Witness

Happiness, even ecstatic happiness, is not the Joy we speak of in witness to Christ.  There is something further, something more which is called for in a troubled world, and that is a lack of fear.  Joy knows nothing of fear, because Love knows nothing of fear.  Many may say they are happy.  How many are unafraid?

Friendship

Friendship is one of the greatest goods of all existence.  God has given us friendship, His very own friendship, and at a great and terrible cost to Himself.  We spurn it and scorn it, even those of us who claim to love Him.  All have sinned and fallen short of His glory, that is His approval.  Remember then, the great value of your friends, and do not take them for granted.  And remember also when one of them abandons you or leaves you, when one of them denies you, that you have a simple choice.  You can be like God, who loves even those who hate Him, or you can be like Man, who hates those who hate him.  For myself, I want to love like God - even those who were once friends and now deny me.

Trust

When we fear, what we really expose is our own lack of trust.  We do not trust God to remain with us in suffering, to heal us, to save us.  At the first sign of danger, of trouble, of trial, we run - because we do not trust.  Likewise in our human relationships, our friendships, marriages, families there is a great failure to trust born of our own brokenness and fear.  We know ourselves to be untrustworthy, so we do not trust others.  We know our brokenness, so we know others to be broken.  But to have any kind of relationship, we must trust. To do anything else is to enter the hell of isolation, of paranoia.  We might fall and fail in trust, others might fall and fail us - but we can always forgive and be forgiven.  And no matter what, God will not fail.  He will never let you go.

Fear

Fear is the great killer of love.  But love is also the great killer of fear.  Love takes us outside ourselves, opens us to others, gives us a reason to go beyond, a purpose which over-rides the whispers in our hearts that try to hold us back.  But we are holding ourselves back because the very act of loving exposes us to pain, to suffering.  We fear the vulnerability created when we love.  Thus we hide ourselves, we run away from love, we deny those who love us.  Christ says, more than anything else, "Do not be afraid."  Yes, love will hurt.  It certainly hurt Him.  But He came through it, and He will bring us through it, into glory and joy. Don't run away.  Don't be afraid.  It is for this love that you were made.

Power

Power is made perfect in weakness.  Strength through sacrifice.  Glory in humility.

Rain

Praying in the rain this morning, I was struck by the overwhelming need of the world for prayer.  It truly became as if the world was weeping all around me, and I was so little, I could do nothing for her solace or comfort.  Prayer is like a balm for the world's wounds, because those wounds are from selfishness, sorrow, and sin.  The world needs a savior, one who can heal these things, one who is Love. Prayer begins in turning from our selves to Him, it is taking that first step away from self.  That is why the world cannot get enough prayer, we are so unwilling to step away from our selves.

Corpus Christi

Sunday June 2nd, as part of the year of Faith, the Pope has called for a world wide holy hour, inviting every Catholic in the world to come together to worship Christ, at the exact same time, as part of our celebration of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

Let that sink in.

Every Catholic.  Across the world.  Worshipping Christ in the Eucharist.  At the same time.  Will everyone be willing or able to come?  Probably not.  But imagine it.  Imagine the whole Church united in prayer.

This is basically a chance for the entire Body to worship together, something that happens Sacramentally in every Mass, but rarely in any other way.  This will be, quite literally, Heaven on Earth.  And it will be an opportunity for visible catholicism, visible universality, visible wholeness in worship, for a world that doesn't understand the Sacraments.  Let it marvel at our love.

Here in the Eastern United States our hour is 11am, so 11am Masses will likely be your starting point.  Obviously the times will vary across the country and the world, so find out when yours is, and come join me and a few million others.  I know my parish is also planning a Eucharistic procession and adoration afterwards, to continue our time with Jesus.  I invite anyone in the area to come join us, Catholic or not.  Let's get the whole Body praying together.  Message me for further details.

Priests

Do not fear the ministerial priesthood because of the failings of men.  The Church is not a museum of Saints but a hospital for sinners - and even doctors and nurses get sick sometimes.  The solution is not to get rid of doctors and nurses, but to retain doctors and nurses so that even when some grow ill, there are still others who can treat them.  Remember: every priest needs other priests.  Even the Pope confesses.  Even the Pope has a spiritual director.  

Beautiful

God does not love us because we are beautiful.  He loves us, and so has made us beautiful.

The Gospel

The Gospel is not principally words, the Gospel is principally a person - Jesus the Christ.  Evangelism then is not a thing we do via words, but a thing we do with our whole person through conforming to Jesus Christ.

Padre Pio

For all my fellow St. Padre Pio fans, think about which is the greater miracle: that the man could say, "I know your sins," or that he could say, "your sins are forgiven."  I get as excited as anyone about all the awesome gifts given to the Saints, but we should be vastly more excited about the ordinary means of Grace given to every single one of us, every day.

