Snippet from the Show

Christ promised he would be with us until the end of the age. No matter what crises we face, we trust not in ourselves, but in the power of the Holy Spirit to renew the face of the earth.

_ _

• For full shownotes, visit Ascensionpress.com/Allthingscatholic, or text ALLTHINGSCATHOLIC to 33-777 for weekly shownotes sent to your inbox.

Support All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri

Snippet from the Show

The stories we hear in the Gospel are not isolated events. If we truly understand the larger context of these stories, we will marvel at the grand love story God reveals in the life of Jesus.
_ _

• For full shownotes, visit Ascensionpress.com/Allthingscatholic, or text ALLTHINGSCATHOLIC to 33-777 for weekly shownotes sent to your inbox.

Support All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri

Snippet from the Show
“We can’t experience God’s providence unless we let go, unless we have confidence in his promise, unless we are willing to jump.”

SHOWNOTES

John 4:46-54 - So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Caper′na-um there was an official whose son was ill. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. So he asked them the hour when he began to mend, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live”; and he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

Fr. Jacques Philippe - As long as a person who must jump with a parachute does not jump out into the void, he cannot feel that the cords of the parachute will support him, because the parachute has not yet had the chance to open. One must first jump and it is only later that one feels carried. And so it is in spiritual life: “God gives in the measure that we expect of Him,” says Saint John of the Cross. And Saint Francis de Sales says: “The measure of Divine Providence acting on us is the degree of confidence that we have in it.” This is where the problem lies. Many do not believe in Providence because they’ve never experienced it, but they’ve never experienced it because they’ve never jumped into the void and taken the leap of faith. They never give it the possibility to intervene. They calculate everything, anticipate everything, they seek to resolve everything by counting on themselves, instead of counting on God. -Fr. Jacques Philippe

How to Trust God More

1. Admit your fear. Say, “God, I’m afraid to jump,” and give him your fears about the outcome.
2. Pick something you’re afraid to do (it can be small), and do it anyway. Trust that whatever the outcome, God has a hand in it.
3. Invoke the help of Mary and the saints. Ask a saint to pray for you and intercede on your behalf.

Resources

• Rejoice! Advent Meditations with Joseph Journal
• The Advent of Christ
• Dr. Sri is traveling to the Holy Land! Send your prayer intentions to info.edwardsri@gmail.com

Support All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri

Dr. Sri unpacks the biblical roots of the Hail Mary to help us truly understand the significance of this powerful prayer.

Snippet from the Show
“Every time we pray the Hail Mary, we enter into the ecstatic praise of heaven and earth. Heaven represented by Gabriel, earth represented by Elizabeth. We’re entering into their words of praise, which are in Scripture and are inspired by God.”

SHOWNOTES

“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you … ”

Luke 1:26-28 - In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!”

“ ... Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb … ”

Luke 1:39-45 - In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechari′ah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit* and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

• filled with the Holy Spirit - this language is used to describe someone who is given prophetic insight.

“ … Jesus … ”

Philippians 2:8-11 - And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow*, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• at the name of Jesus - there is immense power in the name of Jesus, and his name is at the very center of this prayer, making it literally a Christocentric prayer. St. John Paul II called it the “hinge” of the Hail Mary. He said, “The centre of gravity in the Hail Mary, the hinge as it were which joins its two parts, is the name of Jesus. Sometimes, in hurried recitation, this centre of gravity can be overlooked, and with it the connection to the mystery of Christ being contemplated. Yet it is precisely the emphasis given to the name of Jesus and to his mystery that is the sign of a meaningful and fruitful recitation of the Rosary.”

“ … Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

Luke 1:8 - And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”*

• let it be to me - Mary’s Fiat, her yes to God, is exactly what we seek to emulate. This part of the Hail Mary is where we ask Our Lady to intercede for us, so that we may accept Jesus into our hearts as she did.

RESOURCES

• Rosarium Virginis Mariae, Apostolic letter of St. John Paul II
• Praying the Rosary Like Never Before by Dr. Edward Sri
• How to Pray Like Mary by Sonja Corbitt

Support All Things Catholic with Dr. Edward Sri