GOD IS ALL IN ALL!

JMJ+OBT
Pax et Bonum!

GOD IS ALL IN ALL! Faith teaches us that God is All in All. Hope is realized when God is All in All. Charity, Who is God, is only truly present when God is All in All.

When Jesus says "repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God," those who live a live of Faith, Hope and Charity recognize that everything and everyone belongs to God. Where is Caesar anyway? Where are the rich and powerful men of old? What good does it do to conquer the whole world and lose your soul?

Turn to God now! Jesus is our Savior! Jesus is our Merciful Redeemer! Jesus loves you and He will help you if you open your heart to Him. Our Blessed Mother, Mary, will help you know, love and serve God and be happy with Him forever. Our Lady is the woman of faith, hope and charity.

We now pray that men and women of the world will help America turn to God by praying the following novena:

Please consider joining me in this Novena for our nation from October 27th to November 4th.

Our Lady of America Prayer Petition

In a few short weeks America will elect new leaders. Please join in this novena praying that America will choose wisely and respond to the requests of Our Lady of America.

Novena Prayer:

Our Lady of America, Lilly of Purity, intercede for our country during the coming elections. Since you are the ever Virgin Mary and Mother of the true God, obtain for us from the Most Holy Trinity a President and other political leaders who will support life, who will change the laws to make abortion in any form illegal, and who will protect the life of each individual at every stage.

Our Sweet Mother, intercede for us that our next President will be a person of God who will help the United States become a country of great purity and high morality. A country that will uphold family life and influence other countries throughout the world to love God above all, to serve Him and to live for Him alone.

Our Sweet Mother, time and again you have given us your gracious assistance and thus we humbly and gratefully acknowledge you as Queen of America. Intercede for us now, as we beg for the end of abortion in our country and for the uprising of a culture of life.

We place our hope and our confidence in you! Our Lady of America, pray for us and may Our Eternal Father shine His light upon this country and the whole world. Amen.

--
Through the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, St. James, St. Therese, St. Rita, St. Philomena, St. Jude, St. Nicholas, St. Alphonsus, St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Zachary, St. Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist, St. Perpetua, St. Felicity, St. Francis, St. Veronica Guiliani, St. Joan of Arc, St. Louis, St. Joseph Calasanz, St. Padre Pio, St. Patrick, St. Brigid, St. Columban and all the Holy Angels and Saints may you be abundantly blessed in the Covenant of Communion of the Most Holy Trinity, with my Priestly blessing,

Father Zachary of the Mother of God, SOLT

The Heavenly Banquet

JMJ+OBT
Pax et Bonum!

Our Father's Plan of Communion between God and mankind is described in terms of a wedding. Jesus is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride. The Holy Spirit gathers those who accept the invitation to Union with God into the Church. Everyone is invited to this Heavenly Banquet, but few are chosen. To be chosen we must love God with all our heart, soul, might and mind. To be chosen we must love our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. We witness this love by keeping the Commandments and everything Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, teaches us in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

When we live this way then we will be happy, holy and, God willing, reach Heaven. Our Good Shepherd leads us up the holy mountain to eternal happiness. There is no other way to have lasting happiness than to faithfully follow Jesus and His teachings in the Catholic Church. When we follow our own ways or listen to false "shepherds" then we stray, get hurt and never arrive at the happiness of the Heavenly Banquet prepared for us. Only those who faithfully follow the Good Shepherd as He speaks through the Catholic Church will find happiness.

It is up to each one of us to generously respond to the call to happiness, holiness and Heaven. Let us be rigorously honest and examine whether we have been faithful to the invitation and lived in such a way that we will be dressed properly for the wedding banquet. We must be clothed in Christ. In Him we live and move and have our being. We no longer live for ourselves. We live for Him who died and rose for us.

The Most Holy Eucharist is the foretaste of Heaven. Our lives are to be centered in the Most Holy Eucharist where Jesus is really, truly and substantially present. Jesus' body, blood, soul and Divinity are in the Most Holy Eucharist. Jesus, our Good Shepherd, nourishes us and refreshes us with and in Himself. The Most Holy Eucharist is the greatest gift any human person can receive. Do not be distracted from your destiny by chasing after other things. Do not be distracted by chasing after career, money, fame, success, honor, power or anything else that the world offers. Your destiny will only be realized by faithfully following the Good Shepherd.

To help us keep our focus and arrive at the Heavenly Banquet, Jesus has given us Mary as our model and Mother. Ask Our Blessed Mother to help you accept the invitation to Union with God and live in such a way as to be chosen by God. Ask Our Blessed Mother to help you keep your focus on the Good Shepherd and live in the Truth that will set you free.

