Category: Spiritual Life

Why forgive?

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Time magazine asks an excellent question, don’t you think? I do. The only answer I am muster to give is: because it is the right thing to do AND our Savior forgave his killers. Therefore, we ought to do the same.
BUT, if you are ashamed to forgive and to receive forgiveness, you must be convinced that Jesus Christ is blowing smoke or not real. The 4th century Persian bishop, Aphrahat said as much in his treatise On Penitents where he taught that a Christian in the state of sin should seek sacramental forgiveness as the Church taught. Aphrahat decapitates the sin of presumption and pride when he says,
… the man wounded by Satan should not be ashamed to confess his, and leave it behind, and beg for the medicine of penance. For gangrene comes if a man is ashamed to show his wound, and then the whole is harmed. Whoever is not ashamed has his wound healed, and goes back to battle again; but if gangrene comes, he cannot be healed, and he cannot take up his arms again.

So, why forgive? Because if one doesn’t forgive the sins of another, how will you face your own humanity and the Savior face-to-face?

Aphrahat, On Penitents 2-3 (Demonstrations 7), adapted translation by Frank H. Hallock, Journal of the Society of Oriental Research 16 (1932), pp. 43-56.
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Tips for growing in holiness and going to Mass

In a previous blog post on the Father David Toups,
pastor of a Florida parish the author drew our attention to a young but
accomplished priest who was doing his best to live the vocation he was given.
As a secular priest he’s pastoring souls to Jesus by encouraging them to lead
lives of holiness. And remember, holiness is not reserved to a few; it is
however, open and “achievable” by all. So the question becomes: How do I work
on becoming holy?


Father Toups offers the following:

Continue reading Tips for growing in holiness and going to Mass

Exercising proper judgment in our life so that we share in God’s glory











St John the Baptist & St Dominic.jpgLast week the novices of the Order of Friars Preachers –the Dominicans of the Province of Saint Joseph– heard the following talk by Dominican Father André-Joseph LaCasse. Father LaCasse is the pastor of the Church of Saint Gertrude, Cincinnati, OH. I am not a Dominican but I have great affection for the Dominican vocation and many friends are of that persuasion, however many readers of this blog are not Dominicans. So, I thought after reading LaCasse’s talk there is something we can all be helped by what was said about the fraternal life the Dominican Order. In my estimation Father LaCasse’s thoughts are applicable to all states of the Christian life: the single person, the married couple, the Capuchin, the secular priest, bishop, etc. In the School of Community (of CL) we’ve been working on Father Luigi Giussani’s notion of charity and sacrifice and are about to start the section on virginity. And I ask myself: How is it that as a Christian I live in a state of perpetual discernment of faith, hope and charity through a life of sacrifice? In what concrete ways do I live honestly? Well, I’m off to confession to find that out. You?

You are privileged here because you
live with friars who have lived this life for quite some time. In our community
we have two jubiliarians, one who is close to being a jubiliarian, and the rest
of us who have lived this life for over twenty years. Our lives as religious is
a steady progress towards perfection, but a perfection that experiences many
imperfections along the way. Our lives are not extraordinary. None of us has
won prestige. None of us is in the limelight. We live ordinary lives of
consecration, hoping that we can do our best to advance the cause of Jesus
Christ and his Church.

The Dominican life is a life of
prayer, study, and the apostolate. Most days are ordinary days where you are
called to be simple servants of the Church. Do you desire to be a servant? Are
you willing to die to your own desires in order to do the desire of God manifested
through the will of our superiors? In a real sense you will not be able to
answer this question until something is asked of you that takes real sacrifice
and humility. But still the question needs to be asked now: Am I willing to die
to myself and become a servant of the Church? The question needs to be answered
now because from the very beginning of your discernment you must be brutally
honest with yourself.

Continue reading Exercising proper judgment in our life so that we share in God’s glory

The Baptist calls us recognize the voice in desert

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Advent is time of hope and expectation, it is also a time of repentance and conversion. Today’s readings in the Liturgy orient our attention to changing our life’s to reflect more and more the Lord’s. And the Baptist is the amazing and stirring Advent proponents to follow Jesus more closely. What is more identifiable than the Baptist’s exhortation: Prepare the way of the Lord?

