that urge to proclaim Mary as the “Immaculate Conception”?

- This is exactly my point: the historical context of the proclamation is very important to understand the reason and mainly its application in daily life.

Let us remember few facts that will help us situate historically the “proclamation” of the Immaculate Conception of Mary by Pope Pius IX:

Pius IXth

1- Pope Pius the IX^th is witnessing the end of the “Middle Age” political system, and the new spirit of the French Revolution invading the spirit of the Italians and most of Europe.

2- These changes are quite drastic and, with all the good will of the Pope, are seen and felt as a threat to the normal order of things.

Pellegrino Rossi

3- The Pope’s life is under serious threat. His Prime Minister, Pellegrino Rossi, has been assassinated (15^th of November 1848), the Swiss Guards are disarmed, making the Pope to a prisoner in his palace.

Then on the 24^th of November 1848, the Pope then escapes in disguise as a regular priest to Gaeta, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies leaving Rome to the radicals and the mob.

4- At Gaeta, in a very small crypt, the Pope prays during 9 months. He had a great devotion to Mary under the name of the “Immaculate Conception”. (You can visit the Church (“Santissima Annunziata”) and the crypt also called “Cappella d’Oro”)

Cappella d'Oro in Gaeta where Pius IX prayed for 9 months

It is during this time that the Pope formed the decision to start the process of consultation that will lead later to the declaration of the Dogma of the “Immaculate Conception”.  He published his Encyclical Letter, “Ubi Primum”, the 2^nd of February 1849 to the bishops of the Catholic Church asking them for opinion on the definition of a dogma on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

The Pope remained in Gaeta till the 4^th of September 1849.

Time of total distress

The Pope’s Prime minister is killed, his life is under threat, he has to escape, and he does it in disguise. This tells us the degree of distress the Pope is in.

It is quite obvious that the only practical help he could find was in Mary, not only that, but “Mary the Immaculate Conception”. In a situation of darkness, of total darkness, where the future of the Church is under serious threat, the traditional political order is upside down and threatened to disappear, where evil is trying to kill… the Pope turns in prayer to the Immaculate, the only Creature after Jesus that was never defeated by Evil. We can say that the Pope found the solution for his distress.

Do you see the practical, spiritual and political situation in which is born the desire to proclaim solemnly Mary as the “Immaculate Conception”?

He is in fact declaring that he found The Solution for his distress, he wants to present the solution, and he wants to say what happened to him and how she helped him.

He wants to say that this is the will of God to put in the Centre of the Church the First Sign of His Victory, the New Eve, the one that was never defeated by Evil. She is at the heart of the Church, real source and proof of Hope that God gave us.

You’ll notice that in the definition of the Immaculate Conception, it is said that this “grace”/ privilege comes directly from Jesus’s salvation, from Jesus’ Cross. I like to see Her, first Saved Person, and mother, with Him, of all the saved, I like to contemplate Her coming out of His Side, New Eve, totally pure.

The first sign of Jesus’ victory on the Cross is Mary. The prototype of all the Saved people, is Mary.

The mother and the “Mould” of all the saved, is Her as well. She generated the Head, and generates each person in the Body.

God put this Sign (the Immaculate) right in the centre of his Church. Mary is the only one who believed (see previous posts), Mary is the Prototype of Jesus’ Disciple and follower (see previous posts).

All of us, like the Pope and like that moment in the history of the Church, we reach the darkest point in our spiritual journey, and we all lift our eyes, in the darkness, to the Star of the Sea, Mary, the Only Immaculate Point in the Dark Sky, “gift of Jesus for us”, “capacity to believe” given by Him to us.

The role of Immaculate in the “Dark night of the spirit”

Now this is more technical here. According to saint John of the Cross, the “Dark night of the spirit” is the deepest and final purification the faithful should go through before reaching the “Union with Jesus” (See his book "The dark night", especially the second part). You might recognise it in the “Great trial” mentioned in the book of Revelation (Rev 9:14-17) or find it in a more plain way in: what the Apostles (or any Jesus’ follower) have to go through when Jesus is about to start his Passion: all your hopes about the Messiah-Saviour will vanish, all your life, your spiritual life seems to go and disappear in the land of oblivion.

Ven. Fr. Marie-Eugène

Now, a great catholic Master, the Venerable Fr Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus OCD (1894-1967) (his process of Beatification is on the verge of reaching completion), in his great book “I want to see God”, says that Mary plays a fundamental role in this crucial moment were everything in our “spiritual life” seem to disappear. He quotes saint Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, saying that the presence of Mary all together 1- makes that time of deep purification lighter, more bearable, and 2- is essential for this turning point in our spiritual life (the deep purification). In fact, for the first time, we are called to make a pure act of Faith, and in order to do so, we learn to use “Mary’s faith”, or better said: we ask her to “believe for us”. In doing so, we let her grow in us, and transform our spirit at the image of hers, being now for the first time capable of “believing as she believes”.

