Building the City of God

During my four previous Lenten journeys (as a Catholic, that is), I have never harbored such anticipation for the Resurrection as I do this year!  Each time I pray the Liturgy of the Hours, each time I read Scripture, and each time I speak to or teach youth during this holy season, I am filled with joy because I know that the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection is right around the corner.

As I examine my heart on this Holy Thursday, I believe that God has led me to focus on this certain aspect of my faith because I have been in the midst of a personal resurrection.  Joy and hope (interestingly enough, the title of an important Church document) has filled my life in recent weeks.  My mind and heart have been drawn toward Eternity and the unending celebration there.

The more I pray, the more I read Scripture, the more I spend time with my family, the more I minister, I am filled with great pleasure knowing that I am a co-worker in the Lord’s vineyard; that I am helping to build His City here on earth, and His Kingdom in Eternity!

I pray that all of you will have a blessed Easter celebration with your families and parish communities.

 God bless!

I was blessed yesterday to have met with my spiritual director.  The fruit of that meeting was a very clear understanding of how God has called me to change during this holy season of Lent…and after.

I’ll spare the details because they are personal, but I do want you all to know the value of continually seeking God’s voice in your life.  It is absolutely essential to seek His Wisdom through prayer and spiritual direction.  Without those two things, the blessings of Lent have potential to get lost in the “I gave up…” and “I’m doing…extra” shuffle.

Instead of focusing on the legalism of sacrifice (which is not unimportant), let us all take time to reflect on the many and various ways that God may have worked through those sacrifices.

I pray that your Holy Week is a time of spiritual fruit.

 God bless!

The following thoughts were made clear to me based on prayer and Scripture reading over the past twenty-four hours.  I am continually amazed at how God teaches things to me; I suppose He does it that way because of my ignorance and stubbornness.  Alas, I have learned something: it is my own lack of faith that prevents the recognition of God’s answers to my prayers.

Monday evening was filled with stress and self-doubt, while Tuesday was marked by disappointment and confusion.  All the while, God was speaking softly (as usual) to me; trying to get my attention.  At last, He did gain my full attention as my wife, my son, and I sat in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament.

 But, His revelation to me did not end with that special time of prayer and reconciliation among family members.  This morning, my eyes fell upon a passage from Mark 11 as I prayed the Scriptures.  “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and you will.  And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses” (v. 24-25).

O God, forgive me for doubting that You will provide the solution to my life’s little “problems.”  Forgive me, also, for my lack of forgiveness toward others.  As the young, demon-possessed boy’s father cried, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

Pray that all people will be open to hearing God’s Word, receiving His revelation with great faith, and forgiving their fellow humans.

 God bless.

Faithful Catholics understand that a person’s spiritual journey is marked with interspersed periods of fertility and aridity. Those periods often vary in length and degree. Simply put, the spiritual life if much more like a roller coaster than like a walking track!

Over the course of nearly four years, I experienced a few peaks and valleys; times of great spiritual depth and times of severe dryness. I must say, however, that I have been blessed with richness in greater duration and degree than the opposite. It seems as though my spiritual life has been on a near-constant ascent during my Catholic adulthood. That is, until just over a week ago.

As the Christmas season ended and “normal” life resumed, I began to find it increasingly difficult to pray, especially for sustained periods of time. In fact, there were several days when I was simply not able to pray at all, despite my best efforts (and probably some laziness!). All the while, I was (and have been) crying to God for help.

The first answer from Him that I recognized was to read Scripture as a prayer. So I began with the Gospel according Mark, which is an account that I have never read or prayed in depth. While praying through the second chapter, I received another “divine nudge.”

My eyes fell upon Christ’s words: “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry…he entered the house of God…and ate the bread of the Presence…” (vv. 25-26). That recalled other words of the Lord to his disciples: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life within you…” (John 6:53). Immediately, I knew that the next answer to my desperate cries was to “enter the house of God” and “eat the flesh” of Christ provided for me in the Eucharist.

Indeed, part of my problem (I recognize it now!) was my lack of daily worship! I need Jesus in my life; I need as much of Him as I can get, especially His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity inside of me! So, my spiritual rehabilitation must include a sustained effort to participate in Mass AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE!