The Fifth Wound

Lately I have been thinking about the wounds of Christ - particularly the wound in His side, which pierced His heart.  This wound stands out because it is the only wound inflicted upon Him after His death.  It stands out because every other wound of the Passion corresponds to the suffering for our sins, the bearing of a burden we could not take up, and the hurt we have done to our relationship with God from the Fall onwards.  What of the only wound that pierced His heart?  What of the only wound that wasn't for our past sins?  What of the only wound received after He said "it is consummated?"  I think this wound does correspond to an action on our parts, a sin which could only come about after Christ had come into the world, not before.  Every other wound matched and defeated our human sins.  This wound is for our divine sin.  What divine sin?  That we Christians as Christians, the Body of Christ, have lived divided from each other.  In our pride, we have sundered and separated that which should be whole, that for which the Apostle Paul begged unity.  Our schisms and our fights, our ongoing fracture, this is the wound in the heart of Christ.  But it is from this wound that pours forth the healing water and the Precious Blood.  It is from this wound that the Divine Mercy gushes forth as the fountain of life.  When we learn to love with this love, surrendering our pride and our sin, then we will be whole again.  His wounds conquer all sin.  Take courage, He has conqued the world.  All we must do is love one another as He has loved us.

Incandescent

Christ has said that we are the light of the world.  He said that one does not light a lamp just to hide it.  Yet so few of us love with incandescent joy.  When we do we often remain hidden in our comfortable communities.  We are called to illuminate the world, to be lights shining in darkness.  It doesn't matter how small a light you are, for no amount of darkness can ever extinguish even the smallest candle.  And here's the thing about small lights - they seem to shine even brighter for being alone in the darkness.

Intentional

You would be happier if you thought less on yourself, and instead poured yourself out on everyone else you met, sharing with them your life, your love, your joy, and even your sorrow.  Of course, this doesn't mean dumping too much information on people you hardly know,  it means being intentional with them.  Meaning it when you ask how you are.  Smiling at people you meet and looking them in the eyes, recognizing in them the God you love, and being ready to serve them accordingly.

Satisfy

God is easy to please, but so hard to satisfy.

Feasts

There is a mistake floating around the Christian world these days that goes something like this:  "Christmas is everyday, or Easter is everyday, so we shouldn't worry about celebrating them as feasts."  Generally this is a response to someone being wished a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter, or at least it is a response I have gotten several times.  I am not concerned with denying that Christ is, in fact, Risen every day and that we are an Easter people, who would do best to live every day in perfect imitation of Christ.  I agree whole heartedly.  But those who would therefore suggest that we remove from our calendar the celebration of these feasts, or their preparatory seasons, etc. are rather missing the point.

The first thing to recall we can see simply in secular culture:  that you are alive every day does not take away from your birthday.  You still celebrate it, and others will wish you a happy birthday regardless of the fact that as you are alive every day, every day should be a celebration of your birth.  Likewise, anniversaries are not celebrated because you are not married every other day of the year, but because you are married every other day of the year and this is a commemoration of that fact, and thus a celebration.

The second thing to recall is something we can take both from the natural world and from Scripture, and it is very simple.  Everything has its season and its time.  The world moves in seasons, life itself has rhythm.  We, too, as creatures who are part of this world, however transiently, also have rhythms and seasons.  To have a calendar, to celebrate at one time, and prepare at another, to be joyful and gay at one moment, after having been mournful a moment before, is part of the rhythm of life.  It is part of being human.  To deny it is to deny part of your humanity, that which moves in rhythm with all the rest of Creation.  So when someone wishes you a Happy Easter or Merry Christmas, regardless of whether you think we should celebrate it, take it in the same way you take someone wishing you a happy birthday.  Don't fight about it, be joyful, because whether you celebrate it once a year, eight times a year, or every day, it's still cause to celebrate.

Good Friday

The moment of the Crucifixion shows us our true selves, in that left to ourselves, we see only ourselves. We cried out for Him to save Himself.  He cried out to save us.  We thought only in terms of saving one's self.  We understood so little of the reality of love; that only after looking out from the self, can one begin to be saved.  Only upon the Cross with Him can we look out upon others, instead of on ourselves.  We taunted Him to come down. He challenges us to take up. In what could we believe, if He had descended from the Cross?  In failure?  In selfishness?  We show ourselves ready only to believe in sin, in the triumph of evil over good.  If God gave in to sin, then we would believe in Him, and that means in truth only in ourselves.  When we stood before the Cross, we showed how little we really trusted in God, even when we have lived our whole lives in supposed obedience to Him.  Only after mounting the Cross can we trust in God, for the Cross is trust, just as it is love.

