In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio delves into Christ’s new commandment to love one another as he has loved us emphasizing the “vertical” and “horizontal” aspects of this commandment, likening it to the shape of a Cross.

Fr. Peter also explains how strengthening our prayer life empowers us to live out this commandment and how embracing a life of piety serves as the foundation for our spiritual journey.

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In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio delves into the profound significance of the Resurrection challenging the notion that the Christian’s life is one defined by suffering alone.

Instead, Fr. Peter emphasizes how Jesus’ Resurrection offers us a beacon of hope, turning our focus from pain to the promise of transformation when we unite ourselves to the Cross.

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In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Peter Armenio inspires our prayer this Easter season reminding us that the heart of our calling as Christians is to always be credible witnesses to the Resurrection by making the living Jesus real in the world.

But how do make the Resurrection of Jesus credible today?

If we're going to announce the Resurrection, like our early Christian brothers and sisters, we have to aim for intimate union with Christ. As Fr. Peter explains, we have to "constrain Jesus to stay with us" like the disciples on the way to Emmaus. And, as St. Josemaria said, "Christ is passing by, don't let him go. Be attentive to him when he's coming by."

We must constrain Jesus, therefore, with our desire to be with him, to speak with him, and to implement his words. We must recognize him in the breaking of the bread and be centered on the Eucharistic table; we must learn to listen and talk to Jesus through Scripture; and we must be faithful to our designated time of prayer. Prayer is very much in the first place to making the Resurrection credible.

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In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio offers a reflection on Easter-- the highest celebration of Our Lord's life and victory. But, we must never forget that we wouldn't have that victory without the Cross. To believe in the Resurrection, we have to believe in the power of the Cross.

As Fr. Peter explains, every day is a good day to bring the Cross to our prayer and to meditate on the dynamic of the Cross. Our union with Christ through our contradictions and sufferings--the little crosses that we have to bear--produce a Resurrection of Christ in our own hearts and souls.

Fr. Peter also reflects on the feast of the Annunciation, explaining how everything is a spinoff from Our Lady's "yes." By work of the Holy Spirit, her "yes" allowed us to enjoy the gift of God's humanity and the dynamics of the Cross and Resurrection.

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In this meditation for Easter Sunday: Fr. Javier del Castillo invites us to contemplate the Resurrection of Christ and how the Resurrection is an event that can only be accessed by people of faith who have had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ.

Why is the Resurrection such a mysterious event that is not public, but is only accessed through a personal encounter with Our Lord? Because, as Fr. Javier explains, God preordained that the news of his Resurrection be spread through witnesses that had the credentials of having seen, heard, and touched Our Lord. This is the nature of a witness. Jesus appeared to the apostles, so that they could spread the great news of the Resurrection.

Our personal encounter with Jesus today comes from meeting him in our baptism, in holy communion, and in confession. The sacraments make him present here and now. Thanks to the priesthood, we have Jesus Christ present in the Church so that every generation can have the same encounter that the Apostles had. Therefore, as Christians, we are sharers in the great light of the Resurrection, which is the love of Christ that is alive today and that can enlighten all of humanity.

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In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo explains the great lesson Jesus teaches us in the gospel for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (John 12:20-33), which is that we have to die -- to self and in this world-- in order to really see who he is.

From a Christian outlook, death is a passageway to eternal life where we get to see God, face to face, if we have lived according to the faith. Because of Jesus, we can no longer think that our death in this world is the end or something to be feared, it is actually now a new beginning.

Therefore, as Fr. Javier explains, the consideration of death is needed to help us to precisely put our heart in the right place. Not knowing when we're going to die is actually something that has has to help us be more faithful every day and to always be prepared for whenever God calls us to himself. And Jesus came to also teach us that all we need to prepare for eternity is love, everything else is superfluous.

Today is is what we have; we don't have tomorrow yet. We need to love today, so that we can love for eternity. In the presence of Our Lord, Fr. Javier encourages us to ask ourselves: What is it that I am attached to? Am I placing God above all that and placing him first?

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In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Javier del Castillo reflects on the revolutionary teaching of St. Paul who preached that Our Lord who is rich in mercy will always forgive us (Ephesians 2:4-10). It is a message that is intended to make our hearts rejoice on this Fourth Sunday of Lent or Laetare Sunday.