St. Augustine on the gift of conversion: “What, then?
It is perhaps dependant on you, O man, if converted to God once you have earned
his mercy, while on the contrary those who have not converted have not obtained
mercy but have encountered the wrath of God? But you what resources available
to convert, if you had not been called? Was it not He who called you when you
were the enemy, to grant you the grace of repentance? So do not ascribe to
yourself the merit of your conversion: why, if God had not intervened to call
you when you fled from him, you would not have been able to look back.” St.
Augustine Expositionson the Psalmi, 84, 8-9.

Keep the conversation with the Lord going

I’ve been conscious of how busy everyone is, or pretends to be. Excuses run rampant as to why one can’t do thus-and-such, or … or …. One person asked the perennial question: How do I maintain my relationship with God? Father Giussani asked a similar of question of members of Communion & Liberation. He answered by telling his questioner that to keep the Lord’s name on our lips and to recognize the way the Lord has looked at us He looked at Zacchaeus in the sycamore tree. Giussani also reminded us to be attentive to reality as God has given it to us and not as we want it to be. Maintaining one’s relationship with God alive is easy if you move in small but deliberate steps by following a long held custom of praying short prayers that re-focus our attention: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, pray for us; Come Holy Spirit, come through Mary; Lord, Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner; O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee; Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us; and so on. Short prayers such as these examples are remarkable keeping my mind and heart on target and away from sin. I have the practice of praying my own version of the Litany of Saints as I walk up and down the aisle when attending Mass or when I am making the Morning Offering.


Saint Josemaría Escrivá offers some guidance in this regard: “You should maintain throughout the day a constant
conversation with Our Lord, a conversation fed even by the things that happen in
your professional work. Go in spirit to the Tabernacle… and offer to God the
work that is in your hands.”

Make a spiritual communion.

Caring for friends

Let us, who have a spiritual as well as natural affection for friends who are deed according to the flesh, though not according to the spirit, have far greater solicitude and care and zeal in offering up for them those things which will help the spirits of the departed –alms, and prayers and supplications.  ~Saint Augustine of Hippo

Everyone “owes something to the world” –Chesterton reminds us: give thanks!

The news that
some Europeans have been wrecked on a desert island is gratifying, in so far as
it shows that there are still some desert islands for us to be wrecked on.
Moreover, it is also interesting because these, the latest facts, actually
support the oldest stories. For instance, superior critics have often sniffed
at the labours of Robinson Crusoe, specifically upon the ground that he
depended so much upon stores from the sunken wreck. But these actual people
shipwrecked a few weeks ago depended entirely upon them; and yet the critics
might not have cared for the billet. A few years ago, when physical science was
still taken seriously, a very clever boys’ book was written, called
“Perseverance Island.” It was written in order to show how “Robinson Crusoe”
ought to have been written. In this story, the wrecked man gained practically
nothing from the wreck. He made everything out of the brute materials of the
island. He was, I think, allowed the advantage of some broken barrels washed up
from the wreck with a few metal hoops round them. It would have been rather
hard on the poor man to force him to make a copper-mine or a tin-mine. After
all, the process of making everything that one wants cannot be carried too far
in this world. We have all saved something from the ship. At the very least,
there was something that Crusoe could not make on the island; there was
something Crusoe was forced to steal from the wreck; I mean Crusoe. That
precious bale, in any case, he brought ashore; that special cargo called “R.
C.,” at least, did not originate in the island. It was a free import, and not a
native manufacture. Crusoe might be driven to make his own trousers on the
island. But he was not driven to make his own legs on the island; if that had
been his first technical job he might have approached it with a hesitation not
unconnected with despair. Even the pessimist when he thinks, if he ever does,
must realise that he has something to be thankful for: he owes something to the
world, as Crusoe did to the ship. You may regard the universe as a wreck: but
at least you have saved something from the wreck.


Not only does the Christian encounter the great act of thanksgiving at every Mass, at moment of prayer, at the very realization that every point of life is given –and not taken– but also that everything is total grace given by God for our happiness in this life and in the next. Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

Prayer to Christ the King

Christ the King2.jpgO Jesus Christ, I acknowledge Thee as universal King.
All that has been made, has been created for Thee. Exercise all Thy rights over
me. I renew my baptismal vows, renouncing Satan, his pomp and his works; and I
promise to live as a good Christian. In particular do I pledge myself to labor,
to the best of my ability, for the triumph of the rights of God and Thy Church.


