Motjari meeting March 20th, 2022 Fr. Foeckler’s Lecture Note

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Motjari meeting March 20th, 2022 +Ave Cor Mariae

 

 

 

Yesterday, March 19 was Feast of St. Joseph, Solemnity

11am CTD Friday 25th of March, Solemnity, Feast of Incarnation: When Jesus became a man, the word was made in flesh. He is the eternal son of God.

5 o’clock in Rome, Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

 

https://www.archchicago.org/news-and-events/prayers-for-ukraine

https://usml.edu/pray-novena-for-ukraine/

 

Pope ask all the bishops in the world to join in the mass. It’s for the consecration of the Ukraine and Russia.

 

Comparison between the war in Ukraine and the Jews during the time of Pilate. Pilate was a vicious, brutal leader – Fr. draws similarities between him and what’s happening in Ukraine and Russia at the moment.

Don’t think that those people were bad people, and that they deserve what happened to them. But if you don’t repent, the same kind of thing will happen to you – especially later after death.

 

 

Luke Chapter 13

 

The Parable of the Barren Fig Tree.

6 And he told them this parable: “There once was a person who had a fig tree planted in his orchard, and when he came in search of fruit on it but found none, 7 he said to the gardener, ‘For three years now I have come in search of fruit on this fig tree but have found none. [So] cut it down. Why should it exhaust the soil?’ 8 He said to him in reply, ‘Sir, leave it for this year also, and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it; 9 it may bear fruit in the future. If not you can cut it down.’”

 

He gives a parable for his disciples to figure out: the fig tree. A vineyard owner looked at his fig tree, which was barren. He ordered the gardener to cut down the fig tree; it had been barren for three years and still nothing has happened. However, the gardener begged him for some more time, telling the owner that he would water and fertilize the area around it so it would bear fruit.

 

Father: owner of the orchard

Jesus: the gardener, come to rescue us (the fig tree).

 

Jesus is the gardener tending us, as his fruit trees. It is also interesting that the owner waited 3 years, the number of years which Jesus also spent to help us.

 

This is a parable telling us that we need to repent, and that Jesus is working for us to repent and be saved. Repentance is about conversion, the first step of turning back to God. Feeling sorry is only a first step. We need to be like Jesus, to become his fruits. Consecration is spiritual way to become God’s fruit.

 

Fruit that lasts, endures eternal life. The soul is the breath of life for us; it’s what gives us life and makes us human. They reside in the mind and our heart. Our souls are immortal. When you baptized, your soul is sanctified. Animals souls are not immortal, but humans’ are. Anything that helps soul to live is what Lord help us to do. Jesus came to save the souls and our bodies. Everything will be made new in resurrection. Charity towards our neighbor; forgiveness towards our enemies; taking care of the poor and the sick; worshipping God. In a word, called to be like Christ. Anything that helps our soul have immortality, to live, is the fruit that God wants us to produce and will help us to produce. This is what consecration does.

 

Consecration means setting something for God. When you consecrate a church, it becomes God’s place. Altar is simply a table, but once you consecrate the table, that is only for God, you cannot use it for other things. You make it belongs to God.

 

 

 

Today’s reading Reading I

Ex 3:1-8a, 13-15

Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro,
the priest of Midian.
Leading the flock across the desert, he came to Horeb,
the mountain of God.
There an angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in fire
flaming out of a bush.
As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush,
though on fire, was not consumed.
So Moses decided,
“I must go over to look at this remarkable sight,
and see why the bush is not burned.”

When the LORD saw him coming over to look at it more closely,
God called out to him from the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
He answered, “Here I am.”
God said, “Come no nearer!
Remove the sandals from your feet,
for the place where you stand is holy ground.
I am the God of your fathers, “ he continued,
“the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.”
Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
But the LORD said,
“I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt
and have heard their cry of complaint against their slave drivers,
so I know well what they are suffering.
Therefore I have come down to rescue them
from the hands of the Egyptians
and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land,
a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Moses said to God, “But when I go to the Israelites
and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’
if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?”
God replied, “I am who am.”
Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites:
I AM sent me to you.”

God spoke further to Moses, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites:
The LORD, the God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob,
has sent me to you.

“This is my name forever;
thus am I to be remembered through all generations.”

 

——————————-

 Moses was a shepherd. He was leading his sheep when he saw a bush burning, but it wasn’t being burned up – it wasn’t consumed by the fire. When he approached, God saw him coming and called out to him. God told him, “Come no nearer. Remove your sandals from your feet, for you are standing on holy ground.” 

 

Koreans and most Asians have custom to remove our shoes when we get home. Because your home is safer to you. Why God told Moses not to come nearer and remove his shoes? Because it’s a holy place, because God lives there.

 

We have different words for consecration (to move toward God) : sanctification (to make holy), divination (to make divine (?)) ⇒ They all mean “becoming holy.” John Paul II said that in order to move towards God, to become holy, you must become like God. This is because, as we say in the Eucharistic celebration, “[God] is the fount of all holiness.”

 

John Paul II says christians are to become like God.

4 basic principles: movement toward God> Become holy> become like God>

 

There are four basic principles of consecration (becoming holy):

1. Consecration is to God and by God. We do not consecrate ourselves to anything else but God; consecration is the process of becoming holy, and God is the source of all holiness.
2. Baptism is our fundamental consecration (our first consecration, marking that we belong to God) and connection to God. It’s the basis of everything else that happens in our spiritual lives – if you’re not baptized, you can’t receive any of the other sacraments.
   • A child receives the sacrament like a seed, and the prayers during the ceremony reflect this. It must be nurtured and protected so that it may produce fruit: this is the responsibility asked upon our parents and godparents. The fruit God seeks can only grow if there is someone to take care of it.
   • Growth, progression, is towards God.

1. God never does anything, in us or to us, without us (without our consent or collaboration).

1. • Collaboration: we work with God and God works with us. Ex. Mary and incarnation – God sent the angel Gabriel not only to tell Mary of their choice, but also to ask her for her consent. She collaborated.
     • Note: Mary is the holiest human being in the world aside from Jesus.

1. There is no better way to be consecrated than by doing it with Mary. Why?

1. • God the Father entrusted his Son to her. God’s salvation came to us through Mary.
   • “Behold your mother.” Every person that is a son or daughter of God has Mary as her spiritual mother.

 

Note that every consecration is TO JESUS, THROUGH MARY’S immaculate heart.

 

On Friday, the Pope is going to consecrate Russia and Ukraine through the immaculate heart of Mary. He’s going to ask God in prayer to precisely move the two countries closer to God, to “shower them in graces to move them closer to him.”

 

Remember John Paul II’s words: “Totus Tuus,” “all Yours” (yours meaning O Jesus, through Mary). His motto (every pope and bishop has a motto).

 

When I offer myself, I’m completing all these formal tasks (like the steps above). But when you consecrate for someone else, some may not want the consecration; however, it will give them the possibility to become holy.

• Essentially: “Why in the world can God not be mobilized, if other people (ex. doctors, armies) can be?”
• The goal for this consecration and becoming holy, more like Christ, is peace. That the guns will stop firing. This can only happen if the people become more like Christ (according to Fr.)
• We aren’t re-doing the consecration of John Paul II, but renewing it based on the new need for it.

 

Friday at 11 am. – a simple prayer, you could say, “Lord, I unite my prayers and heart with prayers of the Pope to Russia and Ukraine. I join the Holy Father’s consecration and pray it brings peace”

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