Daily, as I kneel before the 12^th Station of the Cross and contemplate the scourged, bloodless, thorn-crowned body of Jesus, dead for love of me and all mankind, my prayer is a prayer of thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving for his pierced side and the blood and water poured out for all, caught up in the Mass, Calvary re-presented sacramentally in the Church which he left us through Peter, and mediated to its members in the Sacraments. Thanksgiving, which wells up from the depths of my soul that I am so blessed to be a member of 'Mother' Church whom I love with a passionately grateful heart. This Church against which, as Jesus promised Peter, "the gates of hell" - evil- "will never prevail" because he, Jesus Christ will be, as he promised, "with her to the end of time".  This Church to which John Henry Newman, a fervent Anglican gravitated, because "it is the only Church in which I am sure I can find salvation." The only one which he found faithful to the teaching of Jesus Christ.  This Church, the only one in which Dr. Nathansen, having seen an ultrasound of an unborn child and overwhelmed with guilt because of the thousands he had aborted, knew he could find forgiveness and salvation through the Sacrament of Confession. This Church which, alone down the centuries, guided by the Holy Spirit as Jesus promised, has kept intact the Deposit of Faith left it by the apostles and early Fathers.  This Church is the one I, too, trust in to find truth and salvation. This Church which has as Mother the Mother of Jesus himself, given to us by him on Calvary.

This Church, the Bride of Christ, his Mystical Body, guided and taught by the Holy Spirit, is a Church of saints and sinners, subject down the centuries to scandals, betrayal and disloyalty through its members, clerical and lay but always holy in herself in the abiding presence of her Head, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit She is holy in the Mass, the re-presentation of Jesus' sacrifice on Calvary and in the Sacraments through which are mediated to us pardon for repented sin and the grace of the Divine Indwelling.  The true members of this Church are never shaken in their faith and loyalty no matter how grave the scandals given by her unfaithful members because they have understood her nature and love her Head. They are secure in it because its Pope's Magisterium will always teach Gospel truths, because it is of divine origin, will prevail against evil and will see them safely into the presence of God when they die. This Church is not a man-made institution mouthing empty promises. This Church is the Lord's and he is always faithful.    

                  " THE  CHURCH  IS  THE  LORD'S"

Fr. Brian M. Mulcahy, O.P. who served for some time under Cardinal Ratzinger in the Congregation of the Faith, records in “Benedictus”, a personal recollection he has from that time. An interviewer from a major American news magazine asked the Cardinal: “How do you sleep at night with all the problems in the Church and in the world?” The Cardinal laughed and said:”I sleep very well, thank you!  And I’m sure if you asked the Holy Father (John Paul II) the same question he would tell you the same thing. You see, we know that the Church belongs to the Lord; He is in charge. We are merely his servants who have been given a task to fulfill for the time being, but the Church is the Lord’s!”

The humility of these two great popes before the truth of Christ's Church puts to shame the arrogance of so many these days who are vociferous in proclaiming: "The Church is ours" and who would gladly dispense with priests to get control, forgetting that without the priesthood, without ordained priests, there would be no Catholic Church at all because there would be no Mass and no Sacraments, no perpetual presence of the Risen Lord in the Tabernacle and no assured forgiveness of sins.

 The Mass, the central act of objective worship in the Church, is the re-presentation, sacramentally, of Christ's suffering and death on Calvary, in loving obedience to his Father's Will for our salvation and the redemption of all creation. In its present form: Liturgy of the Word, Offertory, Consecration, Communion and Reservation of Consecrated Hosts in the Tabernacle, it differs little from St. Justin's description of the  Mass as celebrated in his time. He was martyred in 150 A.D. for being a Christian. Justin was a disciple of St. Polycarp who was a disciple of St. Peter, the first Pope. The Mass and the Blessed Sacrament are the heart of the Catholic Faith and the joy of all who believe. The early Christians chose death rather than deny its reality. " We cannot live without the Mass." Neither could I. Neither could all who have come to understand its meaning. It's why we love the Church, try to think with the Church, listen to and follow the teaching of the Pope and give praise and thanks for the priesthood and the priests who give themselves to Christ that he may use their hands and voice to offer to his Father daily the sacrifice of himself made once and for all on Calvary to atone for sin and to restore us sinners to God's friendship. Unfaithful priests and religious; ungodly political systems, unfaithful ambivalent politicians and presidents, together with unfaithful laity will come and go. As the Psalmist tells us: "Look around- they are not there." - " But the Truth of the Lord lasts forever."

