Our Lady of Fatima, Woman of the Promise

Our Lady of Fatima, Woman of the Promise

This Sunday, we will have arrived at the 101st anniversary of the Fatima apparitions. Devotion to Fatima surely grew during the 100th anniversary last year. When I made my way through some of the latest books about Fatima, something struck me about Our Lady’s message in Fatima. When Our Lady appeared monthly from May to October 1917 she consistently made promises to the three shepherd children, Jacinta, Francisco, and Lucia. As Mary spoke those words to the children, she revealed not only to them, but to all of us that she is a woman of her word.

In Fatima, Mary not only revealed herself as the Queen of the Rosary but also as the Woman of the Promise, a title not confined to the apparition alone but also to Mary’s very identity.

The Promise to Appear

Mary invited the children at the end of each apparition to return to the Cova on the 13thof the following month.  Giving such an invitation tells us that Mary promised the children she would return the next month if they kept their promise to return.  Mary kept her promise, except for August, when she appeared on a later date because of the children’s imprisonment.

The Promise to Reveal Her Name

Another promise Mary made to the children was the promise she would reveal who she was if they continued to return each month until October.  Every month the children asked who she was, and repeatedly she promised to share her name in October.  And it was a promise Mary kept.  On October 13, 1917, Mary told the children she was the Lady of the Holy Rosary, which was fitting since in each of the apparitions Mary requested the recitation of the rosary.

The Promise of a Sign

Another promise Mary made to the children was the promise of a sign (or miracle) in October which would lead to many people believing in the supernatural events.  And again, Mary fulfilled that promise, on that rainy day, the sun emerged in the sky and began to dance, as if it was going to collide with the earth.  People began to refer to the event as the Miracle of the Sun, and knowing that Mary promised a sign, she fulfilled the promise she made to the children, and consequently many people came to believe in the children’s accounts of the apparitions.

The Promise of Peace

Mary made a request of the children during each apparition: pray the rosary every day to obtain peace for the world.  A promise which was fulfilled with the cessation of the First World War, and it’s a promise Mary wants to fulfill, but it relies on us to bring about its fulfillment.  Heeding Fatima’s message and praying the rosary everyday will allow the world to receive Heaven’s promise of peace.

Mary’s Promise of Prayers

Every time a Catholic prays the Hail Mary, they ask Mary to pray for them “now and at the hour of our death.”  When we pray that prayer we place our hope in this promise of Mary’s prayers, not only in the immediacy of the moment the prayer is uttered, but also at the promise of prayers when we draw our last breath.

When Mary appeared in 1925 to Sister Lucia and further explained the First Saturday devotion, Mary said “I promise to assist at the hour of death with the graces necessary for salvation all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession and receive Holy Communion, recite the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary.”  This is further proof of Mary’s promise to pray for those who were devoted to her during their life.

Mary, Woman of the Promise

Mary is the woman of the promise who kept the promises she made to humanity.  Since the Fall of our first parents, Adam and Eve, God promised to right what was wrong by sending His son into the world.  The prophets foretold that a virgin would give birth.  Mary is that woman.  She fulfills God’s promise to the world by giving birth to Emmanuel.

As the mother of all believers, she has made promises to her sons and daughters.  She brought to fulfillment the promises she made in Fatima, and we can be certain she will do so for all eternity.

Deacon Tom's Homily for May 10th

Today we encounter one of the major themes of the Gospel. Jesus comes from God and is returning to God. This time the theme is expressed in a puzzling way. There is the term "little while" and the verb, "see." On one level, it can mean the death and resurrection of Jesus. On another level it can mean the return of Jesus "on the last day." The verb "see" is often connected with faith in the gospel and indeed the faith of the disciples would be shaken and then strengthened by the arrival of the Holy Spirit. In tomorrow's segment Jesus will use the image of childbirth to describe what the disciples will experience in his death and resurrection. Again, all of this is part of his explanation to the disciples about what is about to happen.

Jesus' orientation for the time between his first coming and his return in glory at the end of the world is a reversal of the world's fortunes. The world says take your joy now in whatever pleasures you can get from this present life. Jesus points to a joy that transcends anything this world can offer. Jesus contrasts present sorrows with future joy. We cannot avoid pain and sorrow if we wish to follow Jesus to the cross. But in the cross of Christ we find victory over sin and death that brings us supernatural joy without end. Thomas Aquinas said: "No one can live without joy. That is why a man or woman deprived of spiritual joy will turn to carnal pleasures".

Jesus contrasts present sorrows with the future glory to be revealed to those who put their hope in God. Nothing is wasted or lost in our faith journey. Every loss can help us to become more sensitive to the sufferings of others and to reach out in empathy and action.

Today we have an example of God’s providence bringing unexpected good into our lives. The man who would become St. Damien of Molokai was born in rural Belgium in 1840, the youngest of seven children. Growing up on the farm, Jozef was prepared to take over for his family, but he did not want the responsibility. Instead, he wanted to follow his older brother and two sisters who took religious vows. He aided his family until he was old enough to enter the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. He took the name Damien, after a sixth century martyr.

In 1866, Hawaii established a leper colony on Molokai, known as Devil’s Island. It was still mistakenly believed that leprosy was highly contagious. This belief resulted in the forced quarantine of leprosy patients. The local bishop believed that the people living on the island, numbering over 800 at the time, needed a priest. Yet, the bishop knew that ministering to a people of this contagious and deadly disease would be a death sentence for the priest who went. The bishop asked for priests to volunteer to serve in Molokai. Fr. Damien was the first to volunteer. In 1873, Fr. Damien made the trip to be with these people in their colony.

Upon arrival he found anarchy reigned among the people. Many patients required treatment but had nobody to care for them. Every kind of immorality and misbehavior was on display in the lawless colony. Fr. Damien realized the people needed leadership, so he provided it. He asked people to come together to build houses and schools and the parish church, St. Philomena. The sick were cared for and the dead buried. Order and routine made the colony livable. Fr. Damien grew attached to the people and his work. He asked permission to stay at the colony to serve. He wrote: “I make myself a leper with the lepers, to gain all for Jesus Christ.”

Leprosy is not as contagious as most people of the period assumed, however five percent of the human population is susceptible. The disease can also take several years to show symptoms. Fr. Daminen became one of those people. After several years of work, he contracted leprosy in 1885. After sixteen years in the colony, Fr. Damien succumbed to leprosy on April 15, 1889. His sainthood was confirmed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

Let’s also remember Saint Francis who met a man afflicted with leprosy while riding his horse near Assisi. Though the sight of the leper filled him with horror and disgust, Francis got off his horse and kissed the leper. Then the leper put out his hand, hoping to receive something. Out of compassion, Francis gave money to the leper.

But when Francis mounted his horse again and looked all around, he could not see the leper anywhere. It dawned on him that it was Jesus whom he had just kissed. In his Testament, Francis wrote, “When I was in sin, the sight of lepers nauseated me beyond measure; but then God himself led me into their company, and I had pity on them. When I became acquainted with them, what had previously nauseated me became the source of spiritual and physical consolation for me.”

The reason these saints and their story is so moving to me is that I spent time at the site of the last leprosarium in the United States, the National Hansen's Disease Center situated on 350 acres in Carville Louisiana, near Baton Rouge.

The Louisiana Guard took operational control of this facility in the early 1980s when the U.S. Public Health Service transferred ownership to the State of Louisiana and it was renamed the Gillis Long Center. The Guard uses this site to provide operational and training support and resources in support of the units of the Louisiana National Guard. There are now seven residents who voluntary remain in a wing on the grounds.

Both St. Damien and St. Francis had to discern who Jesus was and what God was asking of them. The memories of their words and actions should inspire us to go beyond our comfort zone and to risk becoming something more. And with that faith and courage we can change the world.

Pope’s Morning Homily: Don’t Dialogue With Devil, Keep a Good Distance

Pope’s Morning Homily: Don’t Dialogue With Devil, Keep a Good Distance

During Morning Mass, Francis Reminds Devil Is Smarter Than We Are

MAY 08, 2018 14:45

The devil is a great liar. Don’t talk to him or even get close. He tries to seduce and like a chained rabid dog, if you caress him, he bites.

According to Vatican News, Pope Francis stressed this during his daily morning Mass at Casa Santa Marta as he reflected on the figure of the devil who is not dead, but “has already been condemned” as said in today’s Gospel of today’s Liturgy, taken from John (Jn 16: 5-11).

Fighting and overcoming temptations, the Pope reminded, requires being on guard, praying and fasting.

We must be attentive to the devil, the Pontiff underscored, as he “seduces us, knows how to touch our vanity, curiosity and we buy everything,” that is “we fall into temptation” and suffer “a dangerous defeat.”

Beware, the Pope warned, of the devil’s seduction.

“The devil is a seducer,” Francis reminded, saying, he “knows what words to tell us” and this is dangerous as “we like to be seduced.”

“He has this ability; this ability to seduce. This is why it is so difficult to understand that he is a loser, because he presents himself with great power, promises you many things, brings you gifts – beautiful, well wrapped – -‘Oh, how nice!’ – but you do not know what’s inside – ‘But, the card outside is beautiful.’ The package seduces us without letting us see what’s inside. He can present his proposals to our vanity, to our curiosity.”

His light, Francis said, is dazzling, but it vanishes.

The devil who ‘is very dangerous,’ the Pope admitted, presents himself with all his power, yet “his proposals are all lies.” “We, fools,” he said, “believe.” Stressing the devil “is the great liar, the father of lies,” the Pope noted, “He can speak well,” “is able to sing to deceive.”

“He is a loser but moves like a winner,” whose light is dazzling, “like a firework” but does not last and fades, whereas the Lord’s is “mild but permanent.”

“If I know that spiritually if I approach that thought, if I approach that desire, if I go that way or the other, I am approaching the angry and chained dog. Please do not do it. ‘I have a big wound …’ – ‘Who did it?’ – ‘The dog’ – ‘But he was chained?’ – ‘Oh yes, I went to give him a caress’ – ‘But you are sought. ‘It’s like this: never approach …. Let him chained there.”

