Articles by Joe Tremblay
The Priesthood: If they only knew…
Jul 26, 2013 / 00:00 amThe Priest: Once a Man of the Streets It is unfortunate that the priesthood is associated- almost exclusively -with parish life; having very little to do with society. To be sure, the parish is thought to be a world set apart from real life, the public square or the culture at large. Although there is certainly some truth in this stereotype, history bears witness to a much bigger picture. If people only knew the bigger picture…that the beneficent influence of the priesthood extended beyond the parameters of church property. As recently as the early 20th century the Catholic Church took it for granted that the priest of the parish was also a man of the streets. Indeed, several pastoral theology books published a century ago admonished the man of the cloth to be a man of the people; this, by preaching the Gospel outside the parish, by making his voice heard in municipal affairs and by finding ways to engage non-Catholics. It was not expected, therefore, that the only contact a priest had with people was within the confines of his own parish. No. He was charged with the duty to make disciples even of those who did not come to him for his blessing. In ages past the priest was more than a pastor to his flock; he was also a Christ-bearer to the community. Impressed upon the soul of every priest is the sacramental seal of Holy Orders. Instrumental in building up the parish, the township and civilization was that seal. The Priesthood and Western Civilization: In 1935 Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical on the Catholic priesthood. He reminded the world that the Church “sends everywhere as unwearied heralds of the good tidings which alone can save and advance true civilization and culture, or help them to rise again.” Pius XI takes the reader outside of the parish in order to show that whatever is praiseworthy in society can be traced back to the Catholic priesthood. He said, “All the good that Christian civilization has brought into the world is due, at least radically, to the word and works of the Catholic priesthood.” To be sure, what gave birth to Christian civilization is the very thing needed to restore it. But it needs to be applied; it needs to come in contact with that which needs saving. It just so happened that Pius XI made the case for the seminal role of the priesthood just as Europe was preparing for World War II; just as the concentration camps of the Third Reich and the gulags of the Soviet Union were beginning to liquidate scores of innocent human lives; and just as the seeds were being planted for the Sexual and Cultural Revolution that would abruptly emerge some thirty years later. Although the world had forgotten, Pius XI was at pains to remind Catholics just how important the Catholic priesthood was in building up the greatest civilization to ever have existed. It was necessary, then, that the Catholic priesthood be seen in its former light…as it really existed in history…as the chosen instrument used by Christ to sanctify souls and build-up a civilization where the dignity of each person was recognized. If people only knew that Christian civilization is the heir of the Catholic priesthood… Certainly, the nucleus of priestly ministry is in the parish. But if society is to be fertile soil where the Culture of Life can flourish, then the consecrated voice and hands of the priest will have to extend beyond the borders of the parish once again. The laity can assist but they cannot do it alone; nor should they. The whole Church ought to be represented on the mission field. The notion that the world is the mission turf exclusively reserved for the laity – and the notion that bishops and priests belong only in the safe haven of basilicas and churches – is a false one. In fact, it was the bishops and monks that led the way in creating a Christian Europe. And besides, the preaching of the Gospel is the “pride of place” among all the duties of a bishop. Naturally, preaching is delegated to priests as well. In any case, by its very nature, the duty to preach bids the preacher to take the Gospel to the unbaptized in addition to the already baptized! The Catholic priesthood is too good and too valuable for it to be confined within the sanctuary. The Totality of Life: But even more important- and no less marvelous -is the blessing that the priesthood brings forth for the individual person. In his encyclical, Pius XI also takes the reader through the panorama of his ministry and how it affects every aspect of human life. Indeed, the blessing of a priest is spiritually totalitarian in nature. He writes, “[F]rom the cradle to the grave the priest is ever beside the faithful, a guide, a solace, a minister of salvation and dispenser of grace and blessing.” To be sure, he is the guide of the soul throughout the journey of life. “Thus the priest accompanies the Christian throughout the pilgrimage of this life to the gates of Heaven.” Step by step, Christ, through the priesthood, touches the soul, raising it up towards her final destiny. Pius XI explains how the Catholic priesthood is made to benefit the whole itinerary of life: • "Scarcely is he born before the priest baptizing him, brings him by a new birth to a more noble and precious life, a supernatural life, and makes him a son of God and of the Church of Jesus Christ. • To strengthen him to fight bravely in spiritual combats, a priest invested with special dignity makes him a soldier of Christ by holy chrism. • Then, as soon as he is able to recognize and value the Bread of Angels, the priest gives It to him, the living and life-giving Food come down from Heaven. • If he fall, the priest raises him up again in the name of God, and reconciles him to God with the Sacrament of Penance. • Again, if he is called by God to found a family and to collaborate with Him in the transmission of human life throughout the world, thus increasing the number of the faithful on earth and, thereafter, the ranks of the elect in Heaven, the priest is there to bless his espousals and unblemished love… • [A]nd when, finally, arrived at the portals of eternity, the Christian feels the need of strength and courage before presenting himself at the tribunal of the Divine Judge, the priest with the holy oils anoints the failing members of the sick or dying Christian, and re-consecrates and comforts him." The Greatest Power on Earth: What power is invested in the priest who can forgive and retain sins in the name of Christ? It is a power that is scandalous to the world but one that is real nevertheless. Indeed, it is the greatest power on earth; one that unleashes God’s mercy far and wide. “[T]he God-Man,” Pius XI writes, “who possessed the ‘power on earth to forgive sins’ willed to hand it on to His priests; to relieve, in His divine generosity and mercy, the need of moral purification which is rooted in the human heart.” Without exaggeration, the forgiveness of sins and to hear the words of absolution in the confessional is liberation at its best. “What a comfort to the guilty, when, stung with remorse and repenting of his sins, he hears the word of the priest who says to him in God's name: ‘I absolve thee from thy sins!’” As one Catholic observed: “When a sinner has absolved a sinner; we, who rise from our knees before him, feel we have done nothing debasing. . .We have been at the feet of a man who represented Jesus Christ, . . . we have been there to receive the dignity of free men and of sons of God." If people only knew how the Catholic priesthood ennobles the soul… Not only does a priest forgive the sins of individual souls. Through the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and through his own personal sacrifices, he can help satisfy God’s justice for mankind. As Pope Pius Xi asked, “Who can tell how many chastisements priestly prayer wards off from sinful mankind, how many blessings it brings down and secures?” Even St. Pio remarked that it would be better that the sin didn’t shine than that the earth would be without the Mass. When all is said and done, the bottom line is this: More people need to hear the words of priests. The civilization in which we now live needs a power from on high to rouse us to new and heroic virtues. The words of bishops and priests have a special anointing by virtue of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. As Pius XI said, their words have the power to “awakens heroism of every kind, in every class and place, and inspires the self forgetting deeds of the most generous hearts.” Rightly and generously applied, the Catholic priesthood can save what it gave birth to; namely, Christian civilization. “[T]he Church rises up like a bright lighthouse warning by the clearness of its beam every deviation to right or left from the way of truth, and pointing out to one and all the right course that they should follow. Woe if ever this beacon should be – we do not say extinguished, for that is impossible owing to the unfailing promises on which it is founded – but if it should be hindered from shedding far and wide its beneficent light!” If they only knew…if people only knew what the Catholic priesthood has meant to sinners, the needy and civilization at large, it can once again save what is being lost.
Homeschooled children: A promising remnant
Jul 19, 2013 / 00:00 amA recently published article at the American Thinker website, “Homeschooling enrollment explodes” by Rick Moran, shows that the surge of homeschooling derives from a widespread dissatisfaction of public education. Moran, in turn, references a column from Education News by Julian Lawrence. In it, she reports that, “Since 1999, the number of children who are being homeschooled has increased by 75 percent.” In fact, homeschooling nationwide is growing seven times faster than traditional education. I would go so far as to say that homeschooling, generally speaking, is just as impressive, if not more so, than your average Catholic parochial school. According to Education News, the results are indeed impressive: “Data shows that those who are independently educated typically score between 65th and 89th percentile on such exams, while those attending traditional schools average on the 50th percentile. Furthermore, the achievement gaps, long plaguing school systems around the country, aren’t present in homeschooling environment. There’s no difference in achievement between sexes, income levels or race/ethnicity.” Results speak for themselves. Perhaps this is why homeschooled children are on the radar screen of several distinguished universities. Lawrence said, “Homeschoolers are actively recruited by schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Stanford University and Duke.” What is more, homeschooling is far more cost-effective than public education. “[T]he average expenditure for the education of a homeschooled child, per year, is $500 to $600, compared to an average expenditure of $10,000 per child, per year, for public school students.” Yet, according to Rick Moran’s article at the American Thinker (and I would have to agree with him on this), a secular State-run education system doesn’t like competition. Academic results are immaterial to such massive bureaucracies. Teachers unions, for instance, will continue to seek to eliminate their rivals. Moran reminds us that “they are already trying to make it more difficult.” This shouldn’t surprise us because Bob Chanin, a top lawyer for the National Education Association, recently told us why public schools are less about education and more about power. At a NEA’s annual meeting in July, 2009, he said: “Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.” Chanin got it right. The monopoly the State has over education is not due to its concern for children or its vision for great public schools. It’s about power. This is why public education has been proven to be seriously deficient. But parents who want the best for their children, the option to homeschool is not motivated by the lust for power. It’s about love. Or to say it another way, homeschooling parents, by and large, have one principal aim: to empower their children by giving them the best education and formation. And, it would seem, they are succeeding. Can it be any wonder why homeschooling has experienced 75 percent growth in recent years? Although homeschooled children represent about 4 percent of all school-aged children nationwide, as Rick Moran reported, it is bound to make even greater gains in the future. Today, they are a remnant. But let there be no doubt, if the American Republic is to be saved, this tiny and often overlooked demographic is destined to play an important role in saving it. Indeed, what State-run education tore down, the homeschooling community will assume a leading role in building back up.
God and the mortality of nations
Jul 12, 2013 / 00:00 amForetelling a Nation’s Future: History shows us that the life of a nation can be summed up, and even illustrated, in the life of its citizens. The fate of the Roman Empire, for instance, was told through the lives of two of its highest ranking members in the first century: Seneca and Petronius. These men were not only confidants of the notorious Emperor Nero, but they were products of their own culture.It just so happen that Roman society in their day had sanctioned the taking of innocent life for the purposes of entertainment and convenience. To varying degrees, Seneca and Petronius bought into the culture of death. Yet, the same reckless abandon they had for human life would claim their own lives.To be sure, the lives of Seneca and Petronius are highly symbolic, not only for an empire that was destined to fall, but for America whose destiny has yet to be determined. Indeed, their lives tell a story…a story about the mortality of nations. First Century Rome:Take for instance Seneca the Roman philosopher. In the year was 60 A.D. he decided to go to the show; not a play in the theatre but a show of a real life and death drama. He didn’t know what he was getting into. He had heard about the gladiator shows at the Coliseum, but he wanted to see for himself what the hype was all about. Thinking that he was going to be entertained and distracted from the burdens of everyday life, he instead witnessed something he would never forget. He discovered that his beloved Rome – the home of the most “civilized” empire yet to date – gave no thought to human dignity during its state-sponsored entertainment. In his own words: “I come home more greedy, more cruel and inhuman, because I have been among human beings. By chance I attended a midday exhibition, expecting some fun, wit, and relaxation…But it was quite the contrary…These noon fighters are sent out with no armor of any kind; they are exposed to blows at all points, and no one ever strikes in vain…In the morning they throw men to the lions; at noon they throw them to the spectators.” Another prominent figure during that time was Petronius, a contemporary of Seneca, and a fellow advisor of the Emperor Nero, who had a different opinion of these shows. With a feverish anticipation, he wrote to a friend reminding him not to forget about the gladiator show; after all, there was a new shipment of fresh blood. He could barely contain his joy as he writes: “Don't forget, there's a big gladiator show coming up the day after tomorrow. Not the same old fighters either. They've got a fresh shipment in. There's not a slave in that batch. Just wait. There'll be cold steel for the crowd, no quarter and the amphitheatre will end up looking like a slaughterhouse. There's even a girl who fights from a chariot.”Petronius was a product of his culture. But Seneca was too. Although he was horrified at the sight of gladiators killing each other to entertain the mob, he nevertheless bought into the culture of death. In fact, Seneca endorsed infanticide without the slightest hesitation. He once said, “We drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal. Yet it is not anger, but reason that separates the harmful from the sound.” As for Petronius, he was an unabashed sponsor of human cruelty through and through. He had no scruples about the moral decadence that surrounded him. These two men failed to realize, as did most at the time, that when even one person’s human dignity is violated or ignored – whether it be a gladiator or an infant – then it is a loss for humanity…a loss for them. It should not be surprising, therefore, that the culture of death caught up with both of these men. Indeed, Seneca and Petronius were forced to commit suicide by their boss, Emperor Nero; an emperor whom they faithfully served.Twenty-first Century America:Seneca and Petronius are illustrations of how a people can endorse the killing of human life when it suits their purposes. But when the moral evil of taking innocent life is let out of the cage, it inevitably consumes those who set it loose. Germany learned this painful lesson in 1945 when it was virtually destroyed by Allied Forces at the end of World War II. In the 1930s, the medical community in Germany endorsed the widespread practice of euthanasia. Soon thereafter, the government ordered the killing and deportation of the Jews. Indeed, the culture of death was alive and well in Germany in the 1930s and the early part of the 1940s. Yet, it eventually consumed the German people through the brutality of war. Their country was reduced to ruble. What happened in pagan Rome and Nazi Germany is happening to America. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court made abortion legal in all fifty states. The pre-born child was no longer considered a person vested with human dignity. But the erosion of human rights was hastened when the U.S. Supreme Court expelled God from our schools with the banning of prayer and reading the bible in 1962-63. What the American people – including Christians – failed to appreciate at the time is that the suppression of Christian religion is but the prelude to human rights violations. The greatest guarantor of human dignity that the world has ever known is a well established belief that every human person is created by God, for God and in the likeness of God. As such, the person is – for all intents and purposes – the property of God with inalienable rights. And when this divine principle is enshrined into law, even the State is bound to respect it. This is why leaving God out of public debate on abortion, as some Catholics propose, is a big mistake. Denying one group of people the right to live is tantamount to denying God his rights. God has his rights and they should be defended as such. Indeed, the State that legalizes abortion, the doctor who performs the abortion and the parent who opts for aborting his or her own child, all play the part of God. And when people play God in deciding who lives and who dies, the act of taking innocent life becomes a Pandora’s Box. The culture of death, like the brutality of war, will not make the distinction between the guilty and the innocent or between the powerful and the weak. Like Seneca and Petronius who supported the culture of death when it suited their purposes, the mercilessness of that same culture will consume even its most zealous advocates. Under this dark shadow, no one individual or nation is safe; not even America. But if America is to be spared from the fate of pagan Rome and Nazi Germany, the rights of God will have to be reintroduced into public discourse on life issues. Without him at the center of it, the protection of human rights doesn’t stand a chance. Indeed, no abstract natural law argument – by itself – will save us from the culture of death.
