Will you die for Him?

I don't mean to continue to only post links, but I found this post particularly expressive for two reasons. One it is very clearly outlines the dangers of acceptance of sin and how quickly a population of people can be diluted into accepting it. The other reason is it calls to mind the struggle that I find myself faced with on a weekly basis and that is this; at what point do we walk away from the modern Church to retreat to a more traditional parish where we can properly express the reverence and love for Christ in a way that doesn't try to force us into clapping and singing and dancing in the pews?

http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/1870-will-you-die-for-him-a-sermon-on-the-eve-of-persecution-in-america

St. John the Baptist: Martyr for Marriage

OnePeterFive has a good article on John the Baptist.

It is easy to look at the martyrs of the past and think, that can't happen today. We live in the United States of America and have freedom of religion. We are lured into the false sense of confidence that there is nothing to stand up for anymore. That because we can openly go to church on Sunday that we are free to act and behave morally.

The article is a good reminder that John the Baptist did not die directly for his devotion to Jesus, but because of his adherence to the sixth commandment. St. John the Baptist was murdered because he stood up in defense of Marriage.

We find ourselves living in similar times now, Catholics are being persecuted, called bigots, painted as intolerant all because of our adherence to the sixth commandment. So much so that many have given into the temptation and the persecution in order that they may appear tolerant to the rest of society. Our Catholic faith is under attack, we are being asked to accept sin, to ignore it, not to invite the sinner back into the flock, as we so much want to do, but to invite the sin into the flock. There is a big difference between the two.

http://www.onepeterfive.com/st-john-the-baptist-martyr-for-marriage/

God Is Love

"God is Love" I know that seems obvious. But it isn't. We throw around the word love very loosely. We use it to define our relationships with God, people and things. I wonder though how many of us really understand God's love the way we think we do, and how many of us are truly able to incorporate that into the way we love. I think for many we think of love as something that we receive. A happy feeling stemming from the knowledge that their is a person, that will take us as we are, regardless of our own failings and faults. Jesus did teach us what love is, and how to love and it had little to do with what we receive from it.

There is a story in Matthew 15:21-28 of a Canaanite woman who comes to Jesus to ask for his help in healing her daughter from demons. The story sticks in my mind because it is contrary to, I think, the way many of us want to look at our faith, and Jesus. It is comforting to to think of God, father and Son, as always there for us. Willing to do anything for us that we ask without actually requiring much in return from us. I think that is a common way of looking at God and love in general. It is likely one of the reasons that the divorce rate is so high. People say, I love this person, but only as long as I receive good feelings from them. I want the benefit without it really requiring much work from me. Back to the Canaanite woman. She came to Jesus and asked Him for help, and His first response was, to completely ignore her. Then she continue to follow Him and beg, and he told her, basically "I am not here for you, go away." At first glance this isn't the all loving all accepting Jesus that we like to wrap ourselves in. The woman continues to come to him, and the last time Jesus says to her, "It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs." So this woman, came to Jesus three times, and each time he insulted her progressively worse, the final time calling her a "dog." Surely at this point most of us would say, this Man doesn't love me, in fact he Hates me, the heck with him. The woman however did not anger, and asked that as a dog she be allowed to eat the scraps from his table. At this Jesus told her, "woman, great is your faith, let it be done as you wish"

The reason I like this story so much is I think Jesus' message in this verse tells us as much about the way he wants us to love as it does about the faith he wants us to live. This woman loved as Jesus taught us to love even before he had clearly sent the message. This to me is why her faith was great, not necessarily because she believed beyond doubt that Jesus could heal her daughter, but that she continued to hold Him high and have faith when it seemed he had none in her. Ultimately Jesus would very clearly teach us what it means to love. He denied the woman three times, each progressively worse and she continued to love Him. We would do the same to Jesus, we would beat him, mock him, and crucify him, yet He continued to love us. Even Peter would deny Him three times, and still Jesus would suffer and die for us. Jesus' to me had mercy on the woman, because she had learned his message of love even before he had fully taught it. 

I hear people say repeatedly that God is Love. But the love they are talking about is not the love we give to God but the good feeling of love that we get from him. We bask in it, this feeling of love that we are forgiven, that Jesus is there for us. We hardly want to acknowledge that that love came with a price, that we need to ask for forgiveness.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says,"Love one another as I have loved you", How did He love us? How did we love him? We spat on Him, we denied knowing Him, we scourged him, we crowned him with thorns, we teased Him, made fun of Him, taunted Him, then we killed him by nailing Him to the Cross. Jesus washed our feet. healed our sick, made us wine, endured the scourging, the teasing, the thorns, the Nails. Then he asked God the Father to forgive us.

