His Precious Blood

EXHALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS

14 SEPTEMBER

J.M.J.

Dear Father Thomas:

When Cecilia Chin invited me to give a talk in Kansas, I sat next to a man during the flight to San Antonio. Texas. He realized I was a priest because of the Roman collar, and during the flight he showed me something he thought I'd be interested.

It was a III century bronze coin. He asked me if I knew its value. I had no idea. I was surprised to learn that it was worth 300 American dollars. Its value should be due to its sealed face of Constantine.

I became interested in the coin because the Pope John XXIII used the name of Constantine to explain the purpose of the Second Vatican Council. This consisted in opening the windows to let flesh air enter to the church, and so shake old dust accumulated since Constantine times.

I was thinking on this while Holding the coin and suddenly I started thinking about the talk I had to give in Kansas about the Holy Sacrament. The Eucharist spring from the Passion of Christ. When we draw near the Holy Sacrament, WE DRAW NEAR THE CROSS. During our holy hour we present to the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus, those souls more needed of His mercy.

During our holy hour, those more needed of His mercy are sealed and pointed with the Precious Blood of Jesus. This includes to those who are to die that day. Those sealed with the Precious Blood of Jesus are salved.

One night, in the Church of Saint Michael, I just finished my holy hour, When at four of the morning arrived a woman in a taxi. She wanted that I speak to her son. They lived in Parañaque. She told me that a voice woke her up prompting her to go to the Church of Saint Michael. She raised just in time when her son was about to commit suicide. Since her visit to San Michael, he started to improve, and now he's well.

Another night, Nonette Silla was found at the chapel praying from two to three in the morning, this is, one hour before mine. Three weeks ago she commended to the Heart of Jesus a man she knew that was destroying the moral life of many of her friends. She included this man in her prayers invoking Jesus that bring this man to the chapel so she could have the certainty of his conversion.

Three weeks later, while she was praying in the same place, she heard someone sobbing. When turning to her back, she saw it was this man. He explained to her that since three weeks his mind had been very confused. What he thought it was right, now it seemed to him it was wrong. He couldn't sleep. That night he was droving through the city of Mataki, where he lived. When he passed through the Church of Saint Michael, he saw the a light on. The light was attractive and inviting. He decided to enter.

What he found it wasn't the condemnation for his sins, but he experienced the tender mercy of the Holy Sacrament.

That's why he was sobbing.

When I arrived, at three, he told me his story. I heard his confession, gave him the absolution, and since then he receives the communion daily. The holy hour of Nonette was of much more value than the face of Constantine. The Precious Blood of Jesus sealed his soul and he couldn't escape from the grace and of the mercy of God.

I haven't seen the film 'Schindler's List', but a friend told me a touching scene. Schindler take from his flap a gold pin and he regrets not having sold it to save one more life. And cries. He regrets not having done more.

Dear Thomas, if we knew the worth of a holy hour, we never let a day pass without having it.

The Holy Father, in Dominicae Cenae, says that the adoration serves to make "reparation" for the evils of the world. There are no limits in the worth of a holy hour, because the merits of the cross are infinite. For this reason, father John Hardon, S.J., indicates that is absolutely impossible to exaggerate the worth of a holy hour alone in adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament.

Jesus said "And when I be raised from the earth, I'll attract all to me" (Jn 12:32) With every holy hour that we do, we attract to the parish an to the whole world the graces that Jesus obtained for us at the Calvary. The triumph of the cross is the mercy that we obtain from the Holy Sacrament, that seals us all and everyone of us with the Precious Blood of Jesus.

Fraternally yours in His Eucharistic Love,

Mgr. Pepe