The US Supreme Court ruling: Its impact on the Image of God
Jun 28, 2013 / 00:00 amBeyond the Competence of PoliticsWith the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision supporting same-sex marriage rights, the uphill climb to preserve the sanctity of marriage is suddenly looking steeper. As one priest said to me (and here I paraphrase), “Just a few years ago one could be an advocate for the sanctity of marriage without running the risk of being called a bigot or accused of being hateful. But today, if one was to merely assert on Facebook or Twitter that marriage ought to be defined as a permanent union between a man and a woman, he or she would publicly be vilified, to be sure.” Given this, it is important to understand how this cultural movement away from the Christian understanding on marriage has gained momentum in recent years. With regard to people’s attitude towards same-sex marriage, there has been a seismic shift in recent years.We have to first come to acknowledge one important law of history: The law of the land is, more often than not, a reflection of the people’s morality; not the other way around. In fact, when the State attemptsto decree or legislate high moral standards among its citizens, history demonstrates that such measures are woefully insufficient. Although a bad law or ruling can make matters worse, good laws are often ignored or rarely enforced when the people’s morals are on the decline. Or to say it another way: Just as the erosion of marriage is not caused by the government, neither is it to be saved by the government. If truth be told, the legalization of abortion was made possible because the dignity of human life had first been lost in the hearts of too many Americans. The same applies to the sanctity of marriage. When people grow indifferent to the true meaning of marriage, laws and rulings to follow will reflect that indifference. Hence, the liberty to promote the true meaning of marriage will suffer proportionately. Pope Benedict XVI warned us that, “Very soon it will no longer be possible to affirm that homosexuality (as the Catholic Church teaches) constitutes an objective disorder in the structure of human existence…” But as stated, to recover what has been lost - whether it be the Christian view of marriage itself or the religious liberty to proclaim it – is beyond the competence of politics.In quoting a distinguished jurist, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore once reminded his brother bishops, “If liberty dies in the hearts of men and women, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”The Church’s JurisdictionThis is where the Catholic Church comes in. Entrusted to her is the “Finger of God” or – to put it more simply – the Holy Spirit. This Divine Finger, if you will, is far reaching. It has a reach beyond any political program of the State. In the deep recesses of the human heart, the Lord writes his law (cf. Ez. 36:25-27). He impresses his image, goodness and love upon that heart. And by creating the heart anew, he makes his dwelling there! In a wondrous manner, therefore, he brings to light what was once obscured in darkness. What before seemed impossible – such as virginity, chastity, monogamy, marital fidelity, indissolubility of marriage and celibacy – now suggest means of accomplishment. Such is the beauty of the transformation of the heart in Christ. The fruit of this is a redeemed human sexuality. However, in actual fact few people know of this truth because few people hear about it; even within the Church. It was once said by a papal biographer that the Catholic Church is the hope and despair of mankind. When her members are world-renouncing and holy, society prospers. But when Catholics become worldly and materialistic, society suffers decline. In other words, what happens to the Church happens to society. I do wonder if the Catholic clergy as well as lay evangelists and teachers are making the connection for people that the sanctity of marriage as between a man and a woman is inextricably linked to economic and political prosperity. If the latter is a cause for alarm for everyone then increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage should be equally alarming. As Pope Leo XIII said, within the circle of family life the destiny of the State is fostered.The human heart or the soul is the mission field of the Catholic Church. When it goes astray – when the sanctity of marriage and religious liberty no longer find a place there – the Church (at least in America) has to do some serious souls searching. We dropped the ball somewhere along the line. The result of our missteps has resulted in fewer new hearts remade in the image of God. In the absence of new hearts, people no longer aspire to the higher law that respects the dignity of human life and the sanctity of marriage. To repeat: A heart that is not inspired from on high cannot aspire to the high moral standards of the Gospel. The divine and natural law, so often referenced in Church documents, will cease to inform human law as it has in recent days.Same-sex Marriage and the Image of GodFor starters, it is important to know same-sex marriage not only undermines the true nature of marriage but it is an affront on the image of God. In Genesis, God said “let us make man in our image.” Then it states: "Male and female, he created them." If we are to have a correct understanding of God, at the very least, we have to get his image right! And his image – that is, the template and blueprint of who he is – includes one man and one woman. After all, both the masculine principle and the feminine principle come from him. We can even say that these two principles are mysteriously contained within his nature. Yes, God is Father and God is Son, but the prophet Isaiah likens the Lord to a mother as well. “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” (Isaiah 49:15) Therefore, if we as Christians still believe that a marriage between a man and a woman symbolizes who God is – if marriagestill says something about Jesus, the bridegroom, and his bride, the Church – then we have to get the image of God right and retain the marriage between a man and a woman as the only acceptable union! If you take away the man-and-woman combination and replace it with something else, the image gets distorted and the very understanding of who we are, how we relate to one another and how we relate to God, is likewise distorted.Indeed, the proper understanding of human sexuality and the distinction between the male and the female gender – at some level – is absolutely necessary for a lifelong marriage. Moreover, a mother and a father is an image of God for the child. It is through this image that the child understands himself, God and the world. It is not an exaggeration to say the following: the image of God (as represented by a mother and a father and how they love one another and how they love the child) is an instrument of knowledge more powerful than a lifelong education!The repercussions are even more profound than that of legalized abortion. Hear me out on this! Whereas the abortion issue addresses the dignity of the child’s body – as well as his very life – the challenge of homosexuality or same-sex marriage is broader in scope and even deeper. Alter this image – the primary medium through which we perceive reality and the natural channel through which God fathers us – then everything is thrown off balance.Moreover, with the sanction of same-sex marriage, the incentive for couples to marry will decrease, the permanence of marriage will be increasingly seen as unrealistic and broken families will become the norm. And worse yet, God himself will cease to be known by many as he wishes to be known because his image – as comprising that of a man and a woman – will not be held up as the standard in society.What can we conclude from all of this? What the family loses, the State gains. Political prosperity and democracy presupposes that the citizen is capable of exercising some measure of self-governance. And the institution that is most efficient at teaching self-governance is a strong, intact, traditional family. If fewer hearts are being renewed in Christ; if fewer people have a respect for the image of God as it exists in a husband and wife or a mother and father; if fewer families are staying together; and if the power of the State has made gains; then Catholics – both clergy and laity – will have to ask themselves: What could we do differently?
When God visits: stop everything!
Jun 21, 2013 / 00:00 amWhen praying, there can be a temptation to think that the more prayers we say, the better. For instance, it is a common assumption that when praying a rosary that it is more pleasing to God that we finish all five decades no matter what kind of inspirations we receive. But according to the Saints, this is far from the case. In fact, the value of prayer is to be measured not so much by quantity or duration but rather by its depth. The same applies to spiritual progress. Drawing closer to Christ is more about the intensity of our love for him than it is accumulating spiritual experiences or doing a lot of spiritual exercises. In the great spiritual classic, “The Dialogue,” God the Father engages in a dialogue with St. Catherine of Sienna in much the same way Jesus does with St. Faustina in “The Diary of Divine Mercy.” The Lord gives St. Catherine an invaluable lesson on prayer. There, he instructs her on the importance of vocal prayer, mental prayer (or meditation) and how they serve each other. In praying out loud or using vocal prayer, it is important that the soul doesn’t hurry to finish the prayers for the sake of completing them. Rather, she should be mindful of the “inspirations” or “visitations” she may receive from the Holy Spirit. And if it should happen that the person who is praying be enlightened on any particular aspect of the prayer or that some thought about Christ should come to mind, then the intention to finish the prayer or prayers (i.e. if it is a rosary or Scripture reading) should give way to this “inspiration” or “visitation”. In other words, vocal prayer should stop and mental prayer (i.e. thinking about what God inspired you with) should begin. When speaking to St. Catherine of Sienna, God put it this way: “If the soul looks only to the completion of her tally of prayers, or if she abandons mental prayer for vocal prayer, she will never advance. A soul may set herself to say a certain number of oral prayers. But I may visit her spirit in one way or another, sometimes with a flash of self-knowledge and contrition for her sinfulness, sometimes in the greatness of my love setting before her mind the presence of my Truth [his Son] in different ways, depending on my pleasure or her longings. And sometimes the soul will be so foolish as to abandon my visitation, which she senses within her spirit, in order to complete her tally…This is not the way she should act.” It is important, therefore, that vocal prayer serve as an instrument in bringing about mental prayer in which the depth of God’s mysteries is pondered. Mental prayer, after all, is nothing but thinking – or daydreaming – about Christ or some aspect of the Gospel. This is the purpose of the rosary. This is how change of heart and mind comes about. And just as important, this is what leads to meaningful resolutions and sincere repentance. Keep in mind that we are not talking about anything extraordinary or sensationalist such as visions or ecstasies. These visitations from God are the ordinary means by which his grace inspires certain thoughts. For instance, when we are reading a passage from the New Testament, and some idea or word jumps out at us, it might be God saying: “Hey! Stop in your tracks. Take a closer look at this. There is something in this passage that you need to meditate on.” In fact, God instructed St. Catherine on what to do if this should happen: “As soon as she senses her spirit ready for my visitation, she ought to abandon vocal prayer. Then, after mental prayer, if she has time, she can resume what she had set herself to say…As far as concerns any other prayer the soul might begin, she ought to begin vocally as a way to reach mental prayer. When she senses that her spirit is ready she should abandon vocal prayer with this intent. Such prayer made in the way I told you, will bring the soul to perfection.” From these visitations during mental prayer, what eventually comes to fore is a holy desire to please God in all that we do. Not only that, the soul desires to be mindful of his presence throughout the day. This is why St. Paul exhorted us to “pray always!” Prayer, for the Apostle, was not so much a litany of prayers to be said – although it certainly may include that – but rather it is a loving desire to seek God’s will in everyday life. This is how, according to “The Dialogue,” continual prayer is possible: “Perfect prayer is not achieved with many words but with loving desire, when the soul rises up to me with knowledge of herself…This is why I told you that holy desire, that is, having a good and holy will, is continual prayer.” Thankfully, we do not have to go far to pray. The Lord said to St. Catherine that the vocation to pray is adaptable to every situation in life: “The principle of a holy will means that each of you must work for the salvation of souls according to your situation.” Given that our situation is the content of God’s will for us, the most pleasing prayer to God, therefore, is to thank him for our situation, whatever it may be. But in order to get to that point – the point of recognizing that the circumstances of each day is the manifestation of God’s will for us – it is essential that we suspend the natural routine of prayer when God visits the soul.