Jesus taught us how to love. Love is not the feeling your get, it is the feeling you give. Love is sacrifice, love is service, love is doing those things when the person you are loving doesn't get it, want it or appreciate it. Jesus, knows we are not perfect, but His love can make us perfect. His forgiveness is perfect and when we ask for it in the sacrament of confession we are given it no questions asked and so through Jesus made perfect. This is the example of love that we should give to our spouses and children.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the feeling of God's love. I bask in the wonderful feeling of having been forgiven after confession, or sitting in adoration in front of the Blessed Sacrament. I enjoy more than anything the feeling of love I get when I am looking at my wife. I am not talking about the greatness of being loved but the greater joy of loving. If we base our relationship with God, or our spouse on the feeling we get, there will come a day when it feels dry, or absent. There will come a day when saying the rosary feels more tedious, and it seems like a lot of work to get to church. And what happens when we say that prayer, that it seems Jesus just will not answer? When we ask for healing for a loved one, and they die, when we need help and seemingly he allows us to suffer anyway? In those moments, if we have built our faith on that good feeling we get, when it goes away we will most certainly fail. We will look to replace the good feelings we used to feel while praying or going to church with pleasures of the world. We will look for happiness on TV, on the internet, in movies and games and lose sight of  what God is calling us to do.

That is why it is so important we look to the example that Jesus has given us. He has given us the foundation for a solid and unshakable faith, in Him. It is to exercise purely selfless love. That is how Jesus loves us, and that is how he has commanded us to "love one another." Jesus is love, he loved us to the point of death, he loved us even though we showed him very little love in return. I pray that every time I say the words "I love you" that they will represent that commitment from me, to love to the point of death regardless of my own comfort, and also that every time I hear the words "I love you" that I will not take that commitment and sacrifice for granted by only taking those great feelings and leaving nothing in return. That my faith will be based on my desire to serve Christ and not be served by him. Too often I think we take for granted the sacrifice of the Cross, and the ease with with Christ offers forgiveness. Let our faith not be based as much on the feelings we receive as much as the commitment we give.

The danger in basing our love for God or each other on the feelings we receive from the knowledge that we are loved unconditionally, is that sooner or later we start to test the bounds of that unconditional love. We will come to church in jeans, because we know Jesus loves us unconditionally. We will risk missing Church, because God will still be there next week. We will progressively reduce our reverence in front of the Cross to little more than a casual visit and a chance to socialize with others. That is why our love needs to be active. We need to take Christ's commandment and challenge ourselves to show love, not just receive it. How would you dress for church if your intention was to show your love for Christ in the most meaningful way I could. How will I approach the alter to receive the Blessed Sacrament, with the knowledge that I am physically approaching Christ in the fullness of His sacrifice? That sacrifice that demonstrates in the clearest possible way that God is Love.

Our Lady of Fatima

Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Fatima, where 98 years ago our Holy Mother appeared to three Shepard children.

The Fatima Crusader Network has an excellent free eBook available if you would like to lean more.

http://www.fatima.org/crusader/truestory/truestorytoc.asp

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day. We are fortunate to have a priest that offers the traditional Mass in our parish once a month and yesterday was it. I thought the readings were especially relevant to Mother's yesterday so I thought I would share them here.

LESSON James 1:22-27
Beloved: But be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his own countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself and went his way and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty and hath continued therein, not becoming a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one's self unspotted from this world.

Mothers in general, and in particular those Catholic mothers that choose to sacrifice, time, wealth, social interaction, and to often respect, in the name of their families live this lesson to the fullest. I think of my wife, who in our family is the doer of the work. She lives her faith through the calling that she has accepted and by that example gives strength to our whole family. She is not a "forgetful hearer" but truly a doer of the work. She puts her whole self into our family so that our family will be strong, mentally, spiritually and physically.

We cannot as families "deceive our hearts". It is not an easy path to choose motherhood as a career. While fifty years ago families were held strong by society, and mothers were encouraged and supported in that choice, today is a very different story. We as a society put more value on career outside the home and a paycheck and take seem to take more self worth and value from the opinions of near strangers that we encounter in the workplace than we do our own families. We put more value on our work place relationships than we do on our family relationships. To me this is the deception mentioned in the Lesson. We are deceiving ourselves if we think we will be judged in anyway on the amount of money we made, or the size of house we live in or if we retire at fifty instead of sixty-five. A mother that chooses to give her life to her family is truly living without deception. Setting aside the opinions of man, for faithfulness in God.

