Obedience

Though He was in the form of God, Jesus did not deem equality with God, something to be grasped. Rather, He emptied himself taking the form of a slave. He was known to be of human estate and it was thus that He humbled Himself obediently accepting death, death on a cross. Because of this God highly exalted Him and bestowed upon Him the name above every other name, that at Jesus' name every knee must bend in the Heavens, on the Earth, and under the Earth and every tounge proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
-Kinosis hymn from Phillipians

Obedience is one of the three Evangelical Counsels, the other two being poverty and chastity. Poverty requires renouncing material goods, chastity involves sacrificing sexual intimacy, but I think obedience is one of the hardest to live because it involves renouncing our own will. We aren't professed religious, but we still have to live a life obedient to the Church.

Is obedience burdensome? It depends on how you look at it. For some, obedience is as chore, something they would rather not do. For others, obedience can be seen as freeing and allows them to trust in God more. As humans we have the choice to see rules, commandments, etc... as externally imposed limits to our freedom. We also have the ability to see them as reminders from our loving Father who only seeks the best for His children.

All lawful authority comes from God. This is true for Churches, governments, and even families. Just as Jesus was obedient to the Father, we have a responsibility to be obedient to the truths of the faith and our superiors in the faith (insofar as we aren't being asked to sin).

Let us be obedient to the will of the Father that we might be with Him forever in Heaven. Amen.

"It is Jesus whom you seek"

It is Jesus in fact that you seek when you dream of happiness, he is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; he is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is he who provokes you with that thirst for fulness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is he who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is he who reads in your hearts your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle. It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be grounded down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal.

- John Paul II

I love that quote from our late Holy Father. There's so much truth in that statement that I really don't know where to start. Happiness is a word that is misused by a lot of people. True happiness can only come from Christ. Happiness can only come from embracing the Truth and fighting for it even when it is unpopular. Young people are idealistic (I'm one of them) and this quote really makes me remember that as much as I might want to "change the world" I can't do it. Only by seeking, Jesus, becoming the person I was created to be, and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through me can anything good happen. Any good I do comes from God and I'm probably at fault for a good chunk of the evil in the world because of my sins. I need to realize this more to learn humility.

In any case, I think this is why the truth is so attractive. Nobody wants to die for a mediocre ideal. The "I love you you love me we're a happy family"-God-as-an-omniscient-Barney version of Christianity isn't necessarily all that attractive. Love cannot exist without at least a willingness to suffer for the one being loved. I think that is why more and more people are starting to embrace the call of their confirmation to become a "soldier for Christ," marching into battle, showing the world His face and spreading His love. The truth can be harsh, but who would die for a lie?

I know these are kind of jumbled thoughts, but I thought I'd post something since I haven't posted in awhile. In closing here's another gem from JP2 during WYD 2002.

Do not let that hope die, stake your lives on it! We are not the sum of our weaknesses and failures. We are the sum of the Father's love and our real capacity to become the likeness of His Son.

St. Maximilian Kolbe and Vigil of the Assumption

Today is the memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, founder of the Militia Imaculata and a martyr at a concentration camp during WWII. He's relatively new so those of you who pray the office may not have the propers for the feast. Here's the collect:

Gracious God, you filled your priest and martyr, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, with zeal for souls and love for his neighbor. Through the prayer of this devoted servant of Mary Immaculate, grant that in our efforts to serve others for your glory we too may become like Christ your Son, who loved his own in the world even to the end, and now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Also, don't forget tomorrow is a Holy Day.

There's nothing like...

...a really good confession. I really don't know how I'd make it without this sacrament. If I were Protestant and didn't have this sacrament I think I'd be tortured with thoughts about whether or not I was sincerely sorry enough to receive the pardon of God. Having a confessor assure us that our sins are forgiven through the ministry of the Church is quite liberating.

I'm so thankful for this sacrament. The devil wants us to keep our sins hidden so he can torture us with them. He hates it when things are brought to the light. Admitting we are wrong requires humility. He can't use our secret sins to torture us anymore since they have been brought to the priest and they have been forgiven.

God's mercy endures forever!