Do not converse with the devil

Finally, we must be careful not to dialogue with the devil as Eve did.  Jesus does not dialogue in the desert, but rather responds with the Word of God. He hunts the demons, sometimes he asks for his name but does not make a dialogue with them. The Pope’s exhortation is therefore very clear: “With the devil he does not dialogue, because he wins us, he is smarter than us”.

Noting the devil disguises himself, the Pope said: “He is a convict, he is a loser, he is chained and about to die, but he is capable of making massacres. And we must pray, do penance, do not approach, do not talk to him. And in the end, go to the mother, like children. When the children are afraid, they go to the mother: ‘Mom, mom … I’m scared!’ When they have dreams … they go to their mothers.

“Go to the Madonna; she guards us. And the Fathers of the Church, especially the Russian mystics, say: in the time of spiritual turmoil, take refuge under the mantle of the great Mother of God. Go to the Mother. May she help us in this fight against the defeated, against the chained dog to win it.”

Why is this popular devotion called the “Rosary”?

Why is this popular devotion called the “Rosary”?

 Philip Kosloski | May 06, 2018

Here's what the name Rosary comes from and why it is used in reference to a well-known devotion.

Most Catholics and many Christians know what the Rosary is. However, has anyone ever asked why it is called a “rosary”?

After initially looking at the English word, there is nothing immediately evident that would point to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or prayer in general. However, looking at the Latin roots of the word reveals a beautiful symbolism that isn’t widely known.

According to the Dictionary of English Etymology, from the Latin “Rosarium … signifying properly a collection or garland of roses, was a title of many works … consisting of compendiums of flowers as it were culled from preceding authors … In the course of time the name was specially appropriated to a string of Paternosters and Ave Marias to be recited in a certain order in honour of the fifteen mysteries of our Lord in which the Virgin was a partaker, and from the collection of prayers the name was transferred to the string of beads used for the purpose of keeping count in the recitation.”

Initially the Rosary was called “Our Lady’s Psalter,” referring to the 150 Psalms that monks would pray and from which the tradition of the Rosary originated. The Latin word rosarium became associated with the devotion over time, especially after the spreading of a particular legend.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “An early legend which after travelling all over Europe penetrated even to Abyssinia connected this name with a story of Our Lady, who was seen to take rosebuds from the lips of a young monk when he was reciting Hail Marys and to weave them into a garland which she placed upon her head.”

Thus, the rosary became viewed spiritually and in art as a way to present a garland of roses to the Blessed Mother in a similar way that roses would be picked for a person’s earthly mother.

The name has stuck ever since, and the Rosary is the most popular Catholic devotion around the world.

By Keeping ‘His Commandments, which Are Summarized in Loving One Another’ as He Has Love Us

By Keeping ‘His Commandments, which Are Summarized in Loving One Another’ as He Has Love Us

MAY 06, 2018

 Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

In this Easter Season, the Word of God continues to point out to us coherent lifestylesto be the community of the Risen One. Among these, today’s Gospel presents Jesus’ charge: “abide in my love” (John 15:9). To inhabit the current of God’s love, to have a stable dwelling is the condition so that our love doesn’t lose its ardor and daring on the way. Like Jesus and in Him, we must also receive with gratitude the love that comes from the Father and abide in this love, trying not to separate ourselves by egoism and sin. It’s a demanding but not impossible program.

First of all, it’s important to be aware that Christ’s love is not a superficial feeling, but an essential attitude of the heart, which is manifested in living as He wishes. In fact, Jesus affirms: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in His love” (v. 10). Love is realized in everyday life, in attitudes <and> in actions, otherwise, it’s something illusory. Jesus asks us to keep His commandments, which are summarized in this “phrase”: “that you love one another as I have loved you” (v. 12).

How can we make this love, which the Risen Lord gives us, be able to be shared with others? Jesus often pointed out who was the other to be loved, not in words but in deeds. It’s he whom I meet on my path and who, with his face and his history, questions me; it’s he who with his very presence, pushes me to come out of my interests and my securities; it’s he who waits for my willingness to listen and to go a little way together. Availability to every brother and sister, regardless of who he is and in what situation he finds himself, beginning with one who is close to me in the family, in the community, at work, at school . . . So, if I remain united to Jesus, His love can reach the other and draw him to Himself, to His friendship.

And this love for others can’t be reserved for exceptional moments but must become a constant of our existence. That’s why we are called to protect the elderly as a precious treasure, and with love, even if they create economic problems and hardships. That’s why to the sick, even if in the last stage, we must give all the assistance possible. That’s why the unborn are always received; that’s why, in the end, life is always protected and loved from conception until its natural end. God loves us in Jesus Christ, who asks that we love as He loves us. However, we can’t do this if we don’t have in ourselves His very Heart. The purpose of the Eucharist, in which we are called to participate every Sunday, is to form in us the Heart of Christ so that all our life is guided by His generous attitudes. May the Virgin Mary help us to abide in Jesus’ love and to grow in love towards all, especially the weakest, to correspond fully to our Christian vocation.

The Healing Encounter of God's Mercy

The Healing Encounter of God's Mercy

Pope Francis —Penitential Celebration March 9, 2018

What great joy and consolation are offered us by the words of Saint John that we just heard: God so loves us that that he has made us his children, and, when we see him face-to-face, we shall discover all the more the greatness of his love (cf. 1 Jn 3:1-10.19-22). Not only that. The love of God is always greater than anything we can imagine; it even reaches beyond any sin with which our conscience may charge us. His is an infinite love, one that knows no bounds. It is free of all those obstacles that we, for our part, tend to set in front of others, out of fear that they may strip us of our freedom.

We know that the state of sin distances us from God. But in fact, sin is the way that we distance ourselves from him. Yet that does not mean that God distances himself from us. The state of weakness and confusion that results from sin is one more reason for God to remain close to us. The certainty of this should accompany us throughout our lives. The words of the Apostle are a reassuring confirmation that our hearts should trust, always and unhesitatingly, in the Father’s love: “No matter what our hearts may charge us with, God is greater than our hearts” (v. 20).

His grace is constantly at work in us, to strengthen our hope that his love will never be lacking, in spite of any sin we may have committed by rejecting his presence in our lives.

It is this hope that makes us realize at times that our life has lost its direction, as Peter did in the Gospel account that we heard. “And immediately the cock crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times’. And he went out and wept bitterly” (Mt 26:74-75). The evangelist is extremely sober. The crowing of the cock startles a man who is bewildered; he then recalls the words of Jesus, and at last the curtain is lifted. Peter begins to glimpse through his tears that God is revealed in Christ, who is buffeted and insulted, whom he himself has denied, yet who now goes off to die for him. Peter, who wanted to die for Jesus, now realizes that he must let Jesus die for him. Peter wanted to teach the Master; he wanted to go before him. Instead, it is Jesus who goes off to die for Peter. Peter had not understood this; he didn’t want to understand it.

Peter is now confronted with the Lord’s charity. Finally he understands that the Lord loves him and asks him to let himself be loved. Peter realizes that he had always refused to let himself be loved. He had always refused to let himself be saved by Jesus alone, and so he did not want Jesus to love him completely.

How truly difficult it is to let ourselves be loved! We would always like a part of us to be freed of the debt of gratitude, while in reality we are completely indebted, because God loved us first and, with love, he saves us completely.

Let us now ask the Lord for the grace to know the greatness of his love, which wipes away our every sin.

Let us allow ourselves to be purified by love, in order to recognize true love!

Pope Francis —Penitential Celebration March 9, 2018

Deacon Tom's Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter

SUNDAY, MAY 6TH SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

[Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48; 1 John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17]

James Shaw Jr, along with his best friend, had just sat down early Sunday April 22nd in the Waffle House — one of their favorite haunts, when they heard a loud, crashing sound. They had been watching a dishwasher pile plates high and wondering when they would topple. At first, they thought the sharp crackle was gravity’s work. It quickly became clear it was something else. Bullets shattered the restaurant’s windows. A man collapsed onto the floor. Servers ran. A young man whom Mr. Shaw had seen minutes earlier, silhouetted in a pickup truck, was gripping a rifle. He was squeezing the trigger and squeezing it again as he moved toward the building. Then the firing paused. Mr. Shaw could see the man reloading his weapon just after entering the restaurant. He sensed a moment when he could fight back. “I acted in a blink of a second,” Mr. Shaw said.

James Shaw Jr. was hailed as a lifesaver after he disarmed a shooter who killed four people and injured others early that Sunday morning. Authorities said Shaw's bravery saved numerous lives, but he has refused to call himself a hero, saying: “I’m not a hero. I’m just a regular person”. He later said: "All I can say is ... this was a true test of a man.

Five days earlier, Capt. Tammie Jo Shults was acclaimed for her nerves of steel when she safely landed Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 in Philadelphia after one of the plane’s engines exploded in midair, tragically claiming the life of passenger Jennifer Riordan. Shults said she and her team were “simply doing our jobs.”

Angels, heroes — apply whichever label you prefer to both James and Tammie. But heroes often are ordinary people who do extraordinary things on behalf of others. Shaw and Shults meet not just the dictionary’s definition of “hero,” but ours. Shaw tried to downplay his heroics, saying anyone else would’ve reacted the same way. But some of us are probably wondering: What would I have done in that situation?

The truth is, we don’t know until we’re confronted with it. Yet it’s clear, given the instances of heroism we hear about, and sometimes witness, that people find amazing reservoirs of strength when they need to. We’ve seen it so many times. They are in fact, acts of transcendent love. “No one has greater love than this,” Jesus says in today’s gospel, “to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Love is Christ’s great message to his followers this Sunday – his parting word. “As the Father loves me, so I also love you,” Jesus says. Think of that: how deep and how eternal that love must be.

But Christ follows that with a challenge so bold, and so daunting, it seems impossible. “Love one another,” he commands them, “as I have loved you”. In other words: As deeply as God loves his son, and as powerfully as Jesus then loves us, that is how we are to love one another.

It’s wild to think about loving like this. Even if we aren’t called to martyrdom in the physical sense, radical love asks us to lay down our lives for our friends in real ways every day, just like James and Tammi. We pour out what we have in love so that others might live more fully. Jesus calls us all his friends.

