I actually purchased this book about a year and a half ago
but due to selling one home, putting things in storage for 17 months and then
moving in to a new home, I “lost” it and recently found it and read it. What an interesting book! I am so glad that I finally found it. I believe you will be glad too when you find
one and read it.
THE TABLE is a book that jumps back and forth from biblical times
to modern times. The link is a very
special table that the grandfather of Jesus made as a result of a miracle. It seems that blessings and miracles and
peace seem to follow the table and those who own it. I really don’t want to give you a complete
synopsis of the book because there are a number of surprises in the book that I
don’t want to spoil for you. Suffice it
to say that the table that Jesus’ grandfather made was not only a miracle in
its time, but continued to bring miracles to people who struggled with everyday
life.
I found the book to be difficult to put down. It was intriguing on so many levels. Deacon Lambert is a great writer who knows how
to weave a great story. The characters,
whether they are from the biblical time, or from the modern time, are
interesting, very human, and very likeable.
I especially liked how he portrayed Jesus and His family. Some of the writing made me feel like I was
reading an expanded Gospel that was written to fill in some of the details left
out by the scriptures. He did the same
in writing about the early Church figures.
When reading about the biblical times, you actually felt like you were
there.
The figures in the modern time were wonderful. They were people that you could most definitely
relate to. Their fears and hurts and
successes were ones that we too could have experienced. In the midst of both tragedy and elation, the
characters were so very human and believable.
I found myself rooting for them at the various parts of their life and
tearing up for them at their difficult times.
This book certainly brought out many emotions for me.
This historical fiction provides not only great
entertainment, but also serves as a way to grow spiritually. It is a book for all people, but most
certainly will speak very loudly to Catholics with its description of the mass
and sacraments. You cannot help but to
read this book and see God at work in the lives of the characters and transfer
that in to your own life. God is very
much alive and at work in this book. I
see it as a great gift for those who have fallen away from the faith. They will find the book so interesting that
they can’t put it down, and at the same time have their own spirituality
awakened. I believe that this is the
first published book by Deacon Dennis Lambert.
I am anxiously awaiting another one by him.
As I prepare for Lent each year, I ask myself the same
questions: what am I going to give up, what works of mercy will I perform, or
what spiritual reading might I entertain this year?
The older I get, the more I realize that I cannot go wrong
with the tried and proven writings of the saints. Classics such as St.
Alphonsus Liguori’s The Way of the Cross, and Lenten reflections from
the writings of St. Teresa of Avila and St. Francis de Sales, are staples in my
home. But to be honest, it is the writings of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen that continue to be my trusted
Lenten companion.
I will never forget the first time I read Sheen’s book from
1939, entitled Victory
over Vice. As I entered into the book, I began to feel deep, heartfelt
sorrow for my sins for the first time in my life. Fulton Sheen’s words were
removing the scales from my eyes. He showed me that the seven last words that
Our Lord spoke from the Cross were the antidote for each of the seven deadly
sins.
After reading this one Sheen book, I was convinced that I
could put my trust in him, to guide me in my walk with Christ. I desired
to read every book of his that I could find, with a similar Lenten theme. Over
the course of the next several months, I read books such as The Seven Last
Words (1933), Calvary and the Mass (1936), The Cross and the
Beatitudes (1937), The Rainbow of Sorrow (1938), The Seven
Virtues (1940), Seven Words to the Cross (1944), Seven
Words of Jesus and Mary (1945), and Characters of the Passion
(1946), to name a few.
I found out that during his last recorded Good Friday
address in 1979, Archbishop Sheen spoke of having given this type of reflection
on the subject of Christ’s seven last words from the Cross “for the
fifty-eighth consecutive time.” Whether as the young priest in Peoria,
Illinois, the university professor in Washington, D.C., or the bishop in New
York, Sheen’s messages were sure to make an indelible mark on his audience.
Possessing a burning zeal to dispel the myths about Our Lord
and His Church, each year Sheen gave a series of powerful presentations on
Christ’s Passion and His seven last words from the Cross. As a Scripture
scholar, Archbishop Sheen knew full well the power contained in preaching
Christ crucified. With St. Paul, he could say, “For I decided to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
This confirmed what I had realized after reading many of
Sheen’s books: that he desired most of all to speak about the mystery of love
and suffering, more specifically, about Jesus Christ becoming man, and dying
for our sins.
Recently, I came upon this great description of what a priest
should be: a priest is someone who brings Jesus to the people, and in
turn brings the people to Jesus. From reading Sheen’s books, listening
to his audio recordings, and watching him on television, I have found that he
fits this description perfectly. Indeed, he is an accomplished retreat master.
His love for Our Lord and the Blessed Mother permeates his every thought,
binding our hearts to theirs. And isn’t that what Lent is all about, a time to
put God in first place in our hearts?
Over the last ten years, it has been my privilege to speak
about the life and writings of the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.
I never tire of hearing the “Sheen stories,” how he is still fondly
remembered by so many, and how he touched people’s lives.
As a way of thanking God for the many favors that my family
has received through the intercession of Our Lady and the Venerable Sheen, I
compiled a collection of Sheen’s writings about Our Lord’s passion and His
seven last words. The book is titled: The
Cries of Jesus from the Cross – A Fulton Sheen Anthology, and
is published by Sophia Institute Press. It is collection of seven unique Sheen
titles that will take the reader on a spiritual journey during Lent like no
other.
For the first time ever, Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s complete
writings and reflections on Christ’s last words have been compiled into this
one book. Sheen masterfully demonstrates how the seven last words of Our Lord
are in fact, a full catechism on the spiritual life. From these holy
words, we learn the secrets of living the Beatitudes, ways to avoid the deadly
vices of anger, envy, lust and pride, and how to cultivate the heavenly virtues
of fortitude, prudence, justice, and charity. Bishop Sheen teaches us how to
deal with difficult people, and how to understand pain and suffering. And
he binds all of this together with touching references to the most beautiful
love between Our Lord and His Blessed Mother.
The Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen has been my trusted
Lenten guide for a number of years now. He is that faithful priest who
continues to bring Jesus to me and helps to bring me closer to Jesus.
I pray that he will do the same for you this Lent.
From Selling Abortions To Sidewalk Counseling – by Doug
Johnson
For the entire 8 years my wife was involved with Planned
Parenthood, her primary job was to sell an abortion to every pregnant woman who
walked into the clinic. Even as a volunteer, Abby’s job was to make women feel
safe and comfortable as they walked through the doors of Planned Parenthood for
their abortion. No matter what her title was, the push was always for abortion,
because that is where the money is. When she was an escort, get them in the
door. When she was working the front counter, smile, tell them the protesters
are nuts, and get the money. When she was in charge of community outreach, Abby
was passing out condoms to coeds, giving “sex ed” talks that resulted in new
customers, and doing everything she could to normalize abortion. Finally, when
she became the clinic director, here’s your abortion quota, Abby!!!
Abby’s first priority and passion project when she left the
abortion industry was praying outside of clinics and sidewalk counseling. It
wasn’t speaking or writing a book. It wasn’t her movie or starting a ministry
to help other clinic workers leave the abortion industry. All that came later.
What really motivated her was the opportunity to come face to face with women
and sharing the truth about abortion. To tell them what really happens behind
the doors of an abortion clinic. She racked up a lot of hours in that first
year. I’m not sure why, but it was well over a year before I ever even got to
see her live and in action outside of a clinic. The first time I saw Abby get a
save… I was in awe. I was inspired. I couldn’t have prepared for how powerful
that moment would be and the impact it would have on me supporting my wife
moving forward.
It was going to be a normal Saturday with my wife. We were
headed to the Austin area in Texas for some reason or another. Who knows?
Probably to see friends and maybe do some house hunting. Before we could get to
the fun stuff, we needed to stop and drop some materials off with volunteers
outside of the Whole Women’s Health in Austin. There were a couple of familiar
faces outside the clinic praying, and they told Abby that they were performing
abortions that day. Whelp, our leisurely day was going to have to take a pause.
It was go time for Abby.
“Ok. Then we are staying until the last customer
leaves.”
Now, I had zero experience in this department. I could pray,
but I wasn’t about to try my hand at sidewalk counseling. I stood back by the
road and watched Abby go to work. The CONFIDENCE she had to call out to
everyone that walked in? I was blown away. She knew what to say, how to say it,
and how to respond to anything that came her way. I mean, I have always known
Abby is a bad-ass, but this was just a cool moment.
We had only been there for about 30 minutes when a couple
pulled into the lot and parked right behind the fence facing the sidewalk. A
woman stepped out of the passenger side and made a b-line for the building. Her
head down and she was clinching her purse. My wife didn’t have an opportunity
to say anything to her because just as she was scurrying off, her husband was
pointing a finger at us and the first words out of his mouth where…
“You know what? You guys are assholes! You are wasting
you’re time and you can’t change my mind!!”
At first, I took this as a personal affront to my wife. How
dare this dude address my wife and the other women like that?! Fortunately, I
had seen my bride handle confrontation before. Still, I positioned
myself just close enough to hear the conversation, but not close enough to
escalate things. Besides, I could tell that he was only being protective of his
wife. I’m sure he told his wife to hurry in while he distracted us. He didn’t
actually want to get into a fight with anyone. Either way, if he was just
running interference, he chose the wrong gal to wag his finger at, because it
was Abby’s turn to talk.
