All Hallows Eve - An Icon of How Faith and Culture Meet and Clash

This article has been posted on Catholic.Org

Some folks from last year's All Saints Partay

Tonight, many of the youth of my parish will be attending an All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, party.  They will be dressing up as different saints and I am sure that we will all have to try to guess who is who.  Last year one kid showed up with arrows sticking out of his chest like St Sebastian and another had an ax sticking out of the crown of his head like St Boniface.  Others were dressed donned with armor and sword like St Joan of Arc or holding a papal crozier like Blessed Pope John Paul II.  Yet for most of their contemporaries it is a night that has its origins in the pagan druid feast day that commemorated the Celtic new year, when they would dress up like gouls and banshees asking for sweets and treats to placate the lord of death and evil spirits, and have lots of bright and shiny jack-o-lanterns, which originally were a sign of a damned soul.

Pretty cheery - anybody for trick or treating?  The statistics for kids getting ran over by cars is doubled tonight more than any other night of the year.  Even more enthused?  Don't get me wrong.  Some of my happiest memories are from knocking on doors when I was a kid to get free candy.  Loved it.  However, Halloween will always be one of the feasts of the year that is an icon of that clash between the Catholic Faith and culture.  That is how it started.

In Rome it was clear that it was not possible to commemorate every martyr because there were just too many of them.  So Pope Boniface IV in 609 or 610 consecrated the Roman Pantheon as the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of All Martyrs.  Then Pope Gregory III (731-741) began the celebration of the Feast of All Saints on November 1st to commemorate all those holy men and women who, although saints of God, were not officially recognized by canonization, followed by Pope Gregory IV (827-844) extending this to the whole Church.

In the evangelization of Celtic lands, the Feast of All Hallows Eve was from the beginning a way of trying to rid the aboriginal culture of the horrible practices that the pagans practiced such as human sacrifice and burning both animals and men alive.  It was an attempt to try to Christianize the culture.  Faith must always leaven culture, and if the Church's faithful are not making the world more Christian, you can be sure that the world will be making Christians more worldly.  Do not be afraid of Halloween.  It is a moment to truly enculturate the Gospel, making the witness of All Saints to bear on a neo-pagan culture.

Sadly to this day human sacrifices are still carried out by satanic worshipers and it would be a good thing for Catholics to make prayers of reparation for these terrible acts.  Such atrocities ought to call Catholics to stand up and take their faith seriously.  The Year of Faith was called for because many within the Church, seated in the pew, seem to not allow their faith to bear fruit in the way they live on a daily basis, let alone in the way they celebrate and feast.

In the Gospel for today, Jesus says that many will say, "'Lord open the door for us.'  He will say to you in reply, 'I do not know where you are from.'  And you will say, 'We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.'  Then he will say to you, 'I do not know where you are from.  Depart from me, all you evildoers!'"  The mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist is where we eat and drink in the company of the Lord.  How then would Jesus say that we are evil doers?  Clearly if we eat the Lord's Most Holy Sacrament in a state infected by mortal sin, we are, as St Paul tells us (1 Cor 11:27): "Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord."  Is this not Eucharistic ignorance also a blaring icon of Catholics who have let the world influence their faith rather than letting their faith influence the world?

Don't let your Catholic faith be like a Halloween mask.  Be real.  Your eternal salvation depends on it.  Jesus tells us right there in today's Gospel, "I do not know where you are from."  Not that he is ignorant of the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, but that when our hearts do not know Jesus Christ we cease to live in the knowledge of God and the glory of union with him, and we are cast out of his presence.

The Eucharist is the source, summit, and center of authentic Catholic culture.  The Second Vatican Council (Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, 58) says: "The Gospel of Christ constantly renews the life and culture of fallen man, it combats and removes the errors and evils resulting from the permanent allurement of sin. It never eases to purify and elevate the morality of peoples. By riches coming from above, it makes fruitful, as it were from within, the spiritual qualities and traditions of every people of every age. It strengthens, perfects and restores them in Christ."

Jesus said in John 6:51, "the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the"…church choir?  folks sitting on the pew attending mass?  For what?  For the WORLD!  So obviously Jesus' sacred flesh, his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, are given to Joe Lunchbox in the pew so that he can go out and transform the world with the same transformation which has ought to have happened by him receiving Jesus Christ in holy communion and being inspired and fired up with his Word.  This is how the Eucharist you celebrate must leaven Halloween.

The Church is not going to tell you how to do that.  Neither is God.  He is too happy to let you use the head that he gave you and the will that he gave you to let you figure out what way in your sphere of influence will change the pagan sacrifices to the Holy Sacrifice of Mass lived out by people on the street.