In a good marriage, spouses can say that, and they can say it to their children. It is more than a natural bond when faith enters the relationship. It is "supernatural," but still very possible. We can experience it in close friendship as well. We "remain" united in each other. Jesus is offering us a different way, an ultimate way, that we can share with others. It takes courage, but we have the Holy Spirit he has promised, and this means both joy and sacrifice that will make an ultimate difference in our lives. 

Love is not merely a sentiment; it is an act of will. We cannot be ordered to “like” someone or to “fall in love”, but we can “choose to love” our enemies. More importantly, when we experience God’s love for us, the joy of being loved leads us to want to respond to that love. And God has loved us first: “It was not you who chose me[1]….” We experience his love for us each time we receive the sacraments, but also each time we reflect on the fact that he is keeping us in existence.

Most of us probably feel we could never measure up to the standard that Christ is setting for his disciples. We have a hard-enough time just getting along with our neighbors and co-workers and family members. But we are called to something greater. “This I command you,” Christ says. “Love one another.”

It’s his commandments that are the path to joy. It’s through obedience to God that we’re going to find joy and peace. He is calling us not just to love, but to love sacrificially, to choose the good of another over and above our own good, even to the point of laying down our life for the sake of the other.

In friendship with Jesus, all of humanity becomes our friends as well. Little sacrifices teach us slowly how to lay down our lives for one another fully. This was achieved in life by James and Tammie in ways that led those who were saved by them to call them a hero or angel. Would our friends say anything like that about any of us? Are any of us able to love so powerfully?

It is giving, when we know we’ll get nothing back.

It is sacrificing, when we know there’s nothing to be gained.

It is jumping into the pit, when we aren’t sure how we’ll get out.

It is an offering on an altar – or on a cross.

“This I command you: Love one another.”

[1] John 15:16

We Are in the Hands of God

We Are in the Hands of God

Posted by Jim Van Vurst, OFM on 5/2/18 7:00 AM

We know that God is a pure and infinite spirit. But Scripture also attributes human characteristics to him. In his wisdom, God wanted to be real for his children. He wanted to be someone we could hold on to. In God’s own words to us, he has described himself in physical images. For example, Jesus described the Father like a “hen who gathers her chicks safely under her wing” (Lk 13:34). It seems significant, too, that there are 122 references to the hands of God. 

We understand how our own hands are so important in expressing our love and care for one another—a touch, a caress, a protective hold. That image also tells us so much about our Creator. In the creation story, God creates the heavens and earth by an act of will. However, when it comes to the gift of life, Genesis says, “Let us make human beings in our image and likeness” (1:28). 

The image of us being held in the hands of God is such a help in understanding how close he is to us. We even think of God as picking us up after a fall. Of course, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, used his hands to touch, to hold, and to heal. Jesus “lays his hands” on a leper (Mk 1:41). To touch a leper would be unthinkable, making Jesus ritually unclean and unable to enter the temple. But that is exactly what he did. The leper was healed. 

Put simply, we are all in the Almighty's hands. This should remind us that the Father is not distant from us. He is not just with us, but actually within us. 

Remember Jesus’ description of the Prodigal Son? The young man’s father saw him returning from his foolish venture into society. He was returning home with all his dreams smashed to bits. Luke writes, “When he was still afar off, his father caught sight of him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced [threw his arms around] him and kissed him” (15:20). 

Thus, when we pray for our loved ones, there is that beautiful way of telling God, “Lord, I give my loved ones to you. Take them and hold them safely in your hands.” Even for ourselves, we can say, “Lord, I give myself into your hands.”

First-time mothers have told me that when they are home from the hospital with their newborns, they can’t keep their hands off them. They can only gaze at the miracle of new life in their arms. Now imagine how the Almighty looks upon us as sons and daughters. Imagine God speaking to us, “You are mine. I will do anything for you. I want you with me for all eternity.”

That is our loving God speaking.

What’s the difference between Ignatian Spirituality and Centering Prayer?

What’s the difference between Ignatian Spirituality and Centering Prayer?

 MAY 2, 2018 BY CARL MCCOLMAN

  What is the difference between centering prayer and Ignatian spirituality?

To answer this question, let’s consider the difference between meditation and contemplation — or, perhaps we could say, the difference between a beautiful painting and the expansive wall on which it is hung.

A reader of this blog recently posted this on Facebook:

As I work with people interested in Centering Pray I also find an interest in Jesuit Spirituality. Could you do a short compare and contrast, or at least give us a few thoughts?

I’m so glad you asked me, because this question represents the two “centers” of my spiritual community here in the Atlanta area. You see, I am a member of a Catholic Church with Jesuit priests in charge, so of course we place a great emphasis on the treasures of Ignatian (or Jesuit) spirituality. But I’m also a professed lay associate of a Trappist (Cistercian) monastery — just like the monasteries where the centering prayer movement emerged over the last 40 years.

Sts. Ignatius of Loyola and John Cassian — teachers of two very different, but complementary, forms of Christian prayer.

The Ancient/New Practice of Centering Prayer

Although the centering prayer movement is a new (post-Vatican II) development in Christianity, it represents an ancient form of spiritual practice, going all the way back to the desert mothers and fathers of the third and fourth centuries (maybe even farther back than that, but that’s where our documentary evidence begins). Similar spiritual practices have been promoted by great Christian writers/thinkers like Evagrius Ponticus, John Cassian,  John Climacus, and various Orthodox saints and mystics (whose writings have been preserved in a classic anthology of spiritual writings called the Philokalia) as well as the anonymous medieval author of The Cloud of Unknowing and — especially in the eastern churches — modern figures like Theophane the Recluse.

What this great lineage of Christian spiritual teachers — nearly all of whom were monks — have in common is a commitment to contemplative prayer as an attentive, yet wordless, prayer of the heart — what John of the Cross called “silent love.” Centering prayer, which emphasizes a prayer of resting silently in the presence of God, placing our attention on a single “prayer word” so that our hearts may wordlessly rest in God’s love, represents a long tradition of Christian teachers who emphasize silence, restful watchfulness, and the recitation of a single word, verse, or phrase as a focal point of awareness — which allows the real work of prayer to take place, in the heart, below the threshold of conscious attention.

So the key word for centering prayer is silence. Not just an external silence (turn off the TV, smartphone, laptop, etc.), but more crucially, resting in the interior silence that is deeper than words or thoughts.

Incidentally, centering prayer, proper speaking, is not synonymous with contemplation — for contemplation is a gift from God, not something we achieve by our own efforts. But centering prayer is a prayer which disposes the praying person to contemplation. It’s a way, so to speak, to say to God, “Here I am, and I choose to wait for you in silence, to be still and know you, God, in my heart.”

From Silence to the Imagination

What, then, is Ignatian or Jesuit spirituality, and how does it differ from the contemplative exercise of centering prayer?

Ignatius of Loyola, who founded the Society of Jesus, wrote a classic book for spiritual directors called Spiritual Exercises. In this book, he commends a specific approach to prayer that emphasizes the use of imagination as a way of praying.

Think of it this way. Instead of just reciting words to Jesus, like you were speaking to him via telephone, for your prayer you take a story from the Gospels and visualize it in your mind’s eye, and then imaginatively place yourself in the midst of the story. So you might see yourself in the crowd when Jesus rescues the woman who committed adultery from the men who want to stone her. Or you might be listening to him as he preaches the sermon on the mount, or even imagine yourself as one of the 5000+ people who are fed through the miracle of the loaves and fishes.

The beauty of imaginative prayer is that is allows us to use an ordinary human faculty — the mind’s eye, our inner ability to visualize events with our imagination — and create an inner forum for encountering Christ, or Mary, or one of the saints. And that’s truly the heart of Ignatian prayer: it’s not a passive type of visualization, as if we were watching a movie in our minds. Rather, the point behind Ignatian prayer is that we encounter Christ through the medium of our own minds, our own capacity for visualization, imagination, and wonder.

Even though Ignatian spirituality (like most classical forms of spirituality) values silence, technically speaking Ignatian prayer is not “silent” at least not in an interior way. We may seek out exterior silence to allow our prayer to be undisturbed, but on the inside we enrich our prayer with all our imaginative senses: we smell the incense, feel the dusty road beneath our feet, shield our eyes from the dazzling light of the sun, and listen for the words of Jesus as he speaks directly to us.

Apophatic and Kataphatic

Here are a couple of theological words to help understand the distinction between Ignatian and Centering forms of prayer. Ignatian prayer is kataphatic — from a Greek word that means “to affirm” or “to speak emphatically.” Kataphatic prayer is a type of prayer that uses positive ways of imagining, thinking about, or speaking of God. It finds God in created things, in our thoughts and feelings, in our ordinary human capacity for imagination and visualization.

By contrast, centering prayer is apophatic — from another Greek word meaning “without words” or “away from words.” This kind of spirituality stresses the mystical and essential hiddenness of God: “Truly you are a God who hides yourself,” as Isaiah put it (45:15). Apophatic prayer is the prayer that recognizes that no words or images are ever adequate to understand or comprehend God; that ultimately human language and comprehension fail before the divine mystery and majesty. Therefore, silence becomes the most reliable medium for prayer. As the medieval Jewish writer Rashi put it, “Silence is God’s most eloquent praise, since elaboration must leave glaring omissions.”

Put another way, Ignatian spirituality seeks to find God in all things, while centering prayer recognizes that God is so much great than any or all things, that ultimately only silence can bring us into the divine presence. Kataphatic spirituality we could compare to a colorful painting; apophatic spirituality, therefore, would be the simplicity of the empty wall behind the painting: imageless and colorless, but present and beautiful in its own austere way.

Which kind of prayer is right for me?

How do we choose between the richly imaginative exercise of Ignatian prayer, or the unadorned yet restful silence of centering prayer? Which type of prayer is right for you, or me, or anyone?

The answer is, “It depends.” Some people by temperament are more comfortable with kataphatic or aphophatic types of spirituality. Others may enjoy both forms. And still others may find that at one point in their lives they prefer Ignatian meditation, and at other times they are drawn to centering prayer as a way of preparing for contemplation.

