SPIRITUALITY 101
SPIRITUAL REFLECTION- 105
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

French Catholics respectfully pronounce the name of a Parisian parish priest, Father Macchiavelli who left his magnificent church of Saint Augustine in Paris to live as a missionary among the new wave of existentialist skeptics mushrooming in the suburbs of Paris. The priest went to live at a semi-savage colony near Paris, called Saint Ouen. Some of the citizens who raged against the church found him on the street one day. They cursed him and through stones a him. A stone hit him on the forehead, drawing blood. The priest picked up the bloody stone, kissed it and said: "Thanks, my friends. I shall save this bloody stone and I promise you that it will be the first of a church we will build here." As a matter of fact, a church was somehow erected and that stone, bathed in the priestly blood, is there set as a precious stone within the wall of the church.

When we forgive those who sin against us, God creates a new edifice. He forgives our sins, and infuses the virtue of forgiveness into our soul. We then become the presence of forgiveness in the world, a precious gem in the mystical body of Christ, His Church.

DEVOTION - Growth in love- 3rd stage 
DEVOTIONALS- MEDITATION-SACRAMENTALS-THE ROSARY-32 
OUR FATHER-8 

"Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" You may note that when we pray Our Lord's prayer in community, we often have one group lead and the other group follow with the next section of the prayer. It would go such as this; "Our Father who are in heaven, hallowed be thy name, They kingdom come, They will be done on earth as it is in heaven." The second group continues with "Give us this day our daily bread, etc." When prayed in this way it becomes more obvious that the arrangement of the prayer is similar to that of the Ten Commandments on the two stone tablets. The first three commandments set forth our obligations toward God. The remaining commandments outline the obligation we have towards ourselves and to our neighbor. In the Lords Prayer, as Jesus taught it, we see the same division. The first three petitions give glory to God. The remaining petitions are that God will deliver us from all evil, past present and future. Past evils include all sins committed; future evils comprise all temptations that may lead to sin and present evils are those trials and tribulations that accompany us in every day life. The greatest of these evils is our personal sins, past present and future. Sins are trespasses against God, against ourselves and against our neighbor. Sin is an enigma, difficult to understand, as Paul states in his letter to the Romans, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold into slavery to sin. What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate." Those who have taken a serious path toward God realize the constant struggle that Paul describes in order to maintain a firm relationship with God, with himself and with his neighbor (Romans 7:14-16). Sin appears to be a separate sort of wisdom within us, that lives within us and carries on its life as though there were no God. Although this wisdom is folly, it holds a firm grip on us and is difficult to repel. Paul expresses it thus; "Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." (Romans 7:20) He sees this wisdom of folly as "another principle in his members at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive in the law of sin that dwells in my members" (Romans 7:23).

It is obvious that sin pervades our being in a holistic manner so that it affects everything that we think, all that we say, all that we do, in fact the very essence of our life. It is as though sin is in the blood and affects every tissue of our body. It is this influence of sin that requires its rectification through the blood of Christ. We can then understand why the book of Hebrews states that "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin" (Hebrews 9:22). The forgiveness of sin required that God become man, to share life in union with a human body. Because His holiness could not be diminished, when He shed His blood at His death he brought redemption of sins to earth.

Just as Jesus in humility, emptied himself and became man, through a similar humility we must bow our head to pride and forgive anyone who has trespassed against us. This is the condition of forgiveness of our sins. Christians can be recognized by their humble stooping or kneeling before God. His birth in a cave gives us this symbol. To enter the cave in which He was born, one must stoop, bending not only our backs, but also bend our will against pride and give forgiveness so that we can receive forgiveness. In the fifth petition of the prayer we find one of the roots to spiritual union with God. This root is forgiveness. We pray for our own forgiveness, but contingent on it is our forgiveness of others. We might consider the fifth petition of the Our Father to be a petition for the grace of forgiveness and just as important, a petition for the virtue of humility.

NEW CATHOLIC CATECHISM 
ARTICLE NO. 1077 

"Blessed Be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us before him in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." (Eph 1:3-6)

ARTICLE NO. 1078 
Blessing is a divine and life giving action, the source of which is the Father, his blessing is both word and gift.(eu-logia and bene dictio) When applied to man the word "blessing" means adoration and surrender to his

ARTICLE NO. 1079 
From the beginning to the end of time, the whole of God's work is a blessing. From the liturgical poem of the first creation to the canticles of the heavenly Jerusalem, the inspired authors proclaim the plan of salvation as one vast divine blessing.

BLESSED TO BE BLESSING
Deacon Jim Breazile o.c.d.s.

Every spiritual blessing in heaven
Has become an earthly leaven
In which we become the firm foundation
To give Him constant adulation
To live as His daughters and sons

He has blessed us throughout all eternity
In contemplation of His paternity
According to the purpose of His will
Through grace bestowed our souls to fill
To live as His daughters and sons

Through His love we have been blessed
To be blessing in the world for all the rest
Who know not praise and deification
And do not surrender to edification
To live as His daughters and sons

Ó2001 DR. JAMES E. BREAZILE, deacon 
JOHN PAUL EVANGELIST OCDS