By: Jason Rogers

Pictures, statues, altars, baptismal founts, holy water, pilgrimage, shrines, saints, doctors, mystics, nuns, brothers, martyrs,  confessionals, priests, bishops, popes,  Mary, hosts, chalices, dogma, councils, doctrine, prayers, Mass, feast days, church year. What in the world, where is Jesus?

He is everywhere and in everything! We have pictures and statues of celebrated family members even to the point of laughter. We love water because whatever God makes holy is holy, every time we go to be with the family and Jesus we cross ourselves with water to renew our baptismal promise to new life in Christ. We love to go on journeys where God showed up in a special way.  If you make the Journey, the Lord will go with you.

We have family members that bi-located, levitated, saw heaven in open visions, penned works of love and devotion to our Father in heaven, others gave their whole life to God and nothing else, sometimes unto death. Many of us love to pray with Jesus’ Mom.  We not only got a Brother and a Father when we were adopted, we got a Mother; her maternal care is unmatched.

When we mess up we can tell the family through a special family member.  He forgives us in the name of the Father, as His representative.  His word of love is as good as Dad’s. Among these chosen of the family are elder brothers keeping watch over the family to keep things running as smooth as possible. One is chosen among them to be the steward of this great big household of love; we honored him with the name Papa. They’re always talking and praying about what God has said and what He is saying and when they think we need some direction they write family letters to this end. The real important things they feel that the Family as a whole is decided upon, they make universal statements of belief proven over decades, sometimes centuries. Always standing on the family that has gone before them and respecting their memory and their thoughts.

The eldest family members are given the most respect, Mathew, Mark, Luke, John, are those most prized of all the Family letters. We all as a Family stand when they are read every time we go to church.  The most exciting thing about going to the Father’s house is Jesus.  He is always there, waiting for us in the tabernacle, He’s in the species of bread for a little while for us but He is truly present, body, soul, spirit, and divinity.  He takes this form for one reason, so we can consume Him, that we might be consumed with eternal life.  Sound weird?  Well God likes things that take the faith of a little child.  Did I forget that chalice is so special it holds His blood for us to drink?  Just think the blood of the King of King’s running through your veins.

Our Family is prayer crazy, some of us devote our whole lives to prayer unbroken for centuries,  mental prayer, rote prayer, novenas, the divine office, simple prayer, contemplative prayer. There are as many types of prayer that is suitable for all family member’s, even the little  and simple ones, simply because we want to be near our Father. His grace and love is everywhere in His house. We love to celebrate all the time special things about His Family, Easter, Christmas, Christ the King, Corpus Christi, Pentecost, these are some big celebrations, but there are dozens more about other family members who gave their lives for love,  and it follows a calendar we call the Church year. One may ask, where is the gospel?  My response is, what do you mean? His Kingdom has come! It’s all around you; take it all in if your heart is big enough to hold it.