Sacred Heart
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June: The Month Dedicated To The Sacred Heart Of Jesus

The Catholic Church loves to celebrate. We celebrate feast days and solemnities, holy days and sacraments. The Church encourages private celebrations; the celebration of one’s baptism day, for instance. Each month is dedicated to particular devotions, and June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

This dedication has its origin in the appearances of Christ made to St. Mary Margaret Alacoque, a French religious sister.

After joining the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial in 1671, she began in 1673 to receive visions revealing the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was rebuffed by her superior and by theologians for a time, about the validity of the visions, but remained humble, obedient, and charitable to those who persecuted her until the truth of the mission given to her by Our Lord convinced those who opposed her.
The task given her by Christ, who called her the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart, was to teach and encourage devotion to His Sacred Heart. It was based on this Christly inspiration that St. Margaret Mary was moved to establish the Holy Hour and Sacred Heart Devotion in the modern form. Prior to this time, there was a devotion to the love of Jesus and to the wounded Heart of Christ, but not established as the devotion is today. The practice encouraged by the saintly woman, at the guidance of Christ, included the Holy Hour on Thursdays, to share in the mortal sadness He endured when abandoned by His Apostles in His Agony, and to receive Holy Communion on the first Friday of every month. Additionally, He appointed through St. Margaret Mary for the Friday after the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi to be the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.
Margaret Mary was canonized in 1920 by Pope Benedict XV and then in 1928, Pope Pius X reiterated in his encyclical Miserentissimus Redemptor the value of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart.

If you have young children or grandchildren, a great way to introduce them to this devotion is through a fun craft and prayer. CatholicMom.org has a great idea for just this. If you’ve got older kids, Christina Mead has a lovely reflection on the Sacred Heart for teens. Perhaps you can enter into this reflection around a campfire or fire pit this month.

There are many similar suggestions online; find one that’s right for you and your family, and entrust them to the care of the Sacred Heart this month.

declutter
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3 Ways To Declutter Your Soul

Many of us go through the ritual of spring cleaning. We toss garbage, drop off clothes we no longer wear at Goodwill, sweep out the garage and take the trash to the curb. We polish and shine, mop and scrub.

We sort through books, and decide which we can part with. We may decide we don’t need so many knick-knacks, that our kids have outgrown certain toys. We know we don’t need seven soup ladles. (How did we get seven soup ladles??)

And after a hard weekend of work, we look around our tidy, decluttered, shiny home and sigh. We are satisfied.

We need to do the same with our souls, with our interior life. Just as we slowly accumulated stuff in our homes without even realizing it, we often do the same with our souls. Old concerns drag us down. A busted relationship is still a source of pain. Maybe we carry wounds from our childhood that we’ve never really dealt with. Instead of carrying our cross, we are carrying around all the things that clutter our soul.

Here are three ways to declutter. Just so you know, it’s a lot of work, just like spring cleaning!

  1. Go to confession. Before you go, make a sincere Examination of Conscience. What is dragging you down? What resentments have you allowed to ferment and linger? If a relationship in your life is strained or damaged, do you bear any responsibility? Have you committed a grave, mortal sin? As painful and difficult such a confession will be, God’s grace is always more!
  2. Sometimes, we just can’t figure out what needs to be done. We are stuck: spiritually, emotionally, psychologically. When we’ve been dealing with a problem and it just never seems to get better, it might be time to talk to a professional. Many people shy away from psychological help – they think they don’t need it, or it makes them seem weak. However, a psychologist’s job is really to help us find new ways to deal with old issues. There are places to find good Catholic and Christian psychologists. However, if you can’t find one, at least make sure the person you are working with respects your faith.
  3. Our clutter may not be psychological; it’s spiritual. Maybe you’re really longing to enter into a deeper relationship with God, but you aren’t sure how. Perhaps you want to find new spiritual paths. Sometimes we want to lead a holier, more spiritually mature life but we just aren’t sure how to get there. A spiritual director can be the key. Many priests offer this type of work. However, there are also religious (think religious sisters or brothers) and lay people who are spiritual directors. The one sure way to know if a spiritual director is good is if they themselves are leading a holy life. A good spiritual director will not be there to make you feel good about yourself, but will challenge you to make that move to a holier way of living.

