by Marianne Buzzelli

Redemptive suffering is our participation in and union with the passion of Christ through our physical or mental suffering. It is a participation in the cross of Christ. As we carry our cross of suffering we are united to the cross of Christ. And, it is, of course, the cross of Christ that brought us redemption, through His suffering, and salvation from original sin which provided the means for us to join God in his heavenly kingdom.  As the Catechism of The Catholic Church (par 1521) states, “suffering, a consequence of original sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes a participation in the saving work of Jesus.”

What a wonderful privilege we are given to participate in the saving work of Jesus. It is not, of course, that our redemption was not accomplished by the death of Jesus. But, we can unite ourselves to Jesus on the cross during our suffering. And, as we participate in the suffering of Jesus, we offer God our suffering to be united to the suffering of His beloved Son.

The apostle, St. Paul reaffirms the power of redemptive suffering, when he says, “In my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the Church” (Col 1:24). Pope John Paul II wrote extensively on redemptive suffering in Apostolic Letter, “Salvifici Doloris”. He reminds us that that the Gospel speaks in multiple places of “suffering for the sake of Christ”. And, it is just as Jesus shared in that aspect of our humanity when He experienced suffering, we are blessed to be able to share in the most wonderful redemptive value gained by His suffering as we carry our crosses.

During His life Christ endured suffering, pain, and death. And, his ministry focused on helping and healing those suffering from pain, illness, and disease. Another aspect identified in the redemptive value of suffering is the result of suffering on those around the suffering individual. For it is when we witness a loved one in pain are we not called to express our love in trying to comfort and assist him in both words and actions. And, is it not during the time of the illness of a friend, loved one, or even a stranger, that we turn to God in our prayer of petition to Him. And, we are brought closer to God in our response to the suffering of another. This is, thus, an example of redemptive suffering.

Reflection: Pain, illness, disease, and suffering are a part of our lives. Whether we experience suffering ourselves or as we witness a friend or loved one in pain we nonetheless endure the cross of suffering throughout our lives on earth. It is God’s Will that we unite our suffering to His suffering of His cross. Let us pray for the strength to endure whatever cross we have been given and offer the suffering for the salvation of souls as we “suffer for the sake of Christ”. And, we can then join St. Paul in saying, “ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me”. (Gal 2:20).  As we pray to Jesus we can show our devotion and love for His cross as we display and wear a cross necklace crucifix.

Bio: Marianne Buzzelli is a Catholic writer and owner of Holy Cross Necklaces which sells fine cross necklaces, saint medals, rosaries, religious statuary, Catholic books, and more.

One of the most frequent questions people have in times of difficulty in their lives deals with suffering. The question is: “Why is there suffering? Why do good people suffer? If God loves me why does He allow my loved one to suffer?” The simple answer is that God does not give us suffering but, allows it if it accomplishes a better good. And, what could possibly be a better good than to experience good health? The answer is clear when one considers the greatest value of an individual’s life. It is not one’s physical body but one’s soul.

What do most of us do when we fear being helpless? And, what is the most common response when we fear physical disability, mental disability, or death? Where do we go when the condition of our lives or our bodies are not within are control? Is it not then that we acknowledge our own limitations and weakness, and realize that we need God?

So it is that as we experience pain or suffering that we turn away from ourselves and look to God, seek a closer relationship with God, and turn to God for His help. It is at this time when we recognize our vulnerability that we realize that we are nothing without God, and that without God we have no life – physical or spiritual. We realize that the things we valued in our lives: money, title, power, and occupation mean nothing when we are facing the possibility of death. And, this death can be mortal death of the body or spiritual death of the soul.

So what good is accomplished when we turn to God in our suffering? As we spend more time seeking God, praying for his help, and listening to His voice within us, we slowly improve our relationship with Him. Our act of going to God in our time of desperation is in essence our response to His call to us. Our heart becomes open to the voice of God that had been calling us since our baptism when we were first united to Him. With each moment we spend in conversation with God we come to know Him better. And, as we begin to know God better we also gain a better understanding of ourselves. We begin to see our own soul as God sees it. And, we have a greater desire to spend even more time in prayer to God. With each encounter with God we come to know Him more and love Him more. And, with ongoing devotion to our prayer with God, we find ourselves with a great desire to serve others. We begin to pray for others, not just ourselves. And, our prayers extend beyond petition to thanksgiving and adoration.