Monstrance

This night, alone of all nights, the altars stand stripped, the tabernacles empty and barren.  Every bit of Christ present in the Eucharist, in every church throughout the world will be consumed.  He will disappear in His Real Presence from this world.  All that will be left of Him will be you.  You who have partaken of His Precious Body and Sacred Blood, you are all that is left of Him in this world.  You might be tempted to think of yourself as a living tabernacle, holding quietly in the still, small hours of the night a burning presence, but you are not.  You are a monstrance.  Your heart must now become His Heart.  Your life, His Life.  Your hands, His Hands.  Your voice, His Voice.  For this world has no Christ but you, nowhere to go for Him but you, nowhere it can see Him but you.

Simile of Light

Set up within your heart a little monstrance, and there enshrine the Sacred Heart of Christ, which you have received in the Eucharist, that your heart might always adore Him who is its Lord.  In so doing, you will set up a lamp within your heart, and your eyes, opening from interior meditation and adoration of God, will see Him in all, and become full of light.  And this light shall burn so that all might see Him.

Theology

Theology is faith seeking understanding.  It seeks it through the exercise of reason, applied to Sacred Tradition, Scripture, history, philosophy, and other disciplines.  But what it needs most is a teacher.  And Christ is the best teacher, because He is the Way, the Truth, and the life.  Spend one hour a day before the Blessed Sacrament, and you will learn all the theology you need, from the One who knows all.

Vessel

I am empty, waiting to be filled.  I am closed, waiting to be opened.  I am still, waiting for movement.  I am a vessel for your Spirit.  When I am opened, darkness will be replaced with light.  When I am filled, then I can be poured out for others.  This is the movement for which I wait, the movement which means love.

Tool

I am just a pen in the hands of God.  Only He can write the right words with me.  I am just a brush in His hands, only He can make from me a portrait.  I am naught but a chisel, only He can carve for me a life.

Thoughts

Oh God, I cannot grasp You,
I cannot hold You in my thoughts.
For I am just a little soul,
So I shall let you hold me in Yours.

Prayer

The Scriptures say to pray ceaselessly, but how are we to do this? Yes, we can pray through words, then thoughts, and then even deeds. Every smile can be a prayer, even every breath. But the essence is this: everything done through love is prayer, for to love is to commune with He who is Love. Thus we pray in thought when we love Him with all our mind and heart. We pray through words and deeds when we love Him with all of our souls and our strength. Love as much as you can to enter into ceaseless prayer, a constant communion with Christ.

Obedience

Obedience requires us to do many things we don't like - if not it would hardly be obedience.  So what we must like is the act of obeying itself, that obedience will always be sweet to us and God's Will more easily done.

Conformity

The first work of prayer is not to conform the world to our wills, nor even to conform the world to God's will.  The first work of prayer is to conform us to God's will.

Undo

You can never undo what you have done. Not even God undoes or redoes. This is what drives us to despair. But if you let Him, He can take even the greatest evils of your life and bring good from them. Do not despair, and do not forget. Forgive.

Do

If you're asking what your purpose is, what you were made for, then the answer is simple.  You were made for God.  Therefore it is important to do what will bring you closer to Him.  But it is more important to let Him do what will bring you together - the Sacraments.

Believe

God does not set us impossible tasks.  He believes in us, in our ability to choose to love which He has given us.  Anyone can be a Saint, He has given us everything we need.  He believes in you, even when you don't believe in Him.

Power

If you can only think in terms of power, of taking - not giving, then you have no love, and you certainly shouldn't marry.

Warfare

If you would be a spiritual warrior, then you must battle the Devil with all your strength.  When he tempts you, not only must you resist temptation, but you must counterattck with prayer and other acts of virtue.  Challenge the enemy, for every temptation you catch him attempting, pray the Rosary.  Scourge him for every attempt on your soul, and then spread your efforts to those around you, your friends, family, and other loved ones.  Ask God to aid you and no devil shall impede you. Remember it is Christ who conquers, and you shall make the demons dread leaving you untempted, and dread tempting you even more.

Labels

Politics have their place, but the labeling of those who disagree with you is merely an attempt at dehumanization to justify your own beliefs or to justify treating them differently than you would any other human person.  Saints cannot associate only with other Saints, for all Saints are sinners.  And it is the sick who need a doctor.  If you want to be a Saint, you must love even those you disagree with.

Exceptions

We always need to keep in mind the Law of Exceptions.  This is the law that states that news, to be news, must be an exception to the rule, extraordinary as opposed to ordinary.  What it also means is that the news is always displaying a false picture of the world.  We see tragic exceptions in far greater number through the lens of journalism.  So don't lose hope. Yes, there is evil in the world, but also there is great good, often very ordinary good. Remember the good.

