The voice of the family blog has posted an excellent speech given by a Romanian Doctor to the synod Fathers.
The world needs real freedom, liberation from sin, says Romanian doctor at the synod
Monday, October 19, 2015
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
The New Evgengilization
Brian Williams, AKA "The Liturgy Guy" has another excellent recap and analysis of the talk, “The Old Mass and the New Evangelization: Beyond the Long Winter of Rationalism” that I recently linked to here.
In his recap is a wonderful quote by Bishop Athanasius Schneider presents an excellent expression of what I and others have been attempting to say.
In his recap is a wonderful quote by Bishop Athanasius Schneider presents an excellent expression of what I and others have been attempting to say.
"Only on the basis of adoring and glorifying God can the Church adequately proclaim the word of truth, that is, evangelize. … Everything about the liturgy of the Holy Mass must therefore serve to express clearly the reality of Christ’s sacrifice, namely the prayers of adoration, of thanks, of expiation, and of impetration that the eternal High Priest presented to His Father. … How can we call others to convert while, among those doing the calling, no convincing conversion towards God has yet occurred, internally or externally?"You can read Brian's full post here: http://liturgyguy.com/2015/09/12/evangelization-and-the-need-for-the-latin-mass/
Monday, September 14, 2015
Lex Orandi, LexCredendi
The Law of Prayer is The Law of Belief. This phrase was used by the Prosper of Aquitaine in the fifth century and the original version goes, "ut legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi" or "that the law of praying establishes the law of believing. [1]
Some of this may mirror what I have already said in a previous post but I have been reflecting a lot lately on the importance of how I pray, how I teach my kids to pray. Particularly in how I approach the Holy Eucharist and the liturgy. There is no doubt in recent years there has been a lack of good Catholic education in the church. I am not only talking about Sunday school classes, but a whole generation of parents and even priests that have failed to pass on to their children and parishioners even a basic understanding of their Catholic faith. It seems that the bar has been getting people to agree to the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but even that effort has failed for many.
This is why our focus needs to be bringing Catholics back to the true faith. The way to do that is to return sacredness to the liturgy and demand respect for Christ's Presence in the Eucharist. It starts with the priest and bleeds down to the lay person in the pew. The way we pray, is the way we will believe. When the liturgy is approached in a haphazard lighthearted manner, people believe in a haphazard lighthearted manner. The priest at the alter has very specific, careful words and actions that represent the sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross. The same precision does not seem to be required of the people in the pews.
Many take a very hedonistic approach to their faith, words like joy and thanksgiving, overshadow words like reverence and sacrifice. I am not downplaying the importance of joy and thanksgiving, but when those words and phrases are used almost exclusively it brings one to believe that their faith is based on what they get from it and has very little to do with what they give to it. It overshadows the great sacrifice of the Mass and makes us more protestant than Catholic.
I saw this this past weekend. Our family attended a Eucharistic Procession for the 125th anniversary of our diocese. It was a beautiful event and our family was very blessed to be able to participate. I was rather surprised however at how many people (and I include myself here) did not know the proper way to act during the procession, and especially at the benediction that followed. Because so many of us Catholics did not know the proper gestures, when to stand, when to kneel, to enter the room quietly and reverently while the Body of our Lord is on display, the room was generally lost with many people visiting loudly and having to be repeatedly reminded to have respect for Our Lord. The hedonistic approach to faith led many to treat the procession as a skip in the park with Jesus, rather than a solemn possession with Our Lord.
Catholics have almost universally lost their Catechism. While efforts are being made outside of mass to try to draw people back. the truth is that Sunday Mass is the only chance we get to catechize most Catholics. If we use the liturgy to insist on reverence and demand respect in the tone of the Mass, the music, the way Holy Communion is distributed, and insist on adherence to basic etiquette then we will all believe more deeply and reverently.
As a Catholic who was not brought up with strong Catholic teaching (by the time I hit Sunday school it varied very little from what the Lutheran church was teaching up the road) I personally long to be instructed in my faith. I want to hear what I am doing right, but more importantly to hear what I am doing wrong. Christ in the Eucharist is the objective truth of our faith, because of that we need to be strong in defending Him. If we insist on a reverent attitude we are not insulting but instructing.