In our quest to find relief in our suffering by turning to God in prayer we inevitably improve the state of our soul. With each prayer of petition for a loved one or stranger, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of adoration, or act of charity, we have become more united with God.

And, so how is suffering a good thing? If suffering brings us closer to God so that we spend more time with Him, develop a relationship with Him, know Him and love Him, and even choose to serve Him, what have we accomplished? Isn’t that exactly why God created us? It is indeed so that we may know Him, love, and serve Him here on earth, and be happy with Him forever in heaven.

Let us not, therefore complain in time of suffering. But, rejoice in the opportunity to share in The Cross of Christ, carry the cross He gave us, and prepare our souls for eternal happiness with Him now and in eternity. What a wonderful way to express your love and devotion to Christ and His cross as you wear a beautiful gold cross crucifix.

Solemnity today – January 9, 2011

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Baptism of Our Lord by St. John the Baptist in the Jordan River. On this occasion we again see the manifestation of Jesus in His humanity and divinity. We hear The Father’s voice from heaven announce Jesus as His Son and the descent of the Holy Spirit above Jesus in the form of a dove, as we hear in today’s Gospel of Mark 1: 9-11,  “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove;  and a voice came from heaven, “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

 It is at this scene of the baptism of Jesus that we are witness to the Blessed Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And, at the moment of His baptism by water His mission as The Messiah (anointed one) was revealed. We hear in Acts 10:38, “ God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power”.  God the Father did the anointing of Jesus, the Son, with the Holy Spirit.

Reflection: On this day in which we commemorate the baptism of Our Lord we also reflect on the significance of our own baptism. It is in the sacrament of baptism that we are reborn into the life of Christ and His Church and we are forgiven of original sin, we receive sanctifying grace, and we become temples of the Holy Spirit. What a glorious event to recall the date on which we became united with Christ. And, as we journey here on earth we strive to remain united with Christ in a state of sanctifying grace, to know Him in prayer, to develop a deeper relationship with Him, and to radiate Christ to the world. We can pray to the Blessed Trinity and commemorate the life of Jesus as we pray the life of Christ on this beautiful Gold Amethyst Swarovski Crystal Rosary.

Feast day January 6

Today we commemorate and celebrate the day on which the 3 magi or 3 kings traveled from the Orient, following a star to Bethlehem to give homage to the newborn king. Sacred Scripture tells us that the 3 kings brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to honor Our Lord.

Church Fathers tell us that these gifts have symbolic meaning in addition to the expression of honor. The gold symbolized Our Lord’s earthly rule as a king. The frankincense symbolized His divinity as the incense would rise to heaven in prayer, acknowledging Him as God. The myrrh symbolized that one day he would die. Myrrh was used for the anointing of Jesus’ body after His death.

The observance of the feast of the Epiphany was first recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus, a fourth-century Roman historian. It was also the significance of this feast day is God being manifested as a human child, that is, the mystery of the incarnation.

Reflection: We commemorate the event in history in which Our Lord Jesus was acknowledged as king and God and first presented with precious gifts. Thus, it is a day in which we all contemplate that we also are to give our gifts to Our Lord. Christ has given us the most precious gifts of life, grace, and eternal salvation. What gifts will we give Him? He asks us to give him our lives, our families, our relationships, our fear, our joy, our trust, our acceptance of His Will, and most of all our love. What a wonderful way to honor the Infant Jesus in prayer before a beautiful Infant of Prague statue.

In the spring of 1541, in the city of Tlaxcala, Mexico, an Indian named Juan Diego Bernardino witnessed the apparition of Our Lady of Ocotlan. This was just 10 years after the famous apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico. It was during this time that small pox had struck this and surrounding villages in Mexico which killed many of the villagers.

On this day Juan Diego Bernardino was on his way to bring a jug of water from the river to his sick family. As he was on his way home from the river, he reached a hilltop and saw the vision of a most beautiful lady. It was our Lady. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She asked him where he was going. He told her that he was taking water to his family that was dying of the plague.  She asked him to follow her and she would give him healing water that would cure all that would drink it.