Every day is Father's Day
Jun 14, 2013 / 00:00 amI once attended an annual father-daughter dance with my two daughters at a local school. I always appreciate such events because it reminds me just how important fathers are to their daughters. I got to talking to another dad that I’ve known for five years or so. He’s married with two children. Within the last two or three years him and his wife have been more involved in parish ministries. To be sure, the two of them have taken their faith more seriously. But he is a traveling man and as most men do, he’ll let his wife run the household spiritual activities.I asked him if he initiated prayer in the evenings when he is home. He answered in the negative. I then asked him if he initiates conversation about Christ at home with his two children. Again, he answered in the negative. Incidentally, he went on to tell me that his family decided to go to the Stations of the Cross devotion on the first Friday of Lent at our local parish. His son, the oldest child, put up a little fuss, claiming that they had gone to Mass the previous Sunday. For him, the practice of the Catholic Faith was a once-a-week deal.Due to my familiarity with the father, I told him outright that it was his responsibility to initiate family prayers to God, conversation about Christ and the Faith and even to teach (informally or formally) his children about the importance about living the Gospel during the week. I then added: "If you do not groom out of your son the notion his faith is only a once-a-week thing, then you will lose him to the world when he goes to college."I can’t tell you how many relatives and friends of mine lamented that their kids no longer attended Mass once they got into college. And in almost every single case, these disillusioned parents had developed the habit of confining their spiritual activity or the expression of their faith to Sunday Mass. But somewhere along the way their religion became routine. It was no longer a way of thinking and living. Rather, their Catholicism was something they did on a weekly basis.What many parents did not realize – especially those who were parents in the mid-twentieth century – was that they came from an era or generation that was favorable to Christianity. During the 1940s and 1950s going through the routine of religious practice was sustainable because American culture was somewhat religious. After all, even Hollywood assumed a respectful posture towards the Christian religion during that time period. But that kind of automated religious practice (one more out of habit than real devotion) was no match for the tidal wave the Sexual Revolution was about to create. Is it any wonder, then, why so many priests and religious left their vocations in the late 1960s? And is it any wonder why there was a precipitous drop in Mass attendance in the years to follow?No. Children instinctively know that a spiritual cause which requires the commitment and sacrifice of maintaining high moral standards- such as the Catholic Faith requires -can be intelligible only if there is an ongoing relationship with Christ during the week. The participation of the Mass presupposes that relationship. If the home is devoid a Christian culture in the home where Christ is an honored guest (not just an honored guest but the King of the Household) then I am afraid even the smallest of sacrifices, such as getting up on a Sunday morning, will hardly seem worth it. Indeed, the child who is trained in the "once-a-week Catholic” routine, will likely lose their faith in college.This is where the father comes in. Scripture should be enough to prove this point but I will just mention that there are credible studies out there that show the impact a father has on his children’s spirituality, morality and even sexuality. In 1994 the Swiss conducted a study on parent’s religious practices and the effects it has on their children. When the father regularly attended church, his children were much more likely – 33 percent to 40 percent more likely – to attend church as adults; whereas when the mother attended church regularly (with or without the father), only about 5-6 percent of children kept the faith in their adulthood years. While the percentages in the Swiss study may not be representative of church-going practices among families worldwide, the findings confirm what the Church has always taught: A father’s impact on the individual child is considerable. His role images God the Father. On the other hand, the mother has a great impact on the unity and relationships among family members. Her role images the Holy Spirit who binds the Father and the Son together in love. No doubt, both gifts overlap. But I do believe it is a great error to say that a father’s gifts are interchangeable with a mother’s gifts; as if neither is unique.Catholic tradition has it that the father serves as a kind of high priest of the family. In fact, St. Paul told St. Titus that a wife should be under the guidance of her husband so that the “word of God may not be discredited.” (2:5) Because this is so politically incorrect, there are, unfortunately, few commentaries on this. But why would the word of God be discredited in such a case? Herein lies the reason why so many families, and even within the Church, are not as strong as they can be. The life-giving power of fatherhood- both supernatural/priesthood and natural/families –is no longer understood even among Christians. In fact, it is considered a threat when any emphasis is given to it.Take, for instance, what St. Paul says in I Corinthians: “I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you. But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and a husband the head of his wife, and God the head of Christ.” (I Corinthians 11:2-3) To verbally cite this revealed truth in the words St. Paul would make many people cringe. This is why very homilists mention it. After all, the headship and authority of the father is simply deemed to be a threat…even by good Christians. Yet, this interdependence between God and Christ, between Christ and man, and finally between man and woman is a God-given order through which God communicates himself to humanity. Disrupt this order and you begin to breakdown the Christian religion.You see, the father is the primary mediator between God and his family. Political correctness, egalitarianism or even envy cannot undo this design. As Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI taught, the father is the head of the family and the mother is the heart. The father governs but the mother reigns. With that said, when the father is missing in action; when he does not lead the family to God – when he does not prepare his children for the world and most importantly – when he does not prepare his family for eternity, then he creates a void that is very, very difficult to fill. God can undoubtedly communicate his grace to children through a single-mom. Although this works as the exception, it does not work well as a rule.In any case, the father’s role as the spiritual leader of the family is almost sacramental in nature; it is that powerful! Every day is father’s day. Every day is yet one more opportunity for the father of the family take up his responsibility as the high priest of the household. It is he who must make Christ relevant during the week for his family. He must become the gateway through which his children will enter the world; a world that has become unfriendly to its Redeemer. A degree in theology is not required for this sacred vocation. All it takes are two things: time and love. The rest will follow.
The Intensification of Christ’s Presence
Jun 7, 2013 / 00:00 amStep by step: From the parking lot to the altarAs we proceed from the outdoors to the sanctuary, from the business of the week to the Sacred Liturgy on Sunday, the presence of Christ gradually intensifies until we greet him at the altar. And from the sanctuary, we are then sent out into the world to sanctify it and claim it of Christ. We do all of this with the knowledge that the universe, like our human bodies, will be transformed into the likeness of Christ's glorified body. As the Catholic Catechism states: “At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed.” (#1042)In the meantime, the presence of Christ intensifies with each of the following phases: 1. God is present everywhere. 2. Christ is present in his body, the Church as they gather before the altar. 3. Christ is then present in this spoken Word. 4. Christ is present, in yet another way, that is, in his priestly minister as the words of consecration are spoken. 5. Christ's presence peaks, if you will, in the Eucharist. 6. Not only spiritually but Christ is then sacramentally present- body, blood, soul and divinity -in the Christian who stands before the altar. 7. Not only will the faithful Christian inherit a resurrected body from this gradation of Christ's presence, but a new and transfigured universe will come about as well. Indeed, it was a common teaching among the Church Fathers and early Christians that the world was created for the Church; that is, for the elect who, throughout the course of world history, would be saved by the saving merits of Christ.God is everywhere:To begin with, we know, as Christians, that God is everywhere in the universe. Psalm 139 reads, “Where can I hide from your spirit? From your presence, where can I flee? If I ascend to the heavens, you are there; if I lie down in Sheol, you are there too.” The might of the Lord sustains all things. Indeed, no part of the universe can exist without his presence.The body of believers:But as soon as we walk through the doors of the church building and into the sanctuary for the Sacred Liturgy, what we encounter is the gradual intensification of Christ’s presence. In the assembly, where the faithful gather, the presence of Christ is manifest in a special way. We are no longer considering God’s presence as he exists in creation but rather as he dwells in the hearts of his people. This presence is described as the Church or the Body of Christ by St. Paul. Our Lord himself said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The early Christians had a lively sense of this divine presence in the Church where the totality of believers is to be found and where the fullness of his gifts and revelation resides. Around the year 180 A.D., St. Irenaeus, bishop and martyr, wrote: “Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace."The Spoken Word:From the assembly we proceed to the Liturgy of the Word where the Word of God is proclaimed. When the Scripture readings are read aloud, the presence of God is taken to yet another level. Ancient Christians always made it a point to read Scripture out loud. For instance, St. Philip overheard the Ethiopian Eunuch, a court official of Candace, reading the book of Isaiah as he was traveling (Acts 8:30). The ancient belief is that when the Word of God is spoken, God himself becomes present and active. Here again, this is yet another special manifestation of his presence. It gives birth to faith. As St. Paul said, “Thus faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.” When the Word is proclaimed- not just read –grace does a special work; it pierces the soul. “Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)Persona Christi and the Eucharist:Now we draw close to the culmination of the Mass when, in Persona Christi, Jesus Christ, the High Priest, mystically enters into his minister as the words of consecration are pronounced over the bread and wine. It is he who proclaims the Word through the priest. From this, another manifestation of divine presence is transmitted through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Through Persona Christi, ordinary bread and wine become the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ. His Incarnation is extended into our very midst so that the children of God contain, within themselves, seeds of resurrection. As St. Irenaeus said, “Just as bread from the earth, when it receives the invocation of God, is no longer common bread but the Eucharist, made up of two elements, one earthly and one heavenly, so also our bodies, in receiving the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, for they have the hope of resurrection.” The Eucharist, therefore, is given to the Christian on the altar as Manna was given to the Israelites in the desert. Upon this altar- and only at the altar –is the bread of God is served. As St. Ignatius of Antioch, disciple of St. John the Apostle and Bishop of Antioch, referred to the bread of God as the “medicine of immortality.”Christians as Tabernacles:Before the altar the communicant receives the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. By virtue of our Sacramental Communion with Christ, we are made into walking tabernacles, Christ-bearers, if you will. In the sanctuary, we glorify God in our bodies, to use St. Paul’s words. We are then are sent out into the world to sanctify it.The Transformation of the World:As Pope Benedict XVI taught in 2005 at World Youth Day, the transformation of bread and wine into Jesus Christ prefigures the kind of change that God will bring about in our resurrected bodies. He said, “By making the bread into his Body and the wine into his Blood, he anticipates his death, he accepts it in his heart and he transforms it into an action of love. What on the outside is simply brutal violence, from within becomes an act of total self-giving love. This is the substantial transformation which was accomplished at the Last Supper and was destined to set in motion a series of transformations leading ultimately to the transformation of the world when God will be all in all (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:28).”Every time a Catholic receives the Eucharist in faith and in love, he or she is participates in a cosmic transformative process. But God so ordained that before he renews the universe, we must allow him to renew our souls first.