I don’t remember any exact words. I don’t even remember if
Abby started with her experiences in the abortion industry, or if she asked if
that was his wife, or if she asked him why he automatically assumed that she’s
an “asshole.” She may have started out asking what year his Camero was.
My memory picks up somewhere in the middle. Abby managed to keep him engaged in
idle conversation and it didn’t take long for his aggressive tone to fade. I
remember him saying that the woman was his wife, this wasn’t their first
abortion, and that he was a professional MMA fighter. Then I remember Abby
asking him about the medallions he wore around his neck. They were saints and
they were given to him by his aunt. Abby asked him what his aunt would think
about him being here for an abortion, and he said she would be pretty
disappointed. I’ll never forget the next thing that came out of his mouth…
“I actually DON’T want her to have an abortion,
but it’s up to her, right?”
In my brain, there were thousands of voices yelling, NO!!!
It is not just up to her!!! That is your wife and child in there. That is your
family. If you’re a fighter, then why don’t you go in there and fight for your
family. I bet she is in there waiting for you to man up and lead. Tell her you
want a family. Tell her you’re committed . Just say something. Anything!! Don’t
just leave her alone to figure this out.
Abby handled it much better than I would have. She asked him
if he had told her about his objection to her getting an abortion. He said, no.
Abby told him, “You need to share your feelings with her. She is your WIFE
and this is a conversation you need to have before it’s too late. Go be her
husband. She needs you.”
They didn’t say much more before he went in to talk to his
wife. About an hour later, they walked out holding hands and looking very at
ease. She still didn’t say anything to us, but she smiled at Abby as she got
into the car. He looked like he was going to get into the car without saying
anything, but he paused. He told us that they were going to lunch and they
weren’t coming back. They had decided AGAINST getting an abortion. Abby just
smiled and congratulated them. He nodded at us and got in the car. They drove
away, and we never saw them again.
I was in such awe of what I had just seen. My wife, a woman
that had spent so many years selling abortions had just saved a life. So this
is what conversion and change of heart looks like. So this is what it looks
like when God recruits you and you accept. You get to save lives.
On a side note: I HATE that even in an equal partnership, men feel silenced about abortion. I guess that’s why I remember this story so well. Men should have a say on the issue of abortion. Not just pro-abortion men. Not just anti-abortion men. ALL MEN!!! Maybe if we stepped up our game, women would feel more supported and never even consider abortion if they knew we were committed. I believe women should lead the conversation, but that doesn’t exclude men in their responsibilities regarding families and abortion.
One Beautiful Dream by Jennifer Fulwiler – review by Deacon
Marty McIndoe
When I heard that Jennifer Fulwiler had published a new
book, I knew I had to have it and read it as soon as I could. A few years ago, I read her book,” Something
Other Than God”, and absolutely loved it.
She is a gifted writer and her second book continues to show how gifted
she is. I found it hard to put down,
funny and thought provoking. Her
subtitle to this new book is The Rollicking Tale of Personal Passions, Family
Chaos, and Saying Yes to Them Both. The
subtitle is a great description of her book.
It tells the story of her raising six children while trying to write a
book.
For those of you who do not know Jennifer’s story, she is a
former atheist whom God touched and led in to the Catholic Church. You should read her first book “Something
Other Than God” to find out this great story.
Jennifer is also a daily radio host on Sirius XM channel 129 as well as
a noted speaker and columnist. She also
describes herself as “Mother of six with zero of the skills needed to manage a
home”. I would add that she is a gifted
writer with an ability to describe life situations in ways that can only make
you laugh, and sometimes cause you to shed a tear.
The beauty of her new book is that not only is it funny and
interesting and hard to put down; it shows us all how it is possible to
accomplish a sense of personal accomplishment in the midst of being a good,
albeit struggling, parent. I love what
the book does for both men and women who find it hard to balance family life
and work life. It shows how you can
incorporate both into personal satisfaction.
This book will definitely challenge any man or woman who puts work ahead
of family. However, it does show that a
true balance can be made that will be very satisfying.
To be perfectly truthful, when I first started reading this
book I thought it was mainly a book for women.
I even said that to my wife and told her that I knew she would enjoy
it. However, after reading the book for
a while, I saw that it is for men and women.
Jennifer describes how her lifelong desire to write a book seemed to
interfere with her sense that God was calling her to have a large family. On many occasions her husband Joe was the
needed instrument to help her learn to be able to do both. At the same time Joe had to learn how to
balance his work (and advancements) to fit in to their family life. Personally I see Joe as a real hero in this
story. There is no doubt that Jennifer
is the one who had to struggle and work so hard, but it was with Joe at her
side and often encouraging her. This book
does so much to show what marriage and family life is supposed to be, even the
messy parts of it.
The book also shows how Jennifer discovers that family is
not just her and Joe and their six children, but extends to grandparents, great
grandparents and friends and neighbors
and even to young girls ringing the door bell and running away (usually at the
most inopportune times). Jennifer learns
that she can’t do everything by herself and it is then that family life begins
to grow. She learns how to involve her
children in her writing career. She also
learns how to involve other family and friends in what she does. In doing this she discovers that having a
large family is a lot more than giving birth to many children.
I love how Jennifer is able to make us all laugh at some of the disheveled things that life throws at us. I also like the way her faith comes forth without being preachy. She shows herself in her weaknesses and in her strengths and we can’t help but to love her in both. In an age where many couples have no children, or only one or two, this books delights us with the interactions of six children and the fulfillment they bring to their parents. Jennifer is often confronted by friends and strangers for having such a large family. I find this so sad. Large families are a real gift that society doesn’t seem to appreciate any more. Jennifer and Joe wanted a large family and God gave them one. Jennifer and Joe use Natural Family Planning and Jennifer does a great job sharing how NFP has been a positive influence on their marriage. This book certainly shows us how two people, working together in the gift of marriage, can find both personal fulfillment and family fulfillment. There is no doubt that this is a book that I would highly recommend reading. It is printed by Zondervan. I bought my copy on Amazon Prime.
Recently my husband came home from a Friends of the Library
sale. My city library sells donated books every few months, and you pay only a
measly two dollars for whatever you can stuff inside a paper grocery bag. The
money goes toward buying new books for the library, essential when our city has
slashed the new book budget to zero.
In my husband’s bag was a book he thought I might like
because it’s about Catholicism. On the back cover are quotations from many
prominent Catholics—that is, Catholics who are prominent in a worldly sort of
way, such as politicians and actors. One quotation struck me immediately. I’m
not going to mention who said it, but it read “When my mom asked if I wanted to
be a nun, I said I’d rather be a priest . . . The nuns were always wonderful,
but the power was with the priest.”
When I see something like that, I don’t know whether to
laugh or cry. I did, however, read it aloud to my husband, and he burst into
laughter. So maybe mirth is the more appropriate response to something so
ridiculous.
If you think priests have a lot of power, read that quote to
your local parish priest and see what his reaction is.
I guess the woman who said it had no idea what she was
talking about. Does she not know why Catholic priests wear Roman collars? It’s
because the collar is a symbol of slavery.
That’s right: Roman Catholic priests are slaves.
That is, they are slaves of Christ.
Ironically, that is where power—in a supernatural
sense—resides, but since this woman is a politician, she seemed to be talking
about worldly power.
If I had the opportunity, I would ask her who she thought
had more worldly power: her parish priest or Mother Teresa. After all, Mother
Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize. She addressed the United Nations.
When’s the last time your parish priest did that?
Besides, worldly power means nothing to God, except in how
it is wielded.
True power comes from conforming to God’s will, and you
don’t have to be a priest to do that.
I got into this a bit in my novel Nearer the Dawn. A
man who has turned away from his atheism to make an act of faith lies prone in
adoration on a mountainside when he encounters God:
Here, with his nose in the dirt, he had never felt so
elevated. Before, he had considered the walls of a church those of a prison or
insane asylum. Now he realized the barriers he had seen were of his own
construction, designed to keep him banished outside rather than let him in. At
last here was Everything he had been searching for, Everything he was created
for, the fulfillment of his hunger. This was not only the destination but the
road that led everywhere, the key that opened all treasures. Here was the
ecstasy that eternally satisfied that longing desire not only to be loved but
to love fully and completely. And here was true freedom, for only by binding
himself with the One he was free to be transformed, crowned with glory. No
wonder he had never been able to do it alone. Relying on his own capabilities
was like trying to operate on a single ohm, but now he was plugged into a Power
Source mightier than all the suns of the universe, for here life overflowed
with more abundance than he had thought possible.
Being a priest is wonderful, but it is God who crowns us with power and
glory. The power, in other words, comes by being a saint.
Our Lord knew that life could be difficult at times, as well
as joyful. We were created not to be a
person just to ourselves, but rather a person who reacts with other
people. This way we have someone to
share the joyful moments with as well as someone to help us in the difficult
moments. In our relationships with
others we often form communities. These
communities can be a source of sharing great joy as well as a support for times
when life is difficult. Communities can
take on different forms. I recently was
contemplating the gift of community at a time when very good friends (and
members of one of our communities) lost their daughter. It was most difficult for our friends, but
the gift of community really came forth.
I would like to share with you some of the ways that I have experienced this
community in action. My hope is this
will help you to better appreciate the gift of community in your own life. The old adage; “it takes a village to raise a
child” is an old African proverb but certainly relates to all of us today. I would change that a little to say, “it
takes a community to raise and support a Christian”.