Sickness

To visit the sick is a work of mercy. Does that ever strike you as strange, that it isn't to heal the sick, or care for the sick? The other works tend to seek the end of a particular evil, this one does not. This one does something very different - though a corporal work, it treats a spiritual ill.  Loneliness. We all know that sickness is very lonely, particularly in our times.  The sick are often at home alone while friends and family work.  Or they are in hospitals which are not even homely, but sterile and a constant reminder of the business their disease has become.  The sick suffer, and they suffer singly, very rarely are they in a whole community of sickness, and their suffering shrinks their world, narrows it down until the suffering is all they see.

And most importantly, they are lonely because of the fear.  Those who are sick are afraid to infect others.  Those who are not sick are afraid to be infected.  To visit the sick is a corporal work of mercy because it challenges this fear through the Incarnation.  It says to sickness, my God became flesh, endured sickness, knew its loneliness, because we were sick in our flesh.  It says to the sick, as He loved me, so I shall love you.  I will not be afraid.  I will be yours.  This is the only cure for loneliness, the gift of the self from another.  Thank you to the Saint who taught me this yesterday.  Thanks be to God for making me sick.

Radical

I have found that we often look for radical ways to live and express our faith.  We think up schemes involving dramatic change, and grand purpose.  These things are really more about doing something big, we are looking to change the world, to do something with our lives that is worthwhile.  God also did something radical, but it did not make Him bigger.  God renounced all the glory of His own divinity, His radical action was to go from the King of the Universe to a babe in a stable.  From Creator of the Heavens to carver of wood in a workshop, toiling in obscurity.  And He changed the world.  Don't go looking for radical change to feed your ego.  Make the radical change of converting your every day, ho-hum existence into a life lived like Christ's own.  Renounce pride.  Live radically.  Change the world.

Little

My God is the God of small things.  He is the God of little acts of kindness.  He is the God of little souls and little hearts and little faiths.  He is the God of little hopes and little dreams.  He is their God because He enters into little things to make them more.  He once entered into a little world as a little person.  He lived a short life, and spent most of it quietly working and doing little things.  He died as the least of men, condemned as a criminal.  He enters my little heart as a little morsel, a small drop.  He would make us all as great as He is, even in our smallness.

Purpose

The problem of purpose isn't that we don't know it.  Nothing could be more apparent!  It stares us in the face!  Our purpose is to love.  No, the problem is that we don't know how to love, or who, or when.  But God is not a trickster.  Blessed Mother Teresa said that the first ones we should help are always those closest to us.  God has placed you exactly where He wants you, that you may love those you encounter every day.  He gives us all what we need, us to them, them to us.

Mountains

To do small things with great love is the secret to having a faith that moves mountains.  Christ doesn't give us faith to perform flashy miracles to glorify ourselves.  He gives us faith that we might labor in small things, moving one pebble at a time, so slowly - but with great love - so that from Eternity we might see the mountains moved, the souls touched.  Just imagine: were we to see the mountain to be moved, we would despair.  Our little souls would know their weakness, would faint at the thought of attempting so vast a task.  Instead, the Lord gives us a few talents, and asks us to spend them wisely.  And when found trustworthy with these little things, gives us greater tasks.  But always we are with Him, and He shares in our burden, yoked to us, and gives to us only that share of the weight which we can handle, that we might grow stronger.

Unique

Sinners always think their sins unique.  It is the Saints who are different.  Sin is tedious and tiresome in its sameness, its slavery is almost in its monotony.  Only the Saints break the chain and enter into true freedom, which is why the Saints are as varied and beautiful as the flowers in the field.

Caesar

"Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and render unto God that which is God's."

Now that the election is finally over (praise God!), and those of you who have been frothing at the mouth with politcal zealotry for the last several months can finally relax and think rationally again, I have something I would like to point out:

First, to those of you who are religious, specifically the Christians.  What on Earth is wrong with you?  Christ is King no matter who is elected President of the United States of America.  The United States are not the Kingdom on Earth, nor do we have a divine mandate or miraculous nature as such.  We are just another country, just another empire, one doomed to rise, and eventually fall.  And yet you have wasted untold energy, hours of time, millions of dollars, and most importantly, your own hearts and selves on this election.  I don't even particularly care which candidate you suppported, all of you, every one, have given more of your selves to Caesar than to God, and it is your self which is most emphatically God's.  Time for some soul-searching folks.  All of your fear and your frenzy has not gotten you what you wanted.  Had you spent that energy in evangelization, imagine what you could have accomplished.

To those of you who are not religious, again, I don't much care which candidate you voted for, I just want you to look at the numbers of this election.  Quite literally billions of dollars were spent on this, a large chunk of which were spent on ads which I do believe had all of us, regardless of our political proclivities, ready to smash our televisions in at least a month before the election even arrived.  And a lot of which came from major corporations and "super-PACs" who were supporting both candidates, because hey, it's not like they were all that different.  Easier to win when both guys are in your pocket.  Look at the amount of time and energy and work that went into maintaining a fever pitch of partisan attacks on both candidates, and look at how much you invested yourself into it.  Was it worth it?  I doubt it.