But since you might need a kick start, here are few suggestions:

1.  Have an All Saints party.

2.  Have masses and prayers said for reparations against the Holy Eucharist on All Hallows Eve.

3.  Don't be afraid to go trick or treating.  Don't be afraid of culture.  Claim it for Jesus Christ!  Just be real about your Catholic identity and your intentions and use the occasion to teach your children how to let their faith inspire culture.  Keeping in mind the first reading for today, "bring them up with the training and instruction of the Lord."

4.  Feast!  It is a feast not a fast.  Rejoice and enjoy the Catholic attitude of celebrating the supreme Love of God not just in the church, but at your dinner table and your way of living your faith at home.

5.  Blog.  Facebook.  Tweet.  Digg.  Whatever.  Preach the Gospel always and don't be afraid to preach it using words and associations the neo-pagan culture can understand.  Be careful of Halloween becoming an occasion where you become a "hater" using the media or some kind of weirdo who can't dialogue with a most people who simply see this as a time to have good clean fun.  Remember most people haven't a clue of Halloween's origins.  Show the attractive way of the Love of God.

Submit to One Another Out of Reverence for Christ: Obedience of Faith in Relationships

It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches."

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Mass readings for the day

WOMAN, You are Set Free of Your Infirmity - Jesus Loves and Heals Women

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Readings for the day

When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."  He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God.

Jesus Heals Us of the Blindness of Pride and Sin

Healing of Bartimaeus by Carl Bloch

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Mass readings for the day.

Jesus heals the blindness of pride and sin.  We cry out to him in our blinded state and beg him like Blind Bartimaeus, saying, "Jesus Son of David, have pity on me!"  When he hears us he calls us and gives us courage, heals us and then we are ready to truly follow the master, bringing others to be healed of their blindness as well.  Yet we remember that we always need him to continually heal us, for if we say we are not blind, how deeply blinded we are.

Sts Chad and Cedd Lived Eucharistic Lives to Lead Others to God's Supreme Mercy

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Readings for the day.

From EWTN library of the saints:

Cedd belonged to a family of brothers, and all six of them were chosen by King Oswald of Northumbria to be trained by St. Aidan to be monks and missionaries. This was in 635, when Aidan came from the monastery of Iona in Scotland to become bishop of King Oswald's kingdom. One of St. Cedd's brothers was St. Chad, who was the first bishop of York and then bishop of Lichfield. 

In 653, Peada, king of the Middle Angles, asked Aidan's successor at Lindisfarne for a bishop for his diocese, and St. Finan chose four monks from Lindisfarne to evangelize Peada's people. Later, the king of the East Saxons, whose chief city was London, also asked for a bishop, and Finan called Cedd to Lindisfarne and consecrated him bishop of London. 

Cedd founded three monasteries of his own, the best known being Lastingham, where he died of the plague in 664. St. Bede has a beautiful story of Cedd's founding of Lastingham: Cedd spent forty days in prayer and fasting in a remote spot given to him by King Ethelwald. 

In 664, Cedd was present at the Synod of Whitby and was a member of the Irish party, those wishing to retain the Irish date for Easter. But when the synod decided in favor of the Roman date, Cedd accepted the decision, not wanting to cause any further disunity in the English churches. 

After the Synod of Whitby, a plague struck England, and Cedd was among those who died from the plague. At the news of his death, thirty monks came from London to spend their lives where their founder had died. But they, too, caught the plague and were buried near the little chapel that had been erected in Cedd's memory. 

Cedd was the second bishop of the city of London; the first was Mellitus, who came with St. Augustine and later became archbishop of Canterbury. Mellitus was driven from the see by the king of the East Saxons in 616, and London was without a bishop until Cedd's arrival about 654. 

Thought for the Day: St. Cedd was trained by a saint and he himself trained others to holiness. A good teacher teaches mostly by what he is; and, if he is a good teacher, the things that are important to him become important to those he teaches. Good teachers fashion the souls of others by contact with their own soul.

The Eucharistic Heart of Christ Desires to Set the Whole World Ablaze with His Love

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Readings for the day

Do Bishops Need a Year of Faith?

This homily was originally published at Catholic Online

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Mass Readings for the memorial for St Anthony Mary Claret.

"Be not afraid!  Trust Jesus."  This is what Archbishop Harry Flynn told me before I began to confess my sins to him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  I had been away from the Catholic Church for five years, and so I was a bit frightened to come back.  After I went through six pages of sins scribbled on sheets of paper attempting to confess my sins in kind and number, with tears in my eyes I looked up to see him mingling tears with me.  After giving me a penance and listening to my act of contrition, he held out his arms and embraced me.  For me, this was the embrace of God the Father made present on earth, and his prodigal son had come home.

