Deus Dat

It seems to me that the story of Job is very appropriate to the Lenten Season. For one thing, it reminds us about the virtue of patience and how important it is for us to be patient when God decides to send us trials.

Another thing that we learn from Job is not to murmur at God when something goes wrong. In our day and age, so many things can happen suddenly and without our knowledge. A relative that was healthy three weeks ago suddenly dies from heart failure, a car that was once a piece of junk becomes something more or less unrecognizable, a good friend stops talking to us, or we are felled by an illness that we know will make us really grouchy.

For many people, the automatic reaction is to murmur against God. Many of us would be extremely angry that God sent us some misfortune. On the other hand, however, we should not see any misfortune as something to murmur against. We must remember that God has His own inscrutable ways and, sometimes, we may not know what is happening until many years later.

The thing is that Job understood the meaning of what it is to suffer. Our Lord in His Passion did not murmur once when He was in excruciating pain. Although He was seized by fear and sorrow in the Garden of Gethsemane, He obeyed His Father’s Will. In nothing, did He complain.

One could also look at the many martyrs that the Church has produced over the centuries. So many of them died inhuman and heinous deaths at the hands of their persecutors. As St. Paul wrote to the Hebrews, the tortures enumerated could easily be those that were suffered by the martyrs themselves. The remarkable thing was that none of them complained during their tortures. None of them cried out. Rather, they prayed and were strengthened by God.

It seems to me that we should remember the example of Our Lord, Job, and the martyrs when we are faced with the same sufferings. No matter how small or trivial that suffering may be, it should be borne with humility and absolute trust that God’s will be done. In the end, we should realize that our suffering is not meant as punishment, but as a trial to see if we will do the right thing in God’s sight.

So let’s make a resolution today not to complain to God when misfortunes happen. Rather, let us learn to accept them.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

Our Lady of La Salette, pray for us!

St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, pray for us!

St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us!

All ye holy martyrs, pray for us!

Good Samaritans and good examples

At my work, we sometimes have conversations about religion. We talk about beliefs and things like that. Most of the time, we stay on neutral territory. Whether people like it or not, I refuse to participate in these discussions. I always feel that my Catholicism is not something that I should peddle in front of people as a commodity. Rather, it is something that should be quietly lived. After all, someone said that more people would be converted by our example than by our preaching, teaching, or whatever else we do.

One thing that I have always done at work is bring my spiritual reading. I know that in many work place anything that smacks of religion is verboten. Personally, I bring my spiritual reading in because I have nothing better to do than read. I wonder how many people have seen the books that I have been reading and been curious about their contents. I’ve seen people that I tutor look through them. Sometimes, they even ask me questions about what I have been reading. The thing is that my reading could have converted somebody without my knowledge. That’s example.

Sometimes, people will notice a religious person by other things too. It’s not necessarily the Scapular that one wears or the Miraculous Medal. Sometimes, it can be one’s outward demeanor and the way that we treat others. Maybe there is an old lady that is always joyful and meek who never grumbles when a bus driver slams on the breaks too hard. Maybe it is that nice young man that is always smiling. Sometimes, the people that we least expect are those that impact us the most and those people could be the people that we would never have cared for if we hadn’t known them.

The Good Samaritan is an example of what religion calls us to do. The Samaritans were people that were considered the scum of the earth by the Jews because they were heretics. Nobody wanted anything to do with them. Many people thought that they were best left to themselves. However, it was Samaritan that saved the Jew on the road to Jericho. It was the person that we least expect and, to the Jews, this parable was probably one that was extremely revolutionary. After all, would they have expected a Samaritan to help a Jew and put him up with some of his own money?

The thing is that the Samaritan did what he did because he cared enough to take care of somebody that really needed. A man that is bleeding and dying on the road attracts attention, but some people just don’t give a darn. The Samaritan did. He didn’t care about factions, impurities, and things like that. He just did what he had to do. Maybe that is what we are called to do in our every day lives. Maybe we are called to help and heal those people that least expect it and to bring them to God’s love.

I know plenty of Good Samaritans. I remember I once got my car stuck in a snow drift. No matter how much I pushed it back and forward, the thing didn’t want to budge. A woman, who had been shopping, suddenly appeared and we started working together. Then a couple appeared from a neighboring house and all of us started to work on the car together. After a good twenty minutes and hefty push, the car was out and I was extremely thankful. You see, none of these people were obligated to help. They could have just left me on the road, but they didn’t. They were Good Samaritans.

