Here at Diocesan Publications, we are thrilled to be able to offer great guest blogging during Lent 2017. Some of our best friends – clergy, religious and lay – are gracious enough to lend their voices for great Lenten features. Please plan on joining us for Lent 2017!
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One of the great things about being Catholic is that our Faith is universal. No matter where we are in the world, there is a church that is ours. We all have a place that is our spiritual home.
We also have the same spiritual father, as well: the pope. (Did you know that “pope” means “father” or literally “papa?”) No matter who we are, where we live, whether or not we have a background in theology or are wealthy or poor, we are united as one family. The Holy Father invites us, every month, to join him in prayer. And not just in a general or vague way, but in specific supplications.
The Holy Father’s prayer intentions and reflections for February 2017 are:
- Pope’s Prayer Intention – Comfort for the Afflicted: That all those who are afflicted, especially the poor, refugees, and marginalized, may find welcome and comfort in our communities.|read the reflection|
- Urgent Intention – Sacredness of Life: We pray for the children who are in danger of the interruption of pregnancy, as well as for persons who are at the end of life — every life is sacred! — so that no one is left alone and that love may defend the meaning of life. |read the reflection|
Pope Francis also gives his spiritual family a video reflection:
As we pray for our family and friends, let us also join in prayer with the Holy Father and our Catholic family around the world.
Elise Hilton is an author, blogger and speaker. She has worked in parish faith formation and Catholic education for over 25 years. A passionate student of theology, Elise enjoys sharing her thoughts on parish communication, the role of social media in the Church, Franciscan spirituality and Catholic parenting. She is also the author of Diocesan Publications “Living the Good News” blog. To enquire about booking her as a speaker, please contact her at ehilton@diocesan.com.
The only hermits left in the world are hermit crabs, right? Nope – the Church still has hermits around the world. What exactly IS a hermit?
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (which, by the way, refers to this life as the “eremitic life’), hermits “devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance.” Hermits (a term that can refer to either a man or woman) live apart from everyone. Some live under the care of religious orders (such as Carmelites and Trappists), living in community, while withdrawing from the world. Hermits do not take necessarily take religious vows.
Author Theresa Thomas describes her sister Mary’s life as a hermit in our modern world:
The hermit’s life of silence and solitude is not absolute. Mary’s life follows a plan of life daily including times of complete silence/solitude, but also allows for times of “work” which can include manual labor, language study, works of mercy if a dire need arises, personal spiritual growth, and some very limited spiritual correspondence/direction with people seeking help, as well as occasionally giving retreats or talks, all under the direction of the bishop.
Mary lives a simple life. She dresses plainly, although she has no formal “habit”. Some of the younger nieces and nephews (she has more than 50) call her “Auntie Brown” because of the shades-of-brown clothes and sandals or boots that she wears most of the time. She’s allowed to have some visit time – just not much, and she doesn’t attend social events, parties or get togethers, as a general rule.
The life of a hermit is deeply rooted in Christian history. St. John of the Cross, known for his classic spiritual writing The Dark Night of the Soul, lived as a hermit in Egypt in the 4th and 5th centuries. There are hermits among us today, but the very essence of their life means they are hidden. We will not see their lives broadcast on social media or the evening news.
Father Cyprian Consiglio is the prior of the New Camalodi Hermitage in Big Sur, Calif., a community of 16 hermits who try to spend half of their day in community work and the other half in personal prayer and study…
Solitude is primary spent in each of the hermit’s personal cells. The cells in a Camaldolese hermitage are separated from each other and have a garden. These physically separate dwellings make the hermitage look something like a monastic village, according to Brother Ignatius Tully.
“Each of our cells has a sleeping area, chapel, bathroom, a central space for daytime activities or studies,” he said.
Sister Mariam, a hermit in Oregon, begins her day at 4 a.m. and continues to pray both formally and informally until 8:30 in the evening. She says that being apart from the world means fewer distractions. It also means one has a lot of time to work on their own sinfulness.
“Basically our broken humanity needs to undergo a deep cleansing and purification process, especially if we desire to dwell in deeper union with God,” Sister Mariam says.
On the other hand, she says, it’s a relief to know we’re not perfect.
“I was broken, but I learned that our God is the most tender, most gracious, most loving God and spouse,” she says. “If we don’t run away and if we continue to say ‘fiat,’ (so be it), he gently, ever so gently, takes us through our bumbling, our vulnerability, our dysfunctions and our woundedness and creates us anew, into the image and likeness that we were first created in. Believe me, this is no easy work. It is the cross.”