I was very moved when he asked me if I would like to become a priest after hearing my confession.  "Yes!" I joyfully responded, although I had been discerning this for a while, I hadn't yet taken the final plunge.  Within a few hours, I began the entrance dialogue with the vocation director, and well, I think you can tell what happened after that.

A bishop shares in the fullness of the priesthood of Jesus Christ.  We believe that each priest acts in persona Christi, but bishops in a deeper way are "in loco Dei Patris, the place of God the Father" (Bl Pope John Paul II's exhortation on Bishops, Pastores Gregis, 34).  This is what each bishop ought to remind us of, the embrace of God the Father, his provident care for his people, his gentle fatherly direction and correction, his tenacious and protective watch over his children, and above all, his supreme fatherly love.

In the readings for today's Mass, speaking of the servants in charge of his household while he is away, Jesus tells us, "Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more."  And St Paul in the first reading, speaking of those who are chosen to preach the Gospel, says, "I became a minister by the gift of God's gracethat was granted me in accord with the exercise of his power."  These of course can be applied to bishops in a preeminent way.

Do bishops need a year of faith?

Yes!

They have such a lofty calling, one that is not easily fulfilled, not without much prayer and suffering on their part and the part of the faithful.  Let us make a commitment to pray for our shepherds, who are beset on our age by many fears, temptations, foes, and battles.

The Second Vatican Council says: "The bishops themselves, however, having been appointed by the Holy Spirit, are successors of the Apostles as pastors of souls. Together with the supreme pontiff and under his authority they are sent to continue throughout the ages the work of Christ, the eternal pastor" (Decree on Bishops, 2).

In this Year of Faith, we ought to have a special commitment not only to understand the role of bishop in the Church, since we believe that it is God the Father's way of caring for us.  There are two dimensions that the mystery of faith brings out in the faithful with regard to the bishops:

1.  We need to see in them the work of God the Father, to govern, teach, and sanctify the Church.  We should therefore have particular reverence for their authority, and understand that part of our baptismal sonship of God the Father is lived out in an incarnate way as filiation to the bishops' authority in the Church.

2.  We need to see that only God the Father is worthy of the name "Father" (Mt 23:9) and that bishops share in this title only in a sacramental, or significatory way.  By this I mean that we ought not lose our faith when we see a bishop not living out his vocation to the fullest to represent God, and that every father on earth is merely a substitute for the real and eternal Father, who is the only one with no father, no origin, but is the Alpha and Omega of all things.

The grave responsibility placed on bishops is spoken of in the readings for today.  "That servant who knew his master's will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely."

The antithesis of these two attitudes of faith in the Church are on one hand the disregard for the authority of the bishops, but on the other hand, too many people lose their faith when they see bishops not living out their vocation.  

Bishops need a year of faith to strengthen their vocation in an environment of secularism and moral relativism.  It seems that bishops can be tempted by two different ways of escaping the trials that face them.  On one hand it is easy to become a bureaucrat, building up a fortress against legal suits and secular culture.  On the other hand the temptation to water down the faith, and not adhere to the law of the Church with regard to teaching the faithful the fullness of truth, following the rubrics of the sacred liturgy, and even the observance of ecclesiastical governance.

Pope Benedict was told by the Archbishop of Dublin, after facing the sex abuse scandal in Ireland, the cause of such pastoral negligence.  "The prevailing mentality was that the Church must not be a Church of laws but, rather, a Church of love; she must not punish. Thus the awareness that punishment can be an act of love ceased to exist. This led to an odd darkening of the mind, even in very good people." (Pope Benedict XVI, Light Of The World, Kindle Locations 470-472)

Bishops are called to be good shepherds, upholding canon law, but doing so in the great love of God the Father, a love which one may find if you read in between the lines of canon law itself and its regard for the salvation of souls.

What can the faithful do?

1.  Pray for your bishops.

2.  Treat them with the reverence that their office is due.

3.  Pray for your bishops.

4.  Don't be upset or afraid when you don't see them living their vocation.  Pray for your bishops.

5.  Pray for your bishops

6.  Seek to collaborate with them in the way that is in keeping with your state in life.  If you are a priest you are his fellow worker.  If you are a single person you should know his pastoral plan for the local Church and live it out.  If you are a family, live your vocation.  All these things are of great help to your bishop.

7.  Pray for your bishops.

8.  Be holy.  Sanctity is what bishops want to see among the faithful.  Fidelity to the Church gives their hearts strength. 

9.  Pray for your bishops.

10.  Live out your filial calling in baptism by filiating yourself to the bishops - simply treat them as fathers in the One Father, and follow their direction with a childlike trust and the obedience of faith.