You know, though, doing corporal works is one thing. But we can also be Good Samaritans by doing spiritual works. Many of you may have to counsel friends and relatives that are doubting their Catholic faith. Maybe some of them have even left the Church, while others are struggling to understand why it is that we do the things that we do. Counseling them is something that God asks of us. To not counsel the doubting can be problematic because we don’t know where else they will for help. 

Yet we should know that when we counsel someone, we should be kind and understanding. We cannot be preachy and we must not be the kinds of people that think only about conversion. The only thing that we can do is plant seeds. The rest is up to God and His inscrutable ways. Sometimes, fruit can be borne the next day and there will be times when it will be born after years and years of prayer and penance. At the end of the day, however, it is not the seed that is important, but the fruit.

So leading by example is one way that we are called by God to serve others. Perhaps, it is not by being preachy or doing anything that someone else would not approve of. In fact, the only thing that we can and should do is continue to walk the road. It will only be in eternity that we will find out how many lives we have impacted and how many people have been changed by their interactions with us.

Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us! 

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

Our Lady of Vladimir, pray for us!

St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, pray for us!

St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us!

St. Maurice and the Theban Legion, pray for us!

Confidence in God

One of the things that always used to puzzle me was why God didn’t answer certain prayers. I knew that sometimes the answer was “no,” but I always wanted to know why. Lately, however, I have been coming to an understanding of this question. 

You see, one of the things that God requires of us when we pray is confidence. We have to trust that God will answer our prayers even if the answer that we receive may not be what we want. We need to trust that God will show us the way and that we can be accepting of whatever crosses or blessings He chooses to give us. If we do not have confidence and trust in Him, then how will we look at things that go wrong in our lives? How will we view those little daily annoyances that Divine Providence sends our way? If we do not understand God’s will or trust in Him, then maybe we won’t see those little daily occurrences as something special, good, or even necessary for our happiness in the next world.

As an avid reader, I’ve read a lot of stories about saints. One of the things that has always astounded me about them is their confidence in God. Some saints were faced with overwhelming odds against their vocations, but they managed to overcome them with God’s help and trusting that He would show them the way that was best for them.

In the life of St. John Baptist de La Salle, there is a story about how he first founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Apparently, he founded his community during a period of famine when there was no food to be had anywhere in the town in which he lived. His community consisted of sixty brothers and many of them were worried that they would starve to death if food was not provided for them. When one of them went to De La Salle and voiced his concerns, the saint turned to him and said, “God will provide.”

That same evening somebody came by and dropped off some wheat that the brothers could use for baking. It was enough wheat that it sated them for the duration of the famine and anybody that came to the brothers and asked them for food. This is only one example, but St. John Baptist de La Salle’s motto was always the same: “God will provide.”

In our days, many of us are resistant to the callings of Divine Providence. When faced with difficulties, we don’t want to own up to God and tell Him, “Lord, Thy will be done.” Yet our lives would be much more simpler and happier if we repeated this prayer over and over. Due to the fact that we are no longer worrying about ourselves, our lives will become much less stressful. We will see God’s blessings for what they are and, when faced with adversity, we can always say with St. John Baptist de La Salle, “God will provide.”

One must note, however, that Divine Providence and trust in God do not mean that you don’t do anything yourself. No. God wants us to do some of the heavy lifting too if we want to accomplish anything. Although God can give us the extra push or thwap us with a two by four if we want it, we also need to be willing to receive those blessings with the right dispositions.

This is one of the things that is noticeable in the Sermon on the Mount. As Fr. Ferdinand Prat once wrote, Jesus does not simply talk about the meek, the humble, and those who mourn. He is not only talking about them as people, but also about the attitudes and dispositions that we should have toward God. If we are properly disposed, then God will immeasurably reward us.

Think about it this way too. If you make a novena, a triduum, or perform any other religious devotion, you may come to the end and wonder where the blessing is. Isn’t St. Jude supposed to help you pull yourself out of a mess? Isn’t St. Joseph supposed to help your uncle find a good job? No. God doesn’t work with “supposed to.” God looks at our intentions and whether we are confident that He can accomplish whatever we ask. But we need to trust Him and His divine will. We need to do the heavy lifting. If we don’t, then maybe God will not reward us.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

Our Lady of Vladimir, pray for us!

St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, pray for us!

St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us!

The Way of the Cross

With Passion Sunday, the Catholic Church begins its solemn celebration of Passiontide. It is the final stretch before the great solemnities of the Sacred Triduum and Easter. It is a time for deep reflection on the chief mysteries of our faith and a call for us to amend our lives in the light of Our Lord’s Passion, Death, and Resurrection, which we will celebrate during Holy Week.