Also, just a reminder that August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. It's a Holy Day of Obligation and a very important feast.

St. Lawrence, Feast

Today is the Feast of St. Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr of the early Church. Most saints who aren't apostles get memorials or optional memorials, but today we get a full feast to celebrate this saint. St. Lawrence was a deacon responsible for giving alms to the poor in Rome and the authorities asked him to give them the "treasures of the Church." Lawrence did just that...he gathered the poor to whom he ministered and presented them to the Roman official declaring these were the "real treasures of the Church." For this act of defiance, Lawrence died a martyr's death.

St. Lawrence, pray for us!

To Quell the Terror...

I don't know if you remember my July 17 post about the Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne, but I just finished reading a book To Quell the Terror that relates the story of their martyrdom. I'll be honest and say that it read kind of like a history textbook in some places, but it was very good nonetheless. If anyone wants to borrow it when we get back to school, feel free and let me know.

I think there's a tendency within the Church today to look at cloistered carmelites (or other cloistered orders) and wonder what good they're doing for the Church and the world. In active orders you see the religious out running hospitals, teaching, or ministering to the poor. In contemplative orders, their work is harder to see, but it's profoundly important. The biblical story of Martha and Mary illustrates this tension.

I was also impressed by how "countercultural" these sisters were. The revolutionary government in France stormed their convent and asked each nun individually if she wanted to leave (in an attempt to "liberate" them from their "oppressive" way of life). One nun replied she would rather die than give up her habit. The community was unanamous in its refusal. Asking permission to die prior to being executed as enemies of liberty shows how much true freedom is found in obedience to God's will and how man's shallow concept of freedom leads to intense destruction.

Also, before I forget today is the memorial of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (also known as St. Edith Stein). She was also a Carmelite, but her feast day is on the general calendar as well. If you pray the office, you probably don't have her in your proper of saints since she's relatively new (but she can be found in the red "supplement" if you have that). Otherwise, if you want to use the propers from the Carmelite proper you can find them here.

St. Teresa Benedicta was born jewish and declared herself an atheist at age 14. Later, she earned a doctorate in philosophy and after reading the life of St. Teresa of Avila, she said "This is truth." She was baptised, entered the Church, and decided to become a Carmelite nun, but her director said she would be more effective teaching in the world. She did that for awhile, but later did become a Carmelite. Once Hitler came to power in Germany, not even Jews that had converted were safe from his reign of terror. St. Teresa Benedicta was arrested, taken to Auschwitz and martyred one week later.

St. Dominic

Today is the Memorial of St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers (or Dominicans). This is another great order that produced such saints as St. Thomas Aquinas...they were known for their preaching and learnedness.

St. Dominic fought tirelessly to defeat the Albigensian heresy that was spreading accross France and Italy. Albigensianism taught that matter was bad and encouraged suicide, abortion, and euthanasia. It was a heresy that really attacked the dignity of the human person. Dominic preached against it, but didn't have a ton of success until he had a vision of the Blessed Mother who told Dominic to preach "her psalter." Mary's psalter, consisting of 15 Our Fathers and 150 Hail Mary's developed into what we call the rosary today. I think it's important to note that if the rosary destroyed Albigensianism, a heresy that attacked the dignity of the human person, how much more valuable should it be to us today in our fight against abortion and other offenses against human life.

...and some inspiration I found at the Priests for Life website:

"When the time comes, as it surely will, when we face that awesome moment, the final judgment, I've often thought, as Fulton Sheen wrote, that it is a terrible moment of loneliness. You have no advocates, you are there alone standing before God -- and a terror will rip your soul like nothing you can imagine. But I really think that those in the pro-life movement will not be alone. I think there'll be a chorus of voices that have never been heard in this world but are heard beautifully and clearly in the next world -- and they will plead for everyone who has been in this movement. They will say to God, 'Spare him, because he loved us!'"

Congressman Henry Hyde

St. Dominic, pray for us!

You know your a Catholic nerd when...

This and little known facts like it are far more interesting to you than they should be.

