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Few city folks know that like fine men's suits, wooden yokes are tailor-made for each individual ox
— carefully shaped by carpenters so they don't chafe, bruise, or gall the animal.
Well-fitted yokes are easy on the shoulders and make burdens easy to bear, which is why the ancient Greek word chrestos came to mean both "easy" and "well-fitted."
Now, some say that when Jesus still worked as a carpenter in Nazareth, He made the best wooden yokes in all of Galilee.
Farmers came from across the region to have their oxen measured. Once Jesus roughed-out a yoke, the farmers would return with their beast, and Jesus would cut and hone and file each new yoke until it was chrestos, perfectly-fitted to the particular animal, easy on its shoulders.
Legend has it that over the door of Jesus's carpenter shop the sign said "My yokes are easy" . . . to which He added, elsewhere and some years later, "and my burden is light."
In those days a Rabbi's teachings were also known as his "yoke." So when Jesus said that His yoke was easy, people knew He meant not only that compared to the countless rules promulgated by so many Rabbis, the teachings of Jesus were easy, but also that any individual's particular sufferings were perfectly-tailored to his individual needs, abilities, and strengths.
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Which is the origin of this consoling prayer by St. Francis de Sales:
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YOUR CROSS
The everlasting God has, in His wisdom, foreseen from eternity the cross that He now presents to you as a gift from His inmost heart.
This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His loving mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with His loving arms, and weighed with His own hands, to see that it be not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.
He has blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you and your courage, and then sent it to you from Heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all-merciful love of God.
Amen
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But even as Jesus assured the people that His yoke was easy and His burden light, He had clearly in mind the yoke which His Father had crafted for Him: |
the grim cross on which He Himself would soon hang, bearing the sins of the world.
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Compared to Jesus's sufferings, the yokes you and I have to bear are easy, our burdens light.
To remind yourself of this when things get difficult, consider for your home or office this beautiful carved box that holds rosaries, jewelry, paper clips, and other small items.
Let the the smallness of those items remind you of how small our crosses are compared to those of Jesus.
And let the lovingly-carved Celtic designs that cover every square-inch of its surface remind you as well that each of our crosses is chrestos: lovingly-carved by Jesus to afford us precisely what we need in each instant, for our own good and for the good of others.
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Or perhaps you'd prefer something larger to help you remember the cross --- something like this handsome, sturdy, 15-inch solid bronze Holy Water font (from which the Crucifixion detail [above] is taken). |
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For smaller rooms,
a smaller font may
be
more appropriate:
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Regardless of how you prepare yourself for the yoke Jesus will ask you to bear tomorrow, never forget that even as you read these words, He is already hard at work on it, roughing-it out for you, cutting, planing, and sanding it.
By the time you wake tomorrow, your new yoke will be chrestos: perfectly-fitted to you, easy on your shoulders, the very thing you need for the new day.
Jesus will already have considered it with His all-knowing eyes, warmed it with His loving arms, and weighed it with His own hands, to ensure that it is not one inch too large and not one ounce too heavy for you.
He will have blessed it with His holy name, anointed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, taken one last glance at you just before you wake, and then sent it to you from Heaven, a special greeting from Jesus Himself, an alms of the all-merciful love of God. |
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As you carry your cross today and tomorrow, please pray for me,
and I shall pray for you.
John Barger
Publisher
Sophia Institute Press |
Museum-quality
religious artwork
Made of sturdy, solid bronze,
each of these handsome holy water fonts
will last a lifetime.
12-inch
dark holy water font
$59
order here |
15-inch elaborate holy water font
$99
order here
or call
1-800-888-9344
|
12-inch
bright holy water font
$59
order here
|
plus you get
free shipping and handling
on these items. |
Ornate Celtic Cross
Rosary Box
$29
includes free shipping
and handling
Crafted from hard resin
and lightly stained
4.5 x 3.5 x 2 inches
order here
or call 1-800-888-9344
Sophia Institute Press
Box 5284, Manchester
NH 03108
NOTE:
Quantities are severely limited!
Order now, as we were only able to obtain a small quantity of each of these exquisite works, and we expect them all to be gone soon with no possibility of getting another shipment for a number of months. If by the time you reach our website our computer says that your item is currently out-of-stock, and you want us to send you one as soon as we can obtain more, then go ahead and place your order, adding a note to let us know that you are willing to wait. Your credit card will not be charged until your item ships to you.