While very few are called to the eremitic life, we can all learn something from these souls. The need to shut out the world and connect with God is a necessary part of the Christian life. Scripture, prayer and silence: they’re not just for hermits.
When we hear the words, “Go and make disciples,” it’s easy to think that Jesus is talking to someone else. After all, isn’t this what He told his Apostles? He wasn’t really talking to me, was He?
It’s easy to think that. But it’s wrong. Each of us, baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is called to “go and make disciples.” This theme was chosen by the USCCB (United States’ Conference of Catholic Bishops) for the evangelization plan for the United States.
The church, the people of God, has always been called to be an evangelizing church sent by Jesus as he returned to the Father to: “Go and make disciples of all nations…” There have been successes and failures in fulfilling this commission of Jesus. The Second Vatican Council in our time gave a significant thrust to this essential mission of the church.
What does it mean to evangelize? Are we meant to stand on a soapbox and preach? Should we sit our neighbors down and outline the Gospel for them? The US Bishops say,
Evangelization, then, has both an inward and an outward direction. Inwardly it calls for our continued receiving of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, our ongoing conversion both individually and as Church. It nurtures us, makes us grow, and renews us in holiness as God’s people. Outwardly evangelization addresses those who have not heard the Gospel or who, having heard it, have stopped practicing their faith, and those who seek the fullness of faith. It calls us to work for full communion among all who confess Jesus but do not yet realize the unity for which Christ prayed. Pope John Paul Il, in his encyclical on missionary activity, summed up the three objectives of mission: to proclaim the Gospel to all people; to help bring about the reconversion of those who have received the Gospel but live it only nominally; and to deepen the Gospel in the lives of believers.
The first step, then, in evangelization is to make sure our own house (so to speak) is in order. We must seek holiness for ourselves, as we cannot give what we do not have. Then, we can reach out to others in faith. There are those who say, “Your life may be the only ‘Bible’ someone ever reads.” This means our actions, words and our contact with others should always be a demonstration of our life for Christ and for others. However, we cannot leave it simply at that. We are meant to proclaim Christ and Him crucified. We are meant to share the Good News: that Christ has lived, died and been risen for our sins, and that death no longer has a hold on us. The freedom of Christ is meant for all, not a chosen few.
As we continue to prepare for the Lenten season, let us be aware of the fact that Christ has called us to go and make disciples. He desires that all people know Him and the freedom from sin He offers. If we truly believe in this Good News, we cannot keep it to ourselves. With the US Bishops that,
We pray that our Catholic people will be set ablaze with a desire to live their faith fully and share it freely with others. May their eagerness to share the faith bring a transformation to our nation and, with missionary dedication, even to the whole world. We ask God to open the heart of every Catholic, to see the need for the Gospel in each life, in our nation and on our planet.
Together, let us go and make disciples, with joy!
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
The Gospel for the 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time has Jesus being practical: Why are you worried? God is in control. Your faith should be in Him alone, and that should give you peace of mind.
We know how hard this is. If you’re a parent, you know that, from the moment you become a parent, you view the world as an incredibly dangerous place. Everything becomes a potential hazard: Lock up all the sharp knives! Make sure the car seat is properly installed! And it seems to get worse as your child gets older: Driving?? Who thought teens driving was a good idea?!
Maybe you are constantly worried about money, or lack thereof. Perhaps the political climate has you on edge. Or are you worried about your job? Our lives seem to become a constant battleground of worry and faith, of anxiety and peace.
The word “worry” has its roots in the Old English meaning, “to strangle.” This seems accurate: we want the control of taking our worries by the throat, so to speak, but they always seem to get the better of us, and we end up getting strangled! And this turnabout is one that leads to spiritual death: our constant worrying becomes an obsession, forcing out faith and replacing it with fear.
Christ does not want us to live a life of fear. He wants us to have lives rooted in faith, hope and love. Fear destroys this, if we let it. It’s easy to disregard this Gospel passage as sort of a “self-help” Christian advice column, but that is far too simplistic. Christ’s Good News is that the very worst that this world has to offer (sin and death) no longer have a hold on us. They can no longer strangle us, if you will. Christ drives out all fear, all death, all hopelessness. Instead, He brings us hope. He brings us peace of mind. He brings us eternal life.
Lent? Is it Lent already?? [Runs and checks calendar.]
No, it’s not quite Lent yet. But notice that word “holy” in the title of today’s blog post. Lent will be here whether we prepare or not. If you desire a holy Lent, however, a little planning is essential. Let’s get going!