My first experience of Christian Community happened in
1972. My wife and I started going to a
Catholic Charismatic prayer meeting.
That experience brought me to know Jesus and His Church and the gift of
community. The prayer group was one
where I experienced joy, teachings and support.
We met every week and I looked forward to going every time. We prayed together in the church and often had
a teaching there; afterwards many of us would go over to the diner across the
street just to socialize. Because of my
relationship with that prayer group, and with Jesus, my marriage became what it
really needed to be. My wife and I grew
in our relationship as we grew in our relationship in the prayer group and our
relationship to Jesus and His Church. My
wife and I had difficulties having children and this weighed heavily upon our
relationship. The prayer group was a
great support to us and I believe it was through the prayers there that we
received the miracle of our daughter.
The prayer group always shared with us our pains as well as our
joys. It was quite a gift.
We continued in weekly prayer groups until the early 1980’s
when we were invited to join a prayer community called “My people”. This continued in the same way as the prayer
meeting, but with closer ties of friendship.
We prayed together and we did things to have fun together. The friends that I mentioned earlier are part
of that community. All of us watched our
children grow in to adults and then watched as our children had children. It was a source of great joy. At the same time there were many
difficulties, from run-away teenagers to car accidents to deaths of spouses to
all sorts of things that happened.
However, we were able to experience it all together. We were able to lend support to each
other. Over and over again, God used
this community to bring His loving support to us.
Over the 40 years that this community has existed, some
members retired and moved away (down south).
Every year we have a community retreat and most of those who moved away
come up for that retreat here on Long Island.
In some ways it was as if they never left. We were, and are, all one community. Those of us who still live on Long Island
still meet regularly for our community prayer meeting. We also maintain other social ties to one
another. Last month, when we heard about
the sudden death of one couple’s 45 year old daughter, we were devastated. However, the community pulled together to
support them in so many ways. Even those
who moved away came up from the south to be there for the funeral. We stayed with the family at the funeral home
the whole time they were there. We were,
literally, “there for them”. I could
tell how much it was a support to them.
I also noticed at the funeral another example of
community. Our friend’s daughter was an
EMT for a local ambulance company. They
too came out in great numbers each day of the funeral. They also provided a funeral dinner for
everyone after the last service. Their
support was encouraging to all of us and especially to the parents. We saw that many parishioners from our
friend’s parish came too. The funeral
mass was quite full. After the mass, the
hearse drove past the hospital where our friend’s daughter worked in the
Emergency Room. It seemed that every
worker in the hospital came outside to give her their last goodbye. It was amazing to see how such a tragic loss
of a young woman could also show so much good from the people around her. Community is quite a gift that God uses to
support us.
We can find community in our families, in our local parish,
in our work, in our neighborhood, in our volunteer agencies…….in so many
different places. Sometimes we need to
work on building these communities into something that God can use to help us
all experience life with its joys and with its sorrows. Anything that is good, takes a little work.
I would ask you to look around at the communities that you
are part of and give thanks to God for them.
Perhaps you can find ways to grow closer to each other in these
communities. Perhaps you can see in your
family and in your co-workers ways to grow in community. Church groups can be a fantastic way to
experience community. My wife and I,
besides belonging to the “My People” charismatic community also belong to the
Teams of Our Lady group in our parish.
We cherish those monthly meetings with them and the gift of community
there. I cannot picture life without these
communities. Proverbs 27:17 tells us, “As
iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another”. We
really need community to bring out the best in us. Hebrews 10;25-25 tells us, “ And let us
consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in
the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the
Day approaching. “
When we are in community we can experience better what it
means to be “the people of God”. 1
Peter 2:9-19 tells us, “But you are
a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession,
that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his
wonderful light. Once you were not a
people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but
now you have received mercy”. Community
is also where we all can experience being the “body of Christ”. Matthew 18:20 tells us that, “For
where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” I Corinthians 12:12-13 says, “Just as a body,
though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with
Christ. For we were all baptized by one
Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we
were all given the one Spirit to drink”.
My friends, let us all drink of the one Spirit and use all the gifts that God gives to us, especially the gift of community.
Today (originally published Jan 4th) is the memorial of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first Native born American saint of the Catholic Church. She was born in New York in the year 1774 to a wealthy and prosperous Episcopalian family. In 1794, she married a young successful man by the name of William Magee Seton. They would have 5 children together. Due to unforeseen circumstances, he lost his fortune and eventually his health. They traveled to Italy to find a cure for his physical ailments, but in the end, he died while living in Italy.
During her time in Italy, she became familiar with
Catholicism through some friends and eventually made a Profession of Faith in
the Catholic Church on March 14, 1805. Her family and friends back home were
completely opposed to her becoming Catholic, but she persevered through it all.
After returning home, she found herself in financial ruin because her family
and friends shunned her decision to become Catholic.
After receiving an invitation from a priest, she established
the first Catholic school in Baltimore in 1808. In 1809, she created a small
community of religious sisters in Emmitsburg, Maryland. At first, they were
known as the Sisters of St. Joseph, but eventually changed their name to the
Daughters of Charity. From the moment, she became known as Mother Seton. Her
small religious community grew exceptionally in 100 years going from Baltimore
to New York, then to Cincinnati, Halifax, New Jersey, Greensburg, and St.
Louis. From there, the community continued to spread West. They have been in my
diocese, Phoenix, since 1933.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton died on January 21, 1821 in
Emmitsburg, Maryland. She was beatified in 1963 by Pope St. John XXIII.
On September 14, 1975, she was canonized by Pope St. Paul VI.
Below are 10 Quotes from the great American Catholic Saint
known as Mother Seton –
1. Devotional Reading: “Give some time, if it is
only half an hour in every day, to devotional reading, which is as necessary to
the well ordering of the mind as the hand of the gardener is to prevent weeds
destroying your favorite flowers.”
2. Faith, Hope, and Love: “Faith lifts the
staggering soul on one side, Hope supports it on the other. Experience says it
must be, and Love says let it be.”
3. Going to the Catholic Church: “I will go
peaceably and firmly to the Catholic Church: for if Faith is so important to
our salvation, I will seek it where true Faith first began, seek it among those
who received it from God Himself.”
4. Heaven: “The gate of heaven is very low; only
the humble can enter it.”
5. God’s will before our will: “’Thy will be
done’ – What a comfort and support those four little words are to my soul. I
have repeated them until they are softened to the sweetest harmony.”
6. Parental Advice: “If I had to advise parents,
I should tell them to take great care about the people with whom their children
associate…Much harm can result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature
to follow what is worse than what is better.”
7. Penance: “Penance is the purifier of the
soul.”
8. Suffering: “This is not a country for
solitude and silence, but for warfare and crucifixion. You are not to stay in
his silent agonies of the Garden at night, but go from post to pillar, to the
very fastening of the Cross. If you suffer so much the better for our high
journey above.”
9. Illness/Suffering: “I never experienced so
keenly the presence of this beloved Lord as I have since I have been ill. It is
as if I were seeing the good Jesus, Him, and His holy Mother, here, continually
seated at my side, under a visible form, to console me, cheer me, and to
encourage me throughout all the hours of my long and painful suffering.”
10. Serving God: “This union of my soul with God
is my wealth in poverty and joy in deepest afflictions.
First of all I must apologize to my readers. I haven’t written or added to my blog in quite a while. This is because I had a bad cold, closed on a new house and moved in to the new house in the midst of celebrating Christmas.
We start off our New Year with a Holy Day celebrating the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of Jesus (God). It is such a great way to start. The readings of this mass are filled with blessings. The first reading gives the Blessing of Aaron found in Numbers 6: 22-27. In this we hear, “The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!” What a beautiful blessing for the New Year. In the responsorial psalm we hear, “May the Lord bless you in His mercy”. Again, such a wonderful blessing. In the second reading St. Paul tells us that Jesus came to us, born of a woman, to ransom us so that we might receive adoption as sons of the Father. We can now call our God, Abba, Father. What a blessing it is to know that we are God’s children. In the Gospel we hear of the shepherds rejoicing at the site of the new born King. We also hear a phrase that is almost identical to one we heard last Sunday (finding of the 12 year old Jesus in the temple) about Mary where it tells us that Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. We also hear of the naming of Jesus.
Personally, I cannot think of a better way to start the New Year than to hear these readings and receive the presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. God richly blesses us, over and over again. He has blessed us so much in sharing His mother with us. The love that Mary has for us is amazing. She cares so much for us and wants us to grow closer to her son. She wants to bring us His healing love and forgiveness. Starting the New Year knowing that God calls us His children and blesses us and gives us His own mother is the most important way to start anything. This year I pray that we all grow in our knowledge of God. I pray that we all grow in our knowledge of how God continues to work through the Blessed Virgin Mary, His mother. I pray that we all grow in the knowledge of our call to be children of God, for so indeed we are. I pray that we can be like Mary and ponder all of the wonderful gifts, and even the difficulties, that God has chosen to give us. May this be a New Year that we all grow closer to God.
So many of our Saints have had a close devotion to Mary. One of the most loving is Saint Louis de Montfort. I would like to end with a prayer that he gave us:
My powerful Queen,
you are all mine through your mercy,
and I am all yours.
