OF THE HUMILITY OF JESUS CHRIST

Among all the virtues of which Jesus Christ has left us a brilliant example there are two which he seems to have particularly rec-ommended to our attention, and these two virtues, meekness and humility, having been the favorites of Christ, are for that reason the favorites also of interior souls. "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls" (St. Matt. xi. 29).

Let us first consider the degree of perfec-tion to which our Divine Model carried these virtues, and then inquire how far we should endeavor by his grace to imitate his example. We shall commence with humility, the foun-dation of meekness.

If any one could ever claim a lawful and even an absolute dispensation from the prac-tice of humility, it would surely appear to have been Jesus Christ. He was God, and can humil-ity appertain to a God? In his own nature most assuredly not. Even as man he was, propor-tionally speaking, equally exempt from it, for in virtue of the hypostatical union his sacred humanity was elevated to an unparalleled dignity.

It was impeccable; it possessed the pleni-tude of grace; it had a secure title to a future throne in heaven at the right hand of the Eter-nal Father, and on earth it already enjoyed the beatific vision. But the humility of Jesus Christ differed widely from that of man, both in its nature and extent. A consideration of the views and motives on which it was based may give an idea of its depth.

In the first place, Christ possessed a per-fect comprehension of the infinite distance between the majesty of God and the lowliness of the creature drawn from nothing, and as he united these two extremes in his own person he fully understood God's greatness and his own abjection. In the second place, holy and spotless as was his soul, its purity and sanctity were the work of grace, not the gift of nature; what, then, must have been its impression of itself, by comparison with the infinite purity and sanctity of God? In the third place, as a necessary consequence of the hypostatical

union, there existed in Jesus Christ but one person—that of the Word; therefore, his soul had no substance of its own, and did not glory in any production of his sacred humanity.

Further still, his soul being unable to pro-duce any act by personal effort, it was not free to humble itself, as ours are, but was main-tained by the will of the Word in a permanent disposition of self-annihilation inconceivable to the human mind. If this can be called humil-ity, it is at least humility of which only a Man-God is capable.

In the fourth place, Jesus Christ being the destined victim of Divine justice, he was at all times overwhelmed by the iniquities of the human race, as if they had been his own. His confusion was as great, his humiliation as pro-found, his belief in the legitimacy of his title to Divine anger as strong as if he had been the real criminal.

The habitual sentiments of profound awe, unbounded gratitude, and absolute devotion to God's glory resulting from his ineffable un-ion with the Divinity, were also eminently cal-culated to produce extreme humility, a dispo-sition yet further promoted by his voluntary dependence on his Father's will and his per-petual subjection to the dominion of grace.

I am overwhelmed, O my Saviour! at the consideration of thy humility; vainly does my bewildered mind endeavor to comprehend it; all I can clearly understand is, that it is an abyss whose depths no created intellect can fathom. But how canst thou require us to learn of thee that thou art humble of heart? What profit can we derive from a lesson so far above the reach of our comprehension? Dost thou intend to discourage us by this placing before our eyes a model which, far from being able to imitate, we cannot even contemplate? Not so; the motives and impressions which produced the humility of Jesus Christ may and ought to lead to the same result in every Christian, according to the individual capacity of each.

God is the great All: we have nothing in the order either of nature or grace except what we derive from him. Let us never lose

eIGHtEenth Sunday after pentecost

September 23, 2018

18th SUNDAY AFTER

PENTECOST Volume 6 Issue 38

Our Lady of the Rosary

15 Pepper Street Monroe CT 06468

Fr. Adan Rodriguez (Pastor) frrodriguez@rosarychapel.net

(203) 261-8290 Emergencies: (203) 268-9200

www.rosarychapel.net

HOLY MASS Sundays: 7:00 & 10:00 a.m. Weekdays: 8:00 a.m.

CONFESSIONS Sundays

6:40—6:55 a.m. 9:15—9:55 a.m.

Weekdays 7:40—7:55 a.m.

and by appointment

HOLY ROSARY Sundays: After 7:00 a.m. Mass and 9:40 a.m.

First Saturdays: after 7:00 a.m. Mass

ADVISORY BOARD

MEETING, THIS

SUNDAY, A FEW

MINUTES AFTER

10:00 0’CLOCK

MASS.

MR. ROTUNDA.