A wise person once said, “Pray as you can, not as you can’t.” Don’t make the mistake of thinking one of these types of prayer is “higher” or “better” than the other. Think of them rather as different paths leading up the same mountain. The goal is to get to the summit, no matter what route we take.

The Greatest Love: Inspiration for the Sixth Sunday of Easter

Archbishop Follo: The greatest love

With the Invitation to Answer the Love of Christ by a Loving with Trust and by a Total Surrender.

MAY 04, 2018 19:02

FRANCESCO FOLLO

Roman Rite – Sixth Easter Sunday – Year B – May 6, 2018
Acts 10.25-15.34-35.44-48; Ps 98; 1Gv 4, 7-10; Jn 15: 9-17

Ambrosian Rite
Acts 26, 1-23; Ps 22; 1Cor 15, 3-11; Jn 15, 26-16, 4
Sixth Easter Sunday

1) The name of Christ’s disciples: “Friends”.

On this sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus, who continues to invite us to “remain” in Him, reveals to us who He is, the Beloved, and that his life is a relationship of Love. This is why he calls us to be a community of people whose vocation is to share His love.

After exhorting his people to remain in him as the branches in the vine (see the last Sunday’s Gospel), today Jesus asks us to remain in his Love, not to move away from the source of life, and to open ourselves to Him who, in the gift total of himself, has included us in his relationship with the Father.

The love of Christ is the utmost love because he gives his life for us, his friends: “There is no greater love than to give one’s life for one’s friends. And you are my friends “(Jn 15:13).

Let us not forget that among the friends whom Jesus addresses in the cenacle there is Judas (who has just gone out after having called him “friend”); Peter (who will deny him three times) and the others (who will leave him alone during the passion). However, he calls them “friends”. Today we are in the cenacle of the church and are called by him “friends”, even if we are fragile and sinful.

In fact, at the last supper, but not only then, Jesus calls his friends and his peers (the love of friendship is among equal persons and is mutual) those who will betray him disowning him and going away from him. Why? Because he loves them with a gratuitous love and knows that they will respond to his love. Even if they do not love him with fullness, at least they want to love him, grateful for the love he has for them.

When they see him crucified and when they discover his boundless love, they will believe in this “excessive” love.

We too are called to become his friends by knowing his love for us. This statement is beautiful: “I call you not servants, but friends” (Jn 15, 15) because the noun “servants” (in the Greek text there is written “slaves”) per se has an honorary title and indicates the ministers of the king. Minister is a word of Greek origin which means servant. So Ministers are the most important persons after the King. The most important, after God, are the servants of God, the prophets, the saints. However, today Christ teaches “You are not” servants “, not even the greatest ones. You are something more. You are equal friends among yourselves and with Him. We are called to become equal to God. Why? Because the love that the Father has for the Son, the Son has given to us and we can love with the same love of God and become like God who is love. So we are friends, peers. It is precisely this brotherly love in Brother Jesus, which makes us equal to God. In the final part of v. 15 of the chap. 15, Jesus continues: “the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. “Jesus explains what he means by” friends “. Christ recognizes the disciples as friends because they do what He asks them namely if they believe and love. In front of the King of Kings, the condition of the disciple is per se that of the “servant”, a term that in the Bible (but not only) represents a title of importance, because it characterizes the relationship with God. It indicates a person faithful and available to the Lord. It does not have the meaning of a slave, except when it indicates a man subjected to a master of this world or (see Jn 8:34) to the power of sin. The title of “servant” is already important, but the title “friend” indicates that at the center of the life of God and of man, there is friendship, the most perfect form of Love, the free and non-possessive relationship that realizes the communion of people.

2) Friends of Christ.

Today Christ reveals to us that we are not only servants and disciples, but friends.

If we were not ministers (= servants), we will, in any case, be subservient to the King. Even if we are happy to serve a good cause, we will always be subjects who are compelled to observe the law. If we were only disciples, we would have to be schooled by the Master, happy to learn the truth and to receive words of eternal life.

But we are also “friends”, we are “subjects” to the law of freedom generated by the Love to whom He has entrusted himself and that makes us participate in it if we remain in his word: “This I command you, love one another”.

This, more than a command, is a plea that Jesus addresses to us because He first loved us and now He gives us strength so that we can also do it. It is the novelty of the ecclesial community: to be a school of friendship where we learn the logic of gift and faith.

To remain in the friendship of Christ means to enter into a new relationship with God, the God of the New Covenant, who is not so much a supreme legislator who asks us to observe the Law but a Father who implores us to believe in a Love that has reached the point of giving his own Son.

In this friendship with Christ, He – who is the shepherd, the way, the truth and the life – becomes the door through which the Father’s Love becomes our home. It is so because, today, Christ repeats that we are at home in the love that the Father has for him, the Son. How do we remain in this house? We remain in the house of love if, in turn, we love.  “Love one another as I have loved you”. By loving our brothers, we are in the Father’s House. This fraternal love makes us friends of Christ. By loving our brother we become like God, like the Son, who is such because he loves his brothers with the love of the Father.

In this friendship

• the way is not a journey to make, it is a person to follow: Christ;
• the truth is not an abstract concept, it is a man to spend time with Christ;
• and life is not simply a biological fact. Life is to love as we are loved, to love the One who loves us; it is to love Christ.

“Friends” is the truest name of the disciples of Jesus. We are no longer servants, forced to observe a law, but free friends of that freedom generated by the love to which he has entrusted himself and which makes us participate in it, if we remain in his word: “This I command you, that you love each other”.

3) The consecrated virgins, witnesses of friendship with Christ.

The vocation to friendship with Christ for the consecrated virgin should be understood in the light of the Song of Songs where we read: “Now my beloved tells me:” My lover speaks and says to me, “Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come! For see, the winter is past, the rains are over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of pruning the vines has come, and the song of the turtledove is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance. Arise, my friend, my beautiful one, and come!”(Song of Songs 2, 10 – 13).

These women, consecrated to Christ with the gift of themselves, show that they believed in the love of God and offer themselves without reserve to Jesus, Spouse and Friend, testifying that “at the beginning of being Christian there is not an ethical decision or a great idea, but the encounter with an event, with a Person, which gives life a new horizon and, with this, the decisive direction “(Benedict XVI).

As brides of Christ, the consecrated virgins bear witness to the love of friendship, which God fills us with and which we must communicate to the others.

With simplicity but with perseverance, these women show that friendship with Christ coincides with what the third question of our Father expresses: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. In the hour of Gethsemane, Jesus transformed our rebellious human will into a will conforming with and united with the divine will. He has suffered all the drama of our autonomy, and just by bringing our will into the hands of God, he gives us true freedom: ‘Not as I want, but as you want’.

Our redemption is realized in this communion of wills: to be friends of Jesus, to become friends of God. The more we love Jesus, and the more we know him, the more our true freedom grows and the joy of being redeemed grows. Let’s thank Jesus for his friendship and be more and more fraternal friends among us. “Yet we cannot celebrate this free gift of the Lord’s friendship unless we realize that our earthly life and our natural abilities are his gift. We need “to acknowledge jubilantly that our life is essentially a gift and recognize that our freedom is a grace. This is not easy today, in a world that thinks it can keep something for itself, the fruits of its own creativity or freedom”. Pope Francis, Es. Ap. Gaudete et exultate, on the call to holiness in the contemporary world, No. 55).

An almost patristic reading

In his Magisterium, several times Pope Francis spoke to us about friendship, about this important human feeling, but evidently also divine, as the Gospel teaches us.

Talking to the Serra Club, Pope Francis recalls that in the Gospel “Jesus himself strips this concept of every ‘sentimentalism’ and points to ‘an uncomfortable truth’, namely that ‘there is true friendship only when the encounter involves me in the life of the other up to the gift of myself ‘. Friendship is , herefore ‘a commitment of responsibility, which involves life’ in the sense of “sharing the destiny of the other, compassion, and involvement that leads to giving oneself to the other”. A true friend, according to the Pope, is someone who “comes up beside discreetly and tenderly to my path, listens to me deeply, and knows how to go beyond words, is merciful towards my defects, is free from prejudices, knows how to share my path, making me feel the joy of not being alone. He does not always indulge me, but, precisely because he wants my good, he sincerely tells me what he does not share; He’s ready to help me get up every time I fall. ”

In the same speech ,the Pope dwells on the difficult friendship that binds priests and lay people who want to help them. “How sad it is to see that sometimes we churchmen do not know how to give up our place, cannot delegate our duties with serenity, and we struggle to leave in the hands of others the works that the Lord has entrusted in us. “These are the words of Pope Francis at the Serra Club International, an association of entrepreneurs and professionals who want to help priests by offering friendship and financial support. “You too, then, siempre adelante! With courage, creativity and boldness”, the Pope exhorted. “Without fear of renewing your structures and without allowing the precious journey to lose the momentum of novelty. May you always be ready – concluded Pope Francis – to pass the torch above all to future generations, aware that the fire is lit from Above precedes our response and overcomes our work. This is the Christian mission: one sows and the other reaps”.