Take away from me all that may displease God
and cultivate in me all that is pleasing to him.
May the light of your faith
dispel the darkness of my mind,
your deep humility
take the place of my pride,
your continual sight of God
fill my memory with his presence.
May the first of the love of your heart
inflame the lukewarmness of my own heart.
May your virtues take the place of my sins.
May your merits be my enrichment
and make up for all
that is wanting in me before God.
My beloved Mother,
grant that I may have no other spirit but your spirit, to know Jesus Christ and His divine will and to praise and glorify the Lord, that I may love God with burning love like yours.
Amen. St. Louis de Montfort
Many American’s are tired of the banter (and worse) between the two major political parties. Worse yet, there is a sense that many of our youth really do not care. I normally stay away from political writings but this one gives me hope from today’s youth. It is written by a seventeen year old (who happens to be my grandson) but I think that it fits in so well with what we as Catholics believe about being good citizens and standing up for goodness and being against violence. Check it out by clicking here which will lead you right to my grandson’s High School newspaper article: The Great Chasm
We are at the end of the Church liturgical year. This Sunday, December 2nd, is the First Sunday of Advent. Advent is a very important, but very short, liturgical season. It is there to prepare us for the even shorter season of the twelve days of Christmas. Unfortunately and at the same time, our society also places demands upon us for celebrating Christmas, or as society says, “The Holidays”. These demands of society often keep us from the real preparation for Christmas that Advent calls us to. I really do believe that some of the demands of society such as Christmas decorating, parties and gift giving are important and do help us rejoice in the birth of our Savior, Jesus. But I also believe that we too often are more concentrated on these then on the spiritual preparation of the Advent season. This is something that we must work on.
I believe that at the heart of the Advent season we must recognize a yearning. This is a yearning that we have to be close to God and a yearning that He has to be close to us. The Advent readings reflect that two fold yearning. Advent is a time of yearning and a time of preparation to meet and be with the God who yearns to be with us even more than we yearn to be with him. It is a time when we celebrate the way that God comes to us. Christmas is the time we celebrate that the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, the WORD, became flesh so that we could be with God and He could be with us. Advent helps us to celebrate better that special gift of the Incarnation. We can experience the yearning that the Jewish people had for the Messiah to come to them. The Old Testament (or Hebrew) readings help us experience that. They waited so long for His coming.
Advent is also a time for us to recognize the yearning for Jesus to come to us here and now. Life often has so many difficulties such as disappointments, illnesses and death of loved ones. We need help to live through these difficulties and we yearn for Jesus to be there with us. When we open our hearts, we can see that He is. Life also has so many great experiences and joys and it seems that we yearn to have God experience them with us, especially when we are filled with gratitude and praise. In our everyday life, in all that we do, God yearns to be present to us. If we really look within ourselves we also yearn for him to be there.
Advent also reminds us that just as Jesus came to His people on that very first Christmas, and just as Jesus joins us in our everyday lives, especially in the Eucharist, we still await another coming of Jesus. This second coming of Jesus will bring with it the fullness of His Kingdom. This too all creation yearns for (Romans 8: 19). Whether we will be alive when He comes again or not, we do know that we all will meet him when our body finally fails. Most people in ordinary life do not yearn for death, and thus this coming, but I have been with so many older and sickly people who do. They literally are yearning for their death so they can meet their Savior.
We really do not know when the Lord will come again and we do not know when our own time to meet him will come, so we must learn to be prepared.
Advent, when celebrated well, can help us do this. So how do we celebrate Advent well? First and foremost, we should try to attend mass as often as possible. If possible, every day is best. When we attend we should listen closely to the scriptures and the homily. God’s Word helps form us and readies us. Receiving Him in the Eucharist is so very important. He literally comes to us there. At home we should try to use a daily Advent devotional. There are many available at religious goods stores and online. Many Catholic organizations offer free emails every day to you. They are sent out daily at no cost. I especially like Dynamic Catholic which includes a link each day to a short video to watch. It is called “A Best Advent Ever” and can be found at BEST ADVENT .
An advent wreath is a great devotional to have in a home. It consists of an evergreen wreath and four upright candles. Four of the candles are purple (the liturgical color of advent) and one is pink or rose (the liturgical color of Gaudate Sunday the 3rd Sunday of Advent). One candle is lit for each of the four Sundays of Advent. There are prayer books to accompany the wreath (check online). This gives a great experience of waiting.
A Jesse Tree is also a great devotional for advent. We used to make one every year. All you need to do is to find a fallen branch with several branches on it and no leaves. You put it in a pot of dirt to hold it upright. You can Google “Jesse tree cutouts” and get free cutouts that you can print and cut out and color and hang on the tree. The idea is that you learn about the ancestors in the line of Jesus. This is a great way for children to learn about some of the famous Old Testament characters.
Last but not least, you need to try to find time within the busyness of the Season for some quiet. This is an especially great time of year for Penance and Reconciliation. Go to Confession. Take some extra time alone to pray. God comes to us when we find a place of stillness. He comes to us when we seek Him and YEARN for Him. Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus.
We’ve all been on the receiving end of a gift we don’t want. If you can’t stand country music, ripping off the Christmas wrap and finding a CD entitled Country’s Greatest Hits isn’t going to go over very well. Nor is a DVD of a movie you can’t stand, nor a food that contains an ingredient you’re allergic to.
In my life I’ve gotten some pretty bad gifts (see ” Weird Gifts “)
So, when I get a gift like that, I figure there are four options:
1. Trash
2. Donation to charity
3. Sell on eBay
4. Re-gift to someone who will like it
As long as I’m sure the giver won’t find out about it, any of the above can be done without hurting that person’s feelings. So imagine my surprise to discover a different kind of option:
5. Give it back to the person who gave it to you—and tell her to give it to someone else.
Well, that happened to me during Eucharistic Adoration. One of the women of my parish brought back two gifts I had bestowed on her. Now, these weren’t just a couple of things I had picked up at a store. They were items I had created myself.
She’d had them for over a year, but I guess she didn’t want them anymore. I could, she said, give them to someone else.
Uh . . . that’s going to be a bit difficult when one of them—at the woman’s request—was personalized with her first and last names.
Oh, believe me, this wasn’t a case of forgetting who had given them to her. She included a thank-you note addressed to me. I’m not going to say what the gifts were, but I had put hours upon hours of care (and—metaphorically speaking—blood, sweat, and tears) into them. It had been like giving away a bit of my very being.
Sitting there, holding them in my hands, I felt like she had spat in my face. Or, worse, slapped my face.
Okay, I get that not everything I give someone is going to be that person’s cup of tea. But why not go with options 1-4 instead? Why bring these back to the one who gave them to her? Just how did she expect me to react to the message that she was rejecting my gifts? Was this supposed to make me happy?
Anyway, I sat there at Eucharistic Adoration, mostly gazing up at Christ in the Host or at the large crucifix behind the altar. It occurred to me that this must be something Jesus goes through every day—giving the immeasurably greater gift of salvation that He put His time, blood, sweat, and tears into—only to have it thrown back in His face.
I admit I wasn’t looking for an opportunity to be more Christ-like that day, but I guess I got one anyway. Lord, please help me to be more like You in every way.
Even when it hurts.
Especially when it hurts.
Even though we, as Catholics, are called to seek peace in all things, I believe it is important for us to reflect and celebrate our Veterans. We must thank them for their service and thank them for the freedom that we, and so many other people in the world, enjoy. Many of our soldiers are good Christians who often have been called to die for others. Jesus says that there is no greater gift than that. If you search our listing of Catholic Saints, over five hundred of them were soldiers, including the Peace loving St. Francis of Assisi.
Veteran’s Day, November 11th, was first known as Armistice Day because it remembered the Day that WWI ended and it remembered all the soldiers who gave so much in that war. In 1954 the name was changed to Veteran’s Day so that it would remember all the soldiers of all the wars. War is an absolutely terrible thing, but unfortunately it happens too often. With all of the evil in the world, there must be some people who will fight to keep freedom going. We in the United States of America should be very proud of our veterans and all that they have accomplished. We should pray for them. In honor of Veteran’s Day I would like to share with you a poem that tugs on my heart. I am a Vietnam Era veteran (though I was never in combat, just support) and this poem is written by a Vietnam veteran who was involved in heavy fighting. He is now a Catholic Priest and is pastor of a parish adjacent to mine.
Msgr. Charles Fink went in to the U.S. Army right after college and after training was sent to Vietnam where he was a rifleman and often a point man (most dangerous position). He was in Vietnam for one year and saw a considerable amount of battle. He lost many of his fellow infantrymen. He himself was wounded. His time in Vietnam helped him discern his calling to the Priesthood. He went in to the seminary after Vietnam and after being there for a while a nun came to talk. She talked about the Vietnam War and said things about soldiers in the war that Fr. Fink found upsetting. He said that she said things that were simply untrue and basically reflected what much in society thought at the time. He was so angered by her talk and her untruths that he went up to his room and wrote a poem entitled, “Bury me with soldiers”. In honor of all veterans from all the wars, I want to share that poem with you (permission given to me by Msgr. Fink).
BURY ME WITH SOLDIERS
I’ve played a lot of roles in life;
I’ve met a lot of men.
I’ve done some things I’d like to think
I wouldn’t do again
And though I’m young, I’m old enough
To know someday I’ll die.