If you have been to a church lately, you might have noticed that the statues have been covered up. This is something extremely special during this time of the year and it is done to force us to meditate on Christ’s Passion and all of the things that He did for us. Quite frankly, I like it when the statues are covered up because it spares me a lot of distractions at church, but I know plenty of people who would vociferously disagree with me.

Yet Passiontide is not only about covered up statues. Like I said above, it is a time for deep meditation on Our Lord’s Passion. For the next fourteen days, I would like recommend that each of us meditate in some way on the fourteen stations along the Way of the Cross. Let’s begin today with Christ’s condemnation before Pilate and continue the journey until we reach Our Lord’s burial on Holy Saturday. Rather than meditating on all of these mysteries all at once, it would be much easier for us if we meditated on them one by one.

I would also like to recommend that during this week, we try and accomplish any spring cleaning in our spiritual lives that we have not done. Let us avail ourselves of Confession, frequent Communion, and attendance at Mass. Let us increase whatever penitential practices we have taken up during Lent and let us continue our daily prayers as we always do.

Finally, let us pray for Holy Mother Church and all of her needs and that God will continue to help her.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori, pray for us!

St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us!  

Forgiveness Sunday

Traditionally, the Sunday before Great Lent in the Orthodox Church is called Forgiveness Sunday. During the Vespers service in the evening, every person in attendance will ask forgiveness of the others there for whatever things they have done wrong during past year. The refrain is always the same: “Please forgive me.” “God forgives, forgive you me” and so it goes around and around for a long time until everyone has forgiven and has been forgiven.

That word “forgiveness” has a bitterness to many people. There are many people out there who simply cannot forgive others for what they do wrong. Perhaps, it is because they do not believe that they have anything to forgive in the first place. Maybe, it is because the hurt is too great to forgive. Sometimes, they are just not the forgiving kind.

Yet forgiveness is the first step to reconciliation with God. We need His forgiveness in order to be reconciled to Him. When a man goes to Confession and tells the priest his sins, he is not telling the priest, but Christ Himself what he has done. In the Orthodox Church, the priest will hear the confession in front of the icon screen. In a darkened confessional, it is sometimes extremely easy to lose this awareness. We may feel that we are simply talking to the priest and telling him what he wants to hear. We shouldn’t think that way.

Rather, we should go to Confession and talk to the priest as if we were talking to God Himself. We should feel profound sorrow for what we have done to God. It doesn’t matter what the sin is. The fact that it exists and that we have brought it up in the confessional should be enough for us to feel contrition and this contrition should be life changing and profound. The confession that we make could be the last one that the priest ever hears from us and we should imagine that it is.

Believe me, it is extremely hard to get oneself to go to Confession. I haven’t been to confession in several months, but I will go at some point. It’s not because I have to or because Roman Catholics are required by Church Law to make an Easter confession. No. I want to go to Confession so that I can be cleansed of my sins and continue on the path to salvation. Even if I fall a thousand times, the confessional door is always open for me.

You may ask yourself, though, why are you telling me this? Why do I have to go and confess to someone when I can speak to God alone in my room? I can tell you that God forgives sins if we ask Him to, but it’s not the same. When we are in the confessional or in front of the iconostasis, we are given absolution by the priest who is a representative of Christ Himself. Indeed, he is an alter Christus (another Christ).  Like I have said above, we are not confessing to a man, but to God Himself.

So what do I do when I go? Well, it’s always a good idea to prepare oneself for Confession. I’ve been in the Confessional when I had three minutes of silence before I continued. Believe me, it was embarrassing to me not to remember what I had called to mind. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to read an examination of conscience the day before you go to Confession. These are contained in many Catholic prayer books as well as Orthodox ones. Look through it and find out which sins you have committed. Then when you go to Confession, it may be easier for you to recall these things to mind.

Also, don’t worry about what you tell the priest in the Confessional. The priest has probably heard it all before. Believe me, the priest will not be angry with you and he won’t laugh at you. He will simply give you instructions, a penance, and absolve you. Know also that whatever you say in the confessional will be kept secret.  The seal of the confessional is inviolable even if the priest is forced to say what he heard. Therefore, don’t be afraid about confessing.

One last thing. Even if you don’t go to Confession because you do not have the opportunity. Make frequent acts of contrition and ask God’s forgiveness. It will help you to stay strong.

