April 28

Face

Today is the feast of St Louis Marie De Montfort

His little book – forgotten for a 100 years became an instant success – reading it was a turning point in the life of no less a Saint than John Paul II

TDTM takes Mary for our model of how to go to Christ – to Christ through Mary.

How could Mary not take us to her son.

What would a sincere evangelical object to in it? Nothing at all. There are certainly mentors in the evangelical world – and it is quite beautiful and common to ask – what can I pray for you

That is all we are doing. If they objected that they could not allow a woman to be above them – what about their own mothers? Have they forgotten?

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The conclusion of deut. returns to the promise and gives it a surprising twist that takes it far beyond the institution of prophecy. In so doing, it gives the figure of the prophet its true meaning. “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses,” we read, “whom the LORD knew face to face” (Deut 34:10). A curious melancholy hangs over this conclusion of the fifth Book of Moses. The promise concerning “a prophet like me” has not yet been fulfilled. And it now becomes clear that these words do not refer simply to the institution of prophecy, which in fact already existed, but to something different and far greater: the announcement of a new Moses. It had become evident that taking possession of the land in Palestine did not constitute the chosen people’s entry into salvation; that Israel was still awaiting its real liberation; that an even more radical kind of exodus was necessary, one that called for a new Moses.

The true prophet is one who speaks to god as a friend – and who reveals the face of God to us.

Why did Christ come? Did christ come to change the world? And is the world changed? Did he come to teach us to seeing a new church and a new world into being?

No – christ came to

Show us the father – and this will be enough for us.

When we see the face of Christ – we see the face of the Father.

This is why the son was sent into the world

What else is face to face except relationship?

This is a candle to other religions – and certainly it was to Isreal as well

Christianity is not about doing something – or doing anything – Christianity is about encountering someone.

It does not matter what political camp you belong to – you will be tempted to escape from being into doing.

To do anything other than encounter Jesus

To become the famous facebook prophet. That’s not changing the world – it only feels like changing the world.

Everyone of us needs to encounter the face of God – that is what christ offers – that is what the mass is for.

In this fatherless age we need more than ever to encounter the face of the father.

Every human is meant to have a father and a mother – in Mary we encounter the face of the Holy Spirit