It’s not Lent, yet. But it’s less than a month away. Spend a little time preparing, and ask God to help you plan for a truly holy and rewarding Lenten season. Then we shall see, in our own souls, how the desert can blossom, and the dry and wasted land can bring forth the rich, useful fruit that was expected of it from the beginning.
Today’s Gospel has two very distinct and frightening scenes (and if you don’t think they’re scary, go back and read them again!) In the first scene, Jesus and his disciples come across a man so out of control, the community can no longer help him. At the sight of Jesus, the man runs to him, and cries out (in a voice not his own). When Jesus asks his name, the demons inside the man reply, “Legion is my name. There are many of us.”
The story then moves to the next scene; Jesus orders the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs. The pigs then plunge to their death off a steep cliff.
Yikes. No wonder the Gospel says that the witnesses were filled with fear.
This past month, Catholic writer William Blatty died at the age of 89. Most people knew him by his book (later adapted into a movie), The Exorcist. The topic of both book and movie dealt with a 12 year-old girl possessed by a demon, and her mother who tries everything to help. Both book and movie were wildly popular at the time (early 1970s), and there remains much speculation as to how much of Blatty’s story is true and how much is fiction. In a 1998 interview, Blatty said he considered the book to be “apostolic” in nature, “one that could either strengthen one’s faith or lead one to it.” Blatty clearly never thought of himself as a writer of horror, but a writer who could use the subject of evil to examine critical faith questions.
Back in the Gospel reading, the man who’d had the demons cast out wanted to follow Jesus. Can you blame him? Life must have been a catastrophe: Unable to function, he was kept chained or made to stay away from everyone he knew. But Jesus doesn’t permit this. Instead, Jesus tells the man to go home to his family, and tell them what the Lord has done.
What are we to make of all this? Partly, as people of faith, we must always be aware of the presence of evil, and to take it seriously. The presence of evil is always an affront to God, who is all good. We should not toy with demons (which is why the Church forbids the use of “divination,” fortune telling, astrology and the like.) Blatty knew this; he treated the topic of possession and evil quite seriously; his was not a “clownish” or cartoonish treatment.
We are to be aware. We know that evil exists. We know people who struggle (like the man in the Gospel) with demons. We even say of addicts, “He is struggling with his own demons.” We see news reports of terrorists shooting innocent people or taking them hostage. Churches are looted and burned, priests killed, the faithful forced to flee. Truly, there is evil.
We should first follow the example of Blatty, and then of Christ. Blatty’s example was to be “apostolic;” that is, in the presence of evil, lead others to faith. Then we should aspire to Jesus’ instructions: Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you. (Mk 5:19) We are never to seek out evil, but our faith should be such that we can bear witness (to be apostolic) and to announce to all the Good News.
Not many people know about Carryl Houselander, a British, Catholic writer. It’s a pity, because in her short life (she died at the age of 52), she produced some amazing poetry and spiritual reflections.
Houselander had a rough childhood. Her parents were “beautiful people,” who put great stock in appearances. Carryl was rather an ugly duckling, and was abused by her parents.
Had she been a less gifted person-she was, in fact, a mystic, a poet, and a woodcarver-she might well have ended up living the kind of lonely and impoverished existence that is the lot of so many eccentric souls.
Her spiritual teaching is a testament to the capacity of the human soul to wrest beauty and wisdom out of personal suffering, a witness to the power of grace to supply what is lacking in nature’s provision. Because she was an artist, Houselander’s teaching is infused with an intuition so strongly visual that it manifests itself as a kind of iconography. This extraordinary visual intuitiveness permitted her to write such vividly descriptive prose that it is impossible not to visualize what one reads in Houselander. More, perhaps, than any other spiritual writer of our time, she achieves the effect she desires by illustrating (rather than by telling us) what we need to know.
Fellow spiritual writer Heather King says that Houselander “swore, drank, had an affinity for wounded children (her own childhood was nightmarish), [and] was a Catholic convert” What drew to her to the Church? Christ, of course. She saw His humanity, His desire for us to be joyful. She saw the saints as a reflection of Christ.
[The grain of wheat] must be buried in earth, that is, in us, who are made from the earth. The seed of Christ is not buried in angels, but in men. It is to flower and bear fruit through human experience: through our loves, our work, our sorrows, our joys, our temptations. It is to be literally our living and our dying.
We are the soil of the divine seed; there is no other. The flowering of Christ in us does not depend upon pious exercises, on good works outside our daily life, on an amateur practice of religion in our leisure time. It is in the marrow of our bones, in the experience of our daily life.
