Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
May the Lord Jesus give you his peace.
We have a theme of rejoicing in today's scriptures
and how we are to rejoice.
Jesus himself rejoices, and in the first reading,
we are given a promise of, although the Lord does chastise us
because of our sins, that he will bring us back enduring joy.
And that joy we celebrate in this first Saturday
as Our Lady, as cause of our joy.
She is the one, of course, who has given us our Savior.
And so kind of looking at this theme this morning,
it's the very first thing.
And kind of breaking into the New Testament
is this kairi, or hail.
And in the Greek, it's the rejoice full of grace.
The Lord is with you.
And it is that joy which is that pouring out of the soul
and rejoicing in the presence of the beloved.
It's no small thing as consecrated men
to live in the house with Jesus.
And the Catechism will talk about
a few of the different prayers later on in Section 4.
And this is one of those beautiful prayers
and how Jesus begins with thanksgiving.
And to ignite more and more the joy that we have been given,
it's always a work of thanksgiving.
We stand on blessings that we have received,
and therefore the hope more and more of God's goodness
opens up to the future, and therefore joy
in what we have already received, rejoicing in that.
I mean, just coming into the Lord's presence.
I love the eyes that see what you see
with the Holy Eucharist and living with our Lord.
Here's the Catechism talking about this prayer
that we just heard.
The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers.
It's talking about our Lord in prayer
offered by Christ during his public ministry.
Each, again, begins with thanksgiving.
That's one of the themes we should take today.
Thanksgiving and praise.
Making those real ascetical exercises
as we kneel down to pray.
In the first, Jesus confesses
that the Father acknowledges and blesses him
because he has hidden the mysteries of the kingdom
from those who think themselves learned
and has revealed them to infants,
the poor of the Beatitudes.
His exclamation, yes, Father, expresses the depth
of his heart, his adherence to the Father's good pleasure,
echoing his mother's fiat at the time of his conception
and prefiguring what he will say to the Father in his agony.
The whole prayer of Jesus is contained
in this loving adherence of his human heart
to the mystery of the will of God.
To the will of the Father.
And so it is for us that this is a whole spirituality
contained herein with this word yes,
or this word amen, or this word fiat,
of how life pans out for each one of us.
And giving our, this is the last thing that we'll do
at the end of our lives as the body separates,
soul separates from the body.
We'll have to practice this to do it perfectly.
Yes, in face of this great evil,
and it's that yes, in the face of suffering
that we strive to become more and more proficient in.
And the direction that Jesus points us to
in the sacred scriptures this morning is important
because the disciples come back, they're all jazzed up.
Marvels, miracles of exorcism.
See that, her head was spinning around
and then you said the name of Jesus
and this demon came out and all kinds of crazy stuff.
And they're kind of back slapping.
This is amazing, Lord, in your name, all this has happened.
And he says, don't rejoice because of this.
The demons are subject to you.
They're looking in the wrong direction.
But rejoice rather that your names have been written in heaven.
And that's the yes that our direction should always point in.
We've been baptized.
And the great grace that that has given to us
that our beings, although not there yet,
we've got this pledge
that we've been written in the book of life.
And just like the catechism is talking about here
that Jesus echoes his mother's fiat
at the time of his conception,
prefiguring what he will say to the father is an agony.
And the gift that we've been given in our time
of marrying consecration in the Marian vow
is that down payment, that yes,
it's as close as perhaps we can come
to the grace of final perseverance by human act.
That yes, all the merits and satisfactions,
every good and plugging us into the very co-redemptive yes
of our lady at the foot of the cross,
which is the yes in her compassionate agony with her son.
And given that gift, having been given that gift,
rejoice that our names are written in the book of life
through baptism and rejoice that we've been given
to see and to hear this great gift,
this gift of being with our lady in this very singular way.
And so that we may promulgate it through the ends of the earth.
That's what we're called to do when missionary.
And that mission begins with the interior proceeding forth in joy.
I mean, what else is going to cause you to spread this gift
if it's not this acknowledgement of how great it is.
And we're talking here about the Marian vow,
how great it is that we've been given to say this.
Yes, along with our lady at the foot of the cross.
And we want others to share that as well.
And so on this first Saturday,
we make reparation to our lady's sorrowful and immaculate heart
and also enter into her joy
that one day we can hear the words of our good master.
Well done, good and faithful servant
and enter into the joy of your master.
God bless you.