The Great Liberal Death Wish
May 31, 2013 / 00:00 amMalcolm Muggeridge, renowned journalist from England, friend of Mother Theresa and convert to the Catholic Church, wrote an article entitled, “The Great Liberal Death Wish.”Originally published in Imprimis, the monthly journal at Hillsdale College in May of 1979, Muggeridge set out to tell his own story about how he came to discover that the worldview he held so dearly was nothing but a death wish. He, like so many other progressives in the early to mid-twentieth century, was of the belief that a perfect socialistic society could be created here on earth; and created without God’s help. What escaped him at the time, and what he later came to realize, was that “Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build.” (Psalm 1127:1)Indeed, at one time or another, every person must come to this realization. Malcolm recalled his childhood years when he overheard his father, a professed Christian, at his home in England talking to his political cronies about a kingdom of heaven on earth. Their discussions centered on how they could plan the perfect society. Of course, to carry this out, a powerful government was needed. This was his “baptism,” as he called it, into what he would later know as the great liberal death wish.With this worldview, he had nothing but admiration for U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his League of Nations at the end of World War I. Indeed, many Westerners were brimming with optimism. To use Muggeridge’s own words, there was an “almost insane outburst of expectations.” Mankind had finally arrived! And World War I was the war to end all wars. This was the prevailing thought, anyway.Muggeridge eventually attended Cambridge University, and a Christian College in India. Upon earning his degrees, he returned home to England to teach elementary school. After acquiring some teaching experience at the elementary school level he headed off to teach at the University of Cairo in Egypt. It was at this point he said: “It was there that the dreadful infection of journalism got into my system.” This is when he learned how to “group think.” He started writing articles about the Egyptian people and what they wanted (although he had never talked an Egyptian before) and how they were supposedly clamoring for democracy. It was then he was asked to join the editorial staff of the Guardian, a British newspaper. Before he would write on any given subject, he would ask his managers and peers, “What is our line?” That is to say, what position was he expected to take. It was through that prism he would report the "news."Eventually, he made his way back to England. The Great Depression had hit his country pretty hard. By then, he was enamored with the great liberal death wish; that is, the notion that through socialism (and communism), paradise can be had on earth. With his progressive, unsuspecting eyes, he looked towards the Soviet Union for the answer. He was, to use his own words, “fully prepared to see in the Soviet regime the answer to all our troubles.” To his great elation, the Guardian sent him to Moscow as a correspondent. Shortly after he arrived in Russia, the first wave of disillusionment hit him. What he found was an “appalling tyranny, in which the only thing that mattered, the only reality, was power.” Malcolm elaborates on the principle that drives dictatorships:“Once you eliminate the notion of a God, a creator, once you eliminate the notion that the creator has a purpose for us, and that life consists essentially in fulfilling that purpose, then you are bound, as Pascal points out, to induce the megalomania of which we've seen so many manifestations in our time – in the crazy dictators, as in the lunacies of people who are rich, or who consider themselves to be important or celebrated in the western world.Alternatively, human beings relapse into mere carnality, into being animals. I see this process going on irresistibly, of which the holocaust is only just one example.”The curious thing was that Muggeridge had witnessed how so many journalists, lawyers and even clergymen from the liberal intelligentsia were utterly naïve about the brutality and misery under the Soviet regime. He even asked himself “how people, in their own country ardent for equality, bitter opponents of capital punishment and all for more humane treatment of people in prison, supporters, in fact, of every good cause, should in the USSR prostrate themselves before a regime ruled over brutally and oppressively and arbitrarily by a privileged party oligarchy?”Not much has changed. The same strain of gullibility can be found in those Americans who subscribe to secular-liberalism in 2013. They simply cannot connect the dots between the moral values politicians hold and the oppressive policies that are sure to follow. But well-formed Christians can make this connection. They do not compartmentalize the world into tiny unrelated fragments. Morality and spirituality matters.And what is more, it has a profound effect in the political and economic world. Muggeridge was beginning to see this. Eventually, it was his Catholic faith that allowed him to see where the utopian dream of an all-powerful State would lead:“The thing that impressed me, and the thing that touched off my awareness of the great liberal death wish, my sense that western man was, as it were, sleep-walking into his own ruin, was the extraordinary performance of the liberal intelligentsia, who, in those days, flocked to Moscow like pilgrims to Mecca.And they were one and all utterly delighted and excited by what they saw there. Clergymen walked serenely and happily through the anti-god museums, politicians claimed that no system of society could possibly be more equitable and just, lawyers admired Soviet justice, and economists praised the Soviet economy. They all wrote articles in this sense which we resident journalists knew were completely nonsensical.”It wasn’t until after World War II that Malcolm Muggeridge began to see the great liberal death wish for what it really was. He rid himself of every last vestige of socialism, communism and Godless ideology which used to cling to him. He no longer believed the myth that progress can be had without God. In the place of his old beliefs, his new life in Christ was to grow over the years. More and more he would learn to appreciate Divine Providence and the purpose it assigns to every single individual. Towards the end of his Imprimis article, he concludes with this note of hope:“In this limbo between life and death, you know beyond any shadow of doubt that, as an infinitesimal particle of God's creation, you are a participant in God's purpose for His creation, and that that purpose is loving and not hating, is creative and not destructive, is everlasting and not temporal, is universal and not particular. With this certainty comes an extraordinary sense of comfort and joy. Nothing that happens in this world need shake that feeling; all the happenings in this world, including the most terrible disasters and suffering, will be seen in eternity as in some mysterious way a blessing, as a part of God's love. We ourselves are part of that love, we belong to that scene, and only in so far as we belong to that scene does our existence here have any reality or any worth.”
The cure for the decline of Mass attendance
May 24, 2013 / 00:00 amTo repeat: How many of us, who sincerely want to do good work for the Lord, spend more time in the office than in the sanctuary? Too many of us who set out to do the work of the Lord would dare not miss a meeting, a conference or a pledge drive, but we let prayer slip away from us too easily (To be sure, I am a work in progress in this regard). We forget that it is not what we do or say that is the most important thing. Rather, it is what God does with what we do or say that makes the difference. Christ said, “Without me you can do nothing.” And Psalm 127 says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” The question then becomes: Are we building in vain? Are we, like the early Christians and St. John Vianney, giving prayer its due? For them, designated times of prayer throughout the day were of the highest priority; more important than any administrative duty. It is what attracted souls to Christ. As Pope Pius XII said in reference to St. John Vianney, “A man who is filled with Christ will not find it hard to discover ways and means of bringing others to Christ." The way ancient pagan civilization was saved, with all of its cruelty and barbarity, is the same way our post-Christian civilization will be saved. After the martyrs did their part by sanctifying the European and Mediterranean soil with their blood, the monastics (i.e. religious monks and nuns) built upon that foundation through the habit of prayer and penance. They gave us the template of spiritual and evangelistic success.The early Christians -- the ones who called down God's grace for so many conversions -- were not half as administrative as we are, but they got things done! As Sister Lucia, a Fatima seer, once wrote: We receive more light, more strength, more grace and virtue than you could ever achieve by reading many books, or by great studies. She then added that with a real commitment to prayer we will accomplish a lot in a short period of time. As for St. John Vianney, he did daily meditations, he visited the Blessed Sacrament, he recited the Rosary, and carefully examined his conscience. But like the early Christians, he did more. He offered spiritual sacrifices for sinners. With St. Paul, he exhorted his parishioners to do the following: “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.” St. John Vianney also used to say, "The works of penance abound in such delights and joys that once they have been tasted, nothing will ever again root them out of the soul.... Only the first steps are difficult for those who eagerly choose this path." The Cure' of Ars knew that making spiritual sacrifices on behalf of others was essential. One day, a priest had inquired as to why tens of thousands of pilgrims visited Ars, France; this, just to see the holy priest. In response, St. John Vianney reminded him: “You have preached, you have prayed, but have you fasted? Have you taken the discipline? Have you slept on the floor? So long as you have done none of these things, you have no right to complain.” Keep in mind that the Catholic parish in Ars was not well attended at all for the first ten years after St. John Vianney arrived. But eventually, what he did to increase Mass attendance worked! It is a recipe for success. In fact, about one hundred years later, the "cure" to low Mass attendance was once again confirmed. As Jesus reminded St. Faustina, “You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone.” Assisting at Mass presupposes an active, living relationship with Christ. Without talking to Jesus on a daily basis, without learning more about Jesus through the reading of Scripture on a daily basis and without doing one's best to observe his precepts on a daily basis, the Mass is just another ritual. It's hardly worth getting up for on Sunday mornings. You see, just as a family meal in the home presupposes a pre-existing relationship among family members, so too does the Sacred Meal at the altar presuppose a communion with Christ and his Church. But to ignite the flame of faith -- to stoke the fire of love for our Lord in the hearts of people -- it is absolutely essential "workers in the vineyard" revisit what has proven to work in the past. Not only did St. John Vianney and the early Christians point out the cure to spiritual apathy, the applied it! And, as history reveals, the results were impressive.
The cure for the decline of Mass attendance
May 17, 2013 / 00:00 amIn the 1950s, on his Emmy Award winning series, "Life is Worth Living," Bishop Fulton Sheen warned believers – but especially Catholics – that during times of prosperity church leaders are apt to become administrators who sit behind desks. The emphasis is more on the office than it is on the mission field. However, during times of adversity, church leaders are more likely to be out there in the mission fields as shepherds with the people. And as for the laity, when talking about the Sacrament of Confirmation in a different address, Bishop Sheen reminded his listeners of the following: “The laity will have to come to a comprehension that our blessed Lord was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles but in the world, on a road way, in a town garbage heap…He place Himself at the very center of the world, in the midst of smut, thieves, soldiers and gamblers.” Followers of Christ are once again returning to a time of adversity. Prosperity has softened us up and turned us into administrators rather than shepherds and missionaries. We Catholics are beginning to realize that what we have been doing – or not doing – in the last fifty years has not been working. Case and point: In a local Catholic diocesan newspaper, The Compass, it was reported that Mass attendance has dropped annually about 3 percent; and for the last 10 years, 21 percent. The total number of parishes in the Diocese of Green Bay that has shown signs of growth in recent years is 24. But the sum total of parishes that have decreased is 133. However, the Church on a national level is no less promising. In her book, Forming Intentional Disciples, Sherry A. Weddell reported that there are four times as many people leaving the Catholic Church than entering it. From 2000 to 2009, the rate of adults entering the Church dropped 35 percent. If unchecked, the projected results are sobering. She said, “If this trend does not change, in ten years it will cease to matter that we have a priest shortage. The Builders will be largely gone, the Boomers retiring, and our institutions – parish and schools – will be emptying at an incredible rate. Sacramental practice will plummet at a rate that will make the post-Vatican II era look good, and the Church’s financial support will vanish like Bernie Madoff’s investment portfolio.” Nearly a hundred years ago, just when it was becoming clear that Christian civilization was becoming a thing of the past, Pope Benedict XV wrote: “By God's good pleasure, things are preserved through the same causes by which they were brought into being…” In other words, the causes which brought into being a Church capable of producing numberless converts and Christians institutions, are the very causes that will duplicate the same results. I recently gave a presentation on an encyclical by Pope John XXIII, written in 1959. The encyclical was on St. John Vianney, also known as the Cure' of Ars. He was a priest who lived from 1786 to 1859 in France. He embodied the principles that made the Catholic Church so attractive in the first thousand years. As stated in previous articles, during the first millennium of Christianity, over 70 percent of the popes were canonized Saints. This translated into great bishops, priests and lay people. But among the popes in the second millennium, roughly 6 percent were honored as Saints. If we were to ask the reason behind this differential, we would do well to consider why St. John Vianney attracted tens of thousands of souls to his parish Ars, France. Indeed, he spent about a third of his priesthood in the confessional. However, before people travelled from distant lands to consult him, the holy priest prepared for them. He spent the first ten years of his priesthood – from 1818 to 1827 – begging God, in prayer and fasting, for the conversion of sinners. That’s right. Those first ten years were quiet and uneventful. But he took advantage of that time to intercede on behalf of his parishioners and those souls that would soon come to see him. And even after they came, he never neglected his times for prayer. St. John Vianney used to say, "A priest must be especially devoted to constant prayer" and "How many people we can call back to God by our prayers!" For him, the emphasis was on the sanctuary or spending time before the tabernacle; not so much on the office or on meetings. He took for granted that prayer was the holiest of works. Far from being idle, to pray is to act on the First Cause of conversion. Just as prayer is a conversation with God, conversion is the work of God. The former gives fuel to the latter. Every ounce of supernatural life has to be drawn from him. Indeed, Christ is the life-principle of our work. How many of us, who sincerely want to do good work for the Lord, spend more time in the office than in the sanctuary? Or it may be that we are so busy with external works, we neglect our own spiritual needs. But like the early Church Fathers who put prayer as their first priority, St. John Vianney never neglected his own spiritual needs because he was too busy serving others. Pope John XXIII warned the clergy in 1959 about the preoccupation with external works: “Priests in Our own day, are likely to attribute too much to the effectiveness of external activity and stand ready and eager to immerse themselves in the hustle and bustle of the ministry, to their own spiritual detriment!” Part two to “The Cure of Mass Attendance Decline” next week.