O u r L a d y o f t h e R o s a r y C h a p e l

OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY CHAPEL

MASS

INTENTIONS:

We have Mass intentions until October 22nd,

2018. We completed the list for

Bp. Morello.

sight of this fundamental principle; let us recall it to mind as often as we are foolishly tempted to fancy ourselves anything great or good. Let us perpetually inquire of our hearts, "Of what can a nothing be proud? What good quality do I possess which I have not received, and, if I have received it, why do I glory in it as if it were my own?" Is not this one reflection suffi-cient to unveil the injustice of pride, to con-found, to annihilate the odious vice forever? All the good we attribute to ourselves we ab-stract from God, and surely no species of theft can be so criminal.

The moral virtues and sanctity we may chance to possess are in their source a gratui-tous effect of God's great mercy, and can as-suredly bear no comparison with the holiness of Jesus Christ. If the soul of the Saviour, which was indebted for its surpassing gifts to its un-ion with the Word, could not look on itself with complacency in presence of a God so pure and holy, how shall we dare to indulge vain-glory? What is the atom of sanctity we imagine discernible in ourselves? Shall a drop of water measure its depth with that of the boundless ocean? Shall a spark compare its brightness with the splendor of the sun? And how shall it be if even the shadow of purity we seem to possess is in reality but the reflection of the sanctity of God, not our own?

Human nature as it exists in man, that is, tainted, vitiated, and consequently the source of all pride, had no existence in Jesus Christ; in us, on the contrary, it can never be extinct, our union with God being moral, not personal. But that moral union is susceptible of a perpetual increase, and in proportion as it becomes more intimate, so is the self-love inherent in our nature gradually weakened, and at last so nearly extinguished that if we do not antici-pate we at least arrest the first faint sugges-tions of pride, and attain to an habitual for-getfulness of self, which for man is the perfec-tion of humility.

Jesus was only the representative of sin-ners; we, on the contrary, are and have been guilty of personal transgressions. If he was so humble because he represented sinners, what should we be? The very capability of sinning, of revolting against our God, our Creator, and our Father, of consummating the basest treachery and blackest ingratitude, should suffice to inspire profound humility.

This principle being established, how shall we fail to be humble when we behold the sad spectacle of innumerable sins of all kinds, re-peated frequently and with deliberate malice?

How shall we fail to be humble when we rec-ognize in our hearts the germ of every crime; when we remember that our infidelity to grace has often exposed us to the commission of those crimes, and that we are still liable to fall unless God's great mercy uphold us? How shall we fail to be humble when we enumerate the many occasions on which we have deserved hell, and reflect that, had God listened only to the voice of his justice, our eternal lot would be amidst its devouring flames?

If it have pleased God to honor us with those special gifts reserved for a privileged few the more profound should be our humility. The greater our unworthiness, the deeper should be our confusion that the Lord of all perfection condescends to stoop to our mis-ery. But, aside from extraordinary favors, all Christians have received a grace equally calcu-lated to excite unlimited gratitude, with a de-gree of humility proportioned to those senti-ments: the inestimable grace of the Divine adoption—a grace purely gratuitous, a grace of which all others are but a consequence, a grace infinitely precious, because it is an ex-tension and a communication of the ineffable privilege reserved to the adorable humanity of Jesus Christ.

God's supreme dominion over our thoughts, words, and actions; his right to exer-cise that dominion without prejudice to our liberty; our absolute obligation to obey his will and cooperate with his grace, all concur to prove that humility is the natural appendage of humanity.

Our dependence on God being extreme and universal so should our humility likewise be; and our duty on this point will be complied with only in as far as we aspire to imitate the submission, the obedience, and the humility of our model, Jesus Christ. We can now under-stand the meaning of the divine lesson: "Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart". We are acquainted with the motives which urge the practical study of that heavenly lesson, and we have also seen the wide range of duty it embraces.

We know that humility must reside in the heart, and, according to circumstances, mani-fest itself externally in a simple, natural, and unaffected manner. We also know that we must be humble without imagining ourselves so, which would be a refinement of pride, and without leading others to think us so, which would be pure hypocrisy.

Let us incessantly pray for light to compre-hend the nature of this sublime virtue, begging

GOOD TIMES WERE

HAD BY ALL!

M A S S S C H E D U L E

MASS TIMES AT ST. MARY THE VIRGIN

1520 Delaware St, Paulsboro, New Jersey 08066

*Mass may be cancelled in the event of inclement weather.

For information: Call Mary at 856-228-4450 or Miriam at 856-456-4232 www.stmarychapel.org

SUNDAY September 23

17th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST St. Linus, PM & St. Thecla, VM

G 7:00 am 10:00 am

Intentions of the Superior Missa pro Populo

MONDAY September 24

OUR LADY OF RANSOM

W 8:00 am

7:00 pm

Special Intention Requiem Mass, followed by Rosary

and St. Joseph’s Litany.