That is one of the things that I love about the Traditional Latin Mass. The structure of that liturgy is such that it insists on reverence, and focuses on sacrifice. It brings unity to the faith not by hand holding but by standing together with the priest looking to the Lord. There is very little room for self interpretation and for me is a perfect example of lex orandi, lex credendi. When you look at those families that almost exclusively attend that form of the Mass you notice something right away. There is a definite difference in the way they live the rest of their lives outside of church. The way they pray permeates into the way they believe and becomes the way they live. If we wonder how we can bring that kind of faith back into our Catholic Church we only need to look as far as those churches that have successfully done it. It isn't by allowing peoples' personal beliefs about God and happiness to dictate the Catechism of the Church but by allowing the Catechism of the Church to permeate peoples beliefs. When we stand up for Christ the King and insist on proper prayer, then those actions manifest in a stronger belief, and that belief then spreads beyond the walls of the church.
1. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/word-of-god/upload/lex-orandi-lex-credendi.pdf
Some of this may mirror what I have already said in a previous post but I have been reflecting a lot lately on the importance of how I pray, how I teach my kids to pray. Particularly in how I approach the Holy Eucharist and the liturgy. There is no doubt in recent years there has been a lack of good Catholic education in the church. I am not only talking about Sunday school classes, but a whole generation of parents and even priests that have failed to pass on to their children and parishioners even a basic understanding of their Catholic faith. It seems that the bar has been getting people to agree to the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, but even that effort has failed for many.
This is why our focus needs to be bringing Catholics back to the true faith. The way to do that is to return sacredness to the liturgy and demand respect for Christ's Presence in the Eucharist. It starts with the priest and bleeds down to the lay person in the pew. The way we pray, is the way we will believe. When the liturgy is approached in a haphazard lighthearted manner, people believe in a haphazard lighthearted manner. The priest at the alter has very specific, careful words and actions that represent the sacrifice of Our Lord on the Cross. The same precision does not seem to be required of the people in the pews.
Many take a very hedonistic approach to their faith, words like joy and thanksgiving, overshadow words like reverence and sacrifice. I am not downplaying the importance of joy and thanksgiving, but when those words and phrases are used almost exclusively it brings one to believe that their faith is based on what they get from it and has very little to do with what they give to it. It overshadows the great sacrifice of the Mass and makes us more protestant than Catholic.
I saw this this past weekend. Our family attended a Eucharistic Procession for the 125th anniversary of our diocese. It was a beautiful event and our family was very blessed to be able to participate. I was rather surprised however at how many people (and I include myself here) did not know the proper way to act during the procession, and especially at the benediction that followed. Because so many of us Catholics did not know the proper gestures, when to stand, when to kneel, to enter the room quietly and reverently while the Body of our Lord is on display, the room was generally lost with many people visiting loudly and having to be repeatedly reminded to have respect for Our Lord. The hedonistic approach to faith led many to treat the procession as a skip in the park with Jesus, rather than a solemn possession with Our Lord.
Catholics have almost universally lost their Catechism. While efforts are being made outside of mass to try to draw people back. the truth is that Sunday Mass is the only chance we get to catechize most Catholics. If we use the liturgy to insist on reverence and demand respect in the tone of the Mass, the music, the way Holy Communion is distributed, and insist on adherence to basic etiquette then we will all believe more deeply and reverently.
As a Catholic who was not brought up with strong Catholic teaching (by the time I hit Sunday school it varied very little from what the Lutheran church was teaching up the road) I personally long to be instructed in my faith. I want to hear what I am doing right, but more importantly to hear what I am doing wrong. Christ in the Eucharist is the objective truth of our faith, because of that we need to be strong in defending Him. If we insist on a reverent attitude we are not insulting but instructing.
That is one of the things that I love about the Traditional Latin Mass. The structure of that liturgy is such that it insists on reverence, and focuses on sacrifice. It brings unity to the faith not by hand holding but by standing together with the priest looking to the Lord. There is very little room for self interpretation and for me is a perfect example of lex orandi, lex credendi. When you look at those families that almost exclusively attend that form of the Mass you notice something right away. There is a definite difference in the way they live the rest of their lives outside of church. The way they pray permeates into the way they believe and becomes the way they live. If we wonder how we can bring that kind of faith back into our Catholic Church we only need to look as far as those churches that have successfully done it. It isn't by allowing peoples' personal beliefs about God and happiness to dictate the Catechism of the Church but by allowing the Catechism of the Church to permeate peoples beliefs. When we stand up for Christ the King and insist on proper prayer, then those actions manifest in a stronger belief, and that belief then spreads beyond the walls of the church.