And think about what lies beyond, And
Besides whom I would lie.
Perhaps it doesn’t matter much;
Still if I had my choice,
I’d want a grave amongst soldiers when
At last death quells my voice
I’m sick of the hypocrisy
Of lectures by the wise
I’ll take the man with all his flaws
Who goes, though scared, and dies.
The troops I know were commonplace;
They didn’t want the war
They fought because their fathers and
Their father’s fathers had before.
They cursed and killed and wept –
God knows they’re easy to deride –
But bury me with men like these;
They faced the guns and died.
It’s funny when you think of it,
The way we got along.
We’d come from different worlds
To live in one, where no one belongs
I didn’t even like them all and,
I’m sure they’d all agree.
Yet, I would give my life for them,
I hope. Some would for me.
So bury me with soldiers, please
Though much maligned they be
Yes, bury me with soldiers, for
I miss their company.
Please remember to thank our Veterans for their service and pray for them. So many veterans today suffer so much from what they have experienced. They need our love and our prayers.
There are few dogmas of the Catholic Church that have appeared more scandalous to non-Catholic believers than papal infallibility. Consider, for example, this reflection from Protestant apologist Matt Slick in one of his critical pieces on the subject:
I can’t help but wonder what new revelations and infallible interpretations will arise within the Roman Catholic Church. Will the next six million years produce the complete deification of Mary? Will Mary become the creator of the universe in Roman Catholic lore? Or perhaps the pope might be elevated to a celestial level here on earth (Infallibility, Fallibility, and the Roman Catholic Church).
As any decently catechized Catholic will know, Slick can rest assured that neither Mary nor the pope will ever be the subjects of deification by the Catholic Church; not in the next sixty years, not in the next 600 billion years. Not ever. Indeed, papal infallibility exists to prevent such heresies. It is also fitting given the primary of the pope in the Church.
Papal Primacy
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives Peter alone “the keys to the kingdom of heaven” and the power to “bind and loose” (Matt. 16:16-20). Peter’s unique authority is powerfully exemplified in the Acts of the Apostles, at the Council of Jerusalem, when Peter made a definitive ruling regarding circumcision “and all the assembly kept silence” (Acts 15:12).
As the chief “overseer” of the Church, Peter—and his successors—was to maintain doctrinal purity, as well as doctrinal unity, in the Church. The eminent Protestant scholar James D.G. Dunn affirms this unitive role:
It is Peter who becomes the focal point of unity for the whole Church . . . he became the most hopeful symbol of unity for that growing Christianity which more and more came to think of itself as the Church Catholic” (Unity and Diversity in the New Testament, 386).
Writing in the second century, St. Irenaeus of Lyons gives important testimony to the primacy of the pope. Dealing with the Gnostic heretics in the second century, he asserted that the beliefs of every local Christian church must be congruent, not just with apostolic tradition, but with the teachings of every other Christian church. Why? Because the Church is essentially catholic. The primary way, wrote the ancient bishop of Lyons, that Christ ensures the unity of his Church is through the Petrine office: the church in Rome “is the greatest and most important and best-known of all . . . For with this church, because of her more powerful pre-eminence all churches must agree” (Against Heresies, III, 3.2) .
A Sensible Office
It makes sense that Jesus would establish such an authority in his absence—something like the Petrine office—because “the heart is deceitful above all things” (Jer. 17:9). We are easily fooled and distracted, and thereby often fail to hear the still, small voice of God. Yes, the Holy Spirit can and will lead us into all truth as Jesus promised—but how, exactly? Through prayer and contemplation of the scriptures, surely. But as St. Paul tells us, we are to “test everything [and] hold fast to what is good” (1 Thess. 5:21). How should we test and confirm our spiritual sentiments? Through the infallible guidance of the Church, especially realized in the ministry of the chief bishop of the Church.
Papal infallibility is often misunderstood, but not because it is a hard concept to understand. It makes perfect sense. We need an infallible teaching authority because we are so fallible.
And because this charism exists to prevent the teaching of error in the universal Church, it is only present when the pope fulfills three narrow criteria. First, he must be teaching as the supreme pastor of the universal church. Second, he must have the intention of deciding a matter finally. Third, the teaching must be regarding faith and morals.
Assisted, Not Inspired
The writers of the New Testament were also specially influenced by God as they communicated religious truth. But there’s a critical distinction to be made here. The New Testament writers were not merely influenced—they were inspired. Indeed they were inspired in such a profound manner that, although it was mere creatures who put letters to the sacred page, God was in fact the primary author. Catholic theologian Ludwig Ott affirms this distinction in his well-known Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma:
This assistance [involved in papal infallibility] must be distinguished . . . from Inspiration, which is a positive influence effected by God over an author, of such a nature that God himself is the principal author of the writing, and the ideas are consequently the Word of God.
Whereas inspiration is a positive influence to “write only what God wants written,” papal infallibility is essentially a negative—or preventative—charism that prevents the chief teacher of the Church from teaching “what God does not want taught,” that is, from teaching error.
Peter the Pitiful
Given his blunderous and impulsive character, wasn’t the apostle Peter rather unfit for the job as infallible leader of the Church? What about his successors? Precisely so—at least according to worldly standards. By gospel standards, however, Peter was the perfect fit.
Truly at the crux of the Good News is the paradoxical truth that God “has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree” (Luke 1:52). Jesus specializes in making something great out the pitiful. Indeed during his earthly ministry he took a special interest in uneducated fishermen, sinful tax collectors—even murderers like Paul—many of whom he gave the task of overseeing his ministry and tending his flock.
Riddled as he was with imperfections, the genius of Peter’s selection may not have been immediately apparent. Centuries later, however, the power of God is clear. For the Chair of Peter still remains; no power has yet prevailed over the Church. “All the empires and the kingdoms have failed, because of this inherent and continual weakness, that they were founded by strong men and upon strong men,” writes Chesterton. “But this one thing, the historic Christian Church, was founded on a weak man, and for that reason it is indestructible. For no chain is stronger than its weakest link” (Heretics). Indeed, when Jesus gave Peter the keys and charism of infallibility, he infused the whole Christian people with a principle of unity that forms an unbreakable bond.
Peter’s Faith Did Not Fail
“The prayer of a righteous man is great in its effect,” writes St. James (James 5:16). How great in its effect must have been the Lord’s prayer for Peter when he said to his chief disciple, “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:32).
Indeed, from that perfect prayer of Christ have come two miracles that have strengthened the Church ever since. The first is the witness—the martyrdom—of Peter whose faith did not fail in the end. And the second is still with us; indeed we are living it—the indestructible Catholic Church, the community of believers in grace whose faith has been strengthened century after century by the Servant of the Servants of God, the pope.
I am fortunate to live in the North East United States where we experience four seasons every year. Each season brings with it new sights and sounds and something special to bring us a better experience of life. It seems that there is always a change in the air going on. We usually take these changes of seasons for granted, but I remember one year when I lived in central Texas when I didn’t experience theses changes and it really bothered me. Somehow, grilling outside for Christmas while wearing shorts didn’t do much for giving me the Christmas spirit. I know that many people live in areas where there is little or no change in seasons and probably deal with it well, but I did not. I am used to seasons and I really enjoy them.
We are now in our fall season. The air is clean and crisp and refreshing. The trees are changing their leaves from green to various shades of yellow and red and brown and gold. Fall flowers such as mums are bringing new colors in to the neighborhood. The smell of fall candles and cinnamon and spices fill the house. The sky seems to be a brighter shade of blue. We spend more time inside with our families and friends. Life is good.
When winter comes we feel the sharp cold air, but it seems to refresh and awaken us. Most of the trees and flowers are bare now, but there are still some evergreen trees and bushes that remind us that life goes on. When snow falls it is one of the most beautiful sights to see. Children can be seen snow sledding and ice skating. There is nothing like coming in from the cold to sit around a nice fireplace with a roaring fire. After a while, we tire of the cold and ice but then we see signs of spring coming.
With spring comes a feeling of new life. The trees that seemed to be dead are now coming alive again. Flowers are pushing up from the ground with seamless effort. You hear the sounds of birds chirping in the trees. The air has a fragrance of flowers. The earth seems to be awakening from its sleep.
In summer we have the warm breezes touching our skin. The flowers that bloom are filled with so many different and bright colors. Many of our activities of enjoyment are found outside. We have our times for walks and our times for going to the beach or to the pool. The children are thrilled because they are on their summer break and can really enjoy the summer life.
Just as the seasons of the earth bring us new experiences and help us to live out a fuller life, the Church, in its great wisdom, offers us seasons to do the same thing. The earth gives us four seasons but the Church gives us six. The whole Church year revolves around the Church seasons. Let’s take a brief look at these six seasons and how they help us to experience God’s love better. These seasons are also filled with their own colors and sights and sounds.
The first season of the Church year is Advent. It starts in the late fall, timed to give us four weeks to prepare for the great feast of Christmas. The color for this season is violet (with one Sunday of Rose). Advent is a quiet season of joy where we anticipate and prepare for the coming of Jesus. We look towards the coming of Jesus both at Christmas two thousand years ago and His Second Coming at the end of time. It is a time of anticipation and readiness. Advent ends on December 24th.
The second season of the Church year is Christmas. It starts on December 25th and lasts until the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus. This is a season of joy and celebration and merriment. It is a time where we all give out gifts to remember the great gift given to us at Christmas, Jesus. It is a time of the smells of evergreens and baking and a time when families spend more time with each other. The color for this season is white.
