Building the City of God

“Why doesn’t God answer my prayers?”

Everyone who reads this post has probably heard that question at least once.  Some of us have even asked that question (to ourselves or to others explicitly), perhaps on multiple occassions.  Well, the answer is clear!

We’ve all heard the cliche: God does answer prayers; sometimes He answers with ”No.”  Indeed, He does, and such is His divine, omniscient prerogative!  However, in this author’s own prayers and meditations, it seems necessary to seek a deeper explanation.

The Gospel of John offers a wonderful insight: “We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if any one is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him” (John 9:31).  Thus we can explain the lack of “acceptable” answers from the Giver.  Only when we cut sin out of our lives (a difficult task in its own right), worship God properly, and conform our will to His do we begin to receive the answers for which we beg.

There is, however, an underlying truth not immediately recognizable.  We should never be so naive as to think that God will provide the answers that we want simply because we do exactly as He tells us.  On the contrary, once we participate in Reconciliation, Penance, Divine Liturgy, and submission of personal will, we experience profound conversion.  That conversion of heart creates in us a desire not to tell God what He must do for us; but to truly seek God’s answer before we begin to ask any questions.

God has exercised this Divine methodology in this author’s life over the course of four years.  There is no doubt that He wants to do the same in the lives of every other human.  Indeed, it is the methodology by which we will merit Eternal Life.

God bless!

Yesterday, the Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland presented a fabulous catechesis on the necessity of confession and about the positive impact that it could have on our modern western culture.  Without a doubt, western civilization has lost the proper definition of humanity; has allowed its sense of sin to be lost; and has been led into the pit of darkness by Satan and his agents.

The West, America included, is now marked by “an increasingly aggressive and competitive attitude,” a “more frequent resort to violence,” as well as a “merciless culture of image compliance” among other things.  The blame can be placed squarely on the shoulders of those who have falsely taught that God does not exist or that there are no eternal consequences for the things we do with our minds and bodies.

Humans of the last three centuries (and especially the last forty years or so) have been lied to!  The inherent dignity of human life has been covered up; and we have been taught to do what feels good or what is convenient.  Such falsehoods have been devastating for our modern world.

Let us pray, then, that Truth will abound in our civilization.  Let us pray that many who have been improperly guided will return to grace through the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Let us offer prayers in reparation for the harm done for so many years.  Finally, let us receive the mercy and grace available in this essential sacrament.

God bless!

In recent days, God has granted an abundance of clarity in my mind and heart so that I have been able to notice and understand a key difference in my life.  Specifically, I have been focused on the differences between my experience of Holy Week and Easter as a non-Catholic and, for the last four years, as a Catholic.  The differences are tremendous!

As a non-Catholic for all of my young life (and as a practical agnostic for my latter adolescence and young adulthood), I was never presented with the concept of Holy Week.  I knew what Good Friday was, and I heard the term “Maundy” Thursday.  Never was the term Holy Saturday mentioned.  Moreover, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday were never presented as special days, during which special church services were held.  Every day from Monday after Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday seemed ordinary days to me.

Easter Sunday was celebrated with new, bright-colored clothes, a morning church service, and (sometimes) lunch at a restaurant afterward.  The fact that we had no extended family in the local area prevented a larger family celebration.  Then, on the Monday after Easter, it was back to “business as usual.”  There was absolutely no extended celebration of the most miraculous and substantial event of the Christian faith.

My experience as a Catholic has been much different, and much more complete.  The final week of Lent, Holy Week, is a very special week (hence the name) during which a spirit of penance, prayer, and preparation for the Paschal Triduum pervades.  Only the most significant of extra-liturgical activities are scheduled, thereby reminding the faithful to focus forward to the blessed feast.

Thus, the liturgy Paschal Triduum begins.  Holy Thursday is marked by a single, concelebrated Mass that recalls Christ’s institution of the Eucharist on the night before he suffered and died.  Indeed, we all get to participate as though we were seated in that Upper Room with Him.  The singular act of our salvation continues on Good Friday with a call to fasting and abstinence from meat, to engage in works of mercy, and to recall the sacrifice that is expiation for our sins.  Many Catholics also attend a Good Friday communion service and Veneration of the Cross, which are other reminders of this penultimate act.  Finally, Holy Saturday provides the faithful with a solemn day during which we are supposed to gather our thoughts and prayers from the entire season of Lent; to make them ready for the Easter celebration.

The Resurrection Day is most holy!  It is the first time we hear the word “Alleluia” in six weeks.  It is filled with imagery of light and new life, marked specifically by the liturgical colors of white and gold (in stark contrast to purple during Lent).  It is filled with joy and hope unlike any other time of the liturgical (or calendar) year.  Family celebrations aside, the celebration continues into the evening; the day continues to require a sense of awe, prayer, and Christian witness.

Alas, the celebration is not complete on Easter Sunday night.  We celebrate the victory that Christ won for us over a period of eight days!  For eight days, faithful worshipers are encouraged to keep in the front of their minds the triumph of light over darkness, life over death.  Monday is no longer back to “business as usual.”

He is risen!  Please continue to celebrate with me!

God bless!

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!

Indeed, the pinnacle celebration of the Christian faith was foreshadowed for many centuries before Christ came and instituted the Eucharistic celebration!

At the behest of my pastor, I have undertaken a prayerful reading of the book of the prophet Joel during this Lenten season.  In chapter two, there is a very clear type of the Mass.  Verses 15 through 17 read:

Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people.  Sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants.  Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep and say “Spare thy people, O Lord, and make not thy heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations.  Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”

Let’s compare the above passage to the order of the Mass.  Blowing the trumpet is equivalent to an opening hymn (which sometimes includes a trumpet accompaniment).  Theoretically, all who are attending Mass have engaged in a fast before the celebration.  The celebration is completed in the midst of a solemn gathering of people, including babies, children, youth, and adults.

Further, the priest, who is acting in persona Christi (in the person of Christ), begs the Father audibly and silently to spare us of His wrath; to let His mercy reign on us.  When the celebration continues, everyone in the assembly knows where God is and remains (hint…the tabernacle).  At last, the entire Mass is a feast that celebrates the union of the Bridegroom (Jesus Christ) with His Beloved Bride (the Church…all of us).

Let the glory of God reign, and let us all seek to participate more fully in this most blessed celebration!

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.

I did not have an opportunity to write before the celebration of the Nativity of Our Lord, and thus I did not get to wish my readers “Merry Christmas!” Not a problem, though; I’ll do it today!

Merry Christmas! And Merry Christmas tomorrow! Saturday, too!

How is this possible, you ask? Well, it is because the Christmas season begins on December 25 and lasts a total of 12 days…until January 6! (Where do you think the song came from?) Our culture (even our Christian culure) has forgotten that December 25 marks the beginning of our joyous celebration; not the end.

Only on Sunday will I cease to wish people a Merry Christmas. Maybe you’ll consider joining me in returning propriety to our seasons of worship!

God Bless!

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.