1. http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catechesis/catechetical-sunday/word-of-god/upload/lex-orandi-lex-credendi.pdf
Friday, September 11, 2015
The Old Mass and the New Evangelization
Peter Kwasniewski has a good article over at OnePeterFive titled 'The Old Mass and the New Evangelization'. The Title immediately caught my eye. To me sometimes when I hear the word evangelization in the Church, the people saying it tend to lean toward attempting to evangelize outsiders into the Church by making the Church seem more protestant and less Catholic. By attempting to change the image of the Church to one of agreeing with the common social ideas that they perceive as being the reason why people are staying away from the Church. These are the same people within the Church that applaud any hint at the idea of the Church accepting gay marriage, divorce, birth control and abortion. This style of evangelization aims to bring people to a church that has lost her core.
I have often thought the best place to start evangelization is within the walls of the Church. Let's first evangelize Catholics and bring them back to the Catholic faith. The current statistic is something like 70% of Catholics do not believe in the True Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, many Catholics have looked to loose teaching through the years to decide their own definition of what is sin and what is not. For example; how many Catholics know it is a mortal sin to miss Church on Sunday? And, if those Catholics are told that, how many know that you are not supposed to take Holy Communion if you are in a state of mortal sin? And, of those, how many actually care?
We have a crisis of faith inside of our Catholic Church, one that is going to require strong leaders who are willing to stand up and tell us we are wrong. To lead us like sheep and tell us how we should act, what is pleasing to God. To let us know when we do something that in any way questions our reverence to Christ in the Eucharist. That is the type of evengelization that I believe we need. Evangelization back to what it means to be Catholic. What it means to be moral, and why the Church will always accept the sinner, but can never ever accept the sin.
That is why this article caught my eye, as the Latin Mass becomes more prevalent, as our Priests start demanding a more reverent approach to regular Sunday mass, people in my opinion will respond by standing up. We all want to please God, but due to a lack of good Catholic teaching over the last fifty years many of us don't know how to properly. We are losing what it is to be Catholic to a more protestant approach to our faith. It seems that many worry that too strict approach to the "rules" of the church will drive away those Catholics that do still attend mass. If we ignore those "rules" though, what do those remaining Catholics have to hold on to?
The full article can be read here; 'The Old Mass and the New
Evangelization'
Thursday, August 6, 2015
Being lead by the machine
Who are we allowing to lead our thoughts and motivate our actions? We are surrounded by media, we have 24/7 access to more TV shows and movies than we can possible watch in a lifetime. The new fad in TV is the idea of binge watching. The act of sitting in front of the television for a day at a time and watching every episode of a TV show. I can admit that I enjoy this habit very much. To just sit and turn off the brain and be entertained. I wonder though when I do it what it costs my mind and my intellect? At the same time we all sit and absorb massive amounts of media, we are telling ourselves that we, as a society, as a planet, as humans, are smarter, more refined and tolerant than we ever have been in the past.
The problem with that belief is that it isn't actually true. The majority of the planet sits and absorbs information told to them by invisible people behind the media. We do not know their values, their beliefs, their qualifications, well wait, we do know their beliefs and values and we know they are not ours, but we sit and watch anyway because they present to us a compelling story. They are story tellers of the finest caliber. They present a story to us so entertaining that we ignore the fact that it is wrapped in sin and speaks against what God would want for our lives.
What are the primary qualities that make for a good television show or movie? Pride, Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth. How many shows have you seen that present their main characters with these qualities and yet somehow simultaneously present them as enduring and lovable. Their sin is a personality quirk that makes for entertaining TV. Also how often are their Contrary virtues Humility, Liberality, Chastity, Meekness, Temperance, Brotherly Love, Diligence, presented as the punchline?
We have come to the point where most people have given up on intellect and reason all together. We are all to happy to be lead down whatever road the media chooses to lead us. The more we immerse ourselves in the media the faster we allow ourselves to be lead. The recent turmoil over gay marriage and the rapid public opinion shift is further evidence or this. In just a few short years we have gone from the the majority of Americans disagreeing with gay marriage, to the the majority supporting it. In fact in the same time those of us who do oppose it have been painted as ignorant and bigots standing in the way of true love. If we continue on this road it is my prediction that within a couple of years at most we will have seen the supreme court call the Catholic church a promoter of hate crimes for opposing the practice.