The Republic and its primary educator
May 10, 2013 / 00:00 amIn 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a Catholic Frenchman and a reputable historian, visited America in order to study its political, judicial and educational institutions. In the years to follow he wrote a book called, Democracy in America. What he found was that the early Americans took it for granted that a free society depends on an education system which was inspired and managed by local communities. They instinctively knew the dangers of a State-run school system and its effects on the nation. But as the nineteenth century came to a close, American education was beginning to become centralized, standardized and impersonalized by the State and Federal governments.Parents, who are the principal educators of their children, began to delegate more and more of their God-given duties to the public and parochial schools. As we shall see, in 1929, Pope Pius XI sought to cast his prophetic light on this unhealthy trend. He reminded parents throughout the world that they were to oversee, as much as possible, their children’s education. His concern proved to be warranted. Today, it is completely foreign to most people that the child should be educated either by his own parents or by the local community. Perhaps the early Americans, as with Pope Pius XI a century later, were on to something. Their belief was that a locally-run education system is the most effective instrument in bringing about the welfare of the child as well as ensuring political prosperity.Again, we return to Tocqueville's historic visit to America. During his eleven month journey through the States, he interviewed many high profile citizens. J.C. Spencer, of the New York legislature, was one of them. Tocqueville asked him how the public education system was organized (in 1831). Notice that Spencer’s answer highlights the need for people to be as close to the process of education as possible. He said this:“It is generally admitted with us that the state should always help and never do the job itself. It is thought that the individual who give their money and who are on the spot, are by interest and situation in a position in a position to give to the application of the fund a watchful attention of which a great administration [i.e. the State or Federal government] would be incapable. Besides, we want as far as possible to create local interests…The people being really King, everyone feels the need of enlightening it.”There certainly seemed to be a consensus at the time that although the State should help fund schools, it should not do the job of teaching. The early Americans believed that the key to a successful education system was that it should be, as much as possible, the responsibility of families from the township.Joseph Tuckerman, an internationally known advocate for the poor from Massachusetts, told Tocqueville essentially the same thing: “For God’s sake, do not create in France a fund for the support of a school…We have observed that when the towns knew that the government paid all the funds for education, they became quite indifferent about their schools. Whereas, when they put their own money into it, they took great interest in seeing that it should be well employed.” That’s right! People become indifferent to their own children’s education when they do not directly pay for the service.About a hundred years later, as mentioned already, Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical in 1929 entitled, On Christian Education. In it he reiterates the long standing Catholic tradition on education. Throughout his encyclical, he emphatically denies that the State has absolute authority over education. Rather, he said, it belongs first and foremost to parents:“Untenable is the reason they adduce, namely that man is born a citizen and hence belongs primarily to the State, not bearing in mind that before being a citizen man must exist; and existence does not come from the State, but from the parents, as Leo XIII wisely declared: ‘The children are something of the father, and as it were an extension of the person of the father; and, to be perfectly accurate, they enter into and become part of civil society, not directly by themselves, but through the family in which they were born.’”Elsewhere in his encyclical he quotes Pope Leo XIII as saying, “(T)he father's power is of such a nature that it cannot be destroyed or absorbed by the State; for it has the same origin as human life itself."Indeed, God’s design is consistent. It takes a man and a woman to make a baby. It also takes a man and a woman to raise and educate their children. The Catholic Church has always seen herself as being a partner with parents in education. However, when parents forfeit their duties to educate their own children, giving full responsibility even to the local Catholic school, then the Church becomes more like a surrogate mother which it was never intended to be. I question the prudential judgment of a Catholic school when it totally takes over the religious education of a son or daughter of churchless parents. This, no doubt, is inspired by compassionate motives on the part of the local parish. Nevertheless, the unintended consequence is that it enables the parents to remain uninvolved in the education and salvation of their own children.Unfortunately, parents of the twenty-first century have been marginalized in their children’s education. However, parents, starting in the mid-twentieth century, were willing accomplices to their own irrelevance. The State merely took advantage of what became a widespread indifference among mothers and fathers. As Americans, we slowly bought into a system where everyone but the parents was raising their children.Perhaps, Pope Pius XI, as early as 1929, saw this trend emerging. This may be, in fact, the reason why he stated the following: “It must be borne in mind also that the obligation of the family to bring up children, includes not only religious and moral education, but physical and civic education as well, principally in so far as it touches upon religion and morality.”You might be surprised to learn that the U.S. Supreme Court, just four years prior to Pius XI encyclical, made a strong case against the supremacy of the State with regard to education. To bolster his argument, Pius XI makes reference to a U.S. Supreme Court Decision in the Oregon School Case, June 1, 1925. It ruled that the “fundamental theory of liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only. The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right coupled with the high duty, to recognize, and prepare him for additional duties.”The first hundred-plus years of America’s way of thinking and carrying out her most important enterprises were dominated by the principle of subsidiarity; that is, the more local and proximate a government is, the better for the individual citizen. And what applies to citizen, equally applies to the child.If America is to be restored, her education system, which is, today, monopolized by the State, must be saved from the State. Most people who are deeply concerned about America’s future focus almost entirely on the ballot box. But we must keep in mind, and never forget that a nation’s education is more important than its government. After all, it is the former which gives rise to the latter.
Working parents: some unintended consequences
May 3, 2013 / 00:00 amThe following post is written for those working parents who have the option of having one parent stay home with their children. There are, however, countless parents who do not enjoy this luxury. Due to financial necessity, there are many households where both parents need to work in order to pay the bills. Yet, there is a real temptation nowadays to define luxuries as “needs” in order to justify two incomes. Whether or not married couples have to finance real or perceived needs, there are unintended consequences of having both parents work full time. These consequences, unfortunately, escape most people because they unfold years later.First, let’s take a look at a trend among today’s parents: In March of 2013 Kim Parker and Wendy from Pew Research wrote an article titled, “Modern Parenthood.” It was based on a study of working parents which shows that there is a trend which favors the office over being at home with the kids. For instance, Pew Research found that in just five years mothers who wanted to work full time have increased by 17 percent. “Among mothers with children under age 18, the share saying they would prefer to work full time has increased from 20% in 2007 to 32% in 2012.”Even among fathers, the ideal of having a parent stay at home with the children is on the wane. “In 2009,” for instance, “54% of fathers with children under age 17 said the ideal situation for young children was to have a mother who did not work at all outside the home; today only 37% of fathers say that – a drop of 17 percentage points.”Although the preference for a mother to stay home with the children is on the decline among both mothers and fathers, the difficulty of having both parents work is inescapable. Again, Pew Research found that “56% of mothers and 50% of fathers say juggling work and family life is difficult for them.” This reminded me of Dr. John Gray, author of book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus.” He once cited a study that shows that working-married women, more than ever before, are unhappy. Indeed, when the demands of the children greet them upon returning home from a long day at work, their stress is only intensified. This affects the working mother in a peculiar way because, according to Dr. Gray, they are more wired to fulfill the needs of the family. Fathers, on the other hand, are more inclined to fulfill their own needs before they get around to meeting their children’s needs. In other words, a man’s self-preservation skills are better because he is less empathetic to the needs of others.Be that as it may, what escapes most working parents – especially those who have little time for their children – are the unintended consequences which unfold long after the childhood years. Invariably, when children are young, there needs are many. With this, the sacrifices required of parents are many. This is why the assertion can be made that being a stay-at-home mom (or dad) is the hardest job in the world. Unlike the office, a house of children is an uncontrolled environment.All of this is to say that the temperament, the behaviors and the needs of children are much more unpredictable than what we find in a work environment. In many cases, there is a predictable routine at work. Employees are incentivized to listen and cooperate with their supervisors. If they do not, they compromise their employment status. But stay-at-home moms enjoy no such perks. What is more, raising children full time is a thankless job. There are no promotions, no raises and no paid-leave. And to add insult to injury, the reward and the fruits of investing time with their children are not immediately felt. That comes much later. But the fall out of absentee parenting comes much later too. And for this reason, the dots between childhood upbringing and their behavior in the adulthood years are rarely connected.In a 2006 study in Great Britain, the average time working parents spent with their children was 19 minutes. When a child grows up without seeing their parents throughout most of the day, they get accustomed to it. Sure, they’ll cry in those earlier years when mommy or daddy drives away from the daycare center. But eventually, they learn to cope with their parent’s absence. Soon enough, not being around mommy and daddy feels normal. And what feels normal as a child continues to feel normal when they reach adulthood.However, as children get older and become less of a sacrifice, it often happens that parents want to spend more time around them. The parent-child relationship in the later years is, after all, more rewarding, more reciprocal and less demanding. And what is more, parents in their older age begin to see that those to whom they can rely on the most for help are their children; their own flesh and blood. It gradually dawns on them a closer relationship with their children is not just desirable, but it is a matter of necessity. But sadly, their children – now adults – are still used to what is normal. They have been trained to adapt to a life that did not involve a lot of time with their parents. Hence, just as their parents are reaching out to them more and more – in an attempt to make up for lost time – they find it exceedingly difficult to reciprocate. Too often, I am afraid, they don’t.I used to work part time for a senior care service. What I found was that many senior citizens (either in nursing homes or living in their own homes) did not have a lot family members visiting them. And in many cases, the elderly were placed in nursing homes because their children were just too busy to take care of them. I often wondered if the generation of parents who put their children in daycare out of convenience were now being put in nursing homes for the same reason. What goes around, comes around.Allow me to conclude on a personal note: My wife was given the opportunity to be a stay-at-home mom for several years before our family needed her to work. When that time came there were a few years when we had to rely on daycare services for two of our children. It was a less-than-ideal situation, but the circumstances warranted a second income. We needed the money to keep our older kids in Catholic schools; which was a top priority for us. Still, even given the situation we were in, we knew that having one of us stay at home during the day with our kids was the ideal. However, we did our best to better the situation and accepted the results as God’s will. When the ideal could not be realized due to circumstances beyond our control, we learned that Divine Providence made up for what was lacking. Indeed, when plan A was out of reach, we believed that the Lord could do his work through plan B.Unfortunately, parents are losing sight of the ideal. They are opting for plan B over plan A. But for those increasing number of parents who prefer to spend more time at the office rather than at home with their children – for those parents who believe this is the ideal – they should know what they are preparing their children for. There may come a time when they, in their time of need, will much rather be cared for by their own children in the warmth of a home than by paid staff at some nursing home. To be sure, nursing homes serve a noble purpose. Quite often, they do good work. But rarely do senior citizens want to live there as their first choice; especially when their children have the capability to care for them.In any event, it must always be borne in mind that the apple never falls far from the tree. For some in their old age, this is a consolation. Yet, for others, it is a cause for concern.