Do you need a bit of “soul spring cleaning?” Perhaps it is time to clear the cobwebs, go to confession, and make the move to some spiritual decluttering.

saint
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Why Am I Here? To Become A Saint

“Why am I here?” It is an eternal human question. We all want to have a meaningful life … but what is that meaning? Young people, graduating from high school and college, ask this. We ask ourselves this when we are in despair, when we are hopeful, when we are lonely. It is the question of youth, of middle age, of the elderly. Why am I here? God answers, “To be holy. To become a saint.”

Of course, we all have our own paths in life. We have different jobs, different callings, different vocations. We go through various stages of life, and hopefully learn, as we go, more about God, ourselves and others. But God has only one plan for everyone: to be holy, to become a saint.

“Me?” you may ask. “Me? A saint?”

“Oh, no. That is only for really holy people. Extraordinary people. People who pray ALL the time. I’m not like that.”

What is that like? What does it truly mean to be a saint, and why is God calling all of us to this? One of the documents from Vatican II, Lumen Gentium (Light of Nations), says there is a “universal call to holiness.”

[A]ll Christ’s faithful, whatever be the conditions, duties and circumstances of their lives—and indeed through all these, will daily increase in holiness, if they receive all things with faith from the hand of their heavenly Father and if they cooperate with the divine will. In this temporal service, they will manifest to all men the love with which God loved the world. (41)

Two sentences answer the question, “Why am I here?” But those two sentences are “heavy duty.” We must trust God, wherever we are, whatever we are doing. We must be open to faith, even when it seems dim and distant. We must acknowledge that our heavenly Father has a plan for us, and we must conform our lives to that plan. We must serve others always, making known to all God’s love for them in our daily actions.

“Why am I here?”

Therefore, all the faithful of Christ are invited to strive for the holiness and perfection of their own proper state. Indeed they have an obligation to so strive. Let all then have care that they guide aright their own deepest sentiments of soul. Let neither the use of the things of this world nor attachment to riches, which is against the spirit of evangelical poverty, hinder them in their quest for perfect love. Let them heed the admonition of the Apostle to those who use this world; let them not come to terms with this world; for this world, as we see it, is passing away. (42)

Go. Become a saint.

bible prayer
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3 Ways To Use The Bible In Your Prayer Life

Yesterday, we talked about the Bible and what this holy book is about. Today, let’s talk about three ways to use the Bible in your daily prayer life.

  1. Start with the Psalms. If you’re a “newbie” to using the Bible for prayer, the Psalms are a great place to start. First, we hear them at every Mass, and you’ll find that you’ll be familiar with many of the Psalms. One great part of the book of Psalms is that there is a psalm for virtually every human emotion; King David (who wrote most of the Psalms) poured his heart and soul into these lyrical prayers. The Psalms are part of the daily prayer of the Church, known as the Divine Office, which priests and religious must pray and lay people are encouraged to pray. Pick a Psalm and read through, slowly, meditating on the words. What does it stir up in you? How is God using that Psalm for you, right here and now?
  2. Pick a Gospel. The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) all tell of the coming of Christ, His ministry, his death, life and resurrection. The Gospels are surprisingly short, but don’t let fool you: they are packed with material for your prayer life. Make sure you have a good Catholic Bible, one with detailed footnotes. Of course, you can always read Scripture online at the United States Catholic Conference website. Choose one of the Gospels and again: read slowly and meditatively. We’ve heard the Gospels so often that sometimes, we don’t really hear them at all. Take the time to listen to the voice of Christ. How do his parables have meaning for you? If you place yourself into the Gospel as one of the people, does it change your perspective? (For example, think of how the older son might have thought and felt in the parable of the Prodigal Son. In his place, would you have been jealous? Angry? How does a different perspective of a familiar story change your faith perspective?
  3. Finally, some people will simply open the Bible and choose a verse or a section upon which to meditate. Now, one runs the risk of opening up to something like: When a man or a woman has an infection on the head or in the beard,should the priest, upon examination, find that the infection appears to be deeper than the skin and that there is fine yellow hair in it, the priest shall declare the person unclean; it is a scall. It is a scaly infection of the head or beard. Let’s face it: that may not give one a whole lot to meditate deeply upon. So, try again. Let the Holy Spirit move you. However, you might just want to stick with that tough verse from Leviticus. After all, it might lead you to ponder how we consider people “unclean” in our society. How do you and I treat people in an “unclean” manner? How can we change that? What does Catholic faith teach us about this?