Houselander’s life teaches us a number of things. First, any situation can be redeemed by God. Houselander’s rather wretched childhood gave her the ability to connect with others who were suffering, especially children. Rather than wallow in self-pity, Houselander chose to use her experience to help others. Although she was not a particularly out-going person, she allowed God to use her outside of her “comfort zone.” She likely would have been content to isolate herself, reading, studying, praying. But she didn’t; she reached out – opening herself and her home to those in need. In World War II England, that meant many children who were traumatized by the relentless German bombing. Houselander’s life reinforces what all the saints teach us: that Christ must be the focus of our lives. We must spend time with Him in prayer if we hope to ever share our gifts and talents with others.
If you’ve never read about Houselander or, better yet, read her work, take some time to do so. You’ll find a treasure, a modern woman whose life bore rich fruit precisely because of her love of God.
There is no dispute that the institution of legalized slavery is one of the darkest hours of American history. The wounds of slavery are still felt today, as Americans work to sort out issues of racism on a daily basis. Every story of slavery is one of cruelty, oppression and tragedy: no human being can ever be “owned” by another and no human being is to be treated as a “thing” to be used.
One woman, however, was able to rise above the extreme hardships of slavery. She redeemed her life through her faith in Christ, choosing love over anger. Born in Missouri sometime between 1833 and 1848, Julia Greeley lived first a life of slavery and then a life of service. Her cause for canonization has been officially opened by the Archdiocese of Denver. The Julia Greeley Guild gives this biography:
Freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, Julia subsequently earned her keep by serving white families in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico—though mostly in the Denver area. Whatever she did not need for herself, Julia spent assisting poor families in her neighborhood. When her own resources were inadequate, she begged for food, fuel and clothing for the needy. One writer later called her a “one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society.” To avoid embarrassing the people she helped, Julia did most of her charitable work under cover of night through dark alleys.
Julia entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver in 1880, and was an outstanding supporter of all that the parish had to offer. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had ever seen. Every month she visited on foot every fire station in Denver and delivered literature of the Sacred Heart League to the firemen, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
A daily communicant, Julia had a rich devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin and continued her prayers while working and moving about. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it till her death in 1918.
Fr. Blaine Burkey, OFM Cap, worked on a manuscript for the Archdiocese of Denver, using historical documents from both the state of Colorado and the archdiocese. Since Greeley herself was illiterate, she left behind no personal writing, but Burkey found many news articles about her. Mary Leising, president of the guild promoting Greeley’s cause for canonization, said Julia Greeley’s life is testament to the fact that sainthood is for all:
Overall, Greeley stands as an example of how ordinary people can become saints, Leisring said.
“When looking at her, (we see) she was an ordinary person who did extraordinary things,” Leisring said. “All of us have that same opportunity.”
Read more about Greeley and the cause for her canonization here.
It is no surprise to anyone that the past presidential election was a contentious one, and the choice for our 45th president here in the U.S. does not sit well with many. However, as Americans, we take pride in that fact that our government has, for 241 years, managed to survive every fallible man who has served as president. As one pundit puts it, “Praying for the president to fail is like praying for the pilot at the command of the plane you’re riding in to fail.”
Charles Carroll was the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. The Carroll family became crucial, not only in the fight for American independence, but for establishing the Catholic faith in a new nation that was often hostile to the Catholic Church. Carroll believed that religious freedom must be a cornerstone of the new republic being forged:
Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure (and) which insures to the good eternal happiness, are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments.
As Catholics, we believe that we should pray for our rightly-chosen leaders. Regardless of how any of us feel about any president, we are called to pray for our leaders, both political and spiritual. On this Inauguration Day, let us pray for the peaceful transition of power, for our great nation and for all those charged with serving the people in political office, especially our president:
Almighty and eternal God,
you have revealed your glory to all nations.
God of power and might, wisdom and justice,
through you authority is rightly administered,
laws are enacted, and judgment is decreed.Assist with your spirit of counsel and fortitude
the President of these United States,
that his administration may be conducted in righteousness,
and be eminently useful to your people over whom he presides.
May he encourage due respect for virtue and religion.
May he execute the laws with justice and mercy.
May he seek to restrain crime, vice, and immorality.We pray to you, who are Lord and God,
for ever and ever. Amen.
One of the first people to recognize Jesus as the Messiah was His cousin, John. When Mary journeyed to visit her cousin Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s baby leapt in her womb for joy, in recognition of the Messiah, quietly residing in Mary’s womb.