St Anthony Mary Claret, whose memorial we celebrate today sets the bar quite high for sanctity among bishops, "For myself, I say this to you: The man who burns with the fire of divine love is a son of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and wherever he goes, he enkindles that flame; he deserves and works with all this strength to inflame all men with the fire of God's love. Nothing deters him: he rejoices in poverty; he labors strenuously; he welcomes hardships; he laughs off false accusations; he rejoices in anguish. He thinks only of how he might follow Jesus Christ and imitate him by his prayers, his labors, his sufferings, and by caring always and only for the glory of God and the salvation of souls" -from the Office of Readings for his feast.

Reading the Documents of Vatican II for the Year of Faith

The Second Vatican Council documents still go unread.  So many have spoken about the "spirit Vatican II," but few have actually read the documents and perpetuate the misinterpretation of the Council or cast a shadow on them as if they were some kind of break from the living Magisterium of the Church.

Have you read them?

Why not?

Read them here.

At our parish in Hythe, Kent, UK, every Thursday evening at 7pm, we will be reading through the documents of Vatican II.  Maybe you should get a group together and do the same.

I'll never forget the first time I read them.  It was in our Latin class.  That's right.  I read them in their original language, ecclesiastical Latin.  It is some of the most exquisite and poetic Latin you can read.  The documents are actually a beautiful prayer, bringing forth a Church reform to enable the modern world to accept the message of Jesus Christ with all of its vigor and rigor.

It is therefore quite sad when people misuse and misquote the Council to benefit their own ends, which may not be in keeping with the desires of the Council fathers.  It is important to read the documents in the "hermaneutic of continuity," which means that we read them in the hermeneutic, or interpretive principle, of the context of all the other Councils and Pope's statements.

Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote as a Cardinal in his book, Sources of Renewal, that in the Council of our age one can find all the other previous councils compenetrated and vice versa.  He said the principle of interpretation and implementation of Vatican II must be "the enrichment of faith" contrasted with "the crisis of faith as the documents of Vatican II themselves recognize."

I encourage everyone to find some friends and read the documents together, or if you can't do that, at least read them yourselves.  You will be glad you did.

May Our Lady, Mother of the Church, help bring forth a harvest of faith in this year of faith, especially in the devout rereading of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Documents of Vatican II.

Read the documents of Vatican II.

The Charity of Christ Keeps us Vigilant, Focussed, and Serves to Make us Holy

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Readings for the day.

The holy charity of Jesus Christ is what heals a divided heart, subduing our passions, strengthening our wills, allaying our fears, enlightening our minds, lightening our spirits, balancing our personalities, and making us holy.

We have great need of drinking of his charity at each Eucharistic Sacrifice, where it is made truly present on the altar.  The Holy Eucharist is where we learn to be vigilant and virginally hearted in expectation for with joyful hope at his coming in communion.

May Our Lady helps us to fix our gaze on the face of the Lord, and be undeterred in growing in charity and holiness in his sight.

St Teresa of Avila's Life Shows We All Gotta Eat a Little Crow for God Sometimes

St Teresa of Avila, a real mujer fuerte, a strong woman, teaches us that we will have to suffer a bit for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

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Mass Readings for the day

Surely it is not evil to ask God for a sign that he loves us.  Most certainly he will somehow direct our gaze to the Cross, the sign of Jonah, by which every other sign is measured, from which all signs derive their meaning and power.  The Most Holy Eucharist is the Sign of signs because it is the only Sign that contains also the signifier, God himself.

When we look at the Cross we see what Jesus means too by an evil sign, for it was as he hung upon the Cross that the pharisees asked him for a wicked sign: "If you are the Son of God, come down from the Cross!"(Mark 15:30).  As Jesus is crucified in our lives, in our pains, in our sufferings, yes harsh as it may sound, it is a wicked thing to test God and say, "If you are God remove this Cross from me, or I will stop believing in you."  As if the Gospel meant you would be rich, famous, healthy, sleek and sheik, with no sufferings at all?!  It is the devil who seeks to empty the Cross of its power.  When St Peter, the prince of the apostles, said to Jesus that he must not suffer, Jesus said to him, "Get behind me satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do." (Matthew 16:23)

What then do we do?  We seek to find the sign of God among us AMIDST our sufferings, knowing that everything we have gone through Jesus personally and intimately associated himself with on the Cross.  Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, While we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted.

"But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed." (Isaiah 53:4-5)

 He knows our sufferings from the inside out and this is more meaningful to us, because it means that our fears and failings, our sins and weakness, our pain, our humanity, are known to God.  WE ARE NOT ALONE!  This is our resurrection and alleluia, not the removal of our sufferings, but their sanctification and signification.