-- Through the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, St. James, St. Therese, St. Rita, St. Philomena, St. Jude, St. Nicholas, St. Alphonsus, St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Zachary, St. Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist, St. Perpetua, St. Felicity, St. Francis, St. Veronica Guiliani, St. Joan of Arc, St. Louis, St. Joseph Calasanz, St. Padre Pio and all the Holy Angels and Saints may you be abundantly blessed in the Covenant of Communion of the Most Holy Trinity, with my Priestly blessing,

Father Zachary of the Mother of God, SOLT

JESUS IS OUR PEACE!

JMJ+OBT

Pax et Bonum!

Do you desire to know the peace of God that surpasses all understanding? This peace is the gift of God. We hear at every Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, just before receiving the great gift of Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist, Jesus said to His Apostles "I leave you peace, my peace I give you." JESUS IS OUR PEACE!

Peace is not just the absence of war, strife, contention, anxiety, or any other conflict. Peace is a Divine Person. Peace is Jesus Christ. The saying "No Jesus, No Peace; Know Jesus, Know Peace" is true. True peace is life in Christ Jesus. This is God's gift to us.

We must receive the gift. The gift is eternal and, thus, we must receive eternally. We need to continually receive the gift. We need to claim the gift with grateful affection to God. We need to hold onto the gift, and never surrender our Peace.

We must cultivate Peace in the vineyard of our hearts. The Holy Spirit, the gardener of our hearts, teaches us in Sacred Scripture: "your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous, or worthy of praise. Then will the God of Peace be with you."

This week, and all the moments of our lives, we are to put on the mind of Christ, our Peace. Practice, continually, thinking of the true, good and beautiful. Think of God and the things of God. Rid yourself of anything and any thought that is contrary to God. Then will the God of Peace be with you.

Ask Our Lady, Queen of Peace, to know Jesus and to know Peace. Peace came into this world through Our Lady and Peace continues to come into this world through Our Lady. Receive the Peace of Christ and share the Peace of Christ.

-- Through the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, St. James, St. Therese, St. Rita, St. Philomena, St. Jude, St. Nicholas, St. Alphonsus, St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Zachary, St. Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist, St. Perpetua, St. Felicity, St. Francis, St. Veronica Guiliani, St. Joan of Arc, St. Louis, St. Joseph Calasanz, St. Padre Pio and all the Holy Angels and Saints may you be abundantly blessed in the Covenant of Communion of the Most Holy Trinity, with my Priestly blessing,

Father Zachary of the Mother of God, SOLT

HOLINESS

JMJ+OBT

Pax et Bonum!

HOLINESS is to love God just for Himself and to do His Holy Will. In fact, the strength to do the Holy Will of God comes from the love of the Most Holy Trinity Himself. God gifts us with Himself in the Most Holy Eucharist, where Jesus Christ is really, truly and substantially present, so that we can serve the Holy Will of God . God gives us His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Most Holy Eucharist and in this Communion we find the strength to do the Holy Will of God. We see Jesus humble Himself, taking the form of a slave even though He is God Himself, and obediently goes to the Cross to save mankind for those that accept this gift of God's Love. Responding to this gift of God's Love we love God and serve His Holy Will.

God, the Holy Spirit also gives us Himself so that we may do the Holy Will of God. The Holy Spirit is Person-Gift, Person-Love. The Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Most Holy Trinity. The Divine Person of the Holy Spirit enlightens us and strengthens us with His seven-fold gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of the Lord to do the Holy Will of God. We carry out God's will in the charity (or love), joy, peace, patience, benignity (or kindness), goodness, longanimity (or long suffering), mildness, faith, modesty, continency, and chastity that are the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Our Blessed Mother, Mary, perfectly related and relates the God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Our Lady teaches us how to love God just for Himself and to do His Holy Will. Ask Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity to help you receive God's Love in the gifts of the Most Holy Eucharist and the Divine Person of the Holy Spirit. In this Love, you will serve God's Holy Will and be happy, holy and, God willing, reach Heaven.

-- Through the intercession of Our Lady, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, St. James, St. Therese, St. Rita, St. Philomena, St. Jude, St. Nicholas, St. Alphonsus, St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Zachary, St. Elizabeth, St. John the Baptist, St. Perpetua, St. Felicity, St. Francis, St. Veronica Guiliani, St. Joan of Arc, St. Louis, St. Joseph Calasanz and all the Holy Angels and Saints may you be abundantly blessed in the Covenant of Communion of the Most Holy Trinity, with my Priestly blessing,

Father Zachary of the Mother of God, SOLT

Liturgy is Life!