We need to hold fast to our intellect and that will mean disconnecting ourselves from the constant stream of information that is contrary to basic thought. It is time to go out and look for ourselves. I am not suggesting total abstinence from things like the internet. Certainly it can be a valuable tool for acquiring needed information. For example all of the documents published directly by the Vatican. What we need to be cautious of however is allowing others to interpret the source information and feed us fiction as fact. Even in regard to TV shows, which we should know are obvious fiction, we find that the facts they present, as to how family life should be lived, how men and women should interact, what we should consider important, all slowly erode away our intellect until we are left thinking that those things seem logical.
Eventually what this leads to is a desire to learn more but the process has become to tedious, we are too accustomed to the news outlets, sit coms, dramatic TV series, internet sites; all providing our ideas for us. So it becomes more and more difficult to abandon those things that have so long kept our minds at a minimal functioning level, and convinced us because we are mass consumers of false information that we are in fact brilliant with an IQ far and above the average person.
It is time to stick our heads above the water and look around. In the constant onslaught of information, TV, internet there is one prevalent theme, it is mostly, very, anti-Christian and anti-Catholic. It is cleverly disguised, and the stories they tell are very entertaining, but how much are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of a good story? How much are we willing to let go of?
The problem with that belief is that it isn't actually true. The majority of the planet sits and absorbs information told to them by invisible people behind the media. We do not know their values, their beliefs, their qualifications, well wait, we do know their beliefs and values and we know they are not ours, but we sit and watch anyway because they present to us a compelling story. They are story tellers of the finest caliber. They present a story to us so entertaining that we ignore the fact that it is wrapped in sin and speaks against what God would want for our lives.
What are the primary qualities that make for a good television show or movie? Pride, Greed, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy, Sloth. How many shows have you seen that present their main characters with these qualities and yet somehow simultaneously present them as enduring and lovable. Their sin is a personality quirk that makes for entertaining TV. Also how often are their Contrary virtues Humility, Liberality, Chastity, Meekness, Temperance, Brotherly Love, Diligence, presented as the punchline?
We have come to the point where most people have given up on intellect and reason all together. We are all to happy to be lead down whatever road the media chooses to lead us. The more we immerse ourselves in the media the faster we allow ourselves to be lead. The recent turmoil over gay marriage and the rapid public opinion shift is further evidence or this. In just a few short years we have gone from the the majority of Americans disagreeing with gay marriage, to the the majority supporting it. In fact in the same time those of us who do oppose it have been painted as ignorant and bigots standing in the way of true love. If we continue on this road it is my prediction that within a couple of years at most we will have seen the supreme court call the Catholic church a promoter of hate crimes for opposing the practice.
We need to hold fast to our intellect and that will mean disconnecting ourselves from the constant stream of information that is contrary to basic thought. It is time to go out and look for ourselves. I am not suggesting total abstinence from things like the internet. Certainly it can be a valuable tool for acquiring needed information. For example all of the documents published directly by the Vatican. What we need to be cautious of however is allowing others to interpret the source information and feed us fiction as fact. Even in regard to TV shows, which we should know are obvious fiction, we find that the facts they present, as to how family life should be lived, how men and women should interact, what we should consider important, all slowly erode away our intellect until we are left thinking that those things seem logical.
Eventually what this leads to is a desire to learn more but the process has become to tedious, we are too accustomed to the news outlets, sit coms, dramatic TV series, internet sites; all providing our ideas for us. So it becomes more and more difficult to abandon those things that have so long kept our minds at a minimal functioning level, and convinced us because we are mass consumers of false information that we are in fact brilliant with an IQ far and above the average person.
It is time to stick our heads above the water and look around. In the constant onslaught of information, TV, internet there is one prevalent theme, it is mostly, very, anti-Christian and anti-Catholic. It is cleverly disguised, and the stories they tell are very entertaining, but how much are we willing to sacrifice for the sake of a good story? How much are we willing to let go of?
Thursday, July 23, 2015
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
http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/articles/item/1870-will-you-die-for-him-a-sermon-on-the-eve-of-persecution-in-america
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
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/
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/
Friday, June 19, 2015
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"
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.
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.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
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
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
Monday, May 11, 2015
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.
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.
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