We have no record in Sacred Scripture of the relationship between Jesus and His cousin John as they grew up. Their relationship picks up as John begins his public ministry, calling people to repentance in order to prepare for the Messiah. However, it would not be hard to imagine that these two spent time together as boys, doing what boys do: exploring and hiking, finding creepy crawly things, helping their parents.
John’s role in salvation history is quite important, as author Jimmy Akin points out:
He served as the forerunner or herald of the Messiah and was to prepare for him by fulfilling an Elijah-like role by calling the nation to repentance.
In keeping with that, he baptized people as a sign of their repentance.
He also came to identify and announce the Messiah. According to John the Baptist: “I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel” (John 1:31).
In the Gospel reading yesterday, John the Baptist makes a bold proclamation to his followers. He points out Jesus and cries out: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Jesus, he tells those gathered, will take away the sins of the world, and that the Spirit of God has made known to John that Jesus is the Son of God. John’s boyhood friend and cousin is the Messiah, the one who will save us all from sin and death.
To our ears, “Lamb of God” may seem like an unusual phrase. To Jews however, this phrase is quite familiar, and very important. This image is at the heart of the Jewish covenant story, as God brought them out of Egypt and slavery. Fr. Aaron Kuhn:
The original lamb was sacrificed during the time of Moses (1393-1273 B.C.), and its blood marked the doorposts of the Israelites and saved them from the last plague, the angel of death passing over the city and killing every firstborn child and animal (Exodus 12). The body of the lamb was eaten as a sacrificial rite. The blood of the lamb saved the people from death.
The gospel of John the Evangelist—the Beloved Disciple—which we heard today is a Passover message. At the beginning of the gospel, Jesus is presented as the new Passover lamb, taking the place of the traditional lamb during the celebration of the Passover meal and instead offering his body as food and his blood to save us from death. “I am the living bread come down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world … unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you … my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink” (John 6:51, 53, 55).
In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul’s words seem to fit this scene of John’s declaration quite well:
For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. (1 Cor. 13: 9-11)
John the Baptist knew that his role in salvation was “partial:” his job was to point the way to the “perfect,” Jesus Himself. These boyhood friends now had to step into the roles God had created for them: prophet and Messiah. Just as they had to put away childish things, so must we. Our faith in the Lamb of God must always be growing, always deepening. “Behold! The Lamb of God!” Our own hearts must cry out for Him, our souls’ greatest desire. Our lives must always point the way to Him, our salvation, so that others may also come to know and believe.
“Behold! The Lamb of God!”
When we think of partnerships, we may think of marriage or perhaps business. We know it involves a deep level of commitment. And we know that good partnerships can bear wonderful fruit: a sound family, a prayerful marriage, a healthy and productive company.
In the readings today, the Letter to the Hebrews contains an amazing line:
Encourage yourselves daily while it is still “today,”
so that none of you may grow hardened by the deceit of sin.
We have become partners of Christ
if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end.
We are “partners of Christ?” How is that even possible? He is God-Made-Man. What could Christ possibly get out of a partnership with a bunch of hapless sinners like us?
It’s important to remember that Christ does not need our help. He accomplishes all that He accomplishes because He is God. But like a father who allows his young son to “help” with a household chore, Christ allows our “partnership” with the work of salvation. However, we must do our part: encourage ourselves (with prayer, Scripture, sacraments.) We cannot allow ourselves to be deceived by the world and the sin that will try to ensnare us. We have to know what is real, and the only “thing” that is truly real is Christ.
Above all, this partnership with Christ requires us to be “all in.” We need to give everything to Christ, if we are truly going to be His partners. This partnership Christ invites us to be part of, then, is not a limited one or one that has an “expiration date.” We enter this partnership when we are baptized and we must continuously give ourselves to Christ willingly. This is the partnership of faith. Pope Francis, in Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith):
The light of faith is unique, since it is capable of illuminating every aspect of human existence. A light this powerful cannot come from ourselves but from a more primordial source: in a word, it must come from God. Faith is born of an encounter with the living God who calls us and reveals his love, a love which precedes us and upon which we can lean for security and for building our lives. Transformed by this love, we gain fresh vision, new eyes to see; we realize that it contains a great promise of fulfilment, and that a vision of the future opens up before us. Faith, received from God as a supernatural gift, becomes a light for our way, guiding our journey through time.
Read through this part of the Letter to the Hebrews, and ponder how committed we are to this partnership with Christ. He invites us to join Him in letting His Truth be known in this weary world. Let us be the “light of faith,” living our encounter with Jesus for all to see.
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