We find in this week's liturgy that God will be forming us, His beloved children, to think the way that He thinks and love the way that He loves. We are told that His ways are above our ways and His thoughts are above our thoughts. In fact, His thoughts and His ways are higher than the heavens are above the earth compared to our thoughts and our ways. Yet, we are His children and, thus, are called and chosen to think and act in heavenly ways. We are to rise in Christ above all earthly ways and conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospels.

We have a teaching by Our Lord in the Gospel according to St. Matthew (Chapter 20:1-16a) about the ways of God in the parable of the landowner who hires many throughout the hours of the day, even to the last hour, to work in Our Father's vineyard. In this parable we find that God is always seeking us out to live and serve in the Kingdom of God, even those who have been standing by idle most of their lives. We should rejoice that God never gives up on anyone. The way of God, the way God thinks and acts, is to call everyone to the happiness of living and serving in the Kingdom of God. God desires that all find and fulfill the Purpose and Meaning of Life that is found in God alone (see Teaching One of the Lay Formation Program).

We must ask ourselves: Do we desire everyone to come into the Kingdom of God? Are we rejoiced when others find the Purpose and Meaning of Life, even if they have been standing around idle most of their lives? Are we giving witness that draws others to the Kingdom of God? Are we actively inviting others into the Kingdom of God?

We also find that, at the end of the day, God is generous with ALL of the workers who have responded to the call. Yet, we see those that worked all day grumbling because others received the same wage. What we find is that God is generous, but man can be narrow and ungrateful. We are not to project our ideas of what is just and how things "should be" upon God. Rather we are to be open to embrace the ways of God. God is good, compassionate, generous, kind, merciful, loving and just. Are we?

Remember that God's ways and thoughts are above our ways and thoughts. We are God's children and are called and chosen to conduct ourselves as faithful members and witnesses of the Kingdom of God. If we embrace this way of life then the whole world will become Catholic. We are to honestly examine whether we have embraced the ways and thoughts of God.

Turn to Our Lady, Our Blessed Mother, and ask her to lead you to embrace the ways and thoughts of God. Ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit to transform you into faithful members of the Father's family. Learn from Jesus how to please God in your thoughts, words and actions. This week, and always, embrace the opportunities of formation to come to live and proclaim the dignity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Father Zachary of the Mother of God, SOLT

St. Paul

JMJ+OBT

In this Jubilee Year of SOLT, and the Year of St. Paul, the Holy Father teaches regarding the conversion of the Apostle of the Gentiles: The Holy Father recalled how "the decisive moment of Paul's life came on the road to Damascus in the early 30s of the first century, following a period in which he persecuted the Church".

In order to understand what happened to the Apostle as he travelled to Damascus "we have two sources" the Pope explained. "The first and most popular are the accounts written by Luke, who narrates the event three times in the Acts of the Apostles". The details the Evangelist chooses to highlight - the light from the sky, Paul's fall to the earth, his blindness - "relate to the core of what happened", said the Holy Father, "the Risen Christ appears as a splendid light that speaks to Saul, transforming his mind and his life. ... This meeting with Christ, which is the focus of St. Luke's account, profoundly changed Paul's life, and in this sense we can and must speak of a true conversion".

Benedict XVI then went on to explain that "the second source are the Letters of St. Paul himself". The Apostle "never spoke of the particulars of the event, perhaps because he believed that everyone knew its essential details: everyone knew that from being a persecutor he had been transformed into a fervent apostle of Christ, the result not of his own reflections but of a tremendous event, a meeting with the Risen One".

In certain of his writings the Apostle of the Gentiles "highlights how the apparition of the Risen Christ - of which he himself was a true witness - is the foundation of his apostolate, ... the foundation of his new life", said the Pope. Yet, Pope Benedict went on, "St. Paul did not consider the event as a conversion. And the reason", he explained, "is very clear: this transformation of his life was not the result of a psychological process, of an intellectual or moral evolution, ... but the fruit of his meeting with Christ Jesus. ... St. Paul's renewal cannot be explained in any other way. Psychological analyses cannot clarify and resolve the problem; only an event, the forceful encounter with Christ, is the key to understanding what happened". For us, the Holy Father concluded, Christianity "is not a new philosophy or a new form of morality. We are only Christians if we encounter Christ, even if He does not reveal Himself to us as clearly and irresistibly as he did to Paul in making him the Apostle of the Gentiles. We can also encounter Christ in reading Holy Scripture, in prayer, and in the liturgical life of the Church - touch Christ's heart and feel that Christ touches ours. And it is only in this personal relationship with Christ, in this meeting with the Risen One, that we are truly Christian".

-Pope Benedict XVI