To all of you, religious and secuar alike, imagine a world where all that time, money, and energy were spent on actually doing good.  Things we can all agree on, like feeding the hungry or caring for the homeless.  Next election, why not try something better?  Instead of spending money on corrupt politicians, investing all of your self in a party or a person who are only going to screw you over in the end anyway, and becoming a zombie like zealot devoid of any opinion of your own, donate to a food pantry, or spend a few hours volunteering at a shelter.  Do good.  Make a few friends while you're at it, even.  Our country's problems are not going to be solved by others for us, we need to get out there and be better people.  That will go a long way towards making this a better place.

Death

God Himself has tasted death.  Of what shall we be afraid?

Hallowe'en

On this All Hallow's Eve, let us be like the Saints before us, who, though dead in sin, ate the flesh of the living Son of Man, and will rise with Him to new life.  

"Father"

We do not call priests "Father" because this is some title that they covet or desire, or because they seek to set themselves up with power and authority, to supplant God the Father.  It is not for their sakes at all, but for ours.  I have known priests who have asked to be called by first name, or some other diminutive.  I can well imagine why, I can see the gulf which separates the priest from the lay person, and the loneliness it entails.  But we cannot let ourselves forget that the priest is alter christus, and it is for that reason that we call him "Father."  We must call them "Father" precisely because we have no Master save Christ, no Father save Our Father, who art in Heaven, and hallowed is His name.

Theotokos

Of all her glorious and wondrous titles, I believe Mary prefers that which is really simplest: Theotokos, God-bearer.  Everything that she is is summed up in this single statement.  She is the Mother of God.  Every controversy and every honor comes back to this.  Blessed Pope John Paul the Great instructed us that the Marian Church, the church of discipleship, precedes the Petrine Church, or the hierarchical church.  Indeed, how could it not?  For Christ, in giving Himself to His disciples, to us, in the Sacrament, makes each and every one of us a little God-bearer.

Man's Worship

No matter what, Man will worship.  If not the One, True God, then many and more lesser ones.  This is observable everywhere, and the only ones who deny it are those who worship some part of themselves, and cannot see it for their pride.  The greatest proof of this isn't the plurality of religions, nor even the omnipresence of religion.  The greatest proof of this is people, whether religious or not, and their relationship to the material world.  The materialist philosophies of capitalism and socialism, for example, devolve into rapacious consumerism.  It is consumption that shows the deep seated human need for more.  If we could be satisfied by what the world had to offer, we would eventually be sated.  We cannot be satisfied, so we do not cease.  That is why we see even the men who have neither God nor gods, bowing down before their idols.

Soar

As your voice soars, so too does your heart.  So sing praises to our God.

Charisms

The Church is big enough to hold the charismatic movement.  The charismatic movement is not big enough to hold the Church.  It is fine to be involved with this renewal, and to seek the charisms, so long as one does not put more stock in them than in the Church, nor seek them for their own sake.  They are such small things next to Love, they are nothing compared to God.  Not for nothing did St. Paul call Love the greatest of gifts and vocations.  So seek first the Kingdom, that is Christ, that all these other things might be added unto you in their proper time and place.

Teachings

I think there is a tendency to get lost in Church teachings as teachings, to forget that everything the Church teaches actually comes to us from the Revelation Who is Jesus the Christ.  We Catholics have a tendency to think of Church teaching, instead of to think of the Person of Christ.  So we talk about abortion, euthanasia, homosexual marriage, and other topics of the day in the light of natural law, biology, philosophy and all the rest.  But the Church relates fundamentally to Christ, and her teachings are meditations on Him.  Christ is not only the fullest revelation possible of an otherwise ineffable God, but also the fullest revelation possible of the human person, of everything that it means to be Man.

Conversion

It is never our minds which block our communion with God or His Church, but our sins, our hearts which love something more than they love Him.  While it is true that people often have intellectual disagreements with Church teaching, it is not true that these are the root cause of their separation, instead they are rationalizations, excuses designed to justfy remaining in sin.  It is always sin that comes between us and God.  Our minds were made to know Him, He is the answer to their questions, if only we can repent.

Worship

All actions should be acts of worship:  That is, they should flow from our love of God.

Sinners

With enough love, all sinners can become Saints.

Ora et Labora

To declare that God must do all, to deny human work, is sloth.  To believe that we can do all, to deny God's work, is pride.  So pray, as the Saints say, as if all depends on God, and work as if all depends on you.