How can we call ourselves faithful Catholic husbands if we don't hold our wives in the highest regard? If we don't look at motherhood as one of the highest callings?

GOSPEL John 16:23-30
At that time, Jesus said to His disciples: "Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father any thing in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto, you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. "These things I have spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will shew you plainly of the Father. In that day, you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world: again I leave the world and I go to the Father." 
His disciples say to him: "Behold, now thou speakest plainly and speakest no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things and thou needest not that any man should ask thee. By this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Our priest in his homily yesterday asked us to consider, "when you ask something of God are you truly asking in Jesus' name or are you asking in your name?" I think this relates back to the previous lesson, how often do we deceive our hearts into believing that what we desire for ourselves is what God desires for us? Why does is seem so easy for us to look at Catholic teaching and say, well this applies to me, but not so much this, and when I am in Church I will believe but when I leave Church my life belongs to me. We are deceiving ourselves to think that God is with us any less on Tuesday afternoon than he is on Sunday morning. Which brings me back around to the calling of motherhood. A calling is exactly what it is to be a mother and to choose to dedicate your life to your family. It takes a remarkably strong person to make that choice and live that life.

Mothers give their children their first stories of Jesus, they will be the ones to show them right from wrong. They will be the loving embrace when their child falls and skins their knee, and they will be the bad guy when their teenagers are testing their limits. They guide their family's toward Christ. A mother's prayer for her children is truly prayed in Jesus' name. Being a mother is the most selfless calling. Putting aside all comfort for the sake of her family. Loving her children from babies, to toddlers, to teenagers and off into adulthood. 

Family is at the very center of our Catholic faith and Mothers are at the very center of the family. We look to our Holy Mother Mary for guidance and support in times of need. We ask Her to intercede for us to her Son because we know the value God has placed in Mary and in motherhood. We as Catholics should take that example. If we keep our wives strong and give them the support they need to live their calling, we will keep our families strong and strong families will keep the Catholic faith. 

Catholic Families

This last Tuesday we celebrated our daughter Isabella's birthday. She would be 15 years old. It was fifteen years ago, and she was with us for fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes outside the womb, but I can still remember those minutes, and the days before and after as if they were yesterday. Anyone who has suffered a loss like that can tell you, the pain is never more than a day away. At first the pain is unbearable, and you wonder if it will ever go away. Then you worry that it will go away. Thank God it never does go away. As every year goes by there are still those moments when you remember and you get every precious minute back. In those moments the pain and the tears become a comfort. They are my memories of our precious Isabella and I think to lose them would be to lose a piece of her. Even today I look back, and it seems like it was minutes ago, or yesterday at the furthest.

We didn't know it going through the pregnancy but found out shortly before her birth that Isabella had Down Syndrome. People have asked us since, "if you knew early on, would you have kept her?" As if to say, if we had known early enough, we could have killed her before we became to attached to spare us the pain of her dying. When I look at families of children with down syndrome, rarely do I see happier people or happier children. They truly know what it is to love, and be loved as Jesus taught us to love. In fifteen minutes Isabella made it so perfectly clear to me when Jesus said "love one another as I have loved you" The lesson that love is what you give and not what you get. Children, especially those with special needs are a gift from God and welcoming them into our homes is a core foundation of the Catholic Church. It is build into our wedding vows and a promise we make at the alter before God.

We live in a disturbing time when it is acceptable in subsequent pregnancies, for the Doctor to ask, "Do you want to test for Down Syndrome? You would still go through with the pregnancy if the test came back positive?" Of course being Catholic the answer is an unequivocal "yes." but at the same time there is an underlying pressure to just quietly believe without coming out as to judgmental.  We live our Catholic beliefs but are pressured to keep them in the Church. At least we have always been able to say the Church stands up for us as a family. The Catholic Church believes in families, They encourage those of us who choose to have large families, and reserves a place of high honor and respect for those mothers who choose the vocation of motherhood and dedicate their lives to staying at home and raising the next generation of strong Catholics.

That is why the recent remarks of Pope Francis when he stated that Catholics need not "breed like rabbits" hit a raw nerve for those Catholic families that have chosen a more difficult path for the sake of their faith. The comment rocked a foundation of belief that even through the world at large may not appreciate or hold sacred the role of family, the Catholic church did. The comment gives fuel to the fire for those who want to weaken the Church's stance on everything from marriage to abortion. Catholics and families are under attack. Morality is being mutated by society into bigotry. There is, sadly, a sigh of relief from many "Catholics" when the pope makes those comments. There is a faction in the Catholic church that wants to change Catholicism to make it new, make it fit more with society. Society doesn't dictate what is right and wrong through. That can only come from God. We look to the Church to establish and hold fasts those fundamental truths. Morality can't be subjective left to be interpreted by the individual. Feeling something is right, cannot make it right.