Our Lady led Juan Diego down the hill in a pine grove to a water spring. Our Lady of Ocotlan then instructed him to give the water to the sick and anyone that drank it would be healed. She also told him to lead the Franciscan friars and that they would find an image of her in the pine grove. He was told to tell the friars that through this image she promised to send great blessings.  And, he was to tell the Franciscan friars to take the image and place it in the church of St. Lawrence. Juan Diego did as Our Lady instructed him. He gave the water to his family and they were cured. Other village people went to the spring and drank the water and were also miraculously healed.

Juan Diego later went to Franciscan friars and led them with a group of villagers to the pine grove. The trees of the forest were on fire. But, in the midst of the burning trees was one ocote tree that was untouched by the fire. Something directed the Franciscans to cut open the tree. When they cut open the tree with a hatchet they discovered the image of Mary carved in the wood. How glorious! All of the witnesses fell to their knees in awe and honor. The Franciscans and villagers then removed the image of Our Lady of Ocotlan and lifted it on their shoulders as they processed it to the Church of St. Lawrence. The image was placed on the altar of the church where it remains today. The statue of Our Lady of Ocotlan is carved from one piece of wood from the ocote tree. It is 5 feet tall.

A Shrine of Our Lady of Ocotlan was constructed. Pope Clement XIII declared a feast day to celebrate Our Lady of Ocotlan to be celebrated on a Sunday in July. The faithful Christians, villagers, and pilgrims honor this apparition with a procession with Our Lady of Ocotlan Statue on their shoulders as it occurred on the first procession when the image was first revealed centuries ago.

What a great opportunity to honor and celebrate Mary’s great love and blessings as you display a beautiful Our Lady of Ocotlan Statue in your own home.

From our early Church father, Bishop Cyril of Alexandria:

The Catholic Church affirmed the declaration of Mary to be the Mother of God (Theotokos in Greek) at the Third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431 AD. Cyril of Alexandria, an early Church Father, elaborated on the rightful recognition of Mary as Mother of God in his second letter to Nestorius of Constantinople. He stated: “”the holy fathers… have ventured to call the holy Virgin Theotokos, not as though the nature of the [W]ord or his divinity received the beginning of their existence from the holy Virgin, but because from her was born his holy body, rationally endowed with a soul, with which [body] the [W]ord was united according to the hypostasis, and is said to have been begotten according to the flesh”. (Hypostasis refers to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity: three distinct persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in one God).  Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, and Jesus is God, the second person of the Blessed Trinity,  it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God.

From the The Catechism:

The Catechism of The Catholic Church defines Mary’s divine motherhood in paragraph 495, “Called in the Gospels “the mother of Jesus”, Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as “the mother of my Lord”. In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly “Mother of God” (Theotokos).”

From Pope John Paul II:

Pope John Paul II in his Wednesday audience on September 13, 1995 gave this further catechesis in “Mary Is The Virgin Mother of God”. He stated “In Lumen gentium, the Council states that “joined to Christ the head and in communion with all his saints, the faithful must in the first place reverence the memory ‘of the glorious ever Virgin Mary, Mother of our God and Lord Jesus Christ'” (n. 52). The conciliar Constitution uses these terms from the Roman Canon of the Mass, thereby stressing how faith in the divine motherhood of Mary has been present in Christian thought since the first centuries.”

Reflection: We honor Mary as the mother of Jesus and mother of God in our daily prayer of intercession. We come to her as our mother to ask her to help us on our path to holiness. We seek to know and love Jesus with a heart as meek, mild, humble, and kind as the heart of The Blessed Mother of God. What a wonderful way to pray to Mary to intercede with her dear Son, Jesus, as we look upon her loving face personified in this beautiful Mary and Child statue.

Today we celebrate the feast of The Holy Family in which we honor Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Veneration of the Holy Family was recorded in history to have begun in the 17^th century by a Canadian bishop, Francois de Laval. And, the feast day was dedicated to the Holy Family in 1893 by Pope Leo XII.

It is most fitting that we honor the most perfect of all families and to do so within the octave of the birth of Jesus, our Savior. We honor Mary who gives us the example of perfect love and whose heart is most like that of her Son, Jesus – meek and humble. We honor Joseph, who was chosen by God to be the foster father of Jesus because of his tender heart and great humility. Both Mary and Joseph, with great faith, responded to their call to be the parents of Jesus and to guide Him during his childhood.

