By: Ivonne J. Hernandez

Just like you can catch more flies with honey, you can change more hearts with kindness. I once watched a video that showed different people in a hospital lobby. As they walked in and out of the elevator and greeted each other with a smile, a caption would come up and reveal to the viewer the hidden struggle in their hearts. One had just received a cancer diagnosis; one had just lost a child. One after the other, they each carried a burden invisible to others’ eyes. The message of the video was, “You never know what someone is going through. Be kind.” Being kind is not always easy but it is always right. But the kindness I am speaking about is much more than simply “being nice”; it is one of the attributes of the Spirit of God, “Love is patient, love is kind” (1 Cor 13:4).
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I find it easier to be kind when I either have a pretty good idea of what someone is going through because I’ve gone through something similar, or when I have no idea at all of what they are going through and allow myself to give them the “benefit of the doubt”. I find it hardest to be kind when I know “some” of what they are going through. When I know just enough to form an opinion, but not enough to truly empathize. And if I think their choices will end up negatively affecting me, then I find it even harder to be kind. The choices of others affect us. “If [one] part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy” (1 Cor 12:26). It can be unnerving when we see others taking actions that might negatively affect us, yet we are still called to be kind.

Kindness is intimately connected to mercy. You can’t have kindness without mercy, and you can’t have mercy without love. These actions come from the love of God and move towards love of neighbor, fulfilling then the law of love. So, kindness is not merely being nice for our own benefit, or to avoid conflict, but it is necessarily focused on the other. It is sharing with another the very love of God. A truly kind gesture or word has the power to change another’s life, to be a light shining in the dark. It is through our own prayer that this light will shine. As we take the time to nurture our relationship with God and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, His fruit will grow in us. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). It is then we will have the grace to be truly kind.

By: Rick Hernandez

We are imperfect. We err often. We make mistakes. This is absolutely an intrinsic part of our human existence, and it is a fact that our mistakes help pave the road of our experience. In our human imperfection, in this human limitation that we live in, Christ calls us to greater heights.

"Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

Christ directly states what the goal is. The goal is perfection. But what does perfection mean? What is Christ really asking us to be?

We are never going to be perfect, not in the meaning of the word we use today. The original Greek word used in the Gospel of Matthew is "teleioi", which comes from the word "telos", meaning "to be complete" or "to achieve its end". We are imperfect, yet we can fulfill our purpose and achieve our end through constant work, thus reaching for that completeness that we are called to seek. 

Saint Thomas Aquinas asserts the following correspondences between the seven Capital Virtues and the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Aquinas asks us to work on the virtues and obtain their gifts to grow closer to sainthood.

• The gift of Wisdom corresponds to the virtue of Charity.
• The gifts of Understanding and Knowledge correspond to the virtue of Faith.
• The gift of Counsel (Right Judgment) corresponds to the virtue of Prudence.
• The gift of Fortitude corresponds to the virtue of Courage.
• The gift of Fear of the Lord corresponds to the virtue of Hope.
• The gift of Reverence corresponds to the virtue of Justice.

How pure is the love of the Father that allows us to make our mistakes yet offers loving guidance towards the right way for us? The road is forward towards the path of growth, the way of experience. Experience allows us to grow in our wisdom and understanding. Understanding allows us then to work diligently towards our completion, towards fulfilling our purpose. Our purpose is to completely unite ourselves with our Lord.

"I have called you by your name: you are mine" (Isaiah 43:1).

He calls us, just as we are.  He claims us, for He perfectly knows us. He waits for us, for He knows both our place and our time. 

The host that the priest consecrates during Mass is but a piece of bread before the Consecration takes place. It is an imperfect object, but after the Consecration, that imperfect host becomes the Body of our Lord, becomes perfect. This perfection cannot be seen with human eyes, but we both know and feel its perfection, for it is Jesus Christ Eucharistic, fulfilling His purpose, showing us the end of the work of Redemption, perfect, complete. In the humble Eucharist, we receive His perfect gifts: perfect love, perfect faith, perfect hope.

We are called to achieve our end and fulfill our purpose. It is the virtue of Hope that allows us to continue moving forward. Imperfect, incomplete as we are, we can ask God to perfect our charity to be just like His.  We can ask God to perfect our faith in Him, who is faithful. We can ask God to perfect our hope, that we may draw closer to our goal.

Our love convicts us. Our faith emboldens us. Our hope encourages us. Imperfectly perfect, we are called to be.

This week, as we are praying the Novena of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), let's take time to meditate on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that we may grow towards our call to "telos" (perfection), which is only attainable with God's help. We pray to the Holy Spirit to move us, that His will for us be done, that we may "be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

May our ever-loving Lord bless us. Amen.

By: Laura Worhacz

“She ascended Calvary with Jesus, to die with Him; she came down therefrom with the beloved disciple … Later, she would conduct them to the Eucharistic Cenacle, there to begin her Christian maternity at the foot of the Divine Sacrament.” -  Saint Peter Julian Eymard (Eymard Library, Volume 7, page 96)
 
Dearest Eucharistic Family,

We are blessed to have a mother through Our Lady’s Christian maternity. By Mary receiving the flesh of Christ at the announcement of Gabriel and birthing Jesus into the world, her maternity begins. Mary takes us as mother; she conceived us in the death of Christ; she rose with Jesus to continue to live her divine maternity.
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Through the pandemic outbreak of the coronavirus I have been intensely thinking about the Eucharistic life, especially the daily adorers and communicants since the suspension of Mass. Jesus is with us in His promise to be with us to the consummation of the world. (Matt 28:20). So where is the Lord if we are suspended from the Eucharist? It seems the grace Mary received in her espousal to the Holy Spirit is the same grace we will receive through the life of the Holy Spirit in us. We are one with God; the Holy Spirit enables life in the hearts of the believer through our consent. Our own Christian maternity thus begins.

 Our Lady truly brings us to the Eucharistic Cenacle; her yes is passed to us, her children, through divine maternity. The life of the Holy Spirit will be with us in a magnified way this Pentecost. We prepare for the gifts by remembering them, seeking them, and praying for them. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the fear of the Lord. Mary’s Eucharistic maternity came forth from her relationship with the Holy Spirit. Mother lead us to the gifts…especially now when the Eucharist is far from reception for many.

It is in our own ascension to Calvary where we find the grace of God dwelling within, for then we call out to God in our longing and desire for peace. We each have a cross to bear this side of Heaven. In our death of self, we rise to God’s life in us. We remember our mother and the way in which she attained her Christian maternity. Mary’s desire is for us, her children, to bring the faith of the resurrection to the next generation, and to find a place of rest in her motherly arms, in her nurturing heart. This is the wisdom she received to guide us to the Eucharistic Cenacle.