It Is In Prayer And Communion That We Fly Farther In Space Than Any Astronaut

The awesomeness of God is realized when we contemplate stars and planets. The earth is less than a hundredth the size of the sun, and the sun is 93 million miles away -- so far that it takes a beam of light traveling at about 185,000 miles a second more than eight minutes to reach us.

That huge orb of heat and light is tremendous to us, but in the larger scheme of our galaxy, it's a grain of sand.

The sun is but a star and there are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way alone, many far larger than our sun.

It takes not minutes or even hours but years for the light from the closeststar to hit earth.

When you look up at the stars at night, remember that not asingle one is really where you see it. What you're seeing iswhere that star was many years or centuries ago! And imagine how many other planets there are circling thestars in our galaxy! Then realize that the Milky Way, huge as it seems, spreadingfor a diameter of 100,000 light years, or 588,000,000,000,000,000miles, is only one of endless galaxies.

Our galaxy itself --those thousands of trillions of stars in the Milky Way -- is buta larger grain of sand.

At the speed of light it would take manythousands of years to reach the end of the next galaxy, andmillions of years to skirt the outer reach of the universe, ifindeed there is a limit to the universe.

Now, consider the fact that if you could get to the farthest reach of the galaxies, on the very most distant planet -- somehowout there in the blackest part of space -- you would still findGod. You would still find the Holy Spirit and Christ.

These distances are nothing to One Who can traverse the mostextreme distance in less than an instant. Even up there near Alpha Centauri, you could praise and feelthe Presence of God. During Mass, especially at the moment of Consecration, weare higher than any astronaut.

We're somewhere they can't go witha satellite or space shuttle. Maybe we were not meant to go there through technology!

We're in a different time-spacecontinuum because we're in a spiritual dimension, with a windowto eternity. It's a priceless opportunity. It's what life is all about:getting in touch with Him. Thanking God. Getting in touch withHis tranquility. Getting in touch with His Mercy. Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the world...the universe!

With those words how the graces flow. How then are wehumbled! How then are we receivers on the wavelength of God!

Thespeed of light may be 185,000 miles a second, but it's sluggishcompared to the grace of the Lord. On the moon, we could call upon Him. We could call upon Himfrom Mars. We could call upon Him from the rings of Saturn. Wecould call upon Him from the barren rock of Pluto or Jupiter.

During Mass, we travel farther than anything in the galaxy because we are traveling to a spiritual dimension. A place where space and time have no relevance.

They say that in the afterlife there isn't a past or present. There are no centuries. There are no decades. There are no weeks or months.

Everything is sacred and now.

"I cannot doubt at all Your Presence in the Eucharist," saidSt. Teresa of Avila. "You have given me such a lively faith thatwhen I hear others say they wish they had been living when Youwere on earth, I laugh to myself, for I know that I possess Youas truly in the Blessed Sacrament as people did then, and Iwonder what more anyone could possibly want."

8/12/07