As I traipse of to the nearby parish, I pray that many others will recognize the benefits of going to Mass more regularly. I pray that more people will worship Our Lord more frequently, faithfully, and fruitfully.

God Bless.

Today’s Office of Readings required the recitation of a portion of Psalm 18, which spoke praise and thanksgiving for God’s salvation. In addition to that Psalm, the two-year cycle of Biblical readings prescribed the third chapter of Genesis. Additionally, this author’s most recent choice for non-Biblical reading has been Spe Salvi. These particular readings spoke volumes about the unconditional nature of God’s love for humanity (and each individual human).

After the Creation Story, the author of Genesis provided an account the Fall, the original sin. We’ve all heard it before: God was crazy about Adam and Eve, but they messed up that relationship, for themselves and every future generation. However, the situation did not remain without hope! The sin of Adam and Eve could not prevent God from promising salvation for all humanity throughout all history.

Remember Genesis 3:15, which the Church proclaims as the proto-evangelum! But, God’s love doesn’t stop with that grand promise. At the end of that same chapter, God “made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins, and clothed them” (v. 21). Despite the grave mistake, God showed His devotion to humanity through an action that (in this author’s estimation) was intended to prevent further sin. With covered bodies, man and woman would have fewer opportunities to lust after one another, thus remaining more pure.

The idea that God loves humanity unconditionally was expanded upon and solidified by St. Paul in his letter to the Romans (which happens to deal quite extensively with sinful lifestyles). He wrote: “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (v. 38-39). Did you get that? Nothing will ever cause God’s love to be absent!

Recitatation of Psalm 18 served as a reminder of personal sinfulness, the reconciliation offered by the Almighty, and the subsequent conversion. Indeed, there have been many times when the “cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of perdition assailed me; the cords of Sheol entangled me, the snares of death confronted me” (v. 4-5). God, however, did not deny His truth and grace to me: “From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears” (v. 6). After my soul cried for redemption, He moved me toward His Church, whereby He offered to me the sacrament of Reconciliation; He offered me true forgiveness!

With great hope, I pray that all of you will remember God’s unconditional love, seek Him during your dark nights, and allow His healing to come upon you in the wonderful sacrament of Reconciliation.

God Bless.

As I drove to work this morning, the subject matter on several morning radio shows was enough to make a person despair (and vomit!). I realized how very blessed I am to have hope; to know that something better and purer awaits on the other side of this life.

I began to arrive at this realization as I prayed through a portion of Pope Benedict XVI’s most recent encyclical on that very topic. And, I pray that God will continue to bless me and allow me to deepen my understanding of this most precious gift. After all, Advent surely is a most hopeful season.

Please pray for our culture in general, and particularly those people who have resorted to twisted philosophies and actions because they have lost hope.

God Bless.

Fr. Tom Euteneuer, the President of Human Life International, has put forth a challenge to faithful Christians in his latest Spirit & Life column. I am taking up his challenge, and I pray that all of you will, too!

St. John Damscene (or St. John of Damascus, whose feast day is today) was one of the most brilliant catechists in our Church’s history. He is most famous for his role in the Iconoclasm controversy that racked the eastern portion of the Church in the eighth and ninth centuries. His catechetical abilities were put to use while he defended the Church against a deeply heretical belief: that God frowns on the use of statues and sacred art in worship. St. John reminded the faithful all creation is from God and, thus, is inherently good. He affirmed the centuries-old belief and practice of using those objects and images to lead a person deeper into the mysteries of the one, true God.

However, his teachings were not limited to this aspect of Church doctrine alone. In fact, he wrote one of his most poignant passages on his own journey toward ministry, on submitting to the will of the Lord. That passage, written in The Statement of Faith, was meant to remind readers that God will provide nourishment for every believer’s spiritual journey; to let them know that God intended them to grow into specific ministerial roles.

“You nursed me with the spiritual milk of your divine utterances. You kept me alive with the solid food of the body of Jesus Christ, your only-begotten Son and our God, and you let me drink from the chalice of his life-giving blood, poured out to save the whole world for us.