We are then starting to follow “the only one who believed in the Resurrection”, “the one around whom the distressed apostle gathered in order to draw from her the pure faith in Jesus”.

In a way, pope Pius the IX^th is saying to us: in these great times of distress, the Church continues not with the strength of papacy, or any human strength, but through the help God put in Mary, the Immaculate. God had his victory in her, and is offering to each one of us this same Victory, by putting Mary in the centre of Jesus’ faithful. Mary said “Yes” to God in the darkest moment of history (when Jesus is dead): she believed in the Resurrection; and God gives us her “Yes” so we can use it and overcome the darkness. (Note: John-Paul II made all this very clear during his Pontificate)

Does it make more sense now to believe that Mary is Immaculate Conception? Do we see better how practical is that “dogma”?

15: The power of Christianity

Participating to His Resurrection

Saint Paul says that he would like us to experience the Power of the Resurrection of Jesus (Phil 3,10). One can expand a lot on the spirituality of the participation to Jesus’ death in order to participate to his Resurrection. We may call it rightly “Spirituality of Baptism” (see Rm 6,1-5). By contemplating Jesus Crucified, an exchange can happen: we give Him our burdens, our sins, our sufferings, our difficulties, and we take His Yoke: the Holy Spirit, that purifies and transforms our inner being. We, then, experience the Transformative Power of His Cross.

His Session at the Right Hand of the Father

Without questioning at all the validity, necessity, power and efficiency of this spiritual exchange, we may explore more of that “Power made available to us” by Christ and make one more step: delving in his “Ascension into heaven” and His “Session at the right hand of the father”.

In fact The Risen Son of Man, finishes His Journey not at the Resurrection, but at the Ascension and Session at the Right Hand of the Father. This is the final destination of His Humanity: the closest possible to the Father (in the Trinity).

The Unity between the Head and the Body in one Mystical Person

Let us consider our relationship with Jesus. In fact we have one Total Mystical Christ, composed by the Head, Jesus-Christ, and his Body, us. The Head is seated at the Right hand of the Father, and the Body is here on earth, but is deeply and mystically linked to the Head. The relationship between the Head and the Body is to be compared to a tie, a bond that is so powerful that it is unbreakable, indestructible. Divine Life, the Holy Spirit, is constantly flowing from the Head to the Body.

It is more than a union, it is a unity, a “mystical unity”, an identity. This is why Jesus identifies Himself with His Body, saying to Saul who is persecuting Christians: “why do you persecute Me?” (Acts 26,14).

How to receive the outpouring of the Holy Spirit

The Power to receive from Jesus is simply the Holy Spirit. All the Power of Christianity lays in the Communication of the Holy Spirit.

How can we receive the Holy Spirit in a more powerful way?

The more we Dwell in Jesus, the more we receive the Outpouring of His Holy Spirit. This is why Jesus said two things:

1- You should rejoice that I am going to (sit at the right hand of) the Father (see John 14-16), because I’ll be sending you the Holy Spirit.

2- (While I will be seated at the Right hand of the Father) “Dwell in Me” (John 15) because this is the way to receive directly from Me the Holy Spirit.

This is why the Priest, during the Mass, says: “lift up your hearts”; so Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, can take our hearts and put them in His Heart, so we are enabled to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Power of Christianity

Stephen says that he sees « the Son of man standing on the right hand of God » (Ac 7:56). Why this statement is perceived by the Jews who didn’t become Christians as blasphemous (see Acts 7:57-58)? While for us, Christians, being able to see the Son of Man at the Right Hand of the Father is the highest achievement, and the most powerful outpouring of God? Why Jesus’ victory (to sit at the Right Hand of the Father), reaching such closeness with His human nature to the very Nature of God, is blasphemous?
In may religions, including actual Judaism, it is not at all conceivable to be that close to God. It is blasphemous because God is considered as being only High, but never that Close to us His creatures. Or, said in a different way: our human created nature can never reach God, where He IS. Let us remember that the reason why Jesus is killed (I mean the decision made by the Jewish authorities at that time) is that He declared himself being God, equal to God (see the Passion according to S. John)!
What a privilege for us to know that this is not true!
What is Blasphemous to some is the highest Power to others. Let us at least use this Power given to us!

We are all invited to meditate and contemplate this great mystery: the fact that part of us, Jesus the Head, in His Human Nature, is already at the closest to the Father. So let us be actively "in Him", using our freedom to benefit from that incredible privilege.

Let us benefit from this Power

He (as a man) is already reigning in heaven, united with the Father. Contemplating Him (seated at the right hand of the Father), we contemplate our victory. We contemplate were our heart should be, all the time.

This is how we can be in the world but not from the world (John 15:18-20; 17:16), from Christ seated at the Right Hand of the Father. Contemplating, we are united with Him, and we receive the Holy Spirit… like Rivers of Water (John 7:38)... This is the Prayer of the Heart.
Let us practise the Prayer of the Heart... constantly...
Constantly, and actively, be "in Him"... to receive his Holy Spirit...

How are your taste buds?