The Mass deserves and demands the greatest reverence and concentrated attention. Distractions will come and were once the bane of my life until I found a sure and certain way of avoiding them. Kneeling where I can see and hear the priest I pray with him, silently articulating every word of the prayers of the Mass, except the words of Consecration, and I answer audibly all the responses even if everyone around me is dumb. My concentration is total and the Mass is vibrantly alive for me even when the celebrant seems to be unaware of the congregation and in a hurry. With a celebrant who obviously prays the Mass meditatively the experience can be soul-stirring. By now I know even the glorious Prefaces by heart and am constantly surprised anew by  deeper understanding of statements in the Liturgy such as: " by the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the Divinity of Christ…." Share in the Divinity of Christ!  "may we become one spirit one body in Christ" As for the Consecration there are no words available to do justice to the mystery yet the breath-taking reality of what takes place here, daily, on our altars as Christ, in the person of his priest states: "This is My Body" over the bread and "This is my Blood" over the wine.  Like St. Thomas Aquinas we are "Lost, all lost in the wonder at the God Thou art."  We can only adore, praise and exclaim: "My Lord and my God."

I love the sweep and earnestness of the prayers which follow for every member of the Church on earth and in Purgatory, for every need and for every grace, for forgiveness and for assistance now and at the hour of our death.  All prayers are addressed to the Father and petitioned through Christ his Son. I am conscious that the worship we give, the prayers we pray and the whole wonder of the Mass are being repeated world-wide in every Catholic Church every day and even every hour and that the Risen and glorified Christ is entering the bodies of all communicants in every Church to transform them as he is transforming me, through assimilation into himself, and so we become ' one spirit, one body in Christ'. This is what Jesus left us. Love beyond all telling.

I love 'Mother' Church. I love the Sacramentals, the blessed objects which She provides for our senses to bring blessings in our needs of soul and body. I love Holy Water which Satan hates. I love statues and pictures, medals and scapulars. They are all a constant reminder of the minute attention of our Creator to our least need of assurance and heart- comfort. In God's providential care and love every human need is given a remedy if we only have spiritual eyes to see "his hand outstretched caressingly" in our lives: Devotion to his Sacred Heart to remind us of his human love for us in a world gone cold; The Divine Mercy Image to remind us of the Mercy of God in the merciless genocide of World War II. He knows, Jesus told us, when even a sparrow dies. And "You are worth more than many sparrows." Sometimes we need to be reminded of our need for warmth in our relationship with God lest we become too cerebral.

I love the Church, her infinite spiritual riches, her fidelity to the teaching of her Founder, to his Gospel message of salvation, to Tradition which is the Deposit of Faith handed on by the apostles and passed on to us by Christ's Vicar the Pope's   Magisterium. I love the sanity of the Commandments and the Church's unwavering emphasis on the need for society to obey them to ensure its physical and spiritual health and salvation.  The sorry mess of society today in all but a few areas comes from lack of love, from even pathological hatred of God and the Church, from the prideful disobedience which gave birth to hell through Lucifer at the dawn of creation who now, as Satan, bent on our ruin, is having a field-day in governments world-wide.

We who love this Church are serene in face of this hatred. We know Christ's promise to Her. We know that God is immutable and faithful to his word. The Church will be there when all earthly power is humbled to the dust as history shows down the millennia. Jesus wept over Jerusalem and its rejection of his Gospel. Does he weep now over Dublin and its bickering government's substitution of its own laws for the Creator's law? Over seminaries where his young men, future priests, are systematically subjected to corruption of faith and morals, as are the young by society, over the EU and its bid to eliminate Christianity?  History and the next generation or two will tell. Will the history be of the story of the barren fig-tree or the story of a warning heeded and mercy received?  Prayer releases the power of God and miracles happen.

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