I mean, who knew the titular feast of the Lateran Basilica came right after the feast of the dedication of St Mary Major? Also, until reading that I almost forgot that each of the patriarchal basilicas actually represents an ancient patriarchate (St. Peter's Basilica is actually representative of the patriarchate of Constantinople where the pope's proper church is really the Lateran Basilica which is the cathedral for the Diocese of Rome...this is why the dedication (different from titular feast) of St. John Lateran is actually a solemnity)

We should definitely do this

Thanks to a link from the Shrine of the Holy Whapping (a fun blog run by some students from Notre Dame)

Our Lady of the Snows...no, she's not the patron saint of snow days

JMJ

Today (this morning to be more specific) is the memorial of the dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major...also known as the Church of St. Mary of the Snows. According to tradition, the basilica is built on the Esquiline hill in Rome because of a miraculous snowfall on this date in the 300's.

Mass today was a good time (as always...I mean, it doesn't get better than Mass this side of Heaven, right?). Some thoughts from the homily:

Satan conforms his temptations to the person he's tempting. He tries to hit us where we're week, like he hit Eve in the garden of Eden. While the original sin was primarily an act of disobedience, gluttony was also a factor. The apple was "pleasing to the eyes." This is why it makes so much sense that gluttony is tied into so many other vices like lust and sloth (I thought that was interesting). Jesus (the new Adam) was our redeemer and He chose to come through us through Mary (the new Eve). We should approach Mary as the mediatrix of grace to gain strength to overcome our temptations that the head of the serpent might be finally crushed and the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph.

Good quote

I never thought of the "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" part of the Our Father exactly like this before:

How greatly the Lord must esteem this mutual love of ours one for another! For, having given Him our wills, we have given Him complete rights over us, and we cannot do that without love. See, then, sisters, how important it is for us to love one another and to be at peace. The good Jesus might have put everything else before our love for one another, and said: “Forgive us, Lord, because we are doing a great deal of penance, or because we are praying often, and fasting, and because we have left all for Thy sake and love Thee greatly.” But He has never said: “Because we would lose our lives for Thy sake”; or any of these [numerous] other things which He might have said. He simply says: “Because we forgive.” Perhaps the reason He said this rather than anything else was because He knew that our fondness for this dreadful honour made mutual love the hardest virtue for us to attain, though it is the virtue dearest to His Father. Because of its very difficulty He put it where He did, and after having asked for so many great gifts for us, He offers it on our behalf to God.

-St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection Chapter 36

St. John Mary Vianney

Today we celebrate an AMAZING saint, St. John Mary Vianney, Cure of Ars. At mass this morning the priest said that if all priests were like St. John Vianney the entire world would be Catholic...I don't doubt it.

He spent hours in the confessional (sometimes up to 18 hours in one day). He would fast, pray, do all kinds of penance for his people. I highly recommend reading some of his writings. The one on the Mass is quite excellent.

"If someone said to us, 'At such an hour a dead person is to be raised to life, ' we should run very quickly to see it. But is not the Consecration, which changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of God, a much greater miracle than to raise a dead person to life?"

-St. John Vianney

Eternal rest...

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=45697

Archbishop Montalvo passed away recently. He used to be the Papal nuncio to the United States. I always looked forward to hearing him speak when he was on TV...He also had a really fun accent.


May the angels lead him into paradise.

Archbishop Sheen Narrates Tridentine High Mass

You guys may want to check this out: http://wdtprs.com/blog/2006/07/archbp-sheen-narrates-tridentine-high-mass/ . I found it interesting.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us!

Dearest Lord, teach me to be generous, to serve you as you deserve. To give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to laber and not to ask for reward except that of knowing that I am doing your will. AMEN

-St. Ignatius of Loyola

Spain was a country of reformers of religous life. At the time of the Protestant reformation while St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross were reforming the Carmelites, St. Ignatius founded the Society of Jesus, another important reform order.

St. Ignatius wanted to be a soldier and he was wounded in his first major battle. While he was recovering from being hit by a canon ball, he wanted to read stories of chivalry, but the only books on hand were a book about teh life of Jesus and some about the saints. After reading these he had a burning desire to do more with his life. He recovered from his wound and one day found a moore (a muslim man) and tried to convert him to Christianity. Ignatius was not successful and as he was riding away he thought about killing the man. His donkey was at a fork in the road and he said "if the donkey goes right I will try to kill the man. If he goes left I will not." The donkey chose left and took him to a shrine of Our Lady.