I ask all of your forgiveness for my lack of writing. May God bless you abundantly.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us!

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us!

St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us!

The Religious Brother: Just Another Guy?

First of all, I would like to apologize for the fact that I have not written on this blog for a while. Events have conspired to such a degree that I do not have a moment’s rest to write here except occasionally. If you don’t see anything on this blog for a while, don’t take it personally. I care about my readers. I just can’t guarantee that you will see a new post here every day.

My topic for today is actually about a subject that is close to me. Most guys go into religious life wanting to become priests, but have you ever heard a guy say that he wanted to become a religious brother? Have you heard anybody ever tell his parents, “Mom, Dad, I want to become a religious brother”?

I think that one of the main misperceptions about being a religious brother is that it is for guys that didn’t quite make it to the priesthood in the studies. Some people think that it was that guy that was in the middle of theology studies when the Provincial handed down the orders that he would work as a car mechanic for the rest of his existence. Yet, this is completely the wrong view. The life of a religious brother is so much more richer than the stereotypes. Great saints, as I will illustrate, were nothing more and nothing less than religious brothers.

First of all, though, what does a religious brother do? Well, it would depend on a lot of things. Like everything else in religious life, superiors look at the person’s natural abilities and talents. Sometimes, a man may work as a cook, a doorkeeper, a teacher, a mechanic, or a janitor. Although some people may not think that these professions are honorable in the eyes of the world, but that is not what is most important. The most important thing is salvation and God will give a man any tool to help him achieve his salvation.

Also, a brother is the right hand man of the priest and the superiors. Although the work that a brother may do from day to day may be humble, menial, and thankless, he supports the priests by taking over some tasks that would take the priest away from his chief duty of ministering to souls.

The thing to remember, though, is that great saints have been religious brothers. St. Gerard Majella, one of the most famous Redemptorist saints, was a humble brother who was extremely renowned for his obedience. St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, a great Jesuit saint and devotee of the Rosary, was also a brother.

Therefore, we shouldn’t look down on the role of the religious brother. Rather, we should think of him as someone who sacrifices himself constantly so that others can get their work done. Even though the work may be thankless and onerous, it ultimately helps others in countless unknown ways.

Let’s pray together for more brothers to help assist our priests.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us

St. John Baptist de La Salle, pray for us

St. Gerard Majella, pray for us

Abraham’s Sacrifice

This morning, I opened up my breviary and read the story of Abraham and Isaac. There is something about that story has always moved me. Perhaps, the most striking thing is Abraham’s obedience. Not once in the account does he ask God why he has to do what he does or why God couldn’t have found someone or something else to be sacrificed. He simply went ahead and did as he was told. It was only when he was about to kill his own son that the Angel stopped him and told him that it was enough. God had seen his obedience and, therefore, would reward him by calling him the father of numerous offspring.

Are any of us as obedient as Abraham was when it comes to God? I most certainly am not. When I am asked to do something by God, I usually grumble about, grit my teeth, and act like it was God’s fault for interfering in my life. Of course, the fault isn’t His; the fault is mine that I don’t want to obey. And what does God do to those that don’t obey Him? That depends on what your understanding of “hell” is.

Are there other ways that God calls us to obey in our daily lives other than directly? Perhaps, the call is not clear or even something that we can sense, but obedience is something that  God freely demands. I say freely because each of us has the freewill to disobey God and do whatever we want to do.

For example, all of us should obey the rules of Holy Mother Church. We should all acknowledge that there is a sitting Pope in Rome and that he is the visible head of the Church. Among sedevacantists, however, this isn’t necessarily the case. They will acknowledge that there is a pope, all right, but that the pope sitting in the Vatican is a heretic and, therefore, cannot be pope. Some people can live with that, but the majority  cannot. After all, Pope Benedict was validly elected by the College of Cardinals under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. But there are always going to be people that will say otherwise.

Outside of the Church organization, we should also be obedient in numerous other details. For example, children should always obey their parents unless there is a situation of sin involved in the instruction that the parents give to the children. Docility and gentleness are virtues, after all, why not teach our children to be docile? It will be hard and it is hard, but we should try and do it anyway.

During this blessed season of Lent, my friends, then let us meditate on the virtue of obedience and what it means to each one of us. Let’s think about the many examples that the Church gives us during this period of time, but most of all Our Lord. Let us learn from Him to be obedient even unto death.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us

How will you console Our Lord this Lent?

A lot of people think of things that they will give up for Lent. Some give up chocolates, others coffee, and still other brave souls will give up alcohol. I’ve often wondered what I should give up for Lent and I had an idea this morning.