Israel's past and America's future
Apr 26, 2013 / 00:00 amAmerica can learn something from the nation of Israel. In the Old Testament we see that when the Israelites drifted away from God and hence fell into idolatry, loose living was but the sad result. As such, liberty under God’s law turned into license in the absence of his law. Historian, William Durant, once said that when liberty turns to license, dictatorship is near. In fact, the last verse of the book of Judges indicates that the Hebrews grew weary of God’s law and authority. Indeed, they wanted a change. The concluding verse in the book of Judges is as follows: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best.” (Judges 21:25)After Moses had led the Israelites to the frontiers of the Promised Land, Joshua, his successor, took the reins, ushered them in and had the Twelve Tribes settle in their respective regions. For the next several years God chose to govern his people through the Twelve Judges. Their names were Othniel, Ehud, Shamger, Deborah and Barak, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, and Samson. It was God who chose each judge and through the anointing of the Spirit, they exercised a judicial oversight over the new nation. However, they did not enjoy the power of a king. To be sure, the power of the judges was modest and intermittent. By no means did they possess unlimited power under God. By and large, people were free to govern themselves.Years later our Lord Jesus would remind the Jews that to sin is to be a slave of sin. And slavery to sin eventually translates into political slavery. When the first-century Jews rejected their Messiah in favor of Caesar, it was Caesar, the Roman emperor, who sent his general Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. Due to their own sin, they could not discern their deliverer.True and enduring liberty can only be had within the observance and protection of God’s law. But when sin and lawlessness increases, feelings of insecurity will increase just the same. And when people forfeit the protection of Almighty God they will soon seek the protection of an all-powerful State. After all, Scripture says that a distressed conscience magnifies misfortunes. After the twelfth Judge of Israel, the Israelites “did what they thought best.” In other words, they followed their own desires instead of God's laws. Sure enough, Israel had looked to their neighbors for inspiration. Seeing that other nations had kings, they too wanted their own king.Enter Samuel: In the First Book of Samuel this prophet makes an appearance. Some say he was the last of the Judges but the first of a long line of prophets. In any case, he was favored by God. Through him the Lord would speak to his people. The Israelites knew this. So they approached Samuel and requested a king. When Samuel heard their request, he was upset. He knew that by them requesting a king they were, at the same time, rejecting God’s rule through the Judges. Samuel took the matter to God. In response, the Lord replied, "Grant the people's every request. It is not you they reject, they are rejecting me as their king. As they have treated me constantly from the day I brought them up from Egypt to this day, deserting me and worshiping strange gods, so do they treat you too.”Samuel then gave them their wish. But they would have to pay a price by loaning their land and children to the State. He told the Israelites: The rights of the king who will rule you will be as follows:1. He will take your sons and assign them to his chariots and horses, and they will run before his chariot.2.He will also appoint from among them his commanders of groups of a thousand and of a hundred soldiers. He will set them to do his plowing and his harvesting, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots.3. He will use your daughters as ointment-makers, as cooks, and as bakers.4. He will take the best of your fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials.5. He will tithe your crops and your vineyards, and give the revenue to his eunuchs and his slaves.6. He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best oxen and your asses, and use them to do his work.7. He will tithe your flocks and you yourselves will become his slaves.Strangely enough, when people are given a choice between liberty and security, they will choose security. This is especially the case when people feel deprived of Divine Providence through a life of sin. Israel would have to learn this lesson time and time again.To make a long story short, they got their king. The first King of Israel was Saul. He was anointed by the prophet Samuel. But Saul proved to be a disappointment. By default, the Lord told Samuel to anoint David. He then became king and his son, Solomon succeeded him. From 1050 BC to 930 BC these three kings ruled over the kingdom of Israel. Happily, Israel was one nation during this time. But that was to change after Solomon died. Under his son, Rehoboam (grandson of King David), Israel was divided into two different kingdoms through conflict in the year 930 BC. Ten tribes formed the northern kingdom, better known as Israel. Two of the tribes established the southern kingdom, which was given the name of Judah.The royal line of David was to be preserved in the kingdom of Judah (Just as the successors of St. Peter, the first pope, was preserved in Western Christianity after it split from Eastern Christianity. Western Christianity became known as the Roman Catholic Church. Eastern Christianity became known as the Orthodox Church. Both sides can trace their lineage back to the Apostles).Unfortunately, the northern kingdom of Israel fell into the worst kind of paganism. Israel lasted from 930 BC to 723 BC. In 723 BC it was destroyed by Assyria. Approximately 19 kings ruled and every single one of them were bad. But the kingdom of Judah was not much better. It lasted from 930 BC to 586 BC. Like Israel, the kingdom of Judah was destroyed by a superpower known as the Babylonian Empire. Approximately 25 kings ruled Judah but only a handful were good.These were the sad results of a people who rejected the dominion of God. For centuries the Jews would be dominated by one mighty empire after another. By the time the Roman Empire came along (when Jesus was born), the suppressed nation of Israel was so desperate to be free from oppression that they misinterpreted the Messianic prophecies to mean that their political liberation was at hand. According to them, their Messiah would be a political warrior. But God had better plans. Instead, he proposed to save their souls through his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.The same proposal is held out to America. To be sure, it is only by freeing the soul from sin that any nation can be liberated from political tyranny. If the soul is not saved, nothing is saved! Unfortunately, Israel had to learn this the hard way. Let's pray that America will not repeat the same mistake.
Finding that right person
Apr 19, 2013 / 00:00 amAs each generation fails to draw from the well of Christian wisdom, they experience more difficulty in finding the right person for marriage. Indeed, you will be surprised how shortsighted materialism and sensuality can make us. The result is that attraction is often confused with love. Below are seven tips that may help you find that right person. You may find that some of these basic principles may seem like unrealistic ideals or attainable goals. But remember, with God everything is possible. It is He who will lead you to that right person if you are meant to get married. However, He needs your cooperation. And that cooperation may require a great deal of patience and self-discipline on your part.1. Love’s priority: Your prospective spouse should love God more than you and you more than their parents. Christianity brings a right order to human love. A person who does not put God first in their life will likely put others, including their own parents, before you. The right order is this: God first, spouse second, children third and everybody else fourth. Too many wives and husbands will not defend their spouse when their mother, father, brother or sister meddles into their affairs. This causes problems. And more importantly, a person who loves God more than their wife or husband is much more likely to be faithful when no one is looking. More often than not, their priorities will be what they should be.2. Christian identity: If a person claims to be Catholic or goes to church, do not assume that he or she is follower of Christ through and through. So many prospective spouses are fooled by this. Keep in mind that each soul is like a mansion or building. As you enter it, you will find that the first floor may be tidy and may even have Christian décor so as to express their religiosity. But as you proceed to the second or third floor, what you may find are things wholly contrary to that Christian expression. In other words, church pews are filled with sinners; sometimes of the worst kind. Do not take someone’s word that they are Christian nor should you consider their church-going practice as proof their faith is authentic. There has never been a time when people are confused as to what a Christian really is as today. Pastors, parents and teachers are partly (if not, mostly) to blame for this. Just remember that the garb of religious devotion can mask many a sin. Some may pray the rosary or even do other pious acts and yet, they may have no qualms about backstabbing or doing things that will betray a relationship. The real test of Christian identity, therefore, is not so much in devotion but in virtue; especially when their will is contradicted. 3. Character and Contradictions: Before you get married, make sure you know how your prospective spouse responds to adversity and contractions; especially when you are the source of that contradiction! Ask yourself: What is my boyfriend, girlfriend or fiancé like when I disappoint them, when I contradict their will or when I am a burden to them? When they have nothing to lose, how will they treat you when you have a chronic illness, when your family becomes burdensome or if you should be unemployed for several months, thus making it necessary to make financial sacrifices? In other words, know how they carry their crosses; especially when you are likely to be that cross for them! If you get married and still believe that your fiancé can do no wrong, you do not know him or her enough! Love is not only an act of the will, but it is based on knowledge. You cannot really love a person you do not know.4. Mom and Dad: Another very important consideration is how they relate to their own parents. If there is any discord between your prospective spouse and their parent, know that it just may carry over into your marriage. For instance, when a man does not get along with his mother, he may have difficulties, in some form or another, with his wife. There may be a tendency to be too rough or too insecure on his part. And if a woman is not secure in her father’s love for her, she may develop codependency habits in the marriage. Sometimes the slightest disapproval will cause a great deal of insecurity for her. On a very important note: If you were sexually abused, get help, talk things out and make sure the counseling you receive is coupled with good Catholic spirituality. A key to a happy marriage after having had your innocence violated is to forgive your offender.5. Vices: Remember that vices rarely exist in isolation. Rather, they exist in families. The same applies to virtues. For instance, if a man is into porn, he may have problems with lying or infidelity. If gambling or alcoholism is a problem, again, dishonesty, intemperance and covetousness are probably vices that lurk nearby. Also, how someone treats a previous date or partner will most likely serve as an index as to how you will be treated. I can never understand why a man or a woman can marry an adulterer without realizing that they too are likely to be a victim of the same sin.6. Sex and Cohabitation: Sexual activity is a distraction before marriage and worse, it is a rehearsal for divorce. A man or woman who says “I love you” or has sex on the first date is a person who will quit the relationship just as quickly as they rushed in. They are not to be trusted because they know not the value of love! For this and other reasons, when there are sexual attachments involved, it is exceedingly difficult to properly discern the right person for you. Christ elevated marriage into a sacrament because married couples need his grace. But sexual sin prior to marriage forfeits the most important kind of grace – sanctifying grace! Not only are we short-sighted without it, we seriously compromise our salvation. Therefore, exercise the virtue of chastity before marriage; deny yourself in that area and open yourself to God’s grace. As such, you will be much more likely to have a long and enduring marriage with the right person.7. Spirit of Sacrifice: Try to look for the greatest of qualities in your future spouse, namely, the spirit of sacrifice. John Gray, author of “Men are from Mars, Women from Venus,” stated that God gives every marriage about 3-5 years of a strong dose of attraction or hormones. After that expires, love (as an act of the will) must carry you the rest of the way. This is not to say the romance ends after five years. In fact, I believe that the biggest mistake that husbands and wives make is that they stop courting one another. Here is my point: Marital love is accompanied with sweetness and romance in those first years of marriage. However, when children come along, that marital love matures and moves beyond the romance. Instead of frequenting restaurants and going for walks in the park during their free time, the married couple now has to change diapers, take the children to the doctor or stay up at night with them if they should be sick. Indeed, they have to share their time – the time they used to have exclusively for one another – with the little ones.Believe it or not, some people take this work to mean that their love has lost its sparkle when in fact it has matured into a more selfless kind of love … the right kind of love. But the right kind of love can only be shared with the right person. This is why finding the right person is very important.
Half of men’s confessions
Apr 12, 2013 / 00:00 amMan’s greatest strength is his greatest weakness. He can relentlessly pursue a goal with a tunnel-like vision regardless of the hazards. For instance, discovering the New World in the 1400s and 1500s and flying to the moon in 1969 were great enterprises conceived and carried out by men. The loss of lives was a distinct possibility in each venture but the ambition of the explorers and astronauts remained. But what can be used to achieve noble ends can also be leveraged against man’s greatest good; namely, his own soul. Women sometimes have a hard time understanding that men are visual. He can lock into an image. One glance of a woman immodestly dressed can cast an image in his mind, an image that may linger in the company of his thoughts for a long time if it goes unchallenged.Due to the power of sexual sin, Jesus speaks in such aggressive terms when teaching about lust and adultery. He said that it wasn’t enough to abstain from adultery. Men are to refrain from deliberately thinking about it and desiring it. With this, Our Lord went on to mandate a kind of spiritual and moral violence against oneself. He said if an eye causes you to sin – pluck it out! If a hand causes you to sin – cut it off! Here, he uses graphic imagery to convey the need to hate sin, particularly lust. It is not enough to love virtue and moral purity. One must hate lust, hate premarital sex, and hate adultery; so much so that the follower of Christ must be willing to sacrifice even those good things in his life that may occasion sin. This is why Fulton Sheen once said that a man must pray and reason to purity. He must think about the paths he must travel and what sacrifices he must make in order to travel those uphill paths to purity. Below are seven considerations to make that uphill climb a little easier.Practical Considerations:1. First, there must be an incentive to hate sin and make the necessary sacrifices to attain sexual purity. Christians have forgotten how to hate evil. A man must trace out in his mind the logical consequences of his capitulation to lust. Whether it be an immodest image of a woman or a real life temptress, considering the repercussions of one’s infidelity or lust is a must. Too often men do not think of sexual sin as a dead-end road. They do not ponder that infidelity can involve considerable pain for family members who are affected it. The damage infidelity can take years to repair.2. Secondly, and even more important, men seldom consider how offensive sexual infidelity is to God. With every lustful thought or sexual indulgence outside of marriage a real Divine Person is offended. Furthermore, his soul is blemished and stained; making him more unfit for his communion with God. And if he wishes to enter into God’s kingdom, that sin must be purged. Such purgation always involves suffering. St. Paul even reminds the Corinthians not to deceive themselves, that no fornicator will inherit the kingdom of God. Not to inherit the kingdom of God is a mortal sin. And as St. Bonaventure said, to commit mortal sin is to make your soul God's grave. We can forfeit eternal life if we so choose. We must think about this as a real possibility. To downplay play this reminder as being “negative” or “prudish” is to downplay the teachings of the New Testament and the Saints.3. This leads to our third consideration: During the temptation, be severe with yourself. As stated above, remind yourself about the cost of lust and its false promises. Keep in mind that lust or sexual temptation promises more than it can deliver. Other than female slaves and prostitutes, there is not a respectable woman in the world that is willing to cooperate with every sexual desire a man might have. For most men – even married men – easy access to sex-on-demand is readily out of reach. The appetite for food, on the other hand, can be much more easily satisfied. When a McDonald’s commercial stimulates our hunger, for instance, a man can drive down to the nearest McDonald’s and buy some cheap food. But when sexually explicit images awaken a man’s libido, it cannot be readily satisfied. This is why discipline is needed.Just as important as being severe with yourself before the act or misdeed, it is equally important to be mindful of God's mercy and His peace if, in fact, we should fall; that is, after the act or misdeed has been committed. If you fall from grace by giving into lust – in whatever way – do not berate yourself. Peacefully pick yourself up, confess your sins, do penance and make the proper amends not to do it again. Remember God’s mercy is greater than your sin.4. Fourth, frequent the Sacrament of Confession as often as you can. God’s strength is to be found there. And if you should know the priest in the confessional booth, and you have to face him time and time again, such humiliations are good for the soul.5. Fifth, remember you, even as a layman, are a priest of God. When tempted, offer that sexual inclination on the altar of your heart. There must be a sacred context to the pain of self-denial. Either unite yourself mystically to the Mass or assist at the Mass in person so that Christ can absorb it in His Holy Sacrifice. Sexual thoughts cannot be wished away. They have to be crowded out with something to replace them. Use your priestly calling. As St. Paul said, put to death the deeds of the body and offer your sacrifice at the altar; if not at the altar at your local parish, offer it to God at the altar of your heart!6. Sixth, and related to the previous consideration, meditate on the Passion of Christ. This is a great source of strength and it will help you “crucify” your own flesh, so to speak. Remember what St. Paul said: “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans 8:13) Unite yourself to Christ’s Passion in your daily meditation. Your self-denial can be a pleasing form of worship to the Lord. Again, to quote St. Paul: “I urge you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.”7. Lastly, invoke the Blessed Virgin who exudes purity even from heaven. Ask her to share her virginal purity with you. She will be more than happy to help you overcome a sin that snatches so many souls from her Son. Ask her to guard your purity. In fact, I would argue she is the shortcut to sexual purity. With her on your side, the devil will be put to flight.