The Bible is fertile ground for a deeper prayer life, a way to engage God in a meaningful conversation. God has spoken to His people for thousands of years in Scripture, and He continues to do so today. What does praying with the Bible hold in store for you?

Biblr==
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The Bible: A World Of Faith In One Book

The Bible, even though we tend to refer to it as “a book,” is really a library of books. And like any library there are different kinds of books which need to be understood in different ways.

First, it’s good to know that not all Bibles are created equal. The bishops of the United States have a list of approved Bible versions and translations. You can find that list here.

Second, you may notice that the Catholic Bible differs slightly from the Bible your Protestant friends use. Our Bible actually has more books! The reason for this is that those books (referred to as the Apocrypha), were left out of the King James’ version of the Bible in the 1800s as many Protestant scholars felt they were unimportant and/or uninspired. Those books are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, I and II Maccabees – plus sections of Esther and Daniel.

Catholics believe that humans wrote the Bible, but all of it is inspired by God. God did not magically move the hand of those who wrote the Bible, nor did He appear to Biblical writers and dictate to them what should be written. Instead, we believe that God guided the hearts, minds and souls of those who wrote this holy book.

Our Bible is separated into two large sections: the Old Testament (of the Jewish Scripture) and the New Testament (the Christian Scripture). These two collections of books tell the story of salvation history: how God, since the beginning of time, has loved us and sought to save us from sin and death.

Some books, like Genesis, tell in story form, the beginnings of humanity, and how God chose the Jews to be His people through the establishment of a covenant. Other books, like the Psalms, are poetry and song, meant to be used as praise and worship of God.

The prophets of the Old Testament, like Isaiah, warn the Jewish people away from sin that alienates them from God, but they also foretell of the Savior promised to humanity by God.

The New Testament begins with the four Gospels: the incredible story of Christ. (Please understand: when the word “story” is used, we are not saying this is fictional. It merely means that these parts of the Bible are written in story form, with a beginning, middle and end.) The New Testament also contains the Acts of the Apostles, which tells of the events following Christ’s Resurrection and of the early Church. In addition, the letters of St. Paul and St. Peter (John and Jude as well) reach out to the young Church, instructing them (and us!) in the faith. The final book of the Bible is the book of Revelation, a piece of apocalyptic literature. It tells of the end of time (for Earth, but not for God, as God exists outside of time) using symbols, signs and language that often seem strange and even frightening. However, the real message of the book of Revelation is that God never ceases to be God: He is always in control.

Catholics are blessed; if one reads the daily Mass readings (or better yet, attends daily Mass), one will read or hear proclaimed almost the entire Bible in the three-year cycle the Church has laid out for us. This library of books spans centuries of belief by our ancestors in faith, both Jew and Christian. It is a legacy we must always cherish.

sacramentals
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Sacramentals: Not Just Ornamental

It’s become commonplace to see a performer with a rosary around his neck, even though his lyrics would make the Blessed Mother’s hair stand on end. Anyone can go on Etsy and find dozens of vendors who sell saint medals merely as ornaments or jewelry. As Catholics, however, we call these items sacramentals, and they mean something.

A sacramental should not be confused with a sacrament. The Church recognizes 7 sacraments, instituted by Christ, which impart grace and act as a sign to a greater reality. A sacramental does not impart grace, but rather acts as a sign of holiness that bear resemblance to the sacraments.

For Catholics, sacraments are necessary for our holiness and our participation in the Church. Sacramentals are not; they are considered very good, but voluntary. For instance, a Catholic does not need to wear a crucifix around his or her neck in order to be a Catholic in good standing. However, we are greatly encouraged by the Church to make use of these signs in our everyday lives: they point us towards the sacraments, the grace imparted by the sacraments and lead us to a holier way of life.

Sacramentals are not superstitious; Catholics don’t believe a rosary is “good luck” and having one means one’s plane won’t crash. The sole reason a person should have a sacramental is in order to increase in personal holiness.