I was reading the magnificent set of book by Fr. Pius Parsch called The Church’s Year of Grace, when Fr. Parsch mentioned how important it is for us to observe Lent quietly and sacrificially. He talked about limiting our social engagements and concentrating on Our Lord’s Passion and Death as well as waiting joyfully for His Resurrection on Easter morning.

I started thinking about this and had an idea: Why don’t I limit my social engagements? To begin with, I don’t have that many friends, but I do love to talk and socialize with other people. I think that Lent is as good a season as any to put some social things away until Easter comes around. Getting together with friends every once in a while will still be something that I do, but I won’t do it regularly. I need to use the extra time for meditation and study.

I also think that Lent is a wonderful opportunity that is given to us by Holy Mother Church for us to do our spiritual reading. Of course, any of us can read a spiritual book outside of Lent and Advent, but this is an excellent time for us to read about Our Lord’s Passion. In my own spiritual reading, I am going through a set of magnificent books by Fr. Ferdinand Prat, SJ called Jesus Christ.

It is a compilation of the Gospels that also gives us historical facts about the places in which Jesus lived, the characters that He encountered, and numerous other events. Fr. Prat dispels many myths about Jesus and Mary during the course of his work, but he also manages to refute various Protestant ideas about Christ as well. In fact, this book is probably one of the best expositions of Catholicism that I have ever read and it’s not even a catechism.

Once I finish this book, I will start to read from my collected works of St. Teresa of Avila. I think that St. Teresa is a wonderful guide for those that wish to explore the spiritual life. Her numerous writings attest to her deep and ecstatic faith as well as her beautiful ideas about God and how one should live a religious life. It is with this in mind that I would like to read her works. If nothing else, I would like to understand how it is that the mystics have viewed God.

Another book that I highly recommend for Lent is The Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ by St. Alphonsus Liguori. This is actually a compilation of his writings on the Passion including meditations, devotions, and various short works. The meditations are extremely moving and St. Alphonsus can talk about these events in Our Lord’s life that makes this book one of those that could easily convert a hardened soul. It is available for $3 from Our Lady of the Rosary Library (www.olrl.org). I hope that some of you will get yourselves a copy during this season.

Finally, I would like to recommend another Life of a saint for our spiritual reflection and reading. If nothing else, read the magnificent life of St. Edith Stein by Teresia Renata Posselt, her Abbess in Cologne. It is a moving work that shows the slow progress of a devoutly Jewish woman to Catholicism and then martyrdom. It has been reprinted recently by ICS Publications (www.icspublications.org). Also available from the publishers is the St. Teresa of Avila set that I mentioned before.

Therefore, let us meditate on Our Lord’s Passion this Lent and let us ask Him and Our Sorrowful Mother to guide us to the joy of His Resurrection.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us

St. Teresa of Avila, pray for us

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us

St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta), pray for us

At the Door of Lent

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent in the Roman Catholic Church. It is a time for us to think about the lives that we have lived in the past year as well as to reflect on what we can do better.

Every Lent is different from the previous ones. I personally run out of gas on the second day of Lent. I’ve tried a lot of different strategies, but nothing has seemed to work. Part of the reason was because I didn’t have any direction in which to go except to wait for Easter and call it a day. Since that time, however, my perspective has changed.

This year,  I think that I will spend most of my time in thoughtful prayer and meditation on Our Lord’s Passion. On Quinquagesima Sunday, Our Lord begins His sorrowful journey to Jerusalem. Shall we not join Him and follow Him for the duration instead of waiting for Holy Thursday and Good Friday? Should we not go with Him and visit Lazarus in the tomb as well as the blind beggar of Jericho and Zaccheus? Shall we just arrive at the moment when Peter denies Christ or shall we walk with him as well and see how changeable and malleable he is?

Lent is a time for us to think about our lives and where we are going. It is a time to take stock and do something about the damage that we have done to our spiritual lives over the course of the last Liturgical Year. If nothing else, it is a time to go to Confession and to tell the priest sincerely what sins we have committed and to change our lives for the better.

I know of a local parish priest who is doing a series of sermons on amendment of life. Shouldn’t this be our goal this year as Catholics? Shouldn’t this be the goal not just for this Lent of 2008, but for our entire lives? Let this be our goal this year and let’s pray about it together.

Our Mother of Perpetual Help, pray for us

St. Benedict, pray for us

St. Scholastica, pray for us

St. Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us