St Teresa of Avila was closely related with sufferings.  Anyone who is close to Jesus suffers as he does.  Love suffers.  Anyone who loves suffers in love.  And this is why we are able to suffer nobly.  St Teresa of Avila shows us that everybody's gotta eat crow.  We all have to eat humble pie, we all have to go through the stink of life to discover its beauty.

May the prayers of St Teresa of Avila, Mary the Mother of God, help us to find the Sign of the Cross within our own lives that we may be sanctified and saved.

The Reign of Christ Overthrows the Dictatorship of Relativism: SUNDAY HOMILY

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things yet unseen. (Hebrews 11:1)

Mass readings for the 28th Sunday

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The following excerpt is taken from Pope Benedict XVI's book, Light of the World: The Pope, The Church and The Signs Of The Times. A Conversation with Peter Seewald (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), 50-54.

In his futuristic novel Brave New World, the British author Aldous Huxley had predicted in 1932 that falsification would be the decisive element of modernity. In a false reality with its false truth – or the absence of truth altogether – nothing, in the final analysis, is important any more.There is no truth, there is no standpoint. Today, in fact, truth is regarded as far too subjective a concept for us to find therein a universally valid standard. The distinction between genuine and fake seems to have been abolished. Everything is to some extent negotiable. Is that the relativism against which you were warning so urgently?

It is obvious that the concept of truth has become suspect. Of course it is correct that it has been much abused. Intolerance and cruelty have occurred in the name of truth. To that extent people are afraid when someone says, "This is the truth", or even "I have the truth." We never have it; at best it has us. No one will dispute that one must be careful and cautious in claiming the truth. But simply to dismiss it as unattainable is really destructive.

A large proportion of contemporary philosophies, in fact, consist of saying that man is not capable of truth. But viewed in that way, man would not be capable of ethical values, either. Then he would have no standards. Then he would only have to consider how he arranged things reasonably for himself, and then at any rate the opinion of the majority would be the only criterion that counted. History, however, has sufficiently demonstrated how destructive majorities can be, for instance, in systems such as Nazism and Marxism, all of which also stood against truth in particular.
 

"We are building a dictatorship of relativism", you declared in your homily at the opening of the conclave [in 2005], "that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate standard consists solely of one's own ego and desires."

That is why we must have the courage to dare to say: Yes, man must seek the truth; he is capable of truth. It goes without saying that truth requires criteria for verification and falsification. It must always be accompanied by tolerance, also. But then truth also points out to us those constant values which have made mankind great. That is why the humility to recognize the truth and to accept it as a standard has to be relearned and practiced again.

The truth comes to rule, not through violence, but rather through its own power; this is the central theme of John's Gospel: When brought before Pilate, Jesus professes that he himself is The Truth and the witness to the truth. He does not defend the truth with legions but rather makes it visible through his Passion and thereby also implements it.
 

In a world that has become relativistic, a new paganism has gained more and more dominion over people's thoughts and actions. It has long since become clear not only that there is a blank space, a vacuum, alongside the Church, but also that something like an anti-church has been established. The Pope in Rome, one German newspaper wrote, should be condemned for the sole reason that by his positions he has "transgressed against the religion" that today "is valid in this country", namely, the "civil religion". Has a new Kulturkampf started here, as Marcello Pera has analyzed it? The former president of the Italian Senate speaks about a "large-scale battle of secularism against Christianity".

A new intolerance is spreading, that is quite obvious. There are well-established standards of thinking that are supposed to be imposed on everyone. These are then announced in terms of so-called "negative tolerance". For instance, when people say that for the sake of negative tolerance [i.e. "not offending anyone"] there must be no crucifix in public buildings. With that we are basically experiencing the abolition of tolerance, for it means, after all, that religion, that the Christian faith is no longer allowed to express itself visibly.

When, for example, in the name of non-discrimination, people try to force the Catholic Church to change her position on homosexuality or the ordination of women, then that means that she is no longer allowed to live out her own identity and that, instead, an abstract, negative religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow. That is then seemingly freedom – for the sole reason that it is liberation from the previous situation.

In reality, however, this development increasingly leads to an intolerant claim of a new religion, which pretends to be generally valid because it is reasonable, indeed, because it is reason itself, which knows all and, therefore, defines the frame of reference that is now supposed to apply to everyone.

In the name of tolerance, tolerance is being abolished; this is a real threat we face. The danger is that reason – so-called Western reason – claims that it has now really recognized what is right and thus makes a claim to totality that is inimical to freedom. I believe that we must very emphatically delineate this danger. No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the "new religion" as though it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind.


