New Blog

Howdy,

Wow! It's been a long time since I posted on this blog.

Sorry for not keeping you informed.

If you don't already know I have moved blogs a number of times. However, I've finally settled down. You can follow my writings on faith, philosophy, society, and technology by visiting my new blog.

The Eighth Way

-- Br. Gabriel T. Mosher, O.P.

The Fifth Glorious Mystery

The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lord Jesus, You died for to restore our broken relationship with the Father. You rose from the dead for our salvation. You imparted Your Holy Spirit to guide us on our way. You ascended into Your glory to be our High Priest. All this for us poor sinners. You shed the cross and exchanged Your crown of thorns for a crown of glory. Yet You did not stop there - though that would be more than we could ever dream of in this life. You go so far to share Your very crown with us. How wonderous a God you are! And our Mother, Your Mother, is the first to share in this amazing gift. By crowning her you show us that You are faithful to Your promises. Allow me, O Lord, to share in this promise of future glory. Allow me to one day receive my crown, which You have fashioned by Your blood, along with Mary. Allow me to lay my crown at Your feet and praise You with all the Blessed. Let Your grace fill my heart so that it burns with Your love.

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery

The Crucifixion of Jesus

O majestic throne of Christ upon which He hung!  What is the Cross but the sum total of all the sins of every human person who has ever lived, lives, and ever will live condensed unto two beams of wood.  It is an instrument of torture and torment just as our sins rend the soul and rip the flesh.  It is the sign of the cruelty that reigns in each of our hearts.  It is as heavy as a mountain but as light as the flight of gossiping words.  And God was nailed to this thing - this reprobated wood!  His blood drained out upon its rough frame painting its ill intentions with love divine.  Pilot and the Jews believed that they had nailed this Jesus to the Cross.  Yet, they knew not the sublime truth.  The truth was that the cross was nailed to our Lord.  It was not our Lord who writhed upon the cross but the cross who writhed upon His sacred frame.  The death of God was unto life and that life was unto the death of the cross!  O sin, O cruelty, O wretched soul of demonic intentions, you have been nailed, pierced, thrust through and cast aside by the God who is sovereign over all.  O death, if you knew your fate would you have fled?  O cross of Christ would you not have rejected the nails if you knew your hour had come?  Yet, too late is the hour for your triumph.  Too late for the victory of the prince of this world.  Now is the day of the Lord's visitation.  Sin trembles, death retreats - the earth trembles and all is made anew.

The Fourth Glorious Mystery

The Assumption of Mary

Mary is the great image of the Christian.  Mary is the faithful virgin who unites her will so perfectly to the Father's will that our very redemption is made possible.  She is the immaculate one, the pure bride and model of the Church.  She gives birth to Christ in the flesh and she gives birth to each of us in the Spirit.  She is the perfect Christian.  It is no surprise that she would be taken up into heaven in such a radical way.  But is it so radical?  Is this not a foretaste of what will happen to our mortal bodies?  Does she not now receive what  we will all receive at the consummation of the world?  Yes.  Mary is the forerunner even as John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ.  In her very body Mary is the proof of the promises of Christ.  In her body she shows us what our future glory in heaven will one day be.  With our trust placed firmly on Christ we dare to hope that we will one day enter into the communion of the blessed.  Yet, more gloriously we will one day be reunited to our bodies as Mary is now united to hers.  What a wondrous gift.  How good is our Lord that He would raise up our broken and mortal flesh and infuse it with His very life.  We look to you O Mary as we travel through this troubled world.  You show us the humble way to your Son.  Guide us so that we may come to be with you in the glory of God for all eternity.  Look with mercy upon us who cry to you for we do not share your impeccable state.  We are sinners who follow you with little steps toward your most glorious Son.  Intercede for us, my Queen, and show us the way to Him.