The making of many Christians
Apr 5, 2013 / 00:00 amTertullian, an early Christian, once said that Christians are made, not born. One might ask: If they are made, what are they made with or made of? The question is an important because chances are you know someone who is no longer a Catholic. In fact, there are about 30 million ex-Catholics in the United States. And to complicate matters, fewer Catholics are being made in the Church to replace those who are being unmade by the world. It would seem that active members of the Church are at a loss as to the reasons why we are not making Catholics the way we use to. Church leaders, teachers, and parents often wonder why Mass attendance is on the decline; why we are losing the younger generations on same-sex marriage and cohabitation; and why the Christian religion is losing its appeal. In fact, if we were to take a look at the brutal facts, we can anticipate other disturbing societal trends such as an aggressive push for euthanasia and the censorship of any opposition to the gay-rights agenda. Challenges for Christians loom to be sure, but so do the opportunities. If the world is going from bad to worse, it is because there are more battles than prayers; more conflicts than spiritual sacrifices.Blessed Mother Theresa used to tell the Sisters of Charity that if souls are to be saved, a price is to be paid on their behalf. In other words, spiritual sacrifices and good old fashion penance are to be offered on their behalf. As for paying the price herself, a friend of Mother Theresa told me a story about an unusual sacrifice she had to make. In an AIDS hospital, the Sisters of Charity were ministering to AIDS patients. But as Blessed Mother had attempted to care for one angry patient, a container of urine was thrown at her face by him. She stood there with his urine dripping down her face. But instead of kicking the bed and saying, “The hell with you,” she calmly asked him why he was so unhappy. It took considerable restraint on her part not to react in a hostile or angry manner. But her graceful poise won the AIDS patient over. His rage and bitterness seemed to have melted, almost immediately. And soon thereafter he received the Sacraments and peacefully passed away.Perhaps, the slowness to recognize the value of spiritual sacrifices, doing penance and drawing close to the Eucharistic Sacrifice at the altar is the reason why we have gotten stuck. Can this be the reason why over 70 percent of all the popes in the first Christian millennium were canonized as Saints but in the second millennium just over 5 percent of popes made it to Sainthood? The Fathers of the Church and early Christians believed that their love for God and neighbor, their acts of sacrifice and even the ultimate sacrifice of dying for their faith, if necessary, were indispensible- that is, absolutely necessary – in winning souls for Christ. But in order to win souls for Christ- in order to make Christians – the spirit of sacrifice, which is the essence of love, needs to be mystically united to Christ. St. Paul, the great Apostle of Christ, saw it this way. He asked the Christians in Rome, as if to remind them, “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3)I once told a former colleague of mine in Catholic media that if you want better results, that is, if you want to attract more people to your apostolate, then you have to pay the price. In other words, you have to offer sacrifices for souls. But he responded, “Well…that sucks!” I think that sums up the attitude of a lot of Christians in 2013. We have convinced ourselves that we can win souls to Christ with just speaking the truth with eloquence, with just lectures, and with well managed programs. It is as if we believe that conversion is merely an intellectual exercise; a communication of right ideas instead of a transfusion of grace. Compelling, orthodox teachings are necessary, no doubt. But if we are to the mission of the Church is to move beyond mediocrity and into the realm of greatness, her members will have to take seriously certain insights and practices that Christ and Apostles gave us. For instance, when two of the apostles gave voice to their aspiration for greatness by asking Jesus if they could sit next to him when he would enter into his glory, the answer given them was a surprising one. This lofty goal (one might say presumptuous goal) would not be denied them but there would be a price to pay. The Gospel of Mark reads as follows:St. James and St. John, sons of Zebedee, asked Jesus, “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” They said to him, “We can.” Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink, you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized; but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared.” (Mark 10: 37-40)One might asked why Our Lord chose to use liturgical terms in making reference to his suffering and death. It is because “baptism” and the Eucharistic “cup” are channels of grace. His death on the Cross would be the channel through which grace would be poured out into the world. But notice that he did not claim that suffering and sacrifice was for him alone. On the contrary, he reassured his two ambitious apostles that the cup he was to drink, they were to drink as well. In other words, Jesus Christ did not suffer and die so that we would not have to suffer and die. On the contrary, through baptism into his death and burial, our suffering and death would become channels of grace for souls too. Perhaps, this is what St. Peter said, “Whoever suffers in the flesh has broken with sin.” (I Peter 4:1) Or why St. Paul made the bold claim that his sufferings could help complete the afflictions of Christ for the sake of the Church. In Colossians he wrote, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church…” (1:24) And to the Corinthians the same Apostles went so far as to say that Christ’s death was work in him so that they could share in divine life. (cf. II Cor. 4:12)Christ empowered our suffering and sacrifices to atone for sin. Indeed, if Christians are to be made in abundance again, we must use that power.
Passive fathers breed angry sons
Apr 5, 2013 / 00:00 amWhen boys used to cry, their fathers used to say to them, “You better stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.” But today there are not a few fathers who are inclined to do everything in their power to keep their sons from crying at all. And this tendency has been institutionalized to a great extent. In my social life and profession, I have noticed a trend among many fathers,who, with intentions inspired by compassion and kindness, allow their sons toindulge either in anger or self pity unchecked. In many cases, however, it isnot the father’s compassion and kindness that is transmitted to their sons.When excessive whining, complaining or anger is not disrupted by somekind of disciplinary intervention, then boys are prone to habitual anger, evennarcissism.I have worked with – and have been friends with – fathers whose congenialdemeanor has served them well in their profession and social life. But theirinability to transition into a stern, disciplinary man of authority when theirsons act-up or misbehave ends up having unintended consequences.For one, a child is hard-pressed to respect a parent who does notdiscipline. Instead of love, the passive father gets ingratitude in return.Second, to acquiesce to the whims of children or to show a reluctance todiscipline quite often reinforces bad behavior. Such passivity on the father’spart perpetuates the need for him to yell or raise his voice in giving his sondirectives. Sometimes this can go on for years. But the saddest display ofpassive fatherhood is when he begs his children to cooperate. Begging our ownchildren to listen to us is the surest sign that we have given up on our ownGod-given parental authority.It is as if today’s parents have lost sight of the value of adversity,punishment and even failure. As to dealing with failure, it is every bit asbeneficial for a boy’s development and success. Moreover, being overlooked orostracized by peers can be occasions for humility. As I recall from mychildhood, it was the popular kids who never knew what it meant to be picked-onwho struggled with arrogance and self-absorption. Bullying or losing isunpleasant to be sure, but there are many parents who feel that it is the worstof evils. As such, they do everything in their power to protect their childrenfrom these unfavorably circumstances. Sometimes, however, being overlyprotective of our kids can be just as harmful as the bullying or losing itself.As to the institutionalization of this aversion to losing, sporting eventsfor boys no longer stresses the importance of winning and achievement. Thisomission, quite often, is in deference to those boys who will inevitably feelthe disappointment of loss. Even in the NFL, players get penalized for“taunting” the other team after a great play. From public institutions tosporting events for children, masculine virtues of triumph and conquest areslowly being smothered. Except for a few institutions like the military, boysare no longer being trained to be men. The training of boys to be men starts with the father. But the father needsthe community to reinforce this training. When a boy’s anger and self-pity isallowed to fester unchecked; when I see fathers and coaches do everything intheir power to protect a child’s self-esteem at all cost; and when I see a realattempt to dismiss the value of discipline and punishment; kids naturally feelentitled to win. As such, they will not know how to process loss in the yearsto come. With such an attitude, they are deprived of learning invaluable lessonsthat come with trials and adversity. When I attend community activities for boys, I feel like I am watchingAmerica make the same mistakes as other fallen civilizations did. For instance,when the Roman Empire was in a downward spiral, there was a gender imbalance ofepidemic proportions. Masculinity was in short supply. In fact, these problemswere to surface during the third century. Catholic historian, Henry Daniel-Ropshad this to say: “The entire moral atmosphere of this epoch was permeated by anew style of feminism, which had been brought from the East by the Syrianprincesses of [the Roman emperor] Septimius Serverus’ family: women filled theroles of men because the men were wanting…” Men were wanting then, and I fearthat men are wanting today.If truth be told, it was Christianity that served to restore the genderbalance by teaching and demonstrating to society what a real man and what areal woman was in Christ. By studying God as Father and Lord in Scripture,people came to understand how a father is supposed to behave. Throughoutthe bible, God was severe at times and yet at other times he was tender. He wasalso a God who rewarded and punished. And what is more, in his wisdom, hedid not spare his servants from adversity. Like his Father, Jesus Christ displayed these characteristics. As CardinalJames Gibbons said in 1921: “In His person was shown the excellence andtrue dignity of human nature, wherein human rights have their center. In Hisdealings with men, justice and mercy, sympathy and courage, pity for weaknessand rebuke for hollow pretense were perfectly blended. Having fulfilled thelaw, He gave to His followers a new commandment.” Christian manhood is the highest expression of masculinity. It is neithertoo aggressive nor too passive. The making of a Christian man, the oldfashioned way, anticipates the demands of life. It prepares boys for the realworld. This world, which is a quite unforgiving world, will inevitably test thecharacter of every man. Unfortunately, many fathers, coaches, and teachers in the twenty-firstcentury are protecting boys from that real world. In doing so, there willbe a new generation of boys who will struggle to be men. Toomany of them will not know how to manage their anger and self-pity whenthe world contradicts their will. It is then that the world will say to them, “Stopcrying or I'll give you something to cry about!”