Five Keys to Friendship from Pope Francis

1. 1. A good friend knows your secrets: Good friends are those we can confide in and open up our heart to, in order to share with them our joys and sorrows, without fear of being judged. Scripture says: A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter: he that has found one has found a treasure.There is nothing as precious as a faithful friend(Sir 6:14-15). But friendship doesn’t come about in just one day. As Pope Francis says: “A friend isn’t just an acquaintance, someone you enjoy passing the time of day with. Friendship is something much deeper.” “Patience is needed to forge a strong friendship between two people. A lot of time talking with one another, spending time together, getting to know one another—that’s how friendship is forged. Patience makes a friendship real and solid.”
2. A good friend never abandons you: Jesus said: Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jn15:13).Pope Francis insists: “When you love someone, you want to be at their side, to care for them and help them, to say what is on your mind. But you never abandon them. That’s how Jesus is with us; he never abandons us.” True friendship is disinterested; it seeks to give rather than to receive.
3. A good friend always defends you: “Never allow weeds to grow on the path of friendship. Be loyal” (Furrow, 747). Good friends never abandon their friend when difficulties arise; they never speak badly of their friend, or allow that person to be criticized when absent. Pope Francis says: “It is a great joy to be able to put yourself in the shoes of the other person, to embrace and forgive them. We all make errors and mistakes, thousands of them. Therefore those who can assist others in their errors, in their mistakes, are happy. They are true friends and never abandon anyone.”
4. A good friends doesn’t offer you “smoke and mirrors”: “True friendship also means making a heartfelt effort to understand the convictions of our friends, even though we may never come to share them or accept them (Furrow, 746). “Jesus doesn’t offer us merely ‘smoke and mirrors,’” says Pope Francis. “He knows that true happiness, a happiness that fills our heart, isn’t found in having trendy clothes or smart shoes, or a popular brand. He knows that true happiness means having a sensitive heart, in learning to weep with those who weep, in being close to those who are sad, in hugging someone. A person who doesn’t know how to cry doesn’t know how to laugh, and therefore how to live. Jesus knows that in this world of so much envy and aggressiveness, true happiness requires learning how to be patient, to respect others, to not condemn or judge anyone. Jesus wants to bring us the fullness of happiness. He wants to bring us friendship, true friendship, the friendship that we all need.”
5. A good friend always gives you strong support: True friendship means giving our friends the best that we have. And our greatest good, without any comparison, is being friends of Jesus. Pope Francis encourages us to be true friends of our friends, with a friendship like that of Jesus. “Not just remaining among ourselves, but rather heading out onto the ‘court,’ in order to make new friends. You have to spread Jesus’ friendship throughout the world, wherever you may be, at work, when studying, by WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter. When going to a dance, or having a good aperitif. Out on the street or playing a game of pick-up basketball. That’s where Jesus’ friends are. Giving them the conviction that we should be happy, since we have a Father in heaven who loves us.”

Why Can’t I Go To Communion If I Don’t Go To Mass Every Sunday?

Why Can’t I Go To Communion If I Don’t Go To Mass Every Sunday?

By Fr. Thomas V. Berg, Ph.D. On Apr 18, 2018

DEAR FATHER:

I don’t go to church that often, but I enjoy going with the relatives on holidays like Christmas and Easter. On those occasions I also like to go to Communion with all the family — it gives us a special sense of togetherness, and it wouldn’t be Mass without Communion. I am writing because this past Christmas, my mother-in-law, who is a fanatical Catholic, told me we needed to go to confession before going to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve if we wanted to receive Communion. I told her to mind her own business, that we would all be going to Communion as a family, and that I don’t believe God’s love depends on whether you go to Mass every single Sunday. So, who is right, me or my mother-in-law? —Very upset

DEAR VERY UPSET:

Thank you for the sincerity and candor of your question. I can understand how this could be very upsetting. The quick answer to your question, however, is that your mother-in-law is basically right (even though the way she expressed herself was perhaps not the best). 

A fuller explanation requires us to address one by one the closely related issues you raise here: Why do Catholics attend Mass in the first place, and why are we supposed to go every Sunday? Further, what does it mean to receive Holy Communion, and what is required of us in order to do so?

As always, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is our best guide here. 

“The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin” (CCC, 2181).

The Catechism further explains that “it is in keeping with the very meaning of the Eucharist that the faithful, if they have the required dispositions, receive Communion when they participate in the Mass” (CCC, 1388).

First of all, it means that a Catholic can certainly attend Mass without receiving Communion. (So, contrary to part of your question, yes, it certainly is the Mass, even if one does not receive Communion.) Our essential obligation is to participate in the Christian Sabbath worship by attending and participating in the Mass as far as possible. Under certain conditions, however, that might have to fall short of actually receiving Holy Communion. The Catechism speaks of those who approach Communion as having “the required dispositions.” 

The first indispensable disposition for receiving Holy Communion is that we believe what the Catholic Church believes about the Eucharist. 

We live in a world today where other Christian communions, unfortunately, believe different things about the Eucharist. But that is not the faith of the Church. That is not the faith that the martyrs gave their lives for. We do not believe in “transignification,” the idea that the bread and wine, after being prayed over, now merely “mean” or “signify” or “remind us of” Christ.

Our Catholic faith tells us, on the contrary, that when the priest —acting in the person of Jesus — says the words of consecration (“This is my Body … . This is the chalice of my Blood … .”), he brings about what Jesus himself did at the Last Supper: Jesus becomes present under the appearances of bread and wine. This miracle that takes place at every Mass is called “transubstantiation.” The appearances of bread and wine remain, but the substance of bread and wine is replaced — miraculously — by the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. That is the Catholic faith. And from the beginning, to this day, only the baptized who believe that were allowed to come forward to receive him. If a baptized Catholic finds honestly that she does not believe this, then, very simply, she should not approach Holy Communion — not until some later time when she comes to recover the faith of the Church. 

But believing what the Church believes about this sacrament is not enough.

The second key disposition required is that we are free from having the guilt of any un-confessed serious sin on our heart. Technically that means that we are honestly not conscious of having committed any “mortal” sins —sins that rupture our friendship with God — since our last confession. If that were the case, then before coming to meet Jesus in Holy Communion, we very much need to meet Jesus in the sacrament of penance, confess our sins, receive absolution, fulfill the penance given to us, and then — and only then — approach Holy Communion at Mass.

With those dispositions, indeed, it would be a supremely joyous thing to receive Jesus in Communion with the whole family. Sadly today, far too many baptized Catholics who receive Communion fall short of those dispositions. Holy Communion is not a “blessed wafer” that “represents” Jesus; we shouldn’t be going up to Communion because it gives us a “special feeling of togetherness.” Rather, we should believe that we are about to receive Jesus: Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity. This is our incredible, amazing faith — our response to the incredible, amazing love of Our Lord who desired to remain with us in this way in the sacrament of the Eucharist.  

Deacon Tom's Homily for Thursday May 3rd

It’s common for someone to say, “I know the way”, but if you asked someone, “I don’t know the way,” who would respond with “I am the Way”. Only Jesus can say this because he himself is the way. But it’s the way to what? It is the way to the Father and to his Father’s house, where Jesus will prepare a place for us. Jesus doesn’t just teach people the way to God. He doesn’t just give an example of the right way to live. He doesn’t just come along as a guide along the way. Jesus does all of these and more.

You would think the early Christians would be able to grasp Jesus’ meaning of “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”. Part of understanding the whole experience of the resurrection of Jesus is to see the apostles and those who came after them learning bit by bit the meaning of the event and what it says to them about Jesus. This whole process took time.

Paul tells us there were disputes and rivalries among the early believers. But as time stretched into centuries, the words would stand as an abiding promise of unity in such diversity. Even today, we may not be able to grasp Jesus’ call to salvation clearly, for there seems to be many paths. We benefit from more than 2000 years of reflection, but we still must tell the story ourselves. On our own, we will not be able to find a way to express Jesus’ call fully. But that is not ours to worry about because the Holy Spirit will guide us. God has a way of revealing himself in and through all cultures and times.

Because of Philip’s personal history with Jesus, we may wonder how he could possibly say, “Show us the Father”[1]. After all, Jesus, the way to the Father, was standing in front of him and James and all the other apostles[2]. Plus, Jesus had just declared, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father”[3]. But maybe we should go easy on Philip. Here we are, two thousand years and twenty-one councils later, and even we can have trouble understanding what God is up to!

Recall how Jesus responded to Philip. He said, “The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me . . . or else, believe because of the works themselves[4]”. Jesus was encouraging him not to give up when he couldn’t understand, but to keep asking, seeking, and knocking for the answers.

We may not understand everything. We may feel as if we don’t understand anything. But we can shift our focus from what we cannot understand to what we can grasp.

For example, you may not be able to wrap your mind around how Jesus is present in the Eucharist under the appearance of bread and wine. But you can marvel that Eucharistic celebrations happen 350,000 times every day all over the world.

Perhaps you’re having a hard time understanding a certain passage in Scripture, and it is weighing on your mind. “Will I ever learn?” you ask yourself. But you can remember how deeply Jesus blesses childlike faith, because a childlike person has a heart that is uncomplicated and wise, loving, and trusting in God.

Maybe you’re struggling to understand why you don’t always feel God’s presence when you pray. But you can try to dwell on ways you have already seen his work. You might sense his peace during a moment of early-morning tranquility. Or just the opposite: you might discover his sense of humor in the chaos of a messy situation. Let his workings, both great and small, stir your faith! Today is the National Day of Prayer with its theme from Ephesians: Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace[5].

Philip and James’ stories didn’t end with today’s Gospel reading. These two men went on to become two of the evangelists and martyrs who laid the very foundation of the Church. God was working then, even when they couldn’t see it. And he’s working now! The task of discipleship belongs to all of us.  What will we say to those who ask us, "We would like to see Jesus?"

[1] (John 14:8)

[2] (14:6)

[3] (14:7)

[4](John 14:10-11)

[5] Ephesians 4:3

Pope Francis Points Us to Holiness: Key Quotes from Guadete et Exsultate (part 1)

Pope Francis Points Us to Holiness: Key Quotes from Guadete et Exsultate (part 1)

 MAY 1, 2018 BY FR MATTHEW P. SCHNEIDER, LC

Pope Francis has produced an excellent document on the Christian call to holiness called Gaudete et Exsultate. Here are the most important passages with minimal commentary for those who don’t have time to read it all or those who want a refresher. These quotes got too long so I split in into 2 articles to be published one day after the next. Here’s part 1, including chapters 1-3. Part 2 if you want to jump ahead. (The numbers after each quote are the paragraph numbers in case you want to examine a point in more depth.)

Pope Francis’ Goal: “My modest goal is to repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities.” 2

Chapter 1: The [Universal] Call to Holiness

This chapter of Gaudete et Exsultate gives a basic outline of holiness.

The saints in heaven have a certain unity with us: “The saints now in God’s presence preserve their bonds of love and communion with us.” 4

We are all called to holiness but that holiness can be achieved in simple everyday ways.