When Christmas ends, we begin the third season, the season of Ordinary time. The color of this season is green. Ordinary time is a split season. The first split is right after Christmas for about four to eight weeks. It is a time when we listen to all of the stories about Jesus. It is a time for us to learn and grow in our knowledge of Jesus. It ends with Ash Wednesday.
The fourth season is the season of Lent. This season starts with Ash Wednesday and ends with Holy Thursday morning. The color of this season is Violet. It is a time for prayer and repentance in preparation for the celebration of the Easter mysteries. It is a special time for our RCIA groups to be ready for coming in to the Church at the Easter Vigil. It is a time of serious prayer and reflection and growth in our love of Jesus.
The fifth season is the Paschal Triduum. Its colors are white and red depending on the day. This season is only three days long but reflects the very act of what our Church was founded upon, the Death and Resurrection of Jesus. The first day is Holy Thursday (White) when we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood. The second day is Good Friday (Red) when we remember the death of Jesus on the cross. The Church does not celebrate any Sacraments that day. The third day is Holy Saturday with its Easter Vigil. The vigil mass is the highest mass of the Church year. It is one that is filled with so many sights and sounds, readings, candles, water, incense etc. The RCIA candidates come in to the Church that evening. It is a time of GREAT JOY. The liturgies of all three days of the Paschal Triduum are celebrated as ONE continuous liturgy that commemorates the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The sixth season of the Church year is the Easter Season. It is a fifty day celebration that begins at the Easter Vigil and concludes on the Feast of Pentecost. The color of the season is white. We spend fifty days looking at the readings about the resurrected Jesus. The Easter Paschal Candle, lit at the Easter Vigil, burns for all liturgies during this season. Jesus is the Light of the world. He is the Resurrection and the Life. We spend fifty days celebrating this. This is what the Church is all about. We are a resurrection people.
The second part of Ordinary season starts on the Monday after Pentecost and goes until the Feast of Christ the King when the calendar of seasons starts all over again. We hear all of the stories of Jesus during this season.
It is interesting that the seasons of the earth seem to join in with the liturgical seasons. The late fall and early winter of Advent gives us a little glimpse of the stillness and waiting of Advent. The beauty of the winter white proclaims the birth of the savior. The beginning harshness of winter at Lent calls us to penance and the Spring season reflects the life and light of Easter. Just as we can enjoy the seasons of the year, the seasons of the Church can help us better experience all that Jesus has done for us and how we should respond to His love.
How To Achieve Constant Prayer – by Matthew Leonard
Did you know that every part of our life is meant to be powered by prayer…everything!
Is that even possible?
Since “with God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26) , the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
How?
Well it starts with what we call “finite prayer.”
A finite prayer is one that has a beginning and an end. It’s active prayer. Examples would the rosary, a litany, or any spontaneous prayer.
But while it has starting and a stopping points, finite, active prayer is meant to lead us to something deeper – habitual, or constant, prayer.
Constant prayer is the name of the game, the golden goose of the spiritual life.
Quoting the ancient monk Evagrius Ponticus, the Catechism states “we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing” (2742, italics mine).
Of course, we’re all familiar with St. Paul’s admonition to “pray constantly” in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. As a kid I remember thinking, “Seriously, Paul? Not only are people going to think I’m nuts as I walk around muttering to myself, but multi-tasking is not natural to my gender.”
But before we knock Paul off of his high horse (again), let’s take a moment to see what we he means.
Constant prayer is not an act of prayer, so to speak. Otherwise we’d never be able to focus on our duties in life. It might even be dangerous! (Forget about texting, I’ve nearly wrecked my car on several occasions while attempting the rosary on the freeway.)
So what is Paul talking about?
He’s referring to a permanent attitude, one rooted in trustful surrender and merging of our will to God’s. It’s an inner peace that accepts whatever happens as God’s good will for our life.
Now don’t think he means we just sit back and do nothing. Rather, he means we have to develop an attitude of cheerful compliance founded on the knowledge that what God wants us to experience in life is best.
How do we attain this peaceful, permanent attitude of constant prayer? Again, primarily through finite prayer.
You see, constant prayer is fed by acts of finite prayer which operate on the “surface” of the soul.
Think of constant prayer as glowing embers down in your soul. They’re always hot, but not enflamed, so to speak.
Finite prayers are like little gusts of wind that come down, blowing across these embers, igniting a fire of love in our hearts that bursts into flame.
Finite prayers feed the flame so that we develop a life of constant prayer.
Of course, the reverse is also true.
Constant prayer feeds and fuels our acts of finite prayer so they become more focused and fruitful. And when we can establish a state of constant prayer, submitting ourselves gladly to God’s will, everything we do becomes an act of prayer.
God bless!
Matthew
P.S. Matthew is leading a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Jim Caviezel, star of The Passion of the Christ! We’ll also be joined by Fr. Don Calloway and John Michael Talbot! It’s going to be epic! CLICK HERE for details! HOLY LAND
P.P.S. If you’d rather go to Italy, Matthew is heading there on pilgrimage, too!
Join him in March 2019 for a time of deep spiritual renewal and amazing adventure in Rome, Assisi, Orvieto, LaVerna, and much, much more! CLICK HERE for details! ITALY
We are fairly comfortable with having God as Our Father and we easily can identify Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but who is the Holy Spirit to us? Evidently Jesus thought highly of the Spirit because he said in Mark 3:28-30: “Truly I tell you, all sins and blasphemes will be forgiven for the sons of men. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Jesus also tells us in John 6: 17 “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you”. We so often forget about or don’t understand the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit is so important to us. It is the lifeblood of the Church.
Fortunately Pope Saint John XXIII knew about the power of the Holy Spirit. This very gentle and unassuming man who led the Church for only five years (1958-1963) accomplished so much for the Church and the world because he relied upon the power of the Holy Spirit. Pope John XXIII was born Angelo Giuseppi Roncalli, the fourth of thirteen children, of a farming family in Italy. He was a holy young man who began Spiritual Direction at the age of fourteen. He was given a good Catholic education and excelled in the Spiritual life. He had considerable reflective contact with both St. Charles Borromeo and St. Francis de Sales, two very holy and spiritual men. He also had several tastes of the worst of humanity. He served in the Italian Army in WWI as a medic and then as a Chaplain. He saw the horrors of war. After the war he continued serving the Church in many ways as a priest, then Bishop, and then Cardinal. During WWII he helped to save many Jews from the Nazi extermination camps.
Angelo Ronacalli was elected Pope at a time when conservative and liberal elements within the Church were having a hard time finding a person who they both could agree upon. Angelo Roncalli was chosen not just because of his holiness and experience in the Church, but also because he was older and would probably have a short pontificate. Angelo Roncalli surprised everyone by taking the name John XXIII. During the western schism of the 15th century, an antipope had used that name and no one had used it since. Angelo Roncalli said, “I will be called John. A name sweet to Us because it is the name of Our father, dear to Us because it is the name of the humble parish church where We received baptism, the solemn name of numberless cathedrals scattered throughout the world, and in the first place of the most holy Lateran Church, Our Cathedral. A name that in the extremely ancient series of Roman Pontiffs has the primacy of plurality. Twenty-two Johns of indisputable legitimacy are numbered among the Supreme Pontiffs, and almost all had a brief pontificate. We have preferred to hide the smallness of Our name behind this magnificent succession of Roman Pontiffs.” Now this was a very humble and holy man.
Pope John XXIII listened to the Holy Spirit and decided that it was time to “open the windows,” to let fresh air into a church much in need of reform. He called for a Church Council to ‘Throw open the windows of the church and let the fresh air of the spirit blow through.” The prayer of Pope John XXIII at the beginning of the Vatican II Council says, “Divine Spirit, renew your wonders in our time, as though for a new Pentecost, and grant that the holy church, preserving unanimous and continuous prayer, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus, and also under the guidance of St. Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Saviour, the reign of truth and justice, the reign of love and peace, Amen”. The Council most definitely allowed the Holy Spirit to work. Pope John XXIII wanted to allow the Holy Spirit to move in and through the Church. Later Popes reflected on this.
Saint John Paul II wrote “I am convinced that this movement is a sign of His action of the Spirit. This world is much in need of this action of the Holy Spirit, and it needs many instruments for this action. Now I see this movement everywhere.”
Pope Benedict XVI said “What we learn in the New Testament on charisms, which appeared as visible signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit, is not an historical event of the past, but a reality ever alive. It is the same divine Spirit, soul of the Church, that acts in every age and those mysterious and effective interventions of the Spirit are manifest in our time in a providential way. The Movements and New Communities are like an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in contemporary society. We can, therefore, rightly say that one of the positive elements and aspects of the Community of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal is precisely their emphasis on the charisms or gifts of the Holy Spirit and their merit lies in having recalled their topicality in the Church.” It would appear that the Vatican II council helped to set the stage for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which has moved so powerfully through the Church and has helped us all better identify the Holy Spirit and His gifts. Pope Benedict also said, “His openness to the Holy Spirit made possible the “truly special gift” of Vatican II to the Church”
When Pope Francis canonized Pope John XXIII, he pointed to Pope John’s willingness to follow the Spirit: “In convening the Council, Saint John XXIII showed an exquisite openness to the Holy Spirit. He let himself be led and he was for the Church a pastor, a servant-leader, guided by the Holy Spirit. This was his great service to the Church; for this reason I like to think of him as the pope of openness to the Holy Spirit.”