The aggressiveness with which this new religion appears was described by the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel as a "crusade of the atheists". It is a crusade that mocks Christianity as the "God delusion" and classifies religion as a curse that is also to blame for all wars. You yourself have already spoken about a "subtle or even not so subtle aggression against the Church". Even without a totalitarian regime, you say that there is pressure today to think the way everybody thinks, that attacks against the Church show "how this conformity can really be a genuine dictatorship". Harsh words.

But the reality is in fact such that certain forms of behavior and thinking are being presented as the only reasonable ones and, therefore, as the only appropriately human ones. Christianity finds itself exposed now to an intolerant pressure that at first ridicules it – as belonging to a perverse, false way of thinking – and then tries to deprive it of breathing space in the name of an ostensible rationality.

It is very important for us to oppose such a claim of absoluteness conceived as a certain sort of "rationality". Indeed, this is not pure reason itself but rather the restriction of reason to what can be known scientifically – and at the same time the exclusion of all that goes beyond it. Of course it is true that historically there have been wars because of religion, too, that religion has also led to violence. . . .

Blessed John Cardinal Newman: The Church Sits at the Feet of Christ Like Mary so that She Can Tend the Human Needs of Christ Like Martha

Today is the feast of Blessed John Cardinal Newman.

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Mass Readings for the Day: Martha and Mary

Blessed Cardinal Newman talks about Martha and Mary in his parochial and plain sermons (Sermon 22, The Good Part of Mary):

There remain two classes of Christians;—those who are like Martha, those like Mary; and both of them glorify Him in their own line, whether of labour or of quiet, in either case proving themselves to be not their own, but bought with a price, set on obeying, and constant in obeying His will. If they labour, it is for His sake; and if they adore, it is still from love of Him.

He doesn't say that Martha's part is wrong, but actually quite necessary, to look after the human needs of Christ takes a sensitive and obedient heart, willing to work hard and to be able to bend to whatever Christ is needing.  This means both the temporal care of the mystical body of Christ, the Church, but also the needs of the poor and the sick, in whom Christ said he waits as in disguise to receive our service.

He says rather that Mary's part is to be tended to by Christ, to sit at his feet, to hang upon his Word, to adore and worship him.  This is the very heart of the what it means to be the Church.  Without this part, the other part would loose its sensitivity and capacity to care for his human needs.

This part of Mary reveals to us our sublime vocation: to be loved by Jesus Christ.  Blessed Cardinal Newman has a beautiful Prayer on Life's Vocation which reveals that each person has a unique and unrepeatable mission, one which is not given to any other except us:

God has created me to do him some definite service

He has committed some work to me, 

which He has not committed to another. 

I have a mission. 

I am a link in a chain, 

a bond of connection between persons.

St Paul discusses this in the first reading for today:

But when he, who from my mother's womb had set me apart

and called me through his grace,

was pleased to reveal his Son to me,

so that I might proclaim him to the Gentiles.

We are all called to be loved by Jesus Christ.  The place this happens is in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, where Jesus gives us his all that we might give him our all.

May the prayers of Blessed Cardinal Newman, of Our Lady, and of all the saints help us to answer our calling to sit at the master's feet so that we might tend to his needs.

 

The Rosary Helps Us See the Face of the Father through All the Joys, Sorrows, Lights and Glories of Life

Picture taken from the telegraph.co.uk

Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are subject to you,
but rejoice because your names are written in heaven."

Listen to my homily for the day.

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Readings for the Day

St Francis, the Joyful Poor Little One of God, Show us How to Adore and Worship the Creator

O God, by whose gift Saint Francis was conformed to Christ in poverty and humility, grant that, by walking in Francis' footsteps, we may follow your Son, and, through joyful charity, come to be united with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Listen to my homily on the feast of St Francis:

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Read about the Seraphic Father Francis

Let the Dead Burry their Dead: Follow Christ First and Let Him Arrange All Things After

Pic taken from the sptimes.com

"Let the dead bury their dead."

Listen to my homily for today:

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Mass Readings for the Day

This is one of those gospel passages Christian sectarians just love to take out of context.  I assume the cemetery with the hands and feet that have been cut off because it caused them to sin and the spare tunic emporium, and hatred for your mother is nearby as well - the other scriptures taken out of context.  What Jesus means is that nothing, nothing at all, ought to be before following him.  Especially if we understand that Jesus Christ is the same God and Lord that the first reading reveals to be all-holy, all-perfect, all-just, almighty, whose ways are inscrutable and decrees unalterable.  He is God.  Put him first, then everything second.  If you do this, then you will know how to mourn in a Christian way, how to follow Christ with a holy impatience, not tolerating anything in your heart to find its way into that priority that only the worship and adoration of God should have.

St Thérèse, Doctor for our Times, Helps Heal the Unloved Souls

Today is the Feast of St Thérèse, Virgin and Doctor of the Church.