• “I like to contemplate the holiness present in the patience of God’s people: in those parents who raise their children with immense love, in those men and women who work hard to support their families, in the sick, in elderly religious who never lose their smile. In their daily perseverance I see the holiness of the Church militant.” 7
• “The most decisive turning points in world history are substantially co-determined by souls whom no history book ever mentions.” [those who prayed] 8

Saints give us examples but we should see their virtue not copy each detail. “We should not grow discouraged before examples of holiness that appear unattainable. There are some testimonies that may prove helpful and inspiring, but that we are not meant to copy, for that could even lead us astray from the one specific path that the Lord has in mind for us.” 11

Again, everyone can be a saint… “To be holy does not require being a bishop, a priest or a religious. We are frequently tempted to think that holiness is only for those who can withdraw from ordinary affairs to spend much time in prayer. That is not the case. We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.” 14

“Holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your life.” 15

Jesus gives us the strength to be holy. “When you feel the temptation to dwell on your own weakness, raise your eyes to Christ crucified and say: ‘Lord, I am a poor sinner, but you can work the miracle of making me a little bit better.’” 15

“When Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên van Thuân was imprisoned, he refused to waste time waiting for the day he would be set free. Instead, he chose ‘to live the present moment, filling it to the brim with love.’” 17

“We are capable of loving with the Lord’s unconditional love, because the risen Lord shares his powerful life with our fragile lives.” 18

The whole Trinity makes us holy: “The measure of our holiness stems from the stature that Christ achieves in us, to the extent that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we model our whole life on his.” 21, Benedict XVI, Catechesis, General Audience of April 13, 2011

The kingdom matters: all Christians are called to build it. “ Just as you cannot understand Christ apart from the kingdom he came to bring, so too your personal mission is inseparable from the building of that kingdom.” 25

The intention with which we do acts matters. “Needless to say, anything done out of anxiety, pride or the need to impress others will not lead to holiness. We are challenged to show our commitment in such a way that everything we do has evangelical meaning and identifies us all the more with Jesus Christ.” 28 – Note: this is a non-medical sense of anxiety so if you have clinical anxiety don’t feel like that is an obstacle to holiness.

Holiness leads to fruit in ministry/apostolate. “To the extent that each Christian grows in holiness, he or she will bear greater fruit for our world.” 33

Chapter 2: Two Subtle Enemies of Holiness [Gnosticism and Pelagianism]

This chapter of Gaudete et Exsultate offers a critique of two errors that are be present in some people’s thoughts on holiness.

Gnosticism  tends towards a certain intellectual elitism. “Thanks be to God, throughout the history of the Church it has always been clear that a person’s perfection is measured not by the information or knowledge they possess, but by the depth of their charity… [Gnostics] think of the intellect as separate from the flesh, and thus become incapable of touching Christ’s suffering flesh in others, locked up as they are in an encyclopaedia of abstractions.” 37

“Gnosticism is one of the most sinister ideologies because, while unduly exalting knowledge or a specific experience, it considers its own vision of reality to be perfect.” 40

“When somebody has an answer for every question, it is a sign that they are not on the right road.” 41 (This refers to pride of thinking you know every answer not arguing there isn’t a right answer.)

Pelagianism: “The same power that the gnostics attributed to the intellect, others now began to attribute to the human will, to personal effort.” 47

We can’t save ourselves and opposition to this pervades Pelagian thinking. “Those who yield to this pelagian or semi-pelagian mindset, even though they speak warmly of God’s grace, ‘ultimately trust only in their own powers and feel superior to others because they observe certain rules or remain intransigently faithful to a particular Catholic style.’” 49, Evangelii Gaudium 94

On the other side, God can save us. “The Church has repeatedly taught that we are justified not by our own works or efforts, but by the grace of the Lord, who always takes the initiative.” 52

Grace isn’t instantaneous but slowly works from inside. “Only on the basis of God’s gift, freely accepted and humbly received, can we cooperate by our own efforts in our progressive transformation. We must first belong to God, offering ourselves to him who was there first, and entrusting to him our abilities, our efforts, our struggle against evil and our creativity, so that his free gift may grow and develop within us.” 56

Chapter 3: In the Light of the Master [the Beatitudes]

Pope Francis points out the importance of the Beatitudes as a focal point of Christina life. “The Beatitudes are like a Christian’s identity card. So if anyone asks: ‘What must one do to be a good Christian?’ the answer is clear. We have to do, each in our own way, what Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Beatitudes, we find a portrait of the Master, which we are called to reflect in our daily lives.” 63

This chapter of Gaudete et Exsultate is the most beautiful of the exhortation. However, it is a meditation on the Beatitudes, which I assume you have already studied, so quotes are a little sparser.

What really matters isn’t wealth but love. “Wealth ensures nothing. Indeed, once we think we are rich, we can become so self-satisfied that we leave no room for God’s word, for the love of our brothers and sisters, or for the enjoyment of the most important things in life.” 68

Blessed are the merciful: “Mercy has two aspects. It involves giving, helping and serving others, but it also includes forgiveness and understanding.” 80

Acts of mercy in action: “Giving and forgiving means reproducing in our lives some small measure of God’s perfection, which gives and forgives superabundantly.” 81

“Keeping a heart free of all that tarnishes love: that is holiness.” 86

Gossip is a form of violence, violence to the heart: “The world of gossip, inhabited by negative and destructive people, does not bring peace. Such people are really the enemies of peace; in no way are they ‘blessed.’” 87

We need to be ready to be persecuted as the beatitudes instruct us. “Jesus himself warns us that the path he proposes goes against the flow, even making us challenge society by the way we live and, as a result, becoming a nuisance. He reminds us how many people have been, and still are, persecuted simply because they struggle for justice, because they take seriously their commitment to God and to others.” 90

“If we truly start out anew from the contemplation of Christ, we must learn to see him especially in the faces of those with whom he himself wished to be identified.” 96, John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte

“There is the error of those Christians who separate these Gospel demands from their personal relationship with the Lord, from their interior union with him, from openness to his grace. Christianity thus becomes a sort of NGO stripped of the luminous mysticism so evident in the lives of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Vincent de Paul, Saint Teresa of Calcutta, and many others.” 100

“The other harmful ideological error is found in those who find suspect the social engagement of others, seeing it as superficial, worldly, secular, materialist, communist or populist. Or they relativize it, as if there are other more important matters, or the only thing that counts is one particular ethical issue or cause that they themselves defend. Our defence of the innocent unborn, for example, needs to be clear, firm and passionate, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred and demands love for each person, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.[84] We cannot uphold an ideal of holiness that would ignore injustice in a world where some revel, spend with abandon and live only for the latest consumer goods, even as others look on from afar, living their entire lives in abject poverty.” 101. This is the flipside of John Paul II who would emphasize you can help the poor, sick, etc. without trying to end abortion – as Catholics, we are both-and.

“We may think that we give glory to God only by our worship and prayer, or simply by following certain ethical norms. It is true that the primacy belongs to our relationship with God, but we cannot forget that the ultimate criterion on which our lives will be judged is what we have done for others.” 104.

Pope Francis Moves Us towards Holiness: Key Quotes from Guadete et Exsultate (part 2)

 

 MAY 1, 2018 BY FR MATTHEW P. SCHNEIDER, LC

 Pope Francis has produced an excellent document on the Christian call to holiness called Gaudete et Exsultate. Here are the most important passages with minimal commentary for those who don’t have time to read it all or those who want a refresher. These quotes got too long so I split in into 2 articles to be published one day after the next. Here’s part 2, including chapters 4 & 5. Part 1 in case you missed it earlier.

Again, Pope Francis’ Goal: “My modest goal is to repropose the call to holiness in a practical way for our own time, with all its risks, challenges and opportunities.” 2

Chapter 4: Signs of Holiness in Today’s World

This chapter of Gaudete et Exsultate gives some pointers to know how to live out holiness today.

Prayer is always our anchor: “We need to recognize and combat our aggressive and selfish inclinations, and not let them take root. ‘Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger’ (Eph 4:26). When we feel overwhelmed, we can always cling to the anchor of prayer, which puts us back in God’s hands and the source of our peace.” 114

The dangers of discourse on the internet in ways we would never speak IRL. “Christians too can be caught up in networks of verbal violence through the internet and the various forums of digital communication. Even in Catholic media, limits can be overstepped, defamation and slander can become commonplace, and all ethical standards and respect for the good name of others can be abandoned. The result is a dangerous dichotomy, since things can be said there that would be unacceptable in public discourse, and people look to compensate for their own discontent by lashing out at others. It is striking that at times, in claiming to uphold the other commandments, they completely ignore the eighth, which forbids bearing false witness or lying, and ruthlessly vilify others. Here we see how the unguarded tongue, set on fire by hell, sets all things ablaze (cf. Jas 3:6).” 115

We need to seek to see the good in others. “It is not good when we look down on others like heartless judges, lording it over them and always trying to teach them lessons. That is itself a subtle form of violence.” 117

A tough line as we often want humility but really fear humiliations. “Humility can only take root in the heart through humiliations. Without them, there is no humility or holiness. If you are unable to suffer and offer up a few humiliations, you are not humble and you are not on the path to holiness.” 118

We need joyful images of saints. “Far from being timid, morose, acerbic or melancholy, or putting on a dreary face, the saints are joyful and full of good humor. Though completely realistic, they radiate a positive and hopeful spirit.” 122

God is with us even in hard times: “Hard times may come, when the cross casts its shadow, yet nothing can destroy the supernatural joy that ‘adapts and changes, but always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.’” 125, Evangelii Gaudium 6

Parrhesia is a word from Greek indicating the boldness of the first Christians. “Holiness is also parrhesía: it is boldness, an impulse to evangelize and to leave a mark in this world… Boldness, enthusiasm, the freedom to speak out, apostolic fervour, all these are included in the word parrhesía.” 129

The testimony of missionaries in every country. “We are inspired to act by the example of all those priests, religious, and laity who devote themselves to proclamation and to serving others with great fidelity, often at the risk of their lives and certainly at the cost of their comfort.” 138

We can’t live a full Christian life alone: “Growth in holiness is a journey in community, side by side with others.” 141

Love is shown in details: “Let us not forget that Jesus asked his disciples to pay attention to details.

