Day 116: Continued Through You
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This is day 116.

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with myself and other friars on behalf myself the whole team here at ascension want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supports this podcast financially your generosity so appreciating helps us to reach as many people as possible if you haven't already please consider supporting us at ascensionpress.com forward slash support today we will be meditating on and praying with the third luminous mystery the proclamation of the kingdom of god the call to conversion

with help from a writing by St. John Eudes and his work, "The Life and the Kingdom of Jesus." Alright, an introduction to our author born in the year 1601. He died in 1680. St. John Eudes was a priest who had spent a large amount of his early priesthood traveling and doing what are called parish missions. He would later go on to found a religious order. The original name of this order was the Sisters.

of Our Lady of Charity of the Refuge, which was a group of sisters who had a special ministry of caring for women forced into prostitution. These sisters continue to exist today. They are now known as the Good Shepherd Sisters, and they have a special commitment to going after the lost sheep. So the Council of Trent, which took place relatively close, about 50 years before the birth of St. John Eudes, it called for the establishment of seminaries. Seminaries are schools equipped with

and focused on training future priests and giving them the necessary formation. There's something that had been lacking up to this time. And so in response to the Council of Trent and the needs of the church, St. John Eudes would found a total of six seminaries in France. He also helped to popularize devotion to the sacred heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The point of emphasis of our prayer today is going to be Jesus continues his mission in you.

Now we're writing from St. John Eudes. So the Son of God plans to perfect and complete in you all his states and mysteries. He intends to fulfill in you the divine life, which has been his for all eternity in the bosom of his Father, imparting a participation in that life and making you live with him a life entirely pure and holy. It is his design to complete in you the mystery of his incarnation, birth, and hidden life by taking flesh in you,

and being born in your souls as it were through the sacraments of holy baptism and the blessed eucharist causing you to live by a spiritual and inward life a life hidden with him in god

It is His design to perfect in you the mystery of His passion, death, and resurrection by causing you to suffer, to die, and to rise again with Him and in Him. It is His design to fulfill His glorious immortal life in heaven by causing you to live in Him and with Him a glorious and immortal life after death. He likewise intends to perfect and accomplish in you and in His church all the other mysteries of His life by the communication of

and participation granted you by His holy will through the continuation and extension of these mysteries operating in you. The universal plan of the Son of God will not be completed until the day of judgment. The ranks of the saints will not be filled up until the consummation of the time God has allotted to men for their sanctification. Therefore, the mysteries of Jesus will not be complete until the end of time, determined by Jesus Christ Himself

for their consummation in you and in his church, that is, until the end of the world. Now the life you have here on earth was given you only for the accomplishment of the infinite designs of Jesus Christ for mankind. Hence, you should employ all your time, your days, your years in cooperating with Jesus Christ in the divine task of consummating his mysteries in yourself. You must cooperate in this by good works and prayer.

by frequent application of mind and heart to the contemplation, adoration, and veneration of the sacred mysteries of His life according to the different seasons of the year, so that, by these very mysteries, He may work in you all He desires to accomplish for His pure glory. This is the first reason why you must have a special devotion to all the infinitely precious details and aspects of the life of Jesus.

The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. Again, we're going to be focusing on that Jesus wants to continue his work, his mission in you. It's a great reading. So thanks for allowing me to have a little bit of a longer reading. And I really, really like it. So here's some of the words again of St. John Utes. So the son of God plans perfect and complete in you all his states and mysteries. He intends to fulfill in you everything.

The divine life, which has been his for all eternity in the bosom of the Father, imparting our participation in that life and making you live with him a life entirely pure and holy. My brothers and sisters, Jesus desires to live his life in you and he desires to continue his mission in you. Remember our definition of the kingdom of God we took from Pope Benedict XVI. This is paraphrasing, but the kingdom of God is it's the Lord being the Lord, the king reigning, the teacher teaching, the healer healing, right?

In the kingdom of God, it continues first and foremost by allowing God to do his work in you. And this will naturally overflow into him doing his work through you. How many hungry people in the world does the Lord want to feed? How many lonely souls does the Lord want to visit? How many sinners does he want to bring to his mercy? And how does he desire to do this? My friends, to the ends of the earth and until the end of the world,

through you and through me. Such is the height of our dignity and such is the dignity of our call. Nothing less than to allow Jesus to continue his mission in us, with us, and through us.

And how does this happen? St. John continues, "It is His design to complete in you the mystery of His incarnation, birth, and hidden life by taking flesh in you and being born in your souls, as it were, through the sacraments of holy baptism and the blessed Eucharist, causing you to live by a spiritual and inward life, a life hidden with Him in God." In other words, Jesus wants to be born in our souls through our own personal sanctification, which takes place first and foremost through the sacraments, particularly baptism and the most holy Eucharist. We can't give what we don't have.

And we can't love and live like Jesus if we haven't first loved Jesus, been loved by Jesus, and allowed His life to be born in our souls and transform our lives. One last line I want to key in on just because I think it's particularly beautiful. These are St. John's words again. This is the first reason why you must have a special devotion to all the infinitely precious details and aspects of the life of Jesus. I just really like that phrase.

all the infinitely precious details and aspects of the life of Jesus. St. John Eudes, he's a man who clearly loved Jesus and loved his most sacred heart and allowed Jesus' love to really be born and to transform, to take root in his own heart. And like St. John Eudes, my brothers and sisters, you and I are called to imitate what we contemplate, to make known him whom we have first come to know through all of the infinitely precious details

of his heart and his life. As you know, this third luminous mystery is the proclamation of the kingdom of God and the call to conversion. May we who want to proclaim the kingdom of God also be the first to respond to his call to a deeper conversion, to putting knowing Jesus and loving Jesus and proclaiming Jesus back at the very center of our lives. So as we pray and as we contemplate Jesus, the heights and the dignity of our call

May we be moved to respond to this call, to this vocation wholeheartedly through the grace of God at work in us. And now with Mary, let us pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Alright, thanks so much for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. Poco a poco, friends. God bless y'all.