Michael Dubruiel

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

How to Get More out of Mass by Michael Dubruiel

Eucharist means..."thanksgiving"

Michael Dubruiel wrote a book to help people deepen their experience of the Mass. He titled it, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist. You can read about it here.

How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist gives you nine concrete steps to help you join your own sacrifice to the sacrifice of Christ as you:

Serve: Obey the command that Jesus gave to his disciples at the first Eucharist.
Adore: Put aside anything that seems to rival God in importance.
Confess: Believe in God’s power to make up for your weaknesses.
Respond" Answer in gesture, word, and song in unity with the Body of Christ.
Incline: Listen with your whole being to the Word of God.
Fast: Bring your appetites and desires to the Eucharist.
Invite: Open yourself to an encounter with Jesus.
Commune: Accept the gift of Christ in the Eucharist.
Evangelize :Take him and share the Lord with others.

Filled with true examples, solid prayer-helps, and sound advice, How to Get the Most Out of the Eucharist shows you how to properly balance the Mass as a holy banquet with the Mass as a holy sacrifice. With its references to Scripture, quotations from the writings and prayers of the saints, and practical aids for overcoming distractions one can encounter at Mass, this book guides readers to embrace the Mass as if they were attending the Last Supper itself.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

The Epiphany of the Lord by Michael Dubruiel

The Epiphany of the Lord

People experience darkness in a lot of ways. Some are depressed. Others experience it in ignorance.

Darkness and the experience of being blind are two ways that the scriptures often portray the condition of humans without some outside help. Many of us are aware that something isn't quite right with ourselves. We are not the person that we feel we could or should be. We don't know how to act in our own best interest or the for the good of others. We often are at the mercy of those who try to manipulate our indecisiveness and lack of vision.

To this Isaiah the prophet says, "Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples; but upon you the LORD shines, and over you appears his glory. Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance". God has sent light that shines in the darkness, John tells us in his gospel--will we accept that light?

The magi traveled afar to experience it. How far are we willing to travel to experience what countless saints have experienced for the last two thousand years? How willing are we to surrender to the light? It is our choice, we can be like Herod who was threatened by the light that his true worth would be seen in its light or we can be like the magi who recognized the ultimate worth of such light shining in the darkness and brought what they had to offer in exchange for a treasure that the earth can only give in the person of the God made man.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Bored at Mass?

An excerpt from The How to Book of the Mass by Michael Dubruiel

When our Lord gave the disciples on the road to Emmaus the bread that He had blessed and broken, "he vanished out of their sight" (Luke 24:31). It was then that they recognized Him. We receive the Lord as they did in receiving the Eucharist. Now, at the moment that He is within us, we too should reflect, as they did, on the Scriptures that He has opened to us during this Mass, especially on what has made our "hearts burn."

In our consumer-minded society, we can miss the treasure that we receive if we treat it like one more thing to "get" and then go on to the next thing. Our Lord is not a "thing." He is God, who has deigned to come intimately into our lives. We should reflect on His Presence within us and ask what He would have us do.

More on The How to Book of the Mass here.

Friday, January 4, 2019

January 4 - St. Elizabeth Ann Seton by Michael Dubruiel

Memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, religious

They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher),"where are you staying?" Those who experienced Jesus all seem to have sensed in His presence that He had something to teach them. It is the same with us, there is a wisdom that we lack and when we come to worship Our Lord we should come with the expectation that we will learn a new way to think and a new way to live.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, a convert to Catholicism founded what eventually became the system of Catholic schools in the United States. It is not coincidental that those who follow Christ often embrace the profession of teaching. Teaching is one way that the followers of Christ imitate Him but the teaching of a follower of Christ is always centered on God and therein lies the difference.

Knowledge without God often makes no sense because it is experienced out of the context of the whole. A visit to Emmitsburgh where St. Elizabeth Ann Seton taught, one can visit the first school that she started there. What makes that school different from others is the presence of a chapel. Perhaps the problem with education today is that God is often absent from the lesson plans.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

January 2 - Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen

January 2 - Memorial of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, bishops and doctors of the Church

I've spent the past month reading a number of books on Orthodox Christianity. Most of the books have dealt with how it is lived today in the Mediteranean but a few have dealt with American examples. Most of the books have sang the glories of Orthodoxy, one written by a Catholic has looked at it in a more playful attitude. I mention this because today's reading from John's letter reminds me of an attitude that seems to be very "orthodox" especially of the Mediteranean variety. John says:

"Who is the liar?
Whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist.
Anyone who denies the Son does not have the Father,
but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well".

This might cause embarrassment if spoken in American circles. We might want to place all types of qualifiers or include a prayer to the four winds or add a feminine element to the passage. But if we really believe that Jesus is God come in the flesh, do we dare deny Him in front of men (and women)? Jesus had a stern warning about those who would deny Him. If we truly believe we won't do that today.