Reflection: Let us pray to The Holy Family and ask them to guide our family and keep us on the path to holiness.  Dear Holy Family help us love one another more, and help us to build peace within our family.  And, Jesus, let us see You in each other everyday.  And, we can express our devotion and honor for the Holy Family as we display this beautiful Holy Family Figurine.

St. John the evangelist surely tells it as it is. I love this quote from the second letter of St. John, chapter 2, verses 3-7  “And by this we may be sure that we know him, if we keep his commandments.  He who says “I know him” but disobeys his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him;  but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. By this we may be sure that we are in him:  he who says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”

How many of us represent ourselves as followers of Christ, Christians, religious, or even holy. And, yet, as St. John so correctly states, if we say we know Christ but, fail to love our neighbor, we are liars. For, to know Him is to be united with Him. And, we cannot be united to Christ if we do not love unconditionally all of those who God has placed in our lives. St. John further explains that we abide in Him and His commandments when we walk as He walked. In walking as He walked we understand that we are to live in service to our neighbors, perform acts of love and mercy.

What a wonderful word of instruction St. John gives us in the first reading of today’s liturgy as he reminds us to obey God’s commandments, walk as Christ walked, and  then find the love for God perfected in us. Let us express our love for dear St. John the evangelist who was so loved by Jesus as we wear a beautiful St. John saint medal.

St. Lucy was born in Sicily of noble parents in 283 AD. Her father died at a young age and she was raised by her mother, Eutychia. She was a devoted Christian and consecrated herself to God in a pledge of virginity. She desired to devote her life and all of her belongings to the poor. Her mother, however, betrothed her to marry a pagan man. Lucy refused to marry him. In his anger the pagan man informed the Roman governor Paschius that Lucy was a Christian. Paschius had her sentenced to a brothel. However, Lucy retained her virginity and refused to cooperate with the demands of the brothel to make her act as a prostitute. She was given the strength by God which allowed her to withstand their attempts to move her. In their anger, Lucy was sentenced to death. She escaped death by burning, but was finally killed by the sword as a martyr and virgin.

There are additional writings which indicate that Lucy also endured additional torture prior to her death for refusing to lose her virginity. As she was a woman of great beauty and recognized for her beautiful eyes, the governors’ men tortured her by gouging out her eyes. But, God performed a miracle and restored her eyes.

St. Lucy was added to the Canon of The Mass in the 6^th century by Pope Gregory the Great as a great virgin and martyr saint. She is often pictured holding a tray with her eyes on it. She is the patron saint for vision and disorders of the eyes. Her feast day is Dec. 13.

For Reflection: St. Lucy exemplifies the great love that the saints have for God. They are willing to endure pain, torture, and even death to live according to His commandments and His divine will. Let us strive to imitate the great love and fortitude of St. Lucy as we follow God’s will for our lives. And, you can express your faith, devotion, and love for St. Lucy as you wear this beautiful St. Lucy saint medal.

The Legion of Mary is a lay apostolate dedicated to serving the Church and performing a corporal work of mercy focusing on the marginalized of society – the poor, elderly, sick, homeless. Members of the legion are required to perform such an act of service once a week. In doing so The Legion of Mary provides for the spiritual and social welfare of the needy members of the church. This lay apostolic association looks to Mary as Mediatrix of all graces through the Holy Spirit based on the teachings of St. Louis de Montfort who encouraged devotion to Jesus through Mary and total consecration to Mary.

The legion was founded 90 years ago in Dublin, Ireland by Frank Duff. It has members in over 170 countries around the world with several million members. Members of the Legion of Mary are guided by clergy who act as spiritual directors. The legion is administered by means of local, regional, and national level councils. The local unit of the legion is called a praesidium which is usually based within a Catholic Church parish. Meetings are held weekly. During the meeting members pray with focus on the prayer of the rosary, and discuss recent apostolic work and future needs of the community. The heart of the legion is its focus on Mary as our intercessor. The missionary and evangelization of the legion is carried out therefore, by prayer and works of service to the Church and community.

For Reflection: Mary, Our Blessed Mother is the most perfect of all intercessors to Jesus on our behalf. It is fitting therefore, to honor her and seek her aide often in prayer. And, Mary herself has asked us to come to her in our time of need with humility and sacrifice as we pray the rosary. What a glorious way to express our devotion and love for Mary as we pray the mysteries and life of Jesus on a beautiful gold rosary.