Sacramentals include, but are not limited to such items as:

  • a crucifix
  • a rosary
  • a priestly blessing
  • an icon
  • saint medals
  • blessed candles
  • palm branches
  • pictures or saints

Regina Doman of EWTN says this about the proper use of sacramentals:

Catholics hang crucifixes and holy images in their homes to remind them of God and His works. They cross themselves, bless themselves and their homes with holy water and oil. They pray the Angelus at noon in remembrance of the Incarnation…

Catholics who choose to weave the use of sacramentals into their daily lives can experience a richer, more textured Catholicism. For instance, one young father sprinkles holy water around the beds of his children and prays to God to protect them against nightmares, which sometimes are a problem in their house…

As Christ was the invisible God made visible, so sacramentals, like sacraments, are visible signs of His invisible grace, sanctifying daily life. In a way, they are daily restatements of the Incarnation, of God made flesh, and are dwelling among us in mysterious and wonderful ways.

As Catholics, we have a rich tradition of holy objects to call upon: they fill our lives with reminders of our choice to follow Christ every day, in our joy and in our concerns. Sacramentals advise us to look beyond our daily lives, deep into the reality of the Incarnation: God-made-Man and all that means for our salvation. These holy objects should not be used as mere ornaments or to catch someone’s attention, but as the means to draw all who see them into a deeper and deeper reality than this world has in store of us.

A.C.T.S. prayer
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A.C.T.S.: A Way To Pray

We all experience times when our prayer lives need a boost. Maybe we slip out of the habit of praying without intending to. Maybe we have a crisis in our life and the only prayer we can think of is “Help!” Maybe we just get stuck in a rut.

Here is a simple way to pray: A.C.T.S. or ACTS.

A: Adoration. We praise Almighty God! We praise Him for his promises kept, for His goodness to us, His beauty in nature. We praise His for the gift of Christ Jesus, His Son, who gave His life that we may have eternal life. We praise the Holy Spirit for endowing us richly with gifts that sustain us. Adoration acknowledges that God is God Almighty, the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and Omega.

C: Confession. We fail. We sin. We stumble and fall. Sometimes it takes us a while to get back up again. The Church has a wonderful tradition of examining one’s conscience every night before sleep. Of course, if we are in the state of mortal sin, we must avail ourselves to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. However, regularly acknowledging our failings and asking God for his mercy and forgiveness is a valuable part of a solid prayer life.

T: Thanksgiving. We all have things to be thankful for, even when life is difficult or we are facing a crisis. We can be thankful for a kind co-worker, for the offers of prayers from others. We can be thankful for family and friends. We give God thanks for our safe travels, our homes, and every small blessing we receive every day. The habit of thanking God reminds us that no matter what is going on in our lives, God is present.

S: Supplication. Finally, we present our needs and the needs of others to God. We all need protection from evil. We may ask God for healing and restoration, whether from illness or a broken relationship. Of course, God knows all our needs before we even approach Him in prayer, but by bringing our needs and others’ to Him, we acknowledge God’s power in our lives, in our world. We know His promise of answering every prayer perfectly.

If you need a “boost” in your prayer life, try this simple method: ACTS. May we always praise God for His mercy and love!

joy
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Living Our Faith With Joy

“Joy” is a great word, isn’t it? It bubbles up in us thoughts of great delight: a baby laughing, a wedding, a pleasurable meal shared with those we love.

“Joy” and “happiness” are not the same, although we often use those words interchangeably. Happiness depends on circumstances. We are happy because we have “something” or we’ve been given “something”. Happiness, frankly, is fleeting. It comes and goes.

Joy is abiding. It is a way of life. It permeates all we do. Joy does not depend on circumstances or what we have.

One of the first things that Pope Francis gifted us with was his Apostolic Exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel. He says:

There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress. [para. 6]

We acknowledge that our lives are touched by grief. We are burdened with responsibilities and sin. But we are called by the Gospel, the Good News. Faith creates joy, that quiet, firm trust in Christ Jesus and His promise of eternal life.

St. Paul says, in Romans 15:13: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the holy Spirit.

We must challenge ourselves to live our faith with joy. Our hope, our faith means our lives are rooted, planted solidly, on joy. Be joyful! Christ is risen, alleluia, alleluia!