“You loved us, O Lord, and gave up your only-begotten Son for our redemption. And he undertook the task willingly and did not shrink from it. … Now you have called me, Lord…to minister to your people. I do not know why you have done so, for you alone know that. … When I open my mouth, tell me what I should say. By the fiery tongue of your Spirit make my own tongue ready. Stay with me always and keep me in your sight.”

This author has experienced exactly what is written above! God calls people into His Church and nourishes their spiritual growth, especially through the sacraments. That nourishment is meant to strengthen them for whichever ministry to which they are called; and it continues to nourish them while they serve in that ministry.

God is so good, because He never abandons His faithful servants. He always sends His Spirit to guide them “along the straight path,” in the words of St. John Damascene. With our eyes focused on Him, and while receiving the grace contained in the sacraments, we will never go astray!

God Bless.

The idea of “the end” is not something that is easily pondered or explained because it is many-faceted. It includes our preparations for “the end” and eternity; it includes death (which is never an easy topic to discuss); it includes the transient (Purgatory) and final destinations (Heaven or Hell) after death. Nonetheless, it is a concept that must be dealt with, and it is a subject that has been front-and-center in my spiritual life throughout the past week.

Several circumstances have created and sustained the recent focus: conversations with my wife, philosophical reading, and the current stage of the Church’s liturgical cycle (which encompasses Mass readings and the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours). Every day, God has revealed to me new things about Himself, about me, and about what He expects of me. Thus, the acute presence of such subjects and the revelations from God have created a need for me to write.

When it comes to this subject, several things are certain, and they are not pleasant concepts. First, death is certain; we cannot escape the end of our earthly lives, our human history. Second, each of us will be judged by our Creator at the time of our own death and receive “eternal retribution” for the manner in which we lived our lives. Third, there is a possibility (based on the second certainty) that we will be sent away from God for all eternity, to “immediate and everlasting damnation” (CCC 1022).

The preceding paragraph, although it is real and authentic, does not contain the most important and hopeful expressions on this subject. Indeed, there is Hope as the end of human history and each person’s particular judgment approaches! (That is not to say that I know when either of those things will happen.) We have the opportunity to strengthen our case for reception into the “blessedness of heaven” (CCC 1022).

In the present, we have not just one, but countless opportunities to accept the “divine grace manifested in Christ” (CCC 1021) that our loving Father pours out to us! Throughout each day, week, month, or year, God will give us innumerable situations in which we can choose to do His divine will. If we recognize, and act, on those opportunities, we will gain favor in His sight; and, the likelihood that we will be sent away (Matthew 7:23) from Him will be lessened. (Clarification: this is not to say that God will let us into Heaven simply because we did a sufficient amount of “good works.” Rather, it is to say that when we recognize His will, we fall more in love with Him and want to continue doing His will evermore.)

I pray that all of us will take the opportunities that are presented to us: today, tomorrow, and for the rest of our human history. I pray that I will be joyful rather than scared at my judgment, and I pray the same for you!

God bless.

The Divine Office, also known as the Liturgy of the Hours, is the Prayer of the Church. As such, ordained men (deacons, priests, and bishops) and consecrated religious people (brothers, sisters, monks, and nuns) take vows to recite the various hours on a daily basis. Thus, there is never a time when someone is not saying this most blessed devotion.

For various reasons (one being my love for Holy Mother Church; two being my discernment of a secondary vocation), I have decided to pray a portion of the Divine Office each day. Last year, I began by simply reciting Morning Prayer each day. As time went on, I realized that it would be beneficial to add Evening Prayer to my daily regimen. After several months of that practice, I have begun to pray the Office of Readings and Night Prayer as well.

Although it sounds like a lot to try to fit into to my already-busy schedule (and sometimes it is), I have been utterly astonished at the abundance of grace these hours have brought into my life. My day is very structured, and thus I know what I have to accomplish at what times. Moreover, the Holy Spirit has given me great clarity as to how the Psalms, prayers, and readings (Scriptural and non-scriptural) apply to my life today. Finally, I know that I am being led into previously-unknown depths of prayer. Those are just a few of the many blessings (some of which are indescribable) that God has bestowed upon me because of my decision (upon God’s prompting) to incorporate this practice into my spirituality.

I encourage each of you to begin praying with the Church! Start small, then work your way to bigger things. I promise that you will see blessings almost immediately!

God Bless.