This very humble man, Pope John XXIII, opened wide the doors of the Church and allowed the Holy Spirit to flow through. The people loved him and called him the “Good Pope”. Many people liked the humor that he showed. When the pope was innocently asked by a journalist how many people worked in the Vatican, he deadpanned, “About half of them.” Another time Pope John XXIII was visiting a hospital in Rome called the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, run by a group of Catholic sisters. The mother superior, deeply stirred by the papal visit, went up to him in order to introduce herself. “Most Holy Father,” she said, “I am the superior of the Holy Spirit.” “Well, I must say you’re very lucky,” replied the pope. “I’m only the Vicar of Christ.”
We are very fortunate that this great man listened to God’s Holy Spirit and because of that the Church was renewed by the Spirit through Vatican Council II. The day of his feast, October 11, was selected because it was the date of his opening the Second Vatican Council in 1962. It is interesting to note that Pope John XXIII confessed that he had some difficulty in falling asleep on the night of the memorable day that he announced the convocation of the Second Vatican Council. He said that he talked to himself in this way: “Giovanni, why don’t you sleep? Is it the pope or the Holy Spirit that governs the Church? It’s the Holy Spirit, no? Well, then, go to sleep, Giovanni!”
Recently I saw a Gary Varvel cartoon depicting a multitude of children floating on a heavenly cloud with one saying to the other “I wish I could have celebrated a birthday”. In the cartoon there is another “cloud-baby” reading a newspaper with the headline ROE VS WADE now 35 (it is an old cartoon). The message was quite clear, the souls of all the aborted babies are in heaven, but they wish they had been given the opportunity to be born and enjoy all that our earthly lives enjoy, including birthday celebrations. This really hit me, especially with Right to Life Sunday coming this weekend. I find it difficult to comprehend how our Nation, whose Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Our government is supposed to protect these rights for all of us. Yet, the current law of the land allows us to kill unborn babies. We kill almost 2,000 per day. This is a true holocaust whose numbers far exceed any holocaust that man has done in history. We don’t use the term “kill”, we use “abort”. It sounds better but is truly the same thing. Many abortions are pure torture for the “baby” but we use the term “fetus” or “grouping of cells” to sound better. Look at any ultrasound picture; you can see that it is a baby. The torture consists of pulling off arms and legs and crushing heads. So much for the unalienable right to LIFE.
I know that abortion is a complicated topic today. I also know that too often women are in a very sad situation in life and they feel compelled to do this. However, I also know that any good human being must know that killing a defenseless child is bad, and that is what we are doing. Yes a woman does have the right to her own body, but what about the right the unborn baby has to live? No one should have a right to kill another living human being, especially the most vulnerable. It used to be that the Democratic Party prided itself on caring for the poorest and most defenseless but now they are the champions of Abortion. What happened? Certainly it seems that finances come in to play. USA today published an article on Feb 26, 2018 entitled, If the NRA owns Republicans, Planned Parenthood owns Democrats. There is no doubt that Planned Parenthood gives incredible financial aid to the Democratic Party and to Democratic candidates. It gives none to Republican candidates but spends considerable money to stop Republican candidates. Planned Parenthood receives about 587 million (2014 figures) in tax money and in the last three election cycles Planned Parenthood advocacy and political arms, employees, and their families have spent over $38 million to elect or defeat candidates for federal office who decide how much taxpayers subsidize the nation’s largest abortion provider. They appear now to be spending about $30 million for this year’s midterm elections to support democrats. Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire even goes so far to say that Planned Parenthood launders money for the Democratic Party “The abortion conglomerate has been giving millions to Democrat campaigns and Democrat causes for decades. Meanwhile, they are given millions — 500 million, to be exact — in taxpayer dollars annually.” It would appear that money trumps over care for the poor and defenseless babies in the womb. I find this very sad.
To be perfectly frank, I do not like Planned Parenthood. I look to some of the things that its founder, Margaret Sanger has said about the workings of Planned Parenthood. She referred to blacks and other minorities as “…human weeds,’ ‘reckless breeders,’ ‘spawning… human beings who never should have been born.” Margaret Sanger, Pivot of Civilization. She also said, “We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America, by Linda Gordon. Planned Parenthood seems to be doing that now through abortion and birth control measures. Our society seems to be ignoring this terrible race discrimination. As Christians, we recognize that all people are equal in the eyes of God. We are all His children. Planned Parenthood is quickly eliminating God’s children, both black and white, but with a very unequal rate against blacks. This has to stop.
We have lost over 56,000,000 lives to abortion since the Supreme Court decision (compare this to 1,354,664 total deaths in ALL the wars we have fought since we became a nation). I can’t help but to wonder if we killed off the person who would have found a cure to cancer, or other terrible diseases. What if we lost another Beethoven, or Tolkien or……. We really do not know. In 1994 Mother Theresa was invited to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast at the White House. She said, “The greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.
By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems. And, by abortion, that father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. The father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.” It is also said that Hillary Clinton asked her why there hasn’t been a woman President yet and Mother Teresa said that is probably because she was aborted.
I have a great deal of compassion for the woman who finds herself pregnant and feels that she just cannot give birth to the child. So often she is led, not always freely, to choose abortion. Once she chooses this she is often filled with guilt and remorse. In my ministry as a deacon, I have dealt with a considerable number of women in this situation. I will share one story that I shared in a previous article. One time, a woman that I knew, come up to me and asked me why I was always smiling and always so happy. I told her that it was because I believed in a God who loved me, gave me hope and forgave me. She said that she found it hard to believe in a God like that. She had lived a very difficult life and it was only recently that she had been able to come out of those difficulties. A few days after our initial encounter, she asked to speak to me in private. We talked for a while and she told me that she didn’t think that God could forgive her. I asked her why she thought that. She told me that she had an abortion when she was quite young and that it had plagued her with guilt ever since. She told me that she couldn’t forgive herself, so how could God forgive her? I felt really bad for this woman, and the pain that she had held on to for over twenty years. She had been away from the Church for quite some time, but was just now thinking of coming back. I asked her to speak to a priest about forgiveness and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. I also hooked her up with a local organization that gave counseling to women who have had abortions. Fortunately, she took me up on my advice and responded well and the change in her gives new meaning to the phrase, “born again”. Unfortunately she is not the only woman who has come to me with the same guilt and remorse that having an abortion brings.
Too often woman are coerced in to abortion by boyfriends, husbands, fathers and mothers, friends etc. Too often this coercion is through threats of violence and black mail. I feel so bad for these women. They should be given other choices. For me, adoption is one that helps all involved. We have one daughter who we adopted. Her birth mother was only 17 and a senior in High School but because she had the support of her family, she chose to give birth to her child and give her up for adoption. I thank God for that because now I have a daughter (and three grandsons) who have brought me so much joy. It is imperative that our government and churches and social agencies work to help women who are pregnant and do not have the ability to keep their children. What seems like a quick and easy out, abortion, often leads to much pain and guilt for all of their lives.
Lastly, we really need to consider the unborn baby. The life that is there should have the right to live and experience all that life has to offer us, including celebrating birthdays. Abortion totally takes that away from them. Even in life situations where poverty and disease and handicaps seem to indicate that life will not be good, so many examples exist to show that children can excel no matter what. It is the mandate of society and its government to make sure that we all have that inalienable right to life. God has brought forth life and we should not take that away. We need to create a society where life is respected and we all work together to ensure that.
When you read the Bible, you can sometimes see a hierarchy in the way things are listed. For example, each list of the twelve apostles shows Peter first and Judas last.
There’s another hierarchy you can find in the Old Testament: the Ten Commandments. The initial three, often depicted by themselves on one stone tablet, deal with our relationship with God. And the very first one is the most important: “I am the Lord thy God; Thou shalt not have other gods before me.”
Further down the list, we see the hierarchy still in play. “Thou shalt not kill” is obviously more important than the prohibition against adultery, which is greater than the one against stealing, which in turn is more important than not lying. And you can see how those are of more concern than coveting, whether of your neighbor’s spouse or goods.
But then there’s this one Commandment that seems—at least by today’s standards–to throw a monkey wrench into the whole idea of such a hierarchy.
“Honor thy father and thy mother.”
It’s the fourth Commandment, right after keeping the Lord’s day holy and right above “Thou shalt not kill.”
Really? Honoring one’s parents is more important than not committing murder?
Yet that’s where God chose to place that Commandment. And God doesn’t make mistakes.
You’d never know, by watching any current television program, that God gives it such weight. When, for example, is the last time you saw a TV show in which a child honored his parents?
Instead, parents, it seems, are supposed to honor their kids, bending over backwards to win their children’s affection. Nowadays parents—especially conservative ones—are portrayed as idiots who need to learn how to love. A parent is supposed to not only accept but honor his child’s life choices, even if he is constantly breaking the sixth Commandment by having sex without the benefit of marriage. Anybody who doesn’t is portrayed as a cruel, doddering old fool standing in the way of true love.
Of course we should all show respect for each other, but I honestly don’t think parents honoring their kids’ sinfulness is what God had in mind when He wrote that Commandment, and especially when he chose to place it where He did.