Salvation is a gift. God became man for this purpose, to have mercy on us. We don't forgive our own sins. It is not a conquest of our own. We can't take our spiritual life in our own hands. Where our struggle lies is in opening up our soul to God and having the humility to recognize our sins.

Even if we live good lives, as Fr. Javier explains, we must never assume that we are without sin. Our lives will find peace and joy only when we continue to ask for forgiveness:

"Lord, I want to hold on tighter to your hand, because I see myself in danger all the time, as long as I am in this world. And I want to be very close to you, really change, try to change my lifestyle, that's what I want to do."

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In our meditation of the week:  Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us to contemplate the Gospel of the Mass for the Third Sunday of Lent— Jesus cleansing the Temple (John 2:13-25). This is a rare moment in the Gospel when Jesus gets angry because the worship that was due to his Father was being mingled with human motives and was not worthy of his Father God.

As Fr. Javier explains, when it comes to the sacred, Our Lord makes no allowances for competition. The same is true for us as the temples of the Holy Spirit. "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) The virtue which allows us to love God and to worship God rightly with an undivided heart is holy purity.

Purity is not simply a virtue for the single person but for everyone—married, single, priest, and religious. It is a virtue that allows us to see God behind everyone and every situation in our lives. And it allows us to be a contemplative, to carry that temple, to carry God with us wherever we go.

Our heart is something great, something valuable, and we have to keep it pure for God. There's many manifestations of this virtue and they are all beautiful, but they do require sacrifice. And that is where we need to really make a commitment to living these sacrifices so that the valuable gift of holy purity can be safeguarded.

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In our meditation of the week: Fr. Javier del Castillo helps us to contemplate the scene of the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, which we read in the Gospel of the Mass for the Second Sunday of Lent (Mark 9:2-10).

Fr. Javier explains how Jesus took the Apostles up Mount Tabor to show them the full truth about himself, about his divinity, so that they could have hope in eternal life and remember this experience of bliss and eternity, especially when it comes time to suffer through the Passion. That is, Jesus took them aside to show them the glory that is a consequence of the Cross and that can only come after the Cross: the Tabor behind the Calvary.

In considering this scene at Tabor, we also try to go to Jesus, to look at him, so that we may be enlightened and have our hopes placed correctly in that which is eternal. When we try to discover the Tabors behind the Calvaries, we are freed up of any worry and from thinking about ourselves, and that allows us to recover our peace and our inner joy in order to serve others and shine a new light around us.

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In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio helps us to enter into the season of the Lent with a desire for becoming good repenters. And he shares the easy steps for coming back to Christ and beginning again.

Although we might believe that God must be sick of us for doing the same sinful things all the time, Fr. Peter reminds us that Our Lord never gets sick of us because he loves us infinitely. That is why his favorite penance is a humble and contrite heart, not to shame us but to get us back. Therefore, a spirit of self-knowledge--sincerity and self-honesty--is the raw material for repentance, not to wallow in our defects and sins, but as a springboard to begin again. A humble and contrite heart releases those barriers between ourselves and Jesus Christ.

Fr. Peter also highlights numerous examples of good repenters in Scripture, from King David to Peter, from Matthew to the Samaritan Woman and Dismas (the Good Thief). Their stories remind us that all saints begin as very good repenters, and Our Lord is asking us to be good repenters too.

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In our meditation of the week: Fr. Peter Armenio helps us to pray about the sacrificial and redemptive true presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, and how we should make the greatest treasure of the universe the center of our life.

The source and summit of the Christian life is the Eucharist. Therefore, as Fr. Peter explains, "everything hinges on the Mass. In a certain sense, every devotion is an extension of the Mass and must lead to the Mass." And, how much we get out of Mass depends on our presence of God throughout the day, and how well we embrace the Cross.

Jesus' crucifixion and death were a culmination of his life of self-giving through his work and through his public life. We have to join Jesus in his death and resurrection, through the cross, expressed in our work and expressed in our suffering.

St. Josemaria Escriva referred to the workbench as our altar, not sacramentally or liturgically, but that everybody's altar is in whatever they do. And he says that what really counts is how much self-giving love we put into our work, because that's how much we're going to get to be part of the Mass.

"While you are at Mass, think that you are sharing in a divine Sacrifice. For that is how it is: on the altar, Christ is offering himself again for you" (St. Josemaria Escriva; The Forge, no. 831).

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