Trinity
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The Trinity: Three Persons, One Substance

Yesterday was the celebration of the Holy Trinity. What an immense blessing it is for Catholics who are able to recognized our bodies as a “home” for the Trinity when we sign ourselves: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Our baptism has indelibly marked our souls in the name of the Triune God.

Pope-Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote and spoke extensively regarding the Trinity. In 2009, he said this:

Today we contemplate the Most Holy Trinity as Jesus introduced us to it. He revealed to us that God is love “not in the oneness of a single Person, but in the Trinity of one substance.” He is the Creator and merciful Father; he is the Only-Begotten Son, eternal Wisdom incarnate, who died and rose for us; he is the Holy Spirit who moves all things, cosmos and history, toward their final, full recapitulation. Three Persons who are one God because the Father is love, the Son is love, the Spirit is love. God is wholly and only love, the purest, infinite and eternal love. He does not live in splendid solitude but rather is an inexhaustible source of life that is ceaselessly given and communicated. To a certain extent we can perceive this by observing both the macro-universe: our earth, the planets, the stars, the galaxies; and the micro-universe: cells, atoms, elementary particles. The “name” of the Blessed Trinity is, in a certain sense, imprinted upon all things because all that exists, down to the last particle, is in relation; in this way we catch a glimpse of God as relationship and ultimately, Creator Love. [emphasis added.]

It is amazing to contemplate the endless and “inexhaustible” life that is the Trinity, yet even more astounding that this life dwells in us! Indeed, the only way for this life to be “deadened” in us is through mortal sin. Not only that, but as Pope Benedict pointed out, the entire world is imprinted with this life. Imagine how radically different our world would be if each and every person recognized this and lived accordingly. Imagine how different your world would be if you recognized this and lived accordingly!

Pope Benedict also stated that we have clear evidence of the Trinity:

The strongest proof that we are made in the image of the Trinity is this: love alone makes us happy because we live in a relationship, and we live to love and to be loved. Borrowing an analogy from biology, we could say that imprinted upon his “genome”, the human being bears a profound mark of the Trinity, of God as Love.

One could say (although only as analogy) that our baptism “tattoos” the Trinity onto our souls. We are for all eternity marked, claimed for God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And this imprinting is pure love. Again, what a gift and blessing this is. God the Almighty – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – has claimed us and marked us for love for life, for eternity.

virtues
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7 Heavenly Virtues: Medicine For Our Soul And The World

Yesterday, we discussed the 7 deadly sins. As stated, these sins deaden our souls to good and if left unchecked, lead to Hell. Thankfully, there is a remedy for this, a medicine, if you will, for the soul: 7 heavenly virtues.

For each of the deadly sins, there is a corresponding virtuous remedy. (A virtue, by the way, is a good habit that leads us to holiness, to God.) If for example, one struggles with gluttony, the virtue that person must cultivate is temperance. Here are each of the deadly sins with the corresponding virtue:

Lust/Chastity

Gluttony/Temperance

Greed/Charity

Sloth/Fortitude

Envy/Benevolence

Wrath/Patience

Pride/Humility

In today’s world, far too many people equate chastity with “no sex.” This could not be true! Since God made man and woman to complement each other in every way, that includes sexual union. Chastity means that first, we respect sexuality as a gift from God. We do not treat others as objects to be our “playthings.” Second, it means that we all must practice chastity according to our state in life: married, single, religious.

Temperance can often bring to mind the extreme stance of about 100 years ago that led to Prohibition: alcohol is evil! We must stop people from EVER imbibing. Instead, temperance means that we enjoy food, beverages, and all good things moderately. It is one beer and not the entire case. It is a tasty, healthy meal prepared and enjoyed by all, and not a back seat filled with the wrappers of fast food.

Charity seems to refer to giving to someone in need, and it can be that. But as a virtue, there is a broader meaning. “Charity” comes from the Greek “caritas,” the type of love we should show to all. It is the love that helps us love ourselves and others too much to allow us all to stay stuck in sin. It is a giving of one’s self. It heals greed by keeping us focused on others, and not ourselves. Rather than “me, me, me” charity says, “How can I serve you?”