I have heard commented by our priests many times, don't take the headline of what Pope Francis says at face value, go to the source and read the statement look at the bigger picture. So when I heard that comment, that is what I did, and sure enough the Pope did back off his statements in a clear way. Oddly, it was the SSPX news website this time that clarified the pope's view on large families. A group that is often criticized and labeled as sedevacantists and schismatics (they're not) were the ones to come to the defense of Catholic families, the Pope, and the Catholic Church. Meanwhile our own diocesan newspaper unfortunately only reported on the original comments in an article that was borderline favorable and encouraging of those unfortunate comments.

In comments to the Italian bishop’s newspaper Avvenire, Vatican Archbishop Giovanni Becciu said, “The Pope is truly sorry” that his remarks about large families “caused such disorientation.” Archbishop Becciu said the pope “absolutely did not want to disregard the beauty and the value of large families.” (SSPX)

The Pope also went on to make reparations for his comments is his General Audience on January, 21 when he stated "It gives me consolation and hope to see so many large families that welcome children as a true gift from God.”

I am grateful for those families and priests that stand up to defend family. The Catholic Church is rooted in our families, we teach our kids by example, priests, and nuns and saints start off as children in Catholic families. If we are going to win the war on morality it has to start in our families, leading through example. Please continue to pray for our Catholic families.

Why We Dress Up for Church

Not long ago there was a billboard for a non-Catholic church on the main Street in our town. The billboard proudly proclaimed, "These are my Sunday Clothes" and pictured a man in jeans, a t-shirt and a leather coat. I remember wondering why is it that it is such a draw to show up for church so casually.
Not long after I was having a conversation with some friends, who as it happens are also not Catholic. The topic of Sunday dress had come up and they also proudly proclaimed that they show up dressed just as they were that weekend. Shorts, tshirt, jeans, whatever they were wearing for the rest of the day. Their reason for this being acceptable was they were pretty sure that "Jesus didn't care how they dressed"
Even in our Catholic churches you do not have to look far to find this casual attitude toward attire. It is a popular position to take Jesus as our best friend, who takes us as we are. My friends that weekend did not care what I was wearing, I didn't care what they were wearing, so why does Jesus care what I decide to wear to church?
The answer could be, He just might not actually care, but I think the more appropriate question is why don't we care? Jesus does want us, sinner and all. Jesus will take us as we are. He wants us to come to Him regardless of what we are wearing I am sure. It should however maybe occur to us to ask ourselves what Jesus gave so that He could take us as we are. During this time of lent we are reminded more than ever of the sacrifice that He made for us. As Catholics we witness that sacrifice every Sunday and stand in His true presence. He died a horrible death after being tortured for my sins, for everyone's. He died because he knew I was not good enough, He died so He could take me as I am.
When I go to a funeral, even for someone I don't know well, I dress up. I wear my Sunday best. I also notice at a funeral 98% of people do the same. We dress up out of respect for the life of the person that has just died. We dress up to say, "your life meant something to me." We are capable of showing respect through our dress for strangers. We dress up for work, we dress up for a night out, we dress up for a funeral. Why should Jesus deserve any less from me? He has given me the chance of eternal life. How can I show up in jeans or shorts an say, "hey bud, must have sucked being up on that cross."
Dressing up for church also demonstrates to my family, and the rest of the world that we are going to Church on Sunday. That is our destination. We are not stopping at church on the way to a bbq. We are not going to the football game but have to make an appearance at church first. We are going to Church. We are going to show our reverence for the sacredness that is the Mass. Dressing up is an outward sign that we can give to show our respect and gratitude for Christ on the cross.
When we show up for church dressed casually there is a tendency to have a casualness toward the Mass. When we show up casually we remove the sacred from the Mass. When we remove the sacred from the Mass, we ignore the sacrifice. The Mass then becomes for us at best a symbolic meal rather than a sacred act.
I have been to many churches, traditional churches, where the priests preach continuously on the importance of dress and modesty in our display of reverence toward the Lord. I am always grateful when I am asked outright if I feel I am giving Christ all the devotion He deserves. Even outside of Church, our kids recently were sent home a letter addressing proper dress for band students at a concert. The letter explicitly listed appropriate dress for men and women to wear for the concert and also explicitly listed, that leggings are not pants for women and will not be allowed.
If we are required to wear pants for something as simple as a band concert shouldn't we asked to do the same for Mass?
That is why we dress up for Church, that is why my wife and I ask our kids to dress up for Church. The Mass should stand apart from our daily routine. We should prepare ourselves to have to go there. The act of dressing up for Mass, as well as the act of changing into more casual clothes after Mass, very clearly marks for me and my family that we have just been somewhere important. That we have just been to see Someone important. Christ deserve something more from me than I give the rest of the world. His sacrifice deserves my outward appreciation and dressing up for Mass is one way I can display that respect to my family.