Nature's Triduum
Mar 29, 2013 / 00:00 am“For one week he shall make a firm compact with the many; half the week he shall abolish sacrifice and oblation…” (Daniel 9:27) The traditional interpretation of “one week” in the prophet Daniel's writing points to Holy Week. And the “half the week” is an allusion to the Triduum of the Lord. From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday is when Jesus established his New Covenant the people of God. The last three days of Holy Week- considered to be the holiest three days of the liturgical calendar -is when the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of our Lord are celebrated by the Catholic Church.After Jesus Christ passed through the Gates of Death, God raised up the body of Jesus so that He could give testimony that the fullness of life is ours for the taking after we pass through those same gates. In fact, Christians who meditate on that life of promise beyond the grave gradually, by the grace of God, lose their natural fear of death. The New Testament says as much: “Now since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.” (Hebrews 2: 14-15) To be a slave to this fear of death involves the despair of never seeing deceased loved one again and the belief that all good things comes to an end upon our death. As one priest said, “To avoid the confrontation with death is a refusal to live life to the full.” Indeed our view of death determines how we live life. If we are burdened with the handicap of unbelief then this life and all of its goods will be slavishly sought after and clung to.Bishop Sheen once said that if you tell a boy that he is to be given one ball and one ball only, then he will be afraid to play with it. But if the little boy knows he is getting another ball, he will play with the ball with a carefree spirit and get the most out of it. And if he is feeling generous, he might even be inspired to give it to another boy or girl knowing that he will soon get a better one. To use the words of our Lord: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” But if this is the only life we have, such generosity and love is unintelligible. If truth be told, worldly people constantly give witness to their anxiety when they hurry to accumulate as much pleasures and as many material goods as possible. They are always in a hurry...racing against time. Furthermore, the anxiety over the possibility of losing their life or material belongings magnifies their misfortune. When the hazards of life press up against them, they overcompensate by invoking the State for protection. As such, elected officials then create layers of laws and regulations to give their constituents the illusion of security. Perhaps, in part, this is what the Letter to the Hebrews was referring to when it stated that “those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life.”But death is not the end of life. Christ revealed to us in the Holy Triduum that not only does death follow life, but that life- a higher and fuller life -follows death. However, for centuries since the beginning of time, God has been tutoring us about the mysteries of the Triduum through analogies of his creation. “The great truth,” Pope Leo XIII said, “which we learn from nature herself is also the grand Christian dogma on which religion rests as on its foundation - that, when we have given up this present life, then shall we really begin to live.”Perhaps this is why the sun sets only to rise again; or why a person sleeps at night taking on the semblance of death only to wake up the next morning; or why a preborn baby knows only darkness until it is born to a world of light and color. Father Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, gave a wonderful sermon to Pope Benedict XVI a few years back called, The Christian Response to Secularism. In it he said, “Between the life of faith in time and eternal life there is a relationship similar to that which exists between the life of the embryo in the maternal womb and that of the baby, once he has come to the light.” The pontifical preacher goes on to elaborate on this illustration with a story. In fact, he related the following story to Pope Benedict XVI and the faithful gathered at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome: “There were two twins, a boy and a girl, so intelligent and precocious that, still in the mother's womb, already spoke to one another. The girl asked her brother: 'According to you, will there be a life after birth?' He answered: 'Don't be ridiculous. What makes you think that there is something outside of this narrow and dark space in which we find ourselves?' The girl, gaining courage, insisted: 'Perhaps a mother exists, someone who has put us here, and who will take care of us.' And he answered: 'Do you, perhaps, see a mother anywhere? What you see is all that is.' She replied: 'But don't you feel at times a pressure on the chest that increases day by day and pushes us forward?' 'To tell the truth,' he answered, 'it's true: I feel it all the time.' 'See,' concluded his sister triumphantly, 'this pain cannot be for nothing. I think it is preparing us for something greater than this small space.'”In 1917, when Our Lady appeared to Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco, she brought heaven to this “small space” of ours; that is, to a world that was growing darker by the decade. After each of the Blessed Virgin's appearances, the children were supremely happy and could not wait to see her again! Even little Lucia caught a glimpse of heaven while gazing upon the beautiful Lady from Heaven. She told her parents, “Heaven was so pretty…there were many wild ponies.” Lucia would later say that “before the Divine Presence we felt exaltation and joy.” To be sure, one lasting effect of the Blessed Virgin's visitations was that the three children lost their natural fear of death. It could be said of them that they eagerly looked forward to heaven. For them- as with the twins in the mother's womb -death was no longer deemed to be the end of life but the labor pains through which they attain eternal happiness.Such supernatural interventions are rare for most people. And during the Catholic liturgical calendar the Church only celebrates the Triduum once a year. However, the Lord, in his goodness, gives us many reminders of death and resurrection through his creation. As St. Paul said, “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.” (Romans 1:20) Not only is God's existence understood and perceived in what he has made, but his creation is also a harbinger that there is life beyond the grave! We are daily reminded of this every time the sun shines its light on us after the dark of night.
A word that will rouse the weary
Mar 22, 2013 / 00:00 am"The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them." -Isaiah 50:4-5 It is as if the prophet Isaiah was watching the 2005 movie, Passion of the Christ, in the 8th century B.C. A portrait of the Messiah was given to the people of God some seven hundred-plus years before the prophetic word was spoken and before the first drop of blood was drawn. In chapter 50 of his book, Isaiah weaves two very important themes together: Our Lord’s proclamationof the Gospel and his Passion. Indeed, with bearing witness to Christ’s love and in leading souls to heaven, there must be a Passion, a price to be paid, if you will! As Pope Leo XIII said, “No man can hope for eternal reward unless he follow in the blood-stained footprints of his Savior.” When Our Lady appeared to the children in Fatima in 1917, she did not ask them if they were certified catechists, or if they were well read in theology or even if they were actively engaged in ministry. All these things are good and even necessary, but they did not rank as the highest of priorities for the Mother of God. She simply asked Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco the following question: “Do you wish to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the suffering that He may please to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and to ask for the conversion of sinners?” That was the crux! That’s all she wanted to know. Answering in the affirmative, they became useful instruments in the Hands of God. Indeed, great events were to follow all because they said “yes” to the Cross. Jesus Christ consented to the suffering that was asked of him as well. The Letter to the Hebrews has him saying, “Behold, I come to do your will, O God.” And as we turn back the pages to the book of Isaiah, not only is Christ’s mission is foretold in chapter 50 but with it, the mission of the servants of God is wonderfully traced out as well. Like the three seers at Fatima, this Servant of God knew that raising up the lowly and feeding those who hungered for God came with a price tag: The Lord GOD has given me a well-trained tongue, That I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; And I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting. The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced; I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame. He is near who upholds my right; if anyone wishes to oppose me, let us appear together. Who disputes my right? Let him confront me. See, the Lord GOD is my help; who will prove me wrong?(Isaiah 50:4-9) For those of us who aspire to be useful servants of God and for those of us who want to usher in the kingdom of heaven, one thing isneeded: a well-trained tongue. A well-trained tongue does not speak falsehood or words of retaliation but is always keeping in mind that it is the sin that we hate but never the sinner. Indeed, when all is said and done, we want to see even our worst enemy in heaven with us; that is, if we should persevere in holiness to the end. To inspire and to rouse the soul to repentance and love of God, the tongue must be trained to speak to the essentials of salvation and avoid superfluous issues which may distract from that end. And one very commondistraction is to have a greater compassion for our neighbor’s feelings than their soul. In fact, every Saint teaches us that sparing feelings is never to be preferred to saving souls. If correction or a word of admonition will rouse the soul to repentance, then the welfare of the soul must take precedence over a preference for a peaceful coexistence. In other words, to avoid “rocking the boat” is not always an act of charity. But first thing is first: Every morning it is important- not just to speak to the Lord in prayer -but to listen to his Word through spiritual reading or meditation. Through silence and attentiveness our ears are opened. No doubt, silence is the language of God. And it is in that silence that eternity, which envelops us, can be discerned. Another way of listening to the Lord is to accept the circumstances of each day as his will. The Saints also teach that circumstances - good or bad - are the content of God’s daily revelation to us. It is in those circumstances and conditions of life that God’s will can be discerned. No need to look elsewhere. Quite understandably, when the circumstances deprive us of something we desire or someone we love, then resignation to the Divine Will is a great hardship. But this hardship is the very thing our Lord referred to when he said pick up your Cross and follow me. As painful as it is, picking up this heavy Cross when adversity presses against us is purifying; indeed, just when we think we are being torn down we are also, in fact, being built-up. Our love for God is being perfected precisely because it is no longer dependent on the gifts he gives to us. This is why St. Paul can say,“Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and constraints, for the sake of Christ; for when I am weak, then I am strong.” When we do not rebel or do not turn back then we can rest assured that God’s life-giving compensation is awaiting us, not only in heaven but in this life! Although it seems out of reach at the time, nevertheless, we will reap the fruits of perseverance on this side of eternity. Christ, the Servant of God, willingly gave his back for lashing and his face to spitting. Pain and humiliation was his lot. And when we offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, as our spiritual worship (cf. Rom.12), Jesus can take the training wheels off of our mission in life. He can therefore let us go and do his work in his name. But when we flinch, when we draw back because we foresee pain and humiliation, we should not expect too much. The fruits from our labor will be few.
The Bishop who ventured
Mar 16, 2013 / 00:00 amIn the fifth century, at the age of sixteen, St. Patrick was abducted from his homeland in Great Britain only to be transported as a slave to Ireland. For six years he tirelessly worked on his master’s estate. As a slave, he naturally longed for his homeland. But Fr. Alban Butler, author of The Lives of the Saints, said, “His afflictions were to him a source of heavenly benedictions, because he carried his cross with Christ, that is, with patience, resignation, and holy joy.” In solitude, he lifted his mind up to God during the day. At night, he would interrupt his sleep to do vigils. In the book, Confession of St. Patrick and Letter to Coroticus, John Skinner gives one of the reasons behind the Apostle of Ireland’s perseverance in his mission. It is as if he hints at an interior cathedral of beauty that the Holy Spirit builds up within the soul: “Pascal said that in difficult times you should always keep something beautiful in your heart. Patrick is able to survive these harsh and lonely territories of exile precisely because he keeps the beauty of God alive in his heart. The inner beauty of the divine intimacy transfigures outer bleakness. This inner intimacy brings his soul alive. It opens the world of divine imagination to this youth.”St. Patrick would later allude to this interior strength and beauty in his Confessions: “I was purged by the Lord; and He made me fit so that I might be now what was once far from me that I should care and labor for the salvation of others, whereas then I did not even care about myself.” Indeed, later in life he would say that these years in servitude were the most important.Like St. John Vianney, St. Patrick was not noted for his intellectual acumen. But what his intellect lacked, his zeal for the glory of God made up for.Butler made an important point when wrote that priestly formation and religious education in general tends to overemphasize academic development while giving insufficient attention to spiritual devotion. “Many almost kill themselves,” he said, “with studying to compose elegant sermons…and reap very little fruit. Their hearers applaud their parts, but very few are converted. Most preachers, now-a-days, have learning, but are not sufficiently grounded in true sanctity, and a spirit of devotion.” But St. Patrick, like all saintly men called to the Sacrament of Holy Orders, saw that holiness is the greatest source of heavenly knowledge.One night, during his enslavement in Ireland, St. Patrick had a dream through which the Lord told him to make a break for it. A boat would be waiting for him. He then managed to escape from the bonds of slavery, walked many miles and finally came upon a boat ready to set sail. However, to his dismay, the sailor refused his request. St. Patrick then turned around and proceeded to pray. He was tempted to despair but during his prayer the men had a change of heart. So the sailors took him along. The Saint said that after a long sail and many more miles of walking, all three of them were nearly half dead with hunger and fatigue. His companions asked him to pray for food and he did just that. A few moments later, they spotted swine and had a hearty meal.St. Patrick eventually made his way back home and, as you can imagine, everyone was thrilled to see him. However, when he expressed his intention to become a Catholic priest, he was met with opposition. We might ask, “What was his attitude? Was he downcast and discouraged?” Answer: No. He was not. Rather, he insisted that he must do the work of God and proclaim his goodness. He said, “Hence I cannot be silent—nor, indeed, is it expedient—about the great benefits and the great grace which the lord has deigned to bestow upon me in the land of my captivity; for this we can give to God in return after having been chastened by Him, to exalt and praise His wonders before every nation that is anywhere under the heaven.”Eventually he was ordained a priest and then consecrated as a bishop. Soon thereafter, he made a journey to Rome in order to receive an Apostolic blessing from Pope St. Celestine. With renewed courage to take the Gospel to an unbaptized world, the Lord inspired him with yet another dream. In this dream he heard the Irish calling for him to return to their island. In it, they said to him, “We ask you, boy, come and walk among us once more.” Convinced that this was a call from God, he returned to Ireland. However, this was not the conventional practice for bishops. As such, he said that “many tried to prevent my mission; they would even talk to each other behind my back and say: 'Why does this fellow throw himself into danger among enemies who have no knowledge of God?'”Thanks be to God, St. Patrick was not intimidated by naysayers. Risk and danger did not deter him. He knew well that Ireland was a land populated with pagan Druids. He was also aware that they offered human sacrifices and practiced sorcery as a part of their cult. After having arrived in this foreign land, a place where human degradation and slavery abounded, he said the following:“Daily I expect murder, fraud, or captivity, or whatever it may be; but I fear none of these things because of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of God Almighty, who rules everywhere, as the prophet says: Cast your thought upon God, and He shall sustain you.”According to Butler, “In the first year of his mission he attempted to preach Christ in the general assembly of the kings and states of all Ireland…He afterwards converted and baptized the Kings of Dublin and Munster, and the seven sons of the King of Connaught.” "In forty years,” Butler went to say, “he restored sight to many blind, health to the sick, and raised nine dead persons to life.” Equally important was that he founded a monastery at Armagh for consecrated virgins for the religious life. That monastery produced many Saints.From the preaching of St. Patrick- Bishop and Apostle of Ireland -souls were saved and people were civilized. He was, no doubt, a bishop par-excellence.May his heroic mission and undaunting zeal inspire every Catholic- clergy and lay person –to weather storms and endure opposition in order to bear witness to the Gospel; this, for sole reason that Christ may be loved. As Bishop Fulton Sheen said, Christ is not known to cowards but rather to those who are willing to venture for his sake! This is precisely what St. Patrick did. He was a bishop who ventured for Christ's sake. And Ireland is forever indebted to him for it!