But I digress. What I should really be looking at is how well I myself have kept that Commandment.
I have to admit I went through those ridiculous teenage years in which I thought my parents weren’t terribly bright–as if my life experience was so much greater that I knew better than they did. Mom and Dad, whom, when I was little, I had accepted as almost God-like, suddenly didn’t know their right from their left. How lucky for them that they had a teenage daughter who could set them straight.
Of course, as I got older, I realized I was the one who hadn’t been so bright.
As Mark Twain once put it, “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Both of my parents are gone now. Dad died in 2001, and Mom followed him five years later. Sometimes I wish I could go back and show them the honor and respect I should have.
After all, God seems to think such honor is very important indeed.
On the back of my car I have a sticker that says, “Proud to be Catholic”. With all that has happened in the recent sex abuse scandal some people might wonder how I could be proud to be Catholic and continue to publically acknowledge that. Nonetheless, I am proud to be Catholic and I am also ashamed at what some of our Catholic priests and bishops have done or even failed to do. It is so sad that those Catholic priests, who performed all sorts of atrocious acts on Children, failed to live by their calling. They are very sick men. I think that it is even sadder that some of our Bishops hid what had been happening thus perpetuating more abuse. St. Luke, in Acts 20:28 talks to the bishops of the early Church saying “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” Some day these bishops will be held accountable before the Lord. But even though these priests and bishops are a big part of the Catholic Church, they do not account for the whole of the Catholic Church. The Church itself is Holy. St. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians Chapter 2, verses 20 through 22 says “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” The Church is Holy, but these men are human and are sinners.
We have to remember that for 2,000 years, the Church has been the presence of Jesus to the world. The Catholic Church put together the bible that we use. It is God’s word and we deliver it to a world that needs it so badly. Every day, in just about every area in the world, the Church brings forth the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and continually offers to the sick (and dying) the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick as well as the other Sacraments. Besides all those things that you would expect the Church to do, it “has been the means of reducing more languages to writing than have all other factors combined. It has created more schools, more theories of education, and more systems than has any other one force. More than any other power in history it has impelled men to fight suffering, whether that suffering has come from disease, war or natural disasters. It has built thousands of hospitals, inspired the emergence of the nursing and medical professions, and furthered movement for public health and the relief and prevention of famine.” – Kenneth Scott Latourette, Sterling Professor at Yale University: A History of Christianity, Vol. II, originally published by HarperCollins Publishers 1953, revised 1975, pp.1470,14.
In Saint John’s Gospel (13:35) we read, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” For me, the Catholic Church excels at showing the love of Jesus to all people (not just its own). Matthew Kelly tells us, “Every day the Catholic Church feeds more people, clothes more people, houses more people, and educates more people than any other organization in the world…” That is something to really be proud of. Statistics provided by both Forbes Magazine and Business Week confirm this statement. They state that, “The Catholic Church is indeed the largest charitable organization on the planet BY FAR.” Some of the statistics are quite interesting. Charity and healthcare centers run in the world by the Church include: 5,391 hospitals, most of them in America (1,627) and Africa (1,295); 16,610 dispensaries, mainly in Africa (5,181); America (4,731) and Asia (3,520); 604 Care Homes for people with Leprosy, mainly in Asia (296) and Africa (187); 16,270 Homes for the elderly, or the chronically ill or people with a disability, mainly in Europe (8,348) and America (4,086); 9,924 orphanages, mainly in Asia (3,934); 12,376 nurseries, mainly in Asia (3,247) and America (3,435); 14,551 marriage counseling centers, mainly in America (5,546) and Europe (5,666); 3,776 social rehabilitation centers and 38,484 other kinds of institutions.
To me the Catholic Church is the very presence of Jesus in the world. It continues to bring His healing and compassion and teaching and presence to those who need it so badly. It is made of human beings who often fail at being what God calls them to be, but it is empowered by the Holy Spirit and will continue the mission God has given it. I have no doubt that Satan loves to try to pull apart the Church. Satan knows how to use human weakness to harm the Church, but, as Jesus says, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). I am proud to be a Catholic. I will continue to love my Church and do whatever I can to build it up. I will support all those many good priests and bishops that we have who have been so hurt by this scandal. I will also pray for all of the victims of the abuse and for all who have been affected by it. I will be vigilant in fighting the evils that are attacking and are within the Church. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Our Church is the Body of Christ, the Victor!
The philosopher Immanuel Kant said that all of philosophy aims to answer three basic questions: What can I know? What can I do? What may I hope? He then linked these three questions to three more: Does God exist? Is man free? Is there life after death?
The failure to take seriously life’s biggest questions—all of which are inherently religious—is one of the most unflattering characteristics of our day. Of all the great civilizations that have ever existed, ours “is the first that does not have to teach its citizens any answer to the question why they exist,” laments Peter Kreeft. “As society grows, it knows more and more about less and less. It knows more about the little things and less about the big things.”
How can we evangelize in such a spiritually indifferent culture?
The first step is to understand the problem.
When I was in my early twenties, I suffered from a wicked bout of spiritual restlessness. After a couple years of university, my Catholic upbringing had lost much of its hold on me. But although I was no longer attending Mass or receiving the sacraments—or living my life as though God existed—I was still open to the idea of something like God existing “out there.”
On some days I leaned towards a deistic view of God—the idea that a divine power had created the world but was no longer present to it. On other days I was swayed towards pantheism, the “everything is God” view that is characteristic of New Age thought. And still on other days I felt a pull, however slight and brief, towards the Catholic faith of my youth. Spiritually, I was all over the spectrum.
Not one of these fleeting attractions, however, ever amounted to a conviction. The problem was not that no case could be made for those worldviews. The problem was that I failed to take any of them seriously enough to consider the case for or against. Instead I was like a child, “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).
I think we can look at religious indifference in just that way: the failure to 1) think seriously about religion and 2) to give God his due. One failure is intellectual and the other is practical. But, since will follows reason, most people won’t give God his due if they’re not even thinking seriously about him. What we choose follows what we know. Thus, the intellectual component is primary.
Since our minds are naturally ordered toward truth, to be indifferent to the most persistent human questions about reality is an unnatural way to live. Whether we like it or not, it matters whether God exists—and it matters what kind of God exists. It matters whether we are free or not. It matters whether heaven and hell really await our choosing. Many of our ordinary assumptions—like the existence of free will or of objective morality—hinge on how these questions are answered. “All our actions and thoughts,” reflects Pascal in his Pensées, “must follow such different paths, according to whether there is hope of eternal blessings or not.”
Catholic philosopher Robert Sokolowski contends that it is at the core of man’s nature to desire the truth of things. This desire, he says, “is very deep in us, more basic than any particular desire or emotion. We are made human by it, and it is there in us to be developed well or badly.” Our appetite for truth, then, is not optional—it makes us what we are.
That is why religious indifference is so crippling. It is like ignoring your hunger for food and not eating because you “don’t feel like it.” Ignore it long enough and it may become numbed, but such desensitization will not prevent the ensuing weakness, sickness, and death—it will only mask their approach.
How did we become so indifferent towards humanity’s most persistent questions? Surely there are many reasons, but a big one may be the rise of “smart” technology and its impact on how we see ourselves and others. Psychology professor Jean Twenge notes that the generation born in the mid-1990s and after—what she calls the iGen—has never known a time before the internet and smartphone. According to her research, not only is this generation the most digitally connected; it is also the least religious generation in U.S. history.
Given all that modern technology does for us, it should be no surprise that people are becoming more and more convinced of their own self-sufficiency. Such radicalized autonomy makes it easy to accept the illusion that we are masters of our own world. We rely on others—and the authority of others—less than ever before. The temptation to “be as gods” has been around since Eden, but no culture has ever made a sense of omnipotence easier to attain. Who needs God and his rules when we can be gods and make up our own?
“The most deadly poison of our times is indifference,” wrote St. Maximilian Kolbe. But although the problem is urgent, it is not insurmountable. For one thing, the Catholic Church is a seasoned veteran when it comes to facing cultural resistance to its mission: it always finds a way to persevere against the odds and get the job done. And of course, the Church’s mission of making disciples has the almighty power of Christ behind it, and it will until the end of the age.
We must remember, too, that even the most hopeless indifferentist is never a total write-off. His nature can never totally shed its thirst for truth and, more importantly God never ceases to draw him into all truth (John 16:13). As the Second Vatican Council declared in Gaudium et Spes:
Man is continually being aroused by the Spirit of God and he will never be utterly indifferent to religion—a fact proved by the experiences of ages past and plentiful evidence at the present day. For man will ever be anxious to know, if only in a vague way, what is the meaning of his life, his activity, and his death. The very presence of the Church recalls these problems to his mind. The most perfect answer to these questionings is to be found in God alone, who created man in his own image and redeemed him from sin (41).
This is all good news, but it’s not the only reason for hope. There are practical things that we can do in our witness to others that will help them respond to God’s prompting and bravely seek the answers they long to know. By leading with open questions, open ears, and a patient tongue, and by challenging them to face with seriousness the true costs of their apathy over life’s Biggest Questions, you can engage the indifferent effectively. After all, they’re not dead—they’re just asleep. With the right tools, you can awaken them from their spiritual slumber.
NOTE: Matt’s new book, JUST WHATEVER is available by clicking here: JUST WHATEVER