Assumption

We should remember upon this Feast of the Assumption that all things of Mary point to Christ.  The Rosary is a prayer which draws us into Christ's life, reveals it to us through the eyes and experiences of Mary.  This is obvious for most of the Mysteries, but perhaps less so for today's, the Feast of the Assumption.  The Assumption is not about Mary, so much as it is about the perfection of our hope in the Easter promise.  Mary is not only a witness to the Risen Lord, her Assumption is the first fruits of the Resurrection, she is the first human besides Christ who is brought body and soul into Heaven by the power of God's love and Grace.  The meditation upon the Assumption is not meant to focus our eyes on Mary, but to focus them on the God who has brought her so totally to Himself, that we might truly "imitate what they contain and obtain what they promise."  She is the lens by which we see His desire for all of us, what He would make all of us to be, if we but cooperate.  On this Feast of the Assumption I give myself to Mary that she might bring me to Christ, for she herself has been brought completely to God, not through herself, but through that humility which says, "yes" wholly to the will of the Lord.  As she says, so say I.  Totus tuus Maria!

Mary

It is true that without Christ, there is no Mary.  It is also true that without Mary, there is no Christ.

The Potter and the Clay

Today's first reading talks about how God is like a potter, and Israel like the clay.  How apt a metaphor for the soul's conversion!  We are shaped by the Hands of divine Providence, He forms us, sculpts us, into images more beautiful than the Pieta, vessels into which He will pour His own Spirit through His own Sacred Blood.  We will not enjoy the shaping, indeed, we will often fight it, hardening ourselves against Him into flawed vessels that cannot withstand the flame of the kiln.  We surely will not enjoy the firing, when all flaws and impurities are purged, when we are completed as His work, which means we must also admit we are not our own.  Yet if we persevere and do not harden our hearts to Him, we will be made most beautiful, most holy, most wonderful.

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday.  I am now twenty-eight.  I feel, probably wrongly, very old.  But even if I am not that much older, I think I have become somewhat wiser in this past year though through no fault or effort of my own.  So on behalf of those celebrating birthdays today, and every day throughout the year, remember that every birthday is the result of an Incarnation, the Incarnation of God's love for you.  As you have a birthday, Christ has a birthday, and through His revelation we come to know the importance of our human incarnation, for He has made us in His own image, and ever desires us to become more fully His.

I guess what I am trying to say is, Happy Birthday!

The Poor

The poor to serve are all around us. Maybe not always in money, though they are always with us, but in faith, hope, and charity. I realized working today that these are really prevalent in American society today, particularly where money abounds. Nothing new to some, I think, but an important realization for me.

Deus Vult

How often do we say, "Lord, thy will be done," and mean, "Lord, thy will be done if it happens to be mine too?"

Bless You

Whenever someone says to you, "God Bless You," or one of its many variants, think, "He has, He has given you to me to love."

Luminescence

In the dark, our sufferings always appear inky black, roiling and turbulent like a storm wracked sea. But in the light of faith, we see suffering how it truly is, the clearest of waters, filling us at times to the brim, and often overflowing from us. But because it is so clear, and because we have been filled with light, our sufferings become joy, and they pour out from ourselves to bring that light to others who are still in darkness.

Robe and Sandals

A friend of mine told me about how some men at his church were shamed by how much better he dressed than they, remembering their childhoods and the instruction of their parents that they dress as if going before a judge or a king.  His answer was that the only king they were going to see was one who dressed in a robe and sandals.   This is true, but looking deeper, we can see that the King we go to meet in the Mass is much more.  He is divinity who clothed Himself with humanity - true humility that we might know and love Him.  And what is more, He went even further to take on the appearance of mere bread and wine in the Eucharist, that we might enter into His life.  God reaches to us with every thing and in every way that He can.  Reach back!

Unlovable

How quickly our pretensions and illusions of Saintliness vanish when we are called to love that which is unlovable! Yet charity is nothing if it is not given to those we love the least. Pray that each day God will enter into you and give you His love, which loves the unlovable so well. Step back, and let God do the loving!

Smile

Smiling makes even that which is plain beautiful, while anger contorts even that which is beautiful into something horrible. So smile, and reveal the beauty of God's Creation.

Grief

The Enemy will try to turn your sorrows to rage, that you might be brought to sin. Wrath he can use, but grief, pure and true, is a thing of love, and he detests and abhors it, it cannot be made to serve him. Blessed are they who mourn, for consolation shall be theirs!

Justice and Mercy

For every time you've desired vengeance for your hurts, satisfaction for your grievances and for the petty slights done to you, even for legitimate justice to right a wrong, look to the Cross.  There you will find Justice, but also the Mercy which you should show to those who've hurt you.