These items can only be shipped within the continental United States. Free shipping applies to these items alone; you will be charged regular shipping on any books you order with them. And no discounts apply to these items.
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Fine Books about the Cross
to help you understand the yoke Christ has prepared for you, and the yoke that, for our sake, He chose to bear himself
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Written early in the last century by Rev. A. G. Sertillanges, a priest who lived in Jerusalem, this acclaimed devotional classic gives you vivid and dramatic details not included in the Gospel: With Jesus, you'll be jostled by crowds as you enter Jerusalem, choke on the dust of the narrow streets, experience the exotic oriental smells of the city at festival time, share the Last Supper with the disciples, stare into the face of Jesus' accusers, and be there as He dies on the Cross.
Do you remember when Jesus begged His disciples to "watch one hour" with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane? With this book, you can watch not just one but many hours with Jesus.
Read it slowly and prayerfully. The vivid details and the gripping narrative will soon take over: you'll find yourself engaged in a personal retreat, an interior pilgrimage, and a profound meditation on the love and sufferings of Jesus on the Cross.
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Dom Hubert van Zeller maintains that you can understand the mystery of suffering only by means of the Passion of Christ. In this book, he explores the fourteen Stations of the Cross, plumbing the inner meanings of each in order to reveal why there has to be pain, and what you should do (and should not do) about it.
In his explorations of the Stations, van Zeller reminds you that suffering, properly understood, cannot and should not extinguish happiness, and shows you how to accept your crosses with love. He reveals how you can learn from Christ Himself to turn your failures into victories, and to alleviate others' suffering by imitating Mary's compassion.
With help from this perceptive book, you'll learn how not to grow disheartened or to give in to discouragement, but to see your crosses for what they are, and to bear them with perseverance. |
"I am happy to recommend this book. In it, we enter into the Heart of Jesus during His Passion and discover how precious we are to Him."
--- Mother Teresa of Calcutta |
"Splendid and timely!"
--- Regis Martin
The Last Things: Death,
Judgment,
Hell, Heaven
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What Jesus Saw From the Cross
Fr. A. G. Sertillanges
252 pages $16.95 |
Suffering: The Catholic Answer
Dom Hubert Van Zeller
144 pages $12.95 |
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Books to prepare you for your own time of trial by showing you how to live beforehand:
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The saints assure us that simplicity is the virtue most likely to draw us closer to God and make us more like Him.
No wonder Jesus praised the little children and the pure of heart! In them, He recognized the goodness that arises from an untroubled simplicity of life, a simplicity which in the saints is completely focused on its true center, God.
That's easy to know, simple to say, but hard to achieve.
For our lives are complicated and our personalities too. (We even make our prayers and devotions more complicated than they need be!)
In these pages, Fr. Raoul Plus provides a remedy for the even the most tangled lives.
Relying on the words of Jesus and the lives of the saints, Fr. Plus maps out a sure path to the simplicity which Jesus praised, a simplicity that bestows on all of us who seek it happiness, courage, and inner peace, no matter how complicated our circumstances may be or how crowded our days.
Holy simplicity.
With the wise help of Fr. Plus, you will soon savor the strength that simplicity brings . . . and the abiding joy. With his help, you can attain it. |
Prayer is our lifeline to heaven, but most of us find prayer easy to neglect and even to forget. We tend to avoid it, and sometimes even resist it. Our fitful efforts at regular prayer frustrate and disappoint us.
Dom Hubert van Zeller knows why. "Prayer," says this beloved monk who taught scores of souls to pray, "comes from God, is kept going by God, and finds its way back to God by its own power." It is not something we do, but something God does in us.
Which means that most of us approach the problem of prayer backward: we struggle to pray instead of working to remove obstacles to prayer from our hearts — obstacles that prevent God from praying in us and through us.
Sound mystical? Perhaps. But living in accordance with this single truth, elaborated in these pages, not only will make regular prayer possible for you; it will transform your prayers into a source of joy.
Here you'll learn the secret of prayer from the example of Christ in the Gospels and from the prayers of the saints. You'll find out how to overcome distractions in prayer and how to deal with disappointment when your prayers seem not to have been answered.
Finally, you'll learn how to accept God's will, no matter how puzzling it may seem; and even — yes — to love it. |
Holy Simplicity
Fr. Raoul Plus
96 pages $9.95 |
Prayer and the Will of God
Dom Hubert Van Zeller
176 pages $12.95 |
Sophia Institute Press
1-800-888-9344
Box 5284, Manchester
NH 03108
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