Later, Ignatius gathered some men together and formed the Society of Jesus, or the Jesuits. They were a controversial order because in their constitutions Ignatius insisted that the members not be required to assemble in choir seven times each day to pray the breviary. He said that private recitation would be more conducive toward engaging the world. The Jesuit order also took a 4th vow of obedience to the pope. Later, the order was suppressed by a pope and though it was reinstated it never totally recovered.


The Jesuits produced many saints. The North American martyrs (St. Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf and their companions), St. Francis Xavier, St. Robert Bellarmine, and St. Aloysius Gonzaga were all Jesuits. The order also were pioneers in seismology (predicting earthquakes). St. Ignatius was an essential part of the counter-reformation and a master of the spiritual life. He wrote the Spiritual Exercises that are still used to this very day as a model for retreats.

Let us pray that through the intercession of St. Ignatius, the charism of the Jesuit order will carried out through its members in the world today.

17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We're approximately 50% through the season of Ordinary Time today. The readings for the next several Sundays are coming out of one of my favorite chapters in the Bible...John 6. Today we had the multiplication of the loaves and next we get to jump right in to the "Bread of Life discourse."

I'm pumped....

Just a thought from the second reading:

"I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received...."

Are we living our lives as ambasadors for Christ? Are we embracing and living our vocation? The boy in the gospel reading gave all he had so the crowd of 5,000 could be fed. I doesn't take much for God to work a miracle...just our cooperation with His grace.

God bless...

Also, St. Ignatius of Loyola's feast day is tomorrow. Get ready for a post on him.

Some random thoughts about the spiritual life

So...I've been thinking a lot about the spiritual life recently and I've come to three conclusions:

1. God wants us to be great saints.
2. Being a great saint means the cross.
3. Being a great saint is possible.

That said, I've been thinking a lot about my own spiritual life. I pray, go to Mass often, try to live a moral life, but am I really pursuing sanctity with the zeal that motivated the saints? How many times do I rush through my prayers? How often do I allow myself to become distracted? Why will I compromise my morality in certain situations or fail to express my faith for fear of ridicule? How can I be so slow to really love my neighbor with the love I should have? Looking at how much I have grown in the spiritual life from when I began caring about the faith gives me hope for the future, but I am far from the heroic virtue of the saints...I think that this summer I've been beginning to realize just how far we're called to go.

Becoming a saint isn't easy...Christianity cannot be separate from the cross. There can be no love without sacrifice. I feel like God is calling me to another level, but I'm afraid of what that might entail. Totally trusting my life to God might mean more discipline, more sacrifice, more prayer, more effort. The saints tell us that it is possible to reach the heights of holiness...no matter how sinful we may have been. God calls us back...He calls us to a radical conversion.

In his writings at the beginning of the third millenium, John Paul II wrote about not being afraid to "put out into deep waters." We are called to become the saints of the third millenium in a very real way. I think there's a very real temptation (for me at least) to leave heroic virtue for others and try to make it to heaven taking a route of mediocrity. Leukwarmness is a real danger. If not us, then who will be the saints?

On the cross, our Lord said, "I thirst." Many saints have written that He is thirsting for love...thirsting for souls. Let us work to slake this great thirst our God has for love.



My suscipe:

Take O Lord and receive my entire mind, heart, understanding and will. Help me to hold nothing back for myself. I make my entire life an offering to you, almighty God. Set my life on fire with your love. May the fire of your love consume my very being that I might make my life every day a sacrificial offering. If I am called to carry the cross help me to run toward it and lovingly embrace it. Lord, you said that no servant is greater than his master so who am I to flee from suffering when you embraced it so lovingly? Help me never to glory in my own accomplishments, but only in the cross of my redeemer. In all things O Lord, behold your humble servant. Let it be done to me according to your will. Amen

And this is just a great quote:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.

-St. Augustine