Single

To be single is not a curse, nor a disease, nor anything that demands condolences or sympathy. Singleness is the universal vocation, the one vocation that all people have at one point in life or another, sometimes at many points, sometimes only at a few. We all know it. We all associate loneliness with it. But loneliness exists even with those who live in community, or who are part of the brotherhood of priests. And it certainly exists among those romantically linked into pairs. Loneliness is the soul's longing for its end in God, and the loneliness we feel for others is only a portion of this need, for we are to love God first, then our neighbors. Being together with another romantically is not an end, it is a beginning. For those called to it, it is the path they walk to God, to the real end of loneliness, and loneliness will be a struggle all their lives, even together in the community of the family. To be single is not to be doomed to loneliness and misery, but to have the opportunity to approach that end individually, to enter into God, and if He so wills it, to be brought through and by Him to the other He means for you.

Dance

There is a certain Joy in movement which music often demands of us, and this I think is the origin of dance. This is our special privilege, that we may dance, and in dancing learn all things that are good, be they love or worship or respect. Dance is how we learn to communicate with our bodies, it is how we learn to touch the other sex with respect and not lust (though it can certainly be abused), and alone among Creation to our knowledge can we dance for our God. Even the angels have not the ability to dance for the Lord as David did. Be happy, O my soul, for you have a body, and you may dance!

Mass

You know, it is not one's preference for language, orientation, or music in the Mass which reveals a Saint, but rather simply one's preference for the Mass itself.

Fatherhood

The fullness of fatherhood is found in the priesthood, not the laity. Why? Because every mother feeds her baby Eucharistically, by that I mean with her own body and blood, first in the womb, and then by her milk if she so chooses (and I confess I hope she does). Compared with such unity, such provision, what do fathers have with their children? Fathers make many great and magnificent sacrifices of their time, energy, and lives (hoping and praying to be one, I would never deny it). But they cannot so feed their families with their very life blood. The sublime dignity of the priesthood is such that it allows men to know the fullness of such provision, granted to men by the Providence of God Himself. In this way they enter into Christ and so feed their flocks with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, which for that moment have become theirs, as Christ is the Father's. By the working of the Holy Spirit, they are united with the Father Himself, through the Sacrament of the Altar.

War

A beautiful and wonderful young woman, whom it is my privilege to know, recently reminded me of the words of St. Josemaria Escriva, "There is need for a crusade of manliness... to counteract and nullify the savage work of those who think man is a beast. And that crusade is your work." It is indeed. In counsel with St. Josemaria and the Blessed Mother, I have a request for all Catholic men. Pray the Rosary. Pray it everyday. And pray it for the sake of your wife (present or future), and your children (present and future), for all women and all children, and for all Catholic men who seek to defend them, that they might have the Graces and virtues necessary to do so. Do this in addition to whatever other prayers and daily Rosaries you might already be doing. This is our work, please spread the word. For as our beloved and Blessed Pope John Paul II said, "God has assigned as a duty to every man the dignity of every woman."

Mass and Music

The beauty of the Mass is objective, it is there because God is there.  What mars it, if anything, is abuse of the liturgy (obviously) but also when we let ourselves be affected by things that don't please our personal aesthetics.  Bad music or architecture or art or what have you.  Let the Mass bring these things up to God, don't let them bring you down to Earth.

Princess

Have you ever wondered why so many men love Disney princess movies (they do, even when they won't admit it)? It is because men want to marry princesses just as much as women want to marry princes. Sadly, as many women seem have given up trying to *be* princesses as men seem to have given up trying to be princes. You were born to be Lords and Ladies of Creation, do not give your bodies or your souls over to the World.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Strange

Such a sad, strange thing - that people in the wealthiest, most affluent period and place in human history believe themselves too poor to have children! Indeed, they are poor! They are afflicted with a most terrible poverty - poverty in charty...

Immaculate Conception

As the Holy Spirit loved its spouse, Mary, preserving her from sin, willing for her good from the moment of her conception, and protecting her for the whole of her life, so should all men love their spouses. For in the Holy Spirit's espousal of Mary is the example which Christ followed in His own marriage to the Church - not because He needed an example, but because in His love for us He desired that we should have one. As the Spirit willed for Mary's purity and goodness all the days of her life, so too does Christ wish to make us holy and pure. She becomes a microcosm of the Church, the spouse of God, and is given to us as a gift from the Cross.

Walk

We can walk only the path which God gives us to walk, love only as He who is Love lets us.

Partake

To the Protestant, if you would understand the Eucharist, you must start at the Passover.  Was it sufficient for the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb, to coat their lintels with its blood alone?  Or was it also necessary, even commanded, that they partake of the passover sacrifice by eating the lamb without blemish?  If so, woe unto you who deny the Body of the Lord in the Mass, for how can you partake in His sacrifice if you do not partake in His Body and Blood?

Shadows

Before Christ we were not men but the shadows of men - absences of grace cast by the denial of God which is sin. It is when Christ inhabits us, steps into us, that we become creatures truly - beings of flesh and blood, His Flesh and His Blood, most holy and precious. It is thus that we become more ourselves through Christ - without Him we are not us, but phantom negations.