The virtue of fortitude cultivates true courage. Sloth is, in many ways, related to fear. “I’m afraid I won’t get a job; why bother looking?” “Dad is always telling me I don’t do anything right, so I’m gonna lay here and watch tv.” But sloth also leads us to laziness in our faith: “I know I’m supposed to go to Mass, but Sunday is the only day I get to sleep in.” By practicing fortitude – doing what is right even when it is difficult – we can overcome sloth.

Envy is that “green-eyed monster” that makes us angry over others’ good fortune. Benevolence, on the other hand, allows us to see others’ success with the same attitude that we would see our own. We realize we are all God’s children, connected if you will, by divine DNA. Benevolence allows us to stop comparing ourselves to others; rather, we seek the goodwill of all.

If you pray for patience, God will provide. No, he will not “magically” make you more patient. He WILL provide you with plenty of opportunities to BE patient! Wrath sends our lives out of balance: we become consumed with anger and revenge. We seek to hurt others. We “lose it.” Patience provides balance. We react with docility rather than anger. We don’t “fly off the handle” with annoyance and petulance; we react with a calm spirit.

If pride is the root of all the deadly sins, then humility must be the starting point for all the remedies that virtues provide. Humility does not mean you’re a doormat: that you allow people to take advantage of you, or that we don’t stand up for justice when someone is wronged (even if that someone is ourself.) No, humility is Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. It is the attitude that, as a Catholic, I am meant to serve others first. We treat everyone with dignity, from the leader of a nation, to a CEO to a homeless woman on the street. Even more, we realize that we are no better than anyone else; we are equal in God’s love and mercy for us.

No one said being a faithful Catholic was easy! Practicing the virtues is hard – there is no way around it. Just like an athlete must put in hours and hours in the gym, or an artist knows that only the time-consuming practice of technique will create great art, so it is with virtue. We try, we fail and confess, we try harder. That is the “cure” for sin and the medicine needed for ourselves and our world.

7 deadly sins
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7 Deadly Sins: Poison For The Soul

If you were seated at a restaurant, given a menu, placed your order and then were told, “All the food here has poison in it,” would you say, “That’s fine. I’ve heard the steak here is excellent”? One would hope not. You’d likely grab your coat and run. Yet, every day, we choose poison for our souls.

Lust. Gluttony. Greed. Sloth. Wrath.Envy. Pride. These, the Church teaches, are the sins that are poisonous, that will dull and eventually (if left unchecked and unconfessed) deaden our souls. While the list has been around since the 6th century, the sins themselves go back to the Garden of Eden, rooted in original sin. Fr. Stephen F. Torraco says this:

It is important to notice that five of the seven deadly sins latch onto a “part” or dimension of the soul called desire or eros, the home of the central emotion of love and the dimension of soul where we are usually “located” on a daily basis. In light of this fact, it is extremely easy to drift into sloth, envy, covetousness, gluttony, or lust.

Anger is the “cancerous growth” on the dimension of the soul called spiritedness or thumos, the home of the secondary emotions such fear. Vainglory or pride is the distortion of the dimension of the soul called mind or logos, the home of intellect and will.

We live in a world saturated by lust. That means we look at another human being merely as a sexual object. We are willing to, and we do, use others only for our sexual pleasure and nothing else. We forget that each and every person is made in God’s image and likeness and is therefore meant to be treated as both holy and wholly: a whole person, not merely there for our enticement and pleasure.

Have you ever seen an eating contest? Contestants seek to stuff down as many hot dogs or chicken wings or whatever within an allotted time. 50, 60, 70 hot dogs in mere minutes. While there is big money to be won at these events, it is sickening to watch so much food being consumed – not for the health of the body and enjoyment of the palate – but simply to consume huge amounts of food. Once we step over the line of health and enjoyment, we are headed to gluttony.

Oh, greed. Who hasn’t looked at another’s possession (a car, a watch, a house) and thought, “I NEED that. I HAVE to have that.” Who hasn’t gone shopping for one item at the mall and come home with fifteen? There is nothing wrong with working for something one desires, but when a person’s life begins to revolve around possessions, it’s greed.

Sloth. That’s that adorable little mammal that lies around in trees, right? Did you know that a sloth has fewer bones than any mammal? They move so slowly because they cannot move at any other speed! When we “stop moving,” when we stop getting our work done, when we neglect our duties, we have become slothful.