• The little detail that wine was running out at a party.
• The little detail that one sheep was missing.
• The little detail of noticing the widow who offered her two small coins.
• The little detail of having spare oil for the lamps, should the bridegroom delay.
• The little detail of asking the disciples how many loaves of bread they had.
• The little detail of having a fire burning and a fish cooking as he waited for the disciples at daybreak.” 144

Christian community should love in the details: “A community that cherishes the little details of love, whose members care for one another and create an open and evangelizing environment, is a place where the risen Lord is present, sanctifying it in accordance with the Father’s plan.” 145

Silence and time with Jesus is needed for good discernment: “In that silence, we can discern, in the light of the Spirit, the paths of holiness to which the Lord is calling us. Otherwise, any decisions we make may only be window-dressing that, rather than exalting the Gospel in our lives, will mask or submerge it. For each disciple, it is essential to spend time with the Master, to listen to his words, and to learn from him always. Unless we listen, all our words will be nothing but useless chatter.” 150

We all ask God to take care of things in our prayers… and this expresses humility: “Prayer of supplication is an expression of a heart that trusts in God and realizes that of itself it can do nothing.” 154

We can’t acknowledge God yet ignore him. “If we realize that God exists, we cannot help but worship him, at times in quiet wonder, and praise him in festive song. We thus share in the experience of Blessed Charles de Foucauld, who said: ‘As soon as I believed that there was a God, I understood that I could do nothing other than to live for him.’” 155

Chapter 5: Spiritual Combat, Vigilance and Discernment

This chapter of Gaudete et Exsultate reveiws the three key aspects of our path to holiness mentioned in the title.

Christian life is a battle: “The Christian life is a constant battle. We need strength and courage to withstand the temptations of the devil and to proclaim the Gospel. This battle is sweet, for it allows us to rejoice each time the Lord triumphs in our lives.” 158

We are in the world but not of the world: “We are not dealing merely with a battle against the world and a worldly mentality… It is also a constant struggle against the devil, the prince of evil. Jesus himself celebrates our victories.” 159

In case you thought Pope Francis didn’t believe in the devil, “We should not think of the devil as a myth, a representation, a symbol, a figure of speech or an idea. This mistake would lead us to let down our guard, to grow careless and end up more vulnerable.” 161

“God’s word invites us clearly to ‘stand against the wiles of the devil’ (Eph 6:11) and to ‘quench all the flaming darts of the evil one’ (Eph 6:16).” 162

Good is stronger than evil: “Along this journey, the cultivation of all that is good, progress in the spiritual life and growth in love are the best counterbalance to evil.” 163

The need for discernment: “How can we know if something comes from the Holy Spirit or if it stems from the spirit of the world or the spirit of the devil? The only way is through discernment, which calls for something more than intelligence or common sense.” 166

Discernment is a form of spiritual combat: “Discernment is necessary not only at extraordinary times, when we need to resolve grave problems and make crucial decisions. It is a means of spiritual combat for helping us to follow the Lord more faithfully. We need it at all times, to help us recognize God’s timetable.” 169

The link of the spiritual and human sciences: “Certainly, spiritual discernment does not exclude existential, psychological, sociological or moral insights drawn from the human sciences. At the same time, it transcends them.” 170

“An essential condition for progress in discernment is a growing understanding of God’s patience and his timetable, which are never our own. God does not pour down fire upon those who are unfaithful (cf. Lk 9:54), or allow the zealous to uproot the tares growing among the wheat (cf. Mt 13:29).” 174

Saint Joseph, Model of the Hidden & Interior Life

Saint Joseph, Model of the Hidden & Interior Life

by Fr. Maurice Meschler

Saint Joseph is called the most obscure among the saints. There is good reason for this remark. His exterior life passes along in obscurity, and his interior life, in which the saint is great and unique, is essentially darkness and shadow.

The exterior view of Saint Joseph’s life presents nothing extraordinary or striking. Nothing has come down to us of the early part of his life. A distinct outline of him is obtained only with the coming of Jesus. He is a descendant of the distinguished family of David, but it has no longer any prestige.

The greatest part of the saint’s life is passed in the little hill town of Nazareth, of very meager importance, not even mentioned in the Old Testament, and in regard to which people shrugged their shoulders as to whether anything worthwhile could originate there (John 1:46). Here, too, the saint does not seem to have held a public office. He was merely known as the carpenter, an occupation in which fame had never before come to anyone. His particular and personal vocation to be the foster father of the Messiah, exalted and sublime in itself and without compare, was the very reason that demanded the profoundest obscurity.

St. Joseph’s Vocation

The prophets, the Apostles, and the martyrs proclaimed the divinity of Jesus and were rewarded with distinction and glory. Saint Joseph’s vocation, as long as he lived, was to hide this divinity. He was the shadow of the heavenly Father, not only in the sense that he was the visible representative of the eternal Father in regard to Jesus, but because under the guise of a natural fatherhood he concealed the divinity of the Son.

According to his vocation, then, Saint Joseph is essentially a shadow, which, like an ordinary shadow, passing noiselessly over the earth and covering everything it meets, conceals his Son, Jesus, and even the marvels of his spouse, Mary, her virginity and divine motherhood. The saint throws himself heart and soul into this unique vocation of placing the mantle of obscurity over everything and during his whole life does not deny this vocation, even by a single word. He wishes to be hidden and to remain so. With what revelations could he not have startled the world concerning his virginal spouse, who was the object of important prophecies of old, and the hope of his people?

He sheltered the ardently longed-for Messiah in his tent and yet did not mention a single word about His presence there. The revelations that from time to time light up the infancy of Christ and His person do not come from Joseph. He is only the mute, but interior admirer, “his secret to himself ” (Isa. 24:16)! He takes his secret to the grave. He had long disappeared from the scene by the time Jesus wrought His wonders and rose from the tomb, and suddenly transformed the terrible Passion into a reign of glory.

Even in the development of the Church the saint was obliged to remain a long time in the shadow, until the day of recompense came in the universal recognition of his merits. Such is the wonderful vocation of Saint Joseph, to be a shadow, to cast a shadow over himself and over all about him and over God Himself.

The Hidden Life

The exterior life of the saint is altogether unobtrusive and retiring. But this was not sufficient; the hidden life must needs be an interior life also. In this capacity alone does it fit in with Saint Joseph’s office. For his vocation was precisely to be the protector and defender of the hidden life of Jesus. This life was essentially an interior life. Hence, no other saint but an interior one and one who cultivated the interior life could be the defense and protection of the Savior’s hidden life.

The hidden life is the spiritual and nobler part of a human life, and elevates man to a more exalted and sublime position in human existence than a man’s exterior allows us to perceive. The hidden and interior life consists in the participation of the soul, that is, of the inner, spiritual faculties of man, in external affairs, but with a higher, supernatural motive that makes it ever aspire unto God. It is the life of a man from God, for God, and in God.

Therefore, to sum up, the inner life consists above all in purity of heart and freedom from whatever can render us spiritually repulsive and displeasing to God; hence the avoidance of all deliberate and voluntary sin with the accompanying care of and attention to our interior life. Further, the inner life consists in the diligent effort to transform our exterior works into virtue, supernatural virtue, and meritorious activity in God’s sight by means of a supernatural motive and good intention. Finally, it consists in the practice of the most intimate union with God by prayer at definitely appointed times and by docility to God’s inspirations. Such is, practically, the interior life, and such, too, must have been Saint Joseph’s interior life.

How glorious must have been this interior life for Saint Joseph! Who can grasp or comprehend it? We may come nearer to an appreciation of it by a consideration of his vocation and office and of the graces granted to him by God in appropriate measure.

The Richness of St. Joseph

If Mary obtained such an abundance and such a treasury of graces from the first moment of her existence on earth so that she might become a worthy Mother of God, then, too, Saint Joseph must have received the corresponding apportionment of grace for his office, which in a way approached that of our Blessed Lady. This fund of grace, however, depended entirely on the development of the saint’s interior life; indeed, the more modest and retiring the external activities of Saint Joseph were, the more abundant was the increase of his treasury of interior graces.

Surely the circumstances of the saint’s life, such as the continual example of our Savior and of the Mother of God, and his intimate companionship with them, could not have been more propitious for the fostering of the interior life. How great must have been the purity of his thoughts, designs, and aspirations, since, like an angel in the vision of the thrice-holy God, he constantly dwelled and moved in the presence of our Lord!

How profound and impressive his recollections in all his exterior actions, since his whole life and all his efforts were an undivided service of God and were dedicated to the promotion of the most exalted designs and counsels of God! How ardent the love that was stored away in his heart! How could it be otherwise, since all that happened round about him, what he saw and heard, was a manifestation of the most marvelous mysteries of God’s love, unheard-of sources of grace, and revelations of the divine wisdom and beauty itself!

As the moon enters a cloud and transfigures it with its light, so must Saint Joseph, who had sunk his whole being into God, have shone interiorly with the divine effulgence itself.

Patron of the Interior Life

Saint Joseph, therefore, from the fact that he was completely given to the interior life, is a patron of this life unsurpassed by any other. He was not a light beaming into our eyes, but was rather an all-pervading fragrance which all who come near it perceive without knowing its source. And so the fragrance of his interior virtues, as the model of the interior life, continues to pervade the Church of God.

This article is from The Truth about Saint Joseph.

Such was his personal greatness, and such it had to be. What in reality would he have been without this interior life, but an empty, passing shadow, a mere nothing before God and man, like the rich and great ones of earth, of whom Holy Scripture says that on awaking they “found nothing in their hands” (Ps. 75:6). Saint Joseph was rich before God in his hidden life.

Such is truly the manner of God’s greatness itself. God is hidden, silent, interior, and invisible to us just because He is God and is therefore infinitely happy in and through Himself. We participate in this greatness of God by entering into the interior life, which is essentially a life for God and in God.

In this life dwells purity of heart because of intimate converse with God, the mirror of purity; in this life are true riches, because what we do is done for God and becomes pure gold for eternity. In this life, strength of soul abounds because grace, which springs from this union with God, is able to conquer the dangers and difficulties of the exterior life.