The Life of Grace

The culmination of the life of sin is the life of grace.  For it is by realization of sin that we realize our need for grace. And it is grace that terminates the life of sin, transforming it into true life, from shadow to reality. Just so, the broken life of man on Earth becomes the fullness of life promised by Christ and fulfilled in the Resurrection.

Heart

Oh Lord, give me a new heart, replace this heart of stone with one for love alone.  Through and in this Eucharist, give Your own Sacred heart to me, that I might love as You love!

Communion

It is absolutely vital - it is utterly essential - to our understanding of the Sacrament of Marriage that we understand and appreciate the Eucharist.  For the Eucharist is that sacrament which, like marriage, we can partake in every day.  Understanding it, fully appreciating it, will aid us in appreciating every day the joy of communion with our spouse.

Prayer

Half a lifetime spent in prayer is not enough.  Only the whole will suffice.

Real

So much of our lives are lived in a fog of vanity and illusion.  Joy and Sorrow, these two are real, and are more dangerous to all the designs of the devil than anything else.

Today

Today, I will meet hundreds of people who hunger and thirst for Love. God will bring them into my life, and me into theirs, that we might Love as He Loves. And we will fail – I will fail. But by His Grace maybe I will Love one more person than yesterday.

Forgive

Forgive me, for I have sinned.  In my thoughts, and in my words.  In what I have done, and in what I have failed to do.  And I ask Mary, the ever-Virgin, all the angels and Saints, and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord, our God.

The Cup of Sorrow

Drink deeply of the cup of sorrow, for it is the cup of Christ. It is like water - needful for all life, for all growth, for all strength; the sign of birth in a Fallen world made a sign of rebirth into the Kingdom; and it will be transformed into the best of wines, that we might know Joy and wedded bliss with our Divine Lover - that wine which is His most Precious Blood, the cup of the New Covenant.

Bad Catholic

There is no such thing as a good Catholic, only bad Catholics and bad Catholics who come to the Sacraments.

Mystery

It is no great mystery or surprise to see people incandescent with Joy in the presence of God.  Indeed, the great question is why there are so few.

Pride Revisited

Pride is best at recognizing itself in others. This is so because two wills that refuse to bend will always conflict when they encounter one another, and in that conflict there is recognition. Thus we should remember that if we are recognizing pride in another, it is most likely because we ourselves are too proud. We pray then for the grace of God, which is humility, that the plank might be removed from our eyes.

Misery

You will find that misery is a very small thing next to Joy.

Garb

If the Lord won't accept me in humble clothes, then rich ones will not matter. Dress a sinner up all you desire, he remains a sinner. Prepare, then, your hearts and souls for Mass. Enrich them in purity through faith, hope and, love - and let your garments be what they'll be.

Procrastination

Procrastination is the Devil's handmaiden.

Serve

To serve is Joy itself.

More on Magic

Magic is simply this: the attempt by the human will to control that which is not itself, to dominate natural things for itself. To do so the will must reach out to powers that are neither its own, nor natural. [...]  And so one of the principle dangers of magic is highlighted; that to dominate with your will, your will must invoke powers neither of God, nor of Man, and so it becomes a slave.

Disturbed

Am I the only one disturbed by the fact that as Divine Mercy Sunday ended, last day of Easter, the great celebration of the new and everlasting life of Christ, most American Christians were celebrating death and damnation?

“I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you [...]. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?”

Holy

The only thing worth being in this life is holy. All the other good things we can be; fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, priests, religious, etc. are different and yet the same in this:  They all exist to bring us closer to God. Their good is solely in how they aid us in becoming holy.

Grace

The gift of reconciliation is a gift of grace. God cares nothing for great works and mighty deeds, loving and desiring instead a contrite heart. Sin hardens us with hatred and despair, producing misshapen and flawed vessels likely to shatter in the furnace of love. But grace softens us that the Potter may form us as He wills; into beautiful vessels for His Spirit, tempered by divine flame.

Confession

Every confession is a miracle, the salvation of the soul from sure destruction. Every reconciliation is a consolation for Christ on the Cross.

Sin

Sin leads to shame and guilt, which can result in self-loathing and hatred. This hatred is a willing of evil for the self, the root of despair. Repentance is the will moving towards its good, which is God who is Love, and away from sin. Self hate arrests this movement. So sin traps the soul, preventing us from moving to God, or even accepting love from Him and others, and ultimately bringing us to self-destruction.

Doctor

I wanted to be a Doctor of the Church.  But that is such a small thing next to the love of God.

Magic

Those who work magic cannot perform even the smallest feats of humility or charity and remain in the occult. But those who are humble are given powers far greater than those who seek it. The gifts of God can be used for others, but all the powers of magic can be used only for the self. Ultimately they destroy even that, for the powers of magic use even the user, while the powers of God heal even the healer.