June 2020

The image of the Holy Family, portrayed every year at Christmas time, is no human sentimental icon; rather, it is a supernatural reality that reveals the image of God in the Holy Trinity. The love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is revealed in the unity of One God; love is demonstrated through unity and sacrifice. From the beginning God created man in His own image, like no other creature; God made man out of a desire to love. In the icon of the Holy Family, at the “Epiphany” we see the invisible made visible by interaction of love revealed. In this Jewish family, we see salvation comes to us through the Jews who had centuries of learning from and following the God of all creation.

If we want to be Christians, we have no choice but to pray, “Our Father.” When the first disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He taught them using those very words. To pray as a Christian means to pray, “Our Father.”  

The theme of “fulfillment” in the Gospel of Matthew has occasioned much discussion, particularly in light of the “lure” of the formula quotations, in which St. Matthew uses a common formula to introduce quotations from the Old Testament, such as “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet” (Matt 1:22). But the phenomenon of “fulfillment” permeates the entirety of the Gospel of Matthew; it is not found only in the formula quotations. They “lure” us away from all the other ways the Gospel of Matthew presents fulfillment. Every word of the Gospel of Matthew is geared toward fulfillment, showing how Jesus and the Church fulfill stories and figures from the Old Testament and Jewish tradition. Indeed, Jesus’s very life takes the very shape of Israel’s story.  

Congratulations to Dr. and Mrs. Hahn on the ordination of their son Jeremiah to the transitional diaconate! On June 5, Jeremiah Hahn was ordained at St. Peter Catholic Church by Bishop Jeffrey Monforton. This is the final step before his ordination to the priesthood for the diocese of Steubenville, Ohio. 

Whenever the early Christians talked about the Mass, that prophecy from Malachi was sure to come up. The Mass, they believed, was its obvious fulfillment.  

Malachi looked at the future and saw no more sacrifices at the Temple. Instead, the whole world was making a pure offering to the God of Israel. And that’s what we do, Christians have always said. To us, this pure offering is obviously the Eucharist; this is the way Christians have read Malachi from at least the Didache on.   

Since Christ is truly present in the Eucharist in His sacred humanity hypostatically united with the divine nature, the Eucharist should receive the adoration of latria that is given exclusively to God. Adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament is a natural consequence of the Church’s faith in the real substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The highest form of devotion is actually more than a devotion: Eucharistic adoration. This personal, devotional prayer is also truly a form of liturgical prayer. Because the Eucharist comes only from the Church’s Liturgy, there is always a liturgical dimension to Eucharistic adoration.