Listen to my homily for today:

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The terrible wound of people of our times is that they feel so desperately unloved and experience themselves as unlovable.  So what does God do?  He sends us a doctor of the Church.  This little saint, who died when she was only 24, is anything but small in the great Love of God.  Her simple doctrine can help souls understand the supreme Love of God the Father for them personally, tenderly, and infinitely.  Here are three parts to her little way:

Littleness - to be little in the eyes of God and do little things with great love.

Sacrifice - to fight self-will and self-preoccupation by offering tiny sacrifices all day, especially smiling at others you find difficult to smile at.

Abandonement to God's Love - to take whatever Jesus gives and give whatever he takes.

Hell is Real. People Go There. Don't Let it Be You.

Taken from Quinn Dombrowski's Flickr

Today is the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  Mass Readings for the day.

Listen to my homily for today:

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Jesus Christ teaches us about hell.  Hell is Real.  It is a place where people go who have unrepented mortal sin on their conscience when they die.  Jesus mentioned it over 70 times in the gospels, and the New Testament mentioned it another 92 times.  The Old Testament referred to it 60 times.  It is also is a dogma of our Catholic faith, which is the highest certitude of divine revelation, witnessed in the words of Jesus, "heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall never pass away."  It was taught by the Council of Lyons (DS 457): "if anyone without repentance dies in mortal sin, without a doubt he is tortured forever by the flames of eternal hell."  The Second Vatican Council and every Pope in the past century reaffirmed this age old teaching of Christ.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states in paragraph 1035:

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire." The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

Yet why do people not acknowledge the existence of hell?  They say a loving God would not allow eternal torments.  However if it is love, it must be free, and therefore the possibility of not choosing love must needs be part of it.  If it weren't a free gift of one's self to love the other, it would be automation or instinct, not the decision of a dignified and rational creature to love in return the Lord who had infinitely loved.

We should take heart in the fact that truly, there is only one sin that is unforgivable.  It is the one sin every one in hell has committed and the one sin everyone in heaven has not committed.  It is impenitence, that is, the only sin God doesn't choose to forgive is if the person doesn't want his forgiveness.  GOD CAN FORGIVE EVERY SIN, and he does.  This is why perhaps we will be quite surprised to see some people in heaven who we might have thought do not belong there, because quite simply, they repented.

There are two ways we can choose to not be forgiven.  First we presume forgiveness and therefore do not think ourselves in need of God's mercy and become unwilling to admit our fault.  This kind of arrogance or willful ignorance is very common today.  Pope Pius XII and Blessed Pope John Paul II called it the "loss of the sense of sin" (Reconciliation and Penance, 18):

"Finally the sense of sin disappears when-as can happen in the education of youth, in the mass media and even in education within the family-it is wrongly identified with a morbid feeling of guilt or with the mere transgression of legal norms and precepts. 

"The loss of the sense of sin is thus a form or consequence of the denial of God: not only in the form of atheism but also in the form of secularism. If sin is the breaking, off of one's filial relationship to God in order to situate one's life outside of obedience to him, then to sin is not merely to deny God. To sin is also to live as if he did not exist, to eliminate him from one's daily life."

We read in the psalm for today:

From presumption restrain your servant;let it not rule over me.Then shall I be blameless and innocentof serious sin. 

The other way we can refuse the mercy of God is by despairing of it.  This is really a kind of cloaked pride, or what I like to call wounded pride - belief that you simply are not lovable and forgivable by God, but this is not what God says.  The Cross and Resurrection of Christ makes clear, especially the ugliness of his torments, that sin is horrible but forgiven in Christ.  To refuse this is to refuse Christ.

WHAT IS A SIN?

Very simply put (according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1857):

1. It's Bad  (sin whose object is grave matter)
2. You know it. (full knowledge)
3. You do it. (deliberate consent)

So if you are serious about going to heaven try this: go to confession pretending that you will meet your death after absolution.  Leave nothing out.  Confess your sins in kind and number.  Pull each act out by the root by accusing yourself of each act, renouncing each one singularly.

So how can we attain eternal life and avoid hell?  First of all, DON"T WORRY.  Well at least don't worry needlessly.  A little healthy fear of the Lord could actually save you.  But to show you how willing God is to save your soul let us talk about the 5 P's, the five point plan to get you upstairs with God:

PRECEPTS- When the rich young man approached Jesus, who is a kind of analogy for each of us, he asked the Lord, "Good teacher how may I attain life everlasting."  Jesus' reply was certain and simple: "FOLLOW THE COMMANDMENTS."  We don't decide what is good and evil and are not the arbiter of morality.  God is.  Eve believed the liar when he told her that she could decide for herself what was right and wrong and each sin committed since has a trace of this denial in it.  Just as hell exists whether we like it or not and believe it or not, so does grave moral evil.  If we follow the commandments, Jesus tells us that we will attain life everlasting.