TUESDAY September 25

FERIAL DAY, Mass from Sunday G 8:00 am Mrs. Dolan’s Neighbor

WEDNESDAY September 26

ST. ISAAC JOGUES & COMPANIONS, Mm ST. CYPRIAN & JUSTINA, VMm

R 8:00 am Priest and Religious Vocations

THURSDAY September 27

ST. COSMOS & DAMIAN, Mm R 8:00 am Special Intention

FRIDAY September 28

ST. WENCESLAS, DUKE, M R 8:00 am Burke, children & Family

SATURDAY September 29

DEDICATION OF BASILICA OF ST. MICHAEL, ARCHANGEL

W 7:00 am Charles Mendes, R.I.P.

SUNDAY September 30

19th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST ST. JEROME, CD

G 7:00 am

10:00 am Intentions of the Superior

Missa pro Populo

Offering of Holy Communion as Viaticum My God! If I am to die today, or suddenly at any time, I wish to receive this Communion as my Viati-

cum. I desire that my last food may be the Body and Blood of my Saviour and Redeemer; my last words, Jesus, Mary and Joseph; my last affection, an act of pure love of God and of perfect con-trition for my sins; my last consolation, to die in the Thy holy grace, in Thy holy love, as Thy most

holy and perfect slave. Amen.

September 23th 9:30 am Fr. Bachtiger

September 30th 5:00 pm Fr. Rodriguez

October 7th 9:30 am Fr. Bachtiger

October 14th 5:30 pm Fr. Rodriguez

For those wishing to have Masses said, an expected stipend of at least $20.00 must be paid at the time of the request. (more may be offered) If this is to be paid by check, make the check payable to Fr. Rodriguez or Company of Jesus and Mary

of God an ardent admiration of its divine beauty, a lively perception of its heavenly sweetness, above all, a generous and effica-cious resolution to embody its sacred les-sons in our conduct. It is to be acquired, like all other virtues, by exercise; experience aided by very little reflection will show how great a repugnance man naturally has to its practice. Our whole nature rebels at the very idea of a slight or a humiliation; we most cautiously conceal whatever can lower us in the estimation of others; we seek to hide the unpalatable truth even from our-selves, and never are we willing to appear in our own eyes such as we really are.

Let us at least begin by detesting our pride, by blushing at it, by beseeching God to heal the dreadful malady and to grant us courage to apply the necessary remedies. Let us frequently enter into the sacred Heart of Jesus to study its sentiments, and we shall discover only incentives to humility, only motives to facilitate the exercise of that essential virtue. The humility of our Redeemer's Heart should be the principal object of our practical devo-tion, and our most frequent aspiration should be: "Jesus, meek and humble of heart, have mercy on me!"

Taken from: The Interior of Jesus and Mary By Rev. J. Grou, S.J (1750)

VISIT US ON THE WEB For up-to-date information, such as last-minute changes to the Mass schedule, special prayer requests, and other

breaking news, refer to our website at: www.rosarychapel.net

NOTICE TO NEWCOMERS

Founded in 1973 in the wake of the disastrous Second Vatican Council, the mission of Our Lady of the Rosary Chapel is to maintain and restore as far as possible the traditional faith, values and liturgical practice of the Roman Catholic Church, and to provide a haven of sanc-tity where men and women of good will may grow in love for God and their neighbor. Please don’t hesitate to introduce yourself and ask questions. After Mass come to the Social Hall, and join us for coffee and refreshments. We hope your visit with us is a pleasant one, and we look forward to seeing you again and welcoming you as a member of Our Lady of the Rosary. We welcome Spanish-speaking guests, and confessions are heard in Spanish and English every Sunday and by appointment with the pastor.

OUR LADY OF THE ROSARY CHAPEL

ANNOUNCEMENTS ANNUAL O.R.C.M. MEETING will be held on September 30, 2018 at noon in the basement.

ADVISORY BOARD MEETING this Sunday, September 23th, an Advisory Board meeting, will begin a few minutes after 10:00 o’clock Mass.

REPARATION TO THE HOLY FACE: On the first and second Sundays of the month we will begin at 9:30 A.M. (before the Holy Rosary), and the other Sun-days will begin immediately after 10:00 o’clock Mass.

CATECHISM FOR ADULTS will begin a few minutes after the 10:00 A.M. Mass.

WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK ALL THE PEOPLE WHO WORKED VERY HARD TO MAKE THE CHAPEL PICNIC A SUCCESS!

CHAPEL PICNIC 2018