Wrath is anger on steroids. Righteous anger has its place (remember Jesus overturning the money changers tables in  the temple?) We should be angry about abortion, about prejudice, about abuse. It is when anger overcomes us and we become out of control, we seek revenge, that we are wrathful.

Envy is another sin that surrounds us, mostly because technology and social media allow us to peer into the lives of others that former generations could never imagine. We see celebrities who walk the red carpet every other day, it seems, dripping in jewels. Designer handbags costing thousands of dollars seem to be on the arm of half the moms at the PTA meeting. Our neighbor always has the latest model of that fancy sports car while we are stuck patching together the minivan year after year. Spending time wanting what others have, either things or their situations, is envy.

Pride can be a tough one to discern. We often have accomplishments of which we are proud: we finished a big work project and got kudos from the boss, or we finally managed to get a home project completed and it looks great.

Pride fools you into thinking that you’re the source of your own greatness.

Liking yourself isn’t sinful. In fact, it’s healthy and necessary, but when the self-perception no longer conforms to reality, and you begin to think that you’re more important than you actually are, the sin of pride is rearing its ugly head.

Pride is the key to all other sins, because after you believe that you’re more important than you actually are, you compensate for it when others don’t agree with your judgment. You rationalize your behavior and make excuses for lying, cheating, stealing, insulting, ignoring, and such, because no one understands you like you do. In your mind, you’re underestimated by the world.

Thankfully, our God is merciful and sins can be forgiven through the sacrament of reconciliation. However, we must work to prevent sinning in the first place. The virtues we cultivate in our lives help us do just that, and we will talk about those tomorrow.

Body and Blood of Christ
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The Solemnity Of The Body And Blood Of Christ: “I Am The Bread Of Life”

This year, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ (traditionally knows as Corpus Christi) on the final Sunday of May. Many parishes choose to process with the Eucharist – sometimes simply around the church or neighborhood, while others make longer treks. Regardless, this celebration makes known to all who see and hear a fundamental tenet of our faith: that Christ is present, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, in the Eucharist.

Of course, this seems a bit crazy. It’s understandable how this could be a stumbling block for so many. How possibly could Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God-Made-Man, be “inside” that Host, that Chalice? Isn’t it just a piece of bread and some wine that we remember Jesus by? It’s just a reminder of Him and the Last Supper, right?

No.

It is not “just” a piece of bread and some wine, or a memory of a long ago event. How can we be assured of this? How do we Catholics know this to be true? Because Christ Himself told us.

In the Gospel of John, chapter 6, John tells of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The vast crowd who came to hear Jesus’ preach were fed – astoundingly – with a very small amount of food. The next day, Jesus takes his disciples and gives them the teaching on the Bread of Life.

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen [me], you do not believe. Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.” (Jn. 6:35-40)

Now, the disciples were used to Jesus teaching in parables: the Kingdom of God is like, or it’s as if. But they could tell his tone was different here. They started squirming: How can this guy be bread? That’s not REALLY what He meant, is it?

And Jesus clarified:

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.I am the living bread that came 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.” (Jn: 6:48-51)

Well, that was it for some of the disciples. There was no doubting Jesus’ meaning: He wasn’t just saying “eat;” He was using the word for “gnaw.” He really meant eating His Body. And some of those disciples left. This was simply too outrageous.

Even today, these words of Christ are too outrageous for many Christians; they do not believe that Christ, at the Last Supper, fulfilled His words. We must, as Catholics, work to bring our Christian brothers and sisters into the fulness of faith. However, we cannot do that unless our own faith is formed. The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ is an opportunity to deepen our own faith.

A few years ago, Pope Francis said this challenged us on the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ:

[I]n adoring Christ who is really present in the Eucharist: do I let myself be transformed by him? Do I let the Lord who gives himself to me, guide me to going out ever more from my little enclosure, in order to give, to share, to love him and others?

Brothers and sisters, following, communion, sharing. Let us pray that participation in the Eucharist may always be an incentive: to follow the Lord every day, to be instruments of communion and to share what we are with him and with our neighbour. Our life will then be truly fruitful.

As we look forward to this celebration, let us pray that we deepen our own faith, and then share this great treasure with others.