PARDON- We pray often, "forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us."  This means that God's pardon of us has been made conditional upon our pardon of others.  Christ's teaching is clear here (Luke 6:36-38):

Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful.  "Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."

So there is of course a very real and eternal significance in forgiving, and it is clear that our eternal salvation depends on it.  There are accounts of people being dragged to hell because they couldn't forgive their family members.  Don't let that be you.  FORGIVE!

THE POOR- Easy.  You feed the poor you feed Jesus in disguise and you go to be with the one you served in disguise.  You don't feed the poor you feed the disguise of the devil in the disguise of your fattened excuses and you go with him and his fallen angels for all eternity.  Need we say more?  Blessed Mother Teresa said that we will be surprised how many who do not know Christ will be in heaven because they encountered him in the sick and suffering here below and served him unknowingly.  In Matthew 25:41-46 we read:

Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.  For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’  Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’  He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’  And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

PRAYER- The greatest prayer is of course the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the other Sacraments.  These are not called the Sacraments of Salvation for no reason!  Jesus tells us in the Eucharist (John 6:54): "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day."  Every time we approach the banquet of the Lord we accept the foretaste of heaven, the pledge of future glory.  The other powerful prayer is the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  For here we approach the very tribunal of mercy to prepare us for the tribunal of justice.  We avail ourselves of the pardon of which Jesus spoke at the words of instituting this beautiful mystery (John 20:23): "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  The other great prayer is the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick in which the apostle St James spoke about (James 5:14-15):

Is anyone among you sick?  He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.

I don't know how many times I have held the hand of a dying man and offered him this beautiful gift and only moments later he died being forgiven his sins, strengthened in Christ, and prepared for crossing through that very paper thin veil we call death that is the barrier between this life and the next to meet the Lord.  Another important gift here is called the APOSTOLIC PARDON.  Ask for this for the dying from the priests of the Church.  It is not only the full remission of sins but any temporal punishment due to sin.  It is a special plenary indulgence reserved for the dying to absolve them not only of their sins but any time in purgatory due to the residue of sin after death.  Here is the formula I pray with the dying frequently that gives them this supreme gift:

By the authority which the Apostolic See has given me, I grant you a full pardon and the remission of all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit."

Besides the Sacraments, we should spend time in prayer.  Prayer is to the Christian as breathing is to the soul.  We need to "pray unceasingly" not only for the salvation of our own soul but also the souls of all.  St Alphonsius di Ligouri said, "The one who prays will most certainly save his soul.  The man who does not will most certainly lose it."  St John Chrysostom simply said, "Prayer is necessary for the salvation of our soul."

HIS PROMISES - God has given us many promises to save our souls in the Scriptures:

Mark 16:16 - Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

There are also the wonderful promises in the life of the Church.  Our Lady made 15 promises to those who recite the rosary:

5. The soul which recommends itself to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish.7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the Sacraments of the Church.8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death the Light of God and the plenitude of His Graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the Merits of the Saints in Paradise.

Ok it's pretty clear that you should become devoted to the Rosary if you want to live in life everlasting. There are also the promises of the 9 First Fridays given to St Margaret Mary Alaquoque:

"I promise thee in the excessive mercy of My Heart that My all-powerful love will grant to all those who communicate on the First Friday in nine consecutive months, the grace of final penitence; they shall not die in My disgrace nor without receiving the Sacraments; My Divine heart shall be their safe refuge in this last moment."

Then there is also the Divine Mercy Feast Jesus gave us to secure our salvation:

“I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open.  The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment."

It is clear that God wants us upstairs.  He wants to save us all.  Yet there is also a backdoor to heaven.  It's name is Mary.  We pray in the Hail Mary, "Pray for us now, and at the hour of our death."  Those who approach Our Lady will most certainly obtain a very powerful advocate for the tribunal of justice.  A priest died, Fr Steven Sheier and found himself before the judgment seat of God:

At the end of his judgment, his sentence from Jesus was hell. Fr. Scheier said “yes” as that was the only logical thing he deserved. At that moment, however, he heard a woman say, “Son, will you please spare his life and his eternal soul?” The Lord replied, “Mother, he’s been a priest for twelve years for himself and not for me, let him reap the punishment he deserves.” “But Son,” she said, “if we give him special graces and strengths then let’s see if he bears fruit; if not, your will be done.” There was very short pause, after which Jesus said, “Mother, he’s yours.”

It is clear that even priests need the intercession of the Holy Mother of God to save their souls.  Let us ask her to obtain this grace for ourselves and for all.