Divine
Heart of Jesus, to Thee do I proffer my poor services, laboring that all hearts
may acknowledge Thy Sacred Kingship, and that thus the reign of Thy peace be
established throughout the whole universe. Amen.

Humor is a Catholic thing, really….

Humor and Catholicism are not easily cohered by many people. For some reason, many people believe that to be a Catholic, a saint, a person “in-tune” with God means, by definition, to look unhappy, if not really be, unhappy. Yea, but no. Really, the contrary is true if you know God, His Son and sacred Scripture. To have a healthy, vibrant spiritual life is have joy. We hunger for intimate connections with God, others and self. We are made for love and joy. Yet, love and joy are mysteries in the Providence, and love and joy separates us from the animals, as does freedom. And to love is be full of joy, full of humor and delight.

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Tonight, I had the pleasure of seeing an old and dear friend, Jesuit Father James Martin, speak at Yale University’s St Thomas More Catholic Chapel. Nearly hundred people were in attendance including members of the local and Yale communities. Father Martin is the Cultural editor of America Magazine, the only Catholic weekly journal of opinion. He’s the author of a plentitude of articles and several books (My Life with the Saints & The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, and he’s due to publish yet another book, Sarah’s Laugh: Joy Humor and Laughter in the Spiritual Life, in a few months.

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Martin was invited by More House to deliver the More House Lecture, which since its establishment in 1962 has had a few distinguished Jesuits. The inaugural More House Lecturer was given by Father John Courtney Murray, SJ in 1962 on the topic of the Problem of God. Martin is now on a spry list of notable –and a few ignoble– scholars and cultural types. A terrific honor, indeed.

Father Martin’s point is that joy and laughter are under-rated in the spiritual life and are essential for a healthy physical and spiritual life. To be joyful is to be in-touch with God. Joy equals holiness (for those who pray).

While humor is culturally bound in time, place and location, there is evidence that laughter had some importance among the Old Testement characters, think of Abraham and Sarah, Isaiah and in the New Testament with Jesus, think of his interchange with Nathaniel. Saints had a particular bias for humor and joy and laughter, think of Saints Teresa of Avila, Philip Neri, Benedict, Blessed John XXIII and Teresa of Calcutta, and countless others.

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Father Martin had ten points in praise of humor and its intimate connection with the spiritual life:

  1. humor evangelizes; humor shows others our faith in God, in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead; humor shows the victory of love over hatred;
  2. humor is a tool for humility; it aids in the quest of humility; humor is a great way to keep one grounded and away from the Deadly Sin of pride; as my mother says frequently, don’t take yourself that seriously;
  3. humor shocks the hearer to hear something new; humor gets the point of across
  4. humor speaks truth to power, especially when other forms of truth-telling seem to fail; do we need more pompous, puffed-up and powerful people with a distinct lack of humor leading us, in Church and in society?
  5. humor shows Christian courage: think of Saints Lawrence and Thomas More;
  6. humor deepens a relationship with God (if you have one); by analogy –Catholics love theological analogies: being in relationship with God is like being on the phone–someone talks and someone listens; a healthy relationship with God would mean that joy is very much a part of one’s relationship with God; as Father Martin pointed out from the Ignatian spirituality point of view, can I imagine that God might want to be playful with me? Can I delight in God’s desire for giving me the unexpected? Can I, like the Prophet Isaiah, allow God to delight in me and I delight in God?
  7. humor shows genuine hospitality, it shows the other that being welcome in a place is a virtue;
  8. humor is healing –it releases endorphins; one never laughs at sin or personal hurt but in its proper place humor gives us a break;
  9. humor opens our minds –it helps us to relax; humor helps get the message across, eases the burdens and allows us to imagine being personally with Jesus; joy is the surest sign of the Holy Spirit;
  10. humor is fun and fun is a foretaste of heaven.

 Thanks be to God for the grace of laughing. John Paul II and Benedict XVI have also showed us the value and place of humor in life. As I have said before here: can I really take my humanity seriously? Can I be joy-filled? Can I allow God to show me the way to Him through humor?