The Holy League | Joining Forces in a Spirit of Marian Chivalry

Cardinal Burke has recently released a video introducing an exciting new initiative

The Holy League | Joining Forces in a Spirit of Marian Chivalry


Here is the video

The Feast of Saint Joseph

Today is the Feast Day of Saint Joseph. As a father and a husband Saint Joseph has always been a source of inspiration. If you want to look for guidance in how to be a Catholic husband and father who better to look to than the head of the Holy Family himself.

Saint Joseph is the model of love and faith in your spouse and God. We accept as Catholics the truth of the immaculate conception, but I wonder if any of us can really put ourselves into the shoes of Joseph? I am not sure what my reaction would be if just before my marriage my wife would have come to me and said " I have something to tell you, I'm pregnant, but don't worry I didn't cheat on you, it's God's baby." I like to believe I have some level of faith, but, at that point, I would have likely said, "oooookay, well I am going to go over here now and call the guys in the white coats. "

We know that Saint Joseph did perhaps have that initial reaction, but even in his first reaction we see his love for Mary. The bible tells us his reaction was to quietly divorce her. Here is Joseph, likely reeling because he knows that Mary is pregnant, and he also knows the baby is not his. At this point he has two choices, 1. he can out Mary, embarrass her, have her punished (which would likely be stoning) or 2. He can quietly divorce her walk away. Which is what he plans to do. To the rest of the world Joseph will forever look like the biggest jerk in history, walking out on his pregnant wife. But his love for Mary is so great, even though at the moment he is feeling betrayed, not yet having knowledge of God's plan for his family, he still chooses to protect her. To care for her. I think it is probably because of this instinct in Joseph that God granted him such an incredible vocation. To be the protector of Jesus and Mary. Even before the angel came to him, acting only on his love for Mary, his instinct is protection of her.

Then the angel comes to him in a dream and reveals the truth to him. At that moment when he wakes from his dream Joseph fully accepts his vocation.  He will be the husband Mary deserves, he will be the earthly father to Jesus. He will provide for and protect them at all costs. I think this is why Joseph is called the "terror of demons." What chance does a demon have against the man charged with the earthly protection of the Son of God? The man charged with the protection of the Mother of God?

This is such an expression of a man's love and trust in his wife and God. He has no reason to believe Mary, or trust his dream. He has all the evidence that he should divorce her. All outward appearances say, she is lying to him. Yet with full faith in God and in Mary he trusts her completely. He trusts in God completely.

Because of his faith, his trust and protection Joseph is considered the Greatest Saint, after Jesus and Mary, he was granted the great honor of dying with Mary and Jesus at his side. It is because of this honor he is the Patron Saint of Death.

We often offer a prayer to Saint Joseph in our house. I will share it here. You can say a Novena to him as well by offering this prayer for 9 mornings in a row and publishing it. I can vouch for the power of this prayer and I know there are many times when the Terror of Demons, the protector of the Holy Family, has given his protection to my family as well.

Oh, St. Joseph,
whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt
before the throne of God,
I place in you all my interests and desires.
Oh, St. Joseph,
do assist me by your powerful intercession,
and obtain for me from thy Divine Son
all spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
So that, having engaged here below your heavenly power,
I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to thee most Loving of Fathers.
Oh, St. Joseph,
I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms;
I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.
Press Him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me and
Ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.
St. Joseph, Patron of departed souls - pray for me.
Amen.

Motherhood’s Trials: a Means of Redemption

We ran across this article the other day. There are no words to express how grateful I am for my wife. She has given us so much at her own expense.  She is the most amazing person I have ever met.

Motherhood’s Trials: a Means of Redemption

This article touches on what motherhood really means and how oftentimes in our society, those who choose to dedicate their life to it are not given the respect and honor they so richly deserve.