Let us enter upon the way of the interior life under the guidance of Saint Joseph, by practicing it faithfully, by a calm attention to our interior advancement, by a persevering renewal of a good intention in all our actions, by the practice of prayer and docility to the interior inspirations of God. Without the practice of the interior life, the most hidden life would remain a merely external existence without value and meaning for God and eternity.

There is no better guide to the promised land of the interior life than Saint Joseph. To be a citizen of and a great man in this kingdom is the particular property of our saint’s holiness and the rich reward he merited by his services during the infancy of Jesus.

Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from The Truth about St. Joseph: Encountering the Most Hidden of Saints, which is available from Sophia Institute Press. 

Culture of Life: Aftershocks

Culture of Life: Aftershocks

Terra firma. If you’ve ever rocked at sea or bounced your way through those big billowy gray clouds, you instinctively know what the words mean. We were born to walk, not to swim or fly, so the solid earth gives us comfort. On it, we can move safely and freely.

But sometimes the terra isn’t so firma. The reason lies in the earth’s curve. Because the earth is not flat, its crust—the surface on which we live—is made of massive plates that very slowly but constantly shift. When the plates collide, they exert pressures on each other. At times, the pressures are enough to cause sudden shifts, sometimes very minor, but at other times very major. These shifts are earthquakes, our geological terrorists. In an instant, all we thought was safe no longer is. The ground literally moves and shakes, rises and sinks, under our feet. The devastation in loss of human life and property can be enormous.

And with an earthquake, it may not be over when it’s over. When the rock under us moves, it begins to create pressures at other places. Because the new contact points are not always able to resist these tensions, another quake—or quakes—can occur. These are the aftershocks from the original quake. Generally, they occur close to the quake’s center, making rescue operations difficult and dangerous. Often they are of lesser intensity than the original quake, but they can be almost as intense. Many times they are short lived, but some have occurred months, years, decades, and even centuries later.

When God created mankind, He gave us minds and free wills, and because we need the help, He gave us consciences and rules of morality that we might live in peace and harmony with God and each other. Then He sent us on our way, with instructions to be fertile and multiply. It sounds simple enough, but because of our fallen nature, those gifts put pressures on each other—like with those plates in the earth’s crust. In the 20th century the contraception mentality took hold; fertility and childbearing became our enemies. Fears of overpopulation magnified the calls to reduce family sizes for the common good. Then came the sexual revolution with its call to “make love, not war.” The “love” had nothing to do with sacrificing self for the good of others. At the same time, the new feminist movement was demanding strict equality with men. If men couldn’t be forced to bear babies, then neither should women.

The pressures were too much to bear, and in January 1973, the earth moved—violently. Roe v. Wade hit with the force of an earthquake way off the Richter scale. Developing human beings could be legally killed, at any time and for any reason, before ever seeing the light of day. It’s been like that now for over 45 years. A culture at odds with life, a culture of death and even of killing, has taken firm hold.

Decades later, the alarming aftershocks from our failure to live as God instructs are still reverberating. As for overpopulation, the opposite is more true. The fertility rate to sustain human life at replacement levels is about is 2.1 children for every woman. The U.S. fertility rate is now around 1.77. Although immigrant fertility rates have traditionally boosted the U.S. rate, that trend appears to be over. The U.S. Census Bureau is now estimating that by 2035—not that far from now—seniors will outnumber children. It should be the other way around.

Currently, about 60 million lives have been lost because of legal abortion. Many millions more were never even conceived because of contraception. Whatever the combined total is, it’s having a huge economic impact on the lives of all of us. A key principle is at work here: sustained economic growth requires population growth. People have needs and wants. Babies need food, clothing, and diapers, lots of diapers. Over time, they need toys and books and school supplies—lots of them, too. They’ll want computers and headphones and cellphones, and more clothes, later a car, then a house, and on and on until their senior years. Our needs and wants create jobs and businesses to satisfy them—and that’s a good thing. But recently, Toys R Us went out of business. One reason was the declining birth rate. Less kids, less toys. Microsoft and Apple, take note: it’s heading your way.

Our pro-death culture creates other problems. When people work, they pay taxes on their income. Imagine how many billions, perhaps trillions, of tax dollars that would have been generated over the last 45 years by an additional 60+ million more workers. Taxes that would run governments and fund desperately needed programs, like assistance for the poor and the disabled. Programs like Social Security, which absolutely depends on contributions from younger people. Why is it in bad shape? More people are taking, not enough are contributing.

Those missing workers create another problem. People are our greatest assets. Who will be the workers of the future, the people who will provide for our wants and needs? Who will be the inventors and entrepreneurs? Who will be our religious, the people who tend to our spiritual needs? Scientists? Teachers? Poets? Doctors and nurses? We need to realize that we may have flushed the best of them down the toilet, or not let them even be conceived.

And with fewer people behind them, who will tend to the elderly, our parents and grandparents who gave so much for so long? Families with too few kids will be out-manned. More and more people will be put away to die. Think about those Obamacare death panels. The people pushing for them saw the coming problem. So should you.

In the meantime, we’re giving Planned Parenthood over $500 million annually. Our politicians—the ones for whom we vote—are literally funding our death spiral. How shortsighted can we be! So maybe God had it right when He said, “Be fertile and multiply.”

It wouldn’t be the first time.

Paul V. Esposito is a Catholic lawyer who writes on a variety of pro-life topics. He and his wife Kathy live in Elmhurst, Illinois and have six children.

Empathy is a Guide to Doing the Right Thing - Even When it Costs You

Empathy is a Guide to Doing the Right Thing - Even When it Costs You

Many years ago, I happened to see a small segment of a movie my kids were watching on TV. The movie was Ruthless People with Judge Reinhold starring as a super-aggressive stereo salesman. I don't recall anything about that movie other than this one scene. A teenager comes waltzing into an electronics store looking for stereo speakers. Playing air guitar as he delivers his pitch, Reinhold talks the kid into buying a set of speakers the size of the Washington Monument.

Just as the young man is about to write what is probably the biggest check he's ever written, a very pregnant girl comes over and says to him, "Honey, I'm hungry, can we go now?" Looking at these young soon-to-be parents, the stereo salesman takes kid back over to the cheapest speakers in the store. "Trust me, kid," he says, "these are just what you need."

That was empathy in action. The salesman stopped seeing the kid as a commission check with legs, and instead saw a human being with real world responsibilities coming down the road.

Empathy is often not the easiest choice to make (in the case of our salesman, it cost a big commission check), but you must consciously decide to overcome your own ego, ambition, and prejudice (the very word implies pre-judgment) to see the other person as a real live human being - not a commission check with legs, a lost soul to be saved, a strange race to be hated, or an employee to be ordered around.

Just a real live human being deserving of love and consideration. Same as you.

Pope Emeritus Benedict: Only where God is seen does life truly begin

It is really so: the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men. And only where God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him. Homily of his holiness Benedict XVI. St. Peter’s Square Sunday, 24 April 2005.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux Every flower created by Him is beautiful

I understood that every flower created by Him is beautiful, that the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not lessen the perfume of the violet or the sweet simplicity of the daisy. I understood that if all the lowly flowers wished to be roses, nature would no longer be enamelled with lovely hues. And so it is in the world of souls, Our lord’s living garden.  Story of a Soul.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux 

Are You Allowing God to Prune You? How to Remain Attached to the True Vine

Gospel Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Written By Fr. Gaetano Piccolo

“He lost himself in dreams of what could have been had he just left; left without saying anything; left forever, without ever returning home again.” ~Pirandello

Who among us has not felt the urge to just run away and leave everything? This was the case with Mr. Bareggi, the protagonist in Luigi Pirandello’s novel entitled “Escape.” He jumped on the milkman’s horse and rode madly over the horizon only to be eventually thrown from the horse, at which point he finally realizes that his foolishness was driving him towards nothingness.

Perhaps this is the reason for Jesus’s passionate appeal to remain in Him, expressed in this passage of the Gospel. It makes me think that even the first Christian community must have suffered from this desire to just run away from everything.

We feel the need to flee when we are disappointed, when we see that things are not going the way we’d hoped. We want to leave when we feel excluded, when we feel we have nothing left to give. We want to break away when we’re angry, when we are faced with injustice.

Our age, like that in which Jesus lived, offers many reasons to leave: political confusion, the arrogance of power, intolerance in relationships, the incapacity of those in charge to listen to and value those they serve…

We live in a time when the Holy Spirit seems to have drawn back from the world. When I pray, I often return to an image: it’s as if Jesus has left me with the tools and has distanced Himself again.

In this Easter season, even Luke the Evangelist presents us with this experience of disappointment and fleeing: the two disciples of Emmaus, three days later, after having realized that things didn’t go according to their expectations, decided to leave.

When we are hit with deception and anger, we are pushed to break off all of our relationships without even realizing whom we are leaving behind. Looking closely, Jesus’s invitation is not an appeal to be passive but to remain connected. Love has nothing to do with the stubbornness of remaining unchanged, but requires the openness that allows the sap to flow from vine to branches. The branch can also appear to be attached to the vine, yet still not allow the sap to flow.

Jesus does not invite us to remain in a stubborn and headstrong passivity but invites us to remain in Him and to let Him remain in us. Jesus invites us to remain in a relationship: “without me you can do nothing.” Pushing the Latin translation a little further, J. Martain translated this expression as “without me you can do nothingness.” Without Jesus, our lives are caught up in a vortex of senselessness that we can only strive uselessly to fill.

What is certain is that life must also undergo pruning. Jesus does not deceive us by telling us that we will undergo a painless blossoming. Looking back on our own personal histories, we can see how moments of suffering and pain we have helped us grow. We live in a culture that refuses any type of pruning, any suffering, and that is why the younger generations are in danger of not blossoming at all. The adults, parents and educators, often fear the work of pruning. Blossoming only occurs after a period of bareness in which the plant appears helpless. But without pruning, the plant weakens and the risk is this: we are forming a generation of men and women that are fragile, that will be crushed under the weight of life.

Perhaps the Vine Grower, moved to pity by this grievous vineyard, will come and give us a hand!