The Fourth Sorrowful Mystery

Jesus Carries the Cross

Who's Cross is this?  Surely the Cross does not belong to Jesus.  This Cross that He shoulders is my cross.  It is mine by right but it is His by choice.  I earned that cross.  It is I who ought to be stretched out upon it.  The damage that I have done in this short life by my sins can only be considered worthy of the cross.  The innocence of Jesus cannot bear its weight.  He falls, he falls, and again he falls!  He is nearly dead from the treatment that He was given before He was made a spectacle for the crowd by Pilot - and now He does this?!  He carries my cross for me?  How ungrateful I am for such an unfathomable kindness.  Can I ever repay my Lord?  No.  He does not even ask it.  All He desires is my love.  Why can't I give to Him that which He asks in return?  Am I so weak.  Yes.  When faced with His strength, when he hoists the tree upon which He will hang, as He drags my sins to Calvary, and when it is all for love of me; I cannot but realize my utter helplessness before Him.  I am conquered by His love.  I want to despair for my lack of love.  I want to hid from His searching gaze.  But, I cannot hid from it.  I cannot crawl into the shadows and die in my sorrows.  I look upon my Lord who loves me and I want to love.  I hope to love.  I yearn to love!  Lord, teach me to love, Lord teach me to die so as to live.  Lord, help me because without you I cannot take a single step.  Lord!!

The Third Glorious Mystery

The Descent of the Holy Spirit

As Elisha is covered with the mantel of Elijah the Apostles are covered with the mantel of the Holy Spirit.  Elisha received a double-portion of the spirit of Elijah while the Apostles received the over-abundant plenitude of the Spirit of God.  No place is this more evident than with the Prince of the Apostles.  Peter is transformed from a stumbling, bumbling cur of a man into the Blessed Peter we see in the Acts of the Apostles and in his epistles.  So great was the grace bestowed upon Peter that people yearned to merely be touched by his shadow that they might be healed.  How abundant is God's gift to those whom He loves.  Peter received what we all might receive if we only had faith in the Lord Jesus.  Just a little faith, the faith of a mustard seed, and we too will work signs and wonders in the midst of His people.  But we must be humble and pierce the depth of the command of service.  If I invoke the Holy Spirit in the name of Jesus it must be to build His Church.  This gift is not given to me for me.  Rather, this gift is given to me for others.  The Holy Spirit prays for me, preaches for me, lives in me so that it is no longer I who works but Christ who works in me.  But, Mary too was in the upper room and she wrote no great letters, preached no great sermons nor performed any great healings.  What then does this service mean?  It is not merely for actions of a practical nature.  We must never forget that the Kingdom is of the Spirit and not of the Flesh.  Thus, Mary shows us the humble way of service.  She neither speaks nor labors in the vineyard of the world.  Instead it is through her stable intercession on behalf of all her Children that she builds up the Kingdom.  This must be our first act.  We must intercede for our brothers and sisters as Mary intercedes for us.  It is only after we pray for others that we may be of corporeal service to them.  Let us not forget the Spirit!  Our age dwells on the pragmatism of the flesh and we must never succumb to the temptation of such pragmatism.  We must spread the Gospel with broad brushstrokes adding flourishes and beauty to this life.  Through our own Deification we must divinize the world.  Come O Holy Spirit ... renew the face of the earth.

The Third Sorrowful Mystery

The Mocking of Jesus

I must reflect on the culmination of this event.  Call it a Spanish affectation but I find this moment to be one of the greatest in the whole of Scripture.  This is what Scripture and Art call the Ecce Homo.  Behold the Man!  Jesus has been shackled and beat since the night before - Behold Him!  He has been scourged ruthlessly at the command of Pilot - Behold Him!  He has been beaten and ridiculed by soldiers - Behold Him!  His sacred head has been pierced with numerous thorns, tearing and rending His flesh - Behold Him!  Chained, beaten, bloody, torn, pierced, mocked, starved, imprisoned, naked, hated, scorned, defiled, shorn of His dignity, made a spectacle for the crowd, Behold our God!  Don't turn away your eyes.  It is at this moment when he is a mirror of you.  Here, as He stands for judgment in such a retched condition He most perfectly resembles our humanity.  What torments will He not endure to win your love?  And yet they look upon Him without love, without care, without any touch of humanity.  They look at Him as jackals upon a carcass.  Do not look away.  Gaze intently upon the eyes of your savior, for it is there, behind the blood and the gore marring